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Buy Companies, not Shares

What’s up with the investment market? Stocks are falling since weeks. They are as unpopular as they haven’t been for a long time. Volatility seems to become normal. It’s hard for the average investor to sail through these rough waters.

After these many years of a bull market, nobody knows where the financial markets will go with the companies in the near future. Is it really the beginning of a longer bear market or is it just a dent? Does this matter for you? Sure, most of our portfolios have lost market value during the last weeks. And for many, these losses hurt a lot. But why? Well, I think, it‘s a problem of how they look at shares, the market and the losses.

A bet on Psychology

In my opinion, one of the main problems why people struggle with losses of market value is that they have a wrong view on what shares really are. They see them as just a piece of paper. When they buy stocks, they hope they can sell this paper at a higher price in the near future than they bought it. Those people bet on the psychology of the market participants and they hope that this psychology will go on to be greedy and push the share prices up. But when this psychology got worse, those investors have a big problem. They start to lose their bet. So what can you do to prevent yourself against this?

What‘s a Share?

First of all, one has to look at shares as what they really are. This may seem obvious and easy, but it isn‘t. If it would, less people would make this mistake. Although many market participants see shares as just a piece of paper that is traded every second on the market, for the intelligent investor a share is more than that. For this investor a share is participation in the success and the return of a company. Intelligent investors always see the company behind the shares and they invest in that company through the shares and not in the shares alone. So the share is nothing but a small piece of the company. And that‘s great, because most of us aren‘t able to own a hole company. But with shares, we‘re able to own a small piece of it. And that‘s exactly what we want.

A Share is the Company itself

As a little piece of the „company“ cake the share is treated just like the hole cake. It carries a portion of the assets and the valuables and it receives a portion of the profit. As a shareholder you receive this profit as dividends or a reinvestment in the company. In a company, in which people are working and producing products or offering services or both. This work of that people is it what makes the value of a company and the therefore the value of its shares. So, if you want to invest successsfully over the long haul and get through rough times also, you have to look at the value of the real company and not at the market value.

Market Value

Market value only says something about the price people are momentarily willing to pay for a company. This will and this price are psychological driven and are mostly based on an anticipated future market value which depends on greed and fear. The market value is seldom based on the real value of the company behind the shares. And that‘s great, because it offers the intelligent investor many opportunities to make money and build his fortune. The intelligent investor tries not be influenced by the psychology. Instead, he tries to participate in it. He knows that what really matters is the value of the company. And he‘s after that value. And the price or the market value serves him as an indicator for getting the company value at a discount or a premium.

Real Value

The intelligent investor is happy about falling prices and market values. Not because he likes the value of his company decrease. On contrary. He knows that‘s not the value that is falling but only the price. He knows about the difference between those two. As Warren Buffett likes to say, „Price is what you pay, value is what you get“.

So, because the intelligent investor is someone who has long term orientation the short term market value isn‘t of special interest for him. He‘s is more interested in theology term value of the company. That value depends on the success of the company and not on the daily share prices. Don‘t forget, over the long run, market prices reflects the value of a company. But short term, they‘re an expression of the psychology of the market participants.

Falling markets are investors friend

If you‘re an investor and not a speculator, you love times like these when the market‘s falling. Especially when the market is as expensive as it got since 2008. As I wrote in my last article, investor‘s time is coming now. At least, I hope so. Many of the companies I would like to own – or a piece of them – were too expensive to buy. I don‘t like to buy without a discount or a reasonable margin of safety. So, during the last year, it was difficult to find great companies at a reasonable price to buy. But now, when the prices are falling, chancing are good, that all those great companies become available at a price I‘m willing to pay.

If you sit on cash waiting to invest it reasonable, times seem to become in your favor. Companies get cheaper and the relation between price and value become more reasonable. That‘s what we‘re looking for when we regard market prices. We are only interested in them to find out what we have to pay for the value of the company we like to own. And for sure, we want to pay as less as possible.

What to do now?

So don‘t be afraid when the market price of your shares is falling. As long as you won‘t sell them, the price is irrelevant. And it doesn‘t say anything about the value of the company. Focus on that value and not on the price. The inner value of the company still remains even if the market value declines. If you have cash and want to buy, be cautious and wait until the odds are in your favor. If you haven‘t any cash, so what. Let your portfolio alone and wait, too. There is nothing to do for you. As long as you have great companies with great value in your portfolio. If you have companies with less value, you made a mistake when buying. But that‘s another story.

Want to learn more about the Secrets of Intelligent Investing?

Join my courses at the Bridge2Fortune® Academy!

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  1. Julieta says:

    Thank you for the great article

  2. Elsie Chadek says:

    very well my brother

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Louis Navellier Is Making the Biggest Guarantee of His Career

Find Out Why on February 26

Wed, February 26 at 7:00PM ET

Carvana Is Rapidly Disrupting the Auto Industry — Don’t Miss Your Ride

Disruption = Edge

Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) is on a mission to change the way people buy cars. They’re harnessing the power of digitization and applying it to the massively fragmented auto industry. As such, I think an entry in Carvana stock at current valuations is attractive. Already, the numbers show that Carvana is well on its way to riding the long-term secular trend in online purchasing.

Source: Carvana

Online purchases are certainly more conducive for commodity-like items. Books, toys, certain electronic hardware are all relatively uniform and don’t require consumers to give things a test run. Cars, on the other hand, may seem less ripe for online disruption.

However, the digital economy is changing attitudes quickly. Data shows that almost all research on cars is already conducted online, that 75% of consumers would consider purchasing a car online and that 52% of car buyers test drive only one vehicle. So the barriers to Carvana’s business model are lower than one might initially think.

The Numbers Behind Carvana Stock

Carvana is executing on its mission. Retail units sold and gross profit per unit are the primary metrics I would look at to measure their growth and success. For the former, units sold have increased 113% year-over-year from 44,252 to 94,108. Compare this to just 2,105 units sold in 2014 and you’ll see there’s a trend tracking up and to the right.

What’s even more impressive is that quarter-over-quarter retail units sold has been increasing.  There are no down quarters that get evened out when figures are annualized. Carvana has been selling more units since the first quarter of 2014, indicating that they have tapped into an industry with rapid secular growth.

Carvana is selling lots of cars, but are they doing it with good margins? The answer to that is yes — and increasingly so. CVNA has been tinkering internally with their pricing algorithms, and it’s working. Gross profit per unit is also tracking similarly — from $1,539 in 2017 to over $2000 last year. This means that each incremental car sale is adding more to the profitability of the Company than cars sold in prior years. It’s no surprise then, that looking further down the P&L, overall EBITDA margin is tracking upward, and Carvana could see that hit positive territory in the next year or two.

Focusing on What Matters: User Experience

Carvana has over 14,000 cars to select from and provides users with over $1,000 in savings per vehicle compared to traditional car dealers. Only 8% of consumers rate traditional car salesman highly trustworthy and 81% of consumers do not enjoy the car buying process.

Carvana improves the user experience dramatically. Piles of paperwork that no one actually goes over with a fine-tooth comb are now streamlined into a ten-minute process from beginning to end. Next-day car deliveries are available in select markets for buyers who are antsy to drive their new vehicle.

A survey performed by Bazaarvoice as of December 2018 showed that 96% of users would recommend it to a friend.

CVNA’s Bets on Innovation Have Paid Off

CVNA’s Car vending machine is a sight to behold. It combines operational efficiencies (especially on the real estate side) with creative branding. Currently there are 15 vending machines operating nationwide.

In the Nashville market, Carvana saw market penetration double in two quarters after a vending machine launch. Betting on innovation is always a good decision.

The Bottom Line on Carvana Stock

Carvana is still in the early stages of a long-term secular trend. The user experience and business model have been validated over the last four years with revenues, margins, and unit sales up consistently. It’s an experience that appeals to younger buyers and has yet to show the full potential when at scale.

As the company continues to increase penetration and add new markets, Carvana stock will track the same way as its metrics — up and to the right.

As of this writing, Luce Emerson did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2019/04/carvana-is-rapidly-disrupting-the-auto-industry-dont-miss-your-ride/.

©2020 InvestorPlace Media, LLC

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Internet of Things Community® (IoT Community®) Announces the IoT Slam X Virtual IoT Conference, December 11th, 2019; Opens call for Papers

Brightest minds invited to present customer successes and best practice use-cases to Enterprise CxO’s and leading IoT authorities; convening on-line in the cloud December 11th, 2019 at IoT Slam X.

Raleigh, North Carolina, September 6th 2019 – The IoT Community® (Internet of Things Community®), the world’s largest community of corporate executives, IoT professionals and practitioners, today announced a call for papers and speakers, for the next installment of its coveted IoT Slam® series of events – the IoT Slam X™ Virtual Internet of Things conference, commencing December 11th, 2019.

“The market for IoT is predicted to double by 2021, reaching $520B according to a recent Bain study. Enterprises continue to find vendors are not making enough progress on lowering the most significant barriers to adoption in the areas of security, and integration with existing IT and OT systems. Today we announce another premiere event the tenth in the series of IoT Slam conferences,” said Nancy Shemwell, IoT Community COO and Advisory Board Member. “Bringing together thought leaders and top industry experts, the IoT Slam X builds upon the success of the previous nine events continue shaping the IoT narrative, garnering the very best IoT thought leadership from our IoT Community. IoT practitioners with cutting-edge solutions and compelling stories are solicited to present a paper at this not-to-be-missed thought leadership event.”

The IoT Slam X 2019 builds on the hugely successful prior IoT Slam events and represents an unparalleled platform for both established and emerging IoT technology providers and practitioners, business leaders and executive management across all core industry sectors to learn from and engage with one another.

