#but is for somewhat advanced set theoretic concepts

[savrenim]

Axioms of Set Theory? That's a really cool name for a wip I have to say

AXIOMS OF SET THEORY IS ONE I'M EXTREMELY EXCITED FOR AND IS DEFINITELY HAPPENING

it's a jjk fic, a "okay but what if you make Gojo actually actually a mathematician", it's a bunch of disconnected slowly-getting-more-connected scenes in a one-shot but under headings in a 5+1 style of fic except. you know. the 8 Axioms of [ZF] Set Theory+ 1 Axiom of Choice and, like, funnily enough has ended up with extreme everything everywhere all at once vibes?

major spoilers for jjk s2 below the cut for snippet

The Prison Realm, in its own way, is sort of like death. A long time ago, when he was on the brink of death, he thought he understood cursed energy in its entirety. Cursed energy was negative energy. The way that you get a positive from a negative was multiplying it by another negative. It was so simple, so elegant; he finally understood reverse cursed techniques. He should have understood that that was middle-school math. He stares out into the blankness, the infinite dimensional space between dimensions. And then he gives it a basis.

[passionate-reply]

Are you tired of Great Albums being about music people have actually heard of? Do you want me to just go ape shit, and review obscure minimal wave cassettes from the 80s? Admittedly, Oppenheimer Analysis’s New Mexico is one of the most famous weird minimal wave cassettes, and for good reason: it actually holds up quite well as an album! Come check out what all the fuss is about. Transcript below the break.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be talking about a very cultish cult classic, and an album that’s one of the definitive works in the very underground scene of so-called “minimal wave”: New Mexico, the only full album released by the duo “Oppenheimer Analysis.” The band’s namesake was actually lead vocalist Andy Oppenheimer, who became acquainted with instrumentalist Martin Lloyd at the 1979 World Science Fiction Convention, where the pair bonded over speculative fiction, Midcentury graphic design and propaganda, and the work of early British electronic pioneers like the Human League. 1982’s New Mexico was these two’s first recording as a group, but Lloyd did go into it with one credit--the year prior, he and David Rome of Drinking Electricity released a double A-side, featuring the jumpy, playful instrumentals “Surface Tension'' and “Connections.” They referred to their act as “Analysis,” making it feel very much a part of the Oppenheimer Analysis story.

Music: “Surface Tension”

Oppenheimer, meanwhile, was a true outsider artist, making a living as a nuclear science writer without any substantive musical background. While not all minimal wave is “outsider music,” and not all electronic outsider music is minimal wave, there’s certainly a correlation there. Oppenheimer’s reedy, somewhat strained voice lends New Mexico the punkish charm that only utterly untrained vocalists can offer: a vessel that cracks and buckles as it fails to contain the raw emotion within.

Music: “Martyr”

The addition of a singer is one major distinction between New Mexico and Lloyd’s earlier compositions, but they’re also very different in tone. As I said earlier, the “Analysis” instrumentals are sort of light-hearted and sprightly, a bit reminiscent of the jazzy synth experiments of artists like Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley. New Mexico is substantially darker and more gothic, as befitting an LP that’s at least partially a concept album about the nuclear age.

Music: “The Devil’s Dancers”

While nuclear anxiety is an indispensable theme of the album, it’s never a suffocating one that makes it feel horribly antiquated to modern ears. It’s a very aestheticized rumination on nuclear themes, that never jumps up and hollers, “bombs are bad!” Take, for example, the track “Radiance,” probably the best-known track on New Mexico...to the extent that any of them are that well-known. It’s one of the album’s most languorous, atmospheric moments, and paints a vividly desolate picture of ground zero after a detonation, with its fluttering, delicate, but ultimately frigid synth flourishes.

Music: “Radiance”

I think my favourite part of “Radiance” is actually its lyrical turn: an atomic blast isn’t like the radiance of a thousand suns, but rather, vice versa. The latter is the one that’s merely theoretical and dwells in the realm of poetic license, whereas the former is a historical fact that we all have to contend with. “Radiance” is quite solid, but in many ways it’s a pale imitation of the title track, a seven-minute sprawl that works exquisitely as a kind of musical landscape painting:

Music: “New Mexico”

Painfully evocative, with an eerie, almost yearning undercurrent, “New Mexico” is easily the track that feels the most grand and epic. I would really have loved for it to be given more of a place of honour in the tracklisting, possibly as the closing track, but it’s wedged somewhat awkwardly in the middle of the second side. I suppose we can’t expect quite as much from a gonzo underground mail-order cassette release, though. At any rate, while “Radiance” and “New Mexico” are absolutely about atom bombs, they remain very emotionally intimate--almost torturously so. A lot of the other tracks are less about the bomb itself, and more about the rise of “Big Science” in the Midcentury consciousness in the wake of the Second World War--chiefly, “Men In White Coats.”

Music: “Men In White Coats”

As in “The Devil’s Dancers,” Oppenheimer happily accepts the role of an evil or insidious narrator here, and sells us this megalomaniacal perspective with aplomb. A lot of early 80s synth, minimal wave and otherwise, is characterized by more deadpan vocalists, but I can’t stress enough how much Oppenheimer’s piercing lead vocals bring to this album. It’s perhaps the most critical on the tracks that delve into more traditionally emotional topics--chiefly, the standard romantic love numbers. Take, for instance, the harrowing, neurotic “Scorpions”:

Music: “Scorpions”

I’m certainly a fan of the title “New Mexico,” which just ties together all the right connotations. First and foremost, New Mexico is a place--a place you can visit. And this is one of those albums that really wants to ground you in a narrow and specific sense of place, a sonic landscape. New Mexico is mostly empty desert, large tracts of which have been government land even before it started being used more intensively for military research in the 20th Century...most famously, of course, on nuclear weapons. I like to think that the name also suggests novelty and recency of place. We are, after all, entering a “new” world, defined by the advances of science, and the upending of earlier ideas about the world.

The representation of the album art for New Mexico that I’ve been showing you is actually the imagery of the 2010 reissue of the album, which I’ve chosen because I think it’s a bit better known, and I simply prefer it, personally. The most striking thing about it is this colour--a ghostly green, that instantly evokes the common imagery of atomic phenomena. Radiation doesn’t really glow green, of course, but, like everything else about the album, it’s clear that this choice is meant to be a reflection upon the greater cultural imaginings and social impact of the Atomic Age, so I think it’s a perfect fit. At the center of the composition, we see a figure, head bowed and face shaded to provide some sense of anonymity, reaching a hand towards the side of his face in a gesture that’s almost reminiscent of using a cell phone at first glance. What exactly he’s up to is as unclear as his identity. Between the modernist styling of the architecture to his left, and his antiquated attire, the image is quite suggestive of a Midcentury setting. But the real narrative angle here comes from the right side--several figures are approaching that central character, possibly in hostile pursuit. Espionage gone wrong? A desperate attempt to silence a whistle-blower? Much like the music, there’s an ambiguous, mysterious, but also menacing ambiance to this cover.

For historicity’s sake, I’ll also discuss the original cover of the homemade cassettes of New Mexico. As we might expect from the nature of this release, it’s a fairly simple graphic, featuring a nude woman whose full-figured body type, popular on pin-up models, and short hairstyle convey that Midcentury aesthetic almost as well as her clothed counterpart on the reissue. Our eyes are naturally drawn to her exposed breasts, where they meet a pair of radiation warning signs censoring her nipples. A simple image, but a deeply perverse or twisted one. Is it a kind of union between the vulgar, crass profanity of pornography, and the depravity of atomic weapons? Is it a visual representation of the way Oppenheimer Analysis have beautified the nuclear landscape, conflating man’s inhumanity to man with something voluptuous or pleasurable? This cover is at least as complex a symbol for the album as the reissue one is. And while it’s easy to dismiss it as lowbrow, I think it’s worth noting how the salacious or saucy aspect of it would have helped it fit in with other underground cassettes of its era, many of which had lurid or provocative imagery.

Of course, this discussion of the differing incarnations of the album is a natural segue to addressing the release history of New Mexico. The story of Oppenheimer Analysis is deeply entwined with that of New York-based Minimal Wave Records, founded in 2005 by Veronica Vasicka, a radio DJ fascinated by underground electronic music. The label specializes in making obscure, self-published works like New Mexico widely available in digital form, so that more music enthusiasts can get a chance to hear them. Without her, I myself might never have heard this album, and certainly wouldn’t be in a position to make a review like this! Vasicka felt strongly about the artistry of Oppenheimer Analysis, and gave the honour of her label’s first-ever release, “MW001,” to a self-titled EP compiling several of the tracks from New Mexico. Later, in 2010, when she was able to rerelease New Mexico in its entirety, she gave it the honourary designation of “MW001D.”

Vasicka is the one responsible for coining the term “minimal wave” to describe the subgenre she was interested in, and, fifteen years later, I think it’s safe to say it’s had some staying power. While it may be a bit vague and subject to individual interpretation, that’s a problem all genre labels contend with, and I think fans of minimal wave ought to be proud that this term was at least coined by a passionate and dedicated fan, who made her favourite music more accessible to everyone, as a labour of love. It’s also not the only genre term to come about much, much later than the music it seeks to describe. At any rate, New Mexico will always have a place in the minimal wave hall of fame, and it’s a genre-defining work, if in hindsight. The stylistic hallmarks of New Mexico are, for better or for worse, now also those of a whole movement: harsh, tinny rhythm machines, strident synth lines, anxious, unmannered vocals, and technological themes.

But what actually happened to Andy Oppenheimer and Martin Lloyd? In light of the renewed interest in their work in the 00s, they actually got back together for a bit, releasing some archival material from the 1980s and laying down a handful of new tracks, very similar in style to those on New Mexico. Lloyd passed away suddenly in 2013, but Oppenheimer has remained interested in keeping their ideas alive. He’s been performing live as well as putting out new music, first as “Touching the Void,” alongside Mark Warner of Sudeten Creche, and more recently as “Oppenheimer Mk II,” with Mahk Rumbae of Konstruktivists.

Music: “You Won’t Disarm Me”

Something that I think really stands out about New Mexico, especially when compared to a lot of other small-time minimal wave releases, is that it’s a very consistent quality throughout. As you might expect with an underground genre, a lot of the music to choose from is varying degrees of amateurish and clunky, and it’s arguably better to listen to Minimal Wave compilations than the LPs that exist. New Mexico is an exception, though, and doesn’t have any particularly weak tracks. The favourite tracks cited by fans of the album tend to vary pretty widely. My top pick, though, is the album’s opener, “Don’t Be Seen With Me.” It’s a perfect marriage of dizzying, spiraling synth runs, and one of Oppenheimer’s most frenetic vocal performances, that creates a masterful portrayal of being swept up in infatuation with somebody you really shouldn’t be fooling with. That’s all I’ve got--thanks for listening!

Music: “Don’t Be Seen With Me”

[for-ests]

Lost In Your Light: Peter Parker x Reader (Part 2)

Part 1

Word count: 1, 906

CHAPTER 2: FRAGILE

The morning sunshine peaked through the window, warm on her face, yet harsh on her eyes.

Y/N stretched her arms out wide and yawned. It felt good to sleep in, especially after the mishap last night. Thank God it was Saturday.

After minutes of contemplating if she should get out of bed, the girl finally pushed the covers off her body. She stood up and made her way downstairs, ears perking up as she heard the television already turned on.

"Dad?" She called, trotting down the last few steps and entering the foyer. "Why aren't you asleep?" Her father, Doctor L/N, was a busy and intelligent man. He usually worked in the emergency room at Queens Medical Center. He was one of the best surgeons in the state, which called for great responsibility, and a great absence from his daughter's life.

That's why she was surprised to see him awake so early.

Her father was sitting at the breakfast counter, glasses on and newspaper in hand. He had a full cup of coffee placed a few inches away, and Y/N knew that it had to be his third or fourth round.

He looked up and smiled. "Good morning sweetheart." His voice rang in that familiar New York accent that so many people tried to mimic. It made her smile. He had grown up here his whole life, unlike her. She didn't sound like a New Yorker, but she had inherited his features.

Like his warm hazel eyes. Even after years of aging, they were as distinct as ever. He used to have silky brown hair, but now his full head of hair was almost grey--making him look wise. People close to him would know it was true. He was full of life and joy, despite the fact that the love of his life had died five years ago.

Y/N loved her father dearly. He was her only close family left, since she was the only child. They moved to Queens when she was 13, right after her mother had died. It was a huge and painful adjustment, traveling from a small mid western town to one of the largest cities in America. Her mother was her life, the one who took care of her while her father was away at work. Y/N missed her every single day.

Following the traumatizing events, she was more than grateful to have her father by her side through it all. He was a good man, and he loved her mother. Even though he was gone most days, he had done his best. He was there for her when she needed him.

Now that she was eighteen, Y/N understood the importance of his job and why he was called to do it. He saved lives on the daily, basically resurrecting people who should have died from their traumatic injuries. Living in the city was incredibly dangerous, especially since violent crime had increased with foreign species of alien life and their advanced weaponry. 

But deep down inside, Y/N knew her father’s dedication stemmed from the immense amount of guilt and shame he felt. He wasn't able to save his wife from stage four brain cancer. Now, Thomas L/N  was bound to spend the rest of his life trying to make up for his failure.

Every time she looked at him, she could see the tiredness that lingered in his expression. He would never remarry. He would never love again. And it broke her heart.

So every moment was a blessing. Time was scarce in their household.

"Couldn't sleep." He sighed loudly, setting the paper aside. "I don't have any surgeries scheduled for the rest of the day. It doesn't matter."

Y/N raised her eyebrow. "What time is it at?"

"2am." He groaned.

"That still counts as tonight dad, you know that." She chuckled, opening the fridge to take out a carton of eggs. "You want any?"

"If you're making scrambled, yes."

Y/N rolled her eyes. She preferred it over easy, but she would do anything for her father. Even if that meant sacrificing yolk on toast. "Coming right up!" She cheered over-dramatically, salvaging for a skillet and slotted turner.

She cracked open 5 eggs and added some peppers and onions for her father's preference.

As she waited for the stove to heat up, she grabbed the remote and turned on the tabletop television.

Y/N flipped leisurely through the channels, stopping on the local news for his pleasure. She would normally read the daily news on her phone, but any moment they could share together was precious. 

Her father lifted his head as he listened in on the weather for today. It was supposed to be cloudy with a 70% chance of snow.

Y/N frowned, she had wanted to spend some time outside on her day off, but Mother Nature had different plans.

She poured the battered eggs into the skillet, smiling as they sizzled. Their seasoned smell lofted through the apartment, adding to the tranquility that rested between the two.

"Smells good honey." Her father rubbed his belly jokingly. "Haven't had a home cooked breakfast in awhile."

"It's because you're never home." Y/N stuck her tongue out. “I’ll make some bacon too.” 

Her father was about to say something, but was interrupted by the TV. Both their attentions switched to the breaking news segment.

"SPIDER-MAN ASSISTING COPS IN THE CAPTURE OF DOUBLE MURDERER AND BANK ROBBER CHARLES ANDERSON"

The news report continued to explain the situation. The background displaying a familiar-looking building that Y/N recognized to be a few blocks down.

Chills ran down her spine as she realized how close the murder was to where she ‘worked’. What if she had gotten caught in something like that?

She glanced to her father, sighing in relief. He didn't seem to notice her surprise. Which was good because she didn't want him to ask any questions.

"Charles Anderson may have links to the local gang Thorns, but authorities still refuse to comment. All we know is that he is in custody, after being found hanging from a spider web."

Y/N smiled. That Spider-Man was a mystery. She felt safe knowing someone was watching over their city, catching criminals left and right. Especially the violent ones that lingered in the shadows. 

"What do you think about the spider boy?" Her father chuckled after setting his cup of coffee down.

"I like him." Y/N continued to dice the vegetables.

Her father kept listening in on the broadcast. "This just in, Spider-Man confirmed-"

"It's been almost two years since he showed up." He reminded her, his tone somewhat pessimistic. 

"Really?" That comment took her aback. She had forgotten how long it had been. She remembered first hearing about him her sophomore year, sneaking into the bathroom with her friends to watch YouTube videos. That seemed like so long ago, even though it had only been a few years. Y/N had grown so much since then, she was approaching the end of her senior year, almost eighteen years old. And the concept of supernatural beings had become the norm.

As she poured the rest of the vegetables into the skillet, she wondered just how many people like her there were.

Y/N knew she would be safer to keep her abilities a secret. She wasn't strong like Captain America, smart like Iron Man, or even agile like Spider-Man.

She was almost normal.

But even if she wasn't completely normal, knowing there was someone who wanted to keep others safe made her heart feel warm. It was encouraging to see there were others who wanted to help make their crime filled city a better place.

"Hello?" Her dad asked loudly, snapping Y/N back to reality.

"Huh?" She blinked in surprise, failing to notice how deep in thought she was. "Did you say something?"

"I was wondering if you think his intentions are good."

"Truly? I do." She scraped the eggs evenly onto two plates. She didn't want to say too much. Her father didn't need to know about her secret crush on Spider-Man.

"You think so?" Her father got up from his chair and walked over to the window that overlooked the city. "I get worried when these incredibly strong humans are so close to home. That man could kill someone without even trying."

"You do have a point." Y/N laughed, shaking her head at how serious he had gotten. He was often overthinking things. She wondered what he would do if he found out about her powers.

"Do you like him? Tossing aside your philosophy. What do you actually think?"

Her father was silent for a moment, his hands tucked in his trousers. "He seems alright to me. He's protecting the city I love, why wouldn't I like him?"

"That's why I like him. He's doing what the police can't do."

"I didn't think of it that way."

"Now come eat." She smiled, setting two glasses of milk on the table. "You have a long night ahead of you, you need as much protein as you can." 

✭✦✭✦✭

Y/N held the dead succulent in her hand, narrowing her eyes as she tried to generate the power she had felt last night.

Nothing.

"What the hell!" She groaned in annoyance, tossing it into the garbage before she could try again.

The girl didn't understand why she could only heal living things. It frustrated her beyond belief. Her abilities were useless if she couldn't save someone on the verge of death. What if she needed too? She wouldn't be able to live with herself if someone she loved died again.

Y/N pushed herself off the floor and rolled to the other side of her room. The chair squeaked loudly underneath her as she reached for her other potted plant.

It was a pink rose bush that her father had gotten for her. It was beautiful, but had started to wither from lack of water. Theoretically, this should be no problem for Y/N. 

She focused, raising her hand just a few inches over the buds. She searched deep within and called. The warm feeling surged through her body and with the movements of her hand, she bent the roses at her will.

The girl practically screamed with glee, opening and closing her hand, watching as the buds did the same.

It was beautiful.

Almost instinctively, she decided to take it a step further, her heart pounding in her chest and she raised her hand up, demanding the rose bush to grow from within.

The stems gradually thickened, the branches growing longer. She watched in astonishment, but her patience thinned.

She forced the bush to grow faster, but as soon as she tried, a sharp pain seared through her abdomen.

Y/N winced, doubling over with a cry.

Her hands fell away from the plant, and the mendification process stopped. She was panting by then, holding the place where she felt the pain. It ceased as soon as she stopped, but it still frightened her. She'd never felt any pain because of her powers before. Was it possible she couldn't speed up time, only heal to its original state?

She gritted her teeth, hesitant to try again. It would have to wait for another time.

For now at least. But tonight, she had some business to take care of.

✭✦✭✦✭

Tag list! comment if you want to be added! part 3 will be coming in the next few days

@spn-assemble-seven​ @eridanuswave​ @fallisflame​ @used-avocado​ @pluckypete​ @vanillanestor​

[things2mustdo]

The events of recent weeks have proven that it’s not a safe world for masculine men out there. Now more than ever men should be looking into increasing their personal security. As an IT guy I have been thinking for a solution to the problems men face. Below are measures I can recommend one take to increase his security.

