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Women's Basketball / February 20, 2018
WBB Caps Regular Season Road Slate at Georgia Tech
Feb. 22, 2018 | 7 p.m.
McCamish Pavilion | Atlanta, Ga.
RV/RV Miami (19-8, 9-5 ACC) at Georgia Tech (16-11, 5-9 ACC)
Roster | Coaches | Schedule | Stats | Game Notes | RSN Affiliates
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Riding a five-game road winning streak, the University of Miami women's basketball team will look to make it six in a row Thursday night at Georgia Tech.
Miami (19-8, 9-5 ACC) meets the Yellow Jackets at 7 p.m., at McCamish Pavilion. With a victory, the Hurricanes would have six consecutive road triumphs for the first time since Jan. 9 to Feb. 16, 2012.
Jenn Hildreth and LaChina Robinson will call the game on RSN—the affiliate list is HERE—and it can be found on ACC Network Extra, subject to blackout, HERE. The action will also be carried live on WVUM 90.5 FM HERE and live stats for the contest will be available HERE.
The Hurricanes are 15-13 all-time versus Georgia Tech after winning eight of the past 10 meetings, including each of the past four. In the most recent contest, Miami logged an 87-71 neutral site win March 2, 2017 in the second round of the ACC Tournament in Conway, S.C.
Thursday's matchup will be a homecoming for a trio of Hurricanes from the Atlanta area in freshman guard Endia Banks (Duluth, Ga.), senior forward/center Erykah Davenport (Decatur, Ga.) and freshman guard Taylor Mason (Decatur, Ga.).
Miami picked up its eighth win in its past 10 outings Sunday at Virginia, earning a 77-62 triumph over the Cavaliers. The Hurricanes had two players finish with a double-double for the first time since Dec. 28, 2013. Davenport had a game-high 19 points and game-high 14 rebounds, while junior forward/center Emese Hof added 13 points and a season-best 12 rebounds.
Freshman guard Kelsey Marshall chipped in with 12 points for the Hurricanes, who led by as many as 22 and tied a season low with eight turnovers.
Georgia Tech sports a 16-11 (5-9 ACC) record on the season after winning three of its past four games. Sophomore guard Francesca Pan leads the team in scoring at 13.4 points per game.
The Yellow Jackets were tabbed No. 9/6 in the ACC preseason polls after going 22-15 (5-11 ACC) and reaching the WNIT championship game a year ago.
After taking on Georgia Tech, Miami returns home to host Virginia Tech Sunday at 4 p.m., on senior day at the Watsco Center.


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Robert Barker (19 June 1847 – 11 November 1915) was an English footballer who played for England, first in goal and later as a forward, in the first international match against Scotland.

Career
Barker was born in Wouldham, Kent and was educated at Marlborough College where he played both rugby and association football. After leaving school he joined Hertfordshire Rangers to concentrate on "soccer". He represented both Middlesex and Kent during his career, as well as making occasional appearances for Westminster School and Wanderers.

He was selected to play in goal for England's first ever international match against Scotland on 30 November 1872. The original selection for goalkeeper, Alexander Morten, was unavailable and, according to Graham Betts in "England – Player by player", "Barker was chosen (to play in goal) because he was the biggest and slowest player in the England team and because his rugby experience and handling of the ball would come in useful" Barker kept a clean sheet for the first half and at some point in the game he switched places with William Maynard. At 25 years, 165 days Barker was the oldest player in the England line-up.

As he was in goal and therefore first in the lineup for England's first international match, Barker officially has legacy number 1 for England.

Barker was not selected for any further internationals and went on to pursue a career as a civil engineer, later becoming Chief Assistant Engineer to the London, Chatham and Dover Railway and then the South Eastern Railway.

He died on 11 November 1915, aged 68.

References

External links

England profile

1847 births
1915 deaths
People from Wouldham
People educated at Marlborough College
English footballers
England international footballers
Association football goalkeepers
British civil engineers
Wanderers F.C. players

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Philippines' fifth finish in Fide Olympiad 'Good enough'
SATISFIED. Panabo City's arena grand master Henry Roger Lopez (center) says he is satisfied with their fifth overall finish in the 1st Fide Online Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities recently where they humbled top seed Poland 1. (Contributed photo)
MARIANNE L. SABERON-ABALAYAN
"GOOD enough."
This was how national coach James Infiesto of Davao City assessed the fifth overall finish of Philippines 1 team, headlined by International Physically Disabled Chess Association (Ipca) World Online Chess Championship 2020 champion Fide master (FM) Sander Severino and Panabo City's arena grand master (AGM) Henry Roger Lopez, in their 1st Fide Online Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities debut recently.
Infiesto said, "We have done our best and placed fifth overall out of 60 teams. It is good enough for a first timer in the world team championships for disabled."
Philippines 1, also composed of Darry Bernardo, Jasper Rom, and Cheyzer Crystal Mendoza, tallied a total of 10 points after seven rounds to trail behind top four winners Russia 1 (13), Ukraine 3 (12), Poland 1 (11) and Poland 3 (10).
Poland 3 edged Philippines 1 for the fourth spot via superior tiebreaks, 19.5-19.0.
In the Olympiad, a team win is worth two points while a draw is equivalent to one point.
"We will try to come back better next year,"Infiesto, who is also National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) Davao regional director, said in a Facebook interview with SunStar.
Lopez, for his part, said their feat was already something to be thankful for and celebrated.
"I feel satisfied with our results as first timers of this world event and we have won against the team of Poland 1, who was seeded first and fielded a grand master (GM) in their roster. We also defeated Russia Team 2," the 2018 Jakarta Asian Para Games double gold and silver medalist said.
Philippines 1 first drew with Canada, 2-2, before eking out a 4-0 shutout wins over the United States of America and Russia 2 in the second round and third rounds, respectively.
The Filipinos then held off fourth seed and powerhouse Israel to a 2-2 standoff in the fourth before the stunning victory over heavy favorite Poland 1, 3-1 in Round 5.
Infiesto's wards demolished Ukraine 1, 3-1, in the sixth round only to fall at the hands of Russia 1, 1-3, in the seventh and final round.
Lopez said, "Honestly, we'll just be happy if we can draw the match against the mighty Poles and Russians but we've given the opportunity to beat them and we took it."
He also said that competing in the tournament entailed a lot of preparations. A strong internet signal was crucial so he used a LAN connection and opted for an upgrade. He also reserved a postpaid connection from another network in case of emergencies.
They played one round each starting at 10 p.m. for seven days and nobody was allowed to be in the same room as the players while matches were ongoing.
"We were on Zoom and we had to share screen. We were issued laptops by PSC and that's what I've been using since joining online tournaments in March. I only invested in a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) in case of power outage," Lopez added.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


ISLAMABAD,: Fasting can reduce cholesterol levels in prediabetic people over extended period of time, according to a new research.
The research on periodic fasting has identified a biological process in the body that converts bad cholesterol in fat cells to energy, thus combating diabetes risk factors, Fox news reported.
Researchers at the Intermountain Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, noticed that after 10 to 12 hours of fasting, the body starts scavenging for other sources of energy throughout the body to sustain itself.
The body pulls LDL (bad) cholesterol from the fat cells and uses it as energy.
"Fasting has the potential to become an important diabetes intervention," said Benjamin Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute and lead researcher on the study.
"Though we've studied fasting and it's health benefits for years, we didn't know why fasting could provide the health benefits we observed related to the risk of diabetes," Horne said.
Prior research done by Horne and his team in 2011 focused on healthy people during one day of fasting and showed that routine, water-only fasting was associated with lower glucose levels and weight loss.
"When we studied the effects of fasting in apparently healthy people, cholesterol levels increased during the one-time 24-hour fast," said Horne.
"The changes that were most interesting or unexpected were all related to metabolic health and diabetes risk.
"Together with our prior studies that showed decades of routine fasting was associated with a lower risk of diabetes and coronary artery disease, this led us to think that fasting is most impactful for reducing the risk of diabetes and related metabolic problems," Horne said.


Market This Week Last week the market rallied for 5th consecutive week though there were a few hiccups at the beginning. The NIFTY touched a 30 month high of 6200. The rally was primarily fuelled by good FII inflows, under control inflation numbers and a positive global outlook. This week is likely to be a bullish one too. We just need to be cautious if the NIFTY touches 6300. At this level it is likely to face a strong resistance and hence we could see a fall at those levels. Till the time we are between 6100 and 6300 the bulls are in safe hands. Any trigger below 6100 would call for us to get into a "wait and watch" mode.


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3-We offer one time service as well as recurring services monthly or every two or three years depending on residence visa types.
4- make sure to upload clear and valid documents to avoid any delays.


