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gdwessel · 3 years

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Dominion Cards Announced: Osaka-jo Hall Show Moved To 6/7/2021, Okada v. Shingo for Vacant IWGP World, Despy v. YOH Finally Happening; NJPW Strong Episode 41 - 5/28/2021: Collision Night 4 - Lawlor v. Dickinson; Tony Khan Takes Swipe at WWE Over NJPW Rumors As Women’s Champion Gets Racially Abused

Last night, the lineups for the Dominion cycle of shows was released.

First off, the event is called Dominion 6.6 In Osaka-jo Hall, however the running date for this is now Monday 6/7/2021, per NJPW’s statement that

As a result of the extension to the state of emergency in place in Osaka, and in compliance with restrictions on weekend events in the city, New Japan Pro-Wrestling has arrived at the decision to postpone Dominion in Osaka Jo Hall, which was originally scheduled for Sunday June 6.

Which may be all well and good, however, Abema/CyberFight, the owners of both DDT and Pro Wrestling NOAH, are holding their CyberFight Festival on 6/6/2021 at Saitama Super Arena, headlined by Keiji Muto v. Naomichi Marufuji for the GHC Heavyweight title. Funny enough, NJPW is debuting via AbemaTV this Tuesday, as it will be streaming the Korakuen Hall show. Makes me wonder if there was some sort of agreement in place here to not step on the others’ toes.

Whatever the case and whenever it’s happening, the main event will be the crowning of a new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, following Will Ospreay’s injury, return to the UK and vacating of the title*. As predicted, the match will be Kazuchika Okada v. Shingo Takagi, which will be a very good match indeed most likely. Another title match on the card, will be one that was initially delayed due to COVID-19, as El Desperado finally makes his first defense of the IWGP Juniorheavyweight belt v. YOH, that was supposed to happen at Night 2 of Wrestling Dontaku 2021 on 5/4/2021 but got pulled due to at least one of the wrestlers being positive. Also on the show is Kota Ibushi v. Jeff Cobb, a feud that has been building since Wrestling Dontaku. Those are it for the announced matches on 6/7/2021 so far.

There are two cards for Road to Wrestling Dontaku released as well, with title matches headlining both. On Tuesday 6/1, Dangerous Tekkers will get their awaited rematch against Guerrillas of Destiny as they try to regain the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team belts once more, one of the most involved, and unexpectedly interesting, feuds in recent times. The next night, Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii and YOSHI-HASHI defend the NEVER Openweight Comedy 6-Man Tag Team straps against an LIJ tandem of Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI.

NJPW had scheduled a date on 6/4/2021 at Tokyo Ota Ward Gymnasium, however no card is listed for that. Personally I am doubting this show happens; Ota Ward has already seen two other, bigger shows be postponed or moved during the state of emergency from AJPW and NOAH. My pet theory is still Ota Ward Gymnasium is not allowing these shows to happen whilst under the emergency order.

Lineups:

Road to Dominion - 6/1/2021, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

YOH [CHAOS], SHO [CHAOS] & Yuya Uemura v. El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Minoru Suzuki [SZKG]

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomoaki Honma, Tiger Mask IV & Ryusuke Taguchi v. EVIL, Chase Owens, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo [Bullet Club]

Kota Ibushi & Yota Tsuji v. Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan [United Empire]

Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] v. Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables]

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] (c) v. Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG]

- 6/2/2021, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomoaki Honma, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura v. EVIL, Chase Owens, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo [Bullet Club]

YOH [CHAOS], SHO [CHAOS] & Ryusuke Taguchi v. El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI [SZKG]

Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr. & Minoru Suzuki [SZKG] v. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado [Bullet Club]

Kota Ibushi & Master Wato v. Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan [United Empire]

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship: Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] (c) v. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables]

- 6/4/2021, Tokyo Ota Ward Gymnasium

TBA

Dominion 6.6 in Osaka-jo Hall - 6/7/2021, Osaka Osaka-jo Hall (NJPWWorld)

IWGP Juniorheavyweight Championship: El Desperado [SZKG] (c) v. YOH [CHAOS]

Kota Ibushi v. Jeff Cobb [United Empire]

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Decision Match: Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] v. Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables]

More TBA

*- I had planned to show a statement with Ospreay dismissing the rumors about why he left to go back to the UK, but the source I had initially changed the post I was going to cite. You can still read it if you want, but it doesn’t have what I was going to report on anymore. Oh well.

Last night’s episode of NJPW Strong was the final part of the show’s Collision series of episodes, featuring the first-ever defense of the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship.

Clark Connors v. AJZ (Trophy Kill, 9:38)

El Phantasmo [Bullet Club] d. Wheeler Yuta (Sudden Death, 14:06)

NJPW Strong Openweight Championship: “Filthy” Tom Lawlor [Team Filthy] (c) d. Chris Dickinson (Sleeper Suplex, 21:16) - Lawlor succeeds his 1st defense

Backstage post-match, Karl Fredericks wiped down Lawlor’s belt with Gekicohi-kun, the LEC sponges that sponsor NJPW Strong. Fredericks has a pin over Lawlor, and will probably be the next challenger for the title. Lawlor also referred to Dickinson as “Blue Wolf,” which was not a compliment, as it references former Inokiism-era NJPW wrestler and PRIDE fighter Dogolsuren Serjbudee, who was, erm, Not Good! If you want to see more Lawlor v. Dickinson, Beyond Wrestling’s YouTube channel has made their match from Uncharted Territory S1E09 on 5/29/2019 available to watch for free, two years to the day! Lawlor really has cemented himself as the top heel on NJPW Strong, even without a Bullet Club affiliation!

Meanwhile, ELP continues the loaded boot superkick gimmick, really hamming it up too. I’m not sure what it is with LA Dojo graduates having very problematic finisher names; first it was Manifest Destiny from Karl Fredericks, now shortened to MD, but now we get Trophy Kill from Clark Connors. I really wonder sometimes.

Next week begins the Ignition series of episodes for NJPW Strong.

Last night, prior to AEW’s special Friday night episode of Dynamite, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone took to Twitter to post a video response to the rumors of WWE trying to work out a deal with NJPW. Sure it’s a little over the top, but that’s about as direct response as we will hear from AEW on the rumors. Unfortunately, later in the night, one of the Spanish announcers was caught during commercials, on live mics, racially abusing AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida. That’s not going to end well. AEW has yet to address this as of this writing. Hope they get on that soon enough or the rumors might suddenly get a little more credibility. And also, fuck that guy.

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romioneficfest · 4 years

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Lose Yourself

Title: Lose Yourself name: Prompt: Day 4: Quidditch / Hogwarts Rated: K+ / PG Brief Summary: Rose Weasley Granger is about to step on the biggest pitch of her entire life, one that she has been training for almost her entire life: The Quidditch World Cup Final. Before she is off at the starting whistle, she needs validation from the one person whose approval she desperately needs. Warning: Oliver Wood’s guest commentary. Tagging @weasleyisourroyalfamily for the headcanon inspirations.

“Rose Weasley-Granger, the star seeker for the English National team is a bit of a prodigy. Her Dad put her on her first broom a year old, way she tells it. Uncle Harry Potter coached her early on. He was a bit of a star during his secondary years until life got in the way,” the play-by-play announcer nodded in full understanding as most of the English population 40 and up easily recalled, “and later coached by her Aunt Ginny Weasley-Potter, who was an enormous star for the Holyhead Harpies in the UK Quidditch League and taught her so much, even though she was a Chaser by profession in the Quidditch Leagues.”

“She also started as Second Chaser for the English National Team in 2002 and 2006 before retiring after the tournament.”

“That’s right Oliver,” Lee Jordan’s voice crackled over the airwaves to the delight of all the fans. “Rumor has it that Weasley-Granger was tutored in the summer months during her years at Hogwarts by the Hall of Fame Seeker and family friend Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian National team legend who caught the Snitch in the 1994 World Cup match played in the UK, and then again in the 2014 World Cup final in Patagonia, Argentina. Krum retired after that last International match, participating only in charity matches in England and on the Continent, raising funds for the Prewitt Trust, the post-war orphan trust for children whose parents were murdered by the Voldemort regime in 1997 through May 1998.”

Wood interrupted. “Speaking of, there is the Bulgarian Legend Krum, in the minister’s Box alongside the others. His wife Natalia is present and their oldest, Sergei, attends Hogwarts now as a Fifth-year Prefect, and their older daughter Mina as well. All we are waiting on now are the Ministers for the UK and Mexico to arrive.”

“Back to Weasley-Granger, she made a name for herself starting while in secondary at Hogwarts, catching the snitch in every match she played starting in her second year. By the start of her fifth year, all the professional teams in the UK and a few abroad were recruiting her when she performed a Wronkski feint which turned at the last second into a sloth roll to catch the snitch that had flown under her opponent and sealed the win for her House team that year. At that match, the recruiting scout for the Chudley Cannons, of all the teams, was present at the match and not a week later they were sending owls to the Weasley-Granger residence trying to sign her - at 16.

“Her Mum, Hermione Granger, who had assumed the role of Minister earlier that term, forbade her from signing any professional contracts until the end of her sixth year after she’d turned 17. The day after the end of term, recruiters were desperate to sign young Weasley-Granger. And each one she turned down, telling all of them, “I bleed orange and Black and am a Chudley Cannon through and through. Sorry fellas,” as she went back to work on their property, using a scythe to clear the back yard of overgrown grass as her daily workout. But the National team, having already watched her first season as a seeker for the Cannons, immediately invited her out for the team before the end of her first year. She beat out 16 other Seekers to become the starter, being the youngest since Krum started for Bulgaria at 18 back in 1994.”

“She’s been nothing short of legendary at the National competition level. I’ve watched her and her vision on the pitch is astounding.”

“And there is Minister Curazon of Mexico and British Minister Granger, along with the entire Weasley clan arriving, lead by Patriarch Ron Weasley-Granger, co-owner of Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes. Also present is Rose’s younger brother Hugo, who is already a renown Rune translator and spell researcher. Arriving with them are the Potters including Lily Luna, the starting third chaser for the Tutshill Tornadoes. Wood, you’ve been a part of a friendly with the Weasley Potter Granger clan. How much fun is it?”

“Lee, I have to say it’s much more fun refereeing them than trying to keep up. Between Rose and Lily Luna Potter, few stand a chance. I’m sore for three days facing Lily Luna, much less her Mum and Rose.”

The music shifted again, sounding like a celebration.

Oliver Wood stood, looking out at the fans. “Ladies, Gentlemen, Distinguished guests,” his voice boomed over the stadium, still strong years after retiring from Puddlemere United, "I give you the Mexican National team. At Keeper, Miguel Gonzales; Beaters Julio Sanchez and Juan Carrasco; Chasers Alejandro , Jorge Hernandez, and Rafael ‘Lobo’ Vasquez; and Seeker Teresa Blanco-Calderon !”

Seven red, green, and white rockets took off from the portal, racing around the Holyhead pitch at breakneck speeds, before taking their places at the centre of the pitch, with Calderon circling high above.

“There’s Ron Weasley, standing tall in the Minister’s Box, with Minister Granger by his side, wearing the customary Home White Lions uniform with blazing red of the St. George’s Cross. I spy underneath his jacket, a sprig of Orange. I‘m guessing, under his Weasley-Granger National jersey on the back, was his pride and joy - his daughter’s replica Chudley Cannons team jersey.”

Ron ignored the commentary from Lee Jordan, focusing at his wife at his side at his wife, the current Minister of Magic who was officially off duty tonight and letting Oliver Wood handle the festivities. Tears were streaming down her face, completely oblivious to anyone who might notice. Ron glanced right and saw his sister, brother in law, Viktor and his remaining family standing there, all beaming with pride, waiting for the English national team. Ron leaned down to give his wife a peck on the lips, ignoring the hoots and catcalls around them.

“That’s Weasley for you. He prefers his wife over propriety.” Guffaws broke out around the couple before Ron kissed her again before turning back to the player’s tunnel.

The Mexican team finished their racing circuits of the stadium and they settled in, waiting.

A thrum started, like a heartbeat. Ever so slowly, a roar erupted, punctuated with chanting known all over the British Isles: 'Weasley is our Queen'

“And starting for the English National team, we have at Keeper Charles Wood; Beaters Marius Pucey and Aiden Flint; Chasers Zeb Smith, Khalil Reeves, and Mohammed Siddiq-Smythe, and last but certainly not least, Seeker Rose Weasley-Granger,” the announcer roared over the crowds watching the Ginger Wonder Woman, as the English Press referred to the Prime Minister’s daughter. Sure enough, panning the crowds to the Minister’s Box stood Minister of Magic for the UK Hermione Granger, along with 2002 English 2nd Chaser Ginny Weasley Potter, her husband Harry Potter, and the minister’s husband Ron Weasley-Granger.

All eyes turned to the lanky Seeker, wearing her home White uniform with blood-red boots and cape, and her name embossed in Red on the back. The smile on her face was as bright as the fireworks that announced the team, shining above everyone. Rose soared, feeling the brisk air as she rode the jetstream and raced down to the ground, pulling up from the ground a foot from the pitch to fly almost straight up above the stadium.

“Win or lose, Lee, this is her moment, the one she’s trained a lifetime for.”

Rose dared look down at the Minister’s Box and saw her family, including ‘Uncle’ Viktor. An entire sea of ginger-haired people was looking up at her, waving frantically, led by her Dad, her #1 fan. But she only had eyes for her Mum, beaming in pride up at her. Her breath hitched when she saw her Mum signing to her ‘Little Lion Queen, Fly Fast; love you' up at her. She signed back, 'Love you' before deciding to do one last reckless thing before the whistle blew. Rose took off for one sprint around the top of the stadium, weaving in and out of the portals, giving the blurry a faces a momentary glance of her before stopping at the Minister’s Box. Rose waved at everyone before racing to the top of the pitch, settling in next to the Mexican Seeker Calderon, meters above the lights.

Quidditch chairwizard of the International Quidditch Association Faed Zozimar came walking out, his hair completely white with a moustache that reminded Hermione of a certain famous Singer from the 70s and 80s stood at the centre of the pitch with the official ball box. He kicked it open, letting the snitch escape into the sea of colours along with the two bludgers. He mounted his broom and awaited for Wood to make the official announcement.

“Players, on the whistle,” Wood boomed before an ear-splitting whistle broke the silence of the stadium. The quaffle went up and the match was on.

The crowd roared.

Rose raced off in a rush, feeling like the first time her Mum told her she was proud of her.

#Romione FicFest 2020 #Fic Post #Romione #Ron Weasley #Hermione Granger #Submission #Queue Up for the Dragon #Rated K+#Ace Safe

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mightyfineblog · 5 years

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‘Stand By Me’ -4-

Ben Hardy x Reader

Ch. 4

Summary: You are moving in your boyfriend’s flat. As you unpack, you remember the long road you two have walked down from when you met to where you are now.

Chapter summary: This chapter brings back a thigh clenching memory from last year, when Ben was on set of Bohemian Rhapsody, and you accidentally called him Roger. Oopps. So embarrassing for sure, but wait a minute. Did he just call you a groupie?

And why is Joe so suspiciously asking you two out to dinner?

Words (this chapter): 2.2k Warnings: fluff, smut, oral, name calling. No angst or tears this time.

So here is. Enjoy:

“Mmm” you snort, as you shuffle around searching to get to the blanket “Mso cold.” You growl, as you try to get it off Ben.

He snorts, turning on his side towards you.

“C’mere baby” he curls his arms around your waist, pulling you in his brace, pulling the blanket over your entangled bodies “Betta?”

“Mhmm” you groan against his chest. The corners of your lips curl into a smile, as you nuzzle into the crook of his neck, while your hand is gently placed behind his neck. You close your eyes once again, feeling the moment.

