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STEREOTYPES ABOUT RUSSIA
The reds are coming! The reds are coming! This is just another RUSSIAN STEREOTYPE that is popular around the globe. Russia is a country that is still a mystery for many who have never visited it, or have been educated about Russia.
Russian furry hats, communism, bears, vodka, cold winters, Russian mafia, and unshaven/filthy people, are some of the most popular stereotypes about Russia and Russian people. Although most of these are just jokes, some people really believe that Russia is still communist, and that bears walk around the streets. Russia is still a place that continues to mystify people, and has people laughing about Soviet-era stereotypes.
Russian furry hats, or shapka-ushankas in Russian, are probably the most associated thing with Russia. Typically, when one sees this hat, one says, "Oh, you have a Russian hat with ears." The ushanka hat in Russia is typically worn by tourists, and less often not by the Russians. But the ushanka hat stereotype is not fading away anytime soon.
The communist stereotype has been around since the beginning of the Soviet Union. Typical jokes referring to Stalin, Lenin, and Gorbachev are still popular in America and the west today. Common references to strong, working women and the comrade-like relationship between all citizens in Russian society even today. The political situation in Russia today is also called communistic by several, using and abusing the communist stereotype.
Cold winters, bears on the streets, and vodka are other popular stereotypes about Russia. It is a common thought that Russia always is cold year round, and has horrible winters. It is true that Russia experiences harsher winters than other countries, but there are periods of warm weather in spring to fall. The vodka factor in the equation is explained by saying that all people in Russia drink vodka. Kids, grandparents, and adults alike drink vodka. This stereotype is far from true. It can be said that Russia has a problem with alcohol abuse just like any other country, but not all people drink vodka of course. The common stereotype of having bears walking on the streets instead of dogs is completely false. Bears do perform in circuses around Russia, but the bear is one of the national symbols of Russia. Owning a bear as a pet is madness, even to Russian people. =)
The Russian mafia stereotype is not what it used to be, but it still exists. In the aftermath of the Soviet Union, it can be said that the mafia in Russia was rampant with crime and murder. After the rise of Putin, the mafia and crime decreased drastically. The Russian mafia exists to some extent, but it is safe to walk the streets at night, and of course to open a business in Russia. Unfortunatelly, bribes are still taken by almost all officials including cops, so perhaps, it can be said that the cops are the mafia. =)
Everyone around the world enjoys Russian stereotypes. Although they are fun in nature, they are far from being truthful. The Russian nation and people are intelligent, modernized, and cultured. One will have his or her stereotypes broken after a short visit to the Russian Federation. Though, we all have stereotypes for all nationalities, the Russian stereotypes are one of a kind.
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In an effort to spare my lovely bride from the banjo-playing donkey that starts up in her head every time I start droning on about phone battery issues and how I want to sort out my cellular situation, I am going to attempt to get it all down in print here. Love you, sugar ;]
* Battery is still at the forefront of my mind because iOS 7 on the Verizon iPhone 5 isn't getting any better. Ars Technica repeated their tests yet again and saw only a slight improvement when going to an AT&T phone, and no improvement when disabling cellular connectivity or Background App Refresh altogether. They point out that the new iPhones are not that much better – there's just something about the iPhone 5 and later that doesn't work well with their looped-Safari-browsing test. Which test, as they say, makes up for what it lacks in reality with what it provides in reproducibility and consistency across devices.
* In my week out of town, I always had the charger pack attached to the phone, but I only had to enable it once. For the most part, I wasn't hitting the phone as hard as usual, especially because I was doing all of the driving when I wasn't tailgating hard or stuck on a plane with no network. I ended up only flipping the switch on the battery pack once, but I also routinely ran the phone below 20% before plugging in for the night. Fortunately, we slept in a house with a Verizon tower in the back yard pumping out a strong 5 bars, so it could have been much worse.
* Before I left town, I hard-wiped the phone and reinstalled iOS 7, setting up from scratch with no restore from backup. While out and about, I upgraded to 7.0.2. I also turned off all of the following: screen animation, Siri raise-to-speak, background app refresh, auto-brightness (set to about 33%), Bluetooth, all system location services save for compass calibration and cell network search, Frequent Locations, and iTunes Store auto-update. The only apps with Location Services enabled are the ones that need it – transit apps, weather apps, and a couple of location-aware journaling apps like Instagram. In short, I've more or less disabled almost all the new feature in iOS 7; no slick 2.5D parallax view or self-updating apps or traffic alerts in the Today screen for me.
* With this setup, my phone dropped from 98% battery to 88% battery in a stretch where it only played podcasts for an hour and a half (the actual elapsed time was longer, but I didn't play continuously). In this iPod mode (but with networking still alive), the battery dropped 1% per nine minutes. After I ran out of podcasts, I disconnected the headphones and only used it to check the usuals – Reeder, Instagram, mail, the like – and in 14 minutes of active use dropped the battery another 6%. Worth noting: an hour of audio playback in airplane mode while traveling only consumed 1-2% of battery.
* The original iPhone review by iLounge found serious issues with battery life in low-LTE areas. In places with only two bars of signal, they found battery life to be effectively halved. Given that I can't seem to find more than three bars of Verizon LTE most places, that probably doesn't bode well. I have the T-Mobile nano-SIM, and will probably set it up in a day or two to see what happens when I try GSM with no LTE on the same hardware.
* It's not lost on me that taking the iPhone from 1136×640 to 1280×720 would mean an approximately 25% growth in screen acreage…which conceivably also means a 25% jump in size of battery. That alone might be a reason to wait for a notional iPhone 6.
* Things left to try: getting through the day in WiFi-only mode (no cellular networking at all), turning off LTE altogether, seeing what happens with the T-Mobile SIM.
Why I Hate To Fly
There was a time when I actually enjoyed air travel. Even after September 2001, when I started needing two or three drinks before and after I got on the bird, it still wasn't the worst thing. There was the excitement of jetBlue, after all, and besides I had to fly if I wanted to go to California to see my girl every now and then. It was manageable.
Not anymore. Having just returned home from yet another two-legged flight through a hub, I have come to some realizations, and they are as follows:
* There are no good hubs. Chicago gets blizzards, Houston gets hurricanes, Denver gets ice and weird atmospherics because there's not enough air up there, and Atlanta is, well, Atlanta. When I was back and forth from Dulles to the Bay, it was eminently manageable because it was a direct flight. But if I have to change planes and go up and down twice, that's too much.
* Flying has become like everything else: as long as you have tons of money, it's no problem. You can buy your way out of bag limits, you can buy your way out of the ritual goosing by the TSA, you can buy your way to the front of the line to board, you can buy your way into human-sized seating accommodations. And you have to, because almost everything is monetized now. You actually have to pay to sit in the exit row, for crying out loud – I suspect it's only a matter of time before they say that they're out of overhead space, so you'll need to check your remaining carry-on bags, and whip out a credit card reader so you can pay for not having the foresight to realize that there's never enough carry-on space overhead.
* There is no non-dickish way to put your seat back. And as soon as you are a dick and put your seat back, I literally can't reach into the seatback pocket any longer. To the douche with the puberty-stache and his ditz girlfriend with her Louis Vuitton bag who couldn't wait until we stopped climbing to put your head in my lap: I hope you give each other herpes.
* You don't go aboard the Embraer Regional Jet, you put it on like a jacket. Nevertheless, that tiny little thing is a superior flying experience to an overstuffed 737. It's impossible not to feel like you're being cattle-hauled. Southwest is worse. This is one time where fascism really works: work out the boarding formula, issue a number based on seating, and line up and board as you're told.
* There's not a lot of premium for being a competent flyer. You're going to be stuck with all the amateur hour people who only ever fly on alternate holidays annually, which is why I won't fly at the holidays anymore. If you had to pass some sort of test on "am I capable of being a civilized passenger" and could then fly exclusively on Virgin America and it would go where you needed it to, life would be amazing.
* The smartphone was the worst thing ever to happen to flying, because now people think that it's a Stalinist-level government oppression to be made to turn the phone off. The whole "turn your phone on once we're taxiing on the ground so you can call for your pickup in this post-9/11 no-meeting-at-the-gate world" has been transformed by the iPhone. Now the aforementioned douchebag can be checking his Instagram before the wheels even hit the ground. It even appears the FAA is on the verge of shrugging and letting all non-transmitting electronics run wide open all flight. Not that it'll be enough for people who just have to be allowed to talk and text in the middle of takeoff. The closest I ever came to a legit air-rage event was in 2002 or 2003 when the woman behind me was still talking on her phone as the engines roared up to 100% and we started speeding up to take off; had I not been strapped in I'm sure I would have attempted to seize and smash the phone.
In short, flying has become a concentrated dose of everything that's wrong with living in America in the 21st century. No wonder it's gotten to be too much to bear. At this point, unless physically impossible – think Hawaii or London or Tokyo – I will take the train over the plane 100% of the time, given the time and opportunity. But that would mean taking rail seriously, which hasn't happened outside the Northeast since the 20th Century Limited went out of service…
5 Years On
Today in 2008, the first Android phone launched – the G1, built by HTC and sold via T-Mobile. It was, in many ways, the first legitimate challenger to the iPhone. It was interesting, at a time when the dominant smartphone platform was still Blackberry and when Google's "don't be evil" could still be taken sort of seriously.
Today in 2013, Blackberry is selling itself to a Canadian private-equity firm for pennies on the loonie in an attempt to buy time to gather itself and focus entirely on enterprise. It's possible they could become a specialty maker of highly-secure email devices for the enterprise market. It's more likely that they'll be shut down and sold off for parts, especially some potentially valuable patents surrounding push email.
Android has basically been a carrier's dream. It ended Apple's sudden chokehold on the "consumer smartphone" and allowed OEMs to offer their own "good enough" smartphone experience, while simultaneously letting carriers enforce their own requirements in ways Apple wouldn't allow. Proprietary skins, un-deletable apps, a Verizon logo on every flat surface – all possible with Android. More importantly, however, the need to clear both the manufacturer and the carrier created the biggest obstacle to using Android for me and countless others: one has to buy an Android phone knowing full well that it may be the newest version of Android that phone will ever be able to run.
By contrast, all the non-hardware-specific features of iOS 7 are available on the iPhone 4 I'm using as a tackling dummy. Obviously I want most of the exotic location services turned off to spare a three-year-old battery any further trauma, and I certainly wouldn't want to use it as a daily driver, but it still works. By contrast, try loading up a Nexus One – it caps out at the Gingerbread version of Android, which is currently two major releases behind with a third in the works. It would be the equivalent of this iPhone 4 being left behind with iOS 5 – which actually wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but anyway.
But through fits and starts, it's gotten past "good enough" – and with a dedicated in-house manufacturer in Motorola, we're finally starting to see some serious potential from integration of hardware, software and services. Scary, sure, but also the existence proof that such an integrated package is possible. Next up: figuring how to do it without giving everything you are to the Beast of Mountain View.
But hey, you don't get innovation without somebody to push you. So from Donut on through Kit Kat – happy birthday to the whole dessert cart.
Well, it's not just me: Ars Technica has reproduced a bug (ExtremeTech link for conciseness) that demonstrates that the Verizon iPhone 5 is absolutely pummeled by iOS 7. Battery life is decreased by over one-third in normal use, which has been borne out by my experience in the last couple of days of using it – normally my mixed use projects out to about 9 hours of email, RSS, podcast playback, Instagram, maybe a little Twitter, maybe some texting. Yesterday, it was below 15% after five hours.
Needless to say, this is an untenable proposition. On days when I'm at my desk all day, I can just leave it plugged in, which is fine – but on days when I'm out and about, the phone stands to be deceased completely by 6 PM. And quite frankly, it's 2013 – I fully expect to be able to go from waking up to turning in without having to plug my phone in. I was more or less able to do that on the iPhone 4 and 4S, and on the 5 until now, so it's entirely possible without having to go over to one of those Android phones with the 3000 mAh battery.
* I was able to buy a nano-SIM from T-Mobile for 99 cents, which should arrive next week. At that point, it will set me back only $3/day to test out how my unlocked iPhone 5 works with T-Mob's network here – no LTE, certainly, nor 1700 Mhz coverage, but at the very least I should be able to ascertain whether Verizon carrier settings or CDMA technological limitations or LTE power consumption are to blame.
* My phone and service are provided by work. Given that it's been only 10 months, it's not likely that they'd look kindly on replacing the thing already, especially if this is something that can be fixed in software. Also, with the pace of purchasing, I suspect there could be a software fix out before a new phone/service could be ordered and delivered by work. Traditionally, the first update for a new iOS version arrives between 3 and 6 weeks after the initial launch, so there should be a widely-available 7.0.1 (actually more like 7.0.2, since 7.0.1 is the iPhone 5S/5C version) by the end of October. No chance work could deliver a new phone by Halloween, even if I were willing to go with a 5C…or something else.
*This is where I get intrigued again by the Moto X, and the prospect of somehow obtaining an unlocked one which I could then throw on AIO Wireless for $55 a month (less $25 a month work subsidy for use of a personal phone…effectively giving me my old AT&T service back for a dollar a day with no contract) is tempting. But even setting aside the very poor camera on the Moto X, I'm tied to enough of the Apple ecosystem that shifting would be painful. I don't know how much of the Google ecosystem I would be obligated to, and I don't know how difficult it would be to keep using my existing music supply despite the greatly reduced proportions of DRM.
* AIO Wireless throttles their LTE to 8 Mbps. That's not necessarily a deal breaker – in my experience, I can't beat that on Verizon's LTE without having at least 4 bars of LTE signal (only once this week have I cracked 8 Mbps with less than 4 bars) and given T-Mob's buildout of HSPA+ I might be able to trump that speed without even having to rely on LTE. My test-dummy for T-Mob prepaid service has heretofore been an unlocked iPhone 4, so I've been stuck with traditional 3G speeds (not to deny them credit for having 1900 Mhz 3G service most places around here). I'm very curious to see what a Faux-G connection is like.
