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The whole of Egypt is in uproar – Akhnaton, who has just acceded to the throne, wants to ban the old deity Amon from the temples of the land. Aton is to be worshiped as the new God.
But the priests of the land are not willing to give up their temples without resistance so the 4 largest temples are fiercely disputed.
The players are adversaries and fight out this battle of the Gods between them. Both have the same starting position, but who will be able to make better use of his abilities and help his God to victory?


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(Rumour) 2K E3 line-up leaked / Confirmed by Jason Schreier and Jeff Grubb
brunopcosta1 (Bruno Costa) June 3, 2021, 11:04pm 1
image1200×630 234 KB
Disclaimer 1: I don't usually create threads for rumours, but this one was verified by Jason Schreier. Disclaimer 2: This is not being posted on the E3 OT because I don't want to spoil people who want to watch the events blind.
@jasonschreier
Yes this 2K leak is real but I'm not sure all of it is going to be at E3. Can't wait for Marvel XCOM though videogameschronicle.com/news/2k-is-rep…
10:56 PM - 3 Jun 2021 590 110
r/GamingLeaksAndRumours - Info on upcoming games from 2K
205 votes and 120 comments so far on Reddit
NBA 2K22 : Dirk Nowitzki will be this years cover athlete. EDIT: Could be the cover of another Legend Edition, with other athletes on other editions, as some in the comments have mentioned.
Wonderlands : Codename Daffodil - It's a Borderlands spin-off title featuring Tiny Tina. The final name could also be "Tiny Tina's Wonderlands" (as this is the name that Gearbox already trademarked.) Seems to be the same style as all other Borderlands games with "Multiclass-Heroes" to play as. This spin-off is rumoured since last year, so I guess this isn't really new. Reveal should be expected at E3. EDIT: Here's the trademark for Wonderlands
New Firaxis Game : Codename CODA - New turn-based action game using Marvel property. Source described it as "XCOM with Marvel heroes". Seems like some famous actors are voicing the characters.
Codename Volt : New action game, seems to be in really early development. Logo looks similar to the Fallout-Logo. No final name yet. Source described it as "Cthulhu meets Saints Row". Game looked pretty unfinished in the trailer. Sadly, my source didn't know which studio is developing this title. I think it could be Hangar13, as they had a leaked contract last year that stated that they are working on a "open-world sci-fi title with supernatural elements".
Xbox + Bethesda E3 2021- June 13th @ 10AM PST/1PMEST/6PMBST- Pre-E3 Discussion Thread!
peter42O (peter42O) June 3, 2021, 11:17pm 2
Don't care about NBA but im very interested in seeing the other three games. Also hoping Hangar 13 reveals Mafia IV which is another title they're rumored to be working on.
BRiT June 3, 2021, 11:22pm 3
Curious about Tiny Tina's Wonderland but I'm a bit burned out from Borderlands 3 and entirely turned off by what they tried to pass off as Season Pass 2. I think they may have lost the magic.
peter42O:
Jedd confirmed Codename Volt is by Hangar 13:
VentureBeat – 3 Jun 21
XCOM-style Avengers game from 2K is real (so is the rest of the leak)
Publisher 2K Games has developer Firaxis making an XCOM Avengers game that we could see as soon as this E3.
BRiT:
Yeah. Borderlands 1 was one of my favorite games of all time, but I couldn't for my life finish Borderlands 3.
GoroMajima June 3, 2021, 11:23pm 5
Yawn. A conference to ignore.
YoungGrumpyMan June 3, 2021, 11:26pm 6
Hell yeah, XCOM-style game, although being Marvel is a turn-off for me personally.
PsyDec June 3, 2021, 11:27pm 7
Marvel Xcom is right up my alley. Sounds awesome
Staffy June 3, 2021, 11:27pm 8
No Bioshock then…
Wonder if we're gonna get a Mafia 4 in the near future.
Biggzy (Hassan ) June 3, 2021, 11:27pm 9
Definitely interested in that Marvel Xcom game.
peter42O (peter42O) June 3, 2021, 11:29pm 10
brunopcosta1:
It seems that way but there's also been rumors of Hangar 13 developing Mafia IV and if Codename Volt is early in development then that makes me think that Mafia IV is hopefully done and ready to release next year.
Someone19 June 3, 2021, 11:30pm 11
Well, already started the leak season, let's see how many shows or games are leaked before E3
Mesiac June 3, 2021, 11:48pm 12
I love X-Com like games, but the Marvel ip is a bit overused right now, so hopefully they have an interesting spin on it.
andrew_schmidt (HaloGaming08 ) June 3, 2021, 11:57pm 13
Someone19:
Yep only a Matter of time before Microsoft's is
jfsolo June 4, 2021, 12:17am 14
I'll have to see how it looks, but X-Com Marvel may be a very rare these days day one purchase for me, although if it's 70 bucks that would probably be a deal breaker.
Thanathorn June 4, 2021, 12:18am 15
Wonderlands. That's an interesting name lol!
SheepDip June 4, 2021, 12:27am 16
I'm always up for more Borderlands.
No BioShock though?! How many years do they need?
brunopcosta1 (Bruno Costa) June 4, 2021, 12:45am 17
I respectfully disagree. The MCU became insanely popular in the last decade, and yet all we got in the past few years was Spider Man, Ultimate Alliance 3 and Avengers – and only the last one made its way into Xbox.
Gimme more Marvel!
Mesiac June 4, 2021, 1:29am 18
Fair enough, it's just my opinion. Although I was meaning across all entertainment. I should have been clearer. With all the movies and TV shows over the last decade, I'm just a bit burnt out on Marvel.
CallMeCraig June 4, 2021, 1:33am 19
I don't really care for Marvel but Xcom always has me interested.
"Cthulhu meets Saints Row" sounds absolutely wild. Looking forward to more info on this.
PhantomFox June 4, 2021, 2:28am 20
Hmm, interesting. Probably won't end up playing these games, but still intruiging.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Rise of Dubai
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Dubai is one of the cities also known as emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Today Dubai is a global city that and a hub for businesses. The economy of Dubai has been built on oil and the model at hand of the UAE is like that of the West. Its main revenues are entirely from tourism, financial services, and real estate. Attention has been attracted to Dubai following large construction projects and events in sports. This has increased the coverage of labor rights of the large southern workforce and human rights issues. The market property deteriorated in the year 2008 and 2009 due to the economic downturn worldwide. This came about following the 2007 financial crisis. Does the continuance of the Foreign Economy need to be allowed by the Dubai government to remain a global city or can it do this on its own?
Concerns over UAE direct investments in the U.S., those that are in controlled government raised an issue that had little importance, appealed to jingoistic sentiments that raised fears that were exaggerated over a routine transfer of who owns a company that operates its facilities at six port terminals in the U.S. Some of the concerns were lawful, the issues of security and the Bush administration in handling the situation. The decision focused on attention that was not required and was blown out of proportion on the purchases made by the Dubai Ports World (Chatterjee, 2006). The British firm Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company were bought and the outcome led to the DP world announcing that a portion of the P&O was going to be placed up for sale to an American firm in the United States.
The agreement that had already been put in place stated that the ownership of the American ports would still be under the state and the local entities. There are a majority of port operations in the U.S. but are run by foreigners who are interested, this includes companies that are owned by other countries such as Singapore and China. The Congress did not have any objections to these operations. In the corporate version of profiling by race however, a group of lawmakers of Capitol Hill outwardly expressed anger over the fact that an Arab government will be managing some of the port operations in U.S.
Distortions over the purchase nature were made by opponents of the Arab ownership to have the ability of making a case against the new owners. This would hinder the operations in the United States. For example, Nancy Pelosi a Democratic House Leader wrote a letter to her constituents insisting that the U.S. government had made a deal with DPW to avail security at six major ports in the U.S. In real sense, no deal was made between the U.S. government and DPW but a mere approval for transfer of the company to a new owner (Chernus, 2005). It was vital due to the fact that DPW and P&O would be mutually responsible for the management of the port in its normal operations such as cranes, docking facilities and coordinate the shipment with ground transportation. The U.S. would have continued to provide security to the port. There is no company that would determine standards for security in the American port; this is in accordance to the federal law that is solely the way of the U.S. government.
Some Democrats bordered on racism, and claims were laid that transfer of the operations title at one of the terminals constituted occupation of an Arab. They added that they would not have the title transferred to the devil, and then they would not have it transferred to Dubai. The criticism of comparison of Satan and the government of Dubai, the Senator defended the statement by saying that the UAE had failed to support the policy of the U.S. about Iran and Israel (Chernus, 2005).
By UAE owning a company in the U.S. Congress had concerns but had none when they supplied the same governments with arms. If there were any concerns on Dubai doing any harm to the U.S. then an effort would have been made to block the arms sold to the government, which were worth more than $2.5, 000,000,000 within 3 years. There was determination to protect the large profits that American merchants took pride in by transferring these arms was of a higher priority (Chatterjee 2006). This was not mainly a public outcry because polls had shown that there was more disapproval by more Americans to have Chinese government companies manage operations of U.S. ports than companies that were owned by Arab governments who were friendly. The congress had not even raised concerns over the issue of management of the California Long Beach Terminal that was very vital. The company was owned the Peoples Liberation Army.
Anti-Arab racism may have been part of the motivation Pelosi, the Senator and other Democrats had, for making assertions that were far way exaggerated about the potential threats of terrorism from the UAE government. False claims of terrorism connections to other governments in the region made this easier. For example, the pre-invasion claim that was absurd of the secular Iraqi government of Hussein Saddam having some connections with the al-Qaida Islamist (Shadid, 2006). American public are suspicious of all Arab governments because of the claims and exaggerated assertions about regime of Syria had links to terrorism.
At that time, Bush- President of the United States- was in a very tricky position. He insisted that the Arab should trusted in the managing of the port facilities at the same time he distrusted them in alost all areas even individuals who lived in the U.S.. For instance, the United States administration rounded up a large number of law-abiding citizens of Arab immigrants after the 9/11 attacks and put them in indefinite and unknown detention because of being Arab. Fears on talks about threats that did not exist made the American public and the Congress not to trust Presidents Bush assurance of no worries about security four years later.
