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Book review: Zigon's "HIV is God's Blessing"
By Tomas Matza
This article is part of the series: From the Somatosphere archives
Jarrett Zigon. "HIV Is God's Blessing": Rehabilitating Morality in Neoliberal Russia.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. 280 pages. $24.95.
Reviewed by Tomas Matza (Department of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University)
Anthropologists have taken a keen interest in the way that the collapse of the Soviet Union has impacted the everyday lives of the people living in that region. The fact that the Soviet state placed the formation of persons at the center of its cultural policies has served as a pivot from which anthropologists have explored subjectivity in the throes of Russia's emerging market- (a.k.a. "sovereign") democracy. Many studies in this vein have focused on sites of self-(re)formation. Mostly set in urban locales, the list includes studies of labor and human resource training (Dunn 2004), alcohol treatment (Raikhel 2010), pre- and neo-natal health care practices (Rivkin-Fish 2005), NGOs and women's empowerment (Phillips 2008; Hemment 2007), self-defense programs (Drwecki 2009), and psychological self-help (Matza 2010; Matza 2009). As a whole this work has shown not only that the post-Soviet pedagogy of the self/person works with the materials of Soviet precursors, but also that those pedagogies are complexly articulated with Russia's current political and economic structures. As such, self-(re)formation in Russia has become a place to study the intersection of postsocialist capitalism with the substance of the self.
Jarrett Zigon's recent book "HIV Is God's Blessing" adds a crucial site to the list—a Russian NGO working in concert with the Russian Orthodox Church on rehabilitating HIV-infected intravenous drug users. To date, only a few studies have tackled the hugely influential Russian Orthodox Church and its role in self-(re)formation (cf. Rogers 2009). And, as Zigon notes, the targets of the NGO—intravenous drug users with HIV—are also significant since Russia has one of the fastest-growing rates of HIV infection in the world—the majority of which is from intravenous drug use. The question his study broaches is how are these at the margins of Russia's post-Soviet economy faring? Who helps them? To what end?
To answer these questions, the book offers an ethnography of an organization called The Mill that operates at the intersection of secular NGOs and Church-based work. The Mill employs both trained psychologists as well as Orthodox priests in its work, which takes place both at an HIV-specialized clinic in St. Petersburg, as well as a camp-like recovery center in the outskirts of town. (Interestingly, he points out that The Mill was founded as a secular organization, but eventually had to align itself with the church in order to receive support.) In part a result of this status, The Mill employs a mixture of what Zigon calls "secular therapeutics" and Russian Orthodox moral teachings. This mixture, in turn, produces a fascinating tension between reform objectives. On the one hand the Mill appears to pursue conversion, on the other secular self-development. As Zigon shows, these objectives are mutually constitutive, and yet in many instances also at right angles. (And in this vein, his work also broaches some recent discussions, a la Asad, on the relationship between the secular and the religious in modernity.)
As Zigon explains, the Russian Orthodox Church has become an important force in reshaping Russia's conversation about itself as a nation. A telltale sign of this is the Church's privileged political status (while not the official state religion, it receives special treatment), and also its influence over public discourse on topics from human rights, family structures and gender roles, to social issues such as drug addiction and HIV. We learn that in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse, the Church has criticized Western individualism, consumerism and conceptions of rights, and instead argued that Russia's future must be oriented around a strong, Orthodox, moral center. Zigon shows how The Mill's efforts have extended the Church's interest in rehabilitating the Russian nation through saving individual souls to the area of drug abuse and HIV.
One of the main findings of this study is that the Church's objective to reshape the nation aligns "unwittingly" with neoliberalism in Russia. Once again, this is highly ironic because of the Church's vocal opposition to said agendas. How does this alignment happen? Through The Mill's efforts to teach recovering addicts to become responsible for themselves and to others it constitutes subjects ready to live a "sane" life in a "neoliberal present." By scheduling out the day, it prepares them to be working-class subjects. Through teaching rehabilitants new forms of emotional management and discipline, it prepares them for the new kinds of "normal life" (normal'naia zhin') found in contemporary Russia (forms that Zigon suggests are more consumerist and individualist in orientation). On the whole, Zigon charges that this effort "is about cultivating and enacting limits rather than enabling the creation of moral possibilities." Thus, a force for possible critique of unbridled capitalist expansion in Russia (i.e. the Church) is nonetheless a part of those very processes.
Like many studies of self-cultivation (e.g. Mahmood 2005; O'Neill 2009; Matza 2010; Rogers 2009), in order to draw the links between moral pedagogy and self-formation, Zigon draws on and also seeks to extend Foucault's late interest in neo-Aristotelian ethics. His study makes very productive use of the insights opened up by that framework. Zigon is careful not to identify only one kind of "moral discourse" at work (i.e. Russian Orthodoxy), but multiple ones (he identifies three others: secular therapeutics, Soviet and neoliberal moral discourses). These moral discourses do not shape subjects in a deterministic way; rather, they are stitched together into "local moral and ethical assemblage," constituting the range of possibilities and constraints for people. It is these possibilities and constraints that together comprise the new "normal" in Russia—one that Zigon argues has been shaped by neoliberal agendas.
His main theoretical intervention concerns the concepts of ethics and morality. Zigon departs from Foucault's view that morality is a set of codified constraints, whereas ethics is a set of open-ended practices. Instead, Zigon lays it out this way: Over time, people come to embody a particular moral habitus (conditioned, but not wholly determined by, both public discourses and institutions). When faced with a "moral breakdown," however, that embodied and nonconscious "moral mode of being" is brought to light. People undergo conscious ethical self-cultivation aimed at becoming new kinds of moral persons. Eventually, this results in a new kind of unreflexive morality. Through this cycling between stasis and breakdown, Zigon seeks to show that the ethical and the moral are not abstract concepts, but dynamic, socially situated understandings and practices. Nor are they distinct from one another. The ethical becomes expressed through a conscious pursuit of self-making, and being a moral person is emergent from those pursuits, often taking the shape of an embodied disposition. In addressing himself to the category of the moral in Foucault's work, Zigon thus clears conceptual space for the inclusion of religious discourses in self-cultivation in ways that do not reduce them to forms of indoctrination.
An inevitable consequence of Zigon's focus on these theoretical debates is that the portraits of drug users (their biographies, stories about how they began to use, their accounts of use, their struggle to kick the habit) can seem at times to take a backseat. It is not that these details are absent (for Zigon clearly had great access and includes lots of direct quotes); rather the interpretive frame makes sense of their efforts to kick drugs and deal with HIV-infection largely in terms of the constellation of discipline, cultivation, control, responsibilization. After having read the book, I am left wondering about the things outside the framework: What kinds of medical treatment did rehabilitants receive? What is withdrawal like? How is getting high woven into their daily lives? Nonetheless, the book offers a solid account about the "ethical cultivation of moral personhood" in and through this pedagogical process.
I suspect that Zigon was aware of this trade-off inasmuch as he commits himself at the start to focusing on what Kleinman has called the "therapeutic process"—that is what happens to rehabilitation participants beyond the pedagogical moment. He also makes reference the "experience" of his informants. Yet much time is spent on the contours of the pedagogy, its disciplinary function, its role in the formation of new ethical practices and, ultimately, in the formation of new forms of moral personhood suitable to adapting to the landscape of post-Soviet Russia. There is nothing wrong with focusing on pedagogy as such; the fact that Zigon sets out to do otherwise is a testament, I think, to the types of analyses an exclusively Foucaultian framework enables and constrains.
An area that is sometimes missing in anthropologies of Russia is the historical dimension. Yet Zigon admirably situates his ethnography of moral-ethical cultivation in relation to Soviet discourses as well as traditions of self-cultivation in Russian Orthodoxy. For instance, his exploration of neoliberal responsibilization in the Mill's work is also discussed in relation to late-Soviet discourses of cultivating personal responsibility. This raises fascinating questions about responsibility as a discourse and practice: Is it only a neoliberal mode of subjectivation? How do we know if it is?
In the final analysis, Zigon's book is a provocative and clearly argued work that offers both theoretical exploration as well as new research on Russia. Anthropologists interested in morality and ethics will find theoretical resources in its pages. And readers interested in the Russian Orthodox Church and its social positions and campaigns will gain new insights from this book. The book shows how difficult the path to rehabilitation is, and Zigon demonstrates an abiding care for those whom he interviewed (one reason, I think, for his effort to disconnect morality from determination): To become rehabilitated—and not just "normal" but also no longer self-destructive and "existentially comfortable"—people have to uproot themselves from their former lives. They have to avoid their old friends. They have to employ any means they can (often the "Prayer of Jesus") to keep vigilant watch on their desires to get high. They have to be ready to be inserted into the formal economy. At the same time they have to face the stigma of being a recovering user, and, often, an HIV-positive person. The hill to be climbed is steep indeed, and their efforts to make a healthier self may be more arduous than Russia's ongoing market transformations.
Drwecki, Abby. 2009. "'A Lot Depends On Us:' Discourses of Individual and Collective Responsibility in Polish Women's Self-Defense Courses." Anthropology of East Europe Review 27: 176-192.
Dunn, Elizabeth. 2004. Privatizing Poland: Baby Food, Big Business, and the Remaking of Labor. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Hemment, Julie. 2007. Empowering Women in Russia: Activism, Aid, and NGOs. Indiana University Press.
Mahmood, S. 2005. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Matza, Tomas A. 2009. "Moscow's Echo: Technologies of the Self, Publics and Politics on the Russian Talk Show." Cultural Anthropology 24 (3) (August): 489-522.
_______. 2010. Subjects of Freedom: Psychologists, Power and Politics in Post-Soviet Russia. Stanford, CA.
O'Neill, Kevin Lewis. 2009. City of God: Christian Citizenship in Postwar Guatemala. University of California Press.
Phillips, Sarah D. 2008. Women's Social Activism in the New Ukraine: Development and the Politics of Differentiation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Raikhel, E. 2010. "Post-Soviet Placebos: Epistemology and Authority in Russian Treatments for Alcoholism." Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 34 (1).
Rivkin-Fish, Michele. 2005. Women's Health in Post-Soviet Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Rogers, Douglas. 2009. The Old Faith and the Russian Land: A Historical Ethnography of Ethics in the Urals. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Tomas Matza is an ACLS New Faculty Fellow in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. He completed his PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies and Anthropology at Stanford University, with a dissertation entitled "Subjects of Freedom: Psychologists, Power and Politics in Postsocialist Russia." His article "Moscow's Echo: Technologies of the Self, Publics, and Politics on the Russian Talk Show" appeared in the August 2009 issue of Cultural Anthropology.
Morten Axel Pedersen's Not Quite Shamans
Sarah Phillips, Disability and Mobile Citizenship in Postsocialist Ukraine
Alexander Etkind's Warped Mourning
Book review - Elizabeth Anne Davis' Bad Souls
Emily Wentzell's Maturing Masculinities
Matza T. Book review: Zigon's "HIV is God's Blessing". Somatosphere. 2011. Available at: http://somatosphere.net/2011/book-review-zigons-hiv-is-gods-blessing.html/. Accessed July 17, 2019.
Matza, Tomas. (2011). Book review: Zigon's "HIV is God's Blessing". Retrieved July 17, 2019, from Somatosphere Web site: http://somatosphere.net/2011/book-review-zigons-hiv-is-gods-blessing.html/
Matza, Tomas. 2011. Book review: Zigon's "HIV is God's Blessing". Somatosphere. http://somatosphere.net/2011/book-review-zigons-hiv-is-gods-blessing.html/ (accessed July 17, 2019).
Matza, T 2011, Book review: Zigon's "HIV is God's Blessing", Somatosphere. Retrieved July 17, 2019, from <http://somatosphere.net/2011/book-review-zigons-hiv-is-gods-blessing.html/>
Matza, Tomas. "Book review: Zigon's "HIV is God's Blessing"." 25 Jul. 2011. Somatosphere. Accessed 17 Jul. 2019. <http://somatosphere.net/2011/book-review-zigons-hiv-is-gods-blessing.html/>
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text:
package net.wisedream.toolkit.cli;

