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Age of Apocalypse (2015) #1 [Review]
Posted on July 13, 2015 by Walt
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Gerardo Sandoval
Colorist: David Curiel
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Cover: Sandoval & Curiel
Asst. Editor: Xander Jarowey
Editor: Katie Kubert
Executive Editor: Mike Marts
Published by: Marvel
For what I believe is the first time in years, the "classic," ORIGINAL Age of Apocalypse logo is back (though lacking the oval and "After Xavier: The"). For over a decade, it seems a newer logo/font has been the "in" thing for use with the branding, from the 10th anniversary-onward. Add to that the fact that we have Magneto and Rogue prominently shown as well as a gratuitous placement of Weapon X (Wolverine)'s hand and claws, and this is something that absolutely grabbed my attention. (There's also the fact that I revisited the saga in its entirety earlier this year, too!). While the characters are a bit "off" in appearance on the cover, this is still a great image to me, and I especially dig this rendition of Rogue.
We open the story to find the Savage Land under attack by Holocaust–son of Apocalypse (and in this Secret Wars version of the world, Apocalypse is Baron of the realm, with only god Doom above him). Holocaust is also one of Apocalypse's Horsemen, sent to retrieve the young mutant Doug Ramsey (aka "Cypher"). Storm and Quicksilver's squad of X-Men arrive to fight the monster and save Cypher…though things quickly go pear-shaped for all involved. We then shift to the aftermath and find what Mr. Sinister, Dark Beast, and the Summers brothers are up to as well as learning more about the situation, as Cypher pieces together an important bit of information. And finally, we get to Magneto's squad of X-Men…and are left hanging for next issue.
As mentioned above about the cover, Sandoval and Curiel's art has the characters looking a bit "off" to me…but despite that, the work is very good, and overall I like what I got in this issue. Maybe I would have enjoyed this even more with one of the "classic" artists that worked on the original 1995 Age of Apocalypse, but this IS a newer story, a new look at stuff, and is not actually that SAME Age of Apocalypse (evidenced especially by the presence of modern Tablets that didn't exist in any sort of commonality back in '95). There are some differences–Magneto seems overly muscled, Cyclops' hair seems a lot thicker, longer, and far more wild, and Sinister's coloring seems more muted than I expected–but in and of itself, I'm cool with it. I enjoyed the look and feel of this issue.
Another selling point for me was very definitely that Nicieza–one of the writers on the original story–is the writer here on this book now. I generally find that I am far more accepting of changes to core elements of a story in new "takes" on an original when an original creator is involved…it's sort of their seal of approval, being involved.
As we only have a few issues for this story as opposed to several dozen for the original, Nicieza deals nicely with scaling down the cast for the main story while directing our focus a bit. There's a certain familiarity here that I truly appreciate, while the differences seem to come primarily from the fact that this is an Age of Apocalypse that is part of Battleworld and not solely its own thing…so certain continuity elements simply don't exist here that did in the original…and/or they flat-out don't matter. The story rang true to my reading, even more than probably anything else done with the AoA in the past 10 years.
You don't need to have read the original story to follow this…there's plenty in-context to move things along. As a part of Secret Wars and the whole "NOW, ALL THAT REMAINS…IS BATTLEWORLD!" this functions believably as simply an alternate take on/situation for X-Men characters. If you're familiar with and enjoyed the original Age of Apocalypse epic, this version of the characters seems plucked from the heart of that, rather than some new status quo picking up years after the original.
The $4.99 cover price is a bit steep…and though I think I knew OF it a few weeks back looking ahead, I forgot about it, so was somewhat surprised when I re-realized what I'd paid for this. That's probably also credit back to the cover imagery and logo and then my enjoyment of the story–I was distracted and not bothered by the price. We get about 30 content pages–more than the standard 20-22, so as much as any are these days, I'll accept that as "justification" for the $4.99.
I thoroughly enjoyed the issue, and despite trying to shift to Marvel's Digital Comics Unlimited, I may actually keep current with this series. Highly recommended to Age of Apocalypse fans in particular…this may not be nearly as special as the original story, but as a new story it captures something that really works…at least to me.
Filed under: 2015 posts, 2015 Reviews, MARVEL, Marvel Universe, Secret Wars (Event) | Tagged: Age of Apocalypse, apocalypse, Clayton Cowles, Comic Reviews, comics, David Curiel, En Sabah Nur, Fabian Nicieza, Gerardo Sandoval, Holocaust, Katie Kubert, magneto, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Mike Marts, Peter Corbeau, Rogue, Secret Wars, Sticks and Stones, Weapon X, Xander Jarowey |	1 Comment »
Age of Apocalypse Revisited: X-Men Omega
Story: Scott Lobdell
Dialogue: Mark Waid
Pencils: Roger Cruz
Inks: LaRosa, Townsend, Kesel, Candelario, Hanna, Milgrom
Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Colors: Steve Buccellato, Electric Crayon
Cover: John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson
Editor: Bob Harras
Cover Date: June 1995
While not nearly as "iconic" as the Alpha issue to me…this issue is still one of THE most iconic comic issues of my youth. Though the majority of the context comes from the various individual titles that make up the Age of Apocalypse, this is THE issue they all led into, after spinning out of X-Men: Alpha. As such, while I didn't remember details of most of the individual series, I remembered where things wound up because of this issue.
We open on a full-page of Magneto, bloodied and energy crackling around him, standing defiantly against an off-page foe, who we find is Holocaust, battering the leader of the X-Men for Apocalypse's amusement before the villain reveals his final plans. Meanwhile, Angel finds Karma, while in the pens, the X-Men arrive via Blink's portals. As they contemplate the lack of opposition and come across Beast, we move to see Cyclops and Jean leading freed humans across the bridge away from Apocalypse's stronghold. Apocalypse's forcefield is taken down by Angel's suicide bomb…his sacrifice allows Nate (X-Man) access to Apocalypse…where he finds and is recognized by Magneto as The One that Forge had long ago promised to deliver.
while Nate takes on Holocaust, the X-Men have found the M'Kraan crystal, and Destiny confirms Bishop's claims and everything comes down to Illyana choosing to help restore broken reality. The three enter the crystal, leaving the X-Men to fight Apocalypse's forces. On the bridge, Jean realizes the bombs have been launched and throws up a psi-shield…holding them back as long as she can. In the crystal, Destiny guides Illyana in unlocking her powers, getting Bishop back to the moment things went wrong. Back on the bridge, Havok reveals himself, unleashing his powers to take out Jean and Scott before being taken out himself by Weapon X. The X-Men rescue baby Charles, mess up Beast's escape attempt, while others have fallen in battle and misunderstanding.
In the past, Bishop confronts his past self and Legion, preventing Legion from killing anyone…and closing a loop that sees the X-Men ripped back to their own time and the chronal energies erasing their presence and Legion's from the memories of all left behind…that events would unfold as they had with no taint from Legion's obtrusive presence.
Nate finally gets to Apocalypse before being attacked again by Holocaust…using a shard of the M'Kraan crystal he and Holocaust are unexpectedly removed from the equation. The distraction is enough for Magneto to summon the power to rip Apocalypse apart, finally killing the evil mutant and ending his reign. In the last few moments left to him, he rejoins Rogue and his son, while reflecting on the importance of one man to the world itself…as the nuclear blast is about to engulf them. Hope is left behind, in Bishop accomplishing his mission…and preventing any of this from ever having happened.
This issue being what it is, as mentioned above…there's little separating its nostalgic and emotional, lasting impact on me from the technicalities of the issue itself.
At this typing, I don't particularly recognize Cruz' name or art…and would have sworn there was someone else on the art. Looking back, Cruz contributed to a couple previous X-issues, and was the penciler on the Alpha issue as well…so while the art isn't ENTIRELY consistent with the individual series, it provides a definite consistency to the other bookend issue of this entire mega-arc. In and of itself, I really don't have any complaints on the art…everyone is recognizeable and obvious for who they are…and though many of the characters don't look quite as well-done as they were in the individual books, given this issue involves so many without being a "jam book," that's hardly an issue for me. We have numerous inkers and a full roster of Letterers and Colorists…whether that was to get the book out "on time" or to allow more hands to touch the project, be a part of it, I don't know. It's really something I mostly notice for specifically scoping out the credits to write this up.
Story-wise, I see Mark Waid on dialogue, as with X-Men: Alpha…which is interesting again as before given I wasn't consciously aware of him 20 years ago but know him as a writer whose work I like present-day…and realize how much I like his dialogue through this issue, hokey and cheesey as parts are. Magneto's final moments in the issue resonate particularly for me.
Given the specific issues that things unfolded in, this is the first we've "seen" of the "regular" X-Men in the entirety of the labeled Age of Apocalypse issues. The brief bit we get with them–specifically of Storm realizing the true battle was fought elsewhere–is something that has stuck with me since originally reading the issue, and worked its way into my head over the years as a concept that truly influences my understanding and conception of time travel and alternate reality stories…really in a way I can't quite put to typed words.
The Age of Apocalypse ends, the "true reality" is restored…but this story left lasting repercussions (and characters) on the X-universe and the Marvel universe in general. Fitting in a way, perhaps, that present-day 2015 we're about to get major changes to the very fabric of the Marvel universe, as I've just finished re-reading this tale.
Filed under: 2015 posts, The '90s Revisited, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse | Tagged: Age of Apocalypse, Al Milgrom, apocalypse, Bob Harras, Candelario, Comic Reviews, Comicraft, comics, electric crayon, Endings, Hanna, John Romita Jr., Karl Kesel, Klaus Janson, Larosa, magneto, Mark Waid, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Omega, Richard Starkings, Roger Cruz, Scott Lobdell, Steve Buccellato, townsend, x-men, X-Men Omega |	1 Comment »
Age of Apocalypse Revisited: Amazing X-Men #4
On Consecrated Ground
Plot: Fabian Nicieza
Penciler: Andy Kubert
Inker: Matt Ryan
Lettering: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Color Art: Kevin Somers and Digital Chameleon
Cover: Andy Kubert, Matt Ryan
Here we are…the second-to-last issue of the entirety of this (as we're in 2015 I have to use the word "original" to specify) Age of Apocalypse story.
The issue opens with Bishop in the hands of the Madri as they prepare to "sacrifice" him so that his knowledge does not pass further and inspire others to consider a world in which Apocalypse does not presently rule. Storm bursts onto the scene and frees him, though the doing drains her considerably. While this is going on, Quicksilver and Banshee locate the source of the Madri–Jamie Madrox–as we learn that the Madri are all "just" dupes of Jamie. Meanwhile, Rogue and her group arrive back at the mansion to learn Magneto has been taken and her son Charles is missing. Nightcrawler bamfs in with Destiny; Colossus and Kitty had also arrived with Illyana and now deliver the news that their students died in freeing the girl. Dazzler and Exodus return as well, Gambit and Lila Cheney in tow…but no sign of Charles. Rogue lashes out at Gambit for not returning with her child; while Banshee sacrifices himself to put an end to Abyss, and Madrox gives his own life to shut down the Madri and thus save Storm and Bishop. The various pieces of Magneto's planning have come together, borne fruit…and the X-Men stand ready to end the age of Apocalypse.
Though this issue does technically continue threads from the previous issue, in many ways it feels more like a filler issue, not belonging to its own series, but rather, tying things together to funnel/filter several things into X-Men: Omega and the end of the overall AoA story arc. There's a lot going on, though nothing really gets much focus.
The story as such doesn't work as a solo issue, and even as a final issue, too much "space" is given to converging plotlines for this to really fit the standard expectation of a final issue. I suppose I'd say that this issue lacks much of its own identity as a chapter of an individual thread about to be woven back into a larger whole. Yet, this certainly sets things up and if one reads this issue, it certainly does not make much sense not to continue on to X-Men: Omega.
The art is good. Nothing really stands out positive or negative, though if anything it might be the portrayal of Abyss. I can't quite figure out if I like or dislike the character's appearance…though it's a credit to the visual team that I can "hear" the sound of the character's movements in my head.
This issue is a sort of bridge between the other minis and X-Men: Omega; particularly Generation Next, X-Calibre, Astonishing X-Men, and Gambit and the X-Ternals…really only leaving out Weapon X, X-Man, and Factor-X, as those series' finales I believe are more directly connected to the pages of the bookend special.
The end of this issue points out the continuation into X-Men: Omega…which apparently was on sale the same week, so there would have been the double-dose of story, and making this one functionally an extension if one bought both. X-Men: Alpha, 8 4-issue series, two 2-issue series and a profile book…this is–if my math's correct–the 39th part of AoA, with everything wrapping up in a 40th issue, capping things off.
Filed under: 2015 posts, The '90s Revisited, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse | Tagged: Age of Apocalypse, Amazing X-Men, Andy KUbert, apocalypse, Bishop, Bob Harras, Comic Reviews, Comicraft, comics, Digital Chameleon, Fabian Nicieza, Kevin Somers, Madri, magneto, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Matt Ryan, On Consecrated Ground, Quicksilver, Richard Starkings, Rogue, Storm, x-men |	Leave a comment »
Age of Apocalypse Revisited: X-Men Chronicles #2
