Dedicated to Yongzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche and Triten Norbutse Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Yongzin Lopön Tenzin Namkdak Rinpoche: Heart Essence of the Khandro. Experiental Instructions on Bönpo Dzogchen.
"Chöza Bönmo Song" is a piece of music based on the "Prayer to Khandro Chöza Bönmo" as I found it in the book "Heart Essence of the Khandro. Thirty Signs and Meanings from Women Lineage-Holders." by Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche (Triten Norbutse Monastery, 2012).
"Chöza Bönmo Song" consists in 7 repetitions of the "Prayer to Khandro Chöza Bönmo" that differ by their homophonic arrangement of the several voices and the interpretation of time given to every line of the prayer.
These repetitions are embedded in a sound environment which draw the inner and outer conditions Chöza Bönmo's transformation might have taken place in.
a bell which was given to me saying it was a tibetan ritual bell.
a souvenir-bell from a christian monastery.
a bell-like instrument in the shape of a heart.
All sounds, the "harmonic" as well as the "disharmonic" ones are either the original recordings of one of the instruments themselves or proceeded digitally (in Max MSP) from recordings of the four instruments and/or the voice.
The underlying harmonic principle of all derivated sounds is the equal division of the octave by 10, a harmonic principle which I found might have a certain healing effect to the listener.


text:
Ex-Homosexual Through Jesus Christ
Pas Le Même Amour (Facebook)
Toi et Moi pour Toujours
Bukan Cinta Sejenis (Facebook)
Kau dan Aku Selamanya
Transformed Life Community (TLC)
AmorePuro: Ministero Ex Gay
Facebook Amore Puro: Ministero Ex-Gay
They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Revelation 12:11
Divine Appointment in Queer Christmas
A month ago I attended a "queer Christmas" celebration with two of my friends in a chapel of a seminary school in Jakarta. This school has been spreading the false gospel that accepts and celebrates sin instead of transforming sinners into saints. We stayed all the way 'til the end of the event because we wanted to talk with some people there. By God's grace all the attendants were given the opportunity to introduce themselves which gave us the chance to speak what the Holy Spirit put in our heart.
International Ex-LGBT Gathering
I've been given the honor to participate in Dare to Change, an international Ex-LGBT conference in Taipei, Taiwan from 8-11 November 2018. More than 15 Ex-LGBT's from 15 different nations came to celebrate love and transformation through Jesus Christ. Not only we were given the chance to share publicly what God has done in our life but we were able to make new connections and encourage each other in this journey. I was extremely blessed by this initiative
A Leftist Atheist Lesbian University Professor Repented
The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn't hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that "knowing Jesus" meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark: to end it rather than deepen it.
Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That's what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus, who in paintings looked as powerful as a Breck Shampoo commercial model.
As a professor of English and women's studies, on the track to becoming a tenured radical, I cared about morality, justice, and compassion. Fervent for the worldviews of Freud, Hegel, Marx, and Darwin, I strove to stand with the disempowered. I valued morality. And I probably could have stomached Jesus and his band of warriors if it weren't for how other cultural forces buttressed the Christian Right. The surround sound of Christian dogma comingling with Republican politics demanded my attention.
A Lesbian Couple Repented!
It's funny that they still use our picture to represent same sex and "love". To be clear, Ana (Anacleta Paredes) and I broke up because we found something greater than this and that is Jesus Christ.
Just a little background - Ana and I dated for 6 years. Yes, we were in love but after a while, we started to feel empty. The relationship couldn't satisfy me anymore and I was always mad at her, blaming her for all the things I was feeling. Thinking we needed a spark, we tried to spice up our relationship by trying different drugs. Sure, we were happy when we were high, but after the high was gone, the emptiness was still left there. We both got depressed, and Ana even had EXTREME anxiety attacks because of the drugs. It reached the point when I wanted to kill myself. I knew I needed help and I didn't know who else to talk to--and that's when I reached out to Jesus. I didn't know what I was saying and "praying for" but the words just came out. I surrendered to Him fully and repented for all my sin.
From Lesbianism to Jesus Christ
I was deeply ingrained in the belief that I had been 'born that way and couldn't change' and because of this, I was ready to suicide. At the age of twenty eight I had reached a stalemate. If I couldn't reconnect in a real way with my God, then I could only see one alternative. The future alone and aging as a lesbian and an alcoholic looked bleak to me.
When I was twenty, I had given in to my orientation and tossed in my faith.For the first few years I was very comfortable with my identity as a lesbian and was very openly lesbian.
However, I was also aware that I had lost connection with a God who had at one stage been very close to me. Now it was as if I prayed inside a concrete tomb.
My Testimony, Ex-Stud, Ex-Homosexual
The summer of 2013 is when everything changed for me. I heard a voice tell me to look at a tree while I was washing dishes. I knew it wasn't anyone of my family because no one was around. The voice began to tell me that trees have been here since the beginning of time but we all know that a seed has to be planted for a tree to grow. If you ask a little kid how long a tree has been there, they would say forever when we know that isn't true. Homosexuality is the same way, a seed is planted in the child whether it's a generational curse, rape, molestation, teasing, abuse, fatherless home, etc. My "seed" was teasing. I knew I was never born gay, I just knew the feelings came sometime during elementary school. I got teased all the time at school for being small and not wearing nice clothes. It seemed like the only people who showed love were the women in my church. Because of that I began to have feelings for them and then started to have feelings for my friends and classmates. I started dressing like a guy my eighth grade year and got my first girl friend my tenth grade year. That's when I began to explore everything and embraced the lifestyle.
Testimony of an Ex-Lesbian and a Former Militant Gay Activist
"I didn't know how to handle attention from men and boys," recalls Charlene Cothran. "I was tall for my age and fully developed at nine-years-old."
Her parents divorced when she was three and the absence of a father left her hungry for affirmation from the opposite sex. "I wanted a guy to really like me." But when she discovered that most of the boys she met wanted one thing: user her, it turned her off.
"I decided no more of this," Charlene recounts. She then closed her heart to boys at 14 and fell into a trap in which lesbianism felt like a "safe alternative."
In doing so, she drifted from her Christian faith which was part of her upbringing. "I learned the Scripture; I learned about Christ and the cross and His redemptive power. I believed it." She had once been a youth leader in her church.
False Gospel
Pro-LGBT
Self Hatred
Straight Acting
Not The Same Love is a book about God's redeeming love over homosexuality
Pas Le Même Amour est un livre sur l'amour de Dieu qui nous libère de l'homosexualité
Bukan Cinta Sejenis adalah sebuah buku tentang cinta Tuhan yang membebaskan kita dari homoseks
Il Vero Amore è un libro sull'amore di Dio che ci libera dall'omosessualità

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


With a notorious surfer's community, Orange County makes the ideal host for the 2011 Nike US Open of Surfing, the biggest surfing competition in the world. The competition has reached its 12th edition and it's growing bigger with every year – for the 30th of July – 7th of July edition, organizers are expecting more than 500 000 spectators. If you don't want to miss this ongoing display of skill and adrenaline, head for Huntington Beach asap.
The Pageant of Masters competition, part of Orange County's Festival of Arts is very likely the most spectacular of all manifestations. The famous pageant evolves among a very ambitious and artsy plan: to reproduce works of art using real people and elaborate decors. The 'tableaux vivants' (living pictures) you can admire on stage are the result of a whole crew's work, including talented artists and hundreds of hours of trials (they're also accompanied by live music and live narrations).
Garage sales can be pretty fun to attend, but when over 150 homes open up their garages and invite you in, it's a clear symptom of bargain-hunting fever. Believe it or not, this extended garage sale is actually an annual event, and 2011 marked its 33rd edition. Sunwood is the name of a neighborhood in the city of El Toro – if you are planning to pay this very enterprising community a visit next year, you should know that the garage sale usually takes place at the end of July.