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Book Review | Lupus Rex by John Carter Cash
Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com
The crow king is dead, and in the field below all the creatures tremble as the Murder gathers to choose a new king from the rival sons Sintus, Milus and Nascus.
When the crows drive everyone from the field to keep the reckoning secret, the quail Ysil, Cormo and Harlequin believe they must simply follow their elders to safety. But when the crows turn against each other, the forest becomes full of danger.
In the confusion the last wolf, Asmod, shucks off his isolation and begins to raise an army to claim the kingdom for his own. As hidden truths are brought to light and enormous sacrifices are made, Ysil and his friends must make an epic journey and an unthinkable alliance if the lesser animals are to survive.
In the animal kingdom, order is everything.
Absent order, chaos would surely consume the many and various creatures who live in and around Murder's Field, for instance. Imagine the madness of the grain harvest without someone to make sure the quails wait their turn! Consider those small souls who would go hungry because of the gluttony of others!
Luckily, that's where the crow king comes in. For generations — ever since the war of the wolves — he and his black-feathered forefathers have upheld a system of sharing, and to a certain extent caring. Under his watchful eye, an order of sorts is imposed. Rabbits, badgers, rats and mice alike are all subject to his commands from on high, in an ornate nest in a great tree at the centre of this field.
But now, the crow king is dead.
And at the outset of Lupus Rex, there is a very real reckoning ahead...
The order states that the crowning of a new king — by way of the reckoning aforementioned — must not be observed by any other animal. The penalty for observing this invite-only rite is death, no less, so when the process begins, the other creatures who call Murder's Field home venture through the woods to give the crows their privacy.
Later that same day, Monroth and Ysil — a pair of plucky young quail in constant competition for the heart of Harlequin — imperil everyone else by sneaking back to watch the sacred ceremony in secret. When their absence is discovered, a band of older animals is dispatched to bring them back before their mischief paves the way for their unmaking. Reunited and rightly chided, they find themselves with no choice but to wait out the rest of the Reckoning.
Or rather, that's the plan. But the Reckoning goes wrong: rather than surrendering to the rook's rule, one of the overlooked heirs to the crow king's bone throne rebels. Finding himself overmatched, if only momentarily, Sintus makes for the forest with his most loyal followers, promising to return with an entire army.
And with that, the ancient order collapses. Chaos takes the reins, and soon, a bloody battle ensues, in the aftermath of which the petrified quail are caught. Exiled after a tragic sacrifice and a mighty bribe, they set out in search of a fabled bird of prey who could turn the tide of the coming conflict, because as Cotur Ada insists, "The wolf will come [...] and its order will be one of blood and darkness. The crows will be its servants, and in the end, all animals — crows, quails, rabbits, every one — its prey. I beg you hear me. The wolf will come if the hawk does not return."
So begins Lupus Rex, the endearing debut of a new genre fiction imprint — Rebellion's Ravenstone — and indeed an author, namely John Carter Cash. The only son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, John Carter Cash is a singer and a songwriter in his own right, and the producer of other artists' award-winning records in the interim. He's had a number of picture books for children published in the past, but Lupus Rex is his first novel proper — and like Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box, it should be judged as such, as opposed to the next phase of some magnetic genetic legacy.
That said, it's fantastic. Delightful and insightful. Almost as good as The Animals of Farthing Wood, if markedly darker. Cash is unafraid to kill off his most charming characters — indisputably brutally too. At points, heads roll and gizzards are liberally spilled, such that Lupus Rex sometimes feels like grimdark anthropomorphic fantasy; picture Joe Abercrombie with added animals. Yet though there is no dearth of death — and though this sense of peril is ever-present — Lupus Rex is largely a light ride.
And, admittedly, quite slight. It's so short that I read it in a single night. So short, in fact, that the abundance of set-up Cash imparts early on seems in service of a greater quest than the abbreviated adventure the exiled animals eventually go on. Another chapter or three in the company of these quails and their lone rabbit companion would have been a great way to develop more substantial characters. As is, they're sweet but somewhat simple creatures.
Another niggle: it can be hard to tell all the damned animals apart. Sulari counts "twenty-nine quail, fifty-five mice, twenty-two rabbits, fourteen squirrels, five badgers, and one slow, grumbling golden rat [...] And I the only hare." That's not to mention the crow kingdom, or the legendary outliers who come to Murder's Field for the climactic clash. If the truth be told, this was a touch too much for me; I can only imagine how challenging the younger readers Lupus Rex is actually aimed at are likely to find it.
Aside these issues, Lupus Rex is lovely. Atypically thrilling and lyrically written. In places, John Carter Cash's prose is truly beautifully put, whilst his depiction of the animal kingdom is particularly magnificent. The concept of the order is a wonderful one, and the resolution of this thread proves massively satisfying.
Certainly it is small, and short of perfectly formed, but Lupus Rex is still a darling of a debut, at the end of the day. A fine way, I dare say, to kickstart the career of a promising new novelist in addition to an exciting new imprint specialising in speculative fiction for children of all ages — up to and including us oldyins!
Lupus Rex
by John Carter Cash
UK & US Publication: June 2013, Ravenstone
Labels: anthropomorphised animals, book review, epic fantasy, John Carter Cash, kings and tings, Lupus Rex, Young Adult
Book Review | Theatre of the Gods by M. Suddain
Or get the Kindle edition
This is the story of M. Francisco Fabrigas, philosopher, heretical physicist, and perhaps the greatest human explorer of all ages, who took a shipful of children on a frightening voyage through dimensions filled with deadly surprises, assisted by a teenaged Captain, a brave deaf boy, a cunning blind girl, and a sultry botanist, all the while pursued by the Pope of the universe and a well-dressed mesmerist.
Dark plots, cannibal cults, demonic creatures, madness, mayhem, murderous jungles, the birth of creation, the death of time, and a creature called the Sweety: all this and more waits beyond the veil of reality.
Sitting down to review Theatre of the Gods this morning, I tried four or five introductions on for size before settling on this artless admission. In one, I wondered about the worth of first impressions; in another, I took to task the formula so much contemporary science fiction follows. I attempted academia; I had a stab at something snappy.
Nothing seemed quite right.
Hours had passed before I realised my mistake, which is to say there is no right way to start discussing Matt Sudain's debut; no single question I could ask, or statement make, which would somehow inform all that follows... because Theatre of the Gods is like nothing else I have ever read.
Large parts of it are certainly reminiscent of novels by an array of other genre authors: I'd name Nick Harkaway, but also Adam Roberts, Ned Beauman, Felix J. Palma and K. J. Parker. At points, Suddain put me in mind of Mark Z. Danielewski, even. So no, it's not entirely original. Call it a composite, or literary patchwork, perhaps. Yet it's stitched together with such vision and ambition that it feels completely unique.
Theatre of the Gods is sure to confound its critics, and divide its readership equally: though some will love it, a number are entirely likely to loathe the thing. I'd sympathise with either reaction. To address the false starts we began with, I'll say it makes a fantastic first impression, after which it follows no formula I've ever heard of. It's very, very clever, and incredibly memorable.
That there's something different about this book is evident from the outset. The copyright page is laid out in the shape of a five-pointed star; a pentagram, presumably. A list of illustrations follow, alongside a puzzling note that they're missing from this edition — the only edition that exists, unless you include the original "hyper-dimensional text [which] would have featured [...] borders, miniatures and ornamental scrolling type typical of illuminated manuscripts of its time" (p.vi) in addition to this absent artwork.
Fore and aft of this metafictional madness, a publisher's note pre-empts a few words from the pen of the so-called author, a Mr. V. V. S. Volcannon. At length, Volcannon insists his only role was to record the confessions of M. Francisco Fabrigas, "explorer, philosopher, heretical physicist, mystic, transmariner, cosmic flâneur," (p.x) though another voice has already informed us that the chronicler in question was blacklisted and forced into exile following the first professed publication of Theatre of the Gods.
The novel's authorship is in question, then, such that it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Suddain is no more or less invented than Fabrigas and Volcannon. I go too far, perhaps, yet it's hard to imagine that Theatre of the Gods is anyone's debut; it's so astute and assured that the mind positively boggles.
That said, it's almost impenetrable. And it doesn't get a great deal easier from here:
"The story of M. Francisco Fabrigas and the Great Crossing is a strange and wonderful tale and I've done my best to present it as it was told to me by the old master. I have spent an ungodly amount of time fleshing out his confessions, following the path of the Necronaut and its crew of misfits, speaking to eyewitnesses, hunting down fragments of journals and news stories, checking and rechecking every detail, and compiling a meticulous account of this historic human voyage through the Omnicosmos. For what it's worth, I believe the old man really did undertake an expedition to the next universe, aided by a handsome deaf boy and beautiful and cunning blind girl. He failed, of course, and the children died horribly. But I hope you enjoy this story anyway. For as I said earlier, practically every word is true, others less so, and some, like these, are not true at all." (p.xiv)
I'm sorry, say what?
And as to plot... let's just not. Suffice it to say there's an awful lot. Tellingly, the author regularly interjects to offer sympathetic summaries of the story so far. This excerpt abbreviates the first 50 pages:
"Oh, I know, I know, I know, this is all hellishly confusing. A man arrives in a space-saucer and claims to have travelled from another universe — a universe identical to this one — except that he has already left to travel to the next universe. He is thrown into prison for cosmic heresy, later freed on a trumped-up exoneration based largely on a dream about a starfish and a giant clam. Ah! It is infinitely confounding. Black is up, left is white, and nothing is as it seems. I would not blame you in the slightest if you went off to read that lovely romance book your husband bought you for your name day: Captain A'Rod's Crimson Whip. [But] do hang tight. In time it all becomes clearer, I promise." (p.62)
To a certain extent, it does indeed. Nevertheless, Theatre of the Gods is an inescapably complex novel. The thread at its centre is straightforward enough — a mad scientist and his cadre of last-chance companions explore another universe in a repurposed pirate galleon — but layer upon layer of complication make it difficult to unpick. There are secondary perspectives aplenty; frequent flashes backwards, forwards and in various other directions as well. Additional enigmatic narratives arise whenever the core story threatens to come together.
Little wonder that readers are regularly reminded that "if at any time you feel afraid and need a moment to recover, you can turn to [...] your Little Page of Calmness," (pp.255-256) which has kittens and things.
Don't say I didn't warn you!
You must be wondering if all this is a touch too much. Well, far be it from me to answer a simple question simply. That would hardly be in the spirit of Theatre of the Gods, so instead I'll assert that it is... and it isn't. The infinite obstacles discussed above make this novel, as much as they may break it for some.
Your only choice is to swallow the whole thing, hook, line and sinker. If you can't do that, don't bother. If you can? Then Matt Sudain's your man.
In short, Theatre of the Gods is a mad bastard of a book, set to the tune of a raving loon. It's a steampunk space opera like no other. An antidote to the repetition common in contemporary science fiction which makes an unforgettable first impression, and the feeling that you're reading — nay, experiencing — something singular persists until the vast narrative's last flabbergasting gasp.
It says so much about Matt Sudain's daring debut that I still can't begin to tell you whether I loved it or loathed it. One or the other, though. Or, I suppose, a little of both. I won't, however, ever forget it... unless I can find a way to read it for the first time a second time. Ask me again then!
Theatre of the Gods
by M. Suddain
UK Publication: July 2013, Blacklist Publishing
Labels: book review, M. Suddain, parallel universes, sf, space exploration, Theatre of the Gods
You Tell Me | RIP, Reader
One week from today, as part of their second annual spring cleaning, Google will retire their ubiquitous Reader.
I've known about this for months, and I still don't have a clue what I'm going to do!
Here's why Google are "sunsetting" the service:
We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We're sad too.
There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we're pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.
Not for Google Reader users. Of which there must be more than a few; more than a few million, I'd imagine. Evidently that's a significantly smaller a number than it once was — and what does that say about blogs, I wonder? — but be that as it may, Google are set to stamp out something some of us, yours truly included, use every damn day.
First and foremost, Google Reader helps me keep track of all the blogs I follow, which I see now number in the hundreds. I also use it each week to organise the news stories I plan to talk about over the course of the British Genre Fiction Focus. I've never given Google a penny for the service, but I would have been well and truly willing to.
If they'd only asked! But Google don't do that, do they? And it's not like they need my pennies anyway.
Time, I think, to look on the bright side. To find a better alternative, because whether or not Google agrees, I need something to help me keep up to speed with all the shenanigans that happen when I'm otherwise occupied. And maybe this mystery service will be better than the nearly dearly departed product — which, let's face it, is at best pretty basic.
That's where you folks come in, fingers crossed, because I simply don't know where to start looking for a replacement feed reader. So please, you tell me!
Posted by Unknown at 14:00 16 comments Links to this post
Labels: Google, news, on blogging, You Tell Me
Book Review | Lexicon by Max Barry
Two years ago, something terrible was unleashed in an Australian mining town called Broken Hill. Thousands died.
Few people know what really happened.
Emily Ruff is one of them. She belongs to an elite organisation of 'poets': masters of manipulation who use language to warp others to their will. She was one of their most promising recruits until she made a catastrophic mistake: she fell in love.
Wil Parke knows the truth too, only he doesn't remember it. And he doesn't know why he's immune to the poets' powers. But he knows he needs to run.
As their stories converge, the past is revealed, and the race is on for a deadly weapon: a word.
Because the poets know that words can kill...
True fact: words have impact.
As readers, I doubt either you or I would dispute that, yet in the lexicon of Lexicon, the power of applied language is rather more dramatic than we might be inclined to imagine. Indeed, the right word could change the world. How, then, does one determine which phrases will prove most persuasive?
Furthermore, if there are right words, must there not also be wrong ones?
Unravelling these riddles seems simple to begin with. All we need is a meme. A few friendly questions followed by a couple that catch you off guard. For example, are you a cat person or a dog person? What's your favourite colour? Do you love your family? Why did you do it?
Answer honestly, or not. In any event you reveal a great deal about your particular personality, which is all the knowledge a so-called "poet" needs to build a profile of your psychographic segment. As Emily Ruff explains to a love interest come experiment early on in Lexicon:
"A word is a recipe. A recipe for a particular neurochemical reaction. When I say ball, your brain converts the word into meaning, and that's a physical action. You can see it happening on an EEG. What we're doing [...] is dropping recipes into people's brains to cause a neurochemical reaction to knock out the filters. Tie them up just long enough to slip an instruction past. And you can do that by speaking a string of words crafted for the person's psychographic segment. Probably words that were crafted decades ago and have been strengthened ever since. And it's a string of words because the brain has layers of defenses, and for the instruction to get through, they all have to be disabled at once." (p.105)
