If the Moon exhibits an edge outline it must be due to 'Atmospheric Refraction' causing 'Light Dispersion' along is edge in direct sunlight. This could be due to glass or silicon in the soil and particles in the 'thin' atmosphere.
I have prepared a collection of comparative examples of what I consider a strange outline surrounding the waxing and full Sturgeon (or Red) Moon during July and August 2009. I specifically show: night glow, daylight, day humidity and haze, night soft-glow, twilight, full phase, juxtaposed and veiled outlines.
I understand light theory which states "All edges attract or reflect the most light." I seek to understand why there is a contrasting 'outline' surrounding the Lunar body regardless of time of day or night, varying weather conditions or degree of reflected light particles.
My conclusion is that the 'negligible' Lunar atmosphere is observable to a degree depending on time/space parameters. I also believe that a waxing Moon is best observed between sunrise and noon and a waning Moon from sunset through twilight.. altho waxing has a slight advantage with less charged particles in the Earth's atmosphere (early morning is cooler).
Please read this about Atmospheric Refraction and Light Dispersion..


The Buren Insurance Group has a rich history insuring farms and agribusiness throughout Ohio. Beginning in 1968, Don Buren worked with agribusiness owners to ensure they were protected if disaster strikes. In 2013, Buren Insurance merged with Reitler Insurance, gaining additional knowledge and experience in the farming community.
Throughout our past and now, we continue to help agribusiness owners navigate the complex insurance world and maintain best practices when it comes to risk management.
Whether you are a family owned farm operation or a business supporting the agribusiness community, The Buren Insurance Group has the resources and experience you need to protect your growing operations.


Though shot like a low-budget documentary, there's a certain authenticity and realness to Seis Pistos' "Living On A Song" video. At its core, the video chronicles the everyday life of a rebellious girl who rolls out of bed late, walks through a poor neighborhood and dances by herself before joining her friends who are just as equally looking for trouble. The whole scenario fares quite well with the song, which is played by Seis Pistos in the middle of a skate park while lead vocalist Ivan Chavero saunters around freely and screams at the camera his reasons for questioning the greater system. Amidst the madness, there are random clips of telemarketers at work, preppy men dancing choreography entirely in black and white, and even a gorilla reading. Sure, the connection among it all doesn't make much sense, but the boys of Seis Pistos simply don't care, declaring that they "don't want to be another slave of modern days" and just want to break away from what's expected of them.
Complaining about the mundane life of working from 9 to 5 is nothing new, really, but Seis Pistos takes their outrage to another level. Best described as a Latin punk band mixed with a little bit of ska, Seis Pistos wears their influences on their sleeves. It's quite obvious that Seis Pistos respects those who came before them – whether it's Rancid or NOFX – and will gladly accept comparisons to their American counterparts.
"Living On A Song" is just a taste of what Seis Pistos is all about. You can find the song off of their album Crisis, which was released by Peach Records last year. The album contains exclusively English tracks unlike their previous albums that were sung in Spanish. Seis Pistos is a great representation of the punk movement in Mexico, and the video for "Living On A Song" without a doubt reflects that.
We're definitely excited to be working with this international punk powerhouse and can't wait to hear what you think of Seis Pistos. If you need more info, call Andy Gesner at 732-613-1779 or e-mail us at HIPVideo@aol.com. You can also visit www.SeisPistos.com.mx to get more info on Seis Pistos.


After months of teasing, more details of Boom Boom Room: Side B have been revealed, and we're beyond excited.
Today, July 27, the band shared more details of what's to come, including the tracklist for the upcoming release.
While we're beyond excited, we can't help but wonder what the cryptic tweet means. The finale? Of what…could this mean that this album marks the end of an era?


Trail # 1339. The trail accesses the South Colony lakes and the surrounding peaks. This trail is moderate for hiking. Most of the trail is located in the Sangre de Christo wilderness. Practice "Leave no Trace" camping techniques.
Take highway 69 south out of Westcliffe for 4.5 miles to County Road 119(Colfax Lane). Turn right on to CR 119 and follow it till it ends then turn right, this is the South Colony Road. There is trailhead parking on the right after about one mile. The road beyond this point requires 4wd and high clearance, but continues for another 2.5 miles to the "new" South Colony Trailhead.


text:
![[lerax](www.github.com/ryukinix)](https://projecteuler.net/profile/lerax.png)
![[lubien](www.github.com/lubien)](https://projecteuler.net/profile/lubien.png)
![[leorog](www.github.com/leorog)](https://projecteuler.net/profile/leorog.png)
![[tkovs](www.github.com/tkovs)](https://projecteuler.net/profile/tkovs.png)
![[mateusjatenee](www.github.com/mateusjatenee)](https://projecteuler.net/profile/mateusjatenee.png)
![[rafaelcn](www.github.com/rafaelcn)](https://projecteuler.net/profile/rafaelcamposn.png)
![[a-hilaly](www.github.com/a-hilaly)](https://projecteuler.net/profile/mellatora.png)

| Solver Name          | ProjectEuler NickName |
| :--------------------| :-------------------- |
| Manoel Vilela        | lerax                 |
| João Ferreira        | lubien                |
| Leonardo Rogerio     | leorog                |
| Vitor Rodrigues      | tkovs                 |
| Mateus Guimarães     | mateusjatenee         |
| Rafael Campos Nunes  | rafaelcamposn         |
| Lucas Machado        | machad0               |
| M. A. Hilaly         | mellatora             |

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The 'Princess of Wales – Musical & Pictorial Memoir' is a collection of Carlin's original works that he composed between 1999 and 2004. Each piece was carefully selected to accompany a specific licensed photograph of the Princess. The sequence of photos and musical sound tracks mirror the prominent events in the life of the Princess of Wales from her wedding until her flight from the paparazzi on 31 August 1997.
Unauthorised copying, reproduction, hiring, public performance, or broadcasting prohibited.


text:
Q: C++ Setters difference of this and :: and = I'm a Java developer with some experience. I'm moving to C++ development, and have a question related to setters in C++.
I see some examples where some people use :: or this-> or = (last 2 are similar to Java) to assign the value, for example
client.h
class Client {

    std::string name;

public:

    Client();

    Client(const std::string &name);

public:

    const std::string &getName() const;

    void setName(const std::string &name);

};

SETTER VARIATIONS
// CLION AUTO GENERATE THIS FIRST CLIENT::NAME

void Client::setName(const std::string &name) {
    Client::name = name;
}

void Client::setName(const std::string &name) {
    this->name = name;
}

void Client::setName(const std::string &newName) {
    name = newName;
}

What is the difference between the 3 cases? What are the best or correct form in C++?

A: *

*I'll assume you meant Client where you wrote Cliente

First case:
void Client::setName(const std::string &name) {
    Cliente::name = name;
}

In this case, name is a static string variable under the Client class. the :: operator means that the following function / variable is a member of this class, and that it is static. (Therefore when you call setName, it will set the name for all the variables of this type!)
Second case:
void Cliente::setName(const std::string &name) {
    this->name = name;
}

In this case, name is a variable that isn't static inside the class, and is relative to each specific object. For example, if You would have Client c1 and Client c2 and change the name of c1, c2's name will remain unchanged. the -> operator is similar to the . operator in java - it means it's relative to this object, except in c++ you use the dot when you're messing with object variables, and the arrow with pointers to object variables. "this" is a pointer to the current object you're dealing with, and that's why you use the arrow operator. It's just an easier way of writing (*this).name
void Cliente::setName(const std::string &name) {
    name = name;
}

I assume the left name is a variable inside Client. Well, when you're writing inside the class you don't have to write this-> because it takes the current object's variables as default, So there's no difference between the second and third case, but when you're outside of the class you have to specify which object are you referring to.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Graduate Student Government encourages graduate students from all disciplines to volunteer as grant readers to ensure that an interdisciplinary panel reviews GSG grant applications. This is a great way to learn the process and prepare yourself for applying for a grant in the future. Many graduate students have found volunteering as grant readers to be a valuable experience. You may request to serve as a grant reader in either the travel-to-present or degree-related categories. All grant readers are required to score grants according to the rubric and attend a 2 hour session to discuss scores with the Grant's Officer. Lunch is provided as a thank you for your efforts.
If you are applying for a grant you may serve as a grant reader in the opposite funding category to avoid conflicts of interest. Please note that as of Fall 2016, if your grant is approved for funding you are required to serve as a grant reader in the next funding cycle. Exceptions include graduation, extensive off-campus field work, and medical issues arising. Please contact the Grants Officer with questions (umaine.gsg.grants@gmail.com).