Have you noticed that top toques have adopted or been adopted by @SNCF (France's national state-owned railway company)? Eric Frechon at Gare Saint Lazare, Thierry Marx at Gare du Nord, Christian LeSquer coming soon to Rennes, Michel Roth in Metz, and Alain Ducasse at the Gare Montparnasse in 2019.
Recently Michel Rostang has refreshed the menu at arguably the most romantic of all the train station brasseries in the world, the Belle Epoque Le Train Bleu in the Gare de Lyon, showcasing Lyonnais and Mediterranean cuisine.
Gare de Lyon was built for the Paris exhibition of 1900, along with the glass-domed Grand Palais and Petit Palais off the Champs-Élysées. The Buffet de la Gare opened in 1901 and in 1963 became Le Train Bleu from the train that transported the rich, famous, you and I, to the Riviera.
Hemingway, Dali, Brigitte Bardot, Jean Cocteau, Coco Chanel and Jean Gabin were regulars. Immortalized in many films such as the 1972 Travels with My Aunt, based on the Graham Greene novel – from the restroom spy on the departing trains!
Le Menu du Voyageur (€49 + wine by the glass from €9-€21) can be served in 45 minutes. And, at lunch and dinner, Menu du Train Bleu is €110 with wine pairings.
A La Carte about €69 + wine. We loved game and foie gras pâté en croute with fig chutney. House (lightly) smoked salmon, beetroot and granny Smith tartar with horseradish cream. And regal, regional, roast lamb carved at the table from the shiny silver Christofle trolley with Michel Rostang's signature Gratin Dauphinoise. Fabulous desserts by Thierry Jolly – rum baba, house made citrus punch, Chantilly!
This chic bar-restaurant-terrace, located in the former Auteuil train station, is buzzing with "ze beautiful pipole" ordering Instagram-worthy pizzas and pastas, rum cocktail (and mocktails), while discussing their latest culinary journeys/the new Isabel Marant makeup (her)/ where to get the Porsche serviced (him). Average spend €44 + drinks.
With sparkling design by Laura Gonzalez, the brasserie extends over several airy spaces – the bucolic penthouse snugly heated in winter.
We loved Planche de 4 Pizzetas, truffled Burrata, Cæsar Salad d'Auteuil, Beef Tartare Profiteroles d'Auteuil, Café Gourmand and the "forget all your troubles, we're here to party" atmosphere.
78 rue d'Autheuil, 16th. Metro: Porte d'Autheuil – Bus no. 52 stops right outside! Tel: +33 (0)1 40 71 11 90. Open 7/7 from 9am-2am.
In a handsome Haussmannian mansion, opposite the neo-classical Church de la Madeleine (1842), Fauchon (on place Madeleine since 1886) recently launched the brand's first "gourmet" hotel with a Carita spa.
Following three years of digging and a hefty 35 – 40 M € of investment, there are 37 airy rooms and 17 suites designed by architect Richard Martinetin the signature Fauchon hot fuschia pink and black colors (from €650 – €3,000 per night). Note the unique in-room mini bars stocked with complimentary goodies and the availability of a private in-suite chef.
Guests have a private dining room and the Jardin des Thés for breakfast, tea time etc. and the concierge will arrange, say, Private Shopping Experiences and Private Cruises. "We want to spoil our clients with luxury bespoke Paris experiences," says Jérome Montantème, Fauchon's genial General Manager, happy to take guests on his daily early morning run – Tuileries Gardens, anyone?
Le Grand Café Fauchon is the main restaurant/terrace open from breakfast to dinner via an afterwork Glam'Hours for delicious food (organic tomatoes from La Bergerie de Rambouillet/Paté en croute Fauchon/Lemon meringue tart) and excellent French wines (Average €50 + wine).
Recently opened in the Art-Deco listed Mutualité building, the Italian trattoria by Ducasse Restaurants with GL Events is designed by architect and urban planner Jean-Michel Wilmotte, with a little help from Fréderic Grasser-Hermé, Luca Nichetto and Pierre Tachon.
What's in the open cucina? Simple dishes full of character, just like talented chef Matteo Lorenzini (formerly at Hotel de Paris, Monaco alongside Franck Cerutti).
Pizzette (Margherita, what else!), a selection of salumeria (coppa, tagliere di salumi), a wooden planche of charcuterie and cheese, antipasto (octopus potato, caponata, caprese). Mains of Escalope Milanese; risotto, girolles mushrooms; a comforting tangle of Bucatini pasta, pepper and grated cheese; Linguine alle vongole; Capellini all'aragosta (lobster); slow cooked manzo (beef cheeks) or oven baked orata (sea-bream) fennel and lemon confit. Stunning tableware and epic eating irons by Pininfarina pour Mepra.
Desserts include grand Italian classics like Tiramisu, Zuppa Inglese, Panna Cotta and chocolate ice cream from Manufacture d'Alain Ducasse.
Italian, French, Sicilian wines are by Alain Ducasse and Gérard Margéon, the charismatic "Mr Wine" of Ducasse's 18 Michelin star eateries.
So, take a seat on the very soft velvet banquettes, or at the bar with its cute knitted charcuterie by Yuki & Daughters, prepare to make NBFs (new best friends), and taste some of the best Italian in town.
The man from Martinique Jimmy Desrivières, formerly in the UK (so everyone speaks perfect English!) and at Georges Blanc, Vonnas, with Alain Reix at Le Jules Verne, Marc Marchand at Le Meurice, Vallon de Valrugues, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Helene Darroze, London and Paris etc.
Jimmy orchestrates a mouthwatering alliance of light neo-classical cuisine with subtle exotic Caribbean perfumes and spices. Diver scallops, lemon and lime; marinated mackerel, Granny Smith, cucumber; Catch of the day, coco de Paimpol, piment d'Espelette, curcuma and coquillages jus; Old comté cheese, cumin ice cream and Chocolate pistachio croustillant. Figaroscope predicts a Michelin star in January!
Lunch formula €29-€35. Dinner €45. A La Carte average €75 + wine by the glass from €5. Try the juicy Mâcon La Roche Vineuse 2015 Domaine Merlin €36.
Jean-François Piège and Maison Kamachi, the 400 year old master porcelain makers, showcase an exclusive new collection of tableware which will be used for the chef's grand menu "Mets Grands Vin" (705€ including wine) at Le Grand Restaurant from Monday 19th to Friday 23rd November.
Chef Antoine Westermann launches end-of-year festivities on November 22 with his multi-course Thanksgiving menu at Le Coq Rico, Montmartre, starring plump, stuffed, roasted, Ardenne turkey with chestnut fricassée, red cabbage, sweet potatoes. €75 + wine. Yum!
Tuesday, December 4, a hundred or chefs and their brigades organize 12 dinners in 12 French towns, including Paris. The proceeds of the dinners – €100 per person, including drinks – are donated to RDC – list of participating restaurants on www.lescollectionneurs.com.
what I picked off the menu was itty bitty. I spent about 24 euro and that included dessert. Maybe I didn't look at the right part of the menu. It was chicken, very small slice, about 2 tablespoons veg and about 2 tablespoons of some kind of potato. Very nice, but did I order from the wrong part of the menu? I could have eaten more.


text:
Title: Anarchism, Individualism and Max Stirner
Author: Anonymous
Topics: book review, egoism, EGO Journal, individualism, Max Stirner, Minus One Journal, review
Source: Retrieved 07/24/2022 from unionofegoists.com
Notes: Originally published in Minus One #38 (formerly EGO #1, before the publication title was reverted) in 1977. Article contains no byline or signature.
Anarchism, Individualism and Max Stirner
After a break of a few years the attack on the conscious egoism of Max Stirner has resumed. Now Mr. Roger P. Clark has written a book entitled "Max Stirner's Egoism" in which he argues as one who was "once quite sympathetic to individualism" but now has his head firmly stuck into the tarbucket of "social anarchism". The result is a dismissal of "metaphysical egoism" as a "groundless superstition".
I do not propose to deal here with the more abstruse philosophical objections that form a large part of Mr. Clark's indictment. To do this properly would need a reply almost as long as his book. For the time being, therefore, I will confine myself to certain of his views on the relationship of Max Stirner to anarchism and individualism.
Nonetheless, before doing so, it is worthwhile noting that Mr. Clark does not hesitate to resurrect a few hoary old philosophical chestnuts in making out his case. One of these is the "groundless" notion that Stirner, despite his explicit disavowals, conceived of his ego as an "Absolute" (Mr. Clark seeks to add impressiveness to his charge by describing it as "the mystic absolute"). And he rejects his fellow-critic R.W.K.Paterson's denial of this by claiming that "this is what Stirner does when he raises the ego to an independent reality contrary to its objective place in the course of nature". After such a piece of bafflegab, I am not in the least surprised that he can ascribe some "rational significance" to "traditional mysticism"....
Like Mr. Paterson, in his much profounder work "The Egoistic Nihilist: Max Stirner", Roger P. Clark claims that the conscious egoist must want everyone else to be supine and servile so that he can best take advantage of them. In doing so he ignores, amongst other things, Stirner's contention that "He who, to hold his own, must count on the absence of will in others is a thing made by these others, as the master is a thing made by the servant. If submissiveness ceased, it would be all over with lordship."
But why should the egoist not enjoy testing his strength against a worthy opponent or relish the company of shrewd and strong friends? It is really amazing how quick moralists are to fasten upon egoists a new categorical imperative: that they should live up to the Judeo-Christian conception of what an egoist ought to be! Stirner himself disposed of this particular puerility as follows:
"The egoist, before whom the humane shudder, is a spook as much as the devil is: he exists only as a bogie and phantasm in their brain. If they were not unsophisticatedly drifting back and forth in the antediluvian opposition of good and evil, to which they have given the modern names of 'human' and 'egoistic', they would not have freshened up the hoary "sinner" into an "egoist" either, and put a new patch on an old garment."
Mr. Clark acknowledges Stirner to be an anarchist, but thinks that his anarchism is of the most "inconsistent and contradictory type". This is because it appears that, while Stirner rejects domination over the individual by the State, he "still accepts the authoritarian consciousness". Mr. Clark identifies "authority" with any form of domination and so, when Stirner said that "might is right", he is immediately condemned as an authoritarian.
But authority is not the same as power, nor do all forms of domination rest on authority. Authoritative power dominate primarily by means of the allegiance it commands from those who believe in and support it. Authority is therefore legitimized power. A power, as Enzo Martucci once put it, "which all must adore and serve even if they possess the energy and capacity to overthrow it" . While it certainly matters if some individuals try to become authorities vis-a-vis other individuals, the natural impulse to be dominant vis-a-vis others does not seem to me to matter so much. Indeed, as James L. Walker observed in his The Philosophy of Egoism, "if vigilance be the price of liberty, who will deny that the tendency, within Egoistic limits, to vaporizing, non-Egoistic philosophers would place tolerance upon a cloud-bank foundation of sentiment and attempt to recompense with fine words of praise the men who can be persuaded to forgo any advantage which they might take of others. Like the preachers who picture the pleasure of sin and urge people to refrain from it, their attempts are inevitably futile."
For me Max Stirner's egoism has nothing to do with whether his views do or do not fit in with someone else's conception of an "anarchist" utopia. It is true that, since he was still to some extent the child of his time, his ideas are not entirely free from utopian speculations. In this respect, although for quite different reasons, I agree with Mr. Clark that Stirner was "over-optimistic" about his "associations of egoists" becoming universalized. But such speculations are only froth on the fundamentals of his philosophy and for realistic anarchist-individualists living in the here and now they can safely be regarded as of mere historical interest. What is important about his magnificent defence of the individual against authority is its value as an intellectual armoury that can be appropriated by those like myself who view the conflict between the individual and the collective as endless.
Mr. Clark tries to counter Stirnerian egoism by invoking certain vagaries of Arthur Koestler about "holons" or "self-regulating systems which display both the autonomous properties of wholes and the dependent properties of parts" — a sort of philosophical version of the stage-magician's "now you see it and now you don't". He also refers to Lewis Mumford's ecologism and A.N.Whiteheads woolly-headed "philosophy of organism". After all this it is not surprising that he concludes by claiming that Hegel and his 'Whole-i-ness' "appear to be justified". Of course, none of these profundities are spelt out in concrete detail, but, then, one does not expect that purveyors of social dreamlands and defenders of the 'ghost of God' would stoop to such mundane things. To be unfashionable enough to see merit in Stirner's radical nominalism is obviously sufficient ground in the eyes of Mr. Clark for one to be shoved aside as "superstitious" — but we shall see who laughs last....
Anarchism is an individualism, not a socialism!
(MAX STIRNER'S EGOISM by Roger P. Clark. Published by Freedom Press, 84B, Whitechapel High Street, London, E.1. 111pp. Price £1.50. USA 3 dollars. Paperback)


