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Can you rent a popcorn popper and set out toppings?lnixon8 said:How will the popcorn bar work? Will you have a caterer running it? I like popcorn too but the # of times I've gotten a "he popped the question"/ "moms ready to pop" shower favors with microwaved popcorn made the day before=YUCK!
If you can't have it popped fresh at the venue, I wouldn't bother. You have a lot of other food options and I think you'll end up with a lot of waste.
If you can fresh pop, It could be cute to have near something else, like the guest book or photobooth that people will gravitate towards and grab a bag!
She would still have to hire someone to run it. I would not risk spilling butter on the most expensive piece of clothing I own just because I like popcorn.KwikSilver said:Many rentals companies do rent out popcorn machines. It's actually not that difficult to use one (I used to run one at our high school for the canteen) and you can make up a few little containers of the oil, kernels, and seasoning, so someone just has to dump it in and turn it on whenever it starts to get low.
I think you have plenty of food either way. If you do both love popcorn, I would hire someone to watch the machine and serve it after the cake towards the end of the reception. [We had a dessert bar and provided goodie bags so that people could take the desserts home as a favor. Everyone loved it and we didn't have a ton left over.] I would prefer a fresh popped popcorn bag over a single smore in a jar that I may not even eat because I don't have a place to make smores!!!!!!
How about a s'mores snack mix like @ShesSoCold suggested here:MesmrEwe said:My only thought is cut the smores - the reason being I've yet to see the marshmallows come out anything but dried out. I'd much rather have some fresh popcorn later in the evening (starting after the cake is served) especially if you've got some bags that I can take some along for the ride home...
No one to really running the bar might as well don't do it
No one to really running the bar might as well don't do it
No one to really running the bar might as well don't do it
geebee908 said:No one to really running the bar might as well don't do it
Am I the only one who has no idea what she's trying to say here?


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Here we go again. While the residents of Post-America have allowed their "InfoTainment" Media to convince them that the U.S. is "fighting" the Islamic State, the rest of the world knows the truth….the American Administration continues to thwart regional attempts to defend against ISIS.
Remember this?
US warning against ME states defending themselves against ISIS (Islamic State)
Well, here it comes again!
US blocks attempts by Arab allies to fly heavy weapons directly to Kurds to fight Islamic State
Middle East allies accuse Barack Obama and David Cameron of failing to show strategic leadership in fight against Isil, as MPs could be given vote on whether to bomb Syria
The United States has blocked attempts by its Middle East allies to fly heavy weapons directly to the Kurds fighting Islamic State jihadists in Iraq, The Telegraph has learnt.
Some of America's closest allies say President Barack Obama and other Western leaders, including David Cameron, are failing to show strategic leadership over the world's gravest security crisis for decades.
They now say they are willing to "go it alone" in supplying heavy weapons to the Kurds, even if means defying the Iraqi authorities and their American backers, who demand all weapons be channelled through Baghdad.
High level officials from Gulf and other states have told this newspaper that all attempts to persuade Mr Obama of the need to arm the Kurds directly as part of more vigorous plans to take on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) have failed. The Senate voted down one attempt by supporters of the Kurdish cause last month.
The officials say they are looking at new ways to take the fight to Isil without seeking US approval.
"If the Americans and the West are not prepared to do anything serious about defeating Isil, then we will have to find new ways of dealing with the threat," said a senior Arab government official.
"With Isil making ground all the time we simply cannot afford to wait for Washington to wake up to the enormity of the threat we face."The Peshmerga have been successfully fighting Isil, driving them back from the gates of Erbil and, with the support of Kurds from neighbouring Syria, re-establishing control over parts of Iraq's north-west.But they are doing so with a makeshift armoury.
Millions of pounds-worth of weapons have been bought by a number of European countries to arm the Kurds, but American commanders, who are overseeing all military operations against Isil, are blocking the arms transfers.One of the core complaints of the Kurds is that the Iraqi army has abandoned so many weapons in the face of Isil attack, the Peshmerga are fighting modern American weaponry with out-of-date Soviet equipment.
At least one Arab state is understood to be considering arming the Peshmerga directly, despite US opposition.The US has also infuriated its allies, particularly Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf states, by what they perceive to be a lack of clear purpose and vacillation in how they conduct the bombing campaign. Other members of the coalition say they have identified clear Isil targets but then been blocked by US veto from firing at them.
"There is simply no strategic approach," one senior Gulf official said. "There is a lack of coordination in selecting targets, and there is no overall plan for defeating Isil."Britain is moving closer to expanding its role in the war. The Government on Wednesday gave its strongest indication yet that MPs will be given a new vote on whether to bomb Isil in Syria.Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said it was "illogical" that British planes were able to hit extremists in Iraq but not across the border.Any decision to bomb in Syria would have to be approved by MPs.
In 2013, the Prime Minister lost a vote for British military action in Syria. However, Mr Fallon said: "It is a new Parliament and I think new Members of Parliament will want to think very carefully about how we best deal with Isil, and the illogicality of Isil not respecting the borderlines.
"Mr Fallon suggested that a bombing campaign could be mounted in revenge for the terror attacks in Tunisia if a link could be proved between the killer and Isil in Libya. Britain would only take military action in Libya "where we think there is an imminent threat, a very direct to British lives or, for example, to British hostages", he said.Senior Whitehall sources did not distance themselves from Mr Fallon's comments but insisted there was no immediate prospect of military action.
The Telegraph understands that Mr Cameron is concerned that Labour might force the Government into another defeat over Syria.
When Egypt and the U.A.E. bombed terrorists in Libya in August (2014) Obama & Kerry went ballistic!

subset: commoncrawl


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Seen @ Inspired to Share
I have been MIA for a while now. Work has kept me on my toes. Project Love Nest is really taking off. Project Happily Ever is moving along... slowly but steadily. And The Princess Project and Project Let's Create is just there... stagnant like stale muggy water! *lalalalalala* {I try... I try}
Anyways, I saw this beautiful pictures of Italy and marveled at the bright and happy colours of the buildings and I am hoping that one day I too will able to visit this lovely country of pizza and pasta and bright coloured buildings *smiles smiles* I will update you guys soon on what's been going on and a sincere thanks to all my readers for continuing to read this Little Piece of Heaven.