text:
Meet the Mini-Marthas! Suddenly, Hipster Homemakers Are Cleaning Up
One of my roommates periodically gets a very crafty idea when it comes to the maintenance of our apartment—he'll stay
By Daniel D'Addario • 04/18/12 12:03pm
Ms. Morin, founder of HelloBrit.com.
One of my roommates periodically gets a very crafty idea when it comes to the maintenance of our apartment—he'll stay up all night and bleach the counters, then pull old wine bottles out of the recycling bin and fill them with olive oil or tap water. The sparkling counters or the shiny glass bottles are refreshing additions to the space; they are also ironic reminders that the floor is covered with little pieces of … something, and the baseboards are grimy, and the sink is full of dishes. The one way to regain control of our lives, given our overall apathy, was through performing a chore that was fun.
That roommate was a frequent reader of Jolie Kerr's "Ask a Clean Person" column on the women's interest site The Hairpin, which provides advice to novice homemakers. The advice is, at once, delightfully voicey ("Bleachie," Ms. Kerr's term for her favorite cleaning solvent, is a recurring character to whom the author and readers express their "<3") and useful (bleach really does clean up surfaces like counters). And Ms. Kerr, with her column teaching millennial, gen-Y and gen-X readers how to remove personal fluids from leather or upholstery, is at the forefront of an online movement that's taking homemaking from the stodgy, didactic world of Martha Stewart et al. to the cluttered homes of youngsters who apparently have no idea how to perform even the most basic task. "How to clean up vomit is a topic you'll see on Heloise, on Martha," Ms. Kerr said, "but you won't find them in a context of people being honest about why they were vomiting on their party clothes."
It was easy, in the days of Martha's dominance, to look up to Ms. Stewart while sensing her looking down on you. Ms. Stewart's business model is based upon marketing the unattainable life. All those lemon centerpieces and deep-fried turkeys and carefully groomed horses add up to a consistent message: you'll never be this good (prison's softened her up, but not much). Ms. Kerr and other lifestyle bloggers make cleaning and decorating and cooking seem as easy as, well, blogging.
"Ask a Clean Person," for instance, takes as its thesis that its reader will know literally nothing about cleaning. Ms. Kerr passes along the knowledge our mothers might have imparted in decades prior: "Hey ladies, do you polish your shoes?" read a column last year. "No? You should!" While Ms. Kerr studiously avoids making fun of those who write in for advice, one question does shock her: "People who don't understand how to use a sponge … You wonder—has someone else been washing your dishes your whole life?"
Since its inception in March 2011, the column has drawn more than a million unique pageviews, making it one of the most popular features on the site; comments on each post generally number in the hundreds.
While Ms. Kerr's advice takes into account basic needs, Brit Morin provides the answers to questions never asked. The California-based former Google employee has created a company, named Brit, that aims to share ways to hack the homemaking process. She has shown readers how to convert used laptop chargers into jump ropes and how to make a homemade pizza entirely from canned goods. "If you look at Pinterest and Etsy and Food Network exploding," said Ms. Morin, "people are enjoying learning to create."
Ms. Kerr sees it as an "outgrowth of the economy tanking," she said. "All of a sudden, people couldn't afford to be eating out as much so they started cooking at home. And all of a sudden they're in their home and noticing messes."
Filed Under: Entertainment, Real Estate, Jordan Reid, Jolie Kerr, The Hairpin, brit morin, Martha Stewart
SEE ALSO: Best Games of 2022

