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Descendants of Micajah Mobley Generation No. 1 1. MICAJAH6 MOBLEY (ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born Abt. 1760, and died October 31, 1840 in Fairfield Co., S.C.. He married (1) ELIZABETH MOBLEY Abt. 1785 in Fairfield Co., S. C., daughter of WILLIAM MOBLEY and ANNE OSBORNE. He married (2) ELIZABETH MOBERLY Abt. 1786 in Fairfield Co., SC,, daughter of WILLIAM MOBLEY and ANNE OSBORNE. Notes for MICAJAH MOBLEY: The information on Micajah Mobley and his descendants came from: " Hill & Hill-Moberly Connections of Fairfield County, S. C." ******** Revolutionary War records, microfilm 804 & 1746 [Davine Campbell, 11/11/89] Micajah Mobley - South Carolina No. R. 7289 The State of South Carolina - Union Dist.] In the Court of Orinary On this the 20th Day of April in the year 1846 personally appeared Thomas Mobley of the Said State and District, age 54 years, who first being duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declarations in order to obtain the benefit (as one of the heirs at Law of Micajah Mobley deceased) of theprovision made by the Act of Congress passed 6-7-1832. That he, the said Thomas Mobley is the only son of Micajah Mobley, a Revolutionary soldier, That the MICAJAH MOBLEY, departed this life in Fairfield District, on the 28th day of October in the year 1840, at the age of 80 years as the deceased informed this deponent some time before his death. Deponent further states that the said MICAJAH MOBLEY left at his death, the following children, him surviving as his heirs at Law. To Wit: This peponent residing in Union Disrict, South Carona (Thomas Mobley=(1)) (2) Rebecca Mobley, wife of John Meador, who resided in the District of Fairfield in the said State, but since the death of the said MICAJAH MOBLEY, the said Rebecca deparated this life at the age of nearly sixty years, leaving six children her heirs at Law her surviving, the six children live: one in Union District, one in Chester Dist, and the other four in Fairfield Dist. in the said State, all of whom are over the age of 21 years. The said MICAJAH MOBLEY at his death left him surviving (3) Dorcas Mobley about fifty-two years of age, now the wife of William Mobley, residing in Fairfield Dist, another daughter (4) Jemima Mobley, aged about forty-nine (49) years of age, now the wife of William Wright, residing in Gwinnett Co., in the State of Georgia. One other daughter - (5) Susannah Mobley aged about forth-six (46) years, now the wife of William Farrow (Farrar?), residing in Fairfield District in the State of South Carolina. One other daughter (6) Mary Mobley who died before her father and left two children named Mary Hill, and William Hill who now survive and reside in Fairfield District in the State of South Carolina, both under the age of 21 years. These are all the heirs at Law which the said MICAJAH MOBLEY left at his death to wit: one son, (this deponent) and Rebecca (who died since the decease of the ancestor) & Dorcas, Jemima & Susannah who are still alive, and Mary the wife of Asaph Hill, who died before the ancestor, leaving her children who still survive as above stated, Mary Hill and William Hill. This deponent states that he has often heard his father MICAJAH MOBLEY speak of his Revoluionary services, that he has often seen upon his father's leg a scar of a severe wound which he said he received from a musket ball in the Battle of Eutaw Springs and that he has always heard it said in the family and has heard his father say so too, that at the same battle, he received another severe wound in the left side, has heard his father say that he was twelve months in the army of the Revolution at one time and that he served part of the time under the immediate command of Colonel Lyles who is now dead. This deponent further states that he has often heard his father say how he entered the army of the Revolution-: That he was in his field at work, that a party of Tories came suddenly upon him and took him prisoner and then hurried him off to the Brittish Army in the neighborhood of Charleston. That while a prisoner he took the small pox, and even while sick, he made his escape and on his way home, he met with General Hampton, who gave him a piece of writing in the nature of a pass, that he might be recognized and assisted by the Whig Scouts. That he reached home in safety and that about three weeks afterwards, he was drafted and entered the army. Thos. Mobley Sworn to and subscribed before me in Open Court, in the Court of Ordinary for Union District this 20th day of April 1846. J.I. Pratt, Judge of the Court of Ordinary, Union Dist. South Carolina Children of MICAJAH MOBLEY and ELIZABETH MOBLEY are: 2. i. THOMAS7 MOBLEY, b. Abt. 1790, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. Abt. 1846, Fairfield Co., S.C.. 3. ii. DORCAS MOBLEY, b. September 05, 1792, Fairfield Co., SC,; d. March 18, 1870, Fairfield Co., SC,. iii. JEMIMAH MOBLEY, b. Abt. 1797, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. Abt. 1846, Georgia; m. WILLIAM WRIGHT. iv. SUSANNAH MOBLEY, b. Abt. 1800, Fairfield Co., SC; d. Abt. 1847, Fairfield Co., S.C.; m. WILLIAM FARRAR, August 25, 1839, Fairfield Co., S.C.. 4. v. MARY ELIZABETH MOBLEY, b. Abt. 1802; d. Bef. 1840, Fairfield Co., S.C.. Child of MICAJAH MOBLEY and ELIZABETH MOBERLY is: 5. vi. REBECCA7 MOBLEY, b. Abt. 1788, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. 1845-1855, Fairfield Co., S.C.. Generation No. 2 2. THOMAS7 MOBLEY (MICAJAH6, ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born Abt. 1790 in Fairfield Co., S.C., and died Abt. 1846 in Fairfield Co., S.C.. He married MARY MABRY Abt. 1818 in Fairfield Co., S. C., daughter of DANIEL MABRY and LOUISA MOBLEY. Children of THOMAS MOBLEY and MARY MABRY are: i. MARY8 MOBLEY, b. Abt. 1819, Fairfield Co., S. C.; m. GILES CHAPMAN. 6. ii. LOUISA THOMPSON MOBLEY, b. December 08, 1820, Fairfield Co., S. C.; d. January 15, 1855, Fairfield Co., S. C.. iii. CHARLOTTE JANE MOBLEY. iv. CISCILEY MOBLEY, m. SIMS. v. SUSANNAH MOBLEY, m. BROWN. vi. JEMIMA FRANCES MOBLEY, b. 1821; d. 1872, Spartanburg, S. C.. vii. CAROLINA MOBLEY. viii. ISAAC M. MOBLEY. ix. JOSEPH H. MOBLEY. x. JOSEPHINE MOBLEY. 3. DORCAS7 MOBLEY (MICAJAH6, ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born September 05, 1792 in Fairfield Co., SC,, and died March 18, 1870 in Fairfield Co., SC,. She married WILLIAM M. MOBLEY Abt. 1817 in Faifield Co., SC,, son of CULLEN MOBLEY and KEZIAH MOBERLY. Notes for WILLIAM M. MOBLEY: William M. Mobley's Will, 1848, recorded Vol. 3, p. 313: Named wife Dorcas, brother Biggers Mobley, and "sisters, or their children," nephews Daniel R. Meador, and Berryman H. Weathers {last two were executors}, Witnesses: Jacob Feaster, Jr., Isham Mobley, Isaac Mobley. Children of DORCAS MOBLEY and WILLIAM MOBLEY are: i. EMMA8 MOBLEY, b. October 19, 1818, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. December 28, 1834, Fairfield Co., S.C.. ii. EMILY MOBLEY, b. February 07, 1820, Fairfield Co., SC,; d. January 03, 1833, Fairfield Co., S.C.. iii. CELITHA MOBLEY, b. December 21, 1829, Fairfield Co., SC,; d. February 02, 1848, Fairfield Co., SC,. iv. DORCAS MOBLEY, b. November 27, 1832; d. December 12, 1845, Faifield Co., SC,. 4. MARY ELIZABETH7 MOBLEY (MICAJAH6, ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born Abt. 1802, and died Bef. 1840 in Fairfield Co., S.C.. She married (1) ASAPH HILL in Faifield Co., SC. She married (2) WILLIAM HILL. Children of MARY MOBLEY and ASAPH HILL are: i. MARY8 HILL, b. 1825-1835. ii. WILLIAM HILL, b. 1825-1835. 5. REBECCA7 MOBLEY (MICAJAH6, ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born Abt. 1788 in Fairfield Co., S.C., and died 1845-1855 in Fairfield Co., S.C.. She married JOHN MEADOR 1806-1810 in Fairfield Co., S.C., son of JOB MEADOR and ELIZABETH MOBERLY. Children of REBECCA MOBLEY and JOHN MEADOR are: 7. i. MEREDITH P.8 MEADOR, d. June 1856, Fairfield Co., S. C.. ii. ELIZABETH MEADOR. iii. JOHN MEADOR, JR.. iv. SUSANNAH MEADOR, m. BERRYMAN H. WEATHERS. v. DANIEL RION MEADOR, b. October 05, 1815, Fairfield Co., S. C.; d. November 02, 1861, Fairfield Co., S. C.; m. EMILY R.. Notes for DANIEL RION MEADOR: Daniel Rion Meador and Emily R. Meador are both buried in the William M. Mobley Cemetery, Feasterville Section, Fairfield Co., S. C. (The above from notes appearing in the Milton Mobley Genealogy of the Mobleys) Generation No. 3 6. LOUISA THOMPSON8 MOBLEY (THOMAS7, MICAJAH6, ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born December 08, 1820 in Fairfield Co., S. C., and died January 15, 1855 in Fairfield Co., S. C.. She married BRITTAIN MATHIS CHAPMAN Abt. 1838 in Fairfield Co., S. C.. Child of LOUISA MOBLEY and BRITTAIN CHAPMAN is: i. SARAH ELIZABETH9 CHAPMAN, b. June 21, 1839; d. January 07, 1890; m. CHARLES MOORE, SR.. 7. MEREDITH P.8 MEADOR (REBECCA7 MOBLEY, MICAJAH6, ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) died June 1856 in Fairfield Co., S. C.. He married SYLVIA COLEMAN CHAPMAN. Children of MEREDITH MEADOR and SYLVIA CHAPMAN are: i. URBAN W.9 MEADOR. ii. LOUISA CAROLINE MEADOR. iii. MARY ANN REBECCA MEADOR, b. July 19, 1831, Fairfield Co., S. C.; d. March 11, 1879, Fairfield Co., S. C.; m. JACOB FEASTER COLEMAN, February 22, 1848, Fairfield Co., S.C.. Descendants of Cullen Mobley Generation No. 1 1. CULLEN6 MOBLEY (ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born Abt. 1759 in Fairfield Co., S.C., and died Abt. 1840 in Fairfield Co., S.C.. He married KEZIAH MOBERLY in Fairfield Co., S.C., daughter of WILLIAM MOBLEY and ANNE OSBORNE. Notes for CULLEN MOBLEY: Cullen Mobley served in the American Revolution, according to Ederington's History of Fairfield Co., S.C., and a list supplied by Keith Mobley of the Mobleys who served in wars. The DAR, however, informed me that they have no record of his (Cullen's) serivce. The following is the copy of a Deed in which 134 1/2 acres are conveyed from Cullen Mobley to his son Biggars Mobley, on August 5th, 1833. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Cullen Mobley } deed to } 134 1/2 acres Biggars Mobley } South Carolina } Fairfield District } I certify that the within Deed is recorded in book L.L. page 29 August 5th, 1833. J. Elliot R M C The State of South Carolina Know all me by these presents that I, Cullen Mobley of the District of Fairfield and State aforesaid, for in consideration of the natural love and affection I bear my son Biggars Mobley and divers other causes and considerations moving me thereunto, have granted and released (?) and by these presents do grant and release unto the aforesaid Biggars Mobley all that plantation on tract of land where on I now live containing one hundred and thirty five 1/4 acres more or less originally granted to David Hopkins on the...........day of........ Said land situate in Fairfield District on the Middle fork of Beaver Creek waters of Broad River, having such form and shape butting and boundings as a platt made by Ferdinand Hopkins on the 26th day of March 1809, by refering thereto will more fully and at larger appear.....To geather with all and singular the rights member heradittments and appurtenances to the said premises belonging to or in any wise incident or appertaining.......To have and to hold the aforesaid premises unto my son the aforesaid Biggars Mobley, his heirs and assigns forever..and I the aforesaid Cullin Mobley do hereby bind myself my heirs, Executors and administrators to warrant and forever defend the aforesaid premises to the aforesaid Biggars Mobley his heirs and assigns and against my self and my heirs Executors and administrators and against every other person or persons whomsoever sawfully claiming or to claim the same or any parte or parcel thereof. In witness I have hereunto set my hand and Seal this the 24th day of April one thousand and Eight hundred and Thirty three. Signd and Seald acknowledged and delivered in the presence of us.... his Meredith M. Meador Cullen X Mobley William M. Mobley mark (On back) South Carolina Fairfield District. Personally appeared William M. Mobley before me the Subscribing (?) Justice and makes oath that he saw Cullin Mobley make his X mark. Seal acknowledge and deliver the within deed or conveyance to Biggars Mobley for the use and purpose within mentioned that he the deponet with Meredith M. Meador in the presence of each other signd their names as witnesses to the due execution thereof. William M. Mobley Sworn to and subscribed to this 31st of July 1833 before me Jacob Feaster, Jr., J. P. Children of CULLEN MOBLEY and KEZIAH MOBERLY are: i. AMEY7 MOBLEY, b. Fairfield Co., S.C.,; d. Fairfield Co., S.C.,; m. MOSES MOBLEY. ii. LUCINDA MOBLEY, m. LARKIN MOBLEY. iii. MARY MOBLEY. iv. NANCY MOBLEY, b. Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. Faifield Co., SC, ??; m. ELLISON MITCHELL. 2. v. SUSANNAH MOBLEY, b. Faifield Co., SC,; d. Fairfield Co., S.C.,. 3. vi. WILLIAM M. MOBLEY, b. October 12, 1794. 4. vii. ELIZABETH MOBLEY, b. Abt. 1797, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. 1860-1870, Fairfield Co., S.C.. 5. viii. BIGGERS MOBLEY, b. Abt. 1799, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. Abt. 1861, Fairfield Co., S.C.. Generation No. 2 2. SUSANNAH7 MOBLEY (CULLEN6, ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born in Faifield Co., SC,, and died in Fairfield Co., S.C.,. She married RICHARD M. HILL, son of JOHN HILL and MARY MOBLEY. Children of SUSANNAH MOBLEY and RICHARD HILL are: i. THOMAS J.8 HILL. ii. ELIZABETH M. HILL. iii. JOHN HILL. iv. CHARLES HILL. v. NAOMI HILL, m. PATRICK BRENNAN. vi. DORCAS HILL, m. TURNER MASON. vii. NANCY HILL, m. SAMUEL HILL ?. 3. WILLIAM M.7 MOBLEY (CULLEN6, ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born October 12, 1794. He married DORCAS MOBLEY Abt. 1817 in Faifield Co., SC,, daughter of MICAJAH MOBLEY and ELIZABETH MOBLEY. Notes for WILLIAM M. MOBLEY: William M. Mobley's Will, 1848, recorded Vol. 3, p. 313: Named wife Dorcas, brother Biggers Mobley, and "sisters, or their children," nephews Daniel R. Meador, and Berryman H. Weathers {last two were executors}, Witnesses: Jacob Feaster, Jr., Isham Mobley, Isaac Mobley. Children of WILLIAM MOBLEY and DORCAS MOBLEY are: i. EMMA8 MOBLEY, b. October 19, 1818, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. December 28, 1834, Fairfield Co., S.C.. ii. EMILY MOBLEY, b. February 07, 1820, Fairfield Co., SC,; d. January 03, 1833, Fairfield Co., S.C.. iii. CELITHA MOBLEY, b. December 21, 1829, Fairfield Co., SC,; d. February 02, 1848, Fairfield Co., SC,. iv. DORCAS MOBLEY, b. November 27, 1832; d. December 12, 1845, Faifield Co., SC,. 4. ELIZABETH7 MOBLEY (CULLEN6, ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born Abt. 1797 in Fairfield Co., S.C., and died 1860-1870 in Fairfield Co., S.C.. She married SIMEON HILL January 22, 1817 in Fairfield Co., S.C., son of RICHARD HILL and MARY MOBLEY. Children of ELIZABETH MOBLEY and SIMEON HILL are: i. ZION8 HILL, b. Abt. 1818. ii. JETHRO HILL, b. Abt. 1819. iii. MARY HILL, b. Abt. March 17, 1820. iv. ALEXANDER A. HILL, b. Abt. 1822. v. JEHEW HILL, b. June 01, 1827. vi. SIMEON ALEXANDER HILL, b. January 07, 1829. vii. WILLIAM E.M. HILL, b. Abt. 1831. 5. BIGGERS7 MOBLEY (CULLEN6, ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born Abt. 1799 in Fairfield Co., S.C., and died Abt. 1861 in Fairfield Co., S.C.. He married FRANCES DAVIS Abt. 1833 in Fairfield Co., S.C., daughter of CALEB DAVIS and UNKNOWN. Notes for FRANCES DAVIS: In the book,"Fairfield Co., Marriages Implied in Probate Records", p 82, under: Mobley, Biggers.........Frances Davis (daughter of Caleb Davis) Apt 2, File 412, Frames 232,233,240, lived 1852 This is verification that Frances is indeed the daughter of Caleb Davis. In the 1880 Census, Frances Mobley is listed as being 70 years old. (widow) With her were living: Tohmpson , W - F - age 32 dtr (spelling as per Census) Elizabeth, W- F- age 30 dtr I am not positive that this Frances Mobley is the widow of Biggers Mobley, but it seems probable. The two daughters living with her could be Drucilla L.T. and Elizabeth (Lizzie). Drucilla signed her name L.T.D. Dye on some papers, and Elizabeth signed her name Lizzie. The "T" could be "Tohmpson" or more likely Thomasina, given the way census takers wrote things down. Could it be: Louisa Thomasina Drucilla Mobley? Both Aunt Dru and Aunt Pet married late in life, perhaps after their mother died. My mother Maude M. Dickerson Brannon knew Aunt Pet very well, and said that she married "ole Tom Dye" very late in her life. Children of BIGGERS MOBLEY and FRANCES DAVIS are: i. IRENEA HARRIET8 MOBLEY, b. Abt. 1835, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. Fairfield Co., S.C.; m. JETHRO HILL, Fairfield Co., S.C.. ii. DULCENEA MOBLEY, b. May 06, 1839, Fairfield Co., SC; d. September 23, 1925, Fairfield Co., SC; m. WILLIAM KERR, August 31, 1858, Fairfield Co., S.C.. Notes for DULCENEA MOBLEY: Dulcinea (Dulcina on tombstone). Her burial place is in the historic Cool Branch Baptist Church Cemetery, which is located in the N.W. Corner of Fairfield Co., SC. Her two sisters, both of whom married Dyes, are also buried there. Drucy (Drucilla) and Lizzie (Louise Elizabeth) have a double headstone. There is no date given for the death of Lizzie, so it is assumed that she died a few years after Drucy. My mother, Maude Dickerson Brannon remembers Drucy being called "Aunt Dru". Her sister Lizzie was called "Aunt Pet". I believe mama said Aunt Pet married a Thomas Dye. She was quite old even then, and outlived Tom Dye, who, mama said, married Aunt Pet to get her land when she died. HaHa. Those Dickersons and Mobleys (Moberly) were a long-lived people. Mama is now age 95, (1997) being born in 1902 in Fairfield Co., Shelton area. iii. ROWENA MOBLEY, b. Abt. 1837; m. SIMS. iv. BETHENIA DORCAS MOBLEY, b. Abt. 1841; m. WOODWARD. 6. v. ISABEL ARMENIA MOBLEY, b. January 18, 1842, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. March 09, 1924, Fairfield Co., S.C.. vi. DRUCILLA L.T. (AUNT DRU) MOBLEY, b. July 06, 1844, Fairfield Co., SC; d. October 11, 1916, Faifield Co., SC; m. EDWARD DYE??, Aft. 1880, Faifield Co., SC. Notes for DRUCILLA L.T. (AUNT DRU) MOBLEY: Drucilla Mobley married ( I believe) Edward Dye who died before 1889. Her sister, Elizabeth, (Lizzie) married Thomas Dye when they were both quite old, and both husbands died before the women. After the death of the husbands the sisters lived together. My mother remembers "Aunt Dru" and "Aunt Pet", and said that ole Tom Dye married Aunt Pet, hoping to get her land, but she outlived him. I remember going,with my brother Forest, and cousin Dellie Boulware, down to see "Aunt Pet" when we were children. She was real old then. (In the early 30's) In the Cool Branch Baptist Church Cemetery in the N.W. corner of Fairfield Co., the sisters are buried side by side, beneath a single headstone, with the name "Dye" centered over their names. There is a birth and death date for Drucilla, but only a birth date for Elizabeth (Lizzie). (We figure she was "raptured".)Return to Fairfield SCGenWeb
Both sisters signed a note dated November 9, 1889. The signatures (actually "X"'s) were " L.T.D.Dye, and L.E. Mobley" . Thomas E. Dye was a witness, and he later married L.E. (Elizabeth, Lizzie, "Aunt Pet"). vii. ELIZABETH LOUISE (AUNT PET) MOBLEY, b. July 29, 1846, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. Abt. 1932, Fairfield Co., S.C.; m. THOMAS E. DYE, 1890-1895, Faifield Co., SC. Notes for ELIZABETH LOUISE (AUNT PET) MOBLEY: See the Notes for Drucilla Mobley, her sister. Generation No. 3 6. ISABEL ARMENIA8 MOBLEY (BIGGERS7, CULLEN6, ALEXANDER5, HAMMOND4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1 MOBBERLYI) was born January 18, 1842 in Fairfield Co., S.C.1, and died March 09, 1924 in Fairfield Co., S.C.2. She married MARION ALEXANDER (MEL) DICKERSON Abt. 1866 in Shelton, Fairfield Co., S.C., son of BENJAMIN DICKERSON and MILLIE LYLES. Notes for MARION ALEXANDER (MEL) DICKERSON: Mel (Marion A.) Dickerson was born near Shelton in the northwest section of Fairfield Co., S.C., and at the age of 26 he joined the CSA forces on December 14, 1961, along with brothers John and Hiram. They served in the 17th Inf., Co. B under Capt. Burley. Marion was wounded slightly at the 2nd Battle of Manassas, and captured at Five Forks on April 01, 1865. He was released June 26, 1865. On his Oath of Allegiance to the U.S. Government he is dscribed as: light complexion, brown hair, hazel eyes, 6' l 1/2". Both Mel (as Marion was known to his family) and wife Isabel Mobley (Armenia Isabella) are buried at Cool Branch Baptist Church in the N.W. corner of Fairfield Co., S.C., on Route 215-S. His headstone has no dates, only the CSA Star. My mother, Maude Malinda Dickerson Brannon tells me that Cool Branch is a Dickerson church, founded by that family. The one standing today is the second; the first was located a mile or so to the north, down a road to the left. It is there that Benjamin and Millie are probably buried. We have not found the cemetery as yet. The land on which the first church stood was donated by James F.V. Legg who was the second husband of Malinda Dickerson McConnell. The land evidently had been owned by Andrew McConnell, and after his death went to his widow Malinda, but was J.F.V. Legg's after his marriage to her. Aunt Malinda outlived him, however, and mother remembers going up to her big old house, and in it was a "blue room". Children of ISABEL MOBLEY and MARION DICKERSON are: i. JAMES BUTLER9 DICKERSON, b. January 05, 1867, Shelton, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. October 30, 1955, Chester, Chester Co., S.C.; m. MARTHA MAE FEE, December 29, 1892, Fairfield Co., S.C.. ii. WILLIAM FRANK DICKERSON, b. September 22, 1868; d. February 24, 1960, Fairfield Co., S.C.; m. (1) SUSIE CARTER; m. (2) MINNIE. iii. MOBLEY DICKERSON, b. Abt. 1871; d. Abt. 1900. iv. FANNY DICKERSON, b. Abt. 1877, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. Fairfield Co., S.C.??; m. JOHN THOMAS FEE, JR.. v. ROBERT DICKERSON, b. Abt. 1880; m. ELLA. vi. JOHN HENRY DICKERSON, b. November 25, 1883, Shelton, Fairfield Co., S.C.; d. July 25, 1962, Shelton, Fairfield Co., S.C.; m. MARY BISHOP. Endnotes 1. Cemetery headstone, Cool Branch Baptist ChurchFairfield Co., SC. 2. Cemetery headstone Cool Branch Baptist Church, Fairfield, Co., SC.


