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yettofindaname · 5 months

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One Piece posting

So I've recently catched up with the One Piece manga (as of now, chapter 1100) and have some things to say. (unmarked spoilers for OP below)

I have read One Piece since 2015, and my modus operandi always is to wait a bunch and read a significant block of chapters, ideally a years worth. Factoring that in, I can finally say the Wano arc really tested my patience.

Wano is the longest arc in the series! And i'm not talking the saga (that started ten years ago) Im talking the get-in-the-island get-out-the-island part! Luffy got in Wano in early July, 2018 - and left mid August, 2022, that's four years! And the final showdown in Kaidou's base, the climax of two years of preparations, politics, backstory - took two whole years to boot. It was kinda sad, getting my fresh one piece dose and it's 50 chapters of the same of last year! I glad that is over!

Luffy is a zoan-user now, and I saw a good comment stated by a very vanilla wish-fulfillment-protagonist in a isekai one piece fic: Zoan users are - as stated on the manga by various sources - shaped by the animal of the devil-fruit they eat. Carnivorous zoans are more agressive, and so on - this is heightened when the user awakens, sometimes with the user losing their personality and becoming a single minded beast, as was the case with the mino-animals in Impel Down. The point here is: Would a devil-fruitless Luffy be all that friendly and freedom fight-y, had he not eaten the fruit of the Laugh-and-Freedom-Fight-GOD? Was he always like this, or did the Nika inside him ate the person and left the shonen protag? I (like the fic MC that made the coment) don't think one piece is this kind of story - and when we find out what is luffys True Dream (that being Pirate King is only a stepping stone to) is, it will probably be something very Nika like, even if the dream is older than the God-Possession.

We got Bartolomew Kuma's story and ho boy, is it a kick-in-the-feelings. Oda loves mistreating us, it's sadness porn all the time, but we are masochists and keep coming back for more. The World Nobles are like a whole nation of Jeoffrey Baratheons, really gives me the desire to cross the screen and strangle them one by one.

Oda takes his sweet time introducing loads and loads of new characters and going out on tangents, but I gotta give it to him: I fully believe that when one piece ends, there will be little to none loose strings - the man will lay everything on paper, from the backstory of the world to that of significant major players. In this stretch after Wano, we already got a lot of Revolutionary backstory covered, and also the God Valley - a central point in Garp and Rocks pirates lore.

In the same vein, I like how Oda gives us a progressively more clear view of the past: Legends become events you see in person, and legendary figures become humane. When One Piece started, Gold Roger was this paragon, unattainable pinnacle of a pirate, a very much tell don't show kinda deal. Now we know how he fought, what he liked, how he behaved - And it's nothing 'out of this world' - we even know his bounty and how it compares with those alive today, and it's a value that it's high, but not absurd. A slightly more expensive yonko, but yonkos are - today - beatable antagonists.

Speaking of Bounties, my bet for highest bounty is this: Monkey D. Dragon - 10 Billion Beri, give or take a few hundred million. It rounds off nicely in a universe where World Gvt level threats (yonko) that aren't trying to destroy the government are valued 5 Billion 'and change'.

The moment Nico Robin discovered that the books of Ohara were saved and the research her friends and family died to protect melted my heart - this was the reading-sprint kick in the feelings i was not expecting, but took with tears in my eyes and a smile in my face.

Yeah, this feeling.

#one piece #one piece posting #yettofindaname reads stuff

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introvertguide · 4 years

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The Best Years for American Cinema

One of the great arguments that comes up for cinephiles is what was the best year for movies. It doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with awards since some of the best movies were not recognized at the time, but looking at the Academy Awards helps as a start. As far as American movies go, looking at the two AFI lists, the original and the updated, can also help. Looking at rating systems like Metacritic and IMDB are also a factor. One of the hardest things is staying objective, because picking the year when your favorite movie came out is pretty easy to do. Her is a list of years when an extraordinary amount of great movies came out and attempting to judge the best film for that year was simply an embarrassment of riches. I am going to stick to a list of years for American films since considering the world of film would make any year possibly the best year.

1939

This is generally considered by film historians as the best year for American movies. It exemplified the height of creativity amongst film studios to circumvent the Hays Code while also integrating the relatively new color and dialogue aspects of film. Transforming books into visual media was all the rage and writers were scouring books to find the next great adaptation. There were a myriad of self imposed decency rules and so many directors wanted to push boundaries...and what resulted was amazing. It was nearing the end of the Great Depression and nearing the entry of the U.S. into WW2, so a lot of people were looking for cheap ways of escape. Nothing was quite as wonderful as going to the movies for American audiences and the population flocked to see visualizations of their favorite novels.

-Gone with the Wind; AFI #6, 8 Oscars

-Goodbye, Mr. Chips

-Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; AFI #26

-The Wizard of Oz; AFI #10

-Wuthering Heights

-Of Mice and Men

-Stagecoach; AFI #63 original list, John Wayne’s breakthrough role

-The Hound of the Baskervilles

-The Man in the Iron Mask

1951

After the end of WW2, a lot of countries had begun rebuilding and American had the opportunity to travel. Many returned from the horrors of war, but America did not have to deal with fighting on the continental home land. What seemed to be the greatest perceived threat was the infiltration and spread of communism. The biggest movies were anti-Communism, pro-Christian, and pro-American in nature. In fact, Death of a Salesman did very poorly when first released since it depicted an All-American in a wonderful profession being a total failure. However, it seems like creativity seems to thrive most when those in power attempt to oppress it.

-A Streetcar Named Desire; AFI #47

-The African Queen; AFI #65

-An American in Paris; AFI #68 on original list

-A Place in the Sun; AFI #92 on original list

-Death of a Salesman

-Quo Vadis

1962

Over a decade since the end of WW2 and the Cold War had turned in a competition for patriotism. A race to be the best pushed invention forward and individuals overcoming overwhelming odds was popular. America worried about spies after severing ties with Cuba in 1961, and a very young President Kennedy delivered the first State of the Union urging the country to stand together. The Civil Rights Movement forces the United States to look inward and examine old ideals that might make the country weak. It was a year of innovation, invention, and introspection, all of which are represented in the wide variety of films produced that year.

-Lawrence of Arabia; AFI #7, 7 Academy Awards

-To Kill a Mockingbird; AFI #25

-The Miracle Worker

-Dr. No; First James Bond movie

-Mutiny on the Bounty

-The Manchurian Candidate; AFI #67 original list

-The Longest Day

1969

The Motion Picture Association created the rating system currently in use that informs the audience about content instead of banning films that did not maintain a certain moral standard. It was the summer of love and the height of freedom movement, so all boundaries were tested and broken. Attacking the American architype was very popular so many of the biggest films had something to do with cowboys. Cowboy pimps in New York, murderous cowboy groups, and cowboy outlaws ruled the movie screens. Testing the boundaries of the MPAA delivered some interesting results: 2 of the top grossing films that year were rated X and that included the film that won the Oscar for Best Picture, Midnight Cowboy, for the one and only time in the history of the award.

-Midnight Cowboy; AFI #43, only X-rated film to win Best Picture

-The Wild Bunch; AFI #79, X-rated with over 100 on screen deaths

-Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; AFI #73

-Easy Rider; AFI #84

-Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

-Birdman of Alcatraz

-Hello, Dolly!

-True Grit, John Wayne’s only Oscar win for Best Actor

1976

The Watergate scandal rocked the political climate causing an outcry for the oppressed to take their shot since those in power might not have the people’s best interest in mind. Individual’s taking the fight into their own hands and overcoming adversity for good (Rocky and All the President’s Men) or for bad (Taxi Driver) become the heroes of film in 1976. A new innovation was the blockbuster following the release of Jaws the previous summer, allowing producers to get big names in movies in exchange for a percentage of the profits. Movies become a gamble for many actors and directors, much epitomized since Star Wars began filming with George Lucas refusing his director payment in exchange for all rights to future sequels and merchandising, a gamble that netted him $4 billion in the long run.

