Reach out to those who are ‘Alone’ this season | News, Sports, Jobs – Lewistown Sentinel

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Chances are youve seen the movie Home Alone at some point. The 1990 movie is about Kevin McCallister, an 8-year-old boy, whose large family mistakenly leaves him alone in his suburban Chicago home while they travel to Paris for the Christmas holiday. Kevin ends up caring for himself as well as fighting off some bumbling burglars named Harry and Marv. Its a hilarious movie.

The movie has a meaningful subplot involving supporting characters. As many young kids do, Kevin falls prey to a rumor perpetuated in his neighborhood. Buzz, Kevins mean older brother, tells him that their elderly neighbor, Old Man Marley, is really a serial killer who murdered his family with a snow shovel in 1958. Kevin, it turns out, is more terrified of Marley than of any burglarsor of being home alone.

Of course, the myth of Old Man Marley is debunked when Kevin meets him inside a church where he watches choir practice for a Christmas Eve service. It is then that Kevin learns that Marley is no killer; he is just an old man who is cut off from his family. Secretively watching his granddaughter sing in the choir, Marley is the one truly alone.

As Kevin and Marley talk about fear, Marley says, Youre never too old to be afraid. He shares that he has not spoken to his son in years since a bad argument. Marley fears rejection if he reaches out to his son. Kevin tells him that it is better to try, and risk rejection, than never to know if things could be made right.

Near the end of the film, Old Man Marley saves Kevin from the burglars (using his infamous snow shovel), thus sealing a friendship for life. Kevins family finally makes it homerelieved to see Kevin is alright. Later, we see Kevin looking out his window just as Marley, his son, daughter in-law, and granddaughter meet, hug, and enter the house. Kevin smiles, knowing he did something goodhe helped a lonely man reconnect with those he loves.

Loneliness visits all of us at some point in our lives. Senior citizens are particularly vulnerable to loneliness. AARP found that forty-six percent of women over 75 and older live alone. Seventeen percent of adults 65 and older are isolated. Some enjoy solitude and are comfortable being alone, while others crave interaction and relationship. Ironically, we dont have to be alone to be lonely; we can be lonely in a room full of other people. Loneliness heightens our awareness of feeling isolated, disconnected, and often misunderstood. It is an epidemic in our culture.

At this time of year, loneliness can be especially deep and painful as we watch others appear to be full of love, joy, and peace. Coping with loneliness is a challenge, but unless we confront it, we may find ourselves not just lonely, but also depressed. It is hard to reach out to others. When we are lonely, we may expect others to intuitively know it and try to help us. Unfortunately, many of us are good at hiding our feelings and wearing a faade that communicates all is wellso no one really sees the truth.

Instead of wallowing in misery (which I have done more often than I care to admit), take a chance and reach out to another. Most people are receptive and open to conversation. Consciously pay attention to those around you. Smile, wave, or make the time to talk to your neighbor. You can offer to assist with a charity. If you have the means, buy presents for a less privileged family. How about baking some cookies and handing them out to neighbors? If you dont want to bake, give the traditional orange which symbolizes gold, giving, and caring for others less fortunate, or in the Chinese tradition symbolizes life and new beginnings for the New Year. Attend an event or worship service in line with your faith. Go to a local nursing home and inquire if there are some residents who seldom have visitorsthen visit with them. Most important, do something!

One of the most effective ways to cope with loneliness is to help another. Remember The Golden Rule? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Luke 6:31). Focusing your energy on others and treating them as you would like to be treated is a powerful means to combat loneliness. This holiday season strive to spread some joy to others. You may never know how your kind words or actions impact someone; even so, you will feel better doing it!

If you or someone you know is struggling with loneliness, the internet has online support groups and numerous other sources of assistance. Or reach out to a local faith community or faith leader, school counselor, psychologist, or call a helpline.

Suellen Lewis is a staff chaplain at Geisinger Lewistown Hospital. As both a former math teacher and associate pastor, she continues to be amazed at how God uses our experiences, abilities, and gifts to minister to others. She is available at Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Contact the Spiritual Care Office at (717) 242-7059.

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Reach out to those who are 'Alone' this season | News, Sports, Jobs - Lewistown Sentinel

GUEST EDITORIAL: Floridas former felons shouldnt have to wait for their rights – Sarasota Herald-Tribune

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Its been over a year since 5 million people marched to the polls to support Amendment 4.

Voters on both sides of the aisle came together to help former felons who served their sentences regain their right to vote. The people spoke together decisively, and Amendment 4 won with over 64 percent in favor.

But the voice of the people continues to be silenced.

A federal judge recently ruled that voters cant be stopped from voting because theyre too poor to pay financial obligations resulting from their conviction, citing constitutional concerns with lawmakers Amendment 4 legislation. Now, Gov. Ron DeSantis is appealing that ruling.

But heres a fact: While Amendment 4 is tied up in litigation, the amendments goal can be accomplished and it can be done right now.

Florida already has a process to restore voting rights to those who have served their sentences. The Board of Executive Clemency, comprised of the Cabinet members, has the authority to restore civil rights to prior offenders.

The previous administration severely restricted that process by changing the rules in 2011, giving unfettered discretion to deny clemency for any reason, and mandating that all applicants wait five or more years before even starting the process. If an applicant finally did get a hearing, they got just five minutes to speak.

Five years for five minutes thats our current system.

Under that clemency system, which a judge called crushingly restrictive and arbitrary and discriminatory, only 3,368 people had their rights restored.

By contrast, under my administration, we restored rights for over 150,000 deserving Floridians. My predecessor, Jeb Bush, oversaw 76,000 people getting their rights restored.

That's a far cry from the 24 people have had their rights restored this year.

Twenty-four.

We can return to a fairer clemency process and restore rights to those who should have been helped by Amendment 4.

The truth is, clemency is an executive function.

Over two months ago, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried sent a letter to her fellow Clemency Board colleagues, calling for the adoption of new clemency rules. Her letter, just like the will of the voters on Amendment 4, has been ignored.

Under my administrations clemency rules, civil rights were automatically restored to nonviolent ex-felons who had served their time, paid restitution to victims, and had no further pending criminal charges. Fried has called for returning to those rules as a model, as a floor, and as an improvement to the current disenfranchisement scheme.

Freedom is fundamental to our nation but its constantly shifting, shaped by the powers of government.

Whether or not they voted for Amendment 4, its the duty of Floridas constitutional officers to uphold the will of the people.

Right now, more than 10,000 applicants continue waiting for their voice to be heard and their rights to be restored.

Change is needed now. Justice delayed is justice denied.

This can no longer be about politics or partisanship. Its about humanity, decency, and the Golden Rule: Do unto others as wed have done unto us.

Governor Ron DeSantis and the Clemency Board should follow Nikki Frieds lead, change the rules, and restore the rights of their fellow Floridians.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a Democrat, represents Floridas 13th Congressional District. He served as the 44th Governor of Florida.

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GUEST EDITORIAL: Floridas former felons shouldnt have to wait for their rights - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Column: Treating each other the way we want to be treated during the holidays – Duncan Banner

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The countdown to Christmas is nearing single digits. Just a handful of shopping days left. With the time crunch comes the hustle and bustle of everyone buying those last minute gifts for their loved ones. Stores are packed. Stock is limited on those must have items. Tempers begin to flare when an item cant be found. People huff and puff when they arent helped immediately. Blame is placed on retail workers who are working tirelessly to keep up with demand. Rants are taken to social media complaining about the business rants that can be dangerous to small, locally owned businesses.

That is why this year we would like to provide a friendly reminder that retail workers are humans too. Most of them are trying their best to please every person that walks through their door. Theyre working extremely long hours during the holiday season and some of them for not the greatest of pay.

Let me say right here that regardless of what retail workers (including wait staff and fast food workers) get paid, no one gets paid enough to be screamed at, sometimes for things they cant even control. No one deserves to be cursed at or belittled for working a job that is providing income to feed and clothe their families. Even when complaints arise, theres a more fitting way to resolve the issue. Talk to a manager or owner. Let them know why youre upset, but do so in a way thats respectable. More often than not, you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

These workers are people who deserved to be treated as such with dignity and respect. I will leave you with this thought. The Golden Rule most of us were taught as youngsters; Matthew 7:12 says, So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

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Column: Treating each other the way we want to be treated during the holidays - Duncan Banner

Beware Scammy ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Download Sites – Lifehacker

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You read that right. Rey and Kylo arent using the Force to peer into your mind and read your user names and logins, but plenty of hackersscammers, reallyare setting up bogus websites and downloads to take advantage of todays premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. And you should avoid them with as much precision as the Millenium Falcon in an asteroid field.

We can all agree that piracy is shitty, no matter if you loved or hated the latest Star Wars film, have already seen it six times, or whatever other rationale you or your friends might use to justify looking for a leaked copy online. If you dont want to debate morals, heres an even easier reason not to surrender to the dark side on this one: Youll find plenty of websites promising legitimate downloads of the film, and these websites might even appear authentic due to their prominence in search results, social media, and other seemingly reputable websites.

Dont get fooled. Youre going to run into a lot of sophisticated scams. As security researchers at Kaspersky recently described in a press release:

The domains of websites used for gathering personal data and spreading malicious files usually copy the official name of the film and provide thorough descriptions and supporting content, thereby fooling users into believing that the website is, in some way, connected to the official film. Such practice is called black SEO, which enables criminals to promote phishing websites high up in search engine results (such results often show up for search terms such as name-of-the-film watch free).

Remember the golden rule of the internet: If it feels sketchy, dont do it. If a website asks you for any personal information in order to download or view Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, dont give it up. If a website wants you to install an extension to see the film, resist. Dont take surveys. Dont download and install supplemental programs on your computer to get around buying a $10 movie ticket. Dont give out your email address. A movie file does not end in .EXE.

