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electronickingdomfox · 6 months

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"The Starless World" review

Novel from 1978, by Gordon Eklund. It begins with Kirk reading "War and Peace" in bed, when he gets a call from Spock: they've found a lone shuttlecraft, with a man inside who claims to be Jesus Christ. Okay, you got me hooked! I found this novel quite enjoyable and it kept my interest at all times. It's also well-written, and offers a rare glimpse in the characters' private lives from time to time. My main complaint is that the ending was way too rushed, as if the author realized he had a limit of pages and had to solve everything quick, with a literal deus ex machina.

Some spoilers under the cut:

Well, it turns out the man inside the shuttlecraft is not Jesus Christ, but Thomas Clayton. A previous roommate of Kirk in the Academy, whom he had to report for cheating at exams. The man feels quite a lot of resentment for Kirk, but he has also turned completely mad since his disappearance many years ago. He claims to be actually dead, and be the envoy of a god, Ay-nab. He's put inside an isolation cell, but escapes after knocking McCoy out (this doesn't stop McCoy from doing what he does best, even with a bandaged head: mill around the bridge to annoy Spock).

The Enterprise is suddenly attracted by an inescapable force, and sucked into a Dyson sphere. This is a massive hollow sphere with a star at its center. Inside, it's like those snow globes, where there's a little world in the middle of the glass ball. Something like that but in giant scale. Upon beaming down with Sulu and Uhura, Kirk finds out the world, called Lyra, is a literal paradise. They also come into contact with the natives of the only village that seems to exist there. The natives insist that the star inside the sphere is their god, Ay-nab, something that Kirk can't believe at first.

It soon becomes apparent that something's rotten in Lyra, though. The natives talk about the Strangers, people that their god claims for himself, to feed on them. They're more active at night, like zombies. Also, the constant vigilance of the star, only interrupted by the brief eclipses caused by the inner world's moons, starts feeling truly as a "God is watching you" situation. A Klingon ship has been trapped inside Lyra too. And the Klingons seem all too friendly with Kirk, and too eager to escape that place. The reason: Lyra is travelling straight into a black hole.

That's as far as the plot goes, which I don't feel the need to spoil any further. It's not particularly original, but it's entertaining. Many things are similar to the TOS episode "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky". I have to give props to the "lady of the day" in this novel, Ola. She's quite likable, brave and useful, and gets to save Kirk (and everyone else) in the end. Ever since Kirk rescued her from a beast, she insists that Kirk is her husband (though he says they're just good friends). She's described as pretty, and Kirk's rejection is probably due to the fact she's written more as a little girl than an adult. Ah! By the way, she's also literally a white-furred chimpanzee, like all the other natives of Lyra.

One thing I liked in this book are those little scenes with the crew, where nothing relevant to the plot is happening, but that flesh them out as persons. Sulu teaches magic tricks with cards to Ola, yet another weird hobby he got into lately. Kirk, McCoy and Uhura are bored in the bridge and start an increasingly absurd debate about the meaning of the phrase "a needle in a haystack" (you know, that kind of conversations that pop out among coworkers when you're tired and bored and becoming a bit unhinged). McCoy tries to tell Spock a riddle, but Spock interrupts him all the time to point out all the inconsistencies in his tale. And it's so obvious he's actually messing with him. Actually, Spock is kind of funny in this book. He's in full logical mode, but with this underlying sarcasm that lets you know he's quite a bitch deep inside. There's also a surprising amount of backstory for Uhura. We learn a lot about her childhood in Senegal and her father (who she gets to meet! well, kind of...). I think that TOS writers in this era had a greater leeway to invent details for the characters, with less constraints from established canon. Unfortunately, the rushed ending doesn't explore the aftermath of Uhura's plot in the novel.

Spirk Meter: 2/10*. Very, very little. But there's one point where Kirk informs Spock that he's going to meet the Klingons alone, and Spock becomes suddenly quite emotional about the danger (as happened in "Devil in the Dark", when Kirk's alone with the horta). In fact, Kirk is disturbed by the emotional display, and says he didn't know about the depth of Spock's feelings on the issue.

Apart from this, Spock leans on McCoy to smell his breath and check if he's drunk. Which, for a Vulcan, suggests an awful lot of familiarity. They're a bit clingy with each other while on the planet, as well.

Also, there's a comedic bit, where Kirk wakes up in sickbay after going through hell, and finds Scotty's face, hovering over him, "the most gorgeous sight he had ever witnessed in his life".

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

#star trek tos #star trek novels #novel review #k/s #spirk

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at-thezenith · 9 months

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seven snippets, seven people

thank u for tagging me @vcaudley !

The man’s body slowly started to shake, and the earth folded in on itself, allowing the roiling body to sink into the ground.

‘Leave it, Cos,’ Afsara said. ‘We’ve got some kids to brainwash.’

Ola’s magic was familiar to her, of course: it smelled like the rain, like the forest after a storm. It settled heavily on her skin in warm droplets, coating her in Ola’s power like a cloak.

She scoffed, and opened her hand. The knife dissolved into water, landing with a splash on the rotting floorboards.

Her hands were silvery, covered more in scales than skin, and her nails were long and dark, the black seeping into the tips of her fingers. Around her nail beds was the faintest hint of red.

Their voice had taken on a hard edge, and Afsara was suddenly very aware of the power curling around their hands, gently, a snake winding its way through the grass.

‘Monsters. Shouldn’t have been allowed to exist.’

‘Are you scared of horses?’

‘…Go to sleep.’

tfc taglist: @mel-writes-with-her-dragons @hydrancheas @charlesjosephwrites @kosmic-kore @outpost51 @megarywrites

tagging (gently) @megarywrites @vollzz @violets-in-her-arms-writes @wardenwyrd @sarah-sandwich-writes @fuckalicent

#tag games #the faery children #tfc #tfc snippet

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necromatador · 4 years

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Couriers: VS Drakkar

Okay I am v. behind on Couriers summaries so I’m going to make a bunch of posts that summarize but also hopefully hit the emotions right.

Picking up where I left off: The big showdown vs Drakkar.

We made it to the Mouth of the World, a *MASSIVE* hole in the ocean, just literally a hole, like this:

but like a mile across in the middle of the ocean.

Drakkar’s ship, the Maelstrom, is anchored near the edge. Walker gives the party some temp HP and Bud gives us Water Walking just in case. We come right up on them in a broadside, latching the Seahawk to it as we leap aboard. The crew of the Seahawk pushes forward to distract his sea-zombie crew, while the party cuts through to head directly for Drakkar himself. Aeron and Keyleth are slowed as sea-zombie hands literally reach through the deck and grab us, but Kaicis hits Drakkar with a Firebolt and Nimh charges forward through the sea mist surrounding us to get him with a Ray of Frost.

Drakkar reveals he has the ability to electrify the sea mist covering the ship, but Kaicis traps him in a radiant-damage Wall of Fire. This doesn’t hold Drakkar for long, though, and he Terminator walks through the wall to slash at Kaicis, who Hellish Rebukes him in response. Keyleth uses his glass-tipped arrow to escape the grab and double-marks Drakkar, and Aeron escapes and rushes forward to stab Drakkar, but we’re all grabbed again and he summons a massive wave to knock us all prone. Aeron uses his glass-tipped arrow to escape prone, and Nimh uses Misty Step to appear just above Drakkar and does a dramatic hammer-smash downswing coupled with a smite to do massive damage break one of Drakkar’s arms. After another round of hits, including another massive hit by Nimh, Drakkar finally grabs the still restrained Kelvayla and uses his control of the sea to escape the ship over to an outcropping on the edge of the Mouth of the World.

We follow via Water Walk and on the way we are slightly waylaid by some water elementals, and arrive at the outcropping to find a heavily corrupted Drakkar who is now half tentacle and undersea monstrosity. The water around the Mouth of the World starts swirling and bubbling. Keyleth circles around Drakkar to get Kelvayla, who is tied up at the edge of the outcropping hanging over the precipice. Aeron and Nimh push through a fear effect and attack Drakkar, but Nimh is grabbed and thrown into Kaicis. Aeron panics and uses Hunger of Hadar, enveloping Drakkar, but Drakkar uses a blast from Kaicis to judge which direction to move out of it and swamps the outcropping with a wave that pushes Keyleth into the Hunger of Hadar. Aeron drops the spell, and Keyleth rushes Drakkar to hit him with the Sunblade. Nimh meanwhile roars, revealing their scales, and breathes ice breath on Drakkar, charging him and knocking him prone. Tentacles of some massive creature, barbed and thicker than any tree, start reaching out of the Mouth of the World.

Drakkar does another surge-step over to the edge where Kelvayla is and cuts her bonds, sending her falling into the pit of tentacles. But then, with a flash of light, she rises back up in the arms of a woman made of the same crystal as the Star. Cilali.

She blinds Drakkar with her light and everyone rushes forward to attack him, knocking him back into the Mouth of the World, which screams and closes. We all move forward as Cilali and Kelvayla descend to the outcropping, and then pass out.

We wake up back on the ship, Nimh having a major breakdown about the fact that we all have seen their transformation revealed. Keyleth accidentally makes them feel more like a monster with an unintentional comment, while Aeron tries to assure them that he doesn’t think of them as a monster. Nimh doesn’t believe him, and spends the next while quiet and largely avoiding the others as best they can.

We loot the Maelstrom, which we notice has stopped magically repairing itself, and find a strange gilded bracelet and a load of raw mithril. Then we blow it up before we leave. Keyleth confronts Aeron about the magic he uses after having experienced Hunger of Hadar during the fight against Drakkar, and Aeron explains it as having come from a book he’s been slowly translating. Keyleth asks to see it, but Aeron’s throat tightens and he gives an excuse of ‘maybe later’ and leaves. Nimh spends a few days healing a comatose Cilali, who eventually awakens. We explain to her that something bad had clearly happened at the temple, but her people still exist on Ola Ola. After some small consideration, Cilali doesn’t want to go back to them, feeling some guilt for not being there for them, and also wanting to explore the world.

