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Majora's Mask 3D: Memory Games
Sometimes, Majora's Mask 3D feels like someone rearranged all the furniture in my house without telling me.
At one point, I was looking for the Stone Mask, which makes you invisible during stealth segments. It used to be in the game's fourth area, about as far a humanly possible from the place where you actually need it most, a pirate fortress in the third. Once I had the appropriate tools, I started my hunt, knowing I'd memorized the mask's original location from when I was ten. After an hour of searching and doubting myself, I gave up and finished the stealth section without it. Of course, at that very moment I realized I'd been ignoring in-game tips and the mask was just sitting in front of my face, right at the beginning of the very stealth section it helps you circumvent. It's a better choice, and one of the many fixes Majora's Mask 3D makes that improve the overall game.
So whoever rearranged the furniture did a great job with the feng shui.
Admittedly, that's a pretty small moon, all things considered.
Majora's Mask 3D is pretty much what it says on the box. It's a remake of the 2001 Nintendo 64 game, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Like a lot of Nintendo's remakes though, it focuses less on presenting the game as it was, and more about how you remember it. Which is particularly interesting, because it was already a game focused on memory.
That moon's got great teeth though. A real brusher, that one.
There's this moment in Majora's Mask, towards the end of the game's signature three-day cycle, where the music in the hub town speeds up to an almost menacing degree. It's this weird level of intertextuality that plays on your memories, like almost everything else in the game. The sped up music creates a sense of urgency on its own, considering there's a massive, grinning moon hovering ominously overhead, but it's also a pretty direct reference to the way the music in Mario speeds up when the timer is under 100 seconds. It's not something a seasoned Zelda player would have encountered within that series, but anyone familiar with the medium has a pretty good understanding of what sped up music means, even if they aren't looking at the clock.
Majora's Mask is full of moments like that. Well, not exactly like that. There's a lot more referencing other Zeldas (specifically 1998's Ocarina of Time) than other series, but Majora's Mask likes to wear its influences on its sleeve. Part of it is simple pragmatism, the game was made in just over a year and reuses dozens of assets from Ocarina, but part of it seems to come from the games' obsession with memory, and the way we encounter it.
Majora's Mask 3D has a fixation on those terrifying, soul-piercing yellow eyes. It's pretty terrifying.
You don't need to dig too deep to notice the obsession either. For one, the game revolves around a Groundhog Day-esque three day loop. At the end of the three days, the moon crashes into Termina, the strange mirror-darkly version of Hyrule, and our hero is forced to start from scratch. But he remembers things, or more specifically, you remember things. You remember how to beat bosses (which you don't have to repeat, but it helps), how to finish sidequests, even the schedules of the folks around town. The game doesn't make you remember that last thing, it notes schedules and sidequests on the bottom screen, but that information persists, even when you reset the clock. The player is always reminded of the nature of the world.
This guy's back story is that he stole a mask from his boss once, but his boss was a dog. Majora's Mask is GREAT.
Meanwhile, the game is designed around three key masks that can change Link into some of Zelda's famous species. He can be a miniature, forest-dwelling Deku Scrub, a massive, rock-eating Goron, or a Zora, a kind of fish-man with a sweet guitar. Each mask is obtained by finding a dying or dead member of the species, putting their soul to rest, and preserving their memory. The Goron is the spirit of a fallen warrior who everyone is surprised has come back to life to save his tribe, and the Zora is a new father out to save his eggs when he is killed by their captors. The Deku Scrub's relationships are mostly the realm of fan theory, but the prevailing opinion is that he was killed suddenly by the game's villain, the Skull Kid, and his father, a Deku Scrub you can race, is finally at peace with his son's passing when he meets your Deku form.
All three have these distinct connections to preserving memory, even legacy in some cases. But they're all forgotten. When the cycle ends, Link and the player are the only ones who remember. The game is fundamentally about preserving memories, and also throwing them away. If I had to hazard a guess, it'd be because it was the first game directed by current Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma, who was then a design assistant to series creator Shigeru Miyamoto. While I have my theories on how for him, Majora's Mask was about deconstructing Zelda so he could better understand it, I think it's a much safer bet that the whole obsession with memory and legacy stems from his concern at not making a game that lived up to the series' standard.
So Aonuma draws upon these memorials to craft a game that simultaneously tells you to cherish and respect memory, while also focusing on the concept that it's okay if everyone forgets. It's this paradoxical game, and it's never quite at ease with itself. Or at least, it didn't used to be.
One of the changes is that the game's camera no longer makes this jerk a nightmare to fight. Still took me five tries though.
Time has been kind to Majora's Mask. Returning to it after a decade, I found that it's a surprisingly forward thinking game. In fact, it reminds me a lot more of open world RPGs like Skyrim than it does its immediate predecessor, Ocarina of Time. The world is centralized with a busy hub town you have to return to constantly. Each part of the world is a spoke off of that hub, leading to a full quest on the critical path and sidequests the mess around with in your off-time. The three day cycle lends itself to prioritizing individual side quests whenever you pick up the game, making it really easy to just do a five minute sidequest for some cash, 30 minutes for a mask, or even an hour or two for a full dungeon.
You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?
The quest structure is linear, but modular enough that players can tackle sidequests at any point, and approach the game at their own pace. In fact, Majora's Mask's legacy as the "weird Zelda" is probably what makes it feel so fresh. Instead of looking back to Link to the Past, like every Zelda ever has, it looked forward, and cribbed from early open world games like Mario 64 to design something that's more modern than pretty much any Zelda game aside from 2013's A Link Between Worlds. Majora's Mask 3D is a game that felt strange and out of place in 2001, but in 2015, it just feels right.
And yet, there are still problems. The sidequests that require standing around and waiting for something to happen are still nightmares, albeit shorter ones. Buying maps for every area you enter gets really annoying every time you forget to pick up rupees at the bank, and any puzzle that requires deft swimming was designed by a madman with a four dimensional brain and split second reaction times. But otherwise, the game is as you remember it, just not necessarily how I remember it.
Remember not to look directly at the apocalypse.
Majora's Mask was my first console Zelda. I didn't own an N64, but I played at a friend's house, and I occasionally rented one. The game terrified me, not only because of the deeply upsetting moon and strange, otherworldly aesthetic, but because I was afraid of the concept that I couldn't save everyone in its world. Every time I reset the clock, that was another hundred Terminians wiped from the face of history. The game is dark, and part of it comes from that same obsession with memory. It wants you to remember. It asks you not to forget, from both a mechanical and a narrative standpoint. And thus, you remember failure. You remember each reset, and the people you couldn't help on that cycle.
The game also never gets into how Link's final transformation into the Fierce Deity can look like something straight out of deviantart and still be unironically cool.
My memories of what Zelda was like to me then are hazy, but playing Majora's Mask 3D crystallized them. It made me confront them in ways that rattled my brain and forced me to rethink the game, and my relationship with my own memories. If Majora's Mask is a game about memory, then Majora's Mask 3D is a game about legacy. It's about what you do with those memories once they're all jumbled up and rearranged the way we want to remember them. It turns out, what you do is fix your old mistakes, as if they never happened.
There's a part of Majora's Mask 3D where you impersonate a fish-woman's boyfriend and play her a song she remembers from her childhood. She sings the song, and never question the fact that her boyfriend suddenly wears a green skirt and occasionally turns into a little elf boy.
The game never really settles the fact that you're deceiving her, and how wrong that is, but that scene really taps into what's so great and just a little uncomfortable about Majora's Mask 3D. Our memory is deceitful sometimes. We remember things better than they are, and we rewrite history to make that so. But sometimes, it's good to hold on to that nice memory, no matter how dark it seems in the moment. Majora's Mask 3D rewrites history by recasting the obtuse original into a modern classic forgotten by time, and you know what?
That's exactly how it should be remembered.
Super Smash Bros. for 3DS Review- The Waiting Game
Smash Bros for 3DS is an appetizer, and it's a damn good one, but that's all it's ever going to be. It's an amuse-bouche, a way to tide yourself over for the entree. There's about two months until its big brother comes out, and for those two months, if you need your Smash Bros. fix, there's very little to complain about with the 3DS version. But, know that if you're that kind of person, you're almost certainly going to be buying a better version of it when it comes out.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Review- Punch Pals
Smash Bros. for Wii U is easily my favourite game in the series, hands down. There was a moment when I was playing with friends, after six players were whittled down to two fighters with one life each We were an entire minute away from each other on Palutena's Temple, this massive, almost over designed beast of a stage, so big it's often hard to see yourself on it. We drew closer to each other, me flinging arrows from Pit's bow, him dashing between floating platforms with Ike's quick draw attack, until we met up on opposite ends of the bridge that connects the stage's two halves. Our two anime champions stood off, both of us waiting for the other to make his move. My palms were sweating. I don't know what he was planning, but I was expecting another quick draw, which I would counter with a deadly dashing uppercut, then follow him up into the air for an easy kill. Unless he countered, in which case I'd get flung a short distance and use my guardian orbitars to block a follow up hit. Then we'd be back to the anime Mexican standoff.
Touching is Good: Physicality in Games
When I was young, one of the coolest board games I never got to play was Mouse Trap. There was something semi-mystical about the game of building something. To this day, I don't quite understand how the game works (I'm pretty clear on the part where you build a mouse trap so elaborate it'd make Rube Goldberg indecent, I just don't get what happens next) but whenever I think about it, I imagine the weight of the pieces in my hands, the feeling of things snapping together for some greater purpose. I loved Lego, but Lego didn't have a goal. Lego told stories, sure, but it wasn't a game. Lego had a magical ability to draw my imagination out of me when it was in my hands, but Mouse Trap, a game I never played and only ever saw in commercials starring multicolored mice and overacting children, captured me.
Critical Hits: Repetition, Bravely Default, and Repetition