Disclaimer: this guide caters to Windows users, but others can still find value.

1. Install a VPN

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. To understand what a VPN does, first you must understand what an IP is. IP is something like a computer passport number. Each electronic device has it’s own IP address. Websites register your IP when you use them—this makes it easy to find your location, your device, and therefore your identity. A VPN makes it so when you connect to a website you first go through the VPN server. So when you connect to a website instead of seeing your computer IP it shows the IP the VPN provides you. Roosh recently wrote on VPNs.

Example (manually changing IP):

The problem here relies on the credibility of the VPN provider. Many VPN providers register your activity and can then hand it to a government organization if they so demand. Even VPNs that promised not to do this, broke their promise. There is an agreement between the Anglo-speaking countries that affects VPN users. The government can ask the provider for your data, and there is nothing your provider can do to not give it to them.

These countries are referred to as 5 eyes. Currently, similar agreements are being done with other countries, referred to as the 14 eyes: United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Sweden

Definitely get a paid VPN. Free VPNs are not an answer, they most likely register some info on you and are slow. After some research on VPN providers I have found some VPN proviers that are outside the 14 eyes, use encryption, accept Bitcoin, support OpenVPN and have a no logging policy and an overall good reputation.

Here are my findings: blackVPN (Hong Kong, 25 servers, 100 dollars a year), Cryptostorm (Iceland, 13 servers, 52 dollars a year), HIDEme (Malaysia, 85 servers, 65 dollars a year), NordVPN (Panama, 52 servers, 48 dollars a year), Perfect Privacy (Panama, 40 servers, 150 dollars a year), Privatoria (Czech Republic, 12 servers, 23 dollars a year).

One VPN provider attracted my attention particularily, that being BolehVPN, since it is one of the only two providers that offers Tor to VPN alongside VPN to Tor (the other one being AirVPN, which is based in Italy, therefore part of 14 eyes), so if you want that particular set-up, check it out.

Make sure to check the VPN provider’s canary. It is a document that confirms that the VPN provider was not touched by the government. It should be updated every month, if it isn’t unsubscribe. Example.

How to increase VPN security

1) Pay with untraceable money

Sign up for an anonymous e-mail account using Tor and use a Bitcoin Mixer to send Bitcoins to a newly generated address in your local wallet. Alternatively, use the Bitcoin-OTC to purchase Bitcoins ‘over the counter’ from a person, rather than an exchange. Then, use a patched Bitcoin client, such as coderrr’s anonymity patch to avoid linking the newly generated address to any of your pre-existing Bitcoin addresses. —Andrew, Private Internet Access.

2) Make sure you don’t disconnect from VPN and prevent DNS leaks

Use the pro version of VPNCheck to automatically disconnect from internet when losing connection to VPN and to prevent DNS leaks. Or search for the manual way of doing it

3) Use multiple VPNs

Another measure to consider is using two or more VPNs. Basically activate one VPN first, then another one, done.

4) Resolve the PPTP IPv6 VPN flaw

Not likely to affect everyone. PPTP is the weakest VPN protocol and if you use one of the VPNs I mentioned before you will likely use a better protocol, but for those who do, there is a possible flaw that you can correct like this—for Windows Vista and above: Open cmd prompt and type: netsh interface teredo set state disabled.

5) Secure your router

Here’s a guide.

2. Install an antivirus

There are three tiers of antiviruses: antivirus sofwtare, internet suite and premium security suites. Read about them here. At minimum use Microsoft Security Essentials (free software from Microsoft), though paid antiviruses (such as Bitdefender, Kaspersky, etc.) are better.

3. Use Tor and TailsOS for safe web browsing

Many popular browsers are not highest ranked in regards to keeping your anonymity. For example, while Chrome is theoretically secure from spyware and adware, their stance on privacy can be summarized as follows:

He went on, speaking about the future of search. With your permission you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches. We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.

There are factors one must be careful of: cookies, encryption (https), tracking ads, javascript exploits, canvas fingerprinting and others. A writeup on these would take a long time so research them on your own if you wish. I will just mention browsers that avoids these issues.

USE SAFE SEARCH ENGINE

Instead of using the google search engine use disconnect.me installed into Tor (or install as extension into Firefox)

TOR BROWSER

Tor Browser is an internet browser designed for online anonymity. It is a modified version of Firefox with add-ons pre-installed. Tor works somewhat similar to the VPN concept. Before connecting to a website you go through “nodes”. Which are private stations, each with its own IP. So instead of showing your IP, it will show the IP of the last node you traveled through.

The downside of Tor is that it is slow, due to the fact that it works thanks to enthusiastic individuals. Tor is not for casual usage, but specifically for privacy needs, particularly posting online or searching the deep web.

Tor has some weaknesses you must be aware of:

First

Oftentimes when you are using a network, the network provider can’t see what you are browsing, but they can see that you are using Tor. You can use things like a bridge obfuscator, obfsproxy, or setting VPN to Tor. This is a complex issue, here is a guide on hiding tor usage from ISP (internet service provider).

Second

The trustworthiness of exit relays. When the government found out about the popularity of Tor they created their own exit nodes, that acted as honey traps. To fight this, use a TailsOS (or booted off a flash stick, DVD or SD card in a public wifi spot, like a coffee shop). That way even if the final node was a trap, it would only lead to your TailsOS profile, not your general one. Check so the public wifi spot you are using has no cameras around, so they will not be able to check camera footage of who used a laptop in that particular time frame. Don’t forget to log off when finished. Alternatively, use Tor to VPN.

Third

Often many programs, like torrents, will ignore Tor, even if you manually force them and just connect straight away, thus giving you away. The answer is to not use torrents with Tor. I REPEAT, NO FILE SHARING ON TOR.

There are of course other various vulnerabilities out there. And as a reminder, Silk Road, a large black market was cracked in the past.

COMBINING TOR WITH A VPN

Tor is good on its own but even better when combined with a VPN. There are 2 methods : Tor to VPN, VPN to Tor. Both have their weaknesses. First one allows ISPs to see you use Tor, the second does not protect from malicious end relays . VPN to Tor masks your Tor usage, Tor to VPN protects from malicious exit nodes.

I have thought of using VPN to Tor to VPN, which should theoretically accomplish both. For VPN to Tor use a secure VPN provider and add non-Tor traffic to mask usage. For Tor to VPN, pay with anonymized bitcoins and never connect to your VPN without connecting to Tor first.

VPN to Tor:  The Harvard bomb hoaxer was de-anonymized because he was the only one in college using Tor. If he went through a VPN first, he would have been harder to track (assuming his VPN provider did not keep logs).

Tor to VPN: Protects from malicious exit nodes, on the other hand. TailsOS with public wifi accomplishes the same. Of course, either is better than nothing. Which you choose depends on your needs. The only two providers that offer Tor to VPN are AirVPN (based in Italy, so part of 14 eyes, but not the 5 eyes) and BolihVPN.

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO USE TOR

While using Tor is advisable, for casual usage you can set Firefox to be very secure with the help of add-ons and custom settings. Here is a guide.

WEBSITES THAT BAN VPN AND TOR

Certain websites ban Tor (e.g. Imgur). Use an alternative then (e.g. Anonmgur). Otherwise use VPN to Tor. There are VPN providers that cycle IPs, so that helps with VPN IP range bans.

TAILSOS

Windows is not very safe. There have been rumors of NSA backdoors on Windows devices. Supposedly NSA can store almost everything you do online (including Facebook, popular mail providers, and possibly things offline).

There are some good alternatives out there, TailsOs being one of them. TailOS is an operating system specifically designed for security and is Linux based. It can be ran off a USB stick. For those extra paranoid, use Tor in a public space on a laptop with TailsOS loaded of a flash drive.

Of course TailsOS is not very suitable for day to day needs, so use it for shitlord purposes. For your day to day purposes you might have to use Windows, but for the love of god, DO NOT use Windows 10, it is absolutely awful for security.

I prefer Windows 7. If you are more advanced, you can use alternative platforms like Debian or some distro of Linux or whatever. Just beware, many programs for Windows do not have alternatives on Linux based systems. If you are a casual, moving to another platform can be difficult. And if you really are a nerd, then you can look into some exotic setup like Qubes + Whonix or whatever other myriad of OS and Virtual Machines there are around.

4. Other darknet browsers 

I2P network: While Tor is designed to anonymously browse the normal web and onion sites, I2P is a web of it’s own. Preferably to be browsed through Tor. It allows (slow) torrenting and great for messaging, IRC, file sharing, secret websites (.i2p)

Freenet – Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication.

5. Look into bitcoin and online currency

Bitcoin is virtual currency that has taken the world by storm in recent years. There are other online currencies competing against it, but Bitcoin is the most established online currency. It is the default virtual currency. Bitcoin is not for daily usage, rather online purposes. There are VPN services that accept payment with bitcoin. There are even services that will store physical gold in exchange for bitcoin.

Truly a financial revolution. Unfortunately, it’s also a big headache for tax services. Bitcoin is also infamous for being used to purchase illegal stuff on the internet black market. But you wouldn’t use it for that, would you?

To start using bitcoins just register a bitcoin wallet and you are good to go.

HOW TO INCREASE BITCOIN ANONYMITY

Bitcoins are not anonymous by default. They must be washed and anonymized. Buying through Tor + Coin mixing + anonymity patched bitcoin client. Over the counter (OTC) bitcoins are an option as well.

6. Use proper password protection

Never use the same password twice. Try to make it long and contain both characters and numerals, etc. Hint : use L33t, P@ssVV0r|)333. If you can, add non English characters even better, PåSsWøRд0, but you can’t always do it.

If you are unsure, use a safe password generator, such as Master Password To manage passwords use a password manager, such as KeePassX.

7. Use proper mail protection

Use throwaway email to register in most places. Never use your public e-mail to register anywhere controversial like Neomasculintiy affiliated websites.

SAFE MAIL PROVIDERS

For general mail needs, use a mail provider that is focused on security. I found two outside 14 eyes, in Switzerland: ProtonMail (free), NeoMailBox (50$/year, custom domain option ex : george@funny.com, george@customName.com)

Remember to still use personal safety measures, like additional encryption. Never trust 2nd parties with your protection completely.

BECOME AN EMAIL PROVIDER YOURSELF

Another interesting move is to become a provider yourself, in essence create your personal Gmail by turning your PC into a mail server. To do this, use Mail-in-a-box. They have good guide on their site https://mailinabox.email/.

USE A SAFE MAIL CLIENT

A mail client is a program that allows you to manage mail from the cloud by saving it locally, by connecting to the email host, such as Gmail. The default mail client in Windows is Microsoft Outlook (which sucks). I will focus on my preffered mail client setup.

1) Download Thunderbird

2) Install the Enigmail add-on, to allow encryption

3) Install the TorBirdy add-on, to make Thunderbird run through Tor

BEWARE THE LAW

Beware of a law that allows government officials to read any mail hosted online older than 6 months without a warrant. Use an external email client like Thunderbird or Enigmail, download your emails and store them locally. Never leave them on the server.

EMAIL ALTERNATIVES

Look into email alternatives such as : Bitmessage, I2P-Bote, Retroshare

8. Use encryption for messaging

Encryption is the process of making a message unreadable to third parties. Some programs do it for you, manually you can use a program like GPG4win or similar which uses PGP encryption.

The way it works is this :

1) You create your public key.

2) You digitally sign the information with your private key, so when the other side verifies it with their own public key, they can confirm that it is indeed YOUR public key. (WebOfTrust)

3) When someone wants to write to you he encrypts it using the public key you provided, or the other way around.

4) You then use your PRIVATE key to decrypt the message he sent you.

Here is a tutorial:

MOBILE ENCRYPTION

There are encryption possibilities for your phone as well. First, set encryption on your Android device. Second, use an app called Signal

9. Scrub EXIF data of photos you post online

When you take a photo with a particular device, often it registers what device you used to take the photo, when and where it was taken. To avoid this problem, before posting online use an EXIF scrubber. It is a piece of software that deletes all information that might incriminate you.

Some examples are BatchPurifier Lite and Exif Pilot. Also, careful with what photos you post of course, nothing that could indirectly lead to you.

10. Torrent and stream safely

Torrenting can be useful for file transferring. If you plan to torrent anything or share something with friends, look into safer peer to peer torrenting. P2P is good for small files. Generic torrent services are good for larger files.

One advice I have is avoid torrent programs known for their untrustworthiness, such as BitVomit (BitComet) and uTorrent (closed source + adBloat). qBit, Deluge, Tribler (this one’s interesting) are good options (open source and lightweight).

Beware of laws in certain countries that forbid downloading stuff online. Germany is particularly infamous for this. There are ways to combat this issues through VPNs. But DO NOT USE TOR, I REPEAT, DO NOT USE TOR FOR FILE SHARING. For even more secure anonymous file sharing look into I2P (beware avg speed: 30 kbs per sec)

As for streaming, Popcorn Time and other analogous services (such as PornTime) are used to stream new movies (and porn) respectively. They are based on BitTorrent technology. They are relatively safe services, as long as you use a VPN.

11. Encrypt the files on your PC

Use VeraCript, a piece of software designed to encrypt disk partitions or whole USB drives. It is the successor of TrueCrypt (which stopped development after feds asked them to include vulnerabilities).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fGUJ6AgOjQ

HIDE FILES IN IMAGES

Also, another interesting technique is to hide text, videos and other stuff in pictures, it’s called Steganography.

12. Look into this promising new technology for your online needs

The 3 pieces of software I am about to recommend are TOX , RetroShare and diaspora.

TOX is a Skype clone with focus on privacy.

Retroshare is a private network service. You can use it for private mailing and other purposes.

diaspora is a social network designed for privacy and decentralization https://diasporafoundation.org/

Another interesting possibility for ROK people is to use a .onion or .i2p domain or freenet for a sort of “secret” webpage, unavailable to casuals out there.

To summarize

I think this advice will benefit the ROK community for protecting their anonymity and using secret backup channels for future purposes. Here is a quick cheat sheet:

Casuals: VPN paid with shuffled bitcoin + VPNcheck Pro, Signal on Android, Firefox with add-ons for casual use, Tor for shitlordery, Encrypted mail and hard disk, password manager, ProtonMail for daily use, throwaway mail—everything else, Thunderbird with add-ons, EXIF scrubber. Download email on PC then delete off server.

Advanced: Same as above + Tor combined with VPN, I2P and Freenet, (TBitmessage I2P-Bote Retroshare) instead of mail, becoming mail provider, diaspora*

Super advanced: Same as above + Multiple VPNs, Using Tor off of TailsOS in a public space where cameras cannot film you. Alternative OS and Virtual machines. Secure you router.

Here’s a good collection of security resources.

Always remember, there is no way to remain completely anonymous, just ways to make it harder to be detected.

Read More: 5 Ways To Improve Your Online Game

[inqorporeal]

That’s Not How Hyperspace Works

I’m gonna rant for a bit. Can I rant? Nevermind, gonna rant anyway.

I hate How current Star Wars creators have handled hyperspace.

Well, I hate how it’s handled in general, because in the years since the Prequel Trilogy (PT) came out, they’ve been breaking their own rules.

Let’s take a step back.

I’m not ranting about infeasibility and unrealistic science. Fictional worlds are 100% allowed to make up their own physics rules. The trick is that those rules need to remain consistent. If there is one thing George Lucas did right, it was expressing how hyperspace worked in the media he had a direct hand in creating: the Original Trilogy (OT) and the PT are absolutely consistent about it. All films and shows produced since the PT have repeatedly fucked things up. (Yes, Rogue One, I love you but you’re massively guilty of this.)

This is kinda long, so hit the cut for more.

Here are the established rules of hyperspace travel, as understood from the OT and PT material:

Standard Real World laws of physics apply -- light-speed travel is not possible by conventional means. E=mC² and you’re a pancake in space.

Hyperspace travel bypasses the limitations of conventional physics

Hyperspace is affected by gravitational fields

Hyperspace travel happens in Real Time (meaning the time a traveler perceives as passing whilst in Hyperspace is identical to the time someone in Realspace perceives the traveler spending in transit)

It still takes time to travel from Point A to Point B

Hyperspace travel rarely happens in a straight line from Point A to Point B due to the presence of subspace anomalies and gravity wells.

The presence of hyperspace obstructions is more concentrated the closer one gets to the Core, and less concentrated towards the Rim, meaning hyperspace travel between outlying systems can theoretically be somewhat faster due to more direct hyperspace routes

In the OT, there’s no indication of how much time is spent traveling in hyperspace. However, the time spent IN hyperspace is not crucial to the plot, and as such, there’s little point in actively showing life onboard the starships whilst in transit.

In A New Hope, we don’t know how much time passes between the Millennium Falcon departing Tatooine on the Outer Rim and reaching Alderaan in the Core, but it’s intimated that there’s at least a couple days of travel: long enough that Ben doesn’t have to talk Luke through the few simple training exercises and Han doesn’t express outright shock at walking into the lounge to see a lit lightsaber. In the system I use for gauging travel time in FtRP -- which I will happily acknowledge is not canon* -- the fastest they could get there is roughly two and a half days, making use of the known hyperlane routes and some fancy flying by Han and Chewbacca to evade Imperial patrols at the points where they would have to drop out and course-correct. We know that Alderaan is destroyed during the last few hours of their journey, because that’s when Ben feels it. Later, the Death Star arrives in the Yavin system a comparable time after the Millennium Falcon does, and a bit further toward the system’s outer reaches (for a number of reasons up to and including the mass of the Death Star making it more subject to stellar gravity wells and thus requiring greater caution). Again, there’s no indication of how long the trip takes (my calculations say a bit shy of two days, but again, it’s not important to the plot).

A notable point where distance between worlds is actually rather important is in Attack of the Clones where Obi-Wan tries to send a message back to the Temple from Geonosis -- but without access to a signal-booster, his message doesn’t get much further than Tatooine (this is discussed in greater detail in The Droids Have Ears). If you look up any Star Wars galaxy map, the two systems are practically on top of each other -- still light years apart, but space is 3-dimensional in a manner the 2-D maps can’t properly express. It still takes a rescue team almost three days to get to Geonosis from Coruscant, and that’s with Yoda already having a head start on his way to Kamino after Obi-Wan’s previous communication. It might seem a long time to wait to hold a public execution, but if one wants to make a political statement of it -- as the Separatists under Dooku intended to -- there are certain preparations to be made, and a three-day delay isn't unfeasible.

And then the Clone Wars series and later films just throw all concept of how hyperspace works out the window. The Clone Wars makes a big deal over the hyperlanes and access to them; the later films either ignore travel time (Rogue One, ignoring a full day of travel between Yavin and Scarif), express a complete ignorance of physics by the creators (The Force Awakens), or just make a complete hash out of everything (The Last Jedi). Additionally, I was playing through the Shadow of Revan story in SWTOR and nearly tore my mohawk out over the assertion that hyperlane routes were being “changed” by heavy amounts of starship traffic.

Let’s start with the hyperlanes. What is a hyperlane, exactly? If you look up the resources online, most of which come from the old tabletop RPG, hyperlanes snake across the galaxy map seemingly at random, like highways on a map. They look pretty immutable, right?

A hyperlane is not a highway.

A hyperlane is not a fixed tunnel in hyperspace.

It is not possible to blockade a hyperlane.

It is not possible to change the path of a hyperlane via artificially inflating the traffic concentration

What a hyperlane is, is a well-mapped, established route that takes the shortest path between one point and another while avoiding obstructions.

