Digitalization! A battle cry in most companies these days. Before entering this battle, managers should know that even so economic rules have not changed, economic factors costs have changed dramatically. Hal Varian, nowadays chief economist at Google, explains the impacts.
Hal Varian is known by about every student of economics. All there was to learn in the field of microeconomics for undergraduates in the last 25 years, chances are they learned it from Varians textbooks. After achieving extreme success with his two textbooks, he went on to co-author "Information rules – a strategic guide for the networked economy" in 1999. In 2002, he joined Google and helped change its strategies ever since.
For me there is quite a bit of nostalgia here. First of all, I studied Varians "Microeconomics analysis" textbooks in my time at the University of Glasgow in 1989. I graduated as an economist in 1994 and spend my first years working for Volkswagen and Daimler as an consultant. After spending the first years on SAP ERP, I honed in on the internet business in 1998 and read everything i could in order to prepare for my start-up. Since time immemorial i took on the habit of summarizing business books and storing the summary for later reference. According to this summary, i wasn't much impressed with Hal Varians book "Information rules – a strategic guide for the networked economy". It was the same micro-economic theory again, just applied on things like information. His conclusions sounded all to logical: The rules haven't changed, just the factor costs. This is just ordinary microeconomics applied on the elusive good "information". Not very exciting at all. And not to practical in its implications, i thought.
How wrong have i been! I have underestimated the impacts of the insights of this book. I certainly did not underestimate the revolutionary potential of the internet, because i went forward to build internet marketplaces like the "European Logistics Exchange EULOX" and my own start-up, a B2B contracting platform in 2000.But i underestimated that changing factor costs, such as "zero marginal costs to add an additional customer" to a platform will lead to the dominance of B2C Platforms (e.g. amazon, facebook, eBay, google, paypal), of crowdsharing, of powerful online communities of freemium models etc. I continued to think in B2B terms, but noticed that B2C was where the real impact was in the last 20 years.
I would not have gone to my book shelve and dusted off my copy of "Information rules", which has been there for 17 years now, if not for Salim Ismails 2014 book "Exponential organizations". Salim did what i couldn't do 17 years ago. He took Carl Shapiros and Hal Varians work and looked used it as an input to draw a map of the digital economy.
Have a look at this map of the "battlefield" of digitalization.
The basic laws of microeconomics dictate that in the long term, competition will drive prices toward the marginal cost to provide it. For information goods, this will be zero. This is the root cause which drove the music and journalism industry to its crisis. Although the music industry has recovered a bit with the emergence of the streaming market, revenues are much reduced and once powerful music studios are marginalized.
Managing versioning and digital rights has become a part of the bread and butter skills of information based companies by now. More interesting is lock-in. Google, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, AirBnB etc. have invested billions to build their customer bases – for one purpose only: To lock-in customers to their platforms.
In the 2000 there was a lot of speculation on the viability of this strategy: Will Amazon ever be profitable? Will Facebook be able to earn anything of significance? Will a search engine ever be a business? We know the answer by now. But by now, every other competitor has lost – at least for the foreseeable future.
Network effects log customers in. The more customers are using an information good, the more value this information good has to the customer. This is the power of the platform.
Once a platform is established it is more valuable to the customer, as increasing numbers of other customers are using the platform, too. It is worth exponentially more, as I have described in an earlier post on this blog. Exponentially more, according to the work of Salim Ismail in "Exponential organizations", too. In fact, the abundance of information goods, the fact that the whole world can be supplied with information goods at virtually zero marginal costs creates a new economy of abundance.
As stated by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler in their 2012 book "Abundance: The future is better than you think": Companies are currently build for the problems of scarcity. They know how to manage scarce resources efficiently, they know how to scale efficiently, they reduce risks and move slow, because their business model is based on scarce resources.
But if something is abundant, as information is in the digital age, their business model fails. In fact, the whole organizational structure fails, the traditional ways of management fails, the speed is way to slow, their focus on supply side synergies is wrong, their focus on demand side synergies lacking.
Hotel Rooms: Used to be fixed in a location until a new hotel has been build. Nowadays, rooms are abundant and respond to demand, as they are dynamically added as needed by home owners with platforms such as AirBnB. At zero marginal costs to AirBnB.
This has fascinating implications – give the video 2 minutes of your time.


BeachAbility is proud to announce that the latest addition to its fleet of beach friendly wheelchairs, located in St Clement, is now ready for use. This takes the total number of specially adapted chairs dotted along Jersey's coastline up to nine.
The new Tilt-in-Space model wheelchair is housed at La Mare slip and has been generously sponsored by Jersey Cheshire Home, where staff are hugely aware of how uplifting it is for residents to be under the open skies, close to the sea, enjoying the company of family and friends at the beach.
All BeachAbility wheelchairs have as standard large inflatable ballooned wheels that permit the chairs to be pushed with ease over sand and rough terrain. The purchase of this Tilt-in-Space model, enables users with more severe postural and mobility problems to access the chair, and is of particular value for the needs of the residents and clients of Jersey Cheshire Home.
The chair at La Mare, which is free for the public to use, is housed in a purpose built shed, kindly donated by The Rotary Club of Jersey.


