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See a bigger picture on China e-commerce market here.
About Alibaba Group (company)
Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) is a publicly traded Hangzhou-based group of businesses, its main businesses include:
B2B online web portals (alibaba.com, Chinese B2B website 1688.com)
Alibaba online retail e-commerce platforms (C2C marketplace Taobao, B2C Tmall.com) & new retail Hema; a shopping search engine eTao.com
Payment services Alipay (now part of Ant Financial)
Data-centric cloud computing services Aliyun (Alibaba Cloud).
Alibaba is the world's largest retailer and e-commerce company. And, it is on the list of largest Internet companies and artificial intelligence companies, one of the biggest venture capital firms, and one of the biggest investment corporations in the world.
See the comparison of Alibaba with Amazon or another Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com here. Check out 10 charts to know Alibaba Group: China's E-commerce Empire
Alibaba Group Businesses
Taobao: China's largest online shopping destination
Tmall: China's largest third-party platform for brands and retailers
Juhuasuan: most popular online group buying marketplace in China
Alipay: Largest third-party online payment service provider in China
AliExpress: global retail marketplace
eTao: shopping comparison search engine
Alitalk: instant messenger for shoppers & merchants
1688.com: Leading online wholesale marketplace in China
Lazada: e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia
Alimama: Leading online marketing technology platform
Cainiao: Operator of a logistics information platform
Aliyun: Developer of platforms for cloud computing and data mgmt
Enterprise Communication & Collaboration
DingTalk, or Dingding, saw its fast rise during COVID-19 crisis.
Alibaba Company History
Alibaba group started in 1999 when Jack Ma founded the website Alibaba.com, a B2B portal to connect Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers.
On 4 April 1999, Jack Ma and his team of 17 friends and students founded Alibaba.com in his Hangzhou apartment.
In October 1999, Alibaba received a US$25 million investment from Goldman Sachs and SoftBank. Alibaba.com was expected to improve the domestic e-commerce market and perfect an e-commerce platform for Chinese enterprises, especially SMEs, to help export Chinese products to the global market as well as address World Trade Organization (WTO) challenges.
In 2002, Alibaba.com became profitable three years after launch. Ma wanted to improve the global e-commerce system, so from 2003 onward, Alibaba launched Taobao Marketplace, Alipay, Alimama.com, and Lynx.
Taobao later forced eBay out of the Chinese market with its free product listing strategy, with eBay closing its unprofitable China Web unit, though the two companies would break even six years later.
In 2005, Yahoo! invested in Alibaba through a variable interest entity structure, buying a 40% stake in the company for US$1 billion. This would as a result net in US$10 billion in Alibaba's IPO alone to Yahoo.
In 2010, Alibaba launched AliExpress.com, an online retail service made up of mostly small Chinese businesses offering products to international online buyers. It is the most visited E-Commerce platform in Russia.
The Name of The Company
The company's name came from the character Ali Baba from the Middle Eastern folk tale collection One Thousand and One Nights because of its universal appeal.
Alibaba IPO
Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA and HKEX: 9988) has officially listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) on 19 November 2019.
At closing time on the date of Alibaba IPO – US$25 billion, the world's highest in history, Alibaba's market value was US$231 billion. It is one of the top 10 most valuable and is the 59th biggest public company in the world by Global 2000 list.
Before IPO, Alibaba made a lot of strategic investments and acquisitions both domestic and abroad; you can find more on the infographic here.
In January 2018, Alibaba became the second Asian company to break the US$500 billion valuation mark, after its competitor Tencent. As of 2018, Alibaba has the 9th highest global brand valuation.
In October 2016, Alibaba launched Alitrip, later named Fliggy, an online travel platform that is designed as an online mall for brands such as airline companies and agencies.
In 2017, Alibaba started opening a chain of supermarkets, named Hema.
Alibaba Competitors
In e-commerce and retail, Alibaba Group's top competitors are JD, Pinduoduo, and Meituan.
In OTA, it (Fliggy) competes with Ctrip, Qunar, eLong.
In cloud computing, its top competitors are Tencent, Baidu, and China Telecom.
Digital payment: WeChat Pay (TenPay)
Alibaba Trends & Insights
Google Trying To Impede Alibaba's Progress on Mobile
Part-time Sellers Account For 70% Of China Online Shops
Top 10 Instant Messenger in 2011
Alibaba Launching A Google+ Like Social Network
Alibaba eTao Aims to Be One Stop Shopping Portal
China Internet Usage Led by Web Portals as Social Networking Remains Smaller Segment of the Market
Mobile IM Q2 2010 Market Share by Active Users
China to Allow Non-financial Companies to Offer online payment services
Alibaba Alipay CEO Went Streaking to Celebrate 1.2 billion daily transactions
Taobao Sales during Golden Week Reached 8 Billion RMB
TradeKey.com Another Alibaba in B2B Online Media?
Alipay Partners with Japanese Tenso with Shipping Solution to Chinese Consumers


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Home / Products / Lady Alexandra's Lover - Autographed
Lady Alexandra's Lover - Autographed
**SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR**
Signed Copy of Lady Alexandra's Lover.
Lady Alexandra MacIntyre has made up her mind. Having grown up in near poverty, she's marrying for money—a lot of money—and she'll do anything to achieve her goal...even get herself caught in a compromising situation by her overprotective and smugly conventional—although achingly handsome—new stepbrother, Lord Evan Xavier.
Evan, the second son of the Earl of Brighton, considers Alexandra a genuine pain in his arse. She's beautiful, yes, but also headstrong and lacking in social graces and respect for authority. Unfortunately, while his father and her mother are away on their wedding trip, she is his responsibility. When she announces her plan to travel to London, he has no choice but to go along as her protector.
When the two are stranded after a carriage accident, circumstances spiral out of control, and the heat between them can't be denied. Rescue is on its way, but Alexandra still has her own agenda…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home Opinion It's getting harder to ignore Pizzagate
It's getting harder to ignore Pizzagate
Moses Apostaticus
This article was originally published on 4/12/2016. With the recent arrest of Jeffrey Epstein, this content is worth reviewing with the hope that sooner rather than later, the floodgates will open.
Graphic content warning: This article contains disturbing information and subject matter. Several of the links in particular contain material which readers are likely to find upsetting, and made the editor physically sick. Please do not follow these links without taking this warning into account. The subject is serious enough, however, that it deserves investigation.
XYZ Editors.
For several months now, thousands of citizen journalists have been conducting an amateur online investigation into a very dark and disturbing topic. Beginning on the link-sharing site Reddit, thousands of volunteers have been investigating occult rituals and possible evidence of an organized pedophile ring at the highest levels of America's political establishment.
The growing pile of circumstantial evidence being unearthed by these citizen journalists reveals disturbing patterns, morbid themes and revolting imagery which are yet to be explained by the high-level people involved.
John Podesta
What has come to be known as Pizzagate began with the public release of Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta's emails by WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign. Thousands of so-called 'centipedes' began self-organizing on Reddit to sift through and analyze the emails with the intention of finding useful information for the Trump campaign.
The focus of the amateur investigation shifted, however, when an email chain was discovered between John Podesta, his brother lobbyist Tony Podesta and controversial performance artist and celebrity insider Marina Abramovic. The emails made reference to an occult ritual known as 'spirit cooking'.
Spirit cooking is a stomach-turning, cabalistic ritual which involves the use of body fluids, pentagrams, mock dismembered body parts and the cutting of skin by the practitioner. According to Abramovic, if such practices are done publicly then they are to be considered art. If done in private, they are rituals.
Of particular interest to the army of citizen investigators probing through the Podesta email leaks was the obvious familiarity which the Podesta brothers have with Abramovic and with spirit cooking. No explanation of the ritual was required.
Scrutiny of the leaked Podesta emails intensified dramatically though when a series of email exchanges was uncovered which did not make sense unless they were using a series of code words. These code words were focused around food terms, and included words such as 'pizza', 'cheese', 'pasta' and '(hot)dogs'.
What makes these code words potentially explosive, and perhaps the greatest scandal of the century if those investigating Pizzagate are correct, is the possibility that these are code words used by pedophiles on the dark web. Although widely believed, this explanation remains unsubstantiated. We do know, however, that these words are code for something.
Also disturbing was an email sent by Tamera Luzzatto to John Podesta and fifteen others inviting them to a pool party that she did not appear to be attending and at which her three daughters aged eleven, nine and seven would be the 'entertainment'. She also assures her invitees that her daughters will be 'in that pool for sure'.
Who invites sixteen adults to a pool party which they won't be attending and provides their under-age daughters as entertainment in the pool? For any reasonable person, that's a very odd message to send.
Curiosity grew even further upon the discovery of an interview by Politico with John Podesta from 2015 in which a painting depicting cannibalism can be seen hanging in his Brooklyn office.
This unusual choice for professional artwork extends to the private art collections of the Podesta brothers. Tony Podesta's favourite piece at his home in Falls Church is his 'Arch of Hysteria'; a large hanging replica which the Reddit investigators have pointed out bears a striking resemblance to one of serial killer Jeffery Dahmer's decapitated victims.
From https://conservativedailypost-guvbvzsunddro8yrw.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/TonyPodesta02.jpg
In the Washington Life Magazine feature which Tony Podesta did in 2015, art by Biljana Djurdjevic can be seen on the walls. Djurdjevic's work is known for including disturbing images of child torture.
Interest in degenerate art and occult rituals is not the key focus of the Pizzagate citizen investigation, however. Instead, what has made Pizzagate such a keen focus of interest for so many has been the unearthing of very disturbing references to children.
The Reddit investigators sifting through the Podesta email leaks noticed that the Washington Life interview which Tony Podesta did in 2015 mentions that Podesta regularly opens his house for pizza parties with his friend James Alefantis, owner of pizza restaurant Comet Ping Pong and fellow friend of many senior Democrat Party figures.
Comet Ping Pong and the businesses around it have since become the primary focus of the citizen investigation. Two doors down from Comet Ping Pong is Besta Pizza, which until very recently had a logo which was identical to a known pedophilia symbol included in a factsheet put out by the FBI in 2007. Across the road is Terasol bistro, whose website until recently also featured symbols eerily similar to known pedophilic symbols distributed to the public by the FBI. All of the businesses on the block are owned by people with connections to the uppermost echelons of the Democratic Party in Washington.
James Alefantis also posted a photo of Marina Abramovic on the Comet Ping Pong Instagram account. Reddit investigators identified several disturbing images from the restaurant's account, including one of a small girl with her hands taped to a table and another with what appear to be children engaged in a bizarre dehumanization ritual. These are odd for a pizza restaurant which markets itself as family-friendly.
Comet Ping Pong has also hosted performances by a band known as Heavy Breathing, whose lyrics and artwork contain pedophilic references. The posters advertising these events, designed by Sasha Lord, feature extremely graphic images and references to trauma-based dissociation, yet read 'all ages'. One of Lord's posters for a concert by Prince Rama and Heavy Breathing at Comet Ping Pong advertised an 'interactive exorcism' and 'pizza exorcism', again for all ages.
The constant unveiling of new connections and lines of inquiry by the Reddit amateur journalists has led to such intense attention that the New York Times published a piece on November 21 dismissing Pizzagate and its investigators as 'fake news'. The Times article did not engage directly with any of the evidence put forward by the Pizzagate investigators.
The next day, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman closed down the Pizzagate subreddit, citing concerns that the community had become a 'witch hunt'. This is an interesting choice of words given the references to bizarre occult rituals in Podesta's emails. The investigation has since moved to other sites.
There is much more to the Pizzagate investigation than has been included here, however due to the revolting and circumstantial nature of the material it has been left out for the moment. Every day more material and more connections are being uncovered by the Pizzagate researchers. If you wish to assist with the investigation yourself or keep up to date with the latest revelations, you can do so at the VOAT website.
At this stage, law enforcement is not stating publicly whether they are investigating the evidence uncovered by this citizen investigation, although the NYPD is in possession of Anthony Weiner's laptop in relation to an underage sex investigation. This laptop is known to contain emails sent from Hillary Clinton's private email server which she previously withheld from a Congressional investigation.
The Pizzagate investigators are not the first to raise these questions. Andrew Breitbart made similar allegations against John Podesta shortly before his death in 2012.
How prog-guru John Podesta isn't household name as world class underage sex slave op cover-upperer defending unspeakable dregs escapes me.
— AndrewBreitbart (@AndrewBreitbart) February 4, 2011
Pedophile rings and elite pedophilia exist. In Canada in 2013 a pedophile ring involving nearly 400 children and 348 adults was revealed to the public by the Toronto police. In Norway recently a child abuse ring was discovered which involved 51 suspects and the abuse of infants.
Although Pizzagate is focused on possible crimes committed in the United States and possible child trafficking in Haiti, there may be cause for concern here in Australia. The person whose email started the interest in Pizzagate, Marina Abramovic, did a two-week residency in Sydney in 2015.
The implications of all this fragmentary evidence put together by volunteers are very difficult for most of us to accept. This is not the first time, however, that abuse of children in elite circles around the world has been alleged. If there is any validity to the growing evidence base of Pizzagate, we owe it to the weakest and most vulnerable among us to face whatever truths it may reveal stoically and fearlessly.
Photo by Center for American Progress
Comet Ping Pong
Previous articleFood For Thought – Kids, Beware Of The Bad Few
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http://tradnash.net
Moses is the author of CIVILIZATIONISM, a freelance writer and an advocate for Traditional Nationalism, a philosophy which seeks to restore realism as the basis for political organisation in Australia. You can find out about the movement at http://www.restoringaustralia.net
Unfortunately, Donald Trump is not a "racist"