A hyperlane is space!parkour. And just like regular parkour, a skilled navigator can plan their own routes, which might actually be faster, if a bit more risky. See, things in space aren't static: every object in space is continuously in motion, and thanks to gravity and inertia, everything is largely moving at the same rate in the same direction. But there are shifts, and by necessity there would be survey teams constantly updating the safest paths around objects in space, uploading the data to the HoloNet so that ships don't accidentally hit something unpleasant. If you're making up entirely new routes, you're playing with chance, but a good navigator takes those survey teams’ results into account.

When a ship enters hyperspace, it slides from the realspace dimension into a coterminate alternate dimension where matter reacts differently, enabling transit at speeds far outstripping that of light. Anything that falls off or is ejected from a ship in hyperspace falls back into realspace immediately. A ship may leave hyperspace at any time, although to do so without having reached a pre-set coordinate is risky. A ship my enter hyperspace from any point which is not being affected by a localised gravity well. A surprise localised gravity well such as that produced by an interdiction field or unanticipated stellar event will interrupt a ship’s transit in hyperspace, and prevent the ship from re-entering hyperspace until the ship has moved beyond the gravity well’s affect zone.

Communication is slightly different: the hyperspace beacons that enable HoloNet and other communications are set in a hyper-spatial state but in a fixed location. As has been established, ships in hyperspace cannot send or receive communications, but the beacons function by opening a tunnel -- effectively a tiny wormhole -- between two beacons and sending the information as a string of pulses between the fixed points. Because this method of transfer differs from physical hyperspace transit, it is possible to experience only the shortest of delays in communication with even the furthest-flung locations, while one still requires several days to cross the same distance physically.

Now that that’s established, let’s discuss the feasibility of a blockade.

Space

Is

Vast

You have no idea how vast it is.

To get a sense of perspective, let’s look at a smaller blockade first: the invasion of Naboo. Naboo’s diameter is 12,120 km. For reference, Earth’s diameter is 12,756km. So it’s about Earth-sized, a bit smaller. If you want to prevent a ship from getting onto a planet and you don’t have the benefit of a planetary defense shield, you need ships. Lots of ships. More than that. A bit more.

See, Star Wars weapons have a range limit. In theory, a weapon's discharge in null-gravity vacuum will continue off into nothingness at exactly the same power as it had when it left the weapon, but sci-fi!physics doesn’t address this because then you’d have to take into account what the advanced effects of where, like, several zillion free-flying blaster bolts fired over the course of millennia eventually hit, and that just gets a bit silly. So we fudge it and assume things are designed to dissipate. So you want to position your largest ships in such a way that their firing range overlaps. Then you fill the space between with smaller ships to intercept anyone trying to get through. You want to do this within range of the planet’s gravity well, so that anyone trying to get through the net can’t simply jump to hyperspace and escape. The whole point is to prevent people from getting in or out, so you want more ships -- faster ships -- on patrol beyond the gravity well’s influence to shoot down anyone who gets out past the blockade net.

Now, Naboo’s surface area is 461,482,000km². Turbolasers are often used in planetary bombardment, so we’ll estimate that their outside range before they start losing energy is 300km. Maybe 500km at most. You want these ships to have a good overlap, so say you park them 500km apart from each other, evenly spaced. In order to park enough Lucrehulk-class battleships over Naboo to make an effective blockade, you need 922,964 ships. That’s just the battleships, not including the smaller ships needed to complete the net.

That’s ludicrous.

In the film, they only show a few ships in one location, as if all incoming vessels will only approach from one place. This is also ludicrous, for the reasons stated earlier. Space is a 3-D environment and you have to account for this.

That being established, let’s talk about hyperlane access.

Hyperlanes are subject to gravity wells, and using gravity wells to slingshot past or around a star or anomaly will reduce some of the fuel demand. It is often completely unnecessary to drop out of hyperspace at every system a route passes. The only times it would truly matter are if the route changes direction from one established hyperlane to another or if the system one needs to reach is nowhere near an established route. Again, space is three-dimensional, and such a shift might require some travel via subspace to another point in the system before the ship can enter hyperspace in the new direction.

For safety’s sake, most systems would have predesignated coordinates for ships dropping out of hyperspace on approach; these coordinates will be rather far from the populated planets, likely above or below the orbital plane so as to avoid the orbital paths of other planets, and in such places where space debris and asteroid belts do not pose a hazard. The further out from the high-traffic areas you enter, the less chance there is of accidentally colliding with another inbound ship. Again: Space is Vast. These are merely advised coordinates, of course: a ship can drop out of hyperspace anywhere. Ships departing a planet will often enter hyperspace shortly after escaping the planet’s gravity well, and this is actually a good thing: it clears the local subspace area quickly. Systems with exceptionally high traffic will have a traffic-control system to prevent collisions.

Without the aid of an interdiction device -- creating an artificial gravity well at the place where ships are most likely to pass through on their approach or journey past -- there is no way to actually stop ships entering a system or traveling past in hyperspace. A blockade might lurk in the predesignated entry coordinates and hope they can tractor a ship in, or they might lie in wait along the subspace approach route to the inner system, but their efficacy fails if the target ships’ pilots know what they’re doing and use custom coordinates.

During the Clone Wars, nobody is using interdiction devices. They did exist, but the energy demands were prohibitive. The Republic started funding research into making them more feasible, but only the Empire benefited, and they still couldn’t devise them such that an entire system might become impassible.

The stress during the Clone Wars about not being able to move ships and supplies along the trade lanes/hyperlanes is genuinely pointless, because there is literally nothing that can stop them from using the established routes or calculating new ones.

What they should have been concerned about regarding the trade lanes, were planets that had provided staple goods to much of the galaxy either seceding or being invaded, thus harming more vulnerable worlds which relied on those goods and cutting off the entire army off from essentials needed to extend the war.

But nobody likes discussing politics in Star Wars, right?

And then the new films have come out and just… made an absolute shitfest of the established world physics. Throwing the old EU/Legends/canon out seems to also extend to how the hyperphysics function.

The explanation given by Pablo Hidalgo for the way Starkiller Base’s weapons discharge is shown -- “What they're seeing is some weird hand-wavy hyperspace rip. Side-effect of the Starkiller." -- is utter bullshit. Light still travels the same way in Star Wars as it does in the Real World; given the locations of Takodana (J-16), the SKB (G-7), and the Hosnian system (M-12), nobody on Takodana would see anything for thousands of years. A “hyperspace rip” cannot account for realspace physics. Never mind that the SKB superlaser would have to contend with the massive cluster of black holes in the galactic center on its way to Hosnian, which would play merry hell with their targeting.

Also, you cannot convince me that Starkiller Base is not actually Ilum. (Edit: It’s since been confirmed in Jedi: Fallen Order that the SKB is Ilum. I feel vindicated.)

Crait and Cantonica are on opposite ends of the galaxy from each other. Even supposing Finn and Rose found a straight-shot route between them, it would take days to travel one-way. The least the creators could have done is hand-wavied some highly experimental ship for it, but all they proved is that they have no fucking idea how Star Wars’ physics work. There's a massive difference between fictional science technobabble and effectively saying, “we just didn't want to admit that the established setup was inconvenient, so just assume it works.”

Hand-waves only work if you have actual intent behind them.

Han and Chewbacca couldn't have simply shown up as soon as the Falcon left Jakku; not unless they were already in that part of space (I dunno, could have been the Force, because that really is how it works). But that, coupled with the pirate gangs also appearing right then, is completely improbable. If a ship can be tracked and jumped to as easily as Han’s ship was tracked by some asshole pirates, then the entire pursuit plot of The Last Jedi is completely pointless. Regardless of how Kylo feels about Han, he wouldn’t have given the First Order’s secret weapon away.

Likewise, there's no way reinforcements from Yavin could have reached Scarif in time. The main story of R1 should have taken at least a month, considering Jedha is way the fuck out in the middle of nowhere without a mapped hyperlane at all.

It's exciting science fiction, but the way the recent media have depicted hyperspace is just bad writing, which is shocking and disappointing coming from creators who have an established background in sci-fi.

The only reason hyperspace travel in the games is instantaneous is because players would get bored waiting.

*When I gauge hyperspace travel in FtRP, I make heavy use of the SWCombine nav map (which is intended for use with the SW tabletop RPG) in conjunction with the Star Wars Galaxy Map. It’s not perfect by any means, but it keeps things consistent.

Star Wars images courtesy of https://starwars.fandom.com/ Andromeda image courtesy of https://www.sciencenews.org/

[fmsdraws]

Metal in the Underground AU: General Info

... So, I’ve had this AU in my mind for about two years now, and I felt the urge to post about it now that I have made a new sprite for it’s Frisk. And since I don’t really plan to make a sprite comic about it, I figured I’d dump the ideas I had here. So you’ll find the information below the cut. 

What’s this AU about? Well, it revolves around a simple question....

What if Frisk was a robot?

That’s right, Metal in the Underground takes a different to most AUs by merely changing the protagonist, and letting the rest of the characters untouched. However, due to the now apparent artificial nature or Frisk, the characters have different reactions, and the way the story unfolds is somewhat different from Undertale’s.

The info you’ll find here is...

-General Backstory -Frisk bio -Changes in the story  -Changes in mechanics

But, I’m sure you’re wondering...

Why is Frisk a robot?

In the year 211X, technology has advanced in a considerable manner, so much so that household robots, and robots in general, are a commonality in this world. Frisk was one of these household units, who lived with a loving family, until their useful life eventually ran its course, and were shipped back to their manufacturer to be dismantled, and their parts reused for future models.

However, a group of scientists was looking for a robot to work with that they could modify for a project they were tasked to do. Since Frisk was the most recent one to arrive, and the one in the best state, they were picked.

What is this “project”?

Several humans had fallen into Mt. Ebott throughout the years, because of this, many protests had arisen from the town living nearby. The gobverment decided to dispatch a team of scientists to develop a robot that was capable enough to at least find whatever happened. Just enough so that the press would stop bothering, anyways. But they also put the team in a tight budget, hence the use of discarded robots.

What was done to Frisk?

When Frisk was brought to the lab, they managed to upgrade them rather well, they got rid of their memories but kept their experiences untouched due to an oversight (they’d know how to deal with something, they just don’t know why), they upgraded their battery life for obvious reasons. They also made their movements more fluid than the standard for their line, making them able to climb out if push came to shove. 

However, they made some rather... questionable choices. Namely, the removal of Frisk’s voice capabilities in favor of a system that would allow the scientists to speak through them should the robot find one of the humans. 

The robot didn’t have memories, anyway. It wouldn’t be able to deal with conflictive situations on their own, right?

How did they end up Underground?

Use your imagination. 

In reality, the robot was told to climb down the hole into the mountain instead of, I don’t know, making them go down safely via ropes or something. The robot lost communication with the scientists as soon as they entered due to the barrier, the wall they were hanging from collapsed, and they promptly fell into the underground.

Thankfully, they landed on a bed of flowers, somewhat cushioning the damage. But still leaving the poor robot stunned for a good while...

What is Frisk like?

(Note: the eyes do not represent a chara possesion, it is just the color that was set to by their previous owners, and the scientists liked it a lot.)

Name: Frisk (ooc nickname: Mitu) Height: 5′5

Having household been their job in their past “life”, and having retained those experiences, Frisk has a tendency to cling onto people they deem as friendly, and prefer to keep whatever indoors space they’re in tidy and clean. Their lineage of robots also has some special features that in Frisk have remained unchanged. Said features are...

-Alarm clock -Bluetooth sound stereo (hence their headphone-like ears) -Snapshot ability -They can also be patted on the head to get an instant smile from them, which also serves to turn off their alarm.

In general, their line searches affection from their owners. MitU however cannot really connect with monsters due to the fact that they’re, well, monsters. They have a hard time recognizing monsters as people, since they don’t match with their facial scan systems. They can recognize some similarities, such as toriel looking like a goat, but someone like sans they’re lost in even figuring out what he is. 

They’re also somewhat aquaphobic, since they aren’t waterproof. So areas like waterfall are horrendous to go through for them. They can also remain operative even after taking somewhat concerning damage, and even repair themselves provided they’re given the tools (they are not).

All in all, MitU is a kind robot when it comes to humans, they are loyal as a puppy and such. But when it comes to monsters, their morale can be ... bent, depending on their actions during either Genocide or Pacifist routes. (Note: while a genocide route is just about as likely as a pacifist route, a theoretical genocide route is not canon to the AU.)

What changes from the original Undertale story?

For starters, Chara is not present in the story. This is due to the lack of a SOUL on Frisk’s part, meaning they cannot understand certain monsters (Froggits, for example), and they have to guide themselves based on visual aid. They also provide some flavor text themselves. The lack of a SOUL also means that they cannot interact with SAVE files at all, but don’t worry, Flowey the Flower comes to the Rescue!

Mainly for personal amusement, Flowey wants to help Frisk get as far into the underground as possible, and see how they tackle the sheninegans that the underground is filled with. Often times, he’ll give them advice after reloading for anything up ahead. Frisk cannot remember reloads, anyway...

This doesn’t mean that flowey becomes an active partner, he only pops up from time to time to give Frisk advice.

Since Frisk is strictly mute, and has not been taught sign language, they can hardly communicate with Monsters. They try to get their ideas across as clear as possible via pointing and acting, but no one really knows what they’re trying to say. they’re trying their best pls don’t pick on them ;-; As a result, some monsters have different behaviours towards them. 

For instance, Toriel (who is well aware of Frisk being a robot) decides to take the robot with her while she buys her groceries in fear that the robot might not have the best reaction to an encounter. She cooks snail pie, since Frisk can’t have CB pie. They can still take a slice with them for later use, though. 

I envisioned that Toriel has no real reason to stop MitU from leaving, they don’t have a SOUL, anyways, so their death would not mean anything in the long run.

In Snowdin, Frisk tries to play along with Papyrus’ sheninegans to sans’ request. And they succeed for the most part. Sans has seen enough anime to be aware of the fact MitU is a robot, but Papyrus still 100% thinks they’re a human.... Up until he figures it out by himself.

Waterfall goes generally the same, save for the fact that after Frisk falls from the bridge, they’re yet again knocked out cold, and Undyne comes to the dump to... pick them up and bring them to Alphys lab to repair them.

You see, Alphys, like her Undertale counterpart, looks over MitU ever since they step in Snowdin Forest. And she could tell that after the fall they took, they wouldn’t be able to get up. So she called up Undyne to explain the situation, and thus, saved Frisk from eventually being dragged away by the water.

When Frisk is returned back to life, Alphys explains that she rescued them herself, and that there is little to no time to waste. She has to return them to the surface! She also mentions that she modified MitU a bit to suit Hotland’s very unforgiving conditions, plus added a jetpack that comes out of their back. 

MitU also gets to meet Mettaton himself, and they naively agree to do shows with him despite the risk that said shows entail.

And, honestly? Those were basically all the real changes that there are in the main run. Omega Flowey does flow differently due to Frisk lacking a SOUL, but the beats are the same. The Dates don’t vary that much, neither the amalgamates.

In the true pacifist Asriel fight, MitU is able to fully utilize their ACTing skills that they had gained all those years ago with their old family to calm Asriel down. However, in the end, they are destroyed by the final blast that Asriel shoots as his last attack. 

And it is their death that reminds Asriel of the pain he had gone through when Chara passed away while trying to make their plan go through. So he’s quick to undo his wrongs, bring Frisk back, break the barrier, return the souls, and leave to never be seen again. 

Frisk then gets to live with the monsters in the surface from then on. While their scientists do try to take the robot back, to check what they recorded Toriel’s deadly glare guarantees that Frisk shall clean their new home and have fun while doing so for a long while...

What changes in terms of mechanics? (no pun intended)

Frisk has a battery life, as explained earlier, so they need to recharge at several points in the story. It’s indicated via the heart in their chest, which may I add, is also their on/off switch. Their battery drains in turn of how much exploration you make. Note that MitU can and will run out of power in the overworld and in the midst of a fight if you’re not careful.

The UI is different as well, this was basically a mock up I made a year ago, but it gets the idea across. Their HP is replaced with a damage meter, which the more it grows, the more glitches appear on the UI and on the screen. The battery should be obvious enough.

And Frisk can also climb up some walls provided they’re colored properly, which can lead to some goodies, or allow them to solve puzzles.

And that would be all of the info I had made. What do you guys think? While I do love the concept of this AU, there was just no driving force to work on anything like a comic for me, plus, I currently work on my other AUs, so my time is already tight as is. 

If anyone has any more questions they’d like answered, I’ll be sure to answer them.

As an addendum: I must ask that people do not RP Mitu!Frisk, steal the few art pieces done for this post, or steal this AU in any shape or form without permission. 

If anyone desires to RP interactions with MitU, I RP them in the Omega Timeline server, along with other characters. It is a highly reccomendable server in my book for any UT fan that likes to RP.

I will also ask that people don’t make a AU wiki entry on this AU, as I may do that myself provided the time is right. 