Poets, then, wield words like weapons, and in Max Barry's searing new novel, that's exactly what they are, because the right sequence of sounds can unlock a person, essentially. Render someone open to suggestion. Tell them to do a thing and they will, without question.
Well, vartix velkor mannik wissick! I bid you, read this book.
Of course there's more to Lexicon than cerebral theory. Alternating chapters, two absorbing central characters—Wil Parke and Emily, aforementioned—put Barry's abstract into practice. On the streets of San Francisco, the latter makes her meagre ends meet by performing close-up magic, mostly games of Monte, on unsuspecting passers-by. The less attention she gets the better, so it's a mixed blessing when she attracts the interest of a recruiter for a very unusual school.
"You went to school [...] and you found it didn't suit you very well. They wanted to teach you things you didn't care about. Dates and math and trivia about dead presidents. They didn't teach persuasion. Your ability to persuade people is the single most important determinant of your quality of life, and they didn't cover that at all. Well, we do. And we're looking for students with natural aptitude." (p.29)
Initially, Emily is suspicious, but with nothing to lose, and everything, potentially, to gain, she's sent to be tested at an academy in DC, where—over a period of years—she's taught how to be a poet. How to persuade, which she's fantastic at, naturally, in addition to various ways to safeguard against invasion. Foremost amongst these defences is the premise that poets should keep themselves to themselves, revealing as little of their specific personality as possible; the ideal state is that of a blank slate.
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Emily has particular difficulty with this. She's been through it, as we've seen, and she doesn't like to be told what to do—especially now that she knows poets can force her. So she breaks a few rules, behaves rather badly, and eventually, inevitably, Emily's transgressions get her expelled from the academy. She's summarily dispatched to a tiny mining town in Australia to wait however long as it takes for further instructions to follow, but though Broken Rock seems a hateful place—hellishly hot, in short—in time she comes to love it... especially when she meets Harry, a paramedic.
Emily is certainly the starring character of Max Barry's newest narrative, but instead of starting with the show-stopper, Lexicon begins—and ends—with Wil. Wil, who thought he had a loving girlfriend, once upon a time, as well a life he liked and a bright future worth fighting for.
But now? Now he doesn't know what to think. He's abducted at the outset by rogue poets, and informed that the life he remembers is a lie. "He could feel memories scratching at the underside of his mind, just out of reach. But he didn't have time for that," (p.303) largely because that's when the shooting starts.
As it transpires, a woman known as Virginia Woolf wants Wil dead. Incredibly, however, his kidnapper protects him. In the aftermath of this frenetic firefight, the first pieces of the puzzle click cleverly into place. If Eliot is to be believed, then Wil was someone else, once, and if he can only remember that person, he could be the key to stopping the otherwise unstoppable: a powerful poet who years ago unleashed something called a bareword in a remote town in the Australian outback, killing thousands of people in the process.
Add to that, this:
"In every case, the appearance of a bareword is followed by a Babel event, in which rulers are overthrown and a common tongue abandoned. In modern terms, it would be like losing English. Imagine the sum total of our organisation's work, gone. Our entire lexicon wiped out." (pp.310-311)
Lexicon is simply gripping from the get-go, when poor Wil wakes up with a needle embedded in his unsuspecting eyeball, wondering what in the world has happened to him and why. We find out right alongside him, and the resulting revelations are as surprising as they are exciting. Astutely, the author allows us to revel in the thought that we're ever a step ahead, though this is rarely the case... which is great! It makes Barry's latest a game readers are guaranteed to win, because it's fantastic fun to play, and at the end of the day, the solution is elegant and vastly satisfying.
Structure figures into Lexicon's success in a fairly major way. Though it quickly becomes clear that they take place some time apart, the two discrete tales the text tells seem to unfold simultaneously as we see it, informing and influencing one another in a fascinating fashion. Don't get me wrong: it's no Memento, nonetheless it's neat—if occasionally frustrating—to watch Emily learn as Wil forgets and vice versa, all while our own horde of knowledge grows.
Not that much of anything is certain in this blistering literary thriller. Lexicon twists and turns like a lost language, creating tension and expectations, systematically suggesting and then severing connections. Excepting a protracted flashback before the finale, the pace very rarely relents; the action is imaginative and exceptionally well handled; our grasp of the poets and the rest of the premise arises intuitively, without once feeling forced; meanwhile an appealing sense of humour sets off the story's darker moments readily.
Max Barry has been an author worth watching since the publication of his first novel in 1999, but by weaving the incisive satire of Jennifer Government into a rather more manageable narrative, by way of better-developed characters and a far smarter sense of structure, I believe he's hit on something special here. It's really no surprise that Matthew Vaughn of Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class fame has bought the rights to maybe produce the movie; Lexicon has all the makings of a fine film.
For the very moment, though, consider making do with a phenomenal novel.
by Max Barry
UK Publication: June 2013, Mulholland Books
US Publication: April 2013, Reagan Arthur Books
Labels: book review, language, Lexicon, Max Barry, privacy, satire, sf
Press Release Your Luck | Continuing The Dark Crystal
"You could be the author of a new novel set in the world of Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal!"
So says the banner of Penguin Books' new project: The Dark Crystal Author Quest.
Which is what, exactly? Well, almost exactly what it says in the header: a quest for an author to write a novel set in Jim Henson's fan-favourite universe.
Note that the publishers are looking for a prequel to the movie as opposed to a sequel, as some sites have erroneously reported.
In any event, roll the press release:
"The world of The Dark Crystal is a world unlike any we have ever known. Under the triple suns, the skies roil with cloud formations not seen in our skies. Seedpods spiral up and rocks scuttle off. It is a world where the wise and noble urSkeks have been split into two imperfect races, Skeksis and urRu; and the Gelfling Clans, the species most like our own, go about their lives not knowing what their future holds. This is a world waiting to be explored and expanded upon with new stories, new quests.
"At The Jim Henson Company, we continue to be enthralled with the possibilities of this world and invite you to join us in our obsession. We have set up a portal to share what we know, a new website with all of the information about this place and these creatures: DarkCrystal.com. We invite you to use the resources, character descriptions, locations, and history on this site to join us in imagining the next Dark Crystal story."
And here are the gory details
"From October 1st, 2013 to December 31st, 2013, The Jim Henson Company and Grosset & Dunlap of the Penguin Young Readers Group will be accepting writing submissions to find the author for a new novel set in the world of Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal. This author search is open to all professional and aspiring professional writers.
"This new Dark Crystal novel will be a prequel story set at the time of the Gelfling Gathering, between the Second Great Conjunction and the creation of the Wall of Destiny. We will be placing all known lore from this era on DarkCrystal.com, the definitive home of The Dark Crystal. There you will find all the knowledge available for you to shape and build your story—and all we ask is that you share your stories with us."
Me, I wonder why they haven't simply solicited an actual author to compose a proper prequel. Surely The Dark Crystal canon is deserving of established talent rather than being farmed out to fandom.
Then again, I can be awfully old fashioned...
That said, I can't imagine many established talents would put up with the shady small print:
Each entry will be the sole property of the Sponsors. By competing in the Contest and/or accepting a prize, each entrant (including the prize winner) grants to Sponsors the right to edit, adapt, publish, copy, display, reproduce and otherwise use their entry in connection with this Contest and in any other way, in any and all forms of media now known or hereafter devised, throughout the world, in perpetuity, including publication on www.darkcrystal.com. Further, each entrant (including the prize winner) grants to Sponsors the right to use each entry and the winner's name, likeness, and biographical information in advertising, trade and promotional materials, without notice, review or approval, or further compensation or permission, except as set forth herein, and except where prohibited by law. Sponsors are not obligated to use, publish, display or reproduce any entry.
All for $10k — with no prospect of royalties — which is not, in all honesty, a whole lot. Don't sign your souls away so easily, readers!
Overall, though, this is exciting news, no? Not because of the Author Quest itself — at least, not from my personal perspective — but because it suggests renewed interest in one of my all-time favourite fantasy films.
Could this move be indicative of The Jim Henson Company's intentions to make a new movie?
Could this be a potential test of our appetite for The Dark Crystal 2? Yes!
Oh, let it be true...
Labels: fan fiction, Jim Henson, movies, Muppets, news, press releases, The Dark Crystal, tie-ins
Book Review | Reviver by Seth Patrick
Jonah Miller is a Reviver, able to temporarily revive the dead so they can say goodbye to their loved ones — or tell the police who killed them.
Jonah works in a department of forensics created specifically for Revivers, and he's one of the best in the business. For every high-profile corpse pushing daisies, it's Jonah's job to find justice for them. But while reviving the victim of a brutal murder, he encounters a terrifying presence. Something is on the other side watching. Waiting. His superiors tell him it's only in his mind, a product of stress. Jonah isn't so certain.
Then Daniel Harker, the first journalist to bring revival to public attention, is murdered. Jonah finds himself getting dragged into the hunt for answers. Working with Harker's daughter Annabel, he becomes determined to find those responsible and bring them to justice. Soon they uncover long-hidden truths that call into doubt everything Jonah stands for, and reveal a sinister force that threatens us all.
If, for a time, we could talk to the dead, what would we say to said?
Jonah Miller, duty reviver for the Forensic Revival Service, asks the dearly departed how they died, in an effort to find out why, and by whose hands. Understand that his subjects have all met a hellish end, mostly through means cruel and unusual, and their posthumous testimony, however hard to extract, could make all the difference if and when their killers are caught.
Though Jonah and his co-workers are out for justice, in the better-paid private sector, other revivers act as mediums between the living and the lost... albeit for the right price. Mercenary as this practice often is, at the end of the day, what wouldn't we give for the opportunity to whisper sweet nothings or simply say goodbye to our much-missed loved ones?
On the other hand, what would we be taking away?
The truth is, even now, no-one knows. Though people have come to accept the practice of this dark art—largely thanks to the sensitive way the journalist Jonathan Harker dealt with its initial discovery—much about the process remains mysterious. And with no easy answers forthcoming in the years since the landmark first revival, funding for further study has all but dried up. Yet there are a few still looking into the possible consequences, such as Dr. Stephanie Graves, who specialises in remnants.
From the get-go we know that "hearing the dead bear witness to their own demise was never pleasant." (p.1) Headaches and nausea are to be expected, but poor overworked Jonah soon starts suffering from more serious side-effects. In short order he's hearing voices that are not there, seeing things that simply cannot be, and experiencing the leftover memories of people he has revived.
But being a reviver is all that Jonah has—in fact it's all he has had since the horrendous death of his mother—so he plays down the various complications. He makes a token trip to see an in-house shrink, then gets back to work as if nothing untoward had happened. However, he can't keep up the act after he's called in to revive the bloated, blackened corpse of the aforementioned Jonathan Harker, who in his last days had been investigating a group of particularly militant Afterlifers.
As you can imagine, there has been some resistance to the idea of ghost whispering, and the Afterlifers represent this perspective:
"What hostility remained gradually coalesced into a protest group called the Afterlifers, well-funded from an easy collaboration of disparate religious interests who saw revival as desecration, an unacceptable disturbance of the dead. But loud as they were, they found their calls for moratorium ignored. Direct action from more extreme members brought public disapproval. Their message of outright objection to revival took a back seat, replaced by more successful calls for greater control, rights for the dead, and a system insuring revivers were licensed." (p.15)
Still, there are those who disapprove of the process. Those who are prepared to use violence on revivers, never mind all the good they indubitably do. Jonathan Harker's killing is just the first suggestion of their elaborate plans, and given his involvement—not to mention the remnants of the murdered journalist with him still—Jonah is quickly drawn into this conspiracy. Soon, he and Harker's daughter Annabel find themselves racing against time to expose a chilling plot before the Afterlifers are able to realise the rest of their threats.
In the main, Reviver is a legitimately gripping conspiracy thriller, but the author—a Northern Ireland man who develops video games for Sega in his day job—also incorporates elements of horror into his first novel, as well as a healthy helping of crime fiction. Individually, neither of these aspects are especially impressive—though both have their moments near the beginning of the book—but presented together, like slight yet satisfying starters before a main meal, they complement the core story cannily, helping to make Seth Patrick's debut distinct.
Just as well, I warrant, because parts of Reviver would be by-the-numbers otherwise. Its elevator pitch is interesting, but not dissimilar to a number of others made in recent memory, and though Patrick's execution of his premise is perfectly acceptable, it is too pedestrian to pull one through the occasional doldrums. The narrative unfolds much as you might expect, with scant few surprises that have not been telegraphed earlier.
Additionally, there's quite a bit about Reviver which seems... not clumsy, but indecently convenient. Various relationships simply don't feel real, particularly as regards the one-dimensional women who pretty much flit in and out of existence relative to Jonah's indiscriminate interests. The only character to really come off is our anxious protagonist's pal Never Geary, who plays a charmingly maternal role and offers light relief in the interim.
Last but not least—before this becomes a laundry list of drawbacks, which Reviver definitely doesn't deserve—expect a whole lot of explaining, including one mad scientist who elaborates, at alarming length, on his dastardly masterplan. On the whole, Patrick tells substantially more than he shows over the course of the story... but I'd argue that this is equally suggestive of his debut's strengths.
You see, it really is very direct; refreshingly so if you're in the right frame of mind for a few evenings of fast-paced fun. Reviver is a no-nonsense novel which values thrills over chills and holds banter in higher regard than character, but credit where it's due: the reading experience is resolutely thrilling, and the chatter, especially where Never's concerned, is certainly snappy.
The high and mighty might be inclined to describe this as a dearth of depth—and it is, there's no getting away from that—but what Reviver lacks in terms of texture and density the author makes up for with an excellent sense of immediacy and quantities of unbridled excitement. In sum, though Seth Patrick has next to no use for poetry in his prose—an issue emblematic of many of his debut's minor missteps—Reviver is a timely reminder that stories need not be beautiful to be good. This first novel has small problems aplenty, then, but these don't detract from the fact that I really enjoyed reading it... and there's value in that, I think.
by Seth Patrick
UK Publication: June 2013, Tor
US Publication: June 2013, Thomas Dunne
Labels: book review, crime fiction, debuts, horror, Reviver, Seth Patrick, thrillers
Book Review | The Lowest Heaven, ed. by Anne C. Perry & Jared Shurin
The Lowest Heaven is a new anthology of contemporary science fiction published in partnership to coincide with "Visions of the Universe," a major exhibition of space imagery at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
Each story in The Lowest Heaven is themed around a body in the Solar System, from the Sun to Halley's Comet. The stories are illustrated with photographs and artwork selected from the archives of the Royal Observatory, while the book's cover and overall design are the work of award-winning South African illustrator Joey Hi-Fi.