Writer: Howard Mackie
Penciler: Ian Churchill
Inks: Hanna/Vey/Moncuse/Wiacek
Colors: Matt Webb
Color Separations: Digital Chameleon
Cover: Churchill
Editors: Kelly Corvese, Bob Harras
We open on Weapon X confronting Magneto. He and Jean are leaving, and Mags will NOT be convincing him otherwise. After the tense standoff, we shift to Wolverine–a huge mutant working for Holocaust. Holocaust, it seems, was once Nemesis–who killed Scarlet Witch in X-Men Chronicles #1, some time before this issue. Magneto doesn't take Jean and Logan's leaving all that well and throws himself AND his X-Men into training, none realizing the pending danger of the Wolverine. We also see the deterioration of Gambit's pursuit of Rogue as we see the blossoming of the Magneto/Rogue relationship…which doesn't begin to go over well with Gambit. Despite the huge wedge from a heart's betrayal, Gambit stands with Magneto against Wolverine…though their broken friendship is one of the "key" events to come of the issue.
It may be that the issue is extra-sized and so a bigger single chunk of story, minus issue breaks and fitting into the larger, more complex continuity of multiple titles going on simultaneously, as well as "seeing" a key point in this version of the X-Men's past (relative to the "present day" waning moments of the Age of Apocalypse unfolding in the main X-books cover dated June 1995). It might be the art, and certainly an enjoyable story. But reading this issue, the thoughts it provoked, and the feeling I had when I got to the end…this is definitely one of my TOP favorite issues of the entirety of the AoA storyline.
There's only one page in particular (but several, flipping back through the issue) with Magneto specifically, where I feel like I noticed a change in the inking, transforming Churchill's work such that I actually paused and looked back to see if there were multiple artists/pencilers on the book, as it just looks quite different from the rest of the book. Otherwise, I really liked the art, and would have to really dig to find anything NOT to like about it. I'm not all that fond of Wolverine's visual design…but as a generic "evil mutant" he works quite well. I imagine part of that is simply the use of the name in association with someone NOT Logan. (Yet, it makes sense in a world with countless "codenames" if most know "Weapon X" but he's not using the name…"Wolverine" WOULD be up for grabs!)
Mackie gets a bad rap, I think…or at least, I've allowed my opinion to be clouded by his later work, particularly–I think–his Spider-Man stuff of the later '90s. Here, I just simply enjoyed seeing these characters and the story that we get through the longer segment. Even knowing what was coming, I found it rather authentic seeing Gambit's naiveté regarding Rogue's falling for Magneto, and empathized with his hurt and frustration at the unintended "betrayal" of Magneto and Rogue's developing relationship.
We get some details hinted at previously, and the actual "on-panel" stuff with Logan and Jean leaving and the Magneto/Rogue/Gambit triangle, as well as 44 pages of story plus 5 double-page "historical moments" (basically, "pinups") to round things out. I truly miss–and consider it a "lost art" of late–the inclusion of such "pinups" or quasi-arbitrary art pages in comics. In 2015, these would be an additional 10 variant covers as 5 sets of double-panel interlocking images. In 1995, these were fun bonus pages adding some visual context to the X-Men's history. If only by labeling, these pages definitely lend credence to the notion of a picture being worth a thousand words.
Given this is essentially a one-shot, simply "a" story of this universe's X-Men, the issue stands very strongly on its own. Knowing only that this is an alternate reality as well as the general convolutedness of the entirety of X-Men history…one doesn't have to be following the rest of the Age of Apocalypse to follow this or to take this as "a story." For that matter, one doesn't truly have to have read X-Men Chronicles #1, even.
For me, at least…the Age of Apocalypse doesn't get much better than this; and perhaps for its immediate recency as of this typing, if I didn't before I definitely now hold this as cream of the crop when it comes to Age of Apocalypse stuff.
Filed under: 2015 posts, The '90s Revisited, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse | Tagged: Age of Apocalypse, apocalypse, Bob Harras, Comic Reviews, Comicraft, comics, Digital Chameleon, Hanna, Howard Mackie, Ian Churchill, Jean Grey, Kelly Corvese, magneto, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Matt Webb, Moncuse, Richard Starkings, Shattered Dreams, Vey, Weapon X, Wiacek, x-men, X-Men Chronicles, X-Men Unlimited |	Leave a comment »
Age of Apocalypse Revisited: X-Calibre #4
Writer: Warren Ellis
Pencils: Ken Lashley
Inks: Tom Wegrzyn with Philip Moy
Colors: Joe Rosas
Separations: Digital Chameleon
Editors: Suzanne Gaffney, Bob Harras
Damask, Switchback, Mystique, and Nightcrawler pause for a moment before heading back to Avalon to try again to convince Destiny to return with Kurt to Magneto. Before long, a new presence is discovered…the Shadow King has arrived, and causes all sorts of death and destruction. He's able to possess others, trigger parts of their mind…yet by possessing he can cause physical danger for others while he himself–as a psionic entity–continues on if a host body is destroyed. Eventually he possesses Mystique, triggering a desperate idea for Kurt. Utilizing teamwork, a combination of his own powers and those of Switchback and Damask, Kurt leads his "X-Calibre" team to take on the Shadow King, despite the dream that was Avalon now being so much ash and remnants of destruction.
Here we are with another "final issue" of "a four issue series," and again we don't have a true ending so much as a turning point or point of continuity, where a fleshed-out adventure moves characters as pieces around a board to get them where they need to be for X-Men: Omega.
Unlike the previous issues, I read this in eagerness to get THROUGH it…the end of the Age of Apocalypse is in sight and I am very much looking forward to getting to X-Men Omega. Like previous issues, I didn't recall any details of this series, so it reads like a "new" issue, though I knew if not its endpoint, at least its end result. Given my mindset reading this, I didn't notice much of anything distinctly Ellis in the story. I simply saw the characters, watched the story unfold, and got to the end of the issue sooner than expected, not realizing how much ground is yet to be covered between this final page and where Kurt and Destiny go in X-Men: Omega.
The art holds to a consistent quality; characters look familiar to my memory of prior issues, and the art itself never distracts. The layouts, however, prove distracting much as in Weapon X, as there are multiple double-page spreads where I have to physically rotate the entire issue 90 degrees to read the sideways double-page top to bottom. Forcing such movement proved quite distracting.
All in all…not a bad issue, not a great issue. Characters picked up with the term "X-Calibre" and used it as a team-name to describe the group, which is sort of disappointing to me after thinking for awhile since the previous issue how cool it was to have the title referenced as it was on a "meta" level without actually being otherwise referenced within the story. Granted, it FITS in this way, it just changes things a bit. And we again get an ending of "intent" though we have to see actual action to get the characters from here (point A) to X-Men: Omega (point B) or trust that it'll be explained as having happened off-panel.
The end is in sight, and I think I'd've enjoyed this issue more in and of itself if I weren't so eager to get to the end of everything.
Filed under: 2015 posts, The '90s Revisited, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse | Tagged: Age of Apocalypse, apocalypse, Bob Harras, Comic Reviews, Comicraft, comics, Destiny, Digital Chameleon, Excalibur, Joe Rosas, Ken Lashley, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Mystique, Nightcrawler, On Fire, Philip Moy, Richard Starkings, Suzanne Gaffney, Tom Wegrzyn, Warren Ellis, X-Calibre, x-men |	Leave a comment »
Age of Apocalypse Revisited: Gambit and the X-Ternals #4
Penciler: Salvador Larrocca
Inker: Al Milgrom
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Colorist: Marie Javins
Cover: Salvador Larrocca, Al Milgrom
We pick up some time after the previous issue, and find our focal characters split. Dazzler and Exodus appear, and find the remains of the Nanny robot that was tasked with protecting Rogue and Magneto's son. We then change scenes to later and elsewhere, to Apocalypse personally interrogating Rictor over his failure. We flash back from there to Gambit and Lila running from Rictor and those characters' confrontation…and back to Apocalypse. Another flashback shows Jubilee with a child running from Guido (Strong Guy) who has apparently betrayed the group. We see more of the interrogation, and flash back to Rictor vs. Strong Guy and Strong Guy vs. Gambit. Gambit is forced to make a decision…and we move back to Apocalypse and learn of Rictor's outcome as well as Strong Guy's…and end on Gambit and Lila.
This issue is a great illustration (no pun intended) of how great single-issue comics can be when treated AS a single issue, even if it's part of a larger story or mini-series or such. The storytelling is stylistically quite different from the previous issues…instead of things simply unfolding chronologically, this issue picks up "at the end" and while we learn of where things ARE we're caught up on how things got there from where we ended from the previous issue. Though the characters, their mission, and this 4-issue series are part of one ongoing story, this is "just" one more issue, existing AS an issue, as its own entity, rather than simply being the fourth chunk of a singular story that was split into four equal pieces to be serialized.
I really enjoyed this shift in style, despite a bit of confusion at first. I certainly would have benefitted from a "Previously…" page as I did not recall the ending of the previous issue; but as this issue unfolds and we have the flashbacks and glimpses of the present, one is caught up rather easily (though Guido's betrayal is still a bit iffy to me).
I was distracted enough by the story that the art was just "there," good and all but it didn't distract me. I simply followed the story and appreciated the visuals for what they were.
I did not recall the events of this series or issue, but here found it a fitting end…concluding the adventure, leaving things at a place simultaneously dark and light, and directing readers to the end of the Age of Apocalypse itself by way of Amazing X-Men #4 and then X-Men: Omega.
Filed under: 2015 posts, The '90s Revisited, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse | Tagged: Age of Apocalypse, Al Milgrom, apocalypse, Bob Harras, Charles, Chris Eliopoulos, Comic Reviews, comics, Fabian Nicieza, Gambit, Gambit and the X-Ternals, Guido, Lila Cheney, Marie Javins, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Salvador Larrocca, The Maze, x-force, x-men, X-Ternals |	Leave a comment »
Age of Apocalypse Revisited: Weapon X #4
Into the Maelstrom!
Script: Larry Hama
Pencils: Adam Kubert
Inks: Dan Green
Cover: Adam Kubert, Dan Green
Weapon X and Emma Frost open the issue, showing Gateway a holographic projection of North America…the destruction, the death, the whole mess–as they seek to convince him to lead the humans' armada to Apocalypse's door. Though counter-intuitive, it ends up being Logan's in-your-face attitude that ultimately convinces him–not the images of Apocalypse's atrocities. Moving to the armada, as things get underway they're attacked by Pierce, who has also alerted Apocalypse's forces of the coming assault. Pierce is surprised by a trick not exactly up Logan's sleeve that allows him to save Gateway…who in turn tries one last gambit to get the Armada where it's headed.
I'd previously "written off" the events of X-Universe as being entirely tangential to stuff and unimportant…the references it gets in this issue shows–at least–that effort is being made to have it matter, and I suppose it actually does, just not in any essential way. Much of this issue is "action," mixed with some foreshadowing. Though the scene with Apocalypse leaving Magneto's interrogation and showing off a gene-tank to his minion adds context for Carol's appearance, explains a fatal flaw in Apocalypse (he could easily stop the armada but chooses to allow things to play out just for the entertainment, justifying it that if he WOULD actually be brought down, hey–"survival of the fittest" and all that) and fills a couple pages.
I do feel somewhat disappointed in this issue–I think I feel like while we've SEEN a lot of Weapon X here, we haven't really gotten to KNOW the character. There's plenty of posturing, but for me at least, I "hear" and see WOLVERINE more than I do this character. Sure, semantics and all, this IS the Wolverine of the AoA reality and all, but the character serves more as "just another character" amidst the Human High Council and such. There's something to be said of the character not only being capable of but actually working as part of a team, serving as an "agent" of (in this case, the Human High Council) and whatnot…but in retrospect it seems like Logan's been a small player in his own title.
I like the visuals of the issue overall. I don't quite "get" visually that Logan's arm is all that damaged, and while I appreciate that he IS shot on-panel, it looks a bit "convenient" in a sense, like a box being checked. Otherwise, no real complaints on the art, outside of the usual–I don't like the sideways double-page spreads, as turning a page and then realizing I have to further physically rotate the way I'm holding the comic itself is a huge distraction.
This issue is definitely a product of its time–the 1990s–both hokey and "fitting." Logan chomping a cigar, the various characters' posturing and recklessness just to show how "cool" they are, etc. Still, it makes for an issue that feels like that bit in a movie where you realize that what's come before is about to fall by the wayside for the climactic stuff that'll end the whole thing and leave you barely remembering the story from the first 2/3 to 3/4 of the story thus far.
Had this been a contemporary series, I would not be surprised if Logan would have interacted with characters in X-Universe, as some of that stuff could have been folded together, this series' chunk of story having such a huge involvement of the HHC. Weapon X doesn't really tie much up, outside of Pierce being removed from the equation…but where we leave off here has a huge impact, if I'm correctly recalling, on the events that unfold in X-Men: Omega.
Filed under: 2015 posts, The '90s Revisited, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse | Tagged: Adam Kubert, Age of Apocalypse, apocalypse, Bob Harras, Comic Reviews, comics, Dan Green, Digital Chameleon, Gateway, Human High Council, Into the Maelstrom, Joe Rosas, Larry Hama, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Pat Brosseau, Pierce, Weapon X, Wolverine, x-men |	Leave a comment »