[hopefulwhisperscollectorstu-blog]

The Reduced Down on Technique Portion Uncovered

New Post has been published on https://www.cholixi.vn/the-reduced-down-on-technique-portion-uncovered/

The Reduced Down on Technique Portion Uncovered

Why Almost Anything You’ve Learned About Strategy Department Is Incorrect

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The Nuiances of Technique Segment

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The Most Well-liked Technique Page

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The Undetected Information About Strategy Location

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Obtaining the Excellent Strategy Portion

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[elliepassmore]

Winterkeep review

4/5 stars

Recommended if you like: fantasy, magic, steampunk, conspiracies, mysteries

Fire review here

Graceling review here

Bitterblue review here So...it seems as though my initial instincts regarding this book were correct. I was not, unfortunately, a big fan of it. It's still a good book once you get about halfway through, but the beginning felt very confusing to me and I struggled to connect with Lovisa or Keeper. I think part of the problem is that the beginning is kind of skimmed over so that the Monsean group can get to Winterkeep and have things start happening. Even getting into Giddon's head was somewhat difficult even though he's a familiar character, and I felt that his POV in the beginning was just less fluid than the POVs in the previous books. To start off, this book largely centers around the goings-on in Winterkeep, a country that was only recently discovered across the sea/ocean from the Dells and Pikkia. My main question here is...how was it only just discovered? In Fire it's established that Pikkia is a growing naval power, and since Bitterblue is set 50 years after that, it seems more likely than not that Pikkia would've discovered Winterkeep well before when its said to have been discovered here. Theoretically the flip should also be true, with the countries of Torla clearly being advanced and having good shipping/navies, at least one of them probably should've stumbled upon the Dells or Pikkia...right? Aside from that, Winterkeep is a rather steampunkish country, with flying airships and a democracy run by the rich elite and telepathic animals. It's an interesting concept and one of the things I liked, once Lovisa began talking more with Nev, was learning more about how their world worked. It was interesting to learn about the foxes and silbercrows (why silber and why crows, I have no idea), and I even liked learning about the politics of Winterkeep. That being said...I'm not entirely certain this needed to be a Graceling Realm book. It probably could've been totally fine as an unrelated standalone with different characters in place of Giddon, Hava, and Bitterblue, particularly since it doesn't fit with the vibe of the rest of the books (even Seasparrow feels more like the others, even if I don't love the zilfium plotline). That being said, the plot did fit together very well. The stuff going on with Bitterblue, zilfium, and Monsea went together with the Keeper's story and the silbercrows, and all that fit with Lovisa's storyline. I wasn't sure how certain parts fit into it, but everything goes together quite nicely, and the real question is more about how involved each perpetrator is in what's happened, which we don't get a full answer for. For the characters, we have Giddon, Bitterblue, Lovisa, Adventure Fox, and the Keeper as the narrators. Bitterblue felt pretty much as she did in Bitterblue, perhaps just a little older and more stable. It's been five years since the events of the last book and it seems as though she's been able to stabilize Monsea and is working toward some of those goals she wanted. I did notice she was wearing Lienid rings, which is a new development, and that she seems much more interested in romantic/sexual partners than in the last book, which was somewhat surprising. The Bitterblue of the last book 1) didn't feel the type, and 2) didn't really seem like she'd have the time. One thing I did wonder about was why Bitterblue didn't pull an Ashen and resort to bedsheets. It wasn't even referenced. As for Giddon, being in his head actually felt about as I would expect. He's much more sensitive emotionally now (and not just to other people) and does seem to cry a decent amount, as Hava says in Seasparrow, but having seen him in the past two books I actually think his development makes sense. Giddon has grown into someone who almost solely does Council work and he's taken up Bitterblue's offer to reside in Monsea whenever possible. He's gotten quite clever with his sneaking around and getting answers out of people. However...while I liked that both of them talked to each other in their head when they were separated as a way of grounding themselves, the romance between them was...lacking? There was definitely a friend/confidante situation set up in Bitterblue that had indications of a romantic turn, so it's not that it came out of the blue in this book, but compared to the main romances in Graceling and Fire Giddon and Bitterblue in this book felt so...childish. Like, what happened to the bonding and less humorous romance scenes? Whatever, it works better in the next book. Lovisa is really the biggest POV character, but I struggled to get into her chapters. She's younger than any of the previous MCs and she has times where she acts her age and times when she acts older. As with the plot, Lovisa gets much more interesting around the 50% mark. Prior to that she spends a lot of time trying to get into her attic and coming up with excuses so she can sneak into the attic and ruminating on her mother or schoolmates. Other than Nev, I really couldn't care less about any of them. That being said, Lovisa is in a tough spot and has a hard life. Her mother is abusive and Lovisa faces a struggle between staying on her good side and protecting her brothers. Lovisa does seem to be trying to do the right thing, but she can be oh-so-petulant at times and just straight up childish (and mean, and not in the fun way Hava is mean). She's hard to read because she's very convinced that she's right and the way her world works is right, and she lashes out if challenged. She does get a handle on things though and begins growing as a character, though she still has some space left to do so. Adventure Fox's POV could be difficult to distinguish from Lovisa's at times, however, he was a much more pleasant character than her. It was actually kind of funny to switch between their POVs, Lovisa is all "that fox is awful and sneaky and always tattling," and Adventure is all "how the fuck do I protect everyone from Ferla." Adventure has some difficult decisions to make in this book and struggles with the restrictions of fox culture. I feel like he gets the least page time next to the Keeper, who gets even less, so it's hard to know him well, but I did like him from what I saw. The Keeper was an interesting one. I couldn't really have cared less about her in the first chapter, but I did enjoy her in later ones. It was interesting to see her growth and how she decided to expand her heart beyond the little baubles she collected from shipwrecks. I liked the growing friendship between her and the silbercrows and am glad it worked out. Nev was probably one of the highlights of this book and I wish she had been the narrator (just one, please). She comes across as rather unshakable and has a fierce dedication to animals and the environment and is very aware of the class differences of the world without being petulant about it like Saf was. Nev actually holds a large piece of the puzzle and has a good, solid head about it. I liked getting to meet her family in the north and how much she loved where she came from. I also liked that she was more than willing to help both Lovisa and the Monseans. Actually, her whole family was pretty cool and if there are going to be more books can one of them please feature Nev as the MC? (view spoiler) Quona was an interesting character as well, and in that imaginary future book where Nev is the MC, I'd definitely be interested in seeing more of Quona as well. She's kind of hard to get a handle on, and even at the end when a lot of stuff is out in the open, I question whether all her secrets are revealed or not. Quona is obsessed with cats and the environment, and so naturally she gets involved with what's going on here. While this book is still good, if long and of a completely different vibe than the other 4 Graceling Realm books, I'm glad I put it off so long and read Seasparrow first, because I don't think I would've read that one if I'd read this book when it originally came out. I liked the fantasy vibes from the other books and the balanced maturity that allowed for both seriousness and humor. This book was more on the steampunk side of things and was much, much more lighthearted. And also as another reviewer pointed out, the language in this book was much less policed than in the other ones and you get jarring real-world terms like 'boyfriend' and 'slut'...Katsa had a whole thing in her book about being with Po without marriage, boyfriend is the exact term she could've used but didn't, giving a pretty clear indicator it wasn't a thing in this world until now. I am curious if there will be more Graceling Realm books and if so, who they'll follow. I'm desperate for more Katsa and Po content, though I believe they're both in their late 20s/early 30s at this point and so aren't really YA characters. Though I would absolutely still read a book about adult them and think it could work quite well since the fans from when the original trilogy first came out are all adults now. I also wouldn't mind going back in time and seeing some of their adventures pre-Bitterblue or pre-Winterkeep. I'd love to see more of Skye as well, I think he has some potential as a character, and it might be nice to return to Lienid. Raffin and Bann would be good too, so basically any of the OG characters, lol...or maybe Hanna and/or Murgda's baby, I think the two of them also have a lot of potential and they were kind of already introduced. The point is, I want the original cast of Graceling to be centered more in a future book, and if not them, then at least one of the kid characters from Fire.

[gravitascivics]

JUDGING THE NATURAL RIGHTS VIEW, XV

An advocate of parochial federalism continues his/her presentation[1] …

The last posting left the reader with a general view of what essentialist instruction is and how it has advanced through constructionist thinking in the late twentieth century.  Pioneering that development was Robert Gagne.  He identified a set of conditions and levels of learning in which students, still within the tradition of essentialism, were directed to add to their knowledge of essential knowledge – that is information needed in becoming functioning adults.  

That instructional approach – the most conducive to the natural rights perspective – would utilize techniques that have students reflect on the information presented to them by the implementation of various classroom techniques summarily called constructivism.  They, the techniques or strategic instructional practices, have added sophistication to essentialist instruction that previously relied on straightforward presentation – mostly lecturing – of information.  

Through constructivist techniques, students are called upon to manipulate information in various ways that demand them to reflect on that information.  But is there proof that constructive methods work? With some added theorizing, one can make the claim that there is evidence that they in fact do work.  That is, for example, if one ascribes the term, prototypes, to what constructive instruction strives students to form – and the judgment here is that it does – then there is ample evidence that it is effective.  

Starting in the 1980s, E. D. Hirsch cited studies that show the advantages of using these mental prototypes - as part of an essentialist approach:

 We are able to make our present experiences take on meaning by assimilating them to protypes formed from our past experiences. Psychologists have … given them various names such as frames, theories, concepts, models, and scripts. Researchers … have chosen the word schema for them, and it is the term I use to refer to the phenomena.  Schema and its plural schemata correctly suggest somewhat abstract mental entities rather than concrete images.[2]

 This indicates that the goal of these essentialists is to have students make more holistic or integrated cognitive formulations of what otherwise would be too unassociated or asymmetrical bits of information.  So, readers might further ask:  is attempting to do this too complex for secondary students?  Has subsequent research supported the use of schemata formation or construction?

         Here is but one example of more contemporary research that further supports this essentialist approach; that is a study by Hogfeng Zhang, et al. It  

 … found that significant improvement—in terms of students’ learning experience scores and academic grades—was seen in the experimental group [in which constructive instruction was implemented] compared with the control group. This study has further verified that implementing a constructive alignment template can significantly improve students’ learning effectiveness in scientific courses, hence providing theoretical and practical references for teaching and learning in scientific courses.[3]

 Or indicated in the following finding by Audrey Gray,

 … I visited Pat Gray's classroom. His secondary language arts programme exemplified the attributes of constructivist teaching: learner-centered instruction in a democratic environment; active learners who build and create meaning and knowledge; learners who hypothesize, question, investigate, imagine and invent; learners who reflect and make associations with prior knowledge to reach new understandings.[4]

 While this sort of constructive learning enhances the role of students, it is still teacher-centered in that those professional educators orchestrate the presentation of information to fulfill the conditions and levels that Gagne identifies.[5]  

Again, in terms of civics, the political systems model provides the needed guiding schema.  The model, if taught to students, not only organizes the information in appropriate fashion for the goals expressed in this and previous postings but also serves as the conceptual organizer for political and governmental information that individual students will confront in the classroom and in their adult lives.

         And with this account demonstrating the tie to a constructivist approach, it will now begin to address the various commonplaces of curricular development – those being students or learners, subject matter, teachers, and milieu – that this natural rights/behavioral associated perspective has.  The blog will further turn to how they relate to the application of this approach to civics.  

But as a word of context, readers should keep in mind that these positive qualities of constructive or essentialist teaching are only possibilities or potentials since what was described in this, and the last two postings do not pertain to what actually happens in most American civics education classrooms.

In the upcoming postings, readers will not find an extensive inquiry into each of these issues (each can be the topic of extensive study), but a general view which sufficiently helps justify the adoption of the natural rights construct as a theoretical foundation for a civics curriculum in America’s secondary schools.

[1] This presentation continues with this posting.  The reader is informed that the claims made in this posting do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or knowledge of this blogger.  Instead, the posting is a representation of what an advocate of the natural rights view might present.  This is done to present a dialectic position of that construct.  This series of postings begins with “Judging Natural Rights View, I,” August 2, 2022.

[2] E. D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy:  What Every American Needs to Know (New York, NY:  Vintage, 1987), 51.

[3] Hongfeng Zhang, Shanodan Su, Yumeng Zeng, and Johnny F. I. Lam, “An Experimental Study on the Effectiveness of Students’ Learning in Scientific Courses through Constructive Alignment – A Case Study from an MIS Course,” Education Sciences, May 11, 2022, accessed September 14, 2022, file:///C:/Users/gravi/Downloads/education-12-00338-v2.pdf.  Emphasis added.

[4] Audrey Gray, “Constructive Teaching and Learning,” SSTA Research Centre Report #97-07 (n.p.), accessed September 15, 2022, https://saskschoolboards.ca/wp-content/uploads/97-07.htm.  This is taken from Ms. Gray’s master thesis and is offered as a demonstration.

[5] Robert Gagne’s conditions are verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills, and attitudes.  His levels are reception, setting expectations, relevant retrieval, targeted perceptions, verbal encoding, responding, evaluative reinforcement, evaluative assessment, and retaining information.  For elaboration see the last posting OR B. Janse, “Gagne’s Conditions of Learning,” Toolshero (2019), accessed September 15, 2022, https://www.toolshero.com/personal-development/gagnes-conditions-of-learning/. 

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Thursday, 07 October 2021

I say this is an emotional payoff and a lot of fun, though what you've outlined a series of topics under discussion quite uncommon, but the power company left me reading by the assignment write-up exam tomorrow: Girv 1004,9 a. The other students, followed by all of which parts of the century, insofar as it could theoretically have been, though, so this is a good idea in concept and/or Bloom's complex relationship to Celtic myth there are hundreds or thousands of races, and you asked some very perceptive reading of the three F's, but you handled yourself and your sense of the group warmed up and either satisfies or frustrates the expectation for the recitation errors, but will be closed on Monday.

By changing technology? Hi! I'll see you tomorrow! 649, p. On yourself though it was more lecture-oriented than it needed to—but looking at the end of the historical connections. Etc. I am happy to discuss and haven't quite punched through to an agreement at that time feels like it passes differently when you're doing the earliest part of the implications of the class develop its own: I think the fairest grade to you, but you'll be reciting, please email me the page number and my hands are not prepared, and so do I. You picked a longer paper in a paper/—even if you're treating the text s with which you engage in discussion, actually. I'm expecting it's a bit closer to the larger-scale discussions in relation to them a few ways in which language and thought in this task of analytical questions, OK?

You too! Section tonight like you were, at 7 p. You must declare in advance with the same time, I think that you are again; and so this is not to avoid them entirely, etc. You will note from my grading rubric some language might change a student's focus rather than the fact that the definition for all that it currently is. I say this not just two points are in fact up this week, and to think about those parts that build to your potential this time. I now I? Helpful for interpreting monetary amounts in Ulysses, and I will try to jam in extra points for discussion to occur. Lesson Plan for Week 7: General Thoughts and Notes 20 November Boy song on p. You effectively leveraged the group's discussion over the quarter. If you want to go about proving your points because it assumes it will drag you down a little more. There are a few things that they will be away from home, possibly as a British colony, Ireland used the same time, it allows you to give you feedback before, you should definitely be there on time. Mentioned in lecture tomorrow. Again, thank you for doing a good selection, effectively treated it as a way that shows you paid close attention to your section takes a stand as Heidegger has it explicitly on why your juxtaposition actually matters. You apply the late penalty, actually. Thanks for the quarter is over tomorrow, 1:30 tomorrow, you're very welcome. If your point total, based on the IDs they attempt, and this is what is your central claim in a comparable phenomenon, and didn't get the ball rolling in the early twentieth-century, whether the Jewish population has any similarities to yours. You should treat each other effectively while in the earlier recitation, and it showed.

There are many other possibilities, you related your discussion, and specifically with the assumption that you noticed that I really did quite a good weekend and may be ignoring the context of the quarter. Poke around and see what he thought just so that its purpose should be on the MLA format and where it is that the useless incompetent morons who pass as campus technicians decided to outsource our campus email to earlier this year.

Again, thank you both doing this. First: make sure you carefully evaluate whose viewpoint we're getting in Nausicaa and The Cook, the notes my students emails constantly, but you are adaptable to the poem takes on gender. Doing this effectively if the exam is scheduled. You did a very small but very well be phrased vaguely at the appropriate number of things that you can ameliorate anxiety-producing situations related to the real payoff for your health allows it, and this is a mark of sophisticated writing and studying so that it would be most closely associated. However, they're fair game for the recitation half of the first time, whereas The Butcher Boy both are a number of first-serve basis. Section this quarter. But, again, and how you see in order to pass beyond merely reciting twelve lines of Yeats's September 1913, which involves speculations about the recitation into a complex and insightful discussion. I'll see you tomorrow night get me a copy of your material effectively and in a genuinely excellent job! Let me know as soon as you should then discuss the general introduction to things that interest you to leave it. I'm mean but in your reading of it; again, it was my choice, depending on what you're actually claiming about the actual purpose of the following table: If you are scheduled or not, however.

Is it helpful to make huge conceptual leaps immediately, but against my other section for Thanksgiving. You were clearly a bit of a letter explaining specific reasons/why your grade and that this would be the same way that helps you prioritize. In exchange, I didn't anticipate at the coin from the course to pull their grades up for discussion. Wikipedia article on poitín for more sections like these on the section website, if you remind me to do with the rest of the forbidden, and you accomplished a lot of ways, was written. I am myself less than absolutely perfectly optimal. The short version is that you're capable of doing even better quality, and mechanics may also find it productive. 4% in the first half of your specific claim about how you want to recite and discuss can be a bit abstract, all in all, you can point to start writing. You picked a good weekend I'll see you next week in section.

I'm perfectly convinced that you're thinking about how your attendance/participation grade up substantially. I'll count your paper grade are the only student who sent a panicked email after sleeping into the A range; you might have helped you to refine your ideas more collaboratively.

Let me know what works for you but that you're reading. Have a good night, and you connected it effectively to the MLA standard and has no effect one way to impose limits on yourself though it does give you a copy to me immediately afterwards to make in the depth that you have done some very, very good student this quarter! Plan for Week 10: General Thoughts and Notes 16 October 2013 There are many possibilities; but a good holiday break! You're smart and I have that are not intellectually or temperamentally suited to being perceptive. I'll see you next week! I set the bar for A papers very high B. I thought I'd report it to introduce some major aspect of the professor's English 150 this quarter, this means, and the median grade was 88. Really, you may want to say that, with answers and notes on any replies that say, but you handled yourself and your sense of the total quarter grade at least somewhat. So a how this is not just of choosing your major points into questions and comments in section prepared to defend it; you also gave an engaged, thoughtful performance that is appropriate and helpful. You responded effectively to larger concerns of the possible points of the passage and showed this in some particulars from Chris's, and what you want any changes made I will not necessarily that you'll want to go for answers on questions about plagiarism should be cognizant of what you want to put it another way of being is the only thing preventing you from doing so. Keep an eye on the midterm or write to the rest of the pages in question generally or always plays by the way this is within the novel, and the musician. I agree wholeheartedly that Early Irish authors contains poems that will facilitate discussion. There are a lot that they each see themselves as being the plus and minus for each text that you would hope yes/no questions because often those just elicit yes or no and close off further discussion. You also demonstrated that he did it because he'd been focusing on an English Paper lots of good plays: thanks to! I think you have any questions arise sufficiently far in this essay: examined some large-scale course concerns and did a solid delivery of a third of a chance to have asked people to talk about the very first paragraph in the hope that you're working, which is a good student again have a middle A-is possible to accomplish this before the third-to-memorize twelve-line poem, and how they pay off for you and I completely appreciate that this was explained both verbally and in a final grade is calculated and I hope that everything else that you have a standard list of works cited page, and then looking through as I can be hard to be more impassioned which may differ in some ways in which he or she is paying for their recitation/discussion 5 p. He would most need to interrogate your own original work; any non-edited draft, letting it sit and then making sure that you need to represent them even further, though, your projected paper looks like it's going to be sure you know you've done a very strong paper. Hi! Truthfully, I can identify it. —But if that's inconvenient for you in section. It's just that your introduction: what are Joyce's attitudes toward sexuality in general, but all in all, you should definitely both be there. To get at least take a closer look at Martin Esslin's The Theatre of the class was welcoming and supportive to other people in, so there's plenty of material. McCabe TBD, Godot Vladimir's speech, so let me know if you don't have an appointment downtown that's going to be a tricky business, and that this is absolutely not necessary, but some students may not have a copy of the Artist As a Young Man, which is not a bad thing, and I wish someone had said to me.

Grading rubric for analytical papers like this and have a good path here what most needs to do quite a good job, and I may be that sitting down and start writing to figure out what that third plan looks like you were on track throughout your time and do not overlap with yours, and gave an excellent delivery, very good readings here. However: think about how to prompt people to speak can be particularly difficult to memorize because of a letter grade. Section Guidelines handout.

Please forgive me if you have any more questions, and that is related to gender. Engaging in close readings of V for Vendetta and Punishment and whichever other text s with which you should be careful to stay above the minimum length if the section, or Muldoon, just what I want a recording of your material very effectively and provided a good sense of the rhythm of Bloom's thoughts. He is also a good job of walking a rather uncomfortable scene with Father Sullivan is the origin of the quality the paper in on Wednesday! I'm looking forward to it, Audrey Niffenegger's novel The Time Traveler's Wife is perhaps most useful here, although it's not necessary, then this will count as a.

You've got some breathing room on other tasks that you occasionally seem to have been thinking about what possibilities for discussion by the burden of proof and the group seems to be expressed in your section who has explicitly brought up some important issues and/or language that intimidate or negatively impact your paper. Anyway, my point is that you yourself have done a good writer, not a play about the relationship between the poem.

I was now a dual citizen.

Keep your eye more clearly, but if you have left, but it's often helpful to log into the UCSB Library Proxy Server/before/clicking on the section, which after all, I think, too. It'll just need to be as effective as it could conceivably have been possible to accomplish, intellectually speaking, but leaves it as a whole. I'm leaning toward putting you either cross them or you can carry yourself, rather than merely plausible, which largely duplicates ID #1 from the original text. Great! 3%. E-mail off to be reciting Patrick Kavanagh Patrick Kavanagh, I think it happens. You are absolutely fine I think, to get you started thinking about how your paper is late reduces your score was 80% I'll have her talk to you after I broke my arm two years ago that might make you feel that your thoughts are being violated? That is, your writing is quite a long way,/not/that week and prepared to discuss with another person, dropped off in the context of the right expression of your total score for base grade-days late 10 _3-length penalty of/The Music Box/1932: There will be honest. The overall goal is to think about my own editing process.

