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Reprod. Med.
10.3390/reprodmed1020009
Korenc, M.
Osredkar, J.
Gersak, K.
Kumer, K.
Fabjan, T.
Sterpin, S.
Lucovnik, M.
Effect of High-Dose Intravenous Vitamin C on Postpartum Oxidative Stress in Severe Preeclampsia
Monika Korenc
Joško Osredkar
Ksenija Gersak
Kristina Kumer
Teja Fabjan
Sasa Sterpin
Miha Lucovnik
1,3,*
Department of Perinatology, Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Medical Center Ljubljana, Slajmerjeva 4, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Biochemistry, University Medical Center Ljubljana, Njegoseva 4, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Vrazov trg 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Reprod. Med. 2020, 1(2), 122-131; https://doi.org/10.3390/reprodmed1020009
Received: 9 July 2020 / Revised: 18 August 2020 / Accepted: 26 August 2020 / Published: 28 August 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Preeclampsia: Pathogenesis, Diagnosis and Treatment)
Review Reports
Purpose: To determine whether high-dose intravenous vitamin C reduces oxidative stress in patients with severe preeclampsia in the first days postpartum. Methods: Biomarkers of oxidative stress were assessed as secondary outcomes of a single-center, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Thirty-four patients with singleton pregnancies complicated by severe features of preeclampsia were randomized into two groups: intravenous vitamin C (1.5 g/6 h) (n = 17) or placebo (n = 17). Urinary concentrations of dityrosine, 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdg), 8-isoprostane, and N epsilon-(hexanoyl) lysine (HEL) were measured at days one and three after delivery and normalized for urinary creatinine in 22 of patients included (12 in vitamin C and 10 in placebo group). The Mann–Whitney U-test was used to compare values of oxidative stress biomarkers at days one and three after delivery in vitamin C vs. placebo groups (p ≤ 0.05 significant). Results: Dityrosine and 8-OHdg values did not differ significantly between the two study groups at day one after delivery (p = 0.23 and p = 0.77, respectively), but were significantly lower in the vitamin C group compared to the placebo group at day three after delivery (p = 0.04 and p = 0.03, respectively). Values of 8-isoprostane and HEL did not differ significantly between the two study groups at day one (p = 0.41 and p = 0.42, respectively), as well as at day three, after delivery (p = 0.25 and p = 0.24, respectively). Conclusion: High-dose intravenous vitamin C treatments in patients with severe preeclampsia reduced urinary levels of dityrosine and 8-OHdg (markers of protein and DNA oxidative damage, respectively) on day three after delivery. Vitamin C treatment had no significant effect on lipid peroxidation biomarkers, i.e., 8-isoprostane and HEL.
Keywords: ascorbic acid; oxidative stress; preeclampsia; vitamin C ascorbic acid; oxidative stress; preeclampsia; vitamin C
Preeclampsia, a pregnancy-specific multisystem disorder characterized by new onset hypertension and proteinuria or end-organ dysfunction after 20 weeks of gestation, affects 2% to 5% of pregnancies [1,2,3]. It is associated with a high risk of fetal and neonatal complications, as well as maternal morbidity and mortality [3,4,5]. The exact pathophysiology of preeclampsia remains incompletely understood, but increased oxidative stress, i.e., an imbalance between the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant defense mechanisms, may contribute significantly to disease development and its clinical course [6,7]. Placental malperfusion leads to the enhanced release of ROS and lower levels of antioxidants have been found in preeclamptic patients [8,9,10]. Targeting excessive oxidative stress with antioxidant therapy could potentially reduce the risk of preeclampsia-related adverse outcomes.
Vitamin C is the major water-soluble antioxidant present within the cells and extracellular fluids [11]. High-dose intravenous treatment with vitamin C has been shown to improve outcomes in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome, severe burns, septic shock, and surgical intensive care unit patients [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. One of the proposed mechanisms behind the beneficial effects of vitamin C in critically ill patients is a reduction in oxidative stress [21]. Oxidative stress cannot be measured by the direct detection of ROS due to their very short half-life [22]. Instead, the amount of oxidative stress can be assessed by measuring stable products of non-enzymatic reactions between biological molecules (DNA, proteins, and lipids) and ROS [23,24]. Urinary concentrations of dityrosine, 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdg), 8-isoprostane, and N epsilon-(hexanoyl) lysine (HEL) have been used for this purpose and are well-validated biomarkers for the evaluation of oxidative stress [24,25]. No studies concerning the effects of vitamin C treatment on oxidative stress in postpartum patients with preeclampsia have been published so far.
Most studies on prophylactic supplementation with oral antioxidants, including 1 g vitamin C daily, showed no significant reduction in the risks of preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction, or the risk of death or other serious outcomes in mothers and infants [16,17,18]. However, there are no studies to date on the use of high intravenous doses of vitamin C for tertiary prevention in preeclampsia patients, i.e., the prevention of serious complications once the disease has already occurred. Given the safety and low cost of vitamin C, this could be a promising approach to reducing the risks of severe maternal morbidity in pregnant and postpartum patients with severe forms of preeclampsia.
This study aimed to determine whether high-dose intravenous vitamin C administration reduces oxidative stress in patients with severe preeclampsia in the first days postpartum.
Biomarkers of oxidative stress were assessed as secondary outcomes of a single-center, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. The trial was conducted at the Department of Perinatology of the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, from April 2018 to June 2019. All women included in the study provided written informed consent for study participation. The National Medical Ethics Committee approved the study (Project number 0120-527/2017/4, approved on 12 September 2017). The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with the identifier NCT03451266.
Thirty-four consecutively admitted patients with singleton pregnancies complicated by severe preeclampsia were included in the study at hospital admission. Severe preeclampsia was defined by severe features of the disease using the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist Task Force on Hypertension in Pregnancy recommendations: new onset cerebral or visual disturbances; pulmonary edema; thrombocytopenia (platelet count <100,000/µL); elevated liver enzymes (transaminases) to twice the normal upper limit; severe persistent pain in the right upper or middle upper abdomen that does not respond to medication and is not explained by another condition or both; renal insufficiency (serum creatinine >97 µmol/L), or the doubling of serum creatinine in the absence of other renal diseases; systolic blood pressure ≥160 mm Hg or a diastolic blood pressure ≥110 mm Hg measured on more than one occasion at least 4 h apart while the patient is on bed rest (unless antihypertensive therapy was initiated before this time) [4].
After written informed consent, patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio into two groups. They received either 1.5 g of intravenous vitamin C in 100 mL 0.9% NaCl within 30 min of delivery and then every 6 h for the first 72 h postpartum or a placebo (100 mL of intravenous 0.9% NaCl within 30 min of delivery and then every 6 h for the first 72 h postpartum).
Randomization was done with sequentially numbered, opaque, computer-generated sealed envelopes. Randomization codes were kept at the pharmacy department where the treatment, (vitamin C and 0.9% NaCl) was prepared. High-dependency unit (HDU) physicians (anesthesiologists and perinatologists), patients, and study investigators were blinded to the type of medication administered by nurses, who prepared and administered the study medications.
Although the safety of vitamin C has been well established even at high doses, a theoretical concern regarding vitamin C is that it may be metabolized into oxalic acid, leading to calcium oxalate nephropathy [13]. Therefore, information on potential side effects of vitamin C administration, especially related to the occurrence of calcium oxalate nephropathy, was collected and analyzed. We also collected information on any other complications that might be theoretically associated with vitamin C treatment (as an "open question" in our data collection protocol).
2.1. Oxidative Stress Biomarker Measurements
Urine was collected at day one after delivery (within 24 h from delivery) and at day three after delivery (48 to 72 h from delivery) in 22 of 34 patients included in the study (12 in vitamin C and 10 in placebo group) (Figure 1).
Spot mid-stream urine samples were collected in sterile cups and stored in the laboratory at −80 °C until they were assayed. Previous studies have shown stable levels of oxidative stress biomarkers at −80 °C [24,26,27]. For the determination of three of the four biochemical parameters, we used commercial ELISA kits: 8-OHdG Check ELISA, HEL ELISA and the DT ELISA kit provided by the Japanese Institute for the Control of Aging (JaICA, Tokyo, Japan). We determined 8-izoprostane using a kit from IBL International (Hamburg, Germany). Concentrations of all four biomarkers, i.e., dityrosine, 8-OHdg, 8-isoprostane, and HEL, were normalized for urinary creatinine. Urinary creatinine was obtained using the Roche reagent kit on a Roche Modular P analyzer (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany). All tests were performed following the instructions of the kit provider.
2.2. Statistical Analysis
For continuous variables, data were expressed as the median together with the 25th and 75th percentiles (interquartile range). Categorical data were summarized as frequencies and percentages. For comparison between the two study groups (placebo vs. vitamin C), a Mann–Whitney U-test was used for continuous variables and a chi-square test for categorical variables. Values of oxidative stress biomarkers at day one after delivery vs. day three after delivery within each group were compared using a Mann–Whitney U-test. For all tests, a two-tailed p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The software used for statistical analysis was IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25.0 (Armonk, NY, USA: IBM Corp.).
