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raayllum · 2 years

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So with the new art of Aaravos in mind, let’s talk about stars, skits, and foreshadowing

It seems to be child Aaravos, gathered around stars. Now, most of what we know about stars were jokes included in the “Written in the Stars” skit from a comic con in 2019, where Callum (Jack de Sena) and Rayla (Paula Burrows) stargazed together their first night in Xadia, discussing different constellations between their cultures. It is adorable, and you should watch this animatic of it right now if you haven’t already, and even if you have.

Rayla talks about Garlaf ruling the night sky (with his merciless boot of crushing), Callum talks a baby banther mama banther constellation that’s clearly an Usra major / minor reference. (Perhaps Garlaf is a famous Moonshadow or Startouch elf of old?) But most notably, Callum references something called the South Star, a parody of the north star. What he says is this:

“What about that? Brightest star in the sky. A single point of light. We call it the South Star. Humans used it to navigate, you know, to find their way in the endless darkness of the night.”

Why does this matter? Well, Rayla has been consistently associated with light - not just moonlight - with Callum in her framing and in their dynamic, mostly notably in season one and season two. There is also the general theme of them being Truthtellers for each other, helping them see through the illusions they held concerning each other: Rayla to shame and murder, Callum to self worth and magic. Callum’s arc with magic and how it pertains to Rayla is also very interesting, because of the way magic (and an arcanum specifically) is defined as a Spark, like fire, the tiniest flicker of a primal source inside you.

The framing below because it is also consistent, but more specific examples to show:

[Callum walking out of the dark and into the light after his date with Claudia / now that he knows the truth, but Rayla could’ve been in darkness to signify his mood. Instead, she’s in the light (and her white hair) because although shattered, their relationship and her presence in his life is the Truth, and what ultimately helps him deal with the truth]

[More lighting and Rayla turning him towards her, toward the sun]

Which is to say, if the South Star is the Xadian equivalent of the North Star, something that Rayla comments as being like poetry (poetry clearly being important in the world of TDP, as the only information we have about Startouch elves at all are in two poems), well... Let’s look at the associations we typically have with the North Star and see if they match up, shall we?

The North Star is the anchor of the northern sky. It is a landmark, or sky marker, that helps those who follow it determine direction as it glows brightly to guide and lead toward a purposeful destination. It also has a symbolic meaning, for the North Star depicts a beacon of inspiration and hope to many.

So despite being an inverse in name, the South Star holds the same meaning in TDP’s world that it holds in ours. But, you may be saying: this all seems like a Reach. A good natured little skit, a handful of screencaps, what does this all have to do with anything, really?

And I’m not saying it isn’t a reach, and that the majority of TDP’s cute little con skits aren’t just silly (they are), but there are two skits that have some loaded symbolism behind them.

At the SDCC in 2020 when we got the confirmation for the full saga, the entire voice cast at the time did two skits. One was a fairly silly DND skit, but Aaravos, notably, was DM, controlling the game and pushing the players forward. It’s easy to see the parallels to this in show, as currently, very few characters know Aaravos is even a player in the events that have happened in s2 and s3 in particular, and only two characters really know what he can do: Runaan (whose coined) and Viren, who was using it to his own advantage. And even then, there’s a lot Viren doesn’t know.

The more interesting and painful parallel, to me, is from the opening skit of the Zoom, initially just a play on the characters having to deal with the pandemic the way we would, facetiming, social distancing, etc. However, I just want to remind you that Through the Moon, where Rayla leaves Callum to hunt Viren down on her own, came out just a couple months before the con was released, and the writers absolutely knew it was a plot point. Which is to say, this?

Rayla: Hey guys. Long time no see Callum. Good to see you, from far, far away. Ezran: Wait a minute, you guys have the same background. Are you in the same place? Callum: Uh, nope! Nope. Totally different places, separate, far away locations. Ezran: Callum, I can see part of your scarf in Rayla’s background. You’re supposed to be distancing. Callum: Oh come on, it’s a big castle! There’s — there’s lots of distancing. Rayla: Not so much that we miss each other too much.

Can be seen as foreshadowing, because in canon they are far away from each other, there is going to be loads of distancing, and they’re definitely going to miss each other (way too much). So if one skit had meaning in a small way, and this skit has foreshadowing in a bigger way, and the show loves its one off jokes being rooted in lore, like the famous explorer Sir Phineas Cursed...

Rayla is hunting down Viren, Aaravos’ current ‘vessel’ / partner in crime (even if that may be on the outs in s4). Callum has Aaravos’ Key.

All of this is to say if the Written in the Stars skit is foreshadowing that Callum and Rayla will become entangled with Aaravos’ plotline by S4’s end, and that Rayla is Callum’s chosen South Star and vice versa, to lead and help each other get through the dark times they’re going through... I will burst into tears and you can count on that.

#tdp #tdp theory #rayllum #aaravos #skits #sdcc 2019 #sdcc 2020 #zoom into xadia #written in the stars #the dragon prince #twitter #predictions #cube hostage exchange theory #parallels #analysis series #analysis #light and darkness motif

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dustedmagazine · 10 months

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Dust Volume Nine, Number Seven

Chuck Johnson

Is it hot where you are? Has it been raining a lot? Is there smoke in the air? It's been the weirdest, most disturbing summer, and you might think it would make music irrelevant. But no, this is Dusted, and we continue to listen and judge and write about records even at the end of times. So here's another Dust. Enjoy. We hope there will be one next month, too, but let's see what happens, eh?

Contributors include Jennifer Kelly, Bryon Hayes, Jonathan Shaw, Chris Liberato, Ian Mathers, Patrick Masterson, Jonathan Shaw, Andrew Forell and Tim Clarke.

Omar Ahmad — Inheritance (AKP)

Inheritance by Omar Ahmad

Omar Ahmad’s music follows dance pulses through thickets of memory. A glitchy beat sinks into slippery textures of synthesizer, piano, strings and field recordings; the music moves but in a haze of memory, as the sounds of women, children and running water flashes and subsides. Omar Ahmad is a Palestinian-American electronic artist and DJ currently based in Brooklyn and in this first full-length, he explores identity (ethnic and otherwise) through a scrim of memory. These glowing ambient compositions don’t hammer the point home—rather they gently suggest and evoke a dual western/Arabic identity. The baby in “Gesso” says “Daddy” in English but is answered in another language. The cut “usra” whose name translates as “home” or “family” incorporates a ululating non-western vocal alongside the pristine electronic modernity of synths. “Sham Oasis” has, perhaps, the most concentrated array of Middle Eastern sounds, a jangle of not-guitars, the thud of hand drums, a shaker, but it also twitches and glitters with space-age electronic sounds. The songs have lovely, idealized, luminous textures that don’t belong, exactly, to any single culture, yet they are warm and beautiful enough to make it feel like home anyway.

Jennifer Kelly

Animal Piss It’s Everywhere — S-T (Half a Million)

Animal Piss, It's Everywhere by Animal Piss, It's Everywhere

This loose and goofy country ramble obsesses over Jesus and intoxicants, sometimes but not always in the same songs. Indeed these bleary sing-alongs seem best suited for Sunday morning with the sun streaming in on the tail end of a one- or two-day bender. They’re exhausted but full of good feeling, played on muscle memory and love of the game. “Jesus Got Under My Skin,” for instance, ramps up the roadhouse boogie in a stunned and stoned narrative about finding one’s savior—and then trying to ditch him. “Naked” slouches and twangs in a righteous chorus of “Naked…ass…man…blues.” There’s considerable talent on hand, however casually it is deployed, from a confederation of Western Mass freak folk regulars. A guitar-heavy line-up features Anthony Pasquarosa, Clark Griffin (Weeping Bong Band, Pigeons), Shannon Ketch (Bunwinkies) and Andy Goulet on pedal steel (Winter Pills, Lonesome Brothers etc.). Rob Smith from Rhyton and Mouth Painter plays drums and Jim Bliss (of various Matt Valentine projects) sits in on bass. “I’ve found sucksess, sucking at success,” croons the singer, making a point; this band of miscreants achieve their aims without coming within a hundred miles of commercial palatability.