We head back to the Ossa Maria for restocking and some healing/relaxation. Before we get there, the Kuo-toa give Aeron one last basket of prayers and then leave. We were given special accommodations and were told a celebratory feast would be held that night in our honor. We were allowed to enter the sacred garden where their weather orb was located, and were told that the Great Mother wanted to talk to us in person, giving us her blessing and thanks; a massive honor. Afterwards we had the feast and fireworks and a huge celebration. Nimh and Walker snuck away for a bit during the celebration and pierced Nimh’s ears for them.

A bit later, we finally geared up to leave and Xel’bal joined the Seahawk crew officially. The final ride to Fangport took several calm and uneventful days, during which the Sunblade was given to Cilali as a gift. The night before we disembarked, Aeron snuck into Kelvayla’s room while she slept and stole one of her horn cuffs, putting it on as a bangle bracelet.

The next day we disembarked to a big fanfare of the crew of the Seahawk and another musical number, after which they attempt to hit Aeron with a cannon-shot made of fruit as a final friendly revenge for his previous shenanigans. As the Seahawk makes a quick retreat from the Fangport docks, Aeron waves them away with the arm that has the stolen horn cuff/bangle on it, and in the distance he sees Kelvayla squint, realize, and start to yell and make to jump off the ship, only to be held back by a laughing Walker.

#couriers campaign #D&D #nm plays D&D #dugeons and dragons

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vsplusonline · 4 years

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For Covid-19 battered auto dealers, the worst may be yet to come

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/for-covid-19-battered-auto-dealers-the-worst-may-be-yet-to-come/

For Covid-19 battered auto dealers, the worst may be yet to come

The month of April this year was noteworthy, at least for the country’s auto sector. It was the first month in the history of the Indian auto sector when it registered absolute zero sales. This highlights the magnitude of the blow the Covid-19 and the nationwide lockdown have brought to an already beleaguered sector.

The lockdown’s far reaching blow to the sector has been so drastic that the industry body SIAM estimates that the auto industry would lose Rs 2,300 crore turnover every day due to the lockdown. The lobby body has projected that the country will witness a massive drop in auto sales, which could be as high as 35% for some segments. This, it says, is over and above the 18% de-growth of FY20.

With locked showrooms for almost two months, auto dealers now stare at a stark future. Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), the national body of automobile retailers in India, believes the epidemic had hit it at a time when it was preparing for recovery in sales growth after 15 months of a downturn.

In recent times, thanks to the virus’ fallout, more than 275 dealerships had to shut down, says FADA, whose President, Ashish Harsharaj Kale, believes the virus and the nationwide lockdown has hit the industry “at the worst possible time”.

Experts say auto sales are purely discretionary purchases and that is biggest Achilles heel. According to Kale, it’s in the government’s interest to take measures to revive the auto demand because the setor has a multiplier effect on the entire economy.

Acknowledging the need to get the economy moving, the government while introducing lockdown 3.0 brought in many relaxations, but most believe these did not result in any material change on the ground for the auto dealers.

“I don’t think anything will improve right now, because the big issue lies with the supply chain. With factories only resuming activities, I don’t see any major improvement unless things improve overall in the larger ecosystem,” says Chinmay Bafna, Managing Director of Mumbai-based Anzen Automotive. It is not just the supply chain that is a cause of worry. Many fear the high degree a ‘return of license raj’, red-tapism and widespread bureaucratic bottlenecks are other critical hindrances that are currently limiting the scope of any possible economic recovery of this segment.

ET Online

According to Garima Misra, MD of the automobile dealership chain Landmark Group, there was a negligible difference the lockdown 3.0 had brought to the sector. “The relaxations did not help us. The MHA guidelines were all good on paper, but approvals were not really coming,” she says, adding every state did not follow the MHA guidelines to a tee.

Misra adds that with little or manpower in the showrooms, no manufacturers to provide the key supplies, opening a showroom and waiting for a customer to turn up made little sense. With lockdown 4.0 there is hope that the situation may change slowly.

Need for speed The auto dealers segment employs over 40 lakh employees across the country, with 25 lakh direct employees and another 15 lakh indirectly dependent on dealerships for their livelihood, says FADA. Kale says the majority of the auto dealerships are family-run small scale businesses with each, at an average employing 70-150 people. The lobby body now fears as Covid’s toll surge, many in this section would be pushed out of business.

It is not just the present, which is difficult for these dealers, but the future also looks very uncertain. Selling cars online can become an accepted model and companies like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda and a bunch of luxury car makers are already allowing customers that option. According to a survey done by the Capgemini Research Institute, 70% Indian car buyers may prefer to take a digital route over visiting a dealership. That is a cause of concern.

On the flip side, as social distancing norms become even more prevalent, many may consider buying their own car or two-wheeler, if they do not have one. Many do not consider it safe to avail ride hailing services like Ola and Uber and using public transport is also a cause of worry. There is also the hope that pent-up demand in the economy would help get sales up in the future. However, as the entire economy grapples with the economic shock, consumers may just not have enough money or the willingness to invest in a car.

Misra of Group Landmark goes on to highlight that auto dealers work on a nominal margin of 1.5- 2% Return on sales (ROS). “For auto dealers, the two biggest expenses are rent and wages. Salary and wages constitute close to 40% of our total operating cost. With absolutely zero sales, how could we bear those mammoth costs” wonders Misra, adding the segment does not sit on huge cash surplus, as may be the case with other sectors.

“Though we do high turnover business, we don’t possess accumulated profits like other sectors. The sector’s present situation is such if your interest rate goes up even a bit, you are immediately down in the dumps,” she remarks, adding the government’s 3-month loan moratorium on offer, is a deferment and not a waiver. Even if businesses avail the moratorium, it is also not that the dealership fraternity is expecting its sales number to magically raise manifold, post the 3-months.

ET Online

For the country’s auto dealers, the issue of unsold BS-IV vehicle stock is another key concern. The industry fears that many dealers face closure if leftover with unsold BS-IV vehicles lasts with them. The issue has now turned so critical that FADA has once again approached the Supreme Court with a request for the permission of sale and registration of BS-IV vehicles till 31st May’20.

“All these piled up inventory has been taken on loans. Their [dealers] homes are attached, properties are attached, and the issue is none of their faults. There is no way they would be able to pay up in the current situation,” highlights Misra of Group Landmark.

Talks of turnaround To help the auto dealers’ fraternity remain afloat in these unprecedented times, the industry body FADA wants a complete waiver of interest on all categories of loans from banks and NBFCs for the entire period of the lockdown. It also wants the government to extend 4% interest subvention/subsidy for working capital/loan requirements to companies for a period of 9 months post the lockdown. More importantly, the lobby body wants the salary of employees for the lockdown period to be paid through ESIC as it believes this is a health pandemic and, thus salary liabilities should be covered under the same by ESI.

The country’s tax regime is also an aspect where FADA believes few tweaks can significantly help the sector tide over the crisis. “The automotive sector is crippled by very high GST rates, whose net impact ranges from 29% to 50% depending on the category of the vehicle. Thus, a reduction in GST for a temporary period will lower the cost of acquisition and will be a good incentive towards stimulating demand,” says Kale . Alternatively, he also suggests a direct benefit to consumers of 3-4% interest rate reduction through banks and NBFCs to reduce the overall cost of owning a vehicle, besides asking the government to include auto Industry in priority sector lending so that both retail and wholesale financing can be made available easily.

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jeremystrele · 4 years

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The Top 10 Most Loved Homes Of 2019!

Homes

by Lucy Feagins, Editor

The entry area to Mardi Ola’s spectacular converted warehouse in South Yarra. Antique cabinet filled with various art pieces: David Bromley ‘Noah’s Ark Bronze Animals’, Gemma Smith acrylic sculpture from Sarah Cottier Gallery, and Vanilla Netto neon from Arc One Gallery. Vintage Soriana sofas purchased on 1st Dibs. Painting by Gemma Smith from Sarah Cottier Gallery. Painting in hallway by Vanilla Netto from Arc One Gallery. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

View of the library. Vintage pendant from 1st Dibs. Jardan ‘Sunny’ sofa. Behruz Studio rug. Joe Columbo ‘Elda’ chair. Curtis Jére ‘Brads’ table lamp. Maria Fernando Cardoso feathered hanging totem from Arc One Gallery. ‘Blow Up’ chair from 2st Dibs. Gemma Smith paintings from Sarah Cottier gallery. Vintage leather dining chairs from 1st Dibs. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

‘This is actually the girls’ homework table – it’s never looked neater!’ Mardi says. Solid oak tripod table by Louella Tuckey. Vintage Japanese glass vessels on table from Made In Japan. Industrial steel doors and windows by Skyrange. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

View into the kitchen. Lacanche range, custom brass rangehood surround. Solid European oak joinery with stone masonry by Hendersons (‘seriously the best laughs ever working with those guys!’ Mardi says), vintage plaster from Geoffrey Hatty. Swing placement by Louella Tuckey – who insisted Mardi needed it in the kitchen. Cappellini ‘Hi-Pad’ stools from Dedece. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A Jaw-Dropping Apartment Is One Of Australia’s First Warehouse Conversions

Everyone is now familiar with the converted warehouse… but this was one of the first examples in Australia! This home of designer Mardi Orla is seriously jaw-dropping, with soaring ceilings and a New-York-In-The-60s vibe. The vintage mushroom collection is NOT TO BE SCROLLED OVER. We can hardly believe this home is in Melbourne!

Revisit the original story here

Looking through the dining room out to the garden. Lamps in distance by PET Lamp from Safari Living. Washed blue cabinet from Manon bis. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A quiet nook. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Barb in her lush European garden, which she created with the help of local landscaper Gavin Smith. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A Stylish, Sentimental Home In St Kilda

When our art director Annie Portelli gets excited about a home she’s styled for one of our shoots, we sit up and pay attention. Annie was seriously buzzing over the St Kilda home of Barb Hyman and her family. Barb renovated this once derelict grand mansion, into a chic and sprawling terrace of finely crafted luxury.

Revisit the original story here.

