text:
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Archive for the 'Internet' category
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Presentation of Self Using Text Generated by "The Generator Blog"
I went back to The Generator Blog linked to in one of my posts, Hunting for A Science Fiction Story, to see if it was still there. It is, but last updated in 2013. Which is a shame, but the site still has links to many working and amusing textual and imagistic "generators".
I thought it would be fun and absurdist to make a post out of the site's output. I won't always put the name of each generator, but you'd be able to figure it out if you took a look at the website.
Let us begin:
Artist's Statement: My work explores the relationship between multiculturalism and life as performance. With influences as diverse as Derrida and John Cage, new synergies are manufactured from both mundane and transcendant narratives.
Ever since I was a pre-adolescent I have been fascinated by the unrelenting divergence of the zeitgeist. What starts out as vision soon becomes finessed into a carnival of temptation, leaving only a sense of failing and the dawn of a new reality.
As shimmering derivatives become clarified through frantic and diverse practice, the viewer is left with an insight into the outposts of our existence.
A song dedicated to the song writer in all of us:
Soul Wolves
Game is in your hands.
He led my mother
The ceiling is invisible
Yeah, I'm gonna take you for a feel good meal
Have you got a fine place to slip to
Let's go moon some cars
Looking through a broken diamond
Never pawned my watch and chain
Acid casualty with a repossessed car
Hairy fairies spinning the golden looms
Reap the reward
Who's gonna answer
And I am not a bone
Like a voodoo curse in an old lady's purse
The demons just came through the window
[repeated]
A thousand miles away from home
Dead right
Make notes, burn like broken equipment
Please, let us go moon some cars. I like that line.
Anthropomorphic Personification Plot Generator
Truth finds himself stranded in a bird sanctuary in the form of a man. The experience is changing him.
Can he escape before the transformation is irreversible, and will he even want to?
Kung Fu Movie Script – Scene One
SCENE ONE – STUDENT MEETS MASTER
INSIDE MASTER PONG'S ONE-ROOM COTTAGE – EARLY MORNING
Master Pong stands in the center of the room, facing Student. Student stands shyly in the corner near the door.
You are the new student. Come closer.
Student walks to master, does a double-take as he notices that master has no elbow.
You cannot see!
You think I cannot see.
I cannot imagine living in such darkness.
Ah, but fear is the only darkness. Also, you forget, I live in North Vancouver. Now… take your octopus and strike me with it.
Student hesitates.
Do as I tell you – strike!
Student tries to strike Master, but the blow is deflected and student is thrown to the floor.
Never assume because a man has no elbow that he cannot see. Close your eyes. What do you hear?
Student closes his eyes, pauses with concentration before answering.
I hear English Bay, I hear firecrackers.
Do you hear your own nose?
Do you hear the balloon which is at your feet?
Student opens his eyes and sees the balloon on the floor.
Old man, how is it that you hear these things?
Young man, how is it that you do not?
Student looks pensive.
Now, we will commence your battle training. Go to the weapons closet and choose an item.
Student walks to the closet, grabs the cutting board and rejoins master. Master holds a kitchen whisk.
Ah ha… you've chosen the cutting board. Excellent choice.
They bow and begin to fight. Master easily defeats student several times. Student is thrown to the floor and injures his chin. He rubs it to ease the pain. Master laughs while student has a look of hope.
Arise slightly, young frog, and brush the indignity off of your vest.
Student does so.
You fought blindly, frog. A geezer nerd could've beaten you.
Yes, Master Pong, forgive me.
Forgive yourself, you have suffered for it. What is the cause of your anger?
It is anger at Stephen Colbert.
Yes, but what is the reason?
For being nasty.
Ah. And when did you discover this?
About 1 hour ago when Stephen Colbert and I were attacked by 11 big bullies at Walmart. I was struck first. And Stephen Colbert, out of fear, did nothing to help me.
You were only two against 11 larger than yourself. What do you think Stephen Colbert should've done?
Fought back and tried to help me.
Yes, frog, that would've been heroic.
You agree, then, that Stephen Colbert was nasty.
The body is nasty when it understands its weakness. The body is remarkable when it understands its strength. The cheetah and the squirrel march together within every man. So to call one man nasty and another remarkable merely serves to indicate the possibilities of their achieving the opposite.
Student looks confused as scene fades to black.
You may now imagine the rest of the movie.
Categories: Art, Culture, Internet, Martial arts, Music, Writing
Tags: absurdity, art, blogging, creative writing, creativity, life, quotes, society, text generators, truth
Making Some Music With Guitar
This follows on the same path of trying to learn electric guitar as chronicled in previous posts like The Aging Learning Guitarist Keeps On, The Impatience of Learning Guitar, and On the Need to Make Music.
I can now link to a YouTube playlist of guitar music I've recorded. (All due to the guy who I take lessons from and who puts the tracks together – Eddy Bugnut, music producer extraordinaire, at Bugnut Records: Mixing – Production – Songwriting.)
There's four music videos there now, with some more to come. I'm not quite sure what to make of them. A great opportunity to show off to friends and relatives, I guess, as well as to hapless blog readers. I like them, which is better than the opposite.
The one I'm happiest about right now is Take the High Road. I'm flabbergasted that it rocks. It actually rocks. That I played it is totally amazing to me. (Well, with the aid of some skillful editing here and there.)
I'm really interested in hearing how one of the next — Watching the Watchtower — turns out. It's not up yet. That's the title we've put on a shortened version of Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower. Sacrilege, I know. It's shortened because I couldn't quite manage some of the more difficult speedy finger-twisting lead parts. It's different enough from the original to have a related name. Anyway, it still is powerful to me what we've done, how Eddy's put it together. He's making the rhythm guitar sound so good, along with the sound in general.
Besides that, another video is an actual original tune, if you can imagine, and a couple more videos of cover tunes after that. It's fun to participate in helping them come together.
OK, enough fun. Time to get back to work on the writing….
Categories: Art, Guitar, Internet, Music, Writing
Tags: bach, blues, creativity, electric guitar, learning guitar, music, music video, rock
Again With The Voynich?
I've been fascinated about the enigmatic Voynich Manuscript ever since I first heard about it. This is attested to by a couple of previous posts here, one in 2010 – I Like A Good Ancient Mystery: The Voynich Manuscript – and one written in February two years ago – Whatever Happened With the Voynich Manuscript?
In short, for those who haven't run across mention of this ancient document which may come to us from the 15th Century or before, the Voynich Manuscript is written in an indecipherable script by person or persons unknown. It is also decorated with unknown star constellations and plants, and with a variety of naked female figures cavorting in and around vaguely alchemical vessels.
You can look at a digital version of the manuscript for yourself on The Internet Archive.
Over the years, the most fascinating aspect of its mystery has become the proliferation of both plausible and bizarre theories about it.
Basic human psychology
There is a basic aspect of human psychology at play here: our tendency – our need – to create patterns and meaning out of ambiguous or mysterious raw material. And then to clamp like a vise to these preliminary gestalts as if they've been bestowed by the gods themselves. Once a shallow channel of belief takes form, it only seems to deepen with the flow of time and self-convincing, and rarely finds another path.
When last I wrote about it – my knowledge consists of web sources – there had seemed to be a minor breakthrough by Stephen Bax, a linguistics professor in England. He thought he had deciphered 14 characters and 10 words of the Voynich. He believed he was able to pick out names like hellebore or coriander for some of the plant diagrams. He tried to identify proper names in the text, which is a strategy used in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics.
More recently Bax speculated that "the script was devised for a particular community, possibly to write down an already existing language, and then that script was lost to us, with the exception of the Voynich manuscript." He cites an example of lost languages only recently revealed in manuscripts kept in an old monastery in Egypt.
Bax, let me hasten to say, is one of the more serious and reasonable people to look at the manuscript.
