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Robert Longo
- Plan Your Vote
- October 1, 2020 - November 3, 2020
Robert Longo has designed a free, downloadable poster as part of the nonpartisan Plan Your Vote initiative organised by Vote.org in the build up to the US election.
With over 50 institutions and artists involved, the goal is to provide a trove of shareable imagery raising awareness about the importance of voting and providing useful information regarding registration, key dates and facts and polling station locations via Vote.org.
To view and download Longo's artwork, please follow this link.
Click here to share via Instagram.
For further information or to register to vote, visit PlanYourVote.org or Vote.org.Read more
- February 17, 2018 - May 27, 2018
Deichtorstraße 1-2
Hamburg, GERMANY
With works by FRANCISCO GOYA (1746–1828), SERGEI EISENSTEIN (1898–1948), and ROBERT LONGO (1953), the exhibition PROOF offers insights into the particular positions from which artists reflect on the social, cultural, and political complexities of their times.Read more
From the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries across three continents, these three artists experienced the turbulence of a turn of the century as well as the seismic effects of revolution, civil rights movements, and war. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Goya chose the medium of printmaking for his socially critical series of works and haunting images of war. Beginning in the 1920s, Eisenstein dealt with Russian history in classic films such as »The Battleship Potemkin« (1925) and »Ivan the Terrible« (1945). The New York-based artist Robert Longo explores burning contemporary issues such as terrorism, refugee movements, modern warfare, and symbols of power in his drawings ranging up to 7.5 meters in size.
- September 23, 2017 - January 14, 2018
Sara Hilden Art Museum
Särkänniemi, Tampere
The solo exhibition of the American artist Robert Longo (b. 1953) in the Sara Hildén Art Museum is the first extensive presentation of his works in the Nordic countries.
The black-and-white visual world of the American artist Robert Longo challenges our conception of the Truth. It produces unexpected analogies between content and form. The main focus of the exhibition Robert Longo, presented by the Sara Hildén Art Museum, is on Longo's large-scale charcoal drawings. He has said that he is an "image thief", who exploits films, historically significant paintings, and the continuous stream of media pictures in his work, seeking to create a balance between the highly personal and the socially relevant.
https://www.tampere.fi/sarahilden/en/index/exhibitions/robert-longo.htmlRead more
- Proof: Francisco Goya, Sergei Eisenstein, Robert Longo
- September 8, 2017 - January 7, 2018
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, New York
Bringing together the work of three innovative chroniclers, Proof: Francisco Goya, Sergei Eisenstein, Robert Longo offers insight into the energy, empathy, and creativity with which these artists recounted and reimagined their realities.
Together spanning four centuries and three continents, Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746–1828), Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948), and contemporary American artist Robert Longo (born 1953) each witnessed a turbulent transition from one era to another and the profound repercussions of revolution, war, and civil unrest. Within a broad chronological framework, Proof traces the historical lineage of a visual language and artistic impulse.
Featuring artwork almost exclusively in black and white, Proof showcases the artists' technical acuity and bold experimentation in three mediums: etching, film, and charcoal drawing. With a rare combination of selections, it invites viewers to find new meaning in artworks not normally encountered together. These works call to mind images—such as mutiny on a Russian battleship, or American riot police standing guard at a political protest—that are usually represented through journalistic coverage, yet they express the artists' personal, often emotional, perspectives. As the exhibition title suggests, Goya, Eisenstein, and Longo together provide proof not only of significant events or actions, but more crucially of their ongoing resonances through art.
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/proof_goya_eisenstein_longoRead more
- Proof: Francisco Goya, Sergei Eisenstein, Robert Longo
- September 30, 2016 - February 5, 2017
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
9/32 Krymsky Val
119049, Moscow, Russia
Featuring works by Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) and Robert Longo (1953-) Proof offers insight into the singularity of vision through which artists can reflect social, cultural, and political complexities of their times.
Spanning eras and continents, each artist witnessed the turbulent transition from one century to another, experiencing the seismic impacts of revolution, civil unrest, and war. While Goya served church and king, Eisenstein the state, and Longo emerged during the rise of the contemporary art market—the dominant benefactors of each period—they all rose to prominence through developing nuanced practices that challenged expectations and demand.
Looking to innovations in technique and technology, each artist has worked across mediums—from painting and printmaking, to sculpture, film, and performance—but all continuously turn to drawing as a primary tool to articulate thinking. Rendering the societal impact of politics and power in black and white, the artists have diversely experimented with narrative visual forms, beyond traditional reportage, to chronicle events and provide an impassioned portrayal of the world around them.
Curated by Garage chief curator, Kate Fowle, in collaboration with Robert Longo, Proof was developed through extensive conversations between the artist and curator arising out of Longo's decades-long influence of Goya and Eisenstein. This inspired two research trips by Longo to Russia, during which he met with the leading Eisenstein specialist, Naum Kleiman, and visited the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art to study the Eisenstein archive and select drawings for the show. Longo also consulted with curators from the Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia (formerly the Museum of the Revolution) in Moscow, and the Hermitage State Museum in St Petersburg, to explore the importance of Goya in Russia, particularly in relation to the Russian Revolution.
As a result, the exhibition includes forty-three of Eisenstein's sketches from the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art that have not been exhibited before. These will be presented alongside seven of his films that will be projected in slow motion, so that each frame can be experienced as independent images. Forty-nine of Goya's aquatint etchings, from all four of his suites, will be loaned for the first time from the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia and more than thirty-five works by Longo, produced in the last five years, loaned from international collections.
A catalogue will be published.
http://garagemca.org/en/event/francisco-goya-sergei-eisenstein-robert-longo-proofRead more
- I Like America
- September 27, 2015 - September 4, 2016
Schauwerk Sindelfingen
Sindelfingen, Germany
The exhibition I LIKE AMERICA, with works from the collection of Christiane Schaufler-Münch and Peter Schaufler, brings together over a hundred works of art by forty American artists.The presentation includes works from the period between 1960 and 2014 with an emphasis on the 1990s and 2000s. The exhibition traces back conceptual movements in painting, sculpture, graphic arts and photography since the 1960s with a focus on Abstract Expressionism, Pop-Art, Minimal Art, and Concept Art.
For further information please visit the museum's website hereRead more
- The Artist Project
- June 24, 2015 - March 1, 2016
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, launches the second season of The Artist Project, an online series in which 100 artists choose individual works of art or galleries that spark their imaginations. In this online series, artists reflect on what art is and what inspires them from across 5,000 years of art. Their unique and passionate ways of seeing and experiencing art encourage all museum visitors to look in a personal way.
Over the course of five seasons, The Artist Project will share the perspectives of one hundred artists with the public, telling us what they see when they look at The Met.
In Season 1 which started in March 2015 renowned artists such as Tom Sachs or Cory Arcangel participated in the project. In the second season Robert Longo, Rona Pondick and David Salle will share their view amongst seventeen other international artists.
Read more about the The Artist Project by clicking here or click on the artists' name to discover their view on art as part of the project:Read more
- This Is (not) Music
- April 25, 2013 - June 9, 2013
Friche Belle de Mai
Marseille, France
During 40 days, This is (not) Music will occupy the 40 000 m2 of the Friche la Belle de Mai. It will combine contemporary art, music, action sports, street art, graphic arts and projections shedding light on the influence boardsports have on contemporary art and culture. Works by Tom Sachs and Robert Longo will be featured in the exhibition curated by Richard Leydier.
Read more
- The Capitol Project
- March 24, 2013 - August 25, 2013
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
Ridgefield, CT
The Capitol Project juxtaposes an immense seven-panel drawing of the US Capitol Building against eighty-one intimate and immediate studies. Capitol (2013) hangs alone on the longest wall, its placement and dimensions reminiscent of a cinema screen. The drawing's compositional perspective suggests an optical zooming in; the building appears to be moving forward towards the center of the room. The dialogue between the studies and Capitol is sparked by the starkly contrasting scales and installations, speaking to the play of dualities pervading Longo's many bodies of work. This exhibition is curated by Aldrich curatorial consultant Kelly Taxter.Read more
- Art and Press
- March 22, 2012 - June 24, 2012
Im Martin - Gropius Bau
Berlin, Germany
This exhibition in Gropius Bau, Berlin, provides information on the role of Newspaper in the art from the mid-19th Century to the 1990s, since the beginning of the modern art, newspaper have been used very differently: as an independent subject, as artistic material, as a political statement or as a motif pattern.


