text:
Dan Tapper
Artist/Creative Technologist
Turbulent Forms
Turbulent Forms is an exhibition of work by artist and composer Dan Tapper exploring the universe through chaos and cosmology. The works are inspired and derived from physical data gathered by space organisations and physicists as well as using thought experiments, illustrative techniques and imagination to create parallels and appreciation of complex, abstract and theorised concepts.
The exhibition was presented for the month of August 2017 at the Canadian Music Centre, Toronto, Canada and included large form artworks and installation with accompanying sound pieces created using data collected from space.
"In Turbulent Forms, space–time is bent through huge forces of energy, spinning supernovas cast fragments of light and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is transformed through processes of generation loss. Each work is created through systematic and symbiotic approaches to sound, visual, physical installation and composition, creating an immersive experience." – Program note from Turbulent Forms
The exhibition also includes three new works commissioned from Toronto-based artists and composers: Bekah Ann Simms, Allison Cameron and Mehrnaz Rohbakhsh. These where presented alongside a program of Dan Tapper's work to highlight the opening of the exhibition and the launch of NOVA by Dan Tapper – an installation mapping the history of supernova events through light and sound.
Documentation for the show is available as audio via Bandcamp, additional documentation includes a film detailing the NOVA installation and a 52 page book detailing the art, creative process and artistic background of Turbulent Forms – this book can be purchased digitally through buying Turbulent Forms on Bandcamp and as a limited edition physical copy printed at 8.5 * 11 on 216 GSM Matt paper and comes with a 4 * 6 metallic print from the Space Gardens series presented in Turbulent Forms. Click here to find out more and purchase a physical copy!
Turbulent Forms builds on a previous version of the show presented at the Factory Media Centre, Hamilton, Canada in April 2016. More information on this version of the show here: Turbulent Forms, 2016
Turbulent Forms was presented by the Canadian Music Centre and New Adventures in Sound Art, and funded by Arts Council England and the British Council.
A Machine to Listen to the Sky
Deep Space Field
Physical Media Matter
Digital Nature
Heliosphere
Code Poetry
VLF Works
Some Call it Noise
Changing Signals
Sonic Geography
Inverness to Edinburgh
Black Sands


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Florida lawmakers back the creation of an election crimes investigative office
By Benjamin Swasey
Published March 10, 2022 at 10:20 AM EST
John Raoux
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who's expected to sign the legislation, had called for the formation of an election police force in a speech last year.
Florida lawmakers have sent to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis legislation that would create a dedicated investigative unit for alleged election crimes, part of a broader bill that would, for the second year in a row, enact new voting restrictions in the state.
DeSantis, an ally of former President Donald Trump and a potential 2024 presidential contender himself, called for the formation of an election police force in a speech last year.
The measure, which the GOP-led House passed along party lines Wednesday evening, would create an Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Department of State to probe "allegations of election law violations or election irregularities."
Election fraud is exceedingly rare, and DeSantis had praised Florida's election administration in the wake of the 2020 election.
Yet for the second straight year he's pursued tightening the state's election code. In 2021, during a Fox News appearance, he signed legislation that added new restrictions to the state's ballot drop boxes and vote-by-mail system.
The Florida law was among a raft of GOP-led measures enacted in the wake of Trump's baseless claims about the 2020 election being rigged against him.
DeSantis is expected to sign the new legislation. The state Senate OK'd it last week.
Democrats lined up to oppose the bill.
"The only thing I can think is we are motivated by the 'Big Lie,' " state Sen. Lori Berman said, according to Florida Politics, referencing Trump's election lies. "We know voter fraud is extremely rare. I just don't understand why we are going to be taking our taxpayer money and creating this quote 'police force.' "
But many Republicans cited the concerns of their voters.
"Our job is to make sure our elections are as secure as possible, and you want to know why? Our constituents are demanding it," said state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
The legislation would also require more frequent updates of voter rolls and increase penalties for various election offenses. And it would ban ranked-choice voting.
A provision that would have added new ID requirements to mail voting was scrapped, after election supervisors in the state came out against it.
Benjamin Swasey
Ben Swasey is an editor on the Washington Desk who mostly covers politics and voting.
See stories by Benjamin Swasey

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Z Army
THE ROCK STATION
Bob & Tom
Z-Army Help
L.A. Lloyd Rock 30 CountdownL.A. Lloyd Rock 30 Countdown
'Transformers 4′ Deluxe Blu-ray Comes With Optimus Prime Riding Grimlock
Michael Bay's 'Transformers: Age of Extinction' won this weekend at the box office, and is the first film in 2014 to cross the hundred million dollar mark over its opening weekend. And now, as is often the case, Paramount has teased their limited edition Blu-ray for the film, which ha…
'Pacific Rim 2′ Confirmed for April 2017
Though 'Pacific Rim' only made a little over a hundred million dollars domestically, the film had not only passionate fans, but a much larger audience internationally, which helped bring the $200 million project into a place where today director Guillermo del Toro announced that 'Paci…
'Predator' News: Shane Black is Making an "Inventive Sequel," Not a Reboot
Yesterday word broke that Shane Black, who starred in the franchise's first entry, would be directing a reboot of 'Predator.' But when reached for comment, Black clarified that he would not reboot, but is plotting an "inventive sequel." Could Arnold Schwarzenegger re…
Chris Hemsworth Could Be 'Doc Savage' for Shane Black
It's a Shane Black kind of news day, as not only has it been announced that Black will be directing Fox's latest 'Predator' reboot, he's also still hard at work on his adaptation of 'Doc Savage' and has met with Chris Hemsworth about playing the title character.
'Rambo 5′ May Focus on Sylvester Stallone Fighting Mexican Cartels
Sylvester Stallone has had two great franchise characters, Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, and was able to resurrect both over the last decade successfully. But though Balboa's gloves are hung up (even if Stallone recently paid homage to that character), it looks like we're going to get a &ap…
'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Reveals Posters For its Half-Shelled Heroes
'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' is starting to ramp up their marketing and will release a new trailer this week (which will surely be in front of producer Michael Bay's new movie 'Transformers: Age of Extinction'). But as we wait for that trailer, new character posters have b…
Will Matt Damon's Jason Bourne Be Back for 'Bourne 5'? [UPDATE]
Recently 'Bourne 5' was delayed almost an entire year from August 14, 2015 into the more prime real estate of July 15, 2016. Could it be the real reason was to accommodate original star Matt Damon's return to the series? That's the latest rumor.
'The Judge' Trailer: Robert Downey Jr. Must Defend His Dad
We've grown used to seeing Robert Downey Jr. in the Iron Man suit over the past couple years, and it's been a while since he's done any serious dramatic acting, so can the once and future Tony Stark win an Oscar? Perhaps he'll finally get the golden statue for 'The Judge,&ap…
First 'Sin City 2′ Clip: Rosario Dawson's Got Some Funk in Her Truck
'Sin City 2' is bringing back many familiar faces from the first film and that includes Rosario Dawson, who stars in the first clip from the movie. Here, she uses her feminine ways to show a man what's inside of her trunk.
'Jurassic Park 4′ Teases a First Look at the Dinosaurs
Though we're still a year away from the release of 'Jurassic Park 4,' director Colin Trevorrow wants us to know that the dinosaurs are coming, and that some will be done with practical effects, as he's just teased a first glimpse at one of the dinos!
'Batman V Superman' Adds 'Game of Thrones' Star Jason Momoa as Aquaman
Sorry Vinny Chase, you've been replaced; Jason Momoa has been added to 'Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice' as Aquaman. Considering that the film is something of a warm up for 'Justice League,' it looks like they've got one more player in place for future sequels/spinof…
'The Amazing Spider-Man 3′ May Not Arrive Until 2017
With 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' underperforming at the box office, Sony may not be able to keep with their current timeline for sequels, and word is that 'The Amazing Spider-Man 3' is being pushed off of its June 10, 2016 release date and in to 2017.
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Q: weblogic admin hangs and not returning any result I'm using shell script to monitor WebLogic server status. Following is the script line to monitor.
java weblogic.Admin -url t3://myhostip:myport -username adminuser -password mypassword GETSTATE

In case of failure this line not returning any thing and hangs on this point. So is there any way to set time out to passe through this line in this script?

