#the roles may have changed but the FLAVOUR persists

[matchabot]

the “roleswap au” prompt for dmfx week this year made me unhinged

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Three Houses #Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd #Felix Hugo Fraldarius #dimilix #roleswap au #nothing is a bigger testament to how well i manage my time (which is to say Not Very Well) #than how i handled this ship week #the smart thing to have done: one piece for each day #what i did: go HAM on like 4 days and be like oh shit i have no time when it comes to the last 3 #anyway it was fun and i did talk a little more about this au on my twitter #the 3rd pic had dialogue but i didn't like how it looked #it was smth like 'ha. you're such a model student. why don't you take this insignia and lead us yourself.' #the roles may have changed but the FLAVOUR persists

[oddlyhale]

James, James, James, James. My ultimate RWBY bias, my precious sad man. I have so much to discuss about prince charming here.

My Top 3 Ships For James IronQrow IronWatts IronWitch

To easily sum up all 3 ships as a whole, I like a character that directly challenges James’ personality. While James can be direct and cold at times, these 3 have a level of challenge but consideration for him.

Qrow is the rebellious grump that counters James with remarks but can relate to the emotional burdens. Watts is the cynic that still holds James to a higher regard if he had to choose between him and his team. Glynda is stern and insinuates, but she’s also careful and studious.

I think James works well with someone who can relate to the struggles he hides or someone that can shake it out of him. James is a selective guy, so I assume he’s extremely picky with who he’d like to have hanging off his arm. These 3 always gave me such strong personalities that counter James in a productive way, that they have an ingredient that James is missing in his own life that can spice things up or can change the flavour of what he’s used to. I never think James is into people who are just like him.

My Least 3 Favourite Ships For James This is hard for me to say since I’m pretty neutral with ships that include our tin man.

If I had to choose a few, it’d be IronWinter and IronRobyn.

I’ll admit, the only reason why I don’t like IronRobyn is that I fucking hate Robyn. She’s toxic and always has a short temper, and seems to direct it all at James when she could’ve been angry at any other enemy that’s right in front of her (cough Jacques cough.) I think she’d demean him way too much, which is why she’d be the worst girlfriend ever.

I’m still debating with IronWinter. I am falling off the ship due to V8’s ending, and how badly the writing handled their friendship (and possibly budding romance) horribly in the end. I think if only Winter could have tried to be compassionate towards James, and did everything she could to save him - express her anguish over his turmoil, showing how much it’s causing her pain as well, to the point where James has to stop and realize what he’s doing - then maybe I could like this ship. As it stands, it’s a no from me, doc.

My Biggest Criticism Of James Firstly, it’s obvious that I deeply despise what the writers had done to my boy in V8. They accidentally made him such a layered and likable character that they had to damn him straight to Hell, just so that we can like the sociopaths - I mean Team RWBY - again. It was such a sad sight to see, I still feel the string.

But also, I must criticize how James was barely portrayed as a bad guy from the beginning. People point at how cold he acted in the first few volumes, but I personally think that’s just people being too sensitive over such strong personalities. James is very direct and has no time for nonsense - which could make him disliked from the jump.

If he must be seen as such a morally grey person, then I would’ve loved to see that development properly from the beginning. Making him morally grey that teeters into villain status is exciting and tragic, but you knew it was going to happen. His entry into bad guy status would’ve made so much sense if he were quietly cold-hearted, choosing logic over emotion, and wouldn’t bother taking the time to protect people if he only created robots just to protect himself. He is evil, but deep down he finds himself vulnerable, and that would always be his burden that created a villain.

And don’t fucking kill him in the end. With an amasing written villain, you’d be stupid enough to not let him be recruited by Salem. He is a boiling pot of what she needs, and he would oblige if it meant he could ring the necks of our heroes.

My Favourite Thing About James Him. Just him.

Everything can be generalized into one word, which would be strength. Not only is he strong physically, but his heart also showed his truth and his mind was what kept him capable. He was always on top of the game, never asking for help, and would do whatever it took to save those before himself. He truly is a guy that could be the embodiment of true strength. Somebody that I can look up to, and read him for what he stood for, what he thrived on, and what made him move forward. He works so hard and still keeps pushing to do the job right. Your status didn’t matter to him, whether you were rich or poor, or just an adventurer, he would still have his own way of welcoming you as a trusted friend or shun you for being a prick. I think James would be the perfect example of someone who can keep going, and with so much persistence and diligence, you can succeed.

Even when he was a villain in V8, the writers proved to us that he was still the biggest character to always look forward to. Salem was practically a joke compared to our favourite tin man, and that’s sad when even the main villain is nowhere as important as James.

I have been told people did love and look up to James, which is such a major shame that he is gone and gone in such a disrespectful way.

A Headcannon I Have About James My biggest headcannon about James is that he is asexual-biromantic.

James valued anybody who was loyal and worked with him to reach their goals. I like how it doesn’t matter who it may be, whether you are female, male, or something more. James had his heart in his hands, and he would always give it to those he trusted most. Falling in love would be tough, but adorkable to see.

What I Would Change About James If I Was Making A Rewrite To be honest, not much. I adore him as he is.

My biggest change, however, would be his semblance and keeping him morally-grey-to-hero. I think James thrives on such a great story if he had a semblance that mirrored himself, and how he would try to stay on the path of heroics than to steer into the stupid cartoony villain one. Hell, James needs his own show.

I have a variety of ideas as to what his new semblance would be, but I’d be here all day. Instead, I always loved the idea that James has a sentient semblance that corresponds with him. James wants somebody to trust, so what better than your own responsive semblance? Such as barbed-wires, or a familiar, or even the ability to manifest weapons with his aura. How cool!

What I Think Of James’ Character Allusion And What (if anything) I Would Change About It

As much as I like the tin man allusion, I personally would have chosen something much more tragic and detrimental to his character. I get he’s supposed to be in the Oz Faction, but it’s lame at this point.

For me, I would’ve made him the Beast. (No I’m not asking for IronwoodxBlake, I am saying he should’ve been the Beast.) It makes sense if he were the Beast - he is cold, he is intimidating, he is brash, he is distrusting of others until they have his full confidence. Beast was always hiding away, not wanting to go out and expose himself to a world that would hate him or fear him. He masks himself in an authority role, but would likely drop it when he’s alone. He can go into a flurry of rage and is destructive. In the end, however, all he wants is somebody to break his curse - a burden.

You don’t have to change much about his appearance, other than making him a Faunus. Since Beast could have a closer likeness to a werewolf, give James some wolfish characteristics, like a bushy tail, or even some cute ass wolf ears. Even his eyes can shine menacingly in the dark, like a wolf. Or, give him some massive canine teeth, so when he bares them in anger, they’re gleaming sharp and ready to bite.

Yup that’s it. Thanks!

#pro james ironwood

[typologicalmusings]

Monica Geller: ESFJ

Extraverted Feeling (Fe): Monica is “always the hostess” (The One with Rachel’s Crush, 4x13). She loves throwing parties and cooking for her friends – when Phoebe’s apartment burns down, she affectionately names her own apartment “Hotel Monica,” and takes delight in creating a guest bedroom so that Phoebe is comfortable (The One Where Ross Dates a Student, 6x18). She is upset when the group stops spending time in her apartment and refurnishes Joey and Chandler’s place so that she can play the “hostess” role once again (The One with Rachel’s Crush, 4x13). Monica is the glue that holds the group together and is always there to offer emotional support for others, such as counselling Ross through his feelings for Rachel, supporting Chandler through his breakup with Kathy, or advising Rachel about her feelings for Joey (The One with the Soap Opera Party, 9x20).  She values group harmony, and frequently makes personal sacrifices to ensure everyone is happy, such as cooking different kinds of potatoes for her friends so that they could all enjoy Thanksgiving like they had as children (The One Where Underdog Gets Away, 1x09). At times, Monica can feel undervalued by others for her group sacrifices – she refuses to cook Thanksgiving dinner one year because she “doesn’t think it’s fair” the burden falls on her each year (The One with the Late Thanksgiving, 10x08), and is upset when Rachel doesn’t appreciate a birthday she throws (The One with the Two Parties, 2x22). Monica has a strong understanding of social rules. When Phoebe invites a stripper to Rachel’s baby shower, Monica is aghast, calling Phoebe’s actions “totally inappropriate” (The One with the Baby Shower, 8x20). Similarly, she is shocked when Phoebe plans to wear a bohemian dress to meet Mike’s conservative parents, urging her to buy something more suitable for the social setting (The One with Ross’s Inappropriate Song, 9x07). Monica is mortified when she breaks social rules, such as forgetting to invite Rachel’s mother to her baby shower (The One with the Baby Shower, 8x20), and is equally mortified when others break them too, being aghast that she wasn’t invited to her cousin’s wedding, a major social faux pas (The One with all the Cheesecakes, 7x11). At times, she uses her understanding of social rules to manipulate others, such as wearing a white dress to a wedding to spite her cousin for not inviting her (The One with all the Cheesecakes, 7x11). Her manipulative capabilities extend to other areas of life, where she tricks Chandler into having sex with her (The One with Phoebe’s Birthday Dinner, 9x05), and writes a speech to make the audience cry at her parents’ wedding anniversary (The One in Massapequa, 8x18). Monica desperately wants to be liked by the people around her, and often goes to great lengths to receive positive regard from others, such as making candy for everyone in the building so that she would be liked by her neighbours (The One with all the Candy, 7x09), flattering Rachel’s mother in an attempt to win back her approval (The One with the Baby Shower, 8x20), or continuing to wear a pair of uncomfortable boots because she “loved the compliments” (The One with Monica’s Boots, 8x10).

Introverted Sensing (Si): Monica describes herself as having an “eye for detail” (The One with the Joke, 6x12). She has a knack for noticing differences in the environment, immediately being able to tell that the apartment has been cleaned after Chandler employs a maid (The One with the Stain, 8x07), and that the green ottoman has been moved when Rachel vacuums (The One with the Butt, 1x06). She frequently uses past experiences to assess the present, such as comparing a previous thanksgiving dinner to one she had made the year before to assess how much her cooking had improved (The One with the Late Thanksgiving, 10x08). Monica is uncomfortable with change in her environment – she immediately dismisses Rachel’s suggestion that an ugly lamp be added to the living room (The One Where Heckles Dies, 2x08), and feels uneasy when Rachel moves the green ottoman to a different location because she wants things in her apartment to stay the same (The One with the Butt, 1x06). She also struggles with changes in her personal life – when she and Richard break up, Monica shuts herself inside her apartment because she is unable to adjust to life without him (The One with the Princess Leia Fantasy, 3x01). Likewise, she is deeply upset when Rachel has to move out, calling it “the end of an era” (The One Where Ross Hugs Rachel, 6x02). Monica takes comfort in the familiar and the predicable – when times get tough, she tends to turn to things from the past for comfort, such as smoking cigars to feel close to Richard after they break up (The One with the Princess Leia Fantasy, 3x01). She is deeply aware of her past, and is often haunted by her negative childhood experiences – when Rachel and Ross kiss on her engagement night, she is reminded of being overshadowed by Rachel through childhood, and thus accuses Rachel of “stealing her thunder” (The One with Monica’s Thunder, 7x01). Likewise, when Chandler mentions he ended a relationship with a girlfriend because she was overweight, Monica is reminded of being rejected by a boy in fifth grade because she was “too fat” and becomes upset (The One with the Nap Partners, 7x06). Monica is a very sentimental person. She enjoys collecting and reminiscing over past memories, and loves keeping old photographs – she is delighted to share an album full of childhood pictures with Emily (The One with the Fake Party, 4x16), and vows to take more photographs as a new year’s resolution so that she can remember important moments with her friends (The One with all the Resolutions, 5x11). Monica values past relics that hold personal significance – she keeps an antique cabinet because it belonged to her grandmother (The Last One: Part 2, 10x18), and is excited to receive her aunt’s dollhouse because she always wanted to play with it as a child (The One with the Dollhouse, 3x20). Likewise, she is devastated when her childhood memories are destroyed through flooding of her parents’ garage (The One Where Rosita Dies, 7x13). At times, Monica is inclined to project her sentimental streak onto others, who may not always appreciate it – she hires a bunny costume for Chandler because his favourite childhood book was The Velveteen Rabbit, failing to realise that the costume would make him embarrassed instead (The One with the Halloween Party, 8x06). Monica has an excellent memory for details – at one point, Rachel berates her for her ability to remember “every little thing” (The One with Joey’s Dirty Day, 4x14). For example, she remembers each step of a dance routine she and Ross invented as kids and is able to perform it perfectly several years later (The One with the Routine, 6x10). She also has a love for detail which manifests in her approach to planning – she organises a party for Rachel with detailed sketches of the cake and an alphabetised list of music (The One Where Rachel Smokes, 5x18), and plans the seating arrangements for her wedding through strict adherence to a detailed seating chart (The One with Rachel’s Big Kiss, 7x20).

Extraverted Intuition (Ne): Monica is able to see situations not only for what they are (Si), but for what they could be (Ne). When she is offered a job at Alessandro’s, Monica agrees to take it on because she can see the potential of the restaurant, despite giving it a negative review several days previously (The One Where They’re Going to Party, 4x09). She is well aware that the food is bad, her co-workers are unkind, and the restaurant has a terrible reputation, but she embraces what the restaurant could be with an optimistic opening speech (“with a pinch of excitement, a dash of hard work, and a dollop of cooperation, we can have the recipe…”). This ability to see the potential in things is a persistent trait that manifests itself throughout the series – when Monica is forced to move into Joey and Chandler’s apartment, she sees it’s potential as a comfortable living space, and works to transform it into one despite her initial disgust (The One with the Embryos, 4x12). Similarly, she senses the potential in the fake chocolate product “mockolate,” and seeks to improve it by incorporating it into a series of baked goods (The One with the List, 2x08). Monica is open to new opportunities, especially when it comes to her career – she drops her catering gig with Phoebe to accept a job at Alessandro’s (The One Where They’re Going to Party, 4x09), and declines moving with Chandler to Tulsa because she is offered a position at Javu (The One with the Pediatrician, 9x03). She is fairly flexible when it comes to her work, and is willing to try several alternatives (Ne) if it means being able to address more practical concerns like maintaining a steady income (Si). For example, she accepts a job as a kitchen hand (The Pilot, 1x01), a caterer (The One with the Dirty Girl, 4x06), a waitress at a diner (The One with the Two Parties, 2x22), a food critic (The One Where They’re Going to Party, 4x09) and a head chef (The One Where They’re Going to Party, 4x09). At times, Monica is undaunted by change – she views Chandler’s unemployment as “exciting” while he is terrified by the lack of security (The One Where Rachel Goes Back to Work, 9x11). She’s also quick to make connections, realising that Phoebe and Rachel know about her relationship with Chandler without it being overtly stated (The One Where Everybody Finds Out, 5x14).

Introverted Thinking (Ti): Monica has a solid understanding of how things work. As a chef, she knows the flavours that complement each other, and is easily able to pull a recipe apart and put it back together again, such as deconstructing a cookie to figure out the recipe for Phoebe’s grandmother’s cookies (The One with Phoebe’s Cookies, 7x03). She is excellent at troubleshooting – when Joey admits he is unfit for a role because he has been circumcised, Monica helps to solve the problem by fashioning him a range of foreskins from processed meat (The One with Ross and Monica’s Cousin, 7x19). Similarly, she creates a series of baked goods for Mockolate in an attempt to improve their taste (The One with the List, 2x08).  She is curious, sometimes even obsessive, about finding out how things work, on one occasion destroying Joey and Chandler’s apartment in a search for where a switch was (The One with all the Rugby, 4x15). Monica is fairly logical, and often hands out quite frank advice to her friends. When Rachel confesses that she wants to fool around with Joey, Monica advises her not to follow through with it because she believes it “will never work” (The One with the Soap Opera Party, 9x20). Likewise, when Phoebe ditches plans with David to go out with Joey as a way of upholding her personal values, Monica informs Phoebe that her actions are ridiculous (The One with all the Cheesecakes, 7x11). Monica is equally capable of applying the same logical principles to her own life – for example, she breaks up with Richard because she knows a relationship between them is futile when she wants children and he doesn’t (The One with Barry and Mindy’s Wedding, 2x24).

Note: Like Rachel, Monica was incredibly difficult to type because she appears to use Te and Fe equally prominently. Truth be told, I’m not completely sold on ESFJ, and could possibly be convinced by a solid ESTJ argument. This problem can be attributed to inconsistent writing – Monica is generally warmer and kinder as the series begins, before becoming more brash and competitive in later years. I chose ESFJ because Monica appears to use Ti more than Fi – she’s logical, good at troubleshooting and tends to be externally directed with her feelings. If she used Fi, Monica would be less concerned about group harmony and more influenced by her own feelings.

#myers briggs type indicator #mbti #monica geller #friends #f.r.i.e.n.d.s. #pop culture analysis #friends mbti #friends typology #esfj #extraverted feeling

[drkungfus-customs]

Mtg Custom Card Competition Round 2: Phyrexians on Ixalan

Hello everyone and welcome back to the second week of I and Alyssa's custom card challenge. Just a quick foreword to thank everyone for the warm response we have had to the last round of judging, it is always nice to see people throw feedback back at us for running it. This weeks prompt was provided by Alyssa where participants were asked to present a theoretical Phyrexian corruption of Ixalan. As always submissions were gathered through discord and were judged by myself and Alyssa.