text: What is bitcoin mining and how does it work to mine bitcoins?We've talked to you before about what bitcoins are, but in today's article we're going to go a little further.We are going to explain to you what it is to mine bitcoins and what is the purpose of mining bitcoins.Where do the bitcoins come from?Unlike traditional monetary systems, where governments print currency when they need it, bitcoins work in a different way. Not being a currency, there is no way to print it as such.How do the bitcoins appear then? Very simple, they are discovered. As if it were gold fever, computers around the world "Minan" in search of coins competing with each other.What is the purpose of mining bitcoins?People send bitcoins through the bitcoin network constantly, but unless you keep a record of those transactions, nobody would be able to monitor if someone has paid something. The bitcoin network takes care of this by collecting all transactions made during a certain period in a list, better known as a block. What a miner does, would be to confirm those transactions and write them as if it were an account book, this is known as Blockchain or block chain.A blockchain is a small file, similar in size to a text message on your mobile. This account book is a very long list of blocks, in which any transaction made anywhere in the chain can be explored. When a new transaction block is created it is added to the blockchain, creating a very long list of all transactions that have been made in the bitcoin network.Each blockchain consists of 3 parts, two of which are very simple:Identify the address (Approximately 34 characters)The history of who has bought and sold. (The account book).The third part, is the Private Key Header Log.To create hashThe miners take the information from a block, apply a mathematical formula and transform it into something different. Create a new, much shorter sequence of apparently random numbers and letters. This sequence is known as hash. The hash is stored inside the block, where it is the end of the chain at that moment.This allows the system to sort the information more quickly and to be found easily but it is a slow and cumbersome process and that is why the miners are needed to do it.But, the miners not only use the transactions of a block to generate a hash, they also use another type of data and one of them is the last part of the last block added to the chain, the header.The header of the blocks is where a sophisticated digital signature is captured to confirm each and every one of the transactions in that bitcoins file. Here a hash is created using the hash of the previous block as an aid.These digital signatures are the security system that bitcoins use: each and every one of the transactions in a chain of blocks are registered and publicly displayed and with the signature of the digital participant attached to it as a confirmation. Therefore, the blockchain is always protected by design.For example, if you tried to forge a transaction by changing a block that was just added to the blockchain, the hash of that block would also change. So as soon as someone looked at the authenticity, he would easily realize that he is facing a forgery, since the hash would not be the same as the previous block in the blockchain and that block would be cataloged at once as false.How much is earned by mining bitcoins?Each time a person successfully creates a new hash, he receives 25 bitcoins as a reward (Currently, a bitcoin equals $ 15,075), the blockchain is updated and everyone in the network finds out about it. That is the incentive that is given for people to continue mining and for transactions to continue to be recorded.But the main problem with this is that it is extremely easy to create hash from the collected data. So the bitcoin network needs to make it more difficult so that all bitcoins are not mined in a matter of minutes and the currency is devalued. For that a protocol known as "Work Test" is created that makes it more expensive and difficult.That protocol does not accept any old hash. Ask that the hash of each block be in a certain way; for example, it has to have a certain number of zeros at the beginning. There is no way to say what a hash will be until you create it, and as soon as you include a new piece of data in the mix, the hash will be completely different.Miners in principle do not interact with the data of the block transactions, but they must change the data they use to create a different hash. This is achieved by using another piece of data known as NONCE. This is used with the transaction data to create a hash. If the hash does not fit the required format, the NONCE changes and becomes "hashear".It can take many tries to find a NONCE that works, and all the miners in the network are trying to do it at the same time. And that's how miners earn their bitcoins.We will bring to you the best mining accessories in the market in our next article. Until then happy reading!

subset: commoncrawl


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Barnardos Australia is a leading child protection charity, supporting families and children in need.
At Barnardos, we believe that every child deserves a safe and stable home free from abuse and neglect, with family members to love and care for them for all of their childhood.
Barnardos works to keep thousands of children safe within their own families - and for those children who can't be kept safe, we find new homes, while still keeping them in touch with their origins. We continue to strive to find new ways of preventing child abuse and trauma.
Our children are our future.


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Wellington, October 15, 2019
Two important events took place last week to cleanse some of the painful memories of aspects of New Zealand's recent and not so recent history.
First was the British High Commissioner's expression of regret on behalf of her country to local Gisborne iwi that nine of their ancestors had been killed during their encounters with Captain Cook in October 1769.
Overdue recognition
This expression was an important overdue recognition that while deaths of this nature may not have been all that uncommon during eighteenth century pre-colonial encounters, they have left scars which do not deserve to be overlooked the way they have been in most of the historical accounts we have been brought up on.
Facing up to this is especially important at a time when we are marking the 250th anniversary of Cook's arrival in New Zealand, and when there is renewed debate about the consequences that unleashed upon our country.
It is particularly significant, too, that the British Government should have been prepared to move in this direction at all. After all, it does not have a great record in recognising the harshness of some of its behaviour as a colonial overlord in earlier times.
Irish, Indians waiting
The Irish, for example, are still waiting for an apology for the brutal execution of the leaders (the fathers of the modern republic) of the 1916 Easter Uprising and the many atrocities committed by British forces in Ireland over the years.
India has waited over a century for a British apology for the Amritsar massacre; and, there is what former United Nations Under-Secretary General Shashi Tharoor has described as Britain's "historical amnesia" over the British concentration camps during the South African War, where just under 30% of the internees died of neglect and starvation. And yet, as recently as 2005, Gordon Brown, two years away at that point from becoming Prime Minister, proclaimed that "the days of Britain having to apologise for its colonial history are over."
Against that background, the British High Commissioner's actions in Gisborne last week were a stunning achievement, and a reflection of the close relationship that endures between Britain and New Zealand.
Improving bilateral trade
Now it is to be hoped that that same closeness is evident when it comes to determining the future trade and political relationship between the two countries in the wake of Brexit, and that New Zealand is never again subject to the shameful discard it was when Britain originally joined Europe over 40 years ago. The post Brexit discussions will show whether Britain is truly seeking a new partnership, or whether the expression of regret was just a device to ease the way for the free trade agreement it will so desperately need once it divorces Europe.
Immigration Policy
Let's look at immigration policy and practice
Unrelated, but no less significant was the Government's welcome announcement last week that it was removing the requirement that Quota Refugees from Africa and the Middle East regions must have family already living in New Zealand before they can be considered for resettlement here.
This move abolishes a discrimination that has been in place under current immigration policy and while it is to be applauded, it is a timely reminder nonetheless that there are still many aspects of our Immigration Policy that are unfair or at best unevenly applied.
During my more than thirty years in Parliament, immigration cases consistently accounted for between two-thirds and three-quarters of my electorate workload.
I came to the considered view during that time, under successive Labour- and National-led governments, that our Immigration Policy was essentially racist.
While New Zealand's approach was never as explicit or as total as Australia's notorious "White Australia" policy that lasted until the advent of the Whitlam Government in 1972, the effect until comparatively recently was broadly the same.
Racist approach
In my experience, it was consistently more difficult to win cases (on behalf of constituents) for people coming from the Pacific, Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East and Africa, than it was for those from Britain, Europe, Canada and the United States.
In part, it was the policy, and in part it was the attitude of officials who were always more inherently suspicious of the cases of people who were not from the "white" countries. Appreciation of differing cultural norms was virtually zero, with applicants simply expected to fit the New Zealand template immediately, and to be treated with wariness and disdain if they did not.
Refugees and parents of New Zealand residents from outside the "white" countries were usually the hardest cases to advance. This is despite most of the evidence which shows that migrants to New Zealand from refugee backgrounds often make the strongest of contributions to our society, enriching it in so many ways.
Yet non-quota refugees' stories were usually disbelieved.
I was even asked on one occasion to get confirming evidence from authorities in Saddam Hussein's Iraq that they were in fact subjecting a couple seeking to join children here to the persecution they were claiming!
At the same time, parents wanting to join children in New Zealand were always assumed to be harbouring illnesses that would prove costly to our health system, or, if they wished to make a short-term visit, that when the time came, they would just never go home.
Small but significant step
Last week's move was a small but significant step forward, but there is still a mighty long way to go to make the New Zealand immigration system truly fair and justly applied.
One area where the Government could move relatively easily relates to parents.
It has just restored the Parents' Visa, but limited it to 1000 applicants a year, who are financially independent.
However, the change will have limited effect and is cold comfort to many migrants seeking family reunification, but who will not qualify under this policy.
Our policy needs to go further and allow all parents of New Zealand permanent residents and citizens an automatic right to short-term entry or residence, subject to the standard health and character requirements. This would deal in one fell swoop to the many cases of parents wanting to make short-term visits to see children or grandchildren, or attend family events like weddings, reunions, or funerals which arouse too many suspicions in the minds of immigration officials at present, and currently lead to so many disappointments when their applications are declined, or the events have passed by.
Balancing factors
It would also make it easier for children wanting to bring elderly parents to New Zealand to look after them, thus easing the current problem of remittances to home countries, in Asia and the Pacific especially, as well as providing basic peace of mind to so many. It will not open the immigration floodgates, nor will it create significant burdens for the New Zealand taxpayer, because of the current restrictions on things like eligibility for superannuation.
Rather, it is simply the right thing to do.
Britain's noble expression of regret to the descendants of Cook's victims, and the Government's encouraging immigration changes are worthwhile first steps, both holding the promise of more to come.
Just as important, and the real test of the policy commitment in both cases, however, will be what comes next.
Peter Dunne was a Minister of the Crown under the Labour and National-led governments from November 1999 to September 2017. He founded the UnitedFuture Party but wound it up when retired from Parliament. Mr Dunne lives in Wellington. The above article, which appeared in 'The Newsroom' website has been reproduced under a Special Agreement.


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Sun System® Diamond® low profile LEC® Brand 315 watt fixtures utilize cutting edge Light Emitting Ceramic® brand technology. State-of-the-art 95% reflective German aluminum interior offers unparalleled output, reflectivity and diffusion. The Diamond® LEC® Brand 315 has a Philips 50/60 Hz low frequency, square wave, highly efficient electronic ballast rated for 50,000 hour ballast life. Compact low profile design is ideal for tents for both primary and supplemental lighting applications.Power cord/plug configuration varies by fixture voltage. Includes Philips brand highly efficient agriculturally engineered CDM-T 315 Watt lamp that work in LEC® brand fixtures. This lamp creates amazing full color light spectrum out of next generation ceramic lamps. Higher amounts of beneficial UV and far red spectrums increase the lamps growth power to the plants. Very high 1.95 PPF per second light source (3100° K lamp). 3100° K color temperature, high 92 CRI, 33,000 initial lumens (105Lm/W). Long life 20,000 hour lamp. High 90% lumen maintenance at 8000 hr. High 85% PPF maintenance at 20,000 hr.
