‘State of AI in the Enterprise’ Fifth Edition Uncovers Four Key Actions to Maximize AI Value – PR Newswire

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Research reveals the key actions leaders can take to accelerate AI outcomes

NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

Key takeaways

Why this matters

The Deloitte AI Institute's fifth edition of the "State of AI in the Enterprise" survey, conducted between April and May 2022, provides organizations with a roadmap to navigate lagging AI outcomes. Twenty-nine percent more respondents surveyed classify as underachievers this year, yet 79% of respondents say they've fully deployed three or more types of AI. It is clear despite rapid advancement in the AI market that organizations are struggling to turn implementation into scalable transformation. This year's report digs deeper into the actions that lead to successful outcomes providing leaders with a guide to overcome roadblocks and drive business results with AI.

The report surveyed 2,620 executives from 13 countries across the globe, outlining detailed recommendations for leaders to cultivate an AI-ready enterprise and improve outcomes for their AI efforts. Similar to last year's report, Deloitte grouped responding organizations into four profiles Transformers, Pathseekers, Starters and Underachievers based on how many types of AI applications they have deployed full-scale and the number of outcomes achieved to a high degree. The findings in the report aim to help companies overcome deployment and adoption challenges to become AI-fueled organizations that realize value and drive transformational outcomes from AI.

Key quotes

"Amid unprecedented disruption in the global economy and society at large, it is clear today's AI race is no longer about just adopting AI but instead driving outcomes and unleashing the power of AI to transform business from the inside out. This year's report provides a clear roadmap for business leaders looking to apply next-level human cognition and drive value at scale across their enterprise."

Costi Perricos, Deloitte Global AI and Data leader

"Since 2017, we have been tracking the advancement of AI as industries navigate the "Age of With." The fifth edition of our annual report outlines how AI can propel businesses beyond automating processes for efficiency to redesigning work itself. While organizations face the challenge of middling results, it is clear successful AI transformation requires strong leadership and focused investment, a through-line consistently evident in our annual research."

Beena Ammanath, executive director of the Deloitte AI Institute, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Four key actions powering widespread value from AI

Based on Deloitte's analysis of the behaviors and responses of high- and low-outcome organizations, the report identifies four key actions leaders can take now to improve outcomes for their AI efforts.

Action 1: Invest in Leadership and Culture

When it comes to successful AI deployment and adoption, leadership and culture matter. The workforce is increasingly optimistic, and leaders should do more to harness that optimism for culture change, establishing new ways of working to drive greater business results with AI.

Action 2: Transform Operations

An organization's ability to build and deploy AI ethically and at scale depends on how well they have redesigned their operations to accommodate the unique demands of new technologies.

Action 3: Orchestrate Tech and Talent

Technology and talent acquisition are no longer separate. Organizations need to strategize their approach to AI based on the skillsets they have available, whether they derive from humans or pre-packaged solutions.

Action 4: Select Use Cases that Accelerate Outcomes

The report found that selecting the right use cases to fuel an organization's AI journey depends largely on the value-drivers for the business based on sector and industry. Starting with use cases that are easier to achieve or have a faster or higher return on investment can create momentum for further investment and make it easier to drive internal cultural and organizational changes that accelerate the benefits of AI.

Connect with us:@Deloitte, @DeloitteAI, @beena_ammanath

TheDeloitte AI Institutesupports the positive growth and development of AI through engaged conversations and innovative research. It also focuses on building ecosystem relationships that help advance human-machine collaboration in the "Age of With," a world where humans work side-by-side with machines.

About DeloitteDeloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world's most admired brands, including nearly 90% of the Fortune 500 and more than 7,000 private companies.Our people come together for the greater good and work across the industry sectors that drive and shape today's marketplace delivering measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to see challenges as opportunities to transform and thrive, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthier society. Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them.Building on more than 175 years of service, our network of member firms spans more than 150 countries and territories. Learn how Deloitte's approximately 415,000 people worldwide connect for impact at http://www.deloitte.com.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see http://www.deloitte.com/aboutto learn more about our global network of member firms.

SOURCE Deloitte Consulting LLP

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AI Is Getting Scary Good At Mimicking Us – Inc.com

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Artificial intelligence, more commonly referred to AI, is changing the game for many industries. From healthcare to finance, AI is revolutionizing the way we go about our day-to-day lives.

However, it isn't just major industries that are influenced by the developments in artificial intelligence. With the direction things are moving, AI may also affect the everyday person more than we think.

While we struggle with an influx of fake news, AI could take that to an entirely different level. With the ability to make fake videos, audio messages and images, new types of fake content could make it even more difficult to tell what's real and what isn't.

Both business professionals and consumers need to be aware of how these new forms of AI could affect them. Let's take a look at the various ways this fake content could influence your life, both personally and professionally, and what you can do to protect yourself.

Identity fraud isn't anything new. When your information falls into the wrong hands, it can be incredibly damaging. Not only can they hack your bank accounts and open new lines of credit in your name, but they can also potentially tarnish your professional or personal image.

AI makes identity fraud even more of a problem by attempting to mimic your voice or image. Through mimicking your voice, the person behind the AI may try to convince your bank or other financial institutions you are on the phone. By pairing your information with your voice, the criminal could trick your bank into handing over sensitive data.

Because of these new developments in AI, there may be more requirements and hurdles you need to jump through to connect with your bank to prevent identity fraud. While this can be annoying to someone with the right to access certain accounts, additional protection may be necessary.

People in the public eye have always faced rumors about things they may or may not have done. Without proof, these accusations are simply a matter of he-said, she-said. While the rumors may spread, they eventually die out without adequate proof to back them up.

Unfortunately, this new AI can make it easier to fake images, videos and even audio messages. While applications like Photoshop have been around for a few years, they're becoming more advanced, making it even more difficult to tell what is real and what isn't. Video editors and audio recordings, which used to be extremely difficult to edit, are also becoming more advanced.

For the business professional or other individual in the spotlight, it may mean it is more difficult to protect yourself against public rumors. This means that it may take an incredibly trained eye to determine whether or not something is real, which could damage your professional image or make it more challenging to defend yourself if a rumor begins to spread. It can also mean video and audio recordings cannot be entirely trusted.

Artificial intelligence is changing the way we do just about everything. As computers become smarter and more developed, it's getting easier to replicate everything from images and videos to products or even high-end goods.

With AI continuing to advance, you should understand what is editable and what is not. If a video or audio recording comes across your desk, you'll want to take it with a grain of salt as it may be doctored. Likewise, you'll want to be aware of anything regarding you or your company that could be a fraud.

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AI Is Getting Scary Good At Mimicking Us - Inc.com

Hour One raises $5M Seed to generate AI-driven synthetic characters from real humans – TechCrunch

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All of the people pictured above are real, but what you are seeing are synthetically generated versions of their real selves. And they can be programmed to say anything. Tech futurists have long warned about humans being replaced by life-like AI-driven figures, where it would be almost impossible to tell between machine and human. Indeed, theres even a new book on this subject of deep fakes.

But that future comes a step closer today with the news that Hour One, which creates AI-driven synthetic characters based on real humans, closes a $5 million seed funding led by Galaxy Interactive (via its Galaxy EOS VC Fund), Remagine Ventures and Kindred Ventures (with participation of Amaranthine).

Hour One will use the funds to scale its AI-driven cloud platform, onboard thousands of new characters and expand its commercial activities.

Founded in 2019, Hour One develops technologies for creating high-quality digital characters based on real people. The idea is to generate production-grade video-based characters in a highly scalable and cost-effective way.The upshot of this is that what appears to be a real human could talk about any product or subject at all, to the point of infinite scale.

This was showcased at its real or synthetic likeness test at CES 2020, challenging people to distinguish between real and synthetic characters generated by its AI.

Oren Aharon, Hour Ones founder and CEO, said in a statement: We believe that synthetic characters of real people will become a part of our everyday life. Our vision is that Hour One will drive the use of synthetic characters to improve the quality of communication between businesses and people across markets and use cases. By enabling each person to create their own character together with our scalable cloud platform, we will provide a variety of solutions for next-gen remote business-to-human interactions.

Hour One is currently working with companies in the e-commerce, education, automotive, communication, and enterprise sectors, with expanded industry applications expected throughout 2020.

The company also showcased its real or synthetic likeness test at CES 2020, challenging people to distinguish between real and synthetic characters generated by its AI.

The real issue, however, is how will this technology be deployed without it being abused.

Lior Hakim, co-founder and CTO, says this potential problem is dealt with via encryption technologies to secure the use and rights of the characters enabling anyone to identify our videos as well as mark them as altered to notify the viewers. The company also says it has an ethical policy code for how its technology is used.

Sam Englebardt, co-founder and managing director of Galaxy Interactive, says the startups ethics-driven approach to the creation of synthetic video is key and that given how challenging production with live actors has become as a result of COVID-19, now is the perfect time for businesses of all sizes to produce their content with Hour Ones synthetic characters.

Clearly this will reduce the cost of synthetic character creation, meaning any textual content could be automatically translated into a live-action video of a person that engages an audience by speaking the text, said Eze Vidra, co-founder and managing partner at Remagine Ventures .

Speaking to TechCrunch, Business strategy lead for Hour One Natalie Monbiot said the company has a unique ability to onboard basically any human being and turn them into a synthetic character thats a lifelike replica of that person. So its not an avatar or a version of that person. It really does look and behave like that person. You can then basically generate new content by uploading new texts. So, for example, in e-commerce, you can pick your characters and get them to present your product or do a product presentation. This means every single product SKU can have its own video presentation.