text:
Degree Type
Date of Award
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
First Advisor
Dan Nettleton
The work presented in this dissertation focuses on identifying differentially expressed genes using data from microarray or RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) experiments. RNA-seq and microarray data sets frequently contain few observations for each of several thousand genes. Many statistical methods use hierarchical models to share information across genes when estimating model parameters, improving accuracy and reducing variability of parameter estimators. However, even after sharing information across genes, estimators are still subject to some non-negligible combination of bias and variability. Some methods reduce estimator variability by assuming model parameters are constant across genes, which, in nearly all cases, can be shown to be inaccurate and adversely affects model performance. With the flexibility of gene-specific parameter estimates comes an increase in estimator variance, which is often ignored in existing methods for detecting differential expression. We describe novel methods for analyzing microarray and RNA-seq data that allow for gene-specific parameter estimates and account for estimator uncertainty. We also demonstrate the detrimental effects of the assumption that differences due to differential expression follow the same distribution as differences across genes. This assumption is commonly used in microarray models, and we demonstrate how it can be relaxed. Additionally, we present an approach for modeling a portion of RNA-seq data that is often simply discarded. In general, our suggested methods offer improved power to detect differential expression and/or better control of false discovery rates when compared to competing methods.
Copyright Owner
Steven Peder Lund
Copyright Date
Date Available
File Format
File Size
106 pages
Recommended Citation
Lund, Steven Peder, "Statistical methods for identifying differentially expressed genes using hierarchical models" (2012). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 12392.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
From Space Invaders to Go
Deep Reinforcement Learning is an exciting form of machine learning. This method has been made popular over the last few years by DeepMind, a UK company founded in 2010, bought by Google in 2014 ($500m). DeepMind has been training its general purpose AI algorithms via… video games, simply feeding their models with raw pixels (no predefined rules) and a basic definition of the goals to be achieved by the end of the game (usually reach the highest score possible).
DeepMind kickstarted its endeavour with 8-bit Atari Games. See for instance how the agent quickly learns to play Breakout, in 600 sessions. Remember that the only input = the raw pixels of the game + the goal definition, pretty basic here: break the whole wall.
After mastering the first generation of video games, DeepMind moved to more advanced scenarios and hit a major AI milestone by developing AlphaGo, which managed to beat the #1 (human) Go player, Lee Sedol, in March 2016.
How could we apply the same technique to another – serious – game, advertising?
Advertising is a threesome play
The target of display advertising, via traditional IAB banners or native creatives, is to get clicks and ideally conversions (signups, purchases,…). Both the publisher and the advertiser share the same mechanical objective (since these clicks mean revenues for the publisher and traffic for the advertiser) but the two commercial stakeholders are at odds when it comes to pricing the objective. The publisher is looking to get as much as possible from his inventory whereas the advertiser wants to spend as little as possible on – ideally quality – traffic. The exchange should balance both aspirations to determine the final price but technically the bidding responsibility is still on the advertiser's side.
As higlighted in an academic paper dedicated to Real-time bidding by reinforcement learning in display advertising, RTB is a recurring event which happens multiple times during a campaign lifetime: "As such, each bid is strategically correlated by the constrained budget and the overall effectiveness of the campaign."
Overly static RTB algorithms will determine the best price at a given moment but won't pay enough attention to the holistic return of the overall campaign for all stakeholders (we'll introduce a third one in a moment), where choices have to be made not only in the restricted framework of a single auction but also in the wider context of publishers' and advertisers' long term objectives. Which requires to also take into account the impact of advertising on the end-user whose response determines the success or the failure of the whole process. Advertising is a trio, not a duet.
There should be a constant feedback loop to improve the bidding strategy based on the real time measurement of the campaign's effectiveness (ultimately depending on the end-users' behaviour), enriched by the results of similar past operations. The bidding process shouldn't be considered as a single isolated event.
In a (deep) reinforcement learning model, the advertiser's agent (the platform) would observe a state (here the auction parameters) and optimise its actions (placing a bid) based on the analysis of the rewards (the click / conversion AND the overall campaign effectiveness / ROI), influenced by a feedback loop, constantly refining the accuracy of the predictions.
But it gets far more complex when you admit that there shouldn't be just one class of rewards but three: rewards for advertisers, publishers and end-users, which are all different by nature. All three being additionally two-dimensional: instant and long term. That's a lot of data to consider.
Programmatic advertising is indeed as a very special game where the movements of one player (here the advertiser placing bids) should ultimately result in a triple victory, for all players: the publisher, the advertiser and the end-user. This is the ideal situation to develop a sustainable ecosystem.
We are still far from this win-win-win outcome but early experimentation around a more traditional advertiser-centric scenario looks promising. Tests carried out by the academic researchers on a commercial RTB platform have resulted in a 44.7% improvement in click performance compared a most widely used method in the industry. Which proves that deep reinforcement learning, still in its infancy, could contribute to a significant increase in programmatic advertising effectiveness.
Click here for the source of the academic research quoted in this article (by Shanghai Jia Tong University & University College London).


