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Rare Roman ****** Handle Depicting Gladiator Found Near Hadrian’s Wall Rare Roman ****** Handle Depicting Gladiator Found Near Hadrian’s Wall A rare Roman ****** handle, moulded in the shape of a secutor gladiator, was found in the River Tyne at Corbridge Roman Town near Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, England. Approximately 2,000-years-old, the carved copper figure is roughly three inches tall, and was found by a diver three decades ago, and had remained in his private collection – until now. He has agreed to loan the ****** handle to English Heritage, so it can be put on display in conjunction with the release of the blockbuster movie Gladiator II. The most telling thing about the dagger and its remarkable handle is that is shows how the celebrity status of gladiators reached every corner of the sprawling Roman Empire. This particular type of gladiator would have been seen as a celebrity in ancient times, explaining why such an image would have been engraved on a physical object. Gladiators and their Celebrity Status: Entertaining the Masses This artifact represents an unusual find on English soil. Roman ****** handle depicting secutor gladiator, found in River Tyne in 2004. (The Portable Antiquities Scheme, Philippa Walton/CC BY-SA 4.0). “It is rare to find a piece of gladiator memorabilia in Britain, and to find such a well-preserved and interesting piece is particularly remarkable,” explained Dr. Frances McIntosh, English Heritage’s Collections Curator for Hadrian’s Wall and the North East in a statement. “Despite being enslaved and socially outcast due to their profession, gladiators could become huge celebrities,” he continued. “Gladiators and the ‘spectacles’ were an integral part of Roman cultural life, taking place all across the Roman Empire. The phenomenon inspired the creation of sporting memorabilia, such as decorated ceramics and glass cups, lamps and figurines.” In totality, the secutor gladiator is represented with a helmet, sword, and large shield, symbolizing ‘a strong muscular fighter with heavy equipment.’ He’s left-handed, which may have been considered unlucky at this time in history, though it is equally possible that he had an advantage over his opponents. While he could have been a general figure, he may also have represented a very specific gladiator from history. Secutors were generally trained to ****** retiarius gladiators. These individuals were more nimble, agile, and less armed, and would carry a net, trident, and dagger. Their faces were not covered, and this implied that the best-looking men were chosen for this role. The retiarius would only wear a short tunic or apron, and would try to use the net he carried to entrap his opponent. In the Roman world, a series of fights pitting a secutor against a retiarius would be included as part of a day of entertainment, one that began with animal hunts before moving onto prisoner executions, reports The Guardian. Gladiators, as a class of people, were generally enslaved persons or condemned **********, trained as fighters to participate in public games held across the empire between 105 BC and 404 AD. These events were organized by the wealthy elite, often the emperor, and were meant for entertaining the masses. Though the gladiators were social outcasts, and thus it became a popular slur to tell someone they’d been fathered by a gladiator, as a way of insulting or alluding to their mother’s promiscuity. High **** Appeal: Gladiators in Modern-Day Cinema The ****** handle is a testament to how essential gladiators and the gladiatorial games were to the Roman Empire’s sense of identity. “Gladiators had **** appeal and there are cases of high-status Roman women falling ‘in love’ with these lowly fighters, despite the vast social difference,” noted Dr. McIntosh. “This beautifully made ****** handle is a testament to how pervasive this celebrity culture was, reaching all the way to Hadrian’s Wall at the very edge of the Roman Empire. Even now, almost 2,000 years later, the fascination around gladiators persists and has expanded even further into modern popular culture, as evidenced by the excitement surrounding the new Gladiator film sequel.” Classical historians disagree over some aspects of the way Roman gladiators have been portrayed in cinema. They object, for example, to the suggestions that gladiators were frequently ******* during their battles. Gladiators were highly trained combatants and losing them indiscriminately would have been significantly more expensive than having the same fighter compete in many battles. Illustration of the various types of Roman gladiators. Simeon Netchev/World History Encyclopedia/CC BY-NC-ND). In the newly released film, historians were also dismayed by the portrayal of a gladiator riding a rhino and the Roman Colosseum being filled with sharks and water. In fact, the ancient Romans were unlikely to have been familiar with sharks at all. How and why this ****** ended up in the Tyne river is a mystery. It could have been an accident, or it could have been discarded there deliberately. In any case, English Heritage will be putting the unique ****** handle on display, along with other artifacts that have been removed from the river, at Corbridge Roman Town in 2025. Top image: Roman gladiators depicted in mosaic from the year 200 AD. Source: Unknown Author/Public Domain. By Sahir Pandey Source link #Rare #Roman #****** #Handle #Depicting #Gladiator #Hadrians #Wall Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Apple MacBook Air M2 laptop is now only $749 at Amazon Apple MacBook Air M2 laptop is now only $749 at Amazon Right now at Amazon, you can find the 2022 edition of the Apple MacBook Air with an M2 chip for its lowest price to date. Like most Apple products, this device comes with premium pricing. This edition of the MacBook Air was initially released with a price tag of $999. Today, however, it’s been marked down to the lowest price we’ve ever seen for it—just $749, saving over $200 off the asking price. This might not be the newest Apple MacBook Air on the market but it’s got plenty of specs to get excited about. This edition comes with an M2 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of internal storage. We reviewed the Apple MacBook Air M2 2022 laptop as well, although it had a little more storage than this model, and were very pleased with it, rating it at 4 out of 5 stars. We appreciated its performance and long-lasting battery, which is notably efficient. Our biggest complaint was the high MSRP but today’s discount negates that **** entirely. This edition of the Apple MacBook Air debuted in 2022 and features an M2 chip that has eight CPU cores, four of which are dedicated as performance cores while the other four are efficiency cores. It has a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,664 pixels for a decent PPI. This model comes with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB internal SSD for storage. You can expect a few ports to take advantage of, including two Thunderbolt USB 4 ports and a MagSafe 3 charging port. A 1080p webcam is included for video conferencing, as well. This model of the Apple MacBook Air isn’t the lightest by any means, weighing in at 2.7lbs but it’s one of the thinnest laptops you’ll find at just .44 inches tall. As of writing, it’s not clear for how long this offer will be available. If you’d like to get a closer look at the deal, you can check it out in greater detail over at Amazon through the Apple 2022 MacBook Air M2 laptop product page. Source link #Apple #MacBook #Air #laptop #Amazon Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Ex-Trump intel official Sue Gordon says bypassing FBI for Cabinet picks is “risky for America” Ex-Trump intel official Sue Gordon says bypassing FBI for Cabinet picks is “risky for America” Ex-Trump intel official Sue Gordon says bypassing FBI for Cabinet picks is “risky for America” – CBS News Watch CBS News President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team may bypass the FBI process and use a private firm to vet candidates for Cabinet picks who need top security clearance, The New York Times reports. Sue Gordon, who served as principal deputy director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term in the White House, tells “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that she thinks that is a “bad strategy and risky for America.” Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On Source link #ExTrump #intel #official #Sue #Gordon #bypassing #FBI #Cabinet #picks #risky #America Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

GOP Senator Shut Down on ‘Meet the Press’ Over Bonkers Vaccine *********** GOP Senator Shut Down on ‘Meet the Press’ Over Bonkers Vaccine *********** Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker shut down Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK)‘s repeated attempts to peddle a debunked claim that vaccines were linked to autism as he praised Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for health and human services secretary. Welker questioned Mullin on whether Kennedy’s unfounded opinions on vaccines would be a dealbreaker in his quest to be confirmed for a cabinet position. Kennedy has frequently linked vaccines to autism, an assertion that has no basis in science and has been repeatedly debunked by top medical experts, while Mullin praised vaccines produced under Donald Trump. Mullin tried to demur, saying he appreciated Kennedy was taking “a hard look” at vaccines. “I appreciate some of the scrutiny that’s going through there,” Mullin said. “I think Bobby can answer all those. I’ve had multiple conversations with him.” He then tried to conflate the scrutiny Kennedy and former Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth have received with officials appointed during Joe Biden’s administration, specifically targeting three separate administration officials whose only similarity is being part of the LGBTQ community. Welker redirected him, noting Mullin’s past affirmations of vaccine safety and efficacy. Mullin penned a piece for Oklahoma’s Stilwell Democrat Journal in 2020 to promote the COVID-19 vaccine, writing that “vaccines approved by the FDA are safe and effective.” “You’re not concerned about RFK Jr overseeing the largest health agency in the land?” Welker asked. But Mullin claimed he has long questioned vaccines before openly and wildly speculating that they could be linked to autism rates. “I think they should be questioned,“ he said. ”For instance, why is America highest in autism? What is causing that? Is it our diet? Or is it some of the stuff we’re putting in our children’s system? It used to be almost not even heard of, then it went from one to 10,000, and then one to 5,000 and one to 2,000. In some races right now, one out of every 36 kids by the age of three had developed some form of autism. What is causing that?” Welker then noted that his speculation had no basis in reality. “No credible expert or study has shown a link between vaccines and autism,” she said. “So I just want to be on the record with that.” He tried to continue, saying vaccine-autism studies have been “extremely vague,” but Welker would not have it. “Again, there’s just no scientific evidence for that,” she said. Source link #GOP #Senator #Shut #Meet #Press #Bonkers #Vaccine #*********** Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