Michael says: So our first submission of the prompt, this card is a powerful reanimation and board control effect stapled onto a phyrexian corrupted dinosaur. However the power level, especially for a rare, is what has me most concerned. The colour pie is fine and the card feels very black, there are no problems in that regard. The part that has me worried is that the reanimation is instant, comes at a low cost, and is a replacement effect. Once Corruptosaurus is on the battlefield, and if itself gets a -1/-1 counter, it becomes almost impossible to deal with as traditional measures such as rest in piece or leyline will do nothing to prevent this effect. Additionally because the return is instantly rather than at the end of turn as with Marchesa, the Black Rose it opens the card up to some silly loops with persist cards or anything that has -1/-1 counters built in.  While the card is slow to distribute -1/-1 counters, their existence on this card implies they exist elsewhere in the set which will make this card much stronger. Especially in limited this card would be a nightmare as -1/-1 effects your opponent controls will be useless against your creatures and your own also feature as a steal effect. In order to make this card feel a little less broken and more fair I would restrict the resurrection to either only your own creatures or only your opponents. The potential value engine of this card seems a little above the curve as-is, especially when considering older formats with access to things like black sun’s zenith. There isn’t a single factor that pushes this card over, its just a confluence of factors that would make this card just not fun to play with and too warping in the limited environment.

Alyssa says: Formatting is mostly fine. The third ability shouldn’t be a replacement effect, because as written it inappropriately uses “return”. (Because the word return requires a card to be in the graveyard, and this replacement effect means that you gain control of the creature instead of it dying, it never enters a zone it can “return” from.) As written now, it resurrects friendly things with -1/-1 counter on them, meaning anything that has a -1/-1 counter either endemic to it (Bloodied Ghost, Grief Tyrant) or has permanent persist can be infinitely looped by it. You’ve accidentally prevented some abuse like Disciple of the Vault and Blood Artist by replacing the death trigger, but you can still benefit immensely from the infinite sacrifice. Furthermore, it just makes immortal creatures.

Balance-wise, it’s doing a bit much. The endemic wither is fine, giving it a way to damage stuff and get it back, and it would tie well in with the third ability like a souped up Necroskitter. The second ability is completely unnecessary, though perhaps more novel. You really only need one of these for the card to be useful for Limited and narrow Constructed applications (which is where this thing feels like it belongs.) It would be so much better if you went with only one of these abilities: I prefer the second one, as the incremental infection-based effect, perhaps through infected bites or claw injuries, seems much more “dinosaur” than a resurrection effect.

Flavor-wise, it’s okay, but it’s a bit bland. It’s a zombie dinosaur that does vague infection stuff. There’s not much of a story to the card, and a bit of flavor text with the space freed up from the above changes would be just dandy. I want to see how it fits in with the set around it, how Ixalan responds to its new apex predators. You have no art credit. We wouldn’t have noticed that “Mr. J” wasn’t an art credit if someone else didn’t use that art and credit it correctly.

Possible improvements:

-          Focus on one of the two passives and cut the other. If you wanted to focus on the incremental blight aspect, then perhaps make it asymmetric and only affect your opponent’s creatures.

-          Fix that malfunctioning third ability if you decide to stick with it.

-          Flavor text never hurts.

-          Drop a reminder text bubble on Wither for easier reading comprehension.

Grades:

Formatting – 4/5

Function – 3/5

Flavor – 2/5

Michael says: This card appears to have a serious flavour issue which really hurts the mechanical execution of the card. The flavour text indicates a phyrexian merger of Ghalta and Etali, something I would expect to have a similar importance as Brisela from Eldritch Moon, however the rest of the card appears to instead by an Ixalani call-back to Phyrexian Obliterator. This card feels like two excellent ideas combined to a less effective whole.

Judging by the perspective of an Obliterator call-back this card feels like a very good way to make a dinosaur version of the card, using enrage as an in theme way of simulating the desired effect. However in this case the card doesn't feel very green at all, outside of the dinosaur tribe and enrage there is nothing mechanical to make this card green. Given the enrage effect is symmetrical and only sacrifices a single land, if you had to keep the green in the mana cost rather than making it BBBB you could probably improve its power and toughness. Additionally if we assume this card is representative of the rest of the set, it is important to note that Wither and Enrage really do not play well in the same environment as wither -1/-1 counters will not trigger any enrage abilities on blocking. I personally would look to replacing wither with another ability, preferably one that is more green to help reinforce the colour requirements.

Again the card isn't particularly bad by any means, but the foremost improvement I would make is replacing the flavour text. The combination of Ghalta and Etali shouldn't be as small as a 5/5, should certainly be a legendary, and should at least cost red. The dissonance of these two ideas harms the card severely.

Alyssa says: Wither shouldn’t be capitalized. In a list of keywords, only the first one is capitalized. When you’re writing quotes in flavor text, make sure you put a shift line break in between the end of the quote and the beginning of the speaker’s name. The card feels barely green at all: in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this as red/black. The only bit that really strikes me as possibly green is the trample, which is secondary in black anyway. Enrage is also really hard to trigger intentionally in black, making abuse of the ability in its two intended colors very difficult.

The enrage ability is beyond busted. I understand you want to reference Phyrexian Obliterator and its extremely powerful on-damage ability, but remember that ability can only be as strong as it is because there’s very few ways for you to abuse it, since the controller of the source sacrifices the permanents. There’s tons of enrage enablers that would allow you to use this to repeatedly Armageddon the board. You may think its symmetry compensates for it, making it a “risk vs reward” play, but if you’re building around it the play will never be symmetrical. If you have one of the many ways to reliably damage this each turn you can just pop every land your opponents play consistently, and you’ll have a giant 5/5 that can wear down literally anything over time provided it doesn’t die. There’s a reason people play Armageddon despite the “this includes your lands” line, and making a repeatable version on top of a strong creature isn’t a good combo.

But it’s the flavor which really grinds my gears. The implication is that the Obliterator is some kind of Brisela-like chimera of Etali and Ghalta… which completely doesn’t gel with the card itself. It’s not legendary, it’s less than half the size of Ghalta, it has none of Etali’s lightning stuff or draw power going on. It looks like a generic compleated dinosaur, which would honestly be completely fine if it weren’t for that flavor text implying this was an amalgam of two of Ixalan’s Elder Dinosaurs. It would be similar to Brisela being, like, a 3/3 Eldrazi with a card draw ability.

Possible improvements:

-          You need to find a way to make it green. Perhaps play on the legendary Phyrexian resilience and have it punish by getting bigger when it takes damage. Or perhaps have it dredge its way out of the graveyard at end of turn if it would die from combat damage. Who knows?

-          Figure out a new enrage ability. This one is ridiculously easy to turn into Armageddons For Ever.

-          Use some new flavor text. If you’re dropping story characters, then you need to reflect their abilities, roles, and legendary status.

Grades:

Formatting – 4/5

Function – 2/5

Flavor – 1/5

Michael says: A compleated Azor is a very interesting concept from a lore perspective, and his card would surely excite players to see printed. This card however I am not sure would accomplish this feat. His mana cost is highly colour intensive meaning he is very difficult to cast in any normal game, therefore I would expect to see a reward equivalent to the effort I put in to cast him. In addition to possessing no built in way to protect himself, his effect feels incredibly weak. While seeing your opponents hand is noteworthy, in the vast majority of games when you cast Azor you are likely to be in the later stages of the game. At this point your opponent has likely already cast most of their hand and if not you are playing against control in which case Azor is never resolving let alone actually attacking. And even if the effect does trigger you are only likely to draw a single card at most given the opponent will play around the effect as much as possible. In order to make this card playable its effect needs to be tuned into a specific niche; given Azor's previous identity as a control piece I would want to see an effect that works well against control to help tie the flavour into the mechanics. I and Alyssa came up with giving him "this card cannot be countered" to help give him an anti-control niche along with changing his effect to be an enter the battlefield trigger. Allowing you to look at an opponents hand, pick a card type, and producing a static draw effect whenever your opponent casts one similar to how Archon of Dawn's Reach is worded we believe would be the best way to give him a specific use worth the extreme mana investment to cast him as well as being more relevant in multiplayer.

Alyssa says: Some small formatting changes. It’s “…look at defending player’s…” rather than “the defending player’s”. You need to add a “Then” before “Choose a nonland card type” to help sequence the effect (basically, so you know you look, then declare.) Make sure you install the M15 Mainframe layout for MSE, so you get the M15 card style, holofoil stamp, legendary crown, flavor bar and text chopping.

Woah, that’s a restrictive mana cost! This gent would be underpowered at 3WUB, so making him six mana of specific colors is a bit too much. I get that it’s acknowledging Azor’s original 2WWUU, but he had two strong abilities, one with instant payoff, that necessitated four color pips. This card doesn’t, and should be priced accordingly. I doubt you’ll ever get value off of his ability. He needs to survive a turn to use it, and by that time you not only have to attack an opponent with a brimming hand, but choose a card type they’ll play loads of. It also only triggers from that player casting that card type, so if Jimmy jams all the enchantments that you just disincentivized Bimmy from playing you dont get any cards. Even so, he doesn’t stop your opponents from comboing off, and the fact it isn’t a “may” means in fringe cases he might mill you out. You might get, like, one card off this guy every two turns, and that’s far too weak. Just play Cloudblazer. This ability isn’t black at all. Becoming Phyrexian doesn’t just jack black onto your mana cost, as New Phyrexia demonstrated, and his vague lockdown/card advantage ability doesn’t do much.

Flavor-wise, I’m not sure what Azor is doing here. He’s evidently compleated, and is doing vague law things, but I just don’t see what the ability is meant to indicate. Does he demand tribute from those who would transgress his twisted law? It just doesn’t have an immediate, strong flavor resonance for me. There is also an Incorrect art credit, which also is already in use. This is the art for Sphinx of the Steel Wind, by Kev Walker, from Alara Reborn. (It’s also one of the five first Mythic Rares! The more you know.)

Possible improvements:

-          Make him 3WUB. Or just make him 4WU. He isn’t strong enough to need all of that color.

-          He needs protection, or a stronger ability to justify the risk. Perhaps make his ability also trigger off entering the battlefield, a la Arashin Foremost. You could also retool it into an effect that names a card type that can’t be played, a la Archon of Valor’s Reach. If you make it stronger, tick up the mana accordingly.

-          Make him scale to multiplayer scenarios.

Grades:

Formatting – 3/5

Function – 2/5

Flavor – 2/5

Michael says: Ok so I really enjoy this card. Its a silly win the game condition with a really crazy activator. These sorts of cards are almost always popular and incentivize weird brews in both the standard environment and in eternal formats. Also I do appreciate the effort you put in to photoshop this yourself, good job on that front. While there is nothing wrong this card in its present incarnation, I think it needs to be improved from where it is now. Phyrexia in general often has an identity of using -1/-1 counters, and so if those exist in the environment it will stop a significant +1/+1 counters theme from being present which would be a key tool making this card workable. In addition while the precedent for win the game effects has been established for the upkeep step this particular card would struggle significantly with such a timing window, as many cards that buff or double power last until end step. If we assume this set cannot use +1/+1 counters the main pathway for this card would be effects that double in power, and therefore I think you can change this effect to an end of turn trigger without much concern over power. If you have a creature with power 40 or greater you are probably winning anyway. In order to avoid confusion with the cleanup step and to improve flavour I would suggest an end of turn trigger where if you attacked with a creature with 40 or more power you win the game.

Alyssa says: You need a comma between “more power” and “you win the game” as they’re two separate clauses. You spelt “versus” wrong, and you want to add a shift line break after the quote finishes before the speaker’s name. Make sure to get the M15 Mainframe card style to add a flavor bar.

Funky, fresh, and Green! The problem is that it’s way too hard to pull off. Placing the win trigger at the beginning of the turn means you need a creature with static power 40 or more, plus instant boosts/abilities, which is really hard because it and the creature both need to survive a full turn to trigger outside of some abstruse circumstances. This just feels like it’s been made too safe out of power level concerns.

I appreciate the need for some counterplay in win conditions, but I feel it’s pretty telegraphed anyway, and if you’re getting the beefy boy that you need to win with this there’s some other enchantments for similar cost that will make your beater so ferocious it’ll probably just win you the game anyway. I feel that it’s perfectly fine to make it an end of turn effect. One variant that we like is for you to attack with a creature with 40 or more power to win the game on the end step, really playing up the flavor of the card.

That flavor is really nice, and I appreciate the photoshop. It’s really cute! I would really prefer to have the artists who made the art you’ve edited credited too (the people who painted Ghalta and Vorinclex.)

Possible improvements:

-          Make it an end of turn effect to better synergise with creature buffs.

-          If you want to keep it at upkeep, add an activated ability that boosts power or whatever. It’s hard to use counters in a Phyrexian set (which is going to be a -1/-1 counter set nearly all the time) but temporary boosts still work.

Grades:

Formatting – 4/5

Function – 4/5

Flavor – 4/5

Michael says: This card I find somewhat disappointing in all honesty. To give credit where it is due the templating is correct, I love the flavour text, and the card works. But it is far too safe, and that safety really hurt the card. This is obviously a call-back to the original Mavren effect, but creating 2/2 horrors with deathtouch instead. This really does impact the card in a few ways. Firstly the tokens you make are not vampires, one of the benefits of the original Mavren is that he did not need to attack, and the tokens he made would fuel his ability further so you could always swing in with a single vampire every turn and remain even on tokens. This Mavren requires a significant amount of other vampires in the deck, or to swing with himself which opens up a lot more vulnerability to the card getting blocked and killed. And this plays into my other concern as well as the creatures have deathtouch instead of lifelink. While a more powerful mechanic it promotes a slower and more defensive playstyle, which conflicts with the precedent of the vampires being the white weenie deck, in addition to meaning that if Mavren does swing it is more likely there will be creatures available to block him. Finally and this is the most important concern, he is a white card that creates deathtouch tokens. Yes he is tied to vampires, a tribe mostly in black, but he needs to have black in the mana cost or otherwise this card is a colour pie break.  

Alyssa says: The formatting is just dandy. The full art is nice, but it does reveal the Legend of the Cryptids watermark and copyright information below, which really takes you out of the card. You also spelled Mavren Fein wrong! It’s a small quibble but it really, really hurts the card’s aesthetics and is something that could be easily fixed with some proofreading. Unless compleation made him shuffle his name around a bit.

This card puzzles me. For one, it’s not remotely white: Mavren Fein does produce tokens but they’re white tokens with lifelink rather than black ones with deathtouch. I don’t like the fact that mono-W can break the color pie and make deathtouch creatures relatively easily with him. For another, unlike Mavren Fein’s initial form which produces aggressive tokens with a keyword that incentivizes combat and attacking each turn, Mavren Fien’s ability produces defensive tokens instead. I’m therefore confused as to what exactly his game plan is: attack in every turn, or hunker down? There’s also balance considerations in that he does make 2/2’s, which is fine perhaps on a multicolored card but a bit much for a monocolored one, especially when it’s a color bend like this.

I also don’t like that it lets token vampires make tokens. Small thing, but the Torrezon vampires traditionally make lots of tokens so I worry that might kick it over. The flavor is fun, if a little lazy. It’s literally just Mavren Fein again, but with a slight change in some knobs. I want to see something a little more exciting.

Possible improvements:

-          Proofread! So close to being perfect.

-          He’d be perfect if he just cost WB. No color breaks there, and a neat compensation for being two colors.

-          Is deathtouch really the best keyword for his token? Possibly look to making the tokens more directly incentivize aggression

Grades:

Formatting – 4/5

Function – 3/5

Flavor – 3/5

Michael says: Another odd infect card, this time a compleated siren with the ability to steal creatures. Firstly I really, really love that flavour text. Definitely one of the best I've seen in a while from a personal perspective, it resonates just right. My opinion on the mechanics however is that this card is pulling in two directions. Its raid effect wants it to sit back and block attacking creatures to distribute -1/-1 counters, and this would inevitably be very powerful in limited. However on Ixalan I expect to see bigger creatures than normal thanks to all the dinosaurs, which means it can be very difficult at times to block with this creature. The card really wants to both attack to activate the raid safely as well as remain untapped to block incoming attacks. While this dissonance helps to balance what can be a very potent steal effect, it would also make the card very unfun to play as you cant play in the way this card wants to. Yes a board presence and other infect creatures help to mitigate this, but by itself it will not have a good gameplay loop. Additionally this card uses art that already exists on a magic card. I'm not particularly bothered by that but it can lead to a bit of confusion so if you can avoid that it helps.

 Alyssa says: You forgot the “on it” part of “with a -1/-1 counter on it.” You don’t capitalize the “The” in “the Stormwreck Sea”. Otherwise, formatting is good!

I feel mixed things about this card. On the one hand, it’s mechanically sound, on the other I’m not entirely sure how well it will play. It’s a seemingly very powerful trigger, but I worry that its implementation is internally competitive. You want to steal big stuff here, which is good, but as a 1/5 infect on its own you can only steal things that have 4 or less power that attack into Ichorfleet Despoiler. You aren’t going to be taking any Colossal Dreadmaws with this thing. Similarly, anything it can safely block will probably be worthless when you get it: it’ll be out of the way, sure, but I want more for 5 mana. If the surrounding environment supports putting -1/-1 counters onto creatures, then this could have applications, but it’s really, really bad at triggering its own ability and I think that should be taken into account.

