#THE WAY THIS MANAGED TO BE HYPE IN FACE OF ETHO | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

swampgallows · 1 year

Text

dragonflight is a masterpiece so far btw. it is so charming and beautiful, and im having so much fun. the world itself and the characters in it have always been my favorite part of wow, and dragonflight definitely delivers on the exploration theme of the xpac. so many wonderful little side quests make the world feel vibrant and alive and every npc, no matter how minor, feels like a unique character with a history and a family. i absolutely love the amount of props and doodads spread throughout that make habitats feel lived in, cities and towns populated, and add to the overall landscape. paintbrushes, teapots, baskets, rugs, cooking tools, books and letters, potted plants—these are some of the reasons suramar felt like a real lived-in city in legion, and why boralus and dazar’alor had so much color and life. the differences in architecture and all of these cultural assets further flesh out the races we meet in the dragon isles, and feel natural to their environments and lifestyles. further environmental details like all the flower clusters on the plains, the kelp and chunks of ice in the floes, the bright lichen and fungi in the zones with decay give the land itself even more identity and character. it’s all gorgeous, imbued with love, and most of all, alive.

it feels like wotlk in many ways, and not just because the tuskarr are here: the threat is formidable and present, but manageable, perceptible, domestic. the lich king was a threat, and his touch was felt everywhere, but there was still a visible and familiar world all around us worth saving. the land felt old and new at the same time. the dragon isles seem to borrow from this ethos and have rolled everything players loved about wotlk into the new zones. the azure span is by far the most “mini northrend” of all these: a pine forest that slopes from autumnal down to wintery lowlands and arctic shores, topped off with a nyckelharpa soundtrack. considering that the main antagonists of dragonflight are the primalists who want to throw the elements into chaos, it makes sense that there is so much focus on the beauty of the natural world and the order needed to maintain it.

the story is cohesive and woven so well into preexisting lore. so many names and places are being dropped that haven’t been talked about since the original rts games and their books, and it’s nice to see the return of so many old faces. even the most minor npcs are someone’s favorite, and it’s been a blast seeing all the cameos of characters from previous expansions, some even as far back as tbc and vanilla. i’m not big on dragons or their lore, but as a longtime fan i can palpably feel the influence of other longtime fans on the development and structure of the story. terran gregory’s hype alone on twitter feels like the metzen days where he is genuinely excited for others to enjoy the expansion and “geek out” alongside him.

mechanics-wise im really loving the expanded professions; professions are one of my original loves in wow, and it’s been a thrill to return to the days where being a tailor meant i could craft gear that was actually useful. i like the specializations too and their mini talent trees; it’s been fun coordinating with other people in the guild to see who will prioritize what so we can cover all the bases. this might be an unpopular opinion, but i love the explosion of reagents, especially things like meat and plant and animal parts; it feels better to craft something where you can trace it back to where it came from, versus the esoteric gold-sink reagents of shadowlands that called for things like “orboreal shards” and “progenitor essence”. it was more thematic for the xpac, yes, but as a matter of preference it feels more productive to skin an animal and be able to loot meat, skin, and fur or feathers from it. not to mention the profession equipment is a cute, immersive touch that adds more personality and identity to crafting, and it’s given major boosts to “secondary” professions of fishing and cooking (my favorites in any video game). my top priority, of course, is that the cooking recipes in dragon isles are cute and silly and sound delicious, which sold me on dragonflight from minute one.

anyway, i’m having fun. i hope the rest of you guys are too. i have both laughed out loud and cried during several different quests and i’m still not even finished with the main campaign storyline (i’m trying to get there though... i want world quests!!). this is wow that feels like wow without relying on the faction war to do so, which is new territory for me. the truce is tenuous, but not on the shores of the dragon isles. it feels amazing. i want to avoid saccharine words like “wholesome”, so all i can say is that the love is definitely there. there is love and hope in dragonflight, which is all i have ever wanted, and gotten, from wow.

#blathering #world of warcraft #dragonflight

66 notes · View notes

msclaritea · 2 years

Text

From Netflix Stock Drop to Mass Layoffs, Anxiety Grips Hollywood – Variety

"May 1Fear and loathing are on the rise in Hollywood as top execs and rank-and-file employees grapple with growing uncertainty about their place in a rapidly changing entertainment industry. One pervasive concern: that the streaming-fueled content bubble has finally burst, with more consolidation on the way.

Wall Street darling Netflix lost $54 billion in market value in one day last month amid concerns about a slide in subscriber numbers and promptly reorganized its marketing department once again, axing writers on its fledgling Tudum fan site five months after launch. And the fallout from the Warner Bros. Discovery merger and Amazon’s acquisition of MGM has just gotten underway, with top exec Michael De Luca exiting the latter April 27 and squashed initiatives at the former. Neither the disrupted nor the disruptors are feeling too good these days.

“We’re all waiting on pins and needles for someone to pull the figurative trigger on the inevitable restructuring,” says a Warner Bros. Discovery staffer, no doubt aware that the $3 billion in cost-saving synergies CEO David Zaslav has promised is really just corporate code for layoffs. The exec pulled the plug on CNN+ less than a month after it launched and the company has since begun pulling back TNT and TBS’ unscripted content, moves that will likely lead to job losses.

“2022 will undoubtedly be a messy year,” Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels told Wall Street analysts April 26 while discussing the company’s most recent quarterly earnings.

Abrupt strategy pivots such as the CNN+ closure have added to the growing unease around town. Netflix, known for its “Hunger Games” ethos, didn’t waste time on niceties while killing writer contracts April 28.

“My manager explained the layoff to me via text after she’d already been let go,” says an axed worker, one of the many who preferred to remain anonymous. “We realized something was wrong when her Slack appeared deactivated.”

In the agency world, two of the biggest outfits — CAA and ICM — are merging, with one insider saying that the level of nervousness among those agents who “don’t have a strong book of business” is at fever pitch.

“It’s inevitable when you have consolidation that people are feeling vulnerable,” says a top entertainment lawyer.

Netflix’s swoon is being greeted with some schadenfreude, particularly among executives at legacy studios who had grown tired of hearing about how algorithms had made the traditional greenlight process, built on gut instincts, obsolete. However, the reality is that the fundamental problems bedeviling the streaming service, namely a maturing business and increased competition, spell trouble for nearly every other Hollywood player. Disney, Comcast, Paramount Global and Warners have all moved aggressively into the streaming space to stave off cord-cutting declines and demonstrate their ability to evolve.

Now Wall Street has serious questions about Hollywood’s long-term financial viability.“We think the industry is facing a point of no return in which the economics of the old models look increasingly frail while the potential of the brave new world now appears overly hyped,” wrote Robert Fishman, an analyst with MoffettNathanson, on May 2.

Ramped-up streaming initiatives have been a boon for creators in recent years: Every week, it seems, some new showrunner has been lured to Netflix, HBO Max, Apple TV+ or any other service with a mathematical symbol in its moniker, with the promise of a megadeal or a multi-episode order. Film and TV writers are worried that they’re going to see a slowdown in work amid rumblings of significant Netflix belt-tightening and questions about the future of DC Entertainment under new corporate ownership.

Netflix couldn’t keep growing forever, so now it seems like they finally hit their limit and they will have to be more careful in how they do things,” one agent says.

In a sign of just how serious Netflix is about trimming content expenditures, on May 1 news broke that “Pearl,” an animated series developed by none other than Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Archewell Prods., had been canned. Not even the Duchess of Sussex is immune to the pressures of economizing.

Many economists fear that a recession is on the horizon if inflation proves to be intractable. To make matters worse, geopolitical tensions are making major international markets such as China nearly impossible to access. And COVID has turned into a franchise that won’t stop cycling through reboots and sequels.

Last week, Discovery informed staff at recently acquired brands that they had to work in the office at least two days a week beginning in May. The short notice rattled many staffers.

Says one insider: “A lot of WarnerMedia people think they’re just going back into the office for the first time in two years to be fired by someone they have never met.”

0 notes

martuzzio · 4 years

Text

To that one anon who sent me a lovely ask about how I would incorporate the MCC twitch games into this au (whose ask I deleted on accident): this is for you.

Iskall has had three main homes throughout his life: The Hermit Craft, the Hunt, and the Arena. All three homes have taught him different lessons to live by. Despite only living with the hermits for a few years out of his three dcades of life, the Hermit Craft has taught him a lot. Some of these things include joys like beds, regular meals, and friends. His friends teach him every day that there is much more to life than doing your job effectively and efficiently. There is more to the universe than subverting people that cannot be trusted.

The Hunt is the home Iskall has known for the longest out of the three. It is whenever he has a new hit, a new target to pursue. The next victim of the machine. This home is what eventually broke him, but it has also taught him a lot. It has taught him to value himself over everyone else in the room when needed. To examine someone from afar and learn everything he needs to know in a few moments. To take aim and shoot without blinking, without feeling. To complete what is asked of him – but only if the price is right.

The final home Iskall knows is the Arena. The Arena taught him one thing: how to survive. He has not been in this home for a long time. Until now.

Iskall sits in a dimly lit room with False, Wels, and Etho and listens to the thunderous roar of the crowd outside. He got a glimpse of the stadium before entering the waiting room and the size took even him by surprise. It’s a big one – the stadium looks like it could comfortably fit at least two million people, but the actual crowd size could be anywhere up to five. Who knows how many individuals the MCC people managed to squeeze into the arena this time. They know the participants are big names, so it makes sense that they would sell as many tickets as possible.

The MCC (which stands for something that Iskall can’t be bothered to remember) is a small and peculiar planet located deep within the anarchy sector of the universe. It is covered completely in metal and hosts far too many illegal activities to count. The most popular of these activities are the fighting competitions held in the hundred or so arenas scattered across the planet’s surface. The largest of these stadiums is where Iskall and his friends are currently waiting to compete.

When Xisuma announced to the crew over dinner that the ship was going to drop by the MCC in a week, Iskall was glad he wasn’t the only visibly confused person. Apparently the end goal is to attend a conference with the MCC leaders to gain more protection when traveling in the anarchy sector. The catch, however, is that in order to have the conference, some of the hermits need to participate in a non-lethal arena competition to hype up the planet’s visitors and bring in money for the leaders. Iskall gladly agreed to participate, eager to see what MCC arena matches are like when they aren’t to the death.

Back in the waiting room, Iskall is startled out of his thoughts by False’s swear when her knife slips from the whetstone. “That’s the third time I’ve almost nicked the blade.” She mutters when she notices Iskall looking over. “I should’ve just brought my plasma blade. It would’ve been less of a hassle.”

“But the real deal is so much better.” Wels interjects from across the room. From his own grip on his sword, Iskall figures that he’s trying hard to not ruin his blade on his own arena-supplied whetstone. “It’s all about the weight of the piece that makes it worthwhile. I can’t imagine fighting someone with a knife that weighs as much as a wooden spoon.”

False huffs a laugh, causing her glowing blue eyes to crinkle in the dusty light. “You’re in no position to form an argument because you’ve never tried any option other than your sword.”