The IoT Slam X online conference is delivered in real-time via virtual broadcast, attendees can tune in live to the stream globally via the internet and interact with speakers and other attendees. All proceedings are recorded and made available via https://iotpractitioner.com.

David Hill, Executive Director of the Internet of Things Community (IoT Community) said, “We are excited to announce our IoT Slam X virtual event in celebration of our tenth IoT Slam event. As the premier IoT membership community, we are thrilled to collaborate with IoT industry leaders to engage, demonstrating how their use of IoT is transforming business, culture and society.”

Call for Papers

IoT practitioners interested in presenting a session at the IoT Slam X have until October 8th 2019 to submit a proposal. Visit https://iotslam.com/iot-slam-x-call-for-papers/ for full details on the submission process and to submit a paper.

Free Access to Virtual Broadcast

Members of the IoT Community can get free access to the real-time virtual broadcast by visiting http://www.iotslam.com/register

About IoT Slam X™

The IoT Slam X is the Internet of Things Community’s tenth international conference, covering a horizontal industry perspective, across the entire spectrum of IoT. The IoT Day Slam takes place December 11th, 2019 virtually in the cloud. For more information, visit www.iotslam.com. IoT Slam delivers the best in class IoT Strategy, Leadership, Advisory and Methodology – (SLAM)™.

About IoT Community® – (Internet of Things Community®)

The IoT Community is the world’s largest CxO community of senior business leaders and IoT practitioners consisting of 23,000+ members. The function is to focus on adoption and application of IoT in commercial environments, seeking to contribute applying technology or overcoming the variety of barriers, inhibitors, and technical and operational issues. For more information about IoT Community, visit http://www.iotcommunity.net .

David Hill
Executive Director
IoT Community


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Why Brands Are Advocating For Net Neutrality

Wednesday was a big day for net neutrality, as tech companies like Amazon, Reddit, Facebook, Google, and Twitter rallied in protest of the FCC’s anti-net-neutrality policy change ahead of its impending roll-out. Dubbed “the Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality”, many companies displayed banners, pop-ups, and other forms of special notices on their websites to raise awareness for the issue and encourage people to take action and voice their support. Some sites such as Netflix and Reddit even slowed down their connections to show visitors how irritating the online experience would become if net neutrality were ever abolished.

Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without prioritizing or blocking particular products or websites. It aims to protect open access to the internet for everyone and prevent ISPs like AT&T, Charter, Comcast, and Verizon from slowing down access to the web in favor of certain websites and services that they own themselves, or those that are paying them to get in the fast lane.

Net neutrality has been a topic of debate since as early as 1999 (check here for a timeline of the development of this issue), but in recent years, the topic has grown much more contentious and gained mainstream relevance as more and more U.S. consumers got online. Now, with over 286 million internet users in the U.S., net neutrality is an issue that directly affects pretty much everyone, especially given that 89% of Americans only have one or two options for broadband access due to regional monopolies or duopolies, leaving them vulnerable to data throttling and powerless in their choices to access the digital platforms.

Therefore, for companies like Google and Amazon to take a stand and advocate for net neutrality is not only a political move that advances their own interests, but also a savvy marketing move that aligns their goals with the consumers’ benefits. As consumers increasingly become reliant on digital platforms and services for news and entertainment, shopping, work, and many other aspects of their daily lives, it is a smart move for the aforementioned companies to foster and solidify brand affinity among customers.

Leveraging a social-political cause as a way to reach out to certain segments of consumers and communicate brand value is an old trick in PR marketing, but given the polarizing political climate in the U.S., it is a trick that is becoming increasingly effective. (It does occasionally backfire when poorly executed, as the Kendall Jenner-starring Pepsi ad showed.) The beauty of net neutrality is that, compared to other issues, it is one with most Americans support, regardless of their political leanings. Therefore, it is a perfectly safe political issue for brands to engage consumers with and show that they are on the same side. That is, unless you’re one of the major ISPs and somehow wants in on the protest as well. Don’t treat customers like clueless idiots who don’t know what your brand really stands for – the open internet ensures that they do.


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1 The Timucuan missions of Spanish Florida and the rebellion of 1656 1992 John E. Worth
2 Household research at the Late Mississippi Little Egypt Site (9MU102) 2002 Ramie Alphonse Gougeon
3 Abundance, diversity, and distribution of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria in the Delaware Estuary 2007 Lisa Waidner
4 A case study of secondary teachers facilitating a historical problem-based learning instructional unit 2009 John L. Pecore
5 Migration and mobility in imperial Rome 2010 Kristina Killgrove
6 Lost ambition Grand strategy stability and abandoned change in the Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush administrations May 2014 Jacob Shively


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Introducing A-League’s Mario Shabow – Iraq’s Potential Midfield Prodigy

Australia has a long-standing history with Iraqi football and Mario Shabow is the latest player caught in the crossways between the two nations. Soon to be 20 years old, the youngster has settled down in Australia and has represented their U20 national team 13 times with 5 goals to his name. He was born in Baghdad, Iraq, to Assyrian parents and moved to Australia at 6 years of age. This should be music to the ears of Iraqi fans worldwide, who are keen to see the national team have the best possible players available for selection.

Mario’s career started at the tender age of 9, where he signed for Liverpool Olympic. However, it was his move to Marconi Stallions at 13 year’s of age that put him on the radar of Australia’s top clubs. It was only a year before Blacktown City came calling for his signature.

Western Sydney Wanderers, in the A-League, took a gamble and signed the Iraqi expat to a season-long deal. Plenty of quality performances for the reserves left Mario wanting for more first team action, leading to his transfer to Newcastle Jets in 2017. Also among his newly acquired tastes were first team opportunities in Asia’s footballing finest in the AFC Champions League.r0_134_3000_1829_w1200_h678_fmax

The attacking midfielder attributes his love for the game to growing up watching Ronaldo, Iniesta, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. He told; “I knew from a young age that I wanted to become a professional footballer. Since then, I never doubted my ability to play and always worked hard to achieve my goals.”

In his second season at Newcastle Jets, Mario has had a tough time cementing a first time spot in a talented squad. “We are doing very well as a team and I think I’ve played a role in our success, as has everyone. Halfway through the season, we had a lot of injuries and I was called into the team against my former club, coming on in the 70th minute. I was involved in a further 6 games, where I made an impact. However, this was always after coming off the bench. As a young player involved in the first team, I know I have a lot to learn in order to develop and become a first team regular.”

Reda Al-Taay, an Australian-based football agent has been working hard on finding Mario the next club in his career that can offer him regular first team opportunities. Mario is still young and needs plenty of minutes in order to continue his development.

“I’d describe myself as ambitious and a highly competitive player”, said the young midfielder. “I’m extremely confident playing under pressure and always give 100% in training and on the pitch. The areas in which I excel most are my positioning, technique and awareness on the ball. I want to continue developing as a footballer and one day play at the highest level in a European club, as well feature in the World Cup. I hope that kids will one day look at my story and see me as a role model – someone they can look up to.”

Mario has had an impressive spell with the Australian U20 squad, making 15 appearances and scoring in the 2015 AFC U19 Championship. Further goals against Indonesia and Vietnam in the 2016 AFF U19 Youth Championship grew his profile further. He was again named in squad for the 2016 AFC U-19 Championship, where his goal was the deciding factor between Australia and China in the opening game.

The youngster’s profile is growing by the day and he will inevitably be looking for a new club that can provide him with plenty of opportunities to help him develop into a more complete footballer – something that can only happen with regular football and experience. Whilst Mario has yet to make an appearance for the Australian first team, he remains eligible to play for Iraq should the FA contact him with a tempting offer. If the Iraqi FA is serious about having this young talent in their ranks, then they’d better hurry up as it won’t be long before he’s playing for the Socceroos.

This article was co-written with Reda Al-Taay. Reda is a professional football agent operating in Sydney, Australia and works closely with numerous Iraqi players. You can contact him on Instagram, his personal email (, or using the comment section below. We thank Reda for his contribution to and look forward to working closely with him on future projects.

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Record Details

Catalogue Search

Medieval Shakespeare : pasts and presents / edited by Ruth Morse, Helen Cooper, and Peter Holland.

Morse, Ruth, (editor.). Cooper, Helen, 1947- (editor.). Holland, Peter, 1951- (editor.).
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Electronic resources

Subject: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 > Criticism and interpretation.
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 > Knowledge > Middle Ages.
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 > Sources.
Middle Ages in literature.
English drama > Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 > Medieval influences.
Genre: Electronic books.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781107314214
  • ISBN: 1107314216
  • ISBN: 9781139060905
  • ISBN: 1139060902
  • ISBN: 9781299008977
  • ISBN: 1299008976
  • Physical Description: 1 online resource
  • Publisher: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, [2013]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note: Shakespeare's Middle Ages / Bruce R. Smith -- Late Shakespeare and the Middle Ages / Bart van Es -- The mediated 'medieval' and Shakespeare / A.E.B. Coldiron -- 'Not know my voice?' : Shakespeare corrected; English perfected -- theories of language from the Middle Ages to modernity / Jonathan Hope -- The afterlife of personification / Helen Cooper -- Shakespeare and the remains of Britain / Ruth Morse -- King Lear in BC Albion / Margreta de Grazia -- The art of playing / Tom Bishop -- Blood begetting blood : Shakespeare and the mysteries / Michael O'Connell -- From scaffold to discovery-space : change and continuity / Janette Dillon -- Performing the Middle Ages / Peter Holland -- Conclusion : the evil of 'medieval' / David Bevington.
Summary: "For many, Shakespeare represents the advent of modernity. It is easy to forget that he was in fact a writer deeply embedded in the Middle Ages, who inherited many of his shaping ideas and assumptions from the medieval past. This collection brings together essays by internationally renowned scholars of medieval and early modern literature, the history of the book and theatre history to present new perspectives on Shakespeare and his medieval heritage. Separated into four parts, the collection explores Shakespeare and his work in the context of the Middle Ages, medieval books and language, the British past, and medieval conceptions of drama and theatricality, together showing Shakespeare's work as rooted in late medieval history and culture. Insisting upon Shakespeare's complexity and medieval multiplicity, Medieval Shakespeare gives readers the opportunity to appreciate both Shakespeare and his period within the traditions that fostered and surrounded him"-- Provided by publisher.
Source of Description Note: Print version record.