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American College of Emergency Physicians
ACEP Statement on Federal Regulation Banning Firearm Bump Stocks
WASHINGTON, D.C.—In response to a new Trump administration regulation that officially bans the manufacture, possession, and sale of bump stocks, Vidor Friedman, MD, FACEP, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians released the following statement:
"On behalf of the nation's emergency physicians, I applaud the Trump Administration for taking this decisive action to outlaw bump stocks, a type of firearm modification that was used in the deadliest mass shooting to date in the United States, where 58 people were murdered, and more than 400 individuals were injured by gunfire at a musical festival in Las Vegas, NV. While that shooter's motivations and personal responsibility for the attack cannot be ignored, the scope and severity of that shooting was facilitated using firearms fitted with bump stocks to increase the rate of fire. The availability of these devices poses a very real and serious threat to public safety.
"While recognizing the right of individuals to own firearms, ACEP policy supports efforts that restrict the sale and ownership of weapons and munitions designed for military or law enforcement use. The sole function of bump stocks and other such devices is to enable semiautomatic firearms to closely emulate the performance of fully automatic firearms that are limited to the military or law enforcement or are otherwise highly regulated for civilian use.
"We acknowledge that banning these devices will not solve all of our nation's challenges in reducing firearms violence. However, this action can help reduce access to these devices that are mass-produced in clear exploitation of a legal loophole. ACEP firmly believes that reasonable steps, such as this one, can be taken to improve public health and safety by appropriately regulating bump stocks without infringing upon the rights of law-abiding Americans."
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is the national medical society representing emergency medicine. Through continuing education, research, public education, and advocacy, ACEP advances emergency care on behalf of its 40,000 emergency physician members, and the more than 150 million Americans they treat on an annual basis. For more information, visit www.acep.org and www.emergencyphysicians.org.
Contact: Maggie McGillick | mmcgillick@acep.org | Twitter @EmergencyDocs
Advocacy Firearms News
From One Parent to Another -- Childproofing Lessons Learned Working in the ER
Medication-Assisted Treatment Helps Patients Avoid Opioid Withdrawal Complications


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Nutrition matching
Love children, starting from cultivating "feeding balance"
01 Primary and secondary school students are in a critical period of growth and development. Good nutritional status is the basis and guarantee of their intelligence, physical quality and even psychological development. Relevant surveys show that the dietary structure of primary and middle school students in Beijing is unreasonable - cereals, vegetables and fruits
02 Insufficient exercise and uneven diet, these comprehensive factors play a role together, and related health problems are highlighted. The obesity rates of male and female students in Beijing primary and secondary schools in 2011-2012 were 26.2% and 15.2%, respectively;
03 The formation of the child's lifestyle, the first influencing factor should be the family. Obviously, the child's lifestyle is first influenced by the family. For example, if parents love sports, the chances of children enjoying sports will increase greatly; family eating habits will affect children.
04 Unfortunately, there are still many parents who are not aware of this problem. I would like to appeal to everyone that if you really love your child, you must first let him grow up healthily, and build a healthy family lifestyle to help children develop a "balance of eating".
What can I eat?...
Lose weight in spring, eat more ste...
How will longan eat more?...
The efficacy and effect of pearl po...
What to eat kidney and impotence fa...
Winter health porridge...
The effect of red bean soup...
What are the foods for zinc supplem...
The benefits and disadvantages of e...
What to do if you eat turtle...
What to eat to treat dysmen...
What to eat can kidney...
The difference between Pu'er tea ra...
Will Yangmei get angry?...
Osmanthus tea practice...
The efficacy and taboo of barley te...
The role and efficacy of earth hone...
Can freshly baked bread be eaten?...
Dinner can eat to lose weight...
How to tonify kidney from food?...


These are utterly beautiful, I think I have to have the last one. The colour is divine.
The fist one and the second one! WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!
You have one of the most beautiful shops I've ever seen, just had to tell you!
Thank you everyone <3 !


On Thursday, the Sea Shepherd ship, Bob Barker, marked the 22nd day of its pursuit of the Interpol-listed poaching vessel, Thunder. In doing so, the conservation ship has broken the record for the world's longest sea chase of a poaching vessel.
The Sam Simon completed the retrieval of the first illegal gillnet on December 29. In an operation that spanned five days, the crew hauled 25 kilometers of illegal gillnet out of the Antarctic waters. Over 200 toothfish and other marine creatures were found dead in the net.
Retrieval of the second "monster", which measured 19 kilometers, was completed last Tuesday. While slightly shorter than the first net, the "monster" net contained over twice the catch of the previous haul. Approximately 500 toothfish, and hundreds of other marine creatures were found dead, many in advanced stages of decomposition.
Operation Icefish is Sea Shepherd's 11th Southern Ocean Defense Campaign, and the first to target IUU toothfish fishing operators in the waters of Antarctica.
Sea Shepherd Australia is a non-profit conservation organization whose mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species. Sea Shepherd Australia uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately balanced oceanic ecosystems, Sea Shepherd Australia works to ensure their survival for future generations.
Tags: Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), Patagonian toothfish, Peter Hammarstedt, poaching vessel, Sea Shepherd ship, Thunder vessel, toothfish, Viarsa I.
Much easier to just sink the poachers. When you are down near Antartica, who's going to see?
Sink a dozen boats and they will learn to stop going there.
Just one question. Where is Sea Shepherd's legal authority?
If I were younger, I would join their ship in a hear beat!


