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Morphic Encyclopedia
List of Arbiters
Head Arbiter
K'sariya
Elder Arbiters
VeloJello
Inactive Arbiters
In the medieval, pre-tech world inhabited by Pokemon and people alike, tales have long been told about a mirage island untouched by either species. People and Pokemon have glimpsed the island, but only for a few moments, never able to reach it. The stories and rumors swirling around it are endless, from tall tales about immortality for landing on its shores to stories that a beast carries it on its back through the sea, evading contact. The thread that runs through all of them, however, is that nobody has ever been able to keep sight of its misty shores for long, and certainly not long enough to make landfall on it.
There's a half truth in that.
While the island of Mautte once was inaccessible, Pokemon (including Pokemon who were once humans) have begun washing up on its shores, their memories wiped, retaining only their names and only the slightest inclinations of who they once were.
They don't know it yet, but the longer they stay, the stronger they will grow. The island's radiant energy will give them powers beyond what they've ever known: the ability to shapeshift, at will, into a myriad of different forms.
General Rules of RP
Morphic is like most other free-form RPs. As such, we have several standard RP rules that apply to the entire section, both In-Character and Out-of-Character.
No Godmodding. Godmodding, a slang derived from "god-mode-ing", is when you roleplay your character as god-like: never taking hits, never being injured, and always hitting their target. Pokemon are powerful creatures, and even legendary Pokemon have their limitations. It's also not fun to roleplay with other people who god-mode.
No Bunnying. Sometimes alternatively referred to as "powerplaying", this is when you control another character that belongs to someone else. This can be overt as making their character move, talk, or speak, or as nuanced as making an attack land on someone else's character or not giving them the time to respond to many actions in a row in a single post.
No Metagaming. Metagaming is when your character knows something In-Character (IC) that they shouldn't. As players on the forums, we can all read each other's threads. I as a player can read the characters' Jim and Joe's thread where they are plotting against Bob, but Bob shouldn't know that information or be able to act on it, since he doesn't have any realistic way of knowing about it.
URPG is a PG-13 space. Please keep swearing and romance limited. While they're allowed in lighter and moderate forms, needlessly-excessive swearing and graphic details are prohibited.
Posts made In-Character need to have at least 600 characters. This count includes spaces. You can check the character count (CC) of In-Character content by copying and pasting your post into a character counter, or by checking in almost any text editing program! If you make a post on the forums that falls below 600 CC, you will be asked to edit the post and extend it until you meet the minimum.
Be respectful of the difference between In-Character (IC) and Out-of-Character (OOC) interactions. The actions of characters IC are separate from their OOC players, and shouldn't be taken personally OOC. It's always important to remember that, for example, another character might ICly hate your character, but that doesn't mean that person hates you outside of the RP. However, if you feel like you're being unfairly targeted IC because of OOC, or vice versa, please contact a Head or Elder Arbiter!
Roleplayers are to honor the final decisions of Arbiters. In the case of rule-breaking (especially god-modding, bunnying, and metagaming), Arbiters have the final say in what "actually" and "canonically" happens/happened. These decisions are to be respected, but if you feel a decision is unfair, please contact a Head or Elder Arbiter.
No double-posting when RPing ICly. When you're RPing, you shouldn't post twice in a row. Wait for at least one other person to respond before posting again. The exception to this rule is if you are RPing with two different characters that you own; you can RP with yourself, but those posts won't count toward your post count in earning EMs and new Pokemon.
While not rules, there are a few details to keep in mind about the RP, and information that might be helpful for you to know.
Morphic's plot is player-driven. This means that the large majority of events in the RP are created by the players themselves, and not by section staff regularly creating the plot for you.
Morphic is a multi-thread, multi-board RP. The RP boards are divided into geographical areas of the fictional RP world. When you want to RP in a certain area, you create a new thread in that area, and other people can join in on that thread.
Morphic runs on liquid time. This means that you can have your character in multiple threads at once, instead of only being in one thread at a time. While you are technically in multiple threads at once, these threads are assumed to be at different points of time in your character's timeline. How you place these is up to you as the player (within reason).
There are a few different types of threads. When you start a thread in an IC RP board on Morphic, you have a couple of options for that thread's prefix. You can make it:
Open (O) – Anyone who wants to can join the thread that you've created and RP with you.
Private (P) – Only the character(s) you specify (either in a thread title or OOCly in the first post of the thread) can join the thread. This is usually worked out with the player(s) of those character(s) beforehand.
Post Milestones
URPG progression in Morphic is based off of post count. Through the number of posts you make, you unlock forms, characters, EMs, etc.
There are three different ways that you'll need to track your posts, and all of those are tied together:
Total posts. Total posts refers to how many posts that you, as a player in URPG, have made in Morphic. This is just the lump sum of all of the posts you've made across all characters, forms, etc. This is used to unlock things like slots for being able to create characters beyond your first two free ones.
Character posts. Character posts refer to the number of posts you have made with each individual character. This count is used to unlock new forms on that character.
Form posts. Form posts refer to the number of posts you've made in a particular Pokemon form on a specific character. This count is used to earn EMs on that particular form and linked Pokemon. If you change forms during a post, the post count for that post goes to the form that you ended the post in. There's no limit on how many times you can change form in a post (except for in Morphic battles).
If you want an easy way to track all of this, consider using our custom Google Sheets tracking template. You by no means have to use it, or even have a solution of your own nearly as complex (tracking your posts in your stats or character applications works just as well!), but it makes it a lot easier!
Below is a list of all of those numbers and milestones in one place. Be sure to read each section where the rules for the below milestones are detailed fully; not all information and restrictions to the below are listed here.
Repeating Milestones:
These are Milestones that happen repeatedly, at a set interval of posts.
Every:
5 form posts: That form and its linked Pokemon (its URPG counterpart) earns an EM of your choice, claimable here. See here for additional rules and restrictions. If your Pokemon is completely maxed out on available EMs, you gain a Daycare Pass instead.
25 character posts: That character unlocks an additional form, allowing you to import a Pokemon of your choice that you own in URPG, or a new earned Pokemon that you'll begin working toward to claim into your URPG stats. You most post here to declare which you'll be working toward before you can begin doing so. See here for additional rules and restrictions.
Set Milestones:
35 character posts: That character becomes eligible to found or challenge for a Clan. To learn more about Clans, see here, and to learn about fighting, see here.
100 total posts: Your third character creation slot is unlocked.
250 total posts: Your fourth character creation slot is unlocked.
500 total posts: Your fifth character creation slot is unlocked.
Earning a New Pokemon:
Below are the number of posts needed to complete an earned form. Remember that you do not gain EMs while making posts to complete an earned form.
Easiest: 10 posts
Simple: 20 posts
Medium: 35 posts
Hard: 50 posts
Complex: 70 posts
Demanding: 90 posts
The Island of Mautte
Mautte is a sprawling island, host to a plethora of diverse biomes. The legends and rumors about it can never pinpoint it to one exact location. From outside eyes, it's always shrouded by mist or storm, or simply invisible altogether.
Up until recently, the island has been uninhabited. Now, however, Pokemon have begun washing up on the black sands of its southern shore—as well as Pokemon who were once human before washing up on the island. All who enter (or leave) lose their memory, keeping only their name and some vague sense of who they are. While some begin to experience confusing flashbacks of their lives before after remaining on the island for some time, they never come close to fully regaining their identities and memories.
Most of the island's shores are vicious and inhospitable—steep, unforgiving crags and rocks under constant assault by vicious waves. But there are a few places where the oceans and the shores calm, and much more mystery within.
You can explore the Island of Mautte's boards to read about its many unique terrains and territories.
The premise of Morphic is that your characters are Pokemon who, after washing up on this island, gain the power to shapeshift into other Pokemon forms. You can choose to RP in the form of a Pokemon you already own in order to earn EMs on it, both in the RP and in URPG. Alternatively, you can choose to RP with a Pokemon you don't own yet, and once you make a certain number of posts in that form, you can earn the Pokemon in URPG!
The general guidelines and rules for character creation, as well as specific details on lore and powers that applies to characters, is detailed below.
Character Slots
When starting off in Morphic, each player has a maximum of two separate characters that they can freely create. Each character has its own name, personality, and backstory. Each character can also have its own Pokemon forms.
You earn a slot to create a new character when you reach a certain of RP posts across all of your characters. You unlock each slot at a certain number of posts:
3rd slot: Unlocked at 100 total posts
4th slot: Unlocked at 250 total posts
5th slot: Unlock at 500 total posts
While not required, you're encouraged to stick with characters once you make them, because the relationships that your character forges are important to everyone else's RP, too.
Species and Forms
Each character has different forms that they can shift freely between within the RP. There are two different types of forms:
Imported form: This is a form that is based off of a Pokemon in your stats. It shares abilities and EMs with this form. The Pokemon that an imported form is linked to in your stats is called a linked Pokemon. When RPing with a linked Pokemon, you earn EMs on it.
Earned form: This is a form of a Pokemon you don't own in URPG, but want to work toward obtaining through RP. Once you've made a certain number of posts in this form, you can earn that form and claim it into your URPG stats, and it becomes an imported form.
When you create a character, you start with only one form. A character's first initial form is an imported form. You can choose what Pokemon you're linking that form to when you sign up. Your character's imported form can have different names, genders, and natures/personalities from its linked Pokemon, but they share the same Level-Up moves and EMs (TMs, HMs, MTs, BMs, and SMs).
Specifications and Rules About Species and Forms
Your character gains a new form every 25 total posts made with that character.
When you unlock your second form on a character at 25 posts, you also obtain the form of your URPG starter Pokemon for free along with the new imported or earned form that you would normally claim. Likewise, if your character's initial form was linked to your starter Pokemon, you may claim another form of your choice with the one you would normally claim. You don't have to use or acknowledge this Starter form in any way if you wouldn't like to; it exists so that you will always have a form your character can go to even if you trade/gift the linked Pokemon of its other forms away.
Your character's imported form can be any evolution stage of its linked Pokemon or lower. However, it cannot be at a higher evolution stage in the RP than its linked Pokemon is in URPG. This means that you may evolve a lower evolution in Morphic whenever you'd like once its linked Pokemon in URPG has also evolved. Earned forms must remain in basic form until they become linked forms.
You can tie forms on different characters to the same linked Pokemon. You can also tie forms to different forms on the same character (for example, linking a URPG Larvesta to both a Larvesta and Volcarona form on the same character). You still have to use a form slot to do so.
The moves that each of your forms have access to are identical to that of its linked Pokemon. That means that when you gain a new move in URPG and add it to your stats, you immediately gain that move in the RP (except in Morphic battles).
If you lose access to the linked Pokemon of your Morphic character(s) imported form (including but not limited to, trading, gifting, or garage-saling that Pokemon away), that character loses the ability to transform into that form completely.
If you regain the Pokemon in question, or have/regain a different instance of that species, you may choose to relink the form to that Pokemon immediately without having to reach the post requirement for your next form again. Note that the rules about evolution stages and EMs will still apply; your imported form will lose access to any EMs and evolution stages the new counterpart does not have.
If you trade away a linked Pokemon and that Pokemon was your character's only available form, your character (if applicable) gains access to and transforms to your starter's form immediately.
Earning EMs
Each post that you make in an imported form counts toward earning an EM on that Pokemon. You earn new EM on a Pokemon every 5 posts. You can choose and claim that EM in this thread, and may add it to your URPG stats and start using it ICly as soon as the claim is approved by an Arbiter.
This means that you should keep track of how many posts you've made in each form in your character's sign up, with links to those posts or threads.
If you change forms during a post, the post count for that post goes to the form that you ended the post in. There's no limit on how many times you can change form in a post (except for in Morphic battles).
Fully-EM'd Pokemon
If your linked Pokemon owns every single move that it can possibly obtain in URPG, then every 5 posts, you will instead unlock a Daycare Pass that can be used normally on any Pokemon in your URPG stats. This effect only happens if you have completely maxed out that Pokemon with every available move. Ditto is an example of a common Pokemon where this may happen frequently (and in Ditto's case, immediately), since its only move is Transform, which is Level Up.
Only Daycare Passes can be earned with this effect, meaning that TMs cannot be earned through this effect.
Earning New Pokemon
When you unlock a new form, you can choose to make it a Pokemon you do not yet own (or a Pokemon you'd like to obtain another of) in order to work toward obtaining in URPG. That Pokemon is role played in its basic form, and can be earned through posting with that form.
