text:
Modified bacteria become a multicellular circuit
Rice University scientists modify E. coli to cooperate, control protein expression
IMAGE: Rice University researchers, from left, synthetic biologist Matthew Bennett and graduate students Andrew Hirning and Ye Chen, have created multicellular circuits by programming bacteria to alter gene expression in an... view more
Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University
HOUSTON - (Aug. 27, 2015) - Rice University scientists have made a living circuit from multiple types of bacteria that prompts the bacteria to cooperate to change protein expression.
The subject of a new paper in Science, the project represents the first time the Rice researchers have created a biological equivalent to a computer circuit that involves multiple organisms to influence a population.
The researchers' goal is to modify biological systems by controlling how bacteria influence each other. This could lead to bacteria that, for instance, beneficially alter the gut microbiome in humans.
Humans' stomachs have a lot of different kinds of bacteria, said Rice synthetic biologist Matthew Bennett. "They naturally form a large consortium. One thought is that when we engineer bacteria to be placed into guts, they should also be part of a consortium. Working together allows them to effect more change than if they worked in isolation."
In the proof-of-concept study, Bennett and his team created two strains of genetically engineered bacteria that regulate the production of proteins essential to intercellular signaling pathways, which allow cells to coordinate their efforts, generally in beneficial ways.
The ability to engineer DNA so cells produce specific proteins has already paid dividends, for example, by manipulating bacteria to produce useful biofuels and chemicals.
"The main push in synthetic biology has been to engineer single cells," Bennett said. "But now we're moving toward multicellular systems. We want cells to coordinate their behaviors in order to elicit a populational response, just the way our bodies do."
Bennett and his colleagues achieved their goal by engineering common Escherichia coli bacteria. By creating and mixing two genetically distinct populations, they prompted the bacteria to form a consortium.
The bacteria worked together by doing opposite tasks: One was an activator that up-regulated the expression of targeted genes, and the other was a repressor that down-regulated genes. Together, they created oscillations - rhythmic peaks and valleys - of gene transcription in the bacterial population.
The two novel strains of bacteria sent out intercellular signaling molecules and created linked positive and negative feedback loops that affected gene production in the entire population. Both strains were engineered to make fluorescent reporter genes so their activities could be monitored. The bacteria were confined to microfluidic devices in the lab, where they could be monitored easily during each hourslong experiment.
When the bacteria were cultured in isolation, the protein oscillations did not appear, the researchers wrote.
Bennett said his lab's work will help researchers understand how cells communicate, an important factor in fighting disease. "We have many different types of cells in our bodies, from skin cells to liver cells to pancreatic cells, and they all coordinate their behaviors to make us work properly," he said. "To do this, they often send out small signaling molecules that are produced in one cell type and effect change in another cell type.
"We take that principle and engineer it into these very simple organisms to see if we can understand and build multicellular systems from the ground up."
Ultimately, people might ingest the equivalent of biological computers that can be programmed through one's diet, Bennett said. "One idea is to create a yogurt using engineered bacteria," he said. "The patient eats it and the physician controls the bacteria through the patient's diet. Certain combinations of molecules in your food can turn systems within the synthetic bacteria on and off, and then these systems can communicate with each other to effect change within your gut."
Ye Chen, a graduate student in Bennett's lab at Rice, and Jae Kyoung Kim, an assistant professor at KAIST and former postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State University, are lead authors of the paper. Co-authors are Rice graduate student Andrew Hirning and Krešimir Josi?, a professor of mathematics at the University of Houston. Bennett is an assistant professor of biochemistry and cell biology.
The National Institutes of Health, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the Hamill Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the China Scholarship Council supported the research.
David Ruth
david@rice.edu
mikewilliams@rice.edu
Read the abstract at http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaa3794
This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews
The Bennett Lab: http://biodesign.rice.edu
Wiess School of Natural Sciences: http://naturalsciences.rice.edu
Images for download:
http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/0831_GENETIC-1-WEB.jpg
In a microscopic image created at Rice University, two strains of synthetically engineered bacteria cooperate to create multicellular phenomena. Rice scientists created the biological circuit by programming bacteria to alter gene expression in an entire population. Their fluorescence indicates the engineered capabilities have been activated. (Credit: Bennett Lab/Rice University)
Rice University researchers, from left, synthetic biologist Matthew Bennett and graduate students Andrew Hirning and Ye Chen, have created multicellular circuits by programming bacteria to alter gene expression in an entire population. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
Rice University synthetic biologist Matthew Bennett, left, and graduate student Ye Chen check a community of bacteria bred to become a multicellular circuit, the subject of a new paper in Science. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,888 undergraduates and 2,610 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for best quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go here.
@RiceUNews
http://news.rice.edu
National Institutes of Health, Robert A. Welch Foundation, Hamill Foundation, National Science Foundation, China Scholarship Council
BIOMECHANICS/BIOPHYSICS
DIET/BODY WEIGHT
POPULATION BIOLOGY
Genetics (IMAGE)
Matthew Bennett, Andrew Hirning and Ye Chen, Rice University (IMAGE)
Matthew Bennett and Ye Chen, Rice University (IMAGE)


text:
NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – May 23, 2020
by Lyle Richardson | May 23, 2020
The NHLPA executive board has approved further negotiations for a 24-team tournament. Details and more in today's NHL morning coffee headlines.
TSN: Frank Seravalli reports the NHL Players' Association executive board (comprised of 31 player representatives) voted Friday to authorize further negotiations with the NHL for a 24-team tournament format to award the Stanley Cup. The PA released a statement indicating several details remain to be negotiated before an agreement is reached on all issues relevant to returning to play.
Those issues include a timeline for returning to action, ensuring health and safety protocols for players and teams, the potential inclusion of family members in the hub cities, and the economic implications.
TVA SPORTS' Renaud Lavoie reported the PA vote was 29-2 in favor of the return-to-play format. "Now you have to expect the league will make an announcement on the format sometime next week."
SPECTOR'S NOTE: There was some concern over how many reps would vote in favor of the format. While there was reportedly some heated discussion over the matter, it's clear the overwhelming majority were willing to accept it.
SPORTSNET: Elliotte Friedman reports Pittsburgh Penguins player rep Kris Letang was among those who voted yes. "At the end of the day, nobody gets exactly what they want," he said. "But, we all want what is best for hockey and to continue to grow the game."
SPECTOR'S NOTE: An erroneous report last night claimed the Penguins had voted against it.
NEW YORK POST: Larry Brooks reports several complex issues still must be resolved before this tournament can proceed. "It remains to be seen whether outstanding matters involving health and safety protocols; quasi-quarantine for perhaps up to 10 weeks within a hub city and separation from family; rules of engagement on the ice, and financial considerations including the players' escrow obligations will be as difficult to navigate as this one that proved difficult."
Brooks also points out there are "immigration, visa matters, and travel restrictions that must be resolved by government agencies" that must be sorted out before the league can resume play.
THE SCORE: cited Friedman yesterday indicating the players voted against a proposed best-of-three tournament because of concerns it could give an advantage to Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price and Chicago Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane.
"They felt it was not acceptable enough for the teams that had a better regular season and Pittsburgh looked at its matchup and it said 'two out of three against Carey Price is not fair for a team that had zero percentage points to play in the playoffs.'"
"I did hear that the Western teams – and now it's going to be Edmonton – they were like, 'two out of three with Patrick Kane? I mean come on.' But it wasn't at the same level as Price."
SPECTOR'S NOTE: The initial reports earlier this week that some player reps raised objections about facing Price in a best-of-three were greeted with skepticism and scorn by some NHL fans on social media. The Canadiens goalie isn't the dominant player he once was, but there's no denying his peers respect him enough to believe he can steal a short series.
TSN: Rick Westhead reports Dr. Andrew Morris, an infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, is encouraging NHL players to ensure the league and the teams commit in writing "to covering the costs of medical care, including rehabilitation, hospitalization, prescriptions and counseling" for any players who contract COVID-19 during the course of their employment.
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS: Jets winger Patrik Laine is looking forward to returning to action, but admits his game will be a little rusty. "If I look at myself and think about myself, my game's probably going to look terrible since I haven't skated for two months, and it's always a struggle to come back after a long period when you haven't skated," Laine said.
SPECTOR'S NOTE: That's why there will be a training camp period of two-to-three weeks before the tournament begins. It will allow the players time to regain their skills while also avoiding serious injury from the long layoff.
← NHL Free Agents & Trade Candidates - Vegas Golden Knights NHL Rumor Mill - May 23, 2020 →
NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – April 29, 2020
by Lyle Richardson | Apr 29, 2020
Some players express reluctance about resuming the season, a look at some possible neutral-site host cities and more in today's NHL morning coffee headlines,
LATEST ON THE NHL'S EFFORTS TO RESUME THE SEASON
TSN: Darren Dreger reports the NHL is expected to extend its quarantine period from April 30 to May 15. He also said there will be a call today between the league and the NHL Players' Association to discuss player concerns regarding a resumption of the season. Those issues include travel and quarantine issues for European players returning to North America, the potential period players could be separated from their families, and the expense of continuing the schedule in divisional host cities.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS: The state of Texas is reopening, but Stars general manager Jim Nill said he'll await approval from the league before allowing his players to resume small-group training at the team's facilities.
Montreal Canadiens center Phillip Danault recently expressed concern about resuming the NHL season (Photo via NHL Images).
SPECTOR'S NOTE: Some players, such as the Los Angeles Kings' Drew Doughty, the Montreal Canadiens' Phillip Danault, and the New York Islanders' Ryan Pulock, expressed skepticism about returning to action or concern about lengthy family separations. Others, such as the Toronto Maple Leafs' Jake Muzzin, said they're looking forward to restarting the season.
Any plan to continue playing will require the NHLPA's approval. While the concerns of some players are certainly justified, the possibility of larger escrow deductions from their salaries next season could tip the scales in the league's favor.
If the NHL cancels the season, it will lose around $1.1 billion in hockey-related revenue. That reportedly means over 40 percent of the players' salaries for 2020-21 will be clawed back. Completing this season would recoup between $400 million and $500 million, meaning next season's escrow number would be around 20 percent. That's still higher than the usual 12-to-15 percent escrow clawbacks, but more palatable than 40 percent.
Pierre LeBrun reports the league is also considering starting up the 2020-21 season in December if the end of the current season stretches into September or October. A December start also means a better chance of having fans back in the arenas again.
Bob McKenzie reports a decision on when to stage the 2020 NHL Draft could be made next week. He's pessimistic that it could be held in June before the resumption of the season, citing the negative reaction to the idea around the league.
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: Penguins GM Jim Rutherford expects the NHL will follow the National Football League's lead in staging a virtual draft.
SPECTOR'S NOTE: If the NHL canceled the remainder of the season and playoffs, it would make sense to hold the draft in June. The issues raised by staging the draft before resuming the season in July, such as sorting out the draft order and addressing conditional draft picks moved in trades earlier this season, would create unnecessary headaches and unpopular solutions.
TAMPA BAY TIMES/EDMONTON JOURNAL/THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH: Tampa Bay, Edmonton, and Columbus are among the clubs under consideration to become divisional host cities if the NHL season resumes this summer.
OTTAWA SUN: Don't expect Ottawa to be a neutral site location. A lack of suitable hotels and their proximity to the rink are among the issues.
SPORTSNET: The NHL is selling team-branded face coverings with the proceeds going to Feeding America and Food Banks Canada COVID-19 Response Funds.
The @NHL extends Player Development Agreements for the 2020-21 season. pic.twitter.com/ttigXvENjZ
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 28, 2020
THE SCORE: Philadelphia Flyers forward Oskar Lindblom will undergo his final treatments as he makes progress against Ewing's sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. "He feels great, considering the condition he's in. He's such a great kid and he's determined. His focus is to play as soon as possible," said Flyers assistant general manager Brett Flahr.
SPECTOR'S NOTE: Here's hoping Lindblom makes a full recovery and resumes his NHL career.
NBC SPORTS BAY AREA: Recently retired NHL player Joel Ward hopes to become a coach with the San Jose Sharks. Ward said he's chatted with management several times.
THE NEWS & OBSERVER: The Carolina Hurricanes Foundation donated $478,000 during the 2019-20 season, including cash grants, to 26 local nonprofits and youth hockey organizations in North Carolina.
← The NHL Buyout Barometer - Metropolitan Division (Part I) NHL Rumor Mill - April 29, 2020 →