Wels beams and shrugs one shoulder. “What can I say, you got me there.”

“The lighter blades have their own perks.” Etho adds conversationally. He’s perched precariously on top of a barrel in the corner of the room, fingers flying over his left gauntlet’s screen as he most likely plays that Hermit trading card game. “When they’re really light, it’s easier to carry as many as you want under your clothes.”

Iskall squints at his mysterious friend. “That sounds ominous.” Etho simply glances up and winks at him, drawing a grin to Iskall’s face.

“I like them because a lighter blade helps me to focus on the arms working the gun.” False supplies. “When I’m using blades and guns at the same time, having one set of arms as the dominant pair works out better. But that’s just me, though.” she continues and gestures to Wels’ sword. “When you can only fight with one weapon at a time, I feel like the best option to choose is the one you’re most comfortable with.”

Wels beams again at False but soon groans in expression when Etho replies with, “So that just means you need to become comfortable with all weapons.” When Wels stands up and pokes his sword in the direction of the barrel, Etho shrinks back and raises his hands, leaving his game momentarily forgotten. “Hey, hey! I’m right, you know! You’re just mean!”

Iskall doubles over in laughter at that. He’s so glad that these three are the ones that volunteered to participate in the arena competition with him. Not to discount any of his other friends, but the four of them are probably the best fighters on the whole hermit team. Or at least the best possible team of four. False is an absolute beast in battle, both real and practice. Her two sets of arms are a beauty to behold when she’s aiming a gun at one enemy while stabbing another at the same time. Then there’s Wels, who uses traditional techniques to make a statement. His confident movements and unwavering personality comforts Iskall on the battlefield. Lastly, there’s Etho, whose expert skill in thousands of weapons and techniques always results in a good time. His very presence seems to bring chaos. Iskall assumes it’s just because he’s Etho.

False reaches over with one of her unoccupied arms and flicks Iskall’s helmet visor. “Stop laughing so much.” She scolds. “You’re going to get a stomachache before we even start the match.”

Iskall curbs his laughter as Wels and Etho go “awww” in the background. Before Iskall has the chance to shoot a retort back, a clanging noise sounds out form outside the waiting room. He looks over to the door just in time to watch it wrench open with a screech.

“Good news, hermits!” A small android, as metallic as the rest of the planet, shrieks. Their pincer-like hands flutter in a way that makes Iskall think of Mumbo. “You’re up next! Ready your weapons now because the gate’s going to raise in less than a minute!” With that, the android reaches into the room and yanks the door back shut with a loud screech.

After a moment to process what just happened, Iskall claps his hands together and leisurely pushes off the bench. “Time to end that game, Etho.” He says with a falsely pained expression. Etho blinks sadly and shuts his gauntlet screen off with a swipe. He slides off of his barrel and pats around his body to probably double check his thirty or so different weapons hidden in mysterious places.

False sets the whetstone aside and rolls her two sets of arms back in their shoulder sockets. She smiles at the men in the room, throwing her blade into the air and catching it without looking. “Ready, boys?” She asks, wiggling an eyebrow for emphasis.

Wels laughs back and readies his own blade. “As ready as we’ll ever be. Remember, no killing anyone out there, alright?”

Iskall sees the other two nod and realizes that yes, this is an arena event where he cannot kill anyone. It’s a shock that hits him much later than he expected it would. At least it hit him before he was in actual battle, though, so he counts it as a small blessing. “Gotcha.” He says in response, facing the large gate on the arena side of the room and checking the grip on his gun one last time. False notices and checks the grip on her own gun as well.

The four of them are startled when the door slams open again behind them. “Time to fight!” The same android screams in the doorway. They smack one of their pincer hands onto a button on their forearm and the room’s gate starts slowly creaking open. The door slams shut again without another word.

The four hermits meet gazes for a moment, then shrug. They then all face the gate, which by now has thudded into place, fully open. Bright sunlight shines into the room and an unseen announcer thunders out a short intro for the team. The crowd thunders back.

“Let’s go, boys.” False says, and strides out into the area, head held high. Etho and Wels soon follow. As Iskall steps through the door and the crowd’s thunder turns into a roar, he grins, rolls his shoulders back, and raises a hand to greet his old home.

#space outlaws #space outlaws stories #space outlaws lore #iskall85 #ethoslab #welsknight #falsesymmetry

160 notes · View notes

passionate-reply · 3 years

Video

youtube

This week on Great Albums: Soft Cell’s 1981 debut, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret! The first great gay synth-pop album, and the one that walked so that acts like Bronski Beat, Erasure, and the Pet Shop Boys could run. Yeah, “Tainted Love” is cool, but have you ever heard “Sex Dwarf”? Full transcript after the break!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today’s video tackles Soft Cell’s 1981 debut, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. While “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret” is not necessarily a household name, this album did produce one track that I can just about guarantee that you’ve already heard, assuming you have any familiarity with Western popular music.

Music: “Tainted Love”

“Tainted Love” is one of those classics that’s almost too big for its own good, with an enormous shadow in popular culture. Few compositions from the 1980s, from the general arena of synth-pop, or, indeed, in the popular music canon, have quite as much of a legacy. As an introduction to the significance of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, it’s not an awful start, but it does have a bit of an “obvious single choice” feel--not only for that huge hook, but also for how tame, even quaint, it starts to feel compared to the other stuff here. “Tainted Love” is a gay song, sure, but it’s only expressing that idea in an abstract manner--it is a cover, after all. What the remainder of the album lacks in “DUN DUN,” it makes up for in frankness and remarkably candid handling of sexuality, which still manages to be a bit shocking, even as this album reaches its 40th birthday. Could anyone but Soft Cell’s Marc Almond really have sold us the raw, lurid raunchiness of “Sex Dwarf”?

Music: “Sex Dwarf”

Beyond the outrageously explicit nature of “Sex Dwarf,” its most noteworthy characteristic is just how playfully, cartoonishly devilish it is. I’ve always read it as a work in the grand tradition of the queer community reclaiming the trope of the camp gay villain, seen so often in popular media. In its purest form, this gay villain archetype is the ultimate expression of chaos and disorder--their rejection of social norms of gender and sexuality and their threat to the status quo go hand in hand. While it’s reprehensible to simply equate queerness with evil, there’s a long tradition of reclaiming that same imagery, turning the lavish power of such transgressor figures into a badge of strength, and that’s how I tend to interpret “Sex Dwarf.” That said, for as much as tracks like these seem to almost force a specifically gay reading of the album, it also seems interested in themes of sexuality and sin, more broadly. Take the track “Seedy Films,” for example, a more playful number full of slinky clarinet, teasing rattles, and breathy, almost gasping female backing vocals, seemingly suggestive of a more heterosexual vantage point.

Music: “Seedy Films”

I like to think of each track on Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret as coming to us from the perspective of a different anti-hero, each as unreliable and capricious as the last. Another key track that complicates issues of perspective and identity is the album’s tense opener, “Frustration.” “Frustration” delivers on its title musically, with a stubborn refusal to ever resolve its constant melodic tension at any point during its runtime, making it legitimately fatiguing and stressful to listen to. Its lyrics might be interpreted as a critique of the boredom lurking behind mainstream society’s “ideal” life of suburban safety, and a send-up of the alleged appeal of fitting in and being normal. But we could interpret it equally well, as a song that’s less about being “straight” in the sense of “square,” and more about being heterosexual--perhaps as the lament of a closeted gay man, tormented by an incommunicable internal struggle, despite all the material comforts in the world.

Music: “Frustration”

Either way, “Frustration” can be compared to “Secret Life” on the flip side, which focuses on the idea of a divide between one’s external facade of a respectable and ordinary existence, and the darkness of one’s internal, deviant, carnal desires.

Music: “Secret Life”

Whether their narrators are parsed as gay or straight, their songs are certainly tense tales of repression and release. And they’re also mediated by the idea of being trapped in a tame, and particularly middle-aged existence. The clearest expression of the theme of getting older, and possibly more and more constrained by the need to put on airs of respectability, is, naturally, “Youth”:

Music: “Youth”

The stale, conservative lifestyles of the middle-aged certainly don’t seem like the most natural subject matter for a debut album by a pair of twenty-somethings, but I like to interpret this fixation as a bit of a memento mori. The urgency of enjoying life’s pleasures, now, is checked by the fear of a future in which that window of opportunity is closing. As I said earlier, all of these tracks are narrated by some character or construct, and in that sense, the real identities of Marc Almond and David Ball matter fairly little. In the world of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, nearly everything feels constructed or artificial--it’s all just an act, as much as “Secret Life”’s narrator puts on a respectable front. The superbly campy “Entertain Me,” which wouldn’t feel out of place in some cult musical, engages most clearly with the idea of performance, bringing in a giggling call-and-response choir and a chaotic clamour of percussion in its desperate attempt to, well, entertain us. Critically positioned at the top of the second side, it’s the perfect place for the album to second-guess itself as a work of art.

Music: “Entertain Me”

That track is certainly more “Rocky Horror Picture Show” than “Architecture & Morality,” isn’t it? While the synth-pop acts penetrating the mainstream before Soft Cell, like Gary Numan and OMD, had a bit of punk’s rough, low-budget, DIY ethos to them, Soft Cell were the first ones really crafting performative, self-aware post-disco synth-pop, that owed more to the swooning divahood of Donna Summer in “I Feel Love” than it did to the starched shirts and robo-rhythms of Kraftwerk. Much like disco, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is truly a production--dense, luxurious, tweaked to perfection in a studio, and featuring several traditional instruments that are uncommon in rock, such as “Frustration”’s saxophone and “Seedy Films”’s clarinet.

The most noticeable thing about the cover of the album is almost certainly its lurid blue and fuchsia lighting, gleaming harshly against Almond and Ball’s leather jackets. It immediately takes us to the sweaty, nocturnal, and of course, homoerotic world this music dwells in. The duo stare us down, with fairly cross or standoffish posturing, suitable for an album as in-your-face as this one. There’s a bit of a narrative hook here, with Almond either producing this mysterious, almost certainly illicit package, or perhaps tucking it away. Almond’s sunglasses are a small detail, but one that I think holds a lot of contextual significance. There’s a long history of erotic art aimed at the gay male audience utilizing devices like hat-brims and shades to create a “disrupted gaze”--a sort of lightly objectifying, or compartmentalizing, manner of sexualizing its subjects. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Ball’s snakeskin necktie, which is another classically sexy touch. Note also the neon light motif used for the text, which contributes to that nightlife feel as strongly as anything else. With a name like “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret,” it would’ve been truly sinful to write that out in anything besides this warping neon, and it’s the perfect title to accompany an album that’s as insistent and gleefully tawdry as they come.