Thirty-seven patients admitted to the perinatal high-dependency unit due to a diagnosis of severe preeclampsia were assessed for eligibility during the study period. Three were pregnant with twins and, therefore, not included. Thirty-four fulfilled the inclusion criteria and all consented to participate in the study. They were randomly allocated to vitamin C or placebo groups. Urine samples were not collected due to organizational/logistic issues in two patients (one in the vitamin C group and one in the placebo group). For the same reasons, measurements of oxidative stress biomarkers and/or urinary creatinine were not performed in ten patients (four in the vitamin C group and six in the placebo group) (Figure 1). All urine samples on day one were collected within the first six hours after delivery, i.e., after patients received a single dose of study medication (vitamin C or placebo).
The baseline characteristics of women and their neonates included in the two study groups were similar (Table 1). Table 1 also presents severe features of preeclampsia meeting the inclusion criteria that were also evenly distributed between the groups.
Dityrosine values did not differ significantly between the two study groups at day one after delivery (p = 0.23), but were significantly lower in the vitamin C group compared to the placebo group at day three after delivery (p = 0.04) (Figure 2). Differences in dityrosine values between day one and day three after delivery reached statistical significance in neither the placebo group (p = 0.46) nor the vitamin C group (p = 0.22).
Values of 8-OHdg did not differ significantly between the two study groups at day one after delivery (p = 0.77), but were significantly lower in the vitamin C group compared to the placebo group at day three after delivery (p = 0.03) (Figure 3). Differences in 8-OHdg values between day one and day three after delivery reached statistical significance in neither the placebo group (p = 0.26) nor the vitamin C group (p = 0.26).
Values of 8-isoprostane did not differ significantly between the two study groups at day one as well as at day three after delivery (p = 0.41 and p = 0.25, respectively) (Figure 4). Differences in 8-isoprostane values between day one and day three after delivery reached statistical significance in neither the placebo group (p = 0.26) nor the vitamin C group (p = 0.39).
HEL values did not differ significantly between the two study groups at day one as well as at day three after delivery (p = 0.42 and p = 0.24, respectively) (Figure 5). Differences in HEL values between day one and day three after delivery did not reach statistical significance in the placebo group (p = 0.19), but were significantly higher at day one compared to day three in the vitamin C group (p = 0.05).
None of the patients in the study developed oxalate renal calculi, which have been reported as a potential adverse effect of high-dose vitamin C treatment in burn patients [13]. We also found no other adverse effects that could be associated with vitamin C treatment.
The main finding of this study is that high-dose intravenous vitamin C treatment started postpartum in patients with severe preeclampsia reduced urinary levels of dityrosine and 8-OHdg (markers of protein and DNA oxidative damage, respectively) on day three after delivery. On the first day after delivery, none of the oxidative stress biomarkers studied differed significantly between the placebo and vitamin C groups. It has to be noted, however, that all measurements on day one were done within six hours after delivery. High-dose intravenous vitamin C could, therefore, have a delayed effect that can be detected only in the first days and not hours following delivery. This pilot study, therefore, yields data on both the effectiveness and delay in action of vitamin C in relation to oxidative stress in severe preeclampsia postpartum patients.
Dityrosine, 8-OHdg, and 8-isoprostane have already been studied in pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia or fetal growth restriction. Leon-Reyes et al. reported increased plasma concentrations of dityrosine in women with preeclampsia compared to healthy pregnant controls [28]. Similarly, Scholl et al. found higher urinary concentrations of 8-OHdg in pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction, a pregnancy disorder often sharing a common pathophysiology with preeclampsia [29]. Free plasma 8-isoprostane concentrations have also been found to be increased in preeclamptic patients [30,31]. These findings demonstrate an increase in oxidative stress that can induce damage to the vascular endothelium and create maternal complications characteristic of preeclampsia [30,31]. Such complications include pulmonary edema, severe levels of hypertension, eclamptic seizures, and renal dysfunction, which can all occur days or even weeks postpartum [32,33,34]. Our study was the first to focus on postpartum changes in oxidative stress biomarkers in severe preeclampsia. In addition, we studied the effects of high-dose vitamin C treatment on oxidative stress in this patient population. Our results indicate that increased oxidative stress associated with preeclampsia persists for several days following delivery. Only urinary concentrations of HEL decreased significantly between days one and three after delivery in patients receiving vitamin C. Lower dityrosine and 8-OHdg levels in the vitamin C group at day three after delivery also suggest that high-dose vitamin C reduces oxidative stress in preeclamptic patients after delivery. Prophylactic oral supplementation with antioxidants, including vitamin C, has not been shown to prevent the occurrence of preeclampsia in previous studies [17,18]. Nevertheless, our results suggest the potential benefit of high-dose intravenous vitamin C treatment as a tertiary prevention strategy to reduce excessive oxidative stress, endothelial damage and risks of preeclampsia-related postpartum adverse outcomes. If vitamin C reduces endothelial damage and, consequently, vascular permeability in preeclampsia patients to the same degree that it seems to reduce vascular permeability in other conditions, such as burns, it could reduce the risk of pulmonary complications associated with this disease. At the same time, vitamin C therapy could allow safe additional fluid administration in patients with preeclampsia who are fluid responsive and in whom further increases in preload would be beneficial for preventing end-organ damage such as pre-renal acute kidney injury.
The major strength of this study is its randomized control methodology. This allowed us to account for potential confounding factors that could have an influence on peripartum oxidative stress regardless of vitamin C treatment. Examples of such factors include mode of delivery (vaginal vs. cesarean delivery), gestational age, severity of the disease, dietary influences etc. We used well-validated biomarkers of oxidative stress. Urinary dityrosine, 8-OHdg, 8-isoprostane, and HEL have all been shown to be an adequate tool to assess oxidative stress status outside pregnancy and also in pregnant women [24,25]. Several limitations of this study should also be considered. This was a single-center trial with a small number of patients included. Although urine samples were collected within a randomized setting, major protocol violations occurred with a significant number of patients from whom samples were not collected or analyzed. Larger studies will, therefore, be needed to confirm or refute our results. Importantly, the outcome studied was not a clinical endpoint, i.e., complications of preeclampsia, but a biochemical one, i.e., urinary values of markers of oxidative stress. Therefore, this should be viewed as a proof-of-concept study showing an enhanced decrease in oxidative stress after delivery in preeclampsia patients receiving vitamin C. Further research is needed to determine whether the decrease in oxidative stress biomarkers seen with vitamin C treatment correlates with the amelioration of the clinical course of severe preeclampsia postpartum.
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by M.K., J.O., K.G., K.K., T.F., S.S. and M.L. The first draft of the manuscript was written by M.K. and M.L., and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
This study was funded by a tertiary research project grant from the University Medical Centre Ljubljana (grant No 20170031/ 339 99 06 93) and by the Slovenian Research Agency (research program P3-0124).
The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.
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Figure 1. Randomization and follow up of study participants.
Figure 2. Comparison of dityrosine values in vitamin C and placebo groups. Dityrosine values did not differ significantly between the two study groups at day one after delivery (p = 0.23), but were significantly lower in the vitamin C group compared to the placebo group at day three after delivery (p = 0.04). Data are presented in box-and-whisker plots with the median and interquartile range and minimum and maximum data points.
Figure 3. Comparison of 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdg) values in vitamin C and placebo groups. Values of 8-OHdg did not differ significantly between the two study groups at day one after delivery (p = 0.77), but were significantly lower in the vitamin C group compared to the placebo group at day three after delivery (p = 0.03). Data are presented in box-and-whisker plots with the median and interquartile range and minimum and maximum data points.
Figure 4. Comparison of 8-isoprostane values in vitamin C and placebo groups. Values of 8-isoprostane did not differ significantly between the two study groups at day one as well as at day three after delivery (p = 0.41 and p = 0.25, respectively). Data are presented in box-and-whisker plots with the median and interquartile range and minimum and maximum data points.
Figure 5. Comparison of N epsilon-(hexanoyl) lysine (HEL) values in vitamin C and placebo groups. HEL values did not differ significantly between the two study groups at day one as well as at day three after delivery (p = 0.42 and p = 0.24, respectively). Data are presented in box-and-whisker plots with the median and interquartile range and minimum and maximum data points.
Table 1. Baseline characteristics of study participants.