* Looking at the Moto X, I'm wondering whether Apple might not try to bump the iPhone 6 a little bit. A move from 1138×640 to 1280×720 would preserve the same screen ratio (16:9) while increasing the screen size to 4.5 inches at the same DPI, and if you somehow cut the side bezel out altogether the increased width of the phone would be negligible. The old Android trick of increasing the screen size to make the phone bigger to get a bigger battery might seem like a concession of defeat for iOS purists, but it might get a real-true all-day phone while simultaneously shutting up the "Apple needs to make a GREAT BIG PHONE OR THEY ARE DOOOOOOOMED" crowd in the tech press.
* I'm out of town next week, which is no time to be doing anything drastic or rash with one's phone. I'm seriously considering a hard wipe/restore to iOS 6 for the duration.
In retrospect, it's almost as if Apple was specifically offering a middle finger to everyone who was deriding iOS as old and stale. Here is a new version of the OS, with a completely new look…and almost totally identical functionality. My June assessment stands:
"This isn't an overhaul of the design, this is a re-skinning for the sake of appeasing people who were bored of the old UI. The underlying functionality is the same – everything is where it was, this is literally just new chrome – and I don't know if it's just the newness, but it feels challenging in a way that recalls the move from Mac OS 9 to OS X. And given what a radical change that was, it's a bigger conceptual leap than should be necessary from iOS 6 to 7."
If you're looking for some sort of radical departure, forget about it. There are plenty of tiny tweaks that are nice – the hours-ahead-or-behind in the clock, the scale-bar and compass on Maps – but only the Android-inspired Control Center (long overdue) and the WebOS-inspired app switcher with easy-swipe quit (badly needed and useful) are really significant. Everything else is a wash at best, and some things – like the removal of the actual weather widget and quick-Tweet button in the Notification center – are actually a step backward.
The real innovation relies on hardware, at this point. The A7/M7 combination will actually make the location-based apps (and the Google Now-Lite functions in the Today pane) useful without destroying battery life, while the fingerprint authentication opens up new possibilities…but those are things that require a 5S. When they trickle down to the notional revised-5C next year, and presumably remain in the notional iPhone 6, there'll be enough of a critical mass of devices with those features for software to really start exploiting them. At that point, you can imagine a greater paradigm shift in UI and functionality.
For the most part, though, the fact is that iOS is good enough already, and has been pretty much since iOS 5. It's hard as hell to sell "it's already plenty good", though, especially in Silicon Valley, so here we are, with a fistful of tweaks and a shiny new look. At this point, the number one thing I would kill for is more battery life, which is why I'm most intrigued by the prospect of an AIO Wireless SIM and a GSM-based iPhone 5C…or a developer-edition Moto X. And it's been a long, long time since any Android device could claim equal curb appeal with the new iPhone. It's not at all lost on me that the unlocked dev Moto X is the same cost as a contract-free 32 GB iPhone 5C.
Another dozen dead – possibly more – because letting nuts have guns and slaughter people every six months is the price we pay for freedom.
This stopped being funny a long time ago.
Also, it's on days like this that I really miss DC. I guess being part of the DMV will never leave me, which makes sense given that I was rebuilt from nothing there. It's an affinity that wholly trumps "the South" in any meaningful sense.
The Asshole Problem
In Mountain View, the platform for the VTA light rail is on the northbound side of the Caltrain tracks, between Castro Street and the Caltrain platform. And in the last couple of years, the afternoon commute hours have seen it turn into a straight-up bike boulevard. Anytime between 5 and 6 PM on a weekday, one can watch bicycle after bicycle whizzing down the platform, directly beneath the multiple signs saying "No biking, skateboarding or rollerblading on the platform."
Here's the thing: the light rail platform doesn't turn into a bike boulevard in the morning, as far as I've observed. Only in the afternoon – when the bike traffic is headed for the northbound train, back to San Francisco. And of necessity, that bike traffic must be coming from the other side of Central Expressway, or the VTA platform would be out of the way. Where reposes a certain Internet search giant. In short, it's almost a lock that the majority of these malfeasant cyclists are tech employees headed back to San Francisco after work.
So why do I point this out? Partly to shame VTA for their utter indifference – an agency that runs their light rail system with performance and efficiency more suited to Thomas the Tank Engine – but more to illustrate the same kind of thinking that led to one Pax Dickinson being catapulted into a swamp by Business Insider the morning after the technology Internet press absolutely went in on his outrageously unprofessional and dicktastic Twitter account.
There is a problem in Silicon Valley. In a way it's always been here – for decades, this has been an industry largely populated by the socially inept, the Asperger's-diagnosed, the kind of people who retreat into technology because they're not well-suited for the real world. Not coincidentally, it was overwhelmingly male, and developed the sort of "no girls allowed" thinking one might associate with, say, Dungeons and Dragons night in 5th grade.
That's changed this time out. In the current bubble, the "brogrammer" phenomenon is reaching critical mass. The kinds of big swinging dicks that would inevitably have gone into big finance in the 1980s are all switching their Stanford major from business to computer science, and along the way, the usual sort of paste-eater who populates the industry is starting to decide that if he gels up his hair, throws on some aviators, dresses like a Jersey Shore understudy and talks like a Tucker Max message board, he too (it's always he) can be cool and awesome and live the big life.
Time was, being somebody who was incapable of taking other people into consideration was a flaw. It was something to be frowned upon, something you had to work to correct, a source of embarrassment if not outright shame. And yet, sometime since the last bubble, it was apparently decided that being a complete and utter douchebag was not a bad thing, but was in fact something to aspire to. Something that showed how "edgy" and "disruptive" you were, how you were free from the chains of "political correctness" (which, in my experience, usually means "manners") and how you were so great and powerful that you didn't have to play by the normal rules of society. Somewhere along the way, being an utter asshole ceased to be a socially and career-limiting move.
Thing is, Larry Ellison built Oracle into a world-class database company despite being regarded as the biggest swine in the Valley. Steve Jobs made an incredible comeback at Apple only after being humbled by ten years in the wilderness and despite the temperament of a French film director. Tony Stark is a fictional character. Successful people who are jerks tend to accomplish this success despite being jerks. If all it took to be wildly successful was to just be an asshole, Wall Street wouldn't have had to beg Uncle Sam to pick up the tab in 2008 and Pax Dickinson's boss wouldn't be permanently banned from the securities industry for insider trading and deceptive practices.
So, dear millennial bros of Silicon Valley, take it to heart before you're too old to check yourself: nothing you bring to the table justifies what you take off it. It's not okay to be racist. It's not okay to be sexist. It's not okay to be an utter asshole. You live in a society, and taking a big shit on the basic rules of decent human interaction doesn't make you clever, or revolutionary, or special – it makes you a dick.
And try walking your fucking bike on the goddamn train platform.
24 hours later
I can't stop thinking about the similarities between the Moto X and the iPhone 5C. Brightly-colored polycarbonate cases around last year's top-of-the-line internals. And the iPhone still undercuts the Moto X by half price on contract.
As predicted, Wall Street is savaging Apple's stock – but then, nobody goes to a stockbroker for anything more complicated than rape jokes and tacky accessories (of which more later). Certainly not for actual insight on technology. The fact of the matter is this: the modern smartphone is good enough already. Thus Motorola's willingness to ship the Moto X as equipped. An 8-megapixel camera is plenty good. 300dpi on the display is plenty good. 16 GB of onboard storage is enough for most anyone in a world where people are migrating to Spotify and Rdio and Netflix.
In the past, Apple would always use last year's model as the $99 phone, and the two-year-old model as the free-on-contract phone. This time, there's a new device in the $99 spot – and it's basically an iPhone 5 that costs Apple less to make. The $99 option has a much higher profit margin for Apple than previous iterations of the one-down phone. So it sort of boggles the mind that the stock would slump…but then, it's all about Wall Street's expectations, not those of customers or tech specialists, isn't it?
Everyone keeps crowing about how Apple needs to produce a dirt-cheap phone for developing markets – conveniently forgetting the fundamental truth of almost forty years of Apple Computer – they don't do dirt-cheap. Period, paragraph. So are they just abandoning that space? No. Why do you think they've launched a trade-in program? Why do you think the iPhone 4 (not the 4S) is still on sale in China? Why do you think iOS 7 still supports the iPhone 4 with every feature that doesn't require specialized hardware (i.e. Siri and AirDrop and parallax view)? Because the refurb iPhone 4 is the dirt-cheap phone for developing markets. Save the bits, replace the battery and the cracked front glass, and boom, ready to go and for far less than building a new phone.
Don't let the Auburn degree fool you, folks: Tim Cook is smart. And like God, or the Cylons (but unlike Ronald D Moore as it turns out), he's got a plan. Look back at what a "disappointment" the iPhone 5 was last year and decide who you'd rather bet with.
When September Never Ends
We're still in the shadow of where those towers ought to be.
If you want proof, consider what President Obama was pushing for until last night. A Middle Eastern country with chemical weapons, using them against a civilian population, with documented proof, and an extremely limited response involving virtually no risk of American life. Hell, even the French were on-side. And yet, overwhelmingly, the country says no. Part of that is down to Obama Derangement on the right, which even now is pivoting back toward "ATTACK NOW" ever since the vote was put on hold in favor of the Russian initiative. But part of it is just war fatigue – we've been down this precise road ten years ago. With more boots on the ground and less proof of the weapons. And it came an absolute cropper.
I don't think we could have gone into Iraq without September 11. Afghanistan was necessary – we were attacked, the leadership of our attackers was in Afghanistan, the Afghan government wouldn't give them up, and quite frankly we should have been arming the Northern Alliance long before the Taliban took control of the entire country in the mid-90s. I remember hearing about their final push on NPR and thinking "this cannot possibly end well," and I was right.
But once we broke the seal, there was no stopping Team Bush from trying again. I don't know how much of it was some sort of Freudian fixation to out-do Daddy, but we dropped everything in Afghanistan to hit Iraq, which is why we're still in Afghanistan and why it took until 2011 to kill Osama bin Laden. And by the time it was over, the public didn't want to go to war ever again. It's not the best reason to be anti-war – because you're tired of doing it – but it'll do, by and large.
Because that's the other legacy of September 11: because of Iraq, we're sick and tired of intervening in the world. Guilt over inaction in Rwanda spurred action in the Balkans, but very few people were behind our air support of the revolution in Libya, and nobody has said a mumbling word about involving ourselves in Egypt, and it's been two years of looking anxiously at Syria but Ed Earl Brown sure as hell doesn't want to send troops. Pundits talk about "neo-isolationist" Americans, when in fact they probably just want to shut the window, pull the blinds, and stay out of other people's business for a while, for better or worse.
The one reason this would change is if we got hit again, on our own soil. And Obama knows this, and this is probably why the NSA chugged right along uninterrupted, doing the same thing they'd done ever since Rob Watson was interviewing me on a Georgetown street corner for BBC's coverage of the Total Information Awareness initiative. And Obama let it go on, because he knew that some people will piss and moan about privacy (in some cases, even rightly so) but that another September 11 would be catastrophic, so best not to take the chance.
Twelve years on, that might just be the legacy of September 11 and its aftermath: "best not to take the chance."
The Monday Night Implosion
Very little in the NFL is new. The much-vaunted Wildcat was basically a re-engineering of the single wing, the oldest "offense" in pro football, and you can see some of its concepts in the zone-read as well. The concept of a fast offense in the NFL is not new either. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Sam Wyche in Cincinnati and Marv Levy in Buffalo and Jerry Glanville in Houston and Atlants were all experimenting with no-huddle offenses predicated on the quick pass. And when the Buffalo Bills were going to four straight Super Bowls and winning game after game, it was routine that they would lose the battle for time of possession. The offense would only have the ball 29, 28 minutes – but they would still win, because their possessions were quick and ended with touchdowns rather than punting the ball away.
Last night, in the first quarter, the Philadephia Eagles held the ball for eleven and a half minutes.
Think about that. Even a bad Redskins team playing a sloppy first quarter would still be expected to have the ball for 5 or 6 minutes. Instead, the offense got the ball for three and a half minutes out of fifteen, largely because they turned it over three times in the first seven offensive plays. Ironically, the first Washington score of the game didn't do them any favors – a peculiar pick-six that gave the Skins a TD…and sent the defense right back out on the field. The offense didn't even get a crack at the ball until halfway through the quarter, whereupon they shat the bed as described.
That's why I'm having a bit of a tough time buying all the way into the Eagles' exciting new offense. They were handed a gift: a team with an offense that couldn't shoot straight and a defense that started the second quarter pre-gassed for convenience. A more able defense, especially one not starting two rookies in the secondary, might not struggle the same way. It's going to be interesting to see how it looks going into the teeth of a motivated and aggressive Chicago defense, for instance, or taking on the Niners or Seahawks (who may be playing their own game of keep away).
But even correcting for the ineptitude of the opponent, it's pretty obvious that Chip Kelly's Oregon blur is going to be just fine in the NFL, at least at the beginning. As tape accumulates and teams get accustomed to the offense, professional defenses will almost certainly start to catch up – walk the safeties up a little, play a hard nickel, everybody stays in their lanes and exploits the fact that every NFL defense has lateral speed that many if not most college teams don't. Offenses like this will ultimately live or die on the quality of personnel – Lesean McCoy and Desean Jackson are the real deal and no fooling, but whether Michael Vick is prepared to take a regular beating over the course of seventy offensive snaps a game – at this point in his career especially – will ultimately dictate how far it goes. I'm sure Chip Kelly is looking back toward the Pacific Northwest and wondering whether Marcus Mariota might be prepared to go pro after this season.
But for connoisseurs of Washington pro football, last night was yet another ridiculous disintegration under the lights of Monday Night Football. The closest thing to a positive you can take away is that Chris Cooley sounds fresh, polished and professional on the radio broadcast team. He'll be fine – and I know that Sam Huff basically can't go anymore, and it's for the best, but it was like knowing you'd lost your grandpa. The absence in the booth was palpable, and it's lost on no one that Sonny Jurgensen is the last man standing from the WJFK glory days of "Sonnysamanfrank". And another piece of the past recedes in the distance…