Earlier, I had contrasted Soft Cell with other major players in synth-pop who came before them, and I think that context is vital to understanding why this album is so indispensably important. Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is, quite simply, the first great gay synthesiser album. Growing up in America, the rock and roll heartland, it’s hard to escape the understanding that electronic music is inherently gay-coded. But that’s an impression you won’t get from that first generation of artists, who presented as unpretentiously butch, and were more interested in singing about factories, spaceships, and telephone lines than about sex or romance with anybody. The deep relationship between queer culture and the music synthesiser simply wouldn’t have blossomed the way it did without Soft Cell, and the unforgettable worldwide success they achieved with “Tainted Love.” Without that foot in the door, the rise of groups like Bronski Beat, Erasure, and the Pet Shop Boys later in the 80s would’ve been unthinkable. That alone makes Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret a piece of essential listening for anyone seeking to understand the history of electronic music.

While Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret remains Soft Cell’s great masterpiece, and they never reached the same heights of commercial success again, they went on to release two additional studio LPs before disbanding in the mid-1980s. Marc Almond went on to have a fairly successful career as a solo artist, bagging a few additional hit singles in the UK, and David Ball became half of the house duo The Grid. The pair did re-unite in 2002, to produce a rather serviceable LP called Cruelty Without Beauty, which explores many of the same themes of their earlier work, albeit through a lens of Information Age dread.

Music: “Caligula Syndrome”

In 2019, we were told to expect the true final report of Soft Cell, in the form of a grand farewell concert entitled “Say Hello, Wave Good-Bye”--a title pulled from one of the singles off Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. But, for all of the hype, it looks like that really won’t be the end for them after all, as Soft Cell have announced yet another reunion in 2021, and another new studio album in the works. So we’ll have to see what else these two have in store!

Overall, my favourite track on Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is the single “Bedsitter.” It’s all about questioning whether the life of hedonistic excess is really worth it in the end. It’s about those moments one spends between benders, binges, and flings, gripped by emptiness and self-doubt. Therefore, the presence of “Bedsitter” adds some nuance, and undercuts a lot of the easy, simple conclusions we’re tempted to make, from a surface-level reading of the album as a free-love bonanza. With languid and melancholy verses clashing with a disconcertingly anthemic refrain, it’s filled with tension from within, and despite its lack of external conflict, it comes across as one of the more unsettling tracks we have to choose from. That’s all for today. Thanks for listening!

Music: “Bedsitter”

#music #great albums #album review #album reviews #synth-pop #synth pop #synthpop #soft cell #marc almond

11 notes · View notes

stlplaybox · 6 years

Text

Better late than never: my top 10 Transformers of 2017

Yes, yes. I know I’m about 7 months too late but it’s been a tough slog. I was 90% complete in January but have only snailed along since then. I love doing these to really collect my thoughts on a year of collecting but I ended up letting it slip way more than I intended to. Anyway, with that aside out of the way, let’s get cracking.

Here we are again, that time of the year when everyone reflects on the best of the year that was.Twelve months on and the job of selecting my top 10 figures for 2017 was no less daunting than it was the last time. I found myself drawn to my closing remarks from last year as a starting point.

“Hasbro and Takara look to be continuing their winning formula with a strong opening salvo in the form of Topspin, Quake and Krok. It’s also a movie year and I’m very curious how they’ll apply this design ethos to the movie line. The Masterpiece line will welcome more Beast Wars figures and will deliver arguably the most important release of the year: the despot we all want, but will it be the one we deserve?

Third party continue their onslaught of amazing product. MMC’s stable is ready to burst with Kultur on the cusp of release and IDW Megatron due later this year. Maketoys have MP Jazz and Targetmasters on the way whilst pushing the aesthetic and action figure boundaries of the franchise with their Cross Dimensions line. Master Made will turn their eye to their next project after they finish Scorponok and Fort Max. SparkToys will deliver the follow up to their War Within Optimus Prime with Megatron and maybe even the King. Having wow’d us with what they can do at Legends scale, Iron Factory will deliver combiners and a six changer.”

As it turned out, all these things happened. And more. The mantra of “there’s never been a better time to be a Transformers collector” has never been more true. It’s with this backdrop that I embark on disambiguating my own ever-changing proclivities.

Some honourable mentions first because it feels like a transgression of the highest order to not acknowledge at least a slither the other amazing figures that did not make this list.

First off, dear Iron Factory I love everything you guys do. It’s a travesty that nothing you guys made ended up on my list. But the bite-sized delight that you guys deliver time and time again cannot go unacknowledged. From Ultimate Commander to Sixshot, you guys pack an impossible amount of articulation, fun and detail that should not be possible at such a scale.

Planet X Mors: Planet X has been a regular occupier in my lists over the years and as amazing as their Trypticon was, there’s nothing more ambitious than dethroning an official version of a toy. They did that with Grimlock and then repeated it with Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker. It’s a stunning toy that has not left the coffee table since it’s arrival and it was hard leaving it off this list.

MAS-01 Optimus Prime: I have an Ultimetal Optimus Prime. I should not need this. There’s only so many humungous, non-transforming toys one should have in an era that is delivering knockout citybot after citybot. But I succumbed and gratefully so. Whilst Ultimetal delivers an impeccable amount of diecast, detail and finish, MAS-01 delivers insane poseability that will never be possible in a transforming version of our favourite Autobot commander.

Titan Returns Black Shadow: It’s been awhile since an official leader class figure has been of interest to me. Black Shadow outshone the main course that he was an appetiser to. Beautiful headsculpt, wonderful colours, topped with an incredibly clever and satisfying transformation.

Titan Returns Gnaw: It’s a rarity that Hasbro could outdo Takara but they did. Fun and so full of character, Gnaw was a wonderful addition to our fandom. You can see it in the amount of fun photos this little fella has graced. I’ve had a Legends figure in my top TFs in the last 3 years and it was really hard to not have one on the list this year.

TAV-60 Bisk: A fading line that accompanied an uninspiring TV show, TAV managed to deliver some amazing Decepticons with unusual shapes and transformations. Bisk was the epitome of this. A muscle car that turns into a hyper articulated lobster, Bisk was a bundle of joy I found hard to put down for many months in front of the TV or on holiday.

I’ll have to stop there as I’ll be here all year otherwise. Let’s rollout for the top 10.

10: Beast Wars Optimal Optimus (Perfect Effect Beast Gorira)

Never having owned a toy of this quintessential character, I drooled enviously while everyone picked this up at TFNation because it was too large to lug home. The FOMO factor egged me on to buy it on eBay at TFNation in the early hours of the morning. I ship it so it’d be there when I got home. However, upon arriving home after having been away for almost two months I allowed it to gather dust alongside my backlog of unopened toys. It led me to more than once question if I’d just been a sucker for convention hype.

Finally opening it in December, I discovered the perfection that is Perfect Effect’s Beast Gorira. The sculpt is immaculate but what elevates this is the premium finish. Perfect Effect brought their trademark paint and attention to detail to the table and made this the ultimate representation of Beast Wars Optimal Optimus. As much as I love posing Gorira, what holds him back from climbing higher is the finicky transformation.

9: Maketoys G1 Pointblank (Maketoys MTRM-06 Contact Shot)

A surefire way to my heart is a futuristic alt mode. The Autobot cars and Decepticon jet Targetmasters have always occupied a mystical spot in my head for that reason. When Maketoys dropped Pointblank, a Masterpiece of a toy I’d only known from the well-read pages of my G1 toy catalogue, I had high expectations. Those expectations were well and truly blown out of the water when I handled it for the first time. The way those legs compress, the way that chest works, the playability and detail of that cockpit, that insane articulation… it’s a stunning feat of engineering. So much so that it made not one but two trips as a holidaybot in 2017. Subjecting a masterpiece toy to the rigours of a holiday is something that makes most collector’s cringe. But it was that good. That’s a hell of an achievement for a Masterpiece toy.

8. G1 Starscream (MTRM-11 Howling Meteor)

In a heated 3rd party masterpiece scene, if you were going to dislodge an official figure from being the preferred representation of a character, you’d go after the decrepit Seeker mould. But it’s a risk. There was no shortage of collector relief at having finished the Seekers this year so it makes Maketoys ambition all that more audacious. But if anyone was going to pull it off, it was Maketoys. They did. The presence, paint and peerless articulation of everyone’s favourite scheming whiner is a joy to behold, pose, and play. All that stopped it from usurping higher spots on this list was the lack of upwards head articulation and its unphotogenic dark face.

7. MP-32 Optimus Primal

I’ll confess to being one of those “Trukk not Monkey” people once upon a time. But Beast Wars was a show that I grew to love. It lacked the cast of thousands of G1 but it more than made up for that with a story and characterisation that still withstands the test of time. When I liberated this figure from its packaging, the love I felt was instantaneous. The CGI perfect blue, the multiple faces, the loving attention to the sculpt, I was sure I’d have to file for divorce. It went everywhere with me even to the distant fjords of Norway as seen in the picture I’m using here. But there was drama. Gutwrenching heartbreak ensued when I discovered I’d broken it in a fall on a climb in Husedalen. It was an expensive replacement but one I did at TFNation before returning downunder. My personal story with this figure would have catapulted it into the number one spot in any other year but such a time it is to be a collector that this was as high as it could climb.

6. MTMTE Rodimus (SXS R-04 Hot Flame)

If you know me well, you know the place MTMTE and Lost Light holds in my heart. There was a crack at this by a more accomplished third party company that satisfied most. Not me though. SXS stepped up to the plate to deliver the perfect rendition of the cavalier Co-Captain of the Lost Light. It rendered MMC’s Calidus to a mediocre representation of a Hot Rod / Rodimus. The sci-fi vibe of the rugged alt mode, the perfection of the chest sculpt relative to the shoulders, and the exceptional articulation were exhilarating to experience. It’s a toy that will not leave the coffee table anytime soon.

5 . War Within Megatron (SparkToys Spartacus)

It was the year of Megatron. Whichever line you look at, there was not just a good one but a great one. That’s why there are three on this list. War Within got me back into buying Transformers. It lit the spark that re-ignited that childhood love that I’d had for Transformers. Last year, SparkToys Optimus Prime almost took the top spot and they were always going to be in contention in 2017 again given how much nostalgia this plays up in me. Collectors talk about paint and finish but this is a whole different level. Not only is the detail of the sculpt exceptional, every nook and cranny of this pre-war despot is coated in loving layers of vibrant paint. Add the commanding presence of a gladiatorial Megatron and a generous armoury, this figure is packed with endless fun as well as beauty.

4. Titan Returns Decepticon Targetmasters: Triggerhappy, Slugslinger, Misfire

This is a cheat as Triggerhappy had already made my list last year but there was an overwhelming sense of achievement unlocked when I completed this triplet of Targetmasters. All cut from the same cloth but each so uniquely distinct with tonnes of articulation, personality and clever little design decisions, I spent whole evenings playing and photographing these handsome lads. Another important factor was that I acquired all three of these locally and with my boy. As someone who largely imports these days, the fact I could experience the thrill of the hunt again chasing such great figures cemented their place in my memory banks.

