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Ron Edwards
[Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
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Topic: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys (Read 13117 times)
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 16490
[Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
August 11, 2005, 06:28:07 AM »
Hi everyone,
I had an idea for a game a couple of weeks ago, which I think will scrub out the final need for "must satisfy adolescent issue via Color" from my life. I scribbled on it furiously and we did a fairly "this doesn't quite work" playtest last weekend. I hammered out the notes from that, scribbled some more, and I think it's almost ready for Alpha level.
The name of the game:
Doctor Chaos
. Subtitle/blurb:
What if the world's greatest supervillain were not actually a moron?
My intention is to publish it in PDF and hard copy, probably using something like Clinton does with Creative Commons License. It's small: I anticipate about 48 or 56 pages, digest size & saddle-stitched ("stapled," for those who aren't up on printing jargon).
The character of Dr. Chaos is a group creation prior to play, but unlike MLWM, he is played by many of the participants, perhaps even all of them, one at a time. Heroes are not player-characters in the traditional sense, and each may be played by many different people.
Basically, the superheroes only exist in the game mechanics as opposition to Dr. Chaos' developing plan. As I say, Dr. Chaos is played by any number of the participants, one at a time. Both his Issues (and boy does he have issues) and the heroes' personal sides get developed through one another's interactions - a hero gets developed when Dr. Chaos does something awful to him; Dr. Chaos' issues get developed in order for heroes to screw up his plan in the first place. Developed heroes are more effective against him.
The game includes lesser villains too, who are different from either and I'll talk about them later. For now, realize that no one owns Dr. Chaos or any single superhero for the whole game.
Playtesting! Well, just about everything about creating Dr. Chaos went perfectly. It's full of stuff like coming up with his Look and the conditions for his Plan, and so on. Just about everything about the procedure was, to steal Eric Provost's favored and excellent term, poo. It's basically a per-scene ongoing session of Rummy, extremely simplified, from which I stripped out the scoring system and a few other things.
The way it's supposed to go, Dr. Chaos announces how he's fulfilling a particular condition for his Plan. The heroes enter the scene (and are often invented in doing so) by way of his Issues - i.e., it's things like his Ideology and his Flair which create holes in his Plan, and thus the heroes appear. That turned out to be tricky - people were way too hung up on
the heroes' presence, and I realized that they'd be better off by talking about what Dr. Chaos does, specifically, that develops his Issues - and simply have the heroes be there in that context.
It's a bit much to ask, actually. The person has to come up with Dr. Chaos' issue in action, then figure out how that lets/makes a hero show up, and then often invent the hero. Without phrasing that in the right order (and pointing out that the person gets to play Dr. Chaos right at that point), the person's brain explodes. Especially if they think they're supposed to be making up fleshed-out, solid heroes at this point, which they're not. So that's fixed.
The card-play turned out to rattle people too; they couldn't figure out how to "win" simply by playing good Rummy. That's because you can't win this game by playing good Rummy. It's not even a very Gamist game ... which is a hurdle right there. I have found that nearby everybody considers himself or herself an accomplished card shark, and if you put cards into people's hands in a non-dice context (i.e. not over-and-done-with instantly), they go into "I'm good at card games" mode and their brain forgets everything else. I want most of play to be integrated with an ongoing use of the cards, rather than draw/modify/go/over, and that's going to take some more refining.
I'd run into a conceptual tangle at this point, and realized it - see, sometimes, when Dr. Chaos stuffs a hero, he or she can return "developed," which means that whoever's playing that hero has lots of effective options after the cards are shown. But at the moment, I was figuring that only happened when Dr. Chaos gins them ("critical," for gamers). But that was poo too, because ginning someone takes some commitment. Why would the Dr. Chaos person of the moment do that when it only made the hero more effective? I'd realized this was a problem.
Ben Lehman provided the answer - no, a
victory hoses the hero, allowing him or her to develop, and a gin victory is the easy no-sweat one that just bats the hero away. Ah-ha! My little brain instantly generated terms, Abusive Victory and Dismissive Victory, that warmed my supervillain heart, and the rules snapped together better than before. For instance, people were reluctant to give up the heroes they'd made, and I decided that an Abusive Victory against a hero means the same person cannot be the next to play that hero. OK, much better, since the new person's narration has to explain how the hero strove against all the abuse.
So now what? The rules aren't quite ready to share out for critique yet, although they're close. What I'm interested in from you guys is a little different.
I'm a big fan of the uber-villain in superhero comics. It's not too off-the-beam to think of the Fantastic Four, as a title, really being a vehicle for the story of Dr. Doom. I'm probably not the only person who was bored by the soap opera and preaching of many years of the X-Men, as I waited for whatever Magneto was up to next. Thanos was just breathtaking ("Death is like love-making, Thunderer. It gets better every time.").
Tell me about the uber-villain from real comics who
make it, in your eyes. The one who the writers and editors really wanted to be a Dr. Doom, but ended up as piddly, repetitive, and annoying. Especially the ones who had really good starts! My list includes Kang the Conqueror and Kobra (from DC).* List me some of your "ubervillain heartbreakers," so to speak, and why.
* Graviton, in my eyes the very essence of a worthless comics character, doesn't get listed because he didn't even have a good start. Hack, blech. My mind is polluted even typing about this imbecile. (Cast your minds into antiquity, fellow oldies. Avengers. Gravity powers. Lech for stupid blonde secretary. Really stupid.)
Simon Marks
Posts: 67
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #1 on:
August 11, 2005, 06:44:18 AM »
Bit part villan from Dr Strange, except that he shouldn't have been. He was a philosophising Lord of All Chaos.
I have great affection for him, as the battle between him and Strange in the end came down to asking "What are you willing to sacrafice to save the world? Your Friends? Your Powers? The Innocent? Your sense of self?" to which Strange answered "Yes, Yes,
The battle and between them was fantastic, as was Strange's rocky path to recovery. I still think it was one of the best stories Marvel did.
Did anyone else notice, nope.
And what happened to Shuma-Gorath?
Turned up in the X-Men beat-em-up as a Octopus and big eye.
What a downfall for an near ominpotent God-like great old one...
"It is a small mind that sees all life has to offer"
I have a
Larry L.
Posts: 616
aka Miskatonic
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #2 on:
August 11, 2005, 06:57:31 AM »
This may be after your time, but I could never dig Cobra Emperor Serpentor in Larry Hama's G.I. Joe comic. He had this crazy ridiculous pedegree as the Ultimate Leader (the DNA of Genghis Kahn!) with several issues worth of "This guy's gonna be so awesome when they pull him from the cloning vat!" Then he turned out to be so... silly compared to perpetual loser Cobra Commander, Destro (who was, to my mind, the star of the G.I. Joe universe), or the
fucking ninja
Storm Shadow. He was just a grouchy ubermensch in a goofy outfit. This was where the line started drifting from the bad guys being a para-military terrorist force into lame quasi-satanists. What a crappy foil for adolescent jingoism and warnography. Ah, the pressures of supporting a line of action figures...
Indie Gamers Minnesota
Posts: 3702
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #3 on:
August 11, 2005, 02:32:02 PM »
... with a wonderfully, utterly creepy, dysfunctional-romantic start in the
mini-series, she had everything needed to move on to utter bad-assitude. She had magic, she had science, she had sex appeal, she had four arms, but mostly she had
. Raw, unexplained, unexplainable hatred for all that was good.
And she was a
, for pete's sake. She was a kick-ass villain even when someone else (someone stupid, in fact!) was calling the shots.
And then, the more power and freedom they gave her, the more she just came apart. Somewhere along the line I realized, even if nobody else did, that bereft of the utter unfairness of her minion-tude, given the power to actually be a villain, she lost the justification that made the rage
. It became "Damn, girl, you own half the multiverse, what you got to be so angry about anyway?"
Just published:
New Project: Misery Bubblegum
Eero Tuovinen
Acts of Evil Playtesters
Posts: 2591
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #4 on:
August 11, 2005, 03:38:56 PM »
That's a GREAT call, Tony. I was first thinking, like, "Spiral who?", then it clicked when I remembered that Longshot's English name is Longshot. (It's that punk from '80s X-Men) Spiral is exactly what I'd imagine Ron to be looking for.
As my own suggestion... any and all Hulk villains I can think of. A part of it is that whole loser wibe the series seems to have, but some of them genuinely should be a lot more scary and mega-villainous than they are. General Ross is my favourite villain-who-never-was: the guy has everything starting with the evil moustache and ideology (think, how many comics villains have ideology?), but it seems that he's always being blindsided by the super-powered villain of the week, completely unable to come to his own as a force to be taken seriously. A stuttering fool is what he ultimately becomes, only to be taken up by writers when they realize that humans are much more interesting than big battles.
