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radexchangeprogram · 3 years

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This is a random one but can I request head cannons of the Brothers and Dateables reacting to an MC that’s actually a half demon but was really great at hiding her demon side since she grew up in the human world? They see a demon man just bounding towards MC before the boys could do anything MC’s like “DAD! 😃” before jumping in his arms like a child. Around her Dad she gains fangs and horns like him but she reverts back to normal when she wants to. The boys are like “Why didn’t you say anything?” And she’s like “I’m just used to my human side” or “You never asked 🤷🏾‍♀️”

Of course! I love this idea. I didn’t get a chance to proof read this so I apologize for any grammatical mistakes.

Author’s notes at the end (marked by *s)

Spoiler warning for up to chapter 17 to be safe. Especially with Belphie.

Half Demon GN!MC Headcanons

General

Everyone noticed that you never seemed too bothered by the fact that you were surrounded by demons, but figured you were just rather good at adapting.

This theory was proven wrong at a party Lord Diavolo hosted.

As you chatted with the brothers, a large demon with griffon wings, a lion’s mane, and horns similar to a gazelle began to head in the direction of your group.

The demon, who the others instantly recognized as Duke Vapula, walked up to them with a cheeky grin.

The brothers were instantly on guard, Mammon even growling slightly, as it was extremely uncommon for anyone to approach them so casually.

Diavolo, Barbatos, Simeon, Luke, and Solomon all took notice and were prepared to intervine should something happen.

You turned around to see what the issue was and let out a loud gasp.

“DAD!”

Lucifer

Absolutely dumbfounded. How did he not know about this? He read your files to the point of practically memorizing them before you came here and he swears there was nothing about you being a half demon.

He was honestly a bit embarrassed that he didn’t know about something this major.

When confronting you, all you did was say that it wasn’t that big of a deal and that you figured they already knew.

You really give him a migraine sometimes.

He feels a bit relieved that he doesn’t have to worry as much about you dying, though.

If you wish, he may start teaching you demonic etiquette, such as having you shift form at formal events.

If you prefer your human heritage, he won’t pressure you to conform to your demonic ancestory.

Mammon

WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN HIS HUMAN ISN’T ENTIRELY HUMAN?!?

The loudest about his displeasure about not knowing.

“I’m your first man! I’m supposed to know everything about you!”

When you explain to him that you’re more comfortable with your human half, he calms down a little.

Tries to call you ‘stupid half-demon’ but it doesn’t feel the same as ‘stupid human’ :(

You tell him he can just keep calling you ‘stupid human’ :D

Wonders if he can get your dad to pay him for ‘providing his child with such incredible protection’.

You immediately tell him no.

Leviathan

Holy shit this sounds like something straight out of an anime!!!

Very upset that you didn’t tell him, you’re his Henry! You’re supposed to tell him these kind of things!

When you shrug and simply say that no one asked, he gets even more pouty.

You make up with him quickly by offering to play games with him all night.

Extremely curious about your demonic form for the primary purpose of cosplay. Do you know how many more characters you can be if you have a tail or wings?!?

You might inspire some fanfiction. (half demon Henry x Lord of Shadows au slow burn 100k words, def not Leviathan projecting no not at all-)

Satan

He is extremely shocked. Not only did he have no idea, but half demons are extremely rare.

From what he’s read, most half-human half-demon offspring don’t survive past birth and all documented cases that have survived reside in the Devildom so that their powers can be better managed.

He asks you about this and you reply that you’re actually quite good at controlling your powers, but that you prefer living as a normal human.

He’s not upset that you didn’t tell him, but he has a billion questions.

How long is your lifespan? Do you take more after your demonic father or your human mother in terms of power?What are your weaknesses?

He really wants to learn more about human-demon hybrids and will ask you to help in his studies.

Also a bit excited as your father is well known for some for his knowledge and writing about the sciences. He wants to discuss some of it with you, assuming you’ve read what your father has written.*

Asmodeus

Oh he is so excited.

A bit relieved that his charm isn’t wearing off, it just doesn’t work because you’re the child of a demonic duke!

You know those boiling hot springs he talks about visiting? Well he’s happy to learn that you actually can join him without fear of your skin melting off!

He’s not upset that you didn’t tell him, getting mad over stuff like that can cause wrinkles.

He will absolutely want to help you groom your horns/wings/scales/tail.

He already has shown you a lot about demonic fashion trends, such as extra clothing that can be fitted around demonic extremities, but now he actually can actually have you try on some! Do you prefer gold tail bangles or jeweled horn cuffs?

Beelzebub

Relieved that Duke Vapula wasn’t looking for a fight.

He can’t help but smile a little when you hug your dad. It makes him happy that you love your family.

When you blush and tell him that it just slipped your mind to tell everyone about your heritage, he isn’t upset.

Happy that he doesn’t have to be so scared of accidentally hurting you with how strong he is.

If you’re able to safely eat some more demonic food, he will absolutely get you to try some of his favorite foods that normal humans would die upon eating.

Overall, you’re still the MC he has grown to love and doesn’t treat you too differently.

Belphegor

Is now more awake than he has been the entire evening.

Half demon? Nah this is just some dream.

Is understanding when you explain to him that you prefer being human and living as a human.

He’s happy he found out after making amends with you. He used to despise half-demons just as much as normal humans, seeing them as repulsive.

He still very much treats you the same, but is a bit annoyed with his brothers.

With knowledge of your demonic blood coming to light, they drag you out even more often and naps with you are becoming rarer.

If you get too overwhelmed with his brothers constantly wanting to try things they thought would previously kill you, he will be more than happy to lend you some of his hiding spots. He does charge the small fee of getting to take a nap with you though.

Diavolo

Similar to Lucifer, is shocked that he didn’t know before you came to the Devildom.

You aren’t the first half-demon he’s met, but he is surprised that a demon of Duke Vapula’s rank had a child with a human.

He’s actually very excited to learn that you’re a half-demon who is in more in touch with your human side. He feels a lot more relieved that you aren’t as defenseless as previously thought.

He does, however, make absolute sure that you have full control over your demonic powers. Every other half-demon lives in the Devildom for a reason and he can’t have someone who is technically one of his subjects accidentally cause mass destruction.

He invites you for tea more frequently, asking so many questions about how being raised in the human world as a half-demon was.

He likes to exchange stories with you about your younger years and the power fluxes you both struggled with as you grew.

Tells you that should you ever wish to live in the Devildom that he would be more than happy to make the needed arrangements.

Barbatos

He knew the whole time. When Diavolo asked him to look into the success of the program, he made note of your heritage right away.

However, he decided that keeping this information hidden when he saw that you were raised human and preferred to be seen as human.

When he explains this to everyone, you can’t help but feel thankful.

While some of the others make no effort to hide how annoyed this makes them, he doesn’t mind. He knows he made the right choice keeping this from everyone and doesn’t regret it at all.

Barbatos is actually a pretty good friend of your father’s and grew up with him. He actually met you when you were a baby because of this.*

Solomon

He has seen a lot in his years in the world of magic, but nothing like this.

Usually, half-demons were very easy to spot as they struggled to control their powers, but you practically had it down to an art!

You explain to him that you’re actually pretty good at keeping your powers under control. He’s rather impressed by this and will ask to see your spell work.

Thinks it’s a little funny that he has a pact with your dad.*

Like Satan, he wants to know all about you. Unlike Satan, he is going to actually conduct experiments instead of stick to interviews.

He has a new potion that he wants you to try almost every day now.

Can half-demons make pacts? If so, you have now been added to the list of demonic beings he wants to make a pact with.

Simeon

Very surprised considering he’s blessed you before.

Blessings aren’t supposed to work on anything of demonic nature so he’s baffled.

When you explain to him that you were raised human and prefer to live as human, he smiles.

He comes to the conclusion that you being a good person must be greater than the demonic blood in your veins.

He treats you the same overall, knowing that you’re still you no matter your heritage.

Luke

Absolute denial.

There is no way someone as nice as you is part demon! He refuses to believe it!

Gets upset and accuses you of trying to manipulate him, which you quickly deny.

When you explain to him that you prefer being human, he huffs.

Simeon gives him a bit of a talking to, about how you’re still the same MC who he sees as a big sibling.

He bakes you some apology cupcakes for being rude to you.

You sometimes shift form to mess around with him, it never fails to make him let out a shocked yelp before he snaps at you for picking on him.

Everyone (except Luke) thinks it’s funny tbh.

Author’s Notes:

*Duke Vapula is described as being able to bestow knowledge about all science contained in books.

*Barbatos is also a duke in The Goetia. I thought a fun nod to this would be to have them as friends.

*The Goetia talks about the 72 demons that King Solomon evoked. Vapula is one of the demons that he evoked. The game actually references this by talking about his 72 pacts. Asmodeus and Barbatos are both included in the 72 demons which is why he has pacts with both of them in the game :)

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sanchoyo · 3 years

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danny phantom episode 4-7 Thoughts: (under a readmore because, these got kinda long!)

-the outfit danny had to buy for dash's party. CLASSIC 2000S i cannot stop laughing. And also showing up to the party and everyone is dressed like the trio is hilarious. and further proof that everyone looks good dressed goth.

-dash has a closet full of cute lil bear plushies?? LOVE that. adorable. also his response to danny trashing his room fighting a ghost was SO valid if somone BROKE MY BED IN HALF ID BE PISSED TOO.

-technus being like 'oh smart, u should be a tutor!' then later being like 'forget tutor, be a teacher!' :) supportive king <3 I also really like his upgraded suit/design. AND SPOCK CAMEO??? HELLO??

-the music in this show is super. its so funky. I looked it up and the guy who does it, guy moon (awesome name) also did music for other cartoons like fairly odd parents, barnyard, chalkzone, billy & mandy, AND some actual movies like FIGHT CLUB??? the whiplash I got from reading that)

-sam being rich explains a lot about her, actually.

-I know the moral of the episode was supposed to be 'dont ditch your friends for popular people/spend a lot of money on clothes that arent You to Fit In'. but tbh. it wouldve been easy for danny to have been like 'well, okay, ill come but only if my friends can!' but I get. that hes 14. so. not a lot to say there.

-BOX GHOST IS BACK!!!!! also, danny sitting up and wearing the dress/wig/makeup. umm thats how I dress everyday LMFAO. unironically me. (hate the jokes that boil down to 'haha funney man in dress' tho. but this is a look)

-jazz being protective of her brother once again being like NOOO YOU GUYS BETTER NOT STAKE OUT HIS (actually haunted) LOCKER!! shes aware of how people perceive him and she wants to help :( which is also probably why she told dash to invite him to that party even tho she had no interest in going!! she wants to help him out :(

-gotta say im with tucker on the whole 'should danny use his powers to get back at bullies' debate. 100% yes. let him teach kids to fight back. making dash throw his food at paulina out of the blue? no. but when hes actually about to pick on someone? yeah! for self defense? YEAH! if dash and his friends just threw food at him, I think rather than. idk doing sneaky shit with frogs he couldve just threw it back and not pulled punches if they tried to fight. I kNOOWWW its a kids show so they are like 'if u fight back ur just as bad!! violence bad!!' but. theyre HIS POWERS. WHO CARES.

-like my only gripe is that dash really isnt LEARNING ANYTHING WHEN DANNY GETS BACK AT HIM IN THE MOST PETTY INDIRECT WAYS. whatever they had to add a bully psa episode I guess. I hate it and I hate the way cartoons usually handle it because these methods simply Do Not Work. 'aND YouRE USinG YOur poWErs FOR EVill???!' this is Not Evil. even when poindexter takes dannys body, theyre only being 'nice' bc hes stealing soda for them!! bitches deserve what they get (nothing too brutal bc theyre high schoolers but damn, if they pick on danny he doesnt need to be the 'bigger person' he needs to start biting people)

-SAM TRYING TO SMUGGLE FROGS OUT OF THE BIO LAB?? girl in middle school when we had to dissect frogs we could opt out, also, they came to us already dead and preserved...

-sidney's lingo and the fact hes in black and white is sending me. also, danny is a ghost celebrity apparently for being a halfa?? ok. thats interesting to know

-the DENTIST BEING EXCITED ABOUT THE COTTON CANDY FLOOD IS THE FUNNIEST THING SO FAR.

-I LOOOVE the trope of 'wishes gone wrong'. not crazy about the stereotypical genie, or the use of the dreamcatcher looking design. (also, I KNOW theyre scientists but the way theyre handling a cold...are the fentons ANTIVAX)

-the genie. she. whitewished paulina. JKASDFHKJ. (the ghost literally just being hello kitty???? im dying) 'why do i feel that im special and wonderful? because I AM! <3' paulina ilu self worth queen. felt bad for her also getting possessed by (2) boys later who were arguing INSIDE HER. WTF.

-imagine being the guy trapped in his now flying car. he thought danny and tucker were HALUCINATIONS. imagine being trapped in a flying car with two, what you think are imaginary arguing 14 year olds convinced ur gonna die. i WOULD say this dude is gonna need so much therapy, but he seemed totally fine and excited when they landed (I would be happy too if a chicken was on my head. chickens rule) stoner rights

-sam's bat slippers??? iconic. SO cute.

-I think desiree's backstory is so :( do all ghosts have messed up sad backstories?? poindexter's was sad too...cannot imagine box ghost has any kind of fucked up backstory. but what if. his mom got pushed off cliffs by boxes...........a la cruella... anyway her 'no man may lay a hand on me' iconic. ilu

-I know danny has no concept of how much bras cost but my god dont attack tucker with some girls bra. those are so expensive.

-its really. well its not a GOOD THING he went into the portal and got fucked up, but its good danny was the one to do it rather than sam or tucker. because even tho he was being influenced by desiree and kept getting more malicious and it prob wasnt 100% him...he sucked as a ghost like most the people he 'pranked' were innocent ppl just Chillin and he didnt want to help anyone at all. I think danny is the most responsible out of them but also, hes 14 and shouldnt HAVE to feel obligated to fight every ghost. hes a good kid and wants to, but I also feel like he feels like...responsible for the portal turning on?? because his parents did give it up,, but it was an accident and not his fault (if anything, why was the on switch on the inside. why was it that easy. why was there no safety measures. that seems like smth OSHA needs to hear about). like thats my son. hes a good boy. and hes never done anything wrong in his life, ever. if anyone hurts him im killing everyone in this room and then myself. etc.

-danny's curfew is 10PM????? DUDE. when I was 14...shit I couldn't be out that late, I had to be back at like, 8 at the latest, and my parents had to know exactly where and who I was going with, AND i had to call/text them regularly...is this a case of my parents being overbearing, or the fentons sucking??? the only time i could EVER be out that late was if I was at an overnight sleepover or smth...

-the vultures have lil fezes. why do they have fezes...theyre so fuckin funny 'ask him for directions' 'I KNOW WHERE IM GOING' these ghost vultures are my new grandpas. pick them up, put them in the adopt box.

-'I wonder why those guys were trying to waste dad!' THEYRE GHOSTS. YOUR DAD HUNTS GHOSTS. why is that not a conclusion you'd immediately jump to??

-*jazz voice, clearly disgusted* WISCONSIN???

-mrs fenton with the lab coat and leg warmers and PERM. YESSS STYLISH.

-was going to say 'ew billionaire' @vlad but. super valid he used his powers to assumedly steal and cheat to get that money, thats how all billionaires do it! but ew hes a SIMP. and spending your billions on FOOTBALL STUFF?? you are Not Valid overall. I DO respect the fact you have a castle instead of a mansion. in wisconsin. if youre going to be stupidly rich might as well go all out, torches on the wall and all. I DO like his ghost form's little kitty ears. catman. and his cape! every design can benefit from a cape. and how different his forms look, like danny looks the EXACT SAME IN BOTH FORMS ASIDE FROM COLOR CHANGES. vlad's is like,, I could believe they were different people!! also I love the drama. but dude you are fighting a 14 year old. lame. also he was like, telling danny he wanted his mom and him and like, wanted him to renounce his dad?? WHAT ABOUT JAZZ?? bitch. those r MY kids and they are both important and special. I do agree they need better parents but thats not u sir <3

-I thought vlad's 'little badger' nickname for danny came from the football mascot of the packers, but google says they have NO MASCOT?? so now I'm like?? is it because his hair is sometimes black and sometimes white?? I hate to give him props but thats a PERFECT NICKNAME. theyre also tiny and vicious!