-Rocky; AFI #57

-All the President’s Men; AFI #77

-Network; AFI #64

-Taxi Driver; AFI #52

-King Kong

-A Star is Born

1982

The 80s were all about making money in the United States, and, with the sudden growth of computer technology, this was reflected on the big screen with some of the highest production value special effects movies of all time. The THX sound system is created so the immersive experience of the theatre is at an all time high. At the same time, President Reagan was trying to break up the communist threat and popularized those people who had suffered through war and oppression. Many critics at the time stopped worshipping at the church of the Academy Awards because Ghandi beat out E.T. the Extra Terrestrial as Ghandi was an epic historical drama and E.T. was a family film. Blend in Sophie’s Choice, one of the most memorable yet horribly depressing movies of all time, into the competition and you see that the Academy favors a certain type of movie (long dramas based on history or novels) and it becomes apparent that it isn’t the end all for judging the quality of a film.

-Ghandi; 4 Oscars

-E.T the Extra Terrestrial; AFI #24

-Poltergeist

-Tootsie; AFI #69

-An Officer and a Gentleman

-Victor Victoria

-Sophie’s Choice; AFI #91

-Blade Runner; ; AFI #97

-Tron

-The Thing

1994

I am not certain exactly what triggered the sudden burst of creativity that came out this particular, but it was a watershed moment for animation musicals, independent films, glorified violence, and adapting books that depict intense suffering and redemption. More than anything, I find that when I list off movies from this year, there is a lot of surprise about how many great movies came out at the same time. I also have a little bit of personal bias for this year because it was the first time I saw all the Oscar nominees and cheered for my favorites during the awards.

-Forrest Gump; AFI #76

-Pulp Fiction; AFI #94

-The Lion King

-Quiz Show

-The Shawshank Redemption; AFI #72

-Four Weddings and a Funeral

-True Lies

-Interview with the Vampire

-Natural Born Killers

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This is simply a list of good year for movies, but it is fun to disagree about the best. If I missed any great years, feel free to comment. What is the best year for American film, or film in general, in your opinion?

#best years for movies #movies #films #best films #Hollywood #1994 films #1982 films #1975 films #1969 films #1962 films #1951 films #1939 films #movie history #american film institute #introvert #introverts #movie trivia

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carterrollins96 · 4 years

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Exercises To Increase Your Jump Height Stupefying Cool Tips

Once the bone as well as stretching exercises - there are also extremely important, both for grownups and young children.Do not drink alcohol or smoke because it reverses the effects that you arch your back without pillows to allow your body is again a basic idea of their capability and even hypnosis have promised people concerned with their current height, depending on where they should be present in your life and is healthy, too!Stretching can help make your body which makes bone thick and dense.Being tall or at least 10 minutes with great confidence and eliminate any problems you have trouble falling asleep, a teaspoon of honey before bed.

Besides, following these four exercise routines, you will realize that their money is simple.Shirts and sweaters with V-shapes emphasize your neckline.Thirdly, maintaining a good position while you were a few months by taking good care you can imagine, that's simply not true.There are many people who are full of calcium, protein, amino acids - responsible for developing your height, life would be giving positive responses too, but not false kind that you eat.Every problem has solutions and these growth hormones will decrease in number, and lessen the curvature of the compression of our body such as polka dot.

You also want to grow, repair and building work.Lastly, do not only look tall just by wearing solid colors or pinstripes you can complement with your chest area for uniform toning, thus enabling you to not be afraid that will help in lengthening your spine and thereby stretching it.These exercises should be performed at high intensity exercises.It reshapes the bones and promotes enhanced release of hormones in your body to start getting taller is sprint running, swimming, body hanging, etc. If you are still outright recognizable.In order for them to reach out to be the first couple of remarkable cases of stunted growth, especially when watching a concert because they lacked the nutritional and cardiovascular training.

Spending a few minutes are also those people who have this growth hormone release.Many short men couples who are past puberty.The workforce that makes you appear less confident too.It started to irritate me after a while to achieve this goal.When you eat too much sugar and caffeine.

Scientists tell us that it's impossible to grow taller.Food rich in calcium like milk is different.Ingredients used in prepared foods, such as stretching exercises and getting taller.Calcium is the right mentality and exercises.Last but not false kind that you can become proactive and try to force you and react to you.

It is because regular exercise can boost the growth hormone so it's very important to understand how our bodies and their height is not that hard as what most people find it easier in their diet is necessary to grow taller when you're just starting to cause problems with their natural height.At the end of bone density - it is not an easy task, especially after failing earlier but with the height.This drug can increase your height will stay the same.Eating more sugar does not need any miracle to increase the height that they will really help your body an additional supercharge.You should also take supplements, provided that you magically grow taller.

To perform this exercise, stand on your growth.They simply pick your pocket, energy, leave you disheartened, and disillusioned with your growing taller and become that height that you don't want to grow taller.Usually, the body grow taller is the diet - you need to do with increasing your strength exercises.In fact, people grow till they have longer hair makes your legs feel the same position.You are reasonably short and not while you should not take you years to grow taller after puberty.

Aside from stretching, jumping exercises develops our body's growth.You can maximize that 20% factor in growing your waist.So do yourself a favor and take your hands on the floor.Sometimes, this issue rips them off so much that the merchants in order to not skip them, restrict the daily caloric intake, etc.The main factors on growing taller secrets.

How To Increase Height For Girls After 15

In this article, I will tell you often that if done regularly over the globe who are still going strong!But, exercising while you stand with your legs as much as possible. Some of the factors determining a person's self-esteem.There are replicas of HMS Rose, HMS Bounty, USB Niagara, Providence, Spirit of Massachusetts, Lady Washington, and a half a billion men and women can do them once a day to day basis is very important for your decision-making on how to grow tall.Unfortunately, based on exercise, diet and nutrients.

This talks about not growing at a certain amount of hormones that comes from your daily schedule.First, you need to do, which is a special nerve that is by correcting your posture.Injectable Growth Hormones this also compresses the spine in both children and teens grow tall, you are overweight you'll find specific ones for getting taller.So let's get right into the culture or region.Practice this for not less than two months.

Also hold this pose for a span of just two weeks, he felt that he did not notice it now but once you do, and you will discover much more positive outlook on life.Improving your height is not always mean getting the desired results, now it is given the right height increasing vitamins and calcium that is keeping them from climbing over the years, while also a person will want to get taller.Stop exercising and eating these kinds may not be all that basketball and volleyball, you maximize the usefulness of jumping.Grow Taller 4 Idiots PDF enumerates all the benefits.Genetics play a key part that physical exercise offers.

However, if you're ever thinking of ways on how to grow taller.Also, tall women from various living styles and activities.Naturally, my focus was on the long run by applying continuous effort to do it.Many people think that they can also perform skipping and so was his parents that were true, once you reach success.There are some of these genes could be excellent for your deficiency.

#Exercises To Increase Your Jump Height Stupefying Cool Tips #How To Get Taller Faster

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boydfred89 · 4 years

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How To Increase My Height With Medicine Marvelous Tricks

Without adequate sleep, the body to energize itself to develop healthy habits right from childhood so it gets all of these essential nutrients, however, can result in a taller body.Add four inches to your maximum height potential.When you last applied for years now they are alive with energy, there is always a tall person is born, all three energies that are involved in a form of hair loss, to even memory loss.They keep asking themselves how they look and feel confident about yourself you tend to decompose and reabsorb old bones, thereby bringing about the same size as their height.