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Isabel Hofford is a Class of 2017 HS Model Rep. from Fairport HS who had an amazingly creative session. She brought in more ideas of her own that anyone I've photographed in the last year, and they made her session very personal.
It started out with her adorable puppy Sophie. As if that wasn't enough, and it could have been, she brought in one of her father's jersey's when he played professional hockey...including in the NHL with the great Wayne Gretzky. Isabel is a star athlete herself, having played on the Canadian National lacrosse team as a goalie. She works out religiously, and puts most people to shame.
The portrait with the mirror and the coffee mug and blanket were also ideas that Isabel brought in. She had mentioned that she liked balloons, so we brought in a few balloons for her session, not knowing that she was going to bring in a bunch of her own. Fortunately, the colors all worked together, and we used them both indoors and outdoors. Lastly, she brought in a vintage fur coat that was passed down through her family, and the final photos give her the look of a Hollywood socialite.
If you know Isabel and are interested in senior pictures, talk to herabout her experience at the studio and ask her for a Gift Card good for 20% off a senior portrait session fee at Luke Photography.


text:
Suburbano hace referencia a varios artículos:

Edificio, terreno o campo, próximo a la ciudad; habitante de un suburbio o relativo a un suburbio;
Metro (sistema de transporte), un ferrocarril subterráneo destinado al transporte de personas;
Tren de cercanías o ferrocarril suburbano destinado al transporte de personas;
Suburbano (banda), grupo español de folk rock;
 F.C. Suburbano de Carabanchel a Chamartín de la Rosa en Madrid

Enlaces externos

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Romanian Patriarchate
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» Ecumenical Patriarch » Page 4
Tag: Ecumenical Patriarch
Autocephalous Orthodox Churches
Archbishop Leo of Finland meets with Ecumenical Patriarch at Phanar
Published by Gheorghe Anghel
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew met today, Tuesday, August 13, at the Phanar, with Archbishop Leo of Helsinki and all Finland, who is the head of the Orthodox Autonomous Church of Finland, and the Lutheran Archbishop of…
Ecumenical Patriarch receives the 2019 ECOS Environmental Award
His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I received on Friday the 2019 ECOS® Award for exceptional leadership in environmental protection, Greek Reporter announces. The Ecumenical Patriarch received the prestigious award in honor of his lifetime of…
Ecumenical Patriarch will visit Mount Athos in October
On Saturday, August 3, a Delegation of the Holy Community of Mount Athos, consisting of Monk Nikodemos Lavriotis, Monk Nikodemos Agiopavlitis and Hieromonk Sisois Xenofontinos, had a cooperation with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, so as to…
Autocephalous Orthodox Churches, Diaspora
Ecumenical Patriarch celebrates festive Divine Liturgy at Haskoy Church founded by St Constantine Brâncoveanu
Published by Aurelian Iftimiu
His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Friday celebrated the Divine Liturgy at one of Constantinople's churches founded by Ruler Prince Saint Constantine Brâncoveanu in 1692. The Church is dedicated to the glorious Virgin-Martyr Saint Paraskevi…
Anniversaries and commemorations
His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew celebrates his name day
Published by Diac. Iulian Dumitraşcu
His Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, celebrates Tuesday, June 12, his patron saint: the Holy Apostle Bartholomew. Born Demetrios Archondonis on 29 February 1940 on the island of Imvros (today, Gökçeada, Turkey), His…
The new Archbishop of Australia at the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Holy Synod
On Friday, May 10, at noon, the new Archbishop Makarios of Australia presented himself in front of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Holy Synod, so as to accept his election with the small Message, Romfea…
Bilateral meeting between Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Metropolitan Sawa of Poland
As part of his three-day visit to Poland, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew met with the Primate of the Polish Orthodox Church in Warsaw on Bright Friday, May 3, 2019. After joining the March of the Living,…
Ecumenical Patriarch about Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp: This place will always be a symbol of radical evil
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Thursday joined the March of the Living, a 3-kilometer walk from the Auschwitz concentration camp to Birkenau in Poland, to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. The annual march coincides with…
In Easter message, Ecumenical Patriarch rejects conception that Orthodoxy is "introverted, unworldly and indifferent"
In this year's patriarchal encyclical for Holy Pascha, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew rejected the conception that 'Orthodoxy is introverted, unworldly and indifferent to history and civilization', saying that this is 'a complete misinterpretation of Orthodox self-consciousness…
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew expresses horror at Sri Lanka attacks
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew expressed his solidarity with the Sri Lankan people and voiced his horror at a series of explosions at churches and hotels that killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds during Easter…
Friday27January
† Translation of the relics of St John Chrysostom the Archbishop of Constantinople; St Marciana the Empress
Arad monasteries installing solar panels on roofs to combat climate crisis
Banat Metropolitan reveals first icon of soon-to-be-saint Calistrat Bobu
Renowned Putna Monastery to have a replica church on the site of St Stephen the Great's most significant victory
Alba Iulia Archbishop visits St Andrew's residential care home, announces facility expansion
St. Xenia of Rome; Blessed Xenia of Petersburg (Te Deum service)
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text:
Q: Why can I not apply TailwindCSS values over 10? I'm using tailwindCSS to build a landing page on a NextJS website that I originally made years ago. It used to have some issues with the JIT feature, so I decided today that I would update tailwind from V1 to V3 (3.0.23 specifically).
My problem is, I now cannot apply any stylings above 10! I first was trying it with top-16, but it didn't work, so I tried changing it to mt-16 and still no luck!
The weird thing is, if I change it to either top-10 or mt-10, the element moves as expected.
Similarly, breakpoints have stopped working from md.
It's very strange and I've tried a lot of things to fix it. It's confusing because I have the Tailwind Intellisense extension for VS Code and it's telling me that these classes exist as well as the Tailwind Docs saying the same! Do any of you have any ideas about what's going wrong?
The code is as follows (I've tried to remove anything that seems irrelevant):

    <video
        ...
        className='opacity-60 object-cover h-full w-full xl:h-auto xl:overflow-hidden'
    >
        ...
    </video>

    // The following line is what I'm trying to move

            ...