text:
Saddening Images of Dead Sea Birds With Plastic in Their Stomach
Kaushik Patowary Jun 20, 2014 4 comments
Photographer Chris Jordan, who specializes in large-scale works that depict the magnitude of our consumerism and its impact on our environment, has brought us these heart-wrenching images of birds killed by ingesting plastics that increasingly pollute our oceans.
For three years, the Seattle-based photographer and a small crew of cinematographers have been filming the albatross living and breeding on the island of Midway Atoll, in the Pacific, more than 2,400 miles from Alaska. The birds, which normally feed on squid and other animals that swim near the surface of the water at night, have instead been accidentally swallowing pieces of floating plastic, often mistaking them for food, that now litter the world's oceans. The birds then return to the island, regurgitate the plastic and feed it to their young.
Of the 500,000 albatross chicks born here each year, about 200,000 die, mostly from dehydration or starvation. The chicks that died from those causes had twice as much plastic in their stomachs as those that died for other reasons. The plastic punctures the bird's stomachs, creating life-threatening injuries. Other times they die of choking, dehydration or starvation as the plastic leaves little room for water or food.
20 tons of plastic debris ends up on Midway each year and five tons of that is fed to the chicks. Aside from, albatross studies have shown up to 1 million seabirds choke or get tangled in plastic nets or debris every year. About 100,000 seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins, other marine mammals and sea turtles suffer the same fate.
Midway Atoll is a critical habitat in the Pacific Ocean. Three million seabirds and 250 different marine species populate the island, the nearby reefs and lagoons. It is the winter home for most of the world's remaining populations of the Laysan, Black-footed, and Short-tailed albatrosses, as well as fourteen other species of seabirds. Critically-endangered Hawaiian monk seals, green sea turtles and about 300 spinner dolphins call this remote paradise their home.
More pictures at www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/. Official website: www.midwayjourney.com
Sources: Wired / Pacific Voyagers
Crystal June 22, 2014 at 2:24 PM
This is awful...we need to do something to help the poor birds
The unseen effect because of industrial age
Yes. Let's all return to the stone age.
Waste free optimist October 26, 2016 at 5:41 PM
These distressing images should be exhibited to a wider audience. I haven't lost hope and I don't think that humans are heartless in general and if more people see this tragic reality and realise who caused it, I think there will be a stir of conscience. Photos like these need to be on the plastic packages and products so that they remind us that recycling is the only way to reduce our waste, just like they put those appalling pictures of smokers on the cigarettes packs...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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2 Minutes of the meeting Monday Oct 20 2017 – agreed, signed by Chairman.
3 Matters arising not already on the Agenda – none.
4.1 Sale of old Mags on eBay – 'on-going'.
4.2 Framing of pictures – more up, more to do, frames still to purchase.
4.3 Curtains rehanging – 'to be done'.
4.4 Dordrecht' – 6 May 2018, arrangements 'on-going'.
4.5 property insurance – insufficient time, to be done next year.
4.6 ECF clocks – 11 being purchased at £25/clock.
6.1 Director changes – JW 'to be done'.
7.7.2 Budget – updated sheet distributed.
8.1 SWMLtd Fire Extinguishers Serviced – JW to pay.
8.2 PK Boiler to be serviced.
8.3 Roof – scaffolding to go up tomorrow.
10 Junior chess – 'on-going'.
11 Tournament Controllers Report – Winter Tournaments 'up and running'.
14 Library – books donated by JN all sorted – 150 new to Library.
16.1 Honorarium – as last year – agreed unanimous.
16.2 £100 for Library Books at Congress – cancelled – agreed unanimous.


Acroform Retail Solutions was established in the year 1988, to address the growing pains in the retail space. With the growth of retail over the last few decades, our business grew to providing solutions to help brands stand out in this cluttered environment. What started as a small manufacturing unit of 200 sq. ft. grew to a 2200 sq. ft space with offices in Goregaon East, Jogeshwari East and Vasai.
We take a 360 degree approach by managing every aspect of your retail campaign from consulting, to strategy, design and fabrication. With an employed workforce of over 30 skilled craftsmen, we specialise in handling projects of all scales and sizes under one roof. We consult with your team on the best materials and techniques that can be used in the given timeframe and budgets to ensure you have the best quality retail solutions for your growing business needs.


text:
namespace ash {
namespace eche_app {

using chromeos::network_config::mojom::ConnectionStateType;
// TODO(https://crbug.com/1164001): remove when it moved to ash.
namespace network_config = ::chromeos::network_config;

const char kFakeDeviceName[] = "Guanru's Chromebook";
const char kFakeBoardName[] = "atlas";
const bool kFakeTabletMode = true;
const ConnectionStateType kFakeWifiConnectionState =
    ConnectionStateType::kConnected;
const bool kFakeDebugMode = false;
const char kFakeGaiaId[] = "123";
const char kFakeDeviceType[] = "Chromebook";
const bool kFakeMeasureLatency = false;
const bool kFakeSendStartSignaling = false;
const bool kFakeDisableStunServer = false;

void ParseJson(const std::string& json,
               std::string& device_name,
               std::string& board_name,
               bool& tablet_mode,
               std::string& wifi_connection_state,
               bool& debug_mode,
               std::string& gaia_id,
               std::string& device_type,
               bool& measure_latency,
               bool& send_start_signaling,
               bool& disable_stun_server) {
  absl::optional<base::Value> message_value = base::JSONReader::Read(json);
  base::Value::Dict* message_dictionary = message_value->GetIfDict();
  const std::string* device_name_ptr =
      message_dictionary->FindString(kJsonDeviceNameKey);
  if (device_name_ptr)
    device_name = *device_name_ptr;
  const std::string* board_name_ptr =
      message_dictionary->FindString(kJsonBoardNameKey);
  if (board_name_ptr)
    board_name = *board_name_ptr;
  absl::optional<bool> tablet_mode_opt =
      message_dictionary->FindBool(kJsonTabletModeKey);
  if (tablet_mode_opt.has_value())
    tablet_mode = tablet_mode_opt.value();
  const std::string* wifi_connection_state_ptr =
      message_dictionary->FindString(kJsonWifiConnectionStateKey);
  if (wifi_connection_state_ptr)
    wifi_connection_state = *wifi_connection_state_ptr;
  absl::optional<bool> debug_mode_opt =
      message_dictionary->FindBool(kJsonDebugModeKey);
  if (debug_mode_opt.has_value())
    debug_mode = debug_mode_opt.value();
  const std::string* gaia_id_ptr =
      message_dictionary->FindString(kJsonGaiaIdKey);
  if (gaia_id_ptr)
    gaia_id = *gaia_id_ptr;
  const std::string* device_type_ptr =
      message_dictionary->FindString(kJsonDeviceTypeKey);
  if (device_type_ptr)
    device_type = *device_type_ptr;
  absl::optional<bool> measure_latency_opt =
      message_dictionary->FindBool(kJsonMeasureLatencyKey);
  if (measure_latency_opt.has_value())
    measure_latency = measure_latency_opt.value();
  absl::optional<bool> send_start_signaling_opt =
      message_dictionary->FindBool(kJsonSendStartSignalingKey);
  if (send_start_signaling_opt.has_value())
    send_start_signaling = send_start_signaling_opt.value();
  absl::optional<bool> disable_stun_server_opt =
      message_dictionary->FindBool(kJsonDisableStunServerKey);
  if (disable_stun_server_opt.has_value())
    disable_stun_server = disable_stun_server_opt.value();
}

class TaskRunner {
 public:
  TaskRunner() = default;
  ~TaskRunner() = default;

  void WaitForResult() { run_loop_.Run(); }

  void Finish() { run_loop_.Quit(); }

 private:
  base::test::SingleThreadTaskEnvironment task_environment_;
  base::RunLoop run_loop_;
};

class FakeTabletMode : public ash::TabletMode {
 public:
  FakeTabletMode() = default;
  ~FakeTabletMode() override = default;

