Netflix offers first-ever FREE movie that you dont need account to watch – The Sun

NETFLIX has made one of its movies free to watch even if you don't have an account.

The Netflix original 'To All The Boys I've Loved Before' is completely free, and could be a sign of things to come.

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You don't need a paid subscription or even an account to watch the movie.

To find it, subscribers can just follow this link.

But it's possible that Netflix may trial more of these stunts in the future.

Netflix made the announcement in a post on Twitter: "Love is in the air!

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"To celebrate, To All The Boys I've Loved Before is available for anyone without a Netflix account to watch through March 9!"

It's a clever move by Netflix.

The sequel to this movie To All The Boys: Ps I Still Love You is about to be released.

So by making the first movie free, hooked fans will be more tempted to subscribe to watch the next instalment.

But if you want to watch the first movie for free, you'll need to act quickly.

The offer expires on March 9, at which point you'll need a subscription to watch.

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If you haven't heard of it, To All The Boys I've Loved Before is a teen romance flick that came out in 2018.

It's a Netflix Original and stars Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Janel Parrish, Anna Cathcart, Madeleine Arthur, Emilija Baranac, Israel Broussard and John Corbett.

The plot follows high school girl Lara Jean, who pens secret love letters.

But her quiet existence is shaken up when her letters end up being mailed to each of her five crushes.

It was well-reviewed by critics on release, and has a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The good news is, we're likely to see more of these "free content" ploys by Netflix.

"Its business is all about creating the next biggest blockbuster," said top analyst Paolo Pescatore, of PP Foresight, speaking to The Sun.

"Within a short period of time, it has accumulated a strong base. There are still plentiful opportunities to grow and entice new viewers to sign up.

"The move makes sense given that it is one of its own original shows!

"You will see more moves in experimenting with making people aware of its programming lineup."

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In other news, Netflix is trialling a super-cheap plan that costs just 2.99.

Netflix bosses have confirmed that Sex Education has been renewed for a third season.

And Netflix finally lets you turn those annoying autoplaying trailers off here's how.

Do you think Netflix should offer more free movies? Let us know in the comments!

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Netflix offers first-ever FREE movie that you dont need account to watch - The Sun

Netflix FINALLY lets you turn those annoying autoplaying trailers off heres how – The Sun

NETFLIX is finally giving you the option to stop TV show or movie trailers from automatically playing.

It's one of the most controversial aspects of the Netflix app, with angry customers begging for it to be scrapped for years.

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Now Netflix has finally given in and has made the feature completely optional.

Many users find the feature frustrating, because sometimes you just want to browse the Netflix catalogue in peaceful silence.

"Some people find this feature helpful. Others not so much," Netflix said in a tweet.

"We've heard the feedback loud and clear members can now control whether or not they see autoplay previews on Netflix."

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Auto-playing videos can make you want to skip through the catalogue faster than you might otherwise just to avoid the auto-playing.

For instance, Star Wars and Knives Out director Rian Johnson previously slammed the feature in a tweet in 2018.

He wrote: "Current favourite console game: navigating Netflix without triggering autoplay promos."

And two months later, he replied to his original tweet with: "OK @Netflix it's good we can joke about this but it's been two months now, this has got to stop."

From Netflix's point of view, auto-playing trailers are a great way to grab your interest.

But the firm has obviously decided that fan backlash simply isn't worth the viewership gains.

To turn autoplay off, sign into Netflix from a web browser.

Select Manage Profiles from the menu, then choose the profile you'd like to update.

It's only possible to make this change on a web browser.

However, once applied on a web browser, it will affect all of your devices.

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Netflix says that there may be a delay before the setting kicks in.

You can force the update to take effect by switching to another profile, then switching back to yours.

This reloads the profile with the updated setting.

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In other news, Netflix has vowed to crack down on users who share logins with pals.

The BBC may give ever licence fee payer a free TV streaming stick "to combat Netflix".

And the BBC and ITV have teamed up for a new 5.99-a-month streaming service called BritBox.

What new features would you like to see on Netflix? Let us know in the comments!

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Netflix FINALLY lets you turn those annoying autoplaying trailers off heres how - The Sun

Netflix FORCED to remove nine movies after government objections including boozy Jesus party film – The Sun

NETFLIX has revealed which films it was told to remove from its library due to complaints from governments across the world.

Nine controversial movies and episodes came under fire and have since been axed in certain regions due to outcry.

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The countries which demanded Netflix remove certain content include Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

Netflix's admission was part of its first ever Environmental Social Governance report.

The company stated: "We will publish a report each year covering our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.

"It will look back at the previous year and give investors as well as other third parties information about our broader impact in society."

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Netflix has said it only takes down a film or TV show in this manner if a government specifically writes and requests them to.

It also aims to work with authorities to keep content online if possible.

Below are the nine films and episodes that Netflix was forced to ban, including three programmes about cannabis and some controversial films about Jesus Christ.

Netflix removed this film from its New Zealand service in 2015 after receiving a written demand from the New Zealand Film and Video Labeling Body.

The removal request was made because the film is classified as "objectionable" in the country.

This film was removed in Vietnam only after Netflix received a written demand from the Vietnamese Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) back in 2017.

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Also in 2017, the German Commission for Youth Protection (KJM) requested that Night of the Living Dead be removed from German Netflix.

A version of the film was already banned in the country.

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In 2018, Netflix removed the cannabis focused programmes Cooking on High, The Legend of 420 and Disjointed from its service in Singapore.

This was due to a written demand from the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

In Singapore, importing, exporting or trafficking over 500 grams of weed can result in the death penalty.

In 2019, one episode of the series Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj was removed from the Saudi Arabian Netflix service.

It was the episode called "Saudi Arabia" and it looked into human rights in the country and the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Saudi Communication and Information Technology Commission requested that it was removed.

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Despite being released two decades earlier, Netflix had to remove The Last Temptation of Christ from its Singapore service.

The film was already banned in the country so Netflix had to oblige with the written demand from the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

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This comedy about Jesus getting very drunk at the Last Supper was another film that the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) demanded the removal of.

Netflix complied with this request earlier this year.

We have reached out to the IMDA for comment.

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SPACED OUT Mysterious object 500million light years away sends signals that hit Earth

FRESH APPLE Cheapest iPhone in years at just 399 'coming next month', insiders claim

DREAM STREAM Netflix trialling 2.99 plan but it only works on smartphones or tablets

GHOST HUNTERS Scientists find evidence of mysterious 'ghost population' of ancient humans

NOT ANOTHER ONE! Mystery new virus named after 'mermaid who lured soldiers to their deaths'

HELL'S SHELLS 'Mega turtles' TWICE as big as humans dating back 5million years found

In other news, Netflix is finally giving you the option to stop TV show or movie trailers from automatically playing.

Netflix has vowed to crack down onusers who share logins with pals.

And, the BBC may give ever licence fee payer a free TV streaming stick "to combat Netflix".

Do you think Netflix was right to remove the nine controversial films? Let us know in the comments...

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

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Netflix FORCED to remove nine movies after government objections including boozy Jesus party film - The Sun

One of the Vail Valley’s fur-baby favorites, Dr. Julie Alt, is calling it a career – Vail Daily News

EAGLE One of your fur babys favorite humans is calling it a career.

Veterinarian Dr. Julie Alt is a fourth-degree black belt and breast cancer survivor who helped pioneer pet acupuncture and traveled twice to Africa with her college roommates to treat both people and their creatures.

Her retirement reception is Sunday afternoon in Eagles Brush Creek Pavilion.

Castle Peak Veterinary Service will continue with Dr. Denny Simonton, Dr. Steve Conlin and Dr. Jennifer Wells.

I am so fortunate to have had this wonderful friend, colleague, and business partner for the past 31 years, Simonton said. It has been a great run along the way and we have built something very special at Castle Peak Vet.

Julie Helm Alt was born in Yokohama, Japan, in 1958. Her mother and siblings moved to Oakland, California, in 1973. She graduated from Colorado College in Colorado Springs with a biology degree, and from the University of California Davis with a degree in veterinary medicine in 1985.

Between Colorado College and vet school at UC-Davis she worked in the Eagle-Vail Animal Hospital with Dr. Bill Nusz large animal practice. She was told that Eagle needed a vet. She finished up at UC-Davis, hung her shingle in Eagle and Nusz sent his small animal cases to her. She started on a shoestring in a log cabin on the corner of Broadway and Highway 6. It was the mid-1980s and many of Eagles businesses were boarded up following the oil crash.

Things picked up quickly, though.

The town and I grew up together, Alt said.

She soon needed some help, so she brought in Simonton. Theyve been together since 1989.

Her vet clinic had an X-ray machine before the doctors office did. The docs used to send their patients to their vet clinic for X-rays.

There were the calls in the middle of the night from people asking for help for their kids. Fishhooks in legs were remarkably common.

People took their dogs skiing and ran over them. The skis cut the dogs and Alt sewed them up.

Castle Peak Vets was home to Willy the Cat, the mayor of Chambers Avenue. Willy wandered around to other businesses to greet people as a successful politician would. Alt would get a call at 2 a.m. saying the cat was in the bar and asking what they should do with him.

Willy was even entered in Eagles Flight Days parade as the mayor of Chambers Avenue. A massive cat named Meatball soon joined the Castle Peak crew.

Alt married her husband, Myron, in Eagleand raised sons Brian, 23, and Wyatt, 21.

She earned a fourth-degree black beltin karate, studying with James Lee.

Julie Alt is an absolute warrior. She comes from a family of military officers in Japan. Her energy, motivation, heart and spirit are unmatched. As long as I have been in the martial arts, I have never met another person like her, Lee said.

Alt traveled twice to Kenya with her college roommates from UC-Davis for humanitarian tours through the African Network for Animal Welfare and Vet Treks, which arrange working tours for veterinarians.

Alt and her traveling partners stuffed as many medical supplies as they could into a few duffel bags to treat both people and their creatures spaying and neutering to help curb the overpopulation of animals, taking care of donkeys and the people who depend on them, and giving rabies vaccinations around 3,000 each trip.

As recently as 2014, Kenya had 6,033 rabies cases. The U.S. had one that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The World Health Organization estimates that 55,000 people die from rabies every year; 44% of those are in Africa.

Rabies is a scary, scary thing, Alt said. If we can make a difference in how people can handle rabies in their country, its a great thing. Even the little bit you do can add up. In those villages, it can make a difference.

As her retirement draws nearer, testimonials have poured in from current and former clients.

Like the times Alt sat on the floor with Chewie, Lora Silagys dog, until Chewie calmed down. No other vet has put as much care into my babies as she has, Silagy said.

Julia Denault Parkers cat Molly was near death at age 7. Alt took care of her and Molly lived to 19.

Julie is one of the most passionate, compassionate, fearless, caring people I have ever met. She cries when the owners cry. She hurts when her patients hurt, said Kelley Church Bontempo. She is a wonderful teacher to all of us who have gotten the privilege to work side by side with her and an amazing veterinarian and is a pillar of our community.

Shes not completely done. Alt will stay involved with animals because she loves it. Shell do some animal acupuncture and pretty much anything else she wants to do, and not much she doesnt.

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One of the Vail Valley's fur-baby favorites, Dr. Julie Alt, is calling it a career - Vail Daily News

The psychology and physiology of propaganda: A study of the radicalization of women – University of Virginia The Cavalier Daily

With the help of a $716,065 grant from the National Institute of Justice in 2016, professors from the University in collaboration with those at other colleges and the Federal Bureau of Investigation combined theory with science in their study of the radicalization of women by ISIL.

During a two-part project, Janet Warren, professor in the department of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences, aided by Gregory Saathoff, professor in the departments of public health science and emergency medicine and the FBIs conflict resolution specialist, developed a framework to describe this phenomenon based on accounts of western women who devoted their lives to committing acts of terrorism.