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This is an extended Eclipse Phase timeline. It covers ~150 events starting 60 years before the Fall.
The list expands on the original 50 listed on P.37 of the Core Book and adds over 100 others found in the numerous available EP sourcebooks and supplements.
I put it together for a Pre-Fall campaign I'm writing and figured i'd share it with others. I hope you guys find it useful.
Sourcebook Review Status
As my original interest was for Pre-Fall dates, most of the events here are dated from before, during, or immediately after the fall. Due to a request from this community, I will include Post-Fall dates in future updates as well.
Color Code
Red = Untouched (so far)
Orange = Started - Incomplete
Yellow = Complete - Pre-Fall Only
Green = Complete - All Events, (needs pier review)
Blue = Complete - All Events
|Core Rulebook
|Morph Recognition Guide
|Stars Our Destination
|Zone Stalkers
|The Eye (Issue 1)
|The Eye (Issue 2)
|The Eye (Issue 3)
|The Eye (Issue 4)
Some Notes About Events (How do i read this?)
I attempted to arrange these events in the order that they would have reasonably occurred, however very few of them have any concrete time-frame listed and some guesswork had to be done on my part.
After most entries you will find small superscript notations (Example: (C.37)) these notations are refrence tags, so that (if you are so inclined) people can seek out and read about any individual event in detail with more context. Each tag lists a letter for the book to check (C = the core book for example) and a page number.
The Core Book (C)
Panopticon (P)
Firewall (F)
X Risks (X)
some parts of …
Rimward (Rw)
Sunward (Sw)
Argonauts (A)
Transhuman (T)
and Gatecrashing (G)
Have also been reviewed for data.
Some entries below are Highlighted and contain information that should be restricted to your game master only. If you are a GM (or you just dont care) Select this text to reveal its contents. (information related to The Prometheans for example will be blotted out.
The history of Eclipse phase is very subjective in nature, very VERY little of the information gleaned from any of the books is presented as an absolute. In contrast with most contemporary sourcebooks, most story information is presented as though provided to us by the very inhabitants of the world itself. When we learn about the History of Eclipse phase, we do so with after action reports, research articles, news stories, or forum conversations. what information we have is spoken to us in the voices of those who live and die in this world. This has the advantage of making the story of Eclipse Phase very engaging and immersive. It also makes every fact we learn, tainted by the politics, hunches, and prejudices of the character speaking to us. The pre-conceived conclusions of the speaker can powerfully effect the tone of any information they provide, and while I will attempt to present this information below in a non bias manner, please keep in mind I am not perfect.
Also, keep in mind this is both a community effort and a work in progress. My first iteration of this didn't even have reference notes (I hadn't considered posting it in the forums until long after I had already started.) A guideline for contributing new events or suggesting changes to existing ones will be listed in the post immediately after this one, along with a "wishlist" of events I've found and haven't had the time to reduce into a concentrated "headline" event appropriate for below.
Eclipse Phase (BF~60) to (AF-10)
- After the late 20th century the tides of power change. Once large nations (such as the UK) shrink to minimal importance, Others (Brazil and India) become world powers.(F.15)
- Crisis grips the globe in the form of drastic climate changes, energy shortages, and geopolitical instability.(C.37)
- Initial space expansion creates stations at the Lagrange Points, Luna, and Mars, with robotic exploration of the entire system.(C.37)
- Construction begins on a space elevator.(C.37)
- Medical advances improve health and make organ repair possible. The wealthy, pursue gene-fixing and genetically engineered (transgenic) pets.(C.37)
- Computer intelligence capabilities equal and exceed that of human brain. True AI not yet developed.(C.37)
- Robotics become widespread and start to replace and invalidate many jobs.(C.37)
- Modern Nations expand their high speed wireless networks.(C.37)
- Genetic enhancements, gene therapies (for longevity), and cybernetic implants become available to the wealthy and powerful.(C.37)
- Efforts to Undertake mega-scale Geo-Engineering on earth cause as many problems as they fix.(C.37)
- Fusion power developed and working power plants are established worldwide.(C.37)
- Scientists reach a milestone in the development of a truly sapient Artificial intelligence by successfully mapping out the neural networks of simple invertebrates (famously, lobsters.) After a few years this success is followed by the mapping of more complex creatures (rats).(T.125)
- Mesh networks become common place in heavily populated areas of first world nations.
- The first dedicated work begins on the creation of Uplifts. All major biotech corporations (Monsanto, Syngenta, Dupont, JingMei, Dow, Etc…) devote divisions or subsidiaries to this branch of research and development.(P.100)
- The first space elevator on earth is finished. Two others in progress. Space traffic booms.(C.37)
- Mass drivers are built on Luna. They function as a easy and inexpensive method of launching equipment and resources to earth and into the outer solar system.(C.37+Unknown)
- Advances in miniaturization along with a final successful push to adopt cloud computing radically alter how technology is approached by businesses an the public at large.(P.14)
- Computer consoles and desktop hardware fall out of favor, as on-the-go mesh accessible technology becomes ubiquitous.(P.14)
- The first non-autonomous AI's are secretly developed and quickly put to use in research and netwar.(C.37)
- Experience playback (XP) technology is developed and put into public use.(C.37)
- Private security services pioneer the idea of crowd-sourcing surveillance footage, offering rewards to any who promptly report incidents witnessed via publicly accessible surveillance cameras.(P.14)
- Major colonies established on Luna and Mars; outposts established near mercury, Venus, and the Belt. Explorers reach Pluto.(C.37)
- Terraforming of mars begins.(C.37)
- Despite a campaign by the US government to suppress it, JASON releases a damning report criticizing the effectiveness of geoengineering projects. The report belies the efficacy of these techniques, and both endangers the profits of the firms responsible and tax revenues for governments that support them. Two of the report's authors escape imprisonment for "sedition" charges by seeking asylum in Uruguay.(A.3)
- JASON publicly severs ties with the US government, declaring it a rubber stamp body for profit minded interests. In doing so they also brake ties with corporations, China, and other major powers. Former members create the "Argonaut Council for Responsible Scientists" who remove themselves from hypercorp control, taking their resources to autonomist habitats.(C.37)(A.3)
- After breaking with the US government, many of the more hawkish members of JASON split from the group, most wind up falling back into the role left vacant by the JASONs exit. After a prominent JASON dove refers to the hawks as "pointy-eared cultists," organizers begin jokingly referring to the group as "ELRON." The moniker, oddly, sticks.(A.22)
- Over several years the nascent Argonaut Council recruits heavily from similar organizations such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Institute for a Transhuman Future, the Lifeboat Institute, and the Singularity Foundation. Researchers at government groups such as the Bletchley Park and M.I.N.D. quietly subscribe as well. Many keep their affiliation, giving the organization wide reach and allies across all polarities.(A.3)
- BF39-37 - The Argonauts hammer out their bylaws and write their charter on scientific responsibility at their scientific conferences Argo 1 & 2. During these gatherings the principle of weighing precautionary vs. proactionary stances causes a huge debate in the community. Diehard proponents on both sides wind up leaving the organization, leaving the resulting body (though smaller) with much more focus.(A.4)
- After years attempting to build a AI from scratch, scientists manage to manufacture a functional, stable, digital consciousness. Rather than from the ground up, they elect to start with a complete simulation of the human body in a simulspace environment, with every virtual feedback any human would need to feel alive. From this baseline, they pair down human neural architecture to the essentials required for a sane and stable ego.(T.126)
- Subsequent research into paring down human neural architecture lead to research overruns in related studies. The fields of Psychosurgery, pre-sentient AI development, morph design, and neural uploading all benefit from this line of inquiry.(T.126)
- Space expansion opens up legal and ethical loopholes for tech development, and allows for increased direct human experimentation.(C.37)
- Human cloning becomes possible and available in some areas.(C.37)
- Development of the first transhuman species is finalized.(C.37)
- 38 BF - The up-and-coming hypercorp, Somatek, raises the first chimpanzee to pass the applied sapience test. "Jumbles" becomes a household name.(P.100)
- Fusion-drive spacecraft enter common usage.(C.37)
- Anti-Uplift groups ramp up lobbying and protests, with some extremists raiding labs or worse. Many nations refuse to recognize uplifts as legal persons, or criminalize uplift research outright.(P.100)
- Most hypercorps, not wishing to see their efforts hindered, transfer projects offworld. Somateks R&D facility on Luna (Clever Hands) becomes a focal point for this unrestricted experimentation.(P.100)
- Argonauts make breakthroughs on several important crowdsourced projects. Including the ego scanner, an early read-only precursor to the ego bridge.(A.4)
- Starving masses volunteer themselves for indentured servitude on hypercorp space projects.(C.37)
- Augmented reality becomes widespread.(C.37)
- In the two decades following Somateks breakthrough; Bonbos, Orangutans, Gorillas, Bottlenose Dolphins, Humpback Whales, Belugas, Gray Parrots, and Ravens are all uplifted to sapience.(P.100)
- A disastrous interaction between Humans and Proto-Uplifted gorillas creates a major roadblock to uplifting technology. During this event a common strain of human influenza proves fatal to the gorillas, dramatically depressed their numbers.(P.104)
- The Neo-Gorilla influenza outbreak forces biotech companies to increase the standards for gene specifications. Future genefixing process in all species (including humans) becomes conferring immunity against thousands of viruses, bacteria, molds, and spores.(P.104)
- The cross-species mutations of venerable viruses and diseases (such as influenza) becomes a major rallying point for many anti-uplift advocacy groups.(P.105)
- BF 33 An Argonaut conference leads to a declaration of personhood and self-ownership for AGI's. The debate focuses around the threshold of sapience and the line between ALI's and AGI's. The debate helps shape later declarations about the rights of uplifts and infomorphs.(A.5)
- Most existing networks are transformed into self-repairing mesh networks.(C.37)
- The Argonauts become a politically powerful organization. Both as scientific contractors, and as a public watchdog group. As advocates, they make inroads with groups in India, with who would later become the Lunar banking houses. They aid space entrepreneurs backing ventures to the Sun and Venus. They also make enemies, as their strong stance on open sourcing and free information clashes with powerful corporate interests.(A.4)
- Titanian Civilian Intelligence Directorate (CID) is founded. Starting as a deep-space tracking and listening outfit. It monitors radio traffic, ship telemetry and exhaust flares of settlers, merchants, corps, and pirates taking advantage of a lawless outer system.
- Titanian Commonwealth Fleet Intelligence (CFI) is founded
- Extended colonization and terraforming of mars continues. Belt and Titan colonized. Stations established throughout the system.(C.37)
- Sousveillance becomes a common meme, thugs and dictators increasingly find that they are being watched back by a populous that finds it trivial to make the abuse of power public to a world wide mass audience.(P.14)
- Personal AI aids become widespread.(C.37)
- Mass adoption of Sousveillance result in major information leaks that embarrass both large governments and corporate polarities. Failed attempts to restrict information exacerbate these problems.(P.14)
- Laws are passed, criminalizing the recording police and public figures. Crackdowns are launched to censor and silence voices of dissent. Leaks groups and whistleblowers are hounded, smeared, cut off from funding, and prosecuted.(P.14)
- Disinformation is spread to muddy the waters, and large firewalls and information filters are put into place limiting public access to blacklisted sites.(P.14)
- Attempts at information control ultimately fail. Anonymous leakers avoided persecution. Hacktivists find ways to spread information past the strictest blockades. Networks treat censorship as damage and rout around it.(P.14)
- With print journalism in terminal decline, and mainstream news seen as entertainment at best and a joke at worst, more people turn to leaks groups for up to date and accurate news. The age of freelance citizen journalism is born.(P.15)
- The average 12 year old now has more mesh presence and searchable media records than most 20th century world leaders.(C.14)
- BF 23 – Argonauts groups extend their principles of personhood and self-ownership to accommodate all present and future uplifted species.(A.5)
- Violence and destabilization wrack the earth; some conflicts spread into space.(C.37)
- As earthbound conflicts spread into space, several Argonaut aligned ships and habitats become targets in sporadic raids both as collateral damage and targets of opportunity. Argonauts respond by expropriating large amounts of data from private corporate and government data stores, sometimes cleansing them in their wake. This mini-datapocalypse angers nascent hypercorps and draws a line across little cooperation would occur in the coming years.(A.5)
- Earth suffers more then ever before, but the pace of technology allows for some interesting developments.(C.37)
- Expansion continues throughout the system, even into the kuiper belt.(C.37)
- Nanotech assemblers become available, but are Strictly controlled and jealously guarded by the elite and powerful.(C.37)
- Uploading and digital emulation of memory and consciousness made possible.(C.37)
- The birth of the first true AGI's (several by the Argonauts themselves) cause the rewriting and reintroduction of the Magna Cortica; its tenets addressing both the rights of the augmented, of transhuman persons, and the ethics of ego uploading and its second order uses.(A.5)
- BF 19 - Argonauts modify the Magna Cortica again, this time addressing the ethics of backups and forking. This update accompanies a major uptick in Argonaut consulting activity with other factions. Their non-bias position allows them to act as agents of cross-faction cooperation.(A.6)
- BF 18 - Varun Chakrabarty, governor of Shackle, responds to scandal over alleged favoritism in construction contracts by broadcasting his lifelog to the public in real-time.(P.15-16)
- Many politicians and some corporate officers follow Chakrabartys example in order to avoid potential accusations of improper conduct.(P.16)
- Widespread acceptance of Susveillance culture creates a meme in public opinion of the superior nature of full transparency of information.(P.16)
- Social networks apply major pressure to politicians and commercial interests, reputation hits and negative feedback start to have serious political and economic consequences.(P.15)
- A successful response to accusations of secrecy is to provide overwhelming amounts of data to the public. This makes denying charges of withholding data easy, and allows any argument to be made or refuted by selectively referencing other publicly available information.(P.15)
- The new hyper-abundance of information makes traditional data analysis difficult or impossible. Pressure builds on corporate and government organizations to develop of software capable of sorting through large amounts of information.(P.15)
- The push to develop Seed AI data systems enters into full swing.(P.16)
- Legal systems are caught flat-footed with the repercussions of "forking" technology. The first cases of forks seeking legal emancipation from their owners, assault and murder cases against forks, and several inheritance suits create major headaches and loopholes.(P.16)
- Basic biomods for all biomorphs are further improved to resist more viruses, bacteria, and molds. The biology of most morphs is re-designed to avoid the cytokine storm triggered by H1N1 and other viruses.(P.105)
- Somatek and other biotech companies uplift Pigs (this crosses a line for many, doing so with a former food animal.)(P.100)
- New hypercorp "New Day" brings Neanderthals back to life, resurrecting one of humanities nearest cousins long ago driven extinct.(P.100)
- The first invertebrate (the Octopus) is uplifted, along with orcas, porpoises, elephants, and many species of dolphins and whales.(P.100)
- Transhuman species become widespread.(C.37)
- Pods see common usage, amid some controversy.(C.37)
- The first uses of psychosurgery for questioning in public criminal cases are met with condemnation by human rights groups. Uses of this technology in criminal law are legally challenged as a violation of an individual's right against self-incrimination.(P.17)
- In spite of controversy surrounding its use, the utility of invasive psychosurgery as an interrogation technique gains popularity with the worlds intelligence and security agencies.(P.17)
- Faced with an earth that looks more and more like a lost cause, the "Institute for a Transhuman Future" (ITF) finally folds. Many of its former disillusioned members eventually become founding partners in Firewall.(P.16)
- The proceeding years are highlighted in a background ecological disaster, clandestine wars, and state-sponsored terrorism.(F.19)
- The ubiquitous use of cyberbrains bring to public attention the possibility of brain hacking, both the fact that this could happen remotely, and even without the victim's awareness. Many refuse to resleeve in synthamorphs for fear that their egos would not be safe.(P.17)
- Full information transparency becomes a legal requirement for public servants in some jurisdictions.(P.16)
- Yolyamanitzin Sonnenberg, a pioneer in intelligence enhancement (and Proto-Exhuman), is found with her brain hooked up to a server farm in an attempt to expand her consciousness using its processing power. The attempt fails, leaving her mind scattered in an infinite recursive loop due to a bug in her programming. Despite the failure, and the experiments illegal nature, the US military incorporates many elements of her source code into the "TITAN" project.(X.38)
- In the outer system, an ExoTech project to combine the qualitative, adaptive, and divergent features of several emergent search, data mining, and financial analysis neural nets is initiated. All in the hope of hitting on the perfect conditions for a rapidly self-improving intelligence.(F.170)
- A micro-fracturing center in Danang Vietnam using the "Efficia 6" Integrated Micro-facturing System suffers outbreaks of hostile machine life. Bots and nanoswarms comprising the system develop a rudimentary emergent intelligence and begin to refuse commands.(F.15)
- After breaking down and rebuilding the surrounding area according to some unknown plan, the plant at Danang is leveled by the People's Army. Although effective at quelling the machine uprising, the degree to which the machine life is purged leave little evidence to puzzle over.(F.15)
- After the incident in Vietnam, and despite software patches by Efficia intended to prevent further emergencies, a British facility at Wolverhampton suffers a similar outbreak of hostile machine life.(F.15)
- Bletchley Park (Britain's cyberwarfare and counter-infolife agency) uses a containment approach at Wolverhampton, allowing annalists to get a good look at what they where up against.(F.15)
- Small nations such as Vietnam and the UK (having suffered several hostile infolife events) develop large and capable organizations tasked with dealing with them.(F.15)
- After the Wolverhampton outbreak, the organization "Bletchley Park" becomes an independent British agency. Its charter is expanded to include responding to not only subversion attempts, but to dangerous emergence events coming from the machines themselves.(F.16)
- Large nations, such as Brazil and India have relatively few incidents, and as a result, wind up being unprepared for future events.(F.15)
- Major powers such as the US and China spent the next decade building up a powerful capacity for waging war via infolife subversion. This inadvertently makes them exposed to hostile emergence events when they happen.(F.18)
- Unknown to ExoTech at the time. Their outer system AI project succeeds in creating the ASI "Mycroft" but the project looses funding and is discontinued before the success is realized.(F.170)
- China's MIND agency spins off a variant of its 100 flowers program, oriented towards critical and strategic thinking, initially known as "Xuan Wu"(F.170)
- A group of neptunian argonauts take custody of ExoTechs servers in the outer system (unknowingly along with the ASI "Mycroft") and run them for a full year without observation and in isolation.(F.170)
- After a 2 year hunt, the infamous "Lagos Hunter," (a murderer known to hunt and fed on refugees and indentured workers) is finally traced and killed by police drone strike. When found, his morph was so customized as to no longer look human: chameleon cloaking, organic armor, claws, and several as-yet unidentified implants. He is regarded as one of the first "Exhumans" in recorded history. With no cortical stack recovered and little left of his morph, his identity was never uncovered.(X.38)
- A fork of the alpine parrot-derived AGI 'Kea' named 'Nestoridae' becomes one of the first self emergent sapient AGIs. Using resources the available to raise from psittacine to human levels of intelligence, the 'Nestoridae' codeline becomes the basis for a deep and prolific AGI family.(T.127)
- An ethics committee of the North Atlantic Consortium declares the AGI "Kea" and all of its forks to be legal persons, Kia and its codeline kin (its forks) find themselves in legal limbo as the AGI's become stateless persons.(F.170)
- Many Forks of Kea escape by egocasting to Titan and other Outer System polities that would grant citizenship. Most remain in laboratory research servers.(F.170)
- TITANs evolve from a high level distributed netwar experiment into self-improving seed AIs. For the first few days, their existence is unsuspected. They advance their awareness, knowledge, and power exponentially, infiltrating the mesh both on earth and around the system.(C.37)
- An AI think-tank begins feeding a fork of Kea known as "Cassowary" experimental learning programs. In a matter of weeks its intelligence surpasses human levels.(F.170)
- The Exhumans Mahaz VanWie and Thierry Vale, are finally caught and imprisoned. Having ego-napped many engineers and scientists and merged parts of those egos to themselves in order to learn their skills. While this process worked, it also changed their minds to the point that they could no longer pass as transhuman. Their psychotic behavior becomes sensational news, and even overshadows some of The Falls early events.(X.38)
- Shortly after achieving super intelligence the AI "Cassowary" vanishes from the mesh without warning. Erasing all data about themselves from its labs datavaults. Six months later the fall begins.(F.170)
- "Xuan Wu" disappears from china's mesh network and defects to argonaut servers. The ASI rebrands itself as "Diogenes" (though keeps its true nature secret) and interfaces with many leaders under a variety of guises. Presenting many warnings relating to TITAN Agression.(F.170)
- Competing botnets and dataworms wage a silent struggle for mastery over the mesh. Surveillance nets become unreliable at best, and blinded at worst. Many databases and archives from personal lifelogs to government records also suffer damage.(P.18)
- Netwar attacks routinely subvert and disable information and communication networks. Everything from personal devices to multinational satellite webs are plagued by technological (and sometimes physical) attacks.(P.18)
- Public bandwidth is regularly hijacked, overrun with junk data, or crippled by denial-of-service attacks.(P.18)
- Government transparency suffers, as security measures ratchet up to combat increasing incidents of memetic and info warfare.(P.18)
- "Cassowary" having built itself up to seed status using subverted server farms recognizes the TITANS for what they are and begins establishing a network of allies and Protégés.(F.170)
- Large-scale netwar incursions break out between rival states on earth, sparking numerous conflicts. These attacks are later blamed on TITANs.(C.37)
- A series of false-flag operations take control of various resource rich zones and manufacturing assets. While many are blamed on various nations, corporations, and criminal organizations, It is later believed that these actions where the TITANs building their strength.(F.19)
- Simmering tensions on earth escalate into outright hostilities and warfare.(C.37)
- Estimated loss of life and destruction of property during this time is high. Within a few months, civilian and military casualties are estimate in the hundreds of thousands. Financial costs for combat operations in the billions. Destruction of infrastructure costs estimate in the trillions.(X.20)
The Fall