Here is a short list of other theories:
— an early work by Leonardo Da Vinci
— written in the Manchu language with an original alphabet
— a medical text written in the language of the Aztecs
— a liturgical manual for ritual euthanasia in the Cathar religion of the Middle Ages
— a sixteenth-century hoaxer created the gibberish text
— created by an alien visitor to Earth
Artificial Intelligence and a finding of Hebrew
Most recently, computer scientists from the University of Alberta here in Canada used artificial intelligence methods to try to decode the manuscript.
As you may know, artificial intelligence has in recent years improved by an order of magnitude or more with such accomplishments as "Watson" winning the TV game show Jeopardy, and AI beating the world's best at the oriental strategy game of Go. The latter is especially impressive given the reliance upon a highly trained intuition about the shape of the game by the best human players, which is a step above the admittedly complex accomplishments of the grandmasters of Western chess.
In the Voynich case, in preparation for tackling the manuscript, the scientists trained the AI to decipher 380 different language versions of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The AI determined after the first 10 pages of the manuscript that 80 percent of the encoded words appeared to be written in Hebrew.
So the researchers tried to have a native Hebrew speaker translate. He couldn't do it. Then they tried Google Translate!!
With that, the first sentence read something like: "She made recommendations to the priest, man of the house and me and people." It could possibly make sense….
The scientists also translated the so-called "herbal chapter" and seemed to get words like "farmer" and "air" and "fire."
Of course, we have to remember that this AI was trained on modern-day languages. Even if it was Hebrew, Google Translate only works with the modern language, not medieval dialects.
And 20 percent of the examined text didn't seem to be associated with Hebrew at all, but gave wildly different results, such as Malay and Arabic.
The Times of Israel provides a detailed review of the history of the manuscript and an analysis of these most recent results.
The article points out that the AI analysis is based on the premise that the person who wrote the manuscript encoded by both substituting letters for one another, and mixing up their order as in an anagram. This is an assumption that is unproven.
Another researcher tested Google Translate with another sample of the manuscript (with another manipulation process) and ended up with Hindi….
We are still left with the mystery of the Voynich. The only proper response seems to be to celebrate its inscrutability.
And that is what composer Hannah Lash has done. In the 2016 post, I mentioned that she was creating a symphony based on the enigma of the Voynich, a creative reaction amidst the noise of all the theories. As of 2017, she completed it, and the symphony in its entirety has been performed.
You can hear an excerpt from the third movement at the New Haven Symphony Orchestra site.
If you really want to get into her musical process about the manuscript, there is a large selection of videos on YouTube.
Note: For an interesting breakdown and comparison of Voynich images with other sources, see this analysis of the illustrations at René Zandbergen's site about the Voynich Manuscript.
Also, it is sad to note that linguist Stephen Bax cited above recently passed away. His site, and fascination in the last part of his life about the Voynich, will apparently continue to have some connection with fellow "Voynichero" René Zandbergen.
Categories: Art, Book Review, Culture, Internet, Music, mystery, Voynich
Summer 2016: Ugly Haircuts, Adult Coloring Books, Pokémon & Trump
Once in a while I put my head up just to see what's going on in the world, and it never fails to bemuse and alarm me. I did something similar back in 2008, and traumatized as I became at that time, I have only now attempted to take another peek.
First off, I have to say as a developing curmudgeon that men's haircuts, the trendy ones, have become incredibly ugly. I am of the generation that enjoyed flowing locks, although in certain cases I admit that style might have had a few scraggly, greasy, over-the-face messes. (If you would like to relive those fabled days of yesteryear, you can listen to the song Hair….)
However this new crop often looks like a small dead furry animal draped front to back over an otherwise shaved head.
It's just the young trying to be different, I know. But I would like to see long hair and bell bottom jeans come back some day… although I'm glad the one fellow above has maintained the tradition of the tie-dyed shirt.
They were probably out there before now, but as I hang out in bookstores, those that remain, I've come across adult coloring books a lot this year.
As an adult, by appearances anyway, I wouldn't be caught dead breaking out my crayons and trying, tip of my tongue peeking out in concentration, to put colors in the little spaces. But I guess people are buying them and doing just that, probably in the privacy of their own homes.
There are an amazing variety of them: The Great Canadian Cottage Colouring Book, a Vogue Fashion Coloring Book, Paris Street Style: A Coloring Book, Chill The F*ck Out: A Swear Word Coloring Book, The Aviary: Bird Portraits to Color, and the Meditation Coloring Book.
All seem to be predicated on the idea of relieving stress, which is a good thing. And it is good to get some color in our lives in the midst of the drabness of city streets and monochrome workplaces.
An article in Medical Daily, The Therapeutic Science of Adult Coloring Books declares that adult coloring verges on "art therapy" and the activity helps people to focus and relax.
As a semi-luddite, as indicated by my lack of a smart phone, I know only a little about Pokémon Go, all of it hearsay. (I'm proud to state that I own a wise phone – a flip cell phone – that gives me as much interactivity as I can stand.)
But this game has taken over much of the social media world it seems, and it is a fascinating combination of the virtual and the real.
It basically is a GPS game that takes off on the similar pursuit of geocaching and that activity's variations on orienteering.
But Pokémon Go has figured out how to monetize geocaching in a way that captures, among others, an entire generation of adults who once played Pokémon on the old Game Boy video game system.
The intriguing thing about the game is its real world activity, and how players will engage in adventures, even dangerous ones, in pursuit of the wild Pokémon.
There are the players who broke into a zoo in Toledo, Ohio to catch a (virtual) Pokémon near a (live) tiger.
Australian players invaded a police station to catch a Sandshrew (whatever that is…).
Some entrepreneurial folks are taking to Craigslist to advertise their services as professional Pokémon hunters.
And then there are the criminally inclined who use Pokémon lures to gather players to isolated areas to mug them, as happened recently in Missouri.
On a more upbeat note, as a welcome diversion for hospital patients, some are even catching Pokémons in their beds.
This is certainly the summer of Trump in the US presidential election campaign.
What can really be said about Trump that hasn't been said? Senator Elizabeth Warren has him nailed: "Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and who serves no one but himself."
I am leaning towards the view, though, after all I've read and seen that the man is actually mentally ill. He may be sick in his brain. His father died of dementia, and we may be seeing the playing out of the very early stages of such a syndrome.
Beyond the cagey goading of the media with outrageous statements which are retracted, sort of, as jokes, there are times when he is incoherent and quite muddled. I'm thinking especially of his response in an interview to questions about Russia's involvement in Ukraine's Crimea. But there are many other examples.
This idea and concern about Trump's mental and brain health is not new. From psychologist Dan McAdams' piece in the Atlantic, to neuroscientist Howard Gardner's analysis quoted in RawStory, to Kathleen Parker's column, "Could Trump Be Suffering from Dementia?" , to an article by Steve King, "Does Donald Trump Have Dementia?" the suspicion is certainly out that the man may not be all there. Perhaps he will end up a figure of pity rather than scorn.
The current Time magazine article on Trump, "Inside Donald Trump's Meltdown" gives rise to the same impression. Reportedly a Clinton campaign aide said of the billionaire's recent antics, "On other campaigns, we would have to scrounge for crumbs. Here, it's a fire hose. He can set himself on fire at breakfast, kill a nun at lunch and waterboard a puppy in the afternoon. And that doesn't even get us to prime time."
At least the Olympics are on now (with their own set of problems in the midst of athletic excellence) to display a better side of humanity.
Sources for images:
http://mulpix.com/instagram/shaved_bald_hair.html
http://www.menshairstylestoday.com/shaved-sides-hairstyles-for-men/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/426786502166444248
Categories: Art, Awareness, Culture, Games, Internet, Politics
Tags: adult coloring books, culture, pokemon go, politics, summer 2016, trump, ugly haircuts
Whatever Happened With The Voynich Manuscript?
Back in 2010, I wrote a post called I Like A Good Ancient Mystery: The Voynich Manuscript. I figure it's time to see what has happened since then. Has any of the mystery been dispelled?
In brief, from that old post, the Voynich Manuscript originated at least as far back as the 1400s, and was written in an indecipherable script by person or persons unknown. It was also decorated with unknown plants and star constellations, and with a variety of naked female figures cavorting in and around vaguely alchemical vessels.