To test their model, Warren and Saathoff turned to founding director of the School of Data Science Donald Brown for help with gathering and analyzing relevant data. Mojtaba Heidarysafa, a doctoral candidate in the department of systems and information engineering, also joined the research project during the data collection phase, in which the team enrolled women ages 18 to 35 from the University and wider Charlottesville communities who volunteered for the study and were compensated for their involvement. Participants attended one of two sessions in which researchers recorded their emotional and physiological responses to propaganda.

As a result, a general pattern emerged regarding womens reactions to certain types of violent visual stimuli, confirming the possibility that a model could be created to show how women become radicalized. The researchers hope these findings could assist in preventing women from being recruited into terrorism.

Each woman completed a consent form reviewed by the University Institutional Review Board. Researchers provided women with the ability to discontinue their involvement in the study at any point and reimbursed them regardless of whether or not they completed the study. Furthermore, each participant had access to a tamer set of images, of which two women took advantage, as well as guidance after the study if she felt deeply affected.

Warren noted that similar studies often focus on men. But her consultant work with the FBIs counterterrorism efforts inspired her to consider the ramifications for women, Warren immediately considered the ramifications for women.

I thought it would be really interesting, as we were all together in these meetings talking about risk assessment and terrorism, for the first time to start a study on women, Warren said. Most research done on very violent crime is done on men I have often followed these huge areas of research and asked, How does this apply to women?

Saathoff collaborated with Warren to understand the overall trajectory of womens conversion to terrorism. He stressed the need to characterize the process not only as a means of pursuing criminals but also as a means to provide insights and strategies that could protect women from plots to recruit them.

In society we often learn through media anecdotes, and that is one way to become aware of these issues, but to truly understand the situation, its important to understand how this occurs in a large number of cases, Saathoff said.

First, Warren, Saathoff and their partners constructed a risk assessment model to outline the radicalization process. To successfully summarize and explain that transformation, the team hoped to find 300 women with sufficiently detailed court and investigation records but doubted the feasibility of that goal. When they uncovered almost five times as many women, researchers chose to analyze the 300 with the most robust court and investigative reports.

Over the next couple of years, Warren, Saathoff and their research team produced a risk assessment model that identifies not only aspects of a persons life that could increase the likelihood of her radicalization, but also preventative measures to proactively impede radicalization efforts. The hope was to generate a cohesive framework for analysis of potentially dangerous individuals for use in government agencies.

We were trying to do something that integrated what people in different countries were talking about, what we thought was interesting, what was in our academic research and make something that was more translational and international in terms of its broadness, Warren said.

The model incorporates the theory that risk and protective factors can be viewed as two ends of a spectrum. The factors in and of themselves are not diametrically opposed aspects of a persons life. Rather, their intensity and outlets determine someones likelihood to adhere to extremist beliefs.

Warrens three-stage framework pinpointed these elements. Beginning with the propensity for radicalization, individuals can transition to mobilization and eventually action and capacity for terrorist exploits. Key factors that dictate progression from state to state include morality, self-regulation, setting, physical activity and perception of alternatives.

Many women we have found who embrace this new identity are doing that because of unhappiness with their current situation, Saathoff said. Travel to another country is sometimes an escape, and its facilitated by those who would specifically tailor the message to the individual person Its remarkable how compelling and powerful that seduction can be.

Second, the team looked to Donald Brown, founding director of the School of Data Science, for help with gathering concrete evidence to support their theory, specifically as it relates to propaganda. Warren cited propaganda as a powerful recruitment tool that can persuade people to completely change their outlook. Though many studies dissecting the conscious reactions to materials disseminated by extremist organizations exist, Warren emphasized the lack of research on physiological indicators of emotional responses.

We actually know what people are thinking consciously, but weve got to try and grab some data about how theyre reacting unconsciously and see whats more powerful, or were never going to get a handle on [propaganda], Warren said.

According to Mojtaba Heidarysafa, doctoral candidate in the department of systems and information engineering who joined the research team for data collection, the initial phase of the data collection portion of the project consisted of 45 women probing the internet for content they believed could contribute to radicalization campaigns.

With the permission of the University Information Security Department and the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology, researchers enabled women to investigate the dark web, a conglomeration of networks with restricted access that facilitate anonymous, illicit interactions. The U.S. National Security Agency reports that terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda utilize the dark web to maintain communication across their global network, as well as recruit new individuals to their cause.

We were also able to [connect] women and allow them to go into the dark web if that was something they were interested in doing, Warren said. The University was fantastic in giving us the freedom we needed to pursue this.

An additional 45 women who identified themselves as Muslim, non-Muslim conservative and non-Muslim liberal attended four sessions in which they viewed a series of images depicting extremist activities. During these sessions, researchers monitored eye gaze, pupil dilation, heart rate and galvanic skin response which tracks sweat gland activity to determine the arousal level and emotional state of participants.

While the first session contained neutral pictures of everyday objects to create a baseline for participant responses, subsequent sessions depicted white nationalist campaign posters and violent acts by jihadist, alt-right and alt-left groups.

We showed them all of these pictures, Heidarysafa said. When looking at hangings or beheadings, all of them had a non-neutral arousal response What we found was that no matter the background, there was a reaction.

In fact, Warren, Heidarysafa and Brown contributed to a pending publication that suggests pupil dilation and the aspects of images that attracted womens gaze were largely consistent across participants, regardless of their religious or political affiliations. In other words, the pictures play a larger role in individuals emotional response than certain major components of their identity. The authors of the study claim the commonalities point to patterns applicable to multiple cases of radicalization.

As this preliminary research project draws to a close, with a portion of the final papers and the results published in 2018 and 2019 and more to come in 2020, Warren said she and her colleagues already applied for an additional grant to expand their efforts and replicate the study with men. In doing so, Warren aims to take full advantage of the resources at the University to create materials useful for the FBIs observations of and interventions for at-risk individuals.

Usually academic researchers dont work with the FBI, and the FBI doesnt necessarily want to work with academic researchers, Warren said. The most important thing is the relationships exist so that we could do this research.

Originally posted here:

The psychology and physiology of propaganda: A study of the radicalization of women - University of Virginia The Cavalier Daily

Everything Paradox Interactive Announced At PDXCON 2019 – Kotaku Australia

Earlier at PDXCON 2019, Paradox Interactive revealed a ton of new expansions for many of their popular games. They also announced a new sequel to Crusader Kings II and a delay for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2.

This was most likely the biggest announcement from the event. We have more info about the sequel here. Crusader Kings III is coming next year to Steam and Xbox Game Pass.

This new expansion wasnt given an official name or release date, but it looks to be Alcatraz themed. Our best guess: You will get to build and operate island prisons. Paradox also announced that the console exclusive Pysch Ward DLC will be coming to PC on November 21, 2019.

Paradox is releasing a new species pack for Stellaris soon, on October 24. This new species is rock-based and will feature new gameplay and in-game portraits. And later this year, a bigger expansion will be released. Federations will add more diplomacy features and a galactic senate as well as new ways to team up with other alliances and governments.

Originally set to launch in early 2020, the game will now launch later than expected. It is still coming out in 2020, but no window was given. The developers released a blog post detailing their reasons for delaying the game, stating ... theres the responsibility to avoid some of the issues that plagued the first game, which was famously launched too early.

The successor to the popular Surviving Mars, Surviving The Aftermath is a management sim that is all about living in a post-apocalyptic world. The game is available today in Early Access on the Epic Game Store and on Xbox One via the Game Preview program.

Wow, they really had a lot of expansions to announce, didnt they? Add this one to the long list of new expansions. This is the first expansion for Age Of Wonders: Planetfall and it add a new faction, over 30 new locations, new campaign missions and more. This big expansion will be out on November 19.

Heavy Metal is a new expansion for Battletech that will add eight new mechs featuring several classic designs, a Flashpoint mini-campaign, and eight weapon systems. If you have the Season Pass, Heavy Metal is included in that. The new expansion comes out on November 21.

Continue reading here:

Everything Paradox Interactive Announced At PDXCON 2019 - Kotaku Australia

Netflix vows crackdown on users who share logins with pals or family and could make you pay EXTRA – The Sun

NETFLIX has promised to crack down on users who share their passwords with friends or family members.

It means that if you borrow someone's login, you may have to start paying for your own account in full instead.

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Netflix already offers some account-sharing features, designed to let people in a single household use one login.

Profiles let users switch between their own browsing history.

But Netflix worries that some users are sharing their logins among different households, with distant pals or even stranges.

Speaking at Netflix's Q3 2019 earnings last week, Netflix product chief Greg Peters said the firm wants to address password-sharing without "alienating a certain portion of [the] user base".

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"We continue to monitor it so we're looking at the situation," he said.

"We'll see those consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that."

Netflix hasn't detailed exactly what that means for users.

But experts told The Sun that we're already seeing some early signs of a crackdown.

"They are policing this [already] by blocking the third concurrent screen if two screens are in use at the same time," said Michael Pachter, a top analyst at Wedbush Securities, speaking to The Sun.

"That doesn't help if the users are in different time zones, as many households with kids in college are.

"However, it definitely cracks down on widespread password sharing."

He added: "They also have a way to track device usage and can require two-factor authentication, although they've haven't rolled that out yet."

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The news follows a major announcement by tech firm Synamedia about a new AI system that cracks down on account sharing.

It uses machine learning technology to track shared passwords on streaming services.

And this technology could then be used to force users to upgrade to a premium service, or even shut down their account.

"Casual credentials sharing is becoming too expensive to ignore," said product chief Jean Marc Racine, speaking at the CES event in Las Vegas this year.

"Our new solution gives operators the ability to take action.

"Many casual users will be happy to pay an additional fee for a premium, shared service.

"It's a great way to keep honest people honest, while benefiting from an incremental revenue stream."

In other news, the BBC may give ever licence fee payer a free TV streaming stick "to combat Netflix".

The BBC and ITV have teamed up fora new 5.99-a-month streaming service called BritBox.

Apple is preparing to launchits own streaming service called Apple TV+ on November 1.

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And Netflix recentlyhiked prices for some users by up to 2 a month.

Do you think Netflix is right to crack down on account sharing? Let us know in the comments!

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Netflix vows crackdown on users who share logins with pals or family and could make you pay EXTRA - The Sun

Dont like the facts? Just Schiff the narrative – Boston Herald

First we were told the phone call was, as The Washington Post breathlessly wrote, so troubling that it prompted an official in the US intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint.

Then we actually got the transcript, and it was nothing, so we were informed by CNN that we had to read between the lines.

In other words, as the crooked FBI agent said of the Russian collusion hoax, there is no there there. So it was time for the Democrats to just plain make it up.

Thus, on Thursday morning, live on most TV channels, Rep. Adam Schiff, the Framingham-born hack Congressman from California, read into the record an utterly fabricated statement from President Trump to the president of Ukraine:

I dont see much reciprocity here. I hear what you want. I have a favor I want from you though. And Im going to say this only seven times so you better listen good. I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand, lots of it

And so on. Like everybody else in America, Schiff had the transcript of the real conversation in front of him, but it wasnt good enough. So he just made it up.

This was after Schiff said over and over again Wednesday that the innocuous phone call reminded him of a Mob extortion, after which Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Stolen Valor-CT, said the conversation was like a gangster shakedown, after which Hillary Clintons favorite reporter, Andrea Mitchell, said she was thinking Godfather.

Is there an echo in here?

As long as Schiff was at it, why didnt he make up Trump saying, Capisce? instead of understand? You know, Italian, like a real Godfather would say.

Remember, this is the same Schiff who appeared on alt-left cable TV hundreds of times over the past two years, claiming he had seen evidence of Trump-Russian collusion. Were still waiting him to produce it.

And now this making it up. Who does he think he is, a columnist for The Boston Globe?

Or maybe hes trying out for a gig on MSNBC. He can work with other such fake-news legends as Brian Williams, Lawrence ODonnell and Mike Barnicle (who used to make stuff up for the Globe before he turned over the coveted fiction slot on the metro page to Kevin Cullen).

