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Home | Monogram Aerospace

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Danzig

Monogram Aerospace Fasteners has established itself as the premier leader of blind bolt technology in the aerospace industry. Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, Monogram, as a fastener manufacturer and supplier, has built its reputation on a commitment to innovation, high quality products and unrivaled service.

Monograms pioneering spirit in aerospace engineering has brought to market a diverse collection of blind bolts- Visu-Lok, Composi-Lok, Radial-Lok and the OSI-Bolt. These premier products were engineered as solutions to industry demands; low cost one-sided installation, consistent high preload without risk of composite delamination, reduced labor interference fit fatigue enhancement, and a blind installed replacement for pin and collar systems. All Monogram blind bolts are ideally suited for automated assembly and can be supplied with Monograms Double Cylindrical Drive (DCD) system. The DCD system provides a common tool interface regardless of head style, fastener grip, or diameter. There are no orientation problems because the interface and drive mechanism are cylindrical.

With over 125 years of experience, Monogram prides itself on delivering innovative high quality aerospace fasteners and products to its customers. In addition to blind bolts Monogram also offers a wide array of products, including temporary fasteners such as our CBX cylindrical body Wedgelock fastener, as well as a variety of other tools specifically suited to temporary fixturing and fastening, NAS and BACS series screws, collars and various fastener installation and removal tools.

Please click on the links below to view our Environmental Policy and ISO 14001:2004 CertificationOpen Environmental Policy Document|Open ISO 14001:2004 Certification Document

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National Speakers Association (NSA … – Connecticut Chapter

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Danzig

Im delighted to serve as your NSA-CT Chapter President for 2017-18. Our goal for this year is reflected in our theme:Community. Inspiration. Growth.Come join us, get involved, and find all three!Last year, our members (both Professional and Speakers Academy) and guests heard exciting ideas, shared creative tips, and had spirited conversations that lifted each and every one of us. Lets do it again!You can join us as:Professional Member (if you are a member of NSA National) in two categories: Basic (see the benefits here) and All-Access Pass (which includes all our speaker meetings and one free Fireside Chat a savings of $80!)Speakers Academy Member our Academy takes you step-by-step into the world of Professional Speakers, with 10 modules delivered over 4 Saturdays (one each in February, March, April and May at a lovely retreat center in Madison. Tuition includes NSA-CT membership!Guest Attend NSA-CT meetings whenever you like, at the Guest rate ($40 per meeting, includes dinner). Guests range from the just curious to those serious about taking the step to professional speaking. Well help you get there.

This year, were all about Community (speaking can be a solitary business until the audience shows up! come meet your peeps and share questions, answers, successes, and laughter), Inspiration (nothing like seeing how others get to where they are to help you get there too), and Growth personal as well as professional.As soon as our program is cemented, youll see the info on our event page. Some topics under consideration are: So you wanna do a TED/TEDX talk? How to bring your PowerPoint to the millennial age Setting up online courses for more reach and income Building Your Personal Brand Speaking internationally Face-to-Face: Leverage the Power of In-Person

Come join us and get your share! Membership notices will go out July 31st, and you can always contact us at nsaconnecticut@gmail.com.Right now, you can:You can join our facebook group,follow us on twitter @NSAConnecticut,and join our mailing list.Cant wait to see you!Randye

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National Speakers Association (NSA ... - Connecticut Chapter

With precision medicine heating up, Genome Medical …

Posted on February 24, 2018 by jessica

Precision medicine is gaining steamas consumers and healthcare organizations get up to speed with what promises to be a new paradigm in wellness care delivery. Consider the genetic testing startup 23andMe, which just landed $250 million in funding this past September. That financing brings the total capital raised by the company to $491 million as the kits become more popular.

And just this week, both Google and Microsoft participated in a $58 million funding round into precision medicine upstart DNAnexus and its cloud-based platform for machine learning and the sharing of biomedical and genomics data.

With this sort of momentum industry-wide, another startup, Genome Medical, has just launched programs designed to enable employer groups to offer genetic services and physician-guided genetic testing to their employees through its national network of clinical genetic experts. Employees can consult independently with Genome Medical providers includingtelemedicine consultations to ensure confidentiality and privacy of employee health information.

With more than 5,000 inherited genetic disorders and only about 6,000 practicing genetic experts in the United States, finding and accessing the right professional can be a challenge, and wait times for an appointment can be long. Further, research shows that non-genetic specialist doctors have an order error rate for genetic testing that is three times the error rate of genetic specialists, according to Genome Medical.

"Many individuals have a family history suggestive of an inherited condition such as cancer or heart disease, but lack guidance from their own providers about how to evaluate these risks," said Robert Green, MD, a medical geneticist at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Genome Medical. "Employer programs that provide their employees with confidential access to independent genetics experts can help these individuals and their families benefit from evaluation and testing that meet established recommendations.

Genome Medical now offers employer groups four genetic programs. The first is genetic medical services. Genome Medical can help identify individuals at risk for an inherited disease or condition who would qualify for genetic testing under current medical guidelines and insurance coverage. Services include genetic counseling, genetic test ordering when indicated, simplified sample collection, medical case management and referrals as needed.

Proactive health programs, meanwhile, offer preemptive genetic screening for actionable genetic conditions to help individuals learn of genetic risks and take appropriate action. The program includes: detection of changes in genes associated with inheritable cancers, cardiovascular diseases and blood disorders; how genes affect response to anesthesia and other medications; and carrier testing for family planning and reproductive health.

The companys Genetics Resource Center offers a national network of genetic experts to employees. Using interactive tools, real-time chat services and a telehealth platform, individuals can ask questions and explore options across the full spectrum of genetic topics and conditions.

And the second opinion program provides a resource for employees to get an expert opinion on any genetic-related diagnosis or treatment plan. Genome Medicals network includes physicians across multiple specialties at top medical institutions who can provide expert second opinions.

"Recent studies suggest that many patients who meet guidelines for genetic testing are not receiving appropriate genetic services," said Lisa Alderson, co-founder and CEO of Genome Medical. "Genome Medical employer programs can help accelerate access to the standard of care in genetics by providing another avenue to identify individuals for whom a genetic test might be beneficial. Employees gain access to information that helps them be proactive about their health, and having healthier employees is in the interest of all employers."

Twitter:@SiwickiHealthITEmail the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com

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With precision medicine heating up, Genome Medical ...

John McAfee Says DOGE Is His Coin of the Week

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Danzig

Tech pioneer and entrepreneur John McAfee just named Dogecoin (DOGE) his "coin of the week" for the week of Jan. 8. That might come as a surprise, but Dogecoin is worth more than you think

Created as a joke by founder Jackson Palmer, McAfee says DOGE is now one of the "most widely accepted and loved cryptocurrencies in the world."

On its website, Dogecoin lists itself as a fun and friendly Internet currency.

Now, it's easy to see why DOGE is called a "joke coin." After all, the company's mascot is a somewhat-confused-looking Shiba Inu, a Japanese breed of dog.

It also isn't using blockchain technology to solve specific problems.

That makes Dogecoin seemingly less competitive in a crowded market where coins are expected to go mainstream based on their functions.

While there's no way of knowing exactly which crypto coins will be used the most in the next five years, consider these examples: Bitcoin could be a storage of value, like gold, Litecoin can be used for daily transactions, and Ethereum could become the payment of choice for smart contracts.

But DOGE shows why hundreds and even thousands of crypto coins can co-exist with each other and still have value

Cryptocurrencies are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them, and that's why hundreds of thousands of crypto coins could eventually co-exist.

There could be coins created for each and every hobby and industry in the world, and as long as there's a community there to buy and sell the coin, the cryptocurrency will have a value.

For instance, the Dogecoin community rallies together to support different causes.

In 2014, the Jamaican bobsled team qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Marvin Dixon, the brakeman for the team, revealed that there wasn't enough money to send the team to Russia.

The Dogecoin community stepped in and raised $36,000 worth of DOGE to help send the Jamaican team to the 2014 Winter Olympics, according to The Los Angeles Times.

DOGE supporters also came together again in 2014, when $55,000 worth of DOGE was raised to sponsor NASCAR driver Josh Wise.

As long as people keep using DOGE, it's going to have value.

Over the past year, the price of DOGE has climbed from $0.0002 on Jan. 8, 2017, to $0.015 today, for a 7,400% increase.

California is bracing for a tsunami-sized wave of wealth and if you play your cards right, you could make more money from the marijuana markets than you've ever seen in your life.

You see, thanks to The Golden State's complete cannabis legalization, $20.2 BILLION is expected to flood this industry, delivering massive upward momentum to tiny cannabis startups currently trading for pennies apiece.

But as soon as the money starts flowing into these small companies, and their share prices go from $1, to $5, to $20 or more you may never see a chance like this again.

Your first step on the road to marijuana millions starts right here

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John McAfee Says DOGE Is His Coin of the Week

My Journey to Escape Wage Slavery | Just another WordPress …

Posted on February 23, 2018 by jessica

Forward, ho!

Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and beaten earth around it, and to plunge into the forest, and on and on, he knew not where or why; nor did he wonder where or why, the call sounded imperiously deep in the forest.- Jack London- Call of the Wild

I have this quote stuck up at my desk at eye level and I read it several times during my work day. Call of the Wild is one of my favourite books and when things seem not quite right in life, I can pick it up and read it to soothe whatever angst I am feeling. I love the style of Londons writing as much as the content and themes of the book- his colourful characters and perfectly abbreviated descriptions of nature can lead me to a land of daydreams and lustful desire for wilderness and wildness. The books central theme of heeding the call within reminds me of what I love and why I do it. I dont believe in fate, pre-destined paths and soul mates but I do think each of us has something, or even several things, that feel like home to us. The thing that when we do it or perhaps even think about it, brings us a sense of calmness, completeness and dispels that gnawing feeling in the gut that accompanies those tasks, thoughts and people that are not innately right for us. The best (and probably least imaginative) explanation I have is that it comes from the big formative years of our lives- our childhood and youth. I think that finding what this call is within ourselves is one of the first steps to reclaiming our happiness and taking responsibility for it.

My call that is sounding is of the soil, seeds and leaves which makes my horticulture course feels right. One by one all of the aspects of my life are shifting into place and I truly believe that it is because I am doing what I am meant to be. The happiness and confidence that is coming from doing what nourishes me is overflowing into other areas. The biggest difference by far is that I feel awake. And being awake means feeling alive. Being alive means not being another loser going through the motions on autopilot, thinking about, but never acting on those niggling thoughts that something is out of place and there must be more to life.

Its only been about eight months since the inception of this blog and the main themes of escaping wage slavery and living a more deliberate and meaningful life are already coming to fruition. I use the word fruition in a loose sense, as I am coming to learn my major goals are ongoing and unlikely to ever cease in my life. I currently dont need to earn a full time income to support my needs (although saving money is not an easy task) and virtually all of my time is spent on activities that I find meaningful and add value to my life and hopefully others. Im busy but my days and nights are not loaded with useless busyness, tasks to fill in gaps, doing things to kill time.