Repetition is educational. We learn when we have something drilled into us until it becomes reflex. I know how to step when I block low with my forearm. I don't necessarily remember the pattern, but my body moves the way I was taught years ago. Formula is comforting, and slight variations upon a theme is essentially the structure chart for serialized fiction. Repetition is one of the most important concepts to both the natural world and entertainment. It's a key part of poetry, the scientific process, math, psychology, fiction, and, well, everything really.
So if repetition is truth, is Bravely Default the truest game ever made?
Split/Screen: Sharing a Screen and Intimacy In Multiplayer
Some Japanese arcade machines don't have controls for a second player. Instead, they get two cabinets to be networked together. Sometimes, the two machines are right next to each other, sometimes they're across, so you can't see your opponent but you always know where they are. Sometimes, as was the case with the Japanese machines in the arcade I went to a few times in high school, they were scattered among the giant lineup of cabinets, so you had no idea who was playing with you. It added this palpable sense of loneliness to whatever game you were playing, since any opponent was essentially a CPU. There was no face to them, no name, just a series of strategies and inputs that was trying to defeat you.
Op-Ed: Chess is Great, But We Can Fix It
Everyone should play Chess.
Seriously, everyone. Young, old, smart, dumb, men, women, anyone who identifies as something more fluid than that. Every single human being (and most transhumanist constructs) should be playing Chess right now if they have any interest at all in games. Chess is the ur game. Chess is the beating ancient heart at the centre of game design. It's like a giant pictograph on the wall of the crumbling temple of game design that pushes it forward and brings back to its beginning. Whether it takes conscious inspiration, or it's intended to be a response to games that unconsciously draw from the tenets of Chess, every game owes its existence to the original. But that also means Chess is old, and by its nature, a little behind the times. I think Chess can be better, Chess can be more powerful, but first, we all have to play it.
Preview: Sonic Boom- Running Into a Wall at Sonic Speed
Sonic Boom is the most unbelievable game I have ever played, and I mean that in the very worst way possible.
Preview: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U- Tell Me if You've Heard This One Before...
As a series, Smash Bros. was founded on the principle that fighting games could do with being a little less complex. To that end, director Masahiro Sakurai added two extra players and simplified inputs. If you want to take mechanics and design as symbolism (and I always do) it's a pretty clear statement that Smash Bros. is a game designed for anyone and everyone to play. No one should be sitting on the sidelines, because anyone can pick it up.
My Multiplayer Story - How Street Fighter Made Me a Better Person
When we were growing up, my brother and I would fight a lot.
I've heard that's pretty natural actually, but when we were younger it always drove me crazy. Not because we weren't close, I didn't really care about that, but because my parents would always demand we be nicer to each other. Well, specifically, they yelled at me that I was too mean to him. I figured they were playing favourites, but looking back, we were very close in age, had similar interests, plus, we were little kids with awful tempers- we were bound to butt heads.
We would hit each other, a lot. I was bigger and stronger, but not by much. There's about two year's difference between us, so whenever I got a little bigger and tougher, he'd just have to wait a few months and eventually we'd be on the same playing field again.
The Primer- Multiplayer Madness
In case you don't remember the halcyon days of plastic instrument parties, Rock Band is a fairly simple rhythm game made interesting by the fact that you play it with plastic versions of guitars, drums and keyboards. The conceit was that you and your friends were the titular Rock Band, and your basement was a stage.
The game itself is pretty irrelevant at that point. Sure, if you're better at timing your button presses you'll get a better score and the song will sound better, but you're not really noticing any of that once you reach a certain threshold of quality, you forget all that. You're on stage, you're playing the song. You are, for a brief shining second, role-playing as a rock band. That roleplay element is something that most video games can't really get us to participate in.
Op-Ed: The Thing About the Holodeck...
The thing about the holodeck is that it's not a game anymore.
All spaceships will have patriotically red white and blue-themed control consoles. It's only American.
It's the elephant in the room whenever people talk about VR, but in order to really get into what it means, let's go back a couple decades, to early on in gaming's modern history. It's 1979, and Atari is releasing Asteroids. The cabinet is pretty similar to its contemporaries'- the monitor is recessed into the unit, with walls on either side to block off the sights and sounds of the arcade around you. The control panel is designed to look like the controls of an imaginary spaceship. It's not just a facsimile of the ship's cockpit, designed to be a cute amusement. It's deliberately put together to make you focus in on the game and immerse yourself. Even from what is ostensibly the beginning of modern interactive media, the desire for immersion is present. Games aren't necessarily where the idea of virtual reality was invented- Pygmalion's Spectacles, a short story from 1935 was the first science fiction story to theorize on the subject- but they certainly awakened something in people. Video games held (and still do, to a certain extent) held promises of entire virtual worlds waiting to be escaped to.
Think of art as a machine. Books, games, movies, music, it's all a bunch of machines that are static, unmoving until we interact with them in some way. Specifically, imagination is the fuel, the force that turns their gears and makes the worlds they want to create pop out at us. Some machines, like books, need more imagination to draw the worlds out of them. Some, like movies, have more engaging visuals and sounds that build the world with very little imagination necessary. Not to say that these mediums are more or less creative than the other, but in order to get the most out of a book's world, you really do have to work your imagination harder than you would with a film. Games though, are a bit unique as an "art machine", they occupy both the high and low ends of that spectrum. Like a movie, all the visuals and sounds present the world to you automatically, without much need for the fuel of imagination to make it reveal itself. But like a book, the more imagination you pour in, the more detailed and deeper that world becomes.
Project Holodeck used motion tracking cameras with the Oculus Rift to try to simulate a Holodeck-like enviroment.
Unlike a film, games allow you to poke around the world and discover things, to use your imagination to flesh out what is left unexplained. Sure, you can put more thought into a movie than just what it presents on the surface, but that doesn't build a deeper world so much as deepens your understanding of one already there. So games rely on that imagination to breathe as much as they don't. It's a weird thing to say, but if you've stuck with me this far, your reward is that we're finally getting back to that Holodeck thing. See, the promise of the holodeck is an amped-up version of the promise of today's VR. It's absolute and total immersion. It's pure simulation. You aren't controlling Gordon Freeman, you ARE Gordon Freeman. Star Trek presents the Holodeck as a near-perfect simulation. The goal of its programs are that the user is never able to discern that it's not reality. In fact, that's the only real difference between the Holodeck and the Oculus Rift. The Rift, due to technological limitations, can't create a visual environment of the resolution it would take to be thoroughly convincing without using a headset. But above that, the Holodeck also has the benefit of impossibly (for now at least) clever computers.
Project Holodeck became Survios, which is developing a full-body motion tracking unit that eliminates the need for too much camera tracking. The trade-off is that for now, you look insane wearing it.
The Holodeck is smart. Smarter than any computer that's out there right now. On a dime, it's able to react to anything its user does, within the confines of the simulation programmed into it. It uses Star Trek's fictional replication and force field technologies to create physical objects for the user to interact with as if they were real. In that sense, the Holodeck is not a virtual reality, but a virtually-made reality, rather than the realities made virtual that we experience via the Oculus Rift. The first writer to theorize about a holodeck-like system was Ray Bradbury, in his 1950 short story The Veldt. There, the playroom in a family's new automated home has the ability to generate any object or environment that its occupants imagine. Without going into the story itself too much, it's interesting that Bradbury, the first person to write about the concept, already singled out the virtual-reality space as a "playroom". Even from the very moment it was theorized, the Holodeck was always, at its very best, an entertainment space despite its boundless possibilities.
Wesley, pictures here either pondering old sci-fi, or generally being a twat. Hard to say.
A virtual reality room that can be programmed to have little-to-no consequence would be unimaginably influential on entertainment sure, but imagine what it would in other places. On-site job training, practice for surgery, driving lessons, education, sex work- it'd be just as revolutionary outside of the entertainment world as it would be in it. So what's this obsession with entertainment, and games specifically? It's possible that because games have, for the last few decades, been the entertainment medium most closely linked with technology, but I have another theory, and it comes back to all that "art machine" nonsense I wrote up a few paragraphs ago. If games are a machine of potential then the more of yourself you put in, the more you get out of them. Now imagine if you had to put all of yourself into the experience every time. Imagine being plopped down in a world you can see and touch and affect in ways that become more detailed the more imagination you put in. All of a sudden, it's not about putting more imagination into a world to get more out of it, it's a very tactile exchange of using more imagination to explore the world in an even deeper way. You touch an object, and all of a sudden it's real, as opposed to finding that object and thinking of what it would be like if it were.
Microsoft's RoomAlive might be our first step into a functioning Holodeck, but the fact that it isn't means we have a long way to go before we get to Holonovels.
So why isn't it a game then? Well, because there aren't really mechanics. The way Star Trek presents Holodeck simulations (and I apologize if i'm not 100% accurate, I'm not the biggest Star Trek guy and like many non-fans, I'm drawing off of my generally osmosed pop culture knowledge) is as just that, simulations. Sure, they're simulations of what it would be like to be in a scenario, much like games are, but games can't react in every single way. You could definitely play games in a holodeck scenario- if I'm not mistaken, there's a scene where Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Isaac Newton play cards with Data, but its express purpose is always a form of interactive entertainment that lacks the abstractions of game mechanics. When you die, you die, there are no health meters, no quests, and, well, no "goal". Games are often defined by that whole goal thing. They have a defined loss state. We've discussed this before, but it's interesting to think how VR is probably the space for all the stuff currently roped into games that defy a lot of the traditional definitions of games. Those games focused on creating immersive worlds to pour ourselves into, worlds designed around the player as an explorer poking around, they're the perfect fit for the eventual virtual veldt of Bradbury's imagination. Microsoft is showing off how they can use projectors in tandem with Kinect to display a game all around the room you're in. But it's not a reality. You're looking over an army marching across your coffee table. It's a virtually made reality, but not a reality you can only access virtually.