Romeo was a immature adult male that matured to adult goon. He cherished purdah and dark ever maintaining to the darkness and the dark, uncovering in sorrow, cryings, secretiveness, and being entirely. Romeo was brooding and pale, and ever sad. He wrote poesy of love and lovers, of what he has non known of, other than what he has read in the books he accumulates. Romeo had become in love with love ; speech production of it as a faith visualizing love filled merely with sorrow and hurting. No felicity, merely the fright of larning to love so holding to allow travel.
Romeo so met Juliet at the Capulet s house and that in loving her he discovered that joy, non sadness, is a portion of life. Romeo began chew overing, This love I feel, that feel no love is this. When he foremost laid eyes on her. Romeo s non merely a courtly, unworried immature adult male, but is capable of the deepest passions of love. It was at that minute that Juliet have fallen caput over heels for Romeo, I ll look to wish, if looking wishing move ; But no more deep will I endart mine oculus, Than your consent gives strength to do it wing Romeo, at that minute took no vacillation or complete deficiency of struggle in any affair. The arrant committedness with which he abandoned himself was the intense Swift gesture that distinguishes him as a lover.
When Romeo came into contact with Tybalt dissing him, he was bound by a love for Juliet that was so strong that did non allow contending and about Tybalt being a relation of his rival. Love had so shown that it had taken him off from the universe. That at no clip would Romeo contend his new relation because he was so bound for Juliet. You are a lover edge by Cupids Wings and surge with them above a common land. shrieks Mercutio.
ing dark in the Friars cell, he was willing to put on the line his life to remain in Verona if Juliet had wished. Romeo so finds out that Juliet is dead. Then she is good, and nil can be sick. Her organic structure slumbers in Capel s memorial, and her immortal portion with angels lives. This is the message that was sent by Balthasar to inform Romeo. Romeo so screams, Is it e en so? Then I defy you, stars! With this Romeo is taking his destiny in the thenar of his custodies. He does non hesitate, but with his bravery he goes out to seek his love in decease.
Love has become life for Romeo, and he believing without Juliet there can be nil but decease in life. Romeo had grown up, but his whole individuality has lied in loving. He had non longer been one with the universe but taken off, and had come to care for nil for its furnishings or hurting. He had matured into a pure lover. Juliet had become the light of twenty-four hours in darkness to him. He compared her to the Sun, Moon and stars.
When Romeo arrived at the grave, he had become so into be aftering on killing himself that he was given by decease already. Romeo would hold instead had merely one touch of her manus, one touch of her lips than lived an infinity without her. He said his adieus that were barely goodbyes since he had already been taking off by Cupids Arrow, by being so in love. His adieu seemed like his salutations to Juliet, because he was so determined to fall in her and wanted to be with her.
Here s to my love! O true apothecary! Thy drugs are speedy. Therefore with a buss I die With this, Romeo took a potion that would stop his life everlastingly and take him to the following universe in which he would happen Juliet.
At that minute his love was like no other. It was something so emotionally powerful and ebullient that he would make anything to be in the weaponries of his lover, Juliet. . . even if it cost him his life.


It's been a little over two weeks since Another Broken Wizard went on sale. And this is a summary of the places you can find it. If you're enjoying the book, or have enjoyed it, here are the links to pass on to your friends.


text:
Q: How does one get the "next" record from database sorted by a specific attribute without loading all the records? Here's the situation:
I have an Event model and I want to add prev / next buttons to a view to get the next event, but sorted by the event start datetime, not the ID/created_at.
So the events are created in the order that start, so I can compare IDs or get the next highest ID or anything like that. E.g. Event ID 2 starts before Event ID 3. So Event.next(3) should return Event ID 2.
At first I was passing the start datetime as a param and getting the next one, but this failed when there were 2 events with the same start. The param start datetime doesn't include microseconds, so what would happen is something like this:
order("start > ?",current_start).first

would keep returning the same event over and over because current_start wouldn't include microseconds, so the current event would technically be > than current_start by 0.000000124 seconds or something like that.
The way I got to work for everything was with a concern like this:
module PrevNext
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

  module ClassMethods
    def next(id)
      find_by(id: chron_ids[current_index(id)+1])
    end

    def prev(id)
      find_by(id: chron_ids[current_index(id)-1])
    end

    def chron_ids
      @chron_ids ||= order("#{order_by_attr} ASC").ids
    end

    def current_index(id)
      chron_ids.find_index(id)
    end

    def order_by_attr
      @order_by_attr ||= 'created_at'
    end
  end
end

Model:
class Event < ActiveRecord::Base

  ...

  include PrevNext

  def self.order_by_attr
    @order_by_attr ||= "start_datetime"
  end

  ...
end

I know pulling all the IDs into an array is bad and dumb* but i don't know how to

*

*Get a list of the records in the order I want

*Jump to a specific record in that list (current event)

*and then get the next record

...all in one ActiveRecord query. (Using Rails 4 w/ PostgreSQL)
*This table will likely never have more than 10k records, so it's not catastrophically bad and dumb.
The best I could manage was to pull out only the IDs in order and then memoize them.
Ideally, i'd like to do this by just passing the Event ID, rather than a start date params, since it's passed via GET param, so the less URL encoding and decoding the better.
There has to be a better way to do this. I posted it on Reddit as well, but the only suggested response didn't actually work.

*

*Reddit Link
Any help or insight is appreciated. Thanks!

A: You can get the next n records by using the SQL OFFSET keyword:
china = Country.order(:population).first
india = City.order(:population).offset(1).take
# SELECT * FROM countries ORDER BY population LIMIT 1 OFFSET 1

Which is how pagination for example often is done:
@countries = Country.order(:population).limit(50)
@countries = scope.offset( params[:page].to_i * 50 ) if params[:page]

Another way to do this is by using would be query cursors. However ActiveRecord does not support this and it building a generally reusable solution would be quite a task and may not be very useful in the end.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association, creatine is a nitrogenous organic compound that can be synthesized in your body or consumed in foods such as meat and fish. Approximately 95 percent of your body's creatine is stored in skeletal muscle. It has become a widely used supplement for those who want to improve muscular strength and power and is an ingredient in BSN's N.O.-XPLODE.
The ingredient list for N.O.-XPLODE includes carbohydrates, vitamins B6 and B12, folate, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, sodium, potassium and the manufacturer's proprietary blend, which includes creatine in four different forms. The serving size is one scoop and each scoop has 25 calories. The proprietary blend is approximately 18 grams, but the ingredient list does not specify how much of that total is creatine.
Creatine is essential in the form of creatine phoshpate, or CP, for energy metabolism because it aids in the formation of ATP for energy use during exercise. It is especially important during short-duration, high-intensity exercise. A certain amount of creatine is stored in skeletal muscle for this purpose and as it is depleted, your ability to perform high-intensity exercise decreases. The National Strength and Conditioning Association, known as the NSCA, reports that during a six-second bout of maximal exercise, skeletal creatine is reduced between 35 and 57 percent from resting levels.
Because of the widespread use of creatine by athletes ranging in skill level from high school to professional, it is one of the most studied supplements. Creatine supplementation is reported to increase the concentration in skeletal muscle by approximately 20 percent, according to the NSCA. There have been significant increases in strength and power when subjects use creatine as directed. It appears that there is a maximum saturation in your skeletal muscle, so taking more than the recommended dosage does not create bigger improvements, notes the NSCA and a 2002 study led by Jon YeanSub Lim, published in "The Sport Journal."
The manufacturer of N.O.-XPLODE, Bio-Engineered Supplements and Nutrition -- known as BSN -- advises that you do not exceed three scoops of the product per day. It is designed for people between 18 and 50 who want to support their performance during resistance training or other types of fitness training. To assess your tolerance, BSN advises dissolving one scoop of the product in 5 to 6 ounces of cold water and drink. Wait 30 minutes and see how you feel. If you feel fine, repeat the process one more time. Once you know your tolerance on training days, consume one to three scoops dissolved in 5 to 18 ounces of water 30 to 45 minutes before you exercise. On non-training days, consume one scoop dissolved in water. The product should be consumed on an empty stomach.
This product is meant to be taken before training as a way to improve the effectiveness of your workouts. Taking creatine without a fitness program will not increase muscular strength or size. Also keep in mind that N.O.-XPLODE is a supplement and even though outside studies have been done on creatine, the statements made by the company have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, so use caution when taking this or any supplement.


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DONALD V. DE CHELLIS
| Thursday, September 22, 2005 |
By Lansing Funeral Home
LANSING: Donald V. De Chellis, 56 of 11 Salmon Creek Road, Lansing, New York died at 6:15pm on Monday, September 19, 2005 at Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca.
Born April 6, 1949 in Ithaca, New York he was a son of the late Leo and Alberta (nee Nash) De Chellis. Donald was a self employed contractor who will be dearly missed his family and friends. He was an avid NY Yankees fan.
Surivors include his wife of 20 years, Lealyn ( nee Spiegel ) of Lansing, his daughters, Alisha of Marathon, Seychelle of Lansing, NY , his brothers Alfred of Plattsburg, NY, Carmen of Ithaca, NY, four grandchildren, Kyle, Cameryn, Ainslee and Maddison and many nieces.
Funeral services will be Friday, 2:00PM at The Lansing Funeral Home, Inc., 32 Auburn Road, Lansing, NY. Rev. William Gottschalk-Fielding will officiate. There are no calling hours.
Contributions in memory of Mr. DeChellis may be directed to a fund for the benefit of his daughter Seychelle, C/O Rich Dolge, Tompkins Trust Company, The Commons Office, Ithaca, NY 14850.


