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Read our 2021 Year In Review
National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable
Press Release: NVHR Applauds CDC and HHS For Funding Programs to End HIV and Viral Hepatitis Epidemics
NVHR Applauds CDC and HHS For Funding Programs to End HIV and Viral Hepatitis Epidemics
MEDIA CONTACT Molly Hall: (202) 759-9614
HIV 'End the Epidemic' funding award published by the CDC demonstrates support for an integrated approach and comprehensive harm reduction strategies to eliminate HIV and viral hepatitis epidemics.
Washington, D.C. (January 31, 2020) – The National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR), a national coalition working to eliminate viral hepatitis, today commended the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for committing to fund programs that 'End the HIV Epidemic' by addressing HIV, viral hepatitis, overdose, and syringe services in an integrated fashion.
"The CDC's commitment to funding integrated programs to End the HIV Epidemic is an important acknowledgement that infectious diseases, including viral hepatitis, don't exist in silos. Therefore, an integrated approach is crucial for ending the infectious disease epidemics," said NVHR Director Lauren Canary. "The expansion of comprehensive syringe services programs is the most important tool we have to stem new cases of HIV and viral hepatitis driven by injection drug use."
The funding announcement takes a comprehensive approach to ending the epidemics, allowing up to 10% of the HIV End the Epidemic funding to be used to address viral hepatitis and 25% must be directed to community organizations.
Since 2010, viral hepatitis rates have tripled in the U.S., and clusters of new HIV infections, especially among injecting communities, have also increased. The funding will allow for the establishment of new syringe services programs and expansion of services to address wound care, mobile services, and hepatitis A and B vaccination. However, awarded programs will have to find alternative means for purchasing syringes as a part of these programs, because the U.S. Senate has failed to lift the ban on the use of federal funding to purchase syringes.
"Prioritizing the elimination of HIV is important, but without funding for the estimated three million Americans living with hepatitis B and hepatitis C, which is triple the number of people living with HIV, a key component of the infectious disease epidemic is ignored," added Canary. "This new funding is a crucial step towards the elimination of HIV and viral hepatitis. But we now need the support of Congress to remove additional barriers to care to accelerate the end of the epidemics."
For more information, please visit: https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/funding/announcements/ps20-2010/
About the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR) The National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, a program of HEP, is a national coalition working together to eliminate hepatitis B and C in the United States. NVHR's vision is a healthier world without hepatitis B and C. NVHR's work is guided and informed by our beliefs and commitment to: Participation,
Inclusiveness, Intersectionality, Health Equity, and Stigma Elimination. For more information, visit www.nvhr.org.
Download a copy of the press release below.
NVHR Applauds CDC and HHS For Funding Programs to End HIV and Viral Hepatitis Epidemics.pdf
Hepatitis Education Project is a nonprofit that receives funding from a diversity of sources, including pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, governments, foundations and private donations.
Copyright © 2023 National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable
NVHR is an initiative of the
Voices4Hep


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A PDF version of the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program FAQ is available here.
1. I am applying to M.F.A. programs, should I take the GRE even if it is not required for my degree program?
This is tricky. We would advise M.F.A. applicants to report GRE scores on the application. Many in the arts recommend that students applying for M.F.A. programs take the GREs so that they can compete for fellowships like this one. Low GREs scores, however, could hurt the applicant. As a rule, we waive the GRE requirement for applicants to MFA programs, but, in the end, these applicants might not be as competitive if other M.F.A. candidates have stellar GREs. Another consideration is GPA and recommendations. Recommenders should be aware if the applicant is not taking the GRE and account for this in the letter. If the GPA is low, then great GREs would be a big boost. Needless to say, low GPA (less than 3.6 or 3.7) plus no or low GREs would make acceptance difficult without recommendations that account for these deficiencies. We do look at Math versus Verbal. For example, an M.F.A. in creative writing with a high verbal and lower math might still be acceptable. In the end, good GREs will always help, but low ones (500s) might hurt, and the effect of not taking them will depend on the competition.
2. How important are GREs for this fellowship?
The GRE is extremely important for entering Graduate School, and therefore, since part of your competitiveness for this fellowship is the prospect that you will get into graduate school, the GRE is a very important consideration for this fellowship.
3. I am applying for a Ph.D. in sports medicine; can I apply?
No, we only accept applications in humanities and the arts; you can see the list of typical humanities and arts programs we accept on the "Eligibility" web page for the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program.
4. I am applying to Ph.D. programs in sociology, anthropology, and political science; can I apply?
Potentially, yes. We have taken Fellows in Political Science and these other fields when they have emphases that make them essentially humanities fields. In the application essay, however, make clear that your interests are in the humanities components of these disciplines.
5. I am applying to an M.Div., M.M., M.T.S. or M.A.R. program; can I apply for this fellowship?
No; we do not offer fellowships for professional degrees, even though sometimes they are prerequisites for entry into Ph.D. programs. This is because such programs typically do not involve the sort of professionalization that comes with a terminal degree (Ph.D., Th.D., MFA, D.M.A.) that leads to a career in teaching at a college or university. Please do consider applying for the fellowship after obtaining one of these degrees.
6. I am applying to M.F.A., D.F.A., and D.M.A. programs; can I apply for this fellowship?
Absolutely. Yes.
With regards to the M.F.A., increasingly, the Ph.D. in creative writing is required to teach at a college or university in creative writing, but because the M.F.A. is typically required for the Ph.D. in creative writing, we will continue to accept applicants to M.F.A. programs in creative writing, but preference will be giving to applicants who, in their application essay, explain their intention to pursue a Ph.D. in creative writing following the M.F.A. Applicants who already have the M.F.A. and are applying to Ph.D. programs in creative writing are also welcome to apply for this fellowship. At present, applicants for M.F.A. programs in theater are still accepted as before, though this policy might change next year.
7. I am applying to a terminal M.A. program; can I apply for the fellowship?
You are eligible for this fellowship only if the terminal M.A. from that particular school is required for advancement to the Ph.D. at that institution. (A case in which advancing from the M.A. to the Ph.D. is competitive).
8. I earned an M.A. from a network school, but I received my B.A. from a non-network school. Can I apply for the fellowship?
No, your Bachelor's degree must be from a network school.
9. I am already in an M.A. program; can I apply?
It depends on the particular Master's program you are in and the Ph.D. program to which you apply. If you are in a terminal M.A. and will apply to M.A./Ph.D. programs, even at the same school then you are eligible. If, however, you are already in an M.A./Ph.D. program and would simply advance on to the Ph.D., then you are not eligible.
10. I am applying to a Th.D. or S.T.D. program; can I apply for this fellowship?
Yes, as long as you meet the other criteria.
11. I plan to do graduate work at Oxford/Cambridge; can I apply?
No, at present, for logistical reasons, we are limiting our fellowships to graduate programs in North America.
12. The school to which I am applying requires that I earn a Master's Degree there and then compete for spots on the Ph.D. track; can I apply?
13. I am already in an M.A. program at which I must compete for spots on the Ph.D. track; can I apply?
Yes, if you would start the Ph.D. program next fall (this is your last year in the Master's program).
15. I am also applying for a Fulbright and other similar fellowships, etc.; if selected for a Lilly Graduate Fellowship, may I defer for a year while I do a Fulbright?
There is a possibility we can allow for a one-year deferral, but the LFP decides this on a per case basis. There is no guarantee we can do this.
16. I am applying for an M.F.A./D.M.A./D.F.A. and I see that you want an electronic dossier; what should I include in my electronic dossier?
Non-specialists as well as specialists will view your dossier. Be brief but show your best work on a CD or DVD. You should also include a "Read Me First" document or cover page on the CD or DVD that provides some orientation and, if appropriate, background information for the material you include. You should also talk to your academic advisor about what to include.
September LFP Update
The Current LFP Update for September 2022 is now available. Click here.
Apply for Lilly Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2023-2025
The Lilly Fellows Program will begin accepting applications for the 2023-2025 Lilly Postdoctoral Fellowship on November 29, 2022. For more information or to apply, click here.
Call for nominations for the 2023 LFP Book Award
The Lilly Fellows Program invites nominations for the tenth biennial Lilly Fellows Program Book Award for 2023. The deadline for nominations is March 1, 2023. Click here for more information and to nominate a book.
Announcing the winner of the 2022 Arlin G. Meyer Prize
We are pleased to announce Gordon Johnston, Professor of Creative Writing at Mercer University, as the winner of the 2022 Arlin G. Meyer Prize in Imaginative Writing for his book of poetry, Scaring the Bears. For more information and to see the finalist for this prize, click here.
Grove City College Regional Conference March 30-April 1, 2023
Grove City College's regional conference entitled "Christianity and Core Texts at Global/Cultural Crossroads" will take place March 30-April 1, 2023. For more information and a call for papers, click here.
Announcing the 2023-2025 Lilly Faculty Fellows Program
We are pleased to announce a call for applications for the 2023-2025 Lilly Faculty Fellows Program for mid-career faculty leaders across all disciplines to engage the intersections of Christian thought and practice with the academic vocation. Click here for more information and to apply.
Lilly Network of Church- Related Colleges and Universities
If you are interested in learning more about membership in the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities, please contact us here.
New edition of Leading Lives that Matter released
In their second edition of Leading Lives That Matter, editors Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass compile a wide range of texts—from ancient and contemporary literature, social commentary, and philosophy—related to questions of vital interest for those who are trying to decide what to do with their lives and what kind of human beings they hope to become. Leading Lives that Matter has been an important text in many of our fellowship and grant programs, and it contains excellent resources. Click here for more information and an excerpt.
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OSTI.GOV Journal Article: Record-Setting Sorbents for Reversible Water Uptake by Systematic Anion Exchanges in Metal–Organic Frameworks
Title: Record-Setting Sorbents for Reversible Water Uptake by Systematic Anion Exchanges in Metal–Organic Frameworks
The reversible capture of water vapor at low humidity can enable transformative applications such as atmospheric water harvesting and heat transfer that uses water as a refrigerant, replacing environmentally detrimental hydro- and chloro-fluorocarbons. The driving force for these applications is governed by the relative humidity at which the pores of a porous material fill with water. Here, we demonstrate modulation of the onset of pore-filling in a family of metal-organic frameworks with record water sorption capacities by employing anion exchange. Unexpectedly, the replacement of the structural bridging Cl - with the more hydrophilic anions F - and OH - does not induce porefilling at lower relative humidity, whereas the introduction of the larger Br - results in a substantial shift toward lower relative humidity. We rationalize these results in terms of pore size modifications as well as the water hydrogen bonding structure based on detailed infrared spectroscopic measurements. Fundamentally, our data suggest that, in the presence of strong nucleation sites, the thermodynamic favorability of water pore-filling depends more strongly on the pore diameter and the interface between water in the center of the pore and water bound to the pore walls than the hydrophilicity of the pore wall itself. Onmore » the basis of these results, we report two materials that exhibit record water uptake capacities in their respective humidity regions and extended stability over 400 water adsorption-desorption cycles.« less
Rieth, Adam J. [1];
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Wright, Ashley M. [1];
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Skorupskii, Grigorii [1]; Mancuso, Jenna L. [1]; Hendon, Christopher H. [2];
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Dincă, Mircea [1]
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Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States). Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Journal Volume: 141; Journal Issue: 35; Journal ID: ISSN 0002-7863
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Rieth, Adam J., Wright, Ashley M., Skorupskii, Grigorii, Mancuso, Jenna L., Hendon, Christopher H., and Dincă, Mircea. Record-Setting Sorbents for Reversible Water Uptake by Systematic Anion Exchanges in Metal–Organic Frameworks. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1021/jacs.9b06246.
Rieth, Adam J., Wright, Ashley M., Skorupskii, Grigorii, Mancuso, Jenna L., Hendon, Christopher H., & Dincă, Mircea. Record-Setting Sorbents for Reversible Water Uptake by Systematic Anion Exchanges in Metal–Organic Frameworks. United States. doi:10.1021/jacs.9b06246.
Rieth, Adam J., Wright, Ashley M., Skorupskii, Grigorii, Mancuso, Jenna L., Hendon, Christopher H., and Dincă, Mircea. Fri . "Record-Setting Sorbents for Reversible Water Uptake by Systematic Anion Exchanges in Metal–Organic Frameworks". United States. doi:10.1021/jacs.9b06246. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1560063.
title = {Record-Setting Sorbents for Reversible Water Uptake by Systematic Anion Exchanges in Metal–Organic Frameworks},
author = {Rieth, Adam J. and Wright, Ashley M. and Skorupskii, Grigorii and Mancuso, Jenna L. and Hendon, Christopher H. and Dincă, Mircea},
abstractNote = {The reversible capture of water vapor at low humidity can enable transformative applications such as atmospheric water harvesting and heat transfer that uses water as a refrigerant, replacing environmentally detrimental hydro- and chloro-fluorocarbons. The driving force for these applications is governed by the relative humidity at which the pores of a porous material fill with water. Here, we demonstrate modulation of the onset of pore-filling in a family of metal-organic frameworks with record water sorption capacities by employing anion exchange. Unexpectedly, the replacement of the structural bridging Cl- with the more hydrophilic anions F- and OH- does not induce porefilling at lower relative humidity, whereas the introduction of the larger Br- results in a substantial shift toward lower relative humidity. We rationalize these results in terms of pore size modifications as well as the water hydrogen bonding structure based on detailed infrared spectroscopic measurements. Fundamentally, our data suggest that, in the presence of strong nucleation sites, the thermodynamic favorability of water pore-filling depends more strongly on the pore diameter and the interface between water in the center of the pore and water bound to the pore walls than the hydrophilicity of the pore wall itself. On the basis of these results, we report two materials that exhibit record water uptake capacities in their respective humidity regions and extended stability over 400 water adsorption-desorption cycles.},
doi = {10.1021/jacs.9b06246},
journal = {Journal of the American Chemical Society},
volume = 141,
Figure 1: Structure of Ni2X2BTDD (X = Cl, F, Br, OH). Left: View parallel to the c axis. Right: View of anion-exchanged SBUs perpendicular to the c axis and synthetic pathways.
Figure 1 (p. 2)figure
Table 1 (p. 3)table
New Carbon-Based Porous Materials with Increased Heats of Adsorption for Hydrogen Storage
Technical Report Snurr, Randall Q. ; Hupp, Joseph T. ; Kanatzidis, Mercouri G. ; ...
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are a promising alternative to internal combustion engines that burn gasoline. A significant challenge in developing fuel cell vehicles is to store enough hydrogen on-board to allow the same driving range as current vehicles. One option for storing hydrogen on vehicles is to use tanks filled with porous materials that act as "sponges" to take up large quantities of hydrogen without the need for extremely high pressures. The materials must meet many requirements to make this possible. This project aimed to develop two related classes of porous materials to meet these requirements. All materials were synthesizedmore » from molecular constituents in a building-block approach, which allows for the creation of an incredibly wide variety of materials in a tailorable fashion. The materials have extremely high surface areas, to provide many locations for hydrogen to adsorb. In addition, they were designed to contain cations that create large electric fields to bind hydrogen strongly but not too strongly. Molecular modeling played a key role as a guide to experiment throughout the project. A major accomplishment of the project was the development of a material with record hydrogen uptake at cryogenic temperatures. Although the ultimate goal was materials that adsorb large quantities of hydrogen at room temperature, this achievement at cryogenic temperatures is an important step in the right direction. In addition, there is significant interest in applications at these temperatures. The hydrogen uptake, measured independently at NREL was 8.0 wt %. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest validated excess hydrogen uptake reported to date at 77 K. This material was originally sketched on paper based on a hypothesis that extended framework struts would yield materials with excellent hydrogen storage properties. However, before starting the synthesis, we used molecular modeling to assess the performance of the material for hydrogen uptake. Only after modeling suggested record-breaking hydrogen uptake at 77 K did we proceed to synthesize, characterize, and test the material, ultimately yielding experimental results that agreed closely with predictions that were made before the material was synthesized. We also synthesized, characterized, and computationally simulated the behavior of two new materials displaying the highest experimental Brunauer$-$Emmett$-$Teller (BET) surface areas of any porous materials reported to date (~7000 m 2/g). Key to evacuating the initially solvent-filled materials without pore collapse, and thereby accessing the ultrahigh areas, was the use of a supercritical CO 2 activation technique developed by our team. In our efforts to increase the hydrogen binding energy, we developed the first examples of "zwitterionic" metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The two structures feature zwitterionic characteristics arising from N-heterocyclic azolium groups in the linkers and negatively charged Zn 2(CO 2) 5 nodes. These groups interact strongly with the H 2 quadrupole. High initial isosteric heats of adsorption for hydrogen were measured at low H 2 loading. Simulations were used to determine the H 2 binding sites, and results were compared with inelastic neutron scattering. In addition to MOFs, the project produced a variety of related materials known as porous organic frameworks (POFs), including robust catechol-functionalized POFs with tunable porosities and degrees of functionalization. Post-synthesis metalation was readily carried out with a wide range of metal precursors (Cu II, Mg II, and Mn II salts and complexes), resulting in metalated POFs with enhanced heats of hydrogen adsorption compared to the starting nonmetalated materials. Isosteric heats of adsorption as high as 9.6 kJ/mol were observed, compared to typical values around 5 kJ/mol in unfunctionalized MOFs and POFs. Modeling played an important role throughout the project. For example, we used molecular simulations to determine that the optimal isosteric heat of adsorption (Q st) for maximum hydrogen delivery using MOFs is approximately 20 kJ/mol. If the heat of adsorption is too low, little hydrogen is adsorbed. If the heat of adsorption is too high, it is difficult to recover the hydrogen at the desorption pressure. The results supported the major premise of this project that increasing Q st for MOFs with large surface areas is required to attain current hydrogen storage targets in terms of deliverable capacity.« less
Tuning the Topology and Functionality of Metal–Organic Frameworks by Ligand Design
Journal Article Zhao, Dan ; Timmons, Daren J ; Yuan, Daqiang ; ... - Acc. Chem. Res.
Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs)—highly crystalline hybrid materials that combine metal ions with rigid organic ligands—have emerged as an important class of porous materials. The organic ligands add flexibility and diversity to the chemical structures and functions of these materials. In this Account, we summarize our laboratory's experience in tuning the topology and functionality of MOFs by ligand design. These investigations have led to new materials with interesting properties. By using a ligand that can adopt different symmetry conformations through free internal bond rotation, we have obtained two MOFs that are supramolecular stereoisomers of each other at different reaction temperatures. In anothermore » case, where the dimerized ligands function as a D₃-Piedfort unit spacer, we achieve chiral (10,3)-a networks. In the design of MOF-based materials for hydrogen and methane storage, we focused on increasing the gas affinity of frameworks by using ligands with different geometries to control the pore size and effectively introduce unsaturated metal centers (UMCs) into the framework. Framework interpenetration in PCN-6 (PCN stands for porous coordination network) can lead to higher hydrogen uptake. Because of the proper alignment of the UMCs, PCN-12 holds the record for uptake of hydrogen at 77 K/760 Torr. In the case of methane storage, PCN-14 with anthracene-derived ligand achieves breakthrough storage capacity, at a level 28% higher than the U.S. Department of Energy target. Selective gas adsorption requires a pore size comparable to that of the target gas molecules; therefore, we use bulky ligands and network interpenetration to reduce the pore size. In addition, with the help of an amphiphilic ligand, we were able to use temperature to continuously change pore size in a 2D layer MOF. Adding charge to an organic ligand can also stabilize frameworks. By ionizing the amine group within mesoMOF-1, the resulting electronic repulsion keeps the network from collapsing, giving rise to the first case of mesoporous MOF that demonstrates the type IV isotherm. We use dendritic hexacarboxylate ligands to synthesize an isoreticular series of MOFs with (3,24)-connected network topology. The cuboctahedral cages serve as building blocks that narrow the opening of the mesocavities into microwindows and stabilize these MOFs. The resulting materials have exceptionally high surface areas and hydrogen uptake capacities. Despite the many achievements in MOF development, there is still ample opportunity for further exploration. We will be continuing our efforts and look forward to contributing to this blossoming field in the next decade.« less
DOI: 10.1021/ar100112y
Fluorocarbon adsorption in hierarchical porous frameworks
Journal Article Motkuri, RK ; Annapureddy, HVR ; Vijaykumar, M ; ... - Nature Communications
Metal-organic frameworks comprise an important class of solid-state materials and have potential for many emerging applications such as energy storage, separation, catalysis and bio-medical. Here we report the adsorption behaviour of a series of fluorocarbon derivatives on a set of microporous and hierarchical mesoporous frameworks. The microporous frameworks show a saturation uptake capacity for dichlorodifluoromethane of >4 mmol g(-1) at a very low relative saturation pressure (P/P-o) of 0.02. In contrast, the mesoporous framework shows an exceptionally high uptake capacity reaching >14 mmol g(-1) at P/P-o of 0.4. Adsorption affinity in terms of mass loading and isosteric heats of adsorptionmore » is found to generally correlate with the polarizability and boiling point of the refrigerant, with dichlorodifluoromethane >chlorodifluoromethane >chlorotrifluoromethane >tetrafluoromethane >methane. These results suggest the possibility of exploiting these sorbents for separation of azeotropic mixtures of fluorocarbons and use in eco-friendly fluorocarbon-based adsorption cooling.« less
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5368
Overcoming double-step CO 2 adsorption and minimizing water co-adsorption in bulky diamine-appended variants of Mg 2(dobpdc)
Journal Article Milner, Phillip J. ; Martell, Jeffrey D. ; Siegelman, Rebecca L. ; ... - Chemical Science
Alkyldiamine-functionalized variants of the metal–organic framework Mg 2(dobpdc) (dobpdc 4- = 4,4'-dioxidobiphenyl-3,3'-dicarboxylate) are promising for CO 2 capture applications owing to their unique step-shaped CO 2 adsorption profiles resulting from the cooperative formation of ammonium carbamate chains. Primary,secondary (1°,2°) alkylethylenediamine-appended variants are of particular interest because of their low CO 2 step pressures (≤1 mbar at 40 °C), minimal adsorption/desorption hysteresis, and high thermal stability. Herein, we demonstrate that further increasing the size of the alkyl group on the secondary amine affords enhanced stability against diamine volatilization, but also leads to surprising two-step CO 2 adsorption/desorption profiles. This two-step behaviormore » likely results from steric interactions between ammonium carbamate chains induced by the asymmetrical hexagonal pores of Mg 2(dobpdc) and leads to decreased CO 2 working capacities and increased water co-adsorption under humid conditions. To minimize these unfavorable steric interactions, we targeted diamine-appended variants of the isoreticularly expanded framework Mg 2(dotpdc) (dotpdc 4- = 4,4''-dioxido-[1,1':4',1''-terphenyl]-3,3''-dicarboxylate), reported here for the first time, and the previously reported isomeric framework Mg-IRMOF-74-II or Mg 2(pc-dobpdc) (pc-dobpdc 4- = 3,3'-dioxidobiphenyl-4,4'-dicarboxylate, pc = para-carboxylate), which, in contrast to Mg 2(dobpdc), possesses uniformally hexagonal pores. By minimizing the steric interactions between ammonium carbamate chains, these frameworks enable a single CO 2 adsorption/desorption step in all cases, as well as decreased water co-adsorption and increased stability to diamine loss. Functionalization of Mg 2(pc-dobpdc) with large diamines such as N-(n-heptyl)ethylenediamine results in optimal adsorption behavior, highlighting the advantage of tuning both the pore shape and the diamine size for the development of new adsorbents for carbon capture applications.« less
DOI: 10.1039/c7sc04266c


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Tag Archives: secrets
1/17/15 (Part Two): The Horns Know What the Heart Hides
Alexandre Aja, based on a book, cinema, Daniel Radcliffe, dark comedies, David Morse, dead girlfriend, demons, fantasy, film reviews, films, flashbacks, Frederick Elmes, friendships, Heather Graham, High Tension, Horns, horror movies, Ig Perrish, James Remar, Joe Anderson, Joe Hill, Juno Temple, Kathleen Quinlan, Keith Bunin, Kelli Garner, literary adaptation, Max Minghella, Michael Adamthwaite, mirrors, Movies, mystery, Piranha 3D, rape, revenge, secrets, small town life, suspicion, telling the truth, The Hills Have Eyes, vengeance, voice-over narration
When French writer-director Alexandre Aja first exploded onto the scene with the feral, jaw-dropping ode to unmitigated carnage that was High Tension (2003), it looked like the horror world had found their next uncompromising dark master. Red-lined, kinetic, non-stop and a veritable workshop in on-screen brutality, High Tension may have made an imperfect kind of sense (think about the central twist too much and the whole thing collapses into dust) but there was no denying the terrible power of the images and ideas contained within. Rather than capitalize on this bit of extreme nastiness, however, Aja appeared to have doubled-down in the opposite direction: his next two projects were both remakes – The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and Mirrors (2008) – while his most recent directorial effort was Piranha 3D (2010), which either counts as another remake or a sequel, depending on how generous you're feeling.
This, of course, ended up being massively disappointing: here was another seemingly unique voice who appeared to have shackled himself to the remake train, foregoing any notion of "new" or "original" for the much safer territory of "been there, done that." When Aja was announced as the director for a big-screen adaptation of Joe Hill's bestselling novel, Horns, this seemed like a step in the right direction: at the very least, this was a literary adaptation, not another re-do of someone else's earlier work. As it turns out, Aja's version of Horns (2014) is good: well-made, full of clever moments, good acting and some genuine surprises, there's a lot to like here. On the other hand, the film feels about 30 minutes too long and much of what's on display here feels distinctly old-hat. This might not be the Aja who slept-walked through Mirrors or Piranha 3D but it also bears precious little resemblance to the Aja who blasted out frontal lobes with the sheer insanity that was High Tension.
Beginning with some voice-over and a suitably cool scene set to Bowie's unbeatable "Heroes," we're quickly introduced to our hero, Ig Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe), and his current predicament. Seems that Ig's girlfriend, Merrin (Juno Temple), has turned up dead and everyone in his small town, including Ig's family, thinks he's guilty of the crime. Shunned by everyone, publicly accused by Merrin's father (David Morse) and given the cold-shoulder by all of his childhood friends, save his lawyer buddy, Lee (Max Minghella), Ig has become the town's pariah, a social leper that everyone wishes would just disappear.
After he drunkenly desecrates the makeshift shrine that the townsfolk have set up for Merrin, Ig ends up with the local barkeep and wakes up in her bed the next morning. In a decidedly alarming development, poor Ig appears to be sprouting rudimentary horns from his head. Even stranger, however, is the way in which the bartender uncharacteristically gorges herself on food, in his presence: she seems to act as if possessed by some powerful force, unable to control herself. After several more awkward/humorous scenes involving overly honest medical personnel, clergy and his own parents, Ig comes to the startling realization that his new horns have the ability to force people to act on their deepest, darkest secrets.
In no time at all, Ig has decided to use his new power to conduct his own investigation into Merrin's death: wandering the town like a scraggly, sardonic avenging angel, he "interviews" one person after the next, piecing together the details of Merrin's last days as he goes. While the investigation takes place in the present, we also get copious flashbacks to Ig and Merrin's youth, where they first fell in love and hung out with their friends Terry, Lee and Eric. These flashbacks hold little clues to the current mystery's resolution, although Ig won't know the full story until the final reel (astute viewers will probably figure this out way ahead of our intrepid sleuth). Once the truth is revealed, Ig becomes hell-bent for revenge, as he finds himself transforming into an increasingly powerful, unhinged and demonic force. Will Ig be able to bring his girlfriend's killer to justice or will the flames of his own burning anger incinerate him long before he can make his final move?
There's a lot to like about Horns: the cinematography is, in general, quite good and the soundtrack, full of nicely evocative songs like the Pixies' "Where is My Mind?" and Bowie's "Heroes," works spectacularly well: the film actually had one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a while, with the score being equally memorable. The acting is also quite good, with Radcliffe being especially impressive: if The Woman in Black (2012) hadn't marked Radcliffe's transition from the world of Harry Potter to more "adult" genre roles, his performance as Ig certainly makes this clear. There's a certain charisma that's never far below Radcliffe's performance, informing every snarky comment, confused squint and determined glower that crosses his face. He sells the concept of the horns by virtue of not looking goofy wearing them, which says a tremendous amount about his performance.
Also on the plus side, it's nice to see David Morse in a rare "good guy" role: all too often, the veteran character actor is the equivalent of a twirling mustache but he gets a chance to stretch out, a little, and play a genuinely conflicted, human being. I'll be the first to admit that Morse's very presence seemed to signify the guilty party but I'm giving nothing away by saying that his grieving, angry and rather irrational Dale comes down distinctly on the side of right in this issue. I was also rather impressed by Minghella, who brings a little bit of depth to an odd character. While I thought he could be a bit bland, there was always a great interplay between him and Radcliffe, which helped sell the friendship.