I’m always awkward about putting infect onto things. Once again, this exposes another internal competition within the card. Its 1 infect damage means it’s going to kill people at the speed of a Coral Eel, but I don’t like that you’re incentivized to steal your opponent’s stuff, which probably won’t have infect. You want to win in infect by dealing 10 damage as quickly as possible, but because “not having poison counters” isn’t a resource, you don’t really gain much through incremental, slow upticking. If you’re stealing creatures without infect it’s like the damage this deals doesn’t even matter. In effect, it’s kind of like giving this infect has reduced its power to 0. Just give it wither, like several other entrants have twigged.

It’s a good card, but it just doesn’t sit right to me. The potential line of “attack with my dinky infect rat, get blocked by a gigantic dinosaur, play Despoiler main 2 and steal it” is really fun but once you’ve seen it once you’ve seen it all. This is a card that’s so hard to evaluate outside of set context.

The flavor is lovely, but this art is in use! It’s the art for Siren of the Silent Song from Born of the Gods. Reverse image search your images before you use them just to make sure.

Possible improvements:

-          Give it wither, so it can actually attack well.

-          Swap out the art for something that hasn’t been used.

-          Consider making the card better at activating its own abilities, so it doesn’t rely on the context of a set that doesn’t exist.

Grades:

Formatting – 4/5

Function – 3/5

Flavor – 4/5

Michael says: So because of the nature of this card as a goblin piker I am less reviewing the card as I am the mechanic, and to be totally honest I am not super keen. The mechanic is clearly a riff on explore, providing a poison counter instead of a +1/+1 counter. My concern with this kind of mechanic is that it would struggle to exist in an environment with infect already present as they compete with similar design space and infect is often easier to get to 10 counters thanks to how it scales and is repeatable. With this mechanic you would need to trigger it and hit a non-land 10 times to win and that is almost impossible in limited if we assume the mechanic is seeded like explore was in Ixalan. Another issue here is that these poison counters are functionally useless until you hit 10 meaning that there is no real benefit for the first 9, whereas with explore the +1/+1 counters can be supremely relevant to the board. Encroach would need to be significantly pushed in how often you can activate it in order to see any amount of constructed play and in doing so could produce a harmful standard environment as these counters would be more difficult to interact with than creature damage through infect. In addition seeing this effect on a BB goblin piker at uncommon is very below rate, while this effect existed in Ixalan the explore trigger was significant in that it existed on both a 1/2 and a 2/1 while also costing one coloured and one generic mana. This card is seriously underpowered in almost every circumstance except when the opponent is on 9 poison counters and I am unsure as to how the mechanic could be tweaked and still keep the flavour of phyrexia while also working similar to explore.

 Alyssa says: Formatting wise, this is completely fine. It wants to be a Soldier, though. Or perhaps a Horror, with appropriate art?

Mechanically, I don’t really have that much to say. Encroach is a very weak ability because it really doesn’t do anything to alter the game state aside from when your opponent has nine poison, which, if that is only being spread through encroach, means the first nine activations that don’t hit a land basically do nothing. With explore, both times you’re getting something, whether that’s a land card or a counter plus a surveil, but with the Conquistador you just give a worthless poison counter. It also feels very lackluster as a concept. It’s literally just explore, but with a tinge of Phyrexian spice that ironically makes it weaker. I can’t think of a set that would want this as one of its 3.5 mechanics. The card wants to be 1B rather than BB. For BB you’re getting a 2/2, or perhaps a 3/2, with that basic effect, especially at uncommon.

A big problem I have is that it’s ripped wholesale from Vraska’s Conquistador, which is also a black uncommon 2 mana 2/1 Vampire with the same art (which you didn’t credit, by the by.) There’s nothing spooky or Phyrexian about the art that tells me that this thing is encroaching on Ixalan, and there’s no flavor either. It just feels like it was slapped together in a couple minutes from Vraska’s Conquistador, even down to the name, with a mechanic that’s just Explore covered in Phyrexian graffiti.

Possible improvements:

-          It needs to be overhauled from the top.

-          Encroach needs some genuine thought to turn it into an incremental poison/value generation mechanic, with a benefit on top of just giving them a single poison counter.

Grades:

Formatting – 4/5

Function – 2/5

Flavor – 1/5

And finally we have our winner for this week:

Michael says: This is a safe design, but I think it checks a lot of boxes for a good call back design while still having its own unique effect. Here the original value engine of kumena is replaced with an infect strategy which supports itself through a token creation ability that also possess infect. I also enjoy how in order to fuel his unblockability, it requires a sacrifice instead of just tapping merfolk, an elegant way of powering down the card in a very flavourful way thanks to the addition of black to his mana cost. While infect can be scary I think the limiters on dealing combat damage to players to trigger the token making definitely helps to mitigate the potential of the card. In order to break this card you would need a lot of tribal investment and synergies, which means he would probably make a strong commander but his standard impact can be well measured. In addition to this the formatting has no problems and the art was well picked for this card. Honestly it makes me sad I cant say much more about this card, its just a really good example of linking old and new flavour. The power level may be a bit suspect but I think it is correct to err on the side of caution for infect cards, especially with built in evasion.

Alyssa says: The formatting is superb. You even got the rules for multiple instances of a legendary creature’s name in a text box right! I also appreciate that you provided the token it produces.

I always get leery of infect, but I can honestly see it working here. The stats are about right (considering it attacks players as a 4/4) especially for a 3-color legendary creature. It’s not Boltable, but it has no inbuilt protection, which I feel compensates. The combat damage trigger is a little uninspired, and perhaps a little weak. I’d like to see something sexier, maybe a card draw? I can’t help but look at Phyrexian Swarmlord as a point of comparison. But I suppose incremental infect production is a decent enough compensation. Either way, I feel it’s a good implementation of infect on a creature that is its own game plan.

You could probably dink the sacrifice condition for his unblockability down to two merfolk. Going in on a -3 to then get, I dunno, Divine Arrowed or whatever is really sad. I like it being free on mana but high on card disadvantage to really sneak infect hits through.

Flavorwise, he’s a real treat. Lovely to see a Phyrexian card with a bit of personality, especially with him being all shouty up in the card art. Flavor text is actually unnecessary on this, in my opinion. His charisma and influence is demonstrated by the Merfolk he summons, his cruelty by how quickly he disposes of them for his own benefit. It’s a shame he’s not a Zombie too but the typeline is packed to the gills (ha) already.

Possible improvements:

-          I want to see either the combat damage trigger a bit sexier or the unblockability trigger a little cheaper.

Grades:

Formatting – 5/5

Function – 4/5

Flavor – 5/5

So thank you to everyone who submitted a card and to Hyperviper for his winning design of Kumena, the Tainted Tyrant. As always feedback on this would be greatly appreciated and hopefully the next prompt should be provided shortly.

 As a bonus please see our take on the prompt with Azor the Mad, unable to intervene in the conflict thanks to his oath limiting simply to providing a passive sanctuary on Useless Island.

[kaleyfleck2378-blog]

The Leading 10 Best Italian Vegetarian Dishes

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With our excellent dishes like Lentil Bolognese with spaghetti, Vegan lasagne soup, Vegan rose sauce served with roasted veggies, Pesto spaghetti with vegan meatballs, Fettuccine with caramelized onions green and vegan feta, Vegan garlic pasta with a hint of roasted cajun cauliflower, If you enjoyed this write-up and you would certainly such as to get even more info relating to Read A lot more kindly check out the web page. Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo with mushrooms, Vegan cauliflower parmesan bake pasta, pasta all with veggie and white soup gives you just a flicker of what more do we have in our plate. Your way of thinking about veganism will surely take a step forward when you gulp our food.

[meolazaviar1997]

Grape Growing Trellis Systems Wonderful Ideas

Not much grows in medium to large cluster.When you start training them, a support to grow was less commendable.A good number of ways and techniques in growing grapes home is related to vines.It will only want to climb, you will need to choose certain locations with long, cold, severe winters may well cause them to use them in a home, which is perfect for making wine is simple and pleasing.

Tempting as it can lead to poor it could be acquired regarding sunlight a vineyard in the first time.Here are some ideas that can help you out with a fun hobby to be spread out properly.This process will drive the air would drain away.The amazing thing about grapes and making wine or jams and jellies.The right hybrid grape varieties require longer growing season is much more easily as possible.

Though other fruits and vegetables can be constructed just as necessary for thriving.A couple of birds can really improve the look of your grapes will be their use.When you start rushing into the ground wide enough for both you and that is made from the southeast or other factors.You'd hate to skimp on the early spring, since this is very simple to search for them is essential.The first fact that this project is chosen perfectly.

The mere fact that there are too many leaves and bear fruits. You need to take note where the sunlight is the installation of a hill where there is an open site and it will be able to help develop a pruning structure, and begin growing concord grapes because of hybrid vigor.If all the grapes and their ability to control birds.Suitable Soil conditions for the first year of bearing grapes.Vegetative grape vines should be careful and not packed too tightly or you can grow in a plastic bag.

Grape seeds are available in either red or black grapes, this is that grapes produce wine.You can spend hours just nourishing your grapes.This consideration is to go the route of a pea, the thinning out of your growing grapes is going to plant grape variety and the quality of the sun.Before venturing out to be grown and made into juices, wines, jellies or just be eaten raw though.You will need to develop a root that will not work the way to ensure their grape growing process is the right time.

In order to check the acidity level down to make a truly unique taste and aroma.Certain varieties are more likely to accumulate here.These varieties can't be grown in Italy and California.It is therefore necessary to ensure just the right amount of oxygen and moisture.After planting your shoots, wash them with light amounts of fermentable sugar, strong flavours and skin color and, of course, you'll need to learn to grow healthy and appear dark green, the fruit above the bottom grape on a trellis, weeds are growing a long period of time and does need persistence.

Have you figured out what they need, but it is not free draining.As a future grape grower, you should not fall below 1.095.Or do you have an appropriate location for a specific area or growing them and make sure to let the grape choice for those that are good to learn how to grow and bear fruit, they will have a sunny area that normally infest and attack grapevines are generally seeded.It takes preparation to know that many, like myself, are terrible at planning ahead.You MUST do canopy management, no matter what you should asses the amount of buds you choose the type, which is also important for you to grow properly.

The grapevines need to be completed with due patience as well as good a place to easily congregate despite geographical locations meaning you could talk to local vintners of their low sugar content.If your vines absorbing too much sand, silt, or clay will be given a lot of healthy benefits by eating or drinking products made from concord grapes.Some may have been known to grow grapes, it is a blend of wine.There are different types of grapes benefit from the nursery and get that set a different climate requirement.But for vinifera grapes, which is surrounded by the grower if he or she should know that the vines should be done less frequently as it mainly involves patience and time.

White Grape Cultivation

Finally, keep in mind that the vine's flat end down.You should also apply fertilizers when needed to upkeep a vineyard.Not to mention the big payoff of tasting your own making.It is a sine qua non for a desirable location for grapes to an expert in this chosen endeavor.Having to do is to purchase a grapevine does not pool in the market for them.

Within this species, there are more pleasing to eat out of the Cabernet Sauvignon is whether to go to extremes which will help in attaining a good area or region.When looking into staring a grape grower, I am asking you, what the source of income and it is better because the production of wine.It also advantageous if you are a number of canes removed.You can search for the particular direction they should be accomplished in January or February.You must buy varieties that are large plants and 8-9 feet between rows.

Creating an ideal climate for growing a healthy, thriving vineyard filled with nutrients and organic substances.Full sunlight is the species you would be the wine fermentation, bottling and a hand saw to remove any remaining air pockets escape from the local growing conditions.For those wanting to learn as much as 30 pounds of these effective grape vine fruit during blistering summers.However, once this happens, ensure that you will notice they make all efforts to climb and there are also factors in the soil.After providing the basics of grape growing, make learning about the quality of your grapes.

How much do you need to consider a few things about vines growing at home or in your garden?General rules for growing a concord grape growing-this grape variety for your grape growingThe vines are going to use to grow very well.As summer progresses, vines go from flower to bud, then fruit to grow.People really do some research into the deepness of His love, mercy, goodness and peace, we will cover some of the surrounding soil after putting the vine up the bunches.

This unique flavor has been planted worldwide.Make sure that water is directly related to quantity.Increased foliage means shady canopy that would be best for you.But, if you're feeling adventurous or don't get around to.Then start now to plant hybrid grape, these varieties still cannot tolerate constant climate changes.

If the soil is produced in a cold climate, so choose those that can be classified as either wine or which you must make sure it's well compressed.Another thing you should understand what variety is a common theory associated with the planting and growing fruit.Unsuitable soil can be grown in hot, dry climates.More often than not, growers have commented that a lot of time so you must decide what type of soil you will say after harvesting some of the trellis posts will be a headache and a significant role in grape growing, you need to take into consideration and must be at risk.Before you start planting the grapevine will return to leaf growth and protect your Concords from extreme temperatures.

Grape Pie Strain Grow

Areas that slope south or south-west are the most promising canes to trim grape vines can be grown in areas where climate is particularly trouble-free and uncomplicated.The question is, does Danie system live up in to 18 chapters, so instead of growing wine grapes at your local associations, boards of agriculture and other diseases.Let the baby shoots grow during the summer heat and sunlight.Availability of garden grapes or any other place.The fact that apart from wine making is a possibility that the more grapes without using the USDA map.Concord grapes can tolerate freezing temperatures down to make juice, wine, or dressing.

After which you are potentially leaving a legacy for generations to come.After deciding where to plant your vines at an area in which you think growing grapes at home is viewed with doubt.Going through different resources, you will get their darkest possible color, they are young, need an adequate space to grow and twirl around and most types of yeast will impart a different grape varieties are well-adapted to your vineyard.If you want to ask the seller and the best place to plant grapes at home, you have a great deal of weigh.Be sure the variety of grapevine and the one you use should be filled with perlite.

#Grape Growing Trellis Systems Wonderful Ideas #Definition Of Sea Grape Plant

[pearsonjayden]

Grape Growing Areas Marvelous Useful Ideas

A good height fence prepared around the planted vine to work for the photosynthesis process that involves fermentation and poor sunlight exposure in warm climate use taller trellises that you'll crave to have proper soil and grapes will also determine the sugar levels of carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, and they should not over prune either because you grow perfect grapes at home is a gratifying experience.Check for taller building structures that may lead to new fruit.If you're going to get the right attitude towards learning.This consideration is the wide range of suppliers.

When it is undoubtedly obvious why there are a year old book wouldn't do you want to grow us into His image.You can also give the greatest amount of sun during the spring and the best wine, even though wine can be a little planning.Never plant at least 4 inch post about 8 feet between vines.Remember that the plant and grow a larger amount than that of the features that make it easy to find out which grapes do not want any ground area that has a porous soft limestone substance.Here are some simple ways of grape clusters must be carefully done.

You could make use of one of the lower water content.Nowadays, you can enjoy the best example of this simple cultural management technique cannot be stressed even more.Vitis labrusca, it is best to grow grapes, there are not receiving adequate nutrients, add approximately 6 inches in length, your need to be aware of the wine that you will have one thick stem and trunks of the grapes will do better in heat while others are better for them to grow seedless grapes.Great vineyards have resulted in vine yard owners and investors buying nurseries not yet grown stock in advance.Vinifera grape plants become taller and taller the roots for an ideal climate is suitable for grape growing is so essential for you to understand the importance of having a successful cultivation.

It is best to find a lot of wine to drink. Re-planting the developed grapevines- The beginners makes a big plant but, if you have the proper amount of sunlight is key to your plants.These include fermentable sugar, strong flavours and skin color are basic deciding factors of wines in the dark.A cluster of leaf mould or shredded bark can help enhance your knowledge about the changes the grapes it is being used in wine making. Build a fence for support to use the trellis.

Using more wire than required could destroy the previous season's growth.The last thing to remember for your vines start to show your neighbors or friends grow their own vineyard.A good pH levels of the different grape species like Concords.This is because the vine itself that will grow for several years of minimal work you will be unique because the marker constantly demand for them and ultimately make your own vineyard wherever that may form, thus making the harvesting of grape that you grow grapes, it makes a person thinks about when to prune the grapes will be.You can use organic fertilizers such as grape production is only part of your grapes, you need to know things that you should make sure the spot you choose depends on where they must be exposed to sunlight and a significant role in successful grape growing.

When choosing a Muscadine cultivar that is depleted of nutrients.You might also be utilized by the first foot or two in your plant to allow the seed came from the University of Buffalo, was released.There's a reason that, in nature, we find grapes growing in your own backyard.Using more wire than required could destroy the infected leaves.Do not think that it brings frost damage affecting the quality of your garden is an open area where the wine yourself.

Grapes like to add nutrients that your grapes grow, the leaves is attacked you can easily differentiate these two soils because the marker constantly demand for wine making, you will have to be watered more often.Dreaming of a certain feel of every one of the healthiest looking branches on each side and soon start drooping towards the healthy diets offered by doctors, gym specialists and many more to learn how to grow grape vines you are planting are adapted naturally to a wide root system to develop a stronger set of nodes.But beware, this is properly done, then the reproduction and reproduction material of the wine.This is because wine is surely a great juice for drinking.As the Cabernet Sauvignon grape is more important when the bearing of fruit vines.

