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Female Founders Who Celebrated A Startup Acquisition
AngieChang 18 May 2012
Uncategorized10 min read
Startup acquisitions make news! Celebrate the women starting and exiting companies in technology.
We at Women 2.0 are often asked for names of notable women for magazines (lists), newspaper articles (press), conferences (speakers), etc. We catalog lists of women entrepreneurs to watch each Friday, putting out a fresh list each Friday (and asking you to help us finish the list!).
This Friday, we celebrate women who have started technology companies and celebrated an exit in recent memory. Whether this is a merger or acquisition, these happening make news – they get on the newswire, the acquisition makes headlines, and women in technology everywhere cheer on the success of female founderswho have demonstrated success – and made waves doing it.
Here are a list of female founders of tech startups who have been acquired in the last few years:
Ada Chen Rekhi (Co-Founder, Connected)
Product marketer Ada Chen Rekhi co-founded Connected in April 2011 to provide contact management without the work. Connected was acquired by LinkedIn in October 2011 for an undisclosed amount. Follow Ada on Twitter at @adachen.
Alexis Ringwald (Co-Founder, Valence Energy)
Fulbright scholar Alexis Ringwald co-founded energy management software company Valence Energy. Valence Energy was acquired by Serious Materials in September 2010 for an undisclosed amount. Follow her on Twitter at @alexisringwald.
Alicia Morga (Founder & CEO, Consorte)
Latina entrepreneur Alicia Morga founded Consorte in 2005, a VC-backed digital media company focused on the Hispanic market. Consorte was acquired by Audience Science in May 2010 for an undisclosed amount. Follow her on Twitter at @aliciamorga.
Amita Paul (Founder & CEO, Objective Marketer)
Social marketing guru Amita Paul founded Objective Marketer in 2009, placing as a finalist at PITCH 2010. Objective Marketer was acquired by Emailvision in 2010 for an undisclosed amount. Follow her on Twitter at @amitapaul.
Annie Chang (Co-Founder & Head of Products, LOLapps)
"Don't be fooled by the name of her startup" warned Fast Company. In 2008, Annie Chang co-founded LOLapps, a leading yet under-the-radar social apps publisher. LOLapps was acquired by 6waves for an undisclosed amount in July 2011. Follow her on Twitter at @lolapps.
In 2009, CTO Cathy Edwards co-founded app search engine Chomp, building the proprietary algorithm and launching on iPhone in January 2010 and on Android in February 2011. Chomp was acquired by Apple for $50 million in February 2012. Follow her on Twitter at @cathye.
Joyce Kim (Co-Founder & CEO, Soompi)
Former lawyer Joyce Kim co-founded Soompi in 2006, a Korean entertainment community website. Soompi was acquired by Seoul-based company Enswers for an undisclosed amount. Follow her on Twitter at @joyce.
Leah Culver (Co-Founder, Pownce)
Django evangelist and developer Leah Culver co-founded social networking web service Pownce in 2007. Pownce was acquired by blog giant Six Apart for an undisclosed amount in 2008. Follow her on Twitter at @leahculver.
Lucy Zhang (Co-Founder & President, Beluga)
Former Google software engineer and mobile developer Lucy Zhang co-founded group messaging app Beluga in 2010. Beluga was acquired by Facebook in March 2011 for an undisclosed amount. Follow her on Twitter at @lucidlogic.
Mathilde Pignol (Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer, ZipZapPlay)
User researcher, interaction designer and creative director Mathilde Pignol co-founded ZipZapPlay in 2007. ZipZapGames was acquired by Seattle-based PopCap Games for an undisclosed amount in April 2011. Follow her on Twitter at @bluebutterfly.
Atlanta-based Prerna Gupta co-founded Khush in 2009 to develop intelligent music apps and led her startup to profitability. Khush was acquired by Smule in December 2011 for a "eight-figure deal" in cash and stock. Follow her on Twitter at @prernagupta.
Rashmi Sinha (Co-Founder & CEO, SlideShare)
Social software and interface designer SlideShare CEO Rashmi Sinha co-founded SlideShare in 2006 to share documents online. SlideShare was acquired by LinkedIn for $118M in May 2012. Follow her on Twitter at @rashmi.
Ruchi Sanghvi (Co-Founder, Cove)
Facebook's first female engineer Ruchi Sanghvi left Facebook to start stealth collaboration startup Cove in 2011. Dropbox acquired Cove in February 2012 for an undisclosed amount. Follow her on Twitter at @rsanghvi.
Sakina Arsiwala (Co-Founder, Campfire Labs)
To change the way people think of social interactions in the real world and online, Sakina Arsiwala co-founded Campfire Labs in November 2009. Groupon acquired Campfire Labs in December 2011 for an undisclosed amount. Follow her on Twitter at @heysakina.
Suzanne Xie (Founder & CEO, Weardrobe)
Former analyst Suzanne Xie founded Weardrobe in 2008. Weardrobe was acquired by Like.com for an undisclosed amount, then Like was acquired by Google in 2010 for a rumored $100 million. Follow her on Twitter at @suzannexie.
Xochi Birch (Co-Founder & Board Member, Bebo)
Social network Bebo was co-founded in 2005 by Xochi Birch, a serial entrepreneur who started her career as a programmer. Bebo was acquired by AOL for $850 million in March 2008. Follow her on Twitter at @xb.
Wendy Tan White (Co-Founder & CEO, Moonfruit)
UK-based website and online shop builder Moonfruit was co-founded by CEO Wendy Tan White started the company with her husband in 2000. Moonfruit was acquired by Yell for $29 million in cash in May 2012. Follow her on Twitter at @wendytanwhite.
Know of more female founders of high-growth or high-tech companies who have celebrated an acquisition? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo credit: Toilet Fodder.
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Stand-Down
December 23, 2016 Jordan Kummer	Leave a comment
We are at a turning point in the gun rights movement. In broad terms, this is a shift from defense to offense. It is predicated on a surge in gun sales, a surge concealed carry permits; as well as a focus on the tactical side of the debate.
Another major focus has been the rise of domestic terrorism, so-called "lone-wolf" attacks. These attacks are nearly impossible to detect, have no regard for laws by definition, and involve all manner of weapons (not specifically firearms). These attacks also showed the incredible cynicism of the anti-gun movement. Specifically, the media and anti-gun advocates jumped on the active shooter alert at Ohio State University, only to run from the story when it became obvious that the suspect was a lone-wolf, radicalized Muslim who attacked his victims with a knife. This was shown last year when Moms Demand Action referred to the victims of the Paris attacks as victims of "gun violence" while ignoring those killed in explosions and by the vehicle used to start the attack.
But as discussed in both the Tactical Review series and in Dirt and Blood last year, terror attacks are incredibly complex in terms of motive, weapon, and overall tactics. Anything can be a weapon, and both the Paris attacks and the Ohio State attacks proved that. The gun control argument simply cannot operate in that environment, as the argument is predicated entirely on undying faith in the law's non-existent ability to prevent outright and virtually nothing else. It is predicated on perpetual defense, and never going on offense (no matter how many times the movement's main advocates claim they support self-defense).
Additionally, we are seeing increasing support for concealed carry from law enforcement. From staunch advocate Milwaukee Sheriff David A. Clarke (who almost certainly has the ear of President-Elect Trump and was one of Mr. Trump's biggest supporters), pages like Deputy Matt of TheBangSwitch, and of course events like the 2013 PoliceOne survey of law enforcement (and more recent details from a survey taken this year. This was another pillar of the anti-gun movement, claiming that police supported tighter gun control laws. That is clearly no longer the case.
Perhaps the most direct evidence we have is the statistical evidence that the gun rights movement is beginning to seize on. Violent crime hit its lowest levels in decades back in 2014. Despite this, the public is (up until very recently), largely unaware of this, which is exploited by anti-gunners desperate to engage on an emotional level.
But beyond all of this; the statistically-proven surge in gun sales, the expansion of gun rights across the nation, the tactical applications of expanding firearms rights (i.e. defense against lone wolf attacks, etc), and the major drop in violent crime (despite all of the above), there is another thing driving the strength of the gun rights movement. That is the overall pro-liberty movement, and the emphasis on self-reliance that it is predicated on. We discussed back in Lethal Ignorance the impact that the utter lack of self-reliance skills the American public seems to have. The liberty movement (and the survivalist offshoot), is predicated on self-reliance, empowerment, and a realistic interpretation of the world. Put more simply, both movements exist to allow people to have sole control of their lives, to have the tools and skills necessary to gain that control, and a realistic way of interpreting the world (evil exists vs. evil can be swatted down with a sheet of paper).
A movement based on giving people control over their own lives, up to and including the ability to defend their life (arguably the most important of all) is a powerful movement indeed.
it is because of all of the above reasons that the pro-gun movement (and the liberty movement generally) enter 2017 with an absurd amount of momentum. The recent attacks in Switzerland, Turkey, and Germany underscore the lack of response the anti-gun movement has to the emerging threat domestic terrorism, as well.
In short, as the pro gun movement shifts to a more tactical, statistical, and logical argument (beyond simply "it's a right," even though it most certainly is), the anti-gun movement is left with a message of dependence and defenselessness. In this age, that simply isn't an acceptable stance, and the constant promises of bloodshed if their agenda is ignored continue to be proven as hyperbolic at best.
A few years ago, the pro-gun movement was supposed to be ruined. Now we stand on the edge of a renaisance.
