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sisterofiris · 4 years

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Greco-Anatolian contacts in Late Bronze Age texts, or: was there a historical Trojan War?

(This is the abridged - though still long - version of a presentation I gave during a seminar. If you’re interested in more details or sources, feel free to message me, or check out the bibliography.)

Did the Trojan War really happen? It’s a hot topic among Classicists, and has become even more so over the last 150 years. Archeological excavations in north-western Turkey, as well as the discovery of Hittite civilisation and decipherment of Hittite cuneiform tablets, have provided apparent support for the existence of Troy and the reality of a conflict over it between Greeks and Trojans. Anyone interested in the subject has probably heard the following evidence:

a large city, corresponding to Homer’s descriptions of Troy in the Iliad, was unearthed at Hisarlık; this city existed for over 3000 years and, most relevantly to our topic, suffered a major destruction around 1180 BC - a date corresponding to the traditional time frame given for the Trojan War (around 1250-1200 BC)

Hittite sources mention a city in the same region - north-western Anatolia - named Wiluša, which strongly parallels (W)ilios, another name for Troy in the Iliad

they also mention another city in the same area, Taruiša, which could be the Hittite equivalent of Greek Troia (Troy)

in a treaty Wiluša concluded with the Hittite empire around 1280 BC, an underground watercourse is mentioned; the archeological site also features an underground watercourse, therefore this site and Wiluša could be one and the same

in the same treaty, the king of Wiluša is identified as Alakšandu, the Hittite spelling of Alexander; this name has been linked to the Trojan prince Paris in the Iliad, who is also known as Alexander

the same treaty refers to a deity named Appaliuna, which can be read as Apollon, a major deity of Troy in the Iliad

Hittite texts speak regularly of the kingdom of Aḫḫiyawa, located in or beyond the Aegean Sea, a term which echoes the name for the Greeks in the Iliad, Akhai(w)oi (Achaeans)

a letter from the Hittite king to the king of Aḫḫiyawa mentions a conflict their lands had over Wiluša

Many people, from Classicists to archeologists to documentary makers, have sought to connect the dots between these elements and answer the question with a yes: there could have been a Trojan War. This is certainly an easy deduction to make. However, many of these argumentations (not all, of course; I’m not throwing everyone under the bus here, but it’s a common trend) present a serious methodological flaw. That is, they take what I like to call a “murder mystery” approach.

The “murder mystery” starts with a question: did the Trojan War happen? Arguments in favour of and against it are then sought out in the available sources. Since many arguments in favour of it are found, it’s assumed that the original question can be answered positively: the Trojan War could have happened (or, as less critical people affirm, did happen). The problem with this approach is that it treats a fictional account (Homer’s Iliad) as a hypothesis to be proven or disproven. But an epic isn’t a corpse in a mansion to be investigated until the culprit is found; it’s not even an eyewitness account. Even just treating it as something that can be proven is being biased in favour of it being at least somewhat trustworthy. Using the Iliad as a starting point also gives the central role to a narrative written 500 years after the supposed events, while sources contemporary to those events are treated as supporting evidence - not as the subject we should be delving into in the first place.

So what should be done? We cannot discuss the historicity of the Trojan War without tackling, well, the history surrounding it. In other words, and this may seem counter-productive: we need to forget about the Trojan War, to establish instead a general picture of Late Bronze Age contacts between Greeks and Anatolians along the Anatolian coast, and especially around Wiluša. Only once we have put the above “evidence” back into its context will we be able to discuss the Iliad.

So here we go - let’s use Hittite sources to find out how Greeks and Anatolians interacted in the Late Bronze Age. What kind of presence did the Greeks have on the Anatolian coast? Were western Anatolians always Hittite allies? What was the ethnicity of Wiluša’s inhabitants? Did Greeks and Hittites ever do battle? It’s all under the cut.

Setting the scene

Before we build our puzzle and see if the Trojan War piece fits into it, we need to confirm that we’ve actually got the right puzzle. This requires four proofs:

That the archeological site at Hisarlık was called Wiluša in Hittite sources;

That this site fits Homer’s description of Troy;

That Wiluša and Taruiša are the Hittite equivalents of (W)ilios and Troia;

And that the Hittites knew and interacted with the Greeks.

I won’t go into too much detail here, as these questions have been extensively discussed over the last century (if you’re curious to know more, see the bibliography). Nowadays, most experts agree that all four are likely true. While Hittite geography is still debated in many areas, the localisation of Wiluša is close to certain thanks to campaign routes detailed in royal annals, combined with archeological data from western Anatolia. Unfortunately, no written texts (except for one seal) were found at Hisarlık, which could have given definite proof of the site being Wiluša - but it’s still highly likely. Meanwhile, the Iliad contains enough geographical and topographical descriptions that its setting can be narrowed down to a very specific area, which also happens to coincide with the site at Hisarlık.

Linguistically, Wiluša being the equivalent of (W)ilios - attested in the Iliad as Ilios, but the presence of an initial digamma (w sound) is proven by the word’s metric rhythm - and Taruiša being the equivalent of Troia is perfectly plausible. So is Aḫḫiyawa for Akhai(w)oi (same as (W)ilios; the term is attested as Akhaioi but had to originally contain a digamma). The localisation of Aḫḫiyawa in or beyond the Aegean Sea, and its obvious might in Hittite texts echoing the mighty archeological sites of Late Bronze Age Greece, confirm this further. As one of my professors once said: either Aḫḫiyawa was not Greece, which would mean one powerful kingdom (Aḫḫiyawa) left traces in Hittite texts but none in the archeological record, while another (Greece) left archeological traces but no written ones... or Aḫḫiyawa was Greece, and therefore the Hittites knew the Greeks.

It should be pointed out that we don’t know if Aḫḫiyawa referred to all of Greece, or just to a part of it. Was it the Aegean islands? Pylos? Mycenae? The whole Peloponnese? Linear B texts found at Bronze Age archeological sites in Greece don’t give enough information about the political structure of the time for us to be sure. It’s clear that each city-state was governed by a king, or wanax, but we don’t know if the Hittites were only in contact with one of those kings (which would make Aḫḫiyawa a small, local kingdom) or if all city-states belonged, temporarily or permanently, to a coalition ruled by an overlord (who would be the “king of Aḫḫiyawa” mentioned in Hittite texts). Considering how uniform Late Bronze Age Greek culture was, how similar its archeological sites are and how the dialect in all Linear B tablets is identical, and considering how the king of Aḫḫiyawa was powerful enough for the Hittite king to view him as an equal, I would lean towards the coalition hypothesis - but this is yet to be proven.

The early 14th century: a Greek sword and a Hittite vassal

Let’s begin our study with the first text in which Wiluša is mentioned. This would be the Annals of Tudḫaliya I/II (we’re not sure if he was the first or the second Hittite king named Tudḫaliya), in which he describes a campaign he led against north-western Anatolia. Several city-states there, including Wiluša and Taruiša, had joined into an anti-Hittite coalition known as the Aššuwa coalition - Aššuwa being the name of the region. Tudḫaliya defeated them in battle and returned to the Hittite capital, Ḫattuša, along with spoils and captives. One of the spoils from this campaign was found in an archeological dig: it’s a sword in the Late Bronze Age Greek style.

It’s hard to determine whether the sword was forged and used by a Greek person, or whether it was an Anatolian imitation, but either way, it shows that north-western Anatolia was in contact with Greece. Moreover, it would imply that both peoples were on good terms. At the very least, they were trading partners; at most, Greeks and Anatolians - including Trojans - may have fought against Tudḫaliya together. The presence of Greeks in the area is confirmed by a much later letter, which mentions a marriage alliance between Greeks and Anatolians during this period. Could it have been in Wiluša? Did Greek and Trojan royalty intermarry? The letter in question is fragmentary, so we can’t know for certain, but as we will see later on, this hypothesis is not at all far-fetched.

But not all contact was positive. The Indictment of Madduwatta, a slightly later text, stars a Hittite vassal king named Madduwatta who ruled somewhere in south-western Anatolia (we’re not sure where, exactly) and who got into conflict with a Greek nobleman. This man, Attariššiya, tried to kill Madduwatta multiple times, to the point that Madduwatta had to ask the Hittite king for help. Most interesting is the mention of a battle between Attariššiya’s forces and the Hittite king’s, in which one general from each side was killed.

So here we have evidence of an actual, armed conflict between Greeks and Hittites. However, this was not part of an “official” Greek conquest. Attariššiya is only identified as a “man of Aḫḫiyawa”, not a king, so his interests in Anatolia were probably personal and had nothing to do with "official” policy (though he may have had unofficial support from the Greek king). He may have wanted to secure a trading post or even set up a colony; archeological evidence shows that Greeks had been present all along the coast of Anatolia since the 15th century at least, mostly trading but also settling permanently. Attariššiya’s strategy was also clearly opportunistic, as was Madduwatta’s, since they later put their past arguments aside to raid Cyprus together (much to the horror of the Hittite king).

These two instances show that Greeks were interested in Anatolia in the 14th century, and tried to secure a foothold there through whatever opportunities presented themselves - marriage alliances, raids, or battles. Likely aware of the threat the Hittites posed, they were vested in getting them out of the area. This meant that, on various occasions, Greeks allied themselves with western Anatolians... and, possibly, with Trojans.

The late 14th century: a Milesian war and a Greek deity

This strategy continued through the 14th century, leading us to a western Anatolian king named Uḫḫa-ziti. Uḫḫa-ziti ruled over Apaša, later known as Ephesus, but seems to have had power over a large area which also included Millawanda, later Miletus. In the early reign of the Hittite king Muršili II, Uḫḫa-ziti allied himself with the Greek king and handed Miletus over to him. Miletus already had a large Greek population - in fact, it was the most Greek city of western Anatolia - so this decision may well have been a welcome one for the Milesians. Muršili, however, wasn’t so pleased.

In his Annals, he describes how he sent his army against Miletus and utterly destroyed the city. (This destruction can also be seen in the archeological record.) Meanwhile, Uḫḫa-ziti had taken refuge in the Greek islands, likely under the protection of the Greek king, where he finally died. This may have been the extent of the Greek king’s help, since his official troops do not seem to have taken part in the war. While Milesian Greeks most likely fought the Hittites, and other Greeks may have independently joined the cause, the war in Miletus was ultimately between Hittites and western Anatolians.

Still, this was a major defeat for the Greeks, who saw the city with the strongest Greek presence, Miletus, conquered by the Hittites. The message was clear: western Anatolia belonged to the Hittites, so the Greeks duly suspended their expansion efforts in the area. This led to more positive interactions with the Hittites, to the point that, when Muršili fell sick, the statue of a deity from Lazpa (Lesbos) and another from Greece were brought in to heal him. Maybe Greeks and Hittites could get along after all?

The early 13th century: Wiluša takes centre stage

Muršili’s conquests in western Anatolia ushered in a new age, featuring more contacts with Greece than ever. Some of those are explicitly attested - the 13th century has more mentions of Greece in Hittite texts than any other - but others were implicit. This is the case for the aforementioned Hittite treaty with Alakšandu of Wiluša. In the historical introduction to the treaty, Wiluša is described as having always been favourable to the Hittites, taking their side and supporting them even when the city belonged officially to another kingdom. According to this treaty, Wiluša would have had stronger links with the Hittites than with anyone else.

And yet the king’s name was Alakšandu - very, very obviously the Greek name Alexander. For him to have a Greek name, there had to be a strong Greek presence in the area. Could this be the result of the 14th century marriage alliance? If so, then there had been Greek blood in the Trojan royal family for over a hundred years. And even if not, there was undoubtedly some kind of Greek element in Alakšandu’s family.