Tara Randel is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author. Family values, a bit of mystery and of course, love and romance, are her favorite themes. Look for her next Harlequin Heartwarming romance, available in August.
Visit Tara at www.tararandel.com. Like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TaraRandelBooks.
Sign up for Tara's Newsletter and receive a link to download a free digital book.
One of the first things people ask me when I tell them I'm an author is, "What do you write?" And since I love my job, I'm happy to tell them.
But before I continue, I need to go back in time.
I've always loved to read. My favorite memories are coming home with a stack of books from the public library. The love continued through high school. Once I got to college, fiction went to the wayside while I studied. Then, when I entered the work force (in the totally non-creative writing field of dentistry), I resumed my lifelong passion of reading.
Somewhere along the line a friend I worked with introduced me to romance novels. I fell in love. With the characters. The stories. The idea that love was bigger and stronger than anything I could imagine.
And then one day that same friend said, "We should write a book." My immediate response was, "Sure." What did I know? Nothing, I soon learned. But I studied craft and the business of writing in the hopes that my new dream might come true.
Fast forward twenty-some years. Not only do I write romance novels, but the world of writing has opened up so much, I write in other genres as well.
Romance will always be my first love. I'm a hopeless romantic and can't fathom a world without love stories. I've been fortunate to write for Harlequin Heartwarming, their wholesome fiction line — stories that celebrate the greatest gift of all: Love.
I've also been able to write my second favorite genre, mystery. Who doesn't love a story where you have to figure out "Who done it?" I love the layers, the red herrings and the logic behind piecing together a good story you hope a reader won't put down until they get to the very last page.
This year, I'll be starting work on books for a Women's Fiction line. Another step into a different genre and I can't wait to get started. Real life issues tackled in a way to connect women, to bond over stories of family, heartache and life changes.
As a writer, I want to move readers with the journey of my characters, the growth and lessons learned along the way. No matter what genre you read or write, we can always close the book after the last page having made new friends and making new discoveries. It's the magic of books that will never go away, and that's why I love sitting at my keyboard every day, creating stories I can't wait to share.
When I first started writing and had trouble getting published, my husband suggested that I not limit myself to one genre. Best advice ever. Now I get to work with different publishers. I've made new friends as my career has grown. Best of all, the ideas in my head eventually get a home.
If you've ever thought about writing, I encourage you to start by writing those first words. You never know what can happen. All those years ago, I never imagined being an author.
If you love to read, keep supporting the authors whose books you enjoy. I may never meet you face to face, but trust me, I appreciate the time you take out of your schedule to get lost in one of my books. It's a privilege and an honor, and one I never take for granted.
In 1983, Margaret Atwood rented a fisherman's cottage in the English seacoast village of Blakeney, Norfolk. She planned to spend the next six months writing her most ambitious novel yet — a complex and richly detailed dystopian tale.
Margaret Atwood at Eden Mills Writers' Festival, Ontario, Canada, September 2006. Photo: Vanwaffle, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
What was wrong? Why didn't she write? Answer: She was blocked by fear of failure. Her vision of the novel loomed so large in her mind that she felt overwhelmed and paralyzed. She didn't know where to begin.
Frustrated with herself for wasting months of valuable writing time, Atwood finally did what every successful writer must do in order to overcome the fear of failure: She wrote. She began producing bits and pieces of the story. She sketched in characters and wrote patches of dialogue. It didn't all hang together at first, but that didn't matter. After six months, she was finally writing again.
This was hardly Margaret Atwood's first novel. She had already enjoyed a fifteen-year, five-novel career when she found herself blocked during The Handmaid's Tale. So the fear of failure is not restricted to beginning and aspiring writers. Successful novelists often experience this fear as well. Like Margaret Atwood, you can conquer your fear of failure and go on to achieve your greatest work.
The conquest of this fear begins with acceptance of the inevitability of failure. To write is to know failure. Most writers experience more failure than success, and we all strive to achieve a level of perfection that is probably unattainable.
Will Self at the Humber Mouth literary festival in Hull, England, 2007. Photo: Walnut Whippet, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.
And English novelist Will Self said, "To attempt to write seriously is always, I feel, to fail. The disjunction between my beautifully sonorous, accurate and painfully affecting mental content and the leaden, halting sentences on the page always seems a dreadful falling short. . . . I prize this sense of failure — embrace it even. . . . To continue writing is to accept failure as simply a part of the experience."3 As writers, we accept the inevitability of commercial failure, artistic failure, and even failed relationships.
Don't fear that you have no more stories or books in you. You have barely scratched the surface of all the stories your soul contains. Over time, you have learned and grown as a writer. Relax in the confidence and mastery you have gained from that achievement — and prepare to conquer even greater challenges in the future. Trust your unconscious mind, your talent, your training, and your experience. Then sit down in front of your screen or your blank page and write the truest sentence you know.
If you live by the maxim, "Fail early, fail often," you can write without fear of failure. Train yourself to view failure not as an objective reality but as a false label people impose on a learning experience. Instead of telling yourself, "How horrible — I've failed," simply shrug and say, "Well, that didn't work. Lesson learned. What should I try next?" Make up your mind to learn from your failures and you'll stop being afraid.
Margaret Atwood, "Falling Short: Seven Writers Reflect on Failure," The Guardian, June 22, 2013, http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/22/falling-short-writers-reflect-failure.
Anne Enright, "Falling Short: Seven Writers Reflect on Failure," The Guardian, June 22, 2013, http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/22/falling-short-writers-reflect-failure.
Will Self, "Falling Short: Seven Writers Reflect on Failure," The Guardian, June 22, 2013, http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/22/falling-short-writers-reflect-failure.
James Rubert, "Focus On Freedom: Q&A with Author James Rubert," SimplyFaithful.com, July 30, 2012, http://simplyfaithful.com/2012/07/30/focus-on-freedom-qa-with-author-james-rubart/.
Lawrence Block, Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print (Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 1985), 3.
Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition (New York: Scribner, 2009), 22.
Diogenes Brito, "Fear of the Blank Page," Uxdiogenes.com, March 10, 2013, http://uxdiogenes.com/blog/fear-of-the-blank-page.
Kerry Nietz, author of Amish Vampires in Space, A Star Curiously Singing, and Fraught.
With apologies, it's been a while since I've posted to the Writing in Overdrive blog. I promise to be more faithful in posting new content that you can use to be a more productive and creatively inspired writer. I've got some exciting content lined up for this site, especially for this special time of year, National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo).
I want to kick off this new series of inspiring and motivational posts with an interview with my friend Kerry Nietz, award-winning science fiction author. He has more than a half dozen speculative novels in print, along with a novella, a couple short stories, and a non-fiction book, FoxTales.
I've read and I highly recommend Kerry's novel A Star Curiously Singing, which won the Readers Favorite Gold Medal Award for Christian Science Fiction. It's a dystopian thriller with a strong cyberpunk flavor. It has more than a hundred five-star reviews on Amazon and is often mentioned on "Best of" lists.
Q: Why do you write, Kerry? Who or what inspired you or influenced you to become a novelist?
Kerry Nietz: The simple answer is: It's something I always wanted to do. I grew up reading. I was the kid who would badger his parents for "just one more book" when the Scholastic catalog arrived every month. And they often bought all those "more books" for me, despite being a rural family where money always seemed tight. I dabbled in writing back then too. Writing little scraps of stories. Fun ideas that never really turned into anything.
Anyone who knows me knows I communicate in stories. I love a fun anecdote. Life is a collection of stories to me.
Q: It's said that there are two kinds of fiction writers — those who outline and those who "write by the seat of their pants." Accordingly, the non-outliners are often called "pantsers," but I've never liked that term. I prefer the term Ray Bradbury coined when he told writers, "You've got to jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down." He was urging writers not to outline, but to simply leap off the cliff and into the story and discover the plot and characters as they write their way down through the story. So my preferred term for writing without outline is "cliff-jumping." Kerry, I know that you're a cliff-jumper. Does cliff-jumping enable you to be a faster writer? Or does it slow you down?
Kerry Nietz: It probably doesn't make me faster. I'm sure that, if I were able to outline, the actual writing would be quick. But the outlining might take a long time, and I'm averse to that. Sitting for weeks or even months without putting actual words to the story would kill me.
Q: From page 1 to "The End," how long does it usually take you to write a novel?
Kerry Nietz: The average time to write a novel, from start to final draft, is around nine months. Depends on the story and the number of viewpoints I need to service. First person stories are quicker.
Q: Are you meticulous about buffing and polishing your first draft as you go? Or do you write quickly and spontaneously in first draft, never looking back?
Kerry Nietz: There is a level of polishing that occurs as I go, because I like to lightly edit yesterday's work in preparation for today's. I usually stop for the day in the middle of scene. That gives me something to read and edit the next day and makes it easy to get into the flow of writing again.
Q: Have you ever written a section, then wondered "Why did I write that?" and later discovered that it became an important subplot or storyline?
Kerry Nietz: Yes, often. Same goes for characters and situations. They sometimes seem, initially, to be superfluous or simply window-dressing to help paint the tone or setting. But later they become pivotal. The "serendipity-ness" of it becomes even more amazing when it occurs over the course of a series. For instance, in one of my series, I had no idea who the final "big bad" was until my protagonist walked into the room with him. Then it became blindingly obvious — and it was someone I'd created two books previous.
Q: How much of the story do you know before you start? Do you know how you want it to end? Does a better ending usually occur to you than the one you originally had in mind?
Kerry Nietz: It has happened both ways. Sometimes I have a concrete idea of the finale and it ends that way. Other times it is vague and becomes clearer as I close in on it. All my Amish science fiction novels have been like that. I have no idea how they end, other than "something big," but when I get there, the "big" becomes obvious.
Q: Ray Bradbury claimed he almost never experienced writer's block because he trusted his unconscious mind to supply what he needed when he needed it. Theodore Sturgeon, who also advocated cliff jumping (he called it "the narrative push" approach), was chronically afflicted with writer's block. Do you ever get stuck or blocked?
Kerry Nietz: I rarely get blocked. I mean, there have been times when I've set for a few minutes not knowing what part of the story to tell next, but eventually I just pick a path and start writing. Usually turns out fine.
Habit helps with that too. If you're used to writing at the same time each day then your mind is ready to write when it's that time. A writer can't wait until they are "feeling it." Some of the best writing was during those times when I felt I was grudgingly pushing through, simply committed to getting my word count in for the day.
Q: Do you see writing fiction as primarily a conscious process or an unconscious process? In your experience, where do ideas and inspiration come from? Is writing related to dreaming, in your view?
Kerry Nietz: Writing is a faith walk for me. I start the journey with the expectation that it will go somewhere. I pray about it. I keep the habits, putting in my daily time, during my usual writing window, committed to at least a couple pages. Before you know it, you're at dozens of pages, then hundreds. So, I guess it is a mixture of conscious and unconscious. Conscious in the habit. Unconscious to where the ideas are all going to come from. All I need is enough for today, and that's what I get, thankfully.
Writing faster and writing better is not a matter of techniques or shortcuts or writing secrets. Sure, there are a few tricks you can learn that will increase your writing speed at the margins: You can eliminate time-wasting habits, use voice dictation software instead of typing, and so forth. I talk about these tricks in my books, and they can help you become a faster writer. But these tricks won't make you more a more brilliant writer.
There's only one writing insight you can learn that will make you a faster and more brilliant writer: You must learn to write unconsciously.
In other words, you must learn to write in flow or in the zone. Great writing does not involve thinking. Great writing comes from a deeper part of us than the conscious intellect. It comes from the unconscious mind.
When you are first drafting (or "fast drafting," as I prefer to call it), always move forward, never look back. By writing freely and quickly and without inhibitions, you tap into the writer's most powerful engine of imagination, the unconscious mind.
Ray Bradbury receiving the Commander of Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 2009. Photo: Caleb Sconosciuto.
What is the unconscious mind? Where in the brain is it located? Is it in the right brain or the murky region of the limbic system? Is the unconscious, creative mind the result of the synergistic functioning of many regions of the brain working together? Or does the function of the unconscious mind extend beyond the boundaries of the brain? Is it a creative activity of the immortal human spirit — a human reflection of the creativity of God?
The unconscious mind is the key to unlocking our incredible creative powers.