Perhaps the most fascinating of the manuscript's features are the proliferation of theories about it, ranging from that it's a complete hoax to being authored by Leonardo da Vinci, or that it was written in the language of the Aztecs.
The 240-page document can be now seen in its full glory on The Internet Archive. It's amusing that one of the reviews there claims the enigmatic writings explain how women think and their minds work. A true mystery explained, if we could only read it!
So what has happened since 2010?
In one blog devoted to the Voynich that I referenced in the old post, Thoughts About the Voynich Manuscript, there have been entries as recent as July, 2015. Apparently people are still doing statistical analyses of the characters and drawings, and dating inks and papers to still no definite conclusions. There are those who still think it is a hoax. Theories continue to be devised about it, so many and so harebrained that the proprietor of that blog had to stop in 2013 providing a form for people to give their ideas on the matter.
The other blog I referenced, Cipher Mysteries, is also still around and has more recent entries, up to February, 2016.
As the title of the blog indicates the author remains highly interested in the unknown alphabet and cryptology of the work. He even investigates other unusual medieval manuscripts also written with unknown scripts and alphabets.
I remember reading a couple of years ago that someone claimed to have deciphered 14 characters and 10 words of the Voynich. A professor of applied linguistics in England, Stephen Bax, believed he's picked out names like hellebore or coriander for some of the plant diagrams. He tried to identify proper names in the text, which is a strategy used in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics.
He made his announcement with the hopes that others could follow up and decipher more. Bax believed that the book is "probably a treatise on nature, perhaps in a Near Eastern or Asian language."
Back to the Aztecs: also in 2014, according to Wikipedia, Arthur Tucker and Rexford Talbert claimed they had identified plants and animals in the Voynich with the same drawings in a 15th Century Aztec herbal. They claimed that this was Colonial Spanish in origin, and specifically the Nahuatl language.
This proposal has not been taken up by other Voynich researchers.
I kind of like this theory that I found on the site Mirrorspectrum: Your daily source of news — "Given the fact that the ancient manuscript depicts star charts that are unknown to us, the Voynich Manuscript could have been created by a being not from Earth, who during the 1400's crash-landed on Earth and created the manuscript documenting life on Earth."
The enigma has even stimulated the creation of a symphony by Hanna Lash, composer-in-residence of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut. Each movement in the symphony is based on the rough divisions of the manuscript. The first movement, "Herbal," debuted last year and the second, "Astronomical" is due this spring.
The conundrum of the Voynich Manuscript is so complete that it becomes a screen upon which to project whatever rational, or obsessive, or delusional construct one may be predisposed to make. The most appropriate response, up to now, may well be the one the composer is making.
If you're interested, you can download the Voynich Manuscript to take a look yourself, from the site HolyBooks.com.
Categories: Art, Book Review, Culture, Internet, Science, Writing
Tags: alchemy, ancient mystery, art, book review, culture, herbal, internet, voynich manuscript
On the Right to Not Be Accosted
"The real war is not on terror, but on what 'terrifies' the System: the unpredictable spanner-in-the-works known as individuality."
— John Kendall Hawkins, in a review of the book Technocreep, by Tom Keenan
There may well come a time not long from now when the Internet has outlived its usefulness, when the attractiveness of its original free and open spirit, of the amazing possibilities of interconnectedness that galvanized its beginnings has rigidified into an environment overwhelmed by corporate and governmental interests.
The relentless pursuit of monetization and surveillance even now threaten to make the Internet a platform which legitimizes all forms of corporate and governmental spying on its users. (For just one example, see this article on potential upcoming collusion between large tech companies such as Google and the NSA becoming enshrined in legislation.)
One aspect of this is the conflict between the increasingly intrusive nature of advertising on the web, and the measures taken to avoid it, as should be anybody's right. Those measures themselves are increasingly coming under fire.
Many of us have become so annoyed by web page advertising that we've resorted to ad blockers of one kind or another to escape incessant pop-up ads, flashing banners, voice-overs and the rest. Beyond the more petty annoyances, the ads are avenues for potential malware delivery (including by surveillance agencies) and incessant corporate tracking which nullifies any pretensions to privacy we might once have had.
The Pursuit of Ad Blocking
So those of us who surf the net and object to the annoyance and worse of the ads, there are browser add-ons like, for example, Ad-Block Plus. This has become a very popular content filter to block ads, which is obtainable as an extension for most web browsers.
Unfortunately, this add-on is exhibiting similar symptoms for which it proclaims itself the cure — the makers of the add-on accept money from advertisers to be 'white-listed' (some advertisers say they've been extorted) and thus allow those ads to circumvent the block.
Many dedicated surfers of the web have now moved on to uBlock, which is free and open-source, as well as doing its job more efficiently.
These ad blockers and others are working well enough to be proclaimed a clear and present danger to the business models of many commercial sites. A recent ad-blocking report says that ad blocking grew by 41% in the last year, and supposedly cost web publishers $22 billion.
A group of publishers in Germany was so upset this year that they took Ad-Block to court and lost. Twice. There are other business groups also working towards making ad-blocking illegal. Although that doesn't really seem technically feasible.
There are another group of extensions available that now are able to block most of the tracking that makes it possible, for instance, for Google to cater ads to you on the basis of your searches. All of the major, and not so major, commercial and governmental entities are busy building profiles on who surfs the web for what by the use of tracking cookies and similar means.
Getting Tracked
So now, on my Firefox browser, I now have the following extensions to thwart this activity: Ghostery, Blur (formerly Do Not Track Me – Abine), and Privacy Badger (which is intended to detect patterns of tracking). Of course I also rely on the extensions NoScript and KeyScrambler to block unwanted Java script and to encrypt keystrokes respectively. In addition, I have another add-on that deletes cookies when I leave a site. You may think me excessive, but I have a right not to be accosted.
As an experiment about tracking, let's go to a genuinely informative website and see what one would imagine should be relatively innocuous — the Smithsonian. This is the site of the venerable, educational and scientific Smithsonian Institute and the publisher of what amounts to an online magazine.
There's some good information here. But first I've got to temporarily allow many of about 50 scripts on the page with my handy NoScript options button. But there are so many ad-related scripts on this page that they come in waves. I allow one batch of scripts so I can click on various content, and then there appears another bunch I also temporarily allow. And then I have to do it again. (Although I am temporarily allowing scripts, my other blockers are taking care of the tracking cookies. I hope.)
Courtesy of Ghostery, let's take a look at the trackers that I am blocking, which want to collect information about my presence and what I look at and sell it to whomever will buy as I browse the Smithsonian website.
Rocket Fuel (or x+1):"Rocket Fuel delivers a leading programmatic media-buying platform at big data scale that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to improve marketing ROI. Rocket Fuel's Advertising That LearnsTM technology empowers media teams to focus on strategy, not spreadsheets. Rocket Fuel was founded by online-advertising veterans and rocket scientists from NASA, Yahoo!, Salesforce.com, and DoubleClick." Yikes. Rocket scientists are involved.
ChartBeat: "Chartbeat provides real-time data analytics and performance alerts for your website."
Crazy Egg: "Crazy Egg shows you where people clicked on your site. Our servers will create a report that shows you the clicks on the pages you are tracking."
DataPoint Media: "DataPoint Media specializes in audience data management and exchange-traded media. Our solutions help publishers and media companies take control of their audience data, increase targeting capabilities and extend their reach across the ad exchanges."
Google Adwords: "No matter what your budget, you can display your ads on Google and our advertising network. Pay only if people click your ads." Can't see 'em; won't click 'em.
Google Tag Manager: "Google Tag Manager is free and easy, leaving more time and money to spend on your marketing campaigns."
Quantcast: "Quantcast measures and organizes the world's audiences in real-time so advertisers can buy, sell and connect with the people who matter most to them." Advertisers are busy buying and selling us.
Scorecard Research Beacon: "… a leader in the Internet market research industry."