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Origin and evolution of the 1918 "Spanish" influenza virus hemagglutinin gene
Ann H. Reid, Thomas G. Fanning, Johan V. Hultin, and Jeffery K. Taubenberger
PNAS February 16, 1999 96 (4) 1651-1656; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.96.4.1651
Ann H. Reid
Thomas G. Fanning
Johan V. Hultin
Jeffery K. Taubenberger
Communicated by Edwin D. Kilbourne, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY (received for review August 7, 1998)
1918 Spanish influenza: The secrets remain elusive
The "Spanish" influenza pandemic killed over 20 million people in 1918 and 1919, making it the worst infectious pandemic in history. Here, we report the complete sequence of the hemagglutinin (HA) gene of the 1918 virus. Influenza RNA for the analysis was isolated from a formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded lung tissue sample prepared during the autopsy of a victim of the influenza pandemic in 1918. Influenza RNA was also isolated from lung tissue samples from two additional victims of the lethal 1918 influenza: one formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sample and one frozen sample obtained by in situ biopsy of the lung of a victim buried in permafrost since 1918. The complete coding sequence of the A/South Carolina/1/18 HA gene was obtained. The HA1 domain sequence was confirmed by using the two additional isolates (A/New York/1/18 and A/Brevig Mission/1/18). The sequences show little variation. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that the 1918 virus HA gene, although more closely related to avian strains than any other mammalian sequence, is mammalian and may have been adapting in humans before 1918.
The influenza pandemic of 1918 was exceptionally severe, killing 20–40 million people worldwide, with unusually high death rates among young, healthy adults (1). A mild wave of influenza in the spring and summer of 1918 was highly contagious but caused few deaths. In late August, a virulent form of the disease emerged and swept the globe in 6 months, killing over 10,000 people per week in some U.S. cities (1) at the height of the pandemic.
Recently, this laboratory reported the isolation of fragments of RNA from the 1918 influenza virus from preserved lung tissue of a victim of the deadly fall wave of the pandemic. Sequence from 5 of the virus's 10 genes indicated that the strain was of the H1N1 subtype and different from any other sequenced influenza strain. All of the sequenced genes were more similar to those influenza strains infecting mammals than to those that infect birds (2). We now report the complete sequence of the hemagglutinin (HA) gene of the 1918 influenza virus. The full-length sequence was generated by using RNA fragments isolated from the victim reported in March 1997 [A/South Carolina/1/18 (H1N1)] (2). Additional sequence was obtained from two recently identified 1918 victims.
Influenza is a zoonotic disease, affecting many species of birds and mammals. The HA protein is found on the surface of the influenza virus particle and is responsible for binding to receptors on host cells and initiating infection. HA is also the principal target of the host's immune system. Thus, in order for influenza to spread in a new host, the HA protein must acquire the ability to bind to the new host's cells. Once in the new host, the HA protein comes under selective pressure for change to evade the host's immune system (3).
Pandemic influenza results when an influenza strain emerges with an HA protein to which few people have prior immunity (4). It is thought that the source of HA genes that are new to humans is the extensive pool of influenza viruses infecting wild birds. Of the 15 HA subtypes found in birds, only 3 (H1, H2, and H3) are known to have caused pandemics in humans (5). Recently an H5 virus caused illness in a limited number of people in Hong Kong, China (6, 7). How new HA genes emerge and where they adapt from their characteristic avian form to a form that successfully spreads in humans are not understood perfectly. In both 1957 and 1968, the pandemic strains had new HA genes that were very similar to known avian strains (8, 9). We sought to determine whether the HA gene of the 1918 pandemic strain also had avian characteristics.
Case Selection.
Autopsy cases of 78 victims of the lethal fall wave of the 1918 pandemic were examined for this study. Evidence from 74 victims consisted of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues, stained slides, and clinical records from the files of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. All the samples were screened by histologic analysis. The majority of individuals died of secondary acute bacterial pneumonia, the most common cause of death in the 1918 pandemic (10); most of the samples taken from these individuals were not analyzed further, because they were extremely unlikely to retain influenza virus (11, 12). However, 13 samples were selected by histologic and clinical criteria for further analysis. These samples were from patients who experienced acute influenza deaths after clinical courses of less than 1 week. In addition to samples taken from patients with early bronchopneumonia, samples from patients with acute massive pulmonary edema and/or hemorrhage were also selected, reflecting the unusual histopathology observed in 1918 (13). Of these 13 samples, 2 were positive for influenza RNA on subsequent molecular genetic analysis.
Case Histories.
The first patient was a 21-year-old male stationed at Ft. Jackson, SC. He was admitted to the camp hospital on September 20, 1918 with influenza and pneumonia. He had a progressive course with cyanosis and died on September 26, 1918. During the autopsy, it was noted that he had a fatal secondary lobar bacterial pneumonia in his left lung, whereas the right lung showed only focal acute bronchiolitis and alveolitis, indicative of primary influenza pneumonia. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded right lung tissue was positive for influenza RNA [A/South Carolina/1/18 (H1N1)] as reported (2).
The second patient was a 30-year-old male stationed at Camp Upton, NY. He was admitted to the camp hospital with influenza on September 23, 1918, had a very rapid clinical course, and died from acute respiratory failure on September 26, 1918. The autopsy showed massive bilateral pulmonary edema and focal acute bronchopneumonia. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded lung tissue was positive for influenza RNA [A/New York/1/18 (H1N1)]. RNA templates larger than 150 nucleotides could not be amplified in these two cases.
An additional 1918 influenza case was found by examining lung tissue from four 1918 influenza victims exhumed from a mass grave in Brevig Mission on the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. Brevig Mission (called Teller Mission in 1918) suffered extremely high mortality during the influenza pandemic in November 1918. Although individual case records were not available, historical records show that influenza spread through the village in about 5 days, killing 72 people, representing about 85% of the adult population (1, 14). Victims were buried in a mass grave in permafrost. In August 1997, four of these victims were exhumed. Frozen lung tissues were biopsied in situ from each, and tissues were placed in formalin, alcohol fixatives, and RNAzol (Tel-Test, Friendswood, TX). Although the histologic analysis was hampered by artifacts of freezing, these tissues showed evidence of acute massive pulmonary hemorrhage and edema. One of the victims, an Inuit female (age unknown) was influenza RNA positive [A/Brevig Mission/1/18 (H1N1)]. In this case, RNA templates greater than 120 nucleotides could not be amplified.
RNA Extraction.
RNA lysates from the paraffin-embedded tissues were produced as described (15). RNA was isolated from the frozen lung tissue by using RNAzol (Tel-Test) according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Reverse Transcription–PCR (RT-PCR).
RT was carried out at 37°C for 45 min in 20 μl of 1× RT buffer (GIBCO/BRL) containing 300 units of Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase, 5 μM random hexamers, 200 nM dNTP, and 10 mM DTT. RT reaction (2 μl) was added to a 20-μl PCR containing 50 mM KCl, 10 mM Tris, 2.5 mM MgCl2, 1 μM each primer, 100 nM dNTP, 1 unit of Amplitaq Gold (Perkin—Elmer), and 2 μCi of 32P-labeled dATP (3,000 Ci/mmol). The entire HA coding sequence of 1,701 nucleotides was amplified in 22 overlapping fragments, such that the sequences matching primers could be confirmed. The primers were designed as degenerate H1 consensus primers by using alignments of human, swine, and avian H1 HA sequences. The primer sequences used for these amplifications are available on request.
PCR conditions were 9 min at 94°C; 40 cycles of 94°C for 30 sec, 50°C for 30 sec, 72°C for 30 sec; and 72°C for 5 min. Part (one-sixth) of the reaction product was separated on a denaturing 7% polyacrylamide gel, dried, and visualized by autoradiography. Bands were excised, electroeluted, and precipitated with ethanol. Part (one-fourth) of the eluted product was added to a 50-μl PCR (50 mM KCl/10 mM Tris/2.5 mM MgCl2/200 nM dNTP/1 μM each primer/1 unit of Amplitaq Gold) and cycled as above. Reaction product (2 μl) was cloned into the PCR 2.1 vector (Invitrogen), according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Replicate RT-PCRs from independently produced RNA preparations gave identical sequence results. Only one nucleotide change was noted between the formalin-fixed samples and the RNA isolated from the frozen, unfixed sample (see below).
DNA Sequencing.
Direct PCR that used M13 primers was done on white colonies, and the products were sequenced by cycle sequencing as described (16).
Phylogenetic Analyses.
Phylogenetic analyses of the HA gene and its subsequences HA1 and HA2 employed parsimony and neighbor-joining (NJ) methods and used the software paup, version 3.1.1 (Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony; ref. 17) and mega, version 1.1 (Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis; ref. 18), respectively. The optimization method used in paup was acctran. The software package macclade was used to follow HA1 character evolution and accumulated changes in the influenza HA1 sequence family. macclade allows the evolution of single characters to be traced throughout the phylogenetic tree. Taxa (in this case, viral strains) can be moved around within a parsimony tree to evaluate the effect of different tree topologies on branch lengths, tree lengths, and character transformation (19).
NJ analyses routinely employed the proportion of differences between the sequences as the distance measure (p distance). Analyses were performed on 28 complete HA genes, 64 HA1 subsequences, and 30 HA2 subsequences. All analyses were bootstrapped 100 replications.
One parsimony analysis used 11 HA1 sequences and paup's exhaustive search option, which examines every possible tree produced by the data set. The sequences used (one 1918, three avian, three swine, and three human, plus one H2 as outgroup) were chosen to give a fair representation of the larger data set. Analysis of these sequences generated 34,459,425 trees with an average length of 1,459 steps (range of 1,022–1,553 steps with a standard deviation of 68.9).
Strains Used for Phylogenetic Analyses.
The following sequences were used in this analysis and were obtained from GenBank, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and the DNA Data Base in Japan. Strain abbreviations are listed in ref. 2 or as follows: Texas90, A/Texas/22/90 (H1N1); Qingdao91, A/Qingdao/28/91 (H1N1); Singapore90, A/Singapore/6/90 (H1N1); Fukushima88, A/Fukishima/2/88 (H1N1); Canada88, A/Canada/7/88 (H1N1); Czechoslovakia89, A/Czechoslovakia/2/89 (H1N1); Goroka90, A/Goroka/2/90 (H1N1); Fiji88, A/Fiji/2/88 (H1N1); Suita89, A/Suita/1/89 (H1N1); Ohio83, A/Ohio/101/83 (H1N1); Kiev79, A/Kiev/5/79 (H1N1); Arizona90, A/Arizona/1/90 (H1N1); PR34 (MS), A/PR8/34 (Mt. Sinai) (H1N1); Sw/29/37, A/Swine/29/37 (H1N1); SwQuebec90, A/Swine/Quebec/1747/90 (H1N1); SwNebraska92, A/Swine/Nebraska/1/92 (H1N1); Maryland91, A/Maryland/12/91 (H1N1); SwHong Kong74, A/Swine/Hong Kong/1/74 (H1N1); TyGermany90, A/Turkey/Germany/2482/90 (H1N1); DkHong Kong76, A/Duck/Hong Kong/36/76 (H1N1); MallTennessee85, A/Mallard/Tennessee/11464/85 (H1N1); TyMinnesota81, A/Turkey/Minnesota/1661/81 (H1N1); ChHong Kong76, A/Chicken/Hong Kong/14/76 (H1N1); and Japan57, A/Japan/305/57 (H2N2).
Sequence Analysis.
The HA gene sequence of A/South Carolina/1/18 (nucleotides 33–1,733), containing 1,701 nucleotides, and a theoretical translation are shown in Fig. 1. The HA protein is composed of two domains, HA1 and HA2, linked by a basic amino acid. The sequence of HA1 (nucleotides 33–1,064) and part of HA2 (nucleotides 1,065–1,258) were confirmed by using both A/New York/1/18 and A/Brevig Mission/1/18. Only two nucleotide differences were noted among the strains. These changes, at nucleotides 416 and 748, are shown in Fig. 1. There is a T at nucleotide 416 in A/South Carolina/1/18 and A/New York/1/18 and a C in A/Brevig Mission/1/18; however, this change does not alter an amino acid. The change at 748 is nonsynonymous, coding for aspartic acid in A/South Carolina/1/18 and A/Brevig Mission/1/18 and for glycine in A/New York/1/18. These changes were confirmed by independent RT-PCRs.
Complete coding sequence of the HA gene of the 1918 influenza virus. The sequence for A/South Carolina/1/18 is shown with a theoretical translation of the HA1 and HA2 domains. The numbering of the nucleotide sequence is aligned to PR/8/34 and refers to the sequence of the gene in the sense (mRNA) orientation. The sequence coding for the signal peptide is underlined. The cleavage site (nucleotides 1,062–1,064) between the HA1 and HA2 domains is shown in bold. Sequence differences between this strain and the other 1918 strains are shown as double-underlined nucleotides (nucleotides 416 and 748). The sequences were confirmed by sequencing overlapping RT-PCR products and by replicate RT-PCRs for each case. The GenBank accession number is AF117241 for A/South Carolina/1/18, AF116576 for A/New York/1/18, and AF116575 for A/Brevig Mission/1/18. The theoretical translation of the gene is shown above the nucleotide sequence. Boxed amino acids indicate potential glycosylation sites as predicted by the sequence (26). Receptor-binding sites (open diamonds; ref. 23), Cb antigenic site (open circles), Sa antigenic site (closed squares), Sb antigenic site (closed diamonds), and Ca antigenic site (closed triangles; refs. 28 and 37). Some of the receptor-binding residues are also in known antigenic sites. For these sites, symbols for both are shown.
NJ analyses were performed on the complete HA gene and on its two domains, HA1 and HA2; 28 complete H1 sequences plus 1 complete H2 sequence were compared, and three distinct clades—human, swine, and avian—emerged from the analysis. The 1918 sequence was within and near the root of the human clade. A similar result was found with 30 HA2 domain sequences. Analysis of 64 HA1 nucleotide sequences placed 1918 HA1 within and near the root of the swine clade. Parsimony analysis of HA, HA1, and HA2 always placed the 1918 sequences within and near the root of the human clade. None of the NJ or parsimony analyses placed 1918 HA within the avian clade. A subset of 10 HA1 nucleotide sequences (3 avian, 3 swine, 3 human, and a single 1918) were analyzed by paup with the exhaustive search option, which examines every possible tree produced by the data set. The shortest tree was over six standard deviations shorter than the mean tree length and placed 1918 HA1 within the human clade. The 10 shortest trees (1,022–1,035 steps) were examined, and in no case was 1918 HA placed within the avian clade.
Synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions were analyzed separately. Both NJ and parsimony analysis of synonymous substitutions placed the 1918 sequences within and near the root of the human clade for the complete HA, HA1 (Fig. 2), and HA2. When only nonsynonymous substitutions were examined, NJ analysis placed HA and HA1 within and near the root of the swine clade.
Phylogenetic tree of the influenza virus HA gene segment, HA1. Sequences were aligned with lasergene software (DNAstar, Madison, WI) and analyzed for phylogenetic relationships by the NJ method with the proportion of sequence differences as the distance measure (0.1 p distance ≈ 22.35 synonymous differences). Synonymous substitutions were analyzed and bootstrap values (100 replications) are given for selected nodes. Human, swine, and avian clades are identified with large brackets. The arrow identifies the position of the 1918 sequences. A distance bar is shown below the tree. Influenza strain abbreviations used in the analyses are described in Materials and Methods and in ref. 2.
Parsimony analysis of the HA protein placed the 1918 sequence within and near the root of the human clade, reflecting the result obtained with the nucleotide sequence. A similar result was obtained by analyzing 55 HA1 protein sequences that had the five most common egg-adaptation sites (20) removed. NJ analysis of the translated HA and HA1 proteins, on the other hand, placed the 1918 sequences within and near the root of the swine clade. This result is consistent with the phylogeny obtained from analyzing only the nonsynonymous substitutions in the gene.
Fig. 3 shows a parsimony tree of 564 steps generated by paup and analyzed by macclade. The total number of changes per branch is shown. The macclade program has reconstructed the sequence of the putative ancestor at each node and then determined the number of changes along the branch leading to the next node. It shows that avian HA1 proteins have changed less over time than human HA1 proteins. Swine HA1 proteins have an intermediate number of changes. For example, the 1918 HA1 has just 4 changes from the putative mammalian ancestral sequence, whereas the closest swine sequence differs by 10 changes from the same ancestral sequence. The 1918 HA1 has 13 changes from the putative avian ancestor, whereas the closest avian sequence differs by 8 changes from that ancestor.
Amino acid changes in three lineages of the influenza virus HA protein segment, HA1. A phylogenetic tree was derived by using paup (17). The tree was then imported into macclade (19), and the ancestral sequences at each node of the tree were inferred. The tree shows the numbers of unambiguous changes between these sequences, with branch lengths proportional to the number of changes. Colors denote the numbers of changes along each branch and are identified by the color key at the lower right.
With a length of 564 steps, the tree shown in Fig. 3 is the shortest generated by paup. The tree places 1918 within the human clade. However, the tree becomes only three steps longer when 1918 HA1 is considered ancestral to both human and swine lineages. For comparison, supposing that an early human strain like WS33 is ancestral to both human and swine results in a tree of 591 steps; supposing that an early swine strain like Sw/Iowa/30 is ancestral to all mammalian strains results in a tree of 573 steps.
Finally, we performed parsimony analysis by using only the three 1918 cases and nine avian strains to see whether the 1918 cases are placed in the mammalian clade, because all mammalian H1 strains are derived from a strain similar to the pandemic virus. This analysis showed the presence of two clades, avian and 1918, suggesting that the 1918 sequences are indeed phylogenetically distinct from avian strains.
Plotting the total number of amino acid changes from node to node (Fig. 3) vs. the year of isolation for viruses in the human clade before 1954 suggests that the ancestor of the 1918 virus entered humans around 1900. Tracing total numbers of nucleotide changes from node to node of a nucleotide parsimony tree places the 1918 ancestor in humans around 1915.
Receptor-Binding Sites.
Influenza infection requires binding of the HA protein to sialic acid-containing receptors on the host cell surface (21). HAs from influenza strains infecting birds preferentially bind to receptors with sialic acid linked to galactose by the α2,3 linkage (SAα2,3Gal), whereas human-adapted HAs prefer the α2,6 linkage (SAα2,6Gal). A shift from SAα2,3Gal to SAα2,6Gal binding seems to be a critical step in the adaptation of an avian HA to the human host (20, 22, 23). Determining the minimal changes allowing avian H1s to function in humans is complicated by the fact that the earliest H1 strains have been maintained in different laboratory host cells, a practice that selects for mutations in the receptor-binding sites (20). The 1918 sequence, having been derived directly from viral RNA, is free of any possible artifacts of laboratory adaptation.
A subset of amino acids that are unvaried in all avian HAs but vary in mammalian-adapted HAs has been identified (23) and constitutes the minimum receptor-binding site. Changes in these amino acids have been shown to affect receptor-binding specificity (24) and antigenicity (25). Studies in which mammalian strains are adapted to grow in eggs indicate that some of these amino acids are involved in the shift from SAα2,6Gal to SAα2,3Gal binding.
To shift from the avian receptor-binding site to that of swine H1s requires only one amino acid change, E190D (Table 1). The receptor-binding site of one of the 1918 cases (A/New York/1/18) is identical to that of A/Sw/Iowa/31 (a classical swine strain) and A/Sw/Germany/91 (a recent avian introduction into swine). The other two 1918 cases have an additional change from the avian consensus, G225D (Fig. 1; Table 1). Because swine viruses with the same receptor site as Sw/Iowa/31 and Sw/Germany/91 bind both SAα2,3Gal and SAα2,6Gal (20), New York/1/1918 probably also has the capacity to bind both receptors. The change at residue 190 may represent the minimal change needed to allow an avian H1-subtype HA to bind the SAα2,6Gal receptor.
HA receptor-binding residues of selected H1 influenza viruses
Glycosylation Sites.
Some glycosylation sites are necessary for the function of the influenza virus (26), but the accumulation of additional glycosylation sites is a common event in the adaptation of influenza strains to human hosts and seems to be a mechanism for masking antigenic sites. All avian and swine viruses share four glycosylation sites, whereas human strains from the 1930s have two additional sites, and modern human H1N1 viruses have up to five additional sites (27). The 1918 strains, in contrast, have only the four glycosylation sites shared with avian and swine strains (Fig. 1), suggesting that acquisition of additional glycosylation sites is not required for efficient replication in humans.
Antigenic Sites.
On the H1 protein, four antigenic sites, encompassing 42 amino acids, have been identified (refs. 25 and 28; Fig. 1). In human strains, these are among the most variable amino acids in the HA protein. At the Sa site, the 1918 strains match the avian sequences at all 12 amino acids. At the Sb site (9 amino acids), the 1918 strains share the avian consensus at 8 amino acids, but at amino acid 156, the 1918 strains have a serine that is found only in one other H1 strain (A/Sw/Illinois/63). At the Ca site (7 amino acids), the 1918 sequences have one change, N74S, from the avian consensus. This change is found in all swine strains but not in any human strains. At the Cb site (13 amino acids), the 1918 sequences differ from the avian consensus by two amino acids, S139A and T166V. The first change is found in all swine and some early human strains, and the second is found in all swine and human strains. Overall, the antigenic sites resemble the avian consensus closely, suggesting that there may have been little selective antigenic pressure on the HA protein before 1918.
Cleavage Site.
The HA of the recent H5 influenza outbreak in Hong Kong, China contained a cleavage-site mutation characteristic of highly lethal H5 and H7 avian viruses (6, 7). As reported (2), A/South Carolina/1/18 does not contain such a mutation, and the sequencing of the cleavage site in A/Brevig Mission/1/18 and A/New York/1/18 confirms the absence of this mutation (Fig. 1).
Previous phylogenetic analyses of H1 sequences suggest that the swine and human lineages diverged from a common, avian-like ancestor around 1905 (29, 30). Other analyses, which propose a higher rate of mutation early in the adaptation of avian influenza strains to mammalian hosts, suggest that the pandemic virus derived from an avian virus immediately before 1918, possibly through a swine intermediary (31, 32).
Of all mammalian H1s, those of the 1918 viruses are most similar to their avian counterparts. However, the 1918 HA gene has accumulated enough nonselected, mammal-associated changes to place it consistently in the mammalian clade phylogenetically (Fig. 2). The 1918 HA1 sequence differs from its closest avian relative by 26 amino acids, whereas the 1957 H2, the 1968 H3, and 1997 H5 HAs had 16, 10, and 3 differences, respectively, with their closest avian relatives (6–9). Phylogenetic analyses of the 1957, 1968, and 1997 HAs place them in avian clades and suggest that all three strains derived from the Eurasian group of avian strains. By contrast, phylogenetic analyses invariably place the 1918 sequence outside the avian clade and suggest that the 1918 sequence is phylogenetically equidistant from the Eurasian and North American avian strains.
Although the 1918 HA always falls within the mammalian group, it will sometimes seem to be more human-like, sometimes more swine-like, depending on the method of analysis. These results may be explained, at least in part, by the widely differing substitution rates in different lineages making up the tree (see Fig. 3). Human strains, because of strong immune selection, have many amino acid substitutions that are not shared with the 1918 strains or swine strains. As a result, phylogenetic analyses based on amino acid sequence or nonsynonymous nucleotide substitutions may tend to group 1918 and swine strains together. Synonymous substitutions, on the other hand, reflect drift unrelated to immune selection and indicate a closer relationship between 1918 strains and subsequent human strains. In all of the phylogenetic analyses, branch lengths near the root of the tree were very short, suggesting that there may be few differences between the 1918 sequences and the common mammalian influenza virus ancestor.
The existing strain to which the 1918 sequences are most closely related is A/Sw/Iowa/30, the oldest classical swine flu strain. It has been known since the 1930s that survivors of the 1918 influenza had antibodies that neutralized classic swine influenza virus (33), and A/Sw/Iowa/30 is very similar to the 1918 strains at the antigenic sites. Because individual swine do not live long enough to exert immune selective pressure on the virus, influenza drifts more slowly in swine than in humans (30). Therefore, one would expect a swine virus isolated in the 1930s to retain more characteristics of the 1918 strain than a 1930s human virus. Based on the calculated rate of amino acid change in swine HA genes (30), one would expect approximately 20 changes between the 1918 strains and A/Swine/Iowa/30. We find 22 changes (of which 4 are in antigenic sites), consistent with the hypothesis that a virus similar to the 1918 strains entered the swine population in 1918 and changed gradually over the subsequent 12 years. By contrast, there are 43 amino acid differences between the 1918 strains and the human virus A/PR/8/34 (Cam), of which 15 are in antigenic sites, a rate of change consistent with a virus under substantial immune pressure.
Historical accounts document a widespread but mild wave of influenza in humans in the spring of 1918. Victims of the spring wave were reported to be immune from severe disease in the fall, suggesting that the spring and fall waves were closely related (10). Swine were first affected in the fall, when severe influenza-like disease outbreaks were noted in swine in the United States, Hungary, and China (34–36). Contemporary veterinarians had not seen this disease in pigs and believed it to be the same disease affecting humans. This sequence of events supports the theory that the 1918 influenza spread from humans to swine and is difficult to reconcile with the theory that separate human and swine H1 viruses were circulating from 1905 to 1918.
Analysis of the 1918 HA sequence permits alternative interpretations as to its origin. The 1918 sequences are phylogenetically distinct from current avian strains. One possibility is that around 1918 there existed an avian strain more similar to the pandemic virus than current avian strains and that its HA entered with little modification into the human population. If avian viruses have not drifted over the past 80 years, such a strain would differ from current avian strains phylogenetically. This hypothesis cannot be tested, because avian H1 influenza-virus isolates from that time do not exist. A second possibility is that the pandemic virus had been adapting in mammals before 1918 and that it had accumulated enough changes to make its HA gene seem more mammalian by many phylogenetic criteria (e.g., parsimony and NJ). Our data and those of others (29) suggest that an entry date into the human population between 1900 and 1915 is reasonable.
The 1918 influenza virus HA gene does not possess the cleavage site mutation seen in virulent avian influenza strains. No other known genetic changes were observed in the 1918 HA sequence that would account for the exceptional virulence of this pandemic virus. What determines the virulence of a particular influenza strain is quite complex and involves host adaptation, transmissibility, tissue tropism, and replication efficiency. The genetic basis for virulence of other influenza strains (for which complete genomic sequence is available) cannot be determined yet, but it is most likely polygenic in nature (4). Further sequence analyses of the remaining 1918 influenza genes are currently in progress, and it is hoped that these studies will shed additional light on the nature of the 1918 influenza virus.
We are grateful to the people of Brevig Mission, Alaska, for their generosity and willingness to support this project and to Timothy J. O'Leary for his foresight and ongoing support. This work was supported in part by grants from the American Registry of Pathology and the Department of Veterans Affairs and by the intramural funds of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
↵* To whom reprint requests should be addressed. e-mail: reid{at}afip.osd.mil.
Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database (accession nos. AF117241 for A/South Carolina/1/18, AF116576 for A/New York/1/18, and AF116575 for A/Brevig Mission/1/18).
A Commentary on this article begins on page 1164.
HA,
hemagglutinin;
NJ,
neighbor-joining;
RT-PCR,
reverse transcription–PCR
Received August 7, 1998.
Accepted November 18, 1998.
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You are going to email the following Origin and evolution of the 1918 "Spanish" influenza virus hemagglutinin gene
Ann H. Reid, Thomas G. Fanning, Johan V. Hultin, Jeffery K. Taubenberger
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Feb 1999, 96 (4) 1651-1656; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.96.4.1651