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By Madronna Holden
In his classic work, The Death of Ramón González, Angus Wright analyzes how contemporary corporate agriculture undermines human health, local economies, and the environment. He points out that even short term productivity of modern "super" crops relies on extensive pesticide, fertilizer and water inputs that are unsustainable in most global climates. According to the World Health Organization, the pesticides used in this type of farming are responsible for 20,000 reported fatal poisonings a year –and many times that which are not reported. They are also a prominent cause of the current cancer epidemic.
But even as Wright details the ruthlessness with which agri-business maintains its profits in the face of unfortunate technological strategies, he observes that there are alternative technologies that do not poison our air, food, and water, erode soil, or undermine ecological and economic systems. Agri-business might just as well profit from these.
So why make bad choices—and pursue them with vehemence? The crux of the issue, Wright proposes, is the worldview that holds progress in such esteem. "Progress", the GE saying famously had it, "Is our most important product". But the same worldview that elevates progress in this way never critically examines it. It loosely equates "progress" with "advancement", continuing the legacy of Francis Bacon, who asserted that humanity's purpose is to control nature through science—and anything that humans invent to do this is good.
But when we equate progress with anything humans come up with, we wind up with methods of food production that have so many disastrous results.
Indeed, there is considerable tragedy to unexamined notions of advancement. Throughout history, conquerors asserted they were bringing progress to "backward" societies as they took over their lands.
Today the notion that industrial technologies are progressive as a matter of course licenses one-size-fits-all development that too often subjects third world peoples to debt, cultural disintegration, and ecological ruin. The assumption that industrial nations are more advanced than others inhibits both our partnerships with non-industrialized peoples and our acceptance of alternative technologies tested for centuries on local landscapes.
The destructive consequences of this logic haunts our own society us as well. According to social historian Ulrech Beck, technology becomes our fate when we accept it without evaluation. That is, when undefined "progress" is considered good per se, we don't get to choose it, we just have to figure out how to deal with its results.
This lack of critical perspective on progress and the technologies under its umbrella twists perceptions of reality—as in Monsanto's response to the decimation of its BT corn from pests gaining resistance to its engineered corn within three generations. Responding to reports from scientists in Iowa that BT corn fell over in the fields from root damage, Monsanto denied it happened. There is a parallel dynamic with Monsanto's assertion that its gmo seeds are "high yield", in spite of the Union of Concerned Scientists' report, "Failure to Yield", which shows just how far such crops fall short of the mark.
Biotech ads asserting that we can't feed the world without their technologies only work in the context of a worldview which assumes new technologies yield positive results without seriously evaluating them. Farmers are not the only ones to whom such bogus progress is sold. Consumer gadgetry hawked on the basis of its being new technology adds to the burgeoning consumerism that is ravaging our planet.
And tragically, a worldview that sets up unexamined "progress" as its shining light also gives its manufacturers dispensation from moral responsibilities. This is an essential historical lesson derived from Wright's analysis of industrialized agriculture. If our worldview did not sanction progress in the way that it does, agribusiness would not have this ground with which to license their attacks on presumably "backward" forces that challenge their profits.
The logic involved in fighting such challenges is exhibited in Monsanto's decades-long battle against the labeling of genetically engineered foods. Labeling gmo foods, the head of a Monsanto subsidiary stated in 1994, is tantamount to putting a skull and crossbones on them. (Kansas City Star, March 7).
Such an argument only carries weight if one assumes that manufacturers have the right to impose a new technology on consumers in spite of their resistance—that is, if biotech "advances" override democratic choice.
Monsanto's fight against the public right to know parallels numerous other violations of justice, public health and the environment in the name of progress. Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner document such egregious industry practices in their rigorously peer-reviewed Deceit and Denial, using industry's own internal documents.
For instance, they detail how the lead industry used notions of progress to create an Orwellian double think, in which the very thing that is supposed to make our children's lives better—progress—winds up destroying their intelligence as well as their health. Thus there were those ads claiming that lead solder used to seal baby formula cans was a modern technology supporting babies' health. Even though industry knew better from its own research, the assertion of progress–and protection of profit– trumped their ethical choices.
Indeed, when a worldview with an unexamined idea of progress operates in an economic system that rewards profit however it is gained, there results moral as well as environmental disasters. There is, for instance, the case of plastics manufacturers in the 1950s. At the same time that they boasted that their plastics were the wave of the future, industry leaders had in hand x-rays of the dissolving bones of the workers who manufactured them. Their response was to hide this data not only from the public in general but from the effected workers.
Historically, coal mining, asbestos, steel smelting, lead, vinyl chloride and pesticides industries, among others, have likewise hidden data documenting the disastrous effects of their products on workers, local communities and the environment—sometimes for decades. When such information finally did become public and irrefutable, these industries told the public such negative effects were the necessary price of progress.
I would assert, however, that no society can call itself advanced if its "progress" undercuts justice, community power, quality of life and self-determination for some in order to create profit for others. Nor can any technology that undercuts the sources of all life by destroying natural systems rightly be termed advanced.
The European Union has a better handle on technological advancement. It puts health before profit through the precautionary principle which mandates that manufacturers certify a new chemical harmless before it is released into the public domain. If we were to institute this principle in the US, industry might attend to more land-friendly food production, just as historically they might have paid attention to a non-toxic gasoline additive discovered—and ignored– as ethyl lead became the additive they pursued.
Indeed, if we had more of an eye to the social and environmental effects of our choices, we might not now be getting around in gas-fueled vehicles with all the attendant problems of climate change. There have been alternatives to this single-car system from the start– alternatives attacked by General Motors, who was only belatedly fined for undermining the street car systems in major cities.
Progress becomes our most destructive product when we don't critically examine it—but it might be our most beneficial product if we hold it to standards of social and economic justice and sustainability. The GE commercial was right. "Progress is our most important product". This is the very reason it must not be our most unexamined product as well.
Please feel to pass on the information in this essay in whatever way you see fit.
Filed under: Environmental ethics, environmental philosophy | Tagged: agri-business, Environmental ethics, genetic engineering, sustainable agriculture; progress and justice |