Jennifer Kelly

Aunty Rayzor — “Nina” (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

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Perhaps the hardest song I heard over the last month opens with an almost demented pogoing and a video staring straight at the sun with an airplane’s corpse and a silhouette on the wing fixing her hair before she struts into your life and all over your ears. If you don’t already know Bisola Olungbenga aka Aunty Rayzor, Nyege Nyege Tapes has done a fine job ensuring you’ll want to hear everything the Nigerian has to say after one listen through of “Nina,” the lead single from September’s Viral Wreckage. Veering between red hair and blonde amid rusty MiG-21s, Rayzor takes the hard-nosed rhythm from Berlin-based beatmaker Debmaster — just listen to the way that kick rumbles on the low end — and matches it step for step to powerful effect. You don’t need Nyege Nyege’s effusive description of the forthcoming full-length to gather we have another formidable female rapper waiting in — or is it on? — the wings to embarrass the boys and prolong women’s global chokehold on the genre that little bit longer. Only a fool or an incel could complain.

Patrick Masterson

Aware — Requiem for a Dying Animal (Glacial Movements)

Requiem For A Dying Animal by AWARE

Alexander Glück, who records as Aware, specializes in producing a haunting tributary of ambient sound that aims to cause unease. His music is ghostly, chilling, and morose. It evokes loneliness yet, like most good stories, contains a faint trickle of hope. His compositions encompass vast swathes of tone peppered with microscopic flecks. These resemble large chunks of metamorphic rock that Glück has fused into rich, veiny patterns. These polychromatic constructions tell stories of isolationism and hardship interspersed with hopefulness and joy. They reflect our species’ interconnectedness with a natural world that simultaneously seeks to nurture and destroy us, as we in turn seek to exploit its bounties. With his music, Glück seeks to find an equilibrium, a stalemate between us and our environment. He will likely never solve this riddle, but Requiem for a Dying Animal is a fruitful step on the journey toward his goal.

Bryon Hayes

Blight House — Blight the Way (Syrup Moose Records)

Blight the Way by Blight House

Blight House makes the kind of death metal-infused grindcore that aims for utter absurdity: absurdly heavy riffing; absurdly fast drum-machine blips, blats and thumps; absurdist, so-stupid-they’re clever semiotics. It’s hard not to laugh (or at least ruefully chuckle) at the puns in the band’s name and in the title of this new record. Song titles are even dumber and sometimes even more funny: “Dismembers Only,” “Bible Belt Baby Buffet,” “Walpurgis Date-Night.” And so on. But as is generally the case with records like this, it’s hard to know where the joke ends and the band begins. If it’s all done for laughs, then why is the music executed with such apparent seriousness (n.b., for a less overworked version of a grindy gag act, see this)? And if we’re supposed to hear at least some of Blight House’s stuff with a dash of gravid sincerity, then please, band, send instructions on how to pull off that bit of cognitive jiu-jitsu. Or on second thought, maybe don’t. It’s probably better for everyone involved if we just accept the low-brow yucks to be found in songs like “Acephalophilia III: Hopelessly Headless for You” for what they are, and take the tune at its word. If you think about this sort of edge-lord-adjacent, meme-driven cultural production too hard, you may end up in the writers’ room for Ron DeSantis’s next campaign commercial. Headless and heedless, thoughtless and feckless—blight the way into our collective, idiotic future, dudes.

Jonathan Shaw

Buffalo Nichols — The Fatalist (Fat Possum)

The Fatalist by Buffalo Nichols

Buffalo Nichols’ Carl Nichols has a fine gravelly voice, an unfussy skill with the pick and the slide and the swagger that turns songs of suffering into songs of defiance. In other words, he’s a bluesman of the first order and unusual, these days, in that he’s not 100 years old or a suburban white guy. Yes, Buffalo Nichols is on a mission to reclaim the blues for the folks who invented it—black people—and this very fine album makes a pretty good case for the rightness of his cause. How so? Well, to begin with The Fatalist is mostly acoustic, relying on the speed and accuracy of Nichols fingers rather than a floor sized pedal board; there are no endless wah wah’d solos, no feedback freakery. His vocal delivery matches up, too, quiet but intense, an on-pitch growl that pulls you in and holds you there. There’s a simplicity in the playing and arrangements that underlines the power of these song. Listen, for instance, to the eerie magic of slide, the elemental punch of kick drum on the Blind Willie Nelson cover, “You’re Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond.” Or the winding melancholy on “The Long Journey Home,” which frolics funereally in banjo and fiddle tones. He brings in the Philadelphia singer and songcatcher Samantha Rise on “This Moment” for a duet, her voice warm and resonant, his hoarse with emotion, a violin twining around the both of them in a dizzy mesh of sounds. A subtle album, but a good one.

Jennifer Kelly

Cyberplasm — First Emanation (Iron Lung)

First Emanation (LUNGS-262) by CYBERPLASM

Electro-punk dissonance melds and mixes it up with anarcho-freak industrial noise on this new EP from Olympia-based Cyberplasm. The band doesn’t seek to exorcize the ghost in the machine so much as conjure it, feed it with nerve impulses harvested from your frontal lobes and then unleash it on our various political and informational systems. Chaos ensues. Maybe it’s liberatory, maybe it just wants to raze all signs of institutional power. Too damn bad if your sense of security or self-worth gets in the way — and in any case, the music is perversely enjoyable. Check out the d-beat scree of “Spit from Fluid” or the foreboding, crust-infused “Second Mind.” The EP’s ten minutes flash by in a series of burned-out synapses and frying amplifiers. Cyberplasm makes underground music that captures the grit and weirdness of lawless subterranean spaces, virtual and material. It’s exciting stuff. It feels dangerous. Punk’s not dead.

Jonathan Shaw

Decoherence — Order (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

Order by DECOHERENCE

If you have been following Decoherence’s coruscating, cosmic circuit through the 21st century, you won’t find much to be surprised by on Order, the band’s new LP. It’s 40+ minutes of pounding, pyrotechnic industrial metal, thoroughly blackened and shot through with enough harsh noise to burn off your eyebrows. The pace is a little slower, vocalist Derek Jacobsen (who appears on Decoherence releases as Tahazu, an anglicized version of the ancient Sumerian word for battle) sounds like another layer of gristle is occluding his vocal cords, and the compositions of musicians Stroda and Prior are marginally less engaged by melody than many of those on the band’s previous LP, Unitary (2020). If you’re into this sort of thing, none of those small changes is a bad thing. But while Unitary represented a profound development when contrasted with the band’s first several releases, Order feels like a consolidation — a band summing its aesthetics and refining its songwriting sensibility. Which suggests an interesting question: How much order do we want in metal music? This reviewer likes it when Decoherence embraces the chaos denoted by its band name. Check out “An Unconfined System” on this new record. Play it very, very loud. Order? Not so much.

Jonathan Shaw

Drekka—The Water of Life (Orb Tapes)

The Water of Life by Drekka

Michael Anderson, the artist who records as Drekka, made these four long-form meditations for a live performance in Indianapolis in 2015, loosely basing his mix of primitive and electronic sounds on the sci fi classic Dune. All four cuts evolve slowly out of hiss and static (the first one is even called “Stasis and Static”), a buzz like live power wires in the foreground, the faint ghosts of bells, altered choral voices rising up occasionally to mysterious ends. You could, of course, construct an imaginary Dune world out of these sounds, its vast deserts and obliterating sandstorms, its mystic addiction to spice, but it would take some active listening and imagining on your part. The title track assists, somewhat, submerging drips of liquid in the rumble of wind flapping through sails, and the nearly human chants that rise as if from a distance out of the noise. There’s a lot of activity here, a scramble to rattle bits against each other, the click and ching of various percussive elements. And through it comes the hum of dawning revelation, just hovering notes rising, but seeming to reach some inscrutable insight out of the noisy scrum.

Jennifer Kelly

The Finks — Birthdays at Solo Pasta (Milk!)