LEGO Horizon Adventures Review | NoobFeed LEGO Horizon Adventures Review | NoobFeed Redemption-6421h ago @UnterArt None so as much as this singleplayer game with only two mainline entries. You mean like TLOU, GOW, Uncharted and Spider-Man? Here is something you might not know, you don’t bundle games that don’t sell. Plus, you are using the same talking point as those who keep complaining about Avatar do. It has no cultural impact, nobody talks about it, they keep releasing it, they are forcing it down our throats. At the end of the day bundles make up a small percentage of the game overall sales, at best 10-20%, the game would still sell over 15M plus if you remove all the bundle sales. And people buy said bundles because they want them, nothing is being forced. Also, Horizon Zero dawn has a higher completion rate than many games. It’s only a beating a ***** horse to those who live in a bubble. If you spend a lot of time online, then that is the narrative you carry, but as long as the game keeps selling, it is in Sony’s interest to not only keep going, but also ignore those online. Just like how people keep crying about MTX online, yet companies ignore them because players still keep buying them. Source link #LEGO #Horizon #Adventures #Review #NoobFeed Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Intel is reportedly planning a Battlemage SoC launch event in December — probably materializing before RDNA 4 and Blackwell Intel is reportedly planning a Battlemage SoC launch event in December — probably materializing before RDNA 4 and Blackwell Another ***** has surfaced, reinforcing rumors that Intel is planning to reveal Battlemage next month. Hardware data miner and leaker Tomasz Gawroński has shared a Battlemage SoC teaser which is sourced from Gazlog – a ********* blog. The authenticity of this image is something we cannot be certain about. However, in tandem with previous leaks, there is a distinct possibility we will see Battlemage arrive before RDNA 4 and Blackwell. A few days prior, we covered a similar ***** from Golden Pig Upgrade Pack who very subtly suggested a December showcase for Battlemage on desktop. It is pertinent to mention that Battlemage or Xe2 first launched with Intel’s Lunar Lake (Core Ultra 200V) chips this year. Since Arc Alchemist dGPUs (Discrete GPUs) hit shelves, Intel has been very secretive about the future of Arc – with some taking this as indicative of the division’s potential closure. Strangely enough, you’d expect Intel to be pretty vocal if it is indeed launching Battlemage next month – so it is best to take this claim with a pinch of salt. Nonetheless, both leaks only point towards an announcement so it may take a few days or even weeks before these GPUs hit retail. These reports show Intel’s great ambitions and hopes for its GPU division and recent benchmarks indicate that Team Blue has caught up to AMD. This is a rather positive outlook for Battlemage if it can keep pace with RDNA 3.5 – although RDNA 4 could be a different story since it pins a strong emphasis on better RT and maybe even hardware-based upscaling capabilities. Per previous leaks, Intel has three GPUs planned for Battlemage: Arc BMG-31, Arc BMG-20, and Arc BMG-G10 with BMG-31 rumored to feature (possibly up to) 32 Xe-cores. Again, will the average consumer go out of their way and pick Intel over Nvidia and AMD who’ve already established their foothold in the market? Case in point; despite AMD’s competitive offerings, it is still struggling to penetrate the gaming market against Nvidia – as no Radeon card ranks within the top 30 GPUs on Steam’s hardware survey. Moreover, are Intel’s drivers up to the mark? With these concerns in mind, Intel will have to offer some strong incentives such as greater value and higher VRAM capacities as the market desperately needs affordable yet capable GPUs. It’ll be great to see if Team Blue can launch a few 12GB or even 16GB variants for the budget segment – setting a new standard and pushing Nvidia and AMD to follow suit. If this ***** proves accurate, and if Intel can dish out ample volume before the holiday season, that could give it a serious headstart advantage. Remember, RDNA 4 and Blackwell (RTX 50) GPUs are still slated for CES 2025 in January. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Source link #Intel #reportedly #planning #Battlemage #SoC #launch #event #December #materializing #RDNA #Blackwell Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Transcript: Rep. French Hill on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024 Transcript: Rep. French Hill on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024 The following is a transcript of an interview with Rep. French Hill, *********** of Arkansas, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 17, 2024. MARGARET BRENNAN: And we are joined now by *********** Congressman French Hill. He joins us from his district in Little Rock. Good morning to you, Congressman. REP. FRENCH HILL: Good morning, Margaret. Thanks for having me. MARGARET BRENNAN: Glad to have you here. You served with Congressman Gaetz. You heard the Speaker who has said, while he doesn’t want to specifically wade in to the ethics matter, he also thinks it would set a bad precedent to release a report on a former member. Do you think the Ethics Committee should make that decision for itself? REP. HILL: Well, I think the Ethics Committee does make that decision for itself, but I think Speaker Johnson makes a important point, which is, Mr. Gaetz has resigned from Congress. There are many investigations that the House Ethics Committee has done, and we don’t want to set a precedent where we, under any circumstances, will release documents from that committee, but that decision is theirs. Speaker Johnson has made his views known, and now it will be up to the Senate to conduct their advise and consent confirmation process. MARGARET BRENNAN: You know, CBS News reported back in June that four women informed that committee they were paid to go to **** and ***** fueled parties with Mr. Gaetz. Also the Ethics Committee has Venmo transactions showing Gaetz’s payments for the women, since taxpayers paid money for this report to be conducted and it was done, do you think if you were a Senate you would consider this material information to confirming the top lawmaker for the ******* States of America- law enforcement officer, I should say? REP. HILL: I don’t, I don’t have, I don’t, I don’t personally know any details about the ethics investigation or the allegations, because I haven’t, don’t serve on that committee. But your point is, would the Senate Judiciary Committee asked to see that report, and that may well be a decision that they take, and the ethics committee has a decision that they have to make, and Mike Johnson’s expressed his view on on that as well. So as I say, this is an important process that the Senate has to do, advise and consent for all the nominations, and President Trump has the prerogative to nominate the people that he thinks can best lead the change that he believes the ********* people are seeking in each of the agencies of the federal government. MARGARET BRENNAN: You have spoken to us before here on “Face The Nation” about your work around Syria and Bashar Al Assad’s oppressive regime there. You actually visited northern Syria, an area that he wasn’t in control of, back in 2017. The first lawmaker since John McCain to do so. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, when she was in office, went to Syria and met with Mr. Assad himself, then publicly, she came out and questioned U.S. intelligence assessments of his chemical weapons attacks that were carried out on civilian areas, not just once, multiple times. These were high confidence assessments by the intelligence community. Would you feel comfortable with her at the helm of all 18 of them? REP. HILL: Well, I served on the House Intelligence Committee during this past Congress, and I know the important job that the DNI performs in coordinating, collecting and reporting on our intelligence. And I think should Tulsi Gabbard be confirmed, she would know with high confidence as to precisely how we collect intelligence, how we coordinate and collaborate on it, and how we then report it to the President of the ******* States and to the two intelligence committees. So again, this is an important assessment for the Senate to make, but I remind you Margaret, Donald Trump won the election. He wants people that he has a good relationship with, that he trusts, that he believes can do a good job in the agencies to send the message that we want change in Washington. And the Senate, too, has their important job, and we’re going to have to wait and see how the Senate handles each of these confirmations. MARGARET BRENNAN: So it was John McCain who went in 2017, you went in 2023 I may have misspoken there on the year, but so, you believe the US intelligence community conclusions, though? You don’t mean to question those? REP. HILL: No, I don’t. MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. REP. HILL: I’m simply saying, as a member of the committee, I don’t question that public assessment that’s been made in the public domain over many, many years, and I’ve led the charge against the Assad regime. I do not support that the ***** League put him back into diplomatic standing by admitting him to the ***** League. And I think America has a lot to do to limit Assad’s influence in the region, which is a partner with the Russians and the Iranians. And that’s not in the interest of the ******* States, Iraq, ******* or peace in the region. MARGARET BRENNAN: You have also been a supporter of Ukraine, and you’ve been trying to find some creative ways to help allow them to gain access to continued U.S. support. There was a tremendous ******* just overnight there by Russia. The Biden administration wants to provide a $20 billion loan backed up by frozen Russian assets. Will the Congress give them permission to use that money for military assistance? REP. HILL: Well, the REPO Act that was included in the national security package I worked on very closely with Chairman Mike McCaul of the foreign affairs committee gives the ******* States the authority to not only take frozen assets, but confiscate them and use them for the benefit of Ukraine. The loan you’re referring to has been negotiated between the Europeans and the Americans to back the Ukrainian government. I believe that will go through in my judgment. But I would urge President Trump, as he takes office, to actually follow the law and confiscate those Russian assets, as I believe that gives both Ukraine, the ******* States and Europe a much stronger negotiating position with Russia. And I don’t believe Biden, nor the G7 countries, have been tough enough on Russian on sanctions, on the delivery of weapons that were needed to have ended this war long ago. MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re gesturing to what we know, which is that this is a pretty dangerous world right now. One of the selections that the President-elect has made to run the Pentagon at this time is Pete Hegseth. He would be the defense secretary, 44 years old, decorated Army vet, TV commentator. Do you think experience is necessary, or is on the job training OK at the Pentagon? REP. HILL: Well, again, I think this will be assessed by the Senate in their confirmation process. He has a distinguished background in the military, and that counts for a lot, and I think his plans, his thoughts, his leadership, will be exposed when he goes through that Senate confirmation process. But once again, I have to say, President Trump, when he came into office in 2017 had cabinet members that he really had no personal relationship with, had no working background with. He wants to correct that this time by finding people that he has a good working relationship with. He knows how they think. They know how he thinks, because he thinks it will lead to better decision making in his administration. He’s got that prerogative to nominate those men and women and the Senate will have their advice and consent function well underway, and majority leader-to-be John Thune has said look, he’ll be effective. He’ll be speedy. He’ll take it done, get it done in the right course of action. MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman, thank you for your time today. REP. HILL: You bet. Thank you, Margaret. More from CBS News Source link #Transcript #Rep #French #Hill #Face #Nation #Margaret #Brennan #Nov Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

SpaceX rival TEC raises $160 million for reusable space capsule SpaceX rival TEC raises $160 million for reusable space capsule The Space Exploration develops a product called Nyx, a reusable capsule that can be launched from rockets into space carrying passengers and cargo. The Exploration Company (TEC) announced Monday it has raised $160 million to fuel development of its capsule that is designed to take astronauts and cargo to space stations. Venture capital firms Balderton Capital and Plural were the lead investors in the round which also included French government-backed investment vehicle French Tech Souveraineté and ******* government-backed fund DeepTech & Climate Fonds. TEC’s core product is Nyx, a capsule that can be launched from rockets into space carrying passengers and cargo. Nyx is reusable so once it has dropped its payload, it can re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and be used for the next mission. “It’s a big market, and it’s growing about a bit more than 10% per year because more nations want to fly their astronauts and more nations want to go to the moon,” Hélène Huby, founder and CEO of TEC, told CNBC in an interview. “So there is an increased demand for sending people to stations, sending cargo to stations,” she said. This part of the market has very few players. Some of the biggest are SpaceX which has a capsule called Dragon. There are also rivals from China and Russia. “We said, ‘okay, let’s build this capacity in Europe so that Europe can have its own capsule and also the world needs an alternative solution. [We] cannot only bet on SpaceX,” Huby said. TEC is currently developing the second version of Nyx which it expects to launch next year, followed by a final version in 2028. This model will be partly financed by the ********* Space Agency. Huby said the company has signed $800 million in contracts to use its capsule. These include mission contracts with companies including Starlab, which is designing a new space station, and Axiom Space. There is increasing activity in space among nations including China, the U.S. and India. One of the most ambitious projects is the NASA-led Gateway, which will be the first space station to orbit the moon. “If you have more people, you also have a need for more cargo. So this is what is happening around the Earth and around the moon,” Huby said. Huby sees TEC being a key player when it comes to developing the technology that is needed to return cargo to Earth once it has been in space. “This is also where we where we believe our vehicle is going to play an important role,” Huby said. Source link #SpaceX #rival #TEC #raises #million #reusable #space #capsule Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Tetris Forever (NS) Review | VGChartz Tetris Forever (NS) Review | VGChartz VGChartz’s Evan Norris: “Once again, the Gold Master Series proves to be the gold standard in game preservation, documentation, and celebration. Thanks to Digital Eclipse, Area 5, and contributions from Henk Rogers, Maya Rogers, Alexey Pajitnov, and others, the history of Tetris has now been told more comprehensively than ever before. The only downside is that many important versions of the game are missing, ostensibly due to rights issues. In a way it’s poetic, considering licensing disputes are central to the Tetris story.” Source link #Tetris #Review #VGChartz Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

