Microsoft’s experimental Garage team has been busy — hot on the heels of a Torque update, it’s releasing a big upgrade to Next Lock Screen. The refreshed Android front end now shows the weather, so you won’t be caught off-guard by rain on the way to…
If you’ve ever spent a few hours in front of the television playing video games, hit the pause button and take a moment to thank Ralph Baer.
Bear, who developed the first home video game system, died on Saturday at the age of 92.
In the late 1960s, Baer developed a system known as the “Brown Box” while working for Sanders Associates, a New Hampshire-based defense contractor.
“People thought I was wasting my time and the company’s money for that matter,” said Baer on his 2010 induction in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. “There’s no way anybody could have predicted how fast this industry would take off.”
Here he is testing the device in 1969:
Licensed to Magnavox, Baer’s invention was released in 1972 as the Odyssey — and TV was forever changed from something we watch to something we can interact with. Within a few years, video game systems would find their way into millions of homes.
Along with the Brown Box, Baer invented the first light gun accessory. He’s also the co-creator of the light-up memory games Simon and Super Simon.
Born to a Jewish family in southwestern Germany in 1922, Baer and his family fled the country in 1938 to escape the Nazis.
“My father, who had fought in the German army on two fronts in WWI, saw the writing on the wall and knew what was going to happen,” Baer told Web2Carz.com in 2012.
The family moved to the Bronx, where Baer worked in a factory that made leather cases for manicure kits. There, The New York Times reports, Baer was already inventing: at the age of the 16, he created a device that would stitch five or six cases at once.
On his website, Baer wrote that he served in the U.S. Army for three years during WWII, working in military intelligence. After the war, he earned a bachelor’s degree in television engineering at the American Television Institute of Technology in Chicago.
Baer told Gamasutra that he first had the idea of building something into the television that people could play with in 1951.
“I don’t know that I thought about it as a game, but as something to fool with and to give you something to do with the television set other than watch stupid network programs,” Baer said.
His bosses didn’t like the idea.
“I got the regular reaction: ‘Who needs this?’ And nothing happened,” he said, according to The Washington Post.
Baer finally got the chance to develop the idea 15 years later when a boss at Sanders recognized the potential of the device.
Baer has been called “the father of the video game” for his work. However, in a letter to the Pong Story website, Baer clarified that Atari founder Noah Bushnell is the father of video arcade games for his 1969 creation, Computer Space.
“I came up with the concept of playing games on a standard TV set or TV monitor in September of 1966. The idea was to make an alternate, interactive use of tens of millions of home TV sets then in homes world-wide,” Baer wrote. “The final equipment we built at Sanders Associates in 1967 (the “Brown Box”) was licensed to Magnavox in 1970 and appeared as the Odyssey 1TL200 on the market in the U.S. in May of 1972.”
With 100,000 sold that year, he said the invention makes him “the father of home video games.”
One his website, Bear wrote that he holds more than 150 U.S. and foreign patents. He was awarded The National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President George W. Bush in 2006, and in 2008 received the Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award.
“Had I listened to all those people 40 years ago who were telling me to stop the nonsense or made remarks like ‘are you still screwing around with this stuff?’ and hadn’t proceeded, we might all not be here today,” Baer said during the ceremony for the Pioneer Award, in remarks quoted by GameSpot. “Certainly things might have been different.”
For many pups — like Bo, the Obama’s adorable, frisbee-loving Portuguese water dog, or Insta-famous Manny the French Bulldog — it truly is a dog’s life.
Unfortunately, millions of other lovable canines are left homeless, with approximately 7.6 million animals entering shelters nationwide every year (according to the ASPCA).
To give more deserving dogs a chance at a forever home — though perhaps, a less glamorous one than Bo’s– we’ve teamed up with Sony Picture’s “Annie,” in theaters December 19, to bring you 15 shelter pups named Sandy that you can adopt right now.
