From the dropdown list, select New tag.Production releases and release candidates. You can create tags to mark milestones such as You can: create your signature with an trackpad create your signature using laptop or iPad create your signature using the cam. From the dropdown list, select New branch.To create a merge request with the new directory, ensure the Start a new merge request with these changes toggle is turned on. From the dropdown list, select New directory. Learn with this Apple Pages tutorial from zero to a complete document in just 12 mins How to use Pages on macbook, getting started, basics.To create a merge request with the uploaded file, ensure the Start a new merge request with these changes toggle is turned on. From the dropdown list, select Upload file.From the project dashboard or repository, next to the branch name, select the plus icon ( ).To upload a binary file in the Web Editor: MY_FILE.js#元-10 highlights lines 3 to 10 in MY_FILE.js. Hover over the Mailbutler Signature, which you want to add your handwritten signature to, in order to reveal the upload icon.MY_FILE.js#元 highlights line 3 in MY_FILE.js.Information to the filename segment of the URL. To link to single or multiple lines in the Web Editor, add hash When you edit a file in the Web Editor, you can use the same keyboard shortcuts for the Web IDE. From the dropdown list, select Edit as your default setting.Next to Open in Web IDE or Open in Gitpod, select the down arrow ( ).In the upper-right corner of the file, select Edit. Select Commit changes to add the commit to your branch.Your changes, enter a branch name that is not your repository’s Select Apply a template, then select the template you want to apply.For Filename, provide one of the filenames that GitLab provides a template for:.Next to the project name, select the plus icon ( ) to display aĭropdown list, then select New file from the list.On the left sidebar, select Repository > Files.To create a merge request with the new file, ensure the Start a new merge request with these changes checkbox is selected, if you had chosen a Target branch other than the default branch (such as main).From the dropdown list, select New file.From the project dashboard or repository, next to the branch name,.On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.Your primary email address is used by defaultįor any change you commit through the Web Editor. To make changes to multiple files, see Web IDE. You can use the Web Editor to make changes to a single file directly from the
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While Saturnalia’s roguelite nature and somewhat (intentionally) abrasive visuals may not be for everyone, those who can jive with this washed out trip won’t forget it in a hurry.ĭeveloper: Black Eyed Priest, Henry Hoare Publisher Puppet Combo Combine this with the game’s superb rotoscoped visuals and non-linear progression, and you have a game that needs to be experienced. Try not to look too closely at its rough edges and you might discover a truly hidden gem.ĭeveloper: Santa Ragione Publisher Santa Ragioneĭefinitely one of the most underrated horror games on the PS5, as well as one of the most visually distinct, Saturnalia is a vibrant nightmare as you delve into the twisted folklore of Sardinia, Italy while playing as four unique characters, each desperately trying to stay in the light, one matchstick at a time.Ĭertainly an ambitious indie horror, Saturnalia features a village that changes layout each time you die within the town’s surreal walls, making it quite the intriguing roguelite. If you liked games like Vampyr but want more tentacles, jump into the jaded shoes of Charles Reed and try to find out what’s going on in the flooded world of Oakmont. Despite some of the animations really lacking in some areas, The Sinking City really strives for some of the themes of Lovecraft’s work in its semi-open world, whether that’s in its insanity mechanics or paranormal investigations. Similarly to the last two entries, The Sinking City isn’t a resounding success from top to bottom, simply because of budget. With some smart puzzles, a beautiful soundtrack, and some of those all-important scares, HORROR TALES: The Wine might not be the biggest horror game on PS5, but it may just offer the biggest surprise.Ī horror with a history so tumultuous that it’s almost as interesting as the game itself, The Sinking City is nothing if not ambitious, a Lovecraftian yarn that’s not exactly scary, but definitely leaves an impression with its creeping tension and twisted aesthetic. You’ll be taken aback by the emotional gut punch that The Wine delivers, especially as the tragic tapestry it weaves takes on more, increasingly saddening detail. I mean, how high a budget can a horror game developed by one guy really have?ĭespite it not nailing every single thing it tries (the cursory chase sequences aren’t all that strong, for instance), HORROR TALES: The Wine’s gripping story revolving around a dying man who travels to a mysterious island to uncover the origins of an outbreak sees it through. The least known horror game on this list, HORROR TALES: The Wine’s lack of name pedigree shouldn’t take away from what is a very effective, if obviously lower budget, horror on your PS5. HORROR TALES: The Wine Horror Tales The Wineĭeveloper: Carlos Coronado Publisher Jandusoft However, thanks to genuinely effective scares and some decent storytelling, Infliction should inflict a few hours of spooks on you at the very least.