And Leader... man, how disappointing can you be? (I'm remembering that it's the Leader? That green man with a head disfiguration, mind control powers and a gamma ray origin story?) He's looking really scary and sinister, but... could it just be that all stories I've read just happen the be the stupid sort, or why can't a theoretically pretty wise guy think up anything half-believable. Kidnapping babies and setting up nefarious nuclear terrorism plans is what I remember, but the guy thinks up the most unlikely methods for doing either...
While I'm listing villains... I could mention many X-Men villain from the nineties, actually. One could think that anything that new just can't fit Ron's requirements, but as far as I'm concerned, that whole chain of villains from Mr. Sinister to that Existinction Agenda guy whose name I forget is a bad, bad joke, even when the concept should work in theory. They're too goth for their own good, and look just stupid when appearing for the third time in the storyline without ever doing anything but throwing mysterious gloating one-liners they have no right to, being that they didn't yet manage even one scene with the heroes to begin with! Talk about standing in their own minions' shadow.
Let's go for a hat trick: Moleman. You may disagree, it's contentious.
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Joe J Prince
Posts: 99
Putting the fun into dysfunction!
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #5 on:
August 12, 2005, 04:08:19 AM »
Doc Chaos sounds like a lot of fun.
As for supervillain heartbreakers-
What about En-Sabah-Nur or
as he's more commonly known.
He's over 3000 years old, possesses almost limitless power - but what's he actually do?
Turn Angel blue and that's about it! Rubbish.
Had to get his own time-line to look more menacing, even then he got whupped by Magneto.
was another uber-villain mutant who didn't really do a lot, but had a pretty good start, taking on the Avengers and the X-men at the same time.
And how about
, son of Mephisto. When Blackie wasn't having his ass handed to him by Ghost Rider, Wolverine and The Punisher he staged a coup and conquered Hell. And then I'm not sure what he did, probably redecorated.
Prince of Darkness Games
The Collective Endeavour
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 16490
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #6 on:
August 12, 2005, 06:34:42 AM »
H'mmm, the more I think about it, the more the post-1985 Marvel mutant villains seem like a complete washout to me. Rather than single phenomena who need to be understood singly, I think the entire cartload can be held up, looked at once, and tossed behind our collective shoulder with hardly a grunt.
Let's get thinking about characters with really good starts, in terms of an actual story that worked or almost worked, instead of a promise, and then tanked.
I'm angling toward a second question about how some of the really great villains were (or should have been) one-shot stories, and how others seem so well suited to repeated stories.
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 16490
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #7 on:
August 12, 2005, 08:20:10 AM »
The Leader and the Moleman ... h'mmm ..
Well, you're right, Eero, the Hulk (like Captain America) was almost always the suxx as a comic, based largely on its stupid villains. The Leader seems to have been one of the long line of characters (hero and villain) who are precisely as stupid as their hype claims they are smart. There's a lot of anti-intellectualism in comics; "smart" characters are usually revealed to be, at best, merely obsessive and often very, very dumb. The Thinker, indeed.
More specifically, the Hulk's villains were very often thinly-disguised Soviet/Russkie threats. Which makes the whole General Ross thing fairly incoherent (in the usual sense of the word), as the General and the Hulk really oughta be united in fighting folks like Modok, the Leader, and so on ... even the Abomination seems, to me, a lot like the Soviet explosion of an A-bomb in "answer" to the Hulk. The whole comic seems to me to be the incoherent strugglings of "how do we deal with nuclear power," failing miserably to arrive at either an answer or even a position of any kind.
Which isn't too bad of an achievement for a monthly newstand throwaway product, to put it into perspective. And the Hulk as a character study (usually not villain-driven) is quite excellent once in a while, depending on the author and artist.
Anyway, so the Leader doesn't really qualify - another cross between Lenin's mind and Stalin's face, I think, painted green to distract us a little. Not really an ubervillain candidate from day one.
The Moleman ... now, this got me thinking. Because his first story (
before most of us were
) was damn good. Should that have been the last one? Many great stories are great because they make their point and are finished. Only a comics fan likes to be reminded of such stories
again and again and again
through new stories ... and even to place primary attention on the reminders rather than the new stories themselves. I think the Moleman would have been a much better fictional phenomenon if we'd never seen him again.
(Again, comics were not invented either to satisfy me personally nor to accord with my assessments of fictional phenomena. I fully understand why, in practice, we saw the Moleman again. If anyone reading this feels the need to explain it to me, suppress yourself instantly, thanks.)
Now, then, let's talk about Victor von Doom. Great story to start? You bet. Great development later, refinement of his story, enrichment of his character?
yeah (I believe it was Marv Wolfman who decided that his initial facial injury was extremely minor). Politics, moral ambiguity, presence, and surprisingly lateral thinking for a Marvel villain? Double-yeah.
(It helps that someone eventually figured out that the best way to negate a stupid Dr. Doom story was to retroactively establish that "that was one of my robots" - lame? Oddly enough, pretty satisfying, given the medium. Go figure.)
What I'm after is that the desire to see Dr. Doom appear in a story
is not merely seeking a reminder of a good story way back when. It's because he has qualities that often generate a new, great story
. Same goes for Magneto, as I remember him best anyway and which they managed to capture pretty well in the movies (coulda used one of those awesome fight scenes where he kicks the whole team's collective ass, but what can you do). Same definitely goes for Thanos.
(Ooh, I'm geeking out just thinking about it. Drax the Destroyer goes up against Thanos. Thanos looks at him, and the camera closes into his cavernous eye socket, ultimately into his pupil, where a skull resides. The captions read, through this sequence, something like "I am Thanos. I am Death." And Drax is simply ... vanquished. Not a fisticuff or laserblast to be seen. The closest Marvel ever got to Heavy Metal.)
So, I'm talking about ubervillains as successful
phenomena. And as you guys are rightly pointing out, a successful initial concept and imagery (like Spiral) doesn't cut it. Nor does saying the villain has (e.g.) brains or (another e.g.) great powers. No ... here's what I've come up with for the game text.
Let me introduce you to �
Dr. Chaos
Who is hands-down the primo uber-villain ever, the one you knew you could make up in seventh grade, except when you tried he was lame for some reason. Only this time, you�ll do it right, using the parameters I�ll give you.
How does he compare to Dr. Doom, Magneto, Dormammu, and so on? It�s not a matter of comparison � what those villains were to their comics, so is he to yours. And he�s the best. Everyone playing this game will make him up all together, before you do anything else.
I�ll provide the rules for doing this soon, but there�s no point unless you prepare yourselves mentally for this awesome task. You aren�t just making up �a� supervillain.
Dr. Chaos is
. No single hero can defeat him up-front, and he is more than equal to any institution or organization. He is expert at physical confrontation, cosmic energies, psychological and political strategy, technological innovation, and magical dimensions.
Dr. Chaos is also
. He really could rule the world, and for all purposes can be considered a nation�s worth of resources and relevance to others. Cosmically, he has �place.� Demon-lords are polite to him.
Dr. Chaos is
not an idiot
. He understands all the things which could stop him and has figured everyone out already. His plans will work and his drive is more than sufficient to see them through. He considers �Hamlet� to be a stupid story.
Dr. Chaos
has a point
. His outlook may be warped or inhuman in some way, but it has its roots in human ideals which can be identified with and perhaps, in some other context, admired. Some of the stuff he does or decisions he makes in the crunch may approach nobility.
Finally, Dr. Chaos is
. He commands more presence than anyone else, can overawe any gathering, can convince anyone he�s right through logic or fear as he sees fit. Unlike heroes, timing has nothing to do with his impact � his entrances make the timing right.
This is his game.
Oh, and before anyone makes the obvious comparison, this is rather the
of My Life with Master. The point of making Dr. Chaos is that you want to see him again and again, not that you want him miserably dead.
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #8 on:
August 12, 2005, 09:44:30 AM »
Hi Ron,
How do you feel about Marvel's Kingpin or DC's Lex Luthor? I think though they both have the smart uber-villain thing going on, they fall short because they simply fail to hit with enough passion and gusto to really fulfill the role. Likewise, this is what also causes Apocalypse to fall short in my eyes as well- no one has been really willing to write him as a fanatic trying to bring about his holy race war, like you'd figure given his origin story.
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 16490
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #9 on:
August 12, 2005, 10:35:24 AM »
Hi Chris,
Those characters bring up two issues: scope and reinvention.
In the game, I'm using "world" as the default scope for Dr. Chaos' master plan. But I also point out that any scope will do, and if you use "American crime" as the scope, then the Kingpin fits nicely. Or to hop it outward, you can do stuff like "the very fabric of time and space" for characters like Thanos.