Is everyone loving the cold shoulders? I have never worn a cold shoulder. I heard Liz Lange say that we don't gain weight on the shoulders, so we should show them off. Hasn't Colleen or Diane or someone else said that too? I am so confused, bc I disagree. Weight shows on shoulders the same way it shows through boyfriend jeans.
I ordered 3 different colors with the jackets for my mom.
a great flow to it. The price was great too.
Hi Twizzle3 I received my Iman set at it is lovely, very comfortable. Her palazzo are very different from other palazzo these seem to be a little fitted. I am a size 10/12 5'6 I ordered M average and the fit is perfect. I also wear a M in her maxis so her sizing is consistent. I am happy with this purchase. Have a wonderful Saturday.


Home » Entertainment»TV» Tv actors turn x-men!
'X- Men First Class', the latest of the X-Men films is all set to hit theaters on June 10 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. To make the film more exciting for Indian audiences, the Hindi version will feature voices of several popular television artistes.
Well known names like Mohan Kapur, Saahil Chaddha, Abir Goswami, Rajesh Khattar, Aly Khan, Richa Pallod etc will be lending their voices for the prime characters of the film.
Directed by Matthew Vaughna and starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Becon, Rose Byrne and January Jones amongst many others, the film takes you back to where it all started. The storyline of the movie revolves around the friendship between Charles Xavier a.k.a. Professor X and Erik Lensherr a.k.a. Magneto before it evolved into an eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-men.
The Hindi version of 'X- Men First Class' will feature voices of several popular television artistes.
Web Title: Tv actors turn x-men!