Enjoy the holiday, and happy new year.
And as always:
Stay informed. Stay alert. Stay free.
Grab Bag: December 2016
Second to last broadcast. Tonight, a quick rundown of action in the House, a quick update to Dirt and Blood, and a brief look at the anti-gun reaction.
1.) House of Representatives. We closed last night discussing the excellent shape the gun rights movement is in as we close 2016. Now, in addition to President-Elect Trump's Second Amendment Coalition (which we discussed last week), House Republicans have formed their own Second Amendment Caucus, headed up by Thomas Massie (R-KY), and including the likes of Justin Amash (R-MI). The Caucus is looking to serve as a sort of foundation for all pro-gun legislation that originates from the lower chamber. (And there is looking like there could be a torrent of pro-gun legislation from either chamber.)
2.) Anti-gun reaction. Breitbart.com has a great piece out encapsulating anti-gun reaction to Trump's election, California's Gavin Newsom called Trump's victory a "step backward" for gun control. Newsom said that an expansion of gun rights would "put lives at risk" and would be a step backward for states that have "proven smart gun laws work." What gun laws work, and what evidence there actually is that they work was lacking.
3.) Texas. Texas is looking at going Constitutional Carry. From the passage of Open Carry, it was clear that Open Carry Texas, and many pro-gun legislators in Texas, had much larger plans.
While an op-ed in TheBlaze focuses on the Texas case, its headline can apply almost certainly to the rest of 2017's gun legislation. Prepare for gun control hysteria.
Open Carry.
Campus Carry.
Constitutional Carry.
The big fights for 2017.
Next week, some closing thoughts, and then we adjourn until January 14.
Welcome back. It's the end of 2016. We have two more Runs for 2016, then we meet again on January 14th, complete with a new President.
This week, we set the stage for 2017. Campus carry in 3 states, and the continuing decrease of homicides.
1.) Campus Carry. Ohio's got campus carry….sort of. Florida is working on it, and Georgia is going to give it another round in the next session. Sure enough, alongside Constitutional Carry, Campus Carry is continuing to be one of the main focal points of the debate going into 2017.
The bill in Ohio is largely a paper tiger, giving local jurisdictions the ability to "opt-in" to allowing the practice (which just about nobody is going to do. The Students for Concealed Carry chapter is already working on a bill for next session to force public colleges to allow for campus carry.
Georgia's bill was vetoed in this session alongside the Religious Freedom Bill. There was some side-stream discussion that the death of Gov. Deal's Opportunity School District at the ballot box is due in part to those vetoes. Georgia campus carry already is being written, and should be ready in time for the start of the session in January. Florida is also working on a similar reboot effort
2.) Nationwide Reciprocity. You would think that legislation at the Federal level to force all states to honor CCW permits would be given a ton of support. But while the possibility of nationwide reciprocity even has it's own legislation, there is a debate as to whether or not the Federal government should be given any authority at all over a state's CCW permitting process at all.
3.) Homicides decline. The Washington Examiner has a report out showing that homicides have hit record lows, in the face of constant claims of an "epidemic of gun violence" that apparently isn't there. This, going into 2017, makes attempts to get gun control in the aftermath of a shooting even less solid of a prospect (leaving aside the cynical effort with which the Ohio State University stabbings were swept to the side when the weapon turned out to be a knife and not a gun.) But while the fulcrum of the anti-gun movement falls apart, the fulcrum of the pro-gun movement, the tactical aspects of self-defense, can only get stronger. As we have discussed before, the anti-gun movement has no answer to lone-wolf attacks like OSU, and certainly not attacks that we saw elsewhere this year.
With a pro-gun Congress, and a President pro-gun enough to have the head of SilencerCo as an adviser, the future of gun rights in America looks quite good for at least the next four years.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Southern Bookman
A literary blog for all seasons.
Blue heron sighting recalls memories of Thoreau
A young woman stood on the 1941 bridge over Nancy Creek, shooting video with her phone of the water below.
I hurried to the bridge and looked down to see a blue heron standing motionless in the shallow water near the bank.
For years, the strange beautiful birds came to the area, inspiring the name of the nearby Blue Heron Nature Center. But the herons had vanished in recent years.
The young woman pointed out a small hawk perched on a branch hanging over the creek beside the heron. Neither bird moved. I tried to imagine what communion they shared.
I was on my way to the supermarket. When I returned to the creek, my bag loaded with items, the woman had left, but the blue heron remained in its same spot, as did the hawk. I watched for a few moments. The heron lunged its head forward, and began wading. I assumed it had spied a fish or some other prey.
Years before, I'd observed a blue heron wading in a pond at the other end of the creek. Now, the pond is overgrown, turned into a meadow. Suddenly on that day long ago, the bird took flight, majestically spreading its wings as it rose into the sky.
I was reminded of Henry David Thoreau's account of seeing a flock of blue herons flying overhead while on a river journey with his brother, John. The two brothers were on the Merrimack River when summer turned into autumn overnight. Through the years as I've walked through our neighborhood, I've imagined Thoreau beside me.
The blue heron and thoughts of Thoreau led me to write the following poem, which I read at the opening of the Blue Heron Nature Center. I was a young man then. Commonweal, the national Catholic literary and political journal, published the poem, which I rewrote countless times.
After Reading "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"
By Louis T. Mayeux
At the pond by the condominiums,
the great blue heron
stalks the shallow water,
slow, lugubrious dance
almost beautiful.
Head speared for fish,
disturbing his own reflection,
he hunts along the edges.
One day, he stood, perfectly still,
as if at prayer,
then broke and flew
toward his endless blue freedom.
A flock of them in flight
astonished Henry and his brother John
as they prepared the raft
for their journey home,
strange, fierce wind behind them,
world changed to autumn overnight.
"Now comes good sailing,"
Henry said, death near,
as his sister, Sophia, read to him
his own words about that morning.
Posted at 10:43 AM in Books, Current Affairs, Environment, Magazines, philosophy, poetry, writers | Permalink | Comments (0)
France divisions return after Notre Dame Cathedral fire
The Notre Dame Cathedral fire united France and the world in grief for the 850-year-old monument at the heart of Paris.
That didn't last long. Donations by corporations and wealthy families to rebuild the cathedral quickly drew criticism from right and left.
The leader of the yellow vest protests that have shaken Emmanuel Macron's government sniffed that the families behind LVMH and L'Oreal would receive tax breaks, meaning the average French taxpayer would really pay for the rebuilding.
And Disney, which reaped enormous profits from a cartoon version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," pledged a relatively meager $5 million.
Even Macron's vow to rebuild the cathedral in five years brought discord. Experts said a restoration likely would take as long as 20 years. A debate stirred over whether the restoration should add modern construction materials or aim for an illusory historical authenticity, which the cathedral had already lost.
The fire was the result of a restoration project that was scheduled to take at least 15 years. The old cathedral, extensively refurbished in the 19th century, was falling apart, a project that didn't excite as much passion as the fire's reconstruction campaign, as Slate's Henry Grabar pointed out.
As the fire burned, I imagined Victor Hugo's Quasimodo clambering upon the ancient roof to put out the flames. Absent the noble lover of Esmeralda, the Parisian firefighters performed heroically.
The Wall Street Journal Thursday detailed how a decision to stop the fire from spreading to the cathedral's signature bell towers saved the structure from collapsing. The WSJ also reported how the firefighters used water from the Seine River, at reduced pressure, to limit the fire's damage.
Notre Dame's construction in the Middle Ages came from a society united by religion and shared artistic values. The fire recalled one of the great books on medieval society, and its veneration of the Virgin Mary, Henry Adams' "Mont St. Michel and Chartres."
Since the French Revolution, France has been a steadfastly secular nation. Outside of Notre Dame, Catholic Masses are sparsely attended. My daughter said that during a high school stay in France, she and a couple of elderly women were the only worshipers.
Yet, the country remains intensely Catholic by culture. The French personality, with its talent for abstract thought and literature, love of sensual pleasure, and old-world inefficiency, derives from long centuries of Catholic influence.
Now, Western Europe is riven by social conflict, unable to reach agreement on whether Notre Dame should be rebuilt. Someone pointed out that the "forest" of ancient timber that fueled the fire can't be replaced; France no longer has a sufficient number of mature oak trees. In the past, ancient cathedrals ruined by fire have been rebuilt with modern construction methods, without loss of their authenticity.
While France's social divisions quickly split apart, the Notre Dame fire's aftermath brought a heart-warming show of unity in a leap in donations for three black churches in rural Louisiana burned by an accused arsonist. The Baptist churches in St. Landry Parish, in the heart of French Louisiana, received $1.8 million in donations.
France sees Notre Dame as the symbol of its historic greatness, which Macron wishes to restore. Now France must summon a unified will to rebuild Notre Dame.
Posted at 11:45 AM in Books, Current Affairs, history, philosophy, politics, Religion, Southern history, writers | Permalink | Comments (0)
A round of applause for Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot is having a moment in the literary world.
The 18th century theorist of the French Enlightenment is the subject of two new biographies, "Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely," by Andrew S. Curran (Other Press), and "Catherine & Diderot: The Empress, the Philosopher and the Fate of the Enlightenment," by Robert Zaretsky (Harvard University Press).
In recent weeks, positive reviews of the books have appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, the New York Times Sunday Book Review, the New Republic and the New Yorker.