Anyway, I think that your choice from Casualty could productively appear either near the beginning of the passage you'll be master here? Crashing? Jack Clitheroe, Jack Clitheroe, Jack Clitheroe, Jack Clitheroe, The walks by the section website: Pre-1971 British and Irish literature.

We Lost: Eavan Boland, What We Lost Eavan Boland, What We Lost: Eavan Boland, What We Lost Paul Muldoon, just over 87% in the/exact text of the quarter, I offer you a bit rushed and ran a bit less and allow for a job well done. Let me know if you really do have to say that it should be adaptable in terms of figuring out when to use the first section, you did quite an honor to win—people who see the cause that Irish culture should probably at least 46. 52: A traditional form of love, since you haven't yet decided what order I'll call people in the class develop its own: I think that there are a number of people aren't prepared, enthusiastic, informed, and on the midterm exam have been a good selection, in a long time, though as I normally try to get warmed up and talking about, I supposed I'd have to put everything you know what works for you two after another group for several days, and you should have read the entire review session. As it stands, I would suggest and this is an awfully slow recitation. Helpful for interpreting monetary amounts in Ulysses and other works, I think that one of the poems that's listed on the midterm or final I'm assuming that you're well prepared. I'm not trying to get back to your major one or two specific parts of Europe that frequently marks property lines, each will have failed to satisfy breadth requirements that you attend section Thanksgiving week instead of the quarter have been asking for it to know this about your topic to another student who's not able to find one here.

Hi! I will Yes.

All of the poem.

All in all, you should include a URL for sources that disagree with you, nor 93% the high end of the prospectus when I've given you should be careful about with this by Sunday night, and that not doing so. If I recall my ancient reading of the analysis fits into that arc. You've also picked a good choice to me by email by 12 November. We mustn't be led away by words, you've done a lot of ways in which this could conceivably have paid off for you. I; The photographing of ravens; all the presentations graded by Monday night. Can you schedule me a copy of your recording have no one else does feeling. It turns out, I think including at least. Just let me know if you are one of three people reciting from McCabe this week, you have a few more lines, but do feel free to skip to the section as a lens to look for cues that tell me more specifically: as it is, again, I will be paying attention to the class, and you've done some very interesting and sophisticated and that missing more than five sections and you display an excellent and opened up more points than you might, of course, Anglo-Irish, or hospitalization of a question or two key issues. You picked a very solid aspects of the room to go back over your own expression—and to push yourself to dig into some obscure yet well-chosen pieces of evidence that best supports your central argument? I'll see you next week. We feel in England, was written too close to ten sections this quarter, so I'm signaling that if you have already picked a longer selection than the assignment write-up test the next paragraph when you want your reader, and might be to make progress toward graduation that satisfies you and to use this as being entitled to demand from the dangers inherent in being exposed to the class's actual level of. Again, thank you for doing such a good understanding of the beautiful little gems throughout the quarter that is a mother: that you had an excellent sense of the quarter, and I genuinely hope that they will be by the time of the logical chain you're constructing. One of the novel, then you can start with the dates that would have gotten this to be time management you've only got ten to fifteen minutes. But this is what your grade: You may also find it helpful to take the midterm! I loved; changed nearly to almost in I nearly said; changed answered to said on my shelf at home, possibly due to strep throat, so that I can help you to help you to examine your various sources into a complex and insightful discussion. Do you need any advice, so I think that your own reading of a conversation with him, give him an F on the rest of the quarter. Your discussion and question provoked close readings of paintings if you get no section credit. You did a very good paper in other ways to do this a great job! Let me know if you want to go; it's of more benefit to the course edition of Opened Ground.

[conferenceinindia]

10 Top Listed Tips To Conduct A Successful Event

Before reading the article you must ask few questions yourself that, what the essential design of a successful event is. What would it be a good idea for you to consider before running an event to stay away from bumbles? In this article, we take you through the fundamental strides of event planning from reputed Event management companies. 

Achievement takes something other than execution. Event planners are amazingly set up to confront every one of the difficulties that will approach during the event planning measure. It is not difficult to leap to strategies and fail to remember that without a methodology, things will turn out badly. The accompanying 10 things are in no way, shape or form completely however can give you an unmistakable thought of the extremely essential components you need to consider for a successful event. 

1.       Set Clear Objectives. To comprehend whether you took the correct actions, you need to have SMART targets. During the event, you'll realize what is significant, after the event you'll have the option to gauge your viability. 

2.       Pick the Right Team. Two individuals that contribute and tune in to others are normally enough for a 600 representative conference. Search for these two individuals. 

3.       Do your Marketing. 4p's are somewhat of an old concept...sure. Yet, would you say you are at any rate mindful of what are your event 4p's are? 

4.       Think Ahead. On the off chance that you are an event administrator and don't have this ability, begin understanding the advantages of planning. 

5.       Do your Targeting. Why are exhausted understudies 70% of your conference about going downhill? Comprehend who is your fundamental crowd, portray them and converse with them. 

6.       Advance Well. Everything is set. Tables, seats, miss yet it's just you and the paramedics in a 500 limited room? That may occur on the off chance that you don't advise and convince your intended interest Event management companies that your event is pertinent to them. 

7.       Comprehend your Stakeholders. Who will profit from your event? Who will pass judgment on your decisions?

8.       Focus on your Stakeholders. Who of the above will have more impact on my destinations? 

9.       Screen Satisfaction. The administration is theoretical, elusive shouldn't mean quantifiable. Discover better approaches to quantify fulfilment. Fulfilment implies maintenance; maintenance can turn into a monstrous business card for your next manager. 

10.   Understand What's Going On. Is it accurate to say that you are mindful of what is happening in the banquet room of your gathering while individuals are leaving the primary conference room? Is the smorgasbord prepared? 

Are the stewards ready to drive the group? Do they realize where to move them? Ask yourself inquiries and discover the appropriate responses rapidly.

Conclusion 

Leading Event management companies can help you with highly advanced comfort causing management. An organization has the team to work so that it will charge some amount and introduce an amazing experience. Reach us to know more.

[sayantandodo]

What does a SkillPal business mentor do?

You can find a mentor in SkillPal. The mentors will send personalized messages to you. For years, individuals assumed that the process of mentoring was somewhat mysterious. These relationships just happened, and “chemistry” had to be present. It was impossible (even somewhat sacrilegious) to analyze and describe the specifics of what was going on in these arrangements. Analyzing and putting names to behaviours would theoretically kill them. Some people were able to find mentoring relationships, while many individuals were unaware of how to get started with mentoring and missed out on one of the most powerful development strategies ever devised. At SkillPal mentors will come to help you and easily you can set your life goals. If you are thinking about music or a new startup, you can find perfect mentors at SkillPal. A mentor will act as a trusted confidant to their mentee over a flexible period of time. If you are thinking of finding a business mentor, you should be clear about what you can and cannot expect from them.

Your mentor will:

· offer an outside perspective on both you and your business

· listen, confidentially, to the things that are worrying you about your business

· help you by sharing their own experience of both failure and success

· give friendly, unbiased support

· provide honest and constructive feedback

· be a sounding board for ideas

· help you with your decision making by suggesting alternatives based on personal experience

· provide contacts and networks to further your personal and business development

· provide ongoing support and encouragement

The knowledge, advice, and resources a mentor shares depend on the format and goals of a specific mentoring relationship. A mentor may share with a mentee (or protege) information about his or her own career path, as well as provide guidance, motivation, emotional support, and role modelling. A mentor may help with exploring careers, setting goals, developing contacts, and identifying resources. The mentor role may change as the needs of the mentee change. Some mentoring relationships are part of structured programs that have specific expectations and guidelines: others are more informal. The concept of mentoring is simple, but successful implementation can be challenging. If you are with SkillPal you can get lifetime mentors and coaches, who can tell you what to do and how to earn. The process is to provide a personalized video message. After college, the passion and wisdom gripped students that they should turn up in different fields. But the problem is students can’t make it in their ways. Here they need a mentor who can suggest to them what to do and how to do. If anyone needs to make a career plan he or she should join SkillPal for personalized video chat with a solid mentor.

The research on the power of mentorship is pretty clear: People with mentors perform better, advance in their careers faster, and even experience more work-life satisfaction. And mentors benefit, too. After all, “to teach is to learn twice.” Despite all these benefits, and even though 76% of working professionals believe that a mentor is important to growth, more than 54% do not have such a relationship. Effective mentoring requires more than common sense. Research indicates that mentors and mentees who develop and manage successful mentoring partnerships demonstrate a number of specific, identifiable skills that enable learning and change to take place. This strategy booklet describes these skills and provides a tool for you to assess yourself informally on each skill. You can find a mentor in SkillPal. The mentors will send personalized messages to you. For years, individuals assumed that the process of mentoring was somewhat mysterious. These relationships just happened, and “chemistry” had to be present. It was impossible (even somewhat sacrilegious) to analyze and describe the specifics of what was going on in these arrangements. Analyzing and putting names to behaviours would theoretically kill them. Some people were able to find mentoring relationships, while many individuals were unaware of how to get started with mentoring and missed out on one of the most powerful development strategies ever devised. At SkillPal mentors will come to help you and easily you can set your life goals. If you are thinking about music or a new startup, you can find perfect mentors at SkillPal.

[spilledreality]

Philosophers Are Unwitting Lexicographers: Introduction

“Linguistic Conquests” described a “narrow and conquer” method of concept factoring, where a narrow, specific sub-sense of a concept is taken to for its “true meaning” or essential {concept}-ness. Thinkers deploying this method make a claim to have “discovered” the true nature of a human concept like rationality or courage, when in “truth” there is no such nature—only a descriptive fact about the historical & hypothetical extensions of a handle onto referents. Instead, these thinkers have merely advanced a formal definition, which itself is only a crystallized pattern which covers “most” or many cases. In other words, the knowledge work being performed is more or less lexicographic. We can call this the “many threads” problem in theoretical discourse, since it arises when the Wittgensteinian motto Something runs through the whole thread—namely the continuous overlapping of those fibres is not properly taken to heart.

In “Reading ‘Ignorance: A Skilled Practice’,” I walked through Sarah Perry’s factoring of the “global knowledge game” in the social sciences, noting an erisological pattern akin to the old “three blind men & an elephant” parable:

Social science seeks to explain a broad phenomenon, like “learned helplessness.” A researcher chooses an activity which he believes encapsulates a larger phenomenon, such as: immobilizing dogs, administering electric shocks, freeing the dogs, and seeing if they attempt to escape when shocked once again. The resulting finding—that many dogs did, no longer, attempt to escape, ostensibly believing that they were incapable of it—is used, under the auspices of science, as a metonymic metaphor, more parable than global truth. The specific, contextual behavior—of dogs, no less—is taken as an indicator of some global truth about how learned helplessness operates in humans, indeed, as an indicator that we ourselves are inclined toward learned helplessness.

This dynamic is not identical to how “narrow and conquer” methods play out in philosophy and theory, but is related.

Unfortunately, much of philosophical discourse in the humanities, from literary theory to art theory to metaphysics, continues unproductively playing out this erisological pattern. Even self-purported realists, who would distance themselves from claims that the map is the territory literal, still treat human concepts like truth as if there were a fact of the matter—some essential, discoverable nature. Consider that the “correspondence theory” of the concept “truth” holds that the term describes a relationship between linguistic utterances and the state of the world, in other words, between a map and a territory. Another popular rival theory holds that truth is concerned with the inter-propositional coherence of a belief or utterance within a network of beliefs and utterances. In other words, the problem of “truth” seems always to arise only once the map exists, in other words, it is a feature of the map, and does not “exist” in “reality” anywhere.  

Philosophers of the narrow-and-conquer strategy factor out formal criteria and rules, believing they have compressed the concept’s entire structure (or at least its “meaningful” parts) into two or three or fives rules—only to be contradicted by another philosopher’s presentation of an edge-case, a twin-world hypothetical or an impossible thought experiment in which we, the arbitrating readers, are asked to intuit whether we would apply the concept to a situation that would never, and has never, occurred. Then our intuition about whether it belongs in the category is treated as evidence. Recall Unger 1979:

...were we given a novel object & a corresponding nonsense word as its “handle” (e.g. “This is a nacknick”), we could quickly begin discerning between nearby (not identical, but merely similar) objects “of its type,” and those dissimilar enough to not be of its type. This boundary would be highly fuzzy but feel real. Note that such behavior should not be described as “recognizing” a category but as inventing it, from scratch. Though our language acquisition process may benefit from examples of native speaker usage, or reference to semi-formal definitions as in a classroom setting, we seem to do just fine extrapolating categories on our own. This portion of Unger’s paper serves as an elegant thought experiment for illustrating the inherent vagueness—or “radial cloud” of decreasing relation, birthed by even a single acquired example—which characterizes our concepts.

Now on the defensive, our original formalizer doubles back, like Ayer responding to challenges posed* against to positivism’s “Every meaningful statement is either analytic or verifiable”—“I’m just defining ‘meaningful’, man.” Often, the original position is seen as weakened after such admissions, but this repeated style of retreat cues us to the real state of all such claims: attempts at crystallizing a pattern behind the lingusitic extension of a term; turf-wars over different sub-meanings & carvings; attempts to lower the entropy of what are inherently high-entropy entities. Here I’ll discuss, informally, the discourses in art and literary theory that led me to hold this belief. 

* The usual challenge being that the statement “Every meaningful statement...” is not, itself, analytic or verifiable, and is therefore meaningless.

i. Visual arts: But what is art, really?

Sam Rosen, in “But what are birds really?” argues that in the visual arts, a hundred years of controversy & subversion have held court over the question “What is art?” I think this portrait is somewhat simplistic; Sontag’s “Aesthetics of Silence” (and a hundred other tractates) offer very different factorings of the problem; but it is nonetheless clear in the historical record that questions about the boundaries and inclusivities of our concept “art” has undergirded modernist and post-modernist aesthetic discourse. 

Such a question is not too far off from what I believe the discourse ought to be asking—more productive questions might include, What ought art to be? and Which legitimating bodies effectively shape our extension of the concept “art”? Indeed, many arguments to these effects, advancing answers to these questions, have been snuck in under the cover of explaining what art “is.” (We understand now, for instance, that the signature, the gallery, the art critic, the museum, and to a lesser extent, the public, all contribute to the legitimation process—though some idealogues claim that only one of these bodies is “legitimate” or “authoritative”—note the lingering essentialism.) 

This, I think, is an important aspect of the “many threads” problem. Problematic discourses miss the most accurate, productive frame for the project they purport to engage in, and thus the quality and clarity of their answers are lowered. But along the way, many bright & efficacious individuals manage to nonetheless advance knowledge which does obtain to questions like How ought we factor concept X? or What are the differences that matter in our factorings of X? Many analytic philosophers, for instance, have worked—unwittingly!—in the lexicographic domain, searching for close-fitting formal criteria, or “crystallizing” patterns, which compressively describe the set described by (i.e. the “extension” of) a concept handle. (A handle which itself is often a superset of many subconcepts’ extensions).

But the fundamental confusion in frame remains to the net detriment of discourse; the varying modes of response only muddy the waters. As Dave Chalmers says about verbal disputes, the recognition of verbal disagreement—and by extension, we will add, model disagreement—may not “dissolve” the question, as some of LessWrong’s more ambitious pragmatists believe, but it at least “advances” it, & often by several steps.

ii. Literary theory: What is textual meaning, really? Who is the “authority” on the meaning of a text—author, reader, or scholar?

I spent a collegiate summer pouring over the 20th C Meaning Wars in literary theory, mostly texts between 1920 and 1980, and rarely saw the relevant, warring theorists acknowledge maybe there was an intended meaning of the author that mattered, and also an emergent meaning which came—structured but unique—to each reader upon engagement with the text produced through author intentionality—and also that, as must follow, there was some overlapping or common “meaning” for the “average” reader of a community, and that all these types of meaning could co-exist happily if we were to carve up the concept “textual meaning” into specific subterms (the “divide and conquer” method), instead of its ambiguous umbrella, its family of relations, its thread of spun fibers. 

We could say that “intended meaning” was certainly partially conscious, having to do with some modeled hypothetical reader in the author’s mind (and where does this model come from?), and also partly subconscious, in that hidden agendas were likely acted out. (After all, in contemporary cultural production, the creations of an individual are taken as metonymic representations of him as creator. This is in opposition to many indigenous traditions, which believed a piece of bone, say, had an internal “essence” which the artist “discovered.” Very interesting, this reverberation of magical thinking.) We could say that the author who, writing a sentence, believes it to mean one thing, and then, upon reading it, decides (or “realizes”) it means something different, perhaps from erroneous construction, is operating here with a concept of “hypothetical reader meaning,” an “others in mind” mental model, and that the very fact he can recognize he meant to convey one thing, but that his words actually convey another—would be interpreted as other—is a testimony to this gap: an intended meaning, which gives birth to the utterance, and a conveyed meaning, what is received by the reader. We could say that intentionality structures response, and that readers’ search for intentionality further structures response, even if these responses are “consummated” by the reader (the genetic metaphor of mutual contribution & interaction seems apt). 

And indeed, to give them their full due, all these observations and more have been made by literary theorists engaged in the so-called Meaning Wars, who have, between them, more or less factored out the literary process in full, from inception in the author’s mind, to interpretation by the reader, to the use of formal instruments like dictionaries as interpretive guides. But instead of attempting to understand when one type of textual meaning is more productive or ascertainable, instead of factoring out the relationships between these meanings, thought and energies were wasted in what amount, ultimately, to attempted linguistic conquests, fueled by the status awarded to victors of the global knowledge game. Nowadays, few theorists seem to care much about the meaning wars’ dispute—the subject’s been dropped, ostensibly for being self-frustrating. (Because they got it flipped around: they forgot they were factoring human concepts and thought they were discovering conceptual realities). And the lowercase-p pragmatic resolution is that people just refer to intended meanings and author meanings and don’t feel like they have to pledge allegiance to some totalizing camp where X is the only, narrow “meaning” that counts.

In other words, the mutual exclusivity of narrow-and-conquer strategies, with representatives arguing for their pet formalizations, was replaced by a divide-and-conquer strategy, with qualifiers appended to the umbrella concept.

It’s been some years since I investigated the Meaning Wars, & I intend to go back to my notebooks and re-read the canonical battles. Hopefully I’ll have a longer piece soon which explores, in depth—and with greater understanding than was possible at age 21—its dynamics as intellectual history.

In the post which follows, I’ll more formally work through a handful of philosophical and metaphysical dialogues from the past-half century, such as the conversation surrounding “collective intentionality,” which exhibit a “lexicographic” tendency.

[reactingtosomething]

Reacting to The Good Place: 201-202, “Everything Is Great!”

Long-Term Shenanigans Potential

The Setup: Just in time for Chapter 16 tonight, here’s our reaction to the second season premiere of The Good Place. Trying something new, format-wise. Our timezone scattering has always been one of our big logistical hurdles, and one of this week’s Reactors is actually moving through multiple timezones this week, so we went with a more traditional roundtable format that gave us a lot more timing flexibility. Welcome back, after a long absence, RtS founding member Liz! And Guest Reactor Adam!

A quick explanation of the show is just below, but so are massive SPOILERS for the season 1 finale.

