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xiaomoxu · 4 years ago

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Lucien - Interlaced Date

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT!! ⚠️

A date from CN server which hasn’t been released on EN server yet. Might contains some spoiler.

🦋 Also from this date: Call

Story under the cuts~

At the beginning of the evening, the lights were on, and the stars were looming in the clouds.

I am standing at the door of a newly opened mall. Under the floating dome, there are many stacked square buildings, which makes people suddenly think that they have come to the art museum.

MC: It should be right here.

Not long ago, I saw a shopping mall integrated with art on the Internet. It cooperated with different artists to create various themed activities.

The theme this time is "interlacing".

I am very interested in this topic, so I decided to see it for myself

Following the signs, I walked into a dark rectangular room.

The center of the room was divided into two spaces by a matte glass. People who entered moved forward in a line, but they could not see the scene on the other side clearly.

Tourist A: The person on the other side can't see clearly, what does this room mean?

Tourist B: I can't understand, this may be art.

I followed their words and couldn't help but look across the glass...

The line of sight was full of fuzzy outlines, and I could only vaguely tell that the flow of people on the opposite side was passing in the opposite direction to us. I can't help but fall into thinking.

Is this design to highlight the "interlaced feeling"?

Until, a familiar figure on the other side suddenly pulled my thoughts back.

The vague outlines, however, stand out in a crowd of indistinct crowds.

It seems to be Lucien... why is he here?

Countless doubts poured into my heart, I couldn't help speeding up and approaching that figure.

Even though there is a crowd on the opposite side, his gestures are familiar.

He walked forward in the group methodically, but revealed a state of being free from the crowd.

It seems that only Lucien can give people this feeling.

With a faint answer in my heart, I raised my hand and waved at him.

He seemed to have noticed something too, he stopped and glanced in my direction.

Even through the glass, I can feel the indifferent gaze, as if I'm just an inconspicuous stranger.

I stopped, and my smile stiffened. Only that back figure continued to move forward, farther and farther away from me.

MC: ....Didn't he recognize me?

Tourist: Don't stop, keep going.

Some dissatisfied voices came from behind, and I nodded apologetically and walked forward.

The images that had just been interlaced kept playing repeatedly in my mind. I looked back a little unwillingly.

Even though the crowds were bustling, I found the back figure just now again.

Suddenly he stopped, turned and looked in my direction.

The glass reflected his fuzzy face, and I couldn't help but squint to see him more closely.

In the dimness, I seemed to see a soft arc rising from the indifferent face.

Is he... smiling at me?

I opened my lips slightly to say something, but was squeezed out of the room again by the person behind me.

My sight suddenly became bright, but I was a little dumbfounded.

??: What a coincidence, I can meet you here.

A familiar voice rang behind me, making me startled.

Lucien walked up to me and smiled lightly at me.

Lucien: You look surprised.

Lucien: Do you think I will not be here?

Looking at Lucien in front of me, I suddenly realized something was wrong.

The space just now was two reverse one-way streets, it was impossible for him to suddenly appear in front of me from the opposite exit.

MC: It's not that you won't show up. Because just now in that room, I saw a figure that looked like you.

MC: But if it is really you, it is impossible to appear here from the other exit so quickly.

Lucien looked at the exit behind me, as if lost in thought and lowered his eyes.

After a while, he raised his head with a smile in his eyes.

Lucien: I think you didn’t mistaken me as the other person.

Lucien: It is indeed me in that room, but what you see is not who I am now.

Listening to some circumstantial words, I couldn't help but frown.

MC: ... Not who you are now?

Lucien: Well, it was me fifteen minutes ago.

MC: You mean we were not in the same time and space just now. Could it be the influence of Evol?

I couldn't help straightening my back instinctively and quickly sweeping around.

The next second, a shadow was covered in the afterglow, Lucien leaned down and looked at me.

Lucien: Are you tired recently, Miss Nox?

Lucien: This is just an ordinary shopping mall, there is no work that Miss Nox has to deal with.

Seeing Lucien pretending to be serious, I smiled awkwardly.

MC: .... What does "you who were fifteen minutes ago" mean?

Lucien pointed to the stand that was less than two meters away from me at the exit.

Lucien: The room you just passed by is actually an artistic design

Lucien: The room is full of holographic projections, and the other side of the glass you see is a picture fifteen minutes ago.

Listening to Lucien's explanation, I looked at the art brief on the stand.

MC: So what we see is actually not what is actually happening right now.

MC: Let us mistakenly think that the barriers of glass cannot be overlapped, but in fact...

MC: Not only are we unable to intersect, we are not even in the same space and time.

Lucien: Probably this room wants to create a sense of interlacing time and space for us.

Lucien nodded in agreement, but different emotions flashed in his eyes.

Lucien: However, MC could recognize me through the matte glass, which made me feel very happy.

Lucien: It's a pity that I'm not so lucky, and I didn't see you on the other side of the glass.

Lucien spoke lightly, but knocked again and again in my heart.

The smile on his face inadvertently gradually overlaps with the memory of me just in the room.

When Lucien stood there, he seemed to smile like that.

What did he see fifteen minutes ago?

Doubts creeped into my heart, I couldn't help but speak.

MC: Lucien, I seemed to see you smiling in the room just now.

MC: Did you see something?

Lucien seemed to be taken aback, but soon returned to his expression.

Lucien: It's nothing.

Lucien: There are also many exhibit designs related to themes. Would you like to go to other areas with me?

Seeing that he didn't want to start the topic, I had no choice but to agree.

Lucien and I walked side by side in the shopping mall. Except for the rooms just now, the atriums on each floor of the building have different designs.

Paintings, photographs, sculptures, and installations of different carriers all unify the interplay of time and space, emotions, and life.

I looked at Lucien, who was quiet beside me, and couldn't help approaching him.

MC: By the way, why did you come here?

Lucien: I am here to be entrusted by a person to give some non-professional advice as a viewer.

Lucien: What about you?

MC: I'm very interested in this "interlaced" theme, so I came to have a look.

Lucien nodded thoughtfully, and none of us spoke for a while, just moved forward quietly.

The crowd passed by our side, heading in the same or opposite direction as us.

Probably because of the countless designs that express "missing" just now, I can't help feeling a little about such a simple and ordinary picture.

MC: Lucien, what are you trying to convey when designing such a theme?

Lucien's gaze was mixed with a bit of unsure emotion, and after my voice fell, he cast it slightly.

Lucien: I think it is probably "missing is inevitable."

Lucien: Whether in invisible or visible places, we will miss many people and many things.

Lucien: But people's lives will not stay for this reason, it will only continue to move forward.

Lucien's voice was so calm, it gently penetrated into my ears, and the memory of me just now confided again.

The fuzzy face reflected in the glass, the stagger of strangers, and Lucien after fifteen minutes of time and space.

He is clearly in front of me, but I am not in front of him.

And when I thought he was in front of me, he was actually that far away.

MC: But no one wants to miss out with those who are important to them.

MC: Even if there is only the slightest possibility, I would like to keep overlapping with this trajectory.

Countless images flashed in my eyes, and finally they all converged on Lucien's face in front of me. He didn't seem to expect me to say something like this, he looked at me deeply.

Lucien: In the room where space-time interlaced just now, when we "miss", did you think the same way?

MC: Of course!

I spoke subconsciously. After seeing his narrow vision, I suddenly realized what I had just said, and my ears instantly burned.

MC: No, no! I didn't know the installation in this room at the time.

MC: So when you passed by and didn't recognize me, made me feel a little weird.

Immediately afterwards, Lucien's smile became full again, and he moved closer to me.

Lucien: Oh? Is it weird because you think I won't recognize you?

Looking at the teasing smile in his eyes, I understood at once that he was secretly "teasing" again.

I lifted my chin slightly and fought back without a trace.

MC: Well, if it is just an ordinary room, and there is also a thick glass of glass between us...

MC: Will Professor Lucien recognize me like I recognize you?

Suddenly, Lucien couldn't even hide the smile at the corner of his mouth.

Lucien: I will not make judgments lightly on things that have not actually happened.

MC: ..... Professor Lucien has always been very rigorous.

We walked forward slowly, unknowingly, the two branch roads in front stopped us.

Lucien: However, this theme is relatively tender compared to others.

MC: Tender?