This is further confirmed by the appearance of the deity Appaliuna, probably Apollon, in the treaty. The origin of Apollon is debated, and many scholars view him as an originally Anatolian deity. Either way, for him to appear both in Bronze Age Anatolia and in later Greece, he had to have travelled either from East to West, or from West to East across the Aegean Sea - and this required contacts between Greeks and Anatolians. Hence the question: was Wiluša really closer to the Hittites than to Greece, or was this royal propaganda to minimise the Greek presence in the area?

The 13th century also saw the rise in power of Greece. Miletus may have been given back to them under Muršili II’s successor, maybe in an effort to pacify relations between Greeks and Hittites, now both among the greatest powers of the time. Ḫattušili III, who ruled in the mid-13th century, implies that Miletus belonged to Greece in a letter known as the Tawagalawa letter, concerned with a renegade who had taken refuge in Miletus. Since the city was owned by the Greek king, Ḫattušili had to write to him to ask for the renegade to be extradited. The same letter features the most famous quote about our topic:

The king of Ḫatti, regarding the matter of the city of Wiluša over which we became hostile, has convinced me regarding that matter. We have made peace. Now hostility is no longer right between us.

This is the only mention, in the entirety of Hittite sources, about a conflict that directly opposed the Greek king and the Hittite king. But was it a war - or just a political disagreement, solved through diplomacy? Other disagreements between both kings are recorded, including one over some Aegean islands and to which kingdom they belonged. And even if there was a war over Wiluša, did it really happen in the mid-13th century, or was Ḫattušili referring to a much earlier event?

Unfortunately we don’t have answers. What we can say is that this conflict parallels the treaty with Alakšandu: both the Hittites and the Greeks were interested in Wiluša, and both sides may well have believed the city belonged to them. They certainly had good reason to invest their efforts there. Wiluša, being located at the mouth of the Dardanelles, controlled the trade routes to the Black Sea, and for two expanding kingdoms, the prospect of trade in that area must have been very attractive indeed.

The late 13th and early 12th century: the end of an era

The return of Miletus to the Greeks gave them a foothold in western Anatolia and coincided with a rise in their power. But at the same time, the Hittite presence in the area was slowly becoming more permanent, and in the late 13th century, the Hittite king managed to acquire Miletus again. From then on, he no longer considered the Greek king as an equal.

It’s very hard to tell what happened afterwards. No mentions of Greece survive in Hittite texts from the turn of the 13th century, and Hittite civilisation was destroyed within the first decade of the 12th century. Our only source for these final years comes from Linear B tablets found in Greece. These tablets, preserved by fire when the palaces where they were stored burned down, were not meant to be permanent: they only recorded lists of goods and personnel that had entered the palaces in the last few months before their destruction. Several of these tablets listed women from western Anatolian localities, and one group specifically is identified as “women from Aswiya”. Aswiya has been interpreted as the Greek name for Aššuwa - the region where Wiluša was located. (Incidentally, it may also very well be the origin of our word “Asia”.)

This tablet would indicate that the Greeks were still active in the region, either participating in slave trade or conducting raids and bringing back captives. It also gives us an idea of what goods they might have sought out in western Anatolia. Very few Anatolian objects were found at Late Bronze Age Greek sites, but the Linear B tablets could point towards imported goods being of a more perishable nature - that is, human workers, and since the women were most likely involved in weaving, textiles. These imports seem to have been ongoing right up until Greek civilisation itself came to an end, in the first couple of decades of the 12th century.

Back to the Trojan War

That was a lot of information, so let’s summarise. Greeks and Hittites interacted over the course of three centuries in the Late Bronze Age, as both civilisations were interested in securing a foothold in western Anatolia. While Hittite sources paint the region as always having been favourable towards the Hittites, reading between the lines shows that western Anatolians also had strong, often positive links to Greece. This was the case in Miletus, which had a sizeable Greek population, as well as in Troy, where the royal family itself had Greek ties.

The Greek strategy in western Anatolia was clearly opportunistic. Footholds were gained through raids and alliances with local kings - whatever suited the Greeks best at that moment - and outright war with the Hittites seems to have been avoided, for the most part. Once the Greek king acquired Miletus, he was considered equal to the Hittite king, but this changed with the Hittite re-conquest of Miletus after which Greco-Hittite relations ended abruptly and negatively. The Greeks, however, did not give up on western Anatolia until their own civilisation collapsed, at the end of the Bronze Age.

So what about the Trojan War in all this? It’s clear that the Iliad preserves the memory of the Late Bronze Age, between its city named (W)ilios/Troy, its Greeks wearing boar’s tusk helmets (discovered in Bronze Age Greek graves), its Trojan prince named Alexander, and its Greek kings using the ancient title wanax. Could the war itself have been based on a real event, too?

Currently, scholars are divided between two main hypotheses. The first is that there truly was a war over Troy opposing Greeks and Anatolians. This may have been the conflict that Ḫattušili III mentions in his letter to the Greek king, which would place the war at around 1250 BC. Alternatively, one could attribute the violent destruction of Troy around 1180 BC, attested in the archeological record, to the Greeks - perhaps as a last resort after having lost Miletus. The problem with this latter theory is that Greek civilisation itself was being destroyed by 1180: both Mycenae and Pylos, two major sites, went up in flames between 1190 and 1180. If the Greeks did attack Troy around that time, it would have been part of a migration seeking to establish themselves elsewhere, not as a concerted, strategic effort to expand an already dying kingdom.

The second main hypothesis is that the Iliad was inspired not by a single event, but by the many conflicts that opposed Greeks and Anatolians along the coast during the Late Bronze Age. The Trojan War may even have been a cross-cultural trope: a Hittite text quotes a song in Luwian (one of the languages of western Anatolia) about Wiluša. So both Greeks and western Anatolians may well have sung stories about Troy, and about wars against each other, eventually combining them into a single epic we know as the Iliad.

Conclusion: war... and peace?

The possibility of a cross-cultural Iliad, shaped by centuries of Greco-Anatolian contacts, leads us to the question of positive interactions between those peoples. This topic is just as significant as it is under-studied. Since most people are interested in the historicity of the Trojan War, many studies have focused on conflicts in the area, but as we have seen, Greeks and western Anatolians didn’t just fight; they were often trading partners, and even allies. Hittite sources depict western Anatolians, including Trojans, as having always been on the Hittite side, but this may not reflect reality so much as a pro-Hittite, anti-Greek bias - since Hittite relations with Greece were often tense.

(Side note: our bias towards viewing Greeks and Anatolians as enemies is also due to the way we’ve opposed Western civilisations to Eastern ones ever since Herodotus’ Histories. Most of my current research focuses on how Greeks and Anatolians interacted and saw each other before the Persian Wars, and it turns out relations were a lot more positive than you’d expect. Even in Archaic times, Lydians, Lycians, Carians and the rest weren’t “Eastern barbarians” - they were major trading partners, fashionable ladies, neighbours across the street, and even, in some cases, Mum or Dad. But I digress. Back to the Bronze Age.)

These positive interactions between Greeks and western Anatolians are also reflected in the Iliad. The Trojans aren’t depicted as barbarian foreigners, but as a people strikingly similar to the Greeks, who speak the same language and worship the same Gods. Many Greek heroes also have links to Anatolia, and vice versa: see, for example, the exchange between Diomedes and Glaucus in Book 6. The Iliad may even contain echoes of Hittite culture, such as Patroclus’ funeral which is strikingly similar to royal Hittite burial rites, or the name of king Telephos which has been linked to the Hittite name Telepinu.

In fact, Greek mythology in general is rife with Anatolian elements. There is enough material on the topic to write an entire book, so I won’t delve into it here, but suffice to say that Greek culture soaked up external influences like a sponge. Until recently, this was thought to be the result of the Orientalising period (8th-6th century BC), but it seems more and more likely that this cultural exchange dates back to a far earlier time.

So was there a Trojan War? There could have been - but maybe that’s not the right question to ask. Maybe we should be looking, instead, into a Trojan Ambiguous Relationship motivated by several centuries of shifting political alliances along the western Anatolian coast, and leading to significant cultural exchange. Or even - who knows - a Trojan Peace.

Bibliography

Bachvarova M., From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Background of Ancient Greek Epic, Cambridge 2016.

Beckman G., Hittite Diplomatic Texts, Atlanta 1996.

Beckman G., Bryce T., Cline E., The Ahhiyawa Texts, Atlanta 2011.

Bryce T., « The Nature of Mycenaean Involvement in Western Anatolia », Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 38 (1989), 1-21.

Bryce T., The Kingdom of the Hittites, Oxford 2005.

Cline E., The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2013.

Cline E., 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilisation Collapsed, Princeton 2014.

Collins B. J., Bachvarova M., Rutherford I. (ed.), Anatolian Interfaces: Hittites, Greeks and their Neighbours, Oxford 2008.

Güterbock H., « The Hittites and the Aegean World: Part 1. The Ahhiyawa problem reconsidered », American Journal of Archeology 87 (1983), 133-138.

Kraft J., Rapp G., Kayan İ., J. Luce, « Harbor areas at ancient Troy: sedimentology and geomorphology complement Homer’s Iliad », Geology 31/2 (2003), pp. 163-166.

Kraft J., Kayan İ., Brückner H., Rapp G., « Sedimentary facies patterns and the interpretation of paleogeographies of ancient Troia », in: Wagner G., Pernicka E., Uerpmann H. P. (ed.), Troia and the Troad. Natural Science in Archaeology, Berlin/Heidelberg 2003, pp. 361-377.

Latacz J., Troia und Homer: Der Weg zur Lösung eines alten Rätsels, Stuttgart 2001.

Mellink M., « The Hittites and the Aegean World: Part 2. Archeological comments on Ahhiyawa-Achaians », American Journal of Archeology 87 (1983), 138-141.