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A Rant Too Long for Facebook: StarWars.com at 20
Two years ago, I was reading the coverage from a tech conference. This one article was confused as to why Pizza Hut was giving a keynote address at a conference for web developers. The author eventually discovered that Pizza Hut was there to talk about their website. When Pizza Hut launched their website in 1994, it was the first website for a major pizza chain that let you place your order online...bleeding edge technology in 1994. So Pizza Hut was there to talk about the 20th anniversary of that milestone. I walked away from that article thinking, "Have we really reached the point where websites are celebrating 20th anniversaries? Is the Internet really that old now? Am I?"
It's a wave that's been washing over me once again as my social media lit up with the celebration that this past Saturday, November 26, was the 20th anniversary of www.starwars.com, the official Star Wars website. As they share in the extensive oral history they compiled to commemorate this occasion, starwars.com was originally launched to promote the special editions coming in the spring of 1997. But, with development on the prequels well underway, and dot-com bubble not having popped yet, George Lucas knew he wanted a toehold on this new Internet thing to start spreading the gospel of the prequels. And here we are now, 20 years later, and it's still the online hub for all things Star Wars.
As I read up on this, I had two fond memories of starwars.com that I felt like sharing. First up, was the incident that made starwars.com, the release of the first Episode I teaser. It was on a wintry November night in 1998, much like this one. I was still in college, living in the dorms at Augustana University College. That previous summer, the dorms had been wired into the campus computer network, and I tell you, having high speed Internet in the time when a 28.8k modem for your dial-up was considered fast...well, it was the best perk of living on campus.
The trailer went online, and even with the campus Internet, it was slow going to download that trailer. I had a special download manager on my computer, so I set it to download the trailer at 2AM. I figured that would be when the campus computer network would be at its least-used. I woke up the next morning to the trailer, watched it several times, and it was all we were talking about over breakfast in the cafeteria.
A lot of my classmates were studying computer science, and as such, they were in tight with the campus IT folks. They learned from the IT department that, while so many students downloading the trailer didn't crash the network, there was a not-insignificant slowdown in service.
The second memory has to do with Hyperspace. For a while there, starwars.com had a paid subscription service called Hyperspace, a section of the website that granted you exclusive access to all kinds of exclusive exclusives.
2007 marked the 30th anniversary of the franchise, and to celebrate, Hasbro released some of the most beautiful Star Wars action figures...the McQuarrie concept figures. These figures went back to the beginning, and were based on Ralph McQuarrie's original concept art.
And it turned out that one of those Hyperspace exclusives was the McQuarrie concept R2-D2 and C-3P0.
Now I didn't have a Hyperspace account. Didn't see the need. But I had a friend with one. And I needed the McQuarrie R2-D2 and C-3P0 for my collection. So I plied him with e-mails asking him to buy it for me and I'd totally pay him back and all that stuff. He said he'd look into it.
A couple weeks later, I came back from vacation to find a box from the FedEx guy sitting on my desk.
It even came in that nifty protective plastic bubble. They used to sell those protective plastic bubbles at starwars.com's online store, and I thought about buying a case or two for my collection, but the shipping and handling out of the States was ridiculous.
Anyway, that's it. Just some ramblings about the 20th anniversary of starwars.com that was a little too big for a Facebook post. Looking at the calendar, I see that the next 20th anniversary of a website that's going to make me feel old comes a year from now...November 2017. Which website is it?
My website, chaosinabox.com.
Christmas Time is Here
A friend of mine was asking me not too long ago what my biggest nostalgic trigger is. "What instantly takes you back to that time when you were seven years old, and you were at your happiest?" Truth is, it's always been going to the movies. Especially that first thirty seconds when they're scrolling through the production company logos. It's that feeling that you're about to be taken on a journey...that anything can happen.
I know, it may sound strange, but I grew up in a small town where the nearest movie theatre was an hour's drive away. Going to see a movie was always an event. And now, with the holidays right around the corner, going to the movies was always intrinsically tied to Christmas. I mean, if you're going all the way into the city, you may as well make the most of it, right? Weekends in December when I was a kid fell into a routine of a full day of Christmas shopping, hitting all the shops around Edmonton and checking people off our list, dinner at a really nice sit-down restaurant, and maybe, if there's time and the latest Disney family feature out, a movie. Good times.
And I could use a little more of the good times right now. I've been out-of-sorts as of late. There's been some shake-ups at work, which has caused the Charlie Brown Christmas-esque holiday depression to set in a little earlier. So I definitely need a nostalgic distraction right now.
Typically, when I blog about my days in the city, this is where I tell you about the stuff I bought as part of my retail therapy. Well, given the time of year, most of the stuff I bought was my Christmas shopping, so to blog about that would be getting into massive spoiler territory for my friends and family. Let's just say I made a really good start on my Christmas shopping and leave it at that.
So with the first round of Christmas shopping safely tucked away, it was time for a movie. I decided to check out Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Now, I'd always been pretty indifferent towards the Harry Potter franchise. Read the first book. Saw all the movies except the last two (Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2), but it just never grabbed me the way it grabbed a generation. But, ya know, Fantastic Beasts being a spinoff and no prior knowledge of Harry Potter being required, I figured it'd be a pretty good jumping-on point.
Too bad that seeing Fantastic Beasts turned out to be one of the most unpleasant movie going experiences of my life. There was this guy. Firstly, in a half-full theatre, he decides he has to sit right next to me. He has no concept of personal space. He's hogging the armrest. He's jabbing me with his elbow whenever he reaches for his popcorn. He's sitting with his legs crossed and constantly kicking me when he adjust himself.
And then, the yelling started. I have never experienced the person who yells things at the screen during a movie. I was starting to think that it was just a hacky sitcom joke. But this guy starts yelling at the screen. The first fantastic beast we encounter in the film is called a Niffler. And the guy shouts out, "THAT'S A NIFFLER, EH? HE'S PRETTY CUTE!" The next magical beast we encounter. "LOOK OUT FOR THAT NIFFLER!" And he just keeps going. "MACUSA IS STUPID! THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC IS MUCH SMARTER ABOUT THESE THINGS!" "I WANT TO STUPIDIFY THAT GUY OFF A LEDGE!" "I THINK HE'S THE OBSCURUS!" "I HATE THOSE SECOND-SALEMERS!"
On a side note, I think he may have been mentally handicapped, because three-quarters of the way though the film, one of his friends finally turned to him and said, "Shh...shh...remember, we talked about this. You can't talk to the screen here."
I should of said something. Hell, at the very least, I should have moved and found a better seat. But my standard response to an unpleasant situation has always been the "The is fine" comic, so I just said, "This is fine" and tried to watch the movie.
But other than that, how was the movie? It was OK. When my Harry Potter-lovin' friends explain the universe to me, I would always tell them that I'd be interested to see the Men in Black of the wizarding world...those wizards and witches who are sent in to cover things up when wizarding affairs threaten to break the barriers between the wizarding world and the Muggle world. And my friends are like, "Dude! Those guys exist! They're called Aurors. I tell ya, JK Rowling thought of everything!" So it's nice to see Aurors at work and what they do. They play a pretty major role as Newt Scamander's rampaging magical beasts threaten to expose the wizarding world.
In fact, just the interaction between the wizarding world and the non-magic world, as the villain's plot is to break down those barriers and declare war on the non-magic world. I'd always been curious about the mechanics of how these two worlds co-exist.
That being said, I didn't think our new hero, Newt Scamander, was much of a compelling hero. I get that he's kind of shy and timid, but that sadly means we don't really get a chance to know him or why he's dedicated his life to these fantastic beasts.
But I will give it this. At least it works as a movie. My biggest problem with these franchise starters these days (e.g. John Carter, Terminator: Genisys, Independence Day: Resurgence) is that they leave so many loose threads and unanswered questions with the attitude, "That'll be answered in the sequel," that you rarely get a satisfying ending. This remembers that it has to function as a movie, and we do get an ending. So, yeah. It works as a movie.
I give it 3 Nibs with an asterisk, because that rude guy threw off my concentration so much, my rating may change when I see it free of distraction. Full review on the website.
And speaking off full reviews on the website, I've been meaning to take to the blog and ramble off some of my off-the-cuff comments on Doctor Strange. Yeah, I saw Doctor Strange a couple of weeks ago, but I never got around to doing my "rambling blog entry about my day in the city" that I typically do. So, just some off-the-cuff comments on Doctor Strange that you won't find in the full review on the website.
I really liked Doctor Strange. I know it's starting to get trendy to hate on Marvel for not taking any creative risks, but the other side of that is they've developed a winning formula that you know is going to deliver. I mean, speaking as a frustrated DC guy, Doctor Strange is kind of what I wanted Green Lantern to be. The way Doctor Strange uses magic to conjure up all manner of weapons, and do reality-bending combat...that's how Green Lantern should have been using his ring. The way Steven Strange is all cocksure, but then learning humility is what sets him on his heroic journey...that's how Hal Jordan should have been portrayed. The way Doctor Strange and Baron Mordo start out as friends and allies, but their differing philosophies eventually put them on opposing paths...that's how the relationship between Hal Jordan and Sinestro should have been portrayed, instead of Sinestro slapping on the yellow power ring in the post-credits stinger and going, "LOL, I'm evil now."
But yeah, Doctor Strange is another solid entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 3 Nibs.
Back to the present. After Fantastic Beasts, it was time to head home. But first, dinner. As I've blogged before, I tend to avoid going to sit-down restaurants when I'm on my own, because I feel silently judge for being there by myself. But strangely, I don't feel silently judged for going to animated films by myself. (You're next on my Christmas blockbuster to-watch list, Moana!) This time, though, I knew I had to brave the sit-down restaurants, all in the name of Star Wars.
I was mildly intrigued a few weeks ago when I saw the TV commercials, and learned that the fast food tie-in with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is with...Swiss Chalet. Swiss Chalet's not a fast food place. So, when I stopped at the power centre in St. Albert where I typically eat before leaving the Greater Edmonton Area, rather than Wendy's, I went to the Swiss Chalet on the other end.
It was very strange being there by myself, but I made the most of it. This is the 21st century after all, so I could pass the time by burying my nose in my smartphone. As I did that, I had to chuckle to myself. Everyone laments how people burying their noses in their smartphones is destroying social interaction. What would have happened if I started wandering around the restaurant, chatting with random strangers, attempting to make friends?
This being that time of year, I treated myself to Swiss Chalet's famous Festive Special...their quarter-chicken dinner served with stuffing, cranberry sauce, and a box of Lindt chocolates for dessert. I think I stumbled through it with a minimum of social awkwardness. And I was given my reward...a Rogue One collector's cup!
A photo posted by Mark Cappis (@chaosinabox) on Nov 26, 2016 at 5:44pm PST
And for those already asking, yes, these are of a much sturdier construction than the flimsy ones that Subway was giving out last year.
I returned home, and set about unwinding. Thanks to my encounter with Captain Loudmouth, this trip to the movies wasn't quite the nostalgic trip that it usually is. But, if I learned anything from this time last year, the biggest nostalgic trip to the movies will be when I got see Rogue One in about a month.
Labels: life, Movie Reviews, Musings from the Mall, Opinions I Should Keep to Myself
Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Dark Crystal
Here we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I blog about a movie I own. Today...today we get to a film I've been wanting to revisit ever since college...The Dark Crystal. This is originally in my notes at February 6, 2016.
Movie Review - Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders
Well, DC and Warner Brothers have gifted us with yet another straight-to-DVD animated Batman movie. As I've mentioned for a while, I've mostly grown bored with them and have been giving them a pass, but this one...this one I felt was worth picking up.
Directed by Rick Morales
Starring the voices of Adam West, Burt Ward, Julie Newmar, Jeff Bergman, William Salyers, Wally Wingert, Steven Weber, Thomas Lennon, and Lynne Marie Stewart.
It's been fun watching the pendulum swing on the old Batman TV series from the 1960s. When I was a kid, and Tim Burton's Batman came out, and Batman was all dark and gritty again, it was derided for what it did to the Batman mythology. But in the past 10 years or so, it's been rediscovered and re-embraced as this wonderful addition to the Batman universe. Things have really stepped up recently, as Warner Brothers finally cleared up the legal quagmire surrounding the show and is now able to merchandise the heck out of it. And when Warner Brothers started pumping out these straight-to-DVD movies, it didn't take long for people to start thinking, "Hey, wouldn't it be neat if they did one that was just like the Batman show from the 1960s? Bring back Adam West and Burt Ward to voice Batman and Robin for one last hurrah?" And here we are, and they also brought along Julie Newmar for one last hurrah as Catwoman.
On a peaceful Gotham night, as billionaire Bruce Wayne and his youthful ward Dick Grayson kick back to watch their favourite variety show, they watch in horror as the show is taken over by their four most fearsome foes: the Joke, Penguin, the Riddler, and Catwoman. It's to the Batpoles, and they take to the streets as Batman and Robin to stop their evil plot. Their plans involved a duplicator ray, a trip to outer space, and plans of global conquest! But, Catwoman has a little something extra: Batnip, a drug of her own design that will turn Batman to the dark side. Will Batman and Robin stop these fiends? Will Batman actually fall to the dark side?
SPOILER WARNING: Yes, Batman falls to the dark side, and the entire mid-section of the movie is Catwoman and Robin teaming up to take down an evil Batman. Making Batman the bad guy is the most hilarious twist they could do on the classic 1960s formula. Especially as he first starts turning evil, and Batman goes through this phase where he starts acting like the more modern, angst-ridden, moody Batman. Hearing Adam West's Batman start doing lines from The Dark Knight Returns as he puts on the Bat brass knuckles is gut-bustingly funny. Or when he does the classic bit of mysteriously disappearing from Commissioner Gordon's office when Gordon turns his back mid-sentence:
Gordon: He's gone! Like a bat in the night!
Chief O'Hara: Well, that's not very Batman-like.
And poor Robin is stuck there wondering how he's going to get home.
And it's full of in-jokes and references to other facets of the Batman mythos. My particular favourite is this dig at The Dark Knight Rises:
Catwoman: I'll turn myself in, Batman, on one condition. When I get out, run away with me to Europe, where we can sip tea in cafes and live happily ever after!
Robin: Holy unsatisfying ending.
The voice acting is great. Yeah, Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar all show their age in their voices, but damn it, they're giving it their all. And the voice actors they got to do Joker, Penguin, and Riddler to some damn fine impressions of the original actors. The music is great as they capture the sounds of the 1960s show perfectly, if just a big bigger and more orchestral. And the tone of the 1960s show is preserved, but the scope is greatly expanded.
What I Didn't Like
Not much, man. Not much.
One of the most entertaining straight-to-DVD Batman films they've pumped out in a long time. Bring on the sequel!
Oh, didn't you hear? They already announced a sequel. Finally, Two-Face comes to the 1960s Batman universe, voiced by William Shatner.
4 Nibs
Not much for bonus features on this one. A couple of featurettes about the making of the film, some previews for the other Batman straight-to-DVD animated films, and that's it.
Labels: DVD, Movie Reviews
Fishing in the Discount Bin - Labyrinth
Here we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly ramble about one of the movies I own. This is another situation where I feel I have to remind you that I write these several months in advance. For it was back in January of this year that we heard of the tragic death of David Bowie, and that's what inspired me to pick up Labyrinth. This is in my notes at January 31, 2016.
Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Time Machine
Rollin' again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly blog about a movie I happen to own. This time, we get to a true classic of the sci-fi genre, The Time Machine. This was originally in my notes at January 31, 2016.
Fishing in the Discount Bin - Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Director's Cut
Here we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I sit and blog about a movie I own and just re-watched. Because, you know, it makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something rather than just lazing around on the couch. Today, I fire up the Spielberg classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Well, not today. According to my notes, I originally watched it and wrote this on January 24, 2016.
Movie Review - Batman: Return of the Caped Crusade...
Fishing in the Discount Bin - Close Encounters of ...


