I think the reason why a lot of non-fans of Dream think his face reveal is the main reason for his decline in viewership despite that being a completely ridiculous explanation for it is because the face reveal is the only thing about him that they personally care about. They don’t understand that the people who actually watch him were always here for his Minecraft videos / him as a person and his face reveal was never the main focus for us like actual fans of his videos were never going to stop watching just because we know what he looks like now please be serious 😭

Kangen Healing Water Brief History of Kangen Water Here’s a brief background of this incredible water and how electrolyzed water machines became an incredible tool of preventative medicine and health at home. Initially developed for agricultural purposes and adapted by open mined doctors, it has slowly developed to be a medicinal device in Japan in 1965. More than three decades of clinical studies has shown that the electrolyzed water enhances healing power of the human body as well as being eco friendly. In by the mid 90’s, Kangen water and its benefits were started to be recognized in the public and the technological advance enabled various companies in Japan to develop smaller in home units. In 1998, Dr. Shirahata of Kyushu University had discovered the connection between electrolyzed water and holy water, often called in many parts of the world as “Miracle water.”  Such water exists in Tolacote Mexico, Nordenou Germany, and Hitatenryo Japan. This water is known for its tremendous healing power and has shown that it works against just about any diseases. For Decades, Hundreds of people take pilgrimage to these sites everyday. Dr. Shirahata has found that all these waters have a Common property; tremendous anti oxidant power. He soon came up with a theory that “Active Hydrogen” is the reason behind such incredible healing abilities. Many scientific studies on this water have been resumed, bled by the Functional Water Foundation in Japan since 1995; the full potential of electrolyzed water has not been confirmed yet. Recently, in the U.S. experimental studies on the water unit are being conducted at U.C.L.A. Seton Medical Center, U.S. Dept of Agriculture, Georgia University, University of Texas, as well as other scientific institutions. Clinical Uses of Kangen Water in Hospital Treatment In Japan, there are now hundreds of hospitals and clinics that use Kangen Water as a part of their medical practices. The following list illustrates some of the most common usage scenarios with different illness cases. 1.) Various types of Cancer This will be the eventual poster boy figure for the recent Kangen Water phenomenon. The water seems to work very effectively, whatever, type and stage that cancer might be at. A few years ago, there was a public project organized be a veteran nurse who helped develop ALL of 30 terminal patients she took on recovered from their death beds, all within months, simply giving them Kangen water to drink. The amount of water the patents had to drink was between 4-10 liters a day. The types of cancer varied from breast, bladder, lung, liver, stomach, intestinal, prostate, to even leukemia. All patients had been diagnosed as terminal from their previous doctors. 2) Rapid Reduction in Blood Sugar Level in Diabetes Patents. It has been observed that about 80% of diabetes patients who started intake of Kangen water showed lower blood sugar level levels with in two weeks. 3) Rapid Healing of Gangrene of the lower limbs, due to diabetes In Kobe Japan, at the Kyowa hospital, two diabetic patients diagnosed with their lower limbs with gangrene who had not shown signs of recovery despite of pharmaceutical treatment, had their limbs saved within a month of surgery after they were given Kangen water to drink and soaking their limbs in strong oxidized water. Call For Demo And Testing : Satish Shukla 7505774440 4) Rapid Improvement in Patents with Hepatitis and Cirrhosis A representative case was that of a 60 year old male patient where improvement was noted in his hepatitis and cirrhosis one month after starting intake of Kangen water. Thereafter, all treatments, including medications, IV’s and diet were discontinued after six months of Kangen water as a sole treatment, his liver function had returned to normal. Rapid Healing of Stomach and Duodenal Ulcers A 40 year old patient had endured repeated attacks of duodenal ulcers over the last 12 years. After an incident of attack, she started to drink Kangen water (1-2 liters a day). Within a week, improvement was noted. An inspection with gastric cameras showed no remaining ulceration. The result surprised the hospital director, who personally attended the testing, as well as the patient herself. There are a great number of cases in which there has been no recurrences of ulceration as long as sufficient Kangen water intake was continued. Call For Demo And Testing : Satish Shukla 7505774440 6) Rapid Improvement in High and Low Blood Pressure Levels Studies of patients whom all had high blood pressure for many years, Doctors, find that they could control it with simply drinking sufficient amounts of Kangen water with relief of pharmaceuticals use within months. 7) Improvements in Asthma, skin rashes, A-topic Dermatitis and Nasal Allergies.   A female patent suffered from A-topic dermatitis from shortly after birth until the age of 26. She had tried fasting, vegetarian diet and a variety of other treatments. All treatments were unsuccessful.  Her dermatologist even refused to continue seeing her. A suggested therapy by a fellow colleague of the former doctor, she began drinking Kangen water and applied strong oxidized water externally, the condition was approximately 80% resolved. 8) Improved Kidney Function Instances of dramatic improvement have been observed in cases of chronic nephritis and impaired kidney functions with Kangen water. A bright outlook There is a long history of clinical testing, (over 30 years) Kangen water and the Ionizer water machines have been increasingly popular only in recent years, thanks to the media publicity since the discovery made by Dr. Shirahata of Kyushu University in 1998 when he discovered the connection between electrolyzed water and the Holy Waters that exist around the world. Since then, hundreds of hospitals across Japan started experimenting with Kangen water as well as, Super Acidic water as part of their medical practices for all kinds of cases and diseases. Coupled with its impeccable track record of Kangen water treatment, it began getting huge attention from the public in Japan, fueled by a series of documentary programs as well as countless numbers of testimonials from former patients appearing in many books and talk shows. As far as the market penetration goes some interesting numbers are indicating that it is indeed reaching the tipping point in Japan; Call For Demo And Testing : Satish Shukla 7505774440 Over 400,000 families have purchased such units over last few years It is also believed to be reaching at 5% market penetration in some urban areas, on a household installation basis as of 2004. However, the acknowledgement of this water and its benefits among the general public is much higher and is growing. The political battle is easy to guess. Doctors and the pharmaceutical industry want to protect their own interests. The Japanese government wants to slow down the hype and decides that the Kangen water industry cannot advertise or speak publicly of its merits, using “cure” language, until the science of this water is 100% proven. This sounds familiar, doesn’t it? With all this confusion the Japanese government bans claims on a grander scale, they have admitted to certain health benefits of Kangen water, and just have recently upgraded the water Ionizer models status, from being a health appliance to a medical device. If you put this in a global perspective, the water technology is practically non existent outside Japan. This means there is very little information available in English, not to mention the actual products we can buy here in the United States. Even worse, there are some people who are trying to sell cheaper Ionized Alkaline water machines as if they were the same or similar level as with the Kangen water machines, only cheaper. Cheaper for what? Something has been officially declared to have medical benefits by doctors and scientists. Enagic has put things in prospective; this water technology is just too good to be missed and to be fooled around with. For further information about Enagic Inc., please visit the corporate site for a virtual seminar which is extremely informative at: www.enagic.com Call For Demo And Testing : Satish Shukla 7505774440 REFERANCES: Electrolyzed (reduced) water scavenges active oxygen species (free radicals) and protects DNA from oxidative damage. BIOCHEMICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS. 1997 May 8; 234 (1): 269-74 Institute of cellular Regulation Technology, Graduate School of Genetic Resources Technology, Kyushu University, Fukuoka Japan, Institute of Cellular Regulation Technology Graduate School of Genetic Resources Technology: researchers Shirahata S, Kabayama S, Nakano M, Miura T, Kusumoto K, Gotoh M, Hayashi H, Otsubo K, Morisawa S, Katakura Y. Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-81, Japan, Water Institute, Nisshin Building 9F, 2-5-10 Shinjuku, Tokko 160, Japan; and **Nihon Trim Co. Ltd., Meiji Seimei Jusou Building 6F, 1-2-13 Shinkitatno, Yodogawa-ku, Osaka 532, Japan Received March 21. 1997 Understanding Electrolyzed Water By Hidemitsu Hayashi, M.D., Heart Surgeon and Director of the Water Institute of Japan Research: Active Oxygen species or free radicals are considered to cause extensive oxidatative damage to biological macro-molecules, which brings about a variety of diseases as well as aging. The ideal scavenger for active oxygen should be “active hydrogen”. Active Hydrogen can be produced in reduced water near the cathode during electrolysis of water. Reduced water exhibits high pH, low oxygen (DO), extremely high dissolved molecular hydrogen (DH), and extremely negative redox potential (RP) values. Strongly electrolyzed-reduced water, as well as ascorbic acid, (+) catechin and tannic acid, completely scavenged 0.-2 produced by the hypnoxanthine-xanthine oxidase (HX-XOD) system in sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). The super oxide dismutase (SOD) like activity of reduced water is stable at 4 degrees C for over a month and was not lost even after neutralization, repeated freezing and melting, deflating and sonication vigorous mixing, boiling repeated filtration, or closed autoclaving, but was lost by opened in the presence of tungsten trioxide which efficiently absorbs active atomic hydrogen (active hydrogen). Although SOD accumulated H2O2 when added to the HX-XOD system, reduced water as well as catalase and ascorbic acid could directly scavenge H2O2. Reduced water (electrolyzed water) suppresses single-strand breakage of DNA by active oxygen species produced by the Cu (II) catalyzed oxidation of ascorbic acid in a dose dependent manner, suggesting that reduced water can scavenge not only O2 and H2O2, but also 1O2 and OH. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION+ Characteristics of electrolyzed-reduced water. The principle of electrolysis was founded by Michael Faraday (1791-1867). In this process, reduction occurs at the cathode (+) and oxidation at the anode (-). Dissociation of H2O produces H- and OH- ions. At the cathode, H+ ions gain electrons to change into active atomic hydrogen (H-) Active atomic hydrogen exhibits high reducing potential. It is then changed to hydrogen molecules (H2) which are chemically inert at room temperature. At the anode, OH- ions lose electrons to form OH, which results in the production of O2, and H2O. Cathodic alkaline water (reduced water) is abundant in DH, whereas anodic acidic water (oxidized water) is abundant in DO. The relationships of RP with pH, DO, and DH in reduced water were shown in FIG. 1. Marked changes in these values occur in water after electrolysis. It should be noted that the DH value is higher in reduced water than in the original water by two orders of magnitude. Call For Demo And Testing : Satish Shukla 7505774440