  // ash::TabletMode:
  void AddObserver(ash::TabletModeObserver* observer) override {
    DCHECK(!observer_);
    observer_ = observer;
  }

  void RemoveObserver(ash::TabletModeObserver* observer) override {
    DCHECK_EQ(observer_, observer);
    observer_ = nullptr;
  }

  bool InTabletMode() const override { return in_tablet_mode; }

  bool ForceUiTabletModeState(absl::optional<bool> enabled) override {
    return false;
  }

  void SetEnabledForTest(bool enabled) override {
    bool changed = (in_tablet_mode != enabled);
    in_tablet_mode = enabled;

    if (changed && observer_) {
      if (in_tablet_mode)
        observer_->OnTabletModeStarted();
      else
        observer_->OnTabletModeEnded();
    }
  }

 private:
  ash::TabletModeObserver* observer_ = nullptr;
  bool in_tablet_mode = false;
};

class FakeObserver : public mojom::SystemInfoObserver {
 public:
  FakeObserver() = default;
  ~FakeObserver() override = default;

  size_t num_backlight_state_calls() const {
    return num_backlight_state_calls_;
  }
  size_t num_tablet_state_calls() const { return num_tablet_state_calls_; }

  // mojom::SystemInfoObserver:
  void OnScreenBacklightStateChanged(
      ash::ScreenBacklightState screen_state) override {
    ++num_backlight_state_calls_;
    if (task_runner_) {
      task_runner_->Finish();
    }
  }

  // mojom::SystemInfoObserver:
  void OnReceivedTabletModeChanged(bool is_tablet_mode) override {
    ++num_tablet_state_calls_;
    if (task_runner_) {
      task_runner_->Finish();
    }
  }

  static void setTaskRunner(TaskRunner* task_runner) {
    task_runner_ = task_runner;
  }

  mojo::Receiver<mojom::SystemInfoObserver> receiver{this};

 private:
  size_t num_backlight_state_calls_ = 0;
  size_t num_tablet_state_calls_ = 0;
  static TaskRunner* task_runner_;
};

class Callback {
 public:
  static void GetSystemInfoCallback(const std::string& system_info) {
    system_info_ = system_info;
  }
  static std::string GetSystemInfo() { return system_info_; }
  static void resetSystemInfo() { system_info_ = ""; }

 private:
  static std::string system_info_;
};

ash::eche_app::TaskRunner* ash::eche_app::FakeObserver::task_runner_ = nullptr;
std::string ash::eche_app::Callback::system_info_ = "";

class SystemInfoProviderTest : public testing::Test {
 protected:
  SystemInfoProviderTest() {
    ash::GetNetworkConfigService(
        remote_cros_network_config_.BindNewPipeAndPassReceiver());
  }
  SystemInfoProviderTest(const SystemInfoProviderTest&) = delete;
  SystemInfoProviderTest& operator=(const SystemInfoProviderTest&) = delete;
  ~SystemInfoProviderTest() override = default;
  std::unique_ptr<FakeTabletMode> tablet_mode_controller_;
  std::unique_ptr<FakeObserver> fake_observer_;

  // testing::Test:
  void SetUp() override {
    tablet_mode_controller_ = std::make_unique<FakeTabletMode>();
    tablet_mode_controller_->SetEnabledForTest(true);
    system_info_provider_ =
        std::make_unique<SystemInfoProvider>(SystemInfo::Builder()
                                                 .SetDeviceName(kFakeDeviceName)
                                                 .SetBoardName(kFakeBoardName)
                                                 .SetGaiaId(kFakeGaiaId)
                                                 .SetDeviceType(kFakeDeviceType)
                                                 .Build(),
                                             remote_cros_network_config_.get());
    fake_observer_ = std::make_unique<FakeObserver>();
    system_info_provider_->SetSystemInfoObserver(
        fake_observer_->receiver.BindNewPipeAndPassRemote());
    SetWifiConnectionStateList();
  }

  void TearDown() override {
    system_info_provider_.reset();
    Callback::resetSystemInfo();
  }

  void GetSystemInfo() {
    system_info_provider_->GetSystemInfo(
        base::BindOnce(&Callback::GetSystemInfoCallback));
  }

  void SetWifiConnectionStateList() {
    system_info_provider_->OnWifiNetworkList(GetWifiNetworkStateList());
  }

  void SetOnScreenBacklightStateChanged() {
    system_info_provider_->OnScreenBacklightStateChanged(
        ash::ScreenBacklightState::OFF);
  }

  void OnTabletModeStarted() { system_info_provider_->OnTabletModeStarted(); }

  void OnTabletModeEnded() { system_info_provider_->OnTabletModeEnded(); }

  std::vector<network_config::mojom::NetworkStatePropertiesPtr>
  GetWifiNetworkStateList() {
    std::vector<network_config::mojom::NetworkStatePropertiesPtr> result;
    auto network =
        ::chromeos::network_config::mojom::NetworkStateProperties::New();
    network->type = chromeos::network_config::mojom::NetworkType::kWiFi;
    network->connection_state = kFakeWifiConnectionState;
    result.emplace_back(std::move(network));
    return result;
  }

  size_t GetNumTabletStateObserverCalls() const {
    return fake_observer_->num_tablet_state_calls();
  }
  size_t GetNumBacklightStateObserverCalls() const {
    return fake_observer_->num_backlight_state_calls();
  }
  TaskRunner task_runner_;

 private:
  // base::test::TaskEnvironment task_environment_;
  std::unique_ptr<SystemInfoProvider> system_info_provider_;
  mojo::Remote<chromeos::network_config::mojom::CrosNetworkConfig>
      remote_cros_network_config_;
};

TEST_F(SystemInfoProviderTest, GetSystemInfoHasCorrectJson) {
  std::string device_name = "";
  std::string board_name = "";
  bool tablet_mode = false;
  std::string wifi_connection_state = "";
  bool debug_mode = true;
  std::string gaia_id = "";
  std::string device_type = "";
  bool measure_latency = true;
  bool send_start_signaling = false;
  bool disable_stun_server = true;

  GetSystemInfo();
  std::string json = Callback::GetSystemInfo();
  ParseJson(json, device_name, board_name, tablet_mode, wifi_connection_state,
            debug_mode, gaia_id, device_type, measure_latency,
            send_start_signaling, disable_stun_server);

