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Awful Gamasutra Article on why Starcraft is hard
Gamasutra had a an article on Why Starcraft is hard. As usual, both out of laziness and respect, I will not surimise Evan Jones' points, but instead link to the article. I'm rather rough on him, but I hate these sorts of articles. They don't get to the meat of why game design functions in a certain way, they dress it up to make it seem more interesting than it actually is. That's can be fun, but on a site dedicated to game design, seeing something like that as a featured post disappoints me. I'd have hoped someone elses bullshit sensors would have been set off.
I don't even thing Jones was purposefully talking out of his ass or is particularly egregious in his errors — I generally don't read Gamasustra for a reason — but unfortunately someone linked the article and I know just enough about Starcraft to know he was a good ways off the mark and in ways that should have been obvious. I'm sad no one really called him out on the obviously foolish bits about 'expectations'. I'm pretty bad at Starcraft and even I know whats up in this regard. Anyways, heres my reply. If he gives back anything interesting, I'll of course post it to try and be fair.
I apolgoize in advance for coming off as harsh, but I think you basically miss all the actual points and described what you did observe rather obtusely. Basically, I think the article is pretty bad!
First off, this 'players expectation' stuff is entirely nonsense. If you put someone who never got trained to have these expectations in front of Starcraft 2, the game would still be hard. This has nothing to do with player expectations. Sure, if every other game did this, SC2's difficulty would be less notable, but expectations isn't WHY it's hard. What you observed is the fact that many developers are willing to design games that are inherently stressful.
As for 'starting safe', yeah, sure, a lot of games do that, but a lot of games don't. From tetris (or any puzzle game), to fighting games, to some FPSs, to many sports games (depending on the sport, obviously). Even when true, does it matter? When you leave your base in an FPS, you're immediately at risk and continue to be at risk until you're dead. In fact, in a strange way you start Starcraft out safer than you do in most games. You can literally be playing a 1v1 game for 5 minutes (and actually be PLAYING) before being at any real risk!
So what IS up in Starcraft? All this and all this talk about 'safe states' is just dancing around something we have a word for.
Starcraft has a very strong -slippery slope-! A nice word that speaks directly the point and saves many paragraphs. But there is still room to expound, if one wishes. What makes this slippery slope even worse is the fact that, unlike many many other games, doing nothing is NEVER, EVER the best option. You can stand and wait for your opponent to act in a fighting game, hide around a corner in an RTS or whatever, but doing nothing in an RTS, particularly Starcraft, is you ceding an advantage to your opponent. So even in the first 5 minutes of the game, when you are unlikely to get attacked, you can possibly be already at a disadvantage.
You are actually right when you bring up the fact that Starcraft is very much a game of incomplete information (of course you don't SAY that and for some reason bring mario into it, but whatever). That is inherently stressful (having nothing to do with expectations) and mixing that with 5 minutes of mostly scouting and waiting, is very taxing… not to mention when the game actually gets moving! So the game is pretty rough and intimidating before you can even get attack! Then even after that, you have a huge, hard game ahead of you. The reason the game gets 'easier' for people is not that their expectations change, but that they learn to gather information and reduce uncertainty, thus reducing stress.
So anyways, the fast list of why Starcraft is actually hard.
Inaction is extremely detrimental
Incomplete information
Extremely high speed and reaction demands
Long game length
Tons of information to have to learn
And it's hard to learn that. information because of the long game lengths.
So basically in short, you play at a million miles an hour, are never sure what your opponent is doing, can't ever take a break, every failure risks killing you outright and the game can take forever to play and learn. You got some of that, but for the most part you just overcomplicated the issue with nonsense like 'player expectations'.
Too Much Talking Episode 26: "The Humstar Returns"
Featuring: Kayin, April, Patito, and sleeping Eric and Flick
Too Much Talking #26 "The Humstar Returns" 05/31/11
Damn it's hot over here. Or being New York, it's more HUMID. 85 might not sound like much but it will when the air is made primarily of water! Anyways in this episode we talk about Sound Design in games (BTW I'm sorry for going Castlevania 3 two weeks in a row for the music, but the Japanese VRC3 soundchip in the Japanese version of the game had SICK CHIP MUSIC as you will hear), the generational changes of game design, Bobert and the Redbull, DRM and the accessibility of them Fighting Games.
People believe the darnedest things
So I saw a cool picture of one of the Dawn of Sorrow sigels on the 4chan front page. I clicked it and wound up in /x/ — /x/ being the paranormal board. Being a skeptic, Paranormal usually gives me a laugh and most people don't seem to take it too seriously, but the post that image lead to was started by a person claiming to be an 'ex skeptic' who became a practitioner of 'chaos magic'. So I immediately thought that 'ex-skeptic' is the saddest thing ever, but then I read more! The poster gave an example of what magic was doing for him!
"As is recommended, I'm practicing vigils on smaller, less significant things. This sounds stupid, but I created a sigil for my desire to get a Valmanway in Castlevania HD, pretty sure I charged it, then I tried to get a Valmanway for about an hour, and nothing. I get called into work 3 hours later so I stop dicking around on my xbox and go to work, and have to handle the workload of 2 people that called out, luckily a higher-up took notice of my "hard work ethic" and I'm getting a promotion pretty much out of nowhere. Not sure if I totally fucked up the sigil, since it didn't affect what I wanted it to, or I did too good of a job and had a much better effect than anticipated."
I laughed out loud at this point. Later he goes on about how unexpected him being praised would be and how it'd be "Some coincidence" if it was merely that. So I have to ask… I know it's generally not cool to say "Oh well so and so could never have REALLY been (X) if he's now (Y)", but really, if you go from skepticism to a magic system where you worship *FICTIONAL DEITIES* (and no, I don't mean fictional in the atheistic sense, I mean like, stuff out of Lovecraft or even Crom from Conan if you want!), and then fall for simple confirmation bias (and not even a good example of it!) can you REALLY claim to be have been a skeptic? It's just so hilariously daft that I had to post it. Someone else gave an example of this "magick"…
"Also, sigils work best when you are not conscious of the desire. From your description I take it you were playing the game wondering "wtf! is this thing even working??!"
Here's an example of a simple sigil exercise I did recently: In this particular instance I decided to manifest a candy bar. I visualized a chocolate bar half opened with a bite out of it. I focused until I could taste and smell the chocolate. Anyways, four days later I was hanging out with my fiancé and she wanted to surprise me. She made me close my eyes while she drove me to the mystery destination. It turned out to be my favorite spice and tea shop. She wanted to buy me my favorite bloody mary mix but the store was closed for some odd reason. We ended up wandering into the Seroogy's candy shop next door. We browsed for a while and she ended up buying me four chocolate meltaway bars. Fast forward to the next day. I was meditating in my hot tub when all the sudden I realized. Holy shit, I got my candy bar!"
The idea of "I wanted to get a candy bar and then 4 days later I bought a candy bar it's soooo magical" is pretty hilarious. and, even if somehow true, amazingly ineffectual compared to just GOING OUT AND GETTING THE CANDY BAR WHEN YOU WANT IT, but this is somehow way less ridiculous to me because at least this guy didn't claim to be a former skeptic. I suppose it's fun to live in a makebelieve world where every little coincidence was caused by your will!
Anyways this was just really silly and I needed to post about it. People believe this stuff!
Super Talking Time Bros
Super Talking Time Bros is a joint effort that took place on Jeremy Parish's personal forums, Talking Time. This project took a handful of typical gamers and showed how they could outperform the vast majority of the indie game scene in terms of level design simply through a simple peer review process. I can say without hesistation that I enjoyed playing this project far more than either of the New Super Mario Bros games. The project was made in the now abandoned SMBX engine, with the whole community being allowed and encouraged to submit level files. A lot of levels had to be revised quite a bit and I believe a few levels were salvaged by other members of the community. The pack is not perfect — it's slightly disconnected at times in style for obvious reasons, but it avoids virtually all he pitfalls of 'rom-hack' style level design. These levels were designed with the premise of SMB3 in mind — fun, short, simple levels. The pack goes crazier than that for sure, but that goal kept things from getting out of hand.
I submitted two levels of my own (being impressed by the quality of the initial pack) to the expansion pack. The expansion pack is a little bit more wacky and akin to those hidden Starworld levels in Super Mario World. One of my submissions is a neat, but straight forward level and another is hidden… perhaps due to it's IWBTGish nature? Anyways, I'm hosting the whole shabang right now so please, download it and give it a go. It comes with SMBX so it should be all ready to play. I think many people will be impressed with the powers of peer review and revision.
