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Subnautica: Below Zero - The Definitive No-Spoilers Guide For New Players
2023.05.29 22:27 Aisling_The_Sapphire Subnautica: Below Zero - The Definitive No-Spoilers Guide For New Players
Updated May 2023 After changing reddit accounts and about a year since posting it, it seemed prudent to throw this up for visibility. :)
Few things are worse than not knowing what happened to a loved one. Which is what convinced Robin Ayou to get into a drop shuttle with a lifepod with basically nothing, then fire herself down onto an ocean planet where the only place that she could investigate was a tiny little patch of barely-even-land and pray she can survive long enough to find a way to get off the planet.
Nobody ever told Robin she was great at forward planning.
https://subnauticamap.io/belowzero - This map will provide direction/orientation for this guide, but BEWARE! It marks spoilers if you turn those on!
Touchdown
Once you've landed, you'll find some food and water to start you off scattered around the ship. You won't have to worry about getting cold, since standing next to your now-burning ship will warm you up and the meteors coming down don't actually paste you, they're mostly to stress you out.
Note that may not be the case later. The weather in this game is a serious thing.
Once you have your stuff, you'll find the drop pod on your HUD. Don't go straight to it, though. As soon as you hit the water, look for an indentation in the ground. You'll find some copper in there. Then, follow the northern glacial wall (That's to your right when you're looking at your lifepod) until you find a small cave, which will have some silver and gold. That'll get you started off nicely. Get to your lifepod, take a look at your fabricator. You'll find that the items you have blueprints for can be pinned to the top-right in your PDA by clicking on them in the blueprints tab, a useful feature when hunting for materials.
Your goals right now are your basic survival tools. Note that the kelp forest is a bad place to hold your stuff in your hand. The sea monkeys are kleptomaniacs and will gank your stuff. You can totally get it back though, it just means chasing after them a bit, which is annoying and wastes time. However, if you pull out a flare and hold it in front of them, they freak out and run away from you for a little bit.
Time To Get Rolling
Your first task, as indicated by the PDA, is to find Delta Island. This becomes relatively easy once you find a compass. If you've gone to the emergency cache you'll have the beacon blueprint so stock up on them before traveling so you can mark things. You're going to be making a lot of these but since you can toggle them it's not so bad, you'll just need a lot of beacons.
Its south of where the drop pod lands. As you spread out your searching range you'll find that the sea floor drops down among twisty coral structures.
This area is called Twisty Bridges. It's the main go-to for coral samples and you'll want those. There's small bits of Alterra stuff scattered around the area.
It's here you'll find mobile vehicle bay, sea truck and seaglide fragments. When you've been in the area for a bit,
you'll hear what sounds like an SOS. It's worth checking that out and you'll find that this spot goes deeper than you might suspect. Makes you wonder what's down there, doesn't it?
Beyond Twisty Bridges lies the thermal spires, an area of volcanic activity and thermal smokers.
Many sea truck fragments are here. The wildlife here is noisy and menacing sounding but if you don't hang out next to them they're easy to avoid. Smacking one with a blade will made it instantly turn and get the hell away from you. They don't like being hit.
On the border between thermal spires and twisty bridges someplace is a small foundation platform with external grow beds for you to scan, but you can get these at Omega Station later if you're not sweating on it. There are large crevices and a few volcanic fissures out here. Beware the heat vents, but exploring those areas can pay off, later.
On the island, you'll find blueprints you need, as well as some materials like sulfur and horseshoe nuts. The latter are very useful to plant in the seabase you'll be wanting. Take care to look around thoroughly for blueprints you'll find useful, as not all of them are inside the buildings. Also, keep a sharp eye out for music disks which you'll find scattered throughout the game, especially in bases.
On the south-west corner of the island is a precursor artifact you can scan. Look for the beach with all the pengwings on it. The habitat builder can be found on a box outside Delta Station. Make sure to scan the map inside the sea base. There's also a PDA up by the comms tower. Let's Go Explorin'
So, by now you've visited Delta Island, have had a good look around Twisty Bridges and you've probably discovered the sea monkey caves in Kelp Forest. If you haven't gone exploring in those, you really ought to.
You'll find more MVB fragments there but that's also where the propulsion cannon blueprint can be found, the laser cutter, as well as a fair amount of gold and some precursor artifacts as well. Once that's all done with and taken care of, you've probably got at least a tiny seabase, but if you don't... what are you doing?
Go on, shoo. Go make a base.
...
Okay, got one now? Good! Hopefully it's someplace nice. Your basic sea truck can't get down to where you want to be going next but a depth module will take care of that. A MkII depth module will let you get to the very bottom of where you want to go. Where do you want to go? Koppa Mine.
You'll find it on the western side of the island. Take care to look around when you find the door eventually, since
there is a databox just inside the main doors, before you head down. It has the
moonpool and will allow you to get that much earlier than you would through scanning it.
To drive the seatruck inside the mine, drive north from the entrance of Koppa mine, you'll come across a volcanic fissure in the seafloor nearby which has JUST enough space for you to fit your seatruck through it. The fissure leads right into Koppa Mine, allowing you to drive the seatruck inside! The other alternative is actually spare air tanks. Totally a viable solution so long as you remember to refill them by equipping them once you're out of the water. You can swap them out mid-dive and extend your breathing time, which is handy since the
prawn fragment blueprints you require are kinda far down there. If you're free diving in this way, note that the bottom chamber of the mine has a hole in the ceiling leading to a small cave system which will lead you back to the surface, as well as having a number of oxygen plants to keep you from choking on the way. The entrance to that is
almost right next to the Delta Station docks.
Also note that Site Zero, which has useful blueprints,
can be found by hugging the northern glacial wall and heading east along it. You can find it by checking breaks in the ice, one of them leads up to a small hidden cave where the base lies. But if you don't find it, you'll be directed here later. It just has some useful things to scan and a lantern fruit tree.
There is a music disk here. Way Down South
By now you've probably answered the SoS. If not, go do that.
As you hang out with Al-An, he'll give you prompts to artifacts that you haven't found yet, if you dawdle in looking for the required number. At this point you should have the following:
- A sea base, even a basic one. The databox in Koppa Mine's entrance will grant you the moon pool but if you missed it, you can get the blueprint later following the storyline.
- Seaglide, knife, propulsion cannon, beacons, repair tool, scanner, flashlight, builder tool
- Seatruck with at least one depth module
- Prawn blueprints
Building the Prawn is surprisingly easy, but requires lithium, a material you probably haven't seen a lot of yet. There's a little scattered around in thermal spires, but only a little. You can find a lot at purple vents,
but be careful to avoid the doom shrimp. A chelicarate hangs out here. There are other things in this area which are relevant to you which you'll want to mark out for later.
There is a small seatruck crash site with a variety of fragments out here, if you find it, look around carefully for the music disk that's here. Following the marker for the unknown pilots last position, you will find a green area rich in confusing cave systems. This area is the lilypads zone.
Old girl can be found down near the signal, just look for the shimmering things on the wall, the hive minds. She's near them. Grab the seatruck defense module she has in there. Be sure to pick up the databox directly outside her base to get the stillsuit as well and if you follow the caves down where they turn blue you'll stumble on an old thermal plant of hers, where another databox lies. There's fragments scattered all over this zone as well as
The mercury II stern, which lays on the border between lilypads and purple vents, as well as the bow, which is a little further in on the western side of lilypads. Be sure to explore the area thoroughly and take note of the massive crevasse near the middle of the zone.
Inside the chunk of land here is Omega Lab, which will net you the external grow beds, nuclear plant, nuclear disposal as well as a couple new beds and the antenna plants. It's in this area you'll need to search for nickel later, so building a scanner station here is a good idea.
Deep Lilypads holds an Al-An body part you'll require. Deep Lilypads is also the only place you can acquire the materials to manufacture benzene.
Don't go too close to the Lily Paddlers, unless you like being off your face, in which case go say hi, it's hilarious.
Trust me. ;D In order to disable the satellite for Dances-With-Reapers, you're going to need to wreck dive the Mercury II.
Two of its sections can be found in purple vents, while the bow - the largest - can be found in Lilypads, west of Omega Labs floating island. You'll need the laser cutter for this. Your goal is to scan the parallel processors in the wreck, but there's all kinds of really useful stuff in there too, not to mention all the titanium. ALL the titanium. So be sure to drop beacons on these things, bring a spare air tank and bring your pathfinder tool. If you don't have the pathfinder tool, go look around in the caves full of emeralds between
Phi Robotics docks and
Phi Robotics itself. There is one up on a small ridge in one of those caves. If you can't find it, don't worry though, just bring flares and use them as breadcrumbs while diving to prevent yourself from getting too lost.
The alien containment tank, reinforced dive suit, parallel processor can be found in these. A music disk is in the bow section on a bridge console. LAND HO!
Aaah, glacial basin. How I hate thee. The basin is split into four sections, two for each part of the basin, north and south. South is where you'll probably end up first.
You can find the docks to access this area by tracking along the northern glacial wall and continuing west until you come to the eye jellyfish. Check the radio tower next to the docks, there is a music disk there. The upper southern area is where
Phi Robotics lays, as well as frost vase plants and spicy peppers. Both of those are excellent crops to grow, as they net you useful things. The spicy peppers scattered throughout the entirety of glacial basin essentially means that you'll not starve while out here so long as you're paying attention to what you're doing.
Note that snow stalkers REALLY HATE FLARES. They'll make your trips out here annoying, even in the prawn, which is the best way to ensure the weather isn't a factor for you. Sometimes they're in the caves. Flares will make exploring these much safer.
You can get to lower glacial basin through the upper part, but it's a bit confusing and I prefer to access it via the glacial tunnel.
Head south along the western glacial wall from the glacial basin docks and you'll find a tunnel which eye jellyfish are hanging out near. This tunnel leads directly to lower glacial basin and provides a convenient way to access the area without needing to travel through upper GB every time.
Northern Glacial Basin can be accessed by
scanning the hydraulic fluid on the bridge, then repairing the bridge to cross it.
DO NOT GO HERE WITHOUT THE PRAWN. SERIOUSLY. The grip arm is very handy to have out here and if you haven't found it, use a scanner room in Lilypads
to find the sea monkey nests but it's not necessary so don't stress if you don't have it. Just don't use the snow fox. It's useless and handles like crap.
The iceworms here are dangerous if you stay still too long. Take your time, explore thoroughly and mark out any Alterra sites you find with beacons. A couple of these have the blueprints for the Thumper and this is your ticket to working in this area safely. A thumper will keep the iceworms away within a radius, ensuring you don't get whacked while picking stuff up outside the prawn.
Along the western wall of this zone is a small cave with three large ion cube deposits. Keep a sharp eye out for it, you definitely want those. At the north-east tip of the zone you'll find ice worm corpses you can scan that don't put you in mortal danger during the attempt. Really funny seeing them pop up and chow down on snow stalkers, though. Pay back sucks, don't it?
Al-An's body part is out here. Keep an eye out for the precursor cables and make sure to check all the caves, because the master gateway leading to Phi Robotics is here as well. The room containing the gateway leads to a small docks and tunnel with an ice wall you can cut through to easily access the middle of northern glacial basin from the docks. There is a music disk at those docks as well. Going Down?
By now you're probably wondering where to go. Remember purple vents?
The engine part of the mercury II has a crevasse leading down to where you need to go next. Once you've found the crystal caves, you better hope you picked up the defense module at
Marg's base. It's sitting inside her room and sometimes gets knocked to the floor when Preston jumps you. You'll be wanting it for what's down here.
The Shadow Leviathan.
Ohhhh boy are they ever aggressive. Good news for you though,
they patrol around on a set route and they don't go through the whole of crystal caves. You'll be looking for fragments here, as well as materials. Lots of gold, silver and kyanite in the crevasses in the floor of these caves.
An Al-An body part, the final one, can be found at the bottom of a tunnel which is mouthed by a circular formation of crystals. Once you have it, you'll want to go even deeper to find the fabrication facility, forcing you to wander crystal caves until you find the blood crystal caves. Oh Yeah, It's All Comin' Together
So, you now have everything you need to
build your home boy a body. Once that's done, you'll be wanting to wrap up the bit with Sam. If you've explored lower southern glacial basin, you'll have found
the cave with the frozen leviathan. Oh, and grab the music disk in the security bunker. Exploring this cave gets you some useful stuff. You know the little caves here with the blinking markers? Explore these with spy penglings! There's some useful stuff in some of them, actually.
Including the antidote Sam hid. You can use that on the loader located on the upper part of the leviathan in the cave. And... that's that! That's the whole game.
Tips and Tricks
- The air bladder can pull a tiny amount of air into your tank. It's not very much but those 10 seconds of extra air can save your life in a deep pinch.
- You can find lots of quartz if you hug the northern ice wall and roam east of west, but be careful of the brinewings. They'll freeze your ass, which can be inconvenient if you're low on air.
- Frost Anemone Hearts are actually a really great food source and should be picked up any time you can get them. They'll last forever in the fridge.
- Made your base with some helpful sea monkey neighbours? After awhile they stop stealing from you and begin trying to help you - but they don't know what you want! If you mark blueprints in your PDA, they'll try and bring you materials for that if they can.
- Most predators will back off if you feed them a fish before they bite you. This includes leviathans. You might still get hurt from them slamming into you or something but feeding them a fish will usually cause them to stop attacking you. This doesn't work against the shadow leviathan, it hates you and everything you hold dear. It doesn't know what those things are, but it doesn't care either. It just does.
- Spare air tanks are great and can be kept stocked in your sea truck, but remember to put them on to refill them.
- Animals will react to your behavior in some instances. Feel tree to try new things with them like feeding fish. You can even ride on glow whales! Some of them really hate flares too, like sea monkeys and snow stalkers.
- Surface bases are a completely viable thing in this game and some of the ice sheets have holes in them, allowing you to have a surface base with a dropped section for moonpools and water filters. Water filters will work outside of the water, but you don't get salt and they're much slower.
- Get the cold suit as soon as you can. It's in Phi Robotics. It changes your outside time from 2 minutes to 7 minutes, which is a huge difference. Without it, the prawn is the only way to explore the surface without constantly stressing about freezing to death. You can find the tufts of fur in snow stalker caves where the pups are, make sure you have a flare if you don't like getting nommed on.
- Can't figure out how to get on top of the ice sheet, but you want a base up there? Swim down deep and use the air bladder to get some height. You can build a hallway up there, then drop a ladder down into the water to make a surface base with an underwater docking section. Alternatively, you can probably get up there with the prawn and the grip arm.
- Speaking of the prawn and grip arm, you can totally launch yourself with it. Attaching the grip to the ground and using it to pull yourself into a jump will get you some serious air time, which is helpful for getting up small ridges on the surface. If you break the map and managed to get above it in the prawn, return to the player area. Being up there breaks progression completely and the only interesting thing is a leftover animation testbed east of glacial basin. The collision on terrain is also patchy here and it's possible to fall through the ground into the void. In your prawn. So don't screw around up there too much.
- Spicy peppers and coffee will both warm you up while on the surface, which makes the spicy peppers scattered all over the place pretty valuable.
- The greenhouse you get sent to can be found in Lilypads on an iceberg. The three large icebergs here all have things to find so be sure to search thoroughly.
- The crashed ship is a great place to get a lot of metal very quickly and will basically hand you a free sea base so long as you're willing to go keep picking it up. If you've already looted it all, give it awhile and check back later, sometimes new scrap shows up as the wrecks continue their eventual rot.
- Drop emergency caches of food, water, medpacks, batteries, power cells and flares along with a beacon and never be caught short on supplies because you went out looking for stuff and forgot to bring rations. D'oh!
- A small base specifically for replacing vehicles is very helpful when you lose one. Have the materials gathered beforehand and you won't have to spend a long time struggling to get them together after the bad feeling of having your stuff crunched.
- Be sure to look for creature eggs out in glacial basin
- Rock punchers are jerks and will kill stuff in your containment tank, so now you know, and knowing is half the battle. And the lives of your fish.
- There is no good way to scan the leviathans, but your scan progress gets saved if you don't scan other things, so letting it chow down on your seatruck and scanning it while it's distracted, then repairing your vehicle after, will allow you to get the whole scan after a couple rounds.
- Make scanner rooms everywhere. Solar panels and bio reactors are your friend. Nuclear power is better but not viable in early game. If you need magnetite, go to the glacial tunnel and look at the ice walls just where the tunnel curves upwards, you'll find ore fissures there with magnetite inside.
- Beacons, beacons, beacons. I can't stress this enough, litter them EVERYWHERE. You can toggle them on and off in your PDA, so having a bajillion around the map isn't really a problem and they're really useful.
- There are more precursor artifacts than Al-An mentions to you. Keep a sharp eye out, look everywhere and scan for ion cubes. Check icebergs for moulins, AKA hollow chambers inside. You'll need a laser cutter to access the ones you find.
- Tree Spires has a hell of a lot of uraninite in its cave systems, it's a good spot to stock up on it. Beware the chelicarate in the zone.
- The crystal caves are roughly the shape of a spiral. Knowing this makes navigating them a lot less mystifying. Mind you, it's still difficult. As usual, use beacons a lot. Also make sure to explore the cracks in the floor of the cave!
- Penglins/Pengwings drown if you leave them in the alien containment tank after hatching :( They have to hold their breaths. If you breed them, make sure to set them free.
- There are no large nodes for lead. You must search for galena outcrops with the scanner room. It's pretty much the only way to stock up on the stuff. The other one people have a lot of trouble with is Magnetite, which can only be found in lower glacial basin. You'll want a scanner room to find it. Upper glacial basin has a TON of lithium if you can handle the ice worms... as well as three large mining nodes for ion cubes hidden in a cave.
- Keep exploring Upper Glacial Basin even if you find the precursor body part. There are ice worm corpses and a slipgate out here for you to find. The slipgate links to the Phi Robotics slipgate and has a tunnel which leads directly back out to the docks that you can only cut open from the inside. There's also a music disk down there on a crate so keep a sharp eye out when you find it.
Good luck, Robin!
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2023.05.29 14:44 autotldr Millions of Chinese welcome panda back home after stay in US
This is the best tl;dr I could make,
original reduced by 65%. (I'm a bot)
Panda lovers who could not make it to the airport launched what they called an online pick-up for Ya Ya. "We welcome Ya Ya's return online" had chalked up 340 million reads on the Chinese messaging platform Sina Weibo by the time her 16-hour flight from Memphis, Tennessee, touched down.
Le Le's death in February and the emergence of pictures online of Ya Ya looking thin and bony only added to the concerns among panda lovers not only in China but also in the US and elsewhere.
The zoo spent $16m to build a giant panda facility with traditional Chinese cultural elements, set up a breeding management and veterinary team, and planted about 4 hectares of bamboo ahead of Ya Ya's arrival, according to a report last month in China's state-run Global Times.
"Ya Ya is returning to China to live out her golden years," Memphis Zoo said in a statement on Facebook as the panda left the US. "After 20 years, Ya Ya has become like family, and she will be sorely missed by the Memphis Zoo staff and the local community."
The Chinese government acknowledged the pandas had been well looked after in the US. "During the giant pandas' stay at the Memphis Zoo, they received good care from the zoo and great affection from the American people," Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Wednesday.
His remains were returned to China on the same flight with Ya Ya. Beijing-based China analyst Einar Tangen blamed Western media for manufacturing a Chinese furore over Ya Ya's health.
Summary Source FAQ Feedback Top keywords: panda#1 zoo#2 China#3 Ya#4 Chinese#5
Post found in /worldnews, /AlJazeera, /AutoNewspaper, /ALJAZEERAauto and /conspiracy.
NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic. Please do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here.