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More Ramblings on WiFi Allergies

Earlier this week I wrote about a Santa Fe group of "electro-sensitive" people who were trying to force the city to remove Wi-Fi from public locations. I've received some comical responses along with responses that make this "electro-sensitive" group sound like they're single out Wi-Fi.

First I have to wonder about electro-sensitivity in general. Locutus wrote that, "It "could" be possible as our nerves and brains do run on electro-chemical signals." Locutus wonders if electro-sensitive people are sensitive to Wi-Fi then how do you explain how "such a large electromagnetic field generator like an MRI machine does not effect us?" Hmm good question. I wonder if electro-sensitive people abstain from MRI's because the headache would be massive!!

JBKing posed a good question, what if the allergy is spectrum specific? This is a very logical question given that this group is only targeting Wi-Fi. They haven't targeted radios, TVs, cordless phones or cell phones. But PCTechG mentioned that his Wi-Fi operates at the same frequency as his neighbors cordless phone. Cordless phones have been around for a long while and the electro-sensitive allergies didn't flare up enough for them to demand that cordless phones be band!!

Nestorjz reminds us that people have claimed 'that cell phone towers give them cancer, headaches and all sorts of stuff'. I'm not sure if there are studies that exist that might prove or disprove these claims, but Steveuf from Great Britain mentioned that there's 'evidence of power lines and cancer with actual case histories to prove it'.

Could it be that these sensitivities do actually exist? Maybe the fact that Wi-Fi is still relatively new means that we won't truly know of any adverse affects of exposure to Wi-Fi until much later down the road.

In any case, I find the idea of electromagnetic allergies entertaining. Thank you all for all of the witty and intelligent comments.

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"Many of the powerline tower vs cancer studies hit more upon the high levels of herbicide used at the bases of the tower to keep them clear.

But again, a different frequency range. 802.11b/g are in the 2.4GHz range and so are modern cordless phones, baby monitors, etc. Microwaves hit this frequency (amongst others).

Haven't searched, but there should be at least one decent study on this or the judge will just show them the door.

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"I'm a technology exec in Silicon Valley and became hypersensitive to electromagnetic fields on February 29, 2006. Since then I have suffered head shocks, burning, rashes, sleep disturbances, memory loss, concentration issues, heart palpitations and more than 20 other symptoms from all forms of wireless technologies. A pain hits my head 5-15 seconds before a cell phone rings nearby. I can detect wireless networks by the sharp rodent-like biting across my scalp. I am affected by frequencies both from power-line fields (60 hertz) through and radio frequencies (300 kilohertz to 300 Gigahertz). I can tell relative size of the wave by the pain sensation in my head. For instance, on a trip in the Rocky Mountains, where cellular and WiFi were absent, I experienced Park communications signals at UHF/ VHF like a thick 2 inch nail penetrating my skull. I experience cell phones signals as drilling sensation and WiFi burns for awhile across a wide area like a rope burn and then starts biting like quick pricks from a hamster. 2.45 Gigahertz is one of the worse (WiFi, microwaves and many cordless phones) frequencies for me. Later I discovered several scientists including Ross Adey have discovered ‘frequency windows’, where bioeffects attain at some frequencies but not others. I have removed all wireless from my house and even had three of my neighbors move their wireless routers to divert the WiFi signal. I also had to sell my brand-new 2006 BMW 5 series because the GPS and BMW assist systems kept transmitting signals into my house, even with the car turned off. I had already disabled Bluetooth, but that was not enough. I got rid of my cell phone in late 2006.

I’ve personally met two dozen people with the same symptoms. Strange finding: almost everyone I’ve met with this affliction either went to top ten schools, or has an advanced degree. Sampling; five PhD’s, three attorneys, three media execs, five technology execs, two doctors, a pharmacist, several real estate execs, a handful of educators. Only two have ever had any previous psychological or emotional issues. In Sweden, between 230,000 and 290,000 (2.6% of the population) are registered with the government for this disability, which they call electric hypersensitivity (EHS). Britain recognized this disability in September 2006 and asserted that as about 3% of the population might be suffering from the affliction.

I understand that skeptics abound. I was an early adopter. It would never have believed that tiny radio waves that I could neither see, nor feel could affect my health. I bought my first cell phone in 1990 and began using WiFi (remember Ricochet?) in 2000. I’ve worked extensively with Cingular Wireless, Apple (iPhone), Microsoft (Xbox) and Google. I am anything but techno-phobic. Still you might use my experience and hundreds of thousands like me to curb your usage and consider the bet you are making that these signals are not harmful.

If you do the research, you’ll see that these waves are probably affecting us all. 632 studies link 51 bioeffects to low-level, radio-frequency signals (see for a complete listing. The 600 page BioInitiative Report ( released August 2007 by 15 international scientists, reviewed about 2000 studies and, concluded a strong connection between electromagnetic fields and radio frequency (RF) signals to brain tumors, immune dysfunction, DNA damage, genetic aberrations, Leukemia, cancer, depression, suicide, ADD, Autism and Alzheimer’s. You also might check out to see how nagging symptoms like headaches, anxiety, sleep issues and joint pain, which we typically attribute to the stresses of modern-day lifestyles, may in fact be triggered by our increasingly wireless environment. Test it out: if you have been having sleep problems, or are feeling cloudy, or feeling over-stressed, especially in the past 5 years, unplug your wireless router and turn off your cell phone and move your alarm clock more than 5 feet from your body for a week and notice the difference. Why? Hint: the pineal gland is being disrupted by your WiFi, cell phone and cordless phone. The pineal gland is radio-sensitive and uses the Schumann Resonance (7 hertz wave at less than a picowatt) to trigger endocrine function at night. The pineal gland is responsible for the regulation of melatonin (free-radical scavenger), serotonin production (attitude) and the regulation of your biological clock.

Love to hear the results.

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All Features

Cloud Service

You can access form any device, anywhere. Just need an internet connection.

The IT4Golf Channel Manager it's a web-based application, which means that you only need a browser (Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc..) and an internet connection to access to our system. IT4Golf Channel Manager follows the SaaS model (Software as a Service), which means that instead of installing and maintaining an infrastructure, you simply access it via the Internet, freeing yourself from complex software, hardware and security management. Some of the benefits of our SaaS are:

  • No hardware, software or other hidden costs
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You just need to subscribe an IT4Golf Channel Management plan which corresponding to a monthly fee to start benefit from our solution.

Define your sales strategy and apply them to your channels in one centralized place.

The IT4Golf Channel Manager offers a centralized way to define your sales strategy to reach the widest possible customer base and develop a better relationship between your customers and your product. You perform this configurations and decisions in just one place, reducing manual mistakes and time consuming.

You can run 1 or 1000 golf courses. Our channel manager can handle several golf courses at the same time.

The IT4Golf Channel Manager can manage an unlimited number of golf courses. If you are a company with one or many golf courses, we can handle all the operation in one unified system. With the multiproperty feature you can combine different golf courses according to your sales strategy. The commercial channels that you define for your clients and business partners can be configured to access only specif golf courses. This flexibility can be reached only with IT4Golf Channel Manager.

Yield Management Reporting

Find out what are the best prices and services for your customers.

With IT4Golf Channel Manager you have access to a set of reporting analysis that help you to understand your customers and increase bookings.

The yield management fundamentals are essential to define which golf products are selling, when, to whom, and at what price. Analyze consumer behavior to determine the correct price level to make the item enticing to the consumer. The idea is to coordinate timing, price, and consumer buying patterns to achieve the best return. Understanding your business performance and patterns, you can forecast tendencies and change you business strategy to maximize profit.

Booking Engine

Define your booking engines according to the image of your Golf Club.

IT4Golf Channel Manager offers the ability to define online booking engines to interface your business with clients and partners.

Our booking engine offers your guests a quick and smooth reservation experience requiring minimum efforts while using their PC, smart phones or tablets. Generate higher revenues by allowing your guests to avail special offers, golf packages and ability to do group bookings. Your booking engine can take credit card details and work with an online merchant service or integrate with a Payment Gateway to process payments. The IT4Golf Channel Manager supports several booking engines, for each you can define your sales strategy and marketing image. Within each booking engine you define your prices, availability, specials offers and golf packages for each of your business channels, despite if it is your web site, golf members portal, agents, operators or others.

Mobile Booking

Increase your performance by let your customers book with mobile devices.

With IT4Golf Channel Manager your customers can book online using mobile devices such as tablets, smart phones, etc.. With the increase of mobile devices usage, you can benefit with IT4Golf Channel Manager offering to your customers an unique experience and easy way to book online tee times, special offers and packages. The image of mobile online booking follows your marketing image. You can also define several online mobile booking engines, depending of your customers (direct customers, agents, operators, members, etc..) and sales strategy.

Members Portal

Deliver to your members an unique experience with online booking, share information, etc.

IT4Golf Channel Manager offers a unique club members experience by enhance the value of your club, offering a unique way to communicate to your club members. The members portal is 100% compatible with your existing website. By enter in the web members portal, your member can benefit of several services, such as:

  • Online booking
  • Active member subscriptions
  • Promotions
  • Marketing
  • Tournaments
  • Photos
  • Contracts

Everything is controlled by you within the IT4Golf Channel Manager. You can design and control the options available to your club members based on their profiles; communicate easily with them, and provide the online booking following the type of club member profile. The Online Members portal will save time and money, and at the same way it will give to your members an unique experience.