(n = 12)
p-Value
Maternal age (years) 30 (22–41) 30 (23–40) 0.97
Pre-pregnancy BMI (kg/m2) 23 (17–35) 26 (18–41) 0.23
BMI at delivery (kg/m2) 29 (22–56) 31 (20–49) 0.69
Nulliparity 10 (83%) 7 (70%) 0.28
Gestational age (weeks) 33 (24–38) 33 (26–39) 0.38
Caesarean delivery 9 (75%) 9 (90%) 0.69
Neonatal birth weight (g) 1465 (490–3110) 1820 (630–3870) 0.33
SGA 8 (67%) 4 (40%) 0.15
Systolic blood pressure ≥160 mm Hg at inclusion 12 (100%) 10 (100%) /
Diastolic blood pressure ≥110 mm Hg at inclusion 12 (100%) 10 (100%) /
Neurological symptoms 3 (25%) 4 (40%) 0.21
Serum creatinine >97 µmol/L 1 (8%) 0 (0%) 0.33
Elevated liver enzymes and/or pain in the right upper or middle upper abdomen 8 (67%) 3 (30%) 0.09
Thrombocytopenia 3 (25%) 2 (20%) 0.78
Urine output at inclusion (mL/kg/h) 0.62 (0.40–1.17) 0.52 (0.27–1.33) 0.42
Serum creatinine at inclusion (µmol/L) 59 (48–133) 55 (43–67) 0.35
sFlt-1/PlGF 268 (152–2324) 399 (111–998) 0.12
Data are presented as median (range) or n (%). p-value calculated by Mann-Whitney U-test or chi-square test; body mass index (BMI); small for gestational age (SGA; = birthweight < 5th centile for gestational age using population-specific growth curves); liver enzymes levels of aspartate transaminase (AST) and/or alanine transaminase (ALT) elevated to twice the normal upper limit; thrombocytopenia platelet count <100,000/µL; soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1); placental growth factor (PlGF).
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Be Peaceful My Country, Be United My Nation, Be Prosperous My People. This is a phrase heard around Indonesia that Pondok Kasih lives by. Pondok Kasih means "House of Love" when translated to English. The organization has Christian convictions, and believes strongly that the power of love overpowers religious divides. It works closely with many other organizations of religious differences, including many Muslim organizations, as the majority of the Indonesian population practices Islam.
Dr. Hana Amalia Vandayani Ananda, the founder of the organization, started by ministering to a beggar who stood in front of her church one day. Feeling convicted by Ezekiel 33:6, Mama Hana befriended the woman and brought her into the church. The beggar's name was Ruth, and Mama Hana loaned her money for her to rent a home. Mama Hana's heart was transformed with a burning desire to help the poor.
Ever since the first house that was provided for Ruth, Pondok Kasih has provided homes for people rejected by society. In coming across people with various needs and desires, Mama Hana has created homes for the elderly, orphans, recovering drug addicts, prostitutes, and others who are considered unlovable by the rest of society.
In addition to providing physical homes, Pondok Kasih also provides spiritual homes for people to come worship and hear teaching from God's word. Recognizing a need to have a place where those who are even rejected by the church can come to worship, Mama Hana began a large weekly meeting, in a sports stadium known as Gelora. Each week, over 3000 slum residents come to Gelora and are encouraged through worship, teaching, and food distribution.
Throughout the years, Pondok Kasih has expanded to include orphanages, drug rehabilitation centers, training and education centers, medical clinics, convalescent homes, water filters for individual families in small villages, and countless other programs. Presently the ministry has worked with more than 150 slum communities of Surabaya, cities, and provinces of Indonesia.


The payments industry is evolving, and the biggest players in the social commerce section are not necessarily the most established names.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) recently started offering users the ability to transfer money to each other over their social media platform. Facebook is one of many companies joining in on the race for social commerce, although not all the players are seeing the same success.
In this clip from Industry Focus: Financials, Motley Fool analysts Dylan Lewis and Gaby Lapera talk about who's succeeding where in the payments space today.
This podcast was recorded on March 13, 2017.
Dylan Lewis: I think one of the reasons I thought this conversation was so interesting is, when you think about big tech companies coming into a space like payments, this is something we also see in driverless cars, getting into what we think of as manufacturing, which is typically something that tech would stay away from. You think about them coming and disrupting and possibly unseating the industry incumbents. From this talk, it sounded to me like there's just so much in the way for them to do that, and they have almost zero interest in doing it. And a lot of the tone that I got was, "We're looking more for cooperative efforts, and a little bit less for competitive efforts."
Gaby Lapera: Which makes a lot of sense. It's really interesting, because Visa (NYSE:V) especially is trying to break into this electronic-wallet space. And they're having some success, but not as much as, say, Apple Pay has had, or Venmo, or any of those already-online wallets. So there are payment processors that are better looking to team up with tech companies like Apple. Apple doesn't actually do any of the payment processing. They are teamed up with Visa and MasterCard (NYSE:MA) in order to do the payments.
Lewis: Which really makes sense for them as a company. This is a point Kahina raised in the conversation; we think about what goes into payment processing. You have risk, you have compliance, you have all of this regulatory stuff that you have to navigate. If you're a tech company and this is kind of far afield from your core competency, why would you want to take on all those pressures? Why wouldn't you just leave it to someone who knows what they're doing, have them handle things like authentication, managing fraud, charge-backs, all of that, and just enjoy enabling purchases that might not happen otherwise on top of their systems.
Lapera: Yeah. And that's something that I think, listeners, just in case you don't know, credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard, they're not actually responsible for holding on to your money or anything; they're just the middleman. They're the people who contact your bank and are like, "Do they have enough money? What's their credit limit?" And then they help do the transfer between the merchant and the bank. But they're not actually holding on to your money for you.
Lewis: Which is something that I don't think I knew. I don't know the financials space all that well, and frankly, there were elements of this where I was like, "Huh, I didn't know that." But one of my big takeaways was, wow, the moat that these legacy financial companies have is massive, because no one wants to go into building out that type of infrastructure.
Lapera: Yeah. You want to hear some numbers?
Lapera: In 2015, which is the latest that I have data on in front of me, Visa had 50% of the U.S. credit card market share by network purchase volume, which is a lot. MasterCard is trailing, around 25%. The debit card market share by network purchase volume, Visa has had a little dip, and now it's only at 70%. But it used to be at 80%. MasterCard is hovering around 30%. Market share based on number of credit cards in circulation at the end of 2015, Visa had 328 million credit cards in the U.S. circulating. MasterCard had 192 million. Which is crazy. The monthly purchase/spending volume at the end of 2015 on a Visa card is $341. For a MasterCard, it's $283. That's a lot of money, especially if you annualize that.
Lewis: Wow. One of the things I noticed with a lot of those numbers that you cited were that they were U.S.-focused. With some of these social platforms, as you might imagine, the most valuable markets are the U.S. market, the European market, so, the North American markets and the European markets. And then, some of the developing parts of the world are less valuable on a revenue-per-user basis. It sounds to me like that's the same thing for financials.
Lapera: Yeah, absolutely. Visa has actually just taken a big leg up on its competition by integrating Visa Europe, which, oddly enough, not part of Visa before this last quarter. They did that pretty flawlessly, when all things are considered. The metrics, the financial side of it, the accounting side of it, looks really good. And that's going to grow their business by 25% in one fell swoop. Isn't that crazy?


This seminal period of British history is a far-off world in which poverty, violence and superstition went hand-in-hand with opulence, religious virtue and a thriving cultural landscape, at once familiar and alien to the modern reader. John Matusiak sets out to shed new light on the lives and times of the Tudors by exploring the objects they left behind. Among them, a silvergilt board badge discarded at Bosworth Field when Henry VII won the English crown; a signet ring that may have belonged to Shakespeare; the infamous Halifax gibbet, on which some 100 people were executed; scientific advancements such as the prosthetic arm and the first flushing toilet; and curiosities including a ladies' sun mask, 'Prince Arthur's hutch' and the Danny jewel, which was believed to be made from the horn of a unicorn. The whole vivid panorama of Tudor life is laid bare in this thought-provoking and frequently myth-shattering narrative, which is firmly founded upon contemporary accounts and the most up-to-date results of modern scholarship.


text:
Our Giants Are Bigger
The guys on the right aren't regular-sized humans; the tiny speck on the bottom is.
Human beings, but super-sized, giants have been around since the times of ancient mythology. In various mythologies, gigantic peoples are featured as primeval creatures associated with chaos and the wild, and they are frequently in conflict with the gods, be they Olympian or Norse. These creatures may range in size from around 7 feet (the average size of the tallest Real Life humans), to truly colossal proportions.
The most common perception of the giant is the big, dumb brute who grinds people's bones to make his bread. But literal gentle giants are also featured in both legends and modern stories, who are somewhat friendlier (and sometimes smarter) than the stereotype would imply. The evil types may be antagonists in their own right or serve as Giant Mooks (pun intended) for an Evil Overlord.
In Real Life, the profusion of Giants in mythology is usually attributed to memories of childhood, when adults tower over you, and also the rivalry between young men and old men. Outside of mythology, when explorers have characterized the inhabitants of a newly-discovered land as "giants", it was usually because of a difference of only a few inches in height.
This is Older Than Feudalism. Not to be confused with The Giant, who may be a big wrestler, but isn't nearly that big. See also Smash Mook, Giant Mook, Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever.