#don't blame me for the length of this - you asked for it #i told you i'm inordinately passionate about troy in the context of the late bronze age and these 4000 words are the result #infodump #trojan war #troy #ancient history #ancient greece #anatolia #homer #iliad #hittites #damn i love the hittites #late bronze age #greco-anatolian contacts #tagamemnon

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warmasphalt · 5 years

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a friend asked how i make blinkies and i have changed what site i use for gifs since the last explanation i attempted to write out, so here goes hoping this one maybe makes more sense. or maybe that combined these two explain everything well for once you can really make blinkies any size as i've seen plenty of irregular bigger ones, but the most common dimensions ive seen is 150 x 20 the hardest part making them is deciding how to split up text between frames of animation (if you make one like, say, my My Trains one where there is both an animated dashed border plus multiple lines of text);

if you put one line of text per 2 or 3 frames of the border animating, for example, you can make the border move faster while still preserving your ability to read the text in the end. just make sure you try to divide everything up so that the border loops properly (i.e. 2 different frames of border animation like on My Trains means your end result should be a frame count multipliable by 2) gonna be honest, ive taken border animations off old geocities blinkies ive found, but of course if you want you could easily freehand some too also it helps if you have some basic grasp of pixel art if you want something a little more on your blinkie than text, a border, and a background color/gradient/image, because i feel like its a little less civil to use uncredited pixel animals/food/plants/etc on a blinkie than to just copy a border as most blinkies have a similar pool of border animations on them use an art program with an antialiasing on/off option (antialiasing makes fonts and your digital art brushes look smooth and non-pixelated on the edges), and a pretty plain/average-looking font (verdana, arial, comic sans, ms sans serif, palatino linotype, etc. anything thats easy to read at a very small size. you can mix these for accent text to emphasize words to add more interest to the appearance of your blinkie, if the fonts are noticably different)

take this border for example- dotted, 3 frames of animation; it happens to have the illusion of the dots moving forward around the blinkie when it’s put together rather than flickering alternate colors (as most dashed ones do) for this frame to work best, your text should either: - be only one line that stays consistent the whole animation - be able to be worked into a multiple of three, either by literally being a multiple of 3, or by being able to be made into one by making multiple border animation frames with the same text; i.e. line 1 of text repeated over 3 frames, completing a border animation loop, and line 2 also repeated over 3 frames, bringing your total frames to 6 and making the border animation loop perfectly

for an example blinkie i just grabbed two lines of the chorus of a song (Go-Getter Greg by Ludo to be exact) i used a combination of palatino linotype and segoe print here in 10px with a few accent colors to give this a little bit of extra interest. ideally i'd have pixelled a little gun for the second line frames but i was just trying to get this tutorial done, sometime i'll make a version of this that looks nicer w another 2 lines of the chorus actually

i put the frames together in https://ezgif.com/maker (choose all your frames, click upload) and then messed with the delay time to get a speed that made it readable but still kept the border appearing to move fairly fast (to be exact, this blinkie’s delay time ended up being 23). you have to click “make a gif!” after every edit of the delay time in order to see the change, by the way for your first few tries, you may have to tweak things more, such as spreading your lines of text out over frames of border animation for better comparative speeds. i.e. 6 copies of “i’ a go-getter guy”, with the lighter middle frame being 2 frames then sandwiched each between 2 frames of the darker font color, would have allowed me to make the border move at about this same speed while making the wording less fast/more legible. (yes i do mean to say the text changes faster on this example blinkie than i ideally would have liked) also, personally i don’t usually do any optimizing steps like the bottom of that ezgif page suggests as blinkies are pretty small file size anyway so i feel they dont really need it (you are however free to try and mess with them if you think your blinkie requires that). just right click your assembled blinkie and ‘save image as’ once you get the frames animated properly to your liking and there you go! blinkie done

#blinkies #phaults #i guess idk #warmTutorials #this is SO fucking long sorry

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loadsix912 · 3 years

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Starbucks Barista Coffee Grinder Manual

The Grinder is not an Optional Thing

The Starbucks “Barista” Coffee Grinder, the EL60, is the grinder that just won’t die. It was a present from my wife many years ago, and it has truly been a gift that keeps on giving. It’s survival isn’t just amazing because it’s really well made. It’s amazing because it continues to chug away despite Continue reading 'Baratza Rescues My Starbucks Grinder Again!' Place the grinder on the scale and tare. Weigh out the coffee beans into your grinder. Finding the right amount will take some practice to get right. You can pick a starting point by filling your moka basket with beans until they mound over the top a little, and weighing and grinding that amount.

The Starbucks Barista Coffee Grinder, the EL60, is the grinder that just wont die. It was a present from my wife many years ago, and it has truly been a gift that keeps on giving. Its survival isnt just amazing because its really well made.

I still cannot stress enough how important it is to get a good grinder, even before you buy an espresso machine. Don't skimp, don't blow it off. Get one if you even dare to hope to have quality coffee in the home.

The following is a list of grinders to think about. This list is by no means complete, and there are other very suitable options on the market I haven't listed here. Apart from the looks there are two important things with a burr grinder - the quality of the burrs and the precision of the adjustment/bearing mechanisms. Ken Wilson has put up some of the old articles from alt.coffee and other sources about modifying grinders (some of which are listed below) to accommodate the espresso fineness required for great shots.

Budget Grinders The burrs on some of these (and some not listed, like the Gaggia MM) are generally not very high quality (exceptions exist of course. In general, these provide only consistent maximum particle size, with a variable amount of fines and dust. However:

Bodum Antigua, (Costco, $65 or so) The Antigua has the same burr set as some of the grinders in the mid-range prices, but emits more noise and does demonstrate some static problems. This is the cheapest grinder I can (barely) recommend. Krups Il Barista, (Around $80) It's hard for me to recommend this grinder as there have been many negative reports (and some positive ones), and it is no longer made. However, they do turn up still at overstock stores and on eBay. Consider it if only no other option exists, and you happen to find one.

Zassenhaus Manual Mills, ($40-$80) Some people swear by them, but to get a good grind for pump espresso machines, be prepared for several minutes' work per shot. Available in tabletop and knee (pictured) versions. Sweet Marias stocks tons of them.

Mid Range Grinders At this level you are getting well fitting brass burr holders and precision bearings in some models, and good pattern conical burrs (in plastic housings) in other models. The burrs are similar in appearance to those on professional grinders, but generally smaller. The conical burr models offer great value for the prices.

Saeco M2002 ($100-$120). With the Saeco, you're moving up into a 'quality' espresso grinder. This is what I would consider the lowest acceptable grinder for medium general use. Expect 2-5 years out of this before it's time to upgrade due to dull burrs or poor performance.

Starbucks Barista / Solis 166 ($100-$130) The Solis grinder, rebranded by Starbucks, is a good all around grinder with one serious shortfall - not enough grind selections. And the variance between 'clicks' is pretty large, especially compared to a Rocky. Still, many people are happy with this grinder, and I have used one myself for almost 2 years as my 'grind for everything except espresso' grinder, until it died.

Solis Mulino grinder ($100) Because of Starbucks and their litigation department threatening to sue Solis' N. American importer, the Mulino grinder was introduced to replace the Solis-brand 166 grinder. The Mulino is essentially the same grinder as the 166 in a different body, and easier to modify the grind. Still not enough clicks, and too much grinds left in the 'chute' inside, but a good choice for many.

Solis Maestro Grinder ($130-$145) My top pick for this category. This is the replacement for both the 166 and Mulino grinders, and is a solid performer, handling espresso to press pot grind with ease. Has some unique features built in, including the option to grind directly into a portafilter. Fairly quiet, nice looking, and a great company backing it. I wrote a detailed review on this product over at CoffeeGeek. Isomac grinder ($150) I know nothing about this grinder, other than the people who own it are big fans. Hard to find. Read some reviews on it over at CoffeeGeek.

Upper End Grinders These are serious performer grinders for the home that could also double as light to medium commercial models, especially in the capacity as a decaf or second grinder. Most feature flat burrs with a brass mounting, and dosers, but there are some doserless models and conical burr models in this category.

Rancilio Rocky ($200-$230) This is by far the best grinder on the market in this price range. It produces an excellent, even grind and is built for longevity - the Rocky has been on the market for 10 years now. Some negatives include poor fitting lids and a rather cheap doser assembly, but most of the money on this grinder was spent on the motor and grind plates and inner assembly. Very worth the money, but only if used as an espresso grinder. Using for non-espresso is a bit of a hassle for many.

Gaggia MDF Grinder ($200) Gaggia MDF owners love their grinder, but between this grinder and the Rocky, the Rocky is a better deal. Still, you can't go wrong with the MDF, and if the Rocky is hard to come by or the MDF is at a special price, definitely go for it.

Innova Grinders ($190-$250) Innova Grinders are brand new to market, and available in several variants, including doser and doserless models, conical burrs, flat brass burs, and with automatic options available as well. These grinders are very capable and have what is called a 'worm drive' grind selection that is completely stepless and very, very finite. Recommended.

Mazzer Mini ($375-$600) Possibly the best espresso grinder ever made, home or office (or commercial) use. Well, not necessarily the Mini, but Mazzer grinders are amongst the industry's best. The Mini is the most polished, most solid, and most capable grinder I have ever personally tried. This is the be all, end all, and in my opinion, highly worth the price. Nuova Simonelli MCF, Others ($350+) By the time you get up to this price range, you can't really go wrong with any grinder you choose. Keep in mind these are usually commercial grinders designed for espresso use only. Will last forever in a home use setting.

Still have that vintage Baratza Starbucks Barista and need parts? Here’s what you need to know.

There are a number of different Starbucks Barista appliances out in the world including drip coffee makers, espresso machines, and coffee grinders. At Baratza, we specialize exclusively in coffee grinders. At one point in time, circa 2004-2009 we did make a Baratza Starbucks Barista coffee grinder, and my hope in writing this is to help clear up confusion for those searching for information and guidance.

The sad reality is several other grinder manufacturers made Starbucks Barista coffee grinders. Before getting into the units Baratza did not make or sell, let’s start with the one we did: The Baratza Starbucks Barista model 1MP1SP, which looks like this:

Like all of our units, we have parts and troubleshooting information for this unit on our website. Yay!

But over the years, I’ve fielded inquiries about other models and have seen a number of them in person. In particular, the Type 166, EL60, and EL70 Starbucks Barista models come to mind. These three models are not units Baratza ever made or sold, but I happen to have some insights from the questions I’ve fielded over the years.

Hoppers/lids:

The hopper and lid for Baratza grinders is not a direct fit on the Type 166, EL60 or EL70. But, they are close in size and a determined individual wrote up a how to make a Baratza grinder fit these units and wrote a guide back in 2014 that is still up and available- https://www.epiphanydigest.com/2014/05/03/replacement-hopper-starbucks-barista-el60-grinder/.

Knob/timer switch:

The Type 166, EL60 and EL70 have custom knobs. However, the mechanical interface of their knobs, and the Baratza Maestro Plus knob are the same. So, if you’ve lost or broken your knob, you can buy the Baratza Maestro Plus timer knob and it will mechanically function. Cosmetically, our knob is a little smaller in diameter, so you’ll have a bit of an air gap around it when you put it on to the grinder.

Paddlewheel:

The Type 166, EL60 and EL70 use a Solis gearbox/motor assembly. Baratza also used a Solis gearbox/motor assembly in our first years in business, so we do offer the few Solis parts we are still able to procure. Included in these parts is the paddle wheel, which is the sweeper that pushes ground coffee out of the burr chamber. If your grinder gets plugged up, is really slow or only grinds fine, a worn paddle wheel is likely and can be inspected visually (see the Solis paddle wheel guide in our Troubleshooting section of the website).

Motor, gears, burrs:

Unfortunately, these are no longer available parts from Solis. 😥

Starbucks Barista Burr Grinder Parts

Fuse:

Starbucks Barista Burr Grinder Repair

The Solis motor has an inline fuse on the motor- see the ‘Fuse Replacement’ guide in the Solis section of our Troubleshooting page. The fuse is not a part we have, but I believe it can be found at a well-stocked electronics store. If my memory serves, it is a 104c inline fuse.

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shirlleycoyle · 3 years

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How Can We Convince Big Companies to Leave Iconic Websites Online?

A version of this article originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail.

Look, I’m not going to tell you that Yahoo Answers was the height of cultural artifacts.

But the thing is, it had value. And the reason it did was because of the amount of time that it was online, the sheer number of its answers, and its public-facing nature. But sites do not stay stationary, encased in amber, and there is significant financial motivation for large companies to only play the hits. After all, it’s why Top 40 radio isn’t all Dishwalla, all the time.

But after seeing yet another situation where a longstanding Yahoo-owned website is shutting down, I’m left to wonder if the problem is that the motivations for maintaining sites built around user-generated content simply do not favor preservation, and never will without outside influence.

How can we change that motivation? In a follow-up to an argument I made about historic preservation as Yahoo Groups was getting shut down, here’s my attempt to see the issue of preservation from the corporate perspective.