Lucien: "Interlacing" proves that there will be intersections, not "parallel".

Lucien: So that I can meet you here.

Lucien's faint words caused ripples in my heart.

Bits and pieces of the past between me and Lucien came to mind, indeed like what he said.

Although there have been misunderstandings or regrets between us, those moments that seem to be disappointing also represent...

We have intersections with each other.

I looked at a sign in the middle of the fork--

"It is recommended that people with more than two people walk separately and experience the interlaced theme for better experience."

After seeing the explanation on the sign, I couldn't help looking at Lucien beside me.

Lucien: It seems that "interlacing" is not over yet.

Lucien: What will you choose next, MC?

He looked calmly at the bifurcation, as if he had an idea in his mind.

MC: My answer...Professor Lucien should have known it earlier than me, right?

I looked at Lucien deeply, then we smiled at each other and walked in two directions respectively.

I did not look back, and walked firmly on the path I chose.

Because I believe that no matter which direction we go, we will meet eventually.

I can't remember how many turns or steps I took. It seems that this road is far longer than I thought.

I passed by countless strangers, but I never saw Lucien's figure.

Until I crossed a bend, my vision suddenly became clear.

Looking around, I seem to be standing in the middle of the outer courtyard of a shopping mall, and in front of me there is an open-air double escalator that looks nearly a hundred meters long.

The people standing on both sides of the escalator looked at each other, and different emotions flashed in each person's eyes.

Excitement, perseverance, indifference, and loss, all kinds of emotions bloom one after another on this long escalator.

Just as I looked down along the flow of people, a familiar figure made my heart tighten again.

Lucien stood at the bottom escalator entrance, seeming to be looking at me.

I waved my hand subconsciously, and he also raised his hand leisurely in response to me.

Looking at Lucien, who was 100 meters away from me, I suddenly understood that this escalator is also echoing the theme of "interlacing".

Once people choose a direction, they may have to watch the opposite person go against them.

But I don't want to continue staggering, I want to change.

So I immediately made a gesture to Lucien and told him not to move.

I waved my hands indiscriminately and walked quickly towards the descending escalator.

But when I just stepped up the stairs, Lucien also stepped up the elevator.

I put down my hands in a bit of astonishment, and watched us slowly approaching from a distance.

Suddenly, my phone rang--

It was Lucien's call, I quickly answered it.

MC: Didn't I tell you to stand still...

Lucien: Sorry.

Lucien: Because your gesture are really hard to guess, so I wanted to go up and find you first.

There was a soft voice on the phone, and my rushing voice gradually calmed down.

MC: Then you call...

Lucien: This elevator seems to take some time. Why don't you just chat with me for a bit?

Lucien: I don't want to miss this "blank" time with you.

The originally dull atmosphere became brisk in his slightly teasing tone.

I couldn't help laughing softly, and quickly fell into his new topic.

The billboards on both sides slowly passed behind me, and the distance between me and Lucien became closer and closer.

His face gradually became clear, and the smile in his eyes gradually bloomed.

The evening breeze gently brushed his hair, and the moonlight seemed to stay on his body and no longer walk away.

But I also realized that the moment we met each other also meant the beginning of separation.

Facing this encounter destined to be far away, I was helpless. Can only stand in place, watching us slowly arrive in front of each other.

Lucien didn't say anything, only the sound of his steady breathing was left in my ears.

At the moment when our figures were side by side, he just looked at me with a smile, and in this second, passed me by.

Lucien: MC, do you still want to know why I smiled in that room?

I turned my head and met Lucien's gaze in surprise, his eyes glowing with a soft stream.

MC: Wait, I thought you wouldn't tell me the answer.

Lucien: I thought it wasn't something important, but now I think about it, it seems I was wrong.

Lucien suddenly paused, took a deep look at me before continuing to speak.

Lucien: In that room, I didn't see anything special, only countless strange faces.

Lucien: But... I suddenly thought of you.

As soon as the voice fell, my heart couldn't help but miss a beat.

I looked at Lucien, who was already driving behind me, and my gaze was firmly locked on his gaze.

MC: Why....

Lucien: I think of such an interesting place, you should come too.

Lucien: Maybe I can see you here next time.

His figure is getting farther and farther away from me, and it seems that he will soon be overwhelmed by the flow of people behind him.

MC: Lucien, you said that if an encounter is destined to be parting, will the encounter still make sense?

Although it was only an experiment, my heart was dull, and I opened my mouth as I watched Lucien's figure gradually distancing.

Lucien: MC, do you know what will happen to us after we are interlaced?

In the blink of an eye, Lucien's figure was completely covered by the crowd, and only the faint voice of questions stayed beside his ears.

MC: I know.

I took a deep breath and hung up the phone. After a long few minutes, I finally got off the escalator.

I wandered at the elevator entrance, worried that once I got on the elevator, Lucien would choose to get off the elevator and let us miss it again.

I don't know what the answer this world will give to the question that Lucien just asked.

But I have my own answer.

I want to take the initiative to meet him again. No matter how many times we missed, I will want to meet him next time.

This idea suddenly came to my heart, but it gradually became firm.

I strode into the crowd, shuttled back and forth among countless strange figures.

I am not worried that I will miss Lucien, because I firmly believe that I can see him in the crowd.

As time passed by, the stars in the night sky seemed to become more and more brilliant.

Suddenly, at the end of the crowd, I saw the person I wanted to see most at the moment.

And he seemed to see me too and stopped.

My heart beats like a drum, and every beat prompts me to speed up my steps.

It seems that all the passersby around have become phantoms, but he is the only one who becomes clearer in my world.

MC: Lucien!

Lucien: MC, it seems that we have met again.

Lucien: This is my answer.

Suddenly Lucien smiled crookedly at the corner of his eyes. He looked at me and continued to speak.

Lucien: Separation will not be doomed, it is just a choice.

Lucien: I think, even after countless brushes, I will also choose to appear in front of you again.

The night wind gently blew his hair, revealing those deep eyes that reflected me alone.

Lucien: MC.

Lucien: I have always looked forward to every encounter with you.

Notes from me: To whoever's write Lucien’s date, I give all my respect to you. All of you. Thank you. Sincerely, Me.

#mlqc #mlqc cn #mlqc lucien #lucien #mlqc spoilers #mlqc translation #LUCIEN I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

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possessivesuffix · 4 years ago

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Limits of Uniformity

The notion of a “uniform proto-language” does need some sanity checks regardless. Namely, how uniform can any language variety be even in principle? What is the actual uniformitarian fall-back point on this? (Reminder: the uniformitarian principle is a key guideline of all investigation of prehistory, which states that we can only assume “kinds of” prehistorical states whose existence is known to us today too.)

Areal uniformity is the one type that we can write in by definition, once we recognize “a proto-language” to be quite possibly just one among several areal variants (as discussed in the previous post).

Some languages, usually small ones with some hundreds of speakers in just a handful of towns or clans can be also areally uniform altogether, but this is probably not the sociological setup to assume for proto-languages that have later expanded into families of hundreds of thousands of speakers. Latin is again the one notable exception, not the rule. Maybe a few more could be assumed for families that have expanded “far but not wide”, e.g. Proto-Oceanic or some of its daughter proto-languages; Proto-Inuit perhaps.

Sociolectal uniformity is not an especially tough nut either. This can exist in languages, but does not at all have to, and only seems to come about in various hierarchically stratified societies. Latin very likely had variation of this kind, and e.g. Proto-Indo-Aryan almost certainly did, too. “Genderlectal” differences could be another axis, but this is again not at all required to assume and I’m not aware of any cases where this would be clearly reconstructible. (I would have a hypothesis to pitch on this re: the fairly odd relative terminology of Proto-Uralic, but more on that at some later time.) So this is, while perhaps an underappreciated possibility, probably not a major problem in proposing a uniform proto-language.

Phonologically uniform varieties certainly exist. Phonology is fully structural: anyone’s idiolect either has or does not have any particular phonemic contrast. Variation across a language can be also usually described by some smallish enough number of these that it’s just about mathematically guaranteed that there will be multiple people who share the exact same phonological system. E.g. 10 binary phonological isoglosses only allow for a maximum of 1024 different phonological systems (in practice variants also are not distributed entirely randomly). Hence it’s always valid to aim for reconstructing an unvariable proto-state from variable daughter systems. In practice this is the strongest method of linguistic reconstruction also due to the additional fact that regular sound changes at least exist (while no such thing does in morphology, semantics etc.)