ġ9. In fact, there’s a lot to Infliction that feels like a callback to horror dynasties of old, which does make it feel just slightly dated. As well as documenting your path, your Polaroid camera is also useful for fending off ghosts, harking back to classics like Fatal Frame. Playing a little like a single-player Phasmophobia, players must take photos of their surroundings to discover clues - and also ghosts - as you investigate a haunted house that’s been claimed by an evil spirit. Infliction, one of many horror games to be influenced by the success and sudden demise of P.T., arrived on the PS5 with plenty of cult fanfare following decent success on PC and the PlayStation 4. Little Nightmares 2: Enhanced Editionĭeveloper: Caustic Reality Publisher Blowfish Studios In 2000, Robert Ryan, a New Orleans physician who was selling part of his large collection of Hunters, obtained a judgment against Lucky for $12,000, payment for paintings Lucky had sold for him. In 1999, Lucky was arrested in Shreveport on felony theft charges for failing to deliver three Hunter paintings to a buyer who had paid him $21,000 for them. Lucky told the local newspaper that the $80,000 loss was covered by insurance. In 1991, he reported the theft of thirty-two Hunter paintings from his shop. He has engaged a criminal defense attorney.Ī longtime resident of Natchitoches, Lucky owned an antiques shop there where he sold paintings. Contacted by phone, he said he was “not allowed to discuss” the case. Lucky sold fifty to a hundred paintings for the Toyes to buyers in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and New York and misrepresented the provenance of the paintings, telling buyers “that the sources of his paintings were other Hunter collectors, not the Toyes.”Īlthough Lucky is named along with the Toyes in FBI documents, he had not been subject to a search and seizure as of mid-December. According to FBI documents, about this time new Hunter forgeries appeared on the market. He claimed that a warehouse where he stored opera sets he designed was flooded, leaving him without a source of income.Īround 2000, Robert Lucky, Jr. Toye has told several people that he and his wife were left destitute when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005. The board did not suspend the license of Causey, who died in 2004. Toye filed complaints against Causey with the Louisiana Auctioneers Licensing Board, stating that Causey had failed to pay Toye for paintings sold at auction. Geoffrey Toye, accused LAE owner Ronald Causey of counterfeiting the works. Ultimately a number of the works, including a “Matisse” and a “Degas,” were determined to be fakes. In 1996, the Toyes consigned paintings to the Louisiana Auction Exchange (LAE) in Baton Rouge. In 1974, Toye was arrested on twenty-two counts of forgery for making and selling “Hunter” paintings. In 1969, he told police his apartment had been broken into and fifty paintings by him had been stolen or vandalized. Newspaper accounts show that William Toye was working as an artist in New Orleans by the 1960s. knowingly sold forgeries as original, authentic works of art by Clementine Hunter.” They are suspected of conspiracy and mail fraud. “engaged in a conspiracy and a scheme to defraud several victims Louisiana and in other states. Armed with a search warrant, agents swarmed the Toyes’ house for five hours, hauling away paintings, art supplies, computers, typewriters, and documents.įBI documents say the Toyes and New Orleans antiques dealer Robert Lucky, Jr. Last September, the artist’s work became the center of a scandal when the FBI raided the Baton Rouge house of William and Beryl Toye, who are suspected of selling about $100,000 worth of fake Hunters. At first she sold them for a dollar or less, but by the time she died in 1988 at 101, her paintings commanded thousands of dollars when sold by dealers. A folk artist was born.Ĭlementine (pronounced Clementeen) depicted scenes familiar to her-weddings, baptisms, cotton picking, fights at a juke joint. Her auction record, however, currently stands at $70,150 for The Annunciation and the Adoration of the Wise Men, featuring black farm workers - the price paid in 2018 by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.Louisiana legend Clementine Hunter was working as a cook at Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches when she picked up discarded tubes of paint and “marked a picture” on a window shade. In January 2020 Christie’s sold Hunter’s 1981 painting Melrose Complex #2, below, for $21,250 - more than four times its low estimate. As she received more recognition, her signature became more stylised.’ ‘As she started to make a little money, she applied paint more generously and used more vibrant colours. ‘You can physically trace her evolution through her works,’ Zimmerman says. Her masterpiece, a nine-panel domestic cycle on the walls of the Melrose Plantation’s African House - a kind of Sistine Chapel of folk art - can be seen on Google Street View. Hunter produced some 5,000 works during the second half of her life, working at night beside a kerosene lamp in her four-roomed, tin-roofed tenant cabin, which is now listed on America’s register of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios. I credit-fed through Loop 2/Hard and still struggled with that. Hooray they left the balls-hard challenge in the game. If you’re concerned of Nintendo casual market fucking this game up, I tried Loop 3/Very Hard right out of the download and got my ass handed to me. It helps me more than interferes in my opinion. In discussing slowdown, this game runs smooth as hell with exception of two small parts near the end where the framerate will chug down to a SNES Gradius III or R-Type Final feel. I’m in Michigan and I know a dude from Onterio, Canada is ranked right above me as of this writing, but I have no idea how far the leaderboard geographical boundries go. The downside is the leaderboards will only hold the top 30 ranked per difficulty in your region with no way to view by worldwide or any other region. If you’re a super-the-hardest player, you’ll be happy to know Loop 2 and 3 are selectable from the get-go (dubbed Hard and Very Hard) instead of the strange default difficulty settings matched against separate loop difficulty settings, a replay can be saved of any run you do, and forced 1CC Score Attack mode is back from Gradius V but this time it’s online leaderboards instead of requiring a password-based website. If you need further incentive after you’ve bought the game, if you can unlock the Type E ship, Loop 1 will become a breeze. If you’re the player who believes shmups are really mean to you, you know you suck at them, or you really hate “the Gradius Syndrome” where you can’t restart after dying, they included Easy modes where enemies don’t fire or their bullets are destructable, and the game will add 5 free power capsles on the playfield as soon as you respawn from a checkpoint so you can get back on your feet. There is a dedicated mode to test your 1 Credit Clear ability on defaults. You unlock more when you credit-feed the game (on Hard). You do get 3 selectable Powerbar layouts. This is more into Gradius Gaiden territory, but even that’s a stretch as there’s less content and no co-op. Don’t even come into this thinking you’re going to get anything from Gradius V. And then after saying that, I now gotta say this is a hard fall from Gradius V. But remember that point is hard to argue as almost every Gradius game recycles a crapload from the game before it. I would say that yes, while it contains four or five significant stage references to Gradius 1, there is way too much new layout and bosses to say this is a remake and I’d argue to call this more its own original game. The rumor-bag said this is supposed to be a remake of Gradius 1. Not Recommended to: anybody who refuses to play a game for the challenge. Not Recommended to: anybody who judges games based on amount of content or refuses to replay a short game multiple times. Very Much Recommended to: anybody who has never played a Gradius game. Recommended to: any shmup enthusiast or Gradius fan, novice or expert. Gradius Rebirth is good, but not an eighth coming of Christ. Worth clearing hard drive space?: Only if it requires removing one or two games tops. Wiimote, Nunchuck, GC, and Classic supported. Score Attack mode is also linked to an online leaderboard.īesides an online leaderboard, Gradius ReBirth also contains an option for players to record and play back their gameplay.Wiiware. In the former, there are unlimited continues, and in the latter, players are given one life to rack up as high a score as possible. There is a Standard gameplay mode and a Score Attack mode. There are five stages and five ships to choose from, as well as two different modes. As is typical of the series, the weapon upgrade system remains intact. Once again, players jump into the series mainstay ship, the Vic Viper, and head out in side-scrolling shoot-em-up stages to to battle hoards of deadly aliens and massive bosses. At this time, the Gradian Government deploys James Burton and the Vic Viper to attack the Bacterians. The mother computer of Antichthon has been taken under the control of a group called the Bacterians. In the "Gradian Year 6664," the planet Antichthon (part of the Gradian Empire) becomes suddenly quiet. Like the other ReBirth titles, this game is also a throw-back to the 16-bit era, and takes inspiration from various titles in the Gradius franchise, including the Nemesis and Lifeforce titles. Gradius ReBirth is a part of the ReBirth series from Konami on the Wii, which includes old-school revisits to the Contra and Castlevania franchises. What a pain! SMPlayer uses it's own inbuilt codec system that is separate from Windows Media Player this means it will not mess with Windows Media Player or it's codec system. It has been a few times I have seen it require a format and re-install of windows to fix a problem caused by a poorly written codec. All it takes sometimes is one poorly written codec to mess up