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'Talls 'N Smalls features doll-like animals with long legs and lots of sweet personality. Each features a sculpted face with embroidered detailing, and a belly and back made of super soft textured fabric. Mary Meyer is an environmentally conscious company and has been making toys that are safe and fun since 1933. Mary Meyer has received numerous awards including multiple Toy of the Year awards. Known for using unique, beautiful, and incredibly soft fabrics, Mary Meyer continually strives to design extraordinary products of outstanding quality, all the while keeping an eye on customer service and value. lulujo muslin 100% cotton swaddling blankets are wraps made with finely woven muslin cloth. Soft and breathable, these wraps help baby feel safe and secure while swaddled. At 47 x 47" they also can be used as a nursing cover, change mat, stroller cover and more. Muslin is pre-washed, dual layer, and becomes softer with each use. lulujo is a proudly Canadian company behind premium baby essentials. An ever growing global business, our brand is simple: create functional products with comforting fabrics that modern parents and babies love. Launched in 2009, the collection, known for its top-selling multi-functional cotton muslin swaddling blankets, ultra soft fabrics and fashionable fun prints, has earned its place among leading brands in the industry.


This time of year we often see the Mute Swans grazing on the reedmace in the perimeter ditch. They delicately pull the heads down and pull out clumps of seed before dunking them in the water to make them more paletable.
Breath it in... an easterly is here... and the waft from the Thameside production plants to the east of the bridge is reaching the reserve. It is gloomy, overcast and wet and we are hoping that the first immigrants from the much colder continent will be on their way very soon.
With an increase in Starling numbers in the last week it is not surprising that we have had some more mini murmurations over the landfill.
If we get a proper cold spell hopefuly we shall get a few more scenes like this!
Wrens are hyperactive little birds and I suspect that they are doing ok in the unseasonally mild winter that we are experiencing.
During the course of the year a wide variety of artists will be exhibiting their work in the Purfleet Hide. Why come on down to see the wealth of talent we have on our doorstep? And you never know, you may find that something takes your eye!
Come and have a look at Dawn's amazing paintings (all will be on sale if something catches your eye!) from 25 January until 9 February!
Will we get to see some Sky Dancing?
This what the magnificent display of the male Marsh Harrier is called and wouldn't it be great to see him on a fine spring morning way up in the blue making weird almost Lapwing-like yapping sounds as he exaggerates his flapping, then drops, stalls, bounces back up again and repeats the process.
It is another lovely day now that the fog has lifted and with no breeze it looks set fair for a Turner Sunset later on.
Marsh Harriers showed well yesterday and two females have been sparring out over Wennington today so our hopes of some springtime Harrier action are still on course.
On Wednesday I put out some apples on the fence below the centre for the birds. I was in a bit of a rush and simply pushed them on..... Friday lunchtime and not one had been touched so I asked David K to pop down with a knife and slice the top off each one to see if it made a difference. He had barely been back in the building when the Starlings descended and began scoffing with abandon!
Another 12 hours of rain and the waters have gone up again.... Still wellies I'm afraid!
A single Brent Goose on the river was a good start and Andy Tweed has seen six Caspian Gulls on the floods on Wennington just alongside the cycle path. The pair of Marsh Harriers have been cruising around and the Peregrine has been spooking everything.
David Jackson has donated a few copies of his lastest publication - a collection of 27 poems all about birds!
David has donated 10 copies - with the money raised to come to us here at Rainham!
Tell us if you find them!
It would appear that the bulk of the 500 strong wintering flock of Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits had left our bit of the Thames for the time being. As a rule we are only seeing the odd small group such as those photographed by Bill Crooks on Monday.
Get ready for the Big Garden Birdwatch!
John Daly refound his own Black Redstart out at Coldharbour Point on Tuesday. From the pics it looks like it is coming down to the foreshore so may be worth a look if the weather improves again!
Great stuff.. wonder if we shall ever be able to read the ring number?
On Monday I had a day off so I had spent my day.... at Rainham... Well, I have not been out on the reserve in weeks so it was a good opportunity to get myself reacquainted with the marsh. I had a great slosh round and collected a good few much needed year ticks and enjoyed the solitude.
It's a glorious day outside, I hope you are enjoying it.
Funnily enough, my actual highlight from yesterday was non-avian in origin.
I spied a couple of visitors and thought mmm... I know that gentleman. The penny dropped and I realised that it was Peter Holden who headed up the Young Ornithologists Club way back in the day when I was first entering the wondrous world of the RSPB and birds.
The sun shone nearly all day and people came out en masse for a a paddle in the puddles. It was good to see the Bexley and Lincoln RSPB Members Groups on site and funnily enough the easiest way to tell them apart was the latters enthusiasm for the flocks of Ring-necked parakeets heading south across the river in the evening!