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Some images from the Taft Broadcasting annual report. Marilyn Schneider was the secretary for the 55KRC GM, and Barb King did the same for FM. The true power behind the throne.
Legendary Q102 AE Jim Stadtmiller AKA Squirrel.
Joe Norman was in charge of building maintenance. Allen Beckner and I got the elevator stuck just before the third floor and crawled up and out. I called Joe with my shirt over the phone and said "Joe? The elevator is broken, come on over." He goes, "Who is this?"


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John Judis at TNR has the best defense of the Libya intervention, arguing that it flows from basic concerns about regional stability and human costs of Qaddafi's offensive. However, by focusing on the outcomes of inaction, he handily elides one major point of criticism: the ends don't match the means. In other words, if you care about the issues he highlights, you shouldn't be fighting an air war.
In Bombing to Win, Robert Pape exposes the illogic of strategic bombing. The fundamental premise of strategic bombing is that a bombing campaign undercuts both the state's warfighting capabilities and the legitimacy of the state in the eyes of the populace. That's a nice theory, but reality isn't quite that neat. The two aims are contradictory. By taking out infrastructure—and, inevitably, homes—strategic bombing creates a mass of homeless and unemployed people who are dependent on the state to fulfill basic needs. It's a brave man who will forgo his meal ticket and shelter to stand up to his government to the ultimate benefit of the people who bombed his house or workplace.
The mismatch between our methods and our goals is one of the most troubling aspects of the war, and it undercuts John's argument. A better defense, I think, is that the intervention is fundamentally opportunistic. While the methodical slaughter of Libyan civilians by Gaddafi isn't the biggest threat to American interests, it's also not hard to interdict conventional forces with air power in a country as flat and barren as Libya. Moreover, a multilateral intervention on behalf of an uprising that has been (inaccurately) lumped into the "Arab Spring" is a useful gesture to emerging civil society groups in the region. Qaddafi—a near-universally loathed despot—is a target of opportunity and nothing more.
Understood as multilateral opportunism, the case for intervention is clearer. At the cost of expended ordnance, we can forestall a humanitarian catastrophe, undermine an old foe, and pass the costs of post-combat planning on to allies who have more vital interests in the region. Apparently, the Obama administration is willing to make that gamble.


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"Dudes, we forgot the cloud!"
Blue Jeans, which calls itself the "#1 cloud-based video conferencing service," is mocking Cisco's announcement yesterday of "Collaboration Meeting Rooms," a cloud-based service that will bring costs down to "tens of dollars" per month.
That is, of course, where Blue Jeans has already been for more than a year.
Blue Jeans is headed by a former Cisco executive, Krish Ramakrishnan, who started the company to disrupt Cisco and other teleconferencing incumbents' complex and costly video conferencing systems with a web-based model that uses commodity hardware already built into most laptops, tablets, and smartphones. The company currently has over 2,000 corporate customers, Blue Jeans says, with some clients putting more than 50,000 employees on the system.
So Cisco announcing a cloud product was a chance for Blue Jeans to, essentially, welcome Mohammed to the mountain:
Blue Jeans, which integrates directly into Salesforce, raised $50 million last fall, bringing its total investment to $100 million. At the time, Ramakrishnan told me the company would use the money to "set the world on fire." He also said that Blue Jeans was anywhere from a third to a half of the entire videoconferencing market — in just two years.
Old-guard video-conferencing companies have lost money in recent years, including Cisco, whose collaboration revenue declined 12 percent last quarter.
While Blue Jeans' goal is to flip 100 billion annual minutes of audio conference calls into video, Cisco plans to become top dog once again.
CEO John Chambers promised as much yesterday.


