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Me Me Me Me Me
A chance for me to share my thoughts (or, maybe just vent a bit).
Seditious Words From Republican Who Believes Democrats Are Anti-American
Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while (especially during the latter stages of the November 2008 elections) will know that I have a love-hate relationship with Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minnesota). I hate the things this idiotic Congresswoman has to say and I love to blog about how stupid and hurtful those things are (see Republican Congresswoman Follows Palin's Lead and Calls for Investigation Into Anti-Americans in Congress, Bachmann Misreads Herself! Huh?, Another Republican Accuses Liberals of Being Unpatriotic, and Bachmann Calls Her Own Comments an "Urban Myth"). Well, now Rep. Bachmann has really outdone herself.
First, before I get to her newest statement, I think that it is absolutely critical to contemplate her words in the full context of her prior accusations. During the campaign, she said that the "people that Barack Obama has been associating with are anti-American, by and large" (she was, in part, referring to Bill Ayers, the 60s-era terrorist who bombed American installations and advocated violence against the government) and she expressed concern that then-candidate Obama "may have anti-American views." And, of course, her classic plea: "[N]ews media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would, I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out are they are pro-America or anti-America." And so, with those statements firmly in mind, here is what Rep. Bachmann said on a radio program this past weekend:
And really now in Washington, I'm a foreign correspondent in enemy lines. And I try to keep everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington.
I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us, having a revolution every now and then is a good thing, and the people — we the people — are going to have to fight back hard if we're not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States....
(Emphasis added; you can listen to her comments over at Think Progress) These statements were made in the course of a discussion about President Obama's proposed "cap and trade" environmental legislation (now being spun as an "energy tax" by Republicans).
Think for a moment about what Rep. Bachmann has really said. In response to proposed environmental legislation with which she disagrees, she has suggested that her constituents be "armed and dangerous," be ready to "fight back," and called upon the words of Thomas Jefferson advocating a "revolution every now and then". In other words, a sitting member of Congress has, essentially, incited other citizens to armed rebellion to defeat the will of the democratic majority.
Now, to be totally fair, Rep. Bachmann's spokesperson told a Minneapolis newspaper that Rep. Bachmann was speaking metaphorically and only meant that she wanted people to be armed with information. Furthermore, at the point in the interview when she made her inflammatory comments, she was urging people to come hear a speaker and learn more about the issue. But still...
I'm sorry. Any adult, let alone an elected official, let alone a sitting member of Congress, let alone a sitting member of Congress who has expressed concern about the possibility that other members of Congress and/or the President might be "anti-American," should recognize the danger of speech that could be perceived as an incitement to violence. The words that Rep. Bachmann used are the sort of words that we would expect to hear from a white supremacist or a neo-Nazi, not from a member of Congress. And words, whether spoken metaphorically or otherwise have consequences. Just look to the bombings of abortion clinics or the Oklahoma City federal building. Or look to the Middle East and the violence to which influential Muslim leaders (clerics, in particular) lend tacit if not overt approval.
As anyone who has read what I've written in the past knows, I'm a firm believer in free speech, even speech that I don't like. But there are limits (and not just crying "fire" in a crowded theater to borrow an over-used cliche). Incitement to violence and advocating for armed revolution certainly seem to approach that line, if not cross it (and not just barely...). And just for reference, 18 U.S.C. § 2385 (for the non-lawyers, that is Title 18, Section 2385 of the United States Code) states:
Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government ... Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
So let's compare, shall we? Rep. Bachmann accuses then-candidate Obama and other members of being "anti-American" (because Obama "associated" with a person who advocated and used violence 40 years ago and on the basis of economic views -- oooh, socialism, remember? -- that she disagrees with) but is herself willing to "metaphorically" incite people to take up arms in revolt against the American government. So you tell me, who is the real "anti-American" of the bunch? It seems to me that Rep. Bachmann isn't really so far removed from Bill Ayers...
I don't think that Rep. Bachmann should necessarily be indicted for sedition (though can you imagine what Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh would be saying if a Democrat had suggested armed rebellion?) but I do think that Rep. Bachmann's statements -- at best careless and at worst dangerous -- are the exact type of speech that I've been writing (and worrying) about for months. I think that jailing people for what they say or think, rather than for what they do, is generally a bad idea and not in furtherance of our democratic principles and ideas. But at some point speech crosses a line from being protected and in furtherance of those democratic principles and becomes ... oh, I don't know ... it becomes something else, something dangerous, something that civil society cannot condone. I don't know if Rep. Bachmann's speech reaches this level; after all, she was only speaking "metaphorically," right? But even if her speech isn't seditious or even if sedition itself should not really be punishable, in our democratic system, the electorate certainly has a chance to "punish" Rep. Bachmann the next time that she stands before them.
The people of Minnesota still only have one senator because of the ongoing Franken-Coleman litigation. Rep. Bachmann is one of their elected representatives in the House. I would have to say that the people of Minnesota are not presently being very well served. And I think that the people of Minnesota need to have a real conversation with their Congresswoman about the outer bounds of what is and is not acceptable political speech. And I think that "we the people" need to demand more, much more, from our elected officials. If she wants to express her opposition to a particular proposal, she is certainly welcome to do so. After all, that is the beauty of democracy. But when she voices that opposition, she should have a competing proposal and she should voice her opposition with facts to back up any position that she may take (she continues to claim that science shows that global warming is not caused by human activity). But under no circumstances should a member of the United States Congress advocate, even metaphorically, for armed insurrection against the government. That way lies danger.
Labels: Free Speech, Politics
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Name: MSWallack
Location: Carmel, Indiana, United States
Response to "Israel Lobby Intimidation"
LibraryThing: "Twilight" and "The Spy Who Came for...
Waltzing Alone
What Does Failure Mean?
Helping Republicans Apologize to Rush Limbaugh
IN Touch: Check the Facts First
What Does Congressman Mike Pence Believe?
Now on Twitter, Too!
What Are My Children Being Taught About Terrorism?
LibraryThing: Several updates
© 2008-2017 Michael S. Wallack. All rights reserved.
Although I shouldn't have to say it, any opinion expressed herein is solely that of the author and is not necessarily representative of any association or organization with which I may be affiliated or involved or any company by whom I am employed. My employers expressly disclaim any responsibility for or involvement in my posts and I think them giving me the freedom to offer my thoughts and express my feelings via this blog.


Ионические острова простираются к югу от албанской побережье до южной оконечности Пелопоннеса, лежащие у западного побережья материковой Греции. Разбросанные в Ионическом море, которые на некоторых диаграммах также называют Адриатическое, основными островами этой цепи, с севера на юг, являются Корфу, Паксос, Левкас, Итака, Кефалония и Закинф.
Климат здесь очень отличается от бесплодия Кикладских островов, и это делает чартеринг яхт на Ионических островах намного приятнее, здесь умеренные ветра, кристально чистая голубая вода и прогнозируемая погода, которые создают идеальные условия для парусного спорта.
Результатом выше-среднегодовых норм осадков является зеленая, пышная растительность, покрывающая весной ковром из орхидей и полевых цветов горные склоны, вперемежку с оливковыми рощами и кипарисами. Зима мягкая и влажная, но в летние месяцы может быть очень жарко, так как здесь, в отличие от Эгейский островов, не бывает охлаждающих пассатных ветров.
After you fly in to the International Airport, your crew will bring you to your waiting yacht in the NAOK yacht club on the south side of the Old Fortress. You might like to take a drive to Corfu Town, the capital, which is beautifully situated on a promontory on the east coast, dominated by the Neo Frourio (New Fortress).
Your lunch stop is likely to be at Garitsa Bay, and in the afternoon you can go ashore and visit the ancient city further south, then take a drive on the road running above the seafront that passes the old royal palace. Another attractive excursion is to the villa of Akhillion, further south.
This Italian-styled Renaissance building is situated in the hills and offers panoramic views from its magnificent gardens. The remains of a Roman villa lie further south in the charming fishing village of Benitses. The island has something to offer everyone from the lively nightlife of Kos to the excellent sandy beaches and the rugged mountains.
Chartering here offers you the opportunity to view loggerhead sea turtles in Zakynthos, party the night away at Corfu's notorious Pink Palace complex, enjoy walking trails and traditional mountain villages on Levkas, and relax on any number of beautiful unspoiled beaches or follow in the footsteps of Homer's Odysseus on Ithaca.
Levkas boasts one of the top windsurfing resorts in Europe, while Cephalonia's magnificent Myrtos Beach is widely regarded as being the loveliest in the Mediterranean . The two best-known islands in the chain are Corfu and Cephalonia, which unwittingly acquired an army of fans worldwide after the publication of the book Captain Corelli's Mandolin and the subsequent movie. Each of the Ionians has its own distinct character – between them, they provide the perfect playground for a superyacht charter.
Breakfast will be served during a pleasant morning cruise to Anti Paxos, a tiny island with a great anchorage. Sheltered waters make this an excellent spot to launch the water toys and have some fun in the sun. Later you may take a relaxing stroll to enjoy the beauty of the serene shoreline. Take advantage of the soothing atmosphere and spend the night here.
The next morning, you'll head southwards 30 miles towards the mountainous island of Levkas with its stretches of golden beach. The island lies off the Playia Peninsula in Acarnania, from which it is separated by a shallow lagoon. A range of hills, the largest of which is Mount Stavrotas, dominates the island and runs in a southwest direction, ending at Cape Dhoukatou.
In Greek mythology, it was from this location, on a promontory called Leucadian Rock, that Sappho flung herself for love of the handsome Phaon. With yacht docked in Lefkas town or Nydri you will enjoy a lazy day here – it's a gorgeous spot for sunbathing on the beach and enjoying the water for the afternoon.
Today you'll head north about 32 miles towards mythical Ithaca, a rocky island separated from Cephalonia by the Ithaca channel. On its east side, is almost cut in two by the long Gulf of Molos, which offers several marvelous anchorages.
Make the most of the advantages of yacht charter by taking the tender to the uninhabited Atokos Island for a picnic lunch ashore before you carry on towards Zakynthos for the night.
With its beautiful scenery and excellent bathing beaches, the island is very popular with holidaymakers and is a popular Mediterranean party destination. Ashore, you can visit the famous blue grotto and the old frescoed churches. For convenience your yacht can anchor off the port, but if you're looking for peace and quiet, ask the captain to drop the hook in Smugglers Cove.
About 50 miles away from Zakynthos, Kephalonia is the largest of the Ionian Islands, yet has only 32,000 residents who work in the tourist trade and farm the limestone mountains that rise to the 5,341 foot Mount Ainos. Despite the annual influx of visitors, the island is so big it's still possible to get away to places where you are unlikely to meet a soul for days.
In a catastrophic earthquake in 1953, entire towns and villages were destroyed, more than 600 people died and thousands where injured. If you're interested in archaeology, there are excavations of Mycenean graves that shed light on a civilization developed thousands of years ago.
For those who do not share this passion, take a tour of the island to take in the peaceful town of Lixouri, the beaches on the south side and the sociable capital of Argostoli.
It's hard to leave Cephalonia, which is perhaps the most beautiful of all the stunning Ionian Islands, but you must in order to head north and visit yet more lovely islands… Your destination is Paxos, an island so tiny and packed with trees and shrubs that it almost seems as if you're are wandering through a garden as you walk up the hill to tour the Venetian castle that dominates the island.
At the end of the charter you'll head back to Corfu; it may be one of the most popular Greek islands yet it's still possible to find many places still untouched by mass tourism and the accompanying crowds. Before heading to the airport, pick up a few souvenirs in busy Corfu Town.