  EXPECT_EQ(device_name, kFakeDeviceName);
  EXPECT_EQ(board_name, kFakeBoardName);
  EXPECT_EQ(tablet_mode, kFakeTabletMode);
  EXPECT_EQ(wifi_connection_state, "connected");
  EXPECT_EQ(debug_mode, kFakeDebugMode);
  EXPECT_EQ(gaia_id, kFakeGaiaId);
  EXPECT_EQ(device_type, kFakeDeviceType);
  EXPECT_EQ(measure_latency, kFakeMeasureLatency);
  EXPECT_EQ(send_start_signaling, kFakeSendStartSignaling);
  EXPECT_EQ(disable_stun_server, kFakeDisableStunServer);
}

TEST_F(SystemInfoProviderTest, ObserverCalledWhenBacklightChanged) {
  FakeObserver::setTaskRunner(&task_runner_);
  SetOnScreenBacklightStateChanged();
  task_runner_.WaitForResult();

  EXPECT_EQ(1u, GetNumBacklightStateObserverCalls());
}

TEST_F(SystemInfoProviderTest, ObserverCalledWhenTabletModeStarted) {
  FakeObserver::setTaskRunner(&task_runner_);
  OnTabletModeStarted();
  task_runner_.WaitForResult();

  EXPECT_EQ(1u, GetNumTabletStateObserverCalls());
}

TEST_F(SystemInfoProviderTest, ObserverCalledWhenTabletModeEnded) {
  FakeObserver::setTaskRunner(&task_runner_);
  OnTabletModeEnded();
  task_runner_.WaitForResult();