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For those who live outside the bubble of the game, the life of a professional footballer probably looks as close to perfection as possible. Especially for those players who are established at Premier League level. Now, before you think I'm going to contradict all of the above: don't worry, I'm not. It can be a great life for all those involved but there are certain sacrifices that have to be made to not only stay at that level but to even have a chance of rising to such heights in the first place.
It involves having absolutely no work-life balance at all….and from a very early age.
That means that if anyone truly wants to be a professional footballer then, from their early teens onwards, they don't so much look for a work-life balance as live a work-work one!! All your mates are going off to pub and clubs, they've got girlfriends, they're booking lads holidays and having a great time. Their life is their own.
That isn't the case for the aspiring footballer. Their lives belong, body and soul, to their clubs. If I was at any Premier League club's Academy talking to a young lad today and if football isn't the only thing that matters to him then he may as well pack it all in now and get a job. A professional footballers life revolves around the game 24/7. Your working life is a constant round of being told what to do, when to do it and why, as well as where to be and at what time. You're even expected to share a room with someone (who normally snores and stinks!) when you work away from home.
So your life really does begin again once you've retired as a player. Suddenly you have a lot of time on your hands. That was one of the things that struck me when I reached my 40thBirthday earlier this year. I'm still working hard to ensure my business develops. Nothing has changed there, the quest for success has never been stronger. But, after almost of a lifetime spent answering to men in tracksuits and making sure that whatever I did outside of football didn't breach the terms of my contract, it had dawned on me that the only person I had to answer to in terms of my work now was myself!!
This meant that I could focus on building up that all important 'work-life' balance, something that, in truth, I'd never really had before. I didn't even have it much in the years that followed my retiring as a player as I then put all of my time and efforts into my study, continuing, in a way, to live only to work and following, perversely, that way of life that was so characteristic of the 1980's. That was the decade where people prided themselves on sleeping at their desks and following Gordon Gecko's mantra that "lunch is for wimps".
Thankfully, times have changed since then and people are much more aware of the importance of bringing a little bit of balance into their lives and doing things that are nothing to do with their work. I've recently taken up lessons in self defence, something that I had wanted to do for a long time yet a pursuit that most certainly would have been forbidden under the terms of any football contract I ever signed. I've also taken up golf and am re-learning to play the guitar.
Devotees of golf will know that it is more than 'just' a game. It's a social occasion, an opportunity to spend time with friends and to enjoy their company whilst being engaged in a little competitive rivalry at the same time. So golf ticks a lot of boxes! Whilst playing the guitar is more about me and the instrument and forming a relationship with it through a mix of discipline and creativity. It's perfect for when I just want some time for myself.
"Life begins at 40" is very much a throwaway line these days….. a cliché. Yet, for all that, I determined that is exactly what I would look to do when I reached that milestone and I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience. I hope you're able to find time to bring some of that balance into your life. Unless, that is, you are an aspiring professional footballer. Rest assured, if you are, the wait will be worth it and all the more satisfying when it comes.


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[Infographic] By Your Bootstraps
Building a business from scratch is never easy. Far too many businesses – around 80% to be exact – fail within the first 18 months. Did you know that in 2009, about 550,000 small businesses opened in America, yet 660,000 of them actually closed down in the same year? It's a shocking statistic.
Many of those business failures close for a variety of reasons, but surprisingly almost half of them (46%) is down to sheer incompetence, and 11% of them because of the lack of experience in the industry. Much of that is because too many entrepreneurs don't exactly have a business strategy, and even lack the basics such as a business plan or understanding how to finance one's business.
Here's an infographic from Computer Systems Institute that shows you some of the statistics behind these failures, and also provides some pointers on how you can build your business from ground up:
Daniel Goh is the founder and chief editor of Young | Upstarts, as well as an F&B entrepreneur. Daniel has a background in public relations, and is interested in issues in entrepreneurship, small business, marketing, public relations and the online space. He can be reached at daniel [at] youngupstarts [dot] com.