Birthdays at Solo Pasta by The Finks

Courtney Barnett’s recent announcement that her label Milk! Records will be closing down at the end of the year means that The Finks’ Birthdays at Solo Pasta will be one of the label’s final releases. This feels fitting for a label that has quietly released some understated gems over the years from artists such as Tiny Ruins and Mess Esque. The Finks, led by Oliver Mestitz, create the kind of intimate, loosely woven songs that thrive on the obvious ease between the players, as if you’re listening in to a front-room jam session in which everyone is warmed up and starting to develop their instrumental parts into a lively, organic whole. Mestitz leads the way with his quiet, congested voice, as if he’s perpetually getting over a head-cold, often accompanied by the complementary vocals of Sarah Farquharson. The rhythm section, piano and guitar are wonderfully restrained, the woodwinds muted and sinuous, with everything unfolding patiently. At their best, such as on “Marco Polo” and the instrumental “Ego Slump,” The Finks tap into something truly gorgeous and radiant.

Tim Clarke

Frode Gjerstad / Kalle Moberg / Paal Nilssen-Love — Time Sound Shape (PNL)

Time Sound Shape by Gjerstad / Moberg / Nilssen-Love

If you’ve been tracking Scandinavian free music for the past few decades, you might think you know what record sounds like when you hear that Frode Gjerstad and Paal Nilssen-Love are on it. After all, they’ve been playing together since the latter was a teen and the former was trying to lure promising players into the out-jazz life, and they’ve made a fair number of steaming recordings in that time. But they haven’t made anything quite like Time Sound Shape. Recorded at the Gamle Aker Kirke, Oslo’s oldest edifice, in 2021, it may be completely improvised, but it takes its cues from circumstance, space and opportunity, and those cues point the music in a very different direction. The old stone church’s resonance amplifies Nilssen-Love’s all-gongs set up into a massive sonic presence, and accordionist Kalle Moberg conspires with the percussionist to create a solemnly orchestral breadth of sound. Gjerstad, alternating between alto sax, alto flute and Bb clarinet, sharpens the action with short, anguished cries. This is the biggest sound that three guys can make without the assistance of electricity.

Bill Meyer

Gerrit Hatcher — Solo Five (Kettle Hole)

Solo Five by Gerrit Hatcher

Gerrit Hatcher’s learned well. Instead of waiting for fortune, the Chicago-based tenor saxophonist makes things happen. He plays in town quite often, tours econo and self-releases music on his own label, Kettle Hole Records. The title of this album (a real, glass-mastered CD, unlike the blue-faced disappointments so often sold under that name on Bandcamp these days) attests to his devotion to solo performance. It takes practice as well as physical prowess to command the quivering presence and driving force of his tone, which might remind some of Dave Rempis. Each of the album’s seven tracks makes an assertive statement, but not always a big, loud one; windy textures can be as compelling as rippling notes.

Bill Meyer

James Howard — Peek-a-Boo (Faith and Industry)

Peek-a-Boo by James Howard

James Howard’s debut is all stardust and stopped time. For some reason, I’m reminded of that scene in Buffalo ‘66 where Ben Gazzara, in surreal Sinatra-in-a-tee-shirt mode, croons his father-in-law-y feelings to an entranced, doe-eyed Christina Ricci. Except that Howard’s voice is closer to the dreamy, chill side of Roger Waters (see “St. Tropez'' and “Wots… The Deal”). And his songs are about things like meeting up with your drug dealer on the scenic outskirts of town and raising your children to fear nuclear annihilation. The high point of Peek-a-Boo might be “The Reckoning,” where Howard’s fingers tiptoe up the fretboard like a kid on Christmas Eve on his way to peek at his presents, and cymbals splash like someone on tranquilizers falling into a pool. But really the whole record is a gem and feels like one big, wonderful, floaty, pill-powered dream.

Chris Liberato

Chuck Johnson — Music from Burden of Proof (All Saints)

Music From Burden Of Proof by Chuck Johnson

Chuck Johnson has long been a master of eerie pedal steel atmospherics, building shadowy cloudscapes out of shifting, resonating guitar tone. Here he turns his grasp of sonic mystery to cinematic ends, composing music both guitar-based and not for the HBO series Burden of Proof. If you’re familiar with Johnson’s solo work, the opening “Burden of Proof” will catch you up short with its Bach organ cantata ominous-ness, its densely arranged chamber strings. It sounds not at all like the silvery dream narratives of Balsams or The Cinder Grove; it gathers up in stirring crescendos of emotional turmoil. “The Night of the Disappearance” fits more neatly with what you might have heard before from Johnson. It floats lingering traces of bending guitar sound over a slow lattice of electric keyboard. But setting aside expectations of what Chuck Johnson should or shouldn’t sound like, there is quite a lot to appreciate here: the glittering rhythms and bare-bones bass plunk of “Interrogation,” the swelling synth tones of “Ruth Ann,” the bright cerebral keyboard cadences of “The Note.” Not having seen the show, I can’t tell you how the music works (or doesn’t) to support mood or plot points, but here on the record, it’s subtle and varied, and occasionally, as on “More Surreal” has the slow moving contemplative grace that distinguishes Johnson’s best work. He’s making art and likely getting well paid. Good for him.

Jennifer Kelly

Héctor Lavoe — La Voz (Craft Latino)

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After arriving in New York as a teenager, Puerto Rican singer Héctor Lavoe became a key figure in the popularization of salsa during the 1960s and 1970s. As part of the Fania label roster that included Willie Cólon, Rubén Blades and Celia Cruz, Lavoe released nine albums beginning with his 1975 debut, the aptly named La Voz. Produced and arranged by Cólon, the album foregoes much of the instrumental pyrotechnics of his contemporaries’ records to focus on Lavoe’s voice and improvisational talents. Opener “El Todopoderosa” (The Almighty) features frenetic percussion, piano vamps and blasts of brass which, good as they are, have no chance distracting from Lavoe’s caramel smooth tone and timbre. The clarity of his voice carries the emotional weight of “Un Amor de la Calle” even as the horns weep behind him. On the joyful, faster numbers his call and response with backing vocalists Cólon, Blades and Willie Garcia drive the songs forward but there’s plenty in the background to grab the ears. Witness the off-kilter piano and trumpet solo in “Rompe Saragüey” or the percussion and horn breakdown in “Mi Gente.” Whether you’re a salsa fan or not, this is an opportunity to hear one of the great vocalists in his prime with a killer band and irresistible songs. What’s not to love.

Andrew Forell

Natalie Rose LeBrecht — Holy Prana Open Game (American Dreams)

Holy Prana Open Game by Natalie Rose LeBrecht

It would not be accurate to describe Natalie Rose LeBrecht’s new record as a mix between La Monte Young/Marian Zazeela’s (who she’s studied with and assisted) cosmic minimalism and the Dirty Three’s more spacey, searching efforts (that trio’s Mick Turner and Jim White both play on Holy Prana Open Game), but even in its inadequacy the comparison points towards the kind of rarified air the record is floating amidst. It’s kind of wild to remember that “Amok” here is a radically transformed (one might even say, ahem, improved) cover of the Atoms For Peace song, it’s so of a piece with the other five pieces that make up the album. Whether it’s the more open excursions of “Open” and “Prana” or the gentle lilt of the opening “Home,” this suite soars into inner space immediately and rests there contentedly.

Ian Mathers

Gabe ‘Nandez — “Louis XIV” (POW Recordings)

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Anyone paying attention to Jeff Weiss’ POW Recordings has been able to surmise how enthusiastic the label head has been about the hushed husk of New Yorker Gabe ‘Nandez, and Gabe’s returned the favor in kind with polyglot explorations of the inter- and intrapersonal alike, most recently on April’s Pangea, plus a feature alongside fellow East Coast tome spitter Billy Woods on last year’s Aethiopes. The one-off “Louis XIV” finds Gabe talking kingly killings and heartbreak over a sublimely paired beat from Tel Aviv producer Argov (he of “Venus in Mercury” that preceded this) and kitted in a Burberry coat amid London’s Abney Park cemetery. A low-slung, high-intensity performance, “Louis XIV” is self-evident, a perfect portrait of what makes ‘Nandez so lethal (and appealing) as a rapper. Anyone with an affinity for bars ought to appreciate it.