2019 Batista is the best thing going.
Only six days away from their No Holds Barred match at WrestleMania 35, Batista showed up to Raw with the tasking of selling the world on his fight with Triple H.
Batista pointed to a video highlight package and when it was done, he cut one of the best promos of his life.
On paper, a Triple H versus Batista feud had the potential to be a train wreck. Instead, both men have done a lot with little actual TV time and not a single physical interaction between them.
Story-wise, does Batista versus Triple H have the potential to steal the show at WrestleMania 35?
Rumor Roundup: Brand split, WWE returns, new Network content, ROH signings, more!


text:
Proud Boys take Trump's 'stand back and stand by' callout as marching orders
President Trump gave a shoutout to the Proud Boys who took it as a call to action but he has now walked back his comment
Keydra Manns
During the first debate by President Donald Trump and Joe Biden last night, Trump acknowledged the Proud Boys, telling them to "stand back and stand by."
The Proud Boys are a far-right extremist and "Western chauvinist" group that are considered violent according to ADL, a nonprofit that works to stop hate groups.
Read More: Robert Johnson on possible support of Trump: 'I will take the devil I know'
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 21: U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs the White House September 21, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump is traveling to Ohio for a campaign event. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
This isn't the first time Trump has seemingly shown support for an extremist group. In April, NBC News captured tweets by the president they alleged were messages to mobilize extremist groups.
"LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" , "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" and "LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment It is under siege!"
The tweets came after supporters of the president began to rally in various states around the country. According to NBC News, many online extremist communities felt the messages were from the president encouraging them to prepare for armed conflict.
CLEVELAND, OHIO – SEPTEMBER 29: U.S. President Donald Trump (R) and former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participate in the first presidential debate at the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University on September 29, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio. This is the first of three planned debates between the two candidates in the lead up to the election on November 3. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)
During last night's debate, moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump if he would denounce white supremacists and ask them to "stand down." Biden followed up and specifically named Proud Boys.
"Proud Boys, stand back and stand by," Trump said. "But I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about Antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem."
Read More: White Ohio police chief explains BLM support: 'We have to listen to people'
After the debate, Proud Boys updated their Telegram social media page to say, "Standing down and standing by sir."
Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs posted to social media after the debate in support of Trump's instructions and he was "standing by," and displayed excitement that the president "basically said to go f— them up."
"President Trump told the proud boys to stand by because someone needs to deal with ANTIFA… well sir! we're ready!!" he wrote.
Biden declared that this was "Donald Trump's America."
This. This is Donald Trump's America. https://t.co/wld2mmGTwe
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 30, 2020
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey sent a tweet after the debate showing his disapproval of Trump's response to the question pertaining to extremist groups.
"Donald Trump was asked to condemn white supremacists tonight. He wouldn't. He must be defeated."
Donald Trump was asked to condemn white supremacists tonight. He wouldn't.
He must be defeated.
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) September 30, 2020
Trump walked back his comments on Wednesday afternoon and told reporters that he did not know about the Proud Boys group and to "let law enforcement do their work."
There he goes again.
Trump always speaks with forked tongue about white supremacists and then claims ignorance.
Trump did this with David Duke and the KKK in 2016.
He did it with racists in Charlottesville in 2017.
And now he's doing it with the Proud Boys in 2020. https://t.co/CzeOk4I2Mx
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) September 30, 2020