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2023.05.29 13:39 Johnny_Boy398 Africa Rework: The Leopard of the Congo Mobutu Sese Seko
| (This is part of an ongoing series, links to which will be posted in the comments below) The Nationalists of the “Mouvement Authenticité de la Révolution” (MAR) Who is Mobutu Sese Seko? Just another warlord who got a lucky break? A champion of the nation willing to do what is necessary for unity and freedom? A traitor to the people who was happy to crack congolese heads until his pay got cut? A revolutionary Father-Marshal or a reactionary kleptocrat? No one can say for sure, but when the Congo war begins in 1966 it will become clear what he wishes himself to be: the great liberator, unifyer, and undisputed master of the great Congo nation. And with Japanese help he may just pull it off. But no man is born great, and even the Fuhrer does not rule alone. So let us discover how Mobutu came to be, and what his victory will mean for the Congo and Africa at large. For the Japanese, who will become his greatest supporters and headaches, he is the African Oda Nobunaga: a martial and cruel man whose vision for unity and glory far outweighs whatever sins he may have committed. Always one for the cameras and adept at winning over an audience, Mobutu will successfully win over the Japanese public by playing the role of the justly tyrannical “Great Man”, even while he personally prefers western delicacies. Joseph-Désiré Mobutu lived an unremarkable life before being thrust into greatness. He was only 16 when the Congo was violently transferred from Belgian to German hands, and like many rebellious students he joined in the 1949 protests against the construction of the Congo dam, stowing away from boarding school to do so. In the aftermath of the MNC repression Mobutu was assigned to the still technically Belgian controlled Force Publique as punishment. Unlike many of his fellows however Mobutu immediately took to military life, embracing the strength, discipline and martial values it provided. In part because of this he served without noticeable disobedience, and was even bribed to be an informant on clandestine communist cells within the force, ratting out a few of his “comrades”. From the point of view of the Belgians he was a model soldier. But this was an act: in truth Mobutu never ceased holding resentment for his arrogant Belgian commanders or the priests who had “educated” him. Behind their back he was a contributor to the native underground press, writing under assumed names and attacking the Belgian presence. It came as quite a shock then when in 1955, as his mandated time in the force was drawing to a close, Mobutu did not accept demobilization quietly but instead went into revolt. It is still a matter of debate about what pushed him into this. He claims that this had been the plan all along, while cynics say the impending annexation of the belgian Congo by Zentralafrika forced him into it. Some think that his double life was about to be exposed, while the more conspiratorial leftists say that he never went into rebellion at all, and that his “revolt” was ordered by the Belgians as a way to counter the APL insurgency. But whatever the case it was here that the public figure was born. After killing several belgian officers and stealing as many weapons and valuables as they could Mobutu and his co-conspirators quickly fled east. This was not entirely unusual: the sudden annexation of the colony led to many sporadic demonstrations and revolts. But it immediately became clear that Mobutu had larger ambitions than these local disturbances. His strategy at this time was one of survival: he would only accept those who could move fast and hit hard, with his armed band always staying on the move as they fled to the east. But unlike other petty warlords he understood the importance of a political and social message for his long term survival, as well as local alliances. For this he essentially copied the platform of the now underground MNC while adhering to none of its tenants in reality: he would tell the people whatever they wanted to hear so long as it got him what he wanted. More practically he made tight alliances with local eastern notables as well as Tutsi refugees which had fled reprisals to the east. In this he was successful, forging for himself a loose alliance in the north east which permitted him to slip the noose where so many others were eventually caught. One of his most important lieutenants in these early days was Victor Nendaka Bika, his de facto “foreign minister” and torturer who would make initial contact with those Mobutu saw the need to coerce or charm. Unlike many warlords Mobutu never gave into the temptation to rule by fear alone, instead seeking to co-opt useful men into his own organization. But he was just as happy to let loose his jackal to show the consequences of disloyalty. These early years from 1956-1962 were defined at first by mere survival: banditry, illegal trade and bribery were the only ways to stay alive. But slowly, with plenty of self promotion to help it, Mobutu’s reputation as a survivor and a winner grew locally, and then regionally. As the remnants of failed rebels and warlords drifted into his growing camp Mobutu was able to step beyond being a bandit king and into becoming a local powerbroker. He had already made himself the allied protector of the Tutsi refugees, and soon after the APL’s protracted people's war in the north began he sought to become the patron of his own native Ngbandi people as well. Where he had the most power in the eastern fringes the pan-Africanist APL held the north, with the Ngbandi in the middle still “up for grabs” between the APL, Mobutu and the German administration. It is here that he first developed his own separate political platform: unwilling or unable to come to an agreement with either of the other two factions Mobutu began developing his own ideology of an “authentic” congolese nationalism which was opposed to both pan-african and communist radicalism, “self defeating” regionalism and demanded the full liberation of the congo from european imperialism. But most importantly to those who heard his call was for unity under Mobutu: if the African people remained divided and timid they would be slaves forever, and only a great leader like Mobutu could bring them true liberty. As one may expect, this call for subordination won him very few new friends. The see-saw of influence in the Congo north and east is set to be radically upended in 1962, as kommissar Krogmann finally thinks he has enough stability in the west to launch a pacification campaign. In this he will be superficially successful: all anti-German factions will be forced to retreat and large swaths of land will be returned to German control. But it will not accomplish its primary objective of capturing and killing the leadership: Mobutu will once again avoid the hangman and will return when the Zentralafrika army goes marching south to the SAW. And when he does it will be with a new purpose. Much of his army was scattered or deserted by the German offensive, with many of the local allies he thought were in his hands all but begging to come to terms with the Germans after he was forced out. He had survived yes, but only by the skin of his teeth: this time he would do things differently. Taking lessons from the APL he will return in 1964 as a popular revolutionary rather than as a mere warlord with a printing press. Though still not fully developed it is here that “Joseph-Désiré” would become “Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa za Banga” or “The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake”. A new ideology of “Authentic” nationalism came with this new name, seeking to truly win over the hearts of the people as well as the loyalty of their leaders. It was a threat and a promise, as he would go about tearing down symbols of westernism in his wake and giving personal “gifts” to people or organizations which he wished to win over. He also sought to portray himself as an avenging angel, throwing “bad actors” such as denounced priests and hated collaborators against the wall. This new ideology, disseminated through the “Manifesto of Goma” is long in emotion and short in concrete policy. As such it was quickly denounced by the intellectuals of the Pan-Africanists and Liberals as not a “real” ideology and merely a cheap populism. But it is taken deadly seriously by the newly declared Mouvement Authenticité de la Révolution: for its supporters it promises a true rebirth of the congolese people from within rather than without. The Congo would be purged of malignant western influence by remaking the congolese individual in body, mind and spirit. This was the way to true freedom and dignity, far more than mere “material conditions” or to ape their constitutions. With his newfound identity and strategy Mobutu will of course be a prime target for Huttig’s retribution, but as is always the case too few men and not enough supplies will stop Huttig from ever putting him down for good. Plus Mobutu had found a new friend: the Japanese. In the immediate aftermath of Huttig’s takeover the Japanese will support the APL, but will quickly grow disenchanted: the naked radicalism and distrustful nature of the APL will lead to the Japanese looking for a more reliable partner, and Mobutu will aggressively angle to become just that. After having been rejected by the Americans in favor of the MNC Mobutu is the only big game left in the Congo for Japan to back, and was always a master at co-option and personal magnetism. He will charm the Japanese mission to sing his praises in Tokyo, even if there is little they can do for him at the moment. This will change when Huttig dies: taking a gamble Mobutu will strike at Stanleyville, successfully forcing the retreating garrison to leave behind most of their weapons and capturing an airport through which he will finally have solid connections with the outside world. The bad blood between him and the MNC and APL will mean that there is no choice but to fight it out as the Congo war begins in 1966, this time with Japan backing him to the hilt. Mobutu now seeks to become a legend. Already having gained a personal mythos after having been declared dead by the Germans several times, his wartime strategy will be to force the mass mobilization of the population. Under his personal name and with the backing of Japan he will force every man who comes under his control into his army, seeking to form a tidal wave of men which will overwhelm his enemies and make up for his lack of supply. If an enemy cannot be rooted out with simple force of numbers, it will be the job of his all Ngbandi “Leopard Division” or even better of Japanese “volunteers” to root them out. The success of this strategy is heavily dependent on momentum, and will rely on Japanese backing to arm itself. But if it is successful Zentralafrika will be no more, and neither will the Congo: The Republic of Zaire will rise as the newest power in Africa under the leadership of the nation's great guide: Mobutu Sese Seko. After a partial demobilization and a reconfirming of his alliance with “internal allies” such as the Tutsi under François Rukeba and the Bakongo under Holden Roberto he will initiate a grand campaign of national revolution and self aggrandizement: Zairianization. Asian inspired architecture of the newly built Presidential Palace. Among those celebrating the creation of Zaire will be the Japanese. All sides have poured a great deal of resources into the conflict, and the victory of Mobutu will doubtless be a strategic boon for Japanese influence on the continent. Mobutu for his part recognizes the usefulness of his new “friends”, but neither side is blinded by the propaganda: the dangers and opportunities of Nationalism are all too familiar. As mentioned in my previous post there are several common issues which any native unifyer must account for. The first among these is The Looming Famine: in the aftermath of years of war and mismanagement the supply of food to urban areas is critically unstable. And it is in this issue that the weaknesses of Mobutu’s regime will first be seen. Mobutu’s agricultural reform centers mostly on seizing land owned by the whites and his political enemies, and then redistributing it to himself, his political allies, and occasionally to the people. As everything with the Zairean revolution the purpose is twofold: to meet the needs of the people and to entrench Mobutu's personal political power. But often the second goal far outstrips the first: many of the people who gain this land do not know how to use the land productively, or if they do, are more interested in producing cash crops than they are in food staples. This is certainly the case for the massive amounts of land brought under Mobutu’s personal ownership, which will most often continue to grow the same way as the colonial plantations they were before. This reckless reorganization and focus on exports ensure that hunger will be an early and acute crisis for Zaire. The issue will be solved slowly, as roads are repaired and the rhythm of agricultural life is no longer disrupted by war, but the people need food now and more than anything else it is cassava and rice which the people demand from their leaders. It is by meeting this need that Japanese influence first becomes a powerful thing. Though motivated in part by genuine charity from well off Asians, the provision of food and aid is also cynically used by the Japanese state to buy the support of the people and the local power brokers away from Mobutu, and towards themselves. This aid, plus the government's own subsidies of food imports, plus the natural healing from war, will lead to the crisis fading away but leaving all sides on notice that the future of Zaire is still being made, and that the Japanese are a major player in it. The Mutilated Independence: The inability of Mobutu to take Leopoldville during the independence war is a blow to Mobutu’s prestige, not to mention Zaire as a whole. However he is pragmatic enough and has enough friends in Japan to hash out a deal with Nigeria and Gabon: the loss of the major port will not strangle Congolese exports or imports, only make them more expensive. But for both political and economic reasons the retaking of Leopoldville and the Kabinda port remain absolutely vital to the continued reign of Mobutu. To this end Mobutu’s solution to retaking Leopoldville is direct conquest, not because he can think of no other option but because it will give him the greatest personal prestige as a great conqueror. As such along with his policy of “Zairianization” and economic consolidation he will also invest a great deal into the army. This army will see its strength tested as Mobutu tries to expand his influence beyond the Zaireian borders. Gabon may be protected by America, but unleashing blitz style attacks on Angola and Rwanda is fair game. In Angola he will seek to set up Holden Roberto as a fellow autocratic “Authenticité” leader by supporting his meager army against the warring angolan factions in an attempted knockout blow. In Rwanda he will need to be somewhat more cautious (unless something very bad happens) but ultimately seeks to return Kigeli V to the throne on the backs of his long time exile allies. In this way he will both expand his influence as well as surround Leopoldville with friendly regimes. When the oil crisis hits Mobutu will leap at the opportunity to crush the Germans by launching an all out assault on “Festung Leopoldville”, and if successful will greatly increase his prestige, as well as rehabilitate his image in the eyes of other revolutionary leaders as a “true revolutionary”. If he fails in these wars however he will decline, and need to lean ever more heavily on Japan to prop himself up. This is somewhat awkward for Japan itself: having previously backed leftist movements as their best options they must now choose between their old allies and the new anti-leftist gambles taken by Mobutu. But despite the heartburn Zaire is simply too valuable in the african chaos for Japan to not continue supporting it, and so the rising sun shall backstab their allies in the name of pragmatism to the benefit of Mobutu. And besides, these new factions typically promess a better deal than the socialists did. Mobutu walks a fine line in African politics: though he has denounced the APL’s brand of pan-africanism he also wishes to be seen as a great revolutionary. Surrounded as he is by pan-african or otherwise revolutionary movements it is only good sense to say you are one of them. And to many Mobutu is just that: a liberating revolutionary who both freed and united great swaths of africa from pernicious white influence. But for the wider Marxist inspired world of African liberation his clear anti-communist is difficult to accept, no matter how well he speaks the language of pan-african pride. Lingering Regionalism: In this question Mobutu is the most radical, and his policy is what you may know him for OTL. While all revolutionaries desire to establish a united identity, and some of them will do so by autocratic centralization, Mobutu makes the establishment of a “true” Zaireian nation a core part of his rule. As established in the Manifesto of Goma Mobutu promesses a national revolution in which regionalism will be swept away by a new, authentic program of nation building which will decolonize the Congolese mind as well as their hands. In practical terms this means the creation of a totalitarian state which will regulate and make “african” all aspects of life. Western influence will be attacked via the banning of christian names and nationalizing catholic church property. A citizen dress code will be implemented as well as a “traditional” family code which will favor male-dominated polygamy and property laws. Though his own praetorian guard of the leopard division is tribally biased the army as a whole will have a new organization forbidding any unit to be more than 20% uniform in tribal origin. This campaign is carried out with special zeal against the influence of Catholicism. Seeing it as both a challenge to his own power and as a malignant foreign influence Mobutu will make a great show of putting priests on trial and instructing his followers to declare that Mubutu is like Jesus and the MAR like the church. Schools, previously run almost exclusively by religious organizations, will be nationalized and their curriculum no longer permitted to teach Christianity but instead to teach “Mobutuism”. Though he will not have the strength needed to wipe out the church entirely during the 60s or early 70s Mobutu will be able to effectively cow this institution and dare any priest to say “sacrilege”. This campaign will provide a degree of unity, pride and self confidence to the shattered nation beyond what any other program could do, but it is all provided through the image of Mobutu as the great sun king of the new nation. Mobutu will seek to become the center of a pseudo-religious cult of personality with mass public celebrations of his figure following him wherever he goes and an entourage singing songs in his praise. A consequence of the personalism in this campaign is than any embarrassing failures will not only reflect poorly on the nation but on Mobutu himself. As such he will often get worked up by seemingly trivial matters: if the football team should be lucky enough to participate in the world cup they will do so under the threat that if they do not perform well enough it will see retribution on them at home. But as part of building this cult he must never let any other person, even his own children, get a moment in the spotlight. Below him is transient chaos, while above him is none: he alone is the rock on which Zaire can be built. This policy is most clearly seen in his handling of the Warlord Plague. Here Mobutu has a two sided policy: All those military figures which he believes could pose a threat to his rule will at first be executed publicly and brutally. In the opening months of his reign he will institute a mini reign of terror to make an example of many warlords and political enemies. However, once the example has been made he will move on to a policy of co-opting these same men. Often through direct bribery, or through positions of prestige and other perks, local strongmen who will accept his rule are brought into the state machine by promising the opportunity to profit in exchange for loyalty. This opportunity is often revoked without notice or reason and personal rivalry at the top is encouraged: in this way no other individual is able to form a stable powerbase. But at the same time individuals previously kicked out of power may be rehabilitated just as quickly, rising once again to wealth and prestige on the auspices of Mobutu’s favor. In this way no elite is a permanent outsider, and the best move for many will seem to be “wait and see”. This of course makes the internal administration of the nation hell, but it does keep Mobutu in undisputed power without even the glimmer of a rival. This policy of personal co-option extends even to The Belgian Question. The Europeans remaining property will be nationalized and they will be deported, but it will not come with the punitive brutality of the pan-africanists. Mobutu has no love for the Belgians, and will not tolerate their continued dominance, but he also has no special hatred for them, seeing them mostly as political liabilities and rivals rather than ideology defining enemies: that distinction goes to the Germans. But after this show of nationalistic force the door will be left open to their return: many of the nationalized properties are redistributed to those without the knowledge, skill or desire to maintain their productivity. As such when those same Europeans are offered the chance to buy back their property or even return to the Congo Mobutu will not get in their way: so long as they avoid getting lynched along the way by Mobutu’s notoriously brutal and poorly disciplined soldiers he will let them have their piece too so long as they accept that it is by his grace alone that they keep it. Part of this leniency is out of a calculated mercy to Europeans: Mobutu is smart enough to know that making himself solely reliant on Japan is a poor strategy, and will seek to make connections with America, Italy and Brazil. Having mercy on the Belgians and keeping the door open to cooperation with the Euros is an easy way to mollify western opinion and thus maintain his own independence on the world stage. Of course even this policy has limits: Germany and those under her will see the door slammed shut. Which brings us neatly into the great struggle which defines the early Mobutu regime: addressing the Economic Devastation. In keeping with his Authenticité program Mobutu wishes to nationalize all previously foreign owned industry, which is the vast majority of all industry, under the one-party state. These national corporations, modeled off of the Japanese Zaibatsu and Italian corporatism, will be either controlled directly by Mobutu, by his close political allies, or (to his own displeasure) by East Asians, most often the Japanese. Mobutu’s Japanese backers are willing to prop up his regime, to allow whatever social and political organization he wishes, but they have come to the Congo for a reason. That reason is money and resources, and with Authenticité pushing for the cartelization of all money in the Congo the Japanese demand to be let in. Mobutu cannot simply dismiss them: it is Japanese credit and weapons which ensure he stays secure and on top. But he is also unwilling to simply roll over for them: he is a nationalist and a deeply ambitious man, and will not be satisfied with anything less than personal ownership of the Zaire economy. As such the 60s and early 70s will be a contest between true Mobutu loyalists and pro-Japanese opportunists for who will gain a majority share of the new nation's economic resources. Japan offers cash, guns, food, technical advisors and diplomatic support (all of which Zaire really needs) in return for shares in the national corporations and local extractions. They will also play dirty by employing bribes, intimidation tactics, organized crime and even clandestine support of anti-mobutu civil resistance to put pressure on the regime to open up more space for the Japanese. To counter this Mobutu has all the tools of the state at his disposal, as well as the mobilization of his own hard core group of supporters for intimidation or political pressure on local leaders. “Kazi ndjo baba, ndjo mama” (work, it is my father, it is my mother), is a common phrase in Katanga which alludes to the paternalist role played by large companies such as the Union Minière, which would provide housing, education, and sometimes even wives to their workers in exchange for productive loyalty. Even after the full German takeover “company work” maintained a facade of this relationship. Japan is well positioned to take up the old Union Minière paternalism tactics, offering workers higher and more regular pay than what native organizations sometimes can, while also reinforcing a culture of dependency which Mobutu is trying to break (or bend to his own ends). It is this contest for the hard cash and rare metals provided by the Congo which will determine the final form the Authenticité regime takes. If Mobutu is victorious and secures the lion's share of the economy for himself and a large enough share for his allies the Zairean Revolution will be complete with major bonuses to stability and political power, and even more importantly to Mobutu’s personal fortune. Though never giving public access to his personal books Mobutu will be plausibly rumored to be worth billions, with he and his family being some of the foremost african business people in the world and minor celebrities in the co-prosperity sphere. However the economy will suffer greatly from this as all economic efficiency and business skill has been sacrificed in the name of Mobutu’s personal power: though he is the undisputed master of Zaire it will be a deeply dysfunctional country economically, and if commodity prices were to fall he may need to go crawling back to the outside world to bail him out. On the other hand if Japan wins Zaire will become a neo-colonial strip, with its most lucrative industries owned in part or in full by the Japanese and the state unable to do anything about it without critically undermining its own elite support. This will make Mobutu into only a multi-millionaire rather than a billionaire, as well as undermine his public image of all powerful invincibility. With the Japanese ambassador keeping a hawkish eye on him and his party Mobutu will be left to stew in his unhappy lot knowing that if he ceases to play the part assigned to him the Japanese can always find someone else. This will also be the end of the Authentice campaign as even uneducated workers can see that their bread comes not from “Father Marshal” but from their places of work, owned by foreigners once again. But it is arguably better economically, as the extractive industries are at least run competently and its workers will be paid in full and on time more often. In all cases Zaire will be a sphere observer, but in this case it will be a part of the Japanese economic sphere as well. The later 70s and 80s will be difficult times for either end as prices crash and the cumulative effects of bad government and foreign domination come to the fore. But that is a story for another day. Japan or Mobutu, success or failure, unity or farce, one thing remains constant: the Zairean military officers are the new nobility of the new nation. Corruption is an endemic and potentially crippling issue in Zaire, and this is seen most clearly in the military, where officers will steal wages and army units will act close to bandits in the more remote regions, creating an atmosphere of fear. But the best position is that of an Air Force officer, with prominent families often paying through the nose for their sons to be educated in Japanese military academies to earn their wings. submitted by Johnny_Boy398 to TNOmod [link] [comments] |
2023.05.29 12:53 1002319 Experience at the Park Hyatt Tokyo
| Recently stayed at the PH Tokyo so wanted to share a few thoughts on my experience at the property Availability: Booked 2 nights for 60K points. The WoH app / website didn’t show availabilities so called the member hotline to book our stay – would suggest giving this a shot if you can’t seem to find standard room / suites available online. Nights were booked 2 months ahead of our stay. Status recognition: Listing a few perks you can expect as a globalist…Access to the club on the park was surreal, would recommend spending some time in the spa (great views / quality). Breakfast is awesome, didn’t choose the Japanese option but the Western offerings were great (buffet + menu to choose from). Priority access to NY bar / resto is nice. Late check-out at 4pm is helpful, and they even offer a shuttle service to Shinjuku station. Didn’t get a suite upgrade. Staff: PH Tokyo has an amazing staff. Super helpful, friendly, and sharp. They pay very close attention to detail! They also gifted my partner some flowers, chocolate, and sweets as it was her birthday (happy to share more on how genuine the staff was when giving these to my partner, it was very sweet). Overall, one of the best PHs I’ve been to! Experience: Outstanding views (pictures can’t capture the beauty of these), you can even see Mt. Fuji from the property. The lobby was absolutely amazing, giving different experiences / vibes in the day and night. The PH Tokyo may feel “dated” relative to newer PH properties (e.g., Kyoto, Chicago), but we thought it gave a nostalgic and charming aura to the property – we really loved it. Location: A few minutes walk from a few Shinjuku stations but there’s also a shuttle that you can take which is helpful. Hopefully this can help add some context on the threads available throughout this forum (also will make a similar post for GH Tokyo & PH Kyoto)! Looking forward to discussing these! submitted by 1002319 to hyatt [link] [comments] |
2023.05.29 11:30 Lopsided-Parsley-178 What happened on this flight?
I worked in travel a few years ago and I was on an Emirates flight back from Perth to Dubai after returning with a work trip with the Western Australia tourism board and Emirates/Qantas but it was a pretty strange experience. When we boarded there was around 40-50 people on board including the 10 in our group and the crew and it was probably the least amount of people I’ve ever seen on a long haul flight!
We take off and about 5 minutes from taking off the male flight attendant is looking out of the window from his seat and pointing to the female flight attendant near him. He seemed quite worked up and then the whole crew remained in their take off seats for around 30-45 minutes whilst talking on those phones that they have.
About 30-45 minutes after take off, we’re told over the loud speaker that we’re expecting turbulence throughout the flight and to keep our seat belts on at all times (the sign literally didn’t turn off). The flight attendants then started to move everyone to the middle/left side of the plane and closed the window blinds on the right side. I asked if anything was wrong and why the male flight attendant seemed worried at the start but was just told that it was turbulence causing the seat belt sign issue and that he was just ‘admiring’ the view from take off (that sentence has always stuck with me).
After about 11 hours of flying, we reach Dubai and we land at a completely separate part of the airport to the main terminal part. We had to wait for them to get stairs (I kid you not, the type you’d use to get on a Ryan air or EasyJet low cost flight), and arrange for a shuttle bus to pick us up and take us to the terminal. It was a pretty strange experience - We got inside the terminal and were scurried through by an airport rep but enroute they upgraded our entire party to business class for the Dubai to London leg with Qantas (presumably as the previous flight wasn’t a great experience) and no further mention of it was ever made.
I have just been talking to someone about this strange experience today and just wondered if this is protocol if something happens with an engine or an issue with the plane? I wish I’d pushed for more info at the time but it was a bit of a whirlwind experience.
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Flights [link] [comments]
2023.05.29 11:27 Lopsided-Parsley-178 What happened on this flight?
I worked in travel a few years ago and I was on an Emirates flight back from Perth to Dubai after returning with a work trip with the Western Australia tourism board and Emirates/Qantas but it was a pretty strange experience. When we boarded there was around 40-50 people on board including the 10 in our group and the crew and it was probably the least amount of people I’ve ever seen on a long haul flight!
We take off and about 5 minutes from taking off the male flight attendant is looking out of the window from his seat and pointing to the female flight attendant near him. He seemed quite worked up and then the whole crew remained in their take off seats for around 30-45 minutes whilst talking on those phones that they have.
About 30-45 minutes after take off, we’re told over the loud speaker that we’re expecting turbulence throughout the flight and to keep our seat belts on at all times (the sign literally didn’t turn off). The flight attendants then started to move everyone to the middle/left side of the plane and closed the window blinds on the right side. I asked if anything was wrong and why the male flight attendant seemed worried at the start but was just told that it was turbulence causing the seat belt sign issue and that he was just ‘admiring’ the view from take off (that sentence has always stuck with me).
After about 11 hours of flying, we reach Dubai and we land at a completely separate part of the airport to the main terminal part. We had to wait for them to get stairs (I kid you not, the type you’d use to get on a Ryan air or EasyJet low cost flight), and arrange for a shuttle bus to pick us up and take us to the terminal. It was a pretty strange experience - We got inside the terminal and were scurried through by an airport rep but enroute they upgraded our entire party to business class for the Dubai to London leg with Qantas (presumably as the previous flight wasn’t a great experience) and no further mention of it was ever made.
I have just been talking to someone about this strange experience today and just wondered if this is protocol if something happens with an engine or an issue with the plane? I wish I’d pushed for more info at the time but it was a bit of a whirlwind experience.
submitted by
Lopsided-Parsley-178 to
travel [link] [comments]
2023.05.29 08:20 Old-Try-3489 Rucoy Online Science Fiction (Quest - feature ideas)
Rucoy Online Science Fiction
The lvl 1 Rats are actually secretly released drug-addicted, heroin and cocaine addicts, as well as failed expiriments (like most Leaderboard players) many of them have enlarged prostates, others are constantly lactating and spilling milk that spoils the place. The reason all the lvl 1 rats look the same and all creatures for that matter, in Rucoy, besides the yellow names for the elites, is that they were put in a skin-suit, that morphs the body so they can't tell another apart, so it creates a 'in-group-mindset'. As many freelance Rucoyians realize this, when they later discover elites, at least subconsciously, they will often be too oppressed by 'Elitist' mobs to ask the basic question, of 'Why aren't their elite rats/crows/goblins/worms/scorpians/snakes' (as of 5/28/2023) - and the answer is simple and may seem like a linguistical play, but it's because they literally aren't elitist; meaning they aren't rich or well-connected. They are the experimented-on, degenerates of the World of Rucoy Online. The snakes are subject to being used for their venom in labs to develop antibiotics for their poisonous bites as well as scorpian stings, but it's mainly a placebo, because these creatures are rather benign in their toxic elements, basically they're as toxic as a mild hangover from one ounce shot of mild beer as a 90 pound adult. The lvl 1 rats, who are trying to break the chains of their pre-determined environments, evolve into lvl 3 rats if they're successful, hiding in a cave from GM Rucoy and his apostles.
Why are Brazilians one of the most prominent player base in Rucoy Online?
They have vast forestry and problems with their economy as well as a certain bottomless desperation to prove themselves worthy enough to be acknowledged by Ricardo in the ways of boss drops so they can hang up trophies, plaques, NFTs and milestones of their titles, achievements and progress, relative to other players as well as seem worthy enough to get dinner from their Community. Rucoy acts as the 'bread and circus' of their day, while they scavenge for crumbs of bread in their environment, they're rich and OP in game and can access more prospoerous parts of the World through simply hopping servers, which is less expensive and risky than boarding a flight, in their mind - they may end up living into their 50s and 60s-- eventually retirement homes, paid for by their training and farming North American and European accounts-- wealth that Rucoy gives them access to! Brazilians have a lot more hanging in the balance than the typical, European or Western, Continent and so they may also exude a creed of toxicity to affirm their dominance, that is one of scamming, desperate flattery and self-perceived toughness to mask the symptoms of doom and vulnerability.
Why are there Rucoy Online, knock-off games?
Nobody is as great, as Game Master Ricardo. Of course, he had game ideas and templates from other games to go off from his Childhood, like any other game Creator has, but he didn't say, use a fossilized dinosoar bone from Zelda and chisel around it to make his own game, he had way more creativity, although used paid-for game assets as well, but the Rucoy Online knock off game that came out not so long ago, is basically slightly off-centered Rucoy Online and they even copied Ricardo's last name, as if they were related and have the audacity to have the option to buy diamonds at like 3x the price of Rucoy Online (at least at the time I played it) well GM Ricardo is taking the high road, it doesn't look like he has taken legal action against them and he's depending on brand-loyalty and sunk-cost fallacy, for players to stick with his game; although he has increased amount of updates but that may be also due to offloading tasks to AI that formally may have cost him 5-6 figures to do regularly, although it doesn't seem like his updates are that regular at this point - however, after people realize that GM Ricardo has ties to Freemasons and the Jewish-backed Media, he even has been rumored to be attending World Economic Forum meetings and to have applied a year before the creation of Rucoy, in January 1st, 2015! People will change their tune about Rucoy Online and they will adopt it as the premier, defualt game for all online, capable devices, Include Android, Apple, Laptop, Destop and Smart-Watches and Rucoy shares will be sold at a starting price of 100kk each, which will translate into 1000$ USD by 2027-2030-- will basically be more profitable investment promoted by Economists than Tesla, General Electric, Patroleum, Apple, Gold, Diamonds, Bitcoin, or any other Fortune 500 Company and GM Ricardo will be escorted around in a Buggatti by the Tate brothers, Secret Service will also consider him as capable as a President/Prime MinisteTop War General and provide 24/7/365 protection.
When is playing Rucoy too much of a sacrafice?