Patrick Masterson

Jim O’Rourke — Hands That Bind OST (Drag City)

Hands That Bind (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Jim O'Rourke

Any word of a new Jim O’Rourke release is justifiably greeted with excitement, especially when that release is via Drag City. However, Hands That Bind isn’t a continuation of the glorious singer-songwriter fare O’Rourke has perfected on albums such as Eureka, Insignificance and Simple Songs, but rather the soundtrack to a new film by director Kyle Armstrong. The instrumental atmosphere is aligned with many of O’Rourke’s Steamroom explorations, which he’s made available in a steady stream via Bandcamp: slow, sparse, mostly abstract synthesizer soundscapes. The difference here, given O’Rourke is responding to a visual medium, is deeper grounding in the creation of an immediate evocative mood. Shimmering synth textures evoke the chittering of crickets and wide-open expanses of countryside, punctuated by percussion and the reassuring thrum of upright bass. Then, suddenly, a detuned piano or dulcimer will cut through the mix, raising an eyebrow of concern, as if uncertainty is looming on the horizon. The drama of this simple juxtaposition creates an addictive tension that sustains this elegant suite’s runtime.

Tim Clarke

Rat Heart — “Flashing Lights Freestyle” (Shotta Tapes)

Rat Heart - Flashing Lights Freestyle by Shotta Tapes

One of Kanye’s most indelible beats is herewith given a kind of Jai Paul-like treatment via Mancunian Tom Boogizm, who runs the Shotta Tapes label that’s known best for the free-for-all experiments of his increasingly visible Rat Heart alias. We’re a far cry from Northern Luv Songs 4 Wen Ur Life's a Mess, obviously, which threw all manner of spaced-out, instrumental guitar hypnotics at the wall only to see it all stick in a manner most Dusted faithful would find familiar — but this isn’t a total left turn for Tom given we’ve also seen stuff like the Actress-esque 'A Blues' come out in the last year. If you don’t know where to start with him, this serves as a good point of entry for his more beat-driven material, the vocals submerged just that little bit too much beneath the fluorescent, once-ubiquitous backing beat of the Graduation staple. Nobody’s asking for a return to 2007 (that I know of, anyway), but it’s enough for a moment to remember the music once outshone the hubris of its creator. Some of us might call that moment simpler.

Patrick Masterson

La Sécurité — Stay Safe! (Mothland)

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Montreal quintet La Sécurité combine insouciant new wave and funk driven post punk on their debut album Stay Safe! It’s a lane that’s been driven before by bands like Romeo Void and Au Pairs, but they bring an infectious energy to bear. Singing in French and English, lead vocalist Éliane Viens-Synnott moves from the ironic detachment of Debora Lyall to indignant recrimination, shaping her voice to inhabit each song. Atop Kenneth Smith’s propulsive drums and Félix Bélisle’s elastic bass lines, guitarists Melissa Di Menna and Laurence Anne Charest-Gagné add chunky chords and sibilant solos. Although you can spend time picking the influences, the songs are uniformly good. The dispassionate sprechgesang of “Le Kick” with its motorik drums and Au Pairs guitar licks, the mocking tone of the Devo like “Waiting For Kenny,” the groove of “Serpent” which sounds like an amalgam of “Snakes Crawl” and “Too Many Creeps.” The rhythms are tight, the guitars slash and chime in equal measure, the quintet all contribute synths, percussion and backing vocals to their stories of toxic men, relationship ups and downs and daily grind of existence.

Andrew Forell

Jumping Back Slash, Būjin — “Order of Change” (Future Bounce Ltd.)

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Would you believe this started as a piano-based folk ballad? Maybe not if you only heard the first half of the first single from a promised forthcoming album due in November. But what originated as a song with a “folklike Kate Bush flavor to it” morphed into a Janus-faced split of a dancefloor-filling first half that runs Brit-turned-South African Jumping Back Slash’s bass-heavy club deconstruction right through Cape Town native Būjin’s delicate but firm vocal before turning into a lush, orchestral outro much closer in spirit to the original idea. The balance works both ways for Būjin, who tightropes across the transition clear to the other side. What else this LP has in store remains to be seen, but it’s a promising first dispatch for those who err on the side of futuristic pop sounds.

Patrick Masterson

Whose Rules — Hasler (777 Rules)

Hasler by Whose Rules

If you’ve got any sort of weakness for airy, breathless, pristine indie pop, may I suggest Whose Rules, the solo endeavor from a busy Norwegian producer named Marius Elfstedt. This first album, Hasler, touches ever so lightly on sonic territories staked out by Elliott Smith: a wistful tenor warble wrapped around softly inevitable tunes. You might even catch a whiff of the Sea and Cake’s breezy artfulness. Yet while the songs aren’t weighted down, they’re not exactly scrubbed bare either. Elfstedt’s producer background shows through in shifting, transparencies of overlaid sound: guitars, synths, percussion frame delicate melodies but don’t overwhelm them. The music wafts by in a flavored cloud, but there’s a good deal of nourishment in its ethereal mix. I like “Stone” with its scrabbly guitars, its rainy/sunny moods, its sudden swells of synth that could easily be horn lines. There’s a bigger, brassier song in here somewhere, but for now it’s hiding shyly, reticently in a private corner of Elfstedt’s imagination.

Jennifer Kelly

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etenvs3000w23 · 1 year

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Unit 5

I found it surprisingly difficult this week to find a prompt to talk about. When one is given a blank slate to talk about anything they want, it sounds easy, I thought it would be, but for some reason that was not the case. Maybe I’m just tired. Maybe I’m just overwhelmed. Or perhaps my priorities have shifted. I’ve noticed that when I am outside of school I tend to not think about science and nature all that much. Which is unfortunate, seeing as I am taking a Bachelor’s degree in the subject. I told myself this semester I would be excited about my field. Learn to express the work I’m doing with the same passion that the scientists I work with do. Which is why today I will be summarising my thesis project I have been working on all summer. Not because it's easy, if I had my real free choice I’d discuss the zoology of cryptids, or the creatures of Star Wars, or the Cordyceps fungal infection of the Last of Us, but because my thesis is something real. Something tangible. And something I hope to be proud of one day.

So. My thesis. Where to begin? I suppose it all began just under two years ago. Deep in the pandemic, desperate for real experience in my field as a Zoology student and uncertain how to get it when all the optional field courses were cancelled and my labs were shifted online. So, what I did do was apply to a USRA position through ExperienceGuelph. Not just one position though, but ten, and out of those ten positions, two got back to me, and out of those two, I was selected for one. An assistant position in Dr. Alex Smith’s lab for the summer of 2021. Dr. Smith, or Alex as he prefers to be called by his students, was perhaps my favourite professor I’d had in my first two years of University. He knew how to engage with students even across the screen, and his Intro to Invertebrates class was phenomenal.

The work he had me doing that summer was simple but rewarding, as the more time I spent in the field the more I built up my skills as an independent researcher. Eventually they trusted me to collect data on my own. Run experiments by myself. Data on the thermal tolerance limits of ants. And this data is what has built the basis of my thesis project in my final year: ‘The effect of temperature on the activity and thermal tolerance of ants (Formicidae) across a habitat gradient’. In simplest terms I am looking at the lowermost and uppermost temperature limits ants can handle, and I am comparing how they differ between two habitats in a small area of the Dairy Bush woodlot on campus.

The work I have done for this thesis started out fun, with field work and research and the joy of discovery, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I have gotten somewhat disillusioned with my project this far into the game. I have read and reread so many articles I don’t know what my true focus is anymore. And I keep running stats that I honestly don’t know how to interpret. The more I work on it the more I feel like it's less complete. However, I know I have two months to complete this project. I know I have an amazing coworker to help me run stats. And I know I have an incredible supervisor who will cheer me on even when I am lost in the data. I know that once I reach that endgame, once I am prepping for my presentation, and finalising my paper for submission, that passion will reignite again, just like it did two years ago when I started this journey.

My poster presentation last semester!

#wildlife #conservation #nature #naturalist #animals #thesis

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az3422 · 2 years

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message me if the phgone is off for some reason...

#mlsg.online

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thevictorianghost · 3 years

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Ok no war. Lu ten and iroh are future fire lords. Creepy uncle ozai needs to kill both of them and Azulon. Zuko and Katara grew up knowing each other, hey maybe their even arranged to be married too. Ozai is tryna to start his own war as the Phoenix king. Happily married Iroh and Usra( I also feel like would they have more children after Azula. Kinda want them to because big family and more heirs). I feel like this is turning into a game of the au plus lion king.