Killing time. The thought inspires a horrible sense of dread in me. We all have the same number of hours in the day and life is way too open handed with opportunities to comfortably entertain the idea of killing time. Wasted time, money and food used to be my top personal criticisms and it is the economy and salvation of those in between and once passive moments of time that have been the biggest beast to conquer. If you finding you are killing time waiting for someone or something find ways to use that time. Creatively daydream, write, read, listen to a podcast- please, please, please dont kill your time.

The main problem with this great obsession for saving time is very simple: you cant save time. You can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or foolishly. Benjamin Hoff- The Tao of Pooh

My 40 Before 40 list feels like it is going slowly, but this is only because so many of the items on the list are really, really big and require a long term commitment (something I have never excelled at). In the last week alone I have worked on the following items:

I have also adjusted the list to better fit me by changing Run a half marathon (I actually dont enjoy running at all) to Hitchhike 10,000kms and Visit Every Continent (this is implicit in the other items) to Attend Burning Man. I figure a couple of changes as I grow is not only permissible but something to be encouraged. Having strict goals and ideals often puts blinkers on life and prevents us from seeing the other opportunities that arise.

Be flexible and spend your time wisely.

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My Journey to Escape Wage Slavery | Just another WordPress ...

Futurism Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

Posted on February 23, 2018 by ev1

Futurism was a modern art and social movement which originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It was largely an Italian phenomenon, though there were parallel movements in Russia, England and elsewhere. The Futurists practiced in every medium of art, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, theatre, movies, fashion, textiles, literature, music, architecture and even gastronomy.

The founder of Futurism and its most influential personality was the Italian writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Marinetti launched the movement in his Futurist Manifesto, which he published for the first time on 5 February 1909 in La gazzetta dell'Emilia. This article was reprinted in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro on 20 February 1909. Marinetti was soon joined by the painters Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carr, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini and the composer Luigi Russolo.

Marinetti expressed a passionate loathing of everything old, especially political and artistic tradition. "We want no part of it, the past", he wrote, "we the young and strong Futurists!" The Futurists admired speed, technology, youth and violence, the car, the airplane and the industrial city, all that represented the technological triumph of humanity over nature, and they were passionate nationalists. They repudiated the cult of the past and all imitation, praised originality, "however daring, however violent", bore proudly "the smear of madness", dismissed art critics as useless, rebelled against harmony and good taste, swept away all the themes and subjects of all previous art, and gloried in science.

Publishing manifestos was a feature of Futurism, and the Futurists (usually led or prompted by Marinetti) wrote them on many topics, including painting, architecture, religion, clothing and cooking.[3]

The founding manifesto did not contain a positive artistic programme. The Futurists attempted to create it in their subsequent Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting. This committed them to a "universal dynamism", which was to be directly represented in painting.[4]

In practice, much of their work was influenced by Cubism, and indeed their images were more dynamic than those of Picasso and Braque. The phrase 'plastic dynamism' has been used to describe their early work.

Many Italian Futurists supported Fascism in the hope of modernizing the country. Italy was divided between the industrial north and the rural, archaic South. Like the Fascists, the Futurists were Italian nationalists, radicals, admirers of violence, and were opposed to parliamentary democracy. Marinetti was one of the first members of the National Fascist Party. He soon found the Fascists were not radical enough for him, but he supported Italian Fascism until his death in 1944.

The Futurists' association with Fascism after its triumph in 1922 brought them official acceptance in Italy and the ability to carry out important work, especially in architecture. After the Second World War, many Futurist artists had difficulty in their careers because of their association with a defeated and discredited regime.

The Futurists renewed themselves again and again until Marinetti's death.

Futurism influenced many other twentieth century art movements, including Art Deco, Vorticism, Constructivism, Surrealism and Dadaism. Futurism was, like science fiction, in part overtaken by 'the future'.

Nonetheless, the ideals of futurism remain as part of modern Western culture: the emphasis on youth, speed, power and technology is expressed in much of modern cinema and culture. Ridley Scott used design ideas of Sant'Elia in Blade Runner.

Echoes of Marinetti's thought, especially his "dreamt-of metallization of the human body", are still strongly prevalent in Japanese culture, and surface in manga/anime and the works of artists such as Shinya Tsukamoto, director of the "Tetsuo" (lit. "Ironman") films.

Futurism influenced the literary genre of cyberpunk. Artists who came to prominence in the first flush of the internet, such as Stelarc and Mariko Mori, produced work influenced by Futurist ideas. A revival of sorts of the Futurist movement began in 1988 with the creation of the Neo-Futurist style of theatre in Chicago, which uses Futurism's focus on speed and brevity to create a new form of immediate theatre. There are active Neo-Futurist troupes in Chicago, New York, and Montreal.

[[Category:Art movemen

Futurism – Android Apps on Google Play

Posted on February 23, 2018 by jessica

am utterly dissatisfied. The idea and the design is good, but the app itself is a chaos. For the first thing, I can't imagine how you can just shove a 100 minute long youtube video there and sell it as a product. The description says it is designed for the top daily scientific breakthroughs/innovations, but it's impossible to watch videos of that detail and length daily - I would have liked a concluded version or at least some level of journalism. So in this sense it already fails for me as a news app. But even if I happen to have the time and lust to watch videos of that length, it's impossible - the in-app video player is slow to respond and doesn't respond to the full-screen mode button. Also couldn't increase the size of the vid with rotating my phone. When I noticed the problem, I would have liked to make a bug report or something but couldn't find anything like that in the app. Thus, I'm here. Also, the app often crashes when reopened.

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Futurism - Android Apps on Google Play

Futurism – Art for Kids!

Posted on February 23, 2018 by jessica

Futurism Futurism was an art movementof 20th century Italy. Usingvarious types of medium, futurist artists usedemphasized themes of thecontemporary social issues of the time connecting specifically with the future. These themes included ideas based in the increasing speed of technology, automobiles and airplanes of the industrial revolution as well as youth and violence. Futurism focuses on the movement of the object within the piece, manipulating and overlaying an image several times to understand the motion and movement it creates. Colour, line and shape become very important in Futurist works, for the importance is on how the object moves throughout the canvas. Many futurist works appear abstract. Giacomo BallaUmberto Boccioni Gino Severini

Year 12 Observational Drawing Transformation to Futurist PaintingsUsing an observational drawing you've created. Think about movement and your lines. If your objects were in motion, what would they look like? What colours, shapes and lines would they product? What blocks of colour and abstracted shapes would be created? Use the above artists as an influence to your work and re-create your observational drawings as futurist works of art.

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Futurism - Art for Kids!

Cubism and Futurism Abstract Art – imodern.com

Posted on February 23, 2018 by jessica

These are the two movements, with more or less abstract tendencies, that first influenced the majority ofexperimental artists in this country, beginning about 1913 when both movements were at their height.

Cubism and Futurism, both of which had a great influence in the United States derives from the researches ofCezanne and Seurat. The beginnings of Cubism date back to about 1908 under the twin aegis of Picasso andBraque.

In the case of Cubism, the primitivist, instinctual content of Gauguin's and van Goh's paintings and the laterdiscovery of the barbaric, expressive power of Negro sculpture played an important part in such an early cubistpicture of Picasso's as his Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. And however much Picasso and his cubist followers tended tolimit their researches to the still life, they never divorced themselves completely from the sentimental, evenromantic, implications of their chosen subject matters the paraphernalia of the studio, musical instruments, theguitar, mandolin and violin and the characters out of the old commedia dell'arte associated with such instruments,Harlequin, Columbine and Pierrot.

Despite such emotional or non-rational elements in cubist painting, however, its rational motivation must stillbe said to have remained uppermQst. It consisted in a process of analytical abstraction of several planes of anobject to present a synthetic, simultaneous view of it.

And by directing the formal planes of this synthetic view towards the observer rather than making them retreatby traditional perspective principles into an illusionistic space, the picture frame no longer acted as a windowleading the eye into the distance but as a boundary enclosing a limited area of canvas or panel. In the so-calledanalytical phase of Cubism, painting tended also to be monochromatic, presumably to avoid as much as possible anysensuous or naturalistic reference to color.

The leading Cubists, Picasso and Braque, refused to take abstraction further than this point and actually intime climbed down from their pinnacle of analytical experiment to a more decorative, sensuous plateau. They leftthe final step of total geometrical abstraction to others.

Another proto-abstract movement, an anti-rational offshoot of Cubism, Futurism was launched by the ItalianFuturists about 1910. Rebelling against the cubist analysis of static form, the Futurists were above all inspiredby the dynamism of the machine, which they proceeded to glorify and to make a central tenet in their artisticcredo. Man to the Futurist must accept the machine and emulate its ruthless power. By way of emulation theyattempted to paint movement by indicating abstract lines of force and schematic stages in the progress of a movingimage. And furthermore, in some instances they sought to involve the observer in their pictures by viewing movementfrom an interior position-the inside of a trolley car, for example-thus denying, as the Cubists did, formal laws ofperspective.

Where the Cubists strove to eliminate three-dimensional space and thus bring the image in the picture closer tothe observer, although still at a distance, the Futurists attempted to suck the observer into a pictorial vortex.The greatest difference between these two proto-abstract movements, however, is that the one, Cubism, is concernedwith forms in static relationships while Futurism is concerned with them in a kinetic state.

Furthermore, the Cubists, with few exceptions, paid no attention to the machine, as such, while the Futurists,as we have said, glorified it.

The cubist movement, significantly, had no overt political implications and indulged in no manifestoes.

The Futurists, on the other hand, worshipped naked energy for its own sake and in their writings pointed forwardto the power-drunk ideology of Fascism.

The Cubists, it may be said, immured themselves from any contact with the public by shutting themselves up intheir studio laboratories.

The Futurists came out into the market place and demagogically attempted to appeal to the man in the trolleycar. If their pictures today seem dry and doctrinaire to some of us, the ideological appeal of Futurism and itspolitical partner, Fascism, was, we are all uncomfortably aware, quite the reverse.

Furthermore, the generally rational-minded Cubist contented himself as we have noted with the still-lifematerials of his studio for subject matter and abstract dissection, whereas the futurist picture falls mainly intothe category of landscape and figure compositions, however urban and mechanical the emphasis.

Davis' Lucky Strike abstract art from 1921 is a good exampleof Cubism.