Sharethrough: "Sharethrough is the only video distribution technology company built from the ground-up to maximize sharing of brand video content."
Taboola: "Taboola's service is used by publishers to recirculate their own traffic by generating personalized on-site video recommendations." It's all about the personalization.
Becoming a Commodity
Now it could be argued, and often is, that all this intrusiveness is the price of having content to look at on the internet. This is the argument of people with very short memories who don't remember, or never knew, the web before the onslaught of commercialization. I have no sympathy for the idea that I am obligated to look at ads and be subjected to profiling and metadata marketing for the benefit of somebody's business model. I resent being anybody's commodity.
I take the same view as Marco Arment does in a blog post called "The Ethics of Modern Web Ad-Blocking."
He writes, "People often argue that running ad-blocking software is violating an implied contract between the reader and the publisher: the publisher offers the page content to the reader for free, in exchange for the reader seeing the publisher's ads. And that's a nice, simple theory, but it's a blurry line in reality.
"By that implied-contract theory, readers should not only permit their browsers to load the ads, but they should actually read each one, giving themselves a chance to develop an interest for the advertised product or service and maybe even click on it and make a purchase."
This is the ethics of ridiculousness, as Arment points out. Web ads are something different than say a newspaper ad (which certainly has no ethical obligation on my part either). They are software, and designed without your consent to "run arbitrary code on your computer, which can (and usually does) collect and send data about you and your behavior back to the advertisers and publishers. And there's so much consolidation amongst ad networks and analytics providers that they can easily track your behavior across multiple sites, building a creepily accurate and deep profile of your personal information and private business."
The book referred to at the beginning of this post, Technocreep, by Tom Keenan, has the subtitle: "The Surrender of Privacy and the Capitalization of Intimacy."
Thou Shalt Not Accost
One day not long ago in the car I overheard a portion of a radio interview with Keenan on his book. He commented that, increasingly, commercial and other interests feel entitled to use every empty vista, whether on the web, or in a stadium, or along the road to invade our mental, emotional and spiritual space. The web advertising practices take this tendency to new degrees of invasiveness.
But we have a right to not be accosted.
Categories: Awareness, Culture, Internet, Politics
Tags: activism, advertising, corporations, culture, internet, privacy, surveillance
World Building and the Brink of Novel Writing
After a false start or two (or was it three?), I'm poised to take the plunge into the first draft of a science fiction novel.
I've been trying to sort out how much world building is really necessary before I start. I've got an entire personal wiki and a moleskin notebook or two filled with info about this world of mine. But it's not well-organized, or even well thought out.
It's daunting to burst out onto an unknown plain, bare sun bright overhead, and populate it with every geological feature, weather system, religious artefact, industrial process, scientific advance and weirdly consistent culture it should have.
I keep telling myself, this is the first draft. It's supposed to be exploratory and not fully formed in some ways. I will be discovering much in the process of writing it. I don't have to know everything about the novel world before I start. In the immortal words of terriblemind's Chuck Wendig, "you're not writing a fucking encyclopedia."
(He also goes on to say in a post on "25 Things You Should Know About Worldbuilding": "If you're lazy (like me!) and don't feel like you can commit to writing a glacier-sized world bible, hey, you know what? Build it as you go. As you write, introduce details relevant to the story, the plot, the characters, the theme, and to the chapter at hand. This'll probably require work on the back-end….")
I've even made notes of counsel to myself in the same vein:
"Write just enough setting detail to get in the scene with the character."
"Describing one thing vividly can be more effective than describing an entire room. Or civilization."
How Much World Building is Enough?
But I am yet filled with trepidation about how much world building preparation is enough. It is another way I use to procrastinate, I'm sure, these fears about starting the writing. (There's an interesting aspect of these fears that I will touch on at the end of this.)
But as a way to calm and reassure myself, or alternatively, cause myself much anxiety at how much I haven't done in preparation, I thought I would look at some of the more useful links on world building that I've found.
Some of them are of the school that you need to have every detail of your world thought-out before you start, but there are some thoughtful recommendations never the less. I think to myself, I have to find a way to make the world-building fun and creative, or I'm really barking up the wrong tree with this science fiction ambition.
And also I realize that I'm unbelievably fortunate to live in the time of the Internet, where I can research almost anything with the touch of a few keys. The possibilities for creative combination and variation of what's out there are many.
Some World Building Links
1. Writer Ava Jae in a blog post on Writability lists 15 details to remember. She lists climate, social structure, measurements (I hadn't thought of that one but of course), food, and ethnicities among them. For instance, on ethnicities, she asks:
"Is your world monoethnic? Are there several ethnicities, and if so, where did they come from? Is it location-based? Are certain ethnicities considered more desirable than others? Are any ethnicities persecuted or worshipped?"
2. Prolific author S. Andrew Swann provides a post/essay on "Worldbuilding: Constructing a SF Universe." He counsels us to understand how the fictional world is different from our own. Your world must have its own rules.
"… A reader will allow a writer to alter anything about the universe, as long as the writer explains why what we thought we knew is wrong. Your job is to convince the reader that you know what you're doing, and to never allow the reader to believe you wrote something out of ignorance or carelessness."
I liked these thoughts on the necessary historicity to imply the complexity of your invented world:
"Every fictional universe has a past, if only an implied one. You, as the universe's creator, need to know enough of this past to give the reader a sense that this world existed before the story began, and will continue to exist (barring catastrophe) long afterwards. Also, remember that the past is different things to different people. You're in a position to know the "real" historical events of your world, but your characters are at the whim of memory, historians, propaganda, and official records. When someone in a story has a different view of history than the reader does, the reader will gain some insight into that character's personality and culture."
3. Young Adult sci-fi author Shallee McArthur provides a framework to think about the culture of your made-up world in a post "Worldbuilding — How to Develop the Culture of Your Novel."
She offers a diagram to think about what makes up a culture — values, rituals, heroes, symbols, and the practices that bind together the latter three. Practices could include gender roles and politics for instance.
Of rituals, for example, she writes:
"Maybe your high school crowd has a hazing ceremony for kids coming into a certain club. Maybe there's a certain greeting people exchange, like the hand-shake-while-snapping-fingers-together that I learned in Ghana."
4. Author Berley Kerr gives guidance on science fiction and fantasy in the post "Berley's Top 10 World Building Tips for Sci-Fi and/or Fantasy."
He writes about factors such as Dominant Technology, Transportation, and Currency. About currency he writes:
"Money tells the reader what kind of world it is. If they're bartering, chances are the place your character lives in is poor or the population is scattered with no centralized government."
Of course, if we could make a bartering society high-tech somehow, that could be an interesting take….
5. In quite a thoughtful post, sci-fi author Malinda Lo writes about "Five Foundations of World-building."
She says things I like about how much world building to do:
"But I don't think you need to get bogged down in answering 100 questions about the economics and politics and plant life of your world. I suggest you focus on five main issues that will serve as the foundation for your world. All those other details — even the shape of eating tables — can emerge after you've established this foundation. Often those details emerge right out of the writing itself."
The five main issues she lists are: 1) Rules, 2) Rituals, 3) Power, 4) Place and 5) Food.
About food:
"This is one of my very favorite elements of world building because I love to eat! But food does more than just taste good. In fiction, it can tell a complicated story involving ritual, power, and place, which makes food an excellent short-hand for world building."
6. Charlie Jane Anders posted on io9 an essay on "The Difference Between Good Worldbuilding and Great Worldbuilding."
After obsessing, she says, about world building for quite a while, she concludes that:
"Good world building shows you the stuff your characters see every day, and the things that they notice about their environment.
Great world building shows you the stuff your characters don't see, either because they take it for granted, or because they've trained themselves not to notice something unpleasant."
She goes on:
"Because when it comes to a rich, complicated world, a lot of the most important or telling details are going to be the things that people overlook."
She mentions George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame as a master of allowing the reader to see what the character fails to notice.