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Hour One raises $5M Seed to generate AI-driven synthetic characters from real humans - TechCrunch

Infinite text adventure AI Dungeon is now available on iOS and Android – The Verge

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Earlier this month we told you about AI Dungeon, an AI-powered text adventure with near infinite possibilities. You can type what you want into the game, and the AI will generate a response on the fly, creating a freewheeling experience that encourages cooperation and imagination. Now, AI Dungeon is available on iOS and Android as well, making it much easier to explore fantasy and sci-fi realms with an AI game master.

We tested the iOS version briefly, and although there were a few game-breaking errors, its generally as easy to use as youd want. Responses to each input still take a few seconds to process, which rather slows the experience, but its definitely quicker than the web version was, and each interaction with the AI is as surprising (and frequently delightful) as before.

There are also helpful tips for newcomers, reminding you to start each of your text commands with a verb, or use quotation marks to indicate when someone is speaking.

AI Dungeons creator Nick Walton told The Verge that hes actually quit his job to go full time on the game, and has started a company around it with a few other people. Hes also running a Patreon to support development, and has attracted a healthy $10k a month.

Walton says hes still surprised by the enthusiastic reaction to AI Dungeon, which is lauded by users as they find new ways to interact with the AI. I thought people would enjoy it but Ive been really blown away by how much, he says, adding that reading users play-throughs never gets old, as each person works with or against the AI in a different way.

There was one where someone told the NPCs in the game that they were in a game, says Walton. The NPCs got really depressed and sad which made them feel surprisingly lifelike.

The first step in development is to make AI Dungeon faster and more stable, he says. After that he wants to add extra features like a multiplayer mode and a family-friendly version. (Right now, AI Dungeon works just fine as a fantasy porn role-playing game. Do with that information what you will.) And after that, Walton says he and his new colleagues have much bigger plans in the AI game world, but wont say what right now. Exploring the dungeon is only the beginning.

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Infinite text adventure AI Dungeon is now available on iOS and Android - The Verge

Using AI and data to drive diversity – Human Resource Executive

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Inclusion isn't just a buzzword but a business mandate, says Tolonda Tolbert.

With two decades of hands-on experience in D&I and culture change, Tolonda Tolbert knows how to put data into action. The co-founder and head of strategy and culture at Eskalera, Tolbert previously served as senior director of the Inclusive Leadership Initiative for Catalyst, partnering with global organizations to build their capacity to create and sustain inclusive workplaces. She has led anti-bias projects at the Anti-Defamation Leagues A World of Difference Institute and GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and has been a faculty member at New York Universitys Silver School of Social Work, teaching graduate and faculty courses on diversity, racism, oppression and privilege.

Tolbert was slated to speak at the Women in HR Technology Summit, part of the HR Technology Conference and Exposition, which recently was announced will be a virtual event, on unconscious bias. As a Black woman who identifies as LGBTQ with a multi-racial family, she has run up against walls and knows theyre not a figment of anyones imagination.

Related: Register now for the 2020 virtual HR Technology Conference

HRE:An inclusive culture requires fostering a sense of belonging so everyone thrives. What measures can leaders take to support all employeesespecially during these exceptional times?

Tolonda Tolbert

Tolbert: First, its important for leaders to understand the impact of a non-inclusive environment. Ultimately, when youre biased, youre processing talent out of the organization. The impact of that dynamic thwarts innovation and growth. If your employees dont feel safe and supported, they wont reach their maximum potential. On an individual level, neuroscience has established that being excluded registers as pain in the brain; we all are seeking acceptance and respect.

The most important measure a leader can take is to build trust with their people. Make employees feel safe to make mistakes without fear of retribution or being thrown under the bus. Create environments where feedback to employees respects different work styles and helps develop the employee rather than tear them down. And actively supporting those for whom the system wasnt created is important, as well as asking people to participate and being transparent about why inclusion is important.

Related: Are your WFH strategies biased?

HRE:Lets talk about how AI-based technology can drive diversity and inclusion. What early warning signs can be uncovered before valuable talent exits the workforce?

Tolbert: For early warning signs, technology can provide an ongoing, real-time feedback loop, rather than a once-a-year survey. Nurturing inclusion is a daily process and driving behavior changes can be done by giving people skills, tips and nudges that are integrated into their workday. D&I technology enables us to coach in the flow of work plus get feedback from employees without them having to raise their hand in an uncomfortable or whistle-blowing setting. The reality is that people are often more honest on technology with anonymityit can be more intimate. It enables you to identify hot spots in the organization to focus resources, while also highlighting which parts of your organization have strengths to model.

Theres another aspect that technology can identify and thats micro-moments. Micro-moments have a cumulative effectI call them death by 1,000 paper cutsthe actions and behaviors that erode a persons confidence and quality of relationships in the workplace. AI can give you insights into where there is an issue and how to solve the problem.

HRE:How pervasive do you think unconscious bias is, and what can women do about it?

Tolbert: Its real, and womenwomen of color even more sohave to navigate it daily. Women need to build influential relationships and strong networks. You need people who can help advise you, run cover for you, mentor you and mediate on your behalf. If a situation is unbearable, your network can help find a solution. By having a really strong networkand continually expanding that networkyou create a power dynamic that can mitigate the negative impact of unconscious bias.

In addition to building your network, you also need to develop skills of assertiveness. Part of that includes active listening and standing up for yourself in ways that are not going to exacerbate a situation negatively. Asking for specifics and data are well within reason; when you discuss your career path, demand clear job descriptions that clearly indicate what skills are needed. Put data into action; track your skills and experiences to qualify for leadership opportunities and inform your larger strategy.

Related: How AI is transforming talent management during COVID

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AI quickly cooks malware that AV software can’t spot The Register – The Register

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DEF CON Machine-learning tools can create custom malware that defeats antivirus software.

In a keynote demonstration at the DEF CON hacking convention Hyrum Anderson, technical director of data science at security shop Endgame, showed off research that his company had done in adapting Elon Musks OpenAI framework to the task of creating malware that security engines cant spot.

The system basically learns how to tweak malicious binaries so that they can slip past antivirus tools and continue to work once unpacked and executed. Changing small sequences of bytes can fool AV engines, even ones that are also powered by artificial intelligence, he said. Anderson cited research by Google and others to show how changing just a few pixels in an image can cause classification software to mistake a bus for an ostrich.

All machine learning models have blind spots, he said. Depending on how much knowledge a hacker has they can be convenient to exploit.

So the team built a fairly simple mechanism to develop weaponised code by making very small changes to malware and firing these variants at an antivirus file scanner. By monitoring the response from the engine they were able to make lots of tiny tweaks that proved very effective at crafting software nasties that could evade security sensors.

The malware-tweaking machine-learning software was trained over 15 hours and 100,000 iterations, and then lobbed some samples at an antivirus classifier. The attacking code was able to get 16 per cent of its customized samples past the security systems defenses, we're told.

This software-generation software will be online at the firms Github page and Anderson encouraged people to give it a try. No doubt security firms will also be taking a long look at how this affects their products in the future.

Sponsored: The Joy and Pain of Buying IT - Have Your Say

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Former President Donald Trump to travel to Iowa for pre-election rally – Des Moines Register

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  1. Former President Donald Trump to travel to Iowa for pre-election rally  Des Moines Register
  2. Former President Donald Trump to hold Ohio rally for J.D. Vance day before election  WLWT Cincinnati
  3. Donald Trump, JD Vance plan rally in Southwest Ohio ahead of midterm election  WCPO 9 Cincinnati
  4. Trump to stump for JD Vance at Ohio rally  WTVG
  5. Donald Trump, JD Vance holding rally in Ohio ahead of Election Day  WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Former President Donald Trump to travel to Iowa for pre-election rally - Des Moines Register

It’s Time to Reaffirm Our First Amendment Right to Boycott | News & Commentary | American Civil Liberties Union – ACLU

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  1. It's Time to Reaffirm Our First Amendment Right to Boycott | News & Commentary | American Civil Liberties Union  ACLU
  2. ACLU of Arkansas urging Supreme Court to hear case on First Amendment right to boycott  KATV
  3. ACLU asks supreme court to overturn Arkansas anti-boycott law against Israel  The Guardian US
  4. U.S. Court of Appeals Gets Case Involving Legality of Israel Boycotts  The Peoples Vanguard of Davis
  5. ACLU Urges SCOTUS To Affirm First Amendment Right To Boycott  Black Star News
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Church of Satan – Wikipedia

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International organization dedicated to the religion of Satanism

The Church of Satan is a religious organization dedicated to the religion of LaVeyan Satanism as codified in The Satanic Bible. The Church of Satan was established at the Black House in San Francisco, California, on Walpurgisnacht, April 30, 1966, by Anton Szandor LaVey, who was the church's High Priest until his death in 1997.[2] In 2001, Peter H. Gilmore was appointed to the position of high priest, and the church's headquarters were moved to Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City.

Members do not believe that Satan literally exists and do not worship him.[3] Instead, Satan is viewed as a positive archetype embracing the Hebrew root of the word "Satan" as "adversary", who represents pride, carnality, and enlightenment, and of a cosmos which Satanists perceive to be motivated by a "dark evolutionary force of entropy that permeates all of nature and provides the drive for survival and propagation inherent in all living things". The Devil is embraced as a symbol of defiance against the Abrahamic faiths which LaVey criticized for what he saw as the suppression of humanity's natural instincts. In his book, The Satanic Bible, the Satanist's concept of a god is described as the Satanist's true "self" a projection of his or her own personality, not an external deity. Satan is used as a representation of personal liberty and individualism.