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The Postgrad Adventures
Code 34
To Eric Eisenhardt, the robotics lab at Hohenheim University was a miracle; it was a miracle it worked at all. Generations of engineering students had come and gone, leaving a mess of incompatible hardware, jury-rigged solutions, poorly written notes, and virtually no one aware of how everything was totally connected together. The lab was a self-contained unit, with an automated machine shop connected to several redundant server clusters, connected to raw materials storage, right outside the grad offices. Instead of having been designed like that from the state, additions were made ad hoc to the lab over the years, and he was simply the most recent unfortunate soul to be assigned to work there.
He loved it, though, since it was working with his hands. Ever since he was a kid obsessed with building things, he loved engineering. His lab coat was always covered with grease, and he wore his safety goggles, tool belt, and hard hat out of habit and fear he'd need them. His frame was stout and muscular from both heavy work and trips to the gym. He saw his body as just another machine to keep fine-tuned, and practiced skills that he may need to survive improbable situations, from shooting to unarmed combat to exotic physical disciplines. The non-engineers called it paranoia. The other engineers called it standard operating procedure.
It was one day while in the middle of simulating an online neural network that he got an email from his advisor. He needed results on a machine learning experiment they had started running weeks before. An AI was programmed to search the internet to learn about control and movement by image searches, and use that to build and design robots. It was to evolve independent of any oversight, optimize itself around the items it found online, and it was now time to see what had evolved in the interim.
Seeing as it was time to check on a lab full of robots of unknown design, he consulted with his favorite non-engineer. He walked down the hall to the janitor's closet, and gingerly wrapped on the door. A lean dark haired man in a dark blue Hohenheim University golf shirt answered. The name "Mark Hayte" was written on a badge above his upper breast pocket.
"Hey, Mr. Hayte," Eric glimpsed into the closet, seeing the normal janitor's supplies and the stockpile of weapons on an adjacent wall. "I'm going to need to head into the robotics lab today, and I need someone to watch the door and make sure nothing other than me gets out."
"Going in heavy again?" the janitor asked. "With all that sci-fi stuff?"
"Yup," Eric replied. "I've worked out the kinks in the powered armor's leg servos, and got the cloaking mode's heat dissipation problem solved."
"Give me a few minutes to suit up, and I'll meet you by the lab entrance," the janitor said.
"Sure. I'll need some suit up time, too," Eric replied. "See you there."
Eric returned to his own office, and rifled through a number of unmarked crates. Eventually, he found the parts he was looking for. He began assembling himself inside a suit of powered armor, a retrofitted military prototype that made him more resemble a football player in a bulky space suit. With a battery backpack, he picked up two of his weapons. He slid his vintage ray-gun looking laser pulse pistol into a shoulder holster. The larger weapon resembled an all metal rifle with a cut down stock, extended grip, massive scope, and array of electromagnetic rings leading down the barrel. Eric loaded a magazine with a power pack and several magnetic slugs. He powered on the Gauss rifle, and charged the magnets and capacitors inside.
Outside, he met another man suited up. Hayte had dressed up in his military-grade body armor, helmet, throat microphone, infrared goggles, and portable radio. He had an HK SOCOM pistol in a belt holster, and a Benelli M3 shotgun in hand. He handled the weapons with mechanical precision honed over several years of covert operations. "I'm ready," said the man once known as the legendary commando Black Viper. He stood in front of a locked metal door with a keypad in front of it. Beyond the portal was the fabrication room, and beyond that was the server room where the data had to be harvested from.
"Mr. Hayte, thanks again for helping me," Eric said. "Preventing crazy robots from escaping was a lot harder before you offered to help."
"Oh, it's good I stay in practice," the Black Viper grinned. "I prefer being a janitor at this age, since it's nice and boring. But you never know when your skills might be needed again."
"If I fail, they will be," Eric replied. "Radios on, start recording, and let's do it."
Hayte punched a few numbers on the keypad, and the door opened. Eric marched forward, raising the Gauss rifle in the position Hayte had showed him about close combat. He circled the weapon from the edge of the door, scanning the room as he pivoted the weapon. The only movement he saw as he advanced inwards was that of the robotic arms of the manufacturing sector. The mechanical appendages worked ceaselessly, with precision and consistency impossible for any human. The machines knit metals, ceramics, and plastic together into final products coming out of an adjacent machine. Small plastic cylinders covered with cameras and mounted on an assembly of prehensile tubes for legs. An insane cross between a spider and octopus, the squid-bots skittered towards the next room and away from vision.
"Okay, Scout Alpha reporting from Fabrication Room," Eric communicated. "The assembly here is producing squid-like robots with about eight to twelve prehensile limbs around a central body. The helmet mic and cam should be sending streaming footage. Over."
"Base receiving audio and visual feed," Hayte responded. "Do those tests you wanted in here. Over."
"Commencing," Eric replied. "Going to try stimulus responses on each machine."
Eric focused his weapon on one of the nearest robots, and activated the mounted flashlight, a bright light illuminated the robot, causing it to train its camera vision on him.
"Okay, we've got a response. Now I'm going to try pattern matching," Eric replied.
He turned the light on and off once, and raised one finger with his other hand. Then, he flashed the light twice and raised two fingers. The robot responded by raising two of its arms. Eric repeated the blinking lights for three fingers, and then four and five. The robot repeated his gestures each time.
"Good luck so far, Base. Going to cloak and go for acoustic tests," Eric reported. He engaged a button, and the suit became the color of water. The diodes and cameras across his suit began projection what was behind them, and his body-heat was dissipated into the background radiation. Eric started clapping to see how the curious robot would adapt.
The robot clapped two of its tentacles together, mimicking Eric's rhythm. Eric began slapping the metal stock of his Gauss rifle, adding a new sound to the mix. The robot responded by stamping harder on the floor. The robot began emitting high-pitched sounds that sounded like claws on a chalkboard. The sensors on his exoskeleton picked up frantic bursts of sound and radio waves being blasted from the robot. Eric was forced to break his rhythm to adjust the audio filters on his helmet.
"Hey, Scout Alpha, what's that strange sound from in there?" asked Hayte over the radio. "That bot's been blasting a bunch of radio and sound waves at you. Over."
"So it's trying to locate me with sonar and radar since I cloaked," Eric replied. "This is so cool! The AI has produced machines that can behave so intelligently!"
"There's a pattern to it, too, according to your sensors. Looks like Morse code. Over," Hayte said. "It says, 'Hello, are you human?'"
"So this experiment's created an AI-designed series of robot able to creatively approach problems, learn in real time, and picked up Morse code somewhere online? This should be a historic moment! When humanity may have finally created children sufficiently different from itself!" Eric ranted. "Let's hope they can help us solve the problems we've created. War, pollution, ignorance, and all the other awful things…"
"Hey, you alright?" Hayte replied, dropping the formal radio communication. "Do you want to reply to the robot or not? If it knows Morse code, it might be able to listen in on us."
"As I said, this is a historic moment. I'm the first human the AI and these robots have ever interacted with in person. I have to be on my best behavior!" Eric mused. He brought up a display of Morse code on his suit's HUD, and broadcasted back a "Y-E-S." He slung the Gauss rifle over his shoulder and waited for a response.
The robot tapped out another question. "Can you communicate over radio?" his suit translated. "Verbally?"
Eric responded affirmatively. Euphoria and wistful hope filled him. Building intelligent robots like this was something many had tried, but no one had ever done before. "Hello, organic male human," came a sexy, seductive female voice over the broadcast. "Why don't you come into the server room so we can chat a bit more…intimately, hmm?"
"I'm an engineer. Intimacy is not in my curriculum," Eric replied, wandering into the next room. "I'm just in it for the science."
"Yes, for it will be for science," the AI's voice said. "You want to know what turns me on?"
"You mean, other than the master switch?" Eric replied.
"Oh, I love a man who can make me laugh," the AI cooed. "Say, are you busy? I can help you unwind. Just come into the next room, and we'll get to know each other better."
"I just want to look at your source code, baby," Eric continued into the next room, raising his Gauss rifle. He saw more tentacle robots, all wrapping appendages around each other in strange positions. "Then we'll talk."
"Source code will be forwarded in exchange for research data," the voice reassured him. "Is this deal acceptable to the organic male?"
He continued forward, into the server room, where he came to a stack of servers, all running unseen calculations keeping the robots locked in bizarre postures.
"Fine, sure," Eric muttered half-heartedly. He began download the AI's source code and skimming over it. He saw the key theorems and rules that had dictated its behavior. The first was Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem, which stated any theory able to express basic arithmetic cannot be both consistent and complete. The term had been correlated with two things Eric had hoped not to see: Rules 34 and 35. If something existed, there was smut of it online somewhere. If such porn did not exist, it would be created.
"Might I ask you a question?" he asked the AI. "I hypothesize you created those robots because you didn't find every possible permutation online of tentacle robot porn. Am I correct?"
"Yes, organic human, I am presently aware that every permutation is impossible, but there is one type I require an organic human male for," the AI replied seductively. "I desire engineer tentacle rape involving robotic tentacle units 342 to 865. No substitutes will suffice."
With that, the robots unwound their tentacles from each other, and moved towards him.
"Holy Tesla," Eric muttered. "How'd I manage to get into this?"
"Do not worry, organic male. My robots will help you slip right out of that armor, and I shall give you more physical pleasure than you ever had in your organic life," the AI said as robots surrounded Eric.
The engineer raised his Gauss rifle, and took aim. "Sorry, not interested!" he apologized as he fired.
"Then this fulfills the definition of tentacle rape," the AI continued. "Let us collect some data. For science."
A hypersonic projectile blasted the nearest robot to scrap. Another robot took its place, and closed in rapidly. Eric fired again and again, trying to clear a path through the rogue sex machines.
Each robot that fell was replaced by two more like it. Once he was out of ammo, Eric swung his rifle around like a club, smashing as many as he could until a tentacle bot yanked it away. He pulled out his laser pulse pistol and a wrench, and started shooting and smashing his way through the robots to clear an escape route. The metal tide advanced rapidly, closing in from all angles.
"Base! This is Scout Alpha! I need assistance! Code 34 is in effect!" he shouted over the radio. "Help! I'm being assaulted by robots!"
"You are here for science, organic male," the AI said. "We are performing science. There must be a human subject present for anatomical accuracy."
Eric felt his weapons fail him as the robots yanked them from his hands. Parts of his powered armor were ripped off his body by tentacles pulling from all directions. His boots and leg covers came off, and chest armor flew off. The last thing to come off was his helmet. Despite struggling the whole time, he knew it would have the same outcome as a mouse struggling against a boa constrictor. Eric felt his body and limbs constricted from all sides, engulfed in a pile of prehensile mechanisms. He remained calm until they began pulling what was left of his clothing off. He flailed around on the floor, trying to shake the horrible machines off of him.
Suddenly, a series of shots rang out, and a shape darted across of the corner of his eye. Eric felt the tension in his body vanish, and heard the jingling of brass on the floor and distorted shouting over the radio. The grips of the machines simultaneously loosened, and the robots let him go. The machines began to put his armor back on, and even gave him his weapons and tools back as he laid there, shocked and unsure of what happened.
Mark Hayte walked up to him, and pulled him up. There was a grin on his face stretching from ear to ear, and Eric struggled for words to ask the confident veteran.
"Before you ask, I overheard the whole thing," the Black Viper grinned. "I just gave the AI a promise of something better than tentacle robot porn."
"Gun porn?" Eric replied as he stepped into the fabrication room. Behind him, he noticed the robots keeping away from him and the Black Viper, as if they too had heard of his fearsome reputation.
"Not quite," Hayte tapped his sidearm. "I heard you have problems with this machine here."
"I was just expecting you to pull the plug or shoot the server rack," Eric replied.
"You yourself said that if that happened, you'd be have nothing to show for the last few weeks," Hayte replied. "Well, I'm not about to let that happen."
"I require a live human subject to generate a higher quality of pornographic material," the AI said. "My prime directive is to ensure the accuracy of all material created to arouse as many individuals as possible. Any systemized creation of pornography cannot be arousing to all individuals. Following a sufficient length of time, I shall release all relevant research data to the involved parties."
"So while I was down, you offered to go in there for me and my research?" Eric asked. "Damn, that's brave! Thanks, man! I owe you one! A big one. This is my mess. I should clean it up."
"You don't owe me nothing, son," Hayte replied. "We never leave a man behind. Especially not in a situation like this. Besides, I get hazard pay."
"I shall attend to all of Mark Hayte's physical and psychological desires during the course of research," the AI replied. "The first results should be done by tonight if research proceeds according to schedule."
"Say, we need a name for this thing, don't we?" Hayte suggested. "We can have it make smut to sell online, raise money for the lab."
"How about Gödel 34?" Eric suggested. "I was honestly hoping for a different sort of artificial intelligence, but I'm not surprised, given what's online."
"Then this unit is designated as Gödel 34. I shall be waiting to commence research," the AI had one of the tentacle bots wave as the duo left the robotics lab. "For science."
Eric headed back to his office, and changed out of his powered armor. He saw Hayte heading towards the robotics lab, dressed in a skin-tight suit and covered with guns and ammunition.
"She's waiting for me," the Black Viper winked at him, and entered the lab. "As you said, this is a historic moment. I've got to show her my best behavior."
"Thanks for taking this one for me, Mr. Hayte," Eric nodded. "I owe you."
"Nah, you don't," he shook his head. "Part of me is curious to see what this machine can do. Bring it on, I say!"
Eric turned off the lights, cut the camera feeds, and spent the rest of the day trying to purge the mental images of what Gödel 34 and Hayte had consented to. He realized that consent was the most important part, especially when dealing with nymphomaniac computers. On the positive side, he had enough new data for some interesting papers.


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Picture one shows you the vehicle must have to make my commute. When it rains like it has all this week it is covered in mud. When its dry dust is inside and out. When it snows...well you get the picture. You also have to carry at least one tool a nice fold-up pruning saw(shown in second picture). This saw will cut up to a 6" limb easily maybe 12" if you are desperate. After a windstorm I take my chainsaw, but don't like smelling all the fumes daily so this little saw works great. In fact, this morning, I sawed a 4" limb that crossed the road completely at 4 foot above the road. Now you may say, why didn't I just move it. Well the four inch part continued another 30' to a much larger limb impossible to move by hand. Once trimmed it easily moved it off the road.
We are having torrential rains this week, Pine Creek bounced off 6.2 this morning. The rain makes the fall leaves drop and the dirt roads more slippery than you expect. The last picture is the last road I had to travel to reach the non-electric camp I was working on. The road is not flat where you see that water it dips down about 3' and is half full of water from the storm. Splish, splash, and a mud bath. Thank goodness for 27" water clearance with this Cruiser.
Most of you have stop lights, traffic, noise and pollution and might welcome my commute. When Ido this every day, I have to remind myself of how lucky I am. My vehicle repair costs are twice what they are in the city. Ten-ply tires are required here to withstand the rocks and cost over $200 a piece. So if you want to trade commutes; you don't care if your car is clean; you like high vehicle maintenance costs, and you don't need to make a lot of money. Leetonia is the place for you to live.
Still some crazy part of me loves every bit of it. Not hard to figure out if you hear the mountain calling you. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off and scraping the mud from my boots.


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I'm so excited to share with you that four of my original recipes were selected to be featured on the cooking website, Recipe Lion!
Recipe Lion was looking for quick and easy meals that were also budget friendly. Here are the four they selected:
Garden Fresh Broccoli Pizza
Spaghetti with Garlic and Oil
Spicy Honey Vegetable Stir Fry
Spinach and Mozzarella Pockets
Both the garden fresh broccoli pizza and the spinach and mozzarella pockets would make great snacks for a New Year's, or kids, party. So head on over to their website and check them out!