I’m back!

Upon my return from China, I noticed there were a lot of things weighing me down... that I can just throw the fuck out.

I could expound upon all of these in great detail, but it really would be pointless. And I wouldn’t be able to cover it all anyway. So instead I’ve decided to make a post of every icon I’ve used for my online persona over the years.

The reason for this is... at the end of the program I attended, we had an entire week of silent meditation. We weren’t allowed to talk or communicate with anyone in any way, including gestures, eye contact, or physical touch. So, during this time I had the realization that the stories I’ve been interested in have been my main source of comfort over the years. No person, place, or thing has felt more permanent to me than this.

However, permanence is an illusion, as the Buddhists say (I stayed in a Buddhist monastery in China, in case you’re wondering). My interests have changed over the years -- from the first fandoms I got obsessed with, to my interests now. I may still adore the series that I enjoyed as a child, but definitely not in the same way.

Coming home, I realized... I no longer want to attach my identity to one character or series. That’s why I’ve decided to make this post. I want to reflect on all the egos of my past, on what they have meant to me, so that I can let them go. I’ve been clinging to a folder of them for too long.

To anyone who’s been here since the very start of my blog, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. This is an acknowledgement of my transformation from then until now.

And so:

Breadward Elric. My first Internet icon, which I had for 2 and a half years from May 2011 -- 2013. My blog was originally entirely FMAB content, created in January of 2012, and while this format didn’t last the entire time that I had this icon, Breadward saw me through the majority of my early anime and video game obsessions. He jump-started my personality on the Internet as a fanfic author, a blogger, and an artist. I will never forget him... ;~;

Comrade Führer Tamama. I had this icon for 8 months in early 2013 -- early 2014. What can I say? Tamama’s passionate personality resonated with me, especially when he was finally able to be in control (in the episode this particular screenshot is from). Gotta get those cola oceans pronto!

Yokoso waga tainai e [Welcome to my Womb ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]. I had a phase during the summer of 2014, okay. But I still love this maniacal snake’s crusty ass, fite me. I admire KagePro immensely for the popularity and development it gave characters in song format. Of course, favorite of those characters was Kuroha, a snake whose only desire was to keep granting wishes so that he could survive. Add a touch of murderous intent and you have the complete package -- I won’t deny he appealed(appeals) to my wild side -- okay moving on.

KeroTama hugge 👀. I had this icon for about 4-6 months in 2014 before the Hunter x Hunter phase hit. God, I shipped them so hard *facepalms* It was funny though, it’s like KagePro hit me like a hurricane during this summer and then I went right back to being KeroTama trash. Amazing.

Softly Smiling Pika. I kept this icon for at least 9-10 months at the end of 2014 -- early 2015, until I found Owari no Seraph. Kurapika was definitely my bae at the start of my HxH phase -- and in many ways he still is. The current arc gives me this sense of nostalgia of being a 15-year-old again, deeply in love but too in denial to see it. Watching him as a young adult, I see how far I’ve come, how I could have ended up... since I believed myself to be most closely alike with Kurapika at the time. And now I know that’s not the case... I remember debating between many other Kurapika icons and finally choosing this one because I dearly wanted to believe I too could find my happiness in the friends around me, even if it seemed all was hopeless behind the scenes.

Yuu babe. I had this icon for 4 months in the middle of 2015, I remember. Yuichiro Hyakuya was an underappreciated dorky genius at the time, much like how Gon is in HxH now, except... Now in the series... *deep sighs* *clenches fist* I still love his piercing citrine eyes and the dynamism of this icon/pose though.

Cuties T^T (MikaYuu edition). Mmm I kept this icon for a while, something like most of 2016, at least 6-8 months, probably more like 9 or 10. Looking back, I still wonder how/why the author was a fucking coward and didn’t make MikaYuu happen. We coulda had it aaallllll...... Anyway, this is when I was writing Ebony & Ivory, my most popular fic to date, so I was reveling in the reputation I gained from that. This icon was me accepting that while I was no longer friends with my best friend from middle school to 11th grade, I would still pursue my own happiness in the perfect relationship that I saw in MikaYuu. *nods* It’s fitting.

Caught Child². I shared this and the next couple of icons with a friend that I met online, who used the Gon equivalent. I think we shared this one for about 3 months of 2016. This is when I became re-obsessed with Hunter x Hunter and realized how much I had changed between 2014 and 2016. It’s an obsession that’s more or less carried onto now, and redefined my adulthood, as I see my progression as I refer back to HxH for guidance to this day.

Content Chompy Boye. I love this icon. I kept this icon for a long time, something like 5-6 months in December 2016 -- mid-2017. The colors of the background contrast with Killua’s white hair, pale skin, and dark muscle shirt... I still used this icon on other websites until just a few days ago (when I most recently changed my icon) because I thought it looked the best backdropped against the format of other websites. I love this scene in the series, though; while (human) Palm is chattering on about her worry that Gon and Killua will be able to defeat Knuckle and Shoot in time, Killua continues to eat without a care in the world. It’s a mood I feel at least once a day, whether while eating or getting a back massage -- as if that ever happens -- 11/10.

Pizza Devil Brat. I like this icon a lot and kept it on a few websites for longer too, but with the way I edited it, the green background becomes a little too headache-inducing if you stare at it too long, so 8/10 -- okay no more out of 10 ratings, this isn’t that kind of post. I believe I kept this icon for about 3-4 months in 2017 and possibly early 2018 as well. From the same scene the previous Kurapika icon came from, this remains one of my favorite scenes in the entire series for its serious undertones over the light happiness that underlies Gon’s, Killua’s, and Kurapika’s (and Leorio’s -- but he’s not in this scene) interactions with each other throughout the series.

Grumpy Gem Gremlin. I was sharing the last three icons with that friend, including this one, with the Phos equivalent (more or less). I think we only kept it for about a month or month and a half in 2017 or beginning of 2018 before switching to the next one. Cinnabar’s desire for a purpose and closeness to others despite her poisonous nature... is definitely something I can understand and relate to.

Sad Gem Child. Damn, I think we’re all still waiting for the day Gormie realizes Aechmea’s a creepy sugar daddy and dropkicks his ass into the ocean where the Admirabilis can decompose his cloudy body like he doesn’t deserve. When will Land of the Lustrous return from the war? I’m still waiting, Ichikawa. Anyway I think we kept this icon for about a month or maybe two in 2018, not long at all.

Gay Childe™. Look, this is one of the gayest scenes in the entire series and it’s right after my favorite episode(s)/scene(s) in the entire series (so far) and it’s not even acknowledged by anyone. Just. Holy Fuck. Anyway I think I kept this icon for about 6-8 months to cap off 2018. And this is where the Big Breakup happened, where my friend decided to choose an icon that deviated from mine, but I kept this icon for a lot longer due to what this scene means to me, placed after/during my favorite episode. ;v;

And finally, BoMH (Blood on My Hands) Pika. I used this icon for 8 months from the start of 2019 until just a few days ago (approx. 8 months). This icon was originally the cover for a Kurapika fic that I started back in 2015 and ended up discontinuing because it was pretty slow-paced, and thus unpopular, which made it become difficult for me to write. But I got all the way up to 97k words before I quit, simply because of the freedom and joy I felt in creating all the OCs that I fit into Kurapika’s journey as he searched for the Kurta eyes after the Yorknew City Arc. Looking back, I’m proud of the planning and commitment that I succeeded in undertaking with this fic -- it was about halfway done by the time I stopped writing it -- and I feel I want to return to this concept one day. Even if the arcs were pretty formulaic at times and, well, boring, I wanted this icon at the start of 2019 to be a new person separate from my recent past matching icons; a representation of my ability to reconnect with my past, but to no longer be afraid of it; to be proud of it, but still recognizing the not-so-good parts, laying it to rest by no longer avoiding it.

