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frasier-crane-style · 1 year

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For reasons unknown even to me, I “watched” that modern Power Rangers reboot. Since the first thing to happen after the teaser is a bull getting jerked off, I decided to fast-forward until some, y’know, Power Rangers showed up.

-Not many notes about the teaser, which is just Zordon and Rita snarling at each other, except that this takes itself way too seriously for a scene involving a character named Rita Repulsa. They’re speaking in an alien language with subtitles, I mean, c’mon.

-Oh, and the Power Rangers suits are nanotech, like in the MCU, but when you turn them off, they disappear and you’re left naked. A tactfully shot, but fully nude, Walter White is perhaps not the epic and solemn moodsetter the director intended for it to be.

-After that--I swear to God this is true--the Power Rangers don’t become Power Rangers for a full NINETY MINUTES. That is the length of Mighty Morphing Power Rangers: The Movie, which features many, multiple scenes of Power Rangers and Zords. This is a two hour movie and you have to wait until the last thirty minutes to get actual Power Rangers. And it’s not a full half hour, it’s twenty minutes, because there’s a bit of epilogue and credits.

-So, basically, you know how it’s kind of lame that Spider-Man 2 and Superman 2 have these long lengths of the movie where the title characters stops being the title character and you get so much of them being a Muggle? This is the first movie and they’re putting you through that!

When they finally become Rangers and start piloting their Zords, they’re all going “ooh, I don’t know how this works! What does this button do?” Like, dude, this is first act stuff! Imagine if they made a Spider-Man movie where Peter Parker didn’t put on the costume until the last thirty minutes and he was having his final showdown with Green Goblin while trying to figure out web-slinging and shit! Insane!

-Aside from Billy, these characters are really bland. I’m sure there’s a long line of people to tell me how Zach being into hip-hop hasn’t aged well, but without shit like that, these Rangers are so generic and indistinguishable. And even Billy is a motormouthed babbling ‘nerd’, not the affectless scientist the old Billy was. Which is weird, because I heard this one is supposed to be canon autistic. I guess that translates to ‘adorkable’ for Hollywood. In high school terms, he’s way more of a spaz than a brain, which is a crucial distinction.

-Because all the Power Rangers content is crammed into the third act, they really speed-run through all the stuff you’d want to see. The Rangers spend all of five minutes fighting Putties, then they’re in their Zords for the rest of the action. This movie should’ve been called Zords!

-And their first fight is in this zero-G space where they’re totally CGI. I try not to be too much of a practical effects purist--I get the American Godzilla movies making Goji CGI because he’s a five hundred foot tall dinosaur. We should at least give CGI a chance there.

When it’s supposed to be people in suits battling man-sized monsters, but it’s just a bunch of CGI being rendered... yeah, I’m sure on some scale it’s higher production value than the show, but it’s just lacking in any charm.

Yeah, great, the new Ranger suits don’t have wrinkles, but it’s just so soulless. Lots of Disney live-action remake energy.

-Oh, and the fight ends with Billy coming in and blasting all the Putties with his Zord, so... what’s the point of being Power Rangers?

-As for the Zord fighting, it’s pretty dismal. This is no Pacific Rim. Mostly, the Zords just act as tanks, firing away at the Putties and Goldar (who... yeah, you know that shit. I’m not gonna get into it). And with these craptacular designs, I can barely tell Billy’s Triceratops and Zack’s Woolly Mammoth apart.

-In fact, the characters are lacking their Zord motifs altogether. In the original, they’re not just different colors. They’ve got little sabretooth tiger and T-rex design elements in their costumes.

I don’t know, maybe something like that is going on with these new costumes, but it gets totally lost in all the noise and business of these cluttered designs. I hate it.

Also, don’t those chestpieces look like unaesthetic hollow spaces to you? They were probably going for Iron Man, but why rip-off Iron Man instead of centering the power coins? Try to find them--they’re just about lost in a blur of glowy bullshit!

So we spend like ten minutes on the Zords fighting, then they turn into the Megazord off-screen with Billy naming it a Megazord in one of those lampshade-hanging ways instead of Megazord just being its name. He initially calls it a Mother Zord.

The Megazord fights Goldar (whose ‘liquid gold’ texture looks like absolute shit, barely rendered at all) for maybe a minute, since this is the big Super Saiyan power-up and not really a phase of the fight. No sword-fighting with the Power Sword or anything. So, again, Power Rangers movie where most of the action is the individual Zords running around Angel Grove.

Also, the Rangers aren’t all in one big cockpit together, they’re in these little capsules scattered all over the Megazord’s body, which seems more risky and a waste of a perfectly good chance to allow the actors to act off each other instead of all being off in their own Skype call. But whatever.

Rita is dealt with by being bitch-slapped into the vacuum of space, where she’s frozen solid, which is another example of this movie not being sure how camp it should be, and also... after she tanked the extinction of the dinosaurs in the opening scene, shouldn’t someone pick her up and put her in jail? It seems like asking for trouble to just leave her floating out there where she can land on another planet or be picked up by a spaceship and cause more problems.

Lastly, for being a giant T-1000 made of gold, Goldar is surprisingly vulnerable to being stabbed with swords. I’m not sure how that works. He’s a golem made of animated liquid gold. How would being stabbed affect him at all? If it were some super beam attack and he was basically atomized, okay, but don’t use the design principle of a Gelatinous Cube and then tell me it’s vulnerable to being shived.

Also, no kaiju blowing up while the Megazord strikes a pose. Fail.

#power rangers

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pestopascal · 3 years

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While I will absolutely agree that CB2077 isn’t the ONLY game doing all this bullshit, or that other AAA studios don’t deserve the flack CDPR is getting, I have to say that this is absolutely the perfect storm and I think people are FINALLY seeing the problems in modern AAA gaming. CB2077 might be fun to play, may have a good story, but it’s almost impossible to see because of the glaring issues. Which, honestly, is a good thing. I hope games change after this.

under here

AAA studios have been like this and this sort of release has been completely normalised on all accounts by both the businesses themselves and fans because of the inherent reliance on modders (bethesda at the forefront of this), as well as the pushback every time companies actually go ‘uh we need a lil more time’ (although... they just shouldnt announce potential release dates, im even of the camp they shouldnt even start releasing the game until like 6 months out from their official date because they fuck it up every time. borderlands 3 being the only game i know of being in “secret” development and then announcing itself in march for a september release. game itself aside, thats how companies should do it). easily i can remember a lot of 2011 release games which have had the exact same issues as cp77′s release, and then every other game in between since. very rarely do you actually have a game that isn’t a fucked up mess of a pile of pixels. and it is always the customisable character ones that are honestly, genuinely, ugly looking at release. but you can definitely say its been happening looooooong before 2011, with unrealistic expectations, word limits, 11 month time frames, offloading sequels to smaller companies so they can suffer if it fails, etc etc. the entire system has been like this for so long... they dont know any real different nowadays.

i mean look. tlou2 released under crunch conditions this year, and was rewarded. it was ALL over the social media feeds, it was quite the controversy because, surprise surprise, the company promised they wouldnt do it uwu and then. bam ! crunch conditions. literally around that time too, bioware employees came out with a statement saying ‘man we wish dai FAILED so that back in 2014 we couldve proven crunch was a wrong practice’. they say this as well after having to produce da2 in 14 months, which just suffered from fans and journalism for reusing environments, because it was produced in 14 months, and honestly? no one pointed that out back then, bioware themselves pointed it out again this year, 6 years after release, that that game was produced in 14 months. rdr2′s release was hounded by stories of crunch, and they all disappeared into the night because... it was heralded as the best game of all time. that was 2018, 2 years ago.

i think too is that some people get kind of ... morally and ethically concerned. which is understandable. can you consume something when you know it was made under conditions like crunch? and i think one of the most confronting things about it is that 9/10, not only has your favourite company engaged in crunch conditions, they almost actively choose to continue with them. and then that’s a whole other bag of issues blown up over there when it comes to what is able to be consumed what isn’t etc etc

i think also like a mix of marketing, promises and then the expectations of what the game will be like have really had cdpr earn the ire of fans which is just like... you don’t believe what these companies are saying. you never should, esp when it’s their ceo’s saying it who don’t work on the actual floor. bioware itself is the main culprit of doing this to the point they finally came around with all the da4 concept art and teasing to be like ‘ummm but actually dont get invested?’. remember all that qunari lady fanart that bioware management was like ... please dont get attached? yeah. yeah. like at what point as well is there going to be heavy level of apprehension to approach this? and i can’t really talk either, i cracked open the door for mass effect again. i know exactly what kind of shit bioware will pull, i know they are teasing it already on social media, but mass effect is my ride or die series. that’s why people keep opening the door on letting these companies get away with it. and you can’t fault fans entirely either because this is down to a science of how to get money. i mean, fuck, mass effect andromeda’s entire advertising campaign HINGED on the n7 logo. for the nostalgia value. and i see text posts in the same vein of both ‘guys, disney isnt gonna fuck you if you consume every remake for nostalgia value’ and ‘its understandable why people do it’.

so then you have to go ‘well are fans as just to blame’ and then that’s a whole other argument.

i think also like. i personally havent run into aaaannnyyyyyyy of the issues that you see posted online. which is ironic bc 1) i play on ps4 and 2) its an old dusty ps4. in fact a lot of ppl i have spoken to who have had issues have played on pc. does this mean the glitches dont exist? ofc not, the vids and screenshots are right there. but like... ive had a basically unhindered experience so far, and i get where ppl are coming from (i do, i promise) where theyve basically found the game unplayable. is there also a standard of what ppl consider unplayable because ive played most AAA games at launch when they basically rushed to slap the box label on the game and called it a day until they work on patches. when ppl consider unplayable is also just... different per person. some people have a slight blur on the screen when turning too fast even in an MMO and decide the game is horrible and unplayable. some people can have broken quests and npcs not loading and falling through maps and still be fine. there’s no agreed statement of what makes a game unplayable either, which is why you read threads on twitter and someone goes ‘yeah this npc t-posed so i quit in the first hour’ with a dozen replies. everyone has different levels of it.

it’s a mixed bag of issues. im not excusing cdpr, but the ppl who worked on the game are honestly likely not the ones who pushed for a release. you’ve gotta look at sony and microsoft and ceo’s with bonuses coming up and the investors and shareholders and people who sit behind computers and read numbers detailing interest and demand and supply and how every single time they had to delay this game, the loudest (but smallest) bunch of assholes on like reddit and in the twitter threads complained that it was delayed AGAIN even though back in what 2015? they said it’ll come out when it’s ready. and yeah there are times when game delays result in a mismatched half assed sort of story (kh3... p5... ffxv... dai...) and then there are times when, if they need to delay the game... they probably need to delay the game. sometimes delays are bad sometimes theyre good sometimes you are sitting there like whew if you only didn’t try to be like THIS TIME this is the release date.

the ONLY WAY this will stop happening is, quite frankly, unionising. and everyone is allergic to that whole concept so like... this is “the perfect storm” as you put it. but it’s also not. people have been so disappointed over the last 2 years alone for gaming companies, the final product, the attitudes from higher ups, that i think cdpr is receiving a good few years worth of anger. i think theyre also on the receiving end of misdirection from american fans who still don’t fucking get the company isn’t american, because that’s another bag of issues as well. like we’re holding at least 8 bags of groceries out of the back of the car now, and we don’t want to take another trip, because there are so many little bits of this entire situation to look at. there’s so much back and forth.

i think the worst, but most realistic thing is: games won’t change. how they will social media wise will. maybe. assuming bioware gets their heads out their asses but... they’re going to be a lot more careful. i mean, hell, sony offered refunds. that was just a publicity stint. they dont give a fuck if the game was bad. as i said before, if they did, they would make all companies fix trophy problems, starting from like 2010 or whenever the trophy system first came out. they just don’t wanna fall in alongside cdpr being thrown on its sword. but the companies are gonna learn from this, get smarter, still do the same shit to their employees, still pay off journalists, still do media blackouts, etc etc. and we’re gonna be here in another year’s time, with another game, having these same roundabout arguments, and cp77′s issues are gonna fade into just a wikipedia article.

#replies #this got long so i threw it under a cut #i just like wrote as i was thinking too in between ovw sry lol #Anonymous

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maahlon · 3 years

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an essay exploring colonialism & the myth of development

/ anthropology —

As is being discussed more and more in mainstream media, there are certain privileges that white people are accustomed to that people of color don’t automatically access, and are taken as natural, as just the way things are. Looking around, white people see a world where their ancestors’ cultures ‘evolved’ quicker than other countries, allowing them to then turn around and provide aid to those who happen to be struggling. This is the narrative of the past six hundred years that has been rewritten and justified countless times. We are left with a simple story that simultaneously puts the global north in a humble, aiding position and erases the centuries of violence that allowed for their development. However, at the root of this narrative is the often unseen and unspoken history of colonialism and development, occurrences perpetuated by Europe, and later the United States, that are deeply entwined both in historical and ideological practice. In order to access the privileges allowed to white people, they first employed colonialism, which took millions of lives and enacted structures of subordination that informed development’s path of destruction and control. It becomes easy to forget the history when the current development industry works tirelessly to repeat it, and trains us to accept dominant narratives with a lack of historical perspective and based on short time scales (Hickel 2017). This essay will be an exploration into the complex relationship between colonialism and development, two major racially biased, global revenue producing industries that have had detrimental effects on any person or country even remotely involved.

At the root of it, colonialism works on a racial hierarchy and with constant exploitation of those deemed lower on the ladder. Within the narratives of both colonialism and development, a story of a human order is spread and naturalized, a story that sees white people from Europe and later the United States in positions of privilege while places like Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean are painted as simply less developed, and therefore less far along in their evolution as states. This basic narrative solidifies the idea that the global north is employing superlative systems and ideologies of progress, an idea that is inherently Eurocentric but is widely accepted as simply the truth. The efforts by the global north to enforce their own values — or as they saw them, the ‘right’ values — on indigenous communities were justified under the guise of modernization or improvement. In the early twentieth century, the process of development supplemented the racism that had been formerly used within colonialism with a new language and set of discourses. The nature of the pervasive global north’s ‘right’ values made it so patriarchy and ethnocentrism defined the form development took (Escobar 1995).

