Southern Cross Computer Systems Pty Ltd has been named winner of the award for “Innovation in Green IT Data Center Solution” in the annual IBM Beacon Awards competition, honoring IBM Business Partners for their ingenuity, innovation, customer satisfaction and outstanding achievements in providing business solutions.

Zoo and Aquarium Association Uses IBM Technology to Support Endangered Species Programme

HCF and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today jointly announced a multi-million dollar deal that will see them working together in Australia to continue to transform HCF’s IT systems, streamline processes and deliver a tailored experience for its members.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that the Foundation for Young Australians has successfully integrated IBM’s SPSS analytics platform into its research capabilities, resulting in significant boosts to the organisation’s reputation as a national leader in its field.

You do something long enough, you'll eventually learn the little things you can do to help interesting stuff happen. One thing I have learned is this phrase:

"I'm a photographer. What can I do to help you?"

Just something as simple as that opens up all kinds of doors and possibilities. This week, it's how I ended up shooting Mexican sodas on a table-top studio in my basement.
Read more »

NOTE: This post has been updated to reflect that X-Peditions' 2020 season has filled.

X-Peditions is a collaborative project between Strobist.com and Washington DC-based Focus on the Story. You can learn more about our program in general, and/or get early notification for next year's program, at X-Peditions.com.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the appointment of David La Rose as Managing Director of IBM Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ). He replaces Kerry Purcell, who will return to a senior leadership role in IBM Japan.

約45分程の心地好い時間が流れる佑、健吾君、絢斗とシネフィルが集まっているのに皆知らないフリして名作をそっと撫でている事に映画愛に感じたまんまと『ラブソング』が観たくなり今まさに観ているそう言った様々な映画への導きが作り手と視聴者とをタイムリーに繋ぐ希有で新たな映画の生まれ方を観た気がするそしてAFROさんは俳優としても魅力的な事が世の中にバレたので収束したら俳優業でも忙しくなるのだろうなhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGEWtIp6qF..

After some discussion with the applied math research groups here at UCLA (in particular the groups led by Andrea Bertozzi and Deanna Needell), one of the members of these groups, Chris Strohmeier, has produced a proposal for a Polymath project to crowdsource in a single repository (a) a collection of public data sets relating to […]

This Thursday (4/9), eighteen authors (including yours truly!) will be doing live readings to celebrate International Unicorn Day!!! At 10:30am ET, I'll be on Facebook Live on my author page here: https://www.facebook.com/sarahbethdurst

And I may be wearing a unicorn onesie... 

Today is the book birthday for my new epic fantasy novel for adults, RACE THE SANDS!!! My 20th book!!! It's about two kickass women vying to become monster racing champions. I loved writing this book, and I hope it will provide an escape to everyone who needs one. 

Woohoo!!! SPARK made the Florida Sunshine State Young Readers Award 2020-21 list! Thanks so much, Florida librarians! You have absolutely made my day!

https://www.floridamediaed.org/ssyra.html 

Just emailed this to a family member and thought I'd put it here for my later reference:

Thanks for the update. Sorry for being brief before. They closed my school to move to online instruction (and UCSD; and most or all the K-12s; I don't know about SDSU yet). We're off for at least two weeks, and they'll let us know for sure on the 23rd if we're going back on the 30th. They're paying us, thank goodness (and thank labor unions), and they've given me remote access so I can work from home, which I'm happy about.

Mom has finally gotten it in her head that this is serious, so she's bowed out of her big weekly bridge game, which is actually illegal here now -- more than 10 elderly people or more than 250 people, period, is outlawed.

Today, I'm taking it easy except for a visit from the kid and some work-from-home stuff that's not difficult. For the next two-plus weeks, I plan to read a lot, write a lot, and play cards with mom, who will develop cabin fever pretty quickly. We stocked up on necessaries last weekend, so we've decided that barring actual urgency (not, like, "I want ice cream" urgency, that is), we're not going to shop at all during my break. This will be harder for mom, as you can imagine.

