The USA PATRIOT Act: The Story of an Impulsive Bill that Eviscerated America's Civil Liberties
The USA PATRIOT Act provides a textbook example of how the United States federal government expands its power. An emergency happens, legitimate or otherwise. The media, playing its dutiful role as goad for greater government oversight, demands "something must be done." Government power is massively expanded, with little regard for whether or not what is being done is efficacious, to say nothing of the overall impact on our nation's civil liberties. No goals are posted, because if targets are hit, this would necessitate the ending or scaling back of the program. Instead, the program becomes normalized. There are no questions asked about whether the program is accomplishing what it set out to do. It is now simply a part of American life and there is no going back. The American public largely accepts the USA PATRIOT Act as a part of civic life as immutable, perhaps even more so than the Bill of Rights. However, this act – passed in the dead of night, with little to no oversight, in a panic after the biggest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor – is not only novel, it is also fundamentally opposed to virtually every principle on which the United States of America was founded. It might not be going anywhere anytime soon, but patriots, liberty lovers and defenders of Constitutional government should nonetheless familiarize themselves with the onerous provisions of this law, which is nothing short of a full-throttle attack on the American republic.
What’s Even in the USA PATRIOT Act?
What is in the USA PATRIOT Act? In the Michael Moore film Fahrenheit 9/11, then Rep. John Conyers cracked wise about how no one had actually read the Act and how this was in fact par for the course with America's laws. Thus, before delving into the deeper issues surrounding the PATRIOT Act, it is worth discussing what the Act actually says. Here’s a brief look at the 10 Titles in the PATRIOT Act:
Title I: Enhancing Domestic Security Against Terrorism: This provision dramatically expands the powers of the President, the military and the intelligence community whenever the specter of "terrorism" is invoked. Bizarrely, it contains a provision condemining discrimination against Arabs, Muslims and South Asians, which seems to have very little to do with protecting Americans from terrorism.
Title II: Enhanced Surveillance Procedures: Title II contains the meat of the Act with regard to massive, industrial-scale surveillance on the American public. Beyond the simple spying on Americans and their communications, Title II increases the ability of federal intelligence agencies to share your private communications with one another.
Title III: International Money Laundering Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism Act: Not simply a section of the USA PATRIOT Act, Title III is an Act of Congress in its own right. You might have noticed how much more difficult it is to open a bank account or send a wire transfer after 9/11. You can blame this provision, which shredded banking privacy rights in the United States.
Title IV: Protecting the Border: Other than expanding the number of federal employees (of course), the provision of the USA PATRIOT Act charged with protecting America's borders does little other than point toward paths for future action and study. It is worth noting that the weakest provision of the Act is the only one explicitly authorized by the Constitution -- protecting the border.
Title V: Removing Obstacles to Investigating Terrorism: Title V authorizes bounties for the apprehension of alleged terrorists, broadens government power to conduct DNA analysis, allows for greater data sharing between law enforcement agencies and, perhaps most disturbingly, requires private telecommunication carriers to comply with government requests for electronic communication records whenever requested by the FBI. It also expands the power of the Secret Service to investigate computer fraud.
Title VI: Providing for Victims of Terrorism, Public Safety Officers and Their Families: Perhaps the most innocuous portion of the USA PATRIOT Act, Title VI provides for a victims' fund for victims of terrorism and their families.
Title VII: Increased Information Sharing for Critical Infrastructure Protection: The subtitle of this section of the Act is a rather wordy way of saying that the United States federal government is allowing for law enforcement agencies to share information across jurisdictional boundaries in an easier fashion than was previously legal. To that end, the Bureau of Justice Assistance was given a $50,000,000 budget for 2002 and a whopping $100,000,000 budget for fiscal year 2003.
Title VIII:Strengthening the Criminal Laws Against Terrorism: Title VIII is where the rubber meets the road: What exactly is terrorism, according to the federal government? Unfortunately, this Title does little to clarify what terrorism is, instead focusing on declaring a number of actions (such as attacks on transit) as “terrorism,” regardless of intent.
Title IX: Improved Intelligence: The section subtitled “improved intelligence” largely expands the powers and responsibilities of the Director of Central Intelligence.
Title X: Miscellaneous: When the federal government titles a segment of a law “miscellaneous,” you know it’s going to include everything and the kitchen sink. And so it does: The definition of electronic surveillance, additional funds for the DEA in South and Central Asia, research on biometric scanning systems, a limitation on hazmat licensure and infrastructure protections are all addressed in Title X, which is a catchall for everything the federal government forgot to address in the first nine sections of the law.
Most of the provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act were set to sunset four years after the bill was passed into law. However, the law was extended first by President George W. Bush and then by President Barack H. Obama. The latter is particularly scandalous given that, at least in part, a rejection of the surveillance culture that permeated the Bush Administration was responsible for the election of Obama in 2008.
Passing the USA PATRIOT Act
Next, it’s important to remember the environment in which the USA PATRIOT Act was passed: Post-9/11. It is not the slightest bit of exaggeration to label the environment in which the PATRIOT Act was passed as “hysterical,” nor is “compliant” a misnomer for the Congress of the time. Opposition to the Act was slim and intensive review of one of the most sweeping Acts of Congress in American history was nonexistent. All told, Congress took a whopping six weeks drafting, revising, reviewing and passing the PATRIOT Act. That’s less time than Congress typically spends on totally uncontroversial and routine bills that don’t gut the Fourth Amendment. The final vote found only 66 opponents in the House and one (Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold) in the Senate. The entire passage of the PATRIOT Act, from start to finish, took place behind closed doors. There were no committee reports or hearings for opponents to testify, nor did anyone bother to read the bill. “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism” is the bloated and overwrought full name of the bill, crafted by a 23-year-old Congressional staffer named Chris Cylke. This ridiculous name puts the focus not on the surveillance aspects or the erosion of basic civil liberties enshrined in Western society since the Magna Carta, but on patriotism. At the time of its creation, the messaging was very clear: Real patriots support massive intrusions on civil rights. As President George W. Bush said at the time, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” This sentiment very much seemed to apply to American citizens. While the argument that if you have nothing to hide you shouldn’t fear investigation is anathema in a Constitutional republic with regard to citizens, it should be standard operating procedure when it comes to our organs of government. If we cannot expect transparency from the United States Congress – elected officials charged with representing the will of the people and protecting the Constitution – then we certainly can’t expect it anywhere else.
The Unfortunate Growth of the USA PATRIOT Act
It’s no surprise to those in the liberty movement that given an inch, the government (in particular the military-intelligence community) took a mile. Even the nebulous definition of “terrorism,” largely centered around a long litany of acts rather than the motivation behind them, has expanded to include receiving military training from a proscribed organization (without actually committing any terrorist acts or even acts of violence of any stripe) as well as “narcoterrorism” – the latter particularly convenient, as the United States government continues its losing “War on Drugs.” Indeed, in many ways, the War on (Some) Drugs was the template for the War on Terror. Both wars have no defined enemy, no defined terms of victory. Instead, they are waged against a nebulous concept, while enjoying bipartisan support for their ever-expanding budgets. What’s more, it didn’t take long for the Feds to start using the USA PATRIOT Act for things it was never intended for, including prosecuting the War on Drugs. Perhaps the silliest application of the USA PATRIOT Act is the prosecution of Adam McGaughey. McGaughey maintained a fansite for the television seriesStargate SG-1. The Feds charged him with copyright infringement and computer fraud. In the course of their investigation, the FBI leveraged the PATRIOT Act to get financial records from his website’s ISP. This was made possible by the USA PATRIOT Act amending the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, allowing for search and seizure of ISP records. The New York Timesdiscovered in September 2003, that the USA PATRIOT Act was being used to investigate alleged drug traffickers without what would otherwise be sufficient probable cause. These were investigations into non-terrorist acts using a law ostensibly designed to investigate terrorism. There was some suspicion that the Act was being used to investigate crimes occurring before the Act was passed, violating the ex post facto clause of the United States Constitution. In one of the biggest power grabs (excluding virtually everything we know from Edward Snowden – more on that below), the FBI sent tens of thousands of “national security letters” and procured over one million financial records from targeted businesses in Las Vegas. These businesses were primarily casinos, car rental bureaus and storage spaces. The data obtained included financial records, credit histories, employment records and even people’s personal health records. The FBI maintains and databases this – and, indeed, all information collected through the USA PATRIOT Act – indefinitely. In the good old days before the PATRIOT Act, the Feds were compelled to destroy any evidence they collected on someone later found not guilty of a crime. Note that the aforementioned data collection brought to public attention by Edward Snowden (which, again – we’re getting to that) falls under this provision. Not only is the government collecting obscene amounts of private and personal information about you, they’re also storing it indefinitely with no plans to stop. What’s more, the FBI has approached public libraries to turn over the records for specific terminals, collecting information not about specific users who might be under investigation, but about anyone who has ever used the computer at the public library. Libraries, to their credit, have been very much at the forefront of resistance against the PATRIOT Act, with some litigating compliance despite operating on small budgets and others posting “canary letters,” which effectively say “The FBI Hasn’t Been Here Yet.” The removal of such a letter would warn patrons that the FBI has been sniffing around in their records. Indeed, the greatest criticism of the PATRIOT Act is the simplest and perhaps most obvious: Why does an Act ostensibly passed to fight terrorism so drastically expand the government’s power to investigate virtually everyone else? The PATRIOT Act is not merely unconstitutional, it is an unprecedented expansion of state power in the Anglosphere, a culture based on restricted government and the primacy of individual rights. An excellent example of this is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expansion. Most people are familiar with the term “FISA court,” but very few people actually know what it is – a special federal court created under the Carter Administration that grants approval of electronic surveillance of both citizens and resident aliens in the event that they are accused of acting in the service of a foreign power. The last part of this sentence is very important: The FISA courts are not simply for allowing surveillance of anyone that it might be expedient to collect information about. The scope of their powers is very, very limited. Or was. The PATRIOT Act lowered the burden of evidence required to obtain a FISA warrant for electronic surveillance and expanded the overall scope of the FISA courts. Any savvy federal agent can now drape his charges in the garb of (what else?) “national security” and obtain electronic surveillance privileges hitherto only dreamed of by investigators. FISA courts have become pliant tools in the hands of the Feds, gladly approving their requests to monitor phone and internet surveillance, as well as access to medical, financial and educational records.
The Future of the USA PATRIOT Act
Do we still need the PATRIOT Act? Did we ever? All laws are certainly a product of their times. But this seems much more acutely true of the USA PATRIOT Act, which was passed in a rush and under duress without due consideration. Particularly in light of the revelations from Edward Snowden – that the government is spying on everything they possibly can – it’s worth asking if there’s any walking back. He points out that the police state apparatus was originally for drug dealers, then for terrorists, but ultimately ended up being applied to anyone and everyone. What’s more, Bob Bullard notes another frightful aspect of the USA PATRIOT Act: Terrorism-related cases are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. This means that there is little or no oversight. There is no surer hallmark of a police state than an all-powerful domestic surveillance agency with no transparency or oversight. While the USA PATRIOT Act might not create an American Stasi as such, it certainly paves the way for one. Continue readingThe USA PATRIOT Act: The Story of an Impulsive Bill that Eviscerated America's Civil LibertiesatAmmo.com.