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target(ElementType.FIELD)
public @interface CLIOption {
	public boolean hasArg() default false;

	public boolean hasArgs() default false;

	public boolean isRequired() default false;

	public String opt() default "";

	public String longOpt() default "";

	public String desc() default "";

	public String argName() default "";
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Test Drive: Eve of Destruction
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Authority: Infiltration
RP Logs » RP Log Archives » The Authority: Infiltration
The team infiltrate the island of Gamorra; looks like trouble! (Backdated, blah blah)
Gamorra
It's been a full day since they arrived on the ship just outside of Gamoraa's waters, and Slade, standing on deck, stares out across the seas, his eye narrowed to a slit. "Banner," his coms function by passing through a tiny golden gate that sits over the ship, about an inch around, matching another that floats in Ops back on the Resolve, "I clock movement at the edge of the cove, military or civilian?" he asks, his enhanced vision allowing him to at least pick out motion at this extreme distance. He motions with one hand to Lux, sending her to the side rail where the small submersible propulsion units wait so she can prep the two for drop.
The ship is a small one, a fishing vessel not unlike the others that dot the horizon here and there, though this one's not exactly 'standard', what with it's camoflaged .50's and the dual heavy duty motors hidden under the water line. With the dampening field in place, the gates they use to get to and from the Resolve weren't able to get them anywhere near the island, so they're going old school. Ish. Bruce gets to man the satalites, grainy though their images are, and feed intel to the group while Armory is on overwatch with her rail gun of doom… which Slade sincerely hopes she knows how to use long range. Like really long range. The other two are with him. The mission is strictly intel, all things go according to plan it's in and out and no ones the wiser."
Slade allows that thought to cause him a small sneer of derision. He should be so lucky.
Bruce eats the Combos that he got shipped in, just like Slade promises, munching on his little bits of cracker wrapped pepperoni happiness. Sometimes, it's the little things that keep you from turning intio a giant monster that might murder your friends and family at any moment. Mmmmmmmmmmmm, Combos.
"It's Gamorra, Slade. There's no such thing as 'civilian'. Even if it looks like a raggedy-ass fishing sloop - which that does, by the way - it's probably got a cadre of anti-aircraft missiles underneath the sardine-infested netting," he says, lighting a cigarette. "Doesn't look like they've noticed you guys yet, though, regardless. But I wouldn't count on it lasting - somebody's gonna come up and ask you for the Kaizen's secret handshake and things'll get messy real fast after that. Just keep your heads down and at least -try- to make it to shore before you start blowing people's heads off, though, huh?"
Audrey hasn't used submersible equipment for a little bit, so when Slade motions her over, she takes her time looking over the equipment, double checking every attachment and setting to make sure that everything is in order. Despite the times, the motions are still automatic, ingrained in muscle memory until it takes effort to pay full attention to it.
Armory is quiet. She really wants to be quiet. It might be strange that her footsteps produce no noise. She's altered her boots somehow. She's been diligent about learning and practice. And she seems just fine watching over things. She will stay on overwatch with an alarmingly large railgun that looks like it could peg a toupe off a politican from a mile off. After all, shots made over a mile away… are not impossible. Throw in a bit of super science and, well. She does have binoculars with her, in case that in her power armor fails.
Melody doesn't remain close to anyone, really. She stood off to the side, looking over the edge and into the waters, her fingers gripping the railing as she quietly tries to psyche herself up for the intel mission. She was used to being the one in the back; quiet and unseen, moving through the crowds and picking pockets and bank accounts with the swipe of her fingers and the flick of her thumb.
But this was a new game, no. It wasn't even a game. This was business. And her game face was slowly being created as her little nanites work to deaden the nerves that fire off certain synapses within her brain. There was a little smirk that plays upon her lips as she listens to the conversation, and finally, she pushes off of the railing to walk towards the back of Deathstroke, only stopping to kneel down and properly lace her boots, tightening them to a snug fit. She was almost ready.
Deathstroke blinks and forces his eye to readjust to a more normal range and turns his head to look at Rant, "Seriously, we're going to have to work on that costume. Branding it important." a glance Armory's way and he nods his head, "Stay here, this is our evac plan, if everything goes tits up, blow the ship and gate out, we'll find another way off the island, if it doesn't then you hold this boat as long as you can." should be easier, with the modifications, but likely not the sort of possition that could last forever either. "Come on kiddo," he shoots Rant's direction, "you're with me and Lux, we might need you to bleed on something, and for god sake, try very hard not to get me killed." days like this he misses Taskmaster and Rose. Not that he'd /ever/ say that.
His faceplate drops down with a clank over his face and there's a soft hissing sound as his armor seals itself. He hands Rant her rebreather mask before he walks over to shrug his way into a back mounted propulsion unit, more advanced then the ones the girls will be riding, but also heavier. "Remember, silence is our friend, coms on subvocal. Questions?" he asks, then without waiting for an answer nods, "Good." and drops backwards over the rail into the water, a flurry of bubbles and then he's gone, speeding away under the waves towards teh shore. He assumes they'll catch up.
Bruce Banner flicks around the satellites, knowing he'll only get called in personally if things go really, really wrong. Basically, Hulk is the team's "Get Out of Dictator Jail" free card. Well, if free includes devastating most of the island and making a really, really big noise. But Bruce didn't care much about international incidents. He didn't care for turning into the Hulk, though, so he was going to try and help them succeed without him.
"First targets about half a click inland. It's been disguised as a basic chicken farm, but the coops are arming stations for those silos. Initial satellite imaging indicates there are underground tunnels going from it towards the silos themselves, so that's probably your easiest entry point into the facilities themselves. You'll be in a bottleneck, though, so, y'know…be prepared once you get underground."
"Just let us know if you're starting to panic," Audrey adds to Rant, nodding reassuringly. "We'll make sure you're good." Or at least that's the plan. Once that's set, she steps up to the edge of the boat, suits up, and goes into the water behind Deathstroke. Water missions? Not really her favorite thing. On the other hand, at least they're usually fairly quiet approaches.
Armory is settling into her place, quiet and watchful. She's been on overwatch. She's been cover, tearing apart crowds. She nods and grunts softly at Deathstroke. Quiet, no saluting, only acknowledgment. This is her boat to watch, and she is a dogged opponent. She has shaped her armor to resemble clothes - a flashy suit of power armor would be like throwing up a neon sign over free cake outside a Jenny Craig.
She has no questions, and watches them go. The plan echoes in her mind, simple repetition.
"There's nothing wrong with my costume. It's really comfortable." One thing though, she wasn't wearing spandex or leather. She'd look like a midget who'd sign up for a tossing contest after being slathered in a vat of glue. She slowly stands, twisting her body back and forth, stretching left and right, even jumping just a touch and blowing out a breath of air to get herself ready. Hair tied and tucked into a bun and out of the way, she gives a nod along with a roll of her shoulders to follow the two along.
"I ca— I wo—" She starts out, even lifting a hand to interject but he was already over the edge. A glance was given to Lux as she starts to speak as well.. then.. lets out a little huff of air. "Bruce, monitor my nans, yeah? I just uploaded my app, just let me know if you spot any bugs and I'll try to correct."
Suit quickly placed on, breathing apparatus tucked in, a slight salute was given to Lunair and she was off. Bubbles and all.. she may not keep up but she'll be close upon their six.
By the time the other two arrive, Deathstroke has secured the beach, having slipped up out of the water like the world's deadliest ocean spirit. The patrols, such as they were, were timed perfectly, and getting up the beach into the heavy jungle cover didn't take much, anchoring the submersible just out of tide range and swimming the rest of the way was harder. He covers his team as they reach him, the shouldered G36 with it's dual drums of ammo and customized attachments looking almost like a pistol in the way he sweeps it about with shocking ease. He nods once and heads into the jungle at a slight jog, and infuriatingly enough, he's as silent as a passing wind, barely ruffeling the leaves as he goes.
A half a click to the village with the chicken coops is covered at a marjional jog, and Rant at least will get to understand why he makes them run in full gear every day. He throws up a fist as he nears the edge of the jungle clearing and his HUD throws up a scan, he frowns behind his mask.
"I have trip wires." he subvocals to the other two, "IR beams set just outside of tree range, knee height, and I suspect those little tufts of grass are hiding triggered explosives." he makes a motion to Lux. Hey, if you have an invisible scout on your team you might as well fuckin' use 'em. "Banner, guide her in." He makes sure his HUD display is sending back to Lunair's tech, so she can see what they do, or at least a portion of it. Doesn't do to have your overwatch unaware of your surroundings, that's how friendly fire situations crop up.
Bruce Banner sends in coordinating data to the others so they can make their way to Deathstroke unerringly. He relays a com directly into Melody's ear, so that only she can hear him, "It's cool, Mel, nanites look stable, everything's fine. I have an override program ready just in case,though. Don't let Slade's hardass shit get in your head, he still puts his Tweety Bird shorts on one leg at a time, just like everybody else," he says.
He goes back to standard coms, "Heat signatures show four sentries on the beach side of the perimeter of the farm. Two of them look to be up in trees and all of them are laden down with enough cold metal to make blank spots on their signatures."
Audrey jogs behind Deathstroke, stoic and steady as she goes. She's keeping an eye on Rant, though, gauging her pace just enough to maintain an even distance between the pair. "I can track the IR," Audrey murmurs to the comm, blinking once and refocusing her vision to pay closer attention to the trip wires. "Going dark."
With a moment of concentration, she goes invisible, fading out of sight. Bruce will still be able to see her heat signature, but for anyone not using IR of their own, there's nothing to see. The extra gear is an encumbrance, but she manages all right, slipping silently through the jungle.
Being the world's deadliest ocean spirit is no small feat, either, considering how deadly many of its living denizens are, shaped by millions of years of conflict. In a kingdom of killers.
Lunair has her tech up, even if she has non-technical back up should something happens. There's no direct response to the feed in, but she is getting it. She furrows her brows at news of sentries, furrowing her brows to observe and listen. No fire. But she is quietly acquiring targets, tallying the best spots to hit if she can see such. She does feel a little bad for not speaking to Lux before the water happened. But for now, there's a quiet tension.
Rant manages to keep up just fine, if not lagging a little bit behind. The training was a good payoff, as well as the meals; the vigorous regimine that they were set up pretty much made her for this mission. She broke a tiny sweat yes, but she wasn't tired in the slightest. She could go a few more miles before she cranked out and fell to the floor, dying.
Not in the literal sense.
Bruce's voice within the comms draws out a little smirk, her hand reaching up to lightly smack the top of her head, which turns as she murmurs back into the comms. "He's cool." But what she wanted to say? Slade probably wakes up and his clothes automatically appear like magic. But either way, she doesn't move, only watches.. and lifts her brows in surprise as Lux suddenly disappears. Lady of many talents!