Washington, D.C., is turning into the old movie Groundhog Day. The Democrats keep recycling the same old BS, day after day. Last week it was the fake news about Brett Kavanaugh, compliments of the failing New York Times.

And now this, the whistleblower who according to the inspector general of the so-called intelligence community exhibited some indica of an arguable political bias in favor of a rival political candidate.

No, youre kidding. It was a CIA guy, apparently, a Deep State swamp creature who can sharpen pencils and shuffle papers with the best of them, Ill bet, in the tradition of Brennan, Clapper and Comey. Maybe even worked for the Communist-voting Brennan, we now learn. One things for sure: James Bond he aint.

Brennan Jr.s whole complaint reads a lot like an even thinner-gruel version of Hillary Clintons dodgy dossier hearsay, second-hand gossip, innuendo, insinuations, etc. But then again, The New York Times bogus smear of Kavanaugh last week read like watered-down Christine Blasey Ford outtakes.

Thats what I mean about Groundhog Day. A decade ago, Nancy Pelosi said of the disaster known as Obamacare: We have to pass the bill before we can find out whats in it.

This week, before even reading the transcript, she opined that the president had breached his constitutional duties betrayed his oath of office.

I guess now the House has to impeach the President before they can find out if he actually committed a high crime or misdemeanor.

Basically, what the fake news media are telling us is, Trump meant something he actually didnt say. And at the same time, despite the videotape of Biden bragging about his threats to Ukraine, they want us to believe that the vice president didnt really mean what he actually did say.

You know who the real whistleblower is here? Donald J. Trump. Whatever happened to If You See Something, Say Something.

The new version of that, per Adam Schiff, is If You Dont See Something, Just Make It Up.

Capisce?

(Check out Howies latest Dirty Rats podcasts at howiecarrshow.com.)

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Dont like the facts? Just Schiff the narrative - Boston Herald

UI Events KeyboardEvent code Values – World Wide Web …

1. Introduction

This document provides an overview of the various keyboard layouts andspecifies the KeyboardEvent.code values that should beused for each of the keys. Unlike the key values describedin [UIEvents-key], the code values are based only on thekeys physical location on the keyboard and do not vary based on the userscurrent locale.

This specification was formerly titled DOM Level 3 KeyboardEvent code Values.

This specification uses the following conventions:

This section is non-normative.

Alphanumeric keyboards are the most common way for users to generatekeyboard events. This section provides an overview of standard keyboards andtheir physical layouts.

This section describes the physical layouts found on commonly availablekeyboards.

When discussing keyboard layouts, it is convenient to divide thestandard keyboard into distinct sections and to label each row.

These keyboard sections are:

The alphanumeric section is the main part of thekeyboard and is where most of the keyboard variation occurs.When a user selects a keyboard layout, it is the keys in thissections that are most affected.

The control pad and arrow pad sections contain the arrow keys and other editing keys.

The numpad (also known as the "numeric keypad"or "number pad") contains number and math keys to make it easierto enter numeric data.

And finally, the function section containsmiscellaneous function keys and special keys like Escape.

To make it easier to identify keys, the rows on the keyboard arenamed starting with "A" for the bottom row up to "E" for the toprow. The row of keys in the function section are considered to be inrow "K". These row names are consistent with those given in [ISO9995-1].

Note that many keyboards (both modern and legacy) have extra keysthat do not fit neatly into the above sections. Some of these keysare covered in 3.1.6 Media Keys.

The standard "101" keyboard (commonly referred to as the "USlayout") is the only layout that has a "Backslash" key (labeled |) above a single-row Enter key. All the otherlayouts omit this key and expand the Enter key tooccupy two-rows.

Modern standard "101"-layout keyboards actually contain 104 keys: 61keys in the alphanumeric section and 43 keys in the numpad, control pad, arrow pad and function sections.The "101" name for this keyboard layout dates to thetime when this standard keyboard did in fact contain 101 keys. Thetwo Meta keys (commonly given an OS-specific label), and the Menu key were added later to bring the total to 104 keys.

The alternate "101" keyboard has a large Enter key andshrinks the Backspace key to make room for the "IntlYen" key (which replaces the "Backslash" key found in the standard101 layout). The "IntlYen" name comes from the Japanese layoutwhere this is the (yen) key in the Russianlayout shown below this key maps to a /.

Modern alternate "101"-layout keyboards contain 104 keys: 61 keys inthe alphanumeric section and 43 keys in the numpad, control pad, arrow pad and function sections.

The standard "102" keyboard is common throughout Europe and adds akey that doesnt exist on the "101" layouts: The "IntlBackslash" key (labelled | on a UK keyboard) next to the left shiftkey.

A second key is also added (labelled #~ on a UKkeyboard) which is partially tucked under the Enter key.This key is encoded as "Backslash", using the same code as the | key found on the "101" keyboard layout.According to [USB-HID], the US | and UK #~ areactually two separate keys (named "Keyboard and |" and "KeyboardNon-US # and ~"), but since these two keys never co-occur on thesame keyboard most platforms use the same scancode for both keys,making them difficult to distinguish. It is for this reason that thecode "Backslash" is used for both of these keys.

Modern "102"-layout keyboards contain 105 keys: 62 keys in the alphanumeric section and 43 keys in the numpad, control pad, arrow pad and function sections.

The Korean "103" keyboard is based on the alternate 101 layout andadds two additional keys (one on each side of the spacebar) tohandle Korean-specific input modes. These keys are "Lang2" ("Hanja", labelled hanja)and "Lang1" ("HangulMode", labelled / han/yeong).

Modern "103"-layout keyboards contain 106 keys: 63 keys in the alphanumeric section and 43 keys in the numpad, control pad, arrow pad and function sections.

The "104" layout used in Brazil adds 4 new keys: two keysfrom the "102" layout ("Backslash" and "IntlBackslash") plusthe "IntlRo" key (next to the right shift key) and an extra keyon the numpad. This new numpad key is called "NumpadComma" because it represents the thousands separator. Onthe Brazilian key layout, this key is labelled . and the "NumpadDecimal" key is labelled ,.

Modern "104"-layout keyboards contain 107 keys: 63 keys in the alphanumeric section and 44 keys in the numpad, control pad, arrow pad and function sections.Some Brazilian keyboards lack the extra numpad key and haveonly 106 keys.

The Japanese "106" keyboard layout adds 3 new keys: "IntlYen" (labelled _), "Backslash" (labelled ])and "IntlRo" (labelled ).It also shrinks the spacebar to make room for 3 input mode keys: "NonConvert" (labelled muhenkan), "Convert" (labelled henkan)and "KanaMode" (labelled // katakana/hiragana/romaji).

Modern "106"-layout keyboards contain 109 keys: 66 keys in the alphanumeric section and 43 keys in the numpad, control pad, arrow pad and function sections.

In general, Apple keyboards follow the same layout as PC keyboards,but there are some differences as noted in the following figure.

In this figure, the green keys are those that have been moved to anew location while the blue keys indicate keys that have been added.

The limited space available on laptop keyboards often means that thephysical key layout needs to be adjusted to fit all the requiredkeys. The writing system keys in the alphanumericsection tend to remain intact, but the other keyboard sectionsare usually combined with other keys or removed altogether.

In this Apple laptop keyboard, the right control key has beenremoved to make room for half-height arrow keys and a Fn keyis added on the left.

PC laptop keyboards vary considerably, but this sample keyboarddemonstrates some commonly found aspects. The control pad keys are added along the right-hand side with the arrow pad keys tucked in along the bottom. The right Shift key isoften shrunk to make room for the up arrow key and the right Meta key is typically removed altogether.

In the case where a content author wishes to rely on the mechanicallayout of a mobile keypad, this specification suggests the keyboardconfiguration specified in [ISO9995-8], which defines a numeric keypadlayout and secondary assignment of Unicode characters in the range U+0061 ... U+007A ("a" - "z") to the number keys 2 through 9, as a common layout appropriate to someinternational uses.

This keypad layout, and in particular the distribution of letters is forEnglish devices, and will not match the keypads or configurations ofmany users. Content authors cannot rely upon any particularconfiguration, and are expected to create content in aninternationalized and localizable manner.

Many keyboards contain special keys to control media functions.Increasingly, many media devices, especially televisions, areWeb-enabled. Hybrid keyboard/remote-control devices are becoming morecommon. To meet the needs of these hybrid Web/media devices, thisspecification defines keys that are common as remote control buttons, inaddition to traditional keyboard keys.

Because of the smaller form factor, keys (or buttons) on a remotecontrol will often be modal, with one key performing different functionsbased on the context of the on-screen content. Additionally, many keysserve as toggles, to change back and forth between two or more states(see toggling keys). These remote control buttons typically do not havemodifier states so each button is assigned a single function (like Play, Pause, Up, Menu or Exit).

Virtual keyboards are software-based sets of keys, in a variety ofdifferent arrangements, commonly found on touch-screen devices. They areoften modal, with the ability to switch between different dynamic setsof keys, such as alphabetic, numeric, or symbolic keys. Because of thelack of physical constraints, these keyboards MAY present the widestrange of characters, including emoticons and other symbols. Wherever possible,however, virtual keyboards SHOULD produce the normal range of keyboard eventsand values, for ease of authoring and compatibility with existing content.

Chording keyboards, also known as chorded keysets or chord keyboards, arekey input devices which produce values by pressing several keys incombination or sequence, normally to simulate a full range of charactersor commands on a reduced set of keys, often for single-handed use.Achording keyboard MAY have additional mode keys to switch between keyvalues, and the number and type of keys pressed to produce a key valuewill vary, but the final key values produced by such keyboards SHOULDmatch the range of key values described in this specification.

For these and other alternative modal keyboards, the key values "Alphanumeric", "CapsLock", "NumLock",and "SymbolLock" are RECOMMENDED for the keys which switch between different modes.

A key code attribute value is any of the values given in the=KeyboardEvent.code= column of any of the tables in this section of thespecification.

A conforming implementation of the KeyboardEvent interface MUST supportthis set of values for use in the code attributes,although not all values MAY be available on all platforms or devices.

This section defines a list of code values whichimplementations MUST support.

Future versions of this specification MAY include code values not includedhere, which have become common since the publication of this specification.

Note: While every attempt has been made to make this list of values as complete as possible,new values will periodically need to be defined as new input devices are introduced.Rather than allowing user agents to define their own key code attribute values (which are unlikely to be consistent across multiple user agents), bugs SHOULD befiled so that this specification can be updated.

This section describes the various keyboard sections in more detail anddefines the code values that should be used for eachkey.

The alphanumeric section is the main section of the keyboard. Itcontains keys that fall into two generalcategories: writing system keys whose meaningchanges based on the current keyboard layout, and functional keys which are (mostly) the same for alllayouts.

The writing system keys are those that changemeaning (i.e., they produce different key values) based on the current locale and keyboard layout.

This figure shows a hypothetical keyboard that combines all the writing system keys (shown in blue and green) found on thevarious keyboards. Blue keys are present on all standardkeyboards while green keys are only available on some keyboards.

The name shown on each key is the code assigned to that key. Wherever possible, the code names are based on the name for the USkey in that position (i.e., they are based on the US keyboardlayout). For keys that dont exist on the US keyboard, namesfrom the UK or Japanese layouts are used instead.

Note that there are two "Backslash" keys in this figure: alarge one at the end of Row D on the 101-key layout, and asmaller one between "Quote" and "Enter" on Row C of the102-, 104- and 106-key layouts. Only one "Backslash" keymay be present on a keyboard layout.

The functional keys (not to be confused with the function keys described later) are those keys in the alphanumeric section that provide general editingfunctions that are common to all locales (like Shift, Tab, Enter and Backspace). With a fewexceptions, these keys do not change meaning based on thecurrent keyboard layout.

The "AltRight" key (highlighted in green) is the only functional key that does not generate the same key value for every locale. In some locales itproduces "Alt" while in others it produces "AltGraph".