A: You could do this the gardener way - I mean it is a little do-it-yourself style :) -  with nohup:
First put your command in a shell if possible, then call it with nohup:
nohup your_command.sh 2>&1 > mylog.out &

Then sleep the time you want to wait
sleep ${MY_TIME_OUT}

After collect the process id (pid) after a while
x=`ps -eaf|grep your_command.sh|grep -v grep|awk '{print $2}' `

If x contains nothing, then your_command.sh returned successfully. Otherwise you can hard-kill it so:
if [[ "${x}" != "" ]] ; then echo "killing ${x}"; kill -9 ${x} ; fi

Hope it helps

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Registration of enterprises in Ukraine
Registration of a limited liability company (LLC) in Ukraine
Registration of an individual entrepreneur (PE) in Ukraine
Representative office of a foreign company in Ukraine
Registration of associations of enterprises/citizens
Registration of association in Ukraine
Registration of a public association in Ukraine
Registration of a charitable organization in Ukraine
Registration of сooperative in Ukraine
Liquidation of the company in Ukraine
Liquidation of an individual entrepreneur (PE) in Ukraine
Registration of other types of business activities
Registration of media in Ukraine
Registration of information agency in Ukraine
Registration of publishing house in Ukraine
Corporate changes
A head change of a legal entity in Ukraine
Change of types of activities in Ukraine
Founders change of a legal entity in Ukraine
Change of legal address in Ukraine
The name of a legal entity change in Ukraine
Change in the size of the authorized capital and other changes in the statutory documents in Ukraine
Related and additional services
Production/change of seal, facsimile in Ukraine
Inclusion in the register of unified tax payer/VAT payer in Ukraine
Inclusion in the register of non-profit organizations in Ukraine
Migration law
Legal support in obtaining Ukrainian visa
Invitation for a foreigner to Ukraine (from a natural person)
Invitation for a foreigner to Ukraine (from a legal entity)
Invitation for foreigner (for employees of foreign company's representative office)
Legalization of foreigners (non-residents) in Ukraine
Tax identification number in Ukraine
Work permit for a foreigner in Ukraine
Service card of a foreign company representative office employee
Temporary residence permit in Ukraine
Permanent residence permit in Ukraine
Extension of the stay term in Ukraine
Cancellation of a work permit in Ukraine
Cancellation of a residence permit in Ukraine
Citizenship of Ukraine (naturalization)
Ukrainian citizenship by descent
Ukrainian citizenship by naturalization
Ukrainian citizenship for a child
Putting down apostille
Сonsular legalization
Nostrification of diploma
Registration or de-registration of the place of residence (address registration)
Receipt of clean record certificate
Interest intermediation of foreigners in the State Migration Service in the event of administrative violation
Health Insurance for Foreigners
Registration of a temporarily imported car in Ukraine
News of law
The conditions of stay in Ukraine have been simplified for Polish citizens
#News of law
The relevant Law is passed by the Ukrainian Parliament on the initiative of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in response to the Law of the Republic of Poland "On assistance to citizens of Ukraine in connection with an armed conflict on the territory of the state".
The new rules for the stay of Poles in Ukraine will come into effect on September 16, 2022.
The law provides that citizens of the Republic of Poland, their spouses and children, regardless of citizenship, will be able to legally stay on the territory of Ukraine for 18 months, and will also be able to extend the period of stay in case if ones have relevant supporting documents (education at universities, work, etc.). It is important to state that the Law establishes that the entry into Ukraine for the application of these rules must be made from the territory of Poland.
Citizens of Poland will be able, in particular, to get a job without a permit for employment of foreigners, to carry out economic activities, receive free medical care and education under the same conditions as citizens of Ukraine.
The rules for issuing a temporary residence permit, based on work, have also been simplified. Starting from September 16, 2022, Polish citizens do not need to obtain a long-term visa to submit documents for the temporary permit, and also do not need to buy a medical insurance policy.
The ground to apply for temporary residence will not be a permit for employment of foreigners and stateless persons, but a labour contract signed between a Polish citizen and an employer. The temporary permit will be issued for the duration of the employment contract, but not more than 3 years.
We note that these rules apply only to the residence permit, which is issued on the basis of employment. For all other types of residence permits, the rules remain unchanged.
Citizens of the Republic of Poland, who have the qualification of a doctor, nurse (medical brother), midwife (obstetrician) in the territory of the member states of the European Union, will be able to carry out professional activities in the health care institutions of Ukraine within 18 months.
Although the Law itself aims to liberalize the rules of stay for Poles and their families in Ukraine, it contains a number of gaps that complicate its application in practice, which, in particular, is emphasized in the conclusions of the specialized committees and the legal department of the Supreme Soviet.
The procedure of confirming the right to enter and stay in Ukraine for 18 months remains unclear for family members of Polish citizens, who have a second citizenship, as well as the very approach of calculating the 18 months of stay, because according to the general rules, the terms of stay are calculated in a certain period. For example, when the order of stay for citizens of Belarus was simplified, it was determined that they could stay for 180 days within 365 days, not just 180 days. Also, the requirement to enter the territory of Ukraine from the territory of Poland in order to apply the conditions of stay described in the Law is also surprising.
We hope that most of the gaps will be regulated by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in by-laws. We will inform you about further changes and the practice of applying the new rules on our website in the "Blog" section.
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Master your Phone
What is Gorilla Glass? Know the differences between each version
Update: 2021 Update!
7 min read 7 min 36 Shares 36 7 comments 7
Authored by: Rahul Srinivas May 10, 2021
I'm sure you've heard of the term Gorilla Glass quite often. But have you ever wondered what it really is? In this article, we explain the history of Gorilla Glass since it first arrived on smartphones in the mid-2000s.
NextPit TV
Initially, what you need to know is that Gorilla Glass is a brand of toughened glass developed by a company called Corning Inc. Corning makes other glass types for sectors other than smartphones, wearables, and handhelds. Those products are, however, not sold under the Gorilla Glass brand name.
What is Gorilla Glass?
Gorilla Glass versions and differences between them
Gorilla Glass 1 (2006)
Gorilla Glass DX/DX+ (2018) - For wearables and smartwatches
Gorilla Glass Victus (2020)
Does my phone have Gorilla Glass?
Developed by Corning Inc., Gorilla Glass is a glass made from a material called alkali-aluminosilicate, which is formed by bonding aluminum, silicon, and oxygen together. Corning started developing Gorilla Glass technology starting in mid-2005. It was designed to make smartphones and handheld devices resistant to damage and scratches while also being lightweight and thin.
However, Gorilla Glass wasn't the first advancement Corning made in this sector. The company was formerly known as Chemcor, and they had been in the business of manufacturing resistant glasses that were used on household items, ophthalmic devices, cars, aerospace, and pharmaceutical applications. Ironic, considering Corning is now mostly now for its glass on smartphones.
Although phones with Corning Gorilla Glass are less susceptible to scratches and breakages, please do note that the technology does not make your phone (or tablet) unbreakable. As mentioned above, think of Gorilla Glass as a technology that aids in increasing the durability of your smartphone screen over long periods of use and rescues it from accidental drops.
In the sections below, we talk about the different versions of Gorilla Glass, starting from the very first variant that was released in 2006-2007 alongside the first-generation iPhone – to Gorilla Glass Victus, which was released less than a year ago in July 2020.
Differences between Gorilla Glass versions
The first Gorilla Glass was ready between 2005 and 2006, but its big debut really came with the iPhone. Apple released its device to the world in 2007, and, at the company's request, the technology on its display was 1.5 mm thick and had an oleophobic coating, which minimized fingerprints and smudges.
Gorilla Glass made its smartphone debut on the iPhone / © NextPit
The iPhone wasn't the only smartphone to have Gorilla Glass on its display, though. Corning was able to get its tech onto about 250 devices in just the first generation.
In 2012, Corning released Gorilla Glass 2 at CES. The glass was just as resistant, but its main update was its thickness. The second generation was 20% thinner than the first model. In lab tests, it could withstand up to 50 kg of pressure without cracking or breaking.
In that same year, Gorilla Glass was shipped on 600 million devices. Since this version was thinner than the first, it let manufacturers develop lighter and thinner models of their phones. Both the Nexus 4 and the Galaxy S3 came equipped with Gorilla Glass 2.
Gorilla Glass 3 glass brought even more resistance with it, unlike the previous version which was more focused on thickness. This is also the generation that introduced Native Damage Resistance (NDR) technology, which allowed the glass to handle even deeper scratches. According to Corning, the third generation prevented up to 35% of the scratches on the display.
To commemorate the third version of their tech, Corning planned on increasing the resistance of its Gorilla Glass three-fold compared to older versions. They could do this thanks to a new manufacturing process. GG 3 was released at the CES 2013, and it came on models like the Galaxy S4, the Moto G, and the Moto X.
The Galaxy S4 came with Gorilla Glass 4 / © NextPit
In 2014, Corning presented its Gorilla Glass with a bold new objective. Through one of its surveys, the company found out that 70% of cell phone screen damage was due to drops, and so it began investing in reinforcing its glass. Gorilla Glass 4 was developed focused on the idea of being resistant to drops.
In fact, according to lab studies, the fourth version of Gorilla Glass was twice as strong as its predecessor. The Galaxy Note 5 and ZenFone 2 Laser are a few models that came with Gorilla Glass 4.
The fifth generation of Gorilla Glass - aptly named Gorilla Glass 5 - was released in 2016. It focused on providing even more resistance to drops, and it delivered four times the strength as the previous version. Corning also revealed that in lab tests, Gorilla Glass 5 managed to survive drops of from up to 1.6 meters.
Gorilla Glass 5 also claimed that it was less susceptible to cracks even if the phone was dropped on extremely hard surfaces. Gorilla Glass 5 was used on products like the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and the Moto G 5G.
It was also in 2016 that Corning announced its first-ever product for wearables, Known as Gorilla Glass SR+.
Launched in July 2018, Gorilla Glass 6 was a real step up from the fifth generation. At the launch, Corning revealed that it had subjected the new variant to rigorous new testing methods. The result? Gorilla Glas 6 claimed to be strong enough to withstand 15 consecutive drops on to hard surfaces (from a height of 1 meter). It was rated to be twice as strong as Gorilla Glass 5 and is still fairly common on smartphones used in 2021.
The Sony Xperia 1 uses Gorilla Glass 6! / © NextPit
Gorilla Glass DX/ DX+
In 2018, alongside Gorilla Glass 6, Corning also announced the launch of Gorilla Glass DX and DX+. Both these products were intended to be used on smartwatches and fitness trackers. Along with scratch resistance and durability, another factor that Corning focused on with Gorilla Glass DX was superior outdoor visibility.
These new glasses boast of an anti-reflective property which, according to Corning, offers better visibility while also improving scratch resistance.
Gorilla Glass Victus
Gorilla Glass Victus is the latest version of Gorilla Glass and was announced in 2020 / © Corning
In July 2020, Corning announced the launch of its latest iteration of Gorilla Glass for smartphones, tablets, laptops, and wearables when it launched Gorilla Glass Victus. With this product, Corning also seems to have abandoned the numbering scheme that we have been so used to over the years.
According to Corning, lab tests have shown that Gorilla Glass Victus offers drop protection from a height of 2 meters (as opposed to 1 meter on Gorilla Glass 6.) It is also two times more scratch-resistant than its predecessor and offers 4 times more scratch resistance than competing technologies from other brands.
Most manufacturers do mention the type of Gorilla Glass being used in the detailed specifications, and a quick look at the specs should reveal all the details you need. However, there are some others who do not clearly mention the type of Gorilla Glass used.
In such a scenario, you might need to do a bit of digging around if you are really keen to know what variant of Gorilla Glass your phone has. While not exhaustive, Corning does maintain a list of products that uses Gorilla Glass. Take a look at it here.
It is also pertinent to note that Corning is not the only company that is in the business of making toughened, scratch-resistant glass for smartphones. Corning's key competition in this segment is Asahi (which was renamed AGC recently). This company makes its brand of scratch-resistant glass under the 'Dragontrail' brand name.
So, have you managed to find out which version of Gorilla Glass your smartphone uses?
This article was last updated in May 2021. Older comments have been retained.
Rahul Srinivas
Among the most experienced tech journalists from India, Rahul has spent the better part of the past decade writing and experiencing technology. In his decade-long career, Rahul has contributed to several Indian and International publications, including Mobilegeeks, Onlygizmos, iPhoneHacks, and The Inquisitr. Before joining NextPit, he held the position of Senior Editor at MySmartPrice - one of India's largest product research platforms.
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Matthew Aug 3, 2019 Link to comment
very informative article, thank you! And thanks for the link, I checked my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 which has Gorilla Glass 5. androidpit is the best!
Amarjit Jul 13, 2019 Link to comment
They are all in it together. Make slippy phones with even slippier rounded sides which are difficult to hold securely. Do not provide a half decent rubber bumper case with a new phone.no decent screen protector provided either. Whilst you order the above accessories you will be using your phone a lot to get used to new features,"safe in the knowledge" that the gorilla glass screen will protect it from falls,NOT.
Ryan slick Oct 30, 2017 Link to comment
and the million dollar question is, do we still need screen protectors?
David Bobb Jan 4, 2018 Link to comment
You absolutely do. GG3 has the greatest scratch resistance of all the Gorilla Glasses because GG4 and GG5 sacrifice some scratch resistance for greater impact resistance. However even with GG3, the surface of the glass is still prone to microscopic scratches and abrasions that reduce its dust resistance, oil/water resistance and impact resistance over time. With GG4 and GG5 being a little less scratch resistant a screen protector is more important than ever, and you can always replace the protector for less than 40 dollars if it becomes damaged. A screen, OTOH might cost you hundreds of dollars for replacement if you're using a factory OEM replacement done by a competent repair shop which you may want to do if you have an expensive phone, as third-party screens tend to be of noticably inferior quality to the original screens.
Harshdeep ChauhanHafiz
marco sarli
Aug 4, 2019 Link to comment
just to be on the safe side I always put a screen protector.It is very cheap and always served me well
Jerry's W. Aug 21, 2017 Link to comment
If you are unsure whether your phone has Gorilla glass or not you can do a simple test.
Take a peanut and lay it in front of your phone.
If the Gorilla appears and grabs the peanut you know what type of glass you have.
😆😅😁😆
MatthewSteven Smith
R A Myers Aug 22, 2017 Link to comment
My CAT Phone bats the peanut back if it's not shelled and salted.
No need for a case: Galaxy S23 will feature shatterproof Gorilla Glass Victus 2