The dining room looking out over that beautiful Warrandyte view! Wall hanging, cushion and ottoman by Sage x Clare. Leather chaise, dining table, wooden hand and shell chandelier all found at vintage bazaars. Dining chairs from Instagram account @ccss_tm. Jardan rug found on Gumtree. Lighting by Lights Lights Lights. Swing by Jesse Cleay. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Papasan chair from Gumtree. Cushion by Sage x Clare. Indigenous art from Leonard Joel. Palmtree art by Natalie Jade via Greenhouse Interiors. Black and white pot from Iggy & Lou Lou. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The amazing outdoor area. Dining chairs from Ikea. Table from Gumtree. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A Warrandyte Delight

Over the last few years we’ve seen so many Melbournian’s head to Warrandyte in search of a tree change close to the city. Another major plus is the incredible modernist and mid-century homes you can still find in wonderful condition in the area! The unconventional property of Sage and Clare’s Phoebe Bell and Chris Monahan is a perfect example. The sprawling property is home to two families, filled with colourful art and objects, with sweeping views over the treetops.

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The southern shady garden view of the house. The reading room upstairs angles to look out at the large snow gum. The rain chain was at the request from Fleur and carries rain from the small roof. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

View from the kitchen through the hallway and into the guest bedroom. Fleur’s father collected old books, and she says she has ‘inherited a love for them’. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

View from the living room to the dining and kitchen, as well as the deck and garden (partially established here by Bush Projects Landscape Architects). Another piece from the early morning group trip to the timber yard, which according to Fleur is ‘lovely to hug’. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A Magical Inner City Treehouse

Fleur Glenn’s treehouse, designed by architect Murray Barker, is truly something to behold. This charming, yet contemporary home in Clifton Hill perfectly caters to this empty-nester’s book filled and tree-lined life!

Revisit the original story here.

‘When we bought the house, only the left side was there. We felt the house looked unbalanced so when drawing up the plans we wanted to balance it out. We used the same colourbond steel and existing design features as we wanted it to look like it had always been like this, and not a new extension. We were so lucky with our builder as he had done the original renovation the year before so was across all the finishes and colours we needed. I love the dark tones of this house against all the greenery’, Chyka explains. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

The outdoor area is one of Chyka’s favourite places. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

This room was originally a gallery and didn’t really work for Bruce and Chyka. They decided to double the width and turn the colour scheme black – they wanted it to look dramatic, so peaked the ceiling to add the drama with three antler chandeliers. The room is light and bright thanks to the doors to the courtyard. The couch and chairs were old ones they recovered. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.

The Impossibly Chic Chyka Weekender

Chyka Keebaugh puts her own distinctive flair on her ‘Nordic meets The Hamptons’ weekender! The Big Group co-founder was scrolling through instagram when she spied this holiday home (seriously!) and secured the property! Together with husband Bruce, Chyka embarked on large-scale renovations, including extending the grand master bedroom and major landscaping around THAT spectacular new pool.

Revisit the original story here.

Sophie’s favourite view. ‘We decided to lay a ceramic tile that looks like wood in the kitchen and take it out to the garden. No one realises it’s actually a tile’ Sophie reveals! Rug from Pompon Bazar. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A snapshot of some of Sophie’s favourite artworks, by Esther Stewart and Bec Smith. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Sophie’s Gubi beetle chair sitting on the edge of the living room. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A Colourful, Art-Filled Family Home in Balmain

Fashion industry expert Sophie Trippe-Smith and her entrepreneur husband Adam have got some SERIOUS style! This bright and cheerful renovated 1880’s Balmain terrace is filled with colourful Australian artwork and eclectic pieces.

Revisit the original story here.

The bright and joyful house of Kip&Co co-founder Alex McCabe, partner Bobby Babb and 10-month old Quincy! Pink concrete bench by Rutso, ‘the one thing I absolutely wanted for the house and love it’, Alex tells. Crocodile bamboo quartz splashback, found by Bobby and Alex peeking out from a dusty corner of a stone warehouse in Melbourne. Aged brass cabinets ‘roughed up” by Alex and Bobby with some apple cider vinegar. Black paper maché vase from India. Blue and white Italianate ceramic pot handed down from Alex’s grandma. A mix of European pottery and Indian paper maché vases on the shelf. Custom-made stools by Jason Blake. Mud Australia Pebble Bowl Large in Slate used as a fruit bowl. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Bedding and rug are new season Kip&Co (available in March!). Simple bedside tables from Grandfathers Axe. Bedside lamps from Cove Island Essentials in Canggu, Bali. Paintings are by Nancy Nodea and Peggy Patrick from the Warmun Art Centre, ‘both artists are from the Kimberley and work in traditional style, including using ochre from the local area.’ Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Outdoor chairs from Bali. Marble table top sourced on a trip to India. ‘Kip&Co’s manufacturing base is in India, so we try to get there at least twice a year’, Alex tells ‘Sometimes we get some time to sneak off and connect with amazing local artisans, like those in the stone workshop where this table is from’. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A Home Of Joy And Light With Alex McCabe In Kip&Co

The home of Alex McCabe, founder of Kip&Co is, unsurprisingly, a joyful burst of colour! Bright pops of art, textiles and objects create a unique sense of character in this St Kilda home, but the scene-stealer for us is that kitchen splashback. So glam!

Revisit the original story here.

Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The Timeless Beachside Home Of A Magazine Industry Legend

Deborah Bibby is a magazine industry legend, having spent 11 years as Editor-In-Chief at Real Living Magazine, as well as working as editor at JONES Magazine, Dolly, and Cleo. What a line-up! Deb brings her exacting eye for detail to this renovated beachside haven. A timeless delight!

Revisit the original story here.

The home was originally designed by Australian designer, builder and landscape architect Alistair Knox, who is renowned for many wonderful homes in the Eltham area. Pop and Scott Dreamweaver Pot. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

”I sobbed with happiness that all I could see were trees around me’ Sunni said of the first night they moved in. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The reading nook with a delightful ‘hodge-podge’ of secondhand furniture.Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A Home With A Warm Hart

Doula Sunni Hart is a veritable ray of sunshine, so it is no surprise that the Eltham home she shares with partner Pete their two kids, Fox and Dizzy, as well as housemates Tilly and Thea, is a warm and welcoming space. The sprawling Alistair Knox-designed property was a dream come true for Sunni, who has long loved the Eltham home. The family have brought their own personal flair to this mid-century delight, introducing their own ’hodge-podge’ of treasured collections to the stunning home.

Revisit the original story here.

The custom-designed mousehole entrance to Emma and Tom Lane’s spectacular Spanish-inspired home in the Byron Hinterland. Dragon tree in custom-designed corten pot. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The living room. 300-year-old Croatian roof tiles sourced by Sonya from Jatana Tiles line the floor. Oregon timber shelves made from the old roof trusses in the original house. Sunken lounge designed in partnership with Sarah Ellison Studios. Rafters made from recycled spotted gum from a bridge in Goulburn. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The living room, overlooking the expansive property. Sunken lounge designed in partnership with Sarah Ellison Studios. Coffee table from Ha’veli of Byron Bay. Solid stone Byron Bay-built fireplace made from basalt rocks foraged on the property. Rafters made from recycled spotted gum from a bridge in Goulburn.Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The pool area overlooking the Byron Hinterlands.Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A Spectacular Spanish-Influenced Homestead In The Byron Hinterland

If there was one hone that really took our collective breath away this year, this was it. Emma and Tom Lane of the beloved The Farm in Byron Bay shared their own spectacular home in Coopers Shoot in the Byron Hinterland. The Range is set on 120 acres and was designed and built using adaptive reuse principles, with an emphasis on natural and recycled materials. The result it a serene and luxurious haven, designed for inside/outside living. Seriously, if this isn’t ‘living the dream’, we don’t know what is!

Revisit the original story here.

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workfromhom · 5 years

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Shuttl is winning over office workers in India with safer bus commute option

Miles away from the fancy parts of Gurgaon, where a cohort of Uber and Ola cars race all day to dot the surrounding, hundreds of people are working on a different solution to contribute to India’s push for improved mobility.

When Uber entered India six years ago, and its local rival Ola began to expand in the nation, many thought the two cab services will be able to meet the needs of most Indians. To be sure, the heavily discounted cab rides in the early days meant that the two companies were able to quickly scale their businesses to dozens of cities and were clocking about three million rides a day.

But in the years since, it has become clear that Ola and Uber alone can’t serve the masses — a significant portion of which lacks the means to book a cab ride — or magically circumvent through India’s alarmingly congested roads. This has resulted in the emergence of a growing number of electric bike makers such as Yulu — which partnered with Uber last month, Vogo — which is backed by Ola, Bounce, and Ather Energy that are both showing promising growth and attracting big bucks from investors.

For four years, another startup has been quietly working on expanding its platform. But unlike the bike startups and cab aggressors, it is betting on buses. Shuttl operates over 1,300 buses in more than 300 routes in five cities of India. The platform serves more than 65,000 customers each day.

Shuttl, too, hasn’t had much difficulty in attracting capital. It has raised about $48.5 million to date. TechCrunch recently learned that the startup was in talks with investors to raise an additional $50 million. Amit Singh, cofounder and CEO of Shuttl, declined to comment on the upcoming funding round. But he sat with us to explain his business and the challenges it comes with.

from Facebook – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2IWN8IP via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Facebook – TechCrunch

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un-enfant-immature · 5 years

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Shuttl is winning over office workers in India with safer bus commute option

#TechCrunch

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toomanysinks · 5 years

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India’s Swiggy goes beyond food to offer product delivery from local stores

Swiggy, the Indian food delivery service, has made its much anticipated moved into general deliveries today after it announced its new ‘stores’ product.

The move has been speculated since as early as 2017, but recent developments have taken the company closer towards the expansion. Last September, Swiggy picked up delivery service SuprDaily in an acquisition while the company went on to raise a $1 billion funding round in December. That round was led by Naspers, it put Swiggy’s valuation to $3.3 billion and saw Tencent, the Chinese internet giant behind WeChat among others, join as an investor.

Money in the bank? Check. Expertise on the team? Check. Swiggy now seems positioned to make this major move.

Stores will be available within the core Swiggy app, and it will cover fruit and Vegetables, kiranas and supermarkets, florists, health supplements, medicine, baby care products and more.

But the company is moving slowly first out. The initial rollout is a phased one that’s happening in Gurgaon, where it has racked up partnerships with retailers that will cover 3,500 stores in the city. Deliveries are aimed at being an hour or less, and early partners include Le Marche, Guardian Pharmacy and Zappfresh.com, the company said.