Deathstroke motions Rant to cover his six as he moves slowly, the rifel sweeping the trees. Slowly he lowers the gun, securing it to his back with the quietest of click noises before he reaches down and pulls out a pair of knives that in Rant's hands would look more like short swords, heavy bladed things that one could use to cut up a large carcass for market. They're black, so the metal doesn't glint in the mottled light just this side of the clearing, and he slowly lets his head rotate, waiting for Lux to make her move.
Bruce Banner isn't doing much at this point, except monitoring, making sure Rant's nanites keep her in tip-top condition and really digging into that bag of Combos. Seriously, not to be sneezed at.
Audrey moves by the trip wires, slipping through the grass with little sign of passage. She's already stealthy, but any grass that might move with her is carefully smoothed over in illusion, covering her tracks. As she reaches the first emitter for the IR, she leans down to deactivate it. "One down," she murmurs to the comms. "These coordinates." Since it isn't as though anyone can see her or the trip lines to know which one.
Armory is she who watches the … people. She's watching quietly, unmoving and still. Her railgun carefully at the ready. She's flicking her gaze here and there, deceptively alert. Little movements squinted at.
Rant moves in behind Deathstroke, leaning back just a little as he retrieves his weaponry, prompting her to do the same. She wasn't sure if she were to go with a glock or a blade, but she mimics him like a junior, her own blades smaller, enough to fit her constitution and not overly large.
Nothing was said at this point, and only a hairs of a noise crept from the girl, which was the way she tightens her grip upon the hilt of the blade that had her gloves straining against the handle.
Deathstroke flags the spot with Lux's mark and heads that way, one of the massive blades sliding down into his palm, hilt out low in a throwing grip just in case. Slipping through the cleared lane he motions Rant up on his six and makes a series of simple hand gestures, part of the field training they've all had drilled into them since they started here. He's going to go, she covers him, then she comes right behind him, soon as he's in the nearest coop's door so he can cover her passage. He barely waits for an acknowledgement before making his move. Turns out, for being well over six feet tall and covered in gray and black armor, he's remarkably fast. Like… yeesh. As soon as he's in the coop, Rant can see the barrel of the rifel poke out of the doorway, wobbling once in a 'come on' gesture as he covers her approach. Lux, he assumes, can make it here on her own without all this help. Invisible is cheating if you ask him. He likes it.
Once Rant is beside him he nods at the coop itself and subvocals, "This is why we brought you, find us a door and open it. Quietly." he says before the laser sight on his weapon, a IR sight, flashes three time across the clearing, he assumes Lux can see it and will make her way to them. It doesn't stop him from covering the ground behind them, in case a sentry gets froggy. "Banner," he whispers in his suit, "how far from the coops to the facility proper? Any idea on the size of the tunnels?" he is the single greatest tactician he's ever met, and he's met a lot, but tactics only work if you have intel upon which to base them. He hates going in blind. Like he hates boybands.
Bruce Banner comes on the coms, after he finishes taking a long sip of his Mountain Dew, sighing, "Looks like about three miles. Y'know, a nice crisp morning jog for you Green Beret Ranger Seals. Halls are decently wide, about fifteen feet square, probablyl because they're hauling big shit up and down. Might be some sort of rail or magnetic cart system in there, I'm definitely getting some interesting readings in the floor. I wouldn't put booby traps entirely out of the equation, because it's Gamorra and that's kind of how they roll. Think the big crazy priest guy from Temple of Doom, only with cyborgs instead of hophead cultists."
Audrey can indeed make her own way to the rendezvous, slipping through the greenery and taking care to avoid any of the mines. She doesn't deactivate any more of the IR tripwires - one can be shrugged off as a malfunction, but more makes it clear that there's enemy action afoot. And better that no one be looking for them. Once she rejoins the others, she murmurs to the comms. "On your six." Which is helpful, because she doesn't go visible just yet.
Overwatch is on ur boat watchin ur backs. And your fronts. 3 dimensional, really. But Armory is remarkably focused when she wants to be, hazel eyes narrowed and flickering here and there. She would probably be inclined to agree with Bruce, listening. Doorways, potentially trees, paths. She's got more gaze than Medusa at a snake farm.
Granted, she watches near the boat and such, too. Don't want a patrol to bumble up. But mostly, she is an ally from afar.
It was a little bit hairy, a little bit frightening, thankfully those uploads were put in just before they dived into the water. Else she'd be crying, vomitting, and probably shitting herself the entire way there. There's an app for every damn thing, amirite? She follows as told, not taking a step unless order, memorizing the steps that he took and following the path easy enough, even if she had to hop and leap to cover the stride of his long legs versus her short.
Once they were inside, the blades were soon put away, her gaze scanning the room as she gives a quiet, and solid nod towards Slade. "Door. Quiet. Got it." And once Audrey joins, she looks around to make sure that the coast was clear, her jaw clenching as she pulls the comm out of her ear to prevent feedback and distraction. She also needed to hear. With a finger pressed to her lips to indicate for them to remain quiet, she slowly begins to pace around the coop, a few small steps here and there to listen, the sparkiling glow that used to emit from her skin now only focused within the color of her eyes.
Thanks Deathstroke, training was aces!
She stops cold as she passes a certain part, indicating for them to back away as she does, her eyes focused upon the floor as a thin line begins to slowly etch its way through. At first, it forms the shape of a square.. and then, a line down the middle, quietly parting it's way through with a quiet hiss.. at least she didn't bleed for that to work. The comm was replaced within her ear as she taps it, her own voice quiet as well. "Bruce, I need basic packet loss, I have to slip into the wifi during the hiccup."
Deathstroke keeps his possition, doing his job as always, and he motions Lux to keep an eye on the doorway behind them that Rant's opening. The last thing they need it for something fall into there and it pass through some kind of laser grid or something and set off an alarm. Luckily, even evil dictators have limits on complex security systems. Funny thing about security, the more complex the system, the more high tech and complicated the apperatus, the more prone to malfunction it is. At some point, it's just not worth it anymore… of course, for some people that point comes later then others. "Get me a clear path into the shaft, if there's a loading system of some kind see if you can't hitch us a ride on a rail car or whatever they're using. Faster, less conspicuous then us just hoofing it." that's to either Bruce or Rant, whomever, he doesn't care which so long as they hurry. This is taking to long.
Bruce Banner takes care of both Rant's and Deathstrokes request, downloading the packet she needs to maintain, while quickly downloading a full schematic of the shaft as he continues to analyze it, "Looks like there might be a cart hub about twenty feet in, behind a loading door on the left. Probably has an access panel, btu I'm betting that's kind of child's play for Rant. If not, you can just, I dunno, grenade the shit out, although that's definitely less than subtle," he says.
Audrey sets her gun against her shoulder, sighting down across the open doorway. Military operations she can do. Stealth she can do. Detailed computer hacking? Not her bag of tricks.
Lunair is remarkably quiet. Here, there, near, far. Monitoring the info/feed from DS. She has some really good tech. But a lot of it is mimicry and curiosity. And video games. But she is being a quiet, stern sentry. Overwatchin'. Glance to nearby, make sure no schmoe is going to wander up. Glance away, watch the feed. It's not a routine, though. Falling into routine might mean missing something.
Once the packet was uploaded she dips her consciousness in, and for that briefest moment, there was a flicker within her eyes as the brightness within solidifies. "I'm in. Give me a second guys.." She travels, pinging from tower to tower within the compound, following the natural lines that access the computers.. that accesses the electricity, following that path in which leads her back to the coop, and down into the shaft.. and towards the access panel.
Her hand lifts, thumbing and punching invisible buttons within the air as the rail car begins to move, Rant herself walking towards the door within the floor, only stopping at the edge as she disables the security measures that line the opening. "All clear. Keeping the connection, they don't know that I'm in." Yet. And then she jumps in, landing atop of the rail car, a landing which was taught to her many times.. weight shifted to ease the impact and only cause a small thump in sound.
Deathstroke motions Lux in ahead of him and then follows, dropping down with ease and moving to the front of the car, "Good, now get us to the nearest silo. I want eyes on what's going on, and if you happen to see a terminal you think will get you access to anything beyond surface data, then hop to it. We need to know what's going on here and I don't like the idea of trying a five and a half klik run back to the beach while under fire. Done that before, less fun then it sounds." he says that with a grin though, as if he can taste the lie as he says it.
The trip down the tube is uneventful, all things considered, and fast, as Slade pushes Rant to get them moving quickly. Of course, it can't always stay this good.
The tunnel is… well it's a tunnel. Faceless. Flat. Gray. Concretey. As they pass certain points heading down the tunnel, Slade makes a small gesture with his hand, a flick of his wrist as if he were counting points off. When finally the car begins to slow, Deathstroke hops off before it's come to a stop, dropping into a perfectly timed roll and coming up in a firing possition, sweeping the room. They've ended in an enormous loading bay, a massive structure, clearly underground, deep if the slightly downward slope of the rail was any indication. There are rail cars coming in from multiple directions and automated loading systems remove odd cylindrical tanks from those that come in, roughly man sized. The prossess is slow, agonizingly slow, as if the machines were being extra careful with the fragile cargo. "Banner," Deathstroke says quietly into his coms, staring at the massive opperation, "you seeing this?" he motions the girls to move with him as he starts towards a door that clearly leads deeper into the facility where the silos are likely kept. The question is more to check to see if their coms are still working this far down under the ground then it is to get a science view of this. Speaking of, he uses a visual tab in his HUD to begin recording as they move deeper.
They pause at door and stare at the claw handed loader as it settles one of the tanks on a careful automated belt, the contents of the tank barely even moving under the motion. Deathstroke goes stock still, hand still on the doorknob that will take him deeper into the facility, his gaze settled on the tank as it slowly disappears from sight through a wall moving on along it's assembly line like path. The word is so softly whispered it's not possitive that anyone actually heard it clearly.
"…grant?…"
Bruce Banner crackles his snacks in the coms for a moment before he responds, although it might be static on the line. Probably not, though. "Loud and clear, O Cyclopean One," he says. He doesn't know what to make of the 'grant' or the tone in Deathstroke's voice. He hopes the old man isn't having some sort of ill-timed Vietnam flashback or something. He does not have it in him to talk Slade down if he goes all Jacob's Ladder on everybody in there.
Audrey jumps into the car behind Deathstroke, taking a moment to pull a veil of shadow over everyone in the car as they travel down the tunnel. Once they're down, she takes a rear guard position, gun at her shoulder. She isn't invisible - they're in a strange enough place that she wants the rest of the team to be able to at least try to track where she is - but she looks like a watery blur, like a smear on developed film.