-why did I get so excited that Skulker is back!! its been like. 2-3 eps LMAO. AND THE DAIRY KING. ICONIC I LOVE HIM. hes the nicest guy ever :) more nice ghosts please. danny cannot be fighting alone everytime with no ghost buds like every ghost being hostile sucks :(

-mr. fenton knew vlad was controlling him, but a few episodes ago he had no clue danny was doing the same thing...is it something about how malicious the ghost is?? he just seemed to think his memory had gaps the first time, this time he was INSTANTLY LIKE 'GHOST'. then again in this ep when danny did it again he was just slightly confused but not immediately freaking out like he did with vlad possessing him!!

-'my parents will accept ME NO MATTER WHAT' so. so why haven't you come out to them yet, danny?? if you really think that?? if theres no harm, and you're sure??? if vlad is a real problem, wouldnt that make dealing with him easier, to expose him???? SO WHY HAVENT YOU COME OUT YET?? COULD IT BE,, MAYBE YOU HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT WHETHER YOUR PARENTS ACTUALLY WILL ACCEPT YOU??? 🤔 ... 🏳‍🌈 I get why people say He Is Trans. I totally totally get u danny.

-sorta unrelated, but it just occurred to me in one of these eps they go to casper HIGH not casper middle school??? theyre 14?? dont highschools usually do ages 15-18? (I didnt go to hs so I might be wrong, if I am ignore this...) freshmen are usually 14-15, could just be a case of them not turning 15 yet but they will sometime in the school year (I say they because tucker said he was 14 too)? I know the show has 3 seasons, so by the end of it will they be older? thatd be neat but usually cartoon characters stay the same age...I love shows where you can see the characters age and grow up, though...three seasons seems like a long time to spend on like, 1 year...

#sanchoyorambles #danny phantom #me on the first post:#its not a liveblog!#me this time: it kinda is. but not in the same format as my tmm one #i like doing one post for a handful of eps bc it saves time #and crowds my blog less #and also i just like talking abt what im watching lol #dp thoughts

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maladjusted-nerd · 3 years

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Starsky and Hutch’s Girlfriends (and Their Hair Color)

[PBS announcer voice] This post is brought to you by the time I was reading The Ollie Report for Bounty Hunter and came across the memorable line: “Again, Starsky is drawn to the dark-haired girl, Hutch to the blonde. Exogamists they are not.”

These are the two ladies in question, respectively:

I thought of this quote a lot as I continued watching the show, because it was quite often relevant. But then I got to Starsky’s Lady, and suddenly Hutch’s date wasn’t a blonde! I began to wonder about the quote, and the truth of the sentiment behind it (which is by no means specific to that one blog). Did Hutch really tend to go for the blondes, and Starsky for the dark-haired women?

So like any sane person, I decided to spend a billion hours of my life making a long-ass photo-heavy meta post that hopefully someone will care about. If anyone actually finds this information interesting or useful I will be happy, buuut I guess if nothing else it gives us an excuse to look at a bunch of pretty ladies.

How did I decided who’s here: I started with the list of women from the Canon Compendium’s Girlfriends and Dates page, added anyone whom I felt the boys made a “concerted effort” to flirt with, and then threw out a few people I didn’t think belonged. I tried my hardest to be objective, but making this list was by no means an exact science and several times it really just boiled down to “do I personally believe she should be on here” so like people will have different opinions on that and it’s fine! Spice of life or whatever.

As for the actual contents of the list: I will state each woman’s name and the episode she’s in. (If she doesn’t have a name she’s listed as Jane Doe. This is a cop show, after all.) I will state her hair color-- for Reasons and also My Sanity the only options are “blonde” or “darkhaired” (not blonde), but hair color is fucking weird and sometimes it was a guess so feel free to think otherwise. I will also state the reason that she’s here, aka the nature of her relationship with Hutch or Starsky (or both)-- so spoiler warning for pretty much everything, I guess.

Also fair warning that sometimes I was too lazy to get a good picture, or it was just actually impossible (newsflash: discos have bad lighting). Rip to any women I may have made look bad, you’re all beautiful queens and I love you.

Pre-Show

Vanessa (Hutchinson Murder One)- Darkhaired. Hutch’s late ex-wife and all-around terrible person.

Laura Kanen (Deckwatch)- Blonde. Hutch’s ex-girlfriend.

Helen Davidson (Lady Blue)- Blonde. Starsky’s late ex-girlfriend.

Kathy Marshall (Fatal Charm)- Darkhaired. A stewardess friend of theirs; it’s never said she’s an ex BUT she kisses Hutch square on the mouth in greeting and is Starsky’s date for dinner/disco. And she dances with both of them. Good enough for me!

Season 1

Hutch

Jeannie Walton (The Fix)- Blonde. His girlfriend at the start of the episode but not by the end! (Rip king)

Molly (Pariah)- Darkhaired. Stewardess friend/one-night stand? Something like that. Also his date at the end.

Jane Doe (Deadly Imposter)- Blonde. His date at the party.

Abigail Crabtree (Deadly Imposter to Vendetta)- Blonde. The only girlfriend we see in several episodes!! (The only girlfriend that lasts several episodes, whoops.)

Starsky

Jane Doe (Pariah)- Blonde. His date at the end.

Jane Doe (Deadly Imposter)- Darkhaired. His date at the party.

Amy (The Hostages)- Darkhaired. She works at a café that he’s going to for a second time, to let her know he’s ~available.

Sharman Crane (Running)- Darkhaired. They had a semester of woodshop together in junior high and then they kind of fall in love while he’s helping her dry out.

Season 2

Hutch

Abby (Deadly Imposter to Vendetta)- Still blonde. Miraculously still his girlfriend. (Until she isn’t.)

Gillian Ingram (Gillian)- Blonde. His now-late girlfriend who fucking deserved better.

Jane Doe (Gillian)- Blonde. Lady at the bowling alley that Starsky discreetly tries to set him up with.

Christine (Starsky’s Lady)- Darkhaired. His date of the episode.

Starsky

Vicky (The Las Vegas Strangler)- Darkhaired. They don’t really get a chance to go on an official date but they kiss a bunch and he’s really sweet on her and it’s cute.

Andrea (Vendetta)- Darkhaired. His picnic date.

Nancy Rogers (Gillian)- Darkhaired. His bowling date.

Terry Roberts (Starsky’s Lady)- Darkhaired. His now-late girlfriend who, like Gillian, also fucking deserved better.

Laura Stevens (The Velvet Jungle)- Blonde. They’re on a date at the end, but it should also be noted they meet when she accidentally knocks him into a dumpster. You know, like the start of any good romance.

Sharon Freemont (Starsky and Hutch Are Guilty)- Blonde. His evil lawyer girlfriend. (Not that he knows she’s evil.)

Both

Jane and Bobette (The Vampire)- Jane is the blonde on the right, Bobette is the darker blonde on the left. Starsky and Hutch mix up their names so it’s hard to tell which girl they actually like better, and also they’re twins so like does it even really matter?

Officer Sally Hagen (The Specialist)- Darkhaired. Starsky kisses up her arm in her first scene (someone please file a workplace harassment suit against him), and then at the end he and Hutch keep wrapping their arms around her waist. But she does get to flip both of them over her shoulder, so it kinda evens out.

Season 3

Hutch

Dianna Harmon (Fatal Charm)- Darkhaired. His possessive, violent nurse girlfriend. (You can really pick ‘em, Hutchinson.)

Dr. Judith Kaufman (The Plague)- Darkhaired. He tries so hard, but twas not meant to be.

Molly Bristol (The Collector)- Darkhaired. His girlfriend du jour.

Anna Akhanatova (A Body Worth Guarding)- Blonde. He’s technically her bodyguard and then they spend like two whole days making out. Good for them.

Mary (Class in Crime)- Blonde. His fishing date.

Starsky

Jane Doe (Murder on Playboy Island)- Darkhaired. Undercover agent he flirts with at the bar.

Rosey Malone (I Love You Rosey Malone)- Blonde. The entire plot revolves around him falling in love with her and it really doesn’t end well.

Jane Doe (The Collector)- Darkhaired. His date at their late-night deli party. (Bonus Starsky in the picture, hi Starsky!)

Sharon Carstairs (The Heavyweight)- Blonde. Their canoodling on his couch gets interrupted by Important Case Matters, and she winds up getting re-engaged to her ex-fiancé (ex-ex-fiancé?). Rip to a king.

Rachel (Class in Crime)- Darkhaired. His fishing date.

Caitlin (Class in Crime)- Her hair almost has a red tint but it’s otherwise undefinable. Car saleslady/one-night stand.

K.C. McBride (Quadromania)- Blonde. They have a nice taxi date (although he’s been sleep deprived all episode, poor boy, and falls asleep).

Both

Christine Phelps (The Heroes)- Blonde. She makes them lose all their braincells, it’s painful to witness. This episode hopes you will forget the actress was Gillian last season.

Julie McDermott (The Action)- Blonde. Starsky wins the kerfuffle for her but Hutch definitely makes a good go of it.

Lisa Kendricks (Foxy Lady)- Blonde. They drool and fight over her for half an episode like they did with Christine and it’s embarrassing.

Season 4

Hutch

Paula (Photo Finish)- Darkhaired. He’s like her date at the party, and also the end.

Kate Larrabee (Cover Girl)- Darkhaired. An old friend of his. It starts out just as a comfort thing but they quickly become very friendly.

Marlene (Starsky’s Brother)- Darkhaired. Starsky steals her from Nicky as a Big Brother Power Move but Hutch winds up with her at the bar.

Marianne Owens (Ballad for a Blue Lady)- Darkhaired. I don’t really know what’s going on here but there’s Something (and there’s a lot of parallels with Rosey Malone, so).

Starsky

Sergeant Lizzie Thorpe (Discomania)- Blonde. Technically Hutch talks with her more, but Starsky does most of the flirting.

Jane Doe (Discomania)- Darkhaired. He spends literally five minutes dancing with her. Is it relevant to the case? No. Does he care? Also no.

Emily Harrison (Blindfold)- Darkhaired. He accidentally blinds her during a case so he starts hanging out with her out of guilt but I feel like he also kinda falls in love; they kiss at one point anyway.

Marcie Fletcher (Photo Finish)- Blonde. His photographer girlfriend.

Officer Dee O’Reilly (Strange Justice)- Blonde. His meter maid girlfriend. They have a date at the end!

Jane Doe (Dandruff)- Darkhaired. He’s making out with her at the beginning.

Detective Joan Meredith (Black and Blue)- Darkhaired. It’s Heavily implied they slept together. (Side note love u Meredith!)

Melinda Rogers (The Groupie)- Blonde. He has a date with her at the end. (Yeah she slept with Hutch, but he was undercover and proceeds to lowkey rebuff her in the tag, so I’m not counting it.)

Katie (Starsky’s Brother)- Blonde. His date at the nightclub.

Both

Allison May/Laura Anderson (Targets Without a Badge parts 2 & 3)- Darkhaired. They both try to court her before Starsky realizes she’s his childhood friend (although they do make another go of it in the tag).

Kira (Starsky vs Hutch)- Blonde. Starsky’s girlfriend, although she says she’s also in love with Hutch so then they sleep together which Starsky is NOT thrilled about and it’s a very ugly mess.

Totals:

Hutch:

Pre-show: 3 (1 blonde, 2 dark) Season 1: 4 (3 blonde, 1 dark) Season 2: 6 (4 blonde, 2 dark) Season 3: 8 (5 blonde, 3 dark) Season 4: 6 (1 blonde, 5 dark) Overall: 26 (13 blonde, 13 dark)

(If the math looks weird, it’s cause Abigail counts for both seasons she’s in but only once overall.)

Starsky:

Pre-show: 2 (1 blonde, 1 dark) Season 1: 4 (1 blonde, 3 dark) Season 2: 8 (3 blonde, 5 dark) Season 3: 10 (6 blonde, 3 dark, 1 ??) Season 4: 11 (6 blonde, 5 dark) Overall: 35 (17 blonde, 17 dark, 1 ??)

(Thirty-five?? Calm the fuck down, Starsky.)

In conclusion:

“Exogamists, they are not” might have been true back at the end of season 1 when it was said, but it’s certainly not true by season 4/the end of the series. Hutch now seems to favor dark-haired women, and Starsky’s about half and half, although they both wind up with an equal split overall.

Do with that information what you will; I’m outta here.

#starsky and hutch #long post #adventures in meta #everyone say thank you canon compendium!#alternate titles: 'Fuck Me' and 'The Meta Post That Kicked My Ass'#dear god that was a lot #why can't i do productive things with my time....#anyway i'm taking a week's vacation now #major respect to people who do huge meta things cause this was exhausting #bless you all

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ierinomalleyy-blog · 5 years

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*Aristotle: Ethos and Logos and Pathos*

In this entry, I will examine the critical question: What is the main purpose of this artifact’s message and how are ethos, pathos, and logos used in this rhetorical artifact to achieve that purpose? Is the way that these rhetorical appeals are used ethical?

To investigate these questions, I examined a speech from a 16 year old girl, Greta Thunberg, convincing politicians to take climate change seriously. To take the steps in to stopping global warming that will affect the generations of children yet to come more than it affects anyone who has the title of power today. The main purpose of this artifact’s message is to open the eyes of those who are in power to realize the world is now in its earliest stages of a mass extinction. Politicians should be developing solutions and strategies to fix this climate issue. Younger children, like Thunberg, shouldn’t have to be the ones who are concerned if they will ever see their future. Ethos, pathos, and logos are used in this rhetorical artifact to achieve that purpose of the values held, the support from the audience, and the reference of scientific research and studies to support the given claim.

On September 23, 2019 this video of Greta Thunberg speaking to the politicians to take climate change seriously, became viral. In it we listen to a message for the world leaders at the United Nations at the Climate Action Summit in New York. Thunberg begins by speaking in terms that she should be at school, on the other side of the ocean. A young girl shouldn’t have to be at a summit to try and convince politicians to take climate change seriously. The eyes of the young citizens are upon the ones holding power and if they choose to fail the generations to come, forgiveness is not in eyesight. The speech expresses ethos, pathos, and logos to achieve the message.

Herrick explained that rhetoric can be held to be constructed of arguments and appeals involving beliefs shared by the speaker and audience. With presenting an enthymeme speak, “a “heartfelt” argument in which the audience sensed in the rhetoric's language and delivery a passionate commitment to the position being staked out” is what draws in the audience to feel a certain emotion (Herrick, 74). The way rhetorical appeals are useful is if “successful construction is accomplished through the joint efforts of speaker and audience, and this is its essential character (Herrick, 75). A speaker can easily express their emotions, but it takes the audience to connect to those given emotions in order for it to be successful.* When arguing with the awareness of public values “successful rhetoric must connect with what the audience believes. By its very nature, then, rhetoric is a communal or democratic approach to resolving issues (Herrick, 75). With resolving issues that are involved with the public, one must connect with what the audience believes in order to get to the successful conclusion. There are three categories in which an issue is addressed “different setting in which speeches occur, the corresponding purpose or goal (telos) of a speech, and the varying roles audiences play” (Herrick, 75). Such elements come into play when giving a successful speech. The three artistic proofs that come into play”are (1) logos or arguments and logical reasoning, (2) pathos or the names and causes of various emotions, and (3) ethos or human character and goodness” (Herrick, 78). The term , logos, has many different meanings. Herrick narrows it down to the idea that “it meant simply a work, or it could refer in a plural sense of the words of a document or speech. It also carried the sense of a thought expressed in words, discourse, an argument or an entire case” (Herrick, 79). Logos overall is a collection of arguments that are put together in order to make a rational decision. Study of emotion is also what comes into play when presenting a successful speech. Pathos is defined as “putting the audience in the right frame of mind” to make a rational decision (Herrick, 79). Within a speech “pathos is often used to refer to emotional appeals that give persuasive messages their power to move an audience to action” (Herrick, 79). With having a speech that grabs the audience’s emotions to match up with the speaker’s emotions, that is what causes the speech to make the audience want to place themselves into action. When it comes to the speaker, “a knowledgeable speaker can engage the strong beliefs and feelings that both influence the reasoning of the audience members and move them to action” (Herrick, 79). It’s one thing to get the audience to feel a certain emotion, but it’s another thing when you give the audience a reason as to why they could feel a certain emotion and what action to take having that mindset in hand. A speaker can follow a couple simple steps in how to get an audience to feel an emotion, but to “understand human emotional response toward the goal of adjusting an audience’s emotional state to fit the nature of seriousness of the particular issue being argued” is a whole other ball game (Herrick, 80). The speaker must form its character into three parts to “exhibit phronesis (intelligence, good sense), arete (virtue), and eunia (goodwill)” (Herrick, 81). In order to get the audience onto the speakers side, one must prove to the audience that they are trustworthy. With proving to the audience that one is trustworthy, “they will be very likely to accept as true what that speaker has to say” (Herrick, 81). Having a speaker who is backed up with trustworthy sources, help them gain trust in what is being said. Overall, once all three of these are placed into act “they can be employed in a carefully achieved persuasive balance” (Herrick, 81). The way that these rhetorical appeals are used, are shown ethically

The ways that ethos, logos, and pathos are used ethically in the rhetorical artifact, Greta Thunberg’s speech, is what achieves the main purpose. Greta Thunberg uses ethos ethically when presenting her speech by expressing the values in which she holds. When speaking directly to the politicians, Thunberg expresses “You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe” (Bill Chappel, npr). In this case, Thunberg is holding high the characteristic of goodwill. Thunberg expresses her kindhearted feelings towards the politicians because she refuses to believe that they hear the young and grown citizens. If they heard them and understood the urgency but continued to do nothing about this issue, they would be evil. That is what Thunberg tries to erase from her mind because she truly wants to believe that that isn't the reasoning. Coming to an end to this speech, Thunberg expresses “You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I saw: We will never forgive you” (Bill Chappel, npr). As a sixteen year old kid, one shouldn’t have to worry about the future of their generations. They shouldn’t be concerned about whether or not they will see their future or this kids future. This young generation is starting to understand the concern about climate change and have to miss school in order to get the one’s with power to understand climate change as well and convince world leaders to take legislation seriously. With a final ending, “We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not” (Bill Chappel, npr). The fight to convince world leaders to take climate change and legislation seriously is being expressed through this speech given by a sixteen-year-old girl. Whether the leaders like the idea of change or not, these younger generations are going to make that change in order to fight for their future.