Agents Booking

Make available to your Business Partners the ability to book online and much more.

IT4Golf Channel Manager offers a set of functionalities to your agents and business partners to book your teetimes and benefit from an unique service. The IT4Golf Channel Manager Agents module will offer to your agents and business partners a web portal with a set of onlien services, such as:

  • Online booking
  • Promotions
  • Marketing contents
  • Communication forum
  • Information

Also for more experience agents, the Agents module offers a way to integrate directly to IT4Golf Channel Manager using Web Services. This technique permits the Agent to integrate directly with IT4Golf Channel Manager. For example if the agent have a website or other software, and want to perform online booking to your golf club, it will be possible with the IT4Golf Channel Manager Agents Module. Everything is controlled by you within the IT4Golf Channel Manager. You can design and control the options available within the Agents Portal and define the rates available for each Agent. The Agents Booking will save time and money, and at the same way it will give to your Business partners a simple way to profit with you.

Flex Rates

Define your golf rates and extras depending of your seasons, teetimes, day of the week, etc.

Define Rates with IT4Golf Channel Manager it's a easy process and very flexible. Each Rate that you define can be applied to one or more Markets depending the definition of your sales strategy. The basics of IT4Golf Channel Manager Flex Rates are applying rates (monetary value) to Golf articles (GreenFees, Buggy, Clubs, Trolleys, etc..) depending of a set of variables that can be defined, such as:

  • Golf Course (Prices of golf articles are depending of the golf course)
  • Dates (Define different prices depending on a date range - seasons)
  • Teetimes (Define different prices depending the time to play - teetime)
  • Day of the week (Define different prices depending on the day of the week - for example sunday)
  • Availability (Define the availability status of your articles, such as extras. For example you can setup a buggy to be available to book, offer or not available.

Special Offers

Enhance your golf offer with specials and define your terms and offers for each of them.

With the IT4Golf Channel Manager you can easily define special offers and strategically apply them to channels markets according to your business strategy. You can define Seasonal offers like Christmas or Summer specials, or long term offers like Twilight or others. The definition of a special offers here carefully design to be an easy and fast to deploy. Special Offers have a specific Flex Rate (see definition of Flex Rate) which can depend of several variables, as well as the possibility to define offers or discounts based on multiple players. For example you can set a special for offering 1 player if your client is booking 4 players. Or you can set a discount of 10% in bookings of multiple of 8 players. The flexibility and easy to setup special offers it's one of the many strengths of our Channel Manager.

Create multi golf round packages. Define for each package what golf courses are included.

Creating Golf Packages it's another important feature of our system. You can define golf packages with the number of rounds that you like and define in what golf courses this rounds can be played. With the flexibility of our golf package setup you can define golf packages that can be played in specific courses or define golf packages to be played in whatever golf courses. Each Package have a specific Flex Rate (see definition of Flex Rate) that can be added with offers and discounts of multiple players. For example you can set a package for offering 1 player if your client is booking a package for 4 players. Or you can set a discount of 10% in packages of multiple of 8 players. Also you can setup a number of days that the package can be consumed. For example you can setup 5 days for a 3 round package to be played. This particular feature are an important sales tool for golfers that are looking for playing several rounds during a certain time of vacation or other.

Channels and Markets

Segment your channels markets according to the characteristics of your customers, their needs and buying patterns.

With IT4Golf Channel Manager you have the possibility to configure different Market Segments and apply them to specific clients. With this feature you can segment your clients portfolio, and apply to them specific tariffs, availability, special offers and golf packages.

Market segmentation is one of the most useful and practical strategy used in business planning and marketing. With Market Segmentation you divide or clients on the basis of commonalities and differences and grouping them together on the basis of specific characteristics that are relevant for your golf business strategy. Market segmentation helps your Golf business to develop a good understanding of the current or potential market base on a broad spectrum; make plans targeting the customers with specific needs, interests, or preferences. The definition of markets within IT4Golf Channel Manager it's fundamental to achieve a better business performance , as well as defining yield and revenue management trends.

GPMS Interface

Connect your Channel Manager to your internal Golf Property Management System.

With IT4Golf Channel Manager you can interfacing with your internal Golf Property Management System Software. The design and structure of IT4Golf Channel Manager can easily integrate with your GPMS as well as define several GPMS interfaces. We can integrate with CSS Concept Golf GPMS and define other vendors interface easily thanks to the flexibility of IT4Golf Channel Manager. The simple design of IT4Golf Channel Manager allows you to integrate with your GPMS requiring little bandwidth and overhead.

Payment Gateway

Connect your Channel Manager with the payment gateway for your online booking payments.

Follow the simplicity and flexibility of defining interfaces, IT4Golf Channel Manager can deal with different Payment Gateways to collect automatically the online golf booking income. Payment Gateways are internal connectors that established communication with online payments solutions. For that it's easy to add and upgrade payment gateways following the market trends.

Customer Satisfaction

Welcome your golfers before they play with useful information, and inquire them after play to collect your service satisfaction.

With the IT4Golf Channel Manager Customer Satisfaction your can automatically communicate with your golfers before and after the Golf Experience. Before your customer enjoy's the Golf experience, the system automatically triggers a communication that can include useful club information, directions and also marketing contents such as promotions, extras and others.

After enjoy the experience, the customer will receive an inquiry with a set of questions. All the answers are automatically processed and produces the reporting to let you know what your customers think about your Golf experience. The IT4Golf Channel Manager Customer Satisfaction also have the ability to trigger automatically warnings if a poor classification occurs. This feature it will give the Club the ability to fast reply to the customer and get in touch of what it went wrong.


text:
April 19, 2017

ITTF-Oceania are excited to advertise an updated position within the organisation, focused around the implementation of the newly formed 2017-2020 ITTF-Oceania Strategic Plan. The Executive Director will be responsible for additional tasks in addition to implementing the Strategic Plan, including but not limited to managing the ITTF-Oceania Events Calendar, and

The Executive Director will look to continue the growth and expansion of table tennis events throughout the region, focusing on the commercial value of the events. ITTF-Oceania has spent two decades of strong grassroots development throughout the region, and is now placing further support within Operations & Events to further evolve this development work, and take table tennis to the next level in the region.

The Executive Director will report to the ITTF-Oceania Management Committee, through the ITTF-Oceania President.

For further information about this opportunity, please see the below documents.

Job Advertisement

Job Description

As there is no deadline for the job application, suitable candidates will be interviewed in a timely manner following their application. Once the position has been filled, a new article will confirm an appointment has been made, and any other applicants will be notified by email that the position has been filled.


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Naivo Gold Plated Crystal Stone Halo Setting Pave Band Engagement Ring Women's (1.90 carats) (White Gold, 5)

Price: $9.99

(as of January 15, 2018 8:36 am - Details)

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Origami Inspired KAMI Vases

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Basis of all origami inspired KAMI vases is our unique, 100 natural cellulose fabric material in different colors. Thereby we currently set a focus on a beautiful concrete colored texture in light grey which we combine with small messing applications.

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Tastefully curated products and gifts from the internet.


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V.247 - B&V Friends Jumbo Comics Digest

Archie Superstars

Résumé de l’éditeur Archie Comics Publications

Betty and Veronica just can’t agree who has the more difficult life. Betty says that her financial status means she has to work extra hard, while Ronnie says that her parents put a lot of pressure on her to measure up to the Lodge family name. There’s only one way to settle this argument: by trading places for a day! When the girls have to walk in each other’s shoes, what will they learn about their BFF—and themselves? Find out in “Room for Improvement,” the brand new lead story to this comics annual featuring even more pages of fun!

Suite du résumé

Tome : 247/264 - B&V Friends Jumbo Comics Digest #247


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The Book of Souls by James Oswald

Penguin, 2013, 441 p including a short story, The Final Reel, which is rather abrupt.

The Book of Souls cover

This is the second of Oswald’s Inspector MacLean novels which he first electronically self-published before gaining a book contract at Penguin.

In a disturbing echo of the “Christmas Killer” murders whose perpetrator Inspector Tony McLean was instrumental in catching several years before, a succession of women is being found naked, with their throats cut, staked out under bridges over running water. A local journalist with a new book on the previous killings is suggesting the police got the wrong man, McLean’s superior Inspector Duguid keeps taking officers away from his investigation and McLean himself is forced to endure counselling. In addition to the murders McLean has a series of mysterious fires destroying old industrial premises around Edinburgh on his caseload.

The book is certainly readable if with some workmanlike prose at times – but then I’m not overly familiar with the modern crime novel so this may be what’s expected. I also felt that Oswald over-eggs the pudding a bit with the identity of the last potential murder victim.

As with Oswald’s first McLean book, Natural Causes, there is a tinge of the supernatural to the proceedings. The Liber animorum, the Book of Souls of the title, is said to weigh souls – and take over those found wanting. (My hang-up I know, but as an explanation for human depravity I have always found the supernatural a total cop-out.)

Pedant’s corner:-
One count of “sunk” for “sank”. “Ploiped” appears to be a coinage of Oswald’s but may only be a typo for “plopped.” “A half a dozen” has one “a” too many. “Happy Christmas.” (Where I’m from the greeting is “Merry Christmas.”) A judge bangs a gavel – not in a British court I’m afraid.

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Author Archives: James

About James

I play games and program

What Should I Be Thinking?

Once you’ve got control of the game down to the point where your character just does what you want them to do without you having to think about it, you’ve reached the point where you need to strategise. Here’s a selection of things you should be considering at various stages of the game. I’ll provide some examples drawn from a hypothetical match between you (Gaara) against someone else (Lee).