I love it! Oh my God can you imagine Katara and Zuko as Nala and Simba? With Can You Feel The Love Tonight playing when they finally reunite after Zuko’s banishment a few years later??

Hmmmm I don’t know if Ursa and Iroh should have more children. Adding OCs might crowd the cast (there’s so many characters in ATLA, it’s already hard to keep track of). Instead, I’d like to see big diplomatic meetings. Maybe once a year, the world’s leaders meet in a grand ceremony. And they bring their children along. Toph could represent a part of the Earth Kingdom, thanks to the Beifongs having important political ties, while the Earth King could tag along, as well as King Bumi. Aang (as an elderly Avatar) would be a representative of the Air Nomads while also being the Avatar (we could also see some of the kids he was playing with in The Storm!). I love the idea of Ty Lee being a descendant of the Air Nomads, so maybe Ty Lee could fit in this delegation! Katara and Sokka would of course represent the Southern Water Tribe, Yue would represent the Northern Water Tribe and Lu Ten, Azula, Zuko and Mai (as the daughter of a rich noble family), the Fire Nation.

Can you imagine the PURE CHAOS of having all these children in the same place at the same time?? Maybe Iroh and Lu Ten were late to the Conference and they were ambushed along the way. I’d love to have Ozai make his big entrance, after having Lu Ten killed, during one of these World Conferences. International chaos follows, the Agni Kai happens in front of the entire world, Zuko is banished, and everyone becomes a lot more separate to keep Fire Lord Ozai out.

I don’t know where I’d go from there, though!

#me #answers #zutara #iroh x ursa au #darkcrowprincess

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rwbyvein · 4 years

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Firen Lhain: Chapter 009: Yellow Streak

Note: This story runs parallel to Jaundice / Forever Fall, (it's easy to forget how short the early episodes were, to the point that all four basically add up to to the screen time of a regular half hour/22 minute episode).

* * *

Cardin held his mace above his head as he looked down at Jaune, when a buzzer sounded. Glynda walked out, "That's enough. Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's aura has now dropped into the red. If this were tournament-style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match. Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your aura will help you decide when it is appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowulf, now would we?"

"Speak for yourself." Cardin said, as held his mace over his shoulder and turned to walk away.

* * *

RWBY walked into their dorm room. "Oh, man," Yang said excitedly, "I'm pumped about the festival."

"Too bad what happened to Jaune..." Ruby voiced.

"And... you just have to bring me down..." Yang said, and turned to look at her sister. "Look, no one likes what Cardin is doing to him, but does anyone have a plan to fix it?" At this, Ruby, Weiss, and Blake were silent. "That's what I thought."

"The only one that can help Jaune... is Jaune..." Blake voiced. "All we can do is be ready to pick up the pieces... It's not like he's the only one that is being discriminated against."

"But!," Ruby said proudly, "he's - our - friend!"

"Exactly." Yang stated.

"Indeed." Weiss added, and Yang looked at her questioningly. Weiss nervously looked away, her proud stance turning into a shy, uncertain one. "But what happens when the Vytal festival arrives, and he is still?.."

"He's going to get creamed." Yang said.

"Unless his team can save him." Blake added.

"He does have Pyrrha Nikos on his team." Weiss stated.

"This is Jaune we are talking about!" Ruby exclaimed.

"He's loveable..." Yang stated, "but that doesn't mean he can fight. And that's one thing a huntsman needs to be able to do..."

"He's great at watching..." Blake voiced, "Remember what he did in the Emerald Forest..."

"If I didn't have you girls," Yang uttered, "I'd love to have him on my team."

"Good thing... you do..." Blake said to her.

"I trust you girls more than anyone I've trusted in my life." Yang replied, "You can't tell me it wasn't real? That it's not real?"

"Our team is coming along swimmingly." Weiss added.

"But that includes Jaune, doesn't it?" Ruby asked.

"Of course it does, sis." Yang replied, "It wouldn't be the same without any of them."

"And the antlers are pretty cool." Ruby said, and Yang developed a wicked smile.

* * *

"Ms. Xiao Long." Ozpin said, as she walked into the stone cloister. "We have approved your request. Yang looked at the stone pillar in the centre of the cloister with a wicked grin. "As you expect, the stone pillar is yours to do with as you please."

Yang cracked her neck back and forth, and pulled down the strike-plates on her Ember Celica.

"I will leave you to your training." Ozpin said to her.

"Thank you, Professor." Yang replied.

Ozpin walked away, swinging his cane. "Ah, the energy of youth. That takes me back... quite a ways..."

* * *

Blake swung about the spires of Beacon at night, when she saw something on one of the rooftops.

* * *

Blake walked into RWBY's room with a confused look on her face. "What's up?" Yang asked, as Blake closed her door.

"I just saw Jaune... with Cardin?.." Blake asked.

"What?" Yang asked her.

"What?!" Ruby exclaimed from her hanging bed.

"But?.." Weiss nervously asked.

"Yeah," Yang said, "they don't exactly get along..."

"To put it mildly." Weiss added.

Ruby's head appeared out of her bed, "What do we do?"

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked.

"Well... I mean..." Ruby stammered.

"This isn't right." Yang added.

"I doubt Jaune is doing this out of benevolence." Weiss stated.

"More like violence." Yang said to her.

"We can't exactly do anything..." Blake stated, and the girls all looked at her, "without knowing for sure."

"But?.." Ruby asked, "Jaune?.."

"If he doesn't come to us for help..." Blake sadly said, "there's nothing we can do?.."

"How do you?.." Weiss asked her.

"Because maybe I had my own!.." Blake shouted, "I mean... just... let's just drop it. It's not exactly something I want to share, especially not with a Schnee."

Weiss gasped as Blake turned towards the door and stepped out.

"Yikes." Yang stated.

* * *

Blake sat on one of the parapets overlooking Beacon. "I... can't believe I said that..." she voiced, "but... she is a Schnee. A couple months ago, she was my greatest enemy. I can't believe... I trust her? How could I ever trust a Schnee?.."

* * *

"So?" Yang asked Weiss, "You do something to tick her off?"

"I am... uncertain?" Weiss asked. She sat on her bed, shoulders pulled in, looking into nothing.

* * *

Pyrrha forlornly looked out JNPR's window, into the dark of the night. Nora came up behind and gave her a hug. Pyrrha sighed. "I know..." Nora quietly said, before letting her go.

A quiet tension filled the room until Jaune finally returned. He quietly sat down to do homework. At which point the tension shifted from absence to unspoken.

* * *

Professor Oobleck walked into Ozpin's office. Well, for him it was a walk, for most it would be a run.

"Batholomew?" Ozpin asked.

"I have come on a situation of the gravest importance!" Oobleck said to him, and Ozpin just smiled a quiet smile at him. "Academic misconduct!"

"And, who is it?" Ozpin asked.

"Without getting into Mr. Arc's apparent lack of academic abilities as a huntsman, I required my two delinquent students to write an essay." Barthomolew then put two stapled stacks of paper on Ozpin's desk.

Ozpin picked up the essays, and quickly read through them. He then looked up, giving Bartholomew a knowing look.

"It is highly unlikely that they were written by two different individuals. If I had to guess, I'd say Mr. Winchester's essay lacks his daunting self-assurance. This is dreadful, truly dreadful."

Ozpin thought for a moment before speaking, "Do you have any proof."

"Unfortunately," Oobleck stated, "that is the one thing I do not have."

"This is not... the first time... that Mr. Winchester's name has come across my desk." Ozpin replied. "Until now, Mr. Arc's problem has been ability..." Ozpin drank from his coffee cup. "Do exactly as I expect you to do."

"I will keep detailed records on every scrap of evidence I've come across." Oobleck replied.

* * *

Jaune sat on his bed, breathing heavily, bathed in the morning light.

"You coming, Leader?" Nora asked him, and his eyes opened.

"Coming!"

* * *

Cardin cowered, his teammates fled, and the Ursa Major bore down upon him. There was only one man who could do something, and that was Jaune. He dove between the charging Ursa and Cardin, using his shield to brace against the swipe. It was the hardest thing he had ever had to do, but his aura held, his arm held, his feet held. The Ursa pushed down upon him, and he had to summon all of his strength... aura-amplified strength... to push it back. It was at that moment that it finally became clear to him. That was they RWBY and his team were able to move so quickly, jump so high, ricochet off trees like like an air hockey game. It was not just themselves, but their aura. It felt like his... substantial... energy was exploding inside himself. He managed to push the Ursa away, and strike at it with his sword.