The process of development allowed the global north to continue this notion of improvement by singling out and defining problems within formerly colonized states, such as ideas about malnourishment, illiteracy, underdevelopment, without taking responsibility for their occurrences. After these new illustrations of the global south’s ‘deficiencies’ were solidified, aid from the global north through development would then treat and reform them (Escobar 1995), maintaining the hierarchy that keeps certain countries in privileged existence and others in poverty.

The common justification of colonization and imperialism was that the colonizers could ‘improve’ an existing state, and within the demands of capitalism, colonizers could ensure an increase in ‘productivity.’ These changes and demands for the intensification of extraction were not necessary for survival and were an example of Europe taking advantage of other countries under the guise of advancement. This emergence of capitalism was not natural — it was violence. The notion of private property itself is violence as in its initial condition, private property had to have been stolen. The effects of this enterprise culture can be seen more recently as well, as within the process of development there is an intentional situation of economic exploitation of the global south (Escobar 1995) that still benefits the global north to this day. However, though productivity and efficiency are imperative for financial gain, for profit, they are not essential for a high quality of life. Capitalism naturalizes the idea that profit is equatable to existence in the way that it is necessary to make money to have a legitimate life. But the core concepts of money and wage work are not in themselves “natural,” nor had they been essential to human life in any way prior to capitalism. In The Divide, Jason Hickel discusses the violent history that links capitalism, colonialism, development and a process known as enclosure. In England, for example, the barbarity and arrogance required to colonize a nation was developed by their practice of enclosure — which is also arguably the birth of capitalism. Hickel examines how wealthy nobles enabled the enclosure movement by privatizing land, displacing huge populations, and clearing hundreds of villages, all in order to make a profit (2017:77-78). Beginning with enclosure, England has a long history of siphoning off resources from other countries for use in its own, and much of it’s colonizing intention was driven by capitalism and profit making. Enclosure created a context of artificial scarcity that caused a cultural shift requiring competition in order to survive. With the use of methods such as dispossession and enclosure of their own lands, then the experimentation of land enclosure in Ireland, England developed a system of colonization that required a violent theft of bodies and resources but yielded many benefits for the home country. As Hickel later discusses, many functions of development were just colonialism operating in a new time period. From the early twentieth century onwards, the global north had essentially designed a new world order that placed themselves at the top, ensuring opportunities available to continue siphoning raw materials from the global south and sell manufactured goods back to them (2017:101). This was the point of enclosure hundreds of years prior, and illustrates the deep and influential relationship between colonialism and development.

Violence is an essential component in the process of colonialism and its modern counterpart, development. Both, in practice, are intrinsically linked to violence in many forms, violence used in order for the global north to ensure complete control over the rest of the world. Physical coercion and the threat of bodily harm filled the pockets of Christopher Columbus and his cohorts when they first ravaged Central America and ensured their security in colonizing the ‘New World.’

After colonialism, newly independent nations began to use progressive reforms, such as increasing wages for workers and forming unions, as well as investing in public services and nationalizing key resources — progressive policies that were similar to those being used in the global north at the time. These reforms were allowing the global south to flourish and grow in all the ways colonialism had inhibited it, closing the income gap seen around the world with a rate of growth four to five times higher than under colonialism. In the mid twentieth century, leaders of the global south created the Non-Aligned Movement to fight tooth and nail to change standards of living in their countries, and to improve their position in the world. Such positive reforms for the global south were causing the global north to lose its access to the cheap labour and raw materials they were accustomed to under colonialism, and as these structures of subordination collapsed they began to violently intervene. The US backed coups that disposed of successful, progressive leaders in places such as Ghana, Chile, Brazil, and many more, were used to remake economic policies of such countries in the interest of the global north (Hickel 2017:132). Clearly, within the history of modern development practices, use of physical violence to ensure the success of oppression is commonplace as well. Though eventually allowed independence from colonial powers, states in the global south suffered immensely from the coups backed by Europe and the US when democratically elected leaders threatened to deny the global north access to raw materials and cheap labor. The current world narrative ensures the world believes the global north is doing nothing but aid the rest of the world in its development when in reality, many countries have been actively prevented from establishing democracies that would allow them to govern themselves (Hickel 2017:124). Ideas that ensured the global north’s success during the process of development often seem to have stemmed directly from practices that worked in its favor during colonialism. After coups destroyed the security of newfound freedom, the global north employed an entirely new and different form of violence to ensure control of the global south by seizing control of developing countries’ economies, “Conquering them all over again without spilling a drop of blood” (Hickel 2017:148). After only two or three decades of real economic independence, the global north began forcing the global south to serve its own economic interests. The use of the International Monetary Fund and Structural adjustment programs to further oppress the global south and ensure monetary gain for the global north was where the violence of current development strategies differed from colonialist practices. By forcing the global south into debt that was impossible to repay the global north has employed an economic tactic that seems, at face value, to be less violent. However, this practice guarantees much more violence to occur while countries struggle to pay back impossible loans, with money being directed away from public service and into Wall Street instead. As Jason Hickel puts it, economic and political freedom has been attacked —

“Interventions by the World Bank and the IMF in the name of development have shifted political power away from democratically elected decision-making bodies and placed it in the hands of remote, unelected bureaucrats.” (2017:183)

Actual development of the global south after colonialism ceased was blocked because the US and Europe wanted to maintain access to cheap labour, raw materials, and open markets — everything needed to continue allowing the global north to make more money.

While it is important to explore the consequences of physical and political violence on the global south, effects of the violence of colonialism are immeasurable if the subconscious damage to colonized people is not considered. Current discussions of reparations to colonized countries rarely recognize even the labour yielded, let alone any subsequent mental ramifications. Many post-colonial writers have discussed the kind of mental debates and struggles with identity colonized people went through while being forced to exist in increasingly politicized bodies. In his book Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon discusses the psychological effects of existing as a black man in a country colonized by a white, European state. “It is in fact customary in Martinique to dream of a form of salvation that consists of magically turning white.” (1952: 33) That Fanon feels that with whiteness comes relief and privilege is clearly evident in how he visualizes this statement to be a solid fact that is shared among people of color in Martinique at this time. This idea of “magically” turning white is almost wishing for the erasure of a blackness that causes pain and subordination. However, this desire is written with unambiguous contempt and bitterness as Fanon knows very well that it is not his blackness that causes such subordination but the whiteness that is sought after so strongly itself.

This alludes to a constant struggle being undertaken while simply trying to exist with an identity of being a person of color, especially within the diaspora — an identity that was persistently deeply discouraged by white colonizers with their reinforcements of hierarchy and subordination. Colonizers, on the other hand, were able to live on stolen land while enjoying rights, possessions, and “benefiting from every prestige.” (Memmi, Greenfield 1957) In The Colonizer and the Colonized, Albert Memmi and Howard Greenfield, like Fanon, employ a dialogue regarding the colonized, recognizing the privileges allowed to the colonizers, and subsequently making a connection between freedom and white skin. Europeans would never have represented anything aspirational to countries they colonized and enslaved had they not done just that, as at the time the living standards were no better in the home countries. But by forcing entry and control over lands, people, and markets, colonizers came to represent power and independence to the people they oppressed into governance. Memmi and Greenfield discussed the effect this had on colonized perceptions of skin color, writing that, “The first attempt of the colonized is the change his condition by changing his skin. There is a tempting model very close at hand — the colonizer.” (1957: 164)

Whereas physical violence enacts structures of abuse that are sustainable only as long as they are being enforced, cultural hegemony, arguably, solidifies lifetimes of control and oppression. As has been explored here, colonized people were forced into believing and living ideologies that portrayed their cultures in a negative way. This kind of idealogical control is enforced within modern development practices as well, with the narrative of the impoverished and backwards global south frequently permeated through global north popular culture. The continent of Africa, for example, is often stereotyped as such a place being rife with corrupt dictators that are not advanced enough to appreciate the virtues of democracy as the global north understands it (Hickel 2017). However, before capitalism and colonial intervention, places like Africa and the rest of the global south were doing just as well, if not better, than Europeans. By viewing the global south simply as a space of deficiency, within development and colonialism, the centuries of plunder that caused this lack become erased.

Anthropology has often been accused of being implicit in colonialism, with early anthropologists frequently benefiting fiscally and academically by their research in indigenous communities on behalf of colonial states. Colonialism operated on the incorrect and prejudiced belief that people outside of Europe were somehow lesser — less advanced, less developed, less efficient. Early anthropologists were not only complicit in this belief system but even helped solidify it as ‘fact’ by sustaining the idea of certain global south societies being more primitive than European societies, theories garnered supposedly with objective research and fieldwork. This strengthened the power colonialism had to subordinate people of the colonies, while anthropologists themselves benefited, like other Europeans in a colony, from being members of the dominant group. No matter how much anthropologists were averse to colonialism, by working within it they occupied a position of superiority with economic, psychological, and political privilege while being protected by imperial law (Lewis 1973, Gough 1968). However, anthropologists Emma Crewe and Richard Axelby argue that by respecting and recognizing the value of indigenous systems of thought, anthropologists actually successfully challenged European imperialism (2012:44). Similarly, they point out that some anthropologists argue that though anthropology had undeniable roots in colonialism, it is a mistake to dismiss it as primarily a helpful force to the imperialist administration (Bremen 1999), instead designating it as simply the “problem child of the colonial encounter.” Although valid, these viewpoints deny any accountability of colonial anthropologists and suggests their involvement was merely contemporaneous and subsequent, rather than complicit. It also does nothing to recognize the benefits anthropologists received by existing in their privileged positions within the colonial system, benefits of which were attainable solely based on the exploitative nature of anthropologists’ work on the natives (Lewis 1973).

Anthropologists working in the development enterprise face similar criticisms of complicity,

Accountability is necessary for change, and while discourses on anthropology’s complicity in the development industry are still being argued, accountability of past actions and benefits gained may make the difference in the outcome. Academic discussions about colonialism within anthropology have the obligation to recognize the history, as, such has been discussed here, the relationship between the two are undeniable and have had great consequences. Acknowledging history is an important part of determining the relationship between colonialism and development, and is a necessary step in avoiding blind acceptance of commonly reiterated biased narratives.

The current global narrative and world order portrays Europe and North America as helpers that work tirelessly to provide charity for impoverished countries rather than perpetuate cycles of poverty. This particular narrative is so dominant it prevents one from actually perceiving how the structure really works. As this essay has discussed, this narrative has been built up and informed by hundreds of years of oppression by these same countries that supposedly are trying to end poverty. Through colonialism, Europe employed practices of physical violence and cultural hegemony to enforce their exploitative ideologies on the global north under the guise of improvement and increasing productivity. After colonialism began to end, within the process of development, the global north then employed active policies intended to halt any progress the global south had begun to make in the little time they were allowed their freedom. This essay sought to explore the processes of colonialism and development, touching upon how they both engage Eurocentric and racially biased overtones to inform them, setting up the global north as the apex of human achievement while enforcing their ‘right’ values on the global south. It also focussed on one strong theme common between colonialism and development: their intrinsic link to violence — physical, political, economical, and psychological. Within this, there was brief exploration into the ideological effects of colonialism on colonized people and the effects of stereotypes the development industry implements. Lastly, it also has sought to explore anthropology’s implicitness in colonialism and the ongoing debates about anthropologists currently working within the development enterprise, discussing the importance of accountability if the current world narrative is ever to be challenged. Both movements caused almost immeasurable physical, emotional, psychological and economic pain.

Crewe, Emma & Axelby, Richard. (2012) Anthropology and Development: Culture, Morality and Politics in a Globalised World. 2012. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Escobar, Atruro. (1995) Encountering Development: The Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton University Press.

Fanon, Frantz. (1952) Black Skin, White Masks. United Kingdom: Pluto Press

Gough, Kathleen. (1968b) ‘Anthropology and imperialism.’ Monthly Review 19.11: 12–24.

Hickel, Jason. (2017) The Divide. London: William Heninemann

Hickel, Jason. (2018) Anti-colonial Theory; Post-development Theory; Revision Session. Lectures delivered for module AN52005B General Principles Of Social Anthropology Spring Term (2017-18). London: Goldsmiths University of London

Lewis, Diane. (1973) ‘Anthropology and Colonialism.’ Current Anthropology Vol. 14, No. 5

Memmi, Albert & Greenfield, Howard. (1957) The Colonizer and the Colonized. Boston: Beacon Press

#essay #anthropology #colonialism #development #mahlon whitney

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ingek73 · 4 years

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08-06-206:00 PM POV

Prince Harry: Social media is dividing us. Together, we can redesign it

Amid a crisis of health, hate, and truth online, companies need to take a stand for a more compassionate digital world, writes Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex.

Prince Harry: Social media is dividing us. Together, we can redesign it

[Photos: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images; Pixabay/Pexels]

BY PRINCE HARRY THE DUKE OF SUSSEX

7 MINUTE READ

A little over four weeks ago, my wife and I started calling business leaders, heads of major corporations, and chief marketing officers at brands and organisations we all use in our daily lives.

Our message was clear: The digital landscape is unwell and companies like yours have the chance to reconsider your role in funding and supporting online platforms that have contributed to, stoked, and created the conditions for a crisis of hate, a crisis of health, and a crisis of truth.

We did this at the same time as the launch of a civil rights and racial justice campaign called Stop Hate For Profit, which sought to change online policies around hate speech—in this case, policies at Facebook—by urging companies that regularly purchase digital ads on the platform to withhold their advertising spending for the month of July. As of the end of last month, the campaign (led by respected organisations like the Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, and the NAACP) sent a $7 billion message through withheld ad dollars.