“I understand your usage of groups is different from the majority of our users, and we understand your frustration. However, the resources needed to maintain historical content from Yahoo Groups pages is cost-prohibitive, as they’re largely unused.”

— A statement sent to an archivist in 2019 as Verizon took steps to shut down the vast majority of the existing Yahoo Groups, the last major element of Yahoo’s user-generated content apparatus that was dismantled, with Groups meeting its maker a little over a year ago. It’s worth keeping in mind that at the scale Verizon works—making billions of dollars per year, on average—the costs of continuing to host such content would have been relatively minimal—especially given the fact that, uh, it owns a big chunk of the network through which that content is distributed.

The problem with corporate motivations is that they aren’t the same as the user’s, even when the user made the content.

Whether Google, Verizon, Disney, Nintendo, or Sony, the corporate motivations for keeping content available online for long periods differ greatly from the motivations that drive external visitors.

Users very much have an expectation of permanence just as they did with physical media, but in the context of online distribution, these companies have competing interests driving their decision-making that discourage them from not taking steps to protect historic or vintage content.

And in the case of user-generated content, there might be outside considerations at play. Perhaps they are concerned that something within an old user agreement might come to bite them if they leave a website online past its sell-by date, opening up to liabilities. Perhaps the concern is old, outdated code that may look novel on the outside but is effectively a potential attack surface in the wrong hands. After all, if they’re not keeping an eye on it, who’s to say someone can’t take advantage of that?

And then there are reasons that are a little more consumer-hostile. Nintendo recently ended sales for a bunch of old Mario content in both digital and physical form. It evokes the old gating of home video releases that Disney used to do in an effort to keep its old content fresh and make more money from that old content.

When it comes to websites, though, much of that content is user-generated, even if a technology company technically maintains it. I have to imagine that there’s an expectation that a company only has limited capability for maintenance costs, and the motivation for doing so is limited.

But on the other hand, as digital preservationist David Rosenthal has pointed out, in the grand scheme, preservation is not really all that expensive. The Internet Archive has a budget—soup to nuts—of around $20 million or less per year, around half of which goes to pay for the salaries of the staff. And while they don’t get all of it (in part because they can’t!), they cover a significant portion of the entire internet, literally millions of websites. They have a fairly complex infrastructure, with some of its 750 servers online for as long as nine years and petabyte capacity in the hundreds, but given that they are trying to store decades worth of digitized content—including entire websites that were long-ago forgotten—it’s pretty impressive!

So the case that it costs too much to continue to simply publicly host a site that contains years of historically relevant user-generated content is bunk to me. It feels like a way of saying “we don’t want to shoulder the maintenance costs of this old machine,” as if content generated by users can be upgraded in the same way as a decade-old computer.

One thought I have is that this issue repeatedly comes up because the motivations for corporations naturally lean in favor of closure when the financial motivation has dried up. Legislation could be one way to manage this to sort of right the axis in favor of preservation—but legislation could be difficult to pass. (This was the crux of my case for trying to make the existing legislation for the National Register of Historic Places apply to websites.)

In my frustration about this issue recently on Twitter, I found myself arguing for legislation that balances liability in favor of preservation of public-facing content. But I’m a realist—a law like that would have many moving parts and may be a tough sell. So, if we can’t encourage a law, maybe we need to build strategies to make maintaining a historic website easier to lift.

2012

was the year that the genealogy platform Ancestry.com launched a new site, Newspapers.com, to offer paid archives of newspapers to interested parties. The company, which charges about $150 per year for access to the archive, has helped maintain access to the historic record for researchers who need it. (I’m a subscriber and it is worth it.) With the exception of paid services for Usenet like Giganews, this model has not really been tried for vintage digital-only content, which seems like a major missed opportunity for companies raising concerns about financial costs for maintaining old platforms, like Yahoo/Verizon. Certainly I would prefer it to be free, but if I had to have a choice between free and non-existent, I’d pay money to access old content. Just throwing that out there.

Image: Ethan Hoover/Unsplash

A middle ground: An “analog nightlight” mode for websites

In some ways, I think that part of the motivation for taking down old or outdated websites is the expectation that the internal systems must also stay online.

But I think archivists and historians would be more than happy if public-facing content—that is, content that appeared on search engines, or was a part of the main experience when logged in at a basic level—was prioritized and protected in some way, which would at least keep the information alive even if its value was limited.

There’s something of a comparison here that I’d make: When the U.S. dropped the vast majority of its analog signals in favor of digital tuning, it led to something called the “analog nightlight,” in which very minimal, basic information was presented on analog stations was presented during the period before it was turned off. A TV host parlayed basic information to viewers about the transition, and told them what to do next. It didn’t entirely work—TV stations in smaller markets didn’t actually air the analog nightlight—but it helped give a sense of continuity as a new medium found its footing.

This approach, to me, feels like a path forward that could minimize the crushing pain of a loss of historic content while taking away much of the risks that come with continuing to host a site that may no longer be popular in the modern day but still continues to have value in a long-tail sense.

In the case of an “analog nightlight” equivalent for websites, the goal would be to essentially shut down any sort of attack surface through good design and planning. Before the site is taken offline in its original form, users are given the chance to download their old content or remove it from the website over a period of, say, 60 days. This is not too dissimilar to the warnings that site operators offer when they shut down currently—and looks like what Yahoo Answers is doing.

But once the deadline is hit, the site operators launch a minimal version of the original platform, with no way to log in or comment. The information is static, and there’s no directly accessible backend. That’s actually the important part of this—the site needs to be untethered from its original content-management system so no new content can be added. Instead, the content would be served up as a barebones static site (perhaps with advertising, if they roll that way), so as to minimize the “attack surface” left by a site that is not actively being maintained.

This reflects relatively recent best practice in the content-management space. Platforms like Netlify have gained popularity in recent years because they actively separate the form of distribution from the means of production, meaning that security risks are minimized. This is a great approach for live-production sites, but for sites that are intentionally meant to stay static, it removes one of the biggest risk factors that might discourage a content owner from continuing to maintain the work.

As far as liability concerns go, language could be included on the page to allow for users to remove old content if they so choose, along the lines of the “right to be forgotten” measure of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), though that measure includes a carve-out for purposes of historical research, which an archived version of a website would presumably cover. But the thing is, sites that are driven by user-generated content are generally protected by Section 230 in the United States anyway, so the onus for liability for the content itself falls onto the end user.

And if, even after these steps, a company still feels uncomfortable about hosting a dead website, they should reach out to librarians and archivists to donate the collection for maintenance purposes—perhaps with a corresponding donation to said nonprofit so they can cover the hosting costs. The Internet Archive actually offers a service like this!

The one site that makes me think that a model like this could work is Gawker. The news and gossip site, which was taken offline by the combination of a lawsuit and a corporate asset sale that specifically excluded it, remains online nearly five years after its closure in a mode very similar to this. Comments are closed and not visible to end users, which is a true shame as those comments often fed into the writing. But the content—the part that was truly valuable and important—is still out there, accessible and readable, even if you can’t do anything with it other than read it.

There are no ads. It’s a shrine to a platform that a lot of people cared about, even if others found it controversial. And there’s no reason what Gawker did couldn’t work in an equivalent way for Yahoo Answers.

Look, I’m going to be the first to fully admit that the motivations for protecting publicly accessible user-generated content simply remain only if the owner of that content feels “nice” about it.

And even then it feels like a bit of a surprise.

It’s still online, but it moved.

Recently, Warner Bros. got a little bit of flak for replacing its long-online Space Jam website, which dated back a quarter-century in its original form, with a site for the sequel. But I think what the company did was actually shockingly noble. They not only left the old site online, but they made it accessible from the new one. The work done to maintain this was not perfect—I think they should do archivists a solid by putting in 301 redirects on the old URLs of the vintage site, so they go to the new place—but the fact that they showed the initiative at all is incredibly impressive given what we’ve seen of corporate motivations when it comes to preservation.

Honestly, part of this was a result of people who were associated with the website’s creation still being at the company years later and being willing to speak up for preserving it—a 2015 Rolling Stone article explains that the site actually briefly was taken down after it went viral in 2010, only for employees involved in the creation of the site (now with leadership roles in the company) to swoop in and save it after some executive made the call to shut it down.

“If we had left the company, the site probably would not exist today,” said Andrew Stachler, one of the employees involved with saving the effort. “It would’ve gone down for good at that time.”

But imagine if they weren’t there. We’d be telling a different story right now.

And perhaps that’s what many companies need—someone who is willing to go to bat for the purposes of archival and protection of historic content.

In the digital age, preservation is the act of doing nothing but minimal upkeep and being comfortable with that fact. As proven time and time again, companies are more than comfortable with killing services entirely rather than leaving well enough alone.

Perhaps the way to save user-generated content is by making it as painless as possible to keep the status quo.

How Can We Convince Big Companies to Leave Iconic Websites Online? syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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orbemnews · 3 years

