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Ha precedentemente insegnato all'Università di Harvard e alla Brown University, dove ha ottenuto il titolo di professoressa universitaria. Dal 2006 è membro onorario dell'International Institute of Social Studies all'Aia (Paesi Bassi). Attualmente ricopre il ruolo di Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor di diritto ed etica presso l'Università di Chicago, cattedra che include impieghi al Philosophy Department, alla Law School e alla Divinity School. Tiene inoltre corsi sugli studi classici e sulle scienze politiche, è membro del "Committee on Southern Asian Studies" e del consiglio direttivo del "Human Rights Program".

Biografia
Nussbaum nasce nel 1947 a New York, figlia di George Craven, avvocato di Philadelphia, e Betty Warren, designer di interni. Descrive la propria educazione come quella di una "élite WASP della East Coast... molto sterile, molto interessata ai soldi e allo status". In seguito avrebbe descritto la propria insofferenza verso i "filosofi mandarini" come il "rigetto della mia educazione aristocratica. Non mi piace niente che assurga ad essere un gruppo chiuso o un'élite, nemmeno se è il Bloomsbury group oppure Derrida".

Studiò teatro e i classici alla New York University, ottenendo il Bachelor of Arts nel 1969, e gradualmente si interessò di filosofia mentre ad Harvard studiava sotto la guida di G.E.L. Owen. A questo periodo risalgono anche il suo matrimonio con Alan Nussbaum (da cui divorziò nel 1987), la sua conversione all'ebraismo riformato, e la nascita della figlia Rachel.

Negli anni settanta ed ottanta continuò a studiare filosofia e i classici ad Harvard, fino a quando non si spostò alla Brown. Il suo libro del 1986, The Fragility of Goodness (trad. it.: La fragilità del bene), un saggio sull'etica greca, le diede fama presso gli umanisti. Il più recente Frontiers of Justice (Le nuove frontiere della giustizia) la rese poi una teorica della giustizia globale.

L'opera della Nussbaum si è spesso focalizzata sulle ineguaglianze di libertà e opportunità tra uomini e donne, e ha sviluppato una personale forma di femminismo che trae ispirazione dalla tradizione liberale, enfatizzando però il fatto che il liberalismo implica un ripensamento radicale dei rapporti tra i sessi e di quelli interni alla famiglia. Altro importante ambito di indagine sono le emozioni. La Nussbaum ha infatti avallato la teoria "Neo-stoica" delle emozioni, secondo cui esse sarebbero delle valutazioni che attribuiscono alle cose e alle persone esterne un particolare valore per il soggetto agente, fatto di estrema importanza per lo sviluppo della persona. Su tali basi ha proposto le analisi di dolore, compassione, amore e, successivamente, di disgusto e vergogna.

Nella sua attività, la Nussbaum ha inoltre preso parte a svariati dibattiti con altri intellettuali, sia nei suoi scritti di carattere accademico, sia su riviste popolari e recensioni, sia infine quando fu chiamata in causa come testimone in tribunale. La sua testimonianza al processo in Colorado per Romer V. Evans (il quale negava che la storia della filosofia potesse fornire allo Stato le basi per impedire a omosessuali e lesbiche di ricorrere ad una legge locale contro la discriminazione) è stata definita dai critici falsa e fuorviante. Dal canto suo, la Nussbaum rispose a queste critiche in lungo articolo, "Platonic Love and Colorado Law", a cui seguì l'attacco contro Robert P. George, suo strenuo avversario. Tra gli altri intellettuali di cui ha criticato i libri nelle sue recensioni, ricordiamo Allan Bloom, Harvey Mansfield e Judith Butler. Dibattiti ben più seri in ambito accademico sono stati invece sostenuti con John Rawls, Richard Posner e Susan Moller Okin.

Attualmente, Martha Nussbaum è membro della American Academy of Arts and Sciences (dal 1988) e della American Philosophical Society. È inoltre Presidente Fondatore e Presidente Emerito della Human Development and Capability Association. A tutt'oggi ha ottenuto 32 titoli onorari da svariate università nel Nord America, in Europa ed Asia, e nel 2005 e 2008 è stata nominata tra i 100 intellettuali più importanti al mondo dalla Foreign Policy.

Opere principali

La fragilità del bene (The Fragility of Goodness, 1986)
La fragilità del bene affronta il dilemma etico per cui gli individui sottoposti fortemente alla giustizia si rivelano tuttavia vulnerabili ai fattori esterni e possono così compromettere pesantemente o addirittura negare la propria crescita umana. Analizzando e discutendo testi letterari e filosofici, l'autrice cerca di determinare i limiti in cui la ragione può essere autosufficiente, e rifiuta la nozione platonica secondo cui la bontà umana può difendere con successo da ogni pericolo - prendendo invece le parti dei tragediografi e di Aristotele, i quali considerano il riconoscimento della vulnerabilità umana la chiave per la realizzazione del bene per gli uomini.

In particolare, merita considerevole attenzione la sua interpretazione del Simposio di Platone. Tenendo presente l'importanza della coscienza della vulnerabilità di cui sopra, il ritorno di Alcibiade al termine del dialogo mina il discorso di Diotima sulla salita al mondo sovrasensibile delle idee. La presenza di Alcibiade riporta infatti l'attenzione alla bellezza fisica, alle passioni sessuali e alle limitazioni corporee - e quindi illumina sulla fragilità umana.

La fragilità del bene ha reso la Nussbaum famosa in tutto il mondo, suscitando l'entusiasmo delle riviste accademiche e addirittura l'acclamazione dei mass media. L'allieva e intellettuale Camille Paglia confrontò La fragilità del bene con le più importanti opere accademiche del XX secolo. La notorietà della Nussbaum si è così estesa alla stampa e alla televisione.

Coltivare l'umanità (Cultivating Humanity, 1997)

Coltivare l'umanità fa riferimento ai classici greci quale base per difendere e riformare l'educazione liberale. Riprendendo l'aspirazione di Diogene il Cinico di riuscire a trascendere "le origini locali e l'appartenenza ad un gruppo" per diventare "cittadini del mondo", la Nussbaum rintraccia il successivo sviluppo di questa idea nello stoicismo, in Cicerone e infine nel liberalismo moderno di Immanuel Kant e Adam Smith. La Nussbaum sostiene infatti il multiculturalismo nel contesto dell'universalismo etico, difende l'indagine accademica su razze, generi e sessualità umana, e inoltre approfondisce il ruolo della letteratura e dell'immaginazione nelle questioni etiche.

"Diventare cittadino del mondo significa spesso intraprendere un cammino solitario, una sorta di esilio, lontani dalla comodità delle verità certe, dal sentimento rassicurante di essere circondati da persone che condividono le nostre stesse convinzioni e ideali" (Nussbaum, 1999)

Attraverso queste parole, la Nussbaum vuole trasmettere che "per essere veri cittadini del mondo" dobbiamo, come Diogene, diventare stranieri in patria e contare solo sulle nostre capacità e modi di vivere, mettendoci sempre in discussione e senza temere di pensarla in maniera diversa dagli altri.
L'essere aperti al confronto continuo costituisce un mezzo per migliorare se stessi ed in qualche modo il mondo in cui si vive.

Allo stesso tempo, la Nussbaum censura alcune tendenze accademiche contemporanee. Bolla il Decostruzionismo di Derrida in quanto "studio semplicemente inutile" ed etichetta le sue analisi della cultura cinese come "perniciose" ed "evidentemente prive di uno studio serio". Più in generale, critica anche Michel Foucault per la sua "incompletezza storica e mancanza di chiarezza", ma lo apprezza comunque per aver fornito "l'unica opera veramente importante che ha attraversato la filosofia sotto le effigi del Postmoderno". La Nussbaum è poi ancor più critica verso figure come Allan Bloom, Roger Kimball e George Will per quelle che considera la loro debole conoscenza delle culture non occidentali e le loro inaccurate caricature dell'umanità di oggi.

Il New York Times ha elogiato Coltivare l'umanità come "un'appassionata, strenua affermazione del multiculturalismo" e lo ha acclamato come "una formidabile, forse definitiva difesa della diversità nei campus americani".

Sesso e giustizia sociale (Sex and Social Justice, 1999)
Sesso e Giustizia sociale dimostra che, poiché il sesso e la sessualità sono distinzioni moralmente irrilevanti imposte artificialmente come fonti della gerarchia sociale, ne risulta che il femminismo e la giustizia sociale sono fusi in una comunione di intenti. Confutando le obiezioni anti-universaliste, la Nussbaum propone le cosiddette libertà funzionali (capacità umane personali) quali basi per la giustizia sociale.

La Nussbaum discute a lungo le critiche femministe allo stesso liberalismo, inclusa l'accusa avanzata da Alison Jaggar secondo cui il liberalismo esige un "egoismo etico". È invece d'accordo con le critiche di Catharine MacKinnon al matrimonio, e si appropria del suo punto di vista in quanto compatibile con il liberalismo.

L'autrice condanna inoltre la pratica delle mutilazioni genitali femminili, in quanto privano l'individuo delle sue funzioni normative con rischi per la salute ed effetti negativi sulle funzioni sessuali, violano la dignità e provocano condizioni di non autonomia. Enfatizzando poi il fatto che tali pratiche sono portate a termine con il ricorso alla forza bruta, che sono irreversibili, che non vi è consensualità e che sono legate al concetto della superiorità e del predominio dell'uomo sulla donna, la Nussbaum giunge a dichiarare le mutilazioni genitali un vero e proprio atto di ingiustizia.

Viene inoltre approfondito e raffinato il concetto di "oggettificazione" (objectification) originariamente avanzato da Catharine MacKinnon e Andrea Dworkin - concetto che designa l'atto con cui, in certe situazioni culturali e sociali, alcuni individui vengono ridotti al rango di puri oggetti. Per la Nussbaum, ciò si presenta secondo sette caratteristiche: la strumentalità, il rinnegamento dell'autonomia, l'inerzia, la fungibilità, la violabilità, la proprietà da parte di terzi e il rinnegamento della soggettività dell'individuo. La sua caratterizzazione della pornografia come uno strumento per l'oggettificazione la pone in disaccordo con l'estrema libertà sessuale difesa da alcune correnti del femminismo; allo stesso tempo però scrive a favore della legalizzazione della prostituzione, posizione che ha riproposto nel 2008 in un saggio successivo allo scandalo Spitzer. Recentemente ha preso posizione in favore del burqa, di cui considera discriminatoria la proibizione.