My baby brother (he will be 48 this week -- a mere embryo! -- is near ground zero in Washington State, but so far, his family is okay. He's worried about his wife's grandparents, who are quite old and quite ill. He (my brother) is in management at the cable company there, and he's just making sure his installers keep their distance, etc.

Love you, and hope to see you soon. Don't touch your face. :-)

comments

Bring the galaxy home on May the 4th.

The voice of Ahsoka Tano tells StarWars.com about writing the new Little Golden Book and rewatching Star Wars: The Clone Wars for inspiration.

May the 4th be with you with these special sales and discounts on items from around the galaxy.

Watch the debut of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, the finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and more!

The award-winning title from ILMxLAB heads to PlayStation VR this summer.

Celebrate May the 4th with Death Star-sized deals on some the biggest Star Wars games.

Get behind-the-scenes peeks from the production of The Mandalorian with personal photos from Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and many more.

Two StarWars.com writers debate Luke’s choice in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

I don't keep my finger on the pulse of all the independent Kickstarter campaigns running at any given time. There's just too much unique content being produced month after month for me to sift through everything. I leave that to those who write previews and reviews for a living (I am an IT Consultant for a living; I write reviews as a hobby because I'm passionate about board gaming). The only way an independent Kickstarter campaign is going to be on my radar is if the designer/publisher reaches out to me to let me know the campaign is running or if it's created a bit of buzz already in the key circles that I frequent. I definitely wasn't closely monitoring Kickstarter campaigns four years ago when the original edition of Middara  was initially funded. It was an adventurous dungeon crawl that promised to be so much more than an ordinary dungeon crawl. With options to run in campaign mode for an ongoing narrative or crawl mode for one off gameplay, it could work as a long term project for committed game groups as well as a fun game for casual players. It was a long road from its 2015 campaign to its 2019 fulfillment with a lot of unhappy backers along the way who voiced frustration at the late fulfillment of the game. In early summer 2019, a few months after delivery of the original Middara  game was completed, Succubus Publishing launched their Middara: Unintentional Malum Triology  Kickstarter campaign. This offered a reprint of the original game (retitled Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1), expanding it to over 80 hours of content, as well as two new adventure expansions (Acts 2 and 3) and a host of other Kickstarter exclusive add-on and stretch goal content. It also promised a faster turnaround on delivery to backers. Suddenly Middara  and its designers (Clayton Helme, Brooklynn Lundberg, Brenna Moncur, and Ian Tate) were the talk of the town and my husband Chris and I had an intense discussion about backing the second campaign. We were torn - yes the game sounded really cool, but we already own one behemoth campaign dungeon crawl (I’m looking at you Gloomhaven). Did we really need another? We hemmed and hawed and let the decision hang in the air. And then then publisher decided for us, by sending us a review copy of Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1 (M:UMA1).

As soon as the box arrived at the end of June, I poured over all the components. So much stuff! Such a huge box! The artwork (conceived and illustrated by Stephanie Gustafsson, Alex Hansen, Hector Sevilla Lujan, Rhett Mason, and Jon Troy Nickel) is absolutely beautiful. The illustrations are well drawn, well detailed, and bursting with color.
The game could have an audience in the tween set if the drawings were a little less risqué, but as marketed to older teens and adults, everything is within decency standards.

The minis are of good quality; well sculpted. I do wish that at least the starting adventurer minis came pre-painted (I always wish that because I have no painting skills or supplies) especially when M:UMA1 is priced at $150. The components are sturdy and should hold up to regular usage. We haven’t sleeved our cards yet and because of the sheer quantity of them (hundreds) they’ll likely remain unsleeved. I especially enjoy the custom dice, separated by color to indicate which dice should be used during dice rolls.