Whatever you do, dont give up any financial information for anything related to your trying to find a popular, just-released movie for free. Dont create a new account on a site using credentials you use elsewhere, in the hopes youll be able to unlock a special download. Look at the URL of the website youre viewing to triple-check that its actually, say, the official site for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. And use some common sense; we doubt said site would ask you for incredibly personal information to set up an account / access its contents / who knows what else.

Does this sound absurd? Are you rolling your eyes? I would be, too, except plenty of people have already been suckered by phishing attempts related to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: 83 verified users as of when Kaspersky published its findings, with more 65 fake copies of the film floating around. And you can only expect these numbers to grow, as Kaspersky describes:

In 2019, Kaspersky detected 285,103 attempts to infect 37,772 users seeking to watch movies of the renowned space-opera series, a 10% rise compared to last year. The number of unique files used to target the users amounted to 11,499, a 30% drop from last year.

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Beware Scammy 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' Download Sites - Lifehacker

Collection to benefit Catholic Charities – The Record

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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:

They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Matthew 2:10-ll

May God bless you during this holy Advent season! In this familiar part of the Christmas story, which we hear on the Feast of Epiphany, the Magi, who represent all the nations of the world, come to adore the greatest gift God could give the world, Gods own Son, Christ the Lord. They, in turn, offer their greatest treasure and gifts to Him. A lesson we take from this is to ponder what gift might we give to the Christ child. What could we possibly offer for the gift of Gods incredible love in becoming one of us in Jesus Christ our Savior?

Might I suggest gold? I do not mean gold in the sense of a precious metal or money, for the gift of Christ is priceless. Instead, I recommend golden actions, which are manifestations of how we live out the Golden Rule, given to us by Jesus. In fact, this past year we have reflected on this as an Archdiocese and wider community through our Be Golden campaign. Every day is an opportunity for golden actions of charity, outreach and service to others, especially those most in need of our care. And every time these actions occur, we, like the Magi, are offering a gift of gold to Christ Himself.

And while we perform many individual golden actions, we also do so as a wider Church, especially in our support of the great work of our archdiocesan Catholic Charities. Through its many programs, golden actions of service and care are given to the material poor, the forgotten elderly, refugees and immigrants fleeing violence and persecution, survivors of human trafficking, the homeless and so many other vulnerable children of God needing security, food, shelter and other basic human needs.

So once again we will have our annual Catholic Charities collection, which parishes will take up on the weekend of December 21-22. Funds go to support the works and programs that help meet the many needs of individuals and families in the 24 counties of our Archdiocese. I encourage your generous and golden response to this years Christmas collection.

Please know that you and your families are in my prayers, as I ask Gods blessing on each of you during this holy time of year. Thank you so much for your prayers for my recovery and health.

Sincerely yours in Our Lord,

Most Reverend Joseph E. Kurtz, D.D. Archbishop of Louisville

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Collection to benefit Catholic Charities - The Record

The 10 Most Decade-Defining Hollywood Moments of the 2010s – Screen Rant

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The 2010s were a whirlwind decade, with the passage of time giving rise to changes in what were previously considered cultural and societal normalities. But how did the film industry interpret these changes? Some filmmakers chose to snub societal development; nonetheless, other filmmakers embraced it.

RELATED: Top 10 Hollywood Directors And Their Signature Styles

Often, the experimental cineasts of this decade were actually the direct cause of evolutions in common belief for oft-debated topics - such as how we see ourselves and others, how we process and understand beauty, and how we experience euphoria. Today, we'll be looking at the most thought-provoking ways the world changed cinema, and cinema changed the world - for better or for worse.

Back in 2014, a plethora of data regarding film studio Sony Pictures (including confidential information about their employees, discussions between executives regarding future releases, and even video files of upcoming Sony films) leaked onto the Internet, thanks to the "Guardians of Peace", an anonymous organization of black hat hackers.

While the hack was primarily connected to political controversies - the self-proclaimed Guardians were offended by the upcoming Seth Rogen comedy The Interview, which depicts the death of a North Korean leader - it tied in even more to the general public's growing need for personal data protection, allowing them to see, many for the first time, what hacking professionals were truly capable of.

Since the release of Pixar's Toy Story all the way back in 1995, CGI has been the backbone of animation - but I think it can be definitively said that the technology developed the most over the last decade.

Nearly every film nowadays relies on computer-generated special effects to draw the audience into the action,and animated films like Nezha,Frozen IIandInto The Spider-Verseonly serve to confirm just how far animation quality has come over the years - showcasing awe-inspiring and unbelievably detailed visuals that prove that animation remains an unbelievably beautiful medium to tell a story with.

The Oscars have been a cultural staple for the near-century they've been given out, but over the last decade, various controversies have hindered their growth. While, for the most part, they've avoided the accusations of bribery and mass monetization that plague many other awards shows, issues plaguing the Awards still include continued underrepresentation of minorities and the Academy's unrestrained acceptance of "Oscar bait" films.

And, yes, the Oscars are dealing with several of these issues, but ratings are still lower than ever, indicating that maybe they've missed their chance for redemption.

It's hard to believe, but Netflix launched its groundbreaking streaming service all the way back in 2010, and, as we all know, it became an unprecedented phenomenon. While services like Hulu had been around since the late 2000s, Netflix's business model and content layout were unique, and their lucrative video-on-demand venture soon overtook their comparatively small DVD rental business, leading to many other companies launching their own streaming services.

RELATED: Ranked: All The Streaming Services In The U.S.

With such a large selection of ways to watch movies and TV for consumers to choose from, it's a wonder that movie theaters didn't disintegrate into an abnormality. One of the reasons for this is that studios tried extra hard to draw in filmgoers, which led to...

Let's face it - original concepts are just hard to come up with. Bringing new life to old hits has proved a much more reliable method for Hollywood to churn out the moneymaking flicks they require to fund their still-massive empire, and this has become particularly evident over the last decade.

Just look at all the Disney remakes we get every year, or the continuing film franchises still telling oft-told tales - some of which many want to end, but which still continue their rampant production - because continuing franchises provides studios with security compared to the risk of going with an original idea. While we had some great original films this decade, like Frozen and Inception, continuing old franchises just became the norm - and it's likely to stay that way going into the 2020s.

Superheroes have been a cultural staple for longer than nearly anyone can remember, but superhero films becoming worldwide hits is actually a fairly new trend. While films like The Dark KnightandSpider-Man shook up the box office back in the 00s, the real box office titans were released in the 2010s. And these weren't all Marvel or DC, either - Incredibles 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,andSplitare all examples of films from the last decade that benefited from the increased attention superhero films have been getting.

RELATED: 8 Times The MCU Addressed Real-World Social Problems

The question of whether these films are actually cinema suddenly became a heated debate, but withAvengers: Endgame becoming the highest-grossing film of all time andBlack Panthersnagging a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, it seems audiences are leaning towards yes.

Yep. While the event didn't surprise many, the scope of it did. Over the 2010s The Walt Disney Company, which was launched as an animation studio all the way back in the 1920s, had its most successful decade to date.

Here are some of the biggest milestones the corporate overlords at the House of Mouse enjoyed: they acquired Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise, they enjoyed continued success with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they acquired Fox and associated properties (for over $50 billion) in a landmark deal, they released 23 films that grossed a billion dollars or more, and they created their own streaming service, Disney+. What does the future hold for Disney? Well... more of the same, most likely.

Harvey Weinstein was once considered to be a fairly respectable film producer - the co-founder of Miramax and the Weinstein Company, a somewhat vain but harmless cineast. All of that changed in October 2017, when long-held accusations of sexual assault against the Hollywood titan finally begin to spread, permanently ending his career. This led to a viral trend of victims of harassment and assault speaking out, many for the first time, sparking the social media hashtag "Me Too".

The trend changed a generation's understanding of truth and justice and had a broad impact on what precautions businesses took to prevent workplace harassment - and it all started in Hollywood, whether that's a good thing or not.

The real meanings of diversity and acceptance have long been debated by adept theologians and scholars, but many agree that in the end, they boil down to a golden-rule-like epithet: treat all equally. 2017'sGet Outexperimented with investigating the underlying causes of racism, while 2018's Won't You Be Neighbor?encouraged audiences to be kind to all.

RELATED: Ranked: 10 Most Inclusive Movies For Kids

Films likeCrazy Rich Asians and Coco changed the way Western audiences looked at rich, unique cultures they may not have previously thought about - while never being disrespectful to the cultures they depicted. And many films throughout the 2010s offered brief but poignant looks at themes of universe camaraderie - working, slowly but surely, to make the world a better place.

So... not everything was all fine and dandy throughout the 2010s. While diversity and acceptance in cinema became much more common, there were quite a few controversies that show not everyone in Hollywood adheres to the "golden rule" principle. Whitewashing was still an enduring problem, with films like Ghost in the ShellandDoctor Strange casting white actors in historically non-white roles. Marvel introduced their first openly gay character in Avengers: Endgame, but his appearance is a mere cameo at best.

And even in 2019, there were still films being released promoting racist and sexist stereotypes, like Loqueesha, which follows a white man who becomes a popular podcast host by impersonating a "mad black woman" - so, basically; Hollywood can definitely step up their game, and hey! a new decade is on the horizon - so hopefully they will.

NEXT: Top 10 Movies Of The 2010s According to IMDb

Next10 Superheroes Jensen Ackles Should Play (After Supernatural)

Izak Bulten is an amateur film historian who loves all things movies. His previous writing experience includes creating "Top 10" lists for ListVerse and writing logic puzzles for World Sudoku Champion Thomas Snyder. He also maintains "The Magic Lantern Show", a blog centered around news from the world of animation. In his free time, he loves creating worlds and playing Scrabble.

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The 10 Most Decade-Defining Hollywood Moments of the 2010s - Screen Rant

Reach the next frontier of security automation while maintaining visibility and control – Help Net Security

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As the technologies we rely on continue to evolve, they are growing at a rate that outpaces our ability to protect them. This increasing risk potential necessitates a change in approach and the ability for organizations to automate more of their network security operations to reduce their cyber-attack surface.