Download Super Talking Time Bros + Return of Talking Time Here
Art: Cassara Character Sheet
http://kayinnasaki.deviantart.com/#/d3grbic
This took a disproportionate amount of time to do. Not because of anything you actually see now, but because I spent so long trying to make an holder drawing of Cassara work. I eventually ended up redrawing basically everything and I'm glad I did. I'll let the rest of the image speak for it's self. Also I got layers!
Too Much Talking Episode 25: The "300 Dollar Hat" Episode
Too Much Talking #25 "300 Dollar Hat" 05/17/11
More fighting game banter. We also talk about Brink a bit, as well as some shameful broken games we like. Talk about Video Game Movies and Movie Video Games come up and eventually I talk about Castlevania and a possible new project. Oh yeah we also talk about sweaty dick punching.
More (mostly) Unrelated Random Thoughts
I had two random thoughts that I decided I should spend some time on here. One relates to the stages we go through while developing a skill and a bit on conspiracy theories and how they take advantage of the brain's desire to make unnecessary connections.
I was out at at my Aunt and Uncle's house and watching my little cousin try and play badminton with her dad. He'd serve over the shuttlecock and she'd take wide, desperate swings at it. We're talking like axe swings. I didn't see a single rally — every time she did manage to make contact, the resulting trajectory was someplace wild. I eventually got involves to show her some her how to hit it better. Mostly just coordinating her strike and how to line up with the birdie and how to aim to knock it up. Before I left a few minutes later, we managed to get a pretty long rally going.
Our first instinct when we try something new seems to be to fail wildly and desperately to achieve the most basic goal. Hit the shuttlecock, bat the ball, shoot the opponent, kill the king. Whatever. You generally see a similar type of desperate flailing in all these things. It's hilarious to an inexperienced players spazz out and randomly hit buttons when he gets nervous. This uncoordinated desperate reaction will eventually find results. While flailing we notice the things that somehow work and strive to recreate them. Someone can give you advice to get you on target sooner, but the mechanism seems pretty consistent.
From there we tend to move on to developing technique and applying it to anything without thinking about the results or the details. It doesn't matter where the shuttlecock or ball goes, as long as it's legal. It doesn't matter where you fighting game combo puts the opponent afterward, nor does it matter what path we take to find the enemy in an FPS. Our goal is to do 'the thing' and get the mental reward for success. What "the thing" is generally then changes and gets more sophisticated. Maybe it's a precise spike of the shuttcock. Maybe you want to hit a certain combo or maybe you have one really mean build in an RTS. You're not paying much attention to your opponent, you just know this one thing is hard to deal with or makes you feel clever or whatever. Often we focus on "the thing" to our detriment, when more subtle or less risky tactics would be better.
It's only until much later that we actually start considering the in depth consequences of our actions. Maybe we should hit the shuttlecock to where our opponent -isn't-. Maybe I should use the combo that will put the opponent in the corner but does less damage. Maybe I should use a specialized build to counter what my opponent is doing now that I scouted him. Maybe I'll consider where my enemies usually go in an FPS and predict their actions. Maybe I'll restrict their access to weapons or armor. So why does it take so long to worry about what would be considered strategic things? Why can't we calm our spastic reflexes, once we know they exist? Why do we keep doing "The thing" Mostly, I think, because our brain can only keep track of a few (7) things at one time. When we are wasting mental processes on things like coordination, we can't think about strategy. As more and more aspects of a skill become rote memory and automatic, we free up more mental resources to look for more details. The entire process of skill improvement seems to be delegating things to rote memory as to free your mind up for more complex and sophisticated things. I'm not sure what this means to us or how this can benefit us, but it never hurts to have an idea about how your brain might be working.
Excessive Connections and Conspiracy Theories
In my experience, people value big connections over simplistic answers. We especially like them when they come to adding additional "Agency" to a situation — more people. You're at work and you go into your jacket to get a drink. You realize your red bull isn't there anymore! You think maybe it fell our of your coat pocket in the car, but then you see Bobert drinking a red bull. WAIT, THATS PROBABLY YOUR RED BULL! AND YOU THINK BOBERT HATES YOU! You go over and confront Bobert and he just happened to bring a red bull today! Your response? Well, if you're overly emotional, often…
"HOW CONVENIENT!"
Well…. whats wrong with a convenient answer? It's as it says on the tin — convenient. It makes sense. What's more likely? That Bobert went into your coat pocket, snagged your drink and drank it where you could see him and then proceeded to lie to your face? Or that he just happened to purchase a popular beverage? The idea that Bobert is out to get you tends to be the more seductive idea. A PERSON did this, not luck or chance, and it lines up with possible assumptions you might have of him. This scenario is pretty contrived, but I trust you can think of other examples. We like making connections and we like doing this because, as far as I understand, we are wired this way.
It's my (hopefully not mistaken) understanding that when the brain forms, it forms with premade connections. Nothing are at those connections, it just makes them. A huge tangled mess of wiring where one thing goes to another all willy-nilly. As we develop, we fill in the nodes and prune excess connections. We're also wired to be pretty darn social so a lot of are links are dedicated to people and traits and interactions. We're pretty much made to make big, complex, intermingled connections. A big bungling hypothesis that connects a ton of unrelated things often feels nice –it reinforces the complex connections in our brain.
Now reality tends not to require big a big mess of connections, nor a desire for agency. As such we tend not to be particularly good at making clear assessments of the world. So why would we be this way? Well, lets start with agency.
Imagine you're in a dark cave, thousands of years ago,
and you hear a noise. Do you assume it's just a rock falling — something is extremely likely — or that a cougar is in the cave? The rock is the most likely answer, but assuming the cougar is the response most likely to help you survive. Assuming agency in a sense is natural. Through out history we assumed the world was created by an agent. We assumed the sun was pulled by an agent across the sky. We assumed an agent took our lives and put them somewhere else. We assumed agents made storms and caused earthquakes. It's a very natural thing to want to do.
As for the connections? I can't say anything definitive on this. It could just be because thats the only way for the brain to 'easily' develop, but it also could be because that is the easiest way to gain data, insight and to see patterns. Simplier conclusions are actually harder to form and often don't easily inform other parts of our brain. Like when I postulated that we approach new skills in a wild, uncoordinated fashion until we notice what sticks, that also seems to be the same way ideas work. We can make lots of connects — because they connections are more likely to help us than harm us in tribal man. Safer to be superstitious than to be brazen.
So now to get to the part about conspiracy theories with Osama's death, I've been seeing a lot of these crop up again. Fair enough, it's the skeptically responsible thing to not necessarily assume he's dead (though anyone who flat out says he isn't is being a great fool). I don't see any sensible reason to doubt it yet (Sure we didn't see the body, but lying about his death seems like it wouldn't have much benefit in the long run), but it's fine to be skeptical within reason. What actually has been getting me is that it also seems to have dredged up older, long debunked theories. From 9/11 stuff, to me (and this one baffles me the most) finding out that people my age sometimes still deny the moon landing. I generally don't give much thought to these. They come from a bad place — constructed realities. They do the same thing fundamentalists do. They start with a premise and then look at holes in the official stories and inject the premise into those holes. Much like the "God of the Gaps" this is the "Conspiracy of the Gaps". It's a bad way to think that people seem very susceptible to. We all to some degree do it, just not anyways to such extremes.
I generally avoid factual arguments on the topic of conspiracies. It's unrewarding work. Someone says something ridiculous, you spend an hour finding something credible on the topic, show them, they dismiss it and yack out some other unsubstantiated fact. Often I'm willing to do this for the bigger, more well documented theories, but thats another story. To me, it's about how these theories are fundamentally flawed. They are fundamentally flawed because (among other reasons) they rely almost primarily on connections.
The CTist presents his long, detailed theory, connecting the former president to nazis and various involved companies and agencies to one another. Tons of people are brought in, each through a complex and ingenious theory, detailing motives and personal relationships. They go into plausible techniques on how various things could be faked and point out various oddities that prove the real story is fake.
"… Or maybe we just landed on this moon and the reason their are no stars in any of the photos is BECAUSE IT'S THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING DAY"
"Oh isn't that convenient"
Why yes it is convenient. Convenient and sensible. It's problematic that all the connections made in the conspiracy theory is considered proof. By complicating the issue and implicating as many people or things as possible, we somehow lend an air of legitimacy to theories. That is pretty much the exact opposite of what we should look for in a good theory. It's the concept of Occam's Razor. Often the Razor is abused.
"Well if the simplest answer is likely true, then God and the fact we didn't go the moon seem way more simple!"
