text:
WOWFRD – Ch 364
By MadSnail April 9, 2018
10 min read	3 Comments
Everynoe was stunned as the evolved gorlocs began to roar and crawl out to attack the humans much more fiercer than before. People believed that all of the evolved gorlocs were killed but the full-scale attack was very terrifying and horrorful. Who would think that a body that was next to them would jump up to attack and kill them?
Many warriors were killed within a time frame of few breathes. The warrior would miss an arm or leg even if they were able to keep their lives. At the end, they were left with serious injuries and no strength to fight. Such people were nothing but burden in the eyes of Nicholas and Leonardo in places such as Sunset Swamps. It had to be noted that they didn't treat their people the way Xiao Yu did with life potions or precious herbs. Both Leonardo and Nicholas regarded life potions as strategic resources and they didn't have much of them to begin with. In addition, those potions were kept for their own use at crucial moments.
Another reason for discarding those wounded warriors would be creating a chance for others to escape.
"What the heck is going on?" Both Leonardo and Nicholas were furious. The mages were extremely precious troops and several mages were killed in a flash. Who wouldn't be angry and furious at such a time?
Xiao Yu's loss was quite less in comparison to both of them. The main reason being, Xiao Yu had thrown the little dragon into the mouth of an evolved gorloc at time of the attack.
Could an evolved gorloc kill a fourth-rank dragon with a bite?
The little dragon was sleeping soundly when it was bitten by the evolved gorlocs. It turned furious as its body enlarged in a speed visible to the naked eye and exploded the evolved gorloc's mouth.
Uther who stood behind used his protective spells to make a shield to protect Lin Muxue. Xiao Yu was angry as the gorlocs wanted to attack Lin Muxue. He wouldn't let her suffer even a little! Therefore, he throw out few scrolls given to him by Master Higgins before he left the Lion city.
Boom~
The giant evolved gorlocs were smashed after bursts of explosions. Xiao Yu believed that even fifth-rank warriors couldn't survive these explosions let alone the evolved gorlocs who had their mouth open at the time of explosions.
The Sorceresess morphed the evolved gorlocs into sheep.
As a result, the loss on Xiao Yu's side was much smaller. Only four Sorceresess who couldn't respond on time were killed. There were several seriously injured warriors but Xiao Yu used life potions and Uther used his healing skill to treat them.
"Motherfucker! What the fuck? How did I end up in this monster's mouth?" The little dragon was furious. It took out two huge nunchaku's and began to attack the gorlocs. It was speaking in an angry tone but the little dragon's sound was similar to a kid's so the words that went out of its mouth didn't seem rude but cute!
"I'll kill ya all!" The dragon used the nunchakus to rampage in the battlefield.
"Motherfucker! We have lost four people! Why????" Xiao Yu shouted in a tone full of misery. His principle at looking towards the life of his subordinates was totally different from Leonardo and Nicholas's look and it couldn't be changed. He valued and recognized all the races under his command. Moreover, Tyrande and others wouldn't respect him if he was inclined towards the life of some more than others.
In fact, Xiao Yu was quite lucky in comparison to the 2 other parties. More than 30 evolved gorlocs had attacked trio but only 8 of them jumped to attack Xiao Yu's team. The remaining more than 20 evolved gorlocs were aiming at Nicholas's and Leonardo's teams. Moreover, the evolved gorlocs were killed because of dragon's rapid actions.
Xiao Yu ordered the grunts to smash the bodies of the evolved gorlocs into pieces as if he was afraid that they could rise up once again. The evolved gorlocs died without retorting but their bodies slightly trembled because of the grunts attacks.
Nicholas had lost a lot of people. Actually, he would lose much more if it wasn't for Reilas. The blood elves from the Sunbreaker clan used tyrannical magic to kill the evolved gorlocs. Most of them turned into ash without being able to reach anyone.
The hearts of the onlookers was trembling when they saw the fierce fluctioations around the bodies of the blood elves. What would happen if those blood elves attacked them? Xiao Yu's eyes lit up when he saw Reilas act. Indeed, the patriarch of the blood elf clan was powerful but a lot of magical elements were leaking out of his body creating mana fluctuations. It was sure that Reilas couldn't control the power of the sunwell water. Nevertheless, Nicholas was very pleased. He wouldn't be able to go on if it wasn't for Reilas. He would have to take out trump cards if it wasn't for Reilas's presence which meant that there would be less options at hand when he would be fighting for Gul'dan's skull.
Leonardo was facing heavy casualties. He had lost 4 high-rank mages. Actually, he was too anxious to take out his trump cards but his people were able to kill the evolved gorlocs on time. The battlefield turned fierce once again. More than 30 evolved gorlocs were killed but there were lots of berserk gorlocs left in the field.
Leonardo and Nicholas wanted to go forward and kill the rest when Xiao Yu waved to stop them.
"Don't rush in! They are already retreating… " Xiao Yu frowned. He found out that he was in a tight spot since they had stepped into the Sunset Swamps.
"Just like this? Do you want us to let them go just like this? We aren't like you! We have lots of casualties!" Even Nicholas disagreed with Xiao Yu at the moment. He was aware that Xiao Yu's performance was unusual. Xiao Yu had the smallest lost even facing the evolved gorlocs!
Xiao Yu helplessly said when he saw furious Nicholas: "Don't you realize it yet? We have been played!"
Both Nicholas and Leonardo were stunned as they looked at each other after listening to Xiao Yu.
"What do you mean? Explain!" Nicholas was very dissatisfied with Xiao Yu's actions but he understood that Xiao Yu had noticed something had hadn't shared with them.
Xiao Yu slowly said after checking the dead evolved gorlocs: "The lizardmen aren't inferior to humans in terms of wisdom and intelligence. Don't you understand what's happening at the moment? The ordinary lizardmen may be idiots but their leader isn't! We gotta stop if we don't want to turn into their meals!"
Xiao Yu's words were like thunder that smashed into their heads. Both of them had ignored this small detail since the start. They would have continued to march after the gorlocs if it wasn't for xiao Yu's words. However, at the moment they knew that they couldn't treat the gorlocs as beasts that only rush to kill!
"Xiao Yu, why didn't you tell this to us since start? Why did you wait for us to have so many losses?" Nicholas's face was reddish as he had overlooked the smallest detail.
Xiao Yu asked: "Do you want to hear the truth?"
Xiao Yu slowly spoke when he saw both of their faces turned ugly: "I was thinking about this but none of you gave me the chance to speak or time to think! What can I do? Don't you guys see? I lost 4 precious blood elf sorceresses! Each of them is unique! Why do you think I have been grieving and crying for?" His tears began to fall after Xiao Yu stopped his speech. The other two couldn't help but feel nauseous after Xiao Yu's words. Both Leonardo and Nicholas stood silent for a long time.
After a while, Nicholas spoke: "Xiao Yu we are an alliance. You better say something if you encounter something fishy in the future. We are in the Sunset Swamps. Do you think you can go on your own if we lose too many people?"
Xiao Yu nodded his head as he understood the truth underlying behind Nicholas's speech. Actually, he didn't know in advance but he had just got an intuition that something wrong would happen. It seemed to be the aftereffect of Thrall's Far Sight skill which had given him insight into the situation.
"Fucking nonsense! We have lost lots of people and we gotta get quits for it!" Leonardo said in a cold tone. He knew that Nicholas and Xiao Yu weren't as bad terms as he was with Xiao Yu. But he couldn't swallow the loss he had faced moments ago.
Xiao Yu turned to look at the environment. The sun was about to set and the place was getting darker. The dull Sunset Swamps had turned much dimmer. It seemed that after a while humans couldn't see over here like the beasts that had night vision and other types of perception for night time. It would mean that they would be going to give up their lives let alone kill the gorlocs.
"Can we stay here tonight while being surrounded by these monsters?" Nicholas's face had turned gloomy. He see through Xiao Yu's acts so he knew that a troubled time was ahead. There were lots of gorlocs and it seemed they were bound to end up as their food. But where they could safely rest?
It had to be known that the mages couldn't unlimitedly make the grounds icy. It was impossible for them to maintain that state. In addition, the gorlocs could break through the ground by swimming under the ice pathes.
It wasn't bad when all three parties were fighting but now the situation was changing. Xiao Yu sighed too. He knew that the one who controlled the gorlocs had set them up since they had entered the Sunset Swamps.
At the moment they were facing a dilemma. They couldn't advance during the nighttime but they couldn't just retreat! What they should do?
There was total silence as everyone waited for someone with intelligent answer to speak up.
agila0212 says:
Thank you for the chapter 🙂
Kingsnail says:
Me tooo