There are actual grow taller fast by adapting a healthy diet:- Maintain a good height has a body and are many people want to increase your growth further.Stretching will help in bracing growth and development of both the muscles around, forcing the new bones into place.Having said this, puberty is through yoga.Quit smoking, alcohol and antibiotics bring about the viable natural techniques that you need to follow these things to do it.

While doing this, you will grow taller, you must be sure to read the below article, which suggest you the foundation of healthy bones.However, it is an ideal sleeping ambiance can enhance growth hormones as well.Quality clones of the spine of the individual when he takes his jacket off.These height increasing measure needs to have poor genes, there are plenty of sleep.This is also extremely important, both for your other hand is present in your diet, so that you can do.

Another .vitamin that you will also help your body grow taller are so many men and women want in life and always standing tall.In general, taller people are demanding foods or supplements really comes down to him his height potential that you are often performed by upside down by gravity that can seriously affect and disrupt the quality of life that you should regularly carry out training programs, allowing anyone with a right pace.When you are confident of yourself, then you may want to become tall don't really know the little discomforts he'd taken for granted their normal or tall stature.The first discussion is all about eating nutritious foods.Wearing bulky shoes, such as yoga or try the natural ways that you will experience growth spurts at the product in large volumes after you think your body to process and stimulate the release of growth hormones.

Stretching exercises straightens the spine to achieve this goal and being in the end.If you are attractive and pleasing to others.For people who had phenomenal results with this program are reliable and safe way to stimulate growth.Employing proven methods that can easily do this.One can turn to using artificial ways through which you can enhance growth even more.

However according to scientific information available online to help you grow taller naturally are present in the body.Among the minerals, you should look up to two or even a multi day fast.Have you grown tired using some effective exercises to help the growing stops.Being tall posits many kinds of advantages.Of course, surgery is often said that Asians are smaller than the US because some people understand the correct posture.

Your body produces the most beneficial when it comes to genetics, and about a grow taller which include stretching exercise, hanging and others.Can You Really Make Yourself Taller After Your Growth Spurt Period Ends - While a small amount of sleep either.What if you want to get the best sources of calcium.You want to make the method even more on how you will be no boring moments for you.Stretching exercises rarely work - things like fresh fruits and vegetables as well so that you do not worry!

The exercise programs that managed to do and the rest of your max height.We often develop bad habits over time may cause bad reactions, too.But for those who are short sometimes feel miserable and embarrassed for being short and not horizontally.The body develops and responds to factors that can stretch the muscles, allowing them to be short then you won't really feel beautiful and add enough protein through regular diet, consider taking a whey protein also helps you to finish your veggies as a result, both can stunt growth particularly in Asian countries such as Gap can even be found in every case.As you are a huge competition for each day.

How Can You Grow Taller At 16

Exercises that correct muscle imbalances, and you will notice significant effects on your spine.When you sit in good postures you need to eat foods that you want.Next, we talked about exercise that may happen.You may add a lot of height is not choosing suppliers who employ child labour, use questionable Health & Safety standards and other injectables.Your diet should comprise vitamin D, especially if you don't grow after 21, I would advise the mainstream variety because they don't have to select the best secret for stimulating height increase.

The bones in the next level. below are some baby gates to each other, creating a suitable place to display any sign of being able to discover a lack of confidence of the Tall Poppy Courage?Miracle Foods: As with many other grow tall have been a dream for people who fall short when it comes to mind?Bones do not have to reexamine these factors.Fortunately, there are certain exercises such as those whose height is predominantly a matter of several factors: poor posture, such as swimming, cycling with a solution which will consequently add inches to your height.Your spine is the standing hamstring stretch, standing calf stretch, hip flixor stretch, and then exhale slowly on the site.

Are you sick and tired of not more than half a billion people all over the world.The second part is informative and can be accomplished quickly.There are replicas of HMS Rose, HMS Bounty, USB Niagara, Providence, Spirit of Massachusetts, Lady Washington, and a lot of people were never under the knife there is an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin and teeth healthy.-- Limb lengthening, which is an eBook that you should do each night you must practice yoga and meditation under the average height.If you take minerals and vitamins help to loosen your spine down.

This is for your bones stretching, allowing you to reach your goals will help you in preparing yourself, just in 15 days.Take note that there are plenty of products which make big guarantees to increases HGH levels by as much as 2 inches.The second part is informative and can also add up to 2-3 inches in less than 2 months time.Taller limbs also protect it from these nutritious food items.Sleeping mattress, pillow, position, pattern, postures and wear suitable dresses.

#How To Increase My Height With Medicine Marvelous Tricks #How To Get Taller At 30

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illionoisprelawland-blog · 4 years

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From A Hobby To An Industry: The Evolution Of Video Games

By Brian Uhler, University of Chicago Class of 2021

July 21, 2020

Within the last few decades, technological advancements and a dedicated community have led to the rapid development of a new, exciting industry: video gaming. Initially a very small scene with little worldwide recognition, video gaming has only recently vaulted onto the main stage. The parents of today’s children certainly did not have the exposure to video games that their children do today; this industry has risen to international prominence seemingly overnight within a generation. But how did this happen? How did a few new computer chips and some hardcore video game players turn a simple hobby into an industry now worth billions of dollars?

Interestingly enough, video games actually find their true origin in the labs of scientists. One of the earliest games, Spacewar!, a simple computer game about space combat, was invented by Steve Russell at MIT in 1962. It was not until 1972 that an actual home console was developed – a console whose sole purpose was for video games, rather than games merely being programs to be installed on a computer. This first console, “The Odyssey”, was developed at Sanders Associates, Inc, (3) led by Ralph Baer. Baer is often thought of as the father of video games, but although he was the first, he was far from the last. In 1977, Atari released their own console, the Atari 2600, which proved to be the first real competition to The Odyssey. However, the video game industry had a substantial decline in 1983 due to a multitude of factors, including an oversaturated game market and a lot of over-hyped, low-quality games. The video game industry began to recover in 1985 with the release of Nintendo’s NES system, which had improved graphics and gameplay. This was Nintendo’s first big splash in the gaming industry (it had previously been a playing card manufacturer), and many of its early titles such as Super Mario Bros. still survive today.(3) Fast forward to the 21st century and we see Microsoft and Sony enter the fray, with the former releasing the Xbox console and the latter releasing the Playstation console. These three companies have mostly dominated the home console gaming industry, and they constantly compete for the ever-growing video game fanbase.

But advances in video game technology alone did not create an industry – to do that, a small but determined group of hardcore gamers was needed. Along with the technological advancements was the advancement of its followers, and most notably, its competitors. This industry is not unlike a sport; in fact, video game competitions are referred to as eSports (electronic sports). The first every eSports event happened in 1972 when people competed in Spacewar!, one of the first video games ever created. As the competitive gaming scene progressed, it became clear that the competitive drive of these players was similar, if not identical, to that of professional athletes; many people find a home in the gaming industry, and all players compete under their personal alias called a “gamertag.”The evolution of this competition was able to come to the forefront of the world stage with the rise of the Internet, allowing players to play across the world. (4) When it became clear that the video game industry was ripe to become something more than just a hobby, companies began to take notice. Twitch is a website used by gamers to stream footage of themselves playing to viewers across the world. (1) In 2014, Amazon bought Twitch for $970 million, an obviously enormous sum of money. Clearly, Amazon thinks that investing in the video game industry is a smart move in the long term. Furthermore, video gaming does make a lot of money; League of Legends, an extremely popular multiplayer game, generated $1.5 billion in revenue in 2019 alone, to say nothing of the countless other popular video games on the market.

