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" Genre: Role-playing / DVD-ROM for Windows XP / ESRB Rating: Rating Pending / Release Date: 2010-01-29 / Published by Electronic Arts "
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Bioware returns in the second game in the seminal 'Mass Effect' trilogy in which you control Commander Shepherd (either male or female) and once again you have to try and save the universe. This time it's made pending invasion from an unknown alien force.
Set a number of years from the first game, all I will say about the plot is that you are now sensibly working for a shadowy secret military organisation which we were introduced to in the first game. Obviously not everything is as it seems and you have to travel the galaxy recruiting teammates both old and new to help you on your quest.
On the subject of travelling, there have been some changes. There is a micromanaging side of your ships fuel. You can go an infinite distance without having to stop friendly fuel and various stations and spend resources. Resources are another addition, where previously planned entry explanation was conducted using a vehicle driving section this has been completely scrapped in favour of a planet scanning mini game. He you travel to your destination and move your cursor over the planet until you either find the required resource or uncover a new mission. In my opinion is probably the weakest part of the game, however everything else has been dramatically improved.
The character interactions are still the best in the business with hours of well produced and competently acted dialogue. The character models have been updated, the interactions between your crewmates has been expanded. For example you can undertake missions for your crewmates in return for upgrades or developments in their story. You also have the ability to pursue romantic engagements both male or female.
Combat has been made far more exciting than intuitive and is on par with some of the pinnacles of the third person action game is out there. Environments have been further developed, no longer do you get the feeling that you are just fighting in another generic 'cut and paste' corridor or hidden bunker.
The those missing the vehicle driving sections there is downloadable content available which introduces a special hovercraft vehicle and some new missions. The music is as rousing as it has ever been and augments the action perfectly to set the mood.
Finally, the emphasis on consequences has been brought to the fore. You can import your saved games from the previous 'Mass Effect' to continue the story. So actions you took in the first game have consequences in the second. Also within the game there are a number of occasions when the decisions you make Real gravity. I'll give you an example from an incident close to the end without revealing the plot.
I discovered that some of my crew were in danger or another planet and was told to head their as quickly as possible. I was of the arrogant assumption that the story would wake from me and so I decided to gather a bit of resources and a few side quests before heading to the required destination. Obviously when I get there I found that I was too late and some of my crew members had perished. Ordinarily I would have been okay with that and just carried on but because of the emotional attachment that had been built up over the last 70 hours or so I was willing to go back and replay the last six hours to do my mistake.
The ending of the game will leave physically and emotionally drained as it ratchets up the excitement and tension worthy of any Oscar.
With the third game on its way there has never been a better time to jump in to this ever-increasing and vibrant universe.
For regular readers of my review you will note that I'm not forthcoming in my five-star review but considering this game on his own and in conjunction with the first there is no other rating that it can be awarded.
I played the first one seems like years ago now. And it was nothing spectacular. Some high points. But overall a bit of a trudge. So I thought, dont bother with the second one. Fair enough. Over.
Then one bored day, I saw the price had dropped, checked out a couple of reviews. Saw they were uniformly enthusiastic and didnt seem to be 'paid for reviews' so I thought why not?
Inside the first five minutes, seriously. I was hooked. The game is the game. Whatever. You can read about the graphics etc.. elsewhere if you want. It was the effect that was interesting to me. When I was playing this game for the first time, it was amazing. It sucks you in farther than any other game. This is from a number of things, dialog, visuals, voice acting. But I would argue the primary mode is when you realise where you are going and you realise that your actions will actually have a real and very marked effect on the ending. You realise you can fail. You realise characters can actually die. Noone is safe. And there wont be some scripted cop out at the end.
I implore you to play this game. And to think about your actions, because in this game, finally, they matter.
It's kind of optimistic to assume that a game is going to automatically get a sequel, but fortunately for RPG fans, Mass Effect 2 has finally seen the light of day, with a third game planned. You can begin the game as a new character or import your old character from Mass Effect 1. If you choose the latter option, you'll get to see the result of some of the decisions you made in the first game. They don't affect the actual game's plot much, but it's good to see that there's some consequences to your actions.
Gameplay in Mass Effect 2 involves running around shooting things and, talking to people. Or talking to people and then shooting them - it's entirely up to you. I don't want to give too much of the game's plot away, but there's an evil force threatening the galaxy and it's up to you to recruit a team of badasses to combat it. There are a couple of characters who return from the original game, but there are another seven characters who you haven't seen before. And the cool thing is that, depending upon what you do during the game, they may not survive through to the end of ME2.
There are plenty of quests in Mass Effect 2 - most of them focusing on winning over your non-player character companions. You also get a couple of others if you buy the game new because, like Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 2 denies you downloadable content if you buy a second hand copy of the game. It's a sneaky way of trying to ensure the publisher gets more money. But then again, there's enough content without this extra DLC to keep you going for a good twenty hours plus.
Mass Effect 2's graphics haven't been improved all that much, though the main character does have more animations which is a neat touch. What is a welcome change is that the actual areas you get to explore are a hell of a lot more varied than they were in Mass Effect 1 - so you don't find yourself wandering around a bunch of identical military bases. Another good addition is the way that you can interrupt certain conversations by pressing a button in time. So if you see one of your characters going for their gun you can stop them, if you're feeling charitable. Or if you want to be a bit of a cad, one scene gives you the option of hurling someone to their deaths just as they're speaking.
That's not to say Mass Effect 2 is all about being breathlessly evil or a complete saint. Like Mass Effect 1, many of the choices you're offered are quite morally ambiguous, leaving you wondering if you did the right thing or not. The storyline's also not bad, although it feels slightly epic than Mass Effect 1's did, and there are less character abilities to play with. But it's still a hugely enjoyable game, and if you're into sci-fi or RPGs or just want a game where you can headbutt an alien - yes, really - then Mass Effect 2 is for you.
(review by me, originally posted on Freeola)
~ Overview ~
This game is truly amazing, because it's basically a big expansion pack from the first game. You fight against the same species, and another good thing is, if you played the first mass effect, you can continue it further in this game, so at the end where you ended the game, when you start this game you can expand it further, you need to fight against the people who have tried to kill you, and continue the storyline.
~ Game options ~
~Motion blur~ if you change your view rapidly, the resulting slight blur in the image may improve visual quality and realism for some people, while others may find it distracting. A comparison is provided above however this is a difficult effect to capture in screenshots.
Note that enabling Motion Blur does reduce FPS slightly, but ultimately you should decide whether to use it or not based more on how you feel about its visual impact, and bear in mind that it can also help cover up the shimmering from jagged edges in the game.
Sound: the game will automatic set your performance to you hardware compatible, however if you installed the correct drivers for your sound card, you can enable it yourself as well, but be aware choose the correct format otherwise you will end up with no sound!
you can set the mouse sensitivity as you wish, but keep in mind that you need to kill your opponent easy and quickly so set it to a average speed, you can also disable VSync because the it is known to be a issue and known to cause lag, it also reduces the performance which can make a mouse lag more.
~ Controls ~
You can adjust the controls how you like, in each game the standard movement and control keys are, w,s,a,d you can change them how you like, for e.g with the up-down-left-right buttons on the keyboard, or you can let it stay as it is your choice.
~ Gameplay ~
Basically the same as in the first game, you can choose Casual (easy) Normal, Veteran (hard), choose the one that fits with you, the opponent has the same level as you, so don't be mistaken if you choose the hardest one you will get killed, quicker than the other game types but that speaks for it, you can power up your skills and upgrade it further the higher the more change the upgraded attacker will be successful.
~ Automatic save ~
I suggest enable the automatic settings to save at each important location, if you don't enable it keep in mind to save your games yourself by pressing the f6 button, Nothing is more annoying than losing the save file, also if you managed to have allot of save files, delete allot of them and make each time let's say 2 save points in order to have a backup.
~ Single Player ~
Commander Shepard was killed, but she came back, in another form you need to re-make a new team, you can choose from different Races, allot more races than in the first game, so they thought about a good thing, also the gorgeous Yvonne Strahovski is playing in this game, I would choose her on my team for sure, see for yourself what I mean.
You need to locate and destroy and remaining geth, you will get a new starship because the one you had was lost in the battle, you will meet old friends who were your best mates, you will work for a boss called the Illusive Man, but if you had a renegade reputation he will still force you to do other things.
But you can build your renegade further so people will be afraid of you once again, isn't that nice in order to complete each task quickly people need to be afraid of you, so the task is watch your codex for the important details and basically, exclude them in the task.