Theoretically, never. Rucoy Online is a good substitute for a life plan, outside of games, because it is so rewarding and stimulating, while others, have met their significant other on this game, many criticize hardcore players for over-playing, but in reality, it can be a passive game, but also, you have to keep conscious of your device, outside of your pocket usually and well-charged, so it will have to constantly be on your mind and this may leave you open to being exped by elites, or killed by vengeful, jealous players who want bragging rights of having bagged a top player - although you can always train in opposite time-zones, so if it's 12PM in EST time-zone and you're online, you can afk train in, say, Asia. However, players can server hop indefinitely, without penalty, if they clear their data, after they reach server hop limit, penalty-timer; which is also used to sometimes KS Demon teams, by opps, trolls, and the bedazzled ones, or competing Guilds and sharers. Though, it's not that fun, to keep hopping and clearing data and generally, they dont do it for more than 10-20 minutes, in my experience, as i've dealt with this with stream-snipers on my Lvl 1 in vampires, when my other account was skulled, following my Lvl 1-- though most people who try to follow demon teams will be tricked or out-played because the entire team will work together to exp/kill them, so it's also counter-productive and meritably unexecutable for any long-term strategy, beyond poor impulse-control. If you live in an area where it's very poor it also may be more profitable to train/farm accounts than get a local job in your area-- also, Rucoy can act as a substitute for 'bad' behaviors like joining violent gangs, engaging in actual terrorism, doing hardcore drugs, becoming an Alcoholic, etc. or binge-eating and giving a 'reason' to not be homeless, as then it's harder to find a place to charge your device for Rucoy! You can also gain creative-advantage by engaging in Role-play, not just in writing a book like this, but in server, guild, with friends ingame or just divulging in isolated, story ideas, which tends to lead to other 'outside the box' thinking, so yes, you can gain advantages by playing what seems like a mind-numbing game, because in boredom, comes creativity and inspiration towards other endeavors, which may dovetail the former point about why there's no Minos music, as it is a pretty popular area for training for a lot of time-invested players.
Rucoy Online to be a main contributor of 21st Education!
Pretty soon there will be Doctorates offered in Rucoyology, including honorary Doctorates to players who solo'd 90+% of their account progress and achieve 620 + defense. The Doctorates will be offered by Ivy League Universities like Harvard, MIT, Yale, Oxford University, Etc. and will entitle the individual to get 50% off of Whoppers at Burger King as well as unlimited access to battery replacements and wireless internet so that you can even play Rucoy while you camp in a Mountainous forest in the Everglades. Rucoyians will be offered an internship program, where they learn the ways of a general Rucoyian and earn a basis of Monster slayer titles and Expert titles to complete the equivalent of a 'General Education' that will make them versatile players among the newest contributing members to the land of Rucoy. Also, there will be a weekly raffle, to win plane tickets to your nearest fast-food restaurant, with wifi, to make Rucoy Online the most popular game in that particular area played via Restaurant Wifi. There will also be renovations and leasing agents to existing malls and shopping centers to install various Rucoy 'Gift Shops' where you can buy physical, Rucoy Diamonds, Merch and engage in tournaments with other Rucoy players, to submerge your interests in an ever-intertwining pool of talent and diplomacy so you can work together to create the most awesome farming and arena experience-- there will also be localized, physical tournaments, similar to how Pokemon and other trading card games evolved in game stores and outlets that wanted to host fun events for youngsters and prospective champions in the realm of story and game time - Rucoy will become a household name and Sport practiced Globally as well as formally recognized as an Olympic Sport, mainly, probably dominated by starving Brazilians, looking for Global recognition, to leave the chains of their poverty and be sponsored athletes, also in the UFC stars like Connor Mcgregor and Anderson Silva will have body Tattoos of top Rucoy players to advertise their particular legacy and Guild and there will be ranked, arena PVP titles for each ingame server, for guilds as well as individuals to defend, based on their level and guild composition, seperation by categories and tiers, agreed upon staking and even sometimes diamonds and cosmetic unlockables for players who achieve the tops of their particular class, for example (top 10000 hours player, top lvl 75-125, top NA1 Registered Guild, top Global Guild, etc. - most wins per day, maybe a cap for total matches allowed to be played, as well as minimal amount of players for rewards - to bypass cheating with multiple devices).
Why is Chat very toxic in Rucoy Online at times?
People can't compete with buying top accounts or lack interest in training a lot, or find compatable motivation for training and talking junk, making up false-accusations, over-blowing mistakes or past failures, to the point where they define someone over something they did maybe once or twice several years ago and don't generally believe in redemption as well as hype up fear and paranoia over associating with those people, for others to be deemed as toxic, if they're friends with these people or allow them in their guild, or join their guild - etc. People actually get a high out of the reactions and subverting nature of turning something potentially beautiful into an unforeseen wasteland, it is misplaced energy and if they had another outlet and maybe more incentive to do something else, that is contributory, they would do it-- it's best to guide people towards a healing and developmentally superior path and influence people to make better decisions, rather than demonize or persecute or Morally condemn people, although that has it's place as well; however, some people get a feeling of euphoria for being talked about, even if it's negative and negative attention is better than no attention, so it's better to act as an on-ramp towards plausible behavior, I have asked people to contribute to this work as well as offer suggestions and I will add them in the credits and acknowledgements, as a way of doing my part, for helping people to engage in their creative interests, as well as try to ask people personable questions to whatever they're doing that allows them to feel connected, engaged and interested in opening up-- this is partially due to being lvl 1 and not being able to access server chat, however, role-playing as the 'bad' man is also funny but because Rucoy appeals to young and naive children/teens, they may take it the wrong way, so I think it's healthier to admit, this is Science-Fiction and introduce, facts, analysis, creativity, half-truths, improvement ideas, as well as just plain silly, dystopian ideas. End Rucoy entrenched Toxicity today!
Everyone who uses Server chat for more than a week is eventually accused of Pedophelia, especially if they are self-admitted adults:
"You play a kid's game!" "You're too old to play this game!" Also, people who are minors will invite you to say things that incriminate or compromise your integrity, in order to blackmail, screenshot or have leverage over you - this is a pretty common phenomena, of course Jeffrey Epstein did this to Elites, professionally, it happens to 'nobodies' in online Communities as well, also, different countries have different laws for what age is legal for 'enticing' talk to take place. It is not universally bad to all people and of course with the advent of gender reassignment surgery, being a mainstream practice in many places, that is-- they can literally, medically, be subsidized to have their 3 year-olds genitals cut-off even despite non-parental consent, in many areas, is cause for alarm in of itself, and is probably an even bigger or slippery slope problem, for child abuse, that is slowly boiling the water to have deleterious affects on minors and to degenerate and systematically subvert the parent's influence over their children, that moves many steps further than Public education, calling traditional parents 'racist' or 'xenophobic' etc. and that 'guns' are anti-children, somehow, etc. but generally, people are taking out their abandonend, neglected, abused, ignored, traumatized, detached, disassociative and nihilistic attitude towards the Server chats and PVP world by just dominating and destroying any possibility of successful progress, pretending as if their childhood are determinants for their overall life and that they need to abuse others before they become abused, it's quite sad actually.
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2023.05.29 04:46 scarlet2248 Recommended Wedding Venues by State Part I
| California Wedding Venues Carneros Resort and Spa Located at 4048 Sonoma Hwy, Napa. It has a rustic charm where you can see vineyard views and rolling hills. Also offers a hilltop restaurant with an outdoor venue that can accommodate up to 300 people. Catering, wedding planning, floral arrangements, photography, and other services are available. And the starting price is $200 per person. https://preview.redd.it/hsuvufj35q2b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=7dde25aaa6c10d5ec27f3693f1307d8e3d152e36 Park Winters Located at 27850 County Road 26, Winters. This is a five-star wedding venue and estate located in the middle of a farmland. There is a historic inn and event barn. This would be perfect for those who love a natural outdoor wedding surrounded by the beauty of the Blue Mountains. Catering, wedding planning, floral arrangements, photography, and more are available. Prices start at $150 per person and can accommodate up to 200 guests. Montage Laguna Beach The address is 30801 South Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. This romantic waterfront venue offers a lush grassy setting looking out over the coastline and blue sky. The largest ballroom has 7,500 square feet of space and can accommodate up to 500 people. Prices start at $250 per person. Services offered include catering, wedding planning, spa, music, and much more. Oregon Wedding Venues Sentinel Hotel Located at 614 SW 11th Ave, Portland. This hotel is housed in a historic downtown building dating back to 1909. There are several exquisite banquet rooms to choose from, ranging from 50 to accommodate up to 900 people. The ballrooms are ornately decorated with elaborate carvings and elegant chandeliers. Prices start at $150 per person. Necessary wedding services are also available. Mt. Hood Oregon Resort The location is 68010 East Fairway Avenue, Welches. Which can give you a dream forest wedding surrounded by lush forests and the majestic mountains of Mt. Hood National Forest. Unlike other wedding venues, guided hikes and rafting excursions are available here. There is also a golf course for your use. The largest venue can accommodate up to 400 people. Prices start at $100 per person. Lakeside Gardens Located at 16211 SE Foster Rd Portland, Lakeside Gardens offers essential vendors for photography, videography, flowers, DJs, and hair and makeup services. It is surrounded by a lake and offers a natural view of the garden. The largest hospitality venue can accommodate up to 300 people. Prices start at $100 per person. Washington Wedding Venues The Edgewater Hotel The luxury hotel at 2411 Alaskan Way, Seattle, was named "Best Classic Hospitality Venue in the Seattle Area" by Seattle Bride magazine. With views of Elliott Bay, the Olympic Mountains, and the Seattle skyline. The ballroom can accommodate up to 220 guests and prices start at around $200 per person. Sodo Park Located at 3200 1st Avenue South, Suite 100 in Seattle. This is a century-old building factory with a different style that makes it very popular in Seattle. The high beams and steamy ceilings make it unique. The entire venue can accommodate up to 300 guests and costs around $150 per person. https://preview.redd.it/7pydpxau5q2b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=6bb68468589b0b0fd4001d5f0fd9bba8b87ecc81 Cedarbrook Lodge The address is 18525 36th Ave S, Seattle. Here you will find a lush garden setting and luxurious accommodations. Indoor and outdoor hospitality venues are available to choose from, starting at $150 per person. Arizona Wedding Venues Boulders Resort & Spa The address is 34631 N Tom Darlington Dr, Scottsdale. This resort has a fantastic desert and rocky landscape. With open views and the vibrant colors of the desert sky at sunset. Offers a luxurious spa, and outdoor ceremony space. Prices start at $200 per person and can accommodate up to 300 guests. The Phoenician Located at 6000 East Camelback Road Scottsdale. There are various styles of venues to choose from, whether it be lush green gardens, sparkling waterfalls, or breathtaking valley views. There are also several sizes of banquet rooms to choose from. Prices start at $250 per person. Arizona Biltmore The resort is located at 2400 E. Missouri Ave Phoenix. Nestled among palm trees and mountains. A magical oasis forms at the base of the Phoenix Mountain Reserve, enjoying a tranquil desert setting. There are also two pools available and a total of six wedding venue options for up to 400 people. Starting at $150 per person. Nevada Wedding Venues The Venetian An old-school luxury hotel located at 3355 South Las Vegas Boulevard, it can bring you the most traditional and unique Las Vegas-style wedding. Here you can admire the Italian style of architecture. Featuring indoor and outdoor ceremony spaces, and luxury accommodations. Starting at $200 per person. Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa Located at 11011 W Charleston Boulevard, Las Vegas. Unlike other luxury hotels, here you have a view of the Red Rock Canyon. The hotel offers five ballrooms and wedding venues that can accommodate up to 300 people. Prices start at $150 per person. Neon Museum Want to try something different for your wedding venue? Choose the Neon Museum at 770 Las Vegas Boulevard North, Las Vegas, with its vintage neon signage, outdoor ceremony space, and unique atmosphere. You can take very vintage and fun photos. Prices are $2,500 for a two-hour rental, perfect for smaller weddings. https://preview.redd.it/y81lp1mw5q2b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=9c2444c8bee3e004a0d33ecaa3a0b3e063374816 Idaho Wedding Venues Boise Depot Located at 2603 W Eastover Terrace, Boise. This is a historic Spanish-style building that was once used as a waiting room with the building. 8-hour rental is $1,455 and can accommodate a minimum of 165 people. It is important to note that government-owned venues like this have strict rules of use. So it is best to check carefully before renting. https://preview.redd.it/ltd94bwy5q2b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=ccee5ac0e7cc98df66eb8b42662c597758bd8339 Chateau des Fleur The French-style building at 176 S. Rosebud Ln, Eagle. The largest ballroom features ivory walls, beautiful windows, an outdoor exit to the garden, gold chandeliers, and delicate gold wall sconces. Seating for up to 240 guests starts at $100 per person. Still Water Hollow Located at 18120 Dean Ln, Nampa. Has a rustic style and offers brand new indoor barn facilities. Tables and chairs for 150 people, pond with waterfall, fountain, and bridge. Rustic and elegant style venues can be designed for different styles of weddings. 12-hour rentals start at $5,500. Utah Wedding Venues Castle Park A full-service event venue located at 110 South Main Street Lindon. Featuring an old castle-style building with outdoor ceremony space. Starting at $5,500 for a 12-hour rental. Catering, wedding planning, and other services are also available. Red Butte Garden Magnificent gardens at 300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City. With expansive views of mountains, valleys, and gardens, offering a beautiful backdrop of plants. There are also waterfalls, ponds, and many more beautiful spaces. We recommend coming during the growing season of the plants which is the warmer months. This allows for a ceremony to be held in the stunning rose garden. Four-hour rentals from $2,500. Log Haven Located at 6451 E. Millcreek Canyon Road Salt Lake City has a spectacular mountain wedding and reception venue. With countless natural features and waterfalls, the area also offers activities including skiing, hiking, biking, and golfing. Prices are affordable, with menu pricing starting at $32 per person. Montana Wedding Venues Chico Hot Springs Located at 163 Chico Road Pray, Montana, this is a great year-round destination for weddings in Montana. Offering a variety of natural beauty and architectural features. Besides the historic stone houses, there are also mountain views. You can also soak in the hot springs to relieve the fatigue from the ceremony after a long day. Four-hour rentals start at $2,000. Rockin' TJ Ranch The address is 651 Lynx Ln, Bozeman, with unparalleled views of the Bridger Mountains and open meadows. This wedding venue has been a professional wedding service for 20 years and offers full-service planning. Basic venue packages start at $9,495. The Ranch at Rock Creek Located at 79 Carriage House Ln, Philipsburg, this large ranch allows the exploration of five mountain peaks. Find nature's rest and inspiration in the peaceful, storied West. It is also the world's first Forbes Travel Guide 5-star ranch. With ten square miles of rivers, forests, valleys, and vistas. Of course, this luxury experience comes with a hefty price tag. Charters start at $90,000 per night for groups of 21 or more, plus 23% of the ranch fee. Wyoming Wedding Venues Jackson Lake Lodge Located in Moran, Grand Teton National Park, this is a beautiful lodge less than five minutes from Jackson Lake. Known for its iconic views of the Teton Mountains. It is a must-see venue for couples who love nature. Because of its location within the National Park, Jackson Lake Lodge is open seasonally from mid-May to early October. Rates start at $150 per person. Shooting Star Jackson Hole Golf Club The address is Shooting Star, 6765 Crystal Springs Rd, Teton Village. In addition to the golf course view, a pond, lake, or stream is one of the beautiful views. Starting price is $200 per person. Wyoming Stargazing Are you an astronomy enthusiast? Check out the Stargazing Agency located at 1135 Maple Way G1, Jackson. Their wedding packages include the opportunity to learn about the constellations, planets, and the fascinating stories behind them. Stargazing tour leaders will guide the group through the night sky, answering questions and gaining insight into the beauty of the stars. This will be one of the most unique themed weddings guests have ever attended. Prices start at $175 a person. Colorado Wedding Venues Boettcher Mansion Located at 900 Colorow Rd, Golden's premier historic event venue, the Boettcher Mansion offers unparalleled service in a meticulously maintained estate. Along with the beautiful mansion, there are mountain views for you to enjoy. The ballroom can accommodate up to 150 people with six-hour rentals starting at $3,500. Butterfly Pavilion The Butterfly Pavilion at 6252 W 104th Ave, Westminster can turn your wedding into a fairy tale. Offering outdoor venues such as gazebos, gardens, and a theater. There is also a popular and unique butterfly release ceremony. It is important to note that there are a variety of butterflies and plants, so please treat them with care. The minimum venue rental is $1,800. Great Divide Brewing Company Great Divide Brewing Company, located at 1812 35th St, Denver, allows you to host a beer wedding. Up to 75 guests can be accommodated so they will be in the middle of a keg. The atmosphere will be more relaxed and enjoyable, and a bar and drinks, planning, equipment, and servers will be provided. Rentals are for 6 hours and start at $3000. New Mexico Wedding Venues La Fonda on the Plaza The hotel at 100 E San Francisco St, Santa Fe has a long history as well as a cultural background. It can provide an elegant atmosphere for your wedding, with unique hand-carved furniture in each room. There are four ballrooms to choose from, with authentic New Mexican décor. This includes charming fireplaces, hand-punched pewter chandeliers, and traditional terracotta tiles. Prices for Saturday weddings start at $4,000. Loretto Chapel Located at 207 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe's Museum of Historic Places is perfect for weddings. Accommodating 139 guests, the interior of the chapel features original stained glass windows and an ornate altar. In particular, the church's famous spiral staircase is the star of many articles and is worth a look. Prices for Saturday weddings start at $2,500 and services include the use of the church and wedding coordinator. https://preview.redd.it/fe6dx2916q2b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d2e10702746d6b6c978cc0149f31cda7e68b97b Albuquerque Balloon Museum This is the hot air balloon museum located at 9201 Balloon Museum Dr. NE, Albuquerque. It offers soaring spaces and panoramic views of the Rio Grande Valley and the Sandia Mountains. The museum features displays of hot air balloons of all colors and eras, including a weather lab. The price to rent the entire museum and North Plaza for six hours is $6,000. North Dakota Wedding Venues Red River Zoo The Zoo at 4255 23rd Ave S, Fargo will be the most interesting wedding venue. The zoo is home to animals such as red pandas, gray wolves, and Pallas cats. There is plenty of space for outdoor weddings as well as indoor receptions, and a carousel is available in one of the venues. Saturday weddings start at $1,500 and services include tables, chairs, and access to the zoo exhibits. The North Dakota Heritage Center The address is 612 E Boulevard Ave, Bismarck. The museum showcases the state's rich history from its earliest geological formations to the present day. Offering a variety of indoor spaces, including galleries and a theater, it provides a unique and educational wedding experience. Prices for Saturday weddings start at $1,500. https://preview.redd.it/9xgracm66q2b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=1a93e0d6f2377d2b555f63c47fb381ff5a8cf3db Avalon Events Center Prefer a more modern style wedding? The Event Center at 2525 9th Ave S, Fargo, while historic, offers five function rooms and new audio technology. Five ballrooms offer seating for up to 700 people and a full bar. Saturday weddings start at $2,000. South Dakota Wedding Venues Chapel in the Hills The church at 3788 Chapel Ln, Rapid City is a place of beauty and inspiration. There are museums, trails, and hillsides to host services. Weddings are performed by the Chapel's pastor and it is open for weddings from May 1 to September 30 each year. The price is $400 for the use of the chapel and courtyard area. This includes a $100 minister's fee. https://preview.redd.it/1cq5faw76q2b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef16d548f88cab604b857a372daa7e803b756fbf The Lodge at Deadwood The address is 100 Pine Crest Lane, Deadwood and the backdrop will be the beautiful Black Hills. With four adjoining event rooms and the main ballroom, it provides the perfect space for weddings of any size. Wedding packages are available at a variety of prices, with the least expensive buffet package starting at $65 per person for a minimum of 100 people. Buffalo Ridge Resort A rustic resort located at 1312 Coteau St, Gary. Offers charming and historic wedding venues including a restored barn and beautiful chapel. The venue can accommodate up to 300 people and prices start at $4,500 for a Saturday wedding. Nebraska Wedding Venues Scoular Ballroom The Ballroom at 2027 Dodge St, Omaha, is located just minutes from downtown. Located in the historic Scoular building, from the grand Italian marble floors of the atrium to the romantic balcony overlooking the spacious and inviting ballroom. Offering a modern and elegant wedding venue with a grand ballroom and beautiful outdoor terrace. Accommodates up to 300 guests and starts at $4,000 for a Saturday wedding. Rococo Theatre The theater at 140 N 13th St, Lincoln can give you a movie-like wedding. The theater has seating for up to 500 guests. The bride and groom can get married on stage while the guests sit in the first few rows of seats. Saturday weddings start at $2,500. The Barn at the Ackerhurst Dairy Farm Located at 15220 Military Rd, Bennington, this is an Omaha landmark and a historic site in the area. This wedding venue can accommodate up to 450 guests and includes an outdoor ceremony space and a large terrace with a fireplace. Off-season wedding rental rates start at $2,500. Kansas Wedding Venues Madison Avenue Central Park Central Park at 512 E Madison Ave, Derby features a lawn, theater, and playground. And in the southwest corner, there is an event center including an indoor reception and outdoor patio. Accommodating up to 370 people, rates start at $800 for an 8-hour rental. Petroleum Club of Wichita The address is 100 N Broadway St 900, Wichita. this is a rooftop wedding venue located on top of the iconic Ruffin Building. With views of the skyline and city, it offers personalized service and beautiful décor. Wedding venue fees start at $4500. The Oread Hotel Located at 1200 Oread Ave, Lawrence, the hotel has two large outdoor patios. The patio overlooks the city and the Kansas River. There are nine different banquet rooms to choose from, the largest of which can seat up to 275 people. Prices for Saturday weddings start at $4,000. Oklahoma Wedding Venues The Dominion House The main house is located at 602 E. College, Guthrie. The boutique hotel offers both intimate and grand wedding packages, including romantic indoor and outdoor venues. The outdoors includes a wedding garden and a four-season chapel, while the grand ballroom is designed in the opulent style of the 1920s. Wedding packages start at $2,000. Glass Chapel This is an intimate wedding venue located at 1401 West Washington St S, Broken Arrow. This chapel offers a unique and romantic wedding venue with a beautiful glass chapel and outdoor garden. The triangular roof and all-glass walls will make you feel like you are in a fairy tale world. Outside, the gardens and woods complement the modern design. The church can accommodate up to 100 guests and wedding packages start from $2450. The Springs Event Venue This is a wedding planning company that offers multiple venues. Event venues are located in various cities throughout Oklahoma, including Edmond, Norman, and Tulsa. Versatile and affordable wedding venues are available with a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces. Prices for Saturday weddings start at $3,950. Texas Wedding Venues Grand Galvez This is a historic hotel located at 2024 Seawall Blvd, Galveston. The hotel is surrounded by lush gardens, expansive green spaces, and sparkling beaches. An indoor ballroom and terrace are included, and the ballroom features floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the bay. Up to 200 guests can be accommodated for a great wedding service. Prices for Saturday weddings start at $10,000. The Bell Tower on 34th This beautiful clock tower is located at 901 W 34th St, Houston, and has a castle-like interior with a magnificent grand staircase, arches, and marble floors. Every aspect of the building is luxurious. Wedding packages are available on an all-inclusive basis, with prices starting at $10,000 for a Saturday wedding. The Oasis on Lake Travis This restaurant is located at 6550 Comanche Trail, Austin.Along with an event center located 450 feet above Lake Travis, offering unparalleled views. An outdoor patio overlooking the lake is available. Up to 400 guests can be accommodated and prices start at $5,000 for Saturday weddings. Minnesota Wedding Venues The Gale Mansion This mansion at 2115 Stevens Ave, Minneapolis is also a very popular wedding venue. With a warm atmosphere and inviting decor, it offers an elegant and convenient space to host the wedding of your choice. 