#a series that only happens during dst

[averseunhinged]

the entire internet is fucking useless now. i just want to remember the name of that surly fashion stylist from the aughts who wore kaftans and had a reality show. that's fucking all!!! i have googled the shit out of it and all i've learned is 754257943 places to buy a muumuu.

[e-one-seven]

As the core headcanon "Willow has pyrokinetic powers and maybe They hunted her down because of this before getting her into the Constant" is now confirmed (thanks Klei), I think it might be time for me to explain my personal HC about Willow. Which is the only character for which I have a full HC besides Wilson.

1) Willow's family was hunted down by Them as well Powers might be recurring in Willow's family and They hunted them down, causing them to die or go insane as a result. Or even worse, They caused such accidents that they lived constantly on the run because the other people saw them as the causes of the accidents and were considered dangerous criminals as a result. Willow's parents do not appear in the short, but if one of them had powers and they were not killed by Them, there is a chance they might be trapped in the Constant too. Willow might meet a family member supposed dead into the Constant. That would not be the craziest thing that happened until now.

That would also explain why Willow has a girl scout training: her family knew they would die and Willow would be trapped into the Constant one day, so they sent Willow in a safe place where she could actually learn how to survive on her own in a harsh and hostile world. They wanted her to be ready to face her fate.

2) Willow is not a pyromaniac. Not in the traditional sense of the term And her short clearly showed how it happened. Willow seems to be new to the orphanage (her dress is clean, Bernie was new until the nurses took it from her), and she was not expecting to be punished for her behavior until she noticed the nurses were angry at her. This means that her losing her family happened recently (and she still reminds her grandma, suggesting that she was already quite old when that happened. And the thing that reminds her grandma's hands is, incidentally, a small glowing berry. Did her grandma use her fire tricks to play with her when she was a kid?) Yet They found her. A Terrorbeak entered into a bedroom full of sleeping children and immediately attacked a sleeping Willow with the intent to kill her. And it was only during that accident that Willow finds out that Bernie, probably the last gift her family gave her, has the power to protect her from the Shadow Creatures. When she was separated from Bernie and the creature came back she found out about her fire powers and that fire has the power to destroy the Shadow Creatures, at least in our world. She caused a part of the orphanage to explode and left it behind for the fire to consume it. She was forced to live on her own from that moment on, presumed dead to the world (if there were survivors they said she was in that room when it exploded and no normal human being could survive such an explosion) with only a teddy bear, fire powers and maybe a lighter (the lighter had a cameo appearance in the short). If They attacked her again she could use Bernie against them or simply burn the closest thing nearby to keep herself warm and Them away.

Now imagine how child Willow could have felt about her fire powers. It is possible that from that moment on Willow considered the Fire as an entity that wants to protect her and keep her safe, a friend. To Willow fire is a living being that needs to be nourished and cheered, and burning down as much as she can is her way to take care of her friend and to show him gratitude for keeping her safe. Which is exactly what fire does in change. Willow calls fire "friend" in the game, and refers to it like it is a living entity in more than one occasion. And if she witnessed her family members use their fire powers to protect themselves from Them, they could have explained Willow the situation by using similar words so she would not be scared. Knowing this now, can we still call Willow a crazy pyromaniac? Maybe your opinion is different from mine, but I don't think so.

3) Her power's changes have a lore Willow has fire-related powers. She probably never told anyone about it, and probably she never had human friends because of her "being hunted down by Shadow Monsters" situation. Her fire powers activate because of stress and she doesn't want to care if someone gets hurt during her personal battle for survival. So when They manage to trap her in the Constant and she simply doesn't care. She was all alone even before and she had a girl scout training. They probably made her a favor in her opinion.

But then DST happens and she is suddenly surrounded by kind people in the same situation that don't believe her to be crazy (mostly). She is not fighting just for herself anymore and she slowly learns to care about other people again. But in change she needs to face a series of challenges about her personal abilities: she can't let the fire destroy everything anymore, as she now lives with other people that would die if she lets her powers wreak havoc like she used to do to protect herself. For the first time in her life she is forced and had the motivation to try and control her power. At first it is difficult and she feels like she is betraying the Fire, and her powers grow weaker as a result (partial fire immunity and feeling cold when insane). However, Bernie seems to gain a conscience and starts to protect Willow and the others from the Shadow Creatures like he used to do when she was a kid. With time and some training, Willow finally accepts that she can control her fire in other ways than just let it destroy everything. She is immune again, her fire last longer, and she is also resistant to heat... which makes her wonder why everyone walks around in summer with an Umbrella when all they need is just a cold Thermal Stone! But she still misses lighting fires in Winter because she found out how much she hates being cold. And Bernie grows more powerful too becoming a hulking protector, and for some reason she found her old plushie Ashley again! And everything is amazing.