Unique open rated lamp construction reduces radiant heat from the arc tube and is suitable for open fixture use. The 120 V fixtures have 1 on/off switch and 1 daisy chain receptacle. US Patent: DM/093,524 and US Patent Pending: 29/576,115. The item "315W Ceramic Metal Halide Sun System LEC Diamond 315 (3100K Bulb, 120V)" is in sale since Tuesday, July 11, 2017. This item is in the category "Home & Garden\Yard, Garden & Outdoor Living\Gardening Supplies\Hydroponics & Seed Starting\Grow Light Kits".
The seller is "ashl_mcph" and is located in Fort Collins, Colorado. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Japan, China, Sweden, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, South africa, Thailand, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Saudi arabia, Ukraine, United arab emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Croatia, Malaysia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa rica, Panama, Trinidad and tobago, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica.


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I had a job interview yesterday and I was pretty wound up about it, so I pulled a card for it. I was sure I was going to get The Fool, because my life is 100% Fool right now. 100%, y'all!
Instead I got the Two of Stones (picture below), and felt a little dizzy because it was too real.
"Prepare for a gush of changes. Ground yourself without becoming stuck. Move, glide, dance, and spin from your core." ~Slow Holler Tarot
This Two is all about balancing, about finding a space of quiet equilibrium in a fluid situation that feels a little bit dangerous. Like you climbed up really high and now you are looking down and wondering what the fuck you're supposed to do now and you're perfectly balanced between exhilaration and oh shit, and like, there you are.
"The Two of Stones asks you the channel the grounded, stable energy of the Ace and apply it to situations that may be highly dynamic or unstable." ~Slow Holler Tarot
Two weeks ago, my grandmother died. I got the news in a text, about five seconds after I got a heart-fluttery text from someone I love, and I was like, this is life. This is what it is: balancing between love and death and sweetness and grief. The space of groundedness is being able to accept that and to be here for it, even when it feels like it's going to crush you--it's knowing you'll be able to put yourself back together if (when) you break.
I pulled two more cards face up:
The Ace of Stones, a big plinth of heavy stone surrounded by water, aka Feelings, to remind me of what it feels like to be grounded in the midst of it all.
And The Fool, for being at the beginning of a new stage, for courage in a space of ambiguity and fluidity and uncertainty, and for leaping, because now you know the truth: you were never fragile.
"It's okay that you aren't prepared; you're ready. Go!" ~Tiny Lantern Tarot
Slow Holler Tarot
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280 West Osborne Road, North Vancouver, BC
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Check out all of the details of this House for sale, 280 West Osborne Road, North Vancouver, BC


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This 8 hour course is designed for participants that need to be certified to meet WorkSafe BC standards. Workplace emergency first aid (WEFA) is equivalent to occupational first aid level 1 (OFA level 1). Participants enrolled in this class will learn a variety of safety and rescue techniques as well as some administrative responsibilities when administering first aid in the workplace. Certification provided in this course is valid for 3 years. Course includes training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the use of automated external defibrillators (AED).
Course Length
The length of this course is 8 hours. Participants must attend 100% of the course to be able to complete the course.
Course Cost
The cost of this course is (price). The price of this course includes a workplace approved training manual, registration fees and all applicable taxes.
Course Content
- Preparing to respond
- Primary Survey
- Skeletal emergencies including C-Spine control
- Airway Emergencies including choking victims
- Ventilating a patient while using protective equipment to prevent disease transmission
- Respiratory Emergencies including Asthma and Anaphylaxis
- Cardiovascular Emergencies including heart attack, angina and stroke
- CPR for adult rescues
- Shock management
- Bleeding control
- Diabetes
- Seizures
- Fainting
- Minor and Major Wound Management
- Written exam (multiple choice)
What is Required to Pass?
In order to complete the course participants must attend 100% of the course, successfully complete all skill components and receive a minimum score of 75%
Refunds and Transfers
Refunds and transfers are not accepted within 72 hours of the course. Prior to this time you can receive a full refund or transfer to another day.
Additional Information
- We provide a fridge and microwave for your convenience.
- Please bring comfortable clothes because you will be participating in various activities
- Please do not arrive late to the course
Private Courses
We proudly offer this workplace approved course for groups of any size. We can come to you or we can book a time at our training location. For more information, a quote or to book a private course please contact us via email or telephone.
To register for this course please scroll down to view available course dates, times and locations. You may also register by contacting us via telephone or email.


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New beginnings as the Boise Hawks opened play, with the rookie league ready to start today. Losing streaks appeared in Peoria and Iowa. Justin Bour shines during All-Star weekend, while Tennessee and Peoria are set to start their breaks this week.
All of this, and more, in this week's Down on the Farm Report. Short Season-A – Boise Hawks (1-1)
The Boise Hawks opened their 2011 season with a 5-4 loss to Eugene. Boise took advantage of the wildness of Eugene pitching to score four runs on only three hits. Highly regarded prospects Yaniel Cabeza, Reggie Golden, and Wes Darvill supplied the hits. Starter Ben Wells was solid in his debut, allowing two earned runs and striking out four in five innings. Piggyback starter Jose Rosario didn't fare as well, giving up three runs (one earned) in 2.2 innings.
Pitching was the story on Saturday, as Yao-Lin Wang made his debut in strong fashion, defeating Eugene 10-2. Wang cruised through the Emeralds' line-up, allowing only two hits and walking two while striking out six in five scoreless innings. Charles Thomas was equally impressive for Boise, striking out three as he blanked Eugene for two innings. Yilver Sanchez mopped up, allowing two earned runs and striking out two in two innings of work.
The Hawks' offense broke up a pitcher's duel by exploding for eight runs in the top of the fifth inning. Ben Klafczynski (2-for-5) singled in Reggie Golden (2-for-4, RBI, stolen base) after Chad Noble (1-for-4, two RBI) had walked. Noble then scored on a Brad Zapenas sacrifice. Zapenas would wind up on second after a throwing error. With one out, Wes Darvill ripped a two-run ground rule double. A wild pitch on a third strike and a walk loaded the bases for Yaniel Cabeza, who delivered a sacrifice fly to make the score 5-0. Golden then stroked his second hit of the inning, driving in a run. Noble followed with a two-run double to complete the scoring for the inning.
Boise would tack on two more runs, as Pin-Cheih Chen joined Golden and Klafczynski with a multi-hit game, and his first stolen base.
Click Here for Complete Box Score
Low Class-A – Peoria Chiefs (33-36)
The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers completed a four game sweep of Peoria with a 2-0 win on Thursday. This was despite a fine pitching performance by Eric Jokisch. Jokisch allowed only an unearned run in his seven innings of work, but Peoria's bats could only produce four hits.
Peoria continued to scuffle offensively, managing only four hits in a 4-1 loss to Quad Cities on Friday. Hayden Simpson allowed three runs (two earned) in 4.2 innings, while Su-Min Jung allowed an earned run in 3.1 innings.
The Chiefs' losing streak extended to six games, going down to Quad Cities 6-1 on Saturday. Once again, Peoria had only four hits as the usually reliable Austin Kirk allowed six earned runs in five innings.
High Class-A Daytona Cubs (46-21)
It's understandable that after clinching the first half title and starting the All-star break the next day, that Daytona would be a little flat on Thursday in their 2-0 loss to Brevard County. Jae-Hoon Ha and Jake Opitz each had two hits, while Jeffrey Lorick allowed only one earned run in five innings. The D-Cubs will resume play on Monday against Lakeland.
In pre-All-Star game activities, Justin Bour won the Florida State League home run derby. Bour hit nine homers in the opening round, then blasted another nine to take the crown.
Justin Bour went on to hit 1-for-4 with a double in the game, as he helped lead the North squad to a 5-3 victory. Matt Cerda stroked a double, while late addition Michael Brenly was 2-for-2 with an RBI. Starter Evan Crawford was hitless.
Aaron Kurcz allowed two earned runs in his inning of work, while Frank Batista gave up an earned run in his 0.2 innings.
Click Here for Complete Box Score
Double-A – Tennessee Smokies (43-26)
In the first game of a 7-inning double-header on Thursday, the Tennessee Smokies clinched the first half title for the Southern League's North Division. The Smokies won in dramatic fashion on Rebel Ridling's walk-off solo homer in the eighth inning. The Smokies defeated Chattanooga 4-3 … and Brian Harper broke out the cigars for the celebration. Ridling finished 2-for-3 with a stolen base and two RBI, as hits were hard to come by on Thursday.
Brooks Raley had a solid performance, allowing two earned runs in five innings, striking out five batters. Jeffrey Beliveau was scoreless in his inning of work, while Rafael Dolis allowed an earned run in two innings to pick up his fourth victory.
Click Here for Complete Box Score
After the celebration, the Smokies may have forgotten they had a second game to play, as they lost to the Lookouts 6-5 in the second game. Four Tennessee errors led to five runs, spoiling a fine pitching performance by Nick Struck. Struck allowed only one earned run in 5.1 innings, striking out five batters. Matt Spencer blasted his eleventh home run, while Junior Lake and Ryan Flaherty were each 2-for-4. Lake also made his first appearance at third base.
