And I read into that he wants the best for the fans and the best for us and of course the best for him. We start the game with nearly half of the players [who] aren't going to belong to our squad.
US prosecutors on Tuesday portrayed President Donald Trump's onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort as someone who hid his wealth from political work in Ukraine, as the first trial began arising from an investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 USA election.
The indictment was brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director who is looking into Russian meddling in the presidential election, but the charges are not connected to Manafort's time as Trump's campaign chairman.
Defense lawyers also sought to address head-on Manafort's wealth and the images of a gaudy lifestyle that jurors are expected to see during the trial. Prosecutors questioned veteran political consultant Daniel Rabin about the work he did for Manafort. He's on trial for bank fraud and tax evasion charges.
Still, the trial pulled back the curtain on the former lobbyist who steered Trump's election efforts for a time, including descriptions of Manafort's $15,000 jacket made of ostrich and the more than $6 million in cash he put toward real estate.
The suggestion in court Wednesday that prosecutors may not ask Gates to testify apparently surprised even Judge T.S. Ellis - who retorted: "This is news to me".
Asonye assured jurors Tuesday that the evidence will eventually show how Manafort "constantly issued orders" and "directed" the activities of his associates, including Gates.
"Let's move it along", Ellis said repeatedly.
A prosecutor showed Mikuska and the jury a series of invoices, including for home improvement work, that were seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the August 2017 raid.
"Mr. Manafort is not on trial for having a lavish lifestyle", Ellis said.
On the term "oligarchs", Ellis said use of the word implied that Manafort was associating with "despicable people and therefore he's despicable".
In response, Asonye said, "Well your honor, we constantly re-evaluate by the evidence that comes in".
Matthew Mikuska, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, described on Wednesday how agents approached Manafort's tony condominium last summer, knocking three times before ultimately gaining entrance to the "large, luxury unit" using a key.
The prosecution could be rethinking whether Gates, who pleaded guilty in February to money laundering charges in exchange for offering information on Manafort, will help them, multiple experts said. Last month, Mueller's team disclosed in a court filing what it said was a $10 million loan to Manafort from Oleg Deripaska, a magnate with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Manafort's defense team had accused Gates of being the actual brains behind Manafort's alleged financial misdeeds in their opening statement less than 24 hours before. Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. Several Republican lawmakers said Mueller should be allowed to complete his investigation. Gates also worked as an aide on Trump's campaign.
"Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn't matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!"
The question of collusion with Russian Federation is not at the heart of the case against Manafort - the charges largely pre-date the five months he worked for Trump during a pivotal period in the 2016 race for the White House, some of them as campaign chairman.


text:
It's been great to watch the Suns and Jazz battle for the first seed in the West
Don't sleep on the Los Angeles Clippers
When the Phoenix Suns went 8-0 in the bubble last season and still missed the play-in tournament, you couldn't help but feel for them.
There was definitely still doubt about the Suns, though, as detractors had a case for saying it was a fluke.
Then the Suns picked up point god Chris Paul via trade, but there were still doubts as to how he would perform even after leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to a surprise playoff berth.
Well, the Suns have kept on rolling. They started the season off strong at 5-1, then had a few struggles which saw them hit an 8-8 record toward the end of January.
Since coming off three losses in a row for that 8-8 record, the Suns have not dropped more than two games in a row – something that only happened once against the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets.
In that span, the Suns have had seven win-streaks of at least three games. That includes separate four-game, five-game, six-game, and seven-game winning streaks.
Their latest loss, a 135-103 drubbing at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks, puts their record at 47-19, good for second in the West.
Their other surprising rivals, the Utah Jazz, are currently holding the top spot in the conference at 48-18 thanks to a 126-94 dismantling of the San Antonio Spurs.
The Jazz have been equally surprising this season, considering that they only finished sixth in the West last year and were the first victims of the Denver Nuggets' back-to-back comeback series wins.
They seemed to take heart from that heartbreaking defeat. They didn't start the early part of the season that strong, unlike the Suns, and began the season at 4-4.
Then, they lost their minds, winning 11 in a row and then going on a nine-win streak. That's right, they won 20 out of 21 games, which put them at 24-5. They "struggled" for their standards for a bit after that, seeing their record get to 29-11, before going on another nine-game winning streak.
Both the Jazz and the Suns are winning while playing a team-oriented style of basketball that is pleasing to the eye.
The Suns are among the league leaders in assists per game, led by Pauls 8.8 assists per game. The dynamic guard duo in Phoenix are also backed up by DeAndre Ayton, the first player drafted in 2018. While his performances haven't gotten as much shine as Paul and Booker, the big man's 14.5 PPG, 10.1 RPG and 1.2 BPG are important contributions.
The Jazz, on the other hand, have six players averaging double figures in points: Donovan Mitchell, Jordan Clarkson, Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic, Rudy Gobert, and Joe Ingles.
They don't get as many assists as the Suns, but they spread out the scoring and trust each other to carry the load when necessary. Their second-leading scorer is Sixth Man of the Year candidate Jordan Clarkson, who is averaging 17.5 PPG.
Health is going to be important leading into the playoffs, as the Jazz are still waiting for Mitchell to recover from his ankle sprain. Jae Crowder is also out for the Suns, and they'll need his versatility come playoff time.
It's just good to watch the less-heralded teams give the league's elite a run for their money. As we all know, the regular season is one thing. Winning in the playoffs is a different world.
I wouldn't be opposed to seeing the Suns and Jazz in the conference finals, though. Phoenix did win the regular series 3-0, but I don't think it would be that lopsided in the playoffs. Both teams have a long way to go, seeing as they'll still have to knock out some mix of the defending champs, a resurgent Clippers team, and the ever-consistent Nuggets, the Mavericks and whoever comes out of the play-in tournament to make the conference finals.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This week's recipes from columnist Chris Dryden.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender but still firm. While the pasta is cooking, pour the oil into a large skillet set over medium heat. Add the garlic and stir until lightly browned and toasted, about 3 minutes. Immediately add the tomatoes and salt and toss them in the oil until they are warmed through but not cooked. Remove the skillet from heat. When the spaghetti is done, drain it and toss it with the tomatoes in the skillet (or in the pasta pot if the skillet is not large enough). Sprinkle with the basil and cheese and toss again. Tip the pasta out onto a large warm platter and serve right away. Makes 4 servings.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Slice the zucchini into ¼-inch thick rounds. In a medium bowl, toss the zucchini with the oil. In a small bowl, combine the Parmesan, bread crumbs, salt and few turns or shakes of black pepper. Dip each round into the mixture, coating it evenly on both sides, pressing the coating on to stick, and place in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet Bake the zucchini rounds until browned and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve immediately.
In a small saucepan combine vinegar, lime juice, chili pepper, sugar, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add onion; simmer 30 seconds. Cool slightly. Place cucumber pieces in a medium bowl. Pour cooled marinade over cucumber pieces. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Serve cold. Makes 4 servings.


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Ottone Orseolo (né en 993, mort en 1032) est le  doge de Venise élu en 1009. Il est destitué en 1026 et remplacé par Pietro Barbolano.

Biographie
Ottone Orseolo appartient à la famille patricienne des Orseolo. Fils du doge Pietro II Orseolo, il est associé au trône par son père dès 1007, lui succédant et dirigeant le duché de 1009 à 1026. Il épouse une princesse hongroise, fille de Géza de Hongrie ; ceci fera de son fils, Pietro, un roi de Hongrie.

Élection
Il est élu corégent à seulement quatorze ans, sur la demande du doge son père, afin de succéder à celui-ci après sa mort. Cette pratique est très commune, du moins jusqu'au milieu du  : beaucoup de doges espèrent ainsi pouvoir transformer la république de Venise en une signoria, et le titre de doge en une charge héréditaire. Avant lui, son frère aîné Giovanni avait été corégent, mais il était mort de la peste.

Dogat
Ottone Orseolo néglige les rapports avec l'Empire d'Occident, bien qu'il soit le filleul de l'empereur Otton III ; il ne se préoccupe même pas de renouveler les accords commerciaux avec l'Empire. En 1011, il épouse une fille de Géza, prince magyar, et sœur d'Étienne (István), roi de Hongrie. De cette union naît Pietro, qui, en 1038 est nommé, par Étienne, roi légitime de Hongrie. Cette union hongro-vénitienne justifiera les prétentions des rois de Hongrie sur la Dalmatie vénitienne.

En 1017, Ottone oblige l'évêque d'Adria à rendre à Venise les villes de Loreo et de Fossombrone ; en 1018, il organise une expédition contre les pirates croates. La même année, son frère Orso, déjà évêque de Torcello, est élu patriarche de Grado - il n'a alors que trente ans - tandis que son frère Vitale, âgé de vingt ans, devient le nouvel évêque de Torcello. Le patriarche d'Aquilée dénonce cependant l'irrégularité de l'élection du patriarche de Grado.

