text:
Tinfoil Helmet
From the file marked 'Please can I have a job at the Daily Mash… please… pretty please…' we find a 'Staff Reporter' at the Sun getting the annual silly season off to a flying start:
Anti Alien' hats for Wales
A US boffin has pledged 'anti-alien' hats to Welsh UFO-spotters after The Sun revealed how stunned police gave chase to a UFO over Cardiff.
The 'thought screen' – creation of US aircraft worker Michael Menkin – is claimed to protect people from being abducted.
Yep, The Sun is actually running a tinfoil helmet story somewhere other than in its 'Sun Says…' leader column and its a doozy, as it goes on to quote Menkin as having told The Sun that…
"The people in Wales will benefit by making their own helmets.
"Everybody would be a lot safer if they had one in the house. There seems to have been more reports (of UFOs) lately in Wales and Scotland and the western half of the British Isles."
Now, you might think that you couldn't top that quote for comedy value, but wait… there's more…
Margaret Fry, of the Welsh Fellowship of Ufologists, fumed: "I have seen UFOs, but I don't believe in crackpot ideas like this.
"It's ridiculous. People in the Welsh Federation have been investigating UFOs for 40 years and none of us subscribes to this nonsense."
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!
FUCK ME!!!
Yes, you are seeing what you think you're seeing – the woman who claims to have seen UFOs and has been 'investigating' them for 40 years is really calling the man with the tinfoil hat a 'crackpot'.
Please tell me this story has been spotted by the 'Mock The Week' crew – as I understand it they record the show on Tuesday for transmission on the following Thursday and there's got to be a half-hour show's worth of material in this one story alone.
4 thoughts on "Tinfoil Helmet"
asquith says:
That's how they want you to react.
Michael Menkin says:
Here is my report on the thought screen helmet. Michael Menkin
Report on Alien Abductions and the Thought Screen Helmet by Inventor Michael Menkin
The Alien Presence on the Earth
It's the worst thing that's happened to the human race, state one of the first persons to try my invention, the thought screen helmet. He was referring to a relatively recent phenomenon which started around 1890, the taking of human beings by aliens from space. Although the readers of this journal are familiar of this activity, I'd like to summarize it to some extent.
From what qualified investigators such as David Jacobs have found, there is a race of aliens from a distant planet, with a very advanced technology and knowledge of mental activity, which found its way to the earth and is preying on our race. From what we have been able to learn, the aliens are taking both men and women and using their reproductive materials, eggs from women and sperm from men, to make a new race which retains their key alien characteristics while being able to live with humans on our planet. This process is an act of subterfuge, the aliens do it in secret and are able to erase the short term memories of their victims so most of the victims remember little of what transpires. The aliens are doing this all over the world.
Also from what we have learned, the aliens plan some final event, where they will dominate and control all of the human race. So as one of my first abductees to wear a helmet said, it's the worst thing that has ever happened to the human race and the greatest threat to the human race. The survival of our race on this planet depends on how we deal with this phenomenon and if we can effectively combat alien activity. I don't know what else to call it except that the survival of the human race depends on our ability to handle the problem. At this writing, March 2008, we've had little success in stopping aliens. But we have had enough success to encourage us to keep trying and sounding an alarm of alien activities.
Dealing with this problem has been made more difficult because all of the governments of the world, with the exception of Belgium, are hiding it. Since alien activity is seen all over the world in the form of UFOs and as encounters on the ground, all governments must be aware of some kind of activity, but to what extent we really don't know. Investigators such as Stanton Friedman have been instrumental in revealing some of the activities that governments do know about UFOs and alien activity.
Our knowledge of alien activities is confounded by investigators who may be confused, have wishes of what they would like aliens to be, and those who provide misleading or false reports just for monetary gain. There are a great mixture of all types of investigators in the UFO community.
Making Sense of Alien Behavior and Technology
My approach to the problem is that we must make sense of it, and we must use our existing science to understand it. We cannot get confused with fantasy and fiction. For example, the word
The thought screen helmet is a real device. It uses velostat which has different electrical properties than metals. Velostat has impedance, does not hold a static charge and grounds easily. The velostat changes the transmission between aliens and humans, it does not stop it. Please see the case histories and testimonials on my website, stopabductions.com. For additional information about alien abductions, especially the abduction of children, see my other site, aliensandchildren.org. Also see Professor Jacobs' site, ufoabduction.com for information on alien abductions. I have been making thought screen helmets using velostat and sending them to people all over the world for free for nine years. Eventually I will obtain real proof of alien abductions. If you are interested in alien abductions, please contact me at mmenkin@nwlink.com. If you go to stopabductions.com you will see a new statement about the U.S. Air Force, which is a frequent visitor to the site.
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Source: Brand-Miller, Prof Jennie. Foster-Powell, Kaye. Colagiuri, Prof Stephen. The New Glucose Revolution. Sydney: Hodder, revised ed. 1998.
Much of what we have been taught for many years about carbohydrates (eg sugar = bad, complex starch = good) has been based on a theory that the body would break down sugars more easily than starches. It seemed like a good theory – but has failed the test of actually working in real human beings.
The researchers who wrote this book set about testing what different carbohydrates did in the human body, by using actual human beings, getting them to eat different carbohydrate-containing foods, and measuring what happened to their blood sugar over time.
They then classified foods according to that affect, along what is called the Glycaemic Index (GI)– a numerical value to indicate what each individual food will do to blood sugar.
What happens when carbohydrate is absorbed by the human body varies according to the GI of a particular food. Foods with a low GI release sugar into the blood slowly – blood sugar rises at a slow, steady, rate, the body produces insulin at a slow and steady rate, and the blood sugar then releases at a slow and steady rate. Foods with a high GI release sugar into the blood quickly – blood sugar rises greatly and suddenly, the body produces a lot of insulin to control the blood sugar quickly, and the blood sugar drops suddenly.
This is important because: sudden spikes and drops in blood sugar just aren't good for the body and sudden spikes and drops in insulin can lead the body to "insulin resistence" - a body that just doesn't pay any attention to what insulin is doing anyway - a precursor to diabetes. (Uncontrolled blood sugar is even worse for people who already have diabetes.) It also affects weight loss – sudden rises and falls in blood sugar can make you feel hungry – keeping your blood sugar at a steady level can help keep you in control of your appetite, and helps your body burn the fuel you eat more efficiently.
The surprise is that the sugar we always thought was "bad" does not have an especially high GI, and the complex starches (eg flour) we were taught were "good" or at least "better" than sugar, can have a much higher GI.
So what things affect the GI of foods? Looking at the book, some things are inexplicable – that's why each individual food is tested.
Starch gelatinisation: the less gelatinised (swollen) the starch, the slower the rate of digestion.
Sugar Sugar, contrary to what we've been told for years, can slow down digestion.
GI Values. High = 70 or more; Medium = 56 to 69; Low = 55 or less.
We also need to be aware that some things with a high GI (eg carrots) actually have so little carbohydrate in them that the effect on blood sugar is negligable. Another term sometimes used alongside the GI is the Glycaemic Load (GL) which takes into account not just the measure of GI, but the amount of carbohydrate you actually eat in a serve.
There is page after page of listings of foods with their GI and GL in this book, as well as a variety of low GI recipes. And the authors have put together more books with more food listings, recipes. Each of the authors is a leader in their particular field: nutrition, diet, and diabetes and metabolic disorders.
Cherries (GI 22) This measurement is for European Cherries – Australian may be slightly higher.
So, in terms of eating for better health, the main message is to be aware of the impact food has on our bodies, and try to incorporate some low-GI carbohydrate at every meal.