Willing to snuggle all winter long
This pup was down in the dumps before she was rescued after being abandoned in a ditch in Mississippi. Why don’t you cheer her up by taking her home?! This Sandy is an easygoing and playful Beagle mix puppy. She loves kids, plays well with other dogs, and is spayed and up-to-date on all her vaccinations — all you need to do is contact Warm Fuzzy’s Cat Rescue in Belden, Mississippi to make her your own!
Ready for love
Stock up on this Sandy, and your supply of tail wags will never run dry! The Terrier/Corgi Mix has a loving, sweet personality and is friendly with both people and dogs. She’s crate and potty trained, and is looking to show off her bathroom skills to a proud, forever family. You can adopt her through Lovebugs Rescue in Corona Del Mar, California.
Big heart, bigger tongue
This squinty Sandy was recently saved from euthanasia — so if you adopt her, you’ll also be saving another pup who could use her spot at Austin Pets Alive! in Austin, Texas. This Pit Bull Terrier Mix is spayed, is up-to-date on shots, and wants to show her adorable face in your home every single day.
Loves climbing…into your lap
In an unfortunate sequence of events, this Sandy ended up testing positive for heartworm after being taken in at a shelter. Luckily, she’s being treated by Save-A-Pet — but is looking for a family to foster her while she gets healthy (with high hopes that they’ll give her a permanent home!). She firmly believes an empty lap is an open invitation to climb into it and snuggle, and is always available for hugs. Learn more about her by contacting Save-A-Pet in Grayslake, Illinois.
Man’s best co-pilot
This Sandy clearly loves being in the front seat — now all you need to do is drive her home! The adult Labrador Retriever Mix is house trained, spayed and evidently behaves well on road trips. You can adopt her through Special Pals Animal Shelter in Houston, Texas.
Accessorizes better than you do
Take this Sandy home, and maybe some of her fashion sense will rub off on you! This 7-year-old Dachshund weighs just 11 pounds and is looking for a quiet home with lots of love and attention. With eyes like that, though, it shouldn’t be too hard. Ask for her on your application at Breeder Release Adoption Service in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Melts hearts of stones…even yours
We don’t know much about this Sandy, except she’s just a pup and is absolutely adorable. The Shepherd and Retriever Mix is up-to-date on her shots and is seeking a forever snuggle partner, stat. Find out how to take her home by contacting the Lone Star Sanctuary for Animals in Midland, Texas.
Hot Momma
Doesn’t she look good for a mother of seven?! That’s right, seven. Sandy, a Terrier/Beagle mix, lost her home to a fire earlier this year, and gave birth to her litter as a stray. Her pups are all grown up now, so she’s looking forward to her next role as a lovable companion, or family pet. Contact Critter Cavalry Rescue New England in Coventry, Rhode Island, and learn how to make her yours.
Ready for his close-up
This lil’ guy has something to smile about: he’s excited to find his forever home! A Chihuahua Mix, this Sandy will always be little (he’s just 23 pounds!), but he has a big heart. He was found as a stray, but plays well with others — and photographs even better. Sandy can be adopted through Eleventh Hour Rescue in Rockaway, New Jersey.
Seeking a snuggle buddy
Cue the ‘Awwwwws’ and high-pitched voices used only for talking to incredibly cute, soft-eared mushes. This Sandy is just a puppy who loves people and craves attention. The Labrador Retriever and Spaniel Mix is already vaccinated and microchipped, so she’s 100 percent ready for her new home! For more information, reach out to Arf of Mercer in Ewing, New Jersey.
Easy on the eyes
This Siberian Husky has two unique eye colors, just like Kate Bosworth! However, there’s no family relation. A 7-year-old, sweet-tempered and calm animal, this Sandy has enjoyed enough treats to live up to his ‘husky’ namesake, and is currently on a careful diet. He enjoys long walks, playing in water and being especially fluffy. Think he’d make a good roommate (or cuddle buddy)? Contact Mapaw Siberian Husky Rescue & Referral Service, Inc., in Boyertown, Pennsylvania.