12 hours of rental costs a total of $5,700 including the rental of the mansion and ballroom. The Outpost Center The address is 6053 US-212, Chaska. Built on 32 acres of rolling hills and woodlands, it is a beautiful and peaceful venue close to the city. The main venue's red facade and green roof create an oil painting-like backdrop. It has the ambiance of a barn wedding with all the amenities and gorgeous rustic grounds. Wedding packages start at $4675 for 50 guests. Nicollet Island Pavilion The event venue at 40 Power Street, Minneapolis is full of unique charm and style. Exposed brick walls and tall industrial ceilings create an open atmosphere full of character. You can have the best views of the Minneapolis bridges and skyline at this venue. Prices for Saturday weddings start at $3,500. Iowa Wedding Venues Brenton Arboretum This is a botanical garden located at 25141 260th St, Dallas Center. It has approximately 2,500 plants representing more than 500 different species, cultivars, and hybrids. Offers great outdoor views and can accommodate up to 300 people. Saturday weddings start at $2,500 and services include access to the gardens and a wedding coordinator. The Temple for Performing Arts Located at 1011 Locust Street, Des Moines, it offers a large auditorium, recital hall, and suites for weddings. The Grand Hall can accommodate up to 450 people and features a tinted glass skylight and a magnificent original light fixture and a sculpted ceiling. High-season wedding receptions start at $4000 for the venue. Figge Art Museum The Art Museum at 225 W 2nd St, Davenport. The museum's lobby can accommodate 200 guests and has a modern design with high ceilings and terrazzo floors. The striking river view offers countless possibilities. The outdoor terrace provided also offers a magnificent view of the Mississippi River. The rental fee for the lobby is $2,500. https://preview.redd.it/te5pv8ra6q2b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=68745b1cccd5193021cfeb6108307d8fb38bf103 Missouri Wedding Venues Lemp Mansion Located at 3322 Demenil Pl, St. Louis, this mansion was once the home of a beer magnate but was the site of three suicides. It has since been turned into a restaurant and hotel, offering historical and ghost tours. The mansion has four sites, including a mansion, terrace, auditorium, and loft. Ceremony fees range from $950-$1900 and meals start at roughly $47 per person. Jewel Box The public gardening facility in Saint Louis is made of glass plates and copper frames. It has a variety of flowers and plants and is filled with bright sunlight perfect for wedding photography. It can accommodate up to 250 people as a ceremony venue and costs $1,000. https://preview.redd.it/l3moosqd6q2b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e8d682eee85284df8fd428719fcfa6269dd602b Wild Carrot Located at 3901 Shaw Blvd, St. Louis, with indoor hospitality space and loft and terrace. Includes renovated industrial building and outdoor patio. Prices for Saturday weddings start at $4,000 and can accommodate up to 200 people. Arkansas Wedding Venues Castle on Stagecoach This is an old castle located at 6601 Stagecoach Rd, Little Rock. Offering intimate indoor spaces, the castle's unique architecture and décor provide an elegant and luxurious setting. The venue includes a lawn, barn, and stables. Prices start at $6,673 for 50 guests. The Brick Ballroom The event space at 119 B S Broadway St, Siloam Springs, was formerly a Chevrolet dealership. The building is 100 years old. Inside are black walls and original tin ceilings, vintage glass chandeliers, blue benches, and a built-in bar with a sink. There are also 5,000 square feet of covered balconies and gardens. The starting venue fee for a high-season wedding is $3,000. Osage House Located at 243 Pace Ln, Cave Springs, offers a beautiful and modern wedding venue. The venue is suitable for couples seeking minimalism, with architectural designs mostly in black and white. A chapel will be located a short distance from the lobby and included in the wedding package. With a maximum capacity of 428 people, wedding venue rentals start at $2800 in high season. Louisiana Wedding Venues The Elms Mansion Located at 3029 St Charles Ave, New Orleans, the mansion is a typical Italianate-style building. It features an imported hand-carved marble mantel, decorative cornices, 24-carat gold sconces, and a 48-foot ballroom. Accommodates up to 400 people and starts at $4,500 for a Saturday wedding. The Presbytère This museum is located at 751 Chartres St, New Orleans, and has a rich history. A collection of elaborate carnival artifacts and memorabilia. You can hold a ceremony among the beautiful exhibits and rich artifacts and enjoy a fun evening with your family. Accommodates up to 500 guests, starting at $6,590 for 50 guests. Race + Religious It is located at 510 Race Street, New Orleans, and has three buildings with brick courtyards filled with greenery. The hotel has 4,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space on the ground floor. Dinner parties can accommodate up to 90 people, and prices start at $7,500 for Saturday weddings. Alaska Wedding Venues Alyeska Resort This is a leisurely resort located at 1000 Arlberg Ave, Girdwood. is Alaska's premier year-round destination. Featuring more than 300 guest rooms, many fine dining experiences, a saltwater pool, a ski hill, and bike park, and a brand-new Nordic Spa. The ballroom can accommodate up to 220 guests. Reception rentals range from $500 to $1,000 and include five hours of event time. The Alaska Zoo The Alaska Zoo is located at 4731 O'Malley Rd, Anchorage. Inside are animals such as polar bears, wolves, snow leopards, and other rare species. The zoo has very spacious halls and lawns and a bright greenhouse. Hospitality hall rentals start at $800. Lawn rentals start at $1,450. Greenhouse rentals start at $675. Hotel Captain Cook Old fashioned hotel located at 939 W 5th Ave, Anchorage. One of the meeting and function rooms has a stunning panoramic view and fireplace. Panoramic views of the Chugach Mountains and Cook Inlet. Accommodates up to 600 guests and Saturday weddings start at approximately $5,000. Hawaii Wedding Venues Haiku Mill The address is 250 Haiku Rd, Haiku, a unique European-style building amid Maui's lush surroundings. With over 150 years of history, it is an important landmark. A quaint and beautiful ceremony can be created. The venue can accommodate up to 100 people and prices start at $6,500 for a Saturday wedding. Kauapea Beach Also known as Secret Beach, has a 3,000-foot-long North Shore beach. Enjoy a sparsely populated stretch of beach with breathtaking views of Moquawe Island and Kilauea Lighthouse. Perfect for your seaside wedding venue. You can look for the right wedding contractor to prepare everything for you and prices will probably range from $800 to $1500. Moana Surfrider The resort is located at 2365 Kalākaua Ave, Honolulu. First opened in 1901, it is just steps from the perfect shores of legendary Waikiki Beach and within walking distance of Honolulu's most popular shopping, dining, and entertainment attractions. There are seven event rooms in total, and the ballroom can accommodate up to 300 people. Wedding packages range in price from $3,500 to $9,500. To be continued After introducing the most popular and unique wedding venues in the western and central states, we will continue to cover the wedding venues in the eastern states. Stay tuned for part two of our wedding venue recommendations. In the meantime, if you choose an outdoor wedding venue, check out our multi-sized, stylized wedding tent. it will ensure that your outdoor wedding is not disturbed by the weather. submitted by scarlet2248 to u/scarlet2248 [link] [comments] |
2023.05.29 01:25 m1cky_b Why Sydney will end up with three incompatible metro train lines
| Sydney’s new driverless metro trains and stations might end up looking the same to commuters but key differences in the mega-projects mean the city is set to construct three lines run by three separate private operators with trains that cannot be switched between them. The use of different power and trains built by separate manufacturers will make the new $11 billion metro line to Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek incompatible with the first two stages of Sydney’s metro rail network. The airport line will use a 25 kilovolt alternating current to power the trains when it opens in 2026 while the Metro Northwest and Metro City and Southwest lines will operate on 1500 volt direct current. As a result, the 12 autonomous trains to be built by German company Siemens for the airport line will be unable to run on the Metro Northwest and connecting City and Southwest line. The airport line’s trains will be about 30 centimetres wider than other metro trains to cater for flyers who are lugging bags. The different electric current also means the 45 driverless trains built in India by French company Alstom for the city’s first two metro lines will be unable to be switched to run on the airport line. Neither will they be able to operate on the $25 billion Metro West line – the biggest of the four lines which is due to open in 2030 – because it will run on 25 kilovolts, too. The airport line is being designed for trains comprising up to four carriages whereas those for the Northwest and City and Southwest lines can be trains up to eight carriages long. Transport and planning consultant Alex Gooding said it was highly unusual for metro lines in the same city to be deliberately planned to be as different as the airport line was from both the Northwest and City and Southwest lines. “We are building a system from the ground up, but the previous government appeared to have deliberately designed a range of incompatible features which makes no sense,” he said. Gooding said a likely reason for the difference was that building the airport line to match the greater passenger capacity of the first two metro lines would have substantially increased the former’s cost, while it also avoided a “single-private operator monopoly” in Sydney. “Instead of getting one metro, we will end up with three distinct and, to varying degrees, incompatible systems,” he said. “Metros in cities overseas tend to have different lines but where possible they are built with consistent rail systems and trains.” When the main section of the City and Southwest line opens next year, it will be operated by a private consortium led by Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation which runs Metro Northwest. In contrast, a separate consortium that includes Siemens, Australian infrastructure investor Plenary and Italian company Webuild will construct and operate the airport line. Gooding said the decision to electrify the Metro West line between the Sydney CBD and Parramatta with 25 kilovolts and set up a special entity to manage that project was likely to result in it having a different operator to the other lines. The new Labor government last month flagged a major overhaul of the Metro West line as part of a wide-ranging review into Sydney’s metro rail projects. Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the integration of Sydney’s metro lines with one another and with the broader transport network was important, and was why the Minns government had commissioned a review into the projects. “It’s important to make sure that these projects are being delivered in a way that works for passengers, and properly embed metro services into the transport network as a whole,” she said. Sydney Metro said each line was designed to operate independently to ensure the highest reliability with train configurations to suit the customer requirements of the line. “Sydney Metro has a responsibility to procure rolling stock responsibly, driving optimal outcomes on price and safety for the benefit of taxpayers,” it said. The agency said it ran competitive tender processes for each project to get the best outcome for taxpayers, which created resilience in the broader transport network and ensured passengers had access to the latest train technology and systems. The design of the Metro Northwest and the City and Southwest lines was also influenced by the need to convert existing stretches of track such as the Epping-to-Chatswood rail line which, like the existing suburban rail network, operated on 1500-volt power. Martin Locke, an adjunct professor at Sydney University’s institute of transport and logistics studies, said one of the rationales for opting for different train builders and consortia was to spark competition in the bidding process for the projects. “The importance of having standalone metro lines has outweighed the perceived benefit of interoperability. It was designed to provide resilience and avoid the issues that Sydney Trains has had with timetable failures and a system that has been shown to be very fragile,” he said. The rail lines that make up Sydney’s existing suburban rail system are interwoven, which has frequently resulted in major incidents on one line causing significant delays to train services across the entire network. submitted by m1cky_b to SydneyTrains [link] [comments] |
2023.05.28 23:38 Lopsided-Parsley-178 What could have happened?
I worked in travel a few years ago and I was on an Emirates flight back from Perth to Dubai after returning with a work trip with the Western Australia tourism board and Emirates/Qantas but it was a pretty strange experience. When we boarded there was around 40-50 people on board including the 10 in our group and the crew and it was probably the least amount of people I’ve ever seen on a long haul flight!
We take off and about 5 minutes from taking off the male flight attendant is looking out of the window from his seat and pointing to the female flight attendant near him. He seemed quite worked up and then the whole crew remained in their take off seats for around 30-45 minutes whilst talking on those phones that they have.
About 30-45 minutes after take off, we’re told over the loud speaker that we’re expecting turbulence throughout the flight and to keep our seat belts on at all times (the sign literally didn’t turn off). The flight attendants then started to move everyone to the middle/left side of the plane and closed the window blinds on the right side. I asked if anything was wrong and why the male flight attendant seemed worried at the start but was just told that it was turbulence causing the seat belt sign issue and that he was just ‘admiring’ the view from take off (that sentence has always stuck with me).
After about 11 hours of flying, we reach Dubai and we land at a completely separate part of the airport to the main terminal part. We had to wait for them to get stairs (I kid you not, the type you’d use to get on a Ryan air or EasyJet low cost flight), and arrange for a shuttle bus to pick us up and take us to the terminal. It was a pretty strange experience - We got inside the terminal and were scurried through by an airport rep but enroute they upgraded our entire party to business class for the Dubai to London leg with Qantas (presumably as the previous flight wasn’t a great experience) and no further mention of it was ever made.
I have just been talking to someone about this strange experience today and just wondered if this is protocol if something happens with an engine or an issue with the plane? I wish I’d pushed for more info at the time but it was a bit of a whirlwind experience.
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2023.05.28 20:40 Meetplaya Cancun Airport Shuttle
2023.05.28 20:13 jimbobbypaul Ranking the Top 131 FBS Programs of the Last 40 Years: 89. Ball State
Main hub thread with the full 131 rankings Ball State comes in at one spot above in-state foe Indiana. and is the 3rd best program in the state behind Notre Dame and Purdue. Moving up to the FBS in 1975, Ball State’s had an underrated tenure, going 269-279-4 with 6 conference championships, 9 bowl appearances, and 11 weeks in the AP Top 25.
Best Seasons and Highlights
1. 2020: 10. Ball State: 7-1 (29.151) 2. 2008: 23. Ball State: 12-2 (19.624) 3. 2013: 43. Ball State: 10-3 (7.413) 4. 1988: 32. Ball State: 8-3 (7.382) 5. 2012: 41. Ball State: 9-4 (5.166) 6. 1989: 36. Ball State: 7-3-2 (4.173) 7. 1996: 36. Ball State: 8-4 (-0.777) 8. 1995: 47. Ball State: 7-4 (-1.286) 9. 1993: 35. Ball State: 8-3-1 (-1.292) 10. 1990: 51. Ball State: 7-4 (-5.881) 11. 1994: 59. Ball State: 5-5-1 (-11.641) 12. 2007: 67. Ball State: 7-6 (-11.913) 13. 1991: 58. Ball State: 6-5 (-12.407) 14. 1986: 67. Ball State: 6-5 (-15.698) 15. 1983: 69. Ball State: 6-5 (-18.520) 16. 1997: 71. Ball State: 5-6 (-19.737) 17. 2011: 81. Ball State: 6-6 (-19.965) 18. 2001: 78. Ball State: 5-6 (-20.533) 19. 1992: 75. Ball State: 5-6 (-20.690) 20. 2021: 87. Ball State: 6-7 (-21.746) 21. 2002: 72. Ball State: 6-6 (-21.776) 22. 2019: 87. Ball State: 5-7 (-22.103) 23. 2006: 76. Ball State: 5-7 (-22.140) 24. 2014: 90. Ball State: 5-7 (-24.446) 25. 2022: 98. Ball State: 5-7 (-25.017) 26. 2000: 81. Ball State: 5-6 (-25.264) 27. 1987: 80. Ball State: 4-7 (-27.212) 28. 2005: 97. Ball State: 4-7 (-30.054) 29. 2003: 91. Ball State: 4-8 (-32.432) 30. 1985: 86. Ball State: 4-7 (-33.751) 31. 2016: 102. Ball State: 4-8 (-35.128) 32. 2010: 104. Ball State: 4-8 (-40.296) 33. 2018: 108. Ball State: 4-8 (-40.344) 34. 1984: 91. Ball State: 3-8 (-40.722) 35. 2015: 111. Ball State: 3-9 (-45.086) 36. 2009: 109. Ball State: 2-10 (-48.654) 37. 2004: 110. Ball State: 2-9 (-50.524) 38. 1998: 109. Ball State: 1-10 (-59.094) 39. 2017: 127. Ball State: 2-10 (-62.173) 40. 1999: 113. Ball State: 0-11 (-70.806) Overall Score: 8230 (89th)
- 212-248-4 record
- 4 conference titles
- 1-8 bowl record
- 2 consensus All-Americans
- 13 NFL players drafted
Ball State has been pretty consistent, with 26 of their 40 seasons since 1983 having 5+ wins. 4 conference titles is also not bad—3 came between 1989-96, arguably Ball State’s peak with 7 of those 8 years falling into the top 13 seasons in the chart above. It took them 46 years to win their first bowl game, failing on the first 7 tries before finally winning in 2020! Ball State’s 2 consensus All-Americans? 1 person—Brad Maynard, punter. Maynard averaged 46.5 and 45.8 yards per punt in 1995 and 1996, respectively. He was drafted in the 3rd round of the 1997 NFL Draft, and would go on to be the Bears’ punter from 2001-10.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 1999 (0-11 overall, 0-8 MAC) While the world worried about the Y2K meltdown, Ball State worried about their program melting down. Going just 1-21 from 1998-99, 2 of their 3 worst seasons on this list, the program reached lows it had never seen. Coach Bill Lynch was an Indiana die-hard—he was born in Indianapolis, went to Butler, and since starting his coaching career in 1977, has only spent 2 years coaching outside the state of Indiana. This was Lynch’s 5th season with Ball State. While they weren’t getting manhandled (only one 30+ point loss) like some winless teams have, they weren’t particularly close to getting a win either (only 1 one-possession loss). They averaged 14.3 PPG while giving up 32.8 PPG, and were my 2nd worst team in the nation. Kicker Thomas Pucke was impressively inept, hitting just 2 of 8 FGs. He managed to hang around for 2 more years and convert 6 of 15 for a 4 year total of 12/31 on FGs for a 38.7 FG%.
5. 2012 (9-4 overall, 6-2 MAC) The Ball State Football youtube channel put out a fantastic 15 minute recap of the 2012 season. Coming off a 6-6 year, there was momentum heading into 2012, but uncertainty with losing their top 2 WRs and an unproven defense. The year started with a bang, recording a school record 36 first downs against Eastern Michigan in a season-opening 37-26 win. Indiana took a 39-38 lead with 50 seconds to go in week 3—just enough time for QB Keith Wenning and kicker Steven Schott, who hit a 42 yard FG as time expired for the 41-39 Ball State win. Ball State got their second win over a Power 6 opponent the following week, beating South Florida 31-27 on another late win, this time Wenning to WR Willie Snead. After going back and forth with MAC competition, 6-3 Ball State headed to the Glass Bowl on election night to face #23 Toledo. Ball State rose to the occasion with another last minute TD to win 34-27. A 52-27 win over formerly-ranked Ohio, who had beaten Penn State to start the year, proved even more impressive. Ball State finished the regular season 9-3, with a loss to C-USA runner-up Blake Bortles and UCF in the bowl.
Ball State led the MAC with 15 all-conference selections. QB Keith Wenning threw for 3095 yards, with 24 TD and 10 INT, earning 2nd Team All-MAC. RB Jahwan Edwards had a monster year with 1410 rushing yards and 14 TD on 6.1 YPC, but only made 3rd team in a stacked MAC RB class. WRs Willie Snead, Jamill Smith, and TE Zane Fakes were all 1st Team MAC. Kicker Steven Schott was a Lou Groza Award semifinalist, going 25/32 on FGs, and punter Scott Kovanda was a Ray Guy Award finalist.
4. 1988 (8-3 overall, 5-3 MAC) While 2012 was an offensive explosion, 1988 was about defense, boasting one of the best in the country. 1988 Ball State gave up just 15.5 PPG, while scoring 26.0 PPG. After a 7-1 (5-1 MAC) start, Ball State played Western Michigan (7-1, 5-0) for first place in the conference. Western Michigan took it in a 16-13 dogfight, and it wouldn’t matter much anyway, as Ball State dropped their last conference game 25-27 to Ohio. Back then, Ball State had an annual rivalry against Indiana State for the Blue Key Victory Bell, and the Cardinals got revenge for ISU’s 24-23 upset the year prior, winning 24-10. The most points Ball State gave up all season was just 27, and held opponents to 20 or less in every other game.
3. 2013 (10-3 overall, 7-1 MAC) Picking up where we left off in 2012, Ball State returned Wenning, Edwards, Snead, Fakes, so this team had a lot of potential. Early wins included 31-24 over traditional MAC power Toledo, and 48-27 over Virginia, who had given up just 16 points or less in 3 of their first 4 games. Ball State lived up to the hype—and then some. Blowout wins over Western Michigan, Akron, and Central Michigan took them all the way to 8-1, setting up a matchup with 9-0 #20 Northern Illinois in the premier MAC game of the season. The winner would clinch a spot in the MAC title game, Ball State looking for their first title in 17 years. They went back and forth—deadlocked at 27-27 with 6 minutes left, NIU QB Jordan Lynch fired a 36 yard TD to take the lead, and a few garbage time scores gave NIU a nice looking 48-27 victory that was much closer than the score suggested. Ball State took out their anger on a hapless 0-11 Miami (OH) team to end the year, winning 55-14. Still looking for their first bowl win ever, they came as close as they’ve ever come, giving up a TD with 30 seconds left to lose 23-20 to Arkansas State. Still—an insane year for Ball State, winning 10+ games for just the 3rd time in school history. QB Keith Wenning threw for 4148 yards 35 TD 7 INT, ranking 6th in the nation in passing yards and TDs. RB Jahwan Edwards had his 2nd of 3 1000+ yard seasons, going for 1110 and 14 TD. He’d finish his career as Ball State’s all-time leading rusher a year later with 4558 yards and 51 TD. WR Willie Snead had the capstone of his college career with 106 catches for 1516 yards and 15 TD, ranking 3rd in the NCAA in receiving yards and TD. The 6’3 228 lb Jordan Williams proved to be a very good WR2 with 1000+ receiving yards, and would go on to have 200 catches for 2723 yards and 23 TD in his career, top 6 in school history in all of those categories. Wenning was a 6th round NFL Draft selection, and Snead went on to have a solid NFL career.
2. 2008 (12-2 overall, 8-0 MAC) The 2008 team took the nation by storm. Ball State returned their all-conference QB, WR, TE, and 8 starters on defense from a 7 win team the previous season. Right away, with a week 2 35-23 win over Navy, they proved the prevous season’s win over them wasn’t a fluke. 2 weeks later, they’d make history, beating Indiana 42-20 in the program’s first ever win over a BCS team. Did they stop there? Nope. 3 weeks later they were 7-0, and #22 in the country. This was a great year for non-BCS teams, with Boise State and Utah also going unbeaten in the regular season. The beatings continued, as Ball State kept surprising everyone—38-16 over Eastern Michigan, 45-14 over NIU. Late in the year, #16 9-0 Ball State faced their toughest test of the season, heading north to play 8-2 preseason conference favorite Central Michigan. Down 7 points in the 4th quarter, QB Nate Davis guided the Cardinals back to a 31-24 lead, and a late interception sealed the deal. Ball State still hadn’t secured the MAC title game until the final week, where they beat 9-2 Western Michigan 45-22. Into the MAC championship we go. #12 Ball State was an overwhelming 15 point favorite over 7-5 Buffalo, who was just happy to be there. Ball State’s dream matchup quickly turned into a nightmare. Buffalo had 92 and 74 yard fumble returns for TDs, cruising to a 42-24 upset victory in which they were outgained by 200+ yards. Brady Hoke took the job at San Diego State, and a dejected interim-coached team got blown out 45-14 by Tulsa in the bowl.
QB Nate Davis, the original 2-gloved QB before Teddy “2 glove” Bridgewater was a thing, completed his illustrious college career, throwing for 3591 yards 26 TD 8 INT, leading the MAC in passer rating for the 3rd straight year, and winning 2008 MAC OPOTY. The 5’6 184 lb RB MiQuale Lewis was pound-for-pound one of the best players in college football, rushing for 1736 yards and 22 TD on 5.4 YPC, also racking up 325 receiving yards, ranking 2nd in the nation in yards from scrimmage and 1st in TDs. TE Darius Hill completed his career as one of the best TEs in MAC history, catching 40 passes for 670 yards and 7 TD to finish his career with 2473 yards and 31 TD. Unfortunately, WR Dante Love’s career came to an end 4 games into the season, one of Ball State’s best ever wideouts who caught 100 passes for 1398 yards and 10 TD in 2007. It was an amazing year for Ball State—but no hardware to show for it.
1. 2020 (7-1 overall, 5-1 MAC) 2008, or 2020 Ball State, who was better?
The Ball State youtube channel(s) seriously make some of the best season recap videos of any school. After an opening 31-38 loss at Miami (OH), they were perfect the rest of the way. A 1-yard rushing TD with 6 seconds left secured a 38-31 win over Eastern Michigan to improve to 1-1. 2 weeks later, a 27-24 upset over Toledo improved them to 3-1. It was still a long season ahead with just a MAC schedule in a covid-shortened season, with the toughest games yet to come. A 45-20 road win over 3-1 Central Michigan thanks to 5 TD from QB Drew Plitt improved Ball State to 4-1, with 1 regular season game to go. This is where the 2020 team separated themselves from all other Ball State teams. Facing 4-1 Western Michigan with the winner going to the MAC championship game, Ball State was down 27-13 at the start of the 4th. After a 17-0 point 4th quarter, they had the lead with just seconds to go.
Western Michigan tossing laterals around…OH THE ENTIRE BALL STATE TEAM IS ON THE FIELD!! And Western Michigan scores for the win!! Unbelievable!! It turns out though, one of the laterals was forward, and the refs award Ball State the victory. They go to the MAC championship game at 5-1!
Remember how 2008 Ball State came into the game 15 point favorites against Buffalo and lost? This time, the roles were reversed. Ball State came into the 2020 championship as 13 point underdogs to 5-0 Buffalo. And just like 2008, David slaid Goliath. Ball State took the MAC Championship 38-28, their first since 1996. But still, people hadn’t caught on. Ball State entered the Arizona Bowl as 6.5 point underdogs to #23 San Jose State. 35 minutes of game time later, and Ball State was up 34-0. When the final whistle sounded on a 34-13 bowl victory, it was the FIRST BOWL WIN IN BALL STATE HISTORY! While 2008 was a great year, 2020 takes the cake because they completed the quest of winning a conference title and bowl game. LB Brandon Martin was the MAC DPOTY, leading the conference in tackles with 90.
5th Quarter
Agree with Ball State’s ranking, ahead of in-state rival Indiana? What do you think of their program? Do you remember their 2008 and 2020 seasons?