My icon now, as I’m sure you can see... is nothing like those I’ve used thus far. I definitely have no intention of moving away from anime or my past. I simply wish to redefine who I am in relation to them, rather than being defined by them.

...I’ve discovered a lot about myself over the past 2 years since college started, more than I ever thought possible. I discovered a lot while in China, too. And I need my online persona to reflect that in every form, as I’ve done every time there was a change.

Thank you all for being with me on this journey: for following me, for reading my posts, for liking my art, for talking with me and blowing up my notifications on every platform...

I’ll be pursuing the next chapter(s) of Human, TIDU, and other works soon. ^.^

(Today’s column is a reprint of Kevyn Winkless’s excellent and heart-felt introduction to German science-fiction hero Perry Rhodan, originally posted on the Castalia House blog on 17 August, 2017. Kevyn ended his heart-felt appreciation for the run of Perry Rhodan published in English during the 1970s with “by all reports, the modern Rhodan is rich and fairly sophisticated space opera.” Next week, we shall see for ourselves in a review of ARK OF THE STARS, by Frank Borsch, the first book in the Perry Rhodan: Lemuria miniseries.)

You know The Shadow. You may know The Spider. You definitely know Conan. And after this year’s cinematic offering you also know Valerian, even if you’re not familiar with the original comics.

But are these really the most beloved SFF heroes in print? Really?

Yes, they are definitely at the top – and a convincing case can be made for Conan in particular as a global phenomenon with incredible staying power. But let me introduce you to another hero who is sadly little known in the English-speaking world: Perry Rhodan.

I stumbled on Perry Rhodan the summer we moved to a tiny town of under 500 people when I was in high school.

The nearest book store with anything like a SFF section was 100km away and the local shops’ spinners were loaded down with romance novels and basically nothing else. The library’s collection of SFF fare spanned a set of five spinners off in the back. I was frustrated at the time, but in retrospect in that age long before Amazon and before I had the financial wherewithal to participate in things like the Science Fiction Book Club[1] the fact that such a small town had a library at all was good fortune at its finest.

Needless to say I consumed that pitiful collection of SFF paperbacks in record time, and as a result was introduced to a variety of classic authors I might never have noticed otherwise[2]. I’m sure that experience deeply influences my reading and writing habits today.

To be honest, though, I have only the vaguest memories of what exactly was on those spinners. Oh, I know I first encountered James Blish and Andre Norton and Lin Carter and  van Voght here but other than Blish’s print adaptations of Star Trek episodes[3] I couldn’t tell you what titles were actually there. Except one:

Perry Rhodan.

Perry Rhodan was first published in German in 1961 in a Romanhefte format – this is a slim, pocket sized format analogous to the digest pulps popular in the US at the time[4], popular for “disposable fiction” of all kinds. And disposable is what the Rhodan series was initially intended to be:

At the start, it was to be a limited run of a few dozen weekly issues of novella length, but it was quickly obvious that the initial authors K. H. Scheer and Walter Ernsting  were on to something big, and the series was continued. The publishers are no doubt very happy they decided to see just where Perry Rhodan would go because as of today there are more than 2,900 issues in the continuous main series, more than 850 issues of the Atlan spin-off series featuring many of the same characters, and a multitude of subsidiary products including comic strips, and merchandise. The series has been so popular that it has reportedly sold more than a billion copies just in its native German, with another billion in various foreign language translations.

It was of course the English translation I found[5] – organized by Forrest Ackerman of fandom fame in the mid-60s, and resulting in Ace publication starting in 1968. This English translation and adaptation[6] unfortunately was ill-fated:

Despite being well-received by readers and eventually being popular enough to justify producing three issues per month, Ace decided to end the run in 1977 – with just a few missing pieces sputtering out until the end of 1978. Demand was high enough, though, for Wendayne Ackerman to publish another 19 issues under her own imprint, Master Publications. These were distributed only to subscribers, however, so the majority of the Rhodan reading public in the English speaking world were left with nothing but the 124 issues Ace had given them.

This, frankly, is a crying shame. Quite apart from the amazing popularity Rhodan continues to enjoy in Germany and around the world in several languages[7] the story itself is fascinating.

I can hardly call myself an expert – I came on these books years after the English translations had ceased publication[8] and have had to make do with the occasional issues I’ve stumbled on since those first three in that tiny small-town library so many years ago. But I have managed to track down more than half of the original translations over the years, and can piece together what is obviously a remarkable set of storylines.

The premise itself is nothing remarkable to us in the modern SFF scene – just the standards:

space mission stumbles on a crashed alien spacecraft on the moon and discovers mind-blowingly advanced technology

ancient space empire is decadent and crumbling

multiple “rabid” species, less advanced, are worrying at the edges and threaten to destroy everything the peaceful space empire has built up

decadent space empire gives their technology to humanity as the last great hope when they demonstrate their ability to unify under threat

You know: the usual.

But what makes this series so remarkable – at least in the portion I have read – is the seamless way the arcs link together. This is no mean feat for this style of serial, keeping things coherent and flowing despite the hands of multiple writers pushing the cart. The continuing success of the series is a testament to the skill with which the publishers have managed their stable of contributors and curated their “bible” for the series.

Also interesting is the way the story, despite being explicitly high tech space opera, effortlessly weaves in metaphysics and curious references to occult esoterica. I suppose to some extent this sort of thing is to be expected in a space opera setting that invokes the psionics trope, but the number of alchemical and other hermetic symbols that get deployed is truly fascinating – and links perfectly with the setting’s conceit that there really are “layers of being” that species transition through on their way to perfect unity with the universe.

So why is a series that is so influential and has such a devoted following completely invisible in English?

Part of the problem is that the US market was only ever exposed to the opening chapters of the story, which are generally considered fairly simple, straightforward space opera. Many critics of the time panned it as being too simplistic, with empty characters and relying heavily on tropes of human expansion that many felt were best left back in the 50s.

The basic criticisms are probably fair – the opening chapters are full speed ahead space opera, with thrilling space battles and fairly stereotypical characters  who are motivated in direct ways – and while some of the issues in the early books are surely caused by rapid translation you can definitely tell these were throw-away space adventures aimed at a younger audience.

But it’s hard to see why Ace would choose to discontinue a series that was, by all reports, profitable just because it wasn’t as sophisticated as the books the reviews columns were gushing over, especially when the translations had just started moving into the far more sophisticated storylines being developed by William Voltz in the Atlan spin-off – and which he brought back to the main line when he took over as master storyline planner in 1975, slowly developing the series to aim for a more discerning older audience. Not to mention the fact that they killed the series right when space opera was enjoying a comeback via Star Wars.[9]

The only explanation I can think of is the self-consciousness of English genre fiction that grew through the 60s and into the 70s – a looming hunger to be taken seriously, to be viewed as literary equals in an increasingly consolidated market.  In this environment it’s easy to see the pressure Jim Baen (who was SF editor at the time) and Tom Doherty (publisher) might have been under to reframe Ace’s SF offerings to a more “high-brow” focus.

But this concern for respectability is a great loss – by all reports, the modern Rhodan is rich and fairly sophisticated space opera, and it seems to me that the English SFF landscape is poorer for having sneered this series off stage back in 1978.

[1] SFBC has changed since I was a member – it doesn’t look anywhere near as appealing now as it once did, but in those days I discovered real greats through their catalog, and several of my favourite authors I learned to love because of one of their editions.

[2] Mainly because at that point they were increasingly out of print.

[3] Co-written with his wife, Judith, under the pen-name J. A. Lawrence as short story collections between 1967 and 1978, these little pocket books by Bantam were sometimes better than the TOS episodes they were based on and I consumed them hungrily.

[4] Though actually literally the German market equivalent of the dime novel.

[5] I have assayed original German issues on a couple of occasions, but sadly my German is just not up to it – though it might have been if I’d been lucky enough to discover Rhodan when I was 13 or 14.

[6] Ackerman and his wife, Wendayne – who did most of the translation – repackaged the originals by combining issues and reformatting the English issue layouts something like the pulps they remembered from their youth.

[7] Currently: a Portuguese translation available in Brazil, and translations into Russian, Chinese, Japanese, French, Czech, and Dutch – Italian and Finnish translations seem to have sputtered out. There was also a short-lived pirate version in Hebrew!

[8] And long before the two reboot efforts in the 1990s and 2006.

[9] And in fact, Lucas has mentioned Rhodan as an influence – less than Flash Gordon, but big enough to shape the design of some of the space ships.

published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

New York vs. Grubhub – The New York Times

Seamless, the food delivery service started two decades ago in Midtown Manhattan, calls itself “the most New York app in New York.” In advertisements, the company cracks jokes about the L train and takes unsubtle jabs at New Jersey. “Eat Like a True New Yorker,” one subway ad declares.