The Church describes its structural basis as a cabal that is "an underground cell-system of individuals who share the basis of [our] philosophy".[citation needed] The Church rejects the legitimacy of any other organizations who claim to be Satanists.[7][8] Scholars agree that there is no reliably documented case of Satanic continuity prior to the founding of the Church of Satan. It was the first organized church in modern times to be devoted to the figure of Satan, and according to Faxneld and Petersen, the Church represented "the first public, highly visible, and long-lasting organization which propounded a coherent satanic discourse."

The church does not believe in or worship the Devil or a Christian notion of Satan.[12] High priest Peter Gilmore describes its members as "skeptical atheists", indicating the Hebrew root of the word "Satan" as "opposer" or "one who questions". Gilmore rejects the legitimacy of theistic Satanists, who believe Satan to be a supernatural being or force that may be contacted or supplicated to, dubbing them "devil worshipers".[12] In an interview with David Shankbone, High Priest Peter Gilmore stated "My real feeling is that anybody who believes in supernatural entities on some level is insane. Whether they believe in the Devil or God, they are abdicating reason".[13] Gilmore defines the word "Satan": "Satan is a model or a mode of behavior. Satan in Hebrew means 'adversary' or 'opposer'; one who questions."[13] Gilmore went on to add "Satanism begins with atheism. We begin with the universe and say, 'Its indifferent. Theres no God, theres no Devil. No one cares!'"[13] The church has stated its contention that they are the first formally organized religion to adopt the term "Satanism" and asserts that Satanism and the 'worship of Satan' are not congruent.[14] The term "Theistic Satanism" has been described as "oxymoronic" by the church and its High Priest.[15]

The fundamentals of the church's philosophy are synthesized in The Satanic Bible, as well as The Nine Satanic Statements,[16] The Nine Satanic Sins,[17] and The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth.[18]

In the 1960s Anton LaVey formed a group called the Order of the Trapezoid, which later became the governing body of the Church of Satan. The group included: "The Baroness" Carin de Plessen, Dr. Cecil Nixon, Kenneth Anger, City Assessor Russell Wolden, and Donald Werby.[19][20] According to the Church of Satan historiography, other LaVey associates from this time include noted science fiction and horror writers Anthony Boucher, August Derleth, Robert Barbour Johnson, Reginald Bretnor, Emil Petaja, Stuart Palmer, Clark Ashton Smith, Forrest J. Ackerman,[21] and Fritz Leiber Jr.[22]

In the first year of its foundation, Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan publicly performed a Satanic marriage of Judith Case and journalist John Raymond. The ceremony was attended by Joe Rosenthal. LaVey performed the first publicly recorded Satanic baptism in history for his youngest daughter Zeena, which garnered worldwide publicity and was originally recorded on The Satanic Mass LP.[23][24][25][26] A Satanic funeral for naval machinist-repairman, third-class Edward Olsen, was performed at the request of his wife, complete with a chrome-helmeted honor guard.[citation needed]

The Church of Satan was the subject of a number of books, magazine and newspaper articles during the 1960s and 1970s. It is also the subject of a documentary, Satanis (1970). LaVey appeared in Kenneth Anger's film Invocation of My Demon Brother, acted as technical adviser on The Devil's Rain, which starred Ernest Borgnine, William Shatner, and introduced John Travolta. The Church of Satan was also featured in a segment of Luigi Scattini's film Angeli Bianchi, Angeli Neri, released in the United States as Witchcraft '70.[citation needed]

In 1975 LaVey phased out the Church's "Grotto" system and eliminated people he thought were using the Church as a substitute for accomplishment in the outside world. Thereafter, conventional achievement in society would be the criterion for advancement within the Church of Satan. At the same time, LaVey became more selective in granting interviews. This shift to "closed door" activities resulted in some rumors of the Church's demise, and even rumors of LaVey's death.[citation needed]

In the 1980s the media reported concerns of criminal conspiracies within the Church of Satan. The FBI would later issue an official report refuting the criminal conspiracy theories of this time. This phenomenon became known as the "Satanic Panic". LaVey's daughter Zeena was the spokesperson and High Priestess in the Church of Satan during the 1980s.[27] During this period, she appeared on television and radio broadcasts, in part to educate about the Church, and in part to debunk the mythology surrounding the Satanic Panic a period of time in the same era in which Satanism was blamed for the actions of Satanic ritual abuse.[28]

From then until her renunciation of the Church of Satan in 1990, Zeena appeared in such nationally syndicated programs as The Phil Donahue Show, Nightline with Ted Koppel, Entertainment Tonight, The Late Show, Secrets & Mysteries and the Sally Jesse Raphael Show. The appearances were made at the behest of the Church of Satan as its spokesperson. She did this on behalf of her father Anton LaVey, who was no longer interested in making media appearances, as she stated while being interviewed alongside her husband by televangelist Bob Larson.[29]

In the 1980s and 1990s remaining members of the Church of Satan became active in media appearances to refute allegations of criminal activity. The Church of Satan and its members were very active in producing movies, music, films, and magazines devoted to Satanism. Most notably Adam Parfrey's Feral House publishing, the music of Boyd Rice, musician King Diamond, and the films of Nick Bougas (a.k.a. A. Wyatt Mann),[30][31] including his documentary Speak of the Devil: The Canon of Anton LaVey.[citation needed] The Church of Satan and Anton LaVey were also the subject of numerous magazine and news articles during this time.[citation needed]

After Anton Szandor LaVey's death on October 29, 1997, the role of High Priest was empty for some time. On November 7, 1997[32] Karla LaVey made a press release about continuing the church with fellow high priestess Blanche Barton. Barton eventually received ownership of the organization, which she held for 4 years. Karla LaVey ultimately left the Church of Satan and founded First Satanic Church.

In 2001, Blanche ceded her position to longtime members Peter H. Gilmore and Peggy Nadramia, the current High Priest and High Priestess and publishers of The Black Flame, the official magazine of The Church of Satan. The Central Office of the Church of Satan has also moved from San Francisco to New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, where the couple resides. The Church of Satan does not recognize any other organizations as holding legitimate claim to Satanism and its practice, though it does recognize that one need not be a member of the Church of Satan to be a Satanist.

As the Church of Satan does not publicly release membership information, it is not known how many members belong to the Church. However, according to an interview with the Church of Satan, "interest in the Church of Satan and Satanism is growing all the time if our mailboxes, answering and fax machines, and e-mail is any indication."[33]

In October 2004 the Royal Navy officially recognised its first registered Satanist, 24-year-old Chris Cranmer, as a technician aboard HMSCumberland.[34]

On June 6, 2006, the Church of Satan held the first public ritual Satanic Mass in 40 years at the Steve Allen Theater in the Center for Inquiry in Los Angeles. The ritual, based on the rites outlined in The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Rituals, was conducted by Reverend Bryan Moore and Priestess Heather Saenz.[35]

In December 2007 the Associated Press reported on a story concerning the Church of Satan, in which a teenager had sent an email to High Priest Gilmore stating he wanted to "kill in the name of our unholy lord Satan". Gilmore then reported the message to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who informed local police, who arrested the teenager.[36]

The Church of Satan claims they do not solicit memberships nor proselytize. Individuals seeking membership must be legally defined as adults in their nation of residence. The only exception made is for children of members who demonstrate an understanding of the Church philosophy and practices who wish to join. Their participation is limited until they reach legal adulthood.[citation needed]

Active Members begin at the First Degree. One must apply and be approved for an Active Membership, and this is subject to one's answers to a lengthy series of questions. One cannot apply for higher Degrees, and the requirements for each degree are not open to the public. Promotion to a higher degree is by invitation only. Members of the Third through Fifth degrees constitute the Priesthood and may be addressed as "Reverend" (although the titles of "Magister/Magistra" and "Magus/Maga" are more often used when referring to members of the Fourth and Fifth Degrees, respectively). Members of the Fifth degree may also be known as "Doctor", although "The Doctor" usually refers to LaVey. Memberships may be terminated at the discretion of the ruling body of the Church of Satan consisting of the High Priest, the High Priestess and the Council of Nine.[citation needed]

The church emphasizes that one does not have to join the organization to consider themselves a Satanist, and that one only needs to recognize themselves in The Satanic Bible and live according to the tenets outlined therein.[citation needed]

As the Church of Satan does not publicly release membership information, it is not known how many members belong to the Church. However, according to an interview with the Church of Satan, "interest in the Church of Satan and Satanism is growing all the time if our mailboxes, answering and fax machines, and e-mail is any indication."[33]

The church follows a formulated system of degrees based on meritocracy. These degrees are not open to application or to request and are only awarded to those who demonstrate excellence in the understanding and communication of Satanic Theory coupled with personal achievements in the outside world.[37]

These degrees are:

Agents of the Church of Satan are individuals who have been trained to serve as contacts for local media and other interested parties.[37]

Members of the Priesthood make up the Council of Nine, which is the ruling body of the Church of Satan, of which Magistra Templi Rex Blanche Barton is the chairmistress. Individuals who are part of the priesthood are those who act as spokespersons of the Church of Satan. The priesthood is exclusive to third, fourth, and fifth degree members. Members of the priesthood may be referred to as "reverend".[37] The High Priest and Priestess act as administrative chiefs and primary public representatives; each position (High Priest and High Priestess) is held by a single individual at a time. The current High Priest is Peter H. Gilmore,[38] the current High Priestess is Peggy Nadramia.[39]

The Church of Satan evaluates active members for the Priesthood by their accomplishment in societymastered skills and peer recognition within a professionrather than by mastery of irrelevant occult trivia. While expected to be experts in communicating the Satanic philosophy, members of the Priesthood are not required to speak on behalf of the Church of Satan, and may even choose to keep their affiliation and rank secret in order to better serve their personal goals, as well as those of the organization. Membership in the Priesthood is by invitation only.