Diderot, a free-thinker, pornographer, journalist, sexual libertine and encyclopedia editor, enjoyed chatting about ideas with his longtime friend Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Paris coffee houses. The hero of rational thought suffered for his ideas; his writings against religion and the Catholic church landed him in prison. Another leading figure of the French Enlightenment, Voltaire, wrote letters that led to Diderot's release. He continued speaking out against the state and church's repression.
Not as much of an original thinker as Rousseau and Voltaire, Diderot was a synthesizer of ideas. Diderot was famous for co-editing the mammoth Encyclopédie, a compendium of the era's knowledge. The work ran to 24 volumes, 72,000 articles and 3,000 illustrations. The best-seller allowed Diderot to escape his fraught freelance existence. Curran in his book looks at Diderot's influence in the development of scientific thought.
As an author, Diderot is mainly remembered for his philosophical treatise "Rambeau's Nephew," a dialogue about ideas, the freedom of thought, and human relationships. He also wrote a pornographic work narrated by women's sexual organs.
Toward the end of his eventful life, he served as an adviser to Russia's Catherine the Great. Zaretsky examines how Diderot in the end failed to get Catherine to accept his ideas of enlightened rule. While keeping her iron control over the vast country, Catherine purchased Diderot's library and gave him a generous financial endowment.
The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik points out in his review that the Enlightenment's beneficial reputation has been tarnished. Revisionist historians now blame the movement for leading to totalitarianism and social control. In France, the Enlightenment was followed by the French Revolution and Napoleon's rule.
Diderot in the recent reviews is seen as a charming, colorful figure and a pioneer of social freedom. He was apparently an amorous adventurer rivaling Don Juan, and a tireless foe of oppression.
As the Western alliance fractures and truth is disparaged, it's heartening that Diderot's free-spirited life still receives homage.
Posted at 10:18 AM in Books, Current Affairs, Magazines, newspapers, philosophy, politics, Religion, Science, writers | Permalink | Comments (0)
Robert Penn Warren and Eleanor Clark in 1978 New England Review interview anticipated today's cultural and social crises
Novelist, poet and literary theorist Robert Penn Warren and his wife, the writer Eleanor Clark, shared a wonderful life of writing, family, travel and simple rural pleasures.
Proud of his Southern heritage although raised in the border state of Kentucky, Warren contributed to the New Agrarian manifesto "I'll Take My Stand," then moved away from the group's intense regional conservatism, or, as their critics claimed, reactionary Confederate romanticism.
In contrast, Clark was proud of her Connecticut Yankee heritage. Part of the radical leftist Partisan Review crowd in her youth, Clark also grew away from her early solipistic theories.
While they came from different worlds, the couple both grew up in small towns, surrounded by older storytellers who presented them their recollections of a vanished 19th century America.
Finding happiness as writers working from their homes in rural Connecticut and Vermont, and raising two children, the sculptor Gabriel Warren and the poet and essayist Rosanna Warren, Warren and Clark enjoyed a successful marriage built on trust and affection, along with sparks of conflict.
Fond of travel to Europe, and steeped in history - one of Clark's masterpieces is the non-fiction "Rome and a Villa" - the couple in their gracious rural lives of reading, writing and reflection blended Old World values with those of American democracy.
Steve Oney as a 25-year-old working for the old Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sunday magazine visited Warren and Clark at their home in rural Vermont and wrote a vivid portrait of them and their warm, humor-tinged marriage. The 1979 profile is included in Oney's outstanding collection "A Man's World."
In his introduction to the 2017 book, Oney recalls that Warren gave him a lifelong credo: "It may be said that our lives are our supreme fiction."
(Here is a Southern Bookman interview with Oney after the publication of "A Man's World" by Mercer University Press.
And here is a Southern Bookman interview with Warren and Clark's daughter, Rosanna.)
Warren and Clark also come alive in critic and writer Jay Parini 's 1978 interview with the couple for one of the first issues of the New England Review, now celebrating its 40th anniversary. A co-founder of the literary journal, Parini, the biographer of Robert Frost, visited Warren, Clark and family along with Syndey Lea and Robin Barone.
The interview shows Warren and Clark's affection, humor and subtle rivalry with each other. As with Oney's piece, the reader feels as if he or she is participating in the visit.
Clark and Warren's concerns about art, culture and the loss of individuality and community remain pressing today. Such civilized reflection seems in short supply, unfortunately.
Posted at 01:56 PM in Current Affairs, Education, Family, history, newspapers, philosophy, poetry, politics, Religion, Southern history, writers | Permalink | Comments (1)
Paul McCartney comes home to Liverpool in appearance on James Corden's Carpool Karaoke
Something has to be pretty special to receive accolades from Jesuit philosopher James Martin and sportswriter Woody Paige.
Paul McCartney's Carpool Karaoke appearance with Late Night host James Corden stirred Martin and Paige, along with thousands of YouTube viewers.
Martin praised the video in his column in the Jesuit magazine America, and Paige in his closing comments on ESPN's "Around the Horn" acclaimed McCarney's performance of Beatles classics with Corden.
In the video, McCartney and Corden ride through McCartney's hometown of Liverpool. McCartney points out places from his childhood, like the church were he sang in the choir and another one where his brother was married.
They go to Penny Lane and sites evoked in the famous song, and make a surprise visit to the rowhouse where McCartney lived with his family until his early fame with the Beatles and where he wrote his first songs with John Lennon.
The warmth shared by McCartney and his Liverpool fans shines with grace, as Martin says. A man tells McCartney his songs were played at his brother's funeral.
Despite his talent and years of fame, McCartney remains one of them.
Posted at 10:47 AM in British history, Current Affairs, Magazines, Music, newspapers, philosophy, poetry, Religion, Television, writers | Permalink | Comments (0)
Mathias Énard's "Compass" an intellectually challenging, emotionally enriching novel
Mathias Énard's "Compass" traces the interior journey of aging Viennese musicologist Franz Ritter during a long, sleepless night.
Recently diagnosed with a serious disease, or perhaps it's his hypochondria, Ritter spends the hours thinking about the connections between Western culture and the Mideast.
He's obsessed with European concepts of "the other" and "alterity." This leads him into imagined conversations with Thomas Mann, Wagner, and Edward Said.
Ritter's sardonic doctor, who sounds like a holdover from the Third Reich, has refused to give Ritter a prescription for his beloved opium. Guess there's no Ambien in Vienna.
During the slow progression toward sunrise, Ritter uncovers the contributions made by Persian and Arabic composers, writers and artists to Western art, literature and music. Ritter with his encyclopedic knowledge expresses belief in a unified human civilization.
While Ritter's dazzling intellectual flights give a challenging education in European and Islamic culture, the novel's essential beauty comes from his recollections of journeys to Mideastern places.
Énard's language, translated by American Charlotte Mandell, poignantly evokes a tolerant, sophisticated culture destroyed in recent decades by warfare and Islamic fundamentalism.
Ritter's recollections of travels with a European coterie of "Orientalists" reveal a cosmopolitan world of conversation, music, food and love. He recalls the grace and richness of Aleppo, recently devastated by the Syrian civil war, and a visit to the ancient ruins of Palmyra, destroyed by Isis before the Sunni group's defeat. Istanbul and Tehran also glow in beauty and sensual pleasures before the rise of repressive Islamic leaders.
The book's most heartbreaking sequence describes how the Iranian revolution's promise of democracy and freedom after the shah's downfall was thwarted by the Ayatollah Khomeni's reactionary regime.
While Ritter's cultural digressions resemble an intellectual treatise, "Compass" dazzles as a novel brimming with fully imagined set pieces and memorable secondary characters.
The primary unifying story comes from Ritter's lamentations about his lost love for a beguiling woman named Sarah, also an academic excited by connections among different cultures. As the night stretches on, Ritter muses over his failed relationship with her. A spiritual searcher, Sarah has left her home in Paris to explore primitive cultures in Malaysia after a period seeking Buddhist enlightenment.
Ritter recalls a series of interactions with Sarah through the years, ranging from Mideastern excursions and academic conferences to her romantically thwarted visits to Vienna. The relationship between them ranges from romantic tenderness to the excitement of shared ideas to slapstick comedy. With all of his erudition and cultural perceptiveness, Franz is amazingly obtuse about Sarah. The novel closes on a beautiful, ambiguous interchange between the two, showing that love letters will maintain their power in the age of email.
Edward Said's influential treatise "Orientalism" is a touchstone of "Compass." The storytelling structure of "A Thousand and One Nights" is another talisman, along with Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past." Ritter's voice also recalls that of Camus' solitary first-person narrator in "The Fall."
While questions of accuracy recently rose in Deborah Smith's translation of South Korean novelist Han Kong's "The Vegetarian," Mandell rendered Énard's original French with exactitude and artistic brilliance. Énard's long, meandering sentences register in English with the exquisite beauty of their original language. A description of Istanbul's waterfront as seen through a window during an early evening gathering combined poetic musicality with visual precision.
Énard's demands on the reader are rewarded with aesthetic power and intellectual enrichment. Moments of hope and beauty break through clouds of despair and sorrow. Flashes of black-tinged humor lighten the mood. While I at times felt disoriented as if lost in a labyrinth, Énard's compass had a true direction.
moments of hope and beauty breaking through clouds of despair and sorrow. While I at times felt disoriented as if lost in a labyrinth,
Posted at 12:49 PM in Books, Current Affairs, history, philosophy, poetry, politics, Religion, writers | Permalink | Comments (0)
Three poems for a frozen day
On a frozen day, the ground covered with snow, here's three winter-related poems.
