text:
A faster, cheaper path to fusion energy
by American Physical Society
A rendition of the SPARC high-field tokamak experiment, which would produce the first fusion plasma to have a net energy gain. Credit: Ken Filar
Scientists are working to dramatically speed up the development of fusion energy in an effort to deliver power to the electric grid soon enough to help mitigate impacts of climate change. The arrival of a breakthrough technology—high-temperature superconductors, which can be used to build magnets that produce stronger magnetic fields than previously possible—could help them achieve this goal. Researchers plan to use this technology to build magnets at the scale required for fusion, followed by construction of what would be the world's first fusion experiment to yield a net energy gain.
The effort is a collaboration between Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Plasma Science & Fusion Center and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and they will present their work at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics meeting in Portland, Ore.
Fusion power is generated when nuclei of small atoms combine into larger ones in a process that releases enormous amounts of energy. These nuclei, typically heavier cousins of hydrogen called deuterium and tritium, are positively charged and so feel strong repulsion that can only be overcome at temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees. While these temperatures, and thus fusion reactions, can be produced in modern fusion experiments, the conditions required for a net energy gain have not yet been achieved.
One potential solution to this could be increasing the strength of the magnets. Magnetic fields in fusion devices serve to keep these hot ionized gases, called plasmas, isolated and insulated from ordinary matter. The quality of this insulation gets more effective as the field gets stronger, meaning that one needs less space to keep the plasma hot. Doubling the magnetic field in a fusion device allows one to reduce its volume—a good indicator of how much the device costs—by a factor of eight, while achieving the same performance. Thus, stronger magnetic fields make fusion smaller, faster and cheaper.
A breakthrough in superconductor technology could allow fusion power plants to come to fruition. Superconductors are materials that allow currents to pass through them without losing energy, but to do so they must be very cold. New superconducting compounds, however, can operate at much higher temperatures than conventional superconductors. Critical for fusion, these superconductors function even when placed in very strong magnetic fields.
While originally in a form not useful for building magnets, researchers have now found ways to manufacture high-temperature superconductors in the form of "tapes" or "ribbons" that make magnets with unprecedented performance. The design of these magnets is not suited for fusion machines because they are much too small. Before the new fusion device, called SPARC, can be built, the new superconductors must be incorporated into the kind of large, strong magnets needed for fusion.
Once the magnet development is successful, the next step will be to construct and operate the SPARC fusion experiment. SPARC will be a tokamak fusion device, a type of magnetic confinement configuration similar to many machines already in operation (Figure 1).
As an accomplishment analogous to the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, demonstrating a net energy gain, the aim of fusion research for more than 60 years, could be enough to put fusion firmly into national energy plans and launch commercial development. The goal is to have SPARC operational by 2025.
Breakthrough in superconducting materials opens new path to fusion
Provided by American Physical Society
Citation: A faster, cheaper path to fusion energy (2018, November 5) retrieved 16 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2018-11-faster-cheaper-path-fusion-energy.html
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The goal is to have SPARC operational by 2025.
If things continue this way, SPARC is going to surpass and completely obsolete ITER. We will probably have a first generation fusion powerplant design, if not a working prototype, by the time ITER is scheduled to finally begin deuterium-tritium experiments in 2035. There should be another investigation of ITER with a focus this time on corruption in addition to mismanagement.
https://www.iter....lestones
Nik_2213
As I understand it, there is a lot of 'cross pollination' between the different approaches. Developments for one may find its way into the others at the next opportunity.
Thankfully, not like the early steam power pioneers, who patented and litigated so enthusiastically, it set the field back by a generation...
Um, IIRC, the Wright Bros tried that, too. Is that why competing aircraft had their control surfaces at the back, rather than the Wrights' canards ??
rodkeh
They still have no concept of subatomic structure, it is ludicrous believe that fusion is even possible, much less that these fools could figure it out.
there is a lot of 'cross pollination' between the different approaches.
It seems like the 'cross pollination' is all flowing one way to ITER, but perhaps you can describe some examples where the reverse is true. One thing that is clear is there is no science flowing from actual plasma experiments at ITER to others because they don't even have first plasma scheduled until very late 2025, and nothing slips more than an ITER schedule.
Maybe I am missing something here, but looking at ITER's bizarre timeline, it looks like what little is scheduled between 2020 and 2035 is being done serially instead of in parallel with massive gaps in between. If the same countries were doing everything, you might argue this is to spread out the cost, but that is less convincing with ITER because different countries are doing different components.
IMHO, ITER is a great idea, but the actual implementation is way too slow.
jonesdave
And what the hell would you know?
Phyllis Harmonic
If things continue this way, SPARC is going to surpass and completely obsolete ITER.
ITER was designed before the newest generations of superconductors were available. ITER is now succumbing to the escalation of commitment that sunk-costs engender. SPARK has the advantage of an agile development model and new materials and technology that combined, dramatically shortens the path to breakeven and the reduction in costs to do so.
They still have no concept of subatomic structure
Stupid comment.
it is ludicrous believe that fusion is even possible
much less that these fools could figure it out.
Three strikes and you are out. The problem is NOT a lack of understanding of subatomic structure, NOT the infeasibility of fusion and NOT the lack of intelligence of the scientists involved, many of whom are more brilliant than you can imagine. I believe the problem primarily lies in the mismanagement of the ITER project. Some people want to compare ITER to the Manhattan Project of the Apollo Project, but there is no sense of urgency associated with ITER. NASA went from its birth to moon landing in less than 11 years. ITER is already 12 years old and has accomplished little to nothing.
You should see some of the other crap this guy spews, like "There is no such thing as a GHG . . ." https://medium.co...ab5c37ae
ITER was designed before the newest generations of superconductors were available. ITER is now succumbing to the escalation of commitment that sunk-costs engender.
That is a nice story, but It is ITER's unexplained delays that have made this possible. If ITER had been completed in 2016, as it was originally supposed to be, they would not be getting caught flat-footed by advancing technology in superconductors now. A previous investigation showed mismanagement and I see no evidence their management has improved. For example, why is an entire decade (2025-2035) needed to go from first plasma to D-T experiments? Given the seriousness of global warming, can't this be compressed into a year or two instead of ten years?
Perhaps I'm just ignorant, but doesn't the ITER design include superconducting magnets...and what is so new about these magnets?
halslater
I believe the underlying problem is that centralized energy benefits only the wealthy at the expense of the community. It is inefficient due to the exponential increase in transmission losses with both volume and distance, the vulnerability due to climate change and terrorism, and the lack of economy of scale in distribution costs. Distributed generation is taking over with community and rooftop solar with battery storage. We should save our money and stop public funding for both projects.
ITER uses very old (discovered over 60 years ago) superconductor tech...low temperature superconductors that cannot support the higher fields alluded to in this article. The SPARC concept is using newly developed "REBCO" type II superconductor, which not only supports very high magnetic fields, but can be manufactured in a special tape that overcomes many of the previous mechanical and thermal issues with type II superconductors, mainly issues of being brittle. The new material allows for much high magnetic fields and design flexibility (both literally and figuratively). This technology wasn't possible when ITER was designed.
The ITER magnets use an older generation of SCs (Nb3-Sn or Nb-Ti) and are formed as bundles of round wires carried in round conduits. These also have to be cooled to ~ 4 Kelvin (-269 °C). The new technology is based on high(er) temp SCs and are formed as ribbons that have a rectangular cross section. This profile eliminates most of the inactive interstitial volume incurred by round cross-section conductors, and so allows more SC material to inhabit a given volume. HTSCs also do not require as elaborate a cooling system. Finally, the HTSCs can remain superconductors at higher magnetic field strengths than can Ni-Sn or Ti-Sn SCs.
Edit: Also, what Bullwinkle said. : )
If ITER had been completed in 2016, as it was originally supposed to be, they would not be getting caught flat-footed by advancing technology in superconductors now.
Very good points, Mark!
gopher65
One thing that I'd add to the comments here is that research done at ITER benefits the whole field, if only so that others know what paths *not* to take.
The counter argument is that it doesn't benefit the field enough to suck 60 billion dollars out of fusion research. Of course, the only reason ITER is getting 60 billion dollars is because it is a huge job program. If it didn't exist, that money wouldn't be going to fusion research, it would be going to subsidies for Airbus, Arianespace, or some other random military contractor.
You should see how much money the con artist Randell Mills has pulled in over the years, with his non-existent, lower than ground state, hydrino junk. Seriously weird what some idiots will invest in. ITER is fine, conceptually. How it has been run is beyond my knowledge.
Everything of course!
DarkHorse66
Everything of nothing is STILL nothing!
(maybe you should actually learn some (real) physics)
Best Regards, DH66
Everything of course
Rodney often cites Eunice Newton Foot whom he says proved the absence of GHG effects, particularly as they relate to CO2. Here is what he has to say:
"There is no such thing as a GHG, which was proven beyond the sadow [sic] of any doubt back in 1856 by Eunice Foote."
However, what Eunice Foote actually said can be seen here in Article XXXI of the American Journal of Science (https://archive.o...ode/2up)
"On comparing the sun's heat in different gases, I found it to be in hydrogen gas, 104 F., in common air, 106F; in oxygen gas, 108 F; and in carbonic acid gas [CO2], 125 F."
Rod Kehler knows little to nothing of value as it regards GHGs and their effect on the planet.
... it is ludicrous believe that fusion is even possible, much less that these fools could figure it out.
I wonder what keeps our sun (or any star) "burning"...
https://nineplane...sol.html
https://en.wikipe...wiki/Sun
Somebody probably lit a large candle. ;)
Cheers, DH66
Old_C_Code
Safe molten salt fission. Amazing how safe fission is ignored.