Friday night saw the Smokies behind the eight ball, as starter Chris Rusin allowed four earned runs, and was removed after the first inning. Ryan Searle held Chattanooga in check over the next five innings, allowing two runs (one earned) while whiffing five Lookouts.
The Tennessee offense, which had been sputtering lately, finally came alive, as homers by Josh Vitters (2-for-4) and Nelson Perez (2-for-3) got the Smokies on the board in the fifth inning. Down 6-3, Tennessee had a four-run eighth inning capped by Matt Spencer's three-run blast. Kyle Smit and Kevin Rhoderick came on and put up zeroes, as Tennessee came from behind for a 7-6 victory.
Click Here for Complete Box Score
Tennessee took the field Saturday knowing that Ty'Relle Harris was seriously injured in an auto accident the previous evening. Harris was a victim of a hit and run accident and reportedly is okay. It may have contributed to their performance, as the Smokies lost to Chattanooga 5-3. Dallas Beeler allowed four earned runs in six innings, while Harris' replacement, Juan Serrano, gave up an earned run in his Double-A debut. Vets Blake Lalli and Matt Camp had multi-hit games.
Triple-A – Iowa Cubs (30-39)
Iowa dropped the series finale to Omaha 8-2 on Thursday. Casey Coleman surrendered five earned runs in 5.1 innings. Jonathan Mota led the I-Cubs offense, going 3-for-4 with a double.
The I-Cubs squandered some great performances on Friday, as they lost to Albuquerque 13-10. Jay Jackson was unable to contain the Isotopes, allowing nine earned runs. Marco Carrillo also was unable to shut them down, giving up four earned runs. Iowa tried to mount a comeback, as Brad Snyder was 3-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI. Welington Castillo extended his hitting streak to fourteen games by blasting two homers and driving in six runs. Tyler Colvin hit a double, triple, home run, and two RBI, but a scoring change after the game robbed him of hitting for the cycle.
Iowa dropped their second straight 13-10 game to Albuquerque in Saturday, as starter Austin Bibens-Dirkx imploded for eleven (not a typo) earned runs in an inning-plus work. Welington Castillo extended his hit streak to fifteen games by going 3-for-5 with four RBI while clubbing his ninth home run.
News and Notes
Shortstop Matt Camp was assigned to Tennessee from Iowa. Tennessee placed RHP Ty'Relle Harris on the 7-Day disabled list. Right-handed pitcher Juan Serrano was assigned to Tennessee from Daytona. Catcher Luis Flores was assigned to Daytona from Tennessee. Peoria Chiefs placed RHP Robinson Lopez on the 7-Day disabled list with an Adductor Strain. Right-handed pitcher Matt Loosen and LHP Brett Ebinger were assigned to Peoria from Daytona.
Top Prospect Watch
- Michael Burgess (OF) – .190, .296 OBP, .671OPS, 13 Doubles, 9 HR, 38 RBI, 8 Outfield Assists (Daytona Cubs)
- Chris Carpenter (RHP) – 1-1, 4.38 ERA, 12.1 IP, 6 ER, 6 K, 4 BB, 2 Holds, Save, 1.14 WHIP (Tennessee Smokies) 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 2.1 IP, 0 ER, 2 K, 2 BB, 1.71 WHIP (Chicago Cubs)
- Micah Gibbs (C) – .279, .420 OBP, .755OPS, 5 Doubles, HR, 10 RBI, Stolen Base, 22% Caught Stealing (Peoria Chiefs)
- Reggie Golden (OF) – .429, .586 OBP, .984 OPS, 2 RBI, Stolen Base (Boise Hawks)
- Jae-Hoon Ha (OF) – .303, .336 OBP, .820 OPS, 13 Doubles, 2 Triples, 7 HR, 33 RBI, 6 Stolen Bases, 8 Outfield Assists (Daytona Cubs)
- Brett Jackson (OF) – .269, .392 OBP, .847OPS, 7 Doubles, 3 Triples, 6 HR, 25 RBI, 13 Stolen Bases, 2 Outfield Assists (Tennessee Smokies)
- D.J. LeMahieu (IF) – .358, .386 OBP, .878 OPS, 15 Doubles, 2 Triples, 2 HR, 27 RBI, 4 Stolen Bases (Tennessee Smokies) .294, .294 OBP, .588 OPS, RBI (Chicago Cubs)
- Trey McNutt (RHP) – 1-2, 2.70 ERA, 36.2 IP, 11 ER, 22 K, 9 BB, 1.25 WHIP (Tennessee Smokies)
- Hayden Simpson (RHP) – 1-4, 5.33 ERA, 54.0 IP, 32 ER, 44 K, 24 BB 1.56 WHIP (Peoria Chiefs)
- Matt Szczur (OF) – .324, .381 OBP, .843 OPS, 12 Doubles, Triple, 5 HR, 24 RBI, 15 Stolen Bases, 2 Outfield Assists (Peoria Chiefs)
- Josh Vitters (3B) -.288, .325 OBP, .790 OPS, 17 Doubles, 7 HR, 32 RBI, 2 Stolen Bases (Tennessee Smokies)
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Evaluation capacity building tools and resources. Team-based inquiry (TBI) is a practical approach to empowering education professionals to get the data they need, when they need it, to improve their products and practices and, ultimately, more effectively engage public and professional audiences. The TBI process involves an ongoing cycle of inquiry: question, investigate, reflect, and improve. This guide explains each step of the TBI process and features ways TBI has been used in the NISE Network to improve educational experiences and professional practice.
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text:
So, I'm back today, refreshed after a week of thinking about company culture with my colleague Clem (https://twitter.com/clem_pickering) at Culture Summit 2018 (https://www.culturesummit.co/) in San Francisco.
"But Adrian, you're a techie, why are you going to Culture Summit? It sounds a bit fluffy."
You've probably heard the phrase "Culture eats strategy for breakfast", usually attributed to Peter Drucker (https://www.quora.com/Did-Peter-Drucker-actually-say-culture-eats-strategy-for-breakfast-and-if-so-where-when). It doesn't matter who said it, but the idea is that if the culture of your organisation is solid, then when a new situation arises, the people who make up that organisation will be able to react appropriately, with less need for overall strategy or top-down control.
This is part of Infinity Works and what we do. We equip and empower individuals to think about how things can be improved then, most critically, to actually do it. To improve themselves, Infinity Works, products they're working on for our clients, team structures they're working in, business models that our clients are using - wherever the most impact can be made.
Infinity Works is growing fast. When Clem and I joined, we were 14 people. 3 years later, we're around 200 and still growing. It's a logistical challenge to get everyone together in the same place (although we still do that, at our yearly company getaway).
Our challenge isn't to simply stick to the culture that made us successful in the early years and to use recruitment techniques to filter out anyone who doesn't think exactly like us, but to adapt when we need to while still keeping true to what really matters.
So, we went to pick up some ideas, and it's fair to say we did. Some felt uncomfortable to me (are you building a company, or a mind-control cult?), some weren't appropriate for our scale (at least, not yet) and some totally obvious (so obvious that I'd never thought about it of course).
We learned that we're ahead of the curve in some areas (e.g. our People Support, our use of OfficeVibe to get a weekly pulse vs most companies doing a once-per-year mega survey, communities of practice vs management led), but there's still ways we can improve what we do and how we do it.
Overall, I'm happy I spent the time to think about this, and I'm even more happy to be part of an organisation that understands how culture is critical to success.
Clem and I need a bit longer to distill our thoughts into a presentation and do some follow-on workshops to start turning that into action, but that's coming.
Oh, and don't worry, we had time to have fun while we were there too. :)


text:
2006-07-27 : 10 Observations from my Berlin trip
1. Berlin doesn't believe in air conditioners. It was 90+°F every day, muggy, miserable - and it was impossible to sleep. The only relief was when you're standing on the platform and a cool wind blows out of the tunnel ahead of the approaching train. Ten seconds of relief, a few times a day.
2. However and nonetheless, Berlin is my favorite city yet. It blew San Francisco (my previous favorite city) right out of the water.
3. I'm not going to try to tell you about how baffling+striking Berlin was, as an American of my generation looking at the relics of the cold war. The Berlin Wall came down when I was a senior in high school; I couldn't possibly understand what it meant. I still don't, but now I'm struck and baffled by how significant it must be and how little grasp of the world I have.
4. Spione is a very sophisticated design. The game's arrangement of who-says-what-about-what-and-when is subtle, deft, and beautiful. I'm sure I'll say more about that, once the game's more widely available. Right now I can't start a paragraph with "you know how in Spione you do blah blah" and expect to be understood.
5. Spione is, however, a game that'll inherently seem both very difficult and totally unrewarding to, well, to most gamers. It requires that its players have already developed - or be in the process of developing - certain skills, incompatible with certain other skills that most gamers rely on. This should surprise no one; Ron calls me a hand-holder and that's a real distinction between us as designers.
6. Were some of the German gamers there prepared to write off the whole endeavor, based only on the success or failure of this one session of this one (inherently difficult) game? I believe that some of them were.
7. On the other hand, most of the German gamers I interacted with were hardcore narrativists. They wouldn't've used the term to describe themselves, but lord you should've heard them. They made me sound like a moderate.
8. I wish I could see and participate in how they approach the technical problems of narrativist play - but I can't. I don't speak or read the language they develop and publish in. It's lousy. I have lots I could learn from them but no real access!
9. Eero is a hilarious guy and a fantastic storyteller. I've been doing (flattering) Eero impersonations ever since I got back. They include things he said about me, things he said about my blog, and things he said about Stockholm.