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2023.05.28 19:12 BR123456 Weekly Round Up: May 22nd - May 28th
| Weekly Round Up: May 22nd - May 28th Previous thread: May 15th - May 21st If in case you missed any news, official posts, SNS mentions, milestones, or if you're curious to know what the sub has been talking about lately, this round up is a compilation of all of that and more. How can you find the weekly round up? There's a link on the /bangtan's sidebar, as well as a link to the archive of past round-up posts in the wiki index. WE ARE BULLETPROOF: With the lack of new releases, it may seem that the fandom may have had a time to breath- j-hope makes a triumphant return with a smile that will surely brighten your day, as well as giving thanks to those who have supported him as he completed the first part of his military service. RM & JK left comments congratulating him on the weverse post. RM went as far as to leave a new comment on the original farewell IG post as well. In the meantime, the members have been keeping us busy with SNS updates this week. RM continues his daily IG stories. V was having a whale of a time in Cannes, France, being there to attend a Céline event. Jimin headed to WB London to check out the Harry Potter movie exhibition. JK went live on Weverse (with his glasses) for a chill night hangout, but otherwise our maknae & eldest hyung have stayed quiet online. IDOL: SUGA, now back on the Asia continent, started & completed the Jakarta, Indonesia leg of his tour despite the awful heat & having a cough. The tour will be on another well deserved 4 day break before he performs in Yokohama, Japan on June 2. BTS IN THE SUB: A deceptively quiet week... STILL WITH YOU: It's now 583 days until they are past the edge of cold winter. But until their snowpiercer comes to pick us up, let's stay here a little longer... 🌸 | 🚂 | 🚉 | ❄️ | ⟬⟭ | 🐹: 380 🐿: 507 | | 🐱🐨🐥🐯🐰 | NEW RELEASES A quiet week... MEGATHREADS NEWS & INFORMATION OFFICIAL MERCHANDISE OFFICIAL MEDIA OTHER OFFICIAL CONTENT OFFICIAL SNS CF & PARTNERSHIPS ARTICLES SNS MENTIONS NOTE: Entries with 💜 have new content directly involving BTS MILESTONES Type | Date | Thread | Spotify | 230522 | Jimin's “FACE” has surpassed 500 million streams on Spotify | Melon | 230522 | “VIBE (feat. Jimin of BTS)” has surpassed 2 million unique listeners on Melon | Melon | 230522 | “DNA” has surpassed 6 million unique listeners on Melon, their 3rd song to achieve this! (Spring Day, Boy With Luv, DNA) | iTunes | 230522 | Angel Pt. 1 has achieved #1's in +100 countries on iTunes! | Spotify | 230523 | Jimin has now surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify across all credits. He's the fastest K-Pop soloist in history to reach this milestone. | Tour | 230523 | SUGA of BTS "D-Day Agust D" earns the highest-grossing tour by an Asian soloist in US history, with $30.2 million from 151,000 tickets sold in 11 shows. | Billboard | 230524 | "The Planet" debuts at #1 on this week's World Digital Song Sales chart. It’s the group's record extending 34th #1 hit. | Spotify | 230524 | "We are Bulletproof : the Eternal" has surpassed 200 million streams on Spotify, their 61st song to achieve this! | Oricon | 230524 | Oricon Music: BTS's "Butter" won the Best Foreign Film Award for the 2nd year in a row following last year's "Dynamite" (by the Japan Music Copyright Assoc) | Spotify | 230525 | “Run BTS” has surpassed 300 million streams on Spotify! | Albums | 230525 | "Epiphany" has now sold over 500,000 units in the US. | Japan | 230526 | “Stay Gold” has been certified RIAJ gold in Japan with over 100,000 downloads, their 4th song to do so! | UK | 230526 | Angel Pt.1 debuts at #82 on this week UK Official Singles Chart | Albums | 230527 | BTS has now sold over 500,000 total album units in the US in 2023. | BT21 CFs & Partnerships MISC SUBREDDIT Community Posts TOP DISCUSSION POSTS Agust D Tour WEEKLY THREADS FANART Here are past week's top 5 fanart posts from our sister subreddit, /heungtan. Check out the other top posts for the week here! If there's anything missed or needs changing, feel free to let me know! :) submitted by BR123456 to bangtan [link] [comments] |
2023.05.28 16:41 No-Cheesecake-8472 The Telegraph------ The ‘ruthless’ axeman carving out a new future for Rolls-Royce ----------- Howard Mustoe Sun, May 28, 2023 at 2:00 AM PDT
Long before green energy became
de rigueur, Rolls-Royce was exploring how to generate clean power.
The engineering giant said it had reached a “significant milestone” in 2011 after successfully generating electricity from the tides. Rolls-Royce had installed a huge turbine 100ft beneath the sea near Orkney that would harness tidal power to feed the Scottish grid.
Yet shortly after the trial, the project was abandoned. It is one of many ideas that Britain’s premier engineer has tried and dropped over the years
in a search for the next big thing that could transform its fortunes.
This era of experimentation now looks like it’s over. New chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic has been
far more interested in shutting things down than starting them up since taking charge in January.
He has vowed to shut the company’s R2 Factory, which was set up to sell Rolls-Royce’s in-house artificial intelligence software. A Rolls-Royce direct air carbon capture project, which aimed to remove existing CO2 from the atmosphere, will also be wound down.
Rolls-Royce’s direct air carbon capture project, which aimed to remove existing CO2 from the atmosphere, will also be wound down.
Erginbilgic, who spent 20 years at BP before taking charge of Rolls-Royce, has been alarmed at the state of the business.
He called Rolls-Royce a “burning platform” when he took over, telling employees: “Every investment we make, we destroy value.”
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Erginbilgic said Rolls-Royce’s power business, which makes diesel-burning engines for ships and generators, had been “grossly mismanaged”.
A full strategy update is expected later in the year, with more cuts expected.
Erginbilgic argues he is giving the company the tough medicine needed to turn around the business.
“Rolls-Royce has not been performing for a long, long time, it has nothing to do with Covid, let’s be very clear,” he told staff shortly after taking charge. “Given everything I know talking to investors, this is our last chance.”
Yet some believe the axeman at Rolls-Royce is going too far too fast. Erginbilgic was forced to defend his comments about the business at the company’s recent shareholder meeting, amid accusations he was making “extremely destabilising” remarks.
“That probably would not be my choice of language,” former Rolls-Royce chief Warren East says of the “burning platform” comments.
Rolls-Royce is synonymous with victorious British engineering, conjuring visions of the Merlin engines that powered Spitfire fighter planes and Lancaster bombers during the Second World War.
Today, its largest business is making large jet engines for civil aircraft. It also makes diesel engines for ships and generators, engines for warplanes, and nuclear power plants for submarines.
It is developing electric powertrains for air taxis and other light aircraft as it prepares for the shift to net zero.
The company is one of three Western manufacturers of large engines for passenger jets, the others being US engineers General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.
However, it is far smaller than its rivals. GE, which makes everything from wind turbines to nuclear power plants, is worth $110bn (£90bn). Pratt & Whitney is owned by missile and satellite maker Raytheon, which is worth $135bn. Rolls-Royce is worth just £12bn.
The British company is best understood as a challenger, argues East.
A former microchip executive who took the helm at Rolls-Royce in 2015,
East spent much of his time in charge fighting fires.
During his tenure he had to deal with: production problems dogging the company’s Trent 1000 engine, which powers the Boeing Dreamliner jet; a settlement with the Serious Fraud Office over historic bribery and corruption allegations; and the pandemic, which cost the company £8bn.
Covid-19 dealt a huge blow to the company as planes using its engines were grounded. Rolls-Royce was forced to cut 9,000 jobs in 2020 and raised £5bn to shore up its balance sheet.
The succession of crises meant East had little time to address more fundamental issues.
East is sanguine about his successor’s strategy. Erginbilgic is “doing stuff, which, frankly, I would probably be doing if I was still running Rolls-Royce”, he says.
“He’s carving out his own agenda,” East says, adding: “You have to be a little bit ruthless about these things.”
Unlike its rivals, Rolls-Royce only makes the largest engines for long-haul travel rather than the smaller engines that power the short-haul workhorse planes that fly around Europe or within North America.
This has left the company struggling to recover from the impact of the pandemic. Short-haul trips have rebounded much more quickly than long-haul.
Rolls-Royce lost £1.5bn last year, though it eked out a small operating profit.
Erginbilgic argues his cuts are part of a very long process of making the company a sustainably profitable enterprise.
Nick Cunningham, an aviation analyst at Agency Partners, says: “Rolls’s core business is making Aero Engines and diesels, that's what it does.
“You don't want to be doing anything which detracts from that – attempts at pure diversification almost never work.”
While some investors have been disgruntled with Erginbilgic’s communication style, few are arguing with the new chief’s results.
Shares are up almost 50pc so far this year, including a 24pc one-day jump in February after Rolls-Royce unveiled its better-than-expected annual results.
The next business that could face the chop could be Rolls-Royce’s Small Modular Reactor (SMR) business, speculates Cunningham.
The company is racing to develop an electricity generating reactor that can be factory-made but it is up against more than a dozen competitors.
Rolls-Royce has repeatedly said it is reliant on the state to place the first SMR order to kick-start the business. However, the
UK government has so far dragged its feet and recently opened an international tender process.
“Frankly, it's going to take a decade or more to get a working nuclear power station, if it gets funded and ordered,” says Cunningham, “and it will inevitably get more expensive than you expected, they always do. And meanwhile, renewables are still getting cheaper.”
Rolls could choose to license the technology out instead. The margins would be smaller but this strategy would free up more resources for the bigger challenge of decarbonising its engines.
Erginbilgic’s “priority number one” must be the nuts and bolts of Rolls-Royce’s business, says Cunningham. Namely: selling jet engines and developing clean propulsion. That means costly side bets must be abandoned.
The tidal power project is a prime example of the type of experiment that Rolls-Royce will no longer indulge. It was shut down before East joined Rolls-Royce, but his team did briefly revisit the idea, he says.
Ultimately, they concluded that the product “just didn't make economic sense”.
“It’d be lovely if lots of these things did but you know, it's a business,” he says.
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2023.05.28 14:51 Namesareoverrated5 On St. George's Spear Ch. 18
ON ST. GEORGE’S SPEAR Ch. 18
First Previous This takes place in an alternate universe described
here.
Credit to
u/spacepaladin15 for the original universe :)
Memory Transcript Subject: Com. Tomas Cardóna, Commander of the ENS Cupertino, member of the Dominican Order of Scientists Date [standardized human time]: August 22, 2178 My promotion ceremony was purely for practical reasons, and everyone knew it. My mission was not to be conducted by anyone with “undue authority” or some other bureaucratic nonsense that always seems to find its way into everything.
However, before the government could get a handle on everything, the
whole HHE found out about the Arxur's enslavement, and probable consumption of, the crew and descendants of the ENS
St. Jeanne de Chantal. It was decided then, that “Squadron 12” would take upon itself a new, grim, task: Providing a secluded home for humanity to develop in times of peace, or flee to if the war goes south.
The former EES vessels were the premier ships for the job, so the
Cupertino was chosen as we have been the most recent one to complete a mission successfully, and thus have the most experienced crew. It doesn’t hurt that the
Cupertino has been significantly refitted into more of a light frigate than a science vessel, but I digress.
The
Cupertino was to have an escort of around 8 corvettes and 2 frigates. By far the heaviest formation I have ever been in willingly. We received orders to travel to Ross 128, again, to stage our transport to our new home. Before we left Earth orbit, however, a top-secret set of orders was patched to my command desk. We were to make a detour to the Centauri system. Further orders would be given in person there.
So be it. I ordered a detour to Proxima. If they wanted to drag this out unnecessarily, well, two can play that game. Then, as if it was expecting us, an outdated museum piece of a “frigate” left orbit and started to charge toward us.
“ENS Cupertino*, this is the* ENS Philomena
with permission to dock. Slow down and prepare for docking procedures.”
The
Philomena?! That vessel had its heyday during the 3rd Chinese War! It still uses
nuclear thermal rockets for crying out loud. We could stay at 40% power and
still outrun them. However, it would be bad form just to leave another friendly craft in the dust.
I went to the docking bay to give the idiot in charge of the
Philomena a piece of my mind. There is
no way I am letting them tag along on an interstellar mission. That would be stupid on
so many levels … No. I’m not even going to think about it.
Before I realized it, I was in the docking bay, impatiently waiting for the
Philomena to maneuver around the clamps and towards the docking seal with all the tender grace of a buffering video. Markov was his usual cheery self, which is to say he showed all the emotion of a cliff face. A squad of Marines of the order of St. Sebastian was formed on either side of the seal, to show our new capabilities to the rest of the world, as well as to assure ourselves that we are ready for whatever we might find past known space. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be another genocidal maniac empire.
The door opened to a Captain standing in the doorway. He spoke before I could voice some decidedly not-Christian thoughts about his arrival.
“Are you Commander Cardóna?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. I want to talk to you about a classified topic.”
Not again.
“Very well. Follow me to the ready room. Markov, prepare the flotilla.”
Markov nodded, and the Captain followed me to a secondary room, as the ready room was near the bridge, and the docking bay was not.
As soon as the door closed, he locked the door.
“I’m not going to beat around the bush, Commander. You’re going to be transporting Aliens. The Sheep, Kangas, and Spikies had a few volunteers join us. We thought they might be able to send them to help the fleet around Treshaan with their advanced knowledge of galactic political borders and possibly steer you clear of other hostiles.”
“The
who sent volunteers?”
“Oh, you probably know them by their official names. Venlil, Yotul, and Go-jid. Trust me, there’s a reason why the Yotul have been nicknamed ‘Kangas’, and it’s not just because they look vaguely similar.”
“Aren’t those aliens
deathly afraid of us? How would we be able to accommodate them? We have already lost part of our habitable area to weapons systems, they would have no choice but to be crammed in with us!” I may have said that with a bit more vigor than I intended, but I wasn’t about to cause a diplomatic incident by having an alien die of fright.
“Where did you hear that?”
“Frankly, sir, I am shocked that you rose to such a rank without learning the power of the rumor mill.”
“Fair point. To address your concerns, the volunteers are all in the process of converting. To assist them, a cohort of priests, deacons, and other clergy will be helping them in their path. They have performed a miracle over the past few months. I don’t know the details, but the aliens showed “positive reactions” only 4 weeks into their rehabilitation.”
“Sir, we only have the spare rooms for 30, counting turning those rooms into bunks.”
“That’s great! As we have 32, including the clergy, on the
Philomena awaiting transfer, and I doubt that your priest aboard would protest sharing his room. Fortunately for all involved, you will only be transporting them to Treshaan where they will be distributed among the fleet already stationed there.”
I saluted the Captain and went to the Chapel. There, I got down on my knees and asked,
[No one in particular] what I did wrong to warrant this punishment. After a half-hour of rethinking every life choice I made up until this point, I left feeling less despair and more resignation than when I entered.
I always hated being the taxi for my family.
Memory Transcript Subject: Chief Hunter Slasaan, Arxur Dominion Sector Fleet Date [standardized human time]: June 21, 2178 I rushed the Hunter into a small shuttle that would take me to my command ship, which I inherited from my predecessor, Chief Hinter Shaza. That old hag wouldn't be able to comprehend that there are another sapient species in the galaxy, so I guess it was for the best when she suffered that “accident”.
The Hunter seemed to be in awe of the size of the ship. I couldn’t blame her. The ship was large to such an unreasonable degree that some other Chief Hunters tried to scrap the ship due to its “impracticality” in combat situations. Another theory from the formerly-alive Chief Isif that acted as if prey could put up meaningful resistance.
After letting her tour the ship, I tried to get a sizeable fleet behind me if this new species was not open to negotiations. However, as was to be predicted, the other Chief Hunters and houses were dragging their tails as much as they could. If I didn’t know any better, I would have called them Mazic-Boned, but that would only lead to my death.
After a [week] or two, I had finally gathered my task force that would initiate official contact. I was just about to go crazy being on a ship with this many other people at once. Was this why Shaza was so weird? Did she
like to keep company like that? Was she hiding defective Arxur on this ship?
Shaking that train of thought from my head, I walked onto the bridge and took everything in. If anything screamed ‘Most powerful Arxur under the Prophet-Descendant,’ this is it. As the task force started our final leg toward Treshaan, I couldn’t help but feel optimistic about negotiations with this new species.
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2023.05.28 13:03 FelicitySmoak_ On This Day In Michael Jackson HIStory - May 28th
| 1971 - The Jackson 5 play at the Spectrum (now closed - 2009) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1988 - Michael's duet with Stevie Wonder , "Get It", from Stevie's album Characters peaks at #80 on the Hot 100 Chart while it was at #6 on the R&B chart 1989 - Michael was one of the few winners present at the Black Radio Exclusive awards show at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. He was honored as the "Triple Crown Winner for Outstanding Achievement in Pop, Rock and Soul." The elegantly laminated plaque has a black and gold edging, with purple printing on a faux-marble background, with a stylized photo image of Michael in his trademark black fedora. 1997 - His 2nd day in Poland starts with a stop at the presidential palace where Michael is received by the first lady. In his quest for a residence in Poland, he then visits the luxury Hotel Bristol. Price for the hotel ended up being too high. He then went to the Warsaw City Hall where he signed a “preliminary letter of intent” to develop a 'Michael Jackson’s Family Entertainment Park', in the Polish capital. https://preview.redd.it/l8aax0vbmf2b1.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2058be4c166fe6a5d16dc17142e7910fac7aad1f “My dream is to appeal to the child that lives in the heart of every man and woman on this planet and to create something in Poland that is so unique and so unusual that it cannot be experienced in any other place", he said The letter mentioned no price, but Jackson’s business manager, Tarak Ben Ammar, said in an interview that estimates of Jackson’s contribution range between $100 million and $300 million--modest sums by Western theme park standards. Poland would add an unknown amount. https://preview.redd.it/v3vax6femf2b1.jpg?width=636&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe01e404092b93a587184acbb64809e82e8675fe https://preview.redd.it/svjneycfmf2b1.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e9994183672ab7fe0eb2496407b91cafc3196922 " I would also like to tell a great truth, I have traveled all over the world six times and have been everywhere, but nowhere I liked it more than in Poland. A visit to Poland is the fulfillment of my childhood dreams...." He shops at the Kidiland toy store, reportedly in the amount of $670,000. He then goes to the children's hospital, with his arms loaded with gifts. https://preview.redd.it/kok5pazgmf2b1.jpg?width=639&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ebb70051f68409f937c0775426c55ff67f9009c https://preview.redd.it/ncl93ephmf2b1.jpg?width=594&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=31621e03ff28ea84d04b050dcb0d9e0a1a403c49 Next he takes a helicopter to Lubiaz, in order to see Cistercian Abbey of Lubiaz, wich he also planned to purchase. Accompanied by Professor Marek Kwiatkowski, who guided him during his visit, Michael spends 45 minutes marveling at the Baroque architecture and the relics. He'll even try a little "heehee" in the middle of the Hall des Princes to test the acoustics! Michael, who wanted to settle in Poland, already saw himself owning this old building, despite the millions of dollars in restoration to be expected. https://preview.redd.it/ih1lgr0jmf2b1.jpg?width=389&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4d38bf32bbf497853881a2ee5ee22587d7672d2b In the evening, he flies to Bremen, Germany where in three days he will begin the 2nd leg of his HIStory Tour. https://preview.redd.it/2ea4068kmf2b1.jpg?width=547&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3cb5c1e7f75c3f9226c6c3fa9752b601cec7b5ca https://preview.redd.it/di920gqnmf2b1.jpg?width=736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=72307480617262d831871b2f5b9e0d55a927a11a The plans to build the amusement park at a nearby military airport won approval from state officials in February 1998. Michael asks for sketches to be drawn up for the proposed theme parks, however, following the project’s approval and a huge hiatus, the army owning the airport does not agree to make it available for the park. Two grounds pointed out by the government will also be denied due to local protests. The Polish government abandons this project altogether and nothing will come out of it 2004 - Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville has ordered a trial-setting conference hearing today. Thomas Mesereau, Brian Oxman & Joe Jackson go to the courthouse; Michael's appearance isn't required. They argue for a reduction in his $3-million bail and seek an order to force prosecutors to move faster in sharing evidence. In accusing the prosecution of moving too slowly in giving the defense access to the evidence, as required by law, Mesereau said Michael's right to a fair trial was “jeopardized by the undue delay of discovery.” “The investigation of this case involves dozens of, if not over 100 witnesses, voluminous documents and expert examination on a variety of topics,” Jackson’s lawyers wrote. “The defense needs ample time to conduct follow-up witness interviews, locate and interview rebuttal witnesses and conduct its own forensic examinations, among other things.” Prosecutors have responded that they have turned over vast amounts of evidence already and are processing the information they have as quickly as possible. They also are strongly resisting an attempt by Mesereau to substantially reduce Jackson’s bail on grounds that it is much higher than the bail for other defendants facing similar charges. The bail-reduction request notes that Jackson has no prior record, arrests or convictions & that he has fully complied with all conditions of his release on bail, including attending court when ordered. “Mr. Jackson’s ties to this community are substantial,” the defense motion states. “The record reveals that Mr. Jackson is not a flight risk or a danger to the community. It is also apparent that Mr. Jackson intends to confront and vigorously defend rather than evade the allegations in this case.” Though Mesereau noted that Santa Barbara County’s bail schedule calls for bail of about $135,000 for the conspiracy and molestation charges in the grand jury complaint, prosecutors oppose the request on grounds that Jackson is a flight risk and that his wealth should be a factor in retaining high bail. Melville said early in the proceedings that he hoped a trial could begin before the end of this year, but legal experts and many criminal lawyers predicted that would be impossible. September 13 is set as the date for the trial to begin On another legal front, Janet Arvizo filed a claim against county child protection officials accusing them of moving too slowly in investigating leaks to the media that were helpful to Jackson’s defense. Before a psychiatrist who had examined Gavin told Santa Barbara County officials that the child had been molested, Welfare officials had interviewed the family after Living With Michael Jackson aired in early 2003 A memo written by authorities after Jackson’s arrest said the family had denied any sexual abuse. The memo was subsequently released on a website. Attorney Larry R. Feldman, representing the Arvizos, said he filed the claim, a necessary step before a lawsuit, to force county officials to speedily conclude their investigation to ensure that such a breach of confidentiality “will never occur again to another innocent child.” 2006 - Michael visited a Tokyo orphanage and told a group of 140 excited children "I love you" in Japanese. Michael's van was swarmed by 100+ fans as he arrived. Inside the Seibi Gakuen children's home, he watched a performance of traditional music and dance by the children before speaking briefly on stage. He later shook hands and signed autographs for the children. https://preview.redd.it/5lt7jdhqmf2b1.jpg?width=767&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7d3a34ad3850b3460555a46dee82abca40bdbb9a Michael's children and Grace visited with the children on this tour of the Japanese orphanage. https://preview.redd.it/f9q2mu3tmf2b1.jpg?width=218&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a3110b0dca7829696b7bbdb23ff3a6afc2557bbf "I look forward to seeing old friends and saying hello to my huge fan base in Japan who, like my other fans around the world, have for so many years consistently shown their love and support to me and my family."