Volunteers are essential to conservation management in the Vale.
The group carries out clearing and conservation work at the site, which runs along Station Road.
It meets the first Saturday in the month in the University of Buckingham car park at the top of Station Road.
For more information, email railwaywalk@hotmail.co.uk.
In 2002, DEFRA's Countryside Stewardship Scheme established a management plan for the site for the next 10 years, generating £17,000 of income to AVDC for the project.
In 2004, it secured a Home Office grant of £10,000.
The Riverside Walk Volunteers group is focused on delivering elements of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, such as tree planning and hedge laying. It also organises other activities such as bench making and river clearance.
The Vale Countryside Volunteers group (VCV) was launched in 2003 with a £40,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
VCV's aim is to care for and protect the wildlife and countryside of the Vale by carrying out practical conservation work using traditional crafts and skills.
The group meets most Wednesdays from 9.30am – 4.30pm.


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Role of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMK) in excitation
Supplementary MaterialsFigure 3source data 1: Source Data for Amount 3C
by Roy Walker
Comments Off on Supplementary MaterialsFigure 3source data 1: Source Data for Amount 3C
Supplementary MaterialsFigure 3source data 1: Source Data for Amount 3C. act similarly in primary human being macrophages responding to IL-1 and to NOD2 agonists. Therefore, INAVA-CUPID exhibits dual Rimonabant (SR141716) functions, coordinated directly by ARNO, that bridge epithelial barrier function with extracellular signals and swelling. strong class="kwd-title" Study organism: Human Intro C1ORF106, recently named INAVA (Innate Immune Activator), was identified as a risk element for the chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) by genome-wide association studies and targeted exome sequencing (Rivas et al., 2011). Mice lacking the protein completely show problems in intestinal barrier integrity at stable state and higher susceptibility to mucosal illness (Mohanan et al., 2018). Human being macrophages transporting the IBD rs7554511 risk allele have decreased INAVA manifestation and show multiple problems in myeloid function, including in innate immune NOD2 signaling and cytokine Rimonabant (SR141716) secretion, and in microbial clearance in association with reduced autophagy and ROS production (Yan et al., 2017). Each process is well known to impact gut function in health and disease, but the molecular mechanisms for how they are regulated or interconnected by INAVA are not fully recognized. We previously identified that INAVA is definitely strongly enriched in simple epithelial cells (Nelms et al., 2016) – the cell type that forms mucosal barriers. By website analysis, the molecule has a solitary distinguishing feature, the Website of Unknown Function DUF3338 (which we rename CUPID for Cytohesin Ubiquitin Protein Inducing Website). Three additional human proteins contain CUPID: FRMD4a, FRMD4B, and CCDC120, and two are implicated in human being disease (Cappola et al., 2010; Good et al., 2015; Garner et al., 2014; Goldie et al., 2012; Lambert et al., 2013; Velcheti et al., 2017; Yoon et al., 2012). All appear to bind the ARF-GEF (guanine nucleotide-exchange factors) cytohesin family members (Huttlin et al., 2017; Ikenouchi and Umeda, 2010; Klarlund et al., 2001; Mohanan et al., 2018; Torii et GluN2A al., 2014). The cytohesins are guanine nucleotide-exchange factors for the ARF-family of proteins (ARF 1C4), which regulate cell membrane and F-actin dynamics (Donaldson and Jackson, 2011; Stalder and Antonny, 2013). All Rimonabant (SR141716) cytohesins contain a N-terminal coiled-coil (CC) protein-protein connection region, an enzymatic SEC7 guanine nucleotide-exchange element (GEF) domain, and a C-terminal PIP-binding PH domain. In their inactive conformation, the cytohesins localize to the cytosol. Full-blown GEF activation, typified by cytohesin 2 (also known as ARNO), requires membrane recruitment via ARNO binding to PIP2 (phosphatidylinositol 4, 5-bisphosphate), and then (activated) ARF-GTP, a product of the ARNO-GEF reaction (Chardin et al., 1996; Cohen et al., 2007; Malaby et al., 2013). Rimonabant (SR141716) This enables an enzymatically-driven positive feedback-loop for rapidly amplifying a localized pool of activated cytohesins and ARF-GTP needed to drive the massive ARF-dependent changes in actin and membrane dynamics that underlie cell spreading and epithelial breakdown (Santy and Casanova, 2001; Stalder et al., 2011). In this study, we address the mechanism of INAVA action in polarized intestinal epithelial cells and primary human macrophages. We discover dual and mutually-exclusive functions for INAVA and the physical and functional interaction of the INAVA CUPID domain (INAVA-CUPID) with cytohesin?2 ARNO. In epithelial cells, INAVA-CUPID recruits ARNO to lateral membranes where the complex promotes actin assembly that underlies barrier function. This occurs via a novel GEF activity-independent mechanism. In response to the inflammatory cytokine IL-1, INAVA relocates to cytosolic puncta that function as signalosomes. Here, CUPID acts with the E3-ubiquitin-ligase TRAF6 to enhance inflammatory signaling, and in this case, ARNO binding inhibits CUPID activity. In human macrophages containing the INAVA rs7554511 IBD-risk allele (low-INAVA expressing carriers), crazy type INAVA manifestation enhances, and ARNO Rimonabant (SR141716) manifestation suppresses NOD2 and IL-1 signaling. Reconstitution with purified protein in vitro demonstrates INAVA-CUPID features as an enhancer of TRAF6 reliant polyubiquitination biochemically, and that is clogged by ARNO. These outcomes give a immediate mechanistic link between mucosal barrier inflammation and function implicated in human being disease. Results INAVA impacts the epithelial hurdle To research the function of INAVA, we 1st produced INAVA shRNA knockdown and CRISPR knockout Caco2BBe human being intestinal cells (Shape 1figure health supplement 1A,B). Caco2BBe cells missing display improved cell growing INAVA, while cells expressing INAVA-GFP act like wild stably.
BACKGROUND Visceral leishmaniasis is a significant public health problem in SOUTH USA, and canines are its primary urban tank
The viral pneumonia COVID-19, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), offers pass on more than 210 countries and declared mainly because pandemic by WHO quickly
Endopeptidase 24.15
F-Type ATPase
I??B Kinase
Inositol Monophosphatase
mGlu Group I Receptors
Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1
MRN Exonuclease
Muscarinic (M5 Receptors
NO Donors / Precursors
Other Proteases
Platelet Derived Growth Factor Receptors
Polyamine Synthase
Protease-Activated Receptors
Selectins
Serotonin (5-HT1 Receptors
Urokinase-type Plasminogen Activator
The tool was provided with three true/false exits (one true and two false exits) like that of SWM
The individuals with asthma were classified as having slight to moderate asthma according to GINA guidelines and all subjects were selected among nonsmokers
However, little is well known about the function of Hsp83 in cellular metabolism and its own customers and cochaperones remain to become identified
5
Croker BA, Tarlinton DM, Cluse LA, et al
© 2022	Role of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMK) in excitation Powered by WordPress Theme: Gillian