Well… that's not actually Occam's Razor. Occam's Razor (as modernized) goes…
Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity
And yet this is exactly how we're wired to work. The more entities, the better! Necessity is a pretty funny thing — any tiny hole can be viewed as a need for a new entity. Perhaps a controlled demolition took place at the Twin Towers and we can see that in the sulfur residue on steel samples. Or maybe it was just the god damned gypsum walls. Again, it sounds convenient, but is it really less so than implicating thousands of people to do a task that is nearly impossible (wiring the building would have taken months) for practically no reason (.. you.. already hit a ton of shit with planes, what motivation do you have in blowing it up and risking blowing your conspiracy? What else does it gain you)? Or even better, if the whole explosive residue thing posted in a "peer reviewed journal" was a document, written by conspiracy theorists, put in an illegitimate journal that one nearly needs to pay a flat fee to get into? But it involves more entities — more agency — and we like that. Just look at our hollywood movies and TV shows. Complex webs of interactions and little details meant to stimulate our connection-oriented head… But reality rarely seems to be that. Underhanded politicing happens all the time, but generally in very direct ways and have simple explanations. Lets look at a real government secret! We have Area 51! Does it house aliens? Alien technology? The government was clearly up to some shady, secretive stuff over there! Well yeah, they were! How about a flying diamond — a flying wing if you will — thats invisible to radar? That'd sound pretty insane, but it's just a Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. That was secret government technology and information that they didn't want falling into enemy hands. It was prototyped and tested in Area 51 and was responsible for a number of UFO sightings.
Another problem is that a lot of these theories goes about the issue of gaps the wrong way (again, like a fundementalist). Often things act in weird, unexplainable ways that defy expectation and these things are used as gaps for more theories. Compare this to say, something behaving in a way we'd expect before we realize that it shouldn't have happened that way. The controlled demolition at least gets points because it fits into this — we'd assume the building fell, and it did, but they say it shouldn't have. Granted, the assumption that it shouldn't have is pretty wrong, but that's another story. This is great when it comes to the moon landing conspiracies, which will illustrate the problem with this line of thinking.
Okay, no stars in the sky. This is easily debunked as I said above, but lets consider something else. If you were faking the moon landing, wouldn't you have had someone poke holes in the black sheet? In a building filled with astro physicists, you'd think someone would go "Shit man, where are the stars!" … assuming there should have been stars, of course. Or issues with various light sources. All these things have explanations, but lets agian look deeper. What moron on set would have a second light source? You'd think a NASA scientist would be there, going "BITCH, WE ONLY GOT ONE LIGHT SOURCE UP THERE AND THATS THE FUCKING SUN". Nah, lets risk blowing the whole conspiracy to look pretty. Or the footprints in the regolith? You'd think the thing to do would be for the astronauts NOT to make footprints, but the reality was unexpected. In fact if I recall, either Buzz or Armstrong noted how well their footprints stuck around while talking to NASA just because it was so weird. We didn't understand that lunar soil would be so craggy, sharp and sticky and it behaved in an unexpected way. It's more important to craft a narrative than it is to account for common sense. In fact, I think this is why the Moon Hoax is still around. Before they had the resources to debunk these people (the internet) they managed to craft a pretty huge narrative. It still makes a compelling story now, able to sucker in more people who want to be in the "in" crowd.
The stories and connections do not have to make sense in these theories. If you were to assume the 9/11 conspiracy theories to be true, you'd have a lot of weird things to work out. Why detonate a building you hit with a plane? Why not hit the pentagon with a plane you captured? Why use a cruise missile when you risk someone filming it? What possible purpose would that serve? In fact, why even bother hitting the pentagon at all? If your goal was to terrify the population, go to war and pass terrible legislation, why over complicate things? Why take unnecessary risk? Now if you were to say to me "Well, I believe they knew the attacks were coming and didn't do anything so they had an excuse to do X X and X", well… I don't necessarily believe that, but it's reasonable. That's not a terribly popular theory though, because it's not nearly as sexy as it's competition. These things are practically memetic and the most compelling theories survive, regardless of how easy they are to disprove. Only the appeal of the idea matters, as any defense can be written off as shilling for the government. In fact it's easy to make that claim when your theory involves so many entities already! In fact the more people paid off, the more 'evidence' you have about the conspiracy! How silly.
David Wong over at Cracked wrote a great article years back about Loose Change. He takes a similar angle to mine (in fact he influenced mine), where it's not about countering baseless claims with fact, but about addressing the psychology of the issue. The Loose Change business is old news, but the article is still a good read. David isn't particularly pro government either (just look at some of his other articles), but knows a bad argument when he sees one.
Anyways that was way more writing than I thought I was going to do.
Random Thought: Guys are probably pruder than women when it comes to female characters
Samus was a cool guy. He fought aliens and didn't afraid of anything.
This is sort of a casual thought. I'd have to do a lot of research to really pin down if this is true. So consider this an "opinion" piece — or I think I would rather say, an "observation piece". I'd like to know in the end if this lines up with what any of you have noticed.
I was arguing about sexism in Other M on some forum. My position hasn't really changed — while you can call the resulting story sexist, it's more an artifact of bad writing (the game is also racist and all the characters are 1 dimensional). The discussion was mostly semantic, but then I said something that I think got an interesting response. I said that it was totally fine to show Samus's feminine side (or at least for her femininity or lack there of to be addressed) — and in fact, probably a good idea. I said that the issue was in a totally awful execution and too much time spent on the issue). The responses were funny to me.
The beauty of Samus as a character is that she was never defined by her gender, and that's what feminism is all about. Why is it females are considered to have certain traits that deviate from the norm, femininity if you will, by which they need to be defined?
Now, the first part is true. Samus is NOT defined by her gender (She's a badass bounty hunter!) and I guess that could be considered a readers digest version of feminism (I'm never exactly sure)… But I didn't say that, nor did I say anything thats implied in the second part. In fact, why would he suggest to begin with that feminine qualities are deviations from the norm? There were other examples of this by other posters, but this was the most obvious. An obvious sign of what I think is Male Gamer Guilt.
First let me state something I thought was obvious. The two genders are not the same. Equality is different from being the same. We have different loads of chemicals and impulses going through our heads, not to mention societal development. This isn't to say that gender is a box that we're stuck in, but like many other things, it's one of the qualities that defines how we develop and makes the exceptions all the more interesting and this does not JUST apply to women. I have to imagine that the reason Poster-who-will-remain-nameless would think that female traits are somehow deviations is because video games are written mostly by men, mostly for men and most of us reading this are probably men (just guessing my demographic here). Men and our traits seem gender neutral because we're fucking bias. Everything we play is made in and for our perspective. Now, I didn't say Samus should have strong feminine qualities, but the general attitude seems to be that we should be afraid of such characters. We think they're sexist! Why be feminine when you can be gender neutral like us men?
…. Which is to say they should act like men.
… Okay wait, that doesn't sound like what we want, does it? But it's kinda what a lot of us are accidentally saying, to various degrees. We might think male characters are gender neutral, but they're not. Someone in the thread stated Hal Emmerich from Metal Gear Sold as an example of such neutrality, being a male character with what many would traditionally consider female oriented traits… but Hal is definitely defined by his sex. If Otacon was a female character, he'd be perceived much differently (some might even say he'd be a sexist character!). As a male though he is contrasting the cast of strong, muscly action males, particularly Snake and this is clearly intentional. He even serves to contrast with Meryl, who is a lot tougher than him. Gender plays an important aspect in social interaction and our perceptions of things. Clearly men don't have to be manly and women don't have to be girly, but it is the contrast between the two genders (be they biological or societal) that make deviation from the norm interesting. If you switched Hal and Samus's gender you'd have a potentially offensive character and just another space marine. These things should not necessarily dictate or define traits and characteristics, but its naive to think they aren't important. Characters should not be bound to be in one direction or another, they should be free to explore the various gender related nuances and have those nuances still not be the most defining aspect of their character.
I think this is part of why female characters fall so short. We're so afraid of representing them poorly, that we always end up representing them 1-dimensionally. Lets look at Chell. Chell has been cited by people as an excellent example of a female protagonist…. Why would they say something so dumb? She has no character at all. She doesn't say anything. The only things that ever speak to her are insane computers. Her actions don't communicate anything other than a will to survive. She likely only has an appearance at all due to the portal mechanic. SO why is this a successful female character? Because Chell is inoffensive. She doesn't talk, so she can't do anything wrong and she's not sexed up so she doesn't make male gamer feel guilty or sleazy. She's mostly gender neutral — the only time it matters is pretty much when it comes to Glados's fat jokes. By lacking any characterization, she also lacks any bad characterization. What about Gordon you may ask? Well, we know he went to school at MIT and has a degree on Theoretical Physics. His thesis was titled "Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction Through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array". We know his childhood heroes were Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Richard Feynman. We see him interact with a number of characters with different dispositions toward Gordon and get at least some sort of vibe about who Gordon is. Also lets be real here.