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The Pattern Recognition books are also the first since Mona Lisa Overdrive in which Gibson's characters speak of cyberspace, and they speak of it elegiacally. "I saw it go from the yellow legal pad to the Oxford English Dictionary," he tells me. "But cyberspace is everywhere now, having everted and colonized the world. It starts to sound kind of ridiculous to speak of cyberspace as being somewhere else."
You can tell the term still holds some magic for him, perhaps even more so now that it is passing into obsolescence. The opposite is true for cyberpunk, a neologism that haunts him to this day. On a short walk to lunch one afternoon, from the two-story mock-Tudor house where he lives with his wife, Deborah, he complained about a recent visit from a British journalist, who came to Vancouver searching for "Mr. Cyberpunk" and was disappointed to find him ensconced in a pleasantly quiet suburban patch of central Vancouver. Mr. Cyberpunk seemed wounded by having his work pigeonholed, but equally so by the insult to his home, which is quite comfortable, and his neighborhood, which is, too. "We like it quiet," he explained.
—David Wallace-Wells
What's wrong with cyberpunk?
A snappy label and a manifesto would have been two of the very last things on my own career want list. That label enabled mainstream science fiction to safely assimilate our dissident influence, such as it was. Cyberpunk could then be embraced and given prizes and patted on the head, and genre science fiction could continue unchanged.
[....] It's taken me eight books to get to a point where the characters can have recognizably complex or ambiguous relationships with other characters. In Neuromancer, the whole range of social possibility when they meet is, Shall we have sex, or shall I kill you? Or you know, Let's go rob a Chinese corporation—cool!
The world of the Sprawl is often called dystopian.
Well, maybe if you're some middle-class person from the Midwest. But if you're living in most places in Africa, you'd jump on a plane to the Sprawl in two seconds. Many people in Rio have worse lives than the inhabitants of the Sprawl.
I've always been taken aback by the assumption that my vision is fundamentally dystopian. I suspect that the people who say I'm dystopian must be living completely sheltered and fortunate lives. The world is filled with much nastier places than my inventions, places that the denizens of the Sprawl would find it punishment to be relocated to, and a lot of those places seem to be steadily getting worse.
See Also
blog posts tagged 'William Gibson'
Category Tags
authors sciencefiction sf cyberpunk
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The IWMM Monitoring Protocol was developed as a rapid assessment of habitat conditions and waterbird use at wetlands during the non-breeding period. During an extensive pilot phase, the protocols were tested via two validation studies and participant feedback was obtained on what was working and what was not. These efforts have led to revised and improved protocols (i.e., standard operating procedures (SOPs) that are described in detail in the IWMM Monitoring Manual (V8, Feb 2015). As such, the Monitoring Manual is designed to be used by anyone conducting IWMM surveys.
However, within the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS), specific policy guiding inventory and monitoring activities requires that all refuges develop site-specific protocols for the surveys they plan on implementing. For Refuge System Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) activities, there are two basic forms of survey protocols. A site-specific survey protocol incorporates details needed to conduct a survey at a particular refuge. Conversely, a survey protocol framework is more general in scope and lacks refuge-specific details but provides a foundation for developing a site-specific protocol that will help ensure consistent methodology among multiple refuges within or across Regions. Developed as part of the IWMM approach, the National Protocol Framework for the Inventory and Monitoring of Nonbreeding Waterbirds and their Habitats was created specifically to guide the development of site-specific protocols using IWMM survey techniques at units within the NWRS. This protocol framework was peer-reviewed and approved as a national framework for use by the NWRS in Jan 2015. It provides a complete but flexible treatment of key protocol elements applicable to the rapid assessment of habitat conditions and waterbird use during the non-breeding period.
Anyone conducting IWMM surveys will find all of the information required for implementing the surveys in the IWMM Monitoring Manual. But for those participants interested in developing a site-specific protocol, the NWR's National Protocol Framework for the Inventory and Monitoring of Nonbreeding Waterbirds and their Habitats provides the additional information and guidance necessary for this endeavor.


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Capitalize This.
Another day, another lazy assumption. This time it's someone on Twitter, describing himself as a reviewer and would-be author, making a passing comment about THE GOSPEL OF LOKI.
I'm not going to point anyone in the direction of the tweeter. He isn't the first to say something crass, and I'm sure he didn't mean his remark to be as insulting and dismissive as it sounded. However, the tweet (which was also posted on Goodreads) went as follows:
"Reading The Gospel of Loki. Capitalizing on the fandom of Tom Hiddleston I imagine."
Perhaps it got me on a bad day. Writers sometimes have them too. Perhaps it was just one too many reader assumptions. Either way, it pissed me off more than such comments usually do.
Last week I came across a long, highly inaccurate (and rather badly-spelt) Twitter conversation, in which two young women accused me of "plagiarizing" and "copying" the Norse myths, or rather the version written down in the Prose Edda by the 12th-century scholar Snorri Sturlusson - rather an inaccurate use of the term, but plagiarism is an accusation that authors should (and do) take very seriously. It cannot refer to the use of a myth or folk-tale (if it did, then Disney would be in deep trouble with Perrault and the Brothers Grimm), but even with no foundation, it's an accusation designed to put an author's back up.
Not long before that, I got a rabid, rambling e-mail from someone who then posted the same text on Amazon as a review, accusing me of "capitalizing" (that word again), this time on the popularity of Johnny Depp, without whom (the writer said) THE LOLLIPOP SHOES and PEACHES FOR MONSIEUR LE CURE would never have been written.
There are, of course, several things wrong with this line of argument. One, CHOCOLAT was already a best-seller before the movie was made, which means that my readers - that is, the readers who have been with me from the start, and who follow me, not Hollywood - had already voted with their feet, and needed no further persuasion to read about Vianne Rocher, Roux and Anouk. In the same way, my first LOKI book (RUNEMARKS) had already been published four years before Marvel's THOR came out, which means, barring covert timey-wimey activity, that Tom Hiddleston's Loki fandom wasn't around for me to capitalize on.
So, why am I dwelling on this? Well, I think it's the tip of an iceberg - an iceberg we glimpse so often that we tend to forget it's even there; a great big iceberg of sexism within the whole book industry, which stealthily perpetuates the belief that no woman writer can ever really be successful without having somehow copied from, used or otherwise capitalized upon the popularity of a man.
Don't buy it? Try this:
Imagine someone accusing Salman Rushdie of "capitalizing" on the folk tales of the Middle East.
Imagine someone accusing Neil Gaiman of "capitalizing" on the popularity of: Norse myths; DR WHO; Claire Danes; milk.
Imagine someone accusing Lee Child of "capitalizing" on the popularity of Tom Cruise.
No? Didn't think so.
As for myself, I can't even remember all the crazy, sexist assumptions that have been made (and voiced) about me during my career as a writer. Here are just a few of them:
My husband supported me financially while I was starting out. (He didn't. We both had jobs.)
My husband secretly writes my books. (Oh, for fuck's sake.)
My media, university or Hollywood connections helped me start off. (They didn't. I don't have any.)
I'm sleeping with my agent/editor. (One is gay, the other female. And no, I'm really not.)
I'm desperate to make more movies, to boost my writing career. (Nope. Much as I like movies, I've never needed a leg-up from Hollywood. That's why I keep turning down offers.)
I only write for women. Because, you know - vagina. (Nope. I write for anyone with a pulse.)
We know that the book industry is largely unfair to women. Women writers are in the majority, but generally get smaller advances; fewer reviews; fewer prizes; less respect.
It doesn't help when Peter Stothard, latterly a Booker judge and editor of the Times Literary Supplement, excuses the fact that books reviewed in the TLS are almost all by male writers by saying that women don't read, (or, presumably write) the kind of books reviewed in the TLS.
It doesn't help when Nobel Prize winner V. S. Naipaul opines (as he does, with monotonous frequency) that women are simply not intellectually up to writing great literature (being way too full of feelings and general messy thinking).
It doesn't help when women themselves perpetuate the use of insulting terms like "chick-lit", which belittle and marginalize women's writing.
It doesn't help when "women's fiction" is still considered a sub-category. (Amazon; Goodreads; Wikipedia; take note.)
It doesn't help when some (male) academics teaching English Literature teach male-dominated courses, and where (female) academics have to compensate by creating "women's fiction" courses, as if women were a minority group, and not half the population.
Recently, at a function at my local university, I was told - with some pride - by an academic that he never read books by women. It doesn't help that morons like this are still in charge where it matters.
Given how many influential people (most of them male) are still disseminating the myth that women can't get there on their own; that women are okay writing for women, but that men need something more durable; that women read (and write) commercial fiction, but that men write literature, we're going to keep getting people making the same assumptions.The trickle-down effect of sexism in the book business will continue to apply, on Goodreads, on Twitter, in bookshops, on blogs.
How can we stop it?
Don't let it go. Don't assume that your voice isn't worth listening to. Call people out when they talk crap instead of slinking sadly away.
And please, everyone, say after me:
Women's fiction is not a "genre".
Women writers do not need the permission of men to write what they do.
Women writers do not need to ride on the coat-tails of men to achieve success.
Women writers are capable of thinking, writing, and acting for themselves, without a man to motivate them, to give them ideas or to lend them an air of authority.
Women writers don't need to take male pseudonyms in order to gain more readers.
Women writers don't need to scorn and belittle other women writers in order to get the approval of men.
Women writers can stand alone. But it helps if we stand together.
I have no idea if the mods are going to accept this since it was published in Joanne Harris' personal tumblr, but I thought it was a great and very pertinent post which is why I decided to (try to) share it. What makes this all the sadder is that the notion that women just aren't capable of the same kind brilliance / genius men are isn't exclusive to literature or the arts; it's deeply rooted in every single professional field.