After examining all the game contents, my interest was definitely on the upswing and Chris and I  set about assembling a crew to play the game in adventure mode. It’s daunting to find others willing to commit to 80+ hours of gameplay, but soon enough we had a happy foursome. One of the players, Craig, actually owned the original edition of Middara but hadn’t found the time to assemble a group and get it on the table. Our other player was his coworker and friend Matt.
Craig showed up for our first night of gameplay with a sweet surprise – he had ordered the fancy game mats and was happy to share them with us for our adventure.

In M:UMA1  adventure mode, players begin the first game by taking on the roles of young students preparing for their Magical Aptitude and Skill Test (MAST). We spent that first evening getting to know the four starting characters (called adventurers) and deciding who would role play each one. Every adventurer has their own unique backstory, motivations, starting equipment (armor, weapons, relics, consumables, etc.), and vivid personality.  I chose Nightingale because I saw myself in her and thought I would really enjoy playing her. Chris chose Rook, Craig took Remi, and Matt selected Zeke.
M:UMA1  adventure mode breaks down the overall campaign (called the adventure) into many sessions called encounters. We typically play one or two encounters each evening we get together, with each encounter lasting anywhere from one to two hours. To start an encounter, all players gather round the table and lay out their adventurer cards and equipment. The narrative is read from the Adventure book, or alternatively listened to on the Middara app. We all really love the app. It’s available on the Apple App store or Google Play store and allows players to hear the narrative bits of the story without requiring one of them to do the reading aloud. The voice actor Succubus Publishing hired is fantastic; she is an expressive reader who brings the characters alive. While the entire adventure in M:UMA1  is narrative driven and so every encounter advances the plot at least a little bit, there are some encounters that have several pages of story so using the app is really nice. After the narration is finished, the location boards are set up for the encounter, forming the terrain, similar to any other dungeon crawl. Directions for setup are given in the Adventure book with modifications in the Diagram book. Some elements of the terrain may have their details partially hidden, such as loot tokens (which hide the exact reward until a character performs an encounter adjacent to the token) and totem tokens (which hide what they represent until an adventurer comes within line of sight of the token). The starting spaces on the board for each adventurer and the monsters (called combatants) are specified in the Adventure book. Once everything is setup, the game begins; turn order for adventurers and monsters is driven by initiative cards that were shuffled and randomly laid out in a row during setup.
During the encounter, players spend their turns moving their adventurers around the terrain, following movement rules, as they work to complete the encounter goals. Usually this involves reaching the exit token, but other goals are possible. Since players typically get rewards (gold, equipment, experience points, etc.) each time their adventurer slays a monster, most will want to prioritize battling the monsters over making a quick run for the exit token. There isn’t a lot of analysis paralysis during game play as the best options for next steps on a player’s turn are usually fairly obvious. Combatants spend their turns completing actions as specified on their description cards. Those that are designated as adventurer opponents are called intelligent combatants and have intelligent combatant cards, while the ones that players control and that fight on behalf of adventurers are called command combatants. 