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What is a "right"? The rare phenomenon that rivals the hurricane and that has killed seven people on the Ligurian coast
Last Thursday, a right killed five people on the island of corsica and left a score of wounded, four of them in serious condition. The same phenomenon killed two people on the Italian coast of Liguria and left another twenty people injured, at the same time as on the French island. Altogether, at least seven dead and fifty wounded in just a few hours of strong winds.
The images left by the right in the Mediterranean, which recorded winds that exceeded 220 km/h, such as the following recorded in the Italian coast of Liguria, they are overwhelming. Sixty seconds are enough for the right to unleash a great force on the sea:
In the United States they are more familiar with the Meteorological phenomenon baptized as "law", but in Europe it is practically unknown and is often called hurricane force winds. This may be due to the fact that it is more common in American lands than in the old continent. In scientific terms, a right is "a straight line wind stormlong-lived and widespread that is associated with a group of fast-moving severe thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective system and its strength rivals the strength of hurricanes and tornadoes. According to the US National Weather Service, if the wind damage swath extends more than 400 kilometers and includes wind gusts of at least 93 km/h or more over most of its length, then the event can be classified as a right .
The French government announced this Friday that it will declare "natural catastrophe" the violent storm that hit Corsica on Thursday, where, among the five deceased, there is a 13-year-old girl from a falling tree.
The passage of law through the Mediterranean island was devastating. As of late Friday, they were still without electricity more than 11,000 houses of the 47,000 who lost power after the storm.
The Corsican campsite where a 13-year-old girl lost her life when a tree fell during strong winds from the rightAFP
Between the five fatalities in Corsica there is a 13-year-old girl, who died from the impact of a falling tree in the bungalow she occupied in a Sagone campsite; a 72-year-old woman, hit by a roof on a Coggia beach; and a 46-year-old man, also due to the impact of a tree in a Calvi campsite. Likewise, the maritime authorities of this Mediterranean island confirmed the discovery of two other lifeless bodies: of a 62-year-old fisherman in the Gulf of Girolata and of a kayaker, in Erbalunga, in Cap Corse.
Italy, two dead and destruction
The same right that killed five people in Corsica, also caused two deaths in the Italian coast of the Ligurian Sea. The deceased, a man and a woman, lost their lives due to the fall of two trees in Tuscany, the first in the town of Lucca and the second in Carrara. He also left another twenty wounded in the area.
The 54-year-old man was felling a tree on private property when another tree fell on him, while the woman was crushed in the street and the national emergency services tried to revive her, but she died shortly after. local media reported.
The storm has left at least eighteen wounded in the area, including a serious person who was trapped in a caravan and another who was dragged by a tree and had to be transferred to a hospital in Versilia, also in Tuscany.
In addition to Tuscany, other affected regions have been Piedmont, Liguria and Emilia-Romagnawhere storms and violent gusts of wind – with peaks of up to 120 km/h – have caused flooding and ripped off roofs, infrastructure and toppled trees.
In several cities of these regions it has been necessary to temporarily shut down traffic by fallen trees and rivers of water, and, in some cases as in florencethe circulation of the tram has also been interrupted.
In Venice The area near the Basilica of San Marco has had to be cordoned off and tourists visiting it have been evicted after several fragments of the bell tower broke off and fell into the square.
What is a right?
Rights are weather events that can cause gale-force winds, tornadoes, heavy rain, and flash flooding. They move fast in the direction of movement of their associated storms, which is why they are also called straight line wind storms. His potency rivals that of a hurricane and, on occasion, can exceed its strength and destructive capacity.
A convective system capable of producing a right can stay active for many hours and sometimes for several days. Being an atmospheric phenomenon of warm weather, usually occur in summer, between June and August in the northern hemisphere or between March and May in the south. They are more common in the American continent, although they also occur in Europe. can be produced both day and night.
https://www.archyworldys.com/what-is-a-right-the-rare-phenomenon-that-rivals-the-hurricane-and-that-has-killed-seven-people-on-the-ligurian-coast/?feed_id=1243&_unique_id=6334ddd136489

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Southern California is a place practically built on hopes and dreams. Our region has long offered the promise of education, jobs, homes, and healthy lifestyles. Like our Foundation's founder, Ben Weingart, people seeking opportunity have journeyed here—from across the country and around the world—full of hope for something better for their families and their future.
This is why the Weingart Foundation has made a full commitment to equity—a long-term commitment to base all of our policy and program decisions on achieving the goal to advance fairness, inclusion, and opportunity for all Southern Californians—especially those communities hit hardest by persistent poverty.
We are not alone in this commitment, and we are encouraged by our colleagues and peers who have been leading a conversation to advance equity in philanthropy.
To advance equity requires an examination of privilege, including the power dynamics between funders and nonprofits. Our full commitment to equity also requires the Foundation to constantly examine our own internal policies, practices, and culture with regard to equity and inclusion.
This is complex work, and the Weingart Foundation does not have all the answers. Nor are these issues going to be solved overnight. But we are committed to learning from, and partnering with, nonprofits and the people who experience inequity first-hand. We are also committed to challenging ourselves to work with a sense of urgency and to take risks.


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"You need something to open up a new door"
Author Reading Series
Library Event: Nathaniel Popkin + Mary Morris
For his first reading and autographing of his new novel EVERYTHING IS BORROWED, Nathaniel Popkin will appear in the Philadelphia Author Events series at the Philadelphia Free Library on May 10. He'll be joined by Mary Morris, the best-selling author whose latest book is Gateway to the Moon.
Both books center on the importance of place and the way the past affects the present.
In Everything Is Borrowed, a modern-day architect is sent into a career and spiritual crisis by a downtown building site that calls up echoes of the past--both the city's past, teeming with strange characters, and the protagonist's own history, aching with guilt. In Gateway to the Moon, a young man in a poverty-stricken New Mexico town goes to work for a newly arrived Jewish family, provoking an exploration of the shared roots of Spanish and Jewish immigrants as far back as the 15th century.
Thursday, May 10, 7:30 p.m.
Author readings, moderated discussion, book signings
Free Library of Philadelphia, Parkway Central branch, 1901 Vine Street (at Logan Square, between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway), Philadelphia
For other appearances by Nathaniel Popkin, check this page.
2115 Wallace Street


Ever since you can remember, you have attended every routine exam and regular cleaning in your dental plan, and you adhere to strict, daily, at-home oral health practices. The result: you have perfectly healthy, white teeth. Now, you're ready to take the next step and straighten out the imperfections in your smile, but you don't have the time for — or simply want to avoid — traditional braces. Fortunately, we offer a discreet, more comfortable straightening option for patients with mild to moderate misalignment: Invisalign® nearly invisible braces.
These clear aligners are made out of nearly invisible plastic and, unlike traditional braces, can be inserted and removed for special occasions, eating, and your daily cleaning routines. The Invisalign® method begins with a consultation during which you and your specialist plan the desired result. A series of custom-made aligners are then used to correct your unique misalignment. As you move from one aligner to the next (approximately every two weeks), your teeth will gradually shift until they reach their final, improved position.
Studies have shown that Invisalign® straightens teeth in less time than other alternatives (with the exception of costly surgeries). It's one of the only methods available that can straighten your teeth in as little as six months without the discomfort or embarrassment of wearing metal braces.
Contact Family Tree Dental to find out how Invisalign® can help you find your best smile!