Morphological and syntactic (”grammatical”) uniformity seems similarly existent at first, but beyond “core grammar” these actually start leaving a lot of corner cases. Irregular formations and idiomatic constructions exist, and rarer ones probably aren’t known across an entire speaker community. Worse, it’s possible for different speakers to analyze the exact same construction as either fossilized or incipiently or residually productive, or indeed productive in different ways. Are e.g. happy and hapless two separate words, or two derivatives of a common root lexeme √hap-? Is /wʊdəv/ a single word, a word with a clitic would’ve, two words would have — or even would of? We do not have single unique answers to these even today. Some reconstruction of (some sub-variety of) Modern English by future linguists would not need to be able to do so either.

So we have to allow for some grammatical variation in any language variety. All variation is only finitely old here as well, but the point where all attested grammatical variation converges to a single form could be far deeper back in history than phonological uniformity. Trying to strive for uniformity would be somewhat analogous to trying to reconstruct a last common ancestor form of hands and feet (some undifferentiated sea worm body segments, 500M+ years ago) instead of a common ancestor population of modern humans (300K years ago, with hands certainly distinct from feet). In a more explicitly linguistic example, I have in a recent paper argued that variation in modern Finnish in the morphology of the verb ‘to stand’ (two competing stems seis- versus seis-o-) is in part inherited all the way from Proto-Uralic already.

Lexical uniformity is a simple case again, but now in the other direction. This simply does not exist as soon as we look at more than one person’s idiolect. Every adult speaker knows tens of thousands of lexemes, and some of these are used so rarely that there is pretty much no chance that any two speakers end up having the exact same lexicon, let alone the exact same semantics for each word.

Some weaker sense of “core lexical uniformity” could exist, but this depends on how exactly we define “core lexicon”, and is probably not a good idea anyway. Synonymy could be again stable for thousands of years and cannot be usefully reconstructed away; while if we look at divergences only, in some small list of words, we will probably end up at a point when “a” proto-language has already split into dialects that already clearly differ in their distribution, phonology, grammar and overall lexicon. Even core lexicon innovations will happily spread between lineages. The French loanwords animal, fruit, mountain and person are now universally known across English but arrived into the language in the Middle English period, clearly into multiple dialects in parallel. (This has already been taken into account in current lexicostatistic methodology in the form of a rule that all known loanwords should be discarded from analysis, though I am afraid this is probably too weak of a corrective move.)

Lastly lexical phonology might be the most challenging issue. By this I mean what phonological form do individual words have, even if they’re identical etymologically, morphologically etc. Examples from historically recorded languages show that these follow the exact same principles as grammatical or lexical variation. Forms like aks versus ask can coexist for millennia, and hence it’s not a good idea to try to reconstruct them all away. They probably do go back to some more or less regular sound change ultimately… but the way they end up in variation is mainly due to dialect mixing or analogical levelling. If some variants like these later on separate off into different varieties (ok, ask / aks have been at least partly sociolectally separate in English all along — maybe a better example would be something like dreamed / dreamt) they might give off the impression that there has been some phonological change to reconstruct as happening after the proto-language. Really this phenomenon seems to allow taking off quite a bit of load from the bin of “irregular sound change”.

There is also one telling sign for these: these never involve variation in the makeup of the overall phonology. People who use the form ask will still call the tool an axe, while people who use the form aks will still wear a mask (or at least will not turn this into ˣmaks). But this is only a hint, and it would be still hard to really rule out other hypotheses like a Proto-English **aksk that ends up being simplified in two different ways in different dialects / sociolects. And if we were to indeed assume the existence of a variety that had an early but regular metathesis rule — how far back would we put it, how many words would we assume to be later innovations or loans from a non-metathesis variety, and for that matter, could we even work out the direction of the metathesis without English-external evidence?

(I don’t even know what the real answer is. Sure enough it’s from West Germanic *aiskōn- and so ask initially appears to be more archaic, but e.g. the similar wasp ~ waps is instead from PG *wapsō. Do we require two metatheses in different directions, or one metathesis plus some hypercorrections against it, or one metathesis followed by one back-metathesis…?)

This should primarily serve as a warning against going into too small details when reconstructing the general scaffolding of historical phonology. My own rule of thumb remains that one example is no example, two examples are a pattern, three examples are required to call something an actual sound law.

---

In any case we can see there will be still quite a bit of variation that should be allowed to perhaps have occurred in a “uniform proto-language”. The target is some realistic amount of grammatical and lexical coherence plus a uniform phonological system; and it may not even be too much of a problem if we still end up with multiple variant forms of some individual words. Hypotheses for explaining any remaining variation are always worth exploring, but we don’t need to nail all of them down in one specific way.

#historical linguistics #linguistic reconstruction #uniformitarian principle #variation #linguistics #methodology

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southeastasianists · 4 years ago

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Since the Board of the Substation’s official announcement of the closure of the premise, in July 2021, countless tributes from Singaporeans from diverse artistic backgrounds have poured across social media, describing how they have benefited from the premise and its programs for the past three decades.

For me, the Substation filled the indescribable intellectual and cultural void of my late teens, and its relevance became strong during my years in military conscription. Gigs at the venue were also a critical site for a more meaningful multicultural encounters and interactions, particularly with the Malay-Muslim dominated punk-rock community. Subsequently these experiences became integral to my scholarly research. Relevant publications I have based on this foundation over the past two decades include topics on Singapore’s youth subcultures, alternative music scenes and more recently the Substation’s role in exhibiting Singapore’s punk heritage.

My Subs-rhythmic journeys

The Year 1991. The “Evil Empire” of the Soviet Union became history. In the General Paper of my “A” (Advanced) Levels examinations, I mistakenly attributed Deng Xiaoping’s “To be rich is to be glorious” quote to Margaret Thatcher (probably the reason for my “C” grade). For Singaporean teenagers like me, the “kinder and gentler” nation envisioned by the new Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong meant Hong Kong’s “Category III” soft-porn movies in local cinemas. The year was supposed to end well with a slow dance in a Junior College prom-night over Bryan Adam’s “Everything I do, I do it for you” the theme song of Robin Hood (1991) broadcasted ad-nauseum over the radio.

Everything seemed fine. That was until I was introduced by my friend Harold Seah to the Substation. Entering the “Garden”, my senses were immediately overwhelmed by the chaos of growling vocals, thumping drums and swirling guitars on the stage, with audiences diving from the stage into a maddening prancing human crowd. Stagediving, slam-dancing and mosh pits were actually banned by the Singapore authorities in 1993. Ten minutes into the gig, I handed my friend my house keys, spectacles and wallet for safekeeping and I melted into the mosh pit.

Established in 1990 with the playwright Kuo Pao Kun (1939-2002) as its first Artistic Director, the Substation took its name from the venerable colonial era electrical facility at 45 Armenia Street, located within the officially zoned as “Civic District” of museums, galleries and cultural institutions in downtown Singapore. I was not aware of the dynamics then, but it was only at Substation that a former political detainee, playwright, the first Artistic Director of the venue, Kuo Pao Kun met and created artistic possibilities with a new generation of ethnic Malay working class youths. Recalling Kuo’s approachability, band member of Stompin’ Ground, Suhaimi Subandie said, “You have long hair, short hair or no hair, he talked to you the same. ”I have never met Kuo Pao Kun in person. But through the Substation, he gave me new possibilities and connections.

My experience is probably not isolated. As a converging and germinating site for otherwise fringe artistic and creative activities, the Substation has presented an intellectually fertile ground, especially for Singaporean academia, to find critically meaningful narratives and engagements with artists and social activities. As a platform for countless avant-garde exhibitions, performances and screenings, it has provided a poignant alternative narrative to the scholarly literature on themes relating to Singapore culture and society.

Until the 1990s, mainstream academic perspectives on Singapore society reflected on the postcolonial port-city’s rapid economic development as part of the “Asian economic miracle,” under the premiership of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew from 1959 to 1990. This triumphant sentiment was encapsulated in the collection of more than fifty chapters in Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore, published in 1989 under the editorship of Kernial Shandu Singh and Paul Wheatley (Singh & Wheatley 1989). Responding to this discourse from a different perspective are non-Singapore based scholars are “soft authoritarian” portraits of Singapore’s as the party state.