Distraction or fuzziness may be your body's way of signaling that something's off.
When you have the attention span of a puppy (oooh, squirrel!), the fix isn't always as obvious as pounding an espresso. Distraction or fuzziness may be your body's way of signaling something's off, says Niket Sonpal, DO, assistant professor at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York. Keeping your mind trained on a single task requires your brain to be flooded with a complex cocktail of neurotransmitters and hormones, he explains. Read on for the surprising things that interfere with your ability to keep your head in the game.
Among the people most likely to have trouble focusing include those with celiac disease (which produces an autoimmune reaction to gluten, proteins found in wheat, barley, and rye) or sensitivities to such foods as dairy and soy, according to a report in Frontiers in Neuroscience. Trigger foods spike inflammation, which can cause your brain to go fuzzy. Blood tests can ID food sensitivities. Once you find the culprits, it can take as little as 72 hours (or as long as six weeks!) to start feeling less foggy and more focused, says Michelle Mudge-Riley, DO, a physician and registered dietitian in San Antonio, Texas. As a general rule, drink more water, suggests Michael Russo, MD, a bariatric surgeon in Fountain Valley, California. If your stomach is struggling to digest certain foods, dehydration can make it harder. Plus, a lack of H2O can impair memory and cause fatigue and headaches — none of which will help you focus.
Perfectionism coincides with ambition but it's also highly correlated with a fear of failure. Say you're stressed about a work project: As your worry grows, your brain tries to protect you from a potential flop, ironically, by tuning out — potentially derailing your success, explains Carly Snyder, MD, director of women's health for Family Health Associates in New York City. Don't let anxiety fester — get it out! Spend five minutes free-writing: Why is this task important? What worries you about the outcome? Is your fear legit? Or vent to your work wife about why you're nervous — bonus points if you walk around the block while you do so for additional stress relief. Then return to your task with a clear head.
The week before your period, fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone can cause spaciness. "Focus should return within a couple of days of your period starting," says Dr. Snyder. In the meantime, hit the gym. Exercise elevates the neurotransmitters responsible for concentration, like dopamine.
Upset about that tiff you got in with your roommate this morning? Because your brain perceives conflict as danger, it hones in on the threat in an effort to keep you safe, leaving you unable to focus on much else, says women's health expert Diana Bitner, MD. Schedule a time to work things out, then jot down your major points of concern and set them aside (to avoid obsessing). Knowing a resolution is on the horizon helps neutralize the body's fight-or-flight response.
When iron levels drop, cognitive performance and concentration take a dive with it. A small study of college-age women found that eating an iron-rich lunch for four months improved memory and attention. Pair foods that contain iron — like red meat, pork, shellfish, leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, and dark chocolate — with ingredients high in vitamin C, like citrus, for max absorption, suggests Bitner.
If your to-do list is written in general terms, like "finish presentation," you're not giving your brain insight into exactly what it needs to focus on, says Oksana Hagerty, PhD, a learning specialist at Beacon College. Instead, write down individual tasks, like "add stats to intro" and "copy-edit slides." Think of a to-do list as a commitment, says Hagerty. "Failure to keep those commitments could negatively affect your self-respect." To avoid that, divide items into urgent and nonurgent. This will help you prioritize and offer an opportunity to save face — by viewing failure to do certain things not as a fiasco but as a strategic retreat.
When you skip breakfast but down a venti coffee, you're giving your body two signals to spike the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline (low blood sugar and caffeine), says Nicole Van Groningen, MD, an internist in San Francisco. This sends your body into survival mode, decreasing your attention span to barely there levels. Pair your brew with a breakfast that includes protein, fat, and complex carbs, like a veggie omelet, or have Bulletproof Coffee (java blended with grass-fed butter) and a green smoothie.
This article was originally published as "7 Weird Reasons You Can't Focus" in the February 2017 issue of Cosmopolitan. Click here to subscribe to the digital edition.


text:
package androidx.room;

import androidx.sqlite.db.SupportSQLiteOpenHelper;

public class BuilderTest_TestDatabase_Impl extends BuilderTest.TestDatabase {
    DatabaseConfiguration mConfig;
    @Override
    public void init(DatabaseConfiguration configuration) {
        super.init(configuration);
        mConfig = configuration;
    }

    @Override
    protected SupportSQLiteOpenHelper createOpenHelper(DatabaseConfiguration config) {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    protected InvalidationTracker createInvalidationTracker() {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public void clearAllTables() {
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The Hotel Carlton is very conveniently located, being just a few minutes' walk from both Flandres and Europe stations, Lille Grand Palais and Euralille. There is a very fast and frequent rail service to Paris, Brussels and London.
The Hotel Carlton has 60 rooms and suites, all soundproofed and air conditioned, tastefully decorated and having the best comfort.
The fitness room, located on the 5th floor, invites you to a relaxation session and puts you with the most efficient equipment: bikes, steppers, treadmills and weight machine. Relax in the sauna, in the UV room and shower.
To relax with a drink, learn our English bar, both intimate and elegant. An ideal place for a rendez-vous or for a quiet aperitif, discover our intimate and elegant English bar « Saint Jame's ».


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Americas|Brazil Yellow Fever Outbreak Spawns Alert: Stop Killing the Monkeys
Brazil Yellow Fever Outbreak Spawns Alert: Stop Killing the Monkeys
Yellow fever is threatening species at risk of extinction, like the golden lion tamarin, which lives in the forests of Rio de Janeiro State.CreditCreditDado Galdieri for The New York Times
By Simon Romero
RIO DE JANEIRO — As fears spread in Brazil over the resurgence of yellow fever, health officials are issuing a warning: Stop killing the monkeys.
Some assailants clubbed monkeys to death in panicked reactions to Brazil's most alarming outbreak in decades of a virus that haunted the country in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Authorities found other monkeys dead with fractured skulls after having been being attacked with stones. One monkey was burned to a crisp.
Infectious disease specialists say people are taking aim at the wrong target. Mosquitoes, not monkeys, are actually the vector for the virus, and the monkeys are dying from yellow fever in much higher numbers than people in Brazil. Those who kill the monkeys are making matters worse by depleting primate populations that serve as beacons for where yellow fever is spreading, epidemiologists said.
"They're putting human beings at greater risk by killing the messenger," said Renato Alves, an official in Brazil's Health Ministry who is tracking the outbreak. "Monkeys are a crucial alert mechanism that we monitor to deploy vaccines and prevention efforts to the right places."
Joaquim Santos de Oliveira, 42, contracted yellow fever along with his brother Watila dos Santos, who died from the virus in Casimiro de Abreu, an area in the interior of Rio de Janeiro State.CreditDado Galdieri for The New York Times
Authorities' pleas to stop killing monkeys in Brazil, which has the richest primate diversity of any country, comes amid widespread concern over the newfound vigor of a virus that ranked among the largest public health threats here before mass vaccination programs began in the 1940s.
Yellow fever, which can include symptoms like jaundice, high fevers and multiple organ failure, has killed at least 240 people in recent months, Brazil's Health Ministry said. The disease, normally found in parts of the Amazon River Basin, has spread to the country's most populous states: Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
As yellow fever made the leap out of the Amazon, the authorities in several areas of southeastern Brazil reported episodes in recent weeks of monkeys being killed illegally, involving a range of methods including poisoning and hunting down the primates with rifles or clubs.
The killings reflect broad misunderstanding in Brazil about how yellow fever spreads. Cases that are sylvatic, or in the wild, involve monkeys that are infected by mosquito species inhabiting the forest canopy.
The same mosquitoes then transmit the virus to humans who make incursions into jungles, like gold prospectors, hunters or loggers. Such outbreaks are often relatively small. While yellow fever is often asymptomatic in humans, patients who develop severe symptoms can die within seven to 10 days.
From left, Natalia Ribeiro, Oberlan Junior and Elisama Moraes used an RF antenna to locate golden lion tamarins in a conservation area in Silva Jardim, Brazil, last month.CreditDado Galdieri for The New York Times
"People in regions where yellow fever is on the march often don't realize how crucial monkeys are in informing us about the disease," said Danilo Simonini Teixeira, the president of the Brazilian Society of Primatology.
Monkeys have died in much higher numbers than humans in Brazil's current sylvatic outbreak. Brazilian authorities estimate that over 4,400 monkeys have died from yellow fever in recent months; subspecies like southern brown howler monkeys are especially vulnerable.
While the outbreak has many people in Brazil on edge, virus specialists fear the possibility that yellow fever could spin out of control by spreading rapidly around cities, stirring ghosts of epidemics that devastated urban areas like Rio de Janeiro more than a century ago.
In urban outbreaks, infected people often introduce yellow fever into heavily populated areas where the virus can be transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the same devilishly resilient species that spreads viruses like chikungunya, dengue and Zika.
While Africa has recently faced such urban outbreaks, including a 2016 epidemic in Angola, they are rare in South American cities. In 2008, epidemiologists found yellow fever transmission by Aedes aegypti in Paraguay's capital, Asunción. The last confirmed urban outbreak of yellow fever in the Americas was previously thought to be during the 1940s.
Dr. Rosaura Leite Rodrigues prepared to perform a necropsy on a green monkey at the Jorge Vaitsman Veterinary Institute in Rio de Janeiro last week. Yellow fever has killed at least 240 people and over 4,400 monkeys in recent months.CreditRoberta de Oliveira Resende
As the authorities grapple anew with yellow fever in Brazil, they are voicing relief that it has not evolved into an urban outbreak. Nearly 19 million doses of vaccine are being distributed in areas where the virus is spreading. The World Health Organization is also providing Brazil with 3.5 million doses of the vaccine from its emergency stockpile.
In addition to urging people to get vaccinated and to stop killing monkeys, Brazilian officials are telling people to eliminate places with stagnant water where mosquitoes can breed, like discarded tires or shower floors. Still, in impoverished parts of Brazil where yellow fever has hit hard, some say that the authorities have been slow to act.
"It's clear that hunting monkeys is wrong, but when monkeys started showing up dead from yellow fever the vaccinations should have started," said Dalila de Oliveira, 30, a manicurist. Her cousin Watila dos Santos, a 38-year-old construction worker, died in March from the virus in Casimiro de Abreu, an area in the interior of Rio de Janeiro State.
"He went to the public hospital and was mistakenly diagnosed with sinusitis," Ms. Oliveira said. "The authorities could have been more aggressive about preventing this tragedy, but they preferred to minimize the situation."
Brazil's health minister, Ricardo Barros, acknowledged in an interview that fewer people would have died in recent months had the government responded more vigorously in the outbreak's early stages.
A farmer on his land near Silva Jardim. Deforestation and climate change may be among the factors that have contributed to the yellow fever outbreak this year.CreditDado Galdieri for The New York Times
"There may have been a failure in the vaccination blockade after the first monkeys began showing up dead in Minas Gerais," said Mr. Barros, referring to the Brazilian state that has been hardest hit in the outbreak, with more than 160 fatalities.
Infectious disease specialists are trying to determine why yellow fever is emerging with greater ferocity this year in Brazil. Dr. Anna P. Durbin, a researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said a combination of factors might be in play, including climate change and the deforestation of areas that serve as buffer zones between tropical jungles and urban areas.
"A big concern is for the virus to jump the Panama Canal" into Central America, Dr. Durbin said.
The virus may also have the potential to spread to Puerto Rico and cause travel-related cases in the continental United States, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and Dr. Catharine I. Paules, both of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said recently in The New England Journal of Medicine. In late April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of a shortage of yellow fever vaccine in the United States because of recent manufacturing problems.
As epidemiologists monitor yellow fever's advance into parts of Brazil, monkeys are still turning up dead, either at the hand of man or as a result of the virus. Researchers say the virus is threatening species already at risk of extinction, like the golden lion tamarin, which lives in the forests of Rio de Janeiro State.
Karen Strier, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin who has studied monkeys in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil since the 1980s, said she had never seen monkeys die from disease in such high numbers. She described a "sense of emptiness" in a reserve near Caratinga in Minas Gerais State, where howler monkeys had largely vanished.
Correction: May 2, 2017
An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of a woman whose cousin died of yellow fever. She is Dalila de Oliveira, not Danila.
Follow Simon Romero on Twitter @viaSimonRomero.
Ernesto Londoño contributed reporting from Cambridge, Mass., Paula Moura from São Paulo, Brazil, and Dom Phillips from Rio de Janeiro.
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Plea in Yellow Fever Outbreak: Don't Kill the Monkeys. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe
Yellow Fever Outbreak in Brazil Prompts a State of Emergency
Special Ops With a Studious Bent Fight Destruction of Brazil's Amazon
Yellow Fever Epidemic in Africa Shows Gaps in Vaccine Pipeline