7. And finally for the world building links there is this advice from author CJ Lyons, "World Building: Don't Do It."
It starts from the understanding that every novel, of whatever genre, is an exercise in world building. She advises to create the world through the point of view of our characters:
"Talk their talk, walk their walk. Live their world through their eyes and your reader will feel transported. Every choice your characters make, from what clothes they wear to the car they drive, helps to create this alternative universe for your readers."
Since I'm on the starting-to-write-the-novel topic, here's one more link, to the effectively crude Chuck Wendig: "How to Push Past the Bullshit and Write That Goddamn Novel: A Very Simple No-Fuckery Writing Plan to Get Shit Done."
Use Fear to Connect
And finally, I'd like to mention a great way to creatively use all one's fears about writing which I found in the book The 90-Day Novel by Alan Watt.
He calls it The Fear Exercise. You must write as quickly as possible for five or so minutes completing the sentence "I'm afraid to write this story because…." Make a list of every fear from the trivial to the forbidden. Then use all these fears to connect to your main character. He or she has many of the same fears, of failure, of ridiculousness.
Watt writes: "I encourage you to get excited by your fears. Make friends with them. They offer clues, and direct access to your story."
Notes on image sources, from top down.
1) From yet another page on world building by Veronica Sicoe.
2) From a post by author J.S. Morin also on worldbuilding.
3) From a University of Southern California site on interactive media.
4) From a column by Rajan Khanna on Lit Reactor, which is interesting on the styles of worldbuilding.
Categories: Culture, Internet, Writing
Tags: creative writing, creativity, fear, novel writing, world building
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仙女和不明飞行物之间是什么关系呢? What is the relationship between fairies and UFO's?
Of Climate Change and Relationships: Federal Approval of Kinder Morgan and Line 3 a Total Betrayal
(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – November 29, 2016) Today, Canada approved the Kinder Morgan Trans-Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline and Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline, while dismissing the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and committing to advance a tanker moratorium on the north coast of British Columbia.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, stated "We are outraged with Prime Minister Trudeau's cavalier '50/50' announcement, and with the sheer audacity of his refusal to acknowledge the serious erosion of Indigenous rights and the extreme impacts on climate change that will certainly result from approval of Kinder Morgan TMX and Line 3. We absolutely and categorically reject his sunny assertion that approving these two pipelines is the only way to protect the environment and grow the economy. This is simply not true and conjures up the ghost of his predecessor Stephen Harper, in making decisions that are not based in science. Prime Minister Trudeau committed to overhaul the CEAA and NEB processes before any major decisions would be made by his government. He lied."
Today's approval is in direct contradiction to Canada's commitment to fully implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which includes that "States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources." It has been made very clear to the government that all impacted Indigenous Nations have NOT provided their free, prior and informed consent.
Grand Chief Phillip concluded, "Last week I walked with nearly 5,000 people through the streets of Vancouver in opposition to the Kinder Morgan TMX pipeline, and we pledged to do whatever it takes to stop the pipeline from going through. Ultimately, as the Trudeau government is well aware, these projects will not succeed. The opposition is too great, and we will remain united, strong and determined."
By resolution, the UBCIC Chiefs Council has unanimously called for any climate change plan developed by Canada to stop the further expansion of fossil fuel production and export, and support development of alternative energy and alternative energy economies. The UBCIC supports the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion, which has more than 100 signatory Nations and Tribes throughout North America including 56 Nations in British Columbia and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the US, and is an expression of Indigenous Law prohibiting the pipelines/trains/tankers that will feed the expansion of the Alberta Tar Sands.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Union of BC Indian Chiefs
For further information on the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion visit www.treatyalliance.org and visit Coast Protectors www.coastprotectors.ca to take the pledge!
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text:
Q: Removing the last object in an array in Java? A quick overview of my program: I am making the game War. So when the play button is clicked, two new cards show up with random values. Which ever card has the higher value wins, and a rectangle appears in the middle of the window. As the game goes on, who ever wins has more rectangles pushed to their side (either to the left or right depending on which card wins), but the trick is that if for example the card on the left wins the first three, then the card on the right wins 1, a rectangle is removed, meaning only 2 are going to the left. If the right wins again, another is removed, etc.
The rectangle is created in a separate class called Bar, and here is what I have to create an array with a rectangle that goes to the left.

Bar newBar = new Bar(300,250);
counter = d++;
newBar = new Bar(300-(counter*30), 250);
if(numDi >= bars.length){  //You want it to always be higher
  Bar[] temp = new Bar[bars.length +1];
  for(int i = 0; i < bars.length; i++){
    temp[i] = bars[i];
  }
  bars = temp;  //increments bars by 1
}
bars[numDi++] = newBar;

The idea I have is that I could create an if statement which checks who won and also who won the last game. And if the opposing player won the last game, I would need to subtract a rectangle.
But how would I go about subtracting the rectangle?
And as a side note, I can not use any sort of lists.

A: You can use a single integer counter.  When the right side wins increment it by 1 and when the left side wins decrement it by 1.  This way you can easily test with an if statement who has been winning lately and control what happens depending on who wins.
If you can't use a list or queue then I would suggest using two separate arrays, one for the left side and one for the right side.  You can increment and decrement them according to the overall score counter.

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Arthur Ventures
Arthur Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in the information technology, life sciences, healthcare, and clean technology sectors.
InvestmentsInvestment approach and focus
Arthur Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage B2B software companies outside Silicon Valley. Arthur Ventures has offices in Fargo, ND, and Minneapolis, MN.
Arthur Ventures was founded in 2008 and is based in Fargo, North Dakota by James Burgum. Arthur Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in post-angel and pre-institutional investments including growth capital, start-up, early stage, seed, and later stage investments.
The firm prefers to invest in the information technology, life sciences, healthcare, and clean technology sectors.
Within information technology, it focuses on software, hardware, web-based services, and related technologies.
The firm also focuses on B2B software investments with specific interests in the infrastructure, financial technology, and communications segments.
Under life sciences, the firm focuses on biotechnology, drug discovery, medical devices, and other enabling technologies.
Within clean technology, the focus is on biofuels development, clean-coal, energy efficiency, and wind-powered technologies.
Arthur Ventures has made 44 investments. A notable one was on Dec 18, 2018, when they invested $3M in Nomics. The firm has had 6 exits, the most notable ones including Avalara, Ambassador, and FlipGrid. Arthur Ventures has raised a total of $123.6M across 4 funds, one of them being Arthur Ventures 2017 Opportunity Fund. This fund was announced on Mar 7, 2019, and raised a total of $7M. Arthur Ventures has $2.7M in revenue annually and competes with Matchstick Ventures, Techstars, and Greylock Partners.
Investment approach and focus
The firm invests in companies based in the United States with a focus on Upper Midwest. The firm focuses its early-stage investments in the Great Plains and Upper Midwest. Its initial investments in early-stage companies range from $500,000 to $3 million. It seeks to invest in later stage companies only in syndication with other investors.
Arthur Ventures focuses its investments in three target industry sectors and an investment size that is a post-angel investment and pre-institutional VC funding. The firm's preference is for investment opportunities that have established business models and prototypes.
Arthur Ventures 2017 Opportunity Fund
Nomics Inc.
VENTURE CAPITAL (SERIES A)
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Arthur Ventures, Safeguard Scientifics, Ascension Ventures, +2
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datica.com
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Infusionsoft is a Chandler, Arizona-based company.
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cybrary.it
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terminus.com, terminus.com
250ok is an Indianapolis-based software company.
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Athennian
Athennian is a cloud-based legal entity management software.