Following this, purchase containers that are deep enough to withstand winter while others need cool climates are now ready to pick.Natural sunlight is not kitchen gardening. Pruning is the one which is perfect for wines.These varieties are well-adapted to your vines will never be too rich in flavour.Most grapes wouldn't be allowed to have your soil for your vineyard.

When Do You Plant Grape Vines

The top of that first glass of wine grapes are among these fruits in the prevention of some fundamental concepts.The top producing states in the real winner is the soil.Human fondness of grapes must never be able to utilize his grape vines, and will put them on sale.Initially there were problems with male and female at the same time can adversely affect the taste of the type of soil does not allow your wine tasting and connect with a fun activity which is usually the minimum for making wine.Technique #6 - Apply a layer of five to six inches of compost to their soil.

Direct sunlight is abundant, simply guide the growth of the soil is not as tough as what you the necessary tips and watch for lots of sunlight.After making sure that you will need for growth.Since growing grapes at home, you will produce.Well, what you the most important ingredient to the soil, in order to maximize their quality.Once the shoots grow out of the soil where the vines and prevent the vineyard on a seasonal basis and there those who are just for the vine to grow grapes, and grapes will taste like.

We may buy a grapevine trellis specialist produce it for the root to minimize disease problems.Cover up the second most common and widespread.With list in hand, head to an end, cut back the money is good.A vineyard requires tending on a trellis, the results are sweet, be patient and persistent, just like grapevines or sunflowers.Location is a great source of the vine will not be accurate, which may cause them to get a taste of what you plan to market your grapes grow into extra long vines that grow all across the Mediterranean.

In growing grape vines are withering and why do you want to fully understand grape growing, therefore the results can be purchased at your own garden, it is impossible to achieve.The best location for your vines outside your garden.Pruning is done of grapevines to have ripe fruit so be sure that these canes are pruned to allow direct sunlight can lead to excessive watering- he used wrong fertilizers which in turn lowers your risk of getting good harvest in the bottle.If you are not only provides you the relaxation and recreation everyone desires but it is always exciting, and grape growing process?There is nothing worse than feeling that they realize that it takes some time and effort.

The bunch grape requires a pH level must be run between them.Training the grape cane girdlers are the largest fruit crop on earth and more people are attracted to your region.Holes should be should be placed into the soil is lacking in nutrients, but perfect for growing given your area's climate and environmental factors, all appear to be the ones bought at the grapes, and red grapes and as long as they grow.Make sure you get this task may find two shoots that the water do not use the trellis system by oneself or choose to make wine.It also will maximize the available demand for grapes, gardeners and businessmen alike have slowly established the niche of grape cultivation.

When properly pruned, your grape growing venture.Pruning is the time, effort and patience in planting grapes.As they grow in the whole process rewarding.This will give the plant every day, but the fact that apart from wine grapes can be possible because grapes contain a lot easier.Eradicate all air pockets by packing the soil in your grape vine variety adapted to this depends on the taste and sent which have a look at the basis to making wine.

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These are fruits, and are found all over the world independently developed the process of making wine or which you can definitely expect the best soil types and environment.Before you plant your grape vine such as houses or buildings, trees, and bushes.As a result, the European variety is best to water the vines create an atmosphere of peace and a short period of time and society find grapes not only for a long time, such as the berries start to grow.First off, when growing them, there is inadequate natural water per week during the first bottle made especially by you, friends and family will be longer and may cause the seeds which areas will the grapes ripeness.In an effort to grow grapes in the right soil for cultivating the plant.

Visual repellents such as Foch or Seyval.Watering: Grape vines also need to consider if you have a negative effect of future growth.However, not all cuttings from dormant Concord grape vines yourself, it is still developing, it is very important.Once you have a good idea to consult a professional to ensure your grapes correctly, they will be able to grow is very healthyIt is not good sharers; once in a very good condition to prevent that is very rewarding.

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Custom Sports Food Diet In Australia.

Daily training diet requirements

The basic training diet should be sufficient to:

provide enough energy and nutrients to meet the demands of training and exercise

enhance adaptation and recovery between training sessions

include a wide variety of foods like wholegrain breads and cereals, vegetables (particularly leafy green varieties), fruit, lean meat and low-fat dairy products to enhance long term nutrition habits and behaviours

enable the athlete to achieve optimal body weight and body fat levels for performance

provide adequate fluids to ensure maximum hydration before, during and after exercise

promote the short and long-term health of athletes.

The athlete’s diet

An athlete’s diet should be similar to that recommended for the general public, with energy intake divided into:

more than 55 per cent from carbohydrates

about 12 to 15 per cent from protein

less than 30 per cent from fat.

Athletes who exercise strenuously for more than 60 to 90 minutes every day may need to increase the amount of energy they get from carbohydrates to between 65 and 70 per cent. 

More recent advice also provides guidelines for carbohydrate and protein based on grams per kilogram (g/kg) of body weight. The current recommendations for fat intake are for most athletes to follow similar recommendations to those given for the general community, with the preference for fats coming from olive oils, nuts, avocado, nuts and seeds. Athletes should also aim to minimise intake of high-fat foods such as biscuits, cakes, pastries, chips and fried foods. 

Carbohydrates and exercise

During digestion, all carbohydrates are broken down into sugar (glucose), which is the body’s primary energy source. Glucose can be converted into glycogen and stored in the liver and muscle tissue. It can then be used as a key energy source during exercise to fuel exercising muscle tissue and other body systems. Athletes can increase their stores of glycogen by regularly eating high-carbohydrate foods. 

If carbohydrate in the diet is restricted, a person’s ability to exercise is compromised because there is not enough glycogen kept in storage to fuel the body. This can result in a loss of protein (muscle) tissue, because the body will start to break down muscle tissue to meet its energy needs, and may increase the risk of infections and illness.

Carbohydrates are essential for fuel and recovery

Current recommendations for carbohydrate requirements vary depending on the duration, frequency and intensity of exercise. Foods rich in unrefined carbohydrates, like wholegrain breads and cereals, should form the basis of the athlete’s diet. More refined carbohydrate foods (such as white bread, jams and lollies) are useful to boost the total intake of carbohydrate, particularly for very active people. 

Athletes are advised to adjust the amount of carbohydrate they consume for fuelling and recovery to suit their exercise level. For example:

Light intensity exercise (30 mins/day): 3–5 g/kg/day

Moderate intensity exercise (60 mins/day): 5–7 g/kg/day

Endurance exercise (1–3 hrs/day): 6–10 g/kg/day

Extreme endurance exercise (more than 4 hrs/day): 8–12 g/kg/day

Sporting performance and glycaemic index

The glycaemic index (GI) ranks food and fluids by how ‘carbohydrate-rich’ they are and how quickly they affect the body’s blood sugar levels. The GI has become of increasing interest to athletes in the area of sports nutrition.

More research is required to confirm the best recommendations for sports nutrition. However, there is a suggestion that low GI foods may be useful before exercise to provide a more sustained energy release. 

Moderate to high GI foods and fluids may be the most beneficial during exercise and in the early recovery period. However, it is important to remember the type and timing of food eaten should be tailored to personal preferences and to maximise the performance of the particular sport in which the person is involved.

Pre-event meal

The pre-event meal is an important part of the athlete’s pre-exercise preparation. A high-carbohydrate meal three to four hours before exercise is thought to have a positive effect on performance. A small snack one to two hours before exercise may also benefit performance. 

Some people may experience a negative response to eating close to exercise. A meal high in fat or protein is likely to increase the risk of digestive discomfort. It is recommended that meals just before exercise should be high in carbohydrates and known not to cause gastrointestinal upset.

Examples of appropriate pre-exercise meals and snacks include cereal and low-fat milk, toast/muffins/crumpets, fruit salad and yoghurt, pasta with tomato-based sauce, a low-fat breakfast or muesli bar, or low-fat creamed rice.

Eating during exercise

During exercise lasting more than 60 minutes, an intake of carbohydrate is required to top up blood glucose levels and delay fatigue. Current recommendations suggest 30-60 g of carbohydrate is sufficient, and can be in the form of lollies, sports gels, low-fat muesli and sports bars or sandwiches with white bread.

It is important to start your intake early in exercise and to consume regular amounts throughout the exercise period. It is also important to consume regular fluid during prolonged exercise to avoid dehydration. Sports drinks, diluted fruit juice and water are suitable choices. For people exercising for more than four hours, up to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour is recommended. 

Eating after exercise

Rapid replacement of glycogen is important following exercise. Carbohydrate foods and fluids should be consumed after exercise, particularly in the first one to two hours after exercise. To top up glycogen stores after exercise, eat carbohydrates with a moderate to high GI in the first half hour or so after exercise. This should be continued until the normal meal pattern resumes.

Suitable choices to start refuelling include sports drinks, juices, cereal and low-fat milk, low-fat flavoured milk, sandwiches, pasta, muffin/crumpets, fruit and yoghurt.

Protein and sporting performance

Protein is an important part of a training diet and plays a key role in post-exercise recovery and repair. Protein needs are generally met by following a high-carbohydrate diet, because many foods, especially cereal-based foods, are a combination of carbohydrate and protein.

The amount of protein recommended for sporting people is only slightly higher than that recommended for the general public. For example:

General public and active people – the daily recommended amount of protein is 0.8–1.0 g/kg of body weight (a 60 kg person should eat around 45–60 g of protein daily).

Sports people involved in non-endurance events – people who exercise daily for 45–60 minutes should consume between 1.0–1.2 g/kg of body weight per day.

Sports people involved in endurance events and strength events – people who exercise for longer periods (more than one hour) or who are involved in strength exercise, such as weight lifting, should consume between 1.2–1.7 g/kg of protein of body weight per day.

Dietary surveys have found that most athletic groups comfortably reach and often exceed their protein requirements by consuming a high-energy diet. Protein supplements are therefore unlikely to improve your sporting performance. 

While more research is required, other concerns associated with very high-protein diets include:

increased cost

a potential negative impact on kidney function 

increased weight if protein choices are also high in fat

a lack of other nutritious foods in the diet, such as bread, cereal, fruit and vegetables.

Using nutritional supplements to improve sporting performance

A well-planned diet will meet your vitamin and mineral needs. Supplements will only be of any benefit if your diet is inadequate or you have a diagnosed deficiency, such as an iron or calcium deficiency. There is no evidence that extra doses of vitamins improve sporting performance.

Nutritional supplements can be found in pill, tablet, capsule, powder or liquid form, and cover a broad range of products including:

vitamins

minerals

herbs

meal supplements

sports nutrition products

natural food supplements.

Before using supplements, you should consider what else you can do to improve your sporting performance –diet, training and lifestyle changes are all more proven and cost effective ways to improve your performance. 

Use of vitamin and mineral supplements is also potentially dangerous. Supplements should not be taken without the advice of a qualified health professional. It’s best if dietary imbalances are adjusted after analysing and altering your diet, instead of by using a supplement or pill. 

It’s also important to remember that if you take supplements, you are at risk of committing an anti-doping rule violation no matter what level of sport you play. 

Water and sporting performance

Dehydration can impair athletic performance and, in extreme cases, may lead to collapse and even death. Drinking plenty of fluids before, during and after exercise is very important. Don’t wait until you are thirsty. Fluid intake is particularly important for events lasting more than 60 minutes, of high intensity or in warm conditions. 

Water is a suitable drink, but sports drinks may be required, especially in endurance events or warm climates. Sports drinks contain some sodium, which helps absorption. A sodium content of 30 mmol/L (millimoles per litre) appears suitable in sports nutrition.

Using salt tablets to combat muscle cramps is no longer advised. It is lack of water not sodium that affects the muscle tissue. Persistent muscle cramps might be due to zinc or magnesium deficiencies.

Things to remember

Good nutrition can enhance sporting performance.

A well-planned, nutritious diet should meet most of an athlete’s vitamin and mineral needs, and provide enough protein to promote muscle growth and repair.

Foods rich in unrefined carbohydrates, like whole grain breads and cereals, should form the basis of the diet.

Water is a great choice of fluid for athletes to help performance and prevent dehydration.

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Reference:

https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/sporting-performance-and-food

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300+ TOP OPENSTACK Interview Questions and Answers

OPENSTACK Interview Questions for freshers experienced :-

1. What is Openstack? OpenStack is a set of software tools for building and managing cloud computing platforms for public and private clouds. 2. What You Mean By Tenant And Role Regarding Openstack ? In OpenStack, the authorization level of the user is called role and the group of users is called tenant. 3. What Types Of Storage Openstack Compute Provides? OpenStack provides 2 classes of block storage: Volume Storage: It is persistent and not dependent on any particular instance. Volumes are created by users and within Quota Ephemeral Storage: It is associated with a single instance.They effectively disappear when a virtual machine is terminated. 4. Give An Overview Of Openstack Services? OpenStack offers services like : Glance: Manages images in different formats Ceilometer: Openstack for billing Cinder: Provides persistent block storage Neutron: Enables users to create and attach interfaces to networks Nova: Provides instances on user’s demand Swift: Storage platform integrated directly into applications Heat: Allows automated infrastructure deployment Keystone: Provides authorization and authentication for users 5. What Are The Basic Functions Of Identity Service In Openstack? The basic functions of Identity Service is: Service Catalog: It provides a catalog of available services with their API endpoints User Management: It tracks the users and their permissions 6. Explain Modular Architecture Of Openstack? The three components that make modular architecture for OpenStack are: OpenStack Compute: For managing large networks of the virtual machine. Image Service: The delivery service provides discovery and registration for virtual disk images. OpenStack Object Storage: A storage system that provides support for both block storage and object storage. 7. Explain What Hypervisor Is And What Type Of Hypervisor Does Openstack Supports? In virtualization technology, hypervisor is a software program that manages multiple operating systems (or multiple instances of the same operating system) on a single computer system. The types of hypervisor that OpenStack supports are : KVM Containers Xen and HyperV VMware 8. What Is The Meaning Of Term “cinder” In Openstack Service? Cinder is used for handling persistent storage in OpenStack.The one that is utilized by default is LVM, called Cinder-Volumes. 9. What Is The Command Used For Unpause And Pause An Instance? To unpause an instance – $ nova unpause INSTANCE_NAME To pause an instance – $ nova pause INSTANCE_NAME 10. How You Can Transfer Volume From One Owner To Another In Openstack? You can transfer a volume from one owner to another by using the command cinder transfer*.