If you bought the game, there are also expansive packs called (dlc) download able content. It is useful when you played this game out, well it might take you a while, but if you do you can continue it because you get a DLC, and you can continue a couple of missions each dlc package has a couple of tasks that need to be completed, build your relationships wisely but be sure to know what you're doing, don't skip the storyline because you are bored, play it with common sense and a soul, because this game rocks!
Copyrighted by Maltiking.
With Mass Effect 1 completed at around 20-30 hours I was lamenting my loss, one of the worst things about something so good is that like all things it must end. I was quite lucky though as it had taken me so long to discover ME1 that by the time I completed it ME2 was already in the shops, thankfully I didn't have a long wait between installments.
Could EA reproduce the magic of the first, could they pull another absolute stunner out of the bag? Thank god the answer was indeed yes they could.
Mass Effect follows on from the first (in both story and character, by that I mean you get a bonus of money and experience if you import a premade character from the first game to play through the second). I won't give anything about the story away as it's a big part of the whole experience. In a nutshell Shepard (the hero of the title) is involved in an explosion, he is bought back to life by a sinister company (easy to guess who if you've played the first), the geth are no longer the formidable force they once were and a new threat has arisen in the form of the collector. A new threat but a familiar source, are the collectors linked with the reapers? And so a new chapter within the ME universe begins.
Thankfully the game is similar in style and content to the first, it just feels bigger and more expanded this time around. Many more interesting alien environments and characters, with a slightly more streamlined cover system, more exciting missions and a new research /mining element where rare elements are mined from planets and used in the research and manufacture of new weapons, armours and upgrades.
For those who haven't had any experience with the series so far, the game is an rpg action hybrid with plenty of conversation options. It features a spectacular storyline and a wonderfully atmospheric musical score. Controls are simple yet effective and theres plenty of character customization.
If you loved the first theres more to love in the second, if you never played the first don't even thiking about skipping the first one like I almost did. Playing through the first will make the second even better.
If you are into gaming (even in a casual capacity) then there is no question, ME1 and ME2 are two of the best games ever released pure and simple, Bring on ME3 baby!!!
I had been following this game for a very long time before it's release because I found that the original Mass Effect was truly amazing. The story continues on directly after the events of the previous game. It follows the path of Commander Shepherd as he commences on his mission to wipe out a new threat that is harassing the galaxy.
As soon as I put the CD in the computer, I could not wait to play it. I had very high hopes for this game as my friend told me it was amazing. This was definitely true. With some games, you have parts that you enjoy, and parts that you don't; with this game, it gripped me right through and never failed to disappoint.
This game definetely looks best on the PC version. With a powerful enough PC, this game looks absolutely stunning. Everything that you would expect to have improved from the first game, has by no doubt. The animations are more fluid and realistic, the characters look amazing and the landscapes have their moments too.
As quoted by one of the developers of the game, "the weapons feel much more powerful" in the game. This was one problem that I always had with the first game; the weapons did not feel powerful enough and too light for their size. In Mass Effect 2, the weapons have definitely improved and even the pistol packs quite a punch and you can almost "feel" the recoil. Furthermore, the combat seems to flow and happen more realistically and enemies do not simply run towards you.
I have always loved the story and ideas behind these games. This one is by all means extraordinary. Each character you work with/meet has an interesting background story. The whole universe has interesting facts about it that you can learn from the codex which returns from the original game. The main story is full of plot twists and once again your actions seriously (i mean it) have an impact on the story line. It's simply great.
This is one of the most epic/brilliant games I have played in a long time. Bioware continues to create top quality product. I loved every aspect of this game and can't imagine if the third episode in the saga will top it. I recommend it to anyone who like a great sci-fi story whilst also enjoying a great game. Hope you like it as much as I did.!
What can I say, I have been waiting for the release of mass effect two since I completed and played Mass Effect, in Mass Effect 2 you once again take on the role of Commander Shepard, you can choose to play a male version, or like me choose to play a female version. What I love most about this game is that it remembers the choices that you have made from Mass Effect and rolls them over into the second version of the game, this completely changes the way other characters react to you for example for me I saved the council at the end of Mass Effect so the game starts, "She saved the council blah blah blah" yet if you start a new game with no saved data it "The council are dead, humanity has it place blah blah." I wont spoil it to much but I find it touches like that that make the game and once again though out the game you get to choose your own responses to situations which will have a good (Paragon) effect or a negative (Renegade) effect, for example you can choose to be sympathetic and stern or choose to be a bully and push someone out of a window, of course depending on your options the other people in your team will react differently to you. Build up enough points in Paragon or Renegade and it unlocks extra choices later on in the game which are highlighted in blue for Paragon or Red for Renegade, these can be quick fixes in situations without going through an entire conversation and trying to convince someone to do something.
The map in Mass Effect two is completely different and gives you more control over the game in whole, it will show you which sectors you have explored by giving you a percentage marker which is really handy, another feature in the game that can affect your endgame is if you choose to get a team member to become loyal to you, this usually involves further missions to help them out and to get them onside and once again in these missions the game with throw up some interesting choices. As in Mass Effect you can also develop in game relationships, I've completed the game twice, the first time I was completely faithful to my love "Kaiden, sorry Ashley, I had to choose " which will be saved to my save game file and then the second time I tried to go out with everyone but once again the game makes you choose only one, but the choice is yours. Overall this game is fantastic, ten out of ten, I can't wait for the ultimate climate with Mass Effect 3, but guess that's a couple of years off yet.
Mass Effect 2 is one of the best games i've ever played; the only annoying thing is that despite a liberal attitude and the fact that female Shephards can sleep with their personal assistant, they can't have a meaningful relationship with a female team mate and the same is true of the male Shephards with male team mates. The recurring characters are nice, as is decisions in Mass Effect 1 carrying over. There are some nicely brutal combat situations and a much improved upgrade / weaponry system. The mining is a good sub game and the loyalty plot twist is helpful. The development of histories of various races and Cerberus is excellent - however the human characters are a little one dimensional and Jacob in particular is just wooden. I guess he was supposed to be a Kaiden style character but he was a little flat and expressionless, even during his loyalty mission. That said, an entirely engrossing game that kept me occupied for weeks.
Mass Effect 2 is a science fiction role-playing game, in which you take on the role of Commander Shepherd, a human hero seeking to protect mankind from a sinister alien threat.
Mass Effect 2 is set in a custom sci fi universe created solely for the game. The universe in question is a detailed an interesting one, the various alien races, the technology, the institutions are all well though out. It is also beautifully rendered with some very impressive graphics.
The plot, without going into too much detail, revolves around Shepherds efforts to recruit a crew of
humans and aliens, the best the galaxy has to offer, in order to fight off a threat to the human colonies that lie outside the control of the central government. For each crew member there is a mission to recruit them, and then a further mission to secure their loyalty and unlock extra powers. Slowly you can build up a loyal team from which to choose your sidekicks. You will also find extra technology as your missions progress.
In terms of game play Mass Effect is pretty basic. It's a first person shooter in which you control shepherd and can give orders to two squad mates. Each has up to four powers, but it has to be said they are pretty basic. The levelling system allows you to advance these powers, but by the scope of most role-playing games, the selection of abilities and the levelling options are very limited.
Where Mass Effect 2 shines is ins excellent plot, dialogue, and tie ins to the original mass effect. If you played the first game you can load not just your character, but the "game universe" as you left it, and Mass Effect 2 will reflect the big decisions you made in Mass Effect. Voice acting is also excellent and features an all star cast.
All in all, Mass Effect two looks is highly polished, and entertaining as far as the plot and graphics are concerned, game play is acceptable, but by no means outstanding. If you're the sort of person who likes to tinker a lot with your characters though, you'll be somewhat disappointed. Definitely an improvement over the original Mass Effect , but still falls short of the game Bioware are trying to emulate, KOTOR.
Wow! Brilliant, mass effect 2 is possible the best game ever made. Mass Effect 2 picks up from were Mass Effect left off, you once again assume the role of the heroic, and sometimes not so heroic commander Sheppard in order to save the galaxy from evil. Everything about this game is amazing, the RPG element of the game has been streamlined from the first game to make it faster paced and more enjoyable, the plot decisions you made from the first game also can be carried over to this game and you get to see, in full glory the ramifications of your actions. Not only is it an awesome RPG with memorable characters and great dialogue but it is also and epic third person shooter. It has once of the best combat systems I've ever seen in a game, which makes for an adrenaline fuelled ride from the word go. If you play one game this year it should be this one. I recommend this to all.