text:
Category Archives: football
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Why the battle over taking the knee is no longer simply about race.
3rd January 2021 Dougie Brimson	1 Comment
A lot of people have asked me for my opinion on the issue of taking the knee and as anyone who follows me on social media will be aware, I've certainly been vocal on the subject for the the last few months. However, it's all but impossible to debate on twitter for reasons I will expand on in a moment and besides, you only have a limited amount of characters and time. So for the record, here's my opinion on the current situation.
If you agree, please feel free to copy and post the link to it on your own social media pages and/or leave a comment at the end. If you disagree, then that's fine with me. We do after all live in a free country. Something a certain section of society seem to have forgotten.
Whilst footballers taking the knee prior to kick off's obviously started with good if misguided intentions, what has unfolded over the last few months has turned it into something very different.
To be clear, 99.9% of football fans have actively supported Kick It Out since its inception and the same applies to pretty much every anti-discrimination campaign that has used football as a vehicle. Generally, football fans are a supportive bunch be it related to race, disability or sexuality and it takes an awful lot to get us fired up. Indeed, in my book Rebellion I documented some of the more well known times when football fans actually stood up to be counted in the face of adversity or injustice.
We are seeing one such time unfolding right now. For whilst Sky, the BBC and many of the Premier League clubs are portraying it as a universally supported movement, this is most definitely not the case. There is actually a growing number of supporters, myself included, who are fiercely opposed to players continuing to take a knee. The reason however, is not because we are in any way opposed to the anti-racism or anti-discrimination message, far from it. It's because we believe that it is a political gesture which has a symbolic association with an idealism that is totally unacceptable to us and as such, like the Black Power salute, is actually banned from being displayed inside football grounds under both FA and FIFA rules. And if you continue to harbour the misguided belief that it is none of this is political, just click here where you will find confirmation on Kick It Out's very own website.
However, the longer this has gone on, it has become increasingly apparent that this is no longer just about being anti-discrimination. It's actually developed into something much bigger. For fuelled by social media and aided by the fact that stadia are empty of supporters, taking the knee has gone beyond the issue of racism and has become the latest battleground in a series of confrontations between the left and the right.
If you doubt that, you need look no further than the profiles of the keyboard warriors ranting on twitter or reporting people to their clubs trying to get them banned (and I've actually had that happen to me more than once over the last two weeks). They're mostly young with zero life experience, usually students (with zero life experience) and always fuelled by the kind of 6th form left-wing politics that grown ups tend to leave behind when they've actually had to make their own way in the world. Some of them don't even seem to follow football at all, they're just jumping on the latest leftwaffe cause. In essence, they are the Corbynista in football shirts.
With this one however, there is one very significant difference from the battles we've seen previously.
You see despite all the social media screaming, the protests, the crazy polls and the Corbyn frenzy, the rabid left lost the EU referendum and were decimated at the last election because when push came to shove, the silent majority (middle England if you like) stood up just as they always do and slapped them down with a home truth or two.
With the knee, there is no referendum or election looming and therefore no opportunity for the right-wing and more sensible among us to apply the traditional reality check. As a consequence, with Brexit now done and Labour in disarray, this could well be the fanatical lefts last chance to win any kind of moral or faux political success for quite some time. Football is after all, traditionally working class and has a history of right wing political involvement so it's always been a natural target for their angst. Something we saw with their maniacal opposition to the FLA/DFLA which was immediately tagged as a far-right group when it was anything but.
Hence, despite all the evidence to the contrary from fans opposed to taking the knee -including many black and Asian supporters- they will continue to throw the racist card at anyone who expresses opposition to taking the knee for as long as they possibly can. The aim being to drive division into the game and create the kind of racial hostility that they've continued to claim is rife on the 'terraces' when the truth is that it hasn't actually existed to any degree since the 80's. This division will inevitably lead to confrontation of some kind with the end result being that we'll see those opposed to taking the knee being even further oppressed by the game if not banned altogether purely on the basis of their fictitious racism. Eventually, the left wing will be left free to claim that 'they' rid the game of racists and football, ever terrified of the racism accusation, will let them.
The problem is though, that just like they always do, they've succumbed to their undying thirst for power and instead of using basic common sense, they're blowing it. Again. And the reason is because people opposed to the knee are starting to get organised and fight back. The clamour for the anti-knee argument to be properly heard and discussed is growing. Fast.
Currently, the pro-knee activists and those riding the anti-racist gravy train still have the option to keep control, take a step back and say 'OK, we've made our point we need to stop it now'. This would immediately shut the problem down and allow them to save a degree of face whilst still being able to claim a moral victory of sorts. Instead, never a group to learn lessons from the past, they're continuing to follow their traditional path and have started to dig in with even more ludicrous attacks and a blanket refusal to even understand, let alone accept, that you can be anti-racism and anti-knee.
But by doing so, they are backing themselves into a corner and it's one from which there is no escape route. This can't continue forever and eventually the game (ironically the very manifestation of capitalism) is going to have to back down. It might be due to the FA or FIFA actually growing a pair and enforcing its own rules, it might be due to demands from Sky or sponsors but it's more likely going to be because the football industry will realise that by allowing it to continue, it's possibly backed the wrong horse. And as the anti-knee lobby start to get really organised and fight back not from behind a keyboard, but by taking more direct action, the game is looking at a PR nightmare that it cannot afford to be on the losing side of.
That's almost certainly one of the key reasons why clubs have been desperately pumping out statements claiming that players are not actually showing support for Black Lives Matter but that's not fooling anyone except the gullible. Indeed, if that were the case, why not follow Millwall's highly successful example and simply stand together as a gesture? Everyone would support that. Everyone.
Similarly, it would explain why Sky have just thrown their hat in with Kick It Out in an effort to try and dilute the growing BLM backlash but again, it's not fooling anyone. In fact the negative publicity surrounding fans being banned or 're-educated' merely for expressing an opinion is actually making things worse. And that's without the media backlash against players acting like complete twats during a pandemic because they think they're untouchable.
The big fear of course, is what's going to happen when fans are let back in en masse because that could turn very bad very quickly. Indeed the climbdown after the Millwall game was really telling. The game and Sky daren't make another mistake like that because there are enough fans cancelling subscriptions as it is and I'm already hearing talk of organised boycotts of major sponsors not to mention more protests of the kind we've been seeing at Swansea.
Quite what's going to happen over the next few weeks is anyone's guess but the sad fact is that I will merely be an interested observer. For after five decades of following Watford Football Club, I have informed them that as a veteran, I will not accept their feeble attempt to rebrand a gesture that has a clear and direct association to an organisation that only a few months ago, was attacking my comrades and monuments to the fallen. As a consequence, whilst I will continue to support the anti-discrimination cause in all my work, Watford will receive neither my support nor my money for the foreseeable future.
They may or may not miss me, I neither know nor care, but staying away is the only course of action I, as an individual, can take. And ultimately, that's what it boils down to. Those of us opposed to the knee each have the power to force a stop to this but we cannot rely on anyone to fight our corner because there is no one. Instead, we must each play our part be it by writing to our clubs, the FA, FIFA, Sky, etc and informing them that not only are we against the knee and why, but telling them what we are going to do in protest. Be it booing, turning our back, boycotting games, protesting outside stadia, handing back our season tickets, cancelling subscriptions or anything else. Arguing on twitter achieves nothing, collectively hitting them in the pocket is the single most positive thing we can do.
Join me.
Dougie Brimson has written three award-winning feature films (Green Street, Top Dog and We Still Kill The Old Way) and is the author of 16 books including the best-selling Billy Evans gangland trilogy. His latest thriller, In The Know, was published by Caffeine Knights in May 2020.
His next novel will be his first military thriller and will be published in 2021.
All his previous books and DVD's are available from both Amazon and iTunes.
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Why we love football.
8th April 2019 Dougie Brimson	5 Comments
As someone who is lucky enough to converse with people from pretty much every point of the spectrum on which human life sits, I frequently find myself responding to questions of some kind or another.
Inevitably, the bulk of these will revolve around subjects linked to writing and be of the 'how can I?' variety which is fine by me, after all, my work or writing will have been the thing which brought us together and if someone takes the time to contact me, it's only right that I afford them the courtesy of a reply.
Occasionally however, I'll get a curveball question and the range of issues these can cover is, to say the least, broad. Only recently for example, I found myself explaining to someone from the other side of the world why we British drive on the 'wrong' side of the road.
To be honest, I like this kind of random stuff. Not only does it tax the brain (or test my proficiency on google) but I find it quite rewarding to think that people actually feel comfortable enough to ask me these things. Especially when in some cases, I'll have been the first Englishman they'll have ever emailed.
My favourite question however, is one which lands in my inbox on a regular basis. It is quite simply, why football?
Usually of course, this will be used in the context of violence or hatred of some kind but increasingly, it's being asked by people who don't follow the game and want to know why those of us who do are so fanatical about it.
My response to this is that there is no such thing as a standard answer because there is no such thing as a standard football fan. To the uninitiated we might well come across as sheep (or even mugs) but when you look a little deeper, you'll quickly discover that there are all kinds of reasons to explain why we are all unique in our love of the great game and our respective teams. There are even different degrees of obsession but if you want to know more about that, then you best read this.
Amongst those of us who actually get off our backsides to attend games in the flesh however, there is one common thread and that is that being a fan of the game is not just about the 90 minutes of actual football. And I mean football, not even great football. For it's fair to say that some of the best days I've had as a supporter have been on days when my team -the glorious Watford- will have lost and I'd bet that most fans reading this will be nodding in agreement.
For the simple reality is that watching football is about one thing, hope. Hope that things will get better (or at least not get worse), hope that you will win promotion, not get relegated, beat your local rivals or even just carry on for one more season. Who know's, maybe even win the FA Cup or the Champions League.
And with that hope comes every kind of emotional experience possible all wrapped up in one simple word, passion.