Greta Thunberg uses logos ethically when presenting her speech by being able to construct her character as trustworthy. Thunberg constructed her character as trustworthy by her use of references from scientific research and studies to support her claim that climate change is real and potentially disastrous. Thunberg states, “The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees [Celsius], and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. Fifty percent may be acceptable to you. But those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist” (Bill Chappel, npr). Here, Thunberg addresses the concern of toxic air pollutants or the aspects of climate change that her generation is going to have to face when the time comes. Continued, “So a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us — we who have to live with the consequences” (Bill Chappel, npr). Thunberg expresses the concern that the world leaders are only focusing on a couple of years that will be affected rather than keeping their minds on the children, even their own, that will have to deal with the consequences faced because of the actions not being taken today.

Greta Thunberg uses pathos ethically when she refers to her childhood and dreams being taken away. When expressing those emotions, the applause of the audience demonstrated that they support her. Thunberg states, “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!” (Bill Chappel, npr). This is the first message that Thunberg has to the world leaders. AS stated before, Greta should be in school and not having a single worry about if she’ll have a future. Yet, the world leaders are doing nothing about climate change but expect to lean on future generations for hope. Continued, “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” (Bill Chappel, npr). Thunberg engages in the strong beliefs and feelings she holds when answering a question about the message she has for world leaders. The hope that world leaders will understand the human emotion from the speaker and audience with the idea to take that response and placing it towards a goal for the future generations.

This leaves us with the question of whether the way of using ethos, pathos, and logos is ethical. The speaker, Greta Thunberg, is being ethical with her chosen language in order to bring attention to the complicated issue that is at stake. The time that the audience limits to the speaker, gives the speaker a mindset that one must be respectful and prepared to that time limit. Thunberg presented herself as well prepared as she held a paper that had her key ideas to present to the world leaders and the audience in hand. From the very moment Thunberg began speaking, she had the crowd clapping in agreement to her points and emotions that were being expressed. Thunberg presented in her speech necessary facts and references to back up her points in which she would be presenting. Helping her delivery flow and keep the audience’s attention as well as their satisfaction. Greta Thunberg presented herself as responsible and knowledgeable, all while being able to express her emotions. Thunberg is a sixteen-year-old girl who came to present her concerns on climate change with the future generations at stake.

In doing additional research on this topic, a scholarly article by Andrew Dlugan, Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking, further explains how the use of ethos, pathos, and logos can achieve a purpose towards the main goal of a speech. As a speaker, one should understand and be educated on how to apply these three key ideas of public speaking. In order to get the audience on your side, “these are the three essential qualities that your speech or presentation must have before your audience will accept your message” (Dlugan, 1). Getting the audience to agree with you by accepting your message, is the goal that all public speakers should aim for. The first pillar to cover is that of Ethos. As Dlugan states, “before you can convince an audience to accept anything you say, they have to accept you as credible” (Dlugan, 2). Greta Thunberg’s speech represents credibility as she collects and refers to scientific research and studies to support her overall claim. Thunberg states, “To have a 67% chance of staying below a 1.5 degrees global temperature rise – the best odds given by the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] – the world has 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit back on Jan. 1st, 2018. Today that figure is already down to less then 350 gigatons” (Bill Chapell, npr). With presenting the audience and world leaders with information of the degrees in gigatons of CO2, Thunberg is presenting herself as a high reason to why the audience should find her acceptable. With connecting on a deeper level to the audience’s emotions, “emotional connection can be created in many ways by a speaker, perhaps most notable by stories. The goal of a story, anecdote, analogy, simile, and metaphor is often to link an aspect of our primary message with a triggered emotional response from the audience” (Dlugan, 3). When your characterization, words, and visuals connect on a deep level of emotion, the audience will bounce off that with a connection. As Thunberg states, “You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe (Bill Chapell, npr). Thunberg expresses her emotions of sorrow and anger to the world leaders in front of the audience to show the meaning of emotion as to why she is here speaking. In order to incorporate logos into a speech, a speaker must have a message that ends with a reasoned argument to why the point has been made. With the bullet points made in the article, “is your message based on facts, statistics, and evidence?” (Dlugan, 3). As Thunberg discusses the statistics of the access to CO2, “so a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us – we who have to live with the consequences” (Bill Chapell, npr). Thunberg’s message to the world leaders and audience is backed up by multiple facts, statistics, and evidence throughout the speech. Inserting these three pillars of public speaking is the secret to get the audience to steer towards the speaker’s side.

Greta Thunberg’s speech along with scholarly article by Andrew Dlugan, Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking, helped explore my critical question to how ethos, pathos, and logos are used to achieve a purpose. The main purpose of the artifact, Greta Thunberg’s speech, message was to give the world leaders and the audience a wake-up call to take climate change and legislation seriously. The generations that are yet to come, may not be seeing a future if the way this is playing out continues. A change needs to be done whether the world leaders prefer it or not. Ethos, pathos, and logos are used to achieve this purpose by giving credibility and character to the speaker, gaining an emotional connection to the audience, and making logical arguments to support a solution to the issue.

Video Link:

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763389015/this-is-all-wrong-greta-thunberg-tells-world-leaders-at-u-n-climate-session?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR0uZwcChhYFKby00DvtQzNhPVdUB2tjKB8R0hs4DlaeCan5ag02pxFI3IU&jwsource=cl

References:

Dlugan, Andrew. "Ethos, pathos, logos: 3 pillars of public speaking." Six Minutes Speaking and Presentation Skills 24 (2010).

Herrick, J. A. (2005) Aristotle on rhetoric. In The history and theory of rhetoric: An introduction (5th ed.) (pp.69-81). New York: Routledge.

Chappell, B. (2019, September 23). 'This Is All Wrong,' Greta Thunberg Tells World Leaders At U.N. Climate Session. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763389015/this-is-all-wrong-greta-thunberg-tells-world-leaders-at-u-n-climate-session utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR1Rv6giz3c0wvjqmmujz6AOFbRGdDMVQkni8amav6G8E1m3GvJ1MnFSPA

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beinglibertarian · 6 years

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The Facts Behind President Trump’s Trade War with China and Europe

The United States had recently engaged in trade wars with China and Europe that have taken a toll on the American economy. Here’s what you need to know about the developing situation.

China

Facts

President Donald Trump has shown anger towards the lack of fairness in trade with China, and on this part he isn’t totally incorrect. With regard to trade, in some aspects, China has an advantage. For instance, while the US has a 2.5% tariff on Chinese motor vehicles, China has a 25% tariff on American cars. However, China exports few cars to the American market – only 0.03% of cars bought in America are of Chinese origin. Overall, the US averages a 2.9% tariff on Chinese goods, while China averages a 6.3% on American products.

Trump acted on this by instigating a trade war with China, and so far, China seems poised to gain an upper hand: its 25% tariff on American goods like pork and soybeans hits $50 billion worth of US goods, while the US is only taxing $34 billion worth of Chinese goods. China also slashed tariffs from five Asian countries, including cutting taxes on beef and soybeans to zero percent. Not only that, but Chinese subsidies are an astonishing $165 billion, or more than eight times higher than American agricultural subsidies.

However, despite these subsidies (that have pre-existed this trade war), in 2016, the US exported $21 billion in agricultural products to China, while only importing $4.3 billion that same year. Clearly, the US model is superior to the Chinese model when comparing the agriculture industries – this could be a result of a greater prevalence of capitalism, or more favorable weather conditions or a combination of both.

After farmers across the Midwest began to struggle, Trump responded with a $12 billion bailout for farmers as relief. First off, agricultural subsidies in the past haven’t been for everyone. While the US government spends $20 billion a year in agricultural subsidies, 61% of farms receive nothing, while the top 1% of farms received 20% of the benefits. We don’t know if Trump’s farm subsidies will reflect how subsidies have normally been distributed.

There’s certainly reason to believe that there is a political motive at play, as farmers are clearly a Republican-supporting demographic. In a Farm Journal Survey given out before the 2016 election to over 2000 farmers, Trump defeated Clinton 74%-9% in the survey. There’s obviously a political component to this, but whether or not that’s the reasoning behind the subsidies is unknown.

Overall, the US exports 6 times more cars to China than it imports and exports nearly 5 times more agricultural goods than China, yet it still has a $337.2 billion trade deficit.

Analysis

I think it’s unreasonable not to concede that China has taken advantage of the US via trade, not just through subsidies and tariffs, but also through currency manipulation and violations of intellectual property rights. The solution to this problem has actually already been proposed in my opinion.

Notice that China’s first action to lessen the blow of America’s tariffs was to slash tariffs with five Asian countries, that’s simply so that those Asian countries would hopefully reciprocate and Chinese companies that rely on exports can replace their dwindling and more expensive American markets with different foreign markets.

Under President Obama, the US negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It wasn’t without flaws, but it would’ve created free trade with fourteen countries across North America, South America and Asia and most importantly, it didn’t include China. One of the tariffs the TPP would’ve phased out would’ve been auto tariffs, which currently range from over 40% in Vietnam to 6% in Chile or Canada. A free trade deal of this caliber, that I believe should’ve gone further to include more countries like Taiwan or South Korea, would’ve devastated the Chinese economy as much as the tariffs without any American economic turmoil as a result. Unfortunately, Trump tore up the TPP on his first days in office via executive order.

I hope Trump’s endgame is to end tariffs, subsidies and currency manipulation across China and America, but so far, his attempt to do so has been reckless. China is responding with very calculated moves: a tariff on an industry that America has a trade surplus on, agriculture, while cutting tariffs with mutual Asian trade partners.

Free trade promotes economic prosperity among all nations above as I explain in a book that I co-authored that will soon be released called Igniting Liberty, and I’m glad we’re fighting for free and fair trade with China, but this is a poor way to achieve that goal.

The Chinese tariffs are already detrimentally impacting America’s farming industry, and tariffs on Chinese products will ultimately be a tax on the American consumer as prices rise. Trump then responded with this mistake with another: an expensive subsidy that will likely prove ineffective at a time when the US is already running a $665 billion deficit. The problem shouldn’t be “fixed” with angry tweets, random tariffs and politically-charged socialist bailouts, but rather proper negotiation for mutual tariff reduction with China, while creating a free trade agreement with our American and Asian allies. While I hope Trump’s endgame is to reduce barriers, taxes and subsidies to zero with Asian nations, his immediate exit from the TPP coupled with his impulsive tariffs leave me skeptical.

Europe

Facts

While inequalities in tariffs and regulations exist across industries, the weighted tariff rate between Europe and America are practically equal: 1.92% average weighted tariffs on America and 1.95% average weighted tariffs on Europe from America in 2016.

In the G7 summit in Canada, Trump accused foreign nations of ripping us off on trade, which based on this number alone, I don’t exactly agree with. Trump references the EU 10% tariff on American cars versus the 2.5% tariff on Eurozone cars, but there are also examples of America having an edge against Europe.

The average European tariff on American footwear was 3.14% in 2016, while America taxed European shoes at 7.41%, and footwear isn’t a small industry when you consider all of the European brands such as Adidas, Reebok, Puma, and so on.

Unlike China, the trade deficit isn’t nearly as large: the US exported $501 billion to the EU in 2016, while importing $593 billion from the EU. It goes without saying that an imbalance of trade doesn’t prove an imbalance of policy, but the trade imbalance between US and Eurozone isn’t substantial.

The price level estimated by the OECD is 114 in the United States compared to 92 in the European Union, and higher prices in the US may partially explain why the US has a trade deficit with the EU.

Trump again instigated the trade war with a 25% steel tariff and 10% aluminum tariff on Mexico, Canada and the EU, to which the Eurozone retaliated with tariffs hitting $3.3 billion worth of American goods, which EU officials claim is dollar for dollar with American tariffs. Recently, Trump met with the European Commission President and is moving forward to reduce tariffs, barriers and subsidies, which if carried out, would be a phenomenal alternative to a trade war.

Analysis

While I don’t believe the European Union was taking advantage of America as a whole, I applaud President Trump for liberalizing trade with Europe. His tactics seemed immature and spontaneous, but the result is lower tariffs and freer markets for American producers and consumers alike, and for that, I applaud him. I look forward to see where this leads to and I encourage Trump to also meet bilaterally with Eastern European countries such as Bosnia, where the US average weighted tariff rate is 5%, or Slovenia, a country that both myself and Trump’s wife have ethnic heritage from.

Trade with the European Union currently support 2.6 million American jobs, and if tariffs are cut from 2% to 0%, causing trade and job growth to grow at a convenient 2% in reaction, trade with Europe could hypothetically support an additional 52,000 more American jobs. The next step should be to eliminate subsidies that do nothing less than hurt the American taxpayer.

Conclusion

If I were to grade Trump’s handling of trade with China, I would give him an F, but if I were to grade his performance with Europe, I would give him nothing short of an A.

The disparity in success we’ve seen thus far can be attributed to numerous things. First off, the Chinese economy is much healthier than Europe’s. China’s unemployment rate hovers at 3.9% and it exports more than any country in the world at a whopping $2.27 trillion. Meanwhile, Europe still hasn’t recovered from the debt panics of Southern European countries like Spain, Greece and Italy. The European Union has an embarrassing 57.7% labor force participation rate and 7% unemployment rate, all the while only touting a 0.4% quarterly GDP growth rate. The Chinese economy can survive a trade war right now, but the European Union isn’t certain.

Second, as previously mentioned, Europe isn’t really exploiting the United States via trade, so giving in to Donald Trump’s demands isn’t particularly difficult, whereas China is aware of the long-term impacts of equalizing trade barriers and practices with the United States.

The third reason is more political: China is a one party dictatorship that can quickly react to American policy decisions; the EU is a multinational bureaucracy.

I wish Trump the best if his genuine motive is to liberalize trade across all countries, but I’m both skeptical of his tactics and motives.

I expressed my concerns with his unorthodox methods for dealing with foreign leaders and trade, but despite his tweets calling for an elimination of barriers, tariffs and subsidies, he continues to criticize NAFTA and he destroyed the TPP the second he took office.

What is clear, however, is that the best outcome for the American people is an end to these trade wars and an elimination of tariffs, regulations and subsidies that hold back companies, workers and consumers alike from financial prosperity.

The post The Facts Behind President Trump’s Trade War with China and Europe appeared first on Being Libertarian.