The amount of posts required to unlock a Pokemon depends on the rank of its basic:
Once you've met the requirement for posts in that form, you can claim the Pokemon you earned here. That Pokemon is claimed into your URPG stats as a basic Pokemon.
While you're earning a new Pokemon, you don't earn EMs on that Pokemon while in that form. However, once you have earned that Pokemon and it is in your URPG stats, it becomes a imported form that is linked to that Pokemon, which means that you can earn EMs on it as usual from there.
Appearance and Gender
Each of your character's forms may have their own individual appearances and genders. You have liberal freedom with the appearance of your forms–you can create them as shiny, or perhaps of a completely different coloration that isn't shiny or regular.
However, when you choose that initial appearance, you can't make major changes to it later in the RP without purchasing a major appearance change. Major changes that happen logically and ICly (for example, scarring receiving or losing a limb from an IC event, your character deciding to use natural dyes to change their color, etc.) don't need to be purchased. A major appearance change in this case would be something like your character's coat/skin completely changing color, changing from the appearance of a regular Pokemon to a shiny, etc.
This is to keep continuity and consistency for other characters in the RP. While a major appearance change is something that may happen unexpectedly to a character, Morphic characters are ultimately (as far as they know in-character) at the whim of the island's mysterious forces for what forms they obtain and how those forms look, so they typically shouldn't be having major appearance changes regularly, which is why it must be purchased.
Each form may have a different gender if you so choose. You also have complete freedom with what you would like your Pokemon to identify as, including with genderless Pokemon.
If you'd like your character to have natural accessories from the island (such as, but not limited to: shells, feathers, vines, etc.), you may freely to add those to your character's appearance!
Man-made items, however, are special. The Island of Mautte is placed somewhere within the oceans of the canonical Pokemon world, but that Pokemon world is medieval, predating Pokemon technology such as Pokeballs, spray Potions, Pokemon Centers and weapon technology (in this more realistic world) such as guns. "Owned" Pokemon in the outside world are tamed through friendship, or forcibly subdued in what ways they can be.
Occasionally, these medieval man-made items may wash up on a specific shore on the island, known as Flotsam Bluff. They don't show up anywhere else, likely due to the complex currents that run around Mautte.
Flotsam Bluff
The accessories that wash up on Flotsam Bluff are sorted OOCly into two categories, each requiring a certain number of posts in an Arbiter-guided thread to obtain:
Minor Accessory – 5 posts: Things like metal bands/bracelets, earrings, a necklace, bandanas, scarves etc.
Major Accessory – 15 posts: Larger items, things that can be overtly used as a weapon, or items with major in-RP utility. Armor pieces, shields, weapons (swords, daggers, metal claw tips), large pouches or rucksacks, etc.
To begin an adventure to the Bluff to obtain one of these items, start a thread with your character in the Bluff's RP board. Be sure to specify in the OOC notes of the post what item you're looking to obtain, and an Arbiter will claim and respond to that thread. All Flotsam Bluff threads are Private, meaning that only your character and the Arbiter may post in it. Each of your characters are limited to one ongoing Flotsam Bluff thread at a time. Once you have made the required number of posts in that thread, you may consider the item earned!
Note that as of now, the outside world does not have the technology that allows Mega/Z-Rings and Mega Stones/Z-Crystals to exist, so they are not permitted as accessories.
Each imported form has the same choice of abilities as its linked Pokemon, and the way they work when characters are switching between forms works similarly to how they work in battles in URPG. When you switch into a form, you declare (whether OOCly or ICly) which ability you will be using for the duration that you're in that form.
You may re-choose that ability freely every time you switch into a new form. So, for example, if I switch into a Sylveon form with Pixilate, I will only gain the effect of the Pixilate ability while I'm in that form. If I switch to, for example, my Incineroar form, then back to Sylveon again, I could choose Cute Charm instead, and so on.
You may only use forms that your linked Pokemon owns, so Hidden Abilities are locked until you unlock them in URPG. Pokemon in earned forms only have access to their regular abilities of that evolution form, and not their HAs.
Customizing Your Abilities
In Morphic, you have some flexibility in what your abilities do from character to character, form to form. You can (to an extent) customize all of a Pokemon's abilities in some way.
When you create a character or earn a new form, you must outline how each of that new form's abilities will work. These abilities will be approved by an Arbiter, who will help ensure that those abilities are fair and plausible for everyone.
I sign up with my character Inferno, whose first form is a Chandelure from my stats. I import the Chandelure form with all of the abilities it has in URPG, and I decide to make some cool effects for them:
Flame Body – Inferno's Flame Body ability lets him use some of his strength to cloak himself in hot flame for a short period of time. The cloaking fire cannot harm him, but he cannot control who (or what) it does burn while cloaking himself.
Flash Fire – Inferno can focus on an incoming, fire-based attack and absorb it completely, giving him a temporary burst in attacking strength. Can only do this once every three posts.
Infiltrator – Inferno can slip into a Pokemon's shadow to get beneath their defenses or an obstacle hiding them in order to land a surprise attack. Can only be used once per battle/once per thread.
Shadow Tag – Inferno can consciously activate their Shadow Tag to trap another Pokemon in their current form for the duration of their next post. Can only be used once per battle/once per thread.
An Arbiter would then look over these abilities and approve them with my character sign up. An Arbiter must approve any new abilities that I gain on any of my forms in order for them to be used in the RP. When earning a new form here, the abilities should be described and approved with the form. If you've gained access to an ability outside of earning a new form (for example, evolving a Pokemon or purchasing an HA), you can post the ability and its effects here to have it approved.
Guidelines for Creating and Customizing Abilities
Morphic will typically give you a fair amount of freedom with the effects of the abilities you customize, but there are a few things you need to keep in mind:
The effect that you create should be related in an obvious way to the ability's original functionality in URPG. In the above example, notice that every custom ability ties back to the original in some way–Flame Body may burn others who touch him, Flash Fire lets him to harmlessly absorb a fire attack and power him up, Infiltrator will let him bypass a defense or an obstacle (similar to a screen or a substitute), and Shadow Tag will trap a Pokemon's form (which is the Morphic equivalent of preventing switching).
Avoid using % activation chances. Think of the abilities in a reality/real-life sense more than a game sense. Under what conditions would something actually activate in the real world? For example, when would something like Cute Charm realistically make another character hesitate to attack them with their full strength, or when would an ability like Static actually get to the point of discharging electricity to an enemy on contact?
Try to match the number of effects with the source ability. If an ability in URPG only has one part of its effect, try to keep the customized ability to one effect (ie Flame Body only has a burn chance, so it's only one effect, vs. Flash Fire, which absorbs & powers up the Pokemon, so it has two effects). Each effect should relate back to its original in some way.
Be considerate – give stronger abilities some sort of drawback. Arbiters will require you to do this when they approve, but you can start by building in limits or counterplay early on when making the abilities. Think of what wouldn't be fun for you to play against if someone else had that ability and could use it infinitely, and try to find options for counterplay from there. Notice how I limited Flame Body to only a short period of time instead of all of the time, and made it so that Inferno is unable to control who or what the cloak of flame burns (meaning he could hurt his allies, or set something on fire unintentionally), and how Flash Fire, Infiltrator, and Shadow Tag all have some sort of cooldown or limited use. These are all valid options to give your ability some counterplay, while still giving you a fun perk in your back pocket to use when fitting.
Abilities don't need to be unique from someone else's. There's no requirement to make something completely unique–it's far from it. You can do something generic with it if you like. Since everything is derived in some way from the original ability, a lot of people's abilities may overlap, and that's okay. With that in mind, though, try to avoid directly copying someone else's pretty unique custom ability without their permission.
If you have trouble coming up with ideas, feel free to contact an Arbiter! We're happy to help you come up with something. Remember that abilities don't need to be anything fancy. If you just want an exact copy of an ability that works in an RP setting, feel free to jot that down!
Special Abilities and Moves
There are some abilities and moves that need a little clarification in order to build off of, so we've taken the time to list the basic effects of how they work in an RP setting here. You can still customize these to an extent, but their basic structure must function as outlined. These are for the major, major outliers, but if you have any suggestions, feel free to send them to a Head or Elder Arbiter.
Imposter and Transform
Transform is a tiring move that requires concentration. As such, a Ditto can only Transform once per post. The Ditto can only transform into player characters within its line of sight. While transformed, it can make use of all of the opponent's moves and abilities. However, they do not gain any of the other player's items.
The Imposter ability will, if active, take effect as soon as a character changes into their Ditto form. The character with the Imposter ability will then immediately take the shape of another player character within its line of sight (player's choice). This counts as a use of Transform.
When a Pokemon transforms into a form with Illusion as the active ability, the user adopts the appearance of another chosen player character within its line of sight at the time. This can happen immediately, appearing to others as if they simply transformed into the character that Illusion takes the shape of; or, the Pokemon with the Illusion ability can choose to activate it at a later time, still taking on the appearance of a Pokemon in their line of sight when the ability is activated. They adopt the full appearance of that character, including the appearance of their items, but cannot actually use them or any of that character's moves or abilities, only their own. The illusion is broken when/if the player is touched or dealt damage.
Wonder Guard
Hits that aren't super effective pass right through this Pokemon. However, if they take a direct hit from a super effective attack, they are forced completely randomly into another form–an Arbiter must roll the dice for this.
If it is valid for them to do so, Smeargle can use Sketch in Morphic just as they would in battles in order to learn a move used in a visible character's last post. Sketches in Morphic apply as Sketches in URPG, so Sketch may only be used if they have available moves allotted left to do so. Once they hit the cap of moves in URPG, they can no longer Sketch until they have the room to do so.
Moves work on a similar principle as abilities; they're flexible and up to interpretation within reason. Unlike with abilities, you don't have to have your variations on moves set or approved. You can use them in your posts however you wish to interpret them.
A great way to see how moves are interpreted differently is to check the variations of what they do in the anime. Bulbapedia is a great resource for this. Each move has an "in the anime" section at the bottom, that shows with description and images how the move has been used. Air Slash is a good example of some variation in how a move is executed depending on what's using it.
You can also freely combo and combine moves. For example, I could make a sort of "fake" Blaze Kick by using Mega Kick while cloaking my leg in fire, or combine a Powder Snow and a Fairy Wind to create a pseudo-Icy Wind. Feel free to get creative as long as the effects still relate back to the original move in some way.
Moves in Morphic don't necessarily have PP, but note that stronger moves, or repetitively using the same moves, is more likely to tire out your character.
If you feel like someone is using or interpreting a move in a way that's unfair, feel free to reach out to a Head or Elder Arbiter!
Combining a fantasy world like Pokemon with a more realistic RP setting always has some strange bits. Here are a few details that might be useful for your own world-building:
Inherent bending – Most Pokemon whose type directly controls an element typically have a sort of ingrained "bending" ability for that element. So for example, as a water type, you can "bend" or manipulate existing water to do your bidding without necessarily having to use a move to do it. Typically, you want to keep the amount that they can generate (aka the amount that they can make from their body or out of thin air on their own) fairly small. For example, you could feasibly make a small puddle without a source to soothe a burn, but a Surf that's not close to any water will likely only pull a small current, since a Pokemon can only generate so much on its own in this setting.
Inherent psychic type powers/moves – Psychic Pokemon are assumed to have some sort of inherent minor psychic powers and telekinesis. They can typically speak into minds with telepathy, potentially lift items with basic moves like Psychic or Telekinesis, etc. However you decide to apply and use this power (and Psychic type moves like it) is up to you, but remember that the RP rules on god-modding and powerplaying still apply, and Arbiters will not hesitate to step in on rulebreaking instances. You can attempt to telekinetically influence another player's characters, or attempt to read their mind, but it's up to the player to be mature and reasonable with the effect that it has on them.
Pokedex/species powers – Some Pokemon species have unique abilities or powers that are conveyed through their unique abilities, moves, etc. These can be put into their abilities in whatever ways are applicable. However, some Pokemon do not have this easy application, like Lucario's canonical aura powers, or Metagross' super-computing powers. With these, you can typically assume that they have these abilities innately to some degree. However, note that Morphic's rules on god-modding and powerplaying still apply. You should only apply these additional powers in ways that do not break these rules, keeping their counterplay obvious and fair for other players. Conversely, Pokedex entries/canonical establishments that are inherently god-like or powerplaying on their own should be discarded and balanced through abilities. If you have any questions or uncertainties about certain applications of this, feel free to ask!