From MIT:
https://www.techn...decades/
dustywells
So the elusive success will be a perpetual 25 years from 'now' instead of the perpetual 50 years?
Try this ansatz
NASA went from its birth to moon landing in less than 11 years. ITER is already 12 years old and has accomplished little to nothing.
This is a somewhat odd comparison, better to compare the financial resources.
President Kennedy announced the cost of the Apollo program to be "more than 50 cents per US citizen per week".
0.5 * 200,000,000 * 52 = 5,200,000,000 US dollar (1962) per year.
Inflation is about a factor of 8.
This makes 40 billion dollar per year, more than twice the total ITER budget!
I think that ITER would do much better having 20 x their present budget.
Not to mention those pesky hydrogen bombs!
PlasmaLabRat
It seems like the 'cross pollination' is all flowing one way to ITER, but perhaps you can describe some examples where the reverse is true. .
There is a fair amount of diagnostics development work that coming out of ITER that is useful to other projects, including development related to the higher temperatures (many optical and RF diagnostics changing to different wavelengths) and making optics and other stuff more resilient to long operation and higher neutron flux. ITER diagnostics work still has a laundry list of problems, and there is nothing special about ITER in terms of this work, as any long lifetime, burning plasma would need something similar. However, the point is some minor fraction of money being spent on ITER is amounting to work that has wider usage and benefits, with some non-zero exchange of novel work coming *out* of ITER instead of just sinking in.
Uh, fusion reactions have been done for quite a while already, just not in a way that produces useful energy. A bench top setup lets you map out the reaction rates pretty easily, experimentally confirming what happens between roughly mono-energy fuel components. The only difference between a reactor for power and that bench top setup is that the reactor will have a thermal distribution with a small portion of the tail of the energy distribution is involved in reactions. In other words, a simple convolution operation of existing experimental data.
The hard part of fusion is not the understanding of the fusion reactions, or even reaching high temperatures, as both of those have been done on very small scale experiments already a long time ago. The hard part is achieving and maintaining temperatures *efficiently*.
torbjorn_b_g_larsson
Oy. Why the irrelevant sideshow with ITER complaints?
ITER is a multinational, complex, difficult project [ https://www.iter....C-17.pdf ]. Delays are to be expected. (C.f. how relatively simpler building projects average something like 50 % above budget IIRC.) Its cost is a small fraction of global energy costs,
Then again, since solar and wind has become much cheaper and is currently in exponential global growth, fusion is hardly a priority any longer. It can be useful for megacities perhaps, or colonies throughout the system.
betterexists
There are so many STARS. They use NO Fusion Reactors; So, it is in our best interest to toss several gadgets to reach them ASAP and SPY on their Exceptional Skill !
Hyperfuzzy
Fusion? We are stupid! Fused charges move less, i.e. less energy! Energy is produced by the motion of charges! Maybe fission! You get a lot of spirals and wiggles and sinusoids and charge centers flying around! Now there's a lot of energy. Fusion? meh
Stars are NATURAL fusion reactors. You DO know what nuclear fusion is, right?
Here are a couple of links (starting with basic info) that might help you (& give a hopefully informative discussion):
(read all 3 pages):
https://www.bbc.c...vision/1
http://www.nuclea...r-fusion
http://hyperphysi...ion.html
https://en.wikipe...r_fusion
https://www.brita...r-fusion
...cont
Here is some history. This might help too:
https://lppfusion...n-power/
https://www.newsc...-fusion/
https://www.euro-...-fusion/
https://en.wikipe...on_power
The wiki page on nuclear fusion in my previous post also lists just how many surprisingly different methods for possibly achieving fusion by way of technology are already known.
Best Regard, DH66
@Hyperfuzzy:
The reason you got marked down by another poster is because fusion has absolutely nothing to do with "charges". Or "wriggles".
From https://en.wikipe..._fusion:
" Fusion is the process that powers active or "main sequence" stars, or other high magnitude stars."
The point is that when 2 lighter elements are being 'fused' together,they:
a) create a heavier element. This process can be repeated, to create even heavier elements. As a rule of thumb, the denser the star, the heavier the final element in the production chain can be. For example, all the gold in the Universe has been made this way, inside denser stars.
b) (& this is the important bit) In the process of 'fusing' there is an explosive release of something called 'binding energy' https://en.wikipe...g_energy . This binding energy becomes 'excess energy' with respect to the newly created element.
@PlasmaLabRat, thanks for that. Two 5s for you. Good to see someone arguing for ITER rationally.
This is also the energy that is then radiated away from the star, in the form of light.
Also, read (at least) the more basic links that I gave above. Then you will (or should have) at least some idea about what fusion is actually about & why fusion is considered to be a desirable skill/process to master.
@DarkHorse, an admitted quibble: a recent article here on physorg discussed whether heavy elements might also/instead be cooked up in neutron star mergers.
https://phys.org/...als.html
This was the first such article; there was at least one other but I can't be bothered to find it. I say this is a quibble but they've actually done the math and physics to show this not only accounts for enough heavy metals but also for their relative abundances.
@Da Schneib:
That's fair enough; I have not exactly been in the position to visit this site regularly over the past few years, & keep up to date :)
The theory is certainly plausible, we will just have to wait & see what further research might emerge in the future. After all, there is definitely plenty more that the Universe has to tell us...
https://phys.org/...tml#nRlv
Was that the article that you were talking about? It was directly beneath, in 'Related Stories'. :)
@DarkHorse, no, but it's along the same lines. The one I'm thinking of was based on the LIGO detection and had a much more, ahem, extensive comment list.
Anyway, be aware that this is a current discussion among astrophysics theorists.
btw (to pre-empt any 'questionable' claims by others), if the research in the article that Da Schneib posted does turn out to be correct, this does NOT mean that fusion was not involved in the creation of the heavier elements. The very fact that an even heavier element is created by such a collision, tells you that the very collision of such neutron stars combines the respective densities of both. This increase then triggers the extra fusion step that makes the creation of the heavier element, possible.
@DarkHorse, and just something to add to your information, check out r-process nucleosynthesis.
antialias_physorg
One should also consider that when ITER was started the knowledge base was different. A lot has happened since in terms of modelling, superconductors and finding about about new, niggling issues (impurity and instability issues of the contained plasma)
The problem why ITER is taking so long may just be that controlled fusion is really, really hard.
granville583762
ITER, without magnetic fields is doomed
Except solar fusion depends on the rising and falling plasma electric fields, generating infinitely greater magnetic fields that superconductors can only dream of!
Stop commenting on things that you don't understand, you idiot. The Sun is powered by the p-p fusion chain. That is not what is happening at ITER. p-p fusion is incredibly inefficient. We don't even try to replicate it. The pressures are well beyond what we can create. Just go away, you loon.
@antialias, ITER is not agile enough to incorporate new technology. That's because it's a bureaucracy run by politicians. This is the ongoing problem in many fields.
Unfortunately, an earlier investigation already found mismanagement (Google this is you don't believe me or recall). Changes were made but I am not seeing a real world improvement.
For example, can anyone convincing justify not even beginning D-T experiments until 2035?
TheGhostofOtto1923
Uhhh do you think the scientists might have convincing reasons? Did you bother to look them up?
savvys84
I had synthesized high temp superconductors way back in 2010
ITER is not agile enough to incorporate new technology. That's because it's a bureaucracy run by politicians. This is the ongoing problem in many fields.
I think you don't appreciate the timeline it takes to go from basic research to a real *hardware* product (e.g. from simulating the geometry of the superconducting coils to finally making and installing them). Every one of the components is basically hand made. It takes years and years from getting the "go" to make one to finally having them tested and on site.
If one were that 'agile' to always throw out the 'old' (uninstalled and untried) stuff whenever a new paper rears its head nothing would ever get done. There have been redesigns along the way.
Yes, there is a bit of bureaucracy. If a country contracts to do component X and suddenly one wants to go with component Y it's a bit of a political issue to take that (and the funding) away and give it to another partner better suited to produce component Y.
AAP, your (complicated things take time) argument is valid, but it is equally axiomatic that it only goes so far. Even assuming corruption and stupidity are not the problem, ITER management lacks the sense of urgency to get this project done in a more reasonable timeline.
For comparison, look at the complicated Wendelstein 7-X experimental stellarator built in Greifswald, Germany. I understand assembly had serious problems and took a slow-paced 9 years (2005-2014). The first ITER building was completed in 2012 and it will be a minor miracle if the assembly is complete in 13 years by December 2025, even without problems.
IF our clean energy future with fusion actually hinges on ITER producing results, then perhaps they should try to assemble and test the device faster than Max Plank did with the Wendelstein 7-X. I know this is not a great comparison, but as far as I am concerned, ITER has not shown the necessary sense of urgency. MIT and maybe others will pass them by.
Yes, there is a bit of bureaucracy...
I would say "a bit" is grossly incorrect. At a talk by the former director, he said that ITER was as much an experiment in new bureaucracy as an experiment for plasma physics, due to a scale beyond anything before, run unlike say CERN or ESA projects.
Contributions from countries aren't based just on who is best, but also on fights over who wants to train their own industries. I don't remember exact numbers from the example given, but something like ITER needed 20 gyrotrons, which Russia had a lot of experience with. So Russia got to build 5, but Japan, EU & India also build a few each so they could get experience. If any of the four fail, the whole is delayed (although with less delay than a single source failing).
Pros and cons and my opinion aside on this approach, I wish they would advertise some of this better: the cost and timeline of ITER is not just fusion development, but also paying extra for parallel industry development.
I think you don't appreciate the timeline it takes to go from basic research to a real *hardware* product
So how come the guys in this article are doing it?