One of the primary ways this issue is compounded is from the widely acknowledged labor shortage of IT security specialists, which results in overworked resources and increases in misconfigurations caused by human errors. Security analysts and engineers spend the vast majority of their time worrying about vulnerabilities, but Gartner believes that through 2023, 99 percent of all firewall breaches will be the result of misconfigurations, not flaws. IBM also noted in a recent survey that a 424 percent increase in data breaches due to cloud misconfigurations were caused by human errors.

Recognizing these findings, the need for enterprises to automate network security policy management processes to reduce human errors and improve efficiencies is proven, but some organizations are still leery of making the automation transition for fear of losing control over their IT security visibility and decision making. Luckily, they dont need to choose between automation and maintaining control.

Organizations can protect against these concerns by beginning with a form of automation that matches their current IT security capabilities, then advancing to increasing methods of automation as their confidence and technical maturity level grows.

Some organizations may believe that automating network security operations will reduce their visibility and control over policies, change processes and ability to comply with security and privacy regulations. However, automation can actually provide more control by eliminating guesswork and manual management for these areas, which reduces the likelihood of misconfigurations and increased risk.

Network security policy automation provides numerous benefits to organizations including minimizing human error; increasing operational efficiency while reducing security costs; streamlining the friction between DevOps and SecOps; increasing overall security agility; and decreasing compliance violations by proactively checking against regulation and internal compliance measures prior to implementing new changes.

I recognize that not every organization is ready to fully automate security processes out of the gate. Therefore, I recommend they first acknowledge their current IT security maturity and then define how they want to evolve their automated processes over time. These decisions should be based on the companys business goals, staffing resources, customer needs and technical sophistication.

The next step is to place the company on an automation transformation curve to determine its technology advancement path. I like to think of the automation spectrum as having four key stages, which improve security process time and efficiency:

1. Design Automation: Offers a basic level of automation, where security specialists still manually monitor and react to environmental changes. Meanwhile, the automated system provides intelligent design recommendations to suggest network security improvements, and auto-generated compliance and risk-scoring reports to improve workflows and correction time.

2. Implementation Automation: Continues to improve speed and efficiency by also providing automated network security rule implementation, verification and documentation. This stage is still primarily driven by operator control but increases automation to enable security specialists to direct their attention to more critical needs.

3. Zero-Touch Automation: The network system now monitors and reacts to environmental changes, but the security specialists remain in control of global policies. At this stage, implementation changes are deployed to all devices automatically, and intent-based standards and golden rule guardrails can be easily defined to alleviate time-consuming routine changes.

4. Adaptive Security Enforcement: For some time, our industry has considered zero-touch automation the end-state, but now a new stage goes beyond this type of automation to create a truly adaptive network security model. This automation approach is scalable across systems and automatically recalibrates global security policies as it auto-detects any underlying network and infrastructure changes. This approach also enables businesses to maintain control over security operations, while maximizing efficiencies and gaining continuing compliance with security policies.

This multi-staged approach allows organizations to match their pace of automation to meet their current network security capabilities and future ambitions. To determine where to start, enterprises should survey the type of processes they want to fully automate, partially automate or remain untouched. Then the company can automate within their comfort level to move as fast as their systems allow.

I believe that the new frontier of network security automation will help enterprises move beyond zero touch implementation to continuously adapt their security processes to gain real-time visibility and control over global network changes, achieve new levels of efficiencies, and free up IT security resources for more strategic initiatives.

This adaptive network security model also provides the flexibility needed to respond to critical incidents and apply additional changes across all environments as they occur. Businesses shouldnt have to make a choice between speed or security, and by continuously monitoring and adapting their network systems, protecting global polices across all environments and maintaining compliance, they wouldnt have to make any tradeoffs.

There is an automated network security policy management solution that meets the needs and capabilities of every organization. Organizations dont need to fear automation as a threat to lose control or visibility over their hybrid network environments. By selecting the right form of automation for their current needs, enterprises can reduce human errors and improve their security agility now while they prepare for the future.

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Reach the next frontier of security automation while maintaining visibility and control - Help Net Security

4 Components and 3 Agreements of Partners in Enriching Love Relations – PsychCentral.com

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The universe loves partnerships! Human beings are hardwired to learn, heal and maximize their individual potention in relationships. Its been said that relationships are designed to be top-notch, which offer ample and ongoing opportunities for partners to grow and bring out the best in each. And the yearning for a partner and companion with whom tosharelife joys and create new meanings is very real.

For many, finding an ideal mate isa naturalpassion, albeit one that consumesmuch of our energy throughout life, perhaps to the point of becoming an obsession, or addiction.

The field of neurosciencebacks this withrecent findingsthat showthe human brain is above all a social organ.Besides, there are somany wondrous things in life to learn and experience; why go it alone, if you dont have to?

Someone to share joys and struggles with, seems a natural choice, not to mentiona biological directive that can bring out our best, at minimum, keep us growing.

And research shows that married people are overall happier and healthier; however, and this is vital to note,its not the fact theyre married that makes them happy. Its because both partners habitually act in ways what sustainsindividual and relationalhappiness.What are the ways of genuine love?

Perhaps one of the most all-encompassingand insightfuldefinitions of love comes to us from a groundbreaking, classic bestseller, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth, written bypsychiatrist Dr. M. Scott Peck published inthe 1980s (a must read!):

Love is the will to extend ones self for purpose of nurturing ones own or anothers spiritual growth. ~ SCOTT PECK

This defines love in terms offour critical, all encompassing components, and three agreements.

FOUR COMPONENTS OF LOVERS IN A CONSCIOUS-LOVE:

1. A set intention or goal for conscious-love action.

Each partner treats love for self and the other as conscious action, or conscious-love, and not mere feeling. Conscious-love is a moment by moment awareness of making optimal choices, that is, to act in ways that are in the highest and best interest of both self and other.

Love is and inside out job. selffrom within, to make positive and meaningfulcontributions tolife in and around you.

2. Areciprocal processoriented to lifelong learning and growth.

A love that enriches the growth and wellbeing of each partner is one in which both partners are fully and mutually engaged in their own and the others growth and wellbeing.

3. An awareness and sense of balance in fulfillment of own and the others inner yearnings.

Both partners responsibly act to promote a balance between ahealthy love and care of for own emotion-needs, wants and dreams,andhealthy care and love for the others (to avoid the toxicity that results when both get absorbed in meeting needs, wants of self or the other).

4. A view of love and care as a dedication of each to an ongoing process.

Each partner is dedicated to nurturing the relationship as an ongoing process that treats love and one another as alive, thus the necessity forcontinual effort, in the same way breathing keeps body alive by replenishing oxygen supply or tending to a plant needs ongoing effort.

THREE AGREEMENTS BETWEEN TWO LOVERS IN A CONSCIOUS-LOVE:

The above four components are lifelong attributes of a healthy, lifelong love relationship between two partners. To sustain the energy and work needed to tend to a healthy relationship with self and others, however, there are 3 conscious choices to energize and seal them with the 3 agreements below, which guarantee optimal emotion states of mind and body: Commitment! Wholeness!Collaboration!

Agreement One: Commitment! Why?

Commitment is a vow two partners make to keep their relationship strong and vital, and that means to learn and test and discern what strengthens a relationship, and what harms and weakens it. One of the most challenging things for partners to learn to let go is the myths that romanticize male dominance based on gendered oles, and the associated fairy tales of love as happily ever after that depict love and love partners more like objects than real human beings. The fairy tale expectations and myths, for example, that say love should feel easy and it shouldnt be work are setups for failure, at best misguided. Nothing in life can be approached with this attitude, not a career or job or raising children. Success is realized to the extent commitment is present. Only a wholehearted commitmentof two partners ensures the lifelong benefits of two actualized happy individuals in a committed relationship.

Agreement Two: Wholehearted Love! Why?

A wholehearted love is one in which each person in the relationship fully experiences themselves as fully human, that is, wired with amazing inner capacities for creativity that, safe to say, can safely be described as miracle-making! Love makes the world go around. It is who we are, in essence, as human beings because it describes out most powerful drives from the first breath to the last. No powers to dominate and destroy can compare to kindness and caring, compassion and tenderness. The governing forces of life as we know are, indisputably based on: the Golden Rule. For those open to learning how life works and doesnt, that is wisdom, an inevitable boomerang effect. What we put out returns. Even the mirror neurons wired into our brans speak of this dynamic.

Agreement Three: Collaboration! Why?

It takes two persons, working as a team, to strengthen and build a vibrant, long lasting relationship.Collaboration reflects an openness to work, to change, to find optimal solutions in the highest interest of all concerned. In the words of Charles Darwin, It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most response to change.

The bottom line is that for two persons to succeed in creating a healthy, lifelong love relationship, the work of each in learning to grow and heal and love and fully accept self as a capable and loving being is foundational. Without this foundation, a relationship remains weak and at risk.

A healthy relationship both nurtures and is nurtured by two persons oriented to their own and the others growth and wellbeing. It cannot be done by one (that is only possible between a parent and a young child). Nothing is more powerful, conceivably, than two partners that are each invested in theirown and others growth, health and wholeness, happiness and well being, and that understand the power of collaboration to optimize and expedite and create miracle-making synergy.

Photo by wallygrom

Photo by wallygrom

Photo by wallygrom

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4 Components and 3 Agreements of Partners in Enriching Love Relations - PsychCentral.com

Predictions Friday: Fireplace Family Time and the Screener Pile – Awards Daily

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The holidays are at last upon us. And you know what that means that means filmmakers families gathering round the fire to watch Oscar screeners. Since the date change, this has always been the case. One week after New Years, Oscar ballots must be turned in. That means what happens THIS week will likely decide many of the nominations, give or take a party or two, a meet and greet or two.