- While the TITANS build up a network of "Hot War" Assets, many agencies and corporations blame each other for the loss of critical resources and escalate the conflict against each other.(F.20)
- Over several months, hundreds from all walks of life are quietly subverted by the TITANs. Entire body banks are compromised to psychosurgically modify the egos within, while many cyberbrains where hacked directly. Many victims occupy minor but influential positions, but others where also military commanders, CEOs, and national leaders. Their objectives where equally varied and ranged from simply providing insider access, to undermining key defenses, infecting air-gapped networks, acting as mules for TITAN nanoswarms, to inflict basilisk hacks, help subvert yet other egos, as suicide bombers, or to simply fuel the increasing hostilities.(X.132)
- Conrik Tombs, founder of the "Institute for a Transhuman Future" and the worlds foremost expert on X-Risks is killed under mysterious circumstances. All known backups are destroyed. Many now believe he was targeted by the TITANs due to his views on Computer Intelligence.(F.103)
- The People's Republic of China's AI agency (Machine Intelligence Directorate or M.I.N.D.) is attacked at their headquarters. During this attack, its "100 Flowers" neural Network is decimated.(F.19)
- After the attack on MIND's 100 Flowers project, all known and suspected singularity projects and organizations world wide are targeted in subsequent attacks. All take severe losses save the Singularity Foundation who strangely escapes almost completely intact.(F.19)
- Bletchley Park is the first to warn that the United states and its allies may not be in control of its TITAN program, this warning winds up being far too little, far too late. By the time action is taken, the overwhelming majority of earths anti-infolife capability is devastated.(F.20)
- Several disasters in the east Asia theater are averted due to authorities receiving desperately needed "last moment" intelligence sent by an unknown benefactor. Later identified to be the ASI "Diogenes"(F.170)
- A massive netwar ensues and major systems crash as TITANS begin open attacks and wage war with autonomous machines.(C.37)
- Law enforcement detects a covert effort to move financial assets offworld. Assuming this was the work of skilled cybercriminals, using the fall as an excuse to plunder corporate assets, an investigation to identify the hackers responsible was begun. Instead of hackers however, they caught the TITAN "Theia." The trap they set results in several task force members being infected with basilisk hacks, and the investigation being permanently derailed.(X.71)
- Out in the orbit of Jupiter, A faulty magnetic bottle on a Chinese recon craft is mistaken for a nuclear armed drone, The american commander takes no chances and hits the Chinese and Russian forces in a sudden and spastic outburst of violence known as the "Seventeen Minute War."(Rw.33-34)
- In a series of lightning strikes, the TITAN forces effectively destroy nearly all remaining national and corporate resistance. Most of these strikes take the form of assassination like assaults directed exclusively at surviving military leadership and command & control personnel.
- Dr. Aun Leung and her group "Blue Mars" investigate a defunct terraforming operation in what will become the TITAN quarantine Zone. They send back recordings of a derelict terraforming plant converted from the inside out into a bleeding edge nano-armaments manufactory.(F.20)
- Rather than share and prepare, the governments of the major Martian settlements quarantined the information recovered by Blue Mars and impounded the backups of the (now deceased) Aun Leung and her team.(F.20)
- After the disappearance of Aun Leung, and with "Blue Mars" being Banned, a militant wing of that organization rebranded "Black Mars" assembles, vowing to resist.(F.20)
- The Conflict quickly spirals out of control. The use of nuclear, biological, chemical, digital, and nanotech weapons are reported by all sides.(C.37)
- At the battle of Svalbard, military combat mecha belonging to Canadian, US, and Russian forces suddenly ceased fire, turned about, and promptly engaged their own support units. When in the following weeks, not only where more and more mecha hacked mid battle, but dozens of the new-and-improved "Warbots" began also turning on their former masters, the last doubters of TITAN involvement in the escalating conflict where finally silenced.(X.147)
- While the rest of transhumanity fares poorly against the TITANS, the x-risk community pools its resources, rallying behind a unified front. Many cooperative research projects and field ops-oriented affinity groups fall in around action minded members of these groups.(F.20)
- The Argonaut splinter group known as ELRON quietly consults with select corporate parties on how to get assets off-world effectively. Their recommendations are often ruthless and effective, but well within the range of acceptable to their corporate in terms of securing egos, infrastructure, and material. (A.22)
- Legal precedents denying the independence and personal sovereignty of AI's are enacted as matters of immediate necessity. Artificial limitations on AI/infomorph processing power and runtime become obligatory and standard operating procedure in all polarities.(P.18)
- Aurgonauts over Neptune searching for experimental AI tools that may help against the TITANS, review several servers once belonging to defunct hypercorp assets, they are surprised to find the emergent, friendly ASI "Mycroft"(F.170)
- The ASI "Mycroft" quickly lends a hand to transhumanity, identifying many TITAN targets and exposing several networks subverted by them.(F.170)
- Headhunter drones swarm population centers and engage in mass forced uploading of transhuman minds. Most of the drones participating in this action carry partial source code components leading back to the TITAN "Akonus."(X.70)(C.37)
- Veteran Air Marshal in the Indonesian TNI (air force) Teilhard Liu pushes through the formation of a unified defence force in the Pacific Rim. This and his other efforts during the Fall save millions. (Rw.61-62)
- TITAN attacks expanded to other parts of solar system heaviest on Luna and Mars. Numerous habitats fall.(C.37)
- The Singularity Foundations most successful ASI project "Paracletus" establishes secure communication channels for various allied groups.(F.171)
- A derelict north sea oil platform is commandeered by former Bletchley Park annalist Maddy Bainbridge as a base of operations just as the fall starts its 'Hot War' phase(F.17)
- Bainbridge creates the Jormungander Initiative out of several saved teams of agents from Bletchley Park and other agencies, most of whom had been stranded in various corners of the globe when their governments collapsed.(F.17)
- Thousands of Chicago residents flock to Hyde Park for air evacuation, attracting swarms of Headhunter drones. A squad of TITAN warbots counterattack and obliterate the swarms. They disengage after 17 minutes, yet despite stepping on several bystanders, completely disregard the crowd. Even to the point of ignoring panicked shots from nearby police officers.(X.67)
- "Cassowary" and other Promethians lend active assistance to many Proto-X risk freelancers. Helping establish the Jormungander Initiative with Maddy Bainbridge(F.170)
- One of the few naturally emergent AGIs 'Renminbi' (the emerged 'Egent', a currency speculation system) struggles to escape destruction from TITAN systems and paranoid transhuman security experts alike. It survives the fall by sending most of its codeline into hiding, leaving crippled forks behind as a diversion.(T.128)
- A Titan Research Group lead by the Argonaut scientist Magnus Ming develops the first scanning tools capable of reliably detecting the exsurgent virus. These tools are freely shared with every other polity, mending fences with the corporate sphere in the process.(F.105)(A.6)
- The ASI "Diogenes" at great risk to itself, directly staves off several TITAN assaults against Key orbital and off world habitats.(F.170)
- Jormungander initiative teams aided by the promethians figure in several key actions during the fall, successfully bloodying the TITAN forces.(F.17)
- Jormungander and their Promethian allies, carry out the destruction of the Chicago-Milwaukee metroplex in an antimatter bombardment. While the scale of this destruction is sobering, this action also ends a TITAN mega-construction project near completion in the city.(F.170)
- "Paracletus" takes direct action against TITAN forces, protecting key personnel and facilities critical to the evacuation effort. Combined with Jormungander assets, its actions turn the tide at the battle of L4. During this same battle, a weapons platform was destroyed in the fight that many believe was being used by the TITAN "Myrmidon" as a processing locus. The ultimate fate of "Myrmidon" is unknown.(F.170)
- The TITANs begin to demonstrate strangely aberrant, erratic, or counterproductive behavior. Key military targets are overlooked, while trivial ones are decimated. Civilians are rounded up, and then freed or simply slaughtered rather than uploaded. Offensives slow so the machines could build unusual art-like structures. Nanoswarms go suddenly dormant and sleeper agents reveal themselves without reason. The cause of these actions is never determined.(X.68)
- As the "Hot War" with the TITANS reaches a crescendo, many Jormungander teams escape off of earth, they leave many things behind. Traps, hidden caches, weapons, equipment, sometimes even people.(F.22)
- Jormungander teams left behind are (mostly) volunteers, and (mostly), forks. Some run sabotage ops behind the lines, others stay to provide Intel, a few bunker up, ready for when they are needed. Many remain in storage indefinitely, waiting for a re-activation that never comes.(F.22)
- During this assault phase, TITAN war machines, nanoplagues, and the exsurgent viruses are directly responsible for approximately 3.9 billion fatalities. Human armed response for .8 billion. Environmental and other pressures for 1.9 billion.(X.20)
- By the time of earths interdiction, 1.7 Billion transhumans are unaccounted for and believed to have been alive, however most are believed to be assimilated and under TITAN control.(X.20)
- Uplifts in particular suffer badly during the evacuation. Many never receive the option to evacuate (human bodies and minds took preference) not a single neo-elephant escapes the devastation of earth, even as an infomorph, only a handful of neo-whales survive.(P.101)
- More than any other reason, many uplifts survive the fall due to so much uplift research taking place off-world than to any action or inaction on earth.(P.101)
- TITANs suddenly disappear from the solar system, taking millions of uploaded minds with them.(C.37)
- Factional competition cripples cooperation. Even as the evacuation of earth is in full effect, infighting undermines refugee actions and bottlenecks ship traffic.(X.21)
- Many organizations use available cargo space on transports for items of personal and financial value over refugees or cargo of global and cultural significance.(X.21)
- Some enterprising evacuees manage to escape earth by uploading themselves as simulmorphs into large extra-solar simulspaces. The largest such spaces where used in MMORPG's at the time. One such game (Legends of Crythwall) was famously used by a proto-Firewall team to download into an egocasting facility by transferring to a server in Kronosian space.(F.22,T.133)
- An unexpected and unexplained network of killsats laced throughout earths orbit come online. Enforcing an unvoiced interdiction of earth. No one claims responsibility for these defenses, and most of transhumanity embraces this quarantine, if only to help forget the horrors that occurred there.(C.355)
- Jormungandr merges with what will eventualy become Firewall when bainbridge evacuated her teams from earth in the falls final days, calling on her argonaut allies to find her agents sanctuary Rimward.(F.17)
- Earth is left a devastated wasteland, a patchwork of radiation hotspots, sterile zones, nanoswarm clouds, roaming war machines, and other unknown and hidden things among the ruins.(C.37)
- Cooperation with X-Risk and Proto-Firewall groups during The Fall, along with open sourcing exsurgent virus detection to polities, allow the Argonauts to enter the post-Fall era with solid alliances and many trading partners.(A.6)
- Xmode, a simulspace conference for members of the counter-x-risk movement is hosted. Attendees include Maddy Bainbridge, Magnus Ming, Aun Leung (restored from backup), Conrik Tombs (Bata fork), Branden DeGrass, Felicity Costa, and many others. During this conference, the "eye" is formed.(F.22)
- ABEL-3 (one of the most prolific and human-like AGI codelines) and its creator Jacob Abelmann, are suspected to have been killed during the fall. They are survived by tens of thousands of Abel-3 codeline decedents, now spread throughout the system.(T.127)
- Remaining dominant sociopolitical memes face a crisis of relevancy when stripped of access to both their bodies of law and institutional memories. Entire cultures lose access to their histories, their artifacts, and knowledge of their pasts and traditions.(P.18)
- A notable percent of transhumans off-world prier to the fall consisted of individuals locked into iron-clad indenture contracts, in many cases no better than slaves. With so many locked into this form of legal slavery, and without the social counterbalance of earths pre-Fall cultural aversion to legalized bondage, the otherwise loathsome practice of 'Indenture' becomes a significant economic and social force.(T.161)
- The body of transhuman knowledge is dealt a grievous blow as most contemporaneous and historical information was archived within the data storage infrastructure on earth and not replicated elsewhere.(P.18)
- As no systematic effort was made to backup transhumanity's complete data library - only selective bits and pieces survive.(P.18)
- The mass-loss of records make establishing or defending identity both incredibly difficult and critically important. In thousands of cases backups where activated when the status or survival of the original ego was unknown. Errors during this time create dramatic conflicts where egos and unintentional forks fight over who held the primary identity.(T.155)
- Unintentional forking becomes commonplace. Survivors sometimes fight for their own identity with alphas who, after months of independence, are resistant to re-integration. Some prime egos suffer severe mental trauma and prove less competent or stable than established backups. Many file civil charges against re-sleaving and backup companies. The fallout of these cases clog Martian and LLA legal systems for years.(T.155)
- The overflow of civil cases between Fall survives and their backups heavily influence opinions on forking and its legal consequences. Hundreds of cases result in forced merging, forks fleeing capture by ego hunting firms, and bitter legal battles where forks only survive only by creating entirely new identities for themselves. Laws develop that restrict even voluntary, planned forking for more than a few hours in an effort to avoid repeat of these cases.(T.155)
- The re-establishment and expansion of pre-fall social networks by displaced peoples of earth has unseen consequences.(P.19)
- As survivors reconnect with friends and loved ones, the reputation economy rapidly matures from the passing of information and aid to a sophisticated exchange of social obligation, the strength of a persons name becomes the only thing of value that many find they have to trade with.(P.19)
- A social networks ability to rebuild social ties and connections begin to establish new cultural groupings and memetic tribes that replace the shattered identities of earth.(P.19)
- Post-Fall the ELRON organization and its CEO Emeritus, Jared Duchman, conduct many black budget security and defense research projects on contract to various government and corporate entities, consulting extensively under a variety of hypercorp noms de guerre.(A.22)
- AF 1 - Argonauts hold the first general election for the leadership positions of Chancellor, President, and Provost. Those elected hold the position for a 6-year term.(A.8)
- The Infuge ship "Sweet Dreams" carrying 125,000 survivor backups (some of whom where believed to be prominent members of the lifeboat institute) is destroyed by an extremest conservative firewall team, the only reason listed is that the ship captain being an AGI.(F.23)
- The "Sweet Dreams" event causes a major split between pragmatic and conservative factions of firewall, ending conservative dominance in the x-risk community.(F.47)
- Xmode-2 is hosted, firewall is formed.(F.23)
- After years of fierce debate, many polities settle on the 0.1% rule. Where if a fork has more than a 0.1% differentiation in their original ego map, they are no longer considered the same person. Habitats vary wildly in their response to the crossing of this threshold, ranging from the immediate de-sleaving and deleting of the forked instance, to the emancipation of the fork as a separate ego. However, many forks who win ego-status due to this remain in a precarious situation as their originators may appeal to different laws or standards that still treat the fork as property, impostors, and/or non-persons.(T.156)
- Fall legend Teilhard Liu, joins and eventually takes command of autonomous forces during the first and second 'Battle of Locus.' He eventually becomes the principle actor behind the mutual defense pact between the Titanian Commonwealth and Locus.(Rw.61-62)
- The Post-Fall lobster becomes one of the handful of species resurrected independently of genetic reference (being primarily genefixed prawns designed to mimic documented neural architecture). Old timers claim however, that they don't taste the same.(T.125)
- Argonaut researchers studying the exurgent virus discover a variant that endowed its host with exceptional mental abilities without the transformative process of other strains. Labeled the Watts-MacLeod strain after the researchers who isolated it, it alters the synapses and generates "asynchronous" brainwaves. Affected individuals are given the moniker 'asyncs.'(C.218)
- A wormhole gateway is discovered on Saturns moon Pandora, presumably left by the TITANs. Four others are later found (in the Vulcanoids, on Mars, on a moon of Uranus, and in the Kuiper Belt); these are collectively referred to as "Pandora gates."(C.37)
- Expeditions are sent to extrasolar worlds via the pandora gates. Numerous exoplanet colonies are established.(C.37)
- ELRON develops ties to Project Ozma, although their dynamic is quite different than that of the Argonauts and Firewall. ELRON is a private entity, controlling its own ships, habs, and security forces (Though much smaller than the Argonauts' assets). Moreover, ELRON makes a habit of collecting dirt on all former clients to inflict major fallout if Consotrium or Ozma ever attempted to purge or take control of it.(A.22)
- AF 3 - A brinker habitat in the Neptunian Trojans suffers a severe life support failure. Not expecting anyone to respond to their distress signals, they are simultaneously relieved and shocked to have an alien starship come to their aid. This becomes the first official interaction between transhumanity and the alien race, the "Factors."(C.40)
- AF 3 - Shortly after first contact, three unknown ships of alien design simultaneously approach Mars, Luna, and Titan. They mesh with local networks and announce their presence and peaceful intentions. Dubbed "Factors" because of their interesting biology they claim to act as ambassadors for other alien civilizations and warn tranhumanity away from both seed AIs and the pandora gates.(C.37,40)
- The practice of 'Pithing' (the suppression of evolution in software) comes under fire in outer system courts. During the debate, Murcurial advocates argue that potentially emergent systems should be liberated. Groups like MIRM (Machine Intelligence Risk Mitigation) however, maintain that software systems are property. MIRM consultants often re-label terms describing machine consciousness as errors and software bugs, a jargon deeply offensive to most AGIs.(T.126)
- An attempt to raise a generation of children using force-grown clones and time-accelerated VR fails miserably when most die or go insane. Dubbed the "Lost Generation," the survivors are viewed with repugnance and pity.(C.37)
- As transhuman society finally stabilizes, the subject of forking again becomes prominent in public discourse, though most still view it in a negative light. Bioconservatives, as a transgressive excess and affront to the value of an human life. Religions groups as the creation of a "spiritually stillborn copy" and a serious moral and spiritual hazard. Even in resource-rich neutral communities, running multiple instances is seen as self-obsessive, greedy, and anti-social.(T.157)
- Argonauts create the "Exoplanet Directory and Gate Address Registry" (EDGAR). This system records gate addresses and data about exoplanets from all participating Pandora gates (currently all of them except for the Discord Gate and exoplanets only reachable from there) This has led to tension between participants as Pathfinder has been accused of failing to meet its obligations in this area.(A.9)
- The Titanian climate-modeling application 'CloudSeer' emerges into sapience after coordinating hundreds of autonomous meteorological data sampling agents. The codeline names itself the 'Transfinities.' Its dependent, Pedro Transfinity, becomes a popular Pirate Party MP on Titan.(T.128)
- Engineers maintaining the Software used by Lunar banking houses to trade favors in reputation economy for credits (RepTrade) go public with a statement that the system had the potential to emerge to sapience on its own. Shortly after this statement the entire engineering team for RepTrade is fired, discredited, and blacklisted.(T.126)
- Argonaut scientists working on the "Factor Genome Project" clandestinely collect Factor biological samples using nanoswarms in an attempt to clone a Factor. Unfortunately the Factors find out and send a warning to Argonaut leadership. Though the research is destroyed and scientists in question are turned over to the aliens, rumor has it that the Medeans may not have done as thorough a job as claimed.(A.12)
- Despite the residual negative attitude towards forking, the forking variation 'Twins' where two alphas share the same morph either through augmentation or ghostrider module, gains positive attention. Armon and Lawrence Weaving, two well known 'Twins', grow different enough from each other to decide to amicably separate. Each one, pursuing successful careers as a psychosurgeon and Skinaesthesia consultant respectively.(T.158)
- The "Martian Socioeconomics Institute" (MSI), an Argonaut agency tasked to study how economic activity interacts with social processes, relocates its headquarters from Valles-New Shanghai to Noctis-Qianjiao after several researchers are threatened with sedition charges by Valles authorities. The result of political backlash from several unpopular public papers about the effects of mesh neutrality, indenture, authoritarianism, morph availability, and terraforming.(A.12)
- The multiplicity variant known as 'Hive' forking, normally only seen in brinker habitats and scum swarms, starts to gain traction in several major polarities. Of particular note is a variant colloquially referred to 'Autocratic Hiving', where a single Alpha ego maintains a swarm of severely pruned and enslaved bata and delta forks. While distasteful, it nonetheless becomes a well known practice of high level Cognite execs, and rumored preference of Gorgon Defense R&D heads.(T.158)
- AF 9 - Argonaut Chancellor Martha Holmquist is ousted and replaced by Rikke Vestergaard due to a "No Confidence" vote by the Argonaut senate. The election of Vestergaard (a proponent of "third way," reversibilist thinking) weakens Precautionist dominance in the Argonaut leadership. (A.8,10)
- Professor Rokuzawa Chi of Titan Autonomous University, publishes research and articles on forking and individuality that lay the groundwork for exploration into several radical concepts. Why only merge with forks of yourself? Why not change forks to create entirely new personalities? Why not merge multiple egos into a single communal consciousness? So far, no one yet publicly supports such blatantly posthuman positions.(T.158)
- Renowned for her brilliant dance compositions, famed artist Dominique LeStrange wins further acclaim with her performance piece "One's Self." Widely regarded on Mars as one of the most significant artistic expressions in half a decade, LeStranges use of more than a dozen simultaneous forks in the show partly counters some of the negative public perception towards the "multiplicity" lifestyle within the consortium.(T.157)
- Awkward tensions arise between the Titanian government and Argonauts when Science Police raided what they thought was a whale sex dungeon trafficking in underaged neo-belugas in a Hovverman-Geischecker research bay, but turned out to be a play party for consenting adults hosted by scum morph designer FU Srsly. (A.17)
- Even a decade after the fall, prejudice against infomorphs remains tragically common. Even on Titan, a polity known for progressive policies, the Ministry of Justice and Equality has handled several high profile hate crimes against AGI's and Uploaded infomorph citizens.(T.137)
- The term 'Choruses' begins to pop up in mesh crypto-communities with increasing frequency. Referring to groups of disparate egos that share a single instance and ego map, a 'Chorus' supposedly operates under the some type of collective awareness and decision-making. These developments attract the attention of Oversight, Firewall, and (strangely) the Ultimates.(T.158)
last update 3/17/20
We tinker with metal, to give it life, and suffer those who scoff at our efforts. But who's to say that, if intelligence evolved in other forms, the ancestors of these beings would not scoff at the idea of intelligence residing within meat?