La première et la deuxième destitution
Le statut de souverain héréditaire pris par Ottone Orseolo ainsi que l'occupation des principales charges spirituelles par ses frères inquiètent probablement l'aristocratie vénitienne qui se rebelle et contraint Ottone ainsi que son frère Orso à l'exil en Istrie. Le patriarche d'Aquilée Wolfgang von Treffen (en italien Poppone) en profite pour attaquer et conquérir Grado. Les deux frères sont immédiatement rappelés à Venise et réintégrés dans leurs fonctions respectives : Ottone Orseolo reconquiert immédiatement Grado. Peu de temps après, Domenico Grandenigo, âgé de 18 ans et membre d'une des plus importantes familles de Venise, est nommé évêque d'Olivolo (un des quartiers de Venise). Le doge s'oppose à cette nomination et une autre révolte éclate commandée par Domenico Flabanico : Ottone Orseolo est capturé, on lui coupe la barbe et il est envoyé à Constantinople, son frère Orso est en même temps chassé de Grado.

La mort, les successeurs
Après la seconde destitution, les Vénitiens élisent le  en la personne de Pietro Barbolano ; les partisans des Orseolo après quelques années réussissent à le destituer (1031), lui coupant la barbe et l'exilant à Constantinople, exactement comme il avait été fait à Ottone Orseolo qui est de nouveau rappelé dans sa patrie. Son frère Vitale, évêque de Torcello, va le chercher à Byzance, pendant que son autre frère Orso, qui a été réintégré dans sa charge de  patriarche de Grado, administre Venise. Ottone Orseolo meurt avant de rentrer à Venise. Les Orseolo élisent alors comme doge Domenico Orseolo (1032), un parent d'Ottone, mais l'assemblée populaire le contraint à la fuite à l'issue d'une journée de règne ; il réapparait à Ravenne en 1036.

Bibliographie

  Romanin, Samuele: Storia documentata di Venezia, Pietro Naratovich tipografo editore, Venezia, 1853.

Sources

Doge de Venise du XIe siècle
Naissance en 993
Décès en 1032
Décès à 39 ans

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


It all started with a video on YouTube of a guy in India getting his ears cleaned. Have you ever run across any of those impacted earwax videos? Man, talk about disgusting, yet at the same time intriguing, like a car accident, you don't really want to look…..but you just have to. If you haven't seen one of these videos, trust me, watch one, it'll change your life. Anyway, I'm watching this Indian doctor pulling these super large chunks of impacted earwax out of this guys ear. With each pull of the hemostats I felt a rush of disgust, a rush of relief, because that had to feel good to the guy, and also a bit of paranoia. "Jesus!!! Are my ears like that?" I shower every day………..for the most part. I use soap and water on my ears then Q-Tips after the shower. Nothing too disgusting ever comes out, but I do get a bit of a light yellow waxy residue. But am I cleaning my ears the correct way? I've been doing this for close to half a century. Surely even with correct cleaning there has to be some build up. How can I get a good ear cleaning without going to the doctor? Google will tell me!!
So I head over to Google and search "How to clean your ears". I avoid any URL's that look like tree hugging bullpucky and look for ones that are to medical pages. So, I get this Web MD page and, to my surprise, it says that you should never use Q-Tips in your ears. A variety of reasons really, one being you could go in too deep and injure your eardrum. Another reason is that when you stick a Q-Tip into your ear, it actually pushes wax down into the ear canal and can cause exactly what we're trying to avoid. The Web MD page suggested just using warm water, warmer than body temperature, so it can melt the wax and let it run out on it's own. That got me to thinking about when I was a kid. Every summer, anytime you'd go to clean your ears, they'd be spotless…..because you had been in the pool all day and the water and chlorine basically ran everything out of there. Time to give it a try.
From that point I decided to stop using Q-Tips for a test period of 2 weeks. My plan was to use the warm stream from the shower head and point it into my ears, let it run for about 30 seconds, then leave it at that. I was not to check my ears with anything for 2 weeks. So, that is exactly what I did. I'd turn the temp of the water up so it was warmer than body temp, run the jet stream into my ears for about 30 seconds, and that was that. After 2 weeks I got a Q-Tip and was surprised to find that absolutely nothing came out. My ears were spotlessly clean. That was the day that I stopped using Q-tips on my ears. It's been over 3 years now. I get the occasional paranoid feeling that I just have to have a bunch of gunk in my ears so I grab a Q-Tip, nothing, as clean as when it went in.
But does this make me a hippy? Not really, but I'm not finished. A girl I went to school with posted on Facebook that she was stopping using soap, shampoo, and deodorant. Yes, my reaction to that was probably just like yours "Ugggghhhh!" Disgusting, right? Well, I needed something to tell me why people do this. Google here I come again. I started reading up on using soap, shampoo, and deodorant and what they do to your body. I mean, if you really think about it, within the confines of the history of man being on this earth, soap, shampoo, and deodorant was invented 10 minutes ago. Man was not created with the thought of those things being needed. Nature takes care of itself, we know that, we've seen it. So why would the human body be any different? I wasn't ready to jump in head first, but I was tempted to try. This is when I decided to see what would happen if I stopped using deodorant. The Web MD page I read said that a lot of the armpit smell comes from your body trying to get rid of the chemicals from the deodorant. Interesting. It said to give it at least 4 or 5 days to get rid of anything that had already been on there. So, that's what I did. The first 4 or 5 days were interesting. I had some pretty bad pits going, but I was wiping down everyday and wearing 2 shirts to help conceal it. Oddly enough, after the first week, the odor I was getting from my armpits was way less than the odor I was getting when I was wearing deodorant. I just smelled like me. It wasn't really offensive. So, I continued down that road. It's been over 2 years now since I've worn deodorant. Trust me, if I smelled, my wife would be the first to tell me. I honestly don't have much of a pit smell anymore. Granted, if I go 2 days without a shower, yeah, they start humming a bit, but a daily shower keeps me going just fine. Am I hippy? Getting there. Shampoo is next.
Not using Q-Tips or deodorant surprised me to no end so shampoo had to be the next challenge. Could I go 2 weeks without washing my hair? I'd wet it down in the shower, I just wouldn't use any soap or conditioners on it. Why? Well, Web MD says we spend billions annually on shampoos to remove the natural oils from our hair, then more billions on moisturizers and conditioners to put oils right back on our hair. Does that make any sense? I gotta give it a try. So, I stopped. The first 3 or 4 days my hair took on a dry, grassy feel. After about a week or so it became manageable, then after about 3 weeks my regular soft hair was back to normal, and the only thing I had used on it was warm water in the shower. Did I mention that my dandruff was gone too? Something I had been fighting since high school totally disappeared. Sold……for a while. I probably went about 6 months without using shampoo, but, I just never mentally felt right about it. I started using shampoo again and my dandruff came back. I'm willing to put up with a little dandruff for the peace of mind that I'm using shampoo. I'm still sold on the idea that you can get away without it if you want to. You just gotta give your body time to get the shampoo out of it's system and let your hair heal.
Last but not least, soap. Ok, I decided to go the no soap route. That lasted about 3 days. I just couldn't wrap my had around not at least using soap when you shower. I don't know, if I was able to last a little longer things may have changed, I don't know, all I do know is that I love my Coast and don't need crotch gravy.
So, am I hippy? I'd say partially.
Y'all come back, I'll leave a light on for ya.
I knew about the warm water trick, but everything else is a surprise to me. I guess I have experiments to run.
Good stuff. Winter is here in Japan and the air is really dry. I'm currently on the no shampoo thing again as my dandruff takes on biblical proportions in the winter.