It was the Substation and its accompanying activities that another generation of scholars, raised in post-independent Singapore like myself, found possibilities of transcending existing scholarly binaries, critical cultural nuances and resilient communities.

Like the arts, this “Third Space” for Singapore academia can perhaps be attributed to the momentum set out by the vision of Kuo Pao Kun. After his release from political detention, Kuo moved from pursuing direct political criticism to fostering creative diversity. Such possibilities evident in the three decades of the Substation, which started from the age of the fax machine to that of the internet and smartphone.

The incubatory, experimental and liberal spaces that the Substation has provided a multitude of fringe artistic and aesthetic activities, alongside the communities that grew from them, has also been actively mirrored in academic writing. The Substation is relevant to academic enquiry on a wide multidisciplinary spectrum. From semiotics and performance to politics and society, individual creative works and cultural scenes that have occupied the venue inform theoretical discourse and critique across scholarly fields.

Central to academic interest in the Substation are the artistic autonomies and possibilities that it has created within postcolonial Singapore’s highly interventionist, soft authoritarian political climate. Alongside this political juxtaposition, on the academic radar are the stark contrasts between the cultural autonomy emanating from the non-descript former colonial power-station and architectural showcases like the Esplanade in 2000 and the National Art Gallery in 2015.

Scholarly attention to the Substation is both archival and current, capturing interviews with Kuo Pao Kun in 1993, and memorializing his legacy; reaffirming the site’s uniqueness in the new terminology “Affective Paragrounds”. In addition, several academics have also been actively involved with the establishment and governance of the Substation, most prominent amongst them Professor Tommy Koh, Singapore’s Ambassador-at-large who is the venue’s Patron. The venue’s Artistic Directors like Audrey Wong, Lee Weng Choy, Woon Tien Wei, have either held doctorates in the Arts, been engaged as educators in tertiary institutions or contribute actively to academic publications. Over the decades, in various capacities as speakers and discussants at its public events, the local academic community has also made active intellectual contributions to the Substation.

Although there are investments in arts centres, schools and initiatives in existing universities, their significance to Singapore arts and culture is evidently dwarfed by that of the Substation. Unlike the former, which are often inconveniently located on university campuses and cater for confined audiences of student communities, the Substation has greater artistic autonomy to serve a more diverse public. As such, especially for the locally based academic community, the Substation provides more exciting platforms for broader public engagement, social interaction and scholarly collaboration and research.

Punk rock gigs have been staged in campuses of universities sporadically over the decades, but organisers, performers and audiences there will always be a place for them at the Substation. The Singaporean artiste Loo Zihan may be familiar with arts institutions and centres in Singapore. But, it is perhaps only in the Substation that he could comfortably stage the mixed media performance Cane (2012), a re-enactment of the controversial 1994 event in which Joseph Ng in openly cut his pubic hair in a mall, as a symbolic protest against police entrapment of gay men in Singapore. Like the annual Substation Conferences held in the 1990s, the Substation has encouraged substantially critical dialogues involving academics and the arts community.

The Substation’s artistic leaders recognised the value of connecting with the scholarly community. Artistic Director Alan Oei (2015-2020) actively sought closer academic-artistic collaborations. For example, I collaborated with Oei in integrating the Visual Methods Conference held in Singapore in 2017 with a parallel Substation exhibition, Discipline in the City.

As a moderator to the panel “Great Expectations: What Does It Mean To Make and Hold Space for the Arts In Singapore?” in “Space, Spaces, Spacing 2020” (Substation 2020), I had the honour to meet one of the speakers Subhas Nair and his sister Preetips Nair (within the audience). The Nairs were given a police warning several months ago for an “offensive rap video”, in response to a Brownface public advertisement. Unfortunately, that may just be my last academic service to the Substation as it plans to close by July 2021.

Among the local academic community. I am confident that those who have committed to Substation have done so purely as a labour of love, with no expectations of institutional acknowledgment from their universities and schools. On the contrary, some of us ponder what repercussions might follow our commitment to a venue that is associated more with critique than cheerleading.

Jason Lugur included the Substation as one of the few “Spaces of Hope” in his study of Singapore’s cultural landscape. The Substation gave me my foundations as a scholar in Cultural Studies and it has only been right for me to reciprocate in keeping this space of hope alive in my own small ways. The Substation as we know it may be history. But, in fostering a unique relationship between independent arts and critical scholarship for the past three decades, its significance should not be written as an obituary. It should remind the academic community, particularly in the Humanities, of its public commitments to arts and culture in Singapore. Through generating critical knowledge from its research, documentation as well as other forms of collaborations with the arts communities, I hope that the academic community will continue its affective missions in finding and serving in new spaces of hope in Singapore.

#Southeast Asia #Singapore #The Substation #Culture #Academia #Arts

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acuitilabslondon · 5 years ago

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BRIM Dispute, Dunning and Collection Management. Role of Acuiti Labs

What is SAP BRIM?

SAP BRIM, also commonly known SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management is nothing but a high-volume usage-based solution that’s sole purpose is to ease complex billing an invoicing process and simplify the entire process for the businesses. It improves the flow of selling and re-selling of products and services and sharing revenue in the most appropriate way.

SAP BRIM (Billing & Revenue Innovation Management) – Process Overview

Here are the few steps that can help you in understanding the complete process of SAP BRIM –

1. Define Service Products and Bundles: During the first step, along with defining the product, product relationships such as cross-and up-sell is also identified. Then further comes bundling of any services & products followed by configuration process based on the requirement of the customers. There can also be Reuse of rate plans for different products

2. Contract Creation and Management: Next in the process comes the contract creation part where order decomposition and Contract lifecycle management in initiated.

3. Mediation and Rating: Third step in the process is responsible for managing high volume, real time and batch mediation and rating. All the metering, balance management and splitting of debits and/or credits are carried out in this step of SAP BRIM Process.

4. Billing and Invoicing: Not only simple but also in very effective manner the summarization is done, a special attention is given so that there is no loss of detail. Required Billing and Payment Statement support, Reverse-and-rerate process support is provided during this step.

5. Accounts and Receivable: This is the final step of the process and here the receivables management dunning & collections payment handling is done. Line-item Dispute Management Credit Management are also the part of this final step.

What is Dunning and Collection Management? How can SAP be the best choice?

Dunning is the process of methodically communicating with customers to ensure the collection of receivables

During this process notices are sent to the customer with overdue items, requesting payment of the outstanding amount by a specified date

SAP BRIM leverage the concept of Business Rules framework to identity the appropriate collection step (action) as per latest parameters of the customer account.

Features of using SAP Dunning

· Configure multiple collection step for the Collection Strategy.

· Tailored treatment for different segments of customer

· Running Champion-Challenger – Multiple strategy running in parallel

· Success Valuation of each strategy, each action for continuous refinement of strategies

· Dunning history and traceability of all actions to overdue items

· Automatic interest/charge calculation & posting in the run

· Customer specific activities based on pre-defined function modules like integration with 3rd party debt collection agencies

· Mass reversal of dunning runs including dunning activities

· Simulation in production before any major in strategy being deployed

Collection Management – Significant way to reduce the time spent in collections from customers

By using collection management software it becomes easy for the organizations and the individual to manage, control, and align the entire collection flow.

Buying and spending a lot on software like CRM or ERP for bringing in more leads and get those closed quickly is fine but not on the cost of ignoring the remaining part of the process. Rest of the process that comes after the contract has been signed or the product has been delivered, where to close the loop you have to collect the money that is owed to you. The process of collecting the money isn’t as easy at it seems and requires a lot of time and efforts.

Opting for a collection management software to streamline this process has turned to be really beneficial and time saving by a lot of businesses today. Here are a few benefits that a lot of companies have already realized by using collection management software –

Faster Payments – The organizations that are already using collection management software receives the payment 20% faster when

compared to the organizations that are still following traditional way and using the manual systems.

Better and Accurate Cash Forecasting – A typical collection system often fails when it comes to cash-forecasting but while you use a collection management software, your team will be given the advantage of tracking the expected payments along with providing a statistical cash forecast. Companies can easily get details about the expected payments that can be further utilized for confirming the statistical cash forecast for more accurate cash flow management.

