The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper is a collection of seven short stories written by A. J. Fitzwater centred around Cinrak, a lesbian, capybara pirate. It has a couple of strong elements as well as several weak points. I struggled with my thoughts as I read it and, in the end, I would say that, overall, I found it frustrating.

I will start this review briefly talking about politics. It might seem like an unusual starting point but the introduction makes clear that the book is political and it touches on several hot button issues.

Come for handsome, huggable Cinrak in a dapper three-piece, stay for her becoming a house-ship Mother to an enormous found family, the ethical polyamory, trans boy chinchilla, genderqueer rat mentor, fairy, and whale, drag queen mer, democratic monarchy, socialist pirates, and strong unionization.

What I do like about the way politics is handled in this book, is that it is not set up as a conflict between opposing ideologies; the book presents its favoured way of seeing the world and just leaves it as that. Even the religious character (and there is a fascinating take on religion inside) is played off sympathetically. However, by taking the stances it does, the book is also going to be, though it has no regrets about it, alienating for certain readers. If you can not tolerate a heavy emphasis on, and I quote, LGBTQIA characters, then this book is definitely not for you and you may as well stop here. On the other hand, if that’s what you crave, it may be exactly what you want and you should read further.

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THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT IN OUR HISTORY MUST MAKE A VERY FUNDAMENTAL DECISION, AND THAT DECISION IS DO WE CONTINUE THE STATUS QUO WHICH INCLUDES A 40-YEAR DECLINE OF OUR MIDDLE CLASS AND A HUGE AND GROWING GAP BETWEEN THE VERY, VERY RICH AND EVERYONE ELSE, OR DO WE FIGHT FOR A BOLD AND MEANINGFUL ECONOMIC AGENDA THAT CREATES JOBS, RAISES WAGES, PROTECTS OUR ENVIRONMENT AND PROVIDES HEALTH CARE FOR EVERY AMERICAN Continue reading →

Video and transcript of Farron Cousins' discussion of Hillary Clinton's fake populism on Ring of Fire TV, May 18, 2015. Continue reading →

Jimmy Dore: The intelligence agencies have been releasing the reports to convince us that we should be upset at Russia because they hacked our election. First of all, who gives a shit if they did? The United States tapped Angela Merkel’s … Continue reading →

Лидер RAGE Peavy Wagner сообщил о том, что гитарист группы, Marcos Rodríguez, больше не является участником коллектива по личным причинам. Никаких разногласий, стороны остаются друзьями, просто пути расходятся. Также по словам лидера команды, он думает о варианте возвращения к квартету и скоро объявит о своем окончательном решении. #Rage #PowerMetal #Power_Metal #SymphonicMetal #Symphonic_Metal

В рамках интервью для Rolling Stone барабанщик METALLICA Lars Ulrich ответил на вопрос о том, какая музыка его зацепила за последнее время:

«Я бы назвал Fiona Apple — её пластинка ["Fetch the Bolt Cutters"] просто сногсшибательна. В тот день, когда альбом только вышел, я его слушал часа три-четыре подряд и читал тексты. Честно говоря, я был поражён тем, насколько это необычно и гениально, потому что это так нестандартно. Каждые несколько лет выходит пластинка с другим звучанием. Я думаю, что последние ARCTIC MONKEYS, выпущенные года два назад ["Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino"], также имели схожий эффект, когда ты получаешь совсем не то, что ожидаешь, потом слушаешь это и просто говоришь: "Вау, это всё ещё возможно — сделать что-то музыкальное и не так, как у всех, ты ощущаешь уникальность, свежесть и неожиданность". Так что я бы сказал, что альбом Fiona Apple определённо из этой категории. Мне также нравится альбом Ed'a O'Brien'а. И его выступление на "Kimmel" — мы смотрели его достаточно часто.