The final frontier?
For now, that searching question stands an unfortunate fact. We want to know more, of course, but there is no clear need for the revelations we may or may not gain from our desired endeavours, or none that we can easily see.
And so we wait, painfully aware that — even if the Powers That Be see reason — we are lamentably unlikely to see a man on Mars in our lifetimes.
Maybe our children will. I want that for them.
But neither you nor I nor they, in their day, will find out what awaits on the other side of the interstellar space NASA's Voyager probe is on track to chart; the odds are simply not in our favour, I'm afraid. But we can wonder, can't we? We can imagine. We can read and write and damn it, we can dream.
So for the foreseeable, space may indeed be the final frontier in fact, but fiction, by its very definition, need not be held back by what is. Instead, its pioneers ask: what if? And occasionally, incredibly, what if is what is.
Come to that, science fiction and science fact go way back. Speaking of space, here's Dr. Marek Kukula, public astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, introducing The Lowest Heaven, a truly awesome anthology published in conjunction with the opening of the aforementioned Observatory's "Visions of the Universe" exhibition:
"By setting human stories within that immense canvas writers can help us to see ourselves as part of the wider cosmos, and perhaps give us an inkling of what that might actually mean. No wonder that many of today's professional astronomers can trace their interest, at least in part, to an early encounter with science fiction.
"The connection between science fact and science fiction has never been more pervasive than it is today. The visual language of astronomy is everywhere in contemporary science fiction, from book covers to the backdrops of films and television shows. Vistas from the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Cassini probe have inspired the scenery for Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who, and with their enormous popularity these shows and movies bring astronomical imagery to a much wider audience. Artistic license even allows them to ignore the fact that that the original images have been enhanced and manipulated, and rarely show the Universe as it would appear to human eyes.
"The connection works both ways. As yesterday's science fiction becomes today's science fact it can sometimes seem as though we live in a science fictional universe. Above our heads, Arthur C. Clarke's geostationary satellites encircle the equator, while the imprints of human boots still mark the surface of the moon."
This back and forth between the actual and the fantastic underpins The Lowest Heaven's exploration of space, both as we know it and as we can only imagine it. To wit, each of the seventeen stories presented by Pandemonium's Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin over the course of this extraordinary ensemble is illustrated by a fitting image from the historical collection of the Royal Museums Greenwich.
Take the first fiction, for instance. 'Golden Apples' by Sophia McDougall — an alt-history author most known for revising the Roman Empire of yesteryear into a present-day dystopia — is a bittersweet, surreal story about a couple who feed their dying daughter with solid sunlight stolen from a local laboratory. Like the hand-painted magic lantern slide of sunspots dating from the late 1800s which accompanies it, 'Golden Apples' incorporates slivers of science into a fantastical canvas to tremendous effect.
The second short, 'A Map of Mercury' by Alastair Reynolds, comes complete with a photograph of a ghostly glove puppet: a surprising image, initially, but its unsettling elements speak to the stark art at the heart of this disconcerting dialogue between man and machine. Similarly, an equatorial cross-section of the earth and its atmosphere appends 'The Krakatoan' by Maria Dahvana Headley — a strange tale about a boy who visits a volcano in defiance of his absent father — while Archie Black's unspeakably bleak 'Ashen Light' is illustrated by an early negative of the Transit of Venus, which exposes the night as one of life's white lies.
Short of systematically showing how each of The Lowest Heaven's various visions relates to the accompanying artwork, suffice it to say that the plates are excellently selected, striking and suggestive. Most of the subsequent stories are equally inspiring, and though others are hard to parse — especially Adam Roberts' chronicle of a voyage 'From World to World Again, By Way of the Moon, 1726' — even these reveal feeling, and accumulate meaning.
"They came at last, after the dust had settled; and in truth it sifted but slowly to the ground; for weight on the Moon is less than on our world. For it is the efficacy of the various worlds to cast their charm upon men in divers ways; such that to stand upon 1 planet is to be made from stone, and upon another into cork. It is accordingly a different matter entire to stand upon the Moon as it is upon the Earth; in the former place the substance of that world causeth the body to become buoyant almost to the current of floating into the ayr; yet to return again to Earth is to become heavy again, with a sense of sinkage of body and spirit both."
Indeed, it is Roberts' long short which brings the core focus of The Lowest Heaven home. Whilst wondering what may have happened if humanity had tomorrow's technology at a point in the past, specifically during the golden age of exploration, the author of last year's fantastic Jack Glass hits on an idea that this anthology features frequently: the tragedy of the "boldness, and purpose, and hunger to travel to places that are new to [us having] departed out of the breasts of humankind."
The thought is voiced again in the next narrative, 'WWBD' — which is to say 'What Would Bradbury Do?' — by The Curve of the Earth's Simon Morden, who reminds readers that though "we can send all the robots we like, it takes humanity to put the soul into exploration." Later, in 'Only Human,' World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar wonders about "what could have been, and of what didn't," before concluding that "to do that is, after all, only human" too.
Truth be told, I'm loathe to talk about very many more of these stories. To touch on the sparkling Saturn Trees of Kaaron Warren's addiction allegory, the misunderstood beauty of 'The Grand Tour' James Smythe gives us, or the inhuman horror of Kameron Hurley's self-replicating spaceship. These are a few of The Lowest Heaven's finest fictions, but better, certainly, that I let you mine its many treasures in your own time.
There can be no questioning the value of this artful anthology: it's as inspiring as it is inspired. But The Lowest Heaven is also a timely and ultimately touching reminder of what we stand to lose by turning inwards as opposed to venturing again into the unknown. Granted, the universe is vast — and vastly dangerous, I dare say — but consider the wonders we stand to discover; the places, the races!
We cannot grasp what awaits us out there, but it behoves us, surely, to find out. So let us go once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; or close the wall up with our dead dreams.
The Lowest Heaven
edited by Anne C. Perry & Jared Shurin
UK Publication: June 2013, Jurassic London
Labels: anthologies, book review, optimistic science fiction, Pandemonium, science, sf, space exploration, The Lowest Heaven
In Tribute | Goodbye, Iain Banks
According to his former widow-in-waiting, Iain Banks passed away "without pain" in the early hours of Sunday morning, just two months after publicly announcing his own impending death in early April. At that time, he admitted it was extremely unlikely he'd live beyond a year, but we all hoped he'd have that long at least.
I still can't get my head around how sudden it seemed. We knew what was coming, of course, but as I write, I'm realising that hasn't made his passing any easier to deal with.
What has softened the blow, if only a little, is knowing that I'm not alone in feeling sick to my stomach with sorrow. Touching tributes have been rolling in ever since Adele's message. They've come from a truly huge range of folks, all of whom profess to have been affected by the irreplaceable author and his thirty-odd awesome novels.
So today, rather than documenting the details of his untimely death, I want to take this opportunity to highlight a few of these outpourings of emotion. Who knows... maybe, just maybe, they'll help you feel a bit better too.
Let's begin with Neil Gaiman:
I should be blogging about The Ocean at the End of the Lane, because it comes out in 9 days and the reviews and articles are starting, and right this minute I should be doing the writing I have to finish before I hit the road.
But I just learned that Iain Banks is dead, and I'm alone in this house, and I cope with things by writing about them.
I met Iain in late 1983 or early 1984. It was a Macmillan/Futura Books presentation to their sales force, and to a handful of journalists. I was one of the journalists. Editor Richard Evans told me that he was proud that they had found The Wasp Factory on the slush pile—it was an unsolicited manuscript. Iain was almost 30, and he got up and told stories about writing books, and sending them in to publishers, and how they came back, and how this one didn't come back. "You ask me what's The Wasp Factory about?" he said. "It's about 180 pages." He was brilliant and funny and smart.
He fitted right in. He was one of us, whatever that meant. He wrote really good books: The Wasp Factory, Walking on Glass and The Bridge all existed on the uneasy intersection of SF, fantasy and mainstream literature (after those three he started drawing clearer distinctions between his SF and his mainstream work, not least by becoming Iain M. Banks in his SF). His work was mordant, surreal, and fiercely intelligent. In person, he was funny and cheerful and always easy to talk to. He became a convention bar friend, because we saw each other at conventions, and we would settle down in the bar and catch up.
(A true story: In 1987 I was at a small party at the Brighton WorldCon in the wee hours, at which it was discovered that some jewellery belonging to the sleeping owner of the suite had been stolen. The police were called. A few minutes after the police arrived, so did Iain, on the balcony of the Metropole hotel: he'd been climbing the building from the outside. The police had to be persuaded that this was a respectable author who liked climbing things from the outside and not an inept cat burglar returning to the scene of his crime.)
We all deal with death differently, I guess. Me? I like to remember the lives of those we've lost, and Gaiman's story managed to make me smile, which I haven't done in a while.
Charles Stross was next in line to pay tribute to the great Scot:
One of the giants of 20th and 21st century Scottish literature has left the building.
I can't really claim to be a friend; my relationship with Iain was somewhere between one of the faceless hordes seen at SF conventions, and "guy I run into at the pub occasionally." However, I've known Iain and chatted with him at times since, I think, 1989 or 1990 or thereabouts. And, after getting over my initial awe of the giant of letters, subsequently discovered that he was a giant in other ways: big-hearted, kind, affable, humorous, angry at injustice.
There is probably no point in my writing an obituary. The newspapers are all over the generalities [...] and if I had anything more intimate to add I wouldn't care to do so in public, out of respect for his family and friends.
However, I'd like to pause for a moment and reflect on my personal sense of loss. Iain's more conventional literary works were generally delightful, edgy and fully engaged with the world in which he set them: his palpable outrage at inequity and iniquity shone through the page. But in his science fiction he achieved something more: something, I think, that the genre rarely manages to do. He was intensely political, and he infused his science fiction with a conviction that a future was possible in which people could live better—he brought to the task an angry, compassionate, humane voice that single-handedly drowned out the privileged nerd chorus of the technocrat/libertarian fringe and in doing so managed to write a far-future space operatic universe that sane human beings would actually want to live in (if only it existed).
In my admittedly limited experience with The Culture, which I've been reading on and off (but mostly on) ever since the late author first fessed up to feeling Very Poorly, Stross is spot on in his conception of the series as something singular. I've read a silly amount of science fiction, and there's just not a whole lot like Consider Phlebas and its exemplary successors.
And The Culture isn't just unique, it's also incredible. Masterfully imagined and simply brilliantly written. I can hardly wait to start reading Use of Weapons. But the awful knowledge that there will come a point where the sequence simply stops has hit me like a tonne of bricks.
Beginning with the first lines of a fan letter he was in the process of writing, Nick Harkaway reflected on that very thought on his blog:
Dear Mr. Banks,
I would like to say, very simply, that I could not have contemplated writing the books I have written and the ones I am writing in my head if I did not have you out there in front of me. I just wouldn't have thought anyone would pay attention.
Because that is true. He made a revolving door between genre and non-genre before ever I left school. In the 80s, for God's sake, when that ridiculous essay about how all science fiction was essentially for sweaty-palmed teenage boys was doing the rounds.
And from what I hear, pretty much everyone who met him liked him, too.
The author of Angelmaker went on to talk about some of what we've lost in light of Banks' passing:
No more Culture stories. No more Affront, no more smug, infuriating, misguided, altruistic, brilliant Minds engaged in slyly funny banter. No more hair's breadth escapes. No more savage, disturbing images. No more ethical conundrums or brain-stretching sociological what-ifs. No more guy behind Crow Road, behind the appalling Wasp Factory. God knows how many other writers owe Banks a tip of the cap, how many TV shows and movies and books would simply not exist, or would never have been published, without his gravity acting on the rubber sheet of narrative space.
There are a couple of his books I never got to. They're upstairs. But now I somehow feel I should pace myself.
Well. Sod it. Farewell, Mr. Banks. And I wish it wasn't.
So say we all, sir.
In addition to these reminiscent missives, there was no shortage of shorter tributes from a small army of fellow Scots authors. Despite the early hour, Irvine Welsh tweeted that he was "off out to the pub to toast one of [his] all-time literary heroes with a malt," a most excellent sentiment shared by Val McDermid:
Iain Banks, RIP. Grateful for what he left us, angry for what he'll miss and we'll miss. And now I'm going to pour the best dram in the house and raise a toast to Iain Banks for all the hours of delight and provoked thought.
Talking to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme a little later, Ian Rankin of Rebus renown considered the magnificent man's character:
He didn't take things too seriously, and in a way I'm happy that he refused to take death too seriously—he could still joke about it. I think we all thought he would have a bit longer than he got.
What made him a great writer was that he was childlike; he had a curiosity about the world. He was restless, he wanted to transmit that in his work, and he treated cancer with a certain amount of levity, the same that made him a great writer. You never knew what you were going to get, every book was different.
But the last tribute I want to take in before saying goodbye to Iain Banks one final time comes from his British publisher, oddly enough. Pay attention to the last sentence of Little, Brown's statement especially:
It is with enormous sadness that Little, Brown announces the death of Iain Banks. Banks has been one of the country's best loved novelists for both his mainstream and science fiction books since the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. After his own recent announcement of his cancer Iain Banks was hugely moved by the public support for him via his website. Just three weeks ago he was presented with finished copies of his last novel, The Quarry, and enjoyed celebration parties with old friends and fans across the publishing world.
That, I think, touches on what we have to take heart in during this terrible time. How Iain Banks lived—and he did live—rather than how he died.
Not to mention how his life and his life's work touched the lives of others. Others including the writers whose reflections we've heard today, but not just them. Not by any stretch of the imagination that was so characteristic of Iain Banks. Indeed, more than ten thousand of his readers have left messages on his guestbook, and I would urge you to do so too. As Adele says, "he absolutely loved them," and honestly, I'd rather think about love than loss today.
On the other hand, we have to say goodbye. We might not want to—I know I don't—but we have to. So.
Goodbye, Iain Banks. There's no one like you now, and there never was. Nor, I warrant, will there ever be.
You'll be missed, mister.
You already are.
Labels: A Death in the Family, Iain Banks, In Tribute, news, The Culture, The Quarry, The Wasp Factory
Status Update | On Belgium and Banks
Home again, home again... but I'm afraid I didn't bring my jiggedy-jig.
Don't get me wrong, I have a bloody lovely time on holiday — Antwerp was brilliant, the beer was as well, and sometimes I forget what a wonderful thing it is to read for pleasure — but the bad news about Iain Banks' passing broke the day after I got back, almost immediately after I'd finished The Player of Games, and it pretty much knocked me for six.