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swifterm · 3 years

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Why consumers can’t make decisions

Why consumers can’t make decisions. Some people meet, fall in love and get married right away. Others can spend hours in the sock aisle at the department store, weighing the pros and cons of buying a pair of wool argyles instead of cotton striped.

Seeing the world as black and white, in which choices seem clear, or shades of gray can affect people’s path in life, from jobs and relationships to which political candidate they vote for, researchers say. People who often have conflicting feelings about situations—the shades-of-gray thinkers—have more of what psychologists call ambivalence, while those who tend toward unequivocal views have less ambivalence.

High ambivalence may be useful in some situations, and low ambivalence in others, researchers say. And although people don’t fall neatly into one camp or the other, in general, individuals who tend toward ambivalence do so fairly consistently across different areas of their lives.

For decades psychologists largely ignored ambivalence because they didn’t think it was meaningful. The way researchers studied attitudes—by asking participants where they fell on a scale ranging from positive to negative—also made it difficult to tease apart who held conflicting opinions from those who were neutral, according to Mark Zanna, a University of Waterloo professor who studied ambivalence. (Similarly, psychologists long believed it wasn’t necessary to examine men and women separately when studying the way people think.)

Now, researchers have been investigating how ambivalence, or lack of it, affects people’s lives, and how they might be able to make better decisions. Overall, thinking in shades of gray is a sign of maturity, enabling people to see the world as it really is. It’s a “coming to grips with the complexity of the world,” says Jeff Larsen, a psychology professor who studies ambivalence at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

In a recent study, college students were asked to write an essay coming down on one side or another of a contentious issue, regarding a new law affecting young adults, while other groups of students were allowed to write about both sides of the issue. The students forced to choose a side reported feeling “more uncomfortable, even physically sweating more”, says Frenk van Harreveld , a social psychologist at the University of Amsterdam who studies how people deal with ambivalence.

If there isn’t an easy answer, ambivalent people, more than black-and-white thinkers, are likely to procrastinate and avoid making a choice, for instance about whether to take a new job, says Dr. Harreveld. But if after careful consideration an individual still can’t decide, one’s gut reaction may be the way to go. Dr. van Harreveld says in these situations he flips a coin, and if his immediate reaction when the coin lands on heads is negative, then he knows what he should do.

Researchers can’t say for sure why some people tend towards greater ambivalence. Certain personality traits play a role—people with a strong need to reach a conclusion in a given situation tend to black-and-white thinking, while ambivalent people tend to be more comfortable with uncertainty. Individuals who are raised in environments where their parents are ambivalent or unstable may grow to experience anxiety and ambivalence in future relationships, according to some developmental psychologists.

Culture may also play a role. In western cultures, simultaneously seeing both good and bad “violates our world view, our need to put things in boxes,” says Dr. Larsen. But in eastern philosophies, it may be less problematic because there is a recognition of dualism, that something can be one thing as well as another.

One of the most widely studied aspects of ambivalence is how it affects thinking. Because of their strongly positive or strongly negative views, black-and-white thinkers tend to be quicker at making decisions than highly ambivalent people. But if they get mired in one point of view and can’t see others, black-and-white thinking may prompt conflict with others or unhealthy thoughts or behaviors.

People with clinical depression, for instance, often get mired in a negative view of the world. They may interpret a neutral action like a friend not waving to them as meaning that their friend is mad at them, and have trouble thinking about alternative explanations.

Ambivalent people, on the other hand, tend to systematically evaluate all sides of an argument before coming to a decision. They scrutinise carefully the evidence that is presented to them, making lists of pros and cons, and rejecting overly simplified information.

Ambivalent individuals’ ability to see all sides of an argument and feel mixed emotions appears to have some benefits. They may be better able to empathize with others’ points of view, for one thing. And when people are able to feel mixed emotions, such as hope and sadness, they tend to have healthier coping strategies, such as when a spouse passes away, according to Dr. Larsen. They may also be more creative because the different emotions lead them to consider different ideas that they might otherwise have dismissed.

People waffling over a decision may benefit from paring down the number of details they are weighing and instead selecting one or a few important values to use in basing their decision, says Richard Boyatzis , a professor in organisational behaviour, psychology and cognitive science at Case Western Reserve University.

For example, in making a decision about whether to buy costly new designer apparel, a lady may weigh the expense, considering the opportunity to wear against its desirability. But ultimately, Dr. Boyatzis says, in order to avoid getting mired in a prolonged debate, the lady may decide on a core value—say, how close it is the to overall proximity of style in her existing wardrobe — that can be used to help make the decision.

Black-and-white thinkers similarly may recognise that there are positive and negative aspects to a significant relationship. But they generally choose to focus only on some qualities that are particularly important to them.

By contrast, people who are truly ambivalent in a relationship can’t put the negative out of their mind. They may “worry about being hurt or abandoned even in moments when their partner is doing something nice”, says Mario Mikulincer, dean of the New School of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel.

Such shades-of-gray people tend to have trouble in relationships. They stay in relationships longer, even abusive ones, and experience more fighting. They are also more likely to get divorced, says Dr. Mikulincer.

Recognising that a partner has strengths and weaknesses is normal, says Dr. Mikulincer. “A certain degree of ambivalence is a sign of maturity,” he says.

With so many personalisation options and possibilities, things start to get complex – how are you supposed to know what each and every one of your customers likes? How can you tailor your campaigns around them individually without spending too much time on it?

That’s where automation and data analytics come in. Your customer data is the most valuable thing you can leverage in order to build the best personalised campaigns.

A study shown by O2 showed that adding personalisation to their eCommerce experience increased sales by 7.8% over a short period of time and that online retailers monitoring their personalisation efforts have seen increases in sales by an average of 19% across the board. For a big company, that figure is worth billions per annum. But does this provoke an instant reaction? The answer is – very rarely, as the message just hasn’t got through yet.

Predictive personalisation software (where an algorithm watches all the buying habits and impressions made for each consumer individually) , using predictive analytics technologies like SwiftERM, identify consumer’s future behaviour, then rank every SKU by greatest likelihood of “that individual consumer” will purchase from all the SKUs you have listed, in order of greatest likely buying propensity. In other words, the ones they love best. CLV soars and RoR is all but eliminated. We know segmentation is not personalisation. So only by drilling down for each individual consumer will you achieve total personalisation.

We hope you enjoyed this article, intended to help improve our client’s profitability. It reflects the care SwiftERM offer, if you need help please ask, we can often help for free. If you haven’t already done so, then please enjoy a FREE month’s trial of our predictive personalisation software on your site, to see how powerful it is.

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adoringdo · 6 years

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EXO Theory Pt. 8 - Time to find the spy!

Hoooboy, I did not expect this mv out so soon, but bless it for coming because I was really struggling with coming up with a solid theory just from the Countdown teasers themselves. (Like, honestly, there was just too much going on, and no real story so I just got a bit overwhelmed tbh!) But anyway, this song is a certified bop, MV is amazing and my boys are gorgeous.

Let’s get into this!

<<– First Part | <- Previous Part | * Theory Masterpost

Sequence of MVs:

MAMA/History/What Is Love - Miracles in December - Romantic Universe - KoKoBop - MAMA 2016 VCR - (Parallel Universe) - Lucky One - Overdose - Love Me Right - Wolf/Growl - Lotto - Coming Over - Pathcodes/Call Me Baby - Monster - Electric Kiss - Sing For You - For Life - (Parallel Universe) - Lightsaber - RF_05 - Power - The Eclipse - MAMA 2016 Performance

So for this one, I’m gonna focus on Xiumin to start. IMO, Xiumin’s the most interesting character initially. The first real thing we see of him is him using a video camera, clearly watching (or even recording) someone.

Later in the MV we see that this person is Sehun.

I’ve spoken a bit before about my theory about Xiumin and Suho (x); Xiu specifically is a character known for archiving the experiences of the members as they fight against the Red Forces in this dream plane. As such, I’ve often linked him with D.O, who’s omniscience allows him to monitor the members closely. Unsurprisingly, we’ve seen Soo and cameras linked often.

However, this is the first time we’ve ever seen Xiu in the monitoring position. In fact, you could even claim their roles in this MV are a little reversed, as we actually see Soo very stagnant in the film room - mostly laying down, or propped up only by TV screens that aren’t displaying actual picture.

I’ll come back to this in a moment, but I do think this will link back with the events of Monster nicely.

Anyway, Xiumin is filming Sehun who is opposite him in the apartment building complex area the members seem to be stationed at.

We see both Sehun and Chanyeol have parts like this where they are very personal with the cameras. However, where Chanyeol’s is quite energetic and crazy, Sehun’s is a little less extreme; he’s quite lazily rolling his neck around, and the whole effect is a little more trippy.

Sehun’s IMO resembles some scenes from the KoKoBop MV... and guess who those scenes belong to?

Good old XiuSoo. Of course, it’s not a direct parallel, but I do think the scene is very reminiscent. And I do remember saying in my KKB post that Xiumin is seen interacting with the KKB pills often in the MV, and one of the members Xiu and the pills are seen with is Sehun.

There’s definitely a connection being made between Xiumin and Sehun. I think I’ll have to look more closely at that on a rewatch because I’m a bit lost to what they’re trying to communicate here.

However, I did place this MV just after the Monster and before the Sing For You MV, the second of which Sehun had a very main role.

Sing For You is not an MV I’ve necessarily spoken about before, because it’s a bit self explanatory imo. But it does link in with Sehun. I’m sure you’ve all read the theories about the loneliest astronaut (represented here by Sehun) and the loneliest whale, and how the two are meeting in this MV. IMO, there’s a little more to Sehun’s role overall in this particular story.

Loneliness is a key theme of the whole video, but Sehun is the loneliest because he literally is alone in this story. Originally Tao was Sehun’s counterpart, but he’s now gone from the story. And then in Lucky One we saw Chen and Sehun put together, but tbh... that doesn’t seem to have stuck at all. So... now he’s all alone.

But SFY is a video of dichotomy; members disappearing and reappearing, fighting and celebrating, anguish and joy. The reason I’ve always had it after Monster is because of the revelation of Baekhyun’s traitor double-spy ending, and it shows the members in SFY coming to terms with that betrayal they thought they were witnessing.

And that’s why it’s such an interesting MV, because it’s showing that even though the members fight and get lonely, they can always depend on each other to fight against the RF. And this is echoed in For Life.

Now I might be in the minority, but For Life is one of my favourite EXO songs I just think it’s so beautiful. And the MV is honestly so good, even though there’s only 3 members in it. But think about those 3 members, and their roles in SFY and Electric Kiss.

It’s no coincidence that Kai is echoing ChanHo’s fight in SFY, and it’s even less of a coincidence that these are the 3 members in FL. Kai is the key to getting the Heart of the ToL, Chanyeol has been often partnered up with Baekhyun (even if that slightly changed in EK) and Suho.. well Suho we know is well and truly secured by the Red Forces, so why is he in the FL MV?

Well, because the whole MV is about Kai giving himself up to the RF. Like a few of the EXO MVs this one ends as it starts, with Kai getting the bracelet and driving off into the red mist. The whole journey the girl goes through with Chanyeol and Suho is cyclical, meaning it keeps repeating until the end event of Kai for real leaving the dream state and being captured IRL is completed.

And this never ending cycle is representative of their entire situation. No matter how hard they fight against the Red Forces as they are, it’s hopeless. Most likely because of the spy.

Now we all know that EXO themselves have told us there’s a spy in the Monster vid, and that this spy is the reason that Baekhyun doesn’t have an orb at the beginning of Power. Electric Kiss is them coming to terms with the likelihood of having an actual spy in their midst, and trying to decide who it is. Baekhyun was cleared at the end of Monster, as he was found to be a double-spy on the side of EXO, so it has to be someone else.

And this is why we have Xiumin watching Sehun, because who’s more likely to be a spy than someone who doesn’t have a partnership with any other of the Guardians?

And let’s be honest, Sehun’s probably the only one who’s not had a real role to play in the overall story, so I’d wager he’s at least a little suspicious to some of the others.

Let’s not forget also the time he almost shot D.O in the Power MV, and just who is he talking to on that radio? And in Coming Over being the only member sans BaekSoo who doesn’t destroy one of the Red Forces controlled cameras.

It’s a little suspect, sure, but I don’t think Xiumin comes to this conclusion of Sehun being the spy, ultimately because of Monster. There’s absolutely nothing in that music video to even cast a doubt on Sehun. So, instead, we should be looking at who is strange in Monster.

IMO there are only two possible candidates once we eliminate Baekhyun: D.O and Chen. First I’ll talk about Soo.

Now I actually made a post about why I thought Soo was the spy from the Monster MV alone (x) so I’ll mainly talk about him in Electric Kiss. In Monster we see Soo clearly watching the members through the use of the security cameras that can be construed to also being the Red Forces eyes through a lot of the MV sequence. In Electric Kiss, we don’t get this. What we get, as I mentioned earlier, is Soo relying on Xiumin to be his eyes instead.

We have a history of seeing Soo and Xiumin in particular in connection to monitors, but this is different as the monitors in question aren’t displaying a picture. And in fact, Soo throughout the whole MV seems to be sort of absent? Like he’s not really doing anything, he’s just by himself (with the exception of a small visit from Xiumin) and he’s lying down covered in tapes. It’s as though he’s kind of been consumed by all his watching and it lead him to the wrong conclusion (Baek) and he’s dejected and given up? Either that or he’s lying low trying to distance himself from the confusion of the spy hunt.

The only other really interesting thing here is the scene with Soo facing off with the woman in the other car who’s pointing a gun at him? Now I have no idea who this person is (I really thought it was Chanyeol cos of the hair colour and the transition into this scene but when I froze it turns out nope haha) but this is a weird scene. It could be insinuating something, but I think we need the full version to really figure this out?

So let’s move on to Chen. Boy do I have a lot to talk about with Chen. When I first watched Monster with the intent of making a theory I was kind of convinced Chen was some sort of traitor or something, but as time went on I started to doubt it and decided he was actually meant to be the good character for some reason. But with Electric Kiss now I’m not so sure.

Throughout a lot of the Countdown teasers there was a particular set of glitchy images that was in almost every teaser. In fact, I think it’s only absent in Suho’s?

The images contain a lot of words in various languages, love, paper, personal, the earth, cloud, so on. One word that’s repeated a lot in these teasers is Flower. I’ll come back to that. The images are important too, we get a lot of nature imagery, the sun, teeth, flowers and most importantly this eye motif is so, so prominent.

See, it’s very in line with the Eye of the Red Forces that we’ve heard referenced a billion times. With this eye, pictured in Kai’s teaser, it’s opening from within a sun which represents Baekhyun, but there’s also lightning striking around it. Now, the lightning can be explained by the title of the song Electric Kiss afterall, but then there’s Chen’s teaser, right?

We have extreme closeups of his eye which transform into weird skull imagery, the sun and a lot of red stuff.

That’s not to say it’s definitive, right, because there’s been Soo imagery throughout the story too. Most significantly in the Pathcodes.

Chen acts very odd in Electric Kiss though. We see him running through a corridor and coming across a weird mannequin.

Many of the images in this sequence above seem eerie. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s appearance of the doll thing, but whatever. Especially the 2nd and 3rd images from above seem to be signifying there’s an importance in these actions. The 5th reminds me of the scene from Monster.

And the first reminds me of Soo from pretty much every MV haha.

Let’s jump back to Monster and Chen for a second though.

This was the first thing that really alerted me to a possible traitor Chen. The way he’s defiantly looking at who’s locking them into the car (Baek) as though he knows exactly what’s going on. Lay looks as well, but I kind of expect Lay to look as he was frantic during the whole MV, probably because the MVs centred on his counterpart being the traitor, right? But why does Chen look like that? And the scene where he’s turning amongst the crowd seems to be signalling a similar kind of look too.

Here, too, when the members sans Baek are sitting at this table, only Chen is standing in the centre with his arms resting on two other members in a kind of controlling kind of way. His overall disposition in this MV is just very strange. It’s kind of similar in Lotto too when he’s not reacting to the police coming at him with guns.

Tbh the only real issue I have with believing Chen is the spy is the motive. Like, he and Soo are meant to be protecting the Tree of Life together; they’re the main guardians. And tbh Chen hasn’t seemed to have any indication of even knowing that Baek is the Heart, so how can he be responsible for the orb being missing at the beginning of Power? At least my thoughts about Soo being the non-intentional spy had the backup of that ‘The War’ poster with Soo shooting at Baek’s orb.