the windows media player codec system (which most 3rd party players or encoders use). Now using windows media player over the years (and most other 3rd party media players) it is normal to have to download codecs or whole bloated codec packs to get certain videos to run. Using SMPlayer I could run movies/TV episodes full screen without pauses or speech going out of sync even using the TV out running full screen on a TV! It just goes to show this software is built well for speed and very efficient use of system resources!A very big feature of this media player is the way it installs and uses codecs. With a clean install of windows and the latest drivers it would pause or go out of sync on movies/TV episodes using Windows Media Player or Using VLC Media Player. You can then use the audio slider on the bottom right of SMPlayer to adjust the sound volume.Okay so I first started using this software a couple of years ago when all I had to travel with was an very old Dell Laptop running Windows XP and it was a Pentium III 450Mhz with an ATI Graphics chip. For example 100 is 100% and 200 is 200% or x2 amplification. Go to Options, Preferences, Audio tab, then in Max Amplification adjust the setting higher. This is a very simple setting t o adjust. By Anonymous reviewed on November 21, 2010įastest and safest and most full featured media player.įirstly to comments above about the sound being too low. Adaptation Expansion: Several more characters were added beyond the strip's core cast (RJ, Verne, Hammy).Hammy suggests that they name the hedge Steve, which was a rather cute nod to his voice actor Steve Carell.Did we mention he's voiced by William Shatner? Ozzy is an overacting Large Ham when it comes to playing dead.When RJ escapes the house with a cart of goodies including a beach umbrella and a propane tank and is chased by the dog, the resulting disaster leaves RJ performing the classic John McClane 'ejection seat' move from Die Hard 2, down to the camera angle.When things go bad for RJ, he goes into a planning monologue, just like John McClane does all the time.RJ: Hey, listen! I've got about this long to hand over that wagon load of food to a homicidal bear! AND IF THESE SPUDDIES AREN'T ON THE MENU, I WILL BE! NOW LET GO OF MY TAIL! Verne: What are you talking about? We have more than enough! Verne: Well then, let's get out of here because we have what we need! Accidental Public Confession: While arguing with Verne over a can of Spuddies in Gladys' pantry, RJ snaps angrily and accidentally exposes his ruse to Verne and the others.Accidental Misnaming: When RJ needs to get the Spuddies from Gladys and Verne tries to warn him out of it, RJ calls Verne "Vincent" before correcting himself.Absurdly Bright Light: The Depelter Turbo's activation causes tans, pops popcorn, and can be seen from space, specifically from outside the Milky Way galaxy.The Over the Hedge film contains examples of: Like many other animated movies of its time, it got its own video game adaptation. In truth, he's just using them to gather food for a bear whose winter reserves he accidentally destroyed. The plot of the movie involves Verne and the others as RJ gives them their first introduction to the neighborhood that has been constructed around their home, accidentally taking over Verne's role as leader. The film stars Bruce Willis as RJ, Steve Carell as Hammy, and Garry Shandling as Verne. The animals have to deal with their home being turned into suburbs. It follows the adventure of a handful of woodland animals: a turtle named Verne a raccoon, RJ and Hammy, a squirrel are a few of them. Over the Hedge is a 2006 film released by DreamWorks Animation and loosely based on the comic of the same name. It may be your backyard, but it's their world. There are requirements on the spaces, such as matching the color or number or matching other dice already on the card. Next, you may place as many dice as you can on Engine Cards, provided spaces are available. You then draw three cards from the deck, choose one to replace the discarded card (and its orientation!) and return the other two to the bottom of the deck. If a Seance Card ever has two dice on one of its sides, they’re removed to the Void and the Seance Card is discarded. That disables the card’s ability, but it can still be moved or rotated. Let’s dig into their turn.įirst, you may optionally place one of your dice on one of your opponent’s Seance Cards, provided it can be placed there. You also win if the Seance Player loses (they cannot draw another card from their deck). You win if you fill out all your Engine Cards with dice, placed correctly. If you can get all of your cards in order, you win! Science Gameplay If you can’t or don’t want to use your tableau abilities, you may use one of your single-use ability cards and remove it from the game. You may only activate a given card once, and you cannot activate cards with dice on them. Return that die to the Void.