Nascondersi dall'umanità (Hiding from Humanity, 2004)
Nascondersi dall'umanità allarga l'opera della Nussbaum alla psicologia morale, allo scopo di includere due emozioni - vergogna e disgusto - come basi legittime per un giudizio legale. La Nussbaum infatti sostiene che gli individui tendano a ripudiare i propri difetti fisici o la propria animalità, attraverso la proiezione di paure di contaminazione. Questa situazione è di per sé irrazionale, poiché non possiamo trascendere l'animalità del nostro corpo. Notando poi come il disgusto abbia giustificato la sottomissione di interi gruppi sociali (in particolare donne, ebrei, omosessuali), la Nussbaum scopre che il disgusto è una base per il giudizio.

Passando invece alla vergogna, la Nussbaum sostiene che tale emozione ha uno scopo molto ampio, cioè tentare di inculcare l'umiliazione, con il rischio però di essere eccessivamente intrusivo e limitante per la libertà umana. In accordo con J.S. Mill, restringe allora l'applicazione della legge ad atti che causano un tipo di male ben riconoscibile.

In un'intervista al Reason Magazine, Martha Nussbaum ha affermato che "il disgusto e la vergogna sono in una posizione reciprocamente gerarchica; essi infatti sovrastano i ranghi e gli ordinamenti degli esseri umani. Essi sono inoltre reciprocamente connessi con la restrizione della libertà nei campi in cui la condotta non è dannosa. Per entrambe queste ragioni, credo, chiunque persegua i valori democratici chiave di eguaglianza e libertà può essere profondamente perplesso ad appellarsi a queste due emozioni nell'ambito della legge e della politica".

L'opera della Nussbaum è stata accolta con vasto apprezzamento. Il Boston Globe ha definito i suoi argomenti "estremamente lucidi" e ha elogiato l'autrice come la "più importante teorica americana della vita pubblica". Le sue recensioni in molti giornali e riviste nazionali le hanno conferito un riconoscimento unanime.

Non per profitto (Not for Profit. Why Democracy needs the Humanities, 2010)
L'opera Non per profitto conduce un confronto tra le tradizioni e i sistemi educativi di due grandi paesi: Stati Uniti e India, e da essi nasce la comprensione del ruolo dell'educazione nelle società contemporanee. La Nussbaum approfitta del confronto tra questi due grandi paesi per analizzare una crisi che sta passando inosservata, ma che ci distrugge come un cancro: la crisi dell'istruzione. Questa crisi è dettata dalle nazioni che donano importanza all'idea di profitto e abbandonano i saperi fondamentali per costruire una vera democrazia. Le nazioni alimentano questa crisi abolendo dall'istruzione primaria e secondaria gli insegnamenti umanistici, così da non formare gli studenti alla criticità e alla capacità di giudizio e rendendoli solo macchine utili alla produzione. Nel 2006 la commissione sul futuro dell'istruzione, presieduta da Margaret Spellings, in una relazione afferma che gli Stati Uniti erano carenti in materie come scienze, tecnologia e ingegneria e che queste materie dovevano essere fortificate il più possibile per diventare competitivi sul mercato nazionale. Del campo umanistico, invece, non si fa cenno. A questi scritti ne seguono altri che alimentano la diminuzione fino all'eliminazione delle materie umanistiche. La Nussbaum fa presente quanto ciò sia sbagliato, poiché "la formazione deve creare cittadini pronti a partecipare alla democrazia" e che dunque debbano conoscere e saper ragionare sulle problematiche e i diritti che una democrazia si trova ad affrontare, così da poter adempiere in modo consapevole e ragionato al momento del voto. Gli studi umanistici, spiega la Nussbaum, stimolano l'uomo a ragionare su se stesso, su ciò che ha formato e forma lo Stato per non commettere errori del passato e conoscere le lotte e i pensieri alla base della nascita della democrazia. Il confronto che la Nussbaum porta avanti tra Stati Uniti e India parte dalla grande potenza americana che, spiega l'autrice, concepisce lo sviluppo democratico come un continuo incremento del prodotto nazionale lordo. Per gli USA tutto ciò che rallenta il progresso economico va eliminato e dunque gli individui con problemi di salute e i poveri sono un "cancro" per l'economia e per questo vanno eliminati o almeno non aiutati. Gli USA continuano ad alimentare la differenza tra il povero e ricco dando la possibilità di studiare solo a chi può permetterselo, poiché chi è meno utile deve essere abbandonato. L'idea di cittadino democratico per gli Stati Uniti è quella di un cittadino pronto a sacrificare se stesso per lo sviluppo economico del paese. L'India, al contrario, negli ultimi anni ha portato avanti grandi sviluppi nel campo della sanità e dell'istruzione, ma essi sono scarsamente correlati al progresso economico. Il problema del paradigma di sviluppo del PIL è che alimenta una situazione di disparità e dunque uno sviluppo solo economico e non sociale e soprattutto senza sviluppo di dignità.

Dunque non è trasmessa "la democrazia umana", afferma la Nussbaum, che ha come base la sensibilità verso l'altro e la garanzia delle giuste "opportunità di vita, libertà e ricerca di felicità". Questa democrazia è insegnata dalla storia, dalla filosofia e dalla letteratura: una democrazia fatta di pensiero e ragionamento, di riflessione e auto-riflessione che la tecnologia e l'economia da sole non possono donare.
L'autrice introduce il bisogno di educare alla "morale" democratica: le nazioni oggi devono affrontare l'emigrazione, le minoranze religiose ed etniche, e per far ciò hanno bisogno di una guida che debba portare i cittadini alla conoscenza della diversità come arricchimento. La scuola ha il compito di far comprendere il punto di vista altrui e portare lo sviluppo dell'autentica sensibilità, così da comprendere che essa non sia sintomo di debolezza o di vergogna. E allora chi meglio di un poeta, di un filosofo, spiega la Nussbaum, possono insegnare la ricerca della sensibilità e dell'io con le sue fragilità?

Le materie umanistiche non possono e non devono essere eliminate come insegnamento perché esse stimolano al ragionamento e alla capacità di autocritica. Il filosofo Socrate insegna che una vita non sottoposta ad esame non è degna di essere vissuta ed egli muore in difesa del proprio pensiero critico. Ma tutte le materie umanistiche stimolano a pensare autonomamente, senza conformarsi alle tradizioni e alle autorità, dunque lo studente attraverso esse impara ad essere cittadino "non conformista", ma attivo e pronto al miglioramento culturale e non solo economico del paese.

Le caratteristiche fondamentali del buon cittadino democratico, spiega la Nussbaum, sono la capacità di pensare al bene comune e di riuscire a sviluppare l'empatia; bisogna essere lettore intelligente della propria storia per comprenderne le emozioni e le aspettative. La letteratura e l'arte insegnano l'interpretazione delle emozioni: la completa immersione in un'opera porta alla sua analisi, contestualizzazione e infine interpretazione. Ciò che l'uomo deve fare anche con la propria vita da buon cittadino e nel rapporto con l'intera comunità: eseguire un'analisi e un'interpretazione.

La frase che meglio può spiegare il concetto di educazione e di sviluppo di buon cittadino che la Nussbaum spiega è "Possiamo acquisire potere con il sapere, ma la vera ricchezza l'otteniamo con la sensibilità ai problemi altrui", di Tagore. Il buon cittadino è colui che ha imparato a conoscere il suo vero io attraverso la filosofia, ad essere sensibile verso il prossimo e i problemi della comunità attraverso la letteratura, e ha conosciuto e acquisito consapevolezza di tutto ciò che ha portato alla nascita del proprio Stato attraverso la storia.

La capacità
Durante gli anni ottanta la Nussbaum collaborò con l'economista Amartya Sen ad un saggio su sviluppo ed etica, culminato in La qualità della vita (The Quality of Life), pubblicato nel 1993 dalla Oxford University Press. Insieme a Sen e a un gruppo di giovani ricercatori, la Nussbaum ha poi fondato nel 2003 la Human Development and Capability Association e, sempre con Sen, è stata promotrice del cosiddetto approccio secondo le capacità per lo sviluppo economico e sociale: sulla scorta di una visione aristotelica e marxista, le capacità personali (come la capacità di vivere fino ad un'età avanzata, portare avanti transazioni economiche, o partecipare alla vita politica) sono viste come parti costitutive dello sviluppo economico, mentre la povertà ne è uno stato di privazione. Ciò contrasta con le tradizionali visioni utilitaristiche, che vedono lo sviluppo puramente in termini di crescita economica, e la povertà come privazione di introiti; inoltre, in quanto universalista, questa tesi contrasta con le teorie relativiste dello sviluppo.

La Nussbaum promuove l'approccio alle capacità personali in Le nuove frontiere della giustizia (Frontiers of Justice, 2006), approfondendo le interpretazioni della giustizia basate sul contratto sociale, come sviluppato da John Rawls in opere come Theory of Justice, Political Liberalism, Law of the Peoples. Generalmente le teorie sul contratto sociale, diversamente dall'utilitarismo che per la giustizia fornisce invece una solida struttura, fanno assegnamento sull'assunto che la cooperazione è portata avanti dagli individui per garantirsi un mutuo vantaggio. Secondo la Nussbaum, le teorie derivanti da queste posizioni incontrano grandi difficoltà nel trattare argomenti come la giustizia di base e la libertà sostanziale in situazioni che presentano grandi asimmetrie tra le parti sociali. Inoltre, l'approccio procedurale in fatto di giustizia che queste dottrine propongono fallisce in casi in cui la simmetria non esiste in fatto di vantaggi tra i membri - ovvero sulle tre frontiere della giustizia: le persone con disabilità, il fronte internazionale, gli animali.