The Bush administration had ignored some security issues which may have had legitimate concerns over security implied over the DPW ownership and management of the port. For example, assessment of the coast Guard that was suppressed leaving many intelligence gaps which related to the DPW world assets that may promote terrorism. This makes it hard to do a threat assessment when they have control over the operations of the port. It was odd that the normal security reviews were not gone through which is a requirement for approvals of ownership transfers of this kind. The UAE's record had been somehow spotty even though President Bush insisted that it was a friend in the war against terror. However later it was noted that the UAE Defense Minister and the Dubai Crown Prince had visited Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan for parties in hunting and horseback riding among other Gulf Arabs who were wealthy and had influence (Moore, 1999).
There has been no evidence that puts UAE on the spot directly supporting al-Qaida and no sufficient investigations have been done on money laundering or making any contributions to terrorist networks. Two of the hijackers in the 9/11 were from UAE and some funding of al-Qaeda had passed from Emirates. The U.S. administration had targeted countries that had no connections with the financing of the attack as part of the fight against war on terror (Wheeler, 2004). Bush administration has refused to spend around $700 to upgrade port security while it spends billions of dollars to fight wars against Iraq and Afghanistan people. Selling of the P&O to DP World resulted to the issues of port security. This was seen as a vulnerable area for possible U.S. assault for a long period of time. Of all the overseas containers that arrive at the U.S. ports daily a small fraction of them are inspected by the customs. There is little funding that has been given to the Coast Guard in the U.S. to adequately take care of the responsibilities extended in the protection of the 3,700 seaports and cargo terminals in the country.
Despite the above concerns, the control of port operations by the UAE is not a big threat to national security. The question now being asked is why President Bush took the risk of ignoring the security concerns in regard to DPWs terminal operations and defended the UAEs right in the beginning even though he was faced with strong bipartisan opposition. Much of why this took place has to do with the UAE as an American ally in an important strategic region. The UAE is the only federal government in the Arab world. It is made up of 7 sheikdoms that are autocratic and Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the most important emirates. Abu Dhabi is the source of most oil reserves in the UAE; it is the fifth largest in the world. They have used their oil revenue to diversify its economy. It is impressive as the bustling port is in the city-state of Dubai where a number of vital transnational corporations are situated and the DPW is based.
In the entire world, Dubai is the known for being the sea/air hub that is second largest; this makes it strategic and vital to the U.S. The UAE purchases most U.S. goods second after Israel and it has been the major purchaser in U.S. arms. UAE has been a secure port for the U.S. navy. Dubai is a transit point for mercenaries, contract workers, military contractors and others bound to back up U.S. operations in the military in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bush family and administration had connections with the UAE for example, the emir responded to financial assistance for Hurricane Katrina victims and the presidential library donations (Fattah, 2006). Bush's brother Neil received funding from investors of the UAE for an educational software company, John Snow who chaired the rail, CSX and transport company sold U.S. foreign port operations to DPW for a larger sum that a billion dollars, he later became secretary of the Treasury in the Bush administration.
Despite the examples of racism and jingoism that have come about because of DPW, possible ownership operations of the port of some terminals in the U.S. have come to the forefront. The controversy gives room for the U.S. foreign policy to be criticized and raise questions concerning priorities that were misplaced by the Bush administration in the fight against international terrorism threat, and American economy globalization.
The relationship between Dubai ahs developed tremendously given that there has been minimal trade and investment disputes that have occurred between the countries. In future, these two economies are likely to work even better as the price of oil is likely to remain high in the future hence brings about the fast economic growth in Dubai and UAE as a whole. Through this, the government should allow the Foreign Economic as Dubai stands a chance of benefiting in many ways.
The UAE has good labor laws but does not have a good number of inspectors to have control over companies and some of them take advantage of this. Migrant workers arethe majority of the population of UAE who are residents; this is a 990% workforce. These workers face various rights restrictions as workers and lack rights that have association with citizenship. Employers in Dubai retain their expatriate employee passports for the period that they are working for them under contracts (Watson, 2006). This is a common practice even though it is illegal. Sometimes some employees have their work permits banned for a period of six months when their employment contract has been terminated.
Various controversies have come about because of the violation of labor rights in Dubai. In March 2006, workers went on strike while they were working at the Dubai International airport as they putting up a new terminal over wages that were low and poor working conditions. When this incident occurred, a lot of damage was caused to cars, offices, construction, and computers that were approximated to be 1 million U.S. $. In October 2007, there was another strike, the strikers were arrested, some were released later on and expelled then deported from Dubai. Negative media and the strikes gave exposure to the in the region, in 2008 the labors were given midday break to take some hours to take a break from the heat. The employees who overstayed with visas illegally were given amnesty and sent how on the expense of the government.
While there have been a great number of labor rights violations that have been covered in Dubai, sexual and reproductive rights have proved more controversial and clandestine. These rights were pointed out that they did not fit their cultural context and were western. In Dubai, a large number of workers have been sexually exploited through human trafficking. This comes as a complement of a major part of the economy of Dubai through the hospitality and tourism industry.
In 2007, a task force of the UAE was established with the intention of drafting a new legislation that would provide guarantee for new protections of works labor rights in the area. If the legislation would not be completed, the outcome would be intense criticism by human rights and labor activists. This would complicate the relationship between the U.S. and the UAE. There would be a possibility of increased skepticism from the congress about a possible agreement of free trade (Katodrytis, 2005).
Dubai has evolved into a sophisticated city in a very short period. Dubai is surrounded by its society, nature, and technology this future city. Dubai has been using its technology to be able to diversify its economy through investments in services involving finance, tourism and real estates, etc. astonishing hotels are being built, largest shopping malls in the world, highest skyscrapers which includes the tallest building ever built in the world.
The future of Dubai is in the present city. Some individuals do not prefer the architecture in place but I think it is a way that technology can be pushed to the limits because the breakthroughs in technology bring about innovation to the man (Chernus, 2005). Dubai has the tallest and the largest mall ever built. The nature in Dubai is mostly a desert. Most individuals might think that a desert cannot support life but Dubai supports a lot of beautiful wildlife, microorganisms, and plants.
The population in the emirate was 1,422,000 in the year 2006. Three quarters of this population was made up of the expatriates from other countries living in Dubai. In 1095, Dubai was mentioned in the book of geography. In 1580, a pearl merchant Venetian recognized the pearling industry of Dubai. There was use of natural labor and a fishing village existed in the 17th century. The oldest building that still stands in Dubai is the Al Fahidi Fort that was built in 1787. A treaty was signed in 1820 between the government of Britain and the UAE sheikhdoms (Pacione, 2005). In the 1920s and early 1930s, the Japanese invented the cultured pearl and depression of the economy broke down the natural pearl market. When this happened, the entire population suffered the lack of infrastructure at that time and education. Dubai exported oil first in 1960 however; it was not in abundance like in Abu Dhabi, which was the neighboring state. Abu Dhabi produces a lot of oil and is one of the largest producers known.
When the UAE was formed in 1971, a new airport was put up in the same year. Dubai is facing some problems like crisis in finances, exploitation of labor even though it has come out as a vital international hub. Life evolves every now and again and there are mutations in cities too. For Dubai to adapt and survive they have to make wise decisions for the mutation so that it can face a challenging future.
The U.S. and Dubai enjoy a fast growing economic relationship. The exporting firms in the U.S. have grown rapidly in the UAE economy. This represents a range of services and products from a number of states in the U.S. lately, the United States' investors have looked up to the UAE as a country they can target for foreign direct investment in large numbers. U.S. has had a much greater presence in the UAE than the whole world combined. The effort of Dubai to promote reforms in the economy, a climate of open investment and as it has an expanded role in business hub of the Gulf encourages multinationals of the U.S. to invest funds in Dubai and the UAE as a whole. Amid all the controversies, U.S. and Dubai enjoy a highly remarkable relationship of trade and incredible investment that will work even more significantly in the years to come.
The Concentration Ratio
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Beth W. Giacobassi
Beth Giacobassi was appointed to play contra-bassoon and bassoon with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 1982 and was also acting assistant principal for the MSO from Jan. 2002-June 2005. In the fall of 2001, she joined the faculty at UW-Milwaukee and became the principal bassoonist of the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra.
Each summer she has been the bassoonist for the Washington Island Chamber Music Festival since 1994. Ms. Giacobassi received her Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Michigan in 1982. She has performed in the Rome Festival Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival, Bedford Springs Music Festival, the Ohio Light Opera Company, and the Berea Summer Theater.
She has also been on the faculty of Alverno College and UW-Parkside. She has appeared as a soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony, UWM Wind Ensemble, the University of Michigan Philharmonic and Wind Ensemble, UW-Parkside, and the Tahlia Chamber Music Concerts. She won the University of Michigan Concerto Competition and the Green Bay Young Artists Concerto competition.
She is active in the MSO ACE program, works with the Milwaukee Youth Symphony, and teaches privately in her home. She has recently completed two new DVDs: Bassoon Reed Making and Bassoon Fundamentals which is being sold nationwide.
She is married to Michael Giacobassi, a member of the first violin section of the Milwaukee Symphony. They have three children: Mario, Dante, and Gina.