To be a part of that passion and share those experiences with other like minded souls is why we do it and why we love it because it's where we feel that we belong. It's out religion and it's addictive, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
So don't ask me why we do it, just try and explain to me why you don't.
Speaking of football and fans, my old book Rebellion is now available as an ebook.
First published in 2006, it tells the background to some of the more infamous fan protests including those at Charlton, Wimbledon, Manchester United, Manchester City, Norwich and Bournemouth amongst many others.
Details of my other books, including the football comedy Wings of a Sparrow, as well as links to buy can be found by clicking here!
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If football fans want to become a political force, the next step is obvious.
If you've ever read any of my books, you'll know that one thing I've written about many times is the issue of fan power. Not just within the game itself, but as a potential political force.
The problem of course, has always been how one would harness that power but it seems that finally, that problem has been overcome by the formation of the Football Lads Alliance. A group which might have it's origins within the great game, but which has seemingly struck a chord with a wider section of society. One which up until recently had felt largely ignored; Middle England.
I won't go into what the FLA is all about (you can read more here) but the last march in London drew well in excess of 50,000 supporters (some estimated it to be closer to 60,000) from all over the UK and as we prepare to march again in Birmingham this Saturday (Gathering from 12.00 in Curzon Street and 12.30 in Victoria Square if you fancy coming along) I thought it might be worth sharing this extract from my book Barmy Army.
First published in 2000, it discusses an idea which caused quite a stir when it was first mooted and that is the formation of a single issue political party. The Football Party.
Times have obviously changed since I first wrote this and the concerns of the FLA certainly extend way beyond the confines of football but the general principle remains the same and it remains sound.
The problem however, was always where to start but given what has been achieved by the FLA in such a short time in terms of generating both momentum and interest, that problem has already been circumnavigated. So the key question is what to do next.
The answer is obvious. For if it is to make a genuine statement of intent, the clear target has to be the next round of mayoral elections which are due to take place in 2020. That might seem pie in the sky but before you dismiss the idea, consider these two simple facts.
1. Most of our major cities have more than one professional club within their boundaries with each generating sizeable and passionate support of a kind every political party would kill for. London alone, has 14 professional clubs within the M25.
2. Only 42.6% of the population of our capital voted at the last Mayoral election. In Manchester, the turnout in 2017 was just 28.9% of the electorate whilst in Liverpool, it was 26.1%. Indeed, the mayor of that great city was elected with just 171,176 votes (and for reference, 53,287 watched Liverpool hammer Watford on Saturday).
If that's not food for thought, I don't know what is.
Extract from Barmy Army (2000)
So if we are to force action, then it must be done in a way which the clubs are unable to ignore. And in this country, every football fan over the age of 18 has something which those in authority have to take notice of. It's called a vote.
A few years ago, I suggested the formation of a single issue political lobby group called the Football Party. Initially, the suggestion was that people would stand for their local council to give fans a say in issues that directly affected their local club. It was an approach that proved astonishingly successful in 1990 when supporters of Charlton Athletic FC formed The Valley Party in an ultimately successful campaign to get the club back to their spiritual home.
Such was the response, it quickly became apparent that many supporters believed that this local angle was an idea worth developing. But many people wrote to me and said we had to think big and aim higher. The more I thought about that, the more plausible the whole thing sounded. What finally convinced me that the concept of a national Football Party was a sound one was when I realised that the average local election generates a turnout of less that 40 per cent and that while over 12 million people voted for the Tories in the 1992 general election, approximately 25 million watched the England v Germany semi-final in Italia '90. What this proved to me once and for all was that if you went canvassing around every pub, club, house and factory, and told the electorate that you were standing to give them a say within the football world, there'd undoubtedly be good support, and as soon as the established parties saw there were votes in it, their policies and actions would change so as to give football a kick up the arse.
As a result, I sat down and wrote out a manifesto, one aimed not just at local councils but also at general and European elections. It included four main points. First, the formation of an independent, credible and properly funded body to represent the views and opinions of football supporters from every level of the game; second, the appointment of supporters' representatives to the committees of both the Football Association and the Football Trust; third, the appointment of an elected supporters' representative to the board of every professional football club; and finally, the appointment of an ombudsman or regulator to oversee the activities of the Football Association, the Football Trust, the Premier League and its members, the Football League and its members and supporters' groups.
In August 1998, when it was first released to the press and various supporters' groups, the response was amazing. Yet sadly, the people I wanted to react, the football authorities and the government, paid it little heed. Undaunted, I carried on. More support poured in and the manifesto began to appear all over the Internet. I had enquiries about it from all over Europe and as far afield as Australia. It had certainly captured the imagination of supporters. However, the campaign eventually began to take its toll on me, both in terms of time and finances and I was forced to put it onto the back burner. But the idea is still very much alive and the very fact that so many people continue to respond to it proves that it is sound. It sure would rock the boat were it ever to come off.
The mere idea that football fans throughout the country could even consider voting for a fat git like me proves how desperate they are to be involved in the game they love. Every supporter has a role to play in the future of the game, and that doesn't just apply to the hooligan issue but to every single aspect of football. Every major political party recognises that fact – which is, after all, why Tony Blair does so many stupid photo-calls – but still they do nothing about it. That is not good enough. If football will not provide us with a properly funded platform through which we can be heard and demand answers, then the government must make sure they do. And if they don't, that's when we should use our vote, because that is the one thing all politicians are truly scared of. All we need to do is to get organised; but how we actually do that is anyone's guess.
Yet it has to happen. For only by wielding the immense power we as football fans have at our disposal will we ever see an end to the problems facing football, from the asset-stripping to the financial incompetence, greed and sheer hypocrisy of those who supposedly run our game on our behalf. For too long now they have got away with shafting us. They have placed us in danger, sold our very game from under our feet and in far too many cases to note here, have walked away with bank accounts bursting at the seams with money that came out of our pockets. It's not right and the time has come to do something about it.
If you want to read more on this, Barmy Army is available to download via this link. There is also more on the subject of football protest movement in my book, Rebellion which is available here.
Two additional plugs, I'm still giving away ebooks versions of two of my best-selling books The Crew and Everywhere We Go. Further details can be found by clicking on the links or here Free Books where you will also find details of all my other publications.
Aside from all that, work continues apace on developing the film version of Wings of a Sparrow as well as the thriller Three Greens and a couple of other movie projects. I'm also working hard on the third book in the The Crew/Top Dog trilogy.
Exciting times! green street, top dog, football, soccer, politics, screenwriting, film, author, writing, hooliganism, England, world cup, hillsborough, twitter, social media, facebook,
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How Hoolie-Lit conquered the world (and my part in its downfall).
3rd February 2018 Dougie Brimson	Leave a comment
I recently wrote this article for The Football Collective on the rise and fall of the literary genre which became known as hoolie-lit. Feel free to let me know what you think.
It's fairly safe to say that over the years my name has become synonymous with the subject of hooligan related literature, or hoolie-lit as it became known.
Indeed, at various points I have been described in the press as 'The Yob Laureate' and 'the football hooligans pornographer-in-chief'. As good an epitaph for my future headstone as it's possible to have been granted.
Yet prior to 1995, writing was never really on my radar. Up to that point, my entire working life had been pretty much taken up by a career in the Royal Air Force.
What changed that was the fast approaching Euro 96 or to be more specific, the growing media furore surrounding the possibility of mass hooliganism at the tournament. For it's safe to say that as someone who had followed football home and away for years and had occasionally been amongst the very worst the terraces had to offer, some of the things being written by certain so-called experts about a world we were relatively knowledgable about, were not just wide of the mark, they were laughable.
The more of these bizarre ramblings we -my younger brother and I- read and heard, the more it struck us that what was missing was some kind of balance. Something that provided an honest and frank examination of this fascinating world from the inside. In the end, we decided that if no one else was going to provide one, we might as well try. The question was how to do it and the obvious answer was to try and write a book.
More here: https://footballcollective.org.uk/2018/01/16/how-hoolie-lit-conquered-the-world-and-my-part-in-its-downfall/
I desperately need to do some work on my Amazon author page , primarily by adding some new titles to it! So I'm happy to pass on news that there will be at least two, maybe even three new ones coming in 2018!
In the meantime, you can buy all the existing books including the football comedy Wings of a Sparrow and the #1 thrillers,The Crew and Top Dog from either Amazon or iTunes.
hooliganism, russia, football, soccer, violence, gangs, writing, publishing
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The Football Lads Alliance. 7th Oct 2017 – Central London.
9th September 2017 Dougie Brimson	2 Comments
As some of you may be aware, a movement called The Football Lads Alliance has sprung up from within the supporting world.
Formed in the wake of the London Bridge atrocity on June 7th to protest at the lack of direct action being taken to counter extremism in the UK, it grew rapidly to the point where, on June 24th, almost 10,000 people took part in a march in the centre of London.
So successful was this march, and so rapidly has the group grown, that as a result of pressure from the members a second march will take place in London on October 7th. Current estimates are that well over 40, 000 people will attend, not just football fans from every club in England and beyond, but men and women from all faiths and political backgrounds who have one common desire: to see an end to all forms of extremism.
Full details of FLA including its mission statement and details of the march (which is taking place with the full consent of the Metropolitan Police) can be found below but if you require any further information, please drop me a line and I'll point you in the right direction.
As some of you may be aware, amongst other things I'm working on I have been beavering away on the sequel to Billy's Log and am currently publishing extracts online in 'Billy's Blog'.
And just in case you didn't already know, all of my books and DVD's are available from both Amazon and iTunes.
Further information on pretty much everything I do and have done can be found at dougiebrimson.com
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Football and the folly of the homophobia debate. Again.
7th August 2017 Dougie Brimson	3 Comments
Bromance… it's a wonderful thing.
I first posted the following blog in the spring of 2012, the year that footballer Andre Gray posted a series of homophobic tweets which saw him spread across the sports pages of the British press.