ITER was as much an experiment in new bureaucracy as an experiment for plasma physics
Ok, so PlasmaLabRat is probably right, the whole thing in an exercise in herding cats and folks there are probably doing the best they can. Unfortunately, that is just not good enough. The bureaucratic problem has become a serious impediment to the point where other efforts will surpass ITER. MIT appears to be taking this seriously and others are also taking this increasingly seriously, as they should! The Global Warming problem appears to be happening alarmingly faster than earlier models predicted. For example, California is experiencing historic fires at this moment. We urgently need workable solutions, not bureaucracy. The bottom line is we can't afford business as usual if it means fusion power won't reach the grid until the end of the century.
folks there are probably doing the best they can.
I wouldn't say that this is the best they can do in that particular circumstances. There are public reports and accounts critical of ITER management, on top of any mess inherent in a multi-national public project. Better management and a single "owner" could make a huge difference.
That said, any large project will incur bureaucracy. Projects are easier when a napkin sketch and chat can solve integration and mistakes can be fixed with a bandsaw. When coordinating hundreds of people, and mistakes cost millions to correct, then you get the systems and integration engineers, complicated review processes, and a lot more effort to prevent problems before they happen. People can (myself included...) be really bad at estimating how difficulty scales with project size.
I am skeptical of what many projects (including ones I've worked for) claim they can get done in 3-5 years... although maybe 20 years is still too much.
If things continue, it seems likely that MIT and possibly others will obsolete ITER prior to 2035, but solar and wind plus energy storage will dampen the need for commercial fusion, possibly delaying development of fusion technology and our exploration and colonization of the solar system. torbjorn_b_g_larsson wrote something similar.
If it is the structure of ITER that makes it unwieldy, logically that structure must be improved or the entire effort disbanded in favor of one or more efficient structures. In its current form, ITER is not able to develop fusion on a reasonable timescale. ITER's plan to not even begin Deuterium-Tritium (D-T) experiments until 2035 is a clear sign of its dysfunction and simply not good enough.
ITER needed 20 gyrotrons, which Russia had a lot of experience with. So Russia got to build 5, but Japan, EU & India also build a few each so they could get experience.
I am not a business process expert, but how about each component gets only one or two countries making it, with incentives for being first to have it done correctly. The sort of screwing around you described above is incredibly wasteful.
Again, the sort of deadly seriousness of a Manhattan Project or a Project Apollo is nowhere to be seen here, but it should be. If fusion is delayed by decades at best it will only slow our exploration of space, at worst it could lead to apocalyptic climate change. IMHO, this is unacceptable.


text:
West Brom A [PL] 15:00 Sat 15th Oct 2016
And the spurs go marching onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn......
Cockerel vs Thrush,I can only see one winner,worst comes to the worst we can just resort to some vaginal medication to sort them out!!
Long way away still until this match,we have players going on international duty,though Wanyama has opted out for Kenya this series of matches,At least its 2 more weeks Kane can recover!!
Last season we drew both matches 1-1,so like every week in this league there are no gimme`s and they are currently in 9th place,hopefully feeling comfortable!!They pretty much only score one goal per match (except at west ham but who doesnt score 4 there?) and most of those seem to have been scored by our own dolphin Nacer,will payback be a bitch for spurs?also last year Dele had a run in with Yacob which saw him suspended rectoactively,no more of that young man!!
If we want to compete for the top prize really we have to put these away,but as I said anything in this league goes.....
COYS
Lamela is away with argentina until 00.30 weds am and Son is away in Iran on the same tues night with Sth Korea,at least the belgiums are in gibraltar for a stroll on the monday and shouldnt be too taxed (maybe Dembele can return early to sort his injury out properly!).
Full details on all spurs lads on international duty here;
http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/spurs-international-fixture-list-041016/
Mousa Dembele (ankle) won't play for Belgium against Bosnia and Gibraltar.
Tony Pulis sides are usually big and uncompromising, relying on set piece goals etc. we'll need to match that and add the flair and creativity. Dele keep your emotions under check...assuming no injuries from the Internationals I would play the following:
Walker, Toby, Jan, Rose
Wanyama, Dier (although that's a bit defensive?)
Son, Dele, Eriksen
Might put Eriksen in Dier's place and Sissoko in Eriksens place? Poch will know!
Dembele will be assessed tomorrow. The problem now is "he got a knock in his foot in training, and that's an old problem".Pochettino on Dembele: "It's minor but it's painful for him - when he touches the ball it's painful for him."
Pochettino also says there are "a few issues from the international break" but declined to expand on that.
Mauricio Pochettino has suggested Harry Kane will start training again next week following his ankle ligament injury.
"Harry Kane is still out, he's doing very well but he's not ready yet.
"We don't know yet when he will play again. All we can say that he is doing well and we hope that next week he can start training on the grass, on the pitch - still not with the group. We're happy with the way he's recovering.
"Then we need to assess Mousa Dembele. We have another day tomorrow to see if he can be available. I cannot say the chances, it only depends how he feels tomorrow.
ottenham head to West Brom in strong form, lying in second place in the Premier League table, having taken 17 points from their first seven games.
It is a big improvement on last season's start, when the Lilywhites failed to win any of their opening four top-flight fixtures and were five points worse off at this same stage.
"You always need to learn from the past and your experiences," said Pochettino. "Football's always new and different but it's true that it's important to be consistent and regular during the whole season to arrive at the end to achieve big things.
"I think last season our start was a little bit difficult and then we finished in the way that we finished. But I think we are more mature now and we're more focused in trying to compete in every game, to take every game like a final, and [knowing] every point is very important. I think that's something we've improved a lot from last season."
Spurs can back up their manager's words when they travel to The Hawthorns on Saturday.
Their last outing was a hugely impressive 2-0 home win over Manchester City, when the eyes of the world were fixed on the top-of-the-table clash at White Hart Lane, and this weekend's visit to The Hawthorns will be rather less glamorous by comparison. However, the Lilywhites have only won one of their last six games against Albion – and Pochettino has urged his players to be at their very best again.
"We only got three points from Manchester City," he said. "It was a good game and we played well and it was exciting, but now we must be clever and we need to understand it will be a very tough game against West Bromwich – and maybe more difficult than Manchester City.
"If we are not focused and don't play with the same intensity and passion I think we will suffer a lot against a team that is very physical and strong. In the Premier League you can never play at 70 or 80 per cent of your capacity, you always need to play at 100 per cent."
Spurs are set to face one of their former players, Nacer Chadli, who joined the Baggies in a club record £13million deal in the summer.
"It was all clear with him," said Pochettino. "He asked me before the end of last season if he had the facility to go and play more for another team.
"I said to him 'you are in my plans but if you want to leave and it's the right club and the right price then ok, it's not a problem'. In the end he chose to go to West Bromwich. Both clubs arrived at a deal and that was all that happened."
Meanwhile, Pochettino has played down the squabble that took place when Spurs won their penalty against Man City, as Heung-Min Son and Erik Lamela argued over who should take the spot-kick and Lamela then missed.
"It's not a big issue for us," said the manager. "There's an unbelievable relationship between Erik and Sonny, and then it's a normal situation where more players want to take the penalty and shoot. I prefer that than all players saying they don't want to shoot.
"It's not a big issue and in the next game they decide again. If you have more confidence to shoot then shoot, and for me it's not a problem if we miss the penalty like Lamela."
Finally, Pochettino has told Tottenham's fans not to expect any more contract renewals for now.
"There's no news," he said. "You know I'm very honest. How many times have I said 'next week'? Now it's all calm, all quiet."
BigDub
So Chadli is a sure thing to score yeah?
BigDub said:
of course >.<
I don't understand. I read on the Internet that Nacker Chabli was pony as a player and that him and Pochychino had fallen out, it seems these things were not true. What sort of world are we living in when the Internet can not be trusted?
Will we be able to play our beautiful game against the Baggies? I think not. A one goal win for us woul do very nicely, but it might not be pretty.
The numpties will be poised over their keyboards, ready to infect the web while the rest of us are watching the game. A draw would be acceptable to me, but not to them, because they believe in daft, non-existant things like easy Premiership games, footballers who never have off days, the sky fairy and a UK that will thrive as an isolated facist country with her majesty's sacred pound worth fuck all.
I have sacrificed a numpty to the dark lord and he has assured me of a win for us, but he is the prince of lies so that could be a lie or it could be a lie that he lies, so maybe I'll pray to the sky fairy, or my toaster, at least when you accept a toaster as your saviour you don't have to listen to bollox about talking snakes and a god who loves everybody but killed almost everyone with a flood because he got the screaming hump.
Hopefully the issues from international duties aren't too bad.
I got a feeling we'll get the win here this year, we just seem to have that kind of mentality as a team right now.
Walker Toby Jan Rose
Wanayama Dier (Mouse if he's fit)
Son Alli Eriksen
That team gets us 3 points in my opinion!
COYS!!!!!
http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/sport/foot...quad_through_seven_games_in_23_days_1_4735169
Mauricio Pochettino says he faces a tricky balancing act as he attempts to prepare his international players for Saturday's trip to West Bromwich Albion and then manage his squad through a gruelling spell which features seven matches in 23 days.
The majority of Spurs' stars have spent the last week and a half with their national teams, travelling different distances and playing varying numbers of minutes.
It all complicates the picture for Pochettino, who plans meticulously to ensure his players stay in peak condition collectively – and admits he has some headaches as he not only selects his starting line-up for Saturday's trip to West Brom but also plans how to rotate his squad for the following sequence of matches.
This weekend's clash in the Midlands is swiftly followed by three more away games in succession – against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday, Bournemouth next Saturday and then Liverpool – and Spurs go on to host Leicester City and Leverkusen before taking on Arsenal in the north London derby on Sunday November 6.
"We know Saturday is a very important game and want to try and win the game and win the three points but, in the same way, we have many, many issues or ideas in our head," said Pochettino. "Because it's not the case that we only have one game ahead, West Bromwich - that it's this game and we need the three points and then it's the end of the season.