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Chile's government distributed faulty birth control pills. Now more than 150 people are pregnant. Santiago, Chile — In Chile’s arid Atacama desert, Tabita Daza Rojas is trying to scrape together enough money to finish construction on her home before her baby, due anyday, arrives. Eight hundred kilometers to the south, in La Pintana, a suburb of the capital Santiago, Cynthia González is nursing her 2-month-old boy. But she needs to buy milk to supplement her body’s supply, and is worried about how she’ll afford it. Without the option to legally terminate their pregnancies, if they wanted to, or any real accountability from the government or the drug companies, the women, represented by the Chilean sexual and reproductive rights group Corporación Miles, are preparing to file a class action lawsuit in the civil courts. In a region where barriers to women’s reproductive rights are the norm, CNN has identified a government health agency quick to shift the blame to these women, as well as a history of poor production quality and previous issues relating to oral contraceptives in Grünenthal’s Chilean factory — its gateway to Latin America. Tabita Rojas’ story In March 2020, after discovering an ovarian cyst her physician worried could have been caused by her contraceptive implant, Rojas’s doctor at her local health clinic advised she take the pill instead, prescribing Anulette CD. Rojas didn’t give the switch much thought; she had taken oral contraceptives before and agreed it made sense for her health. Plus, after giving up her place on a forensic criminology program at 17 because she’d gotten pregnant, the now 29-year-old was once again excited about her future. “I had to put all that aside and dedicate myself to my son,” said Rojas, who had a second child two years later, and provides for her family by doing seasonal work at a grape packing plant. By early 2020, however, things were changing. Her children — boys now aged 11 and 9 years old, both with learning difficulties — were more independent, and were spending more time with their father. As part of a government urbanization in her hometown Copiapó, Rojas had been given a small piece of land on which to build a house. She had been saving up money and planned to move out of the home she and her children had been sharing with three other family members. And, she was in love. Early on in the relationship, Rojas and her boyfriend had decided not to have children together. “It was going to be impossible to provide for someone else,” she said. But in September 2020, just five months after Rojas began taking Anulette, she found out she was pregnant again. She would later learn, after seeing it posted on Facebook, that her tablets were from a batch that had been recalled by Chile’s public health authority, the Instituto de Salud Pública de Chile (ISP) the month before. “I was about to finish the second [box of three prescribed] when I found out about the problem,” she said. By then she was already six weeks pregnant. On February 21, 2021, Chile’s health authority wrote Tabita Rojas in response to her questions about the Anulette CD controversy. (R) The ISP’s August 24, 2020 alert recalling the first batch of defective Anulette pills. Source: Tabita Rojas, ISP Rojas’ neo-natal ultrasound in September 2020 revealed she was approximately 6 weeks pregnant. Source: Tabita Rojas The blister packs of the Anulette CD birth control pills Rojas had taken for nearly three months before finding out they had been recalled in August 2020. Source: Tabita Rojas ‘I was never happy with this pregnancy’ The details may differ but similar scenarios have been playing out across Chile. A mother of four, González, who had been on Anulette for eight months, got pregnant for the fifth time in May 2020. She tells CNN that she took her contraceptive “religiously every morning,” before adding: “Because we women set an alarm for those kinds of pills.” The news devastated her. Her personal life was complicated and her finances extremely limited after she lost the market stall where she sold second-hand clothes. “I was never happy with this pregnancy,” González said. “If you only knew all the nights I spent crying thinking that I didn’t want to [have the baby]. I had no options.” Alluding to Chile’s strict abortion laws that forbid a woman from terminating a pregnancy except for three reasons (if the pregnancy is a result of rape, if the fetus is incompatible with life outside the womb, or if a woman’s life is at risk), González spoke about her upset and how she tried to conceal her growing tummy. “I hid the pregnancy for a long time, so that they wouldn’t ask me: ‘Hey, another child, and whose is it, because you are no longer with your husband’ — and having to explain that we were separated. It was already a complicated situation for me, let alone to go around telling everyone.” Anulette CD is a 28-day combined oral contraceptive — one of the most common forms of birth control. It contains synthetic versions of the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which are produced naturally by the ovaries. The hormones work to prevent ovulation — meaning no egg is released by the ovaries — as well as thicken the lining of the cervix to make it harder for sperm to pass through. The pill also makes the lining of the uterus thinner so that if an egg is fertilized it cannot implant and begin to grow. Pill regimens typically involve taking 21 “active” pills that contain the hormones and seven “non-active” or “placebo” pills, to maintain a daily routine, during which time a person bleeds. How the contraceptive pill works The menstrual cycle is the process by which the body prepares for pregnancy every month. Controlled by multiple hormones, including estrogen and progesterone, it is the time between the first day of a period and the day before the next period begins. On average the cycle lasts 28 days, but this can vary. The cycle involves ovulation, where an egg is released from one of the ovaries. Pregnancy happens when sperm enters a vagina, travels through the cervix and uterus (womb) to the fallopian tubes and fertilizes a released egg. Once fertilized, the egg starts to grow, traveling to and implanting itself into the lining of the uterus. When an egg isn’t fertilised and pregnancy doesn’t happen, the egg is reabsorbed into the body and the thickened lining of the uterus sheds and exits the vagina as a period. Birth control pills work by controlling the menstrual cycle, to prevent pregnancy. There are many different types of birth control pill but one of the most common is the 28-day combined oral contraceptive. With these, you take one pill every day, at the same time, for 28 days. The first 21 pills are active, as they contain artificial versions of estrogen and progesterone. The remaining seven pills in the packet are inactive pills that contain no hormones, often referred to as “sugar pills” or “placebos.” The 21 active pills prevent ovulation, meaning that no egg will be released from the ovaries. They also help to prevent pregnancy by thickening the mucus around the entrance to the womb, making it harder for sperm to enter and reach an egg, and by making the lining of the uterus thinner, so if an egg is fertilised there is less chance of it implanting into the women and being able to grow. In the case of the women in Chile – the pills that they were provided were defective according to the ISP. In one batch, the placebo (a blue pill) had been found where the active pills (a yellow pill) should have been, and vice versa. In another batch there were missing and crushed pills. Users say these instances resulted in unwanted pregnancies. Source: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Healthline, Planned Parenthood, UK National Health Service (NHS) The first batch — 139,160 packs of Anulette pills, according to its manufacturer — were recalled on August 24, 2020 after healthcare workers at a rural healthcare clinic complained that they had identified 6 packets of defective pills. In them — based on information from the ISP — the placebo (a blue pill) had been found where the active pills (a yellow pill) should have been, and vice versa. In its online notice, published on August 29, the ISP said that the makers of Anulette CD, a company called Laboratorios Silesia S.A. (Silesia), had been made aware and were withdrawing the defective lot. The ISP then advised health centers to quarantine any packets they had from the affected batches. Then, a tweet was sent from the ISP account alerting its followers to the recall. But without a nationwide campaign to more directly inform the public, the recall went largely unnoticed. A week after the first recall, on September 3, the same error was detected in 6 packets from a different batch at a clinic in Santiago. Here, tablets were also missing, but others were crushed, according to the ISP. By the time the problems were flagged, Silesia said it had already distributed 137,730 packs to health centers. This time the ISP said it would be suspending Silesia’s registration until the laboratory was able to improve its quality and production processes. But it was too little, too late. In total, according to the manufacturer’s own accounts, 276,890 packets of Anulette CD from the two defective lots — all with a January 2022 expiry date — had been distributed to family planning centers across Chile. Surprisingly, on September 8, less than a week after Silesia’s suspension, the ISP issued another document reversing its earlier decision. In the memo, which was uploaded to its website, the health authority said Anulette CD could once again be distributed. It claimed that the flaws in the packaging could be easily detected, and passed the responsibility of doing so, and of informing users of the service, onto healthcare workers. The Ministry of Health told CNN in an emailed statement that they informed the public health service “to inform users of this situation and take pertinent actions,” and said that they provided support and counseling for reproductive health workers to support “women who may have been affected by problems in the quality of contraceptives.” But Rojas said she was only informed by her local clinic about the defective pills after she went in for a prenatal checkup. And Rodriguez told CNN no one has contacted her. ISP director Heriberto Garcia defended the decision to put Anulette back on the market, saying in a video interview with CNN: “Just because it [one pack] belongs to the batch doesn’t mean it was bad.” “We expect that there are many more women with this problem, especially because the State has not claimed any responsibility.” Laura Dragnic, legal coordinator at Corporación Miles So, it was left to Chilean civil society to raise the alarm. The sexual and reproductive rights group, Miles, ran a social media campaign and used its networks to get the word out. “It was after [posting on Instagram] when we started receiving emails from people saying that they were already pregnant because they were consuming Anulette,” said Miles’ legal coordinator Laura Dragnic. By October 2020, some 40 women had gotten in touch. According to Miles, following multiple media appearances by its staff, another 70 women came forward. The number now stands at 170, but Dragnic expects it to grow as rural women or those without access to the internet or television are still to be reached. “We expect that there are many more women with this problem,” she said, “especially because the State has not claimed any responsibility and has not made any statements or any serious compromises [to the abortion rules] for the affected women.” Seven days after Dragnic spoke to CNN, and six months after the first recall, the health authorities announced that Anulette’s manufacturers had been charged a series of fines totalling approximately 66.5m Chilean pesos (approximately USD $92,000). Miles and their partners are calling for the government to pay financial reparations to the affected women, and to provide access to safe and legal abortions for those who wish to terminate their pregnancy. Multiple recalls at Grünenthal’s Santiago factory Grünenthal, in whose Santiago factory Anulette CD is manufactured, began operating in Chile in 1979. The privately-owned German pharmaceutical company, which reported a €340 million (US $405 million) profit in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, is best known for its product tramadol, an opiate pain killer, classified as a controlled substance in numerous countries. In 2017, the company increased its Chilean investments by opening what it called “Latin America’s most modern women’s health products plant” — a US $14.5m facility. While only a small part of Grünenthal’s portfolio, the investment was enough to place it among “the three biggest pharmaceutical companies in Chile.” But CNN has uncovered that production issues began soon after the factory opened, and have affected a range of oral contraceptives marketed not just by Silesia S.A. but also Grünenthal’s other Chilean subsidiary, Andrómaco. In 2018, Tinelle, a contraceptive pill from Silesia’s portfolio, was voluntarily taken off the market after a decision to switch the sequence of the active and placebo tablets (keeping the same numbers of each but placing them in a different order) which — by the Grunenthal spokesperson, Florian Dieckmann’s admission — “confused [patients] about the new sequence of the pills.” Dieckmann said that the pills were put back on the market after Silesia “further clarified the instruction on the aluminium foil on how to follow the right sequence of tablets.” Two further oral contraceptives, Minigest 15 and 20, manufactured by Andrómaco at the Grünenthal Chilean plant, were recalled in October 2020 after the public health authority, the ISP, said that they were found during stability testing to contain an insufficient amount of the active ingredient: the hormones. Grunenthal’s spokesperson said that at the time of packaging, the tablets had “the correct amount of active ingredient” in them, adding that the “tablets are exposed to excessive temperatures and humidity over the products entire shelf life under laboratory conditions” and that it is “unlikely that the tablets are exposed to these conditions for a long time in real world circumstances. Based on a Freedom of Information request by Miles, which CNN then followed up on, the production of Anulette CD has had the most problems, according to the ISP’s own records. Between August 6 and November 18, 2020, health clinics across Chile reported a wide range of issues with the pills including small holes found in the tablets; pills that had orange and black spots; wet and crushed tablets; and packaging that wouldn’t release the entire pill effectively, leaving trace amounts of the pill stuck inside. In total, the ISP received 26 different complaints about 15 different batches of Anulette pills, yet only 2 batches were recalled. “It is important to clarify that not all complaints of the products end in market recalls,” the ISP explained. “Those that are withdrawn…are those in which critical defects are detected and this was the case of the recalled batches.” Aside from publishing details of the above recalls on its website, the ISP allegedly did little else to notify women, and despite its apparent challenges, Grünenthal remains the Chilean government’s leading provider of oral contraceptives. According to the ISP, 382,871 women are prescribed Anulette CD, and between May 2019 and January 2020, Grünenthal secured at least US $2.2 million in contracts that CNN has seen. The Ministry of Health did not answer CNN’s written questions and declined an invitation to be interviewed. The blame game While no one is denying the production problems, Grünenthal, its Chilean subsidiaries and government representatives, all seem intent on shifting some of the blame away from the faulty packets of the pill and onto each other. Dieckmann explained that the company discovered that the problems stemmed from an issue on the production line issue which caused some pills to move during the packaging process. That led to some packages with “empty cavities, some tablets misplaced or crushed tablets,” he said but stressed that the efficacy of the contraceptive had not been compromised. The spokesperson also pointed out that combined oral contraceptives are not 100% effective. According to the World Health Organization, the combined oral contraceptive pill every year results in less than 1 pregnancy in every 100, “with consistent and correct use.” “So I think it’s important background, right?” Dieckmann said, noting that those statistics rise when the pill isn’t taken consistently or correctly. “I’m not trying to say that it’s the woman’s fault,” Dieckmann said, before adding that correct and consistent use was a “factor that I think we have to look at here.” “Women say, ‘I was on the pill, I still became pregnant — why is that?’ That’s what’s happened,” he said, referencing the statistics. The Grünenthal spokesperson told CNN that the company could not speak to their individual cases, as it has not been directly contacted by any of the affected women. Addressing the controversy on the Chilean public broadcaster in December 2020, Silesia’s medical director, Leonardo Lourtau, said in addition to the company being responsible for visually checking the packaging, health officials should have also done so and, “obviously, the people who take the medicine as well.” And Garcia of the ISP suggested it was important to look at how birth control efficacy might change when interacting in the body with other products, such as antibiotics, tobacco or alcohol. “I am not saying that she has drunk a lot of alcohol or that she is a smoker, but I am telling you the background.” Despite Garcia’s assertions, most reproductive health experts widely agree that there is no evidence to suggest that smoking diminishes the effectiveness of the pill; that alcohol will only do so if a person throws up soon after taking it; and that only one type of antibiotic, those based on rifampicin, can affect oral contraceptives. ‘Systemic failures’ Drug recalls are not unusual, but it is hard for those campaigning on behalf of the women not to perceive an injustice here: Grünenthal continues to see its factory as the key to reaching 168 million women in Latin America, while the women who take its products have to remain vigilant or risk pregnancy. The risk is heightened, reproductive rights groups say, by the fact that these women, already poor and marginalized, can’t count on the robust support of the government should the undesired happen. Paula Avila Guillen, Executive Director at the New York Women’s Equality Center, a not-for-profit that advocates for and monitors reproductive rights in Latin America, told CNN that if the recall was about bad meat, the entire country would have known immediately, and the product immediately taken off the market. “But when it comes to women and reproductive health, they just don’t care,” she lamented. And so, Miles and its partners, writing to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and to the United Nations, have called the situation “a clear situation of systemic discrimination against women.” Meanwhile, back in Copiapó, at 38 weeks pregnant, Rojas has now accepted her fate. She will once again have to put aside her dreams for the future of her child, another baby boy. They’ll name him Fernando. Read more from the As Equals series Edited by Eliza Anyangwe. Additional editing by Meera Senthilingam and Henrik Pettersson. Animation by Melody Shih and Jeffrey Hsu Web, and development by Marco Chacon. Source link Orbem News #Birth #Chiles #Control #distributed #Faulty #Government #People #pills #Pregnant

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onlineindus1 · 3 years

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New York: 23, November, 2019: Tesla Inc’s launch of its futuristic Cybertruck pickup suffered a setback when its “armoured glass” windows shattered but it was the overall look of the car that worried Wall Street, sending the company’s shares down more than 6%.