  EXPECT_EQ(1u, GetNumTabletStateObserverCalls());
}

}  // namespace eche_app
}  // namespace ash

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Ingmar Bergman, 1918-2007
I no longer have to think about the answer to the question "who's the world's greatest living director?" Eric Rohmer now has the title unquestionably all to himself.¹ Ingmar Bergman died Monday. Appraisals are already pouring in (including this pre-death one by, of all people, Joe Queenan) and I learned of this invaluable site.
More than any other director, Ingmar Bergman was the man who taught me that movies were, or at least could be, more than "just movies" or "mere entertainment." That films could even be profound quasi-religious experiences. He was also one of the few artists who seemed to have a direct line to my soul — albeit in reverse overall, but while fitting near perfectly upon mine in certain details.
Bergman moved during the course of his career from being a tortured Christian to a tortured post-Christian. God was a constant character in Bergman's late-50s and early 60s films, but He more or less disappeared after THE SILENCE. In that respect, Bergman played Virgil to my Dante.² Or as I put it here regarding him and Hitchcock: "both Christians who had enormous difficulty being believers." In the latest edition of Crisis, Michael Foley writes:
There are, needless to say, a vast number of films that point to important truths about human existence without necessarily tapping into something that is quintessentially Christian or Catholic.
This can be true even of films that are bleak and godless — literally. If so many movies today are depressing and desperate, it is because they are an accurate (and hence instructive) mirror of the hell that is life bereft of grace or hope. As Pope John Paul II is reputed to have said, "We owe secular artists appreciation for showing us what the world without God looks like."
It would obviously be a crude-minded injustice to reduce Bergman to an unintentional cautionary tale against atheism. Among other reasons, his films are far more complicated than that — partly because hell-on-earth cannot literally exist and partly because even though Bergman became an atheist, he was serious enough that he could never live happily with that thought.
The first two Bergman movies I recall seeing were the Medieval morality tales THE SEVENTH SEAL and THE VIRGIN SPRING, both of which I liked a lot. What was immediately obvious was that these movies were different — worth simply looking at and to think about. I also saw them, more or less, at the time I was recovering from adolescent atheism and reverting back to the Catholicism of my boyhood. I already knew of Bergman's reputation for dark, brooding religiously-based Angst, but these movies spoke to my soul in a direct way.
In the early 60s, Pauline Kael mockingly described Bergman as appealing to "schoolboys who've just heard for the first time that God is dead." But remember that "God is dead" was said by a man who saw that this was as terrifying as it was liberating. And that was exactly the appeal Bergman had. But when at the end of THE VIRGIN SPRING, a character makes a penitential vow, it somehow didn't matter how relentlessly grim the rest of the movie was. The famous dance on the hillside at the end of THE SEVENTH SEAL works similarly — the last thing we see is the family in the background of the above image happily driving away to a few discreetly lyrical notes.
As I noted above, one of the fascinating things about Bergman's whole ouevre is the way his films change as he ages. God hardly appears after THE SILENCE, except in the form of one or two one-scene faithless pastors, and in FANNY AND ALEXANDER. Thus, Bergman moves from the perspective of the Knight in THE SEVENTH SEAL to the Squire. Or rather, and this is what made him speak to me so specifically, he had moved to the perspective of the Squire who once was the Knight and wishes he could be again. Thus THE SEVENTH SEAL typifies why I like Bergman even when he poses challenges to my Catholic faith — that he is serious about the stakes in what Allan Bloom called "the most important question facing every man at all times — the religious question."
Bergman doesn't take God's silence or even God's cruelty as an excuse for smug posturing — he looks on the possibility with dread (Angst, even). Never forget that Heidegger, the man who gave us the current usage of Angst, began adulthood as an Catholic seminarian and that Bergman and existentialism were strongly influenced by Kierkegaard, to whom I was introduced by a fundamentalist Calvinist theology student.
Then, after a mystifying experience with PERSONA that cause me to dismiss the film for years as a mere exercise in cryptography, came WILD STRAWBERRIES. And the face of Victor Sjostrom. Very little, in conventional terms, actually happens during the film's picaresque except the accumulation of flashbacks and events during the old professor's car ride to receive an honorary degree. Some of these episodes are riveting in themselves as stand-alone sequences (the bickering married couple; watching the family gathering from his boyhood; the opening dream of clocks without hands, etc.). But Bergman famously said that the most interesting thing to photograph is the human face, and the whole drama in this film is in Sjostrom's face. What matters is how Sjostrom reacts throughout to such moments as the two youths who debate God's existence or the resemblance between the girl he picks up and his heartbreak of a lifetime.
WILD STRAWBERRIES was an surrealist/Expressionist visual stunner to be sure (the harsh lighting and silence in the opening dream sequence is a vision of hell without a single flame). But what has stayed with me for almost 20 years is that it was the first time I recall watching a film's drama primarily through a psychological prism, through an actor's face, through reactions and refractions, rather than action per se. This disposition, toward psychology and "the pilgrim's progress of a soul," is one I retain³ and WILD STRAWBERRIES was an early case of that sea change in my viewing habits. Like SEAL and VIRGIN, STRAWBERRIES ends with a moment of grace as Sjostrom lies back on his pillow to a few notes of music, like the Softened Scrooge of Sweden.
This pattern, of Hell drenched in a few cathartic final moments, continued throughout Bergman's career. His famed Swedish TV mini-series SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE (I've only seen the 170-minute theatrical cut; reputedly the five-hour version links the disintegration of the marriage to an abortion) is in no serious sense a "happy movie." But its principal subject is love, and, in a perversely Existential way, SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE is actually a moving and romantic film about the subject because it shows how love can remain in the end, even when it is dead ("Love is Dead"?).
There's nasty recriminations, abandonment, second marriages and even a hard-to-watch scene in which Erland Josephson beats Liv Ullmann and then screams at himself in a pitiless rage. There's a rawness to the emotions in Bergman's color movies that his black-and-white movies tended to politely and coolly intellectualize in that Scandinavian chamber-play way. I'm thinking first of THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY and even WILD STRAWBERRIES to some extent. And not just of SCENES among the color movies, but also Ullmann's portrayals in FACE TO FACE and AUTUMN SONATA.
And yet. And yet — Johann and Marianne still love one another and still need one another. In their final reunion in the middle of the night in a dark house somewhere in the world, Ullmann cries out for him and the look on Josephson's face as he rushes to her side says it all. They are forever part of one another and will be because even man's best efforts can't tear some things asunder. It's even perfectly possible (although I don't advise it, it makes the film less interesting) to leave SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE, if uninfluenced by SARABAND, thinking "well, maybe they can or should get back together."
We get a similar catharsis in another of those Bergman color movies. FACE TO FACE, where Jenny sees her grandparents with one another and learns what the doctor meant in the atheist prayer about becoming real and so rejoins the "army of crippled wretches." And the last shots of the epiphany in this very dark and mercilessly oversaturated movie (a common Bergman trait in color) is in bright sunlight. By the mid-70s Bergman had pinned all his faith on human relationships, often as symbolized by the touch of another.
But in AUTUMN SONATA, we got something very different. Here love fails, because Ullmann's character (Eva) is clingy and needy, making demands upon her mother Charlotte, played by Ingrid Bergman. Or as Roger Ebert put it (it doesn't seem to be on his site):
"And Ingmar Bergman, standing apart from this material and regarding it with clarity and detachment, refuses to find any solutions. There are none, I suppose. A lesser filmmaker would have resolved everything at the end in some form of neat Freudian bookkeeping, but Bergman finds in his story only two people, each demanding love from the other, each doomed by the past to fall just short of the ability to love."
The key to this is that AUTUMN SONATA begins basically identifying with Eva and her preparations for Charlotte's visit. But in the course of two virtuoso scenes — one at a piano, the other a late-night quarrel — identification shifts to at least neutrality. Here's the earlier and first-named scene, unsubtitled, but it hardly matters.
In the latter scene, Eva becomes less and less sympathetic as she becomes more and more damning and becomes more and more demonstrative (there is a lengthy take of pure acting genius when Ullmann chokes back tears on cue). The look on Charlotte's face as she spits out the half-known, half-revelation "you hate me" is also genius, because it's when the film definitively shifts identification, but never entirely over to Charlotte. The film fits and contains "both/and" precisely because Charlotte is shown as neglectful, while Eva is shown as a clingy whiner (Pauline Kael hated the film for the latter reason, wrongly assuming that the film totally sides with Eva). I put it this way once:
There's a similar long take focusing on Eva's curdling face while Charlotte demonstrates all of Eva's piano-playing faults, and your reaction then is "poor Eva, Charlotte is a pig." Now it's "poor Charlotte, Eva is a pig." Each is in her own way a pig, but not a mere pig — that is, the pigdom of each feeds off the pigdom of the other in particular unique ways.
And so the open ending is absolute genius and hard-eyedly realistic. They DON'T reconcile because, as Ebert notes, Bergman realizes that the past can't be set aside because we ARE our pasts, that Eva is as deluded in the end as she is in the beginning. The last lines of the letter are a letter Eva writes to Charlotte (paraphrasing from memory) — "I will never let you out of my life again. Even if it's all for naught and it's too late. It must not be too late." The wish is father to the thought; Eva wants it all to happen again. I mean, if you were Charlotte, would you even look at that letter when it came to you (and it's obviously from Eva) given what happened in the course of film time? The husband actually gets the movie's last shot and the look on his face as he puts the note back into the envelope tells us everything. He is the wisest character in the film — awake to both Charlotte's and Eva's flaws. And yet … since the surface tone of the last scene is not hopeless and it doesn't take an imbecile to think that the quarrel may have been cathartic — you can see this same movie playing itself out again and again — hopeful beginning, tension building, demons reign.
Eventually, I did come around to considering PERSONA a masterpiece, and I did so when I stopped trying to "decode" it, particularly the famous beginning and the rhyming middle sequence when the film "breaks." I eventually came to realize that the film must, by design, disintegrate after this because Eden has been destroyed by sin's introduction. The idyllic world of the film's middle section, the two women set apart, and the start of the film, with nurse and patient clearly delineated — they cannot contain the pain and the hatred that the shard of glass has introduced into that world. And done so directly, as opposed to through representation as with Elizabeth facilely watching the TV, say.