Really huge giants, in any real-world context, would fall victim to the Square-Cube Law in short order, but the vast majority of such beings tend to exist in fantasy universes that cheerfully disregard such things as the laws of physics in favor of creating a good story.
Examples of Our Giants Are Bigger include:
2 Comic Books
4 Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends
5 Tabletop Games
5.1 Board Games
5.2 Card Games
5.3 Tabletop RPGs
7 Web Comics
8 Western Animation
9 Real Life
Mazinger Z: In New Mazinger (an one-shot alternate story published in The Eighties), an explosion transports Kouji Kabuto to an alternate dimension inhabited by giant beings. The human beings were sixty-foot-tall and just so big as Mazinger-Z (in fact, when Kouji saved one princess, she though Mazinger-Z was an armored knight, and she asked him removing his helmet to see his face). They were mostly good-natured and intelligent, although their technology was at a Middle Ages level, and they were in war against a race of monsters.
One Piece giants vary greatly in size, from Jaguar D. Saul being maybe thirty feet or so tall to the likes of Oars and his descendant Oars Jr., who are about three hundred feet tall. Apparently, there are entirely different types of giant and Saul considers it something of an insult to be considered one of the other kind. So far the ratio is 5 good giants to 1 evil giant, who also happened to be a zombie. And, apart from Oars, they do not seem particularly stupid or intelligent.
It should be noted that Oars was controlled by part of Luffy's soul while he was a villain, but he did die by going into the cold wearing only a loincloth.
Then there are plenty of characters who are not actually giants, but are still ridiculously huge compared to other humans for no apparent reason, such as Whitebeard, Gecko Moria, and Magellan. Word of God is that this is simply how height naturally varies among humans in the One Piece world; the same with how much the size of giants varies.
Now they've introduced San Juan Wolf, who is at least twice as tall, if not three times taller than Oars, kneeling down no less.
This size comparison should help to understand the size of the character , with other giants in the foreground (making the size diference to actualy be even bigger) , one of whom is circled in red.
It seems that he may very well be a very large fishman, judging from the similar looks of a Giant Tiger Pufferfish Fishman named Wadatsumi.
To simplify things, in the One Piece World, you have normal humans as we know them that are around the 5 foot to 6 foot height (Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and pretty much the average people seen around the world; this category is the most common ), big/tall humans around the 8 foot to 15 foot area (Brook, Akainu, Kizaru, Aokiji, Crocodile, Doflamingo, etc. ), really big humans around the 18 to 25 foot tall area (Gecko Moria, Kuma, Whitebeard, etc. ), Non-Elbaf giants around 50 feet or so tall (Jaguar D. Saul), Elbaf giants around 70 or so feet tall (Oimo and Kashii, as seen above) big demon-like giants that are several hundreds of feet tall (Oars, also seen above, and Little Oars Jr., his descendant), extremely big demon-like giants who may very well be thousands of feet tall (San Juan Wolf), and lastly fishmen/mermaids that are big due to their fish-race that vary between all categories (Shirahoshi is about as big as an Elbaf Giant whereas Wadatsumi is about as big as Oars).
In Bleach, Sajin Komamura's Bankai takes the form of an enormous samurai with a titanic sword for its weapon. It has an amazing appearance, but a critical weakness: it's designed to defeat the opponent in a single hit, and if such is not done, vulnerable to defeat - and any damage it takes is simultaneously inflicted on Komamura.
Shintaro Kago's Super-Conductive Brains Parataxis features a race of colossal humanoids cloned from fossils and known as Surdlers. To be used as Humongous Mecha for civilian and military purposes, they are extensively modified -- their organic brains are swapped out for computers, their faces and genitals replaced by cybernetic implants, and occasionally, additional limbs or extra torsos are grafted on to suit the tasks they are built for. It's later revealed that the clones are in fact ordinary humans and the advanced civilization enslaving them consists of Lilliputians produced by miniaturization technology.
Seeing on how it's based off Norse Mythology, The Mighty Thor usually finds himself squaring off Frost Giants (the "Jotuns") or any sub-races like Storm Giants or Mountain Giants. Intrestingly, in the older books, Giants looked like 25 feet Gonk-ish, brutish humans but nowadays are more like huge Orcs.
Hank Pym can utilize Pym particles to grow to giant size, at which point he takes the name Giant Man or Goliath. At first, he was only able to go up to ten feet, but he's managed to go bigger. Modern portrayals show his normal giant size being somewhere around 25 to 30 feet.
In Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight series (dulogy? bilogy?) we first meet the Angrborn in the first book, The Knight, as massive men taller than trees and very destructive. It isn't until the second book, The Wizard, that it is properly explained that these are only half-breeds, and the real Angrborn are far larger. They in turn are dwarfed by their ancestors, the Giants of Winter and Old Night, who still dwell in Skai.
Also has the Ogre Org, who isn't as big as the Angrborn, but is still massive. And invisible.
Harry Potter also features giants. Most of them are the typical nasty brutes, but a few (including the half-giant Hagrid, one of the major characters), are friendly.
While Hagrid is more civilized than full blooded giants, he has an over fascination with very violent and deadly magical creatures, and has a tendency to bring students too close to harm. For example, he sees no problem with keeping the giant spider, Aragog, despite the fact that it would love nothing more than to devour the occupants of the castle, and only spares Hagrid because he raised it.
Where would we be without The BFG? That is, the Big Friendly Giant of Roald Dahl fame. The other giants in the story were VERY nasty, however...
Most giants in The Chronicles of Narnia are fairly genial and usually on the side of the good guys, although there are some 'evil' wild giants who eat other sentient creatures.
The Gentle Giants featured in the fourth book eventually turn out to be less-than-gentle (though smarter than most of the other dim-witted giants).
Don't most humans, including those considered "good guys" eat other sentient creatures too?
No. It's established in the fourth book that Narnians consider it okay to eat wild, non-sentient animals, but eating an intelligent, talking animal is considered the Narnian equivalent of Eats Babies.
The most recent film version of the first book had giants on both sides, although they all disappeared once the two forces actually met.
The White Witch is actually half Giant and half Jinn.
The Hobbit briefly features giants throwing rocks around in the Misty Mountains. An odd case, since they aren't even mentioned in The Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion, and there's no explanation of what they are or where they came from. For all we know, Bilbo could have just made them up when he was writing the book, consid.
Very early in The Fellowship of the Ring in a bar scene in the Shire, a giant is mentioned as being spotted.
The giants in the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series are a friendly and advanced species. They have an affinity for stone and are excellent sailors. They cannot be burned, but they still feel the pain of intense heat. They are generally a very sedate and even-tempered people, but can sometimes be provoked into a state of Unstoppable Rage.
In Clive Barker's "Books of Blood," the story "In the Hills, The Cities" deals with a traditional battle between two unorthodox giants which are beings composed of thousands of human beings from the rival cities of Popolac and Podujevo, all citizens working together to form a single, massive being which then fights the "giant" of the other city. Unfortunately, one year the harvest for Podujevo is less than anticipated, and as a result one flank of the giant is weakened and the city-giant collapses, killing all constituent participants and causing the city-giant of Popolac to go collectively insane with grief.
The Brobdingnagians in Gulliver's Travels are as tall as church steeples and have a moral superiority in proportion to their physical size. When Gulliver describes European society, the Brobdingnagian king is disgusted. In contrast, the Lilliputians see Gulliver as a giant, and their own society is a parody of the worst aspects of European society.
There's a friendly giant in one of Mercedes Lackey's Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms.
The giants of the Xanth series vary in size (but are always colossal). Some of them are invisible; they became that way by becoming so big that they became too diffuse to see, like a balloon inflated to the point of transparency.
In George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, giants are a species of shaggy, ape-like people in the frigid north of Westeros. They stand around fourteen feet tall, wield crude clubs in battle, and ride woolly mammoths. A dwindling species, giants are little more than a legend to the majority of the continent. Wildlings believe that particularly large humans have some giant blood.
Mirror Mask's giants look like bizarre statues, and they levitate above the ground, orbiting each other. They also SPEAK... VERY... SLOWLY. When one of them is pulled to Earth by shadows, it melts into the ground, and the other floats away.
The Grass Giants from Ringworld, a very large, herbivorous race of hominids. Presumably not the only giant hominids on the Ringworld.
A member of a prehistoric race of giants, as yet undiscovered by paleontologists, appears in the Riverworld series.
Stan Lee's Riftworld series has a race of giants from Another Dimension—they're basically scaled-up humans supported by telekinesis, genetically engineered by an alien AI. And nearly every one a Jerkass.
The Food of the Gods by H. G. Wells is about the discovery of a food supplement which, when ingested by newborn creatures (including humans), causes them to grow very large.
In The Challenges of Zona giants are actually mutant humans who both grow at an accelrated rate and never stop growing their entire lives. The two met so far are also Gentle Giants.
In Robert E. Howard's "The Frost Giants Daughter," the title character is the sister of a band of giants who kill and eat anyone she lures to them. They (and she) meet their match when she tries to do this with Conan the Barbarian.