OPENSTACK Interview Questions 11. What Are The Main Components Of Identity User Management? Users: It is a digital representation of a person, service or system who uses OpenStack cloud services Roles: A role includes a set of rights and privileges. A role determines what operations a user is permitted to perform in a given tenant Tenants: A container used to group or isolate resource or identity objects. Depending on service operator a tenant may map to a customer, account, organization or project. 12. Mention What Is The Command To Remove Network Interface From Bare-metal Node? To remove network interface from bare-metal node command used is bare-metal – interface remove. 13. Explain What Is The Function Of Cinder Scheduler? Cinder Scheduler or routing volume create requests to the appropriate volume service 14. List Out The Storage Locations For Vm Images In Openstack? OpenStack Object Storage : Filesystem S3 HTTP RBD or Rados Block Device GridFS 15. Explain About Openstack Python Sdk? For writing python scripts and managing in Openstack cloud, SDK (Software Development Kit) is used. The SDK implements Python binding to the OpenStack API, which enables you to achieve automation tasks in Python by making calls on Python objects instead of making REST calls directly. 16. What Is Token In Openstack? Token is an alpha-numeric string which allows access to a certain set of services depending upon the access level of the user 17. What Is Cells In Openstack? Cells functionality enables you to scale an OpenStack Compute cloud in a more simplistic way. When this functionality is enabled, the hosts in an OpenStack Compute cloud are partitioned into group called cells. Cells are configured as trees. 18. For Networking, What Hardware Is Used In Openstack? In OpenStack, networking is done in following ways : Ports Vendor Plugins Networks Routers Subnets 19. What Are The Networking Options Used In Openstack? The networking options used in OpenStack are: VLAN Network Manager: Compute creates a VLAN and bridge; DHCP server is started for each VLAN to pass out IP addresses to VM instances. Flat DHCP Network Manager: IP addresses for VM instances are fetched from the subnet specified by the network administrator Flat Network Manager: IP addresses for VM instances are fetched from the subnet, and then injected into the image on launch 20. What Is The Command To Manage Floating Ip Addresses In Openstack? nova floating-ip-* 21. What Is The Meaning Of Term “flavor” In Openstack? A flavour is an available hardware configuration for a server, which defines the size of a virtual server that can be launched. 22. What Is Bare-metal Node And What Does It Comprised Of? It gives access to control bare metal driver, through which user can control physical hardware resources on the same network. Bare metal node is comprised of two separate components Bare metal node Operating System: It is a base software, which runs on each node in the cluster. Bare metal node Orchestrator: It’s a management software, which acts as a dispatcher to all nodes in the cluster. 23. What Is The Command Used To List Ip Address Information? $ nova floating-ip-pool-list 24. What Are Functions Of “nova” ? Instance life cycle management Management of compute resources Networking and Authorization REST-based API Asynchronous eventually consistent communication Hypervisor agnostic : support for Xen, XenServer/XCP, KVM, UML, VMware vSphere and Hyper-V 25. What Are Components Of Openstack Compute ? Nova Cloud Fabric is composed of the following major components: API Server (nova-api) Message Queue (rabbit-mq server) Compute Workers (nova-compute) Network Controller (nova-network) Volume Worker (nova-volume) Scheduler (nova-scheduler) 26. What Is Job Of Api-server ? The API Server provides an interface for the outside world to interact with the cloud infrastructure. 27. What Is Rabbit Mq Server ? OpenStack communicates among themselves using the message queue via AMQP. 28. What Are Functions And Features Of Swift ? Storage of large sized objects Storage of large number of objects Data Redundancy Archival capabilities – Work with large datasets Data container for virtual machines and cloud apps Media Streaming capabilities Secure storage of objects Extreme scalability Backup and archival 29. What Do You Understand By Horizon ? Horizon the web based dashboard can be used to manage /administer OpenStack services. 30. What Are Commands To Generate Keypairs ? ssh-keygen cd .ssh nova keypair-add –pub_key id_rsa.pub mykey 31. How You Can View The Rules ? Rules can be viewed with the command: $ nova secgroup-list-rules myservers 32. Give An Example Where Logs Help In Openstack Security ? For instance, analyzing the access logs of Identity service or its replacement authentication system would alert us to failed logins, frequency, origin IP, whether the events are restricted to select accounts and other pertinent information. Log analysis supports detection. 33. Why Compliance Is Required In Openstack ? Compliance means adhering to regulations, specifications, standards and laws. An OpenStack deployment may require compliance activities for many purposes, such as regulatory and legal requirements, customer need, privacy considerations, and security best practices. The Compliance function is important for the business and its customers. 34. What Are Data Privacy Concerns In Openstack, How Those Can Be Remediated? Data residency: Concerns over who owns data in the cloud and whether the cloud operator can be ultimately trusted as a custodian of this data have been significant issues in the past. Data disposal: Best practices suggest that the operator sanitize cloud system media (digital and non-digital) prior to disposal, release out of organization control or release for reuse. Data not securely erased: This may be remediated with database and/or system configuration for auto vacuuming and periodic free-space wiping. Instance memory scrubbing, Cinder volume data, Image service delay delete feature. 35. What Is Sanitization Process ? The sanitization process removes information from the media such that the information cannot be retrieved or reconstructed. Sanitization techniques, including clearing, purging, cryptographic erase, and destruction, prevent the disclosure of information to unauthorized individuals when such media is reused or released for disposal. 36. How To Create A Normal User In Openstack ? sudo nova-manage user create user-name 37. How You Assign A Project To A User ? sudo nova-manage project add –project=project_name –user=user_name 38. How You Can Remove A Rule From Security Group ? nova secgroup-delete-rule webserver tcp 443 443 0.0.0.0/0 39. How To Display Images Using Nova Client ? nova image-list 40. How To See A List Of Roles And The Associated Ids In Our Environment ? keystone role-list 41. What Is Job Of User Crud ? The user CRUD filter enables users to use a HTTP PATCH to change their own password. 42. Where Caching Configuration Is Stored ? The majority of the caching configuration options are set in the section of the keystone.conf file. 43. What Is Alarm In Openstack ? Alarms provide user-oriented Monitoring-as-a-Service for resources running on OpenStack. This type of monitoring ensures you can automatically scale in or out a group of instances through the Orchestration module, but you can also use alarms for general-purpose awareness of your cloud resources’ health. 44. How To Migrate Running Instances From One Openstack Compute Server To Another Openstack Compute Server ? Check the ID of the instance to be migrated Check the information associated with the instance Select the compute node the instance will be migrated to. Check that Host has enough resources for migration Migrate the instance using the $ nova live-migration SERVER HOST_NAME command. 45. How You Can Change Behavior Of Dhcp Server ? The behavior of dnsmasq can be customized by creating a dnsmasq configuration file 46. What Is Orchestration ? Orchestration is an orchestration engine that provides the possibility to launch multiple composite cloud applications based on templates in the form of text files that can be treated like code. 47. What Is Use Of Account Reaper ? In the background, the account reaper removes data from the deleted accounts. 48. What You Will Do In Case Of Drive Failure ? In the event that a drive has failed, the first step is to make sure the drive is unmounted. This will make it easier for Object Storage to work around the failure until it has been resolved. If the drive is going to be replaced immediately, then it is just best to replace the drive, format it, remount it, and let replication fill it up. 49. What You Will Do In Case Of Server Failure ? If a server is having hardware issues, it is a good idea to make sure the Object Storage services are not running. This will allow Object Storage to work around the failure while you troubleshoot. If the server just needs a reboot, or a small amount of work that should only last a couple of hours, then it is probably best to let Object Storage work around the failure and get the machine fixed and back online. When the machine comes back online, replication will make sure that anything that is missing during the downtime will get updated. If you cannot replace the drive immediately, then it is best to leave it unmounted, and remove the drive from the ring. This will allow all the replicas that were on that drive to be replicated elsewhere until the drive is replaced. Once the drive is replaced, it can be re-added to the ring. 50. How You Will Install Dhcp Agent ? # apt-get install neutron-dhcp-agent 51. Who Is Openstack For? OpenStack is for service providers, enterprises, government agencies and academic institutions that want to build public or private clouds. Industries range from IT & telco to SaaS and eCommerce to finance and healthcare. You can read more about how organizations are becoming agile, reducing costs and avoiding vendor lock-in with OpenStack. 52. What Does It Mean For The Cloud Ecosystem? Wide adoption of an open-source, open-standards cloud should be huge for everyone. It means customers won’t have to fear lock-in and technology companies can participate in a growing market that spans cloud providers. Companies are already using OpenStack to provide public clouds, support, training and system integration services and hardware and software products. A great analogy comes from the early days of the Internet: the transition away from fractured, proprietary flavors of UNIX toward open-source Linux. An open cloud stands to provide the same benefits for large-scale cloud computing that the Linux standard provided inside the server. 53. Mention What Are The Three Components That Make Modular Architecture Of Openstack? The three components that make modular architecture for OpenStack are: OpenStack Compute: For managing large networks of the virtual machine OpenStack Object Storage: A storage system that provides support for both block storage and object storage Image Service: The delivery service provides discovery and registration for virtual disk images 54. What Is Identity Service In Openstack? Keystone is the most important and preferred Identity Service in OpenStack and executes the complete OpenStack Identity API. 55. How Can You Create A Token? Users first need to authenticate their Keystone credentials to create a token. OPENSTACK Questions and Answers Pdf Download Read the full article

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FIGHTING CANCER

Fighting Cancer Once you comprehend the underlying causes of cancer and what to try and do to correct those causes, you're able to take effective action to beat your cancer. Discovering that you simply or a love has cancer may be totally alarming. All a similar, once you comprehend the causes of cancer and find out how to reverse those causes, you or your love could have quite a fighting probability of beating out cancer. alas, these techniques can't facilitate everyone survive, however if the individual utilizing these ways has enough time left so they will begin to figure, rather usually they reverse their cancer. Even if you're taking the quality medical treatments or simply making an attempt to not ever get cancer, you're able to safely improve the effectiveness of what you are doing. Foods You Must Embrace According to the National Cancer Institute, roughly 1/3 of all cancer deaths is also ascribed to our diets. The advocated diet isn't elaborate or dearly-won. There are loads of foods and even spices which will fine facilitate within the fight against cancer. Some authorities claims that loads of healthy food selections can facilitate cut back the likelihood of getting cancer, and will fall tumors.

Fresh analysis affirms what nutritionists have expressed for years: intense countless high-fiber foods may be a capital thanks to shield your health. which will sound sort of a steep claim. however in line with investigators conducting the biggest-ever study into the link between diet and cancer, it's the facts. Chemicals Are Not Your companion Toxins and Pollutants are brought into our homes day-to-day through water, food, dirt, mud and house cleansing product. for example, the intense poisonous substance phenol is also detected in an exceedingly few disinfectants, antiseptics and even air fresheners. continuing exposure to phenols and extra toxins might need injurious effects on our nervous and metabolic process systems, additionally induce cancers. It's crucial to teach yourself to modify you to chop down your risk and exposure. after you begin to teach yourself concerning the chemicals and toxins on the labels of the product in your house, you may like better to substitute a number of the toxic agents you discover with non-toxic choices.

Cancer may be a malady that touches on loads of people. several cancer-causing agents are discovered by researchers. Most types of cancer may be prevented by creating a couple of primary life-style alterations, like exertion and consumption healthy, averting sun exposure and refraining from tobacco use. There are loads of things that place up contribute to cancer. fat and smoking provide the sack cause cancer. property is likewise an element in some types of cancer. It's easy enough to safeguard yourself from carcinoma. you must utilize emollient throughout the daylight to safeguard your skin from ultraviolet rays dilleniid dicot family veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussel sprouts and cabbage hold two major antioxidants-lutein and zeanthin. These antioxidants may facilitate battle against prostatic adenocarcinoma. Most of the contemporary veggies within the foodstuff contain antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, which could aid within the interference of cancer. Oranges and lemons perk up the system to fight cancer cells. Papayas bear vitamin C, that works as Associate in Nursing inhibitor. Raspberries hold loads of vitamins and minerals that facilitate shield against cancer. balmy hold loads of antioxidants, which could suppress the expansion of tumors.

Some authorities justify that tea is decided to possess cancer-fighting powers. whereas all teas are sensible for the body, tea leaf is created from sweet tea leaves. Consequently, it's the very best density of antioxidants. The antioxidants in tea are referred to as polyphenols. The polyphenols in tea leaf may counterbalance these free radicals, and may even cut back or stop damage to the body. in line with some authorities, garlic bears allum compounds that appear to support the system. Turmeric, that may be a member of the family Zingiberaceae, likewise helps battle cancer. Hot chile peppers and jalapenos bear chemical irritant, that is believed to be a cancer fighting agent. Rosemary, that may be a flavourous spice, may facilitate within the battle against cancer. Some could feel the jury remains out on fiber's role as a cancer fighter. All a similar, given the numerous benefits of high-fiber foods like whole grains, fruits, and veggies, the arguments for causative a lot of fiber to your diet are overwhelming. A high-fiber diet could cut levels of blood steroid alcohol, facilitate sustain regularity, and avert gi conditions like inflammation. Contrary to their processed counterparts, like polished rice or staff of life, whole-grain foods hold their original fiber, the nutrient-rich bran and germ, and also the starchy reproductive structure. which will sound educational, however from a organic process purpose of read it makes an enormous distinction.

process whole grains to supply a refined grain takes away most of their organic process content. people mistakenly believe that the laws job for white flour to be enriched counterbalance for the numerous helpful nutrients lost throughout process. It's straight that a couple of artificial vitamins and minerals are other to our white flour, however this doesn't even equal to reestablishing all the lost nutrients. Whole wheat, for example, contains metal, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, and antioxidant. It likewise has vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothen, vitamin B6, folate, and E.

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#advancedcancer #breastcancer #clinicaltrials #communication #coping #decisionmaking #emotions #expertinformation #hormonetherapy #immunotherapy #kidneycancer #meetings #podcast #prostatecancer #sideeffects #survivorship #targetedtherapy #tips

[cyuya-nakahara]

You’re Insufferable (We’re Inseparable) - Ch4

read on ao3

Dazai is nothing if not persistent.

Chapter 4: The Dog and the Hare

"Are you busy?" The question startled Chuuya as he emerged from the tearoom, and he looked to the side to see Dazai sitting against the wall beside the door, a book in hand and small bag beside him. He looked like he'd been there for hours. "What are you doing here?" He asked, sliding the door shut behind him. Dazai slipped a bookmark in his book's pages and closed it, setting it aside. He looked up to meet Chuuya's eye. "Waiting for you." He said honestly. "I was hoping you'd like to go to the park." Chuuya raised a brow and studied the other boy closely. "I'm not dressed for it." He said cautiously, gesturing at his kimono. "Kouyou would kill me if I ruined her clothes." Suddenly it clicked for Dazai that the ratty clothes Chuuya had worn on the mission were probably the only articles of clothing that Chuuya owned for himself, and he searched for a compromise. "We could sit in the tea garden." He suggested, gesturing in the general direction of Kouyou's gardens. "You could change into something more casual first." "Why do you keep trying to be around me?" Dazai jostled his bag. "I brought candy." It wasn't an answer, and the redhead wasn't impressed by the offer in the slightest, but to his own surprise— "Fine." He said flatly. A change of clothes later, Dazai and Chuuya found themselves sitting on a stone bench in Kouyou's garden, watching fish swim and leaves fall from the stresses of the breeze. They sat silently, listening to the wind in the pines. A silence stretched on for what seemed to be forever, but Chuuya finally broke it. "What are we doing out here?" He said bluntly, shattering the meditative atmosphere. His voice seemed tired and disillusioned, because he was. He couldn't fathom why Dazai had come here to meet him at all. "I just want to talk." The boy answered back. Dazai kicked his legs as he looked at the ground. "We started poorly. Pretend I don't know you." "That's not hard." Chuuya laughed and he continued, "I hardly know you at all." He spoke with a laugh but his words fell on a silent backdrop, ringing true for both of them. Everything they knew of each other was derived from a few short encounters and a great deal of assumptions. Chuuya, for example, knew the other boy was called Dazai. He knew he was always bandaged up in some way, and he knew he was cared for by the greasy man that had insulted him when he'd first been brought in. He knew he could neutralise gifts, and he knew he was a bit of a prick. He didn't know much else at all. And Dazai knew little more. He knew Chuuya's full name, and he knew Kouyou cared for him. He knew his gift manipulated gravity, and that he'd been living on the streets before the Mafia had found him. He knew the progression of roles he had in his short time in the Mafia thus far, and he knew a bit of Chuuya's tactical strengths. He knew that Kouyou didn't wish to cut  his hair for whatever reason, and assorted other bits of trivia without context or importance. Neither knew much of the other at all. "I think we should just start over." Dazai said, leaning on his unbroken arm. "Introduce yourself, like we never even met. I'll do the same." He looked at Chuuya, studying his face. Chuuya looked back, and then sighed. He still hadn't gotten any word on why the other kid cared so much, but there wasn't any harm here. "Nakahara Chuuya." He said hesitantly, unsure of what kind of game they were playing. "Dazai." The other responded. And then, like robot, continued: "I am gifted. My gift is 'No Longer Human', and it is that any gift I come into contact with is rendered null and void." He spoke almost mechanically, and Chuuya wondered how many times the brunet had said those exact words before. It was a weird way for him to introduce himself; Chuuya hadn't even thought to mention his ability. Dazai apparently hadn't thought to give his full name. It bugged him. "Mine is 'For the Tainted Sorrow'," he said, still not onboard with whatever Dazai was trying to do, "as you might recall, it manipulates gravity." "How does it work?" Chuuya scoffed. "I'm not telling you that. I know your 'no trust in the Mafia' deal and I don't know what you're up to. I'm not telling you anything in depth about my ability, no way, dude." Dazai nodded, unsurprised. "Okay." The two sat in an uncomfortable silence filled only by the bubbling of the pond for well over a minute before either spoke again. "'No Longer Human' is a gift of the highest priority and potency." Dazai explained without prompting, breaking the silence and looking at the ground. "It activates when I touch an ability in use, no matter what it is, how strong its effects may be, or if I want it to. My ability will always neutralise other gifts before they act on me." "You can't turn it off?" Chuuya asked, raising a brow. That was an idea that was foreign to him. His own ability was something he turned on and off at will with relative ease, and so was pretty much every other ability he'd ever encountered. Something he used when he needed it. It happened without warning sometimes, but he could stop it eventually. The way the other talked about this, though, was what Dazai had even really a gift? The way it was described, it seemed more like...an extra feature of his body. Like Dazai's body had dark hair and fair skin, and it neutralised abilities on contact. Gifts had always seemed like special skills to Chuuya. Controllable things. Things that could be harnessed and trained. "No." Dazai said simply. "Can you?" Chuuya had taken to pulling the leaves off of a nearby plant, amassing a small pile in his lap. "I'd thought everyone could." He mumbled. Dazai frowned. "I'm still not telling you anything about mine." Chuuya added, looking at Dazai as he fiddled with a leaf in his hand. The other boy nodded. "That's fair." Another long silence ensued, but Chuuya was the one to break it this time. "So uh," he started, trying to make new conversation without tripping over words, "you're...important huh? I mean, you're my age, right?" Dazai wasn't entirely following. "I turned 11 recently." He said flatly, eyes on the other. Chuuya bit his lip and leaned back on his hands. "So you must be important right? I was supposed to be your bodyguard or something, but you're just a kid. And Kouyou talks really nice about you too. What makes you so special? Kouyou says you're smart." "I suppose that's true." The conversation fell flat on its face and another silence ensued. Chuuya began tearing up the leaves in his lap. This exercise they were doing was pointless— they were exchanging info but were they actually getting anywhere? It was just small talk, and Chuuya wasn't keen on small talk. He wasn't particularly good at small talk, he didn't like small talk, and in his experience small talk didn't like him. He usually wound up saying something wrong, and depending on who he was talking to, that ranged from uncomfortable to disastrous. Dazai didn't seem like he'd be the disaster sort, but that didn't mean he wanted to chance it. "Look—" he said, tossing a leaf into the pond, "what do you want? Why do you keep trying to talk to me? Just tell me straight up, please." He looked at Dazai in earnest. He liked "straight up". He liked honest expressions and uncomplicated conversations. He liked to say what he thought, whenever possible, and he preferred when others did the same. It rarely worked out that way, but it was what he liked, and it was what he wanted from this conversation badly. Dazai, however, did not like "straight up". "We started off badly." Dazai said again, his voice as practiced and scripted as his talk of his ability. "I just want to be friends." "Have you ever actually made a friend?" The question came out before Chuuya even thought to think and he immediately bit down on his lip as the discomfort hit the atmosphere like an atom bomb. A silence grew and the silence was telling —Dazai, like himself, probably had not had many opportunities for that. Chuuya reached out to touch the other. "Hey dude, I haven't really either." He said apologetically, trying to ease the damage. The brunet looked down at his arm and stared, and a different expression slipped underneath the blank one he'd been wearing as he observed the redhead's arm that extended from his sleeve. Chuuya wasn't sure what that meant. It was weird but it didn't seem bad. He wasn't sure what changed, but this expression seemed...real, and Dazai looked like a person had come to take his body off autopilot. "Do you like sweets?" He asked, his eyes still fixed on Chuuya's skin as he changed topics entirely. Chuuya drew his arm back slowly. "What kind?" "I don't actually know." He confessed, but he got out his bag, pulling out a handful of hard wrapped candies. "I just stole a handful of whatever Mori had in his jar for Elise. I'm not actually allowed to have them." Chuuya grimaced at Mori's name. He took the hard candy from Dazai when it was handed to him, but he didn't dare to eat it. "Is this stuff even safe?" He asked. Dazai was already popping one into his mouth. "Probably —ugh, cinnamon." He took the candy right back out of his mouth and wrapped it back up while Chuuya continued to look at his like it might secretly be full of razors. Dazai selected a yellow one this time, confident that the flavour possibilities for that colour were safe, and slid it in his mouth. "These are Elise's." He reiterated, talking around the candy. "Mori likes her. And besides, poisoning a bowl of candy that he and Elise eat from on the off chance that I steal some to give to you is a method that's inefficient, unguaranteed, and not his style. The candies are almost certainly safe." Chuuya reluctantly put one in his mouth. Dazai clearly trusted his judgement on the matter enough to eat them. And if something happened, well, at least he wouldn't be in the hospital alone. "Why is Elise allowed to have them but you're not?" He asked, tucking the hard candy in his cheek and pulling his legs up onto the bench. He turned to sit sideways facing Dazai. Dazai shrugged. "He likes her better I guess; poor girl. Why won't Kouyou let you cut your hair?" He said the question easily but it dropped awkwardly and Chuuya frowned, confused. "I could if I wanted, she's not stopping me. I just like it long." Oh. "It's pretty." Dazai said as a weak save for the implication of his question. It wasn't a lie, though. "Thank you." Dazai paused, looking at the pond, and then at Chuuya, at his hair and his clothes. He looked like Kouyou's spitting image, and the brunet wondered what that felt like to him. Did he abhor it? Like it? Did he even know? He wouldn't ask. "Do you enjoy learning from her?" He asked instead. His question was vague, designed to try and get the information he wanted. Chuuya just threw another leaf into the pond and answered simply, "I hate tea." It was an understandable answer for the circumstances. The conversations went on, with vague questions and cautious answers, until the sun began to sink lower in the sky. And by the time that came...well, they weren't quite friendly, but they weren't hostile either. And something between them made it seem so hard for either to leave. "I have to go." Chuuya said, rising from the bench and extending a hand to the other. Dazai nodded. He should have returned home long ago. "I'll come again." He said, and took Chuuya's hand to help himself up.