The first, "The Snow Man," shows Wallace Stevens' metaphysical imagination. The simple words of a winter landscape Stevens fashions into an illusive search for meaning.
The second, is a William Shakespeare song that I've always liked, imagining Greasy Joan and a merry Elizabethan snow day.
The third, W.H. Auden's "In Memory of W.B Yeats," always seems relevant, especially in these times.
The Snow Man
By Wallace Stevens
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
WHEN icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail
And Tom bears logs into the hall
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipp'd and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-whit;
Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
When all aloud the wind doth blow
And coughing drowns the parson's saw
And birds sit brooding in the snow
And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
In Memory of W. B. Yeats
By W.H Auden
He disappeared in the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,
And snow disfigured the public statues;
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.
What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.
Far from his illness
The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests,
The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;
By mourning tongues
The death of the poet was kept from his poems.
But for him it was his last afternoon as himself,
An afternoon of nurses and rumours;
The provinces of his body revolted,
The squares of his mind were empty,
Silence invaded the suburbs,
The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers.
Now he is scattered among a hundred cities
And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections,
To find his happiness in another kind of wood
And be punished under a foreign code of conscience.
The words of a dead man
Are modified in the guts of the living.
But in the importance and noise of to-morrow
When the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the Bourse,
And the poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed,
And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom,
A few thousand will think of this day
As one thinks of a day when one did something slightly unusual.
You were silly like us; your gift survived it all:
The parish of rich women, physical decay,
Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,
For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
In the valley of its making where executives
Would never want to tamper, flows on south
From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,
A way of happening, a mouth.
Earth, receive an honoured guest:
William Yeats is laid to rest.
Let the Irish vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.
In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark,
And the living nations wait,
Each sequestered in its hate;
Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye.
Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise
Posted at 11:46 AM in Books, Current Affairs, philosophy, poetry, politics, writers | Permalink | Comments (0)
Thinking about Henry David Thoreau on his 200th birthday
The modern media make a fetish of historic anniversaries and famous people's birthdays.
Today, Henry David Thoreau, born 200 years ago, receives the treatment. Op-ed pieces on the theme of Thoreau's relevance today. Satiric sallies playing off the writer's alleged misanthropic personality. Looks at how his philosophy fits with today's political climate.
Recently, Shakespeare, Martin Luther, World War I and the Battle of Waterloo generated great date frenzies. This might focus attention on important people and events, yet throws them into the daily rush of celebrity sensation and media trivia.
Hey, I'm doing it too.
Many hate Thoreau after being forced to read his "Walden: A Life in the Woods" in high school. It's a difficult book. The spate of attention and variety of opinions about his work show that he's a writer who says different things to different readers.
Others love him, seeing him as the father of civil disobedience, the environmental movement and individualism.
While I've struggled with Henry David, I count myself among this camp. Visiting the reported site of Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond near Concord, Mass., was one of my life's great moments. Viewing the mysterious dark Walden, filled with happy summertime swimmers, also filled me with wonder.
I need to return to the book. Along with reading parts of "Walden" in high school and college, I listened to it on the now outmoded Walkman in my days running around the track at Oglethorpe University here in Atlanta. The audiotape reader's odd, hectoring voice put me off, although I was transported by Thoreau's words. Now, I want to revisit the work, give Thoreau's disturbing ideas deeper contemplation.
My favorite Thoreau book is "A Walk on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers," an account of his raft trip with his brother, John, from Massachusetts to Maine and back. He wrote the book during his stay at the Walden cabin. His account of rushing along the rivers, the wildlife and natural terrain is among the greatest American writing. Soon after their return to Concord, his brother John died from tetanus after receiving a minor cut.
I also love Thoreau's recently published journals and his observations of Massachusetts flora and fauna. Like Benjamin Franklin, he made major contributions to scientific knowledge.
Every time I walk in my neighborhood, blessed with trees, wild areas, ponds and creeks in the middle of a major American city, I think about Thoreau, as if he's walking beside me. His philosophy of global awareness and local action I aspire to follow.
Posted at 12:21 PM in Books, Current Affairs, Environment, history, newspapers, philosophy, politics, Science, writers | Permalink | Comments (0)
Now let us praise Diana Trilling
Will Diana Trilling now have her moment of rediscovery?
Overshadowed by her husband, the major American critic Lionel Trilling, during their long marriage, Diana also achieved a notable literary career as a book critic and political and cultural essayist.
Outliving Lionel by 17 years, she in her 70s turned to journalism, writing a bestselling book about the murder trial of Jean Harris, who killed her estranged lover, Dr. Herman Tarnower, the cardiologist who invented the Scarsdale diet. Expertly fashioning the techniques of new journalism, Diana wrote a classic of crime and trial reporting.
Like Lionel an inside member of New York's left-wing intellectual community centered around magazines such as the Nation, the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books and the Partisan Review, Diana also wrote the well-regarded memoir "The Beginning of the Journey," an account of her troubled marriage.
Now, 21 years after her death, Diana is the subject of a biography, "The Untold Journey: The Life of Diana Trilling," written by a close friend, Natalie Robins. Writer Tobi Haslett wrote a mixed review of the book in The New Yorker, finding that Robins didn't engage fully with Diana's ideas. The photo of Lionel and Diana above comes from the New Yorker web site.
The famed critic and Columbia University professor Lionel Trilling was plagued by frustration: He longed for success as a novelist. His one novel, "The Middle of the Journey," - the journey motif keeps returning in Diana's memoir, his novel and Robins' biography - was unsuccessful, although the book has received positive re-evaluations since his death.
According to Robins, Lionel's rages damaged their marriage. Not as knowledgeable as Lionel when they married, Diana with her art-history degree from Radcliffe was a major editor of Lionel's work, guiding him from ponderous academic writing and sharpening his arguments.
Turning against the Partisan Review's Marxist politics, Lionel and Diana expressed a staunch anti-communism. Nor was Diana much taken by radical feminism or the New Left counterculture of the 1960s. She harshly condemned the student riots that brought severe damage to Lionel's beloved Columbia campus.
Diana's late work made its mark on the new journalism landscape. I particularly remember her account of the evening she and Lionel were invited to John F. Kennedy's White House for a dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners. That was the event after which Kennedy quipped that never had the presidency seen such a collection of intellects, except for when "Mr. Jefferson dined alone." Her descriptions of the glittering evening are among the best portraits of Kennedy's presidency.
Is a biography of Diana Trilling needed? With all of her productivity during her long life, she was a relatively minor figure in the New York intellectual community that thrived from the 1930s through the 1960s and beyond. Diana Trilling's life and work are worth revisiting; she registered enormous changes in American society from a dispassionate viewpoint. These days, America is bereft of such discerning thought.
Posted at 12:20 PM in Books, Current Affairs, history, Magazines, philosophy, politics, writers | Permalink | Comments (0)
Daniel Mendelsohn remembers how Homer's 'The Odyssey' brought him closer to his father
Daniel Mendelsohn's essay in the April 27 New Yorker about reaching a deeper relationship with his elderly father through their shared interest in "The Odyssey" gave poignant testimony to how classic literature can change our lives.
Jay Mendelsohn, a retired computer scientist, was 83 when he asked Daniel, a professor at Bard College, if he could monitor the freshman class Daniel teaches on Homer's epic poem about the Greek hero Odysseus' 10 -year journey home from the Greeks' war against Troy. The elder Mendelsohn drove to Manhattan from his home in Long Island each week to attend the class.
The classroom study of "The Odyssey" led to the father and son taking a cruise that traced the sites of the Greek hero's voyage. The cruise leads to a stronger understanding between father and son.
Mendelsohn reaches higher acceptance of his father's rational mind, and the father better understands his son's artistic viewpoint. Jay Mendelsohn emerges as a wonderful literary character, witty, compassionate and insightful, qualities that Dan says he didn't often reveal to his family. The piece briefly touches upon his father's last painful days and death after suffering a massive stroke.
I discovered from Mendelsohn's web site that the New Yorker essay is an excerpt from a memoir, "An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic," which will be published in September. National Public Radio recently did an interview with Mendelsohn, and put the photo above on its web site.
Mendelsohn's long been one of my favorite writers. I experience a jolt of anticipation whenever I see his name listed in the Table of Contents of the New Yorker or New York Review of Books. He's one of the few writers whose essays I'll reread in his books after enjoying them in a journal.
Not only does Mendelsohn excel at explaining classical literature and themes, he's also brings a different perspective in writing about pop culture. I especially remember his New York Review piece that dismantled the "Mad Men" hoopla.
He's also a translator from the Greek language, although I was disappointed with his rendering of Cavafy's "Collected Poems." His Cavafy poems lacked the sharpness and emotional weight of other translations.
Nevertheless, I'll look forward to reading more about his and his father's odyssey to greater love and understanding. The book will also teach valuable lessons about how classics like Homer's work can enrich modern life.
