A foreboding, neon-drenched cityscape. A giant, airless concrete bowl filled with terrifying droids mewling for blood: not dissimilar, in many respects, to the Optus Stadium in Perth. The bowlers have wheels – not in the euphemistic Martin McCague sense, but in the sense of being, literally, yellow robots with wheels. And at the centre of it all, the last man standing, indeed the last hope of all humanity: an intrepid and weirdly pale Virat Kohli. It’s a younger version of Kohli: before he hit the protein shakes, before the jaw filled out and was overrun by a thicket of beard. And while the scenario might be wildly fictional, the character has been drawn from life: a promising teenage batsman from Delhi with a few anger issues and a nagging feeling that somehow, somewhere, he has a higher calling. Well, here it is. The humans need six to win off the last ball, and the last robot delivery was clocked at 700mph on the speed gun.
Welcome to the future, and in more senses than one. It’s the opening scene of Super V, a new children’s cartoon series currently airing on the Disney Channel in India and Star Plus in the UK. And as the animated Kohli inevitably hoists the ball over the mid-wicket boundary, it’s impossible to escape the sensation that we’re watching a quietly seminal moment in cricket’s relationship with mainstream culture: the point at which a cricketer – albeit, the world’s most famous ever subtly becomes Something Else. In Super V, the transformation takes place before our eyes. The young Virat, it turns out, possesses mystical superpowers that prove equally handy at fending off school bullies, picking up length or thwarting an evil scientist trying to enslave the entire human race using advanced neural capture technology. The animation is fairly basic, the script elementary, the few jokes about as funny as a village sledge. “To attain your superpowers,” Virat’s grandfather tells him, “you will need to clear some tests.” “Tests? Won’t a T20 do?” a beamish Virat replies. BoJack Horseman this is not. Even so, there’s something both vaguely thrilling and vaguely disarming about seeing our beloved game repackaged as a mass-market entertainment. Often, when cricket is portrayed in British culture, it’s diluted or demystified for a wider audience. Here, by contrast, there’s an entire plot element that revolves around Kohli shuffling across his crease to protect his stumps, thus making him vulnerable to the outside edge. And given the current vogue for innovation and crossover appeal, it’s only natural to wonder how the burgeoning cricketing superhero genre might look with an English slant. Imagine: SuperWoakes, a mild-mannered Birmingham-based hero whose special power – an immaculate line outside off stump – is threatened only by the unwelcome appearance of his arch nemesis, Kookaburra. Or perhaps SuperCook, in which the former England captain dons his protective goggles and Barbour cape in pursuit of his noble quest: to hunt down and kill every last deer in England. For now, though, Kohli stands alone. And for all the scrapes and scuffles encountered by his animated avatar, perhaps the most telling segments come when the real-life Kohli appears at the end of each episode to sum up what we’ve all learned, and dispense some sage life advice. “One thing is certain,” he announces in one of them. “The world needs heroes. And we all have something super about us.” And so, while it’s tempting to see this foray as merely the latest front in Kohli’s ever-expanding portfolio of commercial interests, perhaps the real motivation here goes beyond pure finance. The biggest leap a professional sportsperson can take is the one that springs them from the narrow confines of their own sport into the wilds of wider culture. Often, their athletic prowess is converted into a sort of proxy morality, where the ability to hit or kick a ball well renders them worthy not just of praise, but veneration: the sportsperson as personal brand, icon, object of devotion. The greatest athletes have always sought to bequeath a legacy that transcends anything they achieved on the field of play. Michael Jordan had his trainers. Lionel Messi has his theme park. Muhammad Ali had his long history of political activism. And by allowing himself to be consecrated into the ranks of the superhuman, Kohli is demonstrating that he, too, believes himself to have a higher calling. Checkout ipl schedule 2020 to watch more of kohli!
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The brand new season of isl hero kicks off with The english language managers in charge of eight Top League clubs, the most from the beginning of a campaign since 2004. Coming from last season, Roy Hodgson, Eddie Howe and Shane Dyche are joined simply by new Chelsea boss Open Lampard, Dean Smith and also Chris Wilder from marketed Aston Villa and Sheffield United respectively, Graham Knitter, recruited by Brighton and also Hove Albion from Swansea City, and Steve Generic, lured away from Sheffield Sunday to fill the space left by Rafa Benitez’s exit at Newcastle Unified.