GOP Rep. French Hill says it’s up to House Ethics Committee to decide on releasing Gaetz report GOP Rep. French Hill says it’s up to House Ethics Committee to decide on releasing Gaetz report GOP Rep. French Hill says it’s up to House Ethics Committee to decide on releasing Gaetz report – CBS News Watch CBS News Rep. French Hill, *********** of Arkansas, tells “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that “the decision is theirs” about whether the House Ethics Committee should release their report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who resigned last week after being selected by President-elect Donald Trump to be Attorney General. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On Source link #GOP #Rep #French #Hill #House #Ethics #Committee #decide #releasing #Gaetz #report Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

House Speaker Johnson says Gaetz ethics report shouldn’t be released House Speaker Johnson says Gaetz ethics report shouldn’t be released U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks to reporters as House *********** leaders hold a press conference at the U.S. Capitol House in Washington, U.S., November 12, 2024. Nathan Howard | Reuters House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that House Ethics Committee’s probe into Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general, is a “Pandora’s box” and said the report from it should not be released. “My understanding is that the report is not finished. It’s in a rough draft form. Was not yet ready to be released, and since Matt Gaetz left the Congress, I don’t think it’s appropriate to do so,” the Louisiana *********** said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” The House Ethics Committee was investigating allegations that Gaetz engaged in ******* misconduct, illicit ***** use and other wrongdoing. Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress just two days before the panel was set to vote on releasing its report, Punchbowl News reported last week. “I think that would be a Pandora’s box. I don’t think we want the House Ethics Committee using all of its vast resources and powers to go after private citizens, and that’s what Matt Gaetz is now,” Johnson said. Gaetz’s resignation effectively ends the Ethics Committee probe because the panel’s reach is limited to members of the House. On Thursday, an attorney for the woman who alleges she had a ******* relationship with Gaetz when she was a minor said the Ethics panel should release the report. Johnson believes the Senate should not rely on the report for the former Florida congressman’s confirmation. “The Senate has a role, the advice and consents role under the Constitution, and they’ll perform it,” Johnson said. “They’ll have a rigorous review and vetting process in the Senate, but they don’t need to rely upon a report or a draft report, a rough draft report that was prepared by the Ethics committee for its very limited purposes.” Johnson and Gaetz didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s emails for comments. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said Sunday the House Ethics Committe should “absolutely” release the Gaetz report. “The Senate has to advise and consent these individuals, and in that process, we’re going to give Matt Gaetz the same chances we’ll give all President Trump’s nominees,” Mullin said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If he’s qualified, he’s qualified. I’d be quite frank, I didn’t even know he was an attorney until after he was appointed attorney general, and I had to do my research on him.” Gaetz had previously been embroiled in a federal investigation into whether he was involved in the **** trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. That probe, which ended last year without charges being filed, was conducted by the Department of Justice — the agency Gaetz would lead if he were confirmed as U.S. attorney general. On Friday, a lawyer for a woman told the Ethics committee she saw Gaetz have **** with a minor, NBC News reported. “My client testified to the House Ethics Committee that she witnessed Rep. Gaetz having **** with a minor at a house party in Orlando in 2017,” attorney Joel Leppard said. Gaetz has denied all the allegations against him. In September, he declared he would stop cooperating with the House panel, while sharing a letter in which he vehemently denied having “******* activity with any individual under 18.” — CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this story. Source link #House #Speaker #Johnson #Gaetz #ethics #report #shouldnt #released Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

What ***** of P's Development Time Could Suggest About ***** of P 2 What ***** of P's Development Time Could Suggest About ***** of P 2 With ***** of P 2 in the works, it’s worth figuring out if the first game’s development time will inform how long the sequel will take. Source link #***** #P039s #Development #Time #Suggest #***** Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Ryzen 7000 / 8000 random reboot virtualization issues fixed in last-minute Linux 6.12 patch Ryzen 7000 / 8000 random reboot virtualization issues fixed in last-minute Linux 6.12 patch Just ahead of the intended release of Linux kernel version 6.12, AMD Linux engineer Mario Limonciello pushed an urgent fix to be merged with Linux kernel 6.12, and retroactively to other kernels. The fix gets rid of some hard crashing issues that were being experienced by Ryzen 7000 and 8000 Series processor users dabbling in virtualization, per Phoronix. As explained by AMD engineer Mario Limonciello in his patch note, “A number of Zen4 client SoCs advertise the ability to use virtualized VMLOAD/VMSAVE, but using these instructions is reported to be a cause of a random host reboot. These instructions aren’t intended to be advertised on Zen4 client, so clear the capability.” In other words, the fix here is simply disabling virtualized VMLOAD/VMSAVE instructions on Zen 4, since Zen 4 CPUs weren’t meant to have these instructions to begin with. Amusingly, this isn’t the only major virtualization-related bug we’ve reported on this week, or even today. We just covered an issue with M4 Macs and virtualizing versions of MacOS older than 13.4 Ventura, which was released in just May 2023. Unlike this virtualization bug, though, that one has yet to be fixed — impacted Mac users can only resort to older Mac computers, unlike AMD Linux users who will soon be covered by upcoming Linux kernel patches, even if they don’t shift to the 6.12 kernel completely. In any case, now that this AMD crashing issue with virtualization under Linux has been fixed, it looks like the upcoming launch of Linux kernel 6.12 should proceed without a hitch. Several new features are coming with kernel version 6.12, but most of them involve laying down compatibility preparations for upcoming AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and even Qualcomm CPUs and GPUs. Kernel 6.12 will even have Raspberry Pi 5 support, which is a first for a mainline kernel. Considering how many AMD and Linux users utilize virtualization and virtual machines for a variety of goals (from getting around software compatibility issues through Wine or Proton to running virtual machines for server or enterprise use), it’s a good thing that this bug with Ryzen 8000 and Ryzen 9000 Series CPUs was able to get ironed out ahead of Linux kernel 6.12’s full release. Fortunately, AMD’s server-side EPYC CPUs were not impacted by these bugs, to begin with. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Source link #Ryzen #random #reboot #virtualization #issues #fixed #lastminute #Linux #patch Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

House Speaker Johnson says Gaetz ethics report shouldn’t be released House Speaker Johnson says Gaetz ethics report shouldn’t be released U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks to reporters as House *********** leaders hold a press conference at the U.S. Capitol House in Washington, U.S., November 12, 2024. Nathan Howard | Reuters House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that House Ethics Committee’s probe into Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general, is a “Pandora’s box” and said the report from it should not be released. “My understanding is that the report is not finished. It’s in a rough draft form. Was not yet ready to be released, and since Matt Gaetz left the Congress, I don’t think it’s appropriate to do so,” the Louisiana *********** said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” The House Ethics Committee was investigating allegations that Gaetz engaged in ******* misconduct, illicit ***** use and other wrongdoing. Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress just two days before the panel was set to vote on releasing its report, Punchbowl News reported last week. “I think that would be a Pandora’s box. I don’t think we want the House Ethics Committee using all of its vast resources and powers to go after private citizens, and that’s what Matt Gaetz is now,” Johnson said. Gaetz’s resignation effectively ends the Ethics Committee probe because the panel’s reach is limited to members of the House. On Thursday, an attorney for the woman who alleges she had a ******* relationship with Gaetz when she was a minor said the Ethics panel should release the report. Johnson believes the Senate should not rely on the report for the former Florida congressman’s confirmation. “The Senate has a role, the advice and consents role under the Constitution, and they’ll perform it,” Johnson said. “They’ll have a rigorous review and vetting process in the Senate, but they don’t need to rely upon a report or a draft report, a rough draft report that was prepared by the Ethics committee for its very limited purposes.” Johnson and Gaetz didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s emails for comments. Gaetz had previously been embroiled in a federal investigation into whether he was involved in the **** trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. That probe, which ended last year without charges being filed, was conducted by the Department of Justice — the agency Gaetz would lead if he were confirmed as U.S. attorney general. On Friday, a lawyer for a woman told the Ethics committee she saw Gaetz have **** with a minor, NBC News reported. “My client testified to the House Ethics Committee that she witnessed Rep. Gaetz having **** with a minor at a house party in Orlando in 2017,” attorney Joel Leppard said. Gaetz has denied all the allegations against him. In September, he declared he would stop cooperating with the House panel, while sharing a letter in which he vehemently denied having “******* activity with any individual under 18.” — CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this story. Source link #House #Speaker #Johnson #Gaetz #ethics #report #shouldnt #released Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Billie Jean King Cup 2024: Emma Raducanu puts Great Britain in front against Canada in Malaga Billie Jean King Cup 2024: Emma Raducanu puts Great Britain in front against Canada in Malaga While reigning champions Canada rank second in the world, there is no reason for Britain to have an inferiority complex. Raducanu and Boulter have a higher ranking than their singles opponents, although the presence of Gaby Dabrowski – the doubles world number three and recent WTA Finals champion – means a deciding doubles is not where Britain would relish going. Therefore, it felt imperative that Raducanu opened the tie with a win and gave an opportunity to Boulter to seal the deal against 31st-ranked Fernandez. Canada’s team selection was not clearcut and their captain Heidi El Tabakh decided to go with the experience of Marino over the potential of teenager Marina Stakusic. Marino plays the bulk of her tennis on the second-tier WTA Challenger Tour but is fresh from lifting a 125k title in the ******* States. The decision ultimately backfired. Marino, struggling to land her formidable first serve, came under pressure straight away as a confident Raducanu dominated with her returning game. That success was reinforced by comfortable holds with a newly tweaked serve which has added power. After converting her third break point in the opening game, Raducanu went on to take two of the five more she created in a one-sided first set lasting just 28 minutes. When Marino slumped into her chair before the second set, you wondered how much longer the match would last. However, she deserves credit for rediscovering her game in the second set and valiantly dragging Raducanu into a battle. Raducanu saved seven break points across the fourth and eight games, finding first serves when she needed them in the most perilous moments, then striking clinically to secure another encouraging victory. Source link #Billie #Jean #King #Cup #Emma #Raducanu #puts #Great #Britain #front #Canada #Malaga Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