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Sunset Spins Casino Bonuses
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Kozmo Casino Review
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About Kozmo Casino
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Kozmo Casino Bonuses
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I’ve been completing some deeply disturbing crosswords
I latch onto specific problems and when I do everything else around me diminishes into nothingness until I complete the task at hand. I line these problems up and solve them, one-by-one, and I find updating the task list awfully difficult. If I am on my way to do a job, breaking off to attend to something else is almost impossible. I once finished buttering my toast before putting out a fire by the stove. I once lost a girlfriend after she trapped her fingers in a food processor, and I quietly went over to the fridge and put the milk away before turning to help her. She couldn’t believe that I hadn’t rushed over straight away, but of course it wasn’t really like that. I was unable to review or address my priorities until my mind had freed itself from the current task. I have to manage these tendencies. And I learned at an early age that it helps to focus on discrete tasks that, if things get really bad, I can remind myself don’t matter. That, at least, limits the anxiety of abandoning them. I have my work and that gets me through the day, but outside of those hours I need other things to pull me through. I can paint and read and they’re involving, for sure, but they don’t tend to have the sense of completion that I get from a simple puzzle. Jigsaws, sudoku, word searches, videogames; these all make up part of it but oddly enough it’s crosswords that have taken over my mind. It started because they weren’t too taxing and if I was pushed to cheat then it didn’t really matter. They let me say things like, “Right, I’ll do 9 across while on the toilet and that’s it.” Like most things I put my mind to, I quickly turned the hobby into an obsessive pursuit of completion. The harder they were, the better. If I had to watch a film, read a book, or even visit a real-life location to get an answer, I would. And I credited it all with pushing me out of my comfort zone in order to experience new things. I would have never watched Breakfast at Tiffanies, read Little Women, or visited the London Museum of Natural History without needing to get answers from them. And they were all new experiences for me, some better than others, but I enjoyed the feeling of expanding my little bubble with each new puzzle. Crosswords, like everything, have communities surrounding them and I even found a few friends online. For some, the compulsion to get obscure answers was a vital lifeline to the outside world, and you’d be surprised at some of the cultures lurking at the fringe. A good crossword is more than just a puzzle, it’s a curated string of experiences picked to evoke a deliberate journey. A common example might be the kind of thing some tourists could use to guide them around a city: Below the Phoenix of a Blinded Saint, 8 down. Resurgam – the answer can be found carved on a stone beneath a statue of a phoenix at St Paul’s Cathedral. But what about something like the following: The final song of a thunderous singer, 5 across. The answer was Toxic, the final song lip-synced by a Drag Queen (Daytona Thunder) at a popular club in Manchester. I went a long way for that one and had a surprisingly good night, albeit one a little outside my wheelhouse. But still, I got the answer and it wasn’t like I’d find it just by reading the forums (posting answers is a big no-no if you want to get into the best clubs). The creator was a well-known Queer academic working out of London who has a popular following in the community. I appreciated their work but perhaps not as much as those by one anonymous Berliner. A companion’s lips tasted through the looking glass, 6 across. Her name was Alice and she was an escort for an agency called Intimate Companions. She was wearing Cherry lip gloss, something I found through a process of elimination. Over the last few years I’ve discovered more about myself than I ever would have at home. I have learned that I can lie very well, that when I know who I am meant to be, who others want me to be, I can be confident and even charming. I have learned that I am not a jealous person, that I am not a vain person, and that there are times when I can be as reckless and adventurous as anyone else. I just need a reason to, a job to complete with routes to success I understand. The name of a one-eyed watchmen’s gun, 12 across. There was a policeman—with two eyes, I might add, but the unfortunate Christian name of Dick—and the answer was the serial number of his gun, converted to letters. That was an odd one, but absolutely invigorating. The crossword had been made with clearly defined geographical boundaries which helped (many of us attended it as a communal event although I largely acted alone), and for a moment I almost thought the policeman was in on the game. Right up until he tried to shoot me. Like I said, the experiences can be invigorating. But the good ones, the really good ones, they can be a struggle to find. You have to be accepted into the right groups, often you’ll be vetted, even tested, but the reward can be worth it. I’ll never forget the day I had a hand-delivered envelope deposited at my doorstep and the anticipation I felt opening it, unknotting the brown twine so delicately tied around the heft. God, some of them even had wax seals. I liked those the most. I found the violet and crimson seals delicious to look at. But they were so, so much more than simple puzzles. A principled affair, 5 down. The headmaster of the local school was having an affair with her sister-in-law, Sarah. It was hard to find that out. It wasn’t exactly public knowledge. Frankly, I had to resort to stalking and it wasn’t a good look, but it was a new experience nonetheless and the few times I nearly got caught were quite exhilarating. But what was truly amazing was that this was at the school just a few blocks from my house! You have to understand, it wasn’t just a template handed out to everyone. I still don’t know how big any of these communities really are but I imagine they’re quite small and involve people from all over the world. It was truly remarkable to think someone had laboured over a tailor-made puzzle just for me. There are quite a few groups I belong to now. Some aren’t even organised online, instead requiring that you ferret them out, sometimes as clues in other puzzles, sometimes as their own elaborate games. But there are always more to be found and in the best circumstances, they find you, choosing you out of all the people in the world to rise to the challenge at hand. The right ones will push you to do things you never thought possible. A baker’s jewels, 7 down. Harriet Baker who died in 2012 at the age of 86 and was buried with an emerald necklace in the local graveyard. I still have it, kept away somewhere in a special drawer along with news clippings of the crime. It even has some of the soil from the grave still muddying its shimmering gems, and admittedly they do still smell a bit. But I bet that I know something most people don’t, and that’s what happens to little old Grandma five years after being sealed up in a box beneath the Earth. Not just the abstract, either. I know the specifics, I know exactly what she looks like, smells like, and even what her cold lumpen flesh feels like. I spent years as a child wondering what happened to the many relatives of mine who passed away, but it was an adult I finally found the answer. People have lived their whole lives looking down on me. Teachers assumed I was slow at learning, my parents mourned that I cared more about organising my wargaming miniatures than I ever did about girls or friends, everyone around me treated me like I was a timid mouse in a world of thundering giants. But I’ve lived a more exciting life than they could ever imagine, and it hasn’t been in spite of who I am. Only someone like me could pursue these clues to such dogged ends and I gladly take the bad with the good. The colour of the tea plates served by the Biellier Historical Society, 9 up. Don’t let the name fool you. The Society is a private organisation for some rather unusual gentlemen who serve tea after their annual conference is finished. Crazy bastards, I can see why they need a drink once they’re finished and I’m not surprised half of them didn’t take a seat during refreshments. I’m just not sure I’ll ever look be able to look a farm animal in the eye again. Oh, and turquoise, by the way. That was the answer. I know things very few people know. That’s a rare privilege and, like I said, it comes with a price. It would be ridiculous to think one might look upon the fraying edges of our world without having to face some uncomfortable sights. And you might think the worst of it is a leather-bound orgy in a dungeon or perversions you can safely find on Wikipedia, but there are other lingering truths buried in the Earth and I am one of the few who have seen them. There is always more to learn, always another word to find, another puzzle to complete. And I have come a long way in my education since I first received that letter on my doorstep years ago. The inheritor of Maeson’s oldest home, 6 down. Albert. Albert was the named inheritor of the first house built and designed by obscure architect Harold Maeson. It was not, as almost everyone first expected, the current owner’s first born son named Alexander, but instead the old man’s male sexual interest Albert who was a rather unwilling 17 year old. Perhaps the old man thought it made up for his actions towards the boy he had kept around as a family friend for years, disguising his abuse as mentorship. Either way it caused a tremendous uproar and poor Albert wasn’t exactly thrilled to have his face all over the papers. No one could have possibly known he would be the inheritor. The will was written up in total secrecy, something I spent considerable resources finding out. Credit where it’s due, the old man put up a fight but his death was the only way I would get my answer. I can’t speak for others, but I found the experience quite a revelation. I felt as if I’d learned profound hidden knowledge, a truth about reality found in the glassy bloodshot eyes of a man violently dying. There’s something in there, you know, something that lies just beneath our own reality. I saw a glimmer of it that night, just like I had so many others before it. It’s quite beautiful, a confusing glittering mess of contradictions and unknowable madness. It is, by definition beyond our ability to every truly know but you can still see facets of it, one bit at a time. It’s beautiful. But… well, it’s not always so painless. The missing piglet counted right to left, 5 up. Eight. That was the answer. I spent all night researching fairy tales and children’s rhymes only to fall asleep at my desk sometime around 2 in the morning. When I awoke I had been moved to the sofa and my left foot was raised on the armrest and bandaged heavily. The whole tingled from anaesthesia and it wouldn’t be until noon before I could walk on it again. Anxiously, I undid the white swaddle of blood-tinged gauze and winced at the sight of my mutilated foot. The middle toe on my left foot had been amputated cleanly, the wound sewn up neatly like a cross-stitched grin. Counting right to left, I noticed it was the eighth toe missing and I have to admit I pumped my fist in the air and rejoiced at having the answer. But the experience caught me off guard, and it might not surprise you to know that I have since looked into slowing down and maybe even taking a short break from this hobby. I’ve had to manage these tendencies in the past and I suppose this one should be no different. But there have been some difficulties. For one thing, they won’t stop sending new puzzles to me and it’s all but impossible for me to ignore them. And for another, the clues are becoming increasingly pointed. A sea of white and flakes of gold to flood a castle of ivory, 6 down. Cereal, right? That’s what I thought, at least until I had the unpleasant surprise of discovering a needle hidden in my cornflakes. That, it turned out, was the correct answer and I was lucky to catch it before it wound up anywhere near my mouth. The thought of that thing sliding down my throat or catching in the roof of my mouth, spearing the gum and cartilage, left me riddled with an ever-growing anxiety. Clubs have pushed things in the past, boundaries take a backseat when it comes to pursuing the absolute limit of knowledge. But it felt like such an odd inclusion for the latest puzzle, one that didn’t necessarily teach me anything. If I had the ability to trace it to a single group I might have a better sense of what it was meant to mean, but then again anonymity was always kind of the point. The currency of a strategic withdrawal, 3 up. I initially thought of the military, but in fact the answer was Yen and it turned out that around £50,000 worth of them had been withdrawn from my account (by myself, somehow) at the bank. God knows how that was possible, but it happened and there’s not a lot I could really do about it. I’ve written to some of the groups but as far as I can tell they’re playing coy. I am sorry, one replied. But our puzzles are sent out as part of a weekly newsletter via e-mail. We’re not sure we’ve ever offered bespoke crosswords but we’d be fascinated to hear more if there’s anyone out there who does. It’d interest quite a few of our members, myself included. I received similar variations to this message from just about every organisation I had listed in my ledger and frankly I found the suggestion ridiculous. I’d always assumed those newsletters were part of a front, making it appear as though the focus was on banal little puzzles about obscure military defeats while secretly directing us to brothels and illegal casinos. It made sense, perhaps, that they would maintain the ruse but an acquaintance I called wasn’t exactly reassuring. “Well of course they’re a front,” he said. “Don’t you get the packages? I’ve had a few seedy adventures with those!” “Oh that’s good!” I laughed while breathing a deep sigh of relief. “I was beginning to think… well, I’m not sure what I was thinking.” “Oh yes the packages are very real,” he replied. “The Spring edition was quite a naughty affair, don’t you think?” “Invigorating,” I smiled. “I didn’t even know where to buy a burlap sa—” “Strawberry!? Can you imagine? The Mrs and I had a delight trying out the different flavours.” “What?” “Oh come now man, no need to be shy. It’s quite normal to use… lubricant,” he whispered it like a dirty secret. “Agnes suggested we try it on toast!” I