Kept me busy yesterday as well. In the afternoon, I wrote a long tribute to the dearly departed author for Tor.com — you can read it here right now, but I'm hoping to share it with you all on The Speculative Scotsman tomorrow — then in the evening I had a couple of classes to teach, during which I discussed a particularly fantastic chapter from The Wasp Factory with couple of the older kids I tutor.
For what it's worth, they seemed to enjoy it. And if just one of them went home and ordered a copy, my work here is done.
Or has it just begun?
In any event, I'm going to hold off on publishing the special something I mentioned before I went back to Belgium. Dragons are awesome, obviously, but I need to be happy to introduce this thing with the unbridled delight it deserves, and I'm just not now.
Completely missed E3 as well, which is complete unlike me. I'm still hoping to stay unspoiled, the better to watch a press conference or four later today or tomorrow, but let's face it: this is the internet.
Actually, now that I mention it, this is the internet — fancy that! — so you tell me: what should I watch? Any events I can afford to ignore? Or were they all a wash?
Labels: A Death in the Family, dragons, excuses, holidays, Iain Banks, news
Book Review | Joyland by Stephen King
College student Devin Jones took the summer job at Joyland hoping to forget the girl who broke his heart. But he wound up facing something far more terrible: the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and dark truths about life — and what comes after — that would change his world forever.
A riveting story about love and loss, about growing up and growing old — and about those who don't get to do either because death comes for them before their time — Joyland is Stephen King at the peak of his storytelling powers. With all the emotional impact of King masterpieces such as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, Joyland is at once a mystery, a horror story, and a bittersweet coming-of-age novel, one that will leave even the most hard-boiled reader profoundly moved.
After a lamentably uneventful 2012, Stephen King kicks off what looks to be an unusually huge year for fans of the master of modern pop horror with a small but perfectly formed mystery novel. Joyland is the second story King has written for Hard Case Crime, and like The Colorado Kid — which SyFy has since adapted into a reasonably successful TV series that deals with the weird and the wonderful on a weekly basis — it comes complete with throwback cover art by Hard Case mainstay Glen Orbik and a fantastic, nostalgic narrative.
Joyland takes the form of a tale told by an old man looking back on the last year of his youth:
1973 was the year of the OPEC oil embargo, the year Richard Nixon announced he was not a crook, the year Edward G. Robinson and Noel Coward died. It was Devin Jones's lost year. I was a twenty-one year-old virgin with literary aspirations. I possessed three pairs of bluejeans, four pairs of Jockey shorts, a clunker Ford (with a good radio), occasional suicidal ideations, and a broken heart.
Sweet, huh? (pp.12-13)
Devin — or Dev to his friends, who flit in and out of the fiction like memories lost and found again — Dev, then, is in the process of the processing the loss of his first love, a heartbreaker called Wendy Keegan who leaves our young man hanging when she sashays on down to a job in Boston. At first, Dev doesn't know what to do without her, so when the prospect of employment at a nearby amusement park quite literally lands on his lap, he takes the opportunity by the horns, looking to lose himself in something all-consuming.
Joyland is absolutely that. But Dev's star turn as a Happy Hound will eat up much more than all the time and energy he suddenly has on his hands: to tell the truth, it will consume his youth.
King's many admirers will be pleased to hear Joyland showcases the author of The Shining and this year's never-mind-how-needful sequel, Doctor Sleep, at the top of his game. It's rather more reminiscent of Duma Key and Different Seasons than the aforementioned classic, and more interested, in the main, in natural characters than supernatural factors, but be that as it may, Joyland bears its fair share of thrills and chills.
So sit back. Relax. Make yourself a plate of something, perhaps.
"And I'll tell you the sad story of the Joyland ghost while you eat, if you want to hear it."
"Is it really a ghost story?"
"I've never been in that damn funhouse, so I don't know for sure. But it's a murder story. That much I am sure of." (p.35)
Dev hasn't been at Joyland for long when he first hears tell of this spectre. Supposedly, she's the ghost of a girl who was murdered by her as-yet-unidentified boyfriend halfway through the Horror House.
That this homicide happened years back is a tragic fact; that something remains of poor Linda Gray to this day is probably just local legend. Dev becomes taken with the tale in any case. He begins by looking into the circumstances of the slaying — one of a number done by a serial killer with an apparent fondness for fairs. Then, when a friend of Dev's says he sees her, and another makes a dangerous breakthrough, his investigation steps up a gear.
This aspect of the narrative unfolds slowly — in fact, it's only towards the end that said thread takes front and centre — but there's more than enough going on in the interim to retain the reader's interest. Early on, Dev meets Annie and Mike, a single mother and her sickly son, who suffers from Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy, and I dare say this pair play a more meaningful role in Joyland's story than the so-called ghost of Linda Gray. In what is far and away the novel's most emotional moment, Dev takes it upon himself to show Mike the time of his life. And when he finally rises into the sky, "up where the air is rare," (p.229) I had myself a bit of a cry.
A murderer is unmasked come the climax, and there is, admittedly, a slight speculative edge to the entire affair, but Joyland is no horror novel, nor is the "hard-boiled crime fiction" this imprint traffics in a particularly fitting description. What we have here is a coming of age tale, primarily; a beautiful book, warm and honest, about a boy becoming a man, and his tempered transformation really does pack a punch.
In the exceedingly unlikely event that Stephen King is only remembered for one thing, I warrant it will be his talent for crafting characters, which I'd assert is especially evident in this text. In Mike and Annie, not to mention Tom and Erin, Lane and Fred and Eddie — and it wouldn't do to forget dear Dev himself — King conjures living, breathing people out of thin air, often in the space of a few paltry pages.
Here, however, his sense of setting is also on top form. Joyland is a magnificent place to spend a weekend immersed in, and the surrounding area is nearly as well realised. Here's how the old-timer who owns the amusement park puts its purpose:
"This is a badly broken world, full of wars and cruelty and senseless tragedy. Every human being who inhabits it is served his or her portion of unhappiness and wakeful nights. Those of you who don't already know that will come to know it. Give such sad but undeniable facts of the human condition, you have been given a priceless gift this summer: you are here to sell fun. In exchange for the hard-earned dollars of your customers, you will parcel out happiness. Children will go home and dream of what they saw here and what they did here." (p.59)
Know that King's business, at least in this instance, is not dissimilar.
In short, Joyland is a joy. A gem whatever its genre. And I would be remiss not to note that it bodes very well indeed for Doctor Sleep, which must be the most significant novel the stalwart wordsmith has written since the finale of The Dark Tower saga. If the further adventures of Danny Torrance measure up against the high standard set by this more modest effort, King's constant readers can look forward to another real treat this year.
UK & US Publication: July 2013, Hard Case Crime
Labels: book review, crime fiction, Hard Case Crime, Joyland, Stephen King
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Apple, Google update Covid-19 ready framework to build reception
Surface Pro X's Speed Is Over Run by Surface Go 2
Economy Can Take Help of AI
Net Neutrality Has a Lot of Virtues
Coronavirus Is a Challenge to AI
One Algorithm Detected Coronavirus In The First Place
Motorola's Ads For 5G Edge+ Is Now Available On TV
iPhone SE Is Different From Other Apple Phones
AI Software For Facial Recognition Of Clearview Is Suffering A Glitch
Nest Cams Are Going Back To Default Video Settings
Home/Press Release/Attractive Investment Opportunities in the Accounting Software Market
Attractive Investment Opportunities in the Accounting Software Market
Top Players in Accounting Software Market are Oracle (NetSuite), Sage Group Plc., Workday, Inc., Zeta Software LLC, Infor, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, SAP SE, Intuit Inc., Epicor Software Corporation, Xero Ltd., Red Wing Software Inc., Zoho Corporation, MRI Software, AccountMate Software Corporation, and Acumatica
Ruby Arterburn January 2, 2020
The rapid shift from the traditional way of managing financial records to adopting an accounting information system is the key trend in the global Accounting Software Market. The global market was worth US$ 11,071.6 Mn in the year 2018. With the increasing adoption of accounting software, the market is expected to reach US$ 20,408.0 Mn by 2026. The global market is anticipated to register a remarkable CAGR of 8.02% by 2026.
Top Key Players Mentioned:
Sage Group Plc.
Zeta Software LLC
Epicor Software Corporation
Xero Ltd.
Red Wing Software Inc.
Zoho Corporation
Sample PDF Brochure – https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/accounting-software-market-100107
"RMS Joins Hands with M3 to Offer the Best Hotel Management Solutions "
Several MNCs are either partnering or acquiring small or mid-scale companies to sustain in the market. Some of the developments initiated by companies are mentioned below:
In April 2019, Infor acquired Efficient Frontiers, Inc. dba ReServe Interactive. This acquisition is aimed to help Infor expand its presence in stadiums, entertainment centers, convention centers and others. The company uses the ReServe's cloud-based platform to offer advanced functionalities via Infor CloudSuite hospitality.
In the same year and month, Xero announced the launch of a new subscription plan. This plan called "Payroll Only Subscription" helps small companies with processes such as Single Touch Payroll (STP).
In April 2019, RMS partnered with a leading cloud-based financial platform called M3 to help its clients offer the best hotel management solutions.
An accounting software provider called FreeAgent was acquired by Starling Bank to automate their tax and accounting management.
Accounting Software Market Segmentation:
By Component
By Enterprise Size
Custom Accounting Software
Tax Management Software
By End-use Industry
North America (USA and Canada)
Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia and Rest of Europe)
Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, Australia, Southeast Asia and Rest of Asia Pacific)
Latin America (Mexico, Brazil and Rest of Latin America)
Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa and Rest of the Middle East & Africa)
Speak to Analyst – https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/accounting-software-market-100107
"Rising Adoption of Technologically Driven Solutions in North America Propels Growth "
In 2018, the market in North America was worth US$ 3,759.4 Mn. The region is expected to lead in the global accounting software market through the forecast period. The U.S. government is increasingly spending on installing accounting software systems in private and public organizations. This, coupled with the strong presence of players in the U.S., is expected to create growth opportunities for the market in the forthcoming years.
The rising adoption of modern technologies in Asia Pacific is driving the market. The penetration of business accounting apps is growing, which is enabling growth in the global market. The region is expected to register strong demand for enterprise relationship planning software to manage spreadsheets and understand tax management better. Moreover, the market generated a value of US$ 2635.9 Mn in the year 2018.
"Demand for Custom Accounting Software Stimulated Growth in the Market "
A lead analyst at Fortune Business Insights said, "Preference towards new and advanced accounting software is increasing than conventional software as they have become obsolete." He added, "Conventional accounting software lacked technological competitiveness, which creates an environment for expansion and upgradation of the accounting software market." Accounting software helps to manage payroll and performs several other functions, saves time and money, and provides key insights to understand the business better. Over the forthcoming years, the user-interface of accounting software is expected to be more engaging to meet customer requirements.
Accounting software helps to increase efficiency as it has the ability to manage account receivables, account payables, and general ledger among others. Accounting calculations are complex and tedious, which compels businesses to purchase this software and perform calculations accurately without the use of manpower. Considering these factors, small businesses find it necessary to deploy accounting software.
With the emergence of advanced technology, the demand for cloud-based accounting software is expected to increase by 2026. This accounting software is enabled with cloud-based technology, which helps organizations to easily create reports and dashboards. In addition to this, it helps to effectively manage comprehensive financial reporting and analysis. These factors are positively impacting the market, which in turn, is resulting in rising adoption of accounting software.
Major Table of Contents:
Research Methodology and Assumptions
Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities
Emerging Trends of Market
Macro and Micro Economic Factors
Key Technological Developments
Porter's Five Forces Analysis
Industry SWOT Analysis
Global Accounting Software Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2025
Key Findings / Summary
Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts – By Component (US$ Mn)
Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts – By Enterprise Size (US$ Mn)
Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts – By Type (US$ Mn)
Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts – By End-use Industry (US$ Mn)
Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)
Others (Education, Media & Entertainment etc.)
Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast – By Geography (US$ Mn)
TOC Continued…!
Get Full Report with Exclusive Insights – https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/100107
Related Research Reports:
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Accounting Software Accounting Software Industry Accounting Software Market Accounting Software Market Analysis Accounting Software Market Forecast Accounting Software Trends
Ruby Arterburn
Ruby is leading the team writing for artificial intelligence. She is a newcomer in the organization and has already made her base and reputation with her hard work and her efficiency towards her field. Being a student of computer science it has become easier for her to understand the objectives and the expected results of this column. She is also an excellent cook, and now and then, and we get the opportunity to taste her deliciously baked cookies.
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Posts Tagged 'Shia LaBeouf'
Film Review – Pieces of a Woman
January 8th, 2021 | POSTED BY Allen Almachar
Pieces of a Woman (2020) starts off with a harrowing opening act. Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and her partner Sean (Shia LaBeouf) are expecting a child. They have their baby room all set up and ready to go. They have made the decision to have a natural…
Film Review – The Tax Collector
August 10th, 2020 | POSTED BY Allen Almachar
The Tax Collector (2020) is a reprehensible film. It is vile, ugly, and populated by racial stereotypes. The characters offer little depth, standing around with their macho-posturing trying to be the baddest dude in the room. The story depicts a section of the L.A. Latinx…
Film Review – Honey Boy (Second Take)
November 22nd, 2019 | POSTED BY Sarah Ksiazek
Honey Boy is a semi-autobiographical film written by Shia LaBeouf and directed by Alma Har'el. While the characters' names are different, it is easily identified as based on Shia LaBeouf's childhood to becoming a star as a young man and the trouble that created.
Film Review – Honey Boy
November 21st, 2019 | POSTED BY Nick Ahlers
The perils of child stardom is the subject of any number of tabloid magazines and clickbait listicles. Morbid curiosity seekers can't help but be fascinated when they learn their former favorite Disney icon gets a DUI or has to take a job at The Gap…
Interview – Sasha Lane – American Honey
October 6th, 2016 | POSTED BY Spencer Fornaciari
Spencer interviews actress Sasha Lane from the drama American Honey.
Film Review – Transformers: Age of Extinction
June 30th, 2014 | POSTED BY Allen Almachar
Imagine the most obnoxious song you can think of. Now think about that song playing on a booming sound system, cranked up to the highest level. While that's happening, pretend you're punching yourself in the face repeatedly. Try to maintain this state of being for…
Episode 208 – DVD Rundown 11-27-2012
November 27th, 2012 | POSTED BY Spencer Fornaciari
Spencer and Greg give their DVD rundown for November 27th, 2012. In this episode they discuss Lawless, Step Up Revolution, Forks Over Knives, and ParaNorman.
Episode 183 – Outlaw Films
August 31st, 2012 | POSTED BY Spencer Fornaciari
In honor of the release of Lawless, Spencer and Greg discuss outlaw films.