"We have seven games in 23 days and after the international duty the players that played a lot, or that have come back from injury like Danny Rose or Eric Dier, or [Erik] Lamela, who arrived yesterday, or [Heung-Min] Son from Asia, we need to be clever in how we prepare for the game and the decisions that we shall take to be ready to compete in Germany, Bournemouth, Liverpool.
"I think it's very important now, these next seven games. We need to manage and handle all the players. We're working very hard to be right for Saturday, to take the best decisions and not risk losing any players for the next six games.
"The problem is that we've had 16 or 17 players going away in two weeks, and to put it all together now is a very complicated job.
"For the players we had here for two weeks it was easy because they were under control and followed our habit. But the players that were in Argentina and played two 90-minute games, or were with the national team and did not play, they arrive now at a different level with different things - tiredness because sometimes they haven't been able to go to sleep.
"You always need a few days to settle and put it all together and, for that reason, Saturday will be a very tough game. It's a very important game and it's not easy to take the decisions because it's not only that we must win, we must also be ready to compete in every game."
Tottenham entered the international break on a high after a hugely impressive 2-0 home win over league leaders Manchester City, who had won all of their six previous top-flight fixtures under Pep Guardiola.
Unfortunately, Pochettino feels most of the mental benefits that his side gained from that victory – the sense of confidence, belief and momentum – has since dissipated.
"If you compete [again] after three days, and Manchester City was the first game in a run of seven, it's fantastic because that is a big, big boost," he said.
"But it was at the end and then the players go away. And now they come back like Christian [Eriksen], who is coming back very disappointed with the last result (a 1-0 home defeat to Montenegro),or the England players, and now our job is to be more than coaches - to be psychologists too."
Tottenham's players will need to be switched on when they face West Brom on Saturday because the Baggies have been something of a bogey team in recent years.
Spurs have only won one of their last six matches against Albion, drawing four times and losing the other encounter.
Both of last season's meetings ended 1-1, and the tie at White Hart Lane at the end of April was a hammer blow to the Lilywhites' title chances as Craig Dawson cancelled out his first-half own goal with a 73rd-minute equaliser. Indeed, Pochettino feels that was the moment the dream died.
"It was key that game against West Bromwich, not Chelsea or Newcastle
after," said the manager. "How we played after 45 minutes, if you have time to see the first half you can realise how [well] the team played. After 45 minutes we created many chances and if we finished after the first half 4-0 or 5-0, that is normal.
"That is what we need to improve - to be more clinical when we create more chances, and then in the second half we have control.
"But in one action, a set piece, we conceded the goal and it was 1-1 and it killed 80 or 90 per cent of the possibility to be champions or fight until the end with Leicester - and then Chelsea was another history.
"It was tough but we were much better than West Bromwich, but that was in the
past. Now we are in the present and it will be very tough. In the same way as Manchester City, all the games in the Premier League are very difficult."
baggies boss Tony Pulis with a fitness report for the home game with high fliers Tottenham. "The players are back from internationals. Salomon Rondon came back later than most and we will have to assess some today. There are a lot of South Americans like Salomon who play in Europe. We will have to take a look at him today."
Pulis with a kindly reminder of last season's title denouement for Tottenham fans. "Spurs didn't get over the line last year but that will make them more determined. They're a good, young side and it'll be tough."
West Brom boss Tony Pulis is full of praise for his Spurs counterpart Mauricio Pochettino, who has guided the Lilywhites to an unbeaten start in the first seven matches, just a point behind leaders Manchester City.
"His teams are well coached. They work up and down the pitch exceptionally well. They've got real talent. I've been involved in games with Pochettino a few times. He always comes in after for a drink. He's a good man."
Tony Pulis is hoping Nacer Chadli will impress his old club Tottenham at The Hawthorns tomorrow afternoon. The Belgian has scored three times since his reported £13m move from White Hart Lane and Pulis says: "Nacer has done well. We've been really pleased with him. Not just with how he's played but the way he's mixed with the group.
"He has a good manner about him and the group look up to him. Let's hope he keeps scoring goals."
Pulis praises wide man James McClean following his brace for the Republic of Ireland in Moldova last weekend. "He is a great lad and I was really pleased that he got two goals last week.
"James will never change. He's a good character. He's settled at the club. The players like him. I like him."
Can't sleep, off to Baggies land shortly......any idea why they're called the baggies ? ?
The club's more popular nickname however has always been The Baggies. There are several theories for how this name may have originated. One suggestion is that the name was bestowed on Albion supporters by their rivals at Aston Villa, because of the characteristic baggy moleskin trousers that many Albion fans wore at work to protect themselves from molten iron in the foundries of the Black Country, West Bromwich being a centre of the 'puddling industry'. Club historian Tony Matthews however suggests that it originated with the turnstile operators who carried their takings, in big leather bags, from the turnstiles to the cash office which was located on the halfway line. As they emerged during the first half the crowd would say "here come the bagmen"; this soon evolved into "baggies", and this name eventually became associated with the team. Another frequently-quoted theory, which has little evidence to support it, is that Albion were one of the last teams to change from the old-fashioned baggy shorts to the sleeker modern style.
The bold is the most common reason reason given on T`ìnternet,
These Baggies ( used to be a term for Johnnies when I was alive ),will be a tough nut to crack. they have conceded 4 goals at home in 3 matches this season, while teams like Stoke ( I hate Stoke) have given away 9 in 3. Last season WBA had 22 goals scored against them at home while the teams around them in the lower half of the table were all in the 30's and 40's. We should never underestimate any opponent, and scoring against these Johnny Bags is tough, but so are we so I am predicting a 3-0 victory for the mighty Spurs despite the mighty Nacker Chabli wanting to prove to us how good he is - I never doubted it personally, I liked him muchly.
It will be interesting to see what sort of team the Poch puts out, it seems that he has been warning us that we might not see the 'first 11' due to the number of big games coming up. A chance for Jannsen to shine as a starter maybe? How about N'Koudou - he looked very impressive in Russia I reckon. Trippier and Davies? I like them two muchness indeed, almost likey likey muchness as Rose and Walker likey likey.
I'm excited! But I am always excited when any Spurs game is coming up.
Looking forward to this one today!!!! Feels like months since we beat City now, so gotta recreate that good feeling we had after the game and give the players confidence to get all 3 points. I got a feeling Jansen will score today too. 2-0 to Spurs!
Reactions: Dorset
dembele and lamela have travelled,seen a video of em getting off team bus,
WBA avg about 37% possesion in matches so this without an early goal will require patience.
Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Dier, Dembele, Onomah, Nkoudou, Son.
Subs: Myhill; Olsson, Robson-Kanu, Morrison, Gardner, Brunt, Leko
Ref is an utter cunt
deejbah
Just keep plugging away, the chances will keep coming.
Tony anti-football Pulis strikes again!
Well lets pray for Toby!!
Glad of the draw in the end,there will be games like this,cant blame teams even at home for not allowing us to destroy them on the counter.Still unbeaten,lets move on.
Basskadet
Wow, Chadli scored! Who guessed that would happen? (Why do I never put money down on these things?).
I tell you what, it's getting a little spooky how our results are mapping those of last season. I was hoping that today would be the day we changed that, but with Kane being out and Sonny having spent last week jetting around Asia for Korea (in Seoul last Saturday and then Tehran mid-week!!) I had a suspicion we might struggle to score. It's a shame Janssen just hasn't found his scoring boots yet but I totally get why Poch went for him instead of Son today.
What I did like about today's result is, last year in this fixture, we went a goal up and then let it slip. Whilst you'll never have things always go your way in football, that is not what Champions are made of. However, this time we dominated and got sucker-punched against the run of play with less than 10min to go away from home. Nevertheless, we kept going and got our equaliser and that IS what champions are made of!
I can remember often watching the great United teams of the last decade and seeing them dominate away from home, only to concede a goal. Yes, it would even happen to them despite what people like us to believe. However, I would get my hopes up that they were about to lose, only to witness them rescue a point in the dying moments. People will say that, if we want to win the title, we ought to beat teams like WBA, but away from home in the Premier League you cannot think that way. In fact, were we Ferguson's Man Utd, nobody would be saying that we ought to have won today if we want to win the League, they'll have said what a big point that might prove to be in the end.
When you dominate a game for most of the match away to a team like West Brom who then nick a goal, grabbing a late equaliser is very positive.
Just hope Alderweireld is ok.
Doubly so when your squad is as stretched as ours is right now. We've had so many top players missing in recent months and, no sooner as we get Dier and Rose back in our defence, we lose the rock that is Toby!
Still no Kane, and Sonny having to rest after he circumnavigated the globe last week, to be honest its all pretty impressive if you ask me that we are still unbeaten as today was EXACTLY the sort of game I thought we'd slip up in. In fact, it's the sort of banana skin game for us even when everyone is fit and well, so given our current situation with injuries and stuff, and with how things unfolded during the game, it's especially impressive. When Chadli then scored it was written on the wall! So, really, it speaks volumes of the team (squad) we have now that we got something out of today's game at all and we are still unbeaten!
Some might point to our dominance and say we should've got more, but whilst our dominance was positive, you cannot read too much into as that is actually how Pulis tries to play - he even said so after last season's results where we dominated also but only took a point. His tactic is to conserve energy and allow us to have the ball, trying to take advantage as we ride toward the end. It's worked for him last season and it nearly worked even better this time out. Fact is though, our young team has great spirit and we did not let our heads drop as we may have done once upon a time
Basskadet said:
He's still miffed we got him removed from our game last season........he was goddam plain awful, gave us nothing including allowing one of their players to be treated on the pitch, but when Lamela got treatment, he had to go off the pitch
Reactions: BigDub
J.spurs
All due respect to Joe Hart, who I rate higher than some, but Ben Foster is the best English goalkeeper imo. Yeah West Brom were very well organized, put in a good shift, etc., but without him we would've been out of sight. We won't be the only team near the top that they'll take points off of, and I thought we played OK. Desperately hoping Toby's injury will be just a knock, but he was in a hell of a lot of pain, and he seems a pretty tough customer.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Writer's Hero
I am at war with self-help.