10. This last is a little personal and immodest, so don't mind me. At least three people commented possitively on the fact that I carry a notebook around with me and am constantly writing in it. I hadn't realized before that I've turned out to be the kind of writer who fills notebooks, but I guess I have. Cool!
1. On 2006-07-27, Ron Edwards said:
In fairness to our continental friends, they were experiencing an unprecedented heat wave. Berlin can get hot in the summer, but not usually *that* hot.
My spies tell me that a number of the Spione participants were talking about following up with their groups after all.
Berlin is, indeed, a fantastic city. I'm glad you were there with us. Did you dare tell Meg how much fun you had? Did I mention that flats in Friedrichshain (the neighborhood you were in) are cheap and plentiful?
Best, Ron
2. On 2006-07-27, Vincent said:
Yeah, that's what I hear, about the heat. The hottest weather in Berlin since recorded weather.
Following up with their groups after all = great! My group's game has certainly given me a lot to think about, and left me wanting more. Also, disclosing your trespass doesn't "just" do that, I've figured out. Disclosing has a very real, concrete, preactically mechanical effect on the system in play. I'm impressed by it.
I've told Meg about 90% of the fun. I haven't told her about the Dogs game, is maybe all. Turns out I dared after all.
3. On 2006-07-27, Georgios said:
Could you elaborate on the "subtle, deft and beautiful" bit in Spione? I'm quite firmly in the "not explicit enough"-group of criticism of the game.
But I'm curious about how others read the text.
4. On 2006-07-28, Ben Lehman said:
Thanks for the posting.
And Eero is indeed awesome. We need to conspire to get him to GenCon some year.
5. On 2006-07-28, Settembrini said:
Be aware, that those who showed up, and talked to you, (aside from me), were from a close knit group, which grew out of a usenet group.
Add to that some thematic gamers who even write forge stuff on their own, and you have a totally skewed sample.
6. On 2006-07-28, Vincent said:
Settembrini: of course.
Georgios: I will! I'm still ordering my thoughts.
Hey, what was the name of the fourth person in our group? You, me, Eero ... Martin maybe? Not the same Martin who came from Hamburg with Harald though.
7. On 2006-07-28, Georgios said:
He's one of the Projekt Odyssee guys in Berlin.
8. On 2006-07-28, Harald Wagener said:
to feed your and Settembrinis perception of narrativistic gamers from the german rpg usenet group, see?? DRASTIC - it's in english and by someone much more close to the'closely knit usenet' core Settembrini implies than most of us. In?? 'Us' being Martin and I, two people out of twenty. Our voices were accordingly counterweighted by Settembrini, Tim and others, I am sure. I had to think of DRASTIC when you told about the Ars Magica group.
The 'fact' part of Spione is also a nice read (at least the first 80 pages, which I read so far), even if you're not into spy/guy games. I'd like to know aboout subtle, deft, and beautiful as well. I had the impression it was random, flat, and structureless - but then I was in the three player group that started with three cards for two spies.
9. On 2006-07-28, Harald Wagener said:
sorry, I don't know where the strange '??' and the stray'In' come from. Must be those pesky simmers trying to make me look foolish in the public.
10. On 2006-07-28, Levi Kornelsen said:
Is Spione going to be sold through IPR, or by some other channel? Is that even decided yet?
11. On 2006-07-29, Harald Wagener said:
In germany, the plan is to get the book into book stores, since it is primarily a book that incidentally contains a story now game. After the weekend, Ron visited some book stores to present his book, and as far as I know it was met with positive results at some places.
12. On 2006-07-29, Ron Edwards said:
I thought I had replied, but I forgot to type the anti-bot Word!!
Levi, or anyone, if you want to know more about Spione publication, please email me. The website is going public soon, too. Brief answer here: I'm not planning to use IPR or any other RPG outlet, at this point.
Harald's right about the bookstores, but that will be secondary as well, at least as currently planned.
Wow, DRASTIC looks a lot like The Window. My tastes run more toward Barbaren ...
Vincent, feel free to say what you'd like about any Spione stuff. The lid is off, effectively, although again, it's not really a topic for general RPG audiences or sites.
I'd appreciate others respecting that too.
13. On 2006-07-30, Settembrini said:
@Harald: At least Dirk was also from the DSRM. Add to that the GroFaFo Forgies and PrO guys, like Malte.
As I said, very homogenous group on saturday, very heavy on the "Story"-side of playing.
14. On 2006-07-30, WTF said:
Spione is not really a topic for general RPG audiences or sites?
"I'd appreciate others respecting that too."
That sounds ludicrous.
15. On 2006-07-30, Vincent said:
If you'd like to discuss Ron's request or his desires with him, I urge you to do so. You know his email address.
16. On 2006-07-30, I dunno said:
I dunno. He said it here. It can't be discussed here? That seems suspicious.
17. On 2006-07-30, WTF said:
I would not go so far as to say suspicious. And it may not even actually be ludicrous. But it sounds ludicrous that discussing a game would be defacto disrespectful.
18. On 2006-07-30, Ron Edwards said:
WTF, I appreciate that I'm not automatically judged to be either ludicrous or causing suspicion.
I want to clarify one thing which you asked about. When I say "respect that," I'm referring only to my wishes as a person, which are of course not sacred.
As to *why* I have those wishes, I've been happy to answer questions directed to me through email and have done so several times now, without any pain or distress for anyone.
None of this is a mystery, a secret, a conspiracy, or anything like that. But this site isn't *my* site and talking about what I'm doing or what I want or anything like that for Adept Press is, as I see it, out of bounds. So email is better.
I have a suggestion. Why not simply ask Vincent questions about the event or the experience of play? We could have been having a fun discussion here instead of whatever this is.
19. On 2006-07-31, Vincent said:
Right. WTF, a) you didn't ask any question or launch any discussion; b) insofar as you did launch a discussion, you did so as though you expected me (whose blog this, after all, is) to represent Ron's position, which I'm not qualified to do.
If you had said something like "Ron, are you serious?" I'd've been happy to host the conversation. As it was, you put me in an ugly go-between position.
So now, though, that's done and I'd rather move on. Please do ask about whatever you're interested in. Ask honestly, expect an honest answer, much more fun.
20. On 2006-07-31, Vincent said:
Okay! Now I want to talk about Spione.
I see two things. One's the thing where Ron doesn't hold your hand. There's a leap that you have to make when you play the game that isn't easy to make, for me, and I generalize to "for gamers." Whether non-gamers find the leap easy to make, I have no idea and no way to discover (at this moment, sitting here at work, not having arranged yet to play the game with any non-gamers). Accordingly: let's leave non-gamers out of the conversation for now.
Right, so. The leap you have to make is the leap of "the cold": seeing the tensions between the spy sheet and the guy sheet and knowing how to act on them. I find it difficult to do (and I suspect that I'm better at it than many gamers - I've been practicing a lot). I'm there looking at "I'm spying on the Berlin NATO office for the CIA" and "I have a brother who visits me from London," and I have to make up for myself how the brother and the spying aren't compatible with one another. If the game held your hand, maybe the supporting cast would come with built-in incompatibility with your character's spying, like Dogs NPCs do. It might say "I have a brother who visits me from London; now he needs me to come home with him to help him care for our dying mother." I wouldn't have to make it up in play; in play I'd just activate it.
The game demands that you create conflicts between the spy and the guy, using the supporting cast; it demands that you already know or can quickly learn how to do this. If you're fumbling around, like we were in Berlin, it's like fumbling around with any sophisticated tool - you don't use it to its potential.
And then there's the deft, beautiful, sophisticated part: the game as a tool, independent of the skills of us, its users. Here's something I wrote at the Spione forum:
So the flashpoint card rules: in order to accomplish a big deal thing, you need two or more cards, right? And there's a good chance that they won't be two of your own cards, right, but one'll be yours and one'll be someone else's - so a lot of the time when a big deal thing happens, it'll be because YOU set it up and SOMEONE ELSE followed through.
Furthermore, covering someone else's card is a commitment to follow through on whatever they set up, right? Whether following through by helping or following through by hindering.
So when it's my turn to talk, what happens is, I set something up a) not knowing how you'll follow through on it, but b) knowing that you WILL.
That's a fantastic creative interaction between the players...
Getting such an interesting, non-straightforward, and desirable social effect out of some simple card manipulation is great design.
Add on top of that, disclosing your spy's trespass. It seems superficially like a nothing, a gesture, but it's not. As an action, it reverberates through the game, both emotionally and procedurally. It was when I figured disclosing out - days later - that the game really lit up for me.
Harald, Georgios - how's that?
21. On 2006-07-31, Ron Edwards said:
H'mmm, something about what you've written surprises me, Vincent. It's the idea that you, the person running the spy, has to generate *all* of the adversity between the brother and the spying.
Because during Maneuvers, that's *everybody's* job. Anyone at the table can reach over to that sheet, point to the brother, flip over the sheet, and point to some part of the Spy Side (say, the NATO part, and the tradecraft that says "bugs"), to generate a scene.
One person might say "your brother's lounging around your flat all day" and someone else picks it up with "and he finds one of your bugs," and still another person says, "he wants to be a spy too." This might all happen on the first person's turn, or be established through a series of turns, depending on how dialogue goes in that group.
Another, related feature is that since the Ace player begins, he or she *must* frame a scene for a spy he or she does not run. So that automatically creates an asymmetry during the first round ... the person running the spies do not, by default, necessarily get to frame their own scenes.