Exploring the terrain and battling intelligent combatants are governed by an extensive set of rules (60+ pages!) provided in the rulebook. It took us at least three encounters before we really understood most of the basic rules and even now, we find ourselves frequently checking the summary poster we printed out as a giant player aid. There’s just too much information to memorize it all, especially when the information is subject to change due to errata. Which brings me to one of the few complaints I have about this game -the large volume of errata. You either have to remember to frequently check the long list of corrections and changes (to the 1.0 rulebook and to the text printed on various components such as equipment cards, combatant cards, etc) and update gameplay as you go along,  or dedicate a session to reviewing all the changes and corrections and marking up the components with the correct text in one sitting. We started off trying to do the former but it was so frustrating that we switched to the latter and it took me at least an hour.  For the rulebook errata, you can take a shortcut to getting the updates in place (if you don’t mind the ink and paper expense) by printing out the updated 1.08 rulebook from the Succubus website. Another note on the rules- deciding which rule set to play under has become a complicated issue that players will need to come to agreement on as Succubus has compiled and released an entirely new version of the rules (v1.1) that changes several of the fundamental aspects of the game. This was done in response to the feedback from players who have extensively played through the game using the original 1.0 rulebook with errata corrections. The major overhaul is meant to strengthen aspects of the game that felt too weak and weaken aspects that seemed overpowered, but not all players agree on the changes. Also, the 1.1 changes are still in Beta release and so they are subject to change as they continue to be finalized. Our little group likes to keep things simple, so we opted to stick to the 1.08 rule set, at least for now.
Theme is really important to me, so I was very happy to discover that Middara’s theme is well implemented across all components and the gameplay thus far in M:UMA1 . This is where the game really shines over its competitors. Its narrative is extremely detailed and offers so much depth in the characters. More so than Gloomhaven. More so than any other board game I’ve played. An experienced  screenwriter could easily adapt the storyline into a fantastic adventure film for the big screen and I’d go see it. My two year stint playing through the Pathfinder Skull and Shackles Adventure Card Game is a distant second in plot development, and even then, that game only had such a rich narrative track because we employed a user written storyline that we found on BGG (the publisher offered little in the way of quality narrative for the game). I come back to the table each week to play M:UMA1 , not just for the fun of fighting monsters and gaining rewards, but also to find out what happens next in the story. Bonus: as the plot unfolds, adventurers grow in skill and discipline and new content becomes available.
At the time of this writing, we've played through all of Chapter 1 and are partway through Chapter 2 (about 10 distinct sessions). Once we are finished with M:UMA1  in adventure mode (we estimate it will take us over a year, meeting weekly) there are plenty of scenarios and special content for us to replay M:UMA1  in crawl mode.  In fact, a large portion of the Kickstarter promo box is content exclusively for use with crawl mode and I’m excited about eventually digging into that.
Based on my experience with M:UMA1  so far, I highly recommend the game. Not only is the game worthwhile on its own merits, but the friendship building that comes from playing a year+ long adventure with others is wonderful. You can make a full afternoon or evening out of each session, sharing a meal together before sitting down to play the game. Although I was given a review copy of Act 1, I like Middara so much that I’ll be purchasing Acts 2 and 3 myself (or putting them on my Christmas list). You can pre-order the entire trilogy or any part of it on the Succubus Publishing website once the publisher reopens wave 2 pre-orders.
-------------------------------------------------
Publisher: Succubus Publishing
Players: 2-4 (We played with 4)
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About 1 - 3 hours per encounter
Game type: narrative driven, dungeon crawl, campaign, action points, role playing, cooperative, dice rolling, grid movement
Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

Because I love a good story and groove on rich immersive themes, legacy games really appeal to me. The chance to be part of an unfolding narrative is wonderful. It provides a structure for friends to commit to an investment of their time together on a regular basis. It holds everyone's interest over time (when the story is well written and executed). Especially valuable for me is that it lessens the bitter taste of a loss; I get so interested in the plot that I don't care as much about winning. I'm trying to tamp down my competitiveness and narrative driven games help. Finally, I’m a huge fan of Inka and Markus Brand (we have a number of their games in our library already, including all of the Exit  games, Encore, and Raja of Ganges). For all of these reasons, I was really excited when Ravensburger sent me a copy of Inka and Markus’s newest legacy game, Rise of Queensdale, to review.

I actually received my review copy early in 2019, but our RoQ group consists of parents with busy schedules so we can only get together about once a month to play. We've made our way through 13 games so far, and with only 2 or 3 more to go before we finish the legacy series of games, I thought it was a good time to sit down and share my thoughts on the game (Especially in light of Christmas approaching).

Rise of Queensdale  is a legacy worker placement game set in Medieval times. Players take on the role of subjects to King Nepomuk II and Queen Margaret and are tasked with building a new city, Queensdale, on behalf of the royal family. Each player is given jurisdiction over one quarter of the city and is competing against the other players to build the best borough.