Lunair kind of blinks. She's likely hoping the same thing as Bruce. Grant ? Granite? Hmm. No time to think about it. She's on your boat, watchin' for (and your) mans. Hazel eyes search here and there, glancing up close and afar with an ominously powerful rail gun.
The road was paved with bad intentions (read: Deathstroke and Lux), Melody kept behind them, not armed and ready, but the steady glow within her eyes drop so that they wouldn't be the first thing that would be seen. The connection to the wifi and mechanics was still there, the electricity a low thrum in her ears, which causes her to miss the whispered word that makes her slightly frown.
"What was that?" She asks quietly, her gaze following theirs, her brows furrowing as she looks towards the door, to Slade, then to the watery Lux.
Deathstroke's hand grips the stock of the gun tightly and there's a moment where time slows for him as his mind replays the moment slowly. He can't be sure that's what he saw, but it looked like Grant. It couldn't be, of course, Grant is dead. But it looked like him. Hell. It looked like /Slade/. Which means Grant. He blinks once and breaks off a section of his mind to focus on that problem while he turns and shoulders his way in through the door, his body language now angry and stiff with barely restrained violence, "Nothing." he answers evenly on the team channel. "Focus on the mission." the words are clipped and bitten off sharply. "Rant, Jolly Green, either of you know where we can find an information node, an acess port, anything that'll get her a path to tangible intel?" he then makes a series of short hand gestures to Lux, telling her to scout ahead. He wants eyes on one of these things, a canister, a launching tube, /whatever/ they are, he needs to know.
Bruce Banner doesn't particularly care for that nickname, but given that he keeps teasing Slade about his lack of depth perception, he supposes he can take it with good grace. Plus, he took two Xanax before he started monitoring this mission. Really takes away the flashbacks to childhood teasing. "There's fiber-optic data cable about seven feet off the ground in the left side wall - if you can punch a whole in that, should be easy enough to tap into their hard-wired datanet. They're not using wifi or giving any internet access sat all, it's all grounded there - Kaizen doesn't want any hackers playing in his playground."
Bruce Banner doesn't particularly care for that nickname, but given that he keeps teasing Slade about his lack of depth perception, he supposes he can take it with good grace. Plus, he took two Xanax before he started monitoring this mission. Really takes away the flashbacks to childhood teasing. "There's fiber-optic data cable about seven feet off the ground in the left side wall - if you can punch a whole in that, should be easy enough to tap into their hard-wired datanet. They've got wifi, but there's definitely some stuff that's being kept out of the airwaves - probably some private playgrounds Kaizen has. Doesn't want strangers coming in and kicking down his sand castles."
Audrey nods once to Deathstroke, a smear of soft light and color in the air next to him, then fades away to nothing as she walks slowly and carefully up the tunnel. One foot in front of the other, each step rolling silently despite the combat boots. Her gun is firm against her shoulder as she scans along the hallway, looking for enemy activity or anything that looks significant.
Lunair is also watching the feed from DS, blinking. That is a bit odd. She says nothing, though. Sometimes it's tough when watch is quiet, but it's for the better. A little fidgets as she adjusts. Still, that feed is making her curious. Lunair is watching. Making sure no one spots or gets too close to the boat. Oddly quiet, that. There's gratitude and unease.
A slight nod was given to no one in general as she focuses on the mission. As told. Her fingers clench into a fist as she carefully extends her hands, turning to press herself against the wall near to the door as she waits for it to clear. She takes in a little breath, then exhales.. and with the draw of breath she sets herself to travel the waves again, parts of her psyche splitting off to create an all too normal anomoly within the systems whilst her main path searches for the fiber optics.
"Track me. Make sure nothing is on my back, Bruce." No sense in being hacked while on the mission, that'll upset things for certain. Fiber optic cable reached with ease as she slides into the route of information that passes to and fro throughout the base. Screw searching, she was going go gleam what is sent and retrieved and worry about the feedback later.
Deathstroke reslings the rifle on his back and opens one of the pouches on his belt, showing a small tool kit, "I could, but the idea is to /not/ let them know we've been here." he points out, and somehow he suspects holes punched in the building's walls would likely be a clue. He learned all about clues like that from Nightwing. A small handheld drill like thing is assembled and it's tip is pressed against one of the rivets holding the panel up. There's a soft 'ping' noise as the rivet is sheared away and he moves on to the next one quickly.
Lux will find that all the laser trip wires and the like are done now that she's inside, now it's a place of sciency goodness. Or badness. Whatever. The hall way is blank and boring a hundred feet later or so it T's off, and to the left are what appear to be dozens of large windows that allow anyone walking the hall to peer into various labs for clearly different things, next to each door there are plaquards with writing she can't read, she assumes the names of who's offices and work spaces are lay beyond each coorisponding door. That hall goes on for a long long while before making a sharp turn to the left. Shadows against the windows informs her that things are moving in most of those labs, and by 'things', one of course means people. The facility is clearly not entirely automated. To the right the hallway has a single long window, and she can spot that beyond it rolls the conveyer belt with it's large tank like passenger, heading off into the distance. A man stands in that hall, pacing the tank as it goes, jotting down notes on a clipboard with a pen, checking occasional readouts on various substations set withing in the wall as he goes, testing points for the capsule perhaps.
Armory's attempt at keeping an eye on the group's video feed /and/ on the waters around her must be exhausting… of course it also pays off. A couple of other fishing boats have been drifting her way slowly, no real hurry, and casting nets as they go, men hustling about the deck doing the business of fishermen the world over. But they're getting closer and Armory's boat is very pointedly /not/ crawling with figherpeoples.
Deathstroke pauses and eyes Rant, "What are you… Oh good. She doesn't need access to the cable." he looks at the metal panel he was starting to remove and sighs, putting away the tool. People need to tell him these things. Note to self: Additional communication training required.
Bruce Banner just monitors things, making sure all is clear. He scans the satellites to make sure no panic or obvious alarm maneuvers seem to be going down, "Looks like you've kept a low profile successfully so far. Go, Team Rocket."
Audrey frowns slightly to herself as she reaches the point where she can see the conveyor belt moving along, slowing her pace to move closer as quietly as possible. Whatever's in there made Deathstroke pause. That means it's worth finding out about.
Lunair is used to staking things out, quiet and patient. Although moving her attention and gaze back and forth does get tiring. "Looks like a couple of fishing boats are coming this way," She remarks. She is thinking a moment. There's uncertainty. Massacring one boat is going to draw attention. But she doesn't want them to get close and raise alarms. Gotta think. Gotta think. Ah hah.
Quiet is paramount. And then she remembers what she used dealing with some renegades. Quiet, anesthetic sleeping dust grenades appear behind the fishermen in the boats, before a soft *poof* scatters the sleeping dust into the air around them, thick and dusty - mingling with the salt in the breeze. One boat. Two boats. Both get duly dusted. Crossing her fingers and tensing. Though, she is keeping the railgun at the ready, just in case. Still, quiet is again, paramount.
And watching to see if there's further occupants in need of dusting. Quiet. So quiet.
One eye pops open to take a good look at Deathstroke; lines of coded information clouding her vision as one brow arches and.. 'Huh.' The information was flowing fast and steady, downloading everything to the nanites inner network, all the while subduing the glow that would usually emit from her skin into a clear focus within her eye.
"I'm getting all of the information that I can. Won't be accessible until I disconnect and get some.." She pauses, her eyes soon jerking left and right, it looks rather creepy so she immediately snaps them shut. Surely, they need to move, but there was so much she was gleaming, even personal records.. probably google information.. but more importantly? Scientific data and statistics, results and failures.
"Pokemon reference," says a voice behind Banner, "niiiiiiiiice. The Old Man won't get it though, he hasn't watched TV since it sold out and went color." a lean athletic black man slides into a chair next to Bruce and offers his hand, "Peabody, nice to meecha." he's dressed in a pair of slacks and a dessert sand button down tucked in shirt with the sleeves rolled up a bit. There's a grease smear on his wrist and another on the side of his jaw, but otherwise he appears to be rather clean cut, almost nerdy. Shaved head with a pair of small scars near his left ear and the sharp eyes hidden behind Army issue thick black rimmed Buddy Holly glasses give him away. Ex-Military. "The Old Man's told me a bit about you, did some homework, you're the real deal. Welcome to Team Wilson… or whatever he's calling this shin dig." the man turns back and eyes the feeds, "So he killed all the cyborg-ninja-pirate-nazi-zombies yet or is he slac…" the words fade away and he adjusts his glasses and leans in, "fuckme." he mutters, "Is that Gamora?" his tone suggests that's a concern, as does the sudden lack of good natured teasing on his features.
Rant's brain is suddenly /flooded/ with data. Imagine tapping into a water pipe in a house, a solid but predictable flow of water, and then tracing that back up to a connection that leads to the city's water main. The fiber optic cable is a generation or two ahead of what's readily available in the US, and it's running at capacity. Tapping into it is like trying to hurl herself into a city water main. If the water main was also not in any language she's ever seen before. Terrabytes of information passing at light speeds. Whatever Kaizon is up to, it's not small time. This is Big. Big Big. And it's in Gamorean.
Lunair's slowly drifting boats, with their fishermen going about their jobs, slowly become lifeless as men begin to drop, one after another, slowly sinking to the deck. Two problems with that. One, and it's the 'less' important one, fishing is a dangerous job for a reason, and if she's paying attention she'll take not that at least one man goes overboard and another on the other boat is half crushed by a crane's arm that isn't properly directed to a stop because it's opperator is now snoring. And two, the more important one, there's a man on each of the boats that sits at the top, radio in hand, ordering his men about. One of them is doing well enough as a fisherman that his little Captain's seat is in a box of plexiglass, one assumes with an air conditioner. So he doesnt' get dusted, and now he's yelling into his radio in real concern.
Lux's eyes settle on the canister, in which floats what could be accurately be called an 'ideal' man. Well over six feet, powerfully built with lean muscle and little to no fat, he's a sculpture of perfection. Short blond hair floats idely around his head in a halo, held mostly in place by whatever viscous fluid slightly foggy liquid fills the tank, blank ice blue eyes staring right through her, unblinking, unseeing. The resemblance is… striking. If one were to erase 40 years from Slade, thirty pounds of muscle, give him back his eye, and take away whatever life lessons made him the hard unyeilding man he is, perhaps catch him sleeping, he would look like this. It's down right creepy.
What's worse is that beyond him, past the conveyor belt with it's Deathstroke In A Can, Lux's eyes settle on what she though was just oddly shaped shelving. It's not. Focusing in she can see racks of such tanks, racks upon racks upon racks, tanks secured with tubing and wires, hung like fruit on a vine. It brings back some small imagery of that Matrix movie she saw once, only cleaner and less organic. Right down to the robotic arms that seem to tend the 'fruit', moving about in slow precise movements.
Of course, that's when the claxon sounds and red lights begin to flash.