This spring, New Economy Project attended Encore Capital's annual shareholder meeting at the Hyatt Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Three members of our legal team, Eve Weissman, Susan Shin, and Nick Loh, went to the shareholder meeting to call out ways that Encore, among the country's largest debt buying companies, harms New Yorkers.
When we arrived, Encore tried to stop us from participating in the meeting, telling us we could not speak, even though New Economy Project is a full-fledged shareholder and even though Encore distributed a document at the meeting indicating that shareholders would each have three minutes to speak.
Summons and Complaint we delivered to Encore. Click to enlarge.
Our organization owns shares in Encore as part of our broader shareholder advocacy, and the company has repeatedly come up on our legal hotline, especially in the form of Midland Funding, which Encore owns. At the meeting, we played an audio recording by Esther Roman, a home health worker and Brooklyn resident who had called our hotline just a few weeks earlier. Ms. Roman's words spoke volumes about the company's practices. We wanted Encore's CEO, board, and other shareholders to hear firsthand how Encore Capital's business practices affect everyday New Yorkers. And we wanted the company to commit to provide redress to the thousands of New Yorkers the company systematically stripped of wealth through its fraudulent practices.
My name is Eve Weissman. I'm a staff attorney at New Economy Project, an economic justice organization that holds Encore shares. We run a free legal hotline for low-income NYC residents. I am here today to share the story of one of our hotline callers, Esther Roman, a home health aide who found out just this past March that her wages were suddenly being garnished because of a judgment Midland Funding obtained against her 11 years ago. Midland obtained the judgment without ever notifying Ms. Roman that she was being sued and without providing the legally required proof.
Not only did Midland illegally extract $100 from Ms. Roman's wages before she was able to stop the garnishment and undo the judgment, but Ms. Roman was also forced to take three days off of work, costing her more than $230 in wages – a huge sum for someone who makes less than $400 per week.
This story is just one example of how Encore Capital's business model, including fraudulently obtaining judgments and then enforcing those judgments to garnish wages and freeze bank accounts, harms low-income New Yorkers. We want to know, will Encore commit to compensating Ms. Roman? And, will Encore provide redress to the other New Yorkers and communities harmed by its practices?
Good morning. My name is Susan Shin. I'm the Legal Director of New Economy Project.
For more than a decade, we've operated a free legal hotline for low-income NYC residents. We frequently hear from people, like Esther Roman, whose story you just heard, who were sued by Midland Funding. We're here to ask: Will Encore commit to vacating judgments that it knows it obtained through fraud, and to providing redress to the NYC residents and communities it has harmed?
In its Consumer Bill of Rights, Midland claims that all affidavits it prepares for litigation are accurate, and that its law firms are told to hire only process servers who follow the law. But that is not what is happening on the ground.
We – and our fellow advocates – have heard from thousands of disabled, elderly, and working poor New Yorkers who learned that Midland had sued them only after Midland had already gotten a court judgment against them. How did they learn this? When they tried to use their ATM card, and discovered that Midland had frozen their bank account. Or when they got a marshal's notice saying their wages would be garnished.
They later discovered that Midland's process servers had lied to the court about serving them – for example, by claiming to have served them at an invalid address or by making up a fake relative. And, in many cases, they learned that Midland's process servers had been sanctioned by NYC regulators for not following the law.
When we looked at these New Yorkers' court files, we saw that Midland itself had lied to the court about the proof it had, claiming to have personal, firsthand knowledge about facts that only a bank or other type of original creditor could possibly have.
Encore has been on notice of its false affidavits since at least 2015, when it entered into a Consent Order with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in which it agreed to stop filing false affidavits, and when new NYS court rules went into effect barring the kind of false affidavits Midland routinely filed.
Yet to this day, Midland and its law firms continue to enforce default judgments against New Yorkers, even though it knows it obtained those judgments through fraud.
So I repeat: Will Encore commit to vacating judgments that it knows it obtained through fraud, and to providing redress for its systematic extraction of wealth from New York's low-income communities and communities of color?
My name is Nick Loh and I'm from New Economy Project. For the reasons you've heard from my colleagues, Susan Shin and Eve Weissman, New Yorkers say "no more, Encore!" You abuse the court system for your own gain so we summon you to the people's court of NYC to answer for violating due process, defrauding New Yorkers, extracting wealth from low income communities of color, and your ongoing malfeasance that wreak havoc on lives.
Vacate your fraudulently-obtained default judgments and provide redress to New Yorkers and New York communities of color now.
You can read more about Esther Roman's story and our work to end predatory debt collection in this cover story in Crain's New York.


How to build AOSP for Xperia devices.
This guide will asume you follow the official Sony build guide, but add some extra tips.
Create a ~/android/build-env folder, cd into it and run the provided repo init command (assuming you installed repo into ~/.local/bin/repo).
Since Google use Ubuntu as a reference build environment, it is advisable you use it as well to avoid incompatibility problems. If you're on Ubuntu already, you can skip this step.
If you're on another system like Fedora or Arch Linux, you can set up a Ubuntu chroot build environment instead.
A build chroot takes about 1-1.5GB of space and will save you from headaches, e.g. when Android modules aren't compiled against your host glibc.
Cross-reference the needed packages with the official Sony build guide should this document be out of date.
If you're building in a chroot: Exit out of the build system by typing exit (and pressing Ctrl-] three times for nspawn), then re-launch your build system and log in as your builder user. If you want to share your own ccache etc. with your build environment, bind the appropriate directories.
(Assuming you installed repo into ~/.local/bin/repo).
Clone the Sony local_manifests git repo as instructed and run repo_update.sh. Your build directory will now be ready for a first build.
Felix: If you want to recreate my own builds, use git clone https://git.ix5.org/felix/local-manifests-ix5 local_manifests -b 'ix5-customizations' instead. After you run repo_update.sh also run ix5_repo_update.sh. This will fetch my newest changes as well.
Run source build/envsetup.sh inside your build environment and then lunch. Select your device from the list. It will look like aosp_f83xx-... where f83xx is the model number of your device. You can choose between eng and userdebug builds, see Choose a target.
For your own usage, userdebug is most likely what you want.
The user target doesn't include root. You'll need to look into vendorsetup.sh for your device if you want to use it.
A full build will take about two to three hours on a beefed-out recent system(Core i7 8th gen 4 cores, 16GB RAM, good SSD). That time can however be cut down for successive builds to around an hour by utilizing ccache and parallelizing the build.
It is recommendable to use a ccache size of around 50-100GB, depending on whether you plan to build different ROMS or for multiple devices.
Then set the environment variable with export USE_CCACHE=1. This variable needs to be set anew every time you open a new terminal, so it is advisable to put export USE_CCACHE=1 at the end of your .bashrc in your home directory (or /home/builder/.bashrc if you're in a chroot).
ccache compression might also save a lot of disk space for you. Set export CCACHE_COMPRESS=1 in your .bashrc.
On Android Q, you need to install the ccache package and set CCACHE_EXEC manually to e.g. /usr/bin/ccache. The reason for this is that Google no longer ships a prebuilt ccache with Android. For more info, see Android Q changes and build/core/ccache.mk.
To use parallel compilation, you need to find out how many threads your CPU has via nproc. Then use that number for make -j<nr-of-threads>. For most computers it will be the number of CPU cores times 2, e.g. "8" for a 4-core CPU.
If you want to share the fruits of your labor, you can create compressed flashable .zip files. Use make otapackage instead of make. This will create a flashable zip file in out/target/product/<device-codename> named something like aosp_f8331-ota-eng.hostname-2018-10-19. You can flash this file via adb sideload or use a custom recovery like TWRP.
After you have tested your build on your own device, you can share the file freely, given that it contains free/libre software under the GPL and other free licenses. The license also means you have to divulge your build sources. So put your patches into a git repo and share them with the world.


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Right Wing Vs. Left Wing: The Clash of Ideologies Explained
To understand the concept and the implications of right wing and left wing politics, one needs to study human history. Both ideologies can be right in their own way, and both can also be distorted to cause a lot of mayhem.
Rahul Thadani
One of the most important debates in politics today, and for the many centuries preceding today's time as well, is the right vs. left wing politics conundrum. The difference in these two ideologies is what separates many political activists and spectators from each other, and this is a slightly uni-dimensional way of looking at the nature of politics and state policies. Every political party that functions can be classified into one of these categories (or the 'Center' if neither are applicable), and this gives the argument from both sides more relevance.
By floating in the center, most parties attempt to appease as many voters as possible. But the general view of each and every political party can be placed in one of these two categories. Both views have often held the fancy of many studies of the political world, and history has enough instances of the pros and cons of each of these schools of thought.
Right Wing Politics
Needless to say, right and left wing politics are the polar opposites of each other, and each focuses on a method that is completely discarded by the other. As a result, there is always a conflict between the two spectrums, and it is impossible to view one as superior to the other.
Right wing parties are often viewed as capitalists and traditionalists, and this has made it difficult for them to operate idealistically in today's equality centric society. They have thus shifted more towards the center in their views, with the purpose of being accepted by a greater degree of voters. As opposed to the left wing, they propagate the progress and the development of the individual over the progress of general society.
Though, this sounds like a positive message to portray, it does come at a cost. The development of society is absolutely necessary for civilization to evolve further, and by placing all the focus on individual development, right wing parties are walking a thin line. When a debate crops up, most leftists bring the example of fascism to the surface. This was a school of though that was taken to the extremes, based on the supposed superiority of a certain race. The results were universally dangerous, and the entire world suffered as a consequence. Just like any other political views, right wing politics that are taken to the extreme can be life-threatening.
The advantages of right wing views today, is that individuals are treated on par with each other. Equal pay and individual liberty are given more importance over the vested interests of the government, and this ultimately results in a society that is less disgruntled with economic strife.
Left Wing Politics
George Orwell coined the famous line 'All men are equal, but some are more equal than others'. This line accurately depicts what the left wing parties are trying to say exactly. In their opinion, the state and the government are far more important than the individuals that comprise it, and this is the only way to progress and develop.
It sounds like a reasonable and noble claim, but when you see the extent of the atrocities committed on people in the name of the state, things take a rapid turn for the worse. Communism, in its peak, was the prime example of left wing extremism, and all it ultimately achieved was the stifling of people's voices and minds, that has left unhealed scars many years after its end.
The obsolesce of communism (for most of the world), today, has caused many left wing parties to also shift towards the center and take a more liberal view of this entire dilemma. Social equality is being focused on more intently, and a state of mutual growth and benefit has been adopted. This does not disguise the fact that in the height of its extremism, left wing views caused a lot of suffering as well.
We can conclude that all forms of politics can be a curse if they are not controlled properly. This is a necessary evil that we need to live with, because some form of administration is required to govern civilized life, or the world will fall into complete anarchy. We still may not know how to tell left wing from right wing in politics, but we must make a conscious effort to control extremism in both cases.
Why is it Important to Vote?
Moral Diplomacy
Characteristics of American Democracy
What is the Role of Government in Society
Why Voting is Important


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text:
Q: MobX autorun behavior I'm exploring MobX and went intrigued by a problem:
If I have this observable:
class ItemsStore {
    @observable items = [1,2,3];
}
const store = new ItemsStore;

and then change it like this:
setInterval(() => {
    store.items[0] = +new Date
}, 1000)

I noticed the following:

*

*autorun(() => console.log(store.items)); never fires...