Well, that's not quite it, but nice try?
Does it really matter that it's not a game anymore? No, not really. Our definition expands and gets broader all the time. But all the people designing games around mechanics and goals are going to be left in the dust when the holodeck takes over and makes environmental design and storytelling king. Nothing we know about traditional game design will carry over, to the point where "videogames" and "holdeck games" might just be two totally dissimilar mediums. The Gone Homes, the Dear Esthers of the world, those are the beginnings of the "holonovel", those are the games that are taking us into gaming's potential future, and I for one welcome our virtually-crafted overlords.
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Review- Mass Destruction
Ultimax is a great arena to cut your teeth in, but there's no master here to show you the ropes. That's not really a complain about Ultimax specifically, it's something all fighting games need to work on, but it feels like this game, with its cross-genre appeal and a story mode that's ripe for teaching and guaranteed to be played by beginners, would be the perfect place for a real tutorial. Ultimax is a great game for fighting game fans and people who want to put in the effort to learn the game. It's not a compromise, and anyone who's only in it for the Persona elements is in for a nasty ultra suplex.
The Circle of Sakurai or: The Irrelevant Relevance of Super Smash Bros.
Masahiro Sakurai directed his first game at the age of 22. It was 1992's Kirby's Dream Land, and if you'll pardon the pretension this early in an article, it was the first postmodern platformer. It was a platforming game where the platforms were meaningless. The protagonist could soar over levels, never having to interact with enemies outside of bosses. It drew explicit attention to the fact that it was a platformer (which may as well be called "jumpers" honestly) where the challenge didn't lay in the jumping. In fact, at least with Dream Land, the challenge didn't really lay anywhere. Kirby didn't hop on enemies, he swallowed them from a fairly safe distance, and if a certain area was too tough, he could float on above them, laughing all the way.
Hyrule Warriors Review- Zelda's Lullaby
Hyrule Warriors is a video game I used to put myself to sleep one night while reviewing it. It's boring and sleepy.
Hyrule Warriors is a video game.
Destiny Review- No Escape
Ten hours into playing Destiny I knew it wasn't a great game. The world exuded blandness. The story was nonsensical, told to me by half-asleep robot. And I kept having this feeling that I was repeating myself. The same levels. The same enemies. The same environments. I'm now twenty hours in and I have to say, the constant sense of deja vu has yet to stop me from playing. Destiny is a fundamentally mean game. You grind missions after mission because you're compelled to, not because you have any desire to explore the game's world.
Destiny is an always online shooter made by Bungie, published by Activision, and is a terrible game I can't stop playing. This surprises even me because I don't play many shooters and I don't like this one. The game is structured like a multiplayer online game. It has long battles that require multiple people to join in, like in Activision's other cash-cow franchise, World of Warcraft. Enemies drop weapons and armor, and you gain new abilities the more you play, again like in WoW. But none of it matters.
Those long fights or "Strikes" are a means to dump loads of ammo into a giant rotating eye that won't die, even after a five minute hailstorm of bullets. Each new piece of armor is at best a marginal improvement over the last, a simple numbers game of deducing whether 99 defense + 34 strength is better than 100 defense + 21 discipline. And yet, let me tell you, within six hours of you reading this review, I will be playing Destiny.
Reviews From a VR Future
This VR theme month has really got us here at Built to Play thinking about the future. We were promised hovercars and cool robots by now, and the future has yet to deliver. But, in a mystifying coincidence, while we were sitting around complaining about our lame present, we got a missive from the future through one of the many pneumatic tubes set up in the recording booth. It told of a terrifying but wondrous future, mostly similar to our own, but where virtual reality technology had taken over video games, ushering in the anaglyphic age of gaming. As part of the time capsule, we also got a set of reviews set to go up the week of September 22nd, 2034. We're pretty sure we can't break embargo on games that don't exist yet, and stable time loops are for wussies, so we're gonna post them today. Unfortunately, as we have no photos of these future games, you'll have to make due to terrifying Google search results and atrocious artist's representations.
Preview: The Xbox One Holiday Lineup
Alien: Isolation:
There's our girl.
The first thing I asked the Sgea rep demoing Alien: Isolation was when the demo content took place in the game proper. He told me it's more of a vertical slice, indicative of the game's overall feel, but not necessarily any one part.
People who remember 2013's license nightmare Aliens: Colonial Marines know why this was deeply concerning to me. Colonial Marines was nothing but vertical slices, and when it came time for the game to be released, the final product was so different, it sparked lawsuits. So even though the next paragraph is going to begin with what'll sound like a bit of hyperbole, know that I'm still very, very apprehensive about this game.
This spooky guy didn't show up during my demo, but one can only assume he's gonna be Xenomorph chow my the end of the game.
Alien: Isolation is probably the best Alien game ever made. It might even be up there as one of the best survival horror games ever made. The demo threw me into a limited zone, and presented a few tools up front. I had some flares, some scrap metal, and a flamethrower, which me handler was careful to call a "tool", not a weapon. Unlke more classic survival horror experiences, Isolation doesn't really hand you much in the way of weaponary, and why would it? Guns are pretty much useless against the Xenomorph. In fact, everything feels useless agaisnt the Xenomorph. It's massive, towering over my character, and walks with a lumbering thump-thump. It's genuinely horrifying, and with only one enemy throughout the entire game, it more than makes up for the pretty much guaranteed lack of jump scares.
Even the motion tracker itself looks gloriously crappy.
It took me four tries to get anywhere in the demo. I had to be cautious and stealthy, checking my motion tracker whenever I found a safe hiding spot, and then finding out the alien was right behind me. The sound of it approaching was enough to get my knees shaking, and the subtle cutaway when it catches you is probably a thousand times spookier than any gore-shot could have been. The Xenomorph runs around unscripted too, doing whatever its AI feels like, so there's no way to rely on rote memorization. It's all about your skill at tracking, avoiding, and using the incredibly limited toolset availble to you. The game also looks incredibly faithful to the movie, replicating that 70s low-fi si-fi look with pretty stellar results. At the beginning of my demo, I got a tutorial video on how to use the motion tracker, which looked like the worn-out VHS tapes I saw in elementary school. Apparently, the dev team rendered the video in game, recorded it to a VHS tape, scratched it up, then put it back into the game. That's dedication.
But, no matter how great Isolation is in, well, isolation, it remains to be seen how the full game will turn out. After the Colonial Marines disaster, it never hurts to be trepidatious, especially when dealing with a seven-and-a-half foot tall two-mouthed monstrosity.
Assassin's Creed: Unity-
Bros before Templars, or something.
I am a cantankerous fart when it comes to the Assassin's Creed series. I've tried them again and again, but they're never what I want out of a game that promises the experience of being an assassin. At best, they're sort of bland trips through beautifully realized historical locales. At worst, they're Assassin's Creed 3. My problem always sort of comes down to the games increasing focus on open-world action. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is sort of the platonic ideal of that kind of game in a lot of ways. The focus is on fast paced, fluid action, and sailing the high seas looking for more people to shoot and stab. While that works for most people, evidently, I've always wanted a more stealthy experience from the Assassin's Creed games. They always promise sneaky alternatives to action, but remaining hidden is usually so difficult and frustrating that it just doesn't feel worth it.
Assassinate people through windows! In a church! At the barbeque! After school! After lunch! Any where is good for assassination!
In my hands-off demo of Assassin's Creed Unity, Arno was spotted exactly once, and was able to silently get away regardless. It was impressive, but it was basically all due to one little improvement, the crouch button. The assassin's guild has finally learned the art of getting low to the ground and wearing darker clothes, making it actually feasible to sneak by guards! Arno can also take cover, peek around cover, and even do third-person-shooter style cover-to-cover transitions. It's something of a late revelation for the Assassin's Creed series, considering Metal Gear was doing it more than a decade ago, but it's by no means unwelcome. Adding stealth options that actually seem to work is a big, big deal for the Assassin's Creed games, which have been catering to the action-focused players since Assassin's Creed 2.
Next-gen consoles can render those crowds of thousands, but they're only there so you can kill 'em dead.
The game is also kind of insultingly pretty. It seems a bit cartoonier in style than previous entries, specifically when it comes to the blood. The Ubisoft rep who was demoing the game says the gore wasn't specifically turned up, but the "improved" blood splatters and gore are definitely noticeable, and made me a little uncomfortable. At one point, Arno ducks into a confessional, and the camera zooms in as he stabs his wrist-blades into his targets eyes. It's brutal, and just a little gross. Otherwise, the environments are beautifully realized, the crowds are enormous and give the world a much better sense of scope, and NPCs react accordingly. At one point, a man on patrol in Notre Dame cathedral was distracted by a cat long enough for Arno to kill him, and dump him into a nearby hay bale. But, this was all hands off. It remains to be seen exactly how well all this will work when it isn't being demoed by a member of the dev team. For now though, Assassin's Creed Unity looks like a stealth game I genuinely want to play, which is shocking.
Fable Legends:
That "four heroes walking into the middle distance" motif is real strong on this holiday's marketing materials.
At E3 Fable Legends looked both kind of generic, and far too good to be true. One one hand, it seemed like a weird offshoot of the Fable games, without any of their sense of scope and grandeur. On the other, the super seamless five player multiplayer, with one player serving as the villain and four working together as a band of heroes looked almost impossible. After going a few rounds with it, Fable Legends showed its true colours- it's actually two genuinely cool, interesting games.
No pictures of my trusty pal Inga, so have Glory wrecking stuff with fireballs.