Following on the excellent Xbox 360 and PC game Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 is every bit the brilliant game that original was, and then some. Gone are the irritating glitches that made the first game a bit of a pain to play, and this is just a thoroughly entertaining experience from start to finish.
The game has you again controlling Commander Shepherd, but the twist is that you can import your save from the first game, and it will remember the choices you've made and people you've met. It doesn't have a huge impact, but it will alter dialogues and minor situations, which is a lovely touch. The main plot of the game has you attempting to assemble a team to take on the mighty Collectors, who are threatening the humans. You travel all over the galaxy to convince the toughest of the toughest to join you in what is a glorified suicide mission.
Presentationally, this is an amazing game throughout; the sci-fi style is torn right out of Blade Runner, but has firmly managed to imprint its own stamp on the genre also, from the alien strip clubs to the space exploration areas. The graphics are superb, and I was amazed that even on my aging rig, this still looked fantastic and had a fast frame-rate. Aurally, the game is also stunning; the voice acting is among the best of the generation, and the electronic soundtrack has a fair few nods to Blade Runner's score by Vangelis.
My only complaint is that the process of recruiting people for the final battle is fairly repetitive, and you spend most of the time doing this. It makes it feel much ado about nothing, but the juice is worth the squeeze, as the epic battle of all battles is an excellent payoff.
With Hollywood-grade presentation, excellent gameplay and having addressed the issues that marred the previous game, this is a cracking title that you HAVE to get.


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GUS POYET revealed he has a long list of excuses that have hampered his mission to keep Sunderland in the Premier League, but the head coach insists he will not use any of them should his side lose their battle against the drop.
Results over the weekend mean the Black Cats go into tonight's crucial game at Tottenham lying bottom of the Premier League and seven points adrift of safety.
Wins for West Brom and Fulham make their trip to White Hart Lane even more important despite having three games in hand over their rivals at the bottom and anything other than a win this evening would see the odds stack up against them to survive.
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Poyet's side have been on a torrid run of form having failed to win a league game since the Tyne-Wear derby on February 1, but those also battling against the drop have begun to pick up form.
With eight games left to save themselves from the drop, Poyet revealed he keeps putting off plans for next season until it is confirmed which league his side will be playing in even if the summer is likely to bring wholesale changes to the squad.
"Yesterday (Thursday) I was sat in front of my computer and I said 'no, next week,'" the Black Cats boss revealed.
"Let's give it one more week. I think it would be as if we were accepting it and I don't want to accept it, but I need to be professional. It's the worst part of the situation we are in."
Poyet was handed another unwelcome distraction last week when it emerged Sunderland had fielded Ji Dong-Won without international clearance at the beginning of the season with the club receiving a six-figure fine from the Premier League for the error.
Although the Black Cats are confident they will face no further action – other teams have been docked points for similar mistakes – the head coach admitted it was the latest in a long list of excuses that have made his quest to steer his side to safety even more difficult.
Poyet hinted there has been a long line of problems to sort out from the previous regime of Paolo Di Canio and Roberto de Fanti, but the Uruguayan insists he will not use them as excuses should his side suffer relegation.
He said: "I hope you understand what I'm going to say because it's the way I feel. I hate excuses, but I've got a lot of them. I've got a list. If I gave you everything that happened, mamma mia I've got excuses."
After last Monday's defeat to West Ham, Poyet warned his players he would walk away if they didn't show any fight in their remaining games.
The Black Cats boss admitted he will have to question his future if the squad does not respond to his rallying calls, but revealed he would leave any decision up to the powers that be at the Stadium of Light.
"It is a problem if it becomes personal, because if my team on the pitch doesn't try the best, then I need to be honest and ask why I am here," Poyet said.
"If I cannot even make a team fight for relegation, then you have to think about it. If we do on Monday what we did against Liverpool then we have got a great chance so let's not give me another excuse.
"If we play the way that we played this week then I won't go, but that's what I say. I can't say what the gaffer is going to do. That is another situation.
"I am always committed and I don't hide away from responsibility. If we go down I am going to be responsible. I am not going to say how much, but I will take my responsibility naturally.
"I will hate it. I will be devastated and it will probably be one of the worst holidays of my life, but that's part of the job and the challenge. I will be here if they let me."
The Black Cats boss was criticised for not starting Adam Johnson last Monday, but he revealed the midfielder is likely to start in north London tonight.
With his side struggling to score goals, Poyet even revealed he will consider playing Johnson in a more advanced role is an option.
"I talked to Adam after Liverpool. I didn't after the last game," Poyet revealed. "I hope he can have the same impact starting the next game. I would love that.
"That would make us stay up for sure. It's pressure on Adam, but he is one player who can handle pressure because of where he's coming from, what he has done, the internationals he has played. He is one of the main players at the club.
"Starting him up front is a good option. Have you been watching training?! He can play up front but it depends on how we play and the players coming from behind. It could be a nice combination but it is a good option."

subset: commoncrawl


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1 Petersburg
It was an old play of his, written in France back in 1849; promptly banned by the censor, and licensed for publication only in 1855. It first reached the stage seventeen years later, when it ran for a pitiful five nights in Moscow. Now, thirty years after its conception, she had telegraphed asking permission to abridge it for Petersburg. He agreed, while gently protesting that this juvenile invention had been meant for the page, not the stage. He added that the play was unworthy of her great talent. This was a typical gallantry: he had never seen her act.
Like most of his life's writing, the play was concerned with love. And as in his life, so in his writing: love did not work. Love might or might not provoke kindness, gratify vanity, and clear the skin, but it did not lead to happiness; there was always an inequality of feeling or intention present. Such was love's nature. Of course, it "worked" in the sense that it caused life's profoundest emotions, made him fresh as spring's linden-blossom and broke him like a traitor on the wheel. It stirred him from well-mannered timidity to relative boldness, though a rather theoretical boldness, one tragicomically incapable of action. It taught him the gulping folly of anticipation, the wretchedness of failure, the whine of regret, and the silly fondness of remembrance. He knew love well. He also knew himself well. Thirty years earlier, he had written himself into the part of Rakitin, who offers the audience his conclusions about love: "In my opinion, Alexei Nikolaevich, every love, happy as well as unhappy, is a real disaster when you give yourself over to it entirely." These views were deleted by the censor.
He had assumed she would play the female lead, Natalya Petrovna, the married woman who falls in love with her son's tutor. Instead, she chose to be Natalya's ward Verochka, who, in the way of plays, also falls in love with the tutor. The production opened; he came to Petersburg; she called on him in his rooms at the Hotel de l'Europe. She had expected to be intimidated, but found herself charmed by the "elegant and likeable grandpa" that she discovered. He treated her like a child. Was this so surprising? She was twenty-five, he was sixty.
On the 27th of March he went to a performance of his play. Despite hiding in the depths of the director's box, he was recognised, and at the end of the second act the audience started calling his name. She came to take him onstage; he refused, but took a bow from the box. After the next act, he went to her dressing-room, where he grasped her hands and examined her beneath the gaslight. "Verochka," he said. "Have I really written this Verochka? I never paid her much attention when I was writing. The focal point of the play for me was Natalya Petrovna. But you are the living Verochka."
2 The Real Journey
So did he fall in love with his own creation? Verochka onstage beneath the floodlight, Verochka offstage beneath the gaslight, his Verochka, now prized the more for having been overlooked in his own text thirty years earlier? If love, as some assert, is a purely self-referring business, if the object of love is finally unimportant because what lovers value are their own emotions, then what more appropriate circularity than for a dramatist to fall in love with his own creation? Who needs the interference of the real person, the real her beneath the sunlight, the lamplight, the heartlight? Here is a photo of Verochka dressed as for the schoolroom: timid and appealing, with ardour in her eyes and an open palm denoting trust.
But if this confusion occurred, she incited it. Years later, she wrote in her memoirs, "I did not play Verochka, I performed a sacred rite... I felt quite distinctly that Verochka and I were the same person." So we should be forgiving if "the living Verochka" was what first moved him; what first moved her was perhaps something else that didn't exist - the author of the play, now himself long gone, thirty years away. And let's also remember that he knew this would be his last love. He was an old man now. He was applauded wherever he went as an institution, the representative of an era, someone whose work was done. Abroad, they hung gowns and ribbons on him. He was sixty, old by choice as well as fact. A year or two earlier, he had written: "After the age of forty there is only one word to sum up the basis of life: Renunciation." Now he was half as old again as that defining anniversary. He was sixty, she was twenty-five.