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Cubism and Futurism Abstract Art - imodern.com

Donald Trump News, Pictures, and Videos | TMZ.com

Posted on February 23, 2018 by ev1

Donald J. Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States of America as the Republic nominee in the 2016 Race for the White House by taking victory over Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on November 8, 2016. Trump ran on the campaign promise to Make America Great Again. He was sworn into office at his Inauguration on January 20, 2017. Prior to entering politics, Trump made his fortune in real estate as a developer of office and residential buildings, hotels, and golf courses. He previously hosted and executive produced the NBC reality competition shows The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice, becoming known for the phrase, Youre fired! Trump formerly owned the Miss Universe organization, but it was sold to WME/IMG in 2015. He has written over 14 best selling books, including The Art of the Deal, and has turned his name into a brand, putting his moniker on products such as clothing, water, and fragrances. Trump was born June 14, 1946 to parents Mary and Fred Trump in Queens, NY. He graduated from the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and went on to follow in his fathers footsteps as a real estate mogul. Trump has been married three times. He has three children with first wife, Ivana Trump (1979-1992) Donald, Jr., Ivanka, and Eric one daughter with second wife, Marla Maples (1993-1999) Tiffany and one son with current wife, First Lady Melania Trump (2005-present) Barron. Trump also has eight grandchildren.

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Donald Trump News, Pictures, and Videos | TMZ.com

doppelgnger | The Posthuman Marxist

Posted on February 23, 2018 by ev1

Slavoj iek once mentioned that the true horror of confronting ones doppelgnger (Edgar Allan Poes William Wilson, etc.) is the horror of knowing that one may actually exist out there [citation needed]. This can be understood in the Humean sense, he said, that what the subject knows of himself is that he does not exist but as suppositions of the Other, an empty hole in the topology of social reality, ieks empty cogito. Does the same not hold true for society at large when confronted with a prospect of its clones in the form of humanoid artificial intelligence subjects? The true horror of humanoid robots, Masahiro Moris uncanny valley, resides in the realm of realizing that we may actually exist fully objectively. It is the horror of the disappearance of lack, the horror of realizing that we may not have a lack after all.

As Katherine Hayles (1999:30) noted, although for Lacan language is not a code, for computers language is perfectly a code. Computer language recognizes symbols purely through computational models with one-to-one correspondence between the signifier and the signified. Here, lack does not have a place. Thus, the cogito of the cyborg is purely a cogito of existence, not an empty one. The uncanny valley is thus the condition in which we have to confront this horror of excessive non-humanity a robot purely in the form of a human being, machines but existing only qua social human being.

If there exists subjects to which language is a code, we are in very deep trouble. One very certain trouble we directly run into is the Lacanian sexuation: a female AI the gynoid is not a barred Other, for we understand her mechanisms perfectly. If the woman does not exist, the gynoid exists qua computerized cognition. (Even, one may go as far to say that cloning and/or neurobiology will eventually make it possible to produce the woman.) In computer codes, we no longer have cognitive functions of x which does not cease not to write itself, nor the x which ceases not to write itself all conditions must be preprogrammed in functions of if x then y. Coding is an act of masculine writing. The cyborg is both free of castration but not a feminine as such, for it is a phallic subject and and subject to mutation a non-feminine. The paradox of mutation is of course the fact that although it has a function of castration, it in fact has a probability for the subject to spawn a greater phallus than the one he has just lost. The uncanny valley is the horrific gap of the experience of the non-feminine.

All this is not science fiction. There has recently been a research on the engendering of the Semantic Web which is just one among the many gender research in new media. It is notions like these that further signify how new code languages (artificial intelligence, semantic web, etc), fundamentally different from human language and cognition, will undoubtedly trouble the sexuation of contemporary society. As Foucault was already well aware, sex is subject to historical change only this time, the change may be so much more fundamentally so.

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doppelgnger | The Posthuman Marxist

c# – Deep cloning objects – Stack Overflow

Posted on February 23, 2018 by ev1

Q. Why would I choose this answer?

In other words, go with another answer unless you have a performance bottleneck that needs fixing, and you can prove it with a profiler.

The following method of performing a deep clone is:

For ultimate speed, you can use Nested MemberwiseClone to do a deep copy. Its almost the same speed as copying a value struct, and is much faster than (a) reflection or (b) serialization (as described in other answers on this page).

Note that if you use Nested MemberwiseClone for a deep copy, you have to manually implement a ShallowCopy for each nested level in the class, and a DeepCopy which calls all said ShallowCopy methods to create a complete clone. This is simple: only a few lines in total, see the demo code below.

Here is the output of the code showing the relative performance difference for 100,000 clones:

Using Nested MemberwiseClone on a class almost as fast as copying a struct, and copying a struct is pretty darn close to the theoretical maximum speed .NET is capable of.

To understand how to do a deep copy using MemberwiseCopy, here is the demo project that was used to generate the times above:

Then, call the demo from main:

Again, note that if you use Nested MemberwiseClone for a deep copy, you have to manually implement a ShallowCopy for each nested level in the class, and a DeepCopy which calls all said ShallowCopy methods to create a complete clone. This is simple: only a few lines in total, see the demo code above.

Note that when it comes to cloning an object, there is is a big difference between a "struct" and a "class":

See differences between value types and references types.

One excellent use case for this code is feeding clones of a nested class or struct into a queue, to implement the producer / consumer pattern.

This works extremely well in practice, and allows us to decouple many threads (the producers) from one or more threads (the consumers).

And this method is blindingly fast too: if we use nested structs, it's 35x faster than serializing/deserializing nested classes, and allows us to take advantage of all of the threads available on the machine.

Apparently, ExpressMapper is as fast, if not faster, than hand coding such as above. I might have to see how they compare with a profiler.

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c# - Deep cloning objects - Stack Overflow

Cyberpunk 2077 to Feature thrilling Combat Encounters

Posted on February 23, 2018 by ev1

Cyberpunk 2077is supposed to feature exciting combat encounters, as stated by a job listing from CD Projekt RED. At the present moment, the company is looking for a combat designer so as to help create exciting combat encounters for the approaching CD Projekt RED.

The person is supposed to be doing work with the quest designer so as to help produce wonderful and detailed combat situations. Level Designers, Open world designer,and Environment Artists are all going to be working with the combat designer.

Cyberpunk 2077 is supposed tofeature more than 60 hours of story contentand that is in addition to the side quests that we are supposed to get. Making exciting combat encounters is vital for the game so as to keep the players engaged for that much of hours.

Further focus is beingput on animationsin addition to striking graphics quality.

Cyberpunk 2077 is to get presented on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, supposedly, anytime in the next year.

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Cyberpunk 2077 to Feature thrilling Combat Encounters

Review: Stylish cyberpunk series tells a scattered story …

Posted on February 23, 2018 by jessica

This review contains spoilers for Altered Carbon.

If Blade Runner posed the question What does it mean to be human? then Netflixs latest series, Altered Carbon, asks, What does it mean to live? Or, at least it tries to.

In the distant future, humanity has beaten death sort of. Human consciousness is stored in a cortical stack, a biomechanical disk implanted at the base of the neck. These stacks enable humans to transfer their consciousness into any body, provided they have the money. The result is a dystopian cyberpunk intergalactic system that grants the rich immortality. The immortals are called meths after Methuselah, a biblical figure said to have lived 969 years.

Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman) is a disgraced member of a military sect and was put in stasis for 250 years after joining a pro-death revolutionary group. Hes reawakened in Bay City to solve the murder of Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy), a powerful meth. Along the way, he encounters a sentient hotel, biomodded mutants, a religious zealot, a flying sex fortress, clones, androids, alien trees, gang leaders, virtual torture, fight clubs and a convoluted conspiracy.

Overwhelmed yet?

Thats the fundamental flaw with Altered Carbon it tries to cram too much plot into too few episodes. The first half of the show has a singular vision; it centers on Laurens death and Takeshis mission to find the killer. But as the show progresses, it loses this focus and starts exploring pointless, plodding tangents. By the final episode, the characters are so far from where they started that Takeshi and friends feel like theyve stepped into another show thats more like a soap opera than a cyberdrama.

The conclusion is built around Takeshis relationship with his sister, Reileen (Dichen Lachman), their rocky past and her attempts to win his loveby murdering everyone he cares about. Not only is her motivation downright cartoonish, but her actions are inconsistent and often work against her end goal to secure a stable life for herself and her brother. She tries to save Takeshi as often as she tries to kill him.

But Takeshi himself isnt worth caring about. His character is styled after a noir detective, but he does less sleuthing than whining. It takes 10 episodes for Takeshi to understand the simple idea that some people actually like him and can help him on his journey. In seemingly every episode, he casts his friends aside, tries to isolate himself and then runs, desperate, to their aid when his negligence puts them in danger. Its an exhausting cycle that repeats and repeats and eventually becomes dull.

Equally frustrating is the contrived romance between Takeshi and police Officer Kristin Ortega (Martha Higareda). The show builds their relationship and establishes the trust between them, only to undermine it entirely in the final episode. It feels cheap, manipulative and disrespectful of the viewers time. The problem isnt that they dont end up together spoilers, they dont but that the reason for their split serves only to fuel a second season.

Even the visuals feel hectic and overdone. The streets look like rough approximations of Blade Runner. A neon glow casts the crowds of prostitutes and degenerates in shadow. Holographic women advertise sex shops, while musclebound monstrosities promote fight rings. For a television series, it certainly has a cinematic scope, but, like the story, the aesthetic lacks consistency. The show bounds from grimy streets to glittering castles above the clouds without pausing to acknowledge the change in tone.

The only unquestionable joy in Altered Carbon is Poe (Chris Conner), an AI in charge of a long-abandoned hotel. Poe is charismatic, sympathetic and ultimately more human than the rest of the cast.

Altered Carbon suffers from tonal whiplash. It jolts viewers back and forth between a military drama, a sci-fi philosophy piece, a revolutionary adventure and a family drama. Its difficult for a viewer to invest in any one facet of the story because the moment their interest is piqued, the show gets sidetracked.

Theres enough material for a second season, but Altered Carbon is better off dead.

Continued here:

Review: Stylish cyberpunk series tells a scattered story ...

Cyberpunk Noir | Author Jacey Holbrand

Posted on February 23, 2018 by jessica

SINthetic

The New Lyons Sequence #1

by J.T. Nicholas

Genre: Science Fiction Cyberpunk Noir

Pub Date: 1/23/2018

The Artificial Evolution

They look like us. Act like us. Butthey are not human. Created to perform the menial tasks real humansdetest, Synths were designed with only a basic intelligence andminimal emotional response. It stands to reason that they have norights. Like any technology, they are designed for human convenience.Disposable.

In the city of New Lyons, DetectiveJason Campbell is investigating a vicious crime: a female body foundmutilated and left in the streets. Once the victim is identified as aSynth, the crime is designated no more than the destruction ofproperty, and Campbell is pulled from the case.

But when a mysterious strangerapproaches Campbell and asks him to continue his investigation insecret, Campbell is dragged into a dark world of unimaginablecorruption. One that leaves him questioning the true nature ofhumanity.