This expansion raises Swiggy’s competitive edge with food delivery rivals FoodPanda (which is owned by Ola), Zomato and UberEats by giving consumers more reasons to turn to the Swiggy service. That’s a move that the company will hope can increase revenue and engagement at the expense of the competition, which now includes Amazon.

The move from food to general deliveries mirrors the strategy of Meituan, another Swiggy investor from China. Meituan generates the majority of its business from food but, while it has scaled impressively, it is not yet profitable. Still, it is working with big numbers. The company went public in a Hong Kong IPO last year that raised over $4 billion; it’s current market cap is around $40 billion.

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Swiggy co-founder and CEO Sriharsha Majety said in a blog post that the company has long harbored the ambition to expand beyond food.

Starting off in 2014, we envisioned a world where restaurant delivery would be amazing and awesome. A world where you didn’t have merely a handful of restaurants that would deliver. A world without high minimum order amounts, and very importantly, where you didn’t need to call the restaurant every 5 minutes asking the dreaded “ladka nikal gaya kya” question. We envisioned a world where we could democratize 35-minute deliveries to every restaurant in the country and introduce a convenient and delightful food ordering experience for every consumer.

Four years and hundreds of millions of orders later, we can confidently say we bring convenience to the doorstep of consumers across the country. Despite millions of Indians ordering food, we believe food delivery is still in its nascent stages. So, while we continued to build out more magical realities in the food ordering space, a lot of consumers, non-restaurant merchants and retailers were asking us when we would extend this superpower (convenience) to needs outside of food ordering.

With the largest active last mile fleet in the country and a paranoid focus on consumer-centricity, we began asking ourselves the same question. We realized we could bring the food delivery like magical reality and convenience to a lot of other local commerce needs. Just like how we democratized seamless delivery across over half a lakh restaurants in the country, we can democratize convenience across millions of other merchants/ businesses in our cities.

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/11/swiggy-store/

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twilightpony4 · 6 years

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Ola Americano... Turtle?: 21. Cerberus

“Cerberus? That looks nothing like an aardvark!” Mikey cringed as it stood before them. Donatello rolled his eyes. “Not Cerebus the comic, ‘Cerberus’: a three headed dog from Greek mythology.” “History lesson: over!” Raphael shoved in between them. He unsheathed on of his sais and used it as a finger. “Time to make that thing history.” He pointed. Chapelin unveiled an unmarked can. Finger on the trigger, he smiled as he began to press down the top. He reached for the side of his hip and hand a tab of duct tape. He pointed the red air away from his body as he taped the trigger down. Then, he chucked it down at the mutants below. They were on the defense, moving away from whatever it was. They moved away from it, but the constant spray travelled in all directions as it came into contact with scales and shell.

“What the shell was that?” Raphael coughed, trying to keep himself from breathing it in. After observing the chemical’s properties upon touching them and how the color came out red, Donatello had a hunch and took a swift breath. He took a second to soak it in and assess the situation. “It’s not poisonous.” With that, everyone took a breath. Leonardo pulled out both of his katanas. “Just a distraction.” He claimed. However, as they contemplated on what happened, the Mouser roared and charged at the family.

“Split up!” He ordered as it came barreling in. Every single head lurched at someone, wishing to take a bite from them. From its first calm demeanor, they couldn’t see something as fast and responsive as this thing. “We need to hit in on all sides.” That’s just what they did. Each mutant looked for a way in by bashing its side or getting a lucky hit on the head. “How do you hit something that won’t dent?” Mona asked in shock after repeated offenses with the ball end of her naga surujin did nothing to its body. Instead, a head targeted her. When it lunged, Mona was quick to roll underneath it and come out on the other side. “Dig deep, my ninja family.” He spoke low after he had to retreat from trying to get between the bases of a pair on the necks. Leo caught himself on a single knee, leaning forward to catch his breath. “The trick to inspire is without sounding like a fortune cookie.” Raphael quoted as he was dancing with the left head. “Okay, chief?” Alas as he fought it, it lunged, causing him to double back. Mikey came in time before it could strike again. He ran in front of it and gave it a rather pathetic tap on its nose with his nunchuk ( and also telling it ‘no’) like a dog) and pulled Raphael to safety with Venus’ help.

Leonardo kneeled there for a second. His eye caught his tallest brother who was failing to tap it with his bo staff. When he failed, the purple banded terrapin retreated to Leonardo’s side. “Can you shut it down, Donnie?” He asked of him. Donatello looked up to the rafters to see Chapelin smile down. When his eyes met the turtle’s, the smile faded and he took a step back. “You insult me.” He smirked. “But I need a distraction.” “Just thinking of a strategy.” Leonardo smiled under his uncertainness. But, his brother needed a distraction. Leo got up and began to charge the creature back. Donatello went to work and ran away from the scene. “Look at him run.” Chapelin laughed. “He’s the smart one!” Man, did they all want to sucker punch him after belching that out. However, they were a little busy trying to keep alive.

They’ve fought people, they’ve fought people in armor, they’ve fought magic, but fighting a machine… this was a first. How do you eat something up that barely dents and will break bone if kicked? Venus was the first to ask the obvious question after many failed attempts to at least slow it down with her might had no effect on it. “How do you fight that?” She shrieked as it chased her. Leonardo, on the other side, rushed it and gave its side a slash . Only one katana made contact. The contact gave him an uncomfortable jolt, but it brought him hope. Before it turned around to see where the assault came from, he noticed a white cut on its hide. “Slice and dice.” He did it again when the nearest head came about. He repeated the procedure again, this time it only scraped the top of its ‘muzzle’. “Oh, you guys have fun while I fan it to death.” Venus was able to get rid of the snide remark as she continued dodging the creature by jumping behind poles and inanimate machines. Each time it went for her, she jumped in which it would only harm what she was just on. Mona came around, swinging her naga surujin and releasing it. The ball smacked the head away, in which Venus was able to make her escape. “Set the toaster up for Raph and I to hack it.” Leo furtherly explained. “Yes! Stabbing!” Raphael pumped his elbow and fist in excitement. “I never get to do that!” Running behind him, Mona remarked: “Then today’s a really good day for you.” She smiled before going back out there. “Focus on the heads!” It was Donatello. During the time, he made his way up to the rafters where Dr. Chapelin was. Mikey was a little nervous about the questionable tactic. “If we cut off one of its heads, will it grow back?” He called up. The mouser was charging the herd of the family, in which he had to dodge. “No, that’s a Hydra.” Donnie called back. That’s all he needed to hear to set it off.

Mona spun the ball end over her head. With each swing it gained tremendous momentum. When it felt right, she threw it, letting it wrap around its left neck. The machine was strong, immediately jerking her forward. There was no balance to gain by standing still and pulling back, so the lizard girl went for it by charging it. Eventually, the machine’s neck rose, causing her to rise and swing with it. Since it would try to take a bite out of a fighting mutant, her toes would drag along the ground as she tried to escape its gaping maw. With sharp observance, she noticed the neck’s flexibility. Although robust, it could not bend in sharp positions but in fixed, rounded positions. The girl took a gamble and shuffled to stay directly beneath its neck. The specific head could no longer sense her for she was out of its range, but it wasn’t to say that the other heads may catch a glimpse of her. “Help me hold it down!” She shouted to whomever could be useful as she tried to pull the neck still. Her efforts were meager. Michelangelo had been trying to time the machine while trying to keep out of its sights. When the time was right, he made a bold decision to slide underneath it. Leg first, he slid to the next base and stopped just before he could go past the mutant girl. By her feet, he used his strength and weight to contain the machine. “We got him! We got him!” Mikey hollered joyfully as they wrangled the beast. With that code, it gave Raphael his time for his early Christmas present. Currently being chased by the middle head, he had to devise a plan to ditch it and get the contained one without it getting him or his siblings down below. While pondering that thought, he was caught off guard. The right head wound up to the side when he was not paying attention. “Raph, look out!” Leo shouted. Too late. Wound up, the head swung hard at the terrapin, taking his body with it as it pushed him aside like a rag doll and flying. He hit the floor hard and rolled for some time. During the action, the left head lifted to get out of the range of motion, thus picking up the two mutants trying to hold it down. They watched as their brother flew just underneath their dangling legs. Up in the air, Mona pulled herself until her legs were wrapped around the wide tubing. She reached down to grab one of Michelangelo’s hands and strained to pull him up until he was hugging the machine. “I’d kill for a knife right now.” Mona expressed as she stared at the mechanic. Michelangelo then began to swing his legs back and forth. Gaining momentum, he swung them up to straddle the neck of it just under Mona Lisa, Then, he used a single arm to reach the back underneath his sweatshirt around his waist. He grunted and strained until he pulled out two pieces of silver. With an extended hand, he asked: “Would a shuriken do instead?” Mona smiled and took one. Both began vigorously by using its sharp edge to saw into the metal. It would take a while, but at least they were able to do something. In the meanwhile, Raphael was ready to lay some hate. He was up on his knees. His legs were shocked, but he was too far gone to notice. With an animalistic glare, he wiped the good sized cut on his arm, smearing the blood with it. “You’re mine.” He muttered before getting up. In a flash, he charged it. Both sais were concealed in his grips until he flipped them into a position to do some real damage. The Mouser was mainly focused on Leonardo and Venus who were dancing with it and finding ways to get in it. The red banded turtle kept quiet until he leaped up. His back arched back with his arms up high. With brute strength, he gave it his all when the tips of his sais sank into the hot metal. The other heads were too busy with the blue bands and the offended head’s optics did not pick up on the turtle who sat just above the sensitive area. Angry, he stabbed it over and over, making sure it was in places to get the head cut off from the neck but as well as leaving random spots just for the fun of it. Mona and Michelangelo’s efforts were meager, but no one seemed to care as the job was getting done. “Help!” Raph called to the two. He sat on the head, putting his foot at the edge of the neck and pushed off with his leg. Mona and Mikey snaked up until they could get a comfortable grip around the overheating and sparking contraption. The three made a group effort to pry the head off with slow success. Pulling and pulling, they gave one last heave until the last of the wires snapped from its core. The ones on the neck were hanging upside down like monkeys as they no longer had a grip on the now falling head. A shower of sparks began to flow from the cut, in which the two began to retreat and jump off. The head took Raphael with him. It did indeed land in him, but it was not heavy for the most part. With a smile, he pushed it off of him and smirked at it.