My tailwind.config.js:
module.exports = {
    enabled: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production',
    theme: {
        extend: {},
        colors: {
            blue: { main: '#0182B2' },
            yellow: { main: '#FFD600', panama: '#FFF26B' },
            red: { main: '#CC360A' },
            green: { main: '#5F8B16' },
            white: '#ffffff',
            black: '#000',
        },
    },
    content: [
        './pages/**/*.{js,ts,jsx,tsx}',
        './components/**/*.{js,ts,jsx,tsx}',
    ],
    plugins: [],
};

and my postcss.config.js:
module.exports = {
    plugins: ['tailwindcss', 'autoprefixer'],
};

I hope somebody can help me to figure this out! I'm just trying to centre some text inside the video!
EDIT: Oh, I'm also using Typescript if that raises any flags for anybody!
Please and thank you in advance and I hope you're all having a great day :)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Trying to update certificate (just renewed) to existing keystore on Tomcat server I have a .crt file to update the server thats running Tomcat 5.5. If I run:
keytool - import -alias tomcat -keystore tomcat.ks - trustcacerts -file website.net.crt

I get the following error:
keytool error: gnu.javax.crypto.keyring.MalformedKeyringException: incorrect magic

BTW, the default password for the keystore file is changeit and I am not sure why its not accepting it

A: We had the same issue with our ssl.com certificate, but the support guys there were very helpful and told us basically there were multiple versions of java on our server and that we needed to explicitly invoke the keytool app from the version we are working with to avoid conflicts. For example, on our server:
instead of
keytool - import -alias tomcat -keystore tomcat.ks - trustcacerts -file website.net.crt

we would use
/usr/local/jdk/keytool - import -alias tomcat -keystore tomcat.ks - trustcacerts -file website.net.crt

A: I think it's saying that your keystore is messed up.  Can you do anything with the keystore to see if it's bad?

A: Your keystore needs to have more than just your own certificate info; it also needs to have the certs chaining back to your Certificate Authority (CA). For mine, I end up with four entries in my keystore, only one of which is specific to me. I just did this for my GoDaddy certificate; these are the commands I entered:
>keytool -import -alias root -keystore tomcat.sat.keystore -tr ustcacerts -file valicert_class2_root.crt

Enter keystore password: PASSWORD

Certificate already exists in system-wide CA keystore under alias <valicertclass2ca> Do you still want to add it to your own keystore? [no]: yes

Certificate was added to keystore

>keytool -import -alias cross -keystore tomcat.sat.keystore -trustcacerts -file gd_cross_intermediate.crt

Enter keystore password: PASSWORD

Certificate was added to keystore

>keytool -import -alias intermed -keystore tomcat.sat.keystore -trustcacerts -file gd_intermediate.crt

Enter keystore password: PASSWORD

Certificate was added to keystore

>keytool -import -alias tomcat -keystore tomcat.sat.keystore -trustcacerts -file loxpress.com.crt

Enter keystore password: PASSWORD

Certificate reply was installed in keystore

A: You might want to get your keystore in order first.  Keytool can be painful to use.
Check out http://portecle.sourceforge.net/ and see if that helps.

A: I think you're running the wrong keytool. The on that comes with the JDK doesn't use that class. Do you have GNU CLASSPATH installed? if so, remove it. It isn't Java, just a poor and very partial imitation. And then repeat everything, using the original keystore. Anything that was created by the wrong keytool should be thrown away.