Specifically, I am at war with texts that are unnecessarily prescriptive and only acknowledge "the" solution to a problem as opposed to one solution of many. There are very few hard and fast rules, and that's why writing is so difficult to teach.
It's possible to teach how to write to a standard or how to make the grade, but it is possible to help people become more comfortable in their writing and to help people make their writing accessible.
Evan Skolnik and I highly differ in his section on Joseph Campbell's Monomyth. He does explain and laud it as an effective storytelling tool, but storytellers have historically found it highly limiting. The Monomyth is what's also known as a "hero's journey", a template involving a hero that goes on an adventure and, through trial and tribulation, comes home transformed.
Are stories that involve the hero's journey bad? No.
Is it a bad thing to use archetypes? No.
Are tropes inherently bad just because we use them all the time? No.
This diagram is one illustration of the stages of a supposed hero's journey. While a discursive model that has inspired great work, reducing a story to this model sacrifices much of what can be gained. It runs counter to the stories that it claims to be inspired by.
"Campbell's synthetic, undeniably alluring model presented a hero who reluctantly accepts the call to adventure, using the tribulations of his odyssey to reshape himself into the savior humanity needs before returning home" (Bond & Christensen, 2021).
Said to have been inspired by Campbell's interest in mythology (both Western and non-Western) The Hero With a Thousand Faces does provide a model, but only for one character. Any other character exists to either serve the hero or do them damage.
This model can ask the right questions about how the world affects the hero, but not how the hero affects the world. By this logic, the effect the hero has on the world is not as consequential.
Additionally, the same myth can be told by different cultures in different ways. Not only does the story change, but the priorities of the story change depending on the culture telling the story. Sometimes, the depicted "hero" is a representation of an abstract concept.
The monomyth has been widely criticized for its limitations, for its misunderstanding of the concept of mythology. Some amazing criticisms have already been written that detail the origin of the term and Joseph Campbell's research and publications. There's even a book entitled The Heroine With 1001 Faces.
So many good stories are hardly defined by the genre they are said to embody, but rather, how they deviate. It's more productive to read a story to evaluate it for what it is rather than what it is not.
Robin Hood is a figure of legend, but not because he's like a god. Note that this is an evaluation about what Robin Hood is not. His earliest readers were said to have found him to be believable and relatable, someone who could have reasonably lived among them. Even stories of Greek and Roman heroes depicted gods and goddesses with human-like traits. These particular stories did not rise in popularity because they embodied the essence of the hero's journey. People could impress meaning onto them and, in some way, relate to them. The hero could still go on a journey and, with hope, transform, but this is not a guaranteed takeaway.
One of my favorite indie games isn't about a hero protagonist at all. The Novelist revolves around the Kaplan family: an author, his wife, and his son.
Dan Kaplan has writer's block and wants to finish his book. Linda, his wife, wants to finish her painting, but she also wants to rekindle the spark between herself and Dan. Tommy, their son, needs a break from school bullies and to know he's supported and loved by his family.
The player character is a ghost, unearthing the memories of the characters in order to persuade them to make decisions to help themselves or others, but the ghost can only help one family member at a time. Regardless of the decisions the player character makes, at least one of the characters will be disappointed in some way.
April Fehling (2014) reviewed The Novelist for NPR. "As for some mechanics, The Novelist is highly accessible for a newbie. The game universe is small — just a series of rooms in a single house. It's visually appealing; the graphics are colorful and simple. Gameplay is based primarily on reading letters and diary entries on the screen, so there are no complex menus to keep track of."
The focus of this game is on its storytelling which is why I chose this game for this post. Puzzles and battles can be fun in games, but there's a place for simple story-based games that don't demand much of its player aside from their intentional decisions. There is no clear protagonist, defying one preset "rule" of storytelling, but there are clear conflicts and threads to follow.
People often seek out stories that have relevance to themselves, that validate a state of mind, that presents an allegory through which they can continue in their journey of managing certain emotions.
The monomyth highly undervalues and shows bias against different purposes that stories can accomplish. Joseph Campbell's constraints do gatekeep who heros or protagonists can be and prescribe "an ideal" story structure where there isn't an ideal. That's not productive or realistic. However, it can help a writer to understand that this model exists and its wider discourse, if only to be able to modify it for a model that can be personalized to the writer's hero.
Thank you to everyone who has given me feedback on Purposeful Prose thus far!
This chapter of Video Game Storytelling was very difficult to get through, not just because I disagree with it, but because it's difficult to verify whether this is something sought after in storytelling today. More evidence appears to point to the contrary.
If you enjoyed this post and you want to be the first to be notified about new developments, you can become a Purposeful Prose member! Members get to interact with my posts and write on my forum. If you want to follow along with my discussion of Video Game Storytelling by Evan Skolnik, I highly recommend buying a copy from your local independent bookstore or on Bookshop.org where proceeds benefit independent bookstores! I was especially excited to see that proceeds from my most recent purchase on Bookshop.org went to my local library's bookstore.
Bond, S., & Christensen, J. (2021, August 18). The Man Behind the Myth: Should We Question the Hero's Journey? Los Angeles Review of Books. https://www.lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-man-behind-the-myth-should-we-question-the-heros-journey/
Fehling, A. (2014, February 4). The Novelist: A Story-Driven Game Of Impossible Choices. NPR. Retrieved February 4, 2014, from https://choice.npr.org/index.html?origin=https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/02/04/268438749/the-novelist-a-story-driven-game-of-impossible-choices
Skolnick, E. (2014). Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques (Illustrated ed.). Watson-Guptill.
prescriptive
monomyth
Hero With A Thousand Faces
An Exposé on Exposition Part 2: Planting the Seeds
An Exposé on Exposition


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In Review: The Nodus Avalon II Automatic Dive Watch
March 21, 2022 By Joe | Heads up: Buying via our links may result in us getting a commission. Also, we take your privacy rights seriously. Head here to learn more.
Nodus Avalon II – $700
Note: At post time, these are unsurprisingly sold out. Read on to find out why. Word is a re-stock is coming sometime in May, when they will undoubtedly sell out again.
Nodus keeps getting better at designing and assembling watched here in the USA, and they've stayed true to their ethos though every step of their evolution:
They somehow make great looking, terrific feeling, well built watches that can attract both value minded AND luxury collectors.
The watch world is full of snobs as well as anti-snobs. (Who are therefor in their own way snobbish about not being snobs. I am one. I can say this.) To make a watch that appeals to both sides of that divide is exceedingly rare.
Four color options.
Restocks coming in May.
Built like a brick sh*t house with 300m worth of water resistance and a beefy cushion-shaped stainless steel case, the Nodus Avalon II is a substantial upgrade over the original Avalon (speaking as someone who personally bought and wears one, I can say the original Avalon is no slouch).
Double domed sapphire crystal.
The case width is 43.5mm, but with a relatively moderate thickness of 12.75mm, it's noticeably more svelte than a Seiko Samurai or Turtle. That thoughtful geometry's end result is a watch that's sizeable, yet somehow not cumbersome or clunky. It has an undoubtedly strong presence, but it's still leaned out. Like The Rock training for a superhero movie.
Screw down crown. 300m of water resistance.
Materials, build-feel, and details all max out value to the dollar. The subtly branded screw down crown is unignorably solid and operates like it shot out of the big bang, forged as its very own element, unwavering in its capability to operate, which it has since the beginning of time. Yes, some of us really like solid feeling watch crowns.
12.75mm (when obviously not stacked on itself).
Decently svelte for a substantial watch.
That crown is attached to a made in Japan Miyota 9015 automatic movement, which is regulated in four positions (+/- 8 secs/day) during the Avalon's assembly and finishing process in Los Angels. It hacks, it hand winds, and it has a power reserve of 42 hours.
Diameters Left to Right: 45.5mm, 43.5mm, 41mm
The movement also comes with a date function, which is positioned at 6 o'clock, balancing out the waffle-textured(!) dial. Now, a logo and or the size of a logo can really throw off the look of a watch, but Nodus nails it here as they always do. Everything looks just right. Including the contrasting red AVALON above the 300M water resistance rating. There's an extra drip of color on the seconds hand just beneath the lume chamber. That extra bit of red is a totally unnecessary but terrific touch that sets this thing apart from cheaper watches. Lume is of the Swiss Super-LumiNova® T-C1 X1 Grade variety.
Cushion case lines.
The crystal is double-dome sapphire. The bezel is 120-click uni-directional with significant but not bothersome tension. The bezel insert is a fully lumed polished ceramic. Some of us might have preferred a matte insert instead of the glossy polished ceramic, but geeze man… get a grip.
The five position, on-the-fly micro adjuster.
The bracelet continues to be one of the best in the business, with a lug width of 20mm tapering to 18mm at the clasp. And that clasp is one of the quiet stars of this new Nodus show. Because this thing now has an on-the-fly, push button micro-adjuster. By simply depressing the button that (helpfully) says PUSH, you can now extend or shorten the length of the bracelet by five different positions. That helps if you're out and about, picking things up and putting them down, in heat and cold, as your wrist will naturally expand and contract. Took them 2 years to develop this in-house version of a feature not usually found on micro brands or more affordable watches.
Designed and assembled in Los Angeles.
Not just another cheap homage.