Increased fresh/unused credit lines – A collection management software is very useful in identifying unused or fresh credit lines and get details of the lower-risk customers. Once these customers are identifies, you can help them in buying more products and services from your company. The receivable end of the collection management software helps in getting a holistic view of complete accounts receivable process so that you can have a clear idea about how improved and systematic credit management is positively impacting the future sales of your company.

Become trusted receivable with better borrowing position – Every organization requires capital for better growth and future improvement. Having said that, it is not an easy job for many companies. When you choose to borrow money for capital improvement, banks thoroughly calculate and review your receivable as in to determine what amount of money can be provided to you and on what interest rate. The organizations that are using collection management software mostly have healthier accounts receivable and are considered qualified for larger amounts from the banks that too at minimal interest rate. Lower interest rate can help the companies in getting huge potential savings over the course of each loan.

Highly reduced bad debts – The organizations that use collection management software systems typically cut down bad debt by 15-25% as these software successfully identifies and resolves any disputes very quickly and prevents them from aging to the point where they’re uncollectable.

Better reporting and analysis – Use of collection management software makes it highly feasible for organizations to get better reports that are pre-configured, consists of labels, catalogue, templates, checklists etc. CMS ensures that data can be easily exported in a variety of useful formats.

Acuiti Labs – SAP Consulting Firm

Acuiti Labs is an SAP silver partner with specific focus on Lead to Cash processes including SAP Billing (BRIM) and SAP CX Sales Cloud. We are a consulting firm with proven expertise in delivering successful SAP Billing (BRIM) based transformations. With Big four consulting experience of delivering digital transformation programmes using SAP and other enterprise applications, we also have strong open source technology capability to deliver projects end to end with AI, IoT, Big Data, Mobile & Cloud technologies.

Advantages of choosing Acuiti Labs

Supporting various clients in Postal, Utilities & Telcom in their Debt Transformation journeys

European & US Experience

• Team of consultants with Big Four consulting experience.

• Delivering solutions to US, EMEA clients

Full Range of Services

• Delivering in the new age of digital transformation by providing a wide range of business and technical capabilities.

Relationships and People

• Partnership with our clients and maintaining a strong relationship is of utmost importance to the firm. We always go the extra mile

Teams based in UK & India

• Creating value through a mix of cost effectiveness and exceptional talent pool by leveraging geographical advantages

Flexible Delivery Models

• Providing multiple options of engagement and resource mix to ensure exceptional quality whilst allowing clients to maintain control

Acuiti Labs – We are an advanced BRIM competency centre because we offer:

· BRIM Solution Architecture

· Subscription Order Management (SOM)

· Convergent Mediation

· Convergent invoicing and FICA

· Convergent Charging

· BRIM Technical, FIORI & Integration

#sapbrim #dunning #collectionmanagement

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blastroom · 4 years ago

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Powder Flame Spray Gun | Powder Flame Spray Gun Manufacturers in India | Powder Flame Spray Gun Supplier in India | Powder Flame Spray Gun Price in India

The benefit of the powder flame spray gun process is that the coatings are prepared for almost immediate use with no drying times and the no risk of breaking the component. Flame spray systems can regularly manually run, semi-automated, or fully-automated the method if required. The Powder Flame Spray process works a comparable technique as the Wire flame spray gun method, but that the wire feedstock is replaced by a powder.

The main benefit of this method is that a much wider variety of materials (such as nickel or cobalt-based self Fixing composites or ceramic substances) can be easily treated into powder form providing a greater choice of coatings. Many compounds are difficult or cannot be presented in a wire form and for this purpose, it was produced.

Powder Flame Spray Gun 6PS-II

The 6 PS -II is often used with either acetylene or hydrogen as the fuel gas. Hydrogen is suggested when spraying finer powder materials. A siphon plug system mixes the fuel and oxygen gases in precise volumetric proportions at the gun to supply consistent operation and prevents the possibility of backfire. Two siphon plugs are provided – a regular plug used with the bulk of spray materials and a second designed for high spray rate operations with ceramic and self-bonding materials. Air caps supplied with the gun appropriately shape the flame for various applications.

The standard air cap, used for many coatings, provides divergent gun cooling air which will not interfere with the flame or spray stream. A reversible air cap can be used to create a parallel airflow to cool down the work piece or as a convergent pinch airflow to be used with fine materials, to extend the spray efficiency of certain materials, like carbides, or to get cleaner, brighter coatings produced from self-fluxing alloys.

The specially designed high-performance nozzle accelerates spray powders efficiently by feeding the powders directly into the flame center of the gun & gives the consistent deposition efficiency for various spraying.

Flame Spray Gun

Features of Powder Flame Spray Gun

· High deposit efficiency, dense coatings.

· Sprays ceramics and metals powder materials.

· Simple to use, Suitable for spray/fuse coatings.

· Optional remote powder feeder.

· Cost-effective.

· Application of Powder Flame Spray Gun

· Self-fluxing alloys for extreme wear applications.

· Glass mold plungers.

· Steel mill table rolls.

· Spray/fused coatings.

Powder Flame Spray Gun Manufacturers in India

We are a manufacturer of flame spray guns, Wire flame spray guns, Metal Spray Gun, Thermal Spray Gun, & Spare Parts. Flame spray gun and Metalizing Gun price is low with the finest quality. Our Flame Spray Coating & Metal Spray Gun Equipments is permanent and simple to use and low maintenance. All these are using in Coating so it’s also called Flame Spray Coating Equipment. We are the Largest Manufacturer of Wire Flame Gun.

#Powder Flame Spray Gun Manufacturers in India #Powder Flame Spray Gun Manufacturers #Powder Flame Spray Gun Supplier #Powder Flame Spray Gun Price #Powder Flame Spray Gun Price in India

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aion-rsa · 5 years ago

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The Boys Season 2: What Is The Church of the Collective?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The following contains spoilers for The Boys season 2 episode 7.

The ongoing presence and practice of politics within democratic societies should represent the pinnacle of human achievement: the fair and equitable ordering of communities, city states and nations; the voluntary outflow of power from the people to their chosen representatives.

In reality, however, the true power rests not in the hands of the people, but in the gloved fists of major institutions: including corporations and religions, the balance of power between those two behemoths varying from country to country, all around the world, western or otherwise. Certainly in the U.S., no man or woman can ascend to the presidency without the backing of at least one of them, and Amazon Prime’s superb superhero satire The Boys understands this bleak state of affairs perfectly. While the show is at heart a reaction against the implausibly virtuous world of the comic-book superhero, it’s also a searing indictment of the intersecting worlds of corporate power, consumerism, and celebrity culture.

Vought International – the business-suited big bads who keep the show’s superheroes in their pocket in order to fatten their own – is savagely adept at using its corporate power to flatter, curtail and manipulate both the populace and its own employees. It’s hard to keep God-like beings in check, but Vought management is smart and cynical enough to understand that even potentially planet-ending supes aren’t immune to the allure of celebrity.

The Boys season 2 introduces the yang to U.S. corporatocracy’s yin with The Church of the Collective, a none-so-subtle parody of the Church of Scientology. The Deep (Chace Crawford) has been pulled slowly in by the tentacled embrace of the church to the point where we find him, in the penultimate episode of the second season, brainwashed into following its codes, without really understanding its purpose, aims or reach. We, the audience, are similarly in the dark, though the parallels to The Church of the Collective’s real-world counterpart, plus the narrative hints we’ve already been given, can help us imagine what this mysterious cult might have in store for the supes, ‘the boys’, and the world at large.

Cultish Context – Scientology

The Church of Scientology was founded in 1953 by the pulp sci-fi writer and former Naval Officer L. Ron Hubbard. Throughout the early 1950s Hubbard popularized a branch of pseudoscience called Dianetics, which slowly evolved into the core tenets of his new religion, coincidentally not long after the therapeutic applications of Dianetics were uniformly rubbished by academics and psychologists. This became something of a trend with Hubbard. Don’t like my contribution to the field of modern psychology? Fine. I’ll use it to start my own religion. Don’t want me in the Navy? Fine. I’ll start my own navy (which he essentially did with Scientology’s naval-based fraternal order “Sea Org”).