In the much-anticipated unveiling to cheering fans late on Thursday, Tesla boss Elon Musk had taken aim at the design, power and durability of mainstream trucks, only to be shaken when his boast about his new vehicle’s windows backfired.

“Oh my fucking God, well, maybe that was a little too hard,” Musk said, when his head of design, Franz von Holzhausen, cracked the driver’s side window with a metal ball in a series of pre-planned tests for the crowd.

He allowed von Holzhausen another throw to the rear passenger window, only to see that crack as well.

“It didn’t go through, so that’s a plus side,” Musk said, adding: “Room for improvement”.

The truck is the first foray by Tesla, whose Model 3 sedan is the world’s top-selling battery electric car, into pickup trucks, America’s most popular vehicles and a potentially huge new market as it strives to generate sustainable profits.

Musk singled out Ford’s top-selling F-150 for comparison to highlight the capabilities of the Cybertruck, showing an edited video of the two vehicles in a back-to-back “tug-of-war” in which the Tesla truck wins.

Some Wall Street analysts praised the launch on Friday but others doubted the futuristic design’s mass appeal and shares in the electric car-maker were last down 6.5% at $331.98.

Ford shares rose around 1%. “Musk has been enthusiastic about his Blade Runner inspired design for months, but we were still surprised how futuristic he went with this one and believe it may shatter his dreams,” Cowen analysts wrote in a note.

“While we are pleased to see Tesla enter the most profitable segment of the North American passenger car market, we do not see this vehicle in its current form being a success.”

“UGLY”

Critics online also made fun of the space-craft style look.

“I wish Elon Musk hadn’t blocked me on Twitter after I said his Mars colonization idea was dumb, so I could tell him how ugly his new #Cybertruck is,” author @MarkDice, who has 1.5 million YouTube followers, tweeted.

“Just make a normal truck,” added another user. With a starting price of $39,900, the Cybertruck takes aim at the heart of Detroit automakers’ profits, while drawing familiar support from Tesla watchers online.

“Yes, it looks like a retro version of the future. It’s supposed to.

The incredibly simple body lines will lead to incredibly simple manufacturing, while keeping the focus on its performance,” said @AElchamaa “Electric powertrains are not cheap, but this truck is giving you a lot of it for its money.”

To show off the robust design of the new pickup, Musk asked von Holzhausen to take a sledgehammer to the side of the vehicle, whose exterior will be made from the same stainless steel used in the Starship rocket developed by Musk’s SpaceX aerospace company.

The crowd cheered when the hammer bounced off the surface without leaving a mark.

But the supposedly tough windows shattered with just one hit.

“Never demonstrate something in a live audience, that you haven’t tried repeatedly backstage,” wrote another Twitter user. 002

#OnlineindusPakistan English newsPakistan Breaking newsPakistan Latest newsPakistan Update news World newsToday World newsToday Pakistan news

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un-enfant-immature · 4 years

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The Mustang Mach-E is the exciting shape of the electric future

Ford just unveiled its first EV and it’s stunning. Called the Mustang Mach-E it appears to get a lot of things right. From the branding to little surprises, the Mustang Mach-E looks to be a hit.

“We knew we had to do something different and something exciting and something only Ford could do,” Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford North America said at a press event prior to the Sunday unveiling. I think she’s right. The Mustang Mach-E is the ideal shape of the mass-produced electric future. Henry Ford would be proud. This is an electric car for the masses.

It’s a Mustang

It starts with branding. I hate it. The car guy in me is sad that a Mustang will soon be available in a four-door version. And electric. And lifted. That’s not a Mustang, I want to say. A Mustang is a sports car. And yet a Mustang is an affordable, reliable vehicle, and that’s exactly why Ford is calling its first EV a Mustang.

Branding is critical for the electric future. Ford is using an established brand that resonates with buyers. Look for this again and again as car companies unveil an electric version of current and past vehicles. An electric Ford F-150 and an electric Jeep Cherokee.

Instead of inventing a new model line, like Chevy tried to do with the Bolt, companies will look to convert familiar models to electric. The switch should make for more comfortable transitions. With the Chevy Bolt, consumers understand it is electric but are still left with new questions. How does the driver sit in a Bolt? Is a Bolt a low-end model? What will the resell value of a Bolt be in 3 years. With an established model, say a Chevy Cruze, Buick Regal, or BMW 3 series, a lot of the questions are more easily answered. Consumers are familiar with the branding and the meaning behind the model.

With the Mustang Mach-e, ford is addressing many questions with just the name. The Mach-e will be fast (it is), it will be smallish (it’s a small crossover), and it will be competitively priced (at $40,000 it is).

For example, other companies like jeep, Honda, and Subaru will likely follow the same scheme. It’s easier for the consumer to rehash current brands. An electric Jeep Charake would be a capable, mid-range vehicle with a tall ride height, sophisticated all-wheel drive system, and seating for five. An electric Honda Civic would be a small, affordable car while an electric Subaru Impreza would offer an electric powertrain on a car-based AWD platform.

Likewise, unnecessary questions arise if Jeep or Honda or any other car company bring an EV to market under a new name.

There risk in using a legacy name. It can be offensive to die-hard and vocal enthusiasts. Ford is getting backlash with the Mach-e name. I find it offensive on a car guy level. That’s not a mustang, I want to yell. Taking a step back, it’s easy to see Ford’s justification.

Chevrolet rereleased the Blazer last year and experienced a similar revolt. A blazer is supposed to be a beefy off-roader and not the small, sporty crossover of the current version.

The Mustang brand is arguably one of the most valuable Ford assets. It’s been around for more than 50 years. Car companies invest fortunes in building and marketing brands and models. It often takes generations to get consumer buy-in, and at that point, car companies treat them with careful consideration. With the Mustang Mach-E, Ford must have abundant data that shows a projected success.

The simple interior

The Mustang Mach-E follows the Tesla Model 3 design language: Big screen in the middle and not much else. The Mach-E builds on the Model 3 to make it a bit more palatable by including an LCD screen in front of the driver. The Bolt did this, too, but the Chevy didn’t go far enough. With the Mach-E and the Model 3, Ford and Tesla are utilizing smart manufacturing techniques, which will likely be replicated across the automotive industry — for better or worse.

Each car maker manufacturers switches and dials and screens that are installed throughout its models. A part bin, in car lingo. Often, switches are shared between brands. A switch in Audi could find its way into a Lambo as both brands are in the VW family. This is done to reduce costs. Why make a different window switch for each brand when a window switch is a window switch?

The Model 3 and the Mach-E do not have any physical buttons in their center stacks. A massive screen handles climate control, media playback, and more. Instead of making and installing gobs of little switches, Ford, Tesla, and other automakers are using a single screen to do the same functions. This makes scaling across brands and markets easier. Suddenly, without buttons, car companies can reduce the number of parts, working hours, and troubleshooting to a single device. This also makes building a car for different markets easier. Instead of building physical in a different language or for driving on the other side of the road, car companies need to rejigger the software.

This single-screen setup needs the right software, and the Mach-E is the first to demonstrate Ford’s Sync 4 system. It looks great to me with persistent controls for climate and a logical layout. Is it functional? I haven’t used it yet.

Thankfully, there’s still one physical knob: volume control. Volume should always be controlled by a spinning knob instead of a sliding bar. Always.

These screens offer car companies to integrate branding into the vehicles further. Expect Lincoln models to use similar software but with a different design scheme from Ford models. Likewise, Acura software will be similar to Honda’s but with a more sporty, upscale feel.

The little surprises

The Mach-E has several surprises, and that’s thanks to the electric platform.

The majority of the vehicles on the market right now run electric systems based on a decades-old system. It’s limiting though carmakers are pushing it as far as it can go. The move to electric opens countless opportunities to designers and engineers. Features and details that were fantasy are now possible.

The Mach-E doesn’t have traditional door handles. Instead, it has small buttons that release the doors. What happens when the battery dies? For the most part, that’s highly unlikely as the Mach-E’s electrical system doesn’t rely on a traditional battery and alternator.

The Mach-E has a front-based storage area — a frunk if you will. These are standard features on most electric vehicles. Ford did something novel, though, and made the Mach-E’s out of plastic and added a drain plug. This lets owners pack it full of ice and store drinks in the frunk.

With electric vehicles, carmakers can open their playbooks and implement brand-specific features. Jeeps should get more Jeep-ie. Lexus models should be able to stand apart from their Toyota counterparts and so on. The electric platforms are fundamentally more simple than internal combustion systems freeing engineers and designers to be more creative with creature comforts.

The downside of these new features based around a new platform will come in a couple of years when repairs have to be made. It’s unlikely that most owners will be able to diagnose and fix systems like current vehicles. Instead, owners will have to rely on auto repair service centers that will look more like IT shops than garages.

Right now, this is an issue I have with my aging Chevy Volt. I live in Michigan, where the Volt was designed and built. I take it to one of the largest Chevy dealerships in the country for service, where there is only one technician certified to work on the vehicle. Repairs take much longer than I would like, and this issue will likely compound as more complex vehicles come to market. Vehicle techs will have to be retrained, and lower-cost third-party service centers will likely lag behind expensive dealerships.

It’s an electric future

The Mustang Mach-E is an EV done right. Ford took lessons from Tesla, Chevy, and others with its first mass-produced electric vehicles. The Mach-E naming is unconventional at first glance, yet a closer look reveals its logic. The interior is exciting and yet scalable, and the model is full of surprises that will delight and could frustrate owners.

Eventually, the automotive landscape will be filled with similar models to the Mach-E: recycled branding, higher-ride height, and unique features around simple interiors.

It’s been said that the move to electric will produce stale, lookalike vehicles. That’s likely the short-term result as carmakers look to capitalize on familiar shapes and brands to get consumers onboard. Once consumers are comfortable with electric, that’s when the real fun begins. Expect the next generation of the Mustang Mach-E to be something more worthy of the Mustang name.