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text:
was a Japanese politician and leader of the Japan Socialist Party. During World War II, Asanuma was aligned with the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and advocated for war in Asia. Asanuma later became a forceful advocate of socialism in post-war Japan. He was noted for his support of the newly established People's Republic of China (PRC) as well as the criticism of United States–Japanese relations, making him a polarizing figure.

Asanuma was assassinated with a wakizashi, a traditional short sword, by a far-right ultranationalist Otoya Yamaguchi while speaking in a televised political debate in Tokyo. His violent death was seen in graphic detail on national television by millions of Japanese, causing widespread public shock and outrage, although far-right groups celebrated his death and considered Yamaguchi a martyr after his suicide while in custody.

Early life and education
Asanuma was born on the island of Miyake-jima, a remote volcanic island that is administratively part of Tokyo, on 27 December 1898. His mother died during his birth, leaving him to be raised by his father, who later died of cancer, leaving Asanuma an orphan. After completing high school, Asanuma entered Waseda University, graduating in 1923. While still in college, Asanuma joined the newly formed Farmer-Labor Party and took part in various forms of leftist activism. Among other activities, he founded the "Builders League," which studied the works of English socialists, worked for Russian famine relief, and protested against military-related research being conducted at Waseda. In 1924, Asanuma left the Farmer-Labor Party after the party became divided into three different factions and became involved in tenant organizing and the Labor-Farmer movement.

Political career
In 1926, Asanuma was one of the main founders of the Japan Labour-Farmer Party, as part of his efforts to link urban labor movements with rural peasant's movements. In 1929, Asanuma began running for Tokyo City Council, representing Fukagawa ward, but was not elected until 1933. In 1936, Asanuma was elected to the National Diet of Japan for the first time as a member of the newly-formed Social Masses Party, which merged into the Imperial Rule Assistance Association in 1940. Asanuma would serve in the Diet for a total of 20 years.

As a member of the Diet, Asanuma pivoted from his earlier anti-imperialist views and became a vocal supporter of Japan's "holy war" in East Asia, claiming that it was necessary to "liberate" Asia from the forces of western imperialism. He even led the drive to censure Saitō Takao and expel him from the Social Masses Party following the latter's anti-war speech on the floor of the Diet in 1940. However, Asanuma himself decided not to run for reelection in 1942, following his failure to secure a "recommendation" from the Imperial Rule Assistance Association. In the immediate aftermath of Japan's defeat in World War II, Asanuma was one of the founders of the Japan Socialist Party (JSP), and would eventually rise to become its secretary-general (1955-1960) and eventually, party chairman (1960). As a politician, Asanuma cultivated an "everyman" image. He lived modestly in public housing his entire life, and was particularly popular among ordinary laborers, small shopkeepers, and other members of the working class.

In contrast to his pro-war stance during World War II, in the postwar period, Asanuma spearheaded the JSP's staunch opposition to revising Article 9 of Japan's postwar constitution and remilitarizing Japan. However, historian Andrew Gordon argues that Asanuma was consistent in his antipathy to western imperialism and a desire for Asia to chart its own course in world affairs.

In 1959, Asanuma was widely criticized for an incident in which he visited the People's Republic of China and called American imperialism "the shared enemy of China and Japan" during a speech in front of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. When he returned from this trip he wore a Mao suit while disembarking from a plane in Japan, sparking criticism even from Socialist leaders. At this time, Japan, its ally the United States, and many other countries recognized the Republic of China as the legitimate government of China. Under Asanuma's leadership, the JSP played a leading role in the massive Anpo protests against revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in 1960, which also led to the resignation of prime minister Nobusuke Kishi, angering rightists and ultranationalists who supported the treaty.

Assassination

On 12 October 1960, Asanuma was assassinated by 17-year-old Otoya Yamaguchi, a right-wing ultranationalist, during a televised political debate ahead of upcoming elections for the House of Representatives. While Asanuma spoke from the lectern at Tokyo's Hibiya Hall, Yamaguchi rushed onstage and ran his wakizashi (a traditional samurai short sword) through Asanuma's ribs on the left side, fatally wounding him. Japanese television company NHK was videorecording the debate for later transmission and the tape of Asanuma's assassination was shown many times to millions of viewers. The photograph of Asanuma's assassination won its photographer Yasushi Nagao both the Pulitzer Prize and World Press Photo of the Year.