- MJ "Everyone couldn't believe such a big international star was visiting us," said Kiyoko Mito, headmistress of the Christian-run school. "The children only believed me after seeing the news yesterday that Michael Jackson was actually in Japan," she said 2009 - Having not heard from AEG regarding his salary, Conrad Murray sent another email to AEG & receives a response from Tim Wooley https://preview.redd.it/53qvtjwumf2b1.png?width=513&format=png&auto=webp&s=c048d2d7ca288f12a6a423237ced8234dba40b05 https://preview.redd.it/tsc7mzuvmf2b1.png?width=513&format=png&auto=webp&s=521de2b6de9a122d1ae45ba25caf39a5b7fb76a2 2013 - Jackson v AEG Trial Day 18 Katherine, Janet, Rebbie and Randy Jackson are in court. Only one of the siblings was allowed in the courtroom as they are potential witnesses. Janet accompanied Katherine during morning session while Rebbie was with her during the afternoon session. Paul Gongaware Testimony Jackson direct Paul Gongaware is one of the defendants in the case. He's an adverse witness called by the plaintiffs. Gongaware is Co-CEO of Concerts West, part of AEG Live. Gongaware has toured with Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin and is currently on tour with The Rolling Stones. He worked for Jerry Weintraub in the 80s He produced Prince's tour in 2004. He has not promoted/produced tours since. Gongaware has not talked to Prince after the tour Gongaware was a CPA licensed in NY and Washington. He said he believes he's still licensed but hasn't checked status since there's no need Gongaware testified that landing Jackson, whom he felt was the biggest artist of his era, was huge for AEG. In a 2008 email to AEG Live President and Chief Executive Randy Phillips, Gongaware described how the company should approach Jackson and his manager about a possible comeback tour: We need to start at the fundamentals. How we do it. The difference between [Live Nation] and us is huge. We are artist-based, they are Wall Street-driven. We are smart people. We are completely honest and transparent with everything we do. That's how [founder] Phil [Anschutz] wants it Gongaware said he worked on an Elvis Presley tour. Panish asked if Elvis died of drug overdose, and Gongaware said "Yes". Gongaware replied to a condolences' email on July 5, 2009: I was working on the Elvis tour when he died, so I kind of knew what to expect. Still quite a shock "So you knew what to expect when Michael Jackson passed away, is that right, sir?", Brian Panish asked. "I kind of knew what was going to happen, yes",Gongaware answered. Despite working as a tour promoter for 37 years -- including for Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead and many others -- Gongaware testified that the only artist he ever knew that was using drugs on tour was Rick James Panish asked about working for Jackson 5, Gongaware said had no interaction with Michael. Gongaware was a logistics manager on the Dangerous tour in 92-93. Panish said Michael made $100 million and donated it to charity. Gongaware said he didn't know When Gongaware met Jackson was with Colonel Parker (Elvis' manager) in Las Vegas. Michael had wanted to meet the Colonel Gongaware explained the difference between being tour manager and managing the tour. He talked about Michael's History tour Panish: "You knew that Michael had been to rehab during the dangerous tour?" Gongaware: "Yes, based on the statement he made after the tour" Gongaware said he never knew MJ was involved with drugs until after the end of the Dangerous tour. Gongaware told LAPD he was aware of Jackson's previous use of pills/painkillers but did not want to get involved. Gongaware had known for years that Michael Jackson was taking painkillers but wasn't aware he was abusing them until MJ abruptly canceled his Dangerous world tour in the early 1990s to enter rehab. Gongaware said he knew of "two occasions" when Michael used painkillers between shows, but he claimed he didn't grasp the scope of the Michael's sickness until the taped 1993 announcement. "I would dispute knowing that he had a problem. I wasn't aware that there were problems", Gongaware said Gongaware said he knew a doctor was medicating Jackson during the Dangerous tour but did not find out why the tour was eventually cut short. "Didn't have time,I was just dealing with what was in front of me", he said Panish said Dr. Finkelstein testified under oath that Gongaware knew Michael had problems with painkillers before the Dangerous tour ended. Panish: "Do you dispute that?" (Finkelstein testimony) Gongaware: "I knew that he had pain" Gongaware said Dr. Finkelstein is his doctor and friend and that they talk off and on, but he doesn't know specifics of the doctor's deposition. Dr. Finkelstein said he gave MJ painkillers after the concert in Bangkok following Michael's scalp surgery. In Gongaware's video deposition: "Did you ever ask Dr. Finkelstein if he treated Michael during the Dangerous tour?" "He wouldn't take about that stuff" Another part of Gongaware's video depo: He said yes, he "occasionally treated Michael Jackson on the Dangerous tour" Panish: "Were you always honest with Michael?" Gongaware: "I believe I was" Panish: "Did you throw around numbers to trick Michael Jackson?" Gongaware: "I didn't try to trick Michael" Panish elicited contradictory testimony asking over and over about Gongaware's memory, how long he spent with lawyers to discuss testimony. On the Bad Tour MJ sold out 10 stadiums at 75,000 tickets per night. Panish: "That's a pretty big number?" Gongaware: "Huge" Panish: "In 2 hours, how many tickets sold?" Gongaware: "In initial presale we sold 31 shows" Panish: "The fastest you had ever seen?" Gongaware: "Yes" "No one knows how many shows we can get with Mikey," said Gongaware. Panish asked about name "Mikey" - he said he used it occasionally Email on 2/27/09 from Gongaware to Phillips: We are holding all of the risk, if Michael won't approve it we go without his approval.We let Mikey know just what it will cost him in terms of him making money, and then we go with or without him in London. We cannot be forced into stopping this, which Michael will try to do because he is lazy and constantly changes his mind to fit his immediate wants. Gongaware said his use "Mikey" was affectionate, not disparaging, and that the 'lazy' crack amounted to "poor choice of words" but one that accurately reflected how Michael "really didn't like to rehearse. He didn't like to do these kinds of things." "People were aware at this point there would be a press conference. Michael wouldn't show up at the conference, it'd cost money," Gongaware said. "It wasn't much risk at all, we hadn't spent money," Gongaware said about that point of the tour. This was prior to news conference. Gongaware said the situation in London, where they constantly referred to Michael as "Wacko Jacko" would impact marketability to sell tickets "He doesn't want to do this kind of things, but it was important to show Michael to the world if he wanted to do a show," Gongaware explained Jurors were shown several e-mails from Gongaware that Jackson lawyers suggested were evidence that AEG Live deliberately misled Jackson about how much money he would make from his comeback concerts and how many days he would have to rest between shows. Gongaware wrote to his boss, AEG Live President Randy Phillips, that they should present gross ticket sales numbers to Jackson, not the percentage of the net profits, during contract talks. "Maybe gross is a better number to throw around if we use numbers with Mikey listening" Panish talked about an email Gongaware sent to his secretary suggesting that she design a concert calendar for Jackson using light tan colors for show dates, while drawing attention to his rest days Don't want the shows to stand out too much when Michael looks at it.Less contrast between work and off. Maybe off days in a contrasting soft color. Put 'OFF' in each off day after July 8, as well. Figure it out so it looks like he's not working so much. Panish: "Did you want to change the color of the schedule to show Michael would not be working so hard?" Gongaware: "Yes" Panish: "Were you trying to fool him?" Gongaware: "Nah, I wasn't trying to fool him, I wanted to present it in the best possible light" Gongaware said it would be obvious when Michael would be working and not and he wasn't trying to trick him. Email on 3/25/09 from Phillips to Gongaware: "We need to pull the plug now. I will explain" Panish: "Mr. Phillips wanted to pull the plug on the show, right sir?" Gongaware: "I think he was referring to pull the plug on Karen Faye. We never talked about pulling the plug on the tour. Not that I recall" "Kenny wanted the pull because the way she (Faye) handled situations," Gongaware explained. "She tried to control access to Michael and Kenny didn't like that" Karen Faye expressed strong opinion that the tour as dangerous and impractical for MJ. Panish asked about a chain of emails where Gongaware said the pulling the plug refers to Ms. Faye. "I believe he was," Gongaware repeated. In another March 25, 2009, email, Ortega wrote Gongaware that it was Faye's "strong opinion that this is dangerous and impractical with consideration to Michael's health and ability to perform.". "I thought he was in good shape at the press conference, I was there," Gongaware said at the deposition. Gongaware was at O2 arena and Phillips was with Michael. "Michael was late, Randy [Phillips] was saying I'm trying to get him going, I'm trying to get him going". Panish: "Did Randy tell you MJ was drunk and despondent?" Gongaware: "No, not drunk and despondent. Just said he was having hard time getting him going" As to Dr. Conrad Murray, Gongaware said there was 1 rehearsal he said hello to him. "It was basically a hello, on the floor at the Forum. Mikey asked me to retain him. I never hired him" Panish played an interview of Phillips to SkyTV after Michael died: "The guy is willing 2 leave his practice for large sum of money, so we hired him" "I was told Michael wanted him as his doctor for the show," Gongaware said. Gongaware said Michael did not have any illness that he knew of. Gongaware: "He had taken a physical, he passed the physical and from what I understand there was nothing wrong with him. Maybe some hay fever" Panish: "Do you know what his blood test showed?" Gongaware: "It showed it was good" Gongaware said he received an email from Bob Taylor that everything was fine and that Michael had passed the physical. Gongaware said he never saw the results of the tests and doesn't know who saw them. Panish showed video deposition of Gongaware and a declaration he signed about a month before giving the deposition. They contradict themselves.At first, Gongaware insisted he did no negotiating with Murray, but, confronted with emails and his previous testimony, he changed his position and said, "The only thing I did with Dr. Murray was negotiate a price." Gongaware said that neither he nor anyone at the AEG investigated Murray's background or credentials Panish: "First you said how much did you want?"(to Dr. Murray) Gongaware: "Yes" Panish: "He said he wanted $5 million, right?" Gongaware: "That's what he said. He said he had four clinics he would have to close, he would have to lay people off" Gongaware said Dr. Murray had been Michael's personal doctor for the past 3 years. He said he did not know how many times MJ had seen the doctor. "Michael insisted on him, recommended him, and that was good enough for me, it was not for me to tell him who his doctor should be" Gongaware said "The fact that he had been Michael Jackson's personal physician for three years was good enough for me," Gongaware said. He said that Murray initially asked for $5 million to travel to London with Jackson and tend to him during the tour. "I just told him it wasn't going to happen," he said, recalling that Jackson then suggested offering him $150,000 a month. "Michael Jackson insisted on it and recommended him and it was not for me to tell him no," said Gongaware. "I wanted to provide what was necessary for him to do his job...He wanted a doctor and I wanted him to be healthy." Even after the offer of $150,000, Murray wasn't satisfied. "He started saying he wanted more and I said, 'The offer is coming directly from the artist," Gongaware said. Minutes later, he said Murray accepted. "Did that seem desperate to you?" asked Panish. "No," said Gongaware. "He just accepted Michael's offer." "We agreed on what the compensation was going to be, but there were a lot of issues to be resolved," Gongaware said. Gongaware said he recalled meeting with Dr. Murray where he was told the doctor was going to take care of the medical licensing in London. Gongaware and Timm Wooley are longtime friends. They are currently working on The Rolling Stones tour. Gongaware said he negotiated the price for Dr. Murray, but didn't negotiate the contract. Gongaware explained that he didn't do the negotiation, he would normally refer that to Wooley. Dr. Finkelstein and Gongaware have been friends for 35-plus years. Gongaware said he never offered Dr. Finkelstein the job of being MJ's doctor and said the doctor would be mistaken if he testified otherwise. Gongaware told the jury he called Dr. Finkelstein to ask what a fair price for a tour doctor would be. Doctor told him it was $10,000/week. As to Dr. Finkelstein wanting to be the tour doctor, Gongaware said he didn't recall specifically, but knew he wanted it."After his death we may have talked, but I don't recall specifics," Gongaware said. Gongaware said he sees Dr. Finkelstein a few times a year, but the subject of Michael never came up. Panish asked Gongaware if Dr. Finkelstein wanted to know if Michael was clean or using drugs. Gongaware said he didn't recall the conversation Panish asked: "You could have told Dr. Murray at any time that his services were no longer needed, couldn't you?" "No", Gongaware replied. Panish: "You were involved in terminating one of the nannies who took care of Michael's kids?" Gongaware: "Yes" Gongaware told nanny, Grace Rwamba, that her services would not be needed anymore because AEG was cutting down on Michael's expenses "I never read the contract, I was there when Michael signed it, but didn't see what was in it," Gongaware said, "Doctor Murray was 100% Michael's cost" Based on the contract, Gongaware said 95% of the production expenses were Michael's responsibility, 5% AEG. Panish: "Who decided there was a need for a written contract with Dr. Murray?" Gongaware: "I don't know" Gongaware said that if the tour went forward, Dr. Murray would've made $1.5 million for 10 months. Ortega would've made almost that. Gongaware said although AEG never did a background check on Murray, in his view they had "checked out" the doctor according to their standard practices. "When we check out someone, we either rely on if we know the person or if they're known in the industry or if they're recommended by the artist & in this case, Dr. Murray was recommended by the artist, in fact, the artist insisted" Panish pressed Gongaware: "You did nothing to verify anything about Dr. Murray, isn't that true, sir?" Panish asked Gongaware if he approved budgets for April-July including Dr. Murray as production expense. He said he didn't know which budgets he approved. "It's my job to get that show on the road," Gongaware said. Gongaware said he had to know how much the production had spent at any given time, but didn't have time to read the budget. Panish: "Do you think you're good at your job, sir?" Gongaware: "Yes" Panish: "Very good?" Gongaware: "I think so" Gongaware testified that he didn't pay attention to the tour budgets that he approved, even though he was the tour manager.Paul Gongaware said he didn't read through the budgets, instead trusting that the tour accountant knew what he was talking about. Gongaware testified that Dr. Murray's salary, although included in the company's budget for several months, wasn't something he saw as an actual payment that would be made. "If there's a potential for cost we put it in our budget so there are no surprises later", he said. Gongaware often pleaded poor memory of events. He said he may have met with Jackson as many as 10 times, but could remember only two of the meetings and only one when Murray was present Gongaware said he doesn't remember how many meetings he attended at Carolwood house. He didn't recall a meeting where a vase was broken. "There was a meeting where he signed the contract," Gongaware recalled, saying there were more but he doesn't remember specifics. At the meeting in early June, Gongaware said he was present along with Kenny, Randy, Frank DiLeo, Dr. Murray and Michael. "The meeting was about making sure Michael and Dr. Murray had everything they needed to care for Michael," Gongaware explained. "Yes, we did talk about health-related issues. It was more a general meeting about what Dr. Murray would need", Gongaware said. He had told the police the topic of the meeting was Jackson's overall health ( i.e., diet, stamina and his weight) He remembered that Jackson arrived late from a doctor's appointment and had slurred speech. Gongaware said Michael Jackson "was a bit off". "He was just coming back from visiting Dr. Klein. I believe he was under the influence of something. That was the only time I saw him like that", Gongaware said. Jackson had missed a rehearsal and was thought to be dancing at home. However they discovered he was only watching video. Doctor Murray was receptive to their concerns and indicated he would take care of the situation Court Transcript submitted by FelicitySmoak_ to MichaelJackson [link] [comments] |
2023.05.28 08:33 -Bonjour-- More Madeir
From my travel report (2014):
The second trip to Madeira we made to escape the winter. The weather was like a moody diva in winter. It changes not only from day to day, but also within a few hours. So you can never plan anything for the next day, because you should not think, today it is so nice and sunny and warm, it will be the same tomorrow. But if you are unlucky, the next morning it will be completely cloudy, only to possibly be sunny again in the afternoon.
It is always a pleasure to stroll in FUNCHAL's old town. Here times an ice cream to eat, there a coffee possibly with Nata to take. But this should be done when there are no cruise ships in the harbor. Then you see fortunately more locals than tourists in the streets.
For football fans: Christiano Ronaldo, who comes from Madeira, now has his own museum in Funchal - eagerly visited by his - mostly young - supporters...
Funchal is spreading out more and more - the slopes all around are already built on, and in the hotel zone construction continues eagerly. Although it is obvious that in the newly built apartment houses still very many apartments are empty.
The first two weeks we booked apartment at about 350 m altitude with a beautiful view of Funchal. The disadvantage was that it became - especially in the evening - but quite cool. Fortunately we had not only an electric heater but also a fireplace in the apartment.
From up here you can see how Funchal has grown in recent years. It is a huge sea of houses, which goes up to all the adjacent hills.
For the second part of our stay we had chosen an apartment house at Praia do Formosa with direct view to the sea and also to Cabo Girao.
One of the most beautiful and varied gardens of Madeira is located only about 9 km east of Funchal: the Palheiro or Blandy's Gardens. In 1801, the property was purchased by Count Carvalhal. A hunting lodge was built and the count had exotic trees imported from all over the world. The count's descendants squandered the fortune, and so in 1885 the estate became the property of the Blandy family of wine merchants. The villa above the garden is still inhabited by the Blandy family and is not accessible.
The gardens are famous not only for the variety of (often exotic) plants but also for their location on a 500 m high hill with a magnificent view of the bay of Funchal. The Count's hunting lodge was renovated in 1997 and is now the exclusive hotel "Quinta Velha do Palheiro".
The gardens are divided into the main garden, the sunken garden, the valley of hell (Inferno) with mighty fern trees, the rose garden, the ladies garden and the tea house area. There are also ponds with water lilies and beautiful flower beds.
Some of the numerous trees are 100 years old. The garden has been constantly developed. Hibiscus, bougainvilleas, jacaranda, African tulip trees, coral trees and orchid trees grow here. The Blandy family imported proteas from South Africa and had a rose garden planted and a small baroque chapel built. The gardens are also famous for their numerous camellias and magnolias.
The orchid garden, created by an Austrian, apparently has more than 5000 plants and is located below the botanical garden. At the moment the orchid garden is closed, because in the big fire of 2016 in Funchal not only many houses were destroyed, but also great damage was done to the orchid garden.
Carnival is also celebrated in Madeira and by chance we saw a children's parade. It was interesting to see with which eagerness the children were partly "there". Therefore, there will probably be no problem with carnivalistic offspring in Funchal.
The town of RIBEIRA BRAVA is located at the mouth of a wide - sometimes wild (brava) river (ribeira). From Funchal there is a highway to get there. In Ribeira Brava there is a wide pebble beach, and on the other side of the promenade there are cafes and restaurants. In the historic center there are small stores, and here is also the pink town hall from the late 18th century
The Igreja de Sao Bento was built as early as 1440, but was given a new look during the Baroque period. The spire with the white-blue tile pattern and the sphere symbol of the Portuguese explorers is striking.
We still drove to Punta do Sol. This place lies between two high rocky capes. In the old core there are only a few houses and the church, behind it already begin the terraced banana fields. There is a pebble beach and on the promenade you can have a drink in small cafes. Except for us, there were hardly any tourists in the village. But here we drank the best poncha on the island. Poncha (made of honey, lemon juice and sugar cane brandy) is a kind of national drink on Madeira.
The village of Camara de Lobos - situated between two rocky cliffs - is only 9 km away from Funchal. Camara de Lobos is still a typical fishing village with the many colorful boats (xavelhas) that you can admire in the small harbor. A small church was built at the harbor early on, this was remodeled in 1420 and the current Capella Nossa Senhora de Conceicao was built.
There is still fishing and some boat building in Camara de Lobos. However, these are no longer particularly lucrative, so tourism is now a larger source of income. The fishermen in this area mainly catch the black scabbardfish (Espada), which is offered in many restaurants - also in Funchal.
There is a promenade path from the Lido in Funchal to Camara de Lobos since 2011. The path - always with a view of Cabo Girao - is partly concreted and partly laid out on wooden walkways. If you walk in the direction of Camara de Lobos, you can see the approaching waves of the Atlantic Ocean on the left and the partly high cliffs on the right. Not far behind Praia de Formosa there are some beach bars or restaurants where you can have a drink or eat quite well.
Cabo Girao near Camara de Lobos is one of the highest cliffs in the world. More than 500 m the land here falls almost vertically into the sea. Since our last visit, things had changed here, there was now a large parking lot. Then the cafes and souvenir stores were also new for us. And surprising for us was also the glass viewing platform, which exists since the end of 2012. Here you can see that wine and vegetables are grown on the small rocky outcrops. The farmers can reach their fields on the coastal fringe with a cable car. Before the cable car was built, these fields were only accessible by boat.
From Funchal it was not far to CANICO. The original village became in the course of time one of the most important tourist places on Madeira. Large hotel complexes, apartment buildings and villas were built. However, we turned off before we reached the town in order to get to Ponta do Garajau. There on a rock cliff is the 14 m high Christo Rei statue, which was erected in 1927. From here you have a beautiful view of Funchal. Since 2007, there is a cable car nearby that goes 200 m down to the pebble beach.
CURRAL DAS FREIRAS is a small village nestled between huge almost vertical mountain slopes in the heart of Madeira. There is only one road that leads serpentine to the 633 m high valley. Originally the valley was inhabited by nomads and shepherds. Towards the end of the 15th century, the land became the property of the nuns of the Santa Clara convent.
The name Curral das Freiras means "pen of the nuns". In the 16th and 17th centuries, the island was repeatedly attacked by pirates, and the nuns retreated here to the protection of the mountains, which are up to 700 meters high. Here people still live from what they grow themselves on their fertile fields. One of the specialties of the village is chestnuts. They are used to make liqueur, cakes, bread and soups, which are also sold to tourists. On November 1 of each year, the Chestnut Festival is held here.
Not many tourists come to SANTA CRUZ, although this place is certainly worth a visit. There is quite a pretty old town with the church of San Salvador built in 1533 as well as like a large modern market hall just behind the long gray pebble beach lined with date palms.
Just north of Santa Cruz is Madeira Island's airport, renamed "Cristiano Ronaldo" Airport in 2007. Opened in 1964 and reconstructed in 2000, this airport is one of the most dangerous in the world. The 2777 m long runway is built on the rocky coast above the water and looks like a bridge with large concrete supports. A large parking lot has been built below this runway.
Before the landing approach, the mountain massif must be overcome so that the narrow runway can be approached. Unfortunately, there have been numerous accidents, but this is still one of the busiest airports in Portugal.
From Santa Cruz we drove to MACHICO, one of the larger towns of Madeira. Machico profited from sugar cane cultivation in the 15th century and is now a modern town, which is divided into two halves by the Ribeira da Machico. On the eastern bank of the river is the historic fishing quarter with the main square surrounded by tall laurel trees.
The town church of Nossa Senhora da Conceicao in the center was built in the 15th century and partially rebuilt in the 18th century. Opposite stands the town hall built in the early 20th century There are several fish restaurants here.
In the surroundings of the small village FAIAL there is still a lot of agriculture, e.g. wine and fruit growing. The village is dominated by the 600 m high Eagle Rock. Only a few tourists come here, because there is hardly anything worth seeing.
Most people come to Santana to see the famous "Casas de colmo". In total there are still about a hundred of these thatched historic wooden houses. They are very scattered throughout the municipality.
On the way back to Funchal we passed through Ribera fria. Here you can take a short hike up to the Miradouro dos Balcoes, from where you have a beautiful view of the mountains.
The peninsula PONTA DE SAO LOURENCO is 9 km long and 2 km wide. In 1982 it was declared a nature reserve, mainly to ensure the preservation of the fauna with the great variety of birds and the great occurrence of the native flora. The eastern tip of Madeira is barren and windy. One can no longer imagine that everything here was lushly forested.
Then, in spring, a carpet of flowers enlivens the bare hilltops. But also in other seasons the turquoise sea and the rocks in different shades - ocher, rust, gray and green-black - bring color to the area.
The south coast can be easily approached by boats, which is almost impossible on the drastically shaped north coast with its strong winds. There is a paved access road to the parking lot above Baia de Abra. Here you can also take the public bus.
From there there is a popular rocky hiking trail. This hike is absolutely not a walk. There are some climbs, often wooden stairs. You have no shade and are exposed to gusts of wind. To avoid being blown down somewhere, I ducked down and waited out the sometimes strong gusts - really quite extreme.
At the narrowest point with a land bridge only a few meters wide, the rock drops almost 100 m vertically - fortunately the place is secured with a fence.
The hike takes - depending on your condition - 2 to 3 hours. It also depends on whether you only walk to the plateau of Casa Sardinha - administration of the national park - or if you want to make the ascent to Pico Furado. Below the Casa there are some tables for picnics. From there there is also an entrance for swimming, which can certainly be pleasant in the summer.
On the way there are always beautiful views of the sea and the rock formations - e.g. the so-called rock gate. On the south side you can see the cages of a fish farm in the sea. In front of Sao Lourenco there are two small islands, on one of them stands the oldest (from 1870) lighthouse of Madeira.
From the cape we drove to CANICAL, the easternmost municipality of Madeira. This place is still characterized by fishing and boat building. Fishing boats are still built here and there is a large repair yard.
Over the 1000 m high Encumeada Pass we drove northeast to Sao Vicente. Unfortunately the old coastal road to Seixal and Porto Moniz was closed and we had to drive through many tunnels. A few years ago it was a special experience to drive on the narrow and winding ER 101 directly at the coast - on one side the high cliffs and on the other side the sea. But apparently the road has become too dangerous in the meantime because of constant falling rocks.
We got to Porto Moniz , and unfortunately the weather got worse, more and more clouds came up. The sea raged with huge waves to the shore. Porto Moniz is a nice little town located on the northwestern tip of Madeira, a region with high mountains and views of the endless Atlantic Ocean.
From Porto Moniz you can go hiking, for example on the coastal trail "Levada da Ribeira da Janela", one of the best hiking trails in Madeira.
Porto Moniz is known for its volcanic pools. Daytrippers mostly come for these pools filled with sea water.These pools owe their formation to a lava tongue that flowed into the sea here thousands of years ago, creating caves due to the force of wind and waves. The black basalt lava pools form swimming pools and are the attraction of Porto Moniz, because you can swim (swim) in them very well - at least in good weather...
There are two different lava pools in Porto Moniz: the completely natural pools and the western pools, which have been transformed into natural outdoor pools - there are no sharp rocks here. The surrounding rocks of the outdoor pool were built as a terrace , and here you can sunbathe. The pools are open every day - even in winter. But when we were there, there was no one in the water....
The natural pools are not safe because of the black sharp basalt rocks. It is very interesting to watch the waves as they crash against the rocks. The water is sometimes whirled into the air in such a way that it looks like a geyser.
The PICO DE ARIEIRO is the most visited mountain of Madeira, because it is the only one that has been opened up with a road, but it is only the third highest. The road was probably built primarily for the observatory and not necessarily for the tourists. Already the approach through pristine landscape with rugged rock and sparse vegetation is an experience.
If the weather is good, you have a breathtaking view all around. Equally beautiful, however, is the sight of white cushions of clouds hanging between the high mountains. In winter there can be ice and snow on the peaks. Since it had snowed on Madeira about 2 weeks before our trip there, we could still see the sparse remnants on the shaded layers.
From Pico de Arieiro you can hike up to Pico Ruivo (1861 m) if the weather is good. At the beginning, the path is quite wide and in places secured by railings. Some then walk at least to the first viewpoint - the rocky peak Niho de Mata with beautiful views. The entire hike up to Pico Ruivo is clearly difficult, even if there are partially secured stairways since the 1960s. Some of the paths are steep up to 700 m, the rock steps are high, the paths are sometimes narrow and beaten, and it also goes through unlit tunnels. So you should have a good condition and be free from giddiness and sure-footed.
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2023.05.28 07:16 premiershuttles Pristine Beauty and Tranquility: Exploring Palm Cove Beach
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2023.05.28 07:07 premiershuttles Premier Shuttles and Tours - Cairns Airport Transfer Service
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2023.05.27 20:32 TheAnonymouseJoker GrapheneOS – Corporate FOSS loving witch hunting crybullies feat. PrivacyGuides and DivestOS
Hello! I have been sitting on top of this since a year, and now is the perfect time to voice it out. Enough is enough! I have been on the lookout for this dreaded group since years, and even though I covered this group largely before, it is essential to cover rest of the elements I could not give space to in my previous expose writeups, due to lack of ample evidence and sheer amounts of writing that does not allow enough space for one particular group.
This Canadian (yes, took time to know that) group of trolls is nothing significant today, thanks to largely efforts of people dishing out ample evidence about them, but they tend to fabricate way too much lies in a concerted manner across Reddit, 4chan, YouTube comments and the like, all while simultaneously fabricating boogeymen cabals that apparently attack them. Today, even Louis Rossmann has felt the wrath.
It is critically important to trace and decode the patterns of their workings and Kiwifarms-like behaviour on internet, and I see this group as the next big threat to privacy community, simply because they have been persistent and think they are unstoppable.
My aim is to try to stay objective throughout as much as I can. I also want to mention that this is a lore that basically nobody other than me has tracked in this depth (arguably Techlore has enough material), and nobody else carries a record of these events in this manner to date.