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Летающая лаборатория (ЛЛ) — летательный аппарат, предназначенный для проведения натурных лётных исследований и испытаний. Может быть специально построен, но чаще это модифицированный для решения определённых задач серийный самолёт, вертолёт или иной летательный аппарат (ЛА). Такие экспериментальные ЛА появились ещё на заре авиации, но пик их использования пришёлся на годы после Второй мировой войны, когда произошёл качественный скачок уровня сложности и характеристик авиационной техники. В государственной авиации России к летающей лаборатории относят также самолёт, оборудованный аппаратурой контроля характеристик наземных средств радиотехнического обеспечения полетов и предназначенный для проверки и калибровки этих средств на конкретном аэродроме.

Использование
В настоящее время использование ЛЛ при создании любого нового ЛА стало насущной необходимостью. Часто на один новый опытный образец ЛА приходится делать несколько (иногда более десятка) разных ЛЛ. Стоимость одной такой лаборатории даже превышает стоимость единичного серийного самолёта или вертолёта. Обычно в качестве ЛЛ используется тяжёлый самолёт, транспортный или бомбардировщик, поскольку помимо испытуемого объекта он должен нести регистрирующую аппаратуру, на нем должны размещаться инженеры-испытатели и вычислительный комплекс для обработки на борту результатов эксперимента, а также управления его ходом в зависимости от получаемых результатов. Кроме этого, базовый самолёт или вертолёт для создания ЛЛ должен быть надёжен и хорошо освоен в эксплуатации, так как испытуемая система может привести к развитию трудно предсказуемой ситуации на борту в испытательном полёте. На ЛЛ часто наносят специальную окраску для лучшей заметности, а также для облегчения фокусирования объектива при выполнении внешней фотокиносъёмки.

В СССР и России наибольшее число (около полутора сотен) летающих лабораторий было создано за период с 1941 г. в Лётно-исследовательском институте имени М. М. Громова, эти работы продолжаются и в настоящее время в рамках экспериментальной авиации РФ.

Примеры летающих лабораторий
 Ил-18ЛЛ ПОС (№ 188000201) — самолёт, переделанный для проведения исследований обледенения и проверки эффективности различных противообледенительных систем. Затем самолёт переделан в испытательный стенд аппаратуры СИП (телеметрия ракет) на котором проверялась возможность получения телеметрической информации, прорабатывался состав комплекса и порядок работы с ним.
 Ту-144ЛЛ — в период с 1995 по 1999 годы Ту-144Д № 77114, получивший после переоборудования под шифром Ту-144ЛЛ, использовался американским космическим агентством НАСА для исследований в области высокоскоростных коммерческих полётов. На Ту-144ЛЛ были установлены двигатели НК-32-1 (аналогичные используемым на Ту-160) в связи с отсутствием пригодных к эксплуатации НК-144 или РД-36-51, разнообразные датчики и испытательная контрольно-записывающая аппаратура. В полу 1-го салона была организована шахта аварийного покидания самолета вниз через грузовой люк. Большинство кресел было демонтировано. Хвостовая часть фюзеляжа была дополнительно обшита пластинами из нержавеющей стали из-за более мощных двигателей.  После завершения полётов двигатели и записывающая аппаратура были демонтированы.
 Ту-95ЛАЛ (заказ 247) — летающая лаборатория с ядерным реактором в грузоотсеке. В процессе полётов отрабатывалась биологическая защита экипажа от радиации.
 Ту-154ЛЛ — пять летающих лабораторий, переоборудованных по программе многоразового космического челнока «Буран». На самолётах была изменена система устойчивости и управляемости (СУУ) в системе АБСУ-154 и усилена хвостовая часть фюзеляжа. Все интерцепторы могли работать в режиме воздушных тормозов. На месте второго пилота была установлена часть штатной кабины космического корабля, с новой приборной доской и ручкой управления. На снижении внешние двигатели (№ 1 и 3) вводились в реверс для ограничения предельной скорости при движении по крутой глиссаде. Два самолёта оснащены полноценным РТО челнока «Буран» и могли выполнять полностью автоматическую посадку. Всего по программе «Буран» на Ту-154ЛЛ было выполнено около 200 полётов.
 NC-130H — самолёт ЕC-130V (построен по заказу Береговой охраны США для борьбы с перевозкой наркотиков), переоборудованный в летающую лабораторию для испытания новой РЛС APS-145, предназначенной для палубного самолёта ДРЛО Grumman E-2 Hawkeye.
 А-60 (изделие «1А») — советская/российская экспериментальная летающая лаборатория, носитель лазерного оружия на базе самолёта Ил-76МД. Предназначена для исследования распространения лазерных лучей в верхних слоях атмосферы, а в дальнейшем — для подавления разведки противника. Представляет собой авиационный вариант носителя мегаваттного лазера, планировавшегося к выведению в космос как 17Ф19Д «Скиф-Д». Построено два самолёта, один сгорел в июне 1986 года на аэродроме Чкаловский.
 Ту-142ЛЛ — к 1986 году в летающие лаборатории были переоборудованы 2 самолёта, с целью испытания и доводки новых мощных ТРД НК-25, НК-32, НК-144 и РД-36-51 самолётов Ту-22М3, Ту-160, Ту-144 и Ту-144Д. Ту-142ЛЛ имел следующие отличия от Ту-142М: демонтировано всё вооружение и специальное оборудование, сделан вырез внизу фюзеляжа под модуль с отрабатываемым двигателем, усилена конструкция планера, установлена контрольно-записывающая аппаратура. Для выпуска-подъёма модуля была применена гидравлика, также имелась воздушная система, работающая лишь на подъём, а также устройство гильотинного типа, позволяющее сбросить двигатель в случае пожара или другой опасности.  Помимо испытательных полётов, в апреле 1990 года началась разработка программы полётов для установления мировых рекордов. Согласно правилам FAI, Ту-142ЛЛ попадал в категорию машин с турбореактивными двигателями со взлётной массой 100—150 тонн. 3 мая 1990 года были выполнены два полёта и установлены три мировых рекорда: набор высоты 6000 м за 4 мин 23 сек, 9000 м — 6 мин 3,5 сек, практический потолок — 12 530 м.  После распада СССР отмечались попытки западных фирм приобрести самолёт, однако Ту-142ЛЛ был разрезан на металлолом в середине 1990-х годов. Второй самолёт ранее потерпел катастрофу.
 Ан-12 — этот самолёт стал базовым для нескольких десятков различных летающих лабораторий. Испытывались новые двигатели, новая бортовая аппаратура различного характера, перспективные системы вооружения, различные катапультные кресла, отрабатывался подвесной агрегат заправки УПАЗ, проверялись орбитальные спускаемые аппараты. Также, летающие лаборатории на базе Ан-12 занимались исследованием атмосферы. Один самолёт переделан в лабораторию для испытаний в условиях обледенения.

Галерея

Примечания

Литература

Экспериментальная авиация
Воздушные суда
Авиационные термины
История авиации

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


TTPB: were you wait listed today?
If you do not plan on attending, PLEASE decline your offer so people on the wait list have a chance!
Hey, anyone over here has any idea that when will the University of Kansas release their second round of acceptance? I contacted the admission coordinator 10 days ago, and he said they are waiting for the reply from the first pool of applicants. really anxious because 15th April deadline is approaching.
TTPB:Could you please share when you submitted ur application? And do u know if they have sent all offers? I hear nothing from them, so pretty nervous. I submitted after Jan.
TTPB: NO, it's the GRE scores.. They are reaching for the highest score students they can get because it raises their US News ranking.. Bad way to choose students..
4 years of research in HE-ex and CME. Applied AMO. No pubs. LOR from Nobel Laureate and President of the company I work for. Veteran. Two degrees in physics and chemistry. Guess it's a numbers game.
Is there anyone still left to hear back from UPenn? Seems like they forgot about me. No updates whatsoever.
TTPB I'm hep-ex, contacted potential PI in August and maintained good connection throughout, and he let me know about the overadmittance thing. The other info was from an out-of-office email, verbatim: "If you are a potential graduate student checking the status of your application: We have already made 3rd round offers, if you have received an offer from another institution, we suggest you accept that offer because we cannot guarantee we will be making any additional offers."
TTPB: I accepted my position at ETH, so the other SwissMAP decisions should be coming out soon!
Has anyone heard back from McGill university?
Email to check website. Was waiting for this one so long. Disappointed. Has received offer from another school.
I have emailed the grad co-od and chair on multiple occasions, but never received a reply. With the April 15th deadline for accepting offers approaching, I am not sure if I should be waiting for Davis any longer. Does anyone have an idea about they are up to? Is it worth waiting?
TTPB: I too am on the wait list. I emailed the grad co-od yesterday, inquiring about updates, but she did not reply back. A quick glance at the posts from previous years suggest that the chances of getting accepted off the wait list is pretty bleak. However, they say that this year has been very different, and they might be sending out more offers. I just hope they get it over with soon.
TTBP: I misread my rejection letter. Please ignore. Just that it's a reject.
Is the Pittsburgh department just screwing with us? Can someone please confirm if they had contacted the department? I am on a waitlist and this is my last program.
TTPB: I don't get it. Are they supposed to reject all the remain applicants at the same time? Since some others reject people like this and I have received their reject letter with other people. But I still didn't hear from UCI. Maybe there are too many reject letter waiting to be sent. But I suppose 3 days should be entirely enough. That's confusing.
Is anybody declining UMBC astrophysics offer? Please respond.
Is there anyone who are yet to hear from University of Notre Dame? I haven't got any rejection or wait list messages.
Had indicated Biological Physics as my preferred choice. Enquired about the status of my application through email. Got a reply that said that I did not get through.
TTPB: There would have been some chance if I was offered at least masters admission. I guess I did not even qualify for that.
TTPB: I guess maybe you did not claim that you were willing to receive a master admission instead. We all got master admission from our rejection email.