With Northern Irishman Brendan Rodgers back in England from Leicester City, the total regarding British managers rises to be able to nine, almost half of the Top League. Most of the new variety of English managers reflect the particular changing nature of home-based football. Happy to be identified as coaches rather than managers, your class of 2019 are a significantly cry from the traditional all-powerful English “gaffer”. Lampard, the 1st Englishman to be in charge of your top-four side since Harry Redknapp took Tottenham Hotspur into the Champions League completely, enjoyed moderate success in a Championship season with Derby County and owes his or her appointment more to Chelsea’s global transfer ban as compared to any coaching ability he might have demonstrated in his first managerial job. However , the 41-yearold looks to be the right person at the right time for Sw3, ready to blood youngsters from your club’s extensive network regarding talented youth players. In several ways Wilder is a throwback to be able to simpler times. Sheffield-born, he or she played for United, the particular club he supported as being a boy, before embarking on any playing career around the reduce divisions. He then worked his or her way through the leagues as being a manager, winning promotions together with Oxford United and Northampton Town before a proceed back to Sheffield United, who also he has taken from League That you the Premier League. Just like Wilder, Villa’s Smith figured out his trade in the reduce leagues, with Walsall and also Brentford, earning a status for attacking football over a limited budget. Brighton’s Knitter has attained a similar prominence, albeit via the less likely environs of Ostersund, who also rose from Sweden’s next tier to play in the Continente europeo League under his advice. At Swansea last period he steadied a listing send, blooding youngsters while practically knocking Manchester City out from the FA Cup. Brighton are usually hoping Potter’s attacking school of thought will mark a positive development from the safety first approach regarding Chris Hughton, who was sacked at the end of last season as soon as the club sailed dangerously near relegation. Only Bruce symbolizes the old-style British supervisor. The likes of Sam Allardyce, Tony adamowicz Pulis, Alan Pardew, Indicate Hughes and David Moyes - all currently “resting” after their last Top League employment - should seen to have viable foreign money as “firefighters”. Things may possibly change during the season, nevertheless they appear to be a declining push. The most successful mid-term scheduled appointment last season was Ron Hasenhuttl, the Austrian who also replaced Hughes at Southampton and quickly steered these away from danger with a high energy pressing game. Interestingly, these day there are more foreign managers more down the leagues. The particular Championship kicks off with eight foreign coaches, including Slaven Bilic at West Bromwich Albion, Phillip Cocu from Derby County and Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds Unified. Frenchman Sabri Lamouchi is the latest to arrive, replacing Frank O’Neill at Nottingham Natrual enviroment. “Five balls left. Fleming in and bowls, Klusener thrashes at this through long-off for four more! Scores are level! Unbelievable hitting by Klusener! And South Africa now poised at the brink of an unforgettable victory!”
The commentator was radio veteran Tim Lane, calling the game for the ABC. “31 from 14 balls. The man of the World Cup, Lance Klusener, needs to score one more run to put his country into its first final. And there are four balls left. A wicket in hand. And that wicket would put Australia in the final. A tie would have Australia in. South Africa need to win it. They’re all up now. They’re all up, around the bat. Klusener adjusts his helmet…” The next delivery should have been the last of the match but Darren Lehmann misses an underarm throw at the stumps from a couple of metres with No.11 Allan Donald stranded. Lane: “Well! Another chance. Another one goes begging. Three balls left. One to win. Fleming in, bowls. Klusener hits back past the bowler. There’s a mix-up! Oh, there could be a run-out! There WILL BE a run-out! It’s a tie! Australia is in the fi nal!” Time heals all wounds, they say, but this is the one which has left the greatest scar on the psyche of South African cricket followers. Larger even than the one inflicted by the reality of Hansie Cronje’s collusion with matchfixers, confirmed just a year later. Donald was far more aware of the impact of what had just happened than Klusener would be for many years to come: “Thank God, we’ve got away with it, we’ll be OK now,” he said to himself after picking himself after the Lehmann near-miss. Fleming’s next ball was a yorker which hit the bottom of Klusener’s bat and bounced past the bowler. “I was in the crease until the moment the ball passed him and only then did I start to run. I looked up and Lance, saw him rushing to my end, and started to run as well. My legs felt like jelly. I heard the Aussies shouting ‘Keeper! Keeper!’ as I tried to get my legs moving properly. It was a dreamlike sequence. I ended up dropping my bat, and was run out by 10 yards at least. The Aussies fell into each other’s arms, and my world just fell apart,” Donald said. “I think I was right to stay in my crease until the ball passed the bowler but I should have run instantly when it did. But I was too slow in getting out of the blocks and Fleming had the time to gather Steve Waugh’s throw from mid-off and underarm to the keeper’s end. It looked terrible – amateurish, panicky, village green stuff not what you should see in a World Cup semi-final featuring a guy who has played for his country for more than a decade. I had let down my batting partner, my team and my country.” Klusener believed for years that the world would “move on” and the horror would be forgotten. But years rolled by and he saw people still looking at him “funny”. The braver ones would ask what happened. And why. “Eventually I accepted that it would be a part of my life forever, that for as long as I was around I would have to explain it, over and over again… and that I would always have to say ‘I’m sorry’,” Klusener said 10 years ago. And now, a further 10 years down the line with the World Cup returning to England and another semifinal scheduled for Edgbaston? “Time does heal, but it’s all still there, you can’t change anything. I tried pretending it didn’t happen for a few years, but that didn’t work. So, I’m still sorry.” Visit here for icc cricket world cup 2019 schedule pdf There are plenty of iPhone cases out there to choose from, but this one gives something extra; a kickstand. Is it the right iPhone case for you? Let’s take a look.
I wonder why they call this iPhone case the Kameleon? It doesn’t change colour depending on where you put it. It doesn’t even come in a wide range of tones, there are in fact just two on offer; ivory white and midnight blue, which looks black to us. It does, however, come with a great feature to recommend it over other iPhone cases; it has a kickstand. When not in use, the Kameleon’s kickstand lies flat against the back of the case. When you open it up it clicks into place and holds your iPhone at a useful viewing angle. You can position the phone in portrait or landscape mode, making it ideal for movies, FaceTime, YouTube and more, then when you’re done, it folds back down again. No tools or extraneous parts are involved and you can open or close the stand in just a few seconds. The case is backed with ‘vegan leather’ (i.e. PVC, not leather at all) with a soft microfibre lining to protect your phone from scratches. A shockresistant, hybrid-construction shell shields it from drops and knocks with all the buttons enclosed, but accessible. The Kameleon is also compatible with Qi chargers, so you don’t have to remove your phone from the case to wirelessly charge it. The Kameleon Kickstand Case isn’t cheap, but you’re getting a high quality product for your money. The kickstand is extremely useful, for everything from watching videos to mounting your iPhone on your bedside table as an alarm clock and it offers a high degree of protection for your trusty smartphone. Verdict PROS AND CONS: + Subtle, elegant appearance + Useful kickstand + Protects against knocks - A little pricey LAST WORD Definitely a premium iPhone case and the price reflects this; however the quality is definitely there. A great protective case with a very useful stand. RATING: 3/5 Review on iphone se buyers guide ART of the mystique of those great West Indies teams was the initials on the scorecard. You knew the names, but when the game returned from a commercial break, you’d get thrown for just a second. Who exactly is IVA Richards again? Oh, yeah. Wonder what the “I” stands for? PJL Dujon, anybody? AL Logie? It’s a wonderful bit of the game’s esoterica.