Morning like these. Nothing in the world compares to the feeling of waking up in your boyfriend’s arms. His flushed cheeks and messy locks.

“I could stay like this forever” you murmur, planting gentle kisses along the side of his neck.

“Then let’s stay for a while longer.” Ben’s deep husky morning voice sends shivers from your head to toe.

“So sexy.” you sigh, biting your lip, at which he only lets a throaty moan.

“You’re the sexy one.” He flutters his eyelids open, rubbing them with his free hand.

You smile and climb onto of him straddling his waist, you lay you head over his chest.

“Your heart is pounding.” You lift your head to give his plump morning lips a chasteful kiss.

“All you baby” his hands brush over your hips.

“Shall we have breakfast and then unpack the rest of my things?” you draw circles on his shoulder.

“Glad you brought it up, I’m so hungry.” He growls, gently stroking your hair.

After another hour of snuggles, kisses and under the warm blankets, kisses and soft caresses, the two of you finally get up.

Opting for bagels with crunchy peanut butter and berry jelly, you get dressed.

Rolling up your sleeves, you open another box labelled ‘Accessories’.

“So I’d say these” you gesture the pile in front of you, “Go into the back of the closet, because I use them less.”

“Sure, baby, put them whatever you see fit. Just be careful with MY stuff.” He waves it off.

You push the box further, but stop at a plastic case at the very back.

“Hmm. What do we have here?” You bring the case into daylight. “A full on Roger Taylor costume. And, oh the wig.” You giggle.

The outfit reminds you of one particular moment from last year. It was the first few weeks of filming Bohemian Rhapsody. The set was just outside London. All crew members were settles in their trailers on the field, right next to where the stage for Live Aid was build.

You hum at the tingling feeling of that memory. Taking a seat on the bed, your hands brush along the shirt that was in the case. Closing your eyes you travel back to that particular day.

…

September 2017

Somewhere outside London, UK

Knock Knock

“I said I’ll be out in 5.”

Knock Knock

“Bloody hell, do you ever” Ben stands up from the couch and opens the door.

“Hope I’m not intruding.” I murmur, stepping back from his forceful gesture.

“Fuck, baby.” He chuckles shaking his head. “Noo. Come on in.” he extends his arm for me.

“Sorry I didn’t announce my visit Mr. Hardy, but the MI5 radio was broken this morning.” I playfully snort with snobby manner.

He chuckles, pulling me in for a hug “I’m glad you came over.”

“Are you now?” I give him a sweet pout with my lips.

“Msorry, I’m just so stressed out with this role.” His hands gesture his outfit.

“That’s why I came over.” I walk backwards pulling him by his vest, until the back of my legs touch the end of the bed. He takes a few steps with a shit eating grin on his face.

“Yeah?” he cocks his head to the side lifting an eyebrow.

“Come here, pretty boy.” I coo as I hop on the bed. He follows, snuggling me in his brace.

“Mmm” I moan nuzzling your head in the crook of his neck “I like these…” my fingers toy with the necklaces hanging on his chest. “Any your random shirt” I trace the collar,

“Opened just perfect” I murmur against his neck.

He hums with a big smirk on his face, as the hand wrapped around my back squeezes tighter, eventually making me throw a leg over his, giving me a half-straddled position.

I just can’t keep my hands off him. Something about this outfit is tingling a little something inside of my stomach. My hand tugs gently at his wig, as I nip on his neck.

His hand keeping my hip secure over him, traveling up and down until he finally slides it under the skirt. Brushing his fingers around my bum, he grabs ahold of it, earning a squeak from me.

“Fuck. Come here, baby.” He growls, as he roughly drags me on top of him. Placing wet and sloppy kisses all around my neck, his hands grind me down onto his lap.

“Aah.” I gasp burying my fingers in his wig keeping him pressed against my showing cleavage.

“You like that? Hm?” his husky voice melting me in his hands. “Grinding down on me?” he quirks a brow.

“Mmm Roger.” You throw your head back as my hips pick up the pace, bringing painfully slowly to the friction I’m craving.

“What?” he pulls away. “You just called me Roger, babe.” He pushes me by the shoulders.

“Shit, I’m so sorry baby.” I chuckle trying to hide down my embarrassment.

“Hmm” he licks his lips “Get over here.” He flips us over, making me lay flat on my back. Hovering between my legs he spreads the apart with his knee. Pressing down his hips he pins me against the bed, making me moan softly, as I stare between our bodies.

“Do you want ‘Roger’ to fuck you, petal?” he coos above my lips, barely touching them.

“Would I be such a bad girlfriend if I said yes?” I wriggle underneath him.

“Not a single bit.” He confides with soft voice. “In fact” he pins my hands above my head “I’ve always dreamed of having a groupie” he coos close enough for me to squirm under his breath.

“We gotta be quick, doll. I ain’t got long.” He grunts, as his free hand roams up and down your body. “And keep it down.”

“Please. I’ve always wanted to be fucked by a rock star, who also happens to play my boyfriend too.” Is all the wit I manage to pull off.

“You’re so fine, love.” His lips tremble on my chest.

“God. You’re squirming little existence is turning me on so much. I’m going to fuck you, and you won’t protest, will ya?”

“No. No it won’t” I shake my head in anticipation. His hand rolls my skirt up.

“So impatient. I love me a cute lil slut today.” He drags a finger on the outside of my knickers, making my head fall back at the new friction. And he does it again, earning a loud moan from my lips.

“Shh” his hand moves from my wrists to my mouth.

He stands up and quickly shoves down his pants and belt.

“Keep your clothes on B-Roger.” I lazily ask with a finger on my lips.

Grabbing my hips, he pulls me over to the edge of the bed. One of his hands glides over my stomach and waist. His hand firmly glides from my throat to my chest, slowing down around my breast. His finger pinches and rolls my nipple, making me squirm even more.

“How does that feel?” he continues to touch me over my t shirt.

“Mmgood” I whine squinting my eyes, as I push my chest up to his grip even more “Please, oh, yes that feels so good.”

“Look at you.” He coos over me. “Poor little thing. So needy.”

He pulls me even closer to him. I achingly look over at his erected shaft, while his hands work my breasts, making my nipples even more sensitive than they already were.

“Get down, love.” He commands, and I know what he wants.

“Suck me. Suck me good.” He smirks with his eyebrows furrowed.

I slip in his feet, the most obedient way I can. I bring my lips to his glistening tip. I place a few soft kisses, before taking as much as I can in my mouth.

He grunts “Fuck, your tiny little mouth! Damn. Made for blowing.” He hand grips at my hair pushing me further, making me groan from deep within my throat.

“A good little groupie you are!” he moans as I bob my head up and down on his hard.

“Easy, easy now.” He stops my head, taking a moment to study my face.

“All drooling and messy. But you don’t get to finish me off yet.” He brings me up and tosses me onto the bed.

Placing my legs over his shoulders, he licks his lips, and lines himself at my entrance.

“Please.” I grunt, but before I can say anything else I feel him slamming inside of me in one harsh move. “Fuck” I cry out, squeezing my eyes shut, while my hands grasp the sheets from each aide. At last, being filled by his cock, stretching me out, it almost hurts.

He hisses at the view underneath him, not spending another still second he starts fucking me mercilessly.

“Fuck. Baby.” I can feel him pooling in my arousal.

“What an amazing cunt.” He grunts. His words only adding to the heat building up inside of me.

“Do you like fucking me? Am I good enough shag for Roger Taylor?” I tilt my head to the side, squirming, trying my best to hold a normal voice from his hard ramming into me.

“So fucking good.” He whimpers picking up the pace. Yanking my hips to the sides, he cradles closer. Hovering over me, his lips find my neck. Nipping and biting over my pulsating veins, he reaches deeper in my core. Hitting one particular spot, giving me a heated burning feeling every time he presses against it. My hands release the sheets, finding their way into his hair, tugging on it, keeping his head on my neck and chest.

“Fuck, I’m so close. I’m so close.” I whine, as he bites on my collarbone.

“I’m almost there.” He growls, as his hand travels down between our bodies. His thumb finds my clit. Just from the pure friction of his dry thumb is enough to send my eyes rolling at the back of my head. I let a poem of cursing while my body is squirming and shaking, back arching, reaching my powerful orgasm.

“Aghh” he growls “You tight pussy convulsing onto my cock, shit, I’m coming.” He releases his long held hot mess with deep groans and toe curling motion. The way he closes his eyes is pure bliss for me, I can come again just from the flushes look on his cheeks.

“Baby. Baby” I pant.

“My personal groupie to fill up.” He gulps, before pressing a kiss onto my lips.

Ben stays still for a while longer, buried inside of me. I stroke the hair on his wig, as he places soft kisses all along my shoulder.

Finally pulling away, he grunts while putting his pants back up.

“Please.” I give him puppy eyes “Cuddle with me.”

“Hmm” he smirks shaking his head.

“Hey. You.” I throw a pillow at him to catch his attention. “I want my boyfriend back.”

He smiles warmly and crawls onto the bed, laying by my side. Stuffing a few pillows he rests his back against the wall. Pulling me in his arms, I sigh from exhaustion.

“I didn’t know shagging a rock star could be so…” I lift my shoulders.

“So, what?” he moves a few strands of hair off my face.

“Exciting. It was like, a stranger was screwing me.” I bury my head in his arm feeling the tiniest bit of embarrassment.

“Hey, it’s alright baby girl.” He lifts my chin up “We don’t have to do it again if you don’t want to.” He kisses my nose, helping me relax my tensed muscles.

“I think I liked it.” I bite my lip, trying to avoid eye contact. he chuckles and kisses my cheek.

…

“Love?” you hear Ben shouting from the living room.

“Baby?” you hear him again, quickly flicking your eyelashes open.

“Huh? What? Did you say something?” you shake your head.

“Joe is inviting us for dinner. You wanna go?” he lifts a brow as his graze traces from you to the case and back.

“Yeah, sure. Be there.” You nod.

“Oh and uuh, he said to wear something fancier, we’re going to the Clos Maggiore.”

“Okay…. S a bit weird. Joe isn’t into such posh places.”

“I know” he makes a grimace “something ‘bout a surprise, idk” he places his hand over the speaker of the phone.

“Alight, cool. Tell him we’ll be there.” You leave the case aside and stand up. Passing by Ben you place a kiss on his cheek and skip to the bathroom to get ready.

_____

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issysindieblog · 6 years

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INTERVIEW - SPINN

SPINN are quickly winning over a fan-base across the UK from locals in their hometowns in Liverpool where they grew up to now adoring teen girls and this comes as no surprise to anybody. They have the cheek yet optimism of a new band despite completing their final lineup only last year and will no doubt continue to roar through the UK music scene and gain an army of avid supporters in years to come. This month, the boys are embarking on a tour of the UK, playing a series of gigs up and down the country from Glasgow to Bristol. They finish the tour off on the 28th September back in their home-city of Liverpool (O2 Academy 2 Liverpool). They've impressively already managed to sell out three of their six dates and have recently announced that they have been signed to American label, anti fragile music. The thing that the band are chuffed about though? The fact that one of their songs, It's Not Getting Better, was played on Made in Chelsea earlier on this week.

SPINN have released eight songs so far, including a self-titled EP which was released in April of this year. Singles of their's include catchy 'It's Not Getting Better' which is a song that stays in your head for days after first hearing it's memorable lyrics ( "you know it's killing me being here, killing me, being here.”) and groovy guitar lines which resemble that of early work from Blossoms.

Pictured below, SPINN.

So, (currently) 180,000 monthly Spotify listeners, a UK tour this month with half of the dates sold out and a growing army of supporters, I had questions for Johnny from SPINN and these were his answers... Maybe I'm slightly biased, but I think that these are the best answers to an interview that I've ever read.

1. Was there a particular moment that you realised that SPINN were becoming popular?

I was once getting a meal deal in Tesco and I saw somebody walk in the shop wearing a SPINN teeshirt. I was absolutely buzzing that somebody was wearing some of our merch and later on they messaged our Instagram page and said they'd seen me but had been too scared to come up and say hello. The same thing happened to me when I saw Ex-Everton Winger Steven Pienaar in a different Tesco. That made me realise we were doing something right, I still think we've got a while to go before we can say we're properly popular though. Just got to keep working innit x

2. Away from making music and gigging, what are your favourite things to do together?

Honestly just knocking about with each other like we always have, is what we like to do. Usually it can be anything from just walking around the shops together to going on nights out and staying up till 8AM. Last week Louis had to stay at my flat and we spent the time going to Tesco and prank calling Sean.

This has been a very Tesco centric interview I'll try and steer away from that for the rest of it. Right that's besides the point, as long as we're still knocking about together and taking the piss out of each other, we'll enjoy it x

3. You're going on tour soon, do you each have an essential item you will take with you?

I try to bring a book of some sort for the drive currently, it's Nine Stories by J.D Salinger

Andy ALWAYS brings a hairdryer and various hair products, rocking a bowl when you're on the road ain't no easy fete!

Sean usually just brings himself, that leather jacket he's always got on. A spare bass guitar wouldn't go a miss either, though. Once he left his on the side of the motorway when we were on the way back from Derby, good times.

Louis brings his Aston Villa blanket and 20 Litres of Vape liquid, the little fiend.

4. What/who are your major influences?

Collectively: The Drums, The Smiths, The La's, The Cure, Orange Juice, Ride, My Bloody Valentine.

Individually: Too many to list xoxo

5. Let’s fast forward five years from now, what do you see SPINN doing?

Ideally I'd like to get to the level of Wolf Alice or The 1975 are at now, that would be the dream. If we keep on working then I can see no reason why we can't get there, if we don't then that's fair enough, but we have to at least try! Anyway that's the dream, as long as we can make a living off the band and keep writing music that develops and matures with us then I'll be happy.

6. Do you have any pre-gig rituals?

I always have to go on stage last, I don't know why. At particularly big gigs we listen to 'I Am A God' by Kanye West before we go on, because it's such a good tune for getting hyped to. Other than that, apart from the odd bout of stage fright it's usually just a beer with the boiz before going on.

7. How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together?

I think our songwriting has definitely improved. When we listen to our new stuff compared to our older songs, it's just in a different league, that only comes with experience though. I think that us touring has definitely helped us realise what is what in terms of song structures and live performances. So to answer the question properly, yeah we've got a lot better (even though we thought we were boss before when we weren't lol).

8. Can you describe each member of the band in under ten words?

Andy - A man who loves his haircut more than life itself.

Sean - Donned in a tight leather jacket he's often quite hungover.

Louis - A small man, usually asleep in his Aston Villa blanket.

Me (Johnny) - Taller than the other four, basically the god of dancing xoxo

9. How long have you been playing together?

Louis joined about a year ago, but we've been a band for about 2 and a bit years. Saying that, I don't think we would be SPINN without Louis so therefore I'm gonna say a year.

10. What has been your favourite and least favourite venue to play so far?

My favourite was The Magnet in Liverpool. There's so many boss memories there but now it's been turned into one of those chain comedy clubs which is something that chips away at my soul every time I walk past.

My least favourite was The Sitwell Tavern in Derby. Everybody who came to see us was lovely and so were the other bands and the promoters Dominic (just wanted to make sure if they read this they know I had a boss time at the gig and in the chippy afterwards ;) ).

But, and it's a big but, the pub had fuck off massive "The S*n" flags up all over the gaff which frankly isn't something we like to see anywhere, as we think that that rag is scum, sorry not sorry.

SPINN set out on their debut headline tour this month at the following locations:

21st September - Surf Cafe, Tynemouth

22nd September - Broadcast, Glasgow

25th September - Record Junkee, Sheffield

26th September - Hy Brasil Music Club, Bristol

27th September - Thousand Island (formerly Upstairs at The Grage), London

28th September - O2 Academy 2 Liverpool

Tickets are available to buy now at https://www.musicglue.com/spinn-band/ and all of SPINN's music is available to stream on Apple Music and Spotify.