Īfter doing that, you must activate up to two abilities on cards that are right-side up in your tableau (the side closest to you). In Phase Two, you may first optionally discard one card to remove a die pictured on that card from any incomplete Engine Card or any of your Seance cards. If you replace a card that’s in your tableau and it has dice on it, move those dice to the Void. You may activate one of the abilities on that card. One ability on the pair of cards must match, but otherwise, you may choose the orientation of the card you’re swapping in. Replace a card in your tableau with a card from your hand.In the first, you’re going to choose from a few options: On your turn, you’ve got two phases to deal with. Your game is a bit gentler than the Science Game, but you have more icons to deal with, I think. You also win if the Science player loses (they can’t draw 4 dice from their bag). Your goal is to get your cards into either 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 order (black side) or A – B – C – D – E order (white side). I’m also swapping Science and Seance because Seance goes first. Similar to Setup, I’ll be outlining each player’s turn, but since they play asymmetrically I’ll split the sections accordingly. Once that choice is made, lay out the matching Ability Cards, turned to the correct side:Īdd the Void Card between the two players and you should be all set up! Gameplay Reveal them, and the Science Player will choose which “color” cards you’re playing (black or white). Take three of them and place them spaced such that the two gray (white-backed) cards can go between them (black-white-black-white-black, in terms of card backs). Shuffle the black-backed cards together, making sure to rotate some of the stack 180 degrees as you do. To play as the Science Player, take the Science Engine Cards and split them into two piles (light / dark gray). I’ll go through Science and then Seance, and follow that pattern for the rest of the review. Since it’s a purely asymmetrical game, there are two different player setups. You decide to both it and let both sides try, but what’s the threat of imminent doom against the spirit of some friendly competition? Whoever can banish this nonsense first wins. A debate ensues, as it tends to during These Times, and the two factions (the magic-users and the scientists) can’t decide which side is better suited to dealing with the latest bit of chaos. Unfortunately, something has escaped from the void and you can’t really just … let it out. You’ve found yourself in The Science and Seance Society, a Victorian-era club dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the universe. This is a new game from a new publisher, New Mill Industries! Daniel Newman and Tony Miller teamed up to launch some new games via Kickstarter, and this is one of them! Let’s see how it shapes up. At the very least, I’ve got two for you this week, so we can do those. More Kickstarters! It’s looking like I’m going to have these through November, probably, as a few got delayed as of the time of writing. Some art, gameplay, or other aspects of the game may change between this preview and the fulfillment of the Kickstarter, should it fund, as this is a preview of a currently unreleased game. Full disclosure: A preview copy of The Science and Seance Society was provided by New Mill Industries. After the mini-game is completed, the game is saved, and players return to the board to once again move around in. Winning players receive 10 coins from mini-games however, certain types of mini-games such as bonus mini-games offer different prizes. All mini-games have their own controls and objectives, which are outlined prior to playing them. At the end of every turn, a mini-game is played, where the type of mini-game is determined by what color space the players have landed on. During board gameplay, players can obtain various items called Orbs, very alike to Mario Party 5's capsules, from either purchasing them from Orb Huts, passing Orb Spaces, or winning them by landing on ? Spaces to help themselves and/or hurt the other players. At the beginning of every game, players receive 10 coins to start with. The game then determines the order the players go, by hitting Dice Blocks, where higher numbers mean players go sooner. In the beginning of every game, players are introduced to the board, where they are asked to hear about the board and any unique quirks it may have. The goal of the game is to earn coins to buy the Stars, which are dependent on the board's rules. Mario Party 6, as with previous installments of the Mario Party series, plays as an interactive board game, where up to four players take turns rolling Dice Blocks with numbers 1-10, the number indicating how far they can travel. The ending goes on to state that Brighton and Twila "watched over Mario Party world until the end of time," and that "everyone got back to partying as usual." The words "Party On!" then appear on the screen. To show their appreciation for the effort, the hosts send the Stars flying into the sky. Noting how hard Mario and friends had worked to obtain the Stars, Brighton and Twila apologize to them for the hassle their quarrel had caused, and make up. After the Miracle Book is filled out, Brighton and Twila see the Star Bank, filled with Stars. When they are unable to do so, Mario decides to throw a Mario Party to collect and harness the power of the Stars to fill the Star Bank.