On some keyboards (notably Japanese and Korean) the spacebar isreduced in size to make room for extra keys on the bottom row (Row A).These keys typically allow the users to change the current inputmode. Note that even though some of these Japanese and Koreankeys occupy the same physical location on the keyboard, they usedifferent code values.

On Apple keyboards, some keys on the bottom row are omitted andothers are arranged in a different order.

The control pad section of the keyboard is the set of (usually 6) keysthat perform navigating and editing operations, for example, Home, PageUp and Insert.

The code for the Fn key (found on someApple keyboards) is defined below in the function section.

The arrow pad contains the 4 arrow keys. The keys are commonlyarranged in an "upside-down T" configuration.

The numpad section is the set of keys on the keyboard arranged ina grid like a calculator or mobile phone. This section contains numeric andmathematical operator keys. Often this section will contain a NumLock key which causes the keys to switch between the standard numeric functionsand mimicking the keys of the control pad and arrow pad.Laptop computers and compact keyboards will commonly omit thesekeys to save space.

A keypad is an alternate term for numpad.

The code values in this section should also beused for phone keypads and remote control devices thatarrange number keys in a grid.

The standard numpad is sometimes extended with additional keys forparentheses, operators, hexadecimal symbols, or calculator functions(like Backspace). Some of the commonly added keys are listedin the table below.

For numpads that provide keys not listed here, a code value string should be created by startingwith "Numpad" and appending an appropriate description of the key.

The function section runs along the top of the keyboard (abovethe alphanumeric section) andcontains the function keys and a few additional special keys(for example, Esc and Print Screen).

A function key is any of the keys labelled F1 ... F12 that an application or operating system can associate with a custom functionor action.

On some keyboards (especially those found on laptops or otherportable computers), the function keys (F1 ... F12) are defined to have other primary functions (likecontrolling display brightness or audio volume) and require that aseparate Fn key be pressed to make them act as functionkeys. Unfortunately, the primary functions assigned to these keysvaries widely from one manufacturer to the next. Because of this,the code is always set to the function key name.

For keyboards that provide more than 12 function keys, the code value follows the pattern shown above with"F" followed by the function key number - "F13", "F14", "F15", and so on.

Apple keyboards may have Eject or Power keys in the function section. The code values for thesekeys are defined in 3.1.6 Media Keys.

Media keys are extra keys added to a keyboard that provide media related functionality like play, pause or volume control. These keys do nothave a standard location on the keyboard so keyboards from differentmanufacturers are likely to have a different arrangement of keys or acompletely different sets of keys.

Media keys are often distinct fromnormal typing keys in appearance and may be recessed in thekeyboard.

On laptop keyboards, these keys are often merged with the function keys, with the media key interpretation beingthe primary function of the key and the function key interpretation requiring the Fn key to be pressed at thesame time. In this configuration the code shouldbe set to match the function key ("F1" ... "F12").When the keys are merged in this fashion, the code values are taken from the function key value because the media key value is not consistent across keyboards.

These keys are not found on modern standard keyboards. They arelisted here for reference purposes.

The following keys may be found on non-standard international keyboards.

And finally, the following code value should onlybe used when the corresponding key does not correspond to any of the code values given elsewhere in this specification.This value is appropriate for use with virtual keyboards that do nothave their keys arranged in a way that corresponds to those on aphysical keyboard.

Conforming implementations MUST only use "Unidentified" as a key codewhen there is no way for the implementation to determine the key code.Exposing only this value MUST NOT indicate a conforming implementation.

Considerable thanks are due to the following participants of the WebAppsWorking Group for providing substantial material contributions in theprocess of developing this specification.

Gary Kacmarcik (Google),Masayuki Nakano (Mozilla)

See the original post here:

UI Events KeyboardEvent code Values - World Wide Web ...

Automate the Boring Stuff with Python

Knowing various Python modules for editing spreadsheets, downloading files, and launching programs is useful, but sometimes there just arent any modules for the applications you need to work with. The ultimate tools for automating tasks on your computer are programs you write that directly control the keyboard and mouse. These programs can control other applications by sending them virtual keystrokes and mouse clicks, justpython3- as if you were sitting at your computer and interacting with the applications yourself. This technique is known as graphical user interface automation, or GUI automation for short. With GUI automation, your programs can do anything that a human user sitting at the computer can do, except spill coffee on the keyboard.

Think of GUI automation as programming a robotic arm. You can program the robotic arm to type at your keyboard and move your mouse for you. This technique is particularly useful for tasks that involve a lot of mindless clicking or filling out of forms.

The pyautogui module has functions for simulating mouse movements, button clicks, and scrolling the mouse wheel. This chapter covers only a subset of PyAutoGUIs features; you can find the full documentation at http://pyautogui.readthedocs.org/.

The pyautogui module can send virtual keypresses and mouse clicks to Windows, OS X, and Linux. Depending on which operating system youre using, you may have to install some other modules (called dependencies) before you can install PyAutoGUI.

On Windows, there are no other modules to install.

On OS X, run sudo pip3 install pyobjc-framework-Quartz, sudo pip3 install pyobjc-core, and then sudo pip3 install pyobjc.

On Linux, run sudo pip3 install python3-xlib, sudo apt-get install scrot, sudo apt-get install python3-tk, and sudo apt-get install python3-dev. (Scrot is a screenshot program that PyAutoGUI uses.)

After these dependencies are installed, run pip install pyautogui (or pip3 on OS X and Linux) to install PyAutoGUI.

Appendix A has complete information on installing third-party modules. To test whether PyAutoGUI has been installed correctly, run import pyautogui from the interactive shell and check for any error messages.

Before you jump in to a GUI automation, you should know how to escape problems that may arise. Python can move your mouse and type keystrokes at an incredible speed. In fact, it might be too fast for other programs to keep up with. Also, if something goes wrong but your program keeps moving the mouse around, it will be hard to tell what exactly the program is doing or how to recover from the problem. Like the enchanted brooms from Disneys The Sorcerers Apprentice, which kept fillingand then overfillingMickeys tub with water, your program could get out of control even though its following your instructions perfectly. Stopping the program can be difficult if the mouse is moving around on its own, preventing you from clicking the IDLE window to close it. Fortunately, there are several ways to prevent or recover from GUI automation problems.

Perhaps the simplest way to stop an out-of-control GUI automation program is to log out, which will shut down all running programs. On Windows and Linux, the logout hotkey is CTRL-ALT-DEL. On OS X, it is -SHIFT-OPTION-Q. By logging out, youll lose any unsaved work, but at least you wont have to wait for a full reboot of the computer.

You can tell your script to wait after every function call, giving you a short window to take control of the mouse and keyboard if something goes wrong. To do this, set the pyautogui.PAUSE variable to the number of seconds you want it to pause. For example, after setting pyautogui.PAUSE = 1.5, every PyAutoGUI function call will wait one and a half seconds after performing its action. Non-PyAutoGUI instructions will not have this pause.

PyAutoGUI also has a fail-safe feature. Moving the mouse cursor to the upper-left corner of the screen will cause PyAutoGUI to raise the pyautogui.FailSafeException exception. Your program can either handle this exception with try and except statements or let the exception crash your program. Either way, the fail-safe feature will stop the program if you quickly move the mouse as far up and left as you can. You can disable this feature by setting pyautogui.FAILSAFE = False. Enter the following into the interactive shell:

Here we import pyautogui and set pyautogui.PAUSE to 1 for a one-second pause after each function call. We set pyautogui.FAILSAFE to True to enable the fail-safe feature.

In this section, youll learn how to move the mouse and track its position on the screen using PyAutoGUI, but first you need to understand how PyAutoGUI works with coordinates.

The mouse functions of PyAutoGUI use x- and y-coordinates. Figure18-1 shows the coordinate system for the computer screen; its similar to the coordinate system used for images, discussed in Chapter17. The origin, where x and y are both zero, is at the upper-left corner of the screen. The x-coordinates increase going to the right, and the y-coordinates increase going down. All coordinates are positive integers; there are no negative coordinates.

Figure18-1.The coordinates of a computer screen with 19201080 resolution

Your resolution is how many pixels wide and tall your screen is. If your screens resolution is set to 19201080, then the coordinate for the upper-left corner will be (0, 0), and the coordinate for the bottom-right corner will be (1919, 1079).

The pyautogui.size() function returns a two-integer tuple of the screens width and height in pixels. Enter the following into the interactive shell:

pyautogui.size() returns (1920, 1080) on a computer with a 19201080 resolution; depending on your screens resolution, your return value may be different. You can store the width and height from pyautogui.size() in variables like width and height for better readability in your programs.

Now that you understand screen coordinates, lets move the mouse. The pyautogui.moveTo() function will instantly move the mouse cursor to a specified position on the screen. Integer values for the x- and y-coordinates make up the functions first and second arguments, respectively. An optional duration integer or float keyword argument specifies the number of seconds it should take to move the mouse to the destination. If you leave it out, the default is 0 for instantaneous movement. (All of the duration keyword arguments in PyAutoGUI functions are optional.) Enter the following into the interactive shell:

This example moves the mouse cursor clockwise in a square pattern among the four coordinates provided a total of ten times. Each movement takes a quarter of a second, as specified by the duration=0.25 keyword argument. If you hadnt passed a third argument to any of the pyautogui.moveTo() calls, the mouse cursor would have instantly teleported from point to point.

The pyautogui.moveRel() function moves the mouse cursor relative to its current position. The following example moves the mouse in the same square pattern, except it begins the square from wherever the mouse happens to be on the screen when the code starts running:

pyautogui.moveRel() also takes three arguments: how many pixels to move horizontally to the right, how many pixels to move vertically downward, and (optionally) how long it should take to complete the movement. A negative integer for the first or second argument will cause the mouse to move left or upward, respectively.

You can determine the mouses current position by calling the pyautogui.position() function, which will return a tuple of the mouse cursors x and y positions at the time of the function call. Enter the following into the interactive shell, moving the mouse around after each call:

Of course, your return values will vary depending on where your mouse cursor is.

Being able to determine the mouse position is an important part of setting up your GUI automation scripts. But its almost impossible to figure out the exact coordinates of a pixel just by looking at the screen. It would be handy to have a program that constantly displays the x- and y-coordinates of the mouse cursor as you move it around.

At a high level, heres what your program should do:

This means your code will need to do the following:

Call the position() function to fetch the current coordinates.

Erase the previously printed coordinates by printing b backspace characters to the screen.

Handle the KeyboardInterrupt exception so the user can press CTRL-C to quit.

Open a new file editor window and save it as mouseNow.py.

Start your program with the following:

The beginning of the program imports the pyautogui module and prints a reminder to the user that they have to press CTRL-C to quit.

You can use an infinite while loop to constantly print the current mouse coordinates from mouse.position(). As for the code that quits the program, youll need to catch the KeyboardInterrupt exception, which is raised whenever the user presses CTRL-C. If you dont handle this exception, it will display an ugly traceback and error message to the user. Add the following to your program:

To handle the exception, enclose the infinite while loop in a try statement. When the user presses CTRL-C, the program execution will move to the except clause and Done. will be printed in a new line .

The code inside the while loop should get the current mouse coordinates, format them to look nice, and print them. Add the following code to the inside of the while loop:

Using the multiple assignment trick, the x and y variables are given the values of the two integers returned in the tuple from pyautogui.position(). By passing x and y to the str() function, you can get string forms of the integer coordinates. The rjust() string method will right-justify them so that they take up the same amount of space, whether the coordinate has one, two, three, or four digits. Concatenating the right-justified string coordinates with 'X: ' and ' Y: ' labels gives us a neatly formatted string, which will be stored in positionStr.

At the end of your program, add the following code:

This actually prints positionStr to the screen. The end='' keyword argument to print() prevents the default newline character from being added to the end of the printed line. Its possible to erase text youve already printed to the screenbut only for the most recent line of text. Once you print a newline character, you cant erase anything printed before it.