#interview #review #music review #music blog #spinn

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theastrophilearchitect · 3 years

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WandaVision series review part 1.

Because I have some things to say.

This is going to be posted on March 19th, at which point the WandaVision (WV) finale will have been out for two weeks; also the day Falcon and the Winter Soldier (FatWS) begins, which I have, for whatever reason, begun to think of as WandaVision's sequel, despite being a completely separate series. In 2019, FatWS was actually scheduled for before WV, so that makes no sense.

Anyway, I'm going to begin with a spoiler-free review of the series as a whole, then I'm going to go into an episode-by-episode breakdown as I re-watch the show, but the spoiler-free section will contain spoilers for the rest of the MCU. This part will cover episodes 1-3, part 2 will cover 4-6, and part 3 7-9. I’d love to do this in one post, but it’s just a little overwhelming.

If for whatever reason you don't know vaguely what WV is about, you've been living as a hermit for literally the last six years. But if you don't know: in 2015, Marvel Studios released Avengers: Age of Ultron (AoU), technically the second movie in the 'Avengers' franchise, but the eleventh movie set in the MCU, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. AoU introduced three main characters to the MCU: Vision, a synthezoid-human-robot-AI-android thing, who I would call a person but it's complicated - his consciousness is derived from the mind stone, one of six infinity stones, JARVIS, Tony Stark/Iron Man's AI assistant, Tony Stark himself, Bruce Banner/the Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Ultron, the villain of the movie, who's more of a robot than Vision, but he's not the point. The movie also introduces Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, known in the comics as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, though they are never called this in the movies. The Maximoffs are twins who volunteered for experimentation from HYDRA, an evil Nazi organisation who provide the main antagonists in the Captain America trilogy. We are told they each gained superhuman powers from the mind stone - Pietro has an increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis, and Wanda can do neural electrical interfacing, telekinesis and mental manipulation, or, in the words of Maria Hill, 'He's fast and she's weird.'

Pietro Maximoff is promptly killed by somehow failing to dodge bullets, while Wanda and Vision join the Avengers, and eventually fall in love. I'm not explaining Avengers: Infinity War. Or Avengers: Endgame. If you haven't them, why are you reading this?

Anyway, so Avengers: Endgame is the third-to-last movie in Phase Three of the MCU, but is the last part of Wanda and Vision's story pre-WandaVision, and wraps up with Vision dead and Wanda grieving.

So, should you watch WandaVision? Yes. Absolutely.

We already know our two main characters and several of the other characters, including Monica Rambeau from Captain Marvel, grown up, Darcy Lewis from the Thor franchise and Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man and the Wasp, but we're also introduced to a cast of new characters, mainly new villains (but then superhero movies so rarely use old villains), who are well-developed and intriguing - you'll either love them or love to hate them.

The plot leaves you on the edge of your seat - nearly every episode ends on a cliff hanger, and leaves you with a thousand questions. It answers the bare minimum, the final episode leaving us still with some questions, but it is the perfect way to milk our investment.

On the other hand, if you aren't familiar with the MCU, Wanda and Vision, you may have quite a hard time understanding every aspect. So long as you have a vague idea of the context, you can follow the plot, but you won't enjoy it nearly as much. I really don't think it's worth watching the entirety of the MCU solely for this show, but I also think it's worth watching the MCU movies, full stop.

The series is only available on Disney+, which absolutely sucks. I've had a Disney+ subscription since it was released in the UK, so this wasn't an issue for me, but it does generally suck. Even if you are up to date with MCU movies, if you don't have a Disney+ subscription, you can't watch it. The streaming service stopped offering free trials in July 2020 due to the release of the Hamilton pro-shot, knowing they'd get an influx of new subscribers, but not wanting people to be able to watch it without paying. Capitalism at its finest.

Whether or not the cost of one month's subscription for WandaVision is worth it is subjective - though now all the episodes have been released you could easily watch it and only have to pay once.

Ultimately, I would argue WandaVision is absolutely worth watching, though someone who isn't up to date on MCU films wouldn't enjoy it as much as someone who is, and with its runtime of just under six hours, broken into nine episodes, it may not be worth the Disney+ subscription for you personally, especially if you're not up to date on the MCU. However, I would like to end this section on a positive note: I cannot get over how awe-inspiring the storytelling on this show is. Marvel has its issues with storytelling, with things often feeling disjointed in an attempt to remain unpredictable and prevent actors (*ahem* Tom Holland) spoiling events, but WandaVision doesn't feel that way at all. It's unlike any superhero show I've seen before, plays on morality and plays with sitcom formats from the last 70 years, meaning you'll love it even if, like me, you're not a fan of action-focused media - the only long action scenes occur in the last episode.

So, yes. five stars.

~SPOILER ALERT~

Beyond this mark, I'm going to go into an episode-by-episode breakdown, and it will be basically all spoilers from here. If you haven't seen the show and care about spoilers, go away. Please don't spoil yourself.

Also, in each episode's breakdown, I may point out foreshadowing and things I only notice because I've watched it already, so unless you've seen all nine episodes, you may find spoilers even if you only read about the episodes you have seen.

I watched WandaVision episode by episode as it was released, and since the first two episodes were released nearly two months ago, I'm going to re-watch the show and break it down as I go.

Episode One: 'Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience' This episode was released on January 15th along with episode two, and I didn't actually watch it until the Sunday because I wasn't invested yet, and, of all the MCU shows announced, this was kinda the one I was dreading. Before this show, I loved Wanda, but hated Vision, so I also hated their romance. I'd also seen the sitcom-style trailers and was absolutely terrified it would be terrible, so I wanted to finish the season of the show I was currently watching before watching the episodes.

So let's get into it.

The episode is only 29 minutes along, including the nearly-ten-minute credits, which is pretty standard sitcom-episode length. We open with the Marvel introduction, but as the camera zooms out, we're shown the logo in a fuzzy, monochrome, early-1900s style. The aspect ratio also decreases, which is a nice touch but very annoying because the show itself has a larger ratio, meaning there's a lovely thick black border all the way around the frame. But that's just a formatting complaint.

We move into a 50s-sitcom-style song-montage in which Wanda and Vision, looking human like that single scene in Infinity war are coming home, just married. Wanda magically buys the house and with some weird Vision-power stuff, he carries her over the threshold to their new house, and we see the logo.

Thoughts at this point? Just what? How is Vision alive? Why is it black and white? Why is there a musical song? Why are we in the 1950s? How are they married? Why aren't they being Avengers? Just sheer confusion.

Wanda uses her powers in this episode without her typical red-smoke-sparkles, and they make a lot of gags, received with a laughing track, about their powers, but generally follow a sitcom formula, with the plot of having Vision's boss for dinner and needing to impress him.

Also, it’s noteworthy that what little was left of Wanda’s Sokovian accent by Avengers: Endgame has completely vanished.

It's very odd to see Vision as Vision, as in synthezoid would-be-red-if-it-weren't-in-black-and-white face, dressed in regular clothes instead of his cape and superhero get-up. It seems like his superhero clothes aren't actually a part of him, but when he walks through things, they go with him, though he can't take other objects with him. This could be because they were made at the same time as him, but he also takes his other clothes with him. That's just a question as to the limits of his capabilities, though.

We're quickly introduced to their new neighbour, Agnes, cast in the role of Nosy Neighbour, but the cast of this episode stays incredibly small. Agnes mentions her mother-in-law being in town and talks about her husband Ralph, though neither of these characters are introduced.

Vision goes to work, raising the question of why a superhero synthezoid needs an office job, especially one he apparently doesn't know the purpose of.

Later, Vision calls Wanda from work, and she answers the phone as 'Vision residence', which is confusing on a number of levels. Wanda is a perfectly normal name, perfectly able to blend into this setting - Vision is not. Especially when he has no surname and this answering gives the impression Wanda has taken his name, and literally become 'Wanda Vision,' which is likely the point, but confusing nonetheless.

Here comes a 1950s style advert, advertising the 'ToastMate 2000'. In the ad, the two people put bread into the toaster, which toasts and beeps for an unnervingly long time before coming out. We're then told it's made by Stark Industries (Iron Man's company) with the slogan: 'Forget the past; this is your future!' Ominous, and clearly playing into the fact we seem to be on an alternate timeline.

Towards the end of the episode, Vision's boss's wife, Mrs Hart, begins asking questions about their past - where they moved from, how long they've been married, children, etc. - and Wanda and Vision freeze, trying to answer, but apparently unable to remember. Mr Hart, Vision's boss presses, but they fail to answer. Mr Hart begins to choke, and Wanda and Vision freeze, while his wife laughs, telling him over and over to stop it, until he falls out of his chair, and Wanda tells Vision to help him, which he does using his powers, though neither Mr nor Mrs Hart question this, and quickly leave, having barely eaten. Overall, the dinner is apparently a success.

Wanda and Vision realise they don't have wedding rings, and Wanda makes some, in a clearly cut-together shot reminiscent of the intended style. The camera then pans out to 50s-style credits, crediting the two cast members, producer, director, writer, photographer, music director, production manager, supervising editor and several other roles, with names I'm sure have some relevance, either to real cast members or some comic reference, but don't mean much to me.

The camera continued to pan out, showing the episode playing on an old fashioned TV in some kind of technological/industrial room. A hand presses a remote button, and we cut to the real credits, against a background of warped shots of screens, which then zooms into the pixels and we see a load of formations, such as of their house. Credits which are seven minutes long, though the length has nothing to do with the show itself.

One more thing: it's hard to notice during the episode, but during the credits we see a warped shot of Vision, in which his eyes appear human, where previously they've been fairly robotic.

This episode brings up a million questions and answers literally none, so, glad there's another episode, we move on. I enjoyed this episode, and enjoy it more the second time round, now knowing the answers to most of my questions, but it's so frustrating.

Episode Two: 'Don't Touch That Dial' This episode is 36 minutes long including credits, which is still fairly standard sitcom length. I watched this one directly after the first, and my frustration only continued.

Something I've only just noticed watching this the second time through: this episode opens with a recap of the first, and it recalls the events without including character introductions--except for Agnes. The recap includes her introduction, but nothing else of her, which, even though she's technically irrelevant in episode one, clearly means the writers are trying to make the audience remember her.

The comedy-style intro to this episode is in a cartoon-style, which opens with an image of the moon surrounded by six stars which light up in turn, a nod to the infinity stones.

Here, Wanda and Vision--Wanda especially--are wearing less traditional-50s clothes, though the first time round I didn't question this because Wanda's hair was nearly the same--just a little longer and more relaxed--and so was the way it was shot, the black-and-white, and the aspect ratio. I didn't quite make the decade-jumping connection, though looking back it is fairly obvious we've shifted to the 1960s.

Since this episode still follows a comedy formula, in which every episode has its own arc which rarely intersects others, the plot of this episode is Wanda and Vision participating in a town talent show and attempting to blend in. After the intro, we see Vision practising, and Wanda brings out a cabinet of mysteries for their act, which has an image reminiscent of the mind stone on the doors.

With Wanda acting as Vision's magical assistant, he gives her the name 'Glamour,' a nod to her powers, and 'glamour' in the more magical, less-celebrity sense. It also matches Vision's magician's name, 'Illusion,' from which it becomes a nod to the fact this whole set-up seems so abnormal, and, an illusion or glamour.

Before the intro to this episode, we see Wanda and Vision getting woken up in the night by some banging. Later in the episode, we hear whirring and another bang, which prompts Wanda to go outside to investigate, where she finds a crashed toy helicopter, in colour. The helicopter has a sword symbol on it--the first time we see this.

Agnes then brings Wanda a rabbit for the magic act, who she calls Senor Scratchy, a reference to Nick Scratch, a colloquial name for the devil. This was part of what led to initial speculations about which character was actually comic-villain Mephisto in disguise - WandaVision also draws heavily from comic series 'House of X', in which Mephisto is the villain. Obviously, people began assuming Agnes was either Mephisto in disguise, or working for him.

Agnes then advises Wanda about Dottie, the leader of some organisation Wanda is apparently trying to join. Skip to the meeting, Wanda emulates Dottie’s actions to appeal to her. Dottie is then rude to a woman giving some sort of account, but she forgot to ask about the chairs, to which Dottie says ‘Devil’s in the details, Bev.’ Agnes then says to Wanda, ‘That’s not the only place he is,’ which added to the speculation about Mephisto.

The committee Wanda is with is working on the talent show to raise money for the elementary school--’For the children.’ This phrase is repeated throughout the episode, and foreshadows Wanda’s motivations as the show progresses. Wanda meets a woman named Geraldine, who says she feels out of place, foreshadowing her true identity, and how she, personally, came to Westview.

Meanwhile, Vision attends a neighbourhood watch meeting and one of the men offers him a stick of gum, which he takes despite the fact he can’t actually eat food, as a synthezoid. One of the men slaps him on the back fondly, and Vision swallows the gum, which we see as a cartoon of it going down his mechanical oesophagus.

Wanda stays behind at the committee meeting to help Dottie clean up, and Dottie tells her she’d heard things about Wanda and her husband, which Wanda responds she ‘doesn’t mean anyone any harm,’ and Dottie tells her she doesn’t believe her, as though she’s mentally returned to reality, continuing to foreshadow the reveal in the next few episodes. The camera zooms in, the music intensifies, and a voice comes from the radio beside them, asking if Wanda can hear him. Dottie asks, panicked, who it is, and who Wanda is. The radio short-circuits, and Dottie breaks the glass she holds, cutting her hand, and the blood is red.

The advert in this episode contains the same actors from the previous one, this time advertising the Strucker watch--a reference to Wolfgang von Strucker, a Nazi villain from the Captain America franchise; also the head scientist on the experiments which Avengers: Age of Ultron claims gave the Maximoff twins their powers. The slogan is ‘He’ll make time for you,’ which, even now, I’m not completely sure what it’s a reference to, or who the ‘he’ could be, but it seems to further suggest Mephisto’s involvement, despite that not actually being the case.

Cut to the talent show, Wanda panics because Vision is late. He shows up, walking and acting as if drunk, and we’re shown the gum is stuck around some gears in his gut. On stage, Dottie makes the audience chorus ‘for the children’ again, and Wanda and Vision come out. Because of the gum stuck in Vision, the act goes sincerely wrong, and he uses his powers out in the open, but Wanda manages to use hers to apparently hide this from the audience. They bring out the cabinet of mysteries, and Agnes asks sarcastically if they’re sure they don’t want an audience volunteer named ‘my husband Ralph?’, the second mention of Ralph in the series.

Vision taps the box with his wand before Wanda gets inside, and the audience starts chanting ‘What’s in the box?’ Wanda panics, does something with her powers, and opens it to reveal a very confused Geraldine inside. Their act ends, and Wanda uses her powers to find and release the gum stuck in Vision, and he seems to ‘sober up’. They try to leave, but Dottie calls them up on stage, praises them and presents them with a trophy for their comedy. Wanda calls up Geraldine, who asks what happened, but they play the ‘magician never reveals his secrets’ card.

They get home, and joke about it, repeating ‘for the children’. Wanda gets up, deciding to get popcorn, and is suddenly quite pregnant, where she very much wasn’t before. There’s a thud outside, and they go to investigate. A manhole cover in the road shifts, and somebody in a beekeeper’s suit, with the sword logo on the back, emerges, face in shadow. Wanda merely says ‘no’, and we rewind to before the thud. Colour then begins to bloom onto the screen, and the episode ends, with an echo of the voice from the radio.

Looking back, I think the shift to colour on Wanda’s part may have been a decision because of the helicopter, and the blood--the beekeeper prompted it, but she’s trying to hide the fact that the things which do not belong are so obviously out of place.

This episode holds no more answers than the last, and has the same comedy tone with the ominous undertones as the last, but also contains significantly more characters and locations, as though this sitcom world has expanded.