As the legacy series of games progresses, players continue to build different types of structures to earn favor with the royal family (fame points) in the midst of dealing with political drama, disease, and other Medieval happenings. Each game in the series sees players attempting to reach their next epoch goal (a target number of fame points). If they are successful, they will have a new, higher epoch goal during the subsequent game.  Note that multiple players can reach their epoch goals during the same game as gameplay continues through the end of the current round once one player reaches their goal. The winner of each game is the person who surpassed their epoch goal by the most points.

The artwork in the game is illustrated by Michael Menzel with graphic design provided by the Fiore GMBH studio in Germany. Michael is probably most familiar to the US based board game community as the illustrator for the Legends of Andor series of games. He brings the same fantasy style drawings he used in that game, with their romantic fonts and soft palettes of color to his work here and it’s lovely. There are a lot of components included in Rise of Queensdale   and Michael does a good job of tying them all to the theme as a cohesive set with the artwork.

Components include dozens of different types of wooden tokens (huts, meeples, player score markers, etc.); the city building board,  scoreboard (epoch tracker, fame counter, and more), action board, player boards, building tiles, and other pieces made out of cardboard; and wooden dice. Everything has held up wonderfully as the months and games have gone by. The rulebook is flipped through frequently and while it’s showing signs of wear, it’s still holding together, staples in place. The rulebook is straightforward and we haven’t had any issues understanding the nuances of the rules.

The narrative in Rise of Queensdale is well written.  It’s memorable and everything that happens makes sense in the framework of the fictional universe laid down by the designers. We’ve played a lot of narrative driven games (Pandemic Legacy, Betrayal Legacy, Middara, Aeon’s End Legacy, Legacy of Dragonholt, Charterstone,  and Seafall, just to name a few) and Rise of Queensdale ranks near the top for narrative driven games that do a good job of incorporating the game play into the storyline. Some legacy games feel more like a story was loosely slapped on top of the game mechanisms, but that isn’t the case here. At the same time, this isn’t an RPG with some board game elements thrown in. The mechanics of the board game have been adeptly planned and implemented; they’re challenging and provide a compelling experience. As the legacy series unfolds, more actions are added to the action board; no one gets complacent or bored because new options keep coming available. Our game group has agreed that there seems to be enough components and actions to allow for replayability as a standard board game even after we’ve reached the very end of our last game in the legacy series.

Rise of Queensdale is a great board game for bringing friends and family together. It’s competitive, so those who turn up their noses at cooperative games and like to win against others will find it enjoyable. Everyone is working toward their own epoch goal and multiple players can reach their goal during a game, so everyone can feel accomplished even when they don’t win. This also creates a brilliant built-in catch up mechanism as the player in last place has the nearest epoch goal to reach. The further a player gets ahead of others in the series of games, the farther their epoch goal becomes and the greater the chance that the players behind them will reach their goals before the leader does. In our games, no one has been able to run away with the scoreboard so far. That helps the game stay family friendly. The narrative turns the game into a shared adventure where everyone is an active participant. Better than going to a movie is feeling like you’re starring in one. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, because Rise of Queensdale  is a series of games,  right from the beginning, it fosters a commitment for players to spend time together on a regular basis. That’s the best gift to share with friends and family – our time – and anything like Rise of Queensdale that can make that happen is a wonderful Christmas present to place or find under the tree.

-------------------------------------------------
Publisher: Ravensburger
Players: 2-4 (We played with 4)
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About 1 hour per game
Game type: narrative driven, legacy, dice rolling, worker placement
Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

Hey Everyone! I've been hard at work for the last month or so on doing a small update to the website. The most obvious thing you'll see is it's gotten a bit of a facelift which will hopefully make it a little easier to use. I've also tried to streamline things a bit so we don't have as much server strain when Hamlet puts out a new page.

Additionally, we've put in a new fanart section that features a whole bunch of awesome Starfighter fanart done by sexy Starfighter fans from around the world!

The games section is also improved, sporting games to some of our favorite awesomely talented artists.

If you don't watch HamletMachine on DeviantArt, check out the extras section too, where I've added a bunch of her recent Starfighter drawings.