īy collecting Stars, Mario and friends are able to obtain pages to the Miracle Book. An argument then breaks out between him and Twila, and because it causes major disruption, Mario and friends attempt to calm them down. Despite their close friendship, one day, Brighton asks Twila which of the duo is better. But will the power of the Stars be enough to end the furious feud?īrighton and Twila, the hosts of Mario Party 6, have watched over Mario Party World from the sky. They decided to throw a massive Mario Party to collect Stars and fill the great Star Bank! Determined to end Brighton and Twila's feud, they started partying right away. That's when Mario came up with a brilliant plan to harness the power of the Stars to end the feud! Mario and his party-hearty friends tried to get them to make up, but nothing they said could settle their spat in the sky. The sky thundered with the fury of their cataclysmic squabble! That is, until the day Brighton asked Twila, "Who's more impressive, you or me?"īrighton and Twila argued furiously over who was more popular and impressive. The two celestial party animals have always been good friends. Mario Party 6 requires 5 blocks on the Memory Card to save the game, and up to three game files can be saved on the Memory Card.īrighton and Twila – the sun and the moon – watch over Mario Party World from the sky and host the best parties. As with other Mario Party games, up to four players can participate in board gameplay and mini-games, where they can battle free-for-all or team up against each other. A new feature introduced to the Mario Party series is a day and night system implemented for boards and mini-games, a concept first introduced in Horror Land in Mario Party 2. The main focus of this game is collecting Stars to stop the conflict going on with the sun and the moon to fill the Star Bank. Additionally, Mario Party 6 supports the Nintendo GameCube's progressive scan mode. The game is the first in the series that features an installment of voice controlled mini-games using a packaged microphone, where an all new Mic mode is designed specifically for microphone use the microphone would later be reused in the next console installment, Mario Party 7. As with the previous main installments in the series, it was developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo, and was first released in Japan on November 18, 2004, the only installment on the GameCube to be released there first. Mario Party 6 is the sixth main installment in the Mario Party series, made for the Nintendo GameCube, and the third installment for that console. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Idolatry stole the glory and honor that belongs solely to God.Īnother part of the allure of idolatry was the ability to see the gods. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 instructs, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. He claimed to be the only God, and He would not share His glory. Unlike the pantheons of other religions, the Lord refused to be one of many gods. It was certainly sometimes due to peer pressure kings such as Solomon and Ahab allowed idolatry to grow and fester in order to appease their foreign wives. Perhaps it was the convenience of giving sacrifices to idols to get what they wanted rather than giving over their lives to the service of God. Though it is impossible to state exactly what drove an individual Israelite to idolatry, the allure throughout Israel’s history proved irresistible for many. The gods were usually considered tempestuous and unpredictable, but through rituals, charms, and other means, worshippers gained some sense of control and security.Ĭonsidering idolatry was the prevailing religion of the day, it is no surprise that this was a major problem God had to address with the Israelites over and over again. Talismans could be crafted to offer protection and household idols were placed to bring blessing to the family. If a person could find the force that controlled a specific aspect of their life-for example, a farmer finding a rain god-a person could build a temple and offer sacrifices in order to appease and persuade the god to act in a favorable manner. The King James Version of the Bible mentions “graven images” about 40 times.Ī large part of idolatry was the attempt to exercise some control over circumstances. Though bowing down to a stone or statue may sound silly to a lot of us, this was a major problem for the Israelites. It is notable that when the Bible refers to these “graven images,” now usually translated as idols, it is specifically referring to objects of worship. Though it was acknowledged that idols were built by human hands, the gods, or at least portions of their power, were still believed to indwell them. Idols were often fashioned as humanoid figures, animals, or a mixture of both. This is even referenced in the Bible, in 1 Kings 18:28. Canaanites were known to sacrifice children to Molech before his statue, while prophets of Baal slashed themselves to invoke the attention of their god. Gods in the ancient Near East could be bloodthirsty. These idols were believed to hold the power of the gods. When God gave the Ten Commandments, the Israelites had