To erase text, print the b backspace escape character. This special character erases a character at the end of the current line on the screen. The line at uses string replication to produce a string with as many b characters as the length of the string stored in positionStr, which has the effect of erasing the positionStr string that was last printed.

For a technical reason beyond the scope of this book, always pass flush=True to print() calls that print b backspace characters. Otherwise, the screen might not update the text as desired.

Since the while loop repeats so quickly, the user wont actually notice that youre deleting and reprinting the whole number on the screen. For example, if the x-coordinate is 563 and the mouse moves one pixel to the right, it will look like only the 3 in 563 is changed to a 4.

When you run the program, there will be only two lines printed. They should look like something like this:

The first line displays the instruction to press CTRL-C to quit. The second line with the mouse coordinates will change as you move the mouse around the screen. Using this program, youll be able to figure out the mouse coordinates for your GUI automation scripts.

Now that you know how to move the mouse and figure out where it is on the screen, youre ready to start clicking, dragging, and scrolling.

To send a virtual mouse click to your computer, call the pyautogui.click() method. By default, this click uses the left mouse button and takes place wherever the mouse cursor is currently located. You can pass x- and y-coordinates of the click as optional first and second arguments if you want it to take place somewhere other than the mouses current position.

If you want to specify which mouse button to use, include the button keyword argument, with a value of 'left', 'middle', or 'right'. For example, pyautogui.click(100, 150, button='left') will click the left mouse button at the coordinates (100, 150), while pyautogui.click(200, 250, button='right') will perform a right-click at (200, 250).

Enter the following into the interactive shell:

You should see the mouse pointer move to near the top-left corner of your screen and click once. A full click is defined as pushing a mouse button down and then releasing it back up without moving the cursor. You can also perform a click by calling pyautogui.mouseDown(), which only pushes the mouse button down, and pyautogui.mouseUp(), which only releases the button. These functions have the same arguments as click(), and in fact, the click() function is just a convenient wrapper around these two function calls.

As a further convenience, the pyautogui.doubleClick() function will perform two clicks with the left mouse button, while the pyautogui.rightClick() and pyautogui.middleClick() functions will perform a click with the right and middle mouse buttons, respectively.

Dragging means moving the mouse while holding down one of the mouse buttons. For example, you can move files between folders by dragging the folder icons, or you can move appointments around in a calendar app.

PyAutoGUI provides the pyautogui.dragTo() and pyautogui.dragRel() functions to drag the mouse cursor to a new location or a location relative to its current one. The arguments for dragTo() and dragRel() are the same as moveTo() and moveRel(): the x-coordinate/horizontal movement, the y-coordinate/vertical movement, and an optional duration of time. (OS X does not drag correctly when the mouse moves too quickly, so passing a duration keyword argument is recommended.)

To try these functions, open a graphics-drawing application such as Paint on Windows, Paintbrush on OS X, or GNU Paint on Linux. (If you dont have a drawing application, you can use the online one at http://sumopaint.com/.) I will use PyAutoGUI to draw in these applications.

With the mouse cursor over the drawing applications canvas and the Pencil or Brush tool selected, enter the following into a new file editor window and save it as spiralDraw.py:

When you run this program, there will be a five-second delay for you to move the mouse cursor over the drawing programs window with the Pencil or Brush tool selected. Then spiralDraw.py will take control of the mouse and click to put the drawing program in focus . A window is in focus when it has an active blinking cursor, and the actions you takelike typing or, in this case, dragging the mousewill affect that window. Once the drawing program is in focus, spiralDraw.py draws a square spiral pattern like the one in Figure18-2.

Figure18-2.The results from the pyautogui.dragRel() example

The distance variable starts at 200, so on the first iteration of the while loop, the first dragRel() call drags the cursor 200 pixels to the right, taking 0.2 seconds . distance is then decreased to 195 , and the second dragRel() call drags the cursor 195 pixels down . The third dragRel() call drags the cursor 195 horizontally (195 to the left) , distance is decreased to 190, and the last dragRel() call drags the cursor 190 pixels up. On each iteration, the mouse is dragged right, down, left, and up, and distance is slightly smaller than it was in the previous iteration. By looping over this code, you can move the mouse cursor to draw a square spiral.

You could draw this spiral by hand (or rather, by mouse), but youd have to work slowly to be so precise. PyAutoGUI can do it in a few seconds!

You could have your code draw the image using the pillow modules drawing functionssee Chapter17 for more information. But using GUI automation allows you to make use of the advanced drawing tools that graphics programs can provide, such as gradients, different brushes, or the fill bucket.

The final PyAutoGUI mouse function is scroll(), which you pass an integer argument for how many units you want to scroll the mouse up or down. The size of a unit varies for each operating system and application, so youll have to experiment to see exactly how far it scrolls in your particular situation. The scrolling takes place at the mouse cursors current position. Passing a positive integer scrolls up, and passing a negative integer scrolls down. Run the following in IDLEs interactive shell while the mouse cursor is over the IDLE window:

Youll see IDLE briefly scroll upwardand then go back down. The downward scrolling happens because IDLE automatically scrolls down to the bottom after executing an instruction. Enter this code instead:

This imports pyperclip and sets up an empty string, numbers. The code then loops through 200 numbers and adds each number to numbers, along with a newline. After pyperclip.copy(numbers), the clipboard will be loaded with 200 lines of numbers. Open a new file editor window and paste the text into it. This will give you a large text window to try scrolling in. Enter the following code into the interactive shell:

On the second line, you enter two commands separated by a semicolon, which tells Python to run the commands as if they were on separate lines. The only difference is that the interactive shell wont prompt you for input between the two instructions. This is important for this example because we want to the call to pyautogui.scroll() to happen automatically after the wait. (Note that while putting two commands on one line can be useful in the interactive shell, you should still have each instruction on a separate line in your programs.)

After pressing ENTER to run the code, you will have five seconds to click the file editor window to put it in focus. Once the pause is over, the pyautogui.scroll() call will cause the file editor window to scroll up after the five-second delay.

Your GUI automation programs dont have to click and type blindly. PyAutoGUI has screenshot features that can create an image file based on the current contents of the screen. These functions can also return a Pillow Image object of the current screens appearance. If youve been skipping around in this book, youll want to read Chapter17 and install the pillow module before continuing with this section.

On Linux computers, the scrot program needs to be installed to use the screenshot functions in PyAutoGUI. In a Terminal window, run sudo apt-get install scrot to install this program. If youre on Windows or OS X, skip this step and continue with the section.

To take screenshots in Python, call the pyautogui.screenshot() function. Enter the following into the interactive shell:

The im variable will contain the Image object of the screenshot. You can now call methods on the Image object in the im variable, just like any other Image object. Enter the following into the interactive shell:

Pass getpixel() a tuple of coordinates, like (0, 0) or (50, 200), and itll tell you the color of the pixel at those coordinates in your image. The return value from getpixel() is an RGB tuple of three integers for the amount of red, green, and blue in the pixel. (There is no fourth value for alpha, because screenshot images are fully opaque.) This is how your programs can see what is currently on the screen.

Say that one of the steps in your GUI automation program is to click a gray button. Before calling the click() method, you could take a screenshot and look at the pixel where the script is about to click. If its not the same gray as the gray button, then your program knows something is wrong. Maybe the window moved unexpectedly, or maybe a pop-up dialog has blocked the button. At this point, instead of continuingand possibly wreaking havoc by clicking the wrong thingyour program can see that it isnt clicking on the right thing and stop itself.

PyAutoGUIs pixelMatchesColor() function will return True if the pixel at the given x- and y-coordinates on the screen matches the given color. The first and second arguments are integers for the x- and y-coordinates, and the third argument is a tuple of three integers for the RGB color the screen pixel must match. Enter the following into the interactive shell:

After taking a screenshot and using getpixel() to get an RGB tuple for the color of a pixel at specific coordinates , pass the same coordinates and RGB tuple to pixelMatchesColor() , which should return True. Then change a value in the RGB tuple and call pixelMatchesColor() again for the same coordinates . This should return false. This method can be useful to call whenever your GUI automation programs are about to call click(). Note that the color at the given coordinates must exactly match. If it is even slightly differentfor example, (255, 255, 254) instead of (255, 255, 255)then pixelMatchesColor() will return False.

You could extend the mouseNow.py project from earlier in this chapter so that it not only gives the x- and y-coordinates of the mouse cursors current position but also gives the RGB color of the pixel under the cursor. Modify the code inside the while loop of mouseNow.py to look like this:

Now, when you run mouseNow.py, the output will include the RGB color value of the pixel under the mouse cursor.

This information, along with the pixelMatchesColor() function, should make it easy to add pixel color checks to your GUI automation scripts.

But what if you do not know beforehand where PyAutoGUI should click? You can use image recognition instead. Give PyAutoGUI an image of what you want to click and let it figure out the coordinates.

For example, if you have previously taken a screenshot to capture the image of a Submit button in submit.png, the locateOnScreen() function will return the coordinates where that image is found. To see how locateOnScreen() works, try taking a screenshot of a small area on your screen; then save the image and enter the following into the interactive shell, replacing 'submit. png' with the filename of your screenshot:

The four-integer tuple that locateOnScreen() returns has the x-coordinate of the left edge, the y-coordinate of the top edge, the width, and the height for the first place on the screen the image was found. If youre trying this on your computer with your own screenshot, your return value will be different from the one shown here.

If the image cannot be found on the screen, locateOnScreen() will return None. Note that the image on the screen must match the provided image perfectly in order to be recognized. If the image is even a pixel off, locateOnScreen() will return None.

If the image can be found in several places on the screen, locateAllOnScreen() will return a Generator object, which can be passed to list() to return a list of four-integer tuples. There will be one four-integer tuple for each location where the image is found on the screen. Continue the interactive shell example by entering the following (and replacing 'submit.png' with your own image filename):

Each of the four-integer tuples represents an area on the screen. If your image is only found in one area, then using list() and locateAllOnScreen() just returns a list containing one tuple.

Once you have the four-integer tuple for the area on the screen where your image was found, you can click the center of this area by passing the tuple to the center() function to return x- and y-coordinates of the areas center. Enter the following into the interactive shell, replacing the arguments with your own filename, four-integer tuple, and coordinate pair:

Once you have center coordinates from center(), passing the coordinates to click() should click the center of the area on the screen that matches the image you passed to locateOnScreen().

PyAutoGUI also has functions for sending virtual keypresses to your computer, which enables you to fill out forms or enter text into applications.

The pyautogui.typewrite() function sends virtual keypresses to the computer. What these keypresses do depends on what window and text field have focus. You may want to first send a mouse click to the text field you want in order to ensure that it has focus.

As a simple example, lets use Python to automatically type the words Hello world! into a file editor window. First, open a new file editor window and position it in the upper-left corner of your screen so that PyAutoGUI will click in the right place to bring it into focus. Next, enter the following into the interactive shell:

Notice how placing two commands on the same line, separated by a semicolon, keeps the interactive shell from prompting you for input between running the two instructions. This prevents you from accidentally bringing a new window into focus between the click() and typewrite() calls, which would mess up the example.

Python will first send a virtual mouse click to the coordinates (100, 100), which should click the file editor window and put it in focus. The typewrite() call will send the text Hello world! to the window, making it look like Figure18-3. You now have code that can type for you!

Figure18-3.Using PyAutogGUI to click the file editor window and type Hello world! into it

By default, the typewrite() function will type the full string instantly. However, you can pass an optional second argument to add a short pause between each character. This second argument is an integer or float value of the number of seconds to pause. For example, pyautogui.typewrite('Hello world!', 0.25) will wait a quarter-second after typing H, another quarter-second after e, and so on. This gradual typewriter effect may be useful for slower applications that cant process keystrokes fast enough to keep up with PyAutoGUI.

For characters such as A or !, PyAutoGUI will automatically simulate holding down the SHIFT key as well.