And what he discovers is only the beginning . . .

J.T. Nicholas was born inLexington, Virginia, though within six months he moved (or was moved,rather) to Stuttgart, Germany. Thus began the long journey of themilitary brat, hopping from state to state and country to countryuntil, at present, he has accumulated nearly thirty relocations. Thisexperience taught him that, regardless of where one found oneself,people were largely the same. When not writing, Nick spends his timepracticing a variety of martial arts, playing games (video, tabletop,and otherwise), and reading everything he can get his hands on. Nickcurrently resides in Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife, a pair ofindifferent cats, a neurotic Papillion, and an Australian Shepherdwho (rightly) believes he is in charge of the day-to-day affairs.

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Cyberpunk Noir | Author Jacey Holbrand

DPS Research (Cyberpunk) George Dennis

Posted on February 23, 2018 by jessica

Starting off as a literacy movement, the term Cyberpunk soon evolved into a subculture organism. Defining the term Cyberpunk is difficult as it has reached a level of complexity that requires multiple definitions at this point since it has become both a culture and genre. In short, Cyberpunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that features advanced technologies in an urban, dystopian future. On one side youd typically have the powerful corporations and private security companies whilst on the other youd have the attractive, dark and gritty underworld of illegal trade, gangs and drugs. Amongst all of this, the genre contains traits of politics, corruption and social upheaval traits of common goals amongst Youth within the modern world.

In the view of the genre being a sub-culture, social reactionhas been mostly negative as a result of the foundations that it stands itself upon. However, since books and films that follow this subculture have recently become drastically commercialised, it has gained a noticeable following and is alluring to the masses. Examples of this are Bladerunner 2049, Ghost In a Shell and the Matrix series.

By masses, this mostly entails the younger generation with the majority being younger boys in their teenage years. Since Cyberpunk is so closely related to the Hacking culture that is prominent within our age of information, it is very much favoured by the Youth as Youth is about transition from a world of paternal authority, where the parents dictate how things are done, to a world of responsibility, where youth make decisions for themselves. The transition is marked by rebellion, defiance and a seemingly single-minded focus on defiance. All of above being underlying traits of the culture that the Cyberpunk genre has cultivated over the decades that it has been present.

Historically, this genre was born at the perfect time for its cultivation as the Youth of the 1980s and 1990s grew up more technologically literate than their parents since they were the first generation to gain commercial access to these devices. And with computing itself being a cultivation of rebellion with a different representation of doing things; the culture was soon blown up to a massive scale. However, the chapter of Cyberpunk during those years has concluded and is a finished chapter in history. The form of Cyberpunk that we are presented with today is still lively and is in the process of ever-goingtransformation.

With Cyberpunk being such a diverse genre/culture, I think it suits the theme of Equality & Diversity almost perfectly as one of the common strives within a Cyberpunk story is to fix the dystopian society that characters find themselves amongst and rid the gap between the underground and corporations; an almost perfect reflection of our current world.

Alongside this, Cyberpunk very much focuses on the more gritty and dark traits of the world we live in. However, the genre often makes sure to portray the contrast of works; the diversity of cultures within these imaginative worlds.

Is.muni.cz. (2018).Cite a Website Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: https://is.muni.cz/th/74895/ff_b/FINAL_THESIS.pdf [Accessed 21 Feb. 2018].

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DPS Research (Cyberpunk) George Dennis

Netflixs Altered Carbon misses the point of cyberpunk …

Posted on February 23, 2018 by jessica

Netflixs new science fiction TV series Altered Carbon ticks all the boxes for a modern-day cyberpunk series. Based on a 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan, its about a hardboiled investigator named Takeshi Kovacs who lives in a world where human consciousness can be stored on a chip called a stack, and transferred between bodies (now known as sleeves.) The rich have effectively become immortal, sequestering themselves far above the gritty streets of futuristic San Francisco. The masses use flashing holograms to sell copious sex, drugs, and violence, beneath a perpetually dark and rainy sky. The series offers a Blade Runner-tinged aesthetic that many people adore, me included.

But that aesthetic, paradoxically, is why Altered Carbon fails, as both good television and good cyberpunk.

Films like Blade Runner and classic cyberpunk novels like Neuromancer, helped transform science fiction by imagining how new inventions would intersect with existing culture, particularly outside respectable bourgeois society. Early cyberpunk posits that technology will shape humanity, but that ordinary people will also shape technology, and that much of the future will simply be a remixed version of the present. The specific tropes its associated with like city streets inspired by Tokyo and Hong Kong, omnipresent advertising, and hardboiled mystery plots emerged from these larger philosophical underpinnings.

As Gavia Baker-Whitelaw at The Daily Dot and Ryan Britt at Inverse have pointed out, though, modern cyberpunk is basically a kind of retro-futurism. Its an often predictable genre that meticulously copies 30-year-old ideas of what tomorrow might look like including dated gender roles; an ARPANET-era vision of computer use; and perhaps most importantly, a culture that hasnt spent several decades imagining a cyberpunk future. Blade Runners groundbreaking visual style has been sanded down into a gorgeous prefab kit thats applied to futures without any consideration for what makes a given science fiction society unique or distinctive. And in Altered Carbons case, that kit isnt just derivative. It sabotages the genres truly timeless aspects, stretching out surface-level tropes like an ill-fitting skin.

Altered Carbon is a far future that looks inexplicably near. The exact date is ambiguous, but a description puts it at over 300 years from now, compared to a few decades in Blade Runner. Humans have colonized other planets, discovered the remnants of an alien civilization, and conquered death. They also favor fashion that looks like a noir-inspired H&M collection, back-alley brothels with tacky holographic signs, distinctly 20th-century skinhead tattoos, and grimy urban architecture. (Morgans novel Altered Carbon takes place even later. But as a book, it has the freedom to leave these kinds of details to the imagination, or pause to explain their backstory.) Kovacs wakes from a 250-year stint in a disembodied stack prison the equivalent of a Revolutionary War prisoner jumping forward to 2018 and his flashbacks are barely distinguishable from the main setting.

Altered Carbon seems basically uninterested in its own premise

That choice could have been used for compelling worldbuilding. Altered Carbons neo-San Francisco is ruled by multi-centenarian Methuselahs or Meths, and it would make sense if theyd held onto nostalgic relics like some nightmare version of the Baby Boomers. But the show seems basically uninterested in the implications of body-swapping and immortality, unless it directly affects Kovacs journey, or advances simplistic social commentary. Altered Carbon doesnt use anachronistic details to explore how we got from the present day to the 24th century. Theyre just convenient narrative shorthand for downtrodden prostitute or street tough, or more generally, dark and gritty future.

This undercuts the themes of social division and class consciousness that Altered Carbon is supposedly exploring, and cyberpunks general penchant for vibrant, complex settings. The rich and poor seem so completely divided in this series that theres no reason for all culture to freeze just because the rich are living in amber or if there is a reason, Altered Carbon doesnt make a case for it. In fact, the series would be much stronger if a high-tech but stagnant society of immortals periodically appropriated fresh pop culture from a short-lived underclass. It would combine present-day social concerns with strange new technology, while still letting Altered Carbon indulge in retro-futurism.

But instead of treating stacks and sleeves as unpredictable forces, Altered Carbon depicts them as a cudgel that decadent immortals use against the helpless poor in dully predictable ways. Theres one piece of uniquely creepy depravity in the series: a woman whose pet snake apparently contains a human mind. Otherwise, after several hundred years of life, Altered Carbons Meths have settled on two hobbies: admiring the middlebrow neoclassical decor of their private sky mansions, and killing poor people. Theyre not even particularly creative about it apparently low-budget snuff scenarios and clumsy zero-gravity death matches never get old.

Technology isnt an unexpected force, its a predictable cudgel

These temporary deaths are all horrible, of course, as is the Meths overall callousness. But theres such a monotonous, unimaginative tread of cruelty that it loses any shock value or allegorical heft. Beneath its serious grown-up science fiction trappings of nudity and sexual violence, Altered Carbon is less incisive than the equally heavy-handed young adult series The Hunger Games, which mixed on-the-nose class commentary with genuine futuristic weirdness.

Part of the problem is that unlike many cyberpunk protagonists, Kovacs isnt really part of Altered Carbons world hes a newcomer being handsomely paid to investigate a Meths (temporary, but mysterious) murder. Actual members of the underclass are rarely given goals or agency, unless theyve been personally liberated by Kovacs and his infinite expense account. Theyre doll-like bodies waiting to be smashed up, so Kovacs can either justify his rage or establish his good-guy status with paternalistic advice. (You shouldnt let anyone hurt you. Youre worth more than that, he helpfully tells one brothel worker.) We know more about how the poor people of this society die than how they live.

A couple of running subplots delve into Altered Carbons specific vision of the future, and unsurprisingly, theyre the best parts of the series. A sentient Edgar Allan Poe-themed hotel which interacts with guests using an avatar based on Poe himself offers a window into an intriguing AI service economy, including virtual poker nights with a labor union. Poe strikes up a friendship with a sleeveless woman, which emphasizes the fuzzy line between an artificial personality and a human who only exists on a chip. And Kovacs police officer partner Kristen Ortega has a neo-Catholic family thats split over Gods view of resurrecting a loved one. In these cases, Altered Carbon pushes past its Blade Runner fetish and reflexive cynicism to find something human.

But when the larger world is so thin, its hard to put something like neo-Catholicism in a larger context. Characters have had centuries to get used to the idea of stacks. Why do so many still seem blindsided by their existence? And why do so few people, including the dour Meths, seem to be doing anything interesting with the technology?

Altered Carbon trades thoughtful writing and design for a blinkered focus on polemic and prefab dystopia. Instead of imagining what a future full of body-shifters would look like, the series seemingly starts with an aging visual style, adds the premise that rich immortals enjoy hurting people, and work backward from there. It has all the superficial hallmarks of a cyberpunk classic like Blade Runner, but it would have been far better cyberpunk without them.

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Netflixs Altered Carbon misses the point of cyberpunk ...