The important thing about scope is that heroes and lesser villains might match the ubervillain's scope, but cannot exceed it. Hence, Dr. Doom and Thor do not show up in Kingpin stories. (Oh, OK, Thor shows up for one panel in a famous Daredevil sequence, but fuck off, don't quibble with me, Marvelboy. That was a quick example to illustrate a
point.) Dr. Chaos gets a scope, and after that, we stay within it.
The reinvention thing is tricky. I pointed out that Dr. Doom has a built-in justification for reinventing him slightly, especially if you want to write a really kickass Doom story and have to deal with continuity with past stories where all he does is wave his arms and shout "Dolt!" a lot. Play the robot card and you're all set. But
reinvention is different; it basically says, forget all the previous stories and let's start over.
is what this guy is like.
Miller did that with a lot of the villains in Daredevil, not necessarily very successfully (e.g. Gladiator got a weird Roman fixation). But his Kingpin (taken from Spider-Man) fuckin' rocked, obviously. I even remember the issue devoted to that purpose, basically just showing the guy working out, running things, disciplining other crimebosses (prefiguring the famous Kill Bill scene), handling his daily nefarious business, and even briefly kowtowing to his wife.
What I'm saying is that once reinvented, the Kingpin became a great ubervillain. But the fact of reinvention means we can simply jettison anything that came before it.
Which brings me to Lex Luthor, who I might need some help with. I find most of DC's titles and general approach to superheroes/villains difficult to enjoy or understand; when it works for me, it's usually because the writers were heavily influenced by Marvel and were often previously Marvel employees. He's clearly been reinvented several times, most notably as an industrialist instead of a bald guy in leotards. And Superman's relationship and history with him gets rewritten a lot too, as Ben Lehman was telling me about recently.
Anyway, so my real answer is "I dunno." What do you think?
(Oh! Careful with one thing - the personal "shadow" or nemesis villain is not an ubervillain. The Green Goblin [etc], Venom, and the Joker are an entirely different animal, so they and characters like them are not part of this discussion. Maybe Lex Luthor sorta falls into this category at various stages of re-invention.)
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #10 on:
August 12, 2005, 11:37:58 AM »
Hi Ron,
I suppose the real line you're drawing is whether the villain is grabby and cool enough to warrant their own stories outside of the heroes, and in that regard, yeah, the guys I mentioned usually haven't made the cut. The two major pitfalls are either the mirror characters as you mentioned, who exist only in contrast to the hero, or else a character who just hasn't been emotionally loaded enough to really fire as a protagonist.
Although, I do think that it's interesting to note that a lot of the Uber-villain qualities also map directly over to the darker incarnations of Batman.
Eero Tuovinen
Acts of Evil Playtesters
Posts: 2591
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #11 on:
August 12, 2005, 11:46:23 AM »
Yeah, Miller's Kingpin rocks. He's the guy the current Lex Luthor really tries to be. Pretty pathetic of the writers, really.
As far as I understand, Lex Luthor's reinvention as a politician and industrialist happened because the continuum didn't have room for yet another mad scientist. When the comics during the '80s started to get longer storylines and sticky plot points all these variations of the same theme became redundant. And when you come down to it, Brainiac does the giant-robots-squash-metropolis much better.
Then again, we should remember that Lex the industrialist is a comparatively old thing. I at least tend to only remember his recent coups, like Batman's No Man's Land and being elected as president, but the essence of the idea was there already in John Byrne's
Man of Steel
reboot in the '80s. For all actual purposes I find the pre-crisis bald guy in leotards pretty a pretty trivial comparison, probably because it was so long before my time. In some ways the idea of childhood rivals and all that works much better, of course, but somebody else has to comment on the actual substance of the stories.
That being said, my opinion of Lex: the actual interaction is pretty good, he is a natural opposition for Superman. But damn, those writers can't write psychology to save their livelihood. In all these years after -86 or whenever he was reintroduced I can remember only a spare handful of stories that actually, frankly dealt with his reasons for having a constant Superman hate-on. It borders on irrational, and the best they can come up with is a largely unspoken penis-envy. The biggest problem is that apparently Lex doesn't have anything better to do, ever, than pissing on Superman in any way he can. Not a very memorable character in that regard.
Actually, that tends to be a common sin for comics villain-hero relationships. It's easy to segue into a fight scene if your villain's motivation is revenge against the hero, but that rarely makes for a good story. Just compare pre-Venom Spiderman to that particular run to get a sense of how hollow the story gets at that point. Completely clueless.
About Dr. Chaos: do I understand correctly that you're pondering about how to create tools for creating a memorable �bervillain? If so, are you looking to
1) develop the villain the way superhero writers develop theirs?
2) analyze the phenomenon and give a straight route to the goal?
It seems to me, for example, that much of the significance of the likes of Magneto and Dr. Doom comes from layered intertextuality: the readers experience bits and pieces of the character's nature through the stories, various interpretations of the character emerge, always conflicting, and
comes along a writer with insight and writes one of those stories that really reinvents the character (regardless of actual facts, really; the most important reinventions of both Doom and Magneto have been about restructuring their motivations, not about comic-geek factoid-swiping), consiling the best parts and throwing away the dross. Then the process starts again, when different parties disagree or embrace the daring interpretations of creative writers.
This is a pretty different process than just recognizing the defining features of a good villain after the fact and structuring one out of whole cloth. The latter's been done a couple of times - X-Men Limbo, for instance, reached it's ultimate form in one try - but the resulting villain is a very different kind of beast, hardly suitable for recurring stories, and very literary in character. Belasco, for instance, is very much tied to his storyline, and not very suitable for a recurring villain, exactly because he's been figured out from start to finish already when he's first put to paper. That's the classical writing method, but it's not how Dr. Doom or Magneto or even Kingpin was created.
If I understand your direction correctly, you're planning to have a villain creation session in the first place, right? Define the villain analytically, with tools like that list you gave upthread? How about, if you instead started the players off with only a five-page comic, the "first appearance of Dr. Chaos", and started play right after that? Almost nothing is known about the �bervillain, except how he looks and some of his powers and some hint about his methods and ideology, and perhaps some hero who fought against him. Then it's up to the players to develop the germ through play. Individual stories may conflict with each other, necessiating reinventing the villain once or several times during the campaign. Perhaps the natural end-point of the campaign is when the villain is completely realized, and you can finish it off with a special issue that completely defines the villain and his relationship with the heroes. Make reinvention of Dr. Chaos into a game mechanic.
Thing is, while your list of necessary qualities for Dr. Chaos is pretty complete analytically, I'm not sure if it's as enjoyable as it could be to synthesize a villain, when you could just figure it out story-by-story. It also threatens the premise of the story to have the villain all figured out in advance, doesn't it? As far as I understand it, one reason to want to see Magneto or Dr. Doom recurring is their quicksilver quality, the many faces they take on through different interpretations.
That being said, some �ber-villains from English 2000AD comics might prove educative in this regard, if only for the different pacing of the stories. I'm especially thinking of Judge Death from Judge Dread, and Torquemada from Nemesis the Warlock. Just a thought.
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Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 16490
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #12 on:
August 12, 2005, 03:03:33 PM »
Way ahead of you, Eero. Doctor Chaos is created first, yes, but a very large amount of the substance is to be filled in during play. For instance, he may have a Fixation on a particular hero, but since heroes are emphatically not to be created before play in this game, we don't know
yet until someone feels like inventing the hero via the Fixation.
Same goes especially for Ideology
Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. Doctor Chaos always has four Issues, on paper: Ideology, Fixation, Caring, and Flair. The last one needs no specific definition; the first three get a brief sentence at the outset and are to be filled in as play proceeds.
Let's say you're one of the people who is currently not playing Dr. Chaos in the sense of playing in favor of his hand. You want to work up his Ideology, very much in the way that a writer, back in the day, first decided to make Magneto a concentration camp survivor. You introduce the hero Saracen, but you start by playing Dr. Chaos acting upon this issue, and then you can say how Saracen is implicated or involved in that whole deal, whether right here in Dr. Chaos' face or in some other way that directly interferes with this particular stage of the plan.
In this way, Dr. Chaos develops a highly specific profile of the four issues (including ignoring any of them if the group collectively finds that, say, a Fixation isn't what they want for this guy) over time.
Matt Wilson
Acts of Evil Playtesters
Posts: 1121
student, second edition
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #13 on:
August 14, 2005, 05:16:07 AM »
At my grandparents' cabin, maybe 25 years ago, there was a closet with a big stack of old comic books from the mid-to-late 60s. One of them was an Avengers issue that introduces a villain called "the Swordsman." You know, when the Avengers just had 4 members? I think it was Cap, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Quicksilver. I bet if it hadn't been read like 800,000 times it'd be slightly valuable now.