[bog-o-bones]

Kaiju Forecast - 2018

The new year is quickly approaching us and kaiju fans certainly will have their plates full next year. Here’s a list of some of the major movies, events, merchandise and more to look forward to in the coming year!

Movies

Obviously the main tent-pole film of the year will be Legendary’s Pacific Rim: Uprising due out on March 23rd. The sequel to arguably the forefather of the New Kaiju Boom has seen plenty of ups and downs during it’s development, including a terrifying “indefinite hiatus” stamp placed upon the film in late 2015. Thankfully, the film has marched on through production and features the return of fan favorite characters from the first film as well as a new team of Jaeger pilots, led by Star Wars and Attack The Block’s John Boyega. Although a few trailers and promotional ads have been released, kaiju groupies can probably expect a surge in marketing around February.

Second banana (no pun intended) to Uprising is New Line’s Rampage loosely based on the popular city-crushing game franchise. Another film that’s spent time in Development Hell, Rampage stars perennial popcorn flick favorite Dwayne Johnson and will be unleashed April 20th to theaters everywhere.

One can’t forget about the King of the Monsters either. The second installment in the anime trilogy will make landfall in Japan on May 5th, titled Godzilla: The City Mechanized for the Final Battle (whew). Initial details remain scarce bar the inclusion of Mechagodzilla (who can be seen in the poster above). International fans may also get the chance to view the first installment in the series on Netflix, although no details for that are available either, aside from a continuously fluctuating date on the film’s Netflix Instant listing.

Tsuburaya’s latest entry in the Ultraman franchise will be seeing it’s traditional theatrical film in the form of Ultraman Geed: The Movie. Abroad fans of the show will most likely have to wait for a fansub service to translate the film in order to see it, but it may also be subject to a small theatrical screening like it’s predecessors Ultraman Ginga S: The Movie and Ultraman X: The Movie, although those were released to coincide with the Ultra series’ 50th anniversary. Never give up hope, though!

Of course, one can’t also forget about the ever-so-secretive Cloverfield franchise, which supposedly launches it’s third film in the semi-anthology series on February 2nd. Tentatively titled God Particle, the film has been pushed back three times from its initial October 2017 release date, leaving some to speculate if it is even going to come out at all. The Cloverfield franchise is noted for its heavy use of alternate-reality games for its marketing, but God Particle has seen effectively nothing so far, even when we’re less than three months away from release. Only time will tell, however.

Not necessarily a kaiju film, but it does feature the 8th Wonder of the World and may or may not feature Ultraman and the third incarnation of Mechagodzilla, Based on a thoroughly bland and tasteless early teen novel, Ready Player One is basically this generation’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit only for “geek culture” (hard gag) and...you know, bad. Kaiju fans will most likely want to wait for the YouTube compilation of all the references instead of wasting $9.00+ on a movie ticket to see some giant monster action.

Also supposedly on the docket is a film adaption of the above novel, Steve Alten’s Meg which features a surviving prehistoric Megalodon terrorizing some form of human society (you can tell I’ve read the book, can’t you?). Yet another film stuck in development hell, although the production for this film is at least two decades old. Supposedly principal photography has been completed on this film, but who the hell knows.

Television

While Tsuburaya is most definitely working on the next main installment of the Ultra series, a short series in the style of Ultraman Retsuden or Ultraman Zero: The Chronicle will be aired starting January 6th. Ultraman Orb: The Chronicle follows the history of the titular Ultra’s alter ego Gai Kurenai. Unlikely to be picked up by Crunchyroll like it’s original show, Ultra Fans will most likely want to stalk fansub sites to view this series.

Another of Tsuburaya’s toku heroes will see an animated revival next year with Studio Trigger’s Gridman anime based on a short shown at the Japan Animator Expo in 2015. Titled SSSS Gridman, named after the original show’s Americanization Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, the show will be released in the Autumn of 2018. Also related to Gridman, the original show is being broadcasted to nearly-impossible-to-document-channel Toku starting this December.

Aside from Ultraman and Gridman, I don’t know of any other kaiju-related television shows happening next year, so to not leave this section sparse, I should probably mention Kamen Rider Build, which while technically not kaiju based or a 2018 release, is tokusatsu-related and will be continuing into the new year. I know nothing aside from the basics of Kamen Rider, but according to the wiki it will be the last Rider show to be fully broadcasted during the Heisei era, as the next series will run into 2019 when Emperor Akihito will abdicate the throne to his son Prince Naruhito, thus beginning a new era of Japan.