3. Chaos Theory Optimus Prime GT-03 Optimus

I mentioned the importance of James Roberts’ MTMTE to my love of Transformers. It’s fiction that elevates the characters and their journeys to a level that we haven’t experienced before. But before there was MTMTE, there was the two part story Chaos Theory. I remember reading it amid the Costa era of TF comics and knowing straightaway this was special. The gravitas with which it regarded the four million year old war and the relationship between the two diametrically opposed leaders gripped me like nothing else. It was not till much later that I realised it was the start of James Roberts’ meteoric rise in TF fiction.

It was only in October 2017 that I secured all the variant covers of those two issues of Chaos Theory (Transformers #22 and #23) after having stopped buying physical comics for many years. But to then obtain a Masterpiece version of that Optimus? With perfectly stunning articulation, paint and detail? A sculpt that oozes a sense of heroic gravity? That I did not expect.

2. Chaos Theory Megatron (GT-02 Tyrant)

Chaos Theory was a tale in two parts. The covers represented the two halves of the story: Optimus Prime and Megatron in both their current day and youthful forms. Generations Toys completed the other half of that equation with their wonderful designed Chaos Theory Megatron. With transformation steps that evoke Masterpiece level ingenuity and a transformation that is a pleasure to switch back and forth between, it’s amazing how Generation Toys designed such a Megatron full of fearsome presence yet is also a stealth bomber at the same time. .

1. MTMTE Megatron (MMC R-28 Tyrantron)

This was a hard choice. On the one hand, of all the figures on this list, MMC’s MTMTE Megatron has the laziest of transformations on top of being a heavy partsformer. On the other hand, never has a character stepped off a page more than this. This wonderfully epic rendition of the tormented Megatron knocks it out of the park. Not only is the every part of the body sculpted to perfection but the head sculpt captures the grim introspection that dominated the former Decepticon leader’s tenure on the Lost Light. If that wasn’t enough, the figure does double duty and with a few bits of parts forming becomes pre-war Megatron from Chaos Theory. It’s a monumental effort from MMC and allowed me to round out 2017 with the 3 most important representations of Megatron to me.

So there’s my list for another great year. 2017 was a special year for me. One dominated by the realisation of some of my favourite characters from my favourite Transformers fiction. It’s a reflection of how vibrant the transforming scene is at the moment that it supports not only a heavy masterpiece market but multiple TF canons as well. There’s truly never been a greater time to be a fan.

#transformers #transformers idw #more than meets the eye #tf mtmte #MTMTE #mtmte megatron #mtmte rodimus #lost light #optimus prime #beast wars #beastmode

21 notes · View notes

legalvinyl · 3 years

Text

Finally More from Isaiah Rashad: A Review of The House is Burning

Isaiah Rashad is and always has been a unique talent in the heavyweight lineup of Top Dawg Entertainment. With only 3 albums to his name after signing to the label in 2013, Rashad has proved himself as being worthy of critical appreciation, and perhaps, also of personal critique for his elusive nature and darker personal issues. In fact, the rapper who has always “got the music for the vibers” has consistently faced a battle against substance abuse and lingering mental health issues despite always managing to sound so relaxed and uhm ‘vibey’. I’ve been a fan of Rashad for years now, and I fondly remember a competition between one of my high school friends to see who could learn more of the unwavering triplet verses to his song Park back in 2016. Those were great memories and I think one of Rashad’s greatest attributes has always been an ability to take something rather basic and ordinary and create a unique interpretation out of it whether it be 3 minutes of a repeating rhyme scheme or a laid-back delivery that addresses many of the stereotypical problems that haunt modern day rap talents – too many girls and too many bad influences. His latest album certainly leans into those familiar themes at moments, but I think Rashad really shines when he breaks that mold and tries something new. Thankfully, there are plenty of fresh moments in, The House is Burning, and I think these represent Rashad at his strongest.

The opening track reveals itself in hazy self-contemplation similar to one of his recent singles, Why Worry, and I was very glad to hear that kind of sound from the get-go. As a teaser to the album’s release, Rashad released a collaboration with Duke Deuce called Lay Wit Ya (the album’s fourth track) that admittedly made me a little apprehensive about his new album. But the opening track not only sounds like a classic Rashad track but also addresses some of the concerns that have loomed since his last album, so we know he is still committed to the roots of his music even if he ventures into the more stereotypical trap songs that dominate the rap charts these days. Unfortunately, however, those trap songs appear very soon after the confirming opener with a collaboration between Lil Uzi Vert as the second track just sounding flat and unmotivated. The beat is alright, but it’s not Rashad. And the whole ethos of the song is not Rashad. Fortunately, the third track takes thing back in a positive direction with the catchy and smooth RIP Young. That staccato delivery in combination with a cloudy and unhurried backing track become a formula that Rashad utilizes for several tracks on this album to great effect. Long-time fans are reminded of Rashad’s unique ability to sound so leisurely and cool, and the Top Dawg sound is present on this track as well lending a progressive edge to the beat while staying central to rap’s roots in providing a warm, natural, and introspective backdrop for listeners to bop their heads to.

While the album demonstrates Rashad in his classic element, the new Rashad, someone possibly reading too much into the pop and trap recipe book, gently threatens to dismantle an otherwise well-coordinated effort, but I’m glad to conclude that those unfavorable moments do not in any way compromise this album. In fact, this is a decidedly great album. One not without its weak moments, but, and especially taken as a whole, something much stronger than what most prominent and settled rappers tend to release after establishing themselves in the industry. I came in with a skeptic ear but left with vibey satisfaction despite the slightly erratic few first tracks. Rashad is at his best when he keeps things simple and relaxed and allows his delivery to drive the song rather than trying to inject too much energy in from hype beats and aggressive verses. By the fifth track, a standout with Smino called Claymore, Rashad seems done with the preceding fabrication and instead makes a rap song about as reductive and moderate as possible. And that combination allows his ‘vibiness’ to flow totally unrestricted. He continues this into another great track, Headshots (4r Da Locals), and then takes things in a more experimental direction with the next two tracks All Herb, with Amindi, and Hey Mista. I think these experimental tracks don’t sound quite polished enough, but they certainly have redeeming qualities and at least reinforce the settled energy that the album needed and continues until the end of its 48-minute duration. Other standout tracks include an interesting staccato-delivery in Wat U Sed and a choice collaboration between SZA and 6LACK called Score that sounds mature and expert in nearly every way.

Overall, The House is Burning, exhibits Rashad trying out new sounds and textures, some of which I wholeheartedly feel pull him into a direction that was never and should never be him, but there are also experimental tracks here that sound tailored to his traditional character and have a seasoned and well-crafted production team behind to really deliver something satisfying and accomplished. Being a rapper that likes to stay out of the spotlight, Rashad has produced another fine album to add to a short but quality repertoire, and I’m glad that there are numerous new tracks here to scratch my itch for his unique musical personality that fans always wish there were simply more of.

#isaiah rashad #the house is burning #top dawg entertainment

0 notes

eafsegse · 3 years

Text

He leaned close

As this population becomes more numerous, it becomes less productive. It was often his hands that hurt the worst, especially his missing fingers. Was too busy trying to cover my man. Two sellsword captains were on hand as well, each accompanied by a dozen men of his company. “Never a morsel of anything could I put into my mouth. Credit to Doug (future Long Jump champion) and Sugi (windswept after a Malaga five hours a day Yoga retreat) on the left for their pace getting back, staying strong and breaking fast. Involuntary and abrupt contractions of the diaphragm leads to hiccups. Connor Washburn is a big play threat out wide as well. "Immediately you say, 'What's this song about?'" Eriksrud said. One skull was larger than the rest, grotesquely malformed. Such a ting as dat, Missis, tetch your heart so, ef you don’t mind, ‘t will fret you almost to death. I do not view this accident as some sort of virus infection that's about to run through the entire Concorde fleet. “Where is she, Lord Snow? Have you galeb spodnjice moved her to one of your other castles? Greyguard or the Shadow adidas fgTower? Whore’s Burrow, with t’other wenches?” He leaned close. Yet when they parted, Jon Connington did not go to the sept. One day you will know.”. How I’ve been missing you all this time! But there it is! I couldn’t help it! I wasn’t able to manage it, my darling! You look a little thinner, you’ve grown so pale . The deadline is the Friday before you would like the event to appear in the next Friday's calendar of events. My name. She should never have been nominated. He kissed her hands, her feet. And this is the one we set this week.. They won't be perfect for every single cyclist no shoe is or can be but it's an impressive debut. He gazed up at Old Fishfoot with his broken trident. CO2 belching volcanoes failed to keep pace, so the atmospheric level of the gas slowly declined. The first definite mention of cricket in Sussex was also in 1611 and relates to ecclesiastical court records stating that two parishioners of Sidlesham in West Sussex had failed to attend church on Easter Sunday because they were playing cricket. Then one of the

Mens ADIDAS ORIGINALS

crossbowmen let fly. I done videos with Arnold Palmer people I never dreamt I would ever meet. On Thursday, December 1, 2016, in the chapel at Sparkman Hillcrest Funeral Home, located point de croix chaletat 7405 West Northwest Highway, Dallas, Texas 75225. Q The air conditioning in our '91 Chevrolet Caprice works sporadically. It was forwarded by Mr. It burns, and rages, and roars, till everybody in the neighborhood sees that something must be done. Even so, her hand was shaking as she raised it to her face. Fridays and Sundays. Could this be proved (we need hardly say that it is not), it would relieve but slightly the dark picture of their

diadora focicipő

guilt. Collared and chained and back in rags again, Reek followed with the other dogs at Lord Ramsay’s heels when his lordship strode forth to greet his father. But what right have you to reckon on such forgiveness, and make bets about it? And is it possible you haven’t once reflected what distress, what bitter feelings, what doubts, what suspicions you’ve been inflicting on Natalya Nikolaevna all this time? Do you think that because you’ve been fascinated there by new ideas, you had the right to neglect your first duty? Forgive me, Natalya Nikolaevna, for breaking my word. All you saw was one Bumgarner. I thought it was a person, so I slammed on my brakes only to find that it had disappeared! (I did a walk around of the car). A soft star in the distance, it glimmered faintly through the fog, beckoning them on. Based on preliminary surveys, the Westgate Smoky Mountain Resort Spa in Gatlinburg likely entirely gone, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said in a news release. (2) What are the local ordinances on parking? I nike air vortex desert sandwas parked on the street for more than 72 hours and my neighbor called parking enforcement. HOV Holdings' trademark application is only for the Air Cannabis name, not the website's logo. “A man must know how to look before he can hope to see,” said Lord Brynden. Do foreign governments exclude their population from the reading of the Bible?—The slave of America is excluded by