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Q: Label single bars in ggplot I wonder how it would be possible to add labels to single bars in ggplot2 as I would like to label my rows in my barplot as Online Broker, Bank, No Account. Thank you for your help!
Here is my code:
library(gridExtra)
library(ggplot2)
require(gridExtra)
library(tidyverse)
library (scales)

plot1 <- ggplot(data = df, aes(df$InvA, y = after_stat(prop)), na.rm = TRUE) +
geom_bar() +
scale_x_discrete(na.translate = FALSE) +
ggtitle("Post-Covid") +
xlab("Accounts") +
ylab("Individuals") +
scale_y_continuous(labels = percent_format(), limits=c(0,0.8))
#> Scale for 'y' is already present. Adding another scale for 'y', which will
#> replace the existing scale.

plot2 <- ggplot(data = df, aes(df$InvAcc, y = after_stat(prop)), na.rm = TRUE) +
  geom_bar() +
  scale_x_discrete(na.translate = FALSE) +
  ggtitle("Pre-Covid") +
  xlab("Accounts") +
  ylab("Individuals") +
 scale_y_continuous(labels = percent_format(), limits=c(0,0.8))
#> Scale for 'y' is already present. Adding another scale for 'y', which will
#> replace the existing scale.

grid.arrange(plot2, plot1, ncol = 2)

The plot then looks like this:

However, the labels should look like these for my previous plot, but since I managed to get the y-scale to percent, my labels disappeared or it doesn't work to compute the y-scale to percent with the values remaining as factors (Online-Broker, Bank, No-Account) since I had to change them to numeric (1,2,3):

dput(dfaccounts) # (with 1=Online Broker, 2=Bank, 3=No Account)

structure(list(df.InvAcc = c(2L, NA, 2L, NA, NA, 3L, 3L, 3L,
NA, 3L, 3L, NA, 1L, NA, 1L, NA, NA, 1L, NA, NA, NA, 1L, 3L, 1L,
NA, NA, 1L, 2L, NA, NA, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, NA, 2L, NA,
NA, 3L, NA, NA, 1L, NA, 2L, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 1L,
1L, 1L, 1L, NA, NA, NA, 3L, NA, 1L, NA, NA, 2L, NA, 1L, 1L, 1L,
NA, 1L, 3L, NA, 1L, NA, 3L, NA, NA, 2L, 3L, 2L, 1L, NA, 3L, 2L,
NA, NA, 3L, NA, 2L, 1L, NA, 3L, 2L, 1L, 3L, 3L, 3L, NA, 3L, NA,
3L, NA, 3L, 1L, NA, NA, NA, 1L, NA, NA, NA, 1L, NA, NA, 3L, NA,
NA, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, NA, 1L, NA, NA, NA, 3L, NA, 3L), df.InvA = c(NA,
1L, NA, 2L, 1L, NA, NA, NA, 3L, NA, NA, 3L, NA, 3L, NA, 1L, 2L,
NA, 1L, 1L, 1L, NA, NA, NA, 1L, 2L, NA, NA, 2L, 1L, NA, NA, NA,
NA, NA, NA, NA, 3L, NA, 1L, 1L, NA, 1L, 1L, NA, 1L, NA, 1L, 3L,
1L, 1L, 1L, 2L, 1L, 1L, NA, NA, NA, NA, 1L, 1L, 1L, NA, 2L, NA,
2L, 1L, NA, 2L, NA, NA, NA, 2L, NA, NA, 2L, NA, 1L, NA, 3L, 3L,
NA, NA, NA, NA, 1L, NA, NA, 1L, 2L, NA, 1L, NA, NA, 1L, NA, NA,
NA, NA, NA, NA, 1L, NA, 1L, NA, 1L, NA, NA, 1L, 1L, 3L, NA, 1L,
2L, 2L, NA, 1L, 1L, NA, 3L, 1L, NA, NA, NA, NA, 1L, NA, 1L, 3L,
1L, NA, 3L, NA)), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -133L
))