The group I played with in Berlin last November articulated this point so well, during play, that I transcribed the way they said it directly into the rules, and I think every time I try to say it, it's not as good. So see how I put it in the rules for the best way.
My point is that there's a *lot* less pressure regarding scene content than I think you're seeing or feeling. A lot less than Primetime Adventures or the Shab-al-Hiri Roach, for example. It's kind of the opposite, actually - the material for the scenes really is right there on the sheet, and the group/jigsaw rules for scene-creation during the Maneuvers lets you contribute as little or as much as you see fit, at the moment, without pressure to make it all climactic right that second.
22. On 2006-07-31, Vincent said:
Oh no, I get that. The demand on me to create how the brother and the spying conflict is the same whether I'm playing the spy in question or my friend is. Either way I'm confronted with "I'm spying" and "my brother," and no hand to hold.
The leap I'm talking about would be WORST for the ace player!
However, now what you've said has cast new light for me. In my group in Berlin, were we all too intent on making it all climactic right that second? I know that Georgios (for instance) really didn't like to "just" contribute color.
23. On 2006-07-31, Ron Edwards said:
I think what I'm trying to say is that you can hold one another's hands.
(OK, OK, we can all sing "Kumbayah" together now. Shuddup.)
Less sentimentally, there's a strong middle ground between "generate full climactic conflict" and "just add some color." In fact, most interactions during play should be in that middle ground - adding *components* of conflict, like bricks and mortar, as part of that spiralling-in or targeting of principals that I talk about in the book.
The nice thing about it is that no one has to make it happen right away; the risk is to see things sprawl rather than spiral inwards. I think a general focus on the Cold (rather than "make a story") does a good job to prevent that, but I agree - it's a skill, and skills often need practice and a certain standing aesthetic interest to begin with.
24. On 2006-07-31, Seth Ben-Ezra said:
Add on top of that, disclosing your spy's trespass. It seems superficially like a nothing, a gesture, but it's not. As an action, it reverberates through the game, both emotionally and procedurally. It was when I figured disclosing out - days later - that the game really lit up for me.
This is probably the biggest part of the game for me. I look at the Trespass as being this special bomb handed to each of the players of principals. You can only use it once, but it packs a serious punch—if you want it to. On the Spione forum, I related this account:
So, Kasha (our principal) is an American spying for the HVA. She was actually born in Poland, but her parents fled with her to the U.S. sometime during World War II. Her parents are rah-rah Americans but she is not. (Obviously, because she is spying for the other side.) However, she manages to recruit her co-worker to help her in an operation by claiming that she is actually American counter-intelligence and appealing to her co-worker's patriotic nature.
Later, though, Kasha Disclosed that, when she was younger, she had burned an American flag that belonged to her parents. In fact, this flag had particular emotional value to her parents, but she destroyed it. In a lot of ways, this is the point where everything fell apart for Kasha. She was arrested, her co-worker Karen was gunned down on the street.... Bad things.
Now, the significant fact here is that the Trespass as written only said, "Threw away your stuff and never told you." That's it. Now, it's a bad thing. I suppose. But, by itself, it doesn't really seem like it's all that impressive. However, by taking this as inspiration for the principal's Dirty Deed and molding it into something else, the Trespass actually became a fairly potent spike to the story content.
This showed me that any Trespass could be potentially powerful. At the same time, it does seem as though Trespass and Disclosure can require some of that same ability to make connections that Vincent talks about upthread.
I also appreciate how Disclosure is required in order to allow for "happy endings" for Supporting Cast. If the principal refuses to Disclose, then all his Supporting Cast are doomed to unhappy endings. Only by baring the depths of his soul (even once) can the principal actually "save" any of his Supporting Cast.
25. On 2006-07-31, Jon Hastings said:
Hi Vincent & Ron,
Spione chat - cool!
Here's something which I hope is relevant:
When I played (note: using an earlier draft of the rules) I think the group tried way too hard to drive towards conflict - we all wanted to be in Flashpoint RIGHT NOW! This is something that I think we picked up from Forge-style games like PTA and DitV that, in the context of Spione, is kind of a bad habit. That is, the "drive straight to conflict" advice is good for PTA/DitV, to correct the tendency for meandering and conflict avoidance that occurs in a lot of traditional play. But (especially in light of Ron's comments here) in Spione all the conflicts are really right there on the sheets waiting for you to piece them together. There's not the same need to rush and/or force things to come to a head before the situation really warrants it.
(Ron - The jigsaw image is very helpful.)
Also might be relevant: as a group, we had a hard time creating conflicts based on Guy Side vs. Spy Side, so, one of the major conflicts that came out in the story was Guy Side vs. Tresspass - as if the Tresspass was a "Dark Secret" Champions disadvantage. This strikes me as being a product of RPG-habit as well.
26. On 2006-07-31, Ron Edwards said:
Relevant to the above points, I was awfully stupid as a rules-coach during the Berlin event. I misled Eero at least twice.
1. I said the Aces applied to *all* cards on each side, but the rules say (more sensibly) that they only apply to the starting card on each side.
2. I said that Supporting Cast could be removed from the game positively through Flashpoints, which is wrong; what Seth just said is right.
I blame the heat, but both of these bits of advice were counter-productive and I owe Eero an apology for them.
Hi Jon! I'm hoping that the Agency sheets content of the current text helps with Spy-oriented conflicts, and that seems to have worked out pretty well. Now one can look at, say, the SIS in the 1970s and say, "Oh! *That's* the kind of hassle that characterizes this period," and apply it to the handlers and tradecraft on the principal's Spy Side.
27. On 2006-07-31, Vincent said:
In your numbered point 1, aces=jokers, yes?
28. On 2006-07-31, Ron Edwards said:
Whoops, yes, I meant Jokers. I'm basking in air-conditioning at the moment, so I can't blame the heat for that one.
29. On 2006-07-31, Harald Wagener said:
Vincent: Thanks. I really didn't get the part that we could combine the cards outside of the stacking rules. That was really subtle. And necessary to understand. It's again the mantra of 'you play together, but the story may lead the principals and supporting cast against each other.'
I just want to add that besides the urge to go to flashpoint right now, there is the opposite instinct as well, trying to hold off flashpoint, which in effect is a dangerous move since it means your spy will be put under more and more pressure.
We didn't come to disclosure in our game and I definitely need a complete four player game.
Ron: What is the 'starting card on each side' different from the 'cards directly to the left and right of the ace' - since this was how you explained it to us? And if it's not possible to remove supporting cast through flash points, how'd I do it then?
It would also be nice to have one page cheat sheets for each period listing all the agencies for easier reference. But that is just a question of equipment.
30. On 2006-07-31, Ron Edwards said:
Hi Harald,
I think I explained it to your group correctly, as opposed to Eero's. But to be clear ...
Say a layout includes this sequence:
The narrations therefore would be the King player narrating as if he had two stacked Kings, and the Queen player narrating as if he had two stacked Queens. So that's an easy example.
However, say the layout looked like this:
King covered by King
Queen covered by Jack
In this case, the King player effectively has *three* stacked Kings (not four).
The Queen player has a two-card narration, but the Jack player only has a one-card Help or Hinder.
Does that make sense?
As for Supporting Cast, they can leave play through Flashpoints which kill or permanently imprison them (or something equally unpleasant). In your group, that would have been the way for your spies to increase your Card Number total.
In fact, I'm now wondering if I had failed to make that clear to your group, which may be why you were stuck at three cards. By the rules, if you had removed a Supporting Cast or two through Flashpoint (and as I recall, you did get the cards to do that), then the next Flashpoint would have included more cards.
31. On 2006-07-31, Georgios said:
Looking back, one thing that was missing for me during the game was some kind of help to get back into the swing of things, once a story development of some sort has completely caught you off guard. The sheet gives you enough bits to build scenes that drive the protagonist "into the cold", and you have the others in the group to help you out. So that leap isn't really that hard to master.
I remember trying to drive Issam "into the cold" step-by-step. When Eero send the character into the depths of East Berlin I didn't know how to steer things towards "the cold" for his story. As far as I was concerned it couldn't get any "colder". Issam was isolated from his family and from his mission. All the bits on the Protagonist's sheet had been effectively removed.
How do you drive things back into focus? I think something like a few key phrases might help to get everybody on the same page again. In my experience in PTA people often get sidetracked with exciting bits of narration, trying to set-up some plot-twist later on or talking about what it all means. To get everybody focussed again I always ask the players "what does your protagonist want and how does this relate to his issue?".
So, what question ties the groups' attention back to the game?
32. On 2006-07-31, Harald Wagener said:
we tried to remove supporting cast, but didn't get we could combine the power of the different players' cards to get the 'two-card effectively remove' result without a joker or a double draw.
At three cards per round, this only came up in the third flash point. For us, the randomness was not high enough to get things going, whereas the others complained about the randomness killing the flow.
Just jointly killing/removing supporting cast didn't come to our minds. Which is what I meant by the utter subtletly Vincent pointed out.
In other words, we had the right goal in mind, but didn't know how to get the tools do what we wanted them quickly.
33. On 2006-07-31, Vincent said:
I don't think you get to combine cards except by moving them to cover. It's covering cards that I'm talking about above.
I think you were screwed, personally - I bet that 3 cards simply isn't enough. If it were my game to design I'd add "and if you don't have at least 4 cards total (maybe 5), rework your setup until you do."
Hey Ron, is there any mechanical significance to old or young?
34. On 2006-07-31, Ron Edwards said:
Several points to consider here ... I'll take them in order of ease.