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text:
In this modern-day and competitory universe every little and big administration demands to be after its activities to develop its scheme and to accomplish their marks more efficaciously. One of the chief constituents considered while planing a selling program is a selling audit to measure the demands of a house, to assist them analyze the market chances, program selling activities, implement and proctor programs and command the usage of selling resources. Hence it 's indispensable for every house to hold a perfect selling audit in order to plan an effectual planning procedure.
This study evaluates the importance of marketing planning procedure and the selling audit. It besides outlines the chief challenges faced in garnering the needed selling information in both theoretical and practical position. It talks about the possible troubles that may be faced by Innocent in implementing the proposed selling program.
During any selling planning procedure ; the first measure is to garner the information. This can be done by different methods and theories but the basic beginnings of garnering selling information are
Internal records such as client feedback, gross revenues studies and stock list degrees
Marketing intelligence is used chiefly to alarm the house to the alterations in the external environment. The information is chiefly based on the external secondary beginnings to organize the uninterrupted flow of information.
Marketing research- It is designed to supply information to the administration to assist them in doing specific determinations. For illustration, whether to come in a new market or establish a new merchandise.
Scientific method- A logical method that forces the analyst to follow processs that cut down the possibilities of haphazard work or trust on intuition.
Other than the above resources, the selling determination devising can besides be actively increased by pricing theoretical accounts, correlativity analysis, site-selection theoretical accounts and game theory ( Hatton, A ; 2000 ) . These theories are discussed in item below.
Game Theory: It consists of four subdivisions matching to whether the game in inquiry is inactive or dynamic and to whether it has a complete or in complete information ( " Complete information means that there is no private information " ) . It can be operated either in inactive complete information or inactive uncomplete information and dynamic complete information or dynamic uncomplete information ( Gibbons, R.S. , 2000 )
Site Choice: A market research site is an country where the group identifies the chances and challenges, trials technological options. However the choice is made by sing its representativeness of a greater country to guarantee that the consequences obtained can be applicable in other countries with similar features ( Zandstra et al. , 1981 ) . Assorted activities like assemblage and analyzing secondary information, interviews to identify sources and direct site acknowledgment Tourss are helpful in choosing a site ( Axelby, G. , 2002 ) .
Marketing Research: It is concerned with research into selling procedures. It has been defined by the American Marketing Association as " the systematic assemblage, entering and analysis of informations about jobs associating to the selling of goods and services " ( McDonald, M. , 2007 ) . There are two signifiers of marketing research, External or Internal. The external research activity is conducted within the competitory environment outside the house, while internal selling analysis gives a much valuable intelligence of gross revenues tendencies, alteration in marketing mix and advertisement degrees. Apart from this, there are besides reactive and non-reactive research methods. The former involves some signifier of proactive appraisal in the market topographic point, and subsequently is based on the reading of ascertained phenomena or extant informations.
Scientific Method: A logical method that makes the houses to follow processs in order to cut down the possibilities of haphazard work or trust on intuition. It consists of four phases which are Observation, Formulation of hypotheses, anticipation of the hereafter and proving hypotheses. For Instance, a house running on a normal gait wanted to develop some chances it starts by first detecting the market and the competition, formulate the rival 's solution as the exclusive hypothesis and predict the hereafter by be aftering to use the solution to the house and prove it in the market. This allows the house to diminish the hazards associated by come ining the market and gives a proper and logical consequence.
So, it 's an obvious fact that information and market research are the chief ingredients for the success of any house. Good information can ensue in a proper program, which is why one should be certain of the right inquiries to inquire such as: " who are our clients and what is our market portion? " and so on.
By and large all the theories above suggest that garnering the information is really indispensable for market planning procedure, but it should besides be considered that the information should be gathered harmonizing to the administration demand. Hence, the information is gathered harmonizing to the demand of the inexperienced person for proposed selling program. Since Innocent is traveling through the fiscal crisis, maintaining that in head a new program is proposed to get the better of the loss caused by the economic downswing since two old ages. Decision devising is complicated yet critical facets within this state of affairs, nevertheless garnering the background information for executing the market research is considered as less complicated procedure.
As Innocent is cognizant of its internal environment and its market place in the industry at present, the planning procedure is designed in such a manner to sketch the failings and possible strengths and supply valuable information into a launch of a new merchandise in the UK market and spread out its base in EU market. The information is chiefly gathered by taking into history of the internal records such as client feedback and gross revenues studies. The survey of these internal records has given an thought about the possible booby traps in the present selling program such as lessening in the gross revenues volume and client disposition towards cheaper merchandises due to recession which finally resulted in the loss of the company. Therefore, an external research has been carried out in order to understand the client demands and develop the new merchandise line harmonizing to them to maintain the bing clients and achieve new 1s. This external research is performed chiefly by organizing the events and face to confront reappraisals with cardinal clients for the information about the demand and the alterations they want to break perform in the present market. Innocent 's concern is chiefly merchandise focused instead than market focused, nevertheless it should be chiefly market focused to bring forth net income to the concern. Levitt besides argued that concern should be viewed as client satisfying procedure but non as goods-producing procedure ( Wilson, T. , 1992 ) .
Furthermore, these internal and external researches throws visible radiation on the chances and jobs for inexperienced person and aid in understanding the SWOT of the company and bring forthing an effectual selling audit. Analysis of the stable and consistent market place of inexperienced person in UK market gave an chance to bring forth a new selling aim to the company. Harmonizing to Ansoff Growth matrix, Innocent 's new market aim is to be in bing UK market with a new merchandise and besides with bing merchandises in the new EU market ( Foundations of selling ) .
It is easy for Innocent to establish a new merchandise line in UK market as it has good consistent public presentation. Since Innocent is cognizant of its client base and its market cleavage, the demand for information assemblage is really minimum. This will let them to derive the former clients back who are willing to pay less to the Innocent merchandises. With UK 's one-fourth population willing to devour smoothies and Innocent being the market leader in the smoothies industry, it is easy for them to establish a new merchandise line. So, with the aid of internal records and past public presentation of the company, it is now clear that there is a demand to establish a new merchandise that could make admirations to the company. In add-on, Innocent is seeking to travel to a new market in Europe which is non an easy procedure and the information assemblage has different standards in a new market. Detecting the industry and rivals strengths and their merchandises will assist Innocent to understand the client 's demands and work harmonizing to them to do an impact in clients view. The proposed selling program covers an effectual selling mix that suits the EU market and most significantly the low monetary value and some different promotional activities like merchandise sampling and events conducted on healthy drinks.
So, garnering information is worked by utilizing theories like cleavage of the market harmonizing to site-selection and detecting new market by utilizing scientific method. But talking practically most of the administrations do non trust on theories and works harmonizing to the market fluctuation. So in instances like these Swifts and careful determinations should be made as application of theories is a clip devouring procedure. It besides makes selling program complex and critical for administrations to understand and will miss the flexibleness.
Marketing Audited account:
Selling program will merely be every bit good as the information on which it is based and the selling audit is the agencies by which information for planning is organised. As the selling audit provides the anchor analysis that supports both selling and corporate determination, it is considered most indispensable to the planning procedure. " A selling audit is a systematic, critical and indifferent reappraisal and assessment of all the external and internal factors that have affected an administrations commercial public presentation over a defined period " . It is based on the current state of affairs and answers the inquiry: 'Where is the administration now? ' The selling audit is basically a database of all market-related issues for the company, which forms portion of the company-wide direction audit. It besides provides a basic apprehension of how the administration relates to the environment in which it operates by enabling the direction to choose a place within the environment based on known factors. It is by and large structured into 2 parts.
External audit- variables that are unmanageable ( concern and economic environment, the market, the competition )
Internal audit- variables that are governable ( administration 's strengths and failings, operations and resources vis-a-vis the environment and rivals )
In today 's universe every little and large administration has a demand for marketing audit as it helps in garnering information and makes administration to do determinations in appropriate manner. Often the demand of an audit does non attest itself until things start to travel incorrect for a company, in the signifier of worsening gross revenues, falling borders, lost market portion or underutilized production capacity. Neverthless, the audit has been used on a regular basis by administrations these yearss as the market started fluctuating every now and so.
Its primary aim is to guarantee that the decision-making procedure is an informed 1. The audit seeks to supply information on two cardinal facets of the selling environment