It is really really really hard to make something these days. Like, a real thing. The challenges present from the very beginnings of the design process, all the way to delivery, and at every stop in-between must be maddening. And then there's the roaring peanut gallery. So for a couple of guys (and their team) to make something exceptionally well at a price that's freakishly competitive, that dedication deserves nothing but praise.
That's the Avalon II.
Godspeed getting your hands on one.
"Well put-together, everybody knows…"
Filed Under: Reviews, Watches Tagged With: nodus, Nodus Avalon, Nodus Avalon II, Nodus Avalon II review
An in person experience with Nike's custom sneakers program, where you have control over colors and materials.


text:
US 2nd Cir.
TUNG v. TEXACO INCORPORATED
United States Court of Appeals,Second Circuit.
Francis H. TUNG, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TEXACO INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee.
Docket 97-9262.
Decided: July 22, 1998
Before: VAN GRAAFEILAND, KEARSE, and JACOBS, Circuit Judges. Francis H. Tung, Wilton, Connecticut, Plaintiff-Appellant, submitted a brief pro se. Gary G. Cooper, Elmsford, New York (Robert Yarbrough, Cooper, Leibowitz, Royster & Wright, Elmsford, New York, on the brief), argued for Defendant-Appellee.
Plaintiff pro se Francis H. Tung appeals from a final judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Charles L. Brieant, Judge, dismissing his complaint alleging that defendant Texaco Incorporated ("Texaco"), in implementing a reduction in force, violated his rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (1994), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. (1994). The district court granted summary judgment on the ground that Tung had signed a release of his rights to sue under the federal employment discrimination statutes. On appeal, Tung contends principally that the release (a) was not voluntary in light of the totality of the circumstances, and (b) is unenforceable because it did not comply with the requirements of the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act ("OWBPA"), 29 U.S.C. § 626(f) (1994). For the reasons that follow, we affirm the dismissal of Tung's Title VII claims and vacate the dismissal of his ADEA claim.
From 1980 until 1995, Tung was employed as an operations research analyst in the Information Technology Department of Texaco's Harrison, New York headquarters. Tung, a naturalized United States citizen of Chinese ancestry, has a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Taiwan University, a master's degree in computer science from City College of New York, and a master's degree in operations research from Columbia University. At the time of his discharge, he was 56 years of age.
On February 28, 1995, Judith R. Mandile, Manager of Information Systems in Texaco's Information Technology Department, advised Tung that he was being terminated as part of a company-wide reduction in force. Mandile told Tung that he was selected for termination because of his lower performance rating in relation to others in the department, and that his employment with Texaco would end in April. During the February 28 meeting, Mandile gave Tung a packet of documents relating to his separation from Texaco, including one entitled "The Separation Pay Plan of Texaco Inc.: Election of Benefits and Enhanced Benefits Release for Non-California Employees" (the "Release").
Under the terms of the Release, the employee to be terminated could elect to receive either "Basic benefits" totaling one week's pay for each year of continuous service with Texaco, up to a maximum of 10 weeks' pay, or "Enhanced benefits" totaling two weeks' pay for each year of continuous service, up to a maximum of 52 weeks' pay. In order to receive the enhanced benefits, the employee was required to agree to "voluntarily release and forever discharge" Texaco from any and all claims arising in connection with his employment or separation from employment "includ[ing] ․ claims arising under federal, state or local labor or employment discrimination laws, such as the Age Discrimination in Employment Act."
Tung signed the Release on April 28, 1995. On that day, he was given a list of the job titles and ages of the employees in his department who had been separated from Texaco under its Separation Pay Plan since the beginning of the year, and the ages of the department employees not separated. Between May and November of 1995, Texaco paid Tung $46,497 representing two weeks' pay for each of his 14 years of employment.
Thereafter, Tung filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and after receiving a right-to-sue letter, he commenced the present action. Tung's complaint alleged that Texaco had discriminated against him on the basis of race and national origin in violation of Title VII, and on the basis of age in violation of the ADEA, by maintaining a hostile work environment, having a subjective evaluation process, and selecting him for termination.
Texaco moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted, or, in the alternative, for summary judgment, arguing that, by executing the Release, Tung had knowingly and voluntarily waived all claims against Texaco. In opposition to the motion, Tung contended that his waiver of statutory claims had not been voluntary. He stated:
I signed the release, which I played absolutely no role in drafting or negotiating, and selected "Option B" [, the enhanced benefits,] because, at the time, I was actively seeking reemployment ․ with Texaco. Had I refused this option, I would have tipped the company to the possibility that I might sue it, prejudicing entirely my chance for re-employment. I also signed the general release and chose "Option B" because I very much feared the economic impact of my termination. ․ For these reasons, my consent was not truly voluntary.
(Affidavit of Francis H. Tung dated July 22, 1997 ("Tung Aff.") ¶ 3.) Tung also argued that Texaco had not complied with the requirements of the OWBPA in obtaining the Release.
In a Memorandum and Order dated September 11, 1997 ("Opinion") the district court granted Texaco's motion for summary judgment. In determining whether Tung's waiver was knowing and voluntary, the court applied the "totality of the circumstances" test of Bormann v. AT & T Communications, Inc., 875 F.2d 399, 402-03 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 924, 110 S.Ct. 292, 107 L.Ed.2d 272 (1989), and looked to such factors as
(1) the Plaintiff's education and business experience; (2) the amount of time Plaintiff had possession of or access to the agreement before signing it; (3) the role of the Plaintiff in deciding the terms of the agreement; (4) the clarity of the agreement; (5) whether the Plaintiff was represented by or consulted with an attorney; and (6) whether the consideration given, in exchange for the waiver of claims, exceeds employee benefits to which the employee was already entitled by law.
Opinion at 5. The district court concluded that Tung's waiver of his claims was knowing and voluntary. Moreover, the district court found that because Tung failed to return or unconditionally offer to return the consideration he had received for executing the Release, he was "deemed to have ratified the Release and is thereby barred from challenging its validity." Opinion at 7. Judgment was entered dismissing the complaint, and this appeal followed.
On appeal, Tung contends principally that although he signed the Release, (a) it was not, in the circumstances, a voluntary waiver of his rights, and (b) the Release failed to comply with the requirements of the OWBPA. As to Tung's Title VII claims, we affirm the dismissal substantially for the reasons stated in the district court's Opinion. We agree that, under the totality-of-the-circumstances analysis, Tung's waiver of his right to sue under Title VII was knowing and voluntary.
However, a purported waiver of ADEA claims is also governed by the Older Workers Benefits Protection Act, 29 U.S.C. § 626(f). The OWBPA provides that "[a]n individual may not waive any right or claim under [the ADEA] unless the waiver is knowing and voluntary," and that "a waiver may not be considered knowing and voluntary unless at a minimum" it conforms to certain specific statutory requirements. 29 U.S.C. § 626(f)(1). Thus, an employee may not waive an ADEA claim unless the employer complies with the specific duties imposed upon it by the statute. See Oubre v. Entergy Operations, Inc., 522 U.S. 422, ----, 118 S.Ct. 838, 841, 139 L.Ed.2d 849 (1998). For example, an employer requesting a waiver in connection with a termination program offered to a group of employees must give the employee a period of at least 45 days in which to consider the waiver agreement, see 29 U.S.C. § 626(f)(1)(F)(ii), and must inform the employee of certain facts about the group of individuals eligible or selected for the program, including their ages, see id. § 626(f)(1)(H). The required information must be given to the employee "at the commencement of the period" which the employee is given to consider the waiver. Id.
In the present case, Texaco failed to comply with the requirement that the specified information as to the ages of other employees involved in the same termination program be given to Tung "at the commencement of the period" of time he was given to consider the agreement. Texaco admits that the required information was given to Tung on April 28, 1995, the very date on which Tung signed the Release. Accordingly, under the terms of the OWBPA, Tung's waiver of his ADEA claim cannot be considered knowing and voluntary. Although Tung was given more than the minimum 45 days to consider signing the Release, this does not affect the analysis in this case where the required information was not given until the day the waiver agreement was executed.
Texaco contends, and the district court agreed, that regardless of whether the waiver was knowing and voluntary, Tung ratified it by not tendering to Texaco, prior to suit, the return of the consideration he received (i.e., the excess of "Enhanced benefits" over "Basic benefits") for executing the Release. However, in Oubre v. Entergy Operations, Inc., 522 U.S. 422, 118 S.Ct. 838, 139 L.Ed.2d 849, decided after the district court's ruling in the present case, the Supreme Court directly rejected such a contention, holding that a release that "does not conform to the statute" "cannot bar [an] ADEA claim," and that the "employer cannot invoke the employee's failure to tender back as a way of excusing its own failure to comply" with the OWBPA. Id. 118 S.Ct. at 842. Accordingly, Tung's ADEA claim could not properly be dismissed on account of his failure to tender return of the enhanced benefits.
Although an employer such as Texaco, which has paid consideration for a waiver invalidated by the OWBPA and is then sued, cannot bar the ADEA claim, it may have "claims for restitution, recoupment, or setoff against the employee." Id. We note that "these questions may be complex where[, as here,] a release is effective as to some claims but not as to ADEA claims." Id. We leave consideration of these questions to the district court in the first instance.
Texaco also contends that Tung is equitably estopped from challenging the validity of the Release because he committed fraud in the inducement of the agreement. It asserts that Tung conceded such fraud by admitting that he signed the Release with an undisclosed intention to sue Texaco. However, what Texaco characterizes as such a concession is Tung's affidavit statement that he signed the Release, in part, because not doing so "would have tipped the company to the possibility that I might sue it, prejudicing entirely my chance for re-employment." (Tung Aff. ¶ 3 (emphasis added).) Though this statement is subject to various interpretations, it can reasonably be read as indicating not that Tung had decided to sue but rather that he was concerned that Texaco would infer the possibility of suit if he failed to sign the Release and that such a suspicion would prejudice his chances for reemployment at Texaco.