But while the delivery giant Grubhub, which owns Seamless, seems to have plenty of affection for New York, that feeling may no longer be mutual.

In June, during a four-hour hearing of the New York City Council’s small-business committee, restaurant owners complained about the high commissions charged by Grubhub and other third-party delivery apps. Weeks later, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York called for a federal investigation into widespread complaints that Grubhub charges restaurants fees for phone calls that do not result in orders. And the service has faced criticism for its recently discontinued practice of creating web domains for the restaurants on its platform.

In response, Grubhub has started a website to help restaurants reclaim their web domains and has promised to let owners listen to the recordings of some phone calls that generated disputed fees. On Tuesday, the company plans to hold the first in a series of “restaurant round tables” in New York to let business owners air their concerns.

Those steps have not mollified the company’s critics.

“I would love for Grubhub to do the right thing and do more,” said Mark Gjonaj, chairman of the Council’s small-business committee. “If they don’t, we’re going to be looking at serious legislation as we move forward that will make this a much more fair playing field.”

New York is one of Grubhub’s top-performing American markets and a crucial battleground in the escalating competition for dominance among the major food delivery apps. But the transformative impact of delivery apps is being felt far beyond the city. As third-party services — including DoorDash, Uber Eats and Postmates, as well as Grubhub and its Seamless brand — become faster and more convenient, they are growing increasingly popular across the world, fundamentally changing what it means to operate a restaurant.

And from San Francisco to Mumbai, the owners of small, independent restaurants complain that the per-order commissions the third-party services charge have cut into already-thin profit margins.

The major delivery companies have long argued that apps expose restaurants to new customers, allowing small businesses to tap into a network of tens of millions of online users and to benefit from the advertising muscle of multibillion-dollar companies. Katie Norris, a Grubhub spokeswoman, said the service drove “incremental sales” — bringing in customers who would otherwise stay home and cook.

“The incremental sales and traffic with higher average checks more than offset commission rates,” she said.

But that has not been the experience of Anil Bathwal, who runs the Kati Roll Company, a New York-based chain specializing in Indian street food.

Mr. Bathwal did not have a large-scale delivery operation when his chain signed up with Seamless, and he said the service had initially brought him new business. But over the years, third-party delivery has grown to account for as much as 30 percent of his sales, as existing customers — those who used to eat at the restaurant — have started using Seamless instead.

“As time goes by, more of my existing customers are being cannibalized,” said Mr. Bathwal, who estimates the delivery service has reduced his overall profits by 2 to 5 percent.

The third-party delivery apps vary in their approaches to calculating commissions, which usually range from 15 to 30 percent. While Uber Eats levies a flat rate, Grubhub charges restaurants higher commissions in exchange for better visibility on the platform.

That system could change in New York. Mr. Gjonaj said the small-business committee was considering legislation to regulate commission rates. In August, the New York State Liquor Authority proposed a policy that could effectively put a cap on commissions charged to restaurants with liquor licenses.

But with Grubhub and other delivery apps gaining popularity with customers, few restaurants can afford to opt out.

“Grubhub has such huge market share that to say no, a lot of them feel like they’d be missing out on a lot of business,” said Melissa Autilio Fleischut, president of the New York State Restaurant Association. “There are lots of concerns, but I don’t know of any restaurant who says, ‘I’m not going to do it through these apps.’”

From its founding as an independent company in 1999, Seamless prided itself on maintaining healthy relationships with the restaurants on its platform, working with business owners to develop sales strategies and improve menus, according to three former Seamless employees who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal company dynamics.

But the company’s culture shifted after it merged with Grubhub in 2013, the employees said, and a less sympathetic approach took hold. Sales officials at Grubhub’s headquarters in Chicago sometimes yelled at owners who called with complaints, two of the employees said.

Ms. Norris, the Grubhub spokeswoman, said any employee who yelled at a restaurant owner would be immediately disciplined.

“We depend on the success of our restaurants and work very hard to be the best partner we can be,” she said.

Another practice also concerned some Seamless employees after the merger and has recently come under scrutiny: Grubhub’s system for determining whether a phone call made through the app has generated an order. Although most customers place delivery orders by tapping their smartphone screens, Grubhub allows users to make phone calls through the app, and Yelp listings often include a Grubhub phone number alongside a restaurant’s direct number.

In December, Tiffin, a chain of Indian restaurants in the Philadelphia area, sued Grubhub, claiming that for at least seven years the company had charged restaurants on its platform for phone calls that never resulted in orders.

Marco Chirico, who runs Enoteca on Court, an Italian eatery in Brooklyn, said he recently discovered that in two months Grubhub had charged him hundreds of dollars for phone calls during which customers simply inquired about a menu item or requested a reservation. He received a refund from Grubhub, he said, but only for the phone calls whose recordings he had reviewed.

“Now I have to take my time or pay someone extra to go through all the transactions and phone calls to see whether they were orders or reservations,” Mr. Chirico said. “It can hurt you at the end of the month.”

Over the years, Grubhub has publicly acknowledged that it uses an algorithm to determine whether a phone call resulted in an order rather than reviewing the transcript of every call. The company decides whether to charge restaurants based on a range of factors, including the length of the call and whether the customer who made it also placed an online order that day, according to Ms. Norris, the spokeswoman.

“We are constantly refining these systems and processes to ensure we are optimizing for accuracy,” she said.

In August, Grubhub announced that it would double the time it gives restaurants to review phone calls, from 60 to 120 days, and would refund inaccurate charges. But the 120-day window won’t ensure that restaurants recover their losses, Mr. Enrico said. “It doesn’t help with the thousands of dollars you lost in prior months,” he said. “You should fix the past to move forward.”

The fees are expected to be one of the main topics of discussion at the first restaurant round table, which will be hosted by a Grubhub executive, Kevin Kearns, at the company’s office in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon.

Over the summer, restaurant owners also began questioning another Grubhub practice: purchasing internet domain names for thousands of restaurants so that customers searching for them online would be directed to place orders through the delivery service. Ms. Norris, the Grubhub spokeswoman, said the company discontinued that policy in 2018 and, in any case, always got restaurants’ permission to establish such “microsites.”

But in June, an article in the industry publication New Food Economy detailing the practice led to an outcry from restaurant owners who said they had not realized that joining Grubhub essentially meant signing away the rights to their online identities. To reclaim control over their digital profiles, some owners are working with ChowNow, a California-based company that helps restaurant owners develop their own apps, charging a monthly subscription fee rather than a per-order commission.

“Restaurants are waking up and saying, ‘I need to own my website, I need to own my customers, I need to own my identity online,’” said Chris Webb, who runs ChowNow.

Haruki Kai, the co-owner of Sushi Ryusei in Manhattan, said Seamless has benefited his fledgling business, generating around $1,500 a month in profits. But given the popularity of online delivery, Mr. Kai said he believes that number should be even higher. He now offers a 10 percent discount to customers who bypass Grubhub and order through his ChowNow app instead.

“For now, we are O.K.,” Mr. Kai said, “but still 30 percent is too high a fee.”

Sahred From Source link Business

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2oHyGN6 via IFTTT

2019 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion: IMSA Birthday Blowout

Monterey Car Week is an intense and whirlwind display of automotive excellence. Over the years the number of the events that occur in mid-August of each year seems to have grown exponentially. There are car shows, car parades, car auctions, cars park in parking lots, cars on the streets. Whatever one’s preference, it can be found during Car Week. Sure, the famous linchpin of Car Week is the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, and we don’t dismiss its prestige or importance, but for us the track at WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway and the Monterey Motorsports Reunion is where the magic really happens. Nothing in the world gets us more excited than Car Week and no event more than the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.

We preach the gospel at every opportunity. On the first night of this year’s garage stalking sessions of Cannery Row looking for hypercars we met some young men also on the treasure hunt. Happy to see any young person looking for car photos and not tracking down Pokeman warms our hearts, and we took a few moments to explain to these young gentlemen that no matter what hypercar you find crawling the streets during Car Week, the track is where the real education begins. No garage queens or hermetically sealed art pieces. The cars at the Reunion span almost 100 years of automotive history and each one hits the track at some point in the weekend.

When it was announced that this year’s event would focus on the International Motor Sports Association’s (IMSA) 50th birthday, we got excited….very excited indeed.

Before we get into the event, some of you might need a primer on exactly what IMSA is. Discussing a sport’s sanctioning body isn’t all that sexy, but it is relevant. 50 years of anything is worth talking about, and 50 years of some of the best auto racing on the planet is doubly so.

From IMSA.com:

“The sanctioning body was founded in 1969 by John Bishop with the assistance of NASCAR President Bill France Sr. Bishop was a 12-year employee of the Sports Car Club of America, who elected to follow his own vision for professional road racing. Bishop and his wife, Peggy, brought a family-style feel to the organization, based in Bridgeport, Conn.