The first game is the heroes side. They play an action RPG where each of them has a primary weapon, three health potions, four special powers, and a recharging mana bar that they draw from. I played as Inga, a tank class character, who had a slow sword swing, a big shield, and various abilities that improved her teammates survivability. Along for the ride were Shroud, a sniper, Leech, the necromancer, and Glory, the mage. The developers mentioned that so far, there are eight characters, with more in development, and the plan is that any team of heroes can be viable. The character picking feels a little bit like a MOBA, as each has a very specific role to play on any team they take part in. Otherwise though, characters level up and keep those levels, getting stronger over time and holding on to different weapons and items that players find in the single player campaign.
You know, they call 'em archers but you never see them arch.
The villain player though is playing a totally different game., sort of a cross between an RTS and a board game. In each arena (distinct areas of each level) the villain can place enemies from a palette of four monsters per arena, activate traps, and direct monster attacks. At one point, the villain player used a monster to lure me past a gate, then sealed it behind me, leaving my slow tank to deal with a swarm of monsters, and the rest of my party without a reliable damage sponge. Before every arena, the villain has about a minute of prep time, but most of their action goes on as the heroes advance through the areas, reacting in realtime to the weaknesses and strengths of the other players.
It's unbelievably fluid, and part of that may have had to do with the fact that it was running on five networked machines, but god damn if it wasn't impressive. The game doesn't currently have a five player local option, which could be a problem moving forward, but apparently Lionhead is looking into smartglass support for the villain player. Otherwise though, so long as the game actually runs this smoothly in its final form (which is a while away, a beta is happening in October), Fable Legends is shaping up to be one of the more interesting multiplayer experiences on next-gen consoles.
Mortal Kombat X:
Yeah, that's Mortal Kombat alright.
X14, the media event wher I got a chance to play these games, was set up on two floors. More mature titles, like Assassin's Creed and the Evil Within were on the basement floor, while family friendlier titles like Minecraft and Forza were on the first floor. I told you that because Cassie Cage, one of the new characters, has an attack where she punches her opponents in the nuts so hard their gentials explode.
Mortal Kombat was on the first floor.
Kotal Kahn is a new Mortal Kombat Kharacter, who Kicks and Kracks with the best of the top Kombatants.
Gameplay-wise, the big change is the introduction of a character variation system, which gives each character a choice between three different specializations. For example new character D'vorah, an insect-woman, had variations that added venom to her attacks, or gave her extra control over her bee swarm. Each variation changes the physical appearance of the character, letting competitive players know what they're up against without any surprises. The other gameplay twist is taken from the MK team's previous game, Injustice: Gods Among Us, which allowed fighters to interact with various objects and people in the environment. For example, on the market stage, the Warner Bros. PR rep playing the game with me picked up an old lady in the middle of her shopping and tossed her right into my face.
Mortal Kombat's tone is a beautiful thing. It's completely unserious, completely goofy. Where Assassin's Creed's cartoonish goriness was mildly upsetting, Mortal Kombat's was almost jovial. This is a game where the aforementioned Cassie Cage (daughter of series mainstays Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage, by the way) can kneecap her opponents, shoot them through the head, pull out some gum, chew it, stick it over the bullet hole, and watch as a blood soaked bubble pops out. The goofy goriness refreshingly unserious, which is strange to say in an industry where increased gore is meant to be a mark of maturity.
Ori and the Blind Forest:
Dang, that's pretty.
Do you remember the action/platformer indie game trend of 2008ish? Moon studios does. In fact, their debut game, Ori and the Blind forest feels like it could have been ripped right out of that post-Braid period of indie game design. It's actually kind of refreshing, considering so many indie games are following the current rougelike trend. In terms of platform mechanics, there's a little bit of lag to Ori's movement, a little bit of floatiness to his jumps, giving it a very similar feel to Rayman: Origins. Ori also shares that game's focus on gorgeous 2D art. Like Rayman, it's only meant to look hand drawn, but in motion, moves a lot more fluidly with less frames. It's not janky looking by any means, but it's likely what contributes to the floatiness of the gameplay.
Ori also borrows liberally from Metroidvania-style games, with areas that are only accessible by levelling up Ori's various attacking, jumping and running abilities. The whole game takes place on one interconnected map screen, and the plan is for loading to be seamless, with all progress impediments being completely organic, rather than Metroid's trademark locked doors. It's a big promise, but as far as the demo goes, it seems feasible. Unfortunately, there isn't very much that distinguishes Ori mechanically. It mostly seems like a method of conveyance for this gorgeous art, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's probably not the indie game that'll put the Xbox One on the map.
Sunset Overdrive:
I really hope that gun actually fire bullets shaped like the word "Blamm!"
Sunset Overdrive is Sonic the Hedgehog but with guns.
But also it's nothing like that one game that already did that.
See? Grinding! Just like everyone's favourite the Hedgehog.
Insomniac Games is coming hot off the heels of last year's tepidly reviewed Fuse, their first multiplatform title. Sunset Overdrive meanwhile, is their first Xbox exclusive game, and the attitude is an interesting cross between the classic Insomniac cartooniness and Microsoft's focus on "mature" content. The game opens with your personally designed character (mine was a buff red haired girl with a fantastic goatee) cursing up a storm as they flee from mutant energy drink addicts and learn how to grind on rails and building ledges. That's where the sonic comparisons come in. on the ground, your character is a sitting duck. You're not very quick, but the mutants are fast and come at you in droves. While grinding though, you get both the high and speed advantage, along with a better look at the lay of the land. Your advantage is the mobility that the rails offer you, and it makes for a faster, more visually dynamic shooter.
Explosions! Orange! Blue! Soda! Tongues! Firmly in cheeks! But not in a ditry way!
The problem mostly comes in when your weapon variety starts to show up. I had a flaming gential-themed shotgun, a disc gun that fired vinyl records, and a massive hand cannon called the Dirty Harry. None of these guns really favoured the high speed, far away combat style that the grind-rails encouraged. The shotgun worked great for enemies nearby, and the hand cannon was perfect when I slowed myself down and focused on enemies, but otherwise, the disc gun's bouncing records was the only weapon that worked at the high speeds the game wanted me to move at. Presumably as the game opens up, you'll get more weapons that suit how you want to fight, but the game pushes you very hard in a particular direction. The other problem I see is the game's open world, which sort of renders that high-speed mobile combat moot. Specific challenges designed around your mobility in certain areas can be really interesting, but a big, open world might just allow the developers to create more generalized challenges that can be dropped in anywhere on the map. For now, Sunset Overdrive's overall goofiness, and highly mobile combat style has me a lot more interested in it than I'd initially thought, but that open world is particularly worrying, and very much not in Insomniac's wheelhouse.
The Evil Within:
That lanterns is almost certainly going to burn through his pants. Give him some toasty buns.
Hoods are so last year for "spooky apparition", don't you know that?
Did you play Resident Evil 4? If you didn't, it's something of a classic. Shinji Mikami reimagined of the survival horror genre when it desperately needed some fresh air, and created one of the first modern third person shooters to boot, RE4 is pretty rightfully considered to be one of the best games of its time, and it holds up surprisingly well. The Evil Within is Shinji Mikami's return to the genre he revolutionized twice, and it's sort of lacking in the revolution department. Without Mikami, Resident Evil has become a far more action- oriented franchise than ever before, and indie games have taken the survival horror genre in a more atmospheric, less actiony direction.The Evil Within is a very anti-climactic return to that Resident Evil 4 middle ground. The protagonist even has Leon Kennedy's trademark constipated shuffle.
Ammo's in tight supply, the "haunted" can come back from the dead if you don't burn their corpses with a match, and the demo took place in a spooky mansion. The potential for jump scares and death traps is pretty much infinite. At one point, I walked down a hallway, and triggered a rope that dragged me into a closet full of spinning blades. I tried shooting at the blades to jam them, but of course, the game didn't exactly highlight the tiny blinking light I was meant to shoot at until after I died. And then I lost about 20 minutes of progress. Retracing my steps was an exercise in memorization. Turn around, shoot that zombie. Stop, kick open door, defuse bomb, grab safe dial, go down hall, activate trap, shoot trap. The sheer scriptedness of everything renders the horror moot. The terrifying atmosphere of modern survival horror has left Mikami's take on the genre feeling more like a particularly goofy haunted house.
In a more positive take, having to burn enemy corpses is an interesting mechanic. Your character only has so many matches available to him (one has to wonder why he doesn't just carry a lighter) and any enemy whose head you don't completely blow off has a chance of coming back. I could see that becoming a real great way of building dread, but then again, after dying once or twice, it wouldn't be too hard for a player to figure out which bodies to burn and which to leave. Especially when compared to Alien: Isolation, The Evil Within seems like a survival horror throwback, and not necessarily in a good way.
The Next Reality- What Works With VR?
For years, virtual reality was nothing but a twinkle in the eye of the goofiest of cyberpunk-tinged games industry futures. But now, with the advent of technology like the Oculus Rift, and the Samsung Gear VR, virtual reality is just a few steps away from your eyeballs at any moment. Of course, that means the temptation to make those headset-wearing VR dreams come true is stronger than ever, and here at Built to Play, we'd like to crush those dreams. Not every game is good for VR! In fact, most games aren't! But some work really well- like, genre redefining well.
Virtual reality displays are- and have always been - peripheral to the overall game experience. Generally speaking, games that are made for VR displays are incunabular in nature. They ape the current format of games rather than create something that requires VR to function properly.
The Primer: The History of VR
Before we kick off this month's Built to Play theme on Virtual Reality, let's take a trip through the frightful history of consumer-level VR game technology, shall we? Now hold my hand, count to three, click your heels, and strap a computer to your face, because it's time to go!
While it isn't technically virtual reality, the Master System's 3D glasses are the first example I can find of a game developer using dedicated hardware to push immersion. Or, more accurately back then, the promise of immersion to sell dedicated hardware. To be fair to these guys, Master System 3D is in full colour, trading out red and blue lenses for rapidly moving shutters. That doesn't make it any less a waste of money.