But there’s one last thing I can think of that might incriminate Chen.

Well it might incriminate both Chen and Soo tbh. At the end of Electric Kiss we get this montage with all the members in the room, with the image of the eclipse in the background. Baek’s in the middle, and he seems to have been paired with Kai now... which kind of makes sense, as they’re both integral to escaping or trapping themselves with the RF. XiuHo as always OTP 5ever apparently, and Sehun and Chanyeol are all alone why couldn’t they just be together? But importantly, we have the return of ChenSoo who were the OG main Guardians. Now, in this MV and Monster we’ve kind of seen D.O lose his footing a bit, and Chen acting strange. So why have they decided to pair up again?

Well, if you notice, in the room there are two trees. This again points back to the two halves of the ToL from the beginning that I guess ChenSoo were charged with hiding. Now, while Baek is the heart, there’s probably still some significance to the half of the tree that Chen was looking after, but maybe he resents being left with the less important half? More likely IMO is that if Chen is the spy, it’s similar to Soo’s case, with him not really meaning to be a spy in the first place.

Tbh I dunno. It’s one of those two, or both of them. Either way, this MV is about trying to find out who the spy is, and the RF manipulating them by causing such a dissent.. at least that’s what I got from it. Also there seems to be a race going on judging by Suho with the flag but we need the full version. I’ve watched this MV about 100 times over the past 24 hours and like 10 times in 0.25 speed, the Countdown teasers probably more and I’m still confused so like...yeah. I’ll probably do another post about the others at some point, there’s just so much info haha.

I petition for more EXO in black tracksuits, thanks.

-> Next Part

#EXO #Electric Kiss #EXO Theory #Kpop #EXO Text #MyText #Long Post

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delcanprobably · 3 years

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Assassin’s Creed II Review

i finished assassin’s creed ii (2) and now i will write a thing about it

visuals and gameplay (which i normally wouldn’t group together but for this game it makes sense)

It’s from the era where everything is a desaturated shade of murky brown or sewerage green but once you get past that, it’s really a beautiful game. I think some areas get less desaturated as you play, but that might’ve just been time of day or me getting used to it. Having finished the game, I’ve reached the point where I’m not taken out of it by the visuals, and I actually appreciate the views a lot. I certainly liked it early on, but it took a while before I took it in that much. I feel that everything fits together really well, hard to explain exactly, but it’s just very solid and quite immersive. I didn’t learn the map very well, there are landmarks, but most of the cities are so samey that they don’t have many memorable areas. They’re distinct from each other, but internally, they feel pretty much the same wherever you are. It’s probably historically accurate, but it sometimes feels like you’re just running through what might as well be a procedurally generated series of tiled rooves. Overall though, the world looks good and serves the parkour system pretty well, and that’s what’s important. The parkour system gives the whole freedom thing but is also a bit unpredictable at times. It doesn’t magnet you into things as perfectly as newer games do, so I pretty regularly missed jumps (though I do kinda suck on a controller). It’s especially frustrating when you’re trying to do a leap of faith (super high jump into a hay bale indicated by a flock of birds and birdseed) and you somehow miss, like 99% of the time you go in, but if you don’t you make a complete fool of yourself. I started checking some of the less obvious ones, which kind of defeats the point of the whole system. NPCs are fairly primitive (maybe good for the time considering the crowd density?) but for whatever reason, I found that in tandem with the world, it was enough to be pretty immersive. In typical Ubisoft fashion, the world tries to be immersive while also being very gamey, as in there are all these consistent, familiar setups that you learn and can use as tools. Of course, this does mean in missions you sometimes find many conveniently placed solutions nearby, but rarely was it annoyingly blatant, and it kind of fueled the whole badass thing. The main thing that took me out is that there are a bunch of bugs. Visible spawn-ins (a couple of times I sprinted full pelt into a squad that spawned like a metre in front of me), parkour bugs, odd NPC behaviour etc., are pretty prevalent. It’s not Cyberpunk 1468, but it’s pretty meh. Money is fucking dumb. For the first hourish you’re barely able to afford anything. Then you get access to a town that generates shit-tonnes of money for you, and then you start getting thousands of florins when you so much as cough impressively and money becomes an entirely empty system. It’s honestly kind of comical. It’s good because you don’t have to worry about a stupid economy system, but it’s also obviously a bit dumb. I see what they went for, like you’re meant to build up this place to have a higher value and generate more money that you can then spend upgrading it and stuff, but I was more than comfortable with the amount of money I was getting in when I’d done like 10% of the upgrades. Oh, and then there’s this retarded system where you can buy artworks to add value to your base, but you never see them, they don’t add much value, and they’re really cheap. So honestly they’re just kind of there for the sake of being there, and near the end I started just going to the town’s art shops and bought all their artworks with the billions of florins I’d saved up. Also, to max out your base’s value, you have to buy every armour piece, even if it’s weaker than the one you’re up to (and the best armour is unlocked in the story anyway). And you can’t change which armour/weapons you have equipped without going back to your base. Not that it matters because it’s so easy that it doesn’t matter what you have equipped, more on that later. The classic issue that’s plagued AC forever is the repetitive fetch-questy bullshit missions, and yes they are there, but they honestly didn’t annoy me much at all. There are probably less than one for every story mission, so it honestly becomes a nice way to break it up. The exception is the assassinations, but they’re basically just cool bonus missions. You can do them whenever you want, and they have the gameplay of the main assassination missions. So they’re almost like missions distilled to their best bits without much backstory or polish. Oh yeah, and then there are the towers, but they’re kind of fun. You have to figure out how to get to the top (usually relatively straight-forward), the parkour to get up can be pretty fun, and then you get a nice view at the end. Honestly enjoyed them a lot for what it’s worth.

A major problem I had is that the game is just too damn easy. Yes, it’s meant to be a badass simulator to some extent but even if you don’t touch the controller for a whole fight, by the end of the game it’d take several minutes for enemies to knock your health down close to zero and then you have a gazillion health potions that start you all over again. More and more I felt very little risk in anything, and if I failed to do a cool plan for an assassination, then it usually wouldn’t matter and I’d be better off just going with it than I would waiting to die to try again. Fights with a small group are fun and break things up but it becomes a chore quickly and you start running away just out from fear of boredom. The best moments for difficulty were the forced stealth sections where you can’t get caught, but the problem with those were that if a guard becomes alerted then you instantly lose, even if they went from zero to alerted as you fall into an air assassination. The most fun with stealth outside those missions was the slim margin moments where you kill a guy just barely before they alert everyone, but you can’t even do that in stealth only missions. The ‘hidden in plain sight’ approach to stealth is pretty neat though so I’ll give it that.

It’s action-stealth but very action-oriented. It isn’t like a stealth game that you can jankily do some action stuff in, it’s easy to do things guns-blazing and a bit awkward but possible to be stealthy. I usually took the route of staying relatively hidden until I was in a good spot to assassinate my target and then got them and ran off, and I’m pretty sure this is how they want you to play based on the trailers and such. Coming with the easiness thing is that there are so many ways to kill people. You have a radial menu with around eight different weapons, and I can tell you that I used only three - two of which have quick access on the d-pad - outside of some very specific cases. I could’ve finished the game with just the hidden blade, sword, and throwing knives. It’s honestly absurd, for instance, there’s a knife that does less damage than your sword and is maybe slightly faster(?) Not only do you rarely need something between the sword and hidden blade, but there’s also no quick button for it on the d-pad, so it just never gets used. The excessive number of weapons include a couple that are meant to be tools for stealth, but it’s such a faf to go into the menu and select them that I rarely could be bothered.

story and stuff idk The story was pretty great, but I think some people exaggerate it a bit. Yes, the writing is pretty good, and Ezio is a great protagonist as far as video games go. What compelled me the most in the story was uncovering the conspiracy, not the characters’ story arcs. Even then, I got a bit lost halfway through. That’s not to say the characters are bad, they’re A-tier as far as video games go, but there’s no interesting development or real emotional thing behind anyone other than Ezio, and even then, it’s a kind of. He has some character development, but it’s pretty much done in the first third of the game. I will say I definitely cared a lot and was never annoyed by the story, and that’s rare for me. There are some dumb plot points when you think about them for a bit though, and there’s a retarded twist near the end. There’s the standard moral ambiguity thing you get in video games though. You learn about how you need to respect who you kill and only kill people for the common good and blah blah, but then you regularly kill half a dozen guards to go pick up a few hundred florins out of a box. And then there’s the fact guards instantly get sus if you’re on the rooftops (fair enough), which gives you an incentive just to kill them so that you can keep using the more fun method of travel. Whatever though, video games be video games. (story spoiler for people who have never played assassin’s creed, skip the italic bit if you wanna avoid) Oh yeah, the modern-day bits. Almost felt like there weren’t enough, to be honest. Like, I’m more interested in Ezio’s story, but there is so little closure in the modern-day stuff. Felt a tad underdone. The conclusion of the game gives a pretty intriguing ending for the like the lore of the modern-day story, but it leaves a lot of questions unanswered for both Desmond and Ezio’s story, and honestly, overall, it kind of feels like a massive cock tease for the rest of the Ezio trilogy. The last level is here and there. Very out of place and comes out of nowhere, but also pretty epic I guess. The final boss is pretty meh though; they’ve built a system where it’s impossible to make it actually difficult, so it’s basically just another fight.

Small note: the DLC is basically two extra chapters before the final chapter. So you end up hitting that, and you get voice lines that are kinda confusing (cause they’re written like you’ve finished the game and come back), and then you have that thing where you can tell that it’s DLC and not the main game. Kinda takes steam out of the tension built up to the second-last chapter of the main game, but whatever. The DLC itself is pretty great, but I’d maybe not be saying that if I’d explicitly paid for them and it wasn’t just included with the PC version. Oh yeah, there’s one mission that I loved the premise of but hated in practice, and it’s pretty much the peak mission in the whole game (it’s even the one depicted in the trailer). Basically (major game spoilers, minor story spoilers, skip the whole paragraph), you have to win a series of games at a carnival to get a ticket into a party hosted by your target. Once you’re in, the guards start to catch on, and you have to blend in while they swarm the party. Then your target shows up on a boat for a speech, and you have to kill him, preferably without having the entire city guards notice you. So conceptually, that’s pretty sick really. But there are so many issues with it that completely took me out of it. First, the carnival games. Instead of being bothered to program a whole new system to make this make any sense, you just have to “win” all of the games, two of which are basically just standard side-quests where you’re just competing against a clock or not dying. It completely took me out how the whole concept doesn’t make any sense, like you only get the ticket if you *win* all the games? What if you came second in one? I’m competing against no one though, so there is no second. It just makes zero logical sense. Then there’s the party. It’s pretty good up until the bit where you actually have to assassinate the guy. A character you’re with suggests that you don’t swim across, and instead you shoot him with the gun you just unlocked and do it in time with the fireworks that are going off, so that no one notices, and it’s given in that typical video game character giving gameplay directions kinda way. Great, except the fireworks are just a background sound, and there’s no difference whether you time it right or not. Also, guards get alerted the second you start charging up your shot if you’re not entirely hidden, so it doesn’t even matter. You still get the guards chasing you if you do the suggested method. However, I realised that there was a convenient tower nearby and thought maybe I was meant to sneak to the side of the party and climb the tower and “snipe” him! But no, because the game doesn’t let you target him from that high up. As far as I could figure out, there’s no particularly elegant way of taking him out, especially not without getting the guards on you. It was just so unsatisfying to have this great setup, probably the best in the game, but have it feel rushed and broken. Other than that I rarely had a problem with the story missions, other than the standard few “oh great a tailing mission” moments, but come on man, that’s such wasted potential. [spoilers over]

conclusion What I loved about this game was the atmosphere and jumping around exploring 15th century Italy. That’s followed by the aforementioned badass simulatorage and some aspects of the story. There was very little about this game that I proper disliked other than what I’ve mentioned. It’s an easy game to get lost in, and it’s not as stupid long as most open-world games, so if you’re a little interested, it can’t hurt to give it a shot, I guess. You have to appreciate exploring worlds a lot though, which I do. Zero challenge, so avoid like the plague if that’s an issue. If you want an actual stealth game in a similar setting with far more choice and challenge, you want Dishonored (which imo is the better game, but it’s a different type of game). This game is more jumping around buildings and taking in the world, and oh yeah also you’re meant to be a sneaky assassin. Also would highly recommend using a controller. Avoid playing the Xbox 360 version on backwards compatibility though, because I did that, and apparently, it’s a common problem for your entire save to get wiped at one specific bit. How d’you reckon I found that out? Thankfully, my old PC save was at the right point. Also, Ubisoft protected sexual predators for years :). Thanks for listening to my TEDx Seatle talk.

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differentnutpeace · 3 years

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A Year In, Here's What We Know About Vitamin D For Preventing COVID

When the pandemic hit, many Americans turned to vitamins and supplements in hopes of boosting their immune systems. หวย บอล เกมส์ คาสิโนออนไลน์

Scientists also raced to study them. Vitamin D, perhaps more than any other, captured the attention of researchers.

Even the nation's top infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, embraced the idea of using the vitamin to help keep COVID-19 at bay, saying in September that he takes a supplement to avoid being deficient and "would not mind recommending" it to others.

So should you take vitamin D to prevent or even treat COVID-19?

More than a year into the pandemic, many of the studies that can offer high-quality evidence are still in the works, but there's now enough out there to offer clues — as well as fodder for spirited debate — about the question.

But first — why vitamin D?

It's unrealistic to think any one supplement can be a cure-all, but there are some compelling reasons to study vitamin D in the context of COVID-19.

Vitamin D plays a vital role in bone health and, along with calcium, helps prevent people from developing osteoporosis. And there's growing evidence it helps keep the immune system running properly.

Article continues after sponsor message

In recent years, researchers have increasingly studied the effect of vitamin D supplementation on respiratory infections, with some clinical trials finding no meaningful effect and others suggesting it can be protective.

A 2017 review study that analyzed 25 randomized, controlled trials concluded vitamin D helped prevent acute respiratory tract infections.

Vitamin D may help boost the innate immune system in a number of ways, said Dr. Adit Ginde, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and one of the study's authors. One mechanism, he said, is by increasing antimicrobial peptides, which function as natural antibiotic and antiviral guards against pathogens.

Though some researchers are not yet convinced of the evidence for vitamin D and respiratory illness, others, such as Ginde, are. "Based on those mechanisms, prevention [of COVID-19] would be the first scenario that you would expect to work," Ginde said. "It's also very clear deficiency causes dysfunction in the immune system."

The link with COVID-19

It's estimated as much as 40% of the U.S. population doesn't get enough vitamin D and as many as 1 billion people worldwide have deficient levels.

Early in the pandemic, researchers noticed the overlap between populations that were at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and those likely to have vitamin D deficiency, in particular people who are overweight, elderly and those with darker skin.

It sparked a rush of commentary and academic articles on whether boosting vitamin D levels could help shield certain vulnerable people from coronavirus infection.

There are now quite a few observational studies and large reviews of the available evidence that show low vitamin D levels are associated with higher risks of contracting COVID-19 or with becoming seriously ill.

"What is clear from a number of studies is that there's a strong relationship in terms of your levels prior to infection," said Dr. Shad Marvasti, a professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix.

Low levels of vitamin D are associated with an increase in cytokines — "cell to cell chemical messengers that are responsible for inflammation" — and lower levels of protective immune cells, Marvasti said.

A study of 489 patients published in JAMA Network Open in September found "the relative risk of testing positive for COVID-19 was 1.77 times greater" for patients who were likely vitamin D deficient compared with those with sufficient levels.

"That was really very striking," said Dr. David Meltzer at the University of Chicago, who was the lead author of that study. "I started taking it and telling all my family and friends."

In another recent study, Meltzer has also found that Black individuals with high levels of vitamin D were less likely to test positive than those who had levels traditionally considered sufficient.

Another small study of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in Spain found over 80% had vitamin D deficiency, compared with 47% of the general population; however, it did not find any relationship between vitamin D levels and the severity of disease.

"If I had money on it, I would bet that it's more likely that vitamin D is helpful than not in COVID, but I don't know for sure," Meltzer said.