So what movies do well at Oscar time? Well, it depends on the voters extended families. Are they art snobs? Are they blue-collar? Are they a mix of different types? Are they Bernie Sanders supporters? Are they mostly women? Are they demographically inclusive? A Best Picture winner will have to appeal across the board to all types of people. That is how best is defined with the preferential ballot. When you talk about winning Best Picture, it is never going to be the passion choice at least not passion alone. It has to be both broadly liked as well as passionately loved.

Its a huge mistake to discount the actual reasons why Green Book won. It revealed how much of a bubble Twitter is. And it showed the exact kind of movie that does well on a preferential ballot. It was the only feel-good movie in the race, with the exception of Black Panther, which did not have directing nor writing noms the backbone of Best Picture, along with actors. Black Panther was never a threat to win because of that. So if you want to understand how you predict Best Picture, think about that family of oddballs gathered round the fire watching the screener pile. Which movie are they all mostly going to like? Which movies will they even all want to watch?

How people respond to movies, especially people you care about, influence how you like the movie. If you put on a film the critics are raving about and your family or friends group is unimpressed? That is going to make a difference in how you respond when it comes time to vote. Critics high status folks on Twitter, whether Oscar bloggers or not are 100% invested in virtue signaling. To them, Green Book winning was tantamount to Trump getting elected (Im not even kidding). But to the friends and family around the fire? Green Book would have played like gangbusters. White, black, male, female doesnt matter: Green Book would have been a hit.

The films that will do well over the holidays with the fam around the fire are going to be: movies that have a LOT of buzz, and movies with big stars. Big stars kind of rule any time, anywhere, which bodes well for movies like Bombshell, Ford v Ferrari, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Critical acclaim will likely drive Parasite and 1917 to the top of the pile. Knives Out for sure. Probably Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. But those two films, like The Irishman, also have stumbling blocks: for Parasite, there are still people who dont like to watch movies with subtitles and simply wont. And with The Irishman, there are people who cant or wont or dont find the time to watch a three-and-a-half-hour movie. With, 1917, the gory landscape of war could seem too depressing over the holidays, but of course, its an epic action-packed thrill to watch, so there is no way people skip it.

The first hurdle is getting voters to watch the movies. All of this hype from Telluride to right now is about that, bringing the horse to water to see if he or she will drink. Whether voters drink or not is ultimately out of the hands of influencers and publicists. But the aim is to get them to put that movie on top of the pile.

Once they do watch the movies, which ones will do well? I suspect that of all of them, Ford v Ferrari could get the biggest boost from the screener pile, being that it is an enjoyable movie that many people will be surprised by. They think its going to be just another racing movie, but once they actually watch it they will see that its actually driven by great writing, directing, and acting. In short, it has it all. Its a little ridiculous that it isnt being hailed as one of the best films of the year but hey, critics gonna do what they do.

With this in mind, here is a pre-Globes prediction list.

Keep in mind these golden rules: Passion drives nominees in all categories, including Best Picture, BUT Passion alone does not drive winners in Best Picture

BEST PICTUREFRONTRUNNERS Looks to be a four-way race at the moment:Once Upon a Time in Hollywood vs. The Irishman vs. Parasite vs. 1917

Other NomineesJokerJojo RabbitMarriage StoryFord v FerrariBombshell or Little Women

What else could benefit if Little Women doesnt quite cut the mustard for the female director vote?

The FarewellHustlers

Potential spoilers:Knives OutDolemite Is My NameUncut GemsThe Two Popes

BEST ACTORJoaquin Phoenix, JokerAdam Driver, Marriage StoryLeonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in HollywoodChristian Bale, Ford v FerrariEddie Murphy, Dolemite Is My Name

Also possible:Taron Egerton, RocketmanGeorge MacKay, 1917Antonio Banderas, Pain and GloryRoman Griffin Davis, Jojo RabbitJonathan Pryce, The Two PopesAdam Sandler, Uncut Gems

BEST ACTRESSRenee Zellweger, JudyLupita Nyongo, UsCharlize Theron, BombshellScarlett Johansson, Marriage StoryCynthia Erivo, Harriet

Also possible:Saoirse Ronan, Little WomenAna de Armas, Knives Out

BEST SUPPORTING ACTORBrad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in HollywoodJoe Pesci, The IrishmanTom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the NeighborhoodAl Pacino, The IrishmanWesley Snipes, Dolemite Is My Name

Also possible:Tracy Letts, Ford v FerrariJamie Foxx, Just MercyAnthony Hopkins, The Two PopesWillem Dafoe, The Lighthouse

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESSLaura Dern, Marriage StoryMargot Robbie, BombshellJennifer Lopez, HustlersScarlett Johansson, Jojo RabbitNicole Kidman, Bombshell

Also possible:DaVine Joy Randolph, Dolemite Is My NameKathy Bates, Richard JewellFlorence Pugh, Little Women

BEST DIRECTORQuentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in HollywoodBong Joon-Ho, ParasiteSam Mendes, 1917Martin Scorsese, The IrishmanTodd Phillips, Joker

Also possible:Noah Baumbach, Marriage StoryTaika Waititi, Jojo RabbitJames Mangold, Ford v FerrariSafdie brothers, Uncut Gems

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAYQuentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in HollywoodNoah Baumbach, Marriage StoryBong Joon-Ho and Jin Won Han, ParasiteThe Safdie brothers, Uncut GemsKrysty Wilson-Cairns and Sam Mendes, 1917

Also possible:Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, Dolemite Is My NameRian Johnson, Knives OutLulu Wang, The FarewellJez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and Jason Keller, Ford v FerrariLena Waithe, Queen & SlimCharles Randolph, BombshellTrey Edward Shults, Waves

ADAPTED SCREENPLAYSteve Zaillian, The IrishmanAnthony McCarten, The Two PopesTaika Waititi, Jojo RabbitGreta Gerwig, Little WomenTodd Phillips and Scott Silver, Joker

Also possible:Lorene Scafaria, HustlersDaniel Destin Cretton and Andrew Lanham, Just Mercy

CINEMATOGRAPHY1917Ford v FerrariOnce Upon a Time in HollywoodJokerThe Irishman

Also possible:The LighthousePortrait of a Lady on FireA Hidden LifeParasite

EDITINGFord v FerrariThe IrishmanOnce Upon a Time in HollywoodJokerParasite

Also possible:1917Marriage StoryJojo RabbitKnives OutUncut Gems

PRODUCTION DESIGN1917The IrishmanOnce Upon a Time in HollywoodFord v FerrariJojo Rabbit

Also possible:ParasiteJokerLittle WomenA Hidden LifeThe AeronautsAd Astra

SOUND MIXING1917Ford v FerrariOnce Upon a Time in HollywoodThe IrishmanJokerRocketman

SOUND EDITINGFord v Ferarri1917Once Upon a Time in HollywoodAvengers: EndgameJoker

COSTUME DESIGNDolemite Is My NameRocketmanLittle WomenOnce Upon a Time in HollywoodThe Irishman

Also possible:Downton AbbeyThe Irishman1917Jojo RabbitJudy

VISUAL EFFECTS1917The IrishmanThe AeronautsAvengers: EndgameThe Lion King

ORIGINAL SCORE1917Marriage StoryLittle WomenJokerFord v Ferrari

ORIGINAL SONGStand Up, HarrietInto the Unknown, Frozen IISpirit, The Lion KingIm Standing With You, BreakthroughIm Gonna Love Me Again, Rocketman

Also possible:A Glass of Soju, ParasiteI Cant Let You Throw Yourself Away, Toy Story 4Glasgow, Wild Rose

MAKEUP AND HAIRBombshellDolemite Is My NameJoker

Also possible:Downton AbbeyJudyLittle Women

ANIMATED FEATUREToy Story 4Frozen IIMissing LinkThe Lion KingHow to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Also possible:I Lost My BodyAbominableThe Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

DOCUMENTARY FEATUREFor SamaApollo 11American FactoryHoneylandKnock Down the House

Also possible:AdvocateThe ApolloAquarelaThe Biggest Little FarmThe CaveThe Edge of DemocracyThe Great HackMaidenMidnight FamilyOne Child Nation

INTERNATIONAL FILMParasite, South KoreaPain and Glory, SpainLes Misrables, FranceAtlantics, SenegalHoneyland, North Macedonia

Also possible:The Boy Who Harnassed the Wind, UKBeanpole, RussiaThe Painted Bird, Czech RepublicTruth and Justice, EstoniaThose Who Remained, HungaryCorpus Christi, Poland

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Predictions Friday: Fireplace Family Time and the Screener Pile - Awards Daily

I survived a mass shooting. Here’s my advice to other journalists. – Poynter

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When I became a journalist, I knew I wasnt signing up to simply write happy human interest features. I knew I would be reporting on death and disaster, and I started preparing myself to handle tragic situations.

But it wasnt until a gunman opened fire in my newsroom on June 28, 2018, that my crash course in trauma began.

In the coverage of the mass shooting that left five of my colleagues dead the deadliest attack on journalists in America I was able to start healing by feeling heard. I went from writing our front page centerpiece to becoming it. I had one of CNNs only uncensored f-bombs (Robert DeNiro copied me in September). I was a Time Magazine Person of the Year.

I was also bribed, falsely quoted, harassed and continuously retraumatized by reporters who didnt know how to handle my story.

As Ive become an unfortunate expert, I want to share a few lessons from the worst days of my life.

No matter how sensitive you are as a reporter, there are just some things you cant think of until youve been through a certain type of trauma. One of those things is ringing the doorbell.

Door knocking is uncomfortable for subjects and reporters, but traumatized people arent just bothered by reporters showing up at their door. In the first days after the shooting, unannounced visitors made me feel like my brain was on fire. Before the feelings of paranoia start (Is this someone trying to come finish the job? How many people have my address?), the DAH DAH DING of my parents Ring doorbell blaring through the house felt as violent as more gunfire. For me, almost all noise became loud after the shooting. So noises meant to be loud, like a doorbell, immediately put me into a state of panic.