Within Satanism, a Grotto is a clandestine association or gathering of Satanists within geographical proximity for means of social, ritual, and special interest activities.[40] The Church of Satan no longer formally recognizes or charters grottos.[41] The primary reason for the end of the Grotto system is that only a small minority of members ever participated. This was further compounded by the fact that a publicly listed Grotto defeated the ability to remain secret and unknown to the larger populace. The Grotto system was in practice replaced by social media, private online forums, and other methods for members to interact with one another outside of the need for a so-called Grotto Master and annual reports to the central office of the Church of Satan.[42]

On June 6, 2006, the Church of Satan conducted a Satanic High Mass at the Center for Inquiry West's Steve Allen Theater in Los Angeles, California. The event was by invitation only, and over one hundred members of the Church of Satan from around the world filled the theatre to capacity. The event was documented, and many members of the Church of Satan were interviewed, by the BBC with permission.,[43] The main ritual, based on the rites outlined in The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Rituals, was conducted by Reverend Bryan Moore and Priestess Heather Saenz.[35][44] The music for the mass was created and performed by Lustmord and was subsequently released on his album Rising.[45]

The Church does not formally advocate any one political party or ideology, nor does the Church as an organization collectively lobby for any political ends.[46] In his essay "A Map for the Misdirected", high priest Peter H. Gilmore stated,

As has been said many times before, ones politics are up to each individual member, and most of our members are political pragmatists. They support political candidates and movements whose goals reflect their own practical needs and desires. Our members span an amazing political spectrum, which includes but is not limited to: Libertarians, Liberals, Conservatives, Republicans, Democrats, Reform Party members, Independents, Capitalists, Socialists, Communists, Stalinists, Leninists, Trotskyites, Maoists, Zionists, Monarchists, Fascists, Anarchists, and just about anything else you could possibly imagine. It is up to each member to apply Satanism and determine what political means will reach his/her ends, and they are each solely responsible for this decision. Freedom and responsibilitymust be a novel concept for those who arent Satanists. We take it in stride. Members who demand conformity from other members to their particular political fetish are welcomed to depart.[47]

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Church of Satan - Wikipedia

Big Tech tumbles as results set off alarm bells – Reuters

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  1. Big Tech tumbles as results set off alarm bells  Reuters
  2. Techs Biggest Companies Are Sending Worrying Signals About the Economy  The New York Times
  3. This Week's Big Tech Earnings: Meta Platforms Reports  The Wall Street Journal
  4. Big Tech Sees Big Declines, With Big Names Apple and Amazon Still to Come  RealMoney
  5. U.S. Stocks Mixed as Big Tech Outlooks Spark Growth Fears  Yahoo Finance
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Big Tech tumbles as results set off alarm bells - Reuters

Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War – Wikipedia

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Allegations of US biological warfare

Allegations that the United States military used biological weapons in the Korean War (June 1950 July 1953) were raised by the governments of People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union, and North Korea. The claims were first raised in 1951. The story was covered by the worldwide press and led to a highly publicized international investigation in 1952. Secretary of State Dean Acheson and other American and allied government officials denounced the allegations as a hoax. Subsequent scholars are split about the truth of the claims.

Until the end of World War II, Japan operated a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit called Unit 731 in Harbin (now China). The unit's activities, including human experimentation, were documented by the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials conducted by the Soviet Union in December 1949. However, at that time, the US government described the Khabarovsk trials as "vicious and unfounded propaganda".[1] It was later revealed that the accusations made against the Japanese military were correct. The US government had taken over the research at the end of the war and had then covered up the program.[2] Leaders of Unit 731 were exempted from war crimes prosecution by the United States and then placed on the payroll of the US.[3]

On 30 June 1950, soon after the outbreak of the Korean War, the US Defense Secretary George Marshall received the Report of the Committee on Chemical, Biological and Radiological Warfare and Recommendations, which advocated urgent development of a biological weapons program.[4] The biological weapons research facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland was expanded, and a new one in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was developed.[5]

During 1951, as the war turned against the United States, the Chinese and North Koreans made vague allegations of biological warfare, but these were not pursued.[6][7][8] General Matthew Ridgway, United Nations Commander in Korea, denounced the initial charges as early as May 1951. He accused the communists of spreading "deliberate lies". A few days later, Vice Admiral Charles Turner Joy repeated the denials.[8]

On 28 January 1952, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army headquarters received a report of a smallpox outbreak southeast of Incheon. From February to March 1952, more bulletins reported disease outbreaks in the area of Chorwon, Pyongyang, Kimhwa and even Manchuria.[9] The Chinese soon became concerned when 13 Korean and 16 Chinese soldiers contracted cholera and the plague, while another 44 recently deceased were tested positive for meningitis.[10] Although the Chinese and the North Koreans did not know exactly how the soldiers contracted the diseases, the suspicions soon fell on the Americans.[9]

On 22 February 1952, the North Korean Foreign Minister, Bak Hon Yon, made a formal allegation that American planes had been dropping infected insects onto North Korea. He added that the Americans were "openly collaborating with the Japanese bacteriological war criminals, the former jackals of the Japanese militarists whose crimes are attested to by irrefutable evidence. Among the Japanese war criminals sent to Korea were Shiro Ishii, Jiro Wakamatsu and Masajo Kitano."[11][unreliable source] Bak's accusations were immediately denied by the US government. The accusation was supported by eye-witness accounts by the Australian reporter Wilfred Burchett and others.[12][13]

In June 1952 the United States proposed to the United Nations Security Council that the Council request the International Red Cross investigate the allegations. The Soviet Union vetoed the American resolution due to extensive US influence inside the Red Cross, and, along with its allies, continued to insist on the veracity of the biological warfare accusations.[8]

In February 1953, China and North Korea produced two captured US Marine Corps pilots to support the allegations. Colonel Frank Schwable was reported to have stated that: "The basic objective was at that time to get under field conditions various elements of bacteriological warfare and possibly expand field tests at a later date into an element of regular combat operations."[8] Schwable's statement said that B-29s flew biological warfare missions to Korea from airfields in American-occupied Okinawa starting in November 1951.[14] Schwable's statement was obtained following months of torture and abuse at the hands of his captors, according to the US military.[15] Other captured Americans such as Colonel Walker "Bud" Mahurin made similar statements.[8][15]

Upon release the prisoners of war repudiated their confessions which they said had been extracted by torture.[16] However, the retractions happened in front of military cameras after the United States government threatened to charge the POWs with treason for cooperating with their captors.[citation needed] When Kenneth Enoch, one of the former POWs who retracted his confession, was tracked down in 2010 by Al Jazeera reporters he denied being ill-treated or indoctrinated by the North Korean or Chinese guards.[17]

When the International Red Cross and the World Health Organization ruled out biological warfare, the Chinese government denounced them as being biased by the influence of US, and arranged an investigation by the Soviet-affiliated World Peace Council.[18][19] The World Peace Council set up the "International Scientific Commission for the Facts Concerning Bacterial Warfare in China and Korea" (ISC). This commission had several distinguished scientists and doctors from France, Italy, Sweden, Brazil and Soviet Union, including renowned British biochemist and sinologist Joseph Needham. The commission's findings included dozens of eyewitnesses, testimonies from doctors, medical samples from the deceased, bomb casings as well as four American Korean War prisoners who confirmed the US use of biological warfare.[20][21][18] On 15 September 1952, the final report was signed, stating that the US was experimenting with biological weapons in Korea.[20][22]

The report suggested a link to the World War II Japanese germ warfare Unit 731.[20][23] Former Unit 731 members Shir Ishii, Masaji Kitano, and Ryoichi Naito, and other Japanese biological warfare experts were often named in the allegations.[8] Former members of Unit 731 were linked initially, by a Communist news agency, to a freighter that allegedly carried them and all equipment necessary to mount a biological warfare campaign to Korea in 1951.[8] The commission placed credence on allegations that Ishii made two visits to South Korea in early 1952, and another one in March 1953.[8] The official consensus in China was that biological weapons created from an American-Japanese collaboration were used in the Korean episode.[24][8] Citing the claims Ishii had visited South Korea, the report stated: "Whether occupation authorities in Japan had fostered his activities, and whether the American Far Eastern Command was engaged in making use of methods essentially Japanese, were questions which could hardly have been absent from the minds of members of the Commission."[25]

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) publicized these claims in its 1952 "Report on U.S. Crimes in Korea",[26] as did US journalist John W. Powell.[27]

The Communists also alleged that US Brigadier General Crawford Sams had carried out a secret mission behind their lines at Wonsan in March 1951, testing biological weapons.[28] The US government said that he had actually been investigating a reported outbreak of bubonic plague in North Korea, but had determined it was hemorrhagic smallpox. Sams' mission had been launched from the US Navy's LCI(L)-1091, which had been converted to a laboratory ship in 1951.[29] During its time in Korea, the ship was assigned as an epidemiological control ship[30] for Fleet Epidemic Disease Control Unit No. 1, a part of the US effort to combat malaria in Korea.[31] After covert missions in North Korea, from October to September 1951, LSIL-1091 was at Koje-do testing residents and refugees for malaria.[32]

Some authors have emphasized Sams' relationship with biological warfare actors, which both China and North Korea found suspicious. According to Japanese historian, Takemae Eiji, Sams had a relationship with the former members of Imperial Japan's biological warfare department, Unit 731. Appointed by General MacArthur as the head of the post-war Occupation government's Public Health & Welfare Section, Sams was instrumental in founding Japan's National Institute of Health, whose first deputy director, Kojima Sabur, was an Ishii associate. Sabur then recruited other former former Unit 731 personnel for the new Institute. According to Eiji, "Sams and others in PH&W not only knew of these men's sordid pasts but actively solicited their cooperation to further PH&W goals.... Sams and his staff became, in effect, co-conspirators after the fact in those wartime crimes".[33]