We have considered all of the contentions advanced by the parties on this appeal, and, except to the extent indicated above, have found them to be without merit. The judgment of the district court is affirmed insofar as it dismissed Tung's Title VII claims and is vacated insofar as it dismissed his ADEA claim. The matter is remanded for further proceedings on the ADEA claim.
PER CURIAM:


text:
Indian Health Authorities Plan To Treat nCoronavirus Positive Patients As Guinea Pigs By Experimenting With Anti-AIDS Drugs. Resist it
in India — by P S Sahni — 07/02/2020
"Damned philistino-medico
Student crew
The whole world's just
A bag of bones to you
Media reports (Millennium Post, 6 February, 2020) indicate:
"The Drug Controller General of India has approved the "restricted use" of a combination of drugs used widely for controlling HIV infection in public health emergency for treating those affected by novel coronavirus (nCoV), official sources said on Wednesday.
According to government sources, apex health research body Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had sought an emergency approval from the DCGI for the "restricted use" of the combination of two medications – lopinavir and ritonavir – for treatment of this respiratory ailment."
There is no need to resort to irrational use of untested medicines. Isolation of nCoV positive patients at home/hospital is sufficient to tide over the epidemic; there is no preventive vaccine or curative medicine available. But that does not permit doctors to throw ethics to the wind; and bury the Hippocrates oath six fathoms deep. The ICMR would – rather should – know that there is the long, necessary process before a green signal is given for a drug to be used on patients afflicted by a hitherto unknown disease. It is expressly forbidden to use a drug meant for one ailment for another new disease without the necessary clinical trials – in test tubes, on experimental animals and then human trials. There is no short cut.
It may be recalled that when the AIDS pandemic arrived, drugs meant for cancer discovered in 1960s were being touted as treatment for HIV+ people!! Presently drugs meant for other viral outbreaks are being advocated for the nCoV epidemic. These drugs may still work eventually but the necessary trials cannot be bypassed. Science should not replaced with quackery/magic craft.
In this whole endeavour the role of preventive vaccines and medicines gets overstated. Recall that the very first vaccine – BCG vaccine – made available in allopathy was for tuberculosis (TB). Its efficacy was proved in 1921; the first drug, streptomycin to be used against TB was discovered in 1944. Yet this disease has not been eradicated till date. Walksman who discovered streptomycin was awarded a Nobel prize for medicine in 1952 and he authored a book in 1965 titled 'The Conquest of Tuberculosis'; 55 years later Walksman – posthumously – though has to eat a humble pie. The people of USA were in for a rude shock when TB reappeared there consequent to the AIDS outbreak in 1980s. A large number of people died in USA due to inter alia lung TB, fungal infection of lungs as a consequence of HIV infection leading to AIDS. No one had envisaged that a viral infection with HIV would lead to reemergence of TB caused by a bacteria. In fact in 1980s TB re-emerged in most countries of the world. In 1993 the WHO declared TB to be a global emergency. So much for the conquest of TB as prophesized by a Nobel Laureate. Keep in mind that the bacteria causing TB was discovered in 1882!
The discovery of medicines/vaccines does nor necessarily eradicate the diseases for which the discoveries were made. It would be wise for the medical personnel to indulge in masterly inactivity in the wake of newer epidemics appearing in the future; of course the bare basic scientific principles would have to be followed in many such futuristic situations. Men and women trained in scientific methods should not let the 'primordial fear' surface from there subconscious mind; because that would signal the end of enquiry into truth.
Meanwhile media reports indicate that consent of nCoV patients would be taken to administer drugs which have not been subjected to clinical trials earlier. But what is the value of consent obtained from patients who are quarantined/detained without even a specific law in existence? Cases have been reported in India where policemen have witch-hunted, targeted, searched for specific people and then forcibly quarantined and tested them for nCoV. What about the civil liberties and democratic rights of these people? All this is allowed to happen when hardly anything is known about the nCoV – not even its incubation period; there is no certainty whether bats, snakes or something else is the culprit; who knows that apart from the nCoV there is a hitherto undiscovered co-factor and the two together cause the disease.
In India majority of those detained would have been unnecessarily quarantined. Would the State compensate them? Besides there is a question of side effects of the untested drugs planned to be used on nCoV positive patients. No one knows for long these are to be continued.
The MNCs are salivating all over as health authorities – and not just in India – have been pressurized to administer untested drugs. There is additionally a rat race amongst scientists in the best of the research institutes world wide to discover a vaccine or curative medicine for the nCoV so that their respective lobbyists could get a head start in planning for the nomination for the next Nobel prize in medicine.
Ivan Illich was right. The biggest threat to the health of the people is from the medical profession.
[Dr. P. S. Sahni, member ABVA; Senior Research Fellow, ICMR:1981-82, posted at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi; Research Associate, ICMR 1982-83, posted at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Email: aidsbhedbhavvirodhiandolan@gmail.com]
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My Pandemic in Three Acts
Post-Pandemic & Marginalization Among PVTGs: Untold Story from Palamu
Cuba And China File Patent For Jointly-Produced Pan-Corona Vaccine for COVID-19 And Related Viruses
Morbid Matters: Estimating COVID-19 Mortality
Asia continues to see disparities in access to vaccines: People's Vaccine Alliance – Asia
Pandemic is not over yet by a long shot: Deaths rose every week in 2022
US death toll from COVID-19 heading toward 1 million
The Double Whammy of Hunger and Livelihood Crises after Covid-19
Author: P S Sahni


They'll blow you mind mate... a good selection with alot of variety there! It'll be a happy christmas indeed!
I can't wait Bill! I am itching to try them all! Very rare to have these ciders in Australia. Cheers mate and Merry Christmas!


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Golf Tourism Scotland has named The Old Course Hotel at St. Andrews as their 2007 Golf Resort of the Year. The award is voted on annually by a group of travel experts from over 70 tour, hotel and golf course operators throughout Scotland. Earlier this year the St. Andrews resort complex was awarded the prestigious World Travel Awards as Scotland?s leading golf and spa resort.
Chris Wood of Gloucestershire was awarded the 2007 Ping/EGU Award of Merit, which is annually presented to the best amateur golfer in England. The 19-year-old finished with 864 points for the season, defeating runner-up Daniel Willett by 20 points.
Wood?s debut season featured a pair of victories at the West of England Stroke Play Championship and Russian Amateur events. He also had a trio of second place finishes at the South West Championship, Tillman Trophy and Gloucestershire Championship, his home event.
Andrew Willey earned a Challenge Tour card for 2008 after winning the PGA EuroPro Tour Championship at Fairmont St. Andrews, finishing at 4-under par for the tournament. The event was shortened to two rounds due to strong winds that necessitated the cancellation of round one. Willey shot a 69 on consecutive rounds to take home the winner?s purse of £20,000, completing an excellent 2007 campaign that saw him finish second in the EuroPro Order of Merit standings to fellow Challenge Tour card recipient Graeme Clark.
More than 300 delegates from 40 countries will take part in the fifth annual Golf Business Forum. The event is scheduled to take place at Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt Hotel outside of Dublin on May 12-14, 2008. Representatives from the hotel, real estate, finance and tourism sectors will be present for the three-day conference, which is one of the leading golf business events for the European, Middle East and African regions.
For event registration or more information visit www.golfbusinessforum.com.
As part of the 2010 Ryder Cup Wales Legacy Fund project, the renovated pitch and putt course at Pembrey Country Park has officially re-opened to the public. ?Projects such as (Pembrey) help insure that part of the Ryder Cup?s legacy will be improved facilities for new golfers,? said Rhodri Glyn Thomas, Wales? Minster for Heritage. Improvements to the course include a revamped irrigation system for every green, new signage and a complete redesign of the course?s 6th green.
Co-owners of South Godstone?s Home Park Golf Centre, Neil Burke and Matthew Allen, have obtained the rights to the National Nines of Europe Golf Series.
The series is comprised of three tournaments for 9-hole golf clubs in France, Holland, Ireland and the UK, with the annual championship event held in Jersey.
More information on National Nines of Europe is available at the Series? official website at www.nationalninesgolf.co.uk.
Indian native Indra Dhaon has been selected as Newport Golf School?s first student at its new facilities at Celtic Manor Resort, which will host the 2010 Ryder Cup. The 18-year-old with a plus-two handicap will be coached by Chris Baron, Celtic Manor?s former director of golf and will be pursuing a degree in Forensic Computing. Newport Golf School will admit three new students in each academic year, with all enrolled students possessing a handicap of either plus-two for men and two for women.
Royal Automobile Club of Epsom raised £17,000 for The Children?s Trust at its charity golf day held at the Old Course of St. Andrews. The Children?s Trust is a national charity providing health care, education and therapy for children with disabilities and other complex health needs. Donation opportunities and additional information can be accessed at Children?s Trust website, www.thechildrenstrust.org.uk.


We have a treat for Avengers Alliance players now, as we can reveal who the next new heroes will be for Specs Ops 15 and also for PVP Season 13. At the moment, players are working their way through Season 2 Chapter 3 which has just been released, but good things are on the way soon.
Without further ado, we can tell you that the next hero reward for PVP Season 13 will be none other than Agent Venom. This character has been a massive request for months, so it's nice to see Playdom finally give in to demand.
You'll have to finish in Adamantium league as usual to get a chance of getting him, but it will be worth it with developers Playdom also teasing fans by saying that he's going to be a 'monster'.
For the next Spec Ops 15 after the Thor 2 Dark World which is about to end, we can reveal the next hero as well. It's going to be Nico Minoru, who is also known as Sister Grimm. She is probably unknown to most of you, but is a magic-based character who uses abilities with her Staff of One – time to start doing your research.