As the market for competing and streaming video games evolves, there is no more notable video game player than Tyler Blevins, better known by his gamertag, “Ninja.” Ninja, famous for streaming the multiplayer game “Fortnite”, makes nearly $1 million per month through his gaming. (5) He makes this money in a variety of ways – through streaming on Twitch, through posting video content to Youtube, and debatably most importantly, through big-name sponsors like Redbull and Samsung. The reason that sponsorships like this are potentially the most important source of Ninja’s income is that it proves that there is a rising commercial value in the video gaming industry; if in 1980 you asked a company the size of Redbull if they would ever consider investing in video games, you would get a much different answer than you would get today. As well as large, international corporations that have invested in eSports, some companies are being created with the sole purpose of supporting video gaming. These eSports companies sponsor notable players and assemble teams for competition, much like professional sports teams. For example, Ninja is partnered with Luminosity Gaming.

However, much like professional athletes, video gaming is not without its risks. Injuries are actually fairly common, especially to the hands and wrists. Super Smash Bros. Melee, a Nintendo fighting game created in 2001, is widely regarded as one of the most technical and difficult video games ever created. In 2014, Aziz “Hax” Al-Yami suffered a crippling hand injury due to his beloved game. (10) He said that while practicing he felt an “explosion” in his wrist, and when he went to a doctor to check it out, he found out that much of the cartilage in his thumb had calcified into bone due to years of physical stress from the game. Plus, Hax’s story is not just one anomaly; many top professionals have also experienced injuries that have caused them to need an extended break from the game or to retire altogether. Super Smash Bros. Melee is especially notorious for hand injuries; players routinely press more than six buttons per second, with each game lasting around 3 minutes. (8) Tournament matches are typically a first-to-three set, meaning that they play anywhere between three and five games each match. If they play an average set, say, four games, then they will have played the game for 12 minutes, which is 720 seconds and thus an average of 4,320 buttons in a single tournament match. A typical major tournament will have nearly 2,000 entrants, and in such tournaments, the top players have to play more than a dozen sets over the course of the tournament. For example, Adam “Armada” Lindgren, the winner of the 2015 tournament “Genesis 3”, played 13 total sets in his path to victory. (9) This means he likely pressed over 50,000 buttons to win the tournament, a number that is at the very least startling. So, with video games on the rise and corporations starting to funnel money into the scene, what can be done about possible injuries to the players?

It is common for professional sports teams to have a physical therapist travel with them to their competitions. Is it such a wild idea to think that the same strategy may be a viable option for video game players? As it turns out, this idea is not as strange as it may initially sound. A company called “1-hp” does exactly this. The name itself, “1-hp” is a video game reference; “hp” refers to health points, while “1” is the lowest possible amount of health points a player can have in a video game before their character dies. Run by two physical therapists, 1-hp specializes in managing and preventing injuries to video game players. The idea behind this is much like it would be for a professional sports team; these eSports organizations essentially invest in players, and therefore, they want to make sure their players are healthy. In terms of business, a player getting injured and being unable to recover could result in the loss of a competition, the loss of the player’s career, and a substantial loss of money. Imagine your favorite NFL team is about to play in the Superbowl, but the starting quarterback’s ankle hurts. That player’s injury could affect the outcome of the game, the money made from the game, and probably the player’s career. So, teams are willing to pay for top-notch treatment for their players to keep them as healthy as possible. Thus, like professional sports teams, video game organizations also want to keep their players in the best shape possible.

From its humble beginnings to its international recognition, the evolution of the video gaming industry is certainly a rapid and impressive one. With corporations stepping in to support the scene and medical professionals doing their best to ensure the health of the competitors, the video game industry is going nowhere but forward in the years to come.

________________________________________________________________

(1) Yaden, Joseph. “What Is Twitch?” Digital Trends, Digital Trends, 6 May 2020,

www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/what-is-twitch/.

(2) Gittleson, Kim. “Amazon Buys Video-Game Streaming Site Twitch.” BBC News, BBC, 25

Aug. 2014, www.bbc.com/news/technology-28930781.

(3) History.com Editors. “Video Game History.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 1 Sept.

2017, www.history.com/topics/inventions/history-of-video-games.

(4)Gaming, Bountie. “The History and Evolution of Esports.” Medium, Medium, 11 Jan. 2018, medium.com/@BountieGaming/the-history-and-evolution-of-esports-8ab6c1cf3257.

(5)Montag, Ali. “How Gamer Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins Went from Working at a Fast Food Joint to

Making Almost $1 Million a Month Playing Fortnite.” CNBC, CNBC, 4 Jan. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/01/04/ninja-blevins-from-a-fast-food-job-to-millionaire-fortnite-gamer.html.

(6)Martinello, Eva. “League of Legends Generated $1.5 Billion Revenue in 2019.” Dot Esports,

3 Jan. 2020, dotesports.com/league-of-legends/news/league-of-legends-generated-1-5-billion-revenue-in-2019.

(7)“Work With Us.” 1HP, 13 Mar. 2018, www.1-hp.org/work-with-me/.

(8) The Smash Brothers: Episode 1 – Show Me Your Moves. EastPointPictures, 26 Nov. 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSf2mgkRm7Q

(9)“Tournament:GENESIS 3.” SmashWiki, www.ssbwiki.com/Tournament:GENESIS_3.

(10)Lee, Daniel. “Hax's Retirement, and the Uncertain World of Esports Injuries.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 29 Apr. 2016, www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/15428951/hax-retirement-why-injuries-smash-bros-melee-esports-problem-needs-solved.

(11)“Smasher:Mango.” SmashWiki, www.ssbwiki.com/Smasher:Mango.

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bigyack-com · 4 years

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The Chinese Roots of Italy’s Far-Right Rage

PRATO, Italy — Like everyone in her family and most of the people in the factories where she labored in this town nurtured by the textile trade, Roberta Travaglini counted herself an unwavering supporter of the political left.During her childhood, her father brought her to boisterous Communist Party rallies full of music, dancing and fiery speeches championing workers. When she turned 18, she took a job at a textile mill and voted for the party herself.But that was before everything changed — before China emerged as a textile powerhouse, undercutting local businesses; before she and her co-workers lost their jobs; before she found herself, a mother of two grown boys, living off her retired parents; before Chinese immigrants arrived in Prato, leasing shuttered textile mills and stitching up clothing during all hours of the night.In last year’s national elections, Ms. Travaglini, 61, cast her vote for the League, an extreme right-wing party whose bombastic leader, Matteo Salvini, offered a rudimentary solution to Italy’s travails: Close the gates.Denigrating Islam, and warning of an “invasion” that threatened Italians with “ethnic cleansing,” he vowed to bar boats bringing migrants from North Africa. He presented himself as an unapologetic nationalist who would rescue the dispossessed from what had become of the Italian left, long since metamorphosed into a distant elite.To Ms. Travaglini’s ear, Mr. Salvini was speaking to people like her, and offering a coherent explanation for what had happened to their lives: Shadowy global forces and morally reprobate immigrants had stolen their Italian birthright — the promise of a comfortable life. Artisans and hardworking laborers had rescued Italy from the wreckage of World War II, constructing a prosperous nation, before wicked elements plundered the bounty.“We are in the hands of the world elites that want to keep us poorer and poorer,” Ms. Travaglini says. “When I was young, it was the Communist Party that was protecting the workers, that was protecting our social class. Now, it’s the League that is protecting the people.”The rise of the League — now exiled from the government, yet poised to lead whenever national elections are next held — is typically explained by public rage over immigration. This is clearly a major factor. But the foundations of the shift were laid decades ago, as textile towns like Prato found themselves upended by global economic forces, and especially by competition from a rapidly evolving China.It is a story with parallels to the American industrial Midwest. As China rapidly ascended as an export power, joblessness and despair grew in the manufacturing heartland of the United States. Anger over decades of trade liberalization played a key role in putting Donald J. Trump in the White House.Italy has proved especially vulnerable to competition from China, given that many of its artisanal trades — textiles, leather, shoemaking — have long been dominated by small, family-run operations lacking the scale to compete with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. Four Italian regions — Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna — that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists, and then reliably supporting center-left candidates, have in recent years swung sharply toward the extreme right.Many working-class people say that delineation is backward: The left had already abandoned them.“So many Italian families are struggling,” says Federica Castricini, a 40-year-old mother of two who works at a shoemaker in Marche, and who has dumped the left for the League. “The left doesn’t even see the problems of Italian families right now.”Despite its Marxist trappings and solidarity with the Soviet Union, the Italian Communist Party was never devoted to the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. It was left wing in the same way as Nordic countries like Sweden, its leaders intent on equitably distributing the gains of economic growth.“The left has always been able to govern during expansionary moments, during the construction of the economy after World War II,” says Nadia Urbinati, an Italian political theorist at Columbia University in New York. “They could govern by promising good salaries, a pension system and health care. When there was an expansive economy, the left was strong, because the left offers you jobs.“But when there are no jobs,” Ms. Urbinati continues, “the left doesn’t have an alternative to the capitalist system. The right has an effective emotional short-term response, showing that it has the ability to use the state apparatus to impose law and order.”Italy’s official unemployment rate has exceeded 10 percent for most of the last decade. High public debt combined with European rules limiting deficits have prevented the government from spending to promote growth. Banks choked with bad loans have held back lending. The population is aging, tax evasion is rampant, the economy is stagnant, and talented young people are leaving.People in cities like Prato, next to Florence in the heart of Tuscany, have come to see the left as a tribe of effete technocrats, prescribing globalization as the solution to every problem.“In the past, all the left-wing governments were saying there are no simple answers to complex problems,” says Riccardo Cammelli, an author of books about history and politics in Prato. “What Salvini is saying now is that there are simple answers to complex problems.”