Lo stesso Rawls riconosce il fallimento della propria teoria in questi campi, e la Nussbaum aggiunge che il tentativo di espanderla nel campo delle relazioni internazionali è alla fine insoddisfacente, in quanto non riesce a perseguire gli elementi fondamentali trattati in Theory of Justice, abbandonando invece gli assunti fondamentali tra le parti contraenti il contratto primigenio. Tale approccio non può infatti spiegare la giustizia in casi in cui mancano delle parti libere, eguali ed indipendenti, poste in una situazione originale in cui "tutti hanno qualcosa su cui negoziare, e nessuno ha troppo" (i referenti in questo caso sono Rousseau e David Hume). Ne conclude dunque che la sola prospettiva procedurale non può fornire un'adeguata teoria della giustizia.

Per risolvere questi problemi, la Nussbaum propone un approccio alle capacità personali, il cosiddetto capability approach, una visione orientata all'esterno che cerca di determinare quali principi di base, e conseguentemente quali adeguate misure, possano dare luogo a una vita umana dignitosa. Tali principi sono ritrovati in dieci capacità personali, ovvero reali opportunità basate su circostanze sociali e personali: la giustizia richiede la ricerca, da parte di tutti i cittadini, di una soglia minima di questi dieci principi. Recentemente, la Nussbaum ha ulteriormente sviluppato l'idea della soglia minima, nel suo articolo Constitution and Capability: 'Perception' against Lofty Formalism. Inoltre, nel suo recente libro Liberty of Coscience: in Defense offerte America's Tradition of Religious Equality (2008), esplora le richieste della Costituzione americana in fatto di religione.

Pubblicazioni
 Aristotle's De Motu Animalium (1978)
 The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy (1986; Second edition: 2001). Trad. it: La fragilità del bene. Fortuna ed etica nella tragedia e nella filosofia greca, Bologna 2004
 Love's Knowledge (1990)
 Nussbaum, Martha, and Amelie Oksenberg Rorty. Essays on Aristotle's De Anima (1992)
 Nussbaum, Martha, and Amartya Sen. The Quality of Life (1993)
 The Therapy of Desire (1994); trad. it.: Terapia del desiderio. Teoria e pratica nell'etica ellenistica, Milano 1998
 Poetic Justice (1996); trad. it.: Giustizia poetica. Immaginazione letteraria e vita civile, ed. it. a c. di C. Greblo, Mimesis, Milano 2012
 For Love of Country (1996)
 Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education (1997); trad. it: Coltivare l'umanità. I classici, il multiculturalismo, l'educazione contemporanea, Roma 2006
 Sex and Social Justice (1998)
 Plato's Republic: The Good Society and The Deformation of Desire (1998)
 Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach (2000); trad. it "Diventare persone" Bologna, (2001)
 Giustizia sociale e dignità umana. Da individui a persone, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2002
 Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions (2001); trad. it.: L'intelligenza delle emozioni, Bologna 2004
 Hiding From Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law (2004); Trad.: it.: Nascondere l'umanità. Il disgusto, la vergogna, la legge, Carocci, Roma 2005
 Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (edited with Cass Sunstein) (2004)
 Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership (2006); trad. it.: Le nuove frontiere della giustizia. Disabilità, nazionalità, appartenenza di specie, Roma 2007
 The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future (2007); trad.it. "Lo scontro dentro le civiltà. Democrazia, radicalismo religioso, futuro dell'india" Bologna 2009
 Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality (2008)
 Not for profit. Why the Democracy Needs the Humanities, Princeton, Princeton University Press (2010), with a new afterword (2012); trad.it. Non per profitto. Perché le democrazie hanno bisogno della cultura umanistica, Bologna, Il Mulino (2011), nuova edizione ampliata (2013), con introduzione di Tullio De Mauro ISBN 978-88-15-24166-5
 Dal disgusto all'umanità. L'orientamento sessuale di fronte alla legge, Il Saggiatore, Milano (2011), col saggio introduttivo "Classificazioni sospette", di Vittorio Lingiardi e Nicla Vassallo ISBN 978-88-428-1671-3
 Creating Capabilities. The Human development Approach, Cambridge (Mass.) - London, The belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2011 (trad. Creare capacità. Liberarsi dalla dittatura del Pil, Il Mulino, Bologna 2012).

Onorificenze

Note

Voci correlate
 Donne in filosofia
 Post-moderno
 John Rawls
 Bernard Williams (filosofo)

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

Nussbaum, Martha
Nussbaum, Martha
Nussbaum, Martha
Filosofi della religione


text:
ARE YOU FEELING THE FORCE?
"There has been an awakening, have you felt it?"
The official release date is tomorrow (17/12/15), so cinemas everywhere are screening The Force Awakens at one minute past midnight. Set 30 years after Return of the Jedi, this long awaited sequel IS SET TO STAR an all new cast with a few familiar faces back to save the day. With Darth Vadar gone and the Galactic Empire no more, it is up to some old friends to confront the new evil that has risen to take the Empire's place..
Here are the top things can't wait to see in Episode VII.
1. THE OLD GANG ARE BACK
No return to the Star Wars universe would be complete without Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford. More than a nostalgic cash-grab designed to sell tickets (we hope) the original trio of Luke, Leia and Han are set to play major roles in The Force Awakens. Joining them in that galaxy far, far away are series regulars Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Kenny Baker as R2-D2, and even Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew! (What, no Billy Dee Williams as Lando?!) Joining them are John Boyega as Finn, a rogue stormtrooper, Daisy Ridley as Rey, a scavenger from desert planet Jakku, and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) as an X-wing fighter.
Filming shut down for two weeks last year while Ford recovered from having part of the Millennium Falcon set fall on him, fuelling speculation that the old smuggler will have a much bigger role to play than we thought. The amount of screen-time the Skywalker twins will get isn't yet known. Neither have featured in any of the trailers so far, although if the rumours are to be believed Luke may finally have succumbed to the Dark Side of the Force…
2. IT IS ALL AUTHENTICALLY STARWARS
In the biggest shake up of Star Wars since the prequels, the role of director has passed from franchise stalwart George Lucas to Star Trek helmer JJ Abrams. Lucas had no direct input in the making of The Force Awakens (given the much maligned prequels this is probably no bad thing)...
Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, is not only co-writer on The Force Awakens, he's co-writing the first Star Wars Stories movie. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Kasdan said "I thought, 'Wow, okay, these people have lived - they're in a different place in their lives, Han and Leia and so on. They've lived the same 30 years I have. What would that be like? How would you see things differently'."
3. THE NEW VILLANS LOOK BADDASS
Heroes are only as good as their villains. From Captain Phasma (the chrome stormtrooper glimpsed in the trailer played by Game of Thrones fave Gwendoline Christie), to the mysterious Kylo Ren, The Force Awakens is stuffed with as much villainy as the Mos Eisley cantina. (Greedo not included.) With the Death Star out of action the Empire is no more. But wait! A new group dubbed The First Order has risen to take the Empire's place. Little is known about who or what The First Order are, but chances are it's nothing good. Early speculation pegged Kylo Ren as a Sith when his tri-bladed lightsaber from the first trailer grabbed headlines. Director Abrams says otherwise. "He works under Supreme Leader Snoke, who is a powerful figure on the Dark Side of the Force," he told Empire magazine. Snoke is the CG character motion-captured by Andy Serkis. If you think he looks a bit like Darth Vadar the similarities are intentional. Kylo Ren is obsessed with the former Anakin Skywalker…
4. WE ARE GETTING A STARWARS THEMEPARK
Earlier this year Disney chief executive Bob Iger revealed that Disney would soon be adding two massive Star Wars expansions to their Florida and California parks. "We knew it needed to be big," says Iger, "we knew it needed to be great, and we knew it needed to be every bit as thrilling as the films are going to be."
Inhabited by humanoids, aliens and droids, these 14 acre sites will transport guests to a whole new planet not previously seen in the movies, with shops run by various species and everything looking a bit like a cross between Mos Eisley and ......
READ THE REST OF THIS FEATURE IN GNI MAG HERE
#starwars #theforceawakens

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Initializing strings in C in Visual Studio I try to learn the XOR algorithm using C. I have found a great example on KyleBank's GitHub:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

void encryptDecrypt(char *input, char *output) {
    char key[] = {'K', 'C', 'Q'}; //Can be any chars, and any size array

    int i;
    for(i = 0; i < strlen(input); i++) {
        output[i] = input[i] ^ key[i % (sizeof(key)/sizeof(char))];
    }
}

int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
    char baseStr[] = "kylewbanks.com";

    char encrypted[strlen(baseStr)];
    encryptDecrypt(baseStr, encrypted);
    printf("Encrypted:%s\n", encrypted);

    char decrypted[strlen(baseStr)];
    encryptDecrypt(encrypted, decrypted);
    printf("Decrypted:%s\n", decrypted);
}

The above works well under Linux and gcc.
However, it does not compile in Visual Studio under Windows.

I am using build tools included in Visual Studio 2017.
What am I doing wrong?

A: Microsoft's compiler does not support C99 VLAs (see the note here).  Array sizes must be a constant expression.  The code is also broken because it fails accommodate and place a nul terminator in the output.
In this case, decrypted and encrypted might be declared thus:
char encrypted[sizeof(baseStr)] ;
...
char decrypted[sizeof(baseStr)] ;

And encryptDecrypt() modified thus:
void encryptDecrypt(char *input, char *output) {

...

    output[i] = 0 ;
}

Finally the signed mismatch warning may be cleaned up by declaring i as type size_t.
On Windows of course you could always use MinGW/GCC if you want more modern C support. Or you could use C++ and std::string or std::vector containers if you want to stick with Microsoft's compiler.

A: Use malloc for dynamic memory allocation. Requires #include <stdlib.h>
char baseStr[] = "123";
char *encrypted = malloc(strlen(baseStr) + 1);
...
free(encrypted);

As mentioned before, you have to add 1 for the null-terminated character at the end.
The char* pointer is one piece of information, it shows where the string begins. But where does it end? strlen and other C functions have no idea where the string ends, so they go through all the characters until a '\0' character is encountered.
For efficiency, take strlen(input) out of the loop and calculate it only once:
void encryptDecrypt(char *input, char *output)
{
    char key[] = { 'K', 'C', 'Q' };
    int keysize = sizeof(key);
    size_t i;
    size_t len = strlen(input);
    for(i = 0; i < len; i++)
        output[i] = input[i] ^ key[i % keysize];
    output[len] = 0; //will be same as output[i] = 0;
}

The function int main should return zero. Note that this method cannot be described as "encryption" by modern standards. You can call it "obfuscation".