  • What are the strengths of your opponent’s character? How will you avoid them?
  • What are the weaknesses of your opponent’s character? How will you exploit them?
  • What are the strengths of your character? How will you exploit them?
  • What are the weaknesses of your character? How will you avoid them?
  • How does this matchup tilt, and why?

For example, Lee’s strengths are a lot of fast close-range pressure and a devastating special. We’ll avoid that by not attempting to attack during a Lee combo at all, and by avoiding any slow actions when Lee is double-gated or in desperation.

His weaknesses are a complete lack of ranged attacks or finessey ways of getting in – he has to throw you, sidestep around you, or exploit a mistake. We’ll exploit that by walking backwards when he approaches, being trigger-happy on throw-techs and throwing out ^A whenever Lee is at long range.

Gaara’s strengths are very fast omnidirectional ranged attacks, excellent punish options, and generally good turtling ability. We’ll exploit that by using ^A to pressure at long range and at the end of Lee’s primary combo and by only moving to punish, not initiating.

His weaknesses are that he’s slow and has has moderately unsafe combos. We’ll mitigate that by not initiating attacks.

The matchup probably tilts slightly our way, because Gaara can make Lee’s usually-safe combos unsafe, and because Gaara is at home blocking a long string of attacks. Gaara’s desperation neuters Lee’s usually devastating double-gates special, and ^A is an excellent tool against Lee.

  • Do I want to approach? How will I approach?
  • Does your opponent want to approach? How will they approach?
  • What long-range options do I have?
  • What long-range options do they have?

In our hypothetical, we don’t want to approach. At a distance, we can chip Lee and he can’t do anything, and we’re much slower than Lee.

Lee wants to approach. He doesn’t have any ranged options, after all. He’ll approach by dashing in for a throw, dashing into a chain, or dashing and sidestepping into a chain, because he doesn’t have many other options. A slow approach will run into Gaara ^A. If Lee is in desperation, he might approach with his vX teleport, which is extremely fast, so we need to be careful if he’s in desperation.

We can use ^A, A, >A, and aA at range. >A and aA probably aren’t very useful in most ranged circumstances. A is slow, so we don’t want to do it too close or Lee will punish, and readily sidesteppable. ^A is probably our most reliable ranged option.

  • What option are they taking?
  • How will you respond?

In our hypothetical, Lee runs straight at us. That means he’s either going for a throw, going to sidestep when close to us, or /maybe/ stop in front of us and then go for a chain.

The response to a throw is to attack as Lee goes for it, or tech it. Attacking will lose if he’s sidestepping or even going for a chain, so being ready to tech a throw is more important. The response to sidestepping or a chain is to walk backwards – that makes several chains unsafe and will prevent the sidestep getting behind us. It also doesn’t hurt if he’s going for a throw. So we’re going to walk backwards.

  • What options are available to me?
  • Do I need to abort?
  • How will my opponent respond?

Gaara is really only going to be approaching Lee in this hypothetical if Lee has made a mistake and is vulnerable – perhaps selected the wrong chain. In that case, the best option available to Gaara is probably a vY throw.

You would have to watch Lee to see whether you’ve misjudged his vulnerability. If you have, you’d want to abort immediately – probably by jumping or sidestepping and stopping.

Lee will respond by throw-teching if he can, or just attacking in Gaara’s face if he’s in the idle state.

  • What chain has my opponent selected? What holes are there in it?
  • How does the chain end?
  • Can I punish? How will I punish?

If we’re blocking Lee’s attacks, he’s almost certainly gone for his standard BBAAA or BBBBA chains. Both of those chains don’t have many holes in them, particularly for Gaara’s very slow <B.

Both of those chains end with Lee vaulting over our heads and landing behind us.

It’s difficult but possible to punish Lee’s standard chains by turning around while he’s over our head, dashing forwards, and throwing him. If we think we can do it, it’s absolutely worth going for it, and a throw is a good punish starter for Gaara. If not, our ^A will hit Lee after his chain easily, and might set up for a wakeup special.

  • Do I have escape? When is it safe to escape?
  • How much more damage is there in this chain?
  • Can I techroll?

Checking whether we ave escape is as easy as looking at our escape meter and checking whether it’s glowing. It’s safe to escape at all points in Lee’s chain, with the important exception that if Lee is in the double-gates state and is on the ground he can hit us with his double-gates special. If Lee has double-gated, escape when he’s in the air.

The damage left is a function of how many hits are left. Once Lee has knocked you into the air it’s probably not worth escaping, unless he’s about to connect with his special off of the end of his chain. It’s almost always worth escaping a special.

The final hit of Lee’s chain sends you flying, and if you don’t techroll when you hit the ground he can and will combo you.

  • Does my opponent have escape? When will they escape?
  • How will I respond?

Again, escape is just a question of checking their meter.

If Lee is sensible, he’ll escape during Gaara’s loop on the first two Bs, or while Gaara is falling out of the sky. Other escape timings don’t usually work out. If he’s got escape meter and you’re in the loop he’ll almost certainly escape. If you’re using the vB chain, sensible Lee players probably won’t escape until and unless you attempt to link to special.

Responding is difficult for Gaara. If Lee chose a poor time usually continuing the chain will respond appropriately. If you end the chain early as Lee escapes, Gaara is usually to slow to sidestep out, but it’s worth a try just in case.

  • Can I sidestep?
  • Can I interrupt?
  • Can I jump?

Both of Lee’s specials are eminently sidesteppable. That’s probably your preferred means of avoiding specials when able to do something.

Interrupting Lee’s special won’t be very easy – both of them are quite fast, and Gaara is quite slow. ^A might be fast enough, although you’d want to know it would hit after the teleport. Throwing sand will interrupt if you do it before Lee uses special.

Lee’s specials can be jumped – you have to doublejump backwards quite fast. Sidestepping is probably easier.

  • Can I wakeup special?

Gaara’s wakeup special is almost trivial to execute, and if Lee is past the point where he can wakeup teleport he can’t respond. If you’ve got chakra you should probably do it.

  • Can my opponent wakeup special?

Lee doesn’t usually wakeup special – he finds it easier to chain into it or save chakra for a last-ditch double-gates. If he does, wakeup attack will probably interrupt.

Desperation abilities

When your character is low on health, they start glowing (or in Bee’s case, exploding) and gain additional abilities. Here’s a list of desperation effects:

ANBU Kakashi: <X modechange special can be performed at 0% chakra, although it consumes all your chakra

Ino: Gain <X special. Fires a projectile that confuses opponents, costs 25% chakra.

Choji: Take half damage during vA. Gain power armour during vA.

Shikamaru: Gain ludicrous amounts of guard. It’s essentially unbreakable in normal play.

Asuma: Charged kunai become unblockable

Sakura: vA modechange no longer drains chakra, although you still can’t gain chakra while it’s going

Naruto: <X modechange becomes free

Sai: ^A birds return from behind opponents a little while after leaving the map.

Yamato: Can use <A counter as a regular move for 25% chakra.

Kiba: Akamaru becomes ready after attacking much faster

Shino: Bug attacks drain chakra on block

Hinata: <X modechange special becomes free.

Kurenai: vA gains larger radius of effect. >A becomes free. She’s still bad.

Kabuto: Regenerate half the damage taken from any attack. As a side-effect, Kabuto becomes immune to chip damage.

Anko: <X modechange special becomes free.

Orochimaru: <X counter special becomes free.

Tsunade: vX healing special can be activated without connecting with an opponent.

Jiraya: vA attack becomes the size of Africa.

Sasuke: <X special changes from fast, unblockable, short-range burst to a blockable special that hits opponents anywhere if they’re doing something after you use it. Basically it makes him worse. Also his sword attacks do more damage.

Itachi: <A teleport becomes free.

Kakazu: X special trigger attack changed from a kick to a very fast, medium-range lightning bolt. Can also hit more than one character in some situations.

Hidan: Gain power armour performing vA. Half the damage you take is reflected to opponents while standing in vA circle.

Deidara: Clay attacks no longer drain chakra, but they still require chakra to perform. >A bug continues crawling along the ground instead of just exploding.

Sasori: All attacks poison opponents.

Hiruko: All attacks poison opponents.

Yugao: Sword attacks do more damage.

Tenten: No longer drops weapons when taking damage.

Neji: >A pokes drain chakra on block. <A counter drains chakra at half the rate when held. X special gains 360 degree tracking.

Lee: <X modechange becomes free.

Gai: Gain <X stomp attack.

Kakashi: <X modechange becomes free. No longer lose health when Sharingan open.

Killer Bee: Gain <X burst that puts you in the invulnerable state while it occurs, for 25% chakra. Upon entering desperation, Bee immediately uses the attack for free.

Kisame: vX special does much more damage. vX special can be used at 50% chakra, but drains up to 75%.

Gaara: Can block unblockable attacks. Gain retroactive counterspecial for 50% chakra – just press X in blockstun. A sand projectiles are always thrown fully charged.

Kankuro: ?

Temari: <A summon no longer drains chakra while it’s out.

Chiyo: <X chakra shield drains at half the rate. vY puppet-summon makes puppets teleport to her location

Baki: >A wind blades become much larger

Minato: Gain vX and <X specials. vX places a marked kunai, <X teleports to the kunai for 25% chakra, even out of movelag. <X with no kunai goes straight to idle animation for free. Yes that gives Minato an infinite.

Sage Naruto: Rasengan attacks no longer drain chakra, though they still require chakra to perform.

Raikage: Negates ranged attacks while charging attacks. This includes some specials. Also reflects kunai and needles.

Gaara is a zone-y turtle character, similar to Kakazu or Kankuro. His skillset includes:

  • Strong combos
  • A throw that links into essentially anything
  • Easy hitconfirm options for his special
  • A fast omnidirectional attack that hits anywhere.

