Nintendo has stuck with plastic cartridges for its portable gaming machines, but every other console you can buy today left them behind years ago. Which is too bad, because there was a certain charm to swapping those old seemingly indestructible game carts. And if you’re feeling nostalgic for them, you can now deck out your home with this wallpaper homage to those far-from-forgotten cartridges from your childhood.
It’s no secret that everybody’s thinking about privacy and cyber security more since the world was pummeled with the unsettling, spy-novel truths of the Snowden revelations . Now, companies are starting to seize onto the zeitgeist by building more secure tools for the internet. And it sounds like Tor will be at the front of that line.
China has long been home to a booming illicit “trade” for new iPhones smuggled into the country through ports like Hong Kong or Shanghai. And the iPhone 6 is no exception: Customs officials have reported that hundreds of 6s and 6 Pluses have been confiscated this month.
The authenticity of native eats can vary from generation to generation, or country to country if you’re eating in a place different than where a dish was originally created. But that’s not to say there aren’t cases in which things are cooked and made…
In case you needed yet another reminder that we live in the future, take a look at what happens when someone mashes up the Oculus Rift and Razer’s handheld Hydra motion controllers with some nifty homebrew sculpting software. The end result is…
Despite the recent deluge of tragic news in places ranging from Gaza to Ferguson, this man’s powerful message will remind you that there is hope.
In a video uploaded to YouTube, rapper Richard Williams, aka Prince Ea, gives us a rundown of various issues our generation is facing in his spoken word piece. He begins with the bold statement, “The world is coming to an end,” and proceeds to highlight key issues our generation is facing.
“Presidents lie, politicians trick us,” he says. “Race is still an issue, and so is religion.”
Though the picture he paints is bleak, he offers a very simple, yet truthful solution to the universe’s problems — love. He urges viewers to open their hearts, saying, “Once we truly love, we will meet anger with sympathy, hatred with compassion and cruelty with kindness.”
Prince Ea’s words are more than just beautiful — they speak volumes:
“Love is the most powerful weapon on the face of the earth. Robert Kennedy once said that few will have the greatness to be in history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events … So yes, the world is coming to an end, and the path towards a new beginning starts, within you.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, will attend a Service to commemorate those journalists, cameramen and support staff who have died on the frontline, at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street at 12.30pm on Wednesday 5th November 2014. This year, the event’s title “The Pen is mightier than the Sword” is particularly resonant in the light of recent atrocities in Syria, but the industry will also come together as one in facing faces perils now and uncertainty ahead.
WASHINGTON — A new advocacy campaign is borrowing from Beyonce to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to support a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
J Street, an American advocacy group that promotes Middle East peace, has released a graphic depicting a cartoonish Netanyahu that reads, “If you like it then you should put a border on it.” Netanyahu is shown in front of two women wearing leotards shaped like the country of Israel, with lines denoting the borders of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
The campaign is a reference to the song “Single Ladies,” in which Beyonce sings, “If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it.” In the music video for the song, she and her dancers wear leotards similar to the ones shown in J Street’s graphic.
The graphic, which the group is printing on stickers and circulating online, accompanies a petition asking Netanyahu to “show his commitment to peace by proposing clear borders for a final agreement.”
“Defining Israel’s borders would make the settlement issue — one of the most contentious in this conflict — moot,” J Street explained in a statement. “It would give the Palestinians renewed hope in the diplomatic path and demonstrate to the world that peace is possible.”‘
The campaign, which gives a whole new meaning to the Beyonce songs “Partition” and “1+1,” coincides with Netanyahu’s annual address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Monday.
J Street has consistently pushed American leaders, including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, to facilitate negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The group supports a solution that would end Israel’s presence in the occupied territories, as well as its construction of settlements in the West Bank.
“The sticker is definitely different from what we normally do, but coming after the collapse of the negotiations and the violence this summer, we wanted to get out the message that there are specific steps that can be taken toward peace,” J Street Senior Digital Associate Ben Silverstein told The Huffington Post in an email.
“We are hoping that injecting a little humor will help to invigorate and broaden this important conversation,” he added.
At the United Nations, however, Netanyahu didn’t explicitly mention any sort of border framework, though he admitted that peace negotiations “would obviously necessitate a territorial compromise.”
“I’m ready to make a historic compromise,” Netanyahu said. “I want peace because I want to create a better future for my people, but it must be a genuine peace, one that is anchored in mutual recognition and rock-solid security arrangements on the ground.”
These comments were far more conciliatory than Netanyahu’s remarks at a July 11 press conference, where he stated his opposition to the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and implied his support for a permanent occupation.
“There cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan,” Netanyahu said at the time.
Members of Netanyahu’s Likud Party oppose any peace agreement that would involve swapping territory and dividing Jerusalem, as do members of other, more right-leaning political parties in Israel.