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Telstra has announced a 14.6% rise in net profits for the 2013-14 financial year, making it one of the most successful in recent times.
The result reflects continuing growth in the company's mobiles business, in fixed data and in Telstra's Network Applications and Services unit, which grew by 27.8% over the period.
Growth in these areas offset the continuing decline in fixed voice revenues, though Telstra reported that this decline had slowed, due partly to successful bundling of services, including Foxtel.
Telstra has celebrated its improved fortunes with a big cash splash, announcing a $1 billion share buyback and the second increase in its dividend this year. Telstra shares reached a 12 year high on the news.
Don't spend it all at once, David. Keep some for the new Telstra Enterprise Agreement next year.


text:
Q: Can't make asset precompile before pushing to heroku I need to make it to make my jQuery working on Heroku.
Here is my console:
    $ rake assets:precompile
    c:/Ruby192/bin/ruby.exe c:/Ruby192/bin/rake assets:precompile:all RAILS_ENV=production RAILS_GROUPS=assets
  rake aborted!
  Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
  Tasks: TOP => environment
  (See full trace by running task with --trace)
   rake aborted!
  Command failed with status (1): [c:/Ruby192/bin/ruby.exe c:/Ruby192/bin/rak...]
  Tasks: TOP => assets:precompile
  (See full trace by running task with --trace)

When I try do run:
     $ assets:precompile
     sh: assets:precompile: command not found

EDITED:
Also I added this line to application.rb:
      config.assets.initialize_on_precompile = false

A: You have mentioned wrong username and password of mysql. Some gems which need database access for assets:precompile.