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Target gearing in the UK: A triangulated approach
Jon Tucker, John Pointon, Moji Olugbode
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence of target gearing behaviour in firms as well as the drivers of such behaviour. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a triangulation approach across three methodological phases: a questionnaire survey, logistic regression modelling of firm data, and interviews with finance directors. The results are then discussed under the key themes of gearing optimality, valuation issues, external drivers, the finance life-cycle, the impact of risk, and the relationship between gearing and corporate strategy. Findings: The results reveal that the majority of firms engage in targeting, though targets are subject to fairly frequent revision as both external and internal drivers evolve. Important external drivers include macroeconomic variables and analysts' views, whereas important internal drivers include income gearing and profitability. Practical implications: Given the range and variety of drivers, target gearing evidently represents a complex strategic decision for finance directors. The paper provides a benchmark perspective for finance directors when determining their firm's gearing strategy. Originality/value: The innovation of the paper is the study of target gearing across three methods, the results of which are then triangulated to provide a deeper understanding of both the quantifiable and qualitative drivers of gearing. This provides a far broader insight into the real-world determination of gearing strategy than a conventional empirical approach.
International Journal of Managerial Finance
Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
Capital input
Post-PrintAccepted author manuscript, 692 KBLicence: CC BY
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Target gearing in the UK: A triangulated approach'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Finance Business & Economics
Logistic Regression Business & Economics
Profitability Business & Economics
Triangulation Business & Economics
Life Cycle Business & Economics
Corporate Strategy Business & Economics
Macroeconomic Variables Business & Economics
Strategic Decisions Business & Economics
Tucker, J., Pointon, J., & Olugbode, M. (2010). Target gearing in the UK: A triangulated approach. International Journal of Managerial Finance, 6(1), 58-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/17439131011015797
Target gearing in the UK : A triangulated approach. / Tucker, Jon; Pointon, John; Olugbode, Moji.
In: International Journal of Managerial Finance, Vol. 6, No. 1, 19.02.2010, p. 58-80.
Tucker, J, Pointon, J & Olugbode, M 2010, 'Target gearing in the UK: A triangulated approach', International Journal of Managerial Finance, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 58-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/17439131011015797
Tucker J, Pointon J, Olugbode M. Target gearing in the UK: A triangulated approach. International Journal of Managerial Finance. 2010 Feb 19;6(1):58-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/17439131011015797
Tucker, Jon ; Pointon, John ; Olugbode, Moji. / Target gearing in the UK : A triangulated approach. In: International Journal of Managerial Finance. 2010 ; Vol. 6, No. 1. pp. 58-80.
@article{bb98f400340f4a18a4d558bbdd35ee59,
title = "Target gearing in the UK: A triangulated approach",
abstract = "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence of target gearing behaviour in firms as well as the drivers of such behaviour. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a triangulation approach across three methodological phases: a questionnaire survey, logistic regression modelling of firm data, and interviews with finance directors. The results are then discussed under the key themes of gearing optimality, valuation issues, external drivers, the finance life-cycle, the impact of risk, and the relationship between gearing and corporate strategy. Findings: The results reveal that the majority of firms engage in targeting, though targets are subject to fairly frequent revision as both external and internal drivers evolve. Important external drivers include macroeconomic variables and analysts' views, whereas important internal drivers include income gearing and profitability. Practical implications: Given the range and variety of drivers, target gearing evidently represents a complex strategic decision for finance directors. The paper provides a benchmark perspective for finance directors when determining their firm's gearing strategy. Originality/value: The innovation of the paper is the study of target gearing across three methods, the results of which are then triangulated to provide a deeper understanding of both the quantifiable and qualitative drivers of gearing. This provides a far broader insight into the real-world determination of gearing strategy than a conventional empirical approach.",
keywords = "Capital input, Financial control, Gearing, United Kingdom",
author = "Jon Tucker and John Pointon and Moji Olugbode",
note = "Copyright {\textcopyright} and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. ",
journal = "International Journal of Managerial Finance",
publisher = "Emerald",
T1 - Target gearing in the UK
T2 - A triangulated approach
AU - Tucker, Jon
AU - Pointon, John
AU - Olugbode, Moji
N1 - Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
N2 - Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence of target gearing behaviour in firms as well as the drivers of such behaviour. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a triangulation approach across three methodological phases: a questionnaire survey, logistic regression modelling of firm data, and interviews with finance directors. The results are then discussed under the key themes of gearing optimality, valuation issues, external drivers, the finance life-cycle, the impact of risk, and the relationship between gearing and corporate strategy. Findings: The results reveal that the majority of firms engage in targeting, though targets are subject to fairly frequent revision as both external and internal drivers evolve. Important external drivers include macroeconomic variables and analysts' views, whereas important internal drivers include income gearing and profitability. Practical implications: Given the range and variety of drivers, target gearing evidently represents a complex strategic decision for finance directors. The paper provides a benchmark perspective for finance directors when determining their firm's gearing strategy. Originality/value: The innovation of the paper is the study of target gearing across three methods, the results of which are then triangulated to provide a deeper understanding of both the quantifiable and qualitative drivers of gearing. This provides a far broader insight into the real-world determination of gearing strategy than a conventional empirical approach.
AB - Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence of target gearing behaviour in firms as well as the drivers of such behaviour. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a triangulation approach across three methodological phases: a questionnaire survey, logistic regression modelling of firm data, and interviews with finance directors. The results are then discussed under the key themes of gearing optimality, valuation issues, external drivers, the finance life-cycle, the impact of risk, and the relationship between gearing and corporate strategy. Findings: The results reveal that the majority of firms engage in targeting, though targets are subject to fairly frequent revision as both external and internal drivers evolve. Important external drivers include macroeconomic variables and analysts' views, whereas important internal drivers include income gearing and profitability. Practical implications: Given the range and variety of drivers, target gearing evidently represents a complex strategic decision for finance directors. The paper provides a benchmark perspective for finance directors when determining their firm's gearing strategy. Originality/value: The innovation of the paper is the study of target gearing across three methods, the results of which are then triangulated to provide a deeper understanding of both the quantifiable and qualitative drivers of gearing. This provides a far broader insight into the real-world determination of gearing strategy than a conventional empirical approach.
KW - Capital input
KW - Financial control
KW - Gearing
KW - United Kingdom
JO - International Journal of Managerial Finance
JF - International Journal of Managerial Finance


text:
Home > Politics
New premier to keep old economics team: senior political source
Su Jain-rong (upper left), Shen Jong-chin (upper right), Chen Mei-ling (lower left) and Wellington Koo (lower right).
Taipei, Jan. 11 (CNA) Taiwan's new premier, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), will be keeping on the economics and finance team from the previous Cabinet, but will make changes in other ministries and departments, a senior political source said Friday.
According to the source, the new premier's first priority will be to boost Taiwan's economy, and he has asked the four ministers who make up the team if they are willing to stay on their jobs.
Finance Minister Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮), Economics Minister Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津), National Development Council chief Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) and Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) have all expressed to Su their desire to continue in their positions, the source said.
Chen said in a statement that Su was her old boss and has promoted her in the past. Former Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德), whom Su will replace, also wanted her to continue in her post to carry out some of his planned policies, including turning Taiwan bilingual, she said.
In another change, former Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) wrote on Facebook that he has accepted the role of transportation and communications minister.
Lin thanked President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Su for the opportunity to again serve society, his said in a Facebook post.
Like Su, Lin suffered defeat in Taiwan's local elections on Nov. 24, 2018, losing his bid for re-election in Taichung to Kuomintang challenger Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕).
Meanwhile, sources said Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), the Democratic Progressive Party candidate who ran and lost the mayoral race in Kaohsiung last year, is expected to be the new vice premier.
Chen served three terms as a lawmaker and had previously assumed positions such as DPP deputy secretary-general, Cabinet spokesman and deputy secretary-general to the President.
The new Cabinet secretary-general is expected to be former Acting Tainan Mayor Li Meng-yen (李孟諺).
Meanwhile, Science and Technology Minster Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) will take over as education minister, another senior political source said.
The position has been vacant since former Minister Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) tendered his resignation on Dec. 25, 2018 after taking the controversial step of giving the go-ahead to National Taiwan University (NTU) to appoint Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) as NTU president.
The government had held back approval for nearly a year, a position that cost the two education ministers who preceded Yeh their jobs.
(By Pan Tzu-yu, Hau Hsueh-ching, Ku Chuan and William Yen)


text:
Q: VS Code 3rd Party Intellisense not working I am using the latest release build of VS Code (1.13.1) and I am having some issues with the IntelliSense when trying to use 3rd party libraries.
My example is using JQuery, I have installed JQuery via NPM and imported this into my main.ts file. according to the VS Code website, the IntelliSense should automatically pick up common libraries and display functions and members that are available to that language, so when I type $ and click the '.' key I should see "ajax" for example. I can get the IntelliSense working by installing the types in NPM (npm install @types/jquery).
Am I doing something wrong that might be stopping the automated process from occuring?
Many thanks
Stuart