Some may ask why a change campaign would take aim at online advertising. Well, many of us love and enjoy social media. It’s a seemingly free resource for connecting, sharing, and organising. But it’s not actually free; the cost is high. Every time you click they learn more about you. Our information, private data, and unknown habits are traded on for advertising space and dollars. The price we’re all paying is much higher than it appears. Whereas normally we’re the consumer buying a product, in this ever-changing digital world, we are the product.

While companies made their own decisions about what to do in July, we felt it necessary to say our part about the rise of an unchecked and divisive attention economy. We’ve always believed that individuals and communities thrive when the frameworks around them are built from compassion, trust, and wellbeing. Sadly, this belief is at odds with much of what is being experienced by people on social media.

From conversations with experts in this space, we believe we have to remodel the architecture of our online community in a way defined more by compassion than hate; by truth instead of misinformation; by equity and inclusiveness instead of injustice and fearmongering; by free, rather than weaponised, speech. This remodeling must include industry leaders from all areas drawing a line in the sand against unacceptable online practices as well as being active participants in the process of establishing new standards for our online world. Companies that purchase online ads must also recognise that our digital world has an impact on the physical world—on our collective health, on our democracies, on the ways we think and interact with each other, on how we process and trust information. Because, if we are susceptible to the coercive forces in digital spaces, then we have to ask ourselves—what does this mean for our children? As a father, this is especially concerning to me.

In the 1970s, there was a groundbreaking study on the societal effects of lead exposure and kids. The research found a clear connection between lead accumulation in children and their mental development. There’s no debate over the dangers of lead today, but at the time, the development was met with strong resistance from industry leaders (lead was used widespread in products like gas, house paint, and water pipes). Eventually, sweeping health and environmental reforms were put in place to change this. We knew something was harmful to the health of our children, so we made the necessary changes to keep them safe, healthy, and well.

Researchers I’ve spoken with are studying how social media affects people—particularly young people—and I believe the book of data that we will look back on one day will be incredibly troubling.

WHEN WE DO THE RIGHT THING, WHEN WE CREATE SAFE SPACES BOTH ONLINE AND OFF—EVERYONE WINS.

Around the world, for many reasons, we are at turning point—one that has the potential to be transformative. In all areas of life, a rebuilding of compassionate, trustworthy communities needs to be at the heart of where we go. And this approach must extend to the digital community, which billions of us participate in every day. But it shouldn’t be punitive. When we do the right thing, when we create safe spaces both online and off—everyone wins. Even the platforms themselves.

Meghan and I heard similar arguments made by humane tech leaders we convened at Stanford University earlier this year, by internet law experts, by neuroscientists, and most importantly by young people who have grown up in a fully connected world.

We have an opportunity to do better and remake the digital world, to look at the past and use it to inform the future. We must take a critical eye to the last two decades, where advancements in technology and media have outgrown many of the antiquated guardrails that once ensured they were being designed and used appropriately. It shouldn’t be seen as a coincidence that the rise of social media has been matched by a rise in division amongst us globally. Social media’s own algorithms and recommendation tools can drive people down paths towards radicalism and extremism that they might not have taken otherwise.

There are billions of people right now—in the midst of a global pandemic that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives—who rely on algorithmically-driven information feeds to make judgments about fact vs. fiction, about truth vs. lies. One could argue that access to accurate information is more important now than any other time in modern history. And yet, the very places that allow disinformation to spread seem to throw their arms up when asked to take responsibility and find solutions.

We all need a better online experience. We’ve spoken with leaders across the racial justice movement, experts in humane tech, and advocates of mental health. And the collective opinion is abundantly clear: We do not have the luxury of time.

We need meaningful digital reform, and while the role of policymakers and regulators is important, we can’t just wait for them to take the next steps. This is a moment for companies around the world—companies with business and advertising models directly tied to digital platforms—to consider how they can bring about reform to ensure the betterment of all.

WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO BETTER AND REMAKE THE DIGITAL WORLD, TO LOOK AT THE PAST AND USE IT TO INFORM THE FUTURE.

It was reported recently that, for the first time, spending on digital advertising is set to eclipse ad spending in traditional media. Think about what this means. The standards and practices advertisers rely upon when placing their commercials on television, for example, do not apply when it comes to the online space—arguably, the largest broadcaster in the world. And for the first time in history, the ad spend in this relatively lawless space is beginning to overshadow the more traditional spaces. No manufacturer is likely placing their television soap ad next to this type of toxicity, yet due to the nature of the digital world, that advertisement could be sandwiched between inciting propaganda.

So there is huge value in advertisers sitting at the table with advocacy leaders, with policy leaders, with civil society leaders, in search of solutions that strengthen the digital community while protecting its free and open nature.

For companies that purchase online ads, it is one thing to unequivocally disavow hate and racism, white nationalism and anti-Semitism, dangerous misinformation, and a well-established online culture that promotes violence and bigotry. It is another thing for them to use their leverage, including through their advertising dollars, to demand change from the very places that give a safe haven and vehicle of propagation to hate and division. We’re hopeful to see this approach amongst industry leaders become reality. For one, the industry group GARM—the Global Alliance for Responsible Media—has committed to evaluating standards and definitions around online hate speech.

But this is just the beginning. And our hope is that it’s the beginning of a movement where we, as people, place community and connection, tolerance and empathy, and joy and kindness above all. The internet has enabled us to be joined together. We are now plugged into a vast nervous system that, yes, reflects our good, but too often also magnifies and fuels our bad. We can—and must—encourage these platforms to redesign themselves in a more responsible and compassionate way. The world will feel it, and we will all benefit from it.

Prince Harry is the Duke of Sussex

#royals #prince harry #duke of sussex #fast company #social media

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magog-on-the-march · 5 years

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Lanning says real-time rendering is now at the point where it's possible to create movies and TV shows using virtually the same assets as a game project. For Soulstorm, the models and rigging in the cinematics are essentially the same as what players see during gameplay; the game just uses higher resolution texture maps for cutscenes. Lanning says that having such unified data sets gives game developers tremendous business opportunities to take their creations into other media.

"If we look at TV series, real-time is perfect for episodic series because the database is continuous," Lanning says. "I have Abe, I bring him in to the next shot, I tell him to run and I'm not re-animating anything… But for Hollywood, if we were to make a pilot, the pilot is the cheap thing. If it's greenlit, then you can get into the real costs. The problem with the real-time capability is that the pilot's the most expensive thing. You have to build real-time databases that have all this knowledge and logic built in that have to be smarter than the film databases."

In that sense, making a game like Oddworld: Soulstorm is in essence like making a pilot for a future TV series.

"One of the reasons we overinvested in this project is because we still share that dream that databases can cross-pollinate into different verticals for media. In order to get there, you have to somehow be able to have the opportunity to go past the cost of that initial high-priced pilot... Then if we're talking to someone who's interested in a linear series of the IP, we can say this is going to carry over. We can make that pilot."

(Full article under the cut for posterity)

At this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Oddworld chief creative officer Lorne Lanning and executive producer Bennie Terry III are talking up their latest project, Oddworld: Soulstorm. But they don't have a booth of their own, and they aren't hitching a ride with a publishing partner or platform holder, either. Instead, they are being hosted by Unity, the engine in which Soulstorm is being built.

Naturally, they want to talk about technology, and there's plenty of reason for it. After all, the Oddworld franchise was built on high production values. Lanning and Oddworld chairman Sherry McKenna co-founded the company in the mid-'90s after working together at Hollywood visual effects house Rhythm & Hues, and the studio's early titles showcased cinematic visual and storytelling sensibilities that set them apart. Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus were heavily promoted exclusives for PlayStation. Then Microsoft lured Oddworld away from Sony to show off the Xbox's technological virtues with the exclusive Munch's Oddysee.

But things got tricky after that, and Oddworld's position in the industry shifted. Its fourth title, 2005's Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, launched late in the Xbox's lifespan and with an unimpressive marketing push from Electronic Arts, which wanted a PlayStation 2 version that never materialized. Months after Stranger's Wrath launched to critical acclaim but commercial apathy, Oddworld shut down its development studio and shifted its focus to film and TV. Oddworld would return to games years later, but it was no longer in the business of AAA system-selling exclusives.

"What I saw happening in the industry was the ambition of what you needed to get a project greenlit and funded from publishers was getting to be a really difficult bar to reach in the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 generation," Lanning says. "Things were starting to look better and people were realizing art assets cost a lot more, animation fidelity had to be better, lighting had to be better, they had to bring in Hollywood art directors, screenwriters... everything got more complicated. Everything got more expensive.

"For the developer, the incentives became less because it didn't mean everyone was selling a lot more units; it just meant games were more expensive, the market's more cluttered, your chances of success were lower, it would cost you more time, more energy, and you're going to get less of a deal on your end because it's a higher risk for the investor. That's just capitalism."

In large part because of that hostile environment for creators, the company has slowly built its way back up to the point where it could self-finance Soulstorm, porting its catalog of games to new platforms and partnering with Just Add Water to develop 2014's Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty, a modern remake of the studio's first game.

"We're small. We're lean, we're mean," Terry says of the studio, but he adds that the company is still striving for a "near-Pixar level of quality" on a budget. That's where the studio's partnership with Unity comes in, as Terry says the engine maker has been "absolutely instrumental" in guiding the developers to best take advantage of what the engine can do.

The "near-Pixar" quality goal is only possible because the quality of real-time rendering has closed the gap with pre-rendered computer graphics, Lanning says, and the big quality benefits now come not from rapid iterations. Real-time graphics might not be as technically impressive as something pre-rendered, but he says whatever shortfall there is can be more than offset by being able to tweak and revamp things again and again, rather than making a change and having to wait overnight for it to render to see what impact it had.

"The efficiency of the models and computing is such that when we're working on our cinematics now and show them to someone, they think it was probably done in Maya," Lanning says, "But they're not. They're rendered in real-time in Unity. And in doing that, we're able to adjust lights on the set in real-time, adjust performances in real-time. We're able to play with all kinds of things that would have taken longer with a different mindset. If you're pre-rendering movies, you don't mind waiting until tomorrow to see the shot. But we don't have the time and efficiency for that."

He recalls a joke about Stanley Kubrick: "On the seventh day, God said, 'Let's rest.' And on the eight day, Kubrick sent it back for changes."

"I'm not calling myself a perfectionist, but that's the nature of a perfectionist," Lanning says. "They just want to keep tweaking and tweaking it. The faster they can make those tweaks, the better the quality you're going to get, provided the horsepower is under the hood to get there."

In that sense, making a game like Oddworld: Soulstorm is in essence like making a pilot for a future TV series.

This is not a new goal for Lanning, as he's never been quiet about his transmedia aspirations. And while he's seen skepticism from the film and TV industries about the potential advantages of re-using assets from games to linear media, Lanning's insistence in the idea's merits is unwavering.

"George Lucas understood this by saving every model from Star Wars and amortizing it into Empire Strikes Back," Lanning says. "You can bet every little TIE Fighter that was built got amortized. He saved all that stuff because he saw the benefit of having one IP that continued over time, and how you could re-use things. Hanna Barbara figured this out where Fred and Barnie were running across the same seamless painting in the background 10,000 times because they were doing a cheaper Disney that was more economical. But the barrier has to be broken. Someone has to prove it where it doesn't look like low-budget CG."

Lanning believes game technology is finally at the point where it could produce real-time CG TV shows that look a step up from Saturday morning cartoon fare. While that could help developers like Oddworld build a viable business, Lanning doesn't believe all the efficiency and rapid iteration can do anything to reverse the escalating cost of competing in the AAA market, or even hold it in check.

"If you're striving for the top, no. [It doesn't get cheaper] because someone's always going to want something better, faster," Lanning says. "And even if we reached the point where everyone who's capable can do magnificent, then the arms race is about who can do magnificent cheaper and faster again. So in that respect, speed will always be an issue. The creation of databases, the creation of rigging, there are all these areas that can be more highly optimized and smarter."

Terry adds, "In the arms race itself, there are elements that lend themselves to becoming less expensive because it's easier and more democratizing technology."

He points to his own stint at Rhythm & Hues in the 2000s, when someone needed to understand how light behaves at a very deep level in order to work with it in computer graphics.

"We were trying to pierce through an uncanny valley using decades of experience to pull off mind-bending tricks in the engine," Terry says, "where now I can get to that quality by hitting a few buttons and executing it without having to be a graphics engineer... But the creativity to push it further to that next level always takes more time and energy, resources and money, because your talent needs to push the tool."

The talent obviously makes a huge difference in any project. For Oddworld: Soulstorm, Lanning says it helped create a game that should realistically have cost a lot more than its actual development budget.

"We just have a lot of history, we do it a certain way, we're deeply involved, and we get no sleep," he says.

That leads into the second part of our interview, in which Lanning discusses his views on crunch and unionization. It should run later this week.

#Oddworld #Soulstorm #Lorne Lanning #gameindustry #future tv pilot dreams #Bennie Terry III

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doomonfilm · 6 years

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Ranking : Quentin Tarantino (1963 - present)

When it comes to connecting ‘cool’ with cinema of the past 3 decades, the name that often skyrockets to the top of most lists is Quentin Tarantino. With a distinct flare for mixing varied genres with the grace of a DJ, a unique tone in terms of both dialogue and humor, and more controversy than a gaggle of directors can shake a stick at often surrounding his name, Tarantino’s output never ceases to entertain or amaze. We never quite know what he’ll bring to the table next, but we know what he’s left at the table, and now is the time to put them in a personal favorite order.

While possibly controversial in its inclusion, Four Rooms will be on this list due to Tarantino’s distinct style being present in his equally timed segment of the film. Conversely, Sin City will not be included, as he only co-directed a scene and not an entire section of the film. True Romance and Natural Born Killers have also been excluded, as Tarantino did not direct those films, despite his involvement in them.