*autorun(() => console.log(store.items[0])); fires every 1s and gives a new value

*autorun(() => console.log(store.items.length)); fires every 1s although value is unchanged
What is the API logic behind this? I would expect that since store.items never fires, that unchanged properties would behave the same.
And how come MobX knows what code is inside my callback? is it analysing my callback I pass to autorun?

A: console.log(store.items)
An autorun is fired when the observables that were dereferenced in the last autorun are changed. store.items does not dereference any observables. Try store.items.slice() or store.items.toJS() to get the desired effect.
console.log(store.items[0])
This fired because the observable that got dereferenced is changed.
console.log(store.items.length)
This is run because a MobX array is not a real array. The length property is defined as follows:
Object.defineProperty(ObservableArray.prototype, "length", {
    enumerable: false,
    configurable: true,
    get: function(): number {
        return this.$mobx.getArrayLength();
    },
    set: function(newLength: number) {
        this.$mobx.setArrayLength(newLength);
    }
});

getArrayLength reports that the MobX array has been observed:
getArrayLength(): number {
    this.atom.reportObserved();
    return this.values.length;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
former aerospace manufacturer in the United States
North American Aviation was an American aircraft manufacturer which built several important planes and spacecraft.
HistoryEdit
It was founded in 1928 to buy airlines, but then was forced to give up its control of those airlines because of the Air Mail act of 1934. It then went into manufacturing. The first plane it built was the T-6 Texan. It also built the B-25 Mitchell, the P-51 Mustang, and the F-86 Sabre. It later became part of Boeing after a series of mergers.
Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=North_American_Aviation&oldid=8244505"


text: Q: How to get a clean installation copy of mac os High Sierra I have tried every combination of question and filter stating that I needed a full download of High Sierra. I need to do a clean install on another Mac I have, but every time I get the same download of approx 22MB instead of the ~5GB full install version.  I appreciate any help you can provide.  I never had this issue before they released Mojave, probably just a coincidence.


As he he did in 2012, Louie creator/executive producer Louis C.K. will take an "extended hiatus" from the show after Season 5. FX CEO John Landgraf made the announcement during the network's executive session at the TCA Summer Press Tour. "He is anxious to take a break and wants to focus on other things," Landgraf said. C.K. is prepping a movie, and his company has two upcoming series for FX, created/co-created by C.K., comedies Better Things starring Pamela Adlon and Baskets starring Zach Galifianakis.
There is no return date set for the comedian, Landgraf said, "it will be his choice." It could be as little as six months, it could be much longer. "Curb Your Enthusiasm is the right analogy," Landgraf said, referring to Larry David's HBO series, for which he makes new seasons on his own timetable. C.K. previously took a hiatus after Season 3 of Louie, with almost a two-year break between the show's third and fourth season.
"I hope Louie lasts 20 years," Landgraf said, noting that there are no endgame plans for the Emmy-nominated comedy.
Later in the session, Landgraf shared a fun anecdote about the beginning of Louie. Louis C.K. would only do the show if he does it with with zero interference, no notes from the network. "You'll have to do for less money," was Landgraf's response as he explained that when his company invests a capital in a show, it's his duty to make sure that the money is spent wisely.
"We do fulfill function as a partner," Landgraf said.


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Cycling Fit by Jamie Baird
Release date: 28th June, 2006
Publisher: Anova Books
You Save: £3.4 (34%)
Cycling Fit
By Jamie Baird
4Sportsbooks.co.uk price: £6.59, saving 34% on rrp
As scores of the world's fittest (or should that be 'most pumped-up?) men recover from the Tour de France, the world's most gruelling cycle race, Cycling Fit, a useful new book from Jamie Baird, sprints out from the peloton and leaves the bunch gasping behind.
Despite the ongoing scandals that surround Le Tour, across the globe, tyro Bradley Wiggins and Lance Armstrongs remain keen to emulate cycling's genuine heroes, although they face the reality of uncompromising drivers, lousy road surfaces, poorly maintained bikes - and poorly maintained legs. Jamie Baird's book rides to the rescue.
Cycling is a marvellous, exhilarating sport, the cheapest, most efficient way to travel and, according to Baird, the best way to get and keep fit.
It's a part of growing up for many of us, with memories of our first bike, our longest ride, our scraped knees, our punctures. Older generations of cyclists really do remember being able to ride out from towns and cities and spend long lonely days in the countryside; youngsters face new realities of ceaseless traffic and, with the prevalence of the 'school run' and parental anxiety, may never have used their bikes to go to school or to the shops, let alone explore the land.
Whatever use you make of your bike - sport, leisure, recreation, or commuting - cycling is a great route to fitness. But you and your bike also need to be fit before you start. The comprehensive coverage Baird offers provides most of the answers.
First, the bicycle itself: there are chapters on choosing the right machine, making sure your riding position is comfortable and, perhaps most importantly, on maintenance, which incorporates a useful section on an essential cycling toolkit, together with tips on bike security. Indeed, among the well laid out text and easy-to-follow photographic sequences is what one keen cycling friend referred to as "the best ever guide to dealing with punctures."
Modern cyclists are well-served by a burgeoning cycling industry and there is an amazing range of gear referenced here, including helmets (now ubiquitous and essential), shoes, computers, water bottles and clothing for every conceivable combination of British weather thrown at the enthusiastic cyclist.
The heart of the book centres on personal fitness, thus ensuring that when you do get into the saddle, you get the most out of it. Not surprisingly, that includes diet: there is a long chapter on balanced eating (and drinking), while another section includes exercise routines, such as stretching for greater flexibility, all of which are accompanied by well-illustrated pages.
Baird also includes a series of exercises designed to improve strength and stability, particularly in the upper body. As part of his comprehensive coverage, he shows how to deal with minor injuries, introduces readers to the niceties of cycling etiquette and how they can devise their own fitness training programme.
You could dip into any part of this accessible book and learn something useful. It's written clearly and simply and the photographs provide a perfect accompaniment to the text. Great for winter reading, too, when you make that resolution that you really will get fit this year by getting your bicycle out very soon.
Ultimately, Le Tour will remain beyond the vast majority of us, but as this entertaining book shows, there's still plenty to enjoy from just getting on your bike.
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HomeJUST INFG reopens Dangote Cement, parties to continue talks
FG reopens Dangote Cement, parties to continue talks
The Dangote Cement Plant located in Obajana, Kogi State, has been reopened after being closed by the Kogi State Government over issues bordering on the legality of the company's acquisition of the defunct Obajana Cement Company.
The development followed an order by the National Security Council on Friday directing the reopening of the cement plant.
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, told journalists that an agreement had been reached between the Dangote Group and the Kogi State Government on the need to reopen the factory while urging both parties to respect the agreement.
The reopening of the plant came after a 10-day disagreement by both parties over the legality of the acquisition of the cement plant.
In a series of statements by its Commissioner of Information, Kingsley Fanwo, the Kogi State Government had maintained that the acquisition of the cement plant by Africa's richest man did not follow due process.
The state government, backed by its House of Assembly, maintained that process involving the acquisition of the plant translated to asset-grabbing.
On its part, Dangote Industries Limited, the parent company of Dangote Cement Plc had maintained that its acquisition of Obajana Cement Company followed due process.
A statement by DIL insisted that Kogi State had no equity interest in Obajana Cement Plc.
The statement noted that the plant and machinery were conceived, designed, procured, built, and paid for solely by DIL, well after it acquired the shares in Obajana Cement Company.
The company further said that the land on which the Obajana Cement Plant is built was acquired solely by Dangote Industries Limited in 2003, and that taxes paid to Kogi Govt yearly since production commenced in 2007.
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, the Trade Union Congress, and the Shareholders Associations in Nigeria, had also waded into the conflict.
2023: SDP Presidential Candidate ADEBAYO Proffers Solution to Nigeria's Problem
After Dangote, Kogi Assembly Summons BUA over Unpaid 50,000-hectare Land Acquisition


We had an old setlist for this, which was proven to be out of order. I've since fixed to match the video.
Beck mentions that this was, at the time, his biggest concert ever, not counting festivals.
The show is a little sloppy, really, but has some good intense moments. Also the video is a joy, I like ones where you can see the entire band doing their thing as a unit, and not zoomed in on one guy at a time. Smokey really is having a blast here!


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The regional conditions can have an affect on the roofing materials you use. In case your area gets a great deal of sun, you ought to select a roofing material that is certainly UV-resistant. Local factors can impact the roofing material you end up picking.
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The aforementioned article provides facts about a number of the considerations to be aware of when installing a whole new roof in your property.


As you can probably tell, I've pretty much decided to power on through the Advent Project, despite the fact that I let it lapse for fourteen days. Eh. What's fourteen days between friends?
Woke up next to the love of my life snug in my own bed. Made it down to the YMCA in plenty of time to get a good bike, and started warming up. Light class load during the pre-New Year break, and Noreen kills the lights, turns on the blakclight, and fires up "Speak To Me" for the classic "Dark Side of the Moon" class (Ride? I don't necessarily feel comfortable using cycling terminology for spin class, which is a different animal, a ghost shadow of the wonder that is really riding a bike).
Anyway, having been back to spin pretty consistently for almost two months, I had a breakthrough last week in that I finally re-learned pacing on rides, not wiping out too early, and not holding back and finishing fresh. Good times.
After spin, I hit the pool. And spent about 1500 yards staring at the black line on the bottom of the pool.
New Years started early this year – the pool was PACKED – every lane shared. I dropped in with a nice woman who was swimming A TON of leisurely laps, taking the lane next to the wall while she swam next to the rope. So, first thanks for the black line was in making one lane into two.
Then, as the swim went on, the pool slightly emptied out, and I was able to move over a couple of lanes for the last set – 250 hard. Head down, stretching to meet the black line with every stroke, and happy as a clam.
Got home good and tired to start the day.