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E3 2019 Conference Recap and Thoughts: Third Party Conferences
Posted on June 28, 2019	by Derek "Gamer Crash"
Well, friends, we're finally at the end of my E3 2019 coverage. Today we're talking Third Party. I'll be taking a look at all of the major press conferences and offering my thoughts and opinions on what was announced and more.
In case you missed any of my previous E3 2019 coverage, you can catch up with these handy links! Microsoft | Nintendo | Watch Dogs Legion | Overall
What an interesting year it has been so far for third party games. We've had quite the range of great and not-so-great games that I think not many people knew what to expect going in. This is especially true for companies like Bethesda and EA, both of which were trying to recover from some less than ideal game launches.
On the other end of the spectrum, I think it's safe to say that most fans were excited for what Ubisoft and Square Enix had coming. There's always plenty of sky high expectations and rumors which fuel that hype.
So did the third party studios come through and deliver? Let's discuss.
Starting off with the first company to go…well, okay, technically EA Play wasn't considered part of E3 2019, but let's be honest here. The event was pretty much on the same weekend, so we're just going to lump them in.
EA took a bit of the mystery out of the event by revealing a schedule of what they were planning to show off, much of which wasn't a surprise. We got details on Season 2 for Apex Legends and the new hero Wattson, saw more EA Sports games, The Sims 4 vacation mode, and new maps for Battlefield 5. All standard stuff that didn't move the needle much for me.
The big element to this show was Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the first actual look at the game. The 15 minute gameplay demo showed off some really interesting ideas including the inclusion of Clone War-era characters like Saw Gerrera and a heavier looking combat style that you could see in any of FROM Software's games. It wouldn't be until earlier this week that the rest of the puzzle pieces finally fell into place, however.
EA released the full nearly 30 minute demo that was shown behind closed doors. In my opinion, it was way more exciting and gave a much clearer look at the game Respawn and EA were talking about originally. It features vehicle combat with AT-AT walkers, platforming sections, dialogue choices, planetary travel, and level design that takes inspiration from Metroidvania style experiences. I was intrigued by what I saw at EA Play, but it wasn't until weeks later after the show that I actually became excited.
The last thing I want to mention here is Anthem. We all know the sad state that game is currently in and while I give credit to both BioWare and EA for sticking with it, I think most fans were surprised that the game was kind of left by the wayside. I expected Anthem to be given more time, show off some exciting new things coming down the road, and basically offer hope for those who want to see it eventually succeed. While it was at the show, all we got was a very short interview and continued vague promises for the future. Needless to say, this wasn't a great look.
With only one known known game, Doom Eternal, there were a lot of questions coming into Bethesda's E3 2019 presser. A lot was riding on Bethesda this year considering the mess that was Fallout 76.
Speaking of that, Todd Howard came out to discuss that very game. He made some jokes and praised the community and then jumped immediately into the next DLC. Not sure what people were expecting to hear regarding the past 6-7 months, but that was it. The next DLC chunk called Wastelanders is coming for free in the Fall and it's biggest piece is that human NPCs with full dialogue trees are back.
I'll let that sink in for a moment.
Don't get me wrong, I understand why this is a big deal for Fallout 76 players and a much welcomed addition, but still. We're excited by human NPC characters.
I find it kind of ironic and hilarious that everyone is super pumped that a game is getting NPCs. I get the significance of it in Fallout 76, but in general and in this day and age, it's just kind of funny.
— Derek Nichols (@GamerCrash) June 10, 2019
We also got the announcement that another piece of DLC called Nuclear Winter can be played in game right now. It's basically Bethesda's take on the Battle Royale genre, where players vie to become the new Overseer for the vault. From what I've heard, it's apparently a lot of fun, even if it has that Bethesda wonkiness to it.
Elder Scrolls was up next, though it wasn't the announcement or reveal most were hoping for. Elder Scrolls Blades, that mobile game, was revealed to be coming to the Switch. Elder Scrolls Online also got a sizable portion of the show to announce that Dragons are now int he game, to which the over hyped guy in the front row absolutely lost his mind. We got another CG trailer, which was well made but offered nothing in terms of gameplay.
Uh, lets see. There was this really weird Commander Keen announcement, which I think is another mobile game. It was really bizarre and I think most people believe that it could have been cut from the show completely. Rage 2 also got a DLC trailer, which is fine, but with how fast I grew tired of that game, I can't see myself bothering with it.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is the next game from Shinji Mikami and Tango Gameworks. It sounds awesome on paper, and while we got a very stylish CG trailer, there was no gameplay whatsoever to really judge how it'll play.
I can say the same thing for Deathloop and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. While we already know a lot about the latter, I was surprised that Machine Games didn't have more to share in terms of gameplay considering it's imminent release. Deathloop, on the other hand, is the next game from Arkane Studios. Again, we got a very cool looking CG trailer, but in terms of what the game actually is or plays like, I couldn't tell you. All I know is that these two assassin's are stuck in some sort of time loop, where one hunts the other while the hunted tries to break the loop.
Bethesda also introduced Orion Streaming Technology, which seems to be another alternative to cloud-based streaming services. Honestly, with how new this tech is, I'm a little dubious about it's adoption rate on Day 1. It seems like everyone and their mother is announcing a service like this with Stadia, Project xCloud, and the countless others I know I'm forgetting. Come Fall 2019, it's going to take a lot to standout from the competition.
Naturally, they ended the show with Doom: Eternal and better yet, they had actual gameplay. There's not much more that needs to be said outside of the fact that it looks like a fantastic follow up. The multiplayer looks pretty interesting as well. Not only did id Software completely scrap the traditional multiplayer from the last game and move that side in house, it has been completely transformed. Known now as Battlemode, it pits one Slayer player against two demon players. Not only can the demon players pick from an assortment of enemy types like the revenant, they can also spawn minions in to attack the other players. While that sounds cool, keep in mind that the slayer can use these minions for health restoring glory kills if they're not spawned in tactically.
So yeah, that was Bethesda in a nutshell. It was fine, but outside of Doom Eternal, I wasn't dazzled like I had hoped to be. The new game announcements Ghostwire: Tokyo and Deathloop were great, but the CG only approach kind of dampened it for me.
Personally, I was the most hyped for Ubisoft's show, something that likely won't surprise many of you considering my love for many of their IPs. I wanted more of those "One More Thing" moments, I was anticipating more Division 2 news, I expected to see news on the next Assassin's Creed that was rumored to be set in the Viking Age, another cool Nintendo cross over announcement, and of course, I wanted Splinter Cell back.
Well, overall, I thought it was a mixed show. Watch Dogs Legion was leaked earlier in the week and while I already discussed my mood swings on that game. Definitely check out my initial fears and then the moment when I saw the light but real quick, I was really impressed with what I saw. My initial fears were put to bed as we watched what appeared to be classic open world Watch Dogs gameplay mixed with new ideas like permadeath, recruiting any NPC you want, and being able to switch between these recruits each with their own abilities and skills. Hell, you can recruit an army of hacker grandmothers. Like, what else do you need people?
Jon Bernthal and his cute dog Bam Bam took the stage to quickly discuss Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Loved his character in the last DLC for Wildlands, so Breakpoint should be pretty good as well. Better news? Ubisoft is adding the AI Teammates back for solo players. Score!
The Division 2 came out next and dropped all sorts of DLC details, which I'm all for. You're going to places like the National Zoo, Pentagon, and back to New York. They teased new story content in Episode 3, where you're going up against Aaron Keener, the primary villain from the first game. I'm glad they're doing this because Keener was immensely interesting even though you never really saw him. The audio and text logs go a long way to fleshing him out.
Roller Champions looks like a cool Rocket League-ish style game. Easy to pick up and play, but one that Ubisoft hopes people will really invest in to master it. I'm not thrilled about Tom Clancy's Elite Squad, a mobile game that brings in characters from all TC games. I'm curious about Rainbow Six Quarantine, which seems to focus on co-op gameplay set inside of the limit time event from Rainbow Six Siege. All we got was a creepy CG trailer, but I"m curious to see how they're able to take that limited event and turn it into a $60 full, standalone game. There's also a new Just Dance game, so that's a thing.
Ubisoft also took a chunk of time to talk about UPlay+, a subscription service that gives players access to something like over 100+ Ubisoft games, premium editions, DLC, new games, etc. I mean, It's great for those who are interested but I kind of feel like the market is quickly becoming over-saturated. I'm not just talking about video games either because think about all of the TV oriented subscriptions from Netflix, Hulu, Amazing Prime, that upcoming Disney service, etc, etc. It adds up and I'm not sure how much more room there is for these things. People generally do not have unlimited money to throw around so I don't know how well this will take over time.
Rob McElhenney of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fame was also on hand to announce a new project called Mythic Quest – Raven's Banquet, which I think is going to be a TV Show? With a bunch of the Sunny crew working on this, I'm interested, but the message was initially muddled because I thought it was some sort of game related announcement. It's not though, just a tv show about a game. It was confusing.
The last announcement came from Yves Guillemot himself as he announced Gods & Monsters, the next project from the Assassin's Creed Odyssey team in Quebec City. Using a more stylized visual look, I've heard it's Ubisoft's take on the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gameplay. It remains set within the Greek world and if it really is this open world action adventure experience, then I'm interested.
So not only did we not get a Splinter Cell reveal, Ubisoft didn't really have that "One More Thing" moment that they've become known for. I felt there were a lot of missed opportunities and it lacked the exciting punch we've come to expect. I'll talk more about this in a bit but I think this was less of Ubisoft's fault and more due to the timeline 2019 is currently in.
I won't lie, I'm not really a Final Fantasy person, so I don't typically pay much attention to Square Enix at E3. This year was different though because they had a few high profile games that I think many were really anticipating. Plus, the other big win for the company this year is that they moved their event into Sony's old time slot, something which no doubt helped put way more eyes on them than usual.
They kicked off the show in grand style, opting to blow the doors wide open on Final Fantasy VII Remake. Way more gameplay, new character reveals like Tifa, a combat demonstration, and some really gorgeous trailers. As I said, I'm not a Final Fantasy player, but even I was impressed by what Square showed off. I can't speak to purists, but I really like what they've done with the combat in this game, making it more active than the traditional turn based style. Still, they do allow you to pause the action and issue commands once a meter fills, which I find to be a really cool way to bridge both combat styles.
The middle part of the show generally lost me. If you're someone who's really into JRPGs, then Square Enix has you covered. They had so many smaller announcements, that I generally can't remember everything. I know a good majority were JRPG and Final Fantasy, which should make plenty of people very happy. As an aside, I've heard a lot of good things about Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, a completely transformed MMORPG that's out next week officially.
I also want to shoutout People Can Fly which revealed a brand new game called Outriders. Unfortunately all we got was a CG trailer, so I can't say really anything about what it is, but I like the concept. Co-op shooter from those guys, interesting weapons, and a unique world could be pretty cool.
For many, including myself, The Avengers remained the game I wanted to see most. Announced last year, E3 2019 would be the first time Crystal Dynamics would show the game off to the world. Well, kind of. While the game got a huge amount of time in the spotlight at the end of the show, I feel like they did it the wrong way. We got a lot of talking points, but not a lot of meaningful showing. The trailer was primarily CG with quick, blink and you'll miss it, gameplay moments edited in. The announcement and reveal really didn't do much for me, and I'm kind of iffy on the graphical style they went for which seems to mimic Marvel's Cinematic Universe, even though the studio has confirmed that the game isn't set in that universe.
For me, this was the most surprising aspect to this reveal, but I'm very happy its actually a real part of this game. https://t.co/SmDYRjJJyQ
We did get some details during the show including the fact that DLC will be free, players can customize their characters through loot and new gear, and it can be played coop. However, I can't help but feel like The Avengers reveal just didn't have the impact Square assumed it would. Combined with the lukewarm reception from people who saw actual hands-off gameplay behind closed doors, I can't help but feel let down by this one. As of this very minute, I'm out on The Avengers.
You may already be able to tell what my overall thoughts are based on my commentary above. While there were some cool reveals, I wasn't blown away by anything. As I've said previously, I think this was a result of being sort of in between console cycles. It's a well known fact that 2020 will likely be the year next gen consoles appear, especially since Microsoft confirmed Project Scarlett and Halo Infinite for Holiday 2020.
That said, I'm guessing next year's event should be pretty exciting since many companies may be more willing to show what's coming in the next gen.
Because of that, I feel like most studios have moved on to next generation projects and don't have much to show at the moment. We're now in an era where companies get crushed for either announcing a game too soon or having the product not appear as it was first revealed. Looking at you Anthem. Perhaps there's some hesitancy around announcing things too soon these days.
The other thing to consider with the overuse of CG trailers is the fact that many of the games that opted to use it aren't actually releasing until 2020. Using CG is great for when you want to make an announcement, but not reveal what the game will look or play as. You want to get people excited, but you're not ready to actually show the game. I'm fairly sure that a lot of these just announced games will actually turn into next gen games as well. With almost zero information on those consoles, CG trailers enable developers to announce something without actually confirming details like platform.
So yeah, those are my thoughts. I figured E3 2019 would be a bit more exciting but we still got a few cool reveals. Considering that next year is when we'll be seeing next gen content, I'm guessing E3 2020 is going to be huge. Perhaps the return of Sony, as well?
This entry was posted in E3, Feature, Opinion and tagged E3 2019, Feature, Opinion, PC, PlayStation 4, PS4, Xbox, Xbox One. Bookmark the permalink.
5 Responses to E3 2019 Conference Recap and Thoughts: Third Party Conferences
DDOCentral says:
Reblogged this on DDOCentral.
Hatm0nster says:
All things considered, E3 2019 was pretty alright. We're at end of a console cycle, but not close enough to the next gen to see the really good stuff. Even so, we still got some decent reveals and announcements. Definitely not the worst year in E3 history.
Quick side-note: I'm convinced there were staffers in Bethesda's conference. No one gets THAT hyped for NPCs and the addition of Battle Royal, especially when the game involved is Fallout 76.
Derek "Gamer Crash" says:
Oh jeez, I know right? Bethesda's was pretty bad but the amount of people yelling from the crowd this year seemed to be an all time high. Can't help but feel like the Keanu Reeves guy started it all.
He probably did. Now that I think about it, they really did get wild this year didn't they? Supposedly the audiences at these events are all press people, but I don't think that's the case. Am pretty sure there've been seat-fillers and staffers involved since these press briefings started getting televised.
Wouldn't surprise me at all. I remember a lot of yelling at Square Enix this year as well.