A: The issue is that you InvA and InvAcc columns are numerics. Hence, using scale_x_discrete the axis text gets dropped.
To fix you issue I would suggest to convert the columns to factors with your desired labels set via the labels argument. Additionally, to get the right percentages we have to explicitly set the group aes via group=1:
library(gridExtra)
library(ggplot2)

labels <- c("Online-Broker", "Bank", "No Account")
data$InvA <- factor(data$InvA, labels = labels)
data$InvAcc <- factor(data$InvAcc, labels = labels)

plot1 <- ggplot(data = data, aes(InvA, y = after_stat(prop), group = 1), na.rm = TRUE) +
  geom_bar() +
  scale_x_discrete(na.translate = FALSE) +
  ylim(0, 40) +
  ggtitle("Post-Covid") +
  xlab("Accounts") +
  ylab("Total No. of Individuals") +
  scale_y_continuous(labels = scales::percent)
#> Scale for 'y' is already present. Adding another scale for 'y', which will
#> replace the existing scale.

plot2 <- ggplot(data = data, aes(InvAcc, y = after_stat(prop), group = 1), na.rm = TRUE) +
  geom_bar() +
  scale_x_discrete(na.translate = FALSE) +
  ylim(0, 40) +
  ggtitle("Pre-Covid") +
  xlab("Accounts") +
  ylab("Total No. of Individuals") +
  scale_y_continuous(labels = scales::percent)
#> Scale for 'y' is already present. Adding another scale for 'y', which will
#> replace the existing scale.

grid.arrange(plot2, plot1, ncol = 2)
#> Warning: Removed 64 rows containing non-finite values (stat_count).
#> Warning: Removed 69 rows containing non-finite values (stat_count).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
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text:
<?php

/**
 * Include javascript view helper
 *
 * @package Core_View_Helper
 */
class Core_View_Helper_Javascript extends Zend_View_Helper_Abstract
{

	/**
	 * Include namespaced javascript
	 * If custom layout is used, the javascript looks in the /includes/abbreviation/js/ folder
	 * else it looks in /includes/core/js/
	 */
	public function javascript($link)
	{
		if (!$link) {
			return false;
		}
		$conference = Zend_Registry::get('conference');
		$namespace = ($conference['layout'])
			? strtolower($conference['abbreviation'])
			: 'core';
		$this->view->headScript()->appendFile('/includes/'.$namespace.'/js/'.$link);
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Headquartered in Montreal (Canada) since 1994, the International Bureau for Children's Rights (the Office or IBCR) is an international non- governmental organization whose mission is to contribute to the promotion and protection of children's rights worldwide according to the Convention of the United Nations children's rights in 1989. with the aim to support the effective implementation of the Convention in Burkina Faso, it is essential to develop an efficient strategy for capacity building actors of the child protection system.
FOUNDED IN 1994, THE INTERNATIONAL BUREAU FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS IS AN INTERNATIONAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATION THAT HAS CONSULTATIVE STATUS WITH THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL OF THE UNITED NATIONS (ECOSOC).
The IBCR team is made up of 30 professionals as well as numerous qualified interns. Together, they promote children's rights across the Americas, the Middle East and Asia. The team also includes coordinators and volunteers who work in the field with the Bureau's local partners.
Since its creation, the IBCR has carried out mandates in nearly 45 countries and shared its expertise with more than 50,000 people to help them better protect the rights of thousands of children.


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Speaking at the RIBDA 2009 meeting in Lima, CIAT's Edith Hesse explains why open access is important to the CGIAR, and some concrete steps that can be taken to ensure that research outputs are available and accessible.
Mereani Rokotibau form Fiji argues that ICTs have a strong potential to support Pacific agriculture - if the necessary capacities are extended.


The Grateful Dead for SuperBowl half-time show!
National Football League: The Grateful Dead for SuperBowl 50 half-time show!
Douglas Machado needs your help with "National Football League: The Grateful Dead for SuperBowl 50 half-time show!". Join Douglas and 14,075 supporters today.


text:
David Beckham backs Zlatan Ibrahimovic to join MLS in the future
Former LA Galaxy and Manchester United star David Beckham has backed Zlatan Ibrahimovic to pursue a move to Major League Soccer before calling quits on his professional career. The big Swede has endured a tough second season at United after failing to overcome a long-term knee injury, and reports have suggested that the 36-year-old could pursue a move to the Galaxy at the end of the season.
In an interview covered by Sky Sports, Beckham said that he would prefer the Swede making the switch to the United States after having won numerous honours during his 19-year career in Europe, he said: "He's one of the best players, one of the best people, and if he comes to this league at some point it would be great. But at the moment he's a Manchester United player and I'm happy about that, and I want him to stay there, but at some point, he might come here. Any mention of any great player like Zlatan coming to this league can only be good for the league."
Read more about David Beckham backs Zlatan Ibrahimovic to join MLS in the future
Greg Vanney Claims a Toronto Player Should Win MVP
Toronto FC manager Greg Vanney claims that the MVP Player of the Year title named after Landon Donovan should be from his team amongst any other outfit. The critical title will judge the best player for the course of the MLS campaign, which has been quite exciting enough. Toronto were able to finally clinch the title by overcoming the Seattle Sounders in the final. It caps a memorable campaign for Toronto and manager Greg Vanney, as they have been able to dominate the division from the start to finish. Toronto were able to set numerous records over the course of the calendar year and this was largely down to the brilliance of two players – Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore. Between them, they managed to score more than 30 goals in the league.
However, Giovinco and Altidore are facing stiff competition from the likes of David Villa from New York City FC, Diego Valeri from Portland Timbers, Nemanja Nikolic from Chicago Fire, and more. These players have been able to dominate in terms of goals and assists, but the numbers from Giovinco and Altidore have been crucial in that they have helped Toronto to win the title. Apart from the MLS Cup victory, Toronto were also able to claim the Supporters Shield and Canadian Cup. Thus the team became the 1st to hold three titles at once.
Read more about Greg Vanney Claims a Toronto Player Should Win MVP
Ashley Cole speaks on his LA Galaxy future
Former England international Ashley Cole has suggested that he may have to reconsider his intention of extending his contract with LA Galaxy. The 36-year-old endured the worst campaign of his professional career after Galaxy finished rock bottom of the Western Conference.
Cole had earlier suggested that he hopes to remain in Los Angeles for at least one more season, but he has now insisted that things must change at StubHub Center before he signs on for a third year with the California-based club.
Read more about Ashley Cole speaks on his LA Galaxy future
Brian Schmetzer Confident of Victory over Philadelphia
Brian Schmetzer has revealed that the Seattle Sounders team are looking to secure a place in the play-offs by getting a victory against Philadelphia Union.
Several Seattle players are looking to top Landon Donovan, who has six MLS titles with two different clubs.The defending champions will be able to go one step closer towards retaining the title if they managed to reach the play-offs.
Seattle Sounders will be able to do so by getting a victory against strugglers Philadelphia Union. After having been out of the play-off picture in the first few months of the season, Seattle Sounders have been quite impressive in recent months. Even though the club has only picked up just one win in the last five matches, the Western Conference has been a tough table this time around with none of the teams showing a lot of dominance.
Read more about Brian Schmetzer Confident of Victory over Philadelphia
United Chase Kroos
With recent defeats to Girona and Tottenham Hotspur, it's rumored that Zinedine Zidane is thinking about offloading a few of his players, with one of those expected to be on his way out being Toni Kroos. For fans who have seen the German in action on voetballivestream.tv, this is very difficult to believe - the impact that the German midfielder has made since arriving back on 2014 has been great, and he was one of the key players in Real Madrid's most recent double in La Liga and the Champions League in 2016/17.
Marcelo, Casemiro and Luka Modric are the other players who are reportedly to be on the sell-out list of Zinedine Zidane, whether or not it's true is something that remains to be seen. With Real Madrid one of the most watched teams on websites such as livestream.services, any changes will be watched with interest by millions of fans across the globe.
Read more about United Chase Kroos