text:
Category Archives: Windows 10 Compatible
Figment Title Screen
Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04 or greater
Processor: Intel Core i5 2500 at 3.3 GHz, AMD FX 6120 at 3.6 GHz, or greater
Video: Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti, Nvidia GeForce GT 750M, Radeon HD5850, or greater
Hard Disk: 3 GB
Processor: Intel Core i5 at 3.3 GHz or greater
Video: Radeon R9 M290X or greater
Operating System: Windows 10 or greater
Sound: DirectX 11 compatible sound card
Playstation 3, Playstation 4, XBox 360, Logitech F710, and Logitech F310 game controllers are supported.
Posted in 2017, Action, Adventure, Bedtime Digital Games, Bedtime Digital Games, C0/S100, Compatibility, GOG.com Download, Linux, Linux Compatible, LNX-0015, Mac OS X 10.12, Mac OS X Compatible, Puzzle, Single Player, Steam Download, W10-0018, Windows 10, Windows 10 Compatible, X12-0006 | Leave a comment
Figment is an action adventure game with puzzles, released in 2017. It was developed and published by Bedtime Digital Games. In Figment you play as Dusty who is on an epic quest to restore the health of the mind he inhabits.
Figment begins with a family in a car driving through a stormy night. It sounds like a daughter in the back of the car is taunting her dad while he's trying to focus on the road. Then out of nowhere the father yells, "Oh crap!" foreshadowing the impending crash that takes place immediately thereafter.
But my scrapbook!
After the crash scene fades out, another scene fades in where Piper, a friendly flying companion, comes to wake Dusty up and get him ready. It seems Dusty is a protector and adventurer that has gotten rusty with disuse. He holds on to his scrapbook, likely filled with memories of adventures past, and is preparing to make himself an intoxicating beverage to enjoy.
While Dusty is away collecting ice for his beverage, a nightmare comes to steal his scrapbook. He begins to wake up to the fact that things are not all right with the mind, as Piper had been trying to tell him. Dusty then begins his quest to get his scrapbook back.
Consume Endurance Neurons to replenish health.
I'm not doing appropriate justice by my description of the narrative. Playing Figment made me realistically feel and experience emotions that few games ever have. With many games I sympathize with the characters as they make their way through the story, but with Figment the voice acting and body language of the characters combined with the musical score stirred serious empathy within me.
I felt genuinely hurt that Dusty had his scrapbook stolen and was treated unfairly. I felt genuinely bad for the nightmare who stole the scrapbook telling Dusty, "Eventually, we all lose everything!" to justify his actions. Piper makes me want to do what I can to help fix things when she nervously states, "Something's totally messed up in the mind!"
Collect Endorphins to level up your hit points.
My wife's aunt suffered a terrible car wreck a few years ago that left her with a traumatic brain injury. For many months after the accident it was frustrating to sit by her bed side and see her reliving nightmares and grasping at incomplete overwhelming thoughts while we could do little to help. Figment puts you right there inside a mind, struggling for survival, and makes you feel determined to set things right.
The combat is typical hack and slash. Dusty has a life bar, and he can take only so many hits before he must respawn at the nearest checkpoint. The life bar may be replenished using Endurance Neurons, green glowing balls that spin around trees throughout Figment's game world. Picking up enough Endorphins will extend your life bar, providing you an extra hit point.
Dusty must fight some diseased creatures like these Barf Rodents here.
Dusty and Piper travel together through the mind to fight fear and sickness, stoke creativity, and recontain the nightmares into their proper place. As they journey they find memories they can use to piece together and recollect the person of the mind they inhabit. Dusty starts off as an uncaring jerk, but as he picks up more endorphins he begins to turn back into his former heroic self.
When I finished recording my first impressions play through, my wife asked me if I had fun playing. I sat for a second and thought about it and then answered honestly, no. Thus far Figment has been a dramatic, poetic, artistic, incredible game steeped in symbolism, but not really fun.
Fighting the first nightmare.
I plan to continue playing Figment till I complete it. There seems to be so much depth to the story that I want to see how it turns out. The character development, musical score, and vivid artistry combine to make an epic such that it feels I have a duty to see the story through to its conclusion. While it may not be "fun," there's no game that has grabbed so much of my attention lately as Figment has. In many ways Figment goes beyond fun to provide a moving experience very unique from any other game I have played thus far.
Posted in 2017, Action, Adventure, Bedtime Digital Games, Bedtime Digital Games, C0/S100, First Impressions, GOG.com Download, Linux, Linux Compatible, LNX-0015, Mac OS X 10.12, Mac OS X Compatible, Puzzle, Single Player, Steam Download, W10-0018, Windows 10, Windows 10 Compatible, X12-0006 | Leave a comment
Splasher Title Screen
Operating System: Ubuntu 12.04 or greater, 64-bit only
Video: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series or greater
Hard Disk: 1.3 GB
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.8 or greater, 64-bit only
Operating System: Windows 7 or greater, 64-bit only
Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 250 or greater
Sound: DirectX Version 9.0c compatible sound card
Hard Disk: 700 MB
Posted in 2017, Action, C0/S100, Compatibility, Linux, Linux Compatible, LNX-0014, Mac OS X 10.12, Mac OS X Compatible, Platformer, Playdius, Puzzle, Shoot-em Up, Single Player, Splashteam, Steam Download, W10-0017, Windows 10, Windows 10 Compatible, X12-0005 | Leave a comment
Splasher is a two-dimensional puzzle platformer released in 2017. It was developed by Splashteam and published by Playdius. Gameplay reminds me greatly of Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and Super Meat Boy.
Splasher begins with your main purple-haired character scrubbing the floors at Ink Corp – very similar to the plot of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. While he's cleaning he happens to peer into a room where experiments are being done. Inside the room a mad doctor is injecting one of his fellow cleaning technicians with a substance that turns them into a potato. Scared by the scenario unfolding in front of them, your main character understandably gets the heck out of there and level one begins.
Red Ink is sticky and provides gravity.
The first level introduces the controls and serves as a basic tutorial on how to play the game. Splasher is the kind of platformer where you have great control in moving your character mid-flight. The character moves fast and the platforms and character seem small in comparison to other platformers I have played. This made the controls take a little getting used to.
After completing the first level, the player is transported to an overworld map where they may enter the next level or go back and replay a previous level. It is possible to do a speed run on previously played levels to beat your previous time. By examining the speed run mechanic, it appears there are 22 levels in Splasher.
Yellow Ink makes you hop.
Through the first three levels that I have played, I have been able to deduce that there are two types of ink. Red ink sticks you to the surface it's on and provides gravity for you to walk across when on a ceiling or wall. Yellow ink makes you bounce around like you're dancing with flubber on your feet. Water can be used to clean ink off of surfaces.
The player first receives a water gun. Eventually it appears the player receives the ability to shoot red and yellow ink from their gun, but I was not able to unlock this ability within the first three levels. Shooting potato creatures with water makes them explode and helps the player progress.
Get 700 yellow to free a friend.
The player receives a yellow substance from eliminating enemies from the game. If you can accumulate 700 units of the yellow stuff you can free your comrade locked in the cage at the end of the level. Similar to Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, you can rescue or "accidentally" kill fellow Ink Corp employees as you are working your way through each level.
The specialty Splasher brings to gaming is its fast paced puzzles that must be solved for the player to progress. Checkpoints are available between each puzzle within a level so the player isn't forced too far back when they fail. However, it is clear the greatest satisfaction Splasher offers is in getting good enough to jump from puzzle to puzzle completing the level in the shortest time possible while achieving the greatest score.
Level Selection Overworld
Splasher appears to be a decent game for puzzle platformer speed run enthusiasts who enjoy a challenge and love competing against their past scores. Given that Splasher is a single player game, I am surprised I didn't encounter an online leader board so individual players may see where they rank in worldwide rankings. It feels ridiculous for me to continue trying to beat my own score, but working my way up a rank and knowing I am Xth out of Y players worldwide pushes me to keep trying to get better.
Posted in 2017, Action, C0/S100, First Impressions, Linux, Linux Compatible, LNX-0014, Mac OS X 10.12, Mac OS X Compatible, Platformer, Playdius, Puzzle, Shoot-em Up, Single Player, Splashteam, Steam Download, W10-0017, Windows 10, Windows 10 Compatible, X12-0005 | Leave a comment
A Story About My Uncle – Linux, Mac OS X 10.9, and Windows 8 Game Compatibility
A Story About My Uncle Title Screen
Processor: 2.0 GHz Quad Core or greater
Video: Graphics Accelerator with 512 MB VRAM
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
Operating System: Windows 7 or greater
Video: DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card with 1024MB VRAM
Posted in 2014, 3D Platformer, Action, Adventure, C0/S100, Coffee Stain Studios, Compatibility, Exploration, GOG.com Download, Gone North Games, Linux, Linux Compatible, LNX-0013, Mac OS X 10.9, Mac OS X Compatible, Parkour, Puzzle, Single Player, Steam Download, W8-0003, Windows 10 Compatible, Windows 8, X9-0001 | Leave a comment
A Story About My Uncle – Linux, Mac OS X 10.9, and Windows 8 Game First Impressions
It has been some time since you saw your uncle Fred. He is the adventuring type, and once again he has gone off on an adventure, but this time for longer than usual. Because you are curious, you sneak into his house and see if you can find clues about where he's gone. While there you find an adventure suit, just like the one he takes with him on all his adventures, but this is a special one sized just for you.
You try it on and play with the contraptions you find in his observatory. You find an interesting switch and flick it on. The dome of the observatory opens and you find yourself slingshotted out into the stars.
The Adventure Suit is waiting.
A Story About My Uncle is a first person action adventure game. It was developed by Gone North Games and published by Coffee Stain Studios. It was released in 2014.
I have seen reviews say A Story About My Uncle is a parkour simulator, but I think that is selling it short given its rich story that I'll get to in a moment. The player can run and jump by holding down the shift key or hitting the space bar key respectively. The player's adventure suit can do much more, such as an increased jump when holding down on the right mouse button.
This is what a save beacon looks like.
The suit also has a powered grappling hook that can be used as a tractor beam to pull the player toward an object that is relatively close to their current position. Those who have used the grappling hook in Team Fortress mods or other first person shooters will likely understand the mechanic. If you haven't, just think Spiderman.
An obstacle course of floating islands is provided for the player to cut their teeth on in their quest to finding their uncle Fred. It was great fun jumping from platform to platform in the strange jungle cave. I am typically afraid of heights, and I struggled with that fear when first playing A Story About My Uncle. But the game is very forgiving.
Just hook and weeeee!
Your suit will protect you from all falls. The only thing dangerous concerning falling is falling into liquid since the suit is apparently too heavy to float. At least at the beginning of the game there are quick save beacons on nearly every surface. Just get in close proximity to one of these brightly lit beacons and your game will quick save. It's easy to start over whenever you fail. In no time you'll be able to bound around the game world handily enough to keep up with the story.
I had originally thought based on the vast empty world and the quiet and secluded ambiance that A Story About My Uncle would be a game in which I would find myself alone. The same adventure formulas used by classic adventures like the Myst and The Journeyman Project series seemed to be in play here.
Nice to meet you, Maddie.
I was playing in a dark room late at night with headphones on and out of no where I heard a voice say, "Hello, who are you? You're not from here." I just about jumped out of my seat. But as it turned out this friendly voice appeared to be attached to a friendly creature who knew my Uncle Fred. Maddie was her name and she gave me a tour around her village once I got there.
After her quick tour she went on ahead to talk to the village elder, Samuel, for me while I went to take a look around the village and Uncle Fred's tent. There in the tent I saw that Maddie had drawn a picture for Uncle Fred. After finishing looking around the village I am supposed to meet Maddie and elder Samuel at his dwelling.
The village people.
At this point I'm not sure what to expect next from A Story About My Uncle. It is following the predictable formulas I have come to expect from good adventure games while simultaneously throwing me quite a few curve balls thus far. The characters I have encountered seem charming and it feels so good to be swinging like Spiderman through a world of peaceful amphibious creatures. However there has to be some dark mysterious conflict somewhere. The story would not ultimately be compelling without it. Thus far the story telling has been too rich and the tension is building too great for there not to be some impending drama.
The player's character is narrating in the future as a bedtime story to his daughter, so perhaps the story won't get too out of hand. I'm really excited to see where it goes. In real life, I got sick with some kind of winter crud. Whenever this happens I usually pick out a simple turn-based Japanese role-playing game with a heavy but linear plot that I can mindlessly mash buttons to. It was refreshing to pick up A Story About My Uncle as it gave me the perfect mixture of fun non-complex action with a heavy dose of engaging story. I'm looking forward to reviewing this one once I have completed it soon. It would be great if there were some grappling hook universe out there I could escape to just to play video games in.
Posted in 2014, 3D Platformer, Action, Adventure, C0/S100, Coffee Stain Studios, Exploration, First Impressions, GOG.com Download, Gone North Games, Linux, Linux Compatible, LNX-0013, Mac OS X 10.9, Mac OS X Compatible, Parkour, Puzzle, Single Player, Steam Download, W8-0003, Windows 10 Compatible, Windows 8, X9-0001 | Leave a comment
Epistory: Typing Chronicles – Linux, Mac OS X 10.11, and Windows 10 Game Compatibility
Epistory: Typing Chronicles Title Screen
Processor: Intel Core i5 2400 or greater
Video: ATI Radeon HD4850, GeForce GTX 295 or greater
Operating System: Windows XP or greater
Posted in 2016, Action, Adventure, C0/S100, Compatibility, Edutainment, Exploration, Fishing Cactus, GOG.com Download, Humble Bundle Download, Linux, Linux Compatible, LNX-0012, Mac OS X 10.11, Mac OS X Compatible, Plug In Digital, Puzzle, Role-Playing Game, Single Player, Steam Download, Typing, W10-0016, Windows 10, Windows 10 Compatible, X11-0006 | Leave a comment
Epistory: Typing Chronicles – Linux, Mac OS X 10.11, and Windows 10 Game First Impressions
Epistory: Typing Chronicles is a hack and slash role-playing typing (yes, role-playing and typing) game released in 2016. Epistory was developed by Fishing Cactus and published on the Steam platform by Plug In Digital. It was also published DRM free to Humble Bundle and is featured in their Humble Bundle Trove for Humble Bundle Monthly subscribers.
Excited about starting a new engaging adventure, I browsed through a list of games I had not yet played and saw the title Epistory.
"Epistory, like epic story?" I thought. "I should give this a try."
I loaded up the game and saw the complete title, Epistory: Typing Chronicles.
"What? This is a typing game? Like Mario Teaches Typing or Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing? This is going to suck."
I resolved to give it a chance and started the game. The game begins with narration.
Once upon a time. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
My head was in my hands. They took a line from a classic Charles Dickens novel without directly alluding to the meaning of that line in its context. This is going to be painful.
There was a girl. And she rode on the back of a great fox.
Ok, that's better, could we have just started the story with that? Please tell me more.