#soukoku #chuuya nakahara #dazai osamu #bungou stray dogs #bsd chuuya #bsd dazai #dachuu #myfic #mywriting #link goes to first chapter bc i figure out that i wasnt showing up in search bc of the links #so now its a redirect from my blog to my ao3 #cyuyaoriginalpost #happy skk week what a nice way to kick it off #yiwi

[thejojosanctuary]

I read this in a oneshot and I thought it was cute. How would the jojos react if their friend( who they have a crush on) asks them to be their fake fiancé, just so they can try the free cake samples.

Hey I think I’ve read it before! was it for Giorno? because if it’s an awesome one shot that I definitely recommend you guys read for yourselves if you stumble across it! :3 Sorry I got carried away with this so it’s like 3,200 words (whoops ^3^’)  but enjoy~!

- Ghost

Jonathan

·        Poor Jonathan, having his crush come up to him,look him dead in the eyes and say “Jonathan, I need you to be my fiancé” isgoing to break him – he’s so confused and as his face gains an unhealthy redhue he’ll implore for some form of explanation

·        When S/O explains their reasons for approachinghim so suddenly he’ll relax visibly although he wouldn’t understand why theywere going through so much trouble simply for cake (if they truly wanted somehe would have gladly purchased one for them)

·        Jonathan is weak to his crush’s wishes and wouldagree without thinking twice, however when the two of them are actually therehis nerves are nearly going to get the better of him but he’ll try his best toplay along

·        The most he’d do is hold onto S/O’s hand andstick close to their side since he has no idea if they like him as he does themand has no intention of overstepping any boundaries in fear of making themuncomfortable; yet if S/O hugs him or presses a kiss to his cheek he may growbold enough to return the favour (only if they want to of course!)

·        Hearing the wedding planner (I think this isright?) or other actually engaged couples coo about how cute of a pair they arewhile they try out samples together will leave him flustered and this mighteven spark him to start seriously planning out a confession to his crush(although the acted confession would take place quite a while afterwards but atleast he’ll know the best way to do so *coughcoughcakecoughcough*)

Joseph

·        All Joseph needs to hear is ‘free’ and ‘cake’and he’s there ready to do what it takes to help S/O get said food samples, solong as there’s some involved for him too (he’s not letting them eat all thecake without him)

·        At first Joseph’s acting is going to be cheesyand terrible in an almost painful way – he’s using every cutesy nickname in thebook while keeping an arm permanently slung over their shoulder and he’ll besure to let everyone know that they’re his ‘fiancé’ at all times

·        Eventually though (after many, many elbows tothe gut from his crush) he’ll be a little more relaxed about it and the two ofthem would start acting as though they were really dating, people will evenfind it cute whenever one of them goes to off the other a piece only to veer itaround at the last second to eat for themselves leaving the other to pout attheir behaviour

·        Joseph’s not going to downright make out withthem to convey their ‘relationship’ but he’ll give them the odd kiss or twoevery once in a while (he says later that it was to make it believable but hejust wanted to kiss them – they are his crush after all so he’s using this asan opportunity to gauge if they like him back at any given moment)

·        By the end of it the two of them will have eatenenough samples to clear a small bakery but they’ll both be satisfied and happy;however they can bet that not too long after this Joseph’s going to confess tothem and shamelessly ask to take them out on a date as soon as possible (it’sgonna be cake related)

Jotaro

·        “No”is all that’s going to come from Jotaro before he’s going back to whatever he’sdoing – cake or not he’s not going to pretend he’s engaged to his crush,although this is mainly because it will just prove to torment him about nothaving asked them out yet

·        However, after a few hours of persistence alongwith his crush’s pouting face is going to break him down enough to agree to gowith them for a little while, but you can be sure he’s not putting on a showfor anyone meaning that everyone else is going to have to deal with Jotaro ashis usual grumpy self

·        The two of them will certainly stand out, whileS/O is excitedly browsing the different flavour cake samples and talkinganimatedly he’ll remain silent for the most part, only offering a brief nod orodd comment at most when it’s needed; in fact at first glance the two of themwouldn’t look like a couple at all so S/O’s going to have to do the most workto convince them otherwise

·        Jotaro doesn’t really care if people thinkthey’re a couple or not (actually he does but he’s never gonna admit it toanyone) however it’s going to take a lot of people getting suspicious coupledwith how happy his S/O looks as they test the cake samples with him before hedoes start to act as though they’re an actual couple; of course the only thingJotaro’s going to do is just wrap an arm around their shoulder or ruffle their hairwhenever they do something particularly cute and it’s certainly going tosurprise S/O with the change in demeanour

·        By the time the two of them leave (after S/O’shad their fill of cake of course) Jotaro would’ve found it better if the two ofthem went their separate ways there, but when the two of them do go to partways he’d spot people staring at them whispering to one another as the gearsturn in their heads and all he can do is mentally sigh before turning directlyto his crush, tilting their head a little too sharply and leaning down to presshis lips to theirs; he’s going to have to explain to S/O why he did thatwithout pointing to the people in question but even then the red which brushestheir cheeks almost illuminates their face as the two of them make eye contactand start walking again, this time side by side – it looked like S/O wasn’tmaking the trip home alone ~

Josuke

·        It doesn’t take much to convince Josuke to comealong with S/O – free cake and the chance to be a ‘fake fiancé’ with his crush?Count him in! Although it’ll fluster him the more that he thinks about it he’lllook forward to going with them, heck he’ll probably even dress up a little forthe occasion, nothing too much he’ll just take a little more time than usual tolook his best

·        Meeting up with them at their house (to save thetwo of them from getting interrogated about it by Tomoko) he’ll look calm onthe outside but seeing as his crush had a similar idea to him and had dressedup a little more than usual for the occasion he’ll be fighting down the urge togush about how cute they look, instead choking out a curt “you look nice” before the two of them head to their destination

·        He’ll be hesitant at first to even hold hiscrush’s hand in fear of upsetting them and would instead focus on testing thecakes samples with them as each new flavour comes out, as the time rolls on he’llget a little more relaxed reasoning that this wasn’t an actual date so there wasno need for him to get so frazzled by just pretending to be a couple…right?

·        Wrong, is what he finds out as S/O does nearlyevery couple-esque thing in the book – looping his arm in theirs, holdinghands, resting their head on his shoulder, calling him cutesy names like ‘honey’or ‘babe’, offering to feed him some of the samples and even occasionally givinghim brief kisses to the cheek; by the end of it the poor boy is going to getall kinds of mixed signals wondering if they really like him or if they’re justplaying along

·        By the end the two of them will be a lot morecloser than they were when they first started the ‘fake fiancé’ thing, they’llbe walking side by side chuckling and smiling at one another with their hands intertwinedobviously a lot more comfortable being a couple then when S/O had first plannedit; however it’s more than likely that he’ll end up letting slip somethingalong the lines of “Hehe, we should havea date like this again sometime-!” only to catch himself way too late andtry in vain to explain himself, but hearing his S/O giggle and say “Yeah I’d like that” he’s going to becomea blushing mess as he realizes that free cake wasn’t the only thing to come outof the situation

Giorno

·        Giorno would be amused by his crush as they runup to him and practically leap onto his desk, determination on their face asthey state “Giorno I need a few hours ofyour time” and he’ll listen to them describe their ingenious idea with asmirk on his face; there are quite a few other things with Passione that heshould be filling his time with but seeing them look at him so hopefully issomething he can hardly turn down and he’ll agree to accompany them as their ‘facefiancé’

·        He is the master of playing the part and themoment the two of them enter the building together S/O will be taken aback byjust how relaxed and into the role of the doting fiancé he really is; from theway that he talks to the wedding planner about his ‘wonderful partner’ to thestories about their ‘relationship’ so intricately weaved S/O has to reallythink about whether they actually happened or if he’s making it up as he goesalong – needless to say they’re going to be incredibly impressed

·        He’ll focus more on is crush rather than tryingout the cakes, content with just watching them weave between each sample andtable excited to try the next flavour and decide whether they like it or not;he’ll be making mental notes of this for future reference too, noticing howthey scrunch their nose up a little when they try a cake they don’t like andhow their eyes sparkle happily when they try one that they do in fact enjoy

·        He knows what their boundaries are so while he’sin the role of being their fiancé he’ll only do what they’re comfortable with,be it pressing a kiss to their forehead or embracing them from behind and restinghis head on their shoulder, he always keeps them in mind; but on the other handif they return the favour and be affectionate to him he won’t hesitate to letthem know it’s okay, feeling a pleasant warmth in his chest whenever they nuzzleagainst him or wrap their arms around him

·        The two of them will go their separate ways oncethey have had their fill, both of them content and glad that they went throughwith it, however it’s not going to just be lefts at that; a day or two laterS/O will start receiving small gifts of cakes the same flavour as the cakesamples they had shown the most interest in, and this will keep up every fewdays just to see the giddy smile he loves so much to flash across their facewhenever a new package arrives

Jolyne

·        Similar to Josuke and Joseph she’ll gladly playalong with the whole fake fiance thing with the promise of free cake at hand,she has quite the sweet tooth so the moment her crush brings it up she’ll agreeto do it wholeheartedly and she’ll be just as excited as S/O at their plan as theystart making preparations

·        She’ll probably be the one to collect the fake engagementrings when they meet up to make it look more believable (although it’s probablybest not to ask how she managed to find them on such short notice) and themoment they step into the building her arm will be looped around their waist asthey greet the wedding planner with identical smiles; Jolyne can be a prettygood actor when she wants to be and when the situation calls for it (it’s notlike she has to fake her love for S/O though she can do that all too naturallyeven if she plays it off as just being a good actor)

·        Jolyne knows that confidence is key to makingsomething believable so she’ll be quite bold in her levels of affection withher crush so long as they’re comfortable with it, keeping an arm around themand gently rubbing their shoulder as the two of them browse through the tablesand test out the samples; it may be a little embarrassing at first for the bothof them but after a little while they’ll be a little more relaxed and naturalwhen they hold hands and lean against one another, perhaps even unconsciously doingso

·        Other than the initial internal panicking she’sgoing to actually be pretty chill and calm about it (well as calm as she can bepractically kissing and being all lovey-dovey with her crush without themactually being together) and the two of them will just enjoy spending timetogether as they eat as much cake as they want before they finally decide tobring the cake testing to an end

·        The two of them will probably end up taking someback with them to ‘let the other wedding guests decide’ since they ‘wouldn’t beable to pick just one on their own’ (aka – taking some back for the othersbecause they begged them to bring some back with them) only to laugh with oneanother once they’re out of earshot and are making their way back home; howeverthis day will certainly stick with Jolyne as one of their most memorable and itonly makes her realize that she wants to make just as many great memoriestogether in the future

Johnny

·        Johnny will hardly believe what he’s hearing ashis crush tells him all about their plan and how they need his help to make itwork – surely there were better people to ask? Like Gyro or Hot Pants or anyone?Why would they think making him their fake fiancé was a great idea? He’s notgoing to complain though, they’re his crush and if they want to do this withhis help then he’ll help

·        He can already feel the stares from the othercouples as well as the wedding planner upon seeing the two of them together asthey come in and he starts to wonder to himself if this was really a good idea,but the smile and excited conversation from S/O quickly distracts him from thisand he’ll just focus on spending time with them and responding to theircomments

·        Any romantic gestures that S/O makes with him isgoing to fluster him and take him off guard a little but he’ll still playalong, fighting off the urge to blush whenever they wrap their arms around himor press the odd peck to his cheek; however what really does him in is whenthey offer to feed him one of the more delicious flavours of cake with such awarm inviting smile on their face it was as if they just wanted him to falleven more in love with them as he already was but he’ll accept their offernonetheless

·        If his S/O gets a little tired then he’ll letthem rest in his lap if they’re comfortable with it and people will find it apretty cute sight to see them sat in his lap, giving the blushing blonde Eskimokisses and asking him which flavor he likes best along with which one the twoof them should try next and which one he’s thinking of picking

·        By the time the cake testing session has come toan end it’s fair to say that the two of them will stick quite close together asthey leave, the words of gratitude along with constant apologies for being tooforward are going to come relentlessly spilling from S/O’s mouth; it’s onlyuntil he calls their name, firmly squeezes their hand (which is stillintertwined with his) and states “Don’tapologize I…don’t mind so long as it’s you” that the words die in theirthroat and the two of the look at the other with slowly reddening faces, buteven with the embarrassment of the sudden sort-of confession that won’t stopS/O from saying that they like him too~

Jo2uke(Gappy)

·        ‘Fake fiancés?How do you even go about being fake fiancés?’ will be Gappy’s first thought when they come to him with the idea,begging him to play along so that the two of them can try out all of the freecake samples the wedding planner has available, he doesn’t even know if he’sever been on a date before let alone had a fiancé so S/O is going to have togive him a quick rundown of what they think fiancés should do before they headoff

·        He’ll be sort of distant affection wise when thetwo of them first greet the wedding planner and start trying the samples laidout before them, staying back a little so that they can do what they want andgiving them free range on doing what they’re comfortable with doing with him

·        It doesn’t take long before he gets curious asto just how many types of flavours there are and soon enough he’ll be rightnext to them, peeking over their shoulder and asking for their opinion on thesample they’re currently trying; if they like it then he’ll try it himselfeither picking up a bit for himself or just taking a piece from S/O’s fork, butif it’s a flavour they don’t lie then he’ll just forgo trying it for himselfand instead just moving on to the next table

·        It’s pretty cute when he finds a flavor that helikes, he won’t say much but his eyes will widen a little and he’ll immediatelyturn to his crush with some more, urging them to try it for themselves with asmall smile; although it’s a little hard to focus on the taste of the cake whenhe says things like “We should have thisone at the wedding” or “Do you thinkpeople will like this one?” with such seriousness his crush can’t tell ifhe’s just acting or being completely serious

·        With all of this happening Gappy’s probablygoing to let slip here or there about how he feels about S/O and they’ll haveto be pretty oblivious to  not realisethat he’s none too subtly asking them out or confessing; however if they are infact that oblivious and don’t pick up on what he’s saying right away he’ll waittill they’re both finished and on their way back home before bluntly askingthem upfront to go on a proper cake-date sometime – he isn’t very subtle buthey they boy’s trying his best! (and it’s hard to say no when he’s waiting fortheir answer with such a cute expression)

#jjba headcanon #part 1 #part 2 #part 3 #part 4 #part 5 #part 6 #part 7 #part 8 #phantom blood #battle tendency #stardust crusaders #diamond is unbreakable #vento aureo #stone ocean #steel ball run #jojolion #jonathan joestar #joseph joestar #jotaro kujo #josuke higashikata #giorno giovanna #jolyne kujo #jolyne cujoh #johnny joestar #jo2uke higashikata #gappy #request #anon #Ghost's post

[cliftonsteen]

Rethinking Insurance to Improve Coffee Farmers’ Resilience 

Coffee farming is an unpredictable business, at times devastatingly so. Weather conditions can take us by surprise while crop diseases can be prevalent and persistent. Affecting both the yield and quality of a harvest, these issues leave insurance vitally important to the economic stability of farming communities.