Water types – Water types aren't restricted to the water unless you want them to be. If you want, they can use their inherent bending ability to, perhaps, carry themselves around in a bubble of water if they're a fish, or levitate in cases like Gyarados. Or, your Magikarp can just get everywhere by flopping. That's okay, too.
Food and eating – While the Pokemon world has more recently embraced the concept of other Pokemon eating Pokemon, this is something that you can wave off a little with Morphic. When all species are presumably sapient Pokemon, even doing something like eating an NPC might be a little awkward/have some serious social implications. With this in mind, you can treat all Pokemon as either herbivorous (in eating plants, not Grass types) or omnivorous, able to subsist on plants as well as adding meat to their diet as the whimsy strikes them. Since most of the living creatures you'll encounter will be sapient, eating meat is considered akin to cannibalism, even with species that are able to do so. This isn't to say you can't have a hunter-type character, just bear in mind that it will likely have social consequences.
Clans are the main social structure of Morphic. Clans are character-formed groups that settle in territories, claiming those territories as their own. Your characters can seek to join clans throughout the course of the RP, and their allegiances may shift and change as the clans themselves do.
Current Clans
Morphic's first clans are currently in the process of being founded! See the winners here!
Joining A Clan
When you first sign up with your character, they begin as a Rogue. A Rogue is a rank that means that you have no allegiance to a clan. In order to join a clan, you must be accepted into that clan through the RP. Some clans will require a leader to accept you, while others may allow any member to accept you into the clan.
While a clan can accept you anywhere, the best way to join a clan that you want your character to be in is to have that character go to that clan's territory board. Clan territory boards are marked with a color that marks that clan's territory. Post a thread with your character visiting their borders, and play out asking to join the clan from there.
You do not need to meet any post requirements to join a clan. As long as there is an IC post with a qualified character accepting you, you can then be considered a part of that clan!
Each clan has a pinned thread in their territory that has the clan's description, ranks, list of members, and rules. You can read up on the clan there! Typically, you don't have to RP someone telling you these rules; it's assumed that your character is told them in passing in some way, but you can also RP it out if you'd like.
Leaving A Clan
Each clan will have different rules for leaving. Some may require you to notify them, while others will let you leave without mentioning it to anyone ICly. Check the clan rules on the clan page to be sure! Once you've left a clan, you can join another freely.
Obtaining a Clan
Clans can be obtained by characters in three different ways: founding a clan, challenging for a clan, and exchanging clan leadership.
Founding a Clan
Clans can be founded by characters with at least 35 character posts as long as there is an open slot in the game to do so.
As of now, there are 3 total clan slots, with 2 clan slots open for claiming!
Clan slots are opened when another clan disbands. A clan may do this for a variety of reasons, by choice of the leader or if the leader fails their activity requirements. Slots opening will be announced in the #morphic and/or #announcements channel on Discord.
When a slot is open, an eligible character may post a founding thread. To claim a territory and found a clan there, a character must simply post a thread in that territory that has [FOUNDING] at the beginning of the thread title, and post staking out their claim! Note that only sub-boards are claimable territories, so while the Shimmering Caverns can be claimed, The Spine itself cannot. Territories in the Entry Grounds cannot be claimed.
When someone else makes a claim, one other character interested in founding a clan may contest their claim, leading to a fight over the right to found the clan. The winner may found the clan in an unclaimed, claimable territory of their choice.
Note that claiming an open clan slot is first-come, first serve. The first person to post a founding thread will automatically fill that clan slot, and the first person to contest that claim will be the only other person who gets a chance at it. When a new clan is founded, that clan's leader has immunity to challenges for the first month, in order to give them time to establish the clan.
If their claim goes unchallenged for 72 hours, then that character is allowed to officially found their clan! They may post their clan thread in that board that contains their clan's name, description, ranks, list of members, and rules, and may begin RPing as that clan's leader!
Clan Challenges
Characters can choose to challenge the leadership of existing clans to battle in order to take the clan for their own. The player posts in that territory calling the leader to the challenge, and the leader then has 72 hours to respond to the challenge. If they do not respond to the challenge within 72 hours, the clan is automatically won by the challenger, its members become rogues, and the clan may be moved and ruled how the new leader pleases.
When a new clan is founded, that clan's leader has immunity to challenges for the first month, in order to give them time to establish the clan.
For more information on the fight for the clan itself, see the Fighting Guide.
Exchanging Clan Leadership
There are times when it may be appropriate in the RP for a clan leader to decide to pass the leadership to the clan to someone else. This can only be done once per month, and must be done in an IC thread for the leadership to be officially passed. When a clan is passed to a new leader peacefully, they do not gain the one-month immunity from challenges.
Activity Requirements for Clan Leaders
Because clan slots are limited, and a leader's inactivity may affect the rest of the characters in the game, Morphic has minimal requirements for a leader's activity. A leader must post at least twice per month in order to keep their clan. If they fail to meet this requirement, the clan disbands, and a clan slot in the game opens.
This disbandment can be explained through a variety of IC ways, but can typically be reflected in the leader's absence causing members to decide to leave. However, if you control a leader whose Clan disbanded, and you would like there to be a different IC reason (for example, a flood striking that Clan's lands, driving them out of the territory and scattering its members), feel free to let a Head or Elder Arbiter know, and they will come up with one for you.
Clan Pages
At the top of each territory board is that clan's page. It contains all of the information about the clan that people need to know.
Clan Rules
The rules of a clan are entirely up to the leader. You can create anything from a casual clan who doesn't mind people wandering through the territory, to a cutthroat one that fights anyone who breathes near the border, to anything in-between. When detailing the rules of your clan, here are some things to keep in mind:
Is the leader's rule law, or does everyone have a fair say?
What ranks, if any, can officially accept people into the clan?
How does the clan deal with trespassing?
Does the clan care about members making trouble with other clans?
How do characters gain ranks? Do they have to fight for them? Can they fight for them if they'd like?
Clan Ranks
Each leader can decide the ranks of their clan. The only requirement is that there can not be more than one "official" leader of a clan in order to track activity requirements, but other ranks can be created that have the same powers that you decide, and can be treated as the same ICly.
You can everything from the names and numbers of ranks, how many characters can hold those ranks, and what authority they have in the clan.
In Morphic, there are two types of fights between characters:
Pre-determined fights – These are fights between two characters where the players decide on who wins. They can go on for as long or as short as the players want, and there are no rules for its outcome.
Judged fights – These are fights where the outcome of the fight is determined by Arbiters, according to a certain set of criteria that determines the winner. They are recommended to last a certain amount of rounds, but can last longer if the players want. Players also have a deadline for responding to each round of the fight.
Judged Fights
Judged fights are fights where the outcome is determined by Arbiters. Judged fights are judged off of a certain set of criteria that add up to a certain number of points. The character who has the highest score wins the fight.
Starting and Completing a Judged Fight
When a fight challenge is issued by a character, the players decide together whether they want to predetermine the winner or not. If they don't, then Arbiters can determine the outcome of the fight based on set criteria. They also determine how many rounds/posts each player needs to make and complete.
Judged fights are recommended to be at least 3-5 rounds. The fighting players work out the number of rounds they want the fight to last before the fight starts. This number determines when the Arbiter will step in and determine the outcome.
Players then post to play out the fight to that number of posts. Once players reach that number, they can decide if they'd like to extend the fight if they feel like it's necessary. Otherwise, they will submit the fight for judging here and an Arbiter will determine the outcome. A fight may also continue past that point if the Arbiter reaches a numerical tie in the score and deems that more rounds are necessary to break the tie.
Posting Deadlines
When a judged fight is declared in-character, the character that has been challenged to the fight then has 72 hours to respond with an IC post. This 72 hour deadline will apply to every round–if Character A and Character B are fighting, when A posts to the fight, B will have 72 hours to respond, then A will have 72 hours from B's post to respond again, and so on.
These deadlines are to keep fights from stagnating, especially when they involve important character events or Clans. If a character does post within the 72 hour deadline, the fight will automatically "default" into the other character's favor, and they will be considered the winner of that fight automatically.
General Fight Rules
All regular rules–such as no powerplaying, metagaming, etc–still apply during fights.
You can only change forms once per fight post.
All new forms, EMs, and abilities can be bought and synced appropriately during fights (as long as the forms and abilities are approved).
The thread can go on as usual around a fight post if there are other characters–they can watch the fight, talk about it, or even initiate other fights around it. However, they cannot intervene or interrupt a fight at this time. There is not a system for more than two characters fighting each other at once in place yet, but for now, additional fighters can split off into individual 1v1s.
Characters can only be challenged/engaged in one fight per thread/at any IC instance at a time. For example, you can't issue a challenge for a character's clan while they're in that same thread fighting another character. However, if they're fighting in one thread and you have another one set at a different point in time ICly, you're free to challenge them since they're on different points of the timeline.
When fights are ongoing, players should typically try to avoid assuming a result until it is declared. This creates a bit of a gray area in cases like waiting to see the results of a clan challenge. With fights where the result puts another character in limbo, you can assume within reason that the fight takes place in the timeline when the final verdict is issued rather than when the fight is started. This is to alleviate some of that liquid time awkwardness.
Fight Stats
At the beginning or end of each fight post, you should make sure that you note several things:
Who you're fighting (A vs B)
What the fight is for (clan, spar, dominance, etc.)
Which round of the fight you're on and and the total number of rounds in the fight (i.e. Round 1 of 5, 1/5, etc.)
If you changed forms, what ability you're using for that form
While not required/reflected in your score, it may be helpful to you to list your injuries or attacks so that you can keep track of them, too.
Judged Fight Criteria
Each player starts out with the maximum score of 30 points, with mistakes subtracting from that total. Below is the rubric for these categories.
RP Etiquette (10 points) – This category evaluates things like if a player powerplayed and if they were attentive to the contents of the other player's post. Deductions may include (but are not limited to): saying an attack landed on the other player; creating conditional "if this, then that" statements with their own movements; etc.
Plausibility (10 points) – This category looks at if the player was considerate of how their own moves (and the moves of their opponent) would affect their own character and the environment. Deductions may include: not taking plausible damage from a hit; extremely unrealistic dodge of an attack; not taking into account environmental factors; etc.
Clarity (10 points) – This category evaluates how clear the post was to read and interpret correctly. Deductions may include: unclear or confusing descriptions of movements and attacks; unspecific movements and attacks; etc.
While you start out with 30 points across the above categories, you may earn bonus points that add onto your total through:
Creativity (up to 5 points) – Did the player do anything particularly inventive or unexpected to win the fight or earn an advantage?
When mistakes are made, a certain amount of points are deducted from the category that the mistake belongs to:
Minor infraction (-1 point) – This is something small, but doesn't have a huge overall impact on the fight or its fairness. Examples of these might be something like: a few typos, a slight metagame, or a dodge that probably shouldn't have happened, etc.
Major infraction (-3 points) – This is something more major that has a huge impact on the fight or its fairness. Examples of these might be: completely unbelievable move usage; serious godmodding; not acknowledging an opponent's attack, etc.
Winning (or Losing) a Fight
When a winner is determined in a judged fight, that winner achieves victory. If they were fighting over a Clan, they win that Clan. If they were fighting over something else, such as for sparring, fun, or for dominance, it becomes apparent ICly that they have won the fight and achieved that goal, and the fight ends.
When a character loses a fight, the two players can work out how the losing character is defeated if they'd like, but the losing character can no longer participate in Judged fights in that thread.
It's important to be considerate OOCly when people win or lose fights; rudeness between players over fight results will not be permitted. It's important to remember, too, that a character being a sore loser or hateful in-character does not mean they feel that way or are saying it to you personally as a player!
Advanced Fighting Tips
If you're looking to get better at fighting in Morphic, or want more details on what counts as a potential deduction, try to check out the judgments of pre-existing fights, or check out the Arbiter Guide section on judging fights.