text:
The walking thead 4 temporada online dating
The Walking Dead Season 9, Episode and Cast Information - AMC
In Season 4 of Fear the Walking Dead, we will see the world of Madison Clark ( Kim Dickens) and Closed Captions Language: English Runtime: 43 minutes Release date: 2 September . Format, Prime Video (streaming online video ). Release Date: Aug 14, The first episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season, 'Done Running,' is now We're currently still working to find a way to hand off production of episodes 3 and 4 so that the season can be completed. The Walking Dead: The Final Season. AVAILABLE NOW The Walking Dead - A New Frontier. 5 EPISODES Jurassic Park. 4 EPISODES.
Those themes run through a lot of classic Western stories. Chambliss said, "it's all about having wide shots, not moving the characters, but moving the characters within the frame. When we get to the editing room, it's really about slowing down the cutting pattern, and harkening back to that style of filmmaking.
It does infuse the show with a different feel than what we've seen before. It's something that we're very excited for people to see. In an interview after the episode had aired, Dillane revealed he asked to leave the show prior to the fourth season.
And television is hard work, and you have to shoot a lot. I also missed Europe very much. I'm not American, so after a while I get quite homesick and all of those things. I also felt like we had achieved what needed to be achieved in the first few seasons, so I thought it was time to keep moving. The episodes marked the first crossover between the two series.
The cinema screening also included an extra half-hour of exclusive bonus content. Reviewer Charlie Mason wrote, "it's gone from being an adequate stopgap between seasons of The Walking Dead to a show that's as good or arguably even better than the one from which it was spun off.
The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 1
Critical reception by episode Season 4 Jim stands on the rooftop ledge and urinates on the Infected below. Morgan suggests that Jim sacrifice himself to help the group escape. Jim ignores his request. He tells her to leave him alone. Alicia and Charlie find a canoe on the street.
Martha shoots at them and forbids them from helping Morgan. Alicia sees that Martha is injured and offers to help. Charlie recognizes her as the woman from the walkie. Morgan leads the group toward the generator room to search for Al. They see a pile of rubble blocking a herd in a nearby hallway.
Fear the Walking Dead (season 4) - Wikipedia
Morgan spots fresh blood on the floor and guesses that Al killed a bunch of Infected. Inside the generator room, Luciana finds a message from Al informing them of her plan to escape in the freight elevator. She asks them to keep her tapes safe if she dies. Charlie opens the back doors, revealing Martha tied up inside. Morgan drags an Infected corpse onto the roof. Alicia drives the van with Strand, John and Charlie on board.
I Lose People…
John radios Morgan to inform him that they have Martha. June responds and gives John her location but suggests they meet on the outskirts of the city. John vows to find her. Morgan tells the group to stand away from the Infected while he sets up his distraction.
Martha wakes up in the SWAT van. Morgan tosses the Infected corpse off the roof. The body lands on a car, setting off the alarm.
(Spoilers) Inside the Mid-Season Finale With Cast and Creators
Morgan tells them to flee. June offers to wait for Morgan and Jim, but Morgan urges her to leave before the herd arrives. Morgan and Jim sit on the roof. Jim asks Morgan to kill him before he turns. The group contacts Morgan via walkie and vows to help him off the roof. Morgan looks down and sees everyone in a fire truck. Martha warns Luciana that their plan will not end well.
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The major change that's unfolded has been a turn toward online marketing as being an absolute essential part of any marketing strategy. Offline strategies that worked yesterday don't quite cut it today or we might say they're not as effective. Let's take a look at a few.
Want to take your book marketing up a notch? Get must-have writing and marketing information, right in your inbox. Join The Writing World newsletter. Get weekly tips and guidance, plus updates on instructional webinars. It's all free! Go to http://thewritingworld.com and sign-up today.


text:
Vice Doesn't Get It
By Patrick Dowd, September 18th 2014
"The over-all goal is to be the largest network for young people in the world." — Shane Smith, C.E.O., Vice Media (The New Yorker, 04/08/13)
If Vice, the edgy, fast-expanding media empire that earlier this month raised $500 million in venture capital financing, wants to be the world's largest network for young people, it needs to move beyond its adolescent roots, embrace professionalism, and ensure that its reporting is as reliably accurate as it is sensational.
I am 27 years-old. I am an American. I believe that America's best days are ahead of it, and I lead an organization called the Millennial Trains Project (MTP).
MTP orchestrates crowdfunded train journeys for diverse groups of young innovators in search of the New American Dream.
VICE DOESN'T GET JOURNALISM
Recently, MTP was the subject of a misleading, error-laden feature written by VICE that has, ironically, spurred a groundswell of support for the way we are using purposeful travel to support next-generation leadership development, community engagement, and trans-regional knowledge exchange.
Despite the fact that more than half of the participants on our recently-concluded journey were people of color who crowdfunded their way on board, VICE painted our community as rich, white, and entitled "neo-colonialists" bent on forcing our will onto impoverished communities like Detroit, a place we have never been.
How ridiculous.
Over the course of ten days, MTP journeys provide opportunities for personal development and shared discovery through on-train seminars led by distinguished mentors, workshops with local leaders, and participant-led projects in MTP communities. These projects focus on important issues such as racial healing, education reform, entrepreneurship, poetry, spirituality, sustainable transportation, the future of food, and creative placemaking.
Our goal is to enable passengers and virtual audiences to identify, evaluate, and explore emerging opportunities and challenges in communities where our trains stop while advancing a project that benefits, serves, and inspires others.
As an alternative to the sort of trans-regional knowledge exchange and collaboration championed by MTP, the Vice article bizarrely encourages local communities to resist outside ideas and resources in favor of small-scale subsistence efforts.
I understand that Vice has a hard-earned "Bad Boy" reputation to uphold, and I admit that I half-expected it to obscure the intentions of our community.
And yet, the increasing extent to which Vice has been masquerading as an intelligent, reliable source of information (particularly via its reporting on foreign conflict zones) gave me some hope that it could be counted on to tell it like it is.
To my disappointment, Vice published numerous falsehoods to support a sensationally far-fetched portrayal of our community as modern-day colonists.
For instance, saying that our participants were mostly white, when they were mostly people of color, and writing an extended critique of how MTP failed to properly engage with residents of Detroit, when our train never even went to Detroit.
The extent to which Vice cherry-picked and obscured the remarks of the lone MTP participant it interviewed for the article (whose name Vice misspelled) was galling.
Her response says it all.
The most interesting part of Vice's misleading article is the comments section, in which MTP alumni, residents of cities with which we have engaged, and complete strangers rallied against the article's many errors and mischaracterizations.
Unfortunately, Vice's business model relies on content that ruffles feathers.
Writing outlandish articles with click-bait headlines boosts engagement, makes Vice's content more sellable to advertisers, and allows it to justify higher valuations to investors.
Fact-checking, interviewing multiple sources, having a sense of responsibility to readers beyond making them wriggle with uniformed, adolescent delight – these are a few basic qualities of good journalism that VICE lacks and must bolster among its editors if it wants to be taken seriously as the world's leading platform for young people.
VICE DOESN'T GET MILLENNIALS
At its core, Vice is a youth-oriented publication that appeals to our adolescence at the expense of our idealism by profiling Millennials at our most vulnerable moments.
Whether it be defaulting on student loans, experimenting with drugs, struggling to get a job, or just generally acting stupid – Vice excels at depicting Millennials as a lost cause.
But our generation is the bread-and-butter of Vice's advertising sales.
The very un-cool irony of it all is that the jaded influencers running Vice are enriching themselves by undermining the public perception (and self-perception) of their core readership demographic: Millennials.
What Vice doesn't get about our generation is that, despite the challenges we face, we are more optimistic that other generations and care more about living lives that connect with our deepest sense of purpose.
We are not a lost cause. We are the largest, most diverse, and most educated generation in American history, and we have a lot to offer.
VICE DOESN'T GET WHAT IT MEANS TO BE COURAGEOUS
The simple truth is that Vice does not believe in us.
Even when its content is peppered with truth, it exists above all else to shock us, and then sell our shocked eyeballs to its corporate advertisers.
Vice portrays America as a wasteland of corporate greed and impenetrable inequality, but (outside of the art world) shies away from reporting on the expansive efforts being made to overcome the negative inertia of our society's persistent failures. It not only neglects to report on these examples in a straightforward way, it actively obscures them through the prism of its jaded worldview.
Vice's portrayal of foreign cultures is similarly biased. It is gritty. It is gutsy. It gives the impression of going deeper than most would dare.
And it makes sense because ultimately the Vice brand promise is that it is more daring than other media companies.
For instance, Vice's CEO, Shane Smith, has described himself as a "poor man's Hemingway" on a "relentless quest for total media domination."
How daring.
But daring action is only admirable when compelled by virtuous motivations, such as telling the truth, protecting the vulnerable, exposing wrongdoing, or inspiring progress.
By contrast, daring action compelled by vice and cynicism is mere drunkenness.
With Vice, the challenge is always this: to parse when it is reaching for gritty virtue, and when it is just on another one of its blustering benders.
To be fair, Hemingway was often inebriated, and maybe that is what Smith is trying to say – that Vice is like a sloshed Hemingway, spinning heroic yarns and exaggerated fish tales to fill its empty heart: elaborately mythologizing itself to the brink of suicide.
Or maybe that's just me reading between the lines.
Either way, if Vice wants to be the world's leading platform for young people, it needs to take its responsibility for accurate reporting more seriously.
If Vice would dare to dedicate even a fraction of what it earns from selling our shocked eyeballs to corporate advertisers toward accurate reporting on positive, Millennial-led efforts, we would all be better off.
This post originally appeared at Medium.
Keep up with Patrick on Website
Journalism The Digital Age The Internet Vice Writing & Expression
A Writer's Diary Entries From Early April, 1986
A Young Writer's Diary Entries From Late January, 1984
The Six Reasons Why 2017 Was The Happiest Year Of My Life
100 Short Creepypasta Stories To Read In Bed Tonight
To The Girl Who Doesn't Feel The Need To Get Married