text:
Q: What common weak choice principles are preserved by forcing? It is well-known that if you force over a model of $\mathsf{ZFC}$ you get another model of $\mathsf{ZFC}$. Also basic is that the Axiom of Choice itself plays no real part in the mechanics of forcing (so that one can force over models of $\mathsf{ZF}$ to get another model of $\mathsf{ZF}$, though probably not one in which the Axiom of Choice holds). I am curious whether any of the more common weak choice principles are preserved by forcing. That is, for which $\mathsf{X}$ is it the case that $M[G] \vDash \mathsf{ZF}+\mathsf{X}$ whenever $M \vDash \mathsf{ZF}+\mathsf{X}$, $\mathbb{P} \in M$, and $G$ is $\mathbb{P}$-generic over $M$?
In particular, I would be interested in the following:

*

*The Axiom of Countable Choice, $\mathsf{CC}$: for any sequence $( X_n )_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ of nonempty sets, the product $\prod_{n \in \mathbb{N}} X_n$ is nonempty.

*The Axiom of Dependent Choice, $\mathsf{DC}$: if $R$ is a binary relation on a nonempty set $X$ such that for each $x \in X$ there is a $y \in X$ such that $x \mathrel{R} y$, then there is a sequence $( x_n )_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ in $X$ such that $x_n \mathrel{R} x_{n+1}$ for each $n \in \mathbb{N}$.

*The Ultrafilter Theorem, $\mathsf{UF}$: given any filter $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of a nonempty set $X$, there is an ultrafilter $\mathcal{U}$ on $X$ with $\mathcal{U} \supseteq \mathcal{F}$.

I'm pretty sure that first is not preserved, I'm pretty agnostic on the second, and I'm inclined to think that the last may be preserved. This is more of a gut feeling than anything else so it can be safely ignored.

A: None of these things need to be preserved in general.

Monro, G. P., On generic extensions without the axiom of choice, J. Symb. Log. 48, 39-52 (1983). ZBL0522.03034.

There Monro proves that all three can be violated by forcing. In fact, we can show that if $\sf DC$ or even $\sf AC_\omega$ are preserved by generic extension (and it's enough to consider well-orderable forcings), then $\sf AC_{WO}$ holds. You can find some details in this MathOverflow thread.
We can show that $\sf DC$ is preserved under proper forcing (see my paper with David Asperó, Dependent Choice, Properness, and Generic Absoluteness), and in general it is also not hard to show that $\sf DC_{<\kappa}$ is preserved under $\kappa$-closed forcings (well, also $\kappa$-proper forcings, I suppose, but those are not well-behaved as proper forcings are with respect to $\omega$). But we don't have a nice condition for $\sf AC_\kappa$ (without $\sf DC_\kappa$, that is) or the Boolean Prime Ideal theorem (or even weaker versions such as the Ordering Principle).
On a more positive side, we can define a family of principles called Kinna–Wagner Principles, where $\sf KWP_\alpha$ states that every set can be injected into $\mathcal P^\alpha(\eta)$ for some ordinal $\eta$. Then we can show that if $\alpha$ is a limit (or $0$) then $\sf KWP_\alpha$ is preserved in forcing extensions, and in general forcing can violate at most one level in the Kinna–Wagner hierarchy. You can find more about this in one of my recent papers, Guide to the Bristol model: Gazing into the Abyss.
Finally, since we mentioned MathOverflow, this and this are both relevant to your question.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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August 21, 2014 | General News
IG Appoints New Police Spokesman
By The Rainbow
The Inspector General Police, Suleiman Abba, NPM, mni, on Thursday appointed DCP Emmanuel Ojukwu as the new Force Public Relations Officer.
This was contained in a statement issued in Abuja by CSP Abayomi Shogunle, Deputy Force Public Relation Officer, a copy obtained by Naij.com
Ojukwu replaces the former spokesman, ACP Frank Mba, who has been redeployed to Lagos State Command as an Area Commander, Area J.
Related: Police Cooperative Society Faces Fraud Allegation
ACP Mba was appointed the Force Public Relations Officer from February 2012 to August, 2014.
Meanwhile, DCP Ojukwu, before his new appointment was a seasoned and thoroughbred officer, he was the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Criminal Investigations Department at Zone 7 Headquarters, Abuja.
The new spokesman is stepping into a familiar terrain, having distinguished himself as the Force PRO from December 2008 to October 2010. He holds B.Sc degree in Psychology (First Class Hons) from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and M.Sc in Psychology from the University of Lagos. He is a member of Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Chairman Association of Nigerian Authors, Abuja, President of the University of Nigeria Alumni Association, Abuja.
ACP Mba speaking at the handing over ceremony urged the media and the public to extend maximum cooperation to the new spokesman.
Responding, Ojukwu promised to work to enhance the relationship between the Police and the public in line with the policy thrust of the Nigeria Police Force, and reiterated the slogan "The Police is your helper and friend."
Related: Policemen Get 7.5 Million For Osun Poll
It would be recalled that the Police Service Commission recently promoted six Assistant Inspectors General of Police and two Commissioners of Police to the rank of Deputy Inspectors General of Police. Two commissioners of police were also promoted to the ranks of AIGs.
The AIGs promoted to DIGs were Dan'Azumi Job Doma, former force secretary, Mamman Ibrahim Tsafe, former AIG Zone 2 Lagos, David O. Omojola, former AIG Zone 11 Osogbo, Solomon E. Arase, former AIG Force Intelligence and AIG Christopher K. Katso, former moderator, Nigeria Institute of Police and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos.
Others include AIG Zone 5 Benin City, Salihu Argungu Hashidu, while CP Hilary Opara, former CP Bayelsa State and CP Sotonye L. Wakama, former CP Anti-terrorist Squad were elevated from the ranks of DIGs.

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text:
WhatsApp finally gets a dark theme in the latest beta update
Tekken 7 gets Leroy Smith release date alongside more fighter reveals
The Microsoft store may have leaked the upcoming DLC characters for Tekken 7 ahead of their reveal at the TEKKEN World Tour Finals 2019, but that didn't kill the hype of seeing the new Thailand stage and a new original character being shown on stage today.
Then, in Spring new character Fahkumram joins the fight - he's described as a Muay Thai fighter with a mighty strength; he'll also be bringing along a new stage for combatants to brawl in too.
New fighters are coming to "Tekken 7" soon.
Walmart apologizes for controversial Christmas sweater
He packs it in flawless lines on his coffee table and then takes a big whiff to smell the high-quality aroma of the snow. That's why Santa really likes to take savor the moment when he gets his hands on some quality grade A Colombian snow.
Game company Bandai Namco Entertainment recently revealed two new downloadable characters for popular 3D action fighting video game Tekken 7. Fahkumram looks utterly intimidating in the trailer. "Prepare to wrestle your opponents with Ganryu!". His height, however, makes him look more like Sagat.
Are you a Tekken 7 fan? Yep, it's Ganryu, the hapless sumo wrestler who has a perennial crush on Michelle and Julia Chang. "A new contender is set to enter the King of Iron Fist Tournament!"
- Added support for Ganryu (DLC #11), Leroy Smith (DLC #12), and frame data display (DLC #13). Leroy Smith is set to Wing Chun his way out this December 10 along with Ganryu, while the Thai kickboxer will be out sometime in 2020.
Frank Lampard urges Chelsea to embrace 'big night' against Lille
Carrying on that now, Rudiger is just back and Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] is a big player for us as well. You have a strong squad which I believe we have but you have to look at can we strengthen.
Kevin Hart says Jumanji: The Next Level cast brought their A-game
Johnson added: "Then 20 minutes later we're giving one another s-t". "With a different kind of spirit'". Dwayne also revealed that such incidents also lead you to view the world in a different way.
Steven Gerrard blasts absence of VAR in Scotland after League Cup final
I've had some special days and I am just buzzing I did my bit for the team. "They only had one shot on target - the goal". I need to pick them up physically and mentally for Thursday [in the Europa League], which is huge, but our day will come.
Chinese state offices, public institutions to soon remove all foreign tech
The US has also blacklisted other Chinese technology firms implicated in human rights abuses of Muslim minorities in China's Xinjiang region.
U.S. officials privately voiced concerns about Afghan war
Bush . "What did we get for this one trillion dollar effort?" "If the American people knew the magnitude of this dysfunction. The documents are said to contradict public statements about the war by USA presidents, military commanders and diplomats.
Chinese government to replace foreign hardware and software within three years
On the same grounds, the White House pressured its allies in Europe and beyond to deny Huawei entrance to their 5G networks. This move is the next step in a lengthening trade war between the United States and the Chinese government.
How Blue Jays are effected by Strasburg's new contract with Nationals
He was named World Series MVP as Washington beat the Houston Astros to win the championship in seven games. Since being selected No. 1 overall in 2009, Strasburg is 112-58 with an ERA of 3.17 and a WHIP of 1.03.
Rapper Juice WRLD dies at age 21
Higgins blended rapping and singing on his songs, sometimes mumbling words and focusing more on melody. According to Forbes , Juice WRLD passed away after having a seizure at Midway airport in Chicago, IL.
Fresno State coach Jeff Tedford steps down after 3 seasons
After graduating from Fresno State in 1982, Tedford had a six-year career as a quarterback in the Canadian Football League. Fresno State coach Jeff Tedford announced Friday he is stepping down from his alma mater after three seasons at the helm.
Giuliani wants to take information to Barr, Congress
President Donald Trump did not care about corruption in general in Ukraine - only with regard to Joe Biden , a political rival. Among those Giuliani has made contact with is former prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko.
Eskom moves to stage-6 load shedding
It is also to be noted that this is the first time in South African history that stage 6 has had to be implemented. Eskom has announced it is moving from stage 4 to stage 6 load-shedding at 18:00 on Monday 9 December 2019.
'Mexico, US, Canada trade talks continue in Washington
Trade Representative's office for talks on the U.S. -Mexico-Canada agreement on trade, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019, in Washington. Jesus Seade, Mexican Undersecretary to North America, speaks with a reporter as he arrives at the U.S.
Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif meet Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said her government is planning to introduce virtual courts in the country. The tournament proper will kick off on December 11 at the same venue, with Chattogram Challengers taking on Sylhet Thunder.
Russian Federation banned from Olympics for four years over doping scandal
On Monday, the body's Executive Committee unanimously agreed with the recommendation at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland . He called WADA's partial ban a "horrendous Groundhog Day of Russian corruption and domination".
SpaceX's Dragon Cargo Ship Docks With International Space Station
The first RELL unit was launched in 2015, and after the success of the project, a second RELL unit was launched earlier this year. Less than three hours later, the spacecraft was securely attached to the station's Harmony module. "So, welcome on board".
Naby Keita: Jurgen Klopp 'never doubted' Liverpool midfielder
There was never doubt about that which was really nice. "He was unlucky and in life, luck is always needed". He started really well then got injured. "I never had doubts about that".
Rene Auberjonois, 'Star Trek' and 'Boston Legal' actor, dies at 79
His appearance as Judge Mantz in ABC's " The Practice " earned him another Emmy nod for guest actor in a drama in 2001. He won a Tony Award in 1970 for his supporting performance opposite Katharine Hepburn in Coco .
Lata Mangeshkar is back home hale and hearty
Fans of the singer are happy to know that Lata Mangeshkar is back home now and has even tweeted after feeling a little better. In the note, Lata expressed her gratitude to all her well wishers, her doctors and the nursing staff of the hospital.
Asian markets mixed with United States rally unable to inspire
The central bank is expected to highlight the economy's resilience and keep interest rates on hold in the range of 1.50% to 1.75%. In the absence of a breakthrough, Washington has said a new round of tariffs on Chinese goods will take effect on Dec 15.
Bengals: NFL investigating if Pats filmed sideline
They were found to be violating league rules and fined for filming opposing teams' signals in 2007, known as "Spygate". The league is looking into whether a scout illegally videotaped the Cincinnati Bengals' sideline.
Thousand Indian Scientists, Scholars Oppose Citizenship Bill based on Religion
The organisation has urged the people to stop their daily activities and come out on the street to protest against the Bill. Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to introduce the legislation for consideration and passage.
Finland's Sanna Marin to become world's youngest prime minister at 34
Speaking during one of her campaigns, she said her election will help her to fulfill her dream to support the black communities. Marin is now the country's Minister of Transport and Communications and the leader of Finland's Social Democratic party.
Russian Federation probe report finds no evidence of political bias
Clinesmith did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "Shut up until you're finished". Inspector-general reports are valuable because they offer the chance to learn.
Artist snacks on $US120,000 banana taped to wall in Art Basel gallery
A banana duct-taped to a wall that sold for $120,000 at Art Basel Miami was eaten by an artist who described it as "delicious". The reason it is not destroyed is because art collectors are buying the Certificate of Authenticity, not the banana itself.
Knicks fire coach David Fizdale
Fizdale, who is in the middle of a four-year contract, posted a 21-83 record with the Knicks after being hired in May 2018. The Knicks host the Pacers Saturday night before a road trip against the Blazers, Warriors, Kings and Nuggets .
United Kingdom election: Johnson pledges to put limits on unskilled migration
Pressed on the details of his plan, Mr Johnson explained he would favour an "Australian style points-based system". It was quite incredible . "There was a big baby boom".
Jennifer Lopez wants even more children with new fiancee
With club profits (and tips) on the decline, she quickly devises a scheme with Costance Wu's Destiny to keep the cash coming in!
Baker Mayfield Questions Browns' Handling Of Odell Beckham Jr.'s Injury
Top Karnataka Congress leaders quit over poor show in bypolls
Vivo V17, featuring 48MP quad cameras, launched at Rs. 23000
Tourists injured as volcano erupts off New Zealand coastline
Saudi Aramco's IPO proceeds soar to nearly US$30 bil
AOC criticized for tweet slamming Amazon's NYC plans
Saudi Aramco Expected to Beat Apple as 'Most Valuable Company'
White House rejects participation in impeachment probe
Rocket hits Iraqi clerics home following deadly Baghdad attack, no casualties reported
Juice Wrld Dead at 21, Seizure at Chicago Airport
Apple Adds Another Startup, 'Xnor.ai' To Its Kitty!
BT becomes first European partner for Google Stadia
New push for universal phone chargers across the EU
Cyberpunk 2077 Delay Pushes the Release Date to September 2020
Poco is now an independent brand with own identity, announces Xiaomi
Cold winds blast Boston, making it feel subzero on Friday morning
General Business: Valve is "working hard" to replenish Index VR HMD stocks
Apple iPhone 9 to feature Face ID, bigger display than iPhone 8
United States grant record number of patents to Chinese firms in 2019
Disney+ Was the Top Downloaded App in the United States for Q4
Ad Industry Blasts Google's Cookie-Blocking Plan 01/17/2020
Tesla Inc: Elon Musk nears $346 million paycheck
NSA alerted Microsoft to major Windows 10 security flaw
'Fire Emblem's' Byleth to join 'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'
Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus already has a (brief) hands-on video, confirms specs
Microsoft's New Windows Browser Installs in the Wrong Language - Here's the Fix
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. ElegantHomesInla


Item: At 6-0 and on top of the lacrosse polls, this year's Orange squad has its long term vision on NCAA title number 12, but first, however, those sights are set on topping new archrival Duke, the two time defending national champion, this coming weekend in the Dome.
Until the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Rules Committee takes further, larger steps towards reducing the importance of the faceoff in the sport, which they accomplished minimally with this year's physical installation of the shot clocks – and good only if the :30 to shoot call is signaled more often by the officials to have a chance at a change of possession, the almighty faceoff draw following a goal being scored is still the ultimate weapon in a sport played very competitively by the top twenty or so of the 69 schools on the Div. I level.
Much has rightfully been made about the arrival of Holy Cross transfer Ben Williams and the job he's done in literally getting SU off on the right foot in many of its six games, or on draws following an opposition's goal. The sophomore faceoff specialist's 72% success rate heading into last Saturday's 13-10 win over John Hopkins at the Dome led the nation, and although that number dipped a little with his 16-for-27 (59%) performance against the Blue Jays, he won the one's that mattered the most in the fourth quarter of a back-and-forth game giving the 'Cuse the opportunity to score late and hold on.
Once Williams does his magic and Syracuse starts the motor on the offensive end the number of weapons is downright scary, with five of the six players on attack and the first midfield being seniors who know how to finish.
» Related: Syracuse rallies for a win over Johns Hopkins.
At the other end of the field, another senior has stabilized the goalie position with Bobby Wardwell looking more comfortable as games wind down, with three of his five saves coming in the fourth quarter versus JHU, including a big one with the game tied at 10 with 10:00 to play.
The next shot on the field for the No. 1 Orange goes from the Blue Jays to the Blue Devils, as in Duke, the program the Orange has instantly forged a bitter rivalry against in the nascent years of ACC play.
Not only is SU looking to end a seven year national title drought and take the trophy back north from Durham, but other than last year's improbable last second 16-15 comeback win in the ACC Tournament semi-finals, DU has dominated SU on the field recently (SU outscored 61-36 in four losses dating back to 2012) and the Orange want to change that Sunday afternoon (12:30 p.m. ET / ESPNU) in Duke lacrosse's second-ever visit (a 12-11 SU win in 1994) to the Dome.