10. Four Rooms (1995) While not a full feature directed by Tarantino, his portion was the perfect way to wrap up the entire film. His portion amped up the film’s energy, the stakes were instantly recognizable and identifiable to a viewer, putting this feeling in the pit of your stomach that rides with you until the inevitable conclusion, and it was a continuation of the wonderful working chemistry between Tarantino and Tim Roth. It anchors this list simply because it is not a full-length feature, but it is a notable breathing point in a remarkable career.

9. Inglorious Basterds (2009) In terms of premise alone, this movie should have done it for me. Christoph Waltz gave a performance for the ages. Even my friend Tina Rodriguez is in the opening frames of this film. To put it plain and simple, the final 20 or so minutes of this film lost any and all momentum it had built, in my eyes, and became a piece of shock exploitation when it could have continued being a genre-redefining twist on a story we are all too familiar with. Basterds was definitely a shot at something unique, but Tarantino would go on to do it better in the next film on this list.

8. Django Unchained (2012) This could have been much higher on the list, as it does (in my opinion) what Inglorious Basterds could not in terms of taking a genre or topic we believe is well defined and putting a fresh spin on it. Making a continuation of the Django western series with a former slave in the starring role is a bold choice, but Tarantino came within a breath of hitting the bullseye. The only, and I mean ONLY thing that kicks this film so far down the list is the HORRIBLE choice to include the rap music cues more than two-thirds into the film’s run. It totally took me out of the world that the film had built, and turned it into a Robert Rodriguez level ending for what was nearly a modern day masterpiece.

7. Grindhouse - Death Proof (2007) This film oozes so much style and bravado that it’s almost disgusting. The cars chosen for this film would fit wonderfully in my collection when I become a rich man. The collisions captured for the film are some of the most jaw dropping and gut wrenching ever committed to celluloid. Kurt Russell is a pure joy to watch in this film, and every woman cast in this film has something unique about them that demands your attention and tugs at your heartstrings (if not base desires). The heavy exploitation elements, including the raucous ending, are pitch perfect. Even the touch of the entire missing reel in the theatrical version, present in the home released full cut, divides viewers, as many are missing a huge exposition chunk not present in theaters. Probably would not have worked as well outside of the Grindhouse context, but nevertheless a pleasant surprise of a film that emerged from that collaborative project.

6. Jackie Brown (1997) For a passion project, this film really finds its groove and sticks the landing. One of a handful of Elmore Leonard novels that found its way to the big screen in the mid to late 1990′s, Jackie Brown might be the one that speaks best to an older time and sentiment being forced to find value in a changing age. Robert Forrestor and Pam Grier’s chemistry is undeniable, Bridget Fonda brings a whimsy to the screen not present in full sincerity since the 1970′s, and seeing Samuel L. Jackson paired with Robert De Niro is cinematic gold. The soundtrack is amazing, the story is easy to relate to, and the style used for the film was probably the last Scorcese-esque approach Tarantino used before committing fully to the flare and outlandishness of his exploitation desires. An underappreciated gem, in all honesty.

5. Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)

4. Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004) Oh, what could have been... here was an idea, when pitched, that would cover three to four hours of runtime, emotional and action-based peaks and valleys unparalleled in modern day film, and revitalize the possibility of a director’s vision and execution being identical if not extremely similar. Instead, what we were given were two halves of one film promoted and released as separate films, thoroughly confusing the majority of the viewing public and showing that, despite all that Quentin had done prior, he was still left to answer to the powers that be at Miramax. Had this film been released in its original intended presentation, it would very like be the top film on this list. I will hold out indefinitely for the hopes that it is re-cut as one film for the Criterion Collection one day.

3. The Hateful Eight (2015) Another film that seems deeply personal upon repeat viewing. This one was very specific on the technical side when it came to shooting with the Ultra Panavision 70 (for a true 70mm aspect ratio), but the result is an amazingly claustrophobic experience, as most of this wideness was used to capture strangers locked in together during a fierce snowstorm. Casting Kurt Russell in a low-key remake of The Thing is a stroke of genius. Casting Jennifer Jason Leigh in a scene-stealing lead actress role was another. This film is perfectly tense when it needs to be, extremely violent (usually out of the blue), and hilarious all in equal measure. A true example of what the film experience can (and should) be, and one that must be seen on a big screen if afforded the opportunity.

2. Reservoir Dogs (1992) It may seem obvious, but one way to get an established and fruitful career is with a monumental and mind-blowing debut. In the case of Quentin Tarintino, we got an exercise in minimalism, a showcase for a handful of actors that were not getting the respect they deserved at the time, and a (deceptively) straightforward genre film that you can hang your notions and comparisons on. What is quickly revealed, however, is a demonstration of how tough guys can be cordial when they need to be, and all business when the heat is on. This tale of a robbery gone horribly wrong shows almost none of the robbery, focusing instead on mostly fallout, and still somehow manages to ratchet the tension up so high that you find yourself constantly on the edge of your seat. Cool aesthetic is drenched all over this film, from casting to production to wardrobe. The radio motif presented in both the film and the soundtrack further solidify the film and sear images into the memory, making them instantly recognizable and utterly unforgettable.

1. Pulp Fiction (1994) Tarantino’s magnum opus. The film where he not only truly honed in on his first great run thanks to his style, aesthetic and motifs, but the film that spawned a generation of copycats, both directly and in terms of general filmmaking style. The film made John Travolta a star to an entirely new generation, it helped put Bruce Willis back on the map, and it made household names out of Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and Ving Rhames. If there were a single film that was ever symbolic of 1990′s cinema, one would be hard pressed find a film more suitable than this one to fulfill that role. Tarantino was truly firing on all cylinders when he put this one together. The film is so good that it made most everything he touched an instant classic for a long, long time afterwards.

If their were ever a director (or a list) made to generate debate, it would be this one. I anticipate disagreements, and in time, I even anticipate this list to probably change. But, as of this point in my life, and this point in Tarantino’s career, I feel strongly and confidently that this is a good representation of his work and how they stand up to one another.

#ChiefDoomsday #DOOMonFILM #QuentinTarintino #FourRooms #IngloriousBasterds #DjangoUnchained #GrindhouseDeathProof #JackieBrown #KillBillVolume1 #KillBillVolume2 #TheHatefulEight #ReservoirDogs #PulpFiction

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dailynewswebsite · 3 years

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Cahokian culture spread across eastern North America 1,000 years ago in an early example of diaspora

Cahokia's mound-building tradition flourished a millennium in the past close to modern-day St. Louis. JByard/iStock by way of Getty Pictures Plus

An expansive metropolis flourished virtually a thousand years in the past within the bottomlands of the Mississippi River throughout the water from the place St. Louis, Missouri stands in the present day. It was one of many biggest pre-Columbian cities constructed north of the Aztec metropolis of Tenochititlan, at present-day Mexico Metropolis.

The individuals who lived on this now largely forgotten metropolis had been a part of a monument-building, corn-farming tradition. Nobody is aware of what its inhabitants named this place, however in the present day archaeologists name town Cahokia.

Excavations present it was house to hundreds of households. The town held a whole bunch of earthen mounds that supported council homes, houses for social elites, tombs for highly effective leaders and reminders of lunar alignments. As well as, archaeologists have found a Woodhenge at Cahokia – a round celestial observatory made of enormous picket posts.

Typical Cahokian projectiles excavated on the Mill Cove Advanced in Florida. Keith Ashley, CC BY-ND

Archaeologists name the pre-Columbian societies that lived within the Mississippi River Valley area “Mississippian cultures.” These folks stretched as far west as Oklahoma, north to Wisconsin, south to Mississippi and Louisiana, and east to Florida and North Carolina. Although broadly related, it’s unlikely these folks considered themselves as a unified political physique.

A posh query in American archaeology hinges on how these cultures arose and the methods wherein they shared concepts, items and other people.

Did the Cahokians create Mississippian tradition as they moved outward from their homeland, bringing their artifacts and concepts with them? Or did Cahokians unfold throughout the Midwest and Southeast, assembly new communities and sharing concepts alongside the best way, ultimately serving to type Mississippian tradition by way of a type of melting-pot course of? Lately, my colleagues Sarah Baires, Melissa Baltus and Elizabeth Watts Malouchos and I’ve contributed to new analysis investigating what it meant to be a Cahokian and Mississippian.

Archaeology college students excavate Cahokian and Mississippian websites to be taught extra in regards to the tradition they left behind. Jayur Mehta, CC BY-ND

Placing out from Cahokia

Like cities in the present day, Cahokia was a various place inhabited by teams of individuals with completely different histories, diverging values and ranging concepts. So when folks left town, they seemingly had quite a lot of causes.

Early in Cahokia’s historical past, actions into and out of town could have been tied to non secular gatherings whereas later migrations out of town could have been associated to political change. Whereas there may be some proof for battle and potential for drought within the area, archaeologists don’t have any conclusive proof that these had been the final word causes for folks leaving town. In any case, some folks continued to dwell there.

No matter their motives, as Cahokian residents unfold out from St. Louis and migrated all through the woodlands east of the Mississippi River, they carried their tradition with them. Generally these had been distinctive artifacts, like specific ceramics typical of their area. However in addition they introduced with them particular cultural constructs, like their beliefs within the ordering of the cosmos and relationships between the higher and decrease worlds.

Recreating components of house

Through the early days of Cahokia, round 1050, emissaries from town traveled north to websites in what’s now Wisconsin, spurring the native creation of platform mounds and sculpted landscapes much like these within the Cahokian heartland. These locations had been non secular shrines or outposts that seemingly impressed the development of extra Cahokian type earthen mounds within the north.

At websites like these, Cahokian residents embraced new locations and new environments, usually growing distinctive relationships with the communities into which they immigrated. We all know this by way of archaeological excavations that discovered Cahokian-style households, website layouts, pottery and extra built-in into these new communities.

It appears to be like like they had been remembering their homeland, adopting native practices whereas maintaining their very own traditions alive. In trendy settings, this phenomenon is usually referred to as a diaspora – an enclave of immigrants residing amongst native populations with their very own practices and beliefs that hearken again to the place they got here from.

Prime: 1894 hand-drawn map of the Carson Mounds website. Backside: 2018 plan view drawing of excavated constructions on the website. Prime: Cyrus Thomas Backside: Benny Roberts and John Connaway, CC BY-ND

As an example, on the Carson website in north Mississippi, far downriver from the Cahokian homeland, Cahokian migrants recreated acquainted constructed environments. They constructed lengthy, rectangular and semi-subterrenean homes at Carson that regarded like house.

Many years of excavations in north Mississippi counsel that the Cahokians seemingly noticed different folks and their above-ground sq. homes as they migrated southward, however selected to construct in ways in which evoked homeland – a lot as how a Hindu temple in Texas nonetheless maintains the spires, domes and craftwork of India. It took one other one or 200 years for the sq. home type to be constructed at Carson.

Mixing life with these they met

In northeast Florida, Cahokians encountered native communities of St. Johns folks, mound builders of web sites like Grant, Shields and Mt. Royal. Archaeologists name the instruments and structure of the 2 teams’ shared historical past the Mill Cove Advanced.

Cahokian emissaries carried distinctive instruments like this Burlington chert drill. Jayur Mehta, CC BY-ND

As an example, Cahokians could have sought distinctive native information in regards to the emergence of the Solar and Moon from the ocean – celestial alignments had been vital for Cahokians, and this could have been an unobserved phenomenon within the Mississippi River Valley. In alternate, Cahokian emissaries introduced with them a type of rock generally known as Burlington chert, a well-recognized useful resource for making their distinctive tri-lobed projectile factors.

Excavations within the space revealed long-nosed god maskettes product of copper; these artifacts are discovered at solely 20 or so websites throughout the Southeast and Midwest, all of which have a Cahokian presence. These masks could have been a part of a hero narrative that was additionally depicted in rock artwork and narrated by Siouxan talking teams whose conventional lands encompassed a lot of the Higher Midwest.

Farther north, Cahokians created different new, hybridized kinds with native populations.

For instance, throughout Cahokia’s emergence round 1050, close by villages within the uplands of southern Illinois went by way of their very own social transformation; they adopted some facets of early Cahokian tradition whereas retaining cultural and architectural options of their very own.

This may be seen in artifacts discovered on the Halliday website, situated in southern Illinois roughly 30 kilometers southeast of Cahokia; excavations have discovered nonlocal pottery sorts from Indiana and northern Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas, alongside pottery typical of Cahokia. Folks at Halliday had been additionally consuming barely completely different meals than at different close by websites, suggesting they maintained culinary traditions of their distant homelands.

Archaeologists have additionally discovered proof that these upland villages ultimately adopted a Cahokian constructing technique that positioned a prefabricated wall immediately right into a trench. But it surely didn’t occur instantly. They caught with putting single posts into the bottom to create constructing partitions for homes from 1050 to 1350, emphasizing villagers’ selection to keep up a few of their pre-Cahokian conventional practices within the face of social change.

Monks Mound at Cahokia is likely one of the largest earthen mounds in North America. Denise Panyik-Dale/Second Open by way of Getty Pictures

Similarities to in the present day

In every place the place Cahokians remade themselves, they contended with native communities, in addition to their particular person reminiscences of their homeland.

Cahokian migrants made homes that mimicked these at house; they constructed in line with celestial alignments from house; and in diasporic settings, they made iconographic designs honoring mythic heroes from their homeland.

As a result of Cahokians by no means ceased making their homeland wherever they unfold – albeit in distinctive methods in new environments – we imagine it is smart to consider Cahokian and Mississippian tradition not as one monolithic entity with only one perspective, however as a substitute, a large number of voices that collectively signified one thing larger.

The broader anthropological implication of our Cahokian analysis is the reminder it offers throughout the centuries that migration and id are an ongoing course of by which people and communities make and remake themselves, all whereas remembering their homeland and adapting to a brand new one. This course of describes the complexities of residing within the diaspora, and it’s as related in the present day because it was a thousand years in the past.

[The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories. Weekly on Wednesdays.]