The glass also represents the disintegration of identification and role ("who's the hunter, who's the game," in Patty Smyth's opinion), and so everything that happens after that may or may not be a dream or a fantasy. But to try to definitively answer what's what misses the point — as opposed to Fellini's 8 1/2 which, as I say in the footnotes, is rigorously tied to one subjectivity but which is hence completely transparent. PERSONA, at least by the end, is not and cannot be. In other words, I had been trying to impose order where disorder must reign.
And of course, at that point, PERSONA does basically fit together. For example, the confusion about who's whose husband (including in the husband), especially when contrasted with the erotic charge of Alma's famous long monolog about the boys on the beach, become possible. The monolog's very unseenness means it comes from a united subjectivity, while the threesome's(?) explicit displayedeness crushes eros under the weight of chaos. As the interview book "Bergman on Bergman" put it about the end:
Torsten Manns: That's when Alma begins to become schizophrenic; her speech disintegrates. She notices that the other woman is projecting herself into her. With her.
Ingmar Bergman: Yes, words cease to exist for her.
TM: But that's part of the schizophrenic syndrome.
IB: As I see it, Alma's aggressions in this dream situation take on such enormous proportions, she finds she can no longer use words. She becomes violently disturbed; loses her ability to express herself. She's like a machine that has gone to pieces but just goes on turning madly, and her words, without any ordered context, just come tumbling out. Bibi found it frighteningly hard to memorize those word-series. To learn a totally meaningless series of words by heart is said to be about the hardest thing you can do.
TM: It's to be found in Beckett's Godot
IB: Yes, Lucky holds his long monologue – sentences all chopped up. He makes an endless speech based on fragments of sentences. But in Persona, there aren't even two words that fit together."
All the subject matter in the world wouldn't make any difference though, if Bergman weren't the stylistic virtuoso that he is and didn't have the actors that he did. Even if one finds Bergman a pretentious ass, there's no denying that he assembled one of the greatest stable of actors ever assembled in one guy's body of work. And as I wrote here about Sven Nykvist, his usual cinematographer:
Nykvist was able to get the kind of images that … made Bergman Bergman — a bold chiaroscuro in the overcast pearl-gray Swedish light in the black-and-white movies; a mercilessly bright, decadent and pastel-free hues in the color ones. Two movies in that latter category — CRIES AND WHISPERS and FANNY AND ALEXANDER — won Nykvist his two Oscars.
For an example, look at this shot from AUTUMN SONATA.** As I said about the Thai director "Joe" having a distinctive look to his films based on the lighting near the Equator, the Swede Nykvist seemed to work best when working with soft, diffused light in nature and a harsh interior contrast. Every time I see CRIES AND WHISPERS (one of my 10 all-time faves), I get a physical chill down my spine and goose flesh all over when we get the outdoor scene that ends the movie — so different in feel, look, breath and ultimately hope from everything that went before it.
And look at these two pairs of images, all shot by Nykvist — the first pair is from FANNY AND ALEXANDER:
this latter pair is from CRIES AND WHISPERS:
Notice how in both cases, in one image the color is dazzlingly saturated, almost to the point of ugliness, while in the other it's far more muted, to the point of poverty in the FANNY AND ALEXANDER shot. Without seeing the movies in question, it might look like an empty trick, but Bergman/Nykvist played with color and light for dramatic and even theological purposes. In the pair of images from CRIES AND WHISPERS, for example, one is a human-lit interior, of both a set and the human soul, while the other is an exterior scene with natural light shining down to grace us.
Despite all these great achievements (and I haven't gotten to the greatest yet), Bergman's critical esteem has been slipping in recent decades, to the point where he's basically been supplanted in the cinephile pantheon category of Dour, Dark, Boring European Killjoy by Robert Bresson, Andrei Tarkovsky and Carl-Theodor Dreyer. There's some history here. When the cinephilia bug bit me in the late-80s, all of Bergman's best and best-known films were already on good-quality home video and relatively well-distributed at video stores. By contrast, Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu and Dreyer — to name just a few "difficult" or "arty" auteurs — were either mere rumors or available only in one or two films only in quickie or pirated or public-domain forms.
But not Bergman. Along with the considerably less-"arty" Federico Fellini and Akira Kurosawa, his movies were easy finds at that time. And Bergman was himself a superstar, known to people who didn't watch his movies (and would have hated them if they had). For about a quarter-century from 1955 to 1980, give or take, Bergman was the most recognizable "brand-name" art-house film-maker, and the knowledge of him lingers to this day. More than one person at work earlier today said he knew who Bergman was without having seen any of his movies. He made the cover of Time, back in 1960 (can you imagine Michael Haneke or Wong Kar-wai there today). Van Halen alluded to his works. SCTV parodied him. And the famous image of Death in THE SEVENTH SEAL was grist for comics from Woody Allen's LOVE AND DEATH to BILL AND TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY. I even recall a MAD Magazine parody of a Garfield strip as done by Bergman ("We are insignificant specks in the scheme of eternity. We should die," Jon says to Garfield. Then Odie enters the strip.) There's more here too.
One night in that period, after coming back from the video superstore (a new concept at the time) with several tapes, a couple for the whole family to see, and Bergman's THE MAGICIAN to watch by myself. My mother asked (you have to imagine this conversation in Glaswegian "patter"): "what's that other one?" I said, "oh it's a Swedish film." She said: "are you watching manky⁴ Swedish movies?" My father rolled his eyes and said "I don't think it's THAT kind of Swedish movie. Probably the kind of Swedish movie where they winge about death." On another occasion, a Swedish co-worker at the newspaper in Augusta, Ga., asked me, when she discovered I was a film buff, what I thought about Bergman. I started to launch into a panegyric before realizing that Karin was not herself a fan. "We don't like him. He's given all us Swedes the reputation for being gloomy," she said.
Part of Bergman's low standing today among cinephiles, I am convinced, is simply backlash against this unprecedented adulation, plus the related contempt that such familiarity breeds. It's far easier to laugh at an allegorical Death, because we all have, than to laugh at, for example, an allegorical Donkey.⁵ But part of it is also that Bergman's nakedly- and selfconsciously-serious style does not play well in The Age of Irony. Nor does his God-hauntedness play well in an era of evangelical atheism that makes best-selling authors out of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. Angst and the long dark night of the soul are simply not emotions today's viewers can easily tap into.⁶
But that very topic, unfortunately, is the subject of Ingmar Bergman's greatest achievement — CRIES AND WHISPERS, one of my Ten Official All-Time Favorite Films.
It's a stylized period piece about the ultimate existential fact: Death. Or more so, Dying. If you haven't seen it, do so. It's not an easy film to sit through: in fact, CRIES AND WHISPERS may be the most emotionally grueling movie I've ever seen. But seeing it was an epiphany like few I've ever had, inside or outside the movie theater. Counterintuitive though it may seem, it's the ideal depressing movie for times of depression.
Agnes (Harriet Anderson) is dying of cancer. She and the servant Anna (Kari Sylvan) are joined at the family mansion by her sisters Karin (Ingrid Thulin) and Maria (Ullmann), for the last days. There are some flashbacks that reveal that the sisters have grown apart. The behavior of the two visiting sisters to their husbands is psychologically of a piece with what we see among each other in the present, and each has a husband they deserve: a prig and a cuckold, respectively. The only real love in the movie is between Anna and Agnes, exemplified in this famous Pieta shot (which has caused the crude to read lesbianism into the film). Only Anna prays in the whole movie, not even the film's one pastor, who prays over Agnes's body in the conditional tense.
Scene after scene plays with perfect, dream-like control, characters seeming to float slowly on the floor, talking in clipped, polished lines and remembering their pasts largely in enormous closeups. One especially great scene consists of Ullmann and Erland Josephson (the first picture above) looking into a mirror during a crude seduction attempt by Ullmann and, in one unbroken take, reading one another's faces and seeing both the flaws in the other and in themselves as refracted through the other (as I said, the characters in CRIES get whom they deserve).
Then there is the ultimate and perfect Bergman scene IMHO to end with, and one especially poignant on this day. The present-tense drama is over: Agnes has died; her sisters have left the family mansion; Anna is left to read Agnes's diary. And here's the flashback to the end on YouTube, which I've watched so often that I know everything Agnes says, even though this Swedish clip only has Portuguese subtitles.⁷
I can't watch this scene without tears welling up and physical chills coursing throughout my spine. The closing title-card words mean "and the cries and whispers cease." Bergman has (kinda, after his fashion) come to terms with death by his character being "profoundly grateful" for the grace of life's holy moments even in the midst of everything else. It's a hope, but one that doesn't come cheap or easily.
In the Criterion DVD of WILD STRAWBERRIES, one of the extras is a Swedish TV interview in which Bergman says he has come to grips with death being the absolute end. For him. But when he talks about his recently dead final wife, he refuses to believe that she is forever gone. Harsh judgment and existential authenticity is OK for himself, Bergman says, but not for others. But now, on this day, Bergman is one of those "others." Who thus will never leave the rest of us. I doubt Bergman left the world on terms of friendship with God. Which makes all our prayers more needed than ever.
¹Among those film-makers for whom it's reasonable to surmise that we have their whole career or near-enough-that.
² Yes, I know that sounds horribly pretentious, even for me. But that really is how intimately I have thought to know at least Bergman-the-artist and my reaction to him over the decades.
³ The four films on the very top of my Official All-Time Favorite List — A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, TIME OUT, REAR WINDOW, and 8 1/2 — can all fairly be called that, in spite of the four films having virtually nothing else in common.
⁴ In general, this word means "filthy," with the here-extended meaning of "pornographic."
⁵ My readership is extremely unrepresentative on the point, but I'm still confident at least a sizeable minority don't get that allusion.
⁶ The two persons who've expressed the most contempt for Bergman in my presence and drawn my ire therein are both not simply atheists but anti-theists.
⁷ Here is one account of the voiceover, which seems to follow the Portuguese as best this Spanish semi-literate can discern, and is certainly consonant with my memory: "Wednesday the third of September — The tang of autumn fills the clear still air but it's mild and fine. My sisters, Karin and Maria have come to see me. It's wonderful to be together again like in the old days, and I am feeling much better. We were even able to go for a little walk together. Such an event for me, especially since I haven't been out of doors for so long. Suddenly we began to laugh and run toward the old swing that we hadn't seen since we were children. We sat in it like three good little sisters and Anna pushed us, slowly and gently. All my aches and pains were gone. The people I am most fond of in all the world were with me. I could hear their chatting around me. I could feel the presence of their bodies, the warmth of their hands. I wanted to hold the moment fast and thought, "Come what may, this is happiness. I cannot wish for anything better. Now, for a few minutes, I can experience perfection. And I feel profoundly grateful to my life, which gives me so much."
** Still from AUTUMN SONATA from Matthew Desem at The Criterion Contraption
July 30, 2007 Posted by vjmorton | Uncategorized	| Ingmar Bergman | Leave a comment