Steampunk – Wikipedia

Posted on February 23, 2018 by jessica

Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery.[1][2] Although its literary origins are sometimes associated with the cyberpunk genre,[3] steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the 19th century's British Victorian era or American "Wild West", in a future during which steam power has maintained mainstream usage, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power. However, steampunk and Neo-Victorian are different in that the Neo-Victorian movement does not extrapolate on technology and embraces the positive aspects of the Victorian era's culture and philosophy.[citation needed]

Steampunk most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retro-futuristic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them, and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art.[citation needed] Such technology may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or of the modern authors Philip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld, Stephen Hunt, and China Miville.[original research?] Other examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analogue computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.[citation needed]

Steampunk may also incorporate additional elements from the genres of fantasy, horror, historical fiction, alternate history, or other branches of speculative fiction, making it often a hybrid genre.[citation needed] The first known appearance of the term steampunk was in 1987, though it now retroactively refers to many works of fiction created as far back as the 1950s or 1960s.[citation needed]

Steampunk also refers to any of the artistic styles, clothing fashions, or subcultures that have developed from the aesthetics of steampunk fiction, Victorian-era fiction, art nouveau design, and films from the mid-20th century.[4] Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.[5]

Steampunk is influenced by and often adopts the style of the 19th-century scientific romances of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley, and Edward S. Ellis's The Steam Man of the Prairies.[6] Several more modern works of art and fiction significant to the development of the genre were produced before the genre had a name. Titus Alone (1959), by Mervyn Peake, is widely regarded by scholars as the first novel in the genre proper,[7][8][pageneeded][9] while others point to Michael Moorcock's 1971 novel The Warlord of the Air,[10][11][12] which was heavily influenced by Peake's work. The film Brazil (1985) was an important early cinematic influence that helped codify the aesthetics of the genre. The Adventures of Luther Arkwright was an early (1970s) comic version of the Moorcock-style mover between timestreams.[13][14]

In fine art, Remedios Varo's paintings combine elements of Victorian dress, fantasy, and technofantasy imagery.[15][pageneeded] In television, one of the earliest manifestations of the steampunk ethos in the mainstream media was the CBS television series The Wild Wild West (196569), which inspired the later film.[6][16]

Although many works now considered seminal to the genre were published in the 1960s and 1970s, the term steampunk originated in the late 1980s as a tongue-in-cheek variant of cyberpunk. It was coined by science fiction author K. W. Jeter,[17] who was trying to find a general term for works by Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates, 1983), James Blaylock (Homunculus, 1986), and himself (Morlock Night, 1979, and Infernal Devices, 1987)all of which took place in a 19th-century (usually Victorian) setting and imitated conventions of such actual Victorian speculative fiction as H. G. Wells' The Time Machine. In a letter to science fiction magazine Locus, printed in the April 1987 issue, Jeter wrote:

Dear Locus,

Enclosed is a copy of my 1979 novel Morlock Night; I'd appreciate your being so good as to route it to Faren Miller, as it's a prime piece of evidence in the great debate as to who in "the Powers/Blaylock/Jeter fantasy triumvirate" was writing in the "gonzo-historical manner" first. Though of course, I did find her review in the March Locus to be quite flattering.

While Jeter's Morlock Night and Infernal Devices, Powers' The Anubis Gates, and Blaylock's Lord Kelvin's Machine were the first novels to which Jeter's neologism would be applied, the three authors gave the term little thought at the time.[20]:48 They were far from the first modern science fiction writers to speculate on the development of steam-based technology or alternative histories. Keith Laumer's Worlds of the Imperium (1962) and Ronald W. Clark's Queen Victoria's Bomb (1967) apply modern speculation to past-age technology and society.[21][pageneeded] Michael Moorcock's Warlord of the Air (1971)[22] is another early example. Harry Harrison's novel A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! (1973) portrays a British Empire of an alternative year 1973, full of atomic locomotives, coal-powered flying boats, ornate submarines, and Victorian dialogue. The Adventures of Luther Arkwright (mid-1970s) was the first steampunk comic.[citation needed] In February 1980, Richard A. Lupoff and Steve Stiles published the first "chapter" of their 10-part comic strip The Adventures of Professor Thintwhistle and His Incredible Aether Flyer.[23]

The first use of the word in a title was in Paul Di Filippo's 1995 Steampunk Trilogy,[24] consisting of three short novels: "Victoria", "Hottentots", and "Walt and Emily", which, respectively, imagine the replacement of Queen Victoria by a human/newt clone, an invasion of Massachusetts by Lovecraftian monsters, and a love affair between Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.

Superficially, steampunk may resemble retrofuturism. Indeed, both sensibilities recall "the older but still modern eras in which technological change seemed to anticipate a better world, one remembered as relatively innocent of industrial decline."[2]

One of steampunks most significant contributions is the way in which it mixes digital media with traditional handmade art forms. As scholars Rachel Bowser and Brian Croxall put it, "the tinkering and tinker-able technologies within steampunk invite us to roll up our sleeves and get to work re-shaping our contemporary world."[25] In this respect, steampunk bears more in common with DIY craft and making.[26]

Many of the visualisations of steampunk have their origins with, among others, Walt Disney's film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954),[27] including the design of the story's submarine the Nautilus, its interiors, and the crew's underwater gear; and George Pal's film The Time Machine (1960), especially the design of the time machine itself. This theme is also carried over to Six Flags Magic Mountain and Disney parks, in the themed area the "Screampunk District" at Six Flags Magic Mountain and in the designs of The Mysterious Island section of Tokyo DisneySea theme park and Disneyland Paris' Discoveryland area.[citation needed]

Aspects of steampunk design emphasise a balance between form and function.[28] In this it is like the Arts and Crafts Movement. But John Ruskin, William Morris, and the other reformers in the late nineteenth century rejected machines and industrial production. On the other hand, steampunk enthusiasts present a "non-luddite critique of technology".[29]

Various modern utilitarian objects have been modified by enthusiasts into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style.[14][30] Examples include computer keyboards and electric guitars.[31] The goal of such redesigns is to employ appropriate materials (such as polished brass, iron, wood, and leather) with design elements and craftsmanship consistent with the Victorian era,[22][32] rejecting the aesthetic of industrial design.[28]

In 1994, the Paris Metro station at Arts et Mtiers was redesigned by Belgian artist Francois Schuiten in steampunk style, to honor the works of Jules Verne. The station is reminiscent of a submarine, sheathed in brass with giant cogs in the ceiling and portholes that look out onto fanciful scenes.[33][34]

The artist group Kinetic Steam Works[35] brought a working steam engine to the Burning Man festival in 2006 and 2007.[36] The group's founding member, Sean Orlando, created a Steampunk Tree House (in association with a group of people who would later form the Five Ton Crane Arts Group[37]) that has been displayed at a number of festivals.[38][39] The Steampunk Tree House is now permanently installed at the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware.[40]

The Neverwas Haul is a three-story, self-propelled mobile art vehicle built to resemble a Victorian house on wheels. Designed by Shannon OHare, it was built by volunteers in 2006 and presented at the Burning Man festival from 2006 through 2015.[41] When fully built, the Haul propelled itself at a top speed of 5 miles per hour and required a crew of ten people to operate safely. Currently, the Neverwas Haul makes her home at Obtainium Works, an "art car factory" in Vallejo, CA, owned by OHare and home to several other self-styled "contraptionists".[42]

In MayJune 2008, multimedia artist and sculptor Paul St George exhibited outdoor interactive video installations linking London and Brooklyn, New York, in a Victorian era-styled telectroscope.[43][44] Utilizing this device, New York promoter Evelyn Kriete organised a transatlantic wave between steampunk enthusiasts from both cities,[45] prior to White Mischief's Around the World in 80 Days steampunk-themed event.[46]

In 2009, for Questacon, artist Tim Wetherell created a large wall piece that represented the concept of the clockwork universe. This steel artwork contains moving gears, a working clock, and a movie of the moon's terminator in action. The 3D moon movie was created by Antony Williams.[47]

From October 2009 through February 2010, the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, hosted the first major exhibition of steampunk art objects, curated and developed by New York artist and designer Art Donovan,[48] who also exhibited his own "electro-futuristic" lighting sculptures, and presented by Dr. Jim Bennett, museum director.[49] From redesigned practical items to fantastical contraptions, this exhibition showcased the work of eighteen steampunk artists from across the globe. The exhibition proved to be the most successful and highly attended in the museum's history and attracted more than eighty thousand visitors. The event was detailed in the official artist's journal The Art of Steampunk, by curator Donovan.[50]

In November 2010, The Libratory Steampunk Art Gallery[51] was opened by Damien McNamara in Oamaru, New Zealand. Created from papier-mch to resemble a large subterranean cave and filled with industrial equipment from yesteryear, rayguns, and general steampunk quirks, its purpose is to provide a place for steampunkers in the region to display artwork for sale all year long. A year later, a more permanent gallery, Steampunk HQ, was opened in the former Meeks Grain Elevator Building across the road from The Woolstore, and has since become a notable tourist attraction for Oamaru.[52]

In 2012, the Mobilis in Mobili: An Exhibition of Steampunk Art and Appliance made its debut. Originally located at New York City's Wooster Street Social Club (itself the subject of the television series NY Ink), the exhibit featured working steampunk tattoo systems designed by Bruce Rosenbaum, of ModVic and owner of the Steampunk House,[53] Joey "Dr. Grymm" Marsocci,[31] and Christopher Conte.[54] with different approaches.[27] "[B]icycles, cell phones, guitars, timepieces and entertainment systems"[54] rounded out the display.[31] The opening night exhibition featured a live performance by steampunk band Frenchy and the Punk.[55]

Steampunk fashion has no set guidelines but tends to synthesize modern styles with influences from the Victorian era. Such influences may include bustles, corsets, gowns, and petticoats; suits with waistcoats, coats, top hats[56] and bowler hats (themselves originating in 1850 England), tailcoats and spats; or military-inspired garments. Steampunk-influenced outfits are usually accented with several technological and "period" accessories: timepieces, parasols, flying/driving goggles,[57] and ray guns. Modern accessories like cell phones or music players can be found in steampunk outfits, after being modified to give them the appearance of Victorian-era objects. Post-apocalyptic elements, such as gas masks, ragged clothing, and tribal motifs, can also be included. Aspects of steampunk fashion have been anticipated by mainstream high fashion, the Lolita and aristocrat styles, neo-Victorianism, and the romantic goth subculture.[13][58][59]

In 2005, Kate Lambert, known as "Kato", founded the first steampunk clothing company, "Steampunk Couture",[60] mixing Victorian and post-apocalyptic influences. In 2013, IBM predicted, based on an analysis of more than a half million public posts on message boards, blogs, social media sites, and news sources, "that 'steampunk,' a subgenre inspired by the clothing, technology and social mores of Victorian society, will be a major trend to bubble up and take hold of the retail industry".[61][62] Indeed, high fashion lines such as Prada,[63] Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Chanel,[64] and Christian Dior[62] had already been introducing steampunk styles on the fashion runways. And in episode 7 of Lifetime's "Project Runway: Under the Gunn" reality series, contestants were challenged to create avant-garde "steampunk chic" looks.[65] America's Next Top Model tackled Steampunk fashion in a 2012 episode where models competed in a Steampunk themed photo shoot, posing in front of a steam train while holding a live owl.[66][unreliable source]

The educational book Elementary BASIC - Learning to Program Your Computer in BASIC with Sherlock Holmes (1981), by Henry Singer and Andrew Ledgar, may have been the first fictional work to depict the use of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine in an adventure story. The instructional book, aimed at young programming students, depicts Holmes using the engine as an aid in his investigations, and lists programs that perform simple data processing tasks required to solve the fictional cases. The book even describes a device that allows the engine to be used remotely, over telegraph lines, as a possible enhancement to Babbage's machine. Companion volumesElementary Pascal - Learning to Program Your Computer in Pascal with Sherlock Holmes and From Baker Street to Binary - An Introduction to Computers and Computer Programming with Sherlock Holmeswere also written.