By the ritual act of following the score, we came to know our icons as DG Bradman and SK Warne. We told our Waughs apart as SR and ME. There was always a strange amusement in learning that a spinner from NSW was named SCG MacGill (which was only made better when you found out the “G” stood for Glyndwr). Cricket clings to its anachronisms, and the scorecard is certainly one of them. The history of the card itself is a long one, considering the earliest known record dates back to 1744. There were no initials on the card then – in fact, there was a whole lot of detail missing, with one player going by his smuggling alias “Cuddy” (note to the BBL marketing department: give players a smuggler alias). Two guys who shared the name Bennett were differentiated as “Little” and “Tall”. Over time, as the gentlemen’s game began to conduct itself with the proper bearing, cricketers were marked out by the initialsand- surname formulation. That is, unless you were a grubby professional, in which case you were lumped with just a surname. Sometimes they got initials after their name, and made to look like a plumber or roofer. This difference was most pronounced in the old Gentlemen vs Players fixture, for a long time the showcase game of the English domestic season. One side is a long row of Esq. while the other were granted no ceremony to stand on. When cricket dispensed with the amateur-pro distinction in 1962, one tabloid editorial sledged the Times: “Perhaps now this olde-world journal will print the initials of all MCC players.” If you had a title, the scorer had to find space for it. In the first Test played in England, in 1880, two Drs opened the batting – WG Grace, the game’s most famous set of initials, was one of them – an Hon kept wicket and Lord Harris was captain (the Aussies, notably, bucked the naming convention, all identified by name and initials). When England’s David Sheppard, a future Bishop of Liverpool and eventual baron, was called back to the side in 1965, he reappeared on the card as “Rev DS Sheppard”. Bet you’ll never see that in cricket again. The best of them all may have been the Nawab of Pataudi. There were two, both of the royal line of rulers of the Northern Indian state. The elder Nawab is the only man to have played Tests for England and India, and famously was dropped after the second Bodyline Test, having scored a century in the first, because he didn’t think much of DR Jardine’s tactics. The younger Nawab became captain of India in the 1960s, leading some of the most fabulously named XIs in history, joined by the likes of Farokh Engineer, Nari Contractor and the son of Vinoo Mankad. But for all those second-named West Indians and esteemed noblemen, nothing quite matches what the great cricketing nation of Sri Lanka has brought to the scorecard. We’ve enjoyed the talents of Murali, even admired how they shattered the mould of 50-over cricket in the 1996 World Cup. But the great fun of any encounter with Sri Lanka’s cricketers is looking at the names. The first time people became aware of it was probably Chaminda Vaas. Splendid pace bowler, often working manfully until Muralitharan came on, but the most intriguing thing about him was his entry on the card: “WPUJC Vaas”. He had more initials than letters in his surname. In long form: Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas. According to the naming traditions of Sri Lanka, his first two names recognise his noble clan heritage, while the last four are his given names. An internet forum post said it roughly translates to “Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas of the House of the Sun of the Noble Caste with Military Honour”. Since Vaas, the dam has broken and the initials have come spilling out. You have the recently retired spinner Rangana Herath, or “HMRKB Herath”, which sounds like the name of a British Army base or Royal Navy ship. Then there was Chanaka Welegedara, often right next to Herath on the card, with his keyboard-slapping “UWMBCA Welegedara”. One of Herath’s successors in the side, mystery spinner Akila Dananjaya, has had to face inquiry into his bowling action. But the true mystery is why the 25-year old – full name: Mahamarakkala Kurukulasooriya Patabendige Akila Dananjaya Perera – goes only by “A Dananjaya” on the card. The fact that these names sometimes share the same space with Angelo Davis Mathews is deeply humorous. The great shame, though, is that Rajitha Amunugama never made it to the Sri Lankan Test team. He played 102 first-class matches, but forever entered cricket lore when Wisden noticed his name after the medium-pacer took eight wickets in match in 2004, styled as (no joke) “ARRAPWRRKB Amunugama”. That’s a name with a mystique all its own. In 1975, Sri Lankawas the comic relief of theWorld Cup. In 1982, they became the eighth Test-playing nation. They moved quickly from those humble beginnings. On the back of remarkable performances, outstanding characters and marvellous players, the underdog’s journey has been a picaresque, an adventure. Their fortunes pivoted on the deeds of outstanding individuals. Along the way, they broke records. They’ve made the