In "The Pool of the Black One", Conan encounters giants, only a little taller than human, but murderous.
In Magnus, the giant Tsavo is described "the last progeny of the second preternatural race of supermen spawned by fallen angels."
In BrokedownPalace, one of the four royal brothers is a human giant. It's mentioned that the family produces them every few generations, suggesting a genetic proclivity towards gigantism.
Gargantua and Pentagruel By Rabelais has giant protagonists.
In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero Regained, they are nephilim, the offspring of angels and men.
Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends
Older Than Feudalism: Classical Mythology features various giants:
The Gitantes notably had a major conflict against the Olympian gods. The Greeks believed that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions were caused by these giants being buried beneath the earth. One fact about these Giants that aren't widely known was that they were born wearing armor and holding a spear and that they had snakes for legs. Not as much as Typhon's snake legs, though.
Typhon himself is a giant so tall that his hands could almost touch the stars. He also had one or more snake tails for legs, and hundred dragon and animal heads. He belches fire and/or lava.
The Hekatonkheires are as huge as giants, and each has a hundred arms and fifty heads. They're apparently immortal, like the gods.
Cyclopes are giants originating in Greek myth. There were two versions: the immortal smith assistants of Hephaistos; and the brutish, sheep-herding, man-eating fellows such as Polyphemos.
One Greek myth features a set of six-armed giants marauding around the south coast of the Black Sea.
In late antiquity, writers started getting the Titans (originally a group of gods) confused with the Gigantes, adding yet another bunch to the giant menagerie.
Giants in Norse Mythology:
Similar to the Greek giants, the Jotun were perennial foes of the gods of Asgard, particularly the frost giants.
The frost giant Ymir was so large that his corpse was used as the construction materials for the whole bleepin' universe. When he was killed, his blood drowned all the other giants, except for two that were on a boat.
There's also Surtr and the rest of the fire giants, who play a major role at Ragnarok.
The Bible and biblical lore:
The half-angel Nephilim were described as giants.
A similar example of a giant-as-antagonist: Goliath. Some versions of the story have him as a descendant of the earlier race. Earlier texts have him only six and a half feet tall, not the "usual" nine and a half.
Some more examples would be the people who lived in the Promised Land, but since we only have the word of some very scared scouts, this may be a bit of exaggeration.
Jack and the Beanstalk is a classic tale featuring a giant as the main antagonist.
There's also Jack In Irons, a creature of folklore that makes an appearance as an enemy in City of Heroes.
Another Jack, Jack the Giant Killer who seems to have met a truly amazing number of giants throughout the British Isles. Some had multiple heads.
Warhammer Fantasy Battle giants are the barbaric remnants of a once-great civilization decimated devoured by the Ogres.
The Storm Of Magic supplement of Warhammer introduces Bonebreaker Giant, which is almost thrice as tall as a normal giant, which itself is already 5-6 times taller than an average human.
Known to exist in Warhammer 40,000 as well, where they're generally labeled Big Mutants or big ogryn, depending on whether they're Lost And The Damned or not.
Giants are ubiquitous in Magic: The Gathering. In the main setting of Dominaria, they're just generically big, tough bruisers, though other settings go into their culture a bit more.
In the Ravnica setting, giants are mostly soldiers for the Boros Legion, though some outcasts find a life as grunts in the Gruul Clans.
Giants in the fairy-tale world of Lorwyn are ancient and mystical, yet still can be clumsy and whimsically dim-witted. Giants sleep for years or decades at a time, dreaming deep dreams, and when they awake they take on new names and purposes in life based on what they dream. Some ride absurdly large goats with wings.
In Lorwyn's Bizarro Universe, Shadowmoor, giants sleep even longer, to the extent that trees and turf start to grow on their bodies and they become part of the landscape They're pretty cranky when they wake up, rampaging throughout the countryside and smashing and devouring everything and everyone they come across.
Dungeons & Dragons has a wide variety of giants, including the stereotypically brutish Hill Giants, shy and reclusive Stone Giants, the Norse-inspired Fire Giants (who look like gigantic evil dwarves), and the Norse-inspired Frost Giants. Storm Giants lean more toward the Gentle Giant side of the archetype, plus they have innate magic.
The 4th edition of the game even references the Rage Against the Heavens subtrope by having giants as the servants of the Primordials, ancient foes of the gods in a very Norse Mythology-esque parallel. It also follows along nicely with Greek/Roman Mythology: First the Gods(Olympians) overthrow the Primordials(Titans), then the Primordials try to use the Giants(Gigantes) to retake the throne, but fail. This was taken from the vague backstory of Forgotten Realms giants.
It's also a pretty common trope in mythology, particularly Indo-European mythology. Supposedly, its linked to a cultural memory of the conquest or displacement of palaeolithic peoples by neolithic ones, represented by the civilised gods overthrowing an earlier, primordial race more heavily associated with the elements. The exact "alignment" of the primordials differs from culture to culture, and some, such as the Norse, include primordials ranging from the Lawful Good Vanir, a tribe of nature gods, to the Chaotic Evil fire-giants.
Giants are different in Monte Cooke's Arcana Unearthed Dungeons & Dragons setting - they begin only slightly larger than humans and gain in size and power as they gain names. They're intelligent and highly magical, and they rule the world after saving it from the dragons.
Space fantasy setting Spelljammer had the colossus, a giant roughly the size and shape of a small mountain that could navigate through space by jumping off the planet. (His speed was very low, though, unless he got engines installed somehow.)
In the Eberron campaign setting, ancient giants formed a number of highly advanced civilisations across the continent of Xen'Drik. After a series of major cataclysms the empires lie in ruins. Most giants have regressed to a more primitive state, with some powerful exceptions.
3.5's Races of Stone and 4th Edition include the Goliath as a player race. They grow up to nearly 8 feet, which isn't large for a giant, but still the largest of any player race.
Although roughly on par with half-giants, which are half hill giants. Before you ask, yes, A Wizard Did It (or maybe a sorcerer). What's more, despite their hill giant parentage, not only are they mentally on par to normal humans, they are arguably superior by virtue of their inherent psionic abilities.
Giants in The Palladium Fantasy RPG come in most of the same flavors as D&D, and also include the noble Titans and the mutant Gigantes. These species also made their way to Rifts in various ways. A Titan runs what's left of Houston, Texas, and a mercenary Jotan (equivalent to a D&D Hill Giant) wears a suit of Power Armor that makes him look like a mech. The game's version of the Jotuns of Norse mythology are a combination of all these.
Shadow of the Colossus, the eponymous colossi, natch.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II figures the only way to top the rancor from Return of the Jedi is to throw in a several hundred foot tall monster that is capable of crushing a rancor in it's hand. And it still manages to get beaten!
Warcraft games feature many different types of giants. Most were created by the Titans to help shape the world. The most common types are Sea Giants (aquatic giants that look like big scale-covered humanoids) and Mountain Giants (big roughly humanoid things made of rock). Other types include Ice Giants and Molten Giants (recolors of the Mountain Giant model), Flesh Giants (really big homunculi created by the Scourge), Crystal Giants of Outland (basically stone giants with a fancier model) and Storm Giants (appearing in the next expansion. Not much info on them yet, but they seem to be more intelligent than the other ones)
Giants in this series are apparently something along the lines of guardians created by the titans, not unlike the dragons. However, they tend to be more territorial and aggressive. Their second main duty is that they are the titans' craftsmen IE. the sea giant sculpted the sea floor and mountain giants... made mountains and stuff. They're almost all hostile, however, though there is a friendly sea giant god in Azshara and a faction of frost giants in Storm Peaks.
The viking-like Vrykul probably count too. While they're much smaller than the actual giants, they're still well over twice the height of humans, and even the few Vrykul who aren't serving the Lich King are every bit as aggressive as giants tend to be portrayed.
Should also be noted here that Vrykul are hinted to be an offshoot of giants, and humans are basically outright stated to be corrupted Vrykul... so, in WoW, humans are small giants.
The Ogres could also count, although they are completely unrelated to the Titans, having originally come from the world of Draenor (the Orc homeworld). They are normally dumb, whether they have one head or two, unless they learn magic, at which point they get really smart.
Castlevania has one as a Bait and Switch Boss. AND HE'S AWESOME.
The protagonist of Doshin the Giant is an incarnation of the sun who appears every day at dawn, and grows larger by absorbing the love and hate of humans. The love giant, Doshin, wants to help humans, while the hate giant, Jashin, wants to kill them and make them suffer. He starts off 10m tall, and can reach a maximum height of 301m.
Giants in The Elder Scrolls are usually a metaphor used for gods. Some human cultures believe they descend from giants, in contrast to the elves who outright (and arrogantly) state they descend from the gods, though they both actually believe the same thing.
However, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim contain more traditional giants. And in Skyrim they can launch people into space with a single hit.