Wow, ok that's it for now I swear! -Thisbe

It's Starfighter's Birthday! I thought I'd celebrate by announcing the big news..

Polish your vinyl sweethearts, I'll be making the big trip from NYC to SF to attend Yaoi-con this October! I'll have a little love table and everything!

I am really excited to go! It'll be my first time there.. and just thinking about the vast treasures ...of erotica to behold is making me eager! Plus, I will get to meet some sweet west coast honies. So if you're in the area or heading over, be sure to stop by! I'll be so happy to meet you guys!

Here's some more about the con:

Yaoi-Con Info

It's a date! -HamletMachine

Thank you all for your patience! I've had a lot of computer problems over the past two weeks and lost what I had been working on for page 26 of Chapter 2… But don't worry, very much like Narsil of King Elendil, IT HAS BEEN REMADE! My apologies for the delay! I really appreciate the continued love and support. And yes, I have a new hard drive now.

Also, the long awaited second Starfighter T-Shirt IS NOW AVAILABLE! This shirt had previously only been available at MoCCA and Yaoi-con, but now it's ready for purchase on the shop! This is actually the first t-shirt I designed, so I am quite fond of it!

Along with the new shirts, we've gotten in another shipment of the original Black Starfighter T-Shirt as well.

Thank you all so much! Enjoy! -HamletMachine

Hello!

I've gotten a few questions about when Starfighter: Chapter 03 will start! I don't have a specific date, but it certainly won't be until after Starfighter: Chapter 02 is printed and on sale! Chapter 02 is going to have some exclusive extra art and I am working really hard to make it special for the readers.. It's going to be worth it, trust me! Just take my hand, sweetheart, I'd never lead you astray..

Thank you so much for your patience and support! ♥ -Hamlet

Hi everyone!

There's a whole bunch of brand spanking new Starfighter swag at the Starfighter Shop just in time for the holidays! There are new prints, new buttons, a new T-Shirt, and more! Go check it out! -Thisbe

Hello! Everyone who is waiting for the print release of Chapter 2, here is a progress report! The Deimos mini-smut-comic is finished, which is great, and I'm now in the middle of working on the Cain and Abel mini-smut-comic… which I have been waiting FOREVER to do! I'm so glad to get my black claws into this. So hold tight, my sweethearts, these goodies are on their way to you! I'll make more announcements as things develop!

Thank you so much for your patience! -Hamlet

It's a double update all the way!

We had an awesome time at Yaoi-Con last weekend, it was so wonderful being able to meet all of you that came to the table and to the panel. Now that we're back home, Hamlet worked extra hard to get two new pages out for everyone this week!

We've also put a few new pieces of merchandise up on the Starfighter Shop! There's a new print, a Starfighter Icon Necklace, and a super-cute Sticker Sheet.

Enjoy! -Thisbe

Na jednorázový příspěvek 500 korun denně budou mít nově nárok i malé společnosti s ručením omezeným postižené šířením koronaviru. „Čekáme na schválení Senátem a prezidentem, žádosti budou moci podávat zřejmě do týdne,“ uvedla ve čtvrtek ministryně financí Alena Schillerová.

Maloobchodnímu řetězci Albert se v koronavirové krizi dařilo. Prodeje mu v některých dnech vzrostly až na trojnásobek a těžil hlavně z prvotních panických nákupů některých Čechů. Měl však i vysoké náklady. Firma teď navíc plánuje i spuštění e-shopu. Podle jejího šéfa však Češi v budoucnu budou více vyhledávat výhodné ceny.

Hospody a restaurace Češi prostřednictvím projektu Zachraň hospodu podpořili deseti miliony korun. Poukazy do více než 1 500 podniků si od začátku dubna, kdy byl projekt spuštěn, koupilo přes devět tisíc lidí. Stravovací zařízení budou moci od pondělí obsluhovat hosty na zahrádkách, iniciativa se tím však nezastaví.