Got that ‘just back from the groomer’ swag
If this Sandy has one flaw in his looks, we can’t find it. The young Cocker Spaniel Mix is friendly, affectionate and bottom line, just wants to be loved. Don’t we all? Call the Cocker Spaniel Adoption Center Inc. in Westminster, Maryland for more information!
Sweeter in person
Are you in love yet? This adorable Husky/Lab/Shepard mix puppy is a ball of fur and fun. As the smallest pup in his litter of three, this particular Sandy has a very sweet, gentle disposition and loves to play. He gets along with other dogs and children, is neutered and microchipped, and would make a great addition to any family! He’s available for adoption by Pet Rescue in Larchmont, New York.
Will mop your floors (with her tail)
The perfect blend of scruff and sweet, this Sandy is a 5-year-old Terrier. At just 28 pounds, she won’t take up a huge amount of space — anywhere but your heart, that is! She’s adoptable through Animal Aid Inc., in Oakland Park, Florida.
A real people person
This Pit Bull Terrier Mix certainly knows how to smile. She’ll make one (or several) human(s) very happy with her cuddling, hugging and ball chasing — though she’s still working on the ‘retrieving’ part. Ask to meet Sandy by contacting the Animal Care & Control of New York City. You’ll be guaranteed a lifetime of free kisses!
Got a shelter pup of your own (and proud of it)? To highlight their partnership with @BarkBox, Annie invites you to share your own rescue dogs by submitting photos below, using the hashtag #ImARescueToo and #AnnieMovie.
Forget what they say about money; energy is LITERALLY what makes the world go round. And as science and technology have made extracting and utilizing energy more complex and efficient, finding new sources has become especially important over the years. One new technology is hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking.
But what IS fracking, anyway? We’ve partnered with Energy From Shale to help you better understand how exactly the mechanism works.
Why are some theatres like salad bars? The answer is simpler than you might expect. If you attend a production whose set is in full view as the audience enters the theatre, all kinds of possibilities come to mind before the performance actually begins. Although the architecture and props on display may look deceptively familiar, one never knows what might happen 30 minutes after going for the bait.
Two productions greeted Bay area audiences with sets that radiated an unusual sense of foreboding. One looked like a messy apartment with some tables, office chairs, and a large beanbag. The other was a decrepit, ominous-looking coastal shack resting on a cluster of eerily-lit wooden pilings.
* * * * * * * * * *
Over the past few years, Bennett Fisher has been one of the driving forces behind the Flying Island Lab and San Francisco Theatre Pub. In addition to serving as an associate artist with San Francisco’s Cutting Ball Theatre, he has collaborated with the California Shakespeare Theatre, Stanford Summer Theatre, and Crowded Fire Theatre Company (among others). Now working toward his MFA degree at the University of California, San Diego, the extremely prolific (and fast) writer can be seen discussing his creative process in this 2011 interview about Disinfect (Fisher’s zombie aftermath play that was performed by the Un-scripted Theater Company).
Fisher’s Campo Maldito is set in the unkempt office of a disruptive digital startup business headquartered in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Ingersoll (Walker Hare) is a young CEO who has bet his entire future on bringing a killer app to market that could make him incredibly wealthy. White, arrogant, and with an unquestioning sense of entitlement, he has recently become increasingly paranoid and suspicious that he is being watched by some kind of avenging ghost. He’s also been making some very poor business decisions.
A friend of Ingersoll’s has referred him to Acosta (Luis Vega), an Hispanic man whose mystical powers as a Santeria priest may be able to purify Ingersoll’s office space. However, unlike Ingersoll (who has never really been challenged by life), Acosta is a recovering alcoholic who has been living sober for 348 days. While he has no problem charging Ingersoll $1,000 as a consulting fee, Acosta quickly starts to realize that what Ingersoll views as a supernatural nuisance might be something quite different and much more commonplace.
Remounted from UC San Diego’s Wagner Festival and presented in conjunction with the Bay area’s Ubuntu Theater Project, Campo Maldito made its San Francisco Fringe Festival debut as an almost site-specific piece of theatre about gentrification and the spiritual cost of angering a dead (or sorely neglected) spirit. If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, just wait and see what happens when that woman is a vengeful, alcohol-based demon.