WHY IS DANIEL MICAY'S BEHAVIOUR SO WEIRD?
I have been more curious than anyone else, trying to decode his behaviour psychologically to the best of my capabilities and experience on internet by myself. This person is claimed to be either mentally ill or narcissistic by various people, as of now. But I do not think he is simply narcissistic, because he consciously and responsibly knows very well what he does. As I show you screenshots of DivestOS incident, you will know why.
EVENTS
I will describe events in a chronological order since last year's "criticism of ... 4 years of evidence" magnum opus I wrote, making this the 5th year of "security" entities in FOSS community continuing to engage in awkward behaviours and exploiting the lack of expertise of ordinary folks who skim through various privacy communities. I recommend going through this first if you want to know everything about the backstory about privacy community's related issues. (
https://old.reddit.com/privatelife/comments/ug9qnc/writeup_criticism_of_rprivacyguides_grapheneos/)
HOW IS GRAPHENEOS AN EMBARGO GOOGLE PARTNER FOR SECURITY PATCHES?
I read a couple of years ago somewhere, GrapheneOS describing how they are an embargo security partner. However, I cannot find those reddit comments anymore, so the next best option is a tweet from August 2022 by the horse's mouth. One person alone building monthly patches for years for supported Pixels compared to Google Inc seems like quite an impossibly tall order to me.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220829223401/https://twitter.com/GrapheneOS/status/1564322206414524420#m (MAY 2022) MICAY CLAIMED HOW I WAS PAID BY CHINESE GOVERNMENT TO SPREAD LIES AND DESTROY PRIVACY COMMUNITY, PRIVACYGUIDES HEAD ENDORSES SAID CLAIM
Exactly one day after I published the 4 year criticism magnum opus on May 1 2022, what I see on the afternoon of May 2 2022 is this.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220502064114/https://old.reddit.com/PrivacyGuides/comments/uged1y/is_grapheneos_actually_good_or_just_hype/ One long thesis with zero citations. Hubris. This guy loves to talk about character assassination after pissing off people, and when he gets civilly criticised, this happens.
You can remove the archive.org part (
https://old.reddit.com/PrivacyGuides/comments/uged1y/is_grapheneos_actually_good_or_just_hype/) and check currently how Jonah Aragon, head of PrivacyGuides, fully endorses these claims, and to this day, has a shared moderator (mbananasynergy) with GrapheneOS subreddit (earlier it was B0risGrishenk0/Tommy_tran whose new alt is Privsec_dev). You may also check how after a year, the post mostly has [deleted] users and comments, all being GrapheneOS sockpuppets and harassers abusing pseudonymity offered by Reddit. These are the people that scream everyday how sockpuppet harassment occurs to them.
He did this on Twitter as well.
http://web.archive.org/web/20220820001954/https://twitter.com/GrapheneOS/status/1560729241364340737 In the tweets down the chain, he says:
That person is a tankie who supports authoritarian governments and peddles lies for them [...] It might as well be official CCP propaganda too.
Is there any problem with liking certain countries that you hate, because of geopolitical preferences and news media propaganda? How xenophobe can you be, to think Indians/Asians must like same geopolitical narratives as Canadians/Westerners? I do not believe in Western nationalist tropes, and I think it is fair for everyone to have this freedom.
HOW GRAPHENEOS WITCH HUNTS ANY OF ITS CRITICS
Here is the moderation list of GrapheneOS.
https://i.imgur.com/nZDeBG6.jpg Here is it, straight from the horse's mouth.
https://i.imgur.com/nhepoMJ.jpg (JUNE 2022) LEMMY RCMP THREAT FIASCO REVISIT
There has been a recent incident from late April 2023 (a month ago) where Daniel Micay claimed he has faced a swatting attempt (attempt to raid house and murder), and a certain CP and gore spammer flooded GrapheneOS chatrooms with this type of nasty troll content, but in one month, he has NOT provided any evidence. Moreover, he claimed Royal Canadian Metropolitan Police (RCMP) is investigating this matter, and then proceeded to lockdown the GrapheneOS Off-Topic Matrix chatroom (place of claimed incident) for sometime.
For context in follow up, Lemmy is a free and open source federated Reddit alternative, that is fully federated with Mastodon, Twitter's free and open rival.
This faux threatening using Canadian police's credentials reminded me of a very similar incident that I faced at Lemmy from two moderators (akc3n from GrapheneOS and dngray from PrivacyGuides) on behalf of Micay. I am the moderator of c/privacy at Lemmy, and this was their failed attempt at trying to rage bait me into reacting hastily, causing administration to revoke my moderation powers, so that GrapheneOS trolls could make Lemmy their next place of habitat, something I protect Lemmy from.
https://archive.ph/acy2h During this incident, due to the chaos that the tag team of GrapheneOS and PrivacyGuides (remember they still have shared moderator after Tommy?) caused, one Lemmy administrator warned me, because they got scared about the name of police being involved. Tommy_Tran/Privsec_dev proceeded to get me banned from Lemmy c/privacy's Matrix chatroom by tag teaming with dngray (PrivacyGuides moderator) to bait the moderator of that Matrix chatroom in believing I was the troll. Tommy took over soon enough and changed the room into some Windows/GrapheneOS Security crap, and later the moderator of Matrix chatroom itself moved off of Lemmy.ml (Lemmy's main instance) onto Lemmy.ca (coincidentally a Canadian instance). I do not know if these Canadians are friends or just fellow countrymen, but what they did was insanely evil. (Instances are like separate websites that can still operate like they are the same forum/website.)
Screenshot of c/privacy Matrix room takeover and trolling behind my back, knowing what they have pulled off:
https://i.imgur.com/PoTiANo.jpg (JANUARY 2023) akc3n, GRAPHENEOS MOD, CLAIMS THAT WITCH HUNTING CRITICS' ACCOUNTS IS "BRAND REPUTATION AND COMPETITOR ANALYSIS" AND TOMMY BEING A XENOPHOBE
Another horse and his mouth. N-n-neighhh!!! Since Reddit made API paid and Pushshift archival service has said goodbye forever, I can only show you the thread with barely any comments leftover as proof combined with the screenshot I preserved from back then.
Tommy loves Micay so much, he started to accuse me of being a Chinese government shill in exactly the same way Micay did in May 2022.
Now a ghost town of comments: (
https://old.reddit.com/deapple/comments/10dxzdb)
Screenshot:
https://i.imgur.com/q2OefBw.jpg (see the blue highlighted portion at the very end, at about 20% height from below)
DIVESTOS DEVELOPER BANNING ME ON MICAY'S ORDERS OTHERWISE HE WILL INITIATE A SOCIAL MEDIA HARASSMENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST DIVESTOS
Yes, this happened, and this is my favourite part as far as everything GrapheneOS head/mods have done to date. As dramatic as it sounds, Micay in realtime, in DivestOS' XMPP chatroom, was accusing me of the typical "harassment ringleader campaign" BS, and ordered DivestOS/Mull developer (these are his aliases) SubZer0Carnage/Tad/SkewedZeppelin that if I was not banned immediately, DivestOS and him would face social media targeted campaign and DivestOS will have to forcibly pull off any borrowed GrapheneOS code. DivestOS developer dusted his hands off me, since he does not like me apparently for liking some closed source software and he benefits off of the crybully. Also, unlike the crybully, I have never harassed or harmed anyone because I have a moral conscience to not be an abusive asshole on internet, so he will face no issues on my end.
Screenshot 1:
https://i.imgur.com/Al65uTZ.jpg Screenshot 2 continuation:
https://i.imgur.com/mT8W9pa.jpg TOMMY AND ANUPRITA/RANDOMHYDROSOL SHOWCASING THEIR LOVE FOR GOOGLE/APPLE/MICROSOFT SPYWARE
See, the point is Google and Apple are spyware/ad companies at the end of the day, and it does not matter if you need to use their services due to necessity. The technicality of it does not change, and people simply make privacy compromises for convenience or out of necessity. I do not have anything against that. What I am against though is this weaseling being done in privacy community, knowing people want to prevent privacy abuse from corporations and governments.
I use Windows (and Linux) daily according to how I laid it out in my computing guide in a very private and secure manner. I understand the use cases of common people extremely well, even better than just about all of privacy community, having been a Windows user all my life and daily driving Linux exclusively since 6 years (now dual boot).
These specimens come and evangelically claim how Google and Apple do not spy on people, and how "degoogling" is a nonsensical concept. The reality is, basically all of these peoples' knowledge other than Micay and DivestOS dev, is as good or worse than a first year sophomore computer science student. They mostly parrot the typical points that they formulate based upon things they would hear in their own little world of shitty security blogs, reddit and whatever proficionados like Micay and developers at XDA would blabber about, creating reductionist notions in their head they can just preach around.
Screenshot:
https://i.imgur.com/bUdVCpH.jpg GRAPHENEOS ALTS CLAIM CELLEBRITE KITS CANNOT EXFILTRATE DATA FROM PIXELS ON YOUTUBE COMMENTS
I do not know enough to be able to browse every YouTube comment section of every tech related video made on custom ROMs on phones, but what I know is Luke Smith is fairly popular among Western youngsters regarding tech topics. He is a more extreme version of Mental Outlaw, for those that are clueless.
When I saw this, I was astounded. Cellebrite is an Israeli cybersecurity company whose phone exfiltrating kits cost upwards of $1 million, and are only purchasable for government agencies like TSA, police and forensic departments. This company purchases 0day vulnerabilities in commonly used smartphone apps which allows them to run their phone hacking government nexus. How are these GrapheneOS people buying million dollar kits when Micay only has one desktop computer for his GrapheneOS ROM binary compilation? The answer is - it is a lie attempted to be spread like rumour.
One would think, why would anyone be concerned about going this far? I am usually the person who people try to follow on, since I pose good questions regarding a lot of things. In this case, the question would be: if GrapheneOS claims bootloader lock security for protection against Evil Maid and other bootloader attacks, is it secure against phone hacking kits at airports or against state actors? Has GrapheneOS' security ever been vetted independently? Since regular Joe on the street is not a proficionado, would it be okay to ensure selling claims of such extreme security of GrapheneOS is battle tested? People started asking these questions that always went unanswered. You get the idea.
Screenshot:
https://i.imgur.com/woNxPhx.jpg DOZENS OF GRAPHENEOS ALTS SPAMMING "PIXEL 6A $299" ON PRIVACY SUBREDDITS AND 4CHAN PRIVACY CLOSES OFF ALL AOSP ROM DISCUSSION POST BRIGADING
If you go to any of the 4Chan archives for /g/ board, and search "graphene" or "pixel", you will find both of these mentioned together many times, which is a very interesting phenomenon. This is known as astroturfing. Here is a compilation of /g/ comments from the last 6 months.
https://i.imgur.com/G6P1c9n.jpg privacy suffered the same and sheltered Micay against all criticism until last month when Micay accused
privacy moderators of sheltering claimed CP/gore spammer and swatter, followed by a lot of vote manipulation and sockpuppet brigading, leading to
privacy shutting down all discussions relating to any specific AOSP custom ROMs.
https://old.reddit.com/privacy/comments/130y6uz/android_based_operating_systems/ MICAY'S CLAIMS OF CP/GORE SPAM ON HIS CHATROOM, AND CLAIM OF ATTEMPTED SWATTING (HOUSE RAID MURDER)
This is the spiciest part for most people in the know about this, and it has been one whole month since the claims. However, neither local Canadian news media has reported anything on something that would be as significant as swatting a software developer, nor has he presented evidence upon being asked by numerous users. Upon being asked, Micay has either ghosted or banned people, or accused them of being complicit in his self-proclaimed attempted murder.
What he is doing here is using psychological trickery of dead cat strategy, creating a loop of "mysterious" act that only he and his 2-3 moderator friends know about but have, upon being repeatedly requested by dozens, denied to give a shred of evidence, and has attempted to use this dirty sensationalist act to gain sympathy. He has also utilised the effect, until now, of relying on the goldfish attention span of masses regarding world events, so that people forget questioning his shocking claims and think his gospel is the immortalised truth.
Moreover, he has a history of never giving any evidence for his claims he has made over the years. Techlore and I have noted and documented this dozens of times at this point, and one Reddit user involved with using GrapheneOS undertook the effort to do this as well.
https://old.reddit.com/u_lo________________ol/comments/1314x2x/_/ In the past 24 hours, after Rossmann's video came out, Micay announced that not just is he claiming to step down as developer of GrapheneOS, but that "police know about the swatting situation and are preventing it happening again". How did it go from blocking and ghosting dozens of people upon asking for evidence, to a month later claiming "oh all is good I am quitting social media have a nice day"? Is everyone this gullible? Is there no course of action, or no accountability to present evidence publicly (let alone block users asking) for the duration of an entire month? Nobody is asking for CP material, and evidence of such incident could have easily been shown. Micay engages on social media almost everyday, in a terminally online manner. The reality is, he is escaping accountability after failing to get sympathy from baseless sensationalist claims. Dead cat strategy works until it does not, and people hate being taken as fools for long enough.
EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS REQUIRE EXTRAORDINARY EVIDENCE. STOP BELIEVING STRANGERS SAYING ANYTHING ON THE INTERNET. BEING EMPATHETIC DOES NOT MEAN YOU NEED TO TAKE EVERYTHING AT FACE VALUE. https://web.archive.org/web/20230527063653/https://twitter.com/DanielMicay/status/1662212232506388481#m COMPARING LEMMY FIASCO FROM LAST YEAR WITH CURRENT EVIDENCE-LESS CP/GORE SPAMMING AND SWATTING CLAIMS
The incident that happened with me from June 2022, in a nutshell, is faux RCMP (Canadian police) threats in order to sensationalise and scare off me and Lemmy's admins into thinking I was onto some serious wrongdoings, creating an image of things that never happened or never will happen. The exact same scare off tactics happened with Micay's fresh claims in late April 2023, which constitutes psychological manipulation of privacy and Android community users to gain attention at all costs. Bad PR is good PR, and good PR is great PR.
LOOKING AT u/lo________________ol's COMPILATION POST OF MICAY'S NUMEROUS EVIDENCE-LESS CLAIMS IN THE PAST
This is the compilation post.
https://old.reddit.com/u_lo________________ol/comments/1314x2x/_/ The only ever real conflict that materialised enough into a spat, where I did support Micay, was when CopperheadOS CEO James Donaldson and him had their catfight going on, and when Donaldson asked me in DMs to harass Micay in an organised manner. I protected Micay.
https://i.imgur.com/hujn4P1.jpg Coming to basically every single claim Micay has made about me, Techlore, CalyxOS, F-Droid, Bromite, FlorisBoard developers/heads and so on... Micay has NEVER EVER provided proof justifying his claims. That is right, NEVER, not in a single case. All he has ever done, is scream and shout sensationally, utilising dead cat strategy over the years. There does exist a reason for why he has done all this, which I will elaborate on in a section below.
A VERY COMMON OCCURRENCE OF "$299 PIXEL 6A" COMMENTS ON PRIVACY SUBREDDITS
privacy has now purged comments of these Graphene/Pixel zealots, but there was a certain phenomenon that started after the Black Friday/Christmas sale regarding how financially "accessible" Pixels were, leading these single origin sockpuppets and astroturfers to spam comments with this theme in every "phone recommendation" post/thread. After the Black Friday sales ended, they went ahead and started recommending Swappa/Craigslist used handsets over anything else, with the idea that if you do not buy Pixel, you might as well be directly streamed 24/7 live to 3 letter spook agents. How much more elitist, misleading and toxic can one be when trying to improve privacy of average people?
Collage:
https://i.imgur.com/Q1wIIfS.jpg GRAPHENEOS MATRIX CHAT TELLING PEOPLE TO FLY TO OTHER COUNTRIES TO GET A PIXEL IF NOT AVAILABLE DOMESTICALLY
It is known among Google Pixel buyers and USA/Canada phone buyers, that Pixels have extremely limited availability by country. The amount of mental gymnastics required for someone to tell they need to travel by airplane to other countries to get one specific phone, if they want to have any privacy and security on a phone, forces me to say this - you need medical assistance. When a community goes ahead to do this, what will be your reaction? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Here you go.
https://i.imgur.com/Yv9nvxy.jpg PRIVACYGUIDES PROTECTS AND PETS GRAPHENEOS MODS/HEADS INTENTIONALLY, UPON QUESTIONING YOU GET MUTED OR SILENCED
Tommy was originally made the moderator of PrivacyGuides (PG) exactly one day after he published the "false privacy prophet" post on me (
https://archive.is/7wKJW), a post that had no evidence, and trended for an entire month at PG. This person has been a key member and friend of GrapheneOS mods and Micay himself. He thoroughly ensured that Micay's personal grudge based ideas were echoed through PG, and fellow mods like dngray, trai_dep and Jonah fully supported this. akc3n, a fellow GrapheneOS moderator, was always active in threads with them, essentially heavily controlling participation of users at every level. This sounds as ridiculous to me as it does to you, and to this day (May 27 2023), mbananasynergy is a shared moderator between GrapheneOS and PG. You might wonder, the subheading above has still not been addressed. How did I get silenced? Read below.
The exchange between Jonah Aragon and me.
https://old.reddit.com/u_lo________________ol/comments/1314x2x/why_did_i_do_this/ji36hbs/#c REDDIT MAKING ITS API ACCESS PAID, CAUSING PUSHSHIFT ARCHIVAL SERVICE TO COLLAPSE, LEADING TO RAMPANT SOCKPUPPET ABUSE AND HEADACHE FOR MODERATION
Reddit's decision to cripple Pushshift's archival service is intentional. It allows to generate negativity and drama, which will lead to more internet traffic like how Elon Musk loves the new "town square" Twitter. More internet traffic translates to more value when Reddit becomes public entity for shareholders. This causes a nerve busting headache for sitewide moderation, and everyone knows it.
GrapheneOS, as demonstrated and as observed by basically everyone, is extremely formidable at sockpuppet trolling and witch hunting of critics. The definition of a "critic" for them is anyone who does not worship GrapheneOS. Period. Louis Rossmann sees how this makes sense, and so does everyone else. Refer to the "HOW GRAPHENEOS WITCH HUNTS ANY OF ITS CRITICS" section above.
UTTER IGNORANCE AND FAILURE OF PRIVACY COMMUNITY TO SELF POLICE SUCH ELEMENTS
A little angry rant on privacy community as a whole
Privacy community seriously is pathetic in keeping people accountable and vetting the products/tools and their developers, for all the vigilante preaching that goes on in here. It took me to create
privatelife and bring some change, and I do not know how much change has been brought about. People just want to look good, nobody cares about actual democracy and putting in the effort to maintain it. Everyone wants their hands clean, expecting others to do the watchdog job, and nobody ends up standing in the crowd. I am from India and I should care zilch about privacy community filled with "democratic westerners" not standing up for themselves, and living like sheep in a dictatorship of some FOSS, corporate and closed source developers/entities. Why do people want to dust their hands off of everything like X or Y incident has nothing to do with them? Where did the concept of solidarity go? Why does nobody want to hold people accountable for being assholes?
/rant
LOUIS ROSSMANN FACES THE MUSIC (COMPLICIT IN ATTEMPTED MURDER) FROM DANIEL MICAY FOR CALLING HIS REPULSIVE INTERNET BEHAVIOUR "INFORMATIVE AND UNFORTUNATE"
Rossmann came out yesterday with a descriptive video with a screen recording of his chat with Micay, where Micay accused him of all that he has gone to accuse literally everyone under the sun during the past month, and folks like me during the past few years. Some reddit users have been targeted with the same, and found solace in talking to me and whatever I have documented on Micay and his acolytes, among other topics and groups.
Rossmann's video on uninstalling GrapheneOS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl1x1Dy-ej4 The video is gaining attention because of how much goodwill Rossmann's deeds towards Apple repairing and Right to Repair movement has garnered over the past 10-15 years. And he is a good person. My only disappointment with him has been missing the mark on, and being silent on GrapheneOS all this while. I get his reasons of benevolence towards FOSS projects, but we need to be stricter about social conduct. Nothing excuses being a horrible person, as far as civil discourse goes.
SO, WHY IS MICAY'S BEHAVIOUR SO WEIRD? A LITTLE MORE CONTEXT AND AN ATTEMPT TO SEE WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HIM...
More than almost anyone else, I have been interested in why he turned out like this. I will preface this by saying I do not fully believe he is autistic, and even if he is, it does not explain this kind of "me versus the world" impulsive behaviour.
Last year, sometime after he wrote that "paid Chinese government agent" comment on me, I decided to try to genuinely sympathise with him for one more time and see his response.
https://old.reddit.com/privatelife/comments/ws96wx/_/ikzipwf/ (feel free to read with context
https://old.reddit.com/privatelife/comments/ws96wx/_/ikzipwf?context=10)
He went silent on me and stopped attacking me. Considering I have documented his behaviour for a few years, I have a well supported conjecture that is better than "BPD/schizo".
Originally, Micay made the memory allocation hardening patch for Linux kernel, but never got a fulfilling wealthy life or career out of it, considering how many of his years later went down quarrelling with CopperheadOS' Donaldson. He quit Copperhead organisation to maintain his fork under the name of GrapheneOS, which is a free open source project. Lack of success in life is the first condition fulfilled.
The second part of this consists of many smaller parts.
I noted last year how in the below reddit thread/screenshot, Daniel Micay and madaidan argue together against Firefox. Before the Tor Project mailing list happened in August 2019, the whole anti-Firefox sentiment mysteriously used to not exist in GrapheneOS community. This is probably the first instance of Micay's resentment towards a large FOSS project.
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2019-August/013995.html https://www.unddit.com/firefox/comments/gokcis/firefox_is_insecure_refuted/ Screenshot:
https://i.postimg.cc/1P0cfmjX/Firefox-insecure-refuted.jpg For context, I would ideally advise to read through the "criticism... 4 year evidence" writeup, but an easier way to go through this is knowing about madaidan and his "toilet paper" (I did not call it that) blog attacking FOSS projects' security while simultaneously recommending the antithesis of privacy - Windows, MacOS, Google Chrome et al.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210929053611/https://old.reddit.com/linux/comments/pwi1l9/thoughts_about_an_article_talking_about_the/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220111035527/https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25590079 https://archive.is/zxS72 This is one part of how Micay started to become an isolated toxic person developing hate for FOSS projects for others not conforming to his ideas of how things should be done. This was also the first moment where he took a step towards the Google Big Tech black hole.
Slowly, however, he started to attract the "security zealots" in privacy and FOSS community. What happened here is explained by Dunbar's number, which says a human can only form relationships with 148 people. This number falls to a maximum of 30-50 if you are not particularly extroverted or prefer a smaller group. All of the "security zealots" found some comfort together, creating a loosely linked group where everyone can unite with certain talking points, regarding bashing Linux/Firefox security, preferring Big Tech obscure security products and services, and allowing to normalise the various toxic behaviours everyone individually bears, in the name of "oh IT security people are just bad at social skills". I can count these 15-20 people which allows me to be a bit more confident in what has happened.
People do not know much about this, but Micay used to fantasise replacing Linux kernel with Google's Fuchsia microkernel, a... Google project, because Linux is insecure and trashy. The issue here is that while he did work on Linux kernel patch in the past, he does not anymore, because he has started to develop resentment against any FOSS projects that are not fully conformant with his ways. Linux simply never gave him the success. Micay is apparently entitled to get the fruits, not realising individual work on Linux is largely a communistic effort. Free open source movement is by design democratic and for the community/society first.
Sometime ago, someone informed me of Micay (alias thestingestrcat) creating drama with Bromite (on which their Vanadium browser fork is based) and FlorisBoard projects. They labelled those project maintainers with very bad, false epithets, like "you will be tied to a group engaging in Kiwi Farms level abuse and tolerating neo-nazis". Well too bad, witch hunting people is what you people admittedly do and call it market research.
https://github.com/bromite/bromite/pull/2102#issuecomment-1155760155 https://github.com/bromite/bromite/issues/2141 http://web.archive.org/web/20220803142758/https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard/issues/1921 I should not need to elaborate on GrapheneOS' attitude towards Techlore (he has 2 videos on it) and CalyxOS (again Techlore partially covers CalyxOS).
GrapheneOS members, Micay and his friends like Wonderfall have attacked F-Droid in the name of security, only to push using Google Play Store that annihilates all privacy of people. Google Play Services gather every possible metric about your phone which includes sensor, location, IP address, telephone number, IMEI and so on every 7 minutes. Just to be fair, Apple does the same things and is far worse. This theme of evangelising Google products at the cost of bashing all other projects is a thumb rule for GrapheneOS community.
https://forum.f-droid.org/t/what-are-the-issues-fdroid-have-about-security/17520 Micay finding solace among his "security zealot" friends allowed him to go unchecked and grow into a very malicious person, targeting FOSS projects, individuals, organisations and privacy communities with a lot of sockpuppet trolling, vote manipulation, dishonesty, normalising horrific social etiquette, demonising and witch hunting any and all people that do not worship GrapheneOS. It is borderline criminal and is a surprise to me how people are okay with someone like him. I have two explanations for this - either the ones okay with this themselves share some of these behaviours, or they themselves use GrapheneOS and due to sunk cost fallacy and/or fear of Micay personally targeting them, they either defend him or keep their mouths intentionally shut. An insignificant number of people accept him merely because of benevolence towards FOSS projects IMHO.