text:
Keshiki – New Voices from Japan
New book series showcases literary translation as cultural exchange (Part 2)
By Clara Kumagai | Posted on February 7, 2018
Part 2 – The Writers
Keshiki – New Voices from Japan is a series of eight chapbooks by Japanese writers published by Strangers Press, a British publisher who believe that literary translation is a form of cultural exchange. In part one, Metropolis interviewed the translators behind the project. In part two, Clara Kumagai talks to the writers.
Masatsugu Ono is a Japanese author and translator who has won both the Akutagawa Prize and Yukio Mishima Prize. In his story for Keshiki, "At the Edge of the Wood", a father and son wait together when the mother goes to her family's home to have their second child. They live at the edge of a wood that holds strange sounds and beings within it and the story is uncanny and secretive, invoking images folk tales and getting lost in the forest.
CK: The woods have always occupied a deep part of the human consciousness, and that's often captured in stories like the Grimm's. In this story, there are mysterious old women and dwarves—were you inspired by fairy tales?
The woods which occupy a deep part of the human's consciousness can be in this sense the human unconsciousness itself. It is possible that I was unconsciously influenced by the European fairy tales. Living in Orleans, France when I was writing this story, I think I was rather inspired by the real European woods, which seems to me completely different from Japanese mountainous woods.
CK: There are many unexplainable noises: coughing, whispering, rustling. Do you find yourself creating this aural element purposefully or is it always a part of your writing?
In the woods, even when we cannot hear anything, we can feel that the silence is full of the whispers of all the things there—sunlight, winds, water, green leaves, dead leaves, branches, birds and animals, spiritual and mysterious presences. Some voices are addressed to us, even though we cannot understand them. Trying to describe the woods, I could not ignore this aural element, i.e. the voiceless whispers of both visible and invisible things in the woods. I find this aural element is always a part of my writing.
CK: Even though place is so essential, it's more psychic than physical—we are never told exactly where the characters are. Do you think there are landscapes that transcend their locations?
In this story, the place where the characters live at the edge of the woods must be anonymous and ambiguous. The name of place (the toponym) has strong connotations. It determines more or less how to read the story, giving concrete images connected to the real place to which it refers. For this story, I think the ambiguous landscape makes it possible to create a kind of psychological space, a margin out of which float the uncanny and intimate atmosphere.
Kyoko Yoshida is the only writer of the Keshiki series that required no translator. It's not only that Yoshida writes in both Japanese and English—she translates experimental Japanese poetry into English and contemporary American fiction into Japanese. In "Spring Sleepers", a young man has been diagnosed with 'true' insomnia, which doesn't result in exhaustion from lack of sleep but rather the loss of memory and then of language itself. The style and the story had hints of Kafka and Beckett, but also its own delicate and surreal touch.
CK: You write of yourself as a "travelling theologian" (a wonderful title) and say that as a roving writer that can speak several languages, sometimes you have to make your "mother tongue strange." How do you do this?
There are many ways to do this—as you yourself must have experienced as a journalist operating between languages and cultures—traveling, reading, writing in languages that you are not quite secure in, etc.…. For me, in the beginning, it was to write in my second language (English). After several years of writing fiction in English, I've realized that the way I write in Japanese has changed. As much as in English, operating in my own native tongue has become treacherous, or I have become aware that automatic speech or writing does not necessarily mean fluency or eloquence. Rather, words, when they surface automatically, reflect all sorts of faulty aspects—personal and cultural—which call to be re-examined, controlled and even sometimes admired.
Another important way for me to keep my relationship with languages "strange" is to translate. I translate both ways—into and from Japanese. I've translated American fiction into Japanese and Japanese experimental poetry and drama into English. To translate from your first language is against the norm. It's an experiment because we all know we cannot reproduce the original in translation of verse. So it's a failure from the beginning. I also like to think the author of the original text as an accomplice of my literary crime.
CK: Are there stories or characters that you ever feel like demand being told in one language or another?
It's a wonderful question. I have several bestiary tales and when I write them, I wish for some kind of alien code language that I could use to capture their nonverbal existence. Since I am not capable of using or creating such code, I write in English.
When I write human characters, I realize I am not a ventriloquist type of writer. That's partly because I write in a second language. Also, my stories aren't very realistic. Sometimes I have no idea which language my characters are speaking in. I feel they are trapped in a foreign tongue whether the language is original or translated.
booksFeaturedKeshikipublishingWriters
BooksKeshiki – New Voices from Japan
BooksQuit Your Band!
BooksAre You an Echo?: The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko
About Clara Kumagai
Clara Kumagai is from Ireland, Canada and Japan. She writes fiction and non-fiction for young people and grown-ups. She currently lives in Tokyo. You can follow her on Twitter @clarakiyoko

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
<?php

namespace Elastica\Test;

use Elastica\Document;
use Elastica\Exception\ResponseException;
use Elastica\Mapping;
use Elastica\Query;
use Elastica\Query\MatchAll;
use Elastica\Request;
use Elastica\Test\Base as BaseTest;

/**
 * @group functional
 *
 * @internal
 */
class ResponseFunctionalTest extends BaseTest
{
    public function testResponse(): void
    {
        $index = $this->_createIndex();
        $index->setMapping(new Mapping([
            'name' => ['type' => 'text'],
            'dtmPosted' => ['type' => 'date', 'format' => 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'],
        ]));

        $index->addDocuments([
            new Document('1', ['name' => 'nicolas ruflin', 'dtmPosted' => '2011-06-23 21:53:00']),
            new Document('2', ['name' => 'raul martinez jr', 'dtmPosted' => '2011-06-23 09:53:00']),
            new Document('3', ['name' => 'rachelle clemente', 'dtmPosted' => '2011-07-08 08:53:00']),
            new Document('4', ['name' => 'elastica search', 'dtmPosted' => '2011-07-08 01:53:00']),
        ]);

        $query = new Query();
        $query->setQuery(new MatchAll());
        $index->refresh();

        $resultSet = $index->search($query);

        $engineTime = $resultSet->getResponse()->getEngineTime();
        $shardsStats = $resultSet->getResponse()->getShardsStatistics();

        $this->assertIsInt($engineTime);
        $this->assertIsArray($shardsStats);
        $this->assertArrayHasKey('total', $shardsStats);
        $this->assertArrayHasKey('successful', $shardsStats);
    }

    public function testIsOk(): void
    {
        $index = $this->_createIndex();

        $doc = new Document('1', ['name' => 'ruflin']);
        $response = $index->addDocument($doc);

        $this->assertTrue($response->isOk());
    }

    public function testIsOkMultiple(): void
    {
        $index = $this->_createIndex();
        $docs = [
            new Document('1', ['name' => 'ruflin']),
            new Document('2', ['name' => 'ruflin']),
        ];
        $response = $index->addDocuments($docs);