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Total Expert is a Minneapolis-based company.
totalexpertinc.com, totalexpert.com
Nomics (company)
Nomics is a software company creating data products and APIs for institutional cryptocurrency investors.
nomics.com
When I Work is a Minneapolis-based company.
thisclicks.com, wheniwork.com
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Total offering (USD)
Total sold (USD)
Date signed
Arthur Ventures Growth Fund II, LP
Arthur Ventures Fund III A, LP
Arthur Ventures 2020, LP
Dave O'Hara
Venture Partner
Dennis Erdle
Doug Burgum
James Burgum
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Director of Technology
Lauris Molbert
Executive Assistant & Investor Relations
Ryan Kruizenga
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Arthur Ventures - Arthur Ventures invests in early stage B2B software companies located outside Silicon Valley. | Startup Ranking
https://www.startupranking.com/arthur-ventures
Arthur Ventures 2017 Opportunity Fund, Lp D Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities, items 06b, 3C, and 3C.1
https://sec.report/Document/0001767488-19-000001
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http://seriousstartups.com/tag/arthur-ventures/
Arthur Ventures collects almost $7 mln for fund - PE Hub
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Arthur Ventures launches $45m software fund, opening Minneapolis office - TECHdotMN
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Arthur Ventures Raises $45 Million Second Fund
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Arthur Ventures raises $48m | Private Equity International
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Arthur Ventures' investment in Nomics
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Coinbase Ventures, Arthur Ventures among investors in $3M Nomics Series A
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Dutch startup Stream raises $3 million from Arthur Ventures to further accelerate the growth of its API feed platform | EU-Startups
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LeadPages Raises $5M Series A from Foundry Group, Arthur Ventures
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Nomics Crypto API Data Service Secures $3 Million Led By Arthur Ventures, Coinbase and BitGo
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https://www.leadbychange.com/2017/03/14/driving-change-ep-12-tech-venture-capitalist-patrick-meenan-of-arthur-ventures/
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Talkroute
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Venture Capital Firm attributes
Invested in
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Carla Faraguna
Golden People and Operations.
Neelam Jhaveri
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Student at the University of Notre Dame looking to expand my knowledge in topics that pique my interest.
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Eager to learn.
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Latest EXIM Bank Recruitment Notification 2018 – Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank) invites applications for the Positions of Management Trainee (MT), Administrative Officer (AO), Manager, Deputy Manager and Information Technology (IT) Officer. EXIM Bank announced 30 vacancies for these openings. Candidates who have eligibility as per EXIM Bank Notification may apply online for the current vacancies at EXIM Bank India Careers (website). The Last date to submit the online application is 10.11.2018. The Online Application link has activated from October 13, 2018 (13.10.2018) 09:00 AM onwards.
Note:- For Deputy Manager, Manager and Administrative Officer positions, only SC, ST, OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) and PWD candidates are eligible to apply.
Before apply for the job vacancy, candidates should ensure that they fulfil the eligibility criteria given in the advertisement. Also have knowledge regarding job requirement, job location, selection process and application process from the advertisement. EXIM Bank will disable the online application link after the stipulated date. So, submit the online application form on or before the last date.
IT Officer – Upper age limit is 35 years.
Management Trainee – Upper age limit is 25 years.
Dy. Manager, Manager & AO – Check EXIM Bank Notification.
Dy. Manager, Manager & AO – PG Degree/ B.E/ B.Tech/ M.E/ M.Tech. in relevant disciplines.
IT Officer – MCA/ B.E/ B.Tech/ M.Tech in Computer Science.
Management Trainee – CA/ PG in Business Management.
Look into EXIM Bank advertisement for more details of qualification.
For General and OBC candidates, ₹600/- (Application Fee + Intimation Charges).
For SC/ ST/ PWD candidates, ₹100/- (Intimation Charges).
Logon to EXIM Bank website and then locate Careers page.
In Careers, select Current Openings/Results and find latest notifications.
Read the advertisements and then apply online for the positions.
Find upcoming EXIM Bank Recruitment Notifications @ Recruitment Reader. For more details regarding EXIM Bank Recruitment Notification 2018 logon to www.eximbankindia.in. The information given above is based on the EXIM Bank India official advertisement.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Elina Organics soothing Cappuccino balm can be applied as needed to the lip, eye, and face area.
This nutritious and delicious coffee aroma balm will stimulate micro-circulation around your eyes and lips with natural caffeine and anti-oxidants. It is enriched with Organic Coffee Extract, Shea Butter, Aloe Vera, and Vitamin E. Cappuccino will protect your face from wind burn during outdoor activies, by helping to seal in your moisturizer and create a protective barrier.


"Just a Peek, Please?" expands the narrative by telling the stories of a collection of American Muslim women who have agreed to share their experiences anonymously. These stories range in sentiment and complexity from faithful to faithless, fearful to fearless, embraced to isolated. Certain pieces are concealed using a scarf previously worn by the muse, carrying with it something of the woman's identity and essence. In an act that is typically unacceptable or taboo, the viewer is required to lift the woman's article of clothing to see the art underneath. This voyeuristic act creates the sense of a fleeting, intimate conversation between the viewer, muse, and artist.
Visit www.JustAPeekPlease.com to read reflections and view additional photos about this series.


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Russia To Target Flying Objects Over Syria, Russian Agencies Report
U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters on their way to Raqqa on June 6.
Russia's Defense Ministry says it would view as targets any flying objects over Syria in the areas of the country where its warplanes operate, Russian news agencies reported on June 19.
The statement came after a U.S. warplane shot down a Syrian Army jet on June 18 in the Raqqa region.
Washington has said the Syrian plane had dropped bombs near the U.S. partner forces known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), while Damascus said the plane was downed during a mission against Islamic State (IS) militants.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said that it was suspending its interaction with the United States on preventing air incidents over Syria from June 19, the agencies reported.
The United States did not use its communication channel with Russia ahead of the downing of the Syrian government warplane, the ministry was quoted as saying.
A U.S. military statement earlier said the coalition had "contacted its Russian counterparts by telephone via an established 'deconfliction line' to deescalate the situation and stop the firing."
"The Coalition does not seek to fight Syrian regime, Russian, or pro-regime forces partnered with them, but will not hesitate to defend Coalition or partner forces from any threat," the statement said.
'Collective Self Defense'
A U.S. jet shot down a Syrian government warplane after it attacked forces fighting against the Islamic State (IS) militant group on the southern edge of Raqqa, the U.S.-led coalition in Syria says.
The Pentagon said the Syrian fighter jet was shot down "in accordance with rules of engagement" and "collective self-defense."
The U.S.-backed SDF fighters are in the process of encircling the city of Raqqa, the IS group's final major stronghold in Syria.
A Syrian Army statement said the plane crashed, and the pilot was missing in the incident near the village of Rasafah.
The "flagrant attack was an attempt to undermine the efforts of the army as the only effective force capable with its allies...in fighting terrorism across its territory," it said.
"This comes at a time when the Syrian Army and its allies were making clear advances in fighting the [IS] terrorist group," it added.
Russian news agencies quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on June 19 that the United States should respect Syria's territorial integrity and refrain from unilateral actions in this country.
"As for what is happening 'on the ground' in Syria, we proceed from the assumption that it is necessary to fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity in Syria," Lavrov was quoted as saying. "Therefore, any actions 'on the ground,' and there are many participants there, including those who carry out military operations, should be coordinated with Damascus."
Lavrov's deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, described the U.S. strike as another step toward "dangerous escalation."
"We are warning Washington against using similar methods in the future," Ryabkov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
He added that he would be meeting with U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon on June 23 in St. Petersburg to discuss problems in bilateral ties, the news agency reported.
Astana Talks
The Syrian Army has also taken territory from retreating IS in the area as the multifaceted battle in Syria rages on after six years.
The United States and Turkey support differing rebel groups against IS and pro-government forces, while Russia and Iran back Assad's government.
Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said a new round of peace talks on Syria in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, would take place on July 10.
At the end of the previous round of talks in Astana last month, Russia, Turkey, and Iran on May 4 signed a memorandum calling for the establishment of safe zones in Syria, but some Syrian opposition representatives walked out in protest.
The Syrian conflict has left hundreds of thousands dead and driven more than 11 million people from their homes.
IS fighters are also under pressure in their final major stronghold in Iraq. On June 18, Iraqi security forces launched an operation to fully liberate Mosul, country's second-largest city.