В остальном, я думаю, вы заметили, что я больше обращаюсь ко многим своим старым друзьям [в музыкальном плане]. Пожалуй, музыка, которую я слушал больше всего за последние два-три месяца, — это RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. Неужели я единственный, кто думает, что их музыка с каждым днём становится всё более и более актуальной? Она всё больше и больше ассоциируется с тем, что происходит в мире. Просто такое ощущение, что все четыре этих альбома были записаны на прошлой неделе. И когда я делаю свои жалкие слабенькие упражнения, надеваю наушники и начинаю заниматься, я выдаю что-то типа: "Охренеть", когда просто слышу что-то в "Calm Like A Bomb", "Sleep Now In The Fire" или "Bombtrack", и думаю: "Не, ну правда, что ли? Какого хрена? Откуда это вообще взялось?" Так что RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE никогда не подведут!»

Ulrich также рассказал, что слушают члены его семьи:

«В доме довольно часто можно услышать Radiohead. Radiohead начали делать что-то вроде того, что делает Metallica, — они транслируют концерты, так что у нас дом фанатов Radiohead».

На вопрос о том, чем он заполняет своё время в период самоизоляции, Lars ответил:

«Я пытаюсь оставаться здоровым и здравомыслящим и быть как можно более продуктивным. Я пытаюсь быть более физически активным, чем несколько месяцев назад, занимаясь тренировками и играя, вместо того, чтобы валяться на диване. Это помогает чувствовать себя лучше в психологическом плане». #Metallica #ModernRock #Modern_Rock #AvantgardeRock #Avantgarde_Rock #HeavyMetal #Heavy_Metal #SymphonicMetal #Symphonic_Metal #ThrashMetal #Thrash_Metal

As the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season gets underway, communities in severe weather-prone regions are anxiously tracking pending storms and working to create effective disaster response plans. IBM, through its strategic alliance with The Weather Company and its global B2B division WSI, today announced a new emergency management solution that features sophisticated analytics and the use of real-time weather data to help communities predict and plan for natural disasters far more accurately and deploy the right resources in advance.

ISS, ISS A/S, a leading global provider of facility services, has signed a commercial agreement with IBM to use the power of Watson IoT to transform the management of over 25,000 buildings around the world.

IBM announced today that it has been recognized as the winner in the Business Analytics category and the Enterprise Network Storage sub-category in CRN’s 2017 Annual Report Card (ARC) awards program. The Annual Report Card summarizes results from a comprehensive survey that details solution provider satisfaction across product innovation, support and partnership for the hardware, services and software vendors they team up with. The vendors with the highest ratings are named to the prestigious Annual Report Card list of winners and celebrated as best-in-class by their partners. The results also provide the IT vendor community with valuable feedback—directly from their solution providers—that can be used to refine product offerings, enhance support offerings and improve communication with partners.

Each year, weather-related power outages cost the U.S. economy as much as $33 billion a year. Additionally, one severe weather event has the potential to impact the daily lives and routines of millions of people. As 2017 marks the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, The Weather Company, an IBM Business (NYSE: IBM) and Zpryme are releasing the results of a survey that found that U.S. utility companies still feel underprepared for weather-related outages and that their reactive approach to outage prediction leads to lost time and resources.

IBM and SAP SE have teamed up to provide a co-innovated solution for the retail and consumer packaged goods industries to help both increase profitability and improve the consumer experience.

IBM has been recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays (SSA) for the fourth year in a row.

IBM Research scientists have achieved a new world record in tape storage – their fifth since 2006. The new record of 201 Gb/in2 (gigabits per square inch) in areal density was achieved on a prototype sputtered magnetic tape developed by Sony Storage Media Solutions. The scientists presented the achievement today at the 28th Magnetic Recording Conference (TMRC 2017) here.

IBM today announced two significant milestones in making the on-premises IBM Cloud Object Storage System much more accessible for customers with new compliance-enabled vaults and concentrated dispersal mode capabilities.