And then we had to wait a week for episode 3.

Episode Three: ‘Now in Colour’ And we shift to the seventies. This episode’s recap recalls all the major points of the last episode, including Geraldine’s introduction. This episode is only 32 minutes including credits; longer than the first, but shorter than the last, so we’re still sticking to the comedy format, and the episodes aren’t yet lengthening.

Just a point a little irrelevant to this: WandaVision’s total runtime is about six hours, and we’re getting six FatWS episodes, which is probably about the same runtime but a little disappointing (though that’s mostly because it means there’ll be a couple weeks where we get nothing between it and Loki).

The introduction to this episode is more classic sitcom, with the long pop-style song over a montage of the characters--exactly what you’d expect from the seventies. The episode opens with a doctor at their home, who tells them she’s about four months along, which she obviously isn’t. Vision questions how this happened, but it becomes fairly clear to the audience this is Wanda’s doing. Vision asks the doctor not to tell people about the pregnancy, and sees his neighbour to the non-Agnes side, Herb, trimming his hedge, but the hedge-trimmer is going through the garden wall, and he hasn’t seemed to have noticed. Vision points this out, Herb verbally acknowledges him, but keeps going.

Vision returns inside, and Wanda’s pregnancy has progressed even further. Wanda uses her magic to prepare the baby’s room, and her magic is still missing her signature scarlet, a continuing sign something is wrong. The baby kicks, Wanda describes it as ‘fluttery’, and accidentally makes the butterflies on the baby’s mobile real.

Vision mentions the name ‘Billy’, and Wanda says ‘Tommy’, ‘a nice, classic American name’, returning emphasis to their efforts to fit in. Wanda gets Braxton-Hicks contractions, and her powers turn on the tap, open the window, flare the lights--the pregnancy causes her to lose control of her powers, and the block’s power goes out. Wanda mentions the people of Westview ‘always seem to be on the verge of discovering [their] secret’, and Vision says something seems wrong there. The music intensifies and the camera zooms in, then we cut back to before he said that, but without the rewind sequence we saw in the last episode.

And Wanda goes into real labour, sending Vision in a panic. Then it begins to rain inside, and Wanda comments she thinks her water has broken.

Cut to commercial! Same actors again, this time for Hydra Soak--’find the goddess within’. It’s a bath product meant to take you away from your problems--a reference to Wanda’s apparent escape from what she was left with after Endgame. I’m not completely sure what all the HYDRA references are about, even after watching the whole series.

It stops raining inside, and Wanda opens the windows to dry out the house, and I cannot get over how perfect her hair is in this episode. It’s perfect in the others, too, but this time, it’s perfectly straight, not a strand out of place, and I just can’t get over it.

Vision goes after the doctor, who was about to go on vacation when he left, and the doorbell rings. Wanda puts on a coat to hide her belly, and welcomes Geraldine in, but tells her it isn’t a good time. Wanda gets a contraction, and her coat transforms. And again. So she throws it off, and uses a fruit bowl to disguise it, but Geraldine doesn’t leave.

A stork appears behind Geraldine, apparently the one Vision painted on the nursery wall earlier, and Wanda has to do her best to keep Geraldine from seeing it. She tries to make it vanish in a cloud of red smoke, her typical magic, but fails, and Geraldine eventually hears the stork, but Wanda tells her it’s the ice maker.

The baby, however, it very quickly coming, and Geraldine sees Wanda’s belly. She lays Wanda down, and she births the baby, while light fixtures break and paintings spin, before Vision arrives. My God, her hair is so damn perfect. The baby’s a boy, and Vision concedes to Wanda’s name choice of Tommy. Then Wanda screams again, and Billy is born. For the children.

Vision goes outside with the doctor, and asks about his trip. The doctor tells him that small towns are ‘so hard to... escape,’ yet another ominous implication. The doctor leaves, but Herb is still outside, now without the hedge-trimmer, but with Agnes. They whisper about something, then Vision goes over. Agnes says ‘Ralph looks better in the dark, so I’m not complaining,’ when he asks if they lost power, too. And Agnes asks if Geraldine is with Wanda, as though she is suspicious, though knowing how episode seven ends, her true concern is clear.

Inside, Wanda tells Geraldine she’s also a twin, and the music intensifies. Geraldine says, ‘He was killed by Ultron, wasn’t he?’ in reference to Pietro--Quicksilver.

Agnes says Geraldine is new to town, no husband, and no home.

Wanda asks what Geraldine said, but Geraldine goes back to complimenting her. Wanda presses, but Geraldine’s sudden clarity seems to have gone. Then we zoom in on Geraldine’s necklace, and it’s the Sword logo.

Herb tells Vision Geraldine ‘came here because we’re all...’,but Herb can’t get the words out.

Wanda asks about the symbol, who Geraldine is, but she says she doesn’t answer.

Agnes makes Herb stop talking, and leaves. Vision returns inside, and Wanda tells him, rather monotonously, that Geraldine had to return home. But the camera cuts to the Westview sign, suddenly with a wider, more modern aspect ratio. It’s night, the air ripples like TV static, and Geraldine comes flying out, as though pushed. She collapses on the ground; cars approach, a helicopter casts a spotlight on her. We pan out to some kind of camp, and cut, to that dreaded ‘Please stand by’ credits screen.

And episode three ends, leaving us still without answers, but at least a little confirmation of something malevolent occurring.

So, that’s my initial overview and breakdown of episodes 1-3. Part 2 will contain episodes 4-6, and part 3 7-9 plus my final thoughts.

But that’s that for this week’s post; the next two parts should be up next week and the week after, unless I have something I want to post more.

Anyway, go drink some water, eat something if you haven’t eaten in the last few hours--you’re amazing, you’re beautiful, and you so deserve everything you have, and more.

Bye!

#wandavision #marvel #mcu #avengers #marvel cinematic universe #disney #disneyplus #disney planes #the avengers #wanda #wanda maximoff #scarlet witch #vision #quicksilver #maximoff #tv review #show review #programme review #tv show review

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spektijim · 7 years

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Hello everybode!

A month ago I ran the Derby 10k for The Trussell Trust, who run food-banks in the UK.

A little more than a month ago I posted a blog about the fact that I would be dressing as a Unicorn to do it.

Well, never let it be said that I let my public down, because that’s exactly what I did, and here is the picture evidence!

1. Ears and Horn

The ears were the first thing I made, using some felt I had acquired during a mad felt-buying spree (fellow craft addicts – you know how these things happen) several years ago.

Nearly finished ears!

Being me, a lot of the felt was pink, and so it was an easy start.

Next was the horn – I decided early on that the basis of this, the most important part of the costume, should be an alice band, as many people on Pinterest had shown the way with their own unicorn horns – onto this would fit a ‘head-dress’ with horn and ears.

I used the time-honoured cereal box and toilet roll tube as a base. There really should be some kind of tribute – a poem or song – to these crafty stalwarts which have saved many a parent (and even more so their children) every end of term, Halloween or birthday party.

These were covered with tissue paper (first white, then pink) and decorated with acrylic paint and plastic gems. The inside was painted purple and eventually it was hot-glued to the alice band – hooray! My horny head-dress was my pride and joy.

Getting shiny…

Grumpy, craggy unicorn.

My pink horn. Ooh err missus!

I was just putting some extra gems on two days before the race when I realised…I nearly forgot to add the ears!

Because I’d started on them so early they had completely passed out of my memory – sadly the full ears were a little too big to work with the head-dress, so I trimmed them in half and glued them on. A sad fate but the result was pretty good, if I do say so myself!

2. T-Shirt

This T-shirt was one I bought last year for a costume, but I ended up using a long-sleeved on instead- it seemed perfect for this task, just needing some careful applique. This was my first time using applique and I have to say I am now hooked. It was much easier than I first thought and produced some great results.

I cut the pieces I wanted out of paper first, then ironed a rectangle of the bondaweb on a piece of material, slightly bigger than I needed, then traced around the original paper and cut out the shape. This worked well because, like interfacing, the bondaweb makes the material slightly stiff and easier to cut through. Then I ironed each piece onto the t-shirt – it looked pretty darn good. Sad to say I think I spoiled the perfection by securing each piece with some stitches, as it cause the fabric to ruck up in places, but I suppose it was worth it knowing they wouldn’t fall off mid race.

The lettering was in the always unpredictable 3D Pearl paints – it work eventually but the mix kept on going wrong and sinking into the fabric, hence why it’s not quite as neat as it could have been! I added extra stars with some acrylic paint and it was all ready for running!

The colours might also give a subtle clue to something. Maybe.

3. Tail

The tail was a relatively easy build – using strips of felt sewn together and then sewn into a tube (and sealed), I more or less cut of random sections of gauze to put in – finished off with a couple of hot-glued gems, of course!

On the day of the run it was attached using that age old tail-attached- safety pins!

At this point in the making I got a chance to visit the local Trussell Trust food bank in Sawley to make a food drop – a wonderful friend of mine very kindly drove me there and took some photos of the nearly-finished cozzy…

My donation to the trust!

Posing with a lovely volunteer at the foodbank!

Posing with Twilight Sparkle!

4. Finished Article

The finishing touch to my look was, of course, makeup.

I have been getting pretty good at day-to-day makeup recently (though I don’t actually wear it day-to-day, more’s the pity) but I thought I should go one better for this unicornage. Of course, sparkly was the order of the day with the majority of the leg-work being done by eyeshadow (isn’t it always?).

I used four different colours, starting with a dark blue in the corner of the eye, working through purple into pink, with silver below the eye, topped off with liquid eyeliner and mascara. So sparkle, much glitter!

5. The Race Itself

The Derby 10k took place on the morning of a lovely sunny day – thankfully it started at 9am so it wasn’t roasting (as it became at midday) but mild. I have to be honest, I wasn’t at my best – my right knee had been giving me some problems after my last 10k practice and I hadn’t run in about a week – that is a sensible part of the ‘tapering’ process common to running but it meant that I’d had no opportunity to test my leg, and was worried it might go wonky at the starting pistol or – even worse – halfway round!

I arrived a little late (thanks to putting on my makeup – damn my vanity!) and had to join a queue of about 10 million to put my bag into safe storage, as I would be starting all on my own.

The moment I dropped it off I had to hot-foot over to the starting line which was already bustling the four top tiers of runners – A-D. I was group B – as I’d waited to put my bag away I’d found myself worrying if I’d been perhaps a bit ambitious – perhaps even hubristic – as I saw much more keen looking runners in groups C and D.

It was barricaded all along the side with such a press of people I had no idea how to get over and into the fray. Eventually I was naughty and hopped over the barricade, there being no wardens around to either advise me or prevent my scandalous behaviour.

Although 10k is enough distance for you to find your pace by about mid-way and join the runners who are your natural speed-mates, it is frustrating to have to start in such a tightly packed knot that you lose valuable seconds at the off.

Still, all this aside, I tried to give it my all – I smiled at the wardens and the cameras, gave high fives to a couple of kids, waved at people pointing to ‘the nice lady dressed as a Unicorn!’ and kept up a decent pace. As I drew in they announced my time but I was wearing headphones (safe ones, I promise!) and missed it – all I knew was they were calling 58 by the time I’d collected my bag and gone to meet my friends.

I had to wait until that evening to discover that I had come in 892nd of 3208 at a time of 49:57 – my goal of being under 50 minutes was reached, if only by a hair!

I sadly don’t have any pictures of me actually running in the 10k (there were some by a professional photographer by I haven’t got the money to buy one right now – maybe another time!) but I do have one right after – as you can see, I was quite tired. Most of my makeup melted.

6. The Aftermath and What’s Next

Thanks to the generous support and donations from friends and family, my running with a pink sparkly horn managed to raise (drum roll please)….

£365!

Not too shabby! Way off my target of £1000, but I knew that goal was over-ambitious anyway. So, what’s next? Well, I plan to continue supporting the Trussell Trust in whatever way I can – I haven’t had a chance to volunteer for them yet but I have got my papers so I will be signing up soon!

If you feel that my banging on about it for ages has made you care about people who need food-banks and more, please do start a monthly donation for the trust or bring stuff for a food parcel – trust me (groan) it’s worth it! Depending on the result on the election on June 8th, we may sadly find ourselves needing them more and more.

On the running side I am planning to do the Wilne 10k in September, a nice break before a new challenge, and am also signed up to my local Park Run at Markeaton parkMarkeaton park – join us there every Saturday at 9am! Although I won’t be dressed as a unicorn there, sadly.

Thanks once again to all my lovely pals who contributed, you are awesome and I love you.

Spekti out!

Flight Of The Unicorn Hello everybode! A month ago I ran the Derby 10k for The Trussell Trust, who run food-banks in the UK.

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mancitynoise · 4 years

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While it feels pointless to speculate about the path the current coronavirus pandemic might take, there may be a glimmer of hope on the horizon for the much-mooted ‘Festival of Football’ to take place this summer.

The Premier League is currently on hold, with the Telegraph reporting that clubs could try to resume playing on June 1st, in what would give a much-needed lift to so many in the game – both players and staff at clubs, and fans stuck at home bored without one of their main usual pass-times to occupy them.

MORE: Arsenal announce list of nine plans to support communities through coronavirus crisis

Some interesting data from worldometers.info shows how China has managed to keep a lid on things in terms of the coronavirus, with this graph below showing how daily new cases of people contracting the illness has plummeted in the last few weeks.

The UK seems to be very much at the start of its struggles with the bug, but if shutting down major gatherings and limiting people’s trips outside of their homes can prove successful, we could soon progress along a similar time frame.

Looking at China, the UK’s worst to come could be in about two weeks, with the government arguably being too slow to shut things like schools, pubs and theatres, but with a recovery in sight now that those measures are now in place.

This could then perhaps mean a four-week drop off in cases, as is already appearing to happen after lockdown in Italy, another of the most badly affected countries…

It still looks like some time before Serie A football could realistically resume, but some have suggested Italy’s ageing population, number of smokers, relatively below-par health service, and particularly bad pollution problems have contributed to their crisis being worse than most other nearby countries.

Of course, there can be no room for complacency on such a serious issue, but one would hope the UK can avoid an Italy-style crisis now that tougher measures on social distancing have been brought in.

Below is the graph for new cases in the UK, which clearly still puts us on a lower point of the curve than Italy has already got to…

However, given that a lockdown surely cannot go on forever – as Donald Trump recently said: “America will be open for business soon, a lot sooner than the three or four months some are suggesting” – this could put us on course for an improvement by about mid-May, meaning a June 1st return date suddenly looks perfectly achievable, rather than the far more ambitious initial targets of 4 April, later pushed back to 30 April.

By the summer, there is surely hope that the virus will be in far lower circulation, the health service will be under less strain, and with people hopefully continuing to be sensible in terms of limiting their social outings, there seems every reason games played behind closed doors would not pose as much of a risk.

In China, the basketball season is due to return on 2 April, with games initially starting out behind closed doors, which gives us a reassuring sight of what the near future could hold for our beautiful game as well.

More Stories / Latest News

Video: Raheem Sterling gives intriguing response when asked about potential Liverpool transfer return

March 24, 2020 13:45

The road to June 1st’s summer Festival of Football

March 24, 2020 13:32

Potential boost for Chelsea as Barcelona’s contract talks with star are stalled

March 24, 2020 13:05

Gary Neville suggested a quick-fire tournament to finish the season, with games all being completed over the course of nine days to allow minimal disruption to the 2020/21 campaign.

As he said, it would be “something spectacular”, but, as the data shows, that doesn’t mean it’s an unrealistic pipe dream by any means.

For now, do your bit and stay at home as much as possible! The more we can do that now, the quicker things can, as China has shown, return to normal.

The post The road to June 1st’s summer Festival of Football appeared first on CaughtOffside.

#CaughtOffside #Blog

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golfiyauniversity00 · 4 years

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The Beauty Myth - How Do Women Really Feel About Their Looks?