In letters, he kissed her hands, he kissed her feet. For her birthday, he sent a gold bracelet with their two names engraved inside. "I feel now," he wrote, "that I love you sincerely. I feel that you have become something in my life from which I shall never be parted." The phrasing is conventional. Were they lovers? It seems not. For him, it was a love predicated upon renunciation, whose excitements were called if-only and what-might-have-been.
But all love needs a journey. All love symbolically is a journey, and that journey needs bodying forth. Their journey took place on the 28th of May 1880. He was staying on his country estate; he pressed her to visit him there. She couldn't: she was an actress, at work, on tour; even she had things that must be renounced. But she would be travelling from Petersburg to Odessa; her route could take her through Mtsensk and Oryol. He consulted the timetable for her. Three trains left Moscow along the Kursk line. The 12.30, the 4 o'clock, and the 8.30: the express, the mail, and the slow train. Respective arrivals at Mtsensk: 10 in the evening, 4.30 in the morning, and 9.45 in the morning. There was the practicality of romance to be considered. Should the beloved arrive with the post, or on the railway's equivalent of the red-eye? He urged her to take the 12.30, redefining its arrival more exactly to 9.55 p.m.
There is an ironic side to this precision. He was himself notoriously unpunctual. At one time, affectedly, he carried a dozen watches on his person; even so, he would be hours late for a rendezvous. But on May the 6th, trembling like a youth, he met the 9.55 express at the little station of Mtsensk. Night had fallen. He boarded the train. It was thirty miles from Mtsensk to Oryol.
He sat in her compartment for those thirty miles. He gazed at her, he kissed her hands, he inhaled the air she exhaled. He did not dare to kiss her lips: renunciation. Or, he tried to kiss her lips and she turned her face away: embarrassment, humiliation. The banality too, at his age. Or, he kissed her and she kissed him back as ardently: surprise, and leaping fear. We cannot tell: his diary was later burned, her letters have not survived. All we have are his subsequent letters, whose gauge of reliability is that they date this May journey to the month of June. We know that she had a travelling companion, Raisa Alexeyevna. What did she do? Feign sleep, pretend to have sudden night vision for the darkened landscape, retreat behind a volume of Tolstoy? Thirty miles passed. He got off the train at Oryol. She sat at her window, waving her handkerchief to him as the express took her on towards Odessa.
No, even that handkerchief is invented. But the point is, they had had their journey. Now it could be remembered, improved, turned into the embodiment, the actuality of the if-only. He continued to invoke it until his death. It was, in a sense, his last journey, the last journey of the heart. "My life is behind me," he wrote, "and that hour spent in the railway compartment, when I almost felt like a twenty-year-old youth, was the last burst of flame."
Does he mean he almost got an erection? Our knowing age rebukes its predecessor for its platitudes and evasions, its sparks, its flames, its fires, its imprecise scorchings. Love isn't a bonfire, for God's sake, it's a hard cock and a wet cunt, we growl at these swooning, renouncing people. Get on with it! Why on earth didn't you? Cock-scared, cunt-bolted tribe of people! Hand-kissing! It's perfectly obvious what you really wanted to kiss. So why not? And on a train too. You'd just have to hold your tongue in place and let the movement of the train do the work for you. Clackety-clack, clackety-clack!
When did you last have your hands kissed? And if you did, how do you know he was any good at it? (Further, when did anyone last write to you about kissing your hands?) Here is the argument for the world of renunciation. If we know more about consummation, they knew more about desire. If we know more about numbers, they knew more about despair. If we know more about boasting, they knew more about memory. They had foot-kissing, we have toe-sucking. You still prefer our side of the equation? You may well be right. Then try a simpler formulation: if we know more about sex, they knew more about love.
Or perhaps this is quite wrong, and we mistake the gradations of courtly style for realism. Perhaps foot-kissing always meant toe-sucking. He also wrote to her: "I kiss your little hands, your little feet, kiss everything you will allow me to kiss, and even that which you will not." Isn't this clear enough, to both writer and recipient? And if so, then perhaps the converse is also true: that heart-reading was just as coarsely practised then as it is now.
But as we mock these genteel fumblers of a previous era, we should prepare ourselves for the jeers of a later century. How come we never think of that? We believe in evolution, at least in the sense of evolution culminating in us. We forget that this entails evolution beyond our solipsistic selves. Those old Russians were good at dreaming a better time, and idly we claim their dreams as our applause.
While her train continued towards Odessa, he spent the night at a hotel in Oryol. A bipolar night, splendid in his thoughts of her, miserable because this prevented him from sleeping. The voluptuousness of renunciation was now upon him. "I find my lips murmuring, 'What a night we should have spent together!' " To which our practical and irritated century replies, "Take another train then! Try kissing her wherever it was you didn't!"
Such action would be far too dangerous. He must preserve the impossibility of love. So he offers her an extravagant if-only. He confesses that as her train was about to leave he was suddenly tempted by the "madness" of abducting her. It was a temptation he typically renounced: "The bell rang, and ciao, as the Italians say." But think of the newspaper headlines if he had carried out his momentary plan. "SCANDAL AT ORYOL RAILWAY STATION," he delightedly imagines to her. If only. "An extraordinary event took place here yesterday: the author T-, an elderly man, was accompanying the celebrated actress S-, who was travelling to Odessa for a brilliant season in the theatre there, when, just as the train was about to pull out, he, as though possessed by the devil in person, extracted Madame S- through the window of her compartment and, overcoming the artiste's desperate efforts, etc, etc." If only. The real moment - the possible handkerchief being waved at the window, the probable station gaslight falling on the whitened crest of an old man - is rewritten into farce and melodrama, into journalese and "madness". The alluring hypothetical does not refer to the future; it is safely lodged in the past. The bell rang, and ciao, as the Italians say.
He also had another tactic: that of hurrying on into the future in order to confirm the impossibility of love in the present. Already, and without "anything" having happened, he is looking back on this would-have-been something. "If we meet again in another two or three years, I shall be an old, old man. As for you, you will have entered definitively upon the normal course of your life and nothing will remain of our past..." Two years, he thought, would turn an old man into an old, old one; while "normal life" is already waiting for her in the banal yet timely shape of an officer of hussars, clanking his spurs offstage and snorting like a horse. NN Vsevolozhsky. How useful the thunderous uniform was to the gauntly bent civilian.
We should not, by this point, still be thinking of Verochka, the naïve, unfortunate ward. The actress who embodied her was robust, temperamental, bohemian. She was already married, and seeking a divorce to acquire her hussar; she would marry three times in all. Her letters have not survived. Did she lead him on? Was she a little in love with him? Was she, perhaps, more than a little in love with him, yet dismayed by his expectation of failure, his voluptuous renunciations? Did she, perhaps, feel just as trapped by his past as he did? If love for him had always meant defeat, why should it be any different with her? If you marry a foot-fetishist, you shouldn't be surprised to find him curled up in your shoe-cupboard.
When he recalled that journey in letters to her, he made oblique references to the word "bolt". Was this the lock on the compartment, on her lips, on her heart? Or the lock on his flesh? "You know what the predicament of Tantalus was?" he wrote. The predicament of Tantalus was to be tortured in the infernal regions by endless thirst; he was up to his neck in water, but whenever he bent his head to drink, the river would run away from him. Are we to conclude from this that he tried to kiss her, but that whenever he advanced, she retreated, withdrawing her wet mouth?
On the other hand, a year later, when everything is safe and stylised, he writes this: "You say, at the end of your letter, 'I kiss you warmly'. How? Do you mean, as you did then, on that June night, in the railway compartment? If I live a hundred years I will never forget those kisses." May has become June, the timid suitor has become the recipient of myriad kisses, the bolt has been slid back a little. Is this the truth, or is that the truth? We, now, would like it to be neat then, but it is rarely neat; whether the heart drags in sex, or sex drags in the heart.
3 The Dream Journey
He travelled. She travelled. But they did not travel; never again. She visited him at his estate, she swam in his pond - "the Undine of Saint Petersburg" he called her - and when she left he named the room in which she had slept after her. He kissed her hands, he kissed her feet. They met, they corresponded until his death, after which she protected his memory from vulgar interpretation. But thirty miles was all they travelled together.
They could have travelled. If only... if only.
But he was a connoisseur of the if-only, and so they did travel. They travelled in the past conditional.