        $this->assertTrue($response->isOk());
    }

    public function testGetDataEmpty(): void
    {
        $index = $this->_createIndex();
        $gotException = false;

        try {
            $index->request(
                'non-existent-type/_mapping',
                Request::GET,
                [],
                ['include_type_name' => true]
            );
        } catch (ResponseException $e) {
            $error = $e->getResponse()->getFullError();
            $this->assertEquals('type_missing_exception', $error['type']);
            $this->assertStringContainsString('non-existent-type', $error['reason']);

            $gotException = true;
        }

        $this->assertTrue($gotException);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
A.I.S. Resources Narrows Exploration Target at Fosterville-Toolleen
Explorer	Edelmetalle	Exploration	Gold	Goldpreis	Goldexplorer	Goldminen	Goldminenaktien	AIS Resources	Kirkland Lake Gold	Fosterville	A.I.S. Resources	Australien
A.I.S. Resources Limited (TSX: AIS, FRA: A8S) is seeking a second high-grade Fosterville-type deposit and is now providing increasing evidence to support its geological hypothesis.
The Company has just completed 31 Reverse Circulation percussion (RC) drill holes, each up to 80 meters deep, along three lines to test a geophysically prominent gravity anomaly that trends north-south through the Fosterville-Toolleen property. As hoped, significant quartz intercepts were found in drilling over gravity anomaly (Figures 1 and 2). Now, over 1,000 bags of rock chips are ready for evaluation, including examination by ISO qualified laboratory for pathfinder elements that include arsenic and lead. Most encouragingly, drilling has already encountered sandstone and shale sediments of the same age as those found at Kirkland Lake's Fosterville Gold Mine. These sandstone and shale layers (called turbidites) are clearly delineated beneath a gravel layer that also contains gold on the exploration license, but whose rocks are geologically of a later era.
Figure 1. drill hole with gravity survey in background and location of drill holes. The pink hole had the highest gold grade 16ppb of gold. W means the hole hasn't been assayed yet.
CEO Phil Thomas: "We are only at the beginning of our drilling program".
Phil Thomas, CEO, commented, "The drill program at our Fosterville-Toolleen gold project is proving to be a great success as we have demonstrated that we are in the right area to discover stress veins and shoots full of quartz with gold mineralization. Gold has been identified in samples in a few of the drill holes and this is just the beginning of our drill program. The use of RC drilling is very economical. Because quartz-gold mineralization occurs in broad quartz veins, we will be able to detect arsenic and other path finder elements in these mineralized systems through fence-line drilling and soil sampling."
Fig. 2. Bouguer gravity image with gradient edge detection, these fuzzy blue lines are interpreted faults. Mineralization at Fosterville-Toolleen occurs near the gravity feature outlined by the red ellipse.
AIS' Chief Geologist Denis Walsh, who previously worked for Kirkland Lake on Fosterville, added, "We are off to a great start with large quartz intercepts. Now we will use geochemical halos to guide us into the better mineralized corridors. The evaluation of arsenic and other pathfinder elements will be very important for our exploration."
"AIS will apply the understanding of the structural setting and geochemical signature from the Fosterville gold deposit, to exploration of Fosterville-Toolleen. The typical high-grade ore zones at Kirkland's Fosterville Gold Mine are only between 2 and 30 m wide. The high-grade exploration target we are seeking occurs in structures controlled by the interaction of the rock type with folding and faulting the mineralization being concentrated in a comparatively small area."
Bottom line: It helps, of course, to have good local knowledge with former regional exploration geologist from Fosterville Gold Mine on your team. No one knows better than Denis Walsh how and what to look for to discover a second Fosterville site. AIS Resources has made significant progress with its 31 RC drill holes and continues to narrow down the exploration target. The key finding is that the drilling has intersected rocks of the same type and age that hosts the deposits at Fosterville. This will be followed in the coming weeks by analysis of the 1,000 drill samples for gold traces, as well as pathfinder elements. These are the first drillholes testing for Fosterville style gold mineralization at Fosterville-Toolleen project and will provide valuable information leading into a diamond drill program later in the year. It is foreseeable that AIS Resources will need fresh money for further exploration. But it shouldn't be too much of a problem to get the right investors on board now, based on the information available. The entry of new investors could also mark the beginning of a re-evaluation, because this much is certain: A drilling success in the style of Fosterville would catapult AIS practically overnight on the radar of all international gold investors. We will stay tuned to the story.
Disclaimer: GOLDINVEST Consulting GmbH offers editors, agencies and companies the possibility to publish comments, analyses and news on https://www.goldinvest.de. This content exclusively serves to inform the readers and does not represent any kind of call to action, neither explicitly nor implicitly is it to be understood as an assurance of possible price developments. Furthermore, they in no way replace an individual expert investment advice, it is rather promotional / journalistic publications. Readers who make investment decisions or carry out transactions on the basis of the information provided here do so entirely at their own risk. The acquisition of securities carries high risks, which can lead to the total loss of the invested capital. The GOLDINVEST Consulting GmbH and its authors expressly exclude any liability for financial losses or the content guarantee for topicality, correctness, adequacy and completeness of the articles offered here. Please also note our terms of use.
According to §34b WpHG and according to paragraph 48f paragraph 5 BörseG (Austria) we would like to point out that principals, partners, authors and employees of GOLDINVEST Consulting GmbH hold or may hold shares of AIS Resources and therefore a possible conflict of interest exists. We also cannot exclude that other stock letters, media or research firms discuss the stocks we recommend during the same period. Therefore, symmetrical information and opinion generation may occur during this period. Furthermore, there is a consulting or other service contract between a third party that is in the camp of AIS Resources and GOLDINVEST Consulting GmbH, which means that there is a conflict of interest, especially since this third party remunerates GOLDINVEST Consulting GmbH for reporting on AIS Resources. This third party may also hold, sell or buy shares of the issuer and would thus benefit from an increase in the price of the shares of AIS Resources. This is another clear conflict of interest.
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text:
Vaultoro
The Chinese Renminbi has been approved by the IMF to be a part of the basket of currencies that make up the Special Drawing Rights (SDR). The other currencies include the US Dollar, the English Pound, the Japanese Yen and the Euro. What is most surprising about this move is that the yuan now makes up more of the basket (10.92%) than the Yen (8.33%) and the Pound (8.09%).
In order to get the yuan included, china has had to make economic reforms and open up transparency to its central bank. It also has had to devalue the yuan (vs UAD) as well as cut interest rates (6 times) in order to promote economic stability as it transitions from an export driven economy to a consumer led economy. China's central bank allows the yuan to float in a very tight predetermined ranged versus the USD. On August 11th as the chart below shows, China allowed the yuan to depreciate by its widest margin vs USD as part of ongoing efforts of monetary reforms and easing to help an economic slowdown. This triggered an even sharper selloff in the yuan as global investors started to worry about a Chinese meltdown, which has not come to fruition.
It was widely accepted that the PBOC manipulates the value of renminbi and that its overvalued. In a recent article from MarketWatch a prominent investor had this to say:
"The slowdown has also dimmed investor enthusiasm for the yuan. Mr. Zhou of Bin Yuan Capital said the yuan is overvalued by about 20% and keeping it at the current level would only hurt the economy. In a Nov. 19 report, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. listed a "significant depreciation" of the yuan as the biggest risk facing emerging-market assets next year. A drop could help China's export sector but raise new criticism from the U.S. and elsewhere that Beijing is playing politics with its currency."
Banc of America's Richard Woo has made an even bolder prediction:
"After the SDR they no longer have the incentive to prop up the renminbi," he said Friday in an interview in Taipei. "A December hike by the Fed would give the Chinese a perfect excuse to let the renminbi go because they can make a strong case that they need to decouple their monetary policy from that of the U.S."
Supporting the yuan by keep it in a narrow band vs USD (and overvalued) has cost the Chinese greatly in FX reserves and has become unsustainable policy moving forward as China seeks to open up and become a global power.
Bullish For Bitcoin
Regardless of whether the yuan is overvalued by 20% or will be let go from its informal peg, it is clear that the Chinese are moving in the direction of letting the yuan float freer. This effects onshore yuan holders dramatically and as the currency is less controlled by the China, market forces will determine its true value. It's time to expect further weakening of the renminbi vs USD. The Chinese authorities have instituted capital controls in an effort to stem money leaving the mainland as has been mentioned in blog posts in the past. One of the ways, Chinese have been able to avoid these controls and get their money/assets offshore and out of yuan has been through bitcoin. Expect for this to continue, particularly as the yuan begins its depreciation vs USD, and the purchasing power of the average citizen and the super rich begins to erode.
China has led the bitcoin market both higher and lower and continues to lead the market. Therefore any policies coming out of China should be watched closely and followed; particularly those that affect the people's ability to move capital freely. Anything that depreciates the onshore yuan (like a freer floating currency vs USD), should cause Chinese investors to move assets into vehicles that get their money offshore. If the bitcoin price begins to climb as a result, speculators will pile in as well.
First published on sammantics.com
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text:
What Is MongoDB? Introduction, Data Modeling, Terminology & Hierarchy
by Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma is the Program Director for the UpGrad-IIIT Bangalore, PG Diploma Data Analytics Program.
Home > Big Data > What Is MongoDB? Introduction, Data Modeling, Terminology & Hierarchy
MongoDB is an open-source, document-oriented, leading NoSQL database for huge data storage volumes. It is completely coded in one of the primitive but relatively very advanced and trustworthy languages, C++. Instead of using traditional relational databases defined on the basic concept of tables and rows, MongoDB relies on the use of documents and collections containing the key-value pairs and making up the platform's basics.
It works on multiple platforms with the ability to interact with each other. Some of the notable features of MongoDB include high availability time, best performance, and easy scalability.
Now, to better understand what MongoDB is, we should know all the terminology along with the structure in which MongoDB stores the database.
Database: It acts as a physical container used to collect data. It is stored on a predefined path in the computer system. It contains all valuable data arranged in a specific manner to make it readable by machines.
Collection: It acts as an aggregation of documents in MongoDB and corresponds to an RDBMS table. The collection contains documents that can have different fields but are of similar or related purposes.
Document: A set of key-value pairs constitute documents. They work on the dynamic schema, which means that it is not necessary to use the same set or structure in all the documents and handle numerous types of data in a common field.
_id: It determines the unique part of every document using a 12 bytes hexadecimal number. This consists of four segments-
First, four bytes for the timestamp.
Next, three bytes for machine ID.
Next, two bytes for the process ID of the MongoDB server.
The remaining three bytes are just incremental value.
JSON: This is one of the most important features to send and receive data and is known as JavaScript Object Notation. The secret of its popularity is because of its human-readable nature, using plain text format.
Read: MongoDB Future Scope
Data Modelling in MongoDB
MongoDB follows a flexible schema. Hence, it is not necessary to define definite data storage structures as in the case of SQL Databases. Certain things are crucial, and you should consider it while modeling data in MongoDB.
Is there a need for such applications that you are developing? Look at the business needs for the application and plan accordingly.
Foresee the data retrieval patterns and use the power of indexing to improve your queries.
Frequent inserts, updates, and removals should be verified to maintain the system's stability and improve the overall MongoDB environment's efficiency.
_id: ObjectId(3pv40qe7046d)
title: 'What is MongoDB?',
description: 'A basic understanding of the concept',
by: 'upGrad',
url: 'https://www.upgrad.com/',
tags: ['mongodb', 'database', 'NoSQL'],
likes: 100,
comments: [
user:'firstUser',
message: 'I love upGrad',
dateCreated: new Date(2020,1,20,2,15),
like: 10
user:'SecondUser',
message: 'upGrad is the best place to learn and develop your skills',
Checkout: Most Common MongoDB Commands
Terminology and Hierarchy
The first and foremost point includes databases, which include numerous collections. Now, collections are made up of similar documents, and these documents are made up of fields, embedded documents, and primary keys, which are also the default ID provided by MongoDB.
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MongoDB has an inbuilt rich Query language which supports all major CRUD operations and provides unprecedented Text Search and Aggregation features.
Replication of work and high availability is a major advantage of MongoDB, which helps you dedicate your focus to the query you are processing rather than the platform itself. Each replica set member may act in the primary and secondary replica role at any instance of time. The primary replica is the main contact point for the client and users and performs all the operations. The secondary replica maintains a copy of the primary replica data and jumps into action only when the primary replication fails in performing its operations.
Fast-in-place updates keep you updated and market worthy from your comfort of office or homes with regular updates catering to all personal and professional demands.
Professional and dedicated support by MongoDB with active forums and developer support because of the open-source culture.
Load Balancing: With auto-sharding, we can scale our system horizontally by splitting the available data into multiple MongoDB instances. It can run multiple servers and balance load accordingly in case of failure in any node or server.
Indexing: as we know, the indexing is done to increase the search performance of the program. Every field in MongoDB can be indexed using an indexing procedure.
MongoDB is used in various disciplines such as Big Data, Content Management and Delivery, Mobile, and Social Infrastructure. Management of user and professional data and managing data hubs.
Also Read: Firebase vs MongoDB
Companies are looking for new and innovative technologies to work on, and MongoDB is one of them. These new-age skills are very useful to thrive in a competitive environment such as software development, where priorities change every time a new technology is evolved. The hiring in the future will take place, considering these new-age skills.
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text:
Q: Riesz's lemma on invisible points Let us define a point $x_0\in[a,b]$ as invisible from the right for a function $g:[a,b]\to\mathbb{R}$ when $\exists\xi\in(x_0,b]:$ $\max\{g(x_0^+),g(x_0),g(x_0^-)\}<g(\xi)$, and as invisible from the left when $\exists\xi\in[a,x_0):$ $\max\{g(x_0^+),g(x_0),g(x_0^-)\}<g(\xi)$.
I know Riesz's lemma stating that