He adopted a braced stance. His sword helped balance against his shield, his antlers balanced against one-another. The Usra bore down on him once again, dropping it's great paw. He once again braced it against his shield. This time he felt his aura diminished by the strike. This was what it felt like. This is what hte others already knew. He dug his left antler into the Ursa's paw and it recoiled. It did not last long as it bore down again, this time with it's left paw. Jaune stepped into the attack, trying to headbutt the Ursa.

He was not used to attacking with his antlers. Before he knew about aura he always thought they were too fragile to be used in any truly dangerous situations... and too deadly to use in any others. His antlers hit... somewhat... causing the Ursa to step back, looking at him. The Ursa was filled with it's iconic rage, but Jaune could feel his blood boiling as well. The Ursa charged at him, striking down once again, and once again Jaune blocked it. Once again he felt his aura ebb. He looked at the scroll placed on the back of his shield, and showed his aura was still mostly full. He swung at the Ursa. He hit, though not enough to deal significant damage. But, he had left himself open, and the Ursa swung in.

He felt his aura reinforce his breastplate. The breastplate took the brunt of the attack. His aura seemed to stretch the attack across the rest of his body. He stagged back, and then squared his head. He had to to balance his antlers and balance himself. The Ursa charged at him again. He once again braced for the attack, but felt something tug at his shield. His shield moved just enough to parry, knock the paw away as it bore down, leaving the Ursa completely defensiveless. Jaune's sword passed through the Ursa's neck, and the two separated in darkness. He breathed in deeply to recentre himself, noticing the Ursa begining to evaporate beside him. It seemed to take a lot longer than the Beowulves had. He should really be paying attention in Professor Port's lectures.

#rwby #firen lhain #faunus au #pollinated knight ending

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we-future-first · 3 years

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We are scientists leading and working with NASA citizen science projects to study Earth through the use of artificial intelligence. Ask us anything about NASA’s citizen science, how we’re using artificial intelligence in our projects, and how and why you should join our efforts!

This event will feature NASA-funded GLOBE Observer, NeMO-Net, and Soundscapes to Landscapes citizen science projects.

The GLOBE Program asks citizen scientists to submit observations of the world around them using in-app tools (clouds, mosquito habitats, land cover, and trees). Currently, photos submitted using the GLOBE Observer app of mosquito habitats and larvae will be used by NASA scientists working with AI to create automated classification programs. NeMO-Net is a single player game where players help NASA classify coral reefs by painting 3D and 2D images of coral. Data from the game is then fed to NeMO-Net which leverages NASA’s supercomputer to assess the health of coral reefs around the world. Soundscapes to Landscapes is a science-based project that seeks to advance animal biodiversity monitoring by making use of Earth-observing satellites. We work with citizen scientists to collect and review recordings and identify birds by their calls. These representative bird calls are then used to train AI to automatically identify bird species in all of our soundscape recordings.

Scientists from these three projects are standing by. Ask Us Anything! * Dr. Russanne Low, NASA GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper Science Lead and NASA EPSCOR AI Project Teams Senior Science Subject Matter Expert, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies * Peder Nelson, Researcher and Instructor, NASA GLOBE Observer Land Cover Science Lead, Oregon State University * Dr. Assaf Anyamba, Principal Scientist, Universities Space Research Association(USRA) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. His interests are in exploiting NASA Earth observations to create relevant applications for agricultural monitoring and ecologically coupled disease risk mapping and forecasting. * Jarrett van den Bergh, Research Engineer, Laboratory for Advanced Sensing, NASA Ames Research Center * Colin Quinn, Researcher for Earth observation data, Soundscapes to Landscapes, Northern Arizona University * Shree Baligar, Researcher for Deep Learning Models, Soundscapes to Landscapes, UC Merced * Rose Snyder, Science Coordinator for Point Blue Conservation, Soundscapes to Landscapes, CA * Dr. Marc Kuchner, Astrophysicist and NASA Citizen Science Officer

submitted by /u/nasa [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/oq6mlh/we_are_scientists_leading_and_working_with_nasa/

#Future #Futuristic #Future oriented

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eriklake1987 · 6 years

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JETT:Chapter 1, Part 2 and a half

Jay: Wow that’s a lot of things that your trying to prove, i don’t know if there is really anything for me to prove of but i’m sure there is….. I just don’t know it yet but soon I will find something to prove to myself and others.

Tom: Right but I think it’s time for us to rest now, it’s getting pretty late anyway and i’m tired from getting here so goodnight.

Everyone lays down and goes to sleep and morning starts to come after many hours passed and Elise was the first one to wake up before anyone and stands up and goes to the cafeteria and get some breakfast, Jay starts to wake up and look around and sits up and stretches and walks to the cafetiera very tired and gets something to eat and gets some coffee to help him wake up a bit and he sits down next to elise and looks at her”

Jay: morning

Elise: morning friend are you ready for today initiation of whatever that we are doing?

Jay: Yea I think i’m ready for this big test, i hope it’s interesting to do.

Elise: Well i heard about that the new year students have to go onto a cliff where these jump pads are at and we have to stand on them and then we get launched far away.

Jay: That’s a little bit extreme for first year students, don’t you think?

Elise: So what if it is extreme that’s suppose to be our challenge to see if we are battle ready to fight the grimm and whatever else comes at us and I also heard that there are teams and i can wait for that to happen, it’s going to be very exciting for me, are you excited, I know I am.

Jay: Well i’m not that excited, I mean this whole thing is very new to me and it’s kinda weird to experience it but I’ll try to be happy about it because this is why I came here, it’s not be by myself anymore, not live in an area where i’m lonely and this is the place to do that because i got this letter about being enrolled here which I don’t know why these people wanted me to come here but i’m here now and ready for this academy.

Elise: well uhh try not to worry so much about it ok, I’m sure everything will be fine for you at beacon just got to give it a shot is all.

Jay: Yeah I guess you’re right about that, i’ll try my best here in beacon, just hoping that no one will think I’m some kind of weird freak here.

The Speakers turn on around the academy and the people that were awake looks up -

Speaker: Everyone please attend to the cliffs to get ready for Today’s initiation now, wake up the following new students that are sleeping in the main hall.

The students start to walk out of beacon and head to the cliff, Elise decided to go wake up Tom and Tina and after she did that the 3 walks to the cliff and had met with jay there and he waves at them. -

Tom: So this is the place that were gonna do initiation at. Kinda thought we be doing it somewhere else that isn’t lame.

Jay: Well Elise said that we will get launched by these weird looking jump pads that will lead us to somewhere in the forest.

Tom: Now that seems fun to do right there, killing a bunch of grimm and whatever else were made to do there.

Tina: Well we're gonna have to wait for now, there are still other students getting here so as of now we just relax still other students come to get this initiation started.

The four start to wait for other students to arrive, they waited for about 10 minutes and soon after all the students finally arrived and goes near the jump-pads, The headmaster was there in front of the students -

Ozpin: Welcome First year students, today is initiation, everyone step on the jump-pads and we can begins the initiation while i talk through what you all are about to go through.

The students go onto the jump-pads and look at Ozpin after -

Ozpin: Good now we can start with the Initiation, but before you do, there is a few things you must know first, There are going to be grimm roaming around the forest and they will attack you without hesitation and you will die.

Tom: He makes it sound like were weak or something.

Tina: Just shut up and prepare, were about to go into the woods soon.

The launch pads activate and launches everyone into the forest,everyone that had gotten launched had gotten split up into different areas of the forest, Jay was far from everyone and looks around for a safe way to land down, he pulls his weapon out and kept looking around, he gets lower and his weapon hits a tree and gets stuck and jay loses his grip and falls down, he gets back up holding his head a bit after hitting his head abit hard from the falls, he notices he doesn’t have his weapon no more and looks around for it and notices it is stuck on the tree. Jay sighed abit and climbs the tree knowing that he is gonna fall again when he gets it unstuck, he kept climbing on the tree till he got to the top of it. Jay saw his sword and kept climbing the tree and grabs his weapon and tries to pull it out, luckily he succeeds but after pulling it out he falls back down on the ground and someone unexpectedly caught him -

Elise: hey there new teammate, your savior is here.