She was about to marry for the second time. NN Vsevolozhsky, officer of hussars, clank, clank. When she asked his opinion of her choice, he declined to play. "It is too late to ask for my opinion. Le vin est tiré - il faut le boire." Was she asking him, artist to artist, for his view of the conventional marriage she was about to make to a man with whom she had little in common? Or was it more than this? Was she proposing her own if-only, asking him to sanction the jilting of her fiancé?
But Grandpa, who himself had never married, declines either to sanction or applaud. Le vin est tiré - il faut le boire. Does he have a habit of lapsing into foreign phrases at key emotional moments? Do French and Italian provide the suave euphemisms which help him evade?
Of course, if he had encouraged a late withdrawal from her second marriage, that would have let in too much reality, let in the present tense. He closes it off: drink the wine. This instruction given, fantasy can resume. In his next letter, twenty days later, he writes, "For my part, I am dreaming about how good it would be to travel about - just the two of us - for at least a month, and in such a way that no one would know who or where we were."
It is a normal dream of escape. Alone together, anonymous, time on one's hands. It is also, of course, a honeymoon. And where would the sophisticated artistic class go for their honeymoon if not to Italy? "Just imagine the following picture," he teases. "Venice (perhaps in October, the best month in Italy) or Rome. Two foreigners in travelling clothes - one tall, clumsy, white-haired, long-legged, but very contented; the other a slender lady with remarkable dark eyes and black hair. Let us suppose her contented as well. They walk about the town, ride in gondolas. They visit galleries, churches, and so on, they dine together in the evening, they are at the theatre together - and then? There my imagination stops respectfully. Is it in order to conceal something, or because there is nothing to conceal?"
Did his imagination stop respectfully? Ours doesn't. It seems pretty plain to us in our subsequent century. A crumbling gentleman in a crumbling city on a surrogate honeymoon with a young actress. The gondoliers are splish-sploshing them back to their hotel after an intimate supper, the soundtrack is operetta, and we need to be told what happens next? We are not talking about reality, so the feebleness of elderly, alcohol-weakened flesh is not an issue; we are very safely in the conditional tense, with the travelling rug tucked round us. So... if only... if only... then you would have fucked her, wouldn't you? No denying it.
Elaborating the Venice honeymoon fantasy with a woman still between husbands has its dangers. Of course, you have again renounced her, so there is small risk that by exciting her imagination you might find her outside your front door one morning, perched on a travelling trunk and coyly fanning herself with her passport. No: the more real danger is of pain. Renunciation means the avoidance of love, and hence of pain, but even in this avoidance there are traps. There is pain to be had, for instance, in the comparison between the Venetian capriccio of your respectful imagination and the impending reality of her getting disrespectfully fucked on her actual honeymoon by an officer of hussars, NN Vsevolozhsky, who is as unfamiliar with the Accademia as he is with the unreliabilities of the flesh.
What heals pain? Time, the old wiseacres respond. You know better. You are wise enough to know that time does not always heal pain. The conventional image of the amatory bonfire, the eyeball-drying flame which dies to sad ashes, needs adjusting. Try instead a hissing gas-jet that scorches if you will but also does worse: it gives light, jaundicing, flat-shadowed and remorseless, the sort of light that catches an old man on a provincial platform as the train pulls out, a valetudinarian who watches a yellow window and a twitching hand withdraw from his life, who walks after the train a few paces as it curves into invisibility, who fixes his eye upon the red lamp of the guard's wagon, holds on that until it is less than a ruby planet in the night sky, then turns away and finds himself still beneath a platform lamp, alone, with nothing to do except wait out the hours in a musty hotel, convincing himself he has won while knowing truly that he has lost, filling his sleeplessness with cosy if-onlies, and then return to the station and stand alone once more, in a kinder light but to make a crueller journey, back along those thirty miles he had travelled with her the previous night. The passage from Mtsensk to Oryol, which he will commemorate for the rest of his life, is always shadowed by that unrecorded return from Oryol to Mtsensk.
So he proposes a second dream journey, again to Italy. By now she is married, a change of status that is not an interesting subject for discussion. Drink the wine. She is going to Italy, perhaps with her husband, though travelling companions are not inquired after. He approves the journey, if only because it lets him offer her an alternative; not a rivalrous honeymoon this time, but a trip back in the painless past conditional. "I spent ten of the most delightful days in Florence, many, many years ago." This use of time anaesthetises pain. It was so many, many years ago that he was then "still under forty" - before the basis for life became renunciation. "Florence left on me the most fascinating and poetic impression - even though I was there alone. What it would have been like, had I been in the company of a woman who was understanding, good and beautiful - that above all!"
This is safe. The fantasy is manageable, his gift a false memory. A few decades later, the political leaders of his country would specialise in airbrushing the downfallen from history, in removing their photographic traces. Now here he is, bent over his album of memories, meticulously inserting the figure of a past companion. Paste it in, that photograph of the timid, appealing Verochka, while the lamplight rejuvenates your white hair into black shadow.
4 At Yasnaya Polyana
Shortly after meeting her, he had gone to stay with Tolstoy, who took him out shooting. He was put in the best hide, over which snipe habitually passed. But that day, for him, the sky remained empty. Every so often, a shot would ring out from Tolstoy's hide; then another; then another. All the snipe were flying to Tolstoy's gun. It seemed typical. He himself shot a single bird, which the dogs failed to find.
Tolstoy thought him ineffectual, vacillating, unmanly, a frivolous socialiser and a despicable westerniser; embraced him, loathed him, spent a week in Dijon with him, quarrelled with him, forgave him, valued him, visited him, challenged him to a duel, embraced him, scorned him. This is how Tolstoy expressed sympathy when he lay dying in France: "The news of your illness has caused me much sorrow, especially when I was assured it was serious. I realised how much I cared for you. I felt that I should be much grieved if you were to die before me."
Tolstoy at this time despised the taste for renunciation. Later, he began railing at the lusts of the flesh and idealising a Christian peasant simplicity. His attempts at chastity failed with comic frequency. Was he a fraud, a fake renunciator; or was it more that he lacked the skills, and his flesh declined renunciation? Three decades later he died on a railway station. His last words were not, "The bell rang, and ciao, as the Italians say." Does the successful renunciator envy his unsuccessful counterpart? There are ex-smokers who decline the offered cigarette but say, "Blow the smoke in my direction."
She was travelling; she was working; she was married. He asked her to send him a plaster cast of her hand. He had kissed the real thing so many times, kissed an imagined version of the real thing in almost every letter he wrote her. Now he could lay his lips on a plaster version. Is plaster nearer to flesh than air? Or did the plaster turn his love and her flesh into a memorial? There is an irony to his request: normally it is the writer whose creative hand is cast in plaster; and normally by the time this is done he is dead.
So he proceeded deeper into old age, knowing that she was - had already been - his last love. And since form was his business, did he at this time remember his first love? He was a specialist in the matter. Did he reflect that first love fixes a life for ever? Either it impels you to repeat the same kind of love and fetishises its components; or else it is there as warning, trap, counter-example.
His own first love had taken place fifty years before. She had been a certain Princess Shakhovskaya. He was fourteen, she was in her twenties; he adored her, she treated him like a child. This puzzled him until the day he found out why. She was already his father's mistress.
The year after he shot snipe with Tolstoy, he visited Yasnaya Polyana again. It was Sonya Tolstoy's birthday, and the house was full of guests. He proposed that each of them should recount the happiest moment of their lives. When his own turn in his own game arrived, he announced, with an exalted air and a familiar melancholy smile: "The happiest moment of my life is, of course, the moment of love. It is the moment when you meet the eyes of the woman you love and sense that she loves you too. This has happened to me once, perhaps twice." Tolstoy found this answer irritating.
Later, when the young people insisted upon dancing, he demonstrated what was new in Paris. He took off his jacket, stuck his thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat and capered about, legs kicking, head waggling, white hair flopping, as the household clapped and cheered; he panted, capered, panted, capered, then fell over and collapsed into an armchair. It was a great success. Tolstoy wrote in his journal: "Turgenev - can-can. Sad."
"Once, perhaps twice." Was she the "perhaps twice"? Perhaps. In his penultimate letter, he kisses her hands. In his last letter, written in failing pencil, he does not offer kisses. He writes instead: "I do not change in my affections - and I shall keep exactly the same feeling for you until the end."
This end came six months later. The plaster cast of her hand is now in the Theatre Museum of Saint Petersburg, the city where he had first kissed the original.