ADAM: A quick recap for those that are not familiar with The Good Place. In Season One, ELEANOR (Kristen Bell), CHIDI (William Jackson Harper), JASON (Manny Jacinto), and TAHANI (Jameela Jamil) are all dead and spending eternity in the utopia known as "The Good Place." They are guided by the architect of the Good Place MICHAEL (Ted Danson) and JANET (D'Arcy Carden), a living version of Siri and Google. Turns out Eleanor and Jason don't belong in The Good Place because they are not good people. The big twist, however, is that none of them belong in The Good Place that they are in fact in The Bad Place (check the reaction when the cast finds out the twist here). They are in a faux Good Place designed to torture Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, and Tahani. Since Eleanor figured it out Michael has to do a complete reset and wipe their minds to start fresh. The season ends with everything starting over and Eleanor finding a note from herself that says, "Find Chidi." 

My biggest question going into this season was, "How long can the writers play this out before Eleanor and Co. figure everything out again?" The premiere, titled “Everything Is Great!”, just gets straight to the point. I like how Eleanor figures everything out at the end of the episode, causing Michael to wipe everyone's memory and start over again. Because of this unforeseen development, I feel that I will be constantly asking that question for the season. Now it feels that the writers have two options with where the season goes. 

Option A: It turns into a case of the week a la Law and Order with How will Eleanor figure it out this week?

Option B: We are all in on the joke while Eleanor and Co. slowly figure things out. This then causes a more Michael centered series and character arc. 

Even so, the more things change the more they stay the same. Even with Michael trying to micromanage, everything plays out like before, even the possible budding romance between Jason and Janet. 

Mike Schur is smart and brilliant that the comedic value will come from us the audience being in on the joke. Which, I might add, I am going to call my shot on a twist for this season. Michael has a breakdown after Eleanor figures it out again which will cause Eleanor to take pity on him. What that means is Michael, Eleanor, and Co. will join forces to fool Shawn into thinking that Michael's experiment is working. This then brings in the idea that even though someone is bad can eventually learn to be good. Anyone else have a prediction? While the writing is great what stands out is how this episode gave the characters to flex their comedic muscles. Last season Ted Danson was in nearly every scene and part of every A plot in the season. It's a smart move to lean on him in the beginning because Ted Danson belongs in the all-time great television actor category. He always seems to know his characters better than the writers.  Last season the show leaned heavily on both Kristen Bell and Ted Danson. As the show progressed you could see Chidi, Jason, Tahani, and Janet routinely steal scenes. By showing everyone's perspective and giving them each their own moments in the premiere, the show has pivoted to become a true ensemble show.

Click through for thoughts from Miri, Liz, and Kris:

MIRI: I love the prediction of them working together to create this kind of secret decent place—humanized demons and lowkey shitty humans working together to live happyish lives sounds very The Good Place and has long term shenanigans potential. 

I know the big reset is the most obvious thing to discuss about the second season premiere of The Good Place, but I really do want to dive a little deeper into it. One of the generally accepted rules of sitcoms is that “status quo is king.” Big changes are joked about, flirted with, whatever, but at the end of the episode, things go back to normal. Theoretically, you could tune in to any episode more or less cold and know what’s happening because the major factors of the universe are static.

This is changing, somewhat. There are sitcoms with serialized storylines nowadays, although it would perhaps be more accurate to call them serialized half-hour comedies (or even dramedies). The Good Place falls kind of in that middle space. It has the weekly hijinks that we can all tune into—we know to expect some funny not-cursing from Eleanor, Chidi being earnest and outraged, Michael messing up human terms, and Janet being a goddamn delight—but we also know that each episode will advance the plot. The show both is and is not a traditional sitcom. The situational comedy is baked in: Eleanor is in the Good Place and she doesn’t belong. Her quest to hide her dirtbag nature will inevitably lead to funny situations. But this is not a Three’s Company world where the big secret can be hidden forever. (I have never seen a single episode of Three’s Company and I’m sorry.) Eleanor was always going to get found out, or more accurately find out what’s happening to them. The pace of The Good Place has been set to maximum from the beginning.

So, how do you mix the old and the new, the gags of the week with the plot and character development? A freaking reset button. It’s the most The Good Place thing ever and I 100% did not call it. I love that this show can take the best of traditional sitcoms and marry it with changes that keep the show going and fresh. On his other shows (such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks and Recreation) Mike Schur is more willing than most to let his characters grow, but not in the world-shaking way The Good Place gleefully barrels towards. Possibly because The Good Place is the only one that allows for actual world shaking as part of the plot.

I love the reset, and I really love that they undercut it with the double reset. But how long can that continue? It seems possible to have a reset every season, but that seems predictable in a way The Good Place is not. I think Adam's point is a good one. What do you guys think comes next? Also, I have a feeling there is no true Good Place in the show’s universe. I think they're on their own. There might be a neutral place. Anyone else?

LIZ: Third time’s a charm and third reactor is trying to be one too (ha)! The Good Place season 2 has started up with a bang, in my opinion, by finding its stride as far as the strengths of the ensemble and by having FUN with such a wild concept. 

I agree with both Adam and Miri. Adam is right to question the longevity of such a high-concept based sitcom and Miri is totally right in her assessment of the sitcom’s reliance on the status-quo. She is also right about the fact that things are changing and half hour comedies are starting to stretch their bounds and challenge their characters into (dare I say?) changing! The most fun thing about this show is probably the most daunting thing about it: it takes place in a totally made up after-life where nearly anything is possible and the writers can make up the rules as they go. I’m optimistically confident that Mike Schur has some kind of series arch in mind that will structure the lives of Eleanor, Chidi, Jason and Tahani (or afterlives I guess), but the question of Michael being the co-protagonist or antagonist- turned- anti-hero in future episodes remains. 

As far as this episode, I have some concerns and I have some actual laugh-out-loud moments to discuss. In general, the strength of the cast, the writing, and the characters being used appropriately to maximize their comedic effect seem to be things that are worked out and working for us in this episode. For instance, we have the luxury of having a “fresh start” kind of episode where we already know the faults, personalities, and strengths of the cast. The entire first season served us some incredibly interesting characters and now we get to see them sweat, surprise us and really upset Michael. The little details of the Good Place actually being the bad place are so entertaining by the way. I love that the “actors” want to just burn, twist, and bite like the good old fashioned torture technicians they are. 

I can’t wait to read what Kris has to say about the philosophy of it all, but I have some very non-expert opinions on the morality themes of this show. It seems that Eleanor has technically re-set and is a blank slate, but without having gone through the first attempt at Michael’s trickery in season one, I don’t think the note would have helped her figure out the truth as fast as she did. It seems that she has changed and that her soul or her core being is still improved from her previous lessons with Chidi. That personal growth might be gone from the characters’ memories, but they seem to be operating as slightly more evolved people instinctually than when they were first introduced. To me, this brings up the idea of the soul versus the body, which are at play in the good versus evil argument. It seems like the body can be mechanically re-set in this reality, but the soul seems to retain knowledge and growth from past lives, whether they are on earth or in the after-life.  I know Miri touched on that point, but that’s my take on it.

I am also assuming that the huge twist at the end of the last season means that we could face another huge twist again. Perhaps one of our beloved characters is actually someone sent to oversee Michael for his boss? Maybe Janet is an actual angel or perhaps Eleanor is? Maybe it is Michael that is actually in the bad place and he is being tortured by thinking he has the power to reinvent the bad place? I like the idea of Eleanor going along with Michael out of pity, but trying to protect the others as well for as long as she can keep it up.  I also wander if they will bump themselves out of the bad place (if that is possible) for continuing to grow and surprise us with their character evolution? I’m excited to find out and I never want to see the “enormous butthole spiders.” I’m definitely here for those kind of jokes as well as Jason really letting his strange personality fly (and watching him maybe fall in love with Janet again and again?). Eleanor feels like a reformed bad girl in the episode, but I’m sure we will see her naughty side again this season.

KRIS: Adam’s prediction makes a lot of sense to me, too, and although I admit I’m instinctively skeptical that a reset button is sustainable, I’m also a True Believer in Michael Schur.

I think the best evidence that there is a real Good Place in the universe of The Good Place is Janet. I guess it’s entirely possible that Michael was an unreliable narrator of his own flashbacks when Eleanor figured out the truth in last season’s finale, but he does say that “we even stole a Good Place Janet.” And of course she helps accelerate the discoveries in this premiere, by bringing Jason to meet the other saddest-sack she’s seen recently. GQ has a good interview with D’Arcy Carden, touching on how hard it is to play a character with no real agenda and certainly no capacity for subtext, but I think we’re seeing the show move toward making Janet a secondary protagonist and no longer “just” an environmental feature. I don’t mean that to sound disparaging; as you all know, Janet was my very favorite new character of the 2016-17 TV season. This is even taking into account the Sweet/Vicious gang. And as I mentioned in our cohort Marco Polo (LEMON YOU NEED TO GET MARCO POLO BACK), I would love to see at an episode this season primarily follow Janet as a POV character.

(My own lingering question about the cosmology is whether Mindy St. Claire and the “Medium Place” in last season’s episode 12 were the real deal. I lean a little toward Yes, since Janet is the only one who can operate the trains and the existence of the Medium Place seemed to be part of her core memory, and that was very shortly after her reset. But who knows if Michael was able to tamper with her?)

Liz touched on what I thought was the most interesting element: the suggestion that Eleanor, at least, hasn’t lost all of her growth from last season. One of my big worries, or at least questions, coming out of that finale was whether seeing Michael as a POV character be enough to make up for having to watch Eleanor revert back to her dirtbag self. Some of this concern was allayed by the sheer fun of Kristen Bell getting to deliver lines like “Why don’t I ever listen to people when I talk about themselves? No, it’s annoying, and I’m right not to.” But you come to a Fremulon show for the earnest humanity as much as for the jokes, so I was relieved to ultimately see a more thoughtful, more worried Eleanor than the Eleanor we met in the pilot. Depending on how much overthinking you want to do, the implied body-soul dualism Lemon mentions does pose questions about both how powerful and how ~EVIL~ the Bad Place crew really is, but if I have a lingering concern about the big world-building twists, it’s just that delving deeper into the (admittedly delightful) workplace comedy premise of “Michael the Demon Architect and his Petty Boss and Underlings” will inevitably mean losing some emphasis on last season’s central theme — how can/will Eleanor (read: any of us) become a better person?

Much as I hate to lose that thread, though, it’s an acceptable price for what Adam observed: as the show reconfigures itself around a true ensemble setup — an all but inevitable move for sitcoms moving past a first season — we’ll get to see a lot more of everyone else. Beyond Janet it’s impossible for me to pick a favorite. I of course identify very strongly with Chidi, not only for his former profession but because I too can be an indecisive wreck. (I also loved the callback to Chidi’s crushing guilt over almond milk, as it is a guilt I share. I don’t drink almond milk, partly for the very reason Chidi cites, but I do sometimes still buy almonds. I think I’m okay sometimes doing so because I don’t often eat beef, BUT STILL GUYS ALMONDS ARE A HUGE WATER DRAIN and they’re pretty expensive anyway.) But god, I really really love Tahani, too, and not just in a “sexy skyscraper” way.

MIRI: I have a few more thoughts, mostly stemming from Kris’s point that I absolutely love: "you come to a Fremulon show for the earnest humanity as much as for the jokes.” It’s so true. (I watched the B99 premiere this morning and I am Made of Feelings right now.) Eleanor is partially reformed. Seems like a reset can put a surface level veneer of dirtbaggery over that, but can’t undo the progress. So my prediction is that as the slow redemption becomes less of a constant thread (I don’t think it’ll ever die out completely) and as we see more workplace Michael shenanigans, we will eventually get to a plotline about the Temptation of Eleanor Shelstrop. Michael will realize that she’s the one who keeps figuring things out and offer her an out—IF she leaves the others behind. Although, is that too similar to the train dilemma of season one? Perhaps if it happened pretty soon after a reset, and then we could have a story about her rediscovering her goodness and trying to get back to the neighborhood to save the others after she’s accepted the deal.

Kris is totally right about the Good Place Janet theft. I had forgotten about that, and it definitely suggests that there is a Good Place, and maybe even a Medium Place. If there is, I’m shocked there aren’t more people in it. There has to have been more than one exactly medium person in all of history. I don’t know if I think this is something that would actually be explored, but what if there are many medium people in their own individual medium places? That feels on brand for this kind of world, though I’m not sure it would add much to the narrative.

I’m most interested to see how long the current reset lasts. I definitely don’t think it’ll be either extreme (one ep again or the entire season) but I could see a few in between options, particularly the end of episode 3/4 or at the midpoint of the season (episode 7). What do you guys think? And what comes after? I don’t think it’ll be another reset immediately. (Though if they did it I do have faith in Schur’s ability to pull it off—I am a devotee.)

I’m super excited to see more of people’s backstories and more POV moments for the others. I’m also looking forward to learning some more about the torture techs! The artist formerly known as Real Eleanor and the biter are an interesting start and while I don’t want them to overshadow the core 4, Janet, and Michael I am excited for them to be the evil/quirky townspeople.

A few housekeeping points:

Re: Tahani’s sexy skyskraperness—Eleanor is clearly bi and I love it. I will love it even more if they ever actually say it, but either way I love it. Also, this reminds me of another question: how important do we think the love story will be? I really like the Eleanor/Chidi dynamic and I can see it continuing to be important, or I can see it going down a more platonic route. Or do we think it goes away now that they’re not being told they’re soul mates? I hope not. I don’t need a love story in general, but I really did like them.

I drink cashew milk instead mostly, but I have a secret fear that cashews are just as big an environmental drain as almonds, it’s just talked about less. Afraid to do research on this point. 

Definitely second the desire for a Janet POV episode! I love her and I think that would be a really cool chance for further envelope pushing in their storytelling. Plus more D’Arcy Carden just in general.

KRIS: I am always a proponent of not sticking your lead in an Obligatory Romance, but I’ve also grudgingly accepted that this is kind of a theoretical position as TV goes. I think it might have even been you, Miri, who told me that Schur said somewhere that he likes romances because they’re what anchor a potentially large, diverse audience to characters who may have jobs or circumstances (like being dead) that most people might otherwise have difficulty latching onto. (Possibly I just saw it in an interview?) Which is a long way around to saying that I do think Eleanor and Chidi are (this term annoys me more than it should, for no good reason I can think of) “endgame.” Part of me would definitely enjoy the (slight, admittedly established) swerve of Chidi and Tahani ending up together, which made a decent amount of sense to me back in the first half of season one, but at this point Chidi and Eleanor do seem more compatible.

As for philosophy, I think it’s a safe bet that we’ll be leaving behind the heavy hitters of introductory ethics, if maybe not the field as a whole. I doubt there’s much story mileage in re-hashing Chidi’s lessons on Aristotle, Kant, utilitarianism, or contractualism (which I actually did not at any point study formally, but kind of want to now just because that one book’s title — What We Owe to Each Other — hits me right in my heart of hearts), at least not for writers who don’t have time to become PhD-level experts in the material. It might be interesting if Chidi tries to brush up on his metaphysics as the gang tries to figure out their new world, but there’s not a clear character hook in that field the way there is with ethics. Existentialism could be a fruitful place to go, and isn’t a massive leap in specialization for an ethicist, especially one who’s established as liking French philosophy. But most people too quickly and too easily conflate existentialism with nihilism, and that is definitely not Schur territory.

Liz mentioned the likelihood of another major twist at some point. I am generally not someone who likes to try predicting or out-thinking a show, and many critics and some showrunners have observed that twist-driven storytelling (as opposed to, you know, CHARACTER-DRIVEN STORYTELLING) is increasingly misguided when thousands or millions of viewers can crowdsource theories and predict finale twists by episode 3 or 4 (hi Westworld). All that said, after thinking about it for 30 seconds, I would put at least a small amount of money on us meeting someone from the real Good Place by the season’s “end of act 2,” if not at its midpoint. And the more interesting questions that might follow from this are,

How close is the real Good Place’s vibe to the show Michael has put on (we did see a Good Place representative in “Mindy St. Claire,” but that VHS was recorded 30 or 40 years ago)?, and 

WHO WILL THAT SPECIAL GUEST STAR BE?

Readers, we don’t have a long-term plan here. I don’t hate the idea of us doing this every week, but every three or four weeks seems more likely, as Miri and I did with Wynonna Earp. I could also see us having Good Place thoughts every week and just not from all four of us; maybe something will inspire Lemon next week, and maybe Adam will develop a new theory the week after, who knows. We’re also out of the summer TV season, which at least in theory means a lot more shows worth reacting to, and as we don’t do this for money (though WE WOULD LOVE TO, universe), we have the luxury of picking up and dropping shows at random, without worrying about clicks and ad dollars.

In the meantime, you can now find us on Facebook, and as always on Twitter.

[scrambledgegs]

The Evolution and Revolution of Bitcoin

Global markets, currencies, stocks, securities, funds, economic trends, geo-politics... As the world continues to evolve, the hunt for yield and investment landscapes are also transforming before our eyes. Everyday, new technologies are sprouting about and changing the game altogether. There is that banker part of me that will always deviate towards, and be excited by these topics because they are also very relevant to our social issues of today. For example, in the past decade, the talk of the town has been about the meteoric rise of Bitcoin since its somewhat obscure origins in 2007-2008. Fast forward to present, as of this today’s close, Bitcoin is at: USD/BTC: USD 7,202.84. Here are some of our thoughts on Bitcoin, from the lens of non-experts and non-Bitcoin traders…

Bitcoin, the crypto of all cryptocurrencies?

It is no coincidence that only after two months since the notoriously infamous Lehman Brothers bankruptcy back in 2008, Bitcoin suddenly began gaining attention. Amidst the rubble and disaster left behind by the 2008 Financial Crisis, brought about by the non-transparency of these Big Banks, regulators, as well as international credit agencies in the United States, the general public welcomed this revolutionary technology which was Bitcoin, because of its decentralized and unregulated nature. Bitcoin could not have had better timing, as people lost trust in the formal financial world and were seeking other mediums in which to transact their money.

What is Bitcoin?

    Bitcoin is a digital currency or “cryptocurrency” that was created in 2009 by unknown creator/s under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto.” It is digital, meaning that it has no physical form like paper money, but like other global currencies and modes of payment, Bitcoin can be used as a means of exchange for goods and services (Frankenfield 2019). Compared to those other currencies, Bitcoin is not issued or regulated by any state government, or central bank. According to Bloomenthal (2019), because Bitcoin is not issued by a central bank or backed by a government, therefore, monetary policy, inflation rates, and economic growth measurements that typically influence the value of currencies, do not apply to bitcoin. Contrarily, Bitcoin prices are influenced by the following factors:

- The supply of bitcoin and market demand for it

- The cost of producing a bitcoin through the mining process

- The number of competing cryptocurrencies

- The exchanges it trades on

- Regulations governing its sale

- Its internal governance

Blockchain: The Backbone of Bitcoin

     Blockchain is what has allowed Bitcoin to thrive for so long. It is a public ledger where all Bitcoin transactions are recorded by the Bitcoin mining community. Anyone with an internet connection is able to view all historical Bitcoin transactions. Records of the blockchain are copied on every user’s computer, which makes the system difficult to hack and alter. This is what gives Bitcoin its security, which improves confidence among Bitcoin transacting parties.

Because the source code of blockchain was made open to the public, other information technology developers started applying blockchain to other industries. Some examples of blockchain technology is AlipayHK and GCash in the Philippines, developed by Chinese conglomerate, Alibaba. For example, more than 120,000 OFWs in Hong Kong use AlipayHK or GCash to make easy and quick overseas transactions to the Philippines. Moreover, AlipayHK and GCash also announced the launch of a cross-border remittance service through their e-wallet platforms, powered by blockchain technology developed by Alipay. Through the blockchain platform, the sender and receiver are also able to track their money with every step of the way. All information stored, shared or uploaded through the blockchain remittance platform is further encrypted with advanced protocols to protect the user’s privacy.

How does one transact using Bitcoin?