Graphic designer Patrick Smith produced a series of posters to highlight some mental disorders. Their simplicity shows the power of good design to communicate. Here's one for a start but make sure you have a good look at the rest.


text:
28 February 2015 - Saturday
No brain!
Martian Successor Nadesico 4-5: Doooom! And wacky new characters, all at the same time!
Tiger & Bunny 24-25: The triumpant finale! But there is definitely room for movies and stuff, even without going to the next generation.
Okamikakushi 4-5: The visual novel visuals are not as obnoxious, but the creepy characters are still creepy, and also doomed.
Chihayafuru 23: Next year, for sure!
27 February 2015 - Friday
City of the Iron Fish (Simon Ings) is definitely New Weird, with a squalid vaguely-historical city, dubious magic, uncertainty about the nature of reality, sordid sex, and art. On the other hand, it also has a non-sexual male/female friendship, which is not something you see every volume.
26 February 2015 - Thursday
It's not as weird as FLCL , but Assassination Classroom (Yusei Matsui) is pretty darn weird. An alien with a smily-face head and Japanese-Martian octopus body destroys the moon, takes over the worst class in a fancy middle school, and threatens to destroy the Earth in a year if none of its students can kill it before then. Arguably all the other weirdness is a legitimate reaction to that, even the heart-warming weirdness.
Grave Matters (Lauren M Roy) is the sequel to Night Owls , the further adventures of a small circle of vampires, monster-hunting mages, and hapless bookstore clerks who get caught up in secret supernatural shenanigans.
Twelve paws! Sixteen respirations per minute!
25 February 2015 - Wednesday
Ken decided that the nominally-level-appropriate challenges we've been giving the 13th Age PCs are too wimpy, and found a published module in which the PCs are sent to steal something from one of the 15 most powerful creatures in the world. Specifically, Anwë is sent, apparently in the hopes that she will die and her title and estates will become available for more deserving elves, or maybe just for the fun of watching her squirm.
So far they've found a demon-infested castle surrounded by a moat of bugs, which is at the location the only other person known to have gotten into the Necropolis vaults was last seen. The demons are only a little above the PCs' level, so apparently they will get dragged in deeper before being eaten.
The Mirror Prince and Shadowlands (Violette Malan) are fairly standard fantasy with elves from elfland sometimes secretly living among humans as part of their elvish plots to take the throne or feed their enemies to the Wild Hunt or whatever. There is a romance subplot, but pretty much no sex. I had not previously seen this take on the Wild Hunt, though.
24 February 2015 - Tuesday
Something Coming Through (Paul McAuley) is kind of an out-of-context-solution book, like Constellation Games . The aliens really do seem to have humanity's best interests at heart, but humans can't deal with that and are compelled to screw things up even more to compensate. Fortunately(?), mechanisms like nationaly security and organized crime (of a somehow distinctively British flavor) are already in place to screw up the lives of hapless free-lance sociologists and dedicated police detectives.
23 February 2015 - Monday
Shutter (Courtney Alameda) is urban fantasy about a teenaged ghost-hunter whose weapon of choice is a camera loaded with silver-based film -- it turns out taking pictures of someone does steal their soul, at least if they're dead. There is also a romance subplot, a mysterious monster of mystery, and a father of pretty low quality.
22 February 2015 - Sunday
In this fortnight's episode of "Forgetting the Remembered Tomb", our heroes researchers discover that there are a lot more kobolds (there are always more kobolds!) with good communications and a fortified base to go with their air support when another squad finds their new camp and The Frederick has to crush their champion in single combat. This is an obvious threat to their quest to find Beryl and whatever is left of Damson, and possibly even to all mammalian civilization in the region, so they use the Scales of Texting liberated from the squad leaders to lure out kobold squads until that stops working, then lure out all the remaining forces in an unassailable platoon with air cover and sneak in through the out tunnels to take the tower behind them. This requires putting down the kobold smith (imagine Thor from Adventures in Babysitting as a kobold), freeing the fire serpent trapped in the forge, defeating the kobold home guard, murderizing the kobold queen despite her ice magic and impressive feather headdress, and finally jumping the dragon and its airborne commando squad as they busted in to defend the queen. Academic permanent casualties: zero!
Level UP! Third level gets Zach 2nd-level spell slots instead of 1st (but still only two per battle) and a set of equations that translate to three cantrips from other classes. Sadly, the only ones that seem really useful are attacks with damage types the party doesn't already have a lot of. I guess that's D&D for you.
Finally they found the Remembered Tomb, surrounded by Astraea cultists doing archaeological work and walking their jackals. Beryl is there, so they sneak in to rescue her, but but she just gives them a mysterious scroll and tells them to get out and never come back. They back off into the woods aways, out of patrol range, and check out the scroll. The dwarf and the gnome see it as ever-changing incomprehensible text (which remains ever-changing even when copied to another sheet), but the elf and half-elf see it as blank. Eventually they figure out that it must be dream-writing, invisible to creatures that don't sleep, so Ella curls up with the scroll and goes to sleep thinking about it.
In the world of dreams, Ella turns into a faerie dragon (not something she would normally be able to do for many levels yet), and uses her ability to suppress the reflex to reflect visible light (apparently she's actually a fey dragon[*]) to sneak into the Tomb. She found a bunch of cultists who seemed to exist in both realms at once, Beryl who had something wrong with her but was not yet fully enlightened, Damson's halfling self, and a huge stone tablet of ever-changing text.
[*] Maybe a half a dozen people will get this joke, and I think only one reads this.
Next session, we will definitely... do something.
Twelve paws!
One girlfriend!
Gadgeteers are kind of a pain to do in HERO, but they are fun to read about, even if they use PRE as their dump stat like the protagonist of No Master Plan Here (Joel Burdick) obviously did. Well, and maybe common sense, but people with that don't usually become supervillains anyway.
Chihayafuru 21-22: It's not a real sport until you're risking unconsciousness on the playing field? Or er something.
Martian Successor Nadesico 3: Oh the silliness. Or er something.
Tiger & Bunny 22-23: It's not a real deathtrap without spikes! Or er something.
Okamikakushi 3: I didn't really notice until Ayse pointed it out, but the direction (it's not really cinematography, is it?) of this is very visual-novel like. On the other hand, it still looks like creepy citrus-powered werewolves. Or er something.
The Sleeping God , The Soldier King , The Storm Witch , and Path of the Sun (Violette Malan) are the beginning of a series about a pair of terrifying mercenaries and the political and magical intrigue they keep getting mixed up in. The setting is not unusual, but it's nice to see characters who have an established partnership, rather than the drama of, "Does he like me? Do I like him? Am I too badass for love? What if he's secretly a werewolf?". Over the course of four books, their partnership is sometimes strained, but rarely actually broken, despite the really large amounts of intrigue.
Stories of the Raksura vol 1 (Martha Wells) is just what it says on the tin: short stories about the raksura peoples from The Cloud Roads / The Serpent Sea / The Siren Depths , some about the main characters of those books and others not.
My, tumblr really is full of things.
Things by Jeremy (Sat Feb 28 18:30:47 2015)
Sure 'nuff!
I don't think this week's game went as well as last week's, even though there was combat. Specifically, I don't think I handled the Secret Joint Emperor-High Druid Project right. Even though no one official told them anything, they should have been able to grill the workers, or have someone from one side or the other contact them to try to defect/smuggle out a message/sell mysterious artifacts. Bah!
I should have made the hellhole more terrifying too, even though it was really more of a hell-pimple. Double bah!
Magical Burst is more or less Puella Magi Madoka Magica the RPG (a superset, really). Magical Fury is sort of a light version of that, in both rules and tone, although it is definitely still possible for magical girls and/or their world to be doomed. Just not as completely doomed as Madoka.
The Ninth World Guidebook is a pile of new setting stuff for Numenera, along the same lines as what's in the core book but about surrounding (or otherwise adjacent) regions. Weird sites, weird NPCs, weird monsters, weird artifacts.
Tales from the Strange vol 1 (Bruce R Cordell, Monte Cook, Shanna Germain) is just that, a few short stories in the setting of The Strange. They are not overwhelmingly outstanding, but one makes it a little more clear what that Spark percentage in the recursion writeups means.
No gaming today, only lethargy
I finished Maoyu , which sadly does not have a great ending, but was good up until that point. I feel sorry for the princess of the fire dragon people, but I'm sure things will work out.