SpaceX rival TEC raises $160 million for reusable space capsule SpaceX rival TEC raises $160 million for reusable space capsule The Space Exploration develops a product called Nyx, a reusable capsule that can be launched from rockets into space carrying passengers and cargo. The Exploration Company (TEC) announced Monday it has raised $160 million to fuel development of its capsule that is designed to take astronauts and cargo to space stations. Venture capital firms Balderton Capital and Plural were the lead investors in the round which also included French government-backed investment vehicle French Tech Souveraineté and ******* government-backed fund DeepTech & Climate Fonds. TEC’s core product is Nyx, a capsule that can be launched from rockets into space carrying passengers and cargo. Nyx is reusable so once it has dropped its payload, it can re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and be used for the next mission. “It’s a big market, and it’s growing about a bit more than 10% per year because more nations want to fly their astronauts and more nations want to go to the moon,” Hélène Huby, founder and CEO of TEC, told CNBC in an interview. “So there is an increased demand for sending people to stations, sending cargo to stations,” she said. This part of the market has very few players. Some of the biggest are SpaceX which has a capsule called Dragon. There are also rivals from China and Russia. “We said, ‘okay, let’s build this capacity in Europe so that Europe can have its own capsule and also the world needs an alternative solution. [We] cannot only bet on SpaceX,” Huby said. TEC is currently developing the second version of Nyx which it expects to launch next year, followed by a final version in 2028. This model will be partly financed by the ********* Space Agency. Huby said the company has signed $800 million in contracts to use its capsule. These include mission contracts with companies including Starlab, which is designing a new space station, and Axiom Space. There is increasing activity in space among nations including China, the U.S. and India. One of the most ambitious projects is the NASA-led Gateway, which will be the first space station to orbit the moon. “If you have more people, you also have a need for more cargo. So this is what is happening around the Earth and around the moon,” Huby said. Huby sees TEC being a key player when it comes to developing the technology that is needed to return cargo to Earth once it has been in space. “This is also where we where we believe our vehicle is going to play an important role,” Huby said. Source link #SpaceX #rival #TEC #raises #million #reusable #space #capsule Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Transcript: Rep. Jim Himes on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024 Transcript: Rep. Jim Himes on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024 The following is a transcript of an interview with Rep. Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 17, 2024. MARGARET BRENNAN: And we turn now to Democratic Congressman Jim Himes. He is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and he joins us this morning from Stamford, Connecticut. Good morning to you. REP. JIM HIMES: Good morning. MARGARET BRENNAN: I feel like there is so much news, and I’m getting through a fraction of it frankly here. I want to- I want to pick up on Tulsi Gabbard, which we just- who we just discussed in the previous segment, she was a democratic colleague of yours for many, many years. You’re the ranking member on the Intelligence Committee. She never served on that kind of committee. Do you think experience is necessary? Is she fit for the job? REP. HIMES: Margaret, how far we have come that on a major news show the question we’re examining is, is experience necessary for one of the most powerful positions in the land? Of course, it’s necessary. You know, it’s a little bit like our obsession right now with the ethics committee report on Matt Gaetz. You know- I mean, how is it that this is what we’re focusing on? Matt Gaetz is, by any standard, completely unqualified to be the Attorney General, and yet we’re sort of focused on this, you know, cherry on the cupcake of the ethics report. You know, it sort of reminds me of Al Capone in 1931. Al Capone is convicted of a couple of counts of tax evasion. Now he was a ******* and a rum runner and a mafioso, and yet he was convicted of tax evasion. This is what the conversation we’re having about Matt Gaetz. You know, well, what about this ethics report? So, these people are manifestly unqualified, and, you know, they’re not prepared to run the very complicated organizations they’ve been asked to run. MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you have any suggestion from your *********** colleagues in the Senate that either of those two individuals will not be confirmed for those positions? REP. HIMES: Look, all I would observe is that, you know, history is- is a harsh judge and- and I understand what happens to Republicans who stand up to Donald Trump. You know, talk to Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney, or, you know, many of the Republicans who voted for his impeachment who are now gone. I understand that. But history is a hard- hard judge and a *********** senator who takes a vote to consent to the appointment of Matt Gaetz, a chaos agent, a performative social media, no respect for the rule of law, individual. The *********** senator who votes to confirm Matt Gaetz or Robert Kennedy or Tulsi Gabbard, will be remembered by history as somebody who completely gave up their responsibility to Donald Trump. MARGARET BRENNAN: The Speaker of the House called him one of the greatest minds in the ******* States or anywhere on another program this morning. On intelligence, though, because of your committee oversight, John Ratcliffe, another former House member who went on to serve in an acting role at intelligence previously, he is the selection to run the CIA. Do you trust him to appropriately handle sensitive intelligence information? REP. HIMES: I do Margaret and just to be balanced here, since I was pretty strong in my opinions about the Attorney General and the DNI nomination, I actually had a really good day when Marco Rubio was nominated for Secretary of State, when John Ratcliffe was nominated for CIA and when Mike Waltz was nominated to be national security advisor. I would even add the nominee for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton. Those are good nominations, not necessarily the nominations I would have made if I were president. But these are serious people with real experience. They’re not social media personalities. They haven’t built their careers on ***** and ***********. So look, some of these nominations I think are quite solid, and John Ratcliffe falls in that category for me. MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Last night, President elect Trump was at a UFC rally, and alongside him was someone who has had a lot of scrutiny, Elon Musk. He is a billionaire with extensive US government contracts, as I understand it, holds a security clearance himself. He has extensive business ties with China. Also had with him the Saudi Arabia private investment fund governor. They invest with his son in law, Jared Kushner, and they’ve held golf tournaments through the- one of their entities at Trump golf courses. Do you think that in this new Congress, there will be scrutiny of potential financial conflicts of interest around Mr. Trump? REP. HIMES: Well, of course there will be, right? I mean, this is, this is sort of not subject to debate. We saw Trump’s first term, and the fact that that, you know, group of people weren’t particularly concerned with financial conflicts of interest. And look, all- I don’t know, Elon Musk, odd character, you know, you sort of have to respect what he’s done to disrupt, you know, space launch, to disrupt, you know, the auto industry and whatnot. But, you know, early reviews are not good. I read his, you know, 12 point government waste manifesto, you know. And he said, look at all this money we’re paying on interest on the debt. That’s, you know, that’s part of the wasteful spending. Guess what? You got to pay interest on the debt. And so, you know, I’m skeptical that he has any clue. Look, I- I live in Fairfield County, Connecticut. I know lots of wealthy people here, and there is a syndrome where very wealthy people who got wealthy in finance or as a tech entrepreneur decide that their heart surgeons and capable of running the ******* States. I think that’s what’s going on with Elon Musk. But, you know, again, early returns are not good with respect to his ability to understand the federal bureaucracy and make it more efficient, which is a laudable goal, but I’m going to reserve judgment MARGARET BRENNAN: And no offense to the Fairfield County residents who voted for you. I’m sure. On Saturday, President Biden was meeting with Xi Jinping, and they met for a little less than two hours. The White House says they did discuss that pervasive hacking of U.S. telecom companies that allowed them to steal customer call record data, compromise private communications of those involved in government and copy information related to law enforcement actions. Do you know and can you say if the hackers have actually been kicked out of U.S. infrastructure, or is China still embedded? REP. HIMES: Yeah, Margaret, that’s not a question I can answer with an awful lot of specificity, but the fact that we obviously know about these- these hacks means that those particular hacks probably have been addressed in one way or another. But one thing I can say with great confidence, having worked in the intelligence world for some time now, is that, I promise you, they are out there in ways that we don’t know about. So my hope is that the President made it very clear that this kind of behavior is not tolerable, and that he backs that up, and quite frankly, that Donald Trump, the next president, backs that up with action. You know, as Teddy Roosevelt said, the big stick, right? We’re pretty good at hacking networks too, and I think it’s really important for the ******** to understand that we’re not just going to name and shame the hackers and complain about it. But that we- that we are going to go into their networks and give as good as we got. I suspect that in this realm, they need to see that we are capable of inflicting a lot of damage if they continue their present behavior. MARGARET BRENNAN: Noted. There will be some selections as we understand it, in the coming days in the financial space. You also sit on the Financial Services Committee. Trump backer, Elon Musk, yesterday blasted one of the hedge fund CEO Scott Bessent, a crypto currency skeptic, who is being considered for that role. Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, apparently also being considered for that role. He is a crypto currency fan. Does either candidate stand out to you for a better pick? And what does it really project out to you about what’s going to happen in this space for Mr. Trump? REP. HIMES: Well, you know, it’s obviously up to the president to decide who he’d like as Treasury Secretary. You know, I would note that his first Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin- I certainly had disagreements with him on any number of topics, including desanctioning the Russian aluminum company. But you know, in the cast of characters in version 1.0 of the Trump administration, Steve Mnuchin was far from the creepiest and crawliest of them. So we’ll see what he does on Treasury. What I will say is that, look crypto, you know, it’s a little bit like the Gaetz ethics report. Crypto has yet to make an impact on most Americans’ lives, and so I would just argue- and by the way, I’m open to crypto. I helped work on the legislation to regulate it, but this is not the determinative factor in our financial lives right now. MARGARET BRENNAN: I know it’s a technical issue. I asked you to get to fairly quickly there, Congressman. I appreciate you weighing in and thank you for your time. “Face the Nation” will be back in a minute. Source link #Transcript #Rep #Jim #Himes #Face #Nation #Margaret #Brennan #Nov Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Duct-taped banana to sell for at least $A1.5m Duct-taped banana to sell for at least $A1.5m A banana duct-taped to a wall is expected to sell for at least $A1.5 million at an auction at Sotheby’s in New York. The yellow banana fixed to the white wall with silver duct tape is a work entitled Comedian, by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. It first debuted in 2019 as an edition of three fruits at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair, where it became a much-discussed sensation. Was it a prank? A commentary on the state of the art world? Another artist took the banana off the wall and ate it. A backup banana was brought in. Selfie-seeking crowds became so thick, Comedian was withdrawn from view, but three editions of it sold for between $US120,000 ($A185,758) and $US150,000 ($A232,198), according to Perrotin gallery. Now, the conceptual artwork has an estimated value of between $US1 million ($A1.5 million) and $US1.5 million ($A2.3 million) at Sotheby’s auction on November 20. Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, David Galperin, calls it profound and provocative. “What Cattelan is really doing is turning a mirror to the contemporary art world and asking questions, provoking thought about how we ascribe value to artworks, what we define as an artwork,” Galperin said. Bidders won’t be buying the same fruit that was on display in Miami. Those bananas are long gone. Sotheby’s says the fruit always was meant to be replaced regularly, along with the tape. “What you buy when you buy Cattelan’s Comedian is not the banana itself, but a certificate of authenticity that grants the owner the permission and authority to reproduce this banana and duct tape on their wall as an original artwork by Maurizio Cattelan,” Galperin said. The very title of the piece suggests Cattelan himself likely didn’t intend for it to be taken seriously. But Chloé Cooper Jones, an assistant professor at the Columbia University School of the Arts, said it is worth thinking about the context. Cattelan premiered the work at an art fair, visited by well-off art collectors, where Comedian was sure to get a lot of attention on social media. That might mean the art constituted a dare, of sorts, to the collectors to invest in something absurd, she said. If Comedian is just a tool for understanding the insular, capitalist, art-collecting world, Cooper Jones said, “it’s not that interesting of an idea.” But she thinks it might go beyond poking fun at rich people. Cattelan is often thought of a “trickster artist,” she said. “But his work is often at the intersection of the sort of humour and the deeply macabre. He’s quite often looking at ways of provoking us, not just for the sake of provocation, but to ask us to look into some of the sort of darkest parts of history and of ourselves.” And there is a dark side to the banana, a fruit with a history entangled with imperialism, labour exploitation and corporate power. “It would be hard to come up with a better, simple symbol of global trade and all of its exploitations than the banana,” Cooper Jones said. If Comedian is about making people think about their moral complicity in the production of objects they take for granted, then it’s “at least a more useful tool or it’s at least an additional sort of place to go in terms of the questions that this work could be asking,” she said. Comedian hits the block around the same time that Sotheby’s is also auctioning one of the famed paintings in the Water Lilies series by the French impressionist Claude Monet, with an expected value of around $US60 million ($A93 million). When asked to compare Cattelan’s banana to a classic like Monet’s Nymphéas, Galperin says impressionism was not considered art when the movement began. “No important, profound, meaningful artwork of the past 100 years or 200 years, or our history for that matter, did not provoke some kind of discomfort when it was first unveiled,” Galperin said. Source link #Ducttaped #banana #sell #A1.5m Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Transcript: Dr. Deborah Birx on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024 Transcript: Dr. Deborah Birx on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024 The following is a transcript of an interview with Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator in the first Trump administration, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 17, 2024. MARGARET BRENNAN: Dr. Deborah Birx served as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator in Donald Trump’s first term. She also had a long career in public health in the army, working on AIDS in *******, at the State Department, as well as time at the CDC. Good morning. Welcome back. FORMER WHITE HOUSE COVID RESPONSE COORDINATOR DR. DEBORAH BIRX: Good morning, Margaret. Glad to be with you. MARGARET BRENNAN: So Dr. Birx, I want to ask you about your views on public health, which we’re looking at because of this nomination, potentially of Robert F Kennedy Jr. HHS has a wide portfolio here, vaccines, medicine, oversees Medicare, regulates food, beauty products, baby formula, reproductive health care. What would the impact be of having someone without government experience in that top job? DR. BIRX: Well, I think the most important thing is what team he would bring with him, because you’re talking about really a large cap corporation with a highly diverse group, which you have to really bring together and, frankly, eliminate some of the duplication set between these agencies to really become more cost effective, and so really having a management person at his side, a chief of staff, perhaps that has really come out of industry that would know how to bring and look and bring those individuals together that are running the other agencies, because it’s a very comp- HHS is probably one of our most complicated departments. MARGARET BRENNAN: So you’re saying people with experience around him, we need to look at those lower level appointees Mr. Trump might make. Well, what’s so interesting with RFK Jr. is how he has, in some ways, tapped into this health movement in America. He’s talking about more regulation, not less when it comes to ********* food, here’s some of what he said: ROBERT F KENNEDY JR.: I’m just going to tell the- the cereal companies to take all the dyes out of their food. I’ll get processed food out of school lunch immediately. 10 percent of food stamps go to sugar drinks to, you know, sodas. We’re creating diabetes problem, and our kids are giving them food that’s poison, and I’m going to stop that. MARGARET BRENNAN: Those sound like good goals. Can you actually take on big agriculture and get that through? DR. BIRX: I think because a lot of the people who are suffering the most from these additives are actually people in our rural areas. 16 percent of the Americans live in a rural area, but they are providing all of our oil and gas, all of our fiber, all of our cotton and all of our food. And the level of diabetes in these communities because of their access to certain foods is extraordinarily high. I just came out of the field, 58 percent of the adults in the town that I was just in had already diabetes or prediabetes, based on a household survey where we went house to house. This is the reality of America and so what I’m hoping is he brings his transparency for all Americans and we really start to tackle these issues one-by-one-by-one. I think everybody across America wants to have healthy kids that they know will grow up and not end up with the complications of diabetes or heart ********. MARGARET BRENNAN: It was very hard for Michelle Obama, when she was first lady to get any of that done, and it might be hard for lawmakers who come from some of those agricultural states to vote against their own interests in terms of the farm subsidies and the like. DR. BIRX: Well, we’re not talking about eliminating good food. We’re talking about using all of their ingredients in a way that is more healthy for Americans and I think that’s what people are calling for now. Europe did it years ago, and I think we’re capable of doing that. We are really smart, high levels of technology, we can make food tasty without a lot of these additives, because we can see that other groups are doing it in a small way. So we’re not talking about eliminating the need for wheats and grains. We’re talking about putting those together in a healthy way. MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you as well about some of his- the things he said about vaccines. As you know, the vaccine- vaccination rates are declining in America. He said things like restoring transparency around them. It’s not really clear what that means. Why do you think there’s a decline in vaccination? DR. BIRX: I think there’s two pieces to it. I think when we talk about things in public health, we don’t acknowledge the concerns because when my children went to school, there was maybe one in 1000 kids with autism, diagnosed with autism. Now it’s three per 100. So every mom is seeing a classroom of kindergarteners where one of the children has autism. That’s scary to moms and dads, they want to know why. So it’s not good enough for us to just say vaccines don’t cause autism. It’s us finding what is the cause of autism and reverse it– MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I think a lot of people would absolutely agree that it is ridiculous that there isn’t a lot of research and established causation for autism, but what he has said in the past is that autism is caused by vaccines and there’s no scientific basis for that conclusion as I understand it. DR. BIRX: That’s correct. And so that’s why, when he talks about transparency, I’m actually excited that in a Senate hearing he would bring forward his data and the questions that come from the senators would bring forth their data. What I know for sure is he’s a very smart man who can bring his data and his evidence base forward, and we can have a discussion that many Americans believe already is a problem. So until we can have that transparency and that open discussion from both sides, I know the members have incredible staffers who will bring great questions from their constituents, and that hearing would be a way for Americans to really see the data that you’re talking about, that we can’t see that causation right now, but what is causing it? And so you’re absolutely right, addressing what the cause is will be critical and I think what has confused people is we weren’t clear about what COVID vaccines do and don’t. And so now people are questioning, well, what do my childhood vaccines do and don’t, and they don’t understand that some of the vaccines that their children are getting protect them from both ******** and create herd immunity, and some of them that they get are just for their child, like H Flu and pneumovax to protect their child from getting very serious illness, and we’re just not explaining all of this correctly. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, and that’s why the messenger matters– DR. BIRX: Yes, it does. MARGARET BRENNAN: –so much on this, which is why his past statements are being scrutinized. You worked on AIDS for a good part of your career. He has said that he doesn’t take a position on the relationship between **** and AIDS, but then he ***** out alternative theories in his book, and said Dr. Fauci never produced a study to demonstrate his hypothesis using “accepted scientific proof.” Do you agree with that assertion, and **** and AIDS? DR. BIRX: Well, having spent a career in understanding how **** and AIDS progresses, **** virus is the cause of AIDS, there’s a whole set of things that happen, and I think what **** taught me is you have to- it’s asymptomatic for 10 years, and we’re finally recognizing how important asymptomatic ******** progression and ******** transmission is. That’s what **** taught us. But what other **** taught us was the entire human immune system. So by investing in **** research, we learned about CAR T-cells that we use today in *******. So a lot of these research and investments pay off in other areas and I think once he’s there at HHS, he’ll see that. MARGARET BRENNAN: If he’s open to the data. Dr. Birx, thank you. We’ll be right back. Source link #Transcript #Deborah #Birx #Face #Nation #Margaret #Brennan #Nov Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