Yamaguchi was captured at the scene of the crime, and a few weeks afterwards committed suicide by hanging while in police custody.

Commemoration

Asanuma was modest and hardworking and had earned respect from fellow lawmakers across the political spectrum. His assassination truly shocked Japan's political establishment. Shortly after his death, conservative prime minister erstwhile electoral rival Hayato Ikeda captured the mood of his fellow lawmakers when he gave a heartfelt eulogy for Asanuma on the floor of the Diet. Commemorating Asanuma as a "speech-giving everyman" (enzetsu hyakushō), Ikeda declared:

According to reportage at the time, Ikeda's short speech was met with thunderous applause and left many lawmakers in tears.

Legacy

The Japan Socialist Party had been an unhappy marriage between far left socialists, centrist socialists, and right socialists, who had been forced together in order to oppose the consolidation of conservative parties into the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955. Asanuma was a charismatic figure who had been able to hold many of these mutually antagonistic factions together through the force of his personality. Under Asanuma's leadership, the party had won an increasing amount of seats in the Diet in every election over the latter half of the 1950s and seemed to be gathering momentum.

Asanuma's untimely death deprived the party of his adroit leadership, and thrust Saburō Eda into the leadership role instead. A centrist, Eda rapidly took the party in a more centrist direction, far faster than the left socialists were ready to accept. This led to growing infighting within the party, and drastically damaged its ability to present a cohesive message to the public. Over the rest of the 1960s and going forward, the number of seats the Socialists held in the Diet continued to decline until the party's extinction in 1996.

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1898 births
1960 deaths
1960 murders in Japan
Assassinated Japanese politicians
Japanese socialists
Members of the House of Representatives from Tokyo
Members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly
Waseda University alumni
Filmed assassinations
Filmed killings in Asia
Male murder victims
People murdered in Japan
Deaths by stabbing in Japan
Members of the House of Representatives (Empire of Japan)
Social Democratic Party (Japan) politicians
People from the Izu Islands
People of Shōwa-period Japan
People notable for being the subject of a specific photograph
Rightist Socialist Party of Japan politicians
October 1960 events in Asia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
August 22, 2016Brew City Dining Reviews
Photo courtesy of Drink Wisconsinbly.
Proud Quaffing
A review en miniature of Drink Wisconsinbly.
BY Claire Hanan
WISCONSIN-AS-NOVELTY has been the rage for the last handful of years (see: the growing Camp Bar empire), and so far Milwaukeeans have played along. But DRINK WISCONSINBLY (135 E. National Ave.), located in the former heavily renovated Blue Jacket digs, makes the trend meta: a bar and restaurant that celebrates how often we go to bars, so much so that its name recalls slurred drunk-speak. The theme is unabashedly unsubtle, as is the case in a delightful old fashioned topped with a cheese curd. What needs no embellishment is the respectable Wisconsin-only beer and cider list, where you can find MobCraft's Hop Gose the Grapefruit, and selections from Potosi, Ale Asylum, Furthermore and Karben4 in addition to Milwaukee's craft standards.
'Proud Quaffing' appears in the August issue of Milwaukee Magazine.
Find the August issue on newsstands beginning August 1, or buy a copy at milwaukeemag.com/shop.
Drink Wisconsinbly
The Weekly Jazz in the Park Spotlight: Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound
Claire Hanan
Claire Hanan worked at the magazine as an editor from 2012-2017. She edited the Culture section and wrote stories about all sorts of topics, including the arts, fashion, politics and more. In 2016, she was a finalist for best profile writing at the City and Regional Magazine Awards for her story "In A Flash." In 2014, she won the the Milwaukee Press gold award for best public service story for editing "Handle With Care," a service package about aging in Milwaukee. Before all this, she attended the University of Missouri's School of Journalism and New York University's Summer Publishing Institute.
3 Sheeps Brews Up a Collaboration To Help Bars and Restaurants
Brewer Corey Blodgett Is Putting Gathering Place's Pilot Brewing System to Work


text:
HomeNewsMaxine Waters: Nancy Pelosi & Chuck Schumer Are Power Hungry Animals
Maxine Waters: Nancy Pelosi & Chuck Schumer Are Power Hungry Animals
July 3, 2018 Sean Adl-Tabatabai News, US 5
Rep. Maxine Waters blasted the Democratic leadership Sunday, accusing Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer of being power hungry animals who "will do anything" to hold onto power.
MSNBC's Joy Reid played Waters a clip of Schumer referring to Waters' recent calls to violently protest Republicans as 'un-American.' Waters immediately lashed out in response.
Infowars.com reports: "I'm surprised that Chuck Schumer, you know, reached into the other house (of Congress) to do that. I've not quite seen that done before, but one of the things I recognize, being an elected official, is in the final analysis, leadership like Chuck Schumer will do anything that they think is necessary to protect their leadership," Waters declared.
Waters then attempted to deflect away from the criticism again, returning to her obsession with denouncing the President.
"And so, what I have to do, is not focus on them. I've got to keep the focus on the children and the fact that this administration is endangering children in the worse kind of way," she said referring to US immigration policy.
Waters also repeated claims that President Trump is 'violent' and that he 'supports violence'.
"I was blessed with courage. And I was blessed with the kind of strength that does not allow me to be intimidated by the likes of Donald Trump." Water said, adding "You played several clips showing how violent he is and how he supports violence and why he calls other people names."
"All of this extraordinary, outrageous activity of the President of the United States the likes of which we've never seen before. So I am prepared for him. Again, I'm not intimidated by him. I think he does not deserve to be the President of the United States." Waters continued.
Just last week, Waters claimed that the Democratic leadership had not criticized her at all, saying that "They [Pelosi and Schumer] don't really say I'm out of line. What they try to do is find a way to talk about civility without attacking me or anybody else."
Over the weekend, Waters delivered another call for harassment, telling a crowd in Los Angeles "Donald Trump, we are sick and tired of you! We have no fear! You will not intimidate us! We're coming right at you."
Waters claimed she had received death threats, saying "there are those who are talking about censuring me, talking about kicking me out of Congress, talking about shooting me, talking about hanging me."
"All I have to say is this, if you shoot me you better shoot straight, there's nothing like a wounded animal," she yelled.
Patent Allows Facebook To Control Your Mic (Without Permission)
Harvey Weinstein Now Faces Life In Prison For Child Sexual Assault
UN Says More Child Sexual Abuse Cases By Peacekeepers Could Emerge
Music Industry 'Illuminati' Kill Their Stars, Says Insider
UK Troops Caught Protecting ISIS In Syria
Texas Deputy Caught Raping 4-Year-Old Girl In Child Detention Facility
Body Found In Burnt Out Motel Where 4 FBI Agents Were Shot And Wounded
Erdogan Admits Turkey's Incursion Into Syria Is To Oust Assad
Denmark Passes Law To Send Criminal Migrants To Deserted Island
Assange: All Terror Attacks Are Orchestrated By The FBI
11 Democrats Accused Of Running Child Sex Ring Over Last 12 Months
Senate To Investigate FBI 'Cover-Up' Of Illegal Clinton Emails
Ex-CIA Analyst: Controlled Politicians And Why The World Hates U.S.
USGS: 6.5 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Chile
German Police: North African Migrants Prone to Commit Most Crimes
Has Science Finally Solved The Bermuda Triangle Mystery?
Democrats Demand Tulsi Gabbard Resign For Exposing Truth About Syria


About Us | Steuben Radiology Associates, Inc.
Our doctors are all certified by the American Board of Radiology. Board certification means that we have undergone rigorous training, and have demonstrated the expertise to interpret your x-ray, CT, or MRI.
In addition to five years of residency after medical school, most of our doctors have an additional year of training in a specific branch of radiology. This subspecialization gives you access to higher quality care.


RUSH: This investigation isn't over 'cause it's not an investigation. This effort, this silent coup is not over.
RUSH: Okay. So I was on television twice last night. Which tie did you like better?
RUSH: Looks like the first explanation I came up with for what happened to the Boeing 737 Max 8 is actually what happened.
RUSH: Why are they so eager to deny American greatness? Because, folks, that's honestly what they think.
RUSH: The originator of this phrase is a former great character in professional wrestling named Freddie Blassie.
RUSH: The president said he's gonna close the border and he's not playing games. I mentioned this both on Bret Baier's show and Hannity's on Thursday night.
RUSH: You summarized a 200-page book in one page, and you got an A+ on it.
RUSH: The insurance policy was not a specific thing. The insurance policy was anything, anything at all to be able to get rid of Trump if he won.
RUSH: We will, in all likelihood, know more about it someday. I think we're gonna find out about this at some point.
RUSH: It's called Unplanned, and it really is a takedown of Planned Parenthood.
RUSH: And you white pigs know who you are. I'm not making this up.
RUSH: I had a desire to expand the vocabulary, and the best way to do it is read.
RUSH: We're in a very, very dangerous point in the history of our nation, and there's just one guy standing up against all of this, and that's Trump.
RUSH: I hope the president calls for a special counsel to look into this, because the American people deserve to know how they have been manipulated, how they have been used.
RUSH: When cities were pushing recycling as a sure way to save the earth, they said we couldn't afford not to do it. Now those same people say we can't afford to do it. So, adios, recycling.
RUSH: I cannot tell you how much I disagree with this.
RUSH: My God. This is just incomprehensible.
RUSH: Everybody was lying about collusion with Russia and Trump multiple times a day.