© Julian Barnes 2004 The Lemon Table is published by Jonathan Cape this week, price £16.99


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Home > Book (Nonfiction) > Other Books > True Love > Chapter 2
True Love
Author's note: A 19 years old girl having a true love and able to love a different man that contrast from her... Show full author's note »
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HolidaysI just forget about it and busy preparing myself for my exams. After exam all of us back to home for two month semester break. At home I don't have anything to do, so again I start to chase the young man. I create a new account in facebook named Princess Pupu because he blocked me previous facebookok account so couldn't reach him and he changed his mobile number. So I send him friend request again and he accept my request after an hour. I check my chat box.wow!!! Vincent is online...very excited…I start to chat with and he replies all my messages in the chat box. I get know that he is looking for a job. So I plan to look a job for him and ask him to send his resume to my email address. After few minutes, he tells me that he send his resume to my email address. He thanked me. I quickly check my inbox and I download his resume.Oh my god, I just seeking for his new mobile number but now I'm having a complete details about him. That night itself I apply job for him. I just 19 years old and I don't have any experiences in applying jobs. So I request a help from my elder sister and she teach me to do so.I feel like want hear his voice, so I call him and I don't know what to talk,my heart is melting and my hands are shivering ,I just ask him some questions regarding the job application. Just think that his voice make my day. Then, we start to be close but I don't have the dare to tell me real identity to him because I know he won't forget name that easy. So I lie to him about myself including my name, age, and date of birth send him my photos and we just be very close. In the while being close with him, I feel he is a gentleman, I feel I want a husband like him in the future. I don't care whether he is a gay and jobless but I slowly I fall in love with him and I decide to propose him email him about my proposal. After he read my email, he text me that he is shy and I propose him in a cute way. But he refuses my love because he is a gay, jobless, and not an educated person. But I love him so much…even what happen he is my husband and he is my man. He is from poor family, his mother is a rubber tapper and his father is a normal factory worker...he is the elder son in the house and he have two siblings to look after. So after I know all this I want him to be happy as me and I try to help him.
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University City
The city of Toledo is also a university city. The University of Castile-La Mancha (UCLM), created in 1982, has several buildings in the Castile-Mancha capital and one of the most attractive university areas in Spain: the technology campus of the Fábrica de Armas.
The installation of university life into the Castile-Mancha capital has allowed the combination of knowledge and history once more, as Toledo was internationally known in olden days. Learning and university culture have strongly revitalised various areas of the city in many ways, both inside and outside the city walls.
The educational activity of the university takes place in a range of buildings, from the old Real Fábrica de Armas, next to the Tajo to the Church and Convent of San Pedro Mártir, where hundreds of students attend class every day.
The University of Castile-La Mancha is a regional institution that is divided into four Campuses: Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca and Toledo, and extends its teaching to the towns of Almadén and Talavera de la Reina, as well as Puertollano. The province of Guadalajara and its Campus is attached to the University of Alcalá de Henares.
The creation of the University of Castile-La Mancha has brought with it important social progress on radically democratising access of young people to higher education.


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Posted 03 Feb 2016
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Hello telerik team,
I am developing an aspx page (C#, ASP.Net),
In my webform i have four buttons with its own functionality aligned similar to tabs.
If i click button1, then button1 should be highlighted and automatically all the other three buttons should not be highlighted, vise versa to all the three buttons.
Only one clicked button should be highlighted at a time.
Is there any easy ways to achieve it..
Thanks in advance.
Will be more grateful if u people replied a bit faster..
Posted 08 Feb 2016
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Contact us for custom one way vision wedding glasses. We have these three glasses available and you can also customize whatever you would like on the lenses. Contact us at email@example.com
Website: http://www.darkashadeonline.com
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Contemporary Argumentation and Debate: The Journal of the Cross Examination Debate Association, is a refereed journal dedicated to publishing quality scholarship related to the theory and practice of debate (academic and pubic sphere), and argumentation (theoretical and applied).
Vol 36 (2017)
2017 issue of Contemporary Argumentation & Debate.
Table of Contents
Paul E. Mabrey III, Keith Richards


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Your Car's Secret Device Called An Indicator
The secret device on your car is called an "indicator". Yes…it's used for indicating which direction you're going, but THIS particular photo I think gives the BEST description of what it's used for. Since not using it has become such an "epidemic"…hahaha!
Source: weknowmemes


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London - British scientists believe they have found specific patterns of brain activity in children and young people which could be signs or "markers" of those who will later go on to develop mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.Researchers from Nottingham University, who presented their study at the Forum for European Neuroscience in Amsterdam, said the patterns suggest it may be possible in future to identify those at risk of becoming ill before they develop symptoms."If we can identify people who are at particularly high risk of developing schizophrenia, perhaps using neurocognitive brain markers, then we might be able to reduce that risk and also help them to function better," said Dr Maddie Groom, who worked on the study and gave a briefing to reporters in London."If we give them a better start, they may encounter the illness in a more positive way and not get quite so ill."Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are affected by mental, behavioural and neurological illnesses such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, epilepsy and dementia.Behavioural problemsMany people who go on to develop diverse mental health problems will have a history of behavioural problems going back to childhood, but experts say the problem with finding them at that stage is that differences then are often extremely subtle.In one study, Groom and her colleagues investigated looked at the healthy siblings of people with schizophrenia, who also have a very slightly increased risk of developing schizophrenia compared with the general population.Using brain imaging to read activity levels, the scientists asked the siblings to perform task which involved playing an alien-zapping computer game in which they needed to respond quickly, and crucially, halt the urge to respond if the wrong kind of alien popped up. The task was called a "go, no-go" task."When we measured the brain activity of the siblings of people with schizophrenia, their brain activity was reduced at the time when they needed to pay attention to the stimulus, and when they needed to inhibit their response," Groom explained.She said this suggested the subtle differences in brain activity may act as a risk marker for the disorder.In a second study, scientists compared brain activity of children with ADHD - a mental disorder that affects between 8% and 12% of children, and 4% of adults worldwide.The researchers used the same "go, no-go" task in various scenarios, including when the children were taking their medication, Ritalin, and when they were not, and then using an additional system of rewards and penalties.New treatmentsMillions of people take ADHD drugs including Novartis Ritalin, which is known generically as methylphenidate, and Shire Plc's Adderall and Vyvanse. In the US alone, 2008 sales for these drugs was about $4.8bn, according to data from IMS Health.Groom's results showed that children who were taking medication, and children given an incentive, performed better than those who had neither medicines nor incentives.This suggests, Groom said, that doctors may be able to find new ways to treat children with ADHD using a combination of behavioural strategies and drugs.
Whateva, is all about the money, thye just want to get more people (kids) hooked on their drugs. I do not believe them for a second.
It will be good if something can be done at an early age. We experienced a son in law who was schizophrenic and caused my daughter and their children a lot of misery and pain because of his behavior. Ended in a divorce and he is still being treated on and off.
The arguement for the application of preventative drugs is based purely on financial greed. I cannot believe parents would just calmly stand by, to allow 'medical experts' to mess up their children's lives.
The field of classical medicine is based on quackery - that is only out to make a profit at all costs. Of course the pharmaceutical companys don't want you dead - 'coz then you can't pay. They just keep your health always depressed (called 'chronic disease') that you always 'need their support.'


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U-T Offshore System, L.L.C.
Third Revised Volume No. 1
Contents / Previous / Next / Main Tariff Index
Effective Date: 06/01/1997, Docket: RP97-146-001, Status: Effective
Second Revised Sheet No. 50 Second Revised Sheet No. 50 : Superseded
Superseding: First Revised Sheet No. 50
(d) The netting of imbalances does not relieve Shipper of the obligation to
pay all transportation charges for the quantity of gas actually delivered
to Shipper during the month.
(e) Nothing contained in this subsection 8.2 shall require U-TOS to incur a
financial loss as a result of netting excess receipts and excess
deliveries or to continue such netting, if doing so would be inconsistent
with the prudent operation of U-TOS' pipeline system.