Jay: uh thanks for the save, can you uhhh let me down now please.

- Elise puts jay down -

Jay: thanks for that, so I guess that means were teammates huh?

Elise: Yeah we are teammates now, but we still gotta find our last two teammates to make a full team.

Jay: But where are we going to find other people around here? This forest is really big, I mean I can try to look around but it’ll take awhile, I suggest we just find our way out of here.

Elise and Jay start walking around, meanwhile Tom was already on the ground after getting launched, he had his weapon ready just in case any grimm came around to attack him, he played a bit on his axe guitar weapon, he lured out a few grimm and three beowolves and two ursa’s came out gets ready to pounce, Tom gets ready and grips on his weapon. The two ursa’s charge at Tom and the three beowolves started to pounce at him, Tom quickly moves out of the way making the beowolves pounce at the ursa’s, Tom slices at one of the usra’s heads off and jumps back after, the headless ursa turns to black ashes after, Tom pulls out a pack of cigarettes, but the box said special cigarettes, he takes one out that had a symbol of ice and lights the cigarette and blows out ice at the grimm which only made the remaining ursa and two of the beowolves, he breaks the ice which killed the 3 grimm, the last beowolf pounces at tom which got him down and his weapon away from him, the beowolf was about to bite him until a gunshot hits the beowolfs head and turns into black ashes, Tom gets up and wipes off the ashes off him and looks around to see where that gunshot was from and sees Tina with her weapon and goes to him while putting her weapon away -

Tom: Well looks like you found me and thanks for the save, I didn’t react in time for that last beowolf to kill it.

Tina: Hey just be lucky enough that we didn’t encounter a deathstalker, that would’ve been a nightmare.

Tom: Don’t try to jinx us already, then we will really be in a nightmare of handling a deathstalker and the good thing is that we are still together and now we are teammates, I hope that we meet those two guys from yesterday and earlier. I like them better to become in our team then anyone else.

Tina and Tom starts to make their way to the ruins where they would meet up with Jay and Elise. Several minutes had passed and the four meet each other back at the ruins where the relics that were around them was just a bunch of chess pieces”

Tom: Are these…. Chess pieces? Wow this school can’t even put any cool artifacts to take and instead makes us risk are lives to just get chess pieces as our relic. This disappoints me in so many levels right now, if we were just gonna go receive their chess pieces so they can continue to play their game then i’m gonna go take a smoke break.

Jay: A smoke break? Right now? This isn’t the time to be doing that, we need to hurry up and get a random piece and get out of here, besides I don’t want to be here much longer, who knows what grimm will come up on us next?

Tom: Oh man up already, of course there’s grimm here, there’s always been grimm in the emerald forest, you make it sound like it’s the most surprising thing to ever see.

Elise: Jay is right though tom, there are a lot of big and dangerous grimm that could lurk at us at any moment.

Tom: Ok Fine! Let’s take these little castle pieces and let’s get going now.

Everyone starts to take the rook pieces and quickly heads back to the cliff. They all make it back in one piece and notices that they were the first ones to make it back”

Tina: Wait…. Were first? Already? How the hell Did we come back first already, I thought we would have some other students beat us already.

Tom: Tina just be quiet already, just be glad were here and no other students have came back from the forest yet, I’m sure they’re gonna be here soon enough, let’s just head back to beacon and get some more food while we wait for the other first year students to come back, I think it’ll be funny to see how injured they will end up when they come back.

Tina: Hey that’s not funny, seeing those students injured is not right, I hope all the students make it back here safe.

Jay: Hey don’t try to worry about it too much it Tina, i’m sure that the other students here are fine, I know of it, all we have to do is just wait patiently and hope for the best the others have made it back here, let’s just go to the cafeteria and get something to eat alright?

Tina starts to sigh a bit and she slowly nods and walks into the cafeteria with the three and they begin to eat their food as they wait for the rest of the students to arrive back at beacon. Almost a half hour passes and the students started coming back inside the building and goes into the auditorium and the 4 follows the students to get ready for the teams to be chosen, Ozpin was standing there waiting for the rest of the students to attend. Soon afterwards everyone has finally made it to the auditorium and began to get ready as the headmaster begins to announce the team names. There was a lot of team names going on, Jay didn’t pay to much attention names the ones he did hear was team JNPR, CRDL, CFVY, and then team RWBY, soon after ozpin started to call out the last team”

Ozpin: This is the last and final team for me to call, Please stand up and walk to the stage when I call your names, Jay cloud…….Elise Spiris…...Tom Vincent…. And Tina Zircon.

The 4 starts to head onto the stage, each of them stepped onto the stage and it shows the name in order and color. The first letter was J for Jay as his face was shown in the screen with a dark blue color background, the next letter was E for Elise as her background color was this aqua light blue color. T for Tom was next as his background color was black, the second T was for Tina as the last letter for the team and her background color was dark red”

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ceramahlucu · 6 years

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Koalisi partai pendukung Joko Widodo (Jokowi)-Ma'ruf Amin menyerahkan daftar nama dan struktur tim kampanye nasional ke Komisi Pemilihan Umum (KPU), Senin (20/8). Sejumlah tokoh ikut serta masuk dalam struktur tersebut. Namun, di daftar tersebut belum dicantumkan nama ketua tim Kampanye nasional. Sekretaris Jederal Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan (PDIP) Hasto Kristianto mengatakan, hingga saat ini masih menunggu keputusan Jokowi terkait hal tersebut. "Ketua tim masih menunggu paslon karena kami enggak ingin mengganggu kesibukan bapak Presiden yang saat ini berkonsentrasi terhadap pelaksanaan Asian Games dan membantu penanganan bencana gempa NTB," ujar Hasto di Kantor KPU RI, Jalan Imam Bonjol, Jakarta Pusat, Senin. Lihat juga: Ketua KPU: PKPU Tak Larang Jurnalis Jadi Tim Sukses Menurut Hasto nama-nama tersebut masih bersifat sementara karena bisa dilakukan perubahan hingga satu hari menjelang kampanye yang dimulai pada 20 September 2018. Terpisah, Ketua Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB) Muhaimin Iskandar alias Cak Imin membeberkan syarat menjadi calon ketua Tim Sukses Joko Widodo-Ma'ruf Amin. Salah satunya, orang tersebut harus pandai menyimpan rahasia. "Memang harus rapi toh orang yang mempunyai kemampuan, kemauan, motivasi dan juga menyimpan rahasia kalau enggak bahaya kalau enggak menyimpan rahasia," kata Cak Imin di komplek Parlemen Jakarta. Berikut susunan tim kampanye nasional Jokowi-Ma'ruf: Dewan Penasihat adalah seluruh ketua umum partai pendukung Koalisi Indonesia Kerja: 1. Megawati Soekarnoputri 2. Airlangga Hartanto 3. Muhaimin Iskandar 4. Surya Paloh, 5. Romahurmuziy (Romi) 6. Osman Sapta Oedang (OSO) 7. Hary Tanoesoedibjo (HT) 8. Diaz Faisal Malik Hendropriyono 9. Grace Natalie Dewan Pengarah: 1. Jusuf Kalla (JK). 2. Try Sutrisno 3. Puan Maharani 4. Pramono Anung Wibowo 5. Sri Mulyani (Menteri Keuangan) 6. Agung Laksono 7. Akbar Tandjung 8. Dimyati Rais 9. Siswono Yudhohusodo 10. Suharso Monoarva 11. Sidarto tanusubroto 12. Laksamana TNI Purn Prof Marsetyo Wakil ketua Tim Kampanye Nasional: 1. Moeldoko 2. Lodewijk F. Paulus 3. H. Abdul Kadir Karding 4. Johnny G. Plate 5. H. Arsul Sani 6. H. Herry Lontung Siregar 7. Hajriyanto Y. Thohari 8. Eriko Sotarduga Sekretaris Tim Kampanye Nasional: 1. Hasto Kristyanto. Wakil sekretaris Tim Kampanye Nasional: 1. Verry Surya Hendrawan 2. Ahmad Rofiq 3. Raja Juli Antoni 4. Dewi Suharto Bendahara Tim Kampanye Nasional: 1. Sakti Wahyu Trenggono 2. Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita Wakil Bendahara: 1. Jazilul Fawaid 2. Samsuddin Andri Aryad 3. Rerie Lestari Moerdijat 4. Dudy Purwagandh Ex-officio Ketua Badan Pemenangan Pemilu Legislatif Partai Politik Koalisi Indonesia Kerja: 1. Bambang DH 2. Rully Chairul Azwar 3. Marwan Jafar 4. Effendi Choirie 5. Qoyum Abdul Jabbar 6. Gede Pasek Suardika 7. Rully Soekarta 8. Muhammad Yamin Tawari 9. Endang Tirtana Pengarah teritorial adalah para kepala daerah dan para wakil kepala daerah koalisi Indonesia kerja. Juru bicara: 1. Ahmad Basarah 2. Johan Budi 3. H. Abdul Kadir Karding 4. TB. Ace Hasan Syadzily 5. Irma Suryani Chaniago 6. Dr. Arief Budimanta 7. Arya Sinulingga 8. Lena Maryana Mukti Direktorat: 1. Direktur program: Aria Bima 2. Direktur konten: Fikri Satari 3. Direktur komunikasi politik: Usman Kansong 4. Direktur kominfo: Yadi Hendryana 5. Direktur kampanye: Beni Ramdani 6. Direktur penggalangan pemilih muda: Hadi Kusuma 7. Direktur penggalangan jaringan: Noor Achmad . Dalam direktorat ini terdapat gugus tugas khusus yang juga disertakan dalam struktur. 8. Direktur Logistik dan APK: Marsda TNI (Purn) Usra Hendra Harahap 9. Direktur Hukum dan Dan Advokasi: Ade Irfan Pulungan 10. Direktur saksi: Arif Wibowo 11.Direktur relawan: Maman Imanul Haq Penugasan Khusus: 1. Nusyirwan Soejono 2. Rizal Malarangeng 3. Yanuar Prihatin Bagdja 4. Iman Adaruqutni 5. Inaz Nasrulloh Zubir 6. Isyana Bagoes Oka (asa) like share & subscribe ceramah lucu