The first IMSA-sanctioned race was at Pocono International Raceway in Oct., 1969, a Formula Ford and Formula Vee event that paid $3,000 and attracted 348 spectators. Bishop abandoned his plans for open-wheel competition by the end of 1970, concentrating on forming a six-race series in 1971 for FIA Group 2 and Group 4 sports cars, along with “Baby Grand” stock cars.

That series became the IMSA GT Series . The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company began sponsoring what became Camel GT in 1972, and the series quickly gained in popularity. Bishop’s vision of adding prototype sports cars in the early 1980s proved to be a huge success, and the series thrived throughout the 1980s with many of the top names in U.S. and international sports cars battling on North America’s top road circuits in Porsche, Jaguar, Ford, Nissan, Chevrolet and Toyota Camel GTP Prototypes.

In addition to the GTP Prototypes , Camel GT also featured Camel Lights Prototypes and production-based competition in the GTO, GTU and American GT classes. IMSA also sanctioned American stock cars in the Kelly American Challenge; small sedans in the Champion Spark Plug Challenge; production cars in the Firestone Firehawk Endurance Championship; exotics in the Bridgestone Super Car Championship; and open-wheel cars in the Barber Saab Pro Series.

Bishop sold the organization to Florida businessmen Mike Cone and Jeff Parker in 1989. The company was relocated to Tampa, Fla. With a sharp drop in participation in the GTP class due to a challenging economy, IMSA announced a shift to a revolutionary concept for 1994, introducing the World Sports Car, an open-cockpit prototype.

There were many additional changes for 1994. Florida businessman and GT racer Charlie Slater purchased IMSA. Exxon USA took over sponsorship of the series, which became the EXXON World Sports Car Championship, while GT competition took place in the EXXON Supreme GT Series.

In September 1996, the International Motor Sports Group – a conglomerate including Roberto Mueller and Andy Evans – purchased IMSA and changed its name to Professional SportsCar Racing for 1997.

Many changes took place over the following three years. The United States Road Racing Championship sanctioned races with the assistance of the Sports Car Club of America in 1998-99.

While originally affiliated with the USRRC, Don Panoz departed to hold the inaugural Petit Le Mans endurance race at Road Atlanta in 1998. He expanded that concept into a full series in 1999, the American Le Mans Series. He envisioned bringing European-style endurance sports car racing to America – highlighted by the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans. Panoz also acquired rights to IMSA, which became the sanctioning body for the organization.

Faced without a sanctioning body for Daytona International Speedway’s flagship road race, Jim France put together a team of investors who shared his vision for a new North American sports car championship to carry on the legacy of the series co-founded by his father, Bill France Sr., 30 years earlier. GRAND-AM Road Racing debuted with the 2000 running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, and ran its opening three seasons with similar classes to the ALMS.

From its birth in 1999, the ALMS proclaimed its racing “For the Fans,” and built a loyal group of followers. The series later undertook a number of initiatives to become recognized as the Global Leader in Green Racing, gaining both national and international recognition for its Green Racing protocols.

GRAND-AM took a radical step when it introduced the Daytona Prototype as its lead class beginning in 2003. The new car became popular with both fans and drivers for its durability, affordability and safety. The DP attracted competitors from NASCAR, IndyCar and international sports car racing, especially to GRAND-AM’s marquee events at Daytona, Watkins Glen and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

While both series were successful on their own, it became apparent that they would have to combine in order to grow the sport. The two groups announced in Sept. 2012 they would merge into one organization beginning with the 2014 season. Fittingly, it was also announced that the unified series would be sanctioned by IMSA.

IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship opens with a pair of historic events – the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring fueled by Fresh from Florida – building on the vision of John Bishop and Bill France Sr. from 45 years ago.”

In a nutshell, if you’ve enjoyed professional racing in the US for the last 50 years, IMSA has had some hand in insuring that it was safe, well managed and indeed, professional. Our hats are off to IMSA for their work and dedication to the stewardship of our favorite sport.

And now, on to the show…..

And what a show it was. As we expected from the release of the entry list, (550 cars in 14 groups) the paddock of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was packed with awesome. Along with the cars we’re reunited with almost every year, there were many cars we’d never seen before. It’s crazy to think that after watching and reading about racing for over 20 years that there’d be anything new to see. But there was a lot to take in…more curves, more wings, more cylinders, more paint & chrome and more history. Adding to the diversity this year, and as noted in our report on the Sonoma Speed Festival, is the inclusion of “later” model cars that now fall under the banner of “vintage” and/or “historic race cars. We’re not complaining…we’re glad to see all of the diversity. We love that one event can highlight cars made with wood and bicycle pumps at the same event with cars made of computers and carbon fiber. To prove the point take a look at the 1916 National AC on the left and the Audi R8 LMP on the right.

Along with the standard historic/vintage fare, a few major automakers flashed some of their new wares in the paddock. Not surprisingly, the biggest attraction by far was Chevrolet’s new C8 Corvette in a new color called called Zeus Brown. Based on what we’d seen of the C8 from the internet over the past few weeks, our jury is till out on the new Vette. Unfortunately, seeing it in about the most unexciting color, did’t exactly help us deliver our verdict on it. Though admittedly not our cup of tea, we were glad to finally see one in the flesh.

On the other end of the excitement spectrum was the car Ford brought to the party. As you may or may not know, Ford is discontinuing its factory GT racing program….but they’re launching one last salvo. Ford Performance and Canada’s Multimatic Inc. are making a limited run of 45 track only Mk II cars that will set folks back $1.2 million (starting price). This monster with sport enhanced aero kit and a 3.5 liter EcoBoost engine (and a cool snorkel intake!!!). Ford did’t play it safe on their presentation. Heck, they didn’t even show it in one of their heritage liveries. This beauty sported the same Ford/Multimatic livery featured at the car’s debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last month. Not over the top…just right!

Just outside the main paddock, in the lagoon area, were a few equally sensational cars from a couple of the world’s smallest automakers, presented by Michelin. Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus doubled down with a spectacular blue carbon SCG003 and the outrageous new Steve McQueen homage, the SCG Boot. We’ve been waiting to be in the presence of any SCG and now, of a sudden, there were two. We were unprepared for the blue carbon magnitude of the 003 and completely astounded by the radical look and sheer girth of the Boot (that we didn’t even know existed).

The very next day, in the same spot, we were blown away again by the presence of not one, but two Koenigseggs. I was so thrown by seeing the new Jesko (pronounced Yess-Ko), I didn’t notice the second car, a lovely two tone Agera RS. Speaking of the Agera, the Jesko, a tribute to the founder’s father, will be the Agera’s successor. This twin turbocharged aerodynamic masterpiece will produce over 1,200 horsepower on pump gas and cost around $2.8 million. Year after year, Michelin’s lagoon display inspires awe.

BMW had a heavy presence at the Reunion with four iconic racers The 1975 Group 4 3.0 CSL, the 1999 V12 LMR, the 2001 E46 M3 GTR and the 2011 E92 M3 GT. These cars all competed in the Masters Endurance Legends class, involving two 40 minute races. The BMW V12 LMR in the hands of long time BMW driver Bill Auberlin put on a masterclass in Sunday’s 40 minute race. After going off track in the opening laps Auberlen fought back to second place. Watching a seasoned professional racing driver carve his way way through a field of legendary endurance racing machines is, to use an overused adjective, epic. Even by today’s standards the Williams and BMW developed V12 sings a song like no other, and looks just as fast as it did on its first win at the ‘99 12 hours of Sebring in the hands of Tom Kristensen, Jorg Muller, and JJ Lehto. This collaboration between BMW and Formula 1’s Willams team produced only four examples of the LMR.

The fun wasn’t over. Making a return to the Reunion was McLaren’s two-time Formula 1 world champion, Mika Hakkinen. The Flying Finn was on had to drive demonstration laps in the 1970 McLaren M8D/3 “Batmobile” Can-Am racer. While only responsible for “demonstration laps” a description leaving broad room for a driver to dial it in, or drive the wheels off. Hakkinen chose the latter and pushed the M8D/3 McLaren like he had been driving it all his life. The McLaren lacking in the aero grip of modern race cars made up for its limitations through shear and raw power with its Chevy 7 liter V8 putting out 670bhp at 6800rpm with 600 lb⋅ft (810 N⋅m) of torque. We witnessed Hakkinen clock 175mph on the main straight. Not bad for an almost 50 year old car.

It wasn’t just Hakkinen that came to put his foot down. The weekend was packed with legends of sports car racing. Brian Redman was on hand bringing back memories of his time at the 1976 Rolex 24 at Daytona where he worked on his on car while it was stopped on track. Current Team Penske driver Ricky Taylor was there as was nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen. IMSA legend Hurley Haywood was the Grand Marshal and spent the weekend signing autographs and posing for photos for eager fans. There were dozens of previous and current sports car drivers all approachable for fans to interact with. The Reunion wasn’t just about cars, it was a Reunion of the best racing talent that has even been a track. Happy 50th Birthday IMSA!!!