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Dompaire ist eine französische Gemeinde im Département Vosges der Region Grand Est (bis 2015 Lothringen). Sie gehört zum Arrondissement Épinal und zum 2017 gegründeten Gemeindeverband Mirecourt Dompaire.

Geografie
Die  Einwohner () zählende Gemeinde Dompaire liegt im Tal der Gitte, einem Nebenfluss des Madon, etwa 20 Kilometer westlich von Épinal und zehn Kilometer südöstlich der Kleinstadt Mirecourt.

Das Siedlungsgebiet der Nachbargemeinde Madonne-et-Lamerey schließt nahtlos an den Ortskern Dompaires an.

Zu Dompaire gehören die Ortsteile Laviéville und Naglaincourt.
Nachbargemeinden von Dompaire sind Racécourt im Norden, Bouzemont im Nordosten, Madonne-et-Lamerey im Osten, Ville-sur-Illon im Süden, Les Ableuvenettes und Gelvécourt-et-Adompt im Südwesten, Hagécourt im Westen sowie Maroncourt und Velotte-et-Tatignécourt im Nordwesten.

Geschichte
Die heutige Gemeinde entstand 1836 aus der seit Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts bestehenden Gemeinde Lavieville-et-Naglaincourt.
Bis zum 31. Dezember 2014 war Dompaire Hauptort (chef-lieu) des Kantons Dompaire.

Bevölkerungsentwicklung

Im Jahr 1876 wurde mit 1368 Bewohnern die bisher höchste Einwohnerzahl ermittelt. Die Zahlen basieren auf den Daten von annuaire-mairie und INSEE.

Sehenswürdigkeiten
 Kirche Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Laviéville, Johannes dem Täufer geweihte Kirche aus dem 12. Jahrhundert, als Monument historique ausgewiesen
 Stadtkirche Saint-Nicolas, 1850 mit einer Orgel aus dem Jahr 1821 von Jean Baptiste Jeanpierre ausgestattet. Es ist heute die einzig erhaltene des Orgelbauers aus Vagney.
 Kapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Consolation (1682 erbaut, 1863 rekonstruiert)

Wirtschaft und Infrastruktur
In Dompaire gibt es zwei Bäcker, zwei Möbelgeschäfte, eine Tankstelle, einen Blumenhändler und einen Gemischtwarenladen. Darüber hinaus sind in Dompaire zehn Landwirtschaftsbetriebe ansässig (Getreideanbau, Milchviehhaltung, Rinder-, Ziegen- und Schafzucht).

Südlich des Dorfkerns verläuft die teilweise zweistreifig ausgebaute Fernstraße D 166 von Épinal nach Mirecourt/Neufchâteau. An der Anschlussstelle Dompaire zweigt die D 28 / D 3 nach Vittel und zur Autoroute A31 ab.

Belege

Weblinks

Ort in Grand Est
Gegründet 1836
Stadt in Frankreich

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The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) is partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Brigantine, NJ, to pump 755.000 cubic yards of sand from the Brigantine Inlet to repair beaches and dunes in the city that were damaged by a nor'easter in January 2016.
The project, which involves dredging sand from an offshore borrow site and pumping it along 1.8 miles of shoreline, began on January 19.
Brigantine Inlet is not a navigation channel but has accumulated large shoals that can be utilized as a "borrow" area to provide sand for beaches and dunes.
Cranford-based Weeks Marine is implementing this $10.6 million project for the Army Corps, which is providing $9.8 million in funding.
The project will repair beaches and dunes from north of 14th Street south to Roosevelt Avenue. The DEP and city are cost-sharing the balance.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District, has just released an aerial photo of their ongoing beachfill project at Brigantine.
Posted on March 14, 2018 with tags beach nourishment, Brigantine Inlet, New Jersey, USACE, Weeks Marine.


Final report of in-depth study conducted by Doug Engelbart 1959-1962 into improving human intellect and human effectiveness, outlining a conceptual framework re: what makes us intellectually capable and effective, and best approach for systematically augmenting this capability, concluding with a proposed research agenda to pursue this new field. Early research results include these pioneering firsts. Click here to browse this report with purple numbers and table of contents, and addition bibliographic info including books that include this report.