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Story Development Bootcamp
Learn how to develop a narrative for your documentary film
By Docs In Progress
Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 10:00 AM – Sun, Mar 19, 2023, 3:00 PM EDT
Docs In Progress 8560 2nd Avenue #Suite 113 Silver Spring, MD 20910
1 day 5 hours
In-Person Workshop at Docs In Progress
Saturday, March 18 & Sunday, March 19 | 10PM-3PM (including 1 hour for lunch, bring your own lunch)
Are you ready to take your documentary film idea to the next level? Look no further! This documentary development bootcamp is designed for anyone who has a documentary project they want to develop and produce.
During this interactive and informative course, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the process by which documentary ideas become films. From researching a story and outlining ideas, to developing a treatment, and introducing compelling characters, this bootcamp will guide you through each step of the process. By the end of the course, you'll come away with a firm understanding of how to put your documentary idea into a format that can be produced. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced filmmaker, this bootcamp will provide you with the tools and knowledge to take your documentary ideas to the next level. Participants will have the opportunity to work on their own projects and receive feedback from the instructor and their peers. To ensure that you get the most out of this course, we ask that you come prepared with your story idea and an open mind ready to develop it. Don't miss out on this opportunity to bring your documentary to life!
LOCATION: Docs In Progress
8560 2nd Ave Suite 113, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Docs In Progress is located on the ground level of the Alexander House. The entrance of Docs In Progress is on Apple Ave. Parking garage, walking distance: Cameron Street Garage. Free parking on weekends. Metro Station Red Line: Silver Spring (walking distance 5-7 minutes).
About the Teaching Artist: Adele Schmidt
Adele Schmidt is the Artistic Director and co-founder of Docs In Progress. She is the managing partner of Zeitgeist Media LLC, a production company that has gained wide recognition for its documentary series on progressive rock music, Romantic Warriors – A Progressive Music Saga which includes the Krautrock Trilogy. Her award-winning films have been shown on television, in festivals and on streaming platforms and they include an Emmy Award, Telly Awards, the Gabriel Award and TIVA-DC Awards.
In addition to more than 20 years working as a producer and director in the field, Adele has extensive teaching experience. She is a professorial lecturer for Film and Video Production and for Developing Non-Fiction Productions at American University in Washington DC since 2009. She also has served as a panelist for the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, and as a panelist for the Maryland State Arts Council, reviewing applications for the Arts in Education Teaching Artist Roster.
For many years Adele has been sharing her expertise as a consultant for non-fiction productions, helping many filmmakers to succeed with their documentaries. Adele holds a Master Degree in Political Science from the University in Bonn, Germany and a Film Degree from the National Center of the Arts in Mexico City. She routinely produces news stories about American policy with foreign journalists as part of the U.S. State Department's Foreign Press Center's Media Co-Op Program. Originally from Germany, Adele speaks Spanish fluently.
If your circumstances change and you must withdraw from a class after registering, please be aware of our refund policy:
Withdrawal 20 or more calendar days before the first day of a program: 75% refund
Withdrawal 11-19 calendar days before the first day of a program: 50% refund
Withdrawal 10 or fewer calendar days before a program: No refund
Maryland Events
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#story_development
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3 Essential Types of Push Notifications to Inspire Loyalty from Your Users
Most times developers and companies measure their app's success based on the downloads of their app; but most forget that the app only gets profitable if the user actually uses it. The "traffic of the users" on the app is what actually measures its success. You could attract the user to download the app but the question is the user actually using the app after a week, a month or a year. This in the app world is called retention of users.
Keeping the users engaged is one of the most difficult stages; especially in this fast-paced world where similar functionality apps are being introduced in the market with new and better features. This is where customer loyalty comes into play. A loyal customer is the one that will choose your app over your competitors even after a week, a month or a year. The key to gaining a loyal customer could be achieved by gentle "pushing" – in the app world known as a Push Notification.
What Are Push Notifications and How Do They Help?
As most of you must be aware, they are the messages that pop up on your smartphone reminding to use the app or sending you offers and updates. As a whole, push notifications are effective; they encourage both purchases and user retention. However, these messages become even more effective when they're expertly crafted and personalized.
It's worth investing time and effort into building push notifications that users really care about. These ensure the most engagement. Remember, if your push messages aren't valuable, people will simply opt out; or perhaps they won't opt in to begin with.
As per Localytics, most app users who have enabled push notifications will use an app for at least 9 sessions, with 46% remaining beyond the unofficial retention point of 11 sessions. However, almost half of users who don't enable push notifications will abandon an app after just 2 sessions. Also, they discovered that the perception of push notifications has improved over time, with 52% of respondents to a 2018 poll stating that pushes were better than they were several years ago.
Reference Source: http://info.localytics.com/blog/21-percent-of-users-abandon-apps-after-one-use
There are 3 essential types of push notifications to inspire loyalty from your users:
Why Are User-Centric Push Notifications Important?
The beauty of the digital age is making the world smaller and making everything available with just a few clicks of the button. Big or small tasks are being completed with the use of Apps or websites. It is believed on an average, people spend at least 4 hours on their phone, daily.
Source: https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/are-you-on-your-phone-too-much-average-person-spends-this-many-hours-on-it-every-day.html
Image reference source: https://magenticians.com/mobile-app-vital-to-ecommerce/
An app makes it easier for companies to connect with and drum up additional interaction and business from customers. Most businesses have developed or are in the process of developing user friendly apps to ensure maximum customer satisfaction. Consumers today are more demanding due to the digitally changing nature of the market and for any business to survive, they need to address these demands.
What are Push Notifications?
A small message, which is sent to a user, when they are not on the application is a push notification. This notification can be sent anytime and anywhere as long as the user has given the app permission to send the same.
After an app is initially downloaded, a user will receive a number of prompt messages to accept and give permission. These permissions vary as they depend on the app and its purpose and most businesses implement user-centric notifications to ensure the customer journey is strategically customized.
How to use Push Notifications to Reduce Mobile Churns?
To keep up with the fast-paced digital age, it's necessary for all mobile app developers to engage their users with their app. While concentrating on rapid growth, it's also necessary to ensure that your original user base doesn't diminish. John Koetsier of VentureBeat said "…user engagement is the new user acquisition, arguing that gaining a loyal, long-term customer is much more important than acquiring casual users."