We had big expectations for the Reunion and we can happily report that it met our expectations and more. Its an event of pure joy, and one of the last events outside of Europe that is a living homage to racing history. As always, we think our pictures tell a better story than our words ever could. That said, please check out the galleries below featuring the people and cars of the 2019 Reunion.

The People

The Cars

Stones Are Crying Out (Part 2 of 3)

"I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things...."  -- Apostle Paul, Acts 20:29,30 (American Standard Version)

The previous blog argued the idea that the AI revolution that is currently overtaking the world is just the modern incarnation of a long-running Kabbalist agenda in search of the ultimate power, the dynamism of creation itself. We went through the gradual, centuries-long elitist project of separating us, "the great unwashed," from our right to hold sacred knowledge of our origins. Meanwhile, those same elitists, an actual Babylonian priesthood in the true historic sense of the word, assumed a monopoly for themselves of the use of God's personal name as the "central role" in their quest to achieve the power of self-godship. This issue should be of concern to all people, even if one considers himself an atheist, because, once again, we are coming face-to-face with an unjust conspiracy designed to steal a body of knowledge that was meant to benefit you and not be hoarded by a small powerful cabal.

This blog will take a look at how we know that the elitist knowledge suppression has continued exercising its influence right down to our modern era in the Digital Age. The suppression continued as the Church was hijacked and abandoned the model Christ had set for it. It rolled right on through the Protestant Reformation, even while well-intentioned men made the sacred scriptures available in the common tongue. Once every four years, the public catches a glimpse of that suppression during the oath of office sworn on the event of the presidential inauguration.

Government Built on Dishonest Oaths

When President Trump took the oath of office earlier this year, our live Rogue Media broadcast raised the question about which Bible did the President use while taking the oath. Better late than never, I did follow up with that question and even ordered a copy of that particular version of the Bible for myself.

The President used both the traditional White House "Lincoln" Bible as well as his own personal copy of the Revised Standard Version. That version of the Bible is highly popular among Protestant denominations. The President's copy was one that his mother gifted to him upon his graduation from Presbyterian Sunday school back in 1955.

The copy that I was able to obtain is likely similar, if not identical to, the President's. My copy was published in 1953 by "Thomas Nelson and Sons." If you look at the opening preface of nearly every version of the Bible, you will see that the publisher has included notes pertinent to his particular version. The preface usually explains why the publisher has decided to include, or exclude, the Tetragrammaton from his edition. This copy of the Revised Standard Version is no exception; it also has chosen to comply with Jewish (or rather, Kabbalistic) custom and avoid the usage of the divine name in a book meant to be read by the "great unwashed," the general public. It explains its reasons thus, as copied from a page at Bible-Researcher.com:

A major departure from the practice of the American Standard Version is the rendering of the Divine Name, the “Tetragrammaton.” The American Standard Version used the term “Jehovah”; the King James Version had employed this in four places, but everywhere else, except in three cases where it was employed as part of a proper name, used the English word Lord (or in certain cases God) printed in capitals. 

The present revision returns to the procedure of the King James Version, which follows the precedent of the ancient Greek and Latin translators and the long established practice in the reading of the Hebrew scriptures in the synagogue. While it is almost if not quite certain that the Name was originally pronounced “Yahweh,” this pronunciation was not indicated when the Masoretes added vowel signs to the consonantal Hebrew text. 

To the four consonants YHWH of the Name, which had come to be regarded as too sacred to be pronounced, they attached vowel signs indicating that in its place should be read the Hebrew word Adonai meaning “Lord” (or Elohim meaning “God”).... 

For two reasons the Committee has returned to the more familiar usage of the King James Version: (1) the word “Jehovah” does not accurately represent any form of the Name ever used in Hebrew; and (2) the use of any proper name for the one and only God, as though there were other gods from whom He had to be distinguished, was discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era and is entirely inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church.

Sadly, the Revised Standard Version and thousands of other versions have chosen to place themselves under the thumb of those ancient elitist traditions that dictate who gets to know God and who doesn't. To the two objections noted in the above paragraph, my retort would be the following: (1) The name "Jesus" isn't the Hebrew name that Mary called her son either, and yet you haven't deleted that name. (2) Since when does a Christian Bible publisher bow to the will of a Kabbalah tradition? Jesus didn't. The question you should be asking is "Why did Judaism discontinue it?" Not to mention the fact that early church fathers Jerome and Origen both confirmed that the Tetragrammaton was still known in their time between the second and third century C.E.

So, the above statement by Nelson & Sons that infers that the divine name was "discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era" is blatantly dishonest. However, they are not alone. Most Bible publishers, though not all, have chosen to cower under Kabbalist pressure. By and large, the name of the Creator has been erased from the public's version of sacred knowledge. Any oath of office taken on such a copy is also dishonest. The erasure has made it all the easier for the Priesthood to maintain its monopoly over ancient knowledge. Therefore, any elected official who takes the oath on a Bible that bends its knee to the will of that Priesthood has also bound himself to the will of that Priesthood.

Curiously and hypocritically, many of these Bible publishers do leave the divine name intact in a handful of places, as if they are afraid to cross that red line by erasing it altogether. Since they leave a note in the preface to tell you where they substituted it for the word LORD, the astute Bible reader can just mentally re-insert the divine name into the content whenever he comes across the substitution.

At the end of this blog, I will leave you with a list of a few noteworthy Bible versions and translations that have chosen to restore the author's name in its proper places. I myself chose long ago not to celebrate the Christmas holidays because of the utter travesty that organized Christianity has inflicted on Christ's original teachings, but I know that many of you do. If you want to consider using a Bible that has chosen to comply with Christ's original mission of hallowing his Father's name, now would be a good time of year to obtain your own copy, or at least bookmark their online versions in your browser.

The Illuminati Trinity

Now, what does all of this have to do with modern events? As many RM readers know, we've had many discussions about how the whole world is caught in a gang war between the old, dying Rockefeller empire and the ever-present Old Money Rothschild dynasty. With every passing day, it becomes more evident that President Donald J. Trump was the man chosen by the Rothschild powers-that-be as their tool to achieve the next stage in a millenia-old agenda. Another breadcrumb that Spaceman left for us in the final hour of his final broadcast was a detailed discussion of the alliance that was made in the 18th century by three men destined to manipulate world events down to this year and beyond: Adam Weishaupt (Illuminati, Gnosticism, Hermetica), Jacob Frank (Kabbalah, Sabbateans), and Amschel Mayer Rothschild (money creation, banking, and puppet-mastering).

I could write endlessly in this blog with internet references about all the nefarious deeds of those three men. Spaceman did a good job of summing it up in the final hour of his final broadcast [linked here], so I will leave you with that.

Many years ago, I ran across this page at BibliotecaPleyades.net that listed some of the common sacraments and customs of the Church, showing how these were really Jewish in origin. That should not surprise us. As mentioned in the opening quotation at the top of this blog, the Apostle Paul already saw the trend towards corruption. Christ had warned about it 30 years before Paul, the Apostle Peter likewise warned about it contemporary with Paul, and the Apostle John stated that the trend had already established a foothold shortly before his own death, about 30 years after Paul.

That website above is loaded with archives culled from all over the web and is a highly useful tool if you care to do your own research on the legacy left by these men and by any other secret society that spun off from their lead. There is an interesting quote here from early church father, Athanasius, that betrays a Kabbalist belief that man does have the right to turn himself into a god. After all, so the argument goes, Jesus did.

However, he also taught that the Incarnation of the Word “divinized” human flesh, making it possible for men to become “gods.” “God became man that men might become gods,” wrote Athanasius.

As we stand now on the precipice of the coming year 2018, the whole world is being swept along in a new reality that is being engineered by the corporations, universities, and government structures that those three men left behind. We are witnessing the arrival of the "4th Industrial Revolution" being ushered in on the red carpet delivered by futuristic digital innovations and crypto technology.

In the third part of this blog series, I will pick up on the reference that Dr. Goertzel made to the "golem" of the Middle Ages. We'll explore the very real possibility that the human fathers of the next decade's sentient AI beings are likewise indoctrinating their digital sons in occult traditions.

As promised, here is a partial list of Bible versions and translations that have rejected the tradition of the Babylonian Priesthood by restoring the divine name in its rightful places. Many of these have online versions and apps. I have provided a few links but there are others.

The Jerusalem Bible (1966) uses "Yahweh" in 6,823 places in the Old Testament.

The New Jerusalem Bible (1985) uses "Yahweh" in 6,823 places in the Old Testament.

The World English Bible (WEB) (1997) [a Public Domain work with no copyright] uses "Yahweh" some 6837 times.

Rotherham's Emphasized Bible (1902) retains "Yahweh" throughout the Old Testament.

The Anchor Bible (in progress) retains "Yahweh" throughout the Old Testament.