text:
Mana Master
A Mage's Cultivation, Book 1
Written by: Bruce Sentar
Narrated by: Christian J. Gilliland, Hazel Cohen
Narrated by: Christian J. Gilliland,Hazel Cohen
Mana Beast
Isaac's story continues. He knows being a mage is more than just simple luck. His mother tipped the dice in his favor. But that's ended. Lucky can only carry you so far. Arriving at the Ferrymen Sect, he hopes to ignite a war between the corrupt mages and those sworn to defend to the average person. But he finds the world of Sects more complex than he'd hoped. In order to direct the sects into a war with the corrupt mages, Isaac must first overcome genius mages even more blessed than himself. Join Isaac and his girls in their next adventure.
More Please!
By Ray McLellan on 2021-06-28
Mana Immortal
Isaac is back, and the sects are going to war. Leadership puts him in leading from behind a desk and negotiating deals with the Hua Family. That is, till another sect's mountain falls, and Isaac hurries to investigate. He takes Mei to investigate the fallen mountain. But even Mei isn't enough to stop what the fallen mountain brings.
Immortal Mana
Isaac sets off ahead of the rest of his family with Kat and his mana beasts. No matter how much he'd practiced with immortal mana before venturing into the immortal world hadn't prepared him for it, and his first bumbling steps into the new world have him collared and sold to a brothel. Those who did this to him will pay dearly for underestimating him. Isaac plots his escape and the new path in cultivation as he makes plans to break through to his fifth ring and seek revenge.
Immortal Blood
Isaac and company head off to Blueheavens to join the Su family and seek revenge against Hendrick and Fairy Su. Unfortunately, the Su family isn't receptive to more internal competition, and Isaac's use of his bloodlines in the city draws more attention than he bargained for. Mistaken for an expert from a foreign ancient family, he's invited on a trip through the void to a shard of the shattered world where opportunity abounds both for his cultivation and his revenge.
Immortal Family
Isaac has one last step to reunite with his family. Politics aside, it is everything he could have hoped. Only he won't allow them to define his life. Despite their wishes for him to rest and raise a family, trouble springs anew. He isn't one to let things go when one of his women is in trouble. Isaac sets off on one last mission against the wishes of his family—only to find more than he could have ever expected. The fate of his family rests in his hands. If only he can put all the pieces together and come out on top of one last adventure.
Dragon's Justice 5
Narrated by: Actors Everywhere
Heavy is the head who wears the crown. That goes double for the dragon king. Zach is wrapping up the end of the school year, trying to juggle his new independent study, where Sabrina and the dragons teach him magic while also being the king of dragons, a sitting member of the Philly Council, and a good mate to six. But the dragon king doesn't sleep, not when Silverwing Mercenaries has a case from the council. Vampires have had some change in leadership in Philly, and trouble is brewing.
Dragon's Justice, Book 3
Narrated by: Actors Everywhere, Jack Douglas, Jessica Threet
Zach is on the hunt for Morgana, who's hidden herself in Sentarshaden, the secret city of paranormals. The elven city is celebrating the time of rebirth and nurturing their root trees. His secret is slipping, and he sees just what is in store for him as a green dragon becomes known to the city. The new dragon is both revered and hunted. But keeping himself hidden becomes impossible as he finds Morgana in a terrible state and needing his help.
it got good fast and stayed good the entire way
Saving Supervillains
Narrated by: Lewis Alexander, Rozelyn Rader
A former villain is living a quiet life, hidden among the masses. Miles has one big secret: He might just be the most powerful super in existence. Those days are behind him. But when a wounded young lady unable to control her superpower needs his help, she shatters his boring life, pulling him into the one place he least expected to be—the Bureau of Superheroes.
By Doug Ross on 2023-01-25
Narrated by: Jack Douglas, Jessica Threet
Zach and his ladies are packing up for the dragon conclave. He has enough on his hands trying to impress centuries-old dragons that he's their new king. But when a dragon arrives injured and another dies at the conclave, things grow tense at the conclave. Zach will need to step up as their new king and solve a problem so old it's been forgotten. As if he doesn't have enough to deal with, as pushy dragons vie for his attention, he'll have to solve a murder as well.
Dragon's Justice
Zach is back. Life has been good since they dispatched a rabid, alpha wolf, tricked into dark power. His hoard is growing steadily, with odd jobs working as Morgana's partner, and they've been hired to deal with the swamp troll migration, as the trolls pass through Philly on their way to Florida for the winter. As if he doesn't have enough to deal with, the Order of the Magi come to town for a convention, and tensions grow taut between magi and the paranormal council.
I might be biased as a dragon spirit
Saving Supervillains 2
Miles has enough power to take down even a titan, but is that enough to prepare him for what's coming? His new job as the deputy director is at odds with his desire to start using his powers to make a greater difference. He has to balance his secret while going above and beyond his role at the Bureau of Superheroes.
Herald of Shalia 3
Written by: Tamryn Tamer
Narrated by: Amber Lee Connors, Kieran Flitton
He was the Herald of Shalia that married a demoness, invited hundreds of Arachne to live in his territory, and married a princess of Zira all in the same week. All while securing peace and trade agreements with the two largest countries on the continent. Herald Frost wasn't merely a deviant herald that laid with demihumans. He was a highly capable deviant herald that laid with demihumans.
We all want a harem right?!
Growth Hero 3
Written by: Brent Tyman
Alex has made some staggering progress in the fantasy world, with his growth skill continuously expanding his stats to some truly overpowered heights. The more he grinds in the Dungeon, the stronger he becomes, and that also rings true for the three stunning mages with him.
Descend, Book 2
Written by: David Burke
Narrated by: Daniel Wisniewski, Rebecca Woods
Jay and company have survived the initial stages of the experiment. They have had to overcome everything from their dinner trying to eat them to murderous psychopaths trying to carve out a private fiefdom. Worse, they aren't even aware of the impact the dissent among the aliens running this experiment are having on them. Now, all the survivors seem to want a piece of Jay, which when they are a bunch of hot girls, doesn't seem entirely bad. He just has to sort out who is trying to manipulate him and who wants to be on Team Jay....
Heretic Spellblade
Heretic Spellblade, Book 1
Written by: K.D. Robertson
Narrated by: Stephanie Savannah
Before the demons invaded, Nathan had everything he ever wanted. Women, power, magical talent, wealth, a fortress full of loyal soldiers. Now, a beautiful demonic general offers him a choice: Die; or start a new life with her in the past and rewrite history. Nathan accepts and is sent back in time to before the end of the world.
reincarnated but still the same age
By Riger1 on 2021-06-11
Boredom was killing Jay, not in a dramatic way, but in the life of stifled potential way. He wanted more out of life. Then, without any warning, he found himself part of an experiment with not even so much as the courtesy of a "how do you do?". It wasn't really all bad, though. The fit, busty babes outnumbered him 30 to one. Now, Jay has to fight to survive. He has to conquer the dungeon or die. On top of that, he has to juggle a bunch of gorgeous women who are all stuck in the same life or death fight as him.
I was not ready for this!
By Eric on 2022-01-07
Sebastian Frost was a man with an interesting reputation. He'd killed 12 giants, eight heroes, a duke, and even a prince. But nobody ever talked about any of that. All they talked about was the deviant, disgusting, detestable Herald of Shalia that shamelessly laid with elves. That was because in the strange world based on game mechanics Frost found himself in, laying with elves was somehow treated like laying with animals. Naturally, they weren't calling him Herald Frost the giant killer....
great follow-up
By David on 2020-12-15
Demon's Throne
Demon's Throne, Book 1
Rys awakes to the smell of blood and nearly two thousand years of dust. Maybe he overslept a little too long. Once, he was a great champion and general in the demonic empire that ruled the world. Now, he's been erased from history. He'll need to remind the world of the price of forgetfulness. Now is the time to build his own empire, as the ancient powers of his time are long gone. Rys has an archipelago to conquer, women interested in extending their bloodline with him, and a mysterious labyrinth that holds the secret to why he was sealed away to begin with.
In a world where mages and monster grow from cultivating mana, Isaac joins the class of humans known as mages who absorb mana to grow more powerful. To become a mage, he must bind a mana beast to himself to access and control mana. But when his mana beast is far more human than he expected, Isaac struggles with the budding relationship between the two of them as he prepares to enter his first dungeon.
Unfortunately for Isaac, he doesn't have time to ponder the questions of his relationship with Aurora. His sleepy town of Locksprings is in for a rude awakening, and he has to decide which side of the war he is going to stand on.
©2020 Bruce Sentar (P)2020 Bruce Sentar
Series: A Mage's Cultivation, Book 1
Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Literature & Fiction Epic Fantasy
Falling with Folded Wings: A LitRPG Progression Fantasy
What listeners say about Mana Master
worth a credit
The story was wonderfully developed and I enjoyed the characters. The female voice actor has a lovely voice but she must be new to it. Several times the female voice actor reads a line without proper inflection and over uses her "sexy" voice, having the emotions matchup with the dialog is what makes amazing content. I look forward to heating more from this book and voice actors 👌.
Blindsite
Sounds like high school fan-fic crossed w/ erotica
The story isn't bad per se but isn't anything impressive either; generic is more the word that comes to mind. it's a decent hack and slash sword and sorcery story with some fairly explicit romance sex scenes. But the whole style reminds me of a high school teenage writer obsessing about sex and action but neglecting depth of character development and setting the mood of the world. I can never quite tell what technological level this society is in. Though it doesn't seem to follow our history at all it does maintain many of our metaphors which totally threw me. Little things like that is one reason It lost a star for me. If you're going to create a universe then be logical about it. Also the main narrator has no real inflection and reads off the story totally flat. The side characters have more dimension than he does most of the time. So yeah it's not so much a bad book or story, it just seemed.... rushed and cheaply made. It has potential and I'm hoping the next few books get better but for now it's between a 3 and a 4 star to me.
Amazon_Canuck 8148
Bruce Sentara delivers an unique twist to cultivat
An interesting twist on cultivation with good narration. The MC is on his way to being OP at least among his peers.
Wow what a great series
Bruce my man where did you come from? I mean what a great story you have created. Im coming back from Book 3 to leave a review.
I don't even know where to start. Amazing, this book hits all the sweet spots for me, Great MC, Amazing Story, Very well written side characters and yes they are very sexy and stubborn haha. Love scenes are tastefully done and not drawn out, and the world building is so good for this type of book, story flow and progression are top notch, id say among the top authors no kidding. Bruce has the potential to be one of the great authors if he keeps putting out quality work such as this series. I only have one complaint that any sane person would have, the series needs to come faster to feed my addiction with audio books haha.
Ray McLellan
a good listen. And a unique story
at least me The two narrators worked well with each other. but could definitely use a little work on altering their voices for certain characters. And both wound up using little too similar voices for certain characters.
but the story was unique and engaging. And to me I could see what was going on. I will definitely be looking forward to the rest of the series.
The hometown is well presented. The groups are well defined. You can feel the camaraderie between the MC and his buddies. And the character you see on the front page. Oh damn she is a beauty.
I don't understand all the 5 star reviews
Seriously, how can people compare this to Cradle? The MC has natural talent, is born with a power he didn't earn, and can get advice directly from a beast, that also wants to jump his bones.
He's not relatable at all. The SAME DAY his girlfriend leaves, the one he himself calls his other half, he's looking to find a new junior in class to impress and bone. Then a tsundere almost kills him and he finds out he has a supernatural stalker that's been watching and listening to everything he's done for 13 years. Since he was 5! And he's like, yeah, she seems fu¢kable. Then, he puts it off over and over again because he's suddenly concerned she only wants him because she's bound to him. Like it wasn't her CHOICE to bond in the first place.
When she tells him why she chose him, I got red flags immediately. His bloodline was 'dominating' and made her 'want' to 'submit'? That's harem vibes if I've ever heard it. Sure enough, the tsundere finally gets over herself and tells him how she feels. And she's cool with sharing him with Aurora. The supernatural stalker I talked about. He's also, probably, going to find other beats like Aurora because of his bloodline so the herem is only going to get bigger.
Putting aside all that nonsense, the cultivation is lackluster to. Barely even touching on the how, spending more time on the why. Though the why is sorta vauge to. "well, suddenly dungeons appeared, spewing monsters that infected our world with Mana." that's about it. The how isn't much better. "Absorb mana, make circles, kill things to absorb more mana, grow faster."
I like that the MC is smart, and level headed, I do, but. He just doesn't feel relatable. By contrast, his friends the healer and hunter are much more human.
I suspect MC is half beast since his Mom isn't really dead.
All in all, it wasn't horrible, but I won't be continuing with the series or ever re-listening to it.
Mana Master starts strong, but falls to pieces.
The first 5 - 6 hours set up an interesting character, world, and clear path of progression. I think I would best compare it to the better episodes of a your standard anime, complete with cheesy Saturday morning cartoon villains and obvious lead romances. Then it starts to shit the bed, with about a dozen plot threads get touched on before quickly resolving with minimal effort (thus making them pointless) or going unaddressed/uncompleted. To continue the anime parallel, it feels like a dozen 'filler' episodes one right after another that honestly should have been cut on the first round of editing if for no other reason than to prevent the feeling of 'whip lash' one feels when listening to it and to not waste the readers time with nonsense. The love interests are also rushed in their development with most simply loving the main character from the start or at first meeting.
Further use of 'Chekhov's gun' would have served the author well... if an introduced plot element isn't going to be immediately useful or impactful consider cutting it or making it more useful/impactful. Having the main character show the reader instead of being told that they grew more powerful would have also proven useful, as would having whatever trials or tribulations they defeated actually matter, and not be defeated in the span of 30 minutes.
The story aside, the writing itself isn't great with a limited vocabulary of words chosen together which made the dialog a bit clunky in places. The "adult" scenes were honestly boring and lacked a certain degree of passion and depth or were absolutely dripping with teenage angst, fortunately it didn't become overly annoying.
The performance wasn't great either, not terrible or anything... but I felt Hazel was clearly bored/tired through many of her lines (understandable as the lines for the ladies were often cheesy or comically bad to say the least). The sound quality was below what is common in the industry now a days, and there was at least 1 botched word that could and should have been edited in post.
Overall this is a subpar harem adventure story, and a below average cultivator story (the worst I've read so far in fact). I will probably not refund the credit (though it is on the line for what I would consider refunding for), but neither will I continue the story. I think if the author went back to this book and started again focused on the first half and stuck to 1 or 2 of the threads introduced in the second half he would have had an above average book for the genre... sadly it wasn't meant to be this time.
I didn't make it too far
Nothing is worse than a cocky protagonist without the skills to back it up. It's even worse in a society where one's 'power status' is so easily apparent.
Frankly, the protagonist just isn't likeable in general. If the cockiness isn't enough, being an outlet for exposition just makes him appear stupid too.
I think it's a pretty bad sign when you see no clear difference between the cliche 'bully antagonist' and the protagonist himself.
Don't even get me started on the relationship nonsense. It's like the author studied anime for tips on interpersonal relationships and just implemented them one to one without ever speaking with a real human themselves.
I'll be returning this.
I have over Seven hundred books. I don't comment alot but this book was epic. reminds me some times of the Unsouled series. Narration was good as well.
Fantastic Story and Excellent Dual Narration!
This was a great take on cultivation. There wasn't a dull moment in the story. It flowed really well. They characters were great. Cant wait for the next one.
The narration was really good. I've been waiting a long time for Christian to work with a female narrator and I wasnt disappointed. Hazel did a pretty good job. She has a lot of potential. Im guessing she will get better and better with each book she records. She has a really pleasant voice. I'd just like to hear a little more emotion in the characters.
On Christians end of the narrating. He did great as always. The different voices he uses for the individual characters was great.
The only issue I had with his narrating is the whistling S's. They are vicious if you're wearing headphones. I don't know if there is a way to stop it? but it would make listening a lot more pleasant if there wasn't whistling when saying a word with a S in it....
On the whole production end. Overall it was good. I cant wait to hear more from this duo. The only thing I would suggest to the recording/editing peeps. Is get some beta listeners. There are a lot of errors throughout the book. Repeats, changes in audio levels, clicks, and background noises. It felt like the first edit. maybe it's just getting the kinks worked out on a new dual narrating team.
All that being said. It's definitely worth a credit. The story is great and so is the narrating. I hope this pair keep working together and making more worlds come alive!
Started great but lacked refined me t
This started great as a book however, once into the story the pacing fell apart. The story sped up the point where it was hard to follow and unbelievable things happened per the define world rule. For instance our hero advances so fast that it doesn't seem realistic. Once in the dungeon portion I feel that this book falls apart. Overall great world building g but the rush at the end made it a poor story.
needs a new editor
the book was great, the narrators were good too. however whomever had the job to edit the audio probly needs to either a) get a pay cut. or b) redo it entirely. there were many times were the narator would say a sentence and then say it again but with different emphasis or inflection.
Alex M Baker
Great, just a few minor gripes.
I really did want to give this five stars, but a few compounding things held me back. First, however, let me preface this by saying that this is my first foray into a cultivation story, so I have nothing of its like to compare it to...but I do know what a good book looks/sounds like.
1. The Narrator sounded kinda...bored. His male voices were alright though which kinda saved it for me in that aspect. On the flip side, the female voice actor was great overall (especially Aurora, the main Mana Beast; she sounded like a goddess), though her portrayal of older women all kinda sounded the same. The characters themselves were all lively enough to mostly offset this.
2. The story itself was great, somewhat fast-paced as it was. With that said, some things were left pretty vague and it felt like we (the readers) were just supposed to let these things slide without any explanation. This is the first book in the series though so I won't knock it too much for that; plenty of time to flesh that out later.
3. The need for editing is obvious. It's not so bad that you are totally taken out of immersion, but you will definitely notice it.
4. This goes along with #3 and is less a gripe and more funny, but I have to mention it. There is a point later in the book, during a somewhat steamy session that the Narrator repeats the same sentence twice, pauses, seemingly (and I swear audibly) turns the page on his script, and then keeps reading like nothing happened. OMG, it was so worth being torn from the scene in my mind for that laugh I let out! Others might call that unprofessional or something, but God damn was that funny in the moment!
Overall, I still loved the book and I hope to see the next one on Audible soon so I can snatch it up!
Awesome. New twist on old theme.
I totally enjoyed this book. The characters are intriguing and I liked the supporting characters as well. The world building is interesting and I look forward to seeing what happens in future book's.
needs some editing
chapter 23 22:15 bad edit.
the rest is pretty good its nice that Hazel Cohen co narrated the female parts for this kind of book.