Jayur Mehta acquired funding from the Mississippi Division of Archives and Historical past for components of this analysis.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/cahokian-culture-spread-across-eastern-north-america-1000-years-ago-in-an-early-example-of-diaspora/ via https://growthnews.in

#Growth News

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altajackuniverse · 4 years

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You Need to Know How Circularity Surpasses Sustainability

You See Consumers Raising the Alarm About Sustainability

During 2019, Sustainability became a hotter topic as a growing number of consumers voiced concerns. Their main concern was about the growth of our negative environmental impact. Sustainability follows a linear model with pollution remaining as the inevitable and growing result of our consumption economy. Meanwhile the concept of circularity, adopts a reuse, remake, and recycle approach that is more sound environmentally. According to a Nielsen report from 2018, 48 percent of consumers in the United States say that they would modify their consumption habits to reduce their impact on the environment. Consumers don't feel that enough is being done to combat the pollution of our environment. As an alternative they are very willing to adopt the circular approach to make, use, reuse, remake, and recycle approach to help clean more pollution from our environment. For the First Time Circularity is seen as Sustainability's Replacement While the environment has created new challenges for business leaders, it also presents an incredible opportunity. Consumers are actively seeking companies that adopt green business practices. Consumers want to patronize companies that share their sustainability values. To meet their green goals many business owners are beginning to adopt the circular economy approach to their business plans. People are eager to engage directly with green businesses that are serious about reducing their carbon footprint. Our modern industrial economy was based on a straight line. It was a linear progression of make, use, dispose. Consumers movement toward accepting circularity as sustainability's replacement ensures one thing. It ensures that consumers desires will play an integral role in molding an organization’s sustainability efforts. How is the Growth in Business Sustainability Consumer Driven According to the annual 2019 Trends Report released by Fjord, Accenture Interactive’s design and innovation unit. Consumers today want to be active in a company’s efforts to address climate change and pollution. Consumers demand that organizations build sustainability into their products, services and nearly every facet of their supply chain. This is a major cultural shift toward activism and demanding the adoption of sustainable business practices. Activists demand that today’s companies focus on making the consumer journey more circular. Rather than solely driving the organization forward while relying on existing business models. Truly sustainable organizations are those that invite consumers to join each step of the redesign and innovation process. Truly sustainable organizations are those that invite consumers to join each step of the redesign and innovation process. American grocery chain Trader Joe’s is just one recent example of a company that has demonstrated its commitment to keeping consumer demands top of mind when it comes to growth and innovation. Stemming from a petition that received more than 90,000 signatures from concerned consumers, the grocery chain recently announced its new goal to eliminate more than 1 trillion pounds of plastic across its stores nationwide. How is Business Sustainability Growth Consumer Input Driven? Allowing consumers to personally take steps toward sustainability as part of their brand experience is a strategy for building loyalty and trust. This can also be achieved by collaborating and scaling the circular strategies alongside the customers expecting these changes. Organizations must be accountable for taking consumers along this journey but also helping them navigate the discussion surrounding sustainability today. By being transparent about an organization’s impact on the environment. By sharing stories about traceability, sourcing and the like, transparency can go a long way. Using this knowledge to educate consumers helps companies scale their redesigned processes more effectively. This also allows consumers to be more engaged and confident when speaking about the sustainable topics that matter. When discussing transparency, Unilever is a strong example of how companies can benefit from collaborating with consumers about their own efforts. Sustainable brands at Unilever experience 30 percent faster growth and contribute to 70 percent of the company’s growth. This further showcases the tangible business benefits of building sustainable enterprises. Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Better Business Blog Collaboration in the World Drives Progress Towards Circularity Organizations also must be nimble — innovating for the circular economy and scaling new business processes at a faster pace than ever before. To address the sense of urgency created by heightened consumer demands and the amplification of these topics across the media, companies also must join forces with others to move the needle forward. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, for example, recently organized a pledge in which 250 companies including PepsiCo, H&M and others committed to increasing recycling efforts with governments to reduce the flow of plastic into our oceans. Launched in 2017 at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, Make Fashion Circular is another such initiative, bringing fashion leaders together to collaborate on creating a new textile economy that increases the use of safe and renewable materials. To stay ahead, companies must fully understand the power of collaboration when it comes to innovating and scaling sustainable practices, especially as new legislation creates additional pressures and consumers continue to hold organizations to a higher level of accountability. Leading a sustainable enterprise in today’s economy is more than being mindful of business outputs, maximizing resources and reducing waste — it’s about aligning the customer experience with the circular economy, authentically engaging with customers and incorporating sustainable practices into every facet of the business. As consumption and trust are redefined by environmentally focused consumers, organizations will have to continuously react to and shift their own strategies to account for the growing number of companies joining the fight and driving their businesses forward. Calculate Your Carbon Footprint If you would like to calculate your Carbon Footprint, follow the link to the free carbon footprint calculator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Read the full article

#BetterBusinessAlliance #sustainabilityinternational

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oinkgms · 7 years

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The component design of „Modern Art“

Hier klicken für den deutschen Text.

※ This game is only available in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

We are very proud that we can present you a totally new remake of Reiner Knizia’s famous game „Modern Art“ at the Spiel in Essen this year. As you might know there are already several versions of „Modern Art“ available on the market and you might wonder: why a new version again?

We at Oink Games always loved the game a lot and it was our dream to redesign it in a way one could call it finalised. Some years ago we already made another version of „Modern Art“ - our older game „Stamps“ (which we couldn’t produce again due to copyright reasons). „Stamps“ is very different from what we created now though. What we wanted to do now, is make a game that can be seen as a final version of „Modern Art“ and we put all our spirit and technical knowledge, especially about component design, into this new version.

This article is about our thoughts while designing the new Oink Games version of „Modern Art“ and after reading you will know all details of what we want to achieve through this redesign.

The Size

This is the size we were aiming for from the beginning. It may look like a big box like the one of „Catan“ for example, but in fact this is exactly the size of two small Oink Games boxes put next to each other.

We think that a compact size is a real virtue when talking about board games. You can easily bring the game wherever you want and you can also play nearly wherever you want.

It is actually not easy to fit all game components into such a small box. The game would not be a good game, if, because of it’s small size, the components would be cheap looking or hard to play with. We can present you this new high-quality design, because we have many years of experience about how to make components fit into such small boxes.

The Easel

The wooden easel is a new component of our version of the game. It is always placed in front of the current auctioneer who can place the picture they want to sell on it to make it stand out.

To tell the truth, to have the easel as a new component was a real challenge because of the small sized box, but in the end it gives the game a completely new vibe and it also becomes very clear whose turn it is. We really hope you like it, since we ourselves find it very marvellous!

The Screens

The screens are very important components of „Modern Art“. On the backside of the screens you can find an overview of the different kinds of auctions and other vital information.

In the Oink Games version we put information about the different kinds of auctions, about the number of cards the players get in each round and about the starting balance each player gets on the backside of the screens. Even if you haven’t played „Modern Art“ in a long time, you won’t have to open the rulebook anymore.

There are five screens - each is traditionally designed after a world famous art museum. We followed that lead and made the screens look like modern art as well. We hope you will have fun being a buying agent of one of the five famous museums.

The money

We decided not to use coins in this version and made the money look unitary. We hope you will get a feeling for how it is to trade paintings of extreme value.

All banknotes have a different size and thus are very easy to distinguish. We tried to make the higher amounts look like bundles of banknotes!

Also the thickness of 2mm makes the money easy to hold. Both sides have the same layout which makes finding the right money chip easier. Even if it is very small, we focussed on making the money very easy to play with. Another good thing is, that there will never be too little money chips while you play, since we tested what should be the minimum of each amount and arranged the number of chips according to that.

And there are more tiles in the game - the scoring tiles. The scoring tiles and the money have a different form so that you won’t confuse them while playing.

The cards

There is much to say about the cards.

What we focussed on the most are the top corners of the cards. While you have the cards in your hand you can easily see which kind of auction you will have to use and also which artist’s picture you have. Universally designed, you can see the initial of the artist’s surname and a pictogram explaining the kind of auction in both top corners, so that you can hold the cards like you want to.

The five different auction pictograms are easy to understand which is another plus. Even if you forget which auction requires which action, you should understand by looking at the pictograms!

Between the top corners you can find the artist’s name, the amount of cards there is of each artist and the value of each artist represented by 1 to 5 little dots (this becomes important in the case of a draw!). We implemented this so that you don’t have to look at the board all the time.

What was also very important to us, is the choice of artists. In the end we chose artists whose drawing styles differ and who also have a strong specific usage of colour. We tried not to include artists whose pictures could be easily confused style-wise. You may have already noticed, but one of the artists is Piet Mondrian! All five artist have different drawing styles, very exceptional each in their own way. We hope you, as a buying agent, will take a very close look at every single picture while guessing their future value. You might want to buy some pictures regardless of their value sometimes…

The pictures of KAMINSKI and IVORY are pictures of two artists of an organisation called „AbleArtCompany“. This organisation tries to bring the art of people with disabilities to a larger audience through serving as a conduit between the handicapped artists and the commercial end users interested in incorporating their art into their designs and products. We strongly support this idea and wanted to help letting the world see these wonderful paintings.

The size of the playing cards is very important. If they are too small, it is not easy to hold them in your hand. If they are too big, it will be hard to shuffle them. We think we found an ideal size - not too small and not too big.

The board

We designed the board in a way that will let the players know everything they have to know at a glance. Like on the cards, you can find the names of the artists, the number of the cards there are of each artist and their level of rareness on the board. Even if you don’t have any picture of a specific artist in your hand, you just need to take a look at the board.

In the former versions of „Modern Art“ the five columns for the five artists were always clearly separated and thus easy to look at. The rows that indicate the rounds of the game were not always clearly separated and sometimes hard to differentiate. We tried to make getting an overview easier through putting the round numbers on the board and through connecting them to the scoring areas.

We also put a „+“ between the scoring areas to make the final scoring clearer.

Conclusion

„Modern Art“ is a game we thought about a lot and we are very happy with the result. We really hope this article made you interested in what the game actually looks like and that you will drop by our booth in Essen this year to take a look at it! We are located in hall 6, stand number D101.

Game Design: Reiner Knizia Direction: Jun Sasaki Design: Hiroko Izumida, Jun Sasaki Art: Wataru Hikichi, USHIKUBO Ivory/AbleArtCompany, Kanako Okamoto, Piet Mondrian, KAMIJO Mika/AbleArtCompany

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seraproto · 4 years

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10 Video Game Collecting Tips (Good For People New To The Hobby)

Game collections are always an awesome sight, the smell of that fresh plastic, the glow of cameras and lights reflecting off their reflective surfaces, and that amazing aesthetic of your home looking like the modern equivalent of a fantasy library. Imagine that Dark Souls 3 stage with the huge library but with significantly less wax.

Getting an impressive collection like that takes lots of time and money, even when collecting small libraries like the Wii U. So I thought I’d share some tips I use and find useful that will help you save time, hopefully time used to play the games, and money, to buy more games with.

1. Rarity Vs Demand Vs Quality

Not all rare games are good, or expensive. Video games are a consumerist market which means the price of these goods is dictated primarily by demand. The more a product is in demand the more expensive it will be. That’s not to say that rarity and game quality don’t effect it either though.

Games like Metroid, Mario, Zelda, etc tend to be pricey because once someone has a copy they’re not keen to give it up, because they’re good and nostalgic. They represent an era. The same can be said about rare games, people hang onto them because they’re rare. But others want those games still and as more people get into this hobby the more people there are trying to get the same things you want.

Just keep in mind that because it is pricey doesn’t mean that it is good. For example Hello Kitty Wii U rose to $100 (not even the most expensive Wii U game) used because it was hard to get and was in high demand to finish Wii U collections. A lot of people are going to use the Wii U as their first collection because of the small cheap library (162 games).

If a game is outside your price range consider waiting until focus shifts to a new game console or game. Nowadays price drops are more common with new trends in the market and that leads to the next tip.

2. Set Trends, Watch Trends

Like previously mentioned a trend can cause a rise in price in games you might want. But there are also trends that work in your favor. Remasters, remakes, and ports are one such trend that has become very popular this console generation. With the rise and commonality of HD gaming a lot of older, sometimes good, and hard to find games are repackaged and sold again on modern hardware to cash in on nostalgia.

This is the perfect time for you to start seeking out copies of those games. You can see a lot of games drop in value of 50% or higher after a couple months of a remaster.

As for trendsetting, you might consider setting out to seek games within a specific genre over a specific console or only looking for popular games. You can find yourself some great hidden gems, some real clunkers, and maybe find yourself a great deal.

A good example would be seeking out obscure games and genres. Like Shoot Em Ups, these games have a niche following so not as many people are hunting them down. Same with older survival horror and sports games are ALWAYS cheap.

3. Set Many Easy To Attain Goals

This is more life advice. There are thousands upon thousands of games out there and it can be overwhelming to try and find everything you want or even just finishing collections. Try to keep lists of games or genres you want to look out for and when you go shopping try to make it your goal to get at least one of those games.

It’s important your goals are reasonably attainable with a few harder ones. Just this week I went in simply to grab a copy of Bayonetta 2 and found a game I’ve wanted since release, Xenoblade Chronicles 1 for the Wii. I was ecstatic, I found something I’ve wanted a long time and I wasn’t even trying for it because I know how hard it is to find on a store shelf.

Think about it like this, how many times have you tried to do something new and set your goal too high then ended up giving up cause it was too difficult? Weight-loss? Working out? Eating better? Quitting Smoking? Ease yourself into things, cold turkey is hard and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You’re not weak, this is just how human brains work we need small goals to keep us happy til we get the big ones.

4. Get Social

A lot of people tend to think of gamers as antisocial shut ins but this is a great hobby to get to know people through. You should ABSOLUTELY build social connections with fellow collectors, games, and shop owners. Avoid topics they likely hear everyday and always be listening and receptive. It’s ok to talk about yourself but a conversation is shared and both of you should be heard. Think of it like improv, avoid negativity and always go “Yes and...”