The Happy New Year 2019 Images HD Eve is approaching fast and in 2019 it's time to decide where you want to celebrate it, and there are so many wonderful ideas about Happy New Year 2019 Images HD, Wishes, Wallpapers HD.
Whether you're looking for a big street party that blocks live entertainment and other party parades or are you looking for a friendly family affair, cities across the nation are competing to see whose celebrations can pass the others and Shares Happy New Year 2019 Images on social media with friends and send Happy New Year 2019 Gifts.
Go to Vegas for the big block party or take a look at the ball drop in the city of New York or have enjoyment with kids to the wonderful place of Hawaii.
Whatever you want, there are seven exciting places in the U.S.A. you need to consider by the start of the Happy New Year 2019.
13 What do the peoples do on this day?
16 How the New Year is celebrated in China And Taiwan?
The city of New York is one of the most popular New Year's Eve locations and the iconic public square of the city, which is the Times Square, and the most enjoyable factor is the dropping of the ball at this place.
In the city of New York City, there are over 100,000 locations to have a drink by the start of the New Year.
Many peoples prefer select items at Times square, where one can get the pass for a party, lagging behind velvet ropes and passing on top-notch outdoor bars.
In other popular venues in the city, you can find the STK Rooftop where live DJs choose the hottest songs, and the viewing of Hudson River and the King Rooftop Lounge with its magnificent view of the Empire State Building.
New Year's Eve also has fireworks in Aloha Tower Marketplace and Waikiki Beach in Honolulu in the weather of summer.
This is one of the best family-friendly New Year's Eve celebrations in America and we recommend that you keep your children entertained for an unforgettable holiday.
Kaka'ako Waterfront Park offers carnival rides, beer gardens, food trucks and something for everyone that has more than one fun.
The Hawaiian style New Year's is also bursting, and it is enjoyable on the shore especially in the evening.
From enormous street parties to black nightclubs, this city of New Year's has a lot of celebrations according to every taste and budget.
The specialty of the LA prefer to keep things close to their hearts and does not release party information until the last minute.
Club sightseeing has become a popular way to spend the New Year's Eve night, which allows a purchased ticket to pass through the velvet rope from multiple types of clubs.
The annual Cleopatra's New Year's Eve in the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood is a hit that has DJs which is always turned to the hottest songs, it also has an LED light show takes place and the balloon falls.
Another one of the free activities in the city includes the Grand Park and beyond there are numerous food vendors, live entertainment, and countless stages are set up.
We have more nightlife venues in Portland where we know what to do, and we promise that this city will be a great place to party in the New Year.
There are celebrities all around the city, including some epic ball, as well as live music.
The Portland Champagne Ball is one of the city's most famous parties which has 17 bars, four different types of themed rooms and four different types of dancing tracks.
Other than the cold and hot buffet with the deserts there are also delicious pizza, photo booths, wine and much more. Besides, when you join this party, you have to dress up and act fantasize.
You may also have the choice to go to the Pearl District and choose places like Big Lebowski, Low Brow Lounge or Teardrop Cocktail Lounge. If you're looking for a celebration, find it here in Portland.
New Year's Eve in Vegas, where there is a party with more than 300,000 members participates in this festivities.
The whole lane of Las Vegas, Nevada is closed to all traffic and turns into a giant block party. In the midnight, the casinos started a choreographed fireworks show.
In the rock club, there is the hottest enjoyment, the party goes on and everyone like to celebrity's dances at night.
There is ample space to the party here, just be sure to book your space early and it is the busiest place.
What do the peoples do on this day?
It starts at the beginning of the year, in the midnight, and a lot of social activities like fireworks, parties, and special events which can also be viewed on television, and so many good news.
In some towns and cities of the worlds, a parade is organized and special football games are played.
Official institutions, organizations, schools and many businesses are closed in the US on New Year's Day. Public transport systems do not work on regular schedules.
Where great public celebrations can be done with cleanup surgery can hurt traffic. In general, public life is completely closed.
The Gregorian calendar is widely used in many countries, such as the United States of America. This was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.
It was then until the use of the Julian calendar to move back in the spring equinox calendar year, where it has a little deviation.
The Gregorian calendar has not been accepted everywhere, and you can observe in some churches of Eastern Europe.
The common symbol of the New Year's Day is the New Year's Baby. Usually, this is a white baby boy wearing a baby gown, a hat, and a wing.
Also by the start of the New Year, there are many pictures of a newborn baby, seldom as they sit and even stand alone.
Other symbols at the beginning of the year are the spectacular fireworks that burst out during the hours and hours of the stunning nighttime as it begins.
Introduces the origin and customs of the New Year. … Regardless of where the ancestors come from, every Chinese sees the Lunar New Year as the most important festival of the year.
How the New Year is celebrated in China And Taiwan?
Moreover, in the ancient legend, all night lights still scare away the intention of the beast. In addition, some families will be held after midnight religious special ceremony, and finally will usually put a long list of firecrackers to welcome the New Year.
Another important work of the day is to wear new clothes to visit friends and family, and to congratulate the "congratulations to make a fortune"; this time, is also a good time for reconciliation, all new hatred must be put aside in the year.
The origin of the Lunar New Year, well-founded, and rich and colorful legend can be traced back thousands of years ago; one of the most famous is the "beast" legend.
Regardless of where the ancestors come from, every Chinese sees the Lunar New Year as the most important festival of the year.
In order to ensure good luck, again and again, each dish has a good name to auspicious.
This dish is called "five blessing", a symbol of longevity, wealth, peace, wisdom and good luck.
At this time, the family will be filled with red envelopes to the home of the elderly and children; also the whole family together to greet the New Year.
According to legend, the age can be raised for their parents, so New Year's Eve is usually sleepless nights with bright lights.
For children, the most exciting thing in the New Year holiday is to receive a red envelope.
According to an interesting legend, New Year's Day is the day when the rats are married. After the night, every household must go out to bed early so that the family can hold a wedding.
Before the New Year, the street is always crowded with the crowd to buy Happy New Year gifts.
Like other festivals, food during this Spring Festival also play a very important role; the Spring Festival diet in addition to the pursuit of color and taste in order to reward themselves and their families, the more important thing is to pray also makes a good sign.
The dragon and lion dance is a very important recreational activity in the New Year holiday.
The Spring Festival activities in Taiwan still occupy an unparalleled important position.
The department stores are constantly playing to congratulate the New Year's happy songs, in order to attract the year-end bonus office workers patronize.
A few days before New Year's Eve, went to other places to work and study wandering began to plan the date of return home, In order to avoid traffic congestion on the way home, people usually leave early.
Therefore, no matter how tired the journey, once with the family re-join at the table to enjoy the annual most important dinner, all the inconvenience and hard work are worth for this occasion.
At the beginning of the year, most of the shops in the city were closed, and restaurants would be particularly expensive.
The Happy New Year 2018 Images HD Eve is approaching fast and in 2018 it's time to decide where you want to celebrate it, and there are so many wonderful ideas about Happy New Year 2018 Images HD, Wishes, Wallpapers HD.