text:
Home » Analysis
Bubbling up
By Christian Davis
Cava has been stuck between a rock and a hard place, namely champagne and prosecco. but there is a new classification and producers want to float up on consumers' love for bubbles. Christian Davis fizzes
IN THE GLOBAL SPARKLING wine market, Spain's cava faces two challenges – one historic – in competing with champagne. The other is the meteoric rise of Italy's prosecco. One at the top end of the sector, the other at the bottom, entry-level end.
With challenges come opportunities. For cava, along with the others, there are two. In an otherwise fairly flat wine sector, two categories stand out in terms of growth: sparkling and rosé (for Spain, read rosado).
The two 'hot stories' coming out of the region (cava comes predominately from Penedés, near Barcelona in Catalonia (see designation), putting aside the broader region's desire for independence (I am not going there…) is: a new classification for single vineyards, the Cava de Paraje Calificado, and news that a faction of the Freixent family is in negotiation to sell its 50.68% share in the cava giant to German sparkling wine producer Henkel.
"Cava is a great sparkling wine," says Javier Pagés. Well, as chief executive of Codorníu, one of the two giants of cava, he would say that. Made in the same traditional method as champagne but, generally speaking, using indigenous varieties, usually Macabeo, Xarel-Lo and Parellada principally, the claim is not with-out foundation.
Pagés refutes the suggestion that cava is just seen as a cheap alternative to champagne. With the advantage of Codorniú's long history, established in 1872, he points out that cava enjoys good sales in the likes of New York, Argentina and Cuba, due mainly to Spanish immigrants. But then Belgium, Germany, the UK, US, even France, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, are all significant importers of Spain's best fizz.
Pagés points out that the on-trade, specifically restaurants, has proved a hitherto insurmountable problem for cava. The reason? Simple. At the fine-dining end, Michelin-starred restaurants tend to be French inspired or French cuisine oriented. Below that, there are many Italian restaurants. Under that we are looking at Indian, Chinese and then fast food, American-themed eateries, many of which are unlicensed. So not much chance for cava.
But Pagés sees Paraje as "very important" in adding credibility to cava when talking to "prescriptors", namely the likes of wine writers, journalists, sommeliers and MWs.
PROMOTING CAVA
Toni la Rosa Torelló is director of Torelló which has one of the first wines to gain the Paraje Calificado for its Gran Torelló 2010 from its Vinyes Can Martí vineyard.
He says he is "23rd generation" and part of a "brotherhood" called the Confraria dèl Cava to promote cava. Understandably, he is decidedly more upbeat. He just sees 'bubbles' as the 'gran' opportunity for cava.
He tells DI: "The problem in the past for cava was that it had been sold cheap. But the market for sparkling wine has changed – and will change. There is a 'bubbles' market going on. So, if people want bubbles, that is any opportunity for us.


FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Chip designer Dialog Semiconductor said on Monday that it managed to hit its fourth-quarter revenue guidance despite a slump in iPhone sales at its main customer Apple.
Shares in the Anglo-German company jumped 4 percent as investors credited the company's resilience at a time when other Apple suppliers have slashed or missed their targets.
The shares had fallen in early trade after Dialog said unaudited preliminary sales came in at $431 million in the fourth quarter, the low end of a guidance range of $430 million-$470 million, but they rebounded on the broader view that Dialog had weathered Apple's recent sales slowdown well.
"Dialog was one of the few Apple suppliers not to warn, stating at the time their comfort with the guidance provided," said Barclays analysts in a note.
Around 75 percent of Dialog's business is supplying power-management chips to Apple, which warned in November of slow year-end sales and on Jan. 3 issued its first sales warning in 12 years, blaming weaker iPhone sales in China.
Shares in suppliers have been hit as a result, with many forced to revise their guidance lower. Dialog, however, stood by its fourth-quarter revenue forecast and managed - just - to meet it.
CEO Jalal Bagherli said in November that Dialog was seeing less of an impact than other suppliers because its power-management chips were used across a broad range of Apple devices and not just in iPhones.
Dialog struck a $600 million deal last October to transfer people and patents to Apple as part of a push to diversify its business.
The company says the deal will buy it time to expand into new areas such as the Internet of Things that includes connected devices like home speakers, fitness trackers or smart watches.
The deal was not expected to affect revenues in 2018, but Dialog will lose out on Apple power chip deals going forward. The company, which will emerge smaller after the transaction, expects Apple to account for 35-40 percent of revenues by 2022.
Dialog said its cash on hand was $678 million at the end of 2018, up $199 million year-on-year, and that it was debt-free. It will publish audited results for 2018 on March 6.