“A little help, please!” It was Leonardo. He was working on the far right head. With katanas drawn he was looking for a way on the inside to destroy it. Meanwhile, Venus was standing just behind him. With her arms and hands out towards the beat, Leonardo acted as a protector as she stood there, eyes closed. From her hands came the usual blue glow. What came off where two blue rays that shot at the machine’s body. With each blast, and invisible force pushed her back. She strained to keep herself up. “It’s too strong!” She cried. Her magic was not working. Shurikens, she can stop, but this, nope. After the call, Raphael jumped in with Leo. The middle head saw the large red banded turtle slip underneath it. The beast roared, catching Raph’s attention. Then, it came at him, jaw fully unhinged. Jumping over him, Leonardo got in the way with both of his katanas in an ‘x’ formation before him. The action stopped the mouser from biting, but with the swords caught on the surface of its jaw, the mouser continued to push. Its forced sent Leonardo back and knocking Raphael out of the way. The leader struggled to keep up his strength as the machine knocked him down and kept pushing him back. Mona and Mikey hung on for dear life as it made the leader slide against the floor. The wall and his shell brought a shock to his back. He gasped as the machine kept putting pressure on him. Leo was trying to hard to fight back that his arms gave out to its power. Now its sharp teeth were inches away from his head. However, he could not see the next thing coming. The right head came it and pushed him from the wall, hitting him from the side. As his body flew, the head caught him by the straps of him back. Like a dog, it swung him around and shook his body cold. Raph picked himself up in horror as he could only watch Leo become a rag doll to the machine. He wanted to do something about it, but was then busy fighting with the middle head.

Mona struggled to wind up her naga surujin as the machine moved them about. Due to the struggle of holding on, she knew they had to be more secured. It was hard to keep her arm in the correct position to swing the ball around. Each time the machine rose, she had to duck down so she wouldn’t get clocked by her own weapon. Her arm followed when the chain was let go. The ball wound against the base of the neck of the middle head. Michelangelo took hold of her arm and climbed up the chain with her. However, one of them lost their footing, soon causing the two of them to hang on for dear life on the chain as they were swinging back and forth along its flat back.

While Leonardo struggled to keep alive as the machine shook him, it took a quick turn for the worst. Using its own momentum as it rolled its head around, when the peak of its nose got to the top, the mouser let him go. Leonardo was airborne. He had absolutely no control as he tried to gain anything to help him. Unfortunately, below him was the gaping mouth of the mouser. “Leo!” The others saw another blue turtle jump in the Mouser’s open mouth. This, however, did not stop the flying turtle to land in the mouser’s mouth as planned. Careful positioning caused the machine to bite into two shells rather than touch a carapace. With the strong bone structure and the loss of force due to its widely opened mouth, the jagged jaws did not pierce into their shells. Rather, the pressure was on for the two stuck in the middle. The intense pressure limited their breathing as it tried to smash them in its mouth. “Hi.” He spoke in a hushed & hoarse tone as he was being pushed against her. “Hi.” She returned in an equal manner; both acting oblivious to their current situation of being in something’s jaw. Being on top, Venus tried to create some relief. She pressed her hands on his shoulders and pushed herself up. Only minimal results returned, but Venus continued to push until a real solution would submerge. There was virtually no maneuvering room inside the mouth, making it hard to reposition his sword with a single hand. Then, he began to press down into the floor of its mouth. He could not stab it, but slowly he cut into its palette. Slowly, he whittled away at its jaw hinge. Finally, the hinge popped at the mercy of his katana and the corner of the bottom of its jaw hung. Along with it, the two turtles were halfway upside down. Because the other side of the jaw was holding nothing but smooth shell surface, they began to slip out of its mouth. With quick thinking, Venus purposely slid off. She grabbed a hold of his hand in which he swung her up and around to get on top of the head. Venus took a hold of one of his katanas. Although it was heavier than she would have imagined and was unfamiliar with how to carry it, she did her best. Wielding it over her head, she stabbed down at its neck. Machines could feel no pain, but the reaction of a roar came about. Opening its mouth, Leonardo took no time to climb out of the mouth and climb to the top with the female turtle. He gave her a quick smirk for her job well done before he used his remaining sword to stab into the side of the head and pull down. Then, he took the one Venus stabbed in and made it cut in the other direction. The action took the mouser’s head clean off. Due to its spark-flying neck, both turtles jumped down and out of the way. Leonardo put his foot on the fallen head and pulled out both of his weapons.

Raphael did his little signature yell. Both sais drawn, he held them up high until they pierced the metal. The head moved around, but Raphael use his weight to hold it and himself down. To keep it from opening its mouth, Donnie came out of nowhere with his unsheathed bo staff that pierced the side of its jaw to keep it from opening. Furthering the precaution, Mona’s naga surujin wrapped around its nose. Using Mona and the taut chain as a ladder, Venus and Michelangelo both jumped on the head. All the force brought it down to where it was an inch from touching the ground. Soon, Leonardo came in by stabbing it right at the base of the head and neck. With full force and both katanas, he evenly sliced the last head off.

“That will be enough from you.” Leonardo remarked as he pointed the tip of the blade from the last head. The main machine still moved and sputtered sparks. Without its heads, the sensors could not tell the main frame what to do, in which the body was an utter wreck. Due to the danger of getting electrocuted or burned, they left it to Donatello to shut it all down. Now, their job was to keep out of the machine’s way. To check on his progress and to confront Chapelin, the group climbed back up to the broken rafters. Upon getting there, they saw only Donatello. In his hands was a controller, in which he navigated to control the machine. He then sighed for he had figured out how to shut down the discording body. The machine was done, but Chapelin was not present. They all trotted towards him. They caught his eye in which he turned with a worried expression. “He’s gone?” Venus asked as she saw the frayed group of thick cable wires at the base of a pole. “No he isn’t.”

#tmntfanfiction #TMNT2014 #tmnt2016 #olaamericanoturtle

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phoenixiancrystallist · 5 months

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Forspoken Photo Dump 190: Somewhere Near Cipal; The Pilgrim's Path, Part 1

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bowlerkathryn-blog · 7 years

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East Somerville Main Streets to host annual Foodie Crawl

Originally published in the Somerville Journal on Sept. 21, 2017.

By Katie Bowler

Summer has officially ended, the weather is getting colder by the day, and school is in session. But that doesn’t mean the fun has to stop.

The Foodie Crawl made its way to East Somerville this week. Sponsored by East Somerville Main Streets (ESMS), the crawl promoted the neighborhood and its local businesses.

“We aim at helping the small businesses in the area to both survive and thrive and maintain the flavor and the uniqueness of the neighborhood,” said Director of ESMS Teresa Vasquez-Dodero. “It’s...a showcase of the food and diversity that we have.”

Almost all of the restaurants on Broadway participated, including: Fasika, Rincon Mexicano, Ola Cafe, Gauchao, Vinny’s, Tapatio, Maya Sol, La Brasa, Mount Vernon, Blanca’s Bakery, Blessing Caribbean, Taqueria Montecaisto, Taco Loco, Casey’s, Joe’s Liquors, Los Paisanos, Deano’s Pasta, and Fat Hen.

And this year, Aeronaut Brewing Company opened a beer garden with live musical performances.

The crawl is a great way for restaurants to expand their reach and get new clients, said Vasquez-Dodero. Rather than setting up booths outside, the restaurants open their doors and people can pop in as they stroll down the street.

“From our feedback from the businesses, they’ve noticed increased business,” she continued. ”[They’re] inviting potential customers who might not necessarily have come...it opens their business to a new world of clients.”

There were a handful of check-in areas scattered throughout East Somerville, for easy convenience from T-riders and drivers. At some of the check-in tents, said Vasquez-Dodero, there were musical performances, including Morningside Music Studio. And, she added, Maya Sol and Rincon Mexicano scheduled their own performances.

“We’re really excited to bring a celebration that kind of...will stimulate all of your senses,” said Vasquez-Dodero.

Though the street was not shut down, there were heavy police details around to make sure everything ran smoothly.

In addition to the food, drinks, and performances, the Foodie Crawl also highlights local artists.

ESMS has been collaborating with several local artists on different projects, according to Vasquez-Dodero, including Nate Swain, Lauren Donnellan, Brian Wentworth, Liz LaManche, Laura Smith, and Emily Bhargava.

Some artists live in the area, others are from the area, she continued. But all of them want to highlight the vibrant and diverse neighborhood of East Somerville. Vasquez-Dodero hopes to continue partnering with the artists over the next several months.

“We’re really trying to make East Somerville a destination and a really cool destination, not just for the amazing restaurants, but because visually it’s really, really and exuberant place,” she said.

Currently, she said, keeping details locked tight, the partners are working on a project at Deano’s Pasta Factory, which they hope to unveil in November. Not only is East Somerville a place for art, but it’s also a place for manufacturing, she continued.

“It’s incredible, like you would never even think of this as a manufacturing site but it is,” said Vasquez-Dodero. “We are celebrating, we’re working on a creating a corridor that celebrates the manufacturing in East Somerville, the people that are engaged in it and the amount of people that are working in it through creating really large-scale murals.”

Each year Vasquez-Dodero looks forward to seeing everyone having a good time and trying new things. The Foodie Crawl, she says, is always a spectacle, with beautiful decorations and beautiful people.

“It just feels amazing to see all of our neighbors just stroll up and down the street, and it feels really magical,” she said. “Everybody sees each other and it just becomes a festivity for all of your senses.”