FINAL WORD
The problem is not Daniel Micay. The problem is this kind of mindset that has been able to breed and flourish in society. Today, this Micay might go. Tomorrow, another Micay will come under a different name or even this very person under an alias. Privacy community needs to stop being such selfish and individualistic. People need to stop procrastinating or avoiding vetting of these people. I understand tools and code is hard to vet, but people behind the projects can absolutely be vetted. Giving space to elements like these toxic "security zealots" in tech is not bravery or benevolence, it is stupidity and disgustingly selfish. This is precisely why rulebooks like Code Of Conduct have become increasingly popular. We need to give people and projects the boot from society that do not follow Code Of Conduct, and especially pretentious groups like GrapheneOS (
https://web.archive.org/web/20230521023428/https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/11-grapheneos-code-of-conduct) that pretend to have civil rules but do the exact opposite to everyone that disagrees with them.
Since enough people may not have understood this, I will repeat it, as I end this text file with some internet rules.
EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS REQUIRE EXTRAORDINARY EVIDENCE. STOP BELIEVING STRANGERS SAYING ANYTHING ON THE INTERNET. BEING EMPATHETIC DOES NOT MEAN YOU NEED TO TAKE EVERYTHING AT FACE VALUE. submitted by
TheAnonymouseJoker to
privatelife [link] [comments]
2023.05.27 20:26 SillyAd9410 A Semi-Collaborative Pop Culture TL #10
YOU decide what events should change in the world of pop culture, be it real or ASB (future movie gets shown in the past, an actor does/doesn't die, alternate casting choices, unmade media possibly getting made, media is rewritten, a change in the box office or something new entirely)!
I document what happens in a current timeline of Earth!
We all have fun!
CURRENT TIMELINE:
1818: Mary Shelley's The Modern Prometheus, a novel in which scientist Henry Frankenstein creates a sapient creature named Prometheus is made. Prometheus becomes a stalwart of the monster genre.
1907-1908: A young comedian named Charlie Chaplin refuses to accept the offer of Fred Karno to come to the U.S. He becomes a famous comedian, often incorporating a character he named The Tramp in his stand-up routines.
1912: The Olympic ship crashes upon hitting an iceberg, becoming a memorable event. James Cameron's Olympic (1997) would be the first film to gross $1B, even entering the National Film Registry.
1931: Frankenstein and his Prometheus, an adaptation of The Modern Prometheus starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff as Henry and Prometheus is a box-office smash. It would enter the National Film Registry in 1991.
1941: Fleischer Studios' Mr. Bug Goes to Town is a box office success, saving the studio. Today it is one of Disney's biggest competitors, along with Warner Bros.
1951: Fawcett Comics wins a lawsuit over National Comics for the rights to the characters of Captain Marvel and Superman. While National Comics would die in obscurity, Fawcett Comics would be Marvel's biggest competitor.
1962: Marilyn Monroe doesn't die. She goes into hiding in Las Vegas doing revue shows. Discovered by higher ups at NBC, she signs on to The Marilyn Monroe Show, a sketch comedy show that runs until her death in 1999.
1966: Warner Bros.' Twister comes out, becoming the highest grossing film of the year. It would spawn "Tornado-mania", a series of tornado movies made to copy its success. It would enter the National Film Registry in 1996.
1969: Nixon resigns his presidency the become a talk show host. The Dick Nixon show airs until 1983.
Make America Great Again - written and directed by Mel Brooks - is released. The film stars Ronald Reagan as himself as he decides to run for President after becoming a washed up movie star - promising to “Make America Great Again”. Wacky shenanigans ensue, including President Reagan trying to build a massive wall on the Southern border to stop Soviet influence, claiming that “both sides have very fine people” in regards to the Civil Rights Movement, and him accidentally starting a cult about how hippies are secretly stooges of a global satanic cult run by the elites.
The film is a critical and commercial success and becomes one of the greatest and funniest comedies of all time. It enters the National Film Registry in 1999.
The Dick Cavett Show airs on ABC, becoming the main competitor to NBC's Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. It would end in 1996 to make way for its new replacement The Jon Stewart Show.
Creedence Clearwater Revival release a song about the Civil Rights Movement called Fortunate Son. It becomes their signature song. It enters the National Recording Registry in 2013.
1974: Star Trek: The Continuing Mission, a revival of the original 60s series, airs in syndication until 1981.
1974-1979: Michael John Kricfalusi becomes an anti-Rhodesian mercenary during the Rhodesian Bush War. He becomes a POW by forces from Apartheid South Africa. As a result, he is physically and mentally scarred.
1979: Ozzy Osbourne goes into rehab and continues to play for Black Sabbath, leading to them getting a Beatles-like Renaissance in the 80s, making Heavy Metal one of the 80s most notable music genres.
1980-1981: From February 1980 to August 1981, John Kricfalusi would heal his mental wounds at a mental institution.
1982: John Kricfalusi founds Spümcø, an animation studio that was founded due to John's perceived views on how Hanna-Barbera and Rankin/Bass, two studios he worked at, failed to make good cartoons.
1983: E.T. for the Atari proves to be a very good game, making millions for Atari. This would inspire them to improve their games on their future consoles such as the 5200 and 7800, leading them to become a fierce competitior in the gaming market. The last Atari console came out in the early 2000s.
You Nutzy Rascals!, a short made by John K., is the first to feature prototype designs of Ren and Stimpy.
1985: The War of the Worlds, a film made in collaboration with Disney and Jeff Wayne, based on his musical album adapting the H.G. Wells story, hits theaters. It is a critical and commercial success, cited for starting the Disney Renaissance. Disney and Jeff Wayne would collaborate two more times, making animated adaptations of The Modern Prometheus (1988) and The Time Machine (1992). It would enter the National Film Registry in 2022.
Warner Communications buys Warner Amex-Satellite Entertainment to make Warner MTV Networks.
1986: Ravel's Bolero becomes the theme to The Legend of Zelda. It would later serve to be the theme for the Zelda games in Japan, with a different theme for NTSC releases.
Cliff Burton survives a car crash and continues to play bass for Metallica, helping put thrash metal on the mainstream map.
1987: Morrissey and Johnny Marr become frenemies. The Smiths continue into the 1990s.
1988: During production of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Harrison Ford is shot and killed by a loaded prop gun. This would lead to it being hastily recut in time for 1989. It would lead to a heavy burden on Lucasfilm. The documentary Ford - Spielberg's Right Hand Man would be released in 2008 to great success.
1989: Doctor Who is saved from cancellation by BBC. It remains one of the longest running TV shows.
Sergio Leone dies of old age. He is remembered for his westerns as well as Don Quixote, The Phantom, and Leningrad: The 900 Days.
1990: John K. creates Big House Blues, the pilot for The Ren & Stimpy Show, which is picked up by Nickelodeon.
1991: Eddie Vedder dies in a car crash before the first Pearl Jam album is released. They find a new lead in Chris Cornell, who also sings for Soundgarden until their demise in 1997.
Ren & Stimpy airs on Nickelodeon, along with Doug, Rugrats, Tiny Toon Adventures, Taz-Mania (both this show and TTA would later air in syndication) and Big Beast Quintet (cancelled in 1993). It is currently the longest running American animated series, beating out Matt Groening's The Simpsons, who cancelled the show in 1998 in favor of working on the long-running Futurama which still airs today.
Tim Burton is attached to direct an adaptation of The Addams Family TV show as a movie. It would later spawn three sequels, with Tim leaving after the second movie. The latter two would be critically panned.
1992: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace comes out, becoming the highest grossing film of the year. Episodes II and III would later come out in 1995 and 1998 respectively.
J.R.R. Tolkien dies at 100, finishing The New Shadow and The Silmarillion. He was also known for being war minister of the UK from 1940 to 1945.
Stephen Hillenburg is invited to work on Ren & Stimpy after showing his short film Wormholes at the TIFF.
Cartoon Network begins after Ted Turner merges with Viacom in 1986 and buys the Hanna-Barbera library in 1991.
1993: Spielberg quits directing after doing Schindler's List. This not only cancels plans for a Jurassic Park sequel, but also an adaptation of Supertoys Last All Summer Long.
1994: During filming of The Crow, Brandon Lee survives a shot from a prop gun. He would propel into superstardom. He is now known for playing Neo in The Matrix franchise and Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat (1995).
Kurt Cobain announces the breakup of Nirvana as he goes into rehab. In 2002, the band reunited for You Know You're Right, an album that became a top seller. They still perform to this day.
1995: YouTube, a video sharing site, is released. It would not gain much popularity until 2001, where an influx of YouTubers would bring it to stardom.
Toy Story, a stop motion film, gains critical acclaim due to its incredible scale, becoming the 2nd highest grossing film of the year.
Sarah Michelle Gellar dies in a kayaking incident days before the release of her only film Clueless. This would cause Clueless to become the highest grossing film of the year and become known as one of the best teen films. It enters the National Film Registry in 2005. Bad Boys, a film released the same day as Clueless, would become the 6th highest grossing film of the year despite mixed reviews.
Spotify, a humble music downloading site, releases. In 1997, it would change into a music streaming site, and would often show ads for the latest in music.
Selena Quintalla survives being shot. Jennifer Lopez wanes in popularity.
1996: The Nintendo 64DD comes out in a partnership with Phillips, revolutionising the console industry by introducing CD memory, rising it above the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. One of the top best selling games would be Super Mario 64 2, the sequel to Super Mario 64. The 64DD would serve as motivation for Sega to complete Sonic X-Treme by 1997, which becomes a huge hit. This would give Sega the boost it needed to continue making consoles. Other Mario games made for the 64DD include Mario Takes America and Super Mario's Wacky Worlds.
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which had been under a state similar to the Atari 2600, releases its last two games: Super Mario Legends, a game similar in style to the Mario Land games released by Nintendo R&D1, which becomes a minor hit and Animaniacs, a port of Konami's Game Boy game which got mixed reviews.
Tupac survives being shot while having a drive in Las Vegas. He still has a rap career.
Ren & Stimpy Go To Hollywood, a film released by Warner Bros., becomes the highest grossing animated film of the year, making over $600M. It has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This film would also have one of Ronald Reagan's last acting roles.
NDR Filmes' Cassiopeia gets fame for being the first completely computer-animated film. It gets an English dub for a worldwide release. It enters the National Film Registry in 2006.
After his work on Ren & Stimpy, Stephen Hillenburg pitches his own show to Nickelodeon about a sea sponge.
Rapper and music producer Andre "Dr. Dre" Young is shot and killed by a vengefully spiteful Suge Knight in a drive-by shooting, since Young left Death Row Records after accusing Knight of corruption the month prior. His death leads to tributes from fans and colleagues alike, and his first album The Chronic is praised for being influential. Tupac Shakur, in addition to being a rapper, assumes Dr. Dre's role as a music producer out of respect for his newly deceased friend. After Suge Knight is arrested and imprisoned for life due to murdering Young, Shakur takes over Death Row Records. The Chronic enters the National Recording Registry in 2019.
1996-2000: A teen-oriented sitcom, Still Clueless: The Story of Tai and Dionne, runs on ABC from September 20, 1996 to May 19, 2000 for a total of four seasons. A spinoff and continuation to the 1995 film "Clueless", starring the late Sarah Michelle Gellar as Cher Horowitz, and breakouts Regina Hall as Dionne Davenport and Brittany Murphy as Tai Frasier, the series follows protagonists and best friends Tai Frasier and Dionne Davenport as they navigate through life in college without their late friend Cher Horowitz who tragically overdosed to death at a party but hilarious scenarios ensue for the two friends as they mature together in college. Created by Amy Heckerling, Brittany Murphy and Regina Hall reprise their respective roles as Tai Frasier and Dionne Davenport from the 1995 film, and also stars Alan Rickman as the main antagonist, the corrupt and unfairly strict college dean William Davidson. The series becomes very beloved, successful, and memorable, just like its 1995 predecessor. The first season has 23 episodes, the second and third seasons have 22 episodes each, while the fourth and final season has 25 episodes, totalling up to 92 episodes. New episodes always would premiere at 8:30PM on Friday nights, with either a TV-PG or TV-14 rating. The show had a direct competitor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, another teen-oriented series, which would on Fox for only one season consisting of only eighteen episodes from September 20, 1996 to May 9, 1997. Created by Joss Whedon and based loosely on the 1992 film of the same name, the series stars teen sensation Alicia Silverstone as Buffy Anne Summers, a teenage girl who fights evil vampirical creatures. The show would have a more darker and serious tone unlike it's more lighthearted and comedic competitor "Still Clueless: The Story of Tai and Dionne" on ABC, and new episodes would premiere at 8:30PM on Friday nights, all having a TV-14 rating. Of the two shows, "Buffy" would be less successful as the show would have a lukewarm reception and audiences would more than likely watch the more successful "Still Clueless", which would have an otherwise more welcoming reception (like it's 1995 predecessor). The show's lead actress Alicia Silverstone would still have a briefly successful career in Hollywood; unfortunately, her career would be cut short as she would die from a serious chest infection on February 11, 2002, at the age of only 25.
1997: Reddit, a news and discussion board, is released. It becomes very, very popular.
The Notorious B.I.G. survives a shooting like his friend and collaborator Tupac, and he continues to make music.
Aspiring rapper Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs is killed in a gang shootout in Los Angeles, California; however, right-wing news network Fox News reports the shootout as having happened in New York City, New York (which is untrue). This leads to rapper Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace recording a single dedicated to Combs called "I'll Be Missing You" (which heavily samples "Every Breath You Take" by The Police) which was included as a bonus track on No Way Out, Combs' first and only debut album released posthumously on July 22, 1997. The album became influential in the years since Combs' death, proving that, even in death, one can still have a rap career and be influential. No Way Out would enter the National Recording Registry in 2007.
1998: Neon Genesis Evangelion is unknowingly localized by 4Kids, leading to a HEAVILY censored English dub that makes the show popular during the late 90s-early 00s.
Chris Farley wakes from a coma due to a drug overdose. After deciding to give the role of Shrek to Mike Myers his friend, he gets the role of Doug Heffernan on The King of Queens.
Phil Hartman‘s wife goes cold turkey, leading to Phil getting the roles of Zapp Brannigan in Futurama, minor roles in South Park, Avery Bullock in American Dad!, minor roles in Adam Ruins Everything, Alex from Madagascar, and the Magic Mirror in Shrek.
1999: Stephen Hillenburg's SpongeBob SquarePants airs on Nickelodeon. Although it is a hit at first, work complications, problems outsourcing animation to the studio Gainax, and the banned episode Wrasslin' Maniacs where SpongeBob and Patrick beat up Squidward, Hillenburg is fired from the show in 2002.
Tommy Boy's Return, the sequel to Tommy Boy, releases in theaters. It is considered a cult classic today.
2000: Battlefield Earth is released in theaters to be a huge success, ending up the 8th highest grossing film of the year. This would cause an interest in works by L. Ron Hubbard, making the Church of Scientology a rising religion. Battlefield Earth 2 would later release in 2003 to similar acclaim.
4Kids is bought by Warner Communications. As a result, more anime airs on Kids WB.
The Atari Cougar, Atari's final console before being bought by Jakks Pacific in 2002, is released. It is a cult classic console.
Tim Burton's Wizard of Oz gains mixed to positive reviews, and makes the top 10 list of highest grossing films of the year.
2001: Grand Theft Auto III, the third entry in the GTA series is cancelled following 9/11. The game would later redevelop into Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which was released in 2004.
Spy Kids, Quentin Tarantino's first kids' film is released in theaters to mixed reviews, but becomes a cult classic. Two more sequels were released in the two years after it, all would get the same fate.
During 9/11, Kevin James dies after being squished by falling debris from the North Tower.
2002: Netflix, the world's first ever online streaming service for film and TV, launches. They release their first Netflix Original - an epic drama gangster film called American Gangster starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott - five years later on November 2, 2007, after buying the distribution rights from Universal Pictures (who were set to be the original proprietors). All of their films and series are also given DVD and/or Blu-ray releases, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, who owns the home media rights to Netflix Original films/series etc.
2003: Call of Duty, a war shooter game, sells 200,000 copies, making for poor sales. No sequels are planned. The Battlefield series gains from this.
Star Trek: The Original Generation, a Star Trek prequel series, airs for two seasons on Fox before cancellation.
Sony launches the American feed of 24-hour anime channel Animax, which overtakes Adult Swim's Toonami in popularity.
Sylvester Stallone becomes Governor of California until 2011.
TIME names Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as Person of the Year due to being "One of the great dictators of the modern age".
2004: Fallout 3 releases on Windows to high ratings, saving Interplay from bankruptcy. They would later release 2 console games, Fallout 4 and Fallout 5. Many spinoff games would be made.
Hillenburg's company United Plankton Pictures makes the Newgrounds webseries The Motherfucking Patchy the Pirate Show, focusing on the misadventures of Patchy the Pirate.
2005: Minecraft, a web browser game is released by Mojang with the help of a team that planned a game known as Terraria, where it would be very successful until 2009, when a 3D version for Java was released. It is currently owned by Microsoft, who still makes updates for it.
SpongeBob SquarePants is quietly cancelled due to declining ratings.
FOX airs The Office, an American adaptation of the British mockumentary series of the same name, airing until 2013 for nine seasons. It becomes one of the most memorable sitcoms of all time, winning several Emmys. Mr. Blue Sky becomes the theme song.
2006: Warner Communications contacts Hillenburg for an adult-only SpongeBob reboot.
Night at the Museum is released to mixed reviews as it becomes a box-office bomb. With plans for a sequel dead in the water, Fox sells the rights to Sony in 2007 who plans to reboot the series, but also keep the distribution rights for the original film.
Blockbuster buys Netflix, moving the website to Blockbuster.com, and naming it Blockbuster Online. After all of its stores were closed, it becomes Blockbuster+.
2007: Kanye West dies in a car crash before his album Graduation releases, causing him to be mourned. This would lead to many people buying the album, creating a short-lived rap revival that would temporarily mark the end of gangsta rap until 2010.
Owen Wilson commits suicide. In discussions about the "Frat Pack", he is replaced by Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. Drillbit Taylor and Tropic Thunder are both dedicated to his memory. Plans for a sequel to Cars are cancelled by Pixar and Disney.
NBC’s Heroes is cancelled after one season due to both low ratings and behind the scenes controversy. It remains a cult classic show much like Firefly or Buffy.
2007-2011: Identically similar to events in our world, screenwriter Simon Monjack and actress and "Clueless" sensation Brittany Murphy (who still starred in this alternate reality's version of the 1995 film "Clueless", but here she instead co-stars with rising co-stars Sarah Michelle Gellar playing Cher, and Regina Hall playing Dionne) are about to marry back in May 2007, but Murphy calls the marriage to Monjack off at the exact same wedding. This causes a scandal that briefly kills her good reputation, and gets her blacklisted in Hollywood (for a while). In this alternate history, Simon Monjack is put in prison for attempting murder on Brittany Murphy, but here, is killed by a crazed cellmate whilst serving time (said crazed cellmate also happens to be a fan of Brittany Murphy). Brittany Murphy then moves to an apartment complex in New York in 2008, ditching Hollywood for good and starting a musical career.
Natalie Portman, a fairly successful but struggling rising young TV actress, is having a hard time finding work in Hollywood due to the failure of the Star Trek prequel television series Star Trek: The Original Generation. She co-starred in the series alongside Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, and Samuel L. Jackson. While the then 56-57 year old Jackson at least got to have a successful career in Hollywood (due to being a Christopher Nolan regular), Christensen and McGregor were rejected by the industry; Christensen started an indie rock band while McGregor then went on to become a successful UFC fighter, but would then become very scandalous as he suffers from numerous arrests and an intense drug addiction. McGregor would then unfortunately die young from a drug overdose on December 7, 2008. Going back to Portman, she would become an indie darling in independent cinema, however her career would be cut short when she would die in a car crash on July 19, 2009, just one month and ten days after her 28th birthday. She was last seen in a DTV thriller called "Abandoned", which released in March 2010. Her death leads to tributes from co-stars and fans alike.
In December 2009, Brittany Murphy is then offered the lead role in Darren Aronofsky's upcoming psychological horror film "Black Swan", about a troubled ballerina. The film would co-star Melanie Lynskey as the troubled ballerina's rival, and like in our world, Winona Ryder, Barbara Hershey, and Vincent Cassel. The film released in December 2010 (like in our world), to rave reviews, with critics calling it Brittany Murphy's finest appearance yet. Murphy would then take home the Best Actress Oscar as well as the Best Dramatic Performance in a Movie Golden Globe for her performance in the film in 2011. Murphy would then continue her acting career following a big career boost, as well as her singing/musical career at the same time. In fact, she releases a fairly successful debut album in March 2011 simply called "Brittany", to positive reviews. It would then become the best selling musical album of the year, even winning her a Grammy in 2012.
2008: Bulletman, the highest grossing film of the year, marks the beginning of the successful Fawcett Cinematic Universe (FCU). It would enter the National Film Registry in 2020.
During the premiere of Tropic Thunder, Tom Cruise announces his retirement from entertainment and Scientology. He spends the rest of his life quietly as a Buddhist in England. As Dwayne Johnson takes Tom's place, Paramount announces plans to reboot the Mission: Impossible franchise (though nothing comes from it).
SpongeBob XXX, an adult SpongeBob reboot, airs on AMC alongside Breaking Bad. SpongeBob XXX would be universally panned, airing only 3 episodes out of a made 6 (all were later put on DVD). It is known for being one of the worst animated series of all time.
Iron Age, a film fully funded by UNESCO, is made as the first film of an IRL cinematic universe. It gets nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, like every film in the IRLCU after it.
2009: Adventure Time, a cartoon by Pendleton Ward, airs on Nickelodeon. It becomes one of Nickelodeon's highest-rated cartoons, airing until 2016. Many people would call it an animation trailblazer, leading to Nick approving more "lore-based" shows.
Half-Life 3 comes out, and continues the high ratings of the Half-Life franchise, making games well until 2017 (counting spinoffs).
Some people would compare it to Regular Show, who they saw as Cartoon Network's equivalent to Adventure Time.
Discord, a discussion site, is released, becoming popular with gamers.
Liam Gallagher has a near-fatal drug overdose after the breakup of Oasis. Finding peace with his brother, Oasis reunites in 2012, releasing a new album in 2015. They still perform.
Amy Winhouse retires after a heavy intervention. She still occasionally produces for Adele.
2011: Fortnite Battle Royale by Epic Games is released to the public. It becomes extremely popular, and is still played today.
2012: Pixar's Newt, a film that came due to the cancellation of Wreck-It Ralph (some claim due to the problems of getting permission from game companies) is released and barely breaks even. It would start a dark age for Pixar, which would continue with Brave and Cars 2.
It would also play a key part in George Lucas refusing to give away Lucasfilm, due to Disney's perceived slump.
After Hillenburg's company dissolves, he becomes the cartoon reviewer Stevey Shark for Channel Awesome.
Jim Carrey dies of a heart attack.
2013: Doug Walker leaves Channel Awesome, leaving Stevey Shark to be the new star. Markiplier, MrEnter, and MatPat would later join Channel Awesome among others.
The Freedom Tower is made to replace the original North Tower destroyed in the attack. Memes would arise from the comparison between the towers.
2014: A Day With Patchy the Pirate, a half-hour short made by Hillenburg, airs on YouTube as Channel Awesome's first foray into animation. It has a troubled production due to being funded online, and would be panned upon release.
Robin Williams survives a suicide attempt, and launches his own suicide prevention program. He would then star in the 2016 drama Uncut Gems by Christopher Nolan, playing crime lord Howard Ratner, giving him a Best Actor Oscar.
2015: Star Wars - Episode VII: The Force Awakens, featuring Darth Maul and Darth Talon as antagonists, is released, becoming the highest grossing film of the year. Two more sequels were made in 2017 and 2019.
2016: John K. dies from multiple scolerosis. Bob Camp takes over as showrunner of Ren and Stimpy.
2017: Growing Around, a new YouTube webseries made by Stephen Hillenburg & Johnathan Rozanski, about a world where grown-ups switch with kids, is released. Despite gaining positive reviews, both the downfall of Channel Awesome and Hillenburg & Rozanski's heinous acts would result in Markiplier buying the license, airing it on his webseries Unus Annus for one last season, ending in 2020.
Chester Bennington survives his suicide attempt. Linkin Park would make its newest album in December of 2020.
2018: Donald Trump starts The Trump Experience, a very popular podcast.
2019: Season 3 of Gravity Falls comes out to near-universal acclaim.
2020: Chadwick Boseman recovers from his cancer.
2022: Jordan Peele's Nope becomes the highest grossing film of the year. It enters the National Film Registry in 2033.
Presidents of the USA since 1977:
Jimmy Carter (1977-1985)
Walter Mondale (1985-1989)
George H.W. Bush (1989-1993)
Mario Cuomo (1993-2001)
John F. Kennedy Jr. (2001-2005)
John McCain (2005-2013)
Barack Obama (2013-2021)
Jeb Bush (2021-today)
Governors of California since 1947:
James Roosevelt (1947-1953) Resigned) Democrat
Pat Brown (1953-1963) Democrat
Richard Nixon (1963-1969) Republican
Edwin Reineck (1969-1974) Resigned) Republican
John L Harner (1974-1975) Republican
Tom Hayden (1975-1983) Democrat
Tom Bradley (1983-1991) Democrat
Clint Eastwood (1991-2003) Independent
Sylvester Stallone (2003-2011) Republican
Conan O'Brien (2011-2019) Democrat
Gavin Newsom (2019-Today) Democrat
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