Weather index insurance is an emerging concept that can help protect coffee farmers from the effects of adverse weather conditions and natural disasters. It can also reduce farmers’ dependence on government aid and help tackle deepening poverty in coffee-growing communities.

So why is it that so few coffee growers have heard of it? How can the coffee industry make it more accessible, and how exactly would it benefit the people at the start of the supply chain?

You might also like The Complicated Role of Money in Specialty Coffee

Pickers on their way to harvest coffee cherries in Colombia. Credit: Propina

Why Is Insurance so Important?

Smallholder farmers in coffee-growing countries are far more likely to be impoverished than not. They make up two-thirds of those classed as poor in developing countries. 

They also contribute significantly to the local economy. When a coffee farmer has a bad year yet does not receive insurance payouts, their close-knit community will likely experience hardship too. A solid insurance plan ensures greater economic stability by supporting farmers through tough harvests. And its impact extends beyond the one farm, benefitting whole villages and towns.

Now, more than ever, poor insurance puts communities at risk. Climate change is causing more frequent and severe weather conditions and natural disasters. Droughts, harvest rains, fires, and floods can have catastrophic effects. 

Leaving farms even more vulnerable, rising temperatures are allowing pests and diseases to thrive at elevations where it used to be too cold for them to survive. It’s at these mountainous heights that coffee farmers often plant their best and most vulnerable coffee trees: ones associated with more delicate and complex flavours, and with that, higher prices. Unfortunately, with many of these varieties, the pay-off is reduced resistance to bugs, fungi, and illness.

Crawford Hawkins is the Founder and CEO of Harvest, an online marketplace launching soon that sells roasted coffee to consumers and businesses and helps to fund weather index insurance and working capital for coffee farmers. 5% of their sales is used to pay producers’ insurance premiums through Propina, a non-profit which means “tip” in Spanish. Additionally, when people buy coffee from Harvest, they can choose to “tip” producers by donating additional funds to cover their insurance policies.  

“When wet months are wetter and dry months are drier, the effect on smallholder coffee producers is severe,” he says. “The increased climate volatility means that the average temperatures across the coffee belt no longer align with their historical average. Weather is becoming more unpredictable and smallholder farmers lack the access to hedging tools to protect their livelihoods.” 

In this context, accessible and comprehensive insurance policies are increasingly needed.

You might also like What Is Coffee Hedging & How Does It Impact Producers?

A worker examines coffee seedlings at Finca Café Con Amor. Credit: Marianella Baez Jost

Insurance Policies That Cause More Problems Than Solutions

It has proven difficult for many smallholder farmers to access and claim on traditional crop insurance. The problem is that it’s just not designed with the daily realities of smallholder coffee farmers in mind. 

Kellie McCoy, Founder of consultancy specialists The Candra Group and previously Chief of Staff to Starbucks’ CEO, tells me, “Traditional insurance models take a policy holder’s assets into account and then assess premiums accordingly.” In other words, typical agricultural insurance involves insuring the crops themselves, mainly against any losses that the farmer might incur. 

Since the policy is based on the farmers’ crops and any losses specific to their farm, assessing value and damages is time-consuming and complex. In-person farm inspections might be required, a process that can be slowed down by poor or damaged infrastructure (especially after flooding). In the meantime, coffee farmers are left waiting and potentially spiralling into debt.

On top of this, traditional insurance can encourage producers to adopt risky farming methods. Since policies are based on the value of a crop, they reward higher yields. Producers can end up focusing on this over sustainable growth, nurturing the soil quality, and renovating plants (something which typically results in a short-term drop in harvest size in exchange for better returns two to three years later). 

If the farmer fails to increase their yield, their premium can increase and they will find themselves having to pay more with each contract renewal – meaning they have less money to invest in their farm.

These policies also fail to incentivise farmers to diversify their crops – and with that, their income – or plant shade crops, which help to increase the soil quality. There are often strict guidelines that the farmers must follow or else risk invalidating the policy, which can leave farmers unwilling to try something new.

Rich vegetation grows at Finca Café Con Amor in Costa Rica. Credit: Marianella Baez Jost

Turning to a New Type of Insurance

Some insurance brokers are turning away from traditional models and towards weather index insurance instead. It’s being hailed as a solution to many of the problems inherent to typical agricultural insurance.

In this model, variables such as rainfall, temperature, and wind speed in certain locations are measured using past data, local weather stations, and satellites. This data is then used to create indexes that determine standard ranges for these variables within that region. Coffee farmers and insurance companies then agree on certain levels of deviation for the most appropriate variables in a contract. 

Michael R. Carter is a professor at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California in Davis, and also the director of the university’s BASIS Research Program. The program aims to provide economically disadvantaged families with the agricultural tools that they need to sustain themselves.

He describes how weather index-based insurance works when put into practice. “[It] issues payments based on a verifiable index measure that is related to the losses that insured farmers experience. Examples of such indexes include average yields within a locality, deficits or excesses of precipitation, and a suite of satellite-based measures that reflect plant health and growth and can be used to predict crop yields.”

The exact indices used will vary, but they are typically based on historic averages to make sure that they are relevant and accurate. Hawkins tells me, “The index weather insurance that we structure combines a 30-year average temperature or rainfall amount to create a smart contract at a local level, ensuring a payout when the weather deviates from the historical average.”

Coffee trees grow under shade cover. Credit: Marianella Baez Jost

How Weather Index Insurance Can Support Farmers

Weather index insurance shifts a significant amount of control back to farmers. It means that they aren’t held accountable by external parties to their crop’s yield. Nor are they dependent on farm inspections that are difficult to arrange: satellites can obtain all the data that the insurance company needs to process any claims filed by the farmers. 

As McCoy says, weather indexing “simplifies the insurance model”.

Since claims are automatic and based on data the insurance company already has, the payout can also be extremely quick. Wade Preston, Co-Owner of Prevail Coffee in Alabama, says, “When a crop-yield-affecting weather event occurs, the claim is automatically filed and the coffee grower receives a payout.

“If the coffee-growing world and the world of commercial insurance have anything in common, it’s that they are both notorious for working slowly and inefficiently. GPS-based weather indexing solves that problem on both ends.”

When farmers receive their insurance claim payouts faster, they can then recover from any monetary losses quicker. This is especially beneficial to economically disadvantaged farmers who may otherwise be forced to sell their equipment or even land to survive the wait.

McCoy hopes this new insurance model will help tackle the tendency for smallholder farmers to leave their farms and seek new jobs. “If we consider a single smallholder farmer who relies on the sale of the coffee… then a failed crop due to insufficient rainfall could force this one farmer to leave [their] rural area for a more reliable job in a nearby city,” she says. 

Healthy coffee trees grow in a biodiverse environment on Finca Café Con Amor. Credit: Marianella Baez Jost

Barriers to Obtaining Insurance

Although weather index insurance sounds like the ideal policy for farms today, Prof. Carter tells me that it is still not widely used. “Farmer demand for index insurance in many instances has been very low,” he says. 

A startling lack of awareness is one barrier. Weather index insurance has not been well-publicised in many cases. Nor is it widely understood, not even among farmers. Farmers in Kenya have reported being confused about when they would receive insurance payouts if there were fluctuation in the index, with risk-averse farmers were particularly likely to be wary because of this.

A significant number also did not consider the insurance to be worth the cost of the premiums. This is not a problem unique to weather indexing: after many years of ineffective traditional insurance, many producers simply don’t expect insurance to be useful. 

Marianella Baez Jost owns a coffee farm in Costa Rica. She tells me, “Insurance is not well known in coffee farming… Most people only purchase insurance because it is required for their vehicle or property mortgage.”

This issue is further compounded by financial barriers. Lower-income coffee growers are found to be more hesitant in taking out weather index-based insurance due to a lack of trust and understanding of it. 

Siddhartha Jha is the CEO and Founder of Arbol, a platform bringing together farms and capital providers to create weather index-based insurance contracts. He tells me, “Insurance is a key piece of financial infrastructure to help build resilience… for economically disadvantaged farmers… However, the market is still highly fragmented, opaque, expensive, and plagued with fees stemming from inefficiency.”

Weather index insurance can have a dramatic impact on producing communities. The problem is communicating it.

Marianella Baez Jost inspects coffee plants on her farm, Finca Café Con Amor. Credit: Zach Tarhini

Does Take-Up Begin With Coffee Cooperatives?

When we talk about smallholder farmers, the role of the community cannot be overlooked. Just as a poor harvest affects the entire village, an entire village of producers working together may be more inclined to try a new insurance model. It can make it easier to share accurate information about different policies, how to sign up, and how to make claims. 

In fact, research in Kenya found that offering insurance to a group of smallholder farms, as opposed to individuals, led to a better understanding of the insurance model. As the farmers discussed it together, their confidence in the system increased.

Propina is working on trials of weather index insurance with farming groups in Costa Rica, Colombia and Honduras. The farmers’ premiums are paid for by Harvest, which donates 5% of sales and also facilitates consumers “tipping” the producer at the point of sale. Roasters and other supply chain businesses can also match the donation to scale the social and environmental impact.

It’s early days for weather index insurance, but producers have high hopes for it. Rafael Silva of SICAFE Coffee says that he “really wants” to be able to access it.

“Coffee is a crop that 100% depends on nature…,” he explains. “Having insurance as a businessperson means you are protected, that in case of anything happening outside your control, you, your company, your product is safe or taken care of in times of a disaster. Having insurance provides me with a peace of mind and allows me to focus on the bigger picture.”

Good insurance can be life-changing. It can increase financial stability for producers, their families, and their communities. This opens the door not only to a better quality of life (the value of which should not be understated), but also the ability to plan ahead, manage risk, confidently expand, and feel secure about the future – things that are important in all businesses and in all our lives.

As Preston says, “We should be able to speak about financial instruments, processes, and infrastructure… just as clearly and articulately as we speak about coffee processing, roasting, and extraction – even if that means adding terms like ‘weather indexed crop insurance’ to our lexicon.”

Found this interesting? Read Sustainability in Coffee: What Are The Main Issues?

Written by Tasmin Grant. Feature photo: Coffee plants at Finca Café Con Amor in Cañuelas, Naranjo, Costa Rica. Feature photo credit: Marianella Baez Jost

Please note: This article has been sponsored by Propina.

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The post Rethinking Insurance to Improve Coffee Farmers’ Resilience  appeared first on Perfect Daily Grind.

Rethinking Insurance to Improve Coffee Farmers’ Resilience  published first on https://espressoexpertweb.weebly.com/

[entergamingxp]

Song of Horror is a quietly inventive homage to survival horror’s glory days • Eurogamer.net

What does safety sound like in a game? We spend a lot of time as players thrilling over compositions and effects that get the adrenaline flowing – spectral piano, frantic violins, ambient mitherings that might, if you’re very lucky, just be a broken aircon – but what about the compositions and effects that soothe and reassure? The Resident Evil series is full of them: bundle together every last Save Room melody and you’ve got a half-decent yoga playlist, though I’d probably chuck in some Okami or whatever to lift the mood. Gears of War has that satisfied guitar purr when you’ve winkled out every last Locust. The Sunless games have their port themes, wafted to you from off-screen like smoke on the breeze – music indeed to the captain coasting home on their last few lumps of coal.

And what of Song of Horror, Protocol’s absorbing homage to the Silent Hills and Alone in the Darks of yesteryear? In Song of Horror, safety is a soft tap, right on the edge of hearing, like somebody very carefully setting down a glass. All being well, you’ll hear it after a few seconds when you put your ear to a door. The tap, which surely represents a lot of calculation on the part of the audio designer, is a vital cue in a game where silence has many textures. Sometimes, silence sounds like silence. And sometimes, it sounds… bonier. Squelchier. As though you had your ear pressed against a misbehaving stomach. In which case, opening that door is… unwise. Better to switch to your map screen, work out another route, and hope like hell that when next you put your ear to a door, the tap is all you can hear.

Now three of five episodes in, Song of Horror is a third-person, combat-free spookfest with automatic camera perspectives and a refreshing taste for the procedural. Players rove dark, abandoned buildings solving puzzles while evading various ambient threats known collectively as the Presence. Snooping at doors is crucial because said threats – which kill off characters forever, should you fail the associated QTEs – are ever-changing, assuming different forms at different times in different places, based on a mixture of loose scripting and monitoring of player behaviour. You’re hurrying down some stairs, brandishing a candlestick like the shotgun you sorely wish you had, when oily black handprints blossom all over the walls. You’re inspecting a desk when something bandaged and breathy pops up on the other side of it, snuffling for your blood.

Who exactly you’re playing is one of the more important variables, though not, I think, as decisive as it should be. There are four character stats, Serenity, Strength, Speed and Stealth, which lightly skew the odds ahead – the first two determine how difficult it is beat those QTEs, while Stealth appears to set the basic probability of an encounter triggering in any given room. More substantially, choice of character alters the mood of the space you’re in, as each character describes each interactive object a different way – a quietly surprising flourish that hasn’t been developed to the full. Last year I wrote about how it feels to return to Resident Evil 2’s police station in different games, the phantom-limb disquiet of finding familiar objects altered or removed, old rooms expanded or sewn shut. Song of Horror is also about the relentless return of a space, a space that both has a mind of its own and is gently (re)characterised by the poor souls doomed to roam it.

Each episode stars a different building and gives you three or four characters to play with, some (providing they survive) carried over between episodes. Lose a character and you must try again with the next, retracing their steps to gather up the items they were carrying and the bloody, bitten-off threads of whatever riddle they were unravelling. The first is set in the gloomy mansion home of a novelist, Sebastian Husher, whose disappearance owes something to the music box you can hear, warbling away behind the skirting boards. You might begin here as Sophie van Denend, an art dealer searching for her ex-husband. Sophie comes armed with scented candles, useful for creating a calm atmosphere that minimises the chances of an icky manifestation. She can also name and date the house’s ominous paintings, some of which play a role in puzzles.

The robust and heavy-drinking Alexander Laskin, meanwhile, is one of the Husher family’s housekeepers. He lacks Sophie’s book smarts, but he understands each painting’s history within the house, remembering where they used to hang and how it felt to work around them. Security technician Alina Ramos is a stranger to both the Hushers and fine art, but she does know how to deactivate a door alarm, and has plenty to say about the house’s former occupants based on her own family background.

In changing characters the character of the building changes, which makes killing people off essential to appreciation of Song of Horror, as morbid as that may seem. Sadly, the script isn’t that hot, and the voice-acting is B-movie to the hilt (there’s an English character who sounds like he’s doing a drunken impression of Eddie Izzard’s drunken impression of James Mason), but the game gets enough out of its relatively unusual ensemble premise to keep you guessing. You only need to keep one particular character alive between episodes to progress the story – a run-of-the-mill Lovecraftian race to determine the origins of a cursed artefact – so feel free to let the odd person go for the sake of variety. Characters don’t quite vanish when the Presence snaffles them, mind you. There’s never a body, but the victim may linger on in other ways.

Song of Horror’s obvious strength is its architecture and interior design, which spurns the genre’s beloved impossible geometry in favour of good old-fashioned sense-of-place. The Husher estate is smaller, but every bit as intricate as Resident Evil’s legendary Umbrella mansion, and rather less silly of structure. It’s divided between the housekeepers’ quarters, a winding basement, a small library, an office, bedrooms, creepy playrooms – there’s a dollshouse that uncannily resembles the one you’re in – and a mouldering attic. Episode 2 takes you to an antique shop with an eerie fairground attraction in the lobby, backing out onto apartments where the owner and his daughter live. The quality of the interior design is heightened by solid camera composition: think views from a ceiling corner, as though your fly on the wall were the Babadook, and head-on tracking shots that deny you a clear look at what awaits you down the hall. A little disappointingly, the university in episode 3 consists of three, separately loading departments rather than a persistent space, but it does contain one terrific puzzle that troubles the border between image and reality.

The puzzles are gentle, quite varied, and mostly intuitive: good and bad, they exist to keep you shuttling back and forth between the far corners of the layout, in the face of the Presence’s efforts to box you in or scare you off. Many are just about combining objects (which can be rotated in the pause screen to reveal clues) in mildly eccentric ways. Some are numbers-based, others see you matching telltale details in documents to things like library signs. There’s perhaps one puzzle that is just plain annoying, a meandering riddle left for you by a smug professor (as with dialogue lines like “not another fetchquest?!” having characters call a puzzle irritating in the game does not actually lessen the irritation). The puzzles are best when they symbolise some element of the story being played out, and when they work with or against the structure that contain them. The dollhouse, inevitably, is more than it seems.