The American Standard Version (1901) uses "Jehovah" in 6,823 places in the Old Testament.

The New World Translation (1961/1984/2013), published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, uses "Jehovah" in 7,216 places. [App in many languages; Android or Apple]

The Sacred Scriptures Bethel Edition (1981) used by adherents of the Church of God (Seventh Day)

The Divine Name King James Bible (2011) uses "Jehovah" in 6,973 places. 

The Lexham English Bible (2012) uses "Yahweh" throughout the Old Testament.

Green's Literal Translation (1985) uses "Jehovah" in 6,866 places in the Old Testament.

The Recovery Version (1999) uses "Jehovah" in 6,841 places in the Old Testament.

The Darby Bible (1890) by John Nelson Darby renders the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah 6,810 times.

The Bible in Living English (1972) by Steven T. Byington, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society 

The Names of God Bible (2011,2014) by Ann Spangler uses "Yahweh" throughout the Old Testament.

My Twitter contact information is found at my billboard page of SlayTheBankster.com. Listen to my radio show, Bee In Eden, on Youtube via my show blog at SedonaDeb.wordpress.com.

5 Ways to Get Started with Machine Learning

Machine learning has taken off and it’s doing so with fury, bringing new insights to every single industry. If you want to be in demand, this is a skill that will put you in the front line. As intimidating as it may seem, it’s surprisingly easy if you approach it the right way.

Machine learning (ML) is a fascinating practice and field of study. It's what allowed the introduction of self-driven cars, of robots that can clean your house, the navigation system of drones of all kinds, the recommendation system behind YouTube and Netflix, face recognition systems, hand written recognition, game playing, and lots more.

And because of its incredibly high value and somewhat cryptic nature, it's an expertise in very high demand that keeps expanding to different areas --- which just five years ago would have seemed inconceivable. Through this article, we'll see different practical ways to approach it.

"Pardon Me … but What is Machine Learning?"

ML is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI). As Arthur Samuel --- one of the pioneers in the field --- put it, ML gives "computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed". That is, instead of programming a computer (or robot) to do something, you give information and set the framework to let the system program itself.

Freaking fascinating? Yes, but we won't get into the details of this seemingly impossible thing here, but instead point you to the right places where you'll be able to find that for yourself.

Before Starting, a Word of Caution

ML is something of an advanced practice, and you'll need to have not only some foundations in computer sciences, but also be able to code in at least one programming language. Some popular programming languages for ML are Python, R, Java, C, and MATLAB, among others.

1. Start Very Quickly … Like, Really, in Less than Ten Minutes

Sometimes, and for some people, it's better to just get hands on into something to have a first taste and develop an intuition of what this new art or skill is about, and then dig deeper into some specifics and details.

Google's Machine Learning Recipes with Josh Gordon is just that --- a straightforward and practical approach to ML. Using the Python scikit-learn and TensorFlow libraries, Josh will walk you through very practical examples and down-to-earth explanations behind the very principles of ML.

Here's the first 7-minute video of the series, introducing a supervised learning algorithm in Python --- in just six lines of code!:

The publishing schedule is somewhat irregular, with videos published every month or second month, covering topics such as decision trees, feature selection, pipelines, classifiers: not bad at all for 6-to-8 minute videos that anyone with a little foundation in programming can follow.

2. Take Courses from Top-Notch Universities, for Free

If you're hungry for quality knowledge, you may have heard by now about Coursera, edX, Udacity, and many, many others. We're talking MOOCs, or massive open online courses.

Let's break it down quickly:

massive: they have no vacancy limits, and can be accessed by as many people as desired.

open: anyone can access them, regardless of their age and previous knowledge on the topic, and independently if they're able to pay for a certification or not.

online: all you need is a device connected to the Internet; even a mobile phone would do.

course: these are actual courses with reading materials, practical exercises, and even deadlines.

Let's see some courses you could start with.

Stanford's Andrew Ng Machine Learning

Stanford Prof. Ng is a leading researcher on the field of artificial intelligence, and is the person who pretty much started the MOOC spark that would later turn into a fire of knowledge when he first put his Machine Learning online course. The response was overwhelming, with many thousands of people from all around the world taking the course and discussing this topic. He later turned this course into what it is today Coursera, the leading provider of MOOCs.

The course is as fabulous as it is challenging. I remember having spent an hour or so just to read a 5-page assignment scope before I was able to grasp it. So unlike Josh Gordon's series, this is a little more on the academic side, but with a lot of practical knowledge and advice that will be very useful later on in your ML practices. But it is doable, and the amount of feedback on the forums is truly overwhelming. Mind you, it was among the first MOOCs I ever took, and one of the best.

Course details:

Approx. duration: 2–5 months

Difficulty: high

Workload: mid-to-heavy

Sebastian Thrun's Intro to Artificial Intelligence

Also a professor and AI researcher at Stanford (on the field of robotics), co-founder of Google X Lab (the "semi-secret" R&D company behind of Google's self-driven cars, among other projects), Sebastian is also the founder of a mayor MOOC provider, Udacity. Along with Peter Norvig (Director of Research at Google), he put together the amazing Intro to Artificial Intelligence.

This is pretty much the foundation to all things ML. It's a lot lighter than Andrew's course, with its content spread over more units to make it easier to digest, though it's a long one.

Course details:

Approx. duration: 4 months

Difficulty: intermediate

Workload: light

Caltec's Yaser S. Abu-Mostafa Learning from Data

Prof. Yaser is another of the pioneers of putting quality learning material online, making available his Learning from Data ML course on his website, with all of its lectures, learning materials and exams, even before MOOCs were a thing. Later he would package these materials into a MOOC offered regularly by Caltech on edX.

I took this one as well, and I can tell you that you'll have to do some heavy lifting here. But if you've enjoyed Andrew's course and are hungry for more foundations, this seems like a reasonable next step.

Course details:

Approx. duration: 4 months

Difficulty: very high

Workload: very heavy (10–20 hours per week)

Other Coursera, edX and Udacity Courses

There's a very extensive offering of ML and AI courses that you can take for free, not only at Coursera, edX, and Udacity, but at other MOOC providers as well, such as Data Camp --- though data science seems to be something of a niche for the three providers we've discussed.

3. Get Certified Education, for a Fraction of the Price

So far, we've talked free MOOCs. They're awesome, and you don't need to pay a cent to enroll in them and start learning. In the beginning, these providers used to offer free certificates or statements of accomplishments, even some of them verifiable online. These programs, however, have been discontinued, so in most cases you won't get a certificate or any type of credential that you could use to demonstrate your education to a potential employer, or even to another higher education institution.

This may not be a problem if you just want to learn for the sake of it, and even use this knowledge to leverage a successful career as a freelancer, as many professionals already do around the globe. But applying for work can be a different matter, and certs and degrees do ease the way in many cases, so let's discuss them.

Verified Courses

A verified course might be somewhere between $40–$200, depending on the course and the institution. Basically, you pay a premium to get your identity and assignments verified (this is what a verified certificate looks like.) You can find more about Coursera's Course Certificates and edX's Verified Certificates. You'll find they both have a huge offering of ML and data-science–related verified courses, as you can see on this edX search.

Notice that, whether you pay or not, the contents and materials of the course are exactly the same. What you get by paying is the certification that you actually took and passed the course.

Coursera Specializations

Coursera took the concept of verified courses a step forward by grouping some related courses and adding a capstone project to give you a specialization certificate.

Some specializations of interest to us are:

specialization courses institution Big Data 6 UC San Diego Deep Learning 5 deeplearning.ai Machine Learning 4 University of Washington Recommender Systems 5 University of Minnesota Introduction to Robotics 6 University of Pennsylvania Probabilistic Graphical Models (PGMs) 3 Stanford University

Coursera Master's Degree

Coursera's Master of Computer Science in Data Science (MCS-DS) is an actual, official master's degree issued by an accredited university. Topics in the program are heavily ML-related, and include:

data visualization

machine learning

data mining

cloud computing

statistics

information science

Course details:

Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Price: $600 per credit-hour for a $19,200 in total tuition

Duration: 32 hours

edX XSeries and Professional Certificates

edX has an XSeries Program for courses within a single topic, in pretty much the same fashion as Coursera's Specializations. Such series of interest to us include:

series courses institution cost Microsoft Azure HDInsight Big Data Analyst 3 Microsoft $49–99 per course Genomics Data Analysis 3 Harvard University $132.30 Data Analysis for Life Sciences 4 Harvard University $221.40 Data Science and Engineering with Spark 3 UC Berkeley $49–99 per course

edX also has Professional Certificate Programs for "critical skills," including Data Science and Big Data, both offered by Microsoft.

edX MicroMasters and College Credit

You also have credit-eligible courses, which are not only verified, but may also serve you to claim for credit towards your B.S. or master's degree. There are, naturally, a lot of details in the fine print, so you'll have to do some extra research.

edX MicroMasters are precisely in this vein. Here are some interesting ones (costs are higher here, as you also pay hours of tuition towards a degree):

program courses institution cost Artificial Intelligence 4 Columbia University $1,200 Big Data 5 University of Adelaide $1,215 Data Science 4 UC San Diego $1,260 Robotics 4 University of Pennsylvania $1,256

Find out more to earn university credit on edX, and read the MOOCs for Credit report by Class Central.