text:
We Are the Caretakers interview: Juggling Afrofuturism, poaching, and strategy in one RPG
Jason Wilson@jason_wilson
We Are the Caretakers blends Afrofuturism and conservation with strategy-RPG mechanics.
Image Credit: Hearth Shaped Games
We Are the Caretakers is one of those games that intrigues you after reading its description. It's a strategy-RPG that blends mechanics from the likes of Ogre Battle and XCOM, looking at them through the lenses of Afrofuturism and conservation. It takes on issues such as poaching, examining not just the effects it has on living creatures but also the "whys" behind it.
It's not just intriguing: It's inspiring as well.
When I first learned about this project from Heart Shaped Games midway through 2020, I wanted to learn more about this game. Over the summer, I interviewed creative director and founder Scott Brodie, narrative lead Xalavier Nelson, Jr., and Sherveen Uduwana. This ranks among my favorite interviews of the year. I learned a great deal about what it takes to put together a narrative that fits these themes around a strategy-RPG package.
We Are the Caretakers hits Steam Early Access on April 22. This is an edited transcript of our interview.
Caretaking background
GamesBeat: Xalavier and Sherveen, is this your first game with Heart Shaped, or have you worked on other games here?
Xalavier Nelson Jr.: This is my first Heart Shaped game, but hopefully not the last.
Sherveen Uduwana: This is also my first time with Heart Shaped Games.
GamesBeat: When did you found the studio?
Scott Brodie: Heart Shaped Games was founded in 2010. In October it'll be 10 years. I left Microsoft Game Studios. Prior to that I was an Xbox Live Arcade producer. I decided to do my own thing. I've slowly worked on smaller projects. We had a Kickstarter with Hero Generations, and then eventually we were able to grow and build a larger team for We Are the Caretakers.
GamesBeat: Your first two games are Hero Generations and Brave Hand. Brave Hand is a card game, and Hero Generations is a strategy game.
Brodie: Yeah. I can briefly talk about those games. Hero Generations is a roguelike 4X strategy game where every step is one year of your life. You have this generational component to it. That game is on Steam and mobile platforms. Brave Hand was a smaller individual project I'd made that was combining solitaire and Stratego, more of a casual game that I'd been batting around for a while as a physical prototype. I had quite a bit of experience releasing games that are smaller strategy games, and now we're doing more of a grand strategy.
Above: Heart Shaped Games includes (among others) Kate Brodie, Xalavier Nelson, Jr. (center), and Scott Brodie.
GamesBeat: Both of those games seem like the progression leads into what you're doing with We Are the Caretakers: playing around with RPG ideas, strategy ideas. Is that what Heart Shaped is about?
Brodie: If there's a through line to the games we've been making, it's been mechanically driven, design-driven strategy games that deal with some form of real-world inspiration to them, and building a metaphor around those things. With my earlier games I was trying to do these things, having more of a personal touch to the games. I think We Are the Caretakers is the best example of that, where we've done deep research and tried to bring real world personal experiences and convert them into a fun commercial game.
GamesBeat: What would be your 30-second encapsulation of We Are the Caretakers?
Brodie: We've been workshopping a description, but it's a squad management RPG set in an Afrofuturist world, where you're trying to protect your animals, your resources, from sci-fi poachers, and eventually, you find out, aliens. You build squads in a Darkest Dungeon, XCOM-like way, where you have an ensemble cast of different classes. You form them into multiple squads, send them out into an RTS with pause field, and when one of your squads encounters a poaching squad, it goes into a unique RPG turn-based combat system.
GamesBeat: How did these ideas come about for one game?
Brodie: I can speak a bit to the formation of the project. Xalavier can hop in, since he was there with me from the start. James Pita is a friend of mine, who's part of the folks who helped kickstart the inspiration. He had this idea to work with real world rangers who are doing this kind of anti-poaching work. How could we take a cause like that, or a real world idea, and convert that into a game? Since I have a background in that strategy thing, he brought the idea to me, and we quickly figured out how we could take something based in this real world idea and create an entire world that fit it, that was still an exciting commercial indie game.
Nelson Jr.: I met Scott at GDC in I believe 2018. He told me about this project he was pulling together, inspired by the work of real life conservationists. I was sort of stunned by this overall vision and how that might work or what would occur. We kept in touch, and the next thing I knew, he was bringing me on to create a fictional world that could carry forward these real-life inspirations and conflicts that are so outside of the daily concerns a lot of folks have in the West. To meaningfully handle that in a fictional setting that was nuanced, but also allowed us to handle that material in a way that put it a bit outside of some of the major real world issues and controversies that are associated with that.
Pulling together a whole bunch of influences and inspirations with a lot of deep collaboration between the team, we came upon this world of Shadra, where the Caretakers, the group of conservationists and peacekeepers that you play as in the game, are working on a local and increasingly international scale to pull together the world to confront something much larger than itself. And I feel that placement comes directly from the process that the team had making the game.
As soon as we were doing this research, as soon as we began to become more exposed to the real-life issues behind poaching, and around the contexts in which other people live, where "wild" animals form part of their daily life or conflicts, it expanded the way in which we saw the world. Giving players the ability to have the same journey, while also fulfilling this fantastic mix of tactical combat and conflict resolution and strategy, honestly it's a golden opportunity. It's something that I'm deeply glad to have worked on.
The draw of We Are the Caretakers
Above: Folks take a look at We Are the Caretakers at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Arcade Indie Developer Showcase.
GamesBeat: What was it that attracted you to this project?
Nelson Jr.: Honestly, the setting was the big thing. Afrofuturism, or the consideration of non-Western strategy settings that are not deeply stereotypical — like, let's do a Japan-inspired cyberpunk thing again. Those are very hard to find. When I first spoke with Scott about his vision for a game that handled, in a nuanced and very intentional way, a lot of real-world issues in settings entirely outside of what you usually get inside of games, it did honestly captivate me. It's difficult. It has required a lot of intentional perspective on how we construct the world, so we can acknowledge the things that we don't know.
As much research as we do, we can never fully embody or encapsulate the lived experience of those who tackle the task of wildlife conservation every day, or of those who actually live in settings alongside animals like rhinos, tigers, and so on. But by acknowledging that, by doing the research, doing the legwork, and listening, we can get a hell of a lot closer to building a genuinely exciting, original world that meaningfully captures the mindsets that are so important to understanding something outside of yourself. It's a major reason why — I'm a better person for having worked on this game, having to go through this process.
GamesBeat: There's a lot to unpack with what you just said. What was it that you didn't understand about these topics?
Nelson Jr.: Speaking personally, one big thing I didn't understand, and that I had to wrestle with working on We Are the Caretakers, was my own relationship with race. As an African American, I have seen most depictions of Africa in American media and in American comedies as deeply offensive, as off-putting, as othering. It's something I wanted to go away from. Working on an Afrofuturist game, on a setting that was increasingly original but definitely had a root in African culture and considerations, I had to confront a bunch of learned self-hatred that had been embedded in me for these visuals and this setting. Coming to terms with the beauty of the setting, of this world and language and mindsets that have been separated from my own, intentionally, making me think of it as something to be avoided — that in itself was a huge journey of both self-discovery and of iteration on making the original world you see in the game now.
GamesBeat: When you talk about self-hatred, can you offer an example of that?
Nelson Jr.: After we were creating the world of the game, I saw Black Panther for the first time. And at first, seeing the visual language of that world, seeing these characters, larger than life, on the screen — I felt very cold. At the start of the movie I felt very cold, and I didn't know why. I'm seeing a big-budget Marvel movie, and yet I'm feeling very detached and a little bit upset at what I'm seeing on screen. And what I realized halfway through the movie is, oh shoot, it's because every other time I've seen spear-wielding warriors, it's been a joke. It's been an insult. It's been a reminder of institutionalized injuries not only against African Americans, but Africans in general.
Above: We Are the Caretakers will address poaching.
By confronting that mid-Marvel movie, and by the end, seeing an entirely different vision of what a hero can be, I came away from that with a deep understanding of what we were building in We Are the Caretakers: a setting for people who, whether they come from a marginalized background or not, can see themselves, see an entirely different world, and discover an opportunity to engage with a totally different universe of considerations that make them — that they come away with being more, more of a person, more of a full human being.
That's a very high-minded thing to say in terms of — it feels a bit pretentious to say that in terms of what a video game can do. But simply being presented with a deeply original and nuanced and ambiguous sci-fi world that does reflect heroism with African settings, in itself it's — it could be a real game changer for a lot of people, because I know it already has been for me.
Digging into Afrofuturism
GB: When you define what Afrofuturism is, how does We Are the Caretakers represent that?
Nelson Jr.: I think Scott can speak really well to, even before I joined the team, the desire to build an original take for an Afrofuturist world.
Brodie: It's a question we've discussed with the team like, OK, where do we fit in — Afrofuturism as a genre seems to describe what we're making and our goals, the shared goals of what that is. What it comes down to for us is we wanted to create an authentic setting that spoke to the real-world analogues that were doing work and the landscapes they were operating in. Finding a way to have those be true, but also have the appropriate, I guess, distance from real-world places and peoples. Because we don't want to trivialize those things either. It was us finding that balance between telling truthful stories, but in a way where we could — I'm trying to find the right description of it. Being able to tell the story we want without having to step on anything or take on any of the challenges that come with representing a real place or specific people.
As far as how our Afrofuturist approach relates to other universes, I think our angling toward a specific vision of Afrofuturism is a bit different from things that at least I've seen before, because so much of this does lean on the real world inspiration of the rangers and peoples who find a way to coexist with animals and with each other every single day. Looking at the documents that define the pillars of our world, some of our inherent principles are, we're united by our need for animals and each other. People are not inherently good, but the best try.
Creating a setting that could acknowledge, for example, the reasons why people want to poach in real life, how those are valid and how there are ways — what motivates that poaching in the first place. So that you can, on a pretty structural level, go against that power structure and find a better way forward on a general scale, on a global scale. Leaning so hard into looking specifically into how our relationship to animals forces us to clarify our relationship with each other, I think separates our Afrofuturist world in terms of its focus from a lot of the other inspirations I've seen, even if there are things you can recognize in terms of other Afrofuturist media like Nnedi Okorafor's.
Above: The Raun are megafauna play a significant role in We Are the Caretakers.
GamesBeat: It's interesting that you bring it up, because that was what I was going to ask about next, the reasons people get into poaching.
Nelson Jr.: That's one of the most compelling pieces. The reasons for poaching are as diverse as the poachers themselves. When you examine the subject deeply and speak to people who are actively engaged with these conflicts and landscapes, you realize how much of that is externally motivated. How people from thousands of miles away can create an artificial demand, which leads to a ripple effect that can cross peoples, languages, and continents. One of the big things I learned coming away from poaching is that even what we define as poaching is heavily centered in our world view.
What we see as, oh, killing a tiger, you've done a horrible thing in taking this beautiful mountain cat out of the world, for someone else — one of the real life stories we heard was, a tiger had crept into a village and had eaten a baby. It had tasted human flesh. And not only did the tiger have to be put down for that reason, among others, it's also the very human relatability of, how do you look someone in the eyes and tell them, this beautiful mountain cat belongs in a zoo and shouldn't be harmed, when it's destroyed someone that you love?
In We Are the Caretakers, much like considerations with real megafauna in real life, sometimes megafauna encroach on farming territory. That's a genuine consideration for everyone involved, from the people who are doing animal conservation to the farmer to the animals themselves. Handling those types of conflicts with empathy and nuance is super damn hard. But it's also a perspective well worth engaging with and tackling.