Door knocking becomes unavoidable when it comes to covering disasters. If you can, exhaust all efforts to reach a traumatized subject via the internet or phone before showing up to their door. Try a neighbors door to see if they can connect you first. And please, dont ring the doorbell.

RELATED STORY: At the Capital Gazette, were still mourning. Were gonna need help. But were still here.

Bribes are risky at best. I got flowers and morning show producers showing up with breakfast. Its hard for journalists to gain trust with potential sources, but you dont know how flowers or other gifts are going to be received. I had a reporter who tried to get close to me by constantly texting me. The floral arrangement she sent to my house was the last straw.

Going from reporter to story subject meant I was always given condolences before reporters asked questions. I knew it was all sincere on some level. But it became hard to distinguish what was genuine from reporter to reporter, or what acts of kindness implied that I basically owed people interviews because I was in the business. Other subjects hopefully wont have to determine if requests from reporters are out of camaraderie or exploitation, but sending flowers or showing up on doorsteps with bagels in the hope of getting a morning show interview still feels in poor taste to me.

Do your homework. You can avoid re-traumatizing someone by letting them know that youve seen or read their other interviews, and that youre not going to make them retell what happened to them. Instead, youd like to focus on another part of their perspective. Watch, read and listen to as many interviews theyve already done as you can. Know all the facts of what happened to them and what theyve already told people. Scour their social media. Try as hard as you can to keep them out of the dark places they dont need to go.

Use the details youre given, not what you assume. I had a reporter I trusted through mutual colleagues try and recreate the scene of my shooting. In doing so, she made up details like a pool of blood coming out of my coworker that never existed and my hands shaking as I texted my parents. When I asked her editor how she could have printed something so graphic and exploitative, she said she wanted to show how brave I was. Thats not the way to do it.

Not assuming (AKA making up) details is Journalism 101. But you also cant assign intent or emotion to simple facts. The golden rule of writing is show, dont tell. But you need to let the subject show you. You cant show for them. If you think someone acted with bravery, its OK to ask them, Do you feel brave? Their answer will probably tell you more than anything you try to recreate.

RELATED TRAINING: Journalism and Trauma

When youre interviewing someone whos experienced immense trauma like a mass shooting, you will take them down a dark path. Even if you try your best to ask questions that wont make them relive what they went through, they will. They may start talking about graphic details you didnt ask for and may not be able to stop. It doesnt matter if you had to take them down that path or not. Your interview shouldnt be over until you take them out. Have strategies ready to deploy when a source gets distressed or reacts negatively during their recounting and be ready to pull the string on the parachute. You may have to ask questions that wont give you answers you can use or get them to talk about something that isnt relevant to your story. But youll gain more trust and make that person feel safer with you if you can leave them in a better place.

One of those strategies is getting to know your source beyond what happened to them or their loved one. Find out what makes them happy. Ask them what makes them feel empowered in their life or about their loved ones life, whats getting them through this time, has anything made them smile recently? Has a show or book or podcast become their escape? These questions will help your source, and will likely give you a better story.

This was the method used by psychologist Henry Greenspan in his decades-long work interviewing Holocaust survivors. He became someone survivors felt comfortable leading into their memories, and someone they felt could safely pull them back out. The results are the continuing conversations he developed into his book On Listening to Holocaust Survivors: Recounting and Life History.

RELATED STORY: How journalists can take care of themselves while covering trauma

Journalists stories arent just informative. They give people power. When you report on trauma, who are you giving that power to? Can you help someone with your story? Are the details you include worth the hurt they may cause? Make sure the details you use in your reporting have purpose.

Part of the last year and a half of my life has been going round and round in a cycle of shock that comes from the news.

When Im trying to go about my day and the face of the man who killed my colleagues and almost killed me pops up on my social media feed or on TV, it feels like a bucket of ice water has been dumped on my head.

So many of those feelings from that day rush back. And then Im angry, because I have to go through this thing not even other journalists understand. So I swallow that anger and reach out to that publication or station to tell them how this makes me feel and why they should really be using any other image because we can provide them with so many. There are photos from each memorial and vigil, photos of us in the newsroom, photos of my colleagues reporting on the shooting from the mall parking garage. You dont need his face to tell our story.

My wounds have been ripped open and I expose them further to try and breach this gap between victims and the media.

And then I have to go through all that shock and sadness and anger again when it happens sometimes in the same day, sometimes from that same outlet I reached out to last.

Its time to start thinking about how our journalism affects victims of mass tragedy before we think about how to get the most clicks. Photos of shooters dead or alive, convicted or not might seem like images that grab readers, but they turn away the ones that matter most: the survivors. Its ironic that we show such compassion and care in our storytelling, then we callously disregard their feelings when it comes to illustrating our work.

To you and maybe most of your readership, little details like a thumbnail are a blip. To me and my colleagues and the ever expanding network of those touched by gun violence, theyre devastating.

Follow up. Seriously.

I knew to text my parents when I was hiding under a desk because I read about Pulse victims texting theirs. I covered Pulse and the Las Vegas shootings, but I never wrote or read an article that could prepare me for life after my own.

Having reporters be there in our initial moments after the shooting was important. People could hear our story, cry with us and get mad with us. But it also made us incredibly vulnerable.

The worst moments of some peoples lives are captured and swirled through the news cycle. And then thats it. You rarely hear what happened to the woman weeping on her husbands makeshift memorial or the father whose expression was captured as he realized his child was gone forever.

If these people are part of your coverage, check in on them and not just on the anniversary of their loss. Give them an opportunity to show you a different side. People should read about the aftermath of their lives, how the holes from those who were ripped away stretch out their new normal.

When the rest of the world moves on, the coverage of their event is likely the only thing theyll have left to remember that time. What kind of memories do you want to leave someone with? Stories where theyre vulnerable as a victim, or empowered as a survivor?

Consider how healing and empowering a portrait can be for that person and others in their shoes who only see those tragic breaking news photos.

For victims and their loved ones, reopening those wounds may be too painful. They might say no when you ask and thats OK.

But everyone should have the opportunity to feel remembered. No ones story ends when they fall out of the news cycle.

And as journalists we should work to give survivors and people who lose loved ones to tragedy memories that can lift them up and remind them why their story matters. We dont have to define people by their trauma alone.

Selene San Felice is a features and enterprise reporter at The Capital in Annapolis, Maryland, where she survived the newsroom shooting on June 28, 2018. She graduated in December 2016 from the University of Tampa, where she was honored in 2019 as the schools first distinguished alumni in journalism. She can be reached at ssanfelice@capgaznews.com and on Twitter at @SeleneCapGaz.

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I survived a mass shooting. Here's my advice to other journalists. - Poynter

World War 3: Top secret RAF mission that saved world from nuclear attack revealed – Express.co.uk

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During the Fifties and Sixties,tensions between the Soviet Union andthe UScould not have been higher, as the pair tussled for ultimate supremacy both on the ground and in space.However, Ministry of Defence papers show how the RAF played a vital role in preventing the Soviets from considering launching a nuclear attack. Dated between1986 and 1990, the documents discuss a top secret V-force comprised of strategic nuclear bombers that could reach the USSR in minutes, stealthily avoiding detection and anti-air weapons by flying low.

The papers detail: In 1957 the V-force provided the UK with the ability to deliver nuclear strikes deep into the Soviet Union.

A Canberra (bomber jet) force with US warheads allowed for sub-strategic NATO options.

The demise of the Vulcan bomber and Canberra led to the transfer of this sub-strategic role to the F4 Phantoms inRAFGand Buccaneers in UK and RAFG.

When it became clear that theSoviet Union'ssurface-to-air missiles,like theS-75 Dvina, could bring down high-flying aircraft, the V bomber force was key for practising low-level attack methods.

They were capable of dropping both nuclear and conventional weapons, supported by a complexanalogue computersystem known as theNavigation and Bombing Systemthat allowed accurate bombing even over very long ranges.

Eventually, this technologywas rolled outto other NATO states.

The papers explained:In 1969, Polaris assumed the V-force responsibility.

Subsequently, three Phantoms (US Navy fighters) squadrons handed over to four Jaguar (French attack aircraft) squadrons.

The Buccaneers continued in the UK and in RAFG.

READ MORE:How Harold Wilson plotted nuclear deal with De Gaulle in snub to US

Eventually, Jaguars and Buccaneers handed over to seven Tornado squadrons and those Buccaneers in UK assigned to Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SAUCER) handed over to two Tornado squadrons and 16 other aircraft of the TWCU at Honington.

The Vulcan is also well-remembered for its conventionalBlack Buck bombing raidsduring the 1982Falklands War, to support the change in mission, a tanker aircraft version was also made.

However, the use of all V bombers as weapons platforms, nuclear or conventional, ended after the Falklands.

The Cold War did not thoughas tensions continued foranother nine years until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1991, after a change in Soviet mindset was implemented underMikhail Gorbachev.

DON'T MISSWorld War 3: The single greatest threat to democracy[REVEALED]WW3 preparation: Where billionaires are building underground bunkers[PICTURES]China left scrambling over Taiwan independence: 'We will go to war!'[INSIGHT]

However,the eighth and last leader revealed in 2006 his real thoughts on what caused the fall of communismin Eastern Europe.

He said: The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, even more than my launch ofPerestroika, was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later.

The Chernobyl disaster was a devastating nuclear accident that occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat, Ukraine, on April 25, 1986.

It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history and is one of only two nuclear energy disasters rated at seven the maximum severity on theInternational Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disasterin Japan.

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World War 3: Top secret RAF mission that saved world from nuclear attack revealed - Express.co.uk

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Let the alt-right have their ‘War on Christmas’ if it means more delicious cookies for the rest of us – PGH City Paper

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It wouldn't be a Pittsburgh wedding without a cookie table. But why keep the tradition exclusive to happy couples? In the spirit of the season, Pittsburgh City Paper is celebrating the holiday cookie table. Were reviewing bakery favorites, family recipes, and grocery store staples until the table is full. click to enlarge

CP photo: Lisa Cunningham

Starbucks 2019 holiday cookie and coffee cup

Surely youve seen online trolls take to social media around this time every year to blast the coffee company for its supposed War on Christmas for its non-denominational holiday cup designs. (I mean, we all know you cant praise Jesus unless you drink a latte with skim milk and two pumps of hazelnut syrup out of a to-go cup plastered with the son of Gods face, right?)