Anyway, I liked Swordsman because what he really wants is to be accepted by the Avengers and hopefully be invited in, but his insecurity/arrogance gets the better of him and he makes enemies of them all. See, he tries to demonstrate his worth to them by basically fucking with them, you know, like breaking into the HQ and trying to best each of them. Then I think after being humiliated, he meets the Mandarin, who puts all kinds of cool gadgety buttons on his sword, and things escalate.
Does he ever show up again? The cover of the issue made a big deal out of introducing him. And I liked his pathetic "kicked out of the sandbox" vengeance thing. Reminds me of certain internet forums.
Dog-eared Designs
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 16490
Re: [Doctor Chaos] Cards, bad guys
Reply #14 on:
August 14, 2005, 06:33:54 AM »
Hiya Matt,
Oh, it's painful when a young man is deprived of his rightful cultural heritage. Son, son, do you not know of the wisdom of the Avengers? Yea, we shall speak together. And then find a name worthy of you, not this slave-name of "Matt" which you now wear.
The Avengers became kind of a "semi-villains' recovery group" early in its history (issue #25, I believe, when Roy Thomas, the original bright-eyed fan, took the book). Some of it was tremendously successful, including the introduction of the Vision, who was kind of a do-over of the Silver Surfer and very much the precursor of TNG's Data.
Some stories were less successful although often gaudy and edgy in a good way. The Swordsman went on to become a member of the Avengers, although not a very competent one and given to whining, a frequent Marvel hero trait. A rather complicated storyline ensued in which he got romantic with Mantis, a slinky Asianesque character with antennae, who was also a member of the group for some reason I can't understand. (The Avengers during this period was a lot like a 70s TV show - if a new character showed up, why, they were in the group! of course!)
Even as a kid, it seemed to me that the Swordsman/Mantis romance was extremely strongly based on a Viet Nam vet and Vietnamese hooker romance, especially when the couple comes back to the States. Steve Englehart, the writer at the time, had a talent for getting this sort of thing into the subtext, although the overt writing was as overblown as Thomas'.
Anyway, the Mantis develops a lech for the Vision, the Swordsman gets all bent out of shape about it, and Scarlet Witch (the Vision's babe) gets bent out of shape too, and so on and on. This got resolved during a confrontation with a villain group called Zodiac, who weren't bad at all as far as crook-villains go, and as I recall, the Swordsman eventually sacrifices himself for the good of the group and dies, and Mantis gets Enlightened and "goes away." (This happened a lot to Marvel characters at this time. The writers read a lot of Castaneda and faux zen.)
What's kind of interesting about this particular sacrifice, though, is that the Swordsman isn't very noble at any point, probably due to incompetent writing. His sacrifice reads more like a fuck-you suicide, see what you've done to me, rather than an expression of Avengers solidarity, love for Mantis, or defeat-the-villain. As I say, edgy.
What does any of this have to do with Doctor Chaos? A lot. The lesser villains are a big deal in this game. They might be under Doctor Chaos' thumb, they might break free, they might submit, etc, etc. If they abandon their own Plans and keep resisting Doctor Chaos, they are effectively heroes. The superheroes of the game are oppositional mechanics who might grow into being "characters" in the RPG sense only through time. The lesser villains are more like player-characters who may be played for/against Doctor Chaos, or in favor of their own lesser plans, or as semi-heroes or heroes.
So yeah, the Swordsman, as a lesser villain waffling around in the options afforded such a character.
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Newsmax Wires
Thursday, 22 August 2013 01:04 PM
City Attorney Jan Goldsmith announced the deal late on Wednesday, capping three days of mediated negotiations between the city, Filner's lawyers, and attorneys for the plaintiff in the case, his former press secretary, Irene McCormack Jackson.
However, Goldsmith said all parties to the accord had agreed to keep details of the proposed settlement strictly confidential until after it had been presented in closed session to the City Council on Friday.
Filner, under mounting pressure since last month to resign as mayor of California's second-largest city amid a hail of sexual harassment allegations, has kept a low profile in recent weeks after saying he would begin behavioral counseling.
Removal of Filner was widely reported to be on the table as part of a potential resolution in the settlement talks, which were mediated by a retired federal judge.
Goldsmith and other principals in the negotiations declined to say whether the settlement reached would lead to his exit.
When asked Wednesday night whether the deal would require Filner to resign, however, a source close to an individual involved in the talks told Reuters, "I think it's fair to say that looks like it's in the cards."
The mayor's lawyers issued a statement on Thursday saying that a "tentative agreement" had been reached in the mediation but declining to disclose the terms, adding only that the City Council was expected to vote on the deal on Friday and that a public announcement would be made afterward.
The Los Angeles Times, citing unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations, reported on Thursday that Filner would step down as part of the settlement.
In exchange for his resignation, the Times reported, the city would pay some, if not all, of Filner's share of any damages awarded in the lawsuit. The local NBC television affiliate carried a similar report.
The Times also reported that the 70-year-old Democrat and former U.S. congressman was seen Wednesday night loading boxes into a sport utility vehicle after bidding farewell to his staff and cleaning out his office. The SUV was parked outside City Hall and driven by a police officer who is part of his security detail, the Times said.
A 43-second video posted to YouTube on Wednesday night shows Filner climbing into the passenger seat of his SUV outside City Hall, with several cardboard boxes visible as a member of his security detail gets in the back seat. The video was attributed to a staffer for City Councilman Scott Sherman.
Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents Jackson in her lawsuit, said she would comment on the settlement at a news conference she called for Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles. She said she would be accompanied by Filner's ex-fiancee, Bronwyn Ingram.
Since Jackson filed her suit last month, 17 more women have come forward to accuse Filner of groping or making other unwanted advances, the latest being Dianne York, 50, who starred in a short-lived reality show about cosmetic surgery on the Oxygen Channel cable network called "Addicted to Beauty."
Among the other women who have alleged misconduct by Filner were a retired U.S. Navy admiral, a college dean, a licensed vocational nurse, several business women and two military veterans who said he harassed them at a meeting for women who had been raped while serving in the armed forces.
Filner has so far resisted calls for his resignation. Nearly ever elected official in San Diego from both parties has urged him to step down, including all nine members of City Council.
The mayor has apologized for what he acknowledged was a pattern of disrespectful and intimidating behavior toward women.
On Aug. 5, he entered behavior-modification therapy at an undisclosed clinic. His lawyers said he left the clinic after several days but was taking additional time off last week before planing to return to work this week.
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France's prime minister made a passionate appeal Wednesday for intervention in Syria, placing the blame for a chemical attack on Syrian President Bashar Assad and warning that inaction would let him carry out more atrocities.
France's prime minister made a passionate appeal Wednesday for intervention in Syria, placing the blame for a chemical attack on Syrian President Bashar Assad and warning that inaction would let him carry out more atrocities.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault addressed the French National Assembly at the beginning of a debate on the wisdom and necessity of a French military response. Wednesday's debate will end without a vote — since President Francois Hollande can order a military operation without one — but it was part of his government's delicate dance to rev up support at home for an unpopular intervention.
The French debate also offered a preview of the challenges ahead for the Obama administration when the U.S. Congress debates Syria next week.
The U.S. and France accuse Assad's government of using chemical weapons in an Aug. 21 attack on rebel-held suburbs of Damascus that killed hundreds of people. Obama and Hollande are pushing for a military response to punish Assad for his alleged use of poison gas against civilians — although U.S. officials say any action will be limited in scope and not aimed at helping to remove Assad.
The French government is in a particularly difficult situation, with many opposition party members claiming that the Socialist Hollande is merely acting as a lapdog for the U.S., the only other major power considering a Syrian military intervention.
Ayrault was careful to say that his certainty about the facts of the attack comes from French sources. But he mentioned for the first time a death toll of nearly 1,500 — which is around what the Americans have cited.
"The Syrian regime carries the entire responsibility" for the attack, said Ayrault. "Not to react would be to send a terrible message to Bashar Assad and to the Syrian people: Chemical weapons can used tomorrow again, against Damascus, against Aleppo, maybe even in a bigger way."
Ayrault said a punitive military response would help shift the balance in a 2 ½-year-old civil war — which was tipping in favor of Assad — and was the only way to convince the Syrian leader he must go to the negotiating table.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of Assad's most vocal supporters, warned the West against taking any one-sided action in Syria.
In an interview late Tuesday, Putin told The Associated Press that Russia "doesn't exclude" supporting a U.N. resolution on punitive military strikes against Syria if it is proved that Damascus used poison gas on its own people. Still he questioned the proof released by Britain, the United States and France as part of their efforts to build international support for a military strike.
Any proof needs to go before the U.N. Security Council, Putin told the AP. "And it ought to be convincing. It shouldn't be based on some rumors and information obtained by special services through some kind of eavesdropping, some conversations and things like that."
He did say, however, that Russia had frozen new shipments to Syria of an air defense missile system.