Scientology gets its hooks into prospective church members – usually the needy, the narcissistic, the unfulfilled, or the damaged – by promising them enlightenment through auditing. This process – part talk-therapy, part spiritual confession, part future blackmail – works by breaking down and analyzing a subject’s life (and past lives) in order to purge them of those traumatic, or unhelpful, memories (engrams) that may be negatively influencing their behavior in the present. While Scientology needs a large rank and file to sustain itself it’s also shrewd enough to target celebrities – it has a whole department dedicated to their pursuit – whose presence in the church guarantees money, media attention, and free, recruitment-based marketing. Scientology knows that it’s celebs and profits, not saints and prophets, who will rally crowds of the spiritually empty to their doors.

The Church of the Collective uses similar strategies, both of which converge on The Deep at the start of the second season, being that he’s both a celebrity, and a damaged vessel. Things have never looked worse for the disgraced submariner: cast aside from The Seven; isolated; reviled; drunk; full of doubt and recrimination. He’s also the #metoo poster boy.

Simply put: he’s easy prey.

The Church offers him a way back into The Seven via a journey of self-and-bodily acceptance, ostensibly a combination of talk-therapy, interrogation and mind-altering drugs. The Deep is quickly broken down then built back up again. The Church even stage-manages him a wife (an allusion, perhaps, to a certain fighter-jet-flying, cocktail-mixing actor who’s long been Scientology’s most famous recruit) to repair the PR already done.

The Deep is recruited by Eagle the Archer (Langston Kerman), a washed-up, Travolta-esque supe who dangles the story of his own success and redemption before him like a hypnotic carrot. The Deep, in turn, brings A-Train (Jesse T. Usher) to the Collective, although A-Train’s entry into the fold is a little less wide-eyed and willing. He can see past the bullshit, and wants no part of it, but nevertheless is ensnared by the Church’s smooth-toned, immaculately-groomed leader, Alastair Adana (Goran Visnjic), who knows all about A-Train’s spiraling debt, drug abuse and heart condition, and implies that such knowledge could only be kept private for a price.

“The church knows all kinds of things,” he tells a suddenly cognizant A-Train, “But don’t worry. We also know how to be discreet… especially for our members.”

Adana is a thinly-veiled approximation of David Miscavige – Scientology’s current leader – in that he’s a man who projects a smiling, sophisticated veneer to the world, beneath which lies barely concealed torrents of ruthless cruelty and rage. Allegedly.

When Eagle the Archer refuses the Church’s request to break off contact with his mother, the organization releases a damning and embarrassing sex tape to the media. Adana declares Eagle a toxic person (Scientology labels its enemies “suppressive persons” or “SPs”) with whom no-one in the Church should associate. The Deep doesn’t hesitate to cut his new friend out of his life, showing that even supes are susceptible to the power of suggestion and a little psychological surgery. A-Train observes all of this with quiet but troubled detachment, doubtless wondering how high a price he’ll have to pay for his past… and for how long.

What Is The Collective Up To?

So far it seems that the Church has been biding its time, waiting for an opportunity to infiltrate Vought, or The Seven. Each time a smaller fish has been sent to catch a bigger fish. There’s little reason to assume that this chain will stop with A-Train. Who’s next? The CEOs and head honchos of Vought itself? Black Noir – leveraged into the fold with the threat of revealing his crippling tree nut allergy to the general public? Maeve – if the Church gets its hands on the footage that was filmed onboard a certain doomed civilian airliner? And who, or what, is its ultimate target?

Homelander?

While the loony, laser-eyed lout regularly expresses a desire to unleash his unrestrained fury upon the helpless world, adoration and popularity really are important to him, which is probably the only reason he’s held himself back from going full superhero postal. Vought, however, can only fluff Homelander’s vanity insofar as it doesn’t upset the shareholders, whereas the Church of the Collective can offer him the one thing he truly craves: uncritical, unquestionable, unending Godhood and adulation.

This wouldn’t be Homelander’s first religion rodeo. In season 1 Homelander bent Christianity to his, and Vought’s, will, claiming that superheroes like him – living miracles – had been chosen by God to carry out His plan for America: so why shouldn’t they join the War on Terror? The discovery that supes were created by Compound V rather than God destroyed that useful illusion, but perhaps The Church of the Collective represents a second chance to co-opt a religion. A marriage made in heaven this time.

Stormfront is the only snag here, given that she already has her claws into Homelander and there’s bad blood between her and the Church. Once a member, she rejected it on the grounds that its inclusive membership criteria was an affront to her deeply cherished Nazi ideals of racial purity. If she was declared a toxic person by the Church, though, what was her punishment? Why is she allowed to operate with impunity? Is it possible that she’s secretly working for the Church – or at their command – to recruit Homelander, and the whole eugenics angle is part of their true and hidden design for the planet?

Unlikely. It’s more likely we’re about to see The Church of the Collective try to take down their fallen angel. Or take over Vought. Or both. Corporate might versus religious zealotry, with supes on both sides, and the boys trapped – as always – somewhere in the middle.

And if that’s the case, who should we put our money on?

The Church of the Collective, like its real-life counterparts Scientology and NXIVM, apes the marketing methods, structure and language of the modern corporation, projecting the power and seriousness of the boardroom rather than the prattling of the pulpit. While these quasi-religious entities need money to survive and grow, and indeed mercilessly pursue it, money is but an adjunct to the real prize of power, which makes them at once more deadly and much harder to defeat (that isn’t to say that The Church of the Collective isn’t set on getting what The Church of Scientology already has: tax exempt status).

You can bring down a business; it’s a little harder to snuff out faith, especially at its most zealous and jealously guarded. It’s the reason The Sparrows were able to take over Kings’ Landing in Game of Thrones. It’s the reason you’d rather meet a Ferengi in battle than a Klingon.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Whatever chaos the Collective is about to unleash on the world of The Boys, you can guarantee that it’s going to be messy. And a whole load of fun.

The post The Boys Season 2: What Is The Church of the Collective? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3njmMCK

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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anodetothecity · 5 years ago

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[from “New York’s Subway Map Like You’ve Never Seen It Before” by Antonio de Luca and Sasha Portis for The New York Times]

New York City was on the brink of bankruptcy in the 1970s. Crime was on the rise, and subway ridership had dropped to its lowest level since 1918.

In 1979, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority responded to complaints from riders that the subway map was difficult to use. The M.T.A. formed a committee, chaired by John Tauranac, to work with the design firm Michael Hertz and Associates on a new map.The goal was to develop an accessible geographical map that would provide the information that commuters and tourists needed to navigate the city.

The Hertz firm’s map was digitized in 1998, with many of the design elements from the 1979 map incorporated into the new version.

The M.T.A. subway map is a record of how graphic design, politics, and geography have shaped the city over the last 40 years.

The primary designer assigned to the 1979 redesign, Nobuyuki Siraisi, was a trained sculptor and painter. He prepared for the task of representing the subway lines using an unconventional method. He rode the length of every train line with his eyes closed, feeling the curve of each track and then drawing the path he perceived in his sketchbook.

Studies conducted by Arline Bronzaft, a psychologist, as part of the design process found that riders were disoriented by the straight lines on the previous map. Mr. Siraisi’s hand-drawn lines addressed the issue.

Mr. Siraisi assigned colors to trains to give them a way of being easily identified verbally. The designers also depicted the city’s land mass, bodies of water and parks in their natural colors, rather than using the existing map’s beige palette.

Susan Shaw, another designer at the Hertz firm, felt it was important that the map helped subway riders navigate the city when they were above ground. For example, she drew the shape of Central Park’s ponds accurately to help orient people traversing the park.

The geography of each borough was distorted to accommodate dense areas like Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn where many train lines converge.

There is one borough, of course, that contains no subway lines. Staten Island, which was absent from the 1979 map except for a tip in the lower-left corner. All of Staten Island, including the Staten Island Railway was added to the map in 1998 as part of an effort to display all of the city’s rail services.

The 1979 map used an eclectic mix of typographical styles. More have been added over the past 40 years. The current map has over 20 font styles ranging in size, weight, color and letter-spacing.

One of the 1979 map’s innovations was the creation of a “trunk-based” system. Train lines that run parallel to one another – the 4, 5 and 6, for instance – were combined so that they shared a single “trunk” line. The lines branched off from the trunk when their paths diverged. This technique simplified the map significantly. Express trains then branched off from the main line, skipping over stops like a rock skipping over water.