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How to Use Google Maps Offline for Navigation and More
Earlier this year, Google told us that users would be able to make use of the Google Maps Offline feature for turn-by-turn navigation, search places, get reviews of a certain place and more. All this, without the need of an active internet connection.
For example, if you're in a place where you have no access to the internet on your smartphone, you can still use the Google Maps offline mode to search for places, get turn-by-turn directions and get more details about a place. Of course, you're going to have to download that particular map beforehand for all these features to work.
Google is now rolling out full offline support for Maps in the form of updates on Android. iOS users have to be patient, but Google promised that offline support will be coming. Previously, you could only download an offline map without the ability to search for a place or get directions. Now, you can do a lot more and it can be very helpful. The offline maps aren't big in size, which means the downloads are super fast.
Downloading an offline map for a certain place or even a country, is easy. However, you're going to have to download the map before you lose internet.
Here's how to Use Google Maps Offline
Launch Google Maps whilst you're still connected to the internet.
Search for a place, city, county or even a country.
Swipe up from the bottom and click on the Download button. Depending on the size, the map will take some time to download.
That's it. You have now downloaded a map for Offline use.
Once you've downloaded a Map, you can take advantage of all the new Google Maps offline features. You can search for a restaurant or any other place of interest and get turn-by-turn directions, all when you're offline.
You will also be able to find out if a place of interest is open or closed, contact details for the place and even read reviews whilst you're disconnected from the internet.
Google is really ahead of everyone else when it comes to Mapping software on smartphones. You do not have to use a bulky GPS system or get confused by your car's inbuilt GPS device. Simply download an offline map for a place where you think signal will be poor and use it at your convenience. When the app finds a working connection, it'll go back to normal mode and you'll have all the live traffic details and more. The company will be adding more features to Google Maps Offline.
Hunting Dog Breeds: List of 15 Best Dogs for Hunting
Looking for the finest Fido to take out on your hunting adventure? Check out the best hunting dog breeds here
Valve Finally Confirms Launch Date For The Steam Deck
After missing its original launch date, Valve is finally shipping out the first batch of preordered Steam Deck units this February.
Design An Official One-Off Bike With The Ducati Unica Service
Once the project is completed Ducati will deliver your Unica unit along with a certificate to denote its one-off status.
You Can Own This Lavish Two-Level Penthouse In Los Angeles For $75 million
The luxurious Four Seasons Private Residences Los Angeles is looking for a new owner of the building's $75 million two-level penthouse.
Harley-Davidson's 2022 Lineup Welcomes A Fresh Collection Of CVO Motorcycles
Harley-Davidson has a slew of new faces in its stable for 2022, but the CVO versions are some of the best cruisers you can get right now.
Dress Up or Dress Down With The Taylor Stitch Reversible Lombardi Jacket
Taylor Stitch's Reversible Lombardi Jacket comes with a canvas camo on one side and a hemp-based boss duck fabric on the other for tough outerwear during chilly conditions.
Hydrate in Comfort On The Go With the Stanley Easy Fill Wide Mouth Flask
The Stanley Easy Fill Wide Mouth Flask comes in stainless steel, slim and retro design with a never-lose steel cap to ensure you don't miss a drop of your fave drink even while on the go.
ASICS Takes Design Cues From 1990's GEL-MAI For the GEL-QUANTUM 180 RE
ASICS revisits its running shoe catalog from the 1990s to turn the GEL-MAI into the GEL-QUANTUM 180 RE which drops in February.
The Warlord Is A Custom 6×6 Ram 1500 TRX From Apocalypse Manufacturing
You can bid for the Apocalypse Manufacturing Ram 1500 TRX 6x6 The Warlord now courtesy of Barrett-Jackson's action in Arizona
Mecum Auctions Is Selling This 2003 Ford E350 Camper Van Conversion
This 2003 Ford E350 custom camper van conversion from Mecum Auctions sports a black exterior with the interior finished in gray.
Bio Architects Designed TOPOL 27 To Be A Fully-Furnished Prefab Cabin
The TOPOL 27 is a ready-to-live prefab cabin equipped with a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, dining, and living space and with cutlery, furniture, lighting fixtures, and household appliances.
Brixton's Crossfire 125 Is A Versatile Sporty Moto For The City And Trails
Austrian manufacturer Brixton presents the Crossfire 125 as a sporty, fun, and adaptable moto for the street or trails.
Enjoy Delicious Homecooked Meals in A Jiffy With The On2Cook Cooking Machine
The On2Cook uses "combination cooking" via microwave, induction/stove method working simultaneously to cut back on cooking time by 70% and prepare healthy delicious meals.