Brodie: The game definitely deals with all these from a narrative perspective, but also mechanically. The key piece that ties all these things together is you have a reputation that you're managing throughout the game, and so you have the ability to make these choices about how to deal with situations like Xalavier described, and that reputation has ripple effects within how your Caretakers react to you, who wants to join you, how local populations, when you get into the field, support or potentially work against you. All of these things are a core part of our game and what makes We Are the Caretakers different from some other strategy-RPGs.
GamesBeat: Is it hard to deal with questions about what Afrofuturism means to you, because it's not a concept that our culture knows a lot about? Or is it a case of something — other games need to define their universe, so it's not a problem to do that?
Nelson Jr.: One of the reasons why it is difficult creating new media in landscapes that are not traditionally depicted in what we consider the mainstream, it's that every project bears the burden of explaining an entire genre. There's a lot of reasons why, to go back to why things like Binti and Black Panther are so meaningful, one of them being that every single project not only has to be a compelling story, but has to explain its existence and why this thing should exist in a given medium. Why there should be more of it, what it is, let alone differentiating from other pieces of art in its genre.
For We Are the Caretakers, part of our challenge is developing a very good game, but part of our wider consideration, and part of why it's so important for us to even, with the early access release of the game, continue to listen to our community and the wider culture and make sure we get this right, is because we do know that, fairly or not, we have a burden of being one of the first Afrofuturist games, particularly of our scale. That means we are going to get questions about why Afrofuturism, what is it, how are we different. Confronting those questions, dealing with them honestly in as nuanced a manner as possible, and continuing to find better ways of answering that question are critical pieces of making the game itself.
Brodie: I would just add that I share the sentiment that it doesn't frustrate me at all to talk about it. If anything, it's great that our game can start that conversation and get people interested in the genre that we've come to love throughout the years we've been making the game.
The caretaking part
GamesBeat: Do animals play more than an ecological role in the world? Is that why people want to care for them? Or is it just about preserving ecology?
Brodie: This is something we talked a lot about throughout development. I'll let Xalavier speak to where we ultimately ended up. It's definitely, in our world, part of the fiction that there's a deeper connection than simply just the animals as resources or something like that. It's interesting, as the game opens up, to see the various perspectives and what they think the Raun mean, having not seen them as much as the Caretakers have. And tying in to those similar nuances of the real world poaching situation, where there's a lot of misconceptions around the power, whether it be feeling it's medicinal or what have you, of the animals. That's definitely a subject we address in the game, in the design of the game, thinking about how sci-fi or unrealistic, so to speak, we go with the power of the animals.
Nelson Jr.: Where we landed was a very intentional compromise between representing animals accurately, representing them meaningfully in a sci-fi world, and also not gamifying their importance. On one hand, a big debate early on in development was, should the Raun have an influence on the world that goes beyond the actual influence that megafauna have on their ecology? Because rhinos, elephants, tigers, basically anything we would classify as megafauna, are hugely important to their environment. If they disappear, the entire ecology changes, if not comes to pieces. But for someone playing an RTS game with tactical combat, grand strategy, RPG elements, why would they care about how a fictional ecology is impacted, unless that impacts their actual gameplay? That's a real big consideration. It's one that every developer has to make in terms of centering an element that's somewhat outside the player's direct control or considerations.
Above: Heart Shaped Games shows what some of its environments look like.
But where we eventually landed was, by, yes, having some sci-fi shenanigans, but on a deep level making the animals the focus of the world itself — the Caretakers, what they do for their universe, the most important role they fulfill, is that their job, their purpose for existence, is to preserve these animals. If these animals die out, your reason for being dies out. This is the priority. Defining a role for the animals in the world that was sci-fi inspired and a bit fantastical, in a cool way, while also not trivializing the real life impact, and trying to have the analogue be direct enough that you could still build empathy for the real world inspirations for these animals, the rhinos. It's a tough balance, and we're probably going to be thinking about the decisions we made coming to the end of the project, but I'm proud of where we are now in terms of saying, on a very objective level, the animals are the point, because what we do with these creatures that contribute to our world says everything about who we are as human beings.
Brodie: A quick tag to that, the reason we thought so hard about it is that we didn't want to objectify the animals as just their resource value. We wanted you to care about animals because they're living things. We thought a lot about that as well. We didn't want to reduce them to just resources. We wanted them to have gameplay impact and value, but still keep that emotional connection.
GamesBeat: Is this game just about looking after megafauna?
Nelson Jr.: For lots of reasons, the game focuses on a single species at the moment, at least as we get into early access. They're called the Raun … they take elements of behavior and look from rhinos, elephants, and tigers primarily. But we would love, through early access, to potentially look at expanding that, and in general just adding different challenges there. But currently we have a single species that we focus the game around.
GamesBeat: Why did you come up with that intentional mixture of elements?
Brodie: Originally the idea was that we wanted a fictional species that was analogous to these larger animals, that present the same sort of management challenges. You can't just go up and grab them and control them. There's a lot more to that. Also, we started with — let's focus on a prey animal, because it removes some of the ethical mental gymnastics you have to deal with. This animal eats other animals, so how do I feel about that? This is something we'll be talking about more as we get closer to early access. But some of the research we did, talking to real individuals doing this work, they helped us realize there's just as much value to the ecosystem in a predator as in the prey animals. It's all about balance. Long story short, we wanted to create a large animal that wasn't totally friendly. It's not going to attack you, but it can do damage if you irritate it. That plays into a lot of the human-animal conflict scenarios we have in the game as well. The visual development was just done by Anthony Jones, our great art director. He came up with a lot of inventive concepts in how to combine these physical and behavioral characteristics we wanted.
GamesBeat: You talk about this being a take on Ogre Battle, rather than XCOM.
Brodie: It's very core to my inspirations from a gameplay side. This is fundamentally, from a game design perspective, a dream project for me, because Ogre Battle is a game I spent countless hours on and really influenced me as a designer. This is in some ways a way to take elements of a design that happened to map well this real world scenario we have, and then trying to modernize those ideas. Ogre Battle specifically was a bit ahead of its time. It has a very PC-centric design. It has a cursor that you're using on the Super Nintendo, trying to do that. It felt like there was a lot of room to expand on that concept, and no one really did for 25, 26 years. The world has lived on with Tactics Ogre, and Matsuno went on to work on Final Fantasy Tactics and lots of really cool games, but they kind of left out the ensemble cast, squad building component that was the draw for me. I enjoyed this experience of constantly getting new recruits and special characters, trying to grow this organization. In that game it's a rebellion.
In We Are the Caretakers it's this kind of resistance force you're creating to protect these animals and the environment. As you get further into the game you meet other groups, and it fits into this idea of, how do different groups of people come together for a common cause, even if they have differences, and trying to literally fit them together. Mechanically, the systems Ogre Battle had, and how we've modified them, connect the dots between the narrative, world, and gameplay.
GamesBeat: And that's where your reputation and diplomacy systems come in?
Brodie: One-hundred percent. The simplicity of that system and how effective it was, even in the '90s, was ahead of its time, and we're excited to expand on it here. Each of your choices — in this game, it's very easy to look at, say, a particular encounter or mission and say, that's mechanically, or as an idea, very simple, but it's about the preparation and the overall management of all these pieces and how your decisions play out. The reputation system is the thing that ties it together and makes all these seemingly simple decisions carry more weight as they fit into the overall campaign.
Above: The Poachers pose a problem for the Caretakers.
GamesBeat: What's an example of a choice you make that influences reputation?
Uduwana: The thing that we really wanted to do with the reputation system is allow the player to make hard choices. A big difference about We Are the Caretakers compared to other strategy or tactics games is that focus on, you're dealing with an existing community that has its own value systems that might differ from yours. Dealing with poachers, for example, if you deal with them aggressively, you can neutralize them very quickly, but in the context of the game, many of the poachers are members of the community that you're protecting and interacting with day to day while conserving the Raun. You tend to have negative reputation hits when you're needlessly violent or extrajudicial with enemies. That can lead to more established enemy presence in your commissions. We're currently working on a thing where the ways that the poachers or these communities — the characters you run into are different based on whether you're being aggressive, whether you're taking hard stances on things, or whether you're being more diplomatic in your treatment of people. It's very Ogre Battle.
Brodie: It's very Ogre Battle, but the things we've layered on to it are more of a mechanically interesting headquarters. We have something called the Atrium where the Conductor, your main character, either meets new recruits, takes audiences with community members — also, in the game, when you "finish" encounters, they're brought back to this Atrium and you can deal with them. You can try to retain, or try to reform them and recruit them. You might take a reputation hit when you do that. We have a lot of these layers that affect the Atrium. Those are more interesting one-offs, but fundamentally your reputation affects the list of recruits that appear in the Atrium that you can then use to build your squads. That includes basic characters as well as special characters that have more of an explicit personality, versus your basic Ogre Battle class units.
Uduwana: In a lot of ways the reputation system works like goodwill. You build this resource, working with people to have a good enough rapport with them that you can make some unpopular decisions, and they aren't antagonized afterward. They can trust your intentions, because they've seen how you've behaved through the rest of the game.
GamesBeat: Does reputation influence the quality of recruits you attract?
Brodie: It's a combination. "Quality" is relative depending on what you look for. It may influence the character class, the level of the character, and the — we call it faction internally, but the group of people that the characters associate with, which may give you special classes, that sort of thing. It also affects — there's a sort of trait system, where characters will have various buffs, but also debuffs. Certain traits are more associated with more reputation.
GamesBeat: Could you please walk me through how combat happens and the decisions you face in combat.
Brodie: Encounters are, again, very similar to Ogre Battle as a model. If one of your teams runs into a poaching team, it will go into a sort of JRPG encounter system. It's set up to be auto-battle in a way, where you set your stance, either aggressive, diplomatic, friendly, or neutral. And then you also set a targeting type. Based on the composition of your characters, those strategy decisions will be more effective or not. Most character classes have some combination of diplomatic and aggressive abilities. Those will be used differently. The overall goal is to wear down an opposing character, whether it's their stamina, their physical health, or will, their mental health. You have different vectors of breaking them down. Certain units are strong against physical attacks or weak against mental attacks. You have to make sure you bring the right squad with the right makeup to deal with that.
As we mentioned, characters have different finishing moves. Some will detain them. Some will wound them. Some will do special things like try to bribe them to run away. There are lots of ways to end an encounter. It fundamentally plays like a traditional RPG system, but with a different bent, where your goal is to defuse and defend rather than going in and bashing everything.
GB: Do the animals fight with you?
Brodie: One particular one does … one of the first incidents in the game is you find an orphaned baby, and your Conductor takes it on as a personal goal or mission, as a companion. It does go along with you, and you can level it up and raise it. One thing I should say is that the campaign is structured so that your primary goal is to maintain the population and avoid extinction. If you ever get to zero, your campaign is over. You are incentivized to protect them in these missions, because it's tied to your success in the campaign.
GamesBeat: Do they multiply? Is there a set number you have to protect?