The black lines between stations on the map represented underground connections. Some of the connections did not exist when the subway was owned and operated by three separate companies. They were combined into a single system in 1942. Some New Yorkers still refer to the subway lines by their original names: BMT, IND and IRT.

When the map was digitized in 1998, the process introduced a few quirks. Street lines end abruptly and park appeared to be quickly drawn, leaving what looks like a sliver of beach. Street names were inconsistent in lining up with the corresponding white lines.

In 2010, the bridge connecting Rikers Island jail complex was removed as part of a continuing effort to simplify the map.

There are only 10 buildings marked on the map. Four are on Staten Island; one is the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn.

Over the past 40 years, the M.T.A. map has become a record of the changing city. Its design has endured because of its ability to adapt to the eclectic city it serves.

#writing #history

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evolutionsvoid · 8 years ago

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Springshots are a species of insect that live in grasslands and open temperate environments. When compared to other giant insects that can walk these lands, Springshots are not a formidable size. When finished growing, a Springshot maxes at about the size of a human head. The young start off quite small, only being about the size of your thumb. With time, though, they can quickly gain in size and mass, reaching their full size in just a few years. When it comes to group sizes, it is quite tricky to pin down their behavior. When observed in controlled environments, Springshots appear to live a solitary lifestyle. They do not seek out others of their kind, and only go to where the food is plentiful. This is what causes the dilemma, though. Since Springshots all seek out food rich areas, these solitary creatures inevitably run into more of their kind. Since food is their major concern, they do not waste energy on fighting or putting on displays, they just all scurry their way to their next meal. This causes locals and researchers to note large clusters of Springshots scuttling from one area to the other, which would confuse you into thinking that they live in large family groups. This just makes it an absolute mess when it comes to pinpointing their behavior. How does one classify a solitary creature that just happens to constantly group up with others of its kind unwillingly? They are raised to live by themselves, but just always happen to run into others. They don't seek them out, or try to keep with them. They just all happen to be heading to the same place. It is not like they need to travel in clusters to survive, as Springshots are rather good at deterring predators. Their carapace is quite hard, having exoskeletons that are tough as a crab's. Running up and down this shell are rows of wicked spikes, which are not as sharp as they appear. Though they look like they could shred skin, the edges are not sharpened and the tips are a bit blunted. Regardless, they do well at keeping predators away. No beast wants to try and bite something like that. A predator's best bet is to try and flip the insect over, in order to chew through the vulnerable underbelly. To combat that, Springshots have tough little legs that allow them to clamp down. You get them latched to a boulder, then you better call a golem over to dislodge them. There is a way to get them to come off of surfaces without having to use brute strength, but it is not a pleasant way if you aren't quick in your step.

Despite having strong legs and a shell made of spikes, they are not the favorite defense of a Springshot. No, the Springshot has a better way to scare away predators. Tucked underneath their bodies is something like a tail, an extra appendage of chitin and muscle. The "tail" remains mostly under its body, held close so that it does not drag on the ground. This specialized appendage is only brought into use when a Springshot is threatened. When a beast approaches, the Springshot will "click" this appendage into place. Somehow it seems to lock it into a framework of muscles that are wound up tight. When the "tail" is snapped into place, it sits parallel to the main body. When the predator draws close for a bite, the Springshot will release this pent up energy and let the "tail" fly! The "tail" strikes the ground and will launch the Springshot like a stone from a catapult! The force that is exerted is incredible, with the Springshots able to launch themselves at a forward distance of almost 10 meters! And that is only if something isn't in their way! When fired off near a snooping critter, the Springshot will barrel into them like a thorny shotput. Those blunted spikes won't feel so dull then! The force of their flight will allow their spikes to tear through hide and scales, and their projected mass can leave nasty bruises. I have heard from colleagues that they have witnessed Springshots knocking hounds out cold! Nothing ruins an appetite faster than your meal punching you square in the face! This amazing method of theirs works in different ways. If they are successful in striking their foe, the predator will most likely run off. Even if they miss, though, they will have launched themselves out of harms way, giving them a chance to flee. I say this, because Springshots don't exactly have much control over their flight. When they release their "tails," it is like unleashing a giant spring. They have no control over which direction they go or how far they fly. They just point in a general direction and hope for the best! Sometimes, their defensive methods actually land them in more trouble! I have heard stories of Springshots launching themselves into rivers or lakes. I have even heard of Springshots striking trees when they fly and their spikes sticking them to the bark! That has to be a sight to see! Though I have covered this amazing mechanism in terms of defense, I have not yet covered the strangest thing about it. Their "tails" are fired off so that they can scare away predators or flee from danger, but that is not all it can do. You see, the amount of force they launch themselves is quite incredible, to the point where it can be deadly. When attacked by a small reptile or mammal, say a raccoon, a direct hit of a Springshot launch can actually kill the animal. One thorny, solid blow to the skull and they are dead as a doornail. The Springshot did not mean to kill them, it was just trying to scare them away. It is a shame that the predator is dead, but hey free food! I may have not mentioned this earlier, but it was first believed that Springshots were strictly herbivorous. They prefer to cut down grasses with their mandibles and munch on their roots and greens. However, this view is changing, as it seems Springshots are leaning more towards opportunistic omnivore. When an attacker is killed by a Springshot's launch, the insect will not leave a free meal to rot. It will begin to feed on the downed opponent. When they are moving about in a cluster, the whole group will converge upon the corpse and feed. A foe looking to find a bite to eat in a group of Springshots may unintentionally make themselves a meal for them! This by no means is an intentional hunting method for the Springshot, just pure chance that they quickly take advantage of. The question is: how long before that is no longer the case? What if Springshots were to find out the usefulness of such a method? What if they discovered that their cluster size and strength could help bring down prey in a consistent manner? Imagine! Clusters of Springshots roaming the grasslands, finding suitable prey and then beating them to death with a hail of spiky bodies! It could work! The question is, are the Springshots smart enough to figure it out? And is that something we should actually hope for? Though a good source of migraines and concussions, people have found good uses for the Springshots. The main resource to gain from them are their tough shells. The exoskeleton can be hulled out and used for a variety of things. I have seen them used for armor, like shoulder pads and knee pads. I have even seen a merciless pugilist use them like a cestus (Needless to say, it was not a legal fight)! The plated sections can be divided, allowing one to put singular pieces on a variety of surfaces. I have seen clubs and maces being constructed with these shell fragments, and some farmers have put these chunks on fences to ward off intruders. Humans, fairies and dryads all find uses for these shells. For us dryads, we have found uses for the whole thing. When hollowed out, the shell of a Springshot makes a wonderful bowl and a nice decorative piece for any end table. You flip that thing on its back, fill it with soil and some seeds and you get a lovely potted plant! Great for herb gardens or single flower plantings. Also perfect for bashing a thief's skull in when they sneak in at night. On a less pleasant side, Springshot shells have seen much use when dryads are pulled into battles or wars. When the times come when we must take up arms, these will quickly make their way onto the battlefield. Like I said before, they are great for making weapons and armor. They also are good projectiles. Hollow them out and fill them with hardened sap, and you will have a solid weapon to launch at enemies. Used in slings and launchers, they can be fired off with enough strength to dent helmets and cave skulls. Even if the blow doesn't kill the opponent outright, it will soon. Since their spikes can easily open wounds, dryads always love to cover the shots with poison or ivy oil. The liquid seeps into the cuts and will take out the opponent hours later. Long ago, when the demon hordes tried to cleanse the surface, these poisoned weapons were used against them. As our kind fought to survive the burning legions, we turned to any weapon we had. Poisoned Springshots were one thing, but shells filled with deadly spores were another thing entirely. With the right mix, one could release a cloud of infectious spores that rooted itself into raw flesh and fed on rot. Many demon camps knew this weapon well, as we rained them down on their heads as they slept. Hey, I know it sounds super bad, but you have to remember what was at stake at the time. The demons fought to please their gods, the dryads fought to prevent their own extinction. When pushed to the edge of oblivion, dryads can be cruel, merciless fighters, and that is how we roll. We are the ones who always give peace a chance, but once that chance is up, the fight is on. Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian

#springtail #insect #creature #monster #art #drawing #springshot

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tanem-coskun · 6 years ago

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Reflective Reading Blog #6

1. What do you see as the greatest strength and limitation of mixed methods research? Explain your response.

2. In your own words describe why action planning and reflection are critical components in an action research study?

The greatest strength in mixed methods research can be to be able to use both quantitative and qualitative because these types of research methods can see both types of data collection, and not be focused on just one. Convergent parallel design is the perfect example of the strength in using mixed methods research because convergent parallel design is a design that “the researcher collects quantitative and qualitative data at the same time, and typically with perspectives and research questions” (Mertler, 2019, p. 125). Embedded design also has a similar approach as convergent parallel design by stating that embedded design “is used when a researcher collects and analyzes both quantitative and qualitative data within traditional quantitative or qualitative designs” (Mertler, 2019). However, the embedded design can be the limitation of the mixed methods research rather than a strength like convergent parallel design is because embedded design will be too time-consuming and I think that this approach of using mixed methods research can have a fall back of being more time-consuming just like how qualitative data is. Furthermore, I think it is very beneficial to use both quantitative and qualitative research methods into one research in order to conduct a more solid study by using both types of research methods, while the more time-consuming aspect can case for this research approach to also have a flow just like many other approaches that researchers might need to take.