8.3 Cashout Procedures. Any imbalance remaining will be cashed out on a tiered
basis pursuant to the following schedule:
IMBALANCE LEVEL (U-TOS Pays Shipper) (Shipper Pays U-TOS)
--------------- -------------------- --------------------
0% to 5% 100% x AMIP 100% x AMIP
Greater than
5% to 10% 90% x AMIP 110% x AMIP
Greater than
10% to 15% 80% x AMIP 120% x AMIP
Greater than
15% to 20% 70% x AMIP 130% x AMIP
Greater than 20% 60% x AMIP 140% x AMIP
(a) A Shipper's remaining imbalance will be cashed out based on the percentage
of that imbalance compared to the total deliveries for that Shipper during
the month. For example, if the Total Deliveries were 1,000 Dth and the
remaining underage imbalance was 100 Dth, the total Imbalance Level would
be 10%. The first 5% (50 Dth) would be cashed out at 100% of the AMIP and
the remaining 50 Dth would be cashed out at 110% of the AMIP.
(b) The Average Monthly Index Price (AMIP) is the arithmetic average of the
Weekly Index Prices (WIPs). The WIP for any week is the arithmetic
average of the following two index prices reported in "Gas Price Report"
issued by "Natural Gas Week":
(1) Louisiana, Gulf Coast, Onshore, Spot Delivered to Pipeline; and
(2) Louisiana, Gulf Coast, Offshore, Spot Delivered to Pipeline.
In calculating the AMIP, the WIPs will be based on the prices reported in
the issue of "Natural Gas Week" dated on or after U-TOS' nomination
deadline for first of the month service for that month, and the subsequent
issues dated prior to U-TOS nomination deadline for the following month's
first of the month service.
(c) Shippers with remaining imbalances shall pay U-TOS or will be credited
with the appropriate cashout amounts.


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This is the first installment of what is intended to be a regular feature here at PhysioProf. I fight the Youtoobz here, so that you don't have to fight them there. Or something like that.
Dylan at his electric peak. And you gotta love the fucking diapers he and his band have on their heads. He looks and sounds really pissed off, too. Talk about channeling that fucking rage!
Woo-Hoo!!!!! Give me a Jameson and a Guinness!! Fuck, yeah!!


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Monetizing LTE Investments: Dynamic Policy Management
LTE makes dynamic policy management possible – giving MSPs unprecedented control over the speed and quality of the actual service experience.
LTE is no longer the future of telecommunications; it is now a key component of the network's infrastructure. Service providers are investing heavily in this technology to meet customer demand as consumers continue to purchase smart phones, tablets and other wireless devices at unprecedented rates. While mobile service providers (MSPs) are expected to deliver a core technical performance, for the subscriber, the experience is centered on the device and apps they are using. Consequently, device manufacturers, content providers and app developers are gaining mindshare and realizing impressive increases in mobile revenues, while MSPs risk losing money as they become viewed as nothing more than data pipes. Fortunately for MSPs, the same LTE technology that makes the data explosion possible also holds the key to improved profitability.
LTE promises greater profitability by enabling the MSPs to improve the subscriber experience while reducing cost per megabit by using a more efficient, all IP infrastructure. In traditional Wireline or Fixed networks, adding additional transmission lines, fatter pipes and improved efficiency were common responses to traffic growth and network congestion. However, this was not a sustainable solution because MSPs do not have unlimited resources and capital. The critical radio spectrum via which LTE and all Mobile Broadband services are delivered is also finite and gains from improved spectrum efficiency will only go so far in expanding network capacity. While increasing capacity with additional spectrum and subsequently improving spectrum efficiency are more important but they will not be enough to handle the substantial growth of mobile data in the coming years. Instead, MSPs will need to utilize the Quality of Service (QoS) and policy techniques that LTE now delivers to better manage their mobile services and, more significantly, the customer experience.
This approach also provides new ways to profit. Prior to LTE, MSPs were forced to take a "best effort" approach to service quality and bandwidth issues., but LTE makes dynamic policy management possible – giving MSPs unprecedented control over the speed and quality of the actual service experience. This feature allows MSPs to create more innovative pricing plans, prioritize high value accounts, optimize certain video content and better manage users that unduly strain network resources.
Although this approach adds a level of complexity both in terms of implementation and QoS measurement, it will be well worth the effort as MSPs see improvements in quality control and network insight.
The Opportunity
Many MSPs have seen their profits – and their brand equity – eroded by a growing class of Over-The-Top applications. Those that chose to offer branded services can utilize dynamic policy management to ensure a superior experience, one that will build greater subscriber loyalty. MSPs can design a new set of mobile plans to attract new customers by appealing to their buying habits, offering premium plans to those that want the best possible service and lower tiered plans for people that prefer to economize. In this way, flat rate or "all you can eat" mobile price plans will slowly disappear in favor of these more personalized offerings. Subscribers will eventually be able to choose between tiered performance levels based on selected services or applications – either on a contract or on-demand basis. Dynamic policy management available via LTE will essentially allow MSPs to sell instant access to high quality or high bandwidth applications, thus enabling the subscriber to upgrade their service for a fixed period of time. This will also enable MSPs to provide consumers with near instant access to that "must see" high definition video, anytime or anywhere.
This type of network flexibility and service quality control can also be used to create revenue sharing agreements between the MSPs with both third party content providers and application content vendors. Additionally, MSPs can leverage the capabilities of LTE to ensure that their high value customers and corporate accounts receive priority service, as reducing churn in this segment is especially important for an organization looking to improve bottom-line profitability.
Along with reducing cost per byte, LTE provides MSPs with the strategies they need to ensure that certain users do not consume more than their fair share of bandwidth. These users not only drain profits, but they also cause the congestion that leads to poor experiences for all mobile subscribers. Employing Fair Use Policy Management to limit this type of traffic goes a long way in reducing complaints, churn and unnecessary infrastructure investment.
Operational Requirements
Before MSPs can capitalize on these opportunities, they must have the systems in place to tightly monitor and manage Quality of Service.
LTE technology allows a device or a subscriber access to 24 bearers or data pipes at any one time, where each bearer can host an individual or specific service type. Each bearer can then have its own QoS class. As defined by the 3GPP technology standard there are 9 possible QoS classes, identified using a specific Quality Control Indicator (QCI). This indicator maps the specific service in question to a guaranteed or non-guaranteed bit rate (GBR or NBR) and controls both the speed and quality of the service accessed, via the LTE network or transport resources.To charge for superior service, MSPs must be able to prove that they are indeed delivering the promised level of service. The service provider must be able to collect Requested, Negotiated and Delivered bit rates to measure quality across the network as a whole – and be able to slice this information by customer, application or other factors.
In preparation, MSPs must work closely with both their Network Equipment and Network Monitoring vendors. Previously, the introduction of data services and, more specifically, the explosive dependency on 3rd party content saw MSPs and Network Monitoring vendors concentrate on ensuring that the connection from the subscribers device to the external packet or data network was correct. Beyond the network edge, they had no real visibility. With the introduction of the QCI, the actual service experience in terms of speed and quality delivered through that pipe can finally be truly measured. First, the actual quality requested will have to be identified and then extracted, followed closely by the subsequent quality measurement relative to the associated service. Such requirements will engage MSPs with Network Monitoring vendors to determine complex extraction and measurement techniques capable of ensuring the delivered service quality is equal to what is promised. More significantly, being able to dynamically change the QoS available to a subscriber on an as-needed basis adds an additional level of complexity, not only in terms of how this implemented, but again in how it is measured.
Getting Started
Because this is a very complex undertaking and changing the way mobile services are offered won't happen overnight, MSPs will most likely take a phased approach to adding QoS and Policy management to their networks. Starting with congestion reduction for resource hungry applications, such as peer-peer services or file sharing, MSPs can begin to look at the resources on their network from a very detailed and consumption oriented point-of-view. Because it is difficult to measure the subscriber experience and validate that the performance delivered meets the conditions specified in any Service Level Agreement (SLA) is difficult, premium plans will no doubt be introduced first to corporate or key accounts before personalized tariffs go mainstream.
LTE has already helped MSPs differentiate themselves in the consumer's mind, especially as devices and apps become more and more network agnostic. As coverage increases, more people become enamored with the increased speed and functionality LTE provides. The investment in infrastructure is sizeable, and charging for a premium experience will no doubt become standard practice in the near future as the capabilities of networks continue to grow. MSPs need to take steps today to ensure their ability to fully capitalize on these investments; after all, no one wants to miss out on the next big opportunity to profit just because they don't know what's going on within their network. This will have a wide ranging effect on mobile communications but one thing is certain: LTE will in the end benefit all the stakeholders involved by allowing more granular control over quality and service delivery.


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The elderly are prone to dehydration and malnutrition because they often have poor appetites and other medical problems that block the absorption of nutrients. A poor appetite is caused by a loss of taste, medications, and difficulty chewing. In addition, certain medical conditions and medications require increased nutrients. With proper care and supervision, nursing home patients, can get the nutrients and liquid intake they need.