Brodie: To start. Our campaign is structured in eras, which are collections of missions. In between eras, more time can pass and special events can happen, and one of those things is how your actions affect the population. They can increase if you do well, and potentially decrease based on events. It's a replenishment phase, if you want to think about it mechanically, in between eras.
Uduwana: Speaking of dealing with conflicts in multiple ways, do we still have the thing where they can be a potential threat?
Brodie: Yeah, but later in the game. There are Raun units that are neutral units on the field. That's what you're protecting. Poachers are trying to get to those units to poach them. But one of the many ways that Raun can become a detriment to you is that they can maybe go to a territory they're not supposed to. It might belong to a community member. They might trample their farms, or get lost and get hit by a trap, or they could even just be really agitated and try to affect you. But yes, they definitely become an obstacle you can't quite control throughout the game. The way you deal with them had to be nuanced as well.
GB: When it comes to the poachers, are they more independent, or are they organized? Is there somebody organizing them?
Nelson Jr.: It depends on the poachers, but there are certainly some external influences that we can't fully talk about yet which may be motivating more than is immediately apparent.
Above: Megafauna like the Raun play huge roles in ecosystems.
GamesBeat: Are the Raun a food source?
Nelson Jr.: We don't eat Raun here. But again, talking about the array of reasons for poaching — if the environment in which you're trying to grow crops is not adapted to those crops, and you suddenly have a gigantic source of hamburgers walking through, building up the goodwill with those communities so you do have the authority to say, hey, these Raun should be preserved, they are useful for more than a food source — you have to be able to have almost the investment in the community for them to believe you.
GamesBeat: Is there anything I'm missing that's important to the game, that we haven't talked about yet?
Uduwana: One thing that we maybe haven't necessarily touched on — when I joined the team, one thing I was very interested in about this was the ways in which anti-poaching initiatives and the high-minded idealism, that we have to conserve animals, can be affected by your region being destabilized. I grew up in Sri Lanka, which was in a civil war until I was 13 or 14. Anti-poaching is a huge part of our culture. We have large nature reserves, particularly for elephants. And I also grew up in Vietnam, which has similar things with rhinos. But the interesting thing is, when you're in the middle of a civil war, you don't make these sweeping anti-poaching initiatives, because that's not at the forefront of everyone's mind. The very interesting thing about this narrative is that you see this world go from, oh, the Caretakers are this important, respected, even if grudgingly respected group, and then you're throwing them into this chaos and seeing, where is everything going to shake out? Will people still care about protecting the environment when their concerns are elsewhere? That's an important perspective that spoke to me personally.
As we mentioned, aliens are a component of the game, and while there are people in the local communities that do create antagonism and chaos and destabilizing areas, the aliens are the big upset to the status quo of the game. People don't know what they want, what their agenda is. It creates a new playing field for the various factions and characters in the world.
GamesBeat: Are the aliens essentially colonizers?
Brodie: That's kind of where we'd stop and say, play the game to figure it out. They're present and what their purpose and motivations are, that's a core driving interest in the narrative and gameplay. Part of the interest in the game is the discovery process around all the motivations in all the people you meet.
Nelson Jr.: I wouldn't relate the aliens to colonizers. At least the initial way in which you experience their influence in the world, it's a destabilizing element. Which colonizers certainly do. But the things the aliens want potentially have even more dangerous consequences for the world as it is. In general, one thing that we specifically use as an element to keep the player on their toes as they go through the eras of the game, these various ways of looking at the perspectives of the world and ways in which that is bent on in terms of every piece of the game structure — in pretty much every era or act, we're finding a new way of destabilizing the world. What destabilizes the world is hoaxes and conspiracies that are spread on such a wide scale that they convince people to act against their own interests. What destabilizes the world is foreign military intervention wrecking the way in which you see the world, and in which you get to move through it peacefully with the people you love. What destabilizes the world is the business of the Caretakers. Not to uphold the status quo, but to ensure that as the world is destabilized, the version it becomes as threats are handled in the way that the player chooses is the best version of the world possible.
GamesBeat: When people play this We Are the Caretakers and finish it, is there any particular takeaway you want them to have?
Brodie: If nothing else, that they have been brought to think about a subject matter that they haven't really considered before. Broadly, that's the goal. We hope that this exciting Afrofuturist world with aliens and all these things is enough to get them excited to want to play through and experience the nuance that we started this conversation talking about. Broadly, the theme of the game is about unity. If people come together to put themselves, potentially, in harm's way, and come together to protect something they care about, that will be a great takeaway. Our narrative, and hopefully the game, will be able to the game.
Nelson Jr.: A Caretakeaway, if you will.
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Maasai Mara – the pride of Kenya
The Maasai Mara National Reserve is located in the Narok County of Kenya, bordering Tanzania.
by Caryn Edwards
Stretching over 1510 square kilometers, this region is full of breathtaking vistas, endless plains and an abundance of wildlife.
The reserve has been named after the ancestral inhabitants of the area, the Maasai people, as well as their description of the area as seen from afar. The word Mara, or Maa in the Maasai language means spotted as referring to the trees, savanna and cloud shadows that mark the area.
This land has also become well-known for its Maasai lions, the Tanzanian cheetahs, African leopards and the great migration of millions of wildebeest, zebra, and Thomson's gazelle from the Serengeti each year. It is for this that tourist flock to the area and why the Maasai Mara has become the pride of Kenya – which you can now experience on a Kenya safari.
When the wildlife sanctuary was established in 1961, the reserve covered a mere 520 square kilometers. This area was extended in the same year to cover an additional 1301 square kilometers. But it was only in 1974 that the sanctuary was given National Reserve status and a portion of the reserve was handed over to local communities.
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This reserve is just across the border from Tanzania's Serengeti National Park. Together the Maasai Mara National Reserve and Tanzania's Serengeti National Park forms the gigantic ecosystem of the Serengeti. Protection and management of these areas is under the management of national parks authorities and community-run schemes.
The landscape of the reserve is mostly open savannah with seasonal rivulets scattered few and far between. In the south east of the reserve, there are clumps of the unique acacia tree. The animals are concentrated more on the western border, at the Esoit escarpment of the east African rift. Here the land is swampy, with a good supply of water.
However, apart from the scenic landscape and the Maasai people in their striking red garb, what draws in the crowds year after year is the world famous annual Great Migration. Around two million wildebeest, followed by thousands of zebras and Thompson's gazelle will start to arrive from Tanzania each year just as soon as the rain starts.
During the trek, these animals will need to cross the Mara River, known for its gigantic crocodiles that wait in the waters to grab their prey. It is not just the rivers where the heart-stopping tension of an epic life-and-death saga plays out as the herds try to cross.
In the grass, the lions of the Maasai Mara wait patiently for the herds to cross. The best known are the Marsh Pride, a family of lions that can be found along the Mara River. Thousands of animals are birthed on this trek each year. Far from being easy pickings, a new-born wildebeest will find its legs within a few hours, and be capable of running with the herd.
There is no problem selecting accommodation in the area. The Fairmount Mara Safari Club is a premium resort that is surrounded on three sides by the Mara River. Accommodation is limited to 50 luxury tents, all of which have four poster beds and views over the crocodile and hippo-filled Mara River. Dining takes place either on your own private deck, or at the boma, which represents a traditional homestead.
From this resort, guests can take a game drive, balloon safari, or walking safari with a Maasai guide. Alternatively, you can visit the Sarova Mara Game Camp. Accommodation here is in the form of luxury tents set between indigenous shrubs and exotic trees. A Maasai village adjoins the camp, allowing guests a unique experience with an intimate view into the Maasai culture.
Getting there is usually by road or air. A drive to the Maasai Mara will take you 5 to 6 hours from Nairobi. It is a scenic route to travel and the road is smooth. Halfway, in Narok, there is a fuel station which is a good place to stop for snacks, drinks, and to use the rest rooms. From Narok to Sekenani Gate the road is a bit rough, with the tar road ending. The dirt road is normally graded and maintained in good condition, but a good off-road vehicle is probably best. You can hire a 4×4 vehicle in Nairobi which will make your road trip much easier.
If driving is not your thing, you can opt to fly to the Maasai Mara. There are a few companies that provide this service. The flight normally takes around 40 to 45 minutes from Nairobi with SafariLink and around 2 hours from Mombasa with Mombasa Air Safari.
How ever you get there, the Great Migration is truly a spectacle of nature. Millions of animals, moving by instinct, making this annual journey – there are few more humbling and awe-inspiring events. It is a true wonder of the natural world.
Tags: Kenyawanderlust
Why Jacob Zuma is on the verge of withdrawing from the State Capture Inquiry
by Tom Head
Tensions have comprehensively boiled over at the State Capture Inquiry on Wednesday: Jacob Zuma has been advised to stop testifying...
Stats SA: Retail trade sales for May 2019 shows overall growth in spending
Baboon on the loose in Johannesburg: Latest location and safety tips [video]
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The 50s, 60s and 70s were a period of intense discontent, mistrust and passionate "cultural change" in the United States. The Vietnam war, young folks protesting that war, burning draft cards and bras, the civil rights marches, Rosa Parks and freedom rides, the Civil Rights Act, Woodstock, Kent State, love-ins, LSD, pot, hippies, yuppies and the most profound of all, the assassination of JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, and other events, all set the course and pace for the years that followed. In the 50s, 60's and 70's "us kids" weren't simply a part of history, we mad history; we didn't just read about it and wane.
In 1966 BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD recorded "Stop Children What's That Sound". The lyrics are by Stephen Stills (the Stills in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young). It's a Protest Song as "us kids" called it. Those lyrics were written during those turbulent times. The words are as poignant, provocative and true today, as then.
"There's something happening here… what it is ain't exactly clear… a man with a gun over there telling me I got to beware". During those days, we needed "to beware", and even more so today. "Stop children…everybody look – what's going down." We needed to stop then, and we need to stop now. Today we don't need to ignore "what's going down". However, I'm afraid that's what we're doing and that's sad for everyone.
"There's battle lines being drawn"… Today battle lines are also everywhere, in our minds and on our land. The young people said it then, and they're still saying it now, "Nobody's right if everybody's wrong…. Young people speaking their minds… Getting so much resistance from behind…" Forty-eight years ago the younger generation told their parents and "leaders" what was on their minds. Today's young people are doing the same thing, they protest just like their parents did, "Mostly saying, hooray for our side." Each time, the older folks resisted the young folk's and their changes. Each could, and sometimes they did, learn from each other during that time. That was good and gave hope to all.
"Paranoia strikes deep… Into your life it will creep… It starts when you're always afraid…" Even when it doesn't carry a threat, opposition is still, and always will be, feared. You don't have to break a law, just "Step out of line, the men come and take you away…" And they will take you away. Respect sometimes seems to be a one-way arrangement.
In 1970, Art Garfunkel sang "A Bridge Over Troubled Water". The lyrics are by Paul Simon (the Simon of Simon and Garfunkel). It's not a protest song; it's simply a song of hope. His lyrics were also written during that same time. His lyrics too are as poignant, provocative and true today, as then.
As time always proves, the good and beautiful in this world, by far, outweighs the bad and the ugly, thanks to God's Mercy and Grace. That's good; it gives hope to everyone.
NOTE: I got all the above facts from Wikipedia and everything else is my opinion and my interpretation of those facts. I was there.
Thank you for the kind words. As always, it's good to hear from you. Hope you're still doing good.
I remember those songs and loved them even though I never did pot or drugs of any kind. Very insightful post!
Thanks for taking me back a little.
Yes, the world is better, thanks to us… that's a good feeling.
Wonderful post. I love the difference in the songs. And yet a sameness. I wonder how many 'kids' of today would listen to these songs and get the same feeling that was evoked when they were written.