Don't tell me what to do. I'll use the W, A, S, D keys if I want.
Epistory begins with a young blonde girl mounted on a very red fox. It is recommended from the start to use the E, F, J, I keys for movement in lieu of the W, A, S, D keys typically used for movement in most PC games since they are closer to the center of the keyboard for quicker typing speed. I spent over an hour trying to get used to navigating with the E, F, J, and I keys. My biggest issue was that while the E, F, J, and I keys are recommended, the W, A, S, D keys are still mapped, so accidentally touching the D key (which is beneath the E key) sends you in the wrong direction. When I finally switched back to using W, A, S, and D for all of my movement, Epistory became so much easier to play, so I recommend using W, A, S, and D from the beginning.
First combat, first blood.
Therefore, using the W, A, S, and D keys, the player navigates through the world as the story is told. Despite the rocky start, things only got better and more impressive from there. Epistory feels like any other role-playing game where you're navigating through and exploring a fascinating, colorful world. When an obstacle is encountered, the player must type out a word to remove it. Whenever a word is typed, the player receives experience points. Chaining words in rapid succession, the player can score combos to get a greater number of experience points. Once experience points have been sufficiently accumulated, the player levels up and can choose how to spend skill points to unlock new player skills.
You will encounter real enemies on your quest with real words. Large words.
Pressing the space bar will show the player all of the words in their immediate area they can type for points. Whenever a word is successfully typed, a magic bolt is fired by the girl and her fox at the object that had the word. As the game progresses enemies will approach the player and can be defeated by successfully typing words to eliminate the deadly creatures.
Epistory reminds me of Diablo.
One direct hit from a creature will kill the player, and Epistory does not start at the lowest vocabulary like other typing games do. The words employed have meaning in relation to their objects. All are real dictionary words and rarely repeated as the game progresses, keeping play fresh. This is not Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing or Mario Teaches Typing. No one is going to help you find home row in this world where evil roams. Playing Epistory is more like playing Diablo as a Ranger class, but instead of clicking the mouse button to shoot your bow, you are typing to do so. I am a software developer by trade and have been told I am an excellent typist, and I still find Epistory to be challenging. This is a good title for adults and those who feel their typing skills are up to the task.
Puzzles are well integrated and increase in difficulty.
I have played through the first two boss fights thus far and have actually really enjoyed myself. The story, though a little scattered, has gotten better and more engrossing. The music is superb, but not overwhelming. It sits in the background and supports the story, helping engross the player while not drawing too much attention to itself. I was pleased to find increasingly difficult puzzles to solve and in game art items to collect throughout the world. At times while playing I caught myself saying, "Wow!"
Epistory Level Up screen.
Epistory is now on my shortlist of games I hope to complete in the near future because I want to see what happens next. It has thus far done a phenomenal job striking a balance between challenge and fun to compel me into wanting to continue to play. I don't recall ever having played an edutainment title as enjoyable as Epistory: Typing Chronicles.
Posted in 2016, Action, Adventure, C0/S100, Edutainment, Exploration, First Impressions, Fishing Cactus, GOG.com Download, Humble Bundle Download, Item Collecting, Linux, Linux Compatible, LNX-0012, Mac OS X 10.11, Mac OS X Compatible, Plug In Digital, Puzzle, Role-Playing Game, Single Player, Steam Download, Typing, W10-0016, Windows 10, Windows 10 Compatible, X11-0006 | Leave a comment
Gremlins, Inc. – Linux, Mac OS X 10.11, Windows 10 Game Compatibility
Posted on February 2, 2019 by ElbinoBunny
Gremlins, Inc. Main Menu
Processor: Pentium 3 or greater
Video: Geforce 9XX or AMD graphics card
Operating System: Any x86 version of Mac OS X
Processor: Any x86 Mac
Posted in 2 Player, 2 Player Competitive, 2 Player Cooperative, 2016, 3 Player, 3 Player Competitive, 4 Player, 4 Player Competitive, 5 Player, Alexey Bokulev, Board Game, C50/S50, Card Game, Charlie Oscar Lima Tango Interactive Entertainment, Compatibility, Internet (Direct TCP/IP), Linux, Linux Compatible, LNX-0011, Local Area Network, Mac OS X 10.11, Mac OS X Compatible, Sergei Klimov, Single Player, Steam Download, The Merchant Guild of Rund, Turn-Based Strategy, W10-0015, Windows 10, Windows 10 Compatible, X11-0005 | Leave a comment
Gremlins, Inc. – Linux, Mac OS X 10.11, Windows 10 Game First Impressions
Gremlins, Inc. is a computerized board game designed by Alexey Bokulev and Sergei Klimov produced under the Charlie Oscar Lima Tango Interactive Entertainment brand. It was published in 2016 by The Merchant Guild of Rund to the Steam platform. It appears to be fully multiplayer, where players may play online competitively individually or in cooperative teams, or locally competitively individually or on teams as well. It appears the game may be played by 2 to 5 players. There are ladders that track player statistics that may be climbed. There appear to be plentiful mods to customize, enhance, and extend the base game, and the game appears to have been consistently updated since its release.
Players may play as one of five classes of character: the Explorer, the Manager, the Gambler, the Collector, the Thief, or the Damned. I am not yet certain as to the strengths or weaknesses of the various classes since I've only ever chosen the random character option. Hovering over each one should give a description of their strengths and weaknesses.
Players are dealt six cards each at the beginning of the game. As these cards are played or otherwise discarded throughout the game, they are replenished immediately from a random deck. At the beginning of the game, all players may discard as many cards as they wish from their hand to be redrawn prior to playing their first turn.
Character Selection Screen
Each card has a name and unique game art that make them easily remembered and identifiable at a glance once you get used to playing. The Gremlinopedia contains an index of each card and what effects they have to be referenced by the player when needed. All of this information is also present on the cards themselves within a players hand.
The number in the upper left hand corner of the card is the movement number. Cards may be played to move around the board or they may be played to execute the card's action, but never both. Once a card is played for movement or its action, it is discarded. When played for the card's action, the card must be played on the spot that it corresponds to. A picture of this spot is located on the bottom left of the card. A description of all of the spots on the board is included below. Some cards have an added action effect when played. These cards will have a gear icon located at the upper center of the card. Hovering the mouse pointer on this icon will reveal text that explains the card's effect when played.
The Gremlinopedia for referencing card effects and game information.
There are numerous Gremlins, Inc. game boards to play on, and none of them that I have seen are fully linear. Be careful to check the arrows on the board to plan your movement. On the board I first played on, there was a primary loop to travel counter-clockwise around in a circle that was fairly low risk. This primary loop had loops to the unique game spots connected to it, so traveling around this loop would provide a player access to those spots. However, there are also places within the primary loop where the player may take short cuts or move to a different place in the loop entirely. The player must take into account the risk versus reward when choosing their particular path. Paths with high reward usually come with high risk, while paths with lower reward come with a lower risk.
The most important and precious resource in the game are the general game points. At the beginning of each game, the game host decides how many game points will be played to. In the game I played, the number of game points was 20. This means that the first player to reach 20 game points would win the game. The number of game points a player has is shown in the middle of a green gear next to their player portrait on the main game screen. Wherever game points may be added or subtracted from the player in a game, they are represented by a gear.
Discard and redraw any number of cards prior to first turn.
There are also votes that may be collected or lost while navigating the board. Whomever has the most votes when elections are called becomes the governor. It's good to be the governor. Governors don't have to pay any resources when landing on a bribe spot.
Pitchforks are another resource. The more pitchforks you have the more notorious your reputation which counts for something. Be careful that you don't have the most pitchforks though as some of the nastier misfortunes target the most evil player in the game. Then there is the + and – resources. The – resource is used to pay off the police when landing on a police spot and pay bribes. Money, or G, is the common currency of the game.
Many cards require G to play on their respective spots. When G is required to play a card, the amount required will be shown in the upper right hand corner of the card. The more powerful the card, the more costly it is to play. Unfortunately for the player who likes to plan ahead, G is what is most often increased or decreased in all of the in game events around the board which makes the amount of it in your purse at any time highly volatile. Getting a high power card that requires around 1000G to play made my mouth water since it would pretty much settle the game if I were to successfully play it. So I would plan out how to get to the other side of the map to play that one card and save enough G on my way there to spend it solely on that card. I tried three separate cards like this in the game I played and each time there was something that made me lose enough of my money to keep me from playing each of those three cards. This was even with me being the governor for around 80 percent of the game. The fluctuation of G in my coffer was a strong signal that Gremlins, Inc. is as much a game of chance as it is a game of skill. Randomness is hidden by the complexity of the game, but is still present in full, frustrating force and compounded by the actions of each player added to the game.
Game board used in my first play through.
Common Spots:
Bribe – Looks like a dollar bill with a G in the middle. When passing this spot, a player must pay -, when landing on this spot double – is paid. If the player cannot pay the full amount, they pay whatever they have and receive pitchforks. The governor doesn't have to pay when passing or landing on any one of these spots.
Gamble – Looks like a die with a heart, club, and spade on it. When landing here a six sided die is rolled. If a one is rolled, a misfortune occurs. Rolling a two subtracts 50G, while rolling a four or a six will add 50G or 100G to a player's purse respectively. Rolling a three subtracts a voter and adds a pitchfork, while rolling a five adds two voters.
Income – Clearly a money spot. When passing this spot you get money, or G. When you land on it you get double G!
Misfortune – Signified by ominous red face. Passing this spot curses the player with a random misfortune. Landing on it allows a player's opponent to choose one of two misfortunes that will befall the player.
Police – Looks like a police sergeant's hat. When landing here a player must pay – or there is a chance they will be arrested.
Risk – When you land on a risk spot, a six sided die is rolled to see if any misfortune is caused to your player. Prior to the die roll, the player is offered the option to buy insurance for 20G. If accepted and a misfortune occurs, it will be directed toward other players instead of the rolling player.
Tribune – Looks like a bullhorn. When landing on one of these spots you can address your voters. A six sided die is rolled to determine the effectiveness of your speech.
Unique Spots:
The Astral Plain – Looks like a hot air balloon. When landing here a player may choose to skip one turn to lose two pitchforks and draw their choice of one out of three cards from the deck.
The Bank – Signified by a gold G. When landing here a player may spend G based on their + amount to increase + by 10.
The Casino – This spot looks like a dart board. Here a player may roll a six sided die to win or lose an amount of money wagered from their purse. Rolling a 1, 2, or 3 causes the player to lose 100G, 50G or 25G respectively. Rolling a 4, 5, or 6 causes the player to gain 25G, 50G, or 100G respectively.
The Court – Signified by an icon of an angry looking judge. When landing on this spot a player may pay 40G to take a vote from any player of their choice.
The Dump – Looks like a worn out boot. When landing here a player may roll a six sided die to dig through the junk. rolling a 1 causes the player to lose one voter. Rolling a four, five, or six, causes the player to gain 10G, 20G, or 30G respectively. Rolling anything else has no effect.
The Jail – Signified by a grid of bars. Many in game actions can send a player to the Jail. Upon entering the Jail, the player rolls a six sided die for the number of turns they will stay in the Jail. At the beginning of each turn spent in the Jail, the player may choose to engage in good behavior, be neutral, or engage in bad behavior. Good behavior helps you get out of the Jail quicker, but bad behavior increases your notoriety and jail experience while potentially adding turns to your sentence. Choosing neutral allows a player to walk the line between the two.
The Inferno – Looks like a pitchfork, seems a lot like hell. Appears to be the home of evil. Cards related to the Inferno tend to boost your player's pitchfork resource number.
The Office – Signified by a blue hand. A player may sell 1 voter for 100G on this spot.
The Marketplace – Signified by a green moneybag. When landing here a player may sell one of their precious game points for 200G if they wish.
The Plant – Signified by a golden gear on a green background. When landing here a player may skip one turn to receive 50G and lose one pitchfork if they so choose.
The Treasure – It looks like the game designers attempted to depict a yellow diamond icon for this spot, but I spent my whole first game thinking it looked like a yellow heart. The player may roll a six sided die to see how much treasure, or G, they receive. There is no losing on this space. Rolling a 1 wins 10G, 2 wins 25G, 3 wins 50G, 4 wins 100G, 5 wins 150G, and 6 wins 200G.
Gremlins, Inc. appears to be more a game of overall strategy as opposed to methodical tactics. Because of all of the probabilities of success and failure on each turn, it makes more sense to come up with a winning method of playing the game that works best in most cases than to tactically plan out each move many moves into the future. A player can plan a general strategy that provides them success a majority of the time and refine their strategy to eliminate those things that cause a loss of resources a plurality of the time. Focusing on the big picture is key.
Gremlins, Inc. is a fantastically complex game. It's the kind of game I always wanted to play as a kid but one I know I would never find anyone who would want to play it with me. If you are not a fan of complex games, don't let that statement completely scare you away. The computer takes care of most of the complexity, it's just the player's job to understand what they want to do and figure out the best path to winning. It's wonderful that the game designers have created such a game of vast complexity that is relatively simple to play and provides an interface through which to connect to other fans of complex board games worldwide with no real language barrier.
My wife beat me.
I found no evidence of unwholesome material in Gremlins, Inc. There is no violent or sexual content nor bad language that I encountered. It may be a game too advanced for younger children to understand, which could make it frustrating for them to play and for those who play with them. I would say if someone can easily play Magic: The Gathering, they should be able to handily play Gremlins, Inc.
I can't wait to play more Gremlins, Inc. My wife and I both enjoyed our first play through and are eager to play as a team competitively to see how high we can rise on the leader boards. If you are a fan of complex board games, I highly recommend you get this game.
Posted in 2 Player, 2 Player Competitive, 2 Player Cooperative, 2016, 3 Player, 3 Player Competitive, 4 Player, 4 Player Competitive, 5 Player, Alexey Bokulev, Article Type, Board Game, C50/S50, Card Game, Charlie Oscar Lima Tango Interactive Entertainment, First Impressions, Internet (Direct TCP/IP), Linux, Linux Compatible, LNX-0011, Local Area Network, Mac OS X 10.11, Mac OS X Compatible, Sergei Klimov, Single Player, Steam Download, The Merchant Guild of Rund, Turn-Based Strategy, W10-0015, Windows 10, Windows 10 Compatible, X11-0005 | Leave a comment