You would hope that things would have changed in recent years but last night, as I watched the Gareth Thomas documentary on homophobia it became horrifically clear that nothing much has changed at all. And to me, the reason is because the finger of blame is far too easily being pointed in entirely the wrong direction.
To be fair to Gareth Thomas, at least he had a go at taking the game to task and the appalling car crash interviews given by Gordon Taylor and Simone Pound of the PFA coupled with the refusal of the FA to respond to him underlined everything I say below. But where were the interviews with current Premier League players or coaching staff? Why no contribution from the likes of Lineker or Shearer?
Instead, he fell into the now traditional trap of attacking the supporters using social media to try and underline his case. Consequently, by suggesting that the reason why no players have come out as gay was due to potential abuse from the terraces, all he really did was further demonise the very people who will ultimately win the war against homophobia in football. The supporters.
As I said, the blog below was written five years ago and it angers me that I'm being forced to repost it. Because the fact that we're still without an openly gay footballer in England isn't simply tragic, it's shameful.
As you may or may not know, Downing Street will today play host to a summit which will discuss, amongst other things, the issues of racism and homophobia.
Leaving aside the simple truth that I actually think our PM has more important things to be doing at the moment, the reason this summit is taking place is apparently to take a fresh look at both 'problems' in the face of recent events and, in the case of homophobia, in the wake of the BBC documentary which looked at the lack of any openly gay players in the professional game.
Now my views on racism at football are in black and white for all to see, be that on this very blog or in my book Kicking Off. Homophobia however, is something I have never really discussed before and there is a reason for that.
You see speaking as a football fan, it is my assertion that there isn't actually a problem to address at the moment and nor will there be until such time as we have a player with the bottle to actually come out and admit to his sexuality. At that point things will change immediately because then the anti-homophobia campaign will have an actual focal point or to be blunt, a potential victim. As a result, then, and only then, will we know if we actually have a major problem at all. Because at the moment, it is all supposition.
That is I know, a very simplistic way of looking at things but let's face it, once inside the confines of a ground, football fans become fairly simplistic beings. All too often the concept of right and wrong is neutralised by raw emotion and whilst any form of abusive chanting is unacceptable, the real key to stopping it isn't legislation, it's by changing the mindset of the minority who do it.
The precedent of course, is racist chanting. For as black players made more inroads into the game, supporters eventually began to realise how futile and pathetic abusing them was and that soon became so ingrained in their psyche that to even utter a racist term stopped occurring to all but the most rabid of morons. Indeed, far from knocking football for being racist we should be applauding it for driving the anti-racism message deep into the heart of British society.
I believe that exactly the same thing will happen with homophobia and I would argue that it would happen in a fairly short space of time if not immediately. After all, one only has to look at the TV to see how much has changed with regard to British societies acceptance of homosexuality in recent years.
Yet as the noises being made ahead of this summit clearly seem to prove, both the game and the authorities would like the great British public to believe that the second an openly gay player steps onto a field, the terraces will resound with cries of 'they don't like it up 'em' or 'I'm free' and the sight of fans mincing up and down behind the goals. Indeed the reason I sat down and wrote this very blog is because I have been so offended by some of the things I have been hearing this morning. Football fans may not be perfect, but the suggestion that more than a tiny minority are genuinely homophobic is beyond offensive,
The question of course, is why such things are being inferred and the answer, like most things to do with the great game, is fairly obvious. It's a basic diversion tactic. Because if you point the finger of blame toward the fans, you don't actually have to apportion any blame to yourselves.
Like it or not, if you are a pro-footballer be it at Old Trafford or Roots Hall, the nature of the beast is such that getting abuse from the terrace is going to be part and parcel of your career. Brutal though this might be, it is a nailed on fact and if you don't like it or don't think you will be able to take it, then don't do it. It really is as simple as that.
The key to dealing with that abuse is to understand why it happens and what it actually means. Because for the most part, vitriol will only be coming at you from opposing fans if you're pissing them off by doing a good job. And as long as you're doing a good job, as recent history has proven only too well, your own supporters will not only forgive you anything but they will continue to heap adulation on you. Since they are the ones who ultimately pay your wages, they're the only ones you really have to worry about.
However, if that grief comes not from the terraces but from your peers, especially your own team mates, it is something else entirely because it goes beyond banter from the crowd, it becomes personal.
Anyone who has ever been in a changing room knows that many of them are like a scene from Animal Farm (the George Orwell book, not the porn movie!) and any individual who shows even the remotest sign of being in any way different becomes fair game. Remember the stick Graham Le Saux used to get simply because he has a brain in his head? Much of that focussed on his supposed sexuality and let's face it, if you were gay and saw that as a potential warning of things to come, why on earth would you want to put yourself in the firing line?
Of course not all players are like that and I'm sure that there are certain changing rooms which are delightful places to be post-training. But there are plenty which aren't, especially if you're not one of the towel-snapping, prank playing, tart shagging brigade and it is that 'closed shop' lad mentality which David Cameron and the various cronies and cling-ons should be discussing not the old chestnut of fears of abuse from the terraces.
But that will only happen when the game actually admits it has a problem in-house and we all know how reluctant it is to do that. Especially when you have a mute and already demonised scapegoat ready to hand.
Thanks to all those people who continue to keep both The Crew and Top Dog at the top of the various download charts. It really is humbling. Could I please ask that if you have read either book you leave a review of some kind as they are a great help both to me and to potential readers. And don't forget, my latest comedy ebook Wings of a Sparrow is also available both in print and to download.
homophobia,gay,football,player,writing,blog,blogger
footballgayhomophobiaracismsexism
football, politics, Uncategorised
Is Middle England finally starting to find its true voice?
26th June 2017 Dougie Brimson	2 Comments
Something amazing happened in London on Saturday.
You might not have heard about it because for some reason, the mainstream media didn't think it was important enough to warrant even a mention. Neither did a single politician including the wonderful Mayor of London who will usually be found at the opening of an envelope.
But it was important, incredibly so.
Because what we saw, possibly for the first time, was a sizeable gathering of people from amongst what many would normally refer to as the silent majority. And unlike the kind of march we are used to seeing involving Corbyn and Co, this one passed without a hint of trouble. Indeed, both the organisers and participants have received glowing praise from the Metropolitan Police for the way it was organised and conducted.
This, in itself, is significant enough but what makes it amazing, incredible even, is that the majority of the people involved were football fans. Or rather, football lads. Working class males from clubs up and down the land who put their rivalries aside for the day and marched side by side to show their support for a common cause.
Yes, that's right. West Ham walked with Millwall, Spurs walked with Arsenal, and a hundred more besides walked together under the banner of The Football Lads Alliance to protest against extremism on our shores. As a show of public solidarity from the working class, it doesn't get any bigger.
Inevitably, The Football Lads Alliance has been tagged as extreme right-wing and social media is currently awash with left-wing trolls trying to goad those who support it with accusations of racism and Islamophobia and even that this is the EDL reborn. That's what they do to suppress anything that doesn't fit in with their crazed idealism.
But this time, they are wrong. Instead, all they're actually doing is showing that they're scared. Scared that their worst nightmares are beginning to come true and that something they can't bully or shout down has begun.
I have spoken a lot about the silent majority of middle England over the last few months and how it has remained relatively silent in the face of the relentless attacks on it in the wake of both Brexit and the general election. Now, finally, it seems that it's beginning to wake up from its slumber and find its voice.
When that happens, as history has proven many times, you ignore it at your peril.
Take heed.
Englandfootballpoliticsterrorism
football, soccer
Why Watford had to let Walter Mazzarri had to go. The facts.
I am a Watford fan. This is not a confession, it's a statement of fact.
As a consequence, I've seen every home game this season as well as a good few away. For example, I was at West Ham when we came back from 2-0 down to win 2-4 with one of the gutsiest displays I've ever seen by a Watford team and at Hull, when we rolled over in one of the most inept performances I've ever seen by the side I follow.
What this means is that I am more than qualified to comment on the issue of Walter Mazzari and that comment is this: terminating his contract was exactly the right thing to do purely because it turned out that he wasn't a good fit for us after all.
That's it. No further discussion or explanation required.
So, if you're a journalist or even a supporter of any of the other 91 professional football clubs, your comments, opinions or insults are meaningless to me because they're primarily based on hearsay, not experience.
Oh, and just so you know, sacking Flores last season was also bang on the money.
Now, please move along. There's nothing else to see here.
football, women
Is pie-eating Wayne Shaw a victim? Or the catalyst football needs?
21st February 2017 Dougie Brimson	2 Comments
As most people will by now will be aware, Sutton Utd's reserve goalkeeper Wayne Shaw was forced to resign today after admitting that some of his mates placed bets on him eating a pie during last nights FA Cup tie against Arsenal.
This decision has met with pretty much universal sadness by the footballing public who have come to regard Wayne as being something of a hero, albeit a naive one. After all, as a footballer he would have known full well that a player being involved in anything related to betting on a game they are actually involved with is totally illegal so to go on TV the following morning boasting about it to the loathsome Piers Morgan wasn't exactly the best idea.
However, his naivety isn't an issue to me nor indeed, is his appetite. Personally, having spent the previous week having the piss taken out of him by the tabloids I think he had every right to try and make the most of his time in the spotlight. But what does sit very uncomfortably with me is the fact that to my mind, he was effectively set up. Not just by the tabloids or the betting company concerned, but by the FA.
I am not a betting person but rather than investigate Wayne Shaw with all the vigour they can apparently muster (and one has to wonder where this sudden rush for the truth was when the rumours of child abuse were circling over 30 years ago) maybe the FA should be looking at the bigger picture and clarifying what actually constitutes a legitimate football bet. Because if we have got to the stage where the pie-eating antics of a substitute goalkeeper are legitimate reasons to offer odds, then the relationship between football and the betting companies needs serious examination. Or has the game actually sold its soul that far into the depths that the betting companies can do what they like and pretty soon we're going to be offered odds on the number of players who take a dump at half time?
OK, I'm being flippant but something is seriously out of kilter here and as footballs governing body, it's up the FA to get our already tainted game back on track.
And fast.
My numerous books including the football comedy Wings of a Sparrow and the #1 thrillers, The Crew and Top Dog are available from both Amazon and iTunes.
Arsenalfa cupsutton unitedwayne shaw

