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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: General/Updates
[UPDATE] PerplexCity Sentinel 27th July 2006
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Juxta
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Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Posts: 675

 		[UPDATE] PerplexCity Sentinel 27th July 2006
Corinne Hathaway wrote:
AQSYS Denied for Weather Researchers

Harrison Jones, team leader for the AQSYS project, said early this morning that cost-cutting measures proposed by Council Member Nathan Earlywine last week could be even more disastrous for the scientists that rely on the program than previously thought. Jones pointed to evidence of significantly anomalous behaviour reported in the aerostat network yesterday afternoon. Jones said that due to an as-yet-undiagnosed navigation problem, the network's small aircraft encountered "significant deviations" from their planned flight patterns.

The AQSYS program's head engineer, Horace Gladmason, elaborated on the nature of the problem. "The aerostats all stayed within their primary territory, at least," he said, "but we saw a lot of erroneous clustering patterns, a lot of blank patches in the network, and a number of close calls in which some instruments were damaged by other aerostats when their proximity detectors failed to sound the alarm. ... I've never seen anything quite like it." Due to these problems, he said that weather predictions for the city may be slightly less accurate than typical for the next few days.

The problems come a short time after the AQSYS program was singled out for budget cuts by Earlywine, who has advocated that the current craft and their "bloated instrument packages" be replaced with scaled-down version for a projected budget reduction of PCL37 million per year.

"Even at existing budget levels, we are clearly losing the maintenance battle," said Jones. "If the council insists on cutting some of our funding, then they may as well cut all of it, because we will no longer be able to produce meaningful science with even one leck less."

Earlywine said that he has not yet become familiar with the AQSYS system's malfunctions, but he had one comment to offer: "If we are seeing the aerostats malfunction, this would indicate, not that the program doesn't have enough money, but that the people in charge of spending it aren't doing their job," he said. "We don't need to spend more, we need to spend more wisely."



Myf wrote:
View from Earth: Mad, Bad & Dangerous?

I read with interest the report detailing the conclusion of the Kaplan trial. I work at a secure hospital in England, and although I am not a member of the medical profession, I take an interest in stories relating to mental health care, and the history of asylums in Britain.

As in the Kaplan case in Perplex City, occasionally there are acts perpetrated by mentally ill people which shock the local community, and sometimes even an entire nation. These often receive a great deal of coverage in the media, and can remain in the collective mind for years, even decades after the events occurred. However, I do not wish to dwell on the most infamous cases, where the patient is largely known because of their horrific deeds. Instead, I would like to draw attention to some of the wonderful contributions made by people suffering from mental illness.

It has long been speculated that there is a fine line between insanity and genius. Some of the most celebrated artists, performers, writers and politicians in the Western world have, or are widely believed to have, battled psychiatric problems: Winston Churchill, Vincent van Gogh, Isaac Newton, Lord Byron (the title of this piece is taken from a famous description of him), and Ludwig van Beethoven are but a few examples.

There are fewer instances of mentally ill people who have made their mark whilst in a hospital or asylum, but there are some. One such example is William Chester Minor, without whose efforts the Oxford English Dictionary would be very different. He was an American, born in 1834, and became a surgeon who served in the United States Army. By the late 1860s he was admitted to an asylum because of his mental state. In the early 1870s he came to Britain, where in 1872 he shot a man. He, like the Kaplans, was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and he was sent to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, one of the best-known psychiatric facilities in Britain. It was from there that he contributed numerous words and definitions to the fledgling dictionary over a period of many years. It is only quite recently that this contribution has become well known, following the publication in 1998 of a book detailing his work. Minor died in 1920, having been allowed to return to America.

Another example is that of Richard Dadd, a British artist who was born in 1817. He showed promise as a painter, and was admitted to the Royal Academy of Art at the age of 20. In the early 1840s he travelled in Europe and the Middle East, where he began to suffer from bizarre behaviour which was attributed to sun stroke. In 1843, he murdered his father and fled to Paris, where he attempted to murder another man. He was arrested, and was committed to the Bethlem Hospital, more commonly known as Bedlam (a term which has entered the English language meaning a place of noise and confusion). He was allowed to continue his painting, and created some of his most famous works there. Many of his paintings were of fairies and other such creatures, a fashionable subject in Victorian England. One of his most popular paintings is "Fairy Feller's Master Stroke", a work which took him nine years of applying minute quantities of paint to build up a three dimensional image. Even then, he did not consider it to be a finished piece. After 20 years in Bedlam, he was transferred to Broadmoor Asylum, where he died in 1886.