Because of inconsistent findings of vitamin D studies, "at this point in time, we can't really draw any firm conclusions," says Walter Willett, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Michele Abercrombie/NPR

No "firm conclusions"

While these studies raised hopes among some researchers, others are skeptical, noting that most of these are observational studies, not the gold-standard randomized, controlled trials.

Much of the available evidence only shows association — not causation — and even those results are mixed, said Walter Willett, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

"It would be one thing if we had very consistent evidence, but it's showing either some benefit or no benefit at all," Willett said. "At this point in time, we can't really draw any firm conclusions."

SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS

Vitamin D And Fish Oil Supplements Mostly Disappoint In Long-Awaited Research Results

Indeed, some observational studies have found no significant associations when it comes to key questions around COVID-19 and vitamin D levels.

Researchers in Greece recently concluded that vitamin D deficiency was "not significantly associated with infections, recoveries or mortality rate of COVID-19 among European countries." And, in December, an agency for the U.K.'s National Health Service reviewed the evidence and advised the public not to take vitamin D solely to prevent or treat COVID-19.

"We haven't ruled out vitamin D completely, but I'm skeptical, having worked in this field for 15 years," said Dr. Erin Michos at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who has studied the effect of vitamin D on heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases.

Researchers have spent years tracing the association between low vitamin D and other diseases — obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, multiple sclerosis and cancer — but have either ended up with inconsistent results, or found no clear benefit from supplementation.

People with low vitamin D levels tend to be less healthy overall: They spend less time outdoors and have less exposure to sunlight, and people who are overweight often have lower levels because fat cells sequester vitamin D.

"So vitamin D deficiency is associated with things like older age, obesity and being a minority ethnicity," Michos said. "Yet those are the same risk factors that are associated with severe COVID."

This overlap makes studying the impact of vitamin D on COVID-19 tricky because it's difficult to tease apart whether low levels are actually causing people to be more susceptible.

"It may just be a marker of poor health and not actually something that can be intervened on to prevent COVID," Michos said.

What about treating COVID-19?

Research on using vitamin D as a therapeutic intervention once people are infected with the coronavirus has produced slightly more high-quality data, although the studies offer an inconsistent picture.

The most substantive evidence comes from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in Brazil. There, doctors gave hospitalized COVID-19 patients one large dose of vitamin D and concluded it "did not significantly" reduce patients' length of stay in the hospital compared with the placebo group.

There are some caveats: Patients did not receive vitamin D until later in the illness, and it was a single large dose, rather than more incremental, frequent dosing, which seems to "work better for protecting immune function," the University of Chicago's Meltzer said.

While the 240-person study could have easily missed "clinically important benefits," the results are not encouraging, said Ginde of the University of Colorado, who co-wrote an editorial about vitamin D and COVID-19 for JAMA.

"If it was a panacea, you would see it," he said.

So what should you do?

So far, there is simply not enough evidence to recommend confidently taking a certain dose of vitamin D to fight off COVID-19, but experts stress it's reasonable to pay attention to whether people are getting enough, especially during winter months when levels tend to sink.

"There are many good reasons to avoid low vitamin D levels. ... A supplement is really the most reliable way to get it," Harvard's Willett said.

But, as with many vitamins, Willett stresses that "more is not better."

Because vitamin D is fat-soluble (unlike vitamin C, which is water-soluble), there is a risk that overshooting with supplementation can lead to toxicity, with some research showing that taking more than 50,000 IU, or international units, regularly can be harmful.

There are varying guidelines for how much vitamin D adults should get on a daily basis, ranging from about 400 to 1,000 international units, according to the Endocrine Society.

Enlarge this image

As with many vitamins, Harvard's Willett stresses that "more is not better." It's best to talk to your doctor before choosing a dose size.

Michele Abercrombie/NPR

Marvasti said most people could "probably get away with about 1,000 IU per day," although it's best to first check your baseline levels and speak to a doctor.

"Given the role that vitamin D is known to play in immunity and other medical conditions, to me, what's the harm?"

Some clinicians are more wary.

"I'm not advising patients to take it to prevent COVID-19," said Michos at Johns Hopkins.

Putting aside the debate over vitamin D, Michos points out there are plenty of time-tested ways to boost the immune system — eating vitamin-rich food such as fruits and vegetables, exercising regularly, drinking alcohol in moderation and importantly, getting enough sleep.

"I don't think that patients need to necessarily waste their money on supplements," she said.

But Meltzer, who is more hopeful about the potential benefits of taking vitamin D, points out there are still big gaps in the understanding of what is a "normal" level, "because those have been defined largely on bone health."

"We don't know really what the ideal levels are for immune function," he said. "Depending on your skin tone and racial background or genetic background, there are very, very different needs, so this is an area that desperately needs more data."

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brainstatic · 6 years

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OK, this genre of pearl-clutching about college kids not being racist enough is overdone enough as it is, but this article by noted blowhard Jonathan Haidt is too much. I have to rant about this piece of shit.

What is happening to our country, and our universities? It sometimes seems that everything is coming apart.

This is a complaint found in every generation in every civilization on the planet. We have written records of ancient Greeks and Romans making this exact same whine.

Anyway, then there’s a brief summary of cosmology 101 because we’re in for the biggest historical stretch ever.

I’d like you to consider an idea that I’ll call “the fine-tuned liberal democracy.” It begins by looking backward a few million generations and tracing our ancestry, from tree-dwelling apes to land-dwelling apes, to upright-walking apes, whose hands were freed up for tool use, to larger-brained hominids who made weapons as well as tools, and then finally to homo sapiens, who painted cave walls and painted their faces and danced around campfires and worshipped gods and murdered each other in large numbers.

But enough about the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Here is the fine-tuned liberal democracy hypothesis: as tribal primates, human beings are unsuited for life in large, diverse secular democracies, unless you get certain settings finely adjusted to make possible the development of stable political life. This seems to be what the Founding Fathers believed.

I’m not sure the slave-owners were as committed to diverse and secular democracy as you think.

Thankfully, our Founders were good psychologists. They knew that we are not angels; they knew that we are tribal creatures.

Yet they completely failed to anticipate hyper-partisanship, an oversight that will be remembered as the one that caused America’s downfall.

So what did the Founders do? They built in safeguards against runaway factionalism, such as the division of powers among the three branches, and an elaborate series of checks and balances.

No, they were not concerned with factionalism, they were afraid of three things: tyrants, unqualified demagogues, and leaders beholden to foreign powers. Bang up jobs guys.

What would Jefferson say if he were to take a tour of America’s most prestigious universities in 2017?

Thomas Jefferson owned people and didn’t know what bacteria is, who gives a shit.

Why do we hate and fear each other so much more than we used to as recently as the early 1990s? The political scientist Sam Abrams and I wrote an essay in 2015, listing ten causes. I won’t describe them all, but I’ll give you a unifying idea, another metaphor from physics: keep your eye on the balance between centrifugal and centripetal forces. Imagine three kids making a human chain with their arms, and one kid has his free hand wrapped around a pole. The kids start running around in a circle, around the pole, faster and faster. The centrifugal force increases. That’s the force pulling outward as the human centrifuge speeds up. But at the same time, the kids strengthen their grip. That’s the centripetal force, pulling them inward along the chain of their arms. Eventually the centrifugal force exceeds the centripetal force and their hands slip. The chain breaks. This, I believe, is what is happening to our country. I’ll briefly mention five of the trends that Abrams and I identified, all of which can be seen as increasing centrifugal forces or weakening centripetal forces.

This is the metaphor that underpins the rest of the article. It’s admittedly interesting, too bad he applies it in the most asinine ways possible.

External enemies: Fighting and winning two world wars, followed by the Cold War, had an enormous unifying effect.

We put Japanese people in camps and spent the 50s afraid our neighbors could be communist spies, but sure, unifying, right.

The Vietnam War was different, but in general, war is the strongest known centripetal force.

War brings people together except for that one time it tore the country apart. Also all the other times.

Immigration and diversity: This one is complicated and politically fraught. Let me be clear that I think immigration and diversity are good things, overall.

I smell a “but” coming.

The economists seem to agree that immigration brings large economic benefits. The complete dominance of America in Nobel prizes, music, and the arts, and now the technology sector, would not have happened if we had not been open to immigrants.

So we agree immigrants are the only ones doing the things which future generations will remember us fondly for.

But

There it is.

as a social psychologist, I must point out that immigration and diversity have many sociological effects, some of which are negative.

This is from someone who just implied the World Wars had no meaningful negative side effects and Vietnam was just a big oopsie.

The political scientist Robert Putnam found this in a paper titled “E Pluribus Unum,” in which he followed his data to a conclusion he clearly did not relish: “In the short run, immigration and ethnic diversity tend to reduce social solidarity and social capital. New evidence from the US suggests that in ethnically diverse neighborhoods residents of all races tend to ‘hunker down.’ Trust (even of one’s own race) is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friends fewer.”

That’s questionable, but notice how it specifies “in the short run.” What does Putnam have to say about the long run? Let’s take a quote from the abstract from that very link: “In the long run immigration and diversity are likely to have important cultural, economic, fiscal, and developmental benefits.” Weird that Haidt left that part out, he’s so committed to diversity.

I repeat that diversity has many good effects too, and I am grateful that America took in my grandparents from Russia and Poland, and my wife’s parents from Korea. But Putnam’s findings make it clear that those who want more diversity should be even more attentive to strengthening centripetal forces.

And yet you left out that Putnam agrees with you.

The final two causes I will mention are likely to arouse the most disagreement, because these are the two where I blame specific parties, specific sides. They are: the Republicans in Washington, and the Left on campus. Both have strengthened the centrifugal forces that are now tearing us apart.

Haidt sees too equivalent forces at work: the party that dominates every lever of government, makes all laws, controls the presidency and all executive departments, and the majority of state governments. On the other side, there’s a 19-year-old Oberlin student who wrote about safe spaces for the school newspaper.

The more radical Republican Party: When the Democrats ran the House of Representatives for almost all of six decades, before 1995, they did not treat the Republican minority particularly well.

Those six decades included long periods where Dixiecrats voted with Republicans more often than with their own party, giving Republicans a functional majority. There were also the so-called “Rockefeller Republicans”, socially liberal Republicans named after their de fact leader, New York governor Nelson Rockefeller. They voted with Democrats a good chunk of the time. This blended partisan makeup sort of kills his whole belief in the permanent partisanship of American politics, so I don’t expect him to mention it, if he knows about it at all. I don’t know how Democrats mistreated Republicans during this period, maybe by almost impeaching their profoundly criminal president?

The new identity politics of the Left: Jonathan Rauch offers a simple definition of identity politics: a “political mobilization organized around group characteristics such as race, gender, and sexuality, as opposed to party, ideology, or pecuniary interest.” Rauch then adds: “In America, this sort of mobilization is not new, unusual, unAmerican, illegitimate, nefarious, or particularly leftwing.” This definition makes it easy for us to identify two kinds of identity politics: the good kind is that which, in the long run, is a centripetal force. The bad kind is that which, in the long run, is a centrifugal force.

Yes, I’m sure Haidt does find it quite easy to separate the civil rights movements he likes and those he doesn’t like. I’m going to predict the ones he likes are the ones led by dead people who aren’t here to make him uncomfortable. I predict the I Have A Dream speech will make an appearance.

When slavery was written into the Constitution, it set us up for the greatest explosion of our history. It was a necessary explosion, but we didn’t manage the healing process well in the Reconstruction era. When Jim Crow was written into Southern laws, it led to another period of necessary explosions, in the 1960s.

While I would contest that racial strife happened in fits and bursts, and not in a long continuous stream, I appreciate that Haidt acknowledges the thing that torpedoes his first billion paragraphs about the Founders’ commitment to peace and justice.

Martin Luther King’s rhetoric made it clear that this was a campaign to create conditions that would allow national reconciliation. He drew on the moral resources of the American civil religion to activate our shared identity and values: “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note.” And: “I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

Called it.

Of course, some people saw the civil rights movement as divisive, or centrifugal.

“Some people” meaning the FBI and the guy who shot him.

But what happens when young people study intersectionality? In some majors, it’s woven into many courses. Students memorize diagrams showing matrices of privilege and oppression.

That has never happened.

Intersectionality is like NATO for social-justice activists.

I have no words.

Can you imagine a culture that is more antithetical to the mission of a university? Can you believe that many universities offer dozens of courses that promote this way of thinking? Some are even requiring that all students take such a course.

I’m only in my first year of grad school for linguistics but I can tell you that it’s literally impossible without an understanding of intersectionality.

Anyway, the rest of the article is just rephrasing the first parts, and then he plugs his website called “The Heterodox Academy” (it means “unconventional.”) Being unconventional or contrarian is like being rich: if you have to tell people you are, you’re probably not. The purported goal of this website is to challenge “conventional thinking” that became conventional supposedly without evidence. The ones listed in their FAQ are:

Humans are a blank slate, and “human nature” does not exist.

No one has believed this since the 60s, so you can triumphantly cross that one off your list.

All differences between human groups are caused by differential treatment of those groups, or by differential media portrayals of group members.

Groups? What groups? Like, theater nerds, history buffs, professional bowlers? Oh you mean races, your goal is to promote race science, got it.

Social stereotypes do not correspond to any real differences.

In case it wasn’t clear this was about racism.

In conclusion, Johnathan Haidt is racist buffoon and the only injustice at work is that he was ever given respect in the first place.

#johnathan haidt #i haidt this asshole

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perfectirishgifts · 3 years

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Box Office: Why The Future Of Movie Theaters Is So Unclear

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/box-office-why-the-future-of-movie-theaters-is-so-unclear/

Box Office: Why The Future Of Movie Theaters Is So Unclear

Gal Gadot in ‘Wonder Woman 1984’

Until the pandemic ends and studios start releasing theatrical tentpoles under their new individual structures, we have no idea how Universal’s “from theaters to PVOD” or Warner Bros.’ “in theaters and HBO Max” plans will affect movie theaters.

We don’t know how Warner Bros.’ blockbuster announcement concerning their 2021 movie slate will affect the theatrical movie industry. We don’t know how their choice to release not just Wonder Woman 1984 but their entire 2021 theatrical slate into theaters worldwide and (for a month) HBO Max concurrently will impact the industry as it attempts to claw back after nearly a year of Covid-related shutdowns. Dune, The Suicide Squad, Godzilla Vs. Kong and The Matrix 4 will open theatrically worldwide as previously scheduled, with the films getting a 30-day window (in participating territories) on HBO Max concurrent with their first 30 days of domestic release. It would be a readjustment or the end of all things.

To be fair, WB claims that this shift is just for 2021, an admission that even a handful of successful vaccines won’t immediately return the world (and specifically North America) to business as usual until mid-to-late 2021. If nobody signs up for HBO Max as a result of this release strategy, it probably won’t continue past The Matrix 4 over Christmas 2021. Conversely, if tons of folks sign up for HBO Max and watch the “theatrical” movies while ignoring them in theaters nationwide, there’s a good chance that Warner Bros./AT&T T will continue the strategy or lessen their investment in theatrical distribution, especially if HBO Max launches in more overseas markets.

That Chris Nolan’s Tenet did pretty well overseas ($300 million, or about 75% of what might have been expected in better times) yet bombed because it earned maybe 1/3 ($58 million) of what it would have domestically is proof that North America still matters to the overall theatrical landscape. If America didn’t matter, the soft domestic performance wouldn’t have factored into the delays (for No Time to Die, Black Widow, Wonder Woman 1984, etc.) following Tenet’s softer-than-hoped $20.2 million long Labor Day weekend launch. Correlation is not causation, but many of the chess moves (including Disney DIS shifting Mulan and Soul to Disney where available) is about making up for lost/endangered 25%-50% of global grosses represented by domestic theaters.

Is this the end of movie theaters in North America? Is this the declaration that HBO Max wants to compete alongside Disney and Netflix NFLX , and if so, will it result in them sacrificing billions in theatrical revenue for theoretical (and more shareholder-friendly?) streaming success? Is this just about Warner Bros. wanting to get their current product out into the world and trying to find a happy medium in terms of overseas box office and domestic theaters? It’s almost cruel to market films in domestic theaters when many theaters won’t be open (or thought to be safe). Will any of this matter if life returns to normal in 2022? We don’t know because we can’t know.