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Sports|Civic sports associations, Johnston County, NC.
Johnston County has several sports associations that are providing tournament opportunities and recreation programs for the community. These are membership organizations that are offering everything from soccer to rugby.
Contact these organizations directly for information on sporting events, tournaments and joining for them for the programs they offer in the county.


text:
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace MO.Core.Window.Api {

   [ComImport]
   [CoClass(typeof(FMLangStringClass))]
   [Guid("C04D65CE-B70D-11D0-B188-00AA0038C969")]
   public interface FMLangString : IMLangString {
   }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


On Sunday 22 April 2018 you set off on the challenging off-road 5 kilometre journey around the stunning Wormsley Estate. The route offers a test of fitness with a particularity steep section (the Ibstone Kicker if you like!) towards the finish, as well as breathtaking views as you rise over the Hambleden Valley and a good mix of underfoot terrain. As if the route itself wasn't enough, we have plenty of parking, lots of friendly marshals, a finishers medal, professional first aid support, a creche (if booked in advance) and a fantastic and very enthusiastic PTA team offering tea, coffee, bacon rolls and cake ...... lots of cake!
Entry fees: £10 Adult [£12 if purchased on the day] £5 Child (Aged 11 to 17) [£6 if purchased on the day]. Please note participants under the age of 11 are not permitted.
Closing date for postal entries: 5pm Saturday 14 April 2018.
Closing date for email entries: Noon Friday 20 April 2018.


text:
Joe Biden has a Peloton bike. That raises White House security issues.
As Virginia Beach restarts sports, players and coaches enjoy the moment
Mink and the coronavirus: What we know
By James Gorman
Last week, Denmark announced its intention to cull all farmed mink, some 17 million, out of fear that a mutated version of the coronavirus might diminish the effectiveness of potential vaccines. The decision has caused dismay in other countries and a debate among scientists about the validity of the concern.
Six countries — Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Italy and the United States — have reported cases of farmed mink infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Mink catch the virus from humans and pass it on to one another. Unlike dogs, cats and some other animals, which express only mild symptoms, if any, mink can sicken and die from an infection.
Here are answers to basic questions about mink and the coronavirus:
Q: Can mink infect people with the coronavirus?
A: Yes. In Denmark, mink have contracted the virus and spread it to people. The same happened in the Netherlands this year.
Q: Does the virus mutate in mink?
A: Yes. In more than 200 people, Danish authorities have documented several variants of the virus that contain mutations originating in mink. The virus also mutates in people.
Q: Is the mutated virus more dangerous?
A: No. There is no evidence that any of the mutations that originated in mink make the coronavirus more transmissible in humans or make humans sicker.
Q: Why did Denmark decide to kill all of its farmed mink?
A: Danish health authorities were concerned that one set of mutations in a variant of the virus called cluster 5, which had infected at least 12 people, could make a potential coronavirus vaccine less effective.
One of the mutations occurs on a part of the virus — the spike protein — that is targeted by many potential vaccines. In lab studies, cells with this variant of the virus were exposed to antibodies, which did not act as strongly as they had with other coronavirus variants.
But this was a very preliminary test. The reaction to antibodies in laboratory cells does not necessarily indicate that the mutated virus would be resistant to vaccines; it merely raises that possibility.
Q: Will the mutations diminish the value of vaccines?
A: The World Health Organization and independent experts said there was no evidence so far that the cluster 5 variant would diminish the value of vaccines currently in development.
Q: Did Denmark overreact?
A: Scientists say that there are reasons beyond this particular mutated virus for Denmark to act. Mink farms have been shown to be reservoirs for the coronavirus, and mink are capable of transmitting the virus to humans. They are the only animal known to do so.
This set of mutations may not be harmful to humans, but the virus will doubtless continue to mutate in mink as it does in people, and the crowded conditions of mink farms could put evolutionary pressures on the virus different from those in the human population. The virus could also jump from mink to other animals. These are all worrisome possibilities, particularly in the midst of a resurgence of the virus in the human population.


Joint Entrance Examination Advanced (JEE Advanced) is the compulsory exam for entry to undergraduate engineering and architecture courses at IITs - Indian Institute of Technology, the premium centrally funded engineering institutes in India. Also, the Joint Admission Board (JAB) 2018 compromising of 7 zonal IITs will conduct Joint Entrance Examination Advanced 2018, well known as JEE Advanced 2018. The performance of an applicant in this entrance exam will be the basis of admission to IITs in various courses (10+2 entry level) i.e the Bachelor's, Integrated Masters and Dual Degree programs. The Joint Admission Board decisions will be final in all matters subject to admission into IITs. Only top 2,20,000 candidates from various categories (listed in Information brochure) and who have scored positive (cut-off) marks in JEE Main 2018 will be eligible to sit in Joint Entrance Examination Advanced 2018. The aspiring candidates must have complete detailed information about JEE.


text:
Twist a Saint Tropez performed by Dick Rivers and Les Chats Sauvages
Twist a Saint Tropez
performed by Dick Rivers and Les Chats Sauvages
Song: Twist a Saint Tropez performed by Dick Rivers and Les Chats Sauvages
More by Dick Rivers
More by Les Chats Sauvages
Covers/Remixes of Twist a Saint Tropez
Pop Culture Connections - Incoming
What Movies feature this Song?
It is played in...
This Movie plays Twist a Saint Tropez performed by Dick Rivers and Les Chats Sauvages
Sagan is a 2008 French biographical film, directed by Diane Kurys, starring Sylvie Testud as French author Françoise Sagan and Pierre Palmade as a dancer and a society man, Jacques Chazot, who was very well known in France. The film starts in the mid-1950s as Sagan (then still known under her real name Quoirez) closes a publishing deal for her controversial debut novel Bonjour Tristesse.


Hackers with connections to Russia have tried to spy on German political foundations associated with the country's largest parties, according to security experts.
Cyber spies attacked German party think tanks.
The Friedrich Ebert and the Konrad Adenauer Foundations were targeted by hackers in March and April this year, Feike Hacquebord of IT security company Trend Micro told Reuters news agency.
A hacker group, dubbed "Pawn Storm" by the company, set up a server in Germany from where fake email were sent out to employees of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which is associated with Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democrats.
According to Mr. Hacquebord, a computer in the Ukraine was used in attempts to spy on the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is linked to the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The cyber spy group, also known Fancy Bear or Apt 28, apparently targeted the foundation's employees with email phishing tricks and attempts to install malware.
"I am not sure whether those foundations are the actual target. It could be that they used it as a stepping stone to target, for example, the CDU or the SPD," Hacquebord said.
Pawn Storm, which experts and former U.S. government officials have linked to Russian military intelligence agency GRU, is trying to gather material to influence the federal election in September, the researcher said.
Campaigners working for Emmanuel Macron, the favorite to win France's presidential election next month, have also been targeted by the spy group, Mr. Hacquebord said on Monday.


text:
Q: OnClick button working only after second time Asp.NET c# I'm new to web development and right now I'm working on a website. I have a problem with a Save button on an ASP.Net (front end) web form (back end is in C#). The button is supposed to save data entered in a textbox to a database.
When the Save button is clicked the first time, the page just 'reloads' and clear the textbox and nothing is saved in the SQL Server database (dbo connection). Then when I click the same 'Save' button a second time after re-entering information in the textbox, it actually saves to the database and goes back to a main menu page (as expected). And if I try to re-enter different information, the save button will be working just fine.
The problem happens when a user logs in and navigate to the page where he enters the data and saves it. It will never ever work the first time.
Unfortunately because of confidential purposes, I have to omit and rename  certain file paths/directories and tables name!
Here's my Asp.NET code:
<%@ Page Language="C#" debug="True" Inherits="Default" src="Default.cs"      AutoEventWireup ="true"%>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="ob" TagName="ComboTree"  Src="/obout/Combotree/ComboTree.ascx" %>
<%@ Reference Control="/obout/Combotree/ComboTree.ascx" %>

<FORM runat="server">
  <BASEFONT face="Arial, Helvetica, Sans Serif" color=black size=2>

   `enter code here`

      File Library - <ASP:Label ID="lbTitle" RunAt="Server"/> Folder
        <INPUT Type="Hidden" ID="hdFolderID" RunAt="Server"/>
        <INPUT Type="Hidden" ID="hdParentFolderID" RunAt="Server"/>

            Name
            <ASP:TextBox ID="tbName" Columns="34" RunAt="Server"/>

            Description
            <ASP:TextBox ID="tbDescription" TextMode="Multiline" Cols="25" Rows="5" RunAt="Server"/>

            Active?
            <ASP:CheckBox ID="cbActive" RunAt="Server"/>

            Folder
            <ob:ComboTree id="ctFolders" runat="server"/>

            Departments

                <ASP:DropDownList ID="ddLicensee" DataTextField="Name" DataValueField="DepartmentId" RunAt="Server"/>
                <ASP:CheckBox ID="cbAll" Text="All" RunAt="Server"/>

                    <ASP:CheckBoxList ID="cblLicensees" DataTextField="Name" DataValueField="DepartmentId" style="background-color:F3F3F3" RunAt="Server"/>

                <ASP:ImageButton ID="btnSave" OnClick="btnSave_OnClick" ImageUrl="/images/buttons/btnSave.gif" RunAt="Server"/>

</BASEFONT>
</FORM>

And here's the (back end) code for the Save button written in C#:
    public void btnSave_OnClick(object sender, System.Web.UI.ImageClickEventArgs E){
    int counter = int.Parse(Request.Cookies["counter"].Value);
    counter++;
    Response.Cookies["counter"].Value = counter.ToString();

    try{
    SqlConnection Conn = GetConnection();
    string SQL;
    SqlCommand Cmd;
    SqlDataReader Dtr;

        if(hdFileID.Value=="")
        {
            Response.Write("Executing Save (adding new folder to DB");
            SQL = "EXEC sp_File_Add @Name,@Description,@UserID";
            Response.Write("Save successfully executed. Added to DB");
        }
        else
        {
            Response.Write("Executing Save (saving info of folder to DB");
            SQL = "EXEC sp_File_Update @Name,@Description,@UserID,@FileID";
            Response.Write("Save successfully executed. Saved to DB");
        }

        Cmd = new SqlCommand(SQL,Conn);

        Cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@Name", SqlDbType.VarChar));
        Cmd.Parameters["@Name"].Value = tbName.Text;

        Cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@Description", SqlDbType.Text));
        Cmd.Parameters["@Description"].Value = tbDescription.Text;

        Cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@UserID", SqlDbType.Int));
        Cmd.Parameters["@UserID"].Value = Convert.ToInt32(hdUserID_Global.Value);

        if(hdFileID.Value!="")
        {
            Cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@FileID", SqlDbType.Int));
            Cmd.Parameters["@FileID"].Value = Convert.ToInt32(hdFolderID.Value);
        }

        Cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

        if(hdFileID.Value=="")
        {
            SQL = "SELECT MAX(FileID) AS FileID FROM tbl_File WHERE CreatedByUserID=@UserID";
            Cmd = new SqlCommand(SQL,Conn);

            Cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@UserID", SqlDbType.Int));
            Cmd.Parameters["@UserID"].Value = Convert.ToInt32(hdUserID_Global.Value);

            Dtr = Cmd.ExecuteReader();

            if(Dtr.Read())
            {
                hdFileID.Value = Dtr["FileID"].ToString();
            }
            Dtr.Close();
        }

        SQL = "DELETE FROM tbl_FileLicense ";
        SQL += " WHERE FileID=@FileID ";

        Cmd = new SqlCommand(SQL,Conn);

        Cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@FileID", SqlDbType.Int));
        Cmd.Parameters["@FileID"].Value = Convert.ToInt32(hdFileID.Value.ToString());

        Cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

        if(ddLicense.Visible)
        {
            SQL = "EXEC sp_doc_Folder_Add @FileID,@LicenseID,@UserID";
            Response.Write("Save successfully executed. Added to DB");
            Cmd = new SqlCommand(SQL,Conn);

            Cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@FolderID", SqlDbType.Int));
            Cmd.Parameters["@FileID"].Value = Convert.ToInt32(hdFileID.Value.ToString());

            Cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@LicenseID", SqlDbType.Int));
            Cmd.Parameters["@LicenseID"].Value = Convert.ToInt32(ddLicense.SelectedItem.Value.ToString());

            Cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@UserID", SqlDbType.Int));
            Cmd.Parameters["@UserID"].Value = Convert.ToInt32(hdUserID_Global.Value);

            Cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
        }
        else
        {
        }

        Conn.Close();
        Response.Redirect("/Library/Default2.aspx?FileID=" + Request["RootFileID"].ToString());
        Response.End();
    }

    catch (Exception e){
        Response.Write("An error occurred while saving: " + e);
        Response.End();
    }

}

I've been struggling for more than 2 days on that and I don't see why the button is not firing the first time but only as from the 2nd time. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

A: You should open connection i.e Conn.open() before executing cmd.ExecuteNonQuery() method.
Try this, if it still doesn't work, in first line of webform.aspx i.e. <%@ Page Language="C#" add this attribute and see if it works: EnableEventValidation="false". Also check the flow of code by setting breakpoints.

A: I got it to work by adding EnableViewState = False in the <FORM runat="server"> tag in the asp.NET code

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Baby sleep can cause some intense emotional responses. A newborn baby has a single goal – growth. They are growing emotionally, physically and socially. They need to be fed, kept warm, cuddled and soothed because they cannot do any of that for themselves, particularly in the first three months.
This is often referred to as the "Fourth Trimester" because of the immaturity of the newborn baby, their sleeping and their limited capacity to organise their thoughts and their own world. During this time babies have limited capacity to self soothe, so it is expected that they will need help from their parents to calm and soothe them, especially when distressed.
In the first three months babies will have enormously variable sleep patterns, which can range from sleeping from 20 minutes to five hours, and any thing in between. A small portion of new born babies are able to settle themselves to sleep with ease. They feed, enjoy a cuddle and are relaxed enough to drift off to sleep. However, not many can do this but will start life (the first 2-3 weeks) as calm and peaceful, able to sleep and settle without difficulty, but often this changes as they grow.
Around the six to eight week mark there is a developmental shift and your baby (who may have been sleeping well) is evolving, and may need you to help calm and settle them. A similar shift happens around four months, for no obvious reason. It is a distinct shift, and your baby will need more support and care to help them through.
When babies this age cannot sleep, it is completely normal albeit exhausting for parents. This tiny person is learning how to organise and process all the information that they are exposed to. They need to do it in a way that they don't become overwhelmed. This can take time, so exposing them to lots of cuddles and calming experiences will help them learn to settle themselves independently. Be realistic with your expectations as they are still very young.
To help them through this intense learning phase offer lots of rocking, cuddles and gentle comforting. This will foster a sense of safety and security, so they won't feel threatened by the outside world and all that comes with it.
feed on demand – babies don't have a regular hunger pattern prior to three months, so expect irregular demands for feeding so you are prepared for their often unpredictable and changing feeding patterns.
be ready to begin to darken the room during day sleeps when your baby becomes more aware of the world around them, and they start to wake to 'chat' with others. This will start to happen anywhere from 8-14 weeks, depending on how sensitive your baby is.
feed your baby when they are hungry, that may not be at regular times, but they are more likely to feed enthusiastically if they if are hungry.
Try to remember your baby is still evolving emotionally and physically so don't rush them into the next phase and risk them not progressing through their current phase completely. Each phase your baby passes through becomes the building block for the next phase.
As you get to know your baby you will be more attuned to them and know how to respond. Watch your baby for tired signs and respond with putting them down to nap, if they look hungry, it is milk time, and if they are crying and you don't know why, then it's cuddle time. These are the moments in parenting when you need to try to remain kind and considerate of your baby, because they are not meaning to make life hard.
Call your nurse if you are struggling or look to credible resources. Go to www.helenstevens.com.au if you are looking for a simple, informative book to help you understand more about baby sleep.
Which Baby Monitor to buy?


text:
Q: What is the method to reset the Planar 1910m monitor? My monitor (a Planar, apparently model number PL1910M) is not working. (It is flashing a green / orange sequence which I believe to be an error code. The sequence, in case it helps consists of orange and green three times quickly followed by a longer orange, then another green followed by a long period where both colors appear to be present).
I vaguely recall a co-worker suffering from a similar problem, and our IT department "resetting" the monitor by holding down a certain set of keys as they apply power. Unfortunately, I do not remember what that key sequence was, our IT department is not responding, and the Planar web site is blocked by the content filtering firewall we have in place!
What is the sequence to perform the reset? (For bonus geek-credit, what does the code mean... as if it indicates a blown component clearly a reset will not help me. ;-))

A: Based on information found here,

*

*If your serial number starts with A (the power button is the last on the right)
Unplug the power cable and, while holding down the second and third buttons (counting from the left), plug in the power cable. Release the buttons either immediately, after five seconds or after the light turns green (apparently whichever works)

*If your serial number starts with B (the power button is in the middle)
Follow the same procedure, except use the second and fourth buttons

A: I had the same problem.  I wasn't even seeing a "no signal" message and I couldn't turn it off using the power button.
One of the keys is to let go of the button as soon as the power light comes on and goes green.
Apparently it means the monitor failed to synchronize.  I found that out from this site.
Also, the link to the planar manual is here.

A: There you go.......check this Link it has the answer to your problem..
https://www.etcconnect.com/uploadedFiles/Main_Site/Content/Support/Articles/Consoles/Eos/Planar%20PL%20line%20LCD%20Monitor%20Problem%20and%20Solutions.pdf


Everyone should wake up in the morning and be grateful to be alive. Senior Rachel Bellafiore makes this a priority. When she and her twin James Bellafiore, also a senior at HHS, were being born, Rachel had her mother's umbilical cord knotted around her neck three times. This resulted in their mother having a Cesarean or a C-section and both Jimmy and Rachel were born two months premature. If she hadn't decided to give birth to them prematurely, Rachel would not be here today. That alone has motivated Rachel to live life to the fullest and to try her hardest to achieve her goals.
Rachel plans to major in chemistry when she attends Rowan University in the fall. "I chose Rowan because it's close to home and it has the major I want to study," Bellafiore said. The main reason she became interested in chemistry is because she likes looking at the equations and being able to find a solution to them. She's the kind of person who dislikes not being able to know the answer and feels unsatisfied if she doesn't.
Rachel was involved in most of our school's productions, whether it was as a crew member or part of the cast. She enjoyed it because she was able to make new friends and countless memories. She also was part of the band as a member of the color guard and then a manager her senior year. Besides extra-curricular activities she has a job at AA Moving Company where she works 5 days a week. She doesn't do the physical labor, but she does do the paperwork that goes along with it.
Whatever Rachel ends up doing with her life I know for a fact she will be successful. She will miss HHS and everyone in it, mainly the teachers. If it wasn't for them pushing her to be her best self, she wouldn't be where she is today.