I finally read all five volumes of Paradise Kiss (Yazawa Ai), since we have failed to watch all the anime. The ending was not really surprising after what we have watched, though. Also it seems very 90s shoujo, because well.
But we are watching anime!
Martian Successor Nadesico 1-2: I hadn't remembered how they leap right into the wackiness, but they do.
Tiger & Bunny 21: A traditional tactic for that kind of supervillain, but very effective.
Okamikakushi 1-2: Look, an isolated town with a dreadful secret! But it does not appear to be a Higurashi imitation, as some feared.
Chihayafuru 20: Train! Train like the wind!
Kiss by Avalon (Thu Feb 26 17:57:28 2015)
I have never seen that but I have some idea about paradise kissing... =)
Re: Kiss by Trip (Mon Mar 2 08:32:01 2015)
Hey, cool, it's Friday!
Broken Mirrors and Broken Lords (AF Dery) are fantasy romance, although a little odd. The male lead is an extremely ugly mutant and has a [SPOILER] in the basement, the female lead has the magic(?) power of taking other people's pain but there is no overt BDSM element (or any overt sexy bits, really), there is a random talking pig. Drama and political intrigue ensue.
Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Elf (LG Estrella) is pretty much what it says on the tin. The elf is a homicidal maniac, one of the necromancers is ten, and the bureaucrat is a high-level wizard, but what did you expect?
Apparently I still suck at making D&D adventures, because the only combat tonight was against individual pigeons. ("Pigeon-Tackler", a deed-name for the ages.) They did manage to get to the point of being ready to ambush the ambushers, at least.
In Stranded on Haven (William Zellmann), a random schmoe who is the only survivor of a sabotaged starship is stranded at a low-tech-level colony and tries to improve things without either being mugged for his starship or taking over the planet. He is awfully competent for a random schmoe, but he does do sensible things, like accept that an entire planet of really smart people are going to be trying to swipe his starship and he probably can't outwit all of them, so he must plan accordingly. There are many hot babes.
Sunbolt (Intisar Khanani) is not super-original fantasy, but it's at least (mostly) non-European fantasy, and has a Masked Avenger.
combat against individual pigeons by marith (Mon Feb 23 21:32:52 2015)
You realize that a Hatoful Boyfriend combat system is just waiting for you to invent it, don't you.
The Burn Zone and Fallout (James K Decker) are pretty much cyberpunk in China, plus helpful friendly shipwrecked aliens that an unfortunate window-washer finds out are more alien than they appear. Maybe even more alien than that.
The Skyscrape is a third-party Numenera adventure/site for exploration. It is okay, and there is some weirdness, but the technological remains of the flying city are a little too comprehensible for proper Numenera , I feel.
Hot Lead, Cold Iron (Ari Marmell) is a PI vs gangsters in the depths of Prohibition-era Chicago, except this PI is an exile from the Seelie Court. He seems limited to mind and luck magic (IE, completely deniable) but the villains are not so limited. Life is hard when you're a PI in gangtown.
9 February 2015 - Monday
Yucky yucky Monday.
8 February 2015 - Sunday
I think we disappointed Earl by not trying to mug the... perfected True Neutral hag creature? for her magic item of knowledge, but she was too scary. It seemed pretty clear she could drop us into the lake under her Icy Labyrinth of Doom and pop the ice back over us, and at second level we can neither survive drowning and freezing nor teleport through solid ice. She did give up a few clues about Damson's discovery of a way to connect people with their "other selves", but mostly we were too scared to bargain for information. I think I probably played that wrong.
When the bandit leader showed up to retrieve his stolen cloth, we defeated him and his giant fire-resistant puppet El Monstro (where by "we" I mean "the members of the party who hit and do more than minimum damage") and were able to swap his head for a little more information about the Remembered Tomb.
Next time, the dungeon crawl for sure! And then we'll be able to use our 3rd-level powers to get the Ioun Disco Ball of Knowledge.
Hurray, Avalon!
7 February 2015 - Saturday
Reduced anime because we were so slow getting started. But we think the lost art of conversation went that way!
Chihayafuru 18-19: Crushed! Like a bug!
Tiger & Bunny 20: Insidious villainy is the best kind!
Legend of Korra season II 11-12: Virtue triumphs again! And surely blowing up the spirit prison won't have any repercussions.
6 February 2015 - Friday
Karen Memory (Elizabeth Bear) is steampunk Wild West, without dwelling on the technology. It's not like it's unusual to the protagonist that the "sewing machine" in the back room is a powered exoskeleton. (I say "protagonist" because there are quite a few characters who qualify as heroines, and a couple more who count as heroes.) The protagonist is a prostitute, but there is not really anything prurient in the book; certainly not the romance subplot. However, villainy is thwarted, and smooches are had.
Karen Memory by marithlizard (Thu Feb 19 09:38:34 2015)
Oh I read the excerpt of that along with its Big Idea column, but forgot to mention it to you. But you read it anyways!
(It seems well-written and entertaining and I like the protagonist's voice, but then I got a bit depressed thinking about how much I want killer robots with flamethrowers.)
Karen Memory by Trip (Mon Feb 23 11:19:45 2015)
It did not actually make me want flamethrowers. Single-target attacks would have sufficed. 8)
5 February 2015 - Thursday
Prophecy (Ellen Oh) is set in fantasy-faux-Korea, with a heroine whose demon-slaying powers make her way too butch for her society. Unfortunately it also has an Ancient Prophecy, which has pretty much been done, even the variations like "maybe it's not talking about who you think".
4 February 2015 - Wednesday
Finally we made our daring escape from Ken's horrible living dungeon (which was not that bad as living dungeons go), which involved fighting through a mosh pit of undead while the corridor collapsed behind them and then running back through all the traps they montaged through on the way down. Surely the spider-minotaur that came out with them will not return as an enemy in future episodes.
Since we did not use all our plot tokens to control the Seething Sphere of Ancient Energy, it turned out that some of the stuff we brought out was magic items! In addition to the amulet that lets her pretend nothing happened if she makes a surprise attack and misses, Anwe now has a belt that lets her fit into any normal social situation. It's almost like she has things that would be useful for a professional spy.
Graveyard Sparrow (Kayla Bashe) has a plot, something about Victorian psychometry and medical ethics and serial killers, but it is not well-written enough to have any point except the girl-smooches.
In Hero Years... I'm Dead (Michael A Stackpole) is prose superheroics, or maybe just heroics, since a lot of the costumed crusaders are well-trained normals. The protagonist is back in town after being away for twenty years, and finds that almost nothing has improved. (Apparently this is where Revenant, from PS238 , comes from.)
3 February 2015 - Tuesday
Tales from the Nightside (Simon R Green) is exactly what it says on the tin. Aside from sometimes being from other PoVs, Nightside short stories are very much like Nightside novels, only shorter.
Dark Intelligence (Neal Asher) follows on pretty directly from The Technician , but with more of the terrifying AI Penny Royal and its transcendant maneuverings. Also, horrifying transformations, memory alteration, and disgusting bug monsters.
Numerous paws!
Blah, work. At least I am not being flogged daily like Avalon (or flogging myself daily like Marith).
I like Jonathan L Howard's "Johannes Cabal" books quite a bit, but Katya's World and Katya's War were only okay. Perhaps he is just better suited to comic fantasy than to serious YA space adventure, even with submarine pirates.
February Thaw (Tanya Huff) is a collection of short pieces, none of which really stood out much to me.
Warship (Joshua Dalzelle) starts with a disgraced captain being given the oldest, crappiest ship in the fleet, which also happens to be the only one with anything resembling weapons because in the Dark Future of Warship , There is Only Peace™. Then aliens attack and it all goes downhill from there. I don't think the author really grasps space combat velocities and energies, though.
Earl recommended Poor Man's Fight (Elliott Kay) as being okay, and indeed, it was okay military SF of the "young human with no prospects joins the Space Navy and becomes a hero" type. With space pirates! (In fact, a lot of the book is from the PoV of a somewhat similar young human who becomes a space pirate, so we can appreciate the democratic villainy.) The protagonist is pretty badass, but I think that's meant to show how poor the pirates are at anything except terrorizing hapless civilians.
hey now by marith (Thu Feb 12 14:30:00 2015)
You make me sound like Judge Turpin, or as though I'm in a rather different sort of profession :)
Your Xmas present just arrived! Muhahaha!
Today I did pretty much nothing at all.
In The Severed Streets (Paul Cornell), the coppers from London Falling discover many more things in the course of thwarting evil magic, include what can only be described as an Appalling Secret.
Any time two people get shanked in London, there has to be a Jack the Ripper tie-in, but it was reasonably well-done this time. Also, Neil Gaiman stars as a secondary character, which is just weird.