I hope that people will appreciate that, while mental illness can lead to people committing terrible acts against others, it can also prompt them to make brilliant, valuable, and long-lasting contributions to society. In years to come, people might be remarking on how Malcolm and Spencer Kaplan have influenced Perplex City. Who knows?



Corinne Hathaway wrote:
Earlywine Presses Advantage in Debate

Monday night inaugurated the series of debates among candidates for City Council. This first debate was between the four candidates who have declared for the Council Leader seat: Incumbent Council Leader Camryn Scott, Council Member Nathan Earlywine, troubled political neophyte Douglass Finlay, and long-time maverick Shannon Powell. The candidates presented basic policy positions, with more detailed discussion of issues to be covered in future debates.

Political analysts widely agree that Earlywine dominated this debate, and expect to see a bounce in his poll number in the coming days as a result. He laid out a plan to create a more unified regional government, drawing more upon the "patchwork of mayors and councillors," in the greater Perplex City region to find operational efficiencies and cost savings for all involved. The current system, he said, causes "huge duplication of human and technological effort."

Scott has received significant criticism on some of her past decisions, particularly in terms of agency oversight and budget decisions, and often seemed harried. She defended her past decisions: "No leader works in a vacuum," she said. She also accused Earlywine's plan of sounding like "Earth-inspired imperialist hubris."

Finlay, who has a reputation for grandstanding at public speaking engagements, was unusually subdued for this debate, presumably because his campaign is under police investigation for several possible violations of election and privacy laws. He covered his basic positions almost by rote, differing little in wording from previous campaign speeches, and did not enter into the back-and-forth between the other candidates.

Powell, who is running for Council Leader for her fifth time, repeated the same positions that have kept her out of the seat throughout her political career; she advocated significant cutbacks in basic public services such as police, education, and health care, in order to divert the funds to massive public works projects, primarily art installations.

Roy Yolen is officially retiring at the end of his term, leaving his seat an open contest. Camryn Scott, Nathan Earlywine, and Aben Henniker are all up for re-election to their seats. Next week, a series of district debates will run for those open council seats. City Council elections have been scheduled for 27 Oct. of this year.



Quote:
Yolen Endorses Nobody

Retiring City Council Member Roy Yolen has continued to refuse to endorse any of the contenders for his district's seat. The silence is highly unusual, with only a few months to go before the elections are held, and some analysts are saying that it is a particular snub at Douglass Finlay, who is seeking the City Council Leader spot through Yolen's district


Quote:
# Cahill Confident
# PCX Surges
# Ralston Theory Debunked



Letters

Hannah (eeeqz) wrote:
Compelling Social Commentary

As a keen participator in the search for the Receda Cube, I have followed the correspondence in The Sentinel closely, especially regarding the recent debates concerning Earth's history of violence and our influence over the people of Perplex City. I do not wish to cover old ground too much in relation to the discussion over our respective wars, and the influence of the political movement of anarchy etc., saying only that given their generally intelligent nature one would have thought that those Perplexians crying out against Earth would have more common sense in realising that finding the easiest scapegoat to attack never solves the problem.

The reason I have been compelled to write, however, concerns the comments made in the Sentinel on 24/07 by Academy Sociologist Ricardo Givens. Mr. Givens states, in the article relating to the coming delegation from Xia-Hifa, "Proximity and over-familiarity between Earth nations leads to greed and violence". Unfortunately, Mr. Givens, it is my duty to inform you that whether in close proximity with other countries or not there will always be greed and there will always be violence; they are just one side of human nature that will always become evident in some capacity, friendly neighbours or not.

However, fortunately for us there are other sides to human nature, such as empathy, open-mindedness, a willingness to learn and experience new things, compassion for our fellow man... Without new experiences life would become dull and void. I have spent some of the most amazing times of my life exploring all the different places and environments our world has to offer, learning about other lives and other cultures and picking up new languages along the way. If I had been confined to my one small island of Britain, then I would be less of a person because of it, and I know an awful lot of people would say the same about themselves.