I've just pulled out to sea in a chuffing shoe of a steamship named after a gothic poem, skippering unsteadily through an inky subterranean expanse. My headlamp drives a cone of wisp-yellow light before me like a flat sideways mouth, probing for markers, hostile ships or alien forms of mutant life.
It's dim everywhere I look, faint corrosion-green city beacons stippling the blackness here and there, viewed from above like the glowing indicators on some eerily silent and byzantine industrial machine. I hear a steady ringing, a sonar-like ping punctuating the deceptive tranquility.
Off starboard, I catch sight of something monstrous and mottled lumbering toward me with giant pincers. Are those antennae or whips? I fire the ship's boiler hoping to outrun the horror, take note of my soaring thermostat, steer my ship toward a nearby shoal, and cross my fingers.
All of which is just a fancy way of saying that I'm playing the beta version of Failbetter Games' crowdfunded Sunless Sea, currently available via Steam Early Access for $19.
It's in admirably functional shape—still missing bits and bobs in places that the design team has filled with placeholder text that outlines what's to come—but quite playable, and so far at least, I'm having a blast with it.
What is Sunless Sea? For starters, a vaguely roguelike experience, meaning it involves exploration, randomized maps and permadeath, although the latter is optional here if you're willing to forfeit a "bragging rights token".
But to tag it as a roguelike with salt water is probably too reductive. Sunless Sea is a game that, as much as I've seen of it, couples the descriptive mechanics of a Choose Your Own Adventure to Asteroids-like exploration of a vast underground ocean, folds in the combat mechanics of an MMO, then wraps all that into a world-building exercise that'd do New Weird writers like Jeff Vandermeer and China Mieville proud.
Moreover, it's a game about quietude—about trundling along in merciless darkness, often on the verge of death from lack of food or fuel, half-blindly nosing around for ports of call. Death is omnipresent, arriving with starvation, mechanical ship failures, mutinies, rival vessels, leviathan-sized crustaceans, cannibalism and madness. You're a sort of Captain Nemo in a world stranger than any Verne imagined, a Robinson Crusoe marooned in a nightmare, sometimes having to stave off the cannibals—or, if the spirit (and your empty gut) so moves you, becoming one yourself.
The game transpires in the same world as FG's Fallen London, a browser-based, text-driven game that appeared back in 2009 about exploring an alternate-verse rendition of Victorian London, sunken deep beneath the sea like a gothic Atlantis.
As Quarter to Three's Tom Chick put it so aptly in an interview with the designers, in Fallen London, the gameplay is the text, the storytelling spur, the thing that impels you to play. And part of the reason you wanted to is that lead scribe Alexis Kennedy had assembled such a magnificently bizarre world, dropping artsy, often mind-blowing illustrative sentences like bombs. The game's sentences doubled as slowing mechanisms, layers of narrative spike strips laid to decelerate distracted minds.
Sunless Sea retains much of that text-driven approach, as well as Kennedy's sure eye for unsettling or mordant turns of phrase), but slips it into a top-down cartographic simulation of what lies beyond Fallen London—black, brackish sea between atolls, lonely outposts, exotic city-islands and pieces of actual hell. Sunless Sea's subsurface ocean is called the Unterzee, and sailing it is like poking around one of those old medieval charts with phrases like "Here Be Dragons," with the dragons replaced by Lovecraftian horrors.
I can't say enough about how lovely it all looks, like a living version of the ornate foldout maps you used to slide from the backs of pen and paper role-playing modules. Each locale you visit conjures a hand-drawn depiction of the landscape you're debarking to: Sunless Sea's London remains in perpetual gloaming, its foggy byways and gaslit hives of humanity rendered in grim silhouette. Failbetter's Paul Arendt, the game's art director, does terrific work here.
Like Games Workshop, which upended D&D conventions by letting you choose professions like Hypnotist or Tomb Robber or Rat Catcher in its Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay system, Failbetter Games is clearly obsessed with subverting fantasy tropes. When you start a new game, you'll choose from an array of unusual-sounding narrative backstories. You can, for instance, identify as a street urchin (aids subtlety and evasion), a poet (aids trickery and knowledge), a campaign vet (aids direct damage), a priest (aids healing and morale) or even a philosopher (aids detection and perception).
After establishing your profession, you select a goal: Fulfillment, or wealth. In later builds, Failbetter plans to add others like "find your father's bones," "establish a private kingdom," or "journey to the uttermost east." Then you can poke around London by way of a tab-based text interface and engage in activities that at first seem trivial, but in fact determine your means of survival. Read the morning paper and you'll gain knowledge of local events that have economic value if you carry the news to remote ports. Visit with local city officials and they'll ask that you secure intelligence about other locations during your travels. Lodge in the city and you'll reduce deleterious metrics like "terror" (it gradually rises as you roam the Unterzee) while gaining other useful seafaring bonuses in the bargain.
Every choice has purpose in addition to atmospheric value, triggering state changes that outline your current disposition. Each state change functions as if you're simultaneously drawing and tossing away a card, making Sunless Sea a kind of card game mashed with a text adventure mashed with a roguelike mashed with a queue-based MMO-like battle engine. It sounds bizarre, but in the time I've spent with this version of Sunless Sea, it works.
Once you leave port, you control your steamship with the W, A, S and D keys, turning like a sluggish version of the triangular fighter in Asteroids and propelling yourself forward or in reverse. This is where Sunless Sea's real-time resource-juggling game kicks in: Travel faster, or with your lights on, and you'll burn fuel at higher rates and be more visible to enemies; travel slower and you'll find yourself easy prey for sea monsters and enemy ships.
Run silent with the lights off and you'll be less noticeable, but your crew's terror will rise faster, leading to potential game-ending mutinies. Crank the engines to higher temperatures for temporary bursts of speed to elude faster pursuing enemies, and you risk crew-slaughtering explosions.
Therefore, there is no safe way to play. It's harrowing to be at sea even for a moment, because the clock's always prodding you to action. Hunger and Terror are vampiric forces, relentlessly accruing as you peruse the world's subsurface nooks, whirlpools and aphotic zones. Fuel barrels vanish every few minutes, threatening to strand you leagues from home. Every venture from port feels like a suicide run, and so part of playing Sunless Sea well is just figuring out early on where the most reliable trade routes are. Eventually, if you're good enough, you can upgrade your ship or buy a new one, ply a much more elaborate trading system, and get involved in all sorts of far-reaching story lines. But so far, it's been all I can do to feed my crew, fuel my ship and keep us all on the barest edge of sanity.
My least favorite part of Sunless Sea is combat. This occurs when you bump into enemies on the map, conjuring a one-on-one display with grids of abilities and pictures of you and your opponent beside vertical bars. The bars indicate how "illuminated" you are: Remember, you're in an ocean miles underground, and whosoever can see their opponent better is going to have the tactical upper hand.
It's a novel-sounding idea, but in practice it tends to go like this: both sides try to illuminate each other, wait a few seconds, try some more, wait a few seconds, then dash off attacks before taking further evasive action. That sequence plays over and over, enemy after enemy, as you boat around the Unterzee. You can change it up a bit with hybrid attacks or evasive maneuvers that alter how much your chosen gambit illuminates you versus your opponent. But the processes and outcomes at this point feel too heavily patterned.
My distaste for the combat may be because of my bias towards the story elements of Sunless Sea; I'm always itching to get past the drudgery of combat to see what new descriptive treasures lie in wait on the other side of Sunless Sea's least interesting mechanic.
Speaking of itching: I might mention that I found my way into a clutch of poison ivy recently, and had the severe-end-of-the-spectrum reaction. So I've been playing this sublimely creepy game about deep sea monsters and sinister tomb colonies and mischievous fungus and subterranean tracts of sable waters while my head has been thick with Claritin and Benadryl and prednisone (which amps everything way up).
I'm not suggesting you deliberately roll in poison ivy before playing Sunless Sea. But it kind of works.