This high temperature knitted sleeve is constructed of 100% basalt yarn, which provides excellent thermal protection and will withstand continuous exposure to temperatures of up to +750°C. When installed on vehicle exhaust tubes and pipes, the sleeve facilitates retention of high temperatures as gases flow through the exhaust system. The durable, knitted design is very flexible, which enables ease of assembly over tubes and pipes with bends and flanges. The dense single wall construction provides optimal coverage. The heavy duty construction, which is more than 15% denser than market average and minimizes snagging and tearing of the sleeve during assembly. The sleeves are available in precut lengths or continuous lengths of up to 150 meter (depending on size), which permits the user to cut the sleeves to exact lengths to adapt to specific requirements. Typical applications include automotive, heavy-duty truck, and bus exhaust tubes and pipes and high temperature industrial applications to protect hoses and cables.
Specifics: Resists most acids and alkalis and is unaffected by most bleaches and solvents.


Japanese corporation, skis manufactured at their Chinese factory.
9 - Because they are remarkably good for a $230 ski !!
At this price, Mom and Dad can buy two pairs so the kids can trash them at will without guilt.
Not a "cheap" ski...a really fun ski built very well.
A very nicely made wood core/triax fiberglass sandwich twintip ski with an ultra-durable textured PU topsheet that skis really well, very easily and has lots of fun pop in the bumps, quick underfoot, predictable behavior and an absolutely rock-bottom bargain price point and impressive retail margin for retailers, built by a 50 year old ski company. Drawbacks are poor factory tune (or lack thereof) and ho-hum graphics. I dare any other twintips to ski like this for $230 usd retail price! Targeted at the family market (not the high-performance enthusiast) with an irresistable price, Swallow hits a home-run with this one. (just get it base ground before letting your kids out with this ski).
Wood core, triax fiberglass sandwich.
Available in 140cm, 150cm, 160cm, 170cm sizes.
Remarkably nice ski with better construction and finish than many "popular" brands. Lively flex pattern with decent dampening, nice torsional rigidity and a highly-textured plastic (PU) topsheet (stickers do not like this topsheet...hard to get them to stick). Really uninspired, ho-hum graphics and color scheme, but $230 usd MSRP takes the prize. I can't think of any new twintip family market ski for $230 other than leftovers on Ebay.
We typically test skis "out of the box" with the factory tune and wax. I clicked into these skis and nearly didn't make it to the lift 'cuz they were railed soooo badly. I could not turn them to save my life - and these are 170cm...a small ski for a 5' 11" guy. They were really, really edge-high from the factory. I took one scary run and immediately took them off and hand-tuned the bases to get the edges at least flush with the PTEX and beveled them a bit like a twintip should be. Then tried again.
Yippie. These little skis turned without any effort, spun 360s endlessly, loved popping in and out of bumps, doing any little jump you could find, turned quick little turns no problem, had plenty of zing if you got back on them and behaved really well. They handled surface transitions just fine, gave pretty good feedback to the feet and generally were just plain FUN. Ski them like a teenager who just got dropped off at the ski hill by the parents to rage around with his/her ratpack buddies getting yelled at by Ski Patrol.....and they're great.
They can carve across hardpack and icy conditions predictably, smear and "slarve" turns at any radius pretty well, and generally work really well. They can get nervous at high speeds, but not so much that junior or missy will yard-sale if they tuck sections of their favorite hill. The words that stick in my mind after trying these skis is "Fun" and "kid pleaser". I would buy this ski for my kids as soon as they are big enough for the 140cm model....especially for $230 ! Bargains do exist.
My reservations are the really poor tune out of the box (not a biggie, but something to watch out for), and the graphics won't get the kids all fired up...but then again...maybe it won't matter. My other reservation is the relatively narrow (these days) waist of 74mm. Many twin-tip kids want the "fat twins", not the narrow ones, but that's a matter of preference, and if your kids haunt the groomed slopes more than the trees and powder stashes, they'll work great.
I put an intermediate teenager on these skis (he owns a pair of 2007-2008 K2 Public Enemy skis) and he came back after one run and said "these are amazing!". Maybe it was just the thrill of trying a "Japanese" ski...but that's what he said...he just plain liked 'em.
I don't know how the durability will be, and there are very few dealers around, but their construction is very solid and the company is no fly-by-night operation. They've been making skis for over 50 years. They must do something right.
The SnowJam Zuma Surf (SC-8) gets my vote for "Best bargain in kid's skis".
A playful young colt ready to please the younger teenagers.
Get a pair for my kids and put them away until they're big enough for them.
For the price the Zuma twin tip just rips! Its perfect for your kids to go out and pound on and if they break just buy another pair! Great skiing ski if you don't pound on it too hard. However it had great edge grip was not slow to respond and linked turns nicely. It will get you the park under control so you can get it on in the park. May have a second application as a all mountain ski for lighter weight skiers.
The construction looked totally bomb proof. straight side wall, dimpled top skin, manufacturing process is well finished. Great graphics.
Honestly, I am not a park and pipe skier. However I have been known to go into the trees on a powder day and I bet you these would be great there. Quick and responsive. Nice damp feeling. JUst don't get it out too far from under neath you. It just doesn't have enough side cut to warrant that but its a park and pipe ski not a carver! Feels like a ski that costs 3X more.
I give this ski a 10. Excellent value, good ski characteristics with great graphics. You retailers out there really need to take a look at these. This is just what you need to make a great profit on an affordable ski.


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John Kerry Presents New Hamas Ceasefire Proposal as Fighting Threatens West Bank
Carrie Dedrick | Editor, ChristianHeadlines.com | Friday, July 25, 2014
The violence in Gaza and Israel has continued for 18 days and again, the conflicting regions have been presented with a ceasefire proposal. The new proposal comes as the violence could be spreading to West Bank and Jerusalem.
Secretary of State John Kerry offered Israelis and Hamas the new ceasefire that calls for seven days of halted rocket fire in hopes that a permanent truce could be reached during that time. According to the Washington Post, the ceasefire may not require Israel's ground invasion to retreat, nor would the proposal ban the continued destruction of Hamas tunnels.
Those conditions leads many to believe that Hamas will reject the new ceasefire proposal, as the group did with Egypt's proposed truce. The proposal does likely hold small incentives for Hamas as well, such as the release of some Palestinian soldiers; specific incentives have not been released.
Israel has said that it will not respond to the ceasefire proposal until Hamas does, but Michael Oren, Israel's former ambassador to the United States said that he does not believe Israel will be interested in the deal. "If the ceasefire proposal calls for a five or a seven-day ceasefire that enables Hamas to regroup, reestablish its communication systems and replenish its ammunition, then I don't think Israel will accept that."
Over 800 people have now been killed in the conflict; the majority of those killed were Palestinian civilians, including many children.