On the negative side, we get some rather dodgy special effects (the CGI snakes are particularly offensive) and the final transformation bears an uncanny resemblance to Tim Curry's Darkness, which ends up injecting a rather unintentional level of hilarity into what's supposed to be a very climatic moment. There are also some patently stupid scenes in the back half, such as the ones where Ig induces someone to take "all the drugs" and another where he makes a couple of characters act on their latent homosexual urges. The tone on these is pitched all wrong (the drug scene features a "trip" that would've seemed stale in the '60s) and they come off eye-rolling rather than impactful.
The biggest issue I had with Horns, however, ended up being how damn familiar the whole thing was. While I haven't read Hill's novel, I found myself predicting so much of the action that it definitely felt like I had. Chalk it up to screenwriter Keith Bunin or the original source material but there were precious few times that I was caught off guard and I couldn't help but feel that I'd seen this same story (minus the horns, obviously) many times before. Hell, squint and the whole thing looks a bit like Rian Johnson's Brick (2005), again, minus the horns.
I didn't dislike Horns: ultimately, the film is too slick and well-made (minus the damn snakes and poor Heather Graham's bug-eyed cameo) to invite any kind of easy derision. When it all works, there's a pleasant sense of del Toro-lite that, coupled with Radcliffe's natural charisma, makes the film highly watchable. When it goes off the rails, however, it's actually pretty silly, which certainly tempers the stormy mood established by the rest of the film. Bar a few tell-tale moments, however (the shotgunned head and the pitchforkin', for example), the film never approaches the oomph that characterized Aja's earliest films (remake or not, The Hills Have Eyes was the furthest thing possible from a placid lake). More than anything, this feels like another multiplex horror, something to enjoy with some popcorn and a date. There are a lot worse things in the world but I can't help but be disappointed, nonetheless.
1/4/15: Leave Your Mind At the Sound of the Beep
Ahnna Rasch, Alexander Brøndsted, Antonio Tublen, audio experiments, audio tones, Björn Löfberg Egner, cheating husbands, cinema, Computer Chess, dark comedies, dramas, dysfunctional family, electronic score, Erik Börén, experiments, film reviews, films, flashbacks, foreign films, hallucinations, husband-wife relationship, infidelity, insanity, Johanna Tschig, LFO, Linus Eklund, loners, Lukas Loughran, mental breakdown, mental illness, mind control, Movies, neighbors, Patrik Karlson, Per Löfberg, Samir Dounas, sci-fi, scientists, secrets, sound frequencies, sounds, stylish films, Swedish films, synthesizers, troubled marriages, writer-director-score-editor
Suppose that you invented the perfect self-help device, a machine that would put you into a highly suggestible state, allowing for subtle modifications to your behavior. Trying to cut back on sweets? Simply leave a "message" for yourself and your mind will subconsciously take care of the heavy lifting. Want to exercise more? Listen to a particular tone and, without even trying, you'll actually want to run a marathon and do sit-ups until the cows come home. Want to just be a "better" person, in general? Set the controls, leave your command and, through no additional effort of your own, your brain and body will spring into action, making your "wish" come true. Sounds pretty amazing, right?
Now…suppose that you also just realized that if your humble little invention works so well on you, it might also work equally well on others. Suppose you discover that your device allows you to "control" others, using the power of hypnotic suggestion to subliminally influence and direct their actions and thoughts. Would you use said device to help make the world a better place, influencing people to abandon selfish, dangerous and destructive behaviors in favor of a more helpful, unified world view, inching humanity ever closer to a long-sought-after utopia? Or would you use it to turn those around you into mindless slaves, unknowingly beholden to your whim and command?
In a nutshell, that's the conflict at the center of multi-hat-wearing director Antonio Tublen's (he also wrote, edited and performed the electronic score) intriguing LFO (2014), an odd, stylish and darkly humorous bit of heady sci-fi that whips mind control, mental illness, marital discord and God complexes into a heady brew. While the film can be a little rocky, at times, and comes across as overly complex in the early going, LFO eventually settles down into a smart, edgy and appropriately weird little film that's somewhat reminiscent of Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess (2013), while still managing to stake out plenty of original territory of its own.
Robert (Patrik Karlson) is a loner who lives by himself, routinely ignores his self-posted notes to "Take his medication" and seems to hallucinate the specter of his former wife, Clara (Ahnna Rasch), who appears to serve as his conscience. He also appears to be a scientist, of some sort, who's working on an experiment involving sound frequencies: Robert collaborates with several other colleagues, including Sinus-San (Erik Börén), via short-wave radio, since he rarely seems to leave his house. Robert makes a breakthrough when he notes that a particular frequency makes him highly susceptible to suggestion: upon further experimentation, he discovers that he can actually command himself to do things by giving an order into his device and listening to the resulting tone. In a humorous bit, Robert makes himself dislike cookies: after "waking up" from the frequency, he absent-mindedly noshes on a cookie, only to spit the treat out in disgust. Success!
After further tests prove how well the device works, Robert decides to take everything to the next level, "Phase 2," as it were. Inviting his new neighbors, Linn (Johanna Tschig) and Simon (Per Löfberg) over for coffee, Robert uses the device on them and discovers that it has the exact same effect as on him. While in their hypnotic states, Robert plants subtle subliminal commands that have the effect of turning Linn and Simon into mindless drones: whenever they hear the tone, they're powerless to resist Robert's commands, although they remember nothing upon "waking." In short order, the mad scientist is using Simon for free labor, while Linn serves as his sex slave, in a pretty obvious example of "absolute power corrupts absolutely."
As Robert continues to fine-tune and perfect his device, however, outside forces begin to swirl about him. Sinus-san has taken to lurking around the periphery after discovering that Robert has cut him out of their joint discovery, while a mysterious insurance adjuster, Peter (Lukas Loughran), keeps asking questions about a car accident that Robert seems to have been involved with. There's also the little matter of Clara, whose presence becomes more and more pronounced, as she constantly admonishes Robert to take his meds. Buffeted on all sides, Robert begins to lose control of his unwitting neighbors, who are now beginning to experience strange, unexplained half-memories of things that they can't quite recall, such as Linn having sex with Robert. As Robert slips further and further into madness, humanity slides ever closer to a complete loss of free will…for better or much, much worse.
Tublen's LFO bursts out of the gate with a smart, fresh concept and then proceeds to expand on it in some interesting ways. If the initial going can be head-swimmingly complex (perhaps those with knowledge of sound frequencies and the resulting science behind it may be able to keep up but this viewer was underwater fairly quickly), the film eventually settles down and, once we've accepted the tech aspect, becomes much more of a basic "mind control" film, albeit one filtered through the cracked, surreal lens of something like a Quentin Dupieux film. While not as outwardly strange or surreal as Dupieux's films, there's still the basic sense of a world that's similar to ours but just off-kilter enough to be strange and unsettling.
LFO is a highly stylish, visual film, filled with vibrant colors, blinking lights, lo-fi technology and lovingly composed frames. The cinematography, courtesy of dual personnel Alexander Brøndsted and Linus Eklund, is consistently strong and the film always looks interesting. As befits a film focused on sound frequencies, the sound design in LFO is absolutely top-notch: I don't normally single out sound engineers but I'd be a real jerk not to heap some praise on Samir Dounas, since the sound mix and editing is so vital to this particular film's success. There's also a highly effective electronic score, courtesy of the director, himself, which adds immeasurably to the atmosphere and tone of the film: another way in which LFO reminded me of Dupieux's filmography.
The performances are uniformly strong, with Karlson being particularly impressive as the increasingly unhinged Robert. Tschig and Löfberg are quite convincing as the couple, vacillating between dead-eyed drones and confused, slightly frightened babes-in-the-woods: particularly good are the later scenes where Robert pretends to be a marriage counselor and leads the couple through his version of reconciliation therapy. One of the most impressive aspects of the film is how outwardly funny it is, albeit in a dark, rather twisted way. All three of the leads display excellent and subtle comic timing, which helps keep everything moving smoothly.
If I have any real complaints with LFO, they're the same kinds of issues I might have with any similarly "tricky" film: at times, the film can get tripped-up in its own complex rationalizations and the whole thing feels just slightly longer than it should be. There's also the underlying problem of Robert's virtually unbeatable ability to control minds: similar to superheroes/villains that are too powerful, the balance of power in LFO is always drastically unbalanced. Since Robert is able to effortlessly control any and every situation with a click of his remote, there are times when the film feels rather low stakes: regardless of his situation, we're always fairly sure that our little anti-hero will be able to regain control. Tublen still manages to wring plenty of genuine suspense and tension out of the scenario, don't get me wrong, but this is definitely the epitome of a "stacked deck."
In the end, I quite liked LFO: the film was very smart, relentless and genuinely intriguing. While never as unpredictable as something like Computer Chess or Wrong (2012), it was still one of the trickier films I saw last year and is never anything less than thought-provoking. LFO also manages to go out on a real high point, with one of the best endings I've seen in some time: in fact, the ending is so good that it actually helped to smooth out some of my previous reservations, proof positive that you always want to leave 'em with your best foot forward. While I'm sure that none of us would ever want a neighbor like Robert, it goes without saying that we could all benefit from spending a little time with the creepazoid, now and then.
1/2/15 (Part One): Painting By Numbers
action-horror, Amaury Nolasco, Animal, Brett Simmons, Cabin in the Woods, cinema, creature feature, director-editor, dysfunctional family, Elizabeth Gillies, film reviews, films, friends, horror, horror movies, isolation, Jeremy Sumpter, Joey Lauren Adams, Keke Palmer, Movies, Parker Young, Paul Iacono, secrets, siege, Thorsten Kaye
Nearly as generic as its title, Brett Simmons' Animal (2014) is the kind of film that you can practically see play in your head after just hearing a basic description: a group of people are chased through the woods by some sort of creature and take refuge in an isolated cabin, where they must make a last, desperate stand. Don't get me wrong: there's nothing wrong with mining trusted tropes…that's part of what makes genre films so popular, I would imagine. In the right hands, even the mustiest old cliché can achieve some sort of new life, be reborn into something that's truly unique and wonderful. After all, any "creature-in-the-woods" film has the potential to be THE "creature-in-the-woods" flick, the Citizen Kane (1941) of creature flicks, if you will. Sadly, Animal is not that film.
Five friends head out into the woods to spend a final weekend at a beloved camping area before encroaching development forever spoils their fond memories: brother and sister Jeff (Parker Young) and Alissa (Keke Palmer) lead the group, which also consists of their significant others, Mandy (Elizabeth Gillies) and Matt (Jeremy Sumpter), along with fifth-wheel Sean (Paul Iacono). After coming across some bloody human remains in the woods, the group runs smack into some sort of vaguely humanoidish creature: the creature proceeds to chase them straight to an isolated cabin, where they run into another group. This group consists of a couple, Vicky (Joey Lauren Adams) and Carl (Thorsten Kaye), along with an impossibly belligerent asshole named Douglas (Amaury Nolasco).
Once at the cabin, the newcomers find themselves as trapped as the group who currently resides there: turns out the creature chased them there, too, and it seems to be taking them out, on at a time. Unwilling to just sit in the equivalent of the creature's larder, the two groups must attempt to work together, even though no one really trusts each other and Douglas is a dangerously paranoid, violent individual. The monster is constantly testing the security of their little "fortress," however, and the danger of it finding a weak point and bursting in becomes all-encompassing. As long-buried secrets start to tear the groups apart, however, it becomes apparent that not all danger will come from outside: people can be just as dangerous as "animals," it would appear.
In pretty much every way possible, Animal is as middle-of-the-road as these types of things get. The cast is decent enough, although their interactions always seem a little stilted and the dialogue is never anything to write home about. The "twist" revelation of Alissa's group ends up being a tempest in a teapot, relatively speaking, and the character of Douglas is just such a complete shit that he never functions as anything less than a villain, even when he's actually serving as the voice of reason. The creature design looks good enough from far away but reveals some pretty severe limitations from up close, along with the overriding question "Why a humanoidish design?" I would imagine it's because the creature is actually someone in a costume but it doesn't fit and seems to raise questions that the film has no interest in answering (or even addressing, for that matter).
On the plus side, Animal is well-made and reasonably tense, even if the whole thing is overly familiar and rather obvious. Simmons and dual screenwriters Thommy Hutson and Catherine Trillo (really? two writers?) are also rather fearless when it comes to killing off characters, which lends the film more of a genuine surprise factor than many films of its ilk. There's also a pretty great scene lit only by a red emergency flare but I'm a big sucker for flare-lit scenes in horror films, so that was kind of a "Free Space" on my bingo card.
Ultimately, there wasn't much about Animal that stood out (sort of like that title…yeesh…) but it's definitely the kind of film that I could see doing decent business at the multiplex: fairly glossy, filled with attractive young folks and reasonably tense, Animal definitely reminded me of films like the Platinum Dune remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and Friday the 13th (2009). Never as gritty, mean-spirited or intense as it needed to be, Animal is decent enough but never much more than that: for my money, the intense French film Prey (2010) got to this same place much more effectively and with an actual emotional punch that's sadly missing here. Animal might appeal to horror neophytes but if you've seen any of its myriad peers, you've definitely seen it, too.
12/31/14 (Part Three): Bless Me Father, For You Have Sinned
absentee father, Aidan Gillen, Best of 2014, Brendan Gleeson, Calvary, Catholic church, child molestation, Chris O'Dowd, Church sex scandal, cinema, dark comedies, David McSavage, David Wilmot, Domhnall Gleeson, dramas, Dylan Moran, estranged family, father-daughter relationships, favorite films, film reviews, films, foreign films, forgiveness, Gary Lydon, Irish films, Isaach de Bankole, John Michael McDonagh, Kelly Reilly, Killian Scott, Larry Smith, M. Emmet Walsh, Marie-Josee Croze, Movies, New World in the Morning, Orla O'Rourke, Owen Sharpe, Pat Shortt, Patrick Cassidy, revenge, Roger Whittaker, secrets, set in Ireland, sins of the fathers, small town life, The Guard, writer-director
In a small, dim confessional, Father James (Brendan Gleeson) is calmly told by one of his parishioners that he is to be "sacrificed" the following Sunday, made to die for the sexual abuse that the unknown man suffered at the hands of another priest when he was a boy. The offending priest has since died but the man isn't interested in making a "bad" priest pay: he wants Father James, a "good" priest, to take a bullet, since the Church will feel his loss harder. "Nothing to say, Father?," the mysterious man asks, when he's finished passing his judgment. "I'm sure I'll think of something in a week," Father James sardonically replies.
The week leading up to that fateful Sunday forms the crux of Irish auteur John Michael McDonagh's amazing Calvary (2014), the stunning follow-up to his masterful debut, The Guard (2011). During that time, Father James will reflect on his own life, his failings, his victories and his faith. He'll spend the time wandering about his tiny, coastal town, making small-talk with the parishioners, these "friends" and neighbors who secretly wish him dead, despite their smiles and condescending good natures: after all, he immediately knows who the wannabe assassin is, even if we don't…in a town that small, everyone knows everyone else, regardless of the supposed "anonymity" of the confessional window. Despite his knowledge, however, Father James will go through the motions, investigating each "lead" as if it were a Holmes-worthy clue, biding his time until that inevitable, fateful meeting on the beach. Despite his own innocence, Father James is more than willing to become a victim, a sacrificial goat, if that's what his town needs to heal…to keep on with the drudgery of life under the age-old grip of the Church, Ireland's bloody past and its uncertain future.
From the jump, McDonagh's Calvary grabs a hold of you and never lets go: from the great opening quote, by St. Augustine, to the haunting, empty Irish landscape shots that play over the final credits, this is a film that is so exquisitely crafted that it's almost a Swiss clock. There's an overarching sadness to the film, a sense of fate and inevitability that cuts across any of the film's many joyful moments (there are plenty) and underlines all of its most dramatic ones (likewise, plenty). Truth be told, Calvary is one of the saddest films I've ever seen, although its sorrow is a mechanical heart, beating deep within the film's chest and nearly invisible to the naked eye.
There's a lot going on in Calvary, although McDonagh's excellent script manages to make everything fit, even if it doesn't always tie it all together with a big, red bow: the estranged relationship between Father James and his grown daughter, Fiona (Kelly Reilly)…the way in which the entitlement of the upper-class continues to determine the fate of the poor working stiff, as embodied by Dylan Moran's boozy lord, Michael Fitzgerald…the way in which the terrible economy and bad housing market have conspired to marginalize the middle class nearly to the point of extinction…the importance of forgiveness in a world that would rather focus on punishment…the way in which the Catholic church's priest sex scandals continue to influence and change the complex relationship between the clergy and the common people, slowly turning blind devotion into something more closely resembling abject hatred…the necessity of sacrifice as a form of healing…despite this wealth of themes and big ideas, Calvary never feels weighted down or overly preachy (no pun intended).
One of the things that helps Calvary stay afloat when other films might have sunk under this much ambition is the way in which McDonagh subtly uses humor (sometimes bright and laugh-out-loud funny, other times so dark and mean-spirited as to be practically unrecognizable as such) as a means of guiding us through the dark. As previously mentioned, Calvary is an intensely sad, unrelenting film: the characters that haunt its halls are such twisted, wretched, damaged individuals that this streak of gallows'-humor is an absolute necessity. When one character melodramatically describes how his "whole life has been an affectation," Father James quietly responds that "that's one of those lines that sounds good but doesn't make much sense." We need to know that Father James is keeping his chin up and taking it all in stride because, otherwise, we would never be able to take this journey with him. At one point, Freddie (Domhnall Gleeson), one of James' former students who's now locked up for killing and cannibalizing a young girl, plaintively asks the priest: "God has to understand me because he made me, right?" After a beat, Father James replies, "If God can't understand you, no one can." The dark streak of humor functions in the same way, reassuring us that things in Father James' world are never quite as grim as they seem to be, even when our heart tells us that they're actually much worse.
As with The Guard, McDonagh populates his film with a host of impressively individualistic characters: stellar actors like Dylan Moran (of Black Books fame), Chris O'Dowd, David Wilmot, Aidan Gillen, Gary Lydon and even good, old M. Emmet Walsh (looking positively ancient but sounding just as great as ever) all show up and help weave the intricately intertwined tapestry that forms the fabric of the film. Kelly Reilly does some great work as James' estranged daughter and I must admit to rather loving Killian Scot's ridiculously over-the-top performance as Inspector Stanton's gay, tough-guy lover: it's a blustery, obnoxious performance with just enough underlying sadness and vulnerability to sell the whole thing, part and parcel.
Towering over everything like some sort of enormous, cassock-clad, bearded Colossus of Rhodes, however, is Brendan Gleeson. Easily one of the best actors working in film today, Gleeson seems to spit out amazing performances like this in his sleep: he's like the male, Irish Meryl Streep, completely incapable of phoning anything in or giving any less than 1000%. Gleeson isn't acting: he IS Father James, from head to foot, inhabiting the character so completely that any notion of mimicry goes out the window. There's not one moment in Gleeson's performance, one single iota, that ever hits as anything less than completely authentic and genuine. It's a heartbreaking performance for a number of reasons but the main two are pretty simple: Father James seems like a genuinely nice person and Gleeson brings him to life in a way that makes us know and feel for him. We don't need to take a side, one way or the other, to feel the tremendous tragedy, the complete unfairness of Father James' fate: Gleeson makes us feel it because we don't have a choice.
Craft-wise, Calvary looks and sounds amazing: cinematographer Larry Smith, who also shot Nicholas Winding Refn's Bronson (2008) and Only God Forgives (2013), turns the emerald greens and azure blues of the Irish countryside into one of the film's main characters. There's an impressive sense of space and isolation that perfectly meshes with Father James' own "man without a country" status in the town and some of the sweeping vistas are so gorgeous that they resemble something out of a travel program. The score and sound design are also expertly realized: one of my very favorite scenes, ever, has to be the one where Father James prepares to leave town, set to the tune of Roger Whittaker's soaring "New World in the Morning." The scene is such a perfect synthesis of song and visual, so emotionally wonderful, that it, literally, took my breath away…even thinking back on it now, I find myself getting a little emotional, which is surely the mark of an indelible moment.
All in all, Calvary stands as yet another absolute home-run for McDonagh, a filmmaker who has quickly established himself as one of the most formidable around. Truth be told, I still find it hard to believe that this is only his second film: quality like this should be the result of a lifetime spend honing one's craft, not the span of four or five short years. From beginning to end, Calvary is a nearly flawless character study and one of the very finest films of this year (or many others, for that matter). For anyone lamenting the lack of quality, "adult" entertainment, look no further than Calvary: it just doesn't get much better than this, folks.
12/30/14 (Part One): Behind the Eight-Ball
Arthur French, Bridget Barkan, Caleb Landry Jones, Christina Hendricks, cinema, dark comedies, Domenick Lombardozzi, drama, Eddie Marsan, film reviews, films, God's Pocket, John Slattery, John Turturro, Joyce Van Patten, Molly Price, Movies, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Jenkins, secrets, step-son, working-class neighborhood, workplace accident
You gotta feel for Mickey Scarpato (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the patron-saint of palookas in God's Pocket, South Philly: he's just pulled off a heist and been rewarded with a slab of raw beef at the exact time that his shithead, racist step-son, Leon (Caleb Landry Jones), gets himself killed in what may or may not have been a workplace accident. Mickey's wife, Jeannie (Christina Hendricks) wants her beloved boy to have the best funeral possible but mercenary mortician Smilin' Jack (Eddie Marsan) only takes cold, hard cash, which is in rather short supply for unlucky Mickey. He could go to his best buddy and fellow con man, Arthur (John Turturro), if only ol' Arthur wasn't the guy who stiffed Mickey with the beef in the first place. Arthur's got plenty of his own debts all around town, however, and is in no mood to pony up for Leon's coffin, although his cold-blooded aunt, Sophie (Joyce Van Patten), is just the kind of person you want on your side when the break-a-legs come calling. To put a cherry on his shit sundae, local legend/legendary drunk newspaper columnist Richard Shellburn (Richard Jenkins) is sniffing around both Leon's workplace and his grieving mother…just the kind of trouble that Mickey needs when he's just trying to get square with everyone. Ah, God's Pocket…you cruel bastard, you…
There's a lot going on in actor/first-time director John Slattery's God's Pocket (2014), maybe enough for a couple of films, although that seems a little odd considering the relatively short run-time. Nonetheless, Slattery, adapting Peter Dexter's novel, crams in enough oddball characters, bleakly comic setpieces and shocking bursts of violence to ensure that we're never bored, even if character motivations often seem as arbitrary as the whimsical hand of fate that so often flips poor Mickey the bird. God's Pocket also bears the onus of being one of legendary actor Philip Seymour Hoffman's final performances before his untimely death in February 2014. For this reason, alone, Slattery's modest little noir-lite would deserve a watch: passing up any Hoffman performance is the dumbest of dumb moves. How does the actual film hold up, however, especially considering Slattery's usually in front of the camera as Mad Men's sleazy Roger Sterling, not behind it? Turns out, God's Pocket isn't perfect, by any means, but it's just quirky enough to work, anchored by another massively impressive performance by Hoffman as a sad sack loser who just can't quit losing, even as victory dangles so mercilessly close.
Slattery's debut is a an actors showcase, above anything else, and there's almost a laundry-list of great performers turning in some spirited performances. Turturro can (and does) do this kind of likable loser stuff in his sleep but there's something particularly interesting about his Arthur, a thoroughly worthless mook who still manages to be the most loyal guy on the block, even as he repeatedly screws over Mickey. Marsan has rarely been as slimy as he is here: Smilin' Jack has to be one of the nastiest, crassest individuals on Earth but it's also impossible to tear your eyes off him. Caleb Landry Jones, so interesting in Brandon Cronenberg's Antiviral (2012), really tears into the character of Leon: there's nothing sympathetic or likable in his performance whatsoever…Leon is complete slime, from beginning to end, and Jones looks like he's having a blast.
If I had any real issue with any of the performances, it would have to be with Hendricks and Jenkins. Although they both turn in some solid work here, I found them to be more than a little stagey, especially once Hendricks really lets loose in the film's final third. I also admit that the subplot involving their relationship made no sense and served as a constant source of confusion for me: minus that inexplicable bit, I might have liked the individual performances a bit more but it always felt a bit off to me. I've enjoyed Hendricks in the few roles I've seen her in outside of Mad Men and wish that her Mad Men co-star had found a little more for her to do. To be honest, it would have been kind of cool to see Hendricks tear into the Sophie role, as it would have given her the opportunity to be more than dour and upset.
And then, of course, there's Philip Seymour Hoffman. A tremendously varied actor, Hoffman was never relegated to just one type of performance or character: he could play everything from a nerd to a blue-collar Joe, from a saint to a sinner, and bring the same sense of lived-in verisimilitude to any and all of them. Here, he plays Mickey with a kind of roiling, seething frustration, a wide-eyed, lunkheaded refusal to accept that life is really this bad and that he really is that screwed. There are moments here, such as when Mickey finally kicks the shit out of Smilin' Jack or the jaw-dropping meat truck crash, that easily rank with Hoffman's best work. At his best, Hoffman was an effortless mimic and there's nothing about his portrayal of Mickey Scarpato that feels inauthentic in the slightest. This is a perfect example of a gifted actor bringing his A-game to a smaller production, treating the proceedings like this was the only game in town.
It's a shame that Slattery's debut will probably be over-shadowed by Hoffman's death, since it's a really well-made film that deserves to be taken in on its own merits. From a production standpoint, Slattery hits all of the familiar notes but manages to imbue everything with an underlying sense of humor that really helps the grim proceedings. The script is tight and the film looks and sounds good: nothing here reinvents the wheel but it's a pretty slick ride, nonetheless. Since this is one of Hoffman's final performances, however, everything achieves a sort of shimmering mythology, almost as if the film is pulled from its modest perch to attain a slightly higher elevation than it might actually need. As a film, God's Pocket is a modest, highly entertaining and exquisitely acted little character drama that throws a lot of elements at the wall, many of which stick. As a Philip Seymour Hoffman vehicle, however, it's yet one more example of he'll be so sorely missed.


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NIH Home » About NIH » The NIH Director » Advisory Committee to the Director » Working Groups » ACD Working Group on Biomedical Workforce
Develop a model for a sustainable and diverse U.S. biomedical research workforce that can inform decisions about training of the optimal number of people for the appropriate types of positions that will advance science and promote health. Developing the model will include an analysis of the current composition and size of the workforce to understand the consequences of current funding policies on the research framework. The model should include an assessment of present and future needs in the academic research arena, but also current and future needs in industry, science policy, education, communication, and other pathways. The model will also require an assessment of current and future availability of trainees from the domestic and international communities.
Based on this analysis and input from the extramural community, using appropriate expertise from NIH and external sources, and recognizing that there are limits to NIH's ability to control many aspects of the training pipeline, the committee will make recommendations for actions that NIH should take to support a future sustainable biomedical infrastructure.
Information on NIH implementation of the report recommendations
Biomedical Workforce Working Group Report (PDF – 4.35MB)
Executive Summary of the Biomedical Workforce Working Group (PDF – 398KB)
Additional data: http://report.nih.gov/investigators_and_trainees/ACD_BWF/index.aspx
Modeling Subcommittee Roster
Email: bmwinfo@mail.nih.gov
Sally Rockey, Ph.D. (co-chair)
Deputy Director for Extramural Research
Shirley Tilghman, Ph.D. (co-chair)
Sandra Degen, Ph.D.
Interim Chair
Dept of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry & Microbiology
University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital
Laura Forese, M.D.
COO, CMO, and Senior Vice President
New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
Donna Ginther, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics and Director
Center for Economic and Business Analysis
Arthur Gutierrez-Hartmann, M.D.
Department of Medicine and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics; and Director
Freeman Hrabowski, Ph.D.
James Jackson, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology; and Director
Institute for Social Research
Leemor Joshua-Tor, Ph.D.
Professor and Dean
Watson School of Biological Sciences; and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Richard Lifton, M.D., Ph.D.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Yale School of Medicine
Garry Neil, M.D.
Corporate Vice President
Corporate Office of Science and Technology
Naomi Rosenberg, Ph.D.
Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences
Tufts University School of Medicine
Bruce A. Weinberg, Ph.D.
Department of Economics and John Glenn School of Public Affairs
Keith Yamamoto, Ph.D.
Executive Vice Dean
Biomedical Workforce Modeling Subcommittee Roster
Bruce Weinberg, Ph.D. (co-chair)
Professor of Economics, The Ohio State University
Donna Ginther, Ph.D. (co-chair)
Professor of Economics and Director, Center for Economic and Business Analysis
David Blau, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
Stephen Eubank, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics
Virginia Bioinformatics Institute; and Deputy Director
Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory
Richard B. Freeman, Ph.D.
Herbert Ascherman Chair of Economics
Harvard University; and Director of the National Bureau of Economic Research/Sloan Science and Engineering Workforce Project
Peter K. Sorger, Ph.D.
Professor of Systems Biology
Paula Stephan, Ph.D.
Michael Teitelbaum, Ph.D.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation


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Five things we still don't know about Death Stranding
By Lloyd Coombes 2019-06-03T14:27:25Z Gaming
Tomorrow is in your hands
Image credit: Kojima Productions
In case you've been living under a rock for the last couple of years, Death Stranding is the latest project from acclaimed video game auteur Hideo Kojima. The mastermind behind the Metal Gear franchise left Konami in 2015 amid acrimonious circumstances, before reforming Kojima Productions as an independent venture.
What's so interesting about Death Stranding is that no one seems to know exactly what it's about - except Kojima of course. While the game has been shown at various shows and expos since its initial unveiling as a PlayStation exclusive at E3 2016, these demos and trailers have all formed a series of seemingly disconnected vignettes. Babies in jars, shadowy creatures, undead soldiers and Norman Reedus traversing snowy mountains? It's all a bit confusing.
After months of speculation, last week we finally got a lengthy nine minute trailer which shows plenty of new footage of Death Stranding but still poses plenty of questions.
We now know the game will launch on November 8, 2019, who the cast are and a few more jumbled plot tidbits, but here are some more questions we'd like answered before the game's release.
What's with the babies?
I want my baby back... (Image credit: Kojima Productions)
Since it's initial reveal, this question has been on the minds of many - and we still don't have a definitive answer just six months before launch. Kojima has stated that the "baby relates to game mechanics as well as the story as a whole", and it's been seen being held in a container by Guillermo Del Toro as well as inside Norman Reedus' oesophagus - yes, really.
Could it be as simple (and dark) as the baby acting as your health bar? Or is the baby key to the game's plot about jumping between time zones, allowing our protagonist to jump between realities and dimensions? At this point, it's anyone's guess, but we're certainly itching to find out.
Where will we be time traveling to?
We wouldn't be surprised if a DeLorean appeared at this point (Image credit: Kojima Productions)
One of the most exciting elements of Death Stranding's pre-release material has been the notion of time manipulation. One of the game's earlier trailers demonstrates a phenomenon called "time fall". Appearing as rain drops from another dimension, it can age people and other living organisms rapidly, posing plenty of hypotheticals - will we visit other time periods?
One section of the trailer seems to show what looks like World War I combat, albeit with some strange inconsistencies suggesting all is not right in this scene (aside from the war, of course). While this could be a hugely distant flashback, it seems unlikely. Will we see more time periods explored, and how will these connect to the game's open world?
What is there to do in the open-world?
Death Stranding's world looks beautiful, so we're hoping we get to explore a bit (Image credit: Kojima Productions)
Speaking of Death Stranding's open-world, Kojima has some experience in this field. Metal Gear Solid 5 may not have tied that franchise's story up in the way that fans had hoped, but it did transplant the game's signature style of stealth action gameplay to an open world setting while encouraging experimentation.
With Death Stranding, it seems Kojima Productions is pushing the boundaries of exploration. While lead character Sam Bridges is tasked with delivering supplies, it seems hard to imagine the entire game will be a simple fetch quest. Expect combat against strange monsters called "Beached Things", as well as the ability to explore mountains, canyons, and everything in between. It'll be interesting to see how populated this region is, as trailers have suggested there's not a lot of other characters to be found.
Death Stranding's ominous promise that "every death carries a consequence" is likely to have you avoiding combat in some small part as well, so try not to kill every weary traveler you come across, OK?
What benefits will multiplayer offer?
Friends with benefits (Image credit: Kojima Productions)
One of the more tantalizing threads (and there are many) about Death Stranding is Hideo Kojima's insistence that the game features multiplayer, and thanks to a recent press release we have some more details on how it'll work.
Multiplayer will be asynchronous, and will allow players to support each other by sharing supplies and pointing out safe areas. It's a far cry from Metal Gear Solid 5's base-storming player-versus-player, but what has us really intrigued is the potential for how progression will work. Will sharing supplies benefit your campaign? Will "walking in the footsteps of fellow couriers" (as per the press release) change the way the story plays out?
For a game with such lofty goals of reuniting a broken civilization living behind walls, it seems likely there's more to this resource sharing than Kojima Productions is letting on. Hopefully we'll know more before launch, and hopefully your friends list is full of generous players.
Will we see cross-generation launch?
Death Stranding will definitely launch on PS4, but what about PS5? (Image credit: Kojima Productions)
On the subject of launch, it's no secret that we're approaching the twilight of the PlayStation 4's incredibly successful life cycle. Sony are now discussing the next-generation in everything except the name, which is incredibly exciting but potentially problematic for a huge exclusive like Death Stranding launching near the end of the machine's run.
Sony is no stranger to releasing incredible swan songs, however. God Of War II hit the PlayStation 2 when the PlayStation 3 had already launched, and that console received The Last Of Us shortly before the launch of PlayStation 4.
While all signs point to the next console being backwards compatible with PlayStation 4 games, will we see a sparkly, brand spanking "remaster" of Death Stranding on the PlayStation 5? Who knows, but with the game being developed on Guerilla's Decima Engine it seems fairly likely it'll be scalable across hardware generations.
Read more: We got a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Death Stranding at Tribeca


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Post-Zionism is So 1990s
Posted: Apr 28, 2012 12:01 AM
You can learn a lot about a nation's health by watching how it celebrates its national holidays. In Israel's case, compare how we celebrated our 50th Independence Day in 1998 to what celebrations involve today.
During the 1990s, Israel's elite took a vacation from reality and history and they brought much of the public with them.
Then-foreign minister Shimon Peres said that history was overrated. The so-called "New Historians," who rummaged through David Ben-Gurion's closet looking for skeletons, were the toast of the academic world. Radicals like Yossi Beilin, Shulamit Aloni and Avrum Burg were dictating government policy.
The media, the entertainment establishment, and the Education Ministry embraced and massively promoted plays, movies, television shows, songs, dances, art and books that "slayed sacred cows." Everywhere you turned, post-Zionism was in. Post-Judaism was in. And Zionism and Judaism were both decidedly out.
As he is today, in 1998 Binyamin Netanyahu was prime minister, and then as now there were prominent voices seeking to blame him for the absence of peace and every other terrible blight on the planet.
In 1998, the government invested a fortune in marking Israel's 50th Independence Day. The main official celebration was a massive affair called Jubilee Bells that took place at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem. More than 2,000 performers participated. But rather than serve as an event that unified Israeli society in celebration of 50 years of sovereign freedom, the event exposed just how far Israel's political and cultural elite were willing to go in attacking basic societal values.
The Bat Sheva Dance Troupe was scheduled to participate in the program and present a dance set to the traditional Passover song "Ehad mi yodea," (Who knows one). The song contains 13 stanzas that praise God, praise Jewish law, and outline the Jewish life cycle. In the number Bat Sheva was scheduled to perform, the dancers come on stage dressed as ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and by the end of the song, all they are wearing is underwear.
The choreography enraged members of Netanyahu's cabinet including education minister Yitzhak Levy. They insisted that the program shouldn't contain material that insulted sectors of Israeli society. The organizers tried to forge a compromise. But the dancers chose to boycott the festival.
Israel's cultural and media establishment expressed shock and horror at what they viewed as the government's attempt to infringe on artistic freedom. The Association of Israeli Artists demanded that a public commission be formed to ensure that the government would be unable to interfere in artistic freedom in the future. Major cultural icons declared cultural war against religious Jews.
The question of whether the dance was appropriate for an official, state- financed celebration of Independence Day was never asked. So, too, no one asked whether a dance portraying ultra-Orthodox Jews moving sensuously to a traditional Jewish song while taking off their clothes reflected the values of society.
To understand the distance Israel has traveled since then, consider Tuesday night's Memorial Day ceremony at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. None of the performers attacked their fellow Israelis. And the best-received artist and song was Mosh Ben-Ari and his rendition of Psalm 121 - A Song of Ascent.
The psalm, which praises God as the eternal guardian of Israel, became the unofficial anthem of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008-2009. And Ben-Ari's rendition of the song propelled the dreadlock bedecked, hoop earring wearing world music artist into super-stardom in Israel.
IT WAS impossible to imagine Pslam 121 or any other traditional Jewish poem or prayer being performed as anything other than an object of scorn in 1998. Back then, it would have been impossible to contemplate a crowd of tens of thousands of non-religious Israelis reverently singing along as Ben-Ari crooned, "My help is from God/ Maker of Heaven and Earth/ He will not allow your foot to falter/ Your Guardian will not slumber/ Behold he neither slumbers nor sleeps - the Guardian of Israel."
It's not that the crowd would have necessarily booed him off the stage. He simply never would have been allowed on the stage to begin with. The 1990s was the decade that launched Aviv Gefen, the most prominent secular draft-dodger, to stardom.
Israel is no longer in the throes of an adolescent rebellion. It has regained its senses.
True, its celebrities look like Ben-Ari and not like Naomi Shemer. But the message is the same. Israel is a great country and a great nation. Zionism is in. Judaism is in. Post- Zionism is out. Post-Judaism is out.
When last year a group of performers announced they would boycott the Ariel Center for Performing Arts, the public reacted with anger and disgust, not understanding. Fearing a loss of state funding, their theater bosses quickly sought to distance themselves from the performers.
Israel's return to its Zionist roots is the greatest cultural event of the past decade. It is also an event that occurred under the radar screen of the rest of the world. No one outside the country seems to have noticed at all.
The outside world's failure to take note of Israel's cultural shift owes to its failure to recognize the significance of the failure of the peace process with the Palestinians on the one hand and the failure of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza on the other hand. The demise of the peace process at Camp David in July 2000 and the terror war that followed launched the Israeli public on its path away from its radical post-Zionist rebellion and back to its Zionist roots. The failure of the withdrawal from Gaza, and the international community's response to Operation Cast Lead, marked the conclusion of the journey.
The Oslo peace process was based on the radical belief that it is possible to make peace by empowering terrorists and giving them land, political legitimacy, money and guns. To embrace this nonsense, the public had to be willing to tolerate the notion that there was something unjust about the Zionist revolution. Because if Zionism and the cause of Jewish national liberation are just, then it is impossible to justify empowering the PLO, a terrorist movement dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the delegitimization of Zionism.
Most Israelis never adopted the post-Zionist narrative. But they did accept the doctrine of appeasement. And they shared the belief that if appeasement failed, the world would rally to Israel's side.
Consequently, the beginning of society's awakening to the lie of post-Zionism at the heart of the peace process was a function not only of the massive Palestinian terror onslaught that began after Yasser Arafat rejected peace and statehood at Camp David. It was also a function of the August 2000 UN Durban Conference and its aftermath in which the international community rallied to the Palestinians' side. The latter demonstrated that just as Israel's transfer of land and guns to the PLO had endangered the lives of its citizens, Israel's conferral of political legitimacy on the PLO endangered the international standing of the country.
The lesson that Israelis took from the failure of the peace process was that Israel has no Palestinian partner for peace. And until the Palestinians change, Israel has no one to talk to.
While a slight majority of Israelis still support partitioning the land between Israel and a Palestinian state, the overwhelming majority of Israelis believe that Israel has no one to make peace with and therefore no possibility of successfully partitioning the land.
This is not the lesson that foreigners learned. From Bill Clinton to George W. Bush to Tony Blair to Barack Obama to Nicolas Sarkozy, foreign leaders have insisted that the Oslo process had nearly succeeded and that its failure was a fluke.
The most the parts of the international community that are not completely anti-Israel have been willing to grant about the failure of the peace process is that it failed due to a lack of courage. By this telling, the problem isn't the concept of appeasing terrorists with land, guns and legitimacy. Rather the problem is narrow-minded, cowardly leaders. And so the way forward for them is also clear: figure out a more attractive appeasement package for the Palestinians and put Israel's feet to the fire to make it cough up the required concessions.
THEN THERE is the aftermath of the withdrawal from Gaza.
Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza was a traumatic national event. The forced expulsion of thousands of Israelis from their homes led Israeli society to the brink of disintegration.
The move represented the last hope of the peace movement. If the Palestinians won't sit down with Israel, so the thinking went, Israel can still appease them by simply giving them what they want without an agreement.
But not only did the withdrawal bring no peace. It brought Hamas to power. It brought tens of thousands of projectiles down on southern Israel.
Israelis expected the world to recognize the significance of this string of events. But that didn't happen.
Instead of seeing the lengths Israel had gone to appease the Palestinians and side with it when its appeasement failed again, the international community refused to even acknowledge that Israel had withdrawn from Gaza. Condoleezza Rice forced Israel to continue supplying electricity and water to Gaza and providing medical care for Gazans in Israeli hospitals as if nothing had happened. No one accepted that Israel was no longer in charge.
As far as most Israelis were concerned, the final end of our vacation from reality came with the publication of the Goldstone Report in the aftermath of Cast Lead. Here was Israel, forced to defend itself from Hamas-ruled Gaza that was waging an illegal missile war against Israeli civilians. Rather than stand by Israel that had done everything for peace, the UN's commission accused Israel of committing war crimes.
Undoubtedly one of the reasons so few outsiders have drawn the same lessons as the Israeli public from the failure of the peace process and the Gaza withdrawal is because the only Israelis they listen to are the few remaining holdouts from the 1990s. People like former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Ami Ayalon can expect to have every withdrawal-from-territory and destroy-the-settlements op-ed they write published in The New York Times, whereas Richard Goldstone wasn't even able to get the Times to publish his admission that his eponymous commission's conclusions were false.
This open door policy for Israeli radicals was defensible in the 1990s when a significant portion of the Israeli public supported them. Now it constitutes nothing more than an anti-Israel propaganda campaign.
From Obama to J Street to the EU, international actors interested in forcing Israel to make more concessions to the Palestinians cannot understand why their attempts continue to fail. How is it possible that despite their best efforts, Netanyahu remains in power and the Left can't get any traction with the public? For the answer, they need to look no farther than Mosh Ben-Ari, his dreadlocks, and his rendition of Psalm 121. Israel's adolescent rebellion is over.
Post-Zionism is so 1990s.


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Introducing Project Spartan: The New Browser Built for Windows 10
By Joe Belfiore / Corporate Vice President, Windows
Today I'm excited to share more details about "Project Spartan," the new browser we are introducing in Windows 10. Project Spartan will be available across the Windows 10 device family. It is fast, compatible, and built for the modern Web. Project Spartan is designed to work the way you do, with features enabling you to do cool things like write or type on a webpage. It's a browser that is made for easy sharing, reading, discovery and getting things done online.
We first shared details about Project Spartan on January 21, and it's been really gratifying to see so much interest and excitement for our new browser. Today, we're excited to announce that Project Spartan is available for the first time for Windows Insiders to try out as part of the latest Windows 10 Technical Preview build for PCs. You can read more about the new Windows 10 Technical Preview build here, or check it out by joining the Windows Insider Program.
In this preview, you will see a bold new design for Project Spartan – one that is streamlined and puts the focus on the page, not the browser. This is part of our vision for a browser that doesn't visually interfere with your life on the Web, but supports it. You will also see some of the features that we demo'ed back in January and we hope you'll love them.
Here's a quick snapshot of what's in this build—though keep in mind all these features are still in an early, incomplete state:
Cortana is built-in and ready to assist: Cortana in Project Spartan is a personal assistant that helps make Web browsing easier for you, with whatever you're trying to get done. Cortana offers help at just the right moment, based on what she knows about the Web, about you and what you might be trying to do. She remains in the background but provides additional information when you need it, making browsing easier and more efficient. Cortana in Spartan will be available in the US versions of this build, and available more broadly later.
Inking and sharing so you can capture and communicate your thoughts: Everyone uses the Web routinely to share questions, thoughts, info and comments with friends and colleagues. Now with new inking capabilities, Project Spartan enables you to write or type directly on the page, comment on what's interesting or clip what you want – then easily share this "Web Note" via mail, or a social network. Researching and collecting information from the Web is just as easy, as you can save your notes directly to OneNote.
Distraction-free reading with Reading List and Reading View: Keeping up with information overload on the Web is one of the challenges that we all have to manage. Project Spartan helps with a beautiful new Reading List to collect everything you want to read, including the ability to save any webpage or PDF for convenient access later, and an integrated, distraction-free Reading View that keeps you focused on the content.
A new engine for the modern Web: Project Spartan's new rendering engine is built around the idea that the Web "just works," while being fast, more secure and more reliable. As we shared in our recent developer workshop, we made some changes to the rendering engine that you will see in this build.
It's important to note we'll have more features and many improvements coming to Project Spartan before we make it broadly available. This preview is NOT a polished, ready-for-everyone release. For Windows Insiders, we're excited to make Project Spartan available for your feedback, only a short time after we made it available for use internally at Microsoft.
Why "Project Spartan"
As we started building Project Spartan, we took a hard look at everything we were doing with the browser – from the way we engineered it, to the way we designed the user experience, to the way we approached compatibility and interoperability, to the way we interacted with our customers and Web developers, to the way we released it.
This led us to believe we needed to step forward into a new era of browsing at Microsoft. To build a browser that is designed for the modern Web – a browser for people that have grown up with the Web; who have integrated the Web into their lives in incredible and unexpected ways; who are no longer just exploring a new frontier, but are using the Web to get things done. After all, the world we live in is evolving, the Web is evolving, and our needs are evolving.
This led us to embrace the following design tenets, which you will see come to life in the product, both now and in the months ahead:
First, be an amazing browser – Browsers have been part of our computing experience long enough that core ideas about what a browser does and doesn't do are fairly well-defined. Project Spartan has to deliver on what you expect from a browser – fast, more secure, reliable, power efficient – in the ways that you expect it (tabs, address bar, and so on).
Be bold and forward-looking –we recently talked about how we reexamined our assumptions about compatibility and interoperability, and how we made the decision to build a new rendering engine designed for the modern Web. You will see this tenet come to life in many ways in Project Spartan.
Ship fast, try new things, learn and always get better – Along with the rest of Windows 10, Project Spartan will be regularly updated, and the team is engaging with customers and partners closely to tune and update plans.
At the same time, we recognize that for some of our enterprise customers, it's important they have the support they need and can continue to use Internet Explorer when and where they need it. This is why we will continue to make it easy for our enterprise customers to make Internet Explorer 11 the default browser via group policy. Internet Explorer 11 is supported on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 for all customers, also providing a consistent platform that's great for enterprise Web apps.
Just as we've seen this emergence of a more personal computing era reshape the way we think about computing, we're seeing that extend to the concept of browsing and what it means in this modern world. Today's a new day, and we're proud to be part of this shift in thinking, where you will ultimately define the browsing experience—as it becomes more personal, more natural, more intuitive and more interactive.
Keep the Feedback Coming
This is just the beginning for Project Spartan. We can't wait to get more and more of you trying it out and to get your feedback. This is a journey we're on together and we look forward to working with you to shape the future of browsing. You'll find us particularly easy to reach. Right on the Project Spartan toolbar is a smiley face you can use to send us feedback quickly and easily. You can also use the Windows Feedback tool right on the Start Menu to see and vote on feedback that others have submitted (as well as submit your own comments).
You can also find us on the new Project Spartan uservoice forum for desktop.
Thanks for reading and checking out Project Spartan!
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