#news #profiles

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necromatador · 5 years

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Couriers: Ola-Ola Part 2

I realized I forgot to post a recap of last week’s session, so here’s one as I wait on this week’s session to begin lol

Last week we started back at the town of Kaikala, having just seen Kaicis and Keyleth off on their mission into the jungle to rescue the innkeeper’s daughter. Aeron and Nimh go for a quick shopping trip to get dried fruit and some fruit juice to enjoy down at the beach. Nimh lays on the beach a bit next to Sunny and Xel’bal, the two tortle crewmembers. Aeron splashes about in the shallows, collecting seashells. He gets spooked by a crab, who clicks its claws at him menacingly. Aeron is an enemy of all crab-kind apparently after the crab swarm on the kuo-toa island. After a bit of collecting shells, he settles back up near Nimh and the tortles. Nimh reveals that this is the closest to home they’ve felt since they left, which is odd since their home would be frozen solid in winter right now. They also revealed that it either was, or was very close to, their Name-day. They explained that while birthdays aren’t really celebrated, goliaths instead observe the day they’ve survived for a year, which is the day they’re given a name. Aeron then explains birthdays, or at least how his family celebrates them, to Nimh, and mentions that if it’s really their birthday/name-day, then they can do whatever Nimh wants, and also he reveals that he was cleaning up the big hydra fang he found among the hydra teeth earlier to give as a gift to Nimh anyway (maybe so it could be made into a dagger for them or something).

Then, as they relax on the beach and Aeron builds a sand-castle (decorated with the shells he found), he notices a huge flock of seagulls nearby and goes over to investigate. He finds they’re mobbing a bunch of baby turtles trying to get down the beach from their nest to the ocean, and with a yell of “BABIES!” he drives off the seagulls with Prestidigitation. Nimh and Sunny, curious now at the cry of “BABIES!” come to see what the fuss is and help to shelter and shepherd the baby turtles on their journey. Nimh holds some baby turtles in their hands and almost cries about how small they are.

~~~

Meanwhile back with Keyleth and Kaicis, they’re stuck at a tea party with an archfey. Kaicis is asked to invite Belmont over to the table and gives him a quiet warning not to eat or drink, then tactfully calls out Nahele as an archfey so Keyleth knows as well. The two continue to talk a bit with Nahele and find that he rules court over the fey of all the islands in this archipelago and he hasn’t been to this one in a while but it’s lovely this time of year.

~~~

Back in town, Aeron and Nimh have a proper lunch of crab stew and Aeron relays Walker’s apology to Nimh (in Walker’s voice). Vendus joins us and pulls Nimh aside for a second to see what their reaction (as apparent leader of the party) would be to mutiny on the Seahawk, as several members of the crew are very unhappy with how Kelvayla has been doing things. Nimh replies that they will keep the party out of danger, noting that it’s best really if there’s no bloodshed because there’s been enough already. Vendus thinks on this, and takes his leave.

Returning to the table, Nimh tells Aeron he was right about the potential for mutiny, and tells their answer, which Aeron approves of. Then Nimh drags Aeron to the fishing competition (which he bemoans is boring because “all the old geezers back home do that off the piers and bridge when there’s nothing better to do”).

~~~

At Nahele’s table, Kaicis and Keyleth finally manage to peak the archfey’s interest in the festival and fishing competition enough to have him agree to let everyone head to the festival. Himself included, as Kaicis notes he’s sure to be a welcome guest at the town. Nahele says that they’ll head over as soon as everyone finishes their tea. Kaicis excuses himself as too full already, Keyleth apologizes that he doesn’t like tea, Belmont similarly excuses himself, and then it’s down to Akela, who goes to finish the tea she’d started before the group got there.

~~~

The fishing competition is begun for the kekoa fish, basically salmon that swim up the island’s river every year, with a prize of a fancy crown of feathers, and Aeron immediately asks Nimh how to fish because he needs that crown like now. Nimh chuckles and proceeds to teach Aeron how to spear fish. After Nimh lands a nearly 30 inch long fish, Aeron compliments them and tries his hand...getting immediately bowled over by a kekoa. Nimh gently taunts him and he fluffs up in indignation, promising he’ll beat them. The next round, Nimh catches a 19 inch fish, and Aeron catches a 41 inch fish, which he flaunts. Nimh calls it beginner’s luck.