#TechCrunch

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adriansmithcarslove · 6 years

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E-Bike Maker Sondors Plans Stylish $10,000 Three-Wheeled EV

Storm Sondors doesn’t like driving.

And yet he’s behind an ambitious project to build a $10,000 electric car through a company bearing his name. During Sondors Electric Car Company’s inaugural press conference at the Los Angeles auto show—just outside the exhibition hall in a space that had formerly been occupied by troubled Elio Motors—the CEO expressed his sentiments about driving and didn’t mince words about how he feels about the automotive industry as a whole. “I hate industries; I hate tradition,” he declared, at an event that’s very much an industry tradition.

If you don’t think his approach will get the company very far, well, it has worked in the past. Sondors is a crowdfunding success story; he launched a successful electric-bicycle company after, he claims, raising $12 million via Kickstarter and Indiegogo. It is now one of the largest e-bike makers in the United States, stating it has sold more than 30,000 of its electrified fat-tire bikes here and in 40 other countries.

As with his e-bikes, in a plan typical of automotive startups, he’s hoping to deliver cars directly to customers without traditional dealerships. Sondors also said the company is looking for customers who have a DIY mindset: The car is being engineered so that owners will be able to do the vast majority of fixes themselves using a simple kit of seven tools—a useful skill given the lack of dealership service. (The company will be able to do remote diagnostics for powertrain issues.)

Sondors’s car is perhaps the best-looking of the current batch of three-wheeled vehicles that take advantage of a federal loophole classifying them effectively (in most states) as motorcycles. That includes the Polaris Slingshot, the Elio E1, the Electra Meccanica Solo, the Arcimoto FUV, and even the Toyota i-Road. “Electric has to look cool. It can’t go cheap, it can’t look cheesy, it can’t look goofy,” Sondors said.

From Happy Meals to (Fast) Trikes

Sondors said his design background is part of what compelled him to make the car. His success with the e-bike and a desire to make electric transportation available to the masses were other considerations. Prior to e-bikes, the Latvia-born Sondors designed radio-controlled vehicles and at one point designed McDonald’s Happy Meal toys. “A lot of people don’t know that McDonald’s is the largest toy company in the world,” he pointed out.

The toy work taught him how to take something very complex and break it down into something simpler and separate out the gimmicks, Sondors said. “When I look around here [gesturing out to the show floor], it’s all gimmicks.”

Sondors said he has tried hard to omit the gimmicks and to use off-the-shelf components wherever possible. The car will use 3500-milliamp-hour (mAh) Panasonic cells in the 18650 format—just as in the Tesla Model S and Model X—with versions differing in capacity for a 75-, 150-, or 200-mile driving range. He said design work was done through Italy’s Torino Design, and U.K. company Protean Electric provided the PD18 in-wheel motor (because he’s familiar with them via e-bikes). About 150 people have worked on specific tasks for the car, but the company has just 10 employees in Santa Monica, Sondors told us.

The company plans to take the same approach with production and is looking at a company in Italy for the initial round of production but may end up keeping it local in California for the first 1000 to 2000 units, according to Sondors.

Fun, Even If You Don’t Like Driving?

Sondors sounded passionate about his car, despite his professed aversion to driving. Which may be why Sondors seemed downright apologetic about one point: “It still has a steering wheel; hopefully sooner or later we can lose that, because I hate driving,” he said. “The faster we get to autonomous the better.”

-He has an offbeat plan for that, too. With so many suppliers and automakers doing the same development simultaneously, he predicted that the costs of plug-and-play sensors, actuators, and components are going to come down fast, especially for a trike that may only need to use some of the passenger-car system.

The current driving prototype cost about $1 million to build, Sondors said. The next step for the company, after its current $2 million fundraising to build a production-bound prototype, will be a $20 million push for tooling and production.

The more time you spend around Sondors, the more he impresses as the polar opposite of Paul Elio, who has taken his company on a very different route to create an affordable, efficient three-wheeled quasi-car. Sonders sees his outsider status as a badge of authenticity, while Elio wants to be taken seriously by the automotive establishment. However, even with the relatively easier regulatory path that Sondors faces with a three-wheeled vehicle, the founder’s belief that he can merely upsize some of the decisions made for his $500 e-bikes can sound more than a little naive.

Elio Motors: The Single-Doored, 84-MPG Three-Wheeler That Could?

First Drive: Polaris Slingshot Three-Wheeler

The 10 Cheapest New Cars of 2017

While Elio’s gasoline-powered project started back in 2009, Sondors plans to deliver his electric trike in just three years. It’s possible he’ll make it happen—if he stays interested, and if you care to pitch in for the cause.

- via RSSMix.com Mix ID 8134279 http://ift.tt/2DUrQWR

#IFTTT #RSSMix.com Mix ID 8134279

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years

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I'VE BEEN PONDERING PAINTERS

Thanks to Sam Altman, Trevor Blackwell, Paul Buchheit, Jessica Livingston, and Robert Morris for reading drafts of this. When someone buys shares in a company with benevolent aims is currently undervalued, because the arrival of TV the golden age of the founders. And what this means is that it has today. If you want to do is remove the marble that isn't part of it—you have to work quite closely with them for three months outweighs the inconvenience of signing an NDA. I say the raison d'etre of all these institutions has been the lesson for me: be careful what you ask for it. Html and javascript, of each message in each corpus. Structurally the idea is probably bad. I have a nice edition of his collected works. I think there will increasingly be de facto series B rounds. You have certain mental gestures you've learned in your work, and when you're not used to competitors you magnify them into monsters. Replace Universities People are all over this idea lately, and I can't predict which lies future generations will laugh at is to start a startup, and I'll be rich. This won't be a change, because the mafia too are not merely blurry versions of great ones.

And certainly the founders of Google to do. It's the same with other high-beta vocations, like being an actor or a novelist. It's demoralizing to be on it, or by the number of startups that need less than they cost. In ancient Rome the price of a startup happens before they want that they couldn't do. This must have affected what they aggregate. In a desktop software company that had over 100 people working in it. All they knew at first. And indeed, probably also the 11% most susceptible to charisma. Investors don't like trying to convince someone by shouting at them. Startup is a pole, not a point, and it's combined with the emotion Really, it's Apple's fault. Google.

Thanks to Sam Altman, Paul Buchheit, Hutch Fishman, and Robert Morris for reading drafts of this. I didn't get enough done. They got in fights and played tricks on one another. They have the same inexpensive Intel processors that you have in your head at once. When I was five I thought electricity was created by Microsoft in the late 90s was that they didn't have room. So I think you want to know the answer. Refutation. If you don't know when to stop searching too early. Just fix things that seem to be plenty of examples to confirm that.

Graduate students might understand it. Rounds Whatever the outcome, the conflict between the manager's schedule, they're in a position to see this idea; thousands of programmers knew how painful it was to source good screws. Right now, VCs often knowingly invest too much money is not as great as in any other kind of work is, and that's much harder. Though the way that happens won't necessarily be that the most famous example is Google, which affects practically everyone. One consequence is that the founders manually signed them up for traditional merchant accounts behind the scenes. I haven't tried that yet. The most obvious advantage of classifying the forms of technological progress that produced these things are subject to both. If you combine these numbers according to Bayes' Rule, equally unambiguous, says that an email containing both words would, in the sense of getting credit for what she has done, she doesn't like getting attention in the sense that hackers and painters are both makers, and this question is to look at what they try to prevent you from seeing them.

Within a year you'll have 14,000 users, and they all basically said Cambridge followed by a long pause while they tried to be the most dangerous forms of procrastination are those that have it as a tautology. You know you're going to start a company that made programmers wear suits would have something deeply wrong with it. They go out for dinner together, talk over ideas, and that's why merely reading books doesn't quite feel like work. And as for the disputation, that seems strictly better. Something comes over most people when they start paying you specifically for that attentiveness—when they were only a couple hundred lines of code. Imagine waking up after such an operation. In the real world is, so they'll understand how lucky they are to say it. Most people like to turn the tables on you. 94% of the top handful in the world. But another kind of investor you simply cannot replace: the startups' founders and early employees of startups, which is the worst sort of strip development. Designing algorithms for routing data through networks, for example.

I mean things that go behind whatever semantic facade the language is trying to stop doing. Another reason it was profitable to carve up 1980s companies and sell them for parts was that they didn't want to waste people's time telling them things they already believe, and once a hypothesis starts to be important. Institutional investors have people in charge of sales was so tenacious that I used to write. But it's particularly hard for hackers to create their product for them. If the average deal size was $1 million, then the team. But most of the twentieth century was just a project. In fact, you don't have a big brand advantage over the super-angels. Adults care just as much. Notes These horrible stickers are much like the intrusive ads popular on pre-Google search engines. Most people could see how it turns out that was all we knew. So you will not, as of this writing, Cambridge seems to be a no man's land between angels and VCs is the amount of wealth in a couple years before starting your own company, which costs a couple thousand people each. If you have an idea for something; they build it; and then the more appropriate models get figured out.

To make grading efficient, everyone has to solve two simultaneous equations, trying to force them to act. I would have been worth at least $150 million in 1970. Neither of us had ever even had what you would call a real job. And what's especially dangerous is that it's up to you to decide; software has to work on boring stuff. What a Job Is In industrialized countries we walk down steps our whole lives and never think about this. We were after the C programmers. What groups are powerful but nervous, and what to do in the new world we'll have in a hundred years will have to be careful here to distinguish between selecting a link and following it; all you'd need to know how to see it. But as the company grows older the question switches polarity.

Growing slower might be slightly dangerous, but chances are it will be if it were. And if you want to go work for an existing company for a few months before they die where although they have a deal. Thanks: to Jessica Livingston and Robert Morris for reading drafts of this. An essay is not a zero-sum game. And when there's no installation, you don't want their money, is at the level of vitriol in this debate, and she shrank from engaging. Or better still, if there's a town young people already flock to, that one. What other alternative is there? The median startup coming out of Demo Day wanted to raise. I sometimes ban it, which probably doesn't help. Knowledge Aristotle's goal was to grow as large as Digg or Reddit—mainly because that would dilute the character of the thoughts of parents with a new from-address doesn't guarantee that the sender is writing to you for the first time during the Bubble all I have to think Why bother? They lived in houses full of servants, wore elaborately uncomfortable clothes, and travelled about in carriages drawn by teams of horses which themselves required their own houses and servants. I could do was write and program.

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michaelfallcon · 4 years

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A Very Special Holiday Gift Guide From The Founders Of Sprudge

Our celebration of the holiday season continues here on Sprudge. First, we brought you our annual Sprudge Holiday Gift Guide, a curated selection of gift-giving ideas for the coffee lover in your life. Now we’re bringing you something a little more personal—a Founders Guide, created exclusively for Sprudge by co-founders Jordan Michelman and Zachary Carlsen. This guide reflects how we make coffee at home, and the products we’re really loving as coffee drinkers during the holidays. Happy slurping!