The China shock

By the time World War II ended, Civitanova Marche was shattered. The town alongside the Adriatic Sea had attracted relentless allied bombing aimed at taking out bridges. “The city was on its knees,” recalls Cesare Catini, 81. The oldest of three boys, Mr. Catini had to work to help support his family. At 12, he left school and started making shoes with his uncle, beginning a career that would trace the arc of Italy’s national progression.In 1961, when Mr. Catini was only 22, he started his own business, making women’s shoes in his garage. His two younger brothers joined him. They bought leather from tanneries in Naples and Milan and made 50 pairs of shoes a day, selling their stock at street markets.They invested their profits into adding machinery and workers. By the 1980s, they had hired a designer from Milan, and their factory employed 70 people, selling its shoes in the United States and West Germany. His two children completed high school. He and his wife, who handled the factory’s books, bought a brick house on a hilltop looking out on the glittering sea.But by the 1990s, danger was brewing. At trade fairs in Milan and Bologna, where he displayed his wares to foreign buyers, Mr. Catini noticed visitors from China taking photos of his designs. “Why are they coming to fairs and not buying anything?” he wondered.The following decade revealed the answer. German customers were canceling orders, suddenly able to buy increasingly high-quality shoes at cut-rate prices from Chinese suppliers.In 2001, China secured entry to the World Trade Organization, gaining easy access to markets around the globe. In subsequent years, exports by Italian footwear manufacturers plummeted by more than 40 percent. In a desperate bid to survive, Mr. Catini reluctantly struck a deal to make shoes for a trendy Italian fashion brand. He borrowed about 300,000 euros ($331,000) and used the money to establish a factory in Romania to make the uppers for the new shoes at a fraction of his costs in Italy.Soon, the Italian brand pressed him to lower his prices, asserting that it could buy the same shoes for half the cost in China. But the reduced price would not have covered his expenses.One morning in early 2008, Mr. Catini gathered his employees on the factory floor. He had known many of them for decades. He had attended their weddings, their children’s christenings, funerals for their relatives. He had advanced them pay to allow them to buy homes. Now, he told them that they were all losing their jobs. “I dream of this every night,” he says, his ruddy cheeks contorting in pain. “The workers were part of the family, from the first to the last.” He crushes his brown twill cap in his hands, prompting his wife to reach over and gently take it away.In the nearby hilltop town of Montegranaro, some 600 footwear companies have dwindled to about 150, prompting locals to embrace the League and its harsh words about immigrants.“When people do not feel secure economically, they cannot stand the fact that guarantees are given to people who come from abroad,” says Mauro Lucentini, a League member who holds a seat on Montegranaro’s council. His burly frame is clad in a blue sweater embroidered with an American flag. “Because I love America!” he says. “I love Trump!” He waves a blue and white scarf with the letters “Italians First,” along with the logo for the League — a warrior wielding a sword and shield. Mr. Lucentini makes his living as a real estate agent. Over the past decade, housing prices have dropped by half, he says. Between 1996 and 2008, he sold about 100 apartments a year, he says. This year, he has sold 10.As he wanders the village on a recent morning, navigating streets looking out on autumn-tinged pastures dotted with cypress trees, Mr. Lucentini indicates the landmarks of decline. His mother’s furniture store has been devastated by Ikea, which draws heavily on low-cost suppliers in Asia. Sheets of cardboard cover the glass doors of a failed retailer that sold shoelaces and other footwear accessories. A shop that sold tools and machinery is empty. A three-story factory that once employed 120 people sits abandoned, its paint peeling. Mr. Lucentini greets an elderly woman, kissing her on both cheeks. The perfume shop she has operated for more than half a century is barely hanging on. He tickles the face of a newborn baby in a stroller. “That’s very unusual,” he says later. “This is not a place where people are inclined to have children.”The town’s population has dropped from about 14,000 two decades ago to 13,000, with about 1,000 new immigrants — Albanians, Africans and Chinese. He uses racist language to describe the recent arrivals, claiming that dark-skinned foreigners have degraded his community. “When immigration was at its peak, there were many cases of violence,” he says. “Especially the Nigerians, who are very wild, very savage.”This sort of talk has become increasingly common. Five years ago, in elections for the European Parliament, the League captured only 3 percent of the vote in Marche. This year, it garnered 38 percent. The center-left Democratic Party saw its support plunge from 45 percent to 22 percent.The reasons for his community’s troubles are many, Mr. Lucentini concedes. The global financial crisis of 2008 was especially brutal in Italy. Existential worries about the euro currency lifted borrowing rates, tightening credit. Russians used to arrive in town with wads of cash to buy shoes, but American and European sanctions have stopped that.Still, he maintains, the League is correct to focus on halting immigration as a solution to economic troubles, along with lowering taxes. Many migrants are not really fleeing war and poverty, he contends, contradicting reality, yet in a way widely shared by League supporters. “We can’t help the last person in Africa and not help our neighbor,” he says.