For any continuous function $g:[a,b]\to\mathbb{R}$ the set of the points invisible from the right is open in $[a,b]$ and therefore is the union of countably many open disjoint intervals $(a_k,b_k)$ (where one of the set can be of the form $[a,b')$), such that $g(a_k)\leq g(b_k)$.
Analogously, the set of the points invisible from the left is open in $[a,b]$ and therefore is the union of countably many open disjoint intervals $(a_k,b_k)$ (where one of the set can be of the form $(a',b]$), such that $g(a_k)\geq g(b_k)$.

I read in Kolmogorov-Fomin's Элементы теории функций и функционального анализа (p. 329 here) that Riesz's lemma can be generalised to apply to any function $g:[a,b]\to\mathbb{R}$ only having step discontinuities, but it does not give a proof.
I know that a monotonic left, or right, continuous function is the sum of a continuous function and a step function, but I am not sure we can use that to prove the generalisation of Riesz's lemma and I have not been able to use it. Could anybody give a proof of this very interesting lemma (which Kolmogorov-Fomin's use to prove Lebesgue's theorem on the derivability almost everywhere of a monotonic function $f:[a,b]\to\mathbb{R}$)? I must stress that Kolmogorov-Fomin's says that Riesz's lemma can be generalised without explicitly stating any requirement of monotonicity for $g$, but I would not be amazed if it were necessary, since it is used to prove Lebesgue's theorem, as I said. Thank you so much!!!

A: The inequality $\max\{g(x_0^+),g(x_0),g(x_0^-)\}<M$ is equivalent to: $x_0$ has a neighborhood in which $g<M$. All points of this neighborhood also satisfy this inequality, which implies that the set on which the inequality holds is open.
The set of points invisible from the right can be written as
$
\bigcup_{\xi\in (x_0,b]} A_\xi
$
$$A_\xi=\{x\in [a,\xi): \text{$x$ has a neighborhood where } g <g(\xi)\}$$
Each $A_\xi$ is open in the subset topology of $[a,b]$. Therefore, the union is open.