So there we have it. Well done to Playdom to adding some more obscure characters to the game to mix it up. It still doesn't excuse some of the terrible bugs in the game though and also selling $15 premium items which are broken – The GG Prototype being one of the most popular victims with Playdom lying to gamers about adding an Internal Bleeding effect to the weapon.
Are you excited about Agent Venom and Nico Minoru coming to the game? Give us your reaction below.
I was a huge fan of Runaways, so I'm really excited to see Nico joining the game.
Im on of the numerous players affected by those bugged gold weapons; in my case, the Radian Cannon. When they added Cosmic Cardinal it looked like a beastly combo, in the end you counter just one per round.


As promised, here's a review of my first, finished, for-fun read of 2014.
Charles Martin is a New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including his most recent book (prior to Unwritten), Thunder and Rain. His work has been translated into seventeen languages. When not writing, his hobbies include bow hunting, working out (a blend of old school stuff and martial arts, called Fight Fit), and Tae Kwon Do, in which he currently has a black belt, though he notes he is "the least flexible person you've ever met." He lives with his wife, Christy, and their three sons in Jacksonville, Florida.
I ordered Unwritten several months ago because the latest Charles Martin release is always on my must-read list (regardless of the 100 books on my shelf and at least that many on my Kindle that I haven't read yet--yes, I am a hoarder). I have had it sitting on my nightstand in prime to be read pile position for a while. Yet, I just had not gotten to it.
I can't actually tell you when I first started reading the book. I'd read a page or two at a time (don't ask why only a page or two - just go with it), then not pick it up for a few days, so it seemed like it took me a while to get into it. Truth be told, if I had just sat down and read a couple of chapters right off the bat, I would have been all in. I finally decided I was going to put the yarn and crochet hook down after Christmas and read. I read most of New Years Day and didn't want to put the book down. It's been a long time since I've read 100+ pages in a day.
The story is actually as much about "Sunday" as it is about Katie. Both wanted to leave their lives behind and live as someone else because they pain of their own lives were more than they could stand. While on a surface level their lives were really similar, what drove their pain was very different. I think in some way, most everyone can identify with wanting to escape to some degree. That's why you'll get into the characters and anxiously devour the pages as their individual stories unravel and what drives them is revealed.
On another note... On some level, I've always wanted to see Europe, but the author did an excellent job of describing the French scenery, making me really wish I was under the Eiffel Tower along with the characters. The Everglades... not so much. I couldn't handle the mosquitoes.


The way to see lines of symmetry is to imagine folding the shape into two matching halves - just like when you make a paper aeroplane.
This quiz addresses the requirements of the National Curriculum KS1 Maths and Numeracy for children aged 6 and 7 in year 2. Specifically this quiz is aimed at the section dealing with identifying and describing the properties of 2-D shapes, including the number of sides and line symmetry in a vertical line.
In KS1 children are taught to identify some of the properties of 2-dimensional shapes. Year 2 children begin to understand that some shapes have lines of symmetry. They will begin to explore this for themselves, perhaps by folding a shape exactly in half - the fold line then shows one line of symmetry.


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1-Testosterone is also known as dihydroboldenone and 1-dehydroandrostanolone,it is the 5a reduced form of boldenone (Equipoise). 1-Testosterone was the first fully active steroid introduced to the dietary supplement market.
This lack of 5alpha reduction with the compound allows users to administer it without suffering the negative side effects associated with this chemical reaction but also eliminates the benefits as well. Boldenone is not the only steroid that shares similarities with dihydroboldenone. In fact dihydroboldenone is chemically identical to the drug methenolone except for the 1-methylation that is apart of methenolone . 1-methylation was of course added to methenolone to make it more available when taken orally and thus dihydroboldenone is not efficiently utilized when administered orally, although it was once sold over the counter in tablet and pill form. Some of these over the counter preparations of the drug were done utilizing a delivery system similar to Andriol , i.e. producing an oil-solubilized product with dihydroboldenone. This would still not be a relatively worthwhile system of delivery to use however if one wanted to maximize the potential of the compound. Intramuscular injection is by far the most efficient method of administration to use as with most anabolic steroids.
With its favorable anabolic to androgenic ratio, the low doses needed to see results, and the fact that 1-testosterone is already 5a reduced, androgenic side effects should not be too high with this compound in comparison to other steroids like testosterone. 1-testosterone cannot convert to estrogen, so the user should not experience bloating while on cycle and the risk of developing gynecomastia is low when 1-testosterone is used alone. One side effect commonly experienced by 1-testosterone users is lethargy. The exact reason for this lethargy is unknown, but it may be due to the fact that 1-testosterone lacks the energy and libido boosting effects of testosterone yet is still suppressive of natural testosterone production, or because of low estrogen levels. Stacking 1-testosterone with a more androgenic compound during a cut or a "wet" compound during a bulk does appear to relieve the issue of lethargy in most users.
Indeed dihydroboldenone is available in numerous different esters. Cypionate , Ethyl Carbonate, Propyl Carbonate, and Propionate , among others, are all available for use with the drug. As always each does not offer any real advantages over one another other then the obvious differing active lives that each presents and the amount of time that it takes for the body to completely eliminate the drug from it . For the most part users will want to have their choice dictated by the injection frequency with which they want to deal with when using the compound, but of course they will also likely be limited by those that are made available to them. GP 1-Test Cyp is a product that contains 200mg of the Dihydroboldenone Cypionate.
1-Testosterone is still available on the black market as injectable 1-testosterone cypionate.While 1-testosterone and its direct prohormone 1-androstenediol are banned, 1-DHEA(1-androsterone) is still legally available and converts to 1-testosterone in a two step process.
Dihydroboldenone, while not overly androgenic, is a potent anabolic. It has been demonstrated that the drug binds extremely well and selectively to the androgen receptor and stimulates androgen receptor transactivation of dependent reporter genes . This equates to a drug that possesses the ability to stimulate significant muscle growth while not producing androgenic side effects.Also it does not aromatize and therefore estrogenic side effects such as gynecomastia and water retention are not a concern for users. It has been shown to be by far more anabolic than such compounds as boldenone, nandrolone , and even testosterone itself. Obviously this is of great benefit to many athletes.
As for specific dosages used with this drug, the low end is primarily thought to be 300-400mg a week for male users. For females the usual rules apply with dihydroboldenone as they do with other drugs. Anywhere from 25-100mg per week would be a good starting point for the majority of female users who have little to moderate experience with anabolic drugs.
The frequency of dosing with dihydroboldenone depends on the ester used with the compound. Seemingly the most popular current ester to produce the drug with is cypionate. Typcially, males would use a dosage of 200-400mg Dihydroboldenone Cypionate a week.No matter what ester utilized however the same rules would apply as with any other drug in terms of the frequency of administration needed to maintain relatively stable blood levels of the compound.
Orally, 1-testosterone has a very short half-life and is not very bioavailable because it is not methylated to avoid breakdown by the liver. When 1-testosterone is administered as a transdermal (absorbed through the skin), bioavailability is increased but its short half-life is still an issue. 1-testosterone was also sold as an injectable as 1-testosterone cypionate, which greatly increased half-life to about 4-5 days, making this the most effective way to use 1-testosterone. When injected, only 100-200mg/week is needed for an effective cycle.
It also appears that the administration of dihydroboldenone may result in an increase in liver weight . This effect occurred when administering the drug orally but should also be true of the drug when administered via intramuscular injection. There is no research to indicate this however.


Now that we have that trick Billet Battery tray and that ultra reliable Optima battery. Kenny decides last minute that he wants to make some more cool parts for the underhood. And of course he installed the Ride Tech Fender braces which were the first part I purchased for this car.
Since he did the battery side you have to do something with the washer tank.


As we discussed in a previous post, task streams are a great addition to the Perforce tool set. Along with shelving improvements, they give us useful containers for managing tasks in progress and how they are eventually promoted into a more stable branch.
If you're the Perforce administrator, there are just a few things to keep in mind.
When you use a task stream, the parent can be a regular branch or another stream. If you're using task streams with regular Perforce branches, you'll need to create a stream depot to contain your task streams. You can create one, or create several to group different sets of task streams together. If you need some advice here, please contact Perforce Support for some tips. You can also have a look at the PDS for more ideas about branch organization.
If the parent is another stream, you can keep the task streams in the same stream depot or make a new one.
Keeping the task streams in the same stream depot is convenient. You don't need to make a new depot, and the task streams will be visible in the P4V stream graph.
Keeping the task streams in a second stream depot more clearly identifies them as having a different purpose, and makes it easier to assign different permissions to task streams. It also helps if you have a large number of task streams and don't want to clutter up the stream graph and other stream tools.
There are two ways to retire a task stream when you're done with it, unloading and deleting. I prefer unloading, as it is easy to automate and easy to 'undo' if you make a mistake. Unload unused task stream metadata (the meaningless 'rev 1' records) into an unload depot, where it can peacefully live forever.
If your teams are creating a lot of task streams every week, I'd put a scheme in place to unload inactive task streams regularly, just as you do with inactive labels and workspaces. You can run a report to see when a change was last submitted to a task stream, and automatically unload task streams that haven't seen new work in over a month. Remember, task streams are easy to restore, so unloading is a low risk procedure. The snippet below shows a few relevant commands, which can all be scripted directly or using Perforce's Perl, Python, or Ruby API.
You can still see all the permanent data, including merge history, in the unloaded streams. You just can't actively use it anymore.
As you roll out task streams, it's a good time to take stock of your regular Perforce maintenance procedures. Besides cleaning up old task streams, you can use the unload command to clean up old labels and workspaces as well. If you have questions be sure to give the good folks in Perforce Support a call.