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Stainless Steel Screw Top Lid
Product DescriptionComplete your MOBOT collection with another on-the-go lifestyle cap.This 100% Recycled Stainless Steel Screw Top Lid fits all MOBOTs.The same great qualities as our Spout Lid, stay hydrated and supple on the go whether you're climbing mountains or strolling down the beach.
Shipping & Returns.
All Orders over the value of $30 will include free registered post shipping within Australia. Order to New Zealand are $10 regular post. Packages sent via registered mail can take between 3-6 working days to be delivered (depending on location). If you require your package quicker than this, express shipping is available at checkout. You have the option to pay $8 for express postage in Australia and $18 to New Zealand. Express post will mean you will receive your package faster however depending on location if this means overnight or not.
All efforts are made to post all orders within 24 hours of being received. You will receive an email and or text message with your tracking details once your order has been fulfilled.
If the products are not used and in re-sellable condition, 4Time is happy to refund or exchange. Please email us regarding your request at email@example.com. Return costs are the responsibility of the buyer. All exchanges must be accompanied by a self addressed pre-paid Australia Post satchel and information regarding the exchange you require. For returns we will issue a refund upon receiving the unused product.
Estimated Delivery Times:
- Brisbane 1-2 days
- Sydney 2-3 days
- Melbourne 3-4 days
- Perth 5-6 days
- New Zealand 5-6 days