The US and its allies responded by describing the allegations as a hoax.[12] The US government declared the IADL to be a Communist front organization since 1950, and charged Powell with sedition.[27][34][35] In a highly publicized 1959 trial, Powell was indicted on 13 counts of sedition for reporting on the allegations, while two of his editors were indicted on one count of sedition each. All charges were dropped after the trial ended in mistrial after five years. However, Powell was then blacklisted and thereafter unable to secure work as a journalist for the rest of his life.[27]

According to news reports during the trial, the U.S. Attorney in the case, James B. Schnake, submitted an affidavit in which he stated the U.S. government was prepared to stipulate "that during the period Jan. 1, 1949, through July 27, 1953, the United States Army had a capability to wage both chemical and biological warfare offensively and defensively.... Responsible officials in the Department of Defense have determined the revelations of detailed records on this subject would be highly detrimental to the national security."[36]

American authorities long denied the charges of postwar Japanese-United States cooperation in biological warfare developments, despite later incontrovertible proof that the US pardoned Unit 731 in exchange for their research, according to Sheldon H. Harris.[8] But in December 1998, in a letter from Department of Justice official Eli Rosenbaum to Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a U.S. government official admitted that the U.S. had made an amnesty agreement with Shiro Ishii and personnel from Unit 731, despite known crimes committed by Ishii and associates concerning illegal human experimentation. The letter wasn't made public until published by Jeffrey Kaye in May 2017.[37][unreliable source]

Australian journalist, Denis Warner, suggested that the story was concocted by Wilfred Burchett as part of his alleged role as a KGB agent of influence. Warner pointed out the similarity of the allegations to a science fiction story by Jack London, a favorite author of Burchett's.[38] However, the notion that Burchett originated the "hoax" has been decisively refuted by one of his most trenchant critics, Tibor Mray.[39] Mray worked as a correspondent for the Hungarian People's Republic during the war but fled the country after the abortive Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Now a staunch anti-Communist, he has confirmed that he saw clusters of flies crawling on ice.[40] Mray has argued the evidence was the result of an elaborate conspiracy: "Now somehow or other these flies must have been brought there... the work must have been carried out by a large network covering the whole of North Korea."[41]

Recent research has indicated that, regardless of the accuracy of the allegations, the Chinese acted as if they were true.[9] After learning of the outbreaks, Mao Zedong immediately requested Soviet assistance on disease preventions, while the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Logistics Department was mobilized for anti-bacteriological warfare.[42] On the Korean battlefield, four anti-bacteriological warfare research centers were soon set up, while about 5.8 million doses of vaccine and 200,000 gas masks were delivered to the front.[43] Within China, 66 quarantine stations were also set up along the Chinese borders, while about 5 million Chinese in Manchuria were inoculated.[42] The Chinese government also initiated the "Patriotic Health and Epidemic Prevention Campaign" and directed every citizen to kill flies, mosquitoes and fleas.[42] These disease prevention measures soon resulted in an improvement of health for Communist soldiers on the Korean battlefield.[43] Tibor Mray provided eyewitness account of North Korea conducting an "unprecedented campaign of public health" during the allegation.[44]

Some historians have offered other explanations to the disease outbreaks during the spring of 1952. For example, it has been noted that spring time is usually a period of epidemics within China and North Korea,[42] and years of warfare had also caused a breakdown in the Korean health care system. US military historians have argued that under these circumstances, diseases could easily spread throughout the entire military and civilian populations within Korea.[45][46]

In 1986, Australian historian Gavan McCormack argued that the claim of US biological warfare use was "far from inherently implausible", pointing out that one of the POWs who confessed, Walker Mahurin, was in fact associated with Fort Detrick.[47] He also pointed out that, as the deployment of nuclear and chemical weapons was considered, there is no reason to believe that ethical principles would have overruled the resort to biological warfare.[48] He also suggested that the outbreak in 1951 of viral haemorrhagic fever, which had previously been unknown in Korea, was linked to biological warfare.[49] However, by 2004, McCormack had changed his mind. In a book about North Korea, he wrote that the alleged Soviet archival documents published by Kathryn Weathersby and Milton Leitenberg in 1998 (see discussion in section on "Endicott and Hagerman" below) had provided a fragmentary, but persuasive, explanation of what had actually happened in relation to the germ warfare charges. According to McCormack, Analysis of these documents makes it seem almost certain that there was a vigorous, complex, contrived, and fraudulent international campaign on the part of the North Koreans, the Chinese, and the Russians a gigantic fraud.[50]

In a 1988 book Korea: The Unknown War, historians Jon Halliday and Bruce Cumings also suggested the claims might be true.[51][52] They questioned whether the North Koreans and the Chinese could have "mounted a spectacular piece of fraudulent theater, involving the mobilization of thousands", getting scores of Chinese doctors, scientists, and senior officials "to fake evidence, lie and invent medical fraud", allocating much of their already stretched logistical resource to defend against biological warfare, all for a propaganda campaign against US.[52]

In 1989, a British study of Unit 731 strongly supported the theory of United StatesJapanese biological warfare culpability in Korea.[8]

In 1995, using available Chinese documents, historian Shu Guang Zhang of the University of Maryland[53] stated that there is little, if any information that currently exists on the Chinese side which explains how the Chinese scientists came up with the conclusion of US biological warfare during the disease outbreak in the spring of 1952. Zhang further theorized that the allegation was caused by unfounded rumors and scientific investigations on the allegation was purposely ignored on the Chinese side for the sake of domestic and international propaganda.[54]

Published in Japan in 2001, the book Rikugun Noborito Kenkyujo no shinjitsu or The Truth About the Army Noborito Institute stated that members of Japan's Unit 731 also worked for the "chemical section" of a US clandestine unit hidden within Yokosuka Naval Base during the Korean War as well as on projects inside the United States from 1955 to 1959.[55]

According to Jeffrey Kaye's interpretation of a "Memorandum of Conversation" from the Psychological Strategy Board (PSB) dated 6 July 1953 (and declassified and released by the CIA in 2006),[56] the US protestations at the United Nations did not mean the US was serious about conducting any investigation into biological warfare charges, despite what the government said publicly. The reason the US didn't want any investigation was because an "actual investigation" would reveal military operations, "which, if revealed, could do us psychological as well as military damage". The memorandum, which had been sent to CIA director Allen Dulles, specifically stated as an example of what could be revealed "Eighth Army preparations or operations (e.g. chemical warfare)."[57][unreliable source?]

Investigative journalist Simon Winchester concluded in 2008 that Soviet intelligence was sceptical of the allegation, but that North Korea leader Kim Il Sung believed it.[58] Winchester said the question "has still not been satisfactorily answered".[59]

Entomologist Jeffrey A. Lockwood wrote in 2009 that the biological warfare program at Ft. Detrick began to research the use of insects as disease vectors going back to World War II and also employed German and Japanese scientists after the war who had experimented on human subjects among POWs and concentration camp inmates. Scientists used or attempted to use a wide variety of insects in their biowar plans, including fleas, ticks, ants, lice and mosquitoes especially mosquitoes that carried the yellow fever virus. They also tested these in the United States. Lockwood thinks that it is very likely that the US did use insects dropped from aircraft during the Korean War to spread diseases, and that the Chinese and North Koreans were not simply engaged in a propaganda campaign when they made these allegations, since the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense had approved their use in the fall of 1950 at the "earliest practicable time". At that time, it had five biowarfare agents ready for use, three of which were spread by insect vectors.[60]

In March 2010, the allegations were investigated by the Al Jazeera English news program People & Power.[61] In this program, Professor Mori Masataka investigated historical artifacts in the form of bomb casings from US biological weapons, contemporary documentary evidence and eyewitness testimonies. The program also uncovered a crucial document in the US National Archives which showed that in September 1951, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff issued orders to start "large scale field tests ... to determine the effectiveness of specific BW [bacteriological warfare] agents under operational conditions".[61] Masataka concluded that: "Use of germ weapons in war is in breach of the Geneva Convention. I think that's why the Americans are refusing to admit the allegations. But I have no doubt. I'm absolutely sure that this happened.[61] The program concluded by noting that no conclusive evidence of the US's innocence or culpability has ever been presented.[61]

Yanhuang Chunqiu, a liberal monthly journal in China, published an account in 2013 allegedly from Wu Zhili, the former surgeon general of Chinese People's Voluntary Army Logistic Department, which said that the bio warfare allegation was a false alarm, and that he had been forced to fabricate evidence.[62][63][64] This account was published after the author's death in 2008. Its authenticity subsequently has been called into question by the Chinese Memorial of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea as unverifiable, because every single figure involved in the alleged private conversations and insider events from the account who could testify otherwise, had died before the date of publication.[65] The museum also refuted the account's claim that "not one casualty resulted from events associated with biological warfare" as there are many clear records of such casualties, and claimed that it's implausible for a meager medical officer back then to have the technical knowledge to fool dozens of international medical experts signing the ISC report.[65]

In 2019, the Pyongyang Times repeated the allegation, and said that the US government was continuing to develop biological warfare capabilities to use against North Korea.[66]

In 1998, Canadian researchers and historians Stephen L. Endicott and Edward Hagerman of York University made the case that the accusations were true in their book, The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets from the Early Cold War and Korea.[67] Shanghai-born Endicott, a Communist sympathizer, was the son of clergyman James Gareth Endicott, a prominent member of the Soviet-affiliated World Peace Council.[citation needed]

The book received mostly positive reviews, but with some negative criticism, with a US Military Academy professor calling the book an example of "bad history"[68] and with another review in The New York Times calling the book's lack of direct evidence "appalling",[69] although neither of these two negative reviews considers either the admissions that the US deployed chemical and biological weapons by Colonels Schwable and Mahurin, or the US chemical and biological weapons caches at locations such as Camp Detrick.