U.S.-led negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders earlier this year were stymied by the most recent Israeli offensive into Gaza, which ended Aug. 26. The 50-day war between Israel and Gaza militants killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, who were mostly civilians, and 72 Israelis, almost all of whom were soldiers.
On Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called upon the United Nations Security Council to support a resolution setting a deadline for Israel to end its presence in the West Bank and Gaza, which he described as a “racist and colonial” occupation.
“There is no meaning or value in negotiations for which the agreed objective is not ending the Israeli occupation and achieving the independence of the state of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the entire Palestinian territory occupied in the 1967 war,” Abbas said. “And there is no value in negotiations which are not linked to a firm timetable for the implementation of this goal.”
Obama is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu on Wednesday.
In the double bill, “The Power of Love,” two new one act operas graced the stage of the TNC, a theatre complex that has been offering up original works in the East Village for many years.
While much entertained by the late Seymour Barab’s sprightly farce, “Out of the Window,” I was utterly enchanted by Michael Cohen’s (music) and Linsey Abrams’ (librettist) new version of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s dark fairy tale, “Rappaccini’s Daughter.”
Happily eschewing the avant-garde movement, composer Michael Cohen chose to honor the rich melodic vocabulary of the masters such as Debussy and Sondheim, while claiming his own place, creating a piece that soars to exotic and sensual heights.
Just as importantly, Abrams’ libretto provided a timely take on the classic tale, both romantic and intellectual in its arguments. The clever rhyming advances the plot — inventively and seamlessly. As the drama progresses in a Shakespearian way, there are also hints of a haunting episode of the “Twilight Zone.”
The plot presents a southern Italian medical student (Giovanni), taking residence in Padua to study at the university. The young man is wheedled by Lizbetta into taking a room overlooking the garden of her employer, Dr. Rappaccini. Although he finds his lodgings unsavory, he is promised that Beatrice, the doctor’s lovely daughter, appears in the garden regularly and is worth taking a look at.
Giovanni, becoming impatient, finally gets a glance when the girl shows herself in the garden. Beatrice is more than beautiful, she is incandescent, lolling around the animate flowers. He is hooked, but she has a profound secret.
The student has a meeting with Dr. Baglione (an old friend of his father’s), and is warned by the man to leave his residence at once; there is evil afoot.
What is this evil? Some of the matters touched on are ethics in medical research — the greater good versus a doctor’s oath to heal, divining that every single life is sacred. Included in the subtext of the story are women’s rights — rights to their bodies and future. This question is not addressed directly (it is medieval times), but the story allows the audience to consider these issues while being intoxicated by the music and performances.
But what is an opera without adequate singers? Thankfully, the cast was more than adequate –they were superb. William Broderick’s Dr. Rappaccini was as warm sounding as he was cold-hearted. His nemesis (Martin Fisher), Dr. Baglioni displayed a commanding baritone that could make thunderous declamations, but was able to purr gently with his grounded instrument. In the smaller part of Lizbetta, Darcy Dunn was no mere comprimario; she had an evenly produced, saucy mezzo, as comfortable in her top voice as a lyric soprano.
Perhaps the most arduous role in the opera is that of Giovanni as played by Douglas McDonnell. A veteran of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, his tenor had stamina and range, and he projected the romantic hero with his looks and stance.
The real surprise of the night was Samantha Britt’s Beatrice — in the title role. Petite and lovely, she had the goods in all departments. Her acting was compellingly poignant, yet direct, and her voice was simply marvelous. Miss Britt had total control of her flexible, silvery instrument, and hit the mark every time, with lovely floated tones and plangent high notes.
The “curtain-raiser,” Seymour Barab’s “Out the Window,” is a cheery, manic farce, tuneful and wise. This battle of the sexes — portrayed a husband and a wife — although married to others, playing out the parts of the clueless male and the neurotic female and neither one of them are people you would want as friends. But it is always fun to laugh at these ever-enduring stereotypes.
James Parks was perfect as the overconfident yet nerdy husband, possessing a healthy legit voice; I could just envision him portraying the put upon accountant, Leo Bloom, in “The Producers.”
As the wife, Lauren Hoffmeier was lithe and game when it came to demanding physical comedy, but she might want to balance her hefty belt/soprano voice by backing off a bit and managing to focus it more.
Jonathan Fox Powers, pianist and musical director, gave credit to his last name by carrying the show by himself quite ably.
Both works were staged by director Lissa Moica and choreographed by Robert Gonzales Jr. Mr. Gonzales is clearly talented; the dancing flowers were fluid and graceful. The set and costumes, were more than adequate, the garden being as enchanted as it needed to be and the garments indicative of the eras they were representing. Moica’s direction kept everything well paced
In this time of a disappearing New York City Opera, it is great to see opera produced intimately, on a shoestring budget, making the case that a multimillion dollar production is not what makes the stage come alive, but talent and ingenuity are…
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