Anyway, I'm making it art.
In between serving tables I'm resorting the books, being careful to keep them in color-coordination, using them like refrigerator magnets to create poems. Anyone interested in reading the poems should follow @BookshelfPoetry on Instagram.


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday asked the court for another chance to delay an Obama-era policy meant to boost protections for students defrauded by for-profit schools.
The request comes two days after the court ruled that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' move to freeze the regulation known as borrower defense was "arbitrary and capricious." That decision dealt a severe blow to her efforts to ease regulations on the for-profit college industry.
Attorney Adam Pulver with Public Citizen, an advocacy group, said defrauded students are facing "continuing everyday harm" and asked the court that the delayed regulation be enforced immediately.


text:
Canada. Dept. of the interior
. . .His gross receipts last summer were from $600 to $700 per month, of which $300 was profit. He grows his own feed, principally oats and hay, and has no worries over harvesting or grain prices.
Truck Gardening.—Long days of abundant sunshine from May to September, and adequate moisture in the spring and early summer permit of a wide variety of products. The soil is rich and warm, and easily worked. Close attention to cultivation has resulted in record yields of vegetables and small fruits, which bring good prices in the cities.
A farmer within five miles of Moose Jaw, who sold vegetables at the city market last year realized more than $300 between August 1, and October 30. He had half an acre in carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, radishes, beans, lettuce and onions, and half an acre in potatoes and turnips. His own table was supplied all summer and enough vegetables were put in the cellar to supply him during the winter and seed potatoes in the spring.Read More
- Ian - Nov 19, 2013
A Communist Utopian fantasy, written in the depths of the Victorian age when the gulf between the rich and poor was probably as wide as it ever has been. Morris imagines a future of around 2013 when government, police, aristocracy, mass production, money and crime have fallen out of use, educatio...more
- J.G. Keely - Sep 12, 2011
There is something I mistrust in a man who hates his own time, who sees in it only folly and wrong-headedness, and who lives in a dreamed-of world in his head, a world of he has invented from the Glorious Past—and which he expects in the Glorious Future to come—but which never actually existed, a...more
- Kelly - May 14, 2009
A description of the capitalist past from a socialist future: "Why, then, since they had forced themselves to stagger along under this horrible burden of unnecessary production, it became impossible for them to look upon labor and its results from any other point of view than one -- to wit, the c...more
- Michele - Aug 16, 2008
I first read this book years ago in a Utopian lit class (really fabulous class with a great teacher), so I remembered some of it, but as usual, my leaky memory meant that a second read through revealed far more stuff than the first time around.
One thing I'd forgotten that I found interesting this...more
I would say News from Nowhere is more interesting than enjoyable. It's a fascinating look at a possible society, but there isn't much of a plot or characterisation. It's not precisely a novel, but it's certainly worth a read.
- Indah - Mar 12, 2019
Got to love some fictional politics
- James - Jun 06, 2008
I go back to this book "News from Nowhere, or an Epoch of Rest", again and again to remember how the world might be if sanity prevailed. The book was set in 1950 in a world where a socialist-anarchist revolution had taken place in the 19th century. It presupposes a source of clean energy has been...more
- عمران - Feb 18, 2018
تبدأ رواية «أخبار من لا مكان» مع بطلها وراويها، وليام غيست (ضيف) الذي لن يطول بنا الأمر قبل أن ندرك انه ليس سوى الأنا/ الآخر للكاتب نفسه، وقد غرق ذات يوم في سبات عميق يفيق بعده في زمن آخر غير زمنه. في زمن تبدلت أحواله وأضحى مجتمعاً اشتراكياً تدار فيه وسائط الإنتاج إدارة ديموقراطية لصالح الخير الع...more
- Josh - Jul 16, 2011
Pretty good, as far as 19th Century socialist utopian fiction is concerned.
It's greatest virtue is that the process whereby Communism arrives isn't by virtue of benevolence on the part of the capitalist class, as in Bellamy's Looking Backwards, but rather through violent, class struggle and uphea...more
- Mariana - Sep 11, 2015
This is one of the best editions of "News from Nowhere" in my opinion, and that only on Clive Wilmer's account. His introduction to Morris' life, work and thought was both insightful and informative, thoroughly unbiased and very well-documented.
As William Morris himself said it, the only "safe wa...more


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We welcome the animal lovers at our site with this awesome collection of animal wallpapers in this category at photofurl.com. Animals are one of the major components of the composition of this beautiful nature we observe around us. Nature has many colors; it has life in its every tiny particle. Animals are those living organisms, which add beauty to the lands, hills, waters, caves and sky. In every corner of this earth, we see that the God has made a few companions for man in form of animals. From the most friendly to being the most clever or the most aggressive animals has many characteristics.
This collection of wallpapers in this category of animal wallpapers is sure to tell you the nature, beauty and association of animals with this universe and especially with the humans. Everywhere we see animals on the roads, in the jungles, in the sky etc. Imagine if there were no animals around us in this world, how could we be able to get yourself amused and remove the complex of being lonely on this planet. To me animals are necessary for the humans to survive, at many times these animals are the ways by which the human get there desired results. Since the time when the first human breathed on the earth, these animals have proved to be the biggest companion of them.
In this category of animal wallpapers at photofurl.com you will be seeing the beauty which God has given to these animal. In this world there are several thousand types of animals which may resemble to each other in term of their color, sizes, shapes or they way of livings but they can easily be separated from each other on the basis of their certain unique characteristics which others do not have. Sometimes these distinguishers could be the nature or these could be the physical aspects or both. We the humans can learn many things from these animals like being mutually and socially cooperative. In this category of animal wallpapers at your most like web site there are several wallpapers related to animals, which are completely free of cost and very easy to download.


Customer satisfaction is everything in the service industry. Keep yours happy by tracking their belongings with printed claim check tags. No more misplaced luggage or clothing items when you have a stock of claim check tags. Available features include consecutive numbering and perforation. Give the separated stubs to customers for a quick and easy claim process.
o Don't see what you're looking for?


Next in the collection of design specifications is a Microsoft PKI with added client certificate auto enrollment settings.
A customer asked me if I could implement this and seeing as I've done a fair bit of Microsoft PKIs before, it didn't seem like too much of a hassle. Of course I wanted it to be documented and shared with all of you.
All in all, it was a little less than 8 hours before client certificates started rolling out, without anyone noticing.
SQL and Deadlocks – What, where and when are they exactly?


text:
2020 Spring Stats
Support Your Sport
2020 Tennis Summer Camp Flyer
Neil Schiff Tennis Center
Men's Tennis History
The University of Miami tennis program is one of the most successful in the country. The storied history of Hurricane tennis has been highlighted by one of the best dual match records in collegiate sports. Since 1930 the Hurricanes have compiled a record of 1198-455-9. In fact, from 1957-1964, the Hurricanes rolled up 137 consecutive dual match victories, one of the most impressive winning streaks in sports history.
Through the years, the Hurricanes have also produced winning streaks of 72 and 57 straight dual match victories and have fielded only six non-winning seasons since 1950. The program's presence on a national level has been quite dominating as the Hurricanes have qualified for the NCAA Championships 29 times since the NCAA began a dual-match, single elimination team tournament in 1977.
The University of Miami tennis program officially became a member of the BIG EAST Conference in 1991 and went on to dominate the league during its tenure, winning the BIG EAST title eight times.
Miami then joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004-05. The Hurricanes quickly rose to the top of the ACC ranks and in 2006, won a share of the regular-season title, while producing the league's Coach, Player and Freshman of the Year for the first time in conference history.
Throughout its history, the Hurricanes have produced great players, collecting four NCAA Championship singles titles and producing 28 All-Americans (52 selections) including Johan Donar, Miami's all-time singles win leader and first four-time All-American (1987-90), Luigi D'Agord (2006-07), and Daniel Vallverdu (2006-08), UM's second four-time tennis All-American. Three players have achieved the coveted No. 1 national ranking – Francisco "Pancho" Segura in 1936 and 1937, Conny Falk in 1990 and Srjdan Muskatirovic in 1994.
Francisco "Pancho" Segura was the forerunner of the brilliant success of the program becoming one of the only two players to win three consecutive NCAA Singles Championships (1943-44-45). He captured his fourth NCAA Championship title, pairing with Thomas Burke to win the 1945 doubles championship.
All-Americans Pat Cramer and Luis Garcia brought home the second NCAA doubles title in 1970, while another All-American, Andrew Burrow, delivered the Hurricanes fourth single crown in 1987, defeating Michigan's Dan Goldberg in the title match.