text:
NEW SIGNALS: The Creative Process Part 2
In 2012 Professor Derek Jones team at Cardiff University's Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) offered to scan my brain. Following the scan I had my first look at Diffusion Tensor imaging (DTi). In bright spectral colours, neuroscience seems to give use the blueprints we need to draw the architecture of the mind. I was hooked.
Axial 1 Self Portrait
Coronal 1 Self Portrait
I feel that the freedom of artistic expression allows us to give form to cognition, using the smallest vibration and most detailed structures within us as source material. In this vein, I think of the words of Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944):
It is never literally true that any form is meaningless and 'says nothing'. Every form in the world says something. But its message often fails to reach us, and even if it does, full understanding is often withheld from us. And, properly speaking, form is the outward expression of this inner meaning.
- The language of Form and Colour : Concerning the Spiritual in Art
"Picture With White Border" by Wassily Kandinsky,1913.
'Saggital Self Portrait' by Penelope Rose Cowley, 2013.
Upon seeing a diffusion tensor imaging (DTi) scan of my brain for the first time (represented in "Saggital Self Portrait"), I wondered about the relationship between the real structures within the brain, and the pure abstract expressions that Kandinsky is concerned with. In his painting 'Picture With White Border', I personally can see a sagittal view of the brain, with many structures recognisable within.
Is there a relationship between 'Picture With White Border' and my painting 'Sagittal Self Portrait 2013'?
Did he mirror his mind on canvas? As he put it, 'Is form an outward expression of inner meaning?'
NEW SIGNALS does not attempt to answer these existential questions. But these existential ideas form part of my journey and creative process.
I chose Zoe Cormier, an author and science writer , to be the face to represent MINDSCAPE.
Cormier has a minor form of epilepsy, and Dr Leandro Beltrachini's research at CUBRIC involves creating mathematical models to improve the medical care of epilepsy. I therefore took the view that Cormier would be an interesting person to speak to about how her seizures colour her experiences of the world.
I travelled from Cardiff to London to gain insights into her perspective. You can see my sketches of her on the NEW SIGNALS image page and here.
These are visual expressions of how she describes her seizures: "It feels as though the connection between myself and my personality is severed. I can't remember having ever been happy or imagine being happy ever again." I incorporated the visual data provided by Dr Leandro Beltrachini and Dr Kevin Murphy with Zoe's perspective in mind. The outcome: MINDSCAPE, a multi-layered landscape of the mind that depicts EEG recordings, tractography maps, MRi machines, and the structure of blood vessels.
ILLUMINATED TRACTOGRAPHY
My collaborators and I decided to celebrate tractography – a method of mapping the nerve cell tracts in the brain by measuring the movement of water molecules as they travel along neurons - with my CUBRIC collaborator, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience at Cardiff University Dr Emma Tallantrye.
We arranged to extract tractography data from the 3T MRi Connectome using the 'ExploreDTi' programme, which processes the data gathered in tractography. We enlisted the help of Alex Goodall, an intern with the local NHS trust who was working with CUBRIC to improve his technical skills with 'ExploreDTi'.
Working closely with Goodall, Dr Tallantrye and I collected a variety of different views of each of the tractography maps using the ExploreDTi programme. This allowed us to turn the nerve cell tracts into spaghetti-like tubes using toggled lighting effects, giving shadows and highlights to each tract, creating texture and life. The map became soaked in hues of red, green, blue and a whole rainbow of colours in between, each colour relating to one direction in the three-dimensional space 3-D space traversed by water molecules. Here are a selection of the stunning Regions of Interest (ROIs) we created together.
We decided to use a Lightbox to display the art – the same device used in hospitals to illuminate X-rays and MRi scans. We printed the artwork onto transparent film using state-of-the-art processing at Wave Design to Print Ltd to ensure the depth of hues, tones and gradients. These are so fine, that no trace of ink can be seen, even under a magnifying glass.
An enormous amount of research, ideas and time go into every project I am involved with - and NEW SIGNALS is no exception.
The whole journey has been so challenging and so stimulating, I will probably still be discussing it in years to come. It is another chapter in my journey merging art and science.
Thankfully, the NEW SIGNALS story is not over yet: all the artsci works will eventually be placed on permanent display at the CUBRIC centre in Cardiff. Plus, over the next few years a touring exhibtion of all the works commissioned from myself and other artists will be toured around the UK before they then take their final resting place at CUBRIC.
For now I would to give special acknowledgements to...
Director Professor Derek Jones for inviting me to participate in the project, and for all the conversations and encouragement he gave me I had over the years since 2012.
Project Manager Ying Lin Wellcome Trust Strategic Award WTSA for all the advice, patiences, understanding and recommendations.
Editor Zoe Cormier, for making sense of my words, sharing her experiences and allowing me to make her a part of MINDSCAPE.
Scientists Dr Leandro Beltrachini of the Brain Imaging Group in the School of Physics and Astronomy, and Dr Kevin Murphy, Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow. I want to thank them both for our conversations and for explaining their research.
Researchers Dr Emma Tallantyre, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience at the School of Medicine, and Alex Goodall of the Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust. I am thankful to both for their enthusiasm, for sharing their research, and for creating beautiful tractography images.
Scientist Fabrizio Fasano, Collaboration Scientist at Siemens Healthineers and CUBRIC. I want to thank him for sharing his research and conversations.
And to The PROVIDI Lab, headed by Alexander Leemans, which focuses on processing, analyzing, and visualizing diffusion MRI data for investigating microstructural and architectural characteristics of tissue organization. I have not yet had the pleasure to meet Alexander yet, but I would like to thank him for giving me permission to integrate PROVIDI Lab images into NEW SIGNALS.
Follow and subscribe to my youtube channel and be first to see my new videos as soon as I have posted them. Please remember to click the 'thumbs ups' I really appreciate every like, and feel free to comment I love to read your feedback.
Tweets by @PenelopeRose27


text:
Q: Orchard 1.8 and reCaptcha not allowing input of keys I have recently installed orchard 1.8 and am looking to do a simple contact form using reCaptcha for preventing spam and bots.  The problem I am having is that the options for public and private key do not show where I would expect them to be.

Has anyone experienced this, or know where this option may be hidden?

A: reCaptcha settings are set globally through Settings > Spam (domain.tld/Admin/Settings/Spam)

A: I am using 1.8 Orchard and not able to save the private/public key.  In addition, i have added recaptcha to a content type but it is not being displayed with error Input error: k: Format of site key was invalid

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
package org.keycloak.partialimport;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import org.keycloak.models.ClientModel;
import org.keycloak.models.KeycloakSession;
import org.keycloak.models.RealmModel;
import org.keycloak.models.UserModel;
import org.keycloak.models.utils.KeycloakModelUtils;
import org.keycloak.models.utils.RepresentationToModel;
import org.keycloak.representations.idm.PartialImportRepresentation;
import org.keycloak.representations.idm.UserRepresentation;
import org.keycloak.services.managers.UserManager;

/**
 * PartialImport handler for users.
 *
 * @author Stan Silvert ssilvert@redhat.com (C) 2016 Red Hat Inc.
 */
public class UsersPartialImport extends AbstractPartialImport<UserRepresentation> {

    // Sometimes session.users().getUserByUsername() doesn't work right after create,
    // so we cache the created id here.
    private final Map<String, String> createdIds = new HashMap<>();

    @Override
    public List<UserRepresentation> getRepList(PartialImportRepresentation partialImportRep) {
        return partialImportRep.getUsers();
    }

    @Override
    public String getName(UserRepresentation user) {
        if (user.getUsername() != null) return user.getUsername();

        return user.getEmail();
    }

    @Override
    public String getModelId(RealmModel realm, KeycloakSession session, UserRepresentation user) {
        if (createdIds.containsKey(getName(user))) return createdIds.get(getName(user));

        String userName = user.getUsername();
        if (userName != null) {
            return session.users().getUserByUsername(userName, realm).getId();
        } else {
            String email = user.getEmail();
            return session.users().getUserByEmail(email, realm).getId();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public boolean exists(RealmModel realm, KeycloakSession session, UserRepresentation user) {
        return userNameExists(realm, session, user) || userEmailExists(realm, session, user);
    }

    private boolean userNameExists(RealmModel realm, KeycloakSession session, UserRepresentation user) {
        return session.users().getUserByUsername(user.getUsername(), realm) != null;
    }

    private boolean userEmailExists(RealmModel realm, KeycloakSession session, UserRepresentation user) {
        return (user.getEmail() != null) &&
               (session.users().getUserByEmail(user.getEmail(), realm) != null);
    }

    @Override
    public String existsMessage(UserRepresentation user) {
        if (user.getEmail() == null) {
            return "User with user name " + getName(user) + " already exists.";
        }

        return "User with user name " + getName(user) + " or with email " + user.getEmail() + " already exists.";
    }

    @Override
    public ResourceType getResourceType() {
        return ResourceType.USER;
    }

    @Override
    public void remove(RealmModel realm, KeycloakSession session, UserRepresentation user) {
        UserModel userModel = session.users().getUserByUsername(user.getUsername(), realm);
        if (userModel == null) {
            userModel = session.users().getUserByEmail(user.getEmail(), realm);
        }

        boolean success = new UserManager(session).removeUser(realm, userModel);
        if (!success) throw new RuntimeException("Unable to overwrite user " + getName(user));
    }

    @Override
    public void create(RealmModel realm, KeycloakSession session, UserRepresentation user) {
        user.setId(KeycloakModelUtils.generateId());
        UserModel userModel = RepresentationToModel.createUser(session, realm, user);
        if (userModel == null) throw new RuntimeException("Unable to create user " + getName(user));
        createdIds.put(getName(user), userModel.getId());
    }