Firmy si budou moci odložit platby za sociální pojištění za tři měsíce. Odvody za květen, červen a červenec smí uhradit až do 20. října, rozhodla vláda. Odložená částka se však bude úročit.

Americké trhy rostou rapidním tempem. A to i přes to, že ekonomiky po celém světě drtí koronavirus. Jejich dubnový růst je nejvyšší za desítky let – naposledy tak rychle za měsíc vyrostly v roce 1987. Nahoru akciové indexy ženou nejen vládní intervence a úspory, ale i investoři samotní.

Zaměstnanci Škody Auto od pondělí začnou pracovat na tři směny, a to v závodech v Mladé Boleslavi a Kvasinách. Ve Vrchlabí zatím zůstává dvousměnný provoz, oznámil vedoucí komunikace podniku Tomáš Kotera. Automobilka obnovila výrobu 27. dubna ve všech třech českých závodech, ale jen na dvě směny. Obnovení výroby doprovází více než 80 hygienických opatření.

     It looks as though my first 3 mile cycle came back with negative results!!  Picture this: 


     I'm deep in concentration, the sweat dripping from my brow; the race is on.  I don't know if I'll finish, thoughts are pouring over me like warm syrup, I'm near the home stretch : King Edward and Queen Elizabeth Riveres are being held captive while the fate of their English lands are in turmoil and being held captive by the evil Lord Warwick!
      All of a sudden, the concentration of my exercise, as opposed to the concentration on King Edward and his "golden body" stop. My foot slips off the pedal and all of Phillipa Gregory's glorious characters go tumbling down the cycle along with the rest of my Kindle. 
     I finish off my 3 mile cycle near tears! What will become of King Edward and his lands? Will Queen Elizabeth be able to survive after the loss of her mother? Will Henry Tudor (yes the cute Henry Tudor that is the star of the hit SHOW time series, The Tudors) obtain the crown (even though if you have read any of Phillipa Gregory's novels, or seen the movie The Other Boleyn Girl you know the answer to that question)?
    Lukily, I get to find out more on Tuesday when Amazon.Com sends me another kindle to replace the one that, malfunctioned. Hey, she asked me if I dropped it, not if it fell...
     On to exerceise news!  Currently weighing in at 245 LBS.  Thats 2 LBS less that I did when I started the blog, lord knows weight flucuation sucks.  I plan to never be 250 + again.  Hello world, don't hate me because I'm beautiful!!!!
    I'll be blogging my exercise routine for the next 8 months later on today. I welcome all comments!!

As promised, we've stopped the process that puts new data into the queue today. Data distribution will continue until the files shown on the status pages are done. We'll be accepting results and resending results that didn't validate for a while.

How CEOs Are Ruining America

Today, America’s wealthiest business moguls – like Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan Chase – claim that they are “patriots before CEOs” because they employ large numbers of workers or engage in corporate philanthropy.

Rubbish.

CEOs are in business to make a profit and maximize their share prices, not to serve America. And yet these CEOs dominate American politics and essentially run the system. 

Therein lies the problem: They cannot be advocates for their corporations and simultaneously national leaders responsible for the wellbeing of the country. This is the biggest contradiction at the core of our broken system.

A frequent argument made by CEOs is that so-called “American competitiveness” should not be hobbled by regulations and taxes. Jamie Dimon often warns that tight banking regulations will cause Wall Street to lose financial business to banks in nations with weaker regulations. Under Dimon’s convenient logic, JPMorgan is America. 

Dimon used the same faulty logic about American competitiveness to support the Trump tax cut. “We don’t have a competitive tax system here,” he warned.

But when Dimon talks about “competitiveness” he’s really talking about the competitiveness of JPMorgan, its shareholders, and billionaire executives like himself.

The concept of “American competitiveness” is meaningless when it comes to a giant financial enterprise like JPMorgan that moves money all over the world. JPMorgan doesn’t care where it makes money. Its profits don’t directly depend on the wellbeing of Americans.