Events

It would be heresy to discuss kaiju-related events and not bring up the quintessential annual kaiju con G-FEST! Next year’s convention looks to be an absolute banger and the entire guest list and schedule hasn’t even been announced yet! In attendance next year are Akira Takarada, best known for his role as Ogata in the original 1954 Godzilla film as well as his other roles throughout Toho’s library. Joining him will be Megumi Odaka, known as Miki Saegusa in the Heisei Godzilla series. This is her first G-FEST in over fifteen years, having attended back in 2000. Fans will most definitely not want to miss this event! G-FEST 2018 will be held July 13th - July 16th at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare in Rosemont, IL.

San Diego Comic Con has always been the number one hotspot for pop culture news every year, and 2018′s convention is definitely one kaiju fans want to keep their eyes peeled to. The highly anticipated sequel to Legendary’s Godzilla reboot has wrapped filming and it’s extremely likely that the film will have some sort of presence at next year’s SDCC. Whether this means a panel with the cast and crew or a trailer is anyone’s guess, but considering it’s the last major convention before the film’s release (with the possible exception of New York Comic Con in October), it’d be insane of Legendary not to promote the film here. San Diego Comic Con will take place July 19th - July 22nd at the San Diego Convention Center.

On a slightly smaller note, Monsterama is a convention in the Atlanta, GA area that seems like your average horror/monster fan convention. Of special note on the guest list to kaiju fans is Matt Greenfield, former president of ADV Films and current president of Kraken Releasing. Both companies are notable for releasing many kaiju films to DVD & Blu-Ray in the west. Kraken’s latest tokusatsu releases include The Return of Godzilla on Region 1 disc for the first time, and Garo, the creation of character and monster designer Keita Amemiya. Fans will want to keep their ears open for this convention as new information regarding possible new releases from the company could be revealed.

Merchandise

The S.H. MonsterArts line continues releasing highly-articulated and accurate representations of characters from the Godzilla franchise, including the first non-Godzilla Showa character in the form of Mechagodzilla. Reissues of the infamous Shin Godzilla figure and the sought-after SpaceGodzilla and Little Godzilla are also in the pipeline. And of course, the highly anticipated release of the 2002/2003 KiryuGoji design as well. Mechagodzilla has been licensed by BlueFin to see a stateside release, but the others will remain Japanese exclusives.

Continuing the theme of super-articulated figures, the S.H. Figuarts line will be seeing a surge of Ultra-related figures next year. On the docket are too many figures to list (see the Ultraman Wiki article) but of special note are the kaiju Antlar, Pandon, Twin Tail and Gudon (seen above). No release dates for any of the kaiju have been revealed, but it’s very likely these monsters will see release in the coming year.

In the world of vinyl figures, chances are Bandai will produce figures for the Godzilla anime sequel, but of special note are new releases in the Movie Monster Series line for 2003 Kiryu and Biollante! This marks the first vinyl figure of Biollante since the original 1990′s deluxe-sized figure. Despite the lack of pictures, the low price of only 1500 yen means collectors will not want to miss out on this one.

Pacific Rim Uprising continues to dominate off the screen with a highly anticipated line of figures from Bandai’s Robot Spirits line. All six of the film’s main Jaegers will be released for less than $40 each (and imported to America via BlueFin) and are easily available for pre-order from mainstream sites like Amazon and BigBadToyStore. Tamashii also plans to release an expensive yet extraordinarily accurate Gipsy Danger figure through its Soul of Chogokin line as well as vinyl representations of the kaiju enemies in the newly revitalized Sofubi Spirits line.

Alternatively, Diamond Select Toys is putting out their own line of Pacific Rim Uprising figures of the Jaegers and the kaiju. These figures appear to be more in-tune with what NECA released for the first film, so those who want similarly scaled figures have that option. DST is also releasing articulated kaiju, for those who aren’t satisfied with Bandai’s vinyl offerings.

Continuing with American companies, NECA has been hard at work sculpting new figures for their Classic Godzilla line. Nothing new has been revealed yet and information is reportedly coming at ToyFair in February, although NECA is notorious for not keeping their word on reveals for their non-80′s properties. Part of this has to do with Toho’s infamously strict licensing policies which resulted in NECA being only allowed to do Godzilla suits in their line as opposed to supporting monsters as well. NECA also revealed that they do not have the rights to create figures based on the 2019 designs of Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah leaving the likely scenario being similar to Pacific Rim Uprising’s toys, with Bandai doing S.H. MonsterArts figures of the three kaiju to be distributed in America via BlueFin.

In late 2017, Criterion secured the streaming rights to fourteen Showa Godzilla films, comprised of the films Classic Media released in their Toho Master Collection, Media Blasters’ two-film library of Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. Megalon, and the out-of-print Son of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). The films are currently available for streaming on the FilmStruck service, but Criterion has implied that they are interested in a physical release sometime in the future. Nothing concrete has been revealed yet, so fans will want to keep an eye on Criterion’s monthly Future Releases updates to see if any of these films make the cut.