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A law enforcement crime analysis unit is essential in helping solve, predict and prevent crimes and with helping apprehend offenders. Chief William Bratton of the Los Angeles Police Department stated, "The heart and soul of any department's success in its principal obligation of crime control is first rate crime analysis,a field of endeavor that has been growing in leaps and bounds" [Source: IACA, the International Association of Crime Analysts].
While crime analysts and criminal intelligence analysts share similar roles, there are some notable differences. One possible distinction, outlined by Crime Analyst Christopher Bruce (in Integrated Intelligence and Crime Analysis by Jerry H. Radcliffe, Ph.D.) is that crime analysts focus on statistical analyses and crime trends whereas criminal intelligence analysts focus more on the criminals themselves.
Crime analysts need to have various skills including, communication (oral, written and visual), creative and critical thinking and technical/computer skills. Ultimately their role is to provide their findings, in a way that can be easily understood, to assist all members of a law enforcement team carry out their crime reduction, prevention and control duties.
What is a Crime Analyst?
A crime analyst provides law enforcement personnel with relevant information, in the form of reports, presentations or maps, so that they can efficiently deploy resources to prevent or control crime. Crime analysis involves looking at existing reports and data, analyzing statistics to identify patterns and trends and to prepare useful products (i.e. reports or maps) in a timely manner so that criminal activity can be predicted, monitored or suppressed. Often, law enforcement staff will ask crime analysts to focus on a certain crime area; in other words officers, detectives and chiefs may bring crime analysts a problem that they need solved.
Review existing crime-related data/statistics or reports related to a particular law enforcement district or jurisdiction.
Use computer programs, such as databases, statistical analysis software and GIS (geographic information systems). The latter is to prepare maps, especially useful for law enforcement officers.
Analyze statistics to determine trends and to forecast future criminal activity.
Write and edit relevant reports, bulletins and presentations.
Provide analytical support to police officers/sheriff's deputies, detectives and other personnel.
Develop programs to predict and prevent future criminal activity.
Tactical Analysts: Tactical crime analysts focus their efforts on recent crimes (such as determining trends of when, where and why criminal activities are occurring) so that police officers and investigators can be deployed in a short period of time to control or terminate a crime spree.
Strategic Analysts: Strategic crime analysts integrate criminal and law enforcement data with socio-demographic and geographic data. The purpose is to understand why, where and when criminal activity is taking place in relation to the community at large in order to prevent and control crime. Strategic analysis is linked with intelligence-led policing.
Administrative Analysts: Administrative crime analysts educate law enforcement personnel (i.e. from patrol officers all the way up to the Chief) and municipal staff on their criminal findings including data, trends and forecasts. A key focus involves research, writing reports and delivering presentations.
Intelligence Analysts: Intelligence analysts, also called criminal intelligence analysts, rely on multiple sources (including data, surveillance, interviews and records) to collect vital information on organized crime. They transform the information they find into intel they provide to all relevant law enforcement personnel.
Crime Analysis Supervisors: Crime Analysis Supervisors oversee the Crime Analysis Unit and delegate the various assignments/duties to their crime analysts. This means they must keep on top of all relevant crime reports, statistics and data series. Supervisors must keep up to date with the latest methodologies related to crime analysis and keep in close communication with the various law enforcement departments and relevant stakeholders in the community.
Both sworn officers and civilians choose to pursue a career in crime analysis. Law enforcement agencies, from large police departments to small sheriff's departments, typically have a crime analysis unit. Most law enforcement agencies require crime analysts to have a minimum of a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field, such as criminal justice, public administration, computer science, mathematics/statistics or criminology. Continuous education will also help you stand out from a pool of applicants in this competitive field. For example, The IACA (International Association of Crime Analysts) offers professional development courses, such as Crime Mapping or Tactical Crime Analysis. Through the IALEIA (International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts), you can complete their nationally recognized FIAT program which includes topics such as crime pattern analysis and creative/critical thinking.
According to Sergeant Greg Stewart of the Portland Police Bureau Crime Analysis Unit, continuous and higher education are key. For example, he points out that criminal analysts not only have to detect patterns, but also recognize when patterns do not exist and he credits higher education to equipping analysts with this particular skill.
From July 2011 to January 2012, the Santa Cruz Police Department began a trial employing a crime analysis system developed by Criminologist George Tita, Anthropologist Jeff Brantingham and Mathematicians George Mohler and Martin Short. The sophisticated predictive policing computer modeling system provides predictions, based on historical data, regarding what time of day, where and what kind of crime will occur. According to Santa Cruz's Crime Analyst Zach Friend, burglaries declined by 4% and a total of 13 arrests, during a six month period, were made because of the innovative system.