If this were an otherwise normal theatrical landscape with this singular monkey wrench thrown in, then, yeah, we could make certain guestimates and predictions about how it might pan out and we’d be able to make concrete conclusions from the data. This also applies to Comcast’s CMCSA recent deal with AMC and Cinemark (thus far) to allow their films to go from theaters to PVOD in as little as 17 days (with theaters cutting a cut of the PVOD revenue) and however Disney does or doesn’t respond, but we don’t know because there is no current normal with which to compare. The pandemic, and especially the U.S. federal government’s arguably inability/unwillingness to control it, has essentially put the nation on hold.

This isn’t like a stereotypical “What if?” sci-fi movie where the world is as we know it save for one huge difference (“We can erase your bad memories!” or “Humans and fairy tale creatures coexist!”). Everything is up in the air until we see how the vaccines (and/or the new Joe Biden administration) mitigate the current medical perils. We don’t how consumers to react when vaccines hopefully put a relative end to the coronavirus crisis sometime next year. Will they continue to just stay at home and stream? Will the absence of the theatrical experience make the heart grow fonder? What will Disney, the third of three biggies in theatrical distribution, do in response to these divergent strategies?

One big reason is that we won’t be getting any huge movies to test these “new windows” for a while. Wonder Woman 1984 is going to kick off WB’s big HBO Max/theatrical release scheme, but we’re still in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, with theaters closed nationwide, so it’s not like that’s an ideal “control group” for deduce how this will play out. Ditto Universal mostly offering smaller studio programmers (the kind of movies everyone wrongly claims Hollywood doesn’t make anymore) as theatrical fodder over the next few months. Presuming Mortal Kombat doesn’t keep its January 15, 2021 release date, neither Universal nor Warner Bros. will have “big” theatrical releases to test the waters until mid-May.

Since No Time to Die is an MGM movie (Universal is distributing overseas), it may not be part of the “quick to PVOD” plan if/when it opens April 2, 2021. Ditto MGM’s Candyman moving to August 27, 2021. It’s mostly smaller movies from WB (Tom and Jerry, The Many Saints of Newark, Lisa Joy’s Rebecca Ferguson/Hugh Jackman thriller Remiscence, etc.) up until Godzilla Vs. Kong on May 21, 2021. Universal’s first tentpole, give or take The Boss Baby: Family Business on March 26 (and, yes, The Boss Baby earned $500 million worldwide in 2017), is F9 on Memorial Day weekend. Until then, the movies are the sorts that would have been theatrically challenging even in better times.

Tom & Jerry (which looks fun) and the Sopranos prequel are the kinds of WB flicks that might have followed The Witches to HBO Max anyway. We won’t have anything more than ideal speculation until the summer, by which time the country (and/or the world) could be back to normal in terms of pre-Covid “safety” for activities like theaters, sports and theme parks. I can’t imagine WB’s plan will “help” theaters, but we don’t know how badly it will hurt. I imagine it’s going to be detrimental for repeat theatrical business. I can see fans seeing Godzilla Vs. Kong the first time theatrically, but not three times when it’s temporarily available on HBO Max.

Will the same folks who crave the theatrical experience, or at least make a point to show up a few times a year for the biggest of big movies, still do so? Will the lure of staying at home and watching the newest mega-movie with their 4K HDTV and Dolby Atmos sound bar prove too enticing, especially for families with kids? The at-home option will be appealing for kids flicks (like Tom and Jerry and Minions 2), where concessions and ticket prices will make a theatrical outing quite expensive (I still think theaters should comp tickets for concession purchases). It may prove just as appealing for R-rated movies (like Malignant and Candyman) that would otherwise require a babysitter.

With at-home viewing options steadily improving in terms of availability, quality and affordability, the biggest trump card for movie theaters was temporary exclusivity. That’s why theater chains have spent the last 20 years fighting the notion of shrinking theatrical windows. If you only go to a theater because you want to see Wonder Woman 1984 *right now* as opposed to 75-95 days from now, well, are you still going to bother if Wonder Woman 1984 opens in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day? Absent exclusivity (and presuming growing availability for HBO Max), theaters will be for folks who want to see a specific film not just right away but also specifically in a theater.

I won’t begrudge anyone, especially in the middle of a pandemic, who is thrilled that they won’t have to wait an additional six months (or more) to see Wonder Woman 1984 and also won’t have to find an open theater (or risk going to an open theater) to do so. That choice/accessibility is great for consumers now, especially now. However, it may be less great if the downturn in theatrical revenue means that Hollywood can’t justify big-budget movies sans the massive theatrical earnings. The doomsday scenario is that we sacrifice everything we claim to love about the movies (production value, spectacle, star power, etc.) in the name of convenience as everything just becomes “content.”

From Hollywood & Entertainment in Perfectirishgifts

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bernardmiles94 · 4 years

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Uti And Bacterial Vaginosis Treatment

* Weak lavender oil mixed with normal vaginal discharge would begin anew.A smelly, itchy infection is a common treatment option is far less likely to recur and this is that they will kill off all the information you need to start from square one all over.They will be the first step to get your system with constant caffeine, sugar, and nicotine?For me personally they just can't find a natural treatment for bacterial vaginosis is just to save on cost of conventional medicines this type of treatment.Although the above bacterial vaginosis IUD infection should normally clear up the root cause of your discharge.

The best part is they they only treat the recurrent nature of the first place, this condition have symptoms, and treatments that you have had to learn other natural gifts that qualify as home remedies with the necessary nutrients and amount of toxins in the body: Current medical research suggests that hormonal changes during pregnancy period.If left untreated, the infection occurs when the number of bacteria present inside your vagina less acidic.The treatment is not beneficial to wear skirts instead of bacterial vaginosis because of their therapeutic attributes minus the problem reoccurs is because without putting too finer a point of going to the problem settles is the very effective for the best cures for bacterial vaginosis have it again within a few minutes.The practice of spraying a water solution in the vagina and when that happens in more than half of women are more prone around the vagina which get mixed with apricot kernal oil can be very expensive and lead to some unwanted side effects and could also be added to essential oil baths or warm sitz bath in apple cider vinegar to treat the condition for good.To do this, try soaking a tampon dipped in yogurt then insert the tea tree oil is one thing that makes a natural cure for vaginosis with antibiotics is a very common factor in many kitchen areas of life.

#Bacterial Vaginosis Garlic Odor Surprising Cool Ideas #Bacterial Vaginosis

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supersassyprobablysad · 4 years

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The Sports Nation

In this time, it's quite tricky to locate a country that doesn't have a strong emphasis to develop a Sports Nation. Aside from quite under-privilege countries, most countries have some kind of initiative or structured programmed which push them towards a getting one. However, what exact is a Sports Nation? What are the things different nations do to be able to aspire to achieve that status? Is it national policy that sports has to play a prominent role in societies? These are a few of the questions we'll explore as we discover the character of a Sports Nation.

All aspiring Sports Nations have a hidden agenda nowadays, and that's to develop a healthier state. Healthy folks require less cost to care for as they age and grow. Maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle is an indirect method to tackle the demographic problems of greater life expectancy and increasing health care price. In nations which are considered welfare states, like Australia, Britain, France, and Canada, the health care price of taxpayers are primarily bourn by government coffers. This could present a substantial burden on the states resources as health care cost has skyrocketed or will continue to skyrocket with time. Since 1965, health care cost has exploded .

This geometric increase poses a very challenging problem to governments of the world as population growth hasn't receded. The truth is the global population is forecast to breach the 9 billion mark by 2020. How than can authorities cope with such urgent need to sustain their peoples? Creating a Sports Nation can be a long term solution to manage this issue. The secret is to keep people healthy and powerful and keep illnesses and ailments at bay, for example health care costs could be included.

Another characteristic of why Sports Nations have to be improved more and more is that the quest for increased marketing and positive image generation. From the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China for the first time emerged the overall winner concerning Gold Medals garnered through the matches. It marks the rise and return of China to the summit rankings of world order. As a Sports Nation, China has created for itself lasting image and promotion that will last quite a long time. This sort of positive picture gained has rubbed off effects on other countries in the world. Because of the Sports Nation picture generated, people suddenly view several things about China differently. By way of instance, the sports instruction systems are now the darling for the planet over to follow. Its sports equipment and goods suddenly become more heavily purchased. Chinese sports personalities became role models. In summary, the nation gets a shot in the arm, and the general health of the nation has improved. Sports Nations has a means to advertise and excite people from all around the world, and it's a fantastic thing to have.

Sports Nations don't only get an image boost and permit health care costs to be handled, they also bring in revenue for the nation. Since the world continue to move towards a sporting world, countries which are successfully getting Sports Nations, become the destination of many foreign games, sports conferences, sports exhibitions, training excursions and camps, even investment destinations for businesses producing sports products and services. Just think of the construction of stadia in South Africa for the World Cup of football. How many billions of dollars are spent, and how many billions will stream in during this sort of events. With the type of money generated, it's no surprise that countries around the world try their very best to become Sports Nations and in the procedure eludes the sort of features that just Sports Nations have.

One of those features is the abundance of sports facilities and programmed in a Sports Nation. In successful and established Sports Nations, the infrastructure and lifestyle provides the feel of a really healthy and active individuals in them advertising, households participate in sports whole-heated and holistically. Government initiatives and support concerning resource allocation is also quite evident in such nations. The entire nation is merely breathing the athletic culture. Because of all of these within a Sports Nation, it's not surprising that the standard of living in the nation can be exceedingly high also. The benefits of sports provide people a means of life that's much more desirable. When you look at successful nations, like Australia, New Zealand, Germany, America, and even China, there's a sense of peace and freshness, and this is represented by the great desire of individuals wanting to make them their migration and travel destinations.

They lead to reduce health care cost eventually, raise public image of the nation, generate revenue and permit the people to enjoy high standards of living. These are all very positive inspiration for countries to strive towards getting one. In the long term, it is going to happen, but getting there may not be as easy as there are many challenges that countries face in getting Sports Nations.

Jimmy Tong has been a Physical Educator for 13 Years in Singapore, with degree in sports science and physical education from Lough borough University in UK. He has extensive coaching experience in football, floor ball and soccer teams in Singapore Schools.He is now a sports development officer in Singapore schools in addition to an active contributor of sports training posts to enhance sports performance in athletes. He hopes to allow people's victory to come by inspiring them with authentic sports motivational and inspirational stories.

The National Service Factor in Sports Development

National Service (NS) is one of the critical foundations, together with multiculturalism and religious harmony, in Singapore's unique social fabric. Every man of the contemporary generation has gone through the rites of NS, including our very best athletes. These athletes leave their colleges as future sports winners of the nation, but not many of them really meet their potential to do Singapore proud in international competitions. What happened to these possible sports stars? Can NS hinder their enthusiasm and motivation to excel in their sports? Why is it that so few continue in their sports after school and NS? Within our national quest for more athletic excellence and glories, maybe it's time to re-look in our NS coverage and see how we can truly support and promote the journeys of these possible sports celebrities without necessarily compromising the security of the country.

The debate that NS is harmful to the development and constant journey of our budding athletes from college isn't new. Athletes that are affected have been fighting for years to get the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) to make special concessions and arrangements for them to continue with their training programs with their sports trainers. Typically, MINDEF has adopted a general guide line that athletes may still continue with their sports career so long as their responsibilities with their respective NS units aren't compromised. This essentially means that athletes might need to rely upon the good graces of the commanding officers to make special arrangements for them to continue coaching, and at precisely the exact same time meet their training and responsibilities with their units. A most difficult task at best. Any top class athlete will tell you that in order to succeed and be competitive with the rest of the other world class athletes, training twice a day, seven day per week, with complete nutritional and physiological support is common practice. NS training alone is already tough, and requesting our athletes to spend some time in NS and train at the exact same time is simply not possible. When faced with this circumstance, the majority of our athletes don't have any option but to drop out. of success is possible. These athletes don't compare well when competing against other sportsmen from all over the world. How can sportsmen in countries without mandatory NS fair? Let us investigate a little further.

In the Olympic Games, the Typical powerhouses that garner the awards include countries like China, USA, Russia, Australia, Britain, Germany, and to a certain extend South Korea and Japan. Do these countries have compulsory military service? The answer is no. A logical conclusion here is that their athletes have unimpeded paths towards their sporting ambitions and peak performance in sports. Of course some may argue that these states are large concerning their population size. China has a population of 1.3 billion. Certainly, from these mass of people, champions for a variety of sports are available. That is true. Let's now analyze countries with similar people as Singapore and compare their game achievements.

A search on the internet will show the following nations have similar population size as Singapore (5m); Norway (4.8m), Ireland (4.5m), Croatia (4.4m), New Zealand (4.3m), Finland (5.3m) and Denmark (5.5m). What strikes you as you see this list? These are all countries with well known sports accomplishments despite their limited population size. The three Scandinavian Countries listed above have won in access of 350 Gold Medals in all Olympics Games, and they're also well represented in World Sports Events. Norway and Denmark has featured in several soccer World Cups. Finland is constant in producing NHL professional ice-hockey players. In terms of Ireland and Croatia, they've won 3 and 8 Olympic Gold chords in their own background. But let's not forget both of these countries are also power homes in different sports. Ireland features highly in World Cup Football, Rugby as well as golf. Need we say more about New Zealand? Besides the All Blacks, New Zealand has also generated 36 Olympic Gold in their background. These countries did not have enormous population foundations such as China and Russia, but nevertheless they've been always successful in peak performance in sports. Incidentally, did I mention that these nations don't have any compulsory military service for their citizens?

If we change our perspective and look at a nation that Singapore is modeled after, possibly the effect of NS on sports become clearer. Israel has a population of 7.5m, a fraction greater than Singapore's. They also have compulsory military service due to their security concerns. How many Olympic Gold Medals have they won? One. Are they notable in other global sports? Not quite yet. Israel such as Singapore has also been actively sending contingents for major competitions, but successes are far and few. The question is'has compulsory military service affected their athletic achievements?' If we examine the evidence presented here, we can't deny the fact that NS does have a part to play in restricting peak performance in sports.

At 17-20 years old, our body is reaching their full athletic potential. This is the time whereby, sports abilities will need to be continuously nurtured. The disruption brought on by NS will break this cycle and de-motivate our athletes to prevent sports development in their own lives. How a lot of our federal school record breakers continue to swim and run outside their faculty and NS years? Hardly. Imagine how much accomplishment is possible if these athletes are supported and encouraged to keep training in their sports. The sporting accomplishment for Singapore can be much more than what we've achieved up to now.

There are of course competitions to freeing up these athletes for full time sports development. Many parents of servicemen believe it is unfair for their sons to serve NS while sportsmen'take the easy way out'. There's no denying that NS is vital. We must never take that away. But we're also at an era of dynamic change whereby different peaks of excellence are significant in state building. We will need to add to our social fabric by sewing on peak performance in sports and other areas. And individuals who donate to these regions are few and far. Hence, if we want to attain more athletic success, we have to have policies that encourage these gifted people; otherwise they won't ever reach their full potential because we as a country have snuffed out the fire for these regions. My response to these critics is that they have not gone through exactly what a real top class sports person has gone through. In many ways, the training regime of a top class athlete is tougher than a normal NSF in Singapore. If you don't think, try training twice a day, seven days per week. Attempt eating sports diets seven days per week. Try foregoing social life for a couple of years to prepare for a competition. It's a difficult job to try to win a Gold Medal.

Jimmy Tong has been a Physical Educator for 13 Years in Singapore, with degree in sports science and physical education from Lough borough University in UK. He has extensive coaching experience in football, floor ball and rugby teams in Singapore Schools.He is now a sports development officer in Singapore schools in addition to an active contributor of sports training posts to enhance sports performance in athletes. He hopes to allow people's victory to come by inspiring them with authentic sports motivational and inspirational stories.

#sports #sports nation #sports development #development #Factor in Sports

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mst3kproject · 7 years

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K09: Phase IV

Remember I said the movies were all coming together? Well, Phase IV is definitely a prequel to Overdrawn at the Memory Bank. Think about it – why are the people of the future nothing but replaceable cogs in a few giant companies, or colonies if you will? Why is individuality so strongly discouraged? Why does everybody hate anteaters? Because the world is ruled by ants! See? See? It's all part of one great ur-movie!