But the festive (but not too festive) holiday cups havent been the only controversial item at your favorite American coffee company chain. Back in 2010, Starbucks customers cried foul when polar bear cookies with a scarf made out of red icing ended up looking like the animal had just gotten its neck slit. (Having the polar bears head raised high, with the scarfs red icing, extra thick, dripping down in two nondescript lines didnt help.)

If youve also got a sense of humor about these kinds of things or, if maybe youre equally as deranged? youll be happy to hear that this years snowman-shaped shortbread cookies still have a little bit of that bloody homage to their polar bear cousins.

CP photo: Lisa Cunningham

Black buttons, black eyes, and a black smile, paired with a tiny flash of a bright orange nose complete the characters design, with a delightful sprinkle of snow-like flakes of sugar along the bottom of the cookie as a final touch.

Paired with a latte (in a Merry Coffee cup, of course), this years cookie was a tasty treat with a soft texture, strong buttery flavor, and worth every one of the 390 calories it contains.

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Let the alt-right have their 'War on Christmas' if it means more delicious cookies for the rest of us - PGH City Paper

VIDEO: Ben Shapiro harassed by Holocaust denier as he is out with his pregnant wife and children – TheBlaze

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Ben Shapiro was accosted by Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes on Friday as he was walking with his pregnant wife and young children to a conservative convention in West Palm Beach, Florida.

In a video shared on Twitter by journalist Andy Ngo, Shapiro, 35, is seen crossing a street with his family as they were heading to TPUSA's Student Action Summit where he is scheduled to deliver remarks along with other conservative leaders, including President Donald Trump, Mark Levin, and Glenn Beck. Shapiro was holding one of his young children with one arm and pushing a stroller with the other, as his expecting wife walked alongside them, when Fuentes approached the family with a handful of male supporters, known as "groypers."

"Ben! It's great to see you. Why did you give a 45-minute speech about me at Stanford and you won't even look in my direction?" said Fuentes to the Daily Wire's editor-in-chief who ignored him. A woman's voice is heard telling Fuentes: "Hey, hey, hey! He's with his kids!"

Fuentes, who is 21 years-old and reported to have "a long history of racist and anti-Semitic comments," continued following Shapiro about 10 feet behind him and yelled, "I know you're with your family but I can't get to you anywhere else!"

"That's our free speech warrior everybody. Champion of the battle of ideas!" Fuentes added as Shapiro walked away. A woman approached the far-right provocateur and sternly told him "He's with his children!" The video also shows several male voices discouraging Fuentes from approaching Shapiro.

Fuentes then turned to a small group of young men who were holding cameras next to him and said "I guess he's just like Palestinians using human shields, right?"

Nick Fuentes is a controversial online personality with a history of making overtly racist and anti-Semitic statements, according to Reason.

He also bragged on Facebook that he attended the 2017 white supremacist and neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia. A screenshot shows that Fuentes described the event as "incredible" and declared that "a tidal wave of wide identity is coming" and "you will not replace us" just hours after it was widely reported that innocent bystander Heather Heyer was killed at the march by a white nationalist.

Fuentes has also compared the Holocaust to baking cookies and questioned the number of Jews killed in the genocide, claiming "the math just doesn't add up." As TPUSA's Benny Johnson noted on Twitter, Fuentes has mocked Dave Rubin for being "gay and Jewish" and said Rubin hosts "a gay Jewish show."

He has also told a white woman that it would be "degenerate" for her to have intimate relationships with a black man.

Fuentes has a history of targeting mainstream conservative thought leaders who he claims have sold-out whites. His "groyper" followers have spent several months trying to disrupt events throughout the country featuring conservative speakers, such as Shapiro, Jonah Goldberg, and Charlie Kirk.

In early November, Shapiro delivered a widely-acclaimed speech at Stanford University where he denounced both the far left and the Alt-Right. During his remarks, Shapiro detailed how neo-Nazis and Alt-Right personalities like Fuentes try to associate themselves with President Trump to legitimize their movement, and do so to the benefit of the left.

Ben Exposes Leftists & The Alt-Right In Six Minuteswww.youtube.com

"First, you declare your allegiance to President Trump, and declare that you aren't really Alt-Right, even though you obviously are," he said, according to the Daily Wire. "You show up to lectures wearing a MAGA hat in order to get the media to cover it and in order to demonstrate that you're truly a representative of the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump."

"You call yourself 'America First,' hijacking Trump's slogan, but twisting it to mean 'white Americans first," Shapiro said in a reference to Fuentes whose program is called "America First." Shapiro added that mainstream news outlets "eat it up" because they "love nothing better than suggesting that Trump is a white supremacist, despite the fact that he has repeatedly condemned white supremacism."

The Young America's Foundation cut its ties with commentator Michelle Malkin in November after she vocally supported Fuentes as a leader of "the new right."

"There is no room in mainstream conservatism or at YAF for holocaust deniers, white nationalists, street brawlers, or racists," the organization said in a statement.

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VIDEO: Ben Shapiro harassed by Holocaust denier as he is out with his pregnant wife and children - TheBlaze

How did the OK sign become a symbol of white supremacy? – The Independent

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The military is investigating whether a hand gesture displayed by cadets and midshipmen during television coverage of the Army-Navy football game on Saturday was meant to express racist sentiments.

The hand sign that was flashed on camera is one that has had a benign meaning for generations: It is commonly used to signal OK, or all is well. But in recent years, it has also been appropriated for other purposes, most notably as a way to signify white power. It has become an extremist meme, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Officials at West Point and Annapolis are trying to determine the cadets motives. Here is how the hand gesture became a fraught one.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

Where did the sign come from?

Touching the thumb and index finger to make a circle, with the remaining three fingers held outstretched, is a gesture that people around the world have made for centuries, mostly in positive contexts. It is used for several purposes in sign languages, and in yoga as a symbol to demonstrate inner perfection.

Members of the ShieldWall Network, a white nationalist group, burn a swastika and cross during a party outside Atkins, Arkansas, U.S on March 9, 2019

Reuters

Members of the ShieldWall Network hold up balloons decorated as the face of Adolf Hitler and give a white-power hand signal as they celebrate the German fascist's birthday outside Atkins, Arkansas

REUTERS

Billy Roper of the ShieldWall Network attends a party at a home outside Atkins. The group primarily operates in Arkansas and includes three other members who were recently charged with assault in connection with the beating of a gay man, according to police reports

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network march to a rally opposing legal abortion and supporting gun rights at the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas

REUTERS

Jeff Schoep, former chairman of the National Socialist Movement, speaks during a rally at the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas on November 10, 2018

Reuters

Crosses lit by members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan burn outside Yanceyville, North Carolina, U.S., November 4, 2017. The Loyal White Knights is one of the largest Klan groups in the United States, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremist groups

REUTERS

Members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan prepare for a cross-burning outside Yanceyville, North Carolina, U.S., November 4, 2017

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network perform a Nazi salute as a swastika and cross burn during a party outside Atkins, Arkansas, March 9, 2019

REUTERS

High chairs are seen in a building owned by The Knights Party, a white nationalist group formerly named the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, outside Harrison, Arkansas, March 10, 2019. The organisation is opening an education center for the children of white nationalists

REUTERS

Chris Barker of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan addresses an audience before a cross-burning outside Yanceyville

REUTERS

A figurine of a black man being lynched inside the home of Chris Barker of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Yanceyville

REUTERS

John Carollo, a member of the ShieldWall Network, holds up a photo montage of (clockwise from top left) Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, Adolf Hitler, founder of the American Nazi Party George Lincoln Rockwell, Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof and Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess, while attending a party at a home outside Atkins

REUTERS

Symbols of white nationalism are displayed on the jacket of a member of the National Socialist Movement as they gather in a parking lot before attending a rally at the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network prepare a swastika for burning to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Atkins

REUTERS

A new member of the ShieldWall Network, Nicholas Holloway, and other members of the white nationalist group go boating to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Russellville, Arkansas

REUTERS

Courtney Calfy, wife of Julian Calfy, helps to prepare a meal as members of the ShieldWall Network gather to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Atkins, Arkansas

REUTERS

John Carollo, a member of the ShieldWall Network, on the phone during a celebration of Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Atkins, Arkansas

REUTERS

A plaque on top of a flagpole with the number 1488 is carried by members of the National Socialist Movement as they attend a rally at the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas, November 10, 2018

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network John Carollo, Julian Calfy and Nicholas Holloway gather at a member's home before departing to disrupt a Jewish Holocaust memorial event in Russellville, Arkansas

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network burn a swastika to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Atkins, Arkansas

REUTERS

Chris Barker of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is seen inside what the group calls its church, next to his home in Yanceyville

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network go boating to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Russellville, Arkansas

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network, a white nationalist group, prepare to burn a swastika and cross during a party at a home outside Atkins, Arkansas

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network, a white nationalist group, burn a swastika and cross during a party outside Atkins, Arkansas, U.S on March 9, 2019

Reuters

Members of the ShieldWall Network hold up balloons decorated as the face of Adolf Hitler and give a white-power hand signal as they celebrate the German fascist's birthday outside Atkins, Arkansas

REUTERS

Billy Roper of the ShieldWall Network attends a party at a home outside Atkins. The group primarily operates in Arkansas and includes three other members who were recently charged with assault in connection with the beating of a gay man, according to police reports

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network march to a rally opposing legal abortion and supporting gun rights at the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas

REUTERS

Jeff Schoep, former chairman of the National Socialist Movement, speaks during a rally at the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas on November 10, 2018