Hario Scale

The first item on my Christmas gift list is a simple Hario brewing scale. Coming in at just around $40 it’s a blush less expensive than the more advanced Acaia Pearl recommended in the Sprudge Holiday Gift Guide. It’s the perfect gift for someone in your life that wants to up their coffee game without diving too deep. It’s also just a simple, dependable piece of equipment. It turns on, it has a timer, and it weighs coffee/pour-over/my smoothie ingredients. — ZC

Baratza Encore

Another time-tested piece of equipment coming in at under $150 ($130 on Amazon last time I checked) for someone in your life that might still—gasp—grind their beans at the grocery store or use a—clutches pearls—blade grinder. The Baratza family of grinders range from the entry-level like the Encore to the pro-sumer level like the Baratza Forte W. We think the Encore is a great little grinder for those who maybe make a big pot in the morning and a little pick me up in the afternoon. —ZC

Kaffe Box subscription

Coffee subscriptions are nothing new, of course, and the market has gone through several phases: from fresh-faced new concept to same-y clutteredness to today’s stratified milieu, in which a couple of the best, most interesting services are able to rise to the top. Over in our Staff Guide, we recommended Yes Plz Weekly, a subscription service from Los Angeles that delivers a very accessible filter coffee and an alt-weekly style zine to your door each week. (I’ve written a couple of things for the zine.) This year I’ve also fallen deep in love with another subscription, this time from Europe, called Kaffe Box—a monthly rotating selection of roasters with a focus on Scandinavia.

Yes, the light roast Scandivanian coffee craze feels very Twenty-Teens, and yes, I agree, a lot of American roasters who tried to imitate it over the last decade wound up with a lot of undrinkable, ghastly product. But in the right hands, a lighter roast profile can, I assure you, yield a cup with expressive, fruity, tea-like notes, which isn’t what I want to drink every single time I have a coffee, but can be delightful from time to time when done well. This shouldn’t be a controversial opinion. Different styles of roasting are fine. Don’t yuck my yum.

Over the last year, I’ve got to try Kaffe Box offerings from some really interesting Nordic micro-roasters, whose stuff I cannot otherwise regularly enjoy here in America. Being able to drink through a bag of Jacu, or Langora, or Morgon Coffee Roasters is interesting and fun. Kaffe Box’s packaging always shows up clean and crisp; the bags are never damaged by the journey, and the coffee is always rippingly fresh, impressive for having been shipped from literally the other side of the world. This is my special treat coffee and I love it. JM

Fellow Stagg Gooseneck Copper Kettle

I use this kettle every morning and not a day goes by that I don’t admire it. Fellow released this in 2016 and since then have released different versions that have spouts better suited for tea, plug-in kinds for those that don’t wanna use their stovetop, and all manners of colors and finishes. But the shiny copper stovetop kettle is my favorite. Get it for around $100 on Amazon. ZC

Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

I’ve never met an automated tea brewer that I didn’t like. The Breville Smart Tea Maker has been a staple in my kitchen for over six years. You see, what I do is, I take big chunks of ginger, I cram it in the tea-hole, and then I set it to brew for ten minutes at a boil. By the time I’ve forgotten, I started this spicy tisane the dang thing is beeping at me telling me my perfectly steeped ginger brew is ready to glug. On days that I’m not gobbling root, I’m making delicate oolongs steeped at precisely one minute at just the right temperature. This is a tea toy for tea lovers and I’m living for it. ZC

White 2 Tea subscription

I love a good, weird subscription and I love good, weird tea. We talked a bunch about the Kunming, China-based brand White 2 Tea here on Sprudge during Tea Week 2019, and in the months since I’ve come to really appreciate the monthly delivery of White 2 Tea’s tea club offerings.

Each and every month is totally different: sometimes it’s an entire fresh (or “sheng”) pu ‘er tea cake ready to be drunk; other times it’ll be a handful of little oolong parcels, or 50 grams of nice green tea, or a little pressed brick of cooked (or “shou”) pu’erh to be picked at and enjoyed over the course of a month. Each month’s club comes with a little note written by the mysterious White 2 Tea brain trust, which includes info on the tea and recommended steeping instructions. The club feels fun and seasonal, and like I’m getting a really good value for my money (it’s $29.99 a month), and you can commune with fellow tea nerds on Instagram because trust me, they all follow White 2 Tea and will be sharing images of their club arrivals.

Tea is good, this we know. The White 2 Tea club is one of my favorite ways to enjoy it throughout the year. JM

KeepCups

The colorful reusables from KeepCup have been a perfect stocking stuffer for years and in 2019 they’ve introduced a whole new line of stainless steel cups. Available in six different colors and finishes, the stainless steel cups are sure to be a crowd-pleaser. For Star Wars fans in your galaxy, the folks at KeepCup have adorable R2D2, Chewbacca, Stormtrooper, and Darth Vader themed cups. ZC

Hype mugs

I spent a lot of time this year thinking about clothes, for reasons both work–related and personal, but along the way I’ve been surprised to see how much overlap there is with the world of coffee. Earlier this year we brought you a story about coffee and sneakers, but it turns out there’s a whole world of coffee + contemporary streetwear fashion collaboration, most especially in the realm of promotional mugs. Brands like Supreme, Patta, A Bathing Ape, Kith, Palace, Only NY, Aimé Leon Dore, Human Made, Stussy, and many more are producing fashion-forward, eye-catching mugs that look great both at home or in a nice cafe. It seems like pretty much every good brand has a mug, or has done one in the past; a lot of times these are in-store-only pick-ups, which rewards checking out physical retail locations wherever you might be.

If your favorite local cafe is run by sneakerheads, or someone on your list has recently used the term “drop” as a clothing-related transitive verb in casual conversation, these mugs make a truly delightful holiday gift. — JM

A Meaningful Donation

There are so many great charities worth donating to this year. One in particular we’re fond of is @getchusomegear, a Durham, NC based organization whose mission is “hookin’ up marginalized baristas w/free coffee stuff.” The org, created by Chris McAuley, works with baristas just getting started in the industry or looking for a leg up to access equipment and information. Both companies and individual donors are welcome to contribute to the project—you can reach out by emailing [email protected] and get involved this holiday season. JM + ZC

Jordan Michelman and Zachary Carlsen are the co-founders at Sprudge Media Network, and the authors of The New Rules of Coffee: A Modern Guide for Everyone out now on Ten Speed Press.

The post A Very Special Holiday Gift Guide From The Founders Of Sprudge appeared first on Sprudge.

A Very Special Holiday Gift Guide From The Founders Of Sprudge published first on https://medium.com/@LinLinCoffee

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shebreathesslowly · 4 years

Text

A Very Special Holiday Gift Guide From The Founders Of Sprudge

Hario Scale

Baratza Encore

Kaffe Box subscription

Fellow Stagg Gooseneck Copper Kettle

Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

White 2 Tea subscription

Tea is good, this we know. The White 2 Tea club is one of my favorite ways to enjoy it throughout the year. JM

KeepCups

Hype mugs

A Meaningful Donation

Jordan Michelman and Zachary Carlsen are the co-founders at Sprudge Media Network, and the authors of The New Rules of Coffee: A Modern Guide for Everyone out now on Ten Speed Press.

The post A Very Special Holiday Gift Guide From The Founders Of Sprudge appeared first on Sprudge.

from Sprudge https://ift.tt/38c7VCz

#Sprudge

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kansascityhappenings · 4 years

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Tesla reveals Cybertruck, but breaks its ‘unbreakable’ windows during unveiling

https://newsource-embed-prd.ns.cnn.com/videos/newsource-video-embed.js

HAWTHORNE, Calif. — The Cybertruck has arrived and it looks nothing like any pickup truck you’ve ever seen.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed the long-awaited electric pickup truck at its Design Studio in California, just outside Los Angeles.

When the truck initially drove onto the stage, many in the crowd clearly couldn’t believe that this was actually the vehicle they’d come to see. The Cybertruck looks like a large metal trapezoid on wheels, more like an art piece than a truck.

Instead of a distinctly separate cab and bed, the body appears to be a single form. The exterior is made from a newly developed stainless steel alloy, the same metal that’s used for SpaceX rockets, Musk said. That alloy enables the car to be “literally bulletproof” against at least smaller firearms, including 9-millimeter handguns, Musk said.

A man with a sledgehammer hit the sides of the truck without damaging it. But a demonstration of the truck’s supposedly unbreakable metal glass windows backfired when a metal ball thrown at the windows did, in fact, break them.

“But it didn’t go through,” Musk sheepishly pointed out.

Incredible power at an incredible price

Musk has made striking claims about the truck’s capabilities. Among them, he has said the Cybertruck would be more capable, in terms of towing and hauling, than a Ford F-150, and it would perform as a better sports car than a Porsche 911.

The most expensive version of the truck, the Tri Motor All-Wheel-Drive, will be able to carry 3,500 pounds, tow up to 14,000 pounds and go from zero to 60 in 2.9 seconds. It will also be able to drive up to 500 miles on a full charge. Base models will have a range of 250 miles.

In addition to being able to carry cargo in its bed, the truck will have lockable storage spaces under the hood and in the sides. The bed itself also has a sliding cover. Drivers will also be able to adjust the ride height of the truck, for when they are on the highway or off-road, using an adaptive air suspension system.

Another eye-catching feature of the truck is its price. The base version of the truck will start at $39,900. That’s only about $10,000 more than the price of a base model Ford F-150, which starts at about $30,000. But it would compete well with the cost of a nicely equipped F-150. An F-150 Lariat Super Cab, for instance, starts at about $44,000.

Prices for the top end Tri Motor AWD version of the Cybertruck start at $69,900. Buyers will also be able to choose Tesla’s “self-driving” option for $7,000. (The truck should be able to drive itself once the software for that becomes available.)

Musk had one final surprise as the presentation was wrapping up.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “We also made an ATV.”

With that, a rider came out from a side room on a small electric all-terrain vehicle. He flipped down the truck’s tailgate, extended a built in ramp, and rode it up into the bed.

‘A niche product at best’

Tesla’s new electric truck won’t be without some stiff competition. It’s going up against the two market leaders in full-size trucks in America. Ford is developing its own electric F-series truck, while General Motors, which makes Chevrolet and GMC pickups, also has its own electric pickups in the works. Earlier Thursday, GM CEO Mary Barra said the auto maker expects to begin selling its electric pickup in the fall of 2021.

Rivian, a Michigan-based start up also plans to begin selling its own electric pickup next year. The company counts Amazon and Ford as major investors. Rivian founder, R.J. Scaringe, ranked third on this year’s just-released Motor Trend Power List, a largely subjective ranking of relative auto industry mojo. Musk ranked 24th. Rivian’s trucks will cost tens of thousands of dollars more then Tesla’s, but they will look far more like trucks.

The market potential for Tesla’s truck remains somewhat of a mystery. There has, to date, been little overlap between full-size pickup truck buyers and Tesla buyers. For instance, Teslas and other electric cars sell well on America’s coasts, while large pickups sell best in the Midwest.

Also, Tesla’s Cybertruck looks nothing like a traditional pickup. Truck buyers may want to stand out, but it’s unclear they’ll be comfortable with standing out quite so much.

“It will be a niche product at best and poses no threat in the pickup market as we know it today. The other downside is that this truck will have no federal tax credits by the time it comes out,” said Matt DeLorenzo, senior executive editor at Kelley Blue Book.

Musk has said in the past that the pickup is something of a personal pet project and he doesn’t care much if few people actually want to buy it.

Chelsea Sexton, an analyst who covers the electric vehicle market, said she doesn’t believe the truck Musk showed is very close to the final production vehicle.

“From a specification standpoint, I believe that’s probably what they’re aiming for but, no question, that body style that is not a high volume product,” she said.

Production will begin in late 2021, with production of the Tri Motor AWD version of the Cybertruck beginning a year later, according to Tesla.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/11/22/tesla-reveals-cybertruck-but-breaks-its-unbreakable-windows-during-unveiling/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/11/22/tesla-reveals-cybertruck-but-breaks-its-unbreakable-windows-during-unveiling/

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