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text:
Category: pleasant ridge reserve
November 2, 2016 July 7, 2017 cheeseunderground Andy Hatch, martha stewart, pleasant ridge reserve, uplands cheese, Wisconsin cheese
Uplands Cheese Named Amercan Artisan of 2016
The accolades for Wisconsin artisan cheeses just keep rolling in this year. First, Roth's Grand Cru Surchoix from Monroe won the World Championship Cheese Contest in March. Then Roelli Cheese in Shullsburg won the American Cheese Society's Best in Show in July with Little Mountain. And this week, Martha Stewart named Uplands Cheese one of her 10 American Makers of 2016. Talk about the magical trifecta of cheesy goodness.
The cheesemaking crew at Uplands Cheese with Pleasant Ridge Reserve.
Uplands cheesemaker Andy Hatch picked up the award last week in New York, shaking hands and talking shop with movers and shakers from around the world. Each year for the past five years, Martha Stewart and the editors of Martha Stewart Living magazine have selected 10 artisans for their entrepreneurial passion and contributions to their communities in the fields of food, style, design, and technology.
"I'd like to thank Martha Stewart and the editors of Martha Stewart Living for not only valuing the quality of our cheese, but also for recognizing that our success can serve as an example to other family farms looking to add value to their milk. I spent years as a cheesemaking apprentice in Europe, and there's nowhere I'd rather make cheese than in southern Wisconsin. We have everything we need right here to make world-class cheese," Andy said.
As you all know, Uplands is best-known for Pleasant Ridge Reserve, an alpine-style cheese made in the spring, summer and fall months when cows are out on fresh pasture. Pleasant Ridge Reserve is the most-awarded cheese in American history and the only cheese to have won both the American Cheese Society's and U.S. Cheese Championship's Best of Show.
Cheesemaker Andy Hatch
Of course, this time of year, Hatch and the rock star cheesemaking team are finishing up making Rush Creek Reserve, a soft-ripened cheese wrapped in spruce bark that has developed a cult following since its 2010 debut. The cheese, only available mid-November through January, sells out almost immediately after its release. Beginning November 14, Rush Creek Reserve will be available online direct from Uplands Cheese or at specialty cheese retailers nationwide.
Side note: I'm driving to Uplands on Nov. 14 and picking up the first 30 cases we'll be selling at Metcalfe's Markets in Madison and Milwaukee. I feel like it's the perfect way to break in my new car, because really, which is better, a new car scent, or the aroma of washed rind cheese?
Congratulations to the full list of 2016 Martha Stewart American Made Honorees:
• 21c Museum Hotels – Louisville, KY
• Eagle Street Rooftop Farm – Brooklyn, NY
• Girls Who Code – New York City
• Harry's Berries – Oxnard, CA
• Loki Fish Company – Seattle, WA
• M&S Schmalberg – New York City
• NYCitySlab – Yonkers, New York
• Stony Creek Colors – Nashville, TN
• Sweetgreen – Washington, DC
• Uplands Cheese – Dodgeville, WI
And special congrats to Andy and his team at Uplands Cheese. Thank you for making exceptional cheese, and more importantly, thank you for being good people. Wisconsin adores you.
August 4, 2016 July 7, 2017 cheeseunderground ACS, american cheese society, Andy Hatch, lifetime achievement award, mike gingrich, pleasant ridge reserve, uplands cheese, Wisconsin cheese
Mike & Carol Gingrich Awarded ACS Lifetime Achievement Award
Mike Gingrich and Andy Hatch of Uplands Cheese.
Photo by Uriah Carpenter
In March, Uplands Cheese co-owner and lead cheesemaker Andy Hatch asked Ari Weinzweig and me if we might write letters of support asking the American Cheese Society to consider awarding Mike and Carol Gingrich the organization's Lifetime Achievement Award.
I asked Andy if he could send me the nominating document he had submitted, as I wanted my letter of support to fill in any gaps and convince the ACS that the founders and creators of Pleasant Ridge Reserve in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, were indeed so very worthy of the award. After all, past recipients include some serious cheese icons, including Ig Vella, Dan Carter, Kathleen Shannon Finn, Daphne Zepos, Ari Wienzweig, Cathy Strange, Ricki Carroll, John Greeley and Steve Jenkins. No one deserves to be in that list more than Wisconsin artisan cheese pioneers Mike and Carol Gingrich.
As I watched Andy present, and then Mike accept, the ACS Lifetime Achievement Award award on behalf of Carol and himself last week at the annual ACS conference in Des Moines, I remembered why Andy's original nomination papers had brought me to tears. Nowhere in the history of a master and apprentice relationship has a former apprentice (now a rock star cheesemaker in demand at every cheese event in the country) given so much credit to the two people who took a chance on their successor. And never before has the master given most of the credit to the industry and the people who surround him. You all might call it "Wisconsin nice." I call it being humble and kind.
When Mike & Carol Gingrich asked for my help in spreading the gospel of Wisconsin artisan cheese, I said yes. When Mike & Carol asked me to join a committee or help with an event, I said yes. And I said yes because I respected the time, sweat and money they had given to the industry. Mike & Carol Gingrich will never, in a million years, take credit for anything. But they have changed everything.
A standing ovation for Mike Gingrich.
An excerpt from Andy's nomination papers, repeated for the audience at the award presentation:
"Mike and Carol were pioneers in the renaissance of grass-based dairy and farmstead cheesemaking, who had the vision to revitalize old-world traditions in modern ways. Their vision began in the early 1980s, when, together with neighboring dairy farmer and eventual Uplands Cheese co-owners, Dan and Jeanne Patenaude, they were among the first dairy farmers in the country to utilize electric fencing as a way to intensively manage rotational grazing patterns.
"By the late 1990s, when Mike and Dan had combined their herds and purchased a 300-acre grazing farm on Pleasant Ridge, they were producing wonderfully distinctive grass-fed milk and began looking for a way to take advantage of that flavor. After a serendipitous meeting with Ari Weinzweig at the 1998 ACS Conference, Mike became convinced of his milk's potential for alpine-style cheese. Although his idea came in a period when small Wisconsin cheesemakers were contracting, consolidating or just plain quitting, Mike drew up a business plan for a raw-milk, farmstead cheese named Pleasant Ridge Reserve. As with rotational grazing, he saw an opportunity to take advantage of old traditions in new uncommon ways.
Andy continued: "When I bought the farm from Mike in 2014, he gave me a copy of that original business plan. Incredibly, he had done exactly what he had planned in 1998. His was not an easy path to envision back then, and it certainly wasn't easy to navigate. Mike's initial vision of a raw, grass-fed, farmstead cheese struck many as misguided and doomed to fail. When it was proven successful, his refusal to compromise those principles in the name of expansion seemed out of character for an American cheese business. But Mike has the rare combination of a mind sharply attuned to business (he earned an MBA from Harvard before milking cows) and a heart that gravitates to simplicity and authenticity. As he guided Uplands Cheese through growth, awards and recognition, he never wavered from his founding principles, and as he became an impressively profitable cheesemaker, he still provided an opportunity for me, his apprentice, to share in the success and eventually take the reins.
Bob Wills and Mike Gingrich.
"Despite his obvious accomplishments, Mike never took undue credit for the success of his cheese, and he recognized that his company was riding a wave propelled by many people" from the scientists at the Center for Dairy Research who helped him develop the recipe, to Bob Wills, who opened up his cheese plant to allow Mike and Carol make the first batches of Pleasant Ridge Reserve.
Andy concluded: "People in our industry regard Mike not only as a successful cheesemaker, but also as someone who plowed ground that became fertile for the rest of us. It's rare in any industry to find such a celebrated producer with his humility and altruism. While our larger food culture at times seems to revolve around its own narcissistic gravity, the ACS does well to honor a career based on core values of education, networking and sustainability. Mike and Carol Gingrich have embodied those values since they began milking cows in 1980. This is our chance to honor what they have achieved and given to all of us."
Congratulations to Mike and Carol Gingrich, and thank you for putting Wisconsin artisan cheese on the map.
December 27, 2015 July 7, 2017 cheeseunderground Cesar's cheese, cupola, hook's cheese, jeffs select, Landmark Creamery, maple leaf cheese, marieke gouda, pleasant ridge reserve, Roelli Cheese, roth cheese, sartori, Wisconsin cheese
The 10 Best Wisconsin Cheeses of 2015
It was a good year to live in Wisconsin. Our cheesemakers debuted new cheeses, won boatloads of awards, and did happy dances on stage. And because it's almost time to say goodbye to 2015, I think we should pay tribute to the great cheeses that continue to put Wisconsin on the map. Here are my 10 favorites.
1. Cupola, Red Barn Family Farms
Exceptional cheese starts with exceptional milk. No one knows this better than the five dairy farmers who make up Red Barn Family Farms, founded by veterinarian Dr. Terry Homan and his spunky wife, Paula, back in the mid 2000s. Every dairy farmer adheres to the Red Barn Rules, resulting in exceptionally happy cows that give give exceptionally good milk. Cupola is the company's signature cheese (their Heritage Weis 3-Year Cheddar is also one of my all-time favorites). Cupola is a white, hard, alpine style cheese crafted by U.S. Champion Cheesemaker Katie Hedrich Furhmann for Red Barn Family Farms. This is a limited-availability cheese so if you see it at your favorite specialty cheese counter, buy it immediately.
2. Marieke Bacon Gouda, Holland's Family Cheese
U.S. Champion Cheesemaker Marieke Penterman is known for making a variety of flavored goudas – mustard melange, cumin, foenegreek, insert another 10 flavors here, but she outdid herself this year with her new Bacon Gouda. Made on the Penterman family farm in Thorp, Wisconsin, this farmstead bacon gouda is chock full – and I mean freakin' chock full – of bacon. As most of you know, I come from a long family line of folks who don't eat a lot of cheese, and when I presented this cheese to my father on Christmas Eve (keep in mind he was recovering from the stomach flu), he took one bite and then kept eating. The whole thing. Because yeah, it's that good.
3. Petit Nuage, Landmark Creamery
Newcomer Cheesemaker Anna Landmark and her business partner Anna Thomas Bates put Wisconsin on the map with this French-style button sheep's milk cheese last year, and followed up this year with a shiny gold medal at the 2015 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest for their Petit Nuage. Available seasonally from February through October, each cheese is just one ounce in weight and less than two inches in diameter – a perfect single portion. I've seen the cheese paired with honey, ginger, a variety of preserves, and even black pepper, but seriously, it's amazing alone and makes a lovely addition to a cheese board.
4. Queso Oaxaca, Cesar's Cheese
America's best string cheese. Period. I could just stop here, but I have to gush a bit more because I find it amazing that cheesemaking duo Cesar and Heydi Luis still hand-stretch every single batch of this delightfully stringy, salty, addictive cheese. I compare this bright white cow's milk cheese to a bag of potato chips. You can't eat just one, and before you realize what's happened, the entire package is gone. Popular with kids and adults alike, this is the one cheese that teenagers always, always expect me to have in my fridge, and when I don't, inform me I have failed their cheese needs.
5. Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Uplands Cheese
Just when you think there's nothing more that can be said about America's most awarded artisan cheese, Cheesemaker Andy Hatch hits it out of the park with another stellar season of alpine-style greatness. Pleasant Ridge Reserve has been so good for so long, many of us take it for granted. But the current wheels for sale – aged about 15 months – are some of the best cheese I've ever tasted. If you haven't had Pleasant Ridge in a while because you think it's old news, it deserves another look. Simply put, this cheese never goes out of style.
6. Three-Year Cheddar, Hook's Cheese
In a year when Tony and Julie Hook made national headlines with their 20-Year Cheddar (and then donated half of the proceeds – $40,000 to the Center for Dairy Research in Madison), their 3-Year Cheddar is still my favorite. When folks ask what cheese best describes Wisconsin, this is the cheese I put in their cart. Solid, sharp cheddar with a construction-orange hue that put Wisconsin cheddar on the map years ago. A true Wisconsin classic.
7. Dunbarton Blue, Roelli Cheese
Dunbarton is one of the few Wisconsin cheeses that can serve dual purposes on a cheese board: both Cheddar and Blue. That's because this cellar-aged, natural-rinded cheddar sports a few deep veins of blue. It literally tastes like a cloth-bound cheddar until you hit a blue vein, and then the heavenly combination of rustic cheddar and blue mold meet for a new flavor all its own. Remember the commercials from the '80s for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups – where chocolate and peanut butter accidentally meet to make the perfect candy bar? The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board should reenact that commercial for this cheese, because newly minted Master Cheesemaker Chris Roelli continues to strike gold with cheddar + blue = Dunbarton Blue.
8. Extra Aged Goat, Sartori
Master Cheesemaker Pam Hodgson releases this limited-edition cheese twice a year, usually in summer and then in time for the year-end holidays. Hand-crafted in small batches, the 22-pound wheels are aged a minimum of 10-months. If you like Sartori's BellaVitano Gold, you'll like this cheese, as it reminds me of the Gold, but without the Gold's sweet fruity finish, and instead a deeper, tangier bite. Bright white, crumbly yet still sliceable, Sartori's Extra Aged Goat is a perennial award winner on the world stage and is the perfect goat's milk cheese to serve your friends who are under the impression they don't like goat's milk.
9. Roth's Private Reserve, Roth Cheese
I swear to God this cheese keeps getting better every year. Made in traditional copper vats and aged in the Roth Cellars in Monroe, Private Reserve is released on flavor, not age. It's always aged a minimum of six months, but the wheels this year have to be closer to one year. This is literally the best Gruyere cheese you will ever eat that does not have Gruyere in its name.
10. Jeffs' Select, Maple Leaf Cheese & Caves of Faribault
There's no easier way to class up a cheese board than with this aged cow's milk gouda made by Master Cheesemaker Jeff Wideman at Maple Leaf Cheese in Monroe, and then aged by Cheesemaker Jeff Jirik at the Caves of Faribault in Minnesota. With its annatto-rubbed pumpkin-colored rind, this striking cheese sports a dark golden hue with deep caramel notes and tyrosene crystals the size of walnuts. Okay, well perhaps I'm exaggerating about that last part, but this cheese is so good that I can't exaggerate its taste enough. Buy. It. Now.
December 7, 2015 July 7, 2017 cheeseunderground cheese board, cheese box, holiday gifts, marieke gouda, pleasant ridge reserve, Roelli Cheese, roth cheese, Wisconsin cheese
Cheese Gifts for the Naughty and Nice
It's holiday season, so you know what that means: cheese gifts and cheese boards galore. And because you're no doubt the designated cheese geek in your circle of friends, everyone's expecting a cheese gift box or cheese platter for their next party. If you're stuck in a cheesy rut, here are some ideas:
The Cheese Gift Box for the Relatives You Don't Like
Yep, we've all got an in-law or an annoying opinionated uncle in our family that we don't particularly care for, but we know they expect a gift. So this year, give them the gift of cheese. Kill them with kindness with a simple gift box of your favorite medium cheddar, mild blue and young gouda. Tie it up and stick on a bow, and then spend bigger bucks on the folks you like. Which leads me to:
The Cheese Gift Box for Your Favorite Friends
This is where it gets fun. These are the people that you choose to hang out with; the people who ask you the questions they don't know about cheese and expect you to know the answer. So wow them with the same formula as above, but swap for stellar Wisconsin cheeses: Hook's 15-Year Cheddar (only available now, during the holidays); Dunbarton Blue from Roelli Cheese in Shullsburg (crafted by newly-minted MASTER Cheesemaker Chris Roelli; and Marieke 6-9 month Gouda, because it a) tastes amazing, b) won the 2013 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest, so you've got the hardware to back you up, and c) it's made by one of the coolest women on the planet: Marieke Penterman. Slam. Dunk.
The Cheese Platter for the Holiday Work Party
This one's tricky, because you're likely feeding a crowd who may know next to nothing about cheese, but as pointed out earlier, expect you to bring the good stuff because you're the office cheese geek. So go with volume on a budget. Pick up some healthy-sized chunks of Cedar Grove Extra Sharp Cheddar in Plain, Wis.; Edelweiss Butterkase from Master Cheesemaker Bruce Workman in Monticello; Widmer's Brick Cheese Spread and a package of Potter's Winter Wheat Crackers; and a large log of Blueberry Goat Cheese from Montchevre in Belmont, Wis. You'll have an attractive, well-rounded cheese platter with plenty of talking points that won't put you in the poor house.
Finally: The Cheese Gift Box for the Cheese Geek
Let's face it: this is Wisconsin, so we've all got that one friend who is REALLY into cheese. Pamper them with a themed gift box of the hottest style of cheese right now: alpine. Start with the no-brainer of Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville; include a healthy chunk of Grand Cru Surchoix, an extra-aged Gruyere (yes, it's still a Gruyere, even though they took that word off the label) from Roth Cheese in Monroe, and if you can find it: Cupola from Red Barn Family Farms, a semi-hard cheese with notes of caramel and toasted pineapple. Include a bottle of your favorite Pinot Noir or Beaujolais and you'll be official friends for life.
March 18, 2014 July 7, 2017 cheeseunderground Andy Hatch, pleasant ridge reserve, rush creek reserve, scott mericka, uplands cheese, Wisconsin cheese
A New Day at Uplands Cheese
Uplands Cheese, home to the much-awarded Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese, is officially under new ownership. Cheesemaker Andy Hatch and Herdsman Scott Mericka, both of whom began as apprentices years ago at Uplands, announced today they have purchased the dairy farm and cheese company from its founders, Mike Gingrich and Dan Patenaude.
Most industry folks know that Hatch and Mericka have been managing the farm since 2010, leading to a gradual transition to the new management. Andy says the official papers were signed in February, and Uplands Cheese now officially belongs to a new generation.
Mike and Carol Gingrich are pleased with the transfer. "This has been a long time in the works and we couldn't be more pleased to see the farm, the cows and the cheese pass into such capable hands," Mike says.
Uplands Cheese was founded in 2000, when Gingrich and Patenaude began crafting Pleasant Ridge Reserve with the grass-fed milk of their cows. In 2001, the cheese vaulted to fame after winning the coveted Best of Show award at the annual American Cheese Society competition. It repeated the honor in 2005 and again in 2010, while also being named U.S. Champion Cheese in 2003. To date, Pleasant Ridge Reserve is the only cheese to have won ACS Best of Show three times, and is the only cheese to have won both of the major, national competitions.
Hatch, who has overseen cheese production since 2007, believes the Pleasant Ridge Reserve crafted today is better than ever. "We've continued to improve our pastures and our herd, and every year we refine our work in the ripening rooms, to the point where almost every batch is as good as the standout batches of several years ago," he said.
Pleasant Ridge Reserve is made only in the summer months, while the farm's cows are on pasture. In 2010, Hatch added a second cheese to the Uplands repertoire. Rush Creek Reserve is a soft-ripened cheese wrapped in a strip of spruce bark and made with the hay-fed milk of autumn months. Rush Creek Reserve cheese quickly attainted cult status in the cheese world, and continues to sell out quickly each November and December, when it's sold across the country.
Congratulations to Uplands Cheese! We can't wait to see what you do next.
October 16, 2012 July 7, 2017 cheeseunderground Andy Hatch, fromagination, Ken Monteleone, pleasant ridge reserve
Fromagination Celebrates 5 Years with 80 Pounds of Pleasant Ridge Reserve
What started out as the little-store-that-could and morphed into one of the nation's premiere cut-to-order cheese shops will celebrate its fifth anniversary in style this week with an 80-pound wheel of Pleasant Ridge Reserve.
Owner Ken Monteleone, who first opened Fromagination in October 2007, will mark his 5-year anniversary this Friday at 3 p.m. by cutting one of only two 80-pound wheels of award-winning Pleasant Ridge Reserve ever made by Uplands Cheesemaker Andy Hatch in Dodgeville. The 12-month-aged cheese will be offered to the public for tasting and sale.
"It seemed like a pretty good occasion to break out the big wheel," Andy told me this week. "Ken has done a lot for artisan cheesemakers. We're just happy to be part of his big day."
I first met Ken six years ago, when Fromagination was nothing more than a concept he carried around in a black portfolio. I remember meeting him at Barrique's on West Washington Ave., talking about store concepts and what cheeses he would carry. When he opened in October 2007, Fromagination carried nothing but Wisconsin artisan cheeses for the first 30 days. It was the first time a cheese shop of that calibre had done such a thing, and it put Wisconsin artisan cheesemakers on the map.
Since then, Ken and his staff have focused on forging close relationships with Wisconsin cheesemakers, and as a result, the little shop on the Capital Square is often one of the first retailers many artisans contact when a new cheese is developed and ready for tasting. Monteleone sources as many local products as possible, with nearly 60 percent of the shop's 400 products coming from an area stretching from Minneapolis to Madison to Chicago.
That dedication has been recognized by the industry. Lauded for its dedication to serving cheesemakers and small artisans, its attention to customer service, and its commitment to the environment, Fromagination was named an Outstanding Retailer in 2011 by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, and is a perennial winner in local Best of Madison contests for favorite specialty food store.
Be sure and stop by 12 S. Carroll Street in Madison on Friday at 3 p.m., say congrats to Ken, and take home a piece of big-wheel Pleasant Ridge Reserve. See you then!
August 26, 2012 July 7, 2017 cheeseunderground bruichladdich, craig johnstone, madison ruby, pleasant ridge reserve, sartori, scotland, whisky, Wisconsin cheese
Whiskey & Cheese Geeks
Whisky is not my thing. At least I never thought so until last night. It turns out whisky, when presented with a first-rate storyteller in the form of Craig Johnstone from Bruichladdich, is actually pretty good. And it can be an excellent pairing with artisan cheese.
A few months ago, the fine folks who run the annual Madison Ruby Conference asked me if I'd partner with a whisky geek from Scotland to lead a two-hour cheese/whisky pairing session for 150 of their trade show attendees. I thought it sounded like fun, so when Craig emailed me the three whiskies he had chosen, I did like any good writer who hates whisky does – I googled each, and then blind-paired a cheese based on his tasting notes. I figured — it's whisky — how complicated can it be?
For the whisky drinkers out there, you know exactly how complicated it can be, and after two hours of whisky infotainment by Craig, I now have a much better understanding. Hell, I might even buy a bottle or two. Here are the pairings we came up with (all miraculously very good) and a little about each:
1. The Botanist, a small batch, artisanal Islay gin
Okay, so Craig pulled a surprise on me with this one, and I didn't have a cheese lined up to pair with it. But after tasting this aromatic gin (made with 22 wild, native island botanicals, including juniper), I'd pair Marieke Honey Clover Gouda with it. This gin is a relatively new offering from Bruichladdich, and the first batch they made filled 250,000 bottles (a little confidence is a good thing).
2. Laddie 10 paired with Sartori BellaVitano Gold
The first whisky of the evening proved to be my favorite, perhaps, as I was to learn later, it was the least-peatiest (is that a word?) of the Bruichladdich whiskies. This 10-year-old spirit was the first whiskey the company made in its renovated Victorian distillery on the far west of the Atlantic Coast of Islay. It is malted from only Scottish barley, slow-fermented and cask-filled at 70 percent. Its mellow oak sweetness paired well with the fruity BellaVitano Gold, highlighting the lighter, sugary notes of the drink.
3. Port Charlotte PC7 with Carr Valley Sweet Vanilla Cardona
We learned this whisky has been sold out in Scotland for years, and that Craig had found a stash and bought it at Riley's Liquor to take back home with him. While this heavily peated whisky was not my favorite, I found a few drops of water helped cut the smoke so the taste of the barley and craftsmanship shined through. Bruichladdich is excellent at telling the story of its product, with profiles of everyone from the barley farmer to the crofters, to the export clerk included with every bottle. This whisky paired beautifully – the best pairing of the night – with Carr Valley Sweet Vanilla Cardona, a goat's milk cheese rubbed with sugar and infused with vanilla beans. Yum.
4. Octomore 3/152 PPM with Uplands Pleasant Ridge Reserve
Branded as an iron fist in a velvet glove, this super-peated whisky about did me in. It was, however, the favorite of the whisky connoisseurs in the room. The company owner says it's "like getting hit by a 20-foot wave that has crashed over the peat bogs of Islay." I believe him. The Pleasant Ridge only brought out more smokiness, so while the true whisky lovers in the room loved it, in good news, the rest of us were too drunk by this time to care, and just gravitated toward more cheese. As usual, it's hard to wrong with one of the best artisan cheeses being made in the United States.
Many thanks to Craig and all of the Ruby goers for an entertaining and educational evening. If I can swing it, I'll be bringing Craig and his Bruichladdich artisan whiskies to a future Wisconsin Cheese Originals Festival. He's just too entertaining not to share with my fellow cheese geeks.