The Weather Company, an IBM Business, and PRISA Noticias, one of the world’s leading Spanish-language media groups and owner of EL PAÍS newspaper, announced today a collaboration to combine the most accurate forecasts with one of the Spanish-speaking world’s largest media groups. The Weather Company will provide in-depth weather data and forecasts, as well as tailored content across PRISA properties. In turn, PRISA Noticias will provide locally relevant articles, photos and video content within the Spanish versions of The Weather Channel app and website (weather.com). The collaboration will also enable local marketers to access advanced data-driven advertising solutions from IBM Watson Advertising (formerly The Weather Company’s ad sales business) across both companies’ properties.

IBM Security today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. as a Leader for the sixth consecutive year in the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Mobility Management Suites1 for its ability to execute and completeness of vision.

IBM and West Virginia University’s Center for Disability Inclusion (CDI) today announced they are developing a first generation mobile workplace accommodation case management app to help U.S. businesses create inclusive workplaces for employees with disabilities.

My first job out of college was teaching biology, chemistry, physics, and vocational agriculture at Triway High School in rural Wooster, Ohio. I lasted for six weeks. The school environment was such a downer, from the smoke-filled teachers’ lounge to my young co-workers who were teaching mainly, it seemed to me, to avoid service in Vietnam. So when a reporting job became available, I jumped on it, leaving Ohio forever. Years later I returned to teaching, this time at Stanford University, where I worked for six years. Now, 37 years after Stanford, I’m teaching my kids at home thanks to COVID-19. You may be teaching your kids, too. This column is my attempt to make your job easier. It’s not that I’m God’s gift to […]






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MAP Health Management and IBM Watson Health today announced a partnership that aims to address the pervasive problem of relapse among Americans suffering from Substance Use Disorder, a chronic disease. MAP will integrate Watson cognitive technologies into the MAP Recovery Network Platform to enhance the platform’s existing capabilities around patient risk models. In doing so, it is anticipated that behavioral health and substance abuse treatment providers that use the MAP platform will be better able to predict and prevent incidence of relapse nationwide.

IBM today announced that Joanne Wright, Vice President, IBM Watson Supply Chain and Jeanette Barlow, Vice President of Offering Management and Strategy for IBM Watson Supply Chain will be participating in the “Industry Value Chain Exchange Series,” part of the Gartner Supply Chain Management Executive Conference. The conference takes place from May 23-25 in Phoenix, Arizona.

IBM today announced that for the seventh consecutive year, Gartner, Inc. has named IBM as a leader in the April 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Campaign Management.

IBM today announced that Mammoth Resorts, the leading four-season mountain resort operator in California, is using Watson Customer Engagement solutions on the IBM Cloud to create customized offers that are helping to drive record numbers of visitors to the resort every year.

Stacy and Angela painted the alphabet on the wall of their living room, hung lights, and it looks amazing. I built a web app that lets you compose and deliver a creepy message to a friend!

I put together a web app to send messages in semaphore, an archaic flag-based alphabet system.

IBM today announced a new all-flash, high-performance data and file management solution for enterprise clients running exabyte-scale big data analytics, cognitive and AI applications. The combined flash and storage software solution has been certified with the Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) to provide clients with more choice in selecting the right platform for their big data analytics on data processing engines like Hadoop and Spark.

IBM Japan today announced that Sony Corporation and Sony Global Education, a subsidiary of Sony that works to provide global educational services, have developed a new blockchain-based student education records platform. With the solution, school administrators can consolidate and manage students' educational data from several schools, as well as record and refer their learning history and digital academic transcripts with more certainty. The new platform, developed using IBM Blockchain, uses blockchain technology running on the IBM Cloud to track students’ learning progress, as well as establish transparency and accountability of scholastic achievements between students and schools.

IBM today announced a new data protection software that is easy to set up, easy to manage and helps simplify data recovery. IBM Spectrum Protect™Plus can be set up quickly making data protection available in as little as one hour.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that Workshop FX, a Wellington 3D Computer Animation and Visual FX company, is the first New Zealand customer to implement IBM SONAS, its scalable enterprise-class network attached storage array. SONAS (Scale Out Network Attached Storage) has enabled Workshop FX to significantly increase rendering productivity while preparing the studio for future business growth and emerging industry standards including 3D film production.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced that healthAlliance, New Zealand’s largest shared services organisation for the health sector, will use an IBM Netezza analytics appliance to provide faster, more accurate clinical and business analysis to better manage hospital resources and services.