Read about Sears Holdings Heroes at Home.
In Oct. 2005, SHC received the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award.
The award was created to publicly recognize American employers who provide exceptional support to their employees who voluntarily serve the nation in the National Guard and Reserve.
In March 2006, SHC was honored with the Military Officers Association of America's Distinguished Service Award.
Award recognized SHC's support of associates in the Guard and Reserve and military families nationwide.
Sears signed a Five Star Statement of Support of the ESGR, publicly demonstrating support for employees who serve in the National Guard and Reserve.
Reviewed its human resources policies to ensure compliance with the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-Employment Rights Acts Law.
Promotes training for managers and supervisors to effectively manage associates who serve in the Guard and Reserve.
Adopted polices and programs that are "Above and Beyond" what is required by the USERRA Law.
Serves as an advocate for associate service in the National Guard and Reserve and helps to promote the mission of ESGR.
Previously, policy provided 36 months of coverage.
Continue participating in SHC's life insurance, medical and dental programs.
Receive annual merit pay increases, incentive pay.
SHC holds a comparable position for deployed employees for up to five years.
The company has encouraged and supported employees serving in the armed forces for decades.
Records indicate that Sears provided support to employees serving in the military in 1916.
Sears' pay differential was first instituted in 1990 for Operation Desert Shield-Storm.
In 2002, Sears Logistics Services (SLS) became a founding member of ASEP, partnering with 12 other companies and the Department of Army to pilot a program that offers spouses of service members a resource for finding employment.
Provides spouses with the opportunity to meet short- and long-term employment goals and increase family financial security.
ASEP Web site links to sears.com/careers and allows spouses to search Sears job openings by zip code for added convenience.
SLS program manager continues to serve on the ASEP strategic communications committee.
Partnership expanded to all SHC units in 2006.
Army recruiting tool designed to provide civilian jobs to qualified soldiers after completing their initial tour of duty.
At enlistment, soldier expresses interest in potential employment with SHC. When service duty ends, SHC provides soldier with priority application opportunity.
Sears Logistics Services was a founding members in 2001.
Today, all SHC, including all Sears and Kmart retail formats, participate in the program.
SHC has more soldiers signed on today than any other of the 90 corporate PaYS partners.
Allows senior level active duty military personnel with logistics experience to work at SHC corporate headquarters and field units for one year in lieu of continuing education at a service-related school.
Both the military and Sears benefit from sharing the service member's experience and leadership skills.
Nine members from Army and Marine Corps have participated for more than five years.
Kmart currently has recruiting efforts in its field organization focusing on the US Navy's Transition Assistance Program (TAP).
Through a grant of nearly $2.5 million to the National Military Family Association (NMFA), SHC was the exclusive sponsor of "Operation Purple Summer Camps," a series of camps for children of deployed military personnel.
SHC's donation is the largest in NMFA's history.
Funding is part of the Sears American Dream Campaign, a multi-year $100 million commitment to strengthen families, homes and communities nationwide.
Operation Purple is the first camp to bring together children of deployed parents from all branches of the armed forces, including the National Guard and Reserves.
In 2005, more than 2,500 children, ages 8 to 18, at 23 camps participated in typical camp activities and special programs to teach strategies for dealing with deployment-related stress.
In 2004, nearly 1,000 children participated in 12 camps.
Keepsake Book: "A Tribute to Military Families: Letters of Thanks from Our Nation's Children"
Sears and NMFA published the keepsake book to celebrate the importance of military families and raise awareness of their contributions to the strength of the U.S. military force.
Book features 100 essays written by children from fourth through sixth grade as part of an essay contest sponsored by Sears and NMFA.
Half the essays feature children writing about why they are proud of their family member serving in the military.
The other essays feature children writing about why they appreciate the families of service members.
Out of the more than 1,000 entries, a distinguished judging panel helped select the essays included in book, including Gen. Richard Myers, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Every municipal public library in the country.
Almost every major U.S. military installation in the world.
Every Member of the U.S. Congress.
National and local media outlets.
Books were sold on sears.com with proceeds benefiting NMFA.
To honor military families as part of the Sears American Dream Campaign, Sears sold HomeFront Cards in its Full-line stores nationwide.
The greeting card outreach program gave customers the opportunity to thank military families for their courage and sacrifice.
Proceeds benefited NMFA to benefit "Operation Purple."
The cards will be available for $2 between April 17 and May 16, while supplies last. Completes cards were delivered to military families across the country living on or near installations with high deployments.