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StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void Review
As I play Legacy of the Void
, I'm amazed how much more fun I'm having now, with the newest version of a six-year-old real-time strategy game, than I did when it was new. Maybe it's the framing: Wings of Liberty had to live up to the genre-redefining StarCraft and Brood War. Legacy of the Void just has to be a great new edition of StarCraft 2, and it does that very well.
Watch the first 29 minutes of Legacy of the Void above.
Legacy of the Void offers a lot of new things, especially to people who may have been frustrated with the focus on ladder play and high-level competition that defined early StarCraft 2. Without compromising the competitive side, there are more things than ever for casual players to enjoy once the campaign is over.
It might be the single best mission in StarCraft 2 since Wings of Liberty's dusk-til-dawn zombie battle.
Co-op missions are a hugely pleasant surprise, thanks to demanding mission design and unique heroes who provide their own twist on the three races. There's one particularly clever mission where you and your co-op buddy control a base at the center of the map, and must fend off attacks from two sides while you sally forth and intercept enemy freight convoys. It might be the single best mission in StarCraft 2 since Wings of Liberty's dusk-til-dawn zombie battle.Army variations and progression bonuses tweak the experience each time through. Playing as the mechanized Terran engineer Swann, for example, is a completely different experience from controlling any other Terran army. Swann only has access to expensive, high-tech armored units and defenses, which means his army is incredibly powerful, but gulps down resources like no other. Learning to use each hero, and trying harder difficulty levels, make co-op much more than a gimmick.
Watch the Legacy of the Void launch trailer above.
Co-op is extended to traditional PvP multiplayer, and though I'm not sure Archon Mode will change anyone's mind about StarCraft multiplayer, it's certainly a fun option. Sharing control of a single base and army with a friend is a more social, and sometimes more hilariously frustrating way to play the same fast-paced, unforgiving RTS that StarCraft has always been. I can't say I've ever been fully on the same page with an ally, and Archon mode has caused me more mis-cast spells than it has created clutch plays, but I've enjoyed myself with each outing. It doesn't turn StarCraft into an accessible, easy-to-learn game, but it does make it less lonely and isolating to play competitively.
A New Suit of Armor
The Protoss Adept forms the new backbone of the early Protoss army.
Legacy of the Void brings new units to the battlefield for each multiplayer race, but some of them have such specific problems that I didn't get as much use out of them as I hoped. The Protoss Adept forms the new backbone of the early Protoss army, using its strange spin on teleportation to open up interesting new strategies, while the awesome transforming Liberator gunship does the same for the Terrans. But I had trouble finding room for the Zerg Ravager in my standard Zerg armies, or employing the Protoss Disruptor as anything more than an annoying curiosity. It's worth mentioning that both these units are very micro-intensive, and they can be a dangerous distraction if you're not up to the task. For an average-skill player like me, units like the Terran hit-and-run specialist Cyclone are new ways of getting into trouble when I'd be better off running a more standard, older composition.
Watch us unbox the Collector's Edition above.
Legacy of the Void makes it up to you, however, by transforming some old, familiar units into something more exciting. I don't know if the Carrier will be used in competitive play much, but I sure had a great time using its new "release interceptors" ability to launch waves of suicide pilots on strafing runs while my carriers withdrew to safety. And because games get off to a quicker start with the new Legacy of the Void economy and starting positions, I feel like I have more freedom and opportunity to try weird, surprising builds.
The campaign has lots of neat ways you can change your army.
The campaign itself is very good, with lots of neat ways you can change your army (picking between three powerful variations on each unit as options gradually unlock, and freely switching those choices at will) and upgrading your flagship, the Spear of Adun. In each of Legacy's 22 missions, you can call down support super-abilities from the Spear of Adun, like a time-warp that freezes enemy units in place while your units go to town on them, or summoning a the mechanical clone of an old Protoss hero to wreak havoc on the battlefield for a short time.
The single-player (and co-op) is also the place you'll find a lot of special units for each faction. The mighty Dragoon, which was the staple of the Protoss army in StarCraft, returns for this campaign, as does Brood War's Dark Archon, which can mind-control enemy units and turn their armies against one another. It's great fun playing with a lot of these units, especially since they're not balanced for competitive play, but for awesomeness.
The Protoss are a drag to hang out with.
However, I have to warn you that that the Protoss are a drag to hang out with. This is a relentlessly serious, grave game, full of characters using language that wouldn't sound out of place in a Bible movie or a particularly faithful adaptation of the Silmarillion, talking about a war with a generic ancient evil. It had me longing for the days of Wings of Liberty, when I was hanging out with Jim Raynor aboard the Hyperion, and it kind of felt like I was finally getting a Firefly reboot.
But the missions bring plenty of fun thanks to a demanding mix of Alamo-type holdouts, search-and-destroy, and control-point missions. They're far more traditional in style than Wings of Liberty's innovative campaign, which remains the high-watermark for the series in terms of both mission design and campaign structure, but I never got bored with Legacy's missions the way I did Heart of the Swarm's hero-centric campaign. I wish there were something to fill the huge gulf between the cakewalk normal difficulty and the extremely challenging hard setting, though. Anyone capable of fogging a mirror can beat the game on normal, which lavishes so many handicaps on you that there are almost no resource bottlenecks, while hard takes those advantages away while bumping the number of enemies into Zerg-swarm territory.
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We consider how manufacturers are able to satisfy the audio needs of concert venues at a lower price point, while meeting the increasingly discerning expectations of the audience.
In the first part of this feature we revealed the uncertainty for concert venues created by diminishing budgets and rental increases before looking at the impact this is having on audio systems in these venues. Here we consider how manufacturers are able to satisfy the audio needs in these environments at a lower price point.
For Meyer Sound this multitude of requirements translates to an ongoing policy of both introducing new products and updating existing ones. Monitto notes: "For power and transparency, we have the LEO Family of line arrays, which we recently expanded with the smallest member, LINA, and its companion 750-LFC low frequency control element. For immersive and spatial sound, [there is] the D-Mitri digital audio platform, which is a modular and expandable system that affords maximum flexibility in system configuration to allow for unlimited creativity in sound design. And D-Mitri is also at the heart of Constellation (the Meyer Sound acoustic system), with our patented VRAS processing algorithm.
Monitto says that its customers "aren't simply looking for the lowest cost per speaker box. They want a cost-effective, long-term solution, and that's what we can offer. Our Constellation system is a good example. On the surface it may seem expensive, but for many multi-purpose halls it's by far the lowest cost solution. It's less expensive than variable physical acoustics – motorised panels, clouds, drapes and chamber doors – [and] with greater flexibility. It can mean building a hall with less interior volume, which saves on both construction and energy costs. It can even mean building only one hall rather than two.
Alas, the incorporation of sophisticated acoustic systems and suchlike will not be within the reach of all smaller venues, where more basic concerns of survival may have to dominate thinking as the live sector contemplates more uncertain times. One result of this unpredictable outlook is that cycles of investment are likely to become longer and venues will – reasonably enough – look to squeeze more life out of their consoles and PAs before looking to renew.
As this article demonstrates, there will be plenty of vendors waiting to satisfy their needs when funds allow – the choice of systems available to smaller venues being greater now than ever before.


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Uprooted by Modernity
Simone Weil Croquis by Th. Rioult
"To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul."
Simone Weil said that. Weil, whom Andre Gide called the patron saint of all outsiders. She was a leftist who alarmed her comrades by embracing religion. A French secular Jew who became a devout Catholic. A devout Catholic who refused to be baptized. An acutely perceptive philosopher who learned ancient Greek at twelve, then Sanskrit, yet never attached herself to the tenured comforts of a university. More interested in the political than the personal, she supported anarchists in the Spanish Civil War and joined the French Resistance in World War II. She rebuffed relationships to remain a solitary activist. She thrust her frail, refined self into sweaty jobs in auto factories, farm fields, and fishing trawlers, a show of solidarity in places where she never quite fit in.
Weil, rooted?
Maybe she saw the need so clearly because she severed her own thready roots as soon as they formed? Or maybe I do not understand rootedness the way she did. I am stuck in the garden, where Britain's favorite expert, Monty Don, is warning not to add fertilizer to the hole you dig for a new plant. You want the roots to spread wide, searching for nourishment, not just slurp up whatever is close at hand. Make your roots struggle a bit, and the network they form will act as an anchor, keeping your geranium or dahlia upright in wind and heavy rain.
That anchoring is what my husband and friends, my ideas and values, and experiences do for me. It is what I envy when I see people with big, happy families. Or big, fractious, loyal-in-a-pinch families. Rootedness, in my mind, is a way of belonging, whether that means an affinity for Midwestern prairies or the Pacific Northwest, a long history in a town or neighborhood, or a loyalty to your religious congregation, school, group, team, or country.
These days, none of us is rooted deeply enough to relax and thrive, because our world is too much in flux. Storms—real or ideological—topple us into despair, and economic need pulls us up and forces us to start over again.
Weil saw this beginning. She might not have cherished a strong sense of place or family or chummy associations herself, but she understood solidarity—and she knew it was already eroding. Her best-known book (published, as all her books were, posthumously) is called The Need for Roots: prelude towards a declaration of duties towards mankind. She wrote it almost eighty years ago, to help Charles de Gaulle rebuild Paris after the war. In the text, she warned that for all of the West's eloquent constitutions and declarations of human rights, people had overlooked their obligations to one another—and this had left them self-righteous and rootless.
Weil was looking at the uprootedness of military conquest, of Jewish refugees fleeing Europe. But she also acknowledged other forces that were, by severing people's roots, destroying community. And she did so with such insight that Albert Camus pronounced it "impossible to imagine the rebirth of Europe without taking into consideration the suggestions outlined in it by Simone Weil."
Her main theme was the spirituality of work; the need for a worker to feel part of the larger picture, respected and appreciated. We spend most of our lives working, yet this form of rootedness did not even occur to me a moment ago, when I rattled off all those ways we find a sense of belonging. It seems I have swallowed, whole, the assumptions of a gig economy, everybody a free agent, self-branded, constantly negotiating and retooling, unable to expect an employer to look out for one's interests.
Yet working, whether we are paid or loved instead, is how we belong, how we take root in a place. It is our work, Weil insisted—not our cherished slogan T-shirts, our genes, or our various fees for membership—that gives us a deep, living connection to our environment. "A human being has roots by virtue of his real, active and natural participation in the life of a community," she wrote. That participation must be honored, she said: It preserves traditions from the past, and it shapes the future collectively.
That bit about tradition is where she left herself open. Now The Need for Roots has been adopted by French conservatives who urge a fierce, xenophobic nationalism. Drawn by her emphasis on the need for order and a shared culture, they wave her phrases about—yet might faint if they realized her intent. She believed in the need to share resources, not pride. "Money destroys human roots wherever it is able to penetrate," she writes, "by turning desire for gain into the sole motive. It easily manages to outweigh all other motives, because the effort it demands of the mind is so very much less. Nothing is so clear and so simple as a row of figures."
Greed is easy, and Weil never took the easy way. T.S. Eliot wrote, in his preface to the book, that she had "a kind of genius akin to that of the saints." They, too, make me uncomfortable, with all their ascetic virtue. I would rather be a selfish, sturdy geranium, comfortably anchored in my flowerpot.
In 1943, overcome by the suffering of Jews and the Nazi occupation of France, Weil stopped eating, and eventually her heart stopped. She died at thirty-three. Scanning the whole of her intense life, full of illness, deliberate struggle, and empathetic suffering, it is hard not to recoil. If I look with the unguarded compassion she would have felt for someone in similar pain, I will crumple. It is easier for me, a geranium, to think of her as an angel, an otherworldly being sent as a messenger, possessed of pure wisdom but not quite meant for this earth. She chose to let her body go untended while her soul burned.
In the end, it seems, she had no need for the deep roots meant to hold the rest of us in place; the filaments that, like Weil herself, look implausibly fragile, yet must be able to suck sustenance from clods of earth. In her maddening blend of sensitivity, love, and neuroticism, she belonged to something larger and more ethereal than a particular place, family, or club. Rooted only in principle, she found life unsustainable, her shoulders too narrow to bear, alone, such care. Even her wisdom weighed heavy, I imagine, because so few were listening.
De Gaulle barely skimmed what she wrote for him.
The Need for Roots is now called prescient.