text:
RAPE OF SWEDISH WOMAN ON SWEDISH FERRY IN FINNISH WATERS: 2 0F 8 SUSPECTED ARE MUSLIMS…….
Finland Islam in Finland Islam in Sweden Rape Sweden
By KGSaccess_time8 years agochat_bubble_outline3
The Local refused to identify what kind of "Swedes" are in question, ethnic or of the immigrant background variety.
This is at least what I can ascertain, after having been forwarded the following Swedish police report on the incident (the original photocopy in Swedish is available under the fold. Shakir Mohamed & Abdi Mohamed Ahmed (the second perp named in the report) were two of the eight perps who raped a 45 year old woman in a cabin on a Swedish ferry in Finnish waters.
Until Places for the appointment of a public defender
Preliminary investigation has been initiated against:
Shakir Bjar Mhamad
Shakir is suspected of rape January 31, 2015 ferry Amorella
(K128356-15)
Shakir arrested 15.02.01 2:06 pm
Shakir has requested that the court orders a public defender for him and suggests:
Charlie Tvären Vigg
I am grateful for the district court faxing its decision to Södermspolisen Fax No.
Eight Swedes questioned over ferry 'gang rape'
The Amorella boat where the alleged attack took place. Photo: Viking Line
Published: 02 Feb 2015 14:33 GMT+01:00
UPDATED: Police in Finland have questioned eight Swedish men following claims a woman was gang raped on a Viking Line ferry in Finnish waters over the weekend. Four of the suspects remained in custody on Monday afternoon.
The alleged attack took place on Amorella, an overnight ferry travelling from Stockholm to the Finnish port of Turku on Saturday, a popular route with a reputation for attracting Swedes and tourists who enjoy partying and can enjoy tax-free alcohol for some of the crossing.
Five were later arrested in Åbo in Finland, one was tracked down in Mariehamn and two others managed to make their way back to Stockholm before being arrested on Sunday.
By Monday afternoon, three of the suspects remained in custody in Finland and one was still being questioned in Stockholm. The other four suspects had been released, but had not been "dismissed" from the case, police spokesperson Kjell Lindgren told The Local.
"Right now the big task is gathering video evidence and witness statements," he added.
The suspects are accused of gang raping a woman, 45, who says she was approached in her cabin by a group of men.
According to witnesses speaking to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the crossing was "messy", with many passengers getting drunk and a fight breaking out at a disco on board the ferry earlier in the night, with staff called to restore order.
One traveller told the paper that they saw the victim half dressed and sitting in a corridor "in a shocked state".
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Factory 93 is coming back this Spring to downtown LA…and in a big way.
Insomniac Events', (famed EDC promoter) dedicated techno, deep house and tech house brand is bringing world-renowned DJ Carl Cox for a party you won't soon forget. This is Cox's ONLY Los Angeles appearance in 2018 – so you can bet tickets will go quick for this show. Pleasurekraft, Jon Rundell and Brennen Grey will also be joining Cox for this outdoor musical extravaganza. The music is set to begin at 2pm on Saturday, March 31st and the party will go into the evening.
General Admission tickets for Factory 93's highly anticipated return will be available for purchase starting Feb.9 at 12 p.m. PT at this link.
In collaboration with Carl Cox, Factory 93 will create a new unique atmosphere centered on an outdoor, industrial aesthetic, bringing listeners the vibes they crave while dancing underneath the famed West Coast sunset and moonlit sky. How cool is that!? I'm excited to see what Insomniac does to transform this venue once again! Get ready for a wild day party in downtown LA.