finals of three World Cups and won one; they own the highest team totals in Test cricket (6-952 against India), ODI cricket (443 against Netherlands) and T20 cricket (260 against Kenya), and the highest batting partnership in Test cricket (624 for the third wicket, against South Africa, Jayawardene and Sangakkara). Along the way, they’ve been an inspiration and they’ve proven just how successful the World Cup really can be at nurturing cricket in nations that have never been cricketing powers. They revolutionised the approach to one-day batting, and proved conclusively just how different the one-day game is from Test cricket by making bits-and-pieces players and competent tradesmen into one-day champions. Despite sometimes shambolic administration of the game in the island nation, Sri Lanka is now always considered a danger in tournaments or Tests. These men have been a big reason why. IPL 2019 THE BRAVE PIONEER: Roy Dias After the 1975 humiliation at the hands of Jeff Thomson in the World Cup, there was no telling how the newcomers to world cricket would fare. They’d never seen pace like Thommo’s, and it showed. He was sui generis, but there was an unlimited supply of other bowlers only too willing to boost their averages at the expense of the new easy-beats. Roy Dias seems a mere asterisk in cricket history, but he stood up during these difficult times, and the elegant right-hander makes the top-50 for batsmen who completed the quickest 1000 Test runs. His 214 runs in the 1979 ICC Trophy ensured Sri Lanka made the 1979 World Cup. In that tournament, they managed, this time, to win a match, against India, thanks to a Dias fifty. Three years later, Sri Lanka gained Test status. Their best was still ahead, and though Dias seemed to gleam all too briefly, he was vital to the careful grafting of his country’s cricket team into the body of world cricket. IPL 2019 THE CAVALIER: Aravinda De Silva Correct yet careless in the sense that no bowler worried him, De Silva stood up to, and flayed, some of the best bowling during a golden era. Imran, Qadir, Wakar, Wasim, Warne, McGrath, Ambrose, Walsh – none were comfortable bowling against this tiny Titan. He was, like Border, Headley, Crowe, Gavaskar and Flower, an absolute standout in a weak Test team, with an array of joyously executed, powerful shots his team-mates and opposition could only envy. In the 1996 World Cup final, against Australia, he played the perfect one-day game. Not only did he take 3-42, scalps which included Ponting and Taylor, but he scored a faultless 107 not-out and took two catches. He was, of course, Man of the Match, and it was his third such award of the tournament. IPL 2019 THE CATALYST: Arjuna Ranatunga Ranatunga was Ian Chappell and Javed Miandad rolled into one, a man who instilled pride into Sri Lankan cricket just when it was needed. Arjuna was prickly at times, but an astute tactician who transformed the one-day game with the help of his capable and faithful servant, Sanath Jayasuriya, by employing aggressive, airborne hitting in the first 15 overs, when fielding restrictions were in place. He saw World Cup 1996 as revenge for the calling of Murali for chucking, and wanted nothing more than to play the “culprits”, Australia, in the final. It was partly a motivational ploy, but it worked, and his men took the prize. He comforted Murali in 1999 when he was called for a second time in Australia, and led a near walk-off. During his 11-year tenure as leader, the corpulent captain taught his men how to scrap with the best, and put an end once and- for-all to their status as easy-beats. IPL 2019 THE AVANT-GARDE: Sanath Jayasuriya Jayasuriya clubbed ODI cricket into the 21st Century. Along with his opening partner, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Jayasuriya revolutionised ODI tactics during the 1996 Cricket World Cup, carrying out Ranatunga’s directions. It was a strategy they first tried on the preceding tour of Australia under the watchful eye of their coach, Aussie Dav Whatmore. The changes Jayasuriya brought to the one-day game in that World Cup just by sheer force of batsmanship are probably some of the most far-reaching cricket has seen. Certainly, it has affected the way the one-day game has been played ever since. It was by all measures revolutionary: it seemed as obvious in retrospect as any truly great invention, and no-one could ever go back to the old way of playing once it was introduced. Jayasuriya’s approach to one-day batting was as radically different from what had gone before as his countryman Muttiah Muralitharan’s style of bowling off-spin. It took everyone by surprise. It was cheeky, it was destructive, and it won his team game after game. IPL 2019 THE TEAM MAN: Mahela Jayawardene Jayawardene was a great batsman, scoring 11,874 Test runs at a tick under 50, with a highest score of 374. With Sangakkara, he also formed one of the best third-wicket combinations in history. In terms of runs scored, it was the best, surpassing Tendulkar and Dravid, and they hold the world record for any partnership of 624 against South Africa in 2004. He effected more run-outs in ODIs than