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Dariel Álvarez: The journey from Camagüey to Japan
By Redacción Pelota Cubana on June 14, 2021 • ( Leave a comment )
By Yusseff Díaz
Dariel Álvarez signed with the Baltimore Orioles in 2013 as an international free agent and promptly began his career with the
Gulf Coast Orioles, the team's rookie league affiliate. That only lasted four games because he hit a whopping .443 and was promoted to Frederick Keys (A+) where he also hit .436 in a pit stop there. He finished off the year hitting .322 at Bowie (AA). All in all the native of Camagüey had a successful first year in pro ball.
In 2014 Álvarez began the season at Bowie and hit .309 with 14 longballs and 68 runs batted in and was selected to the Futures Game. He finished the season at AAA (Norfolk) and hit .301 in 44 games. In 2015 Álvarez mauled the pitching at AAA and was called up to the Majors on April 28. On September 11,2015 he hit his first homerun in the Majors against Kansas City's Danny Duffy. In two big league seasons that was the only homer he hit, and he also batted .250 during that time.
In 2017 the team decided to try to convert him into a pitcher due to the fact that he possessed a 96-mph fastball. Álvarez had also pitched in Cuba with the Camagüey Toros compiling a record of 1-4 and an ERA of 3.62, he also saved two games as a reliever. He was originally scouted by the ball club as a pitcher before his signing, but he preferred to hit," The switch to pitcher was something the organization discussed with me, but I would also continue to hit.
Hitting is something I enjoy. Seeing what Ohtani did I was preparing to be a hitter /pitcher. I will primarily be a reliever. "
Tommy John Surgery
Right when he was preparing to make the switch to pitcher the inevitable happened, he blew out his arm. In his second game as a reliever in the Gulf Coast League he injured his arm and needed Tommy John surgery. On April 6 of 2017 he was released by the club so he could be removed from the 40-man roster and then resigned to a minor league contract two days later. He spent 2018 recovering from Tommy John and opted for free agency after the season.
A Caribbean League Stalwart
Álvarez has had plenty of experience in the Caribbean and has been very successful in his incursions in the circuit. In four seasons in the winter leagues, he has hit .306 with 35 homers and 136 runs batted in including a Most Valuable Player award last season with the Jalisco Charros when he led the Mexican Pacific League in longballs (16) and runs driven in (56). He even made an appearance as a reliever for Jalisco striking out a batter in 0.1 innings of work.
The outfielder has had plenty of Caribbean World Series experience including a wonderful 2016 tournament in Santo Domingo with Venezuela's Aragua Tigers," My experience in the Caribbean Series with Aragua was a beautiful one. I'm always thankful for the way I have been treated by the Venezuelan League. I'm grateful for the treatment Carlos Guillen and Jorge Urribarri have afforded me, they have treated like another Venezuelan."
He led the 2016 Caribbean World Series in hitting with an average of .458 and even drove five runs during the tournament and was a key component in the Tigers journey to the final.
Photo (Web Screen Shot): During his time in the LMP, Dariel Álvarez has been a big bat for Jalisco
Hola México
In 2019 Álvarez made his debut in the Mexican league with the Tijuana Toros after signing with ball earlier that year, even with a midseason trade to trade to Saltillo the Cuban had a solid season. In 117 games between both clubs, he still managed to hit .288 with 18 longballs and 88 runs driven in.
Álvarez was expected to be a integral part of Saltillo's lineup in 2020 but COVID-19 for the Mexican League to cancel its season. Although he didn't play in summer he did have an impact in the Mexican Winter League hitting a robust .309 with 8 homers and 39 runs batted in with the Charros de Jalisco.
Photo (Web Screen Shot): Dariel Álvarez is banking that his play in the Baseball Challenge League will land him a contract in the NPB
The Land of the Rising Sun
Álvarez decided not to return to México and better to try his luck in Japan's independent league circuit with the Ibaraki Astro Planets of the Baseball Challenge League.
The ex-Oriole is hoping that his play in league gets him noticed by an NPB team leading to a juicy contract in the land of the rising son. Stayed tuned for that later in the season because it might just happen for the talented outfielder.
With Ibaraki he's posted a line of .294/.355/.500/.855 and gone yard three times. He even has made an appearance on the mound with the Nippon club.
Always a Toro
During his time in the Cuban National Series, he managed to hit .292 and was a duel threat armed with a blazing fastball. Although he doesn't follow the Serie Nacional Álvarez longs for the day he can return to his beloved Camagüey and suit up with his beloved Toros," I would love to return and play in Candido González Stadium. I think it would be something very special. If we were all allowed to come back, we would have on heck of a team. Can you imagine Lele (Leslie Anderson), Adalberto (Ibarra), Dayron (Varona) and (Daniel) Carbonell. That would be a potent lineup."
In what has been a career that has seen him triumph in many places, one for is for sure about the Cuban, he's a versatile and talented player.
In Tampa along came a spider
Ermidelio Urrutia: The patriarch of baseball in Las Tunas


You know how vital an automated workflow is in streamlining processes and improving your bottom line. The reality is that achieving true "automation" relies on many factors, and almost always involves connecting to hardware and software systems that are already in place.
Even with a successful implementation, production workflows need constant monitoring, with the ability to immediately respond to peaks in demand, problems, and other common conditions.
CrawfordTech's recently announced partnership with Racami brings together powerful and flexible solutions from both companies that make it easy to create, integrate and manage automated workflows. Join us on April 19 at 1:00 PM ET to learn more about how our solutions can work together, and how Racami CIS™ will provide visibility, accountability, command and control over your workflow environment.
Our experts will discuss the critical factors that need to be considered, how our solutions can be customized and integrated with existing processes, and will review best practices for workflow automation. We will conclude with a demonstration of Racami CIS.


Grey marl button and zip through cardigan by JEFF BANKS, made from pure cotton for a soft touch feel.
Featuring a contrast coloured inside back neck and finished with a tonal coloured embroidery crown logo. Ideal layering peice.


text:
using namespace csapex;
using namespace csapex::connection_types;
using namespace csapex;

CSAPEX_REGISTER_CLASS(csapex::Canny, csapex::Node)

Canny::Canny() : threshold_1_(3), threshold_2_(0.0), aperture_size_(255.0), L2_gradient_(false)
{
}

void Canny::process()
{
    CvMatMessage::ConstPtr in = msg::getMessage<connection_types::CvMatMessage>(input_);

    if (!in->hasChannels(1, CV_8U)) {
        throw std::runtime_error("image must be one channel grayscale.");
    }

    CvMatMessage::Ptr out(new connection_types::CvMatMessage(enc::mono, in->frame_id, in->stamp_micro_seconds));

    cv::Mat edges;

    cv::Canny(in->value, edges, threshold_1_, threshold_2_, aperture_size_, L2_gradient_);

    out->value.create(in->value.size(), in->value.type());
    out->value.setTo(cv::Scalar::all(0));
    in->value.copyTo(out->value, edges);

    msg::publish(output_, out);
}

void Canny::setup(NodeModifier& node_modifier)
{
    CornerLineDetection::setup(node_modifier);
    update();
}

void Canny::setupParameters(Parameterizable& parameters)
{
    parameters.addParameter(csapex::param::factory::declareRange("aperture", 1, 7, 3, 2), std::bind(&Canny::update, this));
    parameters.addParameter(csapex::param::factory::declareRange("threshold 1", 0.0, 50000.0, 0.0, 1.0), std::bind(&Canny::update, this));
    parameters.addParameter(csapex::param::factory::declareRange("threshold 2", 0.0, 50000.0, 255.0, 1.0), std::bind(&Canny::update, this));
    parameters.addParameter(csapex::param::factory::declareBool("L2 gradient", false), std::bind(&Canny::update, this));
}

void Canny::update()
{
    threshold_1_ = readParameter<double>("threshold 1");
    threshold_2_ = readParameter<double>("threshold 2");
    aperture_size_ = readParameter<int>("aperture");
    L2_gradient_ = readParameter<bool>("L2 gradient");
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Laravel 5 : Method Not Allowed Http Exception in Route Collection.php line 201: I have a sign-up form and getting the sign-up form values in routes.php.
My rout.php code is :
Route::get('/', function () {

    return view('login');
});

Route::get('/index', function(){
    return view('index');
});

Route::get('/register', function(){
    return view('register');
});