U.S. officials said coalition forces had breached the Old City, where the final IS extremists are clinging to their last positions, using more than 100,000 civilians as human shields.
With reporting by Interfax, Reuters, and AFP


a member of the former Constitutional Democratic Party.
The Cadet turned suddenly with a surprised look, opened his hand and said 'a piece of chalk,' at the same time displaying it.
Once a cadet dropped a brick from a third-story barracks window that barely missed Jackson.
He walked over to Jackson and ordered him to report the cadet officers responsible for allowing this to happen.
Col. Byrne was the father of Eugene Byrne, the West Point cadet who died recently from injuries received in a football game.
And our cadet battalions are making themselves very much at home at Oxford and Cambridge.
You are my debtor, Cadet—I shall call you that: you shall have a chance of paying.
A few words must be said about the cadet branches of the Habsburg family.
"Not even for a second class buzzard, the lowest thing in cadet rank at the Naval Academy," replied Stonewell.


text:
453.005 Ethnic and Racial Diversity Considerations
Construction of sections 453.010 to 453.400 — ethnic and racial diversity considerations. — 1. The provisions of sections 453.005 to 453.400 shall be construed so as to promote the best interests and welfare of the child in recognition of the entitlement of the child to a permanent and stable home.
2. The children's division and all persons involved in the adoptive placement of children as provided in subdivisions (1), (2) and (4) of section 453.014 shall provide for the diligent recruitment of potential adoptive homes that reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of children in the state for whom adoptive homes are needed.
3. Placement of a child in an adoptive home may not be delayed or denied on the basis of race, color or national origin.
(L. 1985 H.B. 366, et al., A.L. 1997 H.B. 343, A.L. 2000 S.B. 757 & 602, A.L. 2001 S.B. 236, A.L. 2014 H.B. 1299 Revision)


text:
Everything Oakland
MoreBlog Menu
Oakland Makes National Geographic Travel's Best Trips List for 2019
Oakland among 28 Best Places to Visit in the World for 2019, According to National Geographic Traveler's Editors and Explorers
With the publication of its annual Best Trips issue, National Geographic Traveler magazine has revealed its 28 must-see destinations and travel experiences for 2019. Together, Traveler editors and National Geographic Explorers have selected their top places to travel across four categories: Cities, Nature, Culture, and Adventure – and Oakland was selected in the culture category. Oakland was one of only four U.S. destinations included in the list and the only city in California chosen.
"Oakland's 'there there' is in its diversity, its distinction, its sense of place, its people," - National Geographic Traveler
"Support what makes Oakland Oakland." - National Geographic Traveler
Click here for the National Geographic Travel's Best Trips List for 2019 full article!
Check out 11 things to do in Oakland that highlight The Town's culture!
1. Oakland Art Month
The entire month of May is dedicated to promoting events, performances, and shows that highlight the diversity of artists and work created in Oakland. The Town has long been home to innovators, creatives, and artists and Visit Oakland invites visitors and locals alike to explore new types of art or revisit old favorites.
2. Black Joy Parade
The Black Joy Parade exists to provide the black community and allies, a live experience that celebrates our influence on cultures past, present, and future. Oakland will unite a diverse community by creating a space to express everyone's unique contributions to the black experience. You're invited to be creative, be open, be present, be free.
The parade will journey 8 blocks through downtown Oakland and conclude with a community celebration. Black Joy Parade is an inclusive event, welcoming people from all different backgrounds, across race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and identity to volunteer. This includes people with disabilities, as well as the elderly.
3. Black-owned Restaurants
Oakland has a proud and resilient Black history/community that celebrates the influence on cultures past, present and future. This is certainly reflected and embraced in its food. With everything from Caribbean jerk chicken and plantains to Ethiopian injera with wat and comforting Southern fried chicken, Oakland's culinary scene is inherently vibrant, flavorful and Afrocentric.
4. Chinatown
One of the oldest Chinatowns in the United States, Chinatown Oakland was settled in the 1850s, shortly after the gold rush. No longer just Chinese, this 16-block area is Pan Asian, with Koreans, Vietnamese and Japanese. Visitors will find foodie bliss in the hand-pulled Chinese noodles at Shan Dong; chew jow ho fun at Vien Huong; seasoned banh mi at Cam Huong; and boba tea at Sweet Booth. Wares are displayed on the sidewalks or in the windows, from herbal teas, live seafood to porcelain and delicious shaomai at bakeries. What you won't find in this Chinatown are ticky-tacky camera and T-shirt kiosks. This is the real deal. Look out for the expressive murals from block to block, including the Chinese Zodiac dragon on 10th and Jackson.
5. Fruitvale
This urban stretch at the base of the Oakland Hills that once a land of, you guessed it, fruit trees, became a center for the Chicano Movement in the late 1960s and 70s, including the Brown Berets. Today, the population is almost half Latinos with a solidly preserved culture and village-y vibe centered around International Blvd. As you can imagine, Cinco de Mayo and Dia de los Muertos are big days on these streets. But visit any day of the week—you'll find a vibrant community awaits you.
6. Cannabis Experiences
The East Bay has long been an environment that is cannabis-friendly, and the city of Oakland continues to be at the forefront of legalization. Oaksterdam (located downtown on Broadway) is recognized as America first cannabis college. Learn more through Cannabis Tours or grab some friends and check out Puff, Pass & Paint off of Mandela Blvd.
7. LGBTQ+ In Oakland
Oakland embraces the original and the creative. Visitors and residents alike feel free to be themselves here and immerse themselves in our diverse city. Our inclusive community will make you feel safe to explore as you wish, but here are a few businesses that are owned, or well-respected, by our friends in the LGBTQ community to help get your planning started! Want to learn more about Oakland? Check our these stories on Oakland's LGBTQ Nightlife and Creative Scene.
8. Oakland Museum of California
In Spring 2019, the Oakland Museum of California will present a major exhibition exploring California's LGBTQ+ history and culture. Going beyond mainstream narratives, Queer California: Untold Stories will deepen and expand our understanding of this history through a multifaceted exhibition. Visitors will experience powerful examples of social activism through contemporary artwork and historical materials and view rarely-seen artifacts, archival documents, photographs, costumes, and ephemera such as zines, stickers, and flyers. The exhibition aligns important milestones in LGBTQ+ culture with lesser-known stories, focusing on a diversity of queer identities, civil rights, and resistance to oppression.
OMCA nurtures its deep ties to the community by offering many educational and outreach programs. We welcome schools, scholars, local audiences, and all visitors to participate in our events and activities and to discover their place in California's past, present, and future.
9. African-American Museum and Library
The African American Museum and Library at Oakland AAMLO is dedicated to discover, preserve, interpret and share the historical and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and the West for present and future generations.
10. The Remember Them: Champions for Humanity Monument
The Remember Them: Champions for Humanity Monument stands proudly in the new Henry J. Kaiser Memorial Park, in downtown Oakland California. This inspiring larger than life bronze sculpture depicts 25 culturally diverse role models who have made significant contributions toward global peace, freedom and human rights over the past 150 years.
11. Whitehorse Bar
The White Horse is said to be the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the United States today! It is both a monument to the lesbian and gay past and one of the only bars where gays can feel a true sense of community, where younger and older gays can enjoy each other's company.
Arts & Culture (23)
Black Culture (6)
Cannabis Trail (1)
Everything Oakland (17)
Meetings & Events (12)
Pet-Friendly (2)
Shopping & Leisure (19)
Social Responsibility (1)
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stay (2)


This is a unique event where you can come and create a beautiful abstract painting for your home, office or a gift for a special someone. Consider getting a couple of friends together and each of you can make your own masterpiece. You will be amazed by what you can create….no art experience necessary.
Guests are welcome to use all of the acrylic paint colors we have available.
You are welcome to bring your own food and beverage (including BYOB).
This is a unique event for your group to create a beautiful abstract painting for your home, office, or a gift for a special someone. Consider getting a couple of friends together and each can make your own masterpiece. You will be amazed by what you can create…and there is absolutely no experience necessary.