Its nearly Christmas – the season of goodwill, so what better way to celebrate than getting a gift for free?
To celebrate the continuing success of their massive promotion of 0% commission on football until April 1st & the serious liquidity available in their betting markets, Matchbook are offering Smart Betting Club newsletter readers the chance to win a £200 free bet!
Simply register, deposit and bet on any of this weekend's events using the brand new Matchbook platform and you will be entered into a draw at random to win the £200 bet courtesy of Matchbook.
You can also enter on mobile using the new Matchbook iPhone app and bet on this weekend's football on the move.
Entrants must register, deposit & bet £20 stake to qualify for inclusion in the draw.
Winner will be chosen at random from qualifying entrants.
Bets must be placed on any sporting event settled on Fri 20th, Sat 21st or Sun 22nd of Dec.
Closing date for entry to the competition is Sunday 22nd Dec at 11.59pm.
Offer is open to any users who registered through the Smart Betting Club link as part of the 0% commission on football offer from the 2nd of Dec.
Offer applies to customers in the following countries only: United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
The maximum free bet that will be awarded is £200, bet must be placed on one bet at odds of 1.5 or greater.
Funds must be risked and cannot be bet against your own account. Similarly, void bets do not qualify for this offer.
Only one free bet offer per household, IP address or device.
Offer applies to users of the www.matchbook.com interface only.
The promoter of this offer is Triplebet Limited, and players are subject to – Matchbook's general Terms and Conditions. In the event of any dispute, Triplebet's decision is final in all matters. Normal KYC rules apply for all accounts.
Triplebet Limited reserves the right to amend these Terms and Conditions or terminate this promotion at any time.
3 Profitable Tipsters You Must Check Out – Latest SBC Mag Reveals All!
The very latest Smart Betting Club magazine (Issue 85) is out now and is an absolute must-read for those of you keen to find more on what makes money betting.
You can pick up your copy of the latest magazine, the instant you join the Smart Betting Club.
That's not all though because as an SBC member you will also gain access to our huge 7 1/2 year back catalogue full of tipster reviews, expert interviews and guides, betting systems and profitable betting advice.
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As the old saying goes…'Keep Your Friends Close..And Your Enemies Closer' and this is certainly the case for us gamblers when it comes to dealing with bookmakers.
After all there is only ever really one winner in the battle between bookie and punter. Either we win and they lose or woe betide…they win and we lose. There is no middle-ground.
So as part of this quest to understand our rival, we have once again gone behind enemy lines and grabbed an exclusive interview with another 'bookmaking mole' who was happy to spill the beans on what really goes on behind the scenes.
It's part of a full feature available in the latest SBC Magazine and to whet your appetite I have a few extracts to share with you today.
So far this season, this Fink Tank Football System has made a £2,427.50 profit at £25 stakes if following it in across the top 4 English Leagues (correct as of 1st December 2013).
…And this weekend just gone, in the Premier League alone it highlighted some big priced winners such as Newcastle, Crystal Palace, Norwich & Stoke. A simple £25 on each of its Premier League picks would have netted you an extra £317.75 profit.
Best of all, we are giving this amazing system away totally for FREE to anyone who wants a copy in our special guide.
Within this you can also read about results this system has achieved historically (featuring results data going back more than 5 years) and also for the current 2013/14 season.
Believe me, this is one freebie you won't want to miss out on!
It's fair to say there can be nothing more frustrating when betting on football than backing a team at a big price you fancy to do well, only to see them pegged back by a late equaliser.
After all, it can be the difference sometimes between losing the bet entirely or a 10/1 winner, with no middle-ground for 'nearly being right'. Imagine being a punter with a 12/1 bet on West Brom to beat Chelsea a few weeks back – that sickener of a last-min dubious penalty for the home team will have cost you big time!
It's a similar concept to that of last week where I tackled the age-old racing question of each-way or win only bets. The good news is just like as racing punters we can hedge our bets and go each-way, so too can we with football betting thanks to the Draw No Bets markets, which when done right, can actually be quite lucrative.
This is despite the very strong bias we have seen of home football sides winning so far this season, and so we only expect the profits to improve further in coming months.
If you are not yet following the Fink Tank System, you can now download an updated version of our Free Guide, which explains the rules behind how it works.
You can also read about the results this Basic System has achieved historically (featuring results data going back more than 5 years) and also for the current 2013/14 season.


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Review: The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Premise: A remake of the 1962 film. Ben Marco (Denzel Washington), a Gulf War veteran, has chronic nightmares that he and the men under his command were brainwashed by a corporation, including one man who is now running for vice-president (Liev Schreiber).
What Works: The acting here is great. Washington creates the conspiracy for the audience and his performance brings out the paranoia of the situation in a very well structured way. Liev Schreiber is able to make the audience feel a great deal of empathy for his character and while Washington's role is more pronounced, it is Schreiber who really punctuates the human tragedy of the situation. Meryl Streep is wonderful as Schreiber's mother, and theirs is one of the creepiest, most manipulative, and Freudian mother-son relationships ever seen on film. The story of this remake has been made to fit contemporary politics and anxieties and this version of The Manchurian Candidate has all of the potency of a Michael Moore film. It very effectively preys on the anxieties and fears of contemporary America.
What Doesn't: Some things are told to us a little too deliberately or revealed a little too fast. The Manchurian Candidate also reflects the tendency of contemporary films to wrap things up, unlike a lot of the political films of the 1960s and 70s that left things open. This can feel a bit too tidy and undermines the uneasiness that preceded the conclusion.
Bottom Line: This is a film of the times and a very subversive picture, in some ways even more so than Fahrenheit 9/11. The Manchurian Candidate could very easily see itself making quite a few of this year's top ten lists.
Episode: #12 (August 1, 2004)


We'd spent the day before on Hole In The Rock Road and it was hot and sunny all day. It looked like our weather would change, and the morning was overcast and almost chilly. There were no complaints as we enjoyed our morning drive. The trail was easy to find in town, and we were soon on dirt.
We spent the entire previous day looking at the huge Straight Cliffs, and then we spent the next day on the other side. The other side was made of small hills instead of the dramatic cliffs, but we enjoyed the desert scenery.
We passed the end of Death Ridge, knowing that was our return point much later in the day. Our trail twisted and turned across the huge Kaiparowits Plateau, and we definitely enjoyed the drive.
At the intersection with Left Hand Collet Canyon we found a cabin and a corral. There were lots of cows and evidence of cows all around, and the corral didn't look big enough for all of them. We'd be doing that trail in a couple of days, so we continued on.
We weaved through tight canyons and over small hills. Then, almost suddenly, we popped out onto a long stretch of flat and mellow road. We picked up the pace and soon found ourselves on the edge of a huge canyon. We could see the water of Glen Canyon. There was a big overlook at that point where the straight road turned curvy, so we stopped for lunch.
We had a great lunch with a nice breeze, overcast skies, and warm-but-not-hot temperatures. Unfortunately, the lighting didn't work well for pictures but it was still gorgeous. We spent quite a while at the overlook just taking it all in.
The trip down the side of the mountain was fun and scenic. We saw the only car on the road with us at that point, coming the other way. The passengers of the lone SUV took lots of pictures of us as we passed. It looked like a happy group.
At the bottom, the trail was mellow and it was insanely windy. The Moon was weird and really cool. We thought about checking out Crosby Canyon Road but we weren't sure we could spare the time. Later, we were happy we skipped it because we got back to Escalante in the dark.
We didn't find a gas station in Big Water, but we weren't planning on one. We thought we'd need to head down to Lake Powell for gas, so we started that way. We were surprised and happy to find gas a lot closer, just a short distance down the pavement. We even got ice cream.
It was an enjoyable drive, and everyone was really having a good time. We turned around and headed back west on the highway to find our next trail and our next adventure, setting out to complete the Grand Staircase Loop.


For create concise ,nature and fashion in living and working space, products are combine with Italy design and Orient culture to explore the warmly and harmonious life. Nature is a great Artist. Design idea is carry in her arms including precious marble, rare wood texture, concrete, volcanic, sedimentary rock, quartz stone and sandstone from various of country. Then use ceramic technology to create endless mutative porcelain tiles.
Our core value: Be adhere to innovation, pay attention to details.
Create value for customers, create benefits for company, create welfare for employees.
In the pursuit of the company's sustainable development, at the same time, focusing on balance of natural resources and ecological.
Damia Ceramics is specialized in produce glazed tiles in different size. Searching bright prospect, meanwhile, control risk prudently. It is effect to make Damic Ceramics famous on world wide ceramics field.


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Q: 2PC distributed transactions across many microservices? I read some information about 2 Phase Commit/ XA distributed transactions and how JTA does support it. Seems to be that there is many resource managers - RM (eg. RDBMS or JMS), and one TransactionManager (TM) instance that manages global transactions across many RM's.

I know that it's better to use Saga pattern, but it's still interesting to think:

*

*Do 2PC/XA distributed transactions give the possibility of conducting transactions with many RM's only from one application and one TM?

*If no - how to use 2PC/XA distributed transactions between many microservices to provide an ability to use 2PC, if each microservice have access only to own database? I would be glad to see an example

*Do we need to use TransactionManager service as a separate microservice to provide 2PC between many microservices?