Many other reviews praised the research, with the director of East Asian studies at University of Pennsylvania saying "Endicott and Hagerman is far and away the most authoritative work on the subject", a review in Korean Quarterly calling it "a fascinating work of serious scholarship...presenting a compelling argument that the United States did, in fact, secretly experiment with biological weapons during the Korean War", and a review in The Nation calling it "the most impressive, expertly researched and, as far as the official files allow, the best-documented case for the prosecution yet made".[68] A staff writer at state-owned China Daily noted that their book was the only one to have combined research across United States, Japan, Canada, Europe and China, as they were "the first foreigners to be given access to classified documents in the Chinese Central Archives".[68]

In response, Kathryn Weathersby and Milton Leitenberg of the Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center released a cache of Soviet and Chinese documents in 1998 that they said revealed the allegations to have been an elaborate disinformation campaign.[70] The handcopied documents are purportedly from Russian Presidential Archive, discovered by a Japanese reporter Yasuo Naito of Sankei Shimbun, a major conservative anti-communist Japanese national newspaper. Weathersby admitted that due to the way the documents are collected, there is no way to confirm their authenticity as seals, stamps or signature are missing, but due to their complexity and interwoven content, they are "extremely difficult to forge" and thus credible sources.[70] They said that North Korea's health minister traveled in 1952 to the remote Manchurian city of Mukden where he procured a culture of plague bacilli which was used to infect condemned criminals as part of an elaborate disinformation scheme. Tissue samples were then used to fool the international investigators. The papers included telegrams and reports of meetings among Soviet and Chinese leaders, including Mao Zedong. A report to Lavrenti Beria, head of Soviet intelligence, for example, stated: "False plague regions were created, burials... were organized, measures were taken to receive the plague and cholera bacillus." These documents revealed that only after Stalin's death the following year did the Soviet Union halt the disinformation campaign.[71] Weathersby and Leitenberg consider their evidence to be conclusivethat the allegations were disinformation and no biological warfare use occurred.[72][73][74] In 2001, anti-communist writer Herbert Romerstein supported Weathersby and Leitenberg's position while criticizing Endicott's research on the basis that it is based on accounts provided by the Chinese government.[75]

In turn, Endicott and Hagerman responded to Weathersby and Leitenberg, noting that the documents are in fact handwritten copies and "the original source is not disclosed, the name of the collection is not identified, nor is there a volume number which would allow other scholars to locate and check the documents". They claimed that even if genuine the documents do not prove the United States did not use biological weapons, and they pointed out various errors and inconsistencies in Weathersby and Leitenberg's analysis.[76] According to Australian author and judge, Michael Pembroke, the documents associated with Beria (published by Weathersby and Leitenberg) were mostly created during the time of the power struggle after Stalin's death and are therefore questionable.[77] In 2018, he concluded that: "It seems likely that the full story of the United States' involvement in biological warfare in Korea has not yet been told."[78]

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Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War - Wikipedia

GERM WARFARE: Boston University claims to have developed new covid …

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GERM WARFARE: Boston University claims to have developed new covid strain that kills eight out of 10 victims

Are the powers that be planning to unleash another more deadly strain of the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19)? New research out of Boston University seems to suggest so.

Scientists there claim to have just developed a new Omicron-S spike protein virus that upon infection kills 80 percent of its victims. Such a bioweapon, assuming it really exists, is far worse than what was announced in late 2019 and early 2020.

Researchers claim they had to conduct this dangerous research to figure out what makes the Omicron, or Moronic, variant of the Fauci Flu as transmissible as it allegedly is. Tony Faucis National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) helped fund the project, as did the National Institutes of Health (NIH). (Related: Remember when the Moronic variant was suspected to be the solution to covid?)

We are told that this new-and-improved death virus is five times more infectious than the original Moronic variant. Here is what a pre-print of the study states:

The Omicron spike (S) protein, with an unusually large number of mutations, is considered the major driver of these phenotypes. We generated chimeric recombinant SARS-CoV-2 encoding the S gene of Omicron in the backbone of an ancestral SARS-CoV-2 isolate and compared this virus with the naturally circulating Omicron variant.

You might be asking yourself at this point in time how a new alleged covid virus was able to be created in the United States if not for the use of gain of function technology, which is illegal? And more importantly, why is the NIAID and NIH funding it?

We continue to be told that gain of function research was not taking place in communist China where the original Chinese Virus originated, let alone right here in one of Americas old cities. What is really going on here?

How many times did virologists say they were not making chimeric SARS viruses more deadly? How many??? asked Paul D. Thacker on Twitter.

Latest preprint shows they made a chimeric SARS-CoV-2 w / Omicron S gene and ancestral SARS-CoV-2 backbone that showed 80% mortality in humanised mice.

We know from the paper itself, which has not been peer reviewed, that the spike protein in this new chimeric virus is not only highly infectious but also changes to other parts of its structure, which accounts for its deadliness.

Compared to the original Moronic strain, this newest Moronic strain produces five times more viral particles, we are told.

In in vitro infection assays, the Omicron spike-bearing ancestral SARS-CoV-2 (Omi-S) exhibits much higher replication efficiency compared with Omicron, the paper further explains.

Similarly, in K18-hACE2 mice, Omi-S contrasts with non-fatal Omicron and causes a severe disease leading to around 80% mortality. This suggests that mutations outside of spike are major determinants of the attenuated pathogenicity of Omicron in K18-hACE2 mice. Further studies are needed to identify those mutations and decipher their mechanisms of action.

The claim is that, despite its deadliness in mice, the new Omi-S strain of Chinese Germs is unlikely to be this deadly in humans.

Researchers at Boston University need to be locked up for violating national and international law by experimenting with bioweapons, noted a commenter on a story about the new research.

The death cult is not satisfied with the current mortality rate, responded another.

The latest news about the never-ending Chinese Virus merry-go-round of mass deception can be found at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

NaturalNews.com

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Casino (1995 film) – Wikipedia

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1995 film directed by Martin Scorsese

Casino is a 1995 American epic crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Barbara De Fina and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is based on the 1995 nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas[3] by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay along with Scorsese. It stars Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak and James Woods. The film was the eighth collaboration between director Scorsese and De Niro.

Casino follows Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro), a Jewish American gambling expert handicapper who is asked by the Chicago Outfit to oversee the day-to-day casino and hotel operations at the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. Other major characters include Nicky Santoro (Pesci), a "made man" and friend of Sam, and Ginger McKenna (Stone), a streetwise chip hustler who Sam marries and has a daughter with. The film details Sam's operation of the casino, the difficulties he confronts in his job, the Mafia's involvement with the casino, and the gradual breakdown of his relationships and standing, as Las Vegas changes over the years.

The primary characters are based on real people: Sam is inspired by the life of Frank Rosenthal, also known as "Lefty," who ran the Stardust, Fremont, Marina, and Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit from 1968 until 1981. Nicky and Ginger are based on mob enforcer Anthony Spilotro and former dancer and socialite Geri McGee, respectively.

Casino was released on November 22, 1995, by Universal Pictures, to a mostly positive critical reception, and was a worldwide box office success. Stone's performance was singled out for acclaim, earning her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. As of 2017, the film holds the record the most dialogue in a film, with 67,618 spoken words in its screenplay (7-times the amount of the average movie).[4]

In 1972, sports handicapper and Mafia associate Sam "Ace" Rothstein is sent by the Chicago Mafia to Las Vegas to run the Tangiers Casino. Front man Philip Green serves as the casino and hotel CEO, but Sam unofficially runs everything. Sam quickly doubles the casino's profits, with cash skimmed directly from the count room and delivered to the Midwest Mafia bosses. Chicago boss Remo Gaggi sends Sam's childhood friend and mob enforcer Nicky Santoro to protect Sam and the casino. Nicky makes sure everyone is kept in line, but his own criminal activities start drawing too much media and law enforcement attention. He recruits his younger brother Dominick and childhood friend Frankie Marino to gather a crew that specializes in shakedowns, burglaries and jewelry heists. Nicky is eventually placed in the Nevada Black Book, banning him from every casino in Nevada.

Sam meets and falls in love with beautiful hustler and former prostitute Ginger McKenna. In 1969 they have a daughter, Amy, and marry, but their marriage is quickly thrown into turmoil due to Ginger's relationship with her longtime boyfriend, con artist Lester Diamond. Sam has Nicky's crew beat Lester when they catch him accepting $25,000 from her. In the mid-1970s, Ginger's problems intensify as she turns to drugs and alcohol.

In 1976, Sam fires slot manager Don Ward for incompetence. When Ward's brother-in-law, Clark County Commission chairman Pat Webb, fails to convince Sam to rehire Don, Webb arranges for Sam's gaming license to be denied, jeopardizing his position. Sam starts hosting a local television talk show from inside the casino, irritating both Nicky and the bosses back home for making himself such a public figure and bringing unneeded attention. Sam blames Nicky's recklessness for ongoing police and Nevada Gaming Board pressure, and the two argue furiously in the Mojave Desert after Sam tries to tell Nicky to leave Las Vegas.

When the Midwest bosses discover that people on the inside are stealing from their skim, they install incompetent Kansas City underboss Artie Piscano to oversee the operation. Piscano ends up keeping detailed written records of the operation. Additionally, an FBI bug placed in Piscano's store for a separate crime catches him talking in detail about the skim, prompting a full investigation into the Tangiers Casino.