hung up with his laughter still bellowing down the other line. My Spring edition of our shared club was not anything like his. I told myself that it made sense it wouldn’t, they were meant to be custom made for each participant, but it alarmed me to hear that his activities were so dreadfully banal. Most of the clues in that edition had directed me to the consumption of a range of meats including something I scraped off the side of a suspension bridge. Nothing my friend had said to me rang true. Rightly, I should have stopped there. But… but the thing is… it was never really an option, not then and not now. I’m sure you think it’s a silly compulsion or anxiety but it’s not. I can’t do it. It’s simply not in my nature especially not now I know that God-knows-what could be lurking around the corner. I’ve explained this to myself and others before – I am task focused. I needed to finish the job at hand. PO Box 19777, open it from within, 9 down. I found the box with ease but there was no key nor any means to open it from within. Whatever the rationale was behind the puzzle, I thought at the time that the whole affair was beginning to frustrate me. I didn’t see any significant challenge to tracing the address, aside from finding the key which, it would turn out, was very much part of the clue. In fact, I’m still not entirely sure how they did it. I awoke to a sort of gagging sensation one night, dreaming that I had swallowed a tangle of wet hair. Only the terrible retching sensation wasn’t entirely dreamed up. Tied to my canine was a line of floss that I painfully had to pull up from my stomach. It was unnecessarily long, spooling out of my throat in a bloody tangle for a good few metres while I vomited and cried from the struggle. It took nearly half an hour to inch it out while I choked and retched but eventually I regurgitated the key, collapsing afterwards to the floor to heave and sob as I recovered. There was a teddy bear in the locker and I didn’t find it particularly amusing. And, yes, okay, there was a mild satisfaction to getting the answer, but the rest of me was filled with a deep begrudging. I felt like the punchline to a joke that wasn’t funny. A starry orchid’s window of choice, 7 down. The answer was eyeball, and it turns out the consumption of the flower in question causes bloody secretions from the tear ducts, not to mention renal failure. It wasn’t easy to explain that one away, and I didn’t much appreciate the stay at a hospital. The price for that answer may one day be dialysis, but for now I hope that I may still see myself clear of such things. The doctors couldn’t say for sure what the chances were. At the very least I hoped that I might find some respite while interred in a hospital bed, but if anything it made things worse. I was not prepared to be incapacitated for so long with the knowledge that the puzzle was but one clue from completion. I was itching furiously for the last few days, and my doctors were confounded by the state of my heart and were blind to the other tell-tale signs of anxiety. There would be no rest for me until I had finished the puzzle and I swore to myself, swore blind on my mother’s grave, that it would be the last. If things got much worse, I reminded myself, it might not be me who decides what will be my last puzzle. When I arrived home it was with the kind of relief I never thought possible. I am forever learning more about myself and those first few steps through the front door made it clear to me I was in the thrall of some kind of addiction. No matter what the price was, I told myself over and over again that I would pay it and move on. I would change addresses if I had to or pay someone to physically slap the damn pencil out of my hand if I went to complete another crossword! God knows I have the money. I will climb this final hurdle, I told myself, and see it through. And yet… I don’t know. I half-expect there to be some ghoulish double-entendre hiding in the words but for the life of me I cannot see one. It seems more like a hideous joke - one I don’t really understand. I have a possible word choice and it certainly fits but… It’s been weeks and I can’t bring myself to write it in. This is the final clue! The final step at the end of this increasingly desperate adventure and I can’t figure it out. I’m half-tempted to say that I won’t see another answer because I don’t want to finish it. That might be it, surely? I’m an addict. I’ll admit that all too readily and this wouldn’t be the first time I took things too far. It’s just… The handwriting these clues have been written in, 4 down. I keep expecting some terrible interpretation to come true, to find a severed hand by my door, or to awake missing most of my fingers. It’s a strange thing but I have come to find myself ruminating often on the look in the old man’s eyes. For while I am sure that I saw something terrible and beautiful deep within the popping veins of those suffocating retinas, it had not occurred to me until now that something was looking back. And it’s waiting for me to write in the final answer, though God knows it must be wrong for it simply cannot be possible that the answer is ‘mine’.
Why did I quit playing FF14 or why FF14 isnt worth any attention (global critique thread)
The post below is a cumulative set of conclusions based on my many hundreds of hours of playtime. It will be a rethinking of the facts that I discovered for myself at the beginning of my acquaintance with this game, those facts thanks to which I initially really enjoyed the game. There will also be a lot of comparising between FF14 and other MMOs such as: WoW, GW2, TeSO etc. Before I start I do want to clarify that I do not want to anger or insult the players of this game. If you love this game and you enjoy playing it -- its completely fine and I respect that. Its a game for you. I rely merely on my vast experience in playing MMOs and on adequate analytical skills with which many have big problems. With thats settled, lets start. Why I thought you should play FF14: 1. I thought that FF14 does not have any cash shops that will affect your efficiency in battle or speed of your leveling. Will be the least filled point because yes, FF14 does not have donate/cash shops system. Only things you can get from Mogstation is glamour gear sets, mounts, minions i.e. visuals AND jump potions about which we will talk later. Problem lies in addons. They are not worth their money. $30 for Battle for Azeroth and $20 for TeSO versus $35 for Shadowbringers -- BfA and TeSO worths your money more -- you will know why later. 2. I thought that FF14 has HUGE amount of content. Yes, there really is a lot of content -- there are some buts. It is as monotonous as possible with little difference between pieces of content. All dungeons in FF14 follows the same pattern -- they all share that "corridor-shooter" style, a narrow path in which theres absolutely no tactics whatsoever. At max you will need to dodge some AoE from another clone boss. Just a dumb zerg rush with zero tactics and zero interactivity. Against the backdrop of Mythic Dungeons in WoW where you need to throw bombs at boss, clean the arena of mold, shoot from harpoon, use a battleship/tank to battle boss in, control packs of mobs and wisely attack them, dungeons in FF14 are not just unserious -- they are childish, ridiculous. Yeah, you have some dungeons where you need to shoot at a turtle using cannons, Steps of Faith where you need to shoot those cannons at a big dragon but thats merely a single exceptions that does not change overall picture. Whence WoW dungeons are doing their best to surprise the player with unique mechanics and be interesting. Not in vain that Mythic Plus mode became its own cybersport discipline. Trials. This is essentialy just a boss fight without that excess husk of running to boss. Kind of a "raid without trash". Good idea but the implementation is meh. I will only review Extreme version of a Trials, which gives at least a mere bit of a challenge... Although, no. They dont. All mechanics in FF14 bosses are based on positionals. Just positionals, without a single interesting mechanic. To put it roughly, attacks of all bosses can be divided into several categories: a) get out from yellow AoE area, b) stack in red mark, split if green mark, c) catch projectile that moves towards boss/your healeother party member to share damage/not allow boss to charge damage d) kill adds-dummies, e) run around whole area like in idiot when boss does his ult. Thats all. Literally. All the diffuculty of FF14 trial bosses lies not in adjusting the raid to the conditions of the battle, solve the problem of randoms, go around the mechanics and understand what killed me and how to avoid it. No. Everything you need to do is memorize the position during the battle. This is the simplest thing to do if you are not an idiot who cannot memorize the simplest order of positionals or write them down on a piece of paper. You cannot possibly wipe on these activities unless you are absolutely not familiar with local "positionals mechanics" or if your party is filled with casuals who cannot do the same. Which will happen frequently. Raids. The same as trials just with that "bit of trash". Absolutely no interest, all fights again is a dumb memorizing of positionals. After WoW raids this is just ridiculous. While in WoW theres a course on complete rejection of positionals, in FF14 you ONLY have positionals. While in WoW all raids are super interactive: in Ulduar, for example you battle Leviathan using tanks and motorcycles or skirmish with an enemy faction ship or riding on the back of Deathwing trying to break his scales, underwater fights, airborne fights -- this is all bullshit! Lets throw in dummies with positionals and call it done! Absolutely no interest or enjoyment from fight or challenge. Yeah, I may be a Blizzard fanboy, blah blah blah, maybe. But this does not cancel out the fact that Raids in FF14 are crap for gamepad casuals. Alliance Raids. Same as raids but for three raid groups. Dumb zerg rush again. All the difficulty -- arrange a party of randoms, thats all. Sorta on the same level of vanilla WoW but the problem is that vanilla WoW was in 2005 while now its 2019... Extreme Ultima. Just a grindy thing which is not aimed at tactics and hardcore but at perseverance cuz theres again the same positionals but since the battle lasts a very long time a person just gets tired and gets astray. No interest again, just grind. Human factor game. And overall, high-level content in FF14 is just bad. 90% of players are busy with doing Roulettes to collect badges (tomestones) which they will exchange for high-level gear at the end of the week. And it goes on and on and on. Every single day. You go online, do your weekly cap of tomestones, go offline. And a month or so later when you will get all equipped for raids, you will go and beat raid dummies with pathetic positionals mechanics. And it lasts throughtout all addons. PvE system did not change since 1.0. They just throw packs of content at us using the same template: "Here you have a pack of dungeons, heres a raid with positionals, before that dont forget to complete a chunk of plot to unlock it."Makes me wondering, why devs of WoW in every addon trying to surprise players? Making super interesting raids with interactivity and diffucult mechanics. Every addon has some uniqie feature: garrisons, legendary Pandaria cape, Legion artifacts, warfronts and expeditions in BfA. And this brings up a question for Blizzard: why? Why bothering with that if you can just increase level cap, give a chunk of raid content with positionals, do not change class mechanics at all which you completely redo with every addon so the players, God forbid, do not get bored of their class. Blizzard, thats excessive. Look, SE using the same template for years and still get great subscription numbers. So overall, PvE content and Raids in general in FF14 are ridiculous. They designed for those gamepad casuals and console peasants so they can feel like they are actual hardcore raiders. But they are not. The hardest raid in FF14 is way more easier than WoW raids even on Normal difficulty. Heroic version will be TOO tough for a skilled FF14 player because he will actually need to learn to play instead of memorizing positionals. 3. I thougnt that FF14 has a great plot and storyline. How much praise has been given to storyline in FF14. And yes, the storyline is decent. Here and there. In short all storyline in FF14, I repeat myself, ALL storyline consists of them gather and deliver quests with a bunch of useless running around, stupid mute dialogs so that in the end, after all this legwork, you will get to see a cutscene which should at least evoke some emotions. The whole essence of the plot is about this: "oh, hi there Chosen One. Listen, theres a lot of shit on our plate right now, beastmen summoning their Primal, Garleans attacking so we have an important mission for you. Run around whole map like an **hole, kill useless mobs, talk with useless NPCs, gather some crates, talk again, rinse and repeat ten times etc etc etc and then MAYBE, just maybe, we will let you go and battle that Primal". It's just total despondency that stretches throughout the leveling because SE did something that you NEVER should do in an MMO -- they tied leveling to this storyline. You cant just get to high level and do plot in your free time like in TeSO or GW2 -- no, you MUST complete whole storyline in order unlock dungeons, raids, you cant even visit new locations without progress in main story. And that could be okay if at least storyline is interesting but from 20 quests there will be only one truly interesting quest. For the whole chapter you will see only one interesting cutscene... and the rest of the time you will do these gather and deliver type of shizzle. Which on the backdrop of WoW quests looks ridiculous and on the backdrop of TeSO quests just a full trash. SE had many solutions to this problem: a) do not make a main storyline go for this long, b) do not tie your leveling with your main storyline, c) with the possibility of moving to the next addon if you have needed level (i. e. level 70 for Shadowbringers) make it possible without completeing all the previous quests. Yes, they are working on reducing the number of quests up until level 50 but thats not gonna help because it will still be long and boring and you still have three addons for many and many hours. Like, you get to level 50 but you still have LOADS of quests to do to move to next addon although in theory it would make more sense to just take the next addond starting quest and go there and after return and complete that previous addon storyline you missed if you want. Forcing to complete a storyline in MMO is a complete bullshit which aims at money leeching. So lets compare again. Friend invited you into