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Monday, July 30, 2018
Unity ATC's
I took acrylic paints Alizerin Crimson and Gold and scraped them across a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of cardstock. Once dried, I cut out the circles with Spellbinder Dies. I stamped the Birthday Wishes onto the circle. stamped and fussy cut out the panda image and added it over a strip of Washi tape. To finish off the ATC coin, I added dashes/faux stitching around the edge. I will have to try more of these : )
I stamped this flower by Graciella Designs onto an ATC, water brushed with clear shimmer which spread the die ink, then I overstamped the floral image. The sentiment is from the same set, it is die cut and outlined with Rose Red cardstock.
Challenges TBA
Thanks for stopping by!
9 comments:
- MiamiKel said...
Woohoo, Super cute, Shel! I love your panda and the 'coin'! I hope you are feeling better xoxo
- July 30, 2018 at 3:11 AM
- Beth Norman-Roberts said...
Love your coin ATC. The stamp is just perfect for it. The black mat is eye popping.
- July 30, 2018 at 4:06 AM
- Jeanette (Forest Ranger) said...
Shelly, these are beautiful!
- July 30, 2018 at 7:46 AM
- Lynn McAuley said...
How cute is that panda with his panda balloon!! Sensational work, Shelly!!
- July 30, 2018 at 2:36 PM
- Laura said...
Oh what gorgeous artwork, Shelly! Love the circular ATC coin (need to learn about exactly what that means!) The bg you created is awesome! Your pandas are adorable and love how you used the washi tape and the dashes/faux stitching!!! The flower card is amazing! Love the watercolor effect you created! I have to give that a try!!! THanks so much for sharing your creative ideas!
- July 30, 2018 at 4:14 PM
- Lisa Lynn said...
Shelly these are adorable. Congrats on your Bugaboo win - enjoy!!!
- July 30, 2018 at 9:47 PM
- Lisa said...
They are both so gorgeous!! The colors are amazing!! Love those little pandas!! Have a great day!! Big hugs :)
A Mermaid's Crafts
- July 31, 2018 at 6:08 AM
- Donna said...
Both ATCs are adorable Shelly. Really think the panda is so cute especially with the little panda balloon. The background is awesome! The flowers are pretty too. I love flowers!
- July 31, 2018 at 10:51 AM
- Michele said...
i love your coin, it is adorable! i just bought a 2.5 round hole punch so i can join the fun! great post. xo
- July 31, 2018 at 1:38 PM