Posted at 11:09 AM in Books, Current Affairs, Education, Family, history, Magazines, philosophy, poetry, Science, Travel, writers | Permalink | Comments (0)
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books, films, games, lists & playlists, novels, TV
Favourite fiction of 2020
December 14, 2020 Tim Major
Like everyone else this year, I saw very little at the cinema in 2020. My favourite of the few films I saw was the wild, disturbing ride The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers), partly because it's been my lingering memory of what it's like to watch a great film in the cinema, booming foghorns and all – and I loved the alienating square aspect ratio. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma) was no less an intense depiction of people trapped together, and, equally, Parasite (Bong Joon Ho) contained foreshadowing of lockdown and a lack of fresh air. Steve McQueen's films from his Small Axe TV anthology series were no less rich and rewarding than his cinema fare. The first two, Mangrove and Lovers Rock, were outstanding – particularly the dazzling choreography and soundtrack of the latter. On a similar note, the short film Strasbourg 1518 (Jonathan Glazer) is entirely choreographed dance, and was the most alarming film of 2020 that I saw.
Of more recent films (i.e. from the last decade), my absolute favourite was The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg, 2019), which I couldn't stop thinking about for all sorts of reasons, and the knowledge that there's an upcoming second part is tantalising. Bait (Mark Jenkin, 2019) was delightful in all respects, the best film about film that I've seen for a while. I found Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodovar, 2019) surprisingly affecting, particularly Antonio Banderas' performance. The Personal History of David Copperfield (Armando Iannucci, 2019) was the most fun I've had with a recent film, in part due to the pleasure of spotting favourite TV character actors. I loved Aniara (Pella Kågerman & Hugo Lilja, 2018) – exactly my sort of setup, about a Mars migration that turns into an endless voyage – the intertitles signalling greater and greater timescales alone were powerful. And though I loved A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino, 2015) in every respect, Ralph Fiennes' creepy dancing remains its most memorable moment.
I watched a lot of classic films this year, partly as a response to lockdown, but also partly because I've developed new habits: I no longer fret about not finishing a film in a single session, and I've been watching them via BFI Player and MUBI on my (admittedly large-screened) phone, often starting at 5.30am after being woken by my youngest son. Watching films like this, with chunky headphones, in bed in the dark, has been the closest simulation of a cinema setting.
One of my biggest 'discoveries' this year was the wider work on Akira Kurosawa, in particular The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961) and High and Low (1963), all of which rank as some of the best films I've seen this year. I finally watched, and loved, the long version of Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982), but surprised myself by enjoying Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman, 1955) equally as much. Other classic films I watched for the first time and adored included La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954), Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945) and The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966), all stunning. I was blown away by Tartuffe (F. W. Murnau, 1925), particularly its framing story and metatextual elements. Two of my favourite finds were Cairo Station (Youssef Chahine, 1958) and Intimate Lighting (Ivan Passer, 1965), and I adored the 'fake news' docudramas Punishment Park (Peter Watkins, 1971) and the lesser-known Alternative 3 (Christopher Miles, 1977). For tense pulp thrills, my favourite films were the incomparable Night Tide (Curtis Harrington, 1961), the near-perfect thriller Breakdown (Jonathan Mostow, 1997) and the fantastical short film Quest (Saul Bass, 1984), included on the recent Phase IV bluray. My favourite horror film this year was the woozy masterpiece The White Reindeer (Erik Blomberg, 1952).
My immediate response to the announcement of the first lockdown was to panic-read substantial classic novels I'd always intended to read. Middlemarch (George Eliot, 1872) worked as intended: I found it totally absorbing and entirely reassuring. I suspect that Candide (Voltaire, 1759), Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf, 1925) and Lanark (Alasdair Gray, 1981) and The Third Policeman (Flann O'Brien, 1967) will each be influential on my own writing in the coming years. My favourite horror novel was Thérèse Raquin (Émile Zola, 1867), which packed a punch partly because I didn't realise it was going to be a horror novel. My most important reading discoveries in 2020 were the novels of Richard Yates, my favourites so far being The Easter Parade (1976) and Revolutionary Road (1961), the latter being as great a Great American Novel as The Great Gatsby. My most exciting discovery of 2020 was the Jorge Luis Borges-endorsed, proto-SF novella The Invention of Morel (Adolfo Bioy Casares, 1940).
In terms of more recent works, my favourites were A Cosmology of Monsters (Shaun Hamill, 2019), which has one of the most absorbing first chapters of any book I've read, Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer, 2014) which I can't believe it took me so long to get around to reading, and The Wall (John Lanchester, 2019) which made me seethe with envy. I read a lot of non-fiction for writing research purposes, but the factual books I enjoyed most for 'fun' were High Static, Dead Lines: Sonic Spectres & the Object Hereafter by Kristen Gallerneaux (2018) and Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse: What You Urgently Need To Know (Nina Schick, 2020).
It's been a great year for TV drama. My wife and I binged both series of the hysterical (in all senses) Succession, I was entirely won over by the calm pace of Normal People, and the decidedly more frenetic I May Destroy You seemed to redefine the possibilities of TV drama with every episode. Staged was an impressively comprehensive and complex response to the first coronavirus lockdown, and was very funny to boot. Upright was the TV show that most upset me, offset by all the tremendous joy, and was probably my favourite TV show of the year. Armando Iannucci's space workplace comedy Avenue 5 turned out to be far better than expected, and I hope there'll be more to come. The most exhilarating TV I saw this year was World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji, closely followed by the meticulous, gorgeous and subversive Anaïs Nin adaptation Little Birds. And, likeeveryone else, I thought The Queen's Gambit was staggeringly good all round.
After around eight years without videogames, purchasing a half-decent laptop this autumn has allowed me to dabble in games I've missed in the interim period, though anything particularly open-world or particularly recent stutters like crazy – for which I'm grateful, as I'm terrified of losing too much time to gaming at the expense of work. Still, I managed to work through Portal-esque puzzle game The Talos Principle (2014), Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015) (the latter better than the first in the new trilogy but representing an almost unsurmountable graphical challenge for my PC). I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (2014) far more than expected, appreciating the slow pace. I admired a huge amount of What Remains of Edith Finch (2017), which as well as providing a compelling story, acted as a showcase for the possibilities of videogames – particularly the scene involving slicing the heads off fish on a production line whilst simultaneously guiding a prince around a kingdom whilst also learning about the fragile mental health of the factory worker in question. But the only game that I truly loved was Firewatch (2016), in which the player fulfils a patient role as a lookout in a Wyoming forest, whilst developing a relationship with your supervisor over walkie-talkie. The landscape is stunning, the nudges along the path of the narrative subtle, and the story is deeply affecting, perhaps partly because the game is over within three hours or so.
books, games
Gaming and subcultures in Little Brother
August 16, 2013 Tim Major	Leave a comment
In Little Brother, Cory Doctorow demonstrates that social gaming communities can give rise to independent subcultures.
At the start of the novel, Marcus Yallow and his friends take part in an alternate reality game (ARG), Harajuku Fun Madness. The game involves clues hidden around major cities, forming a overlaid network over ordinary society. The ARG foreshadows events later in the book, where Marcus's resistance network must remain hidden whilst still interacting with society.
Similarly, Marcus has experience of live action role-playing games (LARPs). Again, his experience involved playing the games in public, therefore producing a gaming layer over everyday life. Importantly, these LARPs involved dressing as vampires, linked to goth subcultures at the fringes of society. Marcus uses his knowledge of ARGs and LARPs to stage the politically-motivated gathering at the end of the novel.
With the internet monitored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Marcus uses a modified Xbox console to communicate with his peers. Significantly, the hardware is designed for gaming, now adapted for political use. Large corporations are symbolically aligned with the DHS, as the teenagers use Microsoft's hardware for unauthorised purposes.
The Xnet itself is similar to chatrooms and forums that surround internet gaming culture. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Clockwork Plunder, becomes less a game and more a legitimate social space for Xnetters to congregate, eventually becoming the home of the Xnet's first press conference.
All of these examples are social activities that began as gaming experiences, adapted by Marcus and his friends for political means. Eventually, the situation is reversed: new game-like experiences arise from purely political activities. When Marcus meets the young teens Nate and Liam, he sees that they treat 'jamming' as an ARG, albeit one of which their victims are unaware.
In this way, Doctorow demonstrates that social subcultures and political movements can easily become merged, feeding into one another.
Submitted to Coursera as essay 10 for Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World.
Coursera peer grade: Form 2 / Content 2
Image from Invertika / Wikimedia Commons
Cory DoctorowCoursera
Videogames I played in 2010 – retail games
January 12, 2011 Tim Major	Leave a comment
2010 was a year in which I noticed a change in my attitude to videogames: I became more interested in the principles and mechanics behind videogames rather than particular titles themselves. Increasingly, I used games as time-fillers, distractions and OCD tasks rather than as prime-time entertainment. Also, I completely tired of game narratives.
Here are some unordered thoughts about some boxed games I played last year:
Fallout New Vegas (Obsidian Entertainment)
I love Fallout 3. I love it to bits. I've played through the mammoth story three times, to the concern of my girlfriend. Ropey textures: fine. Bugs and glitches: no problem. VATS targeting system: A-OK. So why does New Vegas, with an identical engine, feel so off?
The locations are part of the problem. Fallout 3 had some amazing central locations, including Megaton, the Jefferson Memorial and the Museum of Technology, each of which felt distinct and full of specific perils. New Vegas feels disconnected and even the Vegas Strip itself seemed bare. I'd expected each of the hotels to be rich with detail, but they felt like a slog. I also spent frustrating sessions trying in vain to climb mountains that were stubbornly inaccessible, ruining the open world vibe.
I think I'll mainly have to chalk it up to fatigue, though. While I'd be happy to explore the familiar world of Fallout 3 again, New Vegas felt like an oddly vague callback.