Some of our members went on the Dracon when it was over on the Wirral getting repaired after the mast came down. The had a great day.
Its a touring one that is gong round the country. Some bits from the museum and other bits being asked to lend from re-enactors so the real exhibits will be interesting.
Try this by one of our members.


text:
Does Omarosa Now Bow Down to Trump After Criticizing Him?
The White House dismisses Manigault Newman as someone Trump has now fired four times
By Darlene Superville	• Published at 2:56 am on March 28, 2018
Michael Reynolds - Pool/Getty Images, File
Omarosa Manigault Newman once predicted that "every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump." The question now for the former White House aide and "Apprentice" contestant is whether that applies to her, too.
Starring in another reality TV show after resigning from the West Wing, Manigault Newman unleashed one criticism after another of her longtime friend Donald Trump and former White House colleagues, testing the widely held view that few people are ever really exiled from Trump's orbit.
Manigault Newman said she was "haunted" every day by Trump's tweets and "attacked" by colleagues when she tried to intervene. She said he tweets in his underwear in the early morning. She compared leaving the White House to being freed from a plantation, a reference to her one-time status as the only black member of the White House senior staff.
If that wasn't enough, she said the country will not be OK under Trump, and teased that she may tell everything in a book.
The ill feelings may well be mutual.
Trump, who called Manigault Newman a "good person" after she left the White House, referred to her as "the worst" in a speech at a press dinner where the president traditionally jabs at friends and foes alike.
The White House dismisses Manigault Newman as someone Trump has now fired four times: thrice from "The Apprentice" and once from the White House last December.
Armstrong Williams, a longtime friend of Manigault Newman, said the fact that Trump name-checked her in the Gridiron dinner speech this month "means she's on his mind." He doesn't think she had fallen out of favor because of her nationally broadcast criticisms.
"Here's the key: The president has not tweeted about anything that Omarosa has done since she left. That's significant," said Williams, a conservative commentator. "He's tweeted about (Steve) Bannon and everybody else, but he has not tweeted or pushed back in any way against Omarosa."
Bannon is the former White House chief strategist whom Trump publicly broke with after a book about Trump's first year in office quoted Bannon criticizing some of Trump's adult children. Trump then accused Bannon of "losing his mind."
Others fired by Trump, including his first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and his first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, remain in contact with the president.
During her stint on CBS' "Celebrity Big Brother," where Manigault Newman and other celebrities lived under constant surveillance in a shared house until voted out, she steered clear of Trump's third rail, his family. But she let loose on the president and Vice President Mike Pence.
In one whispered conversation, she said working for Trump was "like a call to duty," but "I was haunted by the tweets every single day, like 'What is he going to tweet next?'" When she tried to intervene, Manigault Newman said through tears, "all of the people around him attacked me."
When asked if people should be worried, Manigault Newman nodded her head and said, "It is going to not be OK. It's not."
She criticized Pence in a later episode, saying he'd be more extreme than Trump. "So everybody that's wishing for impeachment might want to reconsider their lives. We would be begging for days of Trump back if Pence became president," she said. "He's extreme. I'm Christian. I love Jesus. But he thinks Jesus tells him to say things. I'm like, 'Jesus ain't saying that.'"
The conversations eventually came around to Trump's tweets. Manigault Newman was asked who monitors them.
"He's up in his underwear or something at 4 in the morning. Who's going to monitor that?" she said. "Remember, the bad tweets happen between 4 and 6 in the morning. Ain't nobody up there but Melania" — Trump's wife. Manigault Newman then commented on the large diamond the first lady wears on her left ring finger and said Trump "can do whatever he wants. She ain't saying nothing."
It was unclear whether her criticisms were genuine or whether she was trying to curry favor with her castmates to avoid eviction. (She didn't win.)
Manigualt Newman, who declined to comment for this story, passed up a chance to repeat her criticisms during a recent appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" after the reality TV show ended.
When asked if everything will be OK under Trump, she told Colbert, "You'll have to wait and see."
She did tell Colbert that she plans to focus on her ministry. Last April, she married John Allen Newman, senior pastor at a Baptist church in Jacksonville, Florida, during a ceremony at Trump's hotel near the White House. The website of Mount Calvary Baptist Church says she was licensed to preach in 2011 and later ordained and served as assistant pastor.
"My calling to the ministry is more important than anything else that I've done and I don't want to neglect it," Manigault Newman told Colbert.
Whether that means she's done bashing Trump remains to be seen.
In her first interview after leaving the White House, she told ABC's "Good Morning America" that "when I can tell my story, it is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear."