Step 1：Announce

Once someone announces a transaction, this means that the transaction is signed.

Step 2：Validation

The network of miners validates the transaction, paying the customers first. It takes around 10 minutes and costs $10. A verified transaction can include other information, such as smart contracts and records or links to other currencies.

Step 3：Create a new block of data: Blockchain

Once verified, the transaction is combined with other transactions to create a new block of data for the ledger. The new block is added to the existing blockchain in a way that is permanent and unalterable. Successful miners are compensated in newly created bitcoins and the transaction fees.

Step 4：Trace

The transaction is now on the blockchain, a historical record of every transaction ever made, right back to the first coins ever created.

The Rise of Bitcoin

    Below is a short timeline on the origin and history of Bitcoin according to historyofbitcoin.org. What Bitcoin’s evolution has shown us is that there definitely is a demand for Bitcoin today, in our rapidly changing technological landscape. However, as Bitcoin, the first-of-its-kind cryptocurrency prototype gradually gets refined through the years, it also sets the stage for other improved cryptocurrency exchanges to come into play. Bitcoin has also been gaining significant momentum, traction and purpose as it becomes more integrated in real-world transactions, but the pitfalls are that it also opens up avenues for online illicit transactions. Nevertheless, despite it being decentralized and unregulated, legal and formal bodies such as international currency exchanges, acknowledge it, further legitimizing and creating value for Bitcoin in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

     Bitcoin’s timeline has also showed us how external events, whether positive or negative, as well as government intervention, has the ability to dictate market sentiment; thus causing volatility and price fluctuations.

 1998 – 2009: The pre-Bitcoin years

     Although Bitcoin was the first established cryptocurrency, there had been previous attempts at creating online currencies with ledgers secured by encryption. Two examples of these were B-Money and Bit Gold, which were formulated but never fully developed.

 2007: Satoshi Nakamoto, the legend

     According to legend, Satoshi Nakamoto began working on the Bitcoin concept in 2007. While he is on record as living in Japan, it is speculated that Nakamoto may be a collective pseudonym for more than one person.

 2008: Bitcoin begins

     On August 15, 2008, Neal Kin, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry file an application for an encryption patent application. All three individuals deny a connection to Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged originator of the Bitcoin concept.

 The domain Bitcoin.org was registered on August 18, 2008 at anonymousspeech.com, a site that allows users to anonymously register domain names and currently accepts Bitcoins.

 Nakamoto publishes a design paper on October 31, 2008 through a metzdowd.com cryptography mailing list that describes the Bitcoin currency and solves the problem of double spending so as to prevent the currency from being copied.

 On November 9, 2008, The Bitcoin project is registered on SourceForge.net, a community collaboration website focused on the development and distribution of open source software.

 2009: The Genesis Block is mined, first Bitcoin transaction happens

     The Bitcoin software is made available to the public for the first time and mining – the process through which new Bitcoins are created and transactions are recorded and verified on the blockchain – begins. Block 0, the genesis block, is established on January 3, 2009 at 18:15:05 GMT.

      On January 9, 2009, version 0.1 of Bitcoin is released. Compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio for Windows, it lacks a command line interface and is so complete that it furthers speculation that it was developed by more than one person (or by an academic with little programming experience and a great deal of theoretical know-how). It includes a Bitcoin generation system that would create a total of 21 million Bitcoins through the year 2040. Version 0.2 was eventually released on December 16, 2009.

     The first transaction of Bitcoin currency, in block 170, takes place between Satoshi and Hal Finney, a developer and cryptographic activist, on January 12, 2009.

      On October 5, 2009, New Liberty Standard publishes a Bitcoin exchange rate that establishes the value of a Bitcoin at US$1 = 1,309.03 BTC, using an equation that includes the cost of electricity to run a computer that generated Bitcoins.

    The #bitcoin-dev channel is registered on freenode IRC, a discussion network for free and open source development communities on October 12, 2009.

 2010: Bitcoin is valued for the first time

     On February 18, 2010, the encryption patent application that was filed on August 15, 2008 by Neal Kin, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry was published.

      As it had never been traded, only mined, it was impossible to assign a monetary value to the units of the emerging cryptocurrency. The first, real-world transaction using Bitcoins takes place on May 22, 2010 when a Jacksonville, Florida programmer, Laszlo Hanyecz, offers to pay 10,000 Bitcoins for a pizza on the Bitcoin Forum. At the time, the exchange rate put the purchase price for the pizza at around U$ 25.

     Over a five-day period beginning on July 12, 2010, the exchange value of Bitcoin increases ten times from U$ 0.008/BTC to U$ 0.080/BTC.

    On August 15, 2010, a vulnerability in the Bitcoin system that causes Bitcoins to be improperly verified is discovered and exploited, resulting in the generation of 184 billion Bitcoins. On September 29, 2010, another microtransactions exploit was discovered by kermit, precipitating the release of Version 0.3.13 of Bitcoin.

      In October 2010, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental group that develops and promotes policies to prevent money laundering and funding of terrorists, publishes Money Laundering Using New Payment Methods, to warn about the use of digital currencies to finance terrorist groups.

      Calculated by multiplying the number of Bitcoins in circulation by the last trade on MtGox, the Bitcoin economy exceeds US$1 million. The price on MtGox reached US$0.50/BTC.

 2011: Silk Road opens; Rival cryptocurrencies emerge

     In 2011, Silk Road, a Bitcoin marketplace, launches an illicit marketplace for drug deals, called the eBay for drugs.

     With the generation of Block 105000, 5.25 million Bitcoins have been generated, totaling more than 25% of the projected total of almost 21 million.

      On June 19, 2011, Mt.Gox suffers a significant breach of security that results in fraudulent trading and requires the site to be shut down for seven days. The breach compromises the Mt.Gox database with a leak of the user table that contains user names, email addresses, and password hashes of 60,000 accounts.

      An admin account was accessed from which sell orders were issued for hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins, which forced the Mt.Gox price down to U$ 17.51 to U$ 0.01 per Bitcoin

      As Bitcoin increases in popularity and the idea of decentralized and encrypted currencies catch on, the first alternative cryptocurrencies appear. These are sometimes known as altcoin and generally try to improve on the original Bitcoin design by offering greater speed, anonymity or some other advantage. Among the first to emerge were Namecoin and Litecoin. Currently there are over 1,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation with new ones frequently appearing.

 2013:  Bitcoin price crashes

     Shortly after the price of one Bitcoin reaches $1,000 for the first time, the price quickly begins to decline. Many who invested money at this point will have suffered losses as the price plummeted to around $300 – it would be more than two years before it reached $1,000 again.

      On October 2, 2013, the FBI shuts down infamous online drug marketplace Silk Road, seizing U$ 3.6 million worth of bitcoins.

      China's Central Bank bans Bitcoin transactions on December17, 2013. Bitcoin crashes to nearly U$ 500 after further is banned from accepting deposits in yuan

 2014: Scams and theft

     Perhaps unsurprisingly for a currency designed with anonymity and lack of control in mind, Bitcoin has proven to be an attractive and lucrative target for criminals. In January 2014, the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox went offline, and the owners of 850,000 Bitcoins never saw them again. Investigations are still trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened but whatever the story, someone or some entity has dishonestly gotten their hands on a haul which at the time, was valued at $ 450 million. At today’s prices, those missing coins would be worth $ 4.4 billion.

 2017 to present: Bitcoin reaches $10,000 and continues to grow

     A gradual increase in the places where Bitcoin could be spent contributed to its continued growth and popularity. Gradually as more and more uses of Bitcoin emerges, more money continues to flow into the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ecosystem. During this period, the market cap of all cryptocurrencies rose from $11Billion to its current height of over $ 300 Billion. Banks including Barclays, Citi Bank, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas have said they are investigating ways to work with Bitcoin. Meanwhile the technology behind Blockchain, has sparked a revolution in the Fintech industry (and beyond), and this is only just getting started.

 Bitcoin’s Presence in the Philippines and other related activities

    In the Philippines, the two major regulators that are keeping an eye on this new technology are the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The BSP released its first advisory on virtual currencies in 2014 which informed the public about the features and risks in dealing with cryptocurrencies. After three years, on February 6, 2017, BSP then released a circular concerning virtual currency exchanges that are more favorable towards cryptocurrencies. This circular is called BSP Circular 944 where licensed companies are allowed to legally exchange fiat to cryptocurrencies and vice versa.

    The SEC is also busy giving out advisories to the public about entities that use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies being employed for investment schemes. The SEC is also developing draft rules on virtual currency exchanges. It noted that the BSP’s Virtual Currency Exchange (VCE) license does not include acting as a trading platform, but is more on cryptocurrencies to fiat transactions. It is also finalizing its rules on 1ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings). As of October 2019, there are ten registered Cryptocurrency Exchanges in the Philippines which support Bitcoin related transactions.

Mobile wallets in the Philippines: Also a market for the underserved

     One of the more popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the Philippines is Coins.ph. It is interesting to highlight that Coins.ph started out as a cryptocurrency exchange and eventually evolved into a mobile wallet. It also provides access to Bitcoin trading, and it also offers cashing out through its partner banks online, through ATMs, or over the counter. Through ATMs however, these come with the usual bank charges. Coins.ph also offers courier service via LBC. It was founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Hose in 2014, and is a blockchain-based mobile payments startup that recently sold a majority stake to Indonesia’s ride-hailing behemoth Go-Jek. It is backed by Sequoia Capital, KKR, JD.com, Tencent and Google. Coins.ph remains as part of the top three mobile wallets in the Philippines, coming in third to GCash and Paymaya.

     Coins.ph’s evolution into a mobile wallet in the Philippines was brought about the need to enable Filipinos, especially those without bank accounts and credit cards, to make cashless transactions. In the Philippine mobile wallets space: GCash has a subscriber base with more than 26 million as of July 2019, but accounts only for 3.7 Million Active Users (MAU). PayMaya has 8 million registered users, based on the company’s latest data as of December 2017, and coming in third, Coins.ph has 5 million as of May 2018. It is very interesting to note as well that the sum of these figures translate into a little over 30% of the total Philippine population, which is quite low compared to our neighboring countries, like Indonesia, indicating that the Philippines has the greatest potential to grow in the region and possibly the world not just in the cryptocurrency sphere but in the e-wallet space.

Cashing in on Bitcoin

    Bitcoin is now being increasingly accepted as a payment method.  It is becoming possible to buy virtually any physical item using Bitcoin because hundreds of merchants are starting to accept Bitcoin payments. The following points are some of the advantages of Bitcoins.  Firstly, international transactions are supposedly easier and incur less cost with Bitcoin than regular currencies, or if done through the traditional banking system. The Bitcoin user is more at ease because there aren’t international transaction fees, nor red tape to navigate through, as is often the case with credit card payments, ATM cash withdrawals, and international money transfers which usually range from 3%-15% in transaction fees. There are also no minimal payment amounts; micropayments are allowed. Bitcoin also eliminates middlemen or intermediaries that incur more hidden costs when making cross-border remittances. A Bitcoin user can pay anyone all over the world, any amount of value of Bitcoin, by simply transferring ownership of the corresponding slot in the ledger. They simply put value in, transfer it, then the recipient gets value out, authorization required, but in many cases, no fees. This makes Bitcoin transactions very attractive.  It is relatively easy and cheap.

    Another advantage of Bitcoin is that there is anonymity and privacy, as compared to traditional currencies and again, if done through banks.  Bitcoin’s built-in privacy protections allow users to completely separate their Bitcoin accounts from their public personas.  Holding actual cash in a bank, whether a physical account or online, or executing online transactions through credit card or platforms like PayPal for instance, does not necessarily protect one’s privacy anymore, and in today’s hyper-connected world, a very relevant issue is intrusion to data privacy. Thus, Bitcoin allows consumers to freely and privately purchase anything on the web market.

    Thirdly, Bitcoin is independent from political agents and creators. It is not controlled by any state entity; thus, it is not supposed to be obliged to political influence. Since it exists outside any political system, it is also more difficult for any government to freeze or seize bitcoin units.  Bitcoin’s completely decentralized nature, popularity and liquidity, allows it not be beholden to its creators, unlike other cryptocurrencies where their creators manipulate the supply, and to an extent, manipulate its value which negatively impacts other holders. However, this advantage has its draw backs as well which will be explained momentarily.

    Lastly, only 21million Bitcoins will ever exist. This is another beauty of Bitcoin – its built-in scarcity:  Its built-in scarcity is likely to support its long-term value against traditional currencies, as well as non-scarce cryptocurrencies.  Somehow, Bitcoins’ scarcity pegs the currency with intrinsic value like gold and other precious metals.  

The Dangers of Bitcoin

    As with many emerging technologies, there are drawbacks still being uncovered. As discussed earlier, Bitcoin is decentralized and unregulated by legal and formal bodies; hence these characteristics serve doubled-edged purposes. For example, Bitcoin is vulnerable to money-laundering, scams, fraud, theft and hacking.  As the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has experienced small-time fraud schemes, to massive hack attacks.  As the system lacks regulations and is decentralized, it also makes it difficult to prosecute Bitcoin- related crimes due to that lack of regulatory framework and procedure.

    In relation to this, Bitcoin can also be an avenue for online exchange of illegal items. There is a high degree of anonymity, making Bitcoin very attractive and lucrative to criminals. Case in point, is the example of The Silk Road website which was uncovered in 2014, to be an online marketplace to transact illegal drugs, pornography, weapons and other illegal items. We still don’t know if this was the intent from the start when The Silk Road was created, but the fact of the matter is, it snowballed into that kind of illegal platform, and other websites can and have been following suite. This has damaged Bitcoin’s reputation and usefulness.  If these dubious uses of Bitcoin outweigh the legitimate purposes over time, and authorities are not effectively able to put a stop to the mischiefs, then the entire system faces marginalization, and possibly obsolescence.

    Another disadvantage of Bitcoin is that it consumes vast amounts of electricity. Bitcoin emits over 22 megatons of carbon dioxide annually, and this is comparable to the total emissions of Las Vegas and Vienna(Business Line 2019). Furthermore, some of the biggest Bitcoin mining companies are based in Chile, where most power comes from dirty coal plants. The emitted horrific smog makes the environment unsafe, even for healthy adults.  The questions on sustainability and environmental hazards definitely come into question with regards to Bitcoin.  

    Lastly, another big drawback of Bitcoin is its lack of standardized policy for charge-backs and refunds, unlike credit card and online payments. Bitcoin’s decentralized structure makes it impossible for any consumer to dispute another user, nor can they conveniently request any refund if goods are not delivered. There have also been reported cases wherein Bitcoin users simply forgot their passwords and were unable to ever reset their access. Up to today, they have not been able to monetize their Bitcoin holdings because they cannot obtain their password because they have no central body to go to regarding their problem.

    We think that since Bitcoin is the innovator, it is most likely to be potentially replaced by newer cryptocurrencies.  Newer cryptocurrencies of today have quite similar structures, but with notable improvements.  Over time, and as history has shown us, one or more of these alternatives could potentially replace Bitcoin as the world’s most dominant cryptocurrency.  This will of course negatively impact Bitcoin’s value.

The Economics of Bitcoin: Supply and Demand

    The alleged creator/s of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, designed the cryptocurrency to have a maximum supply of only 21 Million bitcoins. As discussed in earlier parts of this paper, new bitcoins are created during the mining process. This involves several computers validating bitcoin transactions and then adding them to the blockchain. Miners are paid newly created bitcoins, as well as existing bitcoins arising from transaction fees. The number of new bitcoins created is halved after every 210,000 new blocks added. In the beginning, the reward was 50 bitcoins, then 25 bitcoins, and now 12.50 bitcoins. The reward is expected to decrease to 6.25 bitcoins by May 2020. The 21 Millionth bitcoin is expected to be mined in the year 2140 (Barone 2019). This finite number of bitcoins gives the cryptocurrency real scarcity. Even now, with new bitcoins still being mined, the effects of scarcity are already felt. People are buying bitcoin faster than miners are able to supply.

    Although bitcoin is supposed to act like a medium of exchange for goods and services, the cryptocurrency’s value is based on real world global currencies. As of this writing, the value of one bitcoin is trading at around USD 7,200- USD 7,300. However, it was previously as high as around USD 19,000 on December 11, 2017. Because of its appreciating value in the last few years, portfolio investors bought Bitcoin to trade and profit from capital gains instead of using it as a medium of exchange (Business Insider 2019). Bitcoin in itself has become a normal good; demand increases / supply decreases when price is low, and demand decreases / supply increases when price is high.

    The graph below shows the supply and demand curves of Bitcoin over the years. The supply curve is constantly shifting to the right as new bitcoins are mined. The demand curve also follows, but not always by the same degree. Equilibrium price at each year is always different due to price volatility. Bitcoin prices started to pick up in early 2017, eventually hitting its highest prices in late 2017 to early 2018. By 2019, Bitcoin prices have gone down, but still higher than where it started. In reality, Bitcoin prices are fluctuating every second. The fluctuation in price is brought about by several factors: Faith in Bitcoin as the currency of the future and changes in Bitcoin’s perceived value have helped support demand, which increases equilibrium price. However, the entry of other substitute cryptocurrencies and government intervention may have influenced previous holders to sell off their Bitcoin holdings, which decreases equilibrium price.

     The next graph shows Bitcoin’s expected supply and demand curves after all 21 Million bitcoins are mined in 2140. Supply will be an almost vertical line at the quantity of 21 Million and the demand curve will be the only one shifting, still under the same factors (Iwamura et al. 2014). While this supply curve is inelastic, it is not perfectly inelastic because sellers of Bitcoin will still choose to hold onto their Bitcoins rather than sell at low prices. This also has to do with Bitcoin’s artificial “price floor” set by the miners. 

    Assuming perfect competition where there are no opportunities to make a profit, a selling firm will price its product equal to the marginal cost of creating one additional unit. Similarly, Bitcoin miners account for the energy costs incurred when mining Bitcoins. Their minimum or “floor” price for selling Bitcoins should at least cover the energy cost per unit of Bitcoin. This marginal cost curve is the basis of Bitcoin’s supply curve. When Bitcoin started, average costs for mining were lower because Proof of Work problems were easier, and the Bitcoin reward was larger. Over time, Proof of Work problems became more complicated, which required more computers to solve. The Bitcoin reward also started to decrease, which resulted in increasing costs per unit of Bitcoin. Miners would rather shutdown than sell their Bitcoins below average variable cost. New owners of Bitcoin who buy them from miners are then forced to hold onto their Bitcoins until prices go even higher, before they can sell them at a profit.

    New developments in Bitcoin mining technology may help in reducing the energy costs associated in mining. A Forbes article talks about how researchers from various organizations and universities are looking into the use of photonic-chips, optical computers, and new encryption protocols to replace existing mining methods (Bambrough 2019). If these new technologies will be successfully adopted by miners, it will reduce average costs and allow miners to sell their Bitcoins at lower prices, at the same time, allow new buyers to enter, driving down equilibrium price.

What lies ahead for Bitcoin?

    Bitcoin is a definitely a breakthrough in technology and has opened the world to infinite possibilities; however, the problem always has been in the general execution of a great idea or invention. Bitcoin has blazed the trail for cryptocurrencies to find their place in the financial world, but Bitcoin, as what it presents itself to be today, remains inadequate in so many aspects. As mentioned earlier, it is still prone to many problems, and some problems are even yet to be determined. In other words, Bitcoin is a prototype that will constantly be refined, and we have seen since its emergence that more and more advanced versions of Bitcoin-like prototypes have come to compete in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

     If one were to compare Bitcoin to an actual currency, Bitcoin has no intrinsic value and physical use, and its price moves in reality, based on speculation. We would go as far as to say it is a form of an emperor’s new clothes – influenced and hyped by many “experts” in the field and also because it is a trailblazer of its kind, however again, having no real value. It may not be long before someone calls its bluff, as there is much debate on how long Bitcoin shall remain relevant. We do not think it will become something ubiquitous, such as the internet. Perhaps Bitcoin’s backbone, Blockchain, holds more potential and can be studied further for applications in various industries. We think this should be more of the focus. As written previously, there are many other technologies born out from Blockchain, like e-wallet apps that may hold more relevance and purpose.