1. The significance of old and young is a motor for inter-generational conflict. I've seen it take on frightening power in a number of games.
2. The idea of a minimum number of cards has come up before. If there is any rules-change to be made at the last second, that will be it. I may backtrack and re-think my entire rationale for Card Numbers per principal from the ground up.
3. Harald, I think your point about not enough randomness (or not enough material per Flashpoint) is good, and maybe I can improve the rules based on it. As far as randomness killing the flow is concerned, I'm more skeptical.
I want to point out an interesting detail. I was the only person there who got to watch all the groups at once. Looking around the room, I saw people laughing, waving their arms, congratulating one another, getting excited, and generally looking like they were having a good time. Yet very little of the comments afterward seemed to express that. Could there have been some kind of disconnection between the experience of play and the reflection upon play?
Perhaps that's just my imagination, but here's a very marked example from a game last year. In the middle of the session, a fellow playing announced to us all that "This is the best game ever!" He was really excited and enjoying all the events, and in fact, presented one of the most heartfelt moments of Spione I've seen.
But the next day, talking about the game over some beer, he shook his head and talked about all sorts of things that seemed like real problems to him. I didn't know what to say. None of the things he was criticizing seemed actually to have happened, or to be consistent with his delighted, creative enthusiasm of the night before.
35. On 2006-07-31, Vincent said:
re: Old & young: I believe it. There's no rule I'd forgotten, though.
re: Evident enthusiasm vs reported enthusiasm: Ben Lehman told me once that he's seen that exact thing happen when his Providence group plays Dogs in the Vineyard. Interesting, I think.
36. On 2006-07-31, Valamir said:
The thing I love most about Spione is how beautifully the accordion mechanic (which initially I was quite skeptical of) captures the theme of "being in the cold".
There is nothing you can do as a player to increase your odds during a flashpoint. Your cards come up, or they don't. There might be a joker or there might not be. If there is it might help you, help an opponent, or hurt you by making your effect have undesired consequences. Other players may help or hinder. You cannot use good "player tactics" to maximize your chance of success. You cannot use skills, or plans, or preperation, or gear, or contacts, or...anything. No amout of planning, no amount of careful painstaking preperation will have any effect on the outcome of the cards at all.
If theres a better reflection of being completely and utterly adrift in the hands of fate against forces far to powerful for you to have any noticeable impact on, save by shear fortune, I haven't seen it. I'm a HUGE fan of mechanics conveying the flavor of the game, and it was only through playing out a few flashpoints that I really began to grok what being "in the cold" meant.
That said, my first comment from our AP session was in thinking that more cards were necessary early on. The mechanics of covering and doubles are the gears by which the mechanic serves as a creative springboard. Without enough cards in play, those gears don't engage and the early conflicts tend to spin with less traction than they could.
I also don't recall being able to "team up" to effectively get a "double" without a joker or cover being available in the game we played. Am I misunderstanding or is that a new addition?
Other than that, my preference as a rule is for more "hand-holding" (which I prefer to think of "mechanically enabling creativity"). Things like the different state toggles in Afraid, or selecting the type of conflict in Acts of Evil I think give players something to push against which makes it easier to be creative than just having a blank piece of paper.
For Spione something like: Player 1 select spy stuff or guy stuff, player 2 select an element from the web to serve as the source of conflict, player 3 select a supporting cast to serve as an unexpected complication. Player 4 set the stage for a scene incorporating these elements. That may not be the best of examples, but my point is that player 4 will now have a much easier time in crafting a scene inspired by those elements which are now nailed down than they would have crafting a scene from scratch having to assemble all of those elements themselves.
37. On 2006-07-31, Ron Edwards said:
You have the rules right, Ralph. I think there was a misunderstanding a few messages ago that's having a ripple effect on the thread. Stacked cards of the same rank, Joker effect, and stacked cards in which the covering cards are used to Help, are the only ways to get drastic effects into Flashpoints.
I knew you'd weigh in about the few-cards issue. I even almost typed "ah shut it Ralph" at one point.
I'm not entirely sure about structuring input the way you're suggesting, because I'd rather see a lot of unstructured chat that emerges into one guy saying, "OK, like that." But maybe something like what you describe might be some kind of training-wheels suggestion at the site.
38. On 2006-08-01, Frank T said:
I think most of us were actually expecting a hand-holder design. Remember the questions people asked after the game? Like: ???How do I do X, how do I avoid Y???? And Ron was like: ???You have to figure that out yourself.??? A lot of the criticism that has been uttered actually derives from this expectation. We were like: ???If this is a hand-holder design, then where the fuck is the hand?!???
- Frank
39. On 2006-08-01, Georgios said:
Frank, I agree with this.
I think I only have one criticism of the text, and that is that there are no "training wheels" to help you along your very first game. It's a very sink-or-swim situation. You either *get* why it's fun and tinker with it, until it works right or you don't. That's something that has always annoyed me in regular RPGs. I know Spione is not really an RPG, but still. I enjoyed the game, even if I did feel as if the game had smashed straight into a wall a few times. I felt that at the core of our game, was something exciting and raw, in a good way. But I couldn't get to it. We created this cool thing with the game: this web of confusion, lies and twisted loyalties, but we didn't know how to really let it rip. We couldn't make it shine and the game didn't tell us how to do it either.
I remember Ron telling me this anecdote about a group of East German guys, who got hold of half a D&D book and painstakingly pieced together a complete game from that. Because, damnit there obviously was a good game in there. But I don't think one can expect this kind of commitment and enthusiasm from your average reader. Gamers will do that kind of thing. They got their hands on a new game, and they will make it work one way or the other. As you can tell by this discussion, I think.
So, in short: Training wheels. You gotsta have da Training Wheels.
BTW, I don't like the term "hand-holding design". It sounds as if it's belittling the reader. I prefer "in-your-face usability". ;)
40. On 2006-08-01, Settembrini said:
With all due respect, I sense some memory retro-fitting here. Basically Franks group, which I was in too, had just a very lame game. At least for me it was really lame, because no matter what you do, the card mechanic is pure "luck", as an earlier poster explained (and lauded to my utter astonishment).
When nothing I do has influence on the outcome, there is no fun for me. It??s just an excercise in pulling "kewl" ideas from your behind, working on the sheets handed to your group. It even doesn??t matter if your ideas are good or bad , plausible or not. Sure, through sheer luck, sometimes you are given power, and it can be interesting how the individual uses this power. But for me this total randomness is nihilistic and counter-civilizatory, which can be fun if you dig this stuff.
I just don??t.
41. On 2006-08-01, Valamir said:
Sett...that's because you're looking in the wrong place.
This is not a game about spies in the James Bond sense. Its a game about the guy in the copy room who got sick of his menial job and mediocre life and agreed to hand over copies of the documents that passed through his hands to an enemy agent. Its about a guy whose life is so unfullfilling and so boring that the excitment of a blind drop is the most interesting thing to happen to him, and the idea that someone benefits from the secrets he steals provides his greatest sense of accomplishment.
Against him are arrayed large organizations with government authority, vast resources, and a network of information gatherers...the principle is just one tooth on a small cog of a giant machine.
Against this...what do you actually expect to be able to do to influence the outcome? You...like the principle...are at the mercy of fate. Its an excellent "simulation" of being "in the cold".
The game actually begins when you realize that. If you never got passed the "its all luck, and I can't influence it" stage...then you never actually started playing Spione.
Its only once you realize that the card mechanics are merciless and there is nothing you can do to alter the outcome in your favor (although via covering, you can alter the outcome for someone else...which is a whole other layer to talk about)...that you start (as a player) to wonder...what should I be doing if its not manipulating the game mechanics. The answer lies in the supporting cast.
Flashpoints become those "oh shit" moments that the principle dreads because they often result in utter catastrophe...but which you as a player come to greedily anticipate because...they often result in utter catastrophe.
Remember, the principles aren't "player characters" you aren't even expected, necessarily, to sympathize with them. They aren't your avatar in the game, therefor their relative impotency (relative to PCs in RPGs) shouldn't be taken as a reflection of your ability to influence the game. Your job as a player is to figure out who the real protagonist of the story is...often one of the more sympathetic supporting cast, and if the principle (as often as not) meets a bad end...so much the better.
42. On 2006-08-01, Settembrini said:
Don??t give me the "Your mind is stuck in regular RPGs" drill.
I know all that. I didn??t care for an Avatar, or his impotency, or James Bond movies. I tried hard to get the suggested themes rolling.
Weakness can be great, random chance can be great. The "cold" can be great.
But Spione itself is a leasuire activity of collaborative story creation, isn??t it? And I as a PLAYER want to have influence. As the mechanic is total randomness, my ideas and themes only come to fruiton or to relevance out of luck.
THAT is the big downer for me. And I think this is criticism which should be uttered, as Ron surely wants to appeal to different kinds of people. I do not see anything "Gamer" specific in my point.
43. On 2006-08-01, Settembrini said:
To make my point more clear:
I can only experience flashpoints as exciting, if I have the feeling that something worhtwhile is at stake. Total Randomness takes away any worth anything could have. Because it doesn??t matter if a scene was cleverly setup or a character nicely developed or great colour added. When the mechanic actually resolves anything all talk before is worthless. And so the folowing rounds of maneuvres was just plain boring for me, although I tried hard to keep contributing quality story elements.
If you wanna wallow in "nihilistic coldness", than your theme is adressed in every game. The adressation of any other theme is up to the shuffle of the cards.
Ron told me that was by design.
So be it, but don`t expect everyone to like that.