His biggest drawbacks are:

  • Rather slow
  • Very reliant on throw to start combos or chains
  • Generally limited options

A quick rundown of his abilities:

X: Cutscene special, 100%. Moderately fast, trigger attack is a puff of sand in front of Gaara. Sometimes difficult to dodge, easy to wake up with. Ranged.

vX: AoE special, 75%. Quite fast. Creates a ‘sand hand’ in front of Gaara that then swipes in a large arc in front of him. The initial sand pulses are unblockable.

A: Sand shuriken, basic ranged attack. Can be charged, beats out kunai

^A: Sand pulse appears at your target’s location. Quite fast startup, very useful for interrupting opponents or chipping at a distance. Can be sidestepped or punished if you’re too close. Starts the Gaara loop.

vA: Burst of sand all around Gaara, very slow recovery. Generally not very useful, maybe as a response to someone charging straight in.

>A: Sand wave in front of Gaara, slow startup. Lots of guard damage, generally not very useful. Sometimes good as a wakeup.

<A: Melee counter.

Most of Gaara’s chains can be linked into the ‘Gaara loop’, a sequence of attacks that links into itself. The sequence is ^A B A Yc _. The amount of delay on the end before repeating depends on how many iterations of the loop you’ve gone through – the first two times you need to delay some, after that you have to go fast. I’ll indicate the Gaara loop as GL here to save some typing.

Gaara’s main combo on connect is B B GL. On block B B A A is safer, but you have to vary the delay on the last A to make it safe. >B B A GL is another useful combo if you prefer the >B starter. vB A A A and vB A A X are excellent chains for making some space and outright killing someone, respectively.

All of these can be done off of Gaara’s vY throw, which is all-around excellent. It has more range than a standard Y throw, opponents can’t escape-teleport out of it until after the point where you link, and it links into both of Gaara’s specials trivially.

First things first, learn when to escape-teleport out of the Gaaa loop. The section where he’s falling out of the sky – the attack that gets y-cancelled – is usually the best time. Keep in mind that Gaara can use his vA right afterwards, so don’t get caught by that after escaping – you’re essentially guaranteed a punish.

Learning to throw-tech is exceptionally useful, too. It’s tricky to do consistently, but Gaara relies a lot on landing a throw, so it pays dividends.

Remember that you can sidestep Gaara’s ^A, particularly if you’re running straight for him. Also pay attention to how slow it is to recover – if you’re right next to him and it whiffs, don’t be afraid to try to punish.

Gaara isn’t very good at applying pressure or initiating attacks – the best he can usually do is chip away with ^A. If he rushes to close, he’s almost certainly going for a throw. You shouldn’t feel hurried or rushed – play carefully and try not to let him catch you in one of his high-damage chains.

Gaara does poorly against characters that can apply consistent pressure without letting him get an attack in, either because there’s no real delay, they have a puppet or other secondary attacker, or because they can do it at range – for example, Hinata, Kiba, Minato, Kakazu and Itachi.

He also has problems with opponents that are much faster than him – mostly because it makes openings for a punish much harder to find. Ino and Baki are good examples.

Gaara does well against most other zoning characters – most of their zoning tools are designed to prevent characters getting close, and Gaara doesn’t want to. He can just slowly chip them to death if they won’t come to him. Temari and Shino don’t do very well, for example. Deidara isn’t a great matchup either, for similar reasons. Both Chiyo and Kankuro have problems as well.

Characters that are slow and get all up in Gaara’s face also tend to be easy to deal with. Gaara can ^A them at range to disrupt attacks, and if they get close guard frames and power armour don’t affect throws. Choji and Raikage don’t do very well against him because of that.

Hinata in short:

Hinata is a fast, close-ranged pressure character, in a similar mold to Lee and ANBU Kakashi. Her skillset includes:

  • A special-counter that works on melee attacks (including all melee cutscene special triggers)
  • Moves that step around the opponent
  • Moves that automatically turn her around and have guard frames
  • An infinite combo
  • A reversible modechange into Awakened Hinata. Awakened Hinata has less health, more guard, different specials, and is generally faster-paced
  • An extremely fast omnidirectional special for 75% chakra
  • A counter that works on ranged attacks
  • The ability to cancel out of the startup of a number of her moves using the Hyuuga cancel

Her biggest drawbacks are:

  • Several of her abilities are mutually exclusive – some are only available while awakened, some are only available as regular hinata
  • She has substantially lower health as awakened hinata
  • Awakening costs 50% chakra (unless you’re in desperation)
  • Short-ranged and slow cutscene special triggers
  • An almost complete reliance on close-combat.
  • Very few tools for power armour or guard frames

A quick, rundown of her abilities:

X: Cutscene special, 100%. Shortish range, moderately fast

vX: Counter special, 100% (only consumed if counter triggers). Only works on melee attacks coming from the front. Fair amount of damage

<X: Modechange into Awakened Hinata, 50%. Quite fast, no gatecrash.

X (awakened): Cutscene special, 100%. Short range, quite slow. Drains nearly 100% chakra. Same animation as Neji’s X.

vX (awakened): Dai-kaiten, 75%. Very fast AOE field special hitting everywhere around Hinata. Hits ‘towards’ hinata – characters behind her have to face away to block.

<X (awakened): Cancel awakening, 0%. Effectively instant.

A: Standard kunai throw.

>A: Start of ‘step-around’ chain, discussed later

vA: Low kunai swipe, start of a chain

<A: Melee counter, puts attackers into hitstun but does no damage.

aA: Kunai.

>A (awakened): Finger-pokes, discussed later. Same as Neji’s >A

<A (awakened): Kaiten, ranged and melee counter. Active frames can be extended at the cost of chakra. Same as Neji’s <A.

Most of Hinata’s chains are moderately safe, but usually you will want to go for B B B A B B A A , with a possibility for a Hyuuga cancel at the end. If awakened, B B B A B B A Hc is the usual chain. It’s also her infinite. Both chains are quite vulnerable to well-timed <Bs, but that’s true of essentially everything Hinata does.

Hinata’s unawakened >A A shows up in a few of her chains (B B A A, B B B A B B A A) and has some useful properties. The first hit of the >A, right in front of a perfectly still opponent, can go around their guard and connect – Hinata sidesteps a bit while performing the attack. If your opponent hasn’t moved, the second A is guaranteed to step enough around them to hit from behind. Because Hinata sidesteps a bit while performing both hits, she can turn around to face opponents behind her while performing this move, if, for example, they’ve escape-teleported during a chain. The second move in the chain also has some guard frames on it. Finally, the startup of the second hit in the chain can be Hyuuga-cancelled.

Hinata’s awakened >A is the same as Neji’s – quick dash forwards, a few attacks which drain chakra if they connect, done. Like Neji’s, it’s extremely unsafe. Hinata’s different air-kunai trajectory means she can’t do the usual Neji aA >A aA frame trap, but her version of the >A has the convenient property that it can be Hyuuga-cancelled at any point, rather than after the dash completes. This means that any chain that ends in the pokes (B B A, B B B A B B A) can be instantly cancelled into the idle state, making them much safer and also leading to infinites.

If your character has a good <B, use it. All the time, whenever Hinata is comboing you. In general she has very little ability to delay out attacks to bait moves – the best she can do is Hyuuga-cancel a few parts of her chain – and as a result her attacks tend to come out at the same time every time. There’s even a convenient rhythm to follow. Hinata has very few responses to guard frames or power armour, other than throwing into a chain, so effective <B/power armour use defangs her extremely strong pressure game by preventing her from continuing on block.

A reasonable replacement for guard frames or power armour are extremely fast moves – Choji’s aA, for example, or Neji’s vX. It’s much harder to find places to slip those moves in, but if you can consistently find the spot it’ll have a similar chilling effect on Hinata.

If your character doesn’t have those options, you’re going to have to keep Hinata away as best as possible, because she’ll probably thrash you in close combat. Teleports and zone-y moves are going to be your weapon of choice. Poke and only punish with a full chain or combo if you’re sure it won’t be blocked. Remember that if Hinata is running at you you can always jump over her head and then continue running away to make some space. Avoid slow-ish omnidirectionals like Jiraya’s vA, because even if they’re safe on guard you’ll let Hinata close enough to you to be a pain.

Paying attention to whether Hinata has awakened or not will pay dividends. Awakened Hinata’s relevant aspects are her new vX, dai-kaiten, her infinite, her increased guard, and her improved <A counter. If she’s awakened, she’s going to try to use some of those. Keeping Hinata away from you deals with the infinite, but dai-kaiten is a threat to take seriously, any guardbreak options you have will be much weaker, and the kaiten counter is occasionally relevant. Unawakened Hinata has her slightly more technical >A, which is especially good against escape teleports, and her vX counter special. Hinata is much more likely to try to work throws into her usual chains while unawakened – hyuuga-cancelling >A A into a throw on block is a standard move. vA is kind of scary to think about but only rarely a threat – it’s quite slow, telegraphs a lot, and doesn’t even work on attacks from behind so you can’t respond to teleports with it. If you’re still scared, any way your character can link a ranged attack into a combo will prevent it being a problem.

Predictably, Hinata does poorly against characters with strong power armour options or strong <Bs. Sai, Raikage, Ino, Hiruko and Sasori are all characters that do very well against Hinata. Strong zoning options also cause her problems – Kiba, Chiyo, Kankuro, Deidara and Kakazu do well against her because of that, although Chiyo has problems if Hinata can close, and Deidara has to play very, very carefully. Choji can do well if he’s careful about his slower moves – his aA prevents pressure, but if he tries for his usual dashA shenanigans and Hinata avoids damage, he can be in trouble. Also, some of his moves are slow enough that Hinata can counter-special them.