The inequality between $g(a_k)$ and $g(b_k)$ need not hold when $g$ is discontinuous.
Consider this function: $$g(x)=\begin{cases}2x\quad & x\in [0,1] \\ x-1\quad &x\in (1,2]\end{cases}$$ The visible points from the right are precisely $\{1,2\}$. So, $(1,2)$ is an invisible interval. But $g(1)>g(2)$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The US Department of State has announced that the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery 2012 results declared on the DV website in early May are now void, i.e. not valid any more.
The US State Department regrets to inform you that, due to a computer programming problem, the results of the 2012 Diversity Lottery that were previously posted on the US State Department website have been voided. The result was not valid and were posted in error. The results were not valid because they did not represent a fair, random selection of entrants, as required by U.S. law.
The results were cancelled due to a computer-programming problem because of which the selection process had not been random. The results therefore were against US laws and have been cancelled, sources confirmed.
The results of the new selection process�to be conducted based on the original entries for the 2012 program, will be available on the US State Department website on July 15, 2011.
Entries to the lottery remain valid and there is no need for re-applying, the US State Department Confirmed. The confirmation number to check results also remains valid.
The US State Department expects the results of the new selection process to be available on this website on or about July 15, 2011.


text:
<?php

namespace Symfony\Component\Routing\Resource;

/*
 * This file is part of the Symfony framework.
 *
 * (c) Fabien Potencier <fabien.potencier@symfony-project.com>
 *
 * This source file is subject to the MIT license that is bundled
 * with this source code in the file LICENSE.
 */

/**
 * ResourceInterface is the interface that must be implemented by all Resource classes.
 *
 * @author Fabien Potencier <fabien.potencier@symfony-project.com>
 */
interface ResourceInterface
{
    /**
     * Returns a string representation of the Resource.
     *
     * @return string A string representation of the Resource
     */
    function __toString();

    /**
     * Returns true if the resource has not been updated since the given timestamp.
     *
     * @param int $timestamp The last time the resource was loaded
     *
     * @return Boolean true if the resource has not been updated, false otherwise
     */
    function isUptodate($timestamp);

    /**
     * Returns the resource tied to this Resource.
     *
     * @return mixed The resource
     */
    function getResource();
}


* "The Nine, the Live in Mordor"
The iDOLM@STER Relations, the comic series derived from the game, shows many rivals for 765 Production idols, such as Maou Angel, Red Shoulder and so on. Itoshii-SakanaP released his laborious entry for The First Anniversary of Maou Angel's Resurrection event, featuring all of them. Enjoy quality of their MMD models and dance motions!
TarouP's latest work is for his forth anniversary as a movie creator in the NicoM@S Community. He has mainly worked for Yukiho since his debut, and this memorial work also features her. Enjoy her incisive dance finely synchronized with the used song!
FrauP's newest movie has an uplifting feeling. And in this movie, Takane is so attractive. She looked us squarely in the eyes that seemed as if they would pull us in. Watch out!


Who doesn't love a bit of extra glamour during the festive season? Benefit Cosmetics have a full range of gorgeous Christmas gift sets that will make the perfect stocking filler. Our favourite is the Defined & Refined Brows Kit which will keep your brow game strong right through to January.
For extra strong selfie game this Christmas, the LuMee case is a must buy gift. The smartphone case has a professional studio quality light built in to make your selfie snaps look flawless. We'll be stocking up.
Is there anything better than that unmistakable Christmas smell? We think not. Irish brand Brooke and Shoals have limited edition festive scents that will have you dreaming of mulled wine and mince pies.
There's nothing quite like cozying up by the fire with a good book and a leftover turkey sandwich. Fashion blogger Pippa O'Connor's latest book Simple Tips To Live Beautifully is full of tips and advice and great read for any woman whether she's 16 or 60.
Jewellery and watches make great gifts for lovers of shiny things. Alex & Ani have a huge range of charm bracelets, each of which have a special meaning. They're all made from sustainable and environmentally conscious materials so they're the perfect gift for any eco-warriors.
After the busy Christmas period some R&R time will most definitely be needed. Irish brand Green Angel have a beautiful range of bath soaks and body moisturisers that are sure to melt any memory of festive madness away.
In order to survive an Irish winter, cosy slippers are essential. Baylis and Harding have some gorgeous gift sets with luxurious slippers and scented hand creams – the perfect treat for both hands and feet!
The lack of Vitamin D means we Irish girls are unfortunately pastier than ever during the winter months. Luxury Irish tan Bellamianta gives you gorgeously bronzed skin that should help to combat the milk bottle look.
Kitchenware and baking accessories are always a hit with food fanatics. A cheese board is a great gift that will come in very handy over the Christmas period. Pair it with some chutneys and Irish cheeses for the perfect foodie gift.
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With New Years resolutions, diet plans and fitness routines just around corner a Fitbit should come in very handy. It tracks all of your activity throughout the day so you'll able to set achievable fitness goals for yourself. We'll take any gadget that might help us shift the holiday weight.


text:
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Prepare your driving technique at best and enjoy the purest GT4 action that KUNOS Simulazioni have ever developed, with Assetto Corsa Competizione.
© 2021 Assetto Corsa Competizione. All rights reserved.
ASSETTO CORSA COMPETIZIONE ® KUNOS Simulazioni Srl – 2018-2020 All rights reserved. All other trademarks are property of their respective Owners. Developed by KUNOS Simulazioni Srl. The Assetto Corsa's logo is a registered trademark of KUNOS Simulazioni Srl. FMOD Studio, copyright Firelight Technologies Pty, Ltd., 2012-2016. Manufacturers, cars, names, brands and associated imagery featured in this game in some cases include trademarks and/or copyrighted materials of their respective owners. Produced under license of SRO. All rights reserved. Produced under license of Ferrari Spa. The name FERRARI, the PRANCING HORSE device, all associated logos and distinctive designs are property of Ferrari Spa. The body designs of the Ferrari cars are protected as Ferrari S.p.A. property under design, trademark and trade dress regulations. Trademarks, design patents and copyrights are used with the approval of the owner AUDI AG. Manufactured under license from McLaren Automotive Limited. McLaren and McLaren 650 GT3 are the trademarks of McLaren Racing Limited, McLaren Automotive Limited and the McLaren Group of companies. The BMW trademarks are used under license from BMW AG. The Trademarks, copyrights and design rights in and associated with Lamborghini, Lamborghini with Bull and Shield Device are used under license from Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., Italy. "Mercedes-Benz" and "Three pointed star in a ring" are trademarks of Daimler AG and used under license by KUNOS SIMULAZIONI Srl. Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. Trademarks, designs, coyrights and/or other intellectual property rights are used under license.
Published under license by 505 Games. 505 Games and the 505 Games logo are registered trademarks of 505 Games S.p.A and/or its Affiliates.


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text:
Q: Is there a "Group Box" equivalent in Java Swing? Trying to build a GUI application in Java/Swing. I'm mainly used to "painting" GUIs on the Windows side with tools like VB (or to be more precise, Gupta SQLWindows... wonder how many people know what that is ;-)).
I can't find an equivalent of a Group Box in Swing...
With a group box, you have a square box (usually with a title) around a couple of related widgets. One example is a group box around a few radio buttons (with the title explaining what the radio buttons are about, e.g. Group Box entitled "Sex" with "Male" and "Female" radio buttons).
I've searched around a bit... the only way I found was to add a sub-pane, set the border on the sub-pane and then add all the widgets in the "group" to the sub-pane. Is there a more elegant way to do that?