Whether for discharging and metering or as a protective system in a potentially explosive zone - rotary valves are used in all kinds of industrial processes. Naturally, it is very important to use equipment that conveys the product gently, and which can also be retrofitted to requirements at a later date. The new EZS series of rotary valves fulfils these requirements.
Today pellets, tomorrow powders - industry must continually adapt its production and modify its products to the demands of the market, and at an ever faster pace. Those entrepreneurs who can employ their machine parks flexibly can consider themselves lucky. So it makes all the more sense for production plants to be relatively easily adaptable to changing conditions, by retrofitting for example. Engelsmann kept this ideology in mind while developing a new rotary valve, and offers a varied range of auxiliary equipment.
The quintessence of the EZS series of rotary valves, patent pending, is the unconventional rotor geometry. Their skewed chambers present a number of advantages over conventional types. One of these advantages, for example, is gentler conveying of the product. During an endurance test with polyethylene granulate, this new rotor geometry reduced the dust fraction by about 20 % compared to conventional rotor geometries. There is also less squeaking noise generated when conveying fine-grained products such as sugar. Measurements confirmed 2 to 3 dB(A) lower noise emission. And yet these rotary valves not only produce less noise, they also have lower torque requirements thanks to optimized shear edges. That means drives of lower power can be used, thereby reducing energy costs. A fourth advantage is the option for drill holes in the housing of the new series of valves, which allows leakage air to escape. This option can even be added at a later date after purchasing.
Dust explosion class ST1 (organic dusts).
The manufacturer is Atex-certified by an accredited body, and as such authorized to market equipment and protective systems with the corresponding Atex indication. The accredited body regularly controls that the valves are tested and at consistent quality as they leave the factory.
Another essential property of rotary valves is that they must be easy to clean. Many operators are obliged to clean the valves after a change of product or even after individual batches. As such, they must be easy to dismount. Even that has been taken into account in the new series: there is a removable version in which the rotor can be taken out entirely, including the face plate with bearing and seal, with little expenditure of time. That way, the interior of the housing is very easily accessible and accordingly the rotor can be easily cleaned.
As yet another innovation, the operator can equip the valve with a pull-out fixture and/or a draw-out mechanism. Thus the operator is given the option of first buying the retractable model on its own and then upgrading to these options when convenient. There is no need to make any further modifications to the rotary valve. The operator need only buy the appropriate retrofitting kits, which he can then install with relative ease. The pull-out fixture was developed because in some cases the rotor can only be unstuck from the housing with difficulty. The reason for this is most commonly deposits of product. The pull-out fixture can be mounted relatively effortlessly. By pressing onto the pin, the rotor can be easily loosened from the housing and then manually removed completely.
The draw-out mechanism is especially useful when the rotors need to be cleaned frequently. But it is also helpful when there is only very slight radial play in the rotor, such as in the flashback-resistant models. The mechanism can also be mounted onto the valve very quickly. Once the screws on the face plate have been loosened, the entire rotor can be drawn out from the housing. Since the rotor is held on guide rods, it is very easy for the operator to handle. When developing this draw-out mechanism, particular importance was given to compact design. That keeps the space requirements within limits.
The new series of valves will first be offered in two sizes. The smaller valve (EZS 200) has an installation height of 300 mm and an inlet/outlet flange of DN 150. The conveying volume is 3.0 l per revolution. The larger valve (EZS 250) of installation height 400 mm has an inlet/outlet flange of DN 250 and a conveying volume of 10.6 l per revolution. Other installation sizes shall follow.
The rotary valves are available in grey cast iron, cast V2A and cast V4A. Special materials such as Hastelloy will also be available upon request.
Conclusion: Even though there are many valve variants available on the market, there is plenty of room for improvement. The new rotary valves of the EZS type series have been developed for diverse applications. If necessary, they can be easily retrofitted, such as with a draw-out mechanism that makes cleaning of the rotors easier. New rotor geometry conveys the product more gently and quietly. These rotary valves can also be employed in potentially explosive zones and as a protective system. The new series of valves are anticipated to be available from late summer 2008.