text:
Five Knights ask to brief Tories on Chinook fatal crash
Tony Collins
Exploring the challenges involved in large-scale IT projects in the public sector.
Another one bites the dust: Bauer's departure from NHS England highlights public sector-wide issue
A big dose of digital for the NHS
RAF chiefs rubbish software claims – ComputerWeekly.com
Air chief marshall attacks Chinook evidence – ComputerWeekly.com
RAS three believe pilot error may not have caused ... – ComputerWeekly.com
Four former chiefs of the air staff – and a former RAF Chief Engineer – have written to the Daily Telegraph saying they would wish to brief ministers if there is "yet another" review of the RAF's decision to blame the pilots for the crash of Chinook ZD 576 on the Mull in June 1994.
Sir Michael Graydon, Sir Richard Johns, Sir Peter Squire, Sir Glenn Torpy, and Sir Michael Alcock say that the finding of gross negligence against the pilots of ZD 576 was "inescapable".
It appears that the five wish to preempt the appointment of a High Court judge to review the evidence against the pilots, which is what the Tories have promised to do if they are elected.
All Labour ministers have accepted their briefings on the crash by civil servants and military top brass, and have steadfastly refused to order a review of the decision to blame the pilots.
Will the Tories go back on their promise to order a new review once they have been briefed by the five adversaries of the families of the dead pilots?
Computer Weekly will be publishing shortly internal MoD documents as further new evidence – new in the sense that they are newly-disclosed.
We will also publish, for the first time, evidence of a potentially fundamental weakness in the investigation of the crashed Chinook's Fadec system by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch. We will also publish details of particular faults in the system's software.
RAF rules at the time were that dead pilots could not be found negligent unless there was "absolutely no doubt whatsoever". And nobody can be certain the pilots were to blame.
Even if the test were "beyond reasonable doubt" the few uncontested facts wouldn't support a finding of negligence.
Much of the helicopter was destroyed in the crash; there was no cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder; and the information downloaded by the manufacturer of an "RNS 252 SuperTANS" navigation computer, which was used by the RAF as substitute black box, was not independently verified.
The final decision on whether the pilots were negligent should be left to an independent judge.
It's not a decision for me, for campaigners for the families of the dead pilots, or, with due respect, for the Five Knights named above.
Letter to the Telegraph:
Chinook accident review
SIR – We understand that in the event of a Conservative administration coming to power it will revisit the Mull of Kintyre Chinook accident and consider the negligence finding.
Each one of us has reviewed separately the findings of the Board of Inquiry and reached the same conclusion, namely that basic airmanship failings caused this tragic accident.
If yet another review is to take place then we would welcome an opportunity to brief ministers and discuss in necessary detail why this finding remains inescapable. In particular, it will be explained precisely why it cannot be overturned by recourse to a hypothesis for which there is no evidence and which is revealed as wholly implausible when tested against the known facts.
Sir Michael Graydon
Chief of the Air Staff 1992-1997
Sir Richard Johns
Sir Peter Squire
Sir Glenn Torpy
Sir Michael Alcock
Chief Engineer (RAF) 1994-1999
Air Chiefs' letter – Daily Telegraph
Flawed Chinook safety-critical Fadec updated only after Mull crash – IT Projects Blog
Call for pilots to be cleared – Daily Telegraph
BBC "Today" reports again on "bitter debate" over Chinook danger Fadec – IT Projects Blog
David Bicknell - 15 Jan 2010 7:17 AM
Why is it I suspect the dead hand of the MoD behind the scenes here? 'Come on, old boy, just add your name to the letter. There's a good chap.'
Scandalous!
Continue with your campaign, Tony - until you win!
Tony Collins - 15 Jan 2010 7:59 AM
Thank you David. There are a lot of campaigners for the reputations of the dead pilots to be restored, on the basis that nobody knows for certain why the crash happened.
On the other hand there are some in the military hierarchy who decline to discuss why they put a helicopter into service that wasn't airworthy and who seem determined to stop the findings against the pilots being reviewed.
As you suggest, why would they be so intent on blaming the pilots - to the point of wanting to stop the Tories appointing a High Court judge to review the evidence - if there was nothing to be hidden?
As the MoD as Boscombe Down said, the Chinook Mk2 should not have gone into service without a software re-write. To then blame the pilots for a notorious fatal crash because the wreckage has not thrown up obvious technical malfunctions is too convenient.
The wreckage did in fact throw up problems, but they were not understood at the time. I'll be writing this up shortly.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Abstract: We study random mechanism design in an environment where the set of alternatives has a Cartesian product structure. We first show that all generalized random dictatorships are sd-strategy-proof on a minimally rich domain if and only if all preferences are top-separable. We call a domain satisfying top-separability a multidimensional domain, and furthermore generalize the notion of connectedness (Monjardet, 2009) to a broad class of multidimensional domains: connected+ domains. We show that in the class of minimally rich and connected+ domains, the multidimensional single-peakedness restriction is necessary and sufficient for the design of a flexible random social choice function that is unanimous and sd-strategy-proof. Such a flexible random social choice function allows for a systematic notion of compromise. We prove an analogous result for deterministic social choice functions satisfying anonymity. Our characterization remains valid for a problem of voting under constraints where not all alternatives are feasible (Barberà, Massó and Neme, 1997).