Demon's Souls (From Software)
As many reviewers have noted, this is a stubbornly cruel but wonderful game. However, after two months of irregular play, I finally hit the wall – I think I'd need to dedicate an unreasonable amount of time to progress much further. Despite (or perhaps as a result of) the difficulty, you're never in doubt that the game is beatable, if only you STOP MAKING STUPID MOVES. The most fun I had were in the early levels, before the structure of the game is made apparent. I spent hours creeping around corners, shield raised, terrified of whatever might spring out from darkened corners. To learn all the nooks and crannies and later play those same levels with supreme confidence felt wonderful.
Also, Demon's Souls contains a pleasing absence of story. I am fighting skeletons and demons because they are there. That is all.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
I've already reviewed this game in an earlier post. Amazingly, I rarely felt lethargic playing this title, and even the cutscenes and nonsense plot held my attention.
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)
This game was understandably adored last year. It captures the mood of the comics well and the combat is satisfying. My attitude to the main story was so-so: it was what it was. But the game came alive for me during the optional hunt for secrets scattered about the open world. This, I think, says something about my gaming type. I'm aware that most of the games I become most engrossed in are those that fuel my collector / OCD impulses.
Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
I got to the party scene and my save game became corrupted, losing my progress. I'll play this again, but I'm saving my reactions until I've finished a full playthrough. For the record: more like this, please.
Borderlands (Gearbox)
Seriously, stop it. Another lengthy, humdrum game enlivened by collector fixation. Mostly, I appreciated the absence of cutscenes or explanation, but the bulk of the game did rather boil down to collecting and upgrading weapons. But – Krom's Canyon was probably the most enjoyable single bit of level design I played this year.
The rest of the boxed titles I played in 2010 (Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Split Second, Modern Warfare 2, Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4, Sports Champions, New Super Mario Bros Wii) were just, you know, fine.
So, conclusions… well, reading this list makes me sigh. I feel I've misused videogames in 2010 and turned some top-grade entertainment into simple fetch quests. The notion of fun doesn't really enter into my experiences of most of the above titles – rather, I played most of them as a furrowed-brow distraction technique in place of doing things I really ought to be getting along with. I'm unsure whether this is partly down to the collection of often generic titles – many of them feel like polished versions of older games – or whether I'm starting to lose the love.
January 12, 2011 Tim Major	2 Comments
Far from the expansion pack that many expected, this is the definitive Assassin's Creed game so far. It's as beautiful as the series has always been, and the character animation is superb – but this time Ubisoft have layered dozens of game types on top of the basic quests. As many reviewers have noted, it's easy to become happily waylaid in sidequests, en route to main story locations – in fact, this is the only game I can remember where I've begun to rinse the remaining sidequests immediately after completing the main story.
The city-building metagame, now presented as part of the open world rather than a discrete interface, appealed to my completionist tendencies and the effect on the game world was tangible. The brotherhood metagame, where you send fellow assassins on remote quests for loot rewards, was less successful. It's all too easy to ignore the text descriptions of quests and to see assassins as resources to be apportioned out – I'd expect this element of the game to be improved in later sequels.
One of my biggest criticisms in the first AC game was that it encouraged lazy play rather than elaborately stealthy assassinations. Importantly, many of the key assassinations in this third title are framed in ways that invite imaginative approaches: by rooftop, from hidden positions within crowds, and using smoke bombs and poison to dispose of targets. Even though my occasional frustration led me to take the easy route at times, the introduction of a '100% sync' bonus for completing a quest in a particular manner should ensure that I'll be aiming to up my game later.
The story is, as always, tosh – at least, in terms of the nuts and bolts of dialogue, exposition and so on. But Brotherhood's strongest narrative suit is the blending of the contemporary world (Desmond and his assassin-sympathising techies) and his ancestors' memories. Leaping around Ezio's mansion as modern-day Desmond was a strange thrill that's far more affecting that anything contained in the script proper. Like many open world games, Brotherhood's most enduring moments are non-scripted. My revelation was early in the game as I discovered the ruined Colosseum, clambered to the top of the one remaining full wall, and surveyed the glorious view.
Spoilers! Don't read this paragraph if you're planning to play the game.
There was, though, one story element that really surprised me. Ezio's quest is to rescue Lucrezia Borge's lover, Pietro Rossi: he's taken the role of Jesus in a Passion play, but Cesare Borge has ordered Micheletto to stab and kill Rossi as an 'accident' during the rehearsal within the ruins of the Colosseum. As Ezio, the player steals and wears a Roman soldier costume and infiltrates the rehearsal, kills Micheletto and rescues Rossi, who has also been poisoned. Taking Rossi to a nearby doctor to be cured involves the player guiding this Roman soldier, as he carries a bloody and limp Jesus rescued from the cross, slowly out of the Colosseum. While, of course, both game characters are acting these parts, the image is striking. It's one of those moments (like the Tibetan village scene in Uncharted 2) where the player is invited to dwell on the details with only a small amount of agency in the onscreen actions. It's one of the most interesting scenes I've seen in a game all year and raises all sorts of questions about subject matter that could, one day, be addressed by videogames.
films, games, lists & playlists, music, TV
GetGlue is a foisting machine
In the last week or so I've been playing around with GetGlue, a new recommendation and social networking site that covers all media (i.e. film, TV, books, music, general topics). After my abortive research into film recommendation sites – and I really should update my earlier post, as I ended up leaving Jinni in favour of Criticker, which still has plenty of failings – this feels like it could become the site for me.
There are several main draws to GetGlue. The first seems trivial but is central – you gain virtual stickers for various activities – for example, rating 50 TV shows. These stickers show up on user profiles, working as boasts similar to Xbox achievements. There are also mentions of becoming applicable to receive 'hard-copy' stickers for free, but this doesn't seem to be the big sell.
The other USP is that GetGlue distinguishes between recommendations and 'checking in' – i.e. letting users know what you're currently watching, reading, listening to or thinking about. This feature's obviously inspired heavily by Facebook updates, and indeed you can publish each comment directly on Facebook (or Twitter) – you could actually use GetGlue as a portal for social-media updates related to your likes or dislikes.
Finally, and the feature that's got me hooked, is the ability for users to become 'gurus' of particular subjects, achieved through posting reviews and users voting. Guru status bestows the user with page-editing privileges and also the ability to hardwire particular recommendations to that page. The temptation to foist obscure but related books, films and music onto casual browsers is huge, I'm discovering. I'm disproportionately proud to be guru of 10 things, currently: The Last Man on Earth, The Drums' Summertime!, Dungen, Viktor Vaughn's Vaudeville Villain, Lonnie Donegan, The Research, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Electrelane's The Power Out, The Hired Sportsmen and 13 & God.
As with my earlier comparison post, here are my thoughts about GetGlue, distilled:
Impressively wide catalogue due to links with specialist websites e.g. Last.fm and imdb
Ability to add to index from selected sites
Covers music, film, books, topics
Clean, clear interface
Guru status offers Wikipedia-like editing rights, plus ability to make recommendations
Stickers encourage exploration and are strangely compelling
Distinction between 'checking in' and liking things
There's a linked iphone app
Links to Facebook and Twitter
User profiles by default show a Facebook-like 'stream' rather than a definitive overview of that person (favourites are more enlightening but are buried away)
Favourites can't be split into media type, so can become messy and unrepresentative
Can't reorder favourites or lists
'Saved' items could be made into more useful 'to read'/'to watch' lists, so could become a reminder tool
The iphone app only allows you to 'check in' rather than rate favourite items
Recommended items are literal-minded and uninspired (e.g. if you like an album by an artist, you'll like other albums by the same artist), and only relate to a single item rather than a combination of items
Inability to add extra comments to a page once you've reviewed – even if you're the guru
'Check in' seems different to 'currently reading' etc – it'd be nice if user profiles could show media that the user is currently immersed in…
Only three tiers of rating: 'favourite', 'like' and 'don't like' (perhaps, though, this is a 'pro', as it's much lessy fussy than, say, Cricticker)
Can't embed stream or favourites in non-Javascript blog (like this one)
Can't easily browse recommendations – quite limited categories (e.g. 1970s)
This is entirely trivial, but I'd love to see the stickers feed into a meta-game or measureable tally of 'progress' – probably irrelevant for most people though!
You can see my GetGlue profile here.
Every Day the Same Dream (Paulo Pedercini, 2009)
February 13, 2010 Tim Major	Leave a comment
I already posted about this game on my serious games blog, but it definitely bears repeating. Every Day the Same Dream is a beautiful independent game from Paolo Pedercini as an entry to the Experimental Gameplay Project. Illustrating the tedium of routine office work, the game allows few interactions – for example exchanging brief words with your indifferent wife, a homeless man, the elevator operator. You can only 'win' the game by searching out the few ways to break the routine of everyday working life. It's bleak and often tedious – and it's one of the most consistent and affecting games I've played in a long time.
See Paulo Pedercini's website for links to his other works, including a machinima video about post-traumatic stress disorder filmed with the recruiting game America's Army, and online games covering subjects such as the unethical practices of fast food corporations and child abuse by the Catholic clergy.
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I'm Tim Major.
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Hope Island (Titan Books, May 2020)
Snakeskins (Titan Books, May 2019)
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Mangers in Israel are actually carved out of stone and not what we have been so used to seeing in nativity scenes of a wooden box with crossed legs. The Mangers are actually feeding troughs for domesticated animals - sheep, goats. Hay is placed in the manger and the animals are led there to feed.