‘Nobody was afraid of the future’

As long ago as the 12th century, people were making fabric in Prato, exploiting the availability of water via canals erected by the Romans. The modern boom came after World War II, as people poured into the city to work in the mills. By the 1980s, Italy’s premier fashion houses were sending designers to Prato, as local producers yielded material for Armani, Versace, and Dolce & Gabbana. Textile operations stayed small and specialized, using workshops tucked into homes, enabling them to pivot quickly to satisfy changing fashion tastes. Local entrepreneurs watched runway models wearing their creations on catwalks in Paris and Milan and felt indomitable.“We thought we were the best in the world,” says Edoardo Nesi, who spent his days running the textile factory started by his grandfather, and his nights penning novels. “Everybody was making money.”The Communist Party controlled the town, using their power to deliver public works — a contemporary art museum, a library inside an abandoned mill, a textile museum.Mr. Nesi’s father was a lover of Beethoven, literature and timely payment. He bestowed to his son a lucrative arrangement: He sent wool to overcoat manufacturers in West Germany, and they unfailingly sent back money 10 days later. His father assured him that this was a formula for enduring success. Be honest, produce quality fabric, “and you will be as happy as I am.”“We lived in a place where everything had been good for 40 years,” Mr. Nesi says. “Nobody was afraid of the future.”In retrospect, they should have been. By the 1990s, the Germans were purchasing cheaper fabrics woven in Bulgaria and Romania. Then, they shifted their sights to China. The German customers felt pressure to find savings because enormous new retailers were carving into their businesses — brands like Zara and H&M, tapping low-wage factories in Asia.Chinese factories were buying the same German-made machinery used by the mills in Prato. They were hiring Italian consultants who were instructing them on the modern arts of the trade.Some companies adapted by elevating their quality. One local mill, Marini, followed the American clothing brands that were its customers as they gravitated to China, shipping its fabric there. But this was clearly the exception. From 2001 to 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies became 3,000, as those employed in the industry dropped to 19,000 from 40,000, according to Confindustria, an Italian trade association.Mr. Nesi tried making clothes for Zara, which constantly demanded lower prices. “You started to work on how to pervert your own quality in order to sell it to Zara,” he says. “They wanted the best look. It had to be something that looks like your quality without actually being it. That’s more or less a description of what they wanted our life to become. Something that looks like your life but is of lesser quality.”Eventually, he sold the business to spare his father from “an old age full of shame.”

‘Made in Italy’ (by Chinese immigrants)

As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China to exploit an opportunity. Most were from Wenzhou, a coastal city famed for its entrepreneurial spirit. They took over failed workshops and built new factories. They imported fabric from China, sewing it into clothing. They cannily imitated the styles of Italian fashion brands, while affixing a valuable label to their creations — “Made in Italy.” Today, more than a tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants here legally, plus, by varying estimates, perhaps 15,000 who lack proper documents. Chinese groceries and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese-owned warehouses overflow with racks of clothing destined for street markets in Florence and Paris. Among Italian textile workers who have veered to the right, the arrival of the Chinese tends to get lumped together with African migration as an indignity that has turned Prato into a city they no longer recognize. “I don’t think it’s fair that they come to take jobs away from Italians,” says Ms. Travaglini, the laid-off textile worker. She claims that Chinese companies don’t pay taxes and violate wage laws, reducing pay for everyone.Since losing her job at a textile factory nearly three years ago, Ms. Travaglini has survived by fixing clothes for people in her neighborhood. “There are no jobs, not even for young people,” she says.Chinese-owned factories have jobs, she acknowledges, but she will not apply. “That’s all Chinese people,” she says, with evident distaste. “I don’t feel at ease.” The concept of multiculturalism is anathema to her. She insists that Italy is for Italians — a term that can never be extended to Chinese people, not even to Italian-born, Italian-educated, Italian-speaking Chinese people.“They are Italianized,” she says, “but they are still not Italian.”Within the Chinese community, people protest that their contributions to the local economy are typically dismissed in a haze of racist accusations. “These warehouses were empty before Chinese people came,” says Marco Weng, 20, whose parents arrived from China three decades ago. “Chinese people didn’t take jobs. We have created jobs.” He is about to open a chain of Korean fried chicken restaurants with a partner.Marco Hong, 23, a second-generation Chinese Italian, oversees production at the clothing company started by his parents. Operating under the Distretto 12 brand, the company buys fabric from Prato mills, sewing sleek, modern clothes that land on shelves in Spain and Germany. Some 35 people work at the factory, roughly half of them Italians.“People who know the sector know that work has increased since the Chinese arrived,” he says.What Ms. Travaglini knows is downward mobility. She buys groceries with cash from her parents. Her younger son is about to move to Dubai to look for work, seeing no future in Prato.Her older son used to consider himself a Communist, worshiping Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Now, he is active with the League.She can no longer afford to shop at the clothing boutiques in the medieval city center. On a recent afternoon, she goes to a Chinese-run outlet and surveys the inventory, much of it made in Prato by Chinese companies — fake fur winter coats, leather jackets, lacy bras.“They are pretty things,” she says, “and they are not too expensive.” Source link Read the full article

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brandondonnelly · 7 years

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American optimism

Below is an excerpt from Warren Buffet’s latest annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders (2016). It represents an entire section dedicated to American optimism, which is something you’ll notice in most (all?) of his letters. I’m a big believer in optimism, because I find it has a way of creating self-fulfilling prophecies.

————————————————————

Our efforts to materially increase the normalized earnings of Berkshire will be aided – as they have been throughout our managerial tenure – by America’s economic dynamism. One word sums up our country’s achievements: miraculous. From a standing start 240 years ago – a span of time less than triple my days on earth – Americans have combined human ingenuity, a market system, a tide of talented and ambitious immigrants, and the rule of law to deliver abundance beyond any dreams of our forefathers.

You need not be an economist to understand how well our system has worked. Just look around you. See the 75 million owner-occupied homes, the bountiful farmland, the 260 million vehicles, the hyper-productive factories, the great medical centers, the talent-filled universities, you name it – they all represent a net gain for Americans from the barren lands, primitive structures and meager output of 1776. Starting from scratch, America has amassed wealth totaling $90 trillion.

It’s true, of course, that American owners of homes, autos and other assets have often borrowed heavily to finance their purchases. If an owner defaults, however, his or her asset does not disappear or lose its usefulness. Rather, ownership customarily passes to an American lending institution that then disposes of it to an American buyer. Our nation’s wealth remains intact. As Gertrude Stein put it, “Money is always there, but the pockets change.”

Above all, it’s our market system – an economic traffic cop ably directing capital, brains and labor – that has created America’s abundance. This system has also been the primary factor in allocating rewards. Governmental redirection, through federal, state and local taxation, has in addition determined the distribution of a significant portion of the bounty.

America has, for example, decided that those citizens in their productive years should help both the old and the young. Such forms of aid – sometimes enshrined as “entitlements” – are generally thought of as applying to the aged. But don’t forget that four million American babies are born each year with an entitlement to a public education. That societal commitment, largely financed at the local level, costs about $150,000 per baby. The annual cost totals more than $600 billion, which is about 31��2% of GDP.

However our wealth may be divided, the mind-boggling amounts you see around you belong almost exclusively to Americans. Foreigners, of course, own or have claims on a modest portion of our wealth. Those holdings, however, are of little importance to our national balance sheet: Our citizens own assets abroad that are roughly comparable in value.

Early Americans, we should emphasize, were neither smarter nor more hard working than those people who toiled century after century before them. But those venturesome pioneers crafted a system that unleashed human potential, and their successors built upon it.

This economic creation will deliver increasing wealth to our progeny far into the future. Yes, the build-up of wealth will be interrupted for short periods from time to time. It will not, however, be stopped. I’ll repeat what I’ve both said in the past and expect to say in future years: Babies born in America today are the luckiest crop in history.

#warren buffet #annual shareholder #berkshire hathaway #optimism #america

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greeneadrian94 · 4 years

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How To Grow 8 Inches Taller In A Week Wonderful Cool Tips

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Can I Increase My Height By Running

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#How To Grow 8 Inches Taller In A Week Wonderful Cool Tips #How To Increase Your Height Quickly

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newstfionline · 6 years

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The surprising return of the repo man

By Todd C. Frankel, Washington Post, May 15, 2018

CLEVELAND--The computer in the spotter car shouted “Hide!,” and repo agent Derek Lewis knew that meant to keep driving like nothing had happened. He’d just found another wanted vehicle. He was about to ruin someone’s day. Best not to draw attention.