Bennett’s skill as a dramatist makes clever use of magical realism as the demon of addiction takes control of Ingersoll’s body and uses it as a puppet to berate Acosta for abandoning her by giving up booze. Through the eyes of a terrified recovering alcoholic who is struggling to live sober one day at a time, Ingersoll’s increasingly dangerous constellation of symptoms are revealed to be a direct result of the budding entrepreneur’s growing dependence on alcohol.
In the following clip from their Kickstarter campaign, Fisher and Jesca Prudencio discuss the origins of and itinerary for their traveling production of Campo Maldito.
Intensely directed by Prudencio, Campo Maldito’s two-man cast takes its audience on a riveting roller coaster ride through white privilege, around hairpin turns of desperation, careening downhill in a life-and-death struggle with the forces of addiction, and ending when dawn breaks over a terrified and confused alcoholic who is bottoming out. Walker Hare and Luis Vega turn in two grippingly athletic and memorable performances. Their work easily made Campo Maldito the most interesting entry I saw at the 2014 San Francisco Fringe Festival.
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Over at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley, Shotgun Players presented Enda Walsh’s 2005 dark, twisted and deliciously dysfunctional dramedy of nostalgia entitled The New Electric Ballroom (which may well rank as one of the few Irish plays in which alcohol is neither a major concern nor a steady presence). When Walsh received the 2012 Tony Award for writing the book for the musical stage adaptation of Once, he told the audience at the Beacon Theatre that:
“Anyone who knows my work knows that it’s terribly dark. When I told my friend I was going to take on this delicate little love story, he said ‘That’s like the equivalent of producers having the stage rights to It’s A Wonderful Life and then getting Charles Manson to do it.'”
Irish playwrght Enda Walsh (Photo by: Murdo MacLeod)
Unlike Anton Chekhov’s whiny Three Sisters (or Gilbert & Sullivan’s giddy “Three Little Maids From School,”) Walsh’s trio of bored spinsters is trapped in a tiny Irish fishing village where nothing good — or even slightly interesting — ever seems to happen.
Anne Darragh, Beth Wilmurt, and Trish Mulholland in a
scene from The New Electric Ballroom (Photo by: Pak Han)
Trish Mulholland as Clara in The New Electric Ballroom
(Photo by: Pak Han)
The only man who visits these women on a regular basis is a fishmonger named Patsy (Kevin Clarke), who has certainly seen better days. Although Patsy usually arrives with a delivery of dead eels that get dumped into a bin marked “Fish” or dropped all over the floor, he is the odd subject of Clara and Breda’s warped fantasies.
Patsy (Kevin Clarke) and Breda (Anne Darragh) in a
scene from The New Electric Ballroom (Photo by: Pak Han)
One dark day, when even the poetry of doom offers nothing new, Breda decides to seize the bull by the horns and break out of her dismal rut by inviting Patsy in for a surrealistic makeover. As Clara pours water into a tub, Breda starts removing Patsy’s clothing until, together with Clara, the two women perform a ritualistic cleansing of the smelly (and mightily confused) fisherman.
Clara (Trish Mulholland) and Breda (Anne Darragh) give Patsy (Kevin
Clarke) a makeover in The New Electric Ballroom (Photo by: Pak Han)
Once he’s been cleaned up, Breda dresses Patsy in some tight and shiny pants she’s been saving for her special ritual. Soon he is transformed into Roller Doyle, a rocker from her nearly hallucinogenic memory who seductively grinds his hips like a reincarnation of Elvis Presley as he performs atop the sisters’ dining room table.