El Paso Uber driver ******* suspect’s attorney argues fatal ********* was self-defense El Paso Uber driver ******* suspect’s attorney argues fatal ********* was self-defense As a distraught Phoebe Copas exited the back seat of her Uber car, she dropped everything she was holding. A brown and silver revolver fell to the pavement on a heavily traveled highway near the U.S.-Mexico border. Copas, visiting from Kentucky, was comforted by her boyfriend. An El Paso police officer rendered first aid to El Pasoan Daniel Piedra Garcia, who was slumped over in the front seat of his grey Nissan Maxima with a gunshot wound to the back, right side of his head that was “bleeding profusely.” Around 2:20 that afternoon, Copas had hired Piedra, a gig driver, to take her to the Speaking Rock Entertainment Center. Midway through the trip, the Uber ride ended in gunfire and a ******. Garcia was traveling on the highway that leads to the casino, but Copas told police she feared she was being kidnapped to Mexico. “(Copas) observed traffic signs that showed the words ‘Juárez, Mexico’ which led her to believe (Piedra) was attempting to kidnap her and drive her into Juárez, Mexico,” El Paso police Det. L. Loera Jr. wrote in his complaint affidavit. The ******* case, which has run into several delays because of Copas’ health, spotlights the dangers ride-sharing drivers and passengers can suddenly face. The case is scheduled to move forward in December, but it is likely another delay could push the ******* trial into early 2025. Matthew James Kozik, Copas’ attorney, sat down with the El Paso Times to discuss the events leading to the ********* and key evidence against his client — evidence he said shows his 50-year-old client was acting in self-defense. “She didn’t just point the **** and ****** him,” he said. “That is not what happened. She told him she didn’t want to go to Juárez. She tried to escape for several minutes. She just wanted to get out of the car. She feared for her life.” Phoebe Copas More: Medical issues could delay ******* trial of woman accused of ******** El Paso Uber driver Copas is facing one count of ******* in connection with Piedra’s ******. She is facing life in prison if convicted. Piedra’s family could not immediately be reached for comment. His niece Didi Lopez told the El Paso Times in 2023 that her uncle was a hard worker who worked as an Uber driver to support his family. “We want justice,” Lopez said. “It wasn’t fair that that’s how the situation played out. I wish she would’ve spoken up, asked questions, not acted on impulse and make a reckless decision because not only did she ruin our lives, but she ruined her life, too.” A vigil is being held Friday, June 23, 2023, for Daniel Piedra Garcia, an Uber driver who ***** after being shot by a passenger June 16, 2023, on US 54 in South-Central El Paso. But Kozik insists a deeper dig into the evidence has revealed the driver communicated with Copas, and the conversation escalated her ***** she was being kidnapped. During a June 29, 2023 hearing, El Paso County District Attorney’s Office prosecutor Shantal Ortega said no facts in the case proved Copas was being kidnapped. “Simply because this is a border city and there may be signs showing miles away from some port of entry, it is unreasonable that she wouldn’t have come across that before as she was in a border city she had been to before,” Ortega argued. El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks declined to discuss the evidence in the case, saying talking about it weeks before going to trial would be a “violation of professional rules of conduct.” Hicks spoke generally about Copas’ argument she was acting in self-defense. “(Kidnapping) has been her claim from the very beginning,” he said. “She called an Uber, the path that he was going, everything that was happening that (afternoon) does not give rise to a reasonable person’s belief that they were being kidnapped.” Copas’ actions were “very unreasonable,” Hicks said. “El Paso is a safe community,” he said. “And to have someone react the way she did, I think highlights a misconception about El Paso being dangerous. “And that’s why it’s so important that we stand up for not just this Uber driver, not just this family, but for our community to say to El Paso, to the state, and to our country that El Paso is a safe community and behavior that reacts any other way is not acceptable.” Copas claims Piedra said he was taking her to Juárez fair On the trip to the casino, Copas claims Piedra told her he was taking her to a fair in Juárez. She replied she did not want to go to the fair, but Piedra sped up and ignored her pleas to be let out of the car, Kozik said. “She asked for him to stop the vehicle. She attempted to open the doors, but the doors were locked,” Kozik said. “She tried to do everything anybody would expect someone to do before an escalation of force. He wouldn’t, and then she finally pulled out the ******* and she begged for him to just pull over the vehicle. “He turned around and said, ‘I’m going to take you. We’re going to Juárez.’ and he sped up the car.” Matthew James Kozik The ********* complaint affidavit makes no mention of Copas’ account of Piedra stating he was taking her to Juárez. It only includes that Copas told the officers she saw a traffic sign saying “Juárez, Mexico.” But Zozik argues the affidavit isn’t accurate. “Saying she saw Ciudad Juárez, so she ******* him is literally a figment of law enforcement’s imagination,” Kozik said. A review of police body cameras and an interrogation of Copas shows she never once mentioned the road signs to the initial officer on the scene or during her interview with officers, he said. Kozik said the first officer told another officer about the road signs; from there, the story spread between officers and was included in the affidavit. More: Uber driver ***** after being shot on US 54; woman now charged with ******* “She never mentioned she saw signs of Juárez,” Kozik said. “She never says she saw a sign of Juárez and then shot him. She says yes during her interview when asked if she saw signs of Juárez, but she also says she saw signs saying Fort Bliss. “I think a 100% accurate statement is to say Ms. Copas never said she saw a sign of Juárez; therefore, she believed she was being kidnapped. It appears law enforcement stated that at the scene.” Video footage from the day of the ********* shows Copas crying, praying and asking officers if Piedra was ***** as she sat in the back of a patrol unit. “She gets into the back of the vehicle and she is saying, ‘******. I’m sorry. Oh ****. Oh ****. Oh ****. Oh Lord. ******. Sir, is he *****?’,” Kozik said. “She repeatedly asks if he is *****. Is this some ******* motivated *******? Doesn’t seem like it from how she is reacting and from all the evidence in the case.” More: Uber driver ***** after being shot on US 54; woman now charged with ******* Copas allegedly took a photo of Piedra after he was shot and sent it to her boyfriend via text message before calling 911. Copas took the photo because she called her boyfriend for help and he thought she was joking, Kozik said. Razor blades, crowbar and unusual route taken to Speaking Rock Police found razor blades and a crowbar within reaching distance of Piedra, adding credibility to Copas’ fears of being kidnapped, Kozik said. “I can’t speak for everyone, but everyone I know doesn’t carry razor blades on their or near their steering wheel,” Kozik said. “I’ve never heard of or know anyone that does that. Razor blades and a crowbar, which was also found by Piedras, are weapons. These are weapons that could be used to commit a ******. These aren’t accusations. These items were found in the car.” Defense attorneys for Phoebe Copas included a photo a razor blade allegedly found in the car of Uber driver Daniel Piedra Garcia in an Oct. 4, 2024, court filing. Copas is charged with ******* in the fatal ********* of Piedra. The affidavit states, “the roadway (Copas) was traveling on is a normal route to drive to the destination requested by (Copas).” Kozik countered Uber driver data, which shows Piedra took an unusual route to get to Speaking Rock, including driving through neighborhoods a normal person would not take if they were driving to the casino. “All of this adds up to show this was not a normal Uber ride,” Kozik said. ******* against ride-share drivers increases The number of ******* committed against drivers for Uber, Lyft and DoorDash and other ride-sharing companies has continued to increase, according to statistics from Gig Workers Rising, an advocacy group created to support app-based workers like Uber drivers. The organization reported at least 50 ride-share drivers were ******* between 2017 to 2021. In 2022, there were 31 drivers *******, and many more were injured, assaulted, and harassed, the organization stated in a 2023 “Murdered Behind The Wheel: An Escalating Crisis for App Drivers” report. The incident involved verbal ******, harassment, physical assaults, carjackings, and other violent acts. Most of the drivers assaulted were minorities. Uber reported 36 fatalities involving their drivers in 2021-2022. The report states that 61% of fatalities were drivers using the Uber app, and 39% were riders. The suspects in nearly half of all fatalities reported to Uber were committed by someone other than the driver or passenger, Uber reported. ******* trial could start in December The trial date for Copas has been pushed back several times. Copas was set to go to trial Monday, Nov. 18, but it was pushed back to Monday, Dec. 9, Kozik said. A final pretrial hearing is set for Dec. 3. The trial will be held in the 120th District Court at the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse in Downtown El Paso. Judge Maria Salas-Mendoza is set to preside over the trial. The Dec. 9 trial date depends on several factors, including Copas’ health and Kozik’s waiting for more evidence to be turned over by the El Paso District Attorney’s Office. More: Woman accused of fatally ********* El Paso Uber driver granted split bond Copas is suffering from serious health conditions, including heart ********, kidney complications and repeated spells of being found unconscious due to medical complications, Kozik said. Copas was found unconscious as recently as two weeks ago, Kozik said. Copas is out on bond and living in Kentucky. She is awaiting a doctor’s approval to travel to El Paso for the trial. If the doctor does not allow her to travel, the trial could be pushed back until early 2025. Kozik is also still waiting on the district attorney’s office to turn over key evidence, including text messages sent between officers discussing the case, and a chance for him to inspect Piedra’s car, along with the crowbar and razors found in it. Hicks countered his office has made all efforts to make sure Kozik has access to all the evidence to review at the district attorney’s office or at the El Paso Police Department. He is confident the trial will begin Dec. 9, Hicks said. “The judge has not waived her presence, so she has to be present for both the final pretrial hearing and the jury trial setting,” Hicks said. “We are very confident in our case. We are prepared to go to trial. We are looking forward to getting this case accomplished for the victims of the case and for our community. We’re confident that the jury will eventually come back with a verdict of guilty.” Aaron Martinez may be reached at *****@*****.tld or on Twitter @AMartinezEPT. This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Attorney: Evidence shows El Paso Uber driver ********* was self-defense Source link #Paso #Uber #driver #******* #suspects #attorney #argues #fatal #********* #selfdefense Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Canada Post, union gear up for renewed bargaining with special mediator – National Canada Post, union gear up for renewed bargaining with special mediator – National Canada Post and the union representing striking postal workers will head back to the bargaining table on Monday, this time with a special mediator appointed by the federal government. Members of the ********* Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) took to the picket lines Friday in a nationwide strike that has halted all mail and parcel service by the Crown corporation. Jan Simpson, president of CUPW, told Global News’s Amandalina Letterio on Sunday that talks between the union and employer are set to resume on Monday. Peter Simpson, a special mediator appointed by the federal government on Thursday, will guide the renewed negotiations. Jan Simpson said the union “looks forward to working with the new mediator,” adding that “the best collective agreements are those negotiated at the bargaining table.” Story continues below advertisement A spokesperson for Canada Post told Global News on Sunday that the Crown corporation also supports the appointment of a special mediator, but added that “the parties remain far apart at the table.” “We remain committed to reaching new agreements at the bargaining table, and not through arbitration and discussions continue,” the spokesperson said. Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon said on Friday he “is not looking at any other solution other than negotiation” to end the Canada Post strike, which business groups have charged will have damaging consequences for the ********* economy and small businesses. MacKinnon intervened this past week in port shutdowns across British Columbia and Quebec, ordering binding arbitration to get goods flowing again through maritime channels. 