Route::post('/register',function(){
    $user = new \App\User;
    $user->username = input::get('username');
    $user->email  = input::get('email');
    $user->password = Hash::make(input::get('username'));
    $user->designation = input::get('designation');
    $user->save();

});

The form action is to index.php and also have hidden field for csrf_token():
<form action="index" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="_token" value="{{ csrf_token() }}">

The error is :
Method Not Allowed Http Exception in Route Collection.php line 201:

A: You have correctly registered a route with the post method on the page /register, but in the form you do a post to the index route. Change
   <form action="index" method="post">
   <input type="hidden" name="_token" value="{{ csrf_token() }}">

to
   <form action="register" method="post">
   <input type="hidden" name="_token" value="{{ csrf_token() }}">

to send the post values to the register route instead of the index route. You don't return a view or redirect at the end of your register function so I would either add return view('index'); or return redirect('index'); as last line of your register function to redirect the user to the index page (or just return the index view)
Alternatively you can change the index route to accept post values:
Route::post('/index', function(){
    return view('index');
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Home/Business/Cycling UK needs reviving, claims chair candidate
Cycling UK needs reviving, claims chair candidate
BikeBiz 20th January 2017	Business
Cycling UK's board of trustees meet tomorrow, and will vote in a new chair to replace David Cox. Cycling UK is the new name for the Cyclists' Touring Club.
The charity's membership director Matt Mallinder told BikeBiz:
"Cycling UK has great ambitions for another exciting year after the success of 2016 and further building on David's legacy. Under David's watch, we have seen the organisation become a charity, rebrand its trading name to Cycling UK and help millions of new and returning cyclists get cycling via initiatives such as the Big Bike Revival, Bike Week and our campaigns such as Trails for Wales and Zerostars for Eurostar."
Jim Brown, one of the candidates for position of chair, said the organisation needs to increase its membership base. "Our membership has declined continuously for the last five years," he said. "This is a serious failure."
In 2012, the CTC had 69,200 members; Cycling UK now has 65,900 members.
"We must prioritise membership growth as a key performance indicator for our chief executive," said Brown, who has been a cycle campaigner for 30 years, a former vice chair of CTC Council and is a Stevenage-based borough councillor.
If elected, he said he will "not seek ways to disqualify people who disagree with me." This is a reference to behind-the-scenes disagreements between current and former officials and members that followed the name change to Cycling UK and the transformation into a charity.
"The recent drift to secrecy, confidentiality by default, is very disturbing," stated Brown.
"To see board and former board members being pursued by expensive disciplinary processes for allegedly being no more open and accountable than we took for granted only a few years ago is alarming."
He also said that more work should be done to "value" the organisation's members.
"Somehow, we have developed a culture of treating many of our volunteer activists as a problem. Further proposals to degrade the status of membership should be dismissed forthwith."
Brown stressed: "The heart of Cycling UK lies in its members. All of them."
Trustees joining the Cycling UK board for their first meeting will be Dr. Janet Atherton, Rachel Kirkwood and the former MP for Cambridge Dr. Julian Huppert.
Previous Raleigh unveils site modifications
Next Gov't proposes speed limits & fines to limit toxic pollution from cars


text:
WHAT'S RARE, EXCEPTIONAL AND FULL OF VALUABLE INSIGHTS?
OUR NEWSLETTER.
Stay connected with .tech
No, I don't want the awesome stuff
Thank You! Let's stay connected!
.TECH ON THE MOVE
Add a Domain
Businesses, Testimonials,
by Eshan Pancholi
Posted on July 8, 2019 by Eshan Pancholi
A New-Age CTO's Take On The Mystery That Is Blockchain
There's so much to talk about when it comes to blockchain. The disruptive technology has taken businesses and the world at large, by storm.
From supply chain to financial sectors, blockchain has various industrial applications; all of which are slated to revolutionize businesses.
To understand blockchain and it's various applications, we spoke to Alin Iftemi, CTO of Modex.tech.
What inspired you to start Modex.tech? Tell us the story.
Alin is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Modex
We have been in the FinTech industry for years now, and we've known Bitcoin (BTC) from its early years.
In its initial design phase, Moneymailme was backed by BTC and blockchain technologies.
We could not do it because nobody understood it and we were said to be crazy.
But we've known the technology and we've seen the blockchain potential for many years now, and we've always believed that it would be disruptive.
Later on, when we realized that no one is properly approaching the adoption of blockchain in enterprise, we said we should give it a shot.
We had an opportunity offered by the market and we took it.
And now, here we are, after two years of development, with many community tools and a great innovation for enterprise adoption – Blockchain Database (BCDB).
Get .tech
What are your future plans for Modex.tech?
Modex.tech will focus primarily on blockchain for enterprise (BCDB) and we will continue to expand and refine the BCDB product over the coming months.
We will try to create distributions to cover any blockchain need in the enterprise world. We will extend the team and we will get new investments soon.
With this, we aim to be the first relevant blockchain company in the world.
How does Modex simplify blockchain adoption?
It's simple. Our concept is to allow adoption in a fast and a cheap way. We want blockchain to become the developer choice – it's that easy.
It should not be a CEO's decision that involves budgets and high costs, but a programmer's decision because it is efficient and solves a lot of problems.
How is blockchain helping businesses become more secure?
First of all, decentralization because it allows several parties to use the same system, but at the same time, it helps to protect/own the information they bring in.
Also, it allows developers to scale software products which were not well-designed in the first place, meaning that by mistake these products were not able to scale.
Blockchain allows companies to adopt GDPR by offering their customers true data and privacy protection.
It helps technical data departments to protect their data with real-time back-up and automatic data recovery.
With data immutability, there's also source code immutability, which guarantees that not only data is immutable, but also the software that serves a business scope.
People call these Smart Contracts, but they are more than that. They are actually super secure guarantees that don't allow hackers to inject their own version of code.
What is the future of blockchain? What trends do you foresee?
Blockchain is the future, and soon it will become a standard technology for back-end software products.
I think that blockchain will be taught in school and every programmer will understand it and use it like it's supposed to be with every back-end technology, a matter which is not a concern for business people.
Why did you choose a .tech domain name?
When we started, we knew it was the right choice. We've chosen .tech because we are a tech company and we believed it was cool to go that way.
But what makes us unique is the innovation of our products and the added value they bring. Today, it is part of our core branding, and we could not see Modex without .tech.
Starting a Blockchain tech business? Build it on a .tech domain!
10 Tips To Create High-Quality Content For Your Tech Startup In 2019!
Revealed! The Secrets To Writing An Effective Executive Summary
How to improve Domain Authority (DA) For Your Tech startup's Website?
Tech Events
© .tech DOMAINS 2018. A RADIX INITIATIVE | PRIVACY POLICY | WHOIS | REPORT ABUSE | FAQs | LEGAL


text:
Carriera
Inizia ad arbitrare a 20 anni, nel 1980, dopo aver giocato a calcio dai 9 ai 19 anni, con esperienze nel settore giovanile del  e in Prima Categoria. Arriva in Interregionale nella stagione 1987-1988 e in Serie C nel 1989-1990.

Nella stagione 1993-1994 debutta in Serie B, il 5 settembre 1993, alla seconda giornata di campionato, nella gara tra  e  vinta per 1-0 dai padroni di casa.

Il 4 giugno 1995 esordisce in Serie A, in - 1-1, ultima giornata di campionato, con le due squadre già retrocesse in Serie B.

Nel febbraio 1999, alla fine di un - 2-2 di Serie B nel quale fischia un rigore, poi realizzato, agli ospiti al 95', viene colpito con un pugno dal magazziniere dei grigiorossi. In seguito Bonfrisco querelerà, oltre all'autore del pugno, il dirigente accompagnatore e l'allenatore dei lombardi Gaetano Salvemini.

Nel 2001, a 41 anni, viene dismesso per motivi tecnici.

Arbitra l'ultima partita in Serie A il 14 aprile 2001, - 4-2.

L'ultima sfida diretta è invece un - di Serie B, il 3 giugno 2001, concluso con una vittoria per 3-1 dei toscani.

Chiude la carriera con 17 partite arbitrate in Serie A e 118 in Serie B.

Dal 2009 al 2014 è stato assessore allo Sport del comune di Villasanta (MB), in una giunta di centro-destra. Nel 2014 si candida a sindaco dello stesso comune, ottenendo il 9,31% delle preferenze.

Nella stagione 2012-2013 ha svolto il ruolo di team manager del  in Serie D.

È inoltre opinionista nella trasmissione calcistica Lunedì di rigore su Telelombardia, in passato ha svolto lo stesso ruolo in Diretta stadio... ed è subito goal! a 7 Gold.