Iran Nuclear Deal Reached, but can it Survive Partisan Politics?
Yesterday, the Obama Administration announced the successful conclusion of its two-year long negotiating process with Iran and presented the resulting deal. This agreement is an extremely positive development that could do a great deal towards reducing the tensions in the region and preventing an unnecessary war.
Unfortunately, while Obama's negotiators and the negotiators for the Iranian Mullahs have agreed on a deal, this agreement must survive the objections of a group of entrenched ideological zealots who want war, deride compromise, and will do everything in their power to scuttle any diplomatic efforts between the USA and Iran—I speak, of course, about the right wing GOP majorities in the House and Senate.
No side got everything that it wanted in this agreement (obviously), but both the P5+1 and Iran were able to obtain key victories. In totality, this agreement will push back the Iranian nuclear program by at least a decade and increase its breakout time (time it takes to make a nuke) from approximately 2.5 months to approximately a year. It will also result in a massive boon to the struggling Iranian economy and will do a great deal toward normalizing economic relations between Iran and the west.
Experts have indicated that this deal is actually far more comprehensive and powerful than originally anticipated. Many worried that Obama's capitulatory style of "negotiation" in most domestic issues (ex. tax policy, the debt ceiling, the "Grand Bargain," etc.) would translate to a very weak, if not toothless nuclear deal with Iran, but this is simply not the case.
Iran has agreed to open its facilities—including military facilities—to inspection by the IAEA and will have to reconvene representatives from the P5+1 and give specific justifications if it wishes to deny inspectors access to a military site (delaying the inspection by up to a month).
The Iranian nuclear stockpile will be reduced by 98% and Iran will dilute or sell all material enriched above 3.67%. Additionally, it will not enrich any material beyond this point for at least 15 years.
Iran will decommission and store (in an IAEA monitored facility) 13,000 of its 16,000 centrifuges and will not build any more.
The Arak and Fordow nuclear facilities will be repurposed to make it impossible for them to be used for weaponized research—the Arak heavy water reactor will be modified so that it cannot produce weapons-grade material while the Fordow facility will be opened as an international research facility.
Any violation of the deal by Iran will result in a complete restoration of sanctions within 65 days.
The UN Security Council's economic sanctions will be lifted, allowing Iran to access its frozen funds and import certain goods that were restricted (ex. computers, processed graphite, etc.). Additionally, Iran will be allowed to export oil and other materials to Western nations, dramatically improving its economic prospects. These sanction reductions will be implemented as soon as Iran has verified that it is in compliance with the stockpile and centrifuge reductions specified in the deal.
Five years after the implementation of the agreement, Iran will be allowed to buy/sell conventional weapons (ex. guns) on the international markets and, after eight years, it will be allowed to buy/sell ballistic missile technology.
Iran will be allowed to engage in civilian nuclear research and will still sustain enrichment capacity for non-weaponized purposes.
From a political perspective, both sides have in incentive to claim that they got the better side of this deal. For example, Iranian leaders focus on cheering sanctions relief and minimize the power of the IAEA inspections while US leaders focus on the downsizing of the Iranian nuclear program and minimize the future inclusion of Iran in the international arms market. This is just politics and the reality is that this is likely the best deal possible at this juncture—it achieves the Western goal of delaying the Iranian nuclear program and the Iranian goal of reducing the sanctions that have destroyed its economy.
During the next 60 days, the Congress will have the power to either approve or reject the Iranian nuclear deal. Given the makeup of the current legislature, it is almost certain that the GOP will try to scuttle this deal and will send legislation blocking it to be vetoed by the president.
Obama has already promised to veto any bill that would destroy this deal and, unless the GOP can manage to coalesce a 2/3 super-majority in the Senate (67 Senators), it is unlikely that the GOP will actually succeed in their efforts to disrupt negotiations. That said, they will likely attach provisions blocking the deal to every conceivable piece of legislation in hopes that they can force Obama to sign it by threatening his domestic agenda.
In addition to facing repeated policy attacks from the right, the Iran deal will be a significant propaganda point for war hawks and conservatives during the next few years. Republicans have already begun to condemn the deal as a threat to world security and the worst piece of diplomacy since Neville Chamberlain's days, and I see little chance of this hyperbole stopping any time soon.
During the last year of the Obama Administration and 2016 election, the GOP will latch onto this deal as a talking point and scare-monger using images of mushroom clouds over American and Israeli cities. They will call Obama an appeaser and try to tie Hillary to his legacy in order to finally gain some traction against her on an issue of policy for the coming election.


Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Ministry of Health and Social Security (Grenada), World Health Organization (WHO). Grenada Global Youth Tobacco Survey 2016. Atlanta, United States: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).


I also wanted to bring my dog, Tashi, on a good hike. We recently had a puppy fall into our laps, so I wanted to give her some special time doing one of her favorite activities.
Just drive to the spot listed in the link above. It's free and there's plenty of space. I arrived right around sunrise. I'd driven through some pretty thick fog to get there, but it was an otherwise uneventful drive.
I won't go into the detailed turn-by-turn. I covered it pretty well in my original post. Notably though, the place looks quite a bit different with the change of seasons.
Last time I did this summit, I was hiking through fog. This time, I got to see a lot more.
The hike is a steady, fairly gentle climb along an old ranch road. At a steady pace, it isn't too long before the summit comes into sight.
Turning onto the final trail leading to the summit, I could see the summit straight ahead. I knew the trail did a bit more twisting and turning before arriving there. The grass was quite short this time of year, so I decided to leave the trail and head straight to the summit.
This seemed like a great spot to get a nice picture of my dog.
Finally, up and over the ridge, I arrived at the summit. Mind you, it's not the actual summit, which is on the other side of a fence on private property. But it's about the same elevation, and it's right next to the actual summit.
Before finding a spot to set up, I enjoyed the view for a bit, snapping a picture of the Coyote Reservoir below.
One thing I did on this hike, that I also did on my last one, was to use APRS to keep potential chasers apprised of my progress. But amazingly, not a single packet made it to the internet! I'm not even sure if any were received by digipeaters. Looking on the map, I noted that there weren't any digipeaters or iGates near me, but with the elevation, I should have been able to get at least a few packets out to far-away stations. I'll have to look into what might be going on there.
I got my antenna really high! Last time I activated this summit, I didn't get my wire very high, and I was inside a grove of trees on the summit. I considered that for my operating position this time around, but there's a very tall tree just off the summit that seemed it could be better. The tree is easily over 70 feet tall. Its base is about 20-30 feet below the trail on a very steep slope, so getting the wire up would consist of a good hard throw. I honestly wasn't sure I could accurately land it. The first try didn't even come close to making it. Fortunately, I'd remembered to stand on the near end of the wire. It didn't get away. I brought it all back and tried again. Nailed it!
I had the antenna set up for operation on 30 meters to start out. I had good cell service, so I looked for any SOTA spots to see if I could get a summit-to-summit contact or three. I didn't see any on 30 meters, so I found a clear frequency and started calling CQ. Within a couple of minutes, I was making contacts.
Once I stopped making contacts on 30 meters, I pulled the wire toward me and switched it to the 40/20 meter configuration. Switching to 20 meters, I called CQ and had the contacts roll in. I got plenty there, including two DX – Spain and New Zealand! I really appreciate those stations putting in the effort and heavy lifting to make contact with me, and I'm really glad I had my antenna up high.
Switching to 40 meters after a short break, I made several more contacts, including two summit-to-summit contacts. One of those was a very persistent N7JH on a summit in Arizona. I somehow missed that he was a S2S station when we first exchanged reports, and he kept trying to convey the S2S info. We finally made the full exchange of signal reports and SOTA references to get each other in the log.
With HF done, I put out a spot for 2 meters and got one contact there, while I packed up the station. What a great and pleasant activation!