Finally, kaiju artist and fan extraordinare Matt Frank is drawing an officially licensed Redman manga! From the previews shown, it appears to be taking on more of a dark tone than the original show. No word on a US release yet (although it’s likely copies will be offered at his G-FEST Artist Alley table).

With each passing year, the kaiju fandom grows bigger and bigger and more and more kaiju-related media is being released every month. It’s truly a new age for the genre and definitely the best time to be a fan. Here’s to a happy 2018!

[tivarocks]

The Great 38 Rewatch-- #BlueBird

Will he or won’t he?  Will she or won’t she? 

Can Cho really be THAT blind?

#BlueBird

Since this episode was one of the three "given" in the Great 38 I doubt I have to say much about it.  We all know that this is the episode where Santa Heller finally delivered on the ultimate Jisbon moment.   My only complaint is the one I've aired before: I never will understand the relationship between Lisbon and the Geek of Gluten.  I can understand her dating him but not the moving to Washington DC with him after only knowing him a couple months.  Had she met his ex-wife?  Had she met his oldest and dearest friends?  What about his family?  It was too sudden and-- to me-- seemed as manipulative as Jane was with the Blue Bird case only in a passive aggressive way.  And conversely, it seemed less like love and more like possession that a man would push a woman to move away with him and marry him when it was obvious to him that she was working through feelings she had for her partner.  But again, that's just my thought.  

One of the things I've tried to do from time to time during this rewatch is to reminisce about what was happening in my life when certain episodes were first shown.  Since this was such an important episode of the series, I bet many of us will remember the first time we saw it.  In my case, it was a very crazy time. My mother had sold her home and was moving in with me.  For this to work, I had moved also so it was double amount of boxes and movers coming from two different directions.  In fact, it was the day before this episode aired that she and the cat arrived.  We were surrounded by our boxes and dead tired from weeks of cleaning, moving, and in Mom's case, getting rid of a number of things she had owned for almost 50 years.  By the time the program started, we were ready to put our feet up, drink some wine, and let the show wash over us.  We said little which is unusual for us and at the commercials we would wonder how Jane was going to stop Lisbon from leaving.  Would he find the courage to tell her how he felt?  Would she be the one who had to pin him down and make him talk?  When the airplane scene arrived, one of us said, "Finally!" but I honestly don't remember which one it was.  However, we were a chorus of "Awwww!" at the ending.  

I hope you'll have the time to watch #BlueBird with us, Tuesday April 18th at 5pm DST, eastern time zone USA. We will be live tweeting our thoughts as we watch and we would love to have you with us.  If you’re feeling a bit shy, feel free to follow along or lurk on my timeline, @finewineornot.  If you can't, I hope you'll share your thoughts about the episode and what you remember from the first time you saw it later either on Twitter or here.  

Take care and remember to give yourself a break. tivarocks!

[kansascityhappenings]

Trove of leaked documents reveal how world’s wealthy dodge taxes

LONDON — A trove of leaked documents made public Sunday reveal how the world’s wealthy elite dodge taxes by stashing it in offshore investment funds.

Among those named in the leaks are Queen Elizabeth II, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, singer Madonna, and U2 front man Bono.

The leaked documents also reportedly show how state-run Russian companies funded large investments in Twitter and Facebook.

The leak, called the Paradise Papers, was revealed when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its dozens of collaborating news outlets on Sunday published investigations related to them. The reporting partners included the New York Times, the Guardian and the BBC.

The project, which is based on more than 13.4 million documents dated from 1950 to 2016, covers a large number of global corporations, government leaders, and prominent people and their use of offshore accounts to avoid taxes or otherwise hide ownership of assets.

The documents have not been independently reviewed by CNN.

The reporting is similar to the Panama Papers, which in 2016 exposed cases involving celebrities and business executives who reportedly moved large chunks of their wealth into offshore tax havens.

Several members of Trump’s inner circle, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, were mentioned in the papers. The Times, which mentioned both men, said there was “no evidence of illegality in any of their dealings.”

The consortium, meanwhile, noted in its reporting Sunday that there are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts.

“ICIJ does not intend to suggest or imply that any persons, companies or other entities have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly,” it said in a disclaimer posted online.

Journalists with access to the Paradise Papers noted in stories published Sunday that their contents will continue to make news in the coming days.

Here are some of the high-profile government officials and celebrities mentioned in the first wave of reporting.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross

The New York Times reported that Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, has retained a multimillion-dollar stake in Navigator, a shipping company whose top customers include the Russian energy firm Sibur.

President-elect Donald Trump and U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Sibur’s owners include a member of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s family and a Russian oligarch, according to the Times, which also says the firm itself was created by the Russian government.