Not all keys are easy to represent with single text characters. For example, how do you represent SHIFT or the left arrow key as a single character? In PyAutoGUI, these keyboard keys are represented by short string values instead: 'esc' for the ESC key or 'enter' for the ENTER key.

Instead of a single string argument, a list of these keyboard key strings can be passed to typewrite(). For example, the following call presses the A key, then the B key, then the left arrow key twice, and finally the X and Y keys:

Because pressing the left arrow key moves the keyboard cursor, this will output XYab. Table18-1 lists the PyAutoGUI keyboard key strings that you can pass to typewrite() to simulate pressing any combination of keys.

You can also examine the pyautogui.KEYBOARD_KEYS list to see all possible keyboard key strings that PyAutoGUI will accept. The 'shift' string refers to the left SHIFT key and is equivalent to 'shiftleft'. The same applies for 'ctrl', 'alt', and 'win' strings; they all refer to the left-side key.

Table18-1.PyKeyboard Attributes

Keyboard key string

Meaning

Link:

Automate the Boring Stuff with Python

AltLeft.com "The Left of the AltRight"

Of all the mental shortcuts embedded in human languages which impede understanding of mindless processes (such as natural selection), few are more obnoxious than because. From this comes a tendency to anthropomorphise, and read all outcomes in nature as if they were ordained by something approximating an intention. Religion has to be an adaptation, because the religious (currently) outbreed the irreligious. The second clause in that sentence is (currently) correct, but the because makes it sound as though the current religious selection advantage represents some design feature with the desired (by what?) end of promoting reproductive fitness (adaptation). And fitness is where the matter rests. Contrast with the following sentence:

Under current conditions in which the religious outbreed the irreligious, religion is adaptive. This statement is of course tautologous, since to say that a trait or behaviour is adaptive means merely that under condition X it gives one a reproductive edge. The term adaptation, though, is often applied to traits or behaviours which are selectively neutral or even counter-adaptive in particular environments. Genes which contribute to an overzealous appetite may be fitness-neutral to a subsistence farmer but become obesogenic in the modern world of easily available food. The genes carrier still exercises this adaptation, but it is no longer adaptive, reproductively useful, except in an environment full of fat-fetishists.

Human society has changed so dramatically in the last two centuries that it would be hasty to say the least to assume that everything with a current selective disadvantage is an illness (due to pathogens, mutational load, or whatever). Just as equally, one cannot assume that something with a current advantage exists having evolved by resolving an adaptive problem. Religion was ubiquitous across cultures before the 20th century, yet now the religious fraction represent an ever tinier percentage of the population in many countries, and it remains to be seen just how tiny the genetic hard core of religiosity will get before the trend is reversed. If the presence of religion were explicable in terms of fitness benefit, why are the genes not already more widespread? This alone should be enough to tell you that genes (and thus, adaptation) per se had little to do with religions evolution.

But apparently this is not obvious to some. Many people are inclined to view adaptations as intricate mechanisms, which by dint of their intricacy are delicate and susceptible to dysfunction, rather like the springs and levers of a pocket-watch. All analogies are imperfect, but this is a useless one. Some traits, and indeed behaviours, are more prone to changing by exogenous insults than others. For instance, a particularly naive person might imagine that in a pandemic of severe endometriosis, whereby female beauty and youth cease to be predictive as indicators of fertility, males would be disincentivised from their sexual attraction to these traits because the attraction would no longer perform its original functions. Needless to say, this would not happen. Male callogamy (attention to beauty) has proven so reliably fitness-enhancing over the eons, since even before the human species, that it is extraordinarily resilient to any incentive change: selection will always favour a deterministic developmental pathway for such consistently valuable traits. General intelligence is yet another example: the current dysgenic trend is a product of the last few generations and on the order of ~1 point per generation despite ramping up of mutational load globally (well see how long it can last), and almost no non-genetic factors seem capable of depressing its expression to any appreciable degree. Lead looked plausible at some point, but then you remember that Victorians liked to use mercury in their make-up, and yet the 19th century was the most intellectually productive in human history.

Viewed under this light, the religion as adaptation thesis looks all the more dubious. Evolutionary forces selection, mutation, drift, etc are just as capable of acting on general intelligence and other psychological traits as anything else, hence the well-documented evolved changes in the European peoples since around AD1000: declines in violence, and probably gains in intelligence, culminating ultimately in the zenith of the 19th century. Evolution can indeed happen fast, but not that fast. The bulk of these changes took place over a period of, at minimum, 20 generations, not 2-3, and our intelligence has more or less survived the last 2-3 generations intact. Religion has not. It has none of the hallmarks of an adaptation, but all the hallmarks of a complex socially learned behaviour, maintained by powerful norm-enforcers and epistemic authorities, which has lost currency in recent decades for a variety of reasons, the most commonsense explanation being that it no longer appeals to the educated because the answers it gives are inferior to those of other epistemic authorities, i.e. scientists.

The human capacity for cultural transmission through language makes a nonsense of the notion that anything which is not adaptive, even across all environments, should be impossible to sustain. The most obvious example in Christian cultures is the vow of celibacy, and there are numerous others such as taboos against eating highly nutrient-dense foods, which persist among the undernourished tribes of Papua New Guinea. So too with the European wars of religion, which resulted in millions of young men dying childless in their haste to protect a non-existent natural resource, i.e. Gods favour.

Group selection is another temptation when formulating theories about the origin of religion the idea that even a behaviour which reduces fitness at the individual level can persist if it provides some advantage at the level of the social group. It is a neat idea, but clearly unworkable in practice. Suppose some cohort of ones country likes spreading the word of God through warfare call this behaviour X. They can seize new territory in Gods name and provide new land for others in their group who are not quite so zealous, and this may look like a success to the people who reap those rewards, but at the end of the day: the behaviour is still going to diminish because everyone who engages in it is at a massively elevated risk of dying before reproduction. Evolution does not care about states or dominions.

It is understandable why post hoc stories about religion as adaptation are popular, even among well-informed people. Intelligence is not a good predictor of having sensible views where political matters are concerned, since politics is about group loyalty more than anything else. This is why the number of US Democrats who thought immigration was an important social issue declined precipitously in the 2010s when it became the issue of the right; what mattered was showing solidarity against rival political coalitions (i.e. the right) rather than the truth. Adaptive stories about religion seem to appeal an awful lot to European traditionalist-nationalists who are hoping to use Christianity as the conduit for some kind of renewed ethnocentrism to uplift the European spirit. The Chinese do not seem to need it, oddly enough. Nor even the Czechs, much closer to home. It did not work for Rome, and it sure as fuck wont for us.

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AltLeft.com "The Left of the AltRight"

Andrew Yang Rejects Support From White Nationalists …

$1,000 a month or mainstream conservatism? It focuses the mind like a laser:

Theres no indication that the campaign has courted that support, and when reached by The Verge, Yang unequivocally rejected it. I denounce and disavow hatred, bigotry, racism, white nationalism, anti-Semitism and the alt-right in all its many forms. Full stop, Yang said in a statement. For anyone with this agenda, we do not want your support. We do not want your votes. You are not welcome in this campaign.

As one of the first Asian American candidates for President in our history and the son of immigrants, I see racism and white nationalism as a threat to the core ideals of what it means to be an American, Yang continued. I have two young children who will grow up in this country. I know what that means.

There are some people who are mad about this.

Im not one of those people. Why on earth would I be mad about this? The GOP Congress has condemned White Nationalists at least three times since Charlottesville. If memory serves, I believe they have done it last week and at least twice so far this year alone. Donald Trump even said after the shooting in Pittsburgh that those seeking the Jews destruction, we will seek their destruction.

Im under no illusions that Andrew Yang, an Asian Democrat running in a Democratic primary, is a White Nationalist or Alt-Right candidate. He is a Green Nationalist. He wants to give everyone $1,000 a month. Im on board with that. And let me tell you, Green Nationalism is sounding a whole lot more attractive right now than four more years of cuckservatism.

I voted for Donald Trump because of immigration, trade, foreign policy and political correctness. Ive watched him and graded him every day for over two years. He has failed across the board on all of those issues. He has also repeatedly shown that he is untrustworthy. What ever came of his promises to end birthright citizenship, social media censorship or Antifa violence? Does he not realize what a massive bait and switch it was to endorse RAISING legal immigration?

Now, I am thinking less about trying to reform the GOP and save America the last two years has shown that Republicans are utterly unwilling to so much as even try to amend their legislative agenda to make it more populist than what I can get out of the rotten system. Im now going to vote on the basis on issues like bills, health care, student loan debt and the costs of education. Thats what I want to hear about. Everyone has those concerns, not just White Nationalists.

I dont want to hear the 1,000th podcast about Robert Mueller or the 5,000th episode of Hannity about Peter Strzok. I dont want to read or listen to anymore copes about how Trump can still turn this around or wildly unrealistic 4D Chess scenarios about how Trump is going to do this or that at some point in the future. In 2020, I want candidates to explain to me in clear, unambiguous language what they can do to improve the material standard of living of White Americans.

The GOP isnt going to build the border wall. It isnt even going to deport the illegal aliens that are already here. It isnt going to do anything about cultural decay. It certainly isnt going to end abortion. None of the social issues that conservatives run on are real. The only thing that matters is rewarding donors with the policies they wanted like tax cuts, deregulation, criminal justice reform, etc. Cuckservatism has nothing going for it.

Im so over pretending that anyone in Republican politics or mainstream conservatism shares my values. Look around and you will find that the Trump entourage from top to bottom is nothing but uninspiring grifters with stale rhetoric: Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Diamond and Silk, Mike Huckabee, Seb Gorka, etc. If you watched CPAC and still believe that any of these types are going to somehow turn the country around, I got a 30 foot Mexican border wall to sell you!

When the GOP is running in 2020 on Democrats are the real anti-Semites and theyre gonna take away our cheeseburgers, literal Burger Nationalism which went from being a meme last year into their actual messaging, it is best to just step aside and take the Yang bucks.

Note: I dont even believe we will get those Yang bucks. I just think it is a better idea than anything that I saw at CPAC.

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Andrew Yang Rejects Support From White Nationalists ...

Lionel Nation – YouTube

This isn't a dress rehearsal. You are in the midst of a societal cataclysm. The likes of which you've never seen or experienced. Enjoy the ride, pilgrim.

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Lionel Nation - YouTube

The Politically Incorrect Australian

Those who value tradition and traditional values and morality often talk about western civilisation. I talk about it all the time. But what does western civilisation actually mean?

It is often assumed that western civilisation began with classical Greece and Rome. This is simply not so. There have in fact been at least three completely different western civilisations, with very little in common.

It is often not appreciated just how profoundly alien the classical civilisation was. This was a world in which religion was largely a matter of ritual. If you failed to perform the rituals correctly the gods would be angry and really bad stuff would happen. If you performed the rituals correctly there was a chance that the gods would be content and would leave you alone. That was about as much as you could expect from the gods.

The idea that religion and morality were intimately connected did not exist. The gods were amoral, selfish, violent and lustful. Its not that there was no concept of morality. Its more that morality was a civic virtue. Morality was necessary because without it society would collapse. The gods simply didnt care, as long as you offered them the correct sacrifices. Morality was not a religious duty, it was merely useful.

The idea that foreign policy had some connection with morality would have been dismissed as an absurdity. Foreign policy was about power. The Athenians, so worshipped by admirers of classical civilisation, were particularly cynical. Wars were fought for purely materialistic reasons. Alexander the Great did not invade the Persian Empire because the Persians were wicked or immoral or uncivilised. He invaded because the Persian Empire was weak and would offer easy pickings. The Roman Empire conquered anybody it was capable of conquering because it was in Romes interest. The business of Rome was imperialism.

By the time that the classical civilisation was reaching its peak philosophers were abandoning the traditional pagan religion but mostly what they offered in its place was a vague pantheism, or even outright atheism. The classical civilisation was conquered by Christianity because it had nothing satisfying to offer people.