For the next round, Nimh helps Aeron by putting him on their shoulders to give him a height boost and he ends up catching a 43 inch fish. Finally, Aeron uses his perch on Nimh’s shoulders to spot for them...the Monster. A massive kekoa, charging down the river. They concentrate and throw the spear...and catch a 46 inch fish. Nearly bowled over by its size, Nimh grapples it and then scoops Aeron under their other arm and the pair of them run around in victory for a bit.

~~~

Akela’s cup of tea refused to empty no matter how much she drank. After like literally an hour of waffling back and forth on plans and desperately trying not to fail at the verbal jousting with Nahele, Kaicis finally made a tea cup with Prestidigitation and they poured Akela’s tea into that, thus meaning that her cup was empty and she was done with her tea. They began to head to the festival and arrived just in time for the award ceremony for the fishing competition.

Nimh came in second place with Aeron’s 43 inch fish, which they’d traded to Aeron for the 46 inch fish...making Aeron the winner! He was crowned with the feather crown and given a woven cape in the colors of the kekoa, which is probably magic. The party regrouped, with Nimh bluntly refusing to hear what had happened with Kaicis and Keyleth because they were safe and the kid was safe. The K-Team did warn to be careful around Nahele though. Then the festival settled down to feast on the fish caught in the competition, with Aeron and the party settled at the head table, with his winning fish cooked beautifully and set out for them. A group of dancers performed a fire dance, showing the story of Nantzintli who formed the world by splitting herself into her daughters to corral the primordial darkness with their light to keep it confined into land for the people to live on. The party feasts and drinks, some more than others. Nimh takes an early leave to go walk along the beach, and while Kaicis helps a heavily drunk Keyleth back to the ship (Aeron stayed in town partying his tail feathers off) they see Walker go off down the beach after Nimh.

Nimh and Walker have a small talk, where Walker apologizes in person for revealing Nimh’s scale issue to Kelvayla, as well as for Kelvayla being kinda a dick about it. Nimh brings up the fact that they will have to eventually leave once this whole treasure hunt is over, but tells him that they will miss him when they do. Walker says that it’s alright if it ends, as long as it’s this nice while it lasts. And we ended the session with Nimh leaning their head against Walker’s shoulder.

#nm plays D&D #dungeons and dragons #D&D #couriers campaign

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thinkgizmo-blog · 7 years

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What does Internet of Things (IoT) offer to a common man?

Internet of Things (IoT) offers a common man the power to control, monitor and secure things like never before with their voice or smartphone app through the internet. It saves energy and works smartly to add efficiency and convenience in our everyday life. IoT brings a more connected life to people than ever. It’s high time you should know the benefits of IoT to the general public.

The important benefits of Internet of Things are 1. Connected Homes with smart devices 2. Personal Assistants 3. Connected Health Services with smart medical devices

1. Connected Homes with smart devices

Connected Home, also called as Smart Home, is the most popular IoT application because of the affordable cost and wide availability of its devices. In a smart home, you can automate your home devices and control them with a remote or mobile app even when you are not present there.

Key Benefits of Smart Homes

1.a Connected Lights

With an app on your smartphone or tablet, you can control lights in your house via the internet or Communication protocols like Bluetooth, WiFI, Zigbee, Z-Wave, etc. You can do the following things in a Smart Home. Turn On or Off lights at a specified time. Dim lights, change colour. Create profiles or modes with a defined configuration for single or multiple lights to suit your moods(4)– Ex: Movie Mode, Party Mode, Relax Mode, Out-of-Home Mode. Have your lights automatically turn on when you enter a room.

1.b Connected Appliances

Monitor and control all your home appliances

Air Conditioner

You can turn on your AC minutes before you reach home from the office or outside during hot summer days for your convenience so that you will enter your room at a perfect temperature.

Heater

You can schedule the geyser to turn ON at a particular time in the morning to get hot water to make sure it doesn’t take up your last minutes while getting ready to your office. Other Home IoT Appliances: Smart/ Connected electricity meter, gas meter, lawn sprinklers, washer/dryer/dishwasher, cleaning/vacuum, etc. Now you can turn off all the unnecessary appliances with a single click on an option in a mobile app or a switch whenever you plan to step out of your home. If you are not sure after leaving home whether you have turned your appliances off or not, you can still monitor the status of the appliances and control them using a mobile app.

1.c Smart Safety, Security and Easy Monitoring Opportunities

Arm your house with smart door locks. You can control them remotely and they can send you notifications when somebody uses your door. You can set your lights to turn on automatically when no one is at home to keep away burglars. It would be especially useful during long vacation periods. With Smoke Detectors you can get alerts immediately when there is smoke. Likewise, You can also monitor your kitchen for gas leakage.

You can set your camera to detect if there is any activity at your doorstep and to record the activity. See who is near the door and interact with them from anywhere – whether you are at home or not.

2. Personal Assistants

Personal Assistants are a dream come true for many. Personal Assistants like Amazon’s Echo with its voice assistant Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, etc., allow users to talk to get their things done. Users can tell their assistant to play their favourite music, provide weather report, get sports scores, book an Ola ride, and more. The device can also function as a central hub for your other smart home devices. Assistance For The Visually Impaired There are apps that use GPS technology to assist people with visual impairments navigate the outside world. The apps can guide users to their location and orient them in their environment.

3. Connected Health Services with smart medical devices

Today, it is possible to remotely monitor a patient’s health with the use of a network of sensors, actuators and other mobile communication devices, referred to as the Internet of Things for Medical Devices (IoT-MD). It is also known as telemedicine. This kind of treatment helps patients avoid travelling to a hospital or physician's office whenever they have medical questions or change in their condition.

Connected healthcare programs help people use scarce resources to get an improved quality of care, leading to better clinical outcomes. Examples of IoT-MD include Remote monitoring of people with chronic or long-term illness, Tracking patient medication orders and the location of patients admitted to hospitals and Patients' wearable mHealth devices for sending information to caregivers.

Wearables

Watches aren't any longer only for telling time. The Apple Watch and other smartwatches on the market have turned our wrists into smartphone holsters by enabling text messaging, phone calls, and more. And devices like Fitbit and Jawbone have helped revolutionise the fitness world by giving individuals additional information regarding their workouts. The Fitness connected wearables track your steps, distance lined in jogging/walking, floors climbed, calories burned, sleep quality and other activities. Wearable devices use wirelessly connected glucometers, scales, pulse rate and blood pressure monitors. Devices helping in observing real-time intensive care unit procedure are indeed a big part of IoT. There are devices for wireless ultrasound observation and remote vital sign observation from a hospital atmosphere. There are talking thermometers that tell regarding the temperature when simply pressing a button on that and bandages that are capable of indicating whether or not the wound is cured. There are tools that notify you when the prescription is close to the end and even order the prescription for you before it's empty.

Future benefits of IoT to a common man

Smart home devices are costlier than their non-connected counterparts. So, customers will surely feel the hit in their wallets initially. Consider than connected light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs price $15 on the average, compared to $8 for non-connected LED bulbs. The price of these connected bulbs has dropped within the last two years, and the costs of smart home IoT devices might decline even more and make them more cost-effective to the typical customer. Convenient future, if not a magical future is ahead for sure. a. Imagine “smart mirrors” that allow you to try on clothes digitally. b. Imagine a refrigerator with a camera that takes pictures of what’s inside, measures how long the food has been left and sends information like that to a mobile app. A display panel also shows similar information. It could even automatically replace an empty milk box. c. Driverless Cars. d. Personal Assistant for every home. e. Home Automation/ Smart Home will not be an add-on feature. It will become one of the basic essentials of any house. f. Imagine an oven that lets you set cook times and temperature based on recipes you pick with an App. g. Deployment of Drones in Logistics will become popular. h. Imagine a GPS-guided agricultural equipment that can plant, fertilise and harvest crops. It’s not science fiction anymore. We are witnessing the next Industrial Revolution now. It’s so big that it could mean new revenue streams for your company and new opportunities for you. Now you have understood the applications of IoT to a common man. To know about how IoT exactly works, please read the article on “How to explain Internet of Things to your boss”. Know about all the smart products available at ThinkGizmo

#iot #internet of things #smart devices #smart home #smart living #smart tech gadgets #wearables #connected devices #home automation #Technology gadgets #Gadgets #connected lights #security systems #personal assistants #connected healthcare market #internet of everything #iiot

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rkbahuja · 7 years

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From Tales to Talkies, the Terribly Tiny community isn’t so tiny anymore. What started with incredibly enticing stories narrated in just 140 characters has now grown to memorable short films that touch all the right chords. Helming this transformation in storytelling are Chintan Ruparel and Anuj Gosalia, the Co – Founders of Terribly Tiny Tales and Terribly Tiny Talkies.

On a rainy evening, I caught up with Chintan, who had just returned from the edit of one of their Father’s Day films. As the office bustled with energy, we sat down for a freewheeling chat about all things Talkies. As Chintan passionately spoke about films, the journey that it has been for TTT, the various film formats they are experimenting with and more, I couldn’t help but feel amazed and inspired. With such hearts and minds involved in the art of filmmaking, we can surely look forward to a revolution in cinema, one that has already begun.

Here are excerpts from our conversation.

Chintan Ruparel

What prompted the expansion from Tales to Talkies?

Anuj (Gosalia, Co-Founder) and I always wanted to expand storytelling to different formats, and films were such a tempting segment to explore! Anuj loves cinema, he also ran a blog called Popcorn Friday where he reviewed films. Coming from an advertising background, I’ve seen films happening in front of me. You think of an idea, a story and then see it happen in front of you, you see the magic on the sets and it just sweeps you off your feet. With writing, it’s just the paper and you; you are everything. But when it comes to films, there are so many people involved; to control that, bring that to the table, have a shared vision and also make money out of something like films is a huge challenge. So we thought of dabbling with films, short films to begin with. The challenge was to adapt the 140 characters (from Tales) to something like film. Because, what is terribly tiny when it comes to film – is it 10 sec, 50 sec, 1 minute or 10 minutes? There was nothing to define it. So we thought of starting with five minutes.

We contacted all our friends in the advertising industry, film industry, writing community etc., as we knew quite a lot of them who were very talented. But they were not really able to do what they liked or make films the way they wanted to. They were all frustrated in their work and had expressed an interest in working with us if we were to expand to film. So we called four filmmakers and I was the fifth, because if I had to give feedback to a filmmaker, I had to know how to make a film. So I made my first film with the first edition of Talkies. We made five films of five minutes each on the theme of love. The first edition premiered at Matterden where we had a full house of people. It was a great sign and that encouraged us to make more films.

The challenge was to adapt the 140 characters (from Tales) to something like film

You started off with a 5-minute bracket and now have 10, even 15 min films, what determines the stories you’d like to back as a platform?

One is the honesty in storytelling. The idea should be close to the maker in some way and should be something that he or she really wants to make. Apart from that, it should be an idea that hasn’t been done before, or hasn’t been said in this way. It should be fresh. The last and the most important thing is that it should be engaging. Initially, we began with 5-minutes but we realized that a lot of filmmakers suffered as a result because they felt that if one more shot or one more sequence could have been included, it would have added to the overall telling of the story. So, we decided to relax ourselves on time and told them to keep it under 15 – 20 minutes, with 7 – 10 minutes being ideal. But if the film is engaging enough and needs more time, we will not let length kill an idea.

Chintan Ruparel with Anuj Gosalia (Left)

A large number of your films are very red-letter day/occasion specific, what is the thought behind this approach?

Our films are designed for social media and not necessarily designed for virality in terms of the content. These red-letter days are a good time when people want to share stuff. The Internet is bombarded with content, so much is being thrown at you on a red-letter day. So we didn’t want to be those people who curate or collate or distribute content that is designed on virality. We wanted to keep it occasion specific. Other content creators go the whole viral route, they are designed in a way to make people laugh, they create sketches and so on, but we were never those people. We wanted to tell a story that has value. That was a tough call but that is what defines us.

We have a Terribly Tiny community that looks forwards to these films on all occasions.

Our films are not necessarily designed for virality in terms of the content

Which brings me to your recent Father’s Day films. What was the thought that went into these heartwarming stories?

The relationship between fathers and children is very special. It’s a given that mothers do more – give more, express more etc. But there is something so amazing about these species called ‘Fathers’. They apparently don’t do enough and while there is a whole patriarchal side to them, if you leave that aside, they are sweethearts who need to be celebrated. We have all had those special moments with our dads while growing up.

What we also realized is that the relationship between a father and son is more strained than that between a father and daughter. These films will mostly touch upon that and how fathers are awkward in expressing what their feeling. They don’t say a lot of things but do feel them.

So, we’re releasing two films this time, because in addition to passion and love, we need to take on meaningful brand collaborations that add to our portfolio and also generate revenue to fund the other films that are produced solely by us. We’re doing one film with Ola Cabs called ‘Rear View’. It’s about two fathers colliding – a passenger who is a single father and a driver, who is an expectant father. The conversation they have and how that changes the course of their lives in one day and how they end up touching more lives around them because of that, is what the film is all about.

The other film is called ‘Aamad’ which means ‘invitation’. It is the story about a son who returns home after many years, in his 30s, and finds his father on the deathbed. Their relationship was strained in the past and what efforts the son makes to mend things with his dad and whether he can make up or not forms the crux of the story.

When it comes to these movies, what is the making process, how do they come together?