On Tuesday, the White House won backing for military action from two powerful Republicans — House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and House majority leader Eric Cantor.
In Syria, the Al-Baath newspaper, the mouthpiece of the country's ruling Baath party, branded American lawmakers who backed military action against Syria as "advocates of war and terrorism."
"When the Obama administration seeks a broader mandate from Congress, which it basically does not need, this means that it prepares itself for what is bigger and more dangerous," the paper said in an editorial Wednesday.
In Paris, Hollande said the U.S. vote "will have consequences on the coalition that we will have to create." He did not specify whether that meant a military coalition.
Fabius on Wednesday acknowledged the U.S. vote was crucial.
"If the United States backed off — which I don't plan on, but anything can happen — this type of action wouldn't be possible and so we would have to consider the Syrian question in another way," he said.
Syria's parliament speaker sent a letter to his French counterpart ahead of Wednesday's debate, urging lawmakers not to make any "hasty" decisions. Syrian lawmakers sent a similar letter to Britain ahead of a parliamentary vote there that rejected military action against Syria.
The Syrian conflict, which began as a popular uprising against Assad in March 2011, has degenerated into a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people. The two sides have fought to a stalemate, although the Assad regime has retaken the offensive in recent months. Rebel fighters control large rural stretches in northern and eastern Syria, while Assad is holding on to most of the main urban areas.
The U.N. refugee agency, meanwhile said the number of Syrians who have fled the country has surpassed 2 million. Along with more than four million people displaced inside Syria, this means more than six million Syrians have been uprooted out of an estimated 23 million people.
In a joint statement in Geneva on Wednesday, officials from Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and the U.N. high commissioner for refugees urgently appealed for greater international support for the refugees. Together, the four countries are harboring more than 1.8 million Syrian refugees.
Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Beirut, Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem, Lori Hinnant, Sylvie Corbet and Jamey Keaten in Paris, John Danisziewski, Lynn Berry and Vladimir Isachenkov in Novo-Ogaryovo, Russia, John Heilprin in Geneva and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.


text:
Difference between revisions of "Talk:Group 3 Project- Immunohistochemistry"
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--[[User:Z3252231|Angama Yaquobi]] 05:16, 10 May 2010 (UTC)Hi guys, a very interesting project with lots of beautiful and helpful diagrams. I enjoyed reading the webpage but the only thing
--[[User:Z3252231|Angama Yaquobi]] 05:16, 10 May 2010 (UTC)Hi guys, a very interesting project with lots of beautiful and helpful diagrams. I enjoyed reading the webpage but the only thing make the webpage even more complete is to add the reference for diagrams and also add some more terms in glossary. The project is very clear especially with the use of advantages and disadvantages headings and the amount of info under each section is also precise and clear. So fantastic work guys!!
Revision as of 15:17, 10 May 2010
--Angama Yaquobi 05:16, 10 May 2010 (UTC)Hi guys, a very interesting project with lots of beautiful and helpful diagrams. I enjoyed reading the webpage but the only thing which can make the webpage look even more complete is to add the reference for diagrams and also add some more terms in glossary. The project is very clear especially with the use of advantages and disadvantages headings and the amount of info under each section is also precise and clear. So fantastic work guys!!
Good Job group 3. The project looks well thought out, here are some points I thought might be useful: --Vishnnu Shanmugam 04:36, 10 May 2010 (UTC)
- All images should contain a web link to the source and also copyright information. Some very appealing images in your project, well done.
- Review of the references as entire paragraphs should have more than 1 reference.
- Increase the glossary for words like "polymeric conjugates" and "avidin biotin enzyme complex".
- Student drawn diagram summarizing methods (Direct, indirect and PAP) needs more explanation under the picture.
- Excellent time line, gets straight to the point, succinct!
- Like the how you have tabled advantages and disadvantages for comparison
- Try to add a few pictures summarizing the Process.
Overall, a concise, clear and well structured approach. I like the use of the tables for the advantages/disadvantages (apart from one being a lot wider than the other two- in my opinion it would look better if they were all the same dimensions!) and the hand-drawn diagrams are good but perhaps a little small. While being easy to understand, I feel that the project is based on a very small set of references and may be a little basic because of this. I'd really like to see more references to recent research and papers so it's not just a lesson in the foundational methods. With a few small additions and changes you'll have a great project! --Louisa Frew 13:36, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
--z3252833 07:06, 8 May 2010 (UTC)Hi guys!
A lot has already been said, but here are my thoughts. Overall, I really liked your use of simple language to describe the technique; it was easy to read and didn't have me looking for the definition of scientific terms every four words (that said, there are quite a few acronyms and words in the text that aren't in the glossary, and some words in the glossary don't have descriptions yet, which could be worth having a look at). There are one or two spelling and punctuation typos you might want to fix (e.g. "The process called blocking, is used to reduce or limit the amount..." – there probably shouldn't be a comma there; also, the word "Labelled" has been spelt "Labeled" in one of your headings). The student diagrams are eye-catching, simple and informative (though need to be labelled as student-drawn and a copyright statement should be written). The pictures used are relevant and well cited (however the "Labeled StreptAvidin Biotin (LSAB) Method" and "Polymeric Methods" pictures could perhaps do with a description under the pictures, and the former might benefit from some cropping – there's a lot of white space). Other than that, I don't have much to say – I think it's pretty good; informative but not overloading for the reader, with comprehensive language and good use of summary tables at regular intervals. The only other thing I might suggest is mixing up the layout a bit, for example, breaking the page up by having some pictures on the left and tables on the right if that formatting is possible, but that's just an idea and not so much a criticism. Well done!
--z3252005 06:40, 8 May 2010 (UTC) Hey Group 3. Your project explains this technique very well. However, as mentioned before I believe it would be better if you put the the process section after the history section and before the methods section. Just some other points to improve your project are:
- Make sure to reference both your student diagrams and the images you have used. You can see what to include for referencing in the editing basics section of the website.
- I think you may need some in-text references for the process section similar to your other sections
- Also I was wondering why you guys left out an advantage and disadvantage table from the Labeled StreptAvidin Biotin (LSAB) Method and just wrote up a paragraph for it instead?? I think that those tables are quite effective and you should use it for this method as well.
I really liked the way the tables were used. This page effectively explains this complex technique and all its variations. Overall this was project very good.
Hey guys. kinda hard to say something original here as everything seems to have been said below. The layout is quality. I agree with david and possibly leaving out he details on immune system in the intro. If you guys could link your glossary to the instances they are used, it would solve that problem. This would also enable you to extend the glossary for other terms and abbreviations which would make your project some kind of monster that consumes the marks of other projects.--z3253199 06:24, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
--David Williamson 04:42, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
- Only an opinion- but I wonder if the introduction could do without the details about the immune system, and leave the focus on immunohistochemistry?
- The student drawn diagrams are helpful. I'm not sure if he might penalise you for not making it more obvious that they're your own work though?
- I really like the way the page is written- it's clear and simple to understand even for people that aren't experts.
- I think the structure could be changed a little- to me it makes more sense to put history, then the generalised method, then the specific methods, then the notes about controls and blocking.
- The glossary is handy but I think it could do with some extra terms like all the abbreviations (PAP, ABC,LSAB etc). I know these are spelled out the first time they're mentioned which is good- but if someone skips ahead to a different section they might not know what they are.
- I think your reference list might need a little consolidation- like some of the same articles are given a few times, and I'm not sure if more detail is needed for the website references?
--z3256682 06:06, 6 May 2010 (UTC) Hi, Overall I'm very impressed with how your group has condensed many complicated methods into understandable concepts. The advantages tables are well constructed, however others may say that some of the advantage/disadvantage points you bring up aren't backuped by citations, however that didn't detract from your project for me. As per the previous posts, definitely look at proper referencing of your images. In terms of possible additions, you could consider adding future developments to tell us how this large field is progressing and its latest additions, if any (again, not a big issue). Apart from that, really quite excellent!
--Begum Sonmez 01:54, 6 May 2010 (UTC) Hey Group 3, here are my views on your project:
- Very well constructed Introduction. I liked the accompanying photo, though it needs to be properly refernced.
- The The Process section is simple and clear, which I liked. Though I would have liked to see the Process section above the Method section (not the history section).
- Good amount of Information, and consistent structure under History.
- My favourite part is the Methods section because of its consistency in structure and it's related accompanying pictures (which aided my understanding of the text). Although images must be referenced. Good use of colour. ALSO: The way the application has been integrated into the different Methods was an excellent idea. I have to say, 5STARS to this section.
Great Work Group 3.