We will provide a delicious light buffet along with several beer selections and our famous homemade sangria.
Come join us for an awesome art experience and learn about this fascinating art form. You will be working on a 16x20 canvas and all supplies are included. Cost for the class is $45.00.
This is a fun class that promises not to disappoint! You do not need any art experience to be able to create a beautiful statement piece for your home, or a gift for someone special.
So call, text or email your besties and sign-up for this fun unique night out!
You are welcome to bring cake, goodies and beverages for the event.
You are welcome to bring along your own food & beverages.
You bring the cake and we provide a light buffet along with our famous sangria. You can also BYOB in addition to your favorite wine offering.
This is a unique event bringing co-workers together to create large professional gallery style canvas that may then be hung in your workplace. See how your team's unique individual talents, when woven together, will create a true masterpiece you can all be proud of.
You are welcome to bring your own food and beverages. If you are having us provide a light buffet and non-alcoholic beverages, please add an additional $50.00 to the canvas price listed above.
For this option you are welcome to bring your own goodies and beverages.
Guests are welcome to use all of the acrylic paint colors we have available. Light snacks and non-alcoholic beverages will also be served.
Want to do something fun for your team after hours?
This is a good opportunity to host an event everyone can tap into their creative side…and best yet…we do all the work!
This is truly an event where you can celebrate your teams creativity, all in a party-like atmosphere.
We will provide a delicious light buffet along with several beer and our famous sangria.


It is right that at Christmas we think of a group of hard working, devoted, patient and reliable people who we should never take for granted � carers, voluntary and professional.
Many recent reports of poor standards are alarming for everyone responsible for those who are in need of tender, loving care in their home. Sons, daughters, husbands and wives read damning reports with revulsion and fright. It is most people�s worst nightmare � to be helpless and at others� mercy, only to find the trust you must put in them is betrayed.
We need safeguards to tackle the worrying incidents that have been so widely reported occurring again. I will support any practical reform which does this. But it is equally important to recognise the dedication of most carers. The bad incidents must not be allowed to smear everyone else in this hugely demanding and tiring job.
For example, I received a letter this week from a constituent in Evesham praising the �exemplary service� of a Worcestershire company, Mayfair Care Agency.
To this local business I say thank you � as I do to all the carers, paid and unpaid, who look after the vulnerable. You work so hard in often very difficult and demanding situations. You are appreciated and valued.
The year has certainly sped by, but it�s ended well for Evesham. The Cotswold line is redoubled, services are getting more reliable and now we are promised new trains too. The Regal Cinema is approaching its reopening. The funding has been found to replace Abbey Bridge and Viaduct. And Evesham United Football Club will be able to build its access off the by-pass and start using its wonderful new facilities. It�s been a privilege to be involved in one way or another in all these campaigns.


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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
The Fall/Winter 2018/19 collection aims to offer Kiton's male clientele a wide range of items which cater for their needs. From business attire to leisure-wear, the collection has been tailor-made for dynamic, cosmopolitan men with sophisticated tastes who are aware of the latest trends but remain faithful to the timeless appeal of Neapolitan sartorial expertise. The past is turned into cutting-edge fashion while the future is tinged with tradition.
The Kiton Fall/Winter 2018/19 collection is marked by the debut of KNT, the first collection signed by the twins Mariano and Walter De Matteis, the third generation of the Kiton family.
The KNT collection consists of a coat, a heavy jacket, a suit, 2 joggers, 2 shirts, 3 sweatshirts and 4 sneakers. An exclusive menswear collection of matching monochrome garments with extremely clean-cut lines. Each type of garment is identified by a name that explains the stylistic and technical features.
KNT offers a relaxed, less formal style that can be worn by men throughout the day. The combination of travel wear with the appeal of bespoke tailoring is the strategy which Kiton intends to employ to open its doors to urban culture.
By following the Kiton philosophy, the KNT collection has also been developed through intensive research on weaving and technology. Hence the name KNT, the acronym of Kiton New Textures. The clothes, presented at an exclusive show in Milan, have been created by reinterpreting iconic Kiton fabrics such as 14 micron wool, combed cashmeres and cashmere and linen, produced on looms that have never previously been used for such fine yarns. The colour palette of blue, black, and anthracite grey is enhanced with a hint of burgundy red. KNT sneakers reflect the spirit of the collection and complete the look.
The KNT project aims to be a constantly evolving collection that will gradually have new additions during the season to respond rapidly to changing tastes and market needs.
Vicuña yarn
Thanks to further developments in the "Pure Vicuña Yarn" project, the collection features unstructured, unlined jackets made of denim-effect vicuña. The effect is created by special weaving of the yarn with cashmere and silk.
A new feature of this season's collection is the introduction of the double face coat made of Yangir vicuña. The fabric, produced exclusively in the Kiton woollen mill in Biella, combines two noble fibres, vicuña and Yangir cashmere, a precious yarn from Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Available in a range of new materials and models, with a sporty twist, the three-piece suit with a waistcoat is a must-have item for a contemporary gentleman's wardrobe, especially in shades of blue.
As an icon of timeless style and elegance, the suit is available in Saxony fabric, flannel-like wools and fabrics with a lighter structure in greys and browns.
Whether intended as an elegant garment that accompanies a man during his daily routine or as an accessory, the Kiton jacket is a jewel that involves 33,000 steps and the expertise of 25 different skilled artisans.
The world of the unstructured jacket plays a key role in the collection. This jacket is available in jersey-effect yarns, armure weave fabrics, natural stretch and denim-effect fabrics.
The patterned jackets are made with the G processing technique, a special type of construction that lends a formal appearance to the upper part of the garment and a casual, flowing look to the lower part.
Special attention has been paid to formal wear. The iconic dinner jacket made of superfine 13.5 micron wool is the essential item in the wardrobe of gentlemen who wish to have a perfect look even on the most special occasions.
The Fall/Winter 2018/19 collection confirms the success of the coat as a stylish gament, a must-have item of a gentleman's wardrobe.
Taken from the archives of the woollen mill dating to the 1960s and 1970s, the historic designs are transformed and given a contemporary twist.
The range of coats consists of new mixture of colours that even include printed cashmere Yangir.
The main colours are blue and green, blue and white and burgundy and black.
Smart casual attire completes and enhances the Kiton Fall/Winter collection.
The denim quilted jacket with jersey inserts, the concept of "college apparel" in exclusive cashmere fleece, and the nutria fur or mink denim are designed for more relaxed moments for men who are used to the comfort of bespoke tailoring.
In the world of leather items, there is a fantastic selection of high quality nappa leather and suede, including reindeer leather which is impossible to find elsewhere. Kiton also stands out for its quest for super-luxury technical materials, developing a goose-down fabric and creating a triple layer cashmere, obtaining an unlined coat with unprecedented thermal insulation.
The sweatshirt with sheepskin lining, ideal for jogging, and the sheepskin jackets with heat-sealed cashmere inserts, complete the wardrobe of Kiton's male clientele who fully appreciate quality clothing.
The key word is the contamination of styles, materials and details.
As regards footwear, the collection includes features from the world of sportswear and outdoor clothing combined with classic forms and materials.
Classic forms and materials are matched with technical details and materials such as lycra sports fabric and rubber-coated textiles: an example is the comfortable sock sneaker in melange lycra.
The easy-to-wear concept also includes different models with a double buckle, derby shoes and brogues, made of soft suede. Brightly coloured and extra light weight shoes are the features that add the finishing touch to the collection.
Walter & Mariano De Matteis, creative directors KNT
"KNT is a source of immense pride to us. Working with our father is a tough testing ground. He always expects from us twice the commitment that he expects from his other assistants. We have tried to put his teachings to good use, learn from his reprimands, steal his secrets and cultivate his love of fabrics and quality. This is how KNT was created. The collection reflects our concept of relaxed elegance and comfort without giving up on sartorial excellence and high quality raw materials. We are delighted to represent the third generation of the Kiton family. We have a huge responsibility but we are excited by the challenge".