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USA Full Year 2015: 15 year-old annual record eclipsed: 17,470,659 units
The Ford F-Series is at a 9-year high 780.354 sales. Picture caranddriver.com
* See the Top 15 groups, Top 40 brands and Top 297 models by clicking on the title *
* Check out over 100 years worth of U.S. Data archives here *
Never before had U.S. consumers purchased that many new light vehicles: thanks to sales up 6% year-on-year, 2015 breaks a 15 year-old annual volume record, lifting it from 17.402.486 (2000) to 17.470.659 this year. This marks the 6th straight year of growth after hitting a 27-year low of 10.4 million in 2009, a stretch that hadn't been achieved in 90 years (1921-1926). The record is 8 straight years of growth from 1909 to 1917, at the time the Ford Model T was the most popular model in the country and the world. Only August was in negative year-on-year, with the remaining 11 months in positive. The Seasonally Adjusted Annual sales Rate (SAAR) eclipsed 18 million three months in a row for the first time in history between September and November, peaking at 18.23 million in October. 2015 is the first year since 2001 that annual sales are above 17 million, and some analysts including myself predict 2016 will top 18 million, a 3% improvement.
Honda hits an all-time high 1.409.386 U.S. sales in 2015. Picture caranddriver.com
Sales will continue to be driven by low gasoline prices, pent-up demand, widespread credit availability and excellent consumer morale linked to low jobless rates and a dynamic stock market. A fascinating structural mutation of the U.S. car market, leasing accounts for a record 29% of all new U.S. retail sales in 2015 according to Edmunds, to be compared with 27% in 2014 and 16% ten years ago. The growth of leasing goes a long way in explaining the current dynamism of the U.S. light vehicle market, making a car purchase seem less daunting and more accessible despite the spike in average new vehicle transaction price to $33.188 in 2015, up 2.5% from $32.386 in 2014 (Source: Edmunds).
GM's full-size pickups outsell the Ford F-Series for the first time since 2009. Picture motortrend.com
Segment-wise, the analysis of the U.S. market is as simple as it is striking and in line with most worldwide markets: Light trucks (Pickups, SUVs and crossovers) are the one and only force driving sales with a 13% increase in 2015 to 9.73m deliveries while cars are actually down 2% to 7.74m. Crossovers up 18.5% to 4.55m, Pickups are up 10% to 2.54m and SUVs up 11% to 1.71m. Small cars (3.08m) and midsize cars (3.52m) are both down 2% while luxury cars (1.14m) are down 4%. Group-wise, at 7.93m sales the Detroit Three hold 45.4% of the U.S. light vehicle market in 2015 like in 2014 while the Japan Three (Toyota, Nissan, Honda) add up to 31.9% at 5.57m sales, a slight share decrease on 2014 (32.1%). These six groups account for a staggering 77.3% of all U.S. sales in 2015 (13.5m). GM (3.08m) distances Ford Motor (2.6m) and Toyota Motor (2.5m) but in terms of year-on-year gains FCA and Nissan Motor fare the best at +7%.
The Rogue (+44%) pushes Nissan to a new annual record. Picture carwall.net
No less than 14 brands set U.S. annual sales records in 2015. Below the three traditional leaders Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota all up 5%, Honda hits an all-time high 1.409.386 deliveries (+3%) thanks to strong performances by the CR-V – the best-selling SUV in the country, a redesigned Civic, the Pilot (+25%) and the arrival of the HR-V (41.969 incremental sales). Nissan also breaks its record with deliveries up 6% to 1.351.420, helped by stellar performances by the Rogue (+44%), Murano (+33%) and Sentra (+11%) making up for disappointing showings by the Altima (-1%), Maxima (-20%), Juke (-29%) and Leaf (-43%).
Jeep posts another record year at 865.028 sales. Picture motortrend.com
The most impressive performer in 2015 is undoubtedly Jeep: with sales up 25% on its 2014 record of 692.348 to a splendid 865.028. If last year's sales were achieved with minimal incentives, this year is slightly different for Jeep as FCA shifted its incentive focus from Chrysler (and notably the Chrysler 200) to the SUV brand at the end of the year. A little more artificial, a little less authentic: that's how I would describe Jeep's 2015 record, albeit very impressive. Jeep places the Cherokee (+23%), Wrangler (+16%) and Grand Cherokee (+7%) in the Top 25 while the Patriot (#42) should be joined in the Top 50 next year by the all-new Renegade, best new entrant in the U.S. market in 2015 at #85 (60.946 sales). The symbolic 1 million annual units is in the line of fire for Jeep in 2016 with an all-time high December (89.654) pointing in that direction.
Subaru ends 2015 just below 600.000 U.S. sales and sets a new record.
Knocked down to #7 overall by Jeep, Hyundai nevertheless posts an all-time record year at 761.710 deliveries (+4%) as does sister brand Kia at #8 and 625.818 units (+8%). Subaru is up an outlandish 13% to a best-ever 582.675 sales, with its entire range delivering solid increases: the Forester (+10%), Outback (+10%), Impreza (+20%) and XV Crosstrek (+25%) are all markedly above their 2014 levels. In 10th place, GMC is up 11% to almost return to its 2004 glory at 558.697 sales vs. 581.684 and kicks Dodge (-10%) out of the Top 10. At 493.807 deliveries, Ram also breaks its volume record in 2015 as it has been the case each year since its 2009 spin-off from Dodge. However the brand which would become Ram actually sold more vehicles in 2005 than it did this year.
BMW remains the #1 luxury brand in the U.S. in 2015. Picture caranddriver.com
The luxury segment is another strong driving force behind the record U.S. market this year, with sales up 8% to top 2 million for the first time ever. All luxury brands except Jaguar (-8% but the XE will reverse the trend in 2016) experienced growth in 2015 and most also set annual records. The race for the 2015 luxury crown was very heated, with BMW finishing #1 for the second straight year and the 4th time in the past 5 years thanks to record sales up 2% to 346.023. A record December rallied Lexus up to 2nd place and an all-time high 344.601 (+11%) with Mercedes not far behind at 343.088 excluding Sprinter variants, also a record. After 11 consecutive years of Lexus reign between 2000 and 2011, BMW won the luxury crown in 2011, 2012 and 2014, while Mercedes snapped it in 2013. Audi, topping 200.000 units for the first time at 202.202 (+11%), Land Rover (+37%), Porsche (+10%) and Tesla (+50%) also set annual records.
The last time the Ford F-Series was not the #1 vehicle in the U.S. (in 1981), it looked like this.
The 3 best-selling models in the U.S. are all pickup trucks for the 2nd year running and only the third time in the past two decades along with 2003 and 2014. Boosted by the new aluminium F-150, the Ford F-Series remains the best-selling vehicle in the county for the 34th consecutive year (no interruption since 1982) with sales back up 4% to 780.354, the nameplate's highest annual score since 2006 (796.039). The F-Series has now been the best-selling pickup truck in the U.S. for 39 years in a row since 1977. Chevrolet took advantage of a wobbly F-150 generational transition early in the year by lifting incentives on the Silverado up 13% to 600.544. With the GMC Sierra up 6% to 224.139, GM's line of full-size pickups outsells the Ford F-Series for the first time since 2009.
Best-selling car in the U.S. for 14 consecutive years: the Toyota Camry.
The Toyota Camry remains America's favourite car for the 14th year in a row and for the 18th time in the past 19 years with stable sales (429.355). It distances the Toyota Corolla (+7%) while the Honda Accord drops one spot and 8% and the Honda Civic (+3%) overtakes the Nissan Altima (-1%). The #1 car in the U.S. has consistently been a Japanese nameplate for almost two decades now, ever since the Ford Taurus sold 401.049 units in 1996. Hopes to reverse this trend are getting leaner as years come by, with both the Ford Fusion (-2% to #12) and Chevrolet Cruze (-17% to #16) actually losing ground year-on-year, while the Chrysler 200 (+52%) is now incentive-less and will fall flat in 2016.
Previous post: USA December 2015: Jeep shoots up 42% in market up 9%
Previous year: USA Full Year 2014: Podium 100% pickup trucks for the first time in 11 years
Two years ago: USA Full Year 2013: Ford F-Series at its best since 2006
Full Year 2015 Top 15 groups, Top 40 brands and Top 297 models vs. Full Year 2014 figures.
USA January 2016: SAAR up to 17.55m units despite snowstorms
The Honda Civic is up 43% to 5th overall in January. Picture caranddriver.com * See…
USA 1977: Chevrolet Impala/Caprice takes the lead, Ford F-Series now best-selling truck
Chevrolet Impala/Caprice * Click on the title for the Top 10 best-selling models - Thanks to Adam…
USA November 2019: Honda (+12.2%), Kia (+12%), Mercedes (+13.3%) and record incentives help market edge up 1%
Honda US light truck sales shoot up 18% year-on-year in November. After two straight months…
next post: USA January 2016: SAAR up to 17.55m units despite snowstorms