brassiere garcon

the most effectual means possible. It can easily just be an

lugosis carhartt

act of titillation or self release that means nothing except for that moment of temporary pleasure and release of tension. She saw old faces and young faces, pale faces and dark faces, smooth faces and wrinkled faces, freckled faces and scarred faces, handsome faces and homely faces, men and women, boys and girls, even babes, smiling faces, frowning faces, faces full of greed and rage and lust, bald faces and faces bristling with hair. The inhibitors jam the receptor sites, slowing down or preventing the chemical reaction that would occur if the correct active substrate entered the site. Laguna Seca famous corkscrew takes on a whole new dimension when racers are behind zapatillas guess mujer corte ingles handlebars and flying around the curves as fast as pedal power can allow. This is because with the increase in the size of the wings, another aerodynamic force known as drag also increases. St. It's also efficient (5.1 L/100km combined cycle) and quite unobtrusive for a diesel.. The following are some of the side effects that are known to be associated with this medicine. But I believe I’m still drunk from this morning. The Elephants have produced plenty of top talents who have enjoyed success at the club level for a number of years now, but the national team has yet to live up the hype and expectations, exiting the World Cup in the group stage three times running. We defined an event as a dispensed N05 medication at least once during follow up. Air the bottom of the moon which is closer to the horizon more than the top, squishing the two halves together into an egg or oval shape.. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1936. Some are drug addicts with criminal records. Players interested in participating must pay a $55 cash or money order fee. Partisanship has a role here, too. Advertisers of the time were quick to capitalize on the era liberal ethos. But the problem was how can I use a homemade ice powered AC unit without looking like a total idiot at the office? I thought to myself, if I was to make a home made ice powered AC unit, it galeb spodnjice needs to be: portable, discreet and easy to maintain. "The next free agent gets a little bit more the next a little more, and so on and so forth. Anyone who cannot come on the 11 a. She was the mother of twin boys, Grant and Crosby, who were born on March 16, 2016. We will take for them two thousand eight hundred dollars. Witherspoon, the same who said to the editor of the Emancipator, “I draw my warrant from the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to hold my slaves in bondage. This way was better, quicker. You saw them, the arrogant Ser Jared and his nephew Rhaegar, that smirking worm who wears a dragon’s name. Those who had the strength called out.

0 notes

whizlabs-123 · 3 years

Text

3 Forces are Driving the New Cloud Shift

Cloud adoption is accelerating during the pandemic as organizations seek to rapidly deploy applications, tools and services that are suited to remote working. But the ways in which clouds are being deployed, and the reasons why, have changed. In this article I want to outline the three reasons why organizations are moving more of their assets to the cloud and what this change in mindset will mean for the ways in which progressive businesses are run.

But first, let’s look at the business IT context today. It is evident that cloud has saved businesses by providing a way to keep going through lockdowns. The emerging consensus of wisdom suggests that many, if not most, companies will allow more flexible and home working even after the pandemic has ceased to dominate decision-making.

That means that the ongoing transition to cloud continues, often as part of a broader business transformation strategic exercise. The scale of this can’t be overstated. Gartner (News – Alert) suggests that 45 percent of spending on infrastructure, applications and business process outsourcing will shift to cloud by 2024.

“The proportion of IT spending that is being allocated to cloud will accelerate even further in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, as companies look to improve operational efficiencies,” says Ed Anderson, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. And the number of applications and services that are on premises become fewer and fewer.

Reasons to change

But the reasons for cloud deployment are also changing. Cloud initially soared, in part, because the subscription billing model made more sense than the old enterprise software licensing. Capital expenditure was replaced by operating expenditure and companies paid on a utility basis. Financial flexibility was cloud’s trump card and it meant in turn that cloud users could trial ideas at very low cost and very quickly. In many ways, cloud brought the Silicon Valley ethos of “fail fast” into the corporate mainstream.

Now, however, things have changed. Companies actually accept that they might end up paying more for cloud over time compared to on-premises IT but accept this as a price worth the outlay. And three factors are driving a second wave of cloud acceptance or what Gartner calls “cloud shift”. These are agility, security and AI: let’s look at them one by one.

Agility – In uncertain times, companies need the ability to try things out, change strategy quickly and dial capacity up and down on an ‘as needs’ basis. High-street retailers moving online, restaurants becoming delivery-only providers, face-to-face meetings becoming Zoom calls, complex ‘what if’ scenario modelling for strategic change… all of these are examples of why it’s critical to move fast and only the cloud has that affordable flexibility and capacity.

Security – Originally seen as a weak point of cloud, the argument has become reversed. Few organizations can protect themselves as effectively as the cloud providers that run some of the world’s largest datacentres, have visibility into every conceivable incoming threat, can build in processes that detect and monitor suspicious behaviour and can afford to hire squadrons of experts in their fields. All of this means that security has become a cloud positive.

AI – Cloud is acting as an on-ramp for companies seeking to try out new things and provides the tools, the elastic compute power and infrastructure to do this. Look, for example, at Google (News – Alert) Cloud AI as a way to access pre-packaged solutions, building blocks and developer tools. AI has arguably proceeded more slowly than the hype would suggest but most of us will agree that it is one of the most powerful technologies that can be deployed over the coming years to automate and accelerate decision-making, processes and creation of insights.

These three factors are driving more and more cloud adoption, but what sort? I believe that it’s inevitable that companies will run multiple clouds in order to avoid lock-in and to be able to shift workloads, when needed, over time. Using more than one cloud platform will also support disaster recovery, business continuity planning and regulatory compliance. The new focus of attention will move away from individual clouds that will be used for their merits on a ‘horses for courses’ basis. Instead, the power base will move towards ‘data planes’ that provide a way for CIOs to manage across APIs and move services dynamically between clouds to maintain optimal business flexibility and operational fluidity.

Of course, this won’t happen overnight. These changes will take multiple years and challenges such as application modernization shouldn’t be underestimated. It’s likely that most established companies will continue to run some operations from their datacentres for a while yet. But the organizations that are already acting and moving to multi-cloud will be the most secure, fast-moving and decisive. And they will be best placed to bounce back first and be prosperous, whatever gets thrown at us in 2021.

ABOUT US –

“Awarded as the Most Innovative Indian IT Company by NASSCOM in 2004, Whizlabs help professionals enhance their skill set and thus, advance their career.”

Whizlabs is the pioneer among online training providers over the world. We provide online certification training in various disciplines such as Cloud Computing, Java, Big Data, Project Management, Agile, Linux, CCNA and Blockchain.

Launched in 2000, Whizlabs has now completed 20+ years of success. We have helped 5M+ professionals and 100+ companies across the world to succeed in their careers with multitudes of courses across the domains.

We are dedicated to helping you learn the skills you need to achieve your goals.

Our Mission

We believe that education has the power to transform lives and the whole world. We are dedicated to providing best-in-industry training that is delivered by highly experienced and competent industry experts.

Our mission is to act as a stimulant to bring positive career change for everyone. Our study material and exam simulators are made to help the professionals to get certified, and thus achieve their goals.

Our Vision

Technology, innovation, and partnership with the knowledge experts over the world are the foundation of Whizlabs promise to deliver global access to certification training.

Our vision is to work in partnership with communities over the boundaries. Our focus is to become the leading provider of high-quality online certification training to professionals over the boundaries.

Credit & Source – https://cloud-computing.tmcnet.com/breaking-news/articles/448903-3-forces-driving-new-cloud-shift.htm

0 notes

un-enfant-immature · 4 years

Text

Making sense of a multi-cloud, hybrid world at KubeCon

More than 12,000 attendees gathered this week in San Diego to discuss all things containers, Kubernetes and cloud-native at KubeCon.

Kubernetes, the container orchestration tool, turned five this year, and the technology appears to be reaching a maturity phase where it accelerates beyond early adopters to reach a more mainstream group of larger business users.

That’s not to say that there isn’t plenty of work to be done, or that most enterprise companies have completely bought in, but it’s clearly reached a point where containerization is on the table. If you think about it, the whole cloud-native ethos makes sense for the current state of computing and how large companies tend to operate.

If this week’s conference showed us anything, it’s an acknowledgment that it’s a multi-cloud, hybrid world. That means most companies are working with multiple public cloud vendors, while managing a hybrid environment that includes those vendors — as well as existing legacy tools that are probably still on-premises — and they want a single way to manage all of this.

The promise of Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies, in general, is that it gives these companies a way to thread this particular needle, or at least that’s the theory.

Kubernetes to the rescue

Photo: Ron Miller/TechCrunch

If you were to look at the Kubernetes hype cycle, we are probably right about at the peak where many think Kubernetes can solve every computing problem they might have. That’s probably asking too much, but cloud-native approaches have a lot of promise.

Craig McLuckie, VP of R&D for cloud-native apps at VMware, was one of the original developers of Kubernetes at Google in 2014. VMware thought enough of the importance of cloud-native technologies that it bought his former company, Heptio, for $550 million last year.

As we head into this phase of pushing Kubernetes and related tech into larger companies, McLuckie acknowledges it creates a set of new challenges. “We are at this crossing the chasm moment where you look at the way the world is — and you look at the opportunity of what the world might become — and a big part of what motivated me to join VMware is that it’s successfully proven its ability to help enterprise organizations navigate their way through these disruptive changes,” McLuckie told TechCrunch.

He says that Kubernetes does actually solve this fundamental management problem companies face in this multi-cloud, hybrid world. “At the end of the day, Kubernetes is an abstraction. It’s just a way of organizing your infrastructure and making it accessible to the people that need to consume it.

“And I think it’s a fundamentally better abstraction than we have access to today. It has some very nice properties. It is pretty consistent in every environment that you might want to operate, so it really makes your on-prem software feel like it’s operating in the public cloud,” he explained.

Simplifying a complex world

One of the reasons Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies are gaining in popularity is because the technology allows companies to think about hardware differently. There is a big difference between virtual machines and containers, says Joe Fernandes, VP of product for Red Hat cloud platform.

“Sometimes people conflate containers as another form of virtualization, but with virtualization, you’re virtualizing hardware, and the virtual machines that you’re creating are like an actual machine with its own operating system. With containers, you’re virtualizing the process,” he said.

He said that this means it’s not coupled with the hardware. The only thing it needs to worry about is making sure it can run Linux, and Linux runs everywhere, which explains how containers make it easier to manage across different types of infrastructure. “It’s more efficient, more affordable, and ultimately, cloud-native allows folks to drive more automation,” he said.

Bringing it into the enterprise

Photo: Ron Miller/TechCrunch

It’s one thing to convince early adopters to change the way they work, but as this technology enters the mainstream. Gabe Monroy, partner program manager at Microsoft says to carry this technology to the next level, we have to change the way we talk about it.