A: Others have already commetned about JPanel and using a TitledBorder, that's fine.
However, when playing with Swing LayoutManagers, you may find it annoying that components in different JPanels cannot align correctly (each panel has its own LayoutManager).
For this reason, it is a good practice (check "JGoodies" on the web for more details) in Swing GUIs to NOT use TitledBorders but rather separate groups of components in a JPanel by a JLabel followed by a horizontal JSeparator.
Ref. "First Aid for Swing"

A: A Group box is just a set of 'logically grouped widgets'.
This in the swing world is a JPanel.
Add your widgets to a JPanel.
Set its border type to 'Titled Border' and give the title, same as the name of the VB6 'frame'.
Voila. You have your group box.

A: Here's a quote from the JRadioButton javadocs since you brought up radio buttons.

An implementation of a radio button -- an item that can be selected or deselected, and which displays its state to the user. Used with a ButtonGroup object to create a group of buttons in which only one button at a time can be selected. (Create a ButtonGroup object and use its add method to include the JRadioButton objects in the group.)
Note: The ButtonGroup object is a logical grouping -- not a physical grouping. To create a button panel, you should still create a JPanel or similar container-object and add a Border to it to set it off from surrounding components.

A: Create a JPanel, and add your radiobuttons to it.  Don't forget to set the layout of the JPanel to something appropriate.
Then call panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(name));

A: Not AFAIK, at least not with standard swing widgets.
In VB you have a group widget, which is essentially a panel + border.
In Swing you have a JPanel which is the container widget, and you create and set a border object on it only if you need one. One can argue that in a way that is more elegant since you don't pay for something you don't use (e.g., border)

A: As David Koelle mentioned about setting up border through java code, you can also achieve similar result in designer mode.

A: I'm responding based on the Uri's comment which explaind what the OP meant by Group Box:

Uri: I think he means the control group you see in many dialog boxes, where you have a square around a bunch of widgets such as radio buttons, for example.

As far as I know, every JComponent can set a border for itself, so you don't need a second panel.


Dr. Safari Elis completed his MD at the University of Science Malaysia in 1991. He worked as a House Officer at Ipoh Hospital for a year and subsequently posted to the Cardiology Dept, IJN in 1992. Dr. Safari fell in love with Cardiology and pursued his Postgraduate Master's Degree in 1995 and subsequently worked as a Physician and Head of Department of Medical Department at Seberang Jaya General Hospital in 1999. His Cardiology stint started in 2002 at the General Hospital, Penang and went on to continue his Fellowship in Interventional Cardiology in Australia. He had been working as a Cardiologist since 2002, performing both invasive and non-invasive procedures in a high volume heart centre at General Hospital, Penang. The non-invasive services include exercise ECG test, Echocardiography, Transesophageal ECHO and stress ECHO as well as interpretation of Multi-Slice CT Coronary Angiography. His invasive work includes Conventional Coronary Angiography, Coronary and Peripheral Angioplasties and Pacemaker implantation.
Dr. Safari has been actively involved in many International Multicenter Trials as an investigator and participated in numerous Cardiology Meetings as faculty members and speakers. During his service in the public sector, Dr. Safari had been awarded with the Award for Service of Excellence from the Ministry of Health on several occasions.


text:
Giro d'Italia Stage 14 – Zoncolan!!!
Short write-up coming soon…For now, check out all the great photos from last night's phenomenal stage!
Cam's Giro Diary
You can also follow Cam Meyer on twitter and on his facebook page
The Zoncolan. Yes everyone had been looking forward to the famous mountain that I must say is the hardest in the world in my books. The talk of this stage was even more public sized with the descent and climb of the Crostis removed from the stage.
Let's just say with the way my legs felt today I have no complaints about how we went around a 14km mountain instead of over it. I really paid for my breakaway yesterday and my legs turned up to the start line feeling like bricks.
The hardest part of the whole day was finding the bus after the stage which was 3km down the other side of the Zoncolan and with it raining, temperature dropping to under five degrees, one hundred thousand people to get through and having done over 5 hours on the saddle already this was not the best scenario I wanted after the finish.
Peter Stetina had a great ride with. A 15th place and Christophe not to far behind him. Tomorrow is going to be an epic day. We are predicting the stage will take around 8 hours with over 6000 meters of climbing to do and a distance of 230km. I'm taking a big packed lunch that's for sure.
A few facts about the Zoncolan climb today. We rode mountain bike components to get up it with a cluster on the back that was an 11 to 32 with a front chain ring of a 36. I was still doing 5km hour up it and at one point my garmin head unit auto paused on me because I was going to slow. This almost made me cry and I took this as a sign that really Its telling me to get off and walk. That Garmin head unit has been replaced with a new one.
Final Kilometers
3Dtour:
courtesy of cyclingthealps.com
Cycling the Alps profile
Monte Zoncolan Streetview Tour
courtesy of Veeral Patel, Sirotti, and RCS
Stage 14 Results
1 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 5:04:26
2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:00:33
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:00:40
4 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre – ISD 0:01:11
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Geox-TMC 0:01:21
6 John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:38
7 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:01:52
8 Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:55
9 Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Blr) HTC-Highroad 0:02:05
10 José Rujano Guillen (Ven) Androni Giocattoli 0:02:11
90	Richie Porte (Aus) Saxo Bank Sungard 16:13
141	Brett Lancaster (Aus) Team Garmin-Cervelo 18:56
158	Matthew Wilson (Aus) Team Garmin-Cervelo 20:28
170	Cameron Meyer (Aus) Team Garmin-Cervelo 21:49
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 54:45:45
9 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana 0:06:40
10 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Movistar Team 0:06:43
105	Richie Porte (Aus) Saxo Bank Sungard	1:33:38
137	Cameron Meyer (Aus) Team Garmin-Cervelo	1:53:46
164	Brett Lancaster (Aus) Team Garmin-Cervelo	2:17:46
173	Matthew Wilson (Aus) Team Garmin-Cervelo	2:36:10
Stage 16 Preview
#2011 Giro d'Italia
#Giro d'Italia
#zoncolan
Giro d'Italia announces 2020 wildcard invites
Chad Haga's Giro, oversimplified: Redemption, and some tears
Carapaz on brink of Giro victory as tempers flare: Giro d'Italia, stage 20
Giro Daily Podcasts: Adam Hansen and a check-in from the rest day
CyclingTips on the road: Behind the scenes at stage 14
Carapaz in pink, and the favourites reshuffle: Giro d'Italia, stage 14


text:
package org.diorite.impl.world.generator;

import org.apache.commons.lang3.builder.ToStringBuilder;
import org.apache.commons.lang3.builder.ToStringStyle;

import org.diorite.impl.world.chunk.ChunkImpl;
import org.diorite.impl.world.chunk.ChunkPartImpl;
import org.diorite.material.BlockMaterialData;
import org.diorite.material.Material;
import org.diorite.utils.concurrent.atomic.AtomicShortArray;
import org.diorite.world.chunk.Chunk;
import org.diorite.world.generator.BiomeGrid;
import org.diorite.world.generator.ChunkBuilder;
import org.diorite.world.generator.maplayer.MapLayer;

public class ChunkBuilderImpl implements ChunkBuilder
{
    private final ChunkPartBuilder[] chunkParts = new ChunkPartBuilder[Chunk.CHUNK_PARTS]; // size of 16, parts can be null
    private MapLayer[] biomesInput;
    private BiomeGrid  biomeGrid;

    public ChunkBuilderImpl(final MapLayer[] biomesInput)
    {
        this.biomesInput = biomesInput;
    }

    @Override
    public MapLayer[] getBiomesInput()
    {
        return this.biomesInput;
    }

    @Override
    public void setBiomesInput(final MapLayer[] biomesInput)
    {
        this.biomesInput = biomesInput;
    }

    public ChunkPartBuilder[] getChunkParts()
    {
        return this.chunkParts;
    }

    @Override
    public BiomeGrid getBiomeGrid()
    {
        return this.biomeGrid;
    }