Udacity's Nanodegrees

A nanodegree is something of degree, issued by Udacity. While Udacity isn't itself an accredited educational institution, they went to great lengths to partner with tech industry leaders to deliver the most market-targeted education possible --- in other words, to prepare you specifically with the skills that the labor market is demanding right now.

And we're really talking big names, here: Google, Amazon, IBM, Nvidia, Mercedes-Benz, DiDi, AT&T, among many others. And Udacity's partners not only co-design the study programs, but even have hiring agreements with Udacity!

Udacity and their partners even go as far as to publish estimated salary figures:

program time estimated salary Artificial Intelligence 6 months $59.4K to $250K Deep Learning TBD TBD Machine Learning 6 months $38.7K to $212K Robotics two 3-month terms $42k to $156k Self-Driving Car 9 months $67.8K to $265K

Get a job or your money back!

In fact, the ML nanodegree is part of the Nanodegree Plus program, which is probably one of the most reckless innovations in online learning: you study and graduate, and if you don't get a high paying job, Udacity refunds your tuition! Unbelievable.

Continue reading %5 Ways to Get Started with Machine Learning%

by Lucero del Alba via SitePoint http://ift.tt/2wlHNTh

New York vs. Grubhub – The New York Times

Seamless, the food delivery service started two decades ago in Midtown Manhattan, calls itself “the most New York app in New York.” In advertisements, the company cracks jokes about the L train and takes unsubtle jabs at New Jersey. “Eat Like a True New Yorker,” one subway ad declares.

But while the delivery giant Grubhub, which owns Seamless, seems to have plenty of affection for New York, that feeling may no longer be mutual.

In June, during a four-hour hearing of the New York City Council’s small-business committee, restaurant owners complained about the high commissions charged by Grubhub and other third-party delivery apps. Weeks later, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York called for a federal investigation into widespread complaints that Grubhub charges restaurants fees for phone calls that do not result in orders. And the service has faced criticism for its recently discontinued practice of creating web domains for the restaurants on its platform.

In response, Grubhub has started a website to help restaurants reclaim their web domains and has promised to let owners listen to the recordings of some phone calls that generated disputed fees. On Tuesday, the company plans to hold the first in a series of “restaurant round tables” in New York to let business owners air their concerns.

Those steps have not mollified the company’s critics.

“I would love for Grubhub to do the right thing and do more,” said Mark Gjonaj, chairman of the Council’s small-business committee. “If they don’t, we’re going to be looking at serious legislation as we move forward that will make this a much more fair playing field.”

New York is one of Grubhub’s top-performing American markets and a crucial battleground in the escalating competition for dominance among the major food delivery apps. But the transformative impact of delivery apps is being felt far beyond the city. As third-party services — including DoorDash, Uber Eats and Postmates, as well as Grubhub and its Seamless brand — become faster and more convenient, they are growing increasingly popular across the world, fundamentally changing what it means to operate a restaurant.

And from San Francisco to Mumbai, the owners of small, independent restaurants complain that the per-order commissions the third-party services charge have cut into already-thin profit margins.

The major delivery companies have long argued that apps expose restaurants to new customers, allowing small businesses to tap into a network of tens of millions of online users and to benefit from the advertising muscle of multibillion-dollar companies. Katie Norris, a Grubhub spokeswoman, said the service drove “incremental sales” — bringing in customers who would otherwise stay home and cook.

“The incremental sales and traffic with higher average checks more than offset commission rates,” she said.

But that has not been the experience of Anil Bathwal, who runs the Kati Roll Company, a New York-based chain specializing in Indian street food.

Mr. Bathwal did not have a large-scale delivery operation when his chain signed up with Seamless, and he said the service had initially brought him new business. But over the years, third-party delivery has grown to account for as much as 30 percent of his sales, as existing customers — those who used to eat at the restaurant — have started using Seamless instead.

“As time goes by, more of my existing customers are being cannibalized,” said Mr. Bathwal, who estimates the delivery service has reduced his overall profits by 2 to 5 percent.

The third-party delivery apps vary in their approaches to calculating commissions, which usually range from 15 to 30 percent. While Uber Eats levies a flat rate, Grubhub charges restaurants higher commissions in exchange for better visibility on the platform.

That system could change in New York. Mr. Gjonaj said the small-business committee was considering legislation to regulate commission rates. In August, the New York State Liquor Authority proposed a policy that could effectively put a cap on commissions charged to restaurants with liquor licenses.

But with Grubhub and other delivery apps gaining popularity with customers, few restaurants can afford to opt out.

“Grubhub has such huge market share that to say no, a lot of them feel like they’d be missing out on a lot of business,” said Melissa Autilio Fleischut, president of the New York State Restaurant Association. “There are lots of concerns, but I don’t know of any restaurant who says, ‘I’m not going to do it through these apps.’”

From its founding as an independent company in 1999, Seamless prided itself on maintaining healthy relationships with the restaurants on its platform, working with business owners to develop sales strategies and improve menus, according to three former Seamless employees who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal company dynamics.

But the company’s culture shifted after it merged with Grubhub in 2013, the employees said, and a less sympathetic approach took hold. Sales officials at Grubhub’s headquarters in Chicago sometimes yelled at owners who called with complaints, two of the employees said.

Ms. Norris, the Grubhub spokeswoman, said any employee who yelled at a restaurant owner would be immediately disciplined.

“We depend on the success of our restaurants and work very hard to be the best partner we can be,” she said.

Another practice also concerned some Seamless employees after the merger and has recently come under scrutiny: Grubhub’s system for determining whether a phone call made through the app has generated an order. Although most customers place delivery orders by tapping their smartphone screens, Grubhub allows users to make phone calls through the app, and Yelp listings often include a Grubhub phone number alongside a restaurant’s direct number.

In December, Tiffin, a chain of Indian restaurants in the Philadelphia area, sued Grubhub, claiming that for at least seven years the company had charged restaurants on its platform for phone calls that never resulted in orders.

Marco Chirico, who runs Enoteca on Court, an Italian eatery in Brooklyn, said he recently discovered that in two months Grubhub had charged him hundreds of dollars for phone calls during which customers simply inquired about a menu item or requested a reservation. He received a refund from Grubhub, he said, but only for the phone calls whose recordings he had reviewed.

“Now I have to take my time or pay someone extra to go through all the transactions and phone calls to see whether they were orders or reservations,” Mr. Chirico said. “It can hurt you at the end of the month.”

Over the years, Grubhub has publicly acknowledged that it uses an algorithm to determine whether a phone call resulted in an order rather than reviewing the transcript of every call. The company decides whether to charge restaurants based on a range of factors, including the length of the call and whether the customer who made it also placed an online order that day, according to Ms. Norris, the spokeswoman.

“We are constantly refining these systems and processes to ensure we are optimizing for accuracy,” she said.

In August, Grubhub announced that it would double the time it gives restaurants to review phone calls, from 60 to 120 days, and would refund inaccurate charges. But the 120-day window won’t ensure that restaurants recover their losses, Mr. Enrico said. “It doesn’t help with the thousands of dollars you lost in prior months,” he said. “You should fix the past to move forward.”

The fees are expected to be one of the main topics of discussion at the first restaurant round table, which will be hosted by a Grubhub executive, Kevin Kearns, at the company’s office in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon.

Over the summer, restaurant owners also began questioning another Grubhub practice: purchasing internet domain names for thousands of restaurants so that customers searching for them online would be directed to place orders through the delivery service. Ms. Norris, the Grubhub spokeswoman, said the company discontinued that policy in 2018 and, in any case, always got restaurants’ permission to establish such “microsites.”

But in June, an article in the industry publication New Food Economy detailing the practice led to an outcry from restaurant owners who said they had not realized that joining Grubhub essentially meant signing away the rights to their online identities. To reclaim control over their digital profiles, some owners are working with ChowNow, a California-based company that helps restaurant owners develop their own apps, charging a monthly subscription fee rather than a per-order commission.

“Restaurants are waking up and saying, ‘I need to own my website, I need to own my customers, I need to own my identity online,’” said Chris Webb, who runs ChowNow.

Haruki Kai, the co-owner of Sushi Ryusei in Manhattan, said Seamless has benefited his fledgling business, generating around $1,500 a month in profits. But given the popularity of online delivery, Mr. Kai said he believes that number should be even higher. He now offers a 10 percent discount to customers who bypass Grubhub and order through his ChowNow app instead.

“For now, we are O.K.,” Mr. Kai said, “but still 30 percent is too high a fee.”

Sahred From Source link Business

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2na1BZC via IFTTT