Another of Navigator’s clients is PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-run oil company, which Trump targeted with sanctions this year.

The Times reports that Ross held his stake in Navigator through a “chain of companies in the Cayman Islands.”

The Times also says “much” of Ross’s wealth, which is estimated to total around $2 billion, is tied up in secretive offshore investments.

When Ross disclosed his finances earlier this year, he included Navigator as a company he intended to retain an interest in. But that document did not disclose how large his stake was because it was not required.

But that won’t help Ross escape political controversy.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee that questioned Ross before his appointment, accused Ross of misleading the committee and the public by “concealing an ongoing financial relationship” with Russians.

“Inexcusable and intolerable,” Blumenthal said in a series of tweets Sunday. “Americans are owed answers on this Cabinet’s troubling failure to disclose links to Russian interests.”

The Commerce Department told CNN on Sunday that Ross was not involved with Navigator’s decision to do business with Sibur.

“Moreover, Secretary Ross has never met the Sibur shareholders referenced in this story and, until now, did not know of their relationship,” the agency said in a statement.

It added that Ross recuses himself from matters focused on transoceanic shipping vessels, though he has been supportive of the administration’s sanctions against “Russian and other entities.”

Twitter, Facebook and Russian money

The Times also reported that two state-run Russian companies secretly and indirectly poured millions of dollars into Twitter and Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg (L) and Yuri Milner (Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize)

Both of the transactions allegedly involved Yuri Milner, a Russian tech mogul who has business ties to Trump’s son-in-law, White House adviser Jared Kushner.

According to the Times, Milner invested in Cadre, a tech real estate company that was founded by Kushner and his brother. Milner told the paper he has only met Kushner once.

Milner’s link to Kushner and his company are unrelated to the Russian investments in Facebook and Twitter.

According to the Times, the Russian-owned VTB Bank gave $191 million to an offshore vehicle connected to Milner. Money from that entity was later used to help fund a stake in Twitter.

The newspaper also said the Russian oil and gas company Gazprom lent money to another firm that invested in Milner’s multimillion-dollar Facebook deal.

White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner has known business ties to Yuri Milner. (Photo by Zach Gibson – Pool/Getty Images)

According to the Guardian, Milner said the funding from VTB did not buy it influence at Twitter. He also told the newspaper that he wasn’t aware that Gazprom was involved in the Facebook investment.

The Guardian noted that it is not clear whether Moscow saw a “political interest” in funding stakes in Facebook and Twitter, or if the acquisitions were “only intended to make money.”

Twitter said in a statement that DST Investments 3 — a fund managed by Milner’s company DST Global– was an investor before its IPO.

A Twitter spokesperson told CNN that the company “reviewed all potential investors” before it went public in November 2013.

The company also said that the stake owned by DST Global was divested in May 2014.

Facebook’s IPO, meanwhile, was in May 2012. The company could not be reached late Sunday for comment.

But a Facebook spokesperson told the Guardian that the Gazprom-backed investment was ultimately sold five years ago.

Queen Elizabeth II

In Britain, the BBC said it had seen documents that show the Duchy of Lancaster, which provides the Queen with an income, had invested £10 million ($13.1 million) into funds in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

Queen Elizabeth II (Cathal McNaughton – Pool /Getty Images)

The documents have not been reviewed by CNN.

The Queen has not been accused of any wrongdoing. But the investments are potentially embarrassing for a royal family that closely guards its reputation.

“We operate a number of investments and a few of these are with overseas funds. All of our investments are fully audited and legitimate,” the Duchy of Lancaster said in a statement.

The Duchy added that the Queen, who is officially exempt from U.K. tax laws, “voluntarily pays tax” on income she receives from the estate.

The £519 million ($680 million) Duchy, which provides the Queen with an income to cover official expenses, says it invests primarily in commercial, agricultural and residential properties.

In the most recent fiscal year, the Duchy generated £19.2 million ($25 million) in net income according to its website.

Related: What you need to know about the Paradise Papers

One of the Duchy’s offshore investments has generated some controversy.

The BBC reported that the Duchy invested $7.5 million in Dover Street VI Cayman Fund LP in 2005. The fund, which invested in medical and tech companies, later put money into U.K. retailer BrightHouse.

The Duchy said its investment in the company is worth £3,208 ($4,200).

BrightHouse, which gave customers credit so they could buy its home furniture and appliances, was later forced to compensate consumers after the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority found it was not a responsible lender.

“We sincerely apologize to those customers who were affected,” the company said in October. “We’re absolutely determined that this doesn’t happen again and have made significant improvements over the last 18 months.”

The Duchy said in a statement that the investment in BrightHouse was made “through a third party,” and equates to just 0.0006% of the Duchy’s value.