Photo recovery is the procedure of salvaging digital photographs from damaged, failed, corrupted, or inaccessible secondary storage media when it is not accessed normally. Photo Recovery can be viewed as a subset from the overall Data Recovery field.Photo loss or deletion failures may be due to both software or hardware failures.
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Use "Full Scan" mode to lg photo recovery app which may stop found with "undelete" and "unformat" and "recover partition" ,recover photos from raw partition,recover photos of partitons which are not NTFS,nor exfat,nor fat32 after showing a blunder,display as raw file system,unformatted,unknown partition,unpartitioned,should be formatted.
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The dedication ceremony at Sewall Hall. A speaker is at a podium and some women are sitting on the stage. Original resource is a color photograph.
"Sewall Hall dedication ceremony, Rice University." (1971) Rice University: https://hdl.handle.net/1911/71421.
Sewall Hall dedication ceremony, Rice University.


text:
Macroptila antonia är en fjärilsart som beskrevs av Paul Dognin 1911. Macroptila antonia ingår i släktet Macroptila och familjen björnspinnare. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Björnspinnare
antonia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Facebook friends list is empty, just for one specific user Simply executing this query aiming to list all my friend's friends:
GET https://graph.facebook.com/hisFacebookUserId/friends?return_ssl_resources=1&access_token=hisAccessToken

I obtain an empty data entry. => as if it had 0 friends. (but he has 800).
However, it works for many other users.
What might be the reason?

A: Since v2.0 of the Facebook API, you can only get the friends who authorized your App too. It´s a (privacy) feature, not a bug.

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/apps/changelog

Also, it´s not necessary to use an ID for the call, because you can only get the friends of the authorized User anyway:
/me/friends

Btw, don´t forget to authorize Users with the user_friends permission.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Sky Bet Football League Play-Offs in numbers
0 - Fleetwood Town didn't concede a single goal in the Sky Bet League 2 Play-Offs.
1 - Queens Park Rangers scored with their only shot on target in their 1-0 Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final victory over Derby County.
2 - Bobby Zamora's winner for QPR was the second time the striker has scored the only goal of the game in a Play-Off Final, having also netted in West Ham United's 1-0 win against Preston North End in 2005.
2 - Derby were the only team to score more than one goal in the Semi-Final first legs when they netted twice at the Amex Stadium against Brighton and Hove Albion.
2 - This is the second time that Rotherham United have gone from the fourth tier to the second tier in successive seasons. When they were promoted from The Football League's bottom division in 1999/2000 they went straight through the third tier the following year.
3 - All three Play-Off Final winners were based in the East side of Wembley Stadium for their Final.
3 - Three of the six Semi-Final first legs finished level.
3 - Bobby Zamora's past three goals for QPR have all come in the 90th minute or later.
3 - Peterborough United had won their previous three Play-Off campaigns but lost 3-2 on aggregate to Leyton Orient at the Semi-Final stage in the Sky Bet League 1 Play-Offs.
4 - The team finishing fourth in League 1 has gone on to win the Play-Offs in each of the past four seasons.
4 - Derby overcame Brighton on all four occasions that the sides met this term.
4 - Steve Evans made it four successive promotion campaigns after leading his Rotherham United team to victory against Leyton Orient in the Sky Bet League 1 Play-Off Final.
6 - All six goals scored across the three Sky Bet Football League Play-Off Finals were netted at the East end of Wembley.
6 - Fleetwood Town secured their sixth promotion in 10 seasons after winning the Sky Bet League 2 Play-Off Final against Burton Albion.
7 - Queens Park Rangers extended their unbeaten run against Wigan to seven matches with a 0-0 first-leg draw followed by a 2-1 victory in the reverse fixture at the Semi-Final stage.
9 - This year was Preston North End's ninth Play-Off campaign, all of which have been unsuccessful.
10 - The penalty shoot-out between Rotherham United and Leyton Orient in the Sky Bet League 1 Play-Off Final was the 10th time spot-kicks have been needed to settle a Final in The Football League Play-Offs.
12 - Gary O'Neil became the 12th player to be sent off in a Football League Play-Off Final. That was also the first red card of his 15-year career.
15 - Burton Albion's Marcus Holness scored his first goal in 15 months when he netted for the Brewers in their Play-Off Semi-Final second leg against Southend United.
15 - Antoni Sarcevic's decisive goal in the Sky Bet League 2 Play-Off Final was his 15th of the season - making him Fleetwood's top goalscorer.
16 - QPR became the first fourth-placed team in the Championship to win the Play-Offs since Charlton Athletic in 1997/98, 16 years ago.
18 - Fleetwood's 1-0 victory at Bootham Crescent in their Semi-Final first leg against York was the Minstermen's first defeat in 18 outings.
24 - Joe Garner's spectacular strike in the Semi-Final first leg for Preston against Rotherham was the front man's 24th goal of the season.
26 - Rotherham United gathered 26 points from trailing positions in Sky Bet League 1 this season - more than any other side. They also came back from 2-0 down to win the Play-Off Final on penalties against Leyton Orient.
27 - Burton Albion's appearance at Wembley in the Sky Bet League 2 Play-Off was their first since the 1987 FA Trophy Final, 27 years ago.
68 - Derby had 68% of the possession in their 1-0 Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final defeat to QPR.
81 - Nathan Pond made his debut for Fleetwood in front of 81 supporters more than a decade ago - on Monday he was promoted to Sky Bet League 1 with the Cod Army in front of 14,007 fans.
100 - Chris Dagnall's winner for Leyton Orient against Peterborough United in the Semi-Finals was his 100th career goal.
250 - Moses Odubajo's opener in the Sky Bet League 1 Play-Off Final was the 250th goal scored in a Football League Play-Off Final.
1985 - Fleetwood Town's appearance at Wembley was their first since the 1985 FA Vase Final, when they lost 3-1 to Halesowen Town.
2003 - Following their 2-1 loss after extra time at Loftus Road, Wigan are now winless away against QPR since 2003, when they won 1-0 in a Division Two match.
87,348 - The Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final between Derby and QPR set a new record-high attendance for a second tier Play-Off Final, beating the previous best of 86,703 set in 2008.
144,756 - The combined attendance for all three Sky Bet Football League Play-Off Finals was 144,756.
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Sky Bet Play-Offs