Today's episode is the Season 3 finale and the last episode in our very queer month celebrating Pride. It's all about stories and queer liberation. Give it a listen, and share with a friend.
Why We're Friends is taking a summer vacation, but we'll be back in action this fall. Thanks for all the love this season!
Don't forget to subscribe to Why We're Friends wherever you get your podcasts!
Feeling overwhelmed by everything happening in the world? Us to! Watch the video, then head here for a list of resources to help you get started.
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WHY WE'RE FRIENDS is a Level Ground podcast where @tamisha_tyler & @realmralex show us what it means to be friends with someone different from you.
Together, the dynamic duo take on both fun and challenging topics from current events and pop culture, revealing how much we have to learn from and with each other.


text:
package org.b3log.latke.ioc;

import org.b3log.latke.ioc.annotated.Annotated;

/**
 * Abstract injection point.
 *
 * @author Liang Ding
 * @version 1.0.0.1, Sep 29, 2018
 * @since 2.4.18
 */
public abstract class AbstractInjectionPoint implements InjectionPoint {

    /**
     * Annotated element.
     */
    private Annotated annotated;

    /**
     * Owner bean.
     */
    private Bean<?> ownerBean;

    /**
     * Constructs a injection point with the specified arguments.
     *
     * @param ownerBean the specified owner bean
     * @param annotated the specified annotated element
     */
    public AbstractInjectionPoint(final Bean<?> ownerBean, final Annotated annotated) {
        this.ownerBean = ownerBean;
        this.annotated = annotated;
    }

    @Override
    public Bean<?> getBean() {
        return ownerBean;
    }

    @Override
    public Annotated getAnnotated() {
        return annotated;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Tag: Will Arnett
Monday, January 13, 2014 / 9:00 am
The Nut Job Press Junket
After chatting to reporters on the red carpet at the The Nut Job world premiere, Katherine Heigl and Will Arnett made the short trip to the Platinum Ballroom at the J.W. Marriott to take part in a mini press junket, conducting TV, radio and online interviews, while VIPs and guests sat down to watch the animated feature back at the auditorium.
The Nut Job World Premiere
It was a family occasion at the world premiere of The Nut Job, held at the Regal Cinemas L.A. Live in Los Angeles on Saturday morning. Katherine Heigl was joined by husband Josh Kelley, family, friends and for the first time at a movie premiere, eldest daughter Naleigh, who celebrated her fifth birthday in November.
Saturday, January 11, 2014 / 8:38 am
Extra! Extra! Read All About It
Katherine Heigl visited Universal Studios on Friday to chat with Mario Lopez from the TV show Extra about her latest movie, the animated feature The Nut Job, which is released in theaters on January 17.
Thursday, January 9, 2014 / 11:18 am
The Nut Job Production B-Roll: Voicing Andie
Go behind the scenes of Katherine Heigl's new movie The Nut Job with the official production B-roll for the feature. Watch as she voices her character Andie in the recording studio for the animated heist caper, which hits the big screen domestically on January 17.
Saturday, December 28, 2013 / 10:28 am
The Nut Job Premiere
The world premiere of the animated heist caper The Nut Job, will take place at Regal Cinemas L.A. Live in Los Angeles on Saturday, January 11, 2014. Katherine Heigl will join co-stars Will Arnett and Gabriel Iglesias at the red carpet event which begins at 11am.