In 1980 Sam seeks to divorce Ginger, who kidnaps their daughter, planning to flee to Europe with her and Lester. Sam convinces Ginger to return with Amy, then overhears her planning on the phone to kill him. Sam kicks her out of their home but later relents and lets her back in. Ginger approaches Nicky to get her valuables from Sam's safe deposit box, and the two start an affair. Sam soon discovers the affair and confronts and disowns Ginger, and ends his friendship with Nicky. Nicky throws Ginger out when she demands that he kill Sam. Drunk and furious, Ginger crashes her car into Sam's in the driveway the next day and retrieves the key to their deposit box. She takes the contents of the box, but is arrested by the FBI as a witness.

In 1982, the FBI closes the casino and Green agrees to cooperate. Piscano dies of a heart attack when FBI agents discover his notebook. The FBI approaches Sam for help by showing him photos of Nicky and Ginger together, but he turns them down. The bosses are arrested and get ready for trial, and start arranging the murders of anyone who might testify against them. In 1983, Ginger dies of a drug overdose, and Sam barely escapes death by a car bomb, suspecting Nicky to be the culprit.

In 1986, the bosses, finally fed up with Nicky's recklessness, order Frankie and his crew to kill Nicky and Dominick. Under the impression that they are attending a meetup in an Illinois cornfield, they are brutally beaten with baseball bats, covered in quicklime, and buried alive in a shallow grave.

With the mafia now out of the casino industry, Sam laments the new impersonal, corporate-run resorts of Las Vegas. He is last seen working as a sports handicapper in San Diego, ending up in his own words, "right back where I started".

Casino is based on New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi's book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. The research for Casino began when news reporter and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi read a 1980 report from the Las Vegas Sun about a domestic argument between Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, a casino figure, and his wife Geri McGee, a former topless dancer.[5] This gave him an idea to focus on a new book about the true story of mob infringement in Las Vegas during the 1970s, when filming of Goodfellas (whose screenplay he co-wrote with Scorsese) was coming to an end.[6] The fictional Tangiers resort reflected the story of the Stardust Resort and Casino, which had been bought by Argent Corporation in 1974 using loans from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. Argent was owned by Allen Glick, but the casino was believed to be controlled by various organized crime families from the Midwest. Over the next six years, Argent Corporation siphoned off between $7 and $15 million using rigged scales. This skimming operation, when uncovered by the FBI, was the largest ever exposed.[7] A number of organized crime figures were convicted as a result of the skimming.[8]

Pileggi contacted Scorsese about taking the lead of the project, which became known as Casino.[5] Scorsese expressed interest, calling this an "idea of success, no limits."[9] Pileggi was keen to release the book and then concentrate on a film adaptation, but Scorsese encouraged him to "reverse the order."[10]

Scorsese and Pileggi collaborated on the script for five months, towards the end of 1994.[6] Real-life characters were reshaped, such as Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, Geri McGee, Anthony Spilotro, and Spilotro's brother Michael. Some characters were combined, and parts of the story were set in Kansas City instead of Chicago. A problem emerged when they were forced to refer to Chicago as "back home" and use the words "adapted from a true story" instead of "based on a true story."[9] Real life mobster turned witness Frank Cullotta inspired the character Frank Marino (played by Frank Vincent),[11] served as a technical advisor for the film,[12] and also played an on-screen role as a hitman.[13][14]

They also decided to simplify the script, so that the character of Sam "Ace" Rothstein worked only at the Tangiers Casino, in order to show a glimpse of the trials involved in operating a Mafia-run casino hotel without overwhelming the audience.[9] According to Scorsese, the initial opening sequence was to feature the main character, Sam Rothstein, fighting with his estranged wife Ginger on the lawn of their house. The scene was too detailed, so they changed the sequence to show the explosion of Sam's car and him flying into the air before hovering over the flames in slow motionlike a soul about to go straight down to hell.[9]

Filming took place at night in the Riviera casino in Las Vegas, with the nearby defunct Landmark Hotel as the entrance, to replicate the fictional Tangiers. According to the producer Barbara De Fina, there was no point in building a set if the cost were the same to use a real-life one.[9] The opening scene, with Sam's car exploding, was shot three times; the third take was used for the film.[9] Saul Bass did the title sequence, which was his last work.[15] The total cost for the titles was a whopping $11,316, not including the fees for the Basses. Bass justified the cost to De Fina by noting that creating a continuous explosion from a second shot of an explosion demanded a lot of experimentation, as did getting the flight path of the body exactly right.[16] When first submitted to the MPAA, the film received an NC-17 rating due to its depictions of violence. Several edits were made in order to reduce the rating to R.[17]

The film was shot in the Super 35 format as it allowed the picture to be reformatted for television broadcast. Scorsese said, "I wish I could just shoot straight anamorphic, but the lenses we had in this situation were actually much more diversified. To a certain extent, shooting a film this way can make certain technical aspects more difficult, but to me, anything is better than panning and scanning on TV. We can re-frame just about every shot we did on this picture for video."[18]

Casino was released in theaters in the United States on November 22, 1995.

Casino opened in 1,616 theaters and grossed about $10 million in its opening weekend.[2] The film grossed $43 million domestically and $73 million internationally, for a total of $116 million worldwide,[19] on a $4050 million budget.[1]

Upon its release, the film received mostly positive reviews from critics, although their praise was more muted than it had been for the thematically similar Goodfellas, released only five years earlier, with some reviewers criticizing Scorsese for retreading familiar territory.[20] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 79% based on 70 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Impressive ambition and bravura performances from an outstanding cast help Casino pay off in spite of a familiar narrative that may strike some viewers as a safe bet for director Martin Scorsese."[21] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[22] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B" on scale of A+ to F.[23]

Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four, stating that "Martin Scorsese's fascinating new film Casino knows a lot about the Mafia's relationship with Las Vegas. Like The Godfather it makes us feel like eavesdroppers in a secret place." He added, "Unlike his other Mafia movies (Mean Streets and Goodfellas), Scorsese's Casino is as concerned with history as with plot and character."[24]

Philip Thomas of the Empire praised the film while highlighting its similarities to Goodfellas. He gave the film five stars commenting "It may not be Scorsese's greatest work, but this guy feeling a little off-colour is still far, far better than most people on fighting-fit form. It only gets more impressive as time goes on."[25]

The film's critical profile has increased in years after its release, with several critics expressing that, in retrospect, they feel it is a more accomplished and artistically mature work than the thematically similar Goodfellas.[20][26]

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Casino – Wikipedia

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Facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities

A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, concerts, and sports.

Casino is of Italian origin; the root casa means a house. The term casino may mean a small country villa, summerhouse, or social club.[1] During the 19th century, casino came to include other public buildings where pleasurable activities took place; such edifices were usually built on the grounds of a larger Italian villa or palazzo, and were used to host civic town functions, including dancing, gambling, music listening, and sports. Examples in Italy include Villa Farnese and Villa Giulia, and in the US the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. In modern-day Italian, a casino is a brothel (also called casa chiusa, literally "closed house"), a mess (confusing situation), or a noisy environment; a gaming house is spelt casin, with an accent.[2][1][3]

Not all casinos are used for gaming. The Catalina Casino, on Santa Catalina Island, California, has never been used for traditional games of chance, which were already outlawed in California by the time it was built.[4] The Copenhagen Casino was a Danish theatre which also held public meetings during the 1848 Revolution, which made Denmark a constitutional monarchy.[5]

In military and non-military usage, a casino (Spanish) or Kasino (German) is an officers' mess.

The precise origin of gambling is unknown. It is generally believed that gambling in some form or another has been seen in almost every society in history. From Ancient Mesopotamia, Greeks and Romans to Napoleon's France and Elizabethan England, much of history is filled with stories of entertainment based on games of chance.

The first known European gambling house, not called a casino although meeting the modern definition, was the Ridotto, established in Venice, Italy, in 1638 by the Great Council of Venice to provide controlled gambling during the carnival season. It was closed in 1774 as the city government felt it was impoverishing the local gentry.[6]

In American history, early gambling establishments were known as saloons. The creation and importance of saloons was greatly influenced by four major cities: New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago and San Francisco. It was in the saloons that travelers could find people to talk to, drink with, and often gamble with. During the early 20th century in the US, gambling was outlawed by state legislation. However, in 1931, gambling was legalized throughout the state of Nevada, where the US's first legalized casinos were set up. In 1976 New Jersey allowed gambling in Atlantic City, now the US's second largest gambling city.[7]

Most jurisdictions worldwide have a minimum gambling age of 18 to 21.[8]

Customers gamble by playing games of chance, in some cases with an element of skill, such as craps, roulette, baccarat, blackjack, and video poker. Most games have mathematically determined odds that ensure the house has at all times an advantage over the players. This can be expressed more precisely by the notion of expected value, which is uniformly negative (from the player's perspective). This advantage is called the house edge. In games such as poker where players play against each other, the house takes a commission called the rake. Casinos sometimes give out complimentary items or comps to gamblers.

Payout is the percentage of funds ("winnings") returned to players.

Casinos in the United States say that a player staking money won from the casino is playing with the house's money.