anyone in history, and “caught Jayawardene, bowled Muralitharan” is the most recorded bowler-fielder dismissal. He also scored 12,650 ODI runs, with 19 centuries. He holds the records for the highest sixth-wicket partnership – 351 with Prasanna Jayawardene against India; highest partnership for the eighth wicket – 170 with Chaminda Vaas against South Africa, and the most fielder catches in all forms of cricket (440). In fact, he’s the only fielder to take 400 catches in international cricket. A brilliant warrior; a man for the trenches. IPL 2019 THE KNACK: Tillakaratne Dilshan Dilshan was always admired for his innovative batsmanship and all-round cricketing skill. He was so aggressive that he was determined not to be hindered by the conventional array of strokes available to him, and invented a shot that today is a necessary part of the batsman’s armoury: the scoop – or, as it was known at the time, the “Dilscoop”, which nudges the ball over the ’keeper’s head. Dilshan was also a more-than-handy off-break bowler and a fielding dynamo. It wasn’t until he was elevated to the opening position late in his career that he was recognised for the magnificent batsman he was. After he was lifted from the no.6 and no.7 positions, he scored all of his 16 Test tons and 21 ODI centuries. He’s also the first cricketer in history to score centuries in all formats as a captain. IPL 2019 THE GREATEST?: Muttiah Muralitharan Some might question the question-mark, but there are a ew facts about the unprecedented offie we cannot deny: 800 Test wickets at 22.72; 534 ODI wickets at 23.08. In Tests, he agged five-plus in an innings an astonishing 67 times; ten imes in ODIs. All seemingly unapproachable figures. The question-mark? We’ve heard it all before: the arm ction that was only ever really questioned in Australia, and which was also cleared by studies conducted at an Australian niversity. That, and favourable wickets at home, compared o his nearest rival, Warne. But there’s no denying that, at his est, Murali was practically indecipherable to most of the world’s best batsmen. IPL 2019 THE LATE BLOOMER: Rangana Herath It’s hard to believe the man has taken the most wickets by a left-armer of any description in history. His southpaw spin reaped 433 Test wickets, yet until 1999, his place in the national side was never certain. Though Herath made his Test debut in ’99, he was never considered a leading weapon until after Muralitharan’s retirement. He made his “comeback” to Test cricket in 2009 against Pakistan. Herath was a deceptive bowler who should always have been given more prominence, and had a near-undetectable wrong ’un. Toward the end of his career, Herath suddenly emerged in our consciousness as an incredibly destructive bowler, especially at home. In 2014, he became one of the few men in history to take nine wickets in a Test innings. His tendency to collect huge hauls, especially in opponents’ second innings (a record 12 five-fors), was becoming legendary. In 93 Tests, he took five wickets in an innings 34 times, and ten wickets nine times. He averaged 28 with the ball. Under-utilised in ODIs, he still managed 74 wickets at 31. IPL 2019 THE SLINGER: Lasith Malinga The slinger, the midnight swinger. That is, as late as it gets. With his strange low-slinging action, the relatively short Malinga veers them in or dips them low, all the while his blond-tipped mop of hair flopping wildly. He is renowned as one of the best short-form bowlers in the game. He owns two World Cup hat-tricks, three hat-tricks in ODIs and is the only player to take four wickets from four consecutive balls in any form of international cricket. In Test cricket, he was letting them go at over 150, and his bouncer was deadly. But it seems the shorter the format, the better he gets. He’s taken 311 ODI wickets at 28 and 92 T20I poles at 19. IPL 2019 THE SLICK: Chaminda Vaas Slippery as petroleum jelly. Like Malinga, a relatively short fast bowler, the dangerous Vaas is the most effective fast-bowler the island nation has produced. He’s the only man to take eight wickets in an ODI innings. He often toiled in the shadow of the great Murali, but 355 wickets at an average under 30 is extremely impressive for the mostly unsupported left-arm quick. In 2001, a series in which Lara scored a mountainous 688 runs in a mere three Tests, Vaas took 26 wickets, including 14 in the third Test, and his team won 3-0. He famously teamed with Murali to produce Sri Lanka’s firstever overseas victory in Tests, at Napier in 1995. Visit for ipl news of today Scandinavians are master bakers. They love coffee and bake all kinds of good things to go with it, coffeebreads, pastries, cakes, and cookies, which they call little cakes. Because of their proximity to each other, the growing seasons and climates of Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland are similar. Consequently, the crops, including fruits and berries, are pretty much the same. Not only is the pulse of the season and year the same, but because all of the countries are basically Lutheran, the church year and religious holidays and celebrations share a historic commonality.