#TechCrunch

0 notes

morningusa · 4 years

Link

Impeachment is shaping up as unpredictably explosive, but not in the way imagined.There are lots of things that we do know about the present impeachment of Donald Trump — and we know that there are even more areas that remain unknown.Quietly, the approval ratings of Trump have been rising to pre-impeachment levels and are nearing a RealClearPolitics average of 45. Support for impeaching Trump and/or removing him is not increasing as the House Democrats expected. It is essentially static, or slowly eroding, depending on how polls phrase such questions.Apparently, an exhausted public did not see “Ukrainian” impeachment as a one-off national crisis akin to the Nixon inquiry and the Clinton impeachment and trial that merited national attention. The impeachment vote instead is being confirmed in the public mind as part of a now boring three-year impeachment psychodrama (from impeachment 1.0, the Logan Act, the emoluments clause, the 25th Amendment, and Michael Avenatti/Stormy Daniels comedies to Robert Mueller’s “dream team” and “all-stars”). The progressive logic of the current jump-the-shark monotony is to become even more monotonous, the way that a driller leans ever harder on his dull and chipping bit as his bore becomes static.The Democrats believed that all of these efforts would be like small cuts, each one perhaps minor but all combining to bleed Trump out. But now we know, given polling data and the strong Trump economy, that the long odyssey to impeachment has had almost no effect on Trump’s popularity, other than losing him 3–4 points for a few weeks as periodic media “bombshells” went off.The reality may be the very opposite of what Democrats planned. The more the Left tries to abort the Trump presidency before the election, the more it bleeds from each of its own inflicted nicks. As an example, Rachel Maddow’s reputation has not been enhanced by her neurotic assertions that Trump’s tax returns would soon appear, or that the Steele dossier was steadily gaining credibility, or that yet another tell-tale Russian colluder had emerged from under another American bed.The past three years of Trump mania did not induce a recession, despite last summer’s sudden hysteria that “recession” was on the horizon. It is hard to envision a looming recession when real wages of workers continue to rise, unemployment is at historic lows, U.S. energy production is at record highs, inflation is low, interest rates are manageable, and growth is moderate but steady. We collectively have an appointment with the staggering national debt and stock-market exuberance, but probably not until after 2020. And the Left has completely nullified that issue by proposing trillions of dollars in new spending.For now, the Democrats in extremis have redefined impeachment for the first time in American history as a Sword of Damocles, now permanently hanging by a horse’s hair over Trump’s head. Impeachment is being reinvented as way of presidential life that will supposedly impale Trump one day or at least constrain him, as occasional additional writs are added on, as the polls, media, and Democratic fancy dictate. Nancy Pelosi has rewritten the U.S. Constitution after reading a few op-eds by Trump-hating academics. Most Americans accept that if the Republican Congress had tried the same with Barack Obama (at a time when just wearing an Obama mask got a rodeo clown fired for life from a state fair), we would have had a revolution.Most presidents need 50 percent approval ratings in the lead-up to a reelection bid to win another four years. But Trump, who won the election without 50 percent approval, may not. He is polling now not far from where Obama was while on his trajectory to reelection in 2012, and his approval is about what it was at the time of his own election victory in 2016.The Left remains scared that the polls, which seemed accurate in the midterm elections when Trump was not on the ballot, may not be accurate in 2020. The flawed analytics on election eve 2016 remain a terrifying specter. Democrats fear that few who voted for Trump in 2020 will defect and that some who did not vote for Trump will approve of the economy and change their minds this November. All irony is lost on the Left that their four-year-long climate of MAGA intolerance and contempt for the deplorables, irredeemables, clingers, crazies, the so-called toothless, and Joe Biden’s dregs may well have polluted their own polls.It is not just anger at the Left or a wish to avoid confrontations that camouflages Trump support. The existential hatred of Donald Trump is such that average Americans may not wish to accurately express their support even anonymously to pollsters either by phone or on computers. There are recent widespread (and increasingly legitimate) fears of electronic data mining and the compilation of information that might later be used against respondents (what was once considered quite paranoid is no longer so, given revelations about the ethos of Silicon Valley). Plenty of Americans don’t think it's wise to honestly answer, whether in a phone conversation or by text, an anonymous pollster asking about opinions on Trump.In addition, the odium among the Left is so pernicious and so ubiquitous that the surveyors themselves may pollute the very taking of polls. Pollsters know that massaging polls creates momentum for media stories about Trump’s “unpopularity” and the “erosion” in his support. Thus in theory a few true believers could warp, within limits, their own data, in service to a noble cause. When the Hill/Harris and the USA/Suffolk polls have a two-point gap between Trump’s approval and disapproval, while Politico has him down 15 points, something seems to the public haywire somewhere.No one knows the effect that the Horowitz report, following the Mueller-investigation dud, is having on the credibility of the mainstream media — so far, the great force multiplier of the abort-Trump Left. It may be that we are nearing the point at which “bombshells” and “walls are closing in” are little more than soap bubbles. Certainly, the public was lied to about the “Steele dossier” and the “Schiff memo,” to the point that the media may soon be not a catalyst but a retardant of the Left, a smelly albatross around its collective neck. The Durham investigations are not yet in, and the fate of Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and McCabe may make Horowitz’s damning report seem tame. What would happen if paid TV analysts got indicted after predicting that everyone who was innocent would go to jail?We are living in bizarre times -- the rhetoric of Trump hatred is nearing its logical end, and scant further popular animus can be expressed beyond smashing his face, shooting him, burning him up, or blowing up the White House, and no further political venom voiced than urging progressives to surround Trump officials and harass them at restaurants and stores.Many who voted for Trump were quite aware that Trump’s rhetoric often bothered them. They now weigh that discomfort against his achievements and the shrill Democratic alternative — and find the latter far scarier. Few on the left ever contemplate the effect on the general public of the 24/7, 360-degree pure hatred of Trump on network and cable news, public TV and radio, and late-night TV talk shows, as well as print media. The silent disdain many people have for the progressive media nexus is especially potent when the haters so often fit a stereotypical profile in the public mind: counterfeit elite as defined by education, zip codes, careers, or supposed cultural influence; smug in their parrot-like group-speak and accustomed to deference.This paradox was brought home to me not long ago when I asked an unlikely Trump minority supporter why in the world he would vote against his family’s and community’s political heritage. He answered at once, with simply, “I hate the people who hate him.”Translated, I think that means we often are missing a cultural element to Trump Agonistes, exacerbated by the latest toxic impeachment episode.Again, millions of Americans actually leave Trump per se out of their voting equations. They do not give him full credit for a remarkable economy and an unorthodox foreign policy that is addressing China, Iran, and the Middle East in a way many once advocated but few seriously believed would ever be enacted.Instead, voters are exhausted by his haters and their crazy agendas. They grow enraged over how the Mueller and Horowitz investigatory reports have disproved all the daily media, celebrity, and political assertions. And they are upset about the larger culture of the anti-Trump Left, from the fundamentals of open borders and identity politics to the trivia of transgendered athletes, Colin Kaepernickism, and the open-border, Green New Deal socialism. An auto worker who votes as a true-blue union Democrat but likes Trump’s trade policies, a no-nonsense farmer who worries about farm exports but likes deregulation, and a teacher who votes a liberal slate but has no way to control his classroom may not seem like Trump voters, but some such voters are terrified by the cultural trajectory of what the Trump-hating Left has in store for them all.For a majority, refined and arrogant progressive mendaciousness voiced in condescending nasal tones has become far more repugnant than all-American hype in a Queens accent.* * *National Review Institute (NRI) is the nonprofit 501(c)(3) journalistic think tank that supports the NR mission and 14 NRI fellows (including this author!), allowing them to do what they do best: Advance principled and practical conservative journalism. NRI is currently in the midst of its End-of-Year Fund Appeal and seeks to raise over $200,000 to support the work of the NRI fellows. Please consider giving a generous end-of-year tax-deductible contribution to NRI. Your gift, along with all those from the NR Nation, will provide the essential fuel for our mission to defend those consequential principles for which National Review has fought since 1955, and for which, with your support, it will carry the fight far into the future. Thank you for your consideration.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

#News #Blogger

0 notes

attredd · 4 years

Link

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2SDKyMS

#Impeachment Fallouts

0 notes

tendance-news · 4 years

Link

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2SDKyMS

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

nickyschneiderus · 6 years

Text

Jordan Peterson: The hollow lessons of his summer tour

“Ladies and gentlemen there will be no heckling tonight,” shouts a man standing in front of the crowd. He’s 50-something with droopy eyes, beads of sweat dripping slowly from his glistening head into the coils of his greying beard. He’s exhausted from herding patrons outside the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. “You will be escorted out of the auditorium,” he continues.

It’s late May, one of the first scorching-hot days of the year. There are a couple thousand people packed tightly in line to see the clinical psychologist, author, and alt-right icon Jordan Peterson on his “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote for Chaos” world tour. Many in line have studied Peterson’s rules closely, and they feel like they know him deeply because of it.

His book has helped them coach their lives with a psychiatric self-help formula that he doctored up himself: Stand up straight with your shoulders back, pet a cat when you encounter one in the street, and always befriend people who want the best for you. These elementary ideas are getting people unusually riled up.

Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC-BY-SA)

“I don’t even know who Jordan Peterson is,” says one man in line with a pit-stained button-up shirt, jaded by the hype. Others can’t contain their excitement, drooling over the spectacle of Peterson just being nearby. One middle-aged white guy dances and skips, smiling to the sky. You’d think this was a Jimmy Buffett concert.

Peterson’s a self-described anti-social justice warrior and scholar who has previously denounced trans rights, feminism, wage gaps, and immigration among other progressive causes. Beyond the flowery language and smooth, Willy Wonka-esque mannerisms, he’s empowering fringe ideas on social media. And Peterson seems to think there’s only a matter of time before society collapses on itself—and it’s up to him to save the world, rule by rule.

The apostle

A former Harvard and University of Toronto psychology professor, Peterson first rose to prominence after he publicly pushed back on Canada’s proposed C-16 law that protects “gender expression and gender identity” as human rights in May 2016. (It became law a year later.) He argues that requiring people to refer to others by their preferred pronouns is a direct compromise of free speech.

His irreverent claims grabbed international attention afterward. For nations grappling with similar transgender rights issues, Peterson became a front-running devil’s advocate. His YouTube channel exploded with millions of views and subscribers who tuned in to hear his other spiels on religion, psychology, and honing in on “dragon energy.” Outsourcing his influence on other public figures with their own huge followings, his audience spans the likes of Kanye West, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, and Russell Brand. They willingly do Peterson’s dirty work for him through unapologetic co-signs.

Former University of Toronto professor and colleague of Peterson, Bernard Schiff, took notice to this meteoric rise, expressing sentiments of the danger surrounding his ethos in an essay he wrote for the Toronto Star: “I was Jordan Peterson’s biggest supporter, now I think he’s dangerous.” Within the piece, he explains that Peterson, a man once committed to “truth, integrity, and common decency” has abandoned those values as his influence grows.

In a phone call and one of his final conversations with him, Schiff says that Peterson revealed to him that Peterson’s wife had a dream about the end of society as we know it. Peterson told him that it wasn’t the first time that his wife had offered sacred revelations through messages in her dreams. If Peterson’s wife is the prophet, then he’s the patriarchal apostle who will deliver the intel for her.

“I do not think he intends to do harm. I think he is trying to save to the world.” Schiff tells the Daily Dot. “And perhaps along the way he distorts things because the facts don’t matter. He knows the truth.”