UPD: In JTA world TransactionManager doesn't provide REST API for managing transactions across microservices. LIXA provides this ability. Article with examples in addition to answers :)

A: Across microservices, transaction needs to be done by exposing Prepare & Commit APIs. Also there needs to be a transaction manager to coordinate transaction.
For example, Assume there are 2 different Bank and $100 from Account_A of Bank1 has to be transferred to Account_B of Bank2. Furthermore assume that central banking authority is responsible for transaction to finish
the way 2PC will work is like following:

*

*Central banking authority(Transaction Manager) will receive request to transfer $100 from Account_A from Bank1 to Account_B from Bank2.
a. https://CentralBank/Transaction?from=Bank1-Account_A&to=Bank2-Account_B&amount=100

*Central Bank will save this into its transaction database with some transaction Id = 123. Also it will return transaction id to call, so that at later point it can call to get status of transaction.
a. add transaction 123 in database with status open

*PREPARE PHASE Transaction Manager will issue following RPC commands:
a. https://Bank1/Prepare?Account=Account_A&money=100&action=subtract&transactionid=123
b. https://Bank2/Prepare?Account=Account_B&money=100&action=add&transactionid=123

*COMMIT PHASE Once it gets successful response for both the calls in Prepare phase, then it moves to Commit phase where it issues following commands:
a. move transaction 123 to committed state
b. https://Bank1/Commit?transactionid=123
c. https://Bank2/Commit?transactionid=123

*Once it gets successful response for both the calls in commit phase, central bank can move transaction to Completed state(optional)

*If any of the step from PREPARE or COMMIT phase fails then Transaction coordinator aborts the transaction by issuing following commands:
a. move transaction 123 to Failed state
b. https://Bank1/Rollback?transactionid=123
c. https://Bank2/Rollback?transactionid=123

Problem above is form of Distributed Atomic commit, and 2PC is one way of doing it. Also note 2PC has lot of downsides like what if after PREPARE phase central bank crashes. Also what if 4.c step fails but 4.b succeeds, etc. Discussing those is very vast study in itself, but still is something to be aware of. Despite having lot of downsides 2PC is used widely because of its simplicity.

Do we need to use TransactionManager service as a separate microservice to provide 2PC between many microservices?

Theoretically No. If you closely observe any of the bank(Bank1 or Bank2) can act as transaction manager as well(it just needs a separate database table Transaction), but practically lot of time it is kept as separate microservice.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Here is another scrumptious treat for peanut butter lovers out there, a dessert bar made from creamy peanut butter and peanut butter chips. Salted chopped peanuts balance the sweetness and add crunch while chocolate chunks make the these bars more decadent. Here is an easy dessert recipe for Peanut Butter Blondies.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, letting paper extend at two sides. Spray parchment with nonstick spray.
In another bowl, beat peanut butter and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed, until smooth. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar and beat until well blended.
Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Pour in vanilla and mix until well combined.
Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and beat on low speed until just blended. Fold in peanuts, peanut butter chips, and chocolate. Scrape dough into prepared pan and spread evenly using a spatula.
Bake blondies for 35 minutes or until a tester inserted in center comes out clean. Place pan on a wire rack to cool completely.
Remove from pan by lifting the excess parchment on both sides. Place blondies on a chopping board and cut into bars using a serrated knife.


Your form C says you have 0 employees, but the "About" section says 14. How many FTEs do you have as of this offering?
Your form C says you started the company in Feb, 2016, but the "About" section says January, 2017. Which is it?
We are looking for women, LGBT and POC founders. Can you please provide that information for each founder?
Our listeners care about quality job creation. Getting jobs for veterans is a clear direct impact. What about in your own company? What jobs do you anticipate creating? Where will they be located? Will they provide health insurance (and at what FTE)? What other employee benefits do you offer? Have you received any awards or certifications as a "great place to work?"
We care about environmental justice: Do you have any info about your enviro impact?
Your exit feels like only a remote possibility and very far away. What can you say to convince me it will happen in a timely manner? Or, with a giant payoff?
Noel Gonzalez @mary-going We formed the company in Feb 2016 and became an official spin-off from SRI in Sep 2016.
We are an equal opportunity fledgling corporation equally concerned about our carbon footprint as you. We do not anticipate a large carbon footprint since we are a web base enterprise. Please take a look at our team page in skillmil.com to see that we have women and POC members on our team. We welcome anyone to join us and will never discriminate against anyone. We are still in the startup phase and all of us are under 1099 contracts in order to minimize burn rate.
We anticipate hiring full-time developers, marketing, and sales. Their place of work is anticipated to be in Silicon Valley and throughout the US. We have not received any awards as of yet. However, we have had some media attention. Check them out in the Republic campaign page.
Regarding our exit strategy, we are targeting companies like LinkedIn, FB, and Oracle due to our board of advisors experience and contacts.
Mary Going Thank you for the information. For clarification, according to cap table, the four founders are Noel Gonzalez, Ken Roman, Steve Garza and Leonard Chapman. Republic lists at least one of you as Latino. I don't want to guess based on your photograph. We are looking for women, LGBT and POC founders. Can you please provide that information for each founder?
Noel Gonzalez @mary-going Hi Mary, Noel was born in Cuba, Steve is of Mexican descent, Leonard was born in the US, Ken is of German descent, and Liza is of Cuban and Colombian descent. Although the website lists the founders as just the four of us, we all have founders' shares since we started the company together.
Noel Gonzalez @mary-going Hi Mary, hope you are doing well and I was wondering if you have additional questions for us.


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Q: Atom editor looks like html inspector? I was fiddling around with the .atom folder on my Mac and moved it around but I deleted it (thinking it would reset things!) and it made the editor turn into this:

(source: atom.io)
I think it is a html inspector kinda like the one in safari?
No amount of installing and reinstalling could fix this. I deleted the frameworks, the .atom folder and anything to do with is so why is it stuffing up? I may have to change to Brackets if this an't be fixed…
Is there a way to do a fresh install?
Please help I don't like Brackets!

A: .atom is a folder that have all data which your atom need to run e.g : packages that you may download will be save there. Be sure , it doesn't effect your browser inspector.


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U.S.|Oliver Selfridge, an Early Innovator in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 82
Oliver Selfridge, an Early Innovator in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 82
By JOHN MARKOFF DEC. 3, 2008
Oliver G. Selfridge, an innovator in early computer science and artificial intelligence, died on Wednesday in Boston. He was 82.
The cause was injuries suffered in a fall on Sunday at his home in nearby Belmont, Mass., said his companion, Edwina L. Rissland.
Credited with coining the term "intelligent agents," for software programs capable of observing and responding to changes in their environment, Mr. Selfridge theorized about far more, including devices that would not only automate certain tasks but also learn through practice how to perform them better, faster and more cheaply.
Eventually, he said, machines would be able to analyze operator instructions to discern not just what users requested but what they actually wanted to occur, not always the same thing.
His 1958 paper "Pandemonium: A Paradigm for Learning," which proposed a collection of small components dubbed "demons" that together would allow machines to recognize patterns, was a landmark contribution to the emerging science of machine learning.
An early enthusiast about the potential of interactive computing, Mr. Selfridge saw his ideas summarized in a famous 1968 paper, "The Computer as a Communications Device," written by J. C. R. Licklider and Robert W. Taylor and published in the journal Science and Technology.
Honoring Mr. Selfridge, the authors proposed a device they referred to as Oliver, an acronym for On-Line Interactive Vicarious Expediter and Responder. Oliver was one of the clearest early descriptions of a computerized personal assistant.
With four other colleagues, Mr. Selfridge helped organize a 1956 conference at Dartmouth that led directly to creation of the field of artificial intelligence.
Oliver G. Selfridge Credit Caroline Selfridge
"Oliver was one of the founding fathers of the discipline of artificial intelligence," said Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who is president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. "He has been well known in the field for his early and prescient writings on the challenge of endowing machines with the ability to learn to recognize patterns."
Oliver Gordon Selfridge, a grandson of H. Gordon Selfridge, the American who founded Selfridges department store in London, was born in London on May 10, 1926. The family lost control of the business during the Depression and emigrated to the United States at the onset of World War II.
Mr. Selfridge attended Middlesex School in Concord, Mass., and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated at 19 with a degree in mathematics. After service in the Navy, he embarked on graduate study at M.I.T. under Norbert Wiener, the pioneering theorist of computer science. He became one of Wiener's collaborators but plunged into the working world of computer science before earning an advanced degree.
In the 1960s Mr. Selfridge was associate director for Project MAC, an early time-shared computing research project at M.I.T. He did much of this work at the M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory, a federally financed research center for security technology. He then worked at Bolt, Beranek & Newman, now BBN Technologies, which develops computer and communications-related technology. In 1983 he became chief scientist for the telecommunications company GTE.
He began advising the nation's national security leaders in the 1950s, among other tasks serving on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Security Agency.
His first marriage, to Allison Gilman Selfridge, and his second, to Katherine Bull Selfridge, ended in divorce. Besides his companion, his survivors include their daughter, Olivia Selfridge Rissland of Belmont; three children from his first marriage, Peter Selfridge of Bethesda, Md.; Mallory Selfridge of Eastford, Conn.; and Caroline Selfridge of Saratoga, Calif.; a sister, Jennifer Selfridge MacLeod of Princeton Junction, N.J.; and six grandchildren.
Along with producing scholarly papers and technical books, Mr. Selfridge wrote "Fingers Come in Fives," "All About Mud" and "Trouble With Dragons," all books for children. At his death he was working on a series of books he hoped might one day become an arithmetic equivalent of summer reading projects for schoolchildren.
Mr. Selfridge never stopped theorizing, speaking and writing on what he saw as the future of artificial intelligence.
"I want an agent that can learn and adapt as I might," he once told a meeting organized by I.B.M. Such an agent would "infer what I would want it to do, from the updated purposes it has learned from working for me," he went on, and "do as I want rather than the silly things I might say."
Correction: December 6, 2008
An obituary on Thursday about Oliver G. Selfridge, an innovator in early artificial intelligence, misspelled the surname of the pioneer theorist of computer science with whom he studied at M.I.T. He was Norbert Wiener, not Weiner.
A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B13 of the New York edition with the headline: Oliver Selfridge, an Early Innovator In Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 82. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe