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JOHANNESBURG - SABC journalist Ivor Price announced his resignation from the organisation on Tuesday. The current affairs radio presenter says he can no longer stay silent about what is going on at the broadcaster. He posted a link to an article describing the road to his decision on his twitter page. I&39;ve resigned from the SABC. Please click on link for info. Sorry, I will not be doing any interviews on the matter. https://t.co/pNEIP12HZr — Ivor Price (@ivorprice) July 19, 2016 The article details a timeline of his service at the SABC beginning in 2013 and ending in after a storm of controversial actions taken at the broadcaster since the middle of the year. Price said that "dark clouds started forming" at the end of May 2016 and that the team at Monitor (RSG&39;s current affairs programme) felt that while the news was free and fair, they were being observed. He said recent events including the suspension of his colleagues, resignations of senior staff and protests at the SABC informed his decision to leave and made it easier to accept another job offer. Price states in his article that he is not convinced that things will change at the national broadcaster because Hlaudi Motsoeneng&39;s "poisonous tentacles" have infiltrated most areas of the organisation. He asserts that even if Motsoeneng were to leave the organisation, it would take a long while before journalists could overcome the fear that had been instilled during his tenure. Price expressed gratitude for the experience he was afforded by the SABC and said he took off his hat to the staff that remains behind. His last day on duty will be 5 August 2016. |
"Are liberals the only folks angry at Gov. Mike Pence (#PamperedPence)? Is Gov. Pence acting like a crybaby in his latest fundraising email? After Indiana’s image took a beating over RFRA, did the PR firm Pence hired using $2 Million of taxpayers money suggest it was wise to introduce pig wrestling as public entertainment?" What a doll. The folks who kill these precious souls hopefully toss and turn at night. This is America; we are not Romania nor Russia. NOKILL should be the immediate plan on which we are all working...and yesterday!!!!!!Aw, c'mon! How can anybody NOT share FRIDA? Join those of us who share. Better than anything is the very real possibility that lives get saved and that humans stop for a second and care...and share.It works...it really does. The key that unlocks a restless world and reminds us of love and respect for all life.All of us in a civilized society sharing ideas for preserving lives - no politicization where the sanctity of life is concerned. Enough time has passed. Today is the day...since centuries of yesterdays have come and gone.All species matter. The human heart has room for all of us already here and looking for kindness and support and a helping hand!Welcome to the 21st century and to evolution of the minds we were blessed with and now must begin to employ!Kim Elizabeth Johnson: "I totally agree that the No Kill model for shelters is the only way to go. I cannot believe there are people who argue against this idea and make tons of excuses for why it can't possible happen. Thanks for getting the word out there, Susie!"________________________Working ourselves to death to stop these events will be worth it because so many folks revealing they have disapproved and are delighted that an effort is being made to stop such unfitting competition.(So sorry to learn of some kind of Hoosier bacon lottery misguided contest. When cards are scratched, the scent of bacon happens, and the prize sponsored by the 3,000 sponsoring hog farmers is 20 years supply of bacon? How did such an odd concept pop up right now? And the happy little pig drawing makes no sense at all. Our local Ft. Wayne news channel announced the scratch off event on Wednesday evening. Is this a knee-jerk reaction to the public's growing empathy for animals involved in unfair contests only for entertainment for humans? The timing is so "INDIANA" - at least those various folks who stubbornly remain insular and ingrown and anti-progress.)The photos themselves of these pig wrestling events break a kind person's heart. And why is the word "pig" burdened with such a negative connotation when they are such bright, special, intelligent souls?Our community endured a rodeo four years ago too, and a letter to the editor from a distraught parent whose child became quite upset while watching a calf get injured and dragged off a field and tossed into a pick-up accomplished that there would be no more rodeos. But the pig wrestling continues...so very sad.Well, Charlie White is one super person! What a terrific Hoosier...enjoyed listening immensely. Wish I could use as my banner that "WELCOME TO MIKE PENCE'S INDIANA" (see link to broadcast above) which is an understatement as of late - so many petty and mean-spirited failures, patched up hardly at all with 2 million bucks of taxpayer's money. I don't want my tax money to go to any fairgrounds which feature wrestling with any animal whatsoever.And the pig's face is so very sad that it would be difficult to look at every day, and the large man with the shaved head holding the neck of the frightened, puzzled pig in the stranglehold is not my kind of fellow. He looks to be more immense than the animal and not as bright or alert, and there are 3 other men as well. One of those pictures so many of us have seen enough of -- "fight or flight" theory holds that pigs do not fight...and wish to run away from the bullying and the ganging up but are imprisoned in a pen and cannot do so.It is very moving to listen to Charlie as he speaks of the need for this competition to be cancelled across Indiana and preferably by Pence now. Great idea. Would be the mark of a gentleman...of a leader. Evidently none of those kinds of people available at the Statehouse these days. Thanks, Charlie White...We have, however, been terrifically impressed by the state-wide support for several important causes within the past two months and the cooperative spirit so evident in so many - an improved Indiana may be on the horizon. Many very wonderful Hoosiers AND those people from outside the state who support kindness and inclusion and accountability and who see no boundaries for such positive behavior - countless people are actively pursuing and promoting the correct course, the only course.That has done my heart good. Individuals coming together - and with a gentle persistence reversing the damage which has been done by those who are only looking out for themselves and their own personal gain. Far more good-hearted activists and doers than those who manipulate the system for personal gain.Interesting to begin to know who the self-serving are in fact, but absolutely heart-warming to meet and get to know citizens who care enough to stand up and be counted as we all work toward a common goal - peace and compassion and moving forward together, leaving arguments and dissension far behind us.Thanks to those who think deeply about very important issues that affect us all. That's what makes the world continue to go 'round as it should do...oh, yeah!!!!!!________________________Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language ; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum ; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark And you can download from iTunes Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't |
ISLAMABAD – Pakistani television is screening what many call its most controversial content yet in a ruthless quest for ratings: a talk-show host who gives away babies live on air. Aamir Liaquat Hussain, a bespectacled 41-year-old with a neatly trimmed beard, gave away two abandoned infant girls to childless families last month and plans to give away a baby boy this week. “If we didn’t find this baby, a cat or a dog would have eaten it,” Hussain proclaimed during one broadcast, before presenting a tiny girl wrapped in pink and red to her new parents. The audience erupted with applause. Hussain is one of Pakistan’s most popular talk-show hosts. During his marathon broadcasts he cooks, interviews clerics and celebrities, entertains children and hosts game shows. He usually gives prizes like motorbikes, mobile phones and land deeds to audience members who answer questions about Islam. But at the beginning of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, when television stations battle fiercely for ratings, Hussain astonished Pakistan when he presented two families with babies. “We were told that we had passed all the interviews and had been selected to adopt a baby,” said Riaz Uddin, 40, an engineer. “We got our baby on live TV.” The abandoned babies were rescued by the Chhipa Welfare Association, a Pakistani aid organisation. “In a day or two, the next baby will be given away, God willing,” its head, Ramzan Chhipa, told Reuters on Thursday. While the Chhipa teams scour the garbage dumps and other sites for discarded newborns, Hussain is also appealing for babies directly. “If any family cannot afford to bring up their new born baby due to poverty or illness then instead of killing them, they should hand over the baby to Dr Aamir,” a notice on his website reads. The children would be given to deserving couples on air, the notice said. The show’s producers did not return Reuters calls seeking comment. It was not clear if poor families wishing to keep their children would also be helped. FIGHTING FOR VIEWERS Many Pakistanis expressed disgust that abandoned babies were being given away in what they see as an attempt to boost ratings. Chhipa insisted thousands of people wanted a baby and all potential parents were properly vetted. The true outrage, he said, was the poverty forcing families to abandon children. Hussain’s show is one of many such broadcasts. The Pakistani media has flourished over the past decade or so following the liberalisation of the industry, particularly broadcasting, after decades of tight state control. Now, instead of battling state restrictions, presenters fight for audiences and advertising by seeing who is most outrageous. Recent episodes include a female anchor stalking couples in a park to challenge their morality, and a news program which once ran a live broadcast showing a staff member bleeding to death in an operating theatre after he was shot in a riot. Even among this company, Hussain stands out. In 2008, he hosted scholars who called for the deaths of Ahmadis, a persecuted religious sect in Pakistan. Within a day, two prominent Ahmadis had been shot dead. The year before, he had to resign from his post as junior minister for religious affairs after denouncing author Salman Rushdie for blasphemy, a crime punished by death in Pakistan. Since then, his university degree has been exposed as a fake and a video showing him making crude jokes with clerics between takes of his show has leaked onto YouTube. “There is nothing they won’t do to get viewers,” said comedian Sami Shah. “If I was a cynic, I’d say this can only end badly. But since I’m a realist, I’ll say it’s already ended terribly.” |
Tickets for the New Zealand Barbarians match are available through Tickets for the New Zealand Barbarians match are available through Ticketmaste r. Adults $30, children $10. The squad will again be captained by Chiefs midfield back Charlie Ngatai.Joe RoyalTe Arawa/Ngati Whatua o Orakei/NgapuhiBay of PlentyAsh DixonNgati TahingaHawke's BayQuentin MacDonald*RangitaneTasmanChris EvesTainuiManawatuBrendon EdmondsNgati KahungunuHawke's BayJosh Hohneck*Ngati Whatua/Ngati ManuhiriWaikatoBen MayNgati ManiapotoWellingtonHayden TriggsNgati KahungunuNorth HarbourJacob Skeen*NgapuhiWaikatoBlade ThomsonNgapuhiTaranakiShane ChristieTe Atihaunui a Paparangi/Ngati KurawhatiaTasmanElliot DixonNgapuhiSouthlandAkira Ioane*Te Whanau-a-ApanuiAucklandHeiden Bedwell-CurtisNgapuhiManawatuMitchell CrosswellNgati PorouTaranakiJamison Gibson-ParkNgati Porou/Nga TaiTaranakiBrad Weber*Ngati PorouWaikatoDamian McKenzie*Ngati TuwharetoaWaikatoOtere Black*Ngai Tuhoe/Te Whanau-a-Apanui/Ngati TuwharetoaManawatuJason EmeryNgati Haua/Ngati ManiapotoManawatuCharlie Ngatai (c)Ngati Porou/Te Whanau-a-ApanuiTaranakiSean Wainui*Ngai Tuhoe/Ngati PorouTaranakiKurt BakerNgapuhiTaranakiRieko Ioane*Te Whanau-a-ApanuiAucklandMarty McKenzieNgati TuwharetoaTaranakiMatt ProctorNgai te Rangi/NgapuhiWellingtonCodey Rei*Nga Ruahine/Te AtiawaTaranaki*new cap2014 Maori All Blacks squad members not available because of injury were; Tom Franklin, Mike Kainga, James Lowe, Sean Polwart, Dan Pryor and Joe Webber.The 27-strong squad departs for Fiji on Wednesday 8 July.Coach Colin Cooper said the 2015 squad was an exciting mix of experienced hands and promising young talent. It includes 13 players who took part in last year’s tour to Japan and three members of the successful New Zealand Under 20 team which won the recent World Championship title in Italy.“This is a well-balanced side with some very experienced campaigners who have now played on several tours and know our systems well. I'll be expecting them to lead by example and show the new boys the high standards we expect.“We have a proud record of success to uphold and I am sure this side will work hard to honour the great legacy of the Maori All Blacks,” said Cooper.“It is very pleasing to introduce some exciting new talent to the 2015 side. Akira Ioane has really impressed with the Blues this year and both he, Otere Black and Sean Wainui are coming off the great win for New Zealand Under 20 at the World Championship in Italy so I am sure they will want to carry on that form. Rieko Ioane will also provide great pace out wide and he's hugely matured with the All Blacks Sevens this year despite still only being 18 years old.“We've also seen how well Damian McKenzie has equipped himself in his first season at the Chiefs which is a huge test for any young man. He's shown incredible maturity so he along with his brother Marty who toured with us last year, will strengthen the backline,” said Cooper.“We're really looking forward to this tour. These players have a great opportunity to test their skills against a tough international opponent in Fiji as it looks to build for the Rugby World Cup and the Barbarians match will also be a stiff contest.“We hope fans come out and support the Maori All Blacks at home as we haven’t played in New Zealand since 2010. This is a top chance to see some of the best players in the country test their skills against what we expect to be a very strong Barbarians side.“We know the Barbarians also have a proud reputation to uphold like us so I think fans will be in for a great display of attacking rugby. It’s also a huge opportunity for players to continue to press for selection for the All Blacks Rugby World Cup squad so there will be a lot at stake. It should be a fantastic match.”Saturday 11 July v Fiji, ANZ National Stadium, Suva. Kickoff 3pm NZSTSaturday 18 July v New Zealand Barbarians, Eden Park, Auckland. Kickoff 7.35pm NZSTBoth matches will be live on SKY Sport |
Advertising Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday agreed to provide two large-sized patrol ships and lend up to five used surveillance aircraft to the Philippines, a Japanese government spokesman said, with both countries locked in territorial disputes with China. Abe and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte agreed in Vientiane to strengthen cooperation to ensure a peaceful resolution of the South China Sea dispute, Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims. An arbitration court in The Hague in July invalidated China’s claims to the waterway after a case was brought by the Philippines, a ruling that Beijing refuses to recognise. |
Good afternoon San Diego! I mean…..Schmoeville! Mike Holtz here with some news that always goes down smooth. Why? Because it involves the man, the news, the hair himself: Ron Burgundy. Anyone who’s important knows that Anchorman 2 is headed our way later this year and hold on to your mustache…….that’s not all we get to enjoy. According to The New York Times Ron Burgundy is releasing a memoir just before the film comes out. Great Odin’s Raven that’s amazing! The book shall be titled Let Me Off at the Top! My Classy Life and Other Musings. I would expect nothing else Mr. Burgundy…. I sit in a cubicle of emotion….that emotion is excitement. The book will offer a rare glimpse into Mr. Burgundy’s mind and thoughts with musings on everything from Baxter to the women in his life. If you are wondering whether or not the deep man voice of Ron Burgundy would translate well to written word? This one line from Burgundy will put that to rest as you can almost hear the man speaking as you read them….”I don’t know if it’s the greatest autobiography ever written. I’m too close to the work”. I can literally smell the musk. Stings the nostrils. So it appears the man with many leather bound books will write one of his own Schmoeville…..how freakin’ pumped are you for this book? Is it a definite buy? Scream it from a mountaintop! Follow Mike on Twitter! Follow the Schmoes on Twitter! Are you subscribed to The Schmoes on Youtube? No? Well do it HERE!!! Share on Facebook |
In 1897, a very strange incident occurred in the tiny North Texas town of Aurora, on Saturday, April 17, 1897 at 6 o’clock in the morning. A cigar-shaped UFO, metallic silver in color, appeared suddenly in the sky above Aurora. It was moving from south to north. Unlike the balloon airships of its time, this UFO was built of “an unknown metal, resembling somewhat a mix of aluminum and silver.” A witness guessed that the ship weighed “several tons.” The sighting occurred during a time when many strange airships were being seen all over the United States. For this reason, the UFO is called an “airship” in a newspaper article written later by Aurora resident S. E. Haydon. Haydon told the Dallas Morning News that the strange craft seemed to be having some kind of mechanical problems. It slowed down to about ten or twelve miles per hour and began settling toward the ground. Haydon said the townspeople watched in amazement as the slow-moving airship drifted over the town square and then moved north toward the property of Judge J. S. Proctor. Next, the UFO collided with a windmill on the judge’s land and “went into pieces with a terrific explosion, scattering debris over several acres of ground.” The crash destroyed the windmill, the adjacent water tank and the judge’s flower garden. It seems likely that the explosion and crash drew many spectators to Judge Proctor’s land. Among the wreckage, the townspeople found the dead body of the ship’s pilot. Then the story got really weird. Witnesses said that the pilot was not a human being. Haydon said that, although the pilot’s body was damaged severely in the crash, it was clear that “he was not an inhabitant of this world.” The pilot may have been from Mars, said another witness, Mr. T. J. Weems, an officer in the U.S. Signal Service and an “authority on astronomy.” In the case of the UFO that exploded in 1891 over Dublin, Texas, papers were found containing strange writing on them. The same thing happened in Aurora. When the townspeople checked the pilot’s body, they found that he was carrying papers written in an unknown language. The papers may have contained a record of the pilot’s journeys, but they were “written in some unknown hieroglyphics” and could not be understood. As word of what happened reached surrounding towns, many visitors arrived to look at the crash site. Haydon commented, “The town is full of people today who are viewing the wreck and gathering specimens of the strange metal from the debris.” It’s possible that some of that mysterious wreckage that was carried away from Aurora still exists today, stored away and forgotten in attics or storage rooms. No trace of it has ever been found, though. After the crash, the townspeople tried to find out more about how the UFO was constructed and what made it fly. However, Haydon said that the ship was “too badly wrecked to form any conclusion as to its construction or motive power.” Below is the original newspaper article about the case. Click on image to enlarge: The Dallas Morning News article, published two days after the crash, said that the pilot’s funeral would take place on April 18. Another newspaper, The Fort Worth Register, said, “The pilot, who was not an inhabitant of this world, was given proper Christian burial at the Aurora Cemetery.” When the pilot was buried, a marker was placed on his grave. In 1973, newspaper reporter Bill Case described the marker as having a strange design on it resembling a flying saucer with portholes. Shortly after Case wrote a story describing the grave marker, somebody stole it. Today, nobody is sure exactly where the pilot was buried. In 2008, an unmarked grave dating back to the 1890s was found at the Aurora Cemetery during the filming of a television show called “UFO Hunters” for the History Channel. Since the owners of the cemetery will not allow anyone to dig up the grave, nobody knows if it is the grave of the strange pilot. Although some people claim the story is not true and was created by Aurora residents to boost tourism, many other people do believe that a spaceship crash-landed there. The case of the alien that fell from the sky in Aurora, Texas, continues to fascinate people to this very day. It still remains as much of a mystery today as it was back in 1897. The Google map below shows the town of Aurora as it looks today, including the Aurora Cemetery in the lower right quadrant: View Larger Map The Aurora Incident is included in Noe Torres’ book of famous UFO stories from the American West of the 1800s called The Real Cowboys and Aliens, co-written with John LeMay. |
Brainstorm! "Congo blue" filters pass infrared light! If you lay three layers of Congo Blue on one layer of Primary Red, you form an opaque black filter which is very transparent to IR!!!!! Oh, so you're not impressed? Well, read on. Back in 1994 when I was working for Eaton photocontrols, we had all these big sheets of opaque black Lexan plastic which was IR-transparent. It was intended for curved, vacuformed covers for the infrared sensors in truck's backup-alarms. Viewing this plastic through an infrared-converter scope was very strange, since the IR-scope changed the opaque black sheets into glass-clear Lexan. Some black boxes had been built for custom test equipment, and the IR scope turned them transparent, so you could see all the circuitry inside. And if I put these black sheets in a window, human eyes saw opaque black plastic, while IR scopes (and monochrome security cameras) would see right through it, as if it was glass. The IR scopes thought the black window was totally transparent. Other tricks were possible. I could hide lettering and artwork behind those opaque black squares against a wall, and the IR video cameras would see the hidden art or message. At one point I started wondering just how much IR light a human eye could see. After all, if the infrared light was EXTREMELY BRIGHT (such as the IR of a sunny day,) human eyes might still detect it. And remember, if 30KHz ultrasonic sound is loud enough, you will hear it. Same basic idea. I took a small piece of our black IR filter-plastic and cut it into 2in. oblong disks to fit over the eye-depressions in my own skull. I taped them onto my face with black electrical tape. Yes, I looked odd, but it worked! After I became accustomed to the darkness inside the filters, I could see through them. Going outside on a sunny day was stunning. The sky was almost black, while the trees and shrubs were all frosty pink. The grass looked like fluorescent red cherry Koolaid powder. Different colors of human skin were always the same light grey. People's eyes looked very black, and certain dark clothing looked white. I was afraid that I might damage my eyes, since the IR sunlight was very bright, and my pupils were wide open. (After years of playing with these, I still haven't hurt my eyes, so they're PROBABLY somewhat safe to use.) I couldn't see anything indoors though, and I could barely see anything during a cloudy day. This "IR vision" requires a sunny day in order to work. YOU CAN'T USE THESE FILTER-GOGGLES FOR NIGHT VISION! BRIGHT SUNLIGHT IS REQUIRED. In darkness the goggles do nothing. If you want to actually convert IR to visible, or to amplify light, get a CCD security cam, or go buy a cheap night-vision scope from Harbor Freight Tools instead. Or try putting an IR filter over the lens of a $20 Casio monochrome wrist camera Later I found some $7 welders' goggles and cut some of that black "IR plastic" into 2in. disks to fit the lenses. This worked great. I could stagger around in the noonday sun while observing the strange twilight-dark world of the near infrared spectrum. Frosty white trees against a black sky. Driving with the goggles was dangerous: I could see just fine, and cars' non-LED tailights looked abnormally bright, but red traffic lights were totally dark (here in Seattle they use red LEDs for stoplights which lack the IR output of the original incandescent bulb.) Some sorts of car tail lights, the LED kind, were also dark. Goggles for everyone Making your own Rude infrared t-shirts Congo Blue or better Goth-ray vision Deeper IR DIY cheap IR floodlight How they work Frequently Asked Questions FAQ Spectrum graphs LINKS Photo Gallery Goggles for All Years later I finally used up my last small piece of black IR plastic. I still had several pairs of the goggles, but it was sad that I couldn't show others how to make their own. Perhaps some #89 Kodak Wratten filters would work, but that stuff is wicked expensive, and I never tried it. But then one day I was messing with a Rosco filter booklet and happened to hold a red filter over the IR filter-goggles and look outdoors. The view was different. The red Rosco filter seemed to remove a greyish-violet color that I hadn't really noticed before. The IR goggles pass lots of infrared, but for some reason they also seemed to pass some deep blue. Why would IR filters let some blue light through? Heyyyyy... which of the Rosco filters does the same thing? Which filter passes a spike-spectrum of deep blue, but it also lets through lots of IR? CONGO BLUE! Maybe our IR plastic supplier cheated. Maybe when Eaton ordered some visible-opaque, IR-transparent plastic, they actually gave us Congo Blue plastic with lots of extra dye added to the mix (so barely any visible blue light would get through.) Sure enough, when I stacked several sheets of Congo Blue filters and stuck them in my welding goggles, they acted much the same as those Lexan IR-pass filters. I could go out in bright sunshine and see the familiar pink-tree, dark-sky world. A few small pieces of Congo Blue filter costs about $0.50... which means that ANYONE can make these goggles now. No expensive Wratten filters or exotic custom-ordered IR Lexan is needed. Make Your Own Needed: Bright sunshine or many hundreds of watts of 725nM IR floodlights Cheap welding goggles (w/removable filters) (looks like these #702020 from staples.com, or maybe these flip-front types ) Sheet of "Congo Blue" filter gel (Lee #181 from leefilters.com, or Rosco #382) costs maybe $9 for 24" sheet Optional: sheet of "Primary Red" filter gel (Lee #106 or Rosco #27) Search Amazon.com for "Congo Blue" filter material. Or try bulbamerica.com #9181 $1.80 for 10in. square congo blue. One sheet makes LOTS of goggles. Find yourself a pair of inexpensive welding goggles: the ones with round, unscrewable lenses with circular filter-disks are only $7 at my local welding supply shop. If you wear glasses, buy the larger green version with the removable rectangular filter-window. Buy some "Congo Blue" theatrical filter gel, and for later experiments get some "Primary Red" as well. (I got mine from pnta.com, PNTA theater supplies here in Seattle.) Remove the dark-green filter disks from the goggles and use them as guides to cut out twelve disks of Congo Blue filter plus two disks of Primary Red. Stick six layers of Congo Blue into each goggle eyepiece. Don't use the dark green disks that came with your goggles. Use only the filters you've made. Wait for a sunny day, strap 'em on, and go for a walk outdoors. What will you see? The whole world looks blue-grey with deep red highlights. But then you start to notice some strange things. Get away from the buildings and look at grass, bushes, and trees. Look at different plants with the goggles, then take them off. Many plants look frosty-whitish-pink with the goggles, but for normal human eyes they look green or greenish black. Sometimes you can see birds moving around deep inside the frosty white bushes and trees, yet normal human eyes would see nothing, just a dark green shady bush. Look at people's clothing and skin color w/the goggles, then take them off and look again. Many items of clothing look white in the infrared, yet they look black or dark blue to normal eyes. If you use Congo Blue filters alone, and don't include the Primary Red, then the filters will let some blue light through also. This is useful, since whenever there is too little IR light to be seen, you can still stumble around using the remaining blue-grey visible light. Without the Primary Red filters added, the world appears dim blue-grey, and the IR scenery appears bright red. Place one or two Primary Red in each lens of your goggles and this gets rid of the blue. It lets you see purely Infrared light. I've come to enjoy the blue/IR mixture, since an all red world is less interesting, even though it's an all-Infrared world. A dim blue world with bright red patches is cool, since those bright red patches are actually the Infrared scenery that normally would be invisible. Will these goggles let you see IR lasers and LEDs? Maybe. The LED or laser must make some 730nM light. The goggles don't amplify. The goggles work by cutting out the bright background light. They let you see the dim IR light that remains. It's as if they "turn off" the visible room lights so that you can see the bits of infrared. They don't work any better than using a black background or going into a darkened room. So, take your IR laser or LED into a pitch black room. Can you see its dim reddish light without using the goggles? If yes, then you probably can see its light if you use the IR filter goggles in a brightly-lit room. However, if you find that can't see your IR LED by eye in a darkened room, then these IR goggles won't help, since they don't amplify the light. They work by making the whole world into a "darkened room" while still letting the bright IR light get to your eyes. |
Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. The CIA’s use of waterboarding and other forms of torture in recent years may have violated one of the intelligence agency’s own rules regarding human experimentation, according to a recently declassified CIA document. Document AR 2-2, titled “Law and policy governing the conduct of intelligence activities,” was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the American Civil Liberties Union and published on Monday by the Guardian. Dating back to 1987, but still in effect today, the document prohibits the CIA from conducting research on human subjects without those subjects’ informed consent. Physicians and human-rights experts interviewed by the Guardian said the CIA may have crossed the line into human experimentation by requiring doctors to be present during the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” of its torture program, in part to ensure that detainees had the physical resiliency to withstand further abuse. It seems highly unlikely that detainees who were subjected to waterboarding, rectal feeding, and mock executions consented to participate in those procedures. According to the ACLU, other sections of the document govern CIA activities including surveillance of Americans, contracts with academic institutions, and relations with the media. For a full analysis, check out the Guardian‘s report, or read the document below (see page 18 for details on human experimentation). And if you can’t quite remember the shocking details of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report last December on CIA torture, watch a refresher here, courtesy of John Oliver and Helen Mirren. |
Indiana needed a safety to replace the loss of Antonio Allen. They'll have to wait a season -- but they'll pick one up that was deemed even better than the hyped Ben Davis recruit was coming out of high school a few seasons ago. Former Ohio State safety Jayme Thompson, who did not see action with the Buckeyes during his only season in Columbus, committed to Kevin Wilson's Hoosiers over Maryland today. He's Wilson's 9th commit for the 2016 class, and a three-star recruit per 247sports. Proud and honored to say I have committed to Indiana University #crimsonarmy #readytodominate pic.twitter.com/hkfvV27Kze — Jayme Thompson (@JaymeBUCKS) July 29, 2015 Thompson transferred to Iowa Western Community College in 2014, and posted 81 combined tackles at 2 INTs over the course of his first season of junior college football. Predictably, Kevin Wilson is excited. Thompson also held offers from Miami and Iowa State. He'd also visited Ole Miss, but was not offered. You can check out Thompson's highlights from last season above. |
NOTICE: The American (Fever) Dream – Play as the President of the United States in a story that spans countries, space, and time. Saints Row IV is to Saints Row: The Third what Saints Row: The Third is to Do The Right Thing. You’re not ready. – Play as the President of the United States in a story that spans countries, space, and time. Saints Row IV is to Saints Row: The Third what Saints Row: The Third is to Do The Right Thing. You’re not ready. Super Hero-in-Chief – Leap over buildings. Kill people with your mind. Run through tanks. Those are some of the most mundane powers you will wield in your quest to stop an alien menace hell-bent on destroying the Earth. – Leap over buildings. Kill people with your mind. Run through tanks. Those are some of the most mundane powers you will wield in your quest to stop an alien menace hell-bent on destroying the Earth. Alien Toys of Destruction - Wield an impressive array of alien vehicles and weapons… FOR SCIENCE! - Wield an impressive array of alien vehicles and weapons… FOR SCIENCE! Custom Weapons, Custom Mayhem – You’ve customized your character. You’ve customized your clothes. Now you can complete the look with our all new weapon customization system. Turn traditional weapons into exotic conversation pieces! – You’ve customized your character. You’ve customized your clothes. Now you can complete the look with our all new weapon customization system. Turn traditional weapons into exotic conversation pieces! Dynamic Duo - Seamless drop-in, drop-out co-op, a Saints Row standard, improved. The only thing better than one malicious super-powered President is two. OS: Windows Vista (x86 or x64) with SP2 installed and DirectX 11 update installed Processor: Any Quad Core Processor (Intel Core i5 or AMD Phenom II X4) or 3.0+ Dual Core CPU Memory: 4GB System RAM or more Graphics: 1GB Video RAM GPU w/ Shader Model 4.0 support. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 400 series or better. ATI Radeon HD5000 series or better For demonstration of the game, please use GTX560 and above or ATI HD 5870 and above DirectX: DirectX 11 Hard Drive: 10 GB Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0C compliant sound card or equivalent onboard sound OS: Windows Vista (x86 or x64) with SP2 installed and DirectX 11 update installed Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 (4 * 2500 MHz) or AMD Phenom 9850 (4 * 2500 MHz) Memory: 4GB System RAM or more Graphics: Radeon HD 5850 (1024 MB) or GeForce GTX 260 GTS (1024 MB) DirectX: DirectX 11 Hard Drive: 10 GB Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0C compliant sound card or equivalent onboard sound OS: Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS or SteamOS Brewmaster Processor: : Intel Core i3-2100 (3.1 GHz) or AMD Athlon II X4 645 AM3 (3.1 GHz) Memory: 4096 MB de mémoire Graphiques : GeForce GT 440 (1024 MB) or Radeon HD 6670 (1024 MB) Hard Drive: 10 GB d'espace disque disponible Notes: Recommended Graphics Drivers: Nvidia: 352, 355 or 358 series driver / AMD: AMD Catalyst (fglrx) 15.9 or better. MESA drivers and Intel Graphics are not currently supported. OS: Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS or SteamOS Brewmaster Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K (3.3 GHz) or AMD FX-4300 (3.8 GHz) Memory: 8192 MB de mémoire Graphiques : GeForce GTX 660 (2048 MB) or Radeon HD 6970 (2048 MB) Hard Drive: 10 GB d'espace disque disponible Notes: Recommended Graphics Drivers: Nvidia: 352, 355 or 358 series driver / AMD: AMD Catalyst (fglrx) 15.9 or better. MESA drivers and Intel Graphics are not currently supported. © 2013 by Koch Media GmbH, Gewerbegebiet 1, 6604 Höfen, Austria. Deep Silver is a division of Koch Media GmbH. Developed by Deep Silver Volition, LLC. Saints Row, Deep Silver and their respective logos are trademarks of Koch Media. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. Activation key must be used on a valid Steam account, requires internet connection. NORTH AMERICA ONLYThe US President must save the Earth from alien overlord Zinyak using superpowers and strange weapons in the wildest open world game ever.The epic conclusion to the game that changed all the rules!The Saints have gone from the crackhouse to the White House—but the Earth has been invaded and it’s up to you to free the world from Overlord Zinyak and his alien empire. With homies new and old, superpowers and strange weapons, you must save the world in the wildest open world game ever!Minimum:Recommended:Minimum:Recommended: |
France has suggested an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package, which would bar broadband access to anyone who persists in illegally downloading music or films. Last month, the government of Nicolas Sarkozy insisted on a similar "three-strikes-and-you're-out" scheme for France. Under a cross-industry agreement, ISPs would have to cut off access for up to a year for third-time offenders. Sarko believes "there is no reason that the internet should be a lawless zone". The French legislation, which still needs to be examined by the Senate and eventually by the National Assembly, is facing fierce criticism. The French ISP association says it is against the law. Now Sarkozy, who took over the European presidency this week, is trying to stretch the measure across Europe through amendments (pdf) to the Telecoms Package, a review of European telecoms law currently in the European Parliament. Critics fear that through this legislation European ISPs could also be mandated to block legitimate traffic in an effort to 'prevent' illegitimate traffic slipping by. Some amendments will transform the ISPs from technical intermediaries into law enforcers. Action groups Netzpolitik.org, Open Rights Group and La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Net) have been actively campaigning on the issue. They believe the amendments will "pave the way for the monitoring and filtering of the internet by private companies, exceptional courts and Orwellian technical measures". The Industry Committee and Internal Market Committees will vote on the telecom package on Monday. The plenary discussion and vote for the whole package will take place in September. ® |
For other people named Richard Prince, see Richard Prince (disambiguation) Richard Prince (born 1949)[1] is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned.[2] He began copying other photographers' work in 1977. His image, Untitled (Cowboy), a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and appropriated from a cigarette advertisement, was the first rephotograph to be sold for more than $1 million at auction at Christie's New York in 2005. He is regarded as "one of the most revered artists of his generation" according to the New York Times.[3] Starting in 1977, Prince photographed four photographs which previously appeared in the New York Times. This process of rephotographing continued into 1983, when his work Spiritual America featured Garry Gross's photo of Brooke Shields at the age of ten, standing in a bathtub, as an allusion to precocious sexuality and to the Alfred Stieglitz photograph by the same name. His Jokes series (beginning 1986) concerns the sexual fantasies and sexual frustrations of white, middle-class America, using stand-up comedy and burlesque humor. After living in New York City for 25 years, Prince moved to upstate New York. His mini-museum, Second House, purchased by the Guggenheim Museum, was struck by lightning and burned down shortly after the museum purchased the House (which Prince had created for himself), having only stood for six years, from 2001 to 2007.[4] In 2008 the painting 'Overseas Nurse' from 2002 fetched a record-breaking $8,452,000 at Sotheby's in London. Prince now lives and works in New York City. Early life [ edit ] Richard Prince was born on August 6, 1949, in the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone, now part of the Republic of Panama. During an interview in 2000 with Julie L. Belcove, he responded to the question of why his parents were in the Zone, by saying "they worked for the government." When asked further if his father was involved in the military, Prince responded, "No, he just worked for the government." The Wall Street Journal later reported that Prince's parents worked for the Office of Strategic Services in the Panama Canal before he was born.[5] Prince later lived in the New England city of Braintree, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, and Provincetown on Cape Cod. In 1973, he moved to New York[6] and joined publishing company Time Inc. His job at the Time Inc. library involved providing the company’s various magazines with tear sheets of articles.[7] Career [ edit ] Prince was first interested in the art of the American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock. "I was very attracted to the idea of someone who was by themselves, fairly antisocial, kind of a loner, someone who was noncollaborative."[8] Prince grew up during the height of Pollock's career, making his work accessible. The 1956 Time magazine article dubbing Pollock "Jack the Dripper" made the thought of pursuing art as career possible. After finishing high school in 1967, Prince set off for Europe at age 18. He returned home and attended Nasson College in Maine. He describes his school as without grades or real structure. From Maine moved to Braintree, Massachusetts, and for a brief time lived in Provincetown. Ultimately he was drawn to New York City. Prince has said that his attraction to New York was instigated by the famous photograph of Franz Kline gazing out the window of his 14th Street studio. Prince described the picture as "a man content to be alone, pursuing the outside world from the sanctum of his studio."[9] Prince's first solo exhibition took place in June 1980 during a residency at the CEPA gallery in Buffalo, New York.[10] His short book Menthol Wars was published as part of the residency.[11] In 1981 Prince had his first West Coast solo exhibition at Jancar Kuhlenschmidt Gallery in Los Angeles. In 1985, he spent four months making art in a rented house in Venice, Los Angeles.[12] In late 2007, Prince had a retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, a comprehensive show hung in chronological order along the upward spiraling walls. The show continued onto the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Maria Morris Hamburg, the curator of photography at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, asserted, "He is absolutely essential to what's going on today, he figured out before anyone else—and in a very precocious manner—how thoroughly pervasive the media is. It's not just an aspect of our lives, but the dominant aspect of our lives." Prince has built up a large collection of Beat books and papers. Prince owns several copies of On the Road by Jack Kerouac, including one inscribed to Kerouac's mother, one famously read on The Steve Allen Show, the original proof copy of the book and an original galley, as well as the copy owned by Neal Cassady (the Dean Moriarty character in the book), with Cassady’s signature and marginal notes.[13] Describing his career and methodology in a 2005 New York magazine interview, Prince said, "It's about knocking about in the studio and bumping into things." Rephotography [ edit ] Re-photography uses appropriation as its own focus: artists pull from the works of others and the worlds they depict to create their own work. Appropriation art became popular in the late 1970s. Other appropriation artists such as Sherrie Levine, Louise Lawler, Vikky Alexander, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger and Mike Bidlo also became prominent in the East Village in the 1980s. All of these artists were greatly influenced by the work of John Baldessari and Robert Heineken, both of whom have worked extensively with found or readymade print photography since the 1960s, Baldessari working mainly with Hollywood film stills and Heineken mainly with magazine advertisements and print pornography. Both artists taught at UCLA and the California Institute for the Arts in Southern California throughout the 1970s, when many of these artists attended school there. During the early period of his career, Prince worked in Time magazine's tear sheets department. At the end of each work day, he would be left with nothing but the torn out advertising images from the eight or so magazines owned by Time-Life. On the topic of found photographs, Prince said, "Oceans without surfers, cowboys without Marlboros…Even though I’m aware of the classicism of the images. I seem to go after images that I don’t quite believe. And, I try to re-present them even more unbelievably."[14] Prince had very little experience with photography, but he has said in interviews that all he needed was a subject, the medium would follow, whether it be paint and brush or camera and film. He compared his new method of searching out interesting advertisements to "beachcombing." His first series during this time focused on models, living room furniture, watches, pens, and jewelry. Pop culture became the focus of his work. Prince described his experience of appropriation thus: At first it was pretty reckless. Plagiarizing someone else’s photograph, making a new picture effortlessly. Making the exposure, looking through the lens and clicking, felt like an unwelling . . . a whole new history without the old one. It absolutely destroyed any associations I had experienced with putting things together. And of course the whole thing about the naturalness of the film’s ability to appropriate. I always thought it had a lot to do with having a chip on your shoulder.[15] Patrick Cariou copyright infringement suit [ edit ] In December 2008, photographer Patrick Cariou filed suit against Prince, Gagosian Gallery, Lawrence Gagosian and Rizzoli International Publications in Federal district court for copyright infringement in work shown at Prince's Canal Zone exhibit at the Gagosian gallery.[16] Prince was charged with wrongfully appropriating 35 photographs made by Cariou. Several of the pieces were barely changed by Prince. Prince also made 28 paintings that included images from Cariou’s Yes Rasta book. The book featured a series of photographs of Rastafarians that Cariou had taken in Jamaica.[17] On March 18, 2011, US District Judge Deborah A. Batts ruled against Prince, Gagosian Gallery, Inc., and Lawrence Gagosian. The court found that the use by Prince was not fair use (his primary defence), and Cariou's issue of liability for copyright infringement was granted in its entirety.[18] The court cited much case law including the Rogers v. Koons case of 1992.[18] On April 25, 2013, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Judge Batts's ruling, stating that Prince's use of the photographs in 25 works was transformative and thus fair use. Five less transformative works were sent back to the lower court for review.[19] The case was settled in 2014.[20] Works [ edit ] Cowboys [ edit ] Prince's series known as the Cowboys, produced from 1980 to 1992, and ongoing, is his most famous group of rephotographs. Taken from Marlboro cigarette advertisements of the Marlboro Man, they represent an idealized figure of American masculinity. The Marlboro Man was the iconic equivalent of later brands like Ralph Lauren, which used the polo pony image to identify and associate its brand. "Every week. I'd see one and be like, Oh that's mine, Thank you," Prince stated in an interview.[21] Prince's Cowboys displayed men in boots and ten-gallon hats, with horses, lassos, spurs and all the fixings that make up the stereotypical image of a cowboy. They were set in the Western U.S., in arid landscapes with stone outcrops flanked by cacti and tumbleweeds, with backdrops of sunsets. The advertisements were staged with the utmost attention to detail. It has been suggested[according to whom?] that his works raise the question of what is real, what is a real cowboy, and what makes it so. Prince's photographs of these advertisements attempt to prompt one to decide how real are media images. The subjects of Prince's rephotographs are the photos of others. He is photographing the works of other photographers, who in the case of the cowboys, had been hired by Marlboro to create images depicting cowboys. Prince described his process in a 2003 interview by Steve Lafreiniere in Artforum. "I had limited technical skills regarding the camera. Actually I had no skills. I played the camera. I used a cheap commercial lab to blow up the pictures. I made editions of two. I never went into a darkroom."[22] Jokes, Gangs, and Hoods [ edit ] Prince's rephotographs led to his series known as the Gangs, which followed the same technique of appropriating images from magazines as the Cowboys did, but now the subjects moved from advertisements and mass media toward niches in American society. Prince in this series paid homage to "sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll" in American niches, seen through magazines. He depicted the bizarre in subcultures such as the motorcycle-obsessed, hot rod enthusiasts, surfers, and heavy metal music fans. These Gangs are recognized in his series Girlfriends, featuring biker girls. A motorcycle magazine he used featured photographs of motorcyclists' girlfriends, were sprawled on their boyfriends' bikes. Prince's Gangs works are single sheets of white paper covered with a grouping or "ganging" of 9×12, 35 mm photographs. Prince did not intend any distinct relationship between the "ganged" photographs. An example can be seen in such works as his 1984 Velvet Beach, twelve Ektacolor-printed photographs of massive waves, clearly from a surf magazine. Another example is his 1986 Live Free or Die, gathering nine images of loosely dressed women on motorcycles. Prince's made his first Joke painting circa 1985, in New York, when he was living in the back room of 303 Gallery located on Park Avenue South. The first joke represented was about psychiatrists, a subject he later worked with often. Prince described the discovery of the idea for the Joke Paintings beginning when he posted a small 11 × 14 inch handwritten joke on paper. He realized that if he had walked into a gallery and had seen it hanging from the wall, he would have been envious. Prince's Jokes come in several forms. His first Jokes were hand written, taken from joke books. His jokes grew into more substantial works as he began to incorporate them with images, often pairing jokes with images that had no relevance with one another, creating an obscure relationship. An example of one of these peculiar combinations can be seen in his 1991 Good Revolution, which depicted black and white images of a male torso in boxing shorts set amongst doodles of a kitchen stove. These were set above the text "Do you know what it means to come home at night to a woman that will give you a little love, a little affection, a little tenderness? It means you're in the wrong home, that's what it means." Another one of Prince's most well-known Joke paintings is an 80s-style red canvas painting he did in 2004 that says, "Two psychiatrists, one says to the other: I was having lunch with my mother the other day and I made a Freudian slip. I meant to say, 'Please pass the butter,' and instead it came out, 'You fucking bitch, you ruined my life.'" In the late 1980s, Prince, like his contemporaries Lorna Simpson and Barbara Kruger, as well as many of his Conceptual Art precursors, played with image and text in a strategy that was becoming increasingly popular. Prince put jokes among cartoons, often from The New Yorker. Prince described his early discovery of jokes and his sense of humor, as "I never really started telling, I started telling them over. Back in 1985, in Venice, California, I was drawing my favorite cartoons in pencil on paper. After this I dropped the illustration or image part of the cartoon and concentrated on the punch line."[23] Prince's jokes were primarily satirical one-liners, poking fun at topics such as religion, the relationship between husband and wife, his relations with women. The jokes are simple, often relying on a punch line: "I took my wife to a wife-swapping party, I had to throw in some cash" or "I never had a penny to my name, so I changed my name." Prince commonly repeats his jokes. Jokes became the complete subject of his prints, set atop monochromatic backgrounds red, orange, blue, yellow, etc. These works range in size from 56 × 48 inches as seen in his 1994 Untitled, to 112 × 203.5 inches, as seen in his 2000 work Nuts. His early jokes were modestly sized, but as they caught on he executed larger pieces. These Monochromatic Jokes question the importance of the unique, in high art. What is it that set these jokes apart from one another, the background color, the color of the text, the jokes themselves? Compared to other Appropriation Artists working in the same time period, Prince has a distinct quality between works and series. Works are distinguishable from one another or identifiable as a particular artist, but with Prince's Monochromatic Jokes, we are presented with yellow text upon a blue background as in his 1989 Are You Kidding? Differing from Jeff Koons, for example, are not only technique and style, but also the significance given to making the artwork identifiable. In 1988 Koons was working with porcelain sculptures like his Michael Jackson and Bubbles and Pink Panther. These are two works produced in this year that are distinguishable. In the same year, 1988, are Prince's Fireman and the Drunk and his Untitled (Joke), which raise the serious question of what sets these two works apart.[citation needed] In a 2000 interview with Julie L. Belcove, Prince called the joke paintings "what I wanted to become known for." When asked to identify the artistic genre of his Jokes, Prince responded, "the Joke paintings are abstract. Especially in Europe, if you can't speak English."[22] While developing his Gang photographs and Joke paintings Prince was also making sculptural facsimiles of muscle car hoods that merged muscle car culture as a particularly American state of mind with the transcendent claims of Hard-edge abstraction and Minimalism.[citation needed] Prince ordered classic vehicle car hoods from within custom car restoration networks and then used the hoods to cast Fiberglas molds which he washed in different colors. Celebrities [ edit ] Celebrities is a series that plays with the American obsession with movie stars. Following Warhol's lead, Prince would search out actors' headshots, promotional photographs which frequently lack copyright protection. Prince signed them himself, using the actor's name. Check Paintings [ edit ] The Check Paintings series is like the Celebrities. It was made possible by Prince's own interest in collecting. Prince began to seek out canceled checks from famous figures in history ranging from Jack Kerouac to Andy Warhol. He put these checks onto paint-covered canvases and often paired them with images of the individual they once belonged to. Nurse Paintings [ edit ] The Nurse Paintings are a series inspired by the covers and titles of inexpensive novels that were commonly sold at newspaper stands and delis (pulp romance novels). Prince scanned the covers of the books on his computer and used inkjet printing to transfer the images to canvas, and then personalized the pieces with acrylic paint. They debuted in 2003 at Barbara Gladstone Galleries, who along with Larry Gagosian, represents Prince.[24] They received mixed responses, not all selling at the asking prices of $50,000 to $60,000. Titles include Surfer Nurse, Naughty Nurse, Millionaire Nurse, and Dude Ranch Nurse, the books from which they were copied. Prince said, "The problem with art is, it's not like the game of golf, where you put the ball in the hole or you don't put the ball in the hole. There's no umpire. There's no judge. There are no rules. It's one of the problems, but it's also one of the great things about art: it becomes a question of what lasts." The Sonic Youth album Sonic Nurse used Nurse paintings, and included a song called "Dude Ranch Nurse". In the series of paintings, the nurses all wear caps and their mouths are covered by surgical masks, although in some of the paintings the red lips bleed through the masks. The final presentations preserve the title and nurse image from each of the book covers, though almost all else is obscured. Titles include A Nurse Involved, Aloha Nurse, Bachelor Nurse, Danger Nurse at Work, Debutant Nurse, and Doctor's Nurse. Later works [ edit ] Prince's series of paintings from 2007 on appear to be a throwback to more traditional genres of figurative art, and a departure from the pulpy and kitchy content of the Nurse and Jokes series. They are pornographic ink-jet prints overlaid with acrylic paint in a style trying to imitate Willem de Kooning. Prince makes the most direct treatment to the faces, hands and feet, which are bulged and distorted. These works lack the obvious linguistic re-contextualizing of the Jokes series, opting instead for a purely visual idiom. In 2007, Prince collaborated with the fashion designer Marc Jacobs on his Spring 2008 collection for the French label Louis Vuitton.[25] The collection was inspired in part by Prince's Nurse Paintings. In an interview for style.com Jacobs stated that after he asked Prince to collaborate with him for Louis Vuitton, Prince started to look to cheap paperbacks that were set in exotic cities "after dark." As Marc Jacobs put it, "[Prince] asked me, what about Louis Vuitton after dark?" An untitled work consists of the body of a 1970 Dodge Challenger and high-performance parts such as a 660 hp Hemi engine, custom interior, black wheel wells, 14-inch tires in the front and 16 inch in the back, a pale orange paint job with a flat black T/A hood, as well as various decals and emblems. Another car sculpture, called American Prayer, is a 1968 Dodge Charger that has been completely emptied of any engine parts and interiors and is stripped of any paint and then powder coated. In place of the engine block there is a cement block.[4] In Untitled (Covering Pollock), a series of 27 works made between 2009 and 2011, Prince printed black-and-white photos of Jackson Pollock taken by Hans Namuth on canvas and pasted grids of photographs showing Sid Vicious, Kate Moss, Stephanie Seymour and pornographic imagery on top. Prince adds his own Pollock-style gestures in paint around the grids.[26] In 2014, Prince continued his appropriation theme with an exhibit of 38 portraits at the Gagosian gallery in New York City, entitled "New Portraits." Each image was taken from his Instagram feed and included topless images of models, artists, and celebrities. Underneath the images, Prince provided comments like, "Don't du anything. Just B Urself © ®", with the copyright and registered trademark symbols likely being references to his interests in authorship.[27][28] "Possible cogent responses to the show include naughty delight and sheer abhorrence", wrote art critic Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker. "My own was something like a wish to be dead."[29] As with previous appropriated Prince works, the Instagram prints draw attention to the intersection of art and copyright infringement; Prince has been challenged in courts but has so far won his cases. Some of the unwilling subjects of his art, notably members of SuicideGirls, have started selling their own derivative works based on Prince derivative works of their original works.[30][31] In 2015, Prince would repeat his exhibit from Gagosian with a new exhibit for the Frieze Art Fair in NYC. However, Prince would end up making headlines due to selling the portraits for profit—at the fair, Prince sold enlargements of his Instagram feed and comments for $90,000.[32][33] In 2017, he generated controversy by returning a $36,000 payment he had received in 2014 for his portrayal of Ivanka Trump, claiming that he could not live with the idea of one of his works being in the collection of the Trump family.[3] Museum Exhibitions [ edit ] Prince has been the subject of major survey exhibitions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1992); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1993); Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (1993); Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2001, traveled to Kunsthalle Zürich and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2007, traveled to the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2008); and Serpentine Gallery, London (2008).[34] "Richard Prince: American Prayer," an exhibition of American literature and ephemera from the artist’s collection,[5] was on view at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris in 2011.[35] Prince's work has also appeared numerous group exhibitions, including in Bienal de São Paulo (1983), Whitney Biennial (1985, 1987, 1997, and 2004), Biennale of Sydney (1986), Venice Biennale (1988 and 2007), and documenta 9 (1992), Personal life [ edit ] Prince lives with his second wife, the artist Noel Grunwaldt, and their two children.[7] In 1996, he relocated himself and his family to a farmhouse on 88 acres of land in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains.[7] Since 1981, Prince has been a part-time resident of Southampton Village.[7][36] In 2009, he spent $11.5 million on townhouse at 57 East 78th Street in New York City.[37] In 2012, he reportedly bought the neighbouring five-bedroom brownstone at 55 East 78th Street for $13.75 million.[38] Bibliography [ edit ] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] |
Minutes before Tuesday night’s presidential debate began, Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate and former New Mexico governor, was shouting at a reporter in a conference room in the basement of Twitter’s New York City headquarters. Twitter had invited Johnson and his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, to attend a debate watch party at the social network’s Manhattan offices. Fantasies of getting stoned with Johnson while watching Trump and Clinton face off on stage were dashed when he and Weld arrived and set up shop in a private room. Johnson, who wore a navy blazer, light blue jeans, and his trademark black Nike sneakers, invited reporters into the inner sanctum for a few minutes before the debate began. He was instantly irate when a reporter mentioned his now-infamous “What is Aleppo?” gaffe on MSNBC earlier this month. “I’m tired of innocent people being killed in these countries!” he cried, speaking broadly at first. “Hillary Clinton dots the i’s and crosses the t’s on all of the names and everything associated with this, but as a result we have the foreign policy that we have right now that—I have to tell you—I think is horrible. Horrible!” There was an uncomfortably long pause: This was not the warm, affable Johnson we know, the 63-year-old, mountain-climbing triathlete and first major national politician to favor legalizing marijuana. You half expected him to break the silence with a characteristically goofy grin—his own “gotcha” moment. Instead, Johnson became more enraged. Certainly this was no act, but he wanted to make a point that he’d be just as bullish if the issue came up in a debate. “I would be angry that people would be calling me out on the names of geographic locations, names of foreign leaders when the underlying policy has thousands of people dying! And that is unacceptable. It angers me to no end!” Johnson was on his feet, hovering over a small plate of food that included a single deviled egg and several cauliflower stalks, while Weld sat next to him with one leg crossed over the other. He wore a pinstripe suit and a thin smile, looking at once amused and horrified. It’s no secret that the two balance each other out, though Weld’s calmly authoritative, even aloof demeanor has been deemed more presidential than Johnson’s eccentric charm. When the same reporter pointed out that there’s more support for Johnson to be included in the debates than there is for Johnson to be president, the candidate deflected to Clinton and Trump’s unpopularity. “That has everything to do with the fact that both of them are vilified!” he fired back, beginning to lose the thread of his argument. “Sixty percent of Americans view them negatively.” Weld, whose ruddy face now looked pinker than usual, stepped in to clarify and smooth Johnson’s rough edges. What the governor meant to say, he explained, was that the Johnson-Weld ticket doesn’t have as much support in general because not enough people know about the Libertarian candidates. “If we have 50 percent recognition instead of 30 percent, we’ll go to 25 percent in ballot preference because Gary doesn’t seem to have the negatives that the two major-party candidates seem to have,” Weld, 71, told reporters. Indeed, an hour outside of Manhattan at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, the two most disliked presidential candidates in polling history were about to go onstage without Johnson. As Johnson likes to point out, Ross Perot was polling lower than him, around 8 percent, ahead of the debates in 1992 when he was invited into the ring with George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Johnson was at 8.6 percent two days after the Commission on Presidential Debates ruled him out of the first round, according to RealClearPolitics’ most recent roundup of national polls. (The fact that Perot was leading the race earlier in the election cycle likely factored into his participation). After months of hovering around 9 percent (a Pew poll in mid-August found him as high as 10 percent), Johnson’s numbers have begun to decline in a slew of more recent polls. Crunching the numbers on Monday, Reason.com linked the drop to a shrinking gap between Trump and Clinton, prompting third-party voters to abandon Johnson in a panicked attempt to thumb the scale in two-party proceedings. Johnson’s “Aleppo” moment on MSNBC’s Morning Joe in early September generated plenty of media buzz, but it didn’t move the needle on the polls much. (Johnson subsequently told The Daily Beast he was “thinking about an acronym, not the Syrian conflict.”) Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle had no choice but to awkwardly inform Johnson on national television that Aleppo was not an acronym but the city at the center of Syria’s refugee crisis. Barnicle then went on to defend the candidate’s ignorance in a Daily Beast column, arguing that neither Trump nor Clinton have been asked about Aleppo recently. Still, even Johnson thought his Aleppo gaffe might sink his campaign. Appearing on The View a few hours after Morning Joe, he said there was “no excuse” for it—a decidedly more conciliatory tack than the one he took at Monday’s debate watch party. But anti-war, third-party voters have mostly stuck with the candidate who has been consistently non-interventionist, if occasionally slow on the uptake—especially given the other options: Hillary Clinton’s pro-military intervention record includes voting for the Iraq War and pushing to bomb Libya, and Trump who can hardly wait to “bomb the shit out of ISIS.” The Commission on Presidential Debates mandates that candidates average at least 15 percent in five major national polls to qualify for the debates, and Johnson has argued that he could still make it to the third round. On Monday night, Weld made the case to reporters at Twitter’s offices that the social-media network could help them get there. “This really is the year of social media,” he said. “It’s not a year where bought-and-paid-for advertising in the last week of the campaign is going to swing the election. Because people will tune that out.” Johnson sounded a negative note once again, remarking that the Clinton campaign is “spending $18 million right now to discredit us.” Despite his own campaign’s strong fundraising, including $5 million in the month of August alone (75 percent of which came from small donations), Johnson stressed that Clinton had spent more money discrediting him than he and Weld will end up using to run their entire campaign. When the same reporter Johnson shouted at earlier asked him and Weld about being “spoiler candidates,” drawing votes away from Trump and Clinton (recent polls have shown Johnson pulling slightly more votes from Clinton, in part because of his popularity among libertarian-leaning liberals), Johnson cut her off before she could finish. “Why do you even say that?” he asked, shouting again. “We’re giving people a chance to vote for something [they believe in] as opposed to the lesser of two evils! You want to waste your vote on Hillary or Trump? Go right ahead. We’re not spoilers we’re the first vote!” This time the governor was cut off by one of his aides, who asked for a last question from the small crowd, but Johnson continued antagonizing: “So I guess what you’re saying is that we should drop out? Is that what you’re saying? Is that your editorial here? That we should drop out?” Weld stepped in to pacify the situation once more. “Another way of putting it is that this is a year when voters really have to think for themselves,” he said, meaning that educated voters will make the best decision. If they do think for themselves, they’ll recognize that Johnson and Weld encompass the broad “fiscally conservative but socially liberal” sweet spot, representative of roughly 60 percent of the United States, according to Weld. “In business terms, that’s a pretty good addressable market, so it’s a question of getting that story out there. “We’d love to be on the stage tonight but, failing that, we’re very grateful for the chance to tell our story through this medium,” Weld concluded with a gracious nod to their hosts that evening. Down the hall, 50 or so people had gathered in a coffee shop-like setting outfitted with the kind of trendy décor ubiquitous at hip restaurants: filament lightbulbs, tufted brown leather couches, hashtag-shaped marquee lights, and gold-and-black, boudoir-ish wallpaper. They filled their plates with elegantly displayed comfort food like chicken wings, tomato soup, grilled cheese, and cauliflower mac ‘n’ cheese. There was an overwhelming amount of support for Clinton in the crowd. They whooped and cheered her gleeful mocking of Trump, and heckled moderator Lester Holt for allowing the former reality-TV star to talk over the former secretary of State—and, on several occasions, over Holt himself. Johnson and Weld, meanwhile, live-tweeted their own frustrations from the other room, with Johnson sounding like the stereotype of a cranky libertartarian. “@realDonaldTrump says @Hillary Clinton is the scourge of the earth and vice versa,” he wrote, then: “I’m finding that I’m in agreement with both of them at the moment.” He also neatly summarized his policies, like lowering income taxes, ending the war on drugs, and pushing free trade. The crowd cleared out quickly at the end of the debate, with only one or two guests lingering in hopes of talking to Johnson (one managed to briefly shake his hand). Reporters lingered too, but were told that Johnson was done giving interviews and had had a long day. Indeed, that much was clear before the debate began. |
You may be looking for the game Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Apollo Justice I find that shouting "I'm fine!" in a loud voice really relieves stress. It's part of my "Chords of Steel" workout, and a must before every trial. The Monstrous Turnabout Apollo Justice is a defense attorney who has operated in the United States and Khura'in. Although he started off at Gavin Law Offices, he spent most of his career at the Wright Anything Agency before heading to Khura'in and establishing his own firm to help rebuild the country's legal system. Along with co-counsel Trucy Wright, prosecutor Klavier Gavin, and mentor Phoenix Wright, Justice participated in a test trial for the Jurist System in 2026, which was an effort to reintegrate the jury into court proceedings. In 2028, Justice was instrumental in overthrowing Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in from her position as illegitimate queen of Khura'in. Contents show] Early life Edit Apollo was born to the stage magician Thalassa Gramarye and the musician Jove Justice. Some time after he was born, Jove brought Apollo with him on a trip to Khura'in, where he performed for the queen at the time, Amara Sigatar Khura'in. However, an arsonist set the queen's residence ablaze, resulting in Jove's death as he tried to save his son. Due to the uproar over the queen's death, Apollo was lost in the chaos, leaving Thalassa unable to reunite with her son, although Apollo was given one of her bracelets before the incident. Thalassa later returned home, remarried and gave birth to a girl. Apollo grew up not knowing about his mother or his half-sister. Instead, he was raised by Dhurke Sahdmadhi, husband of the reportedly now deceased Queen Amara, alongside Dhurke's own son, Nahyuta. However, Dhurke was falsely accused by Amara's sister and the new queen of Khura'in, Ga'ran, of being the arsonist. Although Dhurke, a skilled defense attorney, managed to prove his innocence in court, Ga'ran subsequently accused him of falsifying evidence and he was forced to flee to the mountains, taking Nahyuta and Apollo with him. Dhurke went on to form the "Defiant Dragons" rebel group to oppose Ga'ran and repeal her Defense Culpability Act. One day, Apollo and Nahyuta were playing by a riverside and happened to get swept up in the rapids. Luckily for the two boys, Dhurke rescued them at the last moment and assured the pair that he would look out for their safety no matter what. With his plans for a revolution to free the kingdom from Queen Ga'ran's corrupt clutches, Dhurke came to the conclusion that it was too dangerous for Apollo to stay in Khura'in and so, when Apollo was nine, Dhurke sent him back to his native America. Although Dhurke promised that he would return for him someday, as the years passed, Apollo lost hope that he would indeed return, and thus decided to forget his old life in Khura'in. In middle school, Apollo came to idolize and respect the well-known defense attorney Phoenix Wright, and aspired to someday become a lawyer just like him. One day, Apollo found a classmate named Clay Terran crying alone after learning that his mother had died. Knowing the pain of having no mother himself, Apollo encouraged Terran to yell, "Clay Terran is fine!" in an effort to make him feel better. The two soon became close friends, and both shared and talked about their dreams, with Terran wanting to become an astronaut. It was through this friendship that Apollo came to visit the Cosmos Space Center and meet Solomon Starbuck, whom he came to deeply respect. Apollo and Terran became practically a fixture in the Space Center throughout their high school years. Meanwhile, Phoenix Wright was disbarred in 2019 following a vaguely reported forgery incident, which contributed to the ushering in of the so-called "dark age of the law". Justice has claimed that, during his college years, his classmates often teased him about his lack of a love life with girls.[1] Law career Edit Gavin Law Offices Edit Main article: Turnabout Trump As an adult, Apollo passed the bar exam and came to work for Kristoph Gavin's law firm, Gavin Law Offices, where he assisted Gavin in court for at least one case prior to his own debut as defense team leader.[2] The defendant for Apollo's first trial was none other than disgraced former lawyer and Apollo's idol, Phoenix Wright, with Gavin initially acting as the rookie defense attorney's co-counsel. The trial was a very standard one until Wright began to accuse Gavin of being the real killer. Wright helped Apollo to figure out the truth about the case, securing a not guilty verdict and resulting in Gavin's arrest. After the trial, Wright told Apollo that he had faked a key piece of evidence. Horrified that someone he respected would openly admit to forgery, Apollo punched Wright and then left, intending never to see him again. Gavin Law Offices was consequently dissolved, and Apollo was left without employment. Although Wright invited Apollo to work for the Wright & Co. Law Offices, the latter refused. At the time, Terran was preparing for his screening exams to become an astronaut at the Cosmos Space Center, and he encouraged Apollo to continue being an attorney despite recent events. Joining the Wright Anything Agency Edit Phoenix Wright You know what changed her mind? Hearing your defense in there today. She could feel your gaze, unwavering, always looking straight at the truth. Turnabout Serenade After two months, with nowhere else to turn for a job, Apollo reluctantly visited Wright's old law firm, only to find that it was now the "Wright Talent Agency" and run by Wright's adoptive daughter, Trucy Wright. After some initial confusion, Trucy hired Apollo as the agency's lawyer. Since Apollo had no entertaining talent to speak of, Trucy renamed the agency the "Wright Anything Agency" to account for Apollo's involvement in it. At first, Phoenix assigned Apollo to three minor, unrelated, and seemingly pointless cases, but Apollo later found that all three were tied to a murder that had occurred in nearby People Park. Desperate for real work, he offered to take on the resulting defendant's case. With the help of Trucy and Detective Ema Skye, Apollo gathered evidence and then faced off against Kristoph Gavin's brother, Prosecutor Klavier Gavin, in court. Apollo implicated the defendant's fiancée as the real killer, and as Klavier began to figure out that Apollo was right in his accusation, he helped Apollo to prove her guilt. However, this left Apollo wondering whether he had really earned his victory. As well as being a prosecutor, Klavier also had his own band, and he invited Apollo and Trucy to one of his concerts at a discounted price. However, during the concert, a bodyguard was fatally shot, and Apollo once again defended the accused in court against Klavier. A blind witness implicated one of Klavier's band members, Daryan Crescend, as the real killer. While Crescend had set up an alibi for himself, Apollo was able to show that Crescend had set up the crime in such as way as to throw off the time of the shooting, and that he had been smuggling an illegal Borginian cocoon, which had led to the confrontation that had killed the victim. Lacking decisive evidence, Apollo convinced his client to testify as to his involvement in the smuggling, thereby proving Crescend's motive and securing his arrest. The Jurist System Edit Main article: Turnabout Succession Three months later, Apollo participated in a test trial for the Jurist System, defending Vera Misham against the charge of her father's murder, with Klavier once again prosecuting the case. Although Phoenix promised Apollo a "simple" case, it quickly escalated into a complex monstrosity, as the murder weapon, a Troupe Gramarye commemorative stamp laced with atroquinine, was tied to the defendant's secret life as a forger, as well as to the case that had cost Phoenix his attorney's badge. It was revealed that Phoenix had continued his investigation into his last case for the intervening seven years, and that the forged evidence he had presented during said trial had been given to him without him knowing it was fake. Eventually, Kristoph Gavin was summoned from his prison in Solitary Cell 13 and was accused by Apollo of setting up the murder seven years prior. As Apollo and Klavier closed in on the truth, they found that they had no decisive evidence to prove that Kristoph had done the deed. However, they had no need for this under the Jurist System. As Kristoph utterly broke down upon finding out that mere members of the public would decide the outcome of the case, Klavier and the judge gave their justifications for the new system, though Apollo was rendered speechless. Apollo vowed that he would learn what law was for himself and fight to change it if he had to. The new recruit and the Twisted Samurai Edit Main article: The Monstrous Turnabout The following April, Apollo stumbled upon a murder scene in the village of Nine-Tails Vale. He agreed to defend Damian Tenma, who had been accused of killing alderman Rex Kyubi, and met up with Athena Cykes, a new lawyer whom Phoenix had recruited during a trip to Europe who would act as his assistant and co-counsel during the case. The duo met the stalwart detective Bobby Fulbright and faced off against the convict prosecutor Simon Blackquill. Eventually, Apollo and Cykes were able to prove Damian Tenma's innocence by revealing the true culprit. Supporting roles Edit Phoenix, having been exonerated, regained his attorney's badge and took on his first case two months after the Nine-Tails Vale case. While Cykes accompanied him to the crime scene at Shipshape Aquarium, Apollo was left behind to look after the office. During the course of the investigation, Phoenix found a suspicious pill and gave it to Apollo to research. Apollo dutifully went to the Hickfield Clinic to investigate and found out that the pill was a powerful sleeping drug of which the aquarium's vet, Dr. Herman Crab, had bought a large quantity. This information would later prove important to solving the case and finding both defendants innocent. In October, the three lawyers went to attend a presentation and mock trial at Themis Legal Academy. Although only Phoenix had a seat reserved for him, he gave it to Apollo while he and Cykes waited for Constance Courte, one of the teachers. As the mock trial started to draw to a conclusion, police officers interrupted the proceedings and alerted everyone to a murder that had occurred on the school grounds. The victim was Courte and the circumstances of the murder seemed to match the exact details of the mock trial. Juniper Woods, an old friend of Cykes who had organized the mock trial with Courte, was subsequently arrested for the murder, and Cykes took up her defense. Apollo and a visiting Klavier brought her up to speed on the mock trial by re-enacting it with her. Apollo aided Cykes as her investigative partner and co-counsel, and the pair ultimately overcame Prosecutor Blackquill and the real killer to win the trial. Clay Terran's death Edit Apollo Justice The truth, huh? That's a noble cause. But what if the truth you seek and the truth I seek turn out to be different? The Cosmic Turnabout In December, the Cosmos Space Center was bombed while attempting to launch the HAT-2 rocket, and Terran, one of the intended passengers, was found stabbed to death. Apollo took up the defense of the other passenger, Solomon Starbuck, who was Terran's mentor. Apollo and Cykes could not investigate much due to the heavy police presence, but they did see the murder weapon. To Apollo's surprise, his bracelet reacted when Cykes saw the murder weapon and denied having seen it before. It would continue to react whenever they talked about the case. Wracked with guilt at the thought that he considered his friend and co-worker suspicious, Apollo chose to wear a bandage over his eye so he would not be able to sense any of Cykes's tells. During the trial, Apollo cross-examined Fulbright to get as much info as possible, and he noticed that Blackquill seemed particularly determined to convict Starbuck. Apollo managed to make significant progress, but suddenly, a time bomb was activated, interrupting the trial as Courtroom No. 4 was evacuated. Apollo was subsequently injured as he attempted to protect Juniper Woods from falling debris. Woods was arrested for the bombing and put on trial the next day. Apollo, who now sported bandaged arms and Terran's tattered Space Center jacket, intended to take the defense's bench, but due to his injuries, Phoenix and Cykes took over. During the trial, Woods told Apollo that she had lost her cough medicine in the courtroom bombing, and the two went back to Courtroom No. 4 to look for it. Eventually, Woods was called back to testify, but Apollo continued to search alone until he was suddenly attacked from behind and knocked unconscious. He was hospitalized while Phoenix won the trial (and in the process revealed that the true culprit was the same individual who had attacked Apollo) and took over Starbuck's case. Apollo eventually discharged himself from the clinic and announced to the Agency that he was taking a leave of absence, stating that he planned to catch Clay Terran's killer in his own way. Phoenix eventually cleared Starbuck of all charges using decisive evidence submitted by Fulbright, only for the evidence to indict Cykes instead. This seemed to confirm Apollo's suspicions even further, and he investigated the Space Center to find out more about her connections to the place. He subsequently found security footage that showed Cykes as the only person leaving the Space Museum, which was the only reasonable path through which the killer could have escaped the crime scene. Apollo eventually learned about the UR-1 Incident and met Simon Blackquill's sister Aura at the robotics lab. It turned out that Metis Cykes, Athena's mother and Aura's research partner, had been murdered during the UR-1 Incident. While the two were talking about the Hope probe, Phoenix and Trucy found their way into the robotic lab as well. Apollo refused to give any clear opinion about the case to them, only saying that he did not know if Athena was the culprit yet. Aura later took hostages at the Space Center and demanded that the police hand Athena over to her, as she believed her to be behind both the UR-1 Incident and Terran's murder. With Trucy as one of her hostages, Phoenix instead gave her a counter-proposal: a retrial of the UR-1 Incident. Aura agreed to this and let him choose a courtroom, though she was in control of the rest of the details, including having Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth take the prosecutor's bench and indicting Athena for the murder. Phoenix managed to win the "trial", thereby proving that someone else had killed Metis. Before the "trial" ended, however, Apollo took the opportunity to take the stand and indict Athena for Terran's murder. He gave the reasons behind his suspicion, only to eventually admit that he just wanted to make sure that he could really trust Athena, and implored Phoenix to prove that some other possibility existed so the doubt in his mind could be cleared. Phoenix was able to do just that, showing the real route that the killer, an international spy known only as "the phantom", had used; the phantom had manipulated the evacuation during the bombing to create an escape route for himself. Phoenix then went even further and accused the one who had been in charge of the evacuation, Bobby Fulbright, of being the phantom. Apollo, who was finally rid of his doubt, was asked to join Phoenix and eventually Athena back at the defense's bench, which he did after shedding his bandages and jacket. Via a bracelet read on Fulbright, it was revealed that the evidence that had supposedly pointed to Athena had been forged. Eventually, it was discovered that "Fulbright" was an impostor, as the real detective had died a year earlier. The three lawyers of the Wright Anything Agency worked together and managed to finally bring the phantom to justice after a long battle. After the case's resolution, the three attorneys agreed to do their best to help put the so-called "dark age of the law" behind them. Apollo was later present at the HAT-3 rocket launch, where he encouraged Solomon Starbuck as the astronaut finally returned to space. Confronting the familiar Edit Main article: The Magical Turnabout We need more pieces to finish this puzzle. This article is under construction. While it is not short, it still needs expansion as outlined in the manual of style. The article most likely needs expansion near the end of the tagged section or sections. The following April, Apollo and Athena went to the Penrose Theater to watch Trucy's magic show "Trucy in Gramarye-Land", which would be her television debut. During the show, however, her co-performer, a magician named Mr. Reus, turned up dead, and Trucy was accused of involuntary manslaughter, as the victim appeared to have been killed by one of her magic tricks. With Phoenix abroad in the Kingdom of Khura'in, Apollo took on Trucy's defense. During their investigation, Apollo and Athena encountered Detective Skye, who had finally achieved her dream of becoming a forensic investigator. Apollo was shocked to learn that the case would be prosecuted by Nahyuta Sahdmadhi, whom he had not seen in fifteen years, and that the charge had been changed to premeditated murder. After exposing the real culprit, Apollo confronted Nahyuta, saying that the prosecutor had changed since the last time he saw him. Although Trucy, Skye, and Athena questioned how they knew each other, Apollo did not answer, merely musing to himself that would have to tell them eventually. With her name cleared, Trucy went back to her magic act, with Apollo acting as her (unwilling) assistant. Dispute with Wright Edit Main article: Turnabout Revolution We need more pieces to finish this puzzle. This article is under construction. While it is not short, it still needs expansion as outlined in the manual of style. The article most likely needs expansion near the end of the tagged section or sections. A couple of days after Athena took on a case by herself and triumphed, Apollo and Trucy were graced by a strange visitor to the Wright Anything Agency: Dhurke Sahdmadhi, Apollo's adoptive father. Dhurke took them to Kurain Village to meet Archie Buff, who was studying Kurain and Khura'inese artifacts. However, by the time they arrived, Buff had died in an accident and Ema Skye was investigating the scene. Dhurke and Apollo would go on to investigate a cave in the nearby mountains in search of the Founder's Orb, but were pushed down a slope by an unknown assailant. Upon returning from the cave with the artifact (after almost drowning in the process), they were approached by Phoenix, who seemed to disagree with Apollo's view on the artifact's identity and claimed that it rightfully belonged to Paul Atishon. This led into a civil trial that split the Wright Anything Agency in half, with Apollo and Phoenix on opposite sides of the court. During the trial, Apollo proved that the artifact they had found in the caves was the Founder's Orb by melting the wax inside to reveal a small statue of the Holy Mother, Founder of Khura'in. During the recess, Athena overheard Phoenix and Atishon discussing an "agreement", with it transpiring that Maya Fey, Phoenix's old assistant and close friend, had been kidnapped by Atishon, thereby explaining why he was desperately trying to win the trial. Apollo was subsequently able to prove that a transaction between the Defiant Dragons and Buff for the Founder's Orb was legal, as Atishon had murdered Buff. With this, the trial was ruled in favor of Apollo, Athena, and Dhurke, who were able to keep possession of the Orb. Return to Khura'in Edit We need more pieces to finish this puzzle. This article is under construction. While it is not short, it still needs expansion as outlined in the manual of style. The article most likely needs expansion near the end of the tagged section or sections. After the trial, Apollo, Dhurke, Athena, Phoenix, and Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth worked out that Fey was being held in the Kingdom of Khura'in, and so the group traveled to Apollo's childhood home. While there, Minister of Justice Inga Karkhuul Khura'in was found dead and Dhurke was accused of being the culprit. Apollo took on the case, with Athena assisting him while Phoenix and Edgeworth conducted a parallel investigation. As they approached the court for the trial, Phoenix told Athena to stay behind and out of the trial proper, as he did not want her to get hurt. For the second time in Apollo's career, Phoenix stood with him as his co-counsel. It was revealed during the trial that Queen Amara had survived the assassination attempt made on her life. However, far more shockingly, Apollo realized that the only thing that would make the case make logical sense was if Dhurke had been channeled by Amara. This meant that Dhurke was already dead, and had been so for days, having been shot three times by Justice Minister Inga several days prior to the trial. It was during this moment that Apollo fell into deep despair, wondering what or who he was fighting for. However, with motivation from Maya, Nahyuta, and the spirit of Dhurke, Apollo successfully accused Queen Ga'ran of the murder of Justice Minister Inga, as well as being the culprit behind the fire that killed Jove Justice twenty-three years prior. After the trial, Apollo decided to temporarily stay in Khura'in, re-open Dhurke's law office, and help the kingdom get back on its feet. However, being the only defense attorney in the country, he soon found himself inundated with clients. Personality Edit Apollo Justice No matter what the truth is that's waiting ahead, I won't be afraid! Turnabout for Tomorrow Apollo Justice is largely characterized by his seriousness and desire to build his self-confidence. He deals with the bizarre situations that are thrown at him by being somewhat sarcastic and critical toward others, including some of his clients. This often puts him at odds with people like Klavier and the Wrights, who often tease him and make him wonder if he is being taken seriously. He frequently makes puns out of his own name and practices shouting for hours at night, calling it his "Chords of Steel", which sometimes makes his voice raspy. While mostly to "improve" his voice in court, these exercises also function to both psyche himself up and make himself feel better. Justice often uses the phrase "I'm fine!" as a way of psyching or cheering himself up, with his friend Clay Terran also developing this habit. When Justice started out, he was unsure of himself and easily flustered, and suffered somewhat from stage fright in court. However, he has matured greatly with experience, and has gotten much calmer and more self-assured. Despite still being caught off-guard by Simon Blackquill's swordplay metaphors and slashing motions, Justice has been able to stand up to him effectively, and provided much-needed support to Athena when it was her turn to head the defense's bench. Despite the way he is often treated, Justice is a valuable friend and ally to his co-workers. Ultimately, Justice is determined about his job, and cares deeply about his friends and clients. For example, he cried in relief after finding out that Trucy was safe following her "abduction", as well as when Vera Misham survived her atroquinine poisoning. After Terran's death, Justice developed a cold demeanor and withdrew from those close to him, overwhelmed by his anger and suspicion of Athena, which she sensed when he announced his leave of absence. However, he still wanted to believe in her and make sure that he could trust her. When discussing the change, Trucy mentioned that it was unlike him to be so "cool and mysterious". Miscellaneous Edit When talking about newspapers, Justice has admitted that he only reads the funnies. He claims to be good with astrology and hula hoops, and used to watch a certain science-fiction show, which he was reminded of when Trucy used the phrase "bigger on the inside than on the outside" to describe her top hat. While preparing a case overnight, he used to have instant noodles, crackers, and manga on his desk; he claimed that the latter is for research, because they were "super realistic and informative". He shares Phoenix Wright's fear of heights and disinclination to drive, preferring biking instead. He also dislikes loud music and is unable to swim. Justice's unusual hairstyle has inadvertently frightened many of the defendants and witnesses he had met, such as Jinxie Tenma mistaking him for a horned demon. However, unlike Phoenix Wright, who claims his hair is natural, Justice carefully gels his hair every morning. According to Athena Cykes, Justice has never "had a girlfriend", indicating that he lacks a love life. Although the question arises of how she would know this, it is possible that she was simply teasing him.[1] Bracelet Edit The bracelet that he inherited from his mother helps him to focus on the nervous habits of other people. When Justice feels his bracelet getting tighter while talking to someone, he knows that they are hiding something from him. Name Edit His Japanese surname, " Odoroki " (王泥喜), comes from the word for "a surprise". " (王泥喜), comes from the word for "a surprise". The kanji that make up " Housuke " (法介) can be broken down into " hou " (法) meaning "law", and " suke " (介), which is a common suffix for male Japanese names. This makes the meaning of his first name literally "boy of law" or "law boy". " (法介) can be broken down into " " (法) meaning "law", and " " (介), which is a common suffix for male Japanese names. This makes the meaning of his first name literally "boy of law" or "law boy". His full Japanese name can roughly mean "a surprising man of law". The name "Apollo" comes from Apollo, the god of, amongst other things, light, the sun and truth in Greek and Roman mythology. This is referenced in Turnabout Countdown , when Juniper Woods describes the moment that Justice shielded her from the explosion. Woods compares Justice to the sun -- strong, bright and warm. Later, when she testifies about Justice looking for her cough medicine, Phoenix Wright thinks to himself that she seems to be making Justice out to be some sort of ancient god, before stopping himself, realizing what he just said. Apollo was also the god of music, fitting with the fact that both of his parents were musicians at some point in their careers. The name may also be a nod to Phoenix Wright's first name originating from mythology. , when Juniper Woods describes the moment that Justice shielded her from the explosion. Woods compares Justice to the sun -- strong, bright and warm. Later, when she testifies about Justice looking for her cough medicine, Phoenix Wright thinks to himself that she seems to be making Justice out to be some sort of ancient god, before stopping himself, realizing what he just said. Apollo was also the god of music, fitting with the fact that both of his parents were musicians at some point in their careers. The name may also be a nod to Phoenix Wright's first name originating from mythology. The surname "Justice" is a reference to his job. He likes to make puns with his last name. In both Spanish and Italian, Justice's nickname of "Pollo" means "chicken" (albeit with different pronunciation), which might be a reference to his hairstyle being like that of a chicken's comb. Development Edit Apollo Justice was the first protagonist designed by Kazuya Nuri. He tried to strike a balance between looking cool and being easy to get attached to by playing with the character's expressions. [3] Apollo Justice has several defining qualities to distinguish his personality from Phoenix Wright's while still being an otherwise relatively blank slate. He is described in official websites as hot-blooded, a quality embodied in his "Chords of Steel" routine and his crimson red suit. He also has some distinctive elements in his speech in Japanese versions of the games in which he appears. For example, he uses the personal pronoun 俺/おれ ore , [4] and almost always refers to a person by their surname followed by the honorific さん san , with only four exceptions. In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies , he uses "I'm fine!" ("大丈夫です！" Daijōbu desu! ) as a catchphrase. , and almost always refers to a person by their surname followed by the honorific さん , with only four exceptions. In , he uses "I'm fine!" ("大丈夫です！" ) as a catchphrase. The main clothing color themes of Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, and Athena Cykes (blue, red, and yellow, respectively) are the three primary colors. In Justice's "Stylin' Street Clothes" DLC outfit for Dual Destinies , his backpack has a little keychain that bears a resemblance to Trucy's Mr. Hat puppet and a button similar to those belonging to Ema Skye. If the player chooses this outfit in the Extras menu and then plays any section of the game where Justice's arms are bandaged, he will still be wearing his usual suit. This is likely because his "bandaged arms" form is a separate model, and the DLC costumes only affect the standard character models. , his backpack has a little keychain that bears a resemblance to Trucy's Mr. Hat puppet and a button similar to those belonging to Ema Skye. References to popular culture Edit During Turnabout Serenade, Trucy states that her hat is "like a little universe! Bigger on the inside than on the outside!" At this, Justice muses that this reminds him of a sci-fi show he used to watch. This is a reference to the long-running British sci-fi show Doctor Who, in which the main character travels the universe in his spacecraft/time machine, one of the most notable features of which is that its interior is much larger than its exterior. Other media Edit Apollo Justice appears as an unlockable costume for the character Jack in the Capcom game We Love Golf! on the Wii, which is unlocked by winning all gold trophies in tournament mode. An unlockable Pearl Fey costume for the character Annie also exists in the game. As part of a promotion for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice in Japan, Apollo Justice appears as a fire-element monster in Puzzle & Dragons. The other Ace Attorney characters that appear as part of the promotion are Phoenix Wright, Maya Fey, and Rayfa Padma Khura'in. Notes Edit |
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Canada is exploring the use of gender-neutral options on identity cards, Justin Trudeau told a television station on Sunday as he became the first Canadian prime minister to march in a gay pride parade. Trudeau did not give details, saying only the government was exploring the "best way" and studying other jurisdictions. "That's part of the great arc of history sweeping towards justice," he told CP24. A PMO spokeswoman confirmed to CBC News they are looking into changes. "We are conducting a review of all the circumstances in which the government requires or produces identity documents in order not to exclude people whose gender identity does not match the binary standard. This could include neutrality in several situations," Andrée-Lyne Hallé wrote in an email. Last week, Ontario said it would allow the use of a third gender indicator, X, for driver's licences. Countries including Australia, New Zealand and Nepal already allow the use of the X gender indicator. Trudeau also said last month's relaxation of Canadian blood-donation restrictions on men who have sex with other men was "not good enough," saying the government was going to work toward easing it further. According to Canadian Blood Services, men who have sex with other men can now donate after one year of abstinence, down from five years previously. |
(Above: Scientists examine a 15-year-old girl who lived in the Inca Empire, then was sacrificed and remained frozen for 500 years) Incas fattened up their children before sacrifice on the volcano The Times October 2, 2007 Grim evidence of how the Incas “fattened up” children before sacrificing them to their gods has emerged from a new analysis of hair from two 500-year-old mummies preserved near the summit of a volcano… The remains of the 15-year-old girl known as the “Llullaillaco Maiden” and the seven-year-old “Llullaillaco Boy” revealed that their diets changed markedly in the 12 months up to their deaths, shedding new light on the rituals of the ancient Andean civilization. The research, by a British-led team, suggests that the children were fed a ceremonial diet before being marched to a shrine 82ft (25 metres) from the top of the 22,110ft (6,739 metres) volcano Llullaillaco, where they were suffocated or left to die from exposure. Before being chosen as sacrificial victims, the boy and girl had followed a typical peasant diet. This raises the possibility that they were chosen from among the Incas’ conquered subjects and killed not only to pacify the mountain gods, but also to instill terror and respect for an imperial power. “It looks to us as though the children were led up to the summit shrine in the culmination of a year-long rite, drugged and then left to succumb to exposure,” said Timothy Taylor of the University of Bradford, one of the lead researchers. “Although some may wish to view these grim deaths within the context of indigenous belief systems, we should not forget that the Inca were imperialists too and the treatment of such peasant children may have served to instill fear and facilitate social control over remote mountain areas.” The two mummified bodies, along with a third belonging to a six-year-old girl, were discovered in 1999 on Llullaillaco, in northwestern Argentina, near the Chilean border. All are exquisitely preserved, though the younger girl’s body had been damaged by a lightning strike, giving her the nickname “Lightning Girl”. The Maiden of Llullaillaco or “La Doncella”, which is considered among the best preserved of all Andean mummies, has gone on public display recently for the first time, at the High Mountain Archaeological Museum in the nearby town of Salta. “Lightning Girl” was a six-year-old girl who the Incas sacrificed and was later struck by lightning In the new research, Dr Taylor, his colleague Andrew Wilson and others have now examined hair taken from the Maiden and the Boy for isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. Isotopes are atomic variants of particular elements, and their relative abundance in hair, can reveal detailed information about an individual’s diet and where he or she once lived. The study, which is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that the children spent much of their lives eating a diet composed primarily of vegetables, such as potatoes, which indicates a peasant background. In the 12 months before their deaths, however, both children’s hair shows that they started to receive maize, which was considered a food of the elite, and animal protein, almost certainly from dried llama meat known as charki. “By examining hair samples from these unfortunate children, a chilling story has started to emerge of how the children were ‘fattened up’ for sacrifice,” Dr Wilson said. A scientist carefully extracts a hair from the sacrificial victim known as the “Llullaillaco Maiden,” in a labroom that is kept at a constant freezing temperature “Given the surprising change in their diets and the symbolic cutting of their hair, it appears that various events were staged in which the status of the children was raised. In effect, their countdown to sacrifice had begun some considerable time prior to death.” The hair isotopes show a further change in the children’s lifestyle about three to four months before they died, which suggests that is when they began their pilgrimage to the volcano, probably from the Inca capital, Cuzco. It is thought that the children were given maize beer or chicha and coca leaves, both to alleviate the symptoms of altitude sickness and to drug them into compliance with their fates. Byproducts of coca metabolism have been found in the hair of the children, with particularly high concentrations in the Maiden’s. As the oldest, she may have had more idea about what was about to happen to her. It is known that the Incas who conquered the indigenous tribes of the Andes chose the sons and daughters of local rulers and particularly attractive children for sacrifice. Some girls, known as acllas, were chosen at the age of around 4 and raised by priestesses. Some would be offered as wives to local nobles, others would become priestesses and others would later be sacrificed. The two girls appear to have been left to die from exposure – at such a high altitude, it would not have taken long for children to die. Previous research, however, has shown that the Boy was suffocated by having a textile wrap drawn so tightly around him that his ribs were crushed and his pelvis dislocated. Evidence suggests that the “Llullaillaco Boy” was suffocated before being abandoned atop a 22,000-foot volcano in northern Argentina Empire of the Sun — The Inca empire began in the Cuzco region of the highlands of Peru in the early 13th century — During the next two centuries the empire grew to dominate the Andes, including large parts of modern Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, northwest Argentina, northern Chile and southern Colombia — It survived until the 16th century, when the Spaniards arrived under Francisco Pizarro in 1532. The following year Atahualpa, the Inca Emperor, was murdered and Spanish rule established — Inca religion was centered on the Sun god Inti, but the empire tolerated the many local gods or huacas venerated by subjects — Though not as bloodthirsty as the Aztecs of Mexico, the Incas indulged in human sacrifice, particularly of children, in a ceremony known as capacocha Some of the Inca burial objects found alongside the sacrificed Llullaillaco children |
RUILI, China — Her bleak, concrete-walled room is first in a row down a dark alley, behind a small shop selling water, cold teas and sample packets of shampoo. Inside the bare room lit by a single fluorescent tube, the prostitute sits atop a hard single bed, dressed in deep blue and gold. Her long hair cascades down her back; her face is painted carefully. She is 19, and only agreed to meet if we protected her identity. In another life, she might be a university student or a farm girl. Here, she is a prostitute servicing Chinese men in a drug-riddled city on the China-Myanmar border. There’s a knock at the door. It’s another young woman from Myanmar (formerly Burma), hurriedly pulling a stack of cash from her bra and handing it to the young woman. “Keep this,” she says. “The gangsters are outside tonight looking for money.” The panicked interruption is routine. Gangsters are never far; there is no protection by police, the women say. The young woman tucks the cash into her top and continues talking. She tells of crossing the border into China at 16 to work as a cleaning maid. She was, she says, tricked into prostitution, working on the streets. She moved up because she was good looking. She’s now a “mommy,” in charge of handling arrangements for other Myanmar prostitutes in this neighborhood. She accepts a limited number of her own clients, but wants desperately to be seen as in charge of her own affairs. The money she earns goes home to her family, to educate her brothers in Mandalay. While she was tricked into this life, she says, she’s accepted it. Her family, she insists, must not know how she earns the money she sends home. At this point, her visitors are rushed from the room. A customer is on his way. The truth she can’t tell emerges later. Her own mother sold her into prostitution in China. Her fate rests on surviving this dangerous world. Whether she will ever go home and realize her dream of building a new farmhouse for her family depends on her ability to survive the wretched underbelly of a Chinese border town. Stories like hers play out over and again in Ruili, this small Chinese city 10 miles from a permeable border with Myanmar. It’s the start of China’s heroin trafficking route, where HIV/AIDS first entered the country in 1989. Smuggling is routine at all hours. Traders who don’t want to cross the official border checkpoints and pay taxes simply boat across a few miles downstream, where police are more amenable to looking the other way. Over this border, everything moves with practiced ease. Mundane goods like food, clothing and cooking oil slip back and forth. But also illicit items like guns and drugs. With the rise in the number of single Chinese men in the past decade, demand has grown for one particular Myanmar import: women. Some come willingly, others are tricked and traded, and some don’t even know they’ve crossed an international border. Many are children. One Myanmar aid group says known trafficking cases — mostly bought brides — quadrupled from 2008 to 2009. Though aid groups detail the increase, neither they nor the Chinese government can provide firm numbers. At least 10,000 women from Myanmar live and work in the Ruili area, with varying degrees of legal status. Many are maids and nannies. Many more work in the sex trade. This is a hub of prostitution, and foreign women are both exotic — a big draw for Chinese men — and cheaper than Chinese girls. Prostitution halls are often disguised as massage parlors, but the sex trade is barely hidden. Women lured from Myanmar to China fill a gap created by this country’s one-child policy and cultural preference for sons. By 2020, an estimated 35 million Chinese men will be unable to find wives. Increasingly, bachelors buy women from poorer countries like Myanmar and North Korea. The Chinese government has stood firm to its single-child policy, but government-linked sociologists have begun to publicly question its impact. Though the policy appears to be holding fast, demographers say it’s clear that change is needed. “The situation has created a very cheap and very strong marriage market,” said Wang Yi, a sociologist and population researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. While prostitutes live on the fringe, working illegally, many quasi-legal brides fare better. The countryside around Ruili is dotted with small villages where dozens of the women have come from Myanmar. The going price for a bride “in top condition” is 50,000 yuan ($7,300). An hour from Ruili, in Nongbie village, more than half the wives of the 100 or so families are from Myanmar. Those willing to talk insist they came to China freely. Han Rui, the mayor’s wife, discussed inter-cultural marriage in her living room as her son studied Chinese characters. With a baby on her lap, she spoke about cross-border marriage as an arrangement that benefits everyone. Though she wouldn’t acknowledge a shortage of local Chinese women, she and the other women in town laugh when asked how they met their husbands — most of whom are ethnic Dai, closer to the people of Myanmar culturally than Han Chinese. “Oh, we just met,” one woman says. “At a festival,” another chimes in, giggling. Bride brokers work openly in these parts. But because the business is unregulated, horror stories happen. Women have been beaten and killed by their Chinese husbands. The local Burmese women’s federation recounts a harrowing tale: A woman sold to an elderly Chinese husband escaped his home and made her way to the local police station. Because she spoke no Chinese, the police could not understand her problem. They sent her home to virtual imprisonment. Trafficking of women and girls is not confined to the border. Further west in Yunnan province, women and girls are smuggled in from Vietnam and Laos. The problem stretches across China’s vast borders. International anti-trafficking agencies say women are brought to China from Russia, Mongolia and the Ukraine. Women from the poorest countries are most at risk, and the problem worsens on China’s border with North Korea — particularly because North Korean women are sent back to their home country to face disastrous consequences when caught. In an odd illustration of China’s place as both a developing country and economic power, aid groups say China’s human trafficking problem is multi-faceted. Even as the country imports thousands of women and girls, poor Chinese women still are trafficked to other countries. In addition, Southeast Asian women are trafficked through China to places like Thailand. In its 2010 report on human trafficking, the U.S. State Department calls China a second-tier threat, in part for its failure to provide data and comply with international agreements. The report, released in June, faults in part China’s gender imbalance. “During the year, there was a significant increase in the reported number of Vietnamese and Burmese citizens trafficked in China,” the State Department said. “Some trafficking victims are kept locked up, and many of them are subjected to debt bondage. Many North Koreans who enter into China are subjected to forced prostitution or forced labor in forced marriages or in internet sex businesses.” Officially, China has intensified efforts to combat cross-border trafficking, but aid agencies say the problem is growing. As the shortage of Chinese women grows, the outlook is bleak. “Some experts and NGOs suggested trafficking in persons has been fueled by economic disparity and the effects of population planning policies, and that a shortage of marriageable women fuels the demand for abducted women, especially in rural areas,” the U.S. State Department said. “While it is difficult to determine if the PRC’s male-female birth ratio imbalance, with more males than females, is currently affecting trafficking of women for brides, some experts believe that it has already or may become a contributing factor.” Talk of policy and programs means little to the women and girls sold into China. For them, survival is a priority and dreams are in short supply. |
The F1 driver market shouldn’t be as interesting as it is, but who-goes-where remains compelling news. As does un-qualified guesswork on the subject. Here’s mine. The big one of course is, will Lewis leave McLaren for Mercedes? It's entirely possible. The dream team of Ron and his chosen one should have delivered more than it has since 2007. Perhaps now’s the time for a break and some new Twitter accounts. And Mercedes might be looking for another driver. A Merc shoe-in? A Merc shoe-in? Surely the Lewis/Merc thing hinges on the 2014 engine regs? If Mercedes can persuade Lewis that they’ll have a dump-valve-popping-monster-motor for that season, one which Adrian Newey has already stated will be all about power, then those surely would be grounds to move? Will McLaren still run Mercedes engines in 2014? No idea. They had a reasonably successful relationship in the 80s with some people called Honda – and it was based around turbochargers. McLaren Honda – that still sounds right somehow. Pure conjecture, but as of today there are three engine suppliers signed-up for the 1.6 litre 'new dawn': Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault. Of the three, I’d say Mercedes has the biggest and possibly the best R&D resources for this project. But others are sure to join: I pray one of them is Honda. Nothing warms the cockles like the sight of a Honda engineer in virginal white paddock fashion, busily fussing and plugging things into data ports. It’s been too long. He may know something He may know something Of course, Michael Schumacher has to leave Mercedes to allow Lewis to arrive – and that does look like the situation. Bernie’s hilariously indiscreet interview at Spa effectively announced Schumacher’s second retirement. The speed and sincerity of the denial from MS means Bernie’s utterance must be true, no? Now for the juicy part of armchair silly season: a stream of unfounded and partially idiotic assumptions. Schumacher leaves Mercedes. Lewis goes to Mercedes. Martin Whitmarsh asks Ron for the company cheque-book, but who does he go for? The no-brain choice is Paul Di Resta – or rather it was, because despite a very impressive first season and a half in F1, his massively quick team mate Nico Hulkenberg has just begun to shade him for raw pace. But then Paul’s KERS always seems to be on the blink. Where’s Nico Rosberg in all this? No idea. Di Resta has been a part of the wider Mercedes-Benz Motorsport family since his DTM days, but German manufacturers tend to like German drivers, and that benefits Nico – assuming of course that Mercedes remains an engine supplier to McLaren who, incidentally, have for the first time just started paying for their lovely Mercedes 2.4 litre V8s. What about Ricciardo? I came back from the Monaco race weekend on the same easyJet flight as him, so he must be pretty cheap. That will appeal to Ron, who doesn’t like wasting cash. Peter Sauber tests Kobie comms Peter Sauber tests Kobie comms Now, if McLaren changed engine supplier, perhaps to Honda, then the team might like to have a Japanese driver. That could lead to the quite delicious possibility of Ron Dennis attempting to tell Kamui Kobayashi to calm-the-bastard-down into 130R. Kamui, being the most exciting thing on four wheels, will hopefully ignore the message. See, I’m already constructing imaginary conversations between Ron and Kamui in a team called McLaren Honda! This is way more fun than real motorsport journalism. Red Bull’s jockey situation is sorted for next year, a parity that must have both sides questioning getting their houses in order so early in the season. Mark Webber’s had a dismal run of form pretty much from the minute he announced his 2013 deal, and Vettel wants a faster car. The hunt for Red Guff The hunt for Red Guff Luca De Montezemelo, genetically incapable of missing an opportunity to be impish, yesterday said that Vettel would be most welcome at Ferrari. He’s been saying the same thing for a while now. When Fernando finally got past Sebastian last week, and the German-finger-mouse watched the F2012 disappear into the distance, he probably wondered what he’d done wrong. Consecutive World Championships, and now he’s fighting for the lower sections of the podium and making adverts for shit SUVs. But Sebastian is not available for any team other than Red Bull next year. Which means we’ll probably see him in a Ferrari. Or a McLaren Hyundai in 2014. Perez to Ferrari? Looks logical, but then like the interior of a 1984 Testarossa, not everything at Maranello works according to logic. Luca thinks he doesn’t have enough experience – which seems unfair given his mature performances this year. And even though poor Felipe has somewhat improved his form in the past few races, he remains just that, generically known as ‘poor Felipe’. An F1 driver with an unfortunate prefix and diminished speed is surely less desirable than a young Mexican who looks suspiciously like Pedro Rodriguez and who appears to have similar natural sparkle? He’s even on the young Ferrari Driver Clienti Manettino Spumanti Programme, so he should be ‘in’ like Daniel Craig in a convent. Look into my eyes, not around the eyes Look into my eyes, not around the eyes But, sadly for Sergio, Luca is secretly luring Michael Schumacher to Maranello one last time, to bid his final arrivederci with the Scuderia. Isn’t he? Well, even if he isn’t it would be effing marvelous if he was, and it would clear up the name of the racy 458 street car we’re expecting next year: The 458 Michael. That kind of works, doesn’t it? In comes Perez for 2014 as MS heads back to retirement, or falling off motorcycles as it's sometimes known. Remember Robert Kubica? He won a rally last weekend, which must prove that he still stands an outside chance of racing in F1 again. Ferrari did once have an option on him, then again, for all the vodka and significant silences, they still love Kimi – their last World Champion. Could he make a return to Ferrari and, more to the point, could he be arsed to board the flight to engage in negotiations? All we know is that F1 is miles, miles better with him in the script. Incidentally, he’s doing well at Lotus because they provide him with exactly what he wants: the biggest caps and shades in the paddock. With car sales on the floor, Renault can barely justify staying in F1 without a French driver, and despite being a bit crashy into the first corner, Grosjean’s speed more than justifies his place in the team. So, we have to assume that in 2013 Renault Lotus Renault Renault, er, Lotus will remain unchanged. Particularly in the sense that all of us will continue to be baffled by the Lotus bit. Anyone got any Benetton stickers? Finnish line Finnish line The lower ranks provide less amusing speculation because transfers are governed by boring things like money. Will Kovalainen jump back up into a better team? He’s so respected at Caterham his steering wheel has one more button than Petrov’s. Little known fact that. Heikki is good enough to be plonked into a fast car and be quick. In fact almost all of the irritatingly talented sods are good enough to do that – a fact that most of us would do well to remember when we point and laugh at the unfortunates lurking under blue flags. Where were we? Oh yes, Sauber. F1’s petri dish for the propagation of F1 talent. It’s quite possible Peter Sauber could lose both of his drivers over the coming months, which seems mighty unfair, but the Ferrari Signatori Ravioli Training Academy will feed him more young pups, and he’s a master at scouting the lower formulae: Valsecchi anyone? Mind you, Mercedes could then take young Cecotto and produce a special edition C63 in his name to blow raspberries at BMW. By my calculations, about nine of you might get that last gag. Pastor Maldonado is apparently a very nice chap, but he looks completely terrifying to me, so I’m just going to say that he’s very fast and deserves to stay with Sir Frank Ltd. He can also give the impression of being an accident waiting to happen, but I didn’t say that. Bruno is slowly getting it together, but his team-mate has shaded him this year, and that’s tough to come back from. Wolffish look Wolffish look Like Sauber, Williams are scouters, they’ll want fresh meat. Susie Wolff for a curvier pit lane in 2013? Great for the sport, and there’s even some gratuitous, smutty sexism in that last sentence, but I just can’t see it yet. The drive, that is. That leaves us where, exactly? With no real idea of what’s going to happen. But if any of this tommy-rot does come true, I will be buying myself a Shandy Bass and some Nobby’s Nuts by way of congratulation. Happy Armchairing, one and all. |
When NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn embarked on his mission to the International Space Station last December, he could only take a few personal items. He stashed photos, stuffed animals from his kids and a book of puzzles he'd never use. Marshburn would also miss Christmas that year, so his family packed a stocking filled with small gifts, including John Grisham's Skipping Christmas, an ironic nod from his sister. SEE ALSO: 15 Twitter Accounts Every Space Lover Should Follow Astronauts are each allowed to bring 3.3 pounds worth of belongings to the ISS, most of which usually comes back with them to Earth. However, space agencies always leave some room for quirky, cultural items. Patches, flags and state pins often take up the majority of that space, but sometimes unexpected items pop up on the Official Flight Kit manifesto. Here are a few curious things that have surprised fresh arrivals on the space station. Fruitcake Commander Chris Hadfield was floating about the ISS in March when he came across something strange in the supply room. "Hey, Tom, look at this!" Hadfield called. Marshburn glided over to find Hadfield holding a fruitcake about the size of a trash can lid. The two laughed and took a giant bite. "We have a place for bonus food, but we didn't ask for that, who would ever ask for that?" Marshburn told Mashable. "We tried it, and it was great. The flavor and texture was just fantastic. We ate that for about a week." Guitar, Ukulele and an Electric Piano If you had the talent, you could form your own band on the space station. Hadfield became a web celebrity for playing the guitar on YouTube. He even made the first music video from space, in which he floats around while strumming David Bowie's "Space Oddity." While Hadfield had the slow hand on that mission, Marshburn said the ukulele and electric piano, which had been aboard the station for a decade, remained untouched during his time there. However, photographic evidence shows that at least a few astronauts have tickled those keys and frets. Left: Carl Walz performs for a group of astronauts on board the ISS. Right: ISS science officer Ed Lu — another astronaut musician — performs for space station commander Yuri Malenchenko in the foreground. We're still holding out for a three-piece rendition of "She Blinded Me With Science." Legos Some astronauts do Sudoku in their free time, but Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa opted for more meta activity. The flight engineer brought a set of Legos to space in 2012 to build a replica of the ISS ... while on the space station. Expedition 34 crew members pictured clockwise (from top right): NASA astronaut Kevin Ford, commander; Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and Roman Romanenko, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy. The floating pieces in zero gravity made the intricate model even harder to assemble, but Furukawa still managed to complete the ISS and two other space-related models of the Mars rovers and Hubble Space Telescope. A Box of Christmas Decorations Isolation can creep up on an astronaut, especially around the holidays. So, a few cosmonauts from the Russian Federal Space Agency put together a box of Christmas decorations to make the space station feel more like home. "It is important to celebrate holidays, for crew unity and to refresh the body," Marshburn said. The bag of holiday supplies included plastic strings, Santa hats and a Christmas tree just more than one foot high. Six-Book Library Along with the Grisham novel, Marshburn also read Collapse by Jared Diamond and started a book by Dave Barry. He left all the books to build up the space station's "library," which is actually just an old box floating in a corner of the cargo area. At Marshburn's last count, there were only six books, but there's a reason for that. While Marshburn describes himself as an "avid reader," he found that he — along with everyone else on board — had little time for it. And when he did, his brain was exhausted from working on complicated experiments and other activities to maintain the space station. "I got a book of puzzles and brainteasers," Marshburn said. "But it turns out that life in space is all brainteasers." BONUS: Photos Chris Hadfield Snapped From the Space Station 20 Epic Photos From Astronaut Chris Hadfield All images courtesy of NASA |
A federal appeals court has breathed new life into a pair of cases seeking to force the Justice Department to sue former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE to recover more emails from her private server. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday reversed a lower court’s ruling that the State Department’s review of Clinton’s emails was sufficient — and that no intervention by the Justice Department was needed. Watchdog groups Judicial Watch and Cause of Action filed separate suits in 2015 seeking to force Secretary of State John Kerry John Forbes KerryOvernight Defense: White House eyes budget maneuver to boost defense spending | Trump heads to Hanoi for second summit with Kim | Former national security officials rebuke Trump on emergency declaration 58 ex-national security officials rebuke Trump over emergency declaration Ex-national security officials to issue statement slamming Trump's emergency declaration: WaPo MORE and U.S. Archivist David Ferriero to refer the email issue to the Department of Justice to file a federal records suit to recover the emails. ADVERTISEMENT U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had previously ruled that state’s efforts to recover the documents — tens of thousands of which Clinton turned over voluntarily in 2014 — were sufficient and threw out the cases. But the three-judge appeals court panel on Tuesday said that State had not done enough. "Even though those efforts bore some fruit, the Department has not explained why shaking the tree harder — e.g., by following the statutory mandate to seek action by the Attorney General — might not bear more still,” D.C. Circuit Judge Stephen Williams, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote in the court’s opinion. “It is therefore abundantly clear that, in terms of assuring government recovery of emails, appellants have not 'been given everything [they] asked for. “Absent a showing that the requested enforcement action could not shake loose a few more emails, the case is not moot.” The panel heard arguments in the case in early November, shortly after FBI Director James Comey roiled the presidential election with a letter informing Congress that investigators had discovered more emails potentially “pertinent” to its then-completed investigation into Clinton’s server. Comey ultimately said that the emails did not change the bureau’s conclusion that no criminal charges against Clinton for mishandling classified information were appropriate. Tuesday’s ruling does not order the State Department to make the referral to the Justice Department — nor does it obligate Justice to sue Clinton if presented with a referral. But the language of the ruling does appear to suggest that the court considers the possibility that the Justice Department's involvement could uncover more emails. “While the case might well also be moot if a referral were pointless (e.g., because no imaginable enforcement action by the Attorney General could lead to recovery of the missing emails), the record here provides no factual support for finding mootness on that basis,” Williams wrote. Clinton deleted 30,000 emails in 2014 that she said were of a personal nature. The FBI recovered 15,000 work-related emails that Clinton did not turn over in the set of 30,000 that she returned to the State Department in 2014. Judicial Watch applauded the decision, arguing that it opens the door for the incoming Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE administration to pursue legal action against Clinton. “The courts seem to be fed up with the Obama administration’s refusal to enforce the rule of law on the Clinton emails,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “This ruling means that the Trump Justice Department will have to decide if it wants to finally enforce the rule of law and try to retrieve all the emails Clinton and her aides unlawfully took with them when they left the State Department.” Trump campaigned in part on the promise to pursue legal action against Clinton — often encouraging “lock her up” chants during his rallies — over the use of the server, but following the election has said that he will not go after the former secretary of State. |
On Tuesday (Aug. 22), Joey Bada$$ cancelled his upcoming shows on Logic's Everybody Tour. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, my Cleveland, Chicago & Toronto shows on the #EverybodyTour are cancelled,” the 22-year-old MC tweeted. Despite not disclosing a clear reason as to why he decided to skip out on his next three shows, fans believe it was Bada$$'s decision to watch the solar eclipse without any protective eyewear. On Monday (Aug. 21), Bada$$ boasted about his reasoning for gazing at the powerful eclipse. “Am I crazy for watching the eclipse today w no glasses? I’ve sungazed before and afterwards saw colors for a whole day. I didn’t die tho…This ain’t the first solar eclipse and I’m pretty sure our ancestors ain’t have no fancy eyewear. Also pretty sure they ain’t all go blind,” he wrote in two separate posts. The following day after his tweets, Bada$$ cancelled his upcoming dates. Interestingly enough, despite gloating about his immaculate eyesight on Monday, Bada$$ posted a picture of him wearing protective eyewear the following day on Instagram. Billboard reached out to Bada$$'s reps and they offered no comment regarding his recent cancellation. Take a look at some of his tweets below. Am I crazy for watching the eclipse today w no glasses? I've sungazed before and afterwards saw colors for a whole day. I didn't die tho — BADMON (@joeyBADASS) August 21, 2017 This ain't the first solar eclipse and I'm pretty sure our ancestors ain't have no fancy eyewear. Also pretty sure they ain't all go blind. — BADMON (@joeyBADASS) August 21, 2017 Due to unforeseen circumstances, my Cleveland, Chicago & Toronto shows on the #EverybodyTour are cancelled. — BADMON (@joeyBADASS) August 22, 2017 |
Man your ships! And may the Force be with you! –General Dodonna Rebel Aces live for the excitement of battle. The thrill of successfully steering through an asteroid field while fleeing a squadron of TIE fighters. The rush of speeding into the fray as you shoot at every enemy within sight. The suspense of not knowing whether that last-minute weapons adjustment will save your life or get you killed. At these moments, your vehicle or beast is not just your transportation, but your chosen weapon, your shield, and maybe even your best friend. Stay on Target, an Ace career supplement for Star Wars®: Age of Rebellion™, features over twenty new vehicles and starships that Ace characters might take into battle – or find themselves fighting against. Stay on Target gives those interested in the Beast Rider specialization a range of species to ride into battle. Today’s preview looks at a few of these vehicles: a top-of-the-line landspeeder, a heavily-armed long-range starfighter, and a droid-equipped starcraft from the Clone Wars. We’ll also look at two beast mounts: the noble, flying Ruping and the ferocious, catlike Narglatch, and take a peek at the rules that allow any character to use an animal, tamed or not, as their mount. Top Gear A Rebel strike force is often in need of a good getaway vehicle, something capable of outrunning any Imperial pursuit. The sleek, precision-built AV21 landspeeder can carry two Rebels away from the scene of the crime faster than almost anything else on land. A favorite of racing aficionados and the wealthy elite, an AV21 would delight any speed-addicted Driver or Hotshot who could get his hands on one of these rare, expensive hot rods. The BTS-A2 H-wing starship will interest any Gunners on your team. Perfect for long-range patrols, freighter escorts, piracy jobs, or safely transporting diplomats, the heavily armored and heavily armed H-wing punches well above its weight. It has two cockpits: one for the pilot, and another where a pair of weapons system operators control the turret-mounted laser cannon, forward-mounted light ion cannons, and forward-mounted torpedo launchers. Not many Rebel installations field the H-wings but your team might find it the perfect interstellar vehicle. For Mechanics and Riggers wanting to customize a starship, the A3-Nimbus “V-wing” interceptor is ideal: durable, well-designed, and inexpensive. V-wings entered service with the Republic Navy late in the Clone Wars, selected for their speed and agility. They lack hyperdrive, but each one was originally outfitted with a Q7 astromech droid to monitor systems and perform light maintenance. With a little tinkering, your V-wing could have an X-wing’s speed and firepower. War Beasts Almost every culture in the Star Wars universe uses beasts of burden in agriculture, labor, and warfare. Stay on Target allows players and GMs to transform almost any animal that is large enough into a mount by giving the animal the traits of a vehicle: silhouette, speed (based on Agility), and handling (based on Agility, silhouette, and Willpower). Animals can be trained as mounts or mounted untrained at the rider’s own peril – a Survival check determines whether character can successfully ride a beast. Beast mounts can perform many of the same combat maneuvers that other vehicles can, but they can also climb, jump, and even push objects with their bodies. They may also be able to sense imminent danger, defend themselves in battle, or even save the life of a beloved rider. No one knows where the narglatch evolved. Because of their immunity to cold, they are used as mounts on the freezing world of Orto Plutonia, yet they have also been found in the swamps of Naboo. These feline beasts have never truly been domesticated, but remain instinctive predators who quietly stalk their prey before closing in on the kill. However, once trained a narglatch will become loyal to its master and fearsome in battle with claws deadlier than many melee weapons. If you want to sneak up on an Imperial installation and attack before your presence is noticed, a narglatch may be the perfect mount for you. Rupings have been used as mounts on the temperate world of Onderon for generations. These graceful, soaring reptiles possess two sets of eyes facing opposite directions, allowing them a huge field of vision and making them difficult to catch off guard. Rupings also are armed with giant claws that can deliver mortal wounds in an instant or snatch up prey and carry it aloft. They make ideal mounts for Rebel scouts gathering intelligence about an Imperial installation, and while a ruping may not fly faster than an airspeeder, it can keep you out of danger and touch down in tight spots where no airspeeder could possibly land. The Ride of Your Life If a ruping or narglatch doesn’t appeal to your Beast Rider character, Stay on Target describes fifteen other beasts, including tauntauns, banthas, and the immense reptilian fambaa that have been part of the Gungan army for decades. As a GM, you might deploy Imperial soldiers mounted on narglatch against your team of Rebels, or send your rebels on a mission in the Tatooine desert, with no transporation other than banthas. Beyond rebel starfighters, Stay on Target also introduces three different starfighter carriers and a quartet of TIE fighters, including the fearsome TIE Phantom, equipped with a cloaking device that makes it invisible both to radar and to the naked eye. Whether you’re an Ace looking for the perfect ride or a GM seeking new obstacles for a team of Rebellion operatives, the vehicles and beasts of Stay on Target will enrich your Age of Rebellion campaign. Pre-order Stay on Target today! |
One word: puberty. I will never be the woman who asks you about children. I will never ask you if you want them. I will never ask you if you're trying to have them. I will never tell you that you should have them, and I promise I will never, ever tell you how many rich and beautiful blessings you are missing out on by not having children. Because have you met a child? They're giant sticky time-sucks. I love my two little girls a whole lot, but there is a reason I only had two. And there IS a reason they are almost seven years apart. I do not have a child-loving personality. Growing up I hated babysitting the two times I ever tried it, and I have actively avoided other people's kids ever since. I grew up in a home where children were not to be out in public unless they were on their very best behavior, so, needless to say, my sister and I were raised to handle adult situations, conversations, and sheer boredom without bothering my mom or anyone else. When I found out I was pregnant, I decided — above all else — that it was my responsibility not to send an assh*le out into the world, and I've tried to parent in a way that will prevent such a thing from happening. I'm not perfect, but I can promise you I will never bring a toddler to an R-rated movie. And if she does happen to throw a fork at the back of your head in a restaurant? I will buy your meal and march that child right out to the car after they apologize. (But then again, if I knew I had a fork thrower on my hands, I wouldn't take them out in public in the first place. You're welcome.) The truth is I could write an entire post about how much fun it is to have kids. I may even be able to convince a die-hard naysayer that kids can be cool sometimes — because they can be. My kids hug with their whole bodies and the unconditional love they have for me despite my flaws and tendency to scream is unfathomable. However, I'm well aware that the grass is often greener, and while I love a good cuddle with one of my little chickens, here are a few reasons why I'm jealous of people without kids and who choose to remain child-free. 1. The walk to your bedroom is not lined with LEGO shrapnel, viciously awaiting your bare feet. 2. Your dry-clean-only clothes have never been used as a tissue. 3. The only bodily waste you have to worry about cleaning up is your own — or perhaps your pet's. 4. You will never knock over a mini-potty full of pee. 5. YOU WILL NEVER HAVE TO POTTY TRAIN A HUMAN. 6. College savings can go toward retirement. 7. You will never wake up to a set of mattress-level eyeballs at 3 AM quietly staring at you. 8. You will never know the terror of finding a rotten sippy cup of milk in your car. 9. You can sleep in if you want to. 10. If you cook, you'll be able to eat while your food is still hot, your cereal is still crunchy, and your beverage is still cold — all without whiney vultures hovering. 11. You'll never have to find someone to babysit when you go out of town or to the gynecologist. 12. You will never have to take an inquisitive five-year-old to the gynecologist. 13. Your Brazilian wax will never be brought up by a tiny human to a grocery store clerk with the statement "All the hair out of my mom's butt fell out." 14. Keeping up the Santa gig is exhausting, but I don't want to be the one who ruins it all. 15. You'll never wake up in a cold sweat at 5 AM because you forgot to play Tooth Fairy and all you have is a $20. 16. Colic. 17. Breastfeeding debates. 18. You'll never know about Caillou or the kind of damage he can do to your already fragile mental state. 19. An open juice box will never get tossed into your brand new leather handbag and leak all over. 20. You don't have to throw elbows when trying to do your makeup without "help." 21. You will never be on the edge of orgasm and hear, "MOM! I THREW UP IN MY BED." 22. You don't have to share your precious DVR space with cartoon characters. 23. Vacations are... relaxing. 24. No one will ever poop in your tub. 25. You could theoretically clean your house and have it stay that way. 26. You'll never accidentally ask another grown adult if they need to use the potty before going out for the night. 27. You can go to the gym whenever you want. 28. You'll never chaperone a field trip. Or realize you're the only parent forgot to turn in the field trip permission slip. 29. Puberty. With my husband as an attorney, aside from being jealous of people without kids, I've also become really jealous of those who will never have to worry about bailing their child out of jail or hiring them a lawyer. (Just kidding, I won't be bailing my kids out of jail because you know the best motivation my mom ever gave me to not get arrested? "I'm never bailing you out." Fine then, I'm never getting arrested — and I didn't!) (Please note that I used the terms CHOOSE TO REMAIN and CHILD-FREE rather than "all of you without kids" because some of you ache to have babies more than you ache for anything else in the world, and I know that hurt. I would never tell you to "BE GRATEFUL FOR ALL THE SLEEP YOU GET" when in reality you're probably not sleeping at all because you can't stop thinking about why you can't get pregnant/the adoption won't go through/some other difficult situation in regards to adding to your family. Nope, this isn't one of those posts.) ....... Casey Mullins is a vintage blogger, storyteller, and mental illness combatant. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook. |
READER COMMENTS ON "Guest Hosting 'Malloy Show' Friday!" (22 Responses so far...) COMMENT #1 [Permalink] ... Brad Friedman said on 12/17/2010 @ 3:41 pm PT... FOR THOSE LOOKING FOR TONIGHT'S LIVE CHAT ROOM - SCROLL UP! IT'S JUST ABOVE THE COMMENT SECTION! COMMENT #2 [Permalink] ... Marzi said on 12/18/2010 @ 5:37 am PT... Assange is not to be trusted after he threw Manning under the bus. Also, it worked to the advantage of the government to have the drone incident exposed as a psyop warning to journalists not to go too far with the truth about the corrupt wars/colonialism. All the Wiki infor was already vetted by MSM..... COMMENT #3 [Permalink] ... Glenn said on 12/18/2010 @ 9:05 am PT... You might have asked Coleen how a memo would stop the nanothermite from blowing up the THREE towers on 9/11. She is clearly a gatekeeper spook. COMMENT #4 [Permalink] ... Glenn said on 12/18/2010 @ 9:11 am PT... Marzi your right on, Assange doesn't pass the 9/11 acid test, he looks to be a CIA asset to be used to shut down the internet. COMMENT #5 [Permalink] ... maheanuu said on 12/18/2010 @ 9:51 am PT... Marzi, You are wrong on this, Assange did not throw Manning under the bus. It was a clown who like the average yellow belly that is on line today, was afraid that he might be drug into the fray, fingered Manning and the rest is history.... COMMENT #6 [Permalink] ... Ernest A. Canning said on 12/18/2010 @ 10:11 am PT... Interesting comment in second segment, Brad: "Criminalize everything." It seems that what the authoritarians going after Assange really want is to criminalize the truth. COMMENT #7 [Permalink] ... Marzi said on 12/19/2010 @ 5:37 am PT... Glenn, 100% agree Coleen fools people - she's a gatekeeper spook. She's keeping people focused on the planes and not on the real issue of explosives and the stand down. Not sure what was said on the radio, Brad, but we don't think much of her as you can guess. COMMENT #8 [Permalink] ... Jeannie Dean said on 12/19/2010 @ 11:05 am PT... Marzi and Glenn(et al) need to listen to the audio, THEN comment. Until they do (and it's always clear who has and hasn't) I don't give a flying crapping rat what they "think" of a hero like Coleen Rowley. I'm getting rreallllly impatient with the tossing around of so much baseless, emotional, misguided intangible accusations re: Mossad / CIA agents hurled around within these (usually fact based) threads. What a hot, ghetto mess is your backassward logic, here on full display: "I'm know I'm not Mossad. But someone here has got to be Mossad. Therefore YOU must be Mossad...especially if you disagree w/ me. That makes you really really really Mossad-y." Clearly, if whistleblowers don't make your pet agenda their own, if they don't advance YOUR (Alex Jonesian / Gordon Duffesque) specifically pre-dispositioned theorums, then the source in question is an infiltrating spook? Cuz that is, essentially, the boiled down argument that you all keep presenting here, in flaming thread after flaming thread, AS IF it's a real debate point. I'm telling you it's not. And I'm not alone. So if your gonna hurl up on a hero like you do? Better post a link supporting. And better make sure that link is *well sourced* enough to fly when kicked out of it's nest, or it ain't gonna live long around here. But hey, feel free to write whatever you want, here. It's your rep, not ours... I guess Alex Jones is feeling a little bit threatened by Assange. Someone else doing his "angry internet outsider with a mission to expose the corruption at the top" routine. And doing it with better hair. How dare Assange re-brand the term 'INFOWARs' (let alone the action of it) after Jones spent years building up the name recognition at great personal risk? Reason enough to go 100% ego-freak and feed your followers the same kind of garbage you accuse everyone else of being held hostage to... ...'prison planet' my fat ass. Sad. So much of your (assumed on my part)smarts is being subverted by hot air balderdash, just like the assclowns you are (legitimately) trying to subvert. Hoping you all can grow your critical thinking skills back like a tail-less iguana, or an overwatered chia pet. You can start by actually reading the cables. Mebbe actually listening to this audio. It shouldn't hurt. Consider it a self-intervention / auto correcting. Cuz next time I read this unfounded garbage that takes a cheap pot shot shit on an American Hero without any evidence? Well, I'm going to just start openly mocking you relentlessly and without shame. Jeannie Dean / Janine Winter NY STATE SENATE WTC Emergency Task Force Lower Manhattan Supply Coordinator Sept 17, 2001 - Jan. 1 - 2002 FYI - 9/11 Truth supporter and NOT MOSSAD, but claiming I'm not will probably only make YOU all think that I am, so maybe I am, after all (*grins devilishly). COMMENT #9 [Permalink] ... Jeannie Dean said on 12/19/2010 @ 11:20 am PT... Oh, almost forgot: SUPERB radio, Brad and Des! One of your best shows, IMHO. COMMENT #10 [Permalink] ... Brad Friedman said on 12/19/2010 @ 12:17 pm PT... Jeannie Dean stole some of my planned thunder in her response (thanks, JD!). But on one or two direct points... Marzi said @ 2 & 7: Assange is not to be trusted after he threw Manning under the bus. Your evidence for Assange having thrown "Manning under the bus"? I'm aware of none. Quite the opposite in fact. Feel free to share yours, however, if you wish to be taken seriously here. Also, it worked to the advantage of the government to have the drone incident exposed as a psyop warning to journalists not to go too far with the truth about the corrupt wars/colonialism. What "drone incident"? And what "psyop warning"? Or is just saying stuff enough? No evidence necessary? All the Wiki infor was already vetted by MSM..... And what do you mean by that as well? Or, again, just saying stuff is enough?? 100% agree Coleen fools people - she's a gatekeeper spook. Really? Odd that "gatekeeper spooks" challenge the government, call for an end to government wars and lies, call for support of the government's Enemy #1 right now (Bradley Manning) and go all the way to the White House to do it by getting arrested for it after a 22 hour drive. What gate is she keeping exactly? Seems you and Glenn are far better at gatekeeping, at least if your comments here are any indication. She's keeping people focused on the planes and not on the real issue of explosives and the stand down. Not sure what was said on the radio, Brad, but we don't think much of her as you can guess. Given that you didn't even listen to it ("Not sure what was said on the radio"), as you can imagine, I don't think much of your criticism of it. But thanks anyway. If you have anything actually substantive to offer on any of the points you wish to make, of course, feel free. Until then, you may look forward to a video I'll be posting later today which speaks to some of my thoughts on folks who seem to share your no-evidence-or-substance-necessary viewpoints. COMMENT #11 [Permalink] ... Jeannie Dean said on 12/19/2010 @ 1:04 pm PT... ...new Prison Planet Game Show coming soon: Alex Jones' "MOSSAD, OR NOT?" ™ Contestants are shown a seemingly random series of celebrity / public personality profiles and are asked while their nuts are hooked up to electrodes that deliver just enough of a shock to hurt so good, if they are... (audience collectively monotones:) "MOSSAD, OR NOT?" There's also a sub-category for "Anannauki Agent" and "any-damn-word + bot" for bonus round points. I hear Alex has already successfully marketed the board game to Parker Brothers ™and is colluding with Giraldo Rivera to plant a 12 foot advert for it on Assange's dick. I hear that. Don't know for sure if it's true, but I hear it. So it must be worth reporting and repeating here no matter what evidence exists to the contrary. You heard it here first. You're welcome. COMMENT #12 [Permalink] ... David Howard said on 12/19/2010 @ 1:21 pm PT... Everyone needs to learn that 9/11 was the American regime nuking its own largest city, and it created the China Syndrome which then poisoned thousands of responders and millions of NY residents. Google "9/11 Cancers" COMMENT #13 [Permalink] ... Marzi said on 12/20/2010 @ 6:55 am PT... I've heard Coleen in person and have not changed my opinion. Until she actively campaigns for an investigation into Building 7, and discusses the fact that the "terrorists" were of little consequence because they couldn't have handled the jets they were supposed to fly (if they got into the cockpits at all), then I'll be a supporter. How about inviting Manny Badillo on your show next time? COMMENT #14 [Permalink] ... truthisall said on 12/20/2010 @ 7:59 am PT... TIME FOR TRUTH Jessie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo4z3Iwq2Bc FOX Pilot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3WW6eoLcLI Geraldo- Building What? http://buildingwhat.org/...do-at-large-on-fox-news/ David Ray Griffin http://www.youtube.com/w...ImNQ&feature=related Richard Gage http://world911truth.org...911-blueprint-for-truth/ Press for Truth -Jersey Girls http://world911truth.org/911-press-for-truth/ COMMENT #15 [Permalink] ... Jeannie Dean said on 12/20/2010 @ 10:01 am PT... Richard (Truth is All), Marzi, Camusrebel, Mick, ALL 9/11 TRUTHERS: With all due respect, no one is disputing 9/11 Truth in this thread. And yet, none of you can stop honking on about it like it's the only story there is. You're preaching to the choir, here, WHILE maligning the heroes that are ON OUR SIDE just because you have a personal axe to grind. Especially gross, from Truthers, when I tell them that I'm a 9/11 recovery worker - not only does my opinion count for NADA to you all even tho' I was there for most of the recovery, but not a one of you...not a ONE of you has asked about my health, or my experience, or my insider knowledge... No, instead you steamroll every thread with your unsupported bullshit, and continue to rip Brad and Ernest, COLEEN ROWLEY (and next ME, no doubt)for all you think we HAVEN'T done. Shame on all of you! Your lack of intellectual curiosity re: the thing you can't stop preaching to us all about (especially those of us who still have the ashes of neighbors on our boots and lumps of tumors in our lungs) is appalling by any standards. It tells me you don't mean a word of your rhetoric...just looking to vomit all over me with whatever knee-jerk bullshit you *think* you know cuz it FEELS good to you. This makes you no different than a TEABAGGER. You are all behaving just like them at their worst. I don't often get disgusted with Bradblog readers, but you all are doing me a dandy; not to mention a serious disservice to your (OUR) own pet cause. On behalf of my 9/11 WTC Emergency Task Force, please stop it. Consider us. Thank you in advance for not being such a constant pill. COMMENT #16 [Permalink] ... Jeannie Dean said on 12/20/2010 @ 10:57 am PT... I'm having my bubble bath now with a bloody mary and laughing now at Marzi's ridiculous comment @ #13: "...Until she (Coleen Rowley) actively campaigns for an investigation into Building 7, and discusses the fact that the "terrorists" were of little consequence because they couldn't have handled the jets they were supposed to fly (if they got into the cockpits at all) It's not the content above that's laughable;(most) everyone knows (most) of what you all post & repeat ad nauseum. (Hell, I could lip sync along to you as you type it out in real time, by now) no, that's not what's giving me the giggle-runs... It's Marzi's assertion that this Hero F.B.I. whistleblower / Time Person of the Year who gave up *everything* - career, reputation; risked real, potential backlash from powerful forces that could have (and probably did) result in losses we can't begin to imagine... ...still hasn't done quite enough for Marzi. That's rich! (Pass the caviar over, be a dear.) COMMENT #17 [Permalink] ... truthisall said on 12/20/2010 @ 2:14 pm PT... Jeannie, We all appreciate what you and Coleen have done. She is truly an American hero. No one is questioning that. But the "9/11 Truthers" are mystified as to why there is an eternal silence about the proven FACTS of 9/11 so clearly presented in the videos I posted. Coleen could not get the FBI to act on the information she came across in 2001. We have learned a helluva lot since then. Missouai is old news. We need influential people like Rowley, Ellsberg, Chomsky KO and Maddow, Rather et al to step up and voice support for a new 9/11 investigation, just like thousands of other architectual, engineering, military and other professional have. Why is it that Geraldo on FOX can do a piece on WTC 7 but the MSM still would have us believe that 9/11 was done by Al Qaeda? And why does Coleen let the media get away with it? These are the heroes we should be celebrating: Jesse Ventura, Richard Gage and David Ray Griffin. They are out there right NOW. We are not preaching to the choir when we call on Rowley and the lefty bloggers to take the next step. COMMENT #18 [Permalink] ... Marzi said on 12/20/2010 @ 2:42 pm PT... I agree with truthisall - until Coleen and others call for a new 9/11 investigation, I'll hold my praise. How about Coleen signing the ae9/11truth petition for an investigation for Building 7? The demolition of the WTC is the basis of the wars of aggression and the patriot act and the silencing of those very whistle blowers who are now complaining. COMMENT #19 [Permalink] ... Jeannie Dean said on 12/20/2010 @ 2:49 pm PT... "We all appreciate what you and Coleen have done. She is truly an American hero. No one is questioning that." Um. Yes, they are. Are you not reading the same thread, Richard? Scroll up. Coleen is being called a gatekeeper spook. Without any evidence, just slamming her because she hasn't taken up your favorite mantle. I object to that. And I object to you objecting to me objecting to that. And I most sincerely object to everyone not reading the whole thread before commenting, or shooting off their mouths without listening to the original audio we're discussing, accusing heroes of malevolence without evidence / support / links... And for the record, thanks for being "grateful to me for what I did" but you don't know *what* I did, Richard, or how I feel about it, or how I got through it - because again - YOU HAVE (nor has any other Truther here) EVER ASKED... ...so how interested are you, really? COMMENT #20 [Permalink] ... Jeannie Dean said on 12/20/2010 @ 3:19 pm PT... Congrats on winning over Giraldo, btw. Quite a victory, considering his journo prowess. Completely legitimizing. Just proves that your sourcing is just as sour as FOX's, Richard; you have no care to discern or vet the source in question, no matter how questionable, as long as he / she agrees with you. How convenient. The Truth Movement has been remarkably successful - it's huge; now splitting and fracturing along systematic, tribal, fissures stoked by it's increasingly paranoid leaders and blindly dogmatic factions. Easy to see why when you read these comments. I work with several 9/11 Truth groups, (even some of the ones you link above, Richard) and I don't know that any of them have gone out of their way to excoriate the heroes and whistle blowers that came before; the ones that were the first to stand up / open the door to the very re-newed investigations we all are now calling for... ..not to mention the ones that actively need your support NOW, like Wikileaks - which, while "MOSSAD OR NOT", may be the very straw that breaks open wide the camel-humped lies we *all* know we were told about that day...with one single document in it's vast treasure trove of secrets. A trove of secret you've already dismissed as void, based on hearsay. God, you're all hilarious. COMMENT #21 [Permalink] ... Jeannie Dean said on 12/20/2010 @ 3:34 pm PT... Laughing really hard at you all now - I notice Wikileaks isn't mentioned ONCE by any of you Truthers in this ridiculously long, non-substantive roundy-roundy that you all can't see beyond... How not one of you has picked up on the most substanitive (imho) 9/11 point that Coleen Rowley makes in the audio of Brad's interview... (...the one I'm guessing most of you still haven't listened to cuz you know so much about everything you read on the internet so you get a pass cuz of you're expert 'bullshit detectors?') (paraphrasing Rowley) "If we'd had WIKILEAKS on or after 9/11 then never would could have avoided the Iraq war..." That is such a salient point and so worthy of discussion. Or what about: ...if I'd (or other recovery workers) had Twitter when I / we needed respirators and couldn't get them? So many things worth discussing in relation to the myth of the official story of 9/11 - but no one can say anything at all here anymore/ get anything through your think fog self-righteous yelling / posting the SAME POINTS AND LINKS AT ME OVER AND OVER AGAIN. If you all really cared about this cause that you clearly don't? Then you would be paying very close attention to the release of these secret docs from WIKILEAKS. That is, you would be finding info that corrolates to 9/11. But instead, you'd all rather be all ego stubborn, distracting and counterproductive when we (the last of the salient, rational, critical thinkers) need you the most. Not laughing, now. That's very very very sad to me. COMMENT #22 [Permalink] ... Jeannie Dean said on 12/20/2010 @ 3:42 pm PT... |
Yesterday: We covered a few unexpected reasons that made the NBA’s lockout-shortened NBA season so compelling. Today: We’re breaking down the other relevant storylines with help from one of America’s oldest and lamest column gimmicks. That’s right, it’s time to play “20 Questions!” 1. If the 2011 Miami Heat played the 2012 Miami Heat, who would win? We would be treated to a remarkably well-played basketball game for 45 minutes, followed by both teams getting tight and unleashing a barrage of turnovers, bricks and missed foul shots as the fans in attendance said things like, “Did 2012 LeBron just put three pounds of Botox in his face?” and, “Is that a skidmark in 2011 Chris Bosh’s shorts?” With the game tied in the final 10 seconds, 2012 LeBron would bowl over 2011 LeBron on an out-of-control drive into three guys, miss the first free throw, then make the second but only after it hit every part of the rim. That would leave 2011 Miami enough time to set up one final shot: which, inexplicably, would go to Eddie House. Game over. The good news for 2012 Miami: We could be headed for an ugly, disjointed postseason that becomes a war of attrition more than anything else (much like the NFL). You know, the kind of season when you want one of the most indestructible physical specimens in sports history (LeBron) on your side. Even if the Wade/LeBron partnership will never totally work — it’s been like watching two signature lead guitarists awkwardly jamming at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert since Day One — LeBron’s freakish consistency trumps just about anything else you’d want in a rushed postseason. During the last lockout-shortened season (1999), the Spurs prevailed because David Robinson and Tim Duncan gave them a decided physical advantage: Two athletic, durable bigs who delivered the same numbers every night as the condensed schedule wore down their opponents. If Wade’s body holds up — a big “if” — Miami would have a similar advantage. You would think. Regardless, I’m starting to wonder if Miami will ever reach its considerable potential. It won’t happen this season — it’s just too hard for a three-man team to survive this kind of schedule — and wearing a giant bullseye for 14 straight months has to be wearing those guys down. There’s a joylessness about them some nights that just doesn’t seem healthy. Like watching Michael Fassbender grimly thrust his way through Shame. (And like Fassbender, the Heat are physically endowed, almost to their own award-winning detriment.) Jordan fed off the doubters and haters, used their vitriol like caffeine, kept pushing his teammates because he couldn’t let those nitpickers win. LeBron isn’t wired like that. You get the sense that he’s still a little incredulous about how things changed, that he keeps thinking it’s a bad dream or something. Of course 2. Do you realize that LeBron is having one of the greatest statistical seasons of all time? I always thought Jordan’s 1988-89 season (32.5 PPG, 8.0 APG, 8.0 RPG, 2.9 SPG, 53.8 percent FG, 85 percent FT, 31.1 PER) was the most impressive statistical season by a modern perimeter player and yet, here’s LeBron averaging 29.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 55 percent shooting and a 33.38 PER (highest ever) during a condensed schedule. It’s impossible. How can someone have their greatest season during THIS season? There have been games when LeBron backs down a smaller defender into the paint, uses one of the low-post moves he allegedly learned from Hakeem this summer — really just a drop step and a jump hook, but whatever — and makes it look so simple that you’re sitting there thinking, “My God, he could rule everything that’s holy if he kept doing that.” Does that mean I changed my mind and now believe he’s coming through in the final 20 seconds of a nationally televised game? NO!!!!!!!! Are you crazy? After watching him choke in person yet again against the Clippers recently — it’s getting to the point that Miami should just hire Bill Murray, Chris Elliott and Andie MacDowell to sit on its bench — I drove home wondering if we’re witnessing the single weirdest professional sports career since Wilt Chamberlain. The seven best regular-season players of all time from a “grinding out the same game night after night after night for years on end” are Wilt, Kareem, Oscar, Michael, Mailman, Kobe and LeBron in some order. He’s staying on that list no matter what happens. But there’s another one that matters even more: The four most-gifted basketball players of all time are Wilt, Magic, LeBron and Michael in some order. Two of them got better when it mattered; two of them got worse. These are the facts until (or unless) LeBron James chooses to change them. To be continued. 3. What the hell is going on with Carlos Boozer’s hair? It’s the NBA’s biggest hair controversy since Rick Barry wore a wig during the 1975-76 season. How does Boozer suddenly have Shane Battier’s hairline? Is he coloring it in? Did he get miniature plugs? Is he wearing the first ever shaved-head toupee? Did he think we wouldn’t notice? Did he do it to throw Bulls fans off the whole “Why didn’t we amnesty Carlos Boozer?” question? And why haven’t my bald buddies on PTI become the Woodward and Bernstein of this story? You know something serious is happening when you Google “Carlos Boozer” and the fourth-suggested result is “Carlos Boozer hair.” As a reader in Poland named Sebastian e-mailed me, “How is this story overlooked by American pundits? Wayne Rooney’s hair transplant was a major story on this side of the Atlantic!” Totally agree. 4. Rubio? Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuubioooooooooooooooo! It’s been a bittersweet ascent for me: Less than three years ago, I was driving the Rubio Bandwagon and excoriating Memphis, Oklahoma City and Sacramento for passing on him in the 2009 draft, writing things like, “If I had to bet my life on any 2009 prospect becoming a top-three player on a championship team, I’d bet on Blake Griffin, Ricky Rubio and Stephen Curry,” “I’m excited for ‘Thabeet over Rubio’ to become the new ‘Darko over Carmelo,'” and, “Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is going to regret not being more excited about Ricky Rubio on June 25, 2009.” When he slogged along for two woefully unimpressive seasons overseas, I should have stuck to my guns and written, “I’m not giving up! I believe in Rubio!” and eventually, it would have become my greatest NBA prediction of the past 10 years, surpassing even, “Portland will regret taking Oden over Durant.” Like a pussy, I caved. The reports from Europe freaked me out. I worried Ricky was a bust, that I overrated his incredible Gold Medal game performance in 2008 (only 17 and battling the big boys!), that he wasn’t a step ahead of other players like I thought, that he didn’t have the passing gene like Larry and Magic did, that his lousy outside shot would sink his career. Nope. I don’t know what happened in Europe, just what I see now and what I see is someone who’s a step ahead of everyone else, makes passes that nobody else makes, loves playing basketball to the point that it’s actually contagious, aces the “Would You Like Playing With Him?” Test to the point that we should just change it to the Rubio Test, rises to the occasion when it matters (most recently with a game-tying 3 against the Clips with 20 seconds left in the game), beats anyone he wants off the dribble, plays with a Maravichian flair and, for lack of a better phrase, lights up the room. Only in this case, it’s usually a room with 16,000 people in it. If you were having a “Which Two Teammates Would You Want to Build Around for the Next 10 Years” argument, LeBron and Wade would be first, then Durant and Westbrook, then Paul and Griffin and Rubio and Love would be fourth. It’s the last point that matters most. Rubio and Love accomplished the rarest of feats: They’re such good passers and possess such a hugh basketball IQ, that it actually rubbed off on their teammates. They’re infectious. Watch the Wolves sometime — you’ll see perfectly executed pick-and-rolls, gorgeous backdoor cuts, seamless three-on-ones and everything else I grew up watching. Once upon a time, I watched Larry Bird and Magic Johnson (the two most infectious NBA players of all time) turn black holes like Kareem and Kevin McHale into half-decent passers. It’s happening again on a smaller scale in Minnesota. Well, with everyone but Michael Beasley. But it’s a beautiful thing to watch, and for Kevin Love — who slogged through three crummy years wondering if he’d ever play with anyone who had a basketball IQ over 80 — he has to feel like he died and went to basketball heaven. I never thought Rubio would play this well or stand out this much. What a pleasant surprise. I feel gooey. Of course 5. Why didn’t Minnesota just sign Kevin Love for five years? I can’t resist KAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, David Kahn gets immense amounts of credit for pulling off the 2009 trade for Washington’s pick, drafting Rubio and — eventually — bringing him over. Getting credit for someone that magical trumps every other dumb move he made. And there were plenty. You know, like drafting Jonny Flynn over Stephen Curry. Trading Ty Lawson. Blowing the fourth pick of the 2010 draft on Wesley Johnson (who, unfortunately, stinks). Overpaying for a slew of mediocre players (Darko Milicic, Ramon Sessions, Nikola Pekovic, Martell Webster, etc.). Hiring Kurt Rambis and trying to run the triangle with the youngest/dumbest team in the league. It’s a long list. Picking Rubio, then resisting the urge to trade him for two years — even with Rubio floundering in Europe — made up for everything. When you have Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio on your team, the other 10 guys don’t matter as much. Eventually, you’ll find them. Did Kahn decide to risk that last point almost immediately? Of course he did! Instead of giving Love their “designated max extension” slot (five years, $80 million), the Wolves decided to save that slot for Rubio and played hardball with Love who’s only one of the stubborn athletes of the league, and someone who once pissed off the entire state of Oregon (where he grew up) by signing with UCLA. Let’s walk through this debacle quickly 1. You’re Minnesota. 2. You stink. 3. You have a 0.0 percent chance of ever in a million years luring a marquee free agent. 4. You have one of the best 10 players in the league. 5. You have a chance to lock up this player for five years and team him up with your other marquee player. How does that lead to 6. You sign that player for three years, then give him an opt-out clause for Year 4? Is there any chance Love stays after 2015 now? The team just told him, “Yeah, we know Oklahoma City took care of Russell Westbrook for five years, but you’re not as good, so screw you.” Massive mistake. We’re getting three and a half years of the Minnesota Rubio Loves, and then Kevin Love will sign somewhere else. It shouldn’t have played out that way. 6. Who’s the worst couple of the past 12 months — Sammi and Ronnie, Kim and Kris, or Carmelo and Amar’e? Kim and Kris. It’s no contest. By the way, I’m not willing to write off the Carmelo/Amar’e pairing yet — even if it’s been a ball-stopping, disjointed, shoulder-sagging mess so far — until we see how they look with a competent point guard running the show. By writing them off just from what we’ve seen, you are basically saying, “Point guards don’t matter.” That’s wrong. They matter more than any other position in 2012. So let’s at least see what kind of effect Baron Davis (and hopefully not Baron Davis’ love handles and herniated disc) have on this Knicks team before we make a final assessment. I mean, did you really think “Carmelo Anthony, point forward” was going to work? Or that Iman Shumpert was the answer? Come on. Give this a few more weeks. (Has that stopped me from sending “Congrats on watching Spencer Haywood/Bob McAdoo 2.0!” jokes to my Knick fan buddies? Of course not!) 7. Will “Cleveland will regret taking Kyrie Irving over Derrick Williams” supplant “Orlando will regret taking Dwight Howard over Emeka Okafor” as the single dumbest thing I’ve ever written? Irving is an absolute gem, so it’s definitely in play. (The lesson, as always: Don’t have a strong opinion heading into an NBA draft about someone you didn’t see enough.) I wouldn’t go so far as to call him “Kevin Johnson 2.0,” if only because Kevin Johnson was really good. But Irving has three distinct K.J.-ish qualities: He’s always going faster than it seems like he’s going; when he drives to the basket bigger guys seem to bounce off him; and there’s something about the way Irving dribbles that makes defenders instinctively back up, as if they’re saying, “I don’t know what’s about to happen, but I don’t want to get my ankles broken.” He’s also better in the clutch already than K.J. ever was. And he’s only 19! It can’t be forgotten how great it is to win the lottery sometimes. 8. Where does “What if the Clippers never traded Baron Davis?” rank among the all-time NBA What Ifs? Definitely top 50. And climbing. It was already one of the dumbest NBA trades of the past 10 years before the amnesty clause became part of the new labor agreement at that point, it became one of the dumber trades in sports history. Should the Clippers be criticized for not guessing in January, with a labor stoppage looming, that the amnesty clause would potentially be in play? Yes and no — yes, they should have known, and no, they couldn’t have known (because they’re owned by a slum lord who has no idea what’s going on). Let’s say they kept Baron, kept that no. 1 pick and won the lottery. Well • The Clips would have drafted Irving, teamed him with Eric Gordon and Blake Griffin, then had enough assets left over (DeAndre Jordan, Al-Farouq Aminu, Minnesota’s no. 1 pick, Eric Bledsoe) to swipe Dwight Howard from Orlando this month. Would you rather have a Griffin/Howard/Gordon/Irving/Free Agent X nucleus, or Chris Paul’s Lob City squad that just thrashed Oklahoma City last night in the single most entertaining game of the year? It’s a great question. (I can’t believe I’m saying this but I think I’d rather have Lob City.) • Chris Paul probably ends up on the Lakers (for Bynum) or Celtics (for Rondo and a couple no. 1 picks). Either way, an inferior basketball situation to the one he’s enjoying now. • Instead of building around Irving, the Cavs would be building around Tristan Thompson and I’d be writing “The lesson, as always: Tebow hates Cleveland” jokes. • Baron would get amnesthized, sign with the Knicks, then become their potential savior even though he’s overweight and has a herniated disc. Oh, wait, that happened anyway. My final verdict: If Howard ends up on the Lakers (and not the Clippers), the Baron nontrade becomes a Hall of Fame “What If” because the actual trade created new identities for two contenders (the Lakers and Clippers) and saved the most depressed franchise in the league (the Cavs). 9. Has there ever been a better year for point guards? The short answer: No. It’s like the quarterback boom in football — and if you want to extend the analogy, some of the NBA’s rule changes last decade (dumping hand checks, speeding up the game) helped point guards much like the NFL’s rule changes (changing the pass interference rules, protecting quarterbacks) helped passing. But you still need the talent, and fortunately, we’re blessed with Derrick Rose, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry (although his paper-mache ankles are starting to worry me), Tony Parker (another killer season for him), Kyle Lowry (morphing into a poor man’s Fat Lever), Steve Nash, Ty Lawson (one of the fastest NBA players ever), Rubio, Irving, John Wall (coming on), Jrue Holiday (already came on) and Brandon Jennings (finally made a leap this year) suddenly you’re in good hands with half the league’s point guards running your team. And we didn’t even mention capable veterans like Mike Conley, the Semi-Rejuvenated Jose Calderon, Ray Felton and Andre Miller; The Artist Formerly Known as Jason Kidd; Baron (if he has anything left in the tank); works in progress like Brandon Knight (I’m a fan), T.B.H. Evans, Roddy Beaubois (a possible late bloomer???) and Kemba Walker; or even Jimmer Fredette’s abundant garbage time skills. Look, it’s not rocket science: Any basketball game is going to be more entertaining with competent-or-better point guards running the show. (Cut to Knicks and Lakers fans nodding.) Without the right point guard, you won’t get fast break points or easy baskets (cut to Knicks and Lakers fans nodding), you won’t have good ball movement (cut to Knicks and Lakers fans nodding), it’s harder to get your post guys the ball in the right spots (cut to Knicks and Lakers fans nodding), and you might have to rely on one perimeter player shooting 25 to 30 times a game while everyone else stands around (cut to Knicks and Lakers fans nodding vigorously while fighting off tears). More point guards = more fun. 10. Now that Oklahoma City has extended Russell Westbrook for five years, does that mean we can shelve concerns for an Avon/Stringer ending with Westbrook and Durant? I’ll answer the question with a question: Did anyone else notice that Westbrook started playing out of his mind the moment Oklahoma City gave him $80 million (and he knew he was staying there)? That HAS to mean something, right? Travel back with me to last spring, when Westbrook (a terrific kid by all accounts) got ripped for his shot selection in the 2011 playoffs (most famously by the TNT guys), took those comments personally, went into a semifunk, became something of a scapegoat for Oklahoma City’s collapse in the Dallas series, brooded all summer, then played the first month of the season (pre-extension) with a defiant anger that didn’t totally make sense. Or did it? Look at it from Westbrook’s side: He probably believed he was just as valuable as his buddy Durant (and for the most part, he was right), only everyone loved Durant and never criticized him for anything but when Westbrook did something wrong? He got slammed. That made it a no-win situation for him — even worse, he knew it — which was why Westbrook’s teammates (Durant especially) spent an inordinate amount of energy those first few weeks worrying about Westbrook, cajoling him, praising him, rubbing his head, slapping him on the back, engaging him and doing everything else you’d do when you’re trying to make sure someone doesn’t drift away from your tribe. I caught them in person in Boston two weeks ago (during the height of the “Westbrook for Rondo” Internet frenzy) and was stunned by how angry Westbrook played. He seems better now. Eighty million has a way of making someone feel a little more secure. Still, that doesn’t answer the fundamental question: Can Oklahoma City ever achieve its potential without Westbrook accepting that he’s the Pippen to Durant’s Jordan? Avon and Stringer aren’t the right pop culture analogy anymore; there’s a better one. A New York reader named Yoni explains: “Is it just me or does this whole Durant-Westbrook situation remind you of the relationship between Russell Hammond (lead guitar) and Jeff Beebe (lead singer) in Almost Famous? Just as Jeff could never quite understand how Russell takes the band to a new level with his guitar, Westbrook doesn’t quite understand that KD is a franchise player in a way that he can’t ever be. And if OKC makes T-shirts, Durant will always be front and center, and Westbrook will always be in the background as one of the ‘out of focus guys.'” (Making $80 million from 2012 through 2017 but still.) Coming Wednesday: 20 Questions (11-thru-20) |
What Are CryptoCurrencies? A cryptocurrency is a peer to peer electronic cash equivalent. Unlike typical online financial transactions which involve commercial or government entities acting as the middle man or central authority, peer-to-peer currencies provide a way of moving value directly between two people in the same way that private transactions involving cash in hand or valuable items, such as gold, are done today. A peer-to-peer architecture exists when individual nodes in the network ,”peers”, act as both suppliers and consumers of a resource. This means that no single person has control. Instead of having one central authority who secures and controls the money supply, it spreads the work out across the entire network. All the people participating in the network are helping to collectively perform the functions that a central bank would normally perform. These people collectively create the currency and make sure that the transactions that happen are valid and that invalid transactions are rejected. Much like our currency today, the value of a crypto currency is whatever value people feel it’s worth. As people lose trust in our current financial system they will look for other places to secure their wealth. Cryptocurrencies are a great alternative to fiat money. That said, they are still very early in their lifecycle, and there are still many roadblocks ahead until we can call any one cryptocurrency a “success”. The most successful cryptocurrency to date, with a current market cap of $12.5 billion (USD), is Bitcoin. There are many crypto currencies – each having their own interesting differentiators to the “gold standard”, Bitcoin. To view the market capitalizations of the top crytpocurrencies, visit http://coinmarketcap.com Below is a brief overview of the cryptocurrencies I personally find most interesting (other than BTC): LTC – LiteCoin – https://litecoin.org/ Litecoin (LTC) is designed to be easier to mine than bitcoin – it uses a scrypt-based proof of work that makes mining possible with GPUs rather than ASICs. Litecoins have a hard limit of 84 million coins (four times bitcoin’s ultimate limit), and transactions can be confirmed more quickly than bitcoin transactions: 15 minutes vs. 1 hr. You can think of LTC as the “silver” to bitcoins’ gold. NMC – NameCoin – http://namecoin.info/ Allows for decentralized DNS, or domain registration system. ICANN currently controls this entire process, and namecoin decentralizes it using .bit domain names. XRP – Ripple – http://ripple.com Ripple is a very interesting cryptocurrency that enables the seamless exchange between different cryptocurrencies for a very small fee. Transaction times are around 15 seconds, which is very fast. Really interesting crypto, one of my favorites. NXT – Descendant of Bitcoin – https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345619.0 Next is very VERY interesting. NXT launched on 11/24/2013 – it uses brand new software , meaning its not a fork of the original bitcoin code. Mining is 100% proof-of-stake, and coins are earned solely by charging transaction fees. It also has colored coin feature for a p2p securities exchange natively coded in. Another great thing is NXT includes instant transaction mode, internal messaging, and decentralized DNS features. It’s like bitcoin, colored coin, name coin and bit message all in one. Pretty interesting, but VERY early – it just released. PPC – PeerCoin – http://peercoin.net/ Another project forked from bitcoin, ppcoin (PPC) is designed to “keep as much as possible the original bitcoin’s preferable properties.” Launched in 2012, it was also created to be “the first long-term energy-efficient cryptocurrency.” Instead of proof-of-work, ppcoin is mined using proof-of-stake … which essentially uses the currency itself to protect the network. PPcoin doesn’t have a hard limit like bitcoin, but is patterned to mimic gold’s natural scarcity: an inflation rate of about 1 percent through proof-of-stake minting is balanced by a built-in destruction of transaction fees. PTS – Protoshares – http://invictus-innovations.com/bitshares2 Protoshares, BitShares and DAC (distributed autonomous corporations) are very interesting. Similar to ColoredCoins where you can create an entire company and distribute the “stock” via protoshares / bitshares. Bitshares haven’t been released yet – but if you own ProtoShares you will get a Bitshares once they launch. XPM – PrimeCoin https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=251850.0 Mining Primecoins consists of finding ever-larger prime number chains. In theory this work could be useful. SHA256 and scrypt coin mining is a complete waste of power and computation by comparison. Also, Primecoin can be effectively mined with CPU only. ANC – AnonCoin – https://anoncoin.net// Anoncoin is a scrypt-based coin like Litecoin & can be routed through I2p (invisible internet… Like TOR), so they cannot be easily traced. QRK – QuarkCoin – http://www.quarkcoin.com/ Super secure hashing: 9 rounds of hashing from 6 hashing functions (blake, bmw, groestl, jh, keccak, skein). 3 rounds apply a random hashing function. CPU mining w/ Quick block generation: 30 seconds Total of 247 million QRK will be mined in ~ 6 months, after that ~ 1 million QRK p.a. (~ 0.5% p.a inflation) DVC – DevCoin – http://devcoin.org/ devcoin was designed as an “ethically inspired project … to help fund open-source projects created by programmers, hardware developers, writers, musicians, painters, graphic artists and filmmakers.” While devcoin is based on bitcoin, mining the currency is much easier. Each new block generated provides 5,000 devcoins to the miner and 45,000 coins to developers, writers and other participants (a 10/90 split). Devcoins are generated at a rate of 50,000 coins per block “forever”. With an average of 144 blocks per day, that means around 7.2 million new devcoins per day. Others: FTC – FeatherCoin – http://feathercoin.com/ FRC – FreiCoin – http://freico.in/ MEC – MegaCoin – http://www.megacoin.co.nz/ ZTC – ZetaCoin – https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=267545.0 MSC – MasterCoin – http://www.mastercoin.org/ Coins Coming Soon… ZeroCoin – http://zerocoin.org/ ColoredCoin – http://www.bitcoinx.org/ How Do You Buy Them? The first thing you’ll need to do is purchase bitcoins – that’s really the only way you can purchase these alternative crypto currencies at the moment. There are ways to convert USD to cryptos, but you’re going to have to send an international SEPA wire to slovenia or russia, which is kinda crazy. To buy bitcoin, the easiest & safest way is CoinBase: http://coinbase.com To buy alternative cyptocurrencies with your bitcoin a broad range of alt coins, check out http://bter.com & http://cryptsy.com Other good exchanges (with less currencies but still a lot) check out Kraken.com, BTC-e.com, JustCoin.com How to Convert BTC into AltCoins: After choosing the exchange (lets say BTER) – navigate into your profile and find the place where you deposit BTC. Clicking deposite will generate a new bitcoin address that is attached to your account on BTER. Copy that address, and enter it as the “send” address on Coinbase. After sending and waiting about 1 hour, the transaction will be confirmed and available in your BTER account. Storage & Saftey: The safest way to store these alt coins is in encrypted wallets in cold storage, unfortunately that’s a pain and requires a lot of technical know-how (another post). The next best solution is to spread your coins across multiple reputable exchanges. Even with this solution – you’re putting a massive amount of trust into the exchanges holding your money. Be very cautious. Use different passwords and usernames for each exchange in case one gets compromised. This way the hacker won’t have access to all of your accounts (they’ll try, trust me). The second thing you’ll need is to activate TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION. Always. This increases the security on your account tremendously – it’s basically a second layer of protection from a hacker who may guess your password by brute force. They’ll also need to get access to your physical cell phone to get the 2nd part of the password. Investment Strategy: Don’t invest more than you can afford to lose – something could happen and they could go to zero over night. You can make a lot of money investing early in an altcoin and watching it rise. The best way to evaluate an altcoin is 1. based on their technical merits and 2. based on the community of developers working on the project (as well as merchants accepting it / doing cool things with it). A great place to keep tabs on the new altcoins & their communities is the Bitcoin Talk Forum: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.0 – J |
23 year-old Patrick Clover set up BLACKBX to help companies collate data through WiFi consumption in April last year. Less than a year on, he has now landed a number of major contracts across the UK and is continuing to grow the company. Victoria Place manages the retail outlets and shopping centre in Victoria Station and is BLACKBX’s biggest client to date. Patrick sees this as a breakthrough client, which could see his service rolled out across shopping centres as well as transport terminals. He said: “Nowadays, we are increasingly seeing people use their tablets and smartphones on their daily commute, so being able to make the often busy, and stressful journeys, that bit easier, is great. “Seamless log-ins is something other companies aren’t doing. But with BLACKBX once a customer has logged in at a restaurant or shopping centre, when they return, they will still be logged-in. macroAlias="MediumRectangle" “It not only saves the customer hassle and time, but also provides the client with reliable and interesting analytics that will increase business intelligence in order to generate revenue. “Winning contracts like Victoria Station at such an early stage in my company’s life, is just fantastic, and testament to the success of the technology so far. “Hopefully we see a few more large contracts this year, and continue to make it easier for businesses to provide what the customer wants and boost their own revenue at the same time.” Victoria Station has since seen the number of people registering their email addresses increase tenfold, giving the company valuable data which it can use to communicate news and updates to customers who want to be kept informed. Consumer data including gender, age and location of those using the service can be collected, allowing companies to gain insights into their customer base, including demographics and popular times of use. |
This might have been hidden somewhere between the lines, but you can now run Java on iOS devices. Oracle found a solution for the "iOS can't run Java" problem, and released it in the new Oracle ADF Mobile solution. This enables you to use Java to write the logic layer of on-device applications that run on iOS devices such as iPads and iPhones (oh, and the same code and application will also run on Android devices). Oracle ADF Mobile uses a native container that runs applications on both iOS and Android from a single source base. One part of that native container is a headless/lightweight JVM. So when you build an application with Oracle ADF Mobile, you write your business services layer with Java. You develop UIs either by coding HTML5/CSS3, or if you rather use a component based approach for UI definition (think JSF), you can use Oracle's mobile optimized AMX components to define UI. This approach makes it very easy for any Java developer to become an iOS developer without the need to learn XCode coding. Check out this quick demo ADF Mobile also includes an incripted SQLite database for local/offline data storage, as well as an abstraction layer that allows you to access device services such as camera, location, contacts, SMS etc. You can learn more about ADF Mobile and download it here: P.S. The first ADF Mobile application is already on the iTune store and it offers a monitoring application for Hudson |
Updated 6.20pm UNIONS HAVE EXPRESSED anger at Bus Éireann management amid concerns about the company’s finances. Union representatives and management attended a Labour Court sitting this evening to address a pay claim of up to 21%, but management would not look at the pay claim separately from other cost reduction measures. Earlier Transport Minister Shane Ross said the state of the semi-state company’s finances was “fairly bleak”. Union sources told TheJournal.ie they are “dismayed, shocked and angry” at Bus Éireann, accusing management of “thumbing their nose” at both the court and workers. Speaking in Dublin earlier, Ross said he met the heads of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) and Bus Éireann yesterday to discuss the company’s ”critical” financial situation. It’s believed the company could be insolvent within two years. NBRU General Secretary Dermot O’Leary said everyone involved in the dispute needed to engage, including the Department of Transport and the National Transport Authority. “That’s the only way to solve the problem. No resolution can be found unless all those involved engage.” Losses Bus Éireann had losses of €5.6 million last year. The Expressway service – over 30 routes that link every major town and city in the country – is also a problem, losing millions a year. With reporting by Christina Finn and Paul Hosford |
The workplace of the future is always being created. Every day, companies are introducing new ideas, strategies, and technologies that change how and where we work. Each year, new graduates enter the workforce with bold ideas about their workstyle preferences and needs. New research is constantly emerging that points to new ways for us to work smarter, healthier, and more effectively. Collectively, these influences are reshaping workplaces and pushing them to a future state that never stops evolving. Companies have been ramping up investment in research and employee engagement to better understand the types of work their office spaces need to support. For years, companies were caught up in the debate about open versus closed workplaces and their respective merits. Recognizing that this debate never led to a strategic solution, companies have been ramping up investment in research and employee engagement to better understand the types of work their office spaces need to support. Even more recently, organizations are beginning to look toward other industries like education, art, hospitality, and more for design ideas that can spur innovative cultures and enrich company offices. This turn toward cross-market design influences is indicative of a larger trend in the industry. While markets used to focus on innovating within themselves, we’re now seeing hospitals model their care experience around Apple Stores and corporate workplace strategy influencing the creation of major research centers. Companies and institutions alike are realizing that several of the design principles that enhance creativity, collaboration, wellness, and efficiency are universal when right-sized and strategically applied. They’re also learning that when used appropriately, these cross-market ideas can strengthen recruitment/retention, improve employee performance, and accelerate innovation. Graduating from college and entering the workforce can be a period of dramatic transition for young employees. Not only may this transition require moving to a new city or other serious life changes, it’s often exacerbated by the fact that modern workplaces don’t promote the same experiences as college campuses. Students often spend four or more years on campuses with multidisciplinary, technology-rich learning facilities, green space, and campus walking paths that promote movement and energy. Students who have excelled in these campus environments may have trouble building connections or advancing creative ideas in workplaces that lack these elements. Before creating their new Chicago-area headquarters, real-estate investment company CA Ventures teamed with us at CannonDesign to conduct extensive research into the plans of collegiate campuses to learn how they empower students. The team recognized that diagonal cuts across campus quadrangles could be incorporated into their workplace design to evoke campus environments while functionally connecting different areas of the office for teaming and collaboration. To integrate the green space often found on college campuses, the new workspace features a living wall that anchors both its reception area and main staff quad. These design elements help the entire workplace operate like its own campus plan, incorporating a main path that connects meeting areas and offices from East to West. No doubt, higher education campuses offer more space and resources for creating these kinds of connections and spaces. However, organizations should be up to speed on trends in higher education design. Emerging and future generations of the workforce are learning in powerfully different campus environments than previous generations. Investing in research and design strategies that calibrate workplaces to support these generations will be critical for recruitment and retention of top talent moving forward. Many of today’s most innovative companies were launched from remarkably un-innovative spaces like garages and basements. While none of these spaces were intentionally designed to increase innovation and creativity, they found a way to fuel ideas that went on to change the world. While there are many ways these spaces inspired this innovation, one key attribute is their ability to promote flexibility and freedom. At startups, employees are often able to work as they see fit: They can stand for phone calls, sprawl out on a couch to decompress, hold meetings outside, and close all the doors for focused work. |
For months, there have been rumors that the PS4 wouldn’t just be more powerful than Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox — it would be capable of certain compute workloads that Redmond’s next-generation console wouldn’t be able to touch. In an interview last week, Sony lead hardware architect Mark Cerny shed some major light on what these capabilities look like. We’ve taken his comments and combined them with what we’ve learned from other sources to build a model of how the PS4 is likely organized, and what it can do. First, we now know the PS4 is a single system on a chip (SoC) design. According to Cerny, all eight CPU cores, the GPU, and a number of other custom units are all on the same die. Typically, when we talk about SoC design, we distinguish between “on-die” and “on-package.” Components are on-package if they’re part of a finished processor but aren’t fabbed in a single unit. The Wii U, for example, has the CPU and GPU on-package, but not on-die. Building the entire PS4 in a monolithic die could cut costs long-term and improve performance, but is riskier in the short-term. An overhauled GPU According to Cerny, the GPU powering the PS4 is an ATI Radeon with “a large number of modifications.” From the GPU’s perspective, the large RAM pool doesn’t count as innovative. The PS4 has a unified pool of 8GB of RAM, but AMD’s Graphics Core Next GPU architecture (hereafter abbreviated GCN) already ships with 6GB of GDDR5 aboard workstation cards. The biggest change to the graphics processor is Sony’s modification to the command processor, described as follows: The original AMD GCN architecture allowed for one source of graphics commands, and two sources of compute commands. For PS4, we’ve worked with AMD to increase the limit to 64 sources of compute commands — the idea is if you have some asynchronous compute you want to perform, you put commands in one of these 64 queues, and then there are multiple levels of arbitration in the hardware to determine what runs, how it runs, and when it runs, alongside the graphics that’s in the system. That’s a fairly bold statement. Let’s look at the relevant portion of the HD 7970’s structure: Here, you can see the Asynchronous Compute Engines and the GPU Command Processor. AMD has always said that it could add more Asynchronous Compute Engine blocks to this structure to facilitate a greater degree of parallelization, but I think Cerny mixed his apples and oranges here, possibly on purpose. First, he refers to specific hardware blocks, then segues into discussing queue depths. AMD released a different slide in its early GCN unveils that may shed some additional light on this topic. Each ACE can fetch queue information from the Command Processor and can switch between asynchronous compute tasks depending on what’s coming next. GCN was designed with some support for out-of-order processing, and it sounds as though Sony has expanded the chip’s ability to monitor and schedule how tasks are executed. It’s entirely possible that Sony has added additional ACEs to GCN to support a greater amount of asynchronous computing capability, but simply stuffing the front of the chip with 61 additional ACEs wouldn’t magically make more execution resources available. Now we turn our attention to the memory architecture. We know the PS4 uses a 256-bit memory bus and Cerny specifies 176GB of bandwidth. That works out to a GDDR5 clock speed of 1375MHz, which is comfortably within the current range of GDDR5 products already on the market. We’ve put together a set of what we consider to be the top three most likely structures, their strengths, and their weaknesses. Option 1: A supercharged APU-style design AMD has published a great deal of information on Llano and Trinity’s APU design. Llano and Trinity share a common structure that looks like this: In Llano and Trinity, the CPU-GPU communication path varies a great deal depending on which kind of data is being communicated. The solid line (Onion) is a lower-bandwidth bus (2x16B) that allows the GPU to snoop the CPU cache. The dotted lines are the Radeon Memory Bus (Garlic). This is a direct link between the GPU and the Unified North Bridge architecture, which contains the memory controller. Next page: What about a ring bus? |
Elmira Jackals Announce Affiliation with New Jersey Devils October 18, 2013 - ECHL (ECHL) - Elmira Jackals News Release ELMIRA, N.Y. - October 18, 2013 - The Elmira Jackals announced today that they have entered into an affiliation agreement with the National Hockey League's New Jersey Devils. The Devils join the Ottawa Senators as Jackals affiliates for the 2013-14 season. "We are extremely happy to partner with the New Jersey Devils and Albany Devils as affiliates. The entire Devils organization has a first-class reputation for success on and off the ice, and we will work extremely hard to give their prospects the proper environment to develop and advance their careers," said Jackals owner and president Nate Cook. The 2013-14 season will be the first for the Jackals and Devils as affiliates. Elmira did, however, receive goaltender Maxime Clermont on reassignment from New Jersey during the 2012-13 season. New Jersey has won the Stanley Cup in 1995, 2000, and 2003, and also advanced to the Stanley Cup finals in 2001 and 2012. The Devils have reached the playoffs in 21 of 25 years since moving to New Jersey from Denver, Colorado in 1982. The Albany Devils were founded in 2010 after the Albany River Rats relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the second time Albany has housed the Devils' AHL affiliate after the River Rats served in that capacity from 1993 to 2006. "The Devils organization is excited to enter into a formal affiliation with the Elmira Jackals and congratulate their new ownership group led by Tom Freeman and Nate Cook," said New Jersey Devils Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations and Albany General Manager Chris Lamoriello. "I look forward to again working with Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations Dwight Mullins. I know under his leadership, the Jackals not only will be competing for a championship, but also developing players for future success in the game." The Jackals will open the 2013-14 season with four players from the Devils organization on their roster. Clermont has been reassigned to Elmira from Albany by New Jersey. He will look to improve on his 20 win season from 12-13. Defenseman Harry Young has also been reassigned to Elmira from Albany by New Jersey. The 6-4, 225 pound blue liner is in his fourth year as a pro. He has produced three goals, nine assists, a +8 rating, and 134 penalty minutes in 72 ECHL games combined between Kalamazoo and Trenton. Additionally, defenseman Raman Hrabarenka (ROW-man, RAH-ba-ren-ka) and forward Riley Boychuk have been loaned to the Jackals by the Albany Devils. Hrabarenka, a native of Mogilev, Belarus, is a 6-3, 215 pound rearguard who notched five points (1 goal, 4 assists) in 34 games with Albany last year. Boychuck is a 6-4, 220 pound winger who is in his third year as a pro. Originally a seventh-round pick (#208 overall) by Buffalo in 2010, he has 9 goals, 15 assists, 81 penalty minutes in 87 pro games divided between the AHL, ECHL, and Central Hockey League. Mark your calendars! The Jackals open their home schedule for their seventh season of ECHL hockey on Friday, October 25 against the Reading Royals at 7:05 p.m. Don't miss a minute of the action with Jackals season tickets. They offer the best discount off of the box office price and come with great benefits like merchandise discounts, exclusive meet-and-greets with the team, ticket exchange, and more. Call 607-734-7825 to order your season tickets today. They start as low as $10 per game! • Discuss this story on the ECHL message board... ECHL Stories from October 18, 2013 The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff. |
Black women are joining traditionally white sororities at the University of Alabama amid efforts to end racial segregation within Greek-letter social groups, the head of the school said Friday. University President Judy Bonner said 11 black students and three students from other minority groups received bids, or invitations, to join a historically white sorority. Of that group, four black students and two students from other minority backgrounds have accepted those invitations, Bonner said. She expected the numbers to rise as the academic year continues. "I am confident that we will achieve our objective of a Greek system that is inclusive, accessible and welcoming to students of all races and ethnicities," Bonner said in a video statement. "We will not tolerate anything less." The university's Greek organizations have been segregated by race since the first black students enrolled and created social organizations. One oversight organization has been composed of white sororities and the other composed of minority sororities. Only a handful of blacks attempted to join the historically white Greek groups at Alabama, where there are also historically black fraternities and sororities. But that system came under scrutiny when the campus newspaper, The Crimson White, reported allegations this month that two prospective black members were passed over by all-white sororities because of pressure from alumnae, and in one case, an adviser. The coverage caused a wide-ranging debate, even prompting Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, an alumnus, to say that fraternal organizations should choose members based on their qualifications, not their race. The debate came at an embarrassing time for Bonner's university, which is marking the 50th anniversary of its racial integration. Alabama admitted its first black students in 1963 after then-Gov. George C. Wallace infamously stood in a schoolhouse door to protest their enrollment. Wallace relented under pressure from President John F. Kennedy's administration. Several hundred people marched Wednesday at the university to oppose racial segregation, and professors at a Faculty Senate meeting denounced long-standing racial segregation in fraternities and sororities. Bonner made changes meant to weaken racial barriers. She required that the historically white sororities use a recruitment process in which new members can be added at any time. She also expanded the maximum allowable size of the groups to 360 people to increase the chances for prospective members. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy "While some sororities are farther along than others, I am encouraged that chapter members are proactively reaching out to a diverse group of young women," she said. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
The Federal Trade Commission should back away from its claim of broad authority to seek sanctions against companies for data breaches when it has no clearly defined data security standards, critics of the agency said Thursday. The FTC should back away from authority it says it has under a vague section of law that doesn’t mention data security, said the critics, including Mike Daugherty, CEO of Atlanta diagnostic lab LabMD, which is fighting an FTC complaint. The agency should instead seek specific authority to enforce data security rules from the U.S. Congress and should define what data security standards it expects from companies, instead of seeking sanctions on a case-by-case basis, said speakers during a discussion on FTC authority sponsored by TechFreedom, an antiregulation think tank, and Cause of Action, a government watchdog group defending LabMD. The FTC’s complaint against the small lab wasn’t based on established rules that agency officials could point to, Daugherty said. The FTC, instead of looking for real consumer harm, seems to be saying, “We’re going to take one victim and going to hold them accountable,” said Gerry Stegmeier, a privacy and data security lawyer. Daugherty said he’s “incredulous” that the agency can use Section 5 of the FTC Act, which allows it to prevent unfair or deceptive business practices, to file complaints about data security practices. “If you want to upset [FTC officials], ask them what the standards are,” he said. “I need to know what the laws and boundaries are. You mean you can make them up as you go along?” In the past 11 years, the FTC has brought nearly 50 data security complaints against companies, and has settled all but two, with LabMD and Wyndham Worldwide fighting recent complaints. LabMD fought the complaint, Daugherty said, because it was “a life or death situation” for the company. If the company settles a data security complaint, competitors will use that information to spread “innuendo” against it, he said. LabMD’s trouble started in 2008, when peer-to-peer security vendor Tiversa contacted the company, saying it had found a LabMD customer spreadsheet on a P-to-P network. The file contained personal information for more than 9,000 consumers, including names, Social Security numbers and medical treatment codes. LabMD discovered that a business manager had Limewire P-to-P software installed on her computer, against company policy, and had inadvertently shared the file, Daugherty said. The security vendor later reported the incident to the FTC, Daugherty said. After the FTC investigated LabMD for more than three years, the agency filed a data security complaint against the company in August. The company failed to take reasonable steps to protect consumer information, the agency alleged. The incident happened in 2008, “when no one understood the vulnerability of P-to-P,” Daugherty said. However, researchers first raised concerns about inadvertent file sharing on P-to-P networks back in 2002, and a congressional committee explored the issue in a 2003 hearing. Still, the FTC issued no guidance on the dangers of P-to-P software until 2010, after the LabMD incident, and the agency worked with Limewire for years on inadvertent file sharing before filing a complaint against P-to-P vendor Frostwire in 2011, noted Tom Sydnor, a senior fellow for intellectual property at the Association for Competitive Technology. Instead of filing a complaint against LabMD, the agency should have long ago targeted P-to-P vendors for “tricking” users into sharing files they wanted to keep private, Sydnor said. Most of the speakers at Thursday’s event questioned the FTC’s authority in data security, but Justin Brookman, director of the consumer privacy project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, defended the agency. Congress wrote the FTC Act broadly to give the agency authority to act when new types of unfair or deceptive business practices pop up, he said. The agency shouldn’t have to seek new congressional authority for every type of unfair business practice, he said. Responding to criticisms that the FTC doesn’t have specific data security standards, Brookman said he doesn’t want to see a federal agency make security rules that every company has to follow. It would be “insane” for the FTC to require companies to spend a certain percentage of their revenue on security, he said. Instead, the agency is picking cases to highlight bad security practices and give guidance to other companies on what practices to avoid going forward, he added. “They’re bringing the cases they think are important to change behavior going forward,” Brookman said. |
news, most-popular THE sad, lonely death of a 44-year-old woman on the banks of Bomaderry Creek, over the weekend highlights the cost of homelessness in the Shoalhaven. Shoalhaven Youth Accommodation manager Kerri Snowden said, “Shoalhaven should hang its head in shame that something like this has taken place.” The woman was found at a makeshift camp on the northern side of Bomaderry Oval, overlooking Bomaderry Creek, around 500 metres south of the Bomaderry railway Station. With funding cut to at least 80 organisations in the Going Home Staying Home tender reform, Ms Snowden said incidents like this would only become more common. Shoalhaven Youth Accommodation and Shoalhaven Women’s Refuge both missed out on funding under the state government’s recent reform. “This woman’s death is tragic,” Ms Snowden said. “What a sad, lonely death. They are out there at risk. “On any night in the Shoalhaven we have 150 people sleeping rough, either outside or couch surfing, just staying with friends. “The last week would have been very tough, it’s been bitterly cold.” She said the first her organisation heard of the woman’s plight was in reports of her death. “If we had known she was over there we would have gone to find her and offer her assistance,” she said. “Someone must have seen her living there or knew about her. “Did anyone contact Housing NSW or other services to see if we could provide her with help? “Agencies can’t identify people and then help them if we are unaware of them. “Shoalhaven needs to hang is head in shame, this sort of thing shouldn’t be happening. “Unfortunately there will be more and more people, especially young people, forced to live rough. “As a society we need to treat these people with respect, we don’t know the circumstances that led to their homelessness “People need to remember ‘There but for the grace of God go I’.” Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the woman’s death, who was discovered on Sunday afternoon. It is believed the 44-year-old woman had 10 children and had local connections. A post mortem is being conducted at the Glebe Morgue to determine the cause of death and a report is being prepared for the coroner. Source: South Coast Register https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/storypad-TimAB2MTHanvQWPwhBc6mp/c5284221-9f3a-4fb0-9683-88670e66be0e.JPG/r5_230_1915_1309_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg |
The video itself is viewable only through the Bohemian Rhapsody Experience, but it can be seen in a basic 360-degree mode, or in stereoscopic 3D using Google Cardboard. The app takes viewers on a tour of a surreal mindscape of shapes, sound and animation -- first leading them through a dreamlike mishmash of images that seems to represent Mercury's mind, then onto the stage of a Queen Concert, complete with an animated band and then, after a brief stop in the underworld, into outer space for a neon-light finale. It's gorgeous, and thanks to a spatial audio mix, fairly immersive. It sounds like a project that came out of left field, but to folks familiar with the band's lead guitarist, it makes a lot of sense. In addition to being a world-class guitarist and holding a PHD in astronomy, Brian May is also the director of the London Stereoscopic Company, where he maintains resources on stereo photographs and helped create the OWL Virtual Reality Kit -- a collapsible VR viewer in the vein of Google Cardboard. You can find that over on his company's website. Just want the Bohemian Rhapsody app? The iOS version isn't ready quiet yet, but Android users can head on over to Google Play. |
I am with Senior Environment Artist, Clinton Crumpler, from The Coalition who recently completed working on Gears of War 4. Today we will discuss a few techniques and construction methods he used in his recent personal scene – ‘The Bear’s Den Underground Bunker’. Let talk a bit about the scene. It’s such an interesting combination of natural and artificially made objects. How did you create the cave walls and structures? The first thing I did was look at a ton of reference to clarify and understand specifically what type of cave and wall type I was trying to create. I did some field trips to look at local caves and tunnels, I also scoured the web and Pinterest finding good examples of caves and underground bunkers, old and new. I looked at old factories, tunnels, power plants, and anything else I could find that had a similar look and feel to the sensation I was after. Next, after examining the construction of these underground areas I had a good understanding of what type of construction methods were used to create the walls and how the caves we hollowed out. Source source source source source source source At first, most of the examples I found were relatively smooth surfaced walls. I found while more accurate to real underground bunker areas, they were a bit boring while creating them for a game scenario. They tended to lack shadow and highlight contrast and felt flat when only a normal map texture was applied to them. Sometimes examining real life and extrapolating on ideas and exaggerating some shapes you find that will create a more exciting and visually pleasing result regardless of its exactly trueness to reality. While creating the cave I tried and tested a few different methods of construction. My first attempt was to create a set of a few modular tube pieces that would be both the walls and floor. I thought this would be good because then I would easily be able to control the vertex paint, material position, and look of the blend from floor to the walls. Initial test for making modular tube cave pieces After testing with this I realize the cave was beginning to feel too restricted and a bit too simple. When I wanted to make organic turns it was hard to work this into the giant mesh without it impacting the rest of the instances of the mesh in the scene or having a larger set of meshes. Also the lightmap size for this method had to be fairly large to accommodate for the amount of detail and materials on the mesh. There were also a few errors here and there that showed the obvious transition from one mesh to another. Especially when I attempted to use displacement maps to create a bit of mesh change from one area of the cave to another. Then I went back to the drawing board and attempted to use some smaller easily moveable and scalable meshes that could easily be grouped together to resemble the shape of the cave I was attempting to make. This proved to have a much better result. Base Wall Zbrush Rock Sculpt To do this I sculpted 1 unique wide cave piece in Zbrush to define the major shapes on the wall. In Zbrush I kept the shapes large and easily readable. This was so the shapes would be easily scalable and still remain natural at different sizes. Later I would be adding a detail normal and diffuse tiled on top of the Zbrush normal map to establish real world scale of the more details rock aspects. Also in the sculpting phase, I made sure to have the main mesh curve back and not just terminate on the sides so I could raise or sink the mesh into other meshes in the scene without worrying about visible holes being shown. After I decimated and UV’ed model to then bake the high poly zbrush model to the low poly. I then brought the low poly mesh into maya and deformed the shaped into multiple different useful shapes to help define the cave. While deforming the mesh I kept the UVs intact to be able to continue to use the main shape I had sculpted and baked. I tried to avoid bending or breaking the shape to much to maintain my original UVs. I kept the shape changes subtle but thoughtful to provide for any type of scenario I ran into while created the cave walls. Cave pieces set Cave pieces in action placed in the scene Then after importing these shapes into unreal, I applied a material that I created with world aligned tiling details (stains, drips, dirt, cracks etc.) controllable by vertex paint. This kept the textures tiled in world space and aligned perfectly to each other no matter where it was placed in the scene. I used this so that the walls would feel conjoined to each neighboring piece regardless of size, direction, or position. One thing to note about this was that I added a switch to this secondary world tiled textures, because the cost incurred by tiling so many textures in world space can eventually add. Having a control on this allows for easily disabling this feature or turning it on for pieces or chunks of wall that reside mostly in darkness. Vertex Painted Rock Wall Segment Final look The wall and bunker segments were created in a similar way, but were constructed in a more organized modular construction method. I also use some world aligned materials to make the pieces connect with switches enabled to control which pieces had this material setup. Bunker Modular Set Pieces Also similar to the cave walls I set up a few controllable vertex paint parameters to help add age and wear to specific parts. I made three vertex paint channels as a test to see what kind of wear I wanted. Red Channel – Drip Stains Green Channel – Damage Wear Blue Channel – General Dirt Vertex Paint on Bunker Walls In the end I found I really benefitted from having material controls connecting all the pieces of the cave or bunker walls to consistently alter particular material looks or aspects. Could you talk a little about the production of various details in this scene? When creating this scene my client, Kollide Entertainment, first presented me with this concept image and a bit of background. Knowing the background of any scene is vital to understanding the props and assets that file the space. For this scene I was creating an older Soviet-style bunker that had been used more recently and retrofitted to suit current military needs. Concept from Kollide Entertainment Knowing this I had two stories to tell in the scene. Create an old Soviet style bunker with Russian markings, labels, and remnants of its former uses. Create new assets and props that support the modern day use of the space and how they have transformed this into a renovated space. With this in mind, I was able to begin to document and look at older bunkers and study Russian marking and cold war construction. I looked at some of the signs used on highways and some of the bunkers constructed during that time period. source source source source source After looking at images like these I was able to determine a list of assets: wall panels, doors, floor layouts, lighting fixtures, pipe types, and wiring mounts. With the establishment of the skeleton of the scene and the assets that had been there for many years, I could move on to the newer parts of the environment. For these present day elements, I examined the scene and try to think of how someone would come into a place like this and find a way to reuse its space. How would they interact with dealing with the dark areas, old and possibly hostile air, and blocked tunnels? I had to keep in mind that most of the materials and props brought in had to be mostly temporary, attached to preexisting structures, or easily moveable by a small military team. I looked mostly for reference of easily transported military goods and weapons, shipping containers, and plastic crates of military influence. I looked at underground cave and tunnel excavation and mining for examples of things like ventilation tubing and lighting equipment. Understanding how the workers would place instruments and construction parts within the space and how tunnels were lit helped to define my final asset list and scene layout. Establishing this I looked at references like these: source source source source As for creation of assets and props, most were created in a typical fashion by creating a high to low poly model bake. I create my normals, ambient occlusion and any baking I do from Might Bake. For materials in Unreal, I created a master material that had a few useful switches to controls most every aspect of the material. Some of these controls were made to control dirt, wetness, and a secondary texture set that could be used to show extreme wear. All placed behind a switch in the material so that if I chose not to use those parts of the materials then the material could remain much cheaper. This made controlling all the materials and material instances in the scene very manageable and tweakable. Master material for props Could you tell us how do you reuse and combine assets and textures? Can you talk a little about the different ways to achieve variety in the scene? Reducing the amount of draw calls and textures used in the scene always helps with performance. Also having to make fewer meshes and materials is always welcome when working on a larger project like this. Saving your time and finding the most extensive use for each texture you author can go a long way to help make sure the scene feel full and complete. There were a couple of instances when I tried to reuse assets and texture memory. I used a few modular sets that made reuse pretty simply, and easy to set up with the pipes, wires, tubes, and bunker wall pieces. One of the easiest wins was the crate I created for the scene. I designed the high to low poly bake to an easy to reuse texture sheet and mesh setup. Wooden Texture Sheet The texture had one space specifically for larger flat wooden boards and then others that were for smaller 2×4 sections. I also squeezed in a few wooden construction parts commonly used on crate designs. Since I laid out each of the UVs in a way that I could turn rotate and scale the wooden parts of the crate I was easily able to reformulate and manipulate the shapes to form different box shapes and types. Wooden Crates in the scene Thinking about the bigger picture and documenting what type and how many of each asset you will need in a scene will help you to make smarter decisions on making assets and reusing textures and meshes throughout the process. Wooden Pipe Container constructed from wooden crate elements I’m very interested in the way you’ve created the ground material. It has so many peculiar elements and it works so well with water and light. For the ground material, I used Unreal’s layered landscape material setup so that I could use the landscape system that exists in the engine by default. Landscape tools are super powerful in unreal with the ability to sculpt and manipulate the shapes in the editor without having to bring the mesh back and forth to another 3D program. Landscape Master Material Cave Landscape After that, I decided on what type of material and ground types and I made 4 sets of textures that accommodated each of the looks I was going for. Muddy Dirt Rocky Dirt Rocks Regular Dirt Each texture set I created for the terrain was custom sculpted and tiled in Zbrush and then I brought the normals, ambient occlusion, etc into Photoshop and used a bit of Quixel and personal photos to create the rest of the texture set. I tried to keep as many of the textures channel packed as possible as the landscape material can only have 16 textures called into the material at once in unreal. Knowing this, I combined height maps, roughness textures, and any other utility textures that didn’t need RGB values into one channel and packed these with other one-channel textures. Rocky Dirt Material For additional blending of the ground into the walls, I made a few individual rock chunks and pieces. I made one larger chunk of grouped rocks as well as additional smaller rocks that I scattered throughout the space. This helped enforce the illusion of the normal mapped rocks on the terrain and helped to blend the larger wall rock shapes to the dirt on the ground. For the tire tracks I sculpted some tracks in zbrush and did some editing to the final normal map in Photoshop with some dirt normal map overlays. Then I created my diffuse and the other maps I needed to complete the material for use in Unreal. All of the maps tile from top to bottom so it would be seamless along the spline meshes strung together. I also created an alpha mask to cut out the deeper tracks from the blending ground texture. Next, I made a subdivided mesh in Maya that I would use to map the tracks to. This mesh would also be used in the scene on a spline to deform and lay on top of the landscape. I then placed the spline throughout the cave and snapped the spline to the landscape using some of the tools Unreal has for controlling the falloff and amount to move the spline or landscape under the spline. With the alpha mask texture applied on the material as a mask type material, I noticed there was a harsh blend or cut sometimes between the surfaces when the colors or normal map shapes didn’t match up between the tracks and the landscape. When I tried a transparent material blend I lost a lot of the normal and material response I had previously received from the masked type material. In doing some research I found a node that served my goal of fixing this issue, the dither opacity node. This node was released in version 4.11 and provides a subtle blend for a masked material type and emulates transparency with some noise to fake the blend. There are a few quirks as it can “sizzle” or minor ghosting issues but if used correctly or with noisier textures the ill effects are easily hidden. Since I was using this on the ground it was easily disguised in with the dirt, rocks, and ground blends. Dither opacity node For additional support on the tracks I also created a decal with similar material properties that I would overlay on top of the spline to emphasis or deepen the tracks in particular areas. I only placed this in a few key areas as it is a very large decal and larger decals can cost a lot depending on their placement and how many meshes they draw over. Tire Track Spline Mesh This scene seems to use different lighting types and colors. How do you construct lighting in a scene of this complex nature? Lighting is a really hard thing to get perfect and when it comes to baking lighting it can sometimes take a long time on a level of this size. The hardest part of lighting comes on where and what type of lighting to use while maintaining good frame rate and performance. Considering how large the size of your level will be and how the lights are used is key to establishing a general idea of light layout before placing your first light in the scene. To keep the scene feeling a bit more dramatic, I tried to keep the light positioning and spacing far enough from each other to create a sort of silent or eerie feel. I wanted the cave to seem dark and ominous but obviously not too dark that you wouldn’t be able to see what was in front of you. I kept my spotlights at a smaller size to not flood the rooms and caves with light and I also kept the cone angle of the light pretty tight. This allowed for good spacing and easy readability between each placed light. Separating lighted areas from dark areas. I also tested and tried tons of IES textures on lights to achieve more mood and breakup with the lighting that came from ceiling and wall lights. IES textures are used in Unreal similar to gobos used in film, and are great to break up light sources and add a bit of flare to some of the more visible lights in the scene. They are essentially a type of mask that is applied to the light that creates light and dark shapes within a projected light. They can be used to create the illusion of multiple bulbs in a single light or to simulate shadows that are blocking the light near the source. IES Lighting Setup As for types of lights there are mostly static light with a few stationary lights in the scene. While static and baked stationary lights give you the really nice contact shadows and definition, you will find that a room only lit with baked lighting might feel like it is missing a bit of material definition and response. Moveable and stationary lights do an excellent job of recapturing this material response but can be much more expensive, especially if you use to many in a single area. Often if you have to many dynamic light unreal will even disable the offending lights because of how largely expensive they are with too much overlap. In experimenting on what lights gave the best material response I pick and chose what the best spots to enable stationary lights. I typically would create lighting blueprints with a static light. Then set it with an approximate brightness and setting values. I then would evaluate in each space where I could afford dynamic lights and I would then switch those by overriding the light details in the scene, keeping the original blueprint values intact in the content editor. Also a trick to getting good material response with a stationary light is to artificially angle a horizontally forward to the camera or player. This gives you good glints and hits of material response that shows up really well when facing toward them. Make sure to keep the brightness at a manageable level to not overwhelm or blowout the scenes lighting especially if it is more of an artificial light with no real source. I find that is one of the greatest thing about creating game scenes in comparison to real life. You can fake lights or add lighting information to specific areas of your “canvas” to produce the most compelling composition, regardless of real world credibility. This was easily implemented in this scene as the construction lights are angled so that the provide really useful glancing angles on light on the ground and walls. Angled cool colored floodlights Another technique I used for lighting the scene was the use of warm and cool colored lights. Using cool colored lights on the newer props such as the construction floodlights and warm on the older tunnel and bunker lights, I was not only able to tell a bit of story with the age of the light installation but also separate the scene by colored areas. Using the pools of color the different areas of the scene are easily divided by the eye and focus on particular assets or areas are emphasized with brighter warm lights and cool fill lights. Using warm and cool lights. In the end I found I really liked working with this scene for the amount of flexibility on creating colored lights and having good contrast between light and dark areas of the space. Lighting only – Detail Lighting – Full render view How do you work with Quixel and Substance in your workflow? What tools are used for what purpose, how do they work together in one production line? In terms of your choice of tools, how many of them are used in game production as standard? Finding the right tools for the job can sometimes be tricky as an environment artist. There are so many powerful tools that artist can use to improve and speed up your workflow and production pipeline. I find that not being too attached to any one tool, as the “master” tool is the best way to go. If something can be done in substance, Photoshop, or Quixel, Zbrush, Maya, etc. choose which one you find easiest and most efficient for you. For someone else that may be a different option. Allowing yourself and other artist choose and find what fits their style is key to creating quality art. Nothing really matters during the creation process as the most important part is the end product. Try to remember that all that matters to the client and/or company is the final result and how it looks in game. Also don’t be afraid to try new tools. New game changing things come out all the time that may change how to go about making your art. Becoming stuck in dated techniques can actually slow you down. Be open minded to testing new features, tools, and programs, to keep your ability and toolset growing to suit a ever changing industry. I found for most of the work I did on this scene specifically that Quixel provided a lot of the tools that I needed to texture many of the assets quickly and efficiently. That is not to say that Substance could produce some other particular results, this is just the tool of choice that I used for this environment. My typical workflow tools: Maya – For high and low poly creation of asset Zbrush – Sometimes creating the high poly of the more organic shapes Mighty Bake – For baking texture maps and masks Photoshop – Compositing and editing textures Quixel – creating textures from masks and 3D painting some wear and detailed texture information Unreal – Game engine for final scene Illustrator: creation of logos or graphics and signs Mightybake Software Some other useful websites: Dafont: Fonts used for some of the signs Cgtextures: Photos used for some photos bashing or compositing Thanks for sharing a bit of insight on all your process and construction methods. Any last words you would like to share with our readers? Yes thank you so much for letting me share. I always enjoy sharing some of the development processes of my work and problem solving on projects. This scene is available on my website. It is available for purchase on Cubebrush, Gumroad, and on the Unreal Marketplace. For readers simply use the coupon code 80lvl on Cubebrush and Gumroad and receive 15% percent of all my unreal scenes until October 31st. Also more articles and resources are available on my resource page at or my Facebook page. Lastly thanks to Kollide Entertainment for having me construct this scene and letting me talk about it with you all today! Final Shots of Bear’s Den Underground Bunker More shots available here. Clinton Crumpler, Senior Environment Artist Interview conducted by Kirill Tokarev. Follow 80.lv on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram |
Stamboulidis, 21, has spent time with AEK Athens and is now on the books of MLS side Colorado Rapids, having since departed City three years ago. He is taking an unconventional path to the top, combining football with economic studies at New York's Ivy League Columbia University. But he has already made two appearances for Greece's under-19s and is firmly on the radar of their Under-21s, though his dream is to one day line up in the green and gold of Australia. The No.6 - a part of Melbourne City's National Youth League winning team four seasons ago - was in contact with Olyroos coach Josep Gombau before he quit to take over at Western Sydney Wanderers. And while proud to play for the land of his lineage, Melbourne-born Stamboulidis said: "My heart lies with Australia, it's just a matter of whether I can get the opportunity. "The Greeks are still interested and one of the biggest honours in my career has been to represent Greece. "But the reality is I just feel closer to Australia." Earlier this year, Stamboulidis made his move with the Denver-based Rapids, featuring for their under-23 team and lining up in a friendly against the USA where he faced up to the likes of Clint Dempsey and Christian Pulisic. "That was cool, playing against the USA and also Trinidad and Tobago," he added. "It was an experience to come up against pros ... it was a matter of discipline and staying focused. "It is a big leap to go from where I am now to a professional environment. "But having seen and been in that environment it to showed me that it is possible. "With my studies, I'm learning things I can take on to the pitch. "Once the opportunity comes I will be ready to take it with both hands," added Stamboulidis. Though he could have persevered with City, Stamboulidis has embraced taking a road less travelled in his pursuit of a professional career. "I possibly had a chance to play in the A-League but I've taken another route and have learned a lot and matured a lot," he declared. "My ultimate aim is to play in Europe at some point. I trained under (former Greek national team star) Stelios Manolas at AEK in 2015, and he was interested in keeping my there at that point." One of his mentors is former FC Barcelona treasurer and board member Xavier Sala-I-Martin, now also a world renowned economics professor at Columbia University. "He is my economics growth and development teacher and was sharing with me how Sergio Busquets, who is one my favorite players, faced many challenges as a young person," he said. "He had to find a way to mature and that was through the pitch, playing and being responsible. "I feel as though I can develop with this mindset of being a player who can always lead and be accountable as Busquets is. “Right now I am focused on helping Columbia Lions win our first National Finals appearance in the NCCA tournament since 1993 and to get to the next round after Friday's game in Virginia.." |
I’m standing on the deck of Google’s offices in San Francisco, admiring the morning sunlight as it hits the Bay Bridge and water in front of me. The sea breeze blows through the air as I take in a deep breath wondering how they manage to get any work done with this incredible view. “We took that just this morning with the camera on that phone,” someone says behind me. I set the Cardboard down, returning to the same point in reality – five hours later. — Cardboard Camera is Google’s newest entry into the VR space, a journey that began with a slab of Cardboard meant to bring VR to the masses. Continuing along with that tradition, Cardboard Camera puts immersive photography in your pocket by turning your phone into a 360-degree 3D still camera. The app works a lot like a taking a standard panoramic photo, you pan the phone slowly around you turning along with it. The app then processes that data on the phone itself, and within about 30 seconds it spits out a beautiful 360-degree panoramic image with some fairly impressive looking stereoscopic 3D. In addition to the photo, you can choose to record sound along with the image capture, giving you a loop of ambient noise that plays along with the image. Google isn’t the first company to explore using the phone’s camera in this way. Earlier this year, Emergent VR raised 2.2 million on a similar idea that had the added functionality of being able to inject regular video into a 360-degree still, giving the whole image an illusion of motion. The technique works quite nicely from the demos we tried, but I have yet to be able to try the actual capture process so it is impossible to compare how it works on the creator’s side. Right now it is easy to say Google’s app has a decided advantage, if only because it is actually out now. Emergent VR’s is expected to release a beta of their platform “by the holidays.” Google’s app, with a slick and easy to use interface, makes this kind of capture simple and accessible to a broad audience. An audience, Google hopes will eventually want to share these memories with the world. The current iteration of Cardboard Camera does not have the ability to share photos on social media, but the company says that feature is coming in “phase 2.” These types of apps are the stepping stones that bring VR into our daily lives. We share thousands of moments online every day in the form of Facebook pictures, Snapchats, and Instagrams, but those pictures only capture a fraction of that moment. Immersive photography elevates that by transporting you into the full scene, especially when you add sound. Recent studies have shown that there are three senses most associated with emotional memory are sight, sound and smell – Cardboard Camera replicates two of those things fairly well, which is enough to transport you back in time to moments past (especially when those moments are your own). Cardboard Camera is currently available only on Andriod on the Google Play Store. Google says iOS support will come down the road. Tagged with: 360 camera, 360 cameras, 360 capture, 360 photography, Cardboard Camera, Emergent VR, google, google cardboard |
Fast food workers are going on strike from New York to Seattle to demand higher wages, highlighting the never-ending controversy over the consequences of raising the minimum wage. Many news stories seem to suggest that economists have decided a higher minimum wage will cause job loss. However, with more analysis, we undercover the truth: there is no clear link between a higher minimum wage and reduced employment. Advertisement: John Schmitt, a Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, reported in February 2013 that multiple meta-studies (studies that use statistical techniques to analyze a large amount of separate studies) found that for both older and current studies alike, there is no statistical significance in the effect of an increased minimum wage. Put plainly, if the effect is not statistically significant, then there is no proven effect— increases in the minimum wage do not cause job loss. Accordingly, a few weeks ago, over 100 economists at organizations ranging from the Center for American Progress to Boston University signed a petition in support of increasing the minimum wage. They present current research from well-established organizations such as the National Bureau of Economic Research that shows there are no negative employment effects from minimum wage increases. This includes the most comprehensive data available, based on the increasingly accurate testing that has occurred as more and more states increase minimum wage levels. Even more importantly, this recent series of studies use cutting-edge econometric techniques to control for extraneous variables such as economic downturns and geographic effects. When economists do that, they find that minimum wage increases do not reduce employment. Logically, this makes a lot of sense. A higher minimum wage is a win-win situation economically: employees have more money to be consumers and are more productive, while businesses wind up reducing costs in the long run, since they won’t have to spend as much money hiring and training new workers (by analyzing data from five separate studies, economists representing the Political Economy Research Institute found that McDonald's could easily make up for the costs of a higher minimum wage with a mere five cent price increase on Big Macs). It’s just as Henry Ford realized—when he paid his workers more, they became part of his customer base, making his company even more profitable. Increasing the customer base and expanding customer pockets helps stimulate the entire economy, badly needed in the current recession. So if we have no evidence linking high wages to job loss, our next question is: are higher wages needed as a poverty reduction tool? Currently, the 2013 Federal Poverty guidelines stipulate $23,550 for a family of four as poverty level. A $7.25 minimum wage currently nets the protesting fast food workers $15,080 a year if the workers are lucky enough to work 40 hours a week. In a typical household with two parents and two children, parents who make $7.25 earn far below the living wage of $13.55, according to an MIT wage calculator. The numbers become even starker when you separate out true living expenses: food, medical care, housing, transportation, and other needed expenses add up to a required $37,540 annual income before taxes, which is notably different than the poverty guidelines that the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services set. Even if the two parents worked 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, they would only earn $30,160 in total, significantly below the resources they need to live. Moreover, these estimates are only for a typical nuclear family. The struggle that single-income families, large families, or families living in high-cost cities go through is exponentially higher. The buying power of minimum wage has steadily been waning due to the effects of inflation for the past 40 years. When prices increase, a worker’s paycheck buys less and less. To put it in perspective, we look to another brief by John Schmitt: if minimum wage had continued to match productivity growth, it would have been $21.72 per hour in 2012. If we only adjust for the cost of living, a minimum wage pegged to inflation would be $10.52. Advertisement: A huge bulk of evidence makes the case that increasing the minimum wage is a doable, efficient, and necessary change for the economy. This change needs to happen now. We as Americans have a moral obligation to make sure that other Americans who are working hard to support themselves and their families are able to make a living. Emily Chong is a junior at Vanderbilt University and a Roosevelt Institute | Campus Network Summer Academy Fellow interning with the Rediscovering Government initiative. |
CBS sprung into upfront action today, picking up four new dramas, Limitless, Rush Hour, Code Black and the Criminal Minds spinoff — now officially titled Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders — and two comedies, the single-camera Life In Pieces, starring James Brolin and Colin Hanks, and Angel From Hell, headlined by Jane Lynch and Maggie Lawson. There was no Beverly Hills Cop redo with Rush Hour this year as some dreaded early on, referring to the CBS’ high-profile 2013 pilot based on the hit Eddie Murphy feature cop comedy franchise with an up-and-coming actor in the lead, which shockingly got a pass. Despite early bumps, including a very long casting process for the two young leads, and mixed early feedback, the Rush Hour pilot, written by Bill Lawrence & Blake McCormick and directed by Jon Turteltaub, steadily gained momentum to solidify its chances. The Rush Hour pickup means that both of Warner Bros. TV’s big titles at CBS went to series, with Supergirl getting an early nod on Wednesday. That brings the CBS new drama series orders to 5. For a second year in a row, an action pilot produced by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci sailed through testings and screenings to land on the CBS schedule. Last year, it was Scorpion, this time it was Limitless, based on the 2011 feature, whose star Bradley Cooper is executive producing the series. Following the success of Scorpion, CBS clearly is moving in the direction of more popcorn, younger-skewing one-hours with the additions of Limitless, Rush Hour and Supergirl –– all three pre-bought titles, which would help in marketing. A major recasting of the lead that involved last-minute rewriting of characters did not get in the way of medical drama Code Black, which replaced original lead Maggie Grace with co-star Marcia Gay Harden. Facing another medical drama pilot, LFE, Code Black, written by Michael Seitzman, snagged the series order. It is refreshing to see that CBS is not afraid to bet on older series leads in a youth-obsessed culture. Last May, CBS picked up new drama series NCIS: New Orleans toplined by Scott Bakula. This year the network has Code Black and the new Criminal Minds spinoff, which marks the return of CSI: NY star Gary Sinise. This is the second series order in that many days for Limitless exec producer Marc Webb, who directed the pilot from a script by Craig Sweeney. He also received a surprise order at the CW for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a pilot he originally did for Showtime. Ditto for Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders exec producer Mark Gordon, who also is behind new ABC drama Quantico. CBS’ bet on two single-camera comedies, Tad Quill’s Angel From Hell and Justin Adler’s Life In Pieces, a late January spec buy, is interesting. I hear the network brass also liked multi-camera sitcom The Half Of It, said to be fairly traditional, but couldn’t find a place for it on the schedule. There may be some play for it down the road. Here are descriptions of CBS’ newly picked up series. DRAMA CODE BLACK EP/ Writer: Michael Seitzman EP: Marti Noxon EP: Linda Goldstein-Knowlton EP: Ryan McGarry EP/Director: David Semel Studio: ABC Studios Logline: Medical drama set in the busiest and most notorious ER in the nation where the extraordinary staff struggle in the face of a broken system to protect their ideals and the patients who need them the most. Cast: Marcia Gay Harden Bonnie Somerville Raza Jaffrey Luis Guzman Melanie Kannokada Harry M. Ford Ben Hollingsworth William Allen Young CRIMINAL MINDS: Beyond Borders (Planted Spinoff) *Filmed as a Criminal Minds episode on Feb. 8 as a planted spin off. EP: Mark Gordon, Erica Messer, Nick Pepper W: Executive Producer Erica Messer Director: Glenn Kershaw Logline: Focuses on a division of the FBI that helps American citizens who find themselves in danger abroad. ABC Studios in association with CBS Television Studios and The Mark Gordon Company Cast: Gary Sinise Daniel Henney Tyler James * No mention by CBS of Anna Gunn who was in the planted spinoff episode but rumored to be leaving the project. LIMITLESS EP/ Writer: Craig Sweeny EP/Director: Marc Webb EP: Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci, Heather Kadin EP: Bradley Cooper & Todd Phillips EP: Ryan Kavanaugh, Tucker Tooley & Tom Forman Studio: CBS Television Studios i.a.w. K/O Paper Products and Relativity Media Logline: A drama based on the 2011 feature. The series follows Brian Finch as he discovers the power of the mysterious drug NZT, and is coerced into using his newfound drug-enhanced abilities to solve weekly cases for the FBI. Cast: Jake McDorman Jennifer Carpenter Hill Harper Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio RUSH HOUR EP/ Writers: Bill Lawrence & Blake McCormick EP: Arthur Sarkissian EP: Brett Ratner EP: Jeff Ingold EP/Director: Jon Turteltaub Studio: Warner Bros. Television Based on the New Line Cinema feature film Logline: A stoic, by-the-book Hong Kong police officer is assigned to a case in Los Angeles where he’s forced to work with a cocky African-American LAPD officer who has no interest in a partner. Cast: Justin Hires Jon Foo Aimee Garcia Wendie Malick COMEDY ANGEL FROM HELL Single Cam Writer/EP: Tad Quill EP/Director: Don Scardino Studio: CBS Television Studios Logline: When Amy enters Allison’s life and claims to be her guardian angel, they form an unlikely friendship and Allison can’t be sure if Amy is an angel or just nuts. Cast: Jane Lynch Maggie Lawson Kyle Bornheimer Kevin Pollak LIFE IN PIECES Single Cam EP/W: Justin Adler EP/NW: Aaron Kaplan EP/Director: Jason Winer Studio: Kapital Entertainment i/a/w 20th Century Fox Television Logline: A comedy about one family told through the separate stories of its different family members. Cast: Dianne Wiest James Brolin Zoe Lister Jones Colin Hanks Angelique Cabral Thomas Sadoski Betsy Brandt Dan Bakkedahl Niall Cunningham Holly J. Barrett Giselle Eisenberg |
Retired NBA star Steve Nash is teaming up with the CBC to develop a one-hour drama set at an elite basketball academy. The B.C.-bred athlete says the proposed series would revolve around the teens, parents, coaches and administrators at a Toronto-area school, and the unique trials young athletes face as they seek superstardom. Two-time NBA most valuable player Steve Nash, as executive producer of a new CBC drama, is not expected to appear on screen. His NBA pals, however, might. ( Rick Scuteri / AP ) “It’s a really incredible backdrop to create characters and create storylines that are really relevant, authentic and I think exciting for audiences,” said Nash in a recent call from Los Angeles. It’s tentatively titled “Hardwood,” with Nash working behind-the-scenes as an executive producer. The former point guard said he doesn’t expect to appear on camera, but he saw lots of opportunity to invite NBA pals to make cameos. Article Continued Below “I think it’d be great — we have so many Canadian NBA players now that it’d be a lot of fun to have them get involved, so that’ll be something that we definitely would be excited to do.” Nash said the project is still in a very early stage of development with scripts currently being written. “Hardwood” is executive produced by Insight Production’s John Brunton and Barbara Bowlby, the Toronto-based team behind “The Amazing Race Canada” and “Big Brother Canada.” Nash said he envisions stories that would delve into the intense pressures young players face and the “shady” dealmaking that can emerge around them — something he has firsthand knowledge of. Since leaving the game earlier this year, Nash has indulged his passion for film and television through his company, Meathawk Productions. He said his interest began 20 years ago when he became “a bit of a cinephile.” “And then initially I made a short for Nike and I was kind of hooked,” said Nash, who co-directed a documentary about Terry Fox for the ESPN series “30 for 30” in 2010. “Eventually (I) made a bunch of digital content for brands, did a ‘30 for 30’ for ESPN, another doc for ESPN, and actually also was involved in a couple of ... web series, so it was a fairly natural progression from just becoming a fan of film and storytelling to becoming a participant.” Article Continued Below Nash said the basketball business has changed a lot since he was a teenager, noting that social media has made everything “so much more immediate and public.” “They just put a clip on YouTube and text it back and forth to a coach or a recruiter, and the same goes for their behaviour — they get caught out doing something, the whole world knows about it right away instead of it being just some little secret. It’s just a heightened environment and very difficult,” said Nash, whose 19-year career with the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers included eight all-star appearances, seven nominations to the all-NBA team and consecutive MVP awards. He’s now the general manager of Canada’s men’s national team. Nash said he can understand the pressure young players face and hopes to bring some authenticity to “Hardwood.” “As a young player you have high hopes and dreams, you have these goals that you’re striving for and then you have all these people around you with expectations, that want a piece of your time or your success and so to navigate that is something that we’re going to see a lot (in the show) — how these kids navigate these two worlds of one, being a high-profile high school recruit and at the same time being a teenager,” said Nash. “It becomes very tricky for these kids to land on their feet and to get through all this stuff unscathed.” |
While Dick Van Dyke is ready to chim chim cher-ee his way into a brief appearance for Disney’s upcoming Mary Poppins Returns sequel — as a greedy heir, no less! — Julie Andrews won’t be following his toe-tapping lead. Out of respect to Poppins’s new portrayal by Emily Blunt, Andrews has chosen to forgo any cameo opportunities so Blunt will have her full chance to shine in the iconic role. “Julie was incredibly gracious, and we talked about it in a very general way but she made it clear right up front,” the sequel’s director, Rob Marshall, recently explained to EW. “She said, ‘This is Emily’s show, and I really want it to be Emily’s show. I don’t want it to be, ‘Oh, here comes that Mary Poppins.’ I don’t want that. I really want her to take this and run with it, because she will be brilliant.” Despite that reluctance, Andrews is still quite enthused for Poppins to be returning to the big screen after all of these years. “She said it’s time and she said, ‘I know it’ll be cared for,’” Marshall continued. “And that’s the thing I think about every day when I’m at work. We all do.” Because once a Dame, always a Dame. |
It is a busy season at Holberton School as students, including myself, are looking for opportunities to step outside the classroom and into the industry. So what would make me want to break away from interview preparation and start up a new project? Julien Barbier, co-founder of Holberton School, was chatting with several students and daringly said he was surprised that no student has tried to hack the school’s security cameras. Challenge accepted. Finding the Cameras on the Network The first step to hacking the cameras is to be on the same network. Holberton School has a separate wireless network for infrastructure devices including the IP cameras. Volunteerism paid dividends because the student DevOps team that I was a part of was given access to that network. Once connected, I need to locate the devices on the network. In the past I have used network monitoring tools to see devices on a network. Instead of using one of those I investigated command line tools available to learn something new. Address Resolution Protocol ARP, or address resolution protocol, is the translation of the network IP address to the device address (MAC or physical address). A command line tool called “arp” is described as an "address resolution display and control". I entered "arp -a" in Terminal and hit return, it displayed the IP and MAC address of devices on the network. The physical address may be used to identify the manufacturer of a device. The response showed several devices with similar physical addresses. However, I needed further confirmation. Often IP cameras have a web interface to manage the device. Entering the IP address in a web browser confirmed that they were the cameras. Default Passwords are a Hacker's Friend Now that the cameras were located on the network. The next problem was access. A default user and password come already configured on the device . The new owner is expected to change the password, but often they don't. The first thing I did was check the default user and password that I obtained via Google. The default logins were not changed. Once logged in to each camera, I had access to all streams. As a note, I hacked the cameras while the school was relatively empty since I usually am the first to arrive. Accessing the streams is a hack in itself. However, I wanted to affect the image streaming from a camera. To do this I needed to get inside the camera, so I turned to the "nmap" tool to identify others services running on the camera. Mapping the Ports on a Network Device According to the tool’s description, "Nmap ('Network Mapper') is an open source tool for network exploration and security auditing." This made it perfect for what I was trying to do. I entered "nmap -p<port range> <ip address>". The results revealed that port 22, the default port for SSH, was listening. I tried using the default username and password to SSH into the camera. To my surprise it worked! In fact, when I reviewed the /etc/passwd file the only user account was the default user which meant that I would have access to manage the files as well. However, not all would be as simple as it seemed. The camera uses a Linux environment modified specifically for the device, Dropbear for SSH, Lighttpd for the web server, Busybox for the bulk of normal Linux shell commands, and, as I discovered later, Evostream for the media server. Subverting the Web View The majority of configuration files were on a read-only mount of the file space which prevented modification. A mount is a connection to a physical disk space such as a hard drive or some other type of storage. In a recent, Commando Project at Holberton School we were given a broken server that we had to repair and bring the services back online. One piece of the problem was that the SQL database was on a read-only mount preventing the service from starting. Through this I learned about using “mount” to remount the file space with read/write capabilities. However, mount would not work to change the permissions on the camera. As a result, I was blocked from altering many of the main services of the camera. The camera constantly changed jpeg images in the tmp folder. The web page accessed the images to provide the "live stream" on the web interface. The web interface files in the “www” folder were located on the read-only mount so I could not modify it there. However, I did have write access in the “tmp”, meaning temporary, folder. I copied the web folder into temporary folder. There I modified the symbolic link to point to my hacked image. A symbolic link is basically a file pointer that tells the system to respond with a different file when asked for that file. The next step was to get lighttpd to point to the modified files. Redirecting and Restarting lighttpd The primary lighttpd configuration file was in the /var/etc folder which was in a read/write mount. To redirect the web server, I used the vi text editor to change host file path from "/usr/www" to "/tmp/www". With all of my hacked configurations in place. I restarted the service using the command “pkill lighttpd”. To confirm it worked, I logged back into the web interface of the camera. It displayed my hacked image with a pokeball in place of a hanging plant and a black hole in the floor. Hitting a Roadblock with the Server-Managed Configuration While I knew the camera’s web interface was down, I could tell that the cameras were managed by a central server used to access the streams. The active connections showed one from the server. I did not believe the hack altered the stream on the server. Through a source with access to the server I confirmed that the hack was not effective. Taking the Camera Offline With the amount of time to devote to this project dwindling, I tried to understand how the image was going from the the camera to server to determine what I could do to disrupt the process. The most interesting part of the output from netstat -pal was the manufacturer's streamer service. It connected to a service called "evostreamms". A quick Google search revealed that this is a media server. To confirm the media server hosted the stream to the security camera server, I created a looping shell script to kill the media server service, and created a listener on the same port with "nc -lp <port>". The streamer service sent a Flash video stream to that part. The security camera server connected to the media server to get the stream. When I stopped the media service I took the camera offline. Although the camera was offline, still images were still updated in the tmp folder and could be retrieved. The manufacturer's streamer service produced the updated images. To prevent those images from being created I took that service offline as well. The issue persisted until the camera was manually rebooted which initialized the camera configuration process. All Good Things Must Come to an End While I wanted to take the next step of streaming a looped video through the media server, I could not devote more time as I needed to prepare for interviews. In terms of the camera, I was impressed by some of the protections in place. The fact that I could kill a core service without something noticing seems flawed. However, much of the hack would have been inhibited by changing the default password. The security camera server managed the configuration of the cameras, so when implementing the system the camera logins may be overlooked. I met with Julien to reveal the hack and point out vulnerabilities in the system. It was a great learning experience with even more still there to be learned. |
The loot collected by children making their First Communion has now surpassed the highs of the boom times, and they stand to make almost €600 each through their acceptance of one of the most sacred sacraments of the Roman Catholic tradition. While the kids will be quids in, their parents are showing a restraint more associated with the bust rather the boom, according to Ulster Bank’s annual Communion survey which was published this afternoon. In the years before the recession hit in 2008, it was not unusual for parents to hire limousines and bouncy castles and shell out on expensive dresses, suits, make-up and spray tans. Just before the crash communing families were spending an average of €1,165 on the festivities. The spend plummeted once the bubble burst and this year’s crop of parents will spend €400 less on the holy day than they did in 2008. Parents told Ulster Bank’s researchers that they spent an average of €764 on their child’s First Holy Communion this year, an increase from last year’s €732. The bank broke down the figures and found that the cost of the communion party including food and drink was €334 this year, up 14 per cent from 2013. The white frock or the suit cost an average of €171, the same figure as last year, while outfits for other family members cost a further €196, down 12 per cent on 2013. The cost of children’s entertainment went in the other direction, albeit ever so slightly. The survey put it as €123, up 2 per cent on the previous year. The survey also found children who made their First Communion this year got an average of €591, up €70 on the 2013 figure. It also reported that 12 per cent of children have not yet spent any of their Communion money and have opted to save it instead. Some 43 per cent of the children who decided to do the decent thing and spend the money, bought toys. Video games proved popular for 41 per cent while 34 per cent spent the cash on clothes. There was a gender divide reported with 18 per cent of girls having already spent all their Communion money compared with just 12 per cent of boys. A terrifying 13 per cent of girls spent the money on phone credit. |
Michael Merzenich, neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, is ruthless as he describes how my 37-year-old brain is going to turn to mush over the years to come. “You’re going to slowly decline in operating speed,” he says. “Your brain will become noisier and noisier in its processing.” And I will have more and more trouble figuring out exactly what it was I just heard or saw. The villain: age-related cognitive decline, which Merzenich says is a combination of physical changes and something called negative brain plasticity—the cerebral equivalent of what has happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s biceps. A way to combat negative brain plasticity is to train regularly using any of an increasingly wide range of software products designed expressly for the purpose, says Merzenich, who founded Posit Science, which makes one such package. Cognitive training is growing in popularity as baby boomers age. From 2005 to 2007 the U.S. brain fitness business increased from $100 million to $225 million, according to a report by SharpBrains, a market research company specializing in cognitive health. The growth was driven to a large extent by the success of Nintendo’s Brain Age [see my review of it and two other brain-training games in “Circuit Training”; Scientific American Mind, June/July 2006]. Research does confirm that regular brain exercise is beneficial to elderly people. ACTIVE, a nationwide clinical trial of 2,802 seniors that began in 1998, found that training in specific areas such as “processing speed” resulted in improvements that persisted at least five years. I recently tried out eight of the latest brain fitness programs, training with each for a week. The programs ranged widely in focus, quality and how fun they were to use. “Like physical exercise equipment, a brain exercise program doesn’t do you any good if you don’t use it,” says Andrew J. Carle, director of the Program in Assisted Living/Senior Housing Administration at George Mason University. And people tend not to use boring equipment. “I remember when NordicTrack was the biggest thing out there. Everyone ran out and bought one, and 90 percent of them ended up as a clothes rack in the back of your bedroom.” After eight weeks of testing, I have learned some useful things about the software, although I certainly do not feel any smarter. That is not a surprise; I am not old yet, and I do not have cognitive difficulties. “If you have a serious problem,” says Jonas Jendi, CEO of Cogmed America, “the training is worth a lot more.” There is the question of whether any of these programs are as good as exercising your brain on your own—by playing chess, say, or learning to play a musical instrument. Possibly not, but they are convenient packages that integrate training from many areas. Is any one of the programs aimed at adults better than the others? Hard to say, and a proper comparative study may never be done. Start with the reviews below, which are organized by program target areas, and then take advantage of the many free trial offers online to see what works best for you. What matters most is whether you enjoy using one and whether it challenges you at the right level. Will you stick with it, or will it become a clothes rack? Your brain health is at stake. AURAL APPRECIATION Maker: Posit Science Name: Brain Fitness Program Classic For: Seniors Price: $395 (single user); $495 (two users) What you get: CD-ROM, instruction manual, headphones Where to buy: www.positscience.com Brain Fitness Program Classic improves your ability to recognize sounds as speech and comprehend language. It begins at the most elementary levels—upward and downward frequency swoops common in spoken language—and progresses to syllables, words, sentences and stories. Its effectiveness is backed by scientific trials carried out with children and older adults. Brain Fitness has a gold-plated user interface, as if you are at an expensive private clinic. The on-screen buttons are huge. The instructions are geared toward users whose response times are a little slower than those of the average middle-age adult—it is pretty clear what you are supposed to do most of the time, although older adults may find the long intro sections more helpful than I did. During the training period I could notice my hearing acuity improve, in the way you would become able to discern the woodwinds in a Mozart symphony after taking a music appreciation class. I found the Brain Fitness exercises extremely repetitive, however, and thus about as much fun as running on a treadmill. The designers try to compensate for this lack of novelty with images and Flintstones-like animations, which provide the user with a reward for sticking it out. Waiting to see exactly what bland shenanigans the piano player and his dog would get up to in the next clip kept me motivated sufficiently to finish the week. Merzenich, now 66, says that an improved version of Brain Fitness, out sometime in the spring of 2009, will be more gamelike and entertaining. NEURO CARDIO Maker: HappyNeuron, Inc. Name: Brain Fitness For: Adults Price: $89.95 for CD-ROM; $9.95/month or $99.95/year for online membership What you get: CD-ROM or online membership Where to buy: CD-ROM at www.amenclinics.com/store in Games section; online membership at www.happyneuron.com When I signed on to HappyNeuron’s Web site, I was greeted by an electronic “coach” that offered me a program tailored to my needs and ability. The coach is like a trainer at a fitness club, says Laura Fay, CEO of HappyNeuron, the U.S. subsidiary of a French company that first released its software in Europe in 2002. Like a coach, “it attempts to make an appropriate challenge,” Fay says. “But it never stretches the goal so far you would injure yourself.” The coach did not speak, but using HappyNeuron’s Brain Fitness felt like doing cardio with a trainer who has a French accent. The instructions had quirky syntax and occasional Franco spelling, although it is obvious that someone has redesigned the games on the surface to appeal to Americans. Basketball in New York, for one: the object is to rearrange various numbers of balls in different nets. But to a North American sports fan, there is just something wrong about three basketballs sitting one on top of the other in a hoop. I enjoyed Decipher, in which you have to decode a quote from fake Egyptian hieroglyphs. The sources of the quotes range from Shakespeare to rappers such as The Game. (Useful clue: rappers like to mention their own names a lot.) Underlying the games, Fay explains, is the theory that there are five distinct domains of cognitive activity: memory, attention, language, visuospatial skills and executive function. The games are designed to stimulate the neural networks in brain regions that have been linked previously to these activities by functional magnetic resonance imaging. GAMES ON THE GO Maker: Nintendo Name: Brain Age2 For: Adults Price: $19.99 for game; $129.99 for DS console What you get: Handheld game console and game chip Where to buy: Many locations, some listed at www.nintendo.com/consumer/retail/retail_retailers.jsp Playing Nintendo’s Brain Age2 on the Washington, D.C., Red Line train into work one morning, I look up from my console to see my seatmate, a young fellow, intent on his own Nintendo game—one involving a spaceship firing off a lot of missiles. “I’m reviewing this program for a magazine,” I say, hoping he won’t think my mental faculties are actually in poor repair. I need not have worried. “What’s the ideal brain age, something in your 20s, right?” asks the man, John Benton, 23, a congressional assistant. Benton knows about Brain Age2 because he played the first version when it came out a few years ago. “I always scored pretty old.” This news is good for me because after a week of play, my official brain age is still 52. Benton also has the same beef I did with Nintendo’s character-recognition software: “You write something, and it thinks you wrote something else.” Brain Age2 is loosely based on the research of Ryuta Kawashima, a neuroscientist at Tohoku University in Japan. Kawashima’s bobbing noggin greets you when you start and carries on one-sided conversations about the time of day or how you are faring. In my case, usually, “Are you tired? Dust yourself off and try again tomorrow.” You begin with simple games, such as making words out of a rotating circle of letters. The more you play, the more games are unlocked. And the games in Brain Age2 are, for the most part, different from those in the original Brain Age, making it fun to discover what new workouts the game designers cooked up to exercise my prefrontal lobes. It is a good thing that Brain Age2 dangles the incentive of variety if you play regularly, rather than if you improve your scores, because I did not get any better over time. Maybe part of my problem was that I played only on the train. Brain Age2, played on a handheld controller, would seem to be ideal for train commuters—it lets you skip games you don’t like so you don’t have to be the obnoxious guy apparently barking “Rock, paper, rock, rock, scissors” at his BlackBerry. But the paradox of convenience, I found, is that you need a quiet environment to concentrate. The yammering voices on a crowded subway car—not to mention valid thoughts that you might be missing your stop—are distracting. SUPERMIND Maker: Cognifit Name: MindFit/Cognifit Personal Coach For: Seniors Price: $139 for download; $149 for boxed CD-ROM; $19.99/month for online membership What you get: Download, CD-ROM or online membership Where to buy: www.e-mindfitness.com MindFit is the brainchild of Shlomo Breznitz, a psychologist at the University of Haifa in Israel and CEO of Cognifit, a company based in Israel with offices in the U.S. and Europe. The ideal training regimen is an hour a week, split into three sessions. “If you can increase your short-term memory by one to two items,” Breznitz says, “it can be revolutionary in everyday life.” I tested a beta version online called Cognifit Personal Coach. I signed in and immediately the program conducted an exhaustive—and exhausting—assessment. One test worked hand-eye coordination, requiring me to track a ball through a maze. I fear that in Cognifit’s database my name is linked to a high klutz factor, although I do not think it is all my fault. Perhaps the game’s designers had not considered this fact, but ordinary mouse pads are not designed for dragging the mouse around for stretches of six inches or longer. As a result, I failed the test. Thereafter I was subjected to more coordination exercises to remedy my alleged deficiency. Nevertheless, I genuinely enjoyed some of the games. Supermind, a version of the board game Mastermind in which you deduce a sequence of symbols, was one. In another, I had to find words hidden crossword-style in a giant matrix. I laughed, however, at short words such as “BELL” camouflaged in a giant carpet of letters. Cognifit Personal Coach differs from the competition, according to Breznitz, in a way that is not apparent to the user. It uses sophisticated artificial intelligence to tabulate the user’s scores in different cognitive dimensions and to carefully calibrate challenges. If the program senses you are reaching a plateau in a particular mode, for instance, it will give you a break for a while. “Then you can come back later and go farther,” Breznitz says. He uses Cognifit himself but says that what really keeps him sharp is working with bright young programmers who ask him tough questions. CORTEX SPORT Maker: Lumosity Name: Lumosity For: Adults of all ages Price: $9.95/month; $79.95/year What you get: Online membership Where to buy: www.lumosity.com Lumosity was the program I was most eager to play each day. Its content appears not to be much different from that of its competitors. But its user interface is as well designed as Nintendo’s. My only complaint was that my daily training was over so quickly. Complete sessions took less than 15 minutes. Can such short stints accomplish anything? On the other hand, I realize, I have been doing stomach crunches for less than 15 minutes a day for the past few months, and my abs are more beach-worthy than they were before I began. Maybe the same holds true for the brain. Ostensibly, the goal is to increase a quantity called your “lumosity.” This notion rang my quack-alert bell at first, but it is just intended to whet your competitive appetite. Each training session you are assigned four or five games, and you progress through a primer stage to modules covering attention, memory, processing speed and cognitive control. Then you hit extended stages devoted to each of these modes. Lumosity’s games are standard issue but tarted up in a way that makes them genuinely fun. For example, in an exercise to work visuospatial attention you stare at a four-by-four grid on which cartoon monsters pop up along with vegetable loot. After the graphics disappear, you have to trace a route that avoids the monsters but picks up bonus veggie points. And I loved the bird-watching game, in which pigeons, storks, and so on appear briefly at random locations, and you have to click a camera icon where they were while remembering the letters that flashed in the middle of the screen. The game’s appeal, I confess, owes something to skeet shooting. BRAIN STRAINER Maker: MyBrainTrainer Name: MyBrainTrainer For: Adults of all ages Price: $9.95/three months; $29.95/year What you get: Online membership Where to buy: www.mybraintrainer.com If Posit Science’s program felt like an exclusive, if boring, Swiss clinic, MyBrainTrainer felt like the office of one of those doctors who advertise between the true-crime shows on daytime TV. The homepage is unbelievably cluttered—in effect, giving you your first brain workout. It was a challenge just figuring out how to get to the games. On day three, after the first exercise I was shunted back to what appeared to be the wrong page and spent several minutes clicking on anything that seemed promising. Once I got back to the right page, however, it was unclear whether I was supposed to play each game once or twice. The games appear to be as valid as any. But I imagine that many users would quickly become discouraged and give up on MyBrainTrainer. DO THE TWIST Maker: University of Bern, Switzerland Name: BrainTwister For: Seniors or children who have ADHD Price: $60 (one user); $325 (site license) What you get: CD-ROM, including manual in PDF form Where to buy: www.braintwister.unibe.ch Working memory, the short-term storage that allows you to focus your attention, is crucial for reading comprehension and problem solving. Better working memory correlates with academic and professional success. A few years ago Martin Buschkuehl was a doctoral student at the University of Bern in Switzerland conducting a study that attempted to increase working memory in older people. His subjects played a suite of brain-training games. “After the study ended, a lot of participants asked if they could have the program to take home,” says Buschkuehl, now a researcher at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Buschkuehl and his Ph.D. supervisor Walter Perrig decided to make a version for use on Macs or PCs, which they called BrainTwister. BrainTwister is intended for older people who are faced with cognitive decline or for young children who have conditions such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). But anyone who would actually benefit from BrainTwister would need a coach or instructor to get started and keep motivated. I had to use all my computer savvy to get the program going, and then I had to delve into the manual to figure out exactly what I was supposed to be doing. What was it like to use once I got going? Although the games are basic—one of them asks you to remember a series of animals while clicking the right or left mouse button to indicate if each rooster or cow is upside down or right side up—the difficulty accelerates every time you get a test right. BrainTwister quickly had me begging for mercy. I found myself trying different strategies such as mnemonics, chanting a string of the animals’ names or just trusting my caveman instincts to remember what they looked like. I managed six or seven. Buschkuehl says that a girl once reached an “incredible” number of animals, 12 or 13, by humming a tune. BrainTwister also features a fearsome N-back exercise in which you are presented with a long sequence of images, one at a time, and have to remember whether the image on the screen is the same as that which appeared one, two, three or more places previously. N-back, clearly, is not for wimps. Try the version that combines both audio and vision only if you like to bleed from your ears and eyeballs at the same time. WORK IT, BABY Maker: Cogmed America Name: Working Memory Training For: Children who have ADHD Price: Varies; includes practitioner fee What you get: CD-ROM and coaching assistance Where to buy: Qualified practices listed at www.cogmed.com/cogmed/articles/en/78.aspx Like BrainTwister, Cogmed’s Working Memory Training is more work than fun. That doesn’t mean it is unpleasant, though—just that you have to be dedicated. “In the U.S. our target user is an 11-year-old boy with attention issues like ADHD,” says Jonas Jendi, CEO of Cogmed America. Cogmed insists that its product be used only with the help of a licensed coach—a psychologist or physician selected by Cogmed who has undergone a one-day training session. In the U.S. there are 105 such practices. Working Memory Training consists of eight exercises in a friendly design scheme reminiscent of a certain Swedish furniture store. Ideally you would use the program five times a week for five weeks. It takes about half an hour to get through the exercises, which resemble those from BrainTwister: staring at a matrix of gray buttons, you must remember the order in which they flash orange; you listen to a series of letters or numbers and then recite them in reverse order. But there is no N-back, thank God. And although Cogmed’s program is like BrainTwister in that when you get something wrong the exercises get easier again, the decline in difficulty is more cushioned and therefore less discouraging. Cogmed originated in Sweden. The exercises in Working Memory Training are based on research by Torkel Klingberg of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and their efficacy is well documented. Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Brain Trainers". |
The video will start in 8 Cancel Get the biggest Everton FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Yannick Bolasie could be in line for a long awaited return to the Everton first team squad for Monday's visit of Swansea City. The DR Congo international has been on the sidelines for a year after rupturing his cruciate knee ligaments in a match against Manchester United on December 4 last year. He made his competitive return as a substitute in an Under-23 match against Leicester on Monday and is set to play again against Dinamo Zagreb in another U23 match tonight. Provided he comes through successfuly he could be fast-tracked straight into the first team squad for Monday's visit. Manager Sam Allardyce said today: "Yannick Bolasie is training and will probably play some part in a game tonight. We will see what happens with that and we may, depending on the whole team here, have a discussion as to whether that makes him available for selection on Monday night against Swansea." Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now Before sustaining his injury just a matter of months after his £30million move from Palace, Bolasie made 15 appearances for the Blues in all competitions, scoring once and laying on four assists. |
Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. From Rick Perry, on August 14th: Have you read my book, “Fed Up!” Get a copy and read it. From Rick Perry’s communications director, Ray Sullivan, on August 18th: The book, Mr. Sullivan said, “is a look back, not a path forward.” It was written “as a review and critique of 50 years of federal excesses, not in any way as a 2012 campaign blueprint or manifesto,” Mr. Sullivan said. This has been making all the usual rounds today, and why not? It’s unusually dumb. Given the amount of — well, let’s call it inconvenient bluster in the book — I guess Sullivan has to give this a try, but does he really think Perry can disown a book that he released nine months ago? That’s not very swaggering and tea partyish. Sounds like Mr. Perry is all hat and no cattle. Which of course makes this the perfect time for Sarah Palin to enter the race. We could use a common sense conservative who doesn’t kowtow to the lamestream media. There’s a real shortage of that in the Republican contest right now. |
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