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Open Cambridge: Events for free 10-day festival coming to Cambridge this September
A wide range of events have already been announced
Paige IngramMultimedia Journalist
Madingley Hall is tipped to host a food-themed event for the Open Festival this year (Image: Cambridge News)
Stay up to date with all the latest news, features and reviews of all things food, drink, and entertainment with our weekly What's On email
One of Cambridge's most popular free festivals returns to the city next month.
Open Cambridge, which usually runs for three days, will be running for 10 days this year - and there's a wide range of events on the schedule.
This year's food-themed programme, focusing on the past and present, incorporates a series of 65 free walks, talks, tours and online events.
Read more: Number of state school pupils at Cambs University to reach record high this year
Here's what you can expect from the festival:
Events tipped to be favourites among visitors include a look at the food the Americans brought to Cambridge during the Second World War and a talk that reveals what food provisions are needed when crossing Antarctica.
Visitors will have the chance to go on a behind-the-scenes tour of Cambridge University Farm, which was originally established in 1900.
The farm includes a herd of pedigree Holstein Friesian cows and a flock of North Country Mule ewes, along with an anaerobic digester producing electricity from slurry produced by the dairy cows.
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Visitors can see the animals, machinery and anaerobic digester plant on a tour led by the farm's staff and learn how the farm aims to manage livestock operations in ways that demonstrate animal welfare, and farm in a sustainable manner, including maintaining and enhancing the conservation value of the farm.
History buffs can enjoy several events that focus on the city's culinary past, including What Did The Americans Bring To The Table In WWII? which will explore Americans bringing their food and culture to these shores.
During a 50-minute walking tour of the hallowed grounds where the young men and women of the "friendly invasion" are commemorated, visitors can learn about their stories and the "forbidden fruits" they brought with them.
Further history-focussed events include the Feasting Histories Hunt: Discover the rich culture of feasting in the city of Cambridge. From collegial dinners in medieval Halls, to Queen Victoria's Coronation Feast in a park, this event takes visitors on a virtual tour to selected places strongly associated with feasting.
Short videos are available on demand to any mobile device, revealing stories full of exciting spaces, objects, foods and people.
The event is part of the national Heritage Open Days scheme, which is designed to offer special access to places that are normally closed to the public or charge admission.
Open Cambridge manager Sue Long said: "We're delighted and excited by the extent to which both town and gown have come together and run with this year's theme, creating some truly excellent, imaginative events.
"I urge people to browse the programme when it comes out on August 16, as there is sure to be something that grabs their attention and it's all completely free."
When is the festival taking place and do I need to book?
Open Cambridge 2021 will take place from September 10 to September 19.
The full programme is available tomorrow (Monday, Augus 16). Bookings open on the same day.
For further information, or to browse the programme and book events, visit the website www.opencambridge.cam.ac.uk/.
Want the latest Cambridgeshire news direct to your inbox? Sign up here.
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(Photo by Rivka Katvan)
Critic's Notebook January 28, 2022 Gabrielle Hoyt Leave a comment
Kaddish for Steve: On the Jewishness of Sondheim
Sondheim's work is elusive, ambivalent, internally conflicted, and deeply concerned with how stories are told. What could be more Jewish?
By Gabrielle Hoyt
Growing up, I insisted we call him "Songheim." I thought that was his name, a moniker fit for his vocation. And I thought he was mine. Part of my family. Musical, like us. Language-obsessed, like us. Neurotic, like us. Jewish, like us.
I don't remember learning about Stephen Sondheim's Judaism, just as I don't remember first hearing his songs. He was just always there—and he's never left me since, even at times when I very nearly left Judaism. From age 18 to 28, in fact, I refused to enter a synagogue. When I finally returned this past year for the High Holidays, I couldn't remember the words or the tunes. My emotional link to the ritual felt like a bad radio signal, staticky, unpredictable, fading in and out. Afterward I had to admit that the music of my people didn't live on in me. Not like Sondheim's does, anyway. Still, following his death, reading tweets and tributes that ended with, "May his memory be a blessing," I felt a twinge of kinship. A feeling of connection. A sense that Sondheim's Judaism, however ambivalently held, mattered.
But as often proves the case with this artist—famously elusive on so many topics—an unambiguous connection between Sondheim and Judaism struggles to find its footing. Jewishness haunts his canon, yet rarely manifests directly. Quick-talking, bespectacled Charles Kringas of Merrily We Roll Along, first played by Lonny Price, has to be Jewish…right? How about the worrywart Baker of Into the Woods, indelibly linked through the PBS broadcast with Chip Zien? Bobby in Company displays the neurosis of a Jew but not the heritage. Judaism shows up in that quintessentially New York play twice, though, once when cold-footed bride Amy exclaims that she's marrying her "very own Jew" and once when the Jew in question, Paul, calls Bobby "bubi."
Dean Jones, Steve Elmore and Beth Howland in the original Broadway production of "Company."
As an explicitly Jewish character, Paul occupies a lonely spot in the Sondheim corpus. Contrast this paucity, however, with his wealth of Jewish collaborators: Zien and Price, but also Mandy Patinkin, Leonard Bernstein, Hal Prince, James Lapine, and John Weidman. In fact, closely examine some of Sondheim's favorite anecdotes, and you'll find that many of them feature an all-Jewish cast. He loved, for instance, to tell and retell how he ended the first draft of Gypsy's show-stopping "Rose's Turn" with a series of discordant harmonics illustrative of the nervous breakdown the character has just experienced. Out-of-town tryout audiences hated it, and it nearly ruined the show. Only the combined arguments of Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne, and Sondheim's mentor Oscar Hammerstein II eventually prevailed on him to change the music, yielding to the triumphant, blaring chords that now end the song.
That is not a Jewish story—except, of course, that it is. From its squabbling chorus of fractious Jewish men ("creative overlapping," it's euphemistically called today); to Mama Rose in her tragic, overbearing glory (herself haunted by the specter of Sondheim's legendarily difficult Jewish mother); to the obsessive relitigation of an argument over and over, long after it has reached its conclusion. All summon for me what Judaic Studies scholar Daniel Boyarin playfully terms "Jewissance" (riffing off of Lacan's jouissance): the pleasure of feeling connected to a heritage that goes back millennia, to people you have never met. A Jewy-ness that cultural theorists in the 1990s would call an "affect" and that I, a millennial born in the 1990s, refer to as a "vibe."
It's that initial impulse not to finish "Rose's Turn" that helps elucidate a still deeper connection between Sondheim and Judaism. In this line of thought I'm indebted to writer Dara Horn, who articulated in her most recent book, People Love Dead Jews, the Jewish sense of ending. In Horn's conception, Jewish narratives do not culminate in satisfying finales. This pattern goes all the way back: Unlike the Christian ur-narrative of resurrection and redemption, the Torah ends without resolution. Instead, Moses dies while the Israelites continue to strive for the Promised Land—and when they finish reading this story, millennia of Jews have turned back to its start and begun to read again. The Talmud reifies this tradition of rereading, codifying centuries' worth of rabbinic arguments over the edicts, phrases, and individual words that make up Jewish law. Together, the Torah and the Talmud teach that narratives never really end. That debate can rage eternally. And that the past lives with us, every day. Horn argues that many works by Jewish artists adhere to these traditions, rendering them difficult to analyze through conventional critical tools, easily misunderstood as unsatisfying and unfinished.