Hey group 3!! Your project is pretty good. I really like the use of tables highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the methods. The page is a good length and it also has a lot of information, showing that you have done a lot of work on it. The only thing I feel you need to work on is the referencing of your images and also giving a description of what the images are about. --Emily Wong 10:23, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
I was thinking about the project and I think to make it easier we should break it up into sections and divide it amongst ourselves. I briefly looked up our topic and apart from the stuff like history and what it is used for, there seems to be a huge number of techniques which fall under this umbrella. One website listed all these techniques like direct method, indirect method, PAP method, ABC method, etc. Maybe should discuss tomorrow how much detail we want to go into without making this epic. Also, thought I should let you know, there has been a death in my family and I will be up north near the Gold Coast from Thursday till Sunday without internet access. If you need to contact me for anything email my zmail cause it gets forwarded to my phone so at least I can stay in contact if need be.
--Katiana Shaw 12:47, 23 March 2010 (UTC)
This is what was we have decided to do for our project, though I should put it into writing on this site.
Basic outline - including umbrella definition and uses. Here is a basic definition. "Immunohistochemistry is the localization of antigens or proteins in tissue sections by the use of labeled antibodies as specific reagents through antigen-antibody interactions that are visualized by a marker such as fluorescent dye, enzyme, or colloidal gold." - http://www.ihcworld.com/introduction.htm
History/Timeline - we should include when each of the methods we intend to talk about came into use, etc.
There are heaps of methods used - Choose 9, take 3 each and research what they are (briefly), what they involve, advantages and disadvantages, what research/papers this method has been used in, etc. Methods include: "Blocking, Controls, Direct Method, Indirect Method, PAP Method, ABC Method, LSAB Method, Polymeric Method, CSA Method, Sensitivity Chart" - http://www.ihcworld.com/introduction.htm
Section on current advances/breakthroughs
Also, to compare the methods we need to find a way to compare them in an easily understandable way, ie. table with ticks and crosses.
Lets spend the rest of this week deciding who gets what methods and post any information we find up here.
--Katiana Shaw 06:46, 31 March 2010 (UTC)
Hey guys, found ths site that lists information about the different methods. http://www.novusbio.com/support/how-to/perform-immunohistochemistry.html I was thinking I'll just take the first three methods (direct, indirect and PAP) and you two can decide what you want to do. I've already got a fair bit of information and have started writing bits of it. Would be really good if you guys can post on here what you have done just so that we're all on the same page with where this is going. Thanks! --Katiana Shaw 02:48, 7 April 2010 (UTC)
Found a basic timeline on the history; struggling to find more info on it.
This site is a google timeline. It has links to papers that have used immunohistochemisty in their research. Worth a look.
--z3219308 06:47, 11 April 2010 (UTC)
This is a great page on immunhistochemisty. http://www.mesotheliomaweb.org/immunohistochemistry.htm Gives a great definition and goes into detail about the process.
http://www.ihcworld.com/_intro/ihc-methods.htm This page gives a brief overview of each of the methods. What methods are you two doing?
--z3219308 06:53, 11 April 2010 (UTC)
Hello?? Ok so not sure what you guys are up to but you may notice I added some headings and have started writing the definition and all that. Finishing drafting my methods so will put those up in the next couple days and then we can keep adding to them and hopefully start adding the other methods and some pictures soon. --Katiana Shaw 10:40, 12 April 2010 (UTC)
hi guys, sorry for the extremely late response, been a bit caught up with things lately. ill take the ABC method, LSAB method and polymeric method. ill post up some work within the next week. --Julianna Lam 07:34, 17 April 2010 (UTC)
http://www.piercenet.com/Proteomics/browse.cfm?fldID=F95B91A9-3DC1-4B56-8E8D-59CA044A8BA7 this website has some information about ABC method and is also good because it lists the disadvantages and advantages of this method. --Julianna Lam 12:30, 17 April 2010 (UTC)
hi ive found this site based on the ABC method with 4 really good images explaining how it works. http://www.reactolab.ch/Vector/ABC%20Method.htm --Julianna Lam 09:53, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
Julianna - This whole thing is due by week 8 which is next week. It is being peer-assessed by everyone else and then we can fix it up but it generally has to be completed. Just telling you this cause you weren't there last week and that's when he told us though he had told us earlier in the semester. I think we should aim at having everything done by this weekend so that we can spend monday and tuesday next week fixing it up a little and adding pictures and all that. ALSO we have to include a diagram that we have drawn. Im thinking it might be good to draw a diagram about how immunohistochemistry works in general because once everyone gets that concept it is easier to understand the different methods. Also, you guys might notice that I have included references after the entries that I have done - that is because Mark told us he would show us how to include references so that it automatically made a reference list and I have no idea how to do it. Will ask him tomorrow if he can possibly show us. Jess what methods are you doing? --Katiana Shaw 05:28, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
thanks for letting me know. im writing up the ABC method now. so that section should be done by tonight. the other two methods i will work on during the week. i have no idea on how to do the reference thing either so yeh its probably a good idea to ask him tomorrow. anyways see you in class.
--Julianna Lam 06:43, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
Hey can you both read the process that I wrote up and read a couple of the sites that I had put on this page earlier and see if I have done that right. I'm still not entirely confident I understand the process properly, espcially with all the different methods. Thanks!!! --Katiana Shaw 06:10, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
Julianna - Have you got all your stuff ready to add??? This is getting peer-reviewed tomorrow! --Katiana Shaw 10:07, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
hey, yeh ive got all the information ready in a book that i borrowed. tomorrow i have three- four hours free before lab class and im going to write everything up. has jess got her stuff ready yet?--Julianna Lam 15:03, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
hey i've pretty much finished the intro, the process (though read over it), the history and my three methods. I went ahead and formatted it and I already formatted your advantages and disadvantages Julianna. I hope you dont mind. Basically just copy what I have done for the table and you should be able to copy it ok..took my a while to get the table looking normal and not all over the page. Of course fix any mistakes that you find in mine and i hope its all ok. See you soon! --Katiana Shaw 18:09, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
im having trouble adding pictures in, so ill paste the link onto the discussion page and we'll do it while we're in class, sorry for the late notice !!!--Julianna Lam 02:10, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
http://www.ihcworld.com/_intro/ihc-methods.htm http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC500802/pdf/jclinpath00268-0018.pdf --Julianna Lam 04:13, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
reference - diagnostic immunohistochemistry, david dabbs second edition
hi jess, can you please add in your work by next week's due date. either research on other methods used in immunohistochemistry or give some examples of it's applications or current research. thanks. --Julianna Lam 04:05, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
Hey jess, I'm getting a bit concerned that your part hasn't been uploaded yet. Would be really good if you could have it up before Wed so that Julianna and I can at least have a look and we are content as a group with what is being handed in to be peer reviewed. Also Julianna, do you reckon we should add more about uses of our methods? --Katiana Shaw 03:38, 3 May 2010 (UTC)
i think under each method we should give one example of how the method has been used? i'll try do that tonight or if not tomorrow. --Julianna Lam 03:54, 3 May 2010 (UTC)
i hope you're aware that i will be letting mark know that you havent contributed at all to this assignment if nothing is up by wednesday. --Julianna Lam 10:43, 3 May 2010 (UTC)
Ok Julianna, I will look into some examples. Will try to add them tonight, just to add a bit more. I'm worried that Jess wont add stuff... Do we have to do her part if she doesnt? I forgot to ask Mark what to do in this case...I'm trying to get into Masters, I cant get a bad mark for this otherwise my average will come down! --Katiana Shaw 08:21, 4 May 2010 (UTC)
girls, i will have the stuff up by tomorrow morning. I'm really sorry that I have yet to do it but last week I damaged my knee at hockey and its suspected that I'm going to need surgery. The last few days have been filled with doctors appointments and scans and such. I'm on cructhes and in a hell of a lot of pain. I will have my stuff done. It will be fine. I am really sorry it hasn't been put up yet, but it will be. --Jessie Tomkins 08:38, 4 May 2010 (UTC)
i think the length of our assignment is pretty much similiar to the rest of the groups so it should be fine. it would be good to add some examples, ill try find some information today before lab class. we still have a week or two after the peer assessment to fix everything up.--Julianna Lam 01:36, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
http://vet.sagepub.com/content/44/2/137.full --Julianna Lam 02:41, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
http://www.asianaoms.org/toc/v19n2p89.pdf--Julianna Lam 03:20, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
i added a section on sensitivity with a diagram i made. give it a read and tell me what you think? i'm not going to be at the lab today because of the whole crutches/swollen knee thing. can't drive or public transport it so makes getting there a bit hard! --Jessie Tomkins 06:17, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
Jess we have started peer assessment of each others projects. This is due next week. Basically you have to write your assessment of each group on their discussion page. Put your signature and follow it with your comment. NO changes can be made to our page from 5pm TODAY!!!! Anything you want to change or add has to wait until next week AFTER everyone has assessed our page. --Katiana Shaw 07:27, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
thanks for letting me know Katiana! i think i may have put a small amount of stuff up but i'm sure Mark will understand. I also have found a great picture for the CSA sectin, but how do I know if i can use it or not? let me know p.s what did i miss in the lab?--Jessie Tomkins 08:05, 5 May 2010 (UTC)


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I'm not affiliated with any religions, groups, camps or organizations. Unfortunately, in many churches the Old Testament is not being preached any more. That is a shame. The Bible is One Book. They have forgotten that the Church in the 1st Century AD had only the Old Testament and they preached the Messiah from the Old Testament.