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text:
Wrongful Dismissal: UTT…
Dr Fazal Ali
Wrongful Dismissal: UTT to Pay former Provost $1.3M
Business Caribbean Main Stories T&T News
'The process which was engaged was devoid of merit and has no place in a plural, civilized society which adheres to the tenets of democracy, fairness and equality' – Justice Frank seepersad
By Prior Beharry
THE University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) has to pay more than $1.3 million to a former provost who was wrongfully dismissed, the High Court has ruled.
Dr Fazal Ali was fired after the September 2015 general elections when a new board of UTT was put in place.
He was hired in 2012, and according to the ruling delivered by Justice Frank Seepersad on Monday, there was no history of improper conduct or failure by Dr Ali to discharge his professional duties.
The judge ruled, "The Court has found that the Claimant's contract was wrongfully terminated and as a direct consequence he was deprived of his salary and allowances. In addition, he had to deal with the professional and emotional toll that his dismissal may have occasioned."
Dr Ali was hired in May 2012 as provost and oversaw the academic community, curriculum content, exams and student discipline.
He even temporarily held the position of president of UTT and handled corporate governance of institution's facilities, procurement, budgets and finance. He held that post for about a year.
In 2015, he was given a three-year contract but when the new board was appointed his performance was reviewed.
Dr Ali was placed on administrative leave several months after by the board but found out about it when he was contacted by journalist Asha Javeed of the Express. He received his suspension letter at night after he was told by Javeed.
Justice Frank Seepersad
UTT stated that it conducted an audit after which Dr Ali was charged with two disciplinary offences over his alleged role in ending the employment of a senior lecturer and a programme administrator.
The disciplinary tribunal led by former Industrial Court vice president Gregory Baker found Ali guilty and he was terminated.
Dr Ali then filed a lawsuit in 2018.
In his ruling, Justice Seepersad said, "The evidence convinced this Court that there was a pellucid mission to get rid of the claimant as he was marginalised, excluded from meetings and then subjected to a wrongful dismissal.
"His suspension letter was dated 28 January 2017 but it only was when he telephoned the Defendant's President to inquire about the veracity of Ms Asha Javeed's report was he informed of his suspension.
"The letter was subsequently delivered to his home by Mr Manzano at 9.44 pm that night.
"The Court noted with disapproval that the intended suspension was in fact leaked to the press before the claimant was even notified. The commentary in the Javeed article also painted the audits as being financial in nature and erroneously created the impression that the claimant was engaged in fiscal impropriety.
"There was a clear and defined target and an 'X' was placed on the claimant's back."
In condemning the board of UTT, the judge said, "The process which was engaged was devoid of merit and has no place in a plural, civilized society which adheres to the tenets of democracy, fairness and equality.
"It appears that the Bboard adopted a mission to ensure the claimant's removal and shamelessly engaged in conduct which was designed to take advantage of every chance so as to ensure the successful fruition of its focused and deliberate plan."
Justice Seepersad said, "This court will not sanction the conduct which was engaged. The board operated in a manner which was shameful, offensive, deliberate, discriminatory, highhanded and reprehensible.
"The conduct of the board must be punished and a proportionate award of aggravated damages must be made so as to reflect the blameworthiness of the Defendant's conduct and to signal to all Government appointed Boards that the behaviour exhibited in this case will not be tolerated or condoned by the court."
The court awarded $275,000 for aggravated damages and UTT is to pay Dr Ali $707, 200 (net of income tax) being the sum the Claimant would have earned under the second contract had it been performed for the period October 2017 to May 2018.
UTT is also to pay Dr Ali $330,000 (net of income) for loss of opportunity with respect to a new contracts.
There is a stay of execution of 28 days.
UTT was represented by Stephen Singh instructed by Amannda Adimoolah.
Appearing for Dr Ali were senior counsel Russell Martineau and Fyard Hosein and Anjali Maharaj.
Police Kill KFC Bandits
Video: 'I Wont Get Justice' – Daddy Bharatt
Alexander says Nothing has Changed since Andrea's Death
$25M Scanners Not Working


text:
June 30, 2010 | International
GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL FACES ELECTORAL TEST
German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a tough test of her government's popularity on Wednesday with the election of a new president.
The role is largely ceremonial but the election is being seen as a verdict on her raft of austerity measures.
Her candidate, Christian Wolff, faces a strong challenge from former East German rights activist Joachim Gauck.
The German president is chosen by an electoral college in a secret ballot of 1,244 representatives.
Eurozone crisis
The president has little power and the role is largely symbolic.
But the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Berlin says a win for Mr Gauck would be considered a major blow to Mrs Merkel.
She is under increasing pressure over her government's package of austerity measures and because of infighting in the cabinet, our correspondent says.
Her candidate is Lower Saxony state governor Christian Wulff, deputy leader of her Christian Democratic party.
He remains the favourite to win as Mrs Merkel's ruling coalition enjoys a majority in the electoral college.
But Mr Gauck is a strong challenger – a non-partisan human rights campaigner who did much to expose the crimes of the East German secret police, the Stasi.
Our correspondent says Mr Gauck is both popular and widely respected – with even some members of Chancellor Merkel's own coalition saying they might vote for him.
Since coming to power last October, the coalition has had to tackle the eurozone debt crisis.
This has led to rescue packages for European partners that have been deeply unpopular in Germany.
The presidential election was called after Horst Koehler stepped down on 31 May.
He was said to be uncomfortable over criticism of an interview he gave on the role of the German military.


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It has 2 bedrooms, living room, fully equipped kitchen and a private veranda with wooden furniture.
The apartment has a shared courtyard with a barbeque guests can use and shared tables and seating so that you can enjoy sitting outdoors in the evening with your friends.
It is sunny and airy, have a view of the garden and the sunlight.