text:
The Last Reveal
A blog on writing, screenwriting, stories, and films.
Studio Stories XIV - MONTY PYTHON & the Medieval Mud Wrestler
For the unfamiliar, a "reveal" in screenwriting parlance is the placement of key, revelatory information in a story. Most times, the last reveal is the most important revelation of all.
EXTERIOR - CASTLE WALLS - DAY
Mist. Several seconds of it swirling about. Silence possibly, atmospheric music. SUPERIMPOSE "England AD 787". After a few more seconds we hear hoofbeats in the distance. They come slowly closer. Then out of the mist comes KING ARTHUR followed by a SERVANT who is banging two half coconuts
together. ARTHUR raises his hand.
SERVANT makes noises of horses halting, with a flourish. ARTHUR peers through the mist. CUT TO shot from over his shoulder: castle (e.g. Bodium) rising out of the mist. On the castle battlements a SOLDIER is dimly seen. He peers down.
Halt! Who goes there?
It is I, Arthur, son of Uther
Pendragon, from the castle of
Camelot. King of all Britons,
defeator of the Saxons, sove-
reign of all England!
Get away!
I am... And this my trusty
servant, Patsy. We have ridden
the length and breadth of the
land in search of knights who
will join our court at Camelot..
I must speak with your lord
and master.
What? Ridden on a horse?
You're using coconuts!
...What?
You've got two empty halves
of coconuts and you're bang-
ing them together.
(Scornfully)
So? We have ridden since the
snows of winter covered this
land, through the kingdom of
Mercea.
Where did you get the coco-
nuts?
Through ... We found them.
Found them? In Mercea. The co-
conut's tropical!
SOLDIE
Well, this is a temperate zone.
The swallow may fly south
with the sun, or the house
martin or the plover seek
warmer hot lands in winter,
yet these are not strangers
to our land.
Are you suggesting coconuts
migrate?
Not at all. They could be
What? A swallow carrying a
coconut?
I'll tell you why not ...
because a swallow is about
eight inches long and weighs
five ounces, and you'd be
lucky to find a coconut un-
der a pound.
It could grip it by the husk...
It's not a question of where
he grips it. It's a simple
matter of weight - ratios ...
A five-ounce bird could not
hold a a one pound coconut.
Well, it doesn't matter. Go
and tell your master that
Arthur from the Court of
Camelot is here.
A Slight pause. Swirling mist. Silence.
Look! To maintain Velocity,
a swallow needs to beat its
wings four hundred and ninety
three times every second.
(irritated)
Please!
I'm not interested.
SECOND SOLDIER
(who has loomed up
on the battlements)
It could be carried by an Afri-
can swallow!
FIRST SOLDIER
Oh yes! An African swallow may-
be ... but not a European swal-
low. that's my point.
Oh yes, I agree there ...
(losing patience)
Will you ask your master if he
wants to join the Knights of
Camelot?!
But then of course African swal-
lows are non-migratory.
Oh yes.
ARTHUR raises his eyes heavenwards and nods to PATSY. They turn
and go off into the mist.
So they wouldn't be able to
bring a coconut back anyway.
Wait a minute! Suppose two swal-
lows carried it together?
No, they'd have to have it on a line.
Stillness. Silence again.
ANIMATION/LIVE ACTION SEQUENCE - DEATH AND DEVASTATION
CUT TO Terry Gilliam's sequence of Brueghel prints. Sounds of
strange medieval music. Discordant and sparse. Wailings and groanings. The last picture mixes through into live action. BIG CLOSE UP of con- torted face upside down. A leg falls across
it. Creaking noise. The bodies lurch away from CAMERA to reveal they are amongst a huge pile of bodies on a swaying cart that is lumbering away from CAMERA. It is pulled by a couple of
ragged, dirty emaciated WRETCHES. Behind the cart walks another MAN who looks slightly more prosperous, but only on the scale of complete and utter impoverishment. He wears a black hood and looks sinister.
CART DRIVER
Bring out your dead!
We follow the cart through a wretched, impov- erished plague-ridden village. A few starved mongrels run about in the mud scavenging. In
the open doorway of one house perhaps we just glimpse a pair of legs dangling from the ceiling. In another doorway an OLD WOMAN is beating a cat against a wall rather like one does with a mat. The cart passes round a dead donkey or cow in the mud. And a MAN tied to a cart is being hammered to death by four NUNS with huge mallets.
There are legs stick out of windows and doors. Two MEN are fighting in the mud - covered from head to foot in it. Another MAN is on his
hands in knees shovelling mud into his mouth. We just catch sight of a MAN falling into a well.
From MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, 3-20-1974 Draft, script by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.
Monty Python's Michael Palin describes an episode that happened during the shooting of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL:
I remember the end of one day when we'd been doing a lot of crouching with the castle in the background and Terry Gilliam asked us to crouch once more because there was a lovely shaft of sunlight coming and catching John's [Cleese] helmet. John went absolutely berserk, saying, "You know I'm not waiting for a shaft of light to strike my fucking helmet. We've been here for four hours, we've crouched and it's cold. What are you waiting for? The moon and the stars to arrange themselves around my head?"
I got very angry myself. I had to be the "mud-eater" for eight takes. The mud-eater was this character who had to crawl across the mud as John and Graham [Chapman] were coming through the village at the beginning and I had to go up and eat this mud. It was really a shot for those two, but I dutifully did my bit, crawled through this filthy, stinking, pig-shitty mud and they said they wanted to do take eight. John went, "Why? What the hell was going on?" To which someone said, "Well, you were fine, but we can see Mike's back." That's when I just went, "What? You can see my back, what have you been doing all this time?" And I went absolutely ape and threw myself in the air, landed in the mud and just wiggled my legs around, screamed and yelled for about five seconds. There was absolute silence and then John and Graham just led this spontaneous applause. John said he'd never seen anything like it, he'd never seen me get angry ever. Then they had to do the scene where I actually eat the mud and the props boy said, "When you get to the mud, don't worry, because I'm going to put some chocolate down there that looks just like mud, so it's completely edible." I said, "How will I know which is the chocolate and which is the mud?" They had no answer to that. So I had to eat whatever was there, most of it was chocolate but a little bit of it was mud. After that we had to go and get anti-tetanus injections in this little tiny Scottish doctor's surgery and he was completely amazed to see this creature in just a bundle of rags and a rather bad wig coming to have this injection because I'd been eating mud. He had to have several quick Scotches before he could administer, I think.
Back to the hotel for rushes [the day's film to be screened]. The day of the mud-eater. Clad in rags, crawling through filthy mud, repeatedly and doggedly in a scene which makes the flagellation scene from SEVENTH SEAL look positively comfortable. Extras all supposed to have plague with boils and pustules everywhere. That night at dinner the menu began, "…with various effluents." I asked Mr. Ross rather gruffly what this meant, then saw the rest of the menu: "Mud Cocktail", "Filet of sole a la slime", etc. A complete mud menu.
---THE PYTHONS, Autobiography by THE PYTHONS with Bob McCabe, Orion Books, Ltd. 2003.
John Cleese - "We never made any real money until THE HOLY GRAIL came out in America. We'd started in '69, we'd been together six years and then all of a sudden there was money coming in on a different scale from anything before." The BBC sold the 4th season of the television series to the ABC television network. However, the Pythons preferred America's PBS which had previously telecast the show because it had no commercials and the shows went out as intended, a whole continuous thing.
Someone sent them a tape of the ABC version and they were appalled. Six shows had been cannibalized into two 45-minute "Specials" and "they'd obviously gone through looking for anything that might conceivably be seen as offensive and taken it out. And in so doing, they just removed all the funny bits."---Terry Jones. Python's métier was mockery. It was inherently offensive. That was the point. To hold up society's insanity and hypocrisy to the audience, satire at it's most lethal.
Of course, the Pythons sued. Because Terry Gilliam was American, they got it into the New York Courts. They showed the original version, and then the ABC version. Everybody laughed at the first. Nobody laughed at the second. "The idea of suing people to stop yourselves going on TV is so pure… because people are so desperate to be on television in America."---Eric Idle. So pure… and so Python.
Despite it all, including the Judge being a fan and asking for autographs for his kids, they lost "…cancelling [ABC's version] at this time would cause undue financial harm to ABC. And to Terry [Gilliam] and me who were sharing one room the whole idea of causing undue financial harm to a multi-million dollar corporation seemed fairly ripe."—Michael Palin
Quote of the Post:
And I went absolutely ape and threw myself in the air, landed in the mud and just wiggled my legs around, screamed and yelled for about five seconds. There was absolute silence and then John and Graham just led this spontaneous applause.
---Michael Palin
Posted by Lee Matthias at 10:02 AM
Writing Every Day
I don't agree with the advice to write every day. It's true you need to hone your craft, but writing every day, inspired or not, leads to frustration and what some folks call "Writer's Block."
Writers are better advised to read every day. And, so...
"Don't write unless you absolutely have to!"
---Jack Ballas, Western novelist
Donald Rumsfeld's English Teacher
"There are known nouns, these are nouns that we know and know us; there are unknown nouns, that is to say there are certain nouns that we don't know; but there are also known un-nouns. These are things like the Un-cola."
"A play that can be described in one sentence should be written in one."
---Edward Albee
A Screenwriter's Haiku
Your script is flawless
Poignant... Funny... True... Perfect...
Here are our notes
---Unknown
Total Creative Freedom
"When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its utmost-and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl"
---T.S. Eliot
Reality vs. Fiction
"The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense."
---Tom Clancy
New! Now Available!
The first book on screenwriting in years to offer something new.
LATERAL SCREENWRITING: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Write Great Movies
Screenwriters and storytellers have been looking for deeper insight to their craft for years. Nothing truly new has been written in decades... until now.
"Lateral Thinking" is a process for generating creative solutions to real-world problems. Coined by author and business consultant, Edward de Bono, it has helped the left-brain worlds of business and government to revolutionize, achieving unheard-of success.
Lee Matthias returns this concept to its origins, the right-brain world of creative expression. Not another "how-to" on writing for Hollywood, this book decodes the creative process itself, applying it to storytelling in general and screenwriting in particular. LATERAL SCREENWRITING is packed with ideas, examples, stories, and the genius of the world's greatest filmmakers. Rather than re-hashing a thousand other works on the "how" of screenwriting, this book helps writers find their best ideas toward writing the greatest movies never-yet-made.
E-Book versions on sale for Kindle, Nook, and for most other devices at Kobo or Smashwords.
Sherlock Holmes & Houdini
THE PANDORA PLAGUE
The theft of an unusual pocket-watch brings famed magician, Harry Houdini, together with the world's foremost consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. When it leads to the appearance of a mysterious locked strong-box, it becomes a case that rocks the British Empire to its core.
A period feast, filled with luminaries of the era, bursting with the raucous energy of a time when the world was throwing off the romanticism of the Victorian Age for the power and dangerous potential of science, new philosophies, and the machine.
Sherlock Holmes is at his peak. The brash, young Houdini challenges all who stand in his way. And Watson, Holmes's chronicler and friend, returns us to a time when the gas was always lit, the Persian slipper always filled with shag, and the game was, once again, and at long last... afoot.
Read THE PANDORA PLAGUE, a tale from the world of Sherlock Holmes, on sale now in an expanded, annotated edition at Amazon.com in Trade Paperback and on Kindle.
Kobo E-Book Coupons!!!
Check out all the deals you can get for Kobo E-Books here!
Aisle Seat Books
I've just published three "novels" of my screenplays, THE JUPE, FOE, and THE SLEEP OF REASON. These are part of a new effort to put the best new un-produced screenplays before you as movie-length novels. Now you can "read a movie" in about the same amount of time as it would take to see the film. The publisher is Aisle Seat Books. Check them out!
THE JUPE
Terror in a Movie Palace
A family hiding from killers in a small town a thousand miles from home re-opens an old movie palace. As their pursuers close in, their fear awakens something worse within the theater itself.
THE JUPE is available in paperback direct from the publisher, Aisle Seat Books. It's also available at Amazon.com in paperback and for Kindle, at Barnes and Noble for Nook, and for most other E-Book devices at Kobo.
Science Fiction with Teeth
In a near-future world shattered by an alien invasion, a lone Special Ops soldier, unaware that he's the key to victory, stumbles on a group of disabled military vets holding their abandoned VA Hospital as the invaders lay siege.
FOE is available in paperback direct from the publisher, Aisle Seat Books. It's also available at Amazon.com in paperback and for Kindle, at Barnes and Noble in paperback and for Nook, and for most other E-Book devices at Kobo.
THE SLEEP OF REASON
A Prequel to DRACULA
After his bride disappears on their European honeymoon, Richard Renfield traces her to a castle ruin in the Carpathian mountains, and confronts its undead inhabitants, determined to restore her to life and bring her home. An apocalyptic war of Good versus Evil.
THE SLEEP OF REASON is available in paperback direct from the publisher, Aisle Seat Books. It's also available at Amazon.com in paperback and for Kindle, and at Barnes and Noble for Nook.
Check out my Guest articles on structure and screenwriting at The Story Department, beginning with this one, then Part 2, then, Part 3, and then these: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4!
It's a Movie!
"There's a phrase you hear in Hollywood: 'It's a movie.' I didn't really understand that phrase when I first came into the business. It's code for:
"'This script encompasses everything we need it to be: It can attract an actor, it can attract a director, it can be marketed. It's complete.'"
Screenwriter, Joe Forte, from Tales from the Script, Edited by Peter Hanson and Paul Robert Herman, HarperCollins, p. 40. It's also available on DVD!
On a Writer's "Voice"
Regarding the necessity of the new screenwriter having a distinctive "Voice" for career success, I ran across this quote on the web:
"Scripts aren't meant to be read. They're meant to be shootable.
A voice gets your script into production. Production takes it out."
---Eddie Panta, commenting on ScriptShadow
Of course scripts ARE meant to be read, just not as stand-alone literature.
"...there are no rules in this business, but you break them at your peril."
---Peter Guber
Serenity Now!
"Once you accept their money it's no longer YOUR script, and acceptance of that is the key to your serenity."
From Wordlings, found on the web
John Cleese - "Did the Oscars help?"
William Goldman - "No. Eventually, you're alone in a room."
Subscribe to The Last Reveal by Email
Studio Stories XIV - MONTY PYTHON & the Medieval M...
Lee Matthias
I am a writer with four published novels, others on the way, a nonfiction book, several screenplays written and in development. During and after college, I worked as a theater projectionist and manager, in public relations, and as a literary agent selling to publishers and producers. Two heads are better than one, so I keep a human skull on my desk for inspiration (and a second opinion--FWIW, he's dead-on). I currently work as a computer network administrator in government. I'm married and the father of two daughters. "I'm a computer professional: I don't lie, I manage information." Get in touch: LateralTao ( followed by the encircled "a" symbol, followed by the 5-letter name for the Google mail client, and then the period symbol followed by the usual 3-letter start to "communication") Now THAT oughta confuse the spambots out there.
Yoric says "Hi!"
Amateur Showdown – The "Git Up Challenge at 37,000 Feet" Edition - Just a friendly reminder to anyone submitting a script for Amateur Friday. I recognize that this is a nice opportunity to get feedback for scripts that are...
My take on the issues surrounding Netflix removing 13 REASONS WHY's graphic suicide scene - Earlier this week, Netflix announced it was making a fairly surprising change to 13 REASONS WHY's first season finale. After two years of controversy, the ...
'Chernobyl': Craig Mazin's Real Life Scary Movie Lands 19 Emmy Nominations - "I have 25 years of starving for praise. Just give me my week. That's all I ask. Just give me my week. I'll be back to self-loathing before you know it." C...
johnaugust.com
I Know You Are, But What Am I? - John and Craig discuss whether and how heroes can understand themselves. Is self-awareness an intrinsic aspect of a character, or something they achieve ov...
Sex In A Submarine
Film Courage Plus: Big Screens Need Big Ideas - FILM COURAGE did a series of interviews with me at the end of 2014, and then again at the end of 2015... and we are going to set up something this year wit...
Complications Ensue: The Crafty TV and Screenwriting Blog
Attempting to read Robert Jordan - *Wagner's music is better than it sounds.* - Mark Twain A colleague recommended I look at Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I am finding it strangely d...
Genre Hacks
Writing The Short Film - Week Four (And Five) - This article follows, week by week, the course I teach at USC's School of Cinematic Arts called Writing The Short Script. You may want to check out previou...
Mystery Man on Film
101 Best Of MM Articles! - Hey guys, I'm back for one last post – links to 101 of my best articles! Who needs film school? -MM ----------------------------------------------- ...