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Daniel Goddard Heading Back to 'The Price is Right'
Cliff Lipson/CBS
On Wednesday, May 1, Daniel Goddard announced that he'll be appearing in an upcoming episode of CBS' "The Price is Right." The actor, who portrays Cane Ashby on "The Young and the Restless," said in a tweet, "Taping #TPIR today with Gwen, Manuela and Amber .. #ChicksWithAttitude #CWA @CBSdaytime @official_yandr." The tweet was accompanied by a link to a post on his Facebook page, which showed the beautiful ladies on the set of "TPIR" while they weren't filming.
According to Goddard, his "TPIR" appearance is scheduled to air on Monday, June 17. The actor has appeared several times on the game show. His most recent noteworthy appearance was in September 2012 in honor of "Y&R's" 10,000th episode.
AMC PreVUE: Week of May 20, 2013
Michael Muhney on Emmy Nomination: 'I Don't Think I Should Win!'
'Y&R' Cast Performs 'Nadia's Theme': At Home Edition
The cast of "The Young and the Restless" make their own edit of Nadia's Theme, the famous theme song featured on the soap since 1973.
Former 'Y&R' Executive Producer and Head Writer, Maria Arena Bell, Talks Emmy Nominations and Online Soaps
In an interview published in the newest issue of Soap Opera Digest, Maria Arena Bell, the former executive producer and head writer of "The Young and the Restless," shares that the soap submitted episodes #9,999 and #10,000 as part of their Emmy reel in the category of Outstanding Drama Series for the "40th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards."
Reducing 58 Episodes from Planned 168 Per Year Schedule Leaves Only 110 Eps Each for 'AMC' and 'OLTL'; Can Prospect Park Grow It Back Though?
On Thursday, May 16, Prospect Park announced its plan to reduce the episode orders of both "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" from the previously planned 168 original episodes per year (excluding Friday "MORE" shows) to just 110 episodes. Fans remain divided on whether the stated reasons behind the change from four original episodes to just two per week was in fact due to the binge viewing the company claimed in their press release or some bigger reason(s) we're all not privy to, however, the company does admit they can quickly change things should the demand catch up to the supply.
Nominees for the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Announced
Get ready for a star studded event, because the nominees for the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards for outstanding performances in 2013 have been officially been announced, and the list is pretty spectacular! Five film and eight television categories, as well as the SAG Awards honors for outstanding action performances by film and television stunt ensembles, are included in this year's nominations, which honor a variety of stars like Tom Hanks, Matthew McConaughey, Alec Baldwin, Oprah Winfrey, Sandra Bullock and "Scandal's" Kerry Washington.