In 1988, the first version of the science fiction roleplaying game Space: 1889 was published. The game is set in an alternative history in which certain now discredited Victorian scientific theories were probable and led to new technologies. Contributing authors included Frank Chadwick, Loren Wiseman, and Marcus Rowland.[67]

William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's novel The Difference Engine (1990) is often credited with bringing about widespread awareness of steampunk.[16][68] This novel applies the principles of Gibson and Sterling's cyberpunk writings to an alternative Victorian era where Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage's proposed steam-powered mechanical computer, which Babbage called a difference engine (a later, more general-purpose version was known as an analytical engine), was actually built, and led to the dawn of the information age more than a century "ahead of schedule". This setting was different from most steampunk settings in that it takes a dim and dark view of this future, rather than the more prevalent utopian versions.

Nick Gevers's original anthology Extraordinary Engines (2008) features newer steampunk stories by some of the genre's writers, as well as other science fiction and fantasy writers experimenting with neo-Victorian conventions. A retrospective reprint anthology of steampunk fiction was released, also in 2008, by Tachyon Publications. Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and appropriately entitled Steampunk, it is a collection of stories by James Blaylock, whose "Narbondo" trilogy is typically considered steampunk; Jay Lake, author of the novel Mainspring, sometimes labeled "clockpunk";[69] the aforementioned Michael Moorcock; as well as Jess Nevins, known for his annotations to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (first published in 1999).

Younger readers have also been targeted by steampunk themes, by authors such as Philip Reeve and Scott Westerfeld.[70] Reeve's quartet Mortal Engines is set far in Earth's future where giant moving cities consume each other in a battle for resources, a concept Reeve coined as Municipal Darwinism. Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy is set during an alternate First World War fought between the "clankers" (Central Powers), who use steam technology, and "darwinists" (Allied Powers), who use genetically engineered creatures instead of machines.

"Mash-ups" are also becoming increasingly popular in books aimed at younger readers, mixing steampunk with other genres. Suzanne Lazear's Aether Chronicles series mixes steampunk with faeries, and The Unnaturalists, by Tiffany Trent, combines steampunk with mythological creatures and alternate history.[71]

While most of the original steampunk works had a historical setting,[citation needed] later works often place steampunk elements in a fantasy world with little relation to any specific historic era. Historical steampunk tends to be science fiction that presents an alternate history; it also contains real locales and persons from history with alternative fantasy technology. "Fantasy-world steampunk", such as China Miville's Perdido Street Station, Alan Campbell's Scar Night, and Stephen Hunt's Jackelian novels, on the other hand, presents steampunk in a completely imaginary fantasy realm, often populated by legendary creatures coexisting with steam-era and other anachronistic technologies. However, the works of China Miville and similar authors are sometimes referred to as belonging to the "New Weird" rather than steampunk.

Self-described author of "far-fetched fiction" Robert Rankin has increasingly incorporated elements of steampunk into narrative worlds that are both Victorian and re-imagined contemporary. In 2009, he was made a Fellow of the Victorian Steampunk Society.[72]

The comic book series Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola, and the two Hellboy films featuring Ron Perlman and directed by Guillermo del Toro, all have steampunk elements. In the comic book and the first (2004) film, Karl Ruprecht Kroenen is a Nazi SS scientist who has an addiction to having himself surgically altered, and who has many mechanical prostheses, including a clockwork heart. The character Johann Krauss is featured in the comic and in the second film, Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), as an ectoplasmic medium (a gaseous form in a partly mechanical suit). This second film also features the Golden Army itself, which is a collection of 4,900 mechanical steampunk warriors.

Since the 1990s, the application of the steampunk label has expanded beyond works set in recognisable historical periods, to works set in fantasy worlds that rely heavily on steam- or spring-powered technology.[16] One of the earliest short stories relying on steam-powered flying machines is "The Aerial Burglar" of 1844.[73] An example from juvenile fiction is The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.

Fantasy steampunk settings abound in tabletop and computer role-playing games. Notable examples include Skies of Arcadia,[74] Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends,[75] and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.[6]

The gnomes and goblins in World of Warcraft also have technological societies that could be described as steampunk,[76] as they are vastly ahead of the technologies of men, but still run on steam and mechanical power.

The Dwarves of the Elder Scrolls series, described therein as a race of Elves called the Dwemer, also use steam powered machinery, with gigantic brass-like gears, throughout their underground cities. However, magical means are used to keep ancient devices in motion despite the Dwemer's ancient disappearance.[77]

The 1998 game Thief: The Dark Project, as well as the other sequels including its 2014 reboot, feature heavy steampunk-inspired architecture, setting, and technology.

Amidst the historical and fantasy subgenres of steampunk is a type that takes place in a hypothetical future or a fantasy equivalent of our future involving the domination of steampunk-style technology and aesthetics. Examples include Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's The City of Lost Children (1995), Turn A Gundam (19992000), Trigun,[78] and Disney's film Treasure Planet (2002). In 2011, musician Thomas Dolby heralded his return to music after a 20-year hiatus with an online steampunk alternate fantasy world called the Floating City, to promote his album A Map of the Floating City.[6]

Another setting is "Western" steampunk, which overlaps with both the Weird West and Science fiction Western subgenres.[examples needed] Several other categories have arisen, sharing similar names, including dieselpunk, clockworkpunk, and others. Most of these terms were coined as supplements to the GURPS role playing game, and are not used in other contexts.[79]

Kaja Foglio introduced the term "Gaslight Romance",[20]:78 gaslamp fantasy, which John Clute and John Grant define as "steampunk stories ... most commonly set in a romanticised, smoky, 19th-century London, as are Gaslight Romances. But the latter category focuses nostalgically on icons from the late years of that century and the early years of the 20th centuryon Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes and even Tarzanand can normally be understood as combining supernatural fiction and recursive fantasy, though some gaslight romances can be read as fantasies of history."[80] Author/artist James Richardson-Brown[81] coined the term steamgoth to refer to steampunk expressions of fantasy and horror with a "darker" bent.

Mary Shelley's The Last Man, set near the end of the 21st century after a plague had brought down civilization, was probably the ancestor of post-apocalyptic steampunk literature. Post-apocalyptic steampunk is set in a world where some cataclysm has precipitated the fall of civilization and steam power is once again ascendant, such as in Hayao Miyazaki's post-apocalyptic anime Future Boy Conan (1978),[78] where a war fought with superweapons has devastated the planet. Robert Brown's novel, The Wrath of Fate (as well as much of Abney Park's music) is set in A Victorianesque world where an apocalypse was set into motion by a time-traveling mishap. Cherie Priest's Boneshaker series is set in a world where a zombie apocalypse happened during the Civil War era. The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling is set in a post-apocalyptic future in which a meteor shower in 1878 caused the collapse of Industrialized civilization. The movie 9 (which might be better classified as "stitchpunk" but was largely influenced by steampunk)[82] is also set in a post-apocalyptic world after a self-aware war machine ran amok. Steampunk Magazine even published a book called A Steampunk's Guide to the Apocalypse, about how steampunks could survive should such a thing actually happen.

In general, this category includes any recent science fiction that takes place in a recognizable historical period (sometimes an alternate history version of an actual historical period) in which the Industrial Revolution has already begun, but electricity is not yet widespread, "usually Britain of the early to mid-nineteenth century or the fantasized Wild West-era United States",[83] with an emphasis on steam- or spring-propelled gadgets. The most common historical steampunk settings are the Victorian and Edwardian eras, though some in this "Victorian steampunk" category are set as early as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and as late as the end of World War I.

Some examples of this type include the novel The Difference Engine,[84] the comic book series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the Disney animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire,[6] Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy,[85] and the roleplaying game Space: 1889.[6] The anime film Steamboy (2004) is another good example of Victorian steampunk, taking place in an alternate 1866 where steam technology is far more advanced than it ever was in real life.[86] Some, such as the comic series Girl Genius,[6] have their own unique times and places despite partaking heavily of the flavor of historic settings. Other comic series are set in a more familiar London, as in the Victorian Undead, which has Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson, and others taking on zombies, Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, and Count Dracula, with advanced weapons and devices.

Karel Zeman's film The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958) is a very early example of cinematic steampunk. Based on Jules Verne novels, Zeman's film imagines a past that never was, based on those novels.[87] Other early examples of historical steampunk in cinema include Hayao Miyazaki's anime films such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) and Howl's Moving Castle (2004), which contain many archetypal anachronisms characteristic of the steampunk genre.[88][89]

"Historical" steampunk usually leans more towards science fiction than fantasy, but a number of historical steampunk stories have incorporated magical elements as well. For example, Morlock Night, written by K. W. Jeter, revolves around an attempt by the wizard Merlin to raise King Arthur to save the Britain of 1892 from an invasion of Morlocks from the future.[16]

Paul Guinan's Boilerplate, a "biography" of a robot in the late 19th century, began as a website that garnered international press coverage when people began believing that Photoshop images of the robot with historic personages were real.[90] The site was adapted into the illustrated hardbound book Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel, which was published by Abrams in October 2009.[91] Because the story was not set in an alternative history, and in fact contained accurate information about the Victorian era,[92] some[specify] booksellers referred to the tome as "historical steampunk".

Fictional settings inspired by Asian rather than Western history have been called "silkpunk". The term appears to originate with the author Ken Liu, who defined it as "a blend of science fiction and fantasy [that] draws inspiration from classical East Asian antiquity", with a "technology vocabulary (...) based on organic materials historically important to East Asia (bamboo, paper, silk) and seafaring cultures of the Pacific (coconut, feathers, coral)", rather than the brass and leather associated with steampunk.[93] Other authors whose work has been described as silkpunk are JY Yang[94] and Elizabeth Bear.

Steampunk music is very broadly defined. Abney Parks lead singer Robert Brown defined it as "mixing Victorian elements and modern elements". There is a broad range of musical influences that make up the Steampunk sound, from industrial dance and world music[59] to folk rock, dark cabaret to straightforward punk,[95] Carnatic[96] to industrial, hip-hop to opera (and even industrial hip-hop opera),[97][98] darkwave to progressive rock, barbershop to big band.