Scandinavians all know what it is like to have summer days with no night and winter days with no day. Their crafts and exquisite baked goods were developed during those long winters. How they could see to produce these works of art in the old days, with only dim candlelight, is a miracle in itself. Today, with plenty of light, they still bake and make attractive things but have less time and inclination to do so. Scandinavians who immigrated to America brought with them tools, skills, and recipes for their favorite baked goods. Besides being of pure Finnish extraction myself, I grew up with Scandinavians all around me. Somewhat isolated in little villages and farms in northern Minnesota, we have seen to it that Scandinavian baking traditions have been preserved. I have, as have many of my friends, traveled in the Scandinavian countries, and we have all brought back recipes and ideas that have become mingled with our grandmothers'. On the farm in northern Minnesota where I grew up, we replicated the simplicity of the Finnish life. Our baking was practical, based on necessity. Life was simple but wholesome. We baked rye bread, cardamom "biscuit," and coffeecakes. Although we didn't use as much sugar as most, we didn't skimp on eggs, milk, and butter. Our neighbors were Norwegians and down the road lived Danes and Swedes. My mother always said they were "real nice people," but we didn't "visit" them. Our visiting was usually with relatives or other Finns. Visiting was something we did on Sunday afternoon when we would get all dressed up and pile into the family car (Isa father in Finnish — bought a new Ford right after the war) and drive to Aunt Esther's place, or to Uncle Edward's, or Uncle Jack's. Visiting consisted of drinking coffee and eating "biscuit" and cake. We children would be given fruit nectar and biscuit or cake and would be allowed to tear around outside with the children of the family we were visiting. When we visited relatives with a cabin on "the lake" (which could be any of 10,000 in our near vicinity), it always smelled of boiling coffee. Always, there was biscuit, and there would usually be a white cake, with a caramel frosting. When I decided to write this post, I thought it a good idea to include Iceland. It was, however, difficult to find information about Icelandic baking. Finally, my husband and I decided to take a trip to Iceland. We discovered on this wind-blown, rocky island-nation a heritage of baking all its own. I had expected pervasive Norwegian influence, and it was there, but with a great simplicity. A country that imports most of what it needs is naturally conservative in the use of such things as sugar. What Iceland seems to have in abundance are fresh air and hot water. Steam and hot water from geysers are used to warm homes, barns, swimming pools, and greenhouses. Bread is baked in special outdoor bakehouses with ovens heated by subterranean steam. It is a caramel-flavored black bread, 100% rye, that is baked for 2,4 hours. Like Iceland, Finland is known for the simplicity of its food. Fancy breads and cakes depend on the dexterity and skill of the hand of the baker. The Danes, nearer continental Europe, bake wonderfully complex filled pastries. Swedes and Norwegians, especially those who are inland, lean heavily toward the art of baking and use lots of special tools to create beautiful baked goods. Tins and rolling pins, irons and molds are typical of Swedish and Norwegian baking. My interest in and understanding of Scandinavian baking have developed through the years that I have been a food writer. I've traveled in Finland most extensively, and also in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and, recently, in Iceland. In this collection are my favorite and most successful recipes. It would be impossible to include everything that is baked in these five countries, each heavily populated with superb home and professional bakers. Visitn for chex mix flavors Meat jerky is a quick and easy way to enjoy protein-rich smoked meat. Marination is important for a deep rich flavor, make sure to give the meat a good time to absorb all the spices and molasses.
Serves: 8 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cooking Time: 3.5 hours Ingredients:
Instructions:
Google Chrome’s “incognito” mode used to open up with a warning that, even while you were supposedly surfing anonymously, secret agents could still be tracking your online activity. Most of us smiled and dismissed the idea as fantastical; then Edward Snowden broke cover and wiped the smiles from our faces. That specific disclaimer no longer appears, perhaps because we’ve all learned our lesson. It certainly doesn’t mean the issue has gone away. Online surveillance is still a constant threat, and there are plenty of legitimate reasons for wanting to stay anonymous online. So how can we ensure that what we do in the privacy of our browser really does stay private? The short answer is that we can’t What we can do, however, is minimise our exposure and make life as hard as possible for would-be snoopers.