The ICIJ noted in its report that “there are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts,” and it was not suggesting that any people or companies it named either broke the law or acted improperly.

David Pitt Watson, an executive fellow at the London Business School who focuses on responsible investments, said he “very much” doubts that the Queen knew where her money was invested.

Instead, she’s like “so many others who have a pension, or an investment account,” he said. “We just don’t know what is being done with it.”

Bono

The papers suggest U2 frontman Bono used a company based in low-tax Malta to buy part of a shopping mall in Lithuania.

U2 front man Bono (Photo by Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images for PSFF)

The Guardian newspaper said Monday that the papers reveal that the singer was an investor in Maltese company Nude Estates, which bought the Ausra shopping center in 2007.

Bono’s spokeswoman told the paper that the rocker, whose real name is Paul Hewson, was a “passive minority investor in Nude Estates Malta Ltd., a company that was legally registered in Malta until it was voluntarily wound up in 2015.”

The Irish band, well known for its poverty-fighting efforts, has faced past criticism over its tax arrangements.

U2 was heavily criticized in 2006 for moving its corporate base from Ireland to the Netherlands, where royalties on music incur virtually no tax.

In 2011, protesters inflated a giant balloon reading “U Pay Tax 2?” during U2’s set at the Glastonbury Festival.

The Ausra shopping center is located in the town of Utena, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius. The 3,700 square-meter (40,000 square-foot) mall was built in 2006 and sold to unknown foreign investors in 2007.

Its management has told reporters they were not aware Bono’s involvement in the property’s ownership.

Tax officials in Lithuania said Monday they’ve started to investigate papers and documents belonging to UAB Nude Estates 2, a Lithuanian registered company owned by Nude Estates Malta Ltd. and listed as the mall’s owner.

Ruta Asadauskaite, spokeswoman for Lithuania’s state tax inspectorate, declined to provide further details.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports http://fox4kc.com/2017/11/06/trove-of-leaked-documents-reveal-how-worlds-wealthy-dodge-taxes/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/trove-of-leaked-documents-reveal-how-worlds-wealthy-dodge-taxes/

[e-one-seven]

About Cyclum Puzzles and how it is connected to Metheus Puzzles

Warning: This is a fan theory. I am not related to Klei Entertainment in any way, I just love their games and the lore behind a little bit too much. Also, This is a long post, so I'll put the actual post under  "Keep reading" so it won’t screw up your page scroll habits in case you are not interested in Don't Starve and its lore. Thanks.

Let's start with a little story: once upon a time, there was an Ancient Civilization made of people afflicted by starvation and fear. Desperate, they escaped below the ground, where they found a magic portal from where a strange, black substance was leaking. Their leader, a curious man, started to study it and he discovered that the weird substance was much more powerful of everything he and his people ever saw before. He dubbed the substance "the Fuel" and he started to use it to build everything his people needed. They evolved, probably developing magic powers in the process, their civilization flourished and their leader became a powerful King for his people.

But not everyone was happy. Metheus, the King's advisor/queen and the one who carried the torch during the first explorations of the caves, eventually noticed that there was something wrong with the Fuel, but no one listened to her. She could do nothing but watch as the Fuel changed her people and her King day after day until They arrived to claim the souls of the people as a payment for their new powers. They all started to turn into monsters. The Corrupted King could do nothing but watch as Metheus sacrificed herself to stop Them. From that moment on, the cursed substance was renamed "Nightmare Fuel".

(And to me some people managed to escape through the portal to various worlds including Earth, where they mixed with the locals causing the birth of individuals with the potential to develop magic They are still hunting down to complete the genocide nowadays, but this is not the place to talk about that.)

With the Ancient Civilization and their rulers gone, the Constant became a dead world. They were powerful, but They needed people with strong, corruptible minds to sustain Themselves and Thier powers. So They pulled some strings and one day They found William Carter, a young, yet unlucky aspiring magician. They caused an accident and made him find The Codex Umbra, the fruit of Metheus and her King's studies on the Fuel. The young man started to study it and experiment with the small residues of the Fuel on Earth, unaware of the corruption it would cause to himself and whoever surrounded him. Like the King before him, he started to go mad, and his beloved assistant Charlie tried to make him stop performing his experiments. But during that what was supposed to be their last show, They came to claim Their tribute, and William Carter (now Maxwell), Charlie and possibly other people were captured and took to Their Realm.

It is not clear of what happened here (and I hope we are going to see it in Maxwell's cinematic), but it resulted in Maxwell becoming the new King of the Constant and Charlie being permanently fused with one of Their creatures. According to what Maxwell said when he is bound to the Throne, he might have tried to oppose Them and failed. ("It's best not to fight it." [...] "You can't change the rules of the game. I don't know what they want. They... they just watch. Unless you get too close... Then... Well, there's a reason I stay so dapper.")