Gordon actually isn't a particularly great character, we just love a nerdy scientist kicking ass.
And Chell? She could be a male and it wouldn't have been all that big a deal. Now, theres nothing wrong with Chell, she fills her role fine, but is this REALLY what we consider an example of a good female protagonist? A bland, uninspiring, riskless character? If we're trying not to offend women, is this even a character that they'd like?
What do Female Gamers Want?
Good question, I wish I could answer it! I can say that our (male) assumptions are generally off at best, though. I'll use an example of a character I've seen cited by a number of ladies. Bayonetta.
I wish I could be as fabulous as Bayonetta
WHAT?! But she's a skank and is pandering and is oversexed! She embarrasses me to even play!
Yeah, well get over it, sissy. I'm not sure if Bayonetta would be cited by a ton of ladies (but I've noticed a surprising amount of them), but it begs the question — why is it wrong for a woman to be sexy? Why is it wrong for a woman to WANT to be sexy or stylish or beautiful? We can fantasize about mackin' it with the hotties but girls can't appreciate an empowered female who is sexually intimidating to males? Bayonetta's sex appeal is from the female perspective, not ours. She's the one in charge. Bayonetta has the gender upperhand in her world. To quote this article…
As a woman, I haven't often been satisfied by female character options that effectively boil down to "the same thing as a man, just with breasts and a ponytail." Thanks to its innovative approach to the idea of female power, Bayonetta is the first action game heroine that's made me directly conscious of how cool it is to be a girl.
I already know that women can do all the same things men can. This time, I get to see a woman do plenty of things men can't. And I love it.
Also let me throw out what I think is a great comparison (In fact, I don't think this is even mine! I think it came from some video I watched. If someone knows what I'm talking about give me the link)!
Even when she had more clothes, Ivy still made no sense.
Now like I said, I enjoy Ivy's horrible washed out trashy milf pornstar look in recent games, but she's actually a pretty shitty character entirely. She dresses all sexed up but her character has nothing to do with that. She just looks hot and whips things and sorta… is Ivy. Sexy isn't sexy for her self or because of who she is, she's sexy for us. That sex appeal she's showing is not in any way part of her character, while for Bayonetta it IS very much a part of her character. From talking to female gamers about this, the impression I got from most of them is it is TOTALLY OKAY for characters to be sexy and hot…. Why would that be a problem?
Don't us men want to be sexy? Don't we want to walk around with no shirts on, showing off our abs like some underwear model? Don't we want to impress women with our sexiness (or other dudes, if thats your thing!).
Dante you slut, get a shirt on.
Dante came before Bayonetta and he's basically the same thing. Sure, he doesn't get naked when he uses magic, but thats another story. He's someone many of us guys wish we could be and someone many girls wish they could get. When Bayonetta came out my friend April said to me "Now I can play a DMC game without being horridly attracted to the main character!". The visual media of video game almost demands attractive, stylized characters.
This isn't JUST a desire to impress the other sex either, it's a self esteem thing. Now the modern male worries a lot about this because socially women are still catching up and many unreal standards are placed upon them and rightfully so, but we seem to worry about it more than they do. There is reason for this guilt, but we shouldn't let it blind us.
Now this isn't to say female gamers want hyper-sexual female protagonists. I think most are fine or even, like us, like sexy stylish characters, as long as their primary goal isn't to pander to the opposite sex (Bayonetta weirdly seems to be a sex goddess from a female perspective). Sexiness aside, a lot of the other characters listed are the same as many of the ones we'd list. Pre-Other M Samus, Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, Lightning, The Boss. What this shows to me is that we all want bolder, more characterized women in our game, but to help that happen, I think we have to stop being uncomfortable about feminine qualities. It's not inherently sexist or exploitive to do so. At the very least we need to realize that us guys are probably being way pruder about this than most women. At the very least we need to not assume as much, because of us (Even me with this post) can be talking out of our asses.
Here is also an older article I read about how we get the 'strong' in 'strong female character' wrong. I think it's worth a read.
Too Much Talking Episode 24: The "Love Tunnel" Episode
Featuring: Kayin, Flick, April, Patito, Eric, Ben
Too Much Talking #24 "Love Tunnel" 05/04/11
Mostly questions this week, though we talk about the PSN outage a bit first. Super Smash Bros, Melee comes up, as does a few other fighter-ly topics. We do the obvious Portal 2 stuff and talk about the best and worst of video game soundtracks. We also talk about a sultry topic — which Mascot Character would you take into the love tunnel?


text:
Norwalk, CT September 17, 2018 – Choyce Peterson, Inc. (www.choycepeterson.com), a commercial real estate brokerage and consulting firm which specializes in representing both office and healthcare tenants, announced the successful completion of lease negotiations for a lease renewal on behalf of Akademos,Inc. ("The Company") for 6,276 square feet of space at 200 Connecticut Avenue in Norwalk, CT. Adam Cognetta, Vice President, represented Akademos in the transaction.
Akademosk new they needed a professional, efficient and forward-looking real estate partner as their initial lease period was nearing expiration. Knowing Choyce Peterson's reputation for specialized and comprehensive tenant rep work, they approached Adam Cognetta. With a professional atmosphere and highway access of key importance, Cognetta assessed and presented a number of viable, yet diverse market alternatives, conducting an extensive search of available properties in Norwalk, Darien and Wilton. The Company had plans to redesign their space to accommodate employee growth in the coming years bringing optionality, a flexible layout and increased parking density to the forefront when considering alternative buildings. Cognetta concurrently negotiated with the landlord at 200 Connecticut Avenue in order to best match his client's need for added headcount while offering a refreshed aesthetic, reflective of Akademos' young and vibrant culture.
After assessing all competing proposals, The Company determined that renewing their space at 200 Connecticut Avenue netted the ideal result, boasting excellent access to I-95 and a great workable solution with a landlord who recently completed renovations to the building's main lobby and entryway and has plans to landscape and activate outdoor spaces on the property.
Cognetta worked tirelessly alongside the client and architect to add office and right-size circulation areas, and with furniture vendors to reconfigure workstations within Akademos' existing footprint. Cognetta negotiated a generous concession package with the landlord to fund all work, factoring in flexible timing to ensure construction would not interfere with the client's seasonal business.
A Company representative stated "Adam was extremely valuable and responsive in our mission to ultimately renew our lease. He demonstrated an unparalleled level of responsiveness and professionalism, keeping our key objectives at the center of all negotiations. He creatively incorporated lease concessions and future expansion options while enhancing an already positive rapport with building ownership. We were happy to renew our commitment to the building and the city of Norwalk. Moreover, we look forward to onboarding new members of our team and completing renovations in our space. We would put Adam in front of any executive thinking of renewing their lease or relocating in the area. For a growing Company like ours where it's typical to have folks wearing many hats, having a professional real estate guy in your corner is a must - Adam truly did a tremendous job."
David Allen, Vice President, Asset Management of The Davis Companies, was the in-house representative for the landlord, The Davis Companies.
About Akademos
Akademos, Inc. was founded in 1999 by a university professor who saw first-hand how the exorbitant costs and complexity of textbook distribution weakened classroom learning. Many students were unable to afford the books they needed, often coming unprepared to class without their required materials. Nineteen years later, our vision of a full-service virtual bookstore has become the model platform for efficient,cost-effective purchasing and distribution of new, used, rental and digital textbooks and course materials. Since its inception, the company has saved students over $50 million on course materials, including over $13 million in 2017.
Choyce Peterson, Inc., a commercial real estate brokerage and consulting firm which specializes in tenant representation, was founded in 1997 and has offices in Norwalk, CT and Rye Brook, NY. For corporate and healthcare-focused companies headquartered in Fairfield and Westchester counties, Choyce Peterson has negotiated millions of square feet of transactions in 42 states and Canada. The Choyce Peterson process delivers comprehensive and creative real estate solutions to ensure clients derive maximum value from their real estate decisions.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Description: Three girls: Susanne, Annie and Catherine, just have finished high school and meet every night to have a good time in discos and bars with frequently changing boyfriends. Susanne's younger sister Betty often joins them and copies their behavior, believes everything they say. So she soon ends up with with projectionist George – although she doesn't take the pill yet.
Tagged 1980s, Canada, German. Bookmark the permalink.


Prayers for a speedy recovery. You can't have enough people praying for you. Thanks for your service!
Prayers and good wishes coming his way!
Prayers & very best wishes Knight.