When it comes to action planning and reflection, let’s start off by looking at the definitions first. Action planning is “a proposed strategy for implementing the results of an action research project” (p. 141), while reflection is “the act of critically exploring what you are doing, why you decided to do it, and what its effects have been” (p.135). By looking at these two definitions, action planning and reflection both can be critical components in an action research study because of the how the action researchers can developthe action planning, then how can these action researchers can reflect with integrationin their process (p. 142). The critical components in research planning because the action researchers might struggle on how they would want to pursue on this action research, and it could be the hardest part of the action research because the researchers would need to implement what they will do and how they will go about doing it. It can be very hard for action researcher to having to plan out their actions before taking them since some researcher might are better at going about their research and plan while researching. The critical components in reflection could be because not all researchers are able to explain why they are doing that research or even decided on it since some researcher can just want to do action research because they just are interested in it, and they cannot come up with a solid answer as to why they decided on that.

Bibliography

Mertler, C. A. (2019). Introduction to Educational Research (second edition).Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

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propermeals · 8 years ago

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GRANOLA FOR AUDREY

Double apricot, flax, rosewater, pistachio

with goat milk kefir, olive oil, and turkish honey

Minimalism in practice requires a regular thinning out of relationships, not just things.

I’m trying to trust that people traverse throughout my life intentionally; this makes that fragile act of letting go just a bit more bearable. When I start neglecting my duties as a good friend and human, I know I need to scale back. I evaluate and identify which relationships serve me right now; which bring me joy and inspiration, and which rob me of both. I had to let go recently and it hurt.

But then there are the relationships that endure despite distance & time. Those are the good ones, the gold ones. A friend of mine took the liberty of visiting me this past weekend, despite not having seen one another for three year. It felt a bit like falling in love. Our lives seemed to have been running in parallel in separate states – sometimes even countries – but decided to converge once we both shed the the weight of respective loves past.

And so we spent the weekend laughing and eating and wandering; discussing food, our philosophies on living, and fantasizing about opening up a bakery together (location to be determined).

We also made this granola, after I told Audrey I had gifted personalized batches to each of my family members for the holidays.

Not-too-sweet, Clumpy Granola

The Method:

When I cook, I think more in terms of formulas through (rough) ratios than set steps and quantities. I like to understand how each ingredient works in tandem so I can improvise with confidence later on. My basic granola recipe is made clumpy and subtly-sweet, not overly heavy, and with a bit of chew.

For the base, blend three parts oats/rolled grain (I used one cup total) into a coarse meal; mix with an additional three parts unground oats. Meanwhile, beat one egg white until stiff peaks forms. Mix with base.

In a small sauce pan, mix one part fat to one part liquid sweetener (honey, maple syrup, agave, simple syrup). Add a pinch of sea salt.

Prepare your mix ins. Three parts whatever you like. I try to aim for a good balance of dried fruits to nuts (I like an addition of flax; if you enjoy your granola with milk, the seeds swell slightly and thicken the whole mess). Add in whatever spices you like, to taste (cinnamon, cardamom etc.). Pour in the fat/sugar and mix until combined.

Spread the mix evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (try to get it to take up the whole sheet- the more overlap, the more it steams rather than crisps) and bake at 350 for ten minutes. When the bottom is golden, flip the granola, careful to retain clumps, and return to the oven for an additional five minutes.

Let cool until crunchy.

Granola For Audrey:

Complexity from two styles of dried apricot, earthy, grounded tones of grassy olive oil, rosewater’s femininity, a fearless unruliness from loads of flaxseed, and the elusive provenance of bee pollen.

(Giving exact measurements because she asked)

Base: Oats (1 cup, half ground) + Barley Flakes (1 cup, half ground)

Fat/Sweetener: Honey (1/2 cup) + Olive oil (1/2 cup) + Pinch of sea salt + Rosewater (about a teaspoon, or to taste)

Mix-ins: Flax seeds (about 1/2 cup) + Dried Apricot (both unsulphered and sulphured, about 2/3 cup) + Pistachio (1/2 cup, shelled and left whole)

Toppings: Bee pollen (1/4 cup - Sprinkle on before returning batch to oven)

#VSCO #meals

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academicheroes · 5 years ago

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Mixed-Method Designs Assignment/Buy Homework Help

Review the following mixed-method designs as described by Creswell: Convergent parallel Explanatory sequential Exploratory sequential Focus your discussion on the following: Select 1 of the 3 designs above for your own dissertation idea. Provide a rationale for your choice of the specific mixed-method design. Explain the specific purpose for each of the qualitative and quantitative components.…

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julievarona-blog · 6 years ago

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Reflective Reading Blog #6

1. What do you see as the greatest strength and limitation of mixed methods research? Explain your response.

2. In your own words describe why action planning and reflection are critical components in an action research study?

1) Without question, the greatest strength of mixed methods research is the ability to collect qualitative and quantitative data simultaneously. This is referred to as convergent parallel design. It is also beneficial because neither data collection method is prioritized; data is collected with equal importance. (Mertler, 2019) There are three other mixed methods research designs (explanatory, exploratory, and embedded), however (at least for the field of ECE) I believe convergent design is most beneficial. In some instances, research questions may require both types of data to obtain adequate answers. (Mertler, 2019)

If all qualitative design is used, the data lacks substance. In contrast, if all quantitative design is used, the data lacks depth and the more complex aspect of describing what young children are like in the classroom setting. It would be difficult and highly impractical to solely use a quantitative design for ECE research and, on the other hand, the research’s data would not carry as much weight if it did not include a survey, pre/posttest, or other quantitative aspect. (I planned to use this convergent design for the hypothetical research study we are creating in this class).

As far as limitations go, mixed methods research can be much more time consuming than using a singular methodological approach to the research study. Furthermore, not all researchers have experience in all research methodologies, so they have to take time to learn more about the methods they are unfamiliar with. But, as with each unique research study, the researcher(s) must decide what the best methodological approach is for the research question at hand and its subsequent data.

2) The ultimate goal of action research is to improve practice immediately within one’s own classroom or school. It is basically research that is done by educators for themselves. Teachers can study their own classrooms, students, and instructional methods and, in turn, they increase their effectiveness as educators. (Mertler, 2019)

Action planning is very important in action research. By creating an action plan, you are essentially identifying the next steps you will take to address the problem in your research and it may be executed in a formal or informal fashion. You may set it up in brief bullet-point statements or a simple description about how you will implement the new practice. Since it is a form of self-improvement, there is no clear-cut requirement to the methodology. It should make sense to you, as an educational researcher. The whole point of the action plan is for the researcher to have a concrete plan in place in order to carry out the new change based on the action research. An equally important step in the action research process is reflection. Through reflection, the action researcher is able to critically analyze what they are doing, why they decided to do it, and what effects it has produced. (Mertler, 2019) This process is so important because educators should be active participants in their own classroom in order to be effective leaders. When we, as educators, reflect, we should collect data in a systematic way and use that information for future planning and it will help to guide our future decisions in the classroom.

Reference:

Mertler, C.A. (2019). Introduction to educational research. (2nd edition) Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd.

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