A Quick New Year's Message.
It's so good to be back from the Christmas/holiday festivities, eh?
As for me, I've basically spent the last week pent up in my bedroom, watching direct-to-tv Christmas movies (-coughcough-think Hallmark Channel/Lifetime Channel programs) until 3-4 am on the daily. It's a sobfest over here.
Anyways, on behalf of Mittens (the secretary) and I, we wish you guys a Happy New Year!
We hope your New Year's plans are just as fancy as you guys are, and I hope 2014 brings you fantastical friends and some hella amazing experiences!
A few weeks back, Lillian of Mascaradise had an idea to for us peeps at the Beauty Bloggers group to 'showcase' our ~fabbity fab~ makeup collections, and since my real life friends wanted to do a gift exchange, I thought "Eh! Why not make it a makeup collection AND a wishlist post! #falseproductivityatitsfinest"
So huzzah! Here comes the trash + hot mess (literally)!
..........how long haven't I updated my blog???!
Anyways, I thought I'd ease back into blogging by showing you guys the ~teams of products~ I use to churn out my posts + fancy things on this site. And I gotta say, blogging is one hella expensive hobby. The financial expenses, time, effort and dedication/commitment is nothing to be scoffed at.
This past weekend, I took a trip to Michigan, and every time I go to the States for a shopping trip, I get so angry.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUQ, AMERICA??!??!!?" I would scream in my head as I stroll down aisle after aisle in Walmart, with aisle after aisle presenting the most outrageous and ridiculous products. Instant kettle corn popcorn? You got it! Have you even seen how many brands and varieties of frozen pizza there are in Walmart??? INSANE. WHY DO YOU GUYS EVEN HAVE 'OREO PIE CRUSTS'???? EXCUSE ME???
Can someone mail me a green card pls?
Don't even get me started when I finally found the e.l.f and NYX section at Target. I was ready to break down and cry on the spot.
Yabber yabber yabber, yeah, I know you're just here for the haul.
I don't believe in love at first sight with people, but love at first site with material possessions? Too swoony.
Blushes are basically the only products I get excited about. Well...and concealer. I just think it's so impressive that there can be so many shades of peach, pink, coral, plum and red, all to flatter the cheekbones for a gorgeous rosy glow!
The amount of tag posts I have to do is shameful, so I thought I'd take a step back from all the makeup/serious posts and do a refresher. Hello autumn tag!
Generic answer of sweaters, cozy knits (thinking about knitting matching sweaters for my dog and I--hers will read 'puppy' and mine will read 'human'), apple + pumpkin baked goods, stepping on crunchy leaves, etc.
For a less generic answer--FINALLY I DON'T HAVE TO SEE HALF NAKED PEOPLE (THX 4 DA UNWANTED FREE STRIPPER SHOW, SUMMER), AND ALL MY FALL TV SHOWS RETURNNNNNNNN :'D.
GIFS. SWATCHES. TEARS (well, water test). FRICTION (smudging, basically...).
WHO WILL BE AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL LINER?
Yeah, sorry for the ~dramatic~ intro...I'VE BEEN WATCHING TOO MUCH X-FACTOR DON'T MIND ME.
THE WHOLE SHEBANG BEHIND THE CUT!
.....yeah that's probably important to know.
OK OK, WELL, for the longest time I would blame my three year old mascaras (DON'T JUDGE ;-;) for the redness it would cause my eyes, but when I finally tried new mascaras (Almay, Maybelline, Rimmel, Benefit, Guerlain, e.g), the results were still the same--red, irritated eyes after a few hours.
I recently told a friend about this situation (hi Iriss!), and she asked if high end mascaras made a difference. I said it didn't, but after that, I randomly decided to re-try using Clinique's 'High Impact' mascara for a day.
This tube is actually a sample size I got with a Clinique purchase. The actual, full sized mascara retails for $19. This mascara does not claim to be waterproof. The formula is wet, and applies with a bristle brush.
Oh foundation. Such an vital step in evening out skintone and serving as a base for other makeup to make us look ~naturally gorgeous~.
Struggling to find natural-looking coverage during my first few years of acne was my main concern, and in the early years, I would slather a thick layer of foundation all over my face, despite only having a few blemishes. Crazy once you look back, ain't it?
1. Mix together a full coverage foundation and moisturizer/BB cream. If you're feeling fancy, throw in your primer and illuminator into this cocktail.
2. With a foundation/buffing brush, buff the mix onto areas you need evened out.
3. For extra coverage, stipple the mix onto areas of redness, such as areas of acne hyperpigmentation.
Alternatively, if you've got relatively good skin, just skip everything and head straight to concealer and spot-concealing.
Alright, you may be like, "ALL TALK, NO ACTION. I WANT ME SOME COMPARISON CHARTS."
They say by the end of the first date, you'll know if you've found the one.
I've always been skeptical of this claim, since nothing crazy and life-changing has ever happened to me, and I'm a grump and skeptic at heart, but man, Laneige's 'Sleeping Pack_EX' may be what I've been searching for all my life.
What? Can't a girl just date a product?
After reading June's review on the sleeping pack almost two months ago, I was intrigued, but it was only three weeks that I finally took the plunge! Laneige Sleeping Pack_EX is also actually my first Asian skincare item, and I figured 'HEY, I'M AZN, I SHUD PROBS B USING AZN SKINCARE STUFF IDK'.
I'm usually not one to post first impressions, or even Asian makeup/skincare products, because I hardly come by products that are exceptional, and first impressions usually change after a few months (-coughcoughPrideandPrejudice), but I've been really impressed by this product, despite only having used it regularly for three weeks!
I got this tote from Chapters/Indigo when it was on sale, and I love the typewriter print! Makes me look ~quirky~ and bookworm-ish when I'm actually not. Here are the staples I lug around!
3. Hair tie and bobby pins. So I don't look like the girl from 'The Grudge'/'The Ring' when it's time to eat.
6. Keys. It's funny because there's actually only one key on there and the rest is vacation trinkets/card fobs.
9. Phone and headphones. CAN YOU GUYS GUESS WHAT MV WAS PLAYING ON MY PHONE WHEN I SNAPPED THIS PICTURE? GUESS GUESS GUESS. BECAUSE IT'S STUCK IN MY HEAD.
But yeah, I got this phone last month, and I'm in love! I can finally take selfies because it has a front camera take better quality pictures on my phone, play Android games, download apps (previous phone was a Windows phone), and all that other very very good stuff.
10. Not pictured, but water bottle! I always try to carry a bottle with me because $1+ for WATER R U KIDDING ME. I'm also nit picky about drinking from taps/fountains...because I have a special water filtration system at home.