Patsy (Kevin Clarke) struts his stuff in a scene from
The New Electric Ballroom (Photo by: Pak Han)
Bathed in Jim French’s ominous lighting, Erik Flatmo’s creepy unit set provided a strange framework for a play that begins with a generous helping of inanity and ends with three lipstick-smeared crones stepping over dead eels as they transform the village grunt into the man of their twisted dreams. While Walsh’s writing combines a certain amount of fetid wish fulfillment wrapped in poetic babble, The New Electric Ballroom definitely belongs to the genre known as “Theatre of What The Fuck?” As the playwright explains:
“I love the risk factor that a good production demands. It always looks like none of it should work. It’s artificial. It could collapse at any minute and then it becomes this suddenly real thing, where themes are flying about in the air, language is splitting apart, and it’s just electric. Really, there’s nothing better.”
Director Barbara Damashek staged Walsh’s script as a perverse passion play for three women who have long been terrified of silence. In her program note, she describes it as “a desecration ritual, an anti-mass in which the characters speak to avoid the living.”
To read more of George Heymont go to My Cultural Landscape
World War I Around the World
Part I: The War in Asia & the Pacific
The German Colony of Tsingtao
Germany had a significant colonial interest in China as well an assortment of island colonies spread out across the western Pacific. Additionally, Germany had a naval squadron, the East Asian Squadron, headquartered in the Chinese port of Tsingtao.
Most of the Pacific colonies capitulated with a minimum of fighting. Early in the war, Australian land and naval forces engaged German colonial forces in New Guinea and took control of the archipelago as well as other German island colonies in the Pacific. Naval warfare in both the Pacific and Indian Ocean was widespread.
Japanese Troops Landing at Tsingtao
The Siege of Tsingtao in 1914, probably the most significant engagement of the Asian theater, was the first military encounter between Japanese and German forces. It also saw the first joint Anglo-Japanese operation of the war.
The eastern Chinese city of Tsingtao, today known as Qingdao, was garrisoned by 4,000 troops. The German Navy’s East Asia Squadron, based there, represented a significant naval force although, at the time, most of its ships were dispersed throughout the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific.
On August 15, Japan issued an ultimatum demanding that Germany withdraw its warships from Chinese and Japanese waters and cede control of Tsingtao to Japan. Three days later, the ultimatum expired and Japan declared war. Bombardment of the port began on September 2. The Japanese General Mitsuomi Kamio, who had 23,000 men supported by 142 guns at his disposal, promptly besieged the German held city.
German Troops at the Battle of Tsingtao
The British, although formally allied with Japan, were suspicious of Japanese motives. They sent 1,500 troops, ostensibly to assist the Japanese, but in reality also to keep an eye on the engagement. Kamio favored night raids and avoided the kind of bloody frontal assault that was to become common thousands of miles away on the Western Front.
The German garrison was outnumbered by six to one, yet managed to hold out for over two months before surrendering on November 7. They handed over the port three days later. Germany had lost two ships in the fighting, 727 men killed and 1,335 wounded. When defeat seemed certain, the balance of the East Asian squadron, four small gunboats, had been scuttled.
German East Asian Fleet at Valparaiso following the Battle of Coronel
The balance of the East Asia Squadron along with a number of additional German ships clashed with the Royal Navy in the Battle of Coronel and the Battle of the Falkland Islands. The Battle of Coronel, fought off the coast of Chile, resulted from a search by Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock’s West Indies Squadron for a German commerce-raiding squadron operating under Admiral Maximilian von Spee in the Pacific Ocean.
Cradock’s forces were no match for Spee’s five-vessel force, which included the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and three light cruisers. Battle commenced unexpectedly early on November 1, 1914, and resulted in the outgunned Cradock losing his flagship Good Hope and the armored cruiser Monmouth with all hands and his own life. When news of the humiliating defeat reached Britain, the Admiralty assembled a powerful naval force under Admiral Sir Frederick Sturdee to exact revenge on Spee.
Track of Spee’s Squadron in the South Pacific
The result was the Battle of the Falkland Islands, which began on December 8, 1914. Spee had sailed for the islands with the aim of destroying the British radio station and coaling depot. He was unaware that the powerful British cruisers Invincible and Inflexible were already at Port Stanley, accompanied by six other cruisers. Spee, mistaking the British ships for Japanese ones, began his attack but soon realized his error and made for the open sea, pursued by the British. During the ensuing battle four German cruisers, including his flagship Scharnhorst, were sunk and 2,200 sailors were either killed or drowned.