“American competitiveness” is just as meaningless when it comes to big American-based corporations that make and buy things all over the world. 

Consider a mainstay of corporate America, General Electric. Two decades ago, most GE workers were American. Today the majority are non-American. In 2017, GE announced it was increasing its investments in advanced manufacturing and robotics in China, which it termed “an important and critical market for GE.” In 2018, over half of GE’s revenue came from abroad. Its once core allegiance to American workers and consumers is gone.

Google has opened an Artificial Intelligence lab in Beijing. Until its employees forced the company to stop, Google was even building China a prototype search engine designed to be compatible with China’s censors.

Apple employs 90,000 people in the United States but contracts with roughly a million workers abroad. An Apple executive told The New York Times, “We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible” – and showing profits big enough to continually increase Apple’s share price.

American corporations will do and make things wherever around the world they can boost their profits the most, and invest in research and development wherever it will deliver the largest returns. 

The truth is that America’s real competitiveness doesn’t depend on profit-seeking shareholders or increasingly global corporations. The real competitiveness of the United States depends on only one thing: the productivity of Americans. 

That in turn depends on our education, our health, and the infrastructure that connects us. Yet today, American workers are hobbled by deteriorating schools, unaffordable college tuition, decaying infrastructure, and soaring health-care costs. 

And truth be told, big American corporations and the CEOs that head them – wielding outsized political influence – couldn’t care less. They want tax cuts and rollbacks of regulations so they can make even fatter profits. All of which is putting Americans on a glide path toward lousier jobs and lower wages. How’s that for patriotism?

The first step toward fixing this broken system is to stop buying CEOs’ lies. How can we believe that Jamie Dimon’s initiatives on corporate philanthropy are anything other than public relations? Why should we think that he or his fellow CEOs seek any goal other than making more money for themselves and their firms? We can’t and we shouldn’t. They don’t have America’s best interests at heart — they’re making millions to be CEOs, not patriots.

Big American corporations aren’t organized to promote the wellbeing of Americans, and Americans cannot thrive within a system run largely by corporations. Fundamental reform will be led only by concerned and active citizens.

On Facebook.

Смешно
https://www.forbes.com/2010/02/05/world-health-organization-swine-flu-pandemic-opinions-contributors-michael-fumento.html
оказывается, в 2010-м WHO (это те самые люди, которые
придумали карантин против ковида и везде его пропагандируют)
замечательно сели в лужу, объявив свиной грипп пандемией
и проебав на том 18 миллиардов баксов. Но делали это
они не просто так, а под знакомыми лозунгами
"solidarity, equity and social justice". То бишь WHO
это такая коллективная Оказия Кортез, банда ебанутых
SJW, возглавляющая атаку международного капитала на
общественные и личные свободы.

В 2010-м со свиным гриппом у них не
получилось, теперь они пытаются с короной,
и у них все пока получается.

Многие спрашивают, кому нужно это адское
говно, "карантины" и все прочее, и зачем
либеральная общественность так за них цепляется.
А вот за этим, очевидно. Коррупционеры из WHO рвутся
к власти, а пропагандисты за "solidarity, equity
and social justice" (CNN, NYT, Guardian и иже с
ними) им помогают, ибо надеются урвать свой кусок.

Интересно, что в 2010-м в каждом магазине
(я как раз жил в Бразилии) на входе был специальный
рекомендованный WHO против свиного гриппа диспенсер
антисептического геля для рук, а сейчас их нет.
Специально ходил сегодня в аптеку, искал,
но нет антисептического геля и там.

В принципе, если бы кому-то хотелось
бороться с коронавирусом, они бы этим в первую очередь
озаботились, но никак. Очевидно, WHO, под впечатлением прошлого
раза, сама убедила себя, что корона это фейк, и никаких реальных
мер больше не предлагает. С другой стороны, реальных мер WHO
и не надо, пусть эта музыка будет вечной, им так выгоднее.

В общем, чиновник WHO это адский гад,
похуже любого коронавируса.

Привет