text:
All Things That Matter
Affects Community
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Here's What Latinos Want from the Next President – It's Not Immigration Reform
BY mitú Staff | January 19, 2016 AT 12:14 pm
By mitú Staff January 19, 2016 at 12:14 pm
Credit: we are mitú / YouTube
Latinos Plead to the Next President
We, Latinos, are a driving force for what happens in this country. We might be treated as minorities, but we're a majority. And as such, our needs as part of the population should be addressed by our government. So, Dear Future President, this is what we want…access to information, access to healthcare, access to education.
mitú challenges you to share your own story in a social media post, a meme, or any way you feel most comfortable, and post it on your favorite social channel using #WeAreAmerica. Together, we will create a beautiful portrait of what it means to be Latino in the US.
WATCH: #WeAreAmerica: The Life-Changing Moment Sebastien Realized He Needed to Show Pride for His Culture
If you had one thing to ask the future president of the United States, what would it be?
Notice any needed corrections? Please email us at corrections@wearemitu.com
Share this story with all of your friends by tapping our little share buttons below!
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Biden Says He Will Introduce An Immigration Bill "Immediately" But What Will Be In It?
By Justin Lessner January 12, 2021 at 3:09 pm
BY Justin Lessner | January 12, 2021 AT 3:09 pm
During the 2020 election, Latinos were a massive electoral voting bloc. In fact, for the first time ever, the Latino vote outnumbered the Black vote. According to the Pew Research Center, there are now 32 million eligible Latino voters and that accounts for 13 percent of all eligible voters.
And, Latinos helped deliver the presidency to Joe Biden. So it can be expected that the community has high expectations for Joe Biden to deliver on his campaign promises of immigration reform.
During a recent speech about his first 100 days in office, Joe Biden outlined his priorities once he's sworn in on January 20th, and said he would "immediately" send an immigration bill to congress.
Joe Biden promises swift action on immigration reform as soon as he takes office.
Biden says he'll introduce immigration legislation "immediately" and that his DOJ will investigate migrant family separation https://t.co/laMwbEBrmx
— Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) January 8, 2021
Over the weekend, President-Elect Joe Biden promised he would take swift action when it comes to immigration reform and rolling back many of the cruel and dangerous policies put into place by the Trump administration.
"I will introduce an immigration bill immediately," he said in a news conference on Friday.
Although he didn't go into detail regarding the proposed legislation, he's previously committed to ending Trump's ban on immigration from predominantly Muslim nations, and that he wants a path to citizenship for Dreamers, and an increase in guest worker permits to help bring undocumented agricultural workers – many of whom are now considered "essential workers" – out of the shadows.
Biden had already promised an immigration overhaul within the first 100 days of his presidency but this commitment definitely increases the pressure on him and congress to get things done.
Biden also said his justice department will investigate the policy of child separation.
During the same press conference, Biden said that his Justice Department will determine responsibility for the family separation program, which led to more than 2,600 children being taken from caregivers after crossing the U.S. southern border, and whether it was criminal.
"There will be a thorough, thorough investigation of who is responsible, and whether or not the responsibility is criminal," Biden said. That determination will be made by his attorney general-designate, Merrick Garland, he added.
During the campaign, Biden finally took responsibility for many of his administration's immigration failures.
Immigration has always made us stronger—it's essential to who we are. But Donald Trump has waged an assault on our values as a nation of immigrants.
As president, I'll undo Trump's damage and put our values back at the heart of our immigration system: https://t.co/29QNatX4Wg
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 11, 2019
Nicknamed the "Deporter in Chief," Obama deported more immigrants than any other president in U.S. history with over 3 million deportations during his time in office.
But as part of that administration, Joe Biden is also complicit. That's why during the campaign he seemed to acknowledge at least some of the pain the duo caused.
"Joe Biden understands the pain felt by every family across the U.S. that has had a loved one removed from the country, including under the Obama-Biden Administration, and he believes we must do better to uphold our laws humanely and preserve the dignity of immigrant families, refugees, and asylum-seekers," Biden's immigration plan reads.
While Obama's methods pale in comparison to the cruel tactics like family separation, inhumane conditions, and targeted raids, the impact the deportations have had on families is cannot be quantified.
Biden, like any Vice President, is put in the position of having to defend his president, but also himself as the future president. This isn't a bad thing, Biden must distinguish himself from his predecessor but if the shadow of Obama's legacy is buying him goodwill, it might be difficult to undermine that administration's stances.
Immigration reformImmigration Rightsjoe bidenpolitics
Latino Congressman Lou Correa Fights Back at Insurrectionist Trump Supporters Who Harassed Him at a D.C. Airport
By Andrea Reindl at 3:05 pm
BY Andrea Reindl | January 12, 2021 AT 3:05 pm
Photo via screenshot
As the nation still struggles to come to grip with the horrific events that took place at the Capitol on last Wednesday, the aftermath of the debacle threatens to be just as horrifying as the event itself.
Videos are still continuing to pop up of unhinged far-right Trump supporters making public spectacles of themselves. But one such video became viral when the target of their hate refused to lie back and take it.
Recently, a video went viral of Democratic California Congressman Lou Correa being harassed by a crowd of Trump supporters right after the storming of the Capitol.
LOVE THIS DUDE!!!
pic.twitter.com/RPtQosVgAZ
— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) January 12, 2021
The incident took place at the Washington Dulles International Airport right outside of D.C. Based on the location and the timing, its safe to assume that these enraged Trump supporters were part of the insurrectionist mob that stormed the Capitol.
In the video, we see Rep. Correa defend himself against an irate mob who is getting in his face and hurling vitriolic insults at him.
Videos if the confrontation were posted by various right-wing social media pages, ostensibly trying to "expose" Correa for standing up for himself.
The title of their video was "Lou Correa Exposed", but they exposed themselves to be a bunch of bullies
— CynicalCapricorn (@CynicCapricorn) January 12, 2021
The video begins with various Trump supporters raving to Correa about "communist China" and "antifa". When Correa explains that he was in Washington, D.C. to defend democracy, one of the Trump supporters tells him that the U.S. "isn't a democracy, it's a republic."
The video then shows a large, deep-voiced many getting in Correa's face and bellowing "Who are you?" and calling Correa a "F–ker". Off screen, another man yells at Correa: "Nobody here voted for you. We don't want you," to which Correa responds: "That's okay! 70% of people in my district did."
In the face of such hatred, Correa held his own, refusing to be cowed by a group of bullies who recently showed themselves to be no better than terrorists.
In various interviews since the video went viral, Correa described the events that led up to the incident.
The morning after Wednesday's events @RepLouCorrea was harassed by pro-Trump crowds at DC airport.
After several lawmakers were hassled in airports, @axios reports federal authorities are increasing security for Congressmen through Inauguration.
Correa shares how he felt ▶ pic.twitter.com/UfXLV6qMNL
— Em Nguyen (@EmNewsDC) January 12, 2021
Correa told The OC Register that he had had roughly 15 minutes of sleep the night before after having stay up late to ratify the electoral votes after the process was interrupted by an angry mob.
He says he turned the corner to head towards his gate when the angry Trump-supporters recognized him as a lawmaker. "They picked me out, and boy, they came at me," he told CNN.
Correa added that he was "surprised" at how "brazen" the hecklers were.
"They started lobbing all kinds of statements and just getting in my face, and I wouldn't back off," he said to the Register. "It was a situation where they were amped up and I have no idea why they came at me. Then I was surrounded by them and I stood my ground."
But Correa, who was born in East LA and spent much of his youth in Mexico, says that he wasn't intimidated by the bullies.
In the same interview with the Register, Correa described himself as from "the hood" and said that he is used to having angry citizens confront him for one reason or another. But this incident was unlike anything he's ever experienced.
"I've never seen our nation so divided," he said. "I'm OK with people coming up and expressing their anger and what have you. It's another thing when people go out of their way to surround you and go after you."
capitol riotsLou CorreaMAGAPoliticianspoliticsRiotWashington D.C.
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