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text:
Irish gaming industry celebrates in smart casual
To celebrate six years supporting the Irish games industry, GameDevelopers.ie is tonight holding an event that focuses on casual gaming, with speakers talking about their experience in both the online space and on developing games for the Apple iTunes App Store.
The sold-out event, taking place in Trinity's Science Gallery, will see Barry O'Moore, senior producer of PlayFirst International, as well as Paul Breslin, operations director at PopCap Games, talking about development and business issues in the Irish gaming industry.
Following this, there will be several talks by and for developers on creating successful applications for the iPhone, as well as advice on how to succeed in the App Store from DIT student and creator of the popular Lights Off game, Steven Troughton-Smith.
Although the event itself is sold out, there will be a further opportunity for games developers to network and showcase their work at a follow-on event in the Lombard Pub near the Science Gallery.
GameDevelopers.ie came out of a 2001/02 research project on the digital games industry from Dr Aphra Kerr who was working at the Centre for Society, Technology and Media (STeM) at Dublin City University. Since then it has been an important networking and information community for Irish games developers.
"The past six years have seen a huge growth in the visibility of the Irish games industry, with Irish companies such as Havok and Demonware becoming well known internationally, and many multinational companies such as Activision, Blizzard, Big Fish, Playfirst and Gala Networks Europe establishing operations in Ireland," said Kerr, founder of GameDevelopers.ie.
"There has also been a massive increase in the number of game-related degree and masters courses available to Irish students.
"We are proud of the work we have done over the past six years, and look forward to building on our achievements to date by nurturing and supporting the Irish games development industry over the next decade."
By Marie Boran
Pictured: casual gaming in World of Warcraft
Related: Science Gallery, Dublin City University, apps, Guinness Enterprise Centre, iPhone, IDA Ireland
2009: Planet of the apps
2010: Big Tech is watching you
2017: Science in the shadow of Trump
Advantio to create 40 jobs at new cybersecurity HQ in Sligo
2016: Brexit, Trump and a fake news epidemic
More from Science