text:
eSports Betting Reviews
eSports Odds
eSportsbook Reviews
Hearthstone Betting Odds
Heartsone: Heroes Of Warcraft has made a name for itself in just a few short years. Now, betting markets are starting to emerge and it is useful to learn how and where you can bet on various Hearthstone tournaments!
Among other eSports betting markets that were introduced in recent years, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft game has also started making appearances. While Heartsone is a relatively new eSport, there are plenty of betting markets available and the game is quickly joining the ranks of Dota 2, Counter-Strike and League of Legends in popularity.
World of Warcraft engaged millions of fans and hundreds of professional players to compete every day, developing different strategies and play styles, and it is not strange that the Hearthstone as a part of World of Warcraft franchise, drew such attention to its matches and betting opportunities.
Hearthstone is a Forbes awarded best digital card game of 2013. It is a free strategy video game in which players play a card based game with familiar World Of Warcraft characters to compete and best their opposition.
Where to Bet on Hearthstone
GG.BET eSports
Luckbox eSportsbook
10Bet eSports
William Hill eSports
Unikrn Esports
Real Deal Bet eSports
What is Hearthstone?
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment and it was released on March 11, 2014 for the worldwide use. It is built upon the popular Warcraft series, using familiar characters and themes from the series. It was originally released for Microsoft Windows and OS X, and later for iOS and Android devices as well. Therefore, it offers cross-platform play which allows players to compete with each other no matter which device they are using. The only real limitation in the choice of opponents is the geographical region they come from.
Players in Hearthstone collect cards that can be common, rare, epic, and legendary and can also be classified as weapons, spells, or minions. As soon as the match start players get the chance to pull three to four cards out of a 30- card deck. The main goal of the match is to defeat your opponent by destroying his health points, before he destroys yours.
Of course, this game was designed for both beginners and advanced card game players. The latter can collect the deck of cards with diverse combinations used for destruction of the opponent´s chances or diverse strategies. These cards can be bought with either game´s gold currency or special accomplishments. The gold currency can either be gained in everyday tasks or can be bought with real life money.
For all of these reasons, Hearthstone quickly became one of the most popular collectible card games (CCG), and, frequently, is one of the best eSport games at the moment.
Professional Hearthstone
As it was already said, it attracts both beginners and experienced, professional players. Both the great prize pools and the concept of the game attract impressive players to try a hand in various tournaments. Most popular gamers in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft are Octavian "Kripparrian" Morosan, Jeffrey "TrumpSC" Shih, Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski who won the best of five tournament, and Byron "Reckful" Bernstein who is a season winner of World of Warcraft multiple Arena.
Hearthstone Tournaments
Much to everyone´s surprise, even during the closed beta phase, Hearthstone was part of a great number of tournaments, such are those organized by Major League Gaming and ESL. One of the most interesting tournaments was held in December 2013 when 2P Entertainment hosted a tournament with the greatest players of the Chinese region against the best ones of the American region. The prize pool for this tournament was set at around $4,840.
The following year, in March 2014, TeSPA (The eSports Association) announced a new tournament, which was free of charge to enter, and it was meant for all North American college students. This tournament was called Collegiate Hearthstone Open and it featured $5,000 in scholarships.
Other tournaments like Major League Gaming, ESL and the ZOTAC Cup continued to host small Hearthstone leagues in North America and Europe.
The first Hearthstone World Championship was held at BlizzCon in November 2014. It included players from four regions and it featured a total prize pool of $250,000. First Hearthstone World Champion, American player, James "Firebat" Kostesich, received $100,000.
The second Hearthstone World Championship was held at BlizzCon on November 7, 2015 where a Swedish player, Sebastian "Ostkaka" Engwall became the champion, until the Russian player, Pavel "Pavel" Beltukov won at BlizzCon 2016 on November 5th. Pavel won a quarter of million dollars and it is assumed that next year winner will win a cool million.
What To Bet On?
The Hearthstone game revolves around the popular World of Warcraft (WoW) franchise, as players collect decks of cards with motives from the original Warcraft and WoW series in order to compete against one another.
As with all the popular eSport games, Hearthstone betting is one of the popular aspects of the game. Punters are able to place bets on the straight up outcomes of matches or the tournaments and some bookmakers will even allow for the more intricate bets such as which player will play a legendary card first.
Of course, if you are not comfortable with real money bets, there are bets where you can bet on matches using the items from Steam inventory.
How To Get Started With Hearthstone Betting?
First, it is good to understand the game, how it works, what cards can be used in which situations, which are the individual strengths of each class and which ones will cause most harm to the opponents. As soon as you understand how to deal with these things, you can have better odds of successful bets. For example, to do a research on individual players is a great way to start.
Try to understand his styles and methods of playing, look at their skill level and statistics, and last, but not least, their in-game decision making. Since there are many competitive players that stream their matches on Twitch, everyone is provided with a chance of improvement in both playing and betting skills.
Finding out about particular player's style and methods he applies to gameplay will help you better predict his matches. By doing this, someone with a good overall grasp of the game can easily come out on top and beat the bookies in Hearthstone betting.
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Collecting vintage marine lighting
Well-travelled ship's lamps and rare lighthouse beacons are now illuminating industrial-chic interiors, says Jenny Dalton
c1900 Davey & Co copper and brass oil lantern, $1,695 from Lannan Gallery | Image: Lannan Gallery & Boston Harbour Auctions
1stdibs, +1877-721 3427; 1stdibs.com. Any Old Lights, 9 South St, Fowey, Cornwall PL23 1AR (01726-815 522; anyoldlights.com). Charles Miller, 020-7806 5530; charlesmillerltd.com; next auction November 8. Clipper Maritime Antiques, Gwyn Mor, Trenwith Ln, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1DA (01736-794 383; maritime-antiques.co.uk). Davey Lighting, 020-7351 2130; originalbtc.com. Golden & Associates, see 1stdibs. Lannan Gallery, 99 High St, Boston, MA 02110 (+1617-451 2650; lannangallery.com). Trinity Marine, by appt, Scatter Rock, Sheldon Ln, Dunsford, Exeter EX6 7YT (01647-253 400, trinitymarine.co.uk).
June 25 2016 / Jenny Dalton
This is a seriously sexy light," says nautical design dealer Larry Lannan, who runs Lannan Gallery in Boston. He is talking about a British-made Davey & Co oil lantern ($1,695) that more than 100 years ago would have sat atop a boat's bow, lighting the ship's way through the night and alerting seafarers to its presence with red and blue side lenses. In gleaming copper and brass, and pristine condition, the c1900 lamp is one of the current gems of Lannan's antique marine offerings.
1950s copper and brass cargo light, £485 from Any Old Lights | Image: Any Old Lights
Today, richly historic pieces like these are often not destined for further voyages. Although some are re-engineered for boats, says yacht builder Paul Spooner of Fairlie Yachts, well-travelled ship's lamps are increasingly finding new homes on land. The practical, non-ferrous materials, chosen because they didn't rust at sea, chime with contemporary interior trends that veer towards "real" materials with a natural character. "Bronze, brass and gunmetal develop a beautiful patina over time," says Peter Bowles, owner and MD of Davey Lighting, which owns the archive of Davey & Co lights, manufactured since the 19th century and used aboard the Titanic. "Each vintage lamp has a unique appearance, even though they may be the same design. These are character items that you can tell have been handmade."
The industrial-chic appeal is not lost on interior designer Martin Brudnizki, who used 19th-century ship's bulkhead and well wall lights from Trinity Marine near Exeter (alongside "new antique" Davey lamps) in his schemes for Jamie Oliver's Jamie's restaurants. This large-scale lighting plan was created with numerous vintage pieces, possible because shipping salvage is plentiful.
Early 1900s brass Perko port and starboard lights, $3,195 for the pair from Lannan Gallery | Image: Lannan Gallery & Boston Harbour Auctions
One enthusiast who has used ships' lighting extensively in his home is Philip Anstey, a distributor of Chinese medicines who lives above Fowey harbour, Cornwall. Charles Darwin and Lord Tennyson both stayed in the historic home that today Anstey shares with his partner, interior designer Paula Coffey. Here, 1950s bulkhead lamps light the garden, while a large brass lamp that would have originally graced the decks of 1960s cargo ships now provides a striking focal point in a wood-panelled living room. "We needed lights that were consistent with the style of house. Every detail on the lamps, from the screws to the chains, is just wonderful," he says of the pieces he bought from local firm Any Old Lights, which has a selection of similar brass pendants (from £285).
Early 1900s copper and brass lighthouse beacon, $31,500 from Lannan Gallery | Image: Lannan Gallery & Boston Harbour Auctions
Earlier lamps by a handful of marques are considerably rarer and more valuable: British brands such as Davey, Meteorite, Eli Griffiths & Sons and RC Murray, while in the US, Perko is the top find. But since they are often found at decommissioning yards and are not engraved, provenance can be hard to define and buyers should ensure there is a maker's stamp before paying a high price. A pair of c1900 copper lanterns marked Meteorite and converted to electrical operation are priced at £8,812 by Golden & Associates in South Carolina. It also has an attractive c1910 US brass ship boarding lamp with red glass in an unusual rounded shape for £2,575.
The best examples, says nautical auctioneer Charles Miller, range from the 1880s, when Fresnel lenses with their concentrated beams were first used in marine lighting, to the 1940s. Lannan has a 60cm 1924 Davey masthead lantern in steel and brass for $2,295, and a pair of early-20th-century brass Perko port and starboard lamps for $3,195. Pairs are popular, as they are often used to light the entryway to a home; Cornish specialist Clipper Maritime Antiques has attractive 1940s copper Alderson & Gyde port and starboard lamps for £350-£400 per pair.
Another area of marine salvage that strikes a chord is searchlights and signalling lamps. Trinity Marine, which salvages from ships including the SS France and the RMS Windsor Castle, has a c1950s Royal Navy wheelhouse searchlight (£1,080) that was found at a famous old Clydeside ships' chandlers. Polished and pristine, it is supplied without modern fixtures, so the buyer can create their own lighting effect. "The mirrors do a good deal of the work, so even a small light source has a big impact," says owner Mark Jameson.