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Home » Is Batfleck Back in These Flash Set Photos?
Is Batfleck Back in These Flash Set Photos?
July 28, 2021 Mr. Greg Universe
While photos of Ben Affleck on vacation are currently making their rounds online, one interesting character has been spotted on the set of The Flash currently shooting in Glasgow—Batman.
Take note though, this doesn't look like Keaton's Batman; and some are guessing that it's the one and only Batfleck:
https://twitter.com/FlashFilmNews/status/1419874551266217987
Finally, albeit blurry, a front angle view of of the Batcycle surfaced! ⚡#TheFlashMovie #TheFlash pic.twitter.com/px10bonDf4
— The Flash Film News (@FlashFilmNews) July 27, 2021
With the new photos of Affleck coming out at the same time, it's very likely that this isn't Affleck in the suit. Since this looks to be a stunt job, we shouldn't really expect Affleck to be suited up for these scenes anyway—then again, we're still not sure if this character is supposed to be Batfleck. That being said, his build is a lot closer to the Batman in Justice League, and his new Batpod has the same feel as the DCEU Batmobile.
For now, the plot of the Flash movie is still under wraps, but the presence of multiple versions of superheroes has people convinced that it will establish a multiverse storyline. I'm just hoping that Batfleck makes it out of this movie alive. I don't want the character to be killed early in the film, and have Flash be amazed when he meets another version of Batman—kind of like what happened with Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
It's taken a while for The Flash to finally start production, and hopefully this time WB has a more solid direction when it comes to the DCEU pushing forward.
The Flash is set to hit theaters on Nov. 4, 2022. The next DCEU film, The Suicide Squad comes out Aug. 6 in theaters and on HBO Max.
Batman, The Flash, Ben Affleck, DCEU, set photos, BTS, Andy Muschietti, WB, Michael Keaton, Ezra Miller, The Suicide Squad, HBO Max
Netflix is Developing a Live-Action Pokemon series
New Ghostbusters: Afterlife Trailer Features Returning Cast Members
Mr. Greg Universe 3,050 Posts


Key piece of development land located just off Patterson. Located on a major arterial road, this is prime for great traffic counts and an array of development opportunities. Medical office, recreation manufacturing, or restaurant business are a good fit. A new retail strip center could also make a lot of sense. All sitting on approximately 8 aces, allowing you plenty of options for your project.


A college junior died in a fall from a cliff while hiking in Arkansas.
The Sioux City Journal reports that Andrea Norton was fatally injured when she fell from a rocky cliff while on a hike with friends in Jasper.
Norton, 20, was a junior at Briar Cliff University and played for the women's volleyball team. She reportedly went hiking on Saturday with a group of college students to Ozark-St. Francis National Forest.
According to the report, Norton was "re-positioning herself for a photo" when she fell from the Hawksbill Crag, plunging about 100 feet.
Newton County Sheriff Glenn Wheeler told the Sioux City Journal that several people have died in the same area where Norton was killed, and that it is among the most photographed hiking areas in the state.
On the same weekend of Norton's death, a Fordham University senior died after falling from a clocktower on the New York City campus.


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"First a whole hearted THANK YOU! You and your team stepped up to the plate and delivered world class service to us with program critical issue. Resul Ademovic and Admir Ramic were beyond excellent, they delivered the server replacement and systematically went through our systems to also ensure that our program would continue to operate safely. Their technical knowledge was exactly what we required due to the fact that our main Network Engineer was on vacation and the stand-ins were not familiar with the systems.
Those 2 CCNY Techs came into our server room and assessed the situation immediately and a plan of action was implemented and executed to completion within the hour. They provided technical assistance to our system administrators which was greatly appreciated.


Hello comic lovers, Yes !! you've already checked the article title that this is our best collection of sites to read comics online free. This world of digitization, everything is getting digitized. Day by day, technology is taking place in our day to day lives. Be it a smartphone, laptop, Internet connection, home appliances or anything else, everything is done through digitization.
Gone are the days when we all use to do things manually through the help of paper things and not these digital things.
Recalling the memories, what was your favorite time pass to do when you were a kid? The one thing I remember which I loved doing was when I was a kid was to read comic books.
Yes, the Comic book was my favorite. And not just me, I think, every kid loves reading comic books. Isn't it true? But as the time passes, things changed and so as our requirements. Now, people don't really buy comic books.
Since the digitization is taking place in our day to day life, people prefer reading kindles instead of books. For news, they prefer reading the news blogs. But what is the substitute of reading comics? Well, here, you will get the answer.
So, today, we are going to talk about reading comic books online.
Yes, if you love reading comics but don't have much time to do so, then you can read it online as well. I think all of us have a smartphone which we carry with us all the time. So, we can read the comics on our cellphone anytime we want. And you know the best thing? It will be of no cost. Yes, you don't need to pay a penny to read comics.
So, here, we are presenting some best sites to read the online comic for free.
Founded by Martin Goodman in 1939, it is one of the oldest online comic series we have. If you are a big superhero fan, you should seriously visit the site marvel.com. Marvel Digital Series can be accessed in Android, iOS and on web as well. For reading it free, you can simply use marvel's free issues.
The site is all about the comics based on the superhero. You can also download and read the free comics and comic books on Kindle Fire, Windows, Browser, iPhone and iPad as well.
Once you visit its site, you will see various tabs like Comics, Games, Latest News, Videos, TV etc. However, for watching the movies, you need to pay them a little amount. But for watching your favorite digital comic, you can enjoy it for free.
You can start reading all your favorite Marvel digital comics here like Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Deadpool, Thor, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Inhuman, Black Panther, Iron Man, Hulk, Star Wars, Wolverine and much more.
But in case if you need more, you can upgrade and take the membership of Marvel by paying them a small amount.
But till the time, you can explore the full free issues of Marvel comics.
GetComics is another big name to read comics online. Here, you will most probably get US-based comics published by Marvel and DC. It has started as an alternative place to download the comic series. The best part of GetComics is that the comics which you will get on the site are totally free of cost.
That means you do not need to pay anything to read your favorite comic. There is no hidden cost also which you need to pay later.
Now, talking about its originality, all those comics which are listed on GetComics are basically not originally ripped or uploaded by the team of GetComics.
The comics are compiled by various sources from the internet, but the biggest and the main source are from the "Empire".
When you visit the profile, you will see various tabs like DC comic, Marvel comic, other comic, read comic online, etc.
You will get all the comic in the various tabs. The one more thing which makes the site worthy is that you can also download it for free so that you can read it when you are not online too.
Comic Book+ is a site mainly focuses on comic books only. It is the premier as well as the original site where you can download and read the golden and silver age comic books. Along with that, they also hold a large and growing selection of pulp fiction and the comic strips.
The best part of their site is that all the contents they provide are 100% free and legal as well. They also assure that no content is breaching the copyright or trademark law.
So, if in case, you are looking for an online free comic book which is 100% reliable and legal, Comic Book+ is the right place for you.
DC Kids is not a very big site but definitely a good one. Basically, the site focuses on younger readers. It is a really fascinating site to open the magic door and cultivate their imagination for their young readers.
As I said before, the collection on the site isn't a huge one but definitely worth reading.
When you will visit the site, you will see a small site which is very easy to use. There, you will see many tabs like Games, Videos, Comics, and Downloads. The content you will see on the site is especially for the small kids. The content is all about the super characters like Superman, Batman, Woman and Captain Marvel.
Be it a comic, video or a game, everything is made exclusively for children with lovely graphics. In the comic section, you will not see many comics but yes, whatever content is available, it is worth reading.
Also, since it is very easy to use, it won't be a problem for anyone who is not aware of online comics.
Internet Archive is also a famous name in the list of best online comics. Here, you will get a big collection of comics almost of every genre. They are basically a non-profit library which serves the people whosoever visit their site.
If we look into how they work, it is quite different from the other sites mentioned here. Internet Archive basically collects all the published works and then make them available in digital formats for their visitors.
When you look into the site, it may look quite confused and difficult to access. But once you spend some quality time there, it will be easy for you to access the website for reading online comics.
They have a big collection which can be filtered on the basis of Topic and Subjects, Availability, Media Type, Collection, Creator and Language.
Some of the comics needs some amount to explore, but there are many free comics there too.
As the name suggests, Drive Thru Comics is all about the comics. It is also a part of a family of premiere online marketplaces such as DNDClassics, Drive Thru RPG, RPGNow, DriveThruFiction, Wargame Vault and DriveThruCards.
Based on the web, it is the very first comic store where we can download the comics. It also has a large selection of creators and publishers as well.
You will get a lot of free books which you can try downloading. They do have a very large collection and range of books. Here, you will find the books of many big publishers such as aspen comics, burning wheel, caliber comics, dork storm press, evil inc comics, heroic publishing, IDW publishing, moonstone and many more.
When you will visit the site, you will see many categories like an audience, genre, product type, publisher and languages. These are the categories through which you can browse the site in a much simpler way.
Talking about it's design, it is made in a very simple way. You will get several categories like I mentioned above and also, there will be categories like newest title, best selling title, newest free title.
In the site, there will be some newly collection where you need to pay for the reading. However, there will be many free titles also which you can read, download without paying a penny.
Some of my favorite comics from the free sections were Merry Christmas 2017, Lucky Comics Preview 1, Black Dog and Rebel Rose and many more.
Digital Comic Museum is indeed has got the best name in the list of top free comic books to read online. They are one of the best site in the list of free comic sites. Here, you can download free public domain Golden Age Comics.
All their files have been researched by their staff and users to make sure that they are copyright free and in the public domain.
If you are eager to read the comics in Digital Comic Museum, all you need to do is to simply register your account and can start reading.
The cherry on the cake is that they do not charge per download and their goal of the project is to archive these comic books online and make them widely available.
When you will visit their site, it looks very simple in terms of using it. All the titles are categorized into three categories. Top Rated, Latest Uploaded and Most Downloaded comics.
You can also see the titles by entering just as a visitor and not by signing in. However, if you wish to download it, you must register yourself and then login from the credentials.
You will see a column of search bar there where you can search all the titles. If in case you have some difficulty, you can also chat with them and solve your query.
All over, it is an excellent site to surf free comics online.
Newsarama was basically a weekly newsletter which had a bit info comic book news. It was founded in 1998. but after 18 years, they thought of growing their domain into a website which was the first major professional comic book news website. It is also one of the largest and influential genre websites in the history.
Basically, Newsarama is the best place where comic book fans and Sci-Fi enthusiasts can find the latest news, theories and speculation about their Favorite Characters, Movies, Books, Games and Shows.
The main motive of the site is to be a must-see 365-day-a-year comic book convention without the long lines.
In the website, you will see different categories such as Comics, Games, Films & TV, Countdowns, Preview and Topics. These are the genre which you will find in the website. You won't get trouble in using the site.
You might feel confused at the first time. But once you spend 5 minutes there, you will easily get it.
And all the comics are for free of cost. You do not need to pay for it and that's what make the site worth. Isn't it?
Here, we have mentioned the best websites to read an online comic for free. The list is based on various trustworthy sources. You can trust the sites and can read your favorite comic series just for free.
However, you might need to pay in some of the sites as the list contains some sites where you need to pay some amount to enjoy the comics. But worry not, we have listed the sites where you do not need to pay.
So, if you were looking for a comic from a long time which you can easily read on your smartphone or laptop, these will help you for sure.