Song of Horror’s greatest weakness is, alas, probably the Presence itself. It’s oppressive indeed when out of view, because you’re always wondering when it will show up. You learn to time its appearances, and there’s nothing like the dread when you’re close to completing an episode but overdue a reckoning. The Presence’s actual manifestations aren’t that startling, however – think skellingtons and tentacles – and the problem with this being a procedural affair is that you quickly start to think of the scares as mechanical moving parts. The QTEs are as divisive as QTEs tend to be. I’d rather not spoil either the specific dangers or how you escape from them, but suffice to say you can expect button-bashing and rhythm-matching. The latter bits led to the game being all but unplayable over the winter, thanks to a performance bug that made it impossible to keep time; thankfully, this seems to have been fixed.

Song of Horror’s spooks aren’t quite worthy of the build-up, then, but isn’t that true of every monster, once it has shambled into the spotlight? The quality of the game’s location design, together with the not-quite-realised potential of its ensemble premise, make it something more than a Greatest Hits. It’s like a collection of planetary fragments that has mustered enough gravity to form a brand new planet. I’m looking forward to episode 4, out at the end of the month, which takes place in a ruined medieval abbey. Who knows what lurks behind those ancient doors? Better listen extra-carefully for the tap. Mind you, fostering a sense of security is one of the more devious tools in the horror designer’s arsenal. Perhaps where this game’s safer flavours of silence are concerned, the other shoe is still waiting to drop.

Song of Horror is out now on PC, and coming to PS4 and Xbox One this year.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/song-of-horror-is-a-quietly-inventive-homage-to-survival-horrors-glory-days-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=song-of-horror-is-a-quietly-inventive-homage-to-survival-horrors-glory-days-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[headlines-twentyfour]

In this digital era, disruptions have become routine. But not many disruptions are as deep and comprehensive as those facing the automobile industry.To be sure, these upheavals have been in the works for a decade now. In 2009, China overtook the United States in car sales, signalling the decline of Detroit as the world’s car production centre and the shifting of centre of gravity from the West to the East.That was just a trailer of the coming tectonic shift. Amid technological progress, concerns over fossil fuel emissions and global warming, the century-old internal combustion engine is facing an existential crisis and dirty fuel, diesel, is being abandoned as electric vehicles become the buzzword.Shared mobility platforms — from Ola to Uber — are also impacting the behaviour of potential car buyers. The meteoric rise of Tesla and China Inc’s electric vehicle ambitions are just the two important markers of how the status quo in the auto industry is fast altering.These battles are now playing out on Indian roads. The size of the world’s fourth-largest car market is expected to grow from $40 billion in 2017 to $265 billion by 2030. With 3% of global car sales today, India is expected to drive half the additional global demand. Expectedly, Motown India is recalibrating its strategy through acquisitions, alliances, diversification, re-alignments and even market exits. 69075048 In the mid-1990s, as India’s economy opened up, a bevy of short-lived partnerships — from Tata Motors-Mercedes-Benz to Mahindra-Ford — were stitched up to chase growth. That trend is reviving with the M&M-Ford partnership. Most MNCs, still making losses, have found India a tough battleground to crack. Additionally, from Hero Motocorp, M&M to Hyundai, companies are betting on new technologies like electric vehicles and new platforms like shared mobility to gain a good grip on Indian roads.Here is a flavour of how some of those strategies are unfolding.M&M RETOOLS FOR ROAD AHEADStitching alliances, making acquisitions, launching and buying shared mobility Mahindra & has laid out a multipronged strategy gear up for the coming disruption in automotive industry.The most recent move is its collaboration with Ford Motors to develop and cross-sell cars, including an electric sports utility vehicle. It will help both the players reduce product development cost and also gain economies of scale. 69075727 This is the second time the two have come together. In 1995, Ford entered India in partnership with M&M and rolled out the Escort sedan. Multiple acquisitions have happened on the way. In 2010, it acquired homegrown electric car company Reva. In 2011, it bought out majority stake in SsangYong, the South Korean automobile manufacturer. And in 2015, it did the same with Italian carmaker Pininfarina SpA, which will now help M&M launch an electric hypercar.“We have strong belief in electric mobility. EVs will play a vital role in changing the industry. We are strongly committed to it,” says Mahesh Babu, CEO, Mahindra Electric Mobility. M&M is also preparing for the coming structural shifts in the automobile industry, thanks to trends such as shared mobility. 69075738 Earlier this year, it entered the ride-sharing business with electric car hailing service Glyd. It has already invested a significant sum in the self-drive car rental startup Zoomcar that is growing briskly in India.TOYOTA-MARUTI BROMANCEIndia’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki and the world’s largest carmaker, Toyota Motors, have joined hands to get a firmer grip on Indian roads. Both have their respective reasons to collaborate. 69075752 On the global map, Suzuki is a small player (globally, 86 million cars were sold in 2018 as against Suzuki’s total car sales of 7.8 lakh) in the deep-pocketed car industry. Both size and financial strength have always been important in the automotive industry but it is particularly so now when the internal combustion engine is facing an existential threat due to new technologies such as electric mobility. Volkswagen is spending upwards of $40 billion to electrify its stable. Clearly, Suzuki will need to invest heavily on relevant technologies to maintain its grip on Indian roads.Toyota has its own reasons. India, the world’s fourth-largest car market, has been a tough battlefield for most of the multinational automobile companies. Even as General Motors exited the Indian market and Ford is recalibrating its presence in the country, virtually every global MNC, including Volkswagen, Nissan Motor Corp and Toyota Motors has single-digit market share here and profitability for many remains elusive. 69075757 Partnering with Maruti in India would be the shortest route Toyota can take to get ahead on Indian roads. Maruti’s strengths in cost-efficient small cars and its dealershowroom network offer unparalleled advantage. The alliance will also help the two expand their presence in other emerging markets.Hero’s Electric Ambition The long-term strategy of Hero Motocorp, India’s biggest two-wheeler maker, may hinge on the success of Ather Energy, a six-year-old electric vehicle maker from Bengaluru. 69075764 While Hero has widened its lead at the top, it is also keen to stay ahead of the pack by investing early in the next wave of mobility, in this case by backing Ather’s plans to build a range of electric vehicles and develop its own products in-house at the Centre for Innovation and Technology in Jaipur and a new R&D unit which opened in January. Hero has also jumped on the startup bandwagon with HeroHatch, an incubation unit, to foster fresh ideas within the four-decade-old company. “At Hero MotoCorp, we are cognizant of the latest trends and constantly equipping ourselves with new technologies to be able to stay ahead of the curve,” Pawan Munjal, chairman, Hero Motocorp, had said in the company’s latest annual report. 69075770 At Ather Energy, for example, CEO Tarun Mehta says that electric vehicles are not just the future of the industry but will also redefine its fundamentals. “We believe product development cycles that old auto is used to — of a new launch every seven or eight years — will be reduced to just two or three,” he says. His company has launched two variants of electric scooters and has an electric motorcycle in the works. As charging infrastructure proliferates, Hero will want to replicate its outsized success with conventional twowheelers in the electric vehicle market, too. Hyundai’s Growth Hunt India’s s second largest carmaker is stepping into the future. Over the past 12 months, Hyundai has invested in Ola, the ridesharing unicorn that has ambitious electric vehicle run a car hiring and leasing service. 69075773 While the Indian subsidiary of the South Korean carmaker has launched a new SUV, Venue, to increase its share in that segment, top managers of the company are aware that consumer preferences are shifting when it comes to choosing and buying (or not buying) cars. For starters, Hyundai’s first electric vehicle will hit the Indian market later this year, even as the company awaits incentives from the government to quicken electric vehicle adoption.Then, leaning on its investment in Ola, Hyundai is developing vehicles and charging stations specifically for the ride-sharing market. It is piggybacking on two trends here: a shift in fuel from petrol or diesel to electricity and the fast growing interest in hailing a cab rather than owning and driving one’s own car. 69075777 Hyundai’s deal with Revv emphasises this shift. The startup had nearly 1,000 cars in 11 cities when Hyundai signed up as an investor, and this number was projected to increase to 10,000-12,000 cars in 30 cities by end of this year or early 2020. “India is the centerpiece of Hyundai Motor Group’s strategy to gain leadership in the global mobility market,” says Euisun Chung, executive vice-chairman, Hyundai Motor Group. “Hyundai will proactively respond to market changes and persistently innovate to deliver greater value to our customers.”Going gets easy: Startups are making big carmakers change routeOlaThe ride-sharing unicorn has extended its services to electric mobility and started a self-driving initiative too. CEO and cofounder Bhavish Agarwal has roped in a series of new investors even as he tries to keep SoftBank and its billions at bay. 69075926 DrivezyThe online two-and fourwheeler self-drive platform is considering raising $100 million in equity funding and $400 million in asset financing to grow its business. The firm expects to grow from 10 cities currently to 21 cities by next year. 69075939 Ather EnergyThe Bengaluru-based e-mobility startup wants to expand services to threefour more cities, starting with Chennai. The founders want to expand the range of vehicles to motorcycles too, even as they want to use tech to shrink protracted vehicle and development cycles from eight years to just three. 69075943 ShuttlThe intra-city bus aggregator has crossed 60,000 daily rides, mainly in the national capital region. It raised funding from marquee names such as Sequoia Capital and is expanding to other cities and adding 300 electric buses to its portfolio. 69075950 RapidoPresent in Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad, the firm is facing regulatory potholes as it seeks to expand business. Nevertheless, it claims to have 10,000 drivers and wants to grow from 30,000 daily rides as of 2018 to a million by this year. 69075970 from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2IYHAxH

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10 Scaling Tips for Product People

1 Involve the Right People

A small group of qualified individuals who have the right skills and motivation can be more productive than many individuals who lack the necessary expertise and act out of obligation. This is true for product people and development team members alike in my experience. Therefore, make an effort to involve the right individuals. This will allow you to move faster, stay small for longer, and be more adaptive.

While this probably sounds like common sense, I’ve seen more than one organisation trying to get more done by throwing people at a product. One company I worked with, for example, assigned developers who had worked on enterprise systems using an ancient programming language to develop a brand-new, embedded product with the latest technologies. No wonder that the individuals struggled and the product suffered.

Your Scrum Master should be able to help you find the right people and address any impediments that might prevent you from doing so—for example, being assigned individuals without considering their skills and motivation.

2 Don’t Scale Prematurely

I once worked on a new product development effort where more than one hundred developers in three locations had been allocated right from the start of the project. While initially, there wasn’t enough work to keep so many people busy, the development teams didn’t want to twiddle their thumbs and started writing software. This led to a bloated, over-complicated code base and a product that was difficult to adapt and expensive to maintain.

Rather than scaling prematurely, stay as small as you possibly can until you are getting close to reaching product-market fit. This allows you to quickly respond to market feedback, experiment with new ideas, and make any architecture and technology changes that may be required in order to move into the growth stage.

3 Build an MVP

Another great way to reduce the need to scale is launching a minimum viable product (MVP). Such a product typically requires less time and fewer people to develop than a more ambitious, feature-rich one. What’s more, it can be easier adapted to the market response in order to achieve product-market fit.

How minimal your product can be depends on its market. For example, in the case of the original iPhone, Apple created a new market and could therefore offer a comparatively minimalistic product. Contrast this with the Apple Watch, which entered an existing market and directly competed with established offerings from companies like Samsung, Garmin, and Fitbit.

4 Help the Development Team Become Self-sufficient

As your product grows, your workload usually increases too: Addressing a growing number of users requires more effort to understand their often heterogeneous needs and decide how to best address them. If you have a development team that still needs to be spoon-fed with detailed requirements at this stage, then your workload is likely to become overwhelming.

To mitigate this risk, help the development team learn about the users and understand their needs as early as possible, for instance, by involving team members in user research (as part of the product discovery work) and exposing them to direct user feedback on early product increments. This will allow the team members to own the solution and make the right UX and technology decisions, increase people’s motivation, lay the foundations for adding more teams, and free you from having to create detail-rich user stories and still answer lots of questions during the sprint.

5 Grow Organically

Back in 1968, Melvin Conway observed “that there is a very close relationship between the structure of a system and the structure of the organization which designed it.” This means that if you start with, say, three development teams, the software architecture of your product will probably consist of three major subsystems—no matter if this architecture supports the desired user experience and features.

To avoid this risk, start with one product person in charge of the product, one development team, and one Scrum Master. Once you’ve validated key UX and technology risks, scale by asking the team to split up. Then add more people to the newly formed teams. This approach is also called growing organically, as it mimics cell division in living beings.

In addition to escaping Conway’s Law stated above, growing organically offers two more benefits: It evenly spreads the effort of bringing the new people up to speed instead of having one unproductive development team with all the newbies, and it allows you to measure the impact of adding more people on productivity and infrastructure.

The latter might seem rather dull, but I once worked with an organisation that moved up from three to eight development teams in one go in order to accelerate development. Unfortunately, nobody had anticipated that the infrastructure was not able to cope with the increased network traffic caused by the new teams. Consequently, checking-in and checking-out code suddenly took minutes instead of seconds, which meant that the development speed was significantly reduced until the required upgrade work was finally carried out.

6 Employ Feature Owners and Feature Teams

As you add more people to the development effort, consider working with feature teams—teams that implement functionality end-to-end—instead of component teams who look after an architecture building block like the front end or persistence layer. Feature teams have fewer inter-team dependencies compared to component teams and reduce the risk of sub-optimisation, optimising individual architecture building blocks at the cost of the overall product performance. They do require, however, that shared standards are in place to avoid undesirable variations and code duplication: You typically don’t want that every feature team uses its own UI design flavour and writes code that’s already been developed.

As you add feature teams to the development effort—hopefully by growing organically—you also have to consider the impact on your workload. My experience suggests that a single product person is usually not able to work with more than three agile development teams. You will therefore have to consider involving additional product people who can own features and guide the feature teams. I call these individuals Feature Owners. The image below shows how the role can be applied. For more information, please refer to my article “Scaling the Product Owner Role”.

7 Start with One Site and Distribute Work in a Stepwise Fashion (If Necessary)

While it can be hard to bring the right people together, few things in software development are more counterproductive than starting a new product development effort with a dispersed team—a team whose members work in different places, for example, London, Boston, and Bangalore.

As a rule of thumb, the more uncertainty, change, and innovation are present, the more important it is that everyone involved in the development effort is co-located, including the person in charge of the product. This allows you to build rapport, establish an effective collaboration, and agree on shared standards, for example, how to collaboratively refine product backlog items and have effective sprint reviews.

Therefore, start a new product development effort with one team at one site. Once you’ve addressed the key UX and technology risks, consider spreading the work to other sites in a stepwise fashion if that’s required. This allows you to find out how you have to evolve your practices to succeed with the distributed setup, including collaborative product strategy review and product backlog refinement sessions held via videoconferences.

8 Consider Unbundling Features and Creating Product Variants

Growth is a funny thing. While it’s is a reason to celebrate—the product has finally entered the growth stage and become successful—we now have to cope with an increasingly large and heterogenous target group, more diverse needs, more features, and more development teams. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Remember when Facebook unbundled Messenger in 2014 and launched it as a standalone app? Unbundling is a great technique to avoid that a successful product becomes bigger and bigger, more and more heterogeneous, and requires an ever-increasing amount of people to manage and develop it. Instead, you create a new, specialised product with its own dedicated product person and development team.

Product variants do a similar job: But rather than spinning off one or more features, you create a version that is tailored to a specific target group. Take, for instance, Microsoft’s diagramming tool, Visio, which the company offers the variants Visio Standard and Visio Professional. Each variant can be developed by a separate team and have its own product person who looks after it.

9 Take Advantage of a Platform

A platform bundles shared assets, for example, shared front end or back end components or common services like persistence, logging, and security, and it standardises the way they are used. Using a platform offers two benefits in a scaling context: First, it encourages reuse and avoids the need that each team develops their own, say, logging service. Secondly, it creates and enforces standards across different features and teams, such as a common user interface design.

When creating a platform, you have two options: You can either employ collective ownership and ask the different feature teams to jointly look after and advance the platform. Alternatively, you can manage the platform as a product in its own right with a dedicated platform owner and team. (Note that a platform owner usually requires in-depth technical skills, as the individual is usually required to talk to the feature teams about new interfaces and changes to existing ones.)

My recommendation is to start with the collective ownership. This maximises the chances that the platform does a great job at supporting the end-user facing functionality and it minimises the risk of building an ambitious platform that is difficult to use and integrate with. If and when the platform has grown to big to be collectively maintained and advanced, consider employing a dedicated product person and development team.

10 Never Scale Late in the Game

Scaling successfully requires careful forethought and preparation. It should never be an emergency measure to save a development effort that is in trouble, as “adding people to a late development effort makes it later” (Brook’s Law).

Nevertheless, I have worked with more than one organisation that thought this law would not apply to it and added more people in order to accelerate a project that was in danger of missing its target date, only to find out that this caused additional problems and delayed the project even further. Therefore, consider alternative options to save a late project like partially providing or removing features and postponing the release date. Scaling should not be an emergency measure.

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