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John D. Storey
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, 2002, vol. 64, issue 3, 479-498
Multiple-hypothesis testing involves guarding against much more complicated errors than single-hypothesis testing. Whereas we typically control the type I error rate for a single-hypothesis test, a compound error rate is controlled for multiple-hypothesis tests. For example, controlling the false discovery rate FDR traditionally involves intricate sequential "p"-value rejection methods based on the observed data. Whereas a sequential "p"-value method fixes the error rate and "estimates" its corresponding rejection region, we propose the opposite approach-we "fix" the rejection region and then estimate its corresponding error rate. This new approach offers increased applicability, accuracy and power. We apply the methodology to both the positive false discovery rate pFDR and FDR, and provide evidence for its benefits. It is shown that pFDR is probably the quantity of interest over FDR. Also discussed is the calculation of the "q"-value, the pFDR analogue of the "p"-value, which eliminates the need to set the error rate beforehand as is traditionally done. Some simple numerical examples are presented that show that this new approach can yield an increase of over eight times in power compared with the Benjamini-Hochberg FDR method. Copyright 2002 Royal Statistical Society.
Date: 2002
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There is more to choosing affiliate programs than just selecting the products that are right for your website. You also need to consider the payment structure offered by an affiliate program before you decide to join. Affiliate programs offer a number of different payment structures, including pay-per-sale and pay-per-click plans. For affiliate marketers, the most lucrative affiliate programs often utilize a pay-per-click structure. However, you need to carefully consider your options and learn more about pay-per-click (PPC) affiliate programs before you decide what is right for your affiliate marketing needs.
What are Pay-Per-Click Affiliate Programs?
Pay-per-click is an advertising model based on paying affiliates every time a link is clicked. Unlike the pay-per-sale model, which requires an actual successful purchase in order to earn a sales commission, the pay-per-click structure is generally much more friendly to affiliate marketers.
How do pay-per-click affiliate programs work? In this model, advertisers and affiliates bid on keywords or keyword phrases that are popular with online searchers. These ads are the "Sponsored Links" you often see listed on many websites, including some of the Internets most popular destinations. These links serve as a major source of income for many websites and are a great way for advertisers and affiliates to promote their products and services to a wide audience.
Some of the most popular pay-per-click affiliate programs include Google AdWords, Google AdSense, and Yahoo! Search Marketing. Smaller programs such as AdBrite are rapidly gaining in popularity as well. Before you choose a programs, spend some time researching your options and the features each affiliate program has to offer.
What are the Benefits of Pay-Per-Click Affiliate Programs?
The greatest benefit on pay-per-click affiliate programs is that they are easy to use and do not require actually selling a product on your website. Once you sign up for the program, you simply add the links to your site. Because the pay-per-click model relies on contextual marketing, the ads are then matched to the content featured on your Web page. For example, if you have a website that promotes blogging tools, the ads that will appear on your site will also be about blogging tools and services. By matching the ads to the page content, readers are far more likely to click on these featured text ads.
What are the Downsides of Pay-Per-Click Affiliate Programs?
The popularity of the pay-per-click model may actually be a potential downside of this type of affiliate program. Thousands of websites now feature some type of contextual advertising, which means that online users come into contact with a significant number of ads. Because of this overexposure, readers actually start to ignore these ads and click-thru rates suffer as a result. In order to maximize the potential of your pay-per-click ads, you need to consider factors such as keyword popularity and text link positioning.
While pay-per-click affiliate programs are among the most popular with affiliate marketers, you need to consider your website content and reader needs before you decide if these programs are right for you. If you have a substantial amount of site traffic, high quality Web content and space to feature keyword targeted advertising, a pay-per-click program may be an effective addition to your site.


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Nguoi Yeu Cua Nu Hoang
One of Vietnamese culture is to listen to Cai Luong. Most Vietnamese favorite title Nguoi Yeu Cua Nu Hoang. Read more to listen to audio feed and related video clips.
Listen to this audio feed – right click save as – Play with Media Player
Vietnamese History: The loss of Cổ Loa and the Magic Crossbow
Miraculously enough, Cổ Loa fortress fell into Triệu Đà's hands. For An Dương Vương this was a major disaster. He grabbed Mỵ Châu, his only daughter, and fled the scene of the battle. Riding on his horse with Mỵ Châu behind him he called out in despair, "What happened to my crossbow? It does not work anymore! Why? Why?" At that very moment, the giant golden turtle An Dương Vương had not seen for years and years, suddenly reappeared in the river. He replied to An Dương Vương, "The person responsible for this disaster, the enemy you are looking for, is sitting right behind you, your majesty!"
An Dương Vương reined in his horse and confronted his daughter, who was in tears. Angered, feeling betrayed by his daughter and son-in-law, the king slew his daughter (in a popular version of the tale he beheaded her). Then he jumped into the river with the giant golden turtle. Some say he drowned himself; some say his faithful servant the golden turtle took him to the depths of the river.
Trọng Thủy, searching for his beloved wife, arrived a few minutes later at the scene. The body of his beloved wife was lying in a pool of blood and his father-in-law was nowhere to be seen. In accordance with conjugal fidelity and devotion, he drew his sword and killed himself as well, in order to be with his wife forever in eternity.
Having achieved the defeat of his rival, Triệu Đà annexed the newly conquered territory to his own, ascended to the throne, and proclaimed himself a new emperor, founding the Triệu Dynasty (207-111 BCE).No longer available
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Vitesse D7 Vs Eco C3...
Hello all,
I'm new here so here goas, I'm a doctor commuting to work and back via bus or metro and wish to get a folding bike to complete the commute, I've been eyeballing the Tern P9 for awhile now but then my budget shrinked dramaticlly so I'm into used bikes, I'm looking for the most reliable used bike I can find. I used to be a professional motorcycle mechanic and maintain the bike myself so the occasional tuneup is done in house.
The available dahon models in my country at the moment are the Vitesse D7 or the Eco C3, the occasional Eco C7 and Speed D3 pops up every now and then. So, your thoughts...
From motorbike mechanic to doctor eh? I suppose fix one, fix all. At least it's better than being a barber and also amputating the odd limb or so, as in chop a hair or a limb, all in a day's work. :)
Right having dispensed with the sick humour (heh heh pun intended), on to the real stuff.
I'm going to call the Speed D3. I don't know what make 3-speed is installed, but generally they are very reliable. Derailers aren't very complex OTOH, but require a lot more babying to keep them running perfectly. Especially cleaning in poor weather. A 3-speed's chain can be run with zero oil, as our in-house dry chain fanatic, ol' Chucky, will testify.
What is your budget?
+1 fo the Speed 3.
Thank you all for the replies,
My budget is about $300, I live in Israel so we have Dahon and Tern, not any of the low price brands (downtube and such) I usually see being recommended on these threads.
The only problem or downside I see with the speed D3 is the cromo chassis and the limited gear ratio, I'm currently riding a 27 speed all mountain bike converted to urban usage, I live in a place with allot of hills, I end up going uphill about 70% of the riding time so a three speed might be a bit limiting despite the added reliability of the rear hub. Anyone know what are the gear ratios of the speed D3 compaired to the other models?
get a used one
Hello Thor, I kinda got that, like I wrote on the first post, this thread is all about used bikes :)
What is nice about the Speed 3 is that you can always upgrade to a larger geared hub in the future if needed. With the current 3 speed you can change the ring gear on the crank or the hub for the gearing you need. I dont see the problem with the cromo chassis?
Currently on ebay there is a good deal on an 8 speed hub.
For some reason the Speed D3/7 don't have an internal hub gears, I don't know why, I see them on the Dahon website as having internal hub gears but where ever I see them used they have a plain derailleur gears. Here is a link to a typical store that sells the Speed D7:
Am I looking wrong at something?
I think it normally has an i after the number to note that it is an internal hub. Vitesse D7i
All the 3 speeds I have seen from Dahon were internal hubs.
Norman, Oklahoma USA
Another thing, will it be hard to switch to traditional derailleur gears since I've only ever used an IGH (Nexus 3). Any special tips apart from "only switch gears while pedalling"? A bit frightened at the maintenance it might require. My IGH has been no hassle so far.
OP, sorry to hijack your thread and I hope this question helps you too!
No, I don't mind the hijack :)If you're referring to the 1:1 then that means its the most efficient gear, all the rest are less efficient but still very needed.
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