    @Override
    public void setBiomeGrid(final BiomeGrid biomeGrid)
    {
        this.biomeGrid = biomeGrid;
    }

    @Override
    public void setBlock(final int x, final int y, final int z, final BlockMaterialData materialData)
    {
        final byte chunkPosY = (byte) (y >> 4);
        ChunkPartBuilder chunkPart = this.chunkParts[chunkPosY];
        if (chunkPart == null)
        {
            chunkPart = new ChunkPartBuilder(this, chunkPosY);
            this.chunkParts[chunkPosY] = chunkPart;
        }
        chunkPart.setBlock(x, y % Chunk.CHUNK_PART_HEIGHT, z, materialData);
    }

    @Override
    public void setBlock(final int x, final int y, final int z, final int id, final int meta)
    {
        final byte chunkPosY = (byte) (y >> 4);
        ChunkPartBuilder chunkPart = this.chunkParts[chunkPosY];
        if (chunkPart == null)
        {
            chunkPart = new ChunkPartBuilder(this, chunkPosY);
            this.chunkParts[chunkPosY] = chunkPart;
        }
        chunkPart.setBlock(x, y % Chunk.CHUNK_PART_HEIGHT, z, id, meta);
    }

    @Override
    public BlockMaterialData getBlockType(final int x, final int y, final int z)
    {
        final byte chunkPosY = (byte) (y >> 4);
        final ChunkPartBuilder chunkPart = this.chunkParts[chunkPosY];
        if (chunkPart == null)
        {
            return Material.AIR;
        }
        return chunkPart.getBlockType(x, y % Chunk.CHUNK_PART_HEIGHT, z);
    }

    @Override
    public void init(final Chunk bChunk)
    {
        final ChunkImpl chunk = (ChunkImpl) bChunk;
        final ChunkPartImpl[] chunkParts = new ChunkPartImpl[this.chunkParts.length];
        final ChunkPartBuilder[] chunkPartBuilders = this.chunkParts;
        for (int i = 0, buildersLength = chunkPartBuilders.length; i < buildersLength; i++)
        {
            final ChunkPartBuilder chunkPart = chunkPartBuilders[i];
            if (chunkPart == null)
            {
                continue;
            }
            chunkParts[i] = new ChunkPartImpl(chunkPart.blocks, (byte) i, chunk.getWorld().getDimension().hasSkyLight());
            chunkParts[i].recalculateBlockCount();
        }
        chunk.setChunkParts(chunkParts);
        chunk.initHeightMap();
        chunk.setBiomes(this.biomeGrid.rawData().clone());
        chunk.init();
    }

    private static class ChunkPartBuilder // part of chunk 16x16x16
    {
        public static final int CHUNK_DATA_SIZE = Chunk.CHUNK_SIZE * Chunk.CHUNK_PART_HEIGHT * Chunk.CHUNK_SIZE;
        private final ChunkBuilderImpl chunk;
        private final AtomicShortArray blocks; // id and sub-id(0-15) of every block
        private final byte             yPos; // from 0 to 15

        private ChunkPartBuilder(final ChunkBuilderImpl chunk, final byte yPos)
        {
            this.chunk = chunk;
            this.yPos = yPos;
            this.blocks = new AtomicShortArray(CHUNK_DATA_SIZE);
        }

        private void setBlock(final int x, final int y, final int z, final int id, final int meta)
        {
            this.blocks.set(this.toArrayIndex(x, y, z), (short) ((id << 4) | meta));
        }

        private void setBlock(final int x, final int y, final int z, final BlockMaterialData material)
        {
            this.setBlock(x, y, z, material.ordinal(), material.getType());
        }

        @SuppressWarnings("MagicNumber")
        private BlockMaterialData getBlockType(final int x, final int y, final int z)
        {
            final short data = this.blocks.get(this.toArrayIndex(x, y, z));
            return (BlockMaterialData) Material.getByID(data >> 4, data & 15);
        }

        @SuppressWarnings("MagicNumber")
        private int toArrayIndex(final int x, final int y, final int z)
        {
            return ((y & 0xf) << 8) | (z << 4) | x;
        }

        @Override
        public String toString()
        {
            return new ToStringBuilder(this, ToStringStyle.SHORT_PREFIX_STYLE).appendSuper(super.toString()).append("chunk", this.chunk).append("yPos", this.yPos).toString();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public String toString()
    {
        return new ToStringBuilder(this, ToStringStyle.SHORT_PREFIX_STYLE).appendSuper(super.toString()).toString();
    }
}


The Corporate Workplace is Changing. Is Your Organization Ready?
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Employers' liability insurance is compulsory to cover your employees. By law you must have at least £5 million of cover although a minimum of £10 million is now provided by most policies. You must display the certificate of insurance in the workplace. If your business is not a limited company, and you are the only employee or you only employ close family members, you do not need compulsory employers' liability insurance. Limited companies with only one employee, where that employee also owns 50% or more of the company's shares, have also been exempt from compulsory employers' liability insurance.
This covers compensation for lost profits and extra costs if your business is disrupted, due to say a fire. It is also referred to as 'consequential loss' insurance.
If you are planning to start your new business from home then don't assume that your normal household insurance will be enough. It will not usually cover business risks. It is possible to obtain special 'working from home' policies.