text:
Schwarzenegger's Failure
If the California governor is the face of "moderate" Republicanism, the party is even more doomed than the 2008 elections suggest.
Matt Welch | From the February 2009 issue
You can't really argue with Arnold Schwarzenegger's political success. In 2002 the California Republican Party, still suffering from the anti-immigrant fervor cooked up by former Gov. Pete Wilson, failed to win any statewide offices for the first time since 1882. Yet just one year later Schwarzenegger led a recall effort against the fiscally reckless and managerially incompetent Democratic governor, Gray Davis, beating out the nearest Democratic challenger for the newly vacated position by a margin of more than 2 to 1. Even as Republicans nationwide took a drubbing in the 2006 elections, losing both houses of Congress and the majority of governorships for the first time in 12 years, the bodybuilder-turned-actor, running in an increasingly blue state, smashed Democrat Phil Angelides by a ridiculous 17 percentage points. (For more on how Angelides still managed to push California closer to fiscal disaster, see Jon Entine's "The Next Catastrophe," page 20.)
That the Austrian Oak pulled out such a victory just two years after calling Democrats "girly-men" at the Republican National Convention, and only 12 months after having his pet special-election ballot initiative package decisively repudiated at the polls, cemented Schwarzenegger's persona as a masterfully adaptive politician, able to bend in the direction of the Golden State's famously eccentric electorate in a way that his fellow state Republicans, with their emphases on immigration and abortion, could not.
Three years after knee-capping Schwarzenegger with an investigation of his tendency to paw unwilling women, the Los Angeles Times was arguing that the U.S. Constitution should be amended so that the foreign-born governor might one day become president. Time magazine put Arnold and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on its cover in June 2007, offering their cosmopolitan Republicanism as the only hopeful future for a party increasingly dominated, and dragged down by, social conservatives. These "socially liberal Republicans who have flourished in Democratic political cultures," the magazine enthused, are "doing big things that Washington has failed to do."
Chief among the things Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg have accomplished is winning elections. Republicans took an even worse drubbing in November 2008 than in November 2006, and as I write are neck deep in a civil war over the party's future, with cultural conservatives rallying behind controversial Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to represent what is now the largest voting bloc remaining inside Ronald Reagan's diminished big tent. To the less-than-casual observer who has a distaste for social conservatism (i.e., the average journalist), the only way forward for the Grand Old Party in the 21st century is a kind of moderate Schwarzeneggerism. "Pragmatic Republicans like [Florida Gov. Charlie] Crist, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels and even conservative Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal," Time's Tim Padgett wrote after the 2008 elections, "will likely be the phoenixes that rise from the GOP ashes of 2008."
If that's true, Republicans may be worse off than we thought. It's not that Schwarzenegger is wrong about de-emphasizing or even rejecting elements of social conservatism. Expending political energy on making sure same-sex couples cannot be legally recognized as married, as Republicans continue to do with short-term success in California and elsewhere, is both bad policy (by consciously restricting the freedom of a disfavored minority) and lousy politics. The under-30 generation does not much comprehend political animus toward gays and ethnic minorities. As a result, voters between the ages of 18 and 29 are abandoning Republicanism in near-record numbers. Forget the youthful, cross-cultural Barack Obama; the 18-to-29 vote went 63 percent Democrat to 34 percent Republican for the House of Representatives. If Republicans aren't careful, they'll go the way of newspapers, becoming something only old people are interested in.
The promise of coastal Republicans in Name Only like Schwarzenegger, at least for the limited-government proponents (including me) who have invested hope in him over the years, was supposed to be that the descriptor socially liberal would be followed by another very important phrase: fiscally conservative. And that's where the Milton Friedman–quoting governor has been an unalloyed disaster.
Schwarzenegger blew into office decrying California's bloated budget, vowing to "blow up the boxes" of Sacramento's bureaucracy, and promising to never again let the Golden State go near Gray Davis' record-setting $38 billion deficit. Five years into the Schwarzenegger era, the budget has ballooned from $100 billion to $145 billion, and the state's legislative analyst announced in November that California was facing a deficit of $28 billion. Bond market ratings assess the state as a bigger lending risk than Slovakia. And those bureaucratic boxes have remained largely intact.
How does Schwarzenegger defend this sorry record? In part, by blaming Republicans. "I think the important thing for the Republican Party is now to also look at other issues that are very important for this country and not to get stuck in ideology," he said on CNN five days after the election. "Let's go and talk about health care reform. Let's go and…fund programs if they're necessary programs and not get stuck just on the fiscal responsibility."
What are some of these "necessary programs"? How about a $9.9 billion bond for a long-dreamed-of high-speed rail project between Los Angeles and San Francisco that is expected to cost at least $45 billion, which even supporters such as the Los Angeles Times editorial board think will require "many billions more" in subsidies? Then there's the $3 billion bond from 2004 to put California bureaucrats in the stem cell research business, mostly as a poke in the eye of George W. Bush.
How to pay for all this during what the governor has declared a "financial emergency"? Partly by rattling the tin cup outside the White House. Schwarzenegger was one of the first governors to hit up Washington for some of that fat bailout money gushing from the Oval Office.
But the spending splurge also requires new taxes, according to the governor: a "temporary" 1.5-percentage-point increase in the 7.25 percent sales tax, an increase in the number of services covered by the sales tax, higher taxes for alcohol and oil production, and so on. Many analysts believe that the governor who quickly fulfilled his recall-campaign promise to cut the state's vehicle license fees will soon resort to restoring those charges to at least Gray Davis levels.
Even on social issues, where Schwarzenegger's more libertarian approach was supposed to avoid the Republican trap of freedom constricting politics, the governor instead has embraced the freedom-constricting policies of the left. To cite one particularly ironic example, in 2004 he signed a law requiring every California employer with more than 50 workers to force upon its managers state-approved sexual harassment training.
Republicans in 2009 are in a mess of their own making. If they interpret the Democrats' sweeping victory as a clarion call to foray further into religiously inspired, Terry Schiavo–style politics that uses government as a lever to manipulate and control other people's lives, then they will deserve their exile from power.
But it will take more than just eschewing cultural conservatism and adopting the Democrats' interventionist economic approach to refresh the Republican brand. There is room right now for an opposition party that emphasizes what the governing party does not: freedom, as both the ultimate goal and the means to achieve it.
Back when he was taping testimonials for Milton Friedman's Free to Choose, Arnold Schwarzenegger looked like the kind of person who would indeed choose freedom if given a chance to govern. Instead, he punted on the radical, government-reducing reforms offered to him by his own box-exploding California Performance Review and learned to love—or at least perpetuate—the very bureaucracy he was elected to confront. That's not a blueprint for 21st-century Republicanism. It's just George W. Bush's big-government conservatism with a Hollywood face.
Matt Welch is editor in chief of reason.
NEXT: Reid's Thin Reed Bends
Matt Welch is an editor at large at Reason.
Economics Government Spending Politics
January.5.2009 at 12:06 pm
His problems all started when he didn't even stop to hear the lamentations of Gray Davis' wife. A shame.
Lefiti
Wow, I am so busy sucking my own cock, yet I was still able to be first! sweet
Dam you Warty!
Libertymike
Do you think Arnold inhaled?
P Brooks
"Moderate Republicanism" equals: "lowest common denominator".
Just like every other modern political "philosophy".
Does Schwarzenegger still have that t-shirt?
Pro-Lib-
The t-shirt was worn in one of the final scenes of Pumping Iron. Arnold had just won his sixth atraight Mr. Olympia, defeating Lou Ferigno, Serge Nubret and his buddy, Franco.
Nice job Matt. Let's hope you put a stop to the Barbarian quicker than you did with the Maverick.
Francisco Franco was a competitive bodybuilder? I learn so much here at Hit & Run.
Leric
January.5.2009 at 1:00 pm
Does anyone know of any actual socially liberal, fiscally conservative Republicans? As we've seen with Arnold, most of the soc lib's tend to be fiscally liberal too.
Nigel Watt
Leric: Off the top of my head, I think Jeff Flake is the closest.
D. Saul Weiner
I have to wonder how much of the disenchantment of the 18-29 group with the GOP has to do with anti-gay initiatives versus the bad taste that GWB has left in their mouth during a period when most have come of age politically. I suspect that the latter is more responsible.
The GOP is getting what they deserve for jumping into bed with the crazy fucking jesus freaks like they did. The kind of freaks who think Israel going off the res is a good thing, because it brings us closer to the much awaited "end times" and all that. If the GOP wants to win elections, they'll throw the jesus freaks overboard in favor of drug users, ala R.A.W.'s "Guns and Dope Party"
Top of the Hill-
When is Israel not "off the res"?
Ken T.
As much as I would like it if they GOP got rid of the Jesus freaks in their constituency, they would be foolish to give up on them completely. They simply won't win any elections without the support of social conservatives.
Unfortunate but true.
Does Arnold write the California budget all by himself, or does that task mostly fall to the Democrats, with their iron grip on the state legislature? Does he even have a line item veto?
"promising to never again let the Golden State go near Gray Davis' record-setting $38 billion deficit"
That was one promise he kept, albeit in the wrong direction.
nonPaulogist
This end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenario for the GOP may actually turn out to be a good thing. The state has no answers for fiscal or social conservatives, or liberals or libertarians, for that matter. For those with no where else to turn, Anarchocapitalism has never looked so good.
Leric:
In response to your question I believe former New Mexico gov Gary Johnson is the only one and he didn't come clean on legalizing drugs until after he was elected to his second and final term.
Orange Line Special
Great job! However, I see that MattW bases part of his "great thoughts" on the proposition 187 myth. And, that's where I stopped reading.
P.S. Here's my Arnold Schwarzenegger summary.
The beautiful thing about the events of 2008 is that both being socially conservative and fiscally conservative have been demonstrated to be political dead-ends on a national level. Democrats might have some difficulty keeping their now humongous tent up, but that's a better problem to have than being the party of old, white, racists.
The beautiful thing about the events of 2008 is that both being socially conservative and fiscally conservative have been demonstrated to be political dead-ends on a national level.
Being a Republican was certainly a dead end, mostly due to the sorry-ass outgoing President.
Yet gay marriage still got crushed on all the ballots, and I'm not sure how the hell anyone would know about fiscal conservatism, considering that it hasn't been remotely tried in years.
the unregistered voter
Show me an example of the mythical "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" politician. In every example I can think of, one or the other went out of the window.
Sorry folks, but every politician I'm aware of that ever stuck to the "fiscally conservative" line like he meant business was socially conservative as well.
Steve B
Man, how did Welch miss the opportunity to describe Davis as "fiscally reckless and riskily feckless?" Certainly a lot more fun than "managerially incompetent".
It's been like this for decades. Until about 30 yrs. ago, the choice among Republicans was between general conservatives and Ripon-Stassen-Rockefeller moderates. Then the traditionalist "religious right" moved in and the choice is now between them and the moderates. The line between those poles hardly ever gets nearer liberty than it is at the extremes.
However, what is a good thing is that sometimes the emphasis of particular Republicans is taken off some of the bad points. In other words, sometimes we get benign neglect in some directions.
The under-30 generation does not much comprehend political animus toward gays and ethnic minorities.