WoW. You buy the game, you get to 110 instantly by getting the last expansion, you get to 120 during one week and now after a week you can run stuff with your friend, do dungeon keys, doing arena etc. And old content you can get done in your free time if you will want it. Everything is good..... OR Friend invited you into FF14. Two months you spend on completing main storyline of ARR, HW, SB and ShB while your friend are doing high-level stuff, closing raids, gearing themselves up while you are doing gather and deliver quests for one small tearful cutscene. Or you pay from your wallet for main scenario skip and jump potion which will be around $40 more because you dont get to actual level with buying just the scenario skip, you need both jump potion and secenario skip. And you dont get to actual level with buying new expansion. If this is not a deceit and disgust then I dont know what is. 4. I thought that FF14 has a great soundtrack And yes, it does. Soundtrack in FF14 is the best thing in it. I keep replaying some themes from it in my playlist. I have only one complaint about sounds. In FF14 all NPCs are mute dummies while In WoW each NPC you refer to lets out a certain small phrase that characterizes him as a character and gives him more life. Lacking of these in FF14 is adding one more flaw into the sea. 5. I thougnt that FF14 has very cool class design Currently, FF14 has 18 classes. Wow, thats a lot! -- you might say. No, it isnt. The thing is, all classes are in complete lack of customization. Theres no builds in this game. They just give you one rotation that you will spam for a couple of years until next expansion hits in which they might change something. Theres no talents and no versatility in skills, no specializations. You pick a Warrior, you get his one rotation -- spam it for years. And such nonsense divides the number of classes by zero. In TeSO theres tons of builds, in GW2 theres tons of builds, weapons, talents. In WoW each class has 3 specs (4 for druid). Plus tons of talents which can change your gameplay and rotation completely. So yeah, theres no class variability in FF14. Just as theres no interesting class mechanic. All class mechanics for all classes in FF14 relies on combinations. Your task in battle is to push 10-12 skills. You use one skill, it procs second skill, second skill procs third skill and so you go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 until finisher becomes available after using which it all goes back again. In WoW for a long time there is no rotation as such, theres a system of priorities and procs, and in FF14 -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Moreover, the number of skills is unadequate, class mechanic is elementary and would easily fit in five skills. But no, we need to stretch the battle and artificially create a challenge so here you have a ***load of skills in rotation which you need to push in order for a battle not to be boring. Battle system in FF14 is a jRPG parody with global cooldowns from which you can grow old and artificial stretching and loading the players with useless skills. Just a hackword made for gamepad casuals again. 6. I thought that FF14 has a good balance between classes It doesnt. It goes from one extreme to another from patch to patch. With zero variability, SE still cannot balance classes decently. Just look at PLD who just cant die or at new SCH. Next. 7. I thought that FF14 doesnt have that "alt-character menace" Would be better if it had. Seriously. Yes, ability to level all classes as one character sounds like a cool feature but its useless. Will explain why. Lets suppose I created an Au'Ra, formidable WAR, scary as Sauron himself, everything is good. But after some time I want to play as caster, to heal as WHM for examle. I switch to WHM and I see that my Au'Ra does not fit this class visually, I do not want to look at this tough guy wield a staff, its not aesthetically pleasing and not comfortable. To put it roughly, you tie your classes to one race. So if you want your ninja to not be huge-ass Roe but an agile Miqo -- you will need to create alt. And to create an alt here is a pain in the ass because you will AGAIN need to complete all main story for months or pay $40-50 for skipping. Not even mentioning that you cant share items and gil between your characters. This is one con of such a system. The second con is that you always have a mess in your inventory. Huge disorder in which theres lots of gear from different classes and sometimes you don’t even remember which gear is from which class. Whats the trouble in making separate inventory folders for each class? You got a piece of gear for BLM? It goes into BLM folder. Tank gear? Tank folder. This is elementary solution but SE cannot realize it either so you need to use such crutches as gear sets, auto-equip. Pathetic Overall, no alt-characters system isnt working properly and it would be better without it. In the same WoW I have different races for different classes, it's diverse and it's interesting, while here all of classes are the same pestered Au'Ra. And to change your race costs your money as well so... yeah. 8. I thought that FF14 has a unique craft system Well, yeah. Its interesting. With buts again. Separate crafting class is the most stupid idea for this kind of game. Shortly, you need to gather resources, mats. Resources are in the open world. In the other world there are monsters that want nothing more but to have a piece of your ass, literally. You cant do anything in your gathering class, you can only use your Stealth skill. So you need to switch from gatherer to battle class constantly -- why? Why you cant just gather your ore as your battle class, having a needed skill and a pickaxe? Craft itself is cool, liked it. Its like an interesting minigame. But making it a separate class is a stupid idea. Whats the difference if you WAR will sit and craft himself an armor as a crafting class or this WAR himself but who just took a hammer? So yeah, crafting system is interesting but controversial. I think the best crafting system is in TeSO. 9. I thought that FF14 has loads of additional activities And it does, but aside from Triple Triad, Mahjong and those casino-style games in Saucer everything else was already been in WoW and other MMOs, implemented poorly and not new. Chocobo races is a total nonsense and a poor parody of Festival Races in WoW, these ostriches are just uncontrollable and riding them gets boring after couple of races. Vermillion is a casual thing that want to seem complicated. Pokemons in WoW are much harder in terms of combinations. 10. I thought that devs of FF14 treats community good It differs from time to time. But awful overall. When its not needed, they do listen to community. When its needed, they do not. Lets take cutsenes in main scenario dungeons as an example. Theres two main scenario dungeons in which theres a lot of long cutscenes that previously could be just skipped. But casuals and new players started to whine on forums that "we miss bossfights blah blah", "they forcing us to skip cutscenes in order to do a fast run blah blah". So as a result they made them cutscenes unskippable and now completion of 1 dungeon can take you a freaking hour! And no, you cant just go in and then go afk because you will get kicked. And given that you need to go through it every day via roulette, just in a few weeks you will you will rip your ass hair, just to not look at it again. And ignoring them completely is extemely unprofitable since they give you a lot of tomestones and it will be hard to cap on them without main scenario roulette. Lets also talk about ban system in this game. It is simply a masterpiece. Shortly, FF14 is a haven of casual players that just do not want to learn to play. This game is completely absent of DPS meter. Not just absent, its forbidden! You dont have a right to install and use an external DPS meter, its forbidden as well, but since it does not fiddle with ingame files and just read logs, you sorta cant get banned for it, its in a "grey zone". But if you just lightly hint at someone that: "dude, your DPS is a bit low, we cant kill a boss like this" -- you get banned after couple of reports. You dont have a right to tell a player that he has some mistakes. Its forbidden in FF14. If you cant kill a boss because of a couple of players who doesnt know how to play their class -- you cant fix that. You will all fight with eachother because one player will keep blaming another that he is to blame for our wipe or you will just disband while that casual low DPS bard wont give a damn about his rotation or about your party in general. And it's not even about insulting the player and to tell that he sucks but to just politely ask him to put more effort into his damage -- you will get banned. So, the developers policy towards the players is awful. Its a real indulgence toward casual players who does not want to learn how to play. Thats it I guess. Theres a lot of small flaws that could be mentioned, like no auto-dismount in a battle, extremely inconvenient console interface, sharp unnatural animations, sluggish controls -- when its all together its starting to put real pressure on the brain. I played this game for a year and got disappointed in it too much. Under a very pleasing visuals which in the beginning causes the real eyegasm hiding patterned and monotonous dud, devs of which does not want to take risks and unleash the full potential of the game. Which mechanics are on par with free to play korean cookie-cutters. Its hard for me to say this, but: Final Fantasy XIV is unworthy of attention.
Hello everyone, I’m the guy who suggested we do the review threads last week. https://www.reddit.com/JamesBond/comments/d7tuyi/i_just_had_an_idea_for_the_subreddit/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf First of all, thanks for the support for the idea, I’m glad so many people want to participate. I hope this will be a good way to increase activity in this sub, especially as no time to die starts to finish shooting and we start getting some juicy details shortly (I hope). I got some comments asking to include the two unofficial films (Casino Royale 1967 and Never Say Never Again) and I’ve decided to do it for true completists’ sake. Also, if I start next week and include those two films, that will take us all the way up to one week before NTTD. (Friday 4 October- Friday March 27) I plan to post the first thread next Friday, I’m not sure what time but expect perhaps 5-6 PM BST each week. The first will be labelled as “Our Weekly Bond #1- Dr.No(1962)-(NTTD countdown review thread) and they’ll follow that template each week. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. Hopefully see you next week!
There was a Roll20 Community Roundtable on Aug 30, 2019. My (very) rough notes below, and a link to the Twitch VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/474609461
People presenting: Soraya (Director of Communications), Trivia (Director of Licensing), Eric (Business Analyst), Stephanie (Scrum Master)
Advanced Fog of War - Major things not working as expected since the previous update. They are working on a broad revision to the system to bring it more in line with dynamic lighting - back to the drawing board. This will take a little while because it is a major overhaul. They want to keep us updated, but it is in prototype stage right now so not much to show at the moment. Big focus, but will take a while. They have hired a new graphics programmer to help with that effort.
Next marketplace feature is Wishlist. Ability for more than 1 wishlist. Ability to see other people’s wishlist, such as your GM.
Orr Group Industry Report: Significant Changes, old version based on what users were saying was happening (basically a user survey). New report from scratch, includes original data but also Character Sheet usage. Captures about 85-86% of all games. Still need to find ways to capture custom sheets, and they are also looking at additional features for the report, such as HOW people are playing (what features they use from the Roll20 site like music, dynamic lighting, etc.). Also trying to solve chicken/egg question (what games do people play, and how much is it impacted by official Roll20 support and products such as 5e DND and Pathfinder) of support of games, so they can track usage based on release of new product, official licenses, etc.
New Help Desk - roll20.net/help - All policies in one place, feature info from Wiki moving over (not complete), easily searched, support tickets.
Roll20 Con Oct 5-6 - more info in September.
Chat question: Pathfinder 2e questions: Discussion about how much fun the devs are having in their 2e games. Matchmaking low, not a lot of games searching. Filter between 1e and 2e is available since last tuesday for matchmaking.
Chat question: 3D Dice miss-match to displayed roll - they don’t have the correct developer on to answer this, Trivia says the system has to roll all the dice even when the roll template presents different info. Math and presentation are tied together, not seperate like in a casino game.
Layer Up update? They are working to improve the architecture underneath this process, so they do not have a release date for this update (also effects Fog of War and other graphic components). This is a major architecture update instead of a patch.
Legality of using marketplace content to run paid games on Roll20? Paid GM on Roll20, it works the same as if you paid someone in real life. If you paid someone in real life and went to their house to play the game, it isn’t distribution to use their minis and maps and so forth - that is not distribution. And Roll20 doesn’t consider that distribution on their platform.
Blades in the Dark Character Sheet - maintained by creator of game, and it was re-classified because it was under community created instead of By Publisher (publisher supported sheet). If you are playing it, you just need to re-add the sheet to your game. This is technically an upgrade for the sheet.
Pathfinder 2e upcoming release support? Can’t guarantee every release because there are a LOT that are fast and regular, every month multiple releases. They will do their best to keep up with the releases that will help the most people.
Chat question: Search function of marketplace doesn’t use assets name? It does, it just uses pack names more highly weighted. This is new functionality and they will keep tweaking it in. First three tags on an individual item are the only tags used in the search, so if you are a creator with lots of tags contact Roll20. Seemed like there was more info being discussed in the chat with Drespar, and that devs will take a look at this more.
Chat question: User ratings in marketplace for verified purchasers? Internal discussion, worried about abuse, but they do understand people would like reviews of packs and products.