That is what I plan to do on this Blog, to teach the TRUTH to all my Hebrew Israelites Brothers and especially to all my Sisters and Children, like a MOTHER would teach her Child/Children. I have researched and studied for the truth, using the 1611 King James Bible, Strong's Expanded Concordance and multiple of Historical Books. Also I've studied the Greek and Hebrew languages and writings and I believe that I've found the TRUTH, which has been hidden from our forefathers. Even though you may receive your foundation from a group, camp or organization, with all due respect, there is no group, camp or organization that anyone can join, everyone must seek the truth and decipher the information on their own. I hope my findings will help those who are sincerely searching for the truth. All Praises to the Most High Ahayah Bahasham Yashiya Wa Rawach!
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Mystery Babylon The Great is Fallen - America
Posted by Unknown at 7:06 AM
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text:
The designated operator of Italy, Poste Italiane, asks us to inform the designated operators of UPU member countries that, following the bridge collapse along the A10 toll motorway in Genoa, a strategic transport link to and from southern France and Spain, postal operations are disrupted as follows:
As from 14 August 2018:
Outbound – Internal flows from post offices directed to Lonate Gateway blocked in the Savona, Imperia and Genoa districts. Postcodes affected: from 16010 to 18100.
Outbound – Internal Export Box flows from SDA branch in Genoa directed to Lonate Gateway blocked. Postcodes affected: 16149 and 16151.
Inbound – Undelivered flows in area directly impacted by the accident. Postcodes affected: 16149 and 16151.
Inbound – Uncertain delivery in areas west of the accident. Postcodes affected: from 16152 to 16159.
As from 16 August 2018:
Inbound – Uncertain delivery in areas directly affected by the accident. Postcodes affected: 16149 and 16151.
These disruptions are affecting all mail products (letter post, parcel post and EMS items).
Poste Italiane thanks designated operators for their understanding; it will provide an update via EmIS once the situation returns to normal.


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Almond Oil Extraction Machine/Almond Oil Press Machine
Product Description
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text:
As others have pointed out, the so-called fiscal cliff maybe isn't the best metaphor to use in describing the current debate over the looming tax increases and spending cuts set to take place in the new year.
After all, when you jump off a cliff, you usually don't live to tell about it.
But that isn't necessarily the case in this debate. If tax rates go up and spending cuts go into effect after Dec. 31, Congress always has the ability to fix things retroactively at a later date.
Perhaps a better metaphor to use is the deadline for midterm paper -- you might fail your class or flunk out of school if you don't complete the paper on time, or you could successfully negotiate to turn it in a later date, or you could do other things to boost your grades and standing in school.
Another metaphor is the deadline for a collective-bargaining agreement in professional sports -- having the contract expire could mean the end to the football or hockey season, or the principals could eventually reach a deal (even if that means a shortened season).
So what happens -- and what doesn't -- if Congress, as it increasingly appears, fails to reach a fiscal deal before the new year?
On Christmas, the New York Times ran a good summary:
Some hits — like a two percentage point increase in payroll taxes and the end of unemployment benefits for more than two million jobless Americans — would be felt right away. But other effects, like tens of billions in automatic spending cuts, to include both military and other programs, would be spread out between now and the end of the 2013 fiscal year in September. These could quickly be reversed if a compromise is found.
Similarly, the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts on Jan. 1 would not have a major impact on consumers if Congress quickly agreed to extend them for all but the wealthiest Americans in early 2013, as is widely expected.
Other probable changes, like a jump in taxes on capital gains and dividends, would most likely be felt over a broader period rather than as an immediate blow to the economy.
So the world doesn't come to an end on Jan. 2 or Jan. 3. But the question will turn to: What does Congress and the Obama White House do to fix things and limit the damage?


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Pope considers new conclave rules, date uncertain
By NICOLE WINFIELD
The Associated Press
Pope Benedict XVI may enact a new law governing the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope amid continued uncertainty over when the voting can begin.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Wednesday that he didn't know for sure if the new law under consideration would address the timing of the conclave following Benedict's Feb. 28 resignation. He said it would contain some "clarifications" on certain points. But given the crush of interest surrounding the conclave date, it's likely to address the issue.
The current law says cardinals should wait 15 days after the papacy becomes vacant before launching a conclave to allow all eligible cardinals to arrive in Rome, making March 15 the presumed start. That delay, however, assumed a papal death and funeral. In this case, the cardinals already know that this pontificate will end Feb. 28 and can get to Rome in plenty of time to take part in the conclave.
Some canonists and scholars have said the current rules allow for some wiggle room on the 15-day wait given that most if not all the cardinals will already be in Rome for Benedict's final general audience Feb. 27 and his farewell meeting with cardinals on Feb. 28.
"The document says that the cardinals present in Rome must wait 15 days for the arrival of the others," noted Ambrogio Piazzoni, the vice prefect of the Vatican library. "That can mean that if the cardinals all arrive before the 15 days there is no need to wait. The phrase 'must wait' doesn't say that you can't start before 15 days."
However, leading U.S. canonist Edward Peters, an adviser to the Vatican high court, welcomed word that the pope himself might intervene.
"Advancing the conclave start-date would make obvious good sense, but actually doing so on anything less than express papal authority raises serious canonical and even ecclesiological problems," he said on his blog.
The date of the conclave's start is important because Holy Week begins March 24, with Palm Sunday Mass followed by Easter Sunday on March 31. In order to have a new pope in place in time for the most solemn liturgical period on the church calendar, he would need to be installed by Sunday, March 17, because of the strong tradition to hold installation Mass on a Sunday. Given the tight time-frame, speculation has mounted that some arrangement would be made to start the conclave on March 10 or thereabouts, earlier than a strict reading of the law would allow.


text: ? ASHTA Chemicals | Potassium Hydroxide | KOH | Chlorine | CL2 Great people working with great care to bring great products to our customers. Product Information Chloropicrin Chlorine, Liquid Potassium Carbonate, Anhydrous Potassium Carbonate, Liquid Potassium Hydroxide, Liquid45-50% Potassium Hydroxide, Solid (Flake or Walnut) SDS Chloropicrin Chlorine, Liquid Hydrochloric Acid K-Blend Potassium Carbonate, Anhydrous Potassium Carbonate, Liquid Potassium Hydroxide, Liquid 45-50% Potassium Hydroxide, Solid(Flake or Walnut) Sulfuric Acid, Spent Other Forms & Documents ISO Certification Kosher Certificate NSF Statement RCMS Certification home a supplier who excels world-class expertise unmatched customer service superior supply channel our products are all around you a neighbor who cares ASHTA and the environment how we protect you and the environment the benefits we bring to the community a passion for great people why ASHTA? your strengths are our strengths employment opportunities about us vision statement business discipline FAQs contact us locations contacts order FAQs news Product Safety & Stewardship May 24, 2016 - Responsible Care Guiding PrinciplesFebruary 17, 2016 - CALIFORNIA TRANSPARENCY IN SUPPLY CHAINS ACT OF 2010 View All >>> ASHTA is a leading manufacturer and marketer of: Anhydrous Potassium Carbonate (APC) Liquid Potassium Carbonate (LPC) Chloropicrin (ASHTA Gold™) Hydrochloric Acid (HCI) Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) Chlorine (Cl2) We may be a small company, but we're great to do business with. We're caring, responsible neighbors. And we're an extraordinary team to build one's career with. We invite you to explore our website and find out who we are, what we do, and how we do it. We think you'll discover for yourself that ASHTA's people make a very important contribution in your lives, your communities, and your businesses. What we do is vital to the health and wellbeing of the people who use products made from our chemicals. We take this job very seriously, and have made it our primary mission to bring the highest caliber of expert knowledge, environmental safeguards, chemical production standards, and safety procedures to every facet of our manufacturing and distribution process. We have achieved this mission by recruiting, training, and retaining the industry's finest people to produce our products, serve our customers, and protect our consumers. It's the people of ASHTA that enable us to be the best supplier of potassium based products in the marketplace. home a supplier who excels a neighbor who cares a passion for great people about us contact us terms of use privacy statement ASHTA Chemicals Inc. 3509 Middle Road, Ashtabula, OH 44004. 800-344-8820 or 440-997-5221. Customer Service – 800-492-5082 Fax – 440-992-0151 Copyright © 2018 ASHTA Chemicals, Inc. - Website Design by WebRiver


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We explain your home insulation options.