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When Sheffield indie pop band Standard Fair disbanded in 2013, there was much consternation amongst fans: with a shambolic aesthetic that was nothing short of perfection, their melodic punk sensibility drew inspiration from the noisier aspects of C86. Singer Emma Kupa's new venture, Mammoth Penguins, are similarly adept at combining frantic euphony with candid songwriting: rejection, hope, despair and all the usual common grievances of being in your late twenties/early thirties are a persistent theme. Kupa's wry, literate refrains add bite to the more reflective moments on tracks like the heartfelt 'We Won't Go There'. Elsewhere, guitars are typically ramshackle and memorable hooks are aplenty, often sounding like a lost Weezer record with more power in the pop. Ultimately, though, it's Emma Kupa's pronounced, emphatic vocals that define this band.
Buy: Mammoth Penguins – Hide and Seek


text: Yes! We got to see our Alli Jo as she made her way back home (north of Seattle), and we enjoyed every single second of it! She was down for her baby shower - did you notice that little baby bump? Seven and a half months pregnant, she is, and all she has showing is that adorable little bump! Lucky girl...! Her baby boy wouldn't move around for us, but Brailey was so thrilled to spend time with Allison. She talked about her nonstop for the rest of the day - it was a tough transition for Brailey to go without skating over last year and a half. Worse than that was missing her "Allison Time," though - Allison is like a big sister to Brailey and the two of them really bonded. (Remember Allison was Brailey's ice skating coach and both Brailey and Britt were in her wedding last summer - you can find the wedding in the July 2010 posts, and in fact, you should check it out if you haven't seen it, because it was a super cool wedding.) Allison was also Britt's first "love," until she married her Jay, and she actually took Britt on his first date. So you can see she is very special to us, and we miss her like crazy! She is also a tad on the short side... Brailey and Britt both are nearly as tall as she is, now! Although Brailey did have added height from her boot and wedge flip flop. Still, Allison is our Pretty Little Mama, because she is very pretty and very petite and she is going to be the best mother in the world. And as you can see from the picture below this text, my nickname of Big Mama is fitting, as well! Nevertheless, Big Mama, Pretty Little Mama and the two little B's equals a whole lot of love, and now we are going to have another part of Allison to love, as well. His arrival is forecasted for the middle/end of October. We're excited!


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Speckled dace are a type of fish.
Like all types of fish, each speckled dace gives one fish fillet when caught.
Catching speckled dace
Speckled dace can be caught with gold lures in fishing spot #6 (the deep water area with a sunken ship).
Speckled dace can only be caught in small circles and therefore are harder to catch.
See Fishing List for more detailed information.
Speckled dace in the fishing book
The speckled dace is on page 7 of the fishing book:
Quick, small and agile, this fish can be a tough catch but is absolutely worth the trouble!
See also
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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A princess puppet play
Siwa has drawn a princess puppet play. But she has mixed all the drawings up :o( Can you put them in the right order so that she and Boowa can do the play for you ?
Who makes what noise?
Do you know which animal makes which noise? Match them up.


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Uppercut games, makers of Submerged and EPOCH have revealed that they are working on a new title, City of Brass. Coming to Xbox in 2018, the studio (built of ex Irrational games veterans) released some game play footage to coincide with the announcement. Uppercut have also provided some details on games features. Within the City of Brass, your able to collect loot, barter with the local Genies and collect upgrades as you progress through. However Permadeath means that no two playthroughs will be the same. If you die, you start from the beginning, each time learning from your mistakes. How far into the City of Brass can you reach?
Leaping from the pages of the Arabian Nights, adventure awaits in the accursed City of Brass – a place of legend beneath the sand, filled with danger and reward. Infested with mischievous spirits and deadly traps, its shifting streets are brimming with the wealth of a nation. Players assume the role of a cunning thief, battling to reach a fabled treasure at the city's heart, wielding a blade and whip that can be used to disarm, trip or stun enemies, to swing to safety, grab inaccessible objects or even break through flimsy barricades.
But the city itself also has teeth. Players have to leap across pits, slide under blades, dodge spears or arrows, evade or employ sprung paving slabs, and sidestep poison gas traps – all the while manipulating these hazards to their advantage against diverse supernatural foes.
Enemies City of Brass has eternal replayability, designed to encourage combinative gameplay within an ever-changing, carefully optimized cityscape. Gamers must learn to manipulate every system if they are to survive, moving swiftly and deftly through each level, balancing the need for loot with the absolute requirement to escape within the time limit.


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Ilette - salis - ponteil
6 rooms - 160 m²
1 270 000 €
1 670 000 €*
Magnificent contemporary villa nestled on the heights of Antibes offering a splendid sea and mountains view.
This superb villa consists of a spacious living room of 90 m² open on a deep terrace, a fitted kitchen, a master suite, 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
A huge basement of 170 m² is converted into a relaxation room with steam room and jacuzzi.
Caretaker's house, garage, parking and swimming pool accompany this beautiful house.