In 1991, Naomi Wolf distributed The Beauty Myth itemizing her comprehension on how ladies keep on being persecuted all through society to support men.

Wolf contended that the impelling and utilization of the fantasy of magnificence would be men's definitive weapon against ladies and their apparent rising force.

Ladies keep on confronting barricades in the working environment because of the political and foundational utilization of magnificence to characterize worth. Despite the fact that men characterize the belief system of excellence, the division of magnificence isn't characterized consequently leaving the female befuddled about her own sentiments of self.

This enables large companies to impose unreasonably the work that womens do expanding their income while enhancing both female consumption and reasonability. This has thus diminished the female's confidence, an integral asset for control.

Naomi Wolf composed this book in 1991 after both the first and second rush of feminisms. It is safe to say that we are leaving upon a third flood of women's liberation? Numerous cynics of women's liberation report that the already overpowering shamefulness towards ladies and their cries that made and supported Women's Rights developments have now been weakened to a minor whine. Is there any fact to this announcement?

I need to utilize this article to inspect consider the possibility that any progressions have occurred since 1991 and how ladies' lives might have changed.

Ladies have consistently been important to the work environment regardless of whether not regarded for their commitment. Dormant history educates us that because of the First World War (WW1) in 1914 - 18, ladies were important to move out of the home where they attempted to satisfy the business hole because of men being at war. At the point when the war finished, ladies would not normally like to surrender this degree of budgetary freedom and come back to the home. Cross-referencing chronicled data, the battle for Women's Rights started a lot before thusly ladies were at that point mindful of the treacheries towards them along these lines educating regarding the hesitance to 'come back to the home.' In 1848, 68 ladies and 32 men delineated complaints towards ladies including ladies reserving the privilege to cast a ballot and marked a Declaration of Sentiments in New York. It was in 1872 that saw the national development start in the UK as the National Society for Women's Suffrage and later the more compelling National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. Without this cross-referencing, one would be excused for mixing up that up until WW1 in 1914, ladies were not learned about their out of line treatment towards them.

With the information that ladies did without a doubt realize that they were being dealt with unreasonably and that they really felt sufficiently able to make a move in various structures demonstrated both relentlessness and quality; words that were not used to portray ladies by any means. Since 1991, what has changed to reinforce Women's Rights to being increasingly equivalent to men?

Very little as I would like to think from the perspective of passage level top professions for ladies albeit as indicated by an ongoing examination did by Astbury Marsden, they found that this year has seen an expansion of 100% of ladies in the executives positions. This compares to 12% by and large from 6% in general a year ago. We ought to be appreciative! Shouldn't something be said about the critical compensation holes among people for equivalent employments? All things considered, as indicated by Dr. Carla Harris from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), the hole is extending, as of now for each dollar a man makes, his female partner acquires 82 pennies. I question particularly that you will locate an observable distinction in the UK. Actually, upon look into, ladies earned 15% not as much as men. Is this hole aggravated in poor financial occasions?

So very little has changed as far as regard for females and the commitment they make in the public arena and for society. Very little as far as how females are seen, for the most part contrarily and for sexual joys. Anyway what is all the more frightening (maybe an over-embellishment) is that in spite of the fact that there have consistently been ladies 'night-laborers' (whores), ladies give off an impression of being participating in their own war against themselves. Give me a chance to place this into point of view about this inner war going on with ladies. Despite the 'style' required for night laborers to draw in for work, ladies are currently utilizing this equivalent idea for endorsement from men and meanwhile pursuing an unverified war on their confidence. Not so those ladies couldn't have cared less for their looks already, as their preparing custom is normal in pulling in a mate. In any case, as a result of the Beauty Myth, the characteristic birthing procedure of preparing for a mate has gotten obscured, confounding and ingrains an absence of trust in a female. The gifted affectation of the Beauty Myth embraced by men however calculatingly not obviously characterized (Naomi Wolf) has left ladies endeavoring to accomplish the unbelievable as well as the unattainable as excellence is left open for understanding by the viewer (men).

What has been the outcome?

Budgetary commitments to restorative, diet and medical procedure have all observed a flood in willing captors, all looking for this magnificence fantasy and all fairly very down and out when they understand that the goal lines continues moving. Corrective organizations revel in attributing what their most recent item is and how brilliantly amazing some fixing is, presently contained in their item. That is to say, who on earth truly known about Pentapeptide, not to mention inquired about what it did before purchasing the item?

Organizations, for example, those in the restorative business depend on the poor confidence of ladies to guide their items to. Ladies consequently react in an ardent snatch for the 'wonder' item that will fight off or if nothing else hinder the maturing procedure. Ladies are made to feel that they never again outwardly please and as per Wolf, organizations can make strides in expelling the female from her job in the work environment for a more youthful model. Recall Miriam O'Reilly winning her case against the BBC for what she affirms being expelled on ageism and exploitation grounds? A below average triumph since she didn't win on the grounds of sexism. What this lets me know is the thing that Wolf previously recognized in her book, that it is extremely hard for a lady to guarantee against sex segregation as the law completely underpins what it calls a BFOQ (bone fide word related capability USA) or the UK's form of GOQ (authentic word related capability Wolf). This means an organization may reject a lady on the off chance that they feel that she doesn't match their belief system of excellence. Presently recall, this degree of magnificence isn't characterized and what might this truly state? As excellence is subjective depending on each person's preferences (self) is it not?

The council for Miriam O'Reilly was hung on the 4-nineteenth November 2010, 19 years after Wolf's production in this manner ladies are still evidently being focused on and treated by what they look like and not what gifts they may have in the work environment. So no genuine advancement here at that point!

Next time you go out on the town to shop, pay special mind to the quantity of various excellence items. Know about the measure of time and vitality that ads use to sell you their extensive measures of items and the pictures they use. The utilization of against wrinkle creams on models most likely not even yet 20 years of age yet. Why in the world they need against wrinkle cream is past me. Next, these sorts of adverts will be demonstrated utilizing a multi year old!

Presently take a gander at grounded items, for example, lipsticks. Presently you can get ones that last throughout the day. Truth be told, you need another item to get the lipstick off in light of the fact that ordinary chemical and water doesn't generally work. Organizations need to keep re-developing the wheel to keep their benefits up so their creative mind goes out of control and concocts a wide range of items all doing likewise however in an unexpected way. Ladies succumb to this; simply investigate her make up sack, results of the equivalent however extraordinary thing, barely utilized because of the plentiful sums.

Shouldn't something be said about items containing a specific fixing that will 'advantage' saw 'sacks' under the eyes. Do you truly feel that by purchasing this item will reduce 'loose eyes'? For what reason would it be advisable for it to, in such a case that it did then you would need to quit purchasing the item once you have been restored? So organizations utilize sufficiently just to have a slight effect and you need to keep re-purchasing to verify better outcomes. I envision organizations chuckling at ladies as they remain far along the edge of the room tossing in the enchantment fixing (in other words how disagreeably low the fixing is regarding weight and efficiency). Presently, I am not saying that a specific fixing doesn't work, for instance caffeine. Be that as it may, following your stunning cup of tea, you could without much of a stretch reconstitute the teabag and put this on your eyes. Most likely has more caffeine in the teabag than in the costly item you purchase.

Give us a chance to take a gander at how different organizations have taken advantage of the formation of poor confidence in womens. A gaudy measure of cash is spent by females on diet items with the expectation that the 'extra' pounds they think they are conveying will vanish leaving the female with a feeling of acknowledgment and saw excellence. The sugars utilized in numerous nourishments are supplanted with a substitute that is less calorific. To me, this is only a ton of pointless synthetic concoctions being siphoned in the body and for no genuine increase. Prepared sugars are bad for anybody in immense sums and an astute thing for wellbeing purposes is lessen your admission not substitute this with something that requires the body to work more enthusiastically to separate it in the event that it can use by any stretch of the imagination.

For investigate purposes, I composed in 'what impact does fake sugars have on the body?' and I didn't need to look far to plainly observe the risks of fake sugars. As per creator Marcelle Pick, (Obstetrician and Gynecologist) she talks straightforwardly about being appropriately educated regarding conceivable symptoms of sugars. I won't specify the organization as I don't wish to give them any type of presentation yet you can do your own examination. This specific name brand is the exchange name for Sucralose; an engineered compound unearthed in 1976 by researchers in Britain looking for another pesticide group

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energysolutions · 5 years

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Speech: Reaching 2.4%: Securing the research talent of tomorrow has been published on Energy Solutions News

New Post has been published on https://www.energybrokers.co.uk/news/beis/speech-reaching-2-4-securing-the-research-talent-of-tomorrow

Speech: Reaching 2.4%: Securing the research talent of tomorrow

Good morning. I’m delighted to be here at the LSE today. This is the first in a series of four speeches on how I believe the UK can best achieve our ambition to invest 2.4% of GDP in research and development by 2027. And, later, 3%.

This is an important target, and one which sits firmly at the heart of this government’s Industrial Strategy and our aim to make the UK the most innovative country in the world.

Achieving this goal is going to require significant investment. In 2017, the UK spent almost £35bn on research and development – or R&D – representing just under 1.7% of GDP.

To achieve our target of 2.4%, total UK R&D investment would need to rise to around £60bn in today’s money. More than double our current investment levels. This would require us to have invested an additional sum of over £80bn cumulatively each year from 2017 across the public and private sectors.

But we are on the right track. This government has pledged to increase spending on R&D activities by £7bn over 5 years by 2022. This represents the largest increase this country has seen in R&D investment in nearly 40 years.

And as Minister for research and innovation, I will be making the case for this investment to continue as we approach the comprehensive spending review.

This case is made easier by the fact that we are already quite good at maximising our returns on R&D investment. Despite being home to just 0.9% of the world’s population, the UK hosts more than 4% of the world’s researchers; we have three of the world’s top ten universities; and we produce more than 15% of the world’s most cited research articles.

The UK really is one of the most innovative countries in the world and rightly deserves its title as an ‘innovation leader’, having scored 21% above the EU average in the 2018 European Innovation Scoreboard.

Maintaining and strengthening this position in the face of growing international competition will be key to our success over the years ahead. So, in the course of this series of speeches, I want to take us back to first principles and unpick, bit by bit, what achieving our 2.4% target really means. And in my first speech on this topic this morning, I want to move us away from our usual focus on money and investment, and turn our attentions instead to the people we are going to need to make our ambition a reality.

After all, it doesn’t matter how much money we pump into R&D over the years ahead. It won’t make the intended difference if we don’t have the right people in place. People to perform the ground-breaking research of tomorrow. People to develop world-leading innovations. And people to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems.

Ensuring a strong pipeline of talent will be essential for bolstering the UK’s research prowess. This means making sure we have the required number of scientists, researchers and technical support staff to support our pioneering R&D efforts.

The fact of the matter is, if we need to increase R&D spending by more than double our current investment levels by 2027, then we are also going to have to substantially increase the numbers of people we have working in R&D in the same period – perhaps by as much as 50%.

To put that in figures, that means we need to find at least another 260,000 researchers to work in R&D across universities, across business and across industry.

This is a big ask. So, we need to stop and ask some serious questions: where are these highly-skilled scientists, researchers and technicians going to come from? And what are we going to do, not only to tempt people to embark on a career in UK research, but also to get them to stay here and make the most of their talents and expertise?

These are the questions that I want us to address this morning.

Nurturing homegrown talent

As it stands at present, the UK is the third largest producer of PhDs in the world. However, much of that is down to our ability to attract and educate talent from across the globe. When it comes to educating our own students to PhD level, we know we need to do much more. Both to encourage undergraduates to stay on for postgraduate-level study – and to address the gender imbalances and race disparities that continue to haunt the research profession.

Of course, we’re continuing to make progress in these areas. The number of women accepted on to full-time STEM undergraduate courses has increased by almost 30% - largely thanks to the number of girls taking STEM A-Levels in England increasing by over 25% since 2010. But the proportion of women studying Physics is still notably lower than it should be.

And we still have some way to go to eradicate gender pay gaps in the sector and increase the proportion of women in academic and research leadership. Not to mention the number of Black and Ethnic Minority role models that will inspire others and show them a research career can really be for people like them.

As a government, we are thinking hard about the financial incentives that will also encourage more people to continue in higher education and research.

Not only do we have a comprehensive student support system for students embarking on higher education across the UK. But, for students supporting their own postgraduate studies, we introduced Master’s loans in 2016. And these are already having a visible effect on the number of students opting to stay on for postgraduate education.

Research commissioned by the Department for Education into the performance of the Master’s loan in its first year of operation has found the number of England-domiciled students opting to study for a Master’s degree at English universities grew by over a third (36%) in the academic year 2016/17.

It also found that these loans have led to a significant increase in the number of Black students to study for a Master’s degree, a group historically under-represented in postgraduate education. Additionally, almost three quarters of the students surveyed who took out a loan said that they just couldn’t have studied without one. This is welcome evidence that the loan is helping remove financial barriers and supporting individuals from all backgrounds to study for an advanced qualification.

And loans were extended to those studying at doctoral level from August 2018. Where we hope they will have a similar effect.

Attracting international talent

But as well as developing domestic talent, I want us to attract the best and the brightest from across the globe.

As Universities and Science Minister, I am immensely proud that the UK boasts one of the strongest higher education sectors in the world. That it is home to many of the world’s leading universities and research institutes. This is a great national asset and a major draw for international talent.

And this government is serious about making the UK their global go-to place. That’s why we set out a clear ambition in our International Education Strategy earlier this spring: to grow the numbers of international students studying in UK universities to 600,000 by the end of the next decade.

Many of these students will be studying here at the postgraduate level, for Master’s degrees or PhDs. And we will introduce an automatic one-year ‘leave to remain’ period following the completion of all doctoral degrees.

This will give international PhD graduates the time they need to find an appropriate research position after their studies – whether that be by continuing as post-docs or early career researchers in our universities and colleges. Or by taking their skills over to industry and bringing their ideas and innovations to market.

On this, we are making it easier for international graduates to move into skilled work. International students studying for undergraduate level and above will be able to apply for a visa three months before their course finishes. Enabling them to take up skilled work after their degree. They will also be able to apply for a skilled work visa out-of-country under the same preferential conditions as they would experience if they were to apply for a visa in-country.

In addition, a reformed sponsorship system will provide a simplified and more streamlined system. This will be less burdensome for employers and will enable businesses to harness the talent they need more easily.

We are also investing in more international experiences for our own UK students. This will help develop them as ‘global citizens’, and ensure students of all backgrounds can add to our pipeline of talent on their return.

International experiences enrich the education and personal development of our citizens, not to mention break down barriers to social mobility. That is why I was delighted to announce new DfE funding that will support UK undergraduate students from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds to take part in short research internships at Canadian universities through the Mitacs Globalink scheme.

And I hope this is just the first partnership of many to help boost opportunities for UK research talent going forwards into the future.

As a government, we want to be doing all we can to protect and grow our share of research talent. And we are serious about working together with the sector to ensure we are giving early career researchers, regardless of where they come from, sufficient opportunities for progression.

Funding PHDs and other programmes

But if we are to attract, retain and develop the research talent we need – both domestic and international – we must ensure we have the programmes we need too.

And we have invested significantly in programmes, delivered by UKRI and the National Academies, to make sure this is the case. In 2017, we announced funding of over £300m over four years to increase the number of PhDs and fellowship programmes.

We have committed more than £100m to the Rutherford Fund to deliver around 1,000 fellowships and placements for early-career and senior researchers.

And, in June 2018, we announced a £1.3bn investment in UK talent and skills to grow and attract the best in science and innovation. As well as £350million for prestigious National Academy fellowships. This included £900million for the new flagship UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships, open to the very best researchers from around the world.