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ds4design · 7 years

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DWave next redesign will allow for higher connection density 4000 qubits by late 2018 and expansion beyond 10,000 qubits

D-Wave is also working on a fifth model, which will provide even greater capacity and connectivity and a closer fit to scientists’ needs. It will likely to launch within two years, the machine will again double the number of qubits, to around 4,000. Crucially, it will also provide more-complex connections between qubits, allowing it to tackle more-complicated problems. “Changing the underlying connectivity is going to be a game-changer,” says Mark Novotny, a physicist at Charles University in Prague, who is exploring a D-Wave machine’s applications to cybersecurity. “I’m basically drooling hoping for it. It’s very exciting.” D-Wave’s latest 2000 qubit iteration includes an upgrade that Novotny has been clamoring for. The feature gives more control when different groups of qubits go through the annealing process. In at least one case, D-Wave has shown that this can speed up certain calculations 1,000-fold. For Novotny, the feature is crucial because it will allow his team to “sample” qubits during the process, which opens the door to D-Wave exploring a different type of machine-learning algorithm that could learn to recognize much more complex patterns of cyberattacks.

Arxiv - Quantum Annealing amid Local Ruggedness and Global Frustration A recent Google study [Phys. Rev. X, 6:031015 (2016)] compared a D-Wave 2X quantum processing unit (QPU) to two classical Monte Carlo algorithms: simulated annealing (SA) and quantum Monte Carlo (QMC). The study showed the D-Wave 2X to be up to 100 million times faster than the classical algorithms. The Google inputs are designed to demonstrate the value of collective multiqubit tunneling, a resource that is available to D-Wave QPUs but not to simulated annealing. But the computational hardness in these inputs is highly localized in gadgets, with only a small amount of complexity coming from global interactions, meaning that the relevance to real-world problems is limited. In this study we provide a new synthetic problem class that addresses the limitations of the Google inputs while retaining their strengths. We use simple clusters instead of more complex gadgets and more emphasis is placed on creating computational hardness through global interactions like those seen in interesting real-world inputs. We use these inputs to evaluate the new 2000-qubit D-Wave QPU. We include the HFS algorithm---the best performer in a broader analysis of Google inputs---and we include state-of-the-art GPU implementations of SA and QMC. The D-Wave QPU solidly outperforms the software solvers: when we consider pure annealing time (computation time), the D-Wave QPU reaches ground states up to 2600 times faster than the competition. In the task of zero-temperature Boltzmann sampling from challenging multimodal inputs, the D-Wave QPU holds a similar advantage and does not see significant performance degradation due to quantum sampling bias. But researchers want greater connectivity. Currently, each qubit in the processor can ‘talk’ to only six others, says Scott Pakin, a computer scientist and D-Wave scientific and technical lead at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which has had a D-Wave computer since August. “The richer the connections, the easier and faster it is to get problems onto the D-Wave. So that’s top of my wish list.” D-Wave is redesigning its fifth processor to increase connectivity significantly, says Jeremy Hilton, the company’s senior vice-president responsible for technology. And because this upgrade involves a hardware overhaul, it will have an additional benefit: allowing the firm to expand beyond the 10,000-qubit limit imposed by the current processor’s design in future machines, he adds. D-wave machines are a long way from showing the exponential speed increase over classical computers that their advocates hope to see. But in a paper posted on 17 January and not yet peer-reviewed, a D-Wave team claimed the 2000Q could find solutions up to 2,600 times faster than any known classical algorithm D-wave’s qubits are much easier to build than the equivalent in more traditional quantum computers, but their quantum states are also more fragile, and their manipulation less precise. So although scientists now agree that D-wave devices do use quantum phenomena in their calculations, some doubt that they can ever be used to solve real-world problems exponentially faster than classical computers — however many qubits are clubbed together, and whatever their configuration. The uncertainty hasn’t stopped the number of users growing: last September, around 100 scientists attended D-Wave’s first users’ conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Existing D-Wave computers are located in the United States, but researchers globally can access them remotely, including through schemes such as the USRA’s. The machines are attracting new kinds of researcher, says Venturelli, who uses one of them to try to find the best way for rovers to autonomously schedule operations and manage time. “Universities with nothing to do with quantum physics are now trying their algorithms,” he says. D-Wave machines have attracted scepticism as well as excitement since they went on sale six years ago. So far, researchers have proved that, for a problem crafted to suit the machine’s abilities, the quantum computer can offer a huge increase in processing speed over a classical version of an algorithm (V. S. Denchev et al. Phys. Rev. X 6,031015; 2016). But the computers do not beat every classical algorithm, and no one has found a problem for which they outperform all classical rivals. What is the Computational Value of Finite-Range Tunneling? [2016] Quantum annealing (QA) has been proposed as a quantum enhanced optimization heuristic exploiting tunneling. Here, we demonstrate how finite-range tunneling can provide considerable computational advantage. For a crafted problem designed to have tall and narrow energy barriers separating local minima, the D-Wave 2X quantum annealer achieves significant runtime advantages relative to simulated annealing (SA). For instances with 945 variables, this results in a time-to-99%-success-probability that is ∼10^8 times faster than SA running on a single processor core. We also compare physical QA with the quantum Monte Carlo algorithm, an algorithm that emulates quantum tunneling on classical processors. We observe a substantial constant overhead against physical QA: D-Wave 2X again runs up to ∼10^8 times faster than an optimized implementation of the quantum Monte Carlo algorithm on a single core. We note that there exist heuristic classical algorithms that can solve most instances of Chimera structured problems in a time scale comparable to the D-Wave 2X. However, it is well known that such solvers will become ineffective for sufficiently dense connectivity graphs. To investigate whether finite-range tunneling will also confer an advantage for problems of practical interest, we conduct numerical studies on binary optimization problems that cannot yet be represented on quantum hardware. For random instances of the number partitioning problem, we find numerically that algorithms designed to simulate QA scale better than SA. We discuss the implications of these findings for the design of next-generation quantum annealers. Read more »

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