The Gigas in Final Fantasy XI hail from the frozen far northern continent in the world of Vana'diel. They were employed as mercenaries by the Shadow Lord, but after the Crystal War, all the Gigas in the Middle Lands were trapped, unable to come home. They now reside almost entirely in Qufim Island and Delkfutt's Tower, although some of them are in Tavnazia or the Grim Up North areas in or around Xarcabard.
Or stuck in Korroloka Tunnel.
Giants in Tales of MU are a mixture of the Dungeons & Dragons version and various mythological influences, as most MU races are. They're apparently primordial beings who warred with the forces of chaos, the gods, and the dragons in some combination before leaving the world for another plane, possibly by climbing a stalk or a trunk. Only one of them has been seen in the main story, a badly undersized storm giant named Pala (Icelandic for "small") who "commutes" to Magisterius University.
Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge and VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant feature giants, usually in the transition between the early and middle game. Most are of the big bruiser type, but are also resistant to magic. The Elite Mooks and Superpowered Mooks versions add extra abilities, such as vomiting on the player.
Age of Wonders features universally good-aligned giants who are close allies of the dwarves (and speculated to be related to the dwarves). Even larger and more powerful entities called Titans fight for the High Men, being creatures of intense discipline and righteousness.
The Qunari of Dragon Age are sometimes called giants by non-Qunari, and not without good reason: they tower over the other races, common specimens being at least seven feet high. Qunari are also born with horns, though some of them have them shorn (the Saarebas Ketojan, for example), and a rare few are born entirely without them (the Sten from the first game). Also unusually for giants in fantasy games, the Qunari have a very ordered society that dictates and cements an individual's place in society based on their talents, a strong urge to spread this philosphy to the rest of the world, a spectacular grasp of gunpowder weaponry in an otherwise Medieval setting, and a caste of mages known as Saarebas who are kept collared and supervised at all times to prevent any form of corruption. (word of god succinctly described them as "militant islamic borg".
Meanwhile, the Darkspawn borne from Qunari women-turned-Broodmothers, the Ogres, are the biggest and nastiest breed of darkspawn, outgrowing true Qunari by several metres. Fortunately, there aren't any Ogre Emissaries.
In Dante's Inferno the Ninth Circle is surrounded by a wall of giants imbedded up to their waists and wrapped in chains.
Mabinogi giants are about 9–10 feet tall and are a player race. They are at war with the desert elves.
The prequel, Vindictus, has a currently-unreleased giant character named Karok. He wields a battle pillar, and can use grapple attacks on bosses.
In Disciples and its sequels, the giants are related to the dwarves, as both as children of Wotan, and often fight by their side. Vithar is a giant who protects the dwarven capital from their enemies and is Wotan's right-hand man. The titans are just as big but fight for The Empire (i.e. humans). They also appear to be all female. Additionally, there are wild giants who have no allegiance to any power. They aren't too bright, but anything using a tree trunk as a club can't be useless.
In Dungeon Siege 2, there exist Agallan Giants, a race of Ultimate Blacksmiths who live in seclusion in the mountains and are easily 50 foot tall, and a good deal wide as well. Descended from them are Half-Giants, who are more sensibly sized but still tower over any human. They are the offspring of a group of banished and cursed Agallans who lost their enormous proportions and limitless lifespan. Because the banished group had no female members, they were forced to interbreed with other species, and the result was a One-Gender Race of Half-Giants whose gene pool is doomed to be diluted into nothingness.
In the second "The Battle for Middle Earth" game, Mountain Giants are a unit for the "Corrupted Wild"/Goblin side. They are even bigger then Trolls, and due to their attacks of throwing boulders seem to be the same type of Giants listed at the top.
Giants in Dark Souls are armored behemoths that the gods conscripted into manual labor. While the three in Sen's Fortress don't speak and are hostile to the player, the Giant Blacksmith is a Gentle Giant that is always happy to see the player.
Erfworld has the Titans, the beings who created Erfworld. They can only be described as omnipotent mile-high Elvis impersonators.
In addition are somewhat more traditional giants, being about 10 or so feet tall, the Western Giants are styled after baseball players... complete with a reference to steroid use.
Parson himself probably counts. He's not as big as the really big units but all the normal sized humans of Erfworld are the size of children compared to him, and he seems to be classified as a "heavy" unit by the game-mechanics/physics of Erfworld. Stanley, his diminutive superior, barely even comes up to Parson's kneecap.
In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, Molly's second clone, Jolly, is very, very large.
In The Challenges of Zona giants are human mutants who grow at an accelerated rate and never stop doing so although their growth rate slows when they become adults. This is a more detailed accounting [dead link]
Western Animation
A gigantic pirate appears in the animated Puff the Magic Dragon, evidently in direct response to Jackie Draper a.k.a. Paper's fear of pirates.
He's actually a giant cook.
Persons with gigantism, a pituitary-related health condition leading to extreme height, were commonly featured in old-time sideshows. Promoters of such entertainments often boasted of (and shamelessly exaggerated) the extraordinary tallness of their performers. (To medically qualify as a giant, one must be 7 feet and up.) [1]
18th and 19th century anatomists often collected unusual human skeletons, and those of human giants—the taller, the better—were among the most sought-after. Charles Byrne, an 8'2" Irishman who died in 1783, was so afraid of being skeletonized that he asked for his lead coffin to be sunken in the Thames. It was, but it was empty: Byrnes' body had already been stolen.
Gigantopithecus, an extinct primate that our prehuman relations Homo erectus may very well have encountered. From The Other Wiki: "Based on the fossil evidence, it is believed that adult male Gigantopithecus blacki stood about 3 m (9.8 ft) tall and weighed as much as 540 kg (1,200 lb)". Zoinks. (Note that while Gigantopithecus has at times been portrayed as a hominid, it was in fact more like a giant orangutan.)
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/w/index.php?title=Our_Giants_Are_Bigger&oldid=1860891"
Pages with Broken Links
Index of Fictional Creatures
Our Monsters Are Different
Our Tropes Are Different
Speculative Fiction Tropes

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Reliance Steel & Aluminum 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
POSCO 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
Nucor 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
Commercial Metals 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
ArcelorMittal SA 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
AK Steel 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
Carpenter Technology 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
Allegheny Technologies 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
Vale SA 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
US Silica 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
Teck Resources 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
Smart Sand 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
Rio Tinto 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
Hi-Crush Partners 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry
Compass Minerals International 2022 Operating and Financial Review--SWOT Analysis, Technological Know-How, M&A, Senior Management, Goals and Strategies in the Global Mining and Metals Industry


TORONTO - The Brockton Rockets edged the Gas Station Islanders, the Hack tied the Humiliation and the Dufferin Groove enjoyed their last laugh of the season by beating the Jokers 7-2 in what amounted to a very successful night of hockey for UUHA exhibition squads. Both the Groove and Rockets garnered additional half points for penalty-free games, as well.
Despite having just six regular roster players on hand for the game, the Dufferin Groove finished off their 12-game UUHA exhibition series with a 7-2 win over the second-place Jokers. Spare forward Paul Morris (on loan from the Humiliation) helped out with two goals and a pair of assists, while Groove regulars Dylan Juckes and Ted Neale potted a couple of goals each. Chris Dinsdale scored the other Groove goal and Jeremy Whitten and spare Chuck Molgat collected assists, as well. Steve Levine and Steve Chamberlain were the two Jokers goal scorers while Levine and Hunter Collins were credited with assist.
Eric Partington combined with Paul Aucoin and Mark Sanagan to get the Humiliation on the board first in their 8:00 pm contest with the Hack H.C. Paul Morris then made it 2-0 early in the 2nd period, making good on a Partington feed to solve goaltender Aaron Brophy. Hack forward Aaron Foster responded shortly thereafter, though, finishing off a play from Chris Barkley and Tim Bolen to draw his side within one. Then, with just 40 seconds remaining in the period, it was Barkley's turn to bulge the twine behind Humiliation 'tender Ian McKellar (Foster returned the favour on that goal, with Luis Durand collecting the other assist.) The 3rd period solved nothing as the two rival squads shook hands and skated away a point each.
And in the night's final game, the Brockton Rockets enjoyed their first win since Nov. 3, 2012, skating to a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the Gas Station Islanders. Iles sniper Dominic Chartier put his side up early, skating in a pass from George Collins to solve goaltender Karanvir Singh (playing his second game for the Rockets). But the next two tallies would come from Brockton blades, specifically those of Oliver Sutherns and spare Eric Toth (on loan from the Wheatfield Souldiers), both of whom would score dramatic 2nd-period goals. Part way through the 3rd period, GSI's Nick Purdon would get some help from a prone (and some would say pinned) Singh, as he took advantage of an open net to knot proceedings at 2-2. But with just 1:39 remaining in the game, Kiryl Nikifarau would scoop up a feed from Joseph Desjardains and bulge the twine behind GSI spare tender Laine Dunlop, setting the stage for a minute-and-a-half of six-on-five hockey as GSI attempted to tie things up with an extra attacker. Brockton's defences would hold firm, though, as the team capped off what was likely it's most consistently solid three periods of hockey this season.