Another trailer is out for the sword-swinging entrant to the Metal Gear universe.
Hideo Kojima has Tweeted and thus it must be: Metal Gear: Revengeance has a release date of February 21st 2013. This latest reveal came as part of GamesCom 2012, as Konami builds anticipation for the latest entrant to the Metal Gear franchise with a snazzy new trailer for its hack-and-slash war epic.
You play as Raiden, Solid Snake's pal, slicing and dicing your way through an unnamed - possibly African, judging by the trailer - country recovering after a civil war. Raiden's a hired hand for private military contrators, but all is not as it seems and pretty soon Raiden is up to his neck in enemy cyborgs. At least he has a happy little doggie for company.
This is Platinum Games' first shot at Metal Gear, and also the first time that Hideo Kojima has sat on the sidelines; he's executive producer this time, as his attention is on other projects. Metal Gear: Revengeance was previously known as Metal Gear Solid: Rising but became Revengeance - dropping the Solid - to make plain the difference between this title and its predecessors.
There have been some rumbling from fans wary of the switch from stealth to gung-ho swordplay, but developer Platinum Games is that same bunch who put Bayonetta together, so the combat should work very well. Quinton Flynn, the voice actor, is reprising his role as Raiden, which should also please traditionalists. It's not Metal Gear as it has been, but - judging by the trailer - the new style should prove interesting to play.