That may seem like a strange title for a post coming from a guy who owns a creative agency that will produce well over 100 videos for clients in 2015. You’d think my job would be to convince people that they need a video to take their company (and mine) to the next level. I used to do that. I never do that anymore. When someone comes to me asking for a video I’m careful to let them know the three things they need before they are ready to ever think about making a video. Here’s what I say:
1. You need a story.
I was shocked when I first started my business that most people wanting a corporate video or commercial had no idea what story they actually wanted to tell. Video is simply one way to tell a story — it’s a medium. How can you know if you need a video if you don’t know what story you are trying to tell? It became evident quickly that for my company to really serve our clients’ best interests, the first thing we had to do was help them discover and tell their own story. In taking this approach, sometimes we actually lose short-term revenue. We talk clients out of spending money on videos or anything else until they can tell us their own story. Of course, sometimes it means that people who come to use thinking they need one video realize that they need a lot more.
2. You need a strategy.
Some of the best videos my company made for our clients in our first two years have only been seen by a few dozen people. The story was there. My team (almost always) kills it on the creative side. So the quality is great. But nobody is watching it because there is no strategy to get people to view it. Or people are watching it, but nobody is taking action. It became clear to us that to be a company that people want to work with we have to not only be storytellers but strategic consultants. Success for us can’t be a good video — it has to be people taking a desired action based on a good story. That’s what needs to be measured.
3. You need a partner.
Our favorite clients are often smaller companies (under $10M) at a place where they are ready to grow — or ready to change. I love my job because I love the people and businesses we serve. We become true creative partners who understand the mission, values and strategies of our clients. Three of our clients have given me honorary titles within their company so that they can express the level of involvement I have with them when introducing me to others. I love that! But we only got there by refusing to just make them a video. That’s how all those partnership started — with a request for one video. Now we make dozens of videos for them… but we also serve them in every other creative way — from high level consulting to graphic design to web development to even planning their monthly staff meetings. We’re partners — often friends. It’s way better than being the stranger who makes a corporate video for them once each year.
This may all sound rather high level and philosophical. I mean, it sounds nice, but does it really work? Well, my company is less than three years old. We’re pacing for 10x top line growth this year over last year and projecting the same for 2015. Our staff has grown over 100 percent in 18 months. And most evidently, almost all of our new clients are coming to us directly from our current clients. I can point to the day we made these adjustments as the day we started to grow.
So if you need a video, there are thousands of places you can go. Price them out and pick one. But if you need a story, a strategy and a creative partner… maybe we should talk. That’s where the magic is.
By Emmett Berg and Sebastien Malo
OAKLAND, Calif./NEW YORK, Dec 7 (Reuters) – U.S. West Coast cities were braced for trouble on Sunday, after a night of clashes in Berkeley, California, and Seattle, as fresh protests started against police violence over the death of a black man who was put in a chokehold by a police officer.
Protesters in New York and other cities have staged demonstrations every day since a grand jury’s decision on Wednesday not to bring criminal charges against the white police officer whose chokehold contributed to the man’s death in New York in July.
The looting and rock-throwing on the West Coast were a departure from the mostly peaceful demonstrations that have taken place elsewhere. New York itself was quieter over the weekend.
The killings of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen, in Ferguson, Missouri, have highlighted the strained relations between police and African-Americans and rekindled a national debate over race relations in the United States.
The decision by a grand jury to return no indictment in Brown’s killing ignited two nights of arson and rioting in the St. Louis suburbs.
Early Sunday evening, hundreds of protesters started marching down a main thoroughfare in Berkeley after massing on the campus of the University of California. Officer Jenn Coats of the Berkeley Police Department estimated the crowd at 500 to 600. She said they were marching peacefully.