I'm BAAAACCCKK!!! Thank you all for your well wishes and prayers. Op supposedly went well and I am cancer free as far as can be determined. More check ups and look sees in the future but I think the worst is over for now.
I spend most of my time in the PG going round and round to no purpose but having fun for the most part. It is like an addiction. I also post on the Enfield Forum as I do enjoy clay shooting of all kinds. Since I seem to have a well of good thoughts here also, I will post a lot more when my pal Spig isn't jamming up the thread. My posts will mostly begin "Got the skunk today" except for fluke season. We kill the fluke especially since I taught Spig how to fish for them in NJ on my "little boat."
Thanks to Spig. He has been a great friend and fishing/shooting partner over the years. He is cantankerous, noisy, funny and a real pleasure to be with most of the time. He is ultra hyper. I'll tell you all personally about the time I was teaching him to fish for speckled trout down in north Florida. Hilarious!!!! Really good guy.
Hopefully I will be healed up completely by mid-March. Just in time for the stripers in NJ to start getting active.
Prayers sent for a quick and full recovery.
Prayers for a speedy and full recovery from way down here in North Carolina. Also prayers for the family and whoever is taking care of him. You guys were an amazing help to me with your prayers and encouragement when my wife had breast cancer. It's been a bunch of years ago now and she's been completely clean for over 10 years.
Good news! Be well -- and thank you for your service.
Lou sorry to hear this about Tom Prayers sent.
Does anyone here on SOL not love "Spigola"???????????
You're making me blush. Just told my wife about your comment. Says she'd like to get together with you guys maybe on Staten Island for dinner one night soon.


BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. – March 28, 2019 – Marx Group, a full-service marketing communications agency and Eisbrenner Public Relations, one of the leading public relations firms in the Midwest, have agreed to merge and form Marx Buscemi Eisbrenner Group, LLC. The deal will close in April 2019.
The company will be led by Frank Buscemi, who will serve as CEO and chief creative officer, Tom Eisbrenner, president, and Tom Marx, chairman and chief strategy officer.
Eisbrenner Public Relations, founded in 1985 by Ray Eisbrenner and based in Royal Oak, was known as one of Michigan's leading B2B public relations firms in the automotive, technology and energy industries.
The company will launch its new branding and website soon.


I've been watching the the "Two Greedy Italians" on BBC 2 for the last few weeks. It's one of those weird programmes that shouldn't be good. It just is. I love Italian food, always have. If I was stranded on a desert island with a chef, they'd be Italian and I'd be fat.
I made it with the kids, nice and easy, although I couldn't find for love nor money a pork fillet the size that they did! I'll post the recipe as we did it; with less pork.
Before starting it's worth getting prepared. Chop your carrots and parsnips into nice fat chunks. Slice the shallots into nice thick slices, if they're too fine they'll disintegrate. Your ginger needs to be sliced coarsely, about 6 or 7 slices, each one the size of a thumbnail and a few millimeters thick. Lastly crush your garlic, nothing fancy. I peeled mine, you don't have to if you're feeling all rustic.
Get a nice large deep frying pan (with a lid) and drop in a few table spoons of oil. You want it to be about a millimetre or two deep across the whole pan. Get this hot, put the lid on to make sure it's really hot and then chuck in the Pancetta. Careful, it will spit.
Once golden, put the Pancetta in a bowl and leave somewhere convenient (Note: not in reach of the dog. Doh!) Now add in your pork and sear for a few minutes. It should be really hot, sealing in the flavour of the pancetta. While this is happening stick the kettle on for your stock. I used vegetable stock. It worked well.
Now this is the bit where we changed the timings. As we had to 300g pork fillets instead of one mammoth 800g piece we had to adjust the cooking time. So while originally the cooking time is an hour, we went for 20 minutes. Perfect. Take the meat out and let it cool for a few minutes, then slice into nice chunky pieces.
Finally add everything back into the pan to just heat through. You are not cooking anything here, just making sure that it's hot.


The Resort offers different types of accommodation - 1,2 or 3 bedroom apartments fully equipped and villas with spacious interiors and a private pool for those who are looking for more privacy. The secure and family enviroment makes Pestana Golf Resort a reference when you are looking for a holiday destination.
Besides two prestigious golf courses, Gramacho with 18 holes signed by the former world number 1 Nick Price and the Championiship course, Vale da Pinta designed by Ronald Fream the Carvoeiro Resort has a Golf Academy, a driving range with covered bays, tennis courts, swimming pools, bars and restaurants. The group has other 3 golf courses in the Algarve - Pestana Silves, Alto and Vila Sol. The golf packages are including accommodation in the Carvoeiro Resort and unlimited golf in 5 Golf Courses!
A uniquely designed 18 hole course with 27 varied greens that enable the golfer to play the same course several times with different greens and new challenges. The Gramacho Course has hosted the Ladies Open and the European Senior Tour Qualifying School.
A Championship course with an expeceptional layout. Since 1992 it has earned a deserved reputation for the outstanding level of maintenance and its design , which makes it a challenge to golfers of all standards. Host of the European Seniors Qualifying school .
Silves is a serene spot, but the course is anything but the proverbial walk in the park. Silves encorages and rewards attacking play. The excelent condition, all year round, is ideal for low scoring Most holes offer a spectacular mountain and valley view.
Located between the picturesque village of Alvor and the bustling tourist resort of Praia da Rocha, Pestana Alto Golf has established itself as one of the most popular golf courses in the Algarve. The rolling fairways and elevated greens test the low handicap golfers whilst providing an enjoyable experience for the average player.
The Resort is situated in the heart of the most highly developed tourist areas in the Algarve. The Vila Sol Golf has twice played host to the Portuguese Open and since 2004 it has been the host of the annual tournament 'The Sir Bobby Robson Celebrity Golf Classic'.
Pestana Golf Resort offers different accommodation options - 1, 2 or 3 bedroom apartments or 2, 3 and 4 bedroom villas, with spacious living areas and private swimming pool for those who are looking for more privacy. All properties have fully equipped kitchens, telephone, safe, satellite TV, hairdryer providing guests all the comfort needed for a relaxing holiday.
A hotel quality house keeping service is part of the general services and a dedicated concierge is available to take care of restaurant reservations, golf bookings or other requests.
The Resort as 24hrs security to ensure total peace of mind.
Pestana Golf Resort has two Restaurants where guests can enjoy from a simple snack or light meal to a sophisticated dinner. Both enjoy beautiful outdoor terraces overlooking the golf courses. The Restaurants are located at Vale da Pinta and Gramacho Clubhouses. During the summer time season the Resort organizes theme party dinners and BBQ. If you are looking for a venue for a special event do not hesitate to contact the professional Pestana team.
The Pestana Golf Academy combines a world-class practice facility with beautiful surroundings. The PGA Golf professionals will design a program that will be based upon your individual needs. From private lessons to golf schools, the experienced golf teaching professionals will ensure that your time with us is both rewarding and fun!
The Pestana Golf Driving range is the perfect place to practice your game! With protected covered bays, not even the hot summer will affect the golfers ambition to improve their swing. In addition to 8 target greens and a chipping area, several bunkers and a huge putting green complete the facilities.


text:
FOREIGN SCENE
NOLLY POLITICS
WOMEN IN NOLLYWOOD
OKIKE TV
MIXED REACTION AS OSCAR DISQUALIFIES GENEVIEVE NNAJI'S LION HEART
by Nollywood Insider
Nollywood has in recent times received applauds and commendations thanks to the continuous growth in the industry. Movies like Niyi Akinmolayan's 'The wedding party 2, 'Mokalik' directed by Kunle Afolayan and Genevieve's 'Lion Heart' , a predominantly English movie which is currently streaming on Netflix. The comedy 'Lion Heart was the first-ever Nigerian Movie submitted for Best International Feature Oscar consideration ; a freshly renamed international feature film category, pitifully was disqualified by the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences for having too much dialogue in English .
The movie was starred and directed by Genevieve Nnaji ; who is called the Julia Robert of Nigeria. The story line tells of a young woman trying to keep her father's company afloat in a male-dominated world.
"Lionheart" was one of 10 African films officially submitted for Oscar consideration this year, a record for the continent. With the disqualification, the number of films in contention for the award has dropped from 93 to 92. The film is still eligible to be considered in other Oscar categories.