A lot of collectors are focusing on a handful of platforms and likely aren’t looking for what you are. So it’s a good opportunity to make collector friends cause they can show you the good shops, yard sales, listings, and even send you spares they might come across or pick something up for you that you might not have thought of.

Most of my consoles are actually ones that were gifted to me or I bought from friends. Including my Wii U, Wii, DSi and Lite, and Xbox Original. Normally I’d have to pay 80 dollars for any one of these alone and I only paid 40 at the most. They all came with games too.

Make sure to share contact info with serious collectors and shop owners. A great way for this is to pick up business cards. I bought some cheap ones from a company called Moo. They only cost me 20 bucks plus shipping and I got 100 cards. Keep it simple though:

Name

Video Game Collector

What you’re interested in, a short about you, maybe a funny quip, and mention compensation

Contact

On the back just a little game controller or maybe your profile picture from social media. The flashier the better and this’ll make you stand out.

I personally don’t give out my phone number, so I use my email and if I trust them I write my number down.

5. Talk the Talk

Knowing the terminology can help you find what you’re looking for more quickly and help you know what you’re getting. Here are the most used ones:

Loose: They’re talking about the game itself, no case, peripherals, manuals, or art.

Boxed: Just the game and box.

CIB: Complete In Box, this means the game is as it was when it released but it has been opened and likely played. At the simplest it means Game, Case, Manual, all original. Modern games don’t have manuals so you know, there is room for wiggle room on the definition.

New: It still has the plastic shrink wrap on the case. Don’t buy if you want to actually play it.

Always make sure to read the seller’s description if online. Know what you’re buying before you buy so you don’t surprised later and you’re back where you started but with less cash.

6. Start Local

Hard to find water if you’re in a desert and you don’t know where to look. Start with your local stores and try to stick to local businesses, they offer good deals most of the time and helping out your fellow hobbyists makes this hobby easier and more enjoyable for everyone.

I actually live in a small country town so we don’t have any “Mom and Pop” retro stores. I shop at Game X Change and rely on gifts and buying from locals. But you can bet Game X Change and local Gamestops have my phone number and business card.

I suggest starting local simply because it might not be a good idea to start collecting online shopping only. It’s not as fun to me personally and you can’t look at what you’re getting until after they have your cash. Start local, and try collecting from their stock first.

Check frequently too, the bigger collectors I know check multiple shops across different cities multiple times a week.People are always hurting for cash and having to sell games or whole collections to make ends meet. This could be a chance for you to provide those games a good home too.

7. Avoid Gamestop

Ok, this is a personal preference one. Don’t buy retro from Gamestop or games online from them, unless you have one of the few retro store Gamestops in town. The reason simply being is that Gamestop will accept games in any condition, loose, scratched, and while you can return a scratched disc it does suck to land something neat just to return it. Especially because it didn’t have it’s original case.

I’ve bought 3 games from Gamestop, and they didn’t have the cases, online and sorry, I will not put those ugly no art cases on my shelves. Go in person to buy them or don’t buy from Gamestop. This also falls under “Know what you’re buying before you buy”.

8. Don’t Put Your Eggs in One Basket

Just a suggestion. some consoles have a lot of stinkers like the Wii and Wii U. Let’s say you buy all the good games for that platform and now you have nothing but the bad ones left to complete your collection. 100% is nice but getting something you’ll enjoy is nice too.

Consider buying multiple consoles and collecting for them all at once. This works with the trend tip very well, cause should one of your systems suddenly be hot you can shift focus over to your Genesis for a bit.

9. Emulation Vs OG Hardware

This comes down to personal taste. I own a Retron 5 because I livestream games and the less cord changing I have to do the better. This takes 5 consoles and feeds them through HDMI. This is great for my purposes especially because I don’t have to dig out a console anytime I want to switch games and I can keep the original hardware looking nice on the shelf.

The Retron line of systems though is NOT OG hardware though. What does that mean? Emulation is the recreation of older hardware through modern software and this can result in a lot of issues. Screen tearing, low fps, inconsistent fps, and other bugs and glitches. The OG hardware will play them as they were intended to be played and the way you likely experienced them.

Consider your needs and purposes and buy accordingly.

10. Include Your Friends

All activities are more fun when you include others. If you have gamer friends that don’t collect consider bringing them along with you on a couple trips. Let them pick out some stuff you two can play together and see if you can pique their interest. Find you your P2. Doesn’t have to be a partner or lover, just anyone who can hang out with you while you do it. Shopping alone is boring.

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Anyway that was all the tips I have for y’all right now. If you have any questions for me you can ask them here or on my Twitter. If you want to see me play games live check out my Twitch. I hope you found some new info here and maybe had some of your questions answered. I really believe this can be a very social hobby and considering the times I think we are all hurting for some interaction.

#video games #games #collecting #retrogaming #retrocollection #retrocollector #retrocollecting #gaming #console #tips #top ten #beginner #guide #hobby #gamecollecting #gamecollection #gamecollector

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alanjguitar · 4 years

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Best Semi Hollow Body Electric Guitars Reviews

Semi-hollow body electric guitars are versatile instruments that you can play in a huge range of genres.

If you want to rock out hard and heavy, they deliver deeply resonant tones with plenty of low end oomph to make your hair stand up.

If you’re more of a softy, they can produce beautiful clean tones bordering on acoustic aesthetic that will make your soul soar.

And if you’re somewhere in the middle or looking to try your hand at every genre, semi hollow guitars are tonally balanced in a way that lets them fit nicely in nearly every musical style.

We’ve tried out the best of the best on the market to bring you this list of some of the greatest semi hollow guitars around.

For this list, I’m keeping things around my own budget, which as a man of rather average means, should encompass the price range that the typical player will find reasonable for a guitar of good quality.

Our Recommendation

You’ll see in the last and #7 spot the Dean Boca 12-string. It hits all the quality markers of a good semi hollow, but is too susceptible to warping and feedback to rank any higher on this list of the best.

Awarded the win, the best of the best semi hollows, is the Gretsch G2662T Streamliner.

We’ve raved on this guitar before, and personally I rave on Gretsch guitars a lot, because they’re solid, dependable, sound great, and are true classics in the semi hollow category.

The Top 7 Best Semi Hollow Body Electric Guitars – Overview

#7 Dean Boca 12-String

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4/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Mahogany with Flamed Maple top

Neck – Maple

Fingerboard – Jatoba

Electronics – Dual DMT Design humbuckers

Pros

Beautiful Flamed Maple top adds brightness to the warm tone

12 strings for extreme chorus effect

Dependable Dean electronics

Cons

Can easily warp if kept in poor storage conditions

Review

This is the first 12 string semi hollow electric I’ve seen, and Dean did a great job of putting it together.

This Boca 12 String is an absolutely beautiful guitar, both in appearance and in tone, and it’s one I’d be happy to call my own.

12 strings on a semi hollow body guitar is rather unusual, and for good reason. Semi hollow electrics are often heavy in harmonics and overtones, and can be subject to feedback when played at high volumes.

In the Boca 12, the over-abundance of overtones is somewhat dampened by the maple neck, which is also the best would they could have chosen to prevent warping caused by the tension of 12 strings.

The DMT Design humbuckers do a good job of tamping down unwanted buzz and feedback, but you can still have a problem if you play at full volume.

Its mahogany body does what mahogany does, which is present a warm, earthy tone that is heavy in the bass and low midrange. If it weren’t for the maple, the subtleties of the 12 strings would be almost completely ignored, but this neck material brings out just enough brightness that you can value this guitar for what it was made for.

The Dean Boca 12 is great for blues and jazz, and can even hold up pretty well in some hard rock scenarios. However, I much prefer its tone clean over distored.

Despite having the hard, dense maple neck, you’ll still need to be careful about how you store this guitar, as 12 strings put excessive tension on the neck and can cause it to warp badly if subjected to high levels of humidity.

#6 Squier Affinity Starcaster

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4/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Maple

Neck – Maple

Fingerboard – Maple

Electronics – Dual Squier Standard humbuckers

Pros

Bright, crystalline tone

Dual humbuckers cut down on the treble of the all-maple build

Comfortably contoured body shape

Cons

Overabundant high range

Review

Another unusual semi hollow body electric, we’re following up with the Squier Affinity Series Starcaster.

This is a really unique looking semi hollow guitar, following the body shape of the original 1976 Fender Starcasters and looking like a Stratocaster molded by Salvador Dali.

It’s an all-maple guitar, which in most cases would yield a tone that I find too flat and lacking in the low end. However, thanks to its semi hollow build and dual humbuckers, the low and mid ranges are boosted just enough to keep up with the glassy highs produced by maple.

Its pickups are the Squier Standard humbuckers, which are nothing special but do a good job of cutting back the buzz and putting forth a tone with enough power to let you rock out in most genres.

I’d recommend this guitar especially for jazz, as its clean tone is super articulate and there aren’t a lot of overtones. Overdriven, it can sound a bit harsh, but with a little bit of distortion it performs well.

If you upgrade the pickups in the Squier Starcaster, you can have a really nice and interesting semi hollow electric in your collection. Otherwise, you have a decent guitar for practicing your chops.

#5 Epiphone ES-335 PRO

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4.25/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Maple

Neck – Mahogany

Fingerboard – Rosewood

Electronics – Dual Alnico Classic Pro

Pros

Vintage looks and tones in a modern re-issue

Classic ES sound nicely replicated by Alnico Classic Pro humbuckers

Gibson style SlimTaper “D” neck for fast licks and firm chords

Cons

Wiring can become loose if jolted too hard

Review

Gibson debuted the original ES back in the 1950s, and now Epiphone has crafted this modern remake to bring you a vintage sound at an affordable price. You can hear a full history of this famous Gibson model here.

The ES-335 PRO is so close to the original Gibson that it’s amazing they sell it at such a low cost.

The woods are virtually identical, with a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard set in to a maple body with a maple center block.

Sound-wise, this tonewood combo exudes great balance in every range, with poppy highs and cool lows and a middle range that sinks just low enough for vocals to fill the scoop.

It has two humbuckers designed in the same fashion as those that appeared in Gibson’s original ES-335, sending forth a tone that is reminiscent of classic rock and mid-century blues hits.

The Epiphone ES-335 PRO could be a near-perfect semi-hollow guitar if it were more dependably soldered. Unfortunately, due to Epiphone’s streamlined production process, the wires in the pickups are often easily bumped loose, causing crackle and static and sometimes entire loss of sound.

A quick trip to the guitar tech can remedy this issue should it arise, but as long as you take care not to knock your guitar too hard on anything (no smashing over heads), this shouldn’t be much of a problem.

#4 D’Angelico Premier SS

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4.25/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Maple

Neck – Maple

Fingerboard – Ovangkol

Electronics – Neck: Seymour Duncan HB-102N humbucker Bridge: Seymour Duncan HB-101B humbucker

Pros

High quality humbuckers deliver powerful semi-hollow tone

Comfortable C-shaped neck

All-maple build for highly articulated riffs and chords

Cons

Unconventional ovangkol fretboard

Review

This guitar is more on the expensive side for this list, but that’s due to the great pickups it comes with.

The D’Angelico Premier SS is a semi hollow electric in an all-maple build, similar to the Squier we looked at earlier.

If it weren’t for its pickups, it wouldn’t be on this list at all, but these are high quality Seymour Duncan humbuckers that perfectly transmit the guitar’s vibrations.

Since it is completely maple, you don’t get a lot of low end depth, but there’s enough resonance from the hollow wings that it doesn’t sound too tinny and sterile.

It’s a great jazz guitar, and if your amp has enough boost to fill out your low end it can do well in rock genres as well.

It would be a place or two higher in this review had D’Angelico opted for a higher quality fingerboard. There’s nothing particularly wrong with ovangkol, but I much prefer the smoothness of rosewood or the responsiveness of ebony over the rather standard feel of this wood.

If there’s no chance you’ll upgrade your pickups at any time and you have the cash, this is probably the best choice for you.

#3 Hagstrom VIK-SHB Viking

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4.75/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Maple

Neck – Canadian Hard Maple

Fingerboard – Resinator

Electronics – Dual Hagstrom HJ-50 humbuckers

Pros

Great tone at an affordable price

Dependable construction for years of playing pleasure

Versatile for many genres

Cons

Synthetic fingerboard material

Review

I have to start this review by saying I don’t know what Hagstrom’s secret is. Theoretically, this should be lower on the list, as I’m not super fond of all maple guitars or synthetic materials.

However, the Hagstrom Viking is an amazing sounding, super fun to play semi hollow body.

It’s probably their pickups, which though not a well-known brand, are bold and punchy without being over the top in hotness.

Hagstrom started as an accordion manufacturer, which isn’t exactly a skill I’d think would transfer to guitar craftsmanship, but whatever it is, they do a great job.

The VIK-SHB is the first guitar on this list I’d recommend for any genre. It’s not too bright, it’s not too warm; it’s in the Goldilocks zone of semi-hollow perfection.

You can crank the gain to max and play metal, or keep it clean for super funky progressions, or go somewhere in the middle for rockabilly and blues.

I had a hard time moving on from this guitar, and am seriously thinking of adding it to my personal collection.

#2 Ibanez Artcore AS53TKF

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4.75/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Sapele

Neck – Nyatoh

Fingerboard – Laurel

Electronics – Dual Infinity R Ceramic humbuckers

Pros

Unbeatable price for a quality semi hollow electric

Infinity R humbuckers good enough for small shows

Fast playing Ibanez neck profile

Cons

No traditional tonewoods

Review

Mostly, the Ibanez AS53 is in the number 2 spot for its price, which is about the lowest I’ve seen for a decent semi hollow body electric guitar.

I surprised myself by liking this guitar as much as I did. Normally, when I see that a guitar is made entirely from non-standard tonewoods, I won’t even consider it for a best of list. But, Ibanez is a big name with a lot of experience in making high quality low cost instruments, so I gave the AS53 a closer look.