On Saturday evening, what began as a peaceful march ended in an extended confrontation between demonstrators and police, resulting in six arrests, damage to local businesses and a minor injury to a police officer.
“There were definitely a group of people that were intent on violence,” Coats said.
About 200 people gathered in downtown Seattle on Sunday evening, a day after a demonstration drew more than 1,000 protesters, with some throwing rocks and attacking police in clashes that resulted in seven arrests.
On Sunday, New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the department’s internal investigation into Garner’s death could last four months.
He said he would review the results of the investigation to decide whether officers involved in Garner’s arrest had violated NYPD policies. The Justice Department is conducting its own investigation to determine if Garner’s civil rights were violated.
“I CAN’T BREATHE”
In Chicago, church-affiliated protesters marched through the city on Sunday carrying signs and chanting “I can’t breathe” and “Hands up, don’t shoot,” local TV news footage showed.
Protesters in Miami blocked a portion of Interstate 195 Sunday afternoon, clogging traffic to the Art Basel show in Miami Beach, CBS-TV Miami reported.
An activist posted a photograph of a crowd estimated at 200 people rallying in Oakland, near Berkeley.
The outcry over the recent killings surfaced in NFL stadiums as well. Detriot Lions running back Reggie Bush was among several players donning pre-game practice jerseys reading “I can’t breathe,” Garner’s dying words.
Outside Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia after the Eagles game against the Seattle Seahawks, a clergy group planned a “die-in,” lying down on the pavement in silent show of solidarity with Garner and Brown.
Garner’s widow, Esaw Snipes-Garner, said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that patrol officers in Staten Island knew her husband well and repeatedly harassed him.
But she played down the racial aspects of the case when asked how she felt about her husband becoming the “face” of bias in law enforcement.
“I feel that he was murdered unjustly,” she said. “I don’t even feel like it’s a black and white thing, honestly.”
The protests in New York on Sunday were modest and good spirited. About 30 protesters, among them professional opera singers, gathered at Penn Station to sing Christmas carols modified with lyrics lamenting recent cases of police violence against African-American males.
The event, which drew smiles from onlookers, was in contrast to the more charged protests on the West Coast.
Kumar Kunwar, the manager of a Food Mart store in Berkeley, said on Sunday he was worried about lawlessness when protesters gathered, even if activists strived to remain peaceful.
“There are the activists, but there are also people following behind, white people, black people, who are looking at opportunities for robbery,” Kunwar said. “I wish people would realize that when they schedule these marches.” (Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York, Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans, Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Victoria Cavaliere in Seattle; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by David Evans, Nick Zieminski and Alan Raybould)
The headline for our review of Hewlett Packard’s Slate 7 Android tablet says it all. When Melissa Grey described it as “Less of a hit, more of a miss,” she was summing up the device’s faults, which were numerous. Despite looking slim and trim, the de…
We’re sure many of you guys have heard by now that Sony Pictures has been hacked. The initial reports have suggested that the attack could have been sanctioned by North Korea, although these are allegations that North Korea has since denied. That being said a recent report from Bloomberg has revealed additional details about the attack.
According to their report, it seems that the leak of Sony Pictures’ details could have originated from Bangkok, Thailand. The attack has been traced to the St. Regis hotel, a five-star hotel, although it is believed that the attackers could have leached the hotel’s high-speed internet instead. This is according to Bloomberg’s source who remains anonymous.
Cybersecurity experts traced the digital footprints of these hackers back to the hotel, although they are not ruling out the possibility that the attack could have carried out remotely with the hackers taking advantage of the hotel’s open network. Starwood Hotels & Resorts who owns the St. Regis have yet to comment or issue an official statement with regards to these claims.
So far it looks like the hackers have attacked Sony Pictures based on a grudge and do not appear to be demanding money at the moment. In fact recently the hackers even sent threatening messages to Sony Pictures employees. It is still unclear as to who might be behind the attacks, although some have suspected it could be the work of DarkSeoul, a group with links to North Korea.
Sony Pictures Leak Traced To Hotel In Bangkok, Thailand
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