Although this isn't the first time the academy has disqualified a foreign film from consideration for having too much English dialogue; in recent years, the 2015 Afghan film "Utopia" and the 2007 Israeli movie "The Band's Visit" were disqualified for the same reason. Still, the disqualification of "Lionheart" which, ironically, follows the academy's decision earlier this year to change the name of the category from best foreign-language film to best international feature film, struck a sour note with at least one high-powered Hollywood figure. American Director Ava DuVernay tweeted her dismay, noting that English is the official language of Nigeria. Most Nigerians expressed their disappointment, majority stating that English is our official language.
Genevieve Nnaji ,the director and main actor in the movie reacted to the disqualification on Twitter said that 'The movie represents the way we speak as Nigerians ,which includes English which acts as a bridge between the 500+ languages spoken in our country; thereby making us #OneNigeria.
It won't be easy for all Nigerians to relate with and appreciate the movie the way they did, if our official language wasn't predominant. We obviously didn't choose who colonized us, so the choice to disqualify the movie seems biased.
Tags: genevieve
BEAUTY STANDARDS IN NIGERIA
DJ CUPPY AND BRODA SHAGGI AN ITEM
Nollywood Insider November 5, 2019
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Beyond The Stoop - Life in Jersey City: Wonderful Weekend Ahead, and new hair!
You may be the bravest person ever! That and Hung is super talented! I wouldn't let Kevin near my hair -- for anything!! IT LOOKS AWESOME!


text:
Tag Archives: anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism among Florida pro-Batista Cuban Americans
Posted on April 29, 2021 by petrel41
An interesting 27 April 2021 article by Jordan Levin in the USA. Though maybe it talks too much about people of Latin American ancestry in general, while in fact, anti-Semitism is especially a problem among the part of Cuban Americans who prefer the pre-1959 Batista dictatorship in Cuba, supported by the CIA, to the post-1959 situation.
Some quotes:
Antisemitism rises among Hispanic Miami's right wing
The graffiti messages scrawled around Miami in March, on the eve of Passover and Holocaust Remembrance Day, were shocking: "The Jews are the Problem" "Zionism is Satanism."
Most ominously in this city filled with Cubans … was this one: "Communism is Judaism."
The phrase echoed a trend towards antisemitism in Miami's right-wing Hispanic political circles that have come to dominate this bellwether city:
•In 2018 Miami-based Radio Television Marti, the federally funded broadcaster of anti-Communist messaging to Cuba, ran a report blaming Soros for orchestrating the 2008 financial collapse, and supporting narco-terrorism and Cuban schemes. … the report was exposed and denounced as antisemitic in 2019.
•Last year, Libre, a 40-page Spanish-language insert published by a longtime right-wing Cuban exile activist and filled with racist, extremist opinion pieces, was distributed in El Nuevo Herald, the Miami Herald's sister paper, for 32 weeks. The op-eds said Black Lives Matter was worse than the Nazis, called out Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg as Jews, and compared American Jews to Cubans brainwashed by communism. Following public backlash, El Nuevo Herald's managing editor resigned and the Miami Herald's publisher and executive editor lost her position as publisher.
•Last October a group of over 150 parents, including Vince Lago, the recently-elected mayor of the prosperous municipality of Coral Gables, the former speaker of the Florida House, and other prominent figures, sent a letter to an elite private Catholic girls school, castigating it for launching an anti-racism program in response to numerous reports of racism among students and faculty. The letter cited the malign influence of "Cultural Marxism" and the Frankfurt School, parroting a conspiracy theory that blames progressive U.S. social and racial justice movements on German Jewish scholars who fled the Nazis. …
But Rivero says he frequently encountered "Jews are communists" and other antisemitic posts in conservative Cuban social media groups during 2020, as well as death threats from Trump supporters. …
Antisemitism rose across the U.S. during the Trump administration.
But the insular nature of Miami's Hispanic community, particularly among a conservative Cuban faction that has reversed a years-long moderating trend to become politically dominant again, appears to be magnifying that tilt here, while making it more acceptable for leaders to ignore or even encourage the slide towards prejudice.
No politician condemned the antisemitic graffiti. The signatories on the Catholic school letter, which was covered by the Miami Herald and the Miami New Times, defended their calls to abandon teaching about racism.
"The idea that equality and racial equity are rooted in a socialist Jewish group – that's ridiculous," said Billy Corben, the Jewish filmmaker lambasted by the Miami commissioner, who first exposed the letter on Twitter. "You cannot minimize the impact of these very powerful and influential policymakers who have signed this letter."
Jessica Landsberg, a young political operative who has worked on several local campaigns, and whose father is Jewish and mother is Cuban, was disturbed by the "communism is Judaism" and other anti-Semitic graffiti – and frustrated no one denounced it.
"That there's no conversation that long after the Holocaust antisemitism is alive in a city with one of the largest Jewish populations is disappointing," said Landsberg, 23. "The graffiti is just the latest thing. I've been repeating for the last few years that antisemitism is not just alive but on the rise." …
Perez and Soibel emphasize that they do not believe most of Miami's Hispanics are antisemitic. But because Hispanics, and Cubans in particular, dominate politics in Miami-Dade and are so influential in Florida, and in U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, a shift in attitude towards Jews here has the potential for much wider influence.
Posted in Racism and anti-racism	| Tagged anti-Semitism, Florida	| Leave a reply
Racist vandalism and killing in the USA
This 2015 video from the USA is called Islamic Society of Fargo/Moorhead Hosts Open House.
FBI INVESTIGATES MOSQUE VANDALISM The FBI is investigating hate messages found vandalized on a mosque that sits on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota. The Moorhead Fargo Islamic Center was spray-painted with anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic and racist messages during Ramadan. [HuffPost]
FAMILY: POLICE 'EXECUTED' N.C. MAN Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina, was shot in the back of the head and had his hands on his car steering wheel when they opened fire, attorneys for his family said. His death on Wednesday led to nightly protests and demands for justice in the town of Elizabeth City. Seven deputies are on leave pending investigation. [AP]
ANDREW BROWN JR. AUTOPSY REPORT RELEASED Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina, was shot five times, including in the back of the head, according to an independent autopsy report. A judge will consider today whether to make body camera footage public. [AP]
LINDSEY GRAHAM: 'NO' SYSTEMIC RACISM HERE Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on "Fox News Sunday" systemic racism doesn't exist in the U.S., pointing to the elections of former President Barack Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris to back up his claim. The ensuing online criticism of that statement was swift and fierce. [HuffPost]
FEDS LAUNCH LOUISVILLE POLICE PROBE The Justice Department is opening a probe into policing in Louisville, Kentucky, over the March 2020 death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death by police during a raid at her home, Attorney General Merrick Garland said. Garland has said there is not yet equal justice under the law and promised to bring a critical eye to racism and legal issues when he took the job. [AP]
POLICE KNEELED ON MAN'S BACK BEFORE HE DIED Police released footage of the events leading to the death of Mario Gonzalez, a 26-year-old Latino man in Alameda, California, showing officers kneeling on the man's back and shoulder until he became unresponsive. The video contradicts officials' original account of the confrontation. Three officers involved have been placed on administrative leave. [HuffPost]
ASSAILANT SOUGHT IN VICIOUS NYC ATTACK OF ASIAN MAN A 61-year-old Asian man is in critical condition after police in New York City said he was knocked to the ground and kicked multiple times in his head in a disturbing attack that comes just weeks after a similar assault on an Asian American woman near Times Square. Surveillance video shows the suspect attacking Yao Pan Ma on Friday night then casually walking away. [HuffPost]
Posted in Racism and anti-racism, Religion	| Tagged anti-Semitism, Islamophobia	| 1 Reply
Anti-Semitism in Donald Trump's USA
Posted on February 9, 2021 by petrel41
This 10 June 2020 video says about itself:
Fault Lines examines rising levels of violence and threats against Jewish Americans and the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that often animate these attacks.
Anti-Semitic hate crimes reached a five-year high in 2016. The next year, anti-Semitic incidents saw an unprecedented surge, and white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Virginia chanting "Jews will not replace us."
In 2018, the US witnessed the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in its history when a white supremacist opened fire at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue. Then, in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League, anti-Semitic incidents reached an all-time high, eclipsing every previous year on record.
Anti-Semitism plays a unique role in the dangerous worldview of white supremacists. It is often coded into terms like "white genocide" and "replacement," which stem from the conspiracy theory that Jews are trying to change the demographics of the US.
Fault Lines decodes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and speaks with Jewish families and community leaders struggling to move forward from tragedy against the backdrop of accelerating attacks.
Jewish MSNBC commentator: 'What is the difference between Hitler and Trump?'
Trump quoted as saying Jews are 'only in it for themselves'.
Posted in Racism and anti-racism	| Tagged anti-Semitism	| 2 Replies
The extreme right in the USA
This 4 February 2021 video says about itself:
The US government is warning violent right-wing groups may be emboldened by the riot at the Capitol building last month.