6:32 Canada grapples with postal and port labour disputes Postal workers are seeking improvements in wages, benefits and health and safety conditions after years of stagnant pay through the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery. Story continues below advertisement Canada Post and the union have been bargaining for a year. Get weekly money news Get expert insights, Q&A on markets, housing, inflation, and personal finance information delivered to you every Saturday. Simpson told Letterio on Sunday that “nobody wants to be on the picket line.” She said CUPW sought to avoid a drawn out negotiation and job action, but argued that Canada Post has not yet come to the table with “realistic” offers that recognize the work of postal workers during the pandemic. Trending Now Canada Post strike explained: What you need to know about your mail Kamala Harris pushes donors for more after raising US$1B+ in electoral defeat “We’ve fallen behind,” she said. “Canada Post had agreed that, this round of bargaining, they’d help workers to catch up.” More on Canada More videos Canada Post says it has offered “competitive wages” to the union in the form of an 11.5 per cent pay hike over four years, plus additional paid leave and defined-benefit pension protections. Simpson said the employer also needs to address health and safety concerns at the new Albert Jackson processing centre in Scarborough, Ont., which opened last year. Also key to the negotiations is a proposed expansion of Canada Post service to seven days a week. Simpson told Global News that the union has put forward its own model for how seven-day-a-week delivery could work, but said Canada Post’s representatives “keep saying no.” The national postal carrier’s finances are in dire straits amid a decline in letter volumes over recent years, putting the Crown corporation in a tight spot as labour talks continue. Simpson said Sunday that while workers are looking forward to expanding Canada Post’s services on the other side of negotiations, the future needs to be built on a solid collective agreement with the union. Story continues below advertisement “They cannot expect to fix the problems that Canada Post has on the backs of these workers,” Simpson said. 1:59 Canada Post strike could mean a difficult holiday season ahead &copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc. Source link #Canada #Post #union #gear #renewed #bargaining #special #mediator #National Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Transcript: Sue Gordon on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024 Transcript: Sue Gordon on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024 The following is a transcript of an interview with Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of National Intelligence in the first Trump administration, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 17, 2024. MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by Sue Gordon. She served as the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence during Donald Trump’s first term in the White House. Good to see you here again. SUE GORDON: Great to see you, Margaret. MARGARET BRENNAN: So you personally briefed Donald Trump as President in the Oval Office. If this nominee to be Tulsi Gabbard becomes the Director of National Intelligence, and John Ratcliffe becomes the CIA director, are you confident that Mr. Trump will be told the information he needs to know, and not just what he wants to know? SUE GORDON: Well, I think that’s the- I think that’s the question of the day. Intelligence is weird because it’s always uncertain, and you are always making an assessment so that a decision-maker can figure out what they’re going to do with it. And so it’s particular. And you- your only job is to ruthlessly report what you see, not what you prefer. So that’s the primary job of the DNI, is to go in there and to be his principal advisor on intelligence. You’re the first in, you’re the last out. You cannot afford to, I’ll say pander to preference. Loyalty doesn’t serve you well in that job. You have to be so committed that you will say inconvenient things. I will say the former president would tell you that I would talk to him about Russian interference. I know he hated it, but Russia was in fact interfering, and he needed to hear that information. So do I believe that Tulsi and John can be that person? If they believe they must be, they can learn. If they lean on the women and men of the intelligence community, they will produce an assessment. But that’s a hard day, and you better be good at it. MARGARET BRENNAN: You had to undergo an FBI background check to obtain a security clearance and to maintain it. You were a career official, 25 years at the CIA, then, as we said, moved on to national intelligence. The New York Times is reporting the Trump team may bypass the FBI process and just use a private firm to vet candidates. Then, when the president is sworn in, he can grant access to the nation’s secrets rather than go through that screening. What risk is there in bypassing the FBI? SUE GORDON: Well, the first risk is that you will get an incomplete picture of the human that is carrying both the trust of the ********* people and the trust of our allies and partners and the trust of the women and men that are putting their lives on the line for that judgment, right? Everyone hates vetting. It’s intrusive. It- you don’t know why anyone should have to do it, because you know who you are. But the truth is, we know adversaries and competitors will exploit humans to be able to advance their interests, and you want to make sure that the people that hold the ********* people’s trust and the most precious pieces of information we have of advantage, have no cracks in who they are. And so it seems expedient, but I think it will ultimately harm the institution. And by that I mean the institution of America, if you have people who we discover later that they should not have had access, or we discover later that they were vulnerable to the actions of our allies and of our adversaries and competitors– MARGARET BRENNAN: –Because of leverage on them– SUE GORDON: — It is, I mean, that’s, I mean, the craft of human intelligence is actually finding someone who has a weakness and getting them to be able to advance your interests, and it just- and what a really good day is when you find someone whose interests align with yours, and then you really push that. So a private firm isn’t going to have the standards that we’ve had. I know it’s inconvenient, but I think it’s a bad strategy and risky for America. MARGARET BRENNAN: So CBS has also learned that, to date, the Trump team hasn’t signed the paperwork that would start the process of the national security briefings, so that someone’s not walking in cold they’re briefed and up to speed, along with these background checks. The Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that helps with the transitions, confirmed that to CBS. Is there any good reason not to sign those papers, and what does it do for the officials who arrive without being read in on what’s happening now? SUE GORDON: Yeah, I can’t think of a- I can’t think of a good reason. I think one of the great falsehoods that’s been perpetrated on America is that our institutions are malfeasant. They need to be better, they need to be slimmer, they need to be more transparent, but they’re not bummed. So you’re not protecting anybody by not signing those papers, and especially with some of the nominees we have that don’t have the really deep experience base, these are big jobs. I mean, intelligence is not just advising the president, it’s also running a huge enterprise in a manner that allows our allies and partners to trust us with their most precious thing. So I can’t think of a reason why that’s not signed- signed, and to start your gig without any foundation at all, especially when the institutions are begging to give you that foundation just seems wrong-headed. MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re diplomatically referring to Tulsi Gabbard there, who doesn’t have a background in intelligence. She also has a history of statements, of saying things that mirror the rhetoric of us adversaries, Vladimir ****** and Bashar al-Assad. There were at least two chemical weapons attacks in Syria that ******* thousands of people, and the US intelligence community came to public assessments of high confidence. I imagine you saw all of that intelligence and you briefed on it. SUE GORDON: Yes. MARGARET BRENNAN: So when she comes out and says that she doubts it. She’s skeptical. How is that going to be received by the career professionals who work for her? SUE GORDON: Yeah I mentioned one of her jobs would be to be the senior advisor. The second is to be responsible for all intelligence sharing agreements so our allies and partners upon whom we rely, that Syria assessment, that was ****** with our allies and partners. The one we had on Skripal was ******. Our assessment of Ukraine was ******– MARGARET BRENNAN: –That was sorry, just to explain for our viewers, Skripal, you’re talking about the ******** on British soil of a former Russian by Russian intelligence. SUE GORDON: But all those were jointly done with our allies and partners. We need them. It’s one of the greatest strengths of America, but they will make their own assessment over whether we can be trusted with their nation’s interests, and whether she meant it or not, whether she was just ill-informed of that, she comes in with strikes against her in the trust perspective, can we trust her with our most sacred intelligence to represent that in a fair way. So I think it’s a problem, whether it’s judgment or any other thing that she has represented there. MARGARET BRENNAN: Another nerve in the intelligence community, of course, is Edward Snowden. Tulsi Gabbard, and the selection for the attorney general, Matt Gaetz, put forward resolutions to call for the charges to be dropped against him because he leaked classified national intelligence material. He’s living in Russia these days. That kind of a position, how’s that going to be received? SUE GORDON: It reflects a lack of understanding of who we are, and it reflects a lack of respect for what we do. Unauthorized disclosures of intelligence are always bad. Don’t go with the good or bad, any good outcome or whether he was right or wrong. He had no authority, and he had different paths, and he harmed America. He not only harmed intelligence, he harmed our allies and partners, and he harmed our businesses by what it allowed China to assume about that. there is nothing justifiable about what he’s done. None. And so if they vacate it, what they’re basically saying is all those rules you follow in order to be able to serve America, they don’t matter anymore. MARGARET BRENNAN: Sue Gordon, thank you for explaining this very opaque world of intelligence to us and for your analysis today. We’ll be back in a moment. Source link #Transcript #Sue #Gordon #Face #Nation #Margaret #Brennan #Nov Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