In this episode we are going to unveil TRUTH in regards to the errors of the Nativity Story.
This leades to a second part and then to an episode "We Three Kings" in which all of these threads intertwined into a tapestry of TRUTH as the commercialization of the Birth of Yehoshua has covered what Elohim's divine understanding & purpose for the Day Star of Bethlehem.
There are in the "about" section of Facebook. We look forward to upgrading the temporary blog page to website that shall house the blog page.


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"Senior Cords Craze" Exhibit at the Marshall County Museum
By Kathy Bottorff
The new feature exhibit at the Marshall County Museum showcases the senior cords fad from the 1950s through 1970s. A tradition unique to Indiana and Hoosier hysteria, the corduroy pants and skirts were a symbol of individuality and school spirit! Worn at ball games, pep sessions and special school events, the hand-painted images on...
Brown Bag Lunch Monthly Series at M.C. Museum
02/10/14 The Marshall County Museum Brown Bag Lunch Series will kick-off with Lilly Endowment recipient, Anna Liechty, presenting an in-depth story of an historical figure from this area in the 1800's known as "The Huckleberry Queen." Call a friend and bring your sack lunch to the museum for the first of a 2-part...
Genealogy Meeting at M.C. Museum
01/06/14 Do you have nagging questions about your family tree? Have you been attempting to search for your ancestors, but have hit some "brick walls?" The members of the Marshall County Genealogy Society would love to help you. Members of the M.C. Genealogy Society have years of experience researching their own family histories...
WVPC Takes Road Trip to Miami County Musuem
09/09/13 The public is welcome to join the Wythougan Valley Preservation Council on a road trip to the Miami County Museum in Peru, IN on Wednesday, September 11th. They will be leaving from the Plymouth Public Library parking lot at 9 AM. Guests will have the option to caravan in their own vehicle...
"Exercise You Brain" at Museum during Second Friday
05/10/13 ZUMBA ZUMBA ZUMBA! 2nd Fridays in Downtown Plymouth tonight (May 10th) will be hosting "Fitness Fun" on the streets! Grab your tennis shoes for group class instruction on Garro Street beginning at 5:00 p.m. with Zumba and Boot Camp Skills and then Zumba again at 6 p.m., sponsored by the LifePlex. Walgreens...
Miss Plymouth Exhibit and Annual Historical Dinner Speaker
04/19/13 The Marshall County Museum is revisiting the historic era from the 1960's, 70's, and 80's when young ladies from all over the county came together to showcase their talent and beauty, gain confidence, and win scholarships, during the nostalgic 30-year run of the Miss Plymouth Pageant. The museum is remembering the Miss...
County Museum Seeking Collections for Display
04/15/13 The Marshall County Museum is looking for interesting collections that could be displayed at the museum. The county museum is always looking for residents who are willing to share their collections with the community. Right now they are looking for a few male-oriented collections to off-set the Miss Plymouth Exhibit and Retro...
Trains at Museum to Run for Spring Break Special
03/27/13 The Marshall County Museum in downtown Plymouth is partnering with local Dairy Queen for a "Spring Break Special!" The interactive museum trains will be running from 11AM – 1PM today, Wednesday, March 27 and coupons for a FREE Dairy Queen Dilly Bar, Star Kiss, Ice Cream Sandwich, or Ice Cream Cone will...
The Marshall County Museum will be celebrating the 103rd anniversary of Boy Scouts this Saturday
02/07/13 Marshall County Museum –To celebrate this week's 103rd anniversary of the Boy Scouts, Clarence Shively, local Boy Scout historian, will be giving tours of the recently created display in the "Boy Scout Room" at the Marshall County Museum from 10 AM – 2PM this Saturday, February 9th. He is the Assistant Scout Master...
Museum Plans New Miss Plymouth Exhibit this Year
01/17/13 Marshall County was well represented by the young ladies who were crowned Miss Plymouth. The Marshall County Museum staff plans an exhibit on the Miss Plymouth Pageants to open sometime in 2013 but they need the community's help. They are looking for items to be donated that relate to this pageant, which was...


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Protest Photography, Trauma Porn, and the Surveillance State
Erin Davis
In America, the fact that we live in a surveillance state has literally become meme-able material: yes, FBI man that lurks on my computer as I type this, I'm talking to you. But really, there's a darker truth behind this playful, internet-wide subversive nod to the violating practices of our government. And in the wake of the civil unrest boiling over across the country, all eyes are on us, none more so than our own government.
Automatic license plate readers can track any cars in the vicinity of a protest or demonstration, and law enforcement can utilize both facial recognition and wireless interception to identify and harvest sensitive information. Call logs and SMS messages can be easily ripped from your idle devices, and the FBI is demanding people report and identify violent protesters captured on video.
Protests have erupted in every region of our nation in the wake of the murder of George Floyd; in response, the government is not only enabling law enforcement to drive vehicles through crowds of protesters and fire on peaceful demonstrators, they're also violating every right to privacy in the book to track, threaten, and prosecute protesters.
Small armies of militarized police have been deployed in cities across the country; while some have used the chance to embark in a tad bit of abhorrent performative activism, these productions only thinly mask the extensive brutality unleashed on demonstrators. Amidst reports of mass police violence against protesters, the scariest weapon that law enforcement wields may not even be the tear gas, tasers, mace, bullets, or literal vehicles arming the onslaught. Instead, it is the weaponization of private information.
Even bringing a cellphone to a protest is a risk—and a sizable one, at that. If arrested, any devices on you are completely subject to search and inspection. To take it even further, sensitive information broadcasted from your phone can be pried from your mobile carriers at any time, and accidentally connecting to an IMSI catcher, a device used by cops that basically acts as a cellphone tower, will allow them to collect your private data. It can be used on entire crowds in one swoop.
All this is why we must take extra steps to protect ourselves, because it is an assault from all fronts; turn off your GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth; activate airplane mode; and, I cannot stress this enough, turn off facial and thumbprint recognition on your phone. This puts you in a very vulnerable position to cops who are just one unnecessarily forceful manhandling away from gaining access to your device.
It's time to admit that this constant threat to privacy is not meme-able anymore, no longer a cynically humorous shrug at an abusive authority; we live in a surveillance state and it is terrifying. Not only does it facilitate the persecution and disruption of protesters and demonstrations, it also enables retaliation.
And yet, in spite of all of the dangers that having a culture built on living online may cultivate, our digital generation has utilized this tool as a mechanism of activism, organization, and accountability. We have turned the tables; we have subverted the system by amplifying our collective voice in a public sphere. We are protesting now because of the documentation of an abhorrent act of violence. When it hit the digital platforms we engage with daily, it set the world on fire.
We are speaking directly to the people. We have demanded the world's attention; know that they are watching. Know that some are looking for any slip-up, any mistake. All media platforms are being monitored. So are the videos collected from police cams, drone footage, and stolen data. Know that your face can show up anywhere. The revolution may not be televised, but it is being surveilled; this is an era of digital policing.
I implore you to think about all the brave people joining us in our fight that face unparalleled risk; they may be undocmented, have a criminal record, be queer-identifying or gender-nonconforming. Be mindful of what photos you take and how you store them, both ones you share and ones you don't; be wary of live-streaming, and the risk it carries—you don't know what vulnerable faces you may capture, even if only for a split second. Understand that as police violence escalates, so will the violation of our private information, weaponized to systemically root out protesters, starting with the most unprotected.
These are the platforms where we are organizing, where we are documenting an event that history will remember; we can't be anything less than fiercely vigilant in how we are utilizing it, while protecting each other in the process. Yes—even if that means blurring faces in photos, or deleting protest content all together. It is not censorship or whitewashing; it is making difficult decisions to defend civil liberties.
Though there is a human and photojournalistic value in showing hard, challenging, and graphic images to fully tell a story, don't do so for the purposes of trauma porn, or in spite of the sacrifices involuntarily forced onto those who never wanted to be in your photo in the first place.
Right now, we are all documentarians, journalists, and activists in our own right. Every single day, in every action to uplift, archive, and spread awareness, we are honoring the memory of George Floyd, and the many, many stories like his. In these roles, we are also bound by not inflicting further harm in our advocacy; we have to be better. We cannot report carelessly, endanger lives, or make political art while not caring about the political consequences.
Please, be aware that taking a stand is a risk; please be aware that, when you photograph someone's uncovered face, you make that risk greater. Don't endanger black lives, even if done in an effort to defend them.
By Erin Davis
Photo by Alda Amer for Axios
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Kenneth Kim
Western Journalism Failed Palestine—Social Media Didn't
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Hellboy Reviewed by Movie Gazette on Thursday, September 2nd, 2004.
This good-looking superhero adventure tackles all of life's big questions – what is the nature of evil, are genes more influential than the environment, and who would win in a fight between a shaven-horned demon and a giant hellborn squid.
Near the end of the Second World War, young Professor Trevor Bruttenholm (Kevin Trainor) and a troop of American soldiers interrupt an attempt by a team of Nazi occultists, led by Grigory Rasputin (Karel Roden), to summon the seven Gods of Chaos to earth – but the portal is opened long enough for a baby demon to be spawned, dubbed Hellboy, and adopted as a son by Bruttenholm.