Well, today I am pleased to announce the very first 41 Future Leaders Fellowships. Who will be provided with funding and support. And who will be instrumental in developing the next generation of research and innovations in their chosen disciplines – from the natural environment to big physics.

It’s an incredibly exciting programme and I am delighted to have been able to announce the Fellows today.

And I am just as excited to announce a first call for the new Stephen Hawking Fellowships. Working with the Hawking family, UKRI will support up to 50 postdoctoral scientists in theoretical physics over the next five years. In recognition of Professor Hawking’s exceptional contributions to scientific knowledge and the popularisation of science. This call is now open. And I would encourage anyone eligible to apply.

Because we need to ensure the very brightest minds are in a position to help us address the huge environmental, social and technological challenges the world is facing today.

That is why we’re focused on supporting highly-skilled people across disciplines to tackle these issues – what, in our Industrial Strategy we have called our Grand Challenges – from Artificial Intelligence to Clean Growth.

In the field of AI, we have recently announced a package of measures. Including Master’s degrees, funded by industry. Alongside an additional 1,000 new PhD students across 16 dedicated AI Centres for Doctoral Training. And new Turing AI Fellowships. The first wave of fellowships was launched earlier this year as part of a scheme designed to attract, develop and retain global AI talent in the UK.

Boosting researchers’ skills and success

But success in research isn’t just about knowing your subject inside out – though undoubtedly this is essential. It’s about other skills and experiences too, particularly when making the move from academia to industry. And we need to encourage these if we are to create the UK research environment we want to see in the future.

Between six and seven thousand PhD students per year are funded through UKRI, through its studentships and training grants – including Centres for Doctoral Training and Doctoral Training Partnerships. These models allow students to be trained in cohort environments and take a collaborative approach. Working with partners – including from industry – to create well-rounded researchers who are able to continue and pursue R&D careers.

Recent investments in Centres for Doctoral Training will support more than four and a half thousand PhD students, in fields from quantum, to medical technologies.

I was particularly pleased last month to see the University of Liverpool leading an innovative new project worth almost four and a half million pounds to boost the success of post-doctoral researchers outside academia. The ‘Prosper’ project is funded largely by Research England and other industry partners. It seeks to break down the barriers facing early career researchers when moving from careers in academia to industry.

Because, to make it in industry, as well as having specialist technical knowledge, today’s researchers need core transferable skills – things like an ability to communicate effectively, to influence, and to work collaboratively.

The Prosper model seeks to give post-doctoral researchers the “soft skills” they need. And, so, should help them develop into the high-performing technical and business leaders of tomorrow.

I also know schemes like the Brilliant Club, whose founders I met earlier this spring, are doing highly valuable work. Not just in reaching out to school pupils from under-represented backgrounds to raise their aspirations. But also by training and developing doctoral and post-doctoral researchers to become highly effective communicators and leaders. These skills won’t just help them if they choose to stay on in education. They are vital for a whole host of business and industry careers too.

Towards better research careers

But as well as ensuring people have the skills they need to pursue a career in research, we need to ensure conditions are such that they want one. Currently, there are problems here.

According to research by Vitae, over 70% of post-doctoral research staff in higher education are employed on fixed-term contracts, with 20% employed on contracts of a year or less.

Many researchers, especially at the early stages of their careers, can find themselves going from one short-term research contract to another, without any job security or, indeed, any inclination of where they might end up next.

It is this uncertainty and insecurity that drives many talented researchers out of academia and perhaps out of research altogether. And this is particularly true of female researchers, who are already under-represented in STEM disciplines and may be unable to realise their full potential.

But it doesn’t need to be this way.

Admittedly, the Roberts Review back in 2002 did much to shine a light on the precarious nature of academic research careers. And thankfully, it led to many UK universities thinking seriously about how they employ and develop research talent.

In many respects, the UK has long been a world leader in this area – not least through its Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, first launched in 2008.

However, with more researchers needed in the future to power our national R&D ambitions, now is the time to increase our support for researchers. And to look again at how we can ensure they have a healthy and attractive working environment in which all researchers can flourish.

I am pleased that an independent review of the Concordat has just taken place to ensure it is up-to-date to meet the needs of today’s researchers. And I look forward to seeing the revised version of the Concordat when it is published later this summer.

As Universities and Science Minister, I am serious about taking the Concordat forward. And I am pleased to be hosting a high-level meeting with the Chair of the Concordat Strategy Group, Professor Julia Buckingham. Alongside Sir Patrick Vallance and other key sector leaders, to discuss how we can further improve research careers in the UK.

I have said it before and I will say it again today: I am keen that postgraduates and early career researchers do not get lost from current and future policy debates – particularly around key issues like mental health and wellbeing.

Post-docs are increasingly the Cinderella of the academic community – being neither students nor conventional academic staff members. So, their stories often go unheard and their concerns unaddressed.

Yet, these are the people who are often juggling job insecurities with poor work-life balance. And all against a culture that many feel prevents them from speaking out and admitting their struggles – for fear they will be perceived as weak and not fit for the job at hand.

Our current research culture relies on dominant power structures, where doctoral candidates and post-docs are largely dependent on supervisors or PIs for references and progression. This puts the power firmly in other people’s hands.

Is it any wonder, then, that less than half of doctoral researchers report they would be likely to disclose any mental health and wellbeing issues to their supervisors? This closed culture urgently needs to change.

So, I hope future joint work by the Office for Students (OfS) and Research England into the mental health and wellbeing of doctoral researchers can identify good practice to take forward in this area.

I also encourage the OfS, Research England, and UKRI as a whole to look more widely at how the implementation of current policies affect researchers on the ground. The three higher education excellence frameworks – namely the REF, TEF and the KEF – are all integral to the way we govern and fund higher education, science, research and innovation. But we need to make sure they are not disproportionately affecting early career researchers and putting extra strains on their work. The recent headlines about universities spending around £87m on non-disclosure agreements since 2017 doesn’t help us to project an image of a sector that cares for its employees.

Non-disclosure agreements exist for many purposes – such as protecting valuable research findings should a staff member change jobs. But in no circumstances should they be used by universities to ‘gag’ staff after experiencing poor behaviour in the workplace, including bullying, discrimination or sexual misconduct.

Let me be clear. Any use of this sort of agreement to silence people or hide details of unfair practices is an outrage, and risks bringing the reputation of our world-leading higher education system into disrepute. Universities need to wake up to this fact and the very real threat it poses to the reputation of the sector.

The government has recently consulted on proposals to tighten the laws around NDAs and confidentiality clauses for workers. We will be publishing our final proposals in due course. These will make clear in law that victims of harassment cannot be prevented from speaking to the police or reporting a crime. And ensuring they are clear about their disclosure rights.

We need to take collective action now to stop the misuse of NDAs if we are to prevent any more talented people from being pushed out of academia. And the wider research pipeline.

That’s why I strongly support Universities UK in its call to sector leaders to make sure all staff and students have a safe experience at university.

As Minister across both the universities and science briefs, I am keen that we take a cross-departmental and cross-sector approach to the long-term career paths of researchers. And that we work together to tackle some of the systemic issues that are hampering the appeal of a research career, both inside and outside academia.

From academia to industry

On this, a key message I want to get across today is that academia isn’t the only place where talented researchers can have long and meaningful careers.

It is particularly important we recognise this, since very few highly-skilled researchers will stay within the academy.

Research by Vitae in 2017 showed that of the 80% of researchers in the UK who aspire to a future academic career, 60% expect to achieve one, yet only between 5 and 10% will actually ever get one.

But this doesn’t mean that the other 90% or so are not pursuing worthwhile research careers. Over 70% of doctoral graduates in the Physical Sciences and Engineering, for example, work outside academic research four years after graduation.

If we are to stand any chance of meeting our 2.4% target, then we need to make sure this continues and that talented researchers go on to use their knowledge and skills in business and industry.

We also need a good number of researchers embracing their entrepreneurial spirit and starting their own spin-outs and SMEs.

For too long, there has been a stigma in this country around pursuing non-academic research careers. So, we should never look down on early career researchers if they opt for a career outside academia. Rather, we should actively encourage our PhDs and post-docs to see the merits of pursuing an R&D career in other sectors and industries.

For one, we need to stop talking about jobs outside academia as being ‘second choice careers’ or ‘Plan B options’. For our 2.4% target to work, we need people to be actively considering research careers across the entire science and innovation system. And aspiring to become industry employees or entrepreneurs from the get-go.

And to do this I think we need to be positive and passionate about the hugely exciting potential of such work. About the role research – and particularly the point where business and research meet – will play be in helping us to adapt to our changing world.

I have already mentioned our Industrial Strategy “Grand Challenges” – the huge environmental, social and technological challenges the world is facing today. We want to make sure that the UK is leading the way in responding to these challenges.

This will require all of our best minds pushing frontiers of science and research and applying this into game-changing innovations and new ideas. This means helping researchers and academics connect better with businesses and supporting researchers to develop their own ideas. These businesses could become the industries of tomorrow. And it makes it a hugely exciting time to work in industry as a researcher.

But it’s not just about meeting challenges. It’s about meeting the needs of business. We know from the Employer Skills Survey that employers in the UK report a persistent demand for graduates with STEM skills. And we anticipate this demand will only continue to grow over the years ahead.

Across numerous sectors, employers report a significant demand for highly-skilled professionals, especially in IT and Engineering. As well as a need for staff with complex numerical and statistical skills. It may surprise you to hear that over 60% of roles on the Home Office shortage list are STEM roles – primarily seeking either Engineering or digital expertise.

So, isn’t it high time we start to better connect graduates with the evident skills gaps we are experiencing right across our labour market?

Yet, this isn’t going to be easy when many of their main role models inside universities know very little about careers in industry. And are themselves either unaware or unconvinced of the strength of research positions outside academia.

There are schemes that aim to address this issue – such as the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Visiting Professors scheme. This funds senior industry practitioners to participate in course development, face-to-face teaching and the mentoring of Engineering undergraduates at a host university. It is a great programme, but it is not widespread practice.

The difficulties aren’t just on the side of universities. Some employers are unused to recruiting PhDs and don’t fully understand the benefits that those with higher academic qualifications can bring to their workforce. I think of this as the ‘graduate paradox’ – the higher the academic qualifications you have, the less professionally qualified you may seem. This, I feel, is a particular UK problem we need to address.

For too long we have had a culture in this country that doesn’t generally recognise, let alone reward, PhDs outside academia. But this is not the case in other European countries. In Germany, for instance, a PhD is often seen as a prerequisite for progression to senior roles in business and industry.

Yet, here in the UK, people with hard-won PhDs sometimes choose to hide their doctoral qualifications when applying for professional roles outside academia. And many can find themselves having to spell out to sceptical employers the skills and experiences they have gained during the course of their studies.

To get people thinking differently we urgently need to change mind-sets. And to boost the appreciation of postgraduate degrees among employers and wider society.

We need a culture change right across the innovation system. Not just among academics to get them to realise the transfer-ability of their research skills. But among employers – so that they, too, can make it easier for researchers to make the transition into industry-based roles.

Academic research and industry research should never be two distinct entities. There should be transferable pathways between the two. So those with industry-experience are welcomed into academia for their ‘on the job’ knowledge later in their careers. And those with academic experience can venture into industry and back again at any time they choose.

Changes such as this will help keep international researchers in UK R&D long after they have graduated. And also help to boost the numbers of domestic students choosing to stay on for postgraduate degrees and research careers.

As I have argued today, this will be vital to achieving our long-term aim: boosting the numbers of researchers in this country by more than 50%, to cement our R&D success.

Retaining domestic and international talent.

Funding the programmes we need.

Boosting skills.

Improving careers.

And strengthening the links between industry and the academy.

These are the ways we will nurture the talent we need now to meet the challenges ahead. To give the economy the boost it needs. And to help adapt to our changing world.

Thank you.

#BEIS

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optimisticpoetrypost-blog · 6 years

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Im so confused right now. In the past 2 months i have been doing my homework on buying a new 2011 CBR600RR. I have been quoting progressive which is who i have my car insurance with. I have been getting around 150$ a month for full coverage. I was about to buy the bike today and whenever i quoted the insurance it was around 230$. I thought i had made a mistake but everything was the same... what the heck happend?

Advice for Car Insurance?

Hi, I just been given a quote for a car insurance and it says Annual premium is 3000 and Total Excess is 1000. Does this mean, my total amount of car insurance is 4000. What is Annual Premium and Total Excess what does it really mean. Your advice is important to me, thanks""

Whats the consequence for driving without car insurance?

I recently bought my son a car and hes been driving it without car insurance. What will happen if he gets pulled over by the police department?

What car modifications dont affect insurance price?

... if anyone knows any car modifications that dont affect insurance...

""Classic Car Insurance for Young Drivers, Help.?""

In the UK how old does a car have to be before it comes under classic car insurance also how cheap is classic car insurance? I'll be 19 when I come to buying a car and was looking at cheap insurance, will have been driving for 1 year, I will have no, No claims bonus' If it's cheaper than smaller newer cars, What classic car would be worth looking at? How old does the car have to be before it's classed as a 'Classic' Make your you answer relates to UK rules/laws and what ever else USA rules/laws mean nothing to me and won't help.""

Will his insurance cover my vehicle ?

I was involved in a car accident recently. The individual who hit me has insurance coverage. The crash report states his license is suspender or revoked. Will his liability insurance still cover the damage to my vehicle?

A question about state farm auto insurance?

If I plan on buying a car with two seats, I'm male and get ok grades, what would be the difference in insurance costs if I got a car with 4 seats?""

Only Teens please :) How much do you pay for auto insurance?

Teen payments 19 years old preference

Would my car insurance rates go up if I switch?

I'm insured with geico but I've found a better deal with esurance. I can't afford to pay both. I want to cancel with geico and start over with esurance before the geico policy cancels. If I did this would esurance charge me a higher rate? I know it will effect my credit negatively.

Life Insurance or Mortgage Insurance?

which one is better. I live in canada (BC) I have income disability insurance but it doesn't cover my mortgage amount. Incase of a death of one partner the other will get anywhere from 30 000 to 100 000 (depnds on how death happens) plus monthly checks of app.2000 for 2 yrs plus funeral expenses. I pay 108 a month for this. Shuld i cancel my policy and get mortgage insurance do most people out there have mortgage insurance? Is it true that you can not have more than one policy? any experts out there pls advise?

I have Kansas Progressive Auto insurance. Will my insurance drop when I turn 25? And if so approx how much?

Any answers pertaining to age 25 &/or the state of KS is helpful. I can't find anything on Progressive relating to age & insurance rates. Thanks!

Is honesty really the best policy when insuring a car?

insurance quotes baton rouge

What happens if u get caught driving a car without insurance?

what fines or punishments do u get driving a car without insurance or registration in ontario? Also, what happens if you get caught driving with a g1? and both?""

Best Car Insurance For young Couple ?

Me and my fiance are starting to get estimates for major bills we'll know will be high (rent,car insurance, etc) What's the best car insurance for a young couple (20 year & 19 year old) for just basic coverage Im in the process of getting just a plain normal 4 door car like ford Taurus (1998-2000).. He has a ford 86' truck without 4wheel drive Neither of us have tickets, nor pricy sport cars But I've almost 20 and only been drving for 2 years (due yo bein homeschool, it was hard to get into drivers ed_) He's 19 and been driving less than year (cause hes school schule didnt allow for extra class like drivers ed)""

Secondary insurance for a Mustang for a 16 year old male?

My parents are going to get me an 2008 mustang. If the car is under their name and im just the secondary user, like if i drive it once a month, how much am i looking at insurance wise?""

Camaro z28!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... insurance costs?

how much would insurance cost for a 1990-2000 camaro z28 cost for a 16 year old boy

Can My brother and I go under the same car insurance?

Can I get my name in his car too? In other words, could we both have our name under the insurance? Would this raise insurance? What would happen if one of us wrecks it?""