Note

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
ARTICLES WEIRD WORLD THE 4 MOST PREPOSTEROUS WAYS TO GET DRUNK
The 4 Most Preposterous Ways to Get Drunk
Felix Clay
Getting your drank on. Is there anything more noble? Yes, most things. Few people ever achieve stunning Hemingway levels of awesomeness whilst shitfaced. Instead they achieve things slightly more noteworthy than a hobo shitting in his own boots to keep his feet warm. And yet we still really enjoy getting a good buzz because it facilitates sharing feelings, having sex with people who otherwise would probably not tolerate us, and vomiting. So much vomiting. With all these wondrous benefits, of course drinking is a popular hobby, but dammit if some people don't have a big ol' boner on to screw with it and do it some novel, new way, as though ingestion were somehow cramping their style. Crazy sumbitches.
4 Butt Chugging
Back in 2011, my fellow mirthematician Soren Bowie wrote on the phenomenon of butt chugging and how utterly false it was. While I was researching this article, I found evidence that butt chugging was in fact real, and thus, by order of Cracked management, I was bidden to copulate with Soren's mother while he was in the room! His lesson learned, Soren will never write another article that dares be in direct contrast to my own work ever again.
Butt chugging is a real thing, and a Tennessee frat boy was hospitalized as a result of it, despite later holding a press conference with his lawyer to tell everyone that butt chugging is super gross and he's totally not gay, bro. So fuck off. He then later filled his asshole with Thunderbird. I assume. Because he went to the hospital with a shitbox full of wine, and police questioned everyone on the scene who did it, too, so it's hard to argue with that. But I digress.
The idea behind the ol' butt chug is as follows -- your face hole is old and shitty. Look at it: exposed to the elements all day, smiling like a face full of fuck. Good God. Forget it. On the other hand, your precious, delicate asshole is always nestled in cotton undies, cradled like the delicate little pucker it is, and directly connected to a stank tube that's made of 10 percent mucus, 60 percent poo, and 40 percent alcohol-hungry poop chutery. And that poop tubing of yours can absorb vodka way better and faster than anything directly connected to your lame ass face orifice. And when you think about it, you dad probably gets drunk through the face hole. People in the Dark Ages got drunk through the face hole, and those people didn't even know to not shit in their own beds, probably. Idiots. Why would you want to live like them? You don't.
Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
"I'm putting this in my mouth. My God, did the Chinese win a war when I was on the shitter?"
The big issue with the idea of butt chugging is logic. So inserting a tube and decanting a Four Loko into your nether chasm will get you drunk faster, but what exactly is the benefit of that? What pressing meeting do you need to get to in the next five minutes that absolutely necessitates that you be there, but also be falling-down shitfaced when you arrive? When has anyone ever needed to be drunk right away? This is not a thing that ever occurs. If you need to be drunk earlier in the night, then by all means start drinking earlier in the night. But without a sufficient explanation as to why you need to be drunk really fast, there isn't really a good reason to put a hose in your asshole and try to get a whole case of Pabst up in there when you could just as easily be sitting on the couch watching TV while you drink it.
Related: Does 'Beavis and Butt-Head' Even Fit Today?
3 Eyeball Shots
Visage/Stockbyte/Getty Images
Now that we've covered your ass, the next logical way to imbibe booze is through a hole that's already plugged -- your eye. "Logical," if you're the kind of person who posts videos of your own mild suffering on YouTube because "it's so awesome, dude!" Then later you do the cinnamon challenge, suck a condom up your nose, and eat some ghost peppers, because you are a dickhead. The media were tickled pink to discover this trend and reported on the awfulness of it while calling it a "disturbing trend" as many times per minute as the FCC would allow.
Like filling your other non-drinking holes before it, the idea of eyeball shots was labeled either a fad or a hoax by some after the initial media frenzy to share the traumatic stories with us, but, as we've learned, it doesn't matter if it was fake before the news broke the story, because it sure as shit became real after, and YouTube had hundreds of videos to back it up. Some even went back as far as 2006 to indicate that people were really this dumb before CNN and FOX told them to be this dumb.
The closest thing we have to an active Justice League, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, came out against the practice, as it is their sworn duty to oppose you putting shit in your eye, as anyone who remembers the great "Salt in Your Eye" coup of '88 can attest to. The day we all saw the blurry, watery forms of ophthalmologists landing on the beach was a day that lives on in all our hearts. They also brought with them the double-barreled attack of common sense and vague knowledge of anatomy, which thoroughly trounced the idea behind eyeball shots. Firstly, for those who didn't notice, your fucking eye is in your eye. This is why we consume most nutrients through the mouth -- there isn't a big thing plugging the gap. Secondly, your eye is sealed up pretty damn tight and has fairly small blood vessels, meaning its ability to absorb anything into the bloodstream is remarkably limited. Of all the inefficient ways to absorb alcohol, this would be the most inefficient, as it is more likely just to cause permanent damage to your vision, rather than give you a buzz. Literally the only stupider ways you could try to get booze into your body would be telekinetically or using your urethra as a straw.
Related: The 5 Most Impossible Sniper Shots Ever Made
2 Inhaling Booze
Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images
Another trend for which you can thank YouTube, the idea of inhaling or smoking alcohol has been around for a while. There are bars in Europe that use it as a gimmick, but YouTube made it down home easy by providing videos that show you how you, too, can get all piss-tank sloppy without even needing a functional stomach -- all it takes is a bike pump and a plastic bottle. Even hobos have that shit! Back alley partay!
The basic idea behind this is you put alcohol in a bottle and then add air -- a bike pump is the favorite of YouTubers. Seal the bottle with a cork or a rubber stopper of some kind around the pump needle and then fill it with air, increasing pressure until the bottle is pretty firm. When you release the pressure, it's like a little booze fairy arrives and farts magical clouds all over the bottle. The change in pressure immediately vaporizes the alcohol and you can suck back a lungful of sweet, sweet Drambuie.
Like all the other methods of getting drunk that don't include drinking, the selling point of this is that it gets you drunk on the super quick. Because you're bypassing the stomach, you also don't take in those extra boozy calories, so you can maintain that diet while still snorting your way toward believing that C.H.U.D. across the room is probably hot enough to wipe your genitals across.
Creatas Images/Creatas/Getty Images
"I don't get it, I've been inhaling bacon and fudge every morning!"
Doctors, Debbie Downers that they are, are quick to point out that you're trading your fast buzz for potential lung and brain damage, since the alcohol is hitting your brain much more quickly than the old-fashioned drinky drinky way. They forget to mention that you need a big, fat bottle and a bicycle pump with you for this to work, so why the hell would you ever do this? You should never need a bicycle pump to do anything, aside from pumping up a bike tire, and even then you should have your manservant do it whilst you sit in the shade with a mojito made from exotic limes picked by upper middle class families from Oregon who have been forced into humiliating servitude for your pleasure. You call them your limebeciles and never learn their names.
At the end of your booze-gassening experiment, you'll still be left with a jug full of liquid, which you're going to either drink or throw away, both of which make you look like a wasteful chump, and you know what Lincoln said about wasteful chumps. He said "fuck them." It's on the $5 bill, go look.
Related: When You Don't Want To Go Get Booze, Just Have It Delivered
1 Vodka Tampons
Soren also covered vodka tampons in his column, and guess what? Actually, no, people don't really do that. Or they didn't until the media and smarty-pantses like Soren decided to tell everyone they didn't do it, because then people tried to actually do it. The Wall Street Journal did a big expose in 2010 about how I never masturbate, and let me tell you, I taught those assholes a lesson. Anyway, a blogger for the Huffington Post even tried to make vodka tampons happen for real and wrote about how her experience was less than compelling or drunkening.
Turns out a few things work against the idea of vodka tampons, chief among them being that a tampon can only hold about a shot's worth of booze. So you have to pour a shot, stuff a tampon in it, soak it up, and then wedge the tampon in place while trying to avoid squeezing most of the booze out, since tampons, in most industrialized and non-clown-run countries, are designed to go in empty. In the time it takes you to do this, you likely could down several shots.
Liquidlibrary/liquidlibrary/Getty Images
"Ten tampons later, I'm barely buzzed, and my box burns like an eyeful of Sriracha."
Now let's say that even though you could drink those shots, the vodka tampon is a better idea because your vag is just so damn hungry for booze, it'll sop it up like a ShamWow and get you blitzed way faster. Your next issue, as discovered by HuffPo, is that vodka burns crotches. You're not supposed to fill your sensitive lady parts with 40 percent alcohol. Because no shit. If you possess a vagina, but not the ability to intuit the pain it would cause to fill it with some Smirnoff, your brain probably can't risk any more exposure to alcohol anyway. I don't even have a vagina and I don't want to put vodka in my vagina.
Arguably the biggest issue with the concept of vodka tampons is related to the very nature of tampons themselves. Having never used one, I had to seek the expertise of a vaginologist, who assured me that the primary function of a tampon is to absorb. So you take this already soggy thing and jimmy it into your canal and then what? If the purpose of a tampon is to suck liquid in and not shoot it out like some kind of fun time uterine booze sprinkler, it's just going to sit there and mildly burn you until you remove it. The only possible way for a vodka tampon to even approach being functional is if you've been extensively practicing your Kegels and you bear down on that little bastard, which you're going to have to do while standing on your head to prevent that half a shot of booze you'll get from it from shooting like cobra venom right down your thighs.
A vagina has to be more absorbent than a tampon itself for this entire scenario to work, and if a vagina is more absorbent than a tampon, then no one in the world would use a goddamn tampon because it would literally do nothing. It would be like jamming some kind of oversight committee in your twat, just to waste time and money and accomplish nothing, but making you vaguely uncomfortable. Who wants that?
Related: 35 Days Later, Officers Figure Out The Starbucks Thing Wasn't A Tampon


text:
3000-year-old 'pink' gate with hieroglyphs of King Amenemhat I finds a new home
The granite structure has been relocated to the Grand Egyptian Museum.
By Lara Rebello
The gate featuring inscriptions about King Amenemhat I dates back around 3,000 years Ministry of Antiquities
An ancient Egyptian gate has been removed from its original site in north Cairo and relocated to the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza plateau. The Ministry of Antiquities announced plans to restore the historic structure which dates back around 3,000 years to the time of King Amenemhat I.
Made of pink granite, the gate features etchings which make reference to the pharaoh. The cartouches — carved hieroglyphs inside an oval, with a horizontal line at the end, typically refer to a royal, and in this case are of particular importance considering Amenemhat I was the first ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt.
Ancient statues of the lion goddess Sekhmet discovered in 3,500-year-old Egyptian funerary temple
According to Mostafa Amin, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the six-tonne gate will undergo restoration before being put on display at the yet-to-be-opened museum in 2018. It will be part of a collection of over a 1,000 artefacts including the tomb of King Tutankhamun.
Issa Zidane, the director general of the early restoration at the Egyptian Grand Museum, who was in charge of the transfer of the portal, said special measures were taken to ensure the safe transport of the relic.
King Amenemhat I heralded the golden age of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and ruled the ancient civilisation from 1991 BC to 1962 BC.
Scientists strongly believe that he was not of royal blood, but a vizier to his predecessor, Mentuhotep IV. According to records, Amenemhet moved the capital from Thebes to Itj-tawy (near modern Al-Lisht). In order to safeguard the Nile River delta, he built fortresses along the eastern and western frontiers.
Whether to prove the legitimacy of his rule, or to create a link between the old and new dynasties, the pharaoh built his pyramid and adjoining funerary complex at Al-Lisht, along the lines of those of the late Old Kingdom (c. 2575–c. 2130 BCE).
The gate has been moved from north Cairo to a new museum near the famed pyramids in Giza Ministry of Antiquities
The Grand Egyptian Museum
The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is a major project by the Egyptian government to revive the country's tourism. Also known as the Giza Museum, the structure is spread over 50 hectares (120 acres) of land and is expected to be the largest archaeological museum in the world. It overlooks the Giza Plateau and is approximately 2kms from the Giza pyramids.
Designed by Heneghan Peng Architects, Buro Happold and Arup, the building is shaped like a chamfered triangle. Construction on the ambitious project began in 2002 and was expected to be completed by 2015. However, due to delays in construction and growing expenses, only a portion of the museum is expected to open in 2018.
According to the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the site will house over 100,000 relics from ancient Egypt including King Tutankhamun's treasures, pharaoh busts and rare hieroglyphic scrolls.