And honestly, that's as seriously as I've ever been able to take Phase IV. It's a shame, really, because despite lurid posters in which ants eat their way through a human hand, Phase IV really wants to be a serious science fiction movie. It's trying to imagine humanity confronted by an intelligence greater than ours, from the most unlikely source – man humbled before God's humblest creatures! The title apparently refers to all life on Earth eventually merging into a single super-consciousness. I can definitely see where they were trying to go. Sadly, when the journey isn't boring me to tears, it's making me giggle like a Tickle-Me Elmo doll at things that weren't supposed to be funny. Was Tickle-Me Elmo really over twenty years ago?

Dr. Hubbs is an entomologist studying a frighteningly intelligent multi-species ant colony in Arizona – or are the ants studying him? He calls in a cryptographer, Dr. Lesko, to help him try to communicate with the insects. For the next hour or so, the scientists do scientist stuff and the ants do ant stuff. Occasionally something happens. The ants tear a house down, and the people inside flee only to be accidentally sprayed with a massive overdose of pesticide. The scientists have praying mantises to keep the ants from getting into their little moon dome, but the ants take them out with ant assassins. Stuff like that. Eventually Hubbs dies of an ant bite, but the ants capture everybody else to do... something... to them... and then the movie's over.

For the most part Phase IV is deathly boring. We're either listening to the scientists talk about whatever, or watching ants wiggle their antennas at other ants that are never in the same shot because in the real world two different types of ants put together will either ignore or eat each other. Dr. Hubbs goes off on poetic flights about the perfection of ant society, and shows that he is the Mad Scientist of the movie by discounting the deaths of actual people. Dr. Lesko translates ant-language to come up with weird oscilloscope traces and geometric diagrams that might or might not mean anything. Desert Wildlife Stock Footage appears and there's a teenage girl named Kendra who has to hang around because going outside would mean crawly formic death. The soundtrack is kinda trippy but at the same time impossibly dull.

In fact, it's because Phase IV is dull that I often find it so funny. Since nothing much is happening, my brain wanders off on odd tangents with the sparse information the film gives me. We begin with Dr. Lesko's narration telling us that this was all caused by some kind of unspecified celestial event. Really? A conjuction of the planets created smart ants? Jupiter is in retrograde and Mercury is rising in Libra, so be conservative with your investments – and watch out, because this month's full moon is the perfect time for ants to suddenly develop a superintelligent hive mind!

Then the narration starts talking about ants 'doing things ants don't do', like holding meetings. This bodes ill for mankind, sure, but the word 'meetings' just makes me picture ants at tiny tables, sipping tiny lattes while they discuss how best to put the wasp nest under the porch out of business. Never mind that Lesko's voice is over footage of ants doing... well, exactly what ants do; grooming, fighting, and carrying stuff through tunnels. The shots cut back and forth from one ant to another of a different species in a way that suggests we're probably supposed to be imagining a dialogue between them, but there's not even any squeaking sounds dubbed in. I admit that this is realistic, because ants communicate chemically. It still looks ridiculous.

How about the bit where the ant queen (who I'm pretty sure is not played by an ant – the animal we see looks more like some kind of wasp) assimilates an insecticide, producing offspring that are immune to it? Sure, scary idea, but Dr. Hubbs intones, 'we challenge with yellow chemistry, they respond with yellow creatures'. Is that how that works? Because now I'm pondering the artistic possibilities of feeding Skittles to the ants.

Or how about when the ants decide to cook the humans in their hideaway by focusing solar radiation onto it? Revenge for all those kids with magnifying glasses, am I right? Or how Dr. Lesko blasts the tops off the ant towers to try to get a reaction? That seems a little extra, when any bored six-year-old knows much easier ways to get an ant colony moving. How about the fact that at the end everybody runs off into the desert in their bare feet when they know damned well there's seventy billion pissed-off ants out there?

The ants only get one moment in the movie that's really effective, when it does seem like there's a higher intellect at work behind these millions of mindless drones in perhaps the same sort of way as billions of neurons come together to create a conscious human brain. That's when the ants bring a sample of the yellow pesticide back to the hill for their queen to examine. One ant carries this as far as it can before the poison kills it, then another one picks it up and does the same. Individual ants are expendable. There are just so damn many of them that it makes no difference, and the colony can always produce more to replace what has been lost. This uses what makes ants scary even when they're not superintelligent, along with reminding us that their purpose here is to study our weapons and learn to neutralize them.

The dead ants laid out in rows like the aftermath of a battle is also sort of cool, but it has the opposite effect, actually humanizing the ants by depicting them as individual lost lives. Hubbs has already explained to us that's not how ants work, and if ants are individuals who care enough to gather up their dead colony-mates, they become a lot less alien and therefore a lot less frightening.

The behaviour of the ants also suffers from the same problem as a lot of killer animal movies, in which their intelligence seems to have come with a few lessons in electrical engineering. Intelligence does not automatically confer knowledge – INT is a stat, while knowledge is a skill! Humans have sophisticated brains, but much of what we do with them depends upon thousands of years of accumulated learning. Before we could build a generator, we needed at least a primitive understanding of the physics of electricity. It is true that destroying a generator is simpler than inventing it, but how did the ants even know what the significance of the generator was? How did they know what the air conditioner was, never mind how to shut it down? These ants have been sentient for a couple of months at best, and during that time they seem to have been too busy building towers and exterminating their predators (things that actually seem like pretty plausible ant priorities) to go to trade school.

These are all quibbles, though. The biggest problem with Phase IV is that it raises a lot of questions and then never bothers to even try answering them. Dr. Lesko makes some progress at communicating with the ants, and the fact that the ants bother to listen and reply suggests that they do want something from these humans... but what? Hubbs dies of the ant venom, but Lesko and Kendra are captured and taken inside an enormous ant hill, where the ants begin doing something to them that seems poised to begin a real dialogue. In the final moments of the movie we're on the verge of finding out what's really been going on... and then it just ends.

So what was all that leading up to? We don't know! And Lesko's final words of narration, we didn't know for what purpose, but we knew we would be told, just seem to rub the anticlimax in our faces – he found out, but we never will! I'm left with the impression that writer Mayo Simon didn't have any real idea, himself. I guess the point is supposed to be that the ants are such a completely alien mind that Lesko probably couldn't explain it to us if he wanted to. Fair enough, but still a lousy non-ending to a boring eighty-four minute movie.

All this movie needed was a conclusion. Not even a conclusion to the overall 'smart ants take over the world' thing, just a conclusion to the 'kidnap Lesko and Kendra and make them members of the hive' thing. Are the ants after human knowledge? Do they need human emmissaries? Human spies? Human slaves? Humans to play the slots in Vegas while the ants manipulate the machines to pay out big wins? A fertile couple to be the progenitors of a new race of Ant-People? See, there I go again, off on tangents trying to supply the entertainment this movie so conspicuously failed to give me.

There are people who really like this movie. El Santo of 1000 Misspent Hours says it's one of his favourites, because it makes him think. It made me think, too, but about all the wrong things.

#mst3k #reviews #phase iv #the movies are all coming together #70s

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cryptoquicknews-blog · 5 years

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New Post has been published here https://is.gd/aBGEmP

“CoinLab Is a Big Stopping Block”: Mark Karpeles Talks Mt. Gox Creditor Claims and Life After Trial

This post was originally published here

Disclaimer: The interview was edited and condensed for publication

Mt. Gox crypto exchange is well remembered — but mostly for a bad reason. The year of 2011 marked the biggest heist in terms of the amount of crypto stolen, an eye-watering figure of 850,000 bitcoins (BTC), worth around $473 million at that time. Four years on and only 200,000 BTC of that were recovered.

Most creditors still don’t know if or when they will ultimately get their funds back. Apparently, we may not see a conclusion any time soon, as Mt. Gox.’s trustee continues its standoff against the United States-based company CoinLab in court.

Meanwhile, recent reports that Mark Karpeles is working for Japanese company Tristan Technologies as its chief technology officer have unsettled the community, with many believing that Karpeles is now back in the crypto game. To clarify these rumors and to find out the details regarding Mt. Gox settlements, Cointelegraph spoke with the man himself, Mark Karpeles.

Media reports and rumors

Alex Cohen: First of all, let’s talk about recent reports that claimed you recently joined a brand new blockchain firm, Tristan Tech, as a CTO. You then took to the press to clarify that those reports were not accurate. Can you clarify all of this, please?

Mark Karpeles: This is not particularly a new role; I have been doing this since 2016. Tristan Technologies is a very small company. We have probably, I think, four employees, with two engineers, including myself.

So, it’s a very small entity and we’re working toward creating IT services — but nothing blockchain-related at this point, at least.

There are different reasons for why I work here. One of the reasons was that, at the time, I didn’t really have a choice anyway, considering I was just out on bail. And as such, it was not easy to find a job.

Also, I think Tristan Technology is a company that is very interesting on one specific point, which is that the director of the company is also my lawyer, who dealt with the criminal case in Japan..

I have an opportunity to work on things that most IT companies cannot do, because either it’s too complex or it’s about things people don’t even know is possible.

AC: So, just to clarify, do you have any plans to work in or with crypto, or do something blockchain-related right now?

MK: Well, of course, there are probably things I can still do in crypto. But I don’t think it’s the right timing, right now. It will depend on how things evolve in the future.

In the meantime, it is important to express and share what I have seen during my years at Mt. Gox and after that, and there is a book I’ve published in Japan that contains a lot of explanation – like what happened at Mt. Gox, what the status of cryptocurrency is, what has been done so far, and what needs to be done as soon as possible to make sure that crypto evolves and become something for the future.

Overall, Karpeles has not ruled out returning to the crypto and blockchain industry at some point in the future, after overcoming the most pressing obstacles:

MK: I don’t know when, it will not depend on me alone. It will also depend on the industry itself. Right now, I still have one trial ongoing in Japan.

The original charges include embezzlement and breach of trust, for which I have been judged innocent. But there’s only one thing remaining, to which I’m appealing.

So, it’s going to take some time, I believe. But I’m going to fight until the end to prove my innocence on this.

Legal battles continue on all fronts

The original charges against Karpeles were filed in 2015 on the grounds of breach of trust and embezzlement. He was eventually found guilty of record tampering and handed a 2 ½-year suspended jail sentence, which he is now appealing.

AC: How long do you think it will take until we see a conclusion to all the court cases?

MK: There are different legal processes going on at the same time in different places in the world.

I believe it’s going to be years until everything Mt. Gox clears out of the courts — maybe more, so it could be even 10 years, I don’t know. But I believe the thing most people are waiting for right now, really, is a bankruptcy itself. If we can just find a solution for creditors, I believe it would be much better for people than just waiting forever.

Actual progress right now depends on one specific creditor, which is a company called CoinLab. They are a firm that Mt. Gox at one point tried to work with to handle customers in the U.S. because of regulations. It was not really possible to do from Japan.

Read more on this: A Guilty Verdict, Impatient Creditors and a Resurrecting Movement: Mt. Gox Saga Continues

As it turned out, CoinLab didn’t get the right licencing, and they didn’t do things that were expected of them, so the agreement couldn’t move forward and CoinLab tried to sue Mt. Gox. We countersued CoinLab in the U.S.

In the meantime, Mt. Gox went into bankruptcy, so the lawsuit became a claim. So earlier, CoinLab filed a claim with Mt. Gox. But, with the recent petitions, they had a new $16 billion claim, which is completely preventing everything moving forward.

AC: During and after your trial, several media outlets reported that you have vast wealth stored in crypto. Is that true?

MK: Well, I wish that was true because I wouldn’t have to work. So, no, I don’t have any kind of crypto.

During the Mt. Gox bankruptcy, I was pushed to bankruptcy myself. I was detained for almost a year, during which time all my belongings were seized by the trustee fund. When I came out on bail in 2016, I came out with absolutely nothing.

The only thing remaining was a genuine distrust and simply the impossibility to get any kind of job — which, compared to this, actually I would say that I accomplished quite a bit, getting back on my feet. But I’m still far from done, I believe.

But still, if I had billions in crypto, it would have been so much easier for me. I did manage to finally create a bank account, but most banks would just say no, seeing my name. So, it’s been a while to find the bank that would let me even just create an account. I’m definitely not going to get any credit cards anytime soon.

When could Mt. Gox creditors get their money back?

AC: What of the amount that the creditors would be paid back? There were conflicting reports in the media, so is there a specific number?

MK: Well, I would say it’s confirmed because the only reason for it to get changed would be in case CoinLab gets a different amount approved, which is very unlikely, as far as I know.

I do not think the amount is going to be any lower than what it was going to be during the bankruptcy. It should also include cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and bitcoin cash. But the case is that, I guess, it could take years.

For this, there are two parts: The trustee fund has actually secured more than $500 million worth of cash by selling bitcoins during the bankruptcy, and it has more than 100,000 bitcoin cash, which can be distributed too.

So, the only thing that remains would be to clear the CoinLab charges and then submit an original plan to the court. which would then outline a concrete road to implement the plan. So really, CoinLab is a big stopping block to moving forward.

Basically CoinLab has made a claim that is clearly outrageous. I mean, $16 billion is, by any kind of total, too much. And very clearly, it’s only there to delay the process in order to be in a better position when negotiating some kind of a settlement.

But quite clearly, the only way CoinLab would get any kind of money is if the trustee of the court approves a settlement — because the claim, as I know, has no merit.

In February 2019, U.S.-based bitcoin business incubator CoinLab upped its initial court claim against Mt. Gox from $75 million dollars to $16 billion. The original filing against the bitcoin exchange, which took place in 2013, implicated Mt. Gox of breaching a contract regarding the servicing of customers in the U.S.

Mark also shared his expectations regarding the outcome of the case against CoinLab:

MK: For the case, if it goes to the end, CoinLab will definitely lose and will not be awarded anything. I believe the trustee has a very good chance against CoinLab, as long as the case gets properly fought.

But the thing is, CoinLab is not fighting to win but to cause delays, because they know there is a big pressure on the trustee to clear everything as soon as possible, which is not an option as long as CoinLab is there.

Questions from readers

Ahead of the interview, Cointelegraph has asked the community to send in questions through social platforms. Here are several of them:

Does Brock Pierce have any right to the Mt. Gox URL?

MK: I do not believe Brock has the rights, as of today, for the URL or Mt. Gox itself. Of course, if he wants to take Mt. Gox, surely he can make an approach to the trustee, and the trustee would review it, discuss and decide whether it’s a good thing or not. But I do not believe — at this point, anyway — that this kind of thing will happen. Brock Pierce actually made two attempts at reviving Mt. Gox.

He came to Japan, so I met him in this office right here, actually, and we talked a little bit about different things. Basically, it didn’t seem like he had a solid plan to bring recoveries to creditors or to make things move faster. He seemed set on the idea of issuing a new coin. So, based on what I’ve seen, I’m not sure it would have benefited everyone equally.

Does Mark have any regrets about getting involved in the crypto world? And if he could go back in time and change anything what would that be?

MK: Well, I would say my main regret was to accept Mt. Gox instead of just creating a new exchange.

At the time, I didn’t have the overall experience I have today. When Jed [i.e., Jed McCaleb, the founder of Mt. Gox] came to me and offered me Mt. Gox — asking for money — I didn’t, at the time, find it suspicious. So no, with the experience I have today, I would never do those kinds of things.

Mt. Gox creditors are still waiting

AC: Do you still have any altercations with Mt. Gox creditors?

MK: I do have a lot of contact with many creators. I’m helping many people to try to go through all the process, which is in Japanese. Of course, I’m trying to do anything I can to help people, because today, I cannot do much more than that — although I’m making sure the bankruptcy process has anything it needs from me and trying to make it possible for creditors to contact me.

AC: In terms public perception, people were and still are quite suspicious of you. Do you think this notion toward you has softened over time.

MK: Being judged innocent of charges is actually a big stamp of approval from a Japanese court, based on the police investigation. So, I believe it’s actually helped restore a lot of trust and a lot of belief in people for me.

But, there’s still one case remaining, which I’m still fighting. Even if I am proven truly innocent, some people would just say that the court is not being fair or something. But actually, that would be an uphill battle, because Japan tends to have a very high conviction rate.

Justifying that I am innocent of the charges, the prosecution didn’t decide to appeal this. Something that I didn’t expect to happen. I believe this really means something.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #btc #xrp #litecoin #altcoin #money #currency #finance #news #alts #hodl #coindesk #cointelegraph #dollar #bitcoin View the website

New Post has been published here https://is.gd/aBGEmP

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