Car insurance question! CRAP...?

i got my first speeding ticket today. i was going 41 in a 30 and a conniving cop was at the bottom of this hill i was driving on and pulled me over right as i was slowing down for a stop sign. will this first ticket effect my car insurance rate? i have had my license for 2 years and have had a perfect record so far.

Can you really find cheap health insurance ?

I live in mass and i can not find health insurance for my needs and have been denied by the state health insurance. Dont know what to do ... anyone can help ?

Should I buy life insurance online?

I want to buy a life insurance plan for myself, and later for my husband. I have done some research, although I must say it's all very confusing and there are zillions of options. Now that I have a better idea, however, I am wondering if buying the plans online is at all an option. Do you have an experience with it? Do you recommend it, or feel that it's completely not a good idea?""

How do you get proof of auto insurance?

i just got my driver's license, (i'm 17) but i haven't been able to drive yet because my dad says i need to get an insurance card as proof of insurance. It was supposed to come in the mail a week ago. No one else i know had to do any of this, and they could drive as soon as they got their license. is there a faster easier way to get proof of insurance? thanks""

Insurance.?

How much would insurance be on a used car that you bought for around 8,000 from a dealer, if you were a teenager?""

""HELP, car insurance!?""

I am 15, going on 16, and I am looking into a Vauxhall Astra 1.6i 16V SXi 3dr Sport Hatch for around 4000. It's a car that is nice, but I could easily afford it due to my savings and work etc. I was wondering, when I am 17, how much would it cost me to insure the car at its cheapest?! This is an example of the car: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201124390942785/sort/priceasc/usedcars/quantity-of-doors/3/body-type/hatchback/maximum-age/up_to_7_years_old/model/astra/make/vauxhall/radius/1501/postcode/bd181nt/keywords/sport%20hatch/page/1?logcode=p I am looking into this early so that I get a head start and can get everything sorted as soon as I'm legally aloud to drive. How much would it be to insure the car for a 17 year old male living in Bradford? Any help is appreciated, thank you!""

Motorcycle insurance question?

I will be 18 in two months and i want a bike. I am planning to go to the classes which i assume lowers insurance. I also thought by having a smaller bike would cut insurance costs. I only plan to ride around town and not on the highway. If i bought a 250cc bike like a GZ250 or a Honda Rebel, how much would seasonal insurance be roughly? I only want the types of insurance that are mandatory in order of me being on a budget.""

Why the heck do I have to legally own car insurance? It is unconstitutional!! I should have the right not to..?

buy car insurance if I don't want to. That should be repealed.

What car insurance should i get?

I am 17, and im looking to buy my first car. i am looking for car insurance that is cheap but is also good.""

What is the average cost of car insurance for a 20 year old male in ct?

Insurance on car?

My dad said insurance on the car I want will be $700 a month.(I'm 18 and its for full coverage) Is that the price I pay if the car is insured under my name? I know if my dad insured the car under his name the price for insurance would drastically drop. My question is would I still be able to drive the car if its insured under my dads name and still be part of the whole insurance thing. You guys, the reason I sold my old car is becouse I wanted this newer car I've wited 3 months so far and I'm planning to pay for the car myself. But insurance is going to kill me. If you can also tell me about some good insurance companies out there that are cheap(we have something century rite now). When I heared how much it would cost I almost cried.""

When was car insurance for teens increased?

I was wondering how long and in what year was car insurance for teens increased? links would be very helpful... Thanks All!

A question about the affordable health care act!?

My wife was born in 1955. She would like to retire, collect Social Security when she turns age 62. Since she cannot get Medicare until age 65, we were thinking about getting her ...show more""

Cost of health insurance?

How much does health insurance cost per year if I pay for myself instead of my employer paying for it? I would pay through my employer's group insurance and mine is a family of three (including a child of 4 yrs). I am a contractor and I will be moving through the country quite a bit in which case would the insurance rates be from the state from where the employer is from or should it be as per the state where i am residing? How does insurance cost vary from state to state?

AFFORDABLE auto insurance?

I'm 19 and I really need some car insurance. Everywhere I get a quote from requires that I pay an arm, a leg, and my first born son. Is there anywhere that won't do that? I'm currently unemployed, and I need a car to get a job, but I need a job to get insurance (this expensive insurance) for the car that I can't drive (legally) until I have the insurance. Somebody freakin' help me.""

Are insurance rates different for a lifted Toyota Tacoma rather than a normal one?

I know i'm getting a used Toyota Tacoma, under 100K mileage, and I really want a lifted one, but I need to know if insurance rates are different?""

Why is insurance so high for me?

Me and my friend are the same age (17) and we were looking at quotes for motorcycle insurance and his was less than 1000 and mine was about 1000- 2000 why is that and what sort of things bring insurance costs up?

How much does accutane cost without insurance?

Im planning on possibly going on accutane by january if my skin doesnt clear up.... i will buy the cheapest generic accutane i can find, But how much will it cost for bloodwork, dermatologist visits, the pills, etc...etc... i herd it could be pricy but personally i dont care i just want to get rid of this 5 year long acne.....""

Whats the cheapest insurance for a mustang gt for a male 16?

never owned a car before got my permit about to turn 16 looking at this mustang on craigslist

Can you cancel your car insurance?

I will be selling my car, and still have 4months left on a 6 month insurance..they have my bank account""

insurance quotes baton rouge

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/auto-insurance-rates-hlep-ryan-burris/"

0 notes

zeroviraluniverse-blog · 6 years

Text

Sea of Thieves trailer, release date, news and features

Visit Now - http://zeroviral.com/sea-of-thieves-trailer-release-date-news-and-features/

Sea of Thieves trailer, release date, news and features

Update: While the open beta for Sea of Thieves is coming to an end this weekend, the pre-release hype is only just beginning. During the first episode of the new Microsoft show, Inside Xbox, it was announced that there’s a special Sea of Thieves scavenger hunt about to begin in celebration of the game’s release.

Anyone can take part in the hunt and it’ll task players to crack up to 15 clues in order to find where X marks the spot. The winner or winners (because you may want to team up for this one) will receive a bunch of 4 golden bananas valued at £20,000 each.

The quest will begin on Monday, March 19 at 12 am PT / 8am GMT / 7pm AEDT when the first riddle will be revealed. It’ll then run over a total of three days with the release of a total of 15 riddles.

On Wednesday March 21 at 1pm PT / 9pm GMT / 7am AEDT (Thursday, March 22) those taking part will have seven hours to input the answers to the riddles at xbox.com/thebananaquest. After this there’ll be a final riddle to be solved by the top teams from each of the six participating countries (US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany and France) and the winner will walk away with the prize.

It’s definitely a different kind of pre-launch promotion but it seems to very much capture the spirit and aims of Sea of Thieves itself.

Scroll down to read everything we know about Sea of Thieves’ confirmed features and check out our thoughts on the game’s potential.

Article continues below…

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a game from Microsoft-owned, UK-based studio Rare that wasn’t Kinect-based. From 2009 to now, the studio has been tasked with Kinect Sports Rivals, a remake of ‘90s fighting game Killer Instinct and the Xbox avatars, but now they’re back to their old tricks with new tools, making the fantastic-looking open world MMO, Sea of Thieves.

In true Rare fashion the game features a charming art style that embraces the lighter side of the seven seas. This is not a game world that’s in any sense dark and realistic, you can fire yourself out of canons to get around quickly, and you eat bananas to restore your health.

Read on for everything we know so far about Rare’s pirate odyssey.

Cut to the chase

What is it? Rare’s upcoming open-world Pirate odyssey

When’s it out? March 20 2018

What can I play it on? Xbox One and PC

Sea of Thieves trailers

The latest trailer to be released from Rare studios gives good insight into the kinds of quests we’ll see in Sea of Thieves and what individual player progression will involve in the long term. Much of the player progression system will involve building a reputation at NPC-run Trading Companies.

All of the trading companies will appeal to a different play style and each will offer their own quests for players and their crews to pursue. As your reputation builds with each trading company, the rewards you get from pursuing their quests will become more valuable but the quests themselves will also become more difficult.

If you and your crew are sitting at different reputation levels it will apparently still be possible to play quests together as Mike Chapman has promised “there are no barriers in place preventing players playing together.”

At E3 2017 we were presented with another trailer for the game which shows off what we can expect the game to look like on the upcoming Xbox One X.

The trailer highlighted the game’s signature Rare visuals and showed off a team of four as they sought to retrieve a chest of treasure to bring it back to their ship. The players explore islands where dangers appear in form of the ghosts of previous player who remain able to attack you, and you’ll have to be especially careful while you’re busy digging up your treasure, which takes a believably long amount of time.

You can check out the trailer below.

News and features

You can become a legendary pirate

The end-game for Sea of Thieves at the moment is to become a legendary pirate. By working hard to get through quests and increase your level, you’ll increase your notoriety as a pirate. If you reach the ultimate, you’ll become a legendary pirate with your very own ship, hideout, captaincy and outfit (it’s up to you whether you wear it or not). You’ll also have access to legendary pirate quests which you can choose to pursue on your own or share them with other players.

After you’ve achieved this status, Rare says there will be further progression added to the game and you’ll be able to customize and enhance the ship you captain.

There will be no lootboxes, but there will be optional microtransactions

Rare has confirmed that in Sea of Thieves, there won’t be any lootboxes or pay-to-win purchases. There will, however, still be items that you can purchase in-game. One of the first things you’ll be able to buy, for example, is a pet.

When we asked executive producer Joe Neate about the game’s microtransactions, he told us “everything is optional; it doesn’t affect power or progression, and you’ll know what you’re getting – ie. not loot boxes.”

Instead, his team is aiming to “add more fun and social things that benefit you if you buy [them], but also benefit your crew and lead to everyone having a stronger social experience.”

When we asked for examples of what kind of things we could expect to see in this category, we were told pets is likely to be first on the cards.

“The ability to buy a pet – a monkey or a cat to accompany you. But we want it to benefit everyone and we want it to be a part of the fun social side. So if you’ve got a monkey you’ll be like ‘oh I’ll be able to pick it up and hold it!’ But that also means someone can run off with it. It’ll come back, obviously, but that bit of play between people and messing around is key.”

There will be more quests, items and timed events

The first major Sea of Thieves update will come after around three months, after the team has had the chance to listen to player feedback and react accordingly. After this, updates will range between small and large, with new item additions coming at a more regular pace than, say, large world changes.

During a studio visit to Rare we were told that there are plans to add new guilds on top of the three that are already in the world in order to allow for more diverse quests. There will also be new items and timed events. For example, you might find when you sign in one weekend that there’s an NPC in a tavern for a couple of days with a quest that’s never been available before and perhaps won’t be available again.

It’ll be this mix of big additions and temporary events that will encourage players to continue to log in and explore the Sea of Thieves.

No VR or local co-op planned

Though Sea of Thieves is a first-person game with an unobtrusive UI, there won’t be a VR version. The reason for this, we’ve been told, is that sea sickness is very real, even in a virtual world. There also won’t be any local co-op in the game. Rare told us that the game’s cross-play and low minimum specs means that households with more than one laptop or a combination of laptops and consoles will be more than able to play the game together, without the need to split a screen.

There will be a Kraken

That’s right, a Kraken. Sea of Thieves is a game that embraces the romantic and mythical side of piracy rather than the gritty realism of scurvy and keelhauling.

Naturally, that means a Kraken will appear in the game. It won’t be possible to hunt down the Kraken, and there’s predicting when it’ll appear. Instead, Rare has said that it will be a sporadic and unpredictable force in the world to make things feel more organic and dynamic. It could appear to make wrangling a storm worse, or it could sneak up on your just as you’re finishing a quest and trying to cash in your chests.

You can play solo or with a crew

Though Sea of Thieves is a game that not-so-gently encourages you to play with others, you can play alone on a small single-man ship. While you’re playing solo, you can still come up against ships manned by crews of four and though they can be taken down, it’s not easy. Playing solo requires some playstyle adaption and you might find yourself adopting more sneaky tactics (such as sneaking aboard a ship at night to plant explosive kegs) rather than sailing straight into broadside ship-to-ship combat. It’s also a good opportunity to form a temporary truce with other single players to work together to take down a larger enemy.

When you’re playing with others you have the option of creating a closed crew comprised of only your friends, or an open crew with strangers. No matter who you’re working with, communication will be key.

About that communication

Sea of Thieves is heavily co-operative, although there are combative elements with other parties, too. You and your crew will have to figure out how to man a ship, with people taking over different jobs, which means that you’ll have to communicate if you want to avoid accidentally doubling up on tasks.

At our hands on session at 2017’s E3 conference we found out the dangers of this first hand. Our ship came under attack from enemy pirates, who promptly used their cannons to blow a hole in the hull of our ship. When this happens you’ll need crew members to patch up the ship using timber, and others will need to use buckets to get rid of the water flooding the hull.

Fail to communicate and you’ll find everyone switches to dealing with the biggest problem, which lead to our cannons being completely unmanned while everyone ran around with buckets filled with sea water.

What’s interesting about Sea of Thieves is how minimal the UI is. The quests were listed on a piece of parchment that our character held, and looked at, within the game’s world, and when we picked a quest the game relied on us literally telling our teammates what were were doing rather than having an immersion-breaking arrow appearing in the environment.

Then, when you get to the island with the treasure on it, you’ll need to read your map alongside your compass to work out where you are since the game gives you no clues as to your location on the map itself.

This meant our team had enormous difficulty finding the treasure, and eventually we were forced to leave the island empty-handed and in serious need of some rum.

You have the option to communicate using your microphone or in-game voiceless commands – both work well. If you’re looking for an open crew, Sea of Thieves will attempt to match you with players using the same communication method as yourself to make things easier.

Progression doesn’t determine which quests you can do

When playing the game, you’ll be able to do quests for three guilds. Which guild you choose determines the nature of the quest: Gold Hoarders will have you hunting treasure, the Merchants Guild will ask you to fetch and return items, while the Order of Souls are more combative bounty hunter missions. You’re not locked into any particular guild, but you will get progression points for each one.

These will allow you to level up in the game, unlock higher level quests with better rewards and get closer to becoming a legendary pirate. That said, when you’re a lower level pirate you’ll still be able to take part in higher level quests. Rare has said that there’s no level barrier in Sea of Thieves and as long as higher level players are willing to share their quests, there’s nothing stopping new or less committed players taking part and earning their share.

Naval combat is present

Naval combat is another key element of the game, and in these instances your canons are your best friends. Your team will need to work together to get the cannonballs from beneath the deck into the canons themselves, after which point you’ll be able to fire them at enemy ships to try and send them down to Davy Jones’ Locker.

If you prefer a hands on approach you can board enemy ships to take on their crew using a combination of swords, muskets, and flintlock pistols. You can either swim aboard other ships, or, if you’re feeling brave, you can literally fire yourself out of a canon to get there quicker.

You can customize your avatar

Though you’ll select your avatar from a pre-made lineup, it will be customisable with the ability to change gender, physique, appearance, and outfits, although the game does not have skill trees or character classes. You’ll be able to further customize your character as you play with new, fancier outfits and even prosthesis.

The world is open and explorable

Sea of Thieves is not a multiplayer game with matches – this is an open world and every ship you come across will be crewed by real players. It’s up to them and you whether they’re friend or foe. Between quests there will be plenty of opportunities for bonding with your crew and sailing freely.

Dying is…interesting

And what if you die? Well, in true pirate fashion you’ll be booted to Davy Jones’ Locker, where you can swap stories with fellow ghosts and attempt to board a ferry back to the world of the living by performing quests for the ferryman. Your sunken ship can be plundered in the meantime, so don’t take too long.

How can I play it?

Sea of Thieves will be available on PC and Xbox One on March 20 2018. It’ll be possible to purchase the game outright, or pick up an Xbox Game Pass subscription as the game is included in its entirety through the service.