text:
Q: Missing Implicit return type when returning an Enum member in Typescript Today I came across something interesting at work regarding the return type of a function when using Enum. I have tried to reproduce and make a simple example here.
const enum Fruits {
  Apple,
  Orange,
  Kiwi,
}

function getTest1() {
  return Fruits.Apple;
}

function getTest2(foo: boolean) {
  if (foo) {
    return Fruits.Orange;
  }

  return Fruits.Kiwi;
}

type test1ReturnType = ReturnType<typeof getTest1>;
type test2ReturnType = ReturnType<typeof getTest2>;

You can also play around with this example here: TS Playground
As you can see I would expect the test1ReturnType to be Fruits.Apple since test2ReturnType is correctly typed as the union of Fruits.Orange | Fruits.Kiwi. This is not the case, and it is actually returning Fruits, which makes absolutely no sense.
Why isn't it returning the obvious? I know how that adding as const in the getTest1 fn will fix this, but it shouldn't since getTest2 is correctly typed.
I want to understand what's happening.

A: The underlying issue here is not specific to enums.  It happens whenever you return a value of a single literal type from a function instead of a union of such types.  For example, here is the analogous behavior for string literals:
function foo() { return "a"; }
// function foo(): string

function bar() { return Math.random() < 0.5 ? "a" : "z" };
// function bar(): "a" | "z"

The compiler uses heuristics to determine whether or not to widen a literal to its base type, based on assumptions of what behavior would most accurately conform to the expectations and desires of developers of real world code.  These rules are described in microsoft/TypeScript#10676, the PR that implemented this functionality.
For example, compare the inferred types in the following lines:
const x = "a"; // const x: "a"
let y = "a"; // let y: string

Here the type of x is inferred as the string literal type "a", while the type of y is widened from "a" to string.  The reasoning behind this difference is that you can't change the value of a const variable, but you can change the value of a let variable.  The assumption is that the author of this code probably intends to change the value of y to some other string, otherwise they would have used const.
Of course heuristics are just heuristics; and they sometimes get things wrong. When the compiler's inference rules do something you don't like, your recourse is to express your intent explicitly, such as with a type annotation:
let z: "a" = "a"; // let z: "a"

Anyway, the specific situation you've run into is described in this comment. The compiler assumes that few people intentionally write functions that return a single literal type.  A function implementation that always returns "a" or Fruits.Apple might plausibly be modified in the future to return a different string value or a different Fruit value... otherwise the author probably wouldn't have bothered making this a function in the first place.  So the return type is widened.  But if a function implementation returns a union of literal values, it's more likely that the author would be happy with the narrower type.
Again, this isn't always what people want, but is apparently close enough that it broke the least amount of real world code when this functionality was introduced.  If you are unhappy with it, your recourse is again to be more explicit, such as with a return type annotation:
function baz(): "a" {
    return "a";
}

Playground link to code

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Hotel Artists
Books & the Arts
How working in hotels led Henri Matisse and Ian Wallace to rediscover the intoxicating purity of light.
By Barry Schwabsky
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Christmas 1917: Elsewhere in France, war was raging, but not in Nice, where Henri Matisse had checked into the Hôtel Beau-Rivage. A few years earlier, the painter had been turned down for military service on the grounds of poor health. Safe in Paris, he'd been haunted by guilt at how little he could contribute to the war effort, and he struggled—fruitfully—with some of the most severe, ascetic paintings of his career. They were "displays of force," one fellow painter declared at the time. Now Matisse wanted a little less reality. Leaving his wife and younger children behind in Paris, he'd gone south, stopping along the way to visit his eldest son Jean, who'd been called up and was stationed west of Marseille. At the Beau-Rivage on January 1, 1918, the day after his forty-eighth birthday, Matisse began painting what would be his last self-portrait: a chilly depiction of a suited, bespectacled, reserved bourgeois with a brush that we have come to accept as the quintessential image of this artist. It's "a powerful, anti-heroic, oddly provisional image for a man approaching 50 with an international reputation," writes his biographer, Hilary Spurling. Although masquerading as the solid citizen (the anti-bohemian, the functionary of art), the painter shows himself with a suitcase at his feet. He was a nomad.
Matisse stayed on at the Beau-Rivage until early April 1918. Over the next few years he would head south each winter, staying in various hotels around Nice, mainly the Hôtel de la Méditerranée, and would eventually find a place of his own in town. Years later, he reminisced about the Méditerranée with Francis Carco, the arch-bohemian poet and novelist who also happened to be staying in Nice at the same time: "A good old hotel, I must say! And what lovely Italian-style ceilings! What tiles!… I stayed there four years for the pleasure of painting nudes and figures in an old rococo salon. Do you remember the way the light came through the shutters? It came from below like footlights in a theater. Everything was fake, absurd, terrific, delicious…." The impassive figure we see in Matisse's 1918 self-portrait does not look like the kind of man who would have a camp sensibility, a "love of the unnatural" and "of artifice and exaggeration," as Susan Sontag famously defined it. The man in the picture is still the one who spent many years battling with his Bathers by a River, started in 1909 and only completed (or, as Paul Valéry would have said, abandoned) in 1917. Or he is the man who—to take an example from the fine exhibition now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (through March 17), "Matisse: In Search of True Painting"—had painted the darkly luminous, bluntly geometricized still life Apples, 1916. The fruit is beautiful, but it would not have tempted Eve to bite.
The journey to Nice led Matisse to a different manner of painting. His was to become an "often decorative art, emphasizing texture, sensuous surface, and style at the expense of content"—again, the words are Sontag's, and though written without reference to Matisse, they are apt. The art of Matisse's Nice period is often associated with the "return to order" proclaimed by Jean Cocteau as the watchword for the 1920s, but this seems mistaken. The neoclassicism and archaism of some of Picasso's work or of the Novecento Italiano are real manifestations of a return to order. (With the Italians, the political implications were clear enough; their great promoter was Mussolini's mistress, Margherita Sarfatti.) In Matisse's case, the work of the war years is more deeply permeated with a search for order than what he produced in the decade that followed. In Nice, he rediscovered the intoxicating purity of light, but he also rediscovered—through Auguste Renoir, whom he went to visit almost immediately in nearby Cagnes-sur-Mer—the Impressionist treatment of light, using it in his paintings to dissolve hard boundaries between forms.
But unlike most of the Impressionists, Matisse would not be pre-eminently a landscapist, a plein-air painter. He would not be a painter of nature, because "to be natural," per Sontag and Oscar Wilde, "is such a very difficult pose to keep up." In "fake, absurd, terrific, delicious" hotel rooms, ones that turned natural light into theatrical lighting, he found that "the richness and the silver clarity of the light of Nice" had been trapped and condensed, intensified even when gathered in shade, and bounced from wall to wall and ceiling to floor in a kind of dizzying ebullience: always changing, always in motion. The exhibition at the Met—the theme of which is how Matisse "used his completed canvases as tools, repeating compositions in order to compare effects, gauge his progress, and, as he put it, 'push further and deeper into true painting'"—is perfectly pitched to his Nice period. His newfound fascination with theatricality, combined with his immersion in the mercurial nature of light and its incessant intersuffusions, enabled him to show the same motifs again within the compass of the same room, which can never be as neutral a background as a proper artist's studio, and can never be the same way twice.
At the Met, there is a pair of remarkable and, at first glance, very similar paintings of the same room, with nearly the same view; they are The Open Window (Room at the Hôtel Beau-Rivage), 1917–18, and Interior at Nice (Room at the Hôtel Beau-Rivage), 1918. In a way, they are both paintings of nothing. This could be the room in Roy Lichtenstein's celebrated 1961 painting in which ace reporter Steve Roper is looking through a hole in the door and exclaiming, "I can see the whole room!…and there's nobody in it!" The absence of the figure in these paintings is palpable—it's as if the armchair in which the model should have been seated has been pushed aside to make room for her absence, and for the view of sea and sky out of a window that seems to wear its lace curtains as the model would have worn her artfully revealing dishabille. The second version, a tad larger, shows a bit more of the room and puts the window at a greater distance. The sky is whiter in the second version and its reflection in the open window correspondingly paler, whereas in the first it has been painted nearly the same deep blue as the sea. Perhaps for this reason the most notable difference between these two paintings is that in the first, the room is dominated by the sky and sea at its center, which amount to a single dominant entity, while in the second, as Dorthe Aagesen writes in the exhibition catalog, "the focus shifts to the decor," above all the green armchair on the left. The earlier painting uses light to collapse the room's space nearly into a single intransigent plane; the second version opens it up, softening the painting's impact but letting in more air. It's a sunnier picture, with a different sense of looseness and spontaneity.
For Matisse, there could never be only one way to interpret a scene; he always recognized that it could have been painted otherwise. "I do not repudiate any of my paintings," he famously declared, "but there is not one of them that I would not redo differently, if I had it to redo. My destination is always the same but I work out a different route to get there." Earlier on, he would have been more likely to start with a more conventional, easygoing approach, painting his way toward a stark and unyielding work; at the Met, for example, there is the sweet, almost anecdotal 1914 view of Notre-Dame that is usually in the collection of the Kunstmuseum Solothurn in Switzerland, hung alongside the far more famous, nearly abstract one he painted a little later the same year, which belongs to New York's MoMA. Or observe, likewise, the pairing of Interior with Goldfish and the slightly later Goldfish and Palette, both also from 1914. The difference between the two 1918 views of the room at the Hôtel Beau-Rivage is far subtler, but what's more telling is that the development from one to the next runs in the opposite direction: having learned how to be obdurate, Matisse was teaching himself again how to yield. Earlier, Matisse had been determined, as he said, "to risk losing charm in order to obtain greater stability." Now he'd become fascinated by charm, and the way it put a classical sense of stability in doubt, redirecting the viewer's attention from the compositional center to its "decor."
But the story doesn't end there, because there is a third painting of the same room, also from 1918. Yet one wouldn't have mistaken it for another version of the same view: it's a bigger painting and an altogether bigger statement. Interior with a Violin (Room at the Hôtel Beau-Rivage) shows the same room—the same window, chair on the left (now with an open violin case resting on it, revealing its treasure), dresser on the right. But despite the change of scale, it shows less of the room. The focus is tighter, the vantage point higher—we can see a bit of beach out the window, which wasn't visible in the other two paintings, but the ceiling's been cut out of the frame, making the room feel much less boxy but also somehow smaller, almost constricted, and the froufrou of the curtains has been reduced to a minimum. The great change is in color, or rather in tone: this is a dark picture. One of the blinds has been closed, the other half-closed, and the space is bathed in shadows. Yet miraculously, this darkness is somehow luminous. "In that painting," Matisse said, "I painted light in black."
As different as Interior with a Violin may be from its two precursors, Matisse couldn't have painted it without having painted them. If you look back at the two earlier paintings, you'll notice a detail that might not have registered before: the dark bar around the top of the curtains. When Matisse showed Renoir his paintings, the master was thunderstruck by the bar. "How do you do that?" Renoir exclaimed. "If I used a black like that in a painting, it would jump out at you." In fact, the Impressionists had more or less banished black from their palette; for them, it was not a color, and its use would have destroyed the unity of painting, whose basis was color. Matisse realized that he could take what he wanted from the Impressionists because the foundations of his art were different, and more capacious. Interior with a Violin is his proclamation of that discovery. Though his idol Renoir would have been horrified to hear this, Impressionism for Matisse was at one with the "fake, absurd, terrific, delicious" charm of a hotel in Nice, which he could enjoy or abstain from as he pleased.
Checking into the Beau-Rivage, Matisse deliberately uprooted himself from his settled existence in Paris—he was checking out of everyday life. But a successful artist these days hardly has what Matisse would have recognized as a settled life. Consider the Canadian artist Ian Wallace, whose remarkable retrospective at the Vancouver Art Gallery, "At the Intersection of Painting and Photography," continues to preoccupy me [see "Heroism, Hidden," January 7/14]. In 2008, for instance, Wallace had solo gallery shows in London, Brussels and New York, not to mention a museum show in Zurich, Rotterdam and Düsseldorf. Naturally, he'll have traveled to all those cities, and I wouldn't be surprised if he also attended the group shows in Ottawa and Vienna that featured his work. And, of course, there are artists who are far more in demand than Wallace. How does one keep making work in such circumstances?
Wallace has long been interested in making his activity as an artist a subject of his work: "documenting my workspace," as he says, is "a self-consciously modernist strategy" for self-reflection. One of the thematic sections of the Vancouver exhibition is accordingly devoted to "The Studio." But "studio," it becomes clear, is a highly elastic term as it applies to Wallace's artistic practice. Yes, the white-walled, cement-floored ex-industrial space where Wallace habitually works in Vancouver appears in various pieces; it's sweet, too, to catch sight (in Work in Progress [June 28, 2010], 2010) of the drum kit he keeps there—his counterpart, perhaps, to the violin Matisse liked to play as a break from his painting, and which was perhaps a stand-in for himself in Interior with a Violin. But many of Wallace's studio pictures—which, like most of his work since the late 1980s, juxtapose photographic images and monochromatic or geometrically abstract painting—are really hotel pictures. Among them are four in whose collective title I like to think Matisse would have found a pleasing irony: Abstract Drawing (Hotel de Nice, Paris, February 2, 2010) I-IV, 2010. As "fake, absurd, terrific, delicious" as a Nice hotel might have been, wouldn't a Parisian hotel pretending to represent Nice be even more so? In these works, as in many of Wallace's other hotel pictures (and unlike Matisse's paintings from the Hôtel Beau-Rivage), one can hardly sense the room as a whole, though there is that window; these are still life paintings, where the focus is on a tabletop and the things it holds. The Hotel de Nice suite shows us the sheets of paper on which the artist has been making some geometrical abstract drawings, his supply of colored pencils, a zipper pouch of who knows what small items (a pair of scissors seems to be sticking out—that can't have been in his carry-on bag!), and an ashtray filled not with stubbed-out cigarettes but with delicately curled pencil shavings.
One trait that Wallace's Hotel de Nice pictures—and, for that matter, nearly all his other hotel pieces—have in common with Matisse's paintings from the Hôtel Beau-Rivage is their concern with light. And as with the Matisse of Interior with a Violin, the inclusion of a window in a generally dark picture, and therefore of the gamut of tones between brightness and shadow, makes the light theatrical. The hotel still lifes are a reminder of just what a good photographer Wallace is. "I accept the subject as it presents itself to me," he has said, but his avowal is misleading. His street pictures certainly give such an impression, but the hotel still lifes are studied: the light is recorded not passively, but with great tenderness and warmth, and one feels the artist's affection for these familiar tools, just as one feels the light in one's fingers, in the palms of one's hands, as one looks at the images. We see them from above, probably at the same angle as the artist would, contemplating the piece of work he is about to continue. The objects are placed with a deceptively casual-looking geometrical rigor that Matisse would have answered with a smile.
Wallace likes to emphasize that the artist is not only a maker but also a thinker. In other hotel pictures of his—as in his studio pictures more broadly—the accouterments shown are ones that might belong to the poet he once thought of becoming: books, notebooks, pens. Or they might belong to the art historian he has also been, traveling to some symposium. But light touches his things delicately, akin to how his colored pencils have touched his sheets of paper: a delicacy that thought alone—so much clumsier than light—rarely achieves.
Barry Schwabsky recently devoted an article to the work of Ian Wallace, "Heroism, Hidden."
Barry Schwabskyis the art critic of The Nation.