We’re currently doing three kinds of films. One is for our YouTube audience, proprietary films that are not backed by brands, films that we want to put out regardless of brand or no brand. These films define what Talkies is all about. And people look forward to these films and we make it a point to surprise and delight them in some way.

The other is branded content which keeps money coming into the bank, but we aim to collaborate in the right way. Several brands want to do ad films with us, but once you go down that route, it’s hard to come back. So we stick to collaborating with brands that are interested in telling meaningful stories. It has been very good so far but budgets are still a challenge because brands don’t see the returns in this, what such a film can do for their brand. It’s a fairly new way of telling stories for them. So we’re taking one step at a time.

The third is the film festival route. This year, we’ve already commissioned a few films, one is ready and the other is going on floors next week, which are purely for film festivals. We wanted to test ourselves against the best out there. So we will not be in a hurry to release these films because they may give us a new audience, a new reputation and open more doors with VOD platforms.

We’re launching a fourth kind, which is contest-based. This Friendship’s Day we’re opening up Talkies to college campuses. We’re asking students to make films (under 5-minutes) on friendship and submit them. We’ll choose the best and put them online under TTT Campus. A lot of these kids aspire to make films and we’re fairly known in that (student/youth) community. So it’s worth exploring.

We co-incubate, co-create, creatively produce, platform the film, promote it and oversee the creative process

While making proprietary films, solely backed by TTT, do you’ll approach filmmakers or does it work both ways?

We get a lot of queries and I have script readings everyday. Thankfully, we now have Sharanya Rajgopal on board. She is a fantastic writer and has worked on several feature films earlier. Sharanya is the Chief Writer here and anything that come to us, first goes to her. When any script comes to us, we first assess if it is the kind of film we’re looking at, if the scale is right, it is not going over budget and so on. A lot of writers send us their scripts, so we see if they want to make their first film or are they fine with us giving it to somebody else to direct. We prefer writer-directors because they’re more in control of their craft.

From this year onwards, we’re having more emphasis on the script and Sharanya is the best gatekeeper for that. She’s also creative producer, so both of us work very closely. We sit with filmmakers and try to understand what they want to make. Sometimes we call filmmakers whose work we like and ask if they’d like to attempt any of the upcoming red-letter day films. From there on, it’s a collaborative effort. But we don’t get into production. We are like the studio, we co-incubate, co-create, more importantly creatively produce, platform the film, promote it and oversee the creative process. We outsource production depending on the film and the maker.

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Is it a conscious decision to stay away from production?

Yes. Even if it’s writing, we call ourselves ‘enablers’ as a platform. We want to enable more storytellers. If we get into production, there is another round of headaches; permissions, taxes, several risks. We may get into it in the future, but as of now this model gives us scope to do more. Unless the team expands and we feel a dire need to have a production of our own, we would rather outsource it.

People don’t understand how to treat sex in India

Coming to your audience, while the younger crowd is hooked on to TTT, your target is not restricted to them alone, Khujli being a successful example. Is it important to target this new demographic that includes our parents?

With platforms like AIB and TVF, you may not or cannot necessarily watch that content with your parents. But we want our films to be enjoyed by everyone. We’re okay with going edgy like in Khujli as long as the story and content is good. It was a conscious decision to make a film like that because people don’t understand how to treat sex in India. Sex and humor haven’t gone well together, and you have films like Masti and other very bad films being made. So, to have that right balance of a good story with good performers and then make it well and make sure it reaches the right audience was a challenge but we enjoy such challenges. We wanted to move on to different genres and experiment with different kinds of films. One of the films that we’re making this year is a horror film. Again, horror is not a genre that is explored well in India. We’re doing a horror film for Raksha Bandhan (smiles). It’s a very different take on a brother-sister relationship, and we can’t wait for it!

With so many players in the short film segment, what does it take to keep it sustainable?

Not many people know this, but for one entire year, we didn’t make films at all. After making around 13 films; five films in the first edition for Valentines Day 2015, five more films on Mother’s Day in the same year, and then three films on Independence Day, we realized that we’d put in a fair amount of money, but it was not coming back! We realized that passion is one thing, but economics is a completely different ball game. And these films consumed most of my time, so we needed to have some returns on investment. After a lull year in 2016, we are back in 2017 doing more films. We’re making a comeback of sorts. Economics was a huge reason why we stopped films for a year. Also, there is a way to smartly package content and deliver it well. With so many VOD platforms coming up, there is potential to sell content and recover or even make money.

Our ‘Backspace’ videos are a new way of telling a story in a video

Going forward would you’ll be open to exploring other formats like features, web series et all? If so, will it be in a similar space to the content you’ll are exploring now?

A lot of people ask us if we would do feature films and I say why not?! We don’t want to rule out anything. We’re already experimenting with various formats. As I mentioned, with TTT Campus we’ll be exploring student short films though it’s a risk because they don’t know how to package films and do QC but it is a new format for us. Another thing we’re really proud of is called ‘Backspace’ videos, which you can see on our Facebook and Instagram account. These videos are executed on the basis of WhatsApp chats that people have. Because a lot of times, you type something but erase it and send something else. That psychology of hesitation, how our minds work, is a very interesting concept that can be explored around various themes. It is a new way of telling a story in a video. Some of these videos are backed by brands and we’re getting a phenomenal response.

We’re trying to crack new formats and are open to things. The moment we find a story that we feel is different from what’s out there, and we need put our hearts and money in it, we’ll make it happen.

Revolutionizing storytelling with each tiny step: Chintan Ruparel on TTT From Tales to Talkies, the Terribly Tiny community isn’t so tiny anymore. What started with incredibly enticing stories narrated in just 140 characters has now grown to memorable short films that touch all the right chords.

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naheemc · 7 years

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Y Combinator was a heretic among venture capitalists when it backed its first eight companies in 2005. Co-founder Paul Graham later wrote that his philosophy was that “investors should be making more, smaller investments, they should be funding hackers instead of suits, and they should be willing to fund younger founders.” Heresies piled up from there. Graham, along with his wife and co-founder Jessica Livingston, accepted applications from anyone, not just via personal introductions, as almost all venture capitalists do today. They chose inexperienced college students over startup veterans. The “batches” of startups were given small investments and expected to work wherever they could find near Harvard University, where YC was born. Y Combinator, which has since relocated to California, was virtually ignored at the time. Today, its approach is practically conventional wisdom. The accelerator-turned-venture fund values ranks among the most successful in Silicon Valley. Its mission to mint new startups is copied by hundreds of accelerators around the world. YC says its portfolio is worth about $80 billion 1 with more than 50 companies worth at least $100 million and several above $1 billion, such as Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe. But ask YC president Sam Altman if the program has achieved its vision, and the answer is no. That will require one more apostasy: start thousands of new startups without ever coming to Silicon Valley. Altman says he’s trying to prove it’s possible later this year by accepting 10,000 new companies into its new online Startup School. “The original, long-standing goal of YC is that startups are good for the world and individual, and how can we get more of them?” said Altman in an interview in early May. Today, the assumption is that Silicon Valley enjoys an alchemy of talent, ambition, money, and mentality few can replicate (though not for lack of trying). This Silicon Valley terroir, this theory goes, is as unique to startups as Napa’s wine country up the road is for great vintages. Countries and cities struggling to recreate Silicon Valley shouldn’t waste their time. And neither should accelerators that don’t offer funding, exclusivity, or the potential for serendipitous encounters with the powerful and influential players of the Valley. Another school of thought sees this as nonsense. In this theory, we’re accustomed to thinking about startups and entrepreneurialism as magic, but we’re better off seeing it as engineering. Raw talent and startup potential are distributed everywhere in the world. Finding the right way to support them can unlock Silicon Valley-style success. Naval Ravikant, co-founder of AngelList, a platform matching investors with early-stage startups, subscribes to this second view. As technology visits the same turmoil on venture capital it has on other industries, this will become clear. “Venture capitalists like to say there’s only a few good new companies every year. I looked at my physics textbook but couldn’t find that law of nature,” he said. “The idea that innovation is limited to small number of people who gather in Silicon Valley is ludicrous. … The number of startups is only limited by human ingenuity and the market’s ability to absorb them.” Scaling the Y Combinator way For now, YC can only turn out about 200 companies per year through its bi-annual program in Mountain View, California. In technology terms, YC itself has not really scaled. Most of what it does remains analog and manual: mentoring in classrooms, weekly dinners, and a program requiring everyone to live in California for months at a time. So a few years ago, Altman and Graham began plotting ways to expand YC. One of the first attempts was a series of 20 lectures on starting companies, taught by Altman and guest speakers at Stanford in 2014. That was followed by an 8-week fellowship program in 2016 (now discontinued) offering a light-weight version of YC with $12,000 grants and access to advice from the YC community. Although none were breakout hits, the experiments were promising. In April 2017, StartupSchool.org was born. The 10-week massively open online course (MOOC), billed as a free online version of YC, promised to “teach people about how to start a startup, and equip them with the needed resources.” The first cohort was made up of 3,000 companies from 141 countries. Participants are not offered YC’s standard deal of $120,000 for a 7% ownership stake, but are given a chance to “replicate much of the YC experience” through a virtual program with mentors, collaboration with peers, and video lectures, as well as receive discounts on services worth thousands of dollars from Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and other companies. YC also encourages the startups to apply to its core program, where they would get financial backing as well. A screenshot from Y Combinator’s software showing active companies in Startup School. (Y Combinator)Now, Startup School will accept about 10,000 companies in early 2018, says Altman, and potentially more after that. The companies use custom-built software to collaborate, pour over their weekly metrics, and attend weekly mentoring sessions with YC alumni (200 volunteered to meet with participants). Lectures by executives and employees from WhatsApp, Stripe, Reddit, Facebook, Khosla Ventures, and Sequoia Capital are taped and broadcast through Stanford’s CS 183F class “Startup School: The First 100 Days.” Mentors hold group sessions with founders on Google Hangouts to hash out problems. VIDEO YC claims Startup School has cracked the code on a new type of educational institution to start companies (only without “runaway costs and declining educational standards” of universities, says Altman). It claims only 20% of participants have dropped out after eight weeks (companies must complete 90% of weekly updates and office hours to stay in the program) compared to a typical attrition rate in MOOCS of 87% (pdf). “I think we’ve stumbled on this free, lightweight online version of YC,” says Altman. “We’ve really been able to replicate a significant fraction of the YC experience.” Sandiep Medisetti, founder of alumni relations startup Almabase in the first cohort, said half the value comes from interacting with peers at their own companies over video and text chat. His mentor, a YC graduate who volunteers several hours per week, has been instrumental in solving customer-relations challenges for Almabase’s 100 or so clients. “A couple of my friends in India are doing startups who are just going clueless and do not know what to do,” he said. If Startup School works, YC wants to grow its model to global proportions. Theoretically, there’s no inherent limit to how many companies can join YC if its core value is collaboration and online advice (the ratio of mentors to startups at the moment is 30:1, although YC plans to increase this). For Avichal Garg, a former director of product management at Facebook, the not-so-secret sauce is YC’s methodology. “There’s a bunch of things that YC got right which are still true,” he said after a Startup School lecture on a sunny afternoon on Stanford’s campus this May. Garg said the handful of principles that YC shares freely online are simple but proven to work—from identifying a clear problem to constant experimentation and reporting weekly results. “Lots of what they are doing is teaching the same thing to people over and over again. That’s the really interesting bit about this,” he said, referencing countless blog posts, videos and slide decks. “The content you can find on the internet. But putting the structure around it to deliver it and create the right incentive structures around it—you get that right and it can scale.” The difference, he argues, is like reading an exercise book versus hiring a personal trainer. Give the whole world a startup Accelerators supply young companies with education, mentorship, and financing for a few months to speed up their growth. But is YC (or any accelerator) the right way to mass-produce more companies? Researchers who study accelerator programs have a tentative answer: it depends. The best accelerators do work, says Susan Cohen, a management professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, but buyer beware. Cohen tracks accelerator performance at Seed Rankings. She found that top firms generally deliver on the promise of speeding up a company’s fundraising and customer growth, but there is a wide range and the lowest performing accelerators can even harm a young company’s growth. Simply adding more zeros behind the number of companies in accelerators will not work. Cohen calls YC’s Startup School “a phenomenal experiment,” but she believes to succeed YC will need to sustain traits she’s seen in all great accelerators. “The best are able to help even the most confident entrepreneurs understand that, while they have a very promising idea, they still have quite a ways to go to fulfill their vision,” she said. “Then, back up that motivation with resources for the entrepreneur to learn what they need to achieve their goals.” If it does fail, she suggested, founders will catch on soon enough. “The market is efficient,” says Cohen. “There’s a sorting: successful [accelerator] programs will survive, and the other programs may not.” The heart of YC’s philosophy is that world has too few people solving fixable problems, a “bottleneck in society,” says Garg. “If you fundamentally believe that, then [Startup School] is exactly the right thing to do. You are empowering a bunch of people to just try and it’ll turn out it’s going to be way easier than they thought it was going to be. And there’ll be more progress.” Most Popular

https://qz.com/987043/y-combinator-will-back-10000-startups-to-prove-theres-nothing-magical-about-silicon-valley/

#IFTTT #Feedly

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