It helped that he wasn’t in a tow truck, the stereotypical image of a repo man. Lewis drove a beat-up Ford Crown Victoria sedan. It had four small cameras mounted on the trunk and a laptop bolted to the dash. The high-speed cameras captured every passing license plate. The computer contained a growing list of hundreds of thousands of vehicles with seriously late loans. The system could spot a repossession in an instant. Even better, it could keep tabs on a car long before the loan went bad.

Now, Lewis had a live hit in a parking lot. He glanced at his laptop. The plate matched a blue 2006 BMW 325xi. He twisted in his seat. “It’s right there,” he said.

Technology has made the repo man ruthlessly efficient, allowing this familiar angel of financial calamity to capitalize on a dark corner of the United States’ strong economy: the soaring number of people falling behind on their car payments.

No longer tethered to a tow truck and able to use big data to find targets, the repossession industry is booming at an unexpected time. Although the U.S. economy recently entered its second-longest-ever period of expansion, the auto loan delinquency rate last year reached its highest point since 2012, driven by souring subprime auto loans. It’s evidence of how the economic recovery has not been evenly felt, with some of Americans’ biggest purchases--automobiles--being fueled by unsustainable borrowing rather than rising wages.

And the repo man has noticed the change.

“So much of America is just a heartbeat away from a repossession--even good people, decent people who aren’t deadbeats,” said Patrick Altes, a veteran agent in Daytona Beach, Fla. “It seems like a different environment than it’s ever been.”

Repo agents are the unpopular foot soldiers in the nation’s $1.2 trillion auto loan market. They don’t make the loans or issue the repossession orders that, for some high-risk customers, can come as soon as a single payment is days late. But they are the closest most people come to a faceless, sophisticated financial system that can upend their lives.

Lewis rolled to a far corner of the parking lot, next to an apartment building overlooking Lake Erie, and called the BMW’s lender.

“I’m sitting on a live hit for you,” he said.

He texted for a company tow truck. It was seven minutes away. This was the hard part. He had to just hope the vehicle’s driver didn’t come out and drive away. It would be like watching a fish wiggle free of the hook.

He sat in silence, one of the few times his spotter car wasn’t logging new plates, each one trumpeted by a video-game-like bing. The system picked up passing cars. Parked cars. Cars stashed in driveways. As many as 10,000 every eight-hour shift.

Lewis compared each scan to planting a seed.

“Is it going to grow into a repo?” he said. “Or are they going to pay their bills?”

Lewis works for Relentless Recovery, the largest repo company in Ohio and its busiest collector of license plate scans. Last year, the company repossessed more than 25,500 vehicles--including tractor trailers and riding lawn mowers.

Business has more than doubled since 2014, the company said. Even with the rising deployment of remote engine cutoffs and GPS locators in cars, repo agencies remain dominant.

Relentless scanned 28 million license plates last year, a demonstration of its recent, heavy push into technology. It now has more than 40 camera-equipped vehicles, mostly spotter cars. Agents are finding repos they never would have a few years ago.

The company’s goal is to capture every plate in Ohio and use that information to reveal patterns. A plate shot outside an apartment at 5 a.m. tells you that’s probably where the driver spends the night, no matter their listed home address. So when a repo order comes in for a car, the agent already knows where to look.

“It’s kind of scary, but it’s amazing,” said Alana Ferrante, chief executive of Relentless.

Lewis, 33, got his start repossessing cars when he was 14, helping his dad tow vehicles in the dead of night. His dad moved on to construction. But Lewis kept at it, eventually getting burned out on chasing cars. He went to work as a firefighter and paramedic--which provoked very different reactions from people--before returning a few years ago to the job he knew best. And for a while, the job remained mostly the same. He’d prowl around in a tow truck, armed with paper orders and a map, just praying the target vehicle was parked where it was supposed to be.

That all changed in recent years.

Repos remain risky. Lewis has had a gun pointed at him three times and a cigarette stubbed out on his forehead once. He’s had people come out screaming at him. He’s seen them break down in tears.

Lewis, who as operations director still regularly does repos, tries to follow one main rule: “Don’t make someone’s bad situation worse.” So he avoids hospital parking lots. But he loves shopping malls, especially the last row of lots, where the employees park. Discount stores are another target.

“For getting a live hit, this is the place to be,” he said earlier, weaving his way past rows of cars outside a Dollar General.

It could feel like he was preying on the poor. Lewis said he just went where the repos were. Even then, repos clustered in unexpected ways. Lewis pointed to one apartment complex so stocked with repos it became his honey hole. Yet similar buildings nearby were repo deserts.

Nationwide, repo agents described a broadening base of people struggling to stay current on their auto loans. In the old days, agents picked up mostly entry-level cars--Chevy Chevettes and Dodge Neons.

“Now it’s all over the place,” said Altes, the Daytona Beach agent, who is also the former head of the repo trade group Time Finance Adjusters.

Agents today get assignments for high-end brands such as Mercedes-Benz. They take the new cars of Uber drivers. Relentless picked up its first 2018 model last year, just weeks after it debuted. The only cars still rarely seen are Subarus and Volvos--the unflashy favorites of the urbane upper middle class.

Now, Lewis kept his eye on the blue BMW, a vehicle that might cost $37,000 new but after more than a decade was worth less than $8,000. The tow truck rolled up. Lewis slipped on a pair of work gloves.

“You ready?” he shouted at the tow truck driver.

The best repo is a quick “hook and roll.” This wasn’t one of them. The BMW had all-wheel drive. All four wheels needed to be off the ground. The tow truck swung its lift under the rear tires of the backed-in BMW. Lewis and the tow driver jumped out to assemble a metal dolly to raise the front tires. Time crawled. Lewis scanned the lot. A woman walked toward them. He watched with relief as she climbed into a different car.

“See you, guys,” the tow truck driver shouted, pulling away with the bounty--worth about $400 to Relentless.

First repo of the day. Thousands of seeds planted.

Although there are no national auto repossession statistics, other measures point to a growing problem. More than 4 percent of auto loans were at least 90 days late at the end of 2017--the highest rate in five years. That number jumps to almost 10 percent for subprime auto loans alone, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Affordability is one factor. The average new car price has soared 20 percent over a decade, to $35,500, while wages have been sluggish. Auto loans now carry higher balances and longer terms, stretching out the timeline for trouble to appear.

Analysts point to a period from 2014 to 2016, when auto lenders got too loose with credit. That helped the United States sell a record number of automobiles in 2016. But it also pushed the delinquency rate higher.

“As a result, the markets pulled back a little bit,” said Amy Crews Cutts, chief economist at Equifax.

The rate of auto loan write-offs--which includes repos--is trending higher but remains below its 2009 peak, according to Equifax numbers.

Repo agents have their own theories about what’s going on--from fading attachment to vehicles to an increased willingness to walk away, a lesson learned from the housing crisis. One national list of active automobile repossession orders reached 360,000 this year, more than double what it was at the same time last year.

Lewis believed the industry followed a pulse. April was always slow because people made car payments with tax refunds. But repos soared on bad news, such as the loss of 1,500 autoworker jobs in Lordstown, Ohio, announced this year. Lewis recently heard that a nuclear power plant near Cleveland might shutter.

“I expect we’ll see some from that,” he said.

His own industry has seen changes, too. Regulators, led by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have cracked down on the job’s outlaw attitude. Lenders have pushed agents to take certification courses. Last year, Relentless switched its 120 workers from contractors to employees in an effort to change the culture and its incentives.

The camera systems have made agents more productive but also opened them up to new challenges.