Reuters

Crosses lit by members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan burn outside Yanceyville, North Carolina, U.S., November 4, 2017. The Loyal White Knights is one of the largest Klan groups in the United States, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremist groups

REUTERS

Members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan prepare for a cross-burning outside Yanceyville, North Carolina, U.S., November 4, 2017

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network perform a Nazi salute as a swastika and cross burn during a party outside Atkins, Arkansas, March 9, 2019

REUTERS

High chairs are seen in a building owned by The Knights Party, a white nationalist group formerly named the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, outside Harrison, Arkansas, March 10, 2019. The organisation is opening an education center for the children of white nationalists

REUTERS

Chris Barker of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan addresses an audience before a cross-burning outside Yanceyville

REUTERS

A figurine of a black man being lynched inside the home of Chris Barker of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Yanceyville

REUTERS

John Carollo, a member of the ShieldWall Network, holds up a photo montage of (clockwise from top left) Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, Adolf Hitler, founder of the American Nazi Party George Lincoln Rockwell, Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof and Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess, while attending a party at a home outside Atkins

REUTERS

Symbols of white nationalism are displayed on the jacket of a member of the National Socialist Movement as they gather in a parking lot before attending a rally at the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network prepare a swastika for burning to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Atkins

REUTERS

A new member of the ShieldWall Network, Nicholas Holloway, and other members of the white nationalist group go boating to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Russellville, Arkansas

REUTERS

Courtney Calfy, wife of Julian Calfy, helps to prepare a meal as members of the ShieldWall Network gather to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Atkins, Arkansas

REUTERS

John Carollo, a member of the ShieldWall Network, on the phone during a celebration of Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Atkins, Arkansas

REUTERS

A plaque on top of a flagpole with the number 1488 is carried by members of the National Socialist Movement as they attend a rally at the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas, November 10, 2018

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network John Carollo, Julian Calfy and Nicholas Holloway gather at a member's home before departing to disrupt a Jewish Holocaust memorial event in Russellville, Arkansas

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network burn a swastika to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Atkins, Arkansas

REUTERS

Chris Barker of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is seen inside what the group calls its church, next to his home in Yanceyville

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network go boating to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday outside Russellville, Arkansas

REUTERS

Members of the ShieldWall Network, a white nationalist group, prepare to burn a swastika and cross during a party at a home outside Atkins, Arkansas

REUTERS

The widely understood modern use of the sign for approval or assent seems to have arisen along with the term OK in the 19th century. Some researchers have traced the word to 1839, when Charles Gordon Greene wrote jokingly in The Boston Morning Post about it being an intentionally misspelled abbreviation for all correct. The term caught on, and the hand gesture, with the fingers forming something vaguely like an O and K, became closely linked with it.

How did it become connected to white power?

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How did the OK sign become a symbol of white supremacy? - The Independent

‘Touching and Triggering’: ‘Knives Out’ sparks question of how to tell immigration stories – NBC News

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This story contains spoilers for "Knives Out."

One of the season's hit movies has racked up a ton of praise and it's also spurred some vigorous debate.

"Knives Out, a murder mystery with an all-star cast, shows the tensions around Americans views of immigrants and the immigration process.

The movie, which has spurred Oscar buzz and recently nabbed three leading Golden Globe nominations, is on Top 10 film lists and has inspired heated questions about how to tell immigration narratives ethically and effectively.

Following the movie's release, many praised its depiction of undocumented immigrants in the United States, as told through Golden Globe-nominated Ana de Armas' character, Marta, the nurse and caregiver of family patriarch Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer).

As the murder investigation of Harlans death unfolds, so does some of Martas backstory. Her mother is undocumented, having come to the U.S. from an unspecified Latin American country, and this fact consumes Marta daily. Worried about her familys precarious legal situation, she tries to melt into the background, but the murder investigation led by the whimsical Benoit Blanc (Craig) launches her into a glaring spotlight.

Marta's employers are a family that includes both progressive, "New Yorker"-reading types, as well as alt-right conservatives who call Marta the pejorative term, anchor baby." They've tolerated Marta for coming to the U.S. the right way. But when they discover their inheritances from Harlans will are threatened and that Marta has undocumented family members, they direct their animosity toward her going so far as to frame her for Harlans murder and lord her mothers status over her head.

Marta may well have the last laugh in what many call a triumphant final scene.

On Twitter, author Daniel Jos Older posted, Knives Out didn't just open a wound for kicks and leave it open. It didn't make it melodramatic or shove in our faces the horror of deportation, and it didn't ignore it altogether, which most movies do.

"It acknowledged it as a reality and vulnerability of one of its characters, and an unfair advantage of others, and dealt with that, and kept it moving. That's what I want from art: honesty without berating, preaching, or manipulating. And a good time, which this was too of course, he wrote.

Not everyone thought the social commentary in the film was effective, however. Some Latino viewers criticized the film's handling of an issue that was perhaps a bit too close to home.

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Unfortunately Mr. Johnsons ambitions on this front reminded me that sometimes, well-intentioned art can backfire and offend (and even hurt) those its intended to champion, film critic (and NBC Latino contributor) Monica Castillo wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed. Through the character of Marta, Knives Out has a tendency to exploit its storys immigration angle, which left me feeling uneasy as strangers at the screening I attended laughed at real-life issues Im genuinely frightened of.

Luis Paez-Pumar, a freelance culture writer, echoed Castillos analysis.

Knives Out was a really fun movie that I almost entirely enjoyed, and yet I cant help but feel like the whole immigration stuff was a well-intentioned mistake of whiteness. Oh, well, Paez-Pumar tweeted.

Knives Out wasnt marketed as a movie dripping with social commentary; the trailer leads viewers to believe that the film is simply a comedic whodunit murder mystery drawing on Clue and Agatha Christies detective novels with an ensemble powerhouse cast.

But the differing perspectives are part of a larger debate on the ethical and effective ways to tell immigration narratives, experts say.

Media narratives about immigration must center around the people directly affected and they must show people are fully dimensional human beings, Ryan Eller, executive director of Define American, a nonprofit media organization whose mission is to shift the conversation about immigrants, told NBC News. Id love to see more filmmakers collaborate with people who have lived experience when taking on stories about immigration. Its so important for immigrants and people who come from mixed status families to not only be consultants on these projects, but creators of them.

Though Knives Out was directed, produced and written by Rian Johnson and does not appear to have much Latino representation in its crew, other experts thought that the film met the criteria of examining Martas immigration story with nuance.

Rian Johnson takes a familiar formula and revises it in a really progressive way, Charles Ramrez Berg, a professor in media studies at the University of Texas at Austin, told NBC News. He took an established genre, the whodunit form, and put a twist in it, by casting a Latina whos a professional, intelligent and not the murderer.

Anglos are people in movies and they can run the range of the complete spectrum of humanity. They can be good, they can be bad, they can be smart, they can be not so smart, Berg added. They can be everything. But when it comes to Latinos theyre not presented as people; theyre ignorant or illegal or immoral ... Theyre stereotypes.

Kristian Ramos, communications director of Define American, similarly praised the nuance of Martas character.

You have this Latina nurse who inherits all the money because of her hard work and her genuine relationship with her patient, Ramos said. She wasnt a caricature; she showed the difficulty of being undocumented. Her being there and being intelligent and kind, but also having a backbone and learning how to stand up for herself was subversive.

According to a study conducted by the University of Southern Californias Norman Lear Center and Define American, immigrant characters on television remain underrepresented and stereotypical. Of the more than 140 episodes of television the groups analyzed from 2017 and 2018, 11 percent of characters were immigrants and almost half of these characters had fewer than 10 speaking lines. While numerous studies have shown that immigrants dont commit any more crime than U.S.-born citizens, 34 percent of these television characters were connected to a past or current crime.

Once someone sees a stereotypical immigration storyline, it enables them to see them as second class citizens, Eller said. It impacts their abilities to see immigrants with dignity and respect and has real consequences, like the children kept in cages and the El Paso and Gilroy shooters who embraced a false narrative of invasion.

Theres been a long tradition of using documentary as a form to tell immigrant stories, according to Mauricio Espinoza, assistant of Spanish and Latin American Literature at the University of Cincinnati. The form, he says, takes advantage of emotional connections to present a story of a real person affected by a real issue. But while documentaries have long been an effective method of storytelling, fictionalized immigrant stories like Knives Out may be able to reach new demographics, he said.

Whether an immigrant narrative is told through a fictionalized or documentary form, however, Espinoza said its important to probe the motivations behind telling a certain story.

One of the dangers of having so much access to video technology everywhere it that it doesnt take long for stories with unfiltered, disturbing images to go viral, Espinoza said. We need to address these difficult situations, but we also cant dehumanize them. We need to question if sharing the gory details will help pave the way for change in policies or if theyre just sensationalism that will perpetuate the trauma immigrants have gone through.

The conversation about the Knives Out immigration plotline has been occurring as a video of Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, a Guatemalan teenager who died in Customs and Border Protection custody has circulated online. The video, which was published by ProPublica earlier this month, shows Hernandez collapsing to the floor and has also stirred controversy about when to use graphic imagery in immigration narratives. After ProPublica posted the video, the late teenagers family released a statement to the Texas Civil Rights Project saying it was painful to have people watching him die on the Internet.

Stephen Engelberg, ProPublicas editor-in-chief, told NBC News that the publication believed the American people need to see this video in order to understand the actions of their government and what really happened to Carlos.

Espinoza suggested adding content warnings or additional steps before accessing violent or potentially disturbing imagery could help ensure immigrant narratives are shown in a respective and human way.

Berg added that were on the verge of breaking through to a new kind of narrative. The problem is its very hard to get anybody to watch. Its easier to dismiss it or look the other way, but we need to find a way to look at those hard and harsh realities.

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'Touching and Triggering': 'Knives Out' sparks question of how to tell immigration stories - NBC News

Im Tired: Controversial Star PewDiePie Is Taking A Break From YouTube, Deletes Twitter – Forbes

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PewDiePie at the European Premiere of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' on December 16, 2015 in London.