On the flip side, Hinata does extremely well against zoning characters that can’t keep her away. Shino usually loses hard. Gaara has trouble because Hinata doesn’t have to stop punching to let him retaliate. Temari can have problems keeping her away. Kisame doesn’t have many options once Hinata is in his face.

Other melee-focused pressure characters don’t tend to do very well because Awakened HInata’s improved guard and vX special are threats and her infinite means she doesn’t give them many options. Additionally, they have to get within her effective range to accomplish much. Tsunade and Lee just don’t have any way to deal with the pressure, Yugao can <B Hinata but a number of her usual tricks get beaten by dai-kaiten, ANBU Kakashi’s <B has awkward timing for Hinata’s combos, and she’ll usually catch him after the guard frames, and he doesn’t have health to spare, Anko has excellent teleports in curse-seal form, but dai-kaiten, kaiten, and the counter-special are all excellent responses.

Like most fighting games, throws in GNT Special provide a way of getting around guard to damage an opponent anyway. Unlike most fighting games, throws in GNT Special tend to be very good combo openers. In general, you should be catching opponents with the start of a chain or a special after a throw, with the exceptions being a few characters with throws that can’t link (Raikage, curse-seal Anko).

With that said, I would strongly advise new players avoid throws at the start – you need to be very close to throw a character in GNT Special, to the point where a new player will whiff throws over and over again.

Throws can be teched, by the player being thrown pressing an attack button (A, B, X, Y) at the start of the throw animation. You can even tech throws in hitstun or blockstun – the only time you can’t is if you’re being thrown from behind. The tech animation is frame-neutral – both players end up coming out of it at the same time. The tech window is 4 frames – if you enter an input on the same frame or the frame immediately after your opponent throws, they’ll whiff and you’ll perform your input, but frames 2-5 inclusive after their throw input will tech.

(very nearly) Every character has a neutral-Y throw on the ground, and a throw in the air – the one exception is Kankuro, who doesn’t have any throws at all – throw performs some puppet moves with him, and while they look a bit like throws in that they involve grabbing someone and doing something with them, they don’t go through guard.

Some characters have a down-Y throw that performs differently in some way. Here’s a list:

  • Shikamaru (Easier to combo off of)
  • Sakura (very easy to combo off of, can’t escape teleport safely)
  • Sai (easy to combo off of, can’t escape teleport)
  • Yamato (easy to link)
  • Kiba (easy to link)
  • Shino (useless)
  • Hinata (easy to link)
  • Kurenai (very easy to link)
  • Kabuto (easy to link)
  • Orochimaru (hilarious)
  • Jiraya (no link, more damage?)
  • Sasuke (no link, more damage?)
  • Itachi (easy link)
  • Deidara (no link, more damage)
  • Sasori (hilarious, no link)
  • Yugao (no link, more damage)
  • Tenten (easy link)
  • Neji (more damage, no link)
  • Lee (easy link)
  • Bee (hilarious, no link)
  • Gaara (very easy link, no escape, bread and butter throw)
  • Temari (linkable but hard)
  • Baki (easy link)

A small set of characters use the Y button to perform some additional moves – Kankuro and Chiyo. Kankuro can perform attacks with his second puppet using Y, ^Y and aY. <Y pulls the second puppet back to him, and vY performs a counter. Chiyo gets <Y as a chakra-shield that completely protects her from damage, can’t be broken, but drains chakra over time, and she can also summon puppets to her by entering vY B or vY A.

A ‘cancel’ is an action that immediately takes your character into the idle state. They’re particularly useful if you can use them to skip movelag, because then you get into the idle state much faster, making things safer and potentially allowing links that couldn’t otherwise happen.

Special GNT has three cancels:

This is a mechanic theoretically available to every character, although only a few can make good use of it. If, at any point, you connect with a melee attack while you are touching the ground and your opponent is not, you can press the Y button and spend 25% chakra to cancel the movelag and return to the idle state. In general, what matters is whether your character is grounded/your opponent is in the air at the end of the move, not the start. Honestly the easiest way to figure out whether a particular situation allows for y-cancels is to try them.

A couple of standard combos rely heavily on y-cancelling. Gaara uses y-cancels in the ‘gaara loop’ – B B A B A Yc _ ^A B A Yc… . Itachi can use y-cancels to combo into uncharged Amaterasu – vB A B B Yc vX

Hyuuga cancel

The Hyuuga cancel is a special mechanic for Hinata and Neji, where they can cancel the start of some moves into the idle state, for free. This is different to y-cancelling, which cancels the end of some moves into the idle state. In practice the Hyuuga cancel acts kind of like a free Y-cancel, because you can always continue a chain and then Hyuuga-cancel the next hit to skip movelag.

The Hyuuga cancel is performed by pressing Y during the startup of some moves on Neji and Hinata. Only some moves can be cancelled, and the exact cancel behaviours vary between Neji and Hinata, even for moves they have in common. Notable cancellabled attacks include the second attack in Neji’s B B chain, the second attack in Hinata’s B B chain, Neji’s >A (cancels after the dash forwards, so makes for an excellent way of quickly closing short distances), the second hit of Hinata’s >A A (also appears in some chains, allowing Hinata to quickly end chains), and Hinata’s >A when awakened (instantly, unlike Neji’s >A – this allows Hinata to perform an infinite).

Minato cancel

Unlike the two cancels above, this is unambiguously a bug. It allows Minato to cancel the movelag of any move into the idle animation, as long as he is in desperation. It’s performed by entering <X whenever you want to cancel, and that’s it. Minato does have to be in desperation, though! This allows for a number of infinites – <B <X probably being the most amusing.

This works because in desperation Minato gets a kind of secondary escape-teleport special. You can enter vX to place a marked kunai, and then at any time you are in movelag or idle you can press <X to instantly teleport to the kunai. The implementation is a bit buggy, though – if there is no kunai to teleport to, Minato just instantly goes idle.

Pressing the B, A, X or Y buttons when your character is in the idle state makes them perform an attack. You can select which attack you want using the control stick – holding up and pressing B is a different attack to holding down and pressing B, for example. Every character has a B and A attack for up, down, left, right, and neutral, as well as a B and A attack in the air, and a ‘turnaround B’ attack performed when your opponent is behind you.

Every character has at least one X attack, performed using neutral-X. Some have more, selected using different control stick directions – again, up, down, left, right, and in the air.

Every character has a neutral-Y throw and nearly every character has an airthrow (Kankuro is the only exception). Some characters have a down-Y throw as well. Throws don’t care about block, but they can be teched by pressing any attack button as the throw starts. Throws tend to be easy to combo out of.

GNT Special is built around natural combos. Pressing B multiple times results in multiple hits. I’ll refer to these natural combos as ‘chains’, and linking together a chain, a throw, or a special is a ‘combo’. A chain is said to be ‘safe’ if a blocking opponent can’t retaliate and hit you during the movelag afterwards. In practice, whether a chain is safe or not depends heavily on which character you’re fighting.

Attacks can have a number of different properties:

  • Unblockable. Most neutral-X specials are unblockable.
  • Melee. Some counter moves only activate on melee attacks.
  • Ranged. Some counters don’t activate on ranged attacks.
  • Disjoint melee. Some attacks are a kind of melee attack at a distance. They trigger melee counters like melee attacks, but don’t trigger cutscene counters.
  • Poison. Some attacks poison opponents if they hit, causing damage over time and reversing left and right.
  • Confusion. Some attacks cause confusion in opponents, reversing the B and A buttons.
  • Power armour. Attacks with power armour can’t be interrupted by taking damage (you don’t enter hitstun). Some power-armour attacks don’t protect against getting knocked into the air by launchers.
  • Block. Your character is considered blocking while performing attacks with block frames. Your guard can’t be broken while performing an attack with block frames.


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Photo from Alo B. on flickr

Today the Giro reaches Messina, the home of the most talented Italian rider of recent times, Vincenzo Nibali. The current champion is one of only six riders to have won all three grand tours and was seen something of a saviour for Italian cycling at the start of the decade when there were fewer top riders and fewer top Italian teams. The decline in Italian teams in the World Tour reached its zenith the year after the demise of the Lampre squad meaning their number has reached zero. And now with ‘The Shark Of Messina’ reaching 32 Italian cycling fans are desperate for a new hero to emerge.

Fabio Aru, missing this years Giro due to injury, is the obvious heir to Nibali but after a disappointing 2016 he still has much to improve before becoming a reliable champion. As he gets older and reaches prime Grand Tour age perhaps he will be able to help Italy keep its proud tradition of winners at the Giro going.

Of the 99 Giri 69 have been won by 41 different Italians. It wasn’t until 1950 that the first foreign rider, Hugo Koblet of Switzerland, won. After that the Italians had to share the prize with an increasing number of countries such as Luxembourg, France, Belgium and Sweden. At the start of the 90’s the hosts had to go three years without a win but Ivan Gotti’s victory in 1997 saw the return of Italian domination.

This coincided with the era of Lance Armstrong. It was a time when the media, riders and many fans thought the Tour de France was the be all and end all. Most of the top riders saw the merit of basing their whole seasons around their appearance at the Tour leaving the top Italians to fight amongst themselves at the Giro whilst winning 11 in a row. Some of theses editions were more exciting than others. The winning margins were between 28 seconds and 9 minutes 18 and there may have been a reason for the more emphatic wins.

The list of winners in this period is a reflection of what was happening in the Tour and elsewhere in cycling at this time. Marco Pantani, Ivan Basso, Danilo Di luca and others have either had positive doping tests or been involved in doping investigations. The late 90’s and the 2000’s are always described as the EPO era and many who were exposed for blood doping have been excused as just being a product of the times. Taking drugs to win has always been a problem in cycling though and those caught during the ‘EPO era’ are really products of police investigations and a hungrier desire amongst some to end doping.