This question of keeping a story alive, of passing it down to those who come after, is a central preoccupation of Judaism. The Passover Seder embodies this goal most actively, calling on participants to worship "as though you yourself came out of Egypt." Such an impulse shines through the ending of Into the Woods, which depicts a newly widowed Baker holding his child while the ghost of his wife urges, "Tell him the story of how it all happened. Be father and mother, you'll know what to do." Though the musical ends with the dulcet "Children Will Listen," it emphasizes that parents will not always know what to say; and that the tales they tell may have tragic endings. As with many Sondheim works, Into the Woods achieves this power by troubling its own structure. Like Sunday, the work encompasses a pristine, satisfying first act, and a famously messy second. While Act One of Sondheim's so-called sellout musical ties up its interlocking narrative with a neat bow, its Act Two unravels them, transforming the fairy tale adaptation into an exploration of generational trauma, cataclysm, and the sustaining power of narrative. Although "father, like son" will continue to make "one another's terrible mistakes," a community rallying to tell the same story will be enough, must be enough, to ensure its own survival. Jewissance, after all.
So, like the famous and beloved flop Merrily We Roll Along, my attempt to understand Stephen Sondheim's Judaism begins in his endings. Many have divided critics and audiences since their first stagings, but perhaps none more so than Act Two of Sunday in the Park with George. The debate rages to this day: In his recent remembrance of the composer, Adam Gopnik called Sunday's first act "the single best thing in musical theatre" and the second act "almost unsalvageable." I can't agree. Sunday's Act One concludes as Georges Seurat unveils his pointillist masterpiece. Act Two ends on a blank stage while the painter's great-grandson, George, intones, "White. A blank page or canvas." A direct quote from the opening lines of the play. Almost. For while Seurat speaks the musical's first words—"White. A blank page or canvas"—George now reads them from a grammar book marked up by his great-grandmother Dot, Seurat's mistress. The next line from James Lapine's script, the final line of Sunday, makes clear the significance of this shift. In Act One, Seurat continues, "The challenge: bring order to the whole." But the modern George reads, "His favorite. So many possibilities…" George has not inherited a clear or uncomplicated legacy. Instead, he now engages in direct conversation with a remembered past captured in language. A past that has already changed based on who has passed it on and how they have interpreted it. The intergenerational conversation, what Tony Kushner in Angels in America called the characteristically Jewish "chamber of circumspection," is the point.
Sweeney Todd explores the line between vengeance and justice. Company questions the boundaries of community and concludes with the notion that "Being Alive" is enough ("More life," as Kushner blesses us in Angels). Even the weirder musicals fit this pattern: Anyone Can Whistle depicts the isolation of the prophet, the tetchy anguish of the lone truth teller. Road Show ends in limbo, its now-dead conman characters seeing in "the road to eternity" a "road to opportunity"—a chance, at last "to get it right." It's one of the most thoroughly Jewish conceptions of the afterlife I've ever found.
Sondheim's famous relationship to allusion, the way he could be endlessly referential without sliding into deferential, summons up the Talmudic traditions of study and debate. In her review of Look, I Made a Hat (the second volume of Sondheim's unconventional memoir; the first was called Finishing the Hat), Entertainment Weekly critic Lisa Schwarzbaum called the work "Talmudically thorough." She was referring to the famously granular nature of the older text, and the comparison is apt. Finishing the Hat presents itself as "Collected Lyrics with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines, and Anecdotes." Look, I Made a Hat revises this subtitle, promising "Collected Lyrics with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes, and Miscellany." In the pages of both volumes, Sondheim cites, analyzes, and argues with his own influences, from Gilbert & Sullivan to Cole Porter to Noël Coward to Bernstein to Hammerstein; he ventures into the future, too, with references to Jonathan Larson, Craig Carnelia, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. One forms the image of a convocation of composers bickering in Sondheim's mind, not unlike the associations called up by the Talmud. In fact, the memoir's very form, a lyric book surrounded by annotations (many of which have their own extensive footnotes), mirrors the Talmud, flanking a central text with its many contradictory interpretations.
Here I must acknowledge that I've never read a word of the Talmud. I have no desire to swamp myself within that particular intratextual quagmire, and my only knowledge of its study comes from the Chaim Potok YA classic The Chosen. I have, however, studied the two volumes of Stephen Sondheim's memoir. It's an exhaustive, even exhausting text. When he analyzes the climactic "Move On" from Sunday, the composer-lyricist jumps from his own lyrics to French poetry to a discussion of creative abandonment to an explication of musical form. The meat of the annotation—with Sondheim's handwritten score to its left and a picture of Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin underneath—agonizes over the adverb in the stanza: "Stop worrying if your vision/ Is new/ Let others make that decision/ They usually do." Painstakingly, Sondheim weighs the pros and cons of the linguistically correct choice ("eventually") with the demands of his meter (which requires one fewer syllable). Though "usually" ultimately triumphs, he considers it "imprecise, both sonically and tonally." Fans of the song (which is to say, most readers) reckon with a choice: Revise one's own opinion of the gorgeous lyric or disagree with one's hero. Either way, the clarity of "Move On" grows more complex, the future pleasure of listening enriched by the present experience of reading. The intergenerational debate continues.
Influential theatre studies scholar David Savran warns of musical theatre's "seduction." He considers the genre "single-mindedly devoted to producing pleasure" and critiques the mindless devotion it can engender. Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat offer a rebuttal to this view. You cannot read these books without engaging Sondheim's intellect, delving into his own creative struggles, or reexamining his work. Exactingly focused and yet intentionally discursive, this text enforces a type of scholarship. It encourages thinking and rethinking, debate, critique. It defies linear reading and in fact demands re-reading. Jewissance again.
Rabbi, in Hebrew, means teacher or scholar. I think Sondheim might hate it if I called him a rabbi. But, in the wake of his death, hundreds came forward to describe how Stephen Sondheim taught them. Not just the great musical theatre writers and playwrights (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Lynn Nottage) whose careers he furthered, but those to whom he sent typewritten notes of gratitude and praise (now memorialized on the Instagram account Sondheim Letters). The hundreds of students whose master classes and performances he attended, offering solicitous feedback. People who never met him but who pored over his books, soaking up his thoughts on structure, form, and content. People like Michael Schulman, who wrote in The New Yorker that Sondheim "taught me to be a person."
People like me, who still do not know how to be Jews and people and artists all at the same time, but who continue to learn. Just like he taught us.
Gabrielle Hoyt (she/her) is a dramaturg, writer, and director. She is pursuing her MFA at Yale. @gabhoyt
Jewish themesShowcaseSondheimStephen Sondheim
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publicity secretary
Politics APC Sacks Publicity Secretary
Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has sacked its state Publicity Secretary, Godwin Erhahon. Erhahon had been on suspension for over three months. His removal followed a vote of no confidence by the state executive committee of the party. The committee, consequently...
Metro Northern CAN Releases Statement Over Ejection of Igbos
The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in the 19 Northern States and Abuja, has condemned the recent eviction order issued by a group of Northern youths to the Igbos to leave the north within three months. In a statement issued to newsmen on Wednesday by its Publicity Secretary, Rev. Joseph...
Politics Three Jostle To Replace Lai Mohammed As APC National Publicity Secretary
Three chieftains of the All Progressives Congress are poised to replace the outgoing National Publicity Secretary of the party, Lai Mohammed. Among the aspirants jostling to serve as the mouthpiece of the ruling party are Sola Lawal who is the current publicity secretary of the Ogun state...