The Department of Homeland Security's threat assessment analysts are suggesting there may be additional attacks and there are concerns conspiracy theories are continuing to fuel hate.
Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds reports from Los Angeles, US.
Trump and January 6: The evidence of a planned political coup: here.
Every antisemitic thing Marjorie Taylor Greene has said and done (so far): here.
Don't laugh at Marjorie Taylor Greene — her Jewish constituents must live with her hate: here.
In any politically healthy system, the Republican Party would have been irreparably discredited and disgraced by its complicity in the attempted coup. Yet less than three weeks later, it arrogantly and defiantly reasserts its defense of Trump and his fascist supporters: here.
The GOP Isn't Big Enough for Jews and for Marjorie Taylor Greene's Jew-hate. Republicans' disinterest in ostracizing Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, an extremist who proudly peddles antisemitic conspiracies, is devastating for Jewish conservatives: here.
February 4: White supremacy and far-right extremism: Is the Capitol siege the end or the beginning? Here.
KYLE RITTENHOUSE VIOLATES BOND Kyle Rittenhouse has violated his bond agreement by apparently moving out of his home without notifying the court, and now Wisconsin prosecutors are seeking a warrant for his arrest. In a court filing, prosecutors said several attempts to contact the teenager have failed. The 18-year-old faces multiple homicide charges related to the shooting deaths of two unarmed Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer. [HuffPost]
CANADA DECLARES PROUD BOYS A TERRORIST GROUP The Canadian government officially designated the Proud Boys as a terror organization, ranking the group alongside al Qaeda and Boko Haram. The move to designate the Proud Boys ― a violent, pro-Trump street gang full of extremists and white nationalists ― as a criminal entity was already under consideration before the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol last month for which numerous members of the gang have been charged. [HuffPost]
Posted in Crime, Racism and anti-racism	| Tagged anti-Semitism, Donald Trump	| 2 Replies
Trump's coup d'etat attempt in the USA
Posted on January 7, 2021 by petrel41
This 7 January 2020 video from the USA says about itself:
Independent photojournalist Jon Farina shot this INCREDIBLE footage from January 6th, 2020 when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Far-right protesters storm U.S. Capitol amid antisemitic claims over election: here.
4 PEOPLE DIED DURING ASSAULT ON CAPITOL Four people died as Trump supporters violently occupied the U.S. Capitol. Washington Police Chief Robert Contee said the dead included a woman shot by U.S. Capitol Police, and three others who died in "medical emergencies." Law enforcement and Trump supporters deployed chemical irritants during the hourslong occupation of the Capitol building. [AP]
TRUMP RIOTERS BRING VIOLENCE ACROSS COUNTRY Trump-supporting protesters and rioters gathered at state capitols across the country, inspired by violent scenes at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington. In Arizona, members of a pro-Trump group cracked the window of a museum at the state Capitol, reportedly while shouting for Republican Gov. Doug Ducey to exit the building. [HuffPost]
TRUMP'S MOVES RIGHT OUT OF THE FASCIST PLAYBOOK As thousands of Trump's fanatical supporters smashed windows and stormed the U.S. Capitol, realizing a plot that was apparently brewing for days, at least one historian was not surprised in the least. "I hate it when I'm right," said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University professor and fascism expert who has been warning that Trump would resort to force rather than leave office peacefully. [HuffPost]
As protestors stormed the Capitol, Facebook employees took to their internal workplace message board to express their fears and ask that Trump be removed from the platform. In response, management shut down threads and prevented them from commenting. https://t.co/e632c2dLMx
— Ryan Mac 🙃 (@RMac18) January 7, 2021
'We knew this day was coming': Jews react to storming of Capitol building: here.
Antisemitic conspiracies flew before extremists breached U.S. Capitol.
Republican senator deletes ad that made Jewish opponent's nose bigger.
Revisiting the top 10 antisemitic moments of Trump's presidency: here.
Trump has nurtured far-right extremism at every turn. This is his fault: here.
A guide to the extremists and hate groups that invaded the Capitol: here.
Man wearing 'Camp Auschwitz' shirt among mob who stormed U.S. Capitol
'It was always going to end this way:' Capitol coup is work of one man: here.
Manatee with 'Trump' etched into back under investigation https://t.co/eXU0OJwXKq
— The Guardian (@guardian) January 11, 2021
Posted in Human rights, Racism and anti-racism	| Tagged anti-Semitism, Donald Trump	| 6 Replies
Racism, news update
Posted on August 31, 2020 by petrel41
This 28 August 2020 video from the USA says about itself:
Why Jacob Blake's Family will have to fight for justice
After his unarmed son was killed by Kenosha police, Michael Bell Sr. has fought for independent investigations of police shootings.
WISCONSIN GOV. ASKS TRUMP TO STAY AWAY FROM STATE Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers urged President Donald Trump to reconsider a planned trip to the state following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, saying such a visit may only "delay our work to overcome division and move forward." Evers, a Democrat, sent the missive after the White House said the president would travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday to meet with law enforcement and survey the damage following demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism that came after the shooting. Days after Blake was shot, two protesters were killed. [HuffPost]
TRUMP DUCKS QUESTION ABOUT ACCUSED TEEN SHOOTER President Donald Trump on Saturday dodged a question about Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager and Trump supporter who has been charged with homicide in the shooting deaths of two demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, retweeted a supportive message about Rittenhouse. The teen traveled to the Kenosha protest Tuesday armed with a semi-automatic rifle, according to investigators. The fatal shooting of two protesters and the wounding of a volunteer medic was captured in cellphone videos. [HuffPost]
THE GOP IS VERY MUCH TRUMP'S PARTY, POLL SHOWS More Trump voters said they were loyal to President Donald Trump than they were to the Republican Party, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll. Some 49% of Republican and Republican-leaning independents who voted for Trump in 2016 said they consider themselves more supporters of Trump than of the Republican Party. Just 19% said they were more supporters of the party, with another 28% saying they were supporters of both. The poll came on the heels of the Republican National Convention, during which the GOP declined to rally around a policy platform and instead opted to "reassert the party's strong support" for "Trump and his administration." [HuffPost]
Breonna Taylor's life was changing. Then the police came to her door.
USA: 'Jews want a race war' website removed only to be quickly replaced.
Vatican hid Holocaust orphans from families, urged Pope not to protest deportations
Donald Trump and United States anti-Semitism
This 17 July 2020 MSNBC TV video from the USA says about itself:
Trump's Niece To Maddow: Trump Used Anti-Semitic Slurs And The N-word| MSNBC
In an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, President Trump's niece, Mary Trump, alleges she's heard President Trump use anti-Semitic slurs and the N-word. … Reverend Al Sharpton and The Atlantic's David Frum join The Beat on this breaking news story.
Trump is right: We Jews hate him, despite what he's done in Israel. By Joel Swanson, August 18, 2020.
Trump: Jerusalem embassy move was for Evangelicals — Jews not excited about it.
FBI account tweets out Protocols of Learned Elders of Zion without context.
Muslims in ICE detention forced to choose between pork or rotten halal meals.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders calls former White House colleague a 'foulmouthed Jew'.
Posted in Racism and anti-racism	| Tagged anti-Semitism, Donald Trump	| 3 Replies
US Trump administration enables anti-Semitism
This 6 April 2018 video from the USA says about itself:
American Anti-Semitism Lives On In The President Trump Era According To Jonathan Weisman | TIME
Jonathan Weisman, an editor at the New York Times, thought America had largely moved past anti-semitism, confining it to a more prejudiced history. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he learned that he was very mistaken.
Colleges are covering up antisemitic hate crimes – and the federal government is helping them.
These colleges claimed antisemitic incidents weren't hate crimes.
Racism, anti-racism update worldwide
This 9 August 2020 video from California in the USA says about itself:
Free Them All NOW! Care Not Cages! SF March & Rally In Against ICE & Republicrats
A march and rally was held on 8/8.20 to the San Francisco ICE office to demand the immediate release of the thousands of children still held and to protest the missing 1,800. Also, doctors talked about how the children and their families were being contaminated with Covid-19 in these cages and this would permanently scar their lives.
Many of the speakers also attacked the Democratic Party and Democrat Gavin Newsom In California for continuing the support for the caging of children and supporting private prisons in California. Speakers criticized Obama, Pelosi in San Francisco and other Democrats for failing to act for immigrants when the Democrats controlled the majority of the Congress and the White House. The Democrats continue to fund ICE, the militarization of the police and the repressive apparatus now being used by Trump and his supporters.
Toronto Polish-language newspaper blames Jews for pandemic.