I am a big supporter of Code Combat. I am teaching a few kids to code in person (including my own kids). I discovered it through an HN post a few months back.
My first session of 4th graders used Code Combat on the first day, and they loved it.
I was thinking about using Code Combat through my whole session, as a way to introduce programming, because the kids loved the site so much.
* They just get stuck and need someone to help them. At the elementary school age level, they have about 5 minutes of total patience before they stop. They don't "rage quit" like middle school kids would, they just start goofing around.
I think these are resolvable issues, and I actually think the Olark idea is a fairly good one.
In the end, I ended up using MIT Scratch to teach most of the class. It got rid of the syntactical issues, and lets them express their creativity visually and with sounds as well.
It has its own set of issues too though since it's a visual language and some things are just hard.
That said, I'm still excited about Code Combat and watching developments closely. Keep it up guys! All the kids want to keep coding so maybe I'll try again in January!
Hi tarr11, thanks a lot for the in-depth feedback, this is hugely helpful for us. I had actually read your blog post when it was posted, and we got a lot of helpful information out of it.
* When you the browser loses focus, do you mean the code editor or the entire browser? Also, have you kids had any problems with backspace taking them to the previous page? We're trying to diagnose the latter problem and can't reliably reproduce it, but know that it's causing users a lot of frustration.
* Syntax is actually our hardest problem for new players, and we're considering ways to make it easier for people to get into the game. One idea is to shorten the method names (say to this.attack(); rather than this.attackNearbyEnemy();) enabling drag and drop or click and insert from the spell editor, etc. Do you have any specific recommendations for changes we might make?
* We're definitely shielded from the distraction-quits since our UX testing sessions tend to be either paid or semi-compulsory (classroom time), but I imagine this is a big problem. Do you find that there's a point of reliable minimum interest among players? Say during a particular level or challenge?
Again, thanks a lot for so deeply engaging and getting us some areas to work on. If you are interested, we'd love to have someone as communicative and engaged working on the open source when it gets released (hopefully in the next week or so)!
I think simplifying method names is a very good idea. However, please don't implement any sort of drag and drop interface. I've taught a few programmers using drag and drop tools and all of them have run into significant issues transitioning to "real" coding.
Better, probably, to learn programming through a drag-and-drop interface, then make a difficult transition to typing, than try to overcome both challenges at the same time and likely give up. Having done microcomputer BASIC programming as a primary-school child I can testify that syntax errors are just a horrible waste of time and enthusiasm at that level.
I think the problem is better solved by using a DSL rather than a general purpose programming language. You can make the syntax simple as pie and still keep the platform as expressive as you need it.
Do you think the trolling had any effect on Americans being the worst programmers. Or were the Americans who tried coding truly "the worst." How did you determine Americans were even the ones you were talking to (by time zone?). I would like to see some data for the total students who participated by each country.
I suspect that while American kids might have been dragged into it by schools and teachers whether interested or not, international kids were all interested in it or at least choosen by teachers as good students.
Also, I do not know how many languages do they support. However, if it is only english, almost all international participating kids are someone who learned foreign language. Which rules out worst cases.
As far as I know, there was huge campaign in usa involving president and "everybody has to code" slogans. As far as I know, there was no such thing elsewhere.
I know for a fact that the hour of code was compulsory for American students, which is definitely a big contributor to trolling behavior. I know that most of my classes in HS would have reverted to juvenile behavior given an open-ended social situation like an Olark chat. That said, it was still startling!
They probably were forced. My company did some things for a local elementary school.
Hey wil421, Olark gave us geoIP for each person we were chatting with, and we are able to join any player's game session (so we can assist with bugs in real time), so we got a lot of first hand experience with American student's code.
I'm not sure if the trolling was related to programming ability to be honest, I suspect that there was a strong selection effect: because most of the traffic was America, there were more American trolls, and because the trolls complained the most, we saw their code the most and the correlation was stark. As we mentioned in the blog, there were plenty of reasonable, interesting kids, but the ratio was pretty skewed towards trolls.
We edited out the location data (since it didn't really add much to the post), but it was about 85% American, 3% UK, 2% Canadian, and the remaining 10% was international with no strong traffic source leading the pack.
Given that the vast majority of the users were American, it only makes statistical sense that all the worst trolling was from there. Both because the majority of all your chat logs would be from there, and because it means you got a wider range of students from America than from other places.
The fact that the game is in English and "only partially localized" also contributes, as there is probably an inverse correlation between "tendency to troll" and "ability to learn a foreign language and play unlocalized web games."
Now, I don't doubt for a minute that Americans are the best trolls and worst programmers, but it seems disingenuous to use this data to throw more firewood on the "Americans are illiterate boors" pyre.
Thanks for the response. I was unable to attend the Hour of Code my company did for a few local schools.
Trolling is more difficult if you're not a native speaker or come from a different culture, so even if there were any international trolls they didn't know proper expletives for trolling in english.
Every child should be shown how to program for a few days, but merely so that those few who are genuinely interested get to know that programming "exists".
Definitely. I didn't even know what programming was until I was about 20 years old in college, and this was after I'd settled on a major. After graduating and starting my first startup, I saw my two cofounders working on the website the first week or two and actually said "Wait, THAT'S programming?" I thought it was exclusively for making rabbit simulators in Java or something. Our goal is to get more people exposed to it earlier. I wish someone had told me, and hopefully CodeCombat will tell other kids!
And if they are genuinely interested, that they have access to the necessary resources to continue.
My first computer was my father's Amstrad '86 with a whopping 1MHz processor and 512k of RAM. He bought it so he could work on his master's thesis in the late 80s. A friend of mine in high school (during the early 00's) got his first computer in the late nineties and he bought it with own cash because his parents didn't think computers were worth it. By that time I knew a lot more about computers just by having it around the house. Simply put, you're right: access is a huge issue.
As an ogre, I have to say I'm offended.
But as a programmer, awesome job Code Combat! Your turnout was pretty inspiring. I'm a little sad at the observation that American kids were such trolls though. I mean, I don't know what I expected; I meet them all the time in online video games. I guess I just had hoped the ones that would come across a code competition and be interested enough to click would also be mature enough to show some restraint.
Kudos to your team for rising to this challenge! I love the idea of using games to help kids learn, well, anything really.
> COD is Call of Duty, the latest ultra-violent first person shooter which kids are playing at a rate of more than a millennium per day.
Am I the only one who finds this number mind-boggling?
In August, Activision released an infographic that stated that Call of Duty players had accumulated 2.85 million years of playtime.
Playing two hours a day per person would make 4380000 players. Which seems pretty realistic considering there were 12 million active Wow players at one point.
Many COD and WOW players are adults. According to some stats I read, an average player of big single player games is more then 30 years old male. So I assume that many of them will play multiplayers too. Plus, I know many adults that play those games.
I'm not sure that COD is "ultra-violent". It is violent of course, but not much more then an average action movie.
No, but death in most action movies are much more effective. Meaning they "feel" more real and killed people are more real. Plus, they are often framed in real world like story and often as positive action did by good hero.
Killed guys in COD are just pictures - they have no personality or story. The action is in context of warfare and no one there is believably "good" and "bad". Only better at shooting.
I do not think you can judge violence in such simple way. To use analogy, the movie reservoir dogs has scene with ear cutting where nobody dies. That scene is way more violent and disturbing then dozens of killed enemies by James Bond.
Basically you're pretending to be a terrorist, you have to shoot up an airport full of civilians (who die very realistically, beg for their lives, etc.), and then at the end of the level the main terrorist whose cell you're trying to infiltrate shoots you in the face and you die.
The thing is, in a multiplayer FPS, the "killing" is just a competitive metaphor. The mechanics for "killing" are oft-remarked as being very unrealistic, and the "death" is just a temporary delay before respawn. It's a kill in name only.
As far as the single-player mode goes, I can't speak from experience... and neither most other CoD players, I wager.
I had multiplayer in mind - most call of duty players do not play campaign. But yes, that scene was debated a lot.
I think that scene is something that makes Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 a game for adults, the same way as ear cutting scene in reservoir dogs makes it something for adults.
As far as I know, other call of duty games do not have such scene. I may be wrong on that one through.
It's slightly possible to do the level without shooting the civilians yourself (your terrorist buddies can kill them for you), but you do have to kill the Russian airport police who show up to stop you. If you refuse to shoot them, the battle just continues forever until you open fire.
You're joking. There aren't a constant 10 deaths/minute in an average action movie.
Definitely, the really shocking bit is that number is about a year old, so presumably it's even higher now. Nick researched it and I thought he was being his normal hyperbolic self, but no, it's legit. PG's essay about addictiveness definitely springs to mind.
Er. Is "millennium" actually "million"?
a millenium is one thousand years.
So kids are playing COD at a rate of more than one thousand years per day? What does that even mean?
If 100 kids played for 2 hours in one day you could say they have a combined 8 days of play time in a single day.
So the claim is that there have been at least 9 million hours played per day by an unknown number of "kids". That's... profoundly difficult to unpack from "more than a millennium per day". And I'm still not actually sure that's what they meant. Is this kind of construction common?
I understand "man-hours", but I've never heard words like "millennium" inserted like that.
If you wanted to use proper dimensions, you would more accurately say they had a 8 child-days of play time in a single day.
Messing up units turns sensible claims into gobbledygook.
I would totally like to support you guys, but you never replied to my technical issue inquiry on twitter, so I haven't been able to use your site.
Sorry for that, must have missed it! Send us an email at team@codecombat.com for support; none of us are very good at Twitter.
Any suggestions on gift ideas related to this?