Tear gas billowed Saturday across the French capital's protest-scarred Champs-Elysees after a day of largely peaceful demonstrations and water cannons shot into the crowds on the fifth straight weekend of protests by the country's "yellow vest" movement.
Yellow vest protests were also being held Saturday in other parts of France, where roads and highways were being blocked. The number of deaths linked to the protest rose to seven after Belgian police said a man accidentally crashed his car Friday night into a truck that had stalled at a yellow vest roadblock on the Franco-Belgian border.


text:
Het Altaar van Athena Polias, ook wel het Grote Athena-altaar genoemd, was een altaar op de Akropolis in het oude Athene, waar offers werden gebracht aan de godin Athena.

De oudste verwijzing naar het altaar betreft het jaar 632 v.Chr., toen het kennelijk al zo groot was dat het de schare van aanhangers van Cylon een toevlucht kon verschaffen (Thucydides 1,126). Maar zonder twijfel stamt het altaar al uit de achtste eeuw of nog eerder. Op dit altaar werd aan het slot van het feest van de Panathenaeën een hekatombe (een offer van honderd runderen) aan Athena geofferd.

Een holte die in de rotsbodem van de Akropolis is uitgehouwen, ongeveer twaalf meter ten oosten van de fundamenten van de Oude Athenatempel en net niet helemaal op de as van de tempel, markeert waarschijnlijk de plaats van het altaar. Het was rechthoekig en had een diepte van 8,5 m. In de 6e eeuw v.Chr. bestond het waarschijnlijk uit een aantal brede traptreden die naar het eigenlijke offerplateau leidden. Het altaar leed ongetwijfeld schade tijdens de verwoesting van de Akropolis door de Perzen. Mogelijk is het al kort daarna hersteld omdat het nodig was voor offers aan Athena, anders is het in ieder geval tijdens het herstel van de Akropolis ten tijde van Perikles weer opgebouwd.

Referenties
Kronoskaf, art. 'Altar of Athena Polias'
Jeffey M. Hurwit, The Athenian Acropolis: History, Mythology, and Archaeology from the Neolithic Era to the Present, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1999, blz. 192

Bouwwerk in het oude Athene
Altaar (religie)
Religie in Athene


"Any transaction that requires a significant work scope after closing—with a level of risk or complexity that would cause the average buyer to shy away from the deal—could be considered a project airplane," says Vince Restivo at Mente Group, an aviation consulting firm.
As Restivo notes, most buyers avoid aircraft that need work. But "project airplanes that have a good pedigree should not scare anyone," says Joe Carfagna, Jr., president of aircraft brokerage Leading Edge Aviation Solutions.
Ideal project aircraft have what experts call "good bones." That means no corrosion or significant damage history and a good maintenance record. Still, some project candidates may not even be flyable, and "you have to negotiate an 'as-is, where-is' deal, subject to borescope inspection of the engines and APU, logbook research, damage history, maintenance status, and all the 'gotchas,'" says Brad Harris, president and CEO of Dallas Jet.
Besides refurbishment and maintenance, many project airplanes need upgrades to meet 2020 mandates like ADS-B-Out equipage requirements, but this shouldn't deter bargain hunters.
Any major aircraft manufacturer or MRO facility can give you a quote, says Richard Hodkinson, at Clay Lacy Aviation. "They'll ask questions to identify what status the airplane is in and tell you the options and cost," notes Hodkinson.


text:
Supermond () ist ein 1979 vom Astrologen Richard Nolle geprägter Ausdruck für einen Vollmond oder Neumond, der sich im oder nahe beim erdnächsten Punkt (Perigäum) seiner Umlaufbahn um die Erde befindet.

Nolle prägte den Begriff im Zusammenhang mit seiner These, dass bei Erdnähe des Mondes – zu Vollmond wie zu Neumond – die Wahrscheinlichkeit von Vulkanausbrüchen und Erdbeben größer sei als bei größeren Abständen von der Erde. Auch wenn bei Beobachtung mit bloßem Auge der geringe Größenunterschied (vgl. Abb.) mangels direktem Vergleich mit einem durchschnittlichen Vollmond nicht erkennbar ist, ist ein Supervollmond in den Tagesmedien wegen seiner scheinbaren Größe und Helligkeit dennoch eine beliebte Meldung, die wenigstens auf das "entzückende und fesselnde Bild eines Vollmondes am Himmel" aufmerksam macht.

Der tatsächliche Größenunterschied ist recht gering, doch wird der Supervollmond gerne beim Mondaufgang beobachtet. Er wirkt dann wie alle Objekte, die sich nahe dem Horizont befinden, größer als bei horizontfernem Stand. Das gleiche Phänomen zeigt sich auch bei Sonnenaufgang oder -untergang.

Allgemeines

Unscharfes Kriterium
Der von Nolle formulierte Mindest-Erdabstand (Moon at or near (within 90 % of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit) ist mit etwa 367.600 km nicht besonders klein. Damit ergeben sich mindestens vier "Supermonde" pro Jahr, mit eher unauffälligen Medienmeldungen.

Bei einer deutlich engeren Grenze von beispielsweise 356.500 km – willkürlich gezogen wie die von Nolle – gab es im 20. Jahrhundert nur drei und gibt es im 21. Jahrhundert nur vier "Supervollmonde".

Mit ähnlichem Kriterium war folgende Schlagzeile möglich: "Du hast Glück: Bald strahlt der grösste Supermond seit 1948 am Himmel". Das betraf den Vollmond im November 2016 (mit etwa 356.520 km wenig mehr als 356.500 km), der Erde fast so nahe wie der Vollmond im Januar 1948 (etwa 356.460 km), 68 Jahre zuvor.

Extremwerte

Die Größen, welche die Erscheinung des Vollmondes bestimmen, sind:
 der scheinbare Durchmesser; er ändert sich umgekehrt proportional mit dem Abstand des Mondes zur Erde, der wiederum infolge der elliptischen Bahn veränderlich ist; Schwankung des scheinbaren Durchmessers etwa ± 7%, bezogen auf den Mittelwert
 die scheinbare Helligkeit; ihre Schwankung folgt dem Quadrat der Durchmesser-Schwankung: etwa ± 15%, bezogen auf den Mittelwert.

Die Bahnellipse des Mondes um die Erde wird sowohl von der Sonne als auch von den Planeten gestört. Weil der Einfluss der Planeten unregelmäßig ist, treffen die o. g. Größtwerte der Mondbahn jedoch selten ein. Wird nur der regelmäßige Einfluss der Sonne beachtet, so verringern sich die Schwankungs-Werte auf theoretisch ± 6,5% im Durchmesser bzw. ± 13,4% in der Helligkeit, die dann von jedem 14. Vollmond in Folge erreicht würden (s. u.: relative Häufigkeit).

Für einen Vollmond mit negativen Extremwerten – größte Erdferne, d. h. Passage des Apogäums – gibt es keine besondere Benennung wie etwa "Subvollmond".

Kein Bezug zur Wissenschaft
Der Ausdruck Supermond wird in der Wissenschaft allgemein und in der wissenschaftlichen Astronomie im Speziellen nicht verwendet. Denn es gibt keine Notwendigkeit eines solchen Gebrauchs zum Beispiel bei Darstellungen des scheinbaren Monddurchmessers, der Mondhelligkeit oder der von den Mondphasen abhängigen Gezeitenkräfte. Die während eines Vollmonds oder Neumonds beobachtbaren Änderungen können wissenschaftlich hinreichend wiedergegeben werden, ohne einen Begriff wie "Supermond" zu bemühen. Welcher gewisse – offenbar willkürlich festgelegte – Entfernungsbereich dem zugrunde zu legen wäre, bliebe zudem unklar.

Alle weiteren, die Astrologie beschäftigenden Einflüsse eines "Super"-Vollmondes werden von der Wissenschaft in den Bereich der Esoterik verwiesen. Das betrifft insbesondere die von Nolle vertretene These des Supermond-Einflusses auf Vulkanausbrüche und Erdbeben.

Relative Häufigkeit

Bei einem Supervollmond erreicht der Mond zu Vollmond (etwa) das Perigäum, den erdnächsten Bahnpunkt seines Umlaufs. Beim nachfolgenden Mondumlauf sind diese beiden Bedingungen des Ereignisses jedoch nicht mehr zugleich in einer Nacht gegeben. Denn zwischen zwei Passagen des gleichen Bahnpunkts (hier: Perigäum) vergeht ein anomalistischer Monat (durchschnittliche Dauer: 27,5546 Tage), zwischen zwei gleichen Mondphasen (hier: Vollmond) jedoch ein synodischer Monat (durchschnittliche Dauer: 29,5306 Tage).

Ein ähnlicher Supervollmond tritt erst erneut auf, wenn ganze Vielfache dieser beiden Periodendauern einander gleichen. Dies ist frühestens nach rund 14 synodischen bzw. rund 15 anomalistischen Monaten der Fall, wie sich aus einer Überschlagsrechnung mit den Durchschnittswerten ersehen lässt:

Der tatsächliche Termin des vierzehnten nachfolgenden Vollmondes kann aber mit diesen durchschnittlichen Werten nicht berechnet werden, da wegen der Bahnstörungen schon die Dauer einzelner Lunationen erheblich schwankt.

In diesem 14er-Zyklus von Vollmonden nahe dem Perigäum sind u. a. auch jene wenigen Supervollmonde enthalten, bei denen eine Nahgrenze von 356.500 km unterschritten wird.