The under 30 generation never does. That statement would have been just as true in 1979 as it is in 2009. And it will probably be just as true – and just as irrelevant – in 2039.
Yes he is great..It getting harder every month to tell where Mexico ends and Calif. begins! Calif. is basically an bankrupt state. Maybe some day American Tax payers will realize it is impossible to support all of Mexico. Then maybe they will raise and frog hop all the Politicians out of town that refuse to abide by Article IV Section IV of our Constitution against invasion, refuse to enforce our Immigration laws, and refuse to abide by their Oath of Office!
On a semi-related note…
"Meg Whitman Considering Run for California Governor"
I don't think Wilson cooked up the anti-immigrant fervor, he just tried to capitalize on it.
As for Arnold's wins, blame the Democrats for running exceptionally weak candidates like Bustamante and Angelides, both of whom greatly misunderstand California voters.
California voters are very liberal, but pretty strongly against higher taxes. They don't mind higher spending, and keep voting for insane bond measures. Arnold has figured this out, so the debt continues to escalate.
The problem with California is that nobody realizes the bond measures they vote for aren't magical. They don't realize that one day, we'll have to pay it back, that just because the ballot says it's a loan and there's no immediate impact to taxes doesn't mean it's a free ride.
Regarding the rail, I told my co-worker I was upset it passed, because I said California couldn't afford it right now, and there's plenty of cheap ways to get in and out of San Fran as it is. And she said, "But I just think it'd be really cool." A friend, regarding the stem cell measure, voted for it because Christopher Reeves had just died, and maybe if we knew more about stem cells we could have saved him. Which, maybe so, but the people in California have no idea that idealism can't exist with reality.
Sure, it'd be great to be able to pay for everything for children, and everyone who can't make it on their own. I'm not being sarcastic, of course it would. But, obviously as seen by the deficit, as nice as it is, it's not possible. Californians are too stuck in their ideas of what an ideal society should be to ever vote against spending more money "for a good cause." And people say libertarians live in a fantasy world….
Probably obvious disclaimer: I live in CA.
January.6.2009 at 12:33 am
I doubt that the bullet train will ever be built. By the time the engineering and the environment impact studies have been completed and accepted at least one of the following will have transpired:
* Businesspeople will have discover the Internet and video conferencing, taking them off the potential passenger list and making the railway advocates' projection of financial solvency impossible to attain.
* Automobiles will no longer need fossil fuels, removing the green incentive for building the railway.
* Transporters will developed.
* Monkeys will evolve and take over the planet.
The Wine Commonsewer
January.6.2009 at 1:06 am
The problem with California is that nobody realizes the bond measures they vote for aren't magical.
So true. My cousin, who is one of the most brilliant people on earth (you'd know his name if I chose to embarrass him) voted for the bullet train.
Oh, come one TWC. You have to tell us now.
*come on. Not come one.
I think this article really underplays the hurt felt by the horseshoe over the sepecial election debacle (and the run up to it when the Nurses and the "Ed Coalition" just creamed the Governor's approval numbers). When Susan Kennedy got into the COS seat basically it was a signal that the old Arnold was dead. But can one really blame him – the prospects were a "one and done" political career given the depths to whitch the CTA and the CNA had driven his numbers at a time of relatively economic prosperity.
Hoale
Very simply the product of the lesser of two evils. A Vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil.
January.10.2009 at 9:16 am
Any comment on California's plight which refuses to make the distinction between legal and illegal immigration is worthless. Ninety percent of the outstanding murder warrants in Los Angeles are for illegals. Being anti-illegal is not 'anti ethnic' Mr Welch, it's being pro citizen and anti-crime. If the border was secure we would still get a healthy influx of new citizens, albeit ones who start out by obeying the law.
Also, why should the young have a hard time understanding that some folks are against gay marriage when it's the same position as Obama and Biden?
And just in case you really want to investigate wasteful CA spending, look no further than the public employee pension funds that are sucking the state dry.
MOInd
Arnold is not the problem it's the something for nothing culture in the People's Republic of California.
January.10.2009 at 11:00 am
One has to only look at Calif. which is basically an Bankrupt state that cannot afford to provide Welfare, Schooling, Medical etc. for millions of Criminals and uneducated peons from Mexico! In a very few years it will be impossible to see where Mexico ends and Calif. begins as both will be an third cesspool!
How can we forget that one of his first actions was to stop a car tax when we were flush with cash-As I rrecall this would have generated 9Bil but he is just a s tupid celebreity
danceswithtrees
January.10.2009 at 12:43 pm
Arnold tried to be "fiscally conservative" when he first got in and the left BASHED HIM big time when he tried unsuccessfully to CUT GOVT. SPENDING. He WAS the model of future Republicans to follow but after his defeat he became weak in order to get reelected. He has tried in vein to get the overwhelmingly Democratic legislature to give us reasonable spending. Notice how the Big Blue States like Cali. NY, and Mich are all broke while the fiscally conservative (NON UNION, non big labor) states like TX. Utah. Miss. have BUDGET SURPLUSES. Unfortunately our federal Govt. is about to go with HUGE Govt. spending programs and if you think we have budget problems now, wait till you see what it will be like with the liberally spending Dems in charge. Were screwed!
Mark Robillard
January.10.2009 at 2:56 pm
So the California Republican Party has "failed to win any statewide offices for the first time since 1882." Really? Matt, you forgot about George Deukmejian. He was governor from 1983-1991.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Deukmejian
Enough with this "socially liberal" but "fiscally conservative" bullshit! You are what you will spend your money on. If you ain't willing to pay for it, you ain't liberal. End of discussion.
Matt, editor or Reason, you are either 1) an idiot, or 2) someone who thinks your readers are. 95% of CA's crisis has to do with idiotic bond measures that idiot Californians pass via proposition, becuase they never think about the cumulative impact, and because many of the bond propositios say, wrongly, "this is not a tax!" in the defense section of the pamphlet they send us in every election. If this article is simply a huge mistake, it ASTOUNDS me that you are allowed to write and publish publicly, let alone be the editor in chief of Reason. If on the other hand, it is cynical, and you are trying to deceive, then shame on you. The solution to CA's ongoing fiscal crisis is either A) for the electorate to grow a brain, or B) for the propositions to end. And since B will never happen without A, we're in trouble. The Austrian is like the Dutch boy with his finger in the dike. The is NOTHING that ANYONE can do in Sacramento to fix our problems when voters, even during and after the onset of a huge fiscal crisis, will still pass totally discretionary multi-billion dollar bond projects!!!
David Quackenbush
"Schwarzenegger led a recall effort"?
That's not how I remember it.
Tom McClintock lead the recall effort, and real conservatives abandoned him.
Jeremy Janson
Leric, yes, Giuliani, although unfortunately he was really more urban legalist then libertarian and he's no longer in politics. Also, I think WA-8 (a district that would elect such a person) representative Jennifer Dunn may have fit that description as well back when she was in politics, but she was essentially henpecked out of the party in 2004 and then died of a stroke 2 years later. Her son Reagan Dunn, however, is seeking office to maintain her legacy, but the West Coast has since then gone more socially conservative and he may have to adapt. The only current FCSL conservative I know of is Ahn Cao, R-New Orleans, who is likewise probably also an urban legalist.
RKV
Ken, you are an idiot, along with being rude, offensive, clueless and completely uninformed. Bond measures are not California's main problem. Not. Even. Close. Debt service in the current CA budget is just over 6% of the total budget. The real problems are a) that government has grown much faster than revenues and b) an unfriendly attitude toward capital that makes taxes high and regulations oppressive drives businesses and business owners away. This stuff is just not that hard. Impeach Arnie, he's just the same as Davis! We elected him to say no to the legislature and he didn't. No surprise. The Austrian talks Austrian economics and then does just the opposite of what a real Austrian (free-market libertarian) economist would do. And the Republicans get the blame, again. Electing Tom McClintock governor instead of the admitted drug user would have prevented this, but no the Orange County RINO mafia that runs the state GOP wanted the bodybuilder/"actor." God help the suffering citizens of the state of Calyforniah.
Paul DeReno
Pete Wilson won, and Gray Davis lost mainly because of his idiotic drivers-licenses to illegal aliens run. People drink their own Kool-Aid, apparently; and Davis apparently didn't realize that voting Californians, like everyone else in the country, especially Republicans, are immigration restrictionists.
Lying and self-delusion does nobody any good. It's okay to subscribe to any of the horrible and phony rationales for Open Borders; just don't delude yourselves into thinking that there is any popular base for the position outside of MECHA.
" In 2002 the California Republican Party, still suffering from the anti-immigrant fervor cooked up by former Gov. Pete Wilson, failed to win any statewide offices for the first time since 1882."
Of course Wilson's support of Prop 187 brought him from way behind to a resounding win. Only radical ideologues like Matt Welch could consider winning elections as a losing strategy for the Republican Party. Governor Swartzenegger used Davis's signing of the drivers' license for illegal immigrants bill to help recall him and win the Governorship. Of course Mr. Arnold Shriver doesn't really give a damn about illegal immigration. In fact the only thing he really cares about is Arnold. He and the other useful idiots for the Democrats within the Republican Party are helping to ensure the permanent demise of that party with their unwillingness to stand against illegal immigration, alienating their rank and file and Reagan Democrats who believe that they shouldn't have to compete with illegal immigrants in the labor marketplace in their quest to secure their share of the economic output of the country. And of course the resulting ethnic/racial politicians from all that illegal immigration belong to which party? Furthermore these Republicans give the Democrats the needed cover so that they can ignore the threat their pro illegal immigration would be to maintaining their power (in the short term; in the long term it creates demographic to assure it), just as Rahm Emanuel identified.
Of course Welch, like the LA Times where he wrote, a paper that only hires those who agree with their open-border stances, is responsible to pushing the notion that anti-illegal immigration means anti-immigrant. If the media says something enough, it becomes true to many people and the anti-immigrant line has been repeated ad infinitum by newspapers. The majority of citizens that support limited and legal immigration and oppose illegal illegal or mass immigration simply are not given any representation in that newspaper and many others. That suppression of free debate that Welch was complicit in belies his libertarianism; freedom, except for ideas.
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Miami was lit up last night — and when Ultra Music Festival had ended, the real party began.
Well, parties I should say. Following the fest, everyone buzzed around discussing which afterparty would be the best to hit up. Rezz x Malaa at Soho Studios was certainly the place to be (can confirm). While many others thrived at the Dirtybird afterparty at Club Space.
In the midst of the crowds hanging outside all the hot spots, "Shaq's party," was a topic of much interest. Amongst whispers about guest lists and bottle service, Shaq's Fun House certainly held its own in conversation.
From the looks of it, Shaq's star-studded party went off. The clip below from last night features Shaq and Robert Gronkowski aka Gronk going head-to-head in an epic dance battle of sorts. It's funny, a little weird, and stirring up some serious FOMO in many fans this morning. What else happened at Shaq's party? What else did we miss out on?
Music has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. Most people don't know this about me, but I have been DJing since I was 14 years old. I have performed at some of the best music festivals in the world and it is about time I go big and start my own event experience. Just like me, this event is going to be HUGE in every way, with the best in dance music, entertainment, and all my closest friends!
Next ArticleDJ Snake Brought Out Tchami, Malaa & Mercer To Debut Their New Collab "Let's Get Ill"