StarfindePathfinder 2e Charactermancer When? Starfinder delayed due to personnel issues, Cassie is hiring for developers to add more resources to the sheet team. Should come out this year. PF2 should be early 2020. Charactermancer are intense builds with lots of code, so take a lot of time/effort to create. Drag & Drop coming before charactermancer.
Why is development so slow? How do you plan to keep up with competing software at this rate? They push updates at least once a week, new product releases are very regular, it has been 8 months in 2019. In that time they have released: animations, AFoW revision (granted it had issues, but was a major update), Jukebox functionality, Marketplace Update (and behind the scenes infrastructure upgrades to support it), Token Bars, Player Avatars, Revised Chat Archive, sendping API update, Paizo Account Sync. Also behind the scenes updates: payment system updates, Marketplace Creator submission process, Marketplace Redemption Codes. We stay competitive by listening to our users, we are agile (always becoming more so), many things start as bug fix and then grow into bigger concerns due to user feedback, and are constantly developing to respond to both user needs and market needs. QA is now in place, not always the case, and they are hiring a second QA engineer. They are a platform, so can’t keep up with all character sheets. Development may take longer to implement a feature, but that isn’t because they aren’t aware, but more about technical challenges with the platform. The question should really be how do competing software intend to keep up with Roll20? There is a lot behind the scenes of rehashing behind the scenes that is foundational. It may not seem like much to users, but it is huge for the developers.Mobile App is being rewritten, lots of work, but it is still in the rebuilding foundational stages so nothing interesting to see. Reworking the foundation is important to growth in the future.
How many employees does Roll20 have? 30-31 and growing. Actively hiring and recruiting for several positions, and will keep growing into the future.
Timeline/ETA to fix animation tokens to freeze when imgsrc set by api? In backlog of bug reports to fix. They are also looking to understand better ways for bugs to be reported.
API suggestions. Frustration about threshold - API discussion now has a much lower threshold on the forum. Special tag for Character Sheet and API suggestions so they don’t auto close.
Return of the Runelords adventure path 2nd part (1e)? They doubled the production team, 4 new people. Return 2 and 3 will be out this year, 4-6 in 2020.
One Grung Above and Tortle Package - no because they are DMs Guild, and those relationships are complicated. Wayfinder Guide to Eberron (older book) is also DMs Guild, and has no plans to release.
SCAG and Eberron? Eberron: Rising from the Last War (new book) is day 1. SCAG, OotA, DMs Guide, they want to get out as soon as possible, but no specific date.
AoE systems and spell templates built in? API and marketplace templates cover this need. Drawing tool improvements are on road map, but down the road.
Any new RPG compendiums coming soon? Some cool stuff to be announced before end of the year, no official timelines or specific info.
Music - old jukebox? Fanburst is gone, we put in search filters and upload capability for your own audio files, and we’ve done what we can for now. If you have specific ideas post to suggestion to forums.
LFG tool has updates on road map, but not in next quarter.
Age of Ashes PF 2e - first part released before end of year.
What is the toughest part of maintaining the site and why? Keeping up with changing demands of users, shear amount of users ratio to amount of employees, scaling to please 4 million+ users, lots of legacy systems that have to be updated to scale, we don’t have enough time to play games with our co-workers. Keeping communities and users up to date has also been a challenge. Licensing has limited resources and would love to work with all publishers, but have to prioritize.
Chat Question: Custom compendium? Still internal discussions due to copyright and content. They want to do it for homebrew, but have to solve the bigger issues.
Chat Question: Dragon of Icespire Peak after Target exclusivity - September 3
Chat Question: Jukebox - any copyright issues thus far? None so far with music companies. They built it out in collaboration with their lawyers, and they have not had complaints - they feel confident in their solution.
Chat Question: Prices different on Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds - every platform sets its own prices, Roll20 feels their prices reflect the value of time and value put in to creating the products
Chat Question: General and Game specific forums - Roll20 forums are focused on the platform, organize the Roll20 game on the forum, but if you want to talk about a specific game system use the publisher forum or other online place.
Pets - Eric has a dog, has to wake it up.
User question: Questions from devs for users? what do you want, and put it in the suggestions forum!
Eric brings his adorable dog (timecode 1 hr 05 min)
Plan to do roundtables every other month or so. Might shift format in future roundtables.
Dangers of Online Betting Fraud and Sportsbook Fraud
Finding an honest online casino seem like a very hard task these days, but it's not impossible. Experts estimate that 25% of online fraud is committed through casinos and online gambling. This is a huge amount of fraud and creates 1000's of victims. Fraudulent online betting sites or casinos often establish their online presence by creating elaborate sites and use paid advertising to find their clients (victims). They don't stay in business long, so the sites never get natural ranking on search engines or reviews or recommendations from other online gamblers. They rely on paid advertising to find their clients and a flashy site to gain their trust. Unfortunately, consumers seem to trust companies with more elaborate sites, because they think they cost a lot of money and they a company must be legitimate if they can afford such and good looking online casino. ابلو بت The reality is that most of these scam sites are build using a standard template and casino software than can be purchased for a few hundred dollars. These companies establish business in a country that has no laws regarding online gambling and are smart enough to shut down and start a new site before the authorities figure out their scamming activities. Many times, the accounts and websites are shut down before the first complaint even makes it to the hands of the authorities. The reality is, these companies can have 100's of sites running at once and many "shell companies" hiding and protecting the real owners. This allows them to scam people over and over again without getting caught. Not to mention, these companies know which countries will come after them for these crimes and which will not. In some cases, they authorities of the country may even be on the payroll. This makes it very difficult to catch these people. Surprisingly, the biggest scam is not part of the gambling or betting at all, it's about getting the credit card numbers and personal information. These scammers use these numbers to make fraudulent purchases or to steal the identity of the player. Instead of taking a few hundred dollars in a lost bet, the scammer now has access to 10,000's in good credit. The only up-side to all of this, is that the credit card companies are responsible for this type of debt, not the card holder. So as long as you report the debt in a timely fashion, you will not need to pay back the debt these scammers rack up. It will create a mess of your credit and you may need to spend several days or weeks straightening things out, but in the end, you should be ok. Legitimate online casinos rely on privacy, fair odds, and word of mouth to keep their clients, so when a player finds a good online casino, they don't need to worry about their private information. Once a player has enough experience, they will see a similar return on their investment as in a normal (not online) casino that is heavily regulated. The point is, finding a trustworthy casino can be a hard task, but once you do, your private information should be well protected and you should be able to experience the same joy and excitement as you would at the tables in Las Vegas. Just be careful and try to find reviews from other gamblers/betters and use websites that have already established themselves as a reputable site.
Advantages Of Choosing Casino Games From A Trusted Casino Portal
Many people tend to choose where to play casino games completely at random - perhaps by clicking a colorful and flashing banner at some website they have found while browsing, or by following a promotional link in an e-mail. Now, there is nothing wrong in signing up with a trusted online casino via their advertisements - not at all - however, the question is whether this behaviour is going to land the player with the best deal available for that particular casino? Also, are there perhaps any other considerations the player should keep in mind prior to diving in to just any casino game or website? In this article we will discuss the advantages of choosing where to play casino games by visiting a trusted casino portal prior to playing. First, let us define what such a portal is. The term portal, when used in the context of the online web, is primarily a gateway providing useful links to many other websites. When used properly, a portal can provide essential information to the visitor about the topic of interest - and can also guide him or her to some recommended resources. This may save the visitor a lot of time and effort in evaluating the usefulness of the websites that they may come across. In this sense, the internet portal is very similar to the city tourist office where visitors come to find sightseeing attractions. In the casino entertainment industry, portals are exclusively necessary and vital to the users as, quite frankly, there are simply so many casino games and gambling websites to choose from. By visiting an online casino portal, the player can quickly gather essential information on the games they would like to play and evaluate the reputation of a particular website in beforehand. The true purpose of a good casino portal is to provide visitors and players with useful information - whether it has to do with the rules of the casino games (aka how to play), reviews of individual online casinos or poker rooms - or any other information on the subject that may appeal to the player. One of the benefits of subscribing to the newsletter of a trusted casino portal, or by visiting it on a regular basis, is that players can stay updated with the latest offers provided by various online casinos. More often than not, casino portals have the ability to work out special deposit bonus deals with some of the casino operators which are exclusive to the portal subscribers. This way, the player may receive more in bonuses when signing up for a new online casino, rather than signing up via a random banner click elsewhere. Of course, there are certainly many bad examples of casino portals available on the internet. These websites are often simple web templates stuffed with various casino banners and affiliate links, providing no valuable information to visitors whatsoever. Such websites should be avoided at all cost - a very common strategy for these websites is to plant tons of annoying pop-ups or redirections distracting the visitor. In worst case, they may even contain viruses or malware. Luckily enough, most casino portals provide its users with an informative and enjoying gaming experience. By choosing to play casino games via a trusted casino portal, players can rest assure that they will get quality gameplay - probably also associated with the best deposit bonus deals available. It isn't necessary to visit a casino physically you can visit a casino online here : 온카지노
Greetings all! Many thanks to the countless people who contributed to 10 months of fantastic discussions about one of the most iconic (and one of my favorite) film franchises of all time. This is just a little recap/debrief/wrap up article where I'd love to get everyone's thoughts on the series as a whole. Additionally, I've done some more ranking and list making because it's fun and, let's be honest, there just aren't enough lists in the world! So let's open the discussion up and air out any final thoughts on the ongoing adventures of 007 & Co. Fair warning, I will use spoiler tags throughout my article for those of you who might not yet have seen Spectre, however be mindful of the comments. Ranking the Movies First thing's first. Here are all of my reviews and their assigned objective rankings.
For a fun little experiment, I wanted to see how I ranked them in comparison to other "Rank the Bond Film" lists. My sources included Rotten Tomatoes (based on their freshness rankings), IMDb (based on their user scores), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Forbes, Timeout New York, E! Online, Moviefone, AMC Filmsite, BuzzFeed, an /JamesBond thread, and MRQE. Here are the results. First, I've organized them by release date and shown what their scores are on the various websites. Second, I figured out the average score for each film with the highest and lowest score for each film thrown out to eliminate outliers (my scores are not included in this calculation) as well as determine the standard deviation for each film (i.e., how consistently each film was ranked). Finally, here is a visualization of how each site ranked the films. Some observations: • No real surprises in the rankings. Casino Royale, Goldfinger, From Russia, and Skyfall all nabbed top spots. The World is Not Enough, Moonraker, and A View to a Kill took the dubious honor of bottom feeders. • Skyfall was the most consistently ranked film (averaging spot #4 on most lists). License to Kill was the most inconsistently ranked film. No surprise either. Dalton's films split opinions upon release and have aged just well enough to be considered decent but still stand out in such a way as to turn some viewers off entirely. Without it's highest (3) and lowest (22) scores, LTK still ranked as high as 8 and as low as 22. So it was either a top-10 film or the second-worst. • I still just don't get the hate for The World is Not Enough. Truth be told, this was the one film that actually inspired me to do all of this. I saw one or two lists that had it ranked so low. I had to see if there was anyone that agreed with me that it is actually a top 10 Bond film. Turns out there isn't. In fact, the closet I got was Moviefone who ranked it as #13. • I don't know what Forbes is smoking. There is no way that For Your Eyes Only is the second greatest Bond film of all time. Lunacy. Similarly, I am shocked at Peter Travers' ranking for GoldenEye at 18 -- especially considering he then put Die Another Day at 10!! • And speaking of DAD, I was legitimately surprised that it was generally considered to be a more middling film, rather than a universally hated one. • This only confirms my belief that the Bond movies are some of the most divisive films of all time. This must surely be due to a variety of factors, not least of which is that a film series that spans 50+ years and that varies so greatly in tone from film to film will allow for people to have wildly diverse opinions of each era of film. It can all depend on which films they saw first or which ones they grew up with. I mean that sounds obvious, but just look at how much deviation there is from list to list. I mean no film came even close to receiving unanimous rankings across any of these platforms -- even Skyfall varied from 1 to 6. Ranking the Songs I also decided to take a look at one of the most fun aspects of the 007 franchise: the theme songs. I will be very up front about the fact that I am not a musician, I know nothing about musical theory, etc. I am just a layman, listening to these songs a few times over and making my general observations. Oh and it's worth noting that I did not include Dr. No on this list. The opening titles begin with the standard Bond Theme song, which since it was adopted into every other film I didn't feel like that really counted, and then transitions into a rendition of Three Blind Mice, which also doesn't count.