This is a PowerPoint presentation in songbook form for ukulele. There are chord charts for each chord as well as practice pages with different strumming styles. There is a page for learning the anatomy of the instrument so students can learn the different parts of the instrument.
Each song has two versions- one with sheet music and one with lyrics only. Some songs are listed twice for the purpose of using with a different chord structure.
Stay tuned! More songs will be added in the future.


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Turbulence in Emerging Markets But Beauty Will Prevail
Markets & Trends > Regions > BRIC
April 28, 2014 Contact Author	Rob Walker, Euromonitor International
Rejuvenation through senolytics: Clearing zombie-cells in the skin — Mibelle AG Biochemistry
CleanScreen™: non-whitening mineral UV dispersions for anti-aging, high performance skin care and color cosmetics — Aprinnova, LLC
Most Popular in BRIC
1Mary Kay Expands in India
2The Body Shop Gets Closer to Mass Market in India
3TCM in Skin Whitening and Lightening: The Eternal Pursuit in East Asia
4P&G's Gillette Sees Steady Growth in India
5[video] Cosmetics R&D Vlog: Market Recovery and Opportunities in Brazilian Beauty
6Unilever Brands Among Most Recognized in Brazil
7Luxury Buying Behaviors, Brand Perceptions Analyzed by Euromonitor
8Beauty Industry Wakeup Call on Emerging Markets
9The State of the Industry
10India's Cosmetic Market Ready for Big Leap
Growth in China's beauty and personal care market dropped below 9% last year (at fixed U.S. dollar values), its weakest performance in two decades.
In Brazil and India, middle-class consumers have been trading down across beauty and personal care categories.
Spending on beauty and personal care in the emerging markets was expected to overtake spending in developed markets by 2016. Although the shift is expected to be delayed until 2018, emerging markets, overall, still present myriad opportunities for growth into the medium and long term, despite the trickier operating conditions.
Make no mistake about it. The emerging economies are going through a painful structural readjustment, and, as a result, the emerging middle class (a key engine of growth for the beauty and personal care industry over the last decade) is losing some of its swagger. Softening economies, rising food prices, lackluster job creation, mounting consumer debt, currency depreciation, declining foreign investment... The headwinds are growing stronger by the month. Inevitably, there will be downside implications for global beauty and personal care brands, but how bad will things get?
Exit From China
For Revlon and L'Oréal's Garnier, things are already bad enough to warrant pulling the plug on China. Few would have predicted that outcome at the start of 2013. The combined pressures of a cooling economy and more aggressive competition from homespun and South Korean brands in the mass market, such as Herborist and Innoherb, have proved too much.
Revlon and L'Oréal are not alone in finding the going tough. All the big multinationals are getting squeezed in China, including market leader Procter & Gamble, which has lost share. Tellingly, newly released data from Euromonitor International shows growth in China's beauty and personal care market dropped below 9% last year (at fixed U.S. dollar values), its weakest performance in two decades.
Better news from China is the relaxation of family planning laws, which will have a positive knock-on effect for baby- and child-specific beauty and personal care over the next five years. Furthermore, in the longer term, the country's gender imbalance could start to stabilize, triggering potentially big increases in demand for women's makeup, hair care and fragrances.
Trading Down in Brazil, India
Market conditions are tougher still in Brazil and India. In both cases, middle-class consumers have been trading down across a raft of beauty and personal care categories. In Brazil, low-cost cash-and-carry stores—known as atacarejos (a hybrid retail-wholesale channel)—are at the forefront of a sharp rise in bulk buying, especially in the northeast region and interior of the São Paulo state. These outlets are ramping up competition in the mass market while dampening demand for mid-range and premium brands.
In India, lower-income rural consumers are buying fewer razors, deodorants and shampoo sachets than they were in 2013. It is a big deal because rural India accounts for more than two-thirds of the population. Households here represent a major pipeline of growth for Hindustan Unilever and Gillette India, with their shampoo sachets and low-cost disposable razors, respectively.
The negative tilt in market conditions in India has taken the industry by surprise. Only last year, Unilever paid €2.5 billion to increase its stake in Indian subsidiary Hindustan Unilever from 52.5% to 67.5% (a price that valued the company at 36 times forecast earnings). That level of bullish investment was a measure of Unilever's long-term confidence in India, where as many as one million young adults are entering the job market every month. The problem is that this huge influx of young people into the job market, theoretically an asset, could turn into a liability if too few jobs become available.
Global Power Shift Delayed
According to the latest forecasts from Euromonitor International, spending on beauty and personal care in the emerging markets will be higher than in the developed markets by 2018. A year ago, this power shift had been expected to take place in 2016, but the choppier economic waters (triggered by a confluence of events—the U.S. Federal Reserve's tapering of quantitative easing, notably) have held things back. The key point, however, is that emerging markets, overall, still present myriad opportunities for growth into the medium and long term, despite the trickier operating conditions.
There were also some strong individual emerging market performances last year. For example, sales of beauty and personal care in Indonesia climbed 16%, fueled by a booming middle class in secondary cities such as Balikpapan, Makasassar and Medan. The Indonesian economy has been weakened by lower commodity prices and weaker export demand from China, but its new middle class is proving resilient.
Getting the Strategy Right
Across the emerging markets, the big challenge is in adapting planning strategy to the changing climate and in tailoring products and marketing to the specific profile of consumers. L'Oréal's Garnier and Revlon failed in China because their strategies for growth were flawed from the outset, and that made them highly exposed when market conditions changed for the worse.
In particular, Garnier and Revlon were out of tune with local beauty care issues. Penetration in China's secondary cities also was poor. Revlon, for example, was present in 50 cities when it needed to be in three times that number to maximize its opportunities. These are important lessons for global brands as they look to overcome new challenges in China.
What seems clear, however, is that the emerging middle class in Brazil and elsewhere will look to spend more prudently than in recent years—and that means brand owners will have to be clever in their segmentation strategies and innovative in distribution, marketing and production.
Innovation More Important Than Ever
For brand owners thinking of scaling back their emerging market footprint, it is important to keep in mind that the millions of consumers who have been dragged from the margins of poverty into the middle classes are not about to stop buying beauty and personal care products altogether. In Brazil, especially, beauty is as ingrained in consumer culture as samba and soccer—this is visible in low-income and high-income neighborhoods.
While consumers in emerging markets look to spend more prudently, developing unique, engaging products will be paramount. Innovation has always been key to competitive differentiation in the emerging markets, but it has never been more important than it is now.
The planned partnership between Avon and Coty in Brazil is a good example of brands leveraging their strengths to beef up participation in difficult conditions. On the one side, Coty's premium brands will have a huge new distribution footprint in a market where door-to-door selling is big business. On the other, Avon's army of direct sellers will feel empowered with a broader range of products—and price points—for their customers.
From an investment perspective, the emerging markets have always been a long play. Indeed, anyone who thought emerging markets were safe havens of growth was destined to get a nasty wake up call. The growth rates we have seen in the last decade were not sustainable, but that does not mean growth has run its course. Far from it, the emerging markets will weather the current period of structural shifts, and brand owners that also weather them will be stronger as a result.
There are plenty of twists and turns ahead, of course. But the emerging markets overall still present myriad opportunities for product development into the medium and long term. The big difference from the past decade, perhaps, is that brand owners will have to chase down growth rather than have it handed to them on a plate.
Rob Walker, senior fast-moving consumer goods analyst, Euromonitor International, can be contacted at rob.walker@research7.euromonitor.com.
This article	appeared in the May 2014 issue. Find more on this topic in the digital magazine.
[video] Cosmetics R&D Vlog: Market Recovery and Opportunities in Brazilian Beauty
11/24/2020, Rachel Grabenhofer with Gueisa Silverio, Beautycare Brazil


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Roots Manuva – Bleeds
(Big Dada) UK release date: 30 October 2015
by Ben Hogwood
published: 4 Nov 2015 in Album Reviews
If you could choose a musical figure to represent Britain today, who would it be?
The opening and closing ceremonies from London 2012 gave us a clue about what a people's choice might be, with prominent roles for David Bowie, Underworld and, er, Mr Bean. No doubt more might go for Paul McCartney, Damon Albarn, or The Kinks maybe. Yet it is doubtful any of these identify with the issues Britain faces right now more pertinently or emotionally than Roots Manuva.
The man known to his mother as Rodney Smith has done his time in the North (Sheffield) and South (Stockwell), giving him geographical credence. In that time he has made five albums, at least three of which are very fine indeed. But concern was growing that he might have peaked creatively. Bleeds refutes that notion emphatically, within a minute of the start.
Hard Bastards is a brave track with which to open, but Roots Manuva is not one to fanny about, and wastes no time getting to the point in his appraisal of society today. "Granddad never worked, daddy never worked, three generations don't give a shit about work", he rails. Having done this we stay firmly in the darkness of the same minor key for the striking sonorities of Crying, a post-dubstep number where a baby in slight distress becomes part of the percussion, a darkly rendered urban picture. This is the first song to feature the new production team headed by Switch, who make a significant contribution to this album.
Fans of Manuva will know that his best work combines this darker approach with wry humour and moments of pure sunlight, where the rapper's smiling features almost appear in the room with you. Don't Breathe Out illustrates this, set against a breezy loop of strings, and although Sylas' vocals are incredibly similar in timbre to Bon Iver's Justin Martin, they leave an equally strong emotional footprint.
There are newer sounds too. Cargo is thoroughly intriguing, its opening piano arpeggios sounding like a snippet from an alt-J song, alarmingly put in perspective by Manuva's husky dark whisper. Facety 2:11 is a brilliant, jumpy collaboration with Four Tet that sounds like nothing else around with its word play.
Thankfully even the darkest moments are on occasion laced with comedy, and the manipulated vocal of Me Up! has a twisted but pretty funny outlook, as does the hollow ring of Stepping Hard, Manuva clearly struggling with life but still looking upwards and outwards ("stand back and await the abundance come"). Both tracks demonstrate what a versatile instrument he has at his disposal.
The centre of the record, emotionally and musically, is Know Your Face, violas and cellos back in lush effect to power a contemplation of the world as we see it today, before a monster beat – the biggest on the album – kicks these emphatically to the wall. It would be a devastating comedown at the end were it not for the consoling Fighting For, wrapping its arm around the listener with a little of the gospel that has been simmering beneath the surface.
In the press release for Bleeds, Smith says he called the album so because he is ready to bleed for his art. There is little doubt he has done that here, and that he holds this nation close to his heart – a heart so firmly on his sleeve we can see it there, beating. It's what makes him so important to British music today.
Roots Manuva MP3s or CDs
Roots Manuva on Spotify
More on Roots Manuva
Roots Manuva @ Roundhouse, London
Roots Manuva – 4everevolution
Roots Manuva – Alternately Deep
Interview: Roots Manuva


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