Schiff says that Peterson thinks he must save the world due to a destructing social order: Male privilege and patriarchy create standards of masculinity and success that men are expected to live up to. With privilege, men have become accustomed to social, political, and economic triumphs. Now that women are empowered, men face more competition and have, according to Peterson, begun to fall behind. He blames feminism for this modern angst and crisis in not only the lives of young men, but for society as a whole. Peterson feels that the imbalance is daunting and proof of a foreseeable doom for all of us if we don’t make a change, according to Schiff. (Peterson’s management did not reply to a request for comment about Schiff’s claim that Peterson’s wife has had end-of-the-world visions.)

“[Men] are taking away their job opportunities, they are encouraging a culture in which, as Jordan puts it, men are getting feminized, and they are upsetting the nature and necessary dominance of males,” says Schiff.

“I think he is not a bad person. I think he suffers, and now others suffer, because of his grandiosity. He has an extremely rigid and not scientifically or historically valid view of who we are and of what is, and it’s one that pleases many young people,” he says. “But not all of his followers are like that. There are thoughtful people who think some of what he says makes sense. They either disregard the rest or are not paying attention. I wrote the piece I did for them. I wanted to get their attention … I think he has a legitimate following, but my guess is that it is small compared to the angry young men who are potentially dangerous.”

Schiff’s article came with its own consequences once Peterson and his fans got hold of it. Many vilified Schiff, saying that what he wrote was misguided and not to be taken seriously. Peterson responded to the article in a series of tweets, brushing Schiff’s criticism off as invalid.

In the tweets, Peterson explains that Schiff’s anger is drawn from the fact that his daughter, who is transgender, is directly impacted by the C-16 bill. He says that Schiff is a tireless advocate for his daughter and that his sentiments on the issue come from emotion around her health. “I can truly sympathize,” he wrote while downplaying the situation.

Schiff says that his daughter’s illness was unrelated to her transgender identity, and it wasn’t psychiatric, either. It’s something that is fairly easily treated.

“The thing about the tweet in response to my story is that there is no question about what he was doing. His intention was to discredit what I wrote,” Schiff says.

Schiff wrote another piece in response to the original’s backlash in an attempt to bring clarity around Peterson’s motives. “He knows what he is doing. Smart, deliberate, manipulative, and a lie. He is very clever,” he adds. Indeed, Peterson’s tweets are friendly but sarcastic in tone.

In his first book, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief, Peterson explores belief psychology and the lengths people are willing to go for those beliefs. He also believes in reinforcing a natural social order and thinks that transgender people or same-sex couples can upset that universal homeostasis. He’s a harsh proponent for that arbitrary worldview, and he’s created mass popularity for the understanding of it as gospel.

Back in Austin, political satirist and opener, Dave Rubin, brings out Peterson: “Look around, look around, these are your people! … While the left enjoys diversity of race and sexuality, we enjoy diversity of thought … We are at the center of the idea revolution!” Tonight these 12 rules, no matter how simple, seem like they can change the world.

The Peterson hive

A photo posted on Twitter by political journalist Ben Shapiro on July 2 pictured five men at a table. Alongside Peterson were other talking heads who hang in Peterson’s hive: comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan, economics writer Eric Weinstein, Rubin, and writer and neuroscientist Sam Harris.

“Now this is a party,” wrote Shapiro in the caption.

In response to the photo, Twitter haters cringed, imagining their conversation. One user wrote, “If this was My last supper, I’d skip it and go straight to the crucifixion.” Another replied, “Oh I bet the discussion about the proper tip percentage was INTENSE.”

Peterson’s response, however, was short and simple: “The conspiracy mounts….”

I wonder how serious he actually is. His online presence mixes an academic mystique with savvy troll work to create an unrelenting buzz around the idea of himself. But what does he really want? Visions of doomsday or not, I think he wants us to believe in his vision for order and repair.

Hundreds of Facebook groups and Reddit threads are dedicated to the man and his work, filled with users hanging onto his every interview or tweet to unpack divine meaning and apply it to their lives. The groups are diverse, stretching as far as Christian study groups based on his writing, satirical communities who use his writing as a source of ridicule, or groups split by geographic region, intent on fostering Peterson fan meetups in real life. Some say they require “High IQ and above” as a necessary prerequisite for access.

He’s been normalized as an Oprah-like lifestyle guru who even sells the virtues of his diet. But his philosophy is crystal clear and far-right on social and economic issues: He doesn’t believe that the wage gap between men and women is a problem, he’s anti-gun control, and he thinks affirmative action is a mechanism of reverse racism. It’s not that his followers are purely disenfranchised young men looking for a leader—he validates their values. The problem is that the very issues that Peterson writes off actually affect most people, and by shifting the goalposts on cultural conversations, he’s always setting the agenda.

Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC-BY-SA)

As Schiff notes, he structures his arguments in a way that reorganize widely accepted ideas or definitions and redefines them to serve his purpose. That way, disagreeing with what he says is nearly impossible, and eventually, you’re convinced that you understand what he’s saying and that you very well agree. Ironically, his 10th rule is to “be precise in your speech.”

He deflects opposing viewpoints with ease.

“I actually really don’t like left-wingers, it’s the philosophy and its ideology, and lots of people align themselves with that and because I’m attacking that and demonstrating its weaknesses then it’s either accept that a reasonable person can do that and there’s something wrong with the ideology or demonize the opponent,” he says in Austin. “If you’re ideologically committed the right response is to demonize your opponent and so that means I can’t be a reasonable and well-educated psychology professor who’s actually trying to help people lead better lives, I’m some sort of neo-Nazi.”

youtube

A mass survey of the official Peterson subreddit page conducted by its admins looked into the demographic makeup of subscribers. The survey was first introduced to the thread in August 2017. A new survey is taken periodically, about every five-to-seven months, with more responses each round. The most recent survey garnered more than 1,000 responses and was concluded in early July: 90 percent of his followers identified themselves as males, the majority between the ages of 26 and 35 years old. Over 80 percent of subscribers identified as white and most people on the thread were from the United States, single, and had at least a bachelor’s degree.

It may be a comically specific fanbase, but it’s plenty powerful.

u/Riflemate/Reddit u/Riflemate/Reddit

Idea wars

Peterson has amassed dedicated followers in a time of confusion, from a generation increasingly disinterested in aligning with major political parties.

He’s a convincing oracle and lion tamer. In Austin, a liberal city in a conservative state, there’s no ideological clash tonight. The danger is false intellectualism and disillusionment. Hustled applause, chanting, and standing ovations make the energy cult-like. Getting behind someone who reinforces prejudices about the world is easy; acknowledging the privileges of that person and your own is harder. And so Peterson delivers a sermon for the self, liberalism be damned.

“Are we fundamentally a member of the group or are we fundamentally individuals? That’s what the war is about,” says Peterson. “I’m on the side of the individual, and the people who are on the side of the tribe don’t like that, not a bit. And then they come after me with accusations that are within the identity politics realm.”

In a way, he’s right. There is an “idea war” going on, and he’s undoubtedly on the frontlines. But his response to the complex issues of a changing world is to stand up straight and pet a cat as if that’s going to help sort out public policy. Peterson offers simple solutions for people who resent their changing world. In their ardent defense of these principles, they fall victim to Peterson’s very lessons about individualism versus tribalism. They aren’t just internet trolls; they’re ready to mobilize.

from Ricky Schneiderus Curation https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/jordan-peterson-12-rules-tour/

#Ricky Schneiderus Curation

0 notes

cryptnus-blog · 6 years

Text

China’s first ever blockathon shows blockchain is a global endeavor · TechNode

New Post has been published on https://cryptnus.com/2018/05/chinas-first-ever-blockathon-shows-blockchain-is-a-global-endeavor-%c2%b7-technode/

China’s first ever blockathon shows blockchain is a global endeavor · TechNode

As a technology, blockchain is a global endeavor. Capital no longer flows through banks. Developers are scarce so teams are often remote. And even the hype is not contained to any one geography.

In the People Squared co-working space in Zhongguancun this past weekend a joint Australian-Chinese “blockathon” (blockchain hackathon) was held in Beijing.

This was the first “blockathon” in China. Sydney’s open source blockchain community bitfwd went on tour after launching the hackathon in Sydney last year.

A global community endeavor

While there is a strong flow of Chinese people, capital, and projects in the blockchain space, there is also a unique global collaborative approach.

The blockchain itself is a database of transactions distributed among multiple computers. This solves two key problems in the online world: Transacting without a trusted intermediary and ensuring transactions cannot be altered, removed or reversed.

There is no middleman taking a cut.

This libertarian endeavor has meant global blockchain startup teams are famously approachable. In China, this is certainly true. Hitters Xu, “the Jack Ma of blockchain” and founder of Neo and Nebulas in China attended the blockathon and gave out business cards like candy to gleeful young programmers. There is a community building element to this technology.

Bob Jiang, a very soft-spoken man committed to blockchain and the founder of Beijing blockchain community group HiBlock and the Chinese organizer of this event exclaimed: “The blockathon is an open world to promote the spirit of blockchain. HiBlock and bitfwd came together to build community and help people to better understand blockchain applications.”

Forget 996, “the crypto world never sleeps”

There are reasons why Beijing is a crypto center according to prominent global blockchain investor Sonic Zhang: “The sheer amount of lines of code written here” by the deep pools of developer talent.

And forget 996, “the crypto world never sleeps.” 996 is the now well-known phrase that Chinese startups work 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week. Zhang quipped that your crypto workday is only regulated by when the sun comes up.

Daniel Bar, creator of the blockathon series and founder of Sydney’s bitfwd community and open source project Tenzorum agrees. “We’re putting together a global open source project as a collaboration between academics, developers, and entrepreneurs. To grow Tenzorum into a strong and healthy project, we’re nurturing the developer community to attract the best talent. It’s for a reason we made our first blockathon stop in China, the sheer developer mass, speed, and creativity you get working with Chinese developers is unparalleled.”

Tenzorum is building a decentralized key management system to make blockchains available to everyone.

Having globalized teams also helps teams to keep working in shifts. Blockchain evangelists are keen for the technology’s landscape to reach critical mass. The money is flowing with the hype but things need to be built.

Pitches attempt to solve global problems

There were 11 teams and female participation was high, about 30% of the 100 participants. Ages varied and developer participation was high. Some produced a working demo on Github.

Some teams began with a thunderous use of the microphone, others plugged their pedigrees extensively. But there was a noticeable focus on blockchain solutions for existing problems rather than cryptocurrency products. Refreshingly, ICOs were not mentioned once.

Trust in monetary and housing transactions was also a theme. One pitcher topically explained the problems with China’s credit history systems. Another pitched blockchain for reputation management. “Reptheruem” seeks to solve the problems facing of transparency for Google recommendations and others caused by clickbots.

Education was another theme. One team pitched a global blockchain school and another focused on gamified ideas for primary school kids to understand the economics of blockchains. That pitch attracted much criticism from judges over concerns with teaching kids about the banking system. But I thought it was forward thinking. Kids should learn about personal finances.