We still don't know how and to what extent Maxwell tried to fight back, but we can still make some hypothesis. This is my personal opinion: at first he was somehow happy to be the vessel of Their will, but when he saw what Charlie had become because of Them. He tried to fight back and/or invert the transformation, and They tied him to the Nightmare Throne as a punishment for his attempted rebellion. Maxwell realized he was forced to follow Their will, so he kept summoning innocent people from Earth to the Constant, but with a twist. From that moment on he started to bring prisoners by following a determined scheme: the new survivors had to be smart and/or strong enough to survive on their own in the long run, and if they showed themselves to be worthy enough he would have shown them the truth about Them and Their world. Or at least, that could have been the initial purpose behind the choice of the survivors we get to play as. Eventually, Wilson, a young, yet unlucky aspiring scientist, finds/creates the portal that allows him to go on a journey to reach Maxwell and he finds him tied to the Throne. Maxwell implies that it happened because They don't want him as a King anymore, and a possible past/current secret scheme from Maxwell to defeat Them could be the true reason for Them wanting a new Ning. Wilson sets him free, sacrificing his freedom in the process and becoming the new King.

What is the possible correlation between Maxwell's story and what happened to the Ancient Civilization? As already said, whatever was the reason why he did what he did, Maxwell's actions caused a scattered community of people afflicted by starvation and fear to be born again, a new civilization who started to study the Nightmare Fuel and its application on their own and get insane, giving Them more power. Maxwell himself studied the Nightmare Fuel and it made him so corrupted that he seemed to have given up to his possible original plan to stop Them by the time Wilson found him. Wilson finds him and decides to release him from the Throne with an act the game defines "take pity at your own risk". He never really knew Maxwell and he doesn't know there are other people still alive out of there (but he might have suspected that if he canonically saved Wes and resurrected Webber), so maybe talking about a "self-sacrifice" could be an exaggeration. But there is a strange detail I recently noticed and greatly contributed to the creation of this theory. What is the one thing that most of the promotional images from Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together featuring Wilson have in common? Wilson carries a torch. Just like Metheus, the first character to canonically sacrifice herself to free the Ancient King and stop Them, did. The end of Don't Starve was the promise that the history of the Ancient Civilization would repeat itself after Maxwell's defeat, with the survivors turning into corrupted beings and Wilson "dying" by losing his humanity forever.

But it didn't happen. Charlie cyclum infregit. The use of Latin is not casual: taking in account how Latin grammar works "cyclum" does not simply mean "circle or cycle", but "circle or cycle that got changed by something". Charlie broke the circle by putting herself on the throne. And it was not just the circle of the succession to the Nightmare Throne, but possibly a greater scheme that was meant to end with everyone's corruption or death. By putting herself on the Throne and modifying the Jury-Rigged Portal she might have allowed the survivors to join their forces and gave them a chance to fight against Them. The survivors have a better comprehension of what is going on in DST, and it might be the explanation why the Magic Tab was mostly unmodified: only four new recipes were added, and only one of them requires Nightmare Fuel (Abigail's Flower, Wendy's exclusive item imported from Don't Starve). The others all require Moonlenses instead. The survivors are trying to abandon the Nightmare Fuel for the safer Moon Rocks.

I read some posts on Klei's forum where people were "complaining" because Maxwell seems to know next to nothing about the Moon and its magic, but it actually makes sense: he studied only the ancient Shadow Magic, and the Celestial Magic was apparently not available before Charlie's kingdom. Until now we saw Meteor Showers that brought boulders with Moon Rocks to the mainland, giving the survivors the chance to study a new kind of magic, possibly a safer one. Then... Wilson seems freaked out by something in the opening screen image, and what could be scarier to see huge pieces of the Moon detach and fall down from the sky in the middle of the ocean to create a new island?

And this is just the beginning of a series of actions that will cause They to reveal Themselves if we take the title of the whole update in account. There could be two ways for this to happen:

1) Charlie is loyal to Them and she is bringing the secrets of the Moon to the Constant because the Celestial Magic is not as harmless as it seems (the undead versions of the creatures living in the Constant might point towards this direction). The survivors are not aware of this and whatever they will do with the Celestial Magic will actually make Them strong enough to be physically able to manifest in the world.

2) Charlie is trying to betray Them and she wants the survivors to study the Celestial Magic to find a way to destroy Them for good (the Glass Cutter being powerful and having increased durability against Shadow Creatures seems to point towards this direction). At this point, They will realize what Charlie is trying to do and They will come in person to stop her plan, just like They did when Maxwell tried in the past. Some quotes from the Ancient Fuelweaver seems to point in this direction too: let's look at his quotes when he is defeated:

"Fools!" "Who are you?" "Release me, shade!" "You deserve this." "You are not Them..." "Are you so easily deceived? Ha..." "You've made your choice."