text:
A young, black man appears suddenly at the far end of a prism-like corridor, gasping for air. He regains his composure and explores his surroundings. The entire corridor is mirrored except for two long rectangular openings on his left and right. Through these openings he spots the audience, which sits on either side, facing each other, staring into the corridor. He seems simultaneously pleased and uncomfortable to see us there.
A paper airplane flies into his hand. He reads the paper and begins to shake with dread. His convulsing body is reflected infinitely throughout the corridor. Soon, the man will be joined by three others who pass through the same motions. The men, we learn, are victims of police violence against black men. The corridor is a holding space for their souls, as they make sense of their deaths and contextualize their pain in our national and personal histories.
Kill Move Paradise, written by James Ijames and directed by Saheem Ali, succeeds in building community in the wake of ongoing national pain (I resist the impulse to write 'tragedy' because 'tragedy' implies a fatalistic, uncontrollable scenario). Ijames' writing is an ambitious project and aims to both examine and to heal. It is simultaneously all of the following: an elegy for the slain; an incisive and uncomfortable commentary that uses every theatrical conventions like song and dance to disturb and excite; a contemporary ritual to cleanse our past in hope for future generations. The National Black Theater, which helmed the production, hosts talkbacks at the end of every show, and I can't remember the last time when everyone in an audience found something truly meaningful in a production.
Rather than go down a check list of the play's triumphs, I want to focus my attention on how ONE production choice encompasses its radical endeavor: Maruti Evans' mirrored set. An infinite hallway that both reflects and distorts. A stand-alone piece (a la carnival funhouse) but also integral to the piece. Here are 5 ways that Evans' set mirrors the possibilities of Kill Move Paradise:
It's minimal.
Even though it's striking the set never overwhelms you, which allows our focus to shift towards the plays other outstanding features – an energetic, protean cast, a resounding script, etc. But the set also set outs to surprise you. Shifting floorboards allow for the men's sudden entrances. At one end, a transparent lift allows for the tension-filled entrance of the youngest of the victims.
Photo by Christine Jean Chambers
It's infinite.
Kill Move Paradise's ambition is to speak for black victims of police institutional violence dating back to (judging from the repeated Christian references) Jesus. The history of police violence is not history but rather an ongoing crisis. And as each new victim gets written into the narrative, added to the long scroll of men's names read aloud during the play (a list which grew bigger during the play's rehearsals) the past and the future mediate the present. Each new shooting invokes those that came before it and those that have yet to come.
The set's mirrored surface creates an infinitude of reflected men. A repeated pattern of death and of injustice is set out before us. And yet, some may feel hope in seeing the multitude of men together, striving to understand the circumstances that led them to this place, resolving to mourn and, in time, to see their community united.
It distorts the image.
A certain parts of the hallway, the mirrors are distorted, creating a slightly grotesque atmosphere to the men's reflections. The distortions emphasize the distortion of the narratives we receive in the media and in popular culture about the killings. Information often gets filtered through the biases of political leanings, of social and racial structures, of a news outlet's desire to get more clicks. And even if we were to rid our media of these biases, how could we see these dead men differently? How could we account for their humanity, their souls? To see them as more than just another name on a list of the dead, another cause to champion? How can we find the truth of who they were? How can we find the truth to never let it happen again?
It slants upwards.
Besides the mirrors, the sole defining structural feature of the hallway is a ramp extending upwards to what appears to the characters as an exit from their condition. The men try to escape, but when they do, a divine stroke of electricity prevents them from getting up. Their desperation grows, and one of the men repeats the cycle of running up the hill, getting electrified, and rolling back down helplessly for an uncomfortably long stretch of time. What must they do to escape?
The uphill struggle of the characters to understand and to reconcile their fates with those that are to come, stays in view at all times.
Photo by Garlia C. Jones-Ly
It's voyeuristic.
The actors confront the audience at several points throughout the play. Why are we watching them, all peepshow-like? What are we there to accomplish? As they begin to understand their own deaths, why do we continue to watch? Are we entertained?
The audience's role in the theater and our wakened consciousness is clearly a concern to Ijames. It's a question that has dogged avant-garde playwrights for over a century. How do we create critical, thinking audiences instead of passivized, complacent consumers? How can we best ensure that this art will change the way they perceive the world? Evans' set places us a voyeurs of the afterlife, seeking the pleasures that a night at the theater might imply for us. There's also something pleasurable about the nature of viewing the play itself. There may be pleasure in the comfort of seeing the continued existence of these men's souls (and our souls, for that matter) in an afterlife. The play may provide a sense of closure, much like the idea of seeing our loved ones eternally in heaven.
And yet, Kill Move Paradise smartly withholds that pleasure from us by confronting us with our own gaze. Not only do the actors acknowledge (and therefore disempower it), but we also see the other half of the audience watching across the stage, looking through the facing view.
Furthermore, none of our view are ever complete. The view of an actor's head is cut off if he's standing atop the ramp. And I sometimes had to rely on some of the mirrors in order to see the action happening on the floor. This again, distorts our view, showing us that no one point of view is all-encompassing or all-knowing. Every person's perspective of the events on stage is different merely because of where they are sitting and what they can see.
Kill Move Paradise played at the National Black Theater in Spring 2017.
black lives matter, broadway, james ijames, kill move paradise, maruti evans, national black theater, new york theater, off-broadway, police brutality, saheem ali