In an acoustic, sapele is a fine enough wood for the back and sides, but I wouldn’t want it as my top wood. With the AS53, it’s a bit different, and seems to really put out a nice, complex tone.

It’s not a huge sounding guitar, but it does have enough force and proud enough voice that I’d play it at small gigs.

For practicing in home, yes, it’s a perfect little semi hollow. It has an undersized body which is really comfortable to hold, and a Ibanez custom Artcore AS neck profile that is sleek, slim, and speedy to play on.

Although its pickups aren’t remarkable, they’re not bad either, and I could see myself having a great time owning the Ibanez AS53.

#1 Gretsch G2622T Streamliner

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5/5 Star Rating

Specs

Body – Maple

Neck – Nato

Fingerboard – Laurel

Electronics – BroadTron BT-2S humbuckers

Pros

Great traditional sound

High-standard Gretsch design

Bigsby vibrato tailpiece for funky tonal warping

Cons

None

Review

This isn’t the first time that we’ve awarded Gretsch first place. This same guitar is also the number 1 spot in our review of the best semi hollow body guitars for the money.

If this wasn’t a list trying to keep things within a moderate budget, most of the top spots would go to various Gretsch models, as there’s hardly any competition for them when it comes to top quality semi hollow body guitars. They’re simply one of the best, with several decades of expertise in this category.

In the Gretsch G2622T Streamliner, this expertise is apparent in the pairing of a treble-rich maple body with the warming properties of a nato neck, topped up with Gretsch’s house-brand BroadTron humbucking pickups.

The resulting tone is super versatile and can be used in blues, jazz, rock, country, pop, funk… you name it, you can probably manage it with the G2622T.

It’s the only guitar in this review with a vibrato tailpiece, which is really a shame. More semi hollow guitars should have this feature, because a little whammy goes a long way to having a fun, experimental jam session. You can just get a lot more out of your sound with this addition. It’s one of the main reasons this Gretsch is our winner in this list.

The BroadTron pickups are no joke. They’re hot, but not too hot, and really pronounce the resonance of this semi hollow with perfect boost and clarity.

It’s a joy to play, and sounds great clean or distorted.

So, once again Gretsch, my hat’s off to you for beating out the rest in the semi hollow body electric guitar category.

For more of this great brand, check out our full review of the Gretsch G5420T.

Buyer’s Guide

What Are Semi Hollow Body Electric Guitars Good For?

For the most part, these are great guitars for jazz and blues. They’re earthy sounding instruments, with a lot of resonance due to the hollow wings and usually a fairly prominent mid range.

Clean, their applications extend in just about every musical direction. You can hear them in country, pop, bluegrass, folk, jazz, blues, rockabilly, rock’n’roll, and so on and so forth.

Distorted, they make exceptional guitars for jam bands, dirty blues, rockabilly, and rock from hard to soft.

You can see them played by a wide array of artists, from Lady Gaga to Paul McCartney to Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys.

They’re extremely versatile, and probably the only exception to their capabilities is heavy metal. Though, if you’re daring, you might even venture into this territory with a semi hollow body electric guitar.

Who Should Buy a Semi Hollow Body Electric Guitar?

Normally, I’d say these are best for players with at least a little bit of experience.

If you’re just starting out, I’d recommend you think about what you want to play more, acoustic or electric, then pick one and get good at it.

Semi hollow body electric guitars have a more niche kind of sound and artist following, and are best if you really know what tone you’re aiming for.

This is hard to be sure of when you’re just beginning to play, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll vacillate over the first couple years between wanting to be the heaviest metalhead that’s ever been to only wanting to play beautiful fingerpicked folk progressions.

If you do have experience, semi hollow body guitars are great for blues and jazz, considered maybe to be the best guitar for these genres. They fit nicely into the mix of these types of bands, and are only the dominant voice when you want them to be.

Want to know some other great guitars for blues? We’ve got you covered in this review.

Of course, I can’t tell you not to buy one if you’re a beginner, but I truly think you’d be better off learning the basics on a guitar that swings either full hollow or solid body.

What’s the Difference Between a Semi Hollow Body and a Hollow Body?

In tone, semi hollow body electric guitars are less resonant than full hollow body guitars and offer less in the way of overtones and harmonics. They’re a more “closed” sound, more similar to solid body electrics than to acoustics.

Hollow body guitars have a more “open” sound, being much more resonant, more full of harmonics and overtones, and so similar to acoustics that they are often called semi-acoustic guitars.

These differences are attributable to their variations in construction.

A hollow body electric guitar started simply as an acoustic guitar with a pickup added. Over the years they became a category all their own, with slimmer body profiles, f-holes rather than round sound holes, different bracing patterns, and different choice tonewoods.

Today, they stand apart as a separate type of guitar altogether and are used largely in country-style music genres.

Semi hollow body electric guitars were designed to decrease the issue of feedback that is inherent with full hollow body guitars. They are usually constructed with a solid center block attached to two hollow wings.

Sometimes, they are simply solid body guitars that have had some of their wood routed out and covered with a solid top, giving them the appearance of a solid body electric while actually being semi hollow.

This semi hollow construction reduces feedback, while at the same time reducing resonance. They are often much slimmer than hollow body guitars, and can weigh a bit more due to this solid center block.

Interested to learn more about hollow body guitars? Check out our review of some great hollow bodies here.

What’s the Difference Between a Semi Hollow Body Electric and a Solid Body Guitar?

This question’s answer is basically in the asking.

A semi hollow body electric guitar is very similar to a solid body electric guitar; it just has less wood in certain spots.

Sometimes, they can look identical. This is the case if the semi hollow body guitar is of the type that has wood routed from its body and then covered with a solid top. It creates the appearance of a solid body guitar, while having less weight and more resonance than a solid body electric.

Solid body guitars, on the other hand, are exactly what they sound like. Their body is a solid piece of wood, with no air pockets, no holes for resonance, no gaps and spaces in which air can vibrate. Their sound is the most “closed”, and unamplified you’ll get almost no tone from them.

Solid body guitars can do a lot of the same as semi hollow electrics, but are less well-suited for genres that favor a resonant guitar tone such as country, blues, and jazz.

Solid body sounding more like your style? We’ve reviewed the best value electric guitars here.

The Final Word

If you’ve made up your mind that a semi hollow body is the right choice for you, more power to you.

There are a lot of great options out there, and I’ve barely scratched the surface with these seven more affordable models.

If none of them really speak to you, keep searching, though you’ll have a hard time finding better models of comparable cost.

When we’re talking the best guitars, we have to take cost into mind and consider what the average player will be able and willing to spend.

This cost to quality ratio turns up some good choices, and I’m confident that from among those we have chosen the best semi hollow body electric guitars in production.

Whether you go with the all-traditional Gretsch or the modernized Dean 12-string, these are guitars of great quality that will bring you joy for as many years as you play guitar.

If semi hollow doesn’t sound like your thing, keep tuned in to us at BeginnerGuitar.pro for in-depth looks at the best of the best guitars.

The post Best Semi Hollow Body Electric Guitars Reviews appeared first on Beginnerguitar.

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terryblount · 4 years

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Top 10 Most Optimized PC Games of 2019

And here is the article that most of you have been waiting for. As we’ve already said, 2019 was a pretty interesting year for PC gaming. This year we got some truly great looking PC games that ran like a charm on a huge range of PC configurations.

However, we should make it crystal clear that this is a “Best Optimized” list and not a “Best Graphics” list. As such, Quake 2 RTX, Control, Metro: Exodus and Red Dead Redemption 2 are not part of this list. While the aforementioned titles are easily the best looking PC games of 2019, they are not the most optimized ones.

But what do we consider an optimized PC game? In our opinion, a game that is optimized for the PC is one that can scale well on multiple CPU cores. We also take into account other issues, like stuttering and stability issues, mouse smoothing/acceleration, etc. Not only that, but the visuals/performance ratio plays a huge part here too.

In short, we’re examining a game’s technical aspect. This means that not only must game engines scale well on modern-day hardware, but developers must also ensure that things like PC-specific graphical features, PC technologies and PC controls are properly supported. We should also note that we’ve tested the latest patched versions of these games.

So, without further ado, here are our Top 10 Most Optimized PC Games of 2019.

10) APEX LEGENDS

Apex Legends is running well on the PC. The game does not require a high-end CPU in order to be enjoyed and we did not experience any latency issues. Thankfully, the game offers raw mouse input and does not suffer from any mouse acceleration or smoothing issues. Still, and while it’s for the most part a solid PC product, Apex Legends features some areas that are way more GPU demanding than we’d expect. Respawn has not addressed this issue, which is why the game is in 10th place.

9) Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order runs pretty great on the PC platform. Contrary to the console versions, the stuttering issues are not that awful on the PC. Respawn has released some patches that addressed some of the game’s issues. Moreover, the game can run with 60fps on a variety of PC configurations. While there is still room for improvement, the game now looks and runs great on the PC.

8) World War Z

World War Z is a really optimized PC title. Even though the Vulkan API currently has some issues, the game runs like a charm on a wide range of PC configurations even when using the DX11 API. World War Z does not require a high-end CPU or GPU, and looks on par with what you’d expect to see in a current-gen FPS.

7) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare runs great on the PC platform. At launch, the game suffered from some truly annoying technical issues. Thankfully, Beenox has minimized the awful stuttering issues while loading a level. There are still some minor issues, however, COD: MW now looks and runs great on the PC.

6) RAGE 2

RAGE 2 runs like a charm on the PC platform. The game can run smoothly on a variety of PC configurations and scales amazingly well on multiple CPU cores/threads. Moreover, we did not experience any mouse acceleration or smoothing issues, though I do have to say that the default sensitivity values (when using iron sights) was a bit lower than expected. Naturally, the game displays proper on-screen K&M indicators and there is a Field of View slider for you to use.

5) Devil May Cry 5

Devil May Cry 5 is one of the most optimized PC games of 2019. Capcom’s latest action game looks beautiful and runs extremely well on a variety of PC configurations. Mouse controls are also great and there aren’t any mouse acceleration or smoothing issues. Unfortunately some of the default keys are not mapped correctly/ideally (I mean, who can press simultaneously Shift and CTRL while playing the game? Seriously Capcom?) however we could easily pull off most of the combos and get an “SSS” ranking so yeah. In short, Devil May Cry 5 is really enjoyable with a K&M. The game would have been higher on the list if it had larger environments. Unfortunately, and contrary to its “cousin”, DMC5 is not as ambitious as the following games.

4) Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint

While as a game Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a big disappointment, we can all agree that it looks and runs great on the PC. This is easily one of the best looking open-world games out there. The game looks and runs better than Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Watch_Dogs 2. Ghost Recon Breakpoint’s PC version has a lot of graphics settings, it can scale on older hardware, and it does not suffer from mouse acceleration/smoothing issues.

3) Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Similarly to Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Youngblood was a disappointing game. However, Wolfenstein: Youngblood is one of the most optimized PC games of 2019. MachineGames has offered a lot of graphics settings to tweak. The game also runs silky smooth on older PC systems thanks to id Tech 6 Engine and the Vulkan API. Wolfenstein: Youngblood also proves how underused older high-end CPUs — those equipped with six CPU cores that support twelve threads — are in most modern-day triple-A titles. Here is hoping that more developers will follow id Software’s example and make their engines run faster on already existing hardware.

2) Gears 5

Gears 5 runs exceptionally well on the PC platform. The game does not require a high-end CPU and we did not experience any stuttering issues. The game also packs one hell of graphics settings to tweak, and it plays great with mouse and keyboard. It’s also worth noting that Gears 5 runs incredibly well on AMD’s hardware. While it does not push the PC graphics boundaries, Gears 5 is easily one of the most optimized PC games of 2019.

1) Resident Evil 2 Remake

Resident Evil 2 Remake is easily our most optimized PC games of 2019. Although the game does not require a high-end PC system, it looks gorgeous and can scale on multiple CPU cores. Capcom has also removed the Denuvo anti-tamper tech, and has implemented one of the best graphics settings menu we’ve seen to date. The K+M controls are also excellent with proper on-screen indicators. Now the main reason we consider Resident Evil 2 Remake better than Gears 5 is because it can sometimes look like a next-gen title. Yes, this is a more linear experience than Gears 5, however, the game looks and runs significantly better than it. Capcom has simply outdone itself, and we can’t wait to see what its next-gen games will look like.

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dangkynhanhieusanphamcom · 5 years

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Modernity’s Projects and the Loss of Human Dignity – Law & Liberty

The final part of his trilogy about the ethical knowledge of human nature, Rémi Brague’s The Kingdom of Man examines the modern project of humans liberating themselves from both nature and God. In the first book of his trilogy, The Wisdom of the World (2003), Brague inspected the cosmological basis that had structured human existence; and, in his second work, The Law of God (2007), he explored how the divine revealed itself in history and inscribed itself in people’s consciences. In The Kingdom of Man, Brague shows how the modern person has made the human rather than nature the measure of all things and how authority has become self-anointed rather than determined by the divine. Rejecting both nature and God as normative guides, the modern person now self-creates and self-wills ethical knowledge.

Brague believes this project will ultimately fail because what humans need are not projects but tasks. A task is the acceptance of a purpose from an origin over which one has no control but can only be discovered. It requires to ask oneself whether one is capable of this trust and is willing to make the sacrifices to achieve it. Unlike a project, a task demands that the person is alone responsible for what needs to be accomplished: it cannot be outsourced to guarantee its success. Prior to modernity, humans were defined by tasks, either from nature or the divine, whereas today they decide what their projects will be—what will be created and pursued as decided only by themselves, without reliance on a higher or deeper authority.