When the classical civilisation collapsed in the West it collapsed totally. It was replaced by an entirely new civilisation. Medieval civilisation had nothing in common with classical civilisation. It offered a whole new approach to religion. Religion and morality were now intertwined. Morality became a religious duty. Ritual became relatively unimportant. It survived, but mostly as symbolism.

Kings were now expected to be concerned by things other than power. Being human they were of course still very interested in power. The medievals would have been the first to admit that they often fell short of their ideals. But ideals were still important and they were religious ideals. The king was king by the Grace of God.

Nationalism did not exist. The loyalties that mattered were loyalty to the king, and to the Church.

The Reformation utterly destroyed medieval civilisation. A new civilisation arose in its place, a civilisation that has almost nothing in common with medieval civilisation.

Religion appeared to remain important for a century and a half but it was mostly an illusion. The new civilisation was right from the start well on the way towards being a post-Christian civilisation. The idea that religion was a matter of individual conscience rapidly took hold. What a man believed was his own business. Freedom of religion became a popular idea. In practice of course freedom of religion means freedom from religion. By the 18th century Christianity had ceased to be a factor in national policy, except insofar as national policy was directed toward explicitly anti-Christian objectives (such as state control of education). Once that happened the decline of Christianity was irreversible.

Liberalism became the new religion. Liberalism and capitalism made short work of what remained of Christian morality.

Nationalism appeared. Nationalism is a liberal concept. Nationalism is essentially worship of the state. The two competing religious values were now money and freedom. Freedom of course meant the freedom to pursue money and pleasure. Society as an organic entity gave way to the state and the corporation.

It needs to be clearly understood that this is a civilisation that differs profoundly from earlier western civilisations. It is inherently materialistic and atheistic. Morality is now defined as social conformity.

Whether you think this liberal conception of western civilisation is worth saving is up to you.

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The Politically Incorrect Australian

KNOPPIX 8.1.0 – Linux Live System – knopper.net

KNOPPIX 8.1.0 Public Release

Also see article about the older Knoppix 8.0/CeBIT Edition on --> Golem.de

A lot of thanks for intense testing, hints and bugreports go to the participants of the Austrian Knoppix Days 2017 and the Linux User Group Hamburg Team, your feedback and bugfixes have been integrated into the public 8.1 release!

With the new Hybrid layout of the ISO file, the file can be copied directly to USB flash disk, either using standard Linux tools like dd or cp, or programs like Win32 DIsk Imager. In this case, the first partition is read-only because of the iso9660 file system. Because od that, boot options cannot be changed permanently.

A better way of installing, is using --> flash-knoppix, which will create the simpler and writable layout with one FAT32 and one Linux partition on USB flash pen. Optionally, a personal remastering can be chosen in version 8.1.

KNOPPIX 8.1 generally supports booting in UEFI and Secure Boot after installation on USB flash disk. But in order to use this feature, an entry in the UEFI firmware is necessary at first boot attempt. --> Find quick instructions here.

A.D.R.I.A.N.E. (Audio Desktop Reference Implementation And Networking Environment) is a talking menu system, which is supposed to make work and internet access easier for computer beginners, even if they have no sight contact to the computers monitor. A graphical environment with also talking programs and arbitrary magnification using compiz, is another option.

In order to create a bootable USB-medium (memory flashdisk, SD-card, digital camera with USB connector, cellphone with microSD, ...), the program flash-knoppix can be started from a running KNOPPIX system. This program installs all needed KNOPPIX files onto the FAT-formatted flashdisk, and creates a boot record for it. If desired, the target medium can be partitioned and formatted, or left in its inistal state, so that existing files stay intact. The KNOPPIX Live System starts and runs about factor 5 faster from USB flash disk than from CD or DVD!

After having copied the system to flash, using the persistent KNOPPIX image (overlay feature) or an additional Linux partition, it is possible to also store files permanently in live mode. That way, personal settings and additionally installed programs survive a reboot.

The flash-knoppix script since Knoppix 7.4.0 supports on-the-fly conversion of a DVD ISO image for direct flashing of a USB pendrive or disk. By using this, the intermediate step of burning a DVD and booting from it, can be skipped. For burning a CD or DVD, only one single .iso file matching your language and version choice, is sufficient.For using this feature, just add the name of the .iso file as commandline parameter to flash-knoppix like this:flash-knoppix KNOPPIX_V8.1DVD-2017-09-05-EN.iso

Overview of the most important functions. A complete description and listing of shortcuts can be found in the configurations of sbl, orca and compiz.

Boot options like "adriane" can easily be preset by changing syslinux.cfg after having copied the CD to a bootable memorystick using "flash-knoppix":

DEFAULT auto

to:

DEFAULT adriane

for automatically starting ADRIANE on boot. This is already default in all ADRIANE iso files.

KNOPPIX 8.1 / ADRIANE 1.7 is availablefor download via Bittorrent and from the usual KNOPPIX mirror sites.

Knopper.Net is not responsible for the content of external web pages

See the original post here:

KNOPPIX 8.1.0 - Linux Live System - knopper.net

KNOPPIX 7.7.1 – Linux Live System

Donate to WikipediaInstead of a call on our own behalf, we would like to encourage you to donate to the Wikipedia Project this year. Wikipedia is the largest free collection of knowledge, serving the public good, composed completely in an open and cooperative approach, indispensable as a reference for teaching and learning. Without access to Wikipedias collected information and conceptual ideas, projects like Knoppix would be infeasible.KNOPPIX 7.7.1 Public ReleaseContents

Complete software list: -> DVD (~4000 software packages, over 11GB uncompressed, cloop-compressed to 4.3GB).

A.D.R.I.A.N.E. (Audio Desktop Reference Implementation And Networking Environment) is a talking menu system, which is supposed to make work and internet access easier for computer beginners, even if they have no sight contact to the computers monitor. A graphical environment with also talking programs and arbitrary magnification using compiz, is another option.

The current public beta release of KNOPPIX 7.7.1 DVD is available in different variants for download at the KNOPPIX-Mirrors.

Caution: Because the DVD image is larger than 4GB, it cannot be stored on a FAT32 partition! -> Use NTFS or a linux file system.

For burning a CD or DVD, only one single .iso file matching your language and version choice, is sufficient.

Additionally, several independent vendors offer readily burned and verified CDs, DVDs and USB-memorysticks saent out via postal service.

Since there are so many different media capacities, there is no readymade image for booting off memorystick available for download. But it is easy to create a bootable USB-stick or flashcard from a running KNOPPIX system, as described in the next section.

In order to create a bootable USB-medium (memory flashdisk, SD-card, digital camera with USB connector, cellphone with microSD, ...), the program flash-knoppix can be started from a running KNOPPIX system. This program installs all needed KNOPPIX files onto the FAT-formatted flashdisk, and creates a boot record for it. If desired, the target medium can be partitioned and fornatted, or left in its inistal state, so that existing files stay intact. The KNOPPIX Live System starts and runs about factor 5 faster from USB flash disk than from CD or DVD!

After having copied the system to flash, using the persistent KNOPPIX image (overlay feature) or an additional Linux partition, it is possible to also store files permanently in live mode. That way, personal settings and additionally installed programs survive a reboot.

The flash-knoppix script since Knoppix 7.4.0 supports on-the-fly conversion of a DVD ISO image for direct flashing of a USB pendrive or disk. By using this, the intermediate step of burning a DVD and booting from it, can be skipped. For burning a CD or DVD, only one single .iso file matching your language and version choice, is sufficient.For using this feature, just add the name of the .iso file as commandline parameter to flash-knoppix like this:flash-knoppix KNOPPIX_V7.7.1DVD-2016-10-22-EN.iso

Overview of the most important functions. A complete description and listing of shortcuts can be found in the configurations of sbl, orca and compiz.

Boot options like "adriane" can easily be preset by changing syslinux.cfg after having copied the CD to a bootable memorystick using "flash-knoppix":

DEFAULT auto

to:

DEFAULT adriane

for automatically starting ADRIANE on boot. This is already default in all ADRIANE iso files.

Knopper.Net is not responsible for the content of external web pages

See more here:

KNOPPIX 7.7.1 - Linux Live System

Jacobs Email – IT – Teamwork at Jacobs University

Included Services

"Jacobs Email" includes:

In the following, the word "mailbox" relates to the sum of these features, which are bundled into the user's "mailbox".

Every JACOBS university member with an active CampusNet account and a "@jacobs-university.de" email address has access to JACOBS Email.

Account Information

Access to the mailbox, including email, calendar, contacts, etc. is with the CampusNet username and password, also known as JACOBS user account.

Please note that the email address is different from the username. The email address has a dot in it, the username doesn't.

Please check with the CampusNet team to deal with lost passwords.

There is world-wide web access via:

Vacation messages can be set either within Outlook connected to Exchange, or by using the web interface.

It is possible to set an interval for the message, so can be used way before being away.

As Jacobs Email is accessible world-wide, vacation messages can also be set while off campus.

The recommended access way is to use an English-language version of Microsoft Outlook as an email client, but any other client will work.

AutoDiscover is available, making manual configuration usually unnecessary.

If you are logged in to a JACOBS computer while starting Outlook the first time, it automatically sets up email based on your JACOBS login without any manual configuration requirement.

To manually configure an Exchange connection, which is the recommended connection type,use

Exchange Server

exchange.jacobs-university.de

This connection type is sometimes called EWS.

To manually configure any other applicable email client, use the following information:

IMAP4 & IMAP4S

exchange.jacobs-university.de

POP3 & POP3S

exchange.jacobs-university.de

SMTP

exchange.jacobs-university.de

For security reasons, only the secure variants should be used,i.e. SSL for incoming and TLS for outgoing emails.For convenience, the unsecured protocols are still accepted, but strongly discouraged.

If manually configuring Outlook access to Exchange, XMLRPC over HTTPS is the recommend setting. Please refrain from using MAPI access, which is deprecated.

The system requires authentication using TLS before sending!

Depending on the client used, not all features are available.

Tip: the JACOBS user name has NO dot in it! If you are unsure regarding user name vs. email address, please see JACOBS user namefor details.

It is possible to grant access to mailbox information to other JACOBS domain users.

By default, only the user has access to his/her mailbox, though the free/busy information, without further details, is available to any other JACOBS domain user.

Access to information can be shared within the JACOBS domain community by standard Windows domain access permission mechanisms.

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Jacobs Email - IT - Teamwork at Jacobs University

KNOPPIX 7.4.2 / ADRIANE 1.7 – Live CD / DVD

KNOPPIX 7.4.2 / ADRIANE 1.7 ReleaseContents

Complete software list: -> DVD (~3500 software packages, over 10GB uncompressed, cloop-compressed to 4GB).

A.D.R.I.A.N.E. (Audio Desktop Reference Implementation And Networking Environment) is a talking menu system, which is supposed to make work and internet access easier for computer beginners, even if they have no sight contact to the computers monitor. A graphical environment with also talking programs and arbitrary magnification using compiz-fusion, is another option.

The current public beta release of KNOPPIX 7.4.2 DVD is available in different variants for download at the KNOPPIX-Mirrors.

For burning a CD or DVD, only one single .iso file matching your language and version choice, is sufficient.

Additionally, several independent vendors offer readily burned and verified CDs, DVDs and USB-memorysticks saent out via postal service.

Since there are so many different media capacities, there is no readymade image for booting off memorystick available for download. But it is easy to create a bootable USB-stick or flashcard from a running KNOPPIX system, as described in the next section.

In order to create a bootable USB-medium (memory flashdisk, SD-card, digital camera with USB connector, cellphone with microSD, ...), the program flash-knoppix can be started from a running KNOPPIX system. This program installs all needed KNOPPIX files onto the FAT-formatted flashdisk, and creates a boot record for it. If desired, the target medium can be partitioned and fornatted, or left in its inistal state, so that existing files stay intact. The KNOPPIX Live System starts and runs about factor 5 faster from USB flash disk than from CD or DVD!