If you’re not sure whether Sea of Thieves is for you, picking up a Game Pass trial for free and playing the game for a short time through it is a good way to find out.

The game is not a port for PC or Xbox, it works equally on both and supports cross-play. While the console version has locked frame rates of 30fps, the PC version’s are unlocked. Mouse, keyboard and controllers are all supported across console and PC.

#date #features #news #release #sea #Thieves #Trailer #Tech #Tech World

0 notes

flauntpage · 7 years

Text

Your Tuesday Morning Roundup

The next era of Phillies baseball is upon us.

Yesterday, the Phillies officially announced the signing of Gabe Kapler as its new manager. From the team’s press release:

Kapler, 42, has spent the last three years working for the Los Angeles Dodgers as the club’s director of player development, overseeing their entire minor league system. The Dodgers’ minor league teams went a combined 1,299-1,128 during his tenure with eight first-place finishes. Their .535 winning percentage over that span was fourth-best among all 30 major league clubs and second-best among all National League teams, trailing only the Phillies (.548).

“On behalf of the entire Phillies organization, I am very pleased to welcome Gabe Kapler to Philadelphia,” said [Matt] Klentak. “Gabe has a track record of leadership, winning, progressive thinking and working with young players, and we fully believe that he is the right person to guide this organization into the future.”

He is the first manager without previous ties to the organization that the Phillies have hired since Terry Francona in 1996.

Also, he is probably the hottest manager in Phillies history, scratch that, MLB history.

Let’s just hope he manages a baseball team as well as he blogs.

As for his staff? Already one interested candidate:

.@gehrig38 just told @MikeMiss975 that he sent a text to Gabe Kapler last night expressing some interest in being his pitching coach

— 975TheFanatic (@975TheFanatic) October 30, 2017

He will be officially introduced in a press conference this week.

Let’s go.

The Roundup:

The Sixers got revenge last night in a 115-107 victory over the Houston Rockets. J.J. Redick was out for the second straight game, but it didn’t matter as Ben Simmons led the Sixers with 24 points. Joel Embiid dropped 22 points in 25 minutes.

Simmons just looks so good right now:

.@BenSimmons25 hits @timcabs in transition and he glides to the rim for the @StateFarm Assist of the Night. http://pic.twitter.com/kA0OKe1q3m

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) October 31, 2017

The Sixers won both in the Texas two-step and return home to host the Hawks on Wednesday night at 7pm.

—

The Flyers were in the Wells Fargo Center last night against the winless Arizona Coyotes, well at least they were the winless Coyotes. The Flyers fought back to force OT, but this happened with just seconds left in the extra period:

Sanheim can't do that. Because this happens. http://pic.twitter.com/1VHNIbXG43

— Chris Jastrzembski (@CFJastrzembski) October 31, 2017

The team visits the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night at 8pm.

In a roster move, the team recalled Mark Alt from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

—

The Eagles won on Sunday, but the offense wasn’t happy with their performance. The defense played pretty well, according to our Kevin Kinkead and his takeaways:

With Jordan Hicks done for the season, the pass coverage of Walker, Bradham, and Najee Goode seemed like it would be a big topic in this one, but it really wasn’t. That’s because C.J. Beathard was being totally clobbered all game long and really didn’t even have time to get rid of the ball.

The Birds’ defensive line rag dolled the rookie QB, sacking him 4 times, hitting him 12 times, and ripping off a pick-6. They had 9 tackles for a loss overall.

Most impressive was their QB separation number, where four players were well under the league average.

That defense may be without Fletcher Cox on Sunday though, who is under investigation for his hit on Joe Staley.

Kinkead breaks down a certain type of play he wants Dougie P to toss out of the playbook.

Sadly, a former Eagle passed away yesterday.

The Eagles are preparing for a tough road trip to the west coast, with the team staying out there in between games, but the club may have an even longer trip next season:

The Philadelphia Eagles could be London-bound in 2018.

NFL UK managing director Alistair Kirkwood told ESPN that the “desire” is to bring the final six teams who have not yet played in London overseas next season. The Eagles are among that group.

“It’s not the be-all and end-all, but you’d kind of like to get closer and closer to having all 32 teams over. That seems like a really nice narrative, and also for the fans of the teams that have supported us through thick and thin and haven’t seen the Eagles or the Titans or the Texans or…the Packers,” he said.

—

In other sports news, the 49ers traded for Jimmy Garoppolo.

Ezekiell Elliot’s injunction was denied, but he could appeal and still play Sunday.

And another NFL trade, the Seahawks acquired Duane Brown.

—

In non-sports news…

Google was attacked for it poorly built cheeseburger emoji.

A judge in Hawaii ordered a man to write 144 nice things about his ex-girlfriend.

Kevin Spacey had a day…he was accused of sexual misconduct, came out as gay, and saw House of Cards get canceled.

The first charges came down on three people in the Mueller Investigation.

Your Tuesday Morning Roundup published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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junker-town · 7 years

Text

2017-18 college basketball top 25: An updated look at next season's top teams

Plenty of changes have taken place over the past eight weeks, including the team that sits atop our early rankings.

Now that we know who’s heading to the NBA Draft and who’s returning to the college game for at least one more year, it’s time to re-evaluate our super early top 25 from the moments immediately following the 2017 national title game.

We’ll start with the new king of the offseason.

1. Arizona Wildcats

2016-17 Record: 32-5

2016-17 Finish: Sweet 16

Arizona already had a claim for this spot a month ago, but the returns of Allonzo Trier and Rawle Alkins as well as the unexpected addition of Emmanuel Akot have the Wildcats as the team most likely to begin 2017-18 at No. 1. Has Sean Miller ever been to a Final Four before? We should probably discuss that at some point in the next nine months.

2. Kansas Jayhawks

2016-17 Record: 31-5

2016-17 Finish: Elite Eight

Bill Self is losing the National Player of the Year in Frank Mason as well as freshman star Josh Jackson, but there are also a lot of smaller pieces from the 2016-17 Big 12 champions that are coming back. Mississippi State transfer Malik Newman, a former five-star recruit, should help cushion the blow of Mason’s departure. It’s also easy to see Devonte' Graham taking the Mason’s spotlight role and becoming a national POY candidate himself.

3. Duke Blue Devils

2016-17 Record: 28-9

2016-17 Finish: Second Round

The Blue Devils won’t be as star-studded this season as they were in 2016-17, but that doesn’t mean they won’t wind up being more successful. For the first time in three years, Coach K will have a legitimate point guard in five-star freshman Trevon Duval. The presence of Duval should also allow Grayson Allen to move back to his more natural spot off the ball. If he can avoid all of the distractions that have plagued him for the past year and a half, perhaps Allen can wind up having the All-American season as a senior that everyone thought he’d have in 2016-17.

4. Michigan State Spartans

2016-17 Record: 20-15

2016-17 Finish: Second Round

There is no single player whose return to college basketball matters more than Miles Bridges’ to East Lansing. The rising sophomore figured to be a lottery pick in next month’s NBA Draft. Instead, he’s a near lock to be a preseason first team All-American in 2017-18 and has Michigan State back to being a national championship-caliber team.

5. Wichita State Shockers

2016-17 Record: 31-5

2016-17 Finish: Second Round

Don’t be surprised at all if in 2017-18 Wichita State winds up stepping into the role that Gonzaga inhabited throughout last season. The Shockers return every key player from a team that won 31 games and got them into the top 10 of the national rankings. The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee’s likely consideration of metrics outside of just the RPI would also help Wichita avoid being massively under-seeded for a fourth straight year. The Shockers’ move to the American Athletic Conference — where they’ll likely be preseason favorites in their first year — should help with that as well.

6. Kentucky Wildcats

2016-17 Record: 32-6

2016-17 Finish: Elite Eight

The annual mass exodus at Kentucky was even more extreme than usual this year, as the Wildcats lost pair of senior contributors and a sophomore starter in addition to their star freshmen. In all, UK lost its top seven scorers and eight of its top nine from a team that nearly knocked off eventual national champion North Carolina in the Elite Eight. As he always does, John Calipari will reload with another top two recruiting class. He also received huge news in the 11th hour of deadline day when the ridiculously athletic Hamidou Diallo announced that he would be returning to Lexington ... for his freshman season.

7. Villanova Wildcats

2016-17 Record: 32-4

2016-17 Finish: Second Round

Because of their early exit in March, too many people are overlooking the fact that Villanova followed up its national title in 2016 by earning the NCAA tournament’s overall No. 1 seed. Josh Hart was the biggest reason that happened, and he’s gone, but the cupboard isn’t completely bare for Jay Wright. Jalen Brunson has all the potential necessary to be ‘Nova’s next superstar, and Mikal Bridges, Phil Booth and Donte DiVincenzo are all back to form a solid nucleus around him. Also don’t forget about Omari Spellman, a top 20 player from the class of 2016 who was forced to sit out all of last season because of an academic issue.

8. Florida Gators

2016-17 Record: 27-9

2016-17 Finish: Elite Eight

Last season’s regional final run could be just the beginning for the Mike White era in Gainesville. The Gators lost starting point guard Kasey Hill and grad transfer Canyon Barry, but return the other most important pieces from their surprisingly successful 2016-17 campaign. Having a healthy John Egbunu back will only make them more formidable.

9. North Carolina Tar Heels

2016-17 Record: 33-7

2016-17 Finish: National Champions

The Heels occupied the top spot in our first set of rankings right after the national title game, but the surprise departure of talented freshman big man Tony Bradley changes things. With Kennedy Meeks and Justin Jackson also gone, Final Four MOP Joel Berry will now be asked to do a ton for a UNC team that won’t be able to dominate the offensive glass the way they have the past two years.

10. West Virginia Mountaineers

2016-17 Record: 28-9

2016-17 Finish: Sweet 16

Four key players including two senior starters from last season’s team are gone, but Daxter Miles and Jevon Carter are back to form one of the best backcourts in the country. The biggest key for West Virginia, however, is that there’s more than enough carryover for Bob Huggins’ “Press Virginia” style to terrorize all Mountaineer opponents for yet another year.

11. USC Trojans

2016-17 Record: 26-10

2016-17 Finish: Second Round

Andy Enfield quietly did one of the best coaching jobs in all of college basketball last season. After an overachieving 2015-16, his team appeared to be all set to have “the year” before a wave of unexpected departures left the program in a state of disarray. While the Trojans weren’t on the same level as UCLA, Oregon, and Arizona in the Pac-12, they were competitive enough to earn a second straight trip to the Big Dance and win two games after getting there. Now, he has every key member from that team back for another run. USC also tosses five-star forward Charles O'Bannon Jr. and Duke transfer Derryck Thornton into the mix.

12. Louisville Cardinals

2016-17 Record: 25-9

2016-17 Finish: Second Round

With Donovan Mitchell, Louisville had a legitimate claim to the top spot on this list. Without both Mitchell and surprise departure Jaylen Johnson, the Cardinals are going to need both some returnees to step up and its freshman class to help out significantly if they want to be in the mix for a Final Four trip. Deng Adel needs to assume Mitchell’s role as a First Team All-ACC level performer, and former McDonald’s All-American V.J. King needs to morph into one of the country’s top breakout sophomores.

13. Miami Hurricanes

2016-17 Record: 21-12

2016-17 Finish: First Round

The Hurricanes were trounced by Michigan State in the first round of the 2017 tournament, but should be able to put themselves in a position to avoid a similar letdown in 2018. Miami loses Davon Reed and Kamari Murphy, but returns stars Ja’Quan Newton and Bruce Brown. They also add the best recruiting class ever put together by Jim Larranaga.

14. Seton Hall Pirates

2016-17 Record: 21-12

2016-17 Finish: First Round

With Andel Delgado opting to pull his name out of the draft, Kevin Willard returns a team with four players who have been starters on back-to-back NCAA tournament squads.

15. Cincinnati Bearcats

2016-17 Record: 30-6

2016-17 Finish: Second Round

Troy Caupain leaves big shoes to fill, but fellow stars Jacob Evans and Gary Clark are back from Mick Cronin’s strongest Cincinnati team to date. Sacred Heart transfer Cane Broome should add even more offensive firepower to a roster that should provide the best competition for Wichita State in the AAC.

16. Gonzaga Bulldogs

2016-17 Record: 37-2

2016-17 Finish: National Runners-Up

Yes, they lost All-American Nigel Williams-Goss and yes, potential lottery lottery pick Zach Collins became the first one-and-done program history, but doubt the Zags at your own peril. Mark Few has plenty of talent on his roster that the nation didn’t get to see much of this year, because he didn’t need to show much of it this year. Don’t be surprised if the country writes off Gonzaga once again and they’re right back in the thick of the national discussion come February.

17. Minnesota Golden Gophers

2016-17 Record: 24-10

2016-17 Finish: First Round

The Golden Gophers were one of the most pleasant surprises of the 2016-17 season, but expectations will be higher for Richard Pitino and company now. Thankfully, Pitino returns every player outside of senior Akeem Springs from the team that did enough damage in the Big Ten to earn a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament.

18. Xavier Musketeers

2016-17 Record: 24-14

2016-17 Finish: Elite Eight

For a second straight year, Trevon Bluiett flirted significantly with the NBA before ultimately opting to come back to school. His return should put the Musketeers in a position to enjoy more March magic, but with a more fitting seed this time.

19. Alabama Crimson Tide

2016-17 Record: 19-15

2016-17 Finish: NIT First Round

Avery Johnson’s program is about to be a problem in the SEC. He returns sophomore standouts Braxton Key and Dazon Ingram from a team that took down eventual national semifinalist South Carolina twice. But the biggest reason for this jump is the addition of a top five recruiting class headlined by one of the class of 2017’s top pure scorers, Collin Sexton.

20. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

2016-17 Record: 26-10

2016-17 Finish: Second Round

Mike Brey simply does not let the Irish fall too far. Point guard Matt Farrell and Third Team All-American Bonzie Colson are back to lead yet another Notre Dame team that will be right there in the top third of the ACC.

21. Butler Bulldogs

2016-17 Record: 25-9

2016-17 Finish: Sweet 16

Butler put a nice cap on a somewhat enigmatic season by playing true to their seed and advancing to the Sweet 16 where they fell to eventual national champion North Carolina. Leading scorer Kelan Martin is back and should be one of the top contenders for Big East Player of the Year, and Chris Holtmann is also bringing in a wave of new talent with three four-star freshmen.

22. Virginia Tech Hokies

2016-17 Record: 22-11

2016-17 Finish: First Round

It certainly feels like Buzz Williams is just getting started. The 2017-18 team already owns the odd status of returning all five starters, but losing its top two scorers in Seth Allen and Zach LeDay. Nobody said Buzz was conventional.

23. Northwestern Wildcats

2016-17 Record: 24-12

2016-17 Finish: Second Round

Chris Collins returns nearly every key contributor from the Northwestern team that made history by finally getting the program into the NCAA tournament and eventually winning a game there.

24. Saint Mary’s Gaels

2016-17 Record: 29-5

2016-17 Finish: Second Round

It wasn’t just Gonzaga which held it down for the West Coast Conference in the NCAA tournament. Saint Mary’s handled VCU in round one of the Big Dance before pushing second-seeded Arizona to the brink two days later. Jock Landale is back for his senior season and ready to earn the title of the most-efficient big man in college basketball.

25. UCLA Bruins

2016-17 Record: 31-5

2016-17 Finish: Sweet 16

With Thomas Welsh and Aaron Holiday back and another loaded recruiting class joining the fold, it looks on the surface like UCLA shouldn’t slip too far in the post-Lonzo Ball world. Then again, this is a program where weird things happen sometimes.

The Next 10:

26. Texas

27. Michigan

28. Baylor

29. TCU

30. Rhode Island

31. Missouri

32. Purdue

33. Nevada

34. Wisconsin

35. Creighton

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