Siehe auch
 Himmelsmechanik (theoretische Grundlagen)
 Astronomische Phänomenologie (Anblicksprobleme)

Weblinks

 Spektrum.de: Amateuraufnahmen spektrum.de

Einzelnachweise und Anmerkungen

Erdmond
Himmelsbeobachtung


Hello! If you're reading this, you've somehow come across my tiny cubbyhole of the Internet. I do hope you'll stay for a while.
Here, I flit nonchalantly between lifestyle tat and comment upon current affairs, a reflection of my equal interest in both Grazia magazine and BBC News 24. I write about culture, travel, food, news and the musings which have occupied me lately. Thanks for stopping by.


text:
'A Madman's Diary' in the Age of the Pandemic: The Case of Zhang Zhan
Ai Xiaoming, December 27, 2020
Zhang Zhan (张展), a lawyer who practiced in Shanghai, went to Wuhan in early February, determined to document the coronavirus outbreak in the city that was the epicenter of what would soon become a pandemic around the world. In the three months she stayed in the city, she made 122 posts on YouTube. It was not a coincidence that her first post was "My Claim for the Right of Free Speech." Zhang Zhan was arrested in May, brought back to Shanghai, indicted in September on charges of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," China's all-in-one charge for suppressing dissent. She is being tried on Monday, December 28, in Shanghai.
The following is a translation of 疫情时代的狂人日记 — 关于张展, an article by Professor Ai Xiaoming, who lives in Wuhan. — The Editors
Zhang Zhan's first YouTube post on Feb. 7: My claim for the right of free speech
Today is Christmas Eve, but I haven't said "Merry Christmas" to a single soul. Because on this day, at this place, at this moment, I cannot help but think of one person, one woman, one Christian: Zhang Zhan (张展).
She has been on a hunger strike since June of this summer, and has been kept alive through forced nasal feeding. She is shackled and both hands bound with restraining straps. During the torture she faces, in the words of 709 lawyer Li Heping (李和平, who knows something about torture), "one second is like 10,000 years." For those of us who have never suffered like her, what can we do to help?
Today is Thursday, and Zhang Zhan's lawyer Zhang Keke (张科科) is on his way to Shanghai. Next Monday the trial starts, and Zhang Zhan will be judged. Until now, as far as I know, no one in the position of responsibility has been tried for the spread of the epidemic and the loss of people's lives and property, so why should a volunteer, who has been on hunger strike for almost six months because she pled "not guilty," be criminalized, and why should prosecutors recommend she be sentenced to four or five years in prison?
It is impossible to control my anger when thinking about all this, although anger is also a sort of "luxury," I suppose. People are accustomed to accepting disasters calmly, but, despite such calmness, there is still no stopping the cruelty and ruthlessness of this force that wants to sentence a volunteer who risked her life to five years in prison, just because of something she said.
Lu Xun (鲁迅) wrote in A Madman's Diary: Everything requires careful consideration if one is to understand it. In ancient times, as I recollect, people often ate human beings, but I am rather hazy about it. I tried to look this up, but my history has no chronology, and scrawled all over each page are the words: "Virtue and Morality." Since I could not sleep anyway, I read intently half the night, until I began to see words between the lines, the whole book being filled with the two words — "Eat people."
Lu Xun lived in an evil age, to say the least; but not one so evil that Lu Xun would be put on trial and punished for his words. Lu Xun's ravings covered past, present, and future, but no one said he was provoking trouble.
I've read Zhang Zhan's words and have been following her situation. If you want to say that Zhang Zhan is at fault, I can only say that Zhang Zhan's fault was to be born in the wrong era. She is a person, not of the present, but of the future — she lives the way Chinese people should live in the future: she laughs merrily and curses with feeling, dares to love and to hate. When I read her scattered writings, back when the epidemic was spreading, I already knew that she was more heroic, more carefree, more incisive, more unconcerned about her life and death than Fang Fang (方方)[1]. What kind of person could be like her? Andersen wrote about the child who told the truth [that the emperor had no clothes]; Zhang Zhan is that child. She is too pure, unable to tolerate impurities in her soul, and unwilling to back down before the barriers set by reality. She persists in her purity and sincerity, qualities that are not possessed by modern Chinese people. She really should not have been born in the 1980's, she was born at least 40 or 50 years too soon.
Had she been born 10 years in the future, let's say, in 2030; when she reached her current age in 2068, 48 years, nearly half a century into the future, would Zhang Zhan's commentary have been prosecuted? Would she have been recommended for a sentence of four to five years? There's a question I'd like to put to the prosecutors who wrote the indictment — What legacy are you leaving your children by proposing such a sentence in the face of Zhang Zhan's candid thinking and honest writing? Because as your children live through the next twenty, thirty, fifty years, will they agree with your indictment?
The Wuhan epidemic appears to be a thing of the past, but, for many families, the story is not yet over: If we're to hold anyone accountable, how many people and institutions bear significant responsibility? The chastising and punishment of the eight whistle blowers, the live national TV coverage of their punishment for "disinformation," the names of the doctors for whom the public mourned, the helpless cries and breakdowns over the heartbreaking deaths of their loved ones — which of these is the responsibility of an ordinary citizen, Zhang Zhan?
Of course, Zhang Zhan can also be said to be anything but ordinary.
She traveled against the current to Wuhan, lived on instant noodles for a month, and walked through the shellshocked city with total disregard for her personal safety. She is Lu Xun's madman, or the kind of wanderer seen in 19th century Europe. She walked a narrow path between the conflicting demands of freedom, individuality, and society, experiencing a broken life and soulful struggle, at odds with the rules of reality and with public opinion of all stripes, running, falling, crashing through fences, being called a "shrew."
Well, she is really a shrew in the eyes of this arbitrary power — she is shrewish because she is straightforward. However, her shrewishness is really only all-in persistence. Her questioning, her ardent desire for an ideal world, was invariably paid for with sacrifice, with her life, painting an image of a free and bold personality.
How can such a person be said to be a contemporary Chinese? She is clearly a child who is not supposed to be born and live for decades yet. How can such a crisis-ridden, stumbling, broken, chaotic, ugly, fractured generation be worthy of the purity, affection, and sacrifice of this life? How can we sick, broken, cowardly, weak, life-sucking thieves, receive her sacrifice?
Yet she persists like a thorn, isolated, rare, small, and yet indestructible. She will not change even if she is sentenced to ten years, let alone four or five, because she has already put her own life on the line. Those of you who hold the gavel, facing your contemporaries, perhaps your peers, and the same legal professionals (Zhang Zhan was a lawyer), you can naturally find legal grounds to convict another legal professional, a peer and a citizen. However, if you have a scrap of good sense, and examine your consciences, it is impossible not to understand that Zhang Zhan's crime is simply that she was born thirty years too soon. Or, in other words, her "crime" is that she loves China and life more than you, the prosecutors and the judges.
For my benighted countrymen, stuck in the swamp of today, ground under the heel of the Party's political purges, one after another, for more than half a century, I cannot fathom how Zhang Zhan could burst from such filth, as pure as an angel this night, thinking what no one dares to think, saying what no one dares to say. Oh, I was wrong, what then is a human being? If Zhang Zhan is a human being, if what she thinks is the way of a human being, how can all those who flee before her sharp observations and solution-seeking writing be human? Might it be that most of us are still a ways from evolving past half-beast? Is it even possible that those who still consider "food as first necessity" as some kind of positive belief and do not hope for both "bread and freedom" are not half- or wholly beast?
Zhang Zhan is not an ordinary person, not by the standards of ordinary Chinese people. Therefore, one can also say that she is the author and protagonist of a 21st century version of A Madman's Diary. Therefore, Zhang Zhan's trial is shameful, and her sentence is even more shameful. But shame is the status quo, and all that is needed is cringing acceptance and praise; provided that one's stomach is full and one's mind empty.
Zhang Zhan, the madwoman, the shrew, is going to be tried on Monday. She has been on hunger strike for six months, as weak as a reed in the wind, with half a feed tube dangling from her nasal cavity, and her hands so tightly bound that the pain is hard to bear. To this, I can only hold back my grief and pray silently the century-old concluding words of A Madman's Diary:
"Perhaps there are still children who have not eaten men?"
Save this child.
Wuhan, December 24, 2020
[1] Fang Fang (方方) is a prominent writer in Wuhan whose Wuhan Diary (《武汉日记》) was read by millions before she was vilified by the state media.
She Chronicled China's Crisis. Now She Is Accused of Spreading Lies. New York Times, Dec. 25, 2020.
Chinese citizen journalist detained for reporting on Wuhan coronavirus outbreak "may not survive", December 11, 2020.
The Regret of Wuhan: How China Missed the Critical Window for Controlling the Coronavirus Outbreak, China Change, Feb. 9, 2020.
3 responses to "'A Madman's Diary' in the Age of the Pandemic: The Case of Zhang Zhan"
'A Madman's Diary' in the Age of the Pandemic: The Case of Zhang Zhan - Global Tuidang Center says:
[…] article was first published on China Change website onDecember 27, […]
China China is a primary source in English about human rights, the rule of law, and civil society in China, an essential aspect of China's political landscape. – allBDnews says:
[…] 'A Madman's Diary' in the Age of the Pandemic: The Case of Zhang Zhan […]
Zhang Zhan, direitos humanos e a propaganda anti-China - Dossier Sul says:
[…] ChinaChange, que é outro "órgão de direitos humanos" em Washington DC, também divulgou nota sobre Zhang […]


I think I broke the scale. Time to diet.
Dienekes has a more detailed body type calculator at this address.
ROFL! It turns out I'm obese My ideal weight is 75kg... I guess their ideal man is an Ethiopian.
Did you try Dienekes' calculator? It's more detailed.
Last edited by Scoob; Tuesday, April 6th, 2004 at 05:00 AM.
This calculation says I am one pound below ideal body weight. So I should visit McDonald's?
I knew I'd come up overweight, but obese.... My maximum 'normal' weight is 210lb. Time to put in the Richard Simmons tape and sweat to the oldies. My ideal is 196lb. I'd have to go on the Auschwitz diet to get down to that level.
I have to add 10kg!...I am happy to be one of 4 (lightweight) 50kg bombs on the underwing racks of a Junkers 87 (Stuka) ..
Is This Online Genetic Calculator Accurate?


To provide a relevant and contemporary education.
To develop the whole child intellectually and with confidence, bringing out their best and providing a basis on which secondary schools can build.
To provide an enthusiastic and enjoyable approach to learning, encouraging children to research and inquire.
To develop sensitivity towards the values and needs of others within a Christian environment.
To promote discipline, both socially and academically, with an awareness of personal health and safety.


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You already know that Off Grid Festival hosts an impressive range of workshop leaders, artists, musicians, performers, speakers, healers and space-makers who all work year-round towards to demonstrate that Another World is Possible. But where do these amazing people all come from? Where do we look to find such inspiring, life-changing, paradigm-shifting, big-thinking folk? Well, they are all YOU, of course!
Get your moment in the sun this year and sign up (or get your pal to sign up) for a slot at Off Grid Festival's brand new venue, the formidable Tapeley Park in North Devon. The forms are simple and once you've sent it in, one of our programmers will be in touch to help work out the logistics. Go on, let's fill Off Grid Festival with the spirit of community.
Looking forward to Thursday- hope all going well your end.
Re self catering – can we use briquettes and out own BBQ? Will there be an area for this or stones provided to set the bbq on?