POA stands for "price on application". Some manufacturers don't supply estimates of price per m² for their products, so you may have to ask in-store. A few of these products can only be installed by specialists, so installation cost is tied up with product cost – these specialists should usually provide free quotes.
We've reviewed the ClimaFoam XPS Board 40mm R-1.5 300kPa to see how well it performs in these categories:
Get access to review


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Philosophy (PHIL)
151 Introduction to Philosophy (3) Introduction to ethics, political philosophy, epistemology and metaphysics through study of selected writings of classical and modern philosophers. F10, S11, F11, S12
175 Philosophy of Religion (3) Examination of the religious dimension of human experience. Topics include the nature of religion as an aspect of human experience, an introductory study of the major religious traditions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and others), and traditional philosophical problems, such as the existence of God, the problem of evil, and the possibility of immortality. S11, S12
211 Contemporary Moral Problems (3) Introductory course in social ethics examining a variety of ethical problems and social policy questions debated in American society today. Discussions explore topics such as sexual morality, capital punishment, euthanasia and infanticide, racial and sexual discrimination, and problems of censorship in a democratic society. Special attention given to the nature and logical structure of moral argument. F10, F11
212 Critical Thinking (3) Basic elements and common patterns of argument. Inductive and deductive modes of thought are explored with emphasis on the concepts and principles of correct reasoning. Designed to assist students to understand and evaluate ordinary arguments and to develop skills in constructing arguments in the spoken and written word. Cross-listed as PSYC 212.
214 Elementary Symbolic Logic (3) Introduction to logic that presupposes no previous study of logic. Students learn to recognize common patterns of reasoning and how to determine the validity or invalidity of those patterns. S12
262 Introduction to Political Theory (3) What rules and institutions should govern human social existence? Introduces students to basic issues in political theory through consideration of a particular position or topic of current importance. Cross-listed as POLS 262. F10, F11
300 History and Philosophy of Science (3) Examines the nature of science, the history of science, and the nature and history of the impact of science on human life and thought. Provides some understanding of the methods of science, the difference between science and pseudo science, the political and ideological uses of science, and the moral responsibilities of scientists and science educators. Cross-listed as PHYS 300. S11, S12
301 Study Abroad (0-6) Field trips designed by department faculty to give students direct experiences in foreign countries. Each program includes preparatory reading, orientation meetings, a faculty-supervised study tour, and a detailed written evaluation of learning situations associated with the course. With consent of the relevant program and content adaptation, programs provided by other agencies can be considered for this credit. Students must obtain approval for taking these courses prior to participation. Otherwise the course may not count. For specific degree requirements, consult your advisor. Course can be repeated only if the content is different.
303 Environmental Law and Regulation (3) Explores the ethics of and inter-relationships between environmental issues and governmental action, as well as conversation, preservation and management of natural resources through public policy relation to government and the role of morality and legislation in matters of individual choice. Cross-listed as LSTU 303, POLS 303.
351 Selected Topics (3) In-depth study of a particular problem, philosopher or period of current interest. May be repeated for up to nine credits provided topics are different. F10, F11
354 Introduction to Jurisprudence (3) History of philosophical consideration of law, its means and ends; focus on special problems in contemporary legal philosophy such as conflicting theories of punishment, the natural law/positivist debate, individual rights in relation to government and the role of morality and legislation in matters of individual choice. Cross-listed as LSTU 354; POLS 354. F10
455 Modern Political Philosophy (3) Survey of political thought from Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes to contemporary political theorists. Cross-listed as POLS 455. S11
456 Feminist Theory and Action (3) Seminar course providing a deeper look at feminist thought, building on the introduction provided in WST 150. Through readings and films, examines conversations, controversies, and connections among a range of feminist thinkers. Students explore the intersections of feminist thought and action, reading a variety of calls to action and articulating their own. Prerequisites: WST 150 or permission of instructor. Cross-listed as WST 456.
490/690 Independent Study (1-3) Individually supervised reading and study of a topic or problem of student interest. A paper is required. Prior permission of instructor required. Offered every term on demand and with permission of instructor.


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Songza CEO/Mets fan lectures at Fan Cave U event
NEW YORK -- I've got the MLB.com At Bat, At the Ballpark, Beat the Streak presented by Dunkin' Donuts, and MLB.com Home Run Derby apps all prominently positioned on the home screen of my iPhone. In my world, they are the Fab Four, the top of the mobile order as a way of life.
On Thursday night at the MLB Fan Cave, I showed my iPhone to Elias Roman, a Mets fan born and raised in Queens, who was there as guest lecturer for a monthly MLB Fan Cave University event. As CEO and co-founder of the popular Songza free music concierge service, Roman was pleased to see the blue icon with its familiar monster logo and letter "S" for Songza -- the fifth app in my order.
"The future of music is not about content, it's about context," Roman said. "People use music to make whatever they are doing better -- make waking up better, working out better, entertaining better. Songza directly answers the question: 'What soundtrack makes right now better?' We believe that's the future of music."
On this baseball night, the six uber "moods" Songza's Concierge was displaying for me "right now" were Bedtime, Unwinding, Brand New Music, A Sweet Dance Party, Working Out, Love & Romance. As Songza users know, each mood then has a subset of diverse playlists that address that mood. "Shouldn't there be a Watching Baseball mood?" I asked him. A light bulb went on and Roman said:
"We're showing a user the three playlists based on their preference. So we'd make 10, and then show just the best three. I think we'd probably do Classic Americana, we'd sort of do like Stadium Anthem Rock, a couple others like that that are good for watching sports like baseball."
Songza is based in Queens, and Roman said there is a definite baseball flavor in the office. "Two of my co-founders are from D.C.," he said, "so we have a little bit of a conflict. But it's a real treat to be able to build this business in the backyard of the Mets."
Those two-co-founders are Elliott Breece and Peter Asbill, and the fourth co-founder is Eric Davich. Roman and his friends started AmieStreet.com while studying at Brown, where he graduated magna cum laude. They sold it to Amazon and "doubled down" to grow Songza, and Amazon is among its backers. Roman said when he and his co-founders flew to Seattle and met with Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, there were two main takeaways:
"First, he told us that we reminded him of himself when he was getting started," Roman said. "Second, he told us we need to make big changes to our business model."
It was exactly what they needed to hear. Based largely on what followed that meeting, Roman gives this answer when asked if he has one tip for entrepreneurs:
"The single most important thing for a young entrepreneur is to fall in love with your problem, not with your solution. We've had so many different iterations of Songza over the years as we've collected datapoints, but we've been able to iterate successfully because we were in love with solving a problem. Problems don't change, solutions change. So even though it's very much your baby when building a company, you have to adapt to whatever new information you have that will help you solve that problem you set out to solve, better."
Asked about Songza's exit strategy, Roman said: "I think we hope it will be even bigger. But we were really excited about bringing this new approach to music. Too often people have to decide for themselves what music to put on. And it's a pain point. If you talk to someone about how they use other services, they acknowledge they have to do mental math to figure out which artist makes sense for their barbecue or their workout. So we came into this feeling that there's a real problem that we're going to be able to solve for people, and it will be really popular as a result."
Roman said the hottest Songza playlists right now might be American Primitivism (guitar) and Epic Film Scores.
"American Primitivism is really soothing when you're trying to concentrate and you don't want musical lyrics. Same with Epic Film Scores," he said. "If you're doing data entry to 'The Last of the Mohicans' soundtrack, it's awesome. It's context. We're thinking about people at work, we all need to feel more soothing at times, and that's sort of motivating but not distracting."
Most people want to know who decides Songza's playlists and how the songs originate. But the bigger question is, how does Songza know what I want to listen to?
"We have 50 music experts," Roman said. "These are ethnomusicologists, DJs, musicians, music critics, who spend all day thinking about the things that our users are doing. And what soundtracks, whether it's music the user has ever heard of before, will make it better. And then we have a layer of optimization, algorithms that decide for a given person based on the day of the week, time of day, the device, IP address, all of their preferences we have observed over time, which thing it is that we want to show them that our experts have curated.
"So it's a real hybrid, a sort of happy meeting of expert manual curation and algorithmic optimization. That's how we figure out what people need at any given moment."
Can baseball playlists be far behind? Right now, you can find your favorite players' walk-up music via the At the Ballpark app, and then click the song for an easy download at iTunes.
"Absolutely," Roman said. "One of the things I'd love to start doing with baseball players is to create playlists -- curated by them, of the music they listen to to get pumped up, music they listen to to get through training. For their fans, when they are working out, too, it would be really cool to sort of listen to their iPod."