Except for the first deathcry, after an accurate analysis it is obvious he is talking with Charlie. At least three quotes imply that she is not working with Them, and that whatever is her plan it might backfire. Because of this, it might also be possible that a combination of both the previous hypothesis might happen.

3) Charlie wants the survivors to use the Moon Magic to destroy Them, but as Moon Magic is as dangerous as the Shadow Magic the survivors have to learn to control it first. But every fictional story taught us that Light and Shadow are balanced, and therefore using the Moon Magic is making Them stronger to the point They will eventually be able to physically manifest Themselves in the world. They might try to punish Charlie by limiting her powers and forcing her to watch while They kill the survivors, as they know too much to make one of them a new puppet king for Them to control. And after they are gone, They will summon new people to choose a new king just like They did when Maxwell betrayed Them, recreating the cyclum like it was before Charlie meddled with it.

(And if you are wondering "if Charlie is good, why is she still killing people when they are in the darkness?", the answer is simple: even though she is trying to lead a secret rebellion, she is also bounded by the rules. And the key rule is, if one is in the darkness, one needs to die. Also, death is not as permanent as before, so she is not even bothered by following it anymore.)

[e-one-seven]

The analysis of Next of Kin Cinematic

The cinematic shows us a pinboard connecting several photos and newspaper articles together, as to leave us to intend that someone is trying to figure out a connection between a series of accidents happened in the early 1900s. The first image we see is a family photo with Charlie and Winona as little girls with their parents. There are images and screens from the WCP and the Final Act Cinematic, with William Carter's photo circled. There are also a poster labeling Charlie missing since April 17th, 1906, a newspaper highline from April 19th that says "San Francisco ablaze" and a letter from Charlie:

Dear Winona,

How are you?! Congratulations on the new job, I knew you would find something soon. Have you settled in alright? Are you taking care of yourself?

I'm still here in San Fran and things are going well. My magic act partner has taught me so much about showmanship in such a short time. I think you two would really get along! You're both very stubborn. Haha!"

The other images on the pinboard are:

Abigail's flower;

A missing poster featuring Woodie next to the photo of a portal. With apparently no door framing it;

A headline about a library burning in New York on March 29th, 1911;

A "exposition universelle" poster apparently dated 1918 (the writings seems to be in French the only expos in 1918 were in the USA, no mention there is nothing on the image giving a clue about what this event could be about. But one guy on Klei's forum found the real world inspiration in the poster of 1910 Brussels World Fair, where a fire happened the night between August 14th and 15th. At this rate I would not be surprised if turns out that Wilson's cabin burned down too shortly after the Forbidden Knowledge cinematic.)

WX-78's building projects (where we can see that WX is tall 4'10" or so)

A paper about aliens and government conspiracies. (Lol)

Two post-its about Voxola and the necessity to "gain access" right next to a photo of the place itself, along with Winona's application letter.

The post-its are important because we have the confirm that Winona is the owner of the pinboard. Refusing to accept Charlie being gone, Winona started to investigate on her own, looking for other people who disappeared without a trace and other weird events. That lead her to Robert Wagstaff, the founder of Voxola, so she decided to "go undercover" inside his company as a common worker. This ties in with the Hamlet Roadmap, as one of the new upcoming characters description is "a mysterious inventor who finds himself exactly where he wanted to be...".

We see Wagstaff's silhouette in the portal during the video too, and that's very similar to one of the two mysterious characters we were promised in single player through the Hamlet Roadmap, confirming once and for all that we are finally going to see what happened to our favorite missing radio creator. (Not to mention someone found Wagstaff's file audio through data mining. So yes: Wagstaff is going to be playable 100% confirmed). His willingness to reach the Constant is also pointed out from a small poster with a Terrorbeak visible at 1:00 in the video.

So, what did we learn from this video?

Winona was actually trapped in the Constant during the Voxola fire in 1919, two years before Wilson. The developers say that because the time "works differently" into the Constant, it doesn't mean that she necessarily reached the world before Wilson did. (This is also a nice way to say "don't try to use maths to solve timeline problems with this game lore, it just won't work")

Wagstaff created a machine similar to Wilson's to access the Constant, suggesting that Maxwell might have done many attempts to create the Maxwell's Door through time. And this video officially confirms Wagstaff as a playable character for DS (and maybe for DST too?)

Willow did not cause the Voxola Fire, the malfunctioning portal did. And probably something similar happened to Wickerbottom (we all know it's her) back in 1911 and possibly to someone else in Brussels the year before.

Wickerbottom, Wendy, Woodie and WX-78 were trapped before 1919.

Winona is going to be shipped with Genni by all the DS fandom from now on.