Joshua Pfeiffer (of Vernian Process) is quoted as saying, "As for Paul Roland, if anyone deserves credit for spearheading Steampunk music, it is him. He was one of the inspirations I had in starting my project. He was writing songs about the first attempt at manned flight, and an Edwardian airship raid in the mid-80s long before almost anyone else...."[99] Thomas Dolby is also considered one of the early pioneers of retro-futurist (i.e., Steampunk and Dieselpunk) music.[100][101] Amanda Palmer was once quoted as saying, "Thomas Dolby is to Steampunk what Iggy Pop was to Punk!"[102]

Steampunk has also appeared in the work of musicians who do not specifically identify as Steampunk. For example, the music video of "Turn Me On", by David Guetta and featuring Nicki Minaj, takes place in a Steampunk universe where Guetta creates human droids. Another music video is "The Ballad of Mona Lisa", by Panic! at the Disco, which has a distinct Victorian Steampunk theme. A continuation of this theme has in fact been used throughout the 2011 album Vices & Virtues, in the music videos, album art, and tour set and costumes. In addition, the album Clockwork Angels (2012) and its supporting tour by progressive rock band Rush contain lyrics, themes, and imagery based around Steampunk. Similarly, Abney Park headlined the first "Steamstock" outdoor steampunk music festival in Richmond, California, which also featured Thomas Dolby, Frenchy and the Punk, Lee Presson and the Nails, Vernian Process, and others.[101]

The music video for the Lindsey Stirling song "Roundtable Rival", has a Western Steampunk setting.

The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958), directed by Karel Zeman.

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962), directed by Karel Zeman.

The 1965 television series The Wild Wild West, as well as the 1999 film of the same name, features many elements of advanced steam-powered technology set in the Wild West time period of the United States.

Two Years' Vacation (or The Stolen Airship) (1967) directed by Karel Zeman

The BBC series Doctor Who also incorporates steampunk elements. During season 14 of the show (in 1976), the formerly futuristic looking interior set was replaced with a Victorian-styled wood-panel and brass affair.[103] In the 1996 American co-production, the TARDIS interior was re-designed to resemble an almost Victorian library with the central control console made up of an eclectic array of anachronistic objects. Modified and streamlined for the 2005 revival of the series, the TARDIS console continued to incorporate steampunk elements, including a Victorian typewriter and gramophone. Several storylines can be classed as steampunk, for example: The Evil of the Daleks (1966), wherein Victorian scientists invent a time travel device.[104]

Dinner for Adele (1977), directed by Oldich Lipsk

The 1979 film Time After Time has Herbert George "H.G." Wells following a surgeon named John Leslie Stevenson into the future, as John is suspected of being Jack the Ripper. Both separately use Wells's time machine to travel.

The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians (1981), directed by Oldich Lipsk

The 1982 American TV series Q.E.D. is set in Edwardian England, stars Sam Waterston as Professor Quentin Everett Deverill (from whose initials, by which he is primarily known, the series title is derived, initials which also stand for the Latin phrase quod erat demonstrandum, which translates as "which was to be demonstrated"). The Professor is an inventor and scientific detective, in the mold of Sherlock Holmes.

The plot of the Soviet film Kin-dza-dza! (1986) centers on a desert planet, depleted of its resources, where an impoverished dog-eat-dog society uses steam-punk machines, the movements and functions of which defy earthly logic.

In making his 1986 Japanese film Castle in the Sky, Hayao Miyazaki was heavily influenced by steampunk culture, the film featuring various air ships and steam-powered contraptions as well as a mysterious island that floats through the sky, accomplished not through magic as in most stories, but instead by harnessing the physical properties of a rare crystalanalogous to the lodestone used in the Laputa of Swift's Gulliver's Travelsaugmented by massive propellers, as befitting the Victorian motif.[105]

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., a 1993 Fox Network TV science fiction-western set in the 1890s, features elements of steampunk as represented by the character Professor Wickwire, whose inventions were described as "the coming thing".[106]

The short-lived 1995 TV show Legend, on UPN, set in 1876 Arizona, features such classic inventions as a steam-driven "quadrovelocipede" and night-vision goggles, and stars John de Lancie as a thinly disguised Nikola Tesla.[citation needed]

Alan Moore's and Kevin O'Neill's 1999 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel series (and the subsequent 2003 film adaption) greatly popularised the steampunk genre.[58]

Steamboy (2004) is a Japanese animated action film directed and co-written by Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira). It is a retro science-fiction epic set in a Steampunk Victorian England. It features steamboats, trains, airships and inventors.

The 2007 Syfy miniseries Tin Man incorporates a considerable number of steampunk-inspired themes into a re-imagining of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Despite leaning more towards gothic influences, the "parallel reality" of Meanwhile City, within the 2009 film Franklyn, contains many steampunk themes, such as costumery, architecture, minimal use of electricity (with a preference for gaslight), and absence of modern technology (such as there being no motorised vehicles or advanced weaponry, and the manual management of information with no use of computers).

The 20092014 Syfy television series Warehouse 13 features many steampunk-inspired objects and artifacts, including computer designs created by steampunk artisan Richard Nagy, a.k.a. "Datamancer".[107]

The 2010 episode of the TV series Castle entitled "Punked" (which first aired on October 11, 2010) prominently features the steampunk subculture and uses Los Angeles-area steampunks (such as the League of STEAM) as extras.[108]

The 2011 film The Three Musketeers has many steampunk elements, including gadgets and airships.

The Penny Dreadful (2014) television series is a Gothic Victorian fantasy series with steampunk props and costumes.

The 2015 GSN reality television game show Steampunk'd features a competition to create steampunk-inspired art and designs which are judged by notable Steampunks Thomas Willeford, Kato, and Matt King.[109]

Based on the work of cartoonist Jacques Tardi, April and the Extraordinary World (2015) is an animated movie set in a steampunk Paris. It features airships, trains, submarines, and various other steam-powered contraptions.

Tim Burton's 2016 film Alice Through the Looking Glass features steampunk costumes, props, and vehicles.

A variety of styles of video games have used steampunk settings.

The Chaos Engine (1993) is a run and gun video game inspired by the Gibson/Sterling novel The Difference Engine (1990), set in a Victorian steampunk age. Developed by the Bitmap Brothers, it was first released on the Amiga in 1993; a sequel was released in 1996.[110]

The graphic adventure puzzle video games Myst (1993), Riven (1997), and Myst III: Exile (2001) (all produced by Cyan Worlds) take place in an alternate steampunk universe, where elaborate infrastructures have been built to run on steam power.

The SteamWorld series of games has the player controlling steam-powered robots.

Both Thief: The Dark Project and its sequel, Thief II are set in a steampunk metropolis.

Mattel's Monster High dolls Rebecca Steam and Hexiciah Steam.

The Pullip Dolls by Japanese manufacturer Dal have a steampunk range.

Because of the popularity of steampunk, there is a growing movement of adults that want to establish steampunk as a culture and lifestyle.[111] Some fans of the genre adopt a steampunk aesthetic through fashion,[112] home decor, music, and film. While Steampunk is considered the amalgamation of Victorian aesthetic principles with modern sensibilities and technologies,[13] it can be more broadly categorised as neo-Victorianism, described by scholar Marie-Luise Kohlke as "the afterlife of the nineteenth century in the cultural imaginary".[113] The subculture has its own magazine, blogs, and online shops.[114]

In September 2012, a panel, chaired by steampunk entertainer Veronique Chevalier and with panelists including magician Pop Hadyn and members of the steampunk performance group the League of STEAM, was held at Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo. The panel suggested that because steampunk was inclusive of and incorporated ideas from various other subcultures such as goth, neo-Victorian, and cyberpunk, as well as a growing number of fandoms, it was fast becoming a super-culture rather than a mere subculture.[115] Other steampunk notables such as Professor Elemental have expressed similar views about steampunk's inclusive diversity.[116]

Some have proposed a steampunk philosophy that incorporates punk-inspired anti-establishment sentiments typically bolstered by optimism about human potential.[117]

Steampunk became a common descriptor for homemade objects sold on the craft network Etsy between 2009 and 2011,[citation needed] though many of the objects and fashions bear little resemblance to earlier established descriptions of steampunk. Thus the craft network may not strike observers as "sufficiently steampunk" to warrant its use of the term. Comedian April Winchell, author of the book Regretsy: Where DIY meets WTF, cataloged some of the most egregious and humorous examples on her website "Regretsy".[118] The blog was popular among steampunks and even inspired a music video that went viral in the community and was acclaimed by steampunk "notables".[119]

2006 saw the first "SalonCon", a neo-Victorian/steampunk convention. It ran for three consecutive years and featured artists, musicians (Voltaire and Abney Park), authors (Catherynne M. Valente, Ekaterina Sedia, and G. D. Falksen), salons led by people prominent in their respective fields, workshops and panels on steampunkas well as a seance, ballroom dance instruction, and the Chrononauts' Parade. The event was covered by MTV[120] and The New York Times.[13] Since then, a number of popular steampunk conventions have sprung up the world over, with names like Steamcon (Seattle, WA), the Steampunk World's Fair (Piscataway, NJ), Up in the Aether: The Steampunk Convention (Dearborn, MI),[121] Steampunk NZ (Oamaru, New Zealand), Steampunk Unlimited (Strasburg Railroad, Lancaster, PA).[122] Each year, on Mother's Day weekend, the city of Waltham, MA, turns over its city center and surrounding areas to host the Watch City Steampunk Festival, a US outdoor steampunk festival.

In recent years, steampunk has also become a regular feature at San Diego Comic-Con International, with the Saturday of the four-day event being generally known among steampunks as "Steampunk Day", and culminating with a photo-shoot for the local press.[123][124] In 2010, this was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest steampunk photo shoot.[125] In 2013, Comic-Con announced four official 2013 T-shirts, one of them featuring the official Rick Geary Comic-Con toucan mascot in steampunk attire.[126] The Saturday steampunk "after-party" has also become a major event on the steampunk social calendar: in 2010, the headliners included The Slow Poisoner, Unextraordinary Gentlemen, and Voltaire, with Veronique Chevalier as Mistress of Ceremonies and special appearance by the League of STEAM;[127][128] in 2011, UXG returned with Abney Park.[129]

Steampunk has also sprung up recently at Renaissance Festivals and Renaissance Faires, in the US. Some festivals have organised events or a "Steampunk Day", while others simply support an open environment for donning steampunk attire. The Bristol Renaissance Faire in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the Wisconsin/Illinois border, featured a Steampunk costume contest during the 2012 season, the previous two seasons having seen increasing participation in the phenomenon.[130]

Steampunk also has a growing following in the UK and Europe. The largest European event is "Weekend at the Asylum", held at The Lawn, Lincoln, every September since 2009. Organised as a not-for-profit event by the Victorian Steampunk Society, the Asylum is a dedicated steampunk event which takes over much of the historical quarter of Lincoln, England, along with Lincoln Castle. In 2011, there were over 1000 steampunks in attendance. The event features the Empire Ball, Majors Review, Bazaar Eclectica, and the international Tea Duelling final.[131] [132] The Surrey Steampunk Convivial, held in New Malden, southwestern London (not far from where H. G. Wells used to live)[133] started as an annual event in 2012, and now takes place thrice a year, and has spanned three boroughs and five venues.[134][unreliable source] Attendees have been interviewed by BBC Radio 4 for Phil Jupitus[135] and filmed by the BBC World Service.[136] The West Yorkshire village of Haworth has held an annual Steampunk weekend since 2013,[137] on each occasion as a charity event raising funds for Sue Ryder's "Manorlands" hospice in Oxenhope.