USA: Should Billy Graham — evangelist with an anti-Semitism scandal — get a statue in the Capitol?
Why is Serbia the only Terezin Treaty signer that's doing right by Holocaust survivors?
Trump's pick for German ambassador called Muslim refugees 'invaders'.
USA: The shocking health care racism endangering Black mothers.
Posted in Racism and anti-racism	| Tagged anti-Semitism	| Leave a reply
Racism and police in Trump´s USA
Posted on July 28, 2020 by petrel41
This 28 July 2020 video from the USA says about itself:
Fox Host: Why Not Arrest Trump's Opponents?
This "Conservative" wants to arrest local politicians in Portland. Emma Vigeland and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks.
"Fox News' Maria Bartiromo spoke with acting DHS Sec. Chad Wolf Sunday morning about the federal officers deployed to Portland. Wolf said that they are there because things are "completely out of control" and "city leadership there fostered an environment that allows these criminals to do this throughout the night untouched."
"We need Portland to step up to the plate, do their responsibility, and work with us to address violent criminal activity occurring every night," he said.
Bartiromo remarked that Portland "looks like Baghdad" and asked, "These people can go all the way up to the fence and the perimeter and throw bricks at officers. What are you going to do about it?"
'EXCESSIVE FORCE' USED ON PROTESTERS A National Guard commander was "deeply disturbed" as he witnessed federal police use "excessive force" to violently clear peaceful protesters near the White House to make way for Trump to pose for photos outside a church last month, he will testify Tuesday. The account by D.C. National Guard Maj. Adam DeMarco, a combat veteran who was the senior National Guard officer on the scene, contradicts Attorney General William Barr, who has insisted that anti-racism protesters were violent and deserved gassing and physical assault by law enforcement that evening. [HuffPost]
TRUMP WON'T PAY HIS RESPECTS TO JOHN LEWIS ON CAPITOL HILL Thousands of people are expected to visit Capitol Hill to pay respects to congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, but Trump won't be one of them. "No, I won't be going," the president told reporters without elaborating. "No." The president made his comment as he was leaving the White House for North Carolina just as Lewis' American flag-draped casket was arriving at the Capitol carried by a military honor guard into the rotunda. Trump has a well-marked history as a racist. [HuffPost]
THE NYPD CAN SEE MILLIONS OF ARREST RECORDS THAT WERE MEANT TO BE SEALED For over 40 years, it has been illegal for police in New York state to access a person's sealed arrest records. Details of arrests of people who were charged but not convicted or whose cases were dismissed ― as well as juveniles or people who completed drug treatment programs or committed noncriminal offenses ― aren't supposed to influence law enforcement should police encounter those people again. But new court documents obtained by HuffPost show that the New York City Police Department has been breaking that law for years. [HuffPost]
VIDEO SHOWS NYPD COP PULLING PROTESTER INTO UNMARKED VAN The New York City Police Department has come under scrutiny after videos showed officers pulling a protester into an unmarked van during a demonstration Tuesday in Manhattan against racism and police brutality. Gothamist, citing the protester's friends, identified her as an 18-year-old transgender woman. Videos shared on social media show the demonstrator being restrained by several NYPD officers before being pulled into the van. "They grabbed [her] like she was rag doll," a witness said. "They had her arms on her neck and then they drove off." [HuffPost]
Two months after Black Lives Matter march, police confiscate cars of peaceful protesters.
Couple wearing swastika masks at Walmart confronted by other shoppers.
LEADER OF NEO-NAZI GROUP UNDER INVESTIGATION A prominent white supremacist propagandist who once claimed to have influenced the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter is under investigation by authorities in California, a law enforcement official said on Monday. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department told HuffPost that Andrew Richard Casarez has been under investigation for several weeks and that his home has been searched. "Detectives obtained a Gun Violence Restraining Order against him and served a search warrant at a residence … where they seized a firearm," the department said. [HuffPost]
Florida man to be charged with vandalism of 2 synagogues.
New York City cuts funding for hate crime prevention initiative.
Posted in Human rights, Racism and anti-racism	| Tagged anti-Semitism	| 3 Replies
Oldest giant ichthyosaur discovery
Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of sex trafficking
Starry night above Vlieland island
Making a red-tailed hawk carving
Racist killer Rittenhouse acquitted in the USA
Corporate sponsorship of anti-abortion politicians
Good whimbrel news from the USA
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text:
Christiana Care partners with Project CURE to donate medical equipment to hospitals in need
Christiana Care has donated dozens of pallets carrying goods worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to Project CURE. (Commission on Urgent Relief and Equipment), which sends the supplies to resource-limited facilities worldwide.
"It's an example of serving our neighbors, which includes those in Wilmington and, when we can, those much farther away," said Susan Gadonas, director of Purchasing for Christiana Care Health System. "Locally, our neighbors look to us to be responsible stewards of valuable resources, which includes reusing and recycling equipment we no longer can use or need."
The list of donated goods is as diverse as a modern hospital's supply chain, including disposable supplies, durable goods and medical instruments, such as drills. In 2016 alone, Christiana Care donated 27 pallets of disposable medical gloves, nine pallets of surgical masks and thermometers. All told, the donations were worth more than $160,000. These donations also save thousands in hauling and disposal fees while sparing landfills tons of waste.
Addressing medical needs around the world
Project CURE partners with organizations in the developing world to ensure donated supplies meet needs and are put to good use.
"In some of the places we work around the world, if you don't bring your own gloves, they can't treat you," said Jan Mazotti, director of communications, marketing and public relations for Project CURE. Consumable supplies are often in short supply in rural hospitals, and gloves are a frequently requested item. Before delivering a child, some women stop to pick up plastic bags to be used as gloves, he said.
Some overseas hospitals are driven to use medical equipment for procedures for which they were not intended. For example, a hospital in the eastern European nation of Moldova used dental drills to perform neurosurgery before it received donated surgical drills, Mazotti said.
Durable equipment such as hospital beds are also highly sought after. These are often donated to urban hospitals, as rural ones often do not have the robust electrical systems necessary to accommodate beds with sophisticated electronics. Christiana Care recently donated 31 hospital beds to Project CURE. that were still in working order but had outlived their usefulness here, according to Deborah Rey, Christiana Care's senior contract manager for capital purchasing. They were immediately routed to fill an urgent need existing in Nigeria.
"Our donation program started because we didn't want to waste medical supplies, and we found a partner who we trust to get them in the hands of people who truly need them," Gadonas said. "Christiana Care Health System is proud to ensure that its medical supplies and equipment have a productive second life by working with Project CURE."
Facilitating a donation of medical supplies to Project CURE are Christiana Care Service assistants Kevin Young and Weldon Rembert, Larry Persin of Project CURE, and Christiana Care receiver Mitchell Fields and supervisor Duane Griffin.
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The automatic dosing device is mainly integrated by a mixer, a metering pump, a safety valve, a back pressure valve, a water level gauge, a pressure gauge, a control cabinet, a mounting platform, etc. during the process of production. The user only needs to put the combined dosing device in the dosing room, start the dosing pipe by connecting it to the power supply, and automatically detect the pH of the fluid in the process of running the smart judgment and add the corresponding drug solution. This kind of industrialized installation can greatly reduce the workload of design and on-site construction, and is basically unattended. It provides a reliable guarantee for the quality, safety, and on-site operation of the entire machine.
The automatic dosing device is mainly used for power plant water supply, furnace water, circulating water, waste water, etc. It can also be used in petroleum, chemical, environmental protection, water supply systems and other industries.
1. High degree of automation, simple operation.
2. Factory direct sales, price concessions, quality assurance.
3. Professional design team and service team, after-sales problems no worries.
4. Quality assurance, long service life, reduce operating costs.
5. Easy to operate, easy to maintain and maintain.
In the process of using, the automatic dosing device is generally a complete system consisting of one tank, two pumps and one electric agitator. In the process of operation, according to the requirements of the user, two boxes can be formed to some extent. Pump, two-box multi-pump, multi-cascade pump multi-structure. It can be used for the preparation and dosing of liquid, liquid, liquid and liquid chemical solutions.
The automatic dosing device will be effectively formulated according to the concentration of the required drug and will be prepared in the mixing tank during the operation. After being stirred uniformly, the automatic dosing device will be put into the solution tank, and the dosing pump or dosing pump will be used to designate the dosing point. The formulated solution is delivered in the system. The complete dosing device has the characteristics of compact structure, safety, simplicity, and easy operation. The device can also be based on the user's different process requirements, targeted design, configuration of the necessary components to achieve functional fit (such as automatic remote control), economical and practical.