Video Lottery Machines (slot machines) have become one of the most popular forms of gambling in casinos. As of 2011[update] investigative reports have started calling into question whether the modern-day slot-machine is addictive.[9]

Casino designregarded as a psychological exerciseis an intricate process that involves optimising floor plan, dcor and atmospherics to encourage gambling.[10]

Factors influencing gambling tendencies include sound, odour and lighting. Natasha Dow Schll, an anthropologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, highlights the decision of the audio directors at Silicon Gaming to make its slot machines resonate in "the universally pleasant tone of C, sampling existing casino soundscapes to create a sound that would please but not clash".[11]

Alan Hirsch, founder of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, studied the impact of certain scents on gamblers, discerning that a pleasant albeit unidentifiable odor released by Las Vegas slot machines generated about 50% more in daily revenue. He suggested that the scent acted as an aphrodisiac, causing a more aggressive form of gambling.[12]

The following lists major casino markets in the world with casino revenue of over US$1 billion as published in PricewaterhouseCoopers's report on the outlook for the global casino market:[13]

According to Bloomberg, accumulated revenue of the biggest casino operator companies worldwide amounted to almost US$55 billion in 2011. SJM Holdings Ltd. was the leading company in this field, earning $9.7 bn in 2011, followed by Las Vegas Sands Corp. at $7.4 bn. The third-biggest casino operator company (based on revenue) was Caesars Entertainment, with revenue of US$6.2 bn.[17]

While there are casinos in many places, a few places have become well known specifically for gambling. Perhaps the place almost defined by its casino is Monte Carlo, but other places are known as gambling centers.

Monte Carlo Casino, located in Monte Carlo city, in Monaco, is a casino and a tourist attraction.

Monte Carlo Casino has been depicted in many books, including Ben Mezrich's Busting Vegas, where a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students beat the casino out of nearly $1 million. This book is based on real people and events; however, many of those events are contested by main character Semyon Dukach.[18] Monte Carlo Casino has also been featured in multiple James Bond novels and films.

The casino is mentioned in the song "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" as well as the film of the same name.

Casin di Campione is located in the tiny Italian enclave of Campione d'Italia, within Ticino, Switzerland. The casino was founded in 1917 as a site to gather information from foreign diplomats during the First World War. Today it is owned by the Italian government, and operated by the municipality. With gambling laws being less strict than in Italy and Switzerland, it is among the most popular gambling destination besides Monte Carlo. The income from the casino is sufficient for the operation of Campione without the imposition of taxes, or obtaining of other revenue.[19] In 2007, the casino moved into new premises of more than 55,000 square metres (590,000sqft), making it the largest casino in Europe.[20] The new casino was built alongside the old one, which dated from 1933 and has since been demolished.[19][21]

the archipelago of Malta is a particularly famous place for casinos in particular the historic casino at the princely residence of Dragonara

The former Portuguese colony of Macau, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China since 1999, is a popular destination for visitors who wish to gamble.[22] This started in Portuguese times, when Macau was popular with visitors from nearby Hong Kong, where gambling was more closely regulated. The Venetian Macao is currently the largest casino in the world. Macau also surpassed Las Vegas as the largest gambling market in the world.[22]

Machine-based gaming is only permitted in land-based casinos, restaurants, bars and gaming halls, and only subject to a licence. Online slots are, at the moment, only permitted if they are operated under a Schleswig-Holstein licence. AWPs are governed by federal law the Trade Regulation Act and the Gaming Ordinance.

The Casino Estoril, located in the municipality of Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera, near Lisbon, is the largest casino in Europe by capacity.

During the Second World War, it was reputed to be a gathering point for spies, dispossessed royals, and wartime adventurers; it became an inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 novel Casino Royale.

Singapore is an up-and-coming destination for visitors wanting to gamble, although there are currently only two casinos (both foreign owned), in Singapore. The Marina Bay Sands is the most expensive standalone casino in the world, at a price of US$8 billion, and is among the world's ten most expensive buildings. The Resorts World Sentosa has the world's largest oceanarium.

There are 4 legal gaming zones in Russia: "Siberian Coin" (Altay), "Yantarnaya" (Kaliningrad region), "Azov-city" (Rostov region) and "Primorie" (Primorie region).

With currently over 1,000 casinos, the United States has the largest number of casinos in the world. The number continues to grow steadily as more states seek to legalize casinos. 40 states now[when?] have some form of casino gambling. Interstate competition, such as gaining tourism, has been a driving factor to continuous legalization.[23] Relatively small places such as Las Vegas are best known for gambling; larger cities such as Chicago are not defined by their casinos in spite of the large turnover.

The Las Vegas Valley has the largest concentration of casinos in the United States. Based on revenue, Atlantic City, New Jersey ranks second, and the Chicago region third.

Top American casino markets by revenue (2015 annual revenues):[24]

The Nevada Gaming Control Board divides Clark County, which is coextensive with the Las Vegas metropolitan area, into seven market regions for reporting purposes.

Native American gaming has been responsible for a rise in the number of casinos outside of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Given the large amounts of currency handled within a casino, both patrons and staff may be tempted to cheat and steal, in collusion or independently; most casinos have security measures to prevent this. Security cameras located throughout the casino are the most basic measure.

Modern casino security is usually divided between a physical security force and a specialized surveillance department. The physical security force usually patrols the casino and responds to calls for assistance and reports of suspicious or definite criminal activity. A specialized surveillance department operates the casino's closed circuit television system, known in the industry as the eye in the sky. Both of these specialized casino security departments work very closely with each other to ensure the safety of both guests and the casino's assets, and have been quite successful in preventing crime.[25] Some casinos also have catwalks in the ceiling above the casino floor, which allow surveillance personnel to look directly down, through one way glass, on the activities at the tables and slot machines.

When it opened in 1989, The Mirage was the first casino to use cameras full-time on all table games.[26]

In addition to cameras and other technological measures, casinos also enforce security through rules of conduct and behavior; for example, players at card games are required to keep the cards they are holding in their hands visible at all times.

Over the past few decades, casinos have developed many different marketing techniques for attracting and maintaining loyal patrons. Many casinos use a loyalty rewards program used to track players' spending habits and target their patrons more effectively, by sending mailings with free slot play and other promotions.[27] Casino Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland, for example, donates all of its profits to charity.[28][29]

Casinos have been linked to organised crime, with early casinos in Las Vegas originally dominated by the American Mafia[30][31] and in Macau by Triad syndicates.[32][33]

According to some police reports, local incidence of reported crime often doubles or triples within three years of a casino's opening.[34] In a 2004 report by the US Department of Justice, researchers interviewed people who had been arrested in Las Vegas and Des Moines and found that the percentage of problem or pathological gamblers among the arrestees was three to five times higher than in the general population.[35]

It has been said that economic studies showing a positive relationship between casinos and crime usually fail to consider the visiting population: they count crimes committed by visitors but do not count visitors in the population measure, which overstates the crime rate. Part of the reason this methodology is used, despite the overstatement, is that reliable data on tourist count are often not available.[36]

There are unique occupational health issues in the casino industry. The most common are from cancers[37] resulting from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke[38][39] and musculoskeletal injury (MSI)[40] from repetitive motion injuries while running table games over many hours.[41]

The Venetian Macau in the Cotai Strip is the largest casino in the world, owned by Las Vegas Sands

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Best Online Casinos 2022 | Top 10+ Casino Sites Ranked

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Guiding you towards best online casinos

Finding safe and reputable online casino websites is crucial for an enjoyable gambling experience. Online casinos range from unreliable blacklisted sites to trustworthy casinos with a responsible approach to gambling, so it is imperative you choose a top rated one.

And that is where our list of best online casinos comes in, helping you find and choose a reliable casino site to play at. Here is how you can use this page:

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To be able to recommend high-quality casino sites to our visitors, our independent casino review team with 15+ members goes over each casino online and finds out everything important about it. They follow our detailed casino review methodology to make sure our reviews remain impartial and objective.

Each online casino site is reviewed and rated in terms of size, trustworthiness, customer support, win and withdrawal limits, licenses, fairness of Terms and Conditions, etc. The resulting rating should give you a good idea of how likely you are to have a good, safe, and fair playing experience.

Casino bonuses are extremely popular among players, as they give them an opportunity to win something for free or at least get something extra alongside their deposit. Besides our casino reviews, Casino Guru also has the biggest database of deposit and no deposit bonuses. So, if you are looking for bonuses, we can help you as well.

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However, if bonuses are the main thing you are after, it might be a better idea to go directly to our casino bonus database and find the best bonuses there. Just make sure to choose offers from reputable casino sites to avoid playing at unscrupulous ones.

If not approached carefully, gambling can turn from an entertaining activity to a serious gambling addiction. That is why you should always approach it with responsible gambling in mind, taking precautionary steps to avoid falling victim to problem gambling. You can read more about this in our article about safe gambling.

On top of that, our problem gambling section has many more articles you can read to explore the issue of gambling addiction, including how to get help if you feel things starting to get out of hand. If that happens to you, do not hesitate to look for professional help.

Note: The casino you choose to play at can influence your gambling habits as well. There are reputable sites with a fair approach and reliable responsible gambling tools, but there are also immoral sites that do not hesitate to take advantage of addicted players. Yet another reason why choosing a top rated online casino is crucial.

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Meta will release a new consumer-grade VR headset next year – TechCrunch

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  1. Meta will release a new consumer-grade VR headset next year  TechCrunch
  2. Meta: the future of virtual reality  The Cryptonomist
  3. Meta confirms the next consumer Quest VR headset is coming in 2023  ZDNet
  4. Meta Quest Pro Begins Shipping Today Virtual Reality Times  Virtual Reality Times
  5. Meta Wants To Guide The Future Of Work Through Virtual Reality, But Is It Sustainable?  Allwork.Space
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Meta will release a new consumer-grade VR headset next year - TechCrunch

The Global Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality In Manufacturing Market size is expected to reach $27.9 billion by 2028, rising at a market growth…

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The Global Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality In Manufacturing Market size is expected to reach $27.9 billion by 2028, rising at a market growth of 27.9% CAGR during the forecast period  GlobeNewswire

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The Global Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality In Manufacturing Market size is expected to reach $27.9 billion by 2028, rising at a market growth...