}


text:
5 Ways to Create an E-Mail Marketing Campaign That People Will Notice
Home 5 Ways to Create an E-Mail Marketing Campaign That People Will Notice
DT, October 2, 2012 October 2, 2012 , Digital Marketing, List, brand's marketing strategy, Brands, business center marketers, connect with customers, digital market intelligence, Digital Marketing, e-mail campaigns, e-mail client, E-mail marketing, E-Mail Marketing Campaign, e-mail marketing campaigns, e-mail marketing messages, Facebook, Marketers, social media, Twitter, YouTube, 0
Ann Handley | Entrepreneur
In a world where social media gives businesses more immediate ways to connect with customers, is e-mail marketing still relevant? I think so. In fact, the volume of e-mail marketing messages remained at record-setting levels in June, according to Chad White, research director at marketing company Responsys, and retail e-mail volume will grow about 20 percent this year (vs. more than 16 percent in 2011), thanks to a shift away from old-school direct mail and print.
That makes for a more crowded party. Your e-mails are competing with (literally!) millions of others, which means you must be intentional in your efforts to create messages that truly engage your customers. Here's how.
1. Start with a robust list. This is an obvious point, but it's worth reiterating: Make sure the contacts on your e-mail list actually want your messages. You may be as witty as David Sedaris, but if your audience has already tuned you out, what's the point?
How do you know if your list is stale? Check your open rate. The average is 20 percent, according to the Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study released in July by marketing firm Silverpop. If your open rate is significantly less than that, you might have a stale list (or the average for your industry varies significantly from that of others).
Other measures of the health of an e-mail list include click-through rates (how many people took a desired action; i.e., clicked on a link) and conversion rates (how many completed a task in an e-mail message, such as buying a product or signing up for an offer). But the open rate is probably the most telling metric.
2. Freshen things up. Freshen it up by doing something unexpected, suggests DJ Waldow, co-author of The Rebel's Guide to Email Marketing. Segment your list to send a dedicated message to those who haven't opened an e-mail recently, and make the content slightly offbeat–shocking, humorous or whatever fits your brand best. "Whatever you normally do, do the opposite," Waldow says. The idea is to incite reaction and (one would hope) reengagement.
It's tempting to hang on to those unresponsive addresses — it can be painful to think of purging unengaged recipients. But, as Waldow says, "E-mail marketing works best when you speak to those who really want to hear from you."
3. Use real images. Stock photography is so yesterday — it's far better to use your own images. Punctuate e-mails with images from your Instagram or Pinterest feeds, or use staff photos. I like the way the Ibex Outdoor Clothing newsletter features company employees as models.
"Imagery doesn't have to be polished to tell the story," Waldow says. "Keep it real, light and fun."
But be aware that too many graphic elements might make it more difficult for your message to render across every e-mail client and on multiple devices.
5 Tips for Surviving Your Startup's First Year
DT, April 24, 2012 April 24, 2012 , List, Startups & Branding, business startups, Startup, Surviving, 0
One of the riskiest times for any business is when it has just begun. In the first two years,...
How to Protect Yourself Against Email Scams
DT, January 27, 2012 January 27, 2012 , Information Security, List, anti-virus, Email scams, fake antivirus site, HOW TO, Internet, Malware, passwords, Phishing Emails, Phony emails, Scam Trends, scammers, scams, Windows, 0
Email scams continue to be a plague even to those who consider themselves Internet-savvy. In a moment of panic,...
Get Optimized & Start Engaging: Essential Social Media Marketing Tips
DT, April 19, 2012 April 19, 2012 , Digital Marketing, List, Business social media, Digital Marketing, Digital Marketing, Facebook, online marketplace, SEO, social media, social media for business, Social media marketing, Tips, Twitter, 0
In order to remain competitive in the online marketplace it's important to provide potential buyers with valuable information that...
6 Steps You Can Take Today To Improve Your Social Media Marketing
DT, June 29, 2012 June 29, 2012 , Digital Marketing, List, Brand, building relationships, business engagement, Content Marketing, content sharing, Digital Marketing, Facebook, Facebook engagement, Facebook posts, hashtags, infographic, keywords, LinkedIn, More Likes on Facebook, Shares on Facebook, social marketing, social media, Social media marketing, social media marketing firm, social networks, Twitter, Twitter engagement, 0
Success with your social media marketing goes well beyond the technical details. Success comes from continually building your audience...
Why Your Competitor's High Google Ranking May be a Good Thing
DT, May 31, 2012 May 31, 2012 , Digital Marketing, Uncategorized, Digital Marketing, Google Ranking, Google Search, high-ranking organic search results, 0
Recent study on sponsored search suggests the opposite might be true; that competing high-ranking organic search results may actually...
Google+ Communities: New Social Option for Businesses
DT, December 11, 2012 December 11, 2012 , Digital Marketing, Startups & Branding, Artists & Engineers, Digital Marketing, entrepreneurs, Facebook, Google, Google+ Communities, Hackers, Makers, Self-Employed, Silicon Valley, Small business, social network, Social Option for Businesses, Web searches, 0
If you use Google+ there's a good chance within the last day or so you've been inundated with invitations...
9 Mistakes You're Making on LinkedIn
DT, December 18, 2012 December 18, 2012 , Digital Marketing, List, Digital Marketing, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Mistakes, marketable LinkedIn profile, 0
Lots of articles describe how to create a more marketable LinkedIn profile, how to find the right groups to...
How to Choose a Web Host with SEO in Mind
DT, March 23, 2012 March 23, 2012 , List, Technology, ASP.NET, Bandwidth, Domain Name, Google, Linux, MySQL, Perl, PHP, SEO, SEO services, site building tools, Support, Unix, Web Host, Web hosting provider, Windows, Windows server, 0
What to look for in a Web host, bearing in mind that you'd also like your website to be...
Sorry, Marketers, You're Doing Facebook WrongIs Your Business Name Web Friendly?


text:
Entrepreneur Ecosystems
TECOM Group's New in5 Media Hub To Amplify Dubai's Media Ecosystem
Kareem Chehayeb
Former Columnist & Online Liaison, Entrepreneur Middle East
December 23, 2015 2 min read
You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
A rendering of the new in5 Media hub in Dubai. Image credit: TECOM Group.
TECOM Group is continuing to bolster its native Dubai's entrepreneurial ecosystem's media sector. In 2014, the Group announced a whopping AED4.5 billion (US$1.2 billion) to accelerate startups in Dubai's media sector, and the company has since been very busy using that money wisely. Its latest announcement could be most exciting for entrepreneurs in media: a total of AED60 million ($16.3 million) has been allocated to set up in5 Media, a new startup accelerator and mentoring and skill building space in Dubai.
TECOM Group's Saeed Al Falasi, Malek Al Malek, Mohammad Abdullah and Jamal Al Sharif at the in5 Media launch announcement. Image credit: TECOM Group.
in5 Media will be located in Dubai's International Media Production Zone (IMPZ) area, and will be looking after around 200 media startups. The space will include co-working spaces, recording studios, and other facilities that 'treps in media will appreciate, and it is set to launch in Q2 2016. Of course, this isn't TECOM Group's first endeavor to incubate and accelerate startups and entrepreneurs- in 2013, TECOM Group launched In5 Hub in Dubai Internet City to incubate, accelerate, and support tech startups.
Kim's expertise can help you become a strong leader, pitch VCs for capital, and develop a growth strategy.
Going The Distance: A Celebration Of Sheraa's Journey
A Decade Of Impact: Founder And CEO Omar Christidis On Arabnet Beirut's 10th Anniversary
The Entrepreneur's Wishlist (Part Two): Changes We'd Like To See In The MENA Startup Ecosystem
Ahead of the Curve's Dina Sherif Points Out Current Flaws In MENA Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
The Changing Face of Entrepreneurship in Morocco


The Homeland Security Task Force Southeast (HSTF-SE) and U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)'s annual interagency exercise, Integrated Advance, is taking place April 15 through April 18.
Adm. Craig Faller, Commander of U.S. Southern Command, joined Deputy Secretary Sullivan at SOUTHCOM to host a ministerial with Caribbean leaders launching the U.S.-Caribbean Resilience Partnership.
U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet hosted a delegation from the Argentine Navy for annual Maritime Staff Talks in St. Augustine, Florida Apr. 9-11.
Firefighters from five Central American countries and Joint Task Force - Bravo participated in Central America Sharing Mutual Operational Knowledge and Experiences (CENTAM SMOKE) exercise, from April 8 - 12, here.
Navy Adm. Craig S. Faller is the 24th commander of SOUTHCOM. He assumed command Nov. 26, 2018.


PHUKET: The Phuket branch of the Department of Disaster Prevention & Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket) confirmed this afternoon that the bodies of four more victims from the dive boat Choke Somboon 19 have been discovered inside the sunken vessel.
Deep sea divers have been working with Marine Police since first light this morning to reach the sunken vessel, which lies 70 meters below the surface, to confirm that it is in fact the same vessel that capsized during a freak storm on Sunday night.
The Choke Somboon 19 was carrying 30 people, 23 of whom were rescued on Monday, leaving seven people missing.
The Gazette was told that the four victims were discovered at 3.30pm in two separate sleeping quarters – two bodies in each cabin – and have been identified by Marine Police as Swiss nationals Mr Klaus Konradder and Ms Monika Schuster, and Austrian nationals Ms Sibylle Bucher and Mr Rolf Niederberge.
The body of Austrian national Gabrielle Jetzinger was found yesterday, floating in the area where the vessel sank, leaving Thai national Mr Jumpa "Gen" Sorntat – the boat's cook – and Japanese national Mr Yuba Hirotsuga still unaccounted for.