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text:
Tariff Cuts on Information Technology Goods
When the World Trade Organization's expanded Information Technology Agreement takes affect, importers will see tariff cuts and expect lower costs for information technology goods.
Sandler & Travis Trade Advisory Services, Inc. states that only about a third of the WTO's members have signed the expanded Information Technology Agreement, which binds them to provide DUTY-FREE access to their markets for affected goods for all 162 WTO members.
› The Information Technology Agreement (ITA) was concluded by 29 participants at the Singapore Ministerial Conference in December 1996. Since then, the number of participants has grown to 82, representing about 97 per cent of world trade in IT products. The participants are committed to completely eliminating tariffs on IT products covered by the Agreement. At the Nairobi Ministerial Conference in December 2015, over 50 members concluded the expansion of the Agreement, which now covers an additional 201 products valued at over $1.3 trillion per year.
The newly expanded ITA, which was established in December 2015 covers 201 products of information and communications technology that are currently subject to tariffs of up to 35 percent. Some of the products include:
multi-component semiconductors (MCOs)
medical equipment,
GPS devices,
tools for manufacturing printed circuits,
video game consoles,
printer ink cartridges,
static converters and inductors,
loudspeakers, software media (e.g., solid state drives),
point-of-sale cards to download software and games,
LEDs, touch-sensitive input devices,
children's electronic learning devices, and
various information and communications technology testing instruments.
Download Full Product List
Sandler & Travis Trade Advisory Services, Inc. continues, "Tariffs on about two-thirds of the tariff lines covered by the expanded ITA are set to be eliminated as of July 1. In the U.S. this change will require a presidential proclamation to take effect. No such proclamation had been issued at press time, and if it is not issued by July 1 it will most likely have retroactive effect when it is issued. Most of the remaining tariffs will be phased out in annual stages through July 1, 2019, though some will not be fully eliminated for five or even seven years. Tariff elimination schedules vary by country and China will phase out its tariffs more slowly than others.
Companies dealing in covered goods can take several steps to take advantage of the expanded ITA. Internal systems should be updated based on the duty reduction schedules of the countries in which covered items are sourced (see below for U.S. schedule, which could ultimately be modified in the proclamation). Existing and anticipated product lines should be reviewed to confirm which will benefit from duty-free treatment. Binding rulings may be sought if there are questions as to whether a particular product is covered, noting that differences of opinion on the scope of the goods falling into the designated tariff provisions are likely to arise both within and outside the U.S. These steps should be repeated in each source country participating in the expanded ITA given likely variances in tariff language, tariff interpretation and duty reduction schedules.
In conducting these evaluations it should be noted that while the United Kingdom's eventual withdrawal from the European Union may impact how the expanded ITA is applied to goods entering the UK, until withdrawal is complete the UK will remain a part of the EU and apply the EU tariff schedule, which will incorporate the expanded ITA provisions based on its staging schedule. (Visit our Brexit Information Hub for news and information about the trade impacts of the UK withdrawal from the EU.)"
Download Full Product List U.S. Tariff Phaseout Schedule


"Thank you, Lord, that Dave was not hurt when he fell out of bed this morning. Thank you for the progress he is making walking with his walker. Thank you that the PSW can give me a couple of hours respite a week and that he is on the overnight respite list for follow-up and interview. Please continue to pray for further progress in walking, and using the bell in his bedroom before falling. Pray also that he is able to have some overnight care. I do thank you for your continued prayer. Linda"