SIGN UP TO A VPN Perhaps the simplest and most effective step you can take to protect your privacy is to sign up with a reputable VPN provider, preferably one based overseas. This acts as an encrypted conduit for your internet activity, so that your ISP and other Australian-based bodies can’t monitor what you’re doing and it makes it a lot harder for the sites to trace where your connection is coming from. There are plenty of services to choose from, but our advice has always been to pay for a reputable VPN service. Free providers are by no means universally illegitimate, but we’ve heard stories of user data being accidentally leaked, or deliberately sold to fund operations which undermines the whole point. Free providers may also insert their own content into your traffic, replacing third-party ads with their own, which isn’t always transparent and raises some troubling questions. At the end of the day, you need your VPN service to be 100% on your side, since they have the capability, should they choose, to see everything you do, from reading your emails to tracking your purchases on Amazon. As long as you have picked a service you can trust, however, a VPN offers great peace of mind. There’s a supplementary benefit, too: you can normally route your connection through servers in a variety of different countries. This allows you to access content that’s not generally available to Australian browsers, or see how your own site looks to international visitors an easy way to check there are no issues with page loading times, rendering or censorship. TURN TO TOR Tor stands for “The Onion Router” a name that hints at the multilayered way it works, routing internet trafi c through multiple servers before finally passing it on to its destination. There’s nothing new about the general idea of forwarding traffic around in this way that’s basically how the whole internet operates. But Tor adds an encryption element, with each node that your data passes through decrypting a little more of the packet, like peeling away another layer of onion skin. By the time your request reaches its destination (the website you want to visit), it will have been fully decrypted, but anyone trying to intercept it en route won’t have a complete record of your activity. For the same reason, even the nodes that handle your request won’t know precisely where it came from. Tor sounds like the perfect tool for espionage so it perhaps makes sense that it’s at least partly the product of the United States federal government, having been originally developed at the United States Naval Research Laboratory and refined by DARPA prior to its public launch in 2003. There are questions, however, over whether Tor is really secure. Earlier this year, a vulnerability was found in the Tor web browser that could result in users accidentally connecting directly (and traceably) to their requested sites, without the benefit of Tor’s obfuscation. University researchers have found ways to work out the origins of Tor packets, and Europol has recently made some high-profile arrests by successfully exposing the identities of Tor users though, understandably, the agency hasn’t gone into detail about its methods. If you want to give Tor a go, it’s easy: visit torproject.org and you can download a browser (based on Firefox) for Windows, macOS and Linux that routes all of the traffic through the Tor network, as well as clearing out cookies and browsing history automatically. However, if you prefer to stick with Chrome, you will find a selection of Tor extensions in the Chrome Web Store. Like a VPN, Tor doesn’t just encrypt your data: it also conceals your location and other details about your connection. When we used the Tor Browser running on a Mac just outside Sydney to visit iplocation.net, we were identified as a Windows 7 user in Auckland. Subsequent attempts located us in Melbourne and Singapore, so it’s going to be pretty hard for anyone to reliably track your ongoing activity. The only catch is that Tor’s convoluted routing has a big impact on browsing speed using it can feel like a trip back to the days of the dial-up modem. For Android users, another option is Orweb Private Web Browser, which routes requests over the Tor network. FLUMMOX FINGERPRINTING Staying anonymous online isn’t just about ensuring your traffic can’t be intercepted. The sites you visit can keep records of your visits and build up an alarmingly detailed profile of your interests and activity even if you’re using a supposedly private browser that doesn’t store cookies from one session to the next. They do this by recognizing the device you’re using to connect. After all, there probably aren’t many PCs out there with the exact same combination of browser, memory, graphics hardware, screen resolution and so forth. The distinctive configuration of your computer acts like a fingerprint, so you can be identified each time you come back to the site and there’s not much you can do to change it. Even if you switch browsers, you’re only altering one element of your unique technology mix. Unless you also swap out the graphics card, processor and several other elements at the same time, it’s likely you’ll still be recognised as the same person. The thing that’s sinister about fingerprinting is that it’s not limited to a single site: fingerprint data can be shared and sold, so even sites you’ve never visited before can identify and track you as you move around the web even if you’re not accepting cookies. There are ways to defeat fingerprinting. As we’ve seen, when you surf with the Tor browser, the server you’re connecting to sees the details of the exit point of your connection, rather than the computer you’re sitting at, so it can’t build up a profile. Using a VPN isn’t so safe, though: your apparent location changes, but information about your computer configuration is forwarded to the site you’re visiting. You can reduce your exposure to fingerprinting by disabling JavaScript, because many servers use JavaScript routines to gather their data. Unfortunately, this will also stop many sites from working properly. It’s also worth looking for browser extensions that can block specific fingerprinting techniques. This post is an extract from upscaleexistence blogspot. |