The fight against doping may still be going on but at least now the top riders are returning to the Giro. Hopefully the obsession with the Tour is over and more fans will be drawn to the Giro to witness a different type of Grand Tour racing.

A total of 12 different countries have now won the Giro. A greater international presence is great but seeing an Italian be in contention in his home race adds something special to the ‘Corsa Rosa’ so hopefully ‘The Shark Of Messina’ and his fellow countrymen can keep the Italian tradition there going.

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Ripwell Reports. The Final Nail In Wiggins’ Coughin?

“Time waits for no man, unless said man is in his retirement years. And said man can surely enjoy some peace and tranquility” as the old saying goes. Try telling that to a certain Mr Bradley Wiggins-Sir. In the year and a half since hanging up his bike to leisurely wile away his time at the regattadrome he has had none of the promised calm. … Continue reading Ripwell Reports. The Final Nail In Wiggins’ Coughin?

Tour de of Britain Announcement

I am delighted to announce that the well known cyclist and historian, Giles Ripwell, will be writing for the website and telling tales from within the peloton during the upcoming Tour de of Britain. The ‘Gentleman On Two Wheels’ shared his insights here during the race in 2015 but has since been out of the sport to research a book with Bike Gob Glasgow about … Continue reading Tour de of Britain Announcement

Tour de Past, Stage 17. The Final Mountain Stage.

There have plenty of great stage 17’s at the Tour de France in recent times. Often it contains the final mountain top finish of the race so has the potential for plenty of drama. So I had to choose two stages for today:

Stage 17 of the 2008 Tour de France had all the ingredients to turn it into a classic. It was was one of the closes races in years, only 8 seconds separated Frank Schleck in 1st and Cadel Evans in 3rd and the top five were all within 1 minute 13 seconds of each other. It was also the final mountain stage with its finale taking part on Alpe d’Huez. Perfect.

The battle to win the Tour that day was going to be between the climbers and the time trialists. Frank Schleck, his CSC teammate Carlos Sastre and Bernhard Kohl knew they needed to put time into Evans and Denis Menchov as the penultimate stage that year was going to a 53 km test against the clock. It was reckoned 2 minutes would have done the trick.

Schleck and Sastre had the advantage of having the strongest team. They had been aided well in the mountains by Frank’s younger brother. Andy Schleck was taking part in his first Tour and held the white jersey. There is a little mentioned story that tells of Frank Schleck proclaiming to some journalists: “If you think I am good then wait till you see my brother”. Andy was living up to his hype. Cadel Evans’ Silence-Lotto team by contrast had been letting him down every time the road went up.

Continue reading “Tour de Past, Stage 17. The Final Mountain Stage.”

Giro 100. The Giro Comes To The Home Of The Shark.

Photo from Alo B. on flickr

Today the Giro reaches Messina, the home of the most talented Italian rider of recent times, Vincenzo Nibali. The current champion is one of only six riders to have won all three grand tours and was seen something of a saviour for Italian cycling at the start of the decade when there were fewer top riders and fewer top Italian teams. The decline in Italian teams in the World Tour reached its zenith the year after the demise of the Lampre squad meaning their number has reached zero. And now with ‘The Shark Of Messina’ reaching 32 Italian cycling fans are desperate for a new hero to emerge.

Fabio Aru, missing this years Giro due to injury, is the obvious heir to Nibali but after a disappointing 2016 he still has much to improve before becoming a reliable champion. As he gets older and reaches prime Grand Tour age perhaps he will be able to help Italy keep its proud tradition of winners at the Giro going.

Of the 99 Giri 69 have been won by 41 different Italians. It wasn’t until 1950 that the first foreign rider, Hugo Koblet of Switzerland, won. After that the Italians had to share the prize with an increasing number of countries such as Luxembourg, France, Belgium and Sweden. At the start of the 90’s the hosts had to go three years without a win but Ivan Gotti’s victory in 1997 saw the return of Italian domination.

Continue reading “Giro 100. The Giro Comes To The Home Of The Shark.”

Tour de Past, Stage 6. 2009, David Millars Redemption?

All sports have hero’s and villains. Their presence adds to the spectacle of what you’re watching and changes it into theatre. Unfortunately in cycling many of the heros are actually villains and when you find out you realise that you’ve been watching a tragedy. David Millar was one such hero of mine. Being Scottish I had always been a fan of his namesake Robert but … Continue reading Tour de Past, Stage 6. 2009, David Millars Redemption?

Lance And Marco. What’s The Difference?

Il pirata #3

Photo from Andrea on Flickr.

22nd February 2013.

Gerard Vroomen asked an interesting question on Twitter on Monday. He was wondering why Marco Pantani gets so much kudos when he was as much a doper as Lance Armstrong. This has been something I have been thinking about recently as I wrestled with my own views on Marco Pantani while reading Matt Rendell’s book “The death of Marco Pantani”. Even though I have always known he was a doper and cheat I have held him in high regard as a magical rider and along with many cycling fans, I’m sure, spared him a thought on Valentines day. But why was I so delighted when Lance Armstrong was convicted of doping last month, while my adoration for Pantani is only starting to waver now almost 14 years since being kicked out of the Giro at Madonna di Campiglio for having a high hematocrit level. This was one of many times he recorded a high level and probably wasn’t too surprising given his links to Francesco Conconi and Eufemiano Fuentes. However Marco was a god to me and many others while Lance was the devil.

Continue reading “Lance And Marco. What’s The Difference?”


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Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 5 Issue: 177

According to Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry press service, an incident occurred in Ashgabat on September 13, as a consequence of the activities of an illegal drug ring. The Prosecutor-General’s Office said that an operation involving the use of police and special forces units had been launched to quell the violence. In addition to some arrests, the press release confirmed that others involved had been “neutralized.” Residents of the Khitrovka district of the Turkmen capital reported gun battles that lasted throughout the night (Interfax, September 14).

Turkmen media outlets were predictably silent on these events, despite the international impression that Turkmenistan has been improving gradually since the death of Niyazov and hopes that the country is becoming more open following the rapid upsurge in interest of Western energy companies in doing business with the regime. In the information haze that followed, typical in such a closed regime, there are a number of points that demand further consideration. It is also questionable how well the Western states know the country they are doing business with or indeed the extent of Turkmenistan’s “neutrality”

Foreign reports differed even on the issue of how the long the fighting had lasted, varying from several hours to as long as 24 hours. The overall picture of the incident involved an armed group being confronted by security forces. Eyewitnesses told the Associated Press that the streets around the area where the fighting occurred were patrolled by armored personnel carriers (APCs). Others reported seeing tanks in the streets. The response seemed disproportionate and in all likelihood poorly organized. Russian press reports suggested that Islamic terrorists were involved and had seized a drinking water plant. They were reportedly fired on by tanks and APCs, with the precaution being considered of closing the local airport. The following day, the area was patrolled by APCs and security personnel; but by evening the situation had returned to normal. An opposition website alleged that up to 20 Turkmen police officers had been killed and their bodies taken in secret to hospitals in Ashgabat (Ekho Moskvy Radio, Vremya Novosti, AP,, September 14).

Additional reporting seemed to corroborate that a building or plant had been seized in the capital by an armed group that took some hostages and that security forces had later stormed the building, resulting in casualties on both sides. The official explanation for the incident, however, is that it involved only armed drug dealers. No explanation was given for why they had taken hostages, the sequence of events, or why the security forces had deployed in such strength against lightly armed targets. Nor was there any reliable information about casualties, with reports varying between 20 Turkmen security personnel killed to about nine on each side with as many injured.

This silence is hardly surprising, but in light of Turkmenistan’s efforts to enhance its international image, it serves to illustrate just how closed the country remains with the media tightly controlled by the state and the response to the incident cloaked in mystery and carried out with a “Soviet” air of stifling information (, Vienna, September 14). The Prosecutor-General’s Office released a statement on September 14 confirming that authorities had engaged with an armed gang, which had been uncovered during a routine police sweep in the city.. The armed gang consisted of drug dealers, and a conflict ensued that demanded a response from the Turkmen security forces. The prosecutor-general’s office launched an investigation into the incident, although it has given no further details of whether anyone is in custody (Turkmen government website, September 14).

One unconfirmed report, based on an interview with a Turkmen police major, suggested that the authorities were surprised by the armed gang’s fierce resistance and had to call for help from a special unit in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which quickly dealt with the situation. That would explain the length of the operation and the implication that the Turkmen forces encountered difficulty. This report suggested that there were at least two Islamic militants in the gang and that it had not simply involved drug dealers as the Turkmen government claimed (, Vienna, September 14).

The armed clash in otherwise tranquil Ashgabat highlights how little is known about the real security situation in the country. At best Western assessments of the security threats and risks to businesses operating there are only provisional in a society that remains so closed and “Soviet” in matters relating to national security. A number of points can be drawn from these events, though tentative in nature, and pose questions about Turkmenistan’s security capabilities. Officially, the government is uncomfortable about recognizing that Islamic militants may transit Turkmen territory, since the regime has had a long history of collusion with drug trafficking though its porous borders. Why the armed response was triggered in the first place remains unclear, as do the objectives of the “armed gang.” In any case, that a lightly armed gang should merit a response that included tanks, APCs, and other elements of the Turkmen security forces suggests a lack of real planning for such incidents and shows at least some of the deficiencies in the Turkmen security forces. Finally, despite its much vaunted “neutral” status, if Turkmen authorities in fact panicked and asked for assistance from the FSB in Moscow, it suggests that Russia is already playing the role in Turkmenistan that it appears to be recasting in Central Asia and the South Caucasus: guarantor of security.