D. W. Williams was Systems Analyst/Modeler, University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Project.
Hilgardia 52(4):1-32. DOI:10.3733/hilg.v52n04p032. March 1984.
Natural ecosystems are often sources of pest arthropods and their natural enemies for nearby agroecosystems. This study treats the ecology of the native California blackberry, Rubus ursinus Cham. and Schlecht, and an imported blackberry, Rubus procerus P.J. Mueller, the blackberry leaf-hopper (BLH), Dikrella califomica (Lawson), and its egg parasite, Anagrus epos Girault, in two riparian habitats and a vineyard site. Anagrus is also an effective natural enemy of the grape leafhopper (GLH), Erythroneura elegantula Osborn, which evolved on wild grape in the riparian habitat and became a serious pest after the introduction of commercial varieties.
The parasite overwinters in immature stages in the eggs of BLH in blackberry. In the early spring, growth of the native blackberry and BLH oviposition precede grape growth and GLH oviposition by the length of one parasite generation. Since Anagrus becomes active when BLH oviposition begins, this synchrony allows the parasite to increase its populations in the riparian refuge before entering the vineyard.
The two blackberry species differ in their preferred habitats: the native blackberry is limited to moist shady habitats, while the imported species grows in open sunlit areas. In phenology the imported blackberry appears less synchronized with and less constrained by the California climate. The blackberry leafhopper produces three generations per year and overwinters as a diapausing adult. The leafhopper is well adapted to the phenology of the native blackberry, but less so to that of the imported species, which breaks dormancy in the spring long after BLH terminates diapause. Leafhopper females oviposit primarily in the lower half of the leaf canopy of the native blackberry throughout the season, while in the imported species they shift oviposition from the top of the canopy in early spring to the bottom by late summer.
A time-varying life table analysis shows that BLH immature mortality due to Anagrus, nymphal parasites, and general predators is positively density dependent. Age-specific life table analyses in the laboratory estimate that Anagrus' intrinsic rate of increase (rm) is 2.2 times those of BLH and GLH. Although rm is a questionable index of parasite effectiveness, the difference probably allows Anagrus to respond rapidly to changes in GLH populations. Suggestions for the further augmentation of Anagrus populations in artificial refuges includes the management of blackberry and the monitoring and maintenance of BLH populations.


Deposition Author(s): Jankowski, W., Saleh, T., Kalodimos, C.
Domain organization differences explain Bcr-Abl's preference for CrkL over CrkII.
Jankowski, W., Saleh, T., Pai, M.T., Sriram, G., Birge, R.B., Kalodimos, C.G.
CrkL is a key signaling protein that mediates the leukemogenic activity of Bcr-Abl. CrkL is thought to adopt a structure that is similar to that of its CrkII homolog. The two proteins share high sequence identity and indistinguishable ligand binding preferences, yet they have distinct physiological roles. Here we show that the structures of CrkL and phosphorylated CrkL are markedly different than the corresponding structures of CrkII. As a result, the binding activities of the Src homology 2 and Src homology 3 domains in the two proteins are regulated in a distinct manner and to a different extent. The different structural architecture of CrkL and CrkII may account for their distinct functional roles. The data show that CrkL forms a constitutive complex with Abl, thus explaining the strong preference of Bcr-Abl for CrkL. The results also highlight how the structural organization of the modular domains in adaptor proteins can control signaling outcome.


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We are facing flood of information in all over the world and at the mercy of media in daily. However, there are people, life and some landscapes behind. What we need now is to put things in perspective. Photograph could be one of the tools. "loosen a string" is photographs taken in Israel, and this is attempt to see what is happening there.
03 - 29 June 2014.
Yasuhiro Morikawa creats works with connection identity what he has and, things happen in society.


From developer MuHa, "Thea: The Awakening" the Ice Giants is a turned-based strategic survival game inspired by the Slavic mythology and set in a procedural dark fantasy world infused with non-linear story and card base combat system. Packed with hours upon hours of gameplay Thea the Awakening does not disappoint, as a God you lead your followers to restore Thea to its former glory, but do you rid the world of might and magic or rebuild it for the future of mankind above all else? Anyways, Thea has been around since 2015, but I've never heard of it, but it's found its way to the PS4. So the big question would be the following, is "Thea the Awakening" worth of your time and money? Read on and find out why!
I have to say for the first few hours of playing Thea, I had no idea what I was doing. Sure, while there's quite a hefty tutorial in the game. I was still a little confused to start with (I was paying attention honest). You see, my loyal followers kept getting mortally wounded I didn't 100% understand the card game, and I hadn't realised that my expedition actually needed "food and fire wood" to survive.
The world of Thea is a very pretty one indeed.
I was an utter noob in the wilderness and a rubbish God, so I restarted (a couple of times) and then suddenly it just clicked, my followers were gathering supplies. My expedition was looting treasure, and I was making progress in the story while loving every minute of it. The story is also filled with lore. Thea has seen over 100 years of darkness. Mankind has dwindled, and nasty beasties have appeared far and wide. However, the old Gods still live and you as the player must lead your clan to save Thea.
The gameplay of Thea is turned based. So you have your settlement and then your expedition, (you start with one, but you can add more) the main goal is accomplishing various tasks for your God, but there are also a variety of side quests and procedural quests that appear as you play! And that includes everything from meeting a strange creature that brought my settlement luck, finding a baby among crops, meeting a fair king to wraiths that infested the female members of my clan sending them mad.
The Thea card game takes some time to get used to. I don't mind though, since the illustrations are absolutely fantastic.
There are so many random events it just keeps each turn interesting, you never know what might happen next! There are hundreds of items to discover from consumables to weapons to outfit your people with. A variety of swords, shields, armour and trinkets can be scavenged or crafted, and your people can also learn valuable skills, such as being warriors, gatherers, medics, witches or craftsman, depending on your expedition you will be able to overcome various challenges and success depends on your stats.
What makes Thea good is that it becomes your own personal story, while extensive play will unveil everything there is to see. So in short doses the game it felt unique (at least it did for me). Furthermore, the quests and encounters were varied and the sadness when my beloved villager "Puk" died. You see, Puk was an exquisite craftsman who died from major wounds after fighting off an invasion of rats that attacked the settlement.
Random encounters can be tackled in many ways. However, some options may be unavailable to begin with.
Simply put, Puk deserved a better send-off other than a message box telling me he had passed. I wanted to hold him a funeral, have the villagers mourn his death, perhaps we might see such mechanics in a sequel because after a while you do get attached to your followers, and this is due to the incredible illustrations. You don't need AAA graphics to like a character, in Thea I still got a sense of personality just from the names and illustrations alone.
Visually "Thea: the Awakening" almost looks like an oil painting as you unveil the surrounding area the world map is thriving with fantasy, whether it's ruins, resources, friends or foes, it does not disappoint. The Menus even look awesome with stunning illustrations of your worshippers, giving each of them a unique identity. The sound quality is also at a great standard from the music to the voice acting. It's like a story book as you go from place to place on your own personal adventure.
Gathering resources is paramount to your survival.
Furthermore, the sound effects holds a very high standard. The music is great, but the voice acting is also fantastic. In the matter of fact, the game is narrated and voiced by Simon Alison, who does a fantastic job as playing dungeon keeper, voicing all the characters and narrating the game too. In other words, he's done a remarkable job, and for me personally. That made my time with Thea a memorable one.
In terms of negatives that I took away during my time with Thea, I must admit there's very few. It never crashed on me or gave me that much hassle, there were a few times where I couldn't select my expedition as quick as I'd like, if there was one issue (whether it is much an issue at all) it's that you can only have one save. So you can't start multiple games with different Gods, starting a new game erases your previous progress. I also struggled with the card mini-game. It seemed a little more confusing than Gwent, but you can skip it completely if you struggle to master it and still enjoy the game.
This is what the inventory menu looks like in "Thea: The Awakening" (in my opinion, it's rather easy to understand and use).
"Thea: the Awakening" is a time sink kind of title. As it's one of those games you play and realize the sun is coming up as you get lost on your own adventure, while the card game is a little confusing, you can just skip battles and still enjoy the game, once you start expanding, gaining more citizens, exploring distant places and unlocking more Gods/abilities things just get better. You can customize the game to your liking providing an easy to brutal challenge.
What makes the game special though are the random encounters, they're fantastic and just keep things interesting, I loved the characters that I bumped into and it just kept surprising me each time. So if you enjoy long turn-based strategy games, then Thea the Awakening is for you and for the PS Plus Pre-Order price of £11.49 (RRP £17.99) you can't go wrong. That also why I really hope "Thea: The Awakening" finds a second breath of life on console because it deserves it.
"Thea: The Awakening" has been around for quite a while now. Even so, I still hope that the players will give the game a chance on console. Because it's a very good turned based RPG game that's worthy of your time and money.
Title: Thea: The awakening, the Ice giants.