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The QUATTRO's small and ergonomic design provides the user with comfort and less bulk when used inside a helmet.
The QUATTRO is designed for any skydiving disciplines.


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MIPM Program
-Master of Intellectual Property Management-
Professor Introduction
Kazunari Sugimitu, Ph.D.
Professor (2002-)
Research Institute for Intellectual Property & Science,
Kanazawa Institute of Technology (2002-)
Bachelor of Law, Keio University, 1990
LLM, The University of Tokyo, 1999, Intellectual Property Law
Master of Engineering, Hosei University, 2001, Information Technology
Ph.D., Tohoku University, 2006, Intellectual Property Management
Intellectual Property Management Skill
Intersections of Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law
Technology Branding
Legal issues of "virtual world"
Plagiarism problems in the academic world
Professor Sugimitsu joined Toshiba (Intellectual Property Division) in 1990 and worked as an in-house patent attorney (1991-1994). He served as a patent attorney at Sakai International Patent Office in Tokyo (1995-2000). He completed LLM, The University of Tokyo in 1999 and gained Master of Engineering, Hosei University in 2001. He invented "Intellectual Property Management Skill's Test" in 2004 and it was promoted to national examination in Japan on July, 2008. He is the Executive Director of Association of Intellectual Property Education which hosts that national examination. He served not only on Intellectual Property Skill Standard Committee, Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry, as Chairperson (2005-2007) but also on the Upper House of Japan, as a visiting researcher of Intellectual Property Law (2006-2007). He won the grand prize of the 1st Intellectual Property Academic Encouragement Prize, awarded by both Intellectual Property Association of Japan and TEPIA which is a public-interest corporation, administered by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2008.
As his latest achievement in 2009, the Japanese government(JPO) granted the Distinguished Service Award for promotion of Intellectual Property Laws to him with all deference to the worlds' first unique examination he invented.
He joined Toshiba (Intellectual Property Division) in 1990 and worked as an in-house patent attorney (1991-1994). He served as a patent attorney at Sakai International Patent Office in Tokyo (1995-2000).
Representative Publications
Kato, Koichiro & Sugimitsu, Kazunari. "Handbook of Intellectual Property Management and Strategy", Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation (2008)
Sugimitsu, Kazunari. "Introduction to Law for People in the Science and Engineering Majors", Hougaku-shoin (2007)
Sugimitsu, Kazunari, "A Commentary on the Copyright Law and the Unfair Competition Law", Hougaku-shoin (2006)
Kamiyama, Hiroshi & Sugimitsu, Kazunari, "A Commentary on the Law of Civil Procedure", Hougaku-shoin (2005)
About KIT Toranomon
KIT Toranomon Graduate School
Atago Toyo Bldg. 12F
1-3-4 Atago, Minato-ku, Tokyo
tokyo@kanazawa-it.ac.jp