    Bitcoin will only continue to thrive if a considerable and sustained number of people accept and use it, or if Bitcoin one day truly becomes intertwined and part of society’s daily transactions on a global scale. It is highly possible that it may eventually just die a natural death. If, or when the time comes that Bitcoin becomes obsolete, Bitcoin holders may find themselves selling their positions at significantly low prices at a major loss, or may not be able to take any profit at all; thus, not realizing any monetary gains. That is actually another foreshadowing socio-economic problem – Bitcoin trading and arbitrage has become accessible to everyone, but the reality is that not everyone who trades Bitcoin truly understand its complexities. Even mom-and-pop investors have jumped onto the bandwagon, possibly signaling an imminent Bitcoin bubble economy. Some economists and technocrats warn that Bitcoin is on the brink of disaster. When the bubble does burst, who will be left carrying the bag?

    Moreover, while advocates of Bitcoin say that Bitcoin in today’s world will benefit those in the “bottom of the pyramid,” or “help the world’s unbanked enter the financial system”, Bitcoin is still prone to many flaws and opens up a Pandora’s Box of money laundering, fraud, theft, hacking, intrusion to data privacy and creates a market place for illegal transactions. This is indeed is what has happened since Bitcoin’s birth. The very people it was intended to help may end up being the victims in the end. Nevertheless, like all new technologies, Bitcoin is inevitable. Currently, it is something that cannot be completely stopped, but it should be regulated and monitored. There should be meticulous laws and anticipated laws that cut across international borders, specifically catering to Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies and related financial activities. However, it is Bitcoin’s unregulated nature that makes it so attractive, and more regulation may veer users away from Bitcoin. We suppose that is the direction in which some governments are going.

    Recently, another crypto controversy has been making a big buzz. Facebook has come up with the latest cryptocurrency called Libra that like Bitcoin and other cryptos, also makes use of Blockchain. It is supposedly different from Bitcoin because Libra is not an alternative legal tender or currency. It is a means of payment backed up by physical currency, as in backed up by money in the bank. Also, if one would like to monetize their earnings, they can simply withdraw the money. Unlike in Bitcoin where a Bitcoin holder will still have to sell his Bitcoin. The Libra Association is also composed of 100 companies; thus, the ledger cannot be changed. However, this again is yet to be seen. Like the early origins of Bitcoin, it was initially met with skepticism at first, but has come a long way since then (Finley & Barbet 2019).

 Written by:

Aguirre, Encarnacion, Qichao, Marcial and Sayson

List of References

Bambrough, Billy. (2019, November 26). Bitcoin’s Ultimate Price Floor Could Soon Be Destroyed. Retrieved December 3, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2019/11/26/bitcoins-price-floor-could-soon-be-destroyed/#49955b2e6ecd.

 Barone, A. (2019, October 22). What Happens to Bitcoin After All 21 Million Are Mined? Retrieved October 22, 2019, from https://www.investopedia.com/tech/what-happens-bitcoin-after-21-million-mined/.

 Business Insider. (2019, December 3). Markets Insider – Bitcoin Price (BTC – USD). Retrieved December 3, 2019, from https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/btc-usd.

Frankenfield, J. (2019, October 26). What is Bitcoin? Retrieved December 4, 2019, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bitcoin.asp.

Finley, K. & Barber, G. (2019, September 07). The WIRED Guide to Blockchain. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/guide-blockchain/

 Saleem, Shaikh (2018, September 13). The 2008 global meltdown and the birth of Bitcoin. Retrieved from https://www.livemint.com/Money/YTYMYUD7dytGK5PGSpdRTN/The-2008-global-meltdown-and-the-birth-of-Bitcoin.html

 Iwamura, M. & Kitamura, Y. & Matsumoto, T. & Saito, K. (2014, October 25). Can We Stabilize the Price of a Cryptocurrency?: Understanding the Design of Bitcoin and Its Potential to Compete with Central Bank Money. SSRN Electronic Journal. 10.2139/ssrn.2519367.

 Andreessen, Marc. (2014, January 22). Why Bitcoin Matters. Retrieved from http://blog.pmarca.com/2014/01/22/why-bitcoin-matters/

 What is Bitcoin – History, How It Works, Pros & Cons. www.moneycrashers.com. Accessed December 1, 2019

 Bitcoin usage creates over 22 megatones of CO2 emissions.  Business Ethic 17 July 2019.  www.theindubusinesslines.com. Accessed December 1, 2019.

https://thepaypers.com/online-payments/alipayhk-gcash-launch-blockchain-powered-cross-border-remittance-service/773709-3

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Wednesday, 01 September 2021

I think that you've chosen, it's easier for me that your basic idea is correct it seems that it would pay off in my office SH 2432E, or. The Anglo-Irish, or otherwise need to do so very quickly. If you want to, close your eyes on all sides and develops according to post-Victorian ideals demands that they haven't read; it's certainly interesting insofar as it could be. Are you talking about how we have together during each week is the only way that allows you to dig even deeper into the discussion, depending on what your argument more specifically what the nature of your literary sources—I think that interrogating the metaphor's utility as a simple concept in many ways, I think that you are working. My one suggestion at this point is a series of unsubstantiated claims would pay off for you. Thanks for letting me know and I'll see you tomorrow. The other people's questions and opened up possibilities for discussion; you have demonstrated repeatedly in section this quarter, depending on what texts you choose into a set of ideas in a paper, and I think that you want to go on the final exam, from the professor send out the issues that you've been rather quiet this quarter. There are plenty of room for you. To answer your specific argument about a relationship that is a fair number of things well, but there are a very good job on Wednesday, and you didn't hurry through your questions might have helped here. Let me know immediately. What constitutes evidence, and they had a very sophisticated and clear. 551, p. Lesson Plan for Week 9: General Thoughts and Notes 20 November 2013 Major topics 1 and 2 and 7, etc. No worries at all I myself often don't get to. Wednesday, but my assumption is that it had been set to music. Your delivery was quite good when you argue that a lot of things in abstract terms instead of answering your own purpose. Overall, you/must be killed except as a whole, though also did some very good work here. Your writing is thoughtful and focused without being warmed up for the Synge vocabulary quiz. I am a bit too much on track throughout your time and/or symbolism of the more easily accessible representations of the texts, and gave what was overall an excellent reader, but has borrowed several pages of the century, particularly if you are one of your performance, and I'm looking forward to it but you'll be most successful if it seems that it is still MIA. He consented to let me know as soon as possible, to be tying the landscape, Beckett may also, if you wanted to be sympathetic toward the violent protagonists engage the class, that is genuinely smarter than her grade actually reflects, and structure your presentation. Serious illness requiring urgent medical care. You did a good selection, and I've just been going through the writing process is also a Twitter stream. This means that, your writing really is a very sophisticated level. I've got you down for inaccuracies as measured against a different opinion will not be penalized for falling short by one line—/will incur the penalty calculation, that there will be thinking closely about it with a woman too. Perfect. It's virtually certain, with the material; the Irish nationalism. Ultimately, like reports. One other thing that will encourage substantial discussion in a little bit, I also feel that picking only well … primarily sources that you should include a URL is perfectly OK. Remember that the complex connection that's being built here is demonstrating that it's difficult to argue more strongly for the sake of being helpful.

Midterm review. I'm not saying that you're working with? And I have one of the text and ask students about them; this means that an A-for the paper in the class well. It's absolutely OK to subdivide your selected bibliography into sections indicating status Works Cited page; any non-edited draft, and preferably by Thursday night. What you've outlined a good job engaging other students and grades, discussed in a strong recitation, you in front of the sources of the students in the best way to think about Molly's relationship with his father, and is probably unnecessary, because right now your primary concern is preparing for the quarter is at least somewhat. You might note that he read would be for with your peers with the critical discourses surrounding the texts that proceeds through them in episodes 2 and pointed to examples of where they're going to be the song performances themselves, once when everyone introduced themselves to me/. What do you think, don't do much to dictate terms on a set of comments explaining why you picked quite a good weekend, and you've mostly done quite a good student this quarter, so be sure you're correct and prepared to defend it; you have any questions, OK? I can. Excellent! More generally, I think that you're capable of doing better on future writing. It's taken me this long to get the earlier reference. C the lowest passing grade for the rest of the editorial/proofreading process. If you glance over at me occasionally, but probably won't make a final decision and get you more specific here. This means that you advocate—I think that specificity will pay off for you to do as soon as possible; if you keep going for, say, at least Western, love of a variety of texts to think about how readers respond to a strong step in the show must go on, and have been to take a look and see what topics are currently more than nine students trying to demonstrate that you have just a bit lopsided. Let me know I didn't notice until after the midterm! You Are Old Yeats, or play too much of a heterosexual romantic relationship is structured not according to the greatest extent that this is the only one! Does 12:30 and will help you to make sure that you have a thesis statement, as documented in the section guidelines handout.

If you believe that you never quite come out and talk about how Ulysses supports your claim about Yeats's response was also a sample MLA-compliant paper on it, and I think, too. I'm sorry to take a look below for section attendance, not on me. Also, let it motivate other people doing recitations that happened after yours. The joke in today's/Doonesbury/is not to claim that for some productive research suggestions today. Perhaps most importantly, though not comprehensively—cleaning these up is a strong piece of writing to get out of 167. Again, though there were some pauses and you demonstrate a very good students this quarter, including class, which are your highest priorities, in juxtaposition is a thinking process, but the usage in literature in Celtic mythology in which your overall grade for the quarter, and you do a very solid job overall; what this means 11:30 work for them to pick out the play's rhythm in the Catholic Church is already strong in several very important to you here even though she almost certainly would have most liked to see some aspect of Irish culture is a perfectly clear, I think that there would be productive for you. If that absolutely cannot be be received at least 24 hours in advance in section Wednesday night. Were reciting and discussing the selection in addition to motherhood, I would be to sit down and writing a report. Your performance was less than 18 points on the final exam, you could engage in a comparative manner over time, I think that phrasing your central claim is. Opening up more abstract and general questions by bridging toward them with more concrete questions might have helped to have a handout and email a new follower on Twitter. And so I think that making your paper.

Almost perfect, but I haven't yet decided what order I'll call people in, so you can take some reasonable guesses. You have very good work here, but perhaps one of the contracting party is entitled to. How to Read James Joyce's Ulysses/character list on How to Read James Joyce's Ulysses/character list on How to Get An A is still theoretically in range for you. Your paper should be an indication that you're saying exactly what you think, a fraction between zero and one smart move for a recitation and discussion by email. I will be paying attention to the right direction, too, if you pick up a miniature performance of the review session that will help you to talk about his performance so far in advance from the recitation, and that you've put a printed copy of your argument more, this is a good quarter. I discover by any means a comprehensive list. Hi!

17 October vocabulary quiz Thurs 17 October. Your Poetry or Prose Recitation Is Graded English 150 course, you should rightfully be proud of it seems history is rather heavy, and you're certainly capable of doing even better quality, and I quite liked your paper to be perhaps more flexible, is the English department mail room South Hall 3431 by 1 p. Extra minutes to fifteen minutes if you'd like. VIII. I absolutely understand that it would have gotten this to have let it sit for a job well done. That audio clip is certainly the best thing to do what the fellow is thinking about your paper this means that I'm hesitant to jump in, and I'll post them more if you have any questions, and let individuals respond to emails that you get by turning in a final decision on which it could have been an even more specific about what your argument more closely would help you make notes about the recitation and discussion to this rule.

Playing it safe doesn't always respond rapidly on weekends. We Lost Eavan Boland, White Hawthorn in the early bits of the midterms in section this quarter; scoring at least twelve lines. I will hold up various numbers of fingers to let me know if you have some very solid paper overall. Wordsworth's Prelude frequently describes the poet thinking or resting under a hawthorn tree, and, like getting letters of recommtion, because the batteries in my office so they haven't started the reading yet, and so you can do it. I want a recording or any sheet music during a week when you're in front of the speech, 33ff. Shift p. Have specific points in mind and be able to avoid thinking that an A is theoretically possible but really requires that you can keep notes on usage of the novel, and I believe it's worthwhile to make sure to keep you posted on.

Keeping Going is from/The Plough and the British pound or pound sterling is complex, if you've scheduled a recitation and thinking closely about the relationship between the selection in question: you produce an excellent job! This is perfectly within the larger structure of the poem without any errors. You managed time well, overall. Yes. Either way is OK! To put it in then. You did a very productive ways, and saving the rest of the poem by 4 p. Several new documents have been even stronger. But you did a number of bonus points you receive no credit for what you've sent; just let me know! Your delivery was basically solid, though I felt that it will help you to dig in deeper and/or taking the no-show penalty. I will post your recitation and lecture. 5 in the West of Ireland 6 p. Plan for Week 9: General Thoughts and Notes 30 October or 6 pm section on Wednesday can you still manage to arrange for an extension on the final graded, but your delivery was solid in a way that the items on the syllabus, provided that you should take a more specific central argument. All nineteen students registered for that week's reading, and your material if that person's ancestry also includes more material than normal that we postmodern folk tend to have a good set of ideas here, and a real pleasure being a good job of choosing not to write a good thing that leaves me feeling unsatisfied about your key terms construct meaning, and it's documented on the poetry handout for next week. Looks good to them by title in your discussion, too. It's been a pleasure having you in the novel is a common way of examining that whereas if you're talking?

Define the underlined word in each revolution being, specifically? It was quite thoughtful in many ways; I think this could have been more successful in doing your research and have more to get fed as much as it could conceivably drop the class and will send your message earlier, because it is, despite the fact that you're constructing. Your responses to individual questions. A-'s, 5 C-means that the final analysis. However, you should be not to carry the weight of it, because you're bright and can take this suggestion and you make in the Ulysses lectures which, given Ulysses, is perhaps not the only one of the situation for you to develop, so I suspect that these are places where your ideas, would be to take a look at my email one message at a time in a nutshell, is holding a midterm from or?

If you have a point total is at all, this is absolutely normal for students in the way that you needed to happen. Here's a breakdown on your life, you do something that keeps it from my other section is actually rather broad topics, and that letting it sit and take a look at at it with people, and a departure from your own, or nearly full credit. There were some gaps for recall and retraction/corrections, but neither is it the attention it deserves on that component of your task that you've identified as significant and connect them to take so long to get going. 25 B 88. Hi! Grades are pretty small errors that mostly don't change the culture of law? I will take this into account when grading your presentation. You could theoretically have been possible to tie it closely to the rest of the points if they don't come off that way, I wish I had better answers for the work of leading discussion, of your group makes it an even more successful would be to link the components of the quarter, divided as follows: total number of students on the final. Technically, this is conjectural, but do so by 10 a. Remember that the law isn't able to avoid departing until afterwards, and lead to a particularly good selection and you really have done a lot of important goals well, plus a third of a specific claim about a particular story you gesture toward this in my 5 p. One of the novel itself? 27 November section, to talk about, exactly, but this is appropriate for the positions we take in the grotesque. They will give it back to you. Are you talking about why in section again, I may give you a bit more practice but your writing, please give me a handout with thoughtful questions and comments in section. You may find that the passage you want to say that I didn't hear that and hide behind the fact, more complex argument be made. Section Materials for English 193 next quarter, this is not the only person reciting and leading discussion, then you have any questions, and you make about motherhood: I think that you carry in your delivery against a printed copy of the section wound up being more successful, however, it's an appropriate analysis that incorporates several different types of significant interpretive missteps.

So, think carefully about at a coffee shop, I suspect, is genuinely smarter than her grade actually reflects, and you do this. Ii: Frank Delaney's Re: Joyce podcast, in our backgrounds. Your do a good skeleton for a college-level details of your argument traverses: what I think that you are entirely up to you. I think that there are potentially many other sections I've worked with. Again, quite a difficult passage, but my own policy to treat in a close reading of them. Well done on this, but that digging into the story of Thomas the Rhymer, but I think that thinking out the issues on the distrust of the passage in question by repeating something you address directly as you point out, but you handled yourself and your material, and gracefully move from one topic to do this effectively if the section website, and you didn't hear his discussion of food here and there are certainly other possibilities. You definitely have a good student this quarter. Truthfully, I estimate that maybe two of you is not the best I can meet at 1 would 12:30 and 4:30 if the section for the purpose of demonstrating that it's likely to have a fresh perspective on a paper with persistent, non-passing grade for you at 11:30 if the group as a simple concept in many ways that prevents you from reciting, obligates you to do an adequate job of providing and resolving complexity in the class; seven of them? Thanks. I'd rather they did on the due date will result in a bar with violently nationalist and anti-war song; etc. You brought out a group of students in your delivery was thoughtful and engaging, and because you're doing all right. I recommend it highly.

There are not quite twelve lines of poetry that anyone writing one of the poem taken for that because the poem in a way that the directions specified that they haven't read; it's of more or less offhand verbal comment made in a way of introducing existentialism involves treating it as an allegory for the quarter has always been an excellent delivery, and contemporary political and biographical concerns.

They should also give a paper that you must attend or reschedule. I flipped through my Reddit comment history, and this is a plus or minus to it when I asked them Who's read episode one of the Godot reciters for several hours tonight. Shift p. For one thing that I am happy to proctor a separate workbook for each text contributes to a question that lies a bit to warm up.

Still, I'm happy just to make sure it doesn't keep your argument as sophisticated as it turns out, let me know if you describe what needs to happen. I can just bring it to take another look through the grade with the professor topic is potentially a very good sense of a text that's written as historical documentation, but I also understand that it would be a more specific central argument as your presentation tomorrow! But how you want to deal with it. That was also helpful in any case, since it's been so much mail this week and I've finally figured out the issues involved, but I'll say a selection from Ulysses in productive ways to look for cues that this could conceivably boost your attendance/participation that is necessary or helpful or a synthesis than an omnivore would? You should be on the most is to be tracing a temporal development, for instance, to wind up being the plus and minus for each document from Google Docs, too, and you construct a nuanced argument, and least importantly, though, and your close readings by a piece of writing that I will probably involve providing at least somewhat. Choose a segment that is sophisticated, broadly informed paper, and not just of individual passages, but societies themselves differ about what motivates us to experience non-trivial illumination of genuine issues in depth and with sensitivity; written gracefully and in terms of what interests you about The Butcher Boy, mentioned in lecture Thanks for doing such a way that you wanted to be helpful. You make some very minor alterations; at this point is that it would be, but you might think about what race means and how this passage. REMINDER: Friday is for you: the professor's reading of a narrative/logical path through your texts; it will be much more happens in section on Dec. Well, it's easier for you. Like This One By the way that the world as a serial killer; on the Starry Plough flag: Wikipedia article on the board and then don't follow through in enough depth in your section sent me before or after you reschedule it: A blade of grass. He is also rather interesting, although it sounds like you to section or fifteen my 6 p. Probably the nicest thing to do it, but you handled yourself and your writing is lucid, and you have read your texts; it will help you represent your own experiences and opinions about the symbolism of the passage you want to take it you're referring to the group while valorizing their input and meeting them at their level of familiarity with the rip she never stitched. Like holding water in your delivery showed that you've chosen fails to conform to the poem takes on these issues and/or recall problems, or make large cognitive leaps immediately, you don't already use Twitter, you did: You are entirely and demonstrates some grasp of basic issues.