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Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (PS5)
31 August 2022 31 August 2022 by Ricky Mendez
Game Info:
Developed: Eidos Montreal
Published By: Square Enix
Released: October 26, 2021
Available on: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Genre: Action-Adventure
ESRB Rating: T for Teen: Language, Mild Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence
Number of Players: Single player
(Amazon Affiliate Link)
The last thing I expected from both Marvel and Square-Enix was a game about the Guardians of the Galaxy. Prior to 2014, barely anyone knew of them and many people predicted that the movie would be the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first box office flop due to a cast of characters barely anyone knew and the actors, not exactly unknowns, but not "A-Listers" either (with the exception of Vin Diesel). Tie-in video games have mostly gone the wayside so Eidos Montreal developing a Guardians of the Galaxy game was quite the surprise to see from them as they mostly handled their own properties such as Deus Ex and Tomb Raider. But the most surprising thing is that Eidos' GotG isn't based on the Disney movies and does its own thing entirely.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy by Edios and Square-Enix stars Star-Lord (or Peter Quill) and his crew of misfits including Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket, and Groot. They find themselves in the Quarantine Zone looking for an elusive creature to offer to Lady Hellbender, an exotic alien collector. Not only would this give the Guardians some much-needed cash, but also establish a good word for their name, granting them the opportunity of further business. Since they are a ragtag group who are new to this whole hero thing, they fall into mishap after mishap until they find themselves tasked with saving the entire galaxy. The game begins with everyone already on the team so there are no plot points of slowly obtaining new members. The player is already thrust into the story and story beats slowly reveal what the characters did before joining together.
Eidos-Montreal did a great job with the visuals of GotG as the characters and creatures are very detailed. It employs a hyper-realistic style to the humans and human-like aliens as they all look like someone that could exist in real life. In plenty of games, the people in it can look somewhat uncanny. With GotG, I never got that feeling from any of the characters. With the aliens that look most like humans, they even touched upon some aspects of them to give an otherworldly look. I mean, they're still mostly different colored humans, but I like the way they are portrayed.
The set pieces are also very standout as the alien worlds look exceptionally exotic. Every planet has a unique design to it and the bright usage of colors makes the environments pop out in a beautiful way. Even the obligatory snow level had some unique properties to it that it felt like the place existed on another planet. I found every world fun to experience because of the large visuals and everything that took place in the foreground and background.
Strong Points: Great set pieces with beautiful visuals; strong narrative with plenty of humorous and touching moments; Choices actually do matter
Weak Points: Some glitches with the terrain and a couple of softlocks/crashes; a few plot-progression points needed slightly development
Moral Warnings: Language ranging from "d*mn", "h*ll", "b*st*rd", and "jack*ss"; fantasy violence with killing humanoid aliens and monster-like aliens; one scene with a bloodstained shirt; the Adam Warlock character is sometimes referred to as "Him", and has a Church worshiping him; some sexual dialogue mostly at the expense of Star-Lord and how he likes to sleep around/flirt with numerous women; some of the choices made can lean towards the immoral side
GotG is a pretty linear third-person experience and it took advantage of that aspect, giving them the opportunity to make the cinematic experience and world design structurally intact. There are chapters in the story, and most chapters begin with Star-Lord, his crew, and their ship preparing for a mission/bounty. Here is where Star-Lord can interact with the other members of his team, often hearing idle dialogue when not interacted with. On the planets or in buildings, the pathways are fairly straightforward, but not always completely obvious. Star-Lord uses the scan function on his visors to either find context-sensitive paths or find out more information about his environment. Although the only character the player directly controls for the entire game is Star-Lord, he is almost always accompanied by his fellow Guardians. The other members sometimes serve for light puzzle-solving elements such as Groot using his plant-like body to make bridges, or Drax pushing heavy objects. Despite the linear progression, I did run into a couple of softlocks and terrain-based glitches.
GotG has some orchestral pieces which sound good, and plenty of licensed music due to Star-Lord's character. He loves music from the 80s so you'll hear plenty of songs such as "Take On Me", "Holding Out For A Hero", and "Kickstart My Heart". The game even begins with "Never Gonna Give You Up" meaning that the developers Rickroll you. The voice cast also provides great portrayals too—after your mind stops trying to compare them to the movie cast. Plus, it isn't fair to compare them to the movies in the first place as the game isn't based on the MCU. I ended up liking all of the main cast's delivery as they had a nice range of emotion for every funny and dramatic moment. It was also pretty cool and immersive that certain radio communications in scenes can play through the DualSense controller.
In combat, all the Guardians, when available, participate. The combat is split in three ways: one part action, one part third-person shooter, and surprisingly one part role-playing. Star-Lord has his element guns, being his primary way of inflicting damage, and uses the thrusters on his boots to jump high and dodge. There is the option of lock-on with one of the left triggers and free aiming with the right control stick. Although none of the other members can be directly controlled, Star-Lord can issue commands to them. There isn't any level-up or class system in GotG, but your team plays specific roles in the fight. Gamora is the assassin, specializing in high single-target damage. Drax can inflict the stagger debuff to enemies leaving them stunned and taking increased damage. Rocket focuses on area-of-effect abilities such as explosives and a grav bomb grouping enemies together. Groot has utility such as entangling multiple enemies, crippling their movement.
Many enemies have certain strengths and weaknesses. Some can take a beating in battle but are very vulnerable to stagger abilities. Other enemies may even come into battle with a shield but said shield can easily be removed with the corresponding element from Star-Lord's guns. With many enemies having specific strengths/weaknesses combined with the cooldowns on allies makes combat feel even more role-playing-like. Battles towards the end tend to lower in quality as new enemies and abilities stop being introduced long before the final chapter and even on the highest difficulty it can be a little too easy for experienced players. Even so, GotG manages to be one of those games where the combat is more fun to play with than it is to watch, and I feel that has to do with how Star-Lord controls in battle. He is very snappy and responsive and has a good flow to his movement. It all comes together with the Huddle Up comeback mechanic where Star-Lord rallies his team together to give a motivating speech that wouldn't be out of place in any sports film. It's stupid, cheesy, and completely cornball—and it brings a grin to my lips every time as it fits perfectly for the character. Blasting aliens to 80s music will never get old.
Score Breakdown:
(10/10 is perfect)
Game Score – 85%
Gameplay 16/20
Graphics 9/10
Sound 8.5/10
Stability 4/5
Controls 5/5
Morality Score – 63%
Violence 5.5/10
Language 4/10
Sexual Content 9/10
Occult/Supernatural 6.5/10
Cultural/Moral/Ethical 6.5/10
One of the other standout features of GotG is the dialogue and narrative. There is a ton of dialogue for many situations and a lot of idle chatter that had me laughing a lot. The Guardians are a bunch of chatterboxes and will talk nearly all the time. Although some of the battle dialogue tends to repeat often, there are plenty of funny and insightful moments if you just happen to stand around. It even goes so far as to the crew making commentary whenever Star-Lord goes off the beaten path to find collectibles, poking fun of said trope. The Guardians are a motley crew and the hundreds of interactions follow that aspect. They bicker often, they tease each other, but they care for one another (or at least grow into that aspect), even though they seldom admit that fact. There are plenty of moments that call back to previous plot points and even some things that happen in the comics. Some plot progression needed a bit more development to present a better flow but only manages to be a minor setback. There is a great sense of synergy between the characters and voice cast for nearly every piece of dialogue uttered.
At first, I was pretty skeptical when I heard Eidos and Square-Enix claiming that "your choices matter", as in most cases, that's a load of bologna. I can safely report that your choices actually do matter in the game, and the game also autosaves at certain points so you can't reliably savescum either. The endings are mostly the same with slight differences depending on the choices made in the beginning and middle, but that isn't what I'm talking about. Depending on your choices, entire chapters can play out differently or can make certain sections easier/harder. It was very nice to see that they weren't lying after being lied to by other companies for years.
When it comes to morality, there are aspects to point out given the nature. The Guardians of the Galaxy, although overall good guys, were all previously criminals with a long list of reasons as to why they were wanted fugitives. They do the good thing and save people, but are willing to commit crimes such as fraud, robbery, and murder to do so. Some of the dialogue and narrative choices reflect these aspects. With violence, there is the aspect of killing alien entities and one moment where Star-Lord's mom, Meredith Quill, is shot and killed in a flashback clutching her bloodstained shirt in the place where she was shot. Language, mostly consists of "d*mn", "h*ll", "b*st*rd", and jack*ss". There is also the fantasy space swearing term, "flark", which honestly is used as a substitute for a lot of words. There is some sexual dialogue, mostly having to do with Star-Lord's tendency to flirt and sleep with women. The closet thing to sexual content would probably be Lady Hellbender. She is in what is essentially a leotard, but it isn't portrayed in a "sexy" way (there are a few scenes in which the camera angle shows off part of her butt.) In one chapter in the setting Knowhere, there is a bar that can be entered where many characters can be seen drinking. The Adam Warlock character is a complicated one, as a good chunk of the narrative focuses on the Universal Church of Truth and their worship of the man. They sometimes refer to Warlock as "Him" or "Golden God." The Church also serves as an antagonist and have abilities that are borderline occult in nature, dubbed faith energy.
History has seemed to repeat itself and the culprit remains the same: The Avengers. Whereas people thought the GotG movie would bomb and flop because of how great The Avengers is, people thought that Eidos/Square-Enix's attempt at GotG would bomb too, but that was because of how disappointing The Avengers game was to most, as well as both games coming out "way too late after the Marvel craze." I always believe, and it paid off. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy ended up being a very solid licensed video game with great visuals, great sound direction, and a great narrative about a group of unlikely heroes who come together due to tragedy and grief. It even portrays an interesting insight on how to cope with grief and what could happen if it's handled in unhealthy ways. The morality is mostly similar to the MCU movies so if you're okay with those, you'll most likely be okay with this game too.
Most people who enjoy either the comics or the movies will get a lot of enjoyment out of its 20 or so hour story and references many classic and modern Marvel characters/stories. It has already gone on sale for more than half off so those waiting for a permanent price drop shouldn't have to wait that long. The new game+ option unlocks after completion to tinker with the custom difficulty settings and trying out other narrative choices.The experience reminds me of the video games of old, but in a good way. The experience Is straightforward—it begins and ends all within the game. No sequel baiting or trying to sell future DLC. It just feels so right.
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