text:
2000 Eric 2022
Eric Espinoza
August 8, 2000 — March 20, 2022
Eric Espinoza, 21, of Cromwell, IN passed away at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 20, 2022 as the result of a pedestrian / vehicle accident near North Webster, IN. He was born on August 8, 2000, in Corpus Christi, TX to Daniel and Lydia (Rocha) Espinoza Sr.
He grew up and spent half of his life in Sinton, TX before moving to the Kosciusko County area. He attended Wawasee High School and worked at Lippert Components in Goshen, IN.
Parents – Daniel & Lydia Espinoza
Daughter – Neazah Espinoza & her mother Natalyia Hentzell
2 Sisters – Jaimie Martinez & Daniela Espinoza
2 Brothers – Brandon Rocha & Daniel Espinoza Jr.
Maternal Grandmother – Noemi Rocha
He was preceded in death by his paternal grandmother – Maria Espinoza
Cremation will take place at Cremation Services of Kosciusko County, 4356 N. St. Rd 15, Warsaw, IN. No public services are planned. Owen Family Funeral Home, 1001 S. Huntington St., Syracuse, IN is in charge of arrangements.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Eric Espinoza, please visit our flower store.
Titus Funeral Home-Syracuse


Exterior LED beacon light with 12 auxiliary LEDs providing 360° vertical and horizontal coverage. Features 30 built-in patterns including 4 simulated rotating patterns. The polycarbonate lens is available in both clear and colored (red, blue, amber) options. Comes with a permanent mount and a black powder coated die-cast base. 5 year warranty.


text:
'Chicago Blaxican' Charged With Felonies After Targeting Politicians With Threatening Videos
By Charlie De Mar July 24, 2020 at 10:48 pm
Filed Under:Charlie De Mar, Chicago, Kwame Raoul, Lisa Madigan, threats
CHICAGO (CBS) — A helicopter is shown with an FBI logo on the side. But it is not a real FBI chopper. It's just a stunt.
CBS 2's Charlie De Mar has the story.
Eric Jaglicic, a wanna be rapper who goes by the name "Chicago Blaxican" is now charged with three felonies for posting threatening videos. Jaglicic is in this position because he believes he was wrongly prosecuted in a case hes already done time for. So he's now created these threatening videos.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, his chief deputy and former Attorney General Lisa Madigan are all mentioned. Jaglicic is also behind a 2018 stunt, renting a helicopter and marking FBI on the side.
The chopper then flies extremely low and within feet of the John Hancock building, blasting the condos with a spot light, all for a YouTube video the 40-year old produced and starred in.
Daniel Monge took the video that evening. He was worried because he felt the helicopter was dangerously close to the Hancock.
"I never seen a chopper flying that close to the building with the lights shooting," he said.
Jaglicic is angry at the politicians for what he perceives as the mishandling of a case he was previously convicted on. The Chicago Blaxican's home was seized in that old case. He even made an appearance on an episode of CNBC's American Greed program, showing off his enormous home and exotic animals.
He defrauded more than a dozen investors out of $1.6 million for a non-existent movie with Adam Sandler. Now Jaglicic finds himself in the spotlight once again.
Bond has been set for Jaglicic at a million dollars.
Charlie De Mar
More from Charlie De Mar


Earl Klugh on Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival DVD/CD, available 11/19/13!
Yoshi's San Fran/Oakland, and Catalina Island!
Earl Klugh on Tavis Smiley Radio!
Earl Klugh was honored to speak with the great Tavis Smiley about his latest release, HandPicked. We hope you enjoy the segment as much as Earl did! Click HERE to listen!
HandPicked is featured as one of AmazonMP3's "100 Albums For $5", now through September 30th, 2013! Click HERE to download HandPicked, a #1 Billboard Contemporary Jazz Album, today!
Earl Klugh to Perform National Anthem at Turner Field in Atlanta for Braves/Marlins Game on Sat. 8/31!


We live on the Intracoastal Waterway in Beaufort, NC. We have so many visitors from up north. They tell us that they are so relaxed when they come to visit. So…..we made a play on words and "REEL" is for the fishing we do as well.
The simple windows are often the best, and this one has a smile to accompany it, too!
I used to help run a hotel on the coast in SW England, and it was amazing how people Reel-axed when they came down from London. To start with they're buzzing about like mad bees, but two days later… up late for breakfast, snoozing in the lounge, pottering by the ocean. Lovely.
Thanks for posting your transom, cheered me up and reminded me to relax.


Derbyshire Police are appealing for information following a burglary at a hair salon in Old Whittington.
Infinite Hair on the High Street was broken into sometime between 7pm on Thursday, September 20 and 7am the following morning.
The cash register was stolen.
A police spokesman said: "Did you notice anything suspicious?
"If you have any information which may assist with our enquiries, please get in touch using one of the following non-emergency contact methods.
"Please quote the reference number 18000451933 and the name of the officer in the case, PC Michael Smith in any correspondence."
Website – complete the online contact form www.derbyshire.police.uk/Contact-Us.
You can also call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Please note in the event of an emergency you should always call 999.


text:
Home / Shipping News / Dry Bulk Market / China's Soybean Imports From Brazil Plunged In Jan-Feb On Cargo Delays
China's Soybean Imports From Brazil Plunged In Jan-Feb On Cargo Delays
in Dry Bulk Market,Freight News 22/03/2021
China's soybean imports from Brazil fell sharply in the first two months of 2021 compared to the same period last year, customs data showed on Saturday, as rain delayed some shipments from the top exporter.
China, the world's top buyer of soybeans, brought in 1.03 million tonnes of the oilseed from Brazil in Jan-Feb, down nearly 80% from 5.14 million tonnes a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Custom showed.
Rain in Brazil has slowed the harvest and exports in the South American country, forcing some crushers in China to consider curbing operations.
Shipments from the United States to China in Jan-Feb totalled 11.9 million tonnes, nearly double the volume of 6.1 million tonnes in the previous year.
China stepped up purchases of U.S. farm produce, including soybeans, after the two sides signed an initial trade deal in January 2020.
China's total imports of soybeans in the first two months of 2021 fell 0.8% to 13.41 million tonnes.
Its appetite for the oilseed was expected to keep increasing thanks to good crushing margins and healthy demand from a fast recovering pig sector.
Fresh cases of African swine fever in recent months, however, have cast doubts on the country's pork production, and stirred worries over demand for soymeal, the most important protein ingredient in animal feed.
Chinese crushers bring in soybeans to crush into soymeal, and for cooking oil.
Crushers in Rizhao, Shandong, a major soybean processing hub, can make around 158 yuan ($24.28) for every tonne of the oilseed they crush as of March 19, well above historical average levels in the past 10 years.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Hallie Gu and Emily Chow; Editing by Kim Coghill)
hellenicshippingnews...
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text:
Q: Global переменные. Можно ли сократить в Python Хотел задать вопрос.

*

*Можно ли как-то сократить код в Python за счет каких либо манипуляций над Global переменными?

*Как правильно называть "global" в Python (переменная/функция/тип данных)?

*Почему при работе с списком (list) не нужно писать "global"

Вот сам код:
kolvo = 0
cena = 0
name = []
i = 0

def add_item(item_name, item_cost):
    slov = item_name + ' - ' + str(item_cost)
    name.append(slov)
    global cena #именно про эти две строки и их сокращение
    global kolvo #именно про эти три строки и их сокращение
    cena += item_cost
    kolvo += 1

def print_receipt():
    global i
    global cena #именно про эти три строки и их сокращение
    global kolvo #именно про эти три строки и их сокращение
    global name #именно про эти три строки и их сокращение
    if cena != 0:
        i += 1
        print('Чек', str(i) + '.', 'Всего предметов:', str(kolvo))
        for gg in range(len(name)):
            print(name[gg], sep='/n')
        print('Итого:', cena)
        print('-----')
        kolvo = 0
        cena = 0
        name = []

Заранее огромное спасибо!

A: Вам вообще не нужны глобальные переменные.
class MyClass():
    kolvo = 0
    cena = 0
    name = []
    i = 0

    def add_item(self, item_name, item_cost):
        slov = item_name + ' - ' + str(item_cost)
        self.name.append(slov)
#        global cena #именно про эти две строки и их сокращение
#        global kolvo #именно про эти три строки и их сокращение
        self.cena += item_cost
        self.kolvo += 1

    def print_receipt(self):
#        global i
#        global cena #именно про эти три строки и их сокращение
#        global kolvo #именно про эти три строки и их сокращение
#        global name #именно про эти три строки и их сокращение
        if self.cena != 0:
            self.i += 1
            print(f'Чек {self.i}. Всего предметов: {self.kolvo}')
            for gg in range(len(self.name)):
                print(self.name[gg], sep='/n')
            print(f'Итого: {self.cena:>4}')
            print('-' * 12)
            self.kolvo = 0
            self.cena = 0
            self.name = []

myClass = MyClass()
myClass.add_item('Name_1', 12)
myClass.add_item('Name_2', 42)
myClass.print_receipt()

A: *

*Подстановка переменных через запятую. В этом примере: global i, cena, kolvo, name

*Скорее всего, можно назвать функцией для определения области видимости переменной.

*Потому что вы редактируете существующий объект, а не помещаете в переменную какой-то новый объект.