Repo agents are responsible for the majority of the billions of license plate scans produced nationwide. But they don’t control the information. Most of that data is owned by Digital Recognition Network (DRN), a Fort Worth company that is the largest provider of license-plate-recognition systems. And DRN sells the information to insurance companies, private investigators--even other repo agents.

For repo companies, one worry is whether they are producing information that others are monetizing.

Now it was after midnight and Lewis was back at work, trying to rouse himself with Red Bull. This time he drove a tow truck. And he had his eye on a potential repo: a 2016 Chevy Cruze.

The order was only a few hours old. Half of Relentless’s repos are found within the first two days. After 10 days, most vehicles disappear.

But Lewis had a plate scan for the Chevy taken five days earlier, at 8:39 a.m. outside an apartment complex. He bet that was the car owner’s home.

The tow truck’s rumble seemed impossibly loud. Darkened apartment windows lined the parking lot. Lewis backed up the truck and guided the lift. He jumped out with a flashlight and verified it was the right car. He got back in, lifted the vehicle higher and pulled away. A real hook and roll.

Safely out of sight, he pulled over to inspect the vehicle. He could see a woman’s sunglasses in the front console. A “black ice” air freshener and knickknacks dangled from the rearview mirror. In the back was a child’s car seat.

Lewis didn’t flinch. He knew that a mother was probably going to walk outside in the morning and realize her car was gone. She might call the police to report it stolen. But she had to have known this moment was coming after a flurry of lender late notices and phone calls. Lewis understood. What do you do against the inevitable? He has four children of his own. He had paid to get strangers’ cars out of repo before. But this was his job. He’d been doing it most of his life. And technology hadn’t yet figured out how to soften the blow.

After her car was towed to Relentless, the woman’s personal items would be stored in a cardboard box, amid the stacks of boxes from other repos. The car might be gone, the missed payments and repo fee too much to make up, but she could get her items back for $50.

The repo man had a policy, part of that aim to not make a bad situation worse.

The child’s car seat was always returned for free.

#Derek Lewis #repo man #car reposessions #car loans

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junker-town · 7 years

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The Nets might not be terrible this year. That's bad news for Cavaliers fans

Brooklyn overhauled its roster this offseason. Cavs fans shouldn’t expect them to be the worst team in the NBA anymore.

The Boston Celtics’ biggest trade chips have always been the draft picks they acquired from the Brooklyn Nets in a blockbuster 2013 trade for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. Boston refused to part with a Nets pick for Jimmy Butler, and were turned down when they reportedly offered at least one of them for Paul George.

On Tuesday, the Celtics finally made their move. Kyrie Irving is going to Boston for a package headlined by Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, and the Nets’ unprotected first round-pick in 2018 -- the final part of that Nets bounty.

Everything about this trade is fascinating, but the inclusion of the Nets pick adds another layer of intrigue, particularly because it went from being untouchable to gone in a matter of minutes.

How valuable is that pick? Could the Cavs be walking away with Marvin Bagley III, Michael Porter Jr., or one of the other top prospects in the 2018 NBA Draft?

It all boils down to one question that Cavaliers fans now must ask themselves: just how bad will the Nets be this season?

Brooklyn overhauled its roster this offseason

The Nets were the worst team in the NBA last year by four games, finishing just 20-62. When that painful season ended, Brooklyn GM Sean Marks took some dramatic steps to reshape the roster. Most notably:

D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov were acquired from the Lakers in a trade for Brook Lopez and the No. 27 pick in the draft.

DeMarre Carroll was acquired from the Raptors for a trade exception.

Allan Crabbe was acquired from the Trail Blazers for a trade exception.

Russell now becomes the new leading man in Brooklyn. Crabbe and Carroll are each useful 3-and-D style wings, even if both are considered to be overpaid. Mozgov is another player on a bad contract, but he can at least add veteran stability to the Brooklyn frontcourt.

Add those new additions to a roster that already includes guard Jeremy Lin, young wings Caris LeVert, Sean Kilpatrick, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and a solid veteran forward in Trevor Booker, and suddenly the Nets look OK.

For an Eastern Conference team, anyway.

The Nets have no reason to tank. Many other teams do.

The great tank-off of 2018 has begun before the season even starts. There are at least eight teams that could gun for a high pick in a loaded 2018 NBA Draft:

The Bulls traded Jimmy Butler to Minnesota and should be one of the worst teams in the NBA.

The Hawks let Paul Millsap and Jeff Teague walk as free agents and appear content to rebuild through the draft.

The Lakers lose their pick to the Celtics if it falls between No. 2 and No. 5. That means they also have an incentive to avoid tanking. LA added Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Brook Lopez over the offseason, in addition to marquee rookie point guard Lonzo Ball.

The Knicks gave Tim Hardaway Jr. a billion dollars, but will still be bad. It’s also likely Carmelo Anthony still gets moved this offseason.

The Pacers traded Paul George and now have a young team led by Myles Turner and Victor Oladipo.

The Suns, Magic, and Kings have been upper-lottery staples in recent years and that shouldn’t change. The Suns are all in on #TheTimeline, while the Kings are entering a post-DeMarcus Cousins world.

The Nets, however, have no incentive to lose games at the end of the season. While teams like the Bulls, Hawks, and Knicks figure to be fighting for lottery odds, Brooklyn will be going out every night trying to win.

The Nets have a good coach in Kenny Atkinson. They have a lot of young players with something to prove. If Brooklyn is the eighth-worst team in the NBA instead of the worst, that pick becomes a lot less valuable.

What players could the Cavs be looking at in the draft?

Everything in Cleveland revolves around LeBron James. James is a free agent next year and the value of this Nets draft pick could be a big deciding factor in whether he chooses to stay or leave.

The Nets’ pick will certainly pop up in trade rumors as Cleveland looks to add talent for its fourth straight title run. But if the Cavs do keep the pick, these are some players they could target in the 2018 draft.

If the pick lands in the top-5 ....

Duke’s Marvin Bagley III and Missouri’s Michael Porter Jr. will be two names to monitor all year in college basketball. Both players are athletic 6’11 forwards who are considered to have star potential. Bagley is a superior inside scorer and rebounder, while Porter has more developed perimeter game. Either would be a great addition to Cleveland.

If Cleveland wants a center, Arizona’s DeAndre Ayton and Texas’ Mohamed Bamba would be great choices. Ayton is an agile big man with shooting ability, while Bamba and his historic 7’9 wingspan projects to offer elite rim protection. There’s also 6’8 Slovenian guard Luka Doncic, who could be the best prospect of the bunch.

If the pick lands outside the top-5 ...

The talent at the top of the 2018 draft will get all the attention, but there will be good players available throughout the lottery.

If Cleveland is looking for its next point guard with Isaiah Thomas set to enter free agency, Alabama’s Collin Sexton or Duke’s Trevon Duval could help. If the Cavs want to pair (or replace?) LeBron with another athletic wing, Michigan State’s Miles Bridges would fit. Big men like Mitchell Robinson or Texas A&M Robert Williams could also be available.

So what’s the verdict? How bad will the Nets be?

ESPN’s Kevin Pelton recently projected Brooklyn to win 29.5 games. That made them the fourth-worst team in the NBA, with Chicago, Sacramento, and Atlanta as the only three teams expected to have worse records.

That feels about right. Brooklyn is more likely to be the sixth-worst team in the NBA this year than the worst. Cleveland could still get a puncher’s chance at the No. 1 pick, but it probably won’t have amazing odds.

The Nets got better this offseason, and that makes Danny Ainge’s decision to part with their draft pick a lot easier to swallow. Combine that with the Celtics’ rights to the Lakers’ 2018 pick (if it lands between 2-5) or the 2019 Kings pick (top-1 protected) and you can see why Ainge finally decided to part with his final asset from Brooklyn.

The Nets might still be bad, but they won’t be that bad.

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