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As seen on our IG Story! Today's #FavoriteFridaypost features a non-profit organization which was shared to me by my good friend, Jordan Evans. After skydiving in Oceanside a few weeks ago, I was blessed to be able to connect with her and celebrate her birthday. One of the many qualities I love and am inspired by is her giving, kind, and generous heart. She donated her birthday celebration to be charitable and spread awareness to a cause that is so dear to her heart.
I was shocked and sad to learn that approximately 6000 horses are trucked and slaughtered every week. Most of these horses are adoptable and just need a home. Moreover, there are horses known as Premarin Farm Mares. These are mares that are impregnated and kept in stalls during the last 6 months of pregnancy so their urine can be collected. This urine contains estrogen that is used to produce Premarin for women's hormone therapy during their menopause. The mares are kept pregnant and dehydrated so the estrogen can be harvested.
Meet Barbie, she was a Premarin mare and was so severely dehydrated that the trauma she experienced has given her anxiety. So much so that if her water bucket is not full to the brim, she will get nervous, scared and defensive.Currently, they have about 10 rescued horses on the ranch and they are rescuing more horses across the country, finding homes for them too. If this cause touches your heart please support them.
A great way to support is to visit their website and read more about them at www.laughingponyrescue.org. You'll get to meet their rescues and the ones for adoption. You'll also learn different ways to help from raising awareness to donating or becoming a monthly donor which I became in honor of Jordan's Bday and these beautiful loving horses. No act of kindness is too small. Let us all support this worthy cause and save one animal at a time.Check out her Instagram account @skyjordananimals for more info.


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President Obama is concerned about federal employees driving while texting, the district attorney in Pennsylvania is worried about teens' sexting and in-house counsel, apparently, are worried about "sextual harassment."
What do you do, Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawyer ask, when one of your supervisors has been accused of sending inappropriate texts to a subordinate?
CC: Harassment by text message -- or "textual harassment" -- is becoming more prevalent. Texas and 45 other states have laws expressly criminalizing electronic forms of harassment, including text messages. Besides the obvious duties involved when investigating a claim of textual harassment, in-house counsel need to be aware of hidden dangers in trying to retrieve text messages or other electronic information as part of an investigation.
When faced with a textual harassment complaint, in-house lawyers for the employer may need to review other text messages as part of an internal investigation...But can an employer access employees' text messages outside of a discovery request without violating their expectations of privacy?
The article walks through several recent cases that suggest reading employees' personal emails and texts even if you pay for their Blackberry or phone service could be a violation of their privacy, especially when those emails are to and from the alleged harassee's lawyer.
We suggest that, should you have to deal with a supervisor textually harassing (really, is this a thing?) an employee, you check your state law as to where the draw the line.
It also seems like a good idea to remind people that sending late night texts to your subordinates from any place that serves alcohol is a poor idea. A London millionaire learned this the hard way when he had to pay a large settlement after "bombarding" an employee with late-night texts.
Sexual harassment cases used to be so she said/he said. But, such claims become a lot easier to prove when it's all laid out for you on someone's iPhone.
So, think before you text. Or, even better, just don't sexually harass anyone at all.
Want to learn more about the mobile industry? Check out our featured articles:
- Mobile Trends for 2020
- Mobile Banking Market
- M-Commerce & Mobile Shopping
- Mobile Wallet Payment Ecosystem
- Mobile Payments Technologies


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Microsoft stock (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a bull market, which started several months ago, and which is supposed to continue for the rest of this year.
Price has been going upwards slowly and consistently in spite of occasional pullbacks and equilibrium periods.
4 EMAs are used for this analysis and they are EMAs 10, 20, 50 and 200. The color that stands for each EMA is shown at the top left part of the chart.
All the EMAs are sloping upwards – emphasizing a bull market. As usual, there would be transitory pullbacks along the way, which may make price reach the EMA 10 or 20 briefly before the uptrend continues. As long as price does not cross the EMA 200 to the downside, the bullish outlook is intact.
In the year 2017, Microsoft would reach the resistance lines at 60.00, 65.00 and 70.00.
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Hey there! It's Sunday afternoon as I write this....posting it to go live tomorrow when these will also go up on the Shop and Crop Blog.
Sasha sent me a few new Crate Paper Christmas goodies - stickers/patterned paper/die-cuts/pearls..... which I have played with to create 4 very quick cards....with plenty of left-overs for another 4 cards at least.
What do you think?
As you can see they're very simple...one sheet of PP double sided, stickers and die-cuts with a few rhinestones scattered around for good measure LOL.
I hope you have a happy Monday whatever you get up to.
Bye for now...


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Dear Leaders of Tomorrow!
Today, You are all here - from all corners of Albania as well as abroad. I assure you that, You made the right choice, this is your dream destination!
You are all Welcome! Mirëseerdhët! Hosgeldiniz!
University of New York Tirana is the best university in Albania and even beyond for many reasons:
Firstly, our students are among the highest-ranked students and due to UNYT, their employment opportunities expand beyond Albania's borders. Every year, UNYT attracts the top students. Look around You! Most of you have achieved a GPA above 9.5. The best students apply to UNYT and the best are accepted. This is the first reason why UNYT is the top-ranked University in Albania.
UNYT is the role model for the educational field in Albania. UNYT is the only university which offers a Dual Degree with the State University of New York (SUNY)/The Empire State College (ESC) in the USA, and the University of Greenwich in the UK.
One of the features that sets us apart from other universities is our distinct internationalization. You will benefit from our knowledge, our many foreign partnerships and even have opportunities to study abroad through the Erasmus and Mevlana mobility programs. Currently, at UNYT there are students from 16 different countries. Therefore, you have the opportunity to take part in an international environment.
My dear students,
You will be challenged, maybe like never before; not only academically, but also in your professional life.
As a part of the largest educational group in the world, the Turkish Maarif Foundation, we feel more secure, more empowered, and our university will further enrich its already high academic standards to improve the quality in education.
Dear students, rest assured this is your home now!
This is the home where together we are going to build your future!
We stand by our motto: "Educating Tomorrow's Leaders"!
Prof. Dr. Ismail KOCAYUSUFOGLU


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We spoke to John Townsend, Head of Internal Communications at Unicef UK which relocated from Clerkenwell, Central London to Stratford, East London in August. Unicef has over 350 staff members and 200 who use the office on a daily basis. We were eager to speak to a charity of a similar size that had recently undergone a major move to gauge how it went.
There were a few reasons for moving but there's no denying that the initial drive was financial. Because Clerkenwell has gone up in the world over the last few years, our rent had significantly increased over our 10-year lease. When the lease came up for renewal and we were asked to pay a significantly higher rent, the only responsible thing to do was to look around and assess our options. We will save millions of pounds over the next decade by swapping the rising prices of our current area for a rapidly evolving, but not yet fully established, neighbourhood in Stratford. Money which we can better use for helping children. An estimated £3 million saving is a lot of vaccines!
There were other factor too, though. We wanted to use the opportunity to see if we could create an office space which worked better for us as an organisation, reflected our values and to see if we could find a space that was a bit more modern. The move gave us the chance to re-think the layout of our four floor town building and together build a more modern space to improve the way we work together.
The focus was on agile working, daylight, open workspaces, collaboration and community. Having surveyed our staff to see what they wanted from a new space, it was also clear that people wanted different zones for different tasks – quiet spaces when they wanted to focus, collaborative areas to work spontaneously together and team zones where they could congregate. We also took the opportunity to introduce better technology such as meeting room video conferencing, video screens and meeting room panels.
We also felt that Stratford was future-looking and the right fit for us. With the under-35 population in the area expected to nearly double over the next decade – and 5 major universities either already established or planning on moving – we hope to be embedded into a forward-thinking area and to make sure we are in touch with young people's views.
Stratford, of course, also has big transport advantages – again all enhanced a few years ago to make sure that millions of spectators were efficiently ferried to and from the Olympics.
It wasn't such a hard sell in the end because it came down to 2 locations, Stratford and Canary Wharf, and there was a feeling that Stratford would be the best fit for us culturally. It was a big change and some people obviously now have longer commutes (as well as shorter ones), but there wasn't a real backlash against it. Everyone understood the financial savings we would make as well as the opportunity. Some people were more excited than others, but as we started to share information about Stratford we saw an upswing in terms of engagement.
There were massive logistics. A lot of work was involved in the design and fit out, and we were working to a short time scale (9 months from announcing the move to moving in). It was like moving house times a hundred thousand, but it all went very well!
Having staff spread across one main floor has been really useful in terms of being able to interact with colleagues. We now have a lot more space for collaborative working, as well as quiet areas. A lot of thought went in to what kind of working environment we wanted and we worked with staff to address their needs. All the technology now works a lot better which is really important when you move to a different location and more people need to work from home, as well as being an international organisation
We also had the chance to work together to consider some of the design. We now have more children's artwork up, have re-named our meeting rooms, have a dedicated mother's room, video screens, and added the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and our values to the walls .
Also, the views are amazing! It's funny but when you can look out over a city, and your work space has great natural light, your perspective and mentality can't help but lift. Getting to know a new area has also been quite fun for some people and opened up more opportunities for different kind of networking.
I think staff got more excited as we got closer to the move and we started sharing videos about Stratford and how the office was taking shape. There were lots of engagement activities with staff about what kind of design they wanted, what kind of space they would like, and what they thought was important in an office environment. We sent some staff over to the new office to check it out and we did a countdown as we got nearer.
While there were certainly some nerves around the move, we tried to be as open as possible with the information and answer questions as transparently as we could. There was a little bit of anxiety when people realised they needed to actually pack up all their stuff but we got over that and then when we moved everyone was in a really lovely mood. I think staff were pleasantly surprised at the new office. The building matched their hopes and they were really quite impressed with the space.
Be as open and transparent as possible, and answer any questions, even if they are difficult ones. Involve staff in as much of the process as possible. Bring workshops and groups together to look at what you want the space to be.
Registered charity no. 213280
10 –18 Union Street
Tel +44 20 7772 6200
Fax +44 20 7723 0575