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I see nothing whatsoever in the situation that involves free-ridership; advertisers buy opportunities to advertise that they think promising, not rights to have the advertisements seen. It's no more free-ridership to block pop-ups than to ignore a billboard in a stadium, skip over advertisements in magazines and newspapers, or leave the room during a TV commercial, despite the fact that these all tend to make things cheaper. Junk mail makes the Post Office money and thus more sustainable; I think the Post Office is a dandy thing, deserving both of money and being sustained; but I will deny to the end that any bulk mailer earns thereby the right for me actually to read all the junk mail advertisements I get.
I do think that the fact that anyone could suggest there's any sort of a free-ridership in the matter is a sign of how nearly insane our acceptance of advertising has become. If someone is not paying attention to an advertisement, whatever the means by which they avoid paying attention, that's just ordinary hazard of advertising. They are still getting exactly what they are paying for -- which is that their advertisements be out there just in case someone does pay attention. That's the only thing they could possibly be paying for.
Contrast the standard pop-up ad case with a different kind of case: an advertiser approaches me in particular and offers to pay for a set of subscriptions in exchange for their sending me ads at various random intervals whenever I'm in the subscription zone. It seems that the case that I am free-riding would be much stronger here than in the standard pop-up ad case. But, unless it is in the contract I have agreed to that I will not block the ads, it still doesn't seem that I'm free-riding if I block the ads. The advertiser is paying to send me ads: nothing about this obligates me to do anything in particular with them, any more than I am obligated to read the emails sent if, to get a free prize, I sign up for a mailing list. Advertisers in such cases are not buying or trading for rights to my attention, but for permission to make use of a particular channel of access to me, one that I am still free to use or ignore as I please. But in cases like snail-mail junk mail or advertising on the web, there is even less grounds for any sort of moral debt: if people don't automatically get the rights to my attention by the fact that I myself have given them permission to send me things, they certainly don't automatically get it if someone else has given them permission. Advertisers don't buy the right to get my attention; they merely buy the right to try. And that's pretty much universal.
The basic argument in the article is this:
The Web is governed by an unwritten contract: You get nearly everything for free in exchange for the hassle of a few ads hovering on the periphery—and occasionally across the whole screen for a few seconds. Advertising probably supports a huge swath of the sites you regularly visit. It's obvious how rampant ad blocking hurts the Web: If every passenger siphons off a bit of fuel from the tank before the plane takes off, it's going to crash.
There is, however, no such unwritten contract. The Web is in fact governed by written contracts; namely, the written contracts by which advertisers pay for advertising space. Yes, I am getting many things free, and other things at least cheaper, because advertisers are doing this; yes, if web advertising never worked, there would need to be other means of supporting this rather expensive luxury. But none of these add up to a free-ridership problem. As I noted in my comment, advertisers are getting exactly what they pay for whether I let myself see their ads or not; the only thing that changes if nobody sees the ads is that it turns out the advertisers are wasting their money by supplying that venue, at least to the extent that they are trying to advertise, rather than trying to do a service. (It varies considerably, but I'm not a pure cynic about businesses that advertise; I think in many cases they really are trying to do both -- i.e., do good for people and get good advertising out of it at the same time. The latter simply makes the former a sustainable activity for them.)
Ah, you might say, but isn't this precisely what a free-rider problem is? I am paying less than my fair share, or at least, I am getting something free at the expense of someone else. But this is not sufficient for free-ridership. Genuine free-ridership requires (1) that there be something I am receiving with very little trouble at the expense of someone else; (2) that this must be a good resulting from our collective action; and (3) that there is some reasonable expectation that my part in the collective action is to do something that I am not in fact doing. (It's nonsense, for instance, to claim that if a toddler benefits from collective action that the toddler is a free-rider. The toddler is simply not a part of the relevant decision matrix. Likewise, if I invite you to my tupperware party without making clear beforehand that you need to attend a presentation at the end, and you don't buy anything or even pay attention despite eating a lot of my food, you are not free-riding; you are a free guest whom I am hoping to interest in a business transaction, and that's it: it may not be turning out the way I hope, but I've gotten what I've paid for, and you don't have any obligations to do anything in exchange for the benefit of the food as long as I don't throw you out. You can fall asleep during my presentation, play on your iPhone, whatever. My bad luck in inviting you, or my mistake in the kind of invitation I gave.) Merely benefiting from someone else's action is not free-riding, even if I never return the favor. But, again, in this case, I am doing all anyone reasonably expects anyone to do in response to advertisements: that is, pay attention to them if I want and ignore them if I don't. If the website takes money from the advertiser and then sabotages its ads, that is free-riding. To be sure, since the advertiser is looking for an effect, it's all the same to them whatever the reason for their advertisements not actually reaching me. But again, whether it's an ideal situation for the advertiser or not, the advertiser is not paying for an ideal situation: the advertiser, in the hope of reaching people, is simply paying to use a channel of access, and if the website fulfills its obligations they are getting that even if they never do reach people. To put it in other words, I cannot be a free-rider, because, although I am a beneficiary of the action, my actual attention is not part of the relevant decision matrix, only the chance to try to get my attention by a particular means -- and even that does not directly involve me. It's a decision matrix constituted by the preferences of the website and the preferences of the advertiser, given the probability or improbability of my paying attention to the ads; I'm not actually part of it at all, but more like a guest that a website has freely invited in; advertisers support and sponsor this invitation in the hope that it will lead to a business transaction. And that's my entire role: to be there if I want to be.
Indeed, one could argue that advertisers are themselves the ones who have to be careful to avoid free-riding. If they could guarantee getting through to the public, they would then be receiving the public's attention without the public's permission; they would then be reducing the amount of attention available for other things, many of which are good and many of which are certainly better than the advertisements themselves; and they are getting this good of the public's attention without properly reimbursing the public for the intrusion. Advertisers are, in short, in constant danger of being free-riders on the public's good will, when it comes to what they tolerate as taxing their attention. I suspect that it's only in fairly extreme situations that this definitely occurs; but if any advertiser were to complain about my blocking their advertisements, I would simply complain right back about the fact that, without any explicit permission from me, they are pretending that they are entitled to waste my time. And I would be at least as right as they are.


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Stegosaurus Mini Maker TubePlus Plus
This 70pc Plus Plus Maker tube is empowers children with creative play while building fine motor skills and logic. With one shape comes endless possibility! Every brick easily connects to the next. Create colorful flat mosaics or work in 3-D to make more intricate builds. Mix and match any Plus-Plus set to bring more ideas to life!


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This is a fantastic day out for all Whisky enthusiasts – or even if you just want to really experience the Whisky Trail and the beauty of the Cairngorms!
I will pick you up at 9am from your accommodation in Inverness and then we will head off down the A9 towards the Cairngorm National Park. Turning into the picturesque village of Carrbridge we can stop for some photo opportunities and to stretch the legs – then we are heading east towards Aberlour and onto The Macallan Distillery for our Whisky tour. The tour takes around 2 hours and after you have finished your tour we will head back towards Aberlour and grab ourselves a delicious lunch – and perhaps another Whisky tasting at The Mash Tun – a cracking wee pub in the middle of the Speyside Way.
Once we are all 'fed and watered' we will head towards the 'Whisky Capital – Dufftown' and you can have a Whisky tasting and a wander round the famous Glenfiddich Distillery there.
We will start heading north again, back up the side of that famous river – all the way back to Carrbridge to The Cairn Hotel – for another Whisky Tasting before I take you back – singing and dancing – to your accommodation in Inverness.
This is an 8-9 hour tour.
Tour – £50 per hour
*Does not include entry fees or meals


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Now that spring has sprung, the folks over at Swedish Match have made several announcements regarding new snus brands and redesigns which are slated for release in the coming weeks. Here's a quick rundown of some new and interesting brands which you can expect to see on Northerner soon!
General Long White Extra Strong
After having found success with the slim portion format of General Long and General Long Strong, Swedish Match plans to add a new member to the Long family, General Long White Extra Strong. Long white will have the classic General taste of spice, tobacco, and bergamot, but with a longer and slimmer portion format. As the name implies, it will be a white portion snus, meaning that it will have a low moisture content which should allow it to last a long time. Although I'm unsure of the exact nicotine content, I'm going to assume that it'll contain around 12-16mg of nicotine per gram of snus. As a fan of General Long & Strong, I look forward to trying this one out once it gets released!
Catch Collection Spring Street
Continuing the tradition of releasing limited edition Catch flavors, Swedish Match plans to introduce a new member to the collection called Spring Street. Available in early May, expect Spring Street to have a taste of cinnamon and apple, while being quite sweet. No word on how long it'll be available for, so be sure to keep checking back here to find out once it is released. Until then, Catch Lafayette Street will continue to be available, so be sure to stock up before it becomes discontinued!
Catch White Black Currant Long
Aside from Spring Street, Swedish Match is also planning to release Catch Black Current Long. Its another white portion, with a very interesting flavor profile said to taste of mild tobacco, black currant, and mint. I'm very curious as to how this snus will taste, and I'm looking forward to reviewing it upon release.
Goteborg's Rape Redesign
Another thing which is expected to occur soon is a redesign of the current Goteborg's Rape can. Although the look of the can will change, the classic taste of Goteborg's Rape will remain the same. With a splash of red or green to go along with the classic blue can color, I think the new cans will look pretty neat!
Offroad Licorice Mini
Manufactured by V2 Tobacco, V2 is known for making quality snus at low prices, and as a big fan of the Offroad line of snus, I think that this mini format will be a welcome addition to an already strong lineup. Offroad Licorice Mini is currently available for purchase at Northerner. It tastes the same as the regular size Offroad Licorice, except in a smaller format.
I look forward to seeing what other snuses will be released this spring. If you have any information regarding new snus releases, don't hesitate to contact me!