just left Egypt, where the Egyptians worshiped dozens, even hundreds, of gods represented by idols. Idols were common in the world around the Israelites. Thus, a graven image was carved, as out of stone, wood, or metal, either a statue or a relief carving as on a wall or pole (like an Asherah pole). The Hebrew word (roughly Romanized to “ pesel”) that is translated to graven image in Exodus 20:4, might also be translated as “idol” or “image.” Judges 18:14 gives further context, differentiating between a graven image ( pesel) and molten image ( maccekah). These were chosen because they are among the most important corn producers in the United States ( USDA 2019) and have comparable climates. We simulate index insurance contracts to insure extreme heat for corn production in 131 counties in Illinois and Iowa. heat insurance policies and future research. Third, our supplementary code provides a rich toolbox of methods to not only replicate our results but to be additionally used to inform future U.S. Second, we focus on extreme events in both the yield and temperature distribution by using quantile regression and cooling degree-days. First, we show that heat index insurance based on interpolated temperature data reduces the financial exposure to heat events and can thus be used to insure farmers, especially when weather station data are scarce. We extend the literature in three dimensions. 2019) reduces the basis risk of heat index insurance. In this article, we draw from the geostatistics literature and show how interpolation ( Cressie 1988 Wu and Li 2013 Roznik et al. Therefore, it is key to use weather data that best capture extreme events at the production location to keep basis risk low and the weather index insurance market functioning ( Dalhaus and Finger 2016). In WII, the insurance payout is a function of weather rather than observed losses, which makes any discrepancy between payout and loss, that is, basis risk, the main adoption hurdle ( Clarke 2016 Woodard and Garcia 2008 Barnett et al. Therefore, weather index insurance (WII) may complement indemnity-based products, especially for systemic perils such as heat, because information asymmetries between insurer and the insured are minimized ( Belasco et al. There are also monitoring costs associated with on-farm loss adjustment. Traditional indemnity-based crop insurance comes at the cost of adverse selection and moral hazard ( Glauber 2013 Goodwin and Smith 2013), which puts an additional burden on insurers by incentivizing farmers to take on more risk in production ( Annan and Schlenker 2015). Therefore, efficient risk management is crucial in order to protect farmers’ incomes when extreme weather conditions occur. corn production, and climate change is expected to further exacerbate heat stress ( Schlenker and Roberts 2009). Our results are therefore not only replicable but also constitute a cornerstone for projects to come.Įxtreme heat events can cause substantial losses in U.S. Further, our public code repository provides a rich toolbox of methods to be used for other perils, crops, and regions. These findings suggest that heat index insurance can work even when weather data are spatially sparse, which delivers important implications for insurance practice and policy makers. Further, we find that the advantage of interpolation over a nearest-neighbor index in terms of relative risk reduction increases as the sample of weather stations is reduced. Applying these indices to insurance against heat damage to corn in Illinois and Iowa, we show that heat index insurance reduces relative risk premiums by 27%–29% and that interpolated indices outperform the nearest-neighbor index by around 2%–3% in terms of relative risk reduction. In this study, we construct indices of extreme heat using observations at the nearest weather station and estimates for each county using three interpolation techniques: inverse-distance weighting, ordinary kriging, and regression kriging. So far, extreme heat indices are poorly represented in weather index insurance. However, its viability depends crucially on the accuracy of local weather indices to predict yield damages from adverse weather conditions. Weather index insurance provides payouts to farmers in the case of measurable weather extremes to keep production going. So what we've done to move from (a, b) to (b, a) is reflect over the line y=x.Extreme heat events cause periodic damage to crop yields and may pose a threat to the income of farmers. Notice that y=x has a slope of 1, and our segment has a slope of -1. So the midpoint of the segment must lie on the line y=x. So the midpoint has y-coordinate (b+a)/2. So the midpoint has the x-coordinate (a+b)/2. Let's find the midpoint of our line segment. That's interesting if we have a point on a function and want to find the corresponding point on the inverse function, we slide along a line of slope -1. Let's look at how we get from (a, b) to (b, a). So if (a, b) is on our original function, then (b, a) is on the inverse. If we consider the inverse function, it will contain each of these points, but with the coordinates switched. We can think of a function as a collection of points in the plane. |