Rarer still are the lights linked with lighthouses. "They're so sturdy, rugged and heavy," says Lannan, who has a large early-1900s copper and brass beacon for $31,500. "Prices can be double those of ships' lights." A pair of rare c1890 British-made range lights, thought to be from the Northern Lighthouse Board, are £1,500 each at Trinity Marine, while a beautiful metre-tall copper buoy beacon (£3,600) was recovered from Trinity House, the commissioner of lighthouses in the UK since the time of Henry VIII.
"All these designs are very clean," says Bowles. "They're practically and solidly made, with no fancy detailing, which makes them very modern." They are also much more impressive in the flesh than in pictures, adds Nick Griffiths, co-owner of Any Old Lights. "I've only worked with these lights for two years and have become a little obsessed with them. I never expect customers to come back because these lamps were made to last. But they often do return – to buy another one, or two."
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Home Titanic Survivors Thomas Arthur Whiteley Why did White Star settle with Whiteley?
THOMAS Whiteley was an unimportant member of crew on the latest White Star liner.
He was only eighteen, a solid and presentable youth with some small experience. He had previously served as a steward on the RMS Olympic.
Whiteley found himself transferred to the second sister for her inaugural crossing. As a first class saloon steward, the Manchester-born manciple might have thought himself ideally placed to enjoy a few nice tips. And maiden voyages always brought the high rollers.
Of course it all went horribly wrong. Right from the moment when, as he later told the North Berks Herald, old ship's surgeon William O'Loughlin had risen from his seat at the Wideners' dinner party on the Sunday night to propose a toast to the mighty Titanic.
A few hours after that moment of gaiety Whiteley found himself in a maelstrom of life and death on a boundless, malevolent ocean. Somehow he reached the sanctuary of a boat in the darkness. Dawn saw him lifted exhausted aboard the Carpathia.
Thomas Whiteley fractured a limb in the terror. When other crew went home to England, Whiteley remained in St Vincent's Hospital in New York. Ten days after the disaster he was one of only three crew members who were still detained in hospital. The Times claimed he had a broken arm.
But a bedridden Whiteley had already begun to wield a powerful influence on the story of the disaster.
Whiteley's story, given the full banner-headline treatment, was sensational indeed. He claimed that the Officers of the Watch of the Titanic had been warned in advance by the lookouts of a deadly obstacle course of ice that lay across their path.
"That three warnings were given to the officer on the bridge of the Titanic that icebergs were ahead, less than half an hour before the fatal crash, was the declaration made last night by Thomas Whiteley, a first [class] saloon steward who now lies in St Vincent's Hospital with frozen and lacerated feet.
There are some obvious problems with Whiteley's allegations.
Leaving aside the question of which boat he himself was saved in, his claim is substantially that the two lookouts on watch at the time of the collision - Fred Fleet and Reg Lee - were together in the same lifeboat.
But in fact Fleet asserted that he was saved in lifeboat 6 whereas Lee escaped in lifeboat 13.
Fleet's presence in number 6, which did not pick up anyone from the water, is corroborated in evidence by Robert Hichens and Arthur Peuchen. Similarly, Lee's presence in 13 seems well grounded. This craft did not pick up anyone either.
There is little basis for belief that any of the other lookouts who were not on duty at the critical time - Hogg, Jewell, Evans or Symons - could have been an 'other lookout' to hear complaints from either Lee or Fleet.
All were in different boats, apart from Hogg and Jewell, who were both saved in lifeboat 7, said to be the first boat away. Neither Hogg nor Jewell could have made the remarks, since neither was on watch at the time, nor could Whiteley have entered their lifeboat.
In any case, Fleet told the US Inquiry that Jewell and Symons, the earlier lookouts, had not reported seeing any bergs, but just passed on the message to keep a keen eye out for them. Nor had Hogg and Evans seen anything, he said.
Senator Smith: Did you see any other icebergs; field ice, or growlers while you were in the crow's nest Sunday or Sunday night?
Fleet: Only the one I reported right ahead.
Senator Smith: Only that one?
2419. Before half-past eleven on that watch- that is, seven bells-had you reported anything at all, do you remember?
Lee - There was nothing to be reported.
While it could be maintained that Fleet and Lee were upholding a company line by the time they took the stand - "He would say that, wouldn't he?" as Mandy Rice Davies remarked in the Profumo case - it is clear that the same standard could be reversed and applied to Whiteley's second-hand tales.
They would say that, wouldn't they... lookouts who knew that the focus for the disaster was likely to be on them in the first instance would have every reason to deflect the blame onto a stubborn and conveniently deceased officer of the watch. Even if such claims were indeed aired on the Carpathia, rather than in a lifeboat, it would not make the claims true in themselves.
telling to 'He warned them three times' - a huge difference in meaning.
While Whiteley's story has some accurate detail - about the number of bell-strikes for obstructions in different directions - it is also marred by error, some of it likely to be journalistic failing. One can overlook the moonlight when there was no moon, or the clumsy references to Whitney and even Whitehead when referring to Whiteley, but it is surely impossible for two lookouts, bobbing about in a lifeboat before rescue by the Carpathia, to know that anyone had shot themselves, let alone that it was the first officer.
"No wonder Murdock shot himself" - it simply couldn't have been said by any lookout prior to the beginning of the storytelling on the rescuing Cunarder, and then only once the initial trauma had worn off and various pieces of tittle-tattle had been exchanged.
On the Sunday morning that the Whiteley account first appeared, there was no-one to contradict it. For the following day, Monday April 22, the Herald confidently followed up its story by reporting that Whiteley had brought a "new and startling feature" into the investigation which would be "followed up immediately" by the Senate investigation.
"Whiteley, who is in St Vincent's Hospital in New York, doubtless will be brought here [Washington] in the hope that the men who were on lookout duty and survived may be here. If he can identify them their testimony will be taken to throw light on the discipline aboard the vessel."
But instead of setting the agenda, the Whiteley story promptly did the exact opposite and rapidly withered. He was never brought to Washington, and nor did the Senate Subcommittee follow it up immediately - or directly at any stage. Lookout Fred Fleet was examined by the US Inquiry the following Wednesday, three days after the Whiteley allegations, and the steward's "new and startling" statements simply were not raised.
At the end of Fleet's evidence, Chairman Senator Smith instead made oblique criticisms of the press and declared firmly that the course of his inquiry would not be diverted in any particular direction.
And so passed the Whiteley episode.... that is, it did in America.
In Britain, Whiteley's allegations were not followed up. The home press kept away from the story. While the allegations certainly did nothing for the prestige of the British mercantile marine, it is possible that other newspaper instincts were at work. At a time when stories of the disaster and its ramifications were in spate, the main titles hardly felt the need to throw all caution to the wind in following up the New York Herald. They probably expected the Inquiry to investigate the story, and in the meantime there was plenty to be getting on with.
So Whiteley eventually returned quietly home. By the time he apparently spoke to the North Berks Herald it might be noteworthy to observe that he had no longer been saved in a nondescript lifeboat, but had miraculously survived on the swamped Collapsible B. Never mind that no lookouts shared his precarious perch, Whiteley now remembered that someone had hit him with an oar as he tried to pull himself aboard.
He had not mentioned any of this in New York, but the early reports in that city did relate that Whiteley had been dramatically "whipped overboard" from the Titanic - he knew not how - as he helped to load lifeboats with women and children.
Whiteley never claimed the balance of wages owed to him by the White Star Line, unlike many of those who had returned before him on the Lapland. There is no evidence either that he gave any deposition on the disaster to the Receiver of Wreck or any solicitor for the White Star Line. He was never called to give evidence, nor paid any expenses as a stand-by witness.
But he did do something unique, at least for a surviving crewman.
(Limited), asked that a date should be fixed for the hearing.
This story is an orphan. Nothing transpired in early March. The case does not appear in the advance warning lists in late February, as it should have done. The explanation seems obvious - it was struck out because the OSNC, trading as the White Star Line, settled.
Whiteley's statement of claim cannot at present be located. Thousands of sheaves of affidavits were filed in the period when the young steward might have initiated his action. But it should be remembered that he only nineteen when he embarked on this serious course of action - and the very act of filing suit would appear to demonstrate that Whiteley was a man of strong conviction as well as steely character.
His twin planks of argument, negligent steering and unseaworthiness, may be guessed at. Unseaworthiness possibly related to there being too few lifeboats for all aboard, or perhaps the fire in the bunker, or a deficiency in manning. The Mersey report presented ample grounds for argument, although the legal security of any of them is uncertain. "Negligent steering" appears to echo the New York Herald front page story in using the word 'steering' rather than 'navigation'... the latter being perhaps more encompassing of a conscious decision to enter a suspected ice field at full speed.
'Steering' seems to accept the navigational decisions but object to how they were carried out.
Whether Whiteley believed what he told the New York Herald is ultimately unimportant. Whether it is capable of being true is the nub of the matter. Fleet, the sole surviving lookout following Lee's untimely death in 1913, was unlikely to be of assistance to Whiteley's case, having already given evidence at the company's behest in the landmark case for compensation involving the father of a deceased passenger, Ryan v. OSNC. (qv).
Nor did Fred Fleet at any stage in his life, even when the White Star Line had long since ceased to exist, ever validate the claim that the men in the crow's nest had seen any ice prior to the fatal berg.
It would thus be interesting to know the names of those whom Whiteley's side proposed to call in evidence.
Bluff or not, and the OSNC were certainly capable of going far beyond a threat to call a number of nautical witnesses, it seems that ultimately the young steward won the contest.
True or not, White Star had no need to have lurid claims ventilated that their Officers of the Watch were given to ignoring warning calls from their lookouts. No doubt they took the view that damaging headlines could conceivably affect bookings and their bottom line far more substantially than the relatively small outlay needed to mollify an injured steward. And thus a deal was arrived at.
Honest or not, both parties thus preserved their public name.
And one can only hope that Thomas Whiteley, bona fide victim of the Titanic, lived to sprightly old age.