A dapp (decentralized app) app store attempting to provide a centralized marketplace for the blockchain world won. They wrote 10,000 lines of code over the weekend. The education school came second. Third focused on the blockchain-open AI nexus.

Still a dream

Kai Chen of Olympus Labs, a sponsor of this event said this only the beginning. “This blockathon is a great start. It’s a bigger turn out than I thought. We learned a lot from Daniel and bitfwd in Sydney. We are building a community. We want to enable others to do similar things. This is the first steps. This is a community-based revolution. So it’s global from day one. The main thing is perseverance.”

Another sponsor of the event, Robin Zhong Co-Founder of Nebulas said: “So far so good. Next time we need more developers, more teams.”

Solomon Soh, a hacker from Singapore came to this hackathon to “see the level of development in China. As governments are all looking at these issues.” He felt “the scene is vibrant in Beijing” and was glad to see from the pitches that “blockchain need not be tokenized. This was truly a grassroots event.”

“The ethos of Tenzorum project is to make decentralized technologies truly accessible to everyone. We need really accessible products for everyone. That’s why we sponsored this hack in Beijing”, said Moritz Neto, Tenzorum Co-Founder. “Education is the key. There’s hype but there’s no way for people to really easily access this technology”.

Indeed, why blockchain was needed to solve a particular problem was a constant refrain from the judges. Maybe the blockchain education teams should start up after this Blockathon.

Full disclosure: I am a member of bitfwd and the Tenzorum community.

0 notes

thebassmusicblog-blog · 13 years

Text

Bass Music Mix 30 – Kelly Twins

A very quick intro now to the next Bass Music mix, by Bristol fixtures The Kelly Twins. I genuinely rate these guys as two of the best DJ’s in Bristol – they have such deep record collections and good selection that you can watch them play in any situation, after any DJ, at any time and they’ll still smack it. As you’ll see from the mix, which takes you from super deep house to dubstep in one smooth movement. No mixcloud as they still have a 100MB limit and this is a luxurious 1 hour 50 minutes. But you can stream and download from the player below. Tracklist at the bottom.

(Mix artwork by Andy Musgrave)

Tell us a brief bit about who yous are n that, how you got into DJing.

We are the Kelly twins, (our surname is Kelly and we are actual twins), We have been DJing together for the best part of twelve years and pride ourselves on playing across the board, drawing influence from the past as well as the present and only ever playing things that we genuinely like. Since moving to Bristol from Plymouth seven years ago, we have played at a wide variety of nights and held down several residencies. At present we run our own club night which is called UFO, we are part of team Crazylegs, residents for the Bristol wing of RnB mecca So Bones and members of the Idle Hands family.

During the day, i (Sean) can be found behind the counter in the Idle Hands shop and work as a freelance writer for various publications including Trap magazine. My brother (Dan) is Bristol’s most cosmic purveyor of artisan foods and also finds the time to be an amazing dad to his little boy.

Music is more than just a hobby to us, it is something that we have been around since a very young age, our parents weren’t famous musicians and they couldn’t play any musical instruments, but they were both music lovers. Our dad was involved in the rave scene back in the day, so the music, the people and the culture was something that we were very accustomed to and intrigued by, We got our first set of decks at fourteen and gained our first residency when we were just 16, its something that we have been almost obsessively into ever since. What is the idea behind the mix – and what are your thoughts in general about putting mixes together, do you have an ethos etc.? Anything you hate in mixes?

The mix was recorded to promote the Idle Hands room at the forthcoming Hessle Audio party for Bristol Inmotion. Prior to recording it, we considered the possibility of doing a laptop/ableton mix then realised that we didn’t actually know how to do that. So instead we did what we do best, turn up with a bag of records and wing it. The mix was recorded live and in one take, its starts at 107 bpm and ends on 140 bpm, it is an hour and fifty minutes long and features unreleased material from artists that we respect, including Outboxx, Behling, Hackman, October & Borai, Atki2. It is a true representation of what we do as DJs and reflects exactly where we are at musically.

Society in general is becoming increasingly dehumanised, automated telephone lines, self service checkouts have become the norm. When it comes to mixes, we like to know that an actual person has recorded it, not a machine.

A quick nudge of the record, a mix that wavers slightly, a crackly, dusty old record might be mistakes to some people, but for us, these things add a certain amount charm and some much needed honesty to a mix. As things become more and more digitised and superficial, we feel that this human touch is more important than ever.

You and your bro are known for being tight DJs on the Bristol circuit. Of the many ‘big names’ you’ve played with, who has stood out to you?

We try not to get too sucked into the whole hype thing and tend to take every DJ at face value, regardless of their status. For us its not so much about how ‘big’ the DJ is, it’s more about what they play and how they play it. Some DJs, however are truly worthy of their hype.

Jackmaster always smashes it, as does Ben UFO. Both are technically amazing and know how to work a crowd but more importantly for us they always bring a real varied selection and aren’t afraid to take risks.

A few other artists that have seriously impressed us over the last few years are Funkineven, Actress and Kyle Hall, all three have developed very unique styles of their own, their tunes are instantly recognisable and even as their reputations build they remain uncompromising with what they do. We really respect that.

Some of our favourite DJs to play alongside and some of the DJs that have made us dance the most are local Bristol guys, most of them our friends. Idle Hands bossman Chris Farrell always plays a killer selection as do Kowton, October and EFA. We love hearing music we haven’t heard before, so DJs like Andy Payback, vast & Bulbous and the Falling Up crew always stand out for us because watching them play is an education.

We would much rather be sat in a pub watching those guys play to us and the bar staff, than in a packed club watching that months hype DJ playing tunes we have heard a million times before. We can appreciate why people do like that, it’s just not our thing.

How do you feel about the Bristol scene at the moment – healthy? In a state of flux as dubstep waxes and wanes?

Coming from Plymouth which doesn’t really have a music scene, we are still very much excited by Bristol. It’s positivity and diversity is something that we continue to be very appreciative of. So for us the Bristol scene has always been healthy.

It has changed a lot since we have been here, in our opinion for the better. Clubbers are more open to a wider variety of sounds now. There are dubstep DJs playing house, disco and boogie and house DJs playing garage ect. The boundaries between genres are becoming increasingly blurred, for eclectic DJs such as ourselves these are interesting and exciting times.

Wrongspeed. Talk to me.

Wrongspeed originally came about through a combination of mistakes and getting massively blazed. The idea is to literally play the record at the wrong speed. When things are pitched down and stretched out, there is more space in the tune so every sound is exposed. For a record to sound good on 33 when it should be 45 and visa versa, the tune itself must be exceptionally produced.

The way in which certain tracks when pitched up or down, can take on a completely different vibe and atmosphere is fascinating to us and it’s something we have been working into our sets more and more. The next time anyone buys a record, we urge them to give it a go. The results might surprise you.

How long would it take you to eat a yard of Jaffa cakes?

My housemate bought me a yard of Jaffa cakes the other day (Thanks Shanti), it has taken me about 5 days to finish them. Although if there was money on the table, i reckon i could polish them off in an hour. What is your favourite example of Farrellian Rage? Is the Farrellian Rage an occupational hazard of working in Idle Hands, and how do you deal with it – the tortoise-like neck-retraction? Or a cunning bit of filing… Chris is my boss but also a friend who i have known for many years. I have had some pretty shady jobs and as bosses go, he is definitely one of the best. But like all of us, he can have his stressed out moments. I find the best thing to do when Chris is in a rage is to put some reggae on and buy him a can of rubicon, half an hour later and everything will be sweet.

My favourite example of Farrellian rage did not involve any shouting or swearing, in fact Chris didn’t say a word.

It’s monday morning, we are both feeling slightly fragile after the weekends activities when a tie dye wearing trustafarian takes up residence on the wall opposite the shop and starts self indulgently banging away on his bongo with absolutely no sense of rhythm. Chris emerges from the office and stands in the entrance of the shop, he stares directly into the bongo players eyes and shoots him a look of utter contempt. Within about two minutes, the playing stopped and the guy left, never to be seen again. Chris’s eyes at that moment said more than a thousand words ever could.

What is biscuit face? Also when are you going to ride that bike you bought off a crackhead?

Biscuit Face is an old friend and an integral part of the UFO crew. He doesn’t come out that often because his face is literally a giant biscuit, his eyes are exclamation marks and he eats CDs for breakfast. Sometimes he can get a bit crumbly around groups of people and overcompensates by being obnoxious and leaving small pieces of himself on their bedsheets. He is a liability, but we love him..

I try not to feel too bad about buying the bike from a crackhead, i managed to get a proper bargain but didn’t quite give him enough to buy any drugs with. Im waiting until i have some stabilisers and a basket for the front until i start riding it. Probably best to give it a new paint job too. Shout outs, disses, ways for shorty’s to contact you?

Massive thanks to all the producers that were kind enough to contribute tracks for the mix, to Idle Hands for keeping vinyl alive in Bristol and for taking things back to the raw, to the DJs that inspire us and to our friends and family for their continued and unconditional support. Too many names to mention, but you all know who you are.

For bookings: http://www.idlehandsagency.com/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/thekellytwins RA: http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/thekellytwins FB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kelly-Twins/128435010579167?sk=info

Tracklist:

OUTBOXX – APORIA // Forthcoming Idle Hands ERYKAH BADU – HONEY (Souled Remix) // Unreleased NAIVE MACHINE – AFRIKA (Om Unit remix) // Hit and Hope Records HACKMAN – SHE’S SMOKING MEIOW // Unreleased BEHLING – LAST CHANCE // Unreleased DOMU – DUSK // Swedish Brandy DISCO NIHILIST – NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN // Running Back FALTY DL – THE PACIFIST // Planet Mu REAGENZ – KEEP BUILDING ft FRED P // Workshop GENIUS OF TIME – HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM // Royal Oak MOVE D – UNTITLED // Workshop RICK ‘POPPA’ HOWARD – WITHOUT YOUR LOVE // Beautiful Granville Records DISCO NIHILIST – COFFEE & A WORN PAPERBACK // Running Back

OMAR S – SET IT OFF // FXHE Recordings

JOHN BELTRAN – BRILLIANT FLOOD (Kassem Mosse & Mix Mup remix) // Delsin Records OCTOBER & BORAI – TENSION DRIVE // Unreleased ATKI 2 – FOOTPRINTS // Unreleased D. KNOX – STRINGS OF MY MIND // SixOneSix STEVEN TANG – BASS SYNERGY // Emphasis Recordings HEAD HIGH – HEAD HIGH // Power House APPOINTMENT – UNKNOWN // White SURGEON – WIRE // Downwards MARCELL DETTMANN – MDR – 01 // White AND – HYDROTHERMAL // Forthcoming Idle hands FLOORPLAN – BASIC PRINCIPLE // M Plant

MALA – LEFT LEG OUT // DMZ

S-X – WOO RIDDIM // Butterz KAHN – TEHRAN // Forthcoming Punch Drunk JILL SCOTT – GETTING IN THE WAY

=====

0 notes