After having copied the system to flash, using the persistent KNOPPIX image (overlay feature) or an additional Linux partition, it is possible to also store files permanently in live mode. That way, personal settings and additionally installed programs survive a reboot.

The flash-knoppix script since Knoppix 7.4.0 supports on-the-fly conversion of a DVD ISO image for direct flashing of a USB pendrive or disk. By using this, the intermediate step of burning a DVD and booting from it, can be skipped. For burning a CD or DVD, only one single .iso file matching your language and version choice, is sufficient.For using this feature, just add the name of the .iso file as commandline parameter to flash-knoppix like this:flash-knoppix KNOPPIX_V7.4.1DVD-2014-09-28-EN.iso

Overview of the most important functions. A complete description and listing of shortcuts can be found in the configurations of sbl, orca and compiz-fusion.

Boot options like "adriane" can easily be preset by changing syslinux.cfg after having copied the CD to a bootable memorystick using "flash-knoppix":

DEFAULT auto

to:

DEFAULT adriane

for automatically starting ADRIANE on boot. This is already default in all ADRIANE iso files.

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KNOPPIX 7.4.2 / ADRIANE 1.7 - Live CD / DVD

Alt-Left Melts Down Over "Unmasking Antifa" Act | Zero Hedge

It seems the new "Unmasking Antifa Act" has ruffled a few feathers among the alt-left.

Introduced inthe House last month by Rep Dan Donovan (R-NY), H.R. 6054is a response to a spate ofviolent attacks provoked by masked members of Antifa, and would punish anyone wearing a mask who"injures, oppresses, threatens or intimidates" a person "in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege" with a fine and up to 15 years in prison.

The law is effectively a modern take on anti-mask laws dating back to the mid-20th century in order to stop the violent activities of the Ku Klux Klan - and the left is predictably pissed.

New York City anarchist Carmichael Monaco of the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating CounciltoldViceon Tuesday:

"H.R. 6054 takes a pro-fascist stance in its very name, and doubtlessly in its enforcement. In the current political climate, antifascists who speak out against fascism, racism, xenophobia, etc. are routinely harassed, threatened, and attacked by the far right, often supported by the police, who are notably exempted here. Families and friends of antifascists also become targets of far right violence. The wearing of a mask is an act of self-defense often necessary to ensure one's right to free speech."

Alt-left Twitter denizens were none too pleased either:

Holy hell, is this real!?

Comrades be ready as within our lifetime this will only get worse

I was arrested at a protest in Boston & the DA dropped all charges on myself and more than a dozen others.

The "Unmasking Antifa Bill" would get me 15 years in the Feds for nothing but a tshirt & scrap of cloth. pic.twitter.com/iVup0hWpfn

(his pinned tweet)

Important tips for nazi punching pic.twitter.com/hbQcGeuuLA

This legislation is a part of coordinated state efforts to criminalize, suppress, and deter political dissent & resistance, like the #OccupyICE movement across the country.

Of course, some on the alt-left are way ahead of theUnmask Antifa Act..

Problem with Antifa is this. They stick out like sore thumbs. I agree with the cause. I'd gladly join in on bashing fascists. However if you dress proper it confuses the shit out of the Nazis and Cops.

By that I mean wearing a polo shit, a scarf, baseball cap, etc. Look as preppy as possible. You'd be surprised what we get away with in Florida by dressing Casual. No one expects a guy in a $200 Stone Island jumper to beat their fucking heads in.

We've snuck past armed barriers before just because we just looked like some preppy frat boys. Then turned it around on the fascists. They let us through because we didn't look like trouble. No one took pictures causer they weren't sure who the fuck we were. No logos. No flags.

That doesn't exactly obscure one's identity while "punching a Nazi" - whilefootageof a Proud Boy knocking out a preppy kid in a polo shirt would instantly go viral.We can only imagine.

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Alt-Left Melts Down Over "Unmasking Antifa" Act | Zero Hedge

Virginia Election Predictions: Will Weather Rain on …

You would think the MS-13 issue might have taken down Democrat Ralph Northams chances in the Virginia election? You might also think Northams connection to Americas most dishonest and racist political ad would do him too. In the year when a sentient democrat s would have won the election by not less than 8 points, is there any single issue that can push the superior GOP candidate Ed Gillespie over the top? Probably not. However, each day, team Northam works hard to blow the unlosable election. Ironically, If Northam loses, it wont likely be on any political issue, but it could be all those issues and the weather raining down on him.

Democrats dont like the rain, or the snow, apparently.

The forecast tomorrow in Democrat-rich, anti-Trump, home-of-the-resistance, Northern Virginia is pure misery. Temperatures will be in the low 40s, with increasing rain and wind. Its a miserable day to go out, and traffic will be classically horrible. Moreover, as some rush to the polls before their early close, traffic may snarl. Or, the thought of standing in the rain may dissuade even devoted democrats. Maybe. These are the dreams of GOP political strategists.

Do Democrats really hate the rain?

Social scientists have long debated whether bad weather is good or bad for either party? The GOP likes to say pray for rain in any election. The last time I ran for office, it was sunny and nearly 80 degrees. Unfortunately, I was a conservative running in the peoples republic of Arlington County, Virginia. Despite winning all 18 debates, according to the local paper, I had democrats seemingly parachuting in to vote against me and George W. Bush. He wasnt even on the ballot, but it sure felt like he was. With democratic sample ballot in hand, scores turned out to tell me what a no-good SOB George W. Bush was as they headed in to vote against me.

I still blame that loss on the weather, and the nearly 78% democratic majority.

Is bad weather really a good factor for Republicans? They could use one. They have always believed that bad weather hurts turnout, and lower turnout hurts Democrats. If you ask some Republican strategists, they will simply tell you that the Democratic base often includes many voting constituencies who do not regularly vote, and thus need to be turned out. In reality, Democratic voters are likely no less fickle than casual GOP voters. Many think bad weather more adversely hurts Democrats who often fight with public transportation to get to the polls. Theories abound, but is any of it real?

If you are a smart, educated, civic-minded, politically oriented person, this sounds crazy. The idea that rain would stop you from voting is probably silly. It would not stop me. However, not everyone is like me or you. Most Americans pay very little attention to politics. In years when no President, Senator, or US Congressman is on the ballot, turnout nosedives.

In elections, like the lottery, most Americans dont participate unless the stakes are big. In fact, in most elections, most Americans dont vote at all. This 2017 election is the ultimate off-year ballot. While ads run wild in Virginia and New Jersey, the overall election coverage is quite drab because nothing big is really happening.

In fact, this years Virginia Governors race is as close as we get to a big election across the entire country.

With cold rain coming, will this one last factor in the ultra-low turnout election help the little engine that is Gillespie?

This all begs the question is bad weather really bad for the Democrats?

According to this scholarly paper, badweather is indeed bad for turnout and particularly bad for the Democrats. Rain by itself can cost a democrat 1% of the vote in an election. Apparently, Northern Virginia being the home base of MS-13 is bad for Democrats, but not as bad as rain.

Here is the good news for Northam:

Nearly every reputable poll, including several breaking on the Monday before the election, places him ahead of Gillespie. After 2016, some people are rightly skeptical of polls, and state polling is generally a little less reliable than national polling. However, state polling does properly pick a winner. That is to say, national polls had Clinton winning in 2016, and they were right on the numbers. She just didnt get those votes in the right places, and thus Mr. Trump won easily. If the Virginia polling is as correct, Northam will win. We have no Gubernatorial electoral college.

On the flip-side however, state polling operations can be less-sophisticated, with fewer resources devoted to them. So, are they reliable? We will find out. One would have to be ignorant to ignore the clear majority of polls putting Northam ahead.

All that bad polling for Gillespie squares with my long, extensive, multi-factored June analysis where I painfully walked through all the reasons why Gillespie would lose likely by 8 points or more. Of course, I hedged my bet when I adroitly reminded readers that all elections turn on events and that Northam is not a good candidate. I sure was right about that.

Northam has worked hard to ensure my prediction would be wrong. Has he worked hard enough to make Gillespie a winner? Other factors are at play as well.

The good news for Gillespie is that the Lt. Governors race has gotten zero coverage, and what little has emerged is not good for Democrats. Likewise, Republican John Adams has run a strong campaign against Mark Herring in the Attorney Generals race where Herring finds his record, background, and conduct under withering fire. Putting aside my obvious issue with Herring, Adams is transparently a superior lawyer. One man clerked for the Supreme Court, the other guy is the functional equivalent of a legal burger flipper in comparison. Not one serious company would hire Herring over Adams. Unfortunately, voters are stuck in a team versus team mentality. If this were an election on the quality of a legal resume, Herring would have brought a knife to a nuclear war fight.

Adams has run well, and neither Fairfax nor Herring have added to the Northam ticket. All of that helps Gillespie.

MY PREDICTION:

The weather may play a role here, and for sure it looks bad. Still, I have Northam pulling this out in the year of anti-Trumpism in a deep blue state. I think Northam would have won this election by as much as 10 points if he were competent and if he hadnt jumped in a pile of political macaca of his own making. The resistance will turn out in sufficient numbers to push Northam over his own tomfoolery.

I am certain Gillespie will out-perform his polling. Real Clear Politics has Northam at 3.3%. I think Northam will win by 2.5%. Even if the rain cut down turnout by 1%, Gillespie will fall short.

The big event to watch in this race is the finish in the Attorney General race. Of course, that race relies on how close the Governors race will be. If the Gillespie loses by less than 1.25% on the GOP side for Governor, I predict that Democrat Herring will lose his race. I now believe that Herring will trail his Gubernatorial candidate by nearly 1.35% of the vote, with most dropped votes coming in that race. I believe this because a strong, independent Virginia voting block can see through a transparently flawed, unethical lawyer.

I admit that I have a strong rooting interest, but if there is an upset tomorrow in Virginia it will be Adams over Herring in the AG race.

My legal predictions tend to be much better than my political predictions, so each side can take heart in that reality. Unfortunately, with the stars aligned against him, Gillespie will need about 8 inches of snow to win tomorrow, which according to the scholarly paper I cite, might get him around 4 points.

Please God let me be wrong. Rain down upon me the error of my analysis.

Richard Kelsey is the Editor-in-Chief of Committed Conservative.

He is an Attorney, a former Assistant Law School Dean, Law Professor, and Virginia state court law clerk. Dean Kelsey was also the CEO of a technology company specializing in combating cyber-fraud. He is a regular commentator on legal and political issues in print, radio and on TV.

Rich graduated from George Mason law school, clerked for the Arlington Circuit Court, and later joined an AM LAW top 10 law firm practicing commercial litigation. He left the firm to be counsel and CEO to a consulting firm, rising to CEO of Turiss, LLC, a technology firm specializing in computer forensics, digital investigations, and fighting cyber-fraud through civil intel services and new technologies. Upon the sale of the company, Kelsey returned to Mason Law, where in the years before his return, he both taught at the school and served as President of the Law Alumni Association. Kelsey was the Assistant Dean for Management and Planning.

At Mason, Dean Kelsey taught legal writing and analysis and an advanced litigation seminar. In 2014 he was elected by the graduating class as the faculty speaker at their graduation. While serving the former George Mason Law, Kelsey conceived of, planned, and brought to fruition Masons Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property, known as CPIP.

Rich has appeared on radio, TV, and in print hundreds of times as both a legal expert and political and legal commentator. He provided the legal analysis for all stages of the Bob McDonnell trial and appeal for numerous outlets including NPR and WMAL. He writes on occasion for the American Spectator and CNSNews.com. He returned to private practice in September of 2016, and he is working on a book/expose on legal education.

In his free time, Rich is part of the baseball mafia of Northern Virginia, serving on numerous boards and as a little league and travel baseball coach.

Rich has many opinions, and they are his own. His Twitter handle is @richkelsey.

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Virginia Election Predictions: Will Weather Rain on ...