McIlroy wins DP World Tour Championship McIlroy wins DP World Tour Championship Rory McIlroy hits a three-under-par 69 to win the season-ending DP World Tour Championship and clinch his sixth Race to Dubai title. Source link #McIlroy #wins #World #Tour #Championship Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The interesting world of rotoscope animation The interesting world of rotoscope animation Have you ever wondered why a piece of animation looks so good? How a body moves under the limitations of its weight and musculature? There’s two reasons for that. The first reason is the animation team is not only skilled, but also has a veritable budget. Or perhaps they mixed that skill and budget with a little magical thing called “rotoscoping.” You might ask, “What’s this rotoscoping you’re talking about?” Well, that’s what I’m here to answer. Original rotoscope equipment. Taken from Adobe. Short and sweet Rotoscoping is an animation technique where animators draw over existing footage. This technique offers much more realistic animation by capturing the subtle details in body and facial movement. The name “rotoscoping” comes from the device used for this technique, the rotoscope projector developed by Max Fleischer. Live action frames would be projected onto a panel and the artist would trace over them. Rotoscoping has also been used by background artists, such as when Ira Turek used actual shots of New York to create the environments of ****** the Cat. Special effects artists would use rotoscoping for the matte process and light effects. The most famous examples of rotoscope special effects are the original Star Wars movies, where the technique was used to create the lightsabers. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs behind the scenes footage. Taken from imgur. How it begin The first rotoscope animations were done exclusively by Max Fleischer’s studio, as he patented the method in 1915. His first rotoscope equipment was made in 1914 and it was used extensively for the Out of the Inkwell series. This was during the ****** and white age of animation. Fleischer’s patent expired in 1934 and the technique was free for other studios, such as Walt Disney Productions. Disney would use the technique for some of its most famous works, such as Snow White, Fantasia, Bambi, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, and The Jungle Book. Disney directors weren’t the only people who adopted rotoscope technology. Don Bluth used rotoscoping for his family-friendly flicks, while the ****** animation scene was dominated by Ralph Bakshi. Many people cite Bakshi’s rotoscoped movies ********* Pop, The Lord of the Rings and ***** and Ice, as key factors in pushing animation to a more mature audience. ***** and Ice production photo. Taken from IMDb Why was it so popular? Storytelling… and marketing. People connect with things like hobbies, beliefs, and definitely appearances. Animation that blurred the line between real life and fiction helped audiences connect more easily with the characters. This, in return, created the potential for deeper storytelling and helped push the notion that animation is more than just drawings on a piece of paper. The combination between realistic and fictional allowed for animators to flex their muscles, if they could handle the workload of course. Marketing is all about the Ps — Product, Price, Place, Promotion. A visually unique style not only opens doors to storytelling, but makes your product stand out from the competition and gives the marketing team something strong to work with. Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood, done using a technique very similar to rotoscope. Taken from IMDb. Why did rotoscoping decline? Just like regular animation, the fluidity of rotoscope animation depends on the amount of frames. More frames means better animation, but it also means more work on the animator and higher costs. Making a normal piece of animation can be arduous, but having to precisely copy a piece of pre-existing footage can be a long, tedious process. The other major reason is money. As I just stated, its a very time intensive process, and that time costs money. Some productions like Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings were handled like Hollywood level movies, with full costumes and sets. And if you’re going to make a full movie production just to make a animation, why bother in the first place? All that live footage will never be used. Deadlines approaching and studios needing to make their money back. Studios can speed the process up by hiring more animators but that inflates the budget. Due to the sheer complexity of it, Disney would often recycle its own animations to save time and budget. Creating animation from scratch was ultimately more cost effective, so rotoscoping was slowly steering towards the realm of high budget special effects. Coupled with the rise of CGI animation, traditional rotoscope has lost much of its edge. Nowadays rotoscoping has mostly been used for short movies and indie projects, such as the works of Morgan King. Very few studios and directors have employed this technique, save for Richard Linklater who used it for his movies Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood. Another World has its animations done via rotoscoping. Taken from Steam. A few extra rotoscope facts The award winning sci-fi platformer Another World had its animations done using the rotoscope technique. The rotoscope technique has been used in the production of some anime such as Kowabon, The Case of Hana and Alice, Flowers of Evil and some segments of the recently released Uzumaki anime. Rotoscope has also been used for music videos. The most famous example is A-ha’s Take On Me. Other examples include Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park, Freak of the Week by Freak Kitchen and Ye’s Heartless. Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings movie was nearly scrapped completely. The movie’s live action parts were shot in the Spanish countryside. Elements on set that didn’t make sense for the *******, like cars and utility poles, would be removed in the drawing process. The Spanish development lab didn’t know the footage would be used to create animation, and upon seeing these inconsistencies, nearly destroyed all the footage. Director Richard Linklater commissioned a special type of software to create rotoscope animation. Called Rotoshop, the software would create blends between layers. Source link #interesting #world #rotoscope #animation Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Transcript: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024 Transcript: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024 The following is a transcript of an interview with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 17, 2024. MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by Kentucky governor Andy Beshear who joins us from Lexington. Good morning to you, governor. You’re a blue governor in a very red state. How do you even begin to try uniting a country as *******- as divided as this? Are there lessons we can learn from Kentucky? GOV. ANDY BESHEAR: I think there’s absolute lessons that- that we can learn from Kentucky, a state where, last year, I won as a Democrat by five points and Donald Trump just won by 30. And I think it basically boils down to both running and governing, where people wake up in the morning and what they worry about when they go to bed at night. And that’s not the next election. It’s their job, and whether they make enough to support their family. It’s the next doctor’s appointment for themselves, their parents, or their kids. It’s the roads and bridges they drive every day. It’s that public school they drop their kids off at, and it’s public safety in their community. The goal here is to focus on all of those things, where, if people don’t feel secure in those areas, they don’t get to anything else. They don’t get to the crazy thing that some politicians said last night or this morning, they don’t get to that next piece of policy that’s out there. So it’s a- it’s about a relentless focus on people’s everyday needs and their everyday life. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah. We’re going to take a break, come back and have the rest of the conversation on the other side of it. All of you, please stay with us. More from Andy Beshear in a moment. (ANNOUNCEMENTS) MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to “Face The Nation.” We return to our conversation with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. Governor, Kentucky has a lot of coal. It’s got natural gas. Mr. Trump has selected Chris Wright, the CEO of Liberty Energy, to be the next Energy Secretary, if confirmed. He’s also selected Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, to run the Interior Department, and he’s promised to open up more federal lands to drilling. Do you have any idea what the impact would be on your state from the signals being sent with these selections? GOV. ANDY BESHEAR: Well, we’ll see. I mean, I saw the comments recently from the CEO of Exxon, which was a little different than what we might expect, talking about needing to move to greener forms of- of energy, regardless of what the policy of the day is. And I certainly see from companies that are coming into Kentucky each and every day, we just announced a new industrial battery facility that’s going to create 1600 new jobs. They demand a certain portfolio of energy. Yes, the lights have to come on, but especially over time for their customers, they want a certain amount of renewables. So what I’ve seen as governor is a private sector push that I do not think is going to change demands placed on states, demands placed on utilities, and the private sector ultimately moving us to a more diverse and cleaner portfolio. So here in Kentucky, yes, we have many traditional forms of energy, and they have really good jobs, and we want to make sure that we never look down on and- and we support each of those jobs. But my goal is to diversify our production as much as we can so that we have the jobs of the present and those jobs of the future. MARGARET BRENNAN: You said Kentucky has something like 10,000 jobs related to electric vehicles. You really made a big push on that during the campaign. Mr. Trump vowed to undo the “electric vehicle mandate,” that’s what he called it, and he’s going to, he says, repeal the law that includes credits for green projects. Do you know at this point if *********** leaders intend to keep parts of that? And are there projections on what repealing that law entirely would do to the job creation in your state? GOV. ANDY BESHEAR: Well, it’s really concerning. You look at a state like Kentucky that voted for President-Elect Trump by 30 points, and it’s 10,000 EV related jobs on the line, and those are only growing. Go up to Ohio and look at that $20 billion chips factory, which I’m a little bit jealous of, but happy for the people of Ohio and- and what that would mean in another state that voted for the president-elect. So you look at all of these jobs and jobs of the future that have come to what- what the administration will probably view as red states. It’s important that these projects continue. Remember, a lot of the people taking these jobs, jobs that support their families, voted for President-Elect Trump because they thought that would improve their job, that he was focused on their job. So I hope that he will get good advice, and I’ll do everything I can to get my message out through our federal delegation of how important these jobs are. And they’re not in urban Kentucky. They’re in rural Kentucky. They are game changing investments that- that have created a bright future here, and I’m certainly going to do everything I can as governor of Kentucky to protect them, and not because I’m a Democrat, but because I’ve shown my people that every single day I’m going to try to create a better life for them, and that’s what those jobs do. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, 14 billion between now and 2030 was what was promised to your state. I wonder if you just think Democrats didn’t do a good job of explaining that? GOV. ANDY BESHEAR: Well, I certainly don’t want to do any finger pointing, because the- the Vice President had 107 days, and she did her very best, and I proudly crisscrossed the country in support of her. But what I know is, going forward, over the next couple years, we have a chance every day, every moment, to show the ********* people that we are laser focused on jobs, on their health care, on their infrastructure, on their kids’ education, just- just those everyday worries, and with this administration, at least right now selecting some very extreme appointees, it’s a chance to make a real difference, to really show people that- that we’re where their basic needs are. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, but there was, as you know, some analysis after the fact among Democrats about the focus on some culture war issues, or so to speak. Congressman Seth Moulton said, of transgender issues, “I have two little ******. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete. But as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.” He says he’s “speaking authentically,” and said Democrats should do more of it. Do you think Democrats have been out of touch on some of these things that obviously resonate in states like yours? GOV. ANDY BESHEAR: Well, I think that- that all candidates should stand up for- for their beliefs and that- and that we don’t have to abandon those beliefs. You know, I vetoed one of the nastiest anti-LGBTQ bills that my state had ever seen in my election year, but- but I did two things. Number one, I talked about my why, for me, that’s my ******, where I’m taught that all children are children of ****. And I wanted to stick up for some children that were being picked on in a pretty rough bill. But the second thing is, the- the voters in my state knew the very next day, I was going to be working on jobs. I was going to be opening a new health clinic, first hospital in our largest ******** ********* neighborhood in 150 years, we just cut the ribbon on. We’ve created two pediatric autism centers in- in Appalachia, so that people don’t have to drive two hours. So it’s- it’s both sharing your why and your authentic why for- for your views, but- but the other piece is about that focus. Because remember, if we’re talking about this issue of the day, and then we’re talking about what Donald Trump said last night, and then we’re talking about jobs. We’re only spending a third of the time talking about what people are worried about and what impacts their life the most. MARGARET BRENNAN: Governor, thank you for joining us today. We’ll be right back. Source link #Transcript #Kentucky #Gov #Andy #Beshear #Face #Nation #Margaret #Brennan #Nov Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]