Overly synth-y. Just another sappy love ballad. I just don't understand how this kind of songs was thought to be a spectacular start to a Bond film. Ugh.
Sounds like something you'd hear at 3am in a piano bar. Not sure what it's doing in a Bond film. Can't stand the vocals. At least this song has a decent band swell that picks it up a bit. The gentle cymbal tapping just reinforces the late night smooth jazz vibe.
Starts small, stays small, never builds. Bassey's vocals are totally wasted here. She has the ability to be fierce and biting. Here, she's lackadaisical and boring.
Starts strong with tense strings and immediately dive bombs the second Madonna's disgustingly auto-tuned vocals kick in. Terrible lyrics ("Sigmund Freud" wtf?). A pandering piece of overproduced bubblegum crap.
So disappointing. Following such a strong entry in Skyfall, the producers completely dropped the ball with Smith's "Writing." His vocals don't remotely fit with the tone of a proper Bond song. Cannot stand his breathy, whiny chorus. Ugh.
If you can't tell, I'm not a huge fan of '80s music, so the heavy presence of synths in this song are tough for me to swallow, but at least this song has some life! Especially following the era of the lousy love ballads, AVTAK was a breath of fresh air. As a song by itself, not bad. As a Bond song, not the greatest.
Another entry just dripping in '80s production. Still, it's got lots of energy. It's got some great builds and uses some awesome big band/brass elements that are reminiscent of the classic Bond songs.
Love Knight's vocals. She's got a great classic Bond feel. Love the intro. It feels sleuth-y, epic. Could definitely do without those breathy backup singers.
Great song. Terrible Bond song. McCartney is second to none, don't get me wrong. This song just isn't a great fit for the series. The reason it's not lower is that is has lots of promise until the 1:22 mark. And that damn fishing reel SFX is just so damn weird… Picks back up again, however it falters again at the 1:51 mark. The good aspects of this song are great. The bad are real bad.
I'm rather conflicted about this one. It has a great exotic feel, it's got a good crooner, and the lyrics match the globetrotting feel. I just feel that there are stronger entries that offer a bit more energy.
Hard to judge this one. Great piece of rock but again, I don't know if it really feels like a true "Bond song". At least it never devolves into a weird place like Live and Let Die. This one gets major props for incorporating the Bond theme heavily throughout and having a decent set of lyrics.
I know I'm probably going to get some hate for this one, but hear me out. Great use of electric guitar and big brass band. The lyrics are rightfully criticized for being way too literal and silly (and the chorus is very weak) but Lulu's vocals are wonderfully dry, yet full of character. I especially love the swell at 1:38.
Another entry that might get some criticism for being this high, but I truly feel that with one minor tweak, this song could have been considered one of the best. I love the piano and crunchy guitar intro. What I don't like is the duet. If this had been a Keys solo (with White handling the instrumentals), this could have been even stronger. I also really love the lyrics' discussion of paranoia and mistrust.
Another very strong entry. Shirley Manson's vocals are incredibly sultry. I positively love how striking the twanging guitar chords cut right through this hazy song.
Take note Matt Monroe, this is how to croon during a Bond song. The song kicks in with a great use of the Bond theme at 0:35. The lyrics are total nonsense, however it all comes together and sounds so excellent. Jones' killer note at the end of the song is spectacular.
This was a huge surprise for me. As I went through these songs, I never would have thought of putting TND this high, but listening to it, I can't get enough. Throws everything in from the thundering opening, to the big drums, the bell, the jangling guitar, and the piano. Crows vocals are positively electric. Her performance is every bit sultry, sexy, and scorned. Excellent!
Forget the movie, I could just listen to this song for 2 hours instead. The opening notes are mysterious, the big band is perfect (with plenty of classic Bond brass). The drop at the 1:21 mark is fantastic. And of course, Bassey's vocals are as iconic as they get.
Okay so this one isn't really a theme song in the sense that these other songs were but how could I pass on it? This is perhaps one of the single greatest musical compositions of the series outside of the Bond Theme. The buzzing guitar and deep, thumping bass are totally badass.
Almost perfect. Sexy, mysterious, lurking, with excellent vocals and brilliant lyrics. Little moments like the Bond theme slinking in at 1:40 are just perfect.
I absolutely, positively adore the chilling piano intro. Adele's vocals are exquisite. I love the slow, warbling guitar (1:00), the somber strings, the huge builds, and the use of the brassy Bond theme at 1:51. The whole thing gives me chills, especially as it starts and ends on that beautiful brass note.
Surprise, surprise. It just simply does not get better than Goldfinger. This is the quintessential Bond song, the standard to which all other songs are held. The big brass band, the strings, and the vocals are all just a bit silly, just a bit sexy, totally iconic, and catchy as all hell.
Ranking the Villains I came up with a little system for ranking the Bond villains. I determined that a good villain should have a proper plan, should be generally villainous (cruel, mad, etc.), intimidating, competent, and charismatic (or at least have a decent, definable personality). Regarding one of the series’ few recurring villains, I elected to rank Blofeld several times, one for each appearance in a different film. With that in mind, here are the Bottom 5 and Top 5 Bond villains. The full list including the scores for each category can be found here (Spectre spoilers in slot #21). Worst Bond Villains
Rank
Villain
Film
Plot
Comments
27
Gustav Graves / Col. Moon
Die Another Day
Destroy S. Korea via space laser
Written as if a 12 year old came up with a Bond villain. Terrible plan, never truly intimidating, and the whole DNA replacement and "I modeled him after you" bit is completely stupid.
26
Aristotle Kristatos
For Your Eyes Only
Retrieve the ATAC device in order to control Soviet missiles, trick 007 into assassinating Colombo
Bland, boring, forgettable.
25
Brad Whitaker
The Living Daylights
Sell opium as a means to finance his arms trading
I applaud the realism of his plot, however the character is just so damned annoying. Baker plays the American General as a complete buffoon. And the whole wargame angle is weird.
24
General Orlov
Octopussy
Destroy NATO relations by detonating a bomb in a foreign Air Force base
Another fairly forgettable character. Berkoff portrays the General as an almost Dr. Strangelove-esque wacko.
23
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Diamonds Are Forever
Destroy nations' nuclear missiles with a space laser if they refuse to give in to his ransom demands
The weakest of all of Blofeld’s various plots. Mostly, this iteration is ranked so low on account of Charles Grey’s portrayal. He’s insufferable, lacks any real intimidation, and the whole army of clones and voice changing devices are all just too campy for my taste.
Best Bond Villains
Rank
Villain
Film
Plot
Comments
5
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Brainwash women (Angels of Death) and use them as pawns in bacterialogical warfare
Okay so the plan is a little bizarre and Savalas’ portrayal might not be as iconic as the one in YOLT, however this is Blofeld at his peak. He is menacing, sinister, and intimidating. The whole lineage angle is unique and gives a little bit of humanity to what has been an otherwise flat character.
4
Alex Trevelyan (Agent 006)
GoldenEye
Exact revenge on England by robbing the national bank just before destroying digital records (via electromagnetic pulse from satellite)
Sean Bean performs beautifully as the MI6-agent-gone-rogue. His revenge mission plot is a wonderful balance of maniacal, villainous, and realistic.
3
Auric Goldfinger
Goldfinger
Devalue US gold stock by detonating a bomb inside Fort Knox gold reserve
Bond himself remarks how brilliant Goldfinger’s plan is upon hearing it. I’m going to refrain from making any “gold standard” jokes, but Goldfinger is seriously one of the best. Cunning, proud, coy, greedy, and downright evil.
2
Le Chiffre
Casino Royale
Make money by shorting airline stocks through planned terrorist attacks
Le Chiffre is one of the most fascinating villains in that he is a man driven by desperation and fear more than a god complex or a desire to destroy humanity.
1
Francisco Scaramanga
The Man with the Golden Gun
Steal solex agitator, assassinate 007
Christopher Lee’s Scaramanga is the perfect blend of flamboyant charisma, fierce intellect, and pure skill. The dinner scene between Scaramanga and Bond remains one of my all time favorites.
Honorable mentions go to Skyfall’s freakishly relentless Raoul Silva, Spy Who Loved Me’s megalomaniac Karl Stromberg, World is Not Enough’s coldly calculating Elektra King, Dr. No’s Dr. No for setting the template, and Moonraker’s surprisingly enjoyable Hugo Drax. Ranking the Bond Girls I came up with a similar method of ranking one of the other pillars of any good 007 film: the Bond Girls. For this category, I rated each Bond Girl by their intellect (general intelligence), competence (how skillful they were at their profession or tasks), initiative (do they just sit around and wait for Bond to tell them what to do or not), utility (do they have a direct impact on the story or are they just sort of there for show), and (yes I am aware of the hypocrisy here) beauty. This was a somewhat difficult list to assess, as the concept of a Bond Girl is rather loose. For example, in Skyfall, Bond seduces Severine, however she is in the film for such a brief period of time and her impact on the story is so minimal, that it didn’t even seem right to try and rank her based on these categories. Then of course there are any number of throwaway characters that Bond simply sleeps with or converses with briefly that are occasionally viewed as “Bond Girls”. Think of the iconic gilded Jill Masterson from Goldfinger. You might be aghast that she isn’t on the list, but she is such a small portion of that film (especially compared to her sister, Tilly), that it didn’t even seem worth it to place her on here, despite her image being plastered on every piece of promotional material for Goldfinger. So this is my best attempt at determining who is a Bond Girl and how they rank. The full list including category rankings can be found here. Worst Bond Girls
Rank
Girl
Film
Comments
33
Rosie Carver
Live and Let Die
Perhaps the most miserable character in the series. I couldn’t help but give her the only 0 of this entire exercise for Competence. She whines and cries to a man she just met because she isn't a good CIA agent. She’s not useful, not talented, and utterly annoying. And the one time she finally acts proactively, she is condescendingly mocked for misreading Quarrel Jr.’s allegiance.
32
Mary Goodnight
The Man with the Golden Gun
Vapid, irritating, pathetic, almost entirely useless. She’s easily captured and even chastised for her one contribution: killing a guard. And of course there’s the infamous scene in which any dignity she might’ve had evaporates as she’s shoved in a closet while Bond and Andrea Anders have sex.
31
Tiffany Case
Diamonds Are Forever
Another worthless character who adds little to the plot. She is given a rare instance of initiative at the end of the film and it turns out that in doing so, she completely screws up Bond’s plan. Oh also, her dialogue is completely insufferable.
30
“Dr.” Christmas Jones
The World is Not Enough
Another character written to be skilled and intelligent, but portrayed by a woman who cannot convincingly pull off either. Her role in the film becomes little more than a tagalong with weak excuses being provided for why she’s still around. She also turns into the second instance of Bond’s magical ability to turn lesbians straight.