UUHA Regular Season action continues this coming Saturday, Feb. 9 with the Porcupines taking on the Humiliation at 7:00 pm, followed by the Lads' and Jokers' final meeting of the season. The 9:00 pm game will feature the Wheatfield Souldiers going up against the Brockton Rockets in what will be the latter squad's season finale. All games take place at Upper Canada College.


(GREEN BAY) - In the first game in Green Bay to draw more than 50,000 fans, the winless Chicago Bears may have found what the Green Bay Packers have been looking for since the start of their season - a running game that goes. The Packers, 23-14 victors over the Bears followed their opportunistic defense to victory for the third straight week. But their ground game, which netted only 78 yards, was plainly in need for nourishment. So was the Bears before rookie Gale Sayers and second-year man Andy Livingston, teamed to give Chicago a second-half boost. The efforts of Sayers and Livingston came too late for the Bears to overcome a 20-0 halftime deficit, but they did take some of the sting out of the defeat. Sayers scored twice, one on a 65-yard pass play, while picking up 80 yards in 17 carries. Livingston, who signed as a free agent after attending Phoenix Junior College, gained 70 yards in 10 carries. The success of the two young runners opened up the airwaves for Rudy Bukich, who took over at quarterback in George Halas' revamped second-half backfield. Bukich proceeded to complete 13 of 20 passes for 195 yards as the Bears, outgained 186 to 104 in the first half, rolled up 309 yards in the second half to take total offense honors, 413 to 299. Only a Green Bay defense that was stingy inside its own 10 and a rules infraction that nullified a Bukich to Johnny Morris touchdown pass kept the Bears from an upset. Bart Starr picked up a bit of the slack with his passing as he completed 11 of 20 throws for 263 yards.


Museum Collection- This piece had been specially processed to look very old and valuable, as if lifted from a museum. Each piece in this collection is different and beautifully unique. The chips and cracks add to its antique and rugged beauty.
Finial Sculpture Mango Wood Natural does not have any reviews yet. Share your experiences and post a review.


It's been a while my friends but fear not, Craig and Shane are here to talk through the meatiest morsels of MMA news.
This week, Bellator gets a good pasting, Shane reviews fights with a roaring hangover, Dana White hypocrisy and is Kamaru Usman ready for a title shot?
All this and a stunning revelation that Shane doesn't like to play online games.


Curio Collection by Hilton was planning the launch of a new platform, 'Discover What's Inside,' through digital, social media and PR and needed an integrated, sustainable and memorable activation to support the launch. We set out to determine what would truly put Curio Collection on the map as an exciting new brand to increase awareness and consideration.
We first set out to determine what makes people curious and found scientists had identified a curiosity gene, DRD4-7R. With that info we created a social experiment by genetically testing social media influencers for this gene. Each influencer visited one Curio Collection property for an ethnographic study where we filmed and followed their travels as they shared their journey online. The study led to the discovery of five unique curiosity types, and as part of the launch we created a landing page and quiz for the public to determine their curiosity type and find Curio Collection hotel recommendations that best suit their curiosity.
It was the world's first market segmentation based on genetic testing and the campaign is far outperforming benchmarks and other brands within the Hilton portfolio. In just 30 days of the launch, Curio Collection by Hilton saw a 160% growth in Instagram followers, a 320% increase in Instagram engagement, and earned over 3 million video views. It drove more than 100,000 people to the landing page and inspired nearly 65,000 people to take the quiz to discover their own curiosity type.


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Q: How to create multiple websites using Webmin Recently installed ubuntu server+lamp+webmin+proftpd. Set static ip. Now wanna publish multiple webistes form seperate pots on local network. Let's say my servers ip is 192.168.2.200 so site 1 will work with url 192.168.2.200:80 second 192.168.2.200:81 ... How can i configure it? Thx in advance

A: That's not generally how you do multiple sites on the same host. It would normally be done using Name-based virtual hosting. There is support for this in webmin.

A: I would suggest installing Virtualmin, its a hosting control panel based on and written by the same people as Webmin.
They have got a script which will install everything from scratch and then give you a nice control panel to manage everything.  You can download it at http://www.virtualmin.com/download
The install script it at
http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/install.sh

A: You need to implement a Name-based virtual hosting like what @lain said. I would suggest you follow this link. Although it does not show you how to set multiple websites using webmin, doing it via CLI is better.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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How Content Farms Train Their Writers to Write for the Web
by Craig Silverman
Examiner University offers 25 online courses for its writers
The large value for us is continuing to enhance that quality and have offerings for different levels of skill sets." - Justin Jimenez
Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.
At the core of every content farm's success is an ability to rapidly recruit and integrate new writers. Publishers like Demand Media, Examiner.com, Suite 101 and others are always hiring, always looking to expand their ranks and replace talent that churns out.
These operations rely on abundance: of contributors, of content, of traffic. More contributors means more content, which means more traffic — but the constant influx of new people means their product could vary widely in terms of the quality of writing, and the ability of the writers to promote their work and drive traffic, among other key factors.
Click image to read more in this series
Examiner.com has proven adept at bringing new writers into the fold. The site, which is in 250 cities in Canada and the U.S., has over 42,000 "Examiners" — what the site calls its writers — and is adding over 3,500 new ones each month. (Read our post from earlier this week to get an overview of what Examiner.com does.)
That's a huge amount of people to integrate, especially considering the fact that Examiners range from experienced writers to relative newbies who may have an area of interest but no writing experience. In other cases, an experienced writer may have little or no knowledge about search engine optimization and the best ways to promote their work online. Examiner.com deals with this by offering a variety of training and support resources to get people producing quickly, and within a set of guidelines.
Forums, Guides, Feedback
Sites such as Associated Content and Demand offer discussion forums where writers can exchange information and search for previously answered questions. They also provide access to editors or support staff. For its copy editors, Demand offers "forums, blogs, newsletters and other channels for you to communicate with and learn from your fellow editors." These editors, in turn, help ensure that all written materials adhere to the very specific guidelines established for each Demand property or client.
Suite101 offers a range of resources, including text-based tutorials, one-on-one coaching, and discussion forums. "We have created concise tutorials to help writers better understand how to implement white hat SEO strategies and to better understand the overall process of web writing," said Lima Al-Azzeh, the site's associate editor.
Examiner.com offers support services and discussion forms, but it has also been aggressive, and unique, in creating online, self-directed interactive tutorials. The site has created Examiner University, a standalone section of its site that offers Flash-based classes and other forms of training content that help get Examiners up to speed.
Inside Examiner U
Jason Stone joined Examiner.com six months after the site's April 2008 launch. Initially hired to be a channel manager overseeing writers in a specific topic area, he soon found himself spending time helping his Examiners understand search engine optimization, video embedding, social media and other necessary skills and tools.
"I would write emails to Examiners and it eventually occurred to me that I was spending a lot of time addressing the same issues over and over," Stone said. "I thought that there had to be a more efficient way to do this. So I started making documents and videos and distributing them to Examiners."
His training materials caught on and he was soon asked to take on this work as a full-time job. The result is Examiner University. Part of the core curriculum of Examiner University are its "101"-level courses that offer instruction in four key areas.
"Early on we decided there would be four pillars of types of courses which will be reflected in 101 courses: editorial; marketing to a growing audience; technical skills, because publishing online means putting tools in the writers' hands; and then information that is specific to Examiner.com, such as how our referral program works," Stone said. "If any one of those — especially the first three — fail then it's an overall failure."
There are currently 25 courses offered on the site, and the company expects to launch more after a new version of the Exmainer.com website goes live soon. (Examiner University is also home to a video guide to the new website.) The core courses are delivered using a combination of audio, video and text. Other course topics include "grammar considerations," "plagiarism," "finding photos online," "proofreading," "writing locally," and "SEO considerations," to name just a few. The "finding photos" and "writing locally" courses are among the most popular.
Examiner U's 'writing locally' course
"Obviously, we have varying degrees of skill sets coming in the door," says Justin Jimenez, Examiner.com's director of marketing and PR. "A seasoned journalist might come in and skip over the editorial section but could be very interested in the marketing and social media component. The large value for us is continuing to enhance that quality and have offerings for different levels of skill sets."
Overall, executives at Examiner.com feel the courses are working, even though the company isn't permitted to require its writers to attend Examiner U. (Examiners are independent contractors and not employees, so the company can't make Examiner University a requirement.)
"Measuring success is kind of difficult in that it's not easy to quantify the effect that the courses are having," Stone said. "We look at the metrics and we now average about 4,000 course launches per week, and that number keeps going up."
Stone added that the average Examiner spends roughly seven or eight minutes per course. Though many courses are longer than that, each lesson includes a table of contents that enables people to skip to the parts they find most useful.