The Groundwork for the Modern Project

In the first section of the book, entitled “Preparation,” Brague traces how the idea of modernity, the idea that human beings are autonomous and acknowledge no higher authority, existed at the very beginning of recorded history. For example, in ancient Greece and China, human beings were singular and superior among creatures because of their capacity of reason. This idea was also supported in a way by Jews, Christians, and Muslims who assigned a dignity to humans in this life and a perfected one hereafter because only humans were capable of faith in the divine. Humans were the “best of all living creatures” and therefore had a right to dominate nature. But this domination was not exploitative since humans were not the owners of creation. Instead, the task of domination was itself subject to the condition of obedience to the Creator—it makes them stewards rather than masters of the world.

With the rise of monotheist religion, humans moved from a cosmocentric perspective rooted in nature to an anthropocentric one where God provided the ethical tasks to humankind. For Brague, the divine intervention in history culminated in Christ’s Incarnation, caused by God’s grace and not human action. Thus, a space was created that was reserved only for humans and made obedience to God possible. This solution differed from messianism where humans could achieve an eschatological victory in human history. Although it was suppressed in the medieval world, the idea of messianism would continue to exist and inspire subsequent thinkers in the modern era.

Another idea that later would be adopted by modern thinkers was “the working on oneself.” With a space reserved for humans, one could engage in exercises of self-mastery that demonstrated a mastery over the body as proof of mastery over the soul (e.g., St. Gregory of Nyssa, 335-94). However, this type of mastery was different from modernity’s project of self-formation because the task came from divine. But, like messianism, the idea of self-mastery would later be incorporated into the modern project of liberation from both nature and God.

These ideas first became crystalized into the notion of “creativity” during the Renaissance where the human artist was a metaphor for politics, science, and philosophy. Inspired by Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), Cristoforo Landino (1424-98) argued that, while the poet did not make anything—for only God was capable of that—he or she can create something and therefore be akin to God. Creative and original, the artist was the owner of his or her work. Thus, to dominate was to create, freeing the activity from a mere static affirmation of human superiority to an active and dynamic molding of nature as proof of human singularity.

The Deployment of the Modern Project

While the idea to transform nature also resided in the classical period (e.g., Gnosticism) and the medieval world, the modern period married the ideology of the state with technological innovations in order to remake the world. Human rationality was now defined by production rather than action, and this became the distinguishing characteristic of the species. Humans were to rival God in creation. These ideas were most clearly articulated in the philosophies of Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and René Descartes (1596-1650) where humans were to dominate and master nature, transforming it for practical purposes.

In the 18th century there were a series of discoveries and inventions that seem to make the dreams of Bacon and Descartes a reality: the means of producing electricity at will, the invention of the lightning rod and the hot air balloon, the decomposition of air and of water. While there had been earlier accounts of a technological utopia, like Thomas More’s (1478-1535), the 18th century and onward made it seem like a possible reality. This submission of nature unleashed human imagination and aspirations about immortality with someone like William Goodwin (1756-1836) believing that one day humans will no longer need government because they will have perfect control over their bodies and thereby be immortal. And with the abolition of death, the abolition of procreation would be next, with Dostoevsky’s Kirillov saying, “I believe that man ought to cease reproducing.”

Yet Brague neglects in his account how the advances in technology and industry also produced a backlash during this period in the movements of Romanticism and the Counter-Enlightenment, each playing a vital voice that presented alternatives to the projects of Bacon and Descartes. Romanticism (c.1770-c.1848) was an intellectual and artistic movement that preferred the medieval over the modern and glorified nature at the expense of technology. The Counter-Enlightenment included thinkers like Edmund Burke (1729-97) and Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) who defended the ancien regime and challenged the ideas of modernity.

Nevertheless, according to Brague, these technological advances and aspirations continued unabated and were undergirded by a conception of time that was progressive, taken from the spiritual perfectionism of medieval millenarianism. Rejecting an understanding of progress as a manifestation of providence, the modern person embraced a scientific and ideological basis for progress, with the Enlightenment and later Darwinism becoming the foundation for this perspective. The science of man, anthropology, also appears during modernity with Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825) and Auguste Comte (1798-1857) claiming that such a science was the foundation for all others. This science did not identify human nature with reason, as did the Greeks, or with the soul, as did the medieval Christian, but as a substance that could be molded as the modern person thought it should be. As a consequence, dignity was displaced. With Christianity, humans were understood to be fundamentally good while tainted with original sin: salvation therefore was a spiritual aspiration. With the philosophes, original sin was erased and salvation was an aspiration to be realized in history. All that was needed was the removal of the external agents of corruption–property, religion, false consciousness—to ensure that progress would take place.

To enable this understanding of dignity was the neutralization of nature of all normative value and the valorization of work where it was the sole origin of value. The German idealists, like Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), called for humans to conquer nature because they must do so in order to be free. This required not only the technological application to nature but also a philosophy of science to rationalize it: positivism, pragmatism, and humanism. Rather than being concerned with causes, first principles, or questions whose answer would change nothing in human behavior, these philosophies only see the value of truth if it can be used to transform nature and make life better.

The final step was the abolition of God. Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-72) and Karl Marx (1818-83) rejected the divine and identified humanism with atheistic materialism. The goal of the technological control of nature was to free humans from their essential task of work and, for Marx, communism was the means to achieve this goal. Communism would end the domination of the product over the producer so humans for the first time could be conscious and effective masters over nature. The earth was no longer the kingdom of God but of man.

The Anti-Humanism of the Modern Project

The third and final section of the book examines the consequences of the modern project. While conferring many benefits, the domination of nature also included destructive effects on individuals, classes of people, and humanity itself (e.g., slavery, colonialism). But perhaps more insidious was the countervailing tradition in modernity that belittled human dignity, making people slaves to nature in them (e.g., Freud) or to historical forces (e.g., Marx) that they do not control. This “ironic dialectic” that Brague calls made the modern person not master over the earth but master only over others and even over oneself by one’s own project. Human beings were controlled and conquered by the projects they had created: they were no longer the subject of creation but its object.

As the object of creation, the modern person was remade, an idea that existed since antiquity. But this aspiration was restrained by the Greek’s account of nature and the Christian’s belief that humans were made in the “image” of God. In this new view, with God banished from the modern cosmos, humans were to be transformed with the only problem being, as asked by André Malraux (1901-76), “what form we can re-create man.”

The creation of a new view of the human person inevitably raised the question which characteristics were to be selected and which ones disregarded, which easily was broadened to questions of which types of people were to be preserved and which ones eliminated. Thus, eugenics, fascism, and the “new Soviet man” were logically consequences of this project. Human nature was not to be fulfilled, but rather surpassed, unleashing a destructive dialectic that reversed the project of a domination of nature by man into a domination by nature over man. The final result is a humanism that has transformed itself into anti-humanism, with thinkers proclaiming “the death of man” (Michel Foucault, 1926-84), “to go beyond man and humanism” (Jacques Derrida, 1930-2004), and “the final goal of human sciences is not to constitute man, but to dissolve him” (Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1908-2008). As Brague puts it, “The project of the kingdom of man ends with a dispossession of man, in the name of the kingdom to realize.”

But one wonders whether this is the complete story, for Brague neglects those thinkers, organizations, and movements that have pushed back against anti-humanism. The Abolition and Civil Rights Movements and the widespread acceptance of human rights have preserved features of human dignity that protects humans from the anti-humanist forces of slavery, segregation, and human right abuses. Religion, particularly the growth of evangelical Christianity in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, also challenges the “ironic dialectic” of modernity by claiming humans are made in the image of God and therefore are to be cherished. Finally, “traditionalist” thinkers like Leo Strauss (1899-1973), Eric Voegelin (1901-85), and Michael Oakeshott (1901-90) have presented philosophies that critique modernity and present alternative answers to the modern anti-humanist project. While anti-humanism may reign in academia and in other aspects of western culture, its dominance is far from complete.

Humanism without Domination?

For Brague, humanism was possible, realized in the pre-modern world where humans were afforded dignity and superiority and made technological advances without an intention to dominate the world. It was only in the deployment of the modern project where certain ideas were chosen by philosophers, scientists, and rulers to go further in mastery of the world that led to the banishment of nature and God as normative guides. However, the modern project has not only run up against an external critique, some of which has been labeled “reactionary,” but also an internal self-destructive dialectic by which the modern project has produced something other than it had wanted. The result is an anti-humanism that cannot affirm the goodness of the human: modernity can produce material, cultural, and moral goods but is incapable of explaining why they are good for human beings to enjoy.

Brague closes his book with thoughts on “Athens” and “Jerusalem” and how humans originally had a metaphysical foundation that they did not produce but rather produced them. Nature and God provided the task for humans to be human, whereas modernity repudiated these natural and divine origins for projects of human desire. The question for our time is whether the modern person has the will to survive in this project—to be able to grant legitimacy to oneself without the need of nature or God. Believing otherwise, Brague thinks only a return to nature and the divine will enable humans to be able to restore their dignity, singularity, and, most importantly, humanity.

Concise, clear, and compelling, The Kingdom of Man provides an account of the genesis and failure of the modern project. Although a familiar story, Brague presents it with erudition and detail that is enriching rather than overwhelming and helps us understand who we are today. However, I would ask Brague whether his account may be too one-sided, for there were thinkers and schools of thought that were opposed to the modern project from its inception and still exist, albeit in weaker form. The rise of atheist humanism did not mean that religion disappeared; the dominance of science and technocratic thinking did not result, with a few exceptions, in the complete rationalization of society. Time and time again people, institutions, and thinkers have pushed back against the modern project. One wonders whether the story of modernity may be one of decline but not necessarily of woe.

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homeimprovementsltd · 5 years

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Driveway Pavers Bridport - TBF Home Improvements Ltd

Call: 012 0205 9111

Driveway Pavers Bridport

Home >> Bridport Property Maintenance Services >> Driveway Pavers

Whether you have an existing driveway that needs upkeep, or you are thinking about setting up a new driveway, we are specialist Driveway Installers with years of experience, setting up block paving drives. We use high quality locally sourced products with modern approximately date plant and construction techniques for driveway installation. For many individuals parking their vehicle on the street is the only choice. However, if you have the space, a new driveway can assist keep your cars and truck safe, include worth to your residential or commercial property and dramatically enhance the look of your home.

Driveway Pavers

People will usually create an impression of your property based on your driveway. You can have a great driveway with the many ways and options for you to choose. Driveway pavers can be a great investment, which adds instant appeal and value to your home. But, if you want a beautiful outcome of your project, take time to plan and decide on the design, the color, and the style. You want to make sure you’ll have a beautiful entrance to your home that is durable enough to withstand the burden of vehicular use without shifting or cracking. You may want to choose a permeable paver driveway because water will never pool on the surface and you can even install a heating system beneath the pavers to keep snow from accumulating. The standard paver thickness is three inches and the base is six inches, but some places tend to have thicker base. Current trends lean towards choosing driveway paver colors that tie in with the roof color of the home, either in the primary paver field or in a border. If you want unique driveway pavers, talk to your contractor about possible creative ways to make it happen. You can also make beautiful pattern embellishments for your driveway, adding attraction and appeal. If you want a more contemporary focal point design, use squares or rectangles.

Choosing Concrete Driveway

Many households and builders prefer concrete driveways. While gravel and asphalt as cheaper options, concrete can give you that clean, decent finish for your driveway. Use your creativity and put in some color or print and pattern into the concrete to have a more stylish look. Decorative concrete is one of the most reasonable ways to groom the entrance to your home. You might get confuse about concrete and cement, but cement is one of the compositions of concrete. Comprising concrete are other mixtures of stones and cement. While pouring concrete seem to be an easy job, but it can be tricky achieving a good result. Concrete can dry so quickly, so time is of the essence. After removal of grass and ensuring soil stability, the next step is the installation of wood forms around the perimeter of the driveway. Even if you say you can do it yourself, professional help is still imperative to have to project done in no time. To ensure long life, it does pay to keep the driveway clean and sealed.

What Is Your Driveway Expense?

A new driveway can add a lot of functionality and appeal to your home, but it’s essential that you create and commit to your budget. The cost of a driveway greatly depends on the material, as well as factors like size, length, shape and terrain. A professional builder would be a great help for you to make a sound decision regarding your driveway. Gravel driveways are cheap, quick to install, can last for a long time, and require little maintenance. Block paving is one of the most visually appealing materials you can use on your new driveway, and the price options are flexible. If you are looking for a cheap, but a decent driveway, opt for concrete. However, colored or stamped concrete pavers are prices a bit higher. The cheapest driveway material is the tarmac, which also has a low-cost maintenance yet durable and long lasting. Bricks, which are priced a little higher than other types, can come in many textures, along with either in a wide variety of colors. In the case that you will install a new driveway, expect to pay for the removal of the old driveway.

Keeping Your Driveway In Good Shape

It is inevitable that driveways are also part of home repair and maintenance. As your driveway age, you’ll see cracks and holes that are effects of weathering. Unattended damaged driveways may cause accidents. Fix any damage as soon as possible to prevent it from getting worse, which can be more costly to repair. If you don’t do regular maintenance, expect that your driveway will deteriorate faster than if it’s maintained. Driveways made of concrete often require low maintenance, but weeds and moss can grow on them, they can crack, and the edges can crumble over time if vehicles drive over the edges too often. One way to prevent cracks and surface damage is sealing your driveway with as high-quality sealant. If you use cheaper sealants, the layers will start to crack, flake and peel much sooner than the better quality products. If your driveway has not been edged, you must rebuild the concrete and remake the edges. With block paving, it’s important to quickly take care of any loose stones, small cracks, or other kinds of damage. The rule of thumb is that whatever the driveway is made of, do not attempt a repair all by yourself unless you are an expert.

Your driveway is the entrance to your home and the first thing that neighbours and guests see when they visit your house. Provide your property the attention it is worthy of by selecting our business to install your brand-new driveways. We have the skills and knowledge to fulfill all of your paving needs no matter how you imagine your brand-new driveway to look. We are the driveway installation professionals in Bridport.

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from TBF Home Improvements https://homeimprovementsltd.co.uk/bridport/driveway-pavers.php

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