44. On 2006-08-01, Vincent said:
I never felt that I didn't have influence over what happened. I was always confident that what would happen, would matter. That it'd be out of my hands, well, sometimes that's how it goes.
Andreas, I'd like you to read this again, that I wrote:
So the flashpoint card rules: in order to accomplish a big deal thing, you need two or more cards, right? And there's a good chance that they won't be two of your own cards, right, but one'll be yours and one'll be someone else's - so a lot of the time when a big deal thing happens, it'll be because YOU set it up and SOMEONE ELSE followed through.
Furthermore, covering someone else's card is a commitment to follow through on whatever they set up, right? Whether following through by helping or following through by hindering.
So when it's my turn to talk, what happens is, I set something up a) not knowing how you'll follow through on it, but b) knowing that you WILL.
That's a fantastic creative interaction between the players...
Your analysis doesn't jibe with mine. Care to reconcile them? Am I wrong?
45. On 2006-08-01, Troy_Costisick said:
I have a quick question. Did Spione grow out of Dr. Chaos? Were the two related or did they influence each other in any way?
46. On 2006-08-01, Valamir said:
***I do not see anything "Gamer" specific in my point.***
I don't want to argue with you on Vincent's blog, but I will point out that EVERY single one of your objections is absolutely "gamer" specific...and completely the reason why the game isn't being marketed to gamers through the usual gamer channels.
That's not a criticism, just an observation. I too typically hate overly random mechanics. For me the saving grace in Spione is that the mechanic so perfectly fulfills the purpose of what it was designed to do. If it were an RPG resolution system it would suck...I agree. But its not. And for what it is, its nearly perfect.
You say you want to have influence as a player...you do...tremendous amounts of influence. You just need to look for it somewhere OTHER than the card mechanics. Looking for it in the card mechanics is traditional gamer think, right there. "How do I exert my influence in the game as a player? I'll check out the resolution system."—gamer thinking.
Not in Spione. The accordian mechanics are more akin to a random event generator than a traditional resolution mechanic. Its like playing Monopoly and asking "how do I exert my influence on the result of the die roll". You don't, what you land on is what you land on. In Spione, the cards that come up, are the cards that come up. In Monopoly you exert your influence by what deals you make and when you choose to buy or sell. You have no influence on the dice. In Spione you exert your influence through the narrations and scenes. You have no influence on the cards. This is why I said you're looking in the wrong place.
So your response to my post simply shows that you're still looking in the wrong place. That's not criticism, just a helpful hint...you're right...you're not going to find what you're looking for where you're looking...you have to look elsewhere for it.
As for the total randomness of the mechanic being a downer, again that's completely gamer think. Most non gamers are TOTALLY comfortable with very random game mechanics. Monopoly, Parcheesi, Snakes and Ladders...all games that have sold more copies than all RPGs combined. All games that are mostly (or purely) random. Point being that for the majority of folks out there, a game mechanic which is entirely arbitrary...is normal. Its only us gamers who find them unusual.
Now, as for HOW to look elsewhere to find what's needed in Spione...that's where the whole "hand holding" and "training wheels" discussion comes in. There is no way (for me anyway) to figure out the "how" part from the game text. I had the benefit of playing a 3 player game directly with Ron. I just watched what Ron did and figured out how it was supposed to work. Hopefully some of the videos of actual play on the Spione site will fulfill a little bit of the "learn to play by watching play" aspect. And hopefully the final text will include some additional training wheels.
47. On 2006-08-01, Settembrini said:
@Valamir: There is a reason that snakes & ladders and monopoly isn??t fun over the age of ten. If you are fine with snakes & ladders, you are free to play it with my blessing.
The moment somebody actually notices that a leasuire activity doesnt let you participate in a meaningful way, you drop it. Some people never notice that. I??m a smartie, so I figured that out quickly.
@Vincent: Sure, the card mechanic sometimes lets you make interesting group based decisions. But they only crop up due to chance. You could as well play with an empty bottle, spinning it, and let the guy decide whom the bottle is pointing at. Introduce the rule that one other guy has to back up serious changes and there you go. If that??s fine for you, so be it.
@meaningful: Value is a direct function of scarcity. If ressources are allocated totally randomly, there is no way to anticipate scarcity or affluence. Without any anticipitation for scarcity there can be no rational action. It`s nihilism.
If that??s Spiones goal: Mission accomplished.
I`m not saying Spione is broken or bad, just because the first session didn??t rock. I`m saying: Think about if you really want a nihilistic game. If the answer is yes, then go ahead and enjoy yourselves.
I hope my point is clear, I`ll answer specific questions, but will not pursue this more. It??s just my two cents, make out of that what you want.
BTW, I found the game concepts fairly easy to grasp.
48. On 2006-08-01, ffilz said:
re: Evident enthusiasm vs reported enthusiasm
I've seen that myself, and experienced it. I've been really gung ho while doing some activity, and then on reflection, decided it was totally lame.
One thing that can cause this is when on reflection, you realize that the "cool decisions" you though you were making, and were grooving on, were actually meaningless. Another is that you were really grooving on some aspect of the experience, and then realized that was totally not what the activity was about. There can also be crowd excitement, that upon reflection can be shallow (these last couple examples have me thinking about concerts and food at fairs and carnivals and such).
49. On 2006-08-01, Ron Edwards said:
Hi guys,
Um, I wanted to say I was appreciating Andreas' points and didn't find them unreasonable, from his perspective.
No fighting, please? I appreciate the comments from supporters of the game, but I am also happy to accept other views ...
This isn't moderating, but more like the reaction you might get from a little kid who just wants his parents to stop yelling at each other.
50. On 2006-08-01, Guy Shalev said:
re: Evident enthusiasm vs reported enthusiasm.
How about Play Vs. Game? The game may have problems, the actual play experience may be fun, but disconnected from the problems of the game.
Isn't this largely the issue about people having fun in spite of rules?
I have no idea if this is the case, but that's a possible solution.
51. On 2006-08-02, Ben Lehman said:
In the particular case that Vincent is talking about, that wasn't what was going on. The exact game features which caused great joy in play were "broken and wrong" in aftermath.
52. On 2006-08-02, Tobias said:
Well, there's a reason people watch movies with bad stuff happening in them ('broken and wrong') - because it makes the good stuff more appealing. Comradery feels better when it's experienced under pressure.
Last year had to walk 25 kms at night, under-dressed, in the Belgian Ardennes, because we (3 of us) decided things would be ok if we didn't accept that last ride home. We arrived at dawn. It wasn't a happy walk, but it's a cool memory.
Just offering this as an option. Short-term vs. Long-term experience (eat a Big Mac every day) can differ.
53. On 2006-08-02, Settembrini said:
A thought crossed my mind: I indeed WAS overlooking something!
Metagame. I totally forgot the metagame. Following my reasoning, the system is arbitrary. BUT once that is known, you can metagame: As power is dished out by chance, you have to eliminate the power being important. The only way to do this, is to manipulate the emtions of your fellow PLAYERS in a way, that they are disinclined to act against your thematic issues and plans.
Thusly, you might loose interest in the SIS (as I did), as it would just be the vehicle, or better even the battleground, for the opposing minds. Beat the randomness would be the metagame. Beat it by instilling the urge in the other players to use their allocated power in your interest.
So far I'd say this is not the theme of "the cold" anymore, but I can see it being a functional, albeit quite nasty, leasuire activity. Much like Diplomacy, when you play it with people who know all about stalemate lines, Lepantos and all this. It comes down to attacks and schemes against the opponents willpower or hog his sympathy to stab him later.
I'm not sure this still would be a non-zero-sum game, but if you manipulate masterfully, people will think they did what they wanted, and it would make them feel they were in a non-zero-sum game. Fiendish!
54. On 2006-08-02, Frank T said:
I'm still pondering that bit about hand-holding. Actually, I just wrote a longer blog entry in German about it. This really makes a lot of things fall into place for me, not only about Spione, but about rpg design in general. Thanks Vincent!
- Frank
55. On 2006-08-04, xenopulse said:
No marginalia, so a quick request in here: Frank, where's the link to that entry? Some of us can actually read and understand German, you know :)
56. On 2006-08-09, Frank T said:
Ah, sorry Christian, I forgot about that. Here it is:
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Project Description
Rehab Essentials & University of Montana Portals
We worked with the owner of Rehab Essentials, an online health courseware company, to create a full online marketing strategy, and two custom designed and developed Craft CMS and Craft Commerce websites. One for their global and state-specific offerings through Rehab Essentials, and one for their courses specifically for University of Montana students.
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text:
|Sighting Report
|Occurred : 8/14/2007 21:40 (Entered as : 8/14/2007 21:40)
Reported: 8/16/2007 7:39:44 AM 07:39
Posted: 10/8/2007
Location: Littleton, NH
Shape: Light
Duration:1 minute
|Bright flash of light, turning to pinpoint of light that traveled silently and quickly through night sky of NH.
At 9:40 pm, husband and wife were meteor watching when a bright flash of white light (as if someone snapped a photo with a large flash) from the Southern sky caught our attention. We noted a small pinpoint of light traveling quickly from the flash's point of origin. The object was too high to be a plane and silent. It traveled in an arc overhead at a steady rate of speed from South to North until we lost sight of it over the mountains into Canada.
We originally thought that it might be the space shuttle, but after checking the NASA channel realized the shuttle was still docked at the space station and not orbiting. We are first time posters and have never seen anything prior to last night to warrant a report. Interested to know if other people witnessed anything similar in the area.