Sixty years later, Bruttenholm (John Hurt) heads the Bureau for Paranormal Defense to combat demons and supernatural threats. If red-skinned badboy Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is the team's muscle, then foundling merman Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) – think C3PO with fins and psychic powers – is the brains, while sometime member Liz (Selma Blair), who can barely control her explosive psychokinetic powers, provides the angst (and keeps Hellboy's heart warm). They must save the world from a resurrected Rasputin who, with the help of his Nazi companions and the monstrous hound Sammael, is hellbent on luring Hellboy back over to the other side.
Based on the sporadically appearing comicbook series by Mike Mignola, 'Hellboy' is the latest in a run of ensemble superhero adaptations. As in the X-Men' franchise, the team here is headed by an aging Brit, and as in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', a blandly wholesome all-American type (here played by newcomer Rupert Evans, who is in fact British, ironically enough) has been invented solely to give viewers a neutral introduction to the film's far more interesting freaks, and is then left to hang around for the remaining duration with little to do but bear witness to the events around him.
Still, there are two things which make 'Hellboy' stand out from the competition. The first is the idiosyncratic vision of its director (and co-writer) Guillermo del Toro, whose trademark obsessions with insects, mutation and baroque clockwork mechanisms, already seen in earlier films like 'Cronos', 'Mimic' and 'Blade 2', are employed once again to memorable effect. Second is the fascinatingly contradictory character of Hellboy himself – born to be bad but brought up in the cause of good – a cigar-smoking slob addicted to a diet of junkfood, but also dedicated to service and duty – a giant wise-cracking alpha male, but also just a big kid, awkward in love and desperate to please daddy. Thanks to his striking appearance and large facial features, Ron Perlman (a regular in del Toro's films since 'Cronos', but probably best known as the Beast in TV's 'Beauty and the Beast') may be doomed for all eternity to play monsters – but he is also a very talented actor, and in 'Hellboy', if it is the devil who gets all the best lines, it is Perlman who gives them their perfect delivery.
The film is not without its faults. It is overlong; its villains, for all the impressiveness of their visual realisation (especially the sword-wielding Nazi wind-up fetishist Kroenen, played by Ladislav Beran), have little character (Kroenen does not even speak); and Liz is sketched so thinly that it is difficult to empathise with Hellboy's crush on her, despite its importance to the plot. Yet it is a fantastic-looking romp, finding just the right balance between action and laughs – and it is not every day that you get to see a demon cast as a Christ figure.
It's Got: Devils, monsters and mad monks; a giant red-skinned demon who files down his horns "to fit in"; a very big gun; a gasmask-wearing clockwork Nazi with a fetish for surgery; and a world - not to mention a boxful of kittens - that needs saving.
It Needs: For the other characters to be as well realised as Hellboy himself.
This entry was written by Movie Gazette, posted on September 2, 2004 at 12:00 am, filed under Action, Adventure, Horror, Science Fiction. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.


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Close-up of young beech leaves. Credit: Carpe Diem - Flora / Alamy Stock Photo.
Rising water stress could counteract 'global greening', study says
Plants and forestsRising water stress could counteract 'global greening', study says
The increased growth rate of plants seen worldwide in response to rising CO2 levels – a phenomenon known as "global greening" – could be stalled by growing water stress, a study finds.
Global warming is driving changes to water vapour levels, the research finds, which could, in turn, be affecting the rate of plant photosynthesis – the process underpinning plant growth.
The findings suggest that, in the future, the ability of plants to absorb the CO2 emitted by humans may be "substantially reduced", the lead author tells Carbon Brief.
At present, the land takes in 30% of the greenhouse gases emitted by humans, according to a recent landmark report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The findings "do a credible job of bringing the increasing water stress on plants to the fore", another plant scientist tells Carbon Brief.
Turning green
Research using satellites and on-the-ground measurements shows that the world has been getting "greener". That is, both the rate at which plants are growing and the amount of land covered by plants has increased since the start of the industrial revolution.
This "global greening" has been driven largely by rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Plants use CO2 during photosynthesis and so, as humans have emitted more and more CO2, plants have grown at an increasingly rapid rate.
The impact of rising CO2 levels on plant growth is known as the "CO2 fertilisation effect". A study published in 2016 found that CO2 fertilisation is responsible for around 70% of global greening. (However, a more recent study covered by Carbon Brief questioned the extent to which CO2 fertilisation is responsible for global greening.)
Understanding what is driving global greening and how this could change is important because the phenomenon plays a key role in removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
The land currently absorbs around 30% of the greenhouse gases emitted by humans, according to the IPCC's recent land report, with plants being responsible for the majority of this land carbon.
Previous research has suggested that, as CO2 levels rise, plant growth rates will continue to increase – meaning more carbon is taken up by the land with time.
However, the new study, published in Science Advances, finds that rising water stress levels could be counteracting the CO2 fertilisation effect, says study lead author Prof Wenping Yuan, a global change ecology researcher from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong, China. He tells Carbon Brief:
"Global vegetation growth was enhanced before the late 1990s – benefiting from the CO2 fertilisation effect. However, our study shows that global vegetation growth has shown a decreasing trend since the late 1990s, when the global [water vapour changes] started to increase."
Vapour's value
For the study, the authors looked at a measure called the "vapour-pressure deficit" – or VPD.
This measure is the difference between the amount of water vapour in the air and the point at which water vapour in the air becomes saturated. The measure gives an idea of the "water potential" in the atmosphere, Yuan explains:
"Basically, if the water potential is larger in the atmosphere – as in, if VPD is larger – water will dissipate faster and stronger from soil and plants."
Plants react to higher VPD by closing their stomata – the pores plants use to absorb gases needed for photosynthesis – in order to prevent water loss, Yuan says. This causes them to conduct photosynthesis at a slower rate and, so, grow more slowly, he says.
Increased VPD also causes plants to dry out faster and thus can play a role in drought-related forest death, the study adds.
To explore how VPD has changed in recent decades, the authors analysed several global climate datasets. They looked specifically at VPD of areas with vegetation.
They found that VPD of vegetated areas has increased "strongly" since the late 1990s. The chart below, taken from the study, shows how VPD has increased from 1850 to present day. On the chart, colour is used to show the results from the different climate data sets.
Global mean vapour pressure deficit anomalies (VPD) of vegetated areas from 1850 to present day. Anomalies are relative to the mean of 1982-2015. Colour is used to show the results from the different climate data sets. Blue line and grey area illustrate the mean and standard deviation of VPD simulated by climate models using the scenario "RCP4.5". Source: Yuan et al. (2019)
The authors also find that VPD of land with vegetation is likely to keep rising in the future.
Increasing VPD is likely being influenced by climate change, Yuan says.
The level at which water vapour in the air becomes saturated is rising as a result of warming temperatures, he explains. (This is because warmer air can hold more moisture.)
However, at the same time, the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere is decreasing. This could be because the amount of water evaporating from the world's oceans is declining, according to the new study. Yuan says:
"Global warming can decrease wind speed, which, in turn, decreases the water evaporation from the ocean surface."
This means that the deficit between the amount of water vapour in the air and the level at which water pressure in the air becomes saturated is growing ever larger as the climate changes, he says.
For the next part of the study, the authors used satellite data to observe how global plant growth rates have changed since the 1990s.
The maps below, taken from the study, show how the rate of greening changed in parts of the world between 1982-1998 (top) and 1999-2015 (bottom). On the maps, red indicates that the rate of greening decreased in the period, while green indicates that the rate increased.
Rates of greening across the world between 1982-1998 (top) and 1999-2015 (bottom). Red indicates that the rate of greening decreased in the period, while green indicates that the rate increased. Grey shows land without vegetation. Source: Yuan et al. (2019)
The maps indicate that there have been "persistent and widespread decreases" to the rate of greening since the late 1990s, the study says.
The researchers then used modelling to tease apart the factors that could have driven plant growth decreases since the late 1990s. Yuan says:
"The results show the increasing VPD since the late 1990s is a dominant cause for decreased vegetation growth."
Shrinking sink
In the future, climate change is likely to cause VPD to increase further – which could have even larger impacts on the rate of plant growth, Yuan says:
"Decreased rates of vegetation growth will substantially reduce the ability of plants to absorb atmospheric CO2. The CO2 concentration in the atmosphere will increase, if other conditions did not change, which will result in a stronger greenhouse gas effect."
Previous research has shown that the CO2 fertilisation effect could be further constrained by limits to soil nutrient availability. In particular, a lack of nitrogen and phosphorous could limit plant growth as CO2 levels rise.
The new study did not consider how changing nutrient availability could affect plant growth. However, in comparison to nutrient availability limitations – which are likely to remain steady over time, water stress could continue to increase as the climate warms, Yuan says:
"Our results find that VPD will continuously increase until the end of this century with climate warming and, therefore, the impacts of VPD will get more important."
The findings highlight the threat that water stress poses to plants and, so, the land sink, says Prof Ranga Myneni, a researcher of global greening from Boston University, who was not involved in the study. He tells Carbon Brief:
"Water stress will lead to browning, especially in tropical and boreal forests. In the latter, such climatic changes encourage fires and insect outbreaks, which we have seen during the past 20 years. The authors do a credible job of bringing the increasing water stress on plants to the fore."
Yuan, W. et al. (2019) Increased atmospheric vapor pressure deficit reduces global vegetation growth, Science Advances, https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/8/eaax1396
Rising water stress could 'substantially reduce' land carbon sink