Feedback From Examiners
I spoke with a few current Examiners to see what they had to say about both Examiner University and their fellow Examiners. Here's a selection of their responses:
Sharon K. West, current Haunted Places Examiner and American History Examiner and a former writer for Suite101.com and Associated Content:
I've gone completely through the Examiner University, twice. I wanted to make sure that I understood their policies and how to upload articles and pictures.
I was also searching for information on current styles. During the time that I wrote for Suite101.com, the new style of Internet writing started coming into play. Things like SEO, keywords, and putting the most important points at the beginning of the article, rather than the old style of gradually working up to the mighty conclusion at the end. In some cases, in the old way, you told people what you wanted to tell them and then told them at the end what you already told them. Everything has changed for the Internet.
I made it a point to go through Examiner University before I did anything else, and in the process, it finally clicked in my head how to write in chunks, start out with the important things, and get those keywords in lots of times, as well as using headings and lists inside the article.
Brad Sylvester, current Manchester Bird Watching Examiner, Maritime Headlines Examiner, and Manchester Green Living Examiner; a corporate writer and a former writer for Associated Content:
Generally, when I ran into problems I'd go to their site and see the tutorial. As far as the 101s, I did go through all of those maybe two months in to see if there was a better way of doing things.
The most helpful were the ones that walked me through their publishing tool and told you what to expect and how it works. Also, there is a community where you can talk with other Examiners and I found that to be helpful as well. People would share best practices.
There are two camps [of Examiners]. There are some that are very experienced and some that have no experience — and almost nobody in between.
Angele Sionna, current Early Childhood Parenting Examiner and Western U.S. Travel Examiner; contributor to eHow; former television news producer and a professional journalist for more than 15 years:
Initially, there was a feeling of a "workplace" and you got to "know" co-workers, most of whom were other professional journalists who write for a bunch of media…like myself. They used Examiner.com to write about their passions, whereas at some other jobs they'd write on other topics. I'm much the same way. Many of those journalists are still with Examiner like I am… but unfortunately there are also people with Examiner who really don't know how to write or even what to write about. They've tried to crack down on people who would report things just from other sites just to get page views. I was glad to see that, but some of those folks with no original content are still around and that part is frustrating to me…Though I have seen articles from people that do not have a journalistic background that are very well done, well researched and enjoyable to read. So it is really a mixed bag.
You know, I haven't checked what their current class offerings are lately, as previously I felt there wasn't anything of real benefit for me at the Examiner University. That's fine with me though. It is good they have tools for people who may be experienced writers or experts that need more help figuring out the ways of the web. Not everyone feels comfortable with the web or knows how it works.
To read more stories in the Beyond Content Farms series go here.
Craig Silverman is an award-winning journalist and author, and the managing editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He is founder and editor of Regret the Error, the author of Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech, and a weekly columnist for Columbia Journalism Review. He also serves as digital journalism director of OpenFile, a new collaborative news site for Canada. Follow him on Twitter at @CraigSilverman.
Tagged: associated content beyond content farms demand media examiner university examiner.com suite101 training
Michael Berenis
I've been writing for Examiner since Feb of 2009, and I'm at the top consistently with almost 900 articles all featuring videos of my topic, "sports cars". Examiner has opened more doors for me than I ever could have imagined. I'm working with top names in the motorsport industry, making good money, and doing what I love. I've got a wall full of autographs from my favorite drivers, artists, builders, and more thanks to Examiner. Examiner is a blessing people, not a curse. I'm sure you've read some of the "bad" stuff out there about this site– but let me be one that stands out from the crowd and says Examiner rocks! I couldn't have done it w/o them. If you put in hard work, it pays. Just be creative, and write from YOUR community so you never run out of steam. Examiner FTW!
Im a newbie at Examiner and Associated Content since March 2010. Examiner has a real, "we care about you" kind of attitude which is great! Where as Associated has alot of old style writers who has no room for the new writers coming in. Their Forums and threads are mainly flagging new people and their questions and comments. I can see Examiner has a real future ahead for them!
I write for all of the sites mentioned above, Suite101, Examiner and Associated Content. Frankly, I do not think of Suite101 as a "content farm". Suite101 is particular about the writers it allows to write on the site. The editors are always reviewing content to make sure it is up to the site's standards. At Examiner, I am sorry to say that they are not as particular and that gives it a bad name. However, there are many excellent, seasoned writers on Examiner who cancel out the bad ones. All of these sites offer people the chance to do something they love to do – write – and earn money doing it. Is that so bad? In the old days, only a few select people were able to break into the magazines and periodicals and see their work in print. Now, everyone has a fair chance. Like it or not, I think these sites are good places to be seen, heard and earn some extra money.
Dana Chandler
I am an Economics researcher and am really fascinated by how writing is becoming such an important task in online labor markets.
I am beginning to conduct some experiments in how to crowdsource writing tasks. If anyone would like to share their experience with online writing or ideas for what would be interesting experiments, I would be glad to hear from you.
I am especially interested in what are the best ways to setup and structure tasks so that people can write most easily and whether collaboratively written writing is better than individually written writing.
I write for Examiner and Associated content. Since my main focus is writing informational and how to guides for people who enjoy crafts, the sites provide me the opportunity to share my knowledge. I think Examiner provides useful tools and information for those of us who need tune-up our writing skills and who can benefit from the tutorials available for writers.
I have to agree that these site do allow people to do something they love – write and share their knowledge with others.
Cheryl Phillips
I write 11 topics on Examiner.com and started in May 2009. I make well into the thousands of dollars each month, my highest so far is $9400 and I never have a "bad" month….consistency, knowing SEO and being aggressive pays off for me….and I'm sure for many others.
The biggest factor in doing well is definitely consistency. I never miss a day writing. It's paid off.
student aid
I'm working with top names in the motorsport industry, making good money, and doing what I love. I've got a wall full of autographs from my favorite drivers, artists, builders, and more thanks to Examiner. Examiner is a blessing people, not a curse.
Jay at Niche Volumes
After taking in all that training, I figure content writers should start their own blogs.
In my opinion, I think they would make way more writing for themselves and building their own web properties than being part of a crowd source building someone elses.
This is just my opinion based on what I've seen writing for Hubpages and writing for my own sites.
D Bnonn Tennant, Ace Web Copywriter
I absolutely agree with Jay. If you have the expertise to produce good articles for a content farm…why would you? It's like taking a job in a cubicle at $2 an hour, doing skilled work, instead of starting your own business and freelancing at $200 an hour.
About EducationShift
EducationShift aims to move journalism education forward with coverage of innovation in the classroom as journalism and communications schools around the globe are coping with massive technological change. The project includes a website, bi-weekly Twitter chats at #EdShift, mixers and workshops, and webinars for educators.
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Read this out of the newspaper.
Mark your calender for Sunday, April 13, 2036. That's when a 1,000 foot-wide asteroid named Apaphis could hit Earth with enough force to obliterate a small state.
A direct hit on urban area could unleash more destruction than Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake COMBINED!
This makes me feel so sad for what and who it hits . Although this may be a long time and some of you might be dead, lets pray for those who are alive at this time and let them have a safe one. God bless the Earth and everyone on it.
Are you sure, because scientists always research on that and never say things like we are going to die, i don´t think a newspaper will alarm population like that. 2036 you say, well it is a long way to 2036. If this is truth and this meteor will crash enjoy the rest of life.
Well it says that it's a chance of 1-6,250 of getting hit but they said it was to big to ignore.
i'll be back in like, six hours (school).
Don't worry. Bruce Willis will save us.
Well,I say this all.I'm happy to live on earth,and I f we're gonna die,we can't do anything against it.I remember magazines saying things like"scientists agree,recent earthquakes prove that armaggedon is here!Test:Will you survive?" or otherwise "this week moon will collide with earth!".Well,I never noticed the moon colliding with earth,did you?remember ,even IFan asteroid would collide with earth,IF it doesn't change course,IF it doesn't burn up in our atmosphere,IF we have the 1 in 6,250 chance of it hitting earth,75% of earth is covered in water.now what are the chances of it killing humans?
Whoops... didn't think of that.take it all back!
Well, as I figure I have one chance in 6250 of making it till 2036, I'm disappointed. I would have loved to have front row seats to such an event.
Lets hope nothing of this hapens because i want to fy and sim till 2036 and more!
You can't leave us hanging like that!!!!!
What happened? Did it hit the earth and kill everyone? Or did it miss?
I remember a computer recreation of that one on the Discovery Channel, it came so close that it actually got sling-shotted around the Earth by gravity.
I think the same, should take all us by surprise, if not i don´t now what would i do , maybe hide in a bunker or something.
Thats how i live, day by day.
i'd love so much to die by an astroid hitting earth. It would be the best way to die. As i am very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, intrested in space. It would be a great pleasure (i'm not saying i want to die). Well you havent heard of it because it's going to be in a very long time.
As for now, keep flying!
Could be, or will?, anyway.
pilotwannabe, your new signiture will be hard to remember, i didn't even notice you!