IBM presenta Watson Virtual Agent en español, una solución que permite a las empresas construir un agente virtual para atención al cliente, flexible y fácil de configurar y adecuada a las necesidades de los negocios.

The University of Canterbury (UC) is upgrading its centralised IT storage system with the IBM XIV and SONAS network attached storage arrays, to protect valuable research data and better meet user long term needs, while reducing operational costs.

Rakon has selected the IBM Storwize V7000 SAN as part of a strategic storage upgrade to meet the needs of its rapidly expanding international quartz crystal manufacturing business.

IBM and Health Benefits Limited announce agreement to introduce National Infrastructure Platform to District Health Boards, based on IBM Cloud.

IBM Poland and WINUEL SA (subsidiary of Sygnity Group), today announced the first Polish Smart Metering software package to enable intelligent electricity use in more than 15 million households in Poland. The solution was developed jointly with the IBM Software Laboratory in Krakow.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) annonce aujourd'hui un élargissement de son portefeuille de stockage flash pour aider les clients à extraire beaucoup plus rapidement la valeur issues des données afin d’en tirer un avantage concurrentiel. IBM a lancé trois nouvelles baies « tout-flash » dotées d’une performance de pointe – une latence minimum de 250μs (microsecondes) - afin de résoudre le défi consistant à accéder rapidement à un grand volume de données pour les applications et les workloads cloud.

A l’occasion de VMworld® 2016, VMware, Inc. (NYSE : VMW) et IBM (NYSE : IBM) annoncent la disponibilité de services Cloud d’un genre nouveau, permettant aux entreprises de migrer rapidement et simplement des ressources informatiques d’entreprise vers le Cloud. Avec déjà plus de 500 clients concernés, le partenariat mondial entre IBM et VMware aide de plus en plus d’organisations à étendre leurs ressources informatiques existantes vers le Cloud en quelques minutes au lieu de plusieurs semaines ou mois.

Annonce la commercialisation des technologies clés de Project Debater intégrées à IBM Watson, afin de permettre aux entreprises de commencer à exploiter et analyser les aspects les plus difficiles du langage humain.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that AGC, a leading provider of fabrication, construction and integrated services for the oil, gas and mining industries throughout Australia and South East Asia, selected IBM XIV storage technology to replace its storage system and to support plans for its future business growth.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has selected IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 as a key infrastructure component for its ongoing development and delivery of customer-focussed business applications.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL), a global leader in raw sugar marketing that manages over 90 percent of Australia’s raw sugar exports, has selected IBM advanced storage systems to support rapidly growing data demands.

IBM Australia (NYSE: IBM) today announced a four-year extension to its contract with Australian government agency, Department of Health & Ageing, for the provision of IT infrastructure services. The deal includes a variation to the final year of the existing agreement, and has a total value of $109m over five years.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has been awarded a $23.6M dollar contract with the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) to design and build Australia’s National Authentication Service for Health (NASH) project.

Village Roadshow Limited (ASX: VRL), a leading Australian entertainment company, has selected IBM Cloud (NYSE: IBM) to host its business infrastructure, providing scale and speed to support a premium entertainment experience for customers. The IBM Cloud provides the platform for key operations spanning the diverse needs of Village Roadshow’s four key business divisions - Cinema Exhibition, Theme Parks, Film Distribution and Marketing Solutions.

IBM positioned as the Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Hybrid Infrastructure Managed Services, Asia Pacific

Machine Elf 16 – Creator of Worlds | Trey Ratcliff & Sam Wave “Creator of Worlds” explores chaos and order and creation from nothing. The actual work is a high resolution physical installation about 75 inches across and is embedded in a wall, running in a continuous loop forever. Here’s a photo of what the […]

INPEX selects IBM to manage operation critical apps in Australia

Woodside Energy and IBM will work together to re-imagine the way work is done using next-generation technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing to help Woodside realise its vision of an “intelligent plant”.