29
Stacey Sutton
A View to a Kill
Same deal as Jones, the character is written to be intelligent, but the actress doesn't sell it one bit. She tends to fail at everything she attempts, and Bond completely disregards her and forces her to become a damsel in distress throughout their time together. She becomes a complete tagalong after a while.
Best Bond Girls
Rank
Girl
Film
Comments
5
Elektra King
The World is Not Enough
Cunning, fierce, intelligent (though blinded by rage), she is absolutely integral to the plot, her actions are her own and she even acts as the puppetmaster for a wide range of people.
4
Camille Montes
Quantum of Solace
Not necessarily particularly intelligent per se, but highly skilled and motivated by her well formed backstory. QoS actually provides a rare instance of Bond screwing up her plans, though she bounds back quickly. Extra points for killing one of the film’s villains.
3
Pussy Galore
Goldfinger
The biggest downfall for Galore is her lack of integrity during the scene in which Bond apparently rapes her straight. Aside from that terrible scene, she is a fantastic character. She gets the drop on Bond multiple times, verbally spars with the best of them, and orchestrates a hugely important aspect of the film’s ending.
2
Teresa di Vicenzo
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
It pains me not to be able to give her a perfect score, however she does have her downfalls. She really ultimately is just sort of going along with her father’s plans and when she’s captured, she reverts into a fairly standard damsel in distress. Aside from that though, her beauty and intelligence are almost without parallel.
1
Vesper Lynd
Casino Royale
The only character in this whole exercise to receive a perfect score. The single most well-rounded character of the entire series. Highly intelligent, witty, sharp, sly, plays her own game, acts of her own accord with her own motivations, integral to the plot — oh and stunningly gorgeous.
Honorable mentions go to Spy Who Loves Me’s crafty and skilled Anya Amasova, Die Another Day’s coldly independent Miranda Frost, You Only Twice’s Aki who saves Bond’s butt on more than one occasion, Tomorrow Never Die’s devil may care Wai Lin, and License to Kill’s rough and rowdy Pam Bouvier. Ranking the Bonds And of course there’s the ranking of the Bond actors. Everyone has an opinion that varies greatly from the last. Heck, I’ve already changes my mind three times as I’ve sat here writing this. Each actor is so wildly different and they all come from such unique times that it’s almost impossible to try and fairly compare them. And then of course there’s the struggle of trying to give each actor a fair shake when their films have varied so greatly in quality and number. But I will try to do my best.
Rank
Actor
Films
Years Active
Comments
6
Roger Moore
7
1973 - 1985
Easily the worst in my opinion. I never bought him as an assassin. I never bought him as a seductive gentleman. His humor was mostly lost on me. When they tried to get him to be rough and tumble in TMWTGG when he’s interrogating Anders, he just seems abusive. He also had the worst string of films to deal with and was kept on as Bond for far too long. Too few upsides.
5
George Lazenby
1
1969
This ranking is really misleading, as I actually LOVED Lazenby as Bond. I felt that he completely captured the crass attitude and unbridled swagger. I would frankly consider putting him as high as #3, however Lazenby’s biggest downfall is his lack of clout. He just wasn’t Bond long enough to get a decent gauge of how he really fit into Bond’s shoes.
4
Sean Connery
6
1962 - 1967, 1971
Blasphemy! Just because he was first doesn’t mean he was the best. He laid the groundwork and managed the suave nature and action better than some, however his characters never really felt like they had any depth to them. Mostly he is severely handicapped by his lackluster performances in YOLT and DAF.
3
Timothy Dalton
2
1987 - 1989
Ah Dalton, the Bond we needed but didn’t deserve. Dalton’s career was similarly too short. I considered giving him the #4 spot under Connery for this purpose alone, but I really feel like he did enough in his two films to establish what kind of Bond he was and would have continued to be. The dark, brooding exterior occasionally gave in to flashes of real charm and even caring. The humor could have used some work, but the action and especially the suave, high-class nature fit him perfectly.
2
Daniel Craig
4
2006 - present
Craig’s performance in Casino alone would have been enough to push him into first place, however he’s had kind of a bizarre run of films since then. The stories have set him up to just be continually cantankerous and sullen. I have him in the #2 spot temporarily, depending on how the rest of his run as Bond goes. If he is able to do more films and is able to continue to regain his wit from Casino and to continue his arc from brutish thug to refined gentleman assassin, I feel the #2 or even #1 spot could be his.
1
Pierce Brosnan
4
1995 - 2002
It was equally difficult to call Brosnan the unequivocal best. His run is sadly marred by a series of mediocre and downright bad films. That said, his performance in GoldenEye is probably one of the best in the series. Brosnan is able to pull off every aspect of what makes Bond Bond with ease. He nails the humor, he looks like he belongs in a tux, and he appears entirely at ease when in the midst of a tense shootout or car chase. He even totally sells a few small moments throughout the series that required him to appear frightened, surprised, and vulnerable.
Naturally there is so much more I could discuss (favorite gadgets, favorite moments, favorite henchmen), but I suppose I should save something for the lead up to Bond 25, eh? A sincere thanks once more to everyone who joined me for the discussions over the past several months. Cheers!
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What A Day: Cain, Unable by Brian Beutler, Priyanka Aribindi & Crooked Media (04/12/19)
"I'm not in favor of a gold standard" "I like the idea going to a gold standard"—Stephen Moore, the Trump Federal Reserve nominee Senate Republicans like
Mango, Unchained
President Trump has escalated his war against the rule of law in the past several weeks, and the few constraints that had contained him until recently appear to be failing. The most stunning and racist abuse the Trump administration has contemplated since the election is a plan to round up unauthorized immigrants and offload them into “sanctuary cities,” which have instituted policies designed to limit cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration enforcement. Trump, along with his white-nationalist adviser Stephen Miller, reportedly hoped to target House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco district, to exact revenge against her and gain leverage over House Democrats in legislative fights. Their view of immigrants as pawns who might wreak havoc on political enemies in liberal cities and states would be demented enough, if it weren’t also illegal—so illegal that lawyers for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement “rejected the idea as inappropriate and rebuffed the administration.” Yep: Too abusive for ICE. Unnamed White House sources attempted to downplay the extent of the administration’s interest in this plan, only for Trump to discredit them by acknowledging publicly that the plan remains under consideration. Trump also would like the military to build and operate migrant detention camps, prompting his national security team to contemplate an end-run around the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits military service members from enforcing domestic laws. He reportedly encouraged his incoming acting Department of Homeland Security secretary to defy the law and a court order requiring him to admit asylum seekers by promising to pardon him should a judge order him jailed. The backdrop for this surge of lawlessness is the arrival of Attorney General William Barr, who has, explicitly or otherwise, left Trump with the impression that the Justice Department will help him subvert the rule of law. Barr usurped Congress’s proper role to assert Trump’s innocence of obstruction of justice, while concealing the evidence in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. He endorsed the right-wing conspiracy theory that senior FBI officials “spied” on the Trump campaign, and has promised to consider punitive action against them. And he will now repurpose the DOJ to cover for the administration as it violates the law requiring the Treasury Department to turn Trump’s tax returns over to Congress. Worst of all, he made us kind of miss Jeff Sessions. Trump has cheered all of it. With Barr’s help, and with a near iron-clad assurance from Congress that he won’t be impeached, Trump can finally set about building the autocracy he’s always wanted. Read →
Under the Radar
Georgetown students have voted overwhelmingly in favor of paying reparations to the descendants of 272 slaves the university sold in the 1850s to keep the school afloat financially. If the university’s board of directors approves the measure, each undergraduate student will be assessed a $27.20 fee every semester, which will generate an estimated $380,000 each year. The students held the referendum amid a debate among Democratic presidential primary candidates about whether the government should pay reparations as means of restitution and to shrink the racial wealth gap.
What Else
President Trump’s order prohibiting transgender military service took effect today, ending the careers of an estimated 13,700 American service members. Under the ban, the military now can discharge or bar anyone who won’t serve in the gender they were assigned at birth, or who is undergoing hormone therapy or other gender-confirmation procedures. A truly evil thing to do to people who volunteered to make the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Herman Cain is expected to withdraw from consideration for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors after several Republican senators announced their opposition to him on the basis of the sexual assault allegations that ended his 2012 presidential candidacy. The fact that he is a partisan hack and a crank is still cool with them, apparently, which is why Stephen Moore’s nomination has been smooth sailing. Sudan’s military has announced it would suspend the country’s Constitution for a two-year transition period, in the aftermath of the coup that deposed President Omar al-Bashir. All of the money raised for a Trump inaugural ball at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, including from foreign companies and donors with foreign ties, flowed without record keeping into a mysterious bank account, despite legal requirements to report all contributions. The city of Chicago has sued Jussie Smollett after he refused to pay over $130,000 to cover the cost of overtime the city’s police department racked up investigating the hate crime Smollett allegedly staged. Kim Foxx, the state’s attorney who dropped all charges against Smollett, has also asked the Cook County Inspector General to investigate her office’s handling of the case. The Republicans’ trillion dollar corporate tax cut doubled the number of companies that paid $0 in federal income taxes from 30 to 60 over the course of one year. Shout out to the person on Elizabeth Warren’s campaign who scheduled her corporate-profit tax rollout this week, your timing is impeccable. Disney has unveiled its long-awaited streaming service Disney Plus, which will feature Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic, and Marvel films, and debut 10 original films and 25 original series in year one alone. It’s also $2 cheaper a month than Netflix, and has slashed Netflix’s market value by $8 billion. From Priyanka: Who wants to go halfsies???
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You've Gotta Be Fucking Kidding Me
At the urging of anti-abortion activists, the White House will screenGosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer—a crowdfunded film about a Philadelphia abortion doctor who was convicted in 2013 of performing illegal late-term abortions and of the first-degree murder of three infants. Who’s up for date night at the White House?! This isn’t the only anti-abortion propaganda film the White House has publicly endorsed. Last month, Vice President Mike Pence tweeted his support for Unplanned—the story of a former Planned Parenthood staffer-turned-anti-abortion activist that falsely suggests abortions are unsafe, and characterizes Planned Parenthood as a manipulative and money-hungry organization.
Is That Hope I Feel?
New Hampshire’s House and Senate have voted to repeal the death penalty with veto-proof majorities, setting the state up to outlaw capital punishment, over the objections of its Republican governor. Twenty other states and Washington, DC, that have already abolished capital punishment, and bills to repeal or limit it have been introduced in 18 states this year.
Transcript of Jed's Telegram visit today about Decent bet 2.0 changes
Jed came into the Telegram today so I saved some of the Content for people who may have questions about the new Dbet 2.0 changes.
DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:08] I will be scrolling through looking to address some questions that have been asked. If you have a question feel free to post it in case I miss it. User, [10.08.18 03:10] I think there’s some curiosity to how house backing will work game by game. Is the sportsbook all one house that anyone can opt in to? Same with casino and table games? What about individual sports matches? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:17] [In reply to User] The sportsbook is not one house, you can create a sportsbook and provide staking where any one can bet any game against your staking and you can set the max bet or you can publish specific games you would like to take action on more of a p2p wager. User, [10.08.18 03:13] Also curious to how we can get verifiable results on the more unusual user-created wagers that can be created. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:19] [In reply to User] For these odd types of bets we will use either an agreed upon 3rd party as the "referee" and we are looking into Oracles that can are trusted 3rd party community members that verify results. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:14] [In reply to User] The way the minimum staking amount for a game will work will be based on the max bet and therefore max payout so with this structure you'll have enough staked to have an extended "bankroll". A single game will not necessarily make less than the casino as a whole as each game has different RTP. If you were staking a single game with a lower RTP and a higher house edge it is very likely you would make more than the casino as a whole. If you want to diversify across multiple games to have more balanced staking you can, you can break it up across multiple tables of the same game you can diversify it however you would like. User, [10.08.18 03:21] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] So in this case we can't just allocate a % to general DBET sportsbook. We'd each need to create our own sportsbooks and decide what we want to offer and set our limits etc.? User, [10.08.18 03:25] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] Let me know if this is correct- if I want to back a particular sports event, say the super bowl, it will be me and only me who backs the bets for my own house? Naturally for a big game lots of people are going to want to participate- and as a result will there may be thousands of unique houses all trying to take the same bets? Sorry trying to get my head around the new system. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:26] [In reply to User] There will be a general "skin" of a sportsbook with everything loaded and ready to go for you that you can use and set a staking amount for or you can customize only offering specific leagues or sports or games. User, [10.08.18 03:28] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] Then it will essentially be thousands of individual sportsbooks within the system and it would be up to me to drive traffic to my own book or hope someone comes to mine out of the list? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:29] [In reply to User] Correct and there should be thousands of people looking to make bets on a game like this. Remember each house will only take so much action so as bets are made houses will start to become unavailable and less and less options for each person. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:30] [In reply to User] That is correct. And you can offer lines that are enticing, rewards programs that are enticing you can set it up however you would like. Keep in mind our goal is to have tens of thousands over time, how many houses and DBETs will be staking at that point and how many will be needed. User, [10.08.18 03:33] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] Okay, then next up would be how that would look, how books would be prioritized, etc. What's the appeal to the masses in regards to sports when they can simply go to another site and bet without having to sort through thousands of houses looking for the best odds etc. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:34] There will be simple ways to search for lines and available houses. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:34] Users will see important info with a quick search seeing which lines are available for that game, what the min and max bets are, what the available staking of house is etc User, [10.08.18 03:35] K got it. I get that this is necessary to avoid the security label, but is there a way to avoid that kind of redundancy on the potentially thousands of houses for the same match and to automatically distribute between houses? Example- hypothetically even though technically there may be thousands of redundant houses offering the same odds, couldn’t there be a way to split the bets automatically between them? Like if there’s 1,000 houses takin bets on a particular game, and someone bets 10,000, could there be a contract that splits that to 10 per house and still be legal? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:38] [In reply to User] Andrew this is a very interesting thought and I will look into it. I am not sure of the technical requirements or legal/ regulatory concerns but it is again a very interestign thought and I will explore it more. If possible maybe people could have the option of going into this diversified model or operating independantly which could be a good feature to offer. Thanks! DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:43] [In reply to User] You can just take our fully built out sportsbook, stake it and set limits put 20% of your staking behind it and split up the other 80% over other games DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:46] LAToken listing is huge. Not sure if you are aware but Cryptopia is 88 currently in 24 exchange trading volume, Kucoin is 57 and LAToken is 49. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:46] This would have never happened without the rebrand. User [10.08.18 03:48] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] I think this is the biggest struggle most of us have right now. One backer per house. So if I stake in the general sports book, how is that automatically allocated to me? Because it sounds like the general pool of the original idea. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:53] [In reply to User] So the fully built out sportsbook is essentially just a skin of a sportsbook but has everyting loaded for you so you do not have to do anything if you do not wish to. You then stake the sportsbook you created with the skin and now you can take bets from people. User, [10.08.18 03:54] I'm guessing the team will release some "how to" videos of this for further clarification as well. Ease of use is important. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:54] [In reply to User] Absolutely we will! DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 03:54] May be you have friends family etc that bet on sports you can drive them all there and we will be driving a marketing machine prodcuing as much user acquisition as we can to generate players for everyone. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:01] [In reply to User] We are still doing everything we can to build the userbase as large as possible. At the beginning things may be slow, I think we all expected that with the old or new model, but once the users start coming in we are going to need 100's of tables and shortly after 1000's for each game. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:02] How many DBET investors are there currently if every one of them created a table for every game there still would not be that many compared to a halfway decent user base User, [10.08.18 04:04] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] Sure, but as small as it may have been you could lock up your coins and be assured of a % of the profit no matter how big or small your bag was. Now those with larger bags can eat up all the action in sports leaving the smaller houses with less chances at action and profit. I'm mostly speaking on the sports end here. I understand slots and tables it's a little different as your staking a session 1v1 customers but for sports it's much different. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:06] [In reply to User] The average gambler is a pretty small gambler and those with smaller bags will attract them which is the majority and as they should because they should not put their entire staking bag at risk taking larger bets. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:06] But let me look into the idea that came up earlier where rather than pooling the funds we split up the bets. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:07] That may create an option for people to be in a pool of bet distribution so the ones that are concerned with it can go that route. User, [10.08.18 04:07] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] What drives a smaller sports bettor to my house over someone with a larger bag? As long as they have smaller limits and can keep taking 100 or 1000s of those smaller bets I have no advantage DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:09] Many of the larger staked houses may have a min bet above the users preferred bet amount minimizing the proportion of big houses to small houses that are available to them DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:10] I'm not saying they will be drawn to you but the min and max bet amounts will impact what is available to the smaller bettors. User, [10.08.18 04:11] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] But not likely as that would make them lose money. That's why every casino in Vegas has like $5 min bet on sports as well as every bookie I've met. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:11] [In reply to User] Sure, I know many bookies that would never touch a $5 bet, it's not worth their time. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:13] I do not think vacant tables is going to be an issue once the userbase has a chance to grow somewhat. When you look at how many DBET holders there are and how many will stake the house you're not talking about 10's of thousands of people User, [10.08.18 04:13] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] But essentially every casino in Vegas will. And they have to handle every aspect of the transaction where as if your staking the software there is no added stress or time wasted by lower limits DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:13] Absolutely correct DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:14] I believe we will see houses with more than a $5 minimum bet. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:14]That is all I am saying. User [10.08.18 04:14] So there's really no conceivable reason why someone staking DBET would have a low minimum as they don't have to handle any part of the transaction correct? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:20] I love the revolutionary concept of it all and I believe the space will change in this direction plus getting us out of the security conversations was a must. We need more liquidity to ever get to where we all want to go, from a trading standpoint, user adoption standpoint across the board it is so important. We already have a new listing and more in the works@ User, [10.08.18 04:50] How will this affect the 5% lottery draw every 1/4? User, [10.08.18 04:51] Also how will the affect Decent-C for giving money back? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:52] Doug lottery will be same as before 5% of all profits will go into the lottery and people will be able to earn up to 5 tickets based on their staking. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:52] And this will not affect our plans or goals with Decent-C at all either. The plan is exactly as it has always been. User, [10.08.18 04:55] If multiple people are backing a slot machine, how is the selection of backer done for a session? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 04:59] [In reply to User] BB the user will choose which slot machine they want to play based on available staked machines that are not in use by anyone else and offer the bet limits they want. User, [10.08.18 05:01] Okay let's be real I can't stay away. DBET please share with us how the new model effects poker if you can. In poker there is generally no stake just rake. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:03] You're funny and I totally understand. So poker is a ways out on our radar right now. It is not a very profitable game and is challenging technically to do on the blockchain, there is a lot to figure out in order to decentralize it, dealing, RNG, banker, with our model rake as you mentioned, etc. Doug User [10.08.18 05:04] DBET are you able to elaborate on the nodes at all? Someone above mentioned nodes. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:07] [In reply to User] There will be a rewards program that incentivizes people to lock up tokens similar to how a node works for adding value to the platform in a number of different ways. User, [10.08.18 05:05] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] But if both you, me and Doug are staking machine, who would be selected? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:08] [In reply to User We would be staking different machines potentially in different rooms so it would depend on which machine the user picked. User, [10.08.18 05:09] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] Are you saying that the three of us can't stake the same machine? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:10] Correct DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:10] That was one of the 2 reasons the old model was being classified as a security User, [10.08.18 05:12] But, do you mean machine as in - I enter a digital casino and see 20 slot machines or a machine as in I enter the casino and see 1 slot machine that runs various sessions DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:14] Yes you could see multiple of the same machine DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:16] At least intitally, we are exploring ideas and may do some A/ B testing and see which UX is most popular DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:21] Correct you would get profits from the specific machine you backed. Over the same dollar spend the machines would return the same but the motivators were putting the control more into the users hands and mostly to get us out of the security conversartion as we will need more liquidity in the future than what being a security can provide. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:21] Correct regardless of denomination DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:24] When we started the company our lawyers told us the token was not a security but the house shares were but they were not the same thing and there were other companies Edgeless for example that was giving back 40% I believe of profits and were listed on Bittrex which was a US regulated exchange that supposedly could not list securities. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:26] Crypto regulation evolved and everyone is tightening up in regards to securities. Bittrex got audited in November I believe of last year, Cryptopia was audited recently, exchnages going into Malta have to be audited before they can operate that they are not listing securities. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:26] The landscape changed and we had to adapt. User, [10.08.18 05:28] [In reply to DBET Jedidiah] I like it. So with enough Dbets we can back some # of slots, some # of sports books, etc., if we want to. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:29] Yes you could you could have some nickel slots some dollar slots some craps some roulette some blackjack and diversify your staking DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:30] I think it will be fun but again I'm from Vegas so I love casinos User, [10.08.18 05:34] Just got caught up...I am curious. When will we as designers see more template files like those for the slot machine? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:37] [In reply to User] We are hyper focused on getting mainnet slots released right now but should be shortly after that most likely sportsbook would be next. User, [10.08.18 05:46] If I were to create a custom skin, would it then be available for everyone else to use? Or would there be licensing etc happening? How would this also affect custom games later down the line? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 05:48] [In reply to User] You would license it to a room and then that room would be able to have it available to all the users in that room User, [10.08.18 05:59] Can you give us a quick break down on mass advertising plans? To bring huge numbers in? DBET DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 06:09] Sure a broad overview, we have a huge network of celebrities from poker pros to nba stars to djs to actors and actresses so utilizing that network where appropriate, targeted advertising into jurisdictions available to us in Latin America, Europe and Asia where futbol leagues will feature or brand on televised events, working diretcly with futbol clubs for sponsoships, working with the sportsbook rating forums and review sites to build a solid reputation in the traditional online casino world, targeted Google PPC and Facebook advertising, more speaking opportunites for me in both blockchain/ crypto and gaming conferences, starting associations that will not only work with regulators but will educate the masses as a group as well, adspace in appropriate publications, I could probably think of a few more but that is a nice quick breakdown of the mass approach we will take. User, [10.08.18 06:41] [In reply to User] that was one of my biggest concerns with the old system…the invariable dump that would come at the end of every quarter User, [10.08.18 06:59] Quick question regarding profits. Is the model still built at 95% profit to holder and 5% to lottery? How will DBET keep the lights on if they don’t have a percent take? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 07:01] We have always said we will never keep more than 10% of gross profit to cover our costs and will cover the rest with our operating capital User, [10.08.18 07:59] there's no more staking in the house. Basically you can stake in all the games instead. User, [10.08.18 08:22] basically, you can stake all games if u want, which is same as staking in the house. DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 08:32] you nominate which games you would like to stake User, [10.08.18 08:33] So perhaps we can have a function to stake in all the games except the peer to peer ones? DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 08:34] The challenge is if we pool the funds together than we become a security again User, [10.08.18 08:43] Select all, copy ;) DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 08:43] Yes we can look at something simple like a select all for sure DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 08:40] no once we get into pooling things we are a security User, [10.08.18 08:56] yea, I recall the minimum you can stake is dictated by the min/max bet for each game DBET Jedidiah, [10.08.18 08:56] yes minimum staking requirements will be based on a low risk max bet max win ratio
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