Topline: After facing years of criticism for his supposed ties to the alt-right, YouTube megastar PewDiePie announced over the weekend that hes taking a break from the platform and deleted his Twitter account, saying that hes tired.

Key background: Kjellberg is YouTubes most popular and recognizable stars, but hes been accused of anti-Semitism and racism over the years. In 2017, Disney stopped advertising with his channel after he paid actors to hold up a sign reading Death to All Jews in several videos (he said it was a joke gone too far). Months later he was caught saying the n-word in a gaming stream and later apologized.

White nationalists have since embraced Kjellberg. The Christchurch shooter used a popular alt-right meme subscribe to PewDiePie in a livestream before he went on to kill 51 people. And in a botched attempt to rehabilitate his image in September, Kjellberg rescinded a planned donation to the Anti-Defamation League, an organization combating anti-Semitism, after saying the donation didnt feel genuine.

Tangent: PewDiePie became the first individual creator to reach 100 million subscribers on YouTube in August, making him one of the most popular creators on the platform. Hes also one of the wealthiest. According to Forbes, Kjellberg raked in $15.5 million in 2018.

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Im Tired: Controversial Star PewDiePie Is Taking A Break From YouTube, Deletes Twitter - Forbes

Military Officials Are Investigating Possible White Power Signs Flashed During the Army-Navy Game – Esquire.com

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ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDSGetty Images

At Saturdays Army-Navy football game, Army cadets and midshipmen appeared to flash a hand sign that has been adopted by white supremacistsand now officials say theyre investigating the incident.

During the game, which was attended by President Trump and held at Philadelphias Lincoln Financial Field, ESPNs Rece Davis reported live surrounded by students from the United States Military Academy and the Naval Academy. According to The New York Times, on at least five occasions, some of the cadets and midshipmen appeared to be making the sign.

The gesture, formed with one hand by touching the thumb to the index finger while leaving the other three fingers splayed, began being associated with the far right in the wake of a 2017 4chan hoax that attempted to spread the idea that the hand sign formed the letters "WP," standing for "white power." Aside from being well-known as the OK sign, the hand gesture has also been deployed as a part as the schoolyard circle game. But while its white supremacists associations may have begun a hoax, the symbol has since been adopted by real-life members of the alt-right and hate groups.

The Anti-Defamation League counts the gesture in its database of hate symbols, noting that "at least some white supremacists seem to have abandoned the ironic or satiric intent behind the original trolling campaign and used the symbol as a sincere expression of white supremacy." White nationalist Richard Spencer has been photographed using it, as has alt-right agitator Milo Yiannopolous. Most horrifying of all, after 50 worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand mosques were murdered, the alleged shooter flashed the sign during a court appearance.

Military officials told The Washington Post that they were investigating whether or not the cadets intended to signal support for white supremacist ideologies with the gesture. Last year, a member of the Coast Guard appeared to make the gesture in the background of a news broadcast. The Coast Guards official Twitter account subsequently tweeted that the organization had "identified the member and removed him from the response," writing that his "actions do not reflect those of the United States Coast Guard."

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Military Officials Are Investigating Possible White Power Signs Flashed During the Army-Navy Game - Esquire.com

‘Knives Out’s Rian Johnson On The One Thing Missing From Modern Mysteries The Contenders NY Video – Deadline

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Writer-director Rian Johnson took inspiration from his favorite Agatha Christie mysteries for Knives Out, which has has been holding its own with adult audiences at the fall box office. But he told the crowd at Deadlines recent The Contenders New York that he also wanted to write a modern-day original.

In the tradition of Christie ensembles, the all-star cast of the Lionsgate film plays possible suspects in a murder mystery. Daniel Craig is Benoit Blanc, the sleuth investigating the Thrombey family and their maid (Ana de Armas) after the death of patriarch author Harlan (Christopher Plummer). Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Katherine Langford and Jaeden Martell play the Thrombeys. They represent the 1%, with some specific 2019 digressions. For example young Jacob (Martell) is an alt-right online troll.

We see it today, its usually an Agatha Christie adaptation, Johnson, joined onstage by his producer Ram Bergman, told the DGA Theater crowd of Academy and guild voters. Its usually a period piece set in Britain. Its easy to forget that when she was writing, its not like she was a heavy political writer, but she was always engaging with contemporary British society of her time through her characters.

He added: I love the Agatha Christie adaptations, but the notion of doing an original and really plugging it into 2019 America, not just giving it a modern skin but using this little microcosm to look at that, that seemed like that could be really interesting.

The mystery unfolds in the Thrombey house, which is a character unto itself. One day we saw a picture, we said, This looks like the house, Bergman said. I took Rian there while he was still writing and we zeroed in on the house, but it took us like months and months to actually negotiate a deal. We literally cemented it like two weeks before we started filming.

Check out the conversation in the video above.

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'Knives Out's Rian Johnson On The One Thing Missing From Modern Mysteries The Contenders NY Video - Deadline

Owen Jones thanks people for support after being subjected to Twitter campaign of ‘pure hatred and abuse’ – Evening Standard

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Guardian columnist Owen Jones has thanked people for their support after an online campaign of "pure abuse and hatred" against him.

An offensive hashtag about the journalist began trending on Twitter on Saturday morning, with people using the trend to level a tirade of abuse at him.

But Twitter users quickly began speaking out against the hashtag, with one describing it as an example of "pure abuse and hatred".

Several also asked Twitter why it had allowed such a hashtag to exist.

The alternative hashtag#SolidarityWithOwenJonesDaysoonbegan gathering momentum as people jumped to the journalist's defence.

Jones has now responded to the abuse, tweeting a light-hearted message: "Yer Das taking the divorce well, I see."

He then shared a tweet which called for the abuse to stop, adding:"Bless you lot.

"I might look like I've walked off the set of Home Alone, but if I can survive fascists chasing after me on the streets, I can get through a hashtag set up by alt right weirdos who need their hard drives checking."

He also responded with a heart emoji to a tweet which told him to "ignore the b*******."

Jones, 35, is a Labour Party activist who is outspoken about politics.

In August he was attackedoutside the Lexington pubin Islington, north London, while celebrating his birthday.

At the time of the incident, Jones has said he believes he was targeted because of his anti-fascist politics and warned that divisive rhetoric is emboldening some on the far right to become violent.

Jones is pictured with outgoing Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn at the party's annual conference (Getty Images)

Outgoing Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn later sent a message of "solidarity" to Mr Jones and said it was an "attack on free speech".

Three men have - James Healy, 39, from Portsmouth, Liam Tracey, 34, from Camden, and Charlie Ambrose, 29, from Brighton - all pleaded guilty to affray.

Healy admitted a further charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He denies the attack was motivated by homophobia and will now face a trial of issue in front of a judge to decide whether that was the case.

You've kept Europe safe, PM tells troops as he serves up Xmas turkey

Also earlier this year, the political commentator shared a video on Twitter showing him being accosted by a group near Parliament, including men wearing Union Jacks.

He has previously vowed to quit social media because it is "completely and utterly depressing".

They could be heard calling him a "traitor" and a "horrible little man".

The Standard has contacted Twitter for comment.

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Owen Jones thanks people for support after being subjected to Twitter campaign of 'pure hatred and abuse' - Evening Standard

GOP candidate pitches robots and immortality to Iowa voters – The Gazette

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Democrats have Andrew Yang. Republicans have Zoltan Istvan.

Both men are running for the presidency as political outsiders and pitching radical, future-focused ideas to voters. For Yang, its universal basic income and a slew of other technocratic policy proposals.

Istvan also supports a form of universal basic income, but his primary focus is even wilder he wants the country to prepare for the transhumanist future.

Istvan defines transhumanism as the movement to upgrade human bodies and lives with technology. He predicts a future in which our bodies will be significantly augmented, such as with robotic arms or computer displays in our eyes.

He expects human life spans will drastically increase and robots will take on more humanlike characteristics, including consciousness.

Outside of science fiction entertainment, these are not ideas most Americans think about as public policy issues.

When I was traveling in Iowa and told people about it, they thought I was on some other space ship, Istvan told me during a phone interview last week.

Istvan ran for president in 2016 under the Transhumanist Party, and ran in the California gubernatorial primary with the Libertarian Party last year. Hes not a traditional Republican, but hopes to find allies among GOP primary voters.

As an entrepreneur Ive always been fiscally conservative. Totally socially liberal. Libertarian to the core when it comes to social ideas, Istvan said.

There is a great deal of disagreement about whether and how soon the huge technological developments Istvan discusses might be achieved. It might be 10 or 20 years as he predicts, but also could be more than 100 years away, or never.

Nevertheless, some form of transhumanism and an increasing level of artificial-intelligence-aided automation already are upon us. Istvan warns that the United States will be ill-equipped to manage social and economic changes.

Im worried were going to wake up in four or eight years and China will be the dominant player in the world both culturally and with innovation and with money and the economy, Istvan said.

To prepare, Istvan suggests several steps that will make many Americans uncomfortable.

As a few examples, the transhumanist campaign proposes mandatory college attendance for most people, licensure testing for parents and merging the United States, Canada and the European Union into a joined partnership.

Istvan wants to partially fund the government through leasing federal lands, vast spaces of which sit mostly unused in the western United States with trillions of dollars of natural resources. He has no affinity for nature, which he sees as antagonistic and immoral.

And Istvan would radically expand the use of police surveillance technology, including facial recognition and tracking devices. He generally wants to rollback privacy norms that inhibit technology.

I think these are ideas whose time might never come, but Istvan predicts the rest of us will eventually come around.

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The transhumanist age will be upon us sometime. People will remember Zoltan has been out there talking about these ideas for a long time, he said.

(319) 339-3156; adam.sullivan@thegazette.com

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GOP candidate pitches robots and immortality to Iowa voters - The Gazette