text:
DCS to hold community forum on employing those with disabilities
By wsmith@mihomepaper.com | on May 13, 2021
By Gary Gould
810-452-2650 • ggould@mihomepaper.com
DAVISON — What would the community look like if it were inclusive of those with disabilities? That's what Davison Community Schools hopes to find out when it holds its second Community Conversation later this month.
The community panel will be live-streamed on DTV's YouTube channel from 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 19, and officials said it is designed to help come up with ways for the Davison area to create opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
A panel of parents & business owners will discuss strengths of employing individuals with disabilities, ways to overcome barriers and ways to create opportunities for individuals with disabilities in the workplace.
Holly Halabicky, director of student services, said the first community forum was held in 2019 and was something the district planned to do annually, but that didn't happen in 2020 due to COVID-19.
This year, she said, to maintain safe social distancing, they had to change things up to create a safer atmosphere during the pandemic.
"Typically, for a community conversation, you'd bring members of the community together, face-to-face, and they would be able to sit at tables and have conversations with each other," said Halabicky. "But, due to COVID- 19, we had to get creative so we're going to do a live stream on the DTV through our YouTube channel, and it's going to be a panel discussion."
She said the panel members selected are a combination of parents of students with special needs, educators and local business owners and/or human resources from companies or businesses.
Halabicky said the group who put the forum together is working toward coming together to develop partnerships between business and school to increase opportunities for employment for people with disabilities and special needs.
The way it will be set up this year is there are six specific questions they will put out to the panel so that they can give input on questions from the various perspectives of being a parent, an educator and being an employer.
"We've also got a couple of students that are going to be joining us so we can get that different perspective, and everybody can weigh in," said Halabicky. "But, at the same time, we want it to be interactive, so we will be having the chatroom monitored so additional questions and/or comments can be passed to the panel for discussion."
Halabicky said the first time it was done in 2019 the discussion was great. It was held in the Davison Oddfellows hall and about 50 people attended. She said it was a combination of families, students, educators and business people.
She said many great ideas came out of that forum and one of the biggest was employability and being able to create, utilize and find jobs for students with disabilities. Based on those responses from the 2019 forum, she said it guided what this conversation will look like.
"Individuals with disabilities can cover many things: anything from somebody with a reading disability, physically impaired or cognitively impaired – it's just a huge range," said Halabicky. "We're looking to really build on the fact we think everybody has something to contribute to the community and how we go about doing that."
She said the questions that will be posed this year for the panel include:
1.) As parent of a child with a disability, what goals do you have for your child as an adult?
2.) What universal employment skills do members of our community need to be successful? What kind of skills do young people need to be a contributing member?
3.) What are the strengths people with disabilities can bring to the work force?
4.) How do we connect future employees with the job?
Halabicky said the panel will include Anne Haley, director of the Autism Report and Research Center; Don Haley, the owner Italia Gardens; Alan Ryckman, the owner of Community Threads; and Chris Graff of Hank Graff Chevrolet.
"We're excited about the opportunity to do this again," she said. "We're going to kick it off with a former student who will talk about her journey after high school and the job she's had for two years and she's now back at Mott Community College to get her certifications in an automotive job."
DTV will be broadcasting live from the Davison High School auditorium with Halabicky acting as moderator and Verle Gilbert, principal of Hahn Intermediate School, will also be working on the forum.
She said Gilbert was instrumental in planning the forum and he'll be monitoring the chat room and passing questions along to the panel.
"I encourage people to tune in. I think it really applies to everyone," said Halabicky. "I have talked to businesses and they're all looking for good employees, so this really applies to everyone in community."
The community is invited to join and share ideas and questions in a moderated, virtual chat.
The event will be live-streamed on the DTV YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/ user/DavisonDTV/live


Lovely Laurel from Eclectica or http://www.eclecticala.com/, a favourite vintage jewellery site of mine which I have been visiting regularly for the past years, agreed to answer some questions and share some of her experience with jewellery.
In the run-up to Christmas she has also honed in on Christmas Holiday jewellery, especially on Christmas trees. Her site has been on the web since 1998 but she has been in business selling vintage jewelry on the web two years prior to the current site. She is located in Florida, USA.
FF - How did you start in the business of selling vintage jewellery and do you also have a shop or is it just online business?
Laurel - Like many, I started as a collector and decided to sell some items when my collection required too much space and I wanted to collect other categories of jewelry. I used to have a physical shop location but decided to sell strictly online in 2001.
FF - How many items do you reckon you have in stock at any given time?
Laurel - Oh, dear! Stock comes and goes but I don't count what is stashed away - maybe 8,000 pieces that are within reach and much more is put away!
FF - Where do you get most of your jewellery - does it involve a lot of work to scout around and select items?
Laurel - I never stop shopping! I never take a trip when I do not search for vintage jewelry. Most of my stock comes from estate sales and estate auctions. People also bring me jewelry they want to sell and I buy items from other antiques dealers and shops, too. And, yes, it is time-consuming but I love the thrill of the hunt. I also have pickers who know what I want to buy and they scour other parts of the state and certain areas of the country for me and send me shipments.
FF - Tell me something about Christmas trees - do you remember the first Christmas tree pin you ever had?
Laurel - No, but the first one I truly treasured was given to me 22 years ago by my mother-in-law. She wore it every year for 35 years and I have kept her tradition.
FF - Why do American ladies have such a fascination with them?
Laurel - I think perhaps, because they are so colorful and sparkling and we Americans love glitter and color during the holiday season. Anything goes during the holidays - nothing is too gaudy or festive. Christmas trees are FUN whether they are 10 feet tall or 2 inches tall.
FF - Were there any specific designers who enjoyed making Christmas tree pins as a traditional thing every year?
Laurel - Weiss and Eisenberg Ice come quickly to mind. Other companies put out holiday pins every year as well but I think Weiss and Eisenberg did it the longest. Eisenberg Ice is still making them.
FF - Which was the most precious vintage Christmas pin you ever handled or had?
Laurel - Hard to answer! It doesn't need to be expensive to me to be precious so the first pins from the early 60's which the women in my family owned, are what I love the most. Most are not signed tree pins. You know how one always seems to declare that this year's decorated Christmas tree is the prettiest ever? Well, for me, the prettiest Christmas pin is the one I have on at the time. But, the rare glass Eisenberg pin from the early 70's is the one I wish I had not sold.
FF - Do you collect them yourself and if so, how many do you have?
Laurel - I own trays and trays of them! When I get tired of a style or color, I add it to the site, plus I can wear anything that I want that is from the site. I have a seemingly endless supply! Sometimes, I pin lots of trees and Santa pins to a seasonal pillow so I can view many at once. You really can't see a pin well when you're wearing it, plus the pillow idea makes selecting one to wear very fast and easy.
FF - Do items in your online shop start as part of your personal collection?
Laurel - Yes, all the theme pages originated from my collections like sea theme jewelry, butterflies, charm bracelets, lockets and many more. I have 25 - 20 theme sites online at any time. I have a lot of large collections like exotic old bird pins and vegetable pins and Victorian jewelry that I am not yet ready to give up, at least not this year.
FF - What other kinds of Christmas jewellery are currently most popular?
Laurel - Pins shaped like ornaments are always in demand, as are Christmas animals and old Santas. Can't keep them all in stock though. Also, rare Christmas jewelry like rings and trees and other holiday pins that blink or light up are eagerly sought. We have lots of holiday jewelry collectors and many collect from our stock before it goes to the web.
FF - What is your favourite kind of jewellery and is there a specific designer you particularly like?
Laurel - How could I choose? I love jewelry that is old and well made, cleverly designed and interesting. Victorian, Art Deco and the grand old pins from the late 1930's to WW2 have always been personal favorites. Thankfully, I can have lots of favorites and it is fun to collect even more as my taste changes and moves in another direction every few years.
Awesome interview! I am a very big fan of Eclectica too. I adore everything vintage, no particular designers - and I am Christmas crazy, so I also have lots of Christmas jewellery.
I wonder why my earlier comment didn't post? No matter! I am so flattered that Fairy Filigree featured Eclectica's Christmas jewelry. Isn't the internet wonderful? Malta! I am delighted to be mentioned your lovely blog.
Hello Sanne - I visited your blog but unfortunately I don't understand Danish! Wish I did as it looks really interesting - lovely pictures too!
Lovely to hear from you and feel free to add me to your blogroll. Always wonderful to meet new bloggers, you are doing a great job!
Lovely interview and fabulous christmas trees!