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Steampunk - Wikipedia

Mute Is an Excellent Film Noir That Just Happens to Be Set in …

Posted on February 23, 2018 by jessica

A scifi tale by virtue of its setting, but an old-school film noir at heart thanks to its story, Mute is a puzzle with eccentric pieces that eventually all fit togetherperhaps a bit too neatly, given its fondness for jagged edges. But its love of sleazy neon and some unusual themes do much to make up for its contrivances.

Duncan Jones latest is set in the same universe as his 2009 debut, Moon, ahead of an as-yet-unnamed third film in his planned trilogy. The films have a loose connection that we wont spoil here, but its not a giveaway to say that Mute takes place right after the events of Moonso, sometime soon after 2035. But it begins 30 years earlier, at the scene of a boating accident that leaves a boy named Leo half-drowned and fully mute. That brief moment sets up just about everything we need to know about Leo in the movies present (where hes played by Alexander Skarsgrd). Alsotold you there were some unusual themeshes Amish.

Though hes not totally devout, hes still the most lo-fi person in Mutes futuristic version of Berlin; its a grimy place, full of tawdry bars, brothels, faux-American diners, and tech thats seemingly used solely for instant gratification. Leo, who flexes his Amish woodworking skills in his spare time, is definitely the odd man out. Granted, hed already be unique because he cant talk, but being freakin Amish just ups the ante. That, and the fact that he appears to be the only person in the city whos motivated by the purest of causes: True love.

Leo is an earnest guy in a bad town, and since this is a noir tale, the object of his affections goes missing early on. His wordless search for his beloved, a blue-haired beauty named Naadirah (Seyneb Saleh)of course, he carries an actual photograph of her around, being stubbornly old-fashionedleads him into some dark places, though hes not a complete outsider in that world. Leo and Naadirah meet while working at a shifty nightclub called Foreign Dreams, a place where, of course, Berlins foreign transplants mingle and engage in various black-market activities alongside robotic go-go dancers.

That said, a boring old coffee shop is where Leo first crosses paths with Cactus Bill (Paul Rudd), another American expat whos on his own desperate quest. Its a seemingly random encounter that echoes throughout the rest of the story at louder and louder frequencies.

Cactus, fond of cigars and loud Aloha shirts, is a surgeon and former military man who served in the Middle East with Duck (Justin Theroux), a fellow doctor who now has a successful practice crafting bionic body parts. That said, hes happy to help his best buddy mend bullet-riddled gangsters in an underground clinic, a gig Cactus has only taken because hes desperate to get the money and necessary documents to flee the country. (To reveal why would be saying too much.) The dynamic of Cactus and Ducks friendship is one of the weirdest things about Mute, but it makes a strange kind of sense. They became friends under extreme circumstances, and though they may not like each other all the time, theres a bond there that cant be broken. Also, theyre both total assholes. Straight up.

Cactus and Leo, on the other hand, are total oppositesand the fact that Leo keeps popping up like a bad penny spins the already rage-filled Cactus into an even more dangerous fury. He provides necessary contrast to Skarsgrds silent characterthey are two tightly coiled men pursuing their own very specific, very urgent agendas who otherwise couldnt be more different in every way. Also, it must be said that while Skarsgrd is fine as the lovelorn Leo, seeing the normally likable Rudd rip into such an obnoxious and morally corrupt character is one of Mutes biggest selling points. Why is he rocking a 1970s porn stache in a futuristic cyberpunk movie? Well, why not?

Joness story for Mutehe shares a screenwriting credit with Michael Robert Johnsonends up tilting way more toward film noir than scifi in the end. It unfolds on a way smaller scale than something like Blade Runner 2049, the most high-profile recent example of scifi noir. Mute feels like a much more personal story, putting a small network of damage-prone relationships under a microscope and discovering that emotions can be just as raw and real even when the people feeling them are surrounded by artificial flash.

Mute is not a perfect movie. A lot of its quirkier beats end up fitting too neatly into its conclusion, which can feel a bit forced once the storys dominoes start falling over. (The woodworking thing? Yeah, it comes back in a big way.) But if Mute feels tenuously tied to Moon in terms of story, theres a deeper connection in that both films take the time to question what makes us truly human, no matter the circumstances. Mute also offers a downbeat yet relatable vision of the future, with tech that seems eminently plausible (food delivery via drone!) as well as some more worrisome projections, like the idea that genuinely good people are probably an endangered species.

Mute debuts today, February 23, on Netflix.

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Mute Is an Excellent Film Noir That Just Happens to Be Set in ...

The Top 10 Best Ethereum Wallets (2018 Edition)

Posted on February 23, 2018 by ev1

Ethereum currently has the second largest market cap after Bitcoin.

Because of this, many investors are now flocking to Ethereum. Naturally, this has surged demand for more secure Ethereum wallets.

And in my opinion, this is what all secure cryptocurrency wallets need to have:

I believe that if a wallet doesnt have any one of these things, your coins could be at risk and you could give yourself a major headache. When looking for wallets, make sure that the above requirements are met before you store your coins there. If you want to get hold of ETH Instantly using Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, just use the widget below.

Here I have listed out the best wallets for Ethereum. They all meet the above requirements. Before that, here are the top exchanges with Ethereum market:

1. Ledger Nano S (Hardware Wallet)

The Ledger Nano S is one of the most inexpensive Ethereum hardware wallets available ($65). Here, Ether is stored offline on the device. Whenever you want to spend Ether, Ledger signs it using the private key stored on the device. You can store both ETH & ETC. Harsh has made few videos guide about Ledger Nano S that you must check out. This will help you to learn everything about Ledger Nano S.

The best thing about the Ledger Nano S is that it comes with a small OLED screen which allows you to control your transactions. The security is so robust that you can use your Nano S device even on a hacked computer.

Buy The Ledger Nano S Now

2. Trezor (Hardware Wallet)

Trezor was the first hardware wallet invented for Bitcoin. However,nowTrezor can be used for Ethereum too with the MyEtherWallet web interface.

It also stores Ether offline on a secure electronic chip which can be activated only when you log in with your password.

It is a very light and portable device.

It comes in 3 colors white, gray, and black and costs $99.

Buy Trezor Now

3. Exodus(Desktop Wallet)

Exodus is the worlds first multi-cryptocurrency desktop wallet. It is free to use and has an attractiveUI. As soon as you open the Exodus wallet, a pie chart will show your entire portfolio of coins.

It supports seven cryptocurrencies (including Ethereum), and is the first desktop wallet to have ShapeShift built in for exchanging cryptocurrencies.

However, while using Exodus, one needs to always be connected to the internet, but you need not worry as your private keys never leave your machine.

Features like one-click email recovery and backup seed keys for restoring your wallet ensure the security of your funds.

Download the Exodus wallet

4. Jaxx(Mobile Wallet)

Jaxx is a multi-asset wallet created by the Canada-based company,Decentral. It supports 13 cryptocurrencies (including ETH) and has an elegant design with robust security features.

On Jaxx, private keys never leave the device, and features likeseed keys enable you to restore your funds whenever required.

It has an amazing development community which looks after innovation and maintenance of the product.

Jaxx wallet is available for Android, iOS, Mac OS, Windows, Linux. They are also launching hardware wallet in coming months.

5. Mist (Desktop Wallet)

Mist is the official Ethereum wallet.

When you install Mist, it takes a while to get started as it synchronizes with all Ethereum nodes. After the sync is completed, it prompts you to set a secure password. You are required to remember this password as there is no other way to access Mist if your forget this password.

After that, the process is pretty typical as in any other wallet. In the wallet, you will have access to a pair of public and private keys to perform transactions.

You need not worry about security as your private keys are on the device itself.

Mist also hasShapeShift built in for exchanging other currencies.

6. MetaMask (Desktop Wallet)

MestaMask is one of my favorite Ethereum wallets.

It is like a browser to access the Ethereum network. It not only enables you to store and send Ethereum, but also allows you to access decentralized Ethereum apps.

It has an intuitive design where you can switch quickly between a test network and the main Ethereum network. Here is a video showcasing how MetaMask works:

Theprivate keys are password encrypted and are stored on yourmachine, which you can export at any time.

7.MyEtherWallet(Web Wallet)

MyEtherWallet is different from other traditional web wallets.

Why? Because unlike other web wallets, here you control Ethereums private key on your machine.

It is an open-source wallet, with no third-party servers, where you can write and access smart contracts. Harsh has written an article about this here. It has an inbuilt BTC to ETH (and vice-versa) swap facility. You can also connect your Trezor or Ledger Nano S to access your funds in MyEthers browser environment.

8. Coinbase(Web Wallet)

Coinbase is one of the most popular Bitcoin web wallets. This year, they have also included Ethereum support.

It is a cheap and fast way of storing Ethereum, provided that they serve your country. You can check if their service is available in your country overhere.

If it is, follow these steps to use Coinbase:

However, the drawback is that the private keys are not in your control because they are stored on Coinbases hosted servers.

That said, its a decent way to store ETH for short term. If you planning to hold Ethereum for long term, you should use Paper wallet method or use a hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S.

9. ETHAdress (Paper Wallet)

If you are comfortable with paper wallets, you can use the open-source projectETHAdressto create an Ethereum paper wallet.

Paper wallets contain both public keys and private keys printed on paper.

You can opt for additional privacy which encrypts even the private keys.

This is the cheapest form of cold storage available.

10. KeepKey (Hardware Wallet)

KeepKey is the costliest Ethereum hardware wallet available ($120). It keeps your ETH in a secure offline environment and offers the same features as the Ledger Nano S or Trezor.

It has a bigger screen than its other two competitors and is a bit heavy (i.e. not easy to carry around).

KeepKeys plastic body makes it vulnerable to damage if it is accidentally dropped, but if you like its interface, it may be the right wallet for you.

Ethereum is only 3 years old and is still pretty young in the market. Thats why the wallet ecosystem has very limited options right now.

But I am very sure as the technology matures, new Ethereum wallets and will be available for each type of user.

Be on the lookout for exciting Ethereum news!

I hope this list of Ethereum wallets will help you make the right decision when choosing where to store your Ether tokens.I would love to hear your experience if you have used any of the above wallets or any other Ethereum wallet. Do let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Top 10 Best Ethereum Wallets (2018 Edition)

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