Yes, we have made mistakes. Yes, there have been wars fought over possession or invasion of other countries. But to deny yourselves the opportunity to learn more about what your world has to offer for fear of "hardship" as Mr. Givens suggests, is not only incredibly xenophobic but also incredibly ignorant.

I hope that Ricardo Givens does not represent the general view of the PXC populace, and that the new links between the different cities/nations of your world encourage the understanding and enrichment of all.


Ed. Note: This letter has been chosen as the Sentinel's Star Letter of the Week. The author has accordingly received five points on the Perplexcity.com leaderboard, as will future recipients of the Letter of the Week prize.



Alter Ego wrote:
Nice Try

Hello!
I think you are doing a great job!
You could make your website better!
In my opinion Perplex City Rocks!
I'm sure you've loved hearing from me!

Keep up the good work!
Don't give up now!
Peace out



Purplephreak wrote:
We Feel Your Sorrow


This is an open letter to all the cube hunters on Earth and Mind Candy: HELP! Recently I was at an outdoor event, wearing my Leitmarks with pride on my bag (you never know when you might run into a fellow cube hunter) and having a great time, when disaster struck. Towards the end of the night I noticed that my PCAG London Leitmark had disappeared! I'm hoping that this was purely an accidental loss and not the heartless work of some Third Power sympathist, but you can never bee too sure.

This is a Leitmark that cannot be easily replaced, I can't just set up another account and solve cards to get another one sent to me, it's a special symbol of a unique event that I was lucky enough to participate in and I'm really upset that I've lost it. I know this is a long shot, but if there are any cube hunters out there that somehow managed to pick up two, or if there were any left lying around after the event that Mind Candy doesn't have a need for, please, please send one my way!

Let this be a lesson to all cube hunters out there, wear your Leitmarks, but not in crowded fields!

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PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:46 pm
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Scott
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Joined: 11 Sep 2004
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Location: 390 Chestnut Ridge Rd, Rochester NY, 14624, USA

 		Re: [UPDATE] PerplexCity Sentinel 27th July 2006
Nathan Earlywine wrote:
The people in charge of spending aren't doing their job. We don't need to spend more, we need to spend more wisely."


Alignment check: Lawful Evil. He is sooooo controlled by dark overlords.

Nathan Earlywine might just as well have wrote:
Everyone is expendable. Sack them all; And Install new machines of my own design to watch over the city. Truuuuuust me!

_________________
Perplex City is a game whose only rule is: There must be a party.
Balance of Powers is a game whose only rule is: There must be a political party.

PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 6:44 pm
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Juxta
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Joined: 28 Aug 2005
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Nathan "Satan's Favourite Lil Helper" Earlywine wrote:
The same tired, old drivel than 90% of Earth's politicians can be heard espousing on any given day


I don't think he's particularly evil, just because of that point of view...it's just rather sad that politicians talk such utter nonsense, and people listen.

J
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:25 pm
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Scott
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Joined: 11 Sep 2004
Posts: 1140
Location: 390 Chestnut Ridge Rd, Rochester NY, 14624, USA

 		oh, he's evil alright.
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Perplex City is a game whose only rule is: There must be a party.
Balance of Powers is a game whose only rule is: There must be a political party.

PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:39 pm
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eeeqz
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Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Posts: 104
Location: Leics/Kingston upon Thames

 		It's hard trying to work out what relevance all this Earlywine/AQSYS stuff has, whether it's being mentioned [TIAG] just because it was part of a live event [/TIAG] or if Eeevil Earlywine has dark dark things in store, ie a new Big Brother-style monitoring system. Personally I'm inclined to agree that he's eeevil personified; I just don't like the cut of his jib...

*cartwheels away squealing '5 points for a long boring letter! Yay!'*
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 8:50 am
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sledgecallier
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 		Oddly enough the Sentinel seems to be running an advert for the BBC's new magazine called 'Mind Games'. Is this a first as it is an advert for a 'Real world' company and not something in PxC.
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 9:45 pm
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