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AP's Hit Piece on RFK, Jr. Symbolizes Intellectual, Moral Collapse of Mainstream News Industry
"I rate the AP hit piece 12 clowns (out of 10) for its total inability/unwillingness to engage in good faith scientific discussion"
The mainstream media are incapable of facing the truth about Pharma because it would reveal their own complicity in crimes against humanity.
Toby Rogers, Ph.D.
Republication by: Lawrence Morra III
Zero Lift-Off Only The Beginning
For informational and sharing purposes on this platform only.
Bought and paid for and sold their souls to the Devil!
I used to work in the MSM and dropped the chance for a big career being one of their establishment owned and controlled puppets whether behind the camera or in front of it as I could plainly see they were part of a Global Money Making and Propaganda Machine getting more and more corrupt by the day! The money is just too gargantuan for that kind of business to be about Truth and Real Journalism that really matters to the citizenry! They "don't give a rats ass" about you me or anybody outside of the Corporate Loop and Massive Globalist Agenda! Big Pharma television adds are constant and unrelenting propaganda lies, to seduce the viewing public into being trained like herd animals to seek more medications for any ache or pain and even to perform better sexually which is so immoral for these titans to push sexual enhancing drugs on TV or the Internet that all children see and this sets them up with a mindset that sex is just a normal everyday fun thing for anyone to do and it is not! When I was a kid they didn't even advertise condoms on TV and all I see now is an evil and insane culture that is out of control because the men behind the curtain running the show are all EVIL! Morals and integrity should be promoted into the public consciousness just as the Good Book tells us that sex outside of marriage is taboo and sinful in God's eyes! But these instruments of power for the Elite Globalists don't care about your children or their health mentally or physically at all and they don't care if you all die using any of the medicines as you must hear for yourselves all of the disclaimers during the adds which is a red herring warning in itself to stay the hell away from BIG PHARMA which is the new Witch Craft of Modern Times; all sorcery and evil!
The other component to all of this lying is how the CIA has been using MSM for decades as an appendage of the government to manipulate and control and how else would you think we have gotten to the point now where a cold type virus came out of China and the whole propaganda apparatus got busy hoodwinking the entire global population with 100% Lies! And how a new experimental gene therapy vaccine that hasn't even been tested out properaly over many years before unleashing it on the public; but yet instead they've been saying all you humans can be human guinea pigs or lab rats of Big Phama, so they can make Trillions of Dollars! So all of you Sheeple just do your duty and take the damn jabs whether you want to or not; because you need to do your part as a good citizen idiot! All this for a cold type virus that actually had from the start a 99.98% survival rate if treated with available remedies that actually work and don't kill the patient like the Jabs Do or Ventilators with Remdesivir do in far too many cases; and as time passes many more of the vaccinated are going to die!
Robert Kennedy Jr. is a hero and true Christian Warrior for God now, in this most horrible act of Crimes Against Humanity that is taking place and that the evil Media are Promoting as well as covering up the TRUTH making them all Nazi Gestapo killers!
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The blue check bourgeoisie are very sad right now.
They want to be in control, they want to be looked up to and they are watching in horror as their entire worldview and standing in society slips from their grasp and goes down the drain.
In their shame and humiliation, the object of their ire becomes Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Kennedy is everything they are not. He is smarter and more successful than they are.
But more than that, Kennedy has moral character, something that is in vanishingly short supply in mainstream newsrooms these days. He has also more reach.
COVID-19 information on Kennedy's website, The Defender, is shared more often on social media than the corporate nonsense coming from CNN, NPR, New York Times, Washington Post and the CDC (no surprise there really).
As Kennedy's new book, "The Real Anthony Fauci" rose to the top of the bestseller list in recent weeks, the blue check bourgeoisie started to panic because his work reveals, amongst other things, that they are charlatans.
BUY TODAY: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s New Book — 'The Real Anthony Fauci'
So the Associated Press (AP) assigned six "reporters" to put out a 4,000-word hit piece on Kennedy.
This appears to be part of a wave of paid retribution stemming from Kennedy's extraordinary record of successfully challenging the dishonest Pharma narrative.
The AP hit piece reveals nothing new about Kennedy but it tells us heaps about the worldview and mindset of the corrupt white-collar class that makes their bread defending the Pharma cartel.
Whether you like him or not, Kennedy is a serious scholar. "The Real Anthony Fauci" is 480 pages and involved a team of more than 20 world-class research scholars working for more than a year.
It is perhaps the most damning indictment of a political figure in American history. It deserves a serious reading.
What's fascinating about the AP hit piece is that they are terrified to engage with the actual argument itself. Their sole interaction with the book consists of a quick keyword search for the words "ivermectin" and "hydroxychloroquine."
The AP writes:
"Kennedy uses the book to push unproven COVID-19 treatments such as ivermectin, which is meant to treat parasites …"
Imagine thinking that this was some sort of gotcha!? We are left with one of two unpleasant possibilities — either the AP writers are just plain dumb or they are lying. I'm not sure which is worse.
The AP seems unaware that William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015 for the discovery and development of ivermectin (back in the 1970s).
The AP seems unaware that the World Health Organization has ivermectin on its list of essential medicines.
The AP seems unaware that there are 136 studies on the safety and effectiveness of ivermectin in connection with SARS-CoV-2 and they are all available (here).
The AP seems unaware that 3.7 billion doses of ivermectin have been used safely worldwide since 1987.
The AP seems unaware that ivermectin is a broad-spectrum anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-parasite, anti-inflammatory that also appears to have anti-cancer properties and it's more gentle than aspirin.
Remember, the AP had six reporters working on this, and not a single one of them could locate any of these available facts???
The blue check bourgeoisie are obsessed with trying to defend vaccines and discredit ivermectin even as they refuse to read any of the underlying scientific literature because to understand the truth of this situation would reveal that everything that they believe is a lie.
Later in the article, the AP is breathless and freaked out that Kennedy is pretty good at raising money (according to the AP, Kennedy's non-profit Children's Health Defense brought in $6.8 million in 2020).
Okay, but Autism Speaks brought in $94.7 million in 2020 and accomplished absolutely nothing so $6.8 million for fighting global Pharma totalitarianism seems like a bargain by comparison.
The corrupt mainstream are fixated on this notion (surely invented by one of the big Pharma PR firms) that opposing vaccine mandates is somehow profitable.
It shows that these people have no ability to mentally position-switch (the foundation of empathy) and put oneself in the shoes of another.
Everyone in the movement for medical freedom who battles in the trenches every day knows that challenging the Pharma cartel results in endless bigotry from former friends, family and colleagues — routine death threats — and a massive, lifelong decline in income.
No one would ever endure this level of abuse for the money.
This angle of attack is also strange and illogical because these reporters never question the hundreds of billions of dollars that Pharma makes from vaccines and the prescription drugs used to treat vaccine injury (EpiPens, asthma inhalers, diabetes treatments, Risperdal, etc.).
Urgent: 3 Ways to Help Stop Biden's Vaccine Mandates
If, as the AP alleges, the lure of a modest non-profit salary is somehow corrupting then how corrupting are the trillions of dollars that Pharma is making from the pandemic!? It's weird that these self-appointed guardians of the "Truth(TM)" never stop to think through where their logic is taking them.
The article is a sad time capsule that perfectly symbolizes the intellectual and moral collapse of the mainstream news industry in the face of the pandemic.
Reporters never challenge power anymore. They do not do any investigative research. Their jobs are not well paid and being a reporter is no longer a viable career path.
Instead, these "reporters," many just out of college, are auditioning for a future job with a Pharma PR firm and it shows.
At some point though these stenographers for the cartel have to realize that everyone is laughing at them.
Indeed in just the last few days one can see The Atlantic, New York Times and Washington Post all starting to get nervous and hedging their bets with articles (usually just opinion pieces for now) that undermine some aspect of the Pharma narrative.
The public already realizes that the emperor has no clothes and the corrupt bougie media class is rightly worried that they have lost whatever credibility they once had by associating themselves with the criminal Pharma regime.
(Nope, not gonna link to the article, fascists do not deserve clicks.)
I rate the AP hit piece 12 clowns (out of 10) for its total inability/unwillingness to engage in good faith scientific discussion.
Originally published by Toby Rogers on Substack.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Children's Health Defense.
Dr. Toby Rogers has a Ph.D. in political economy from the University of Sydney in Australia. His doctoral thesis, "The Political Economy of Autism," explores the regulatory history of five classes of toxicants that increase autism risk.
Author Lawrence MorraPosted on December 21, 2021 December 21, 2021 Categories Uncategorized
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Home National After leaning on Leonard, Raptors finally get team effort in rout of...
After leaning on Leonard, Raptors finally get team effort in rout of Sixers
TORONTO — When Fred VanVleet threw up a three-point attempt late in the first quarter on Tuesday, it was as the nearly 20,000 fans at Scotiabank Arena were collectively willing the ball to fall through the hoop.
The roar when it did? Deafening.
After several sub-par post-season performances from the Raptors player known as "Steady Freddy," the backup point guard finally had a decent night — and it was emblematic of Toronto's 125-89 rout of Philadelphia. Everyone had a hand in it.
"You heard it. It was loud," VanVleet said of the fan reaction. "It was as if I hadn't made a shot in three years. It felt good to see one go down. I missed a couple after that, but whatever. It is what it is. We won.
"At this point of the year, I'm not concerned with numbers. Obviously they're pretty ugly right now. The only one that matters right now is 3-2."
The Raptors travel back to Philadelphia for Thursday's Game 6 just one win away from their second conference final appearance in franchise history (the first was in 2016). The fact Tuesday's win required no Kawhi Leonard heroics — and was Toronto's best all-around win of these playoffs, and the biggest margin of victory in Raptors history — is a wave of momentum to ride in on.
VanVleet, who made "Bet on Yourself" his catchphrase after he went undrafted in 2016, has shot just 3-for-18 through five games. His three-pointer on Tuesday was his first field goal after being blanked for three straight games.
This wobbly stretch has been uncharacteristic and tough for the well-liked point guard who was a major part of the team's talented "bench mob," a second unit that came up big in Toronto's opening-round series-clinching win last season against Washington.
When the 25-year-old from Rockford, Ill., sat out four games of last post-season with a shoulder injury, he was sorely missed.
This year, it's felt like a collective holding of breath while the bench struggles on the floor.
"I could sit here and tell you how I'm a team player and I'm locked in and I'm playing great defence. But I know what it is. I feel it just like you guys see it. Staying engaged and staying locked in is the easy part," VanVleet said. "To be upset with yourself and to be disappointed is part of the game. It's part of being a human being. I'm not a robot. I go out there and go through the highs and lows just like anybody else.
It's about being able to navigate through the highs and lows and still bring the "non-negotiables" to the table — defence, energy, leadership — said VanVleet, who was solid in defending J.J. Redick and Tobias Harris on Tuesday.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse was pleased to see a three-pointer fall shortly after VanVleet checked in Tuesday.
"I'll tell you what else, he called a couple really good plays," Nurse said. "Way down at the other end, the ball got sideline and Fred called a play and we ended up getting a roll basket dunk on it. Those are the kinds of leadership things and IQ things that he also brings."
Virtually every Raptor brought something on Tuesday. Through the first four games, Toronto had been outscored a ridiculous 48.7 points per 100 possessions when Leonard was on the bench. But Tuesday, all five Raptors starters scored in double figures for the first time in the series.
The team that boasts the best player in the series actually played like the best team in the series as the Raptors looked more like themselves than they had perhaps this entire post-season.
"We feel we've got a bunch of guys that can shoot pretty much always on the floor, with five guys that can potentially knock down a shot," Nurse said. "We made some (Tuesday), I think that really fuels you, it really gives you energy and a momentum boost. It's hard to continue to play really tough defence all the time when you're getting discouraged because your shot's not going in."
Kyle Lowry pushed the pace — to the tune of 33 points in transition — caroming through, around and into Philadelphia's defence, drawing contact, creating space and finding the open man.
Danny Green's three-pointers were falling — finally. He connected on five of seven attempts. And Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, sporting a huge egg and three stitches after an accidental whack to the forehead from Leonard, played great in tandem. When Gasol drained an open three-pointer, Ibaka wrapped the big Spaniard in a hug.
"I just said, 'Good shot, we need that,'" Ibaka said.
Ibaka hadn't had a great post-season until Tuesday.
"Tonight he was Serge," Green said. "Blocking shots, getting to the rim, finishing, shooting his pick-and-pop. I think that elbow to the head woke him up so it was good."
Nurse added: "Serge is playing with some tremendous . . . I just think pride is what he's playing with, he's being big and active and a force out there."
Pascal Siakam — who played with "RIP Dad" written on his shoes; his dad died in 2014 — had been an excellent second option to Leonard before suffering a calf contusion in Game 3. If it was hurting him Tuesday night as he scraped and clawed his way to 25 points, it was tough to tell.
"It's feeling better," Siakam said. "I think just every day . . . it's my calf, and it's my hamstring, so it's both combined. The staff is doing a great job to make sure that I get treatment, keep icing, and keep taking care of it. It's going to need some rest, but we don't have time, so I just have to do my best to make sure when gametime comes I'm ready."
A Game 7 would be in Toronto on Sunday, but the Raptors would rather avoid that scenario.
Awaiting the winner is either the Milwaukee Bucks or Boston Celtics. The Bucks took a 3-1 series lead into Wednesday night's game.
Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press
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Битката при Цюлпих или Толбиак (; ; ) се провежда през 496 г. между Рейнските франки със Сигиберт от Кьолн с помощта на Салическите франки с Хлодвиг I против нападналите алемани. Франките побеждават алеманите.

При битката алеманският крал (името му не е известно) пада убит. Участието на Хлодвиг засилва неговата позиция при Рейнските франки. След битката Хлодвиг I, както се заклел, се кръщава.

Литература
 Die Franken und die Alemannen bis zur "Schlacht bei Zülpich" (496/97), Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, 19, de Gruyter, Berlin/New York NY, 1998, ISBN 3-11-015826-4

Външни препратки
 Schlacht von Zülpich
 Karl Simrock, Die Schlacht bei Zülpich

Вижте също
 Битка при Цюлпих (1267)

Цюлпих
Германи
Франки
Алемани

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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