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Pundit Calls Proverbs the "Most Republican Book in the Bible" Because It Preaches "Social Darwinism" – Independent Women’s Forum…

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

July 11 2017

"Proverbs is probably the most Republican book of the entire Bible."

I had to laugh when I read the above quote, in an article in Politico by Yale Hebrew Bible professor Joel S. Baden.

Baden was pointing to Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio's propensity for tweeting quotations from the biblical book of aphorisms traditionally attributed to King Solomon. Apparently Rubio tweeted on June 26: "As dogs return to their vomit, so fools repeat their folly. Proverbs 26:11. I don't know exactly what Rubio was referring to: Maybe that Trump vs. CNN wrestling video that CNN just can't stop making itself the butt of jokes over.

Plus, Baden writes:

Just this past July 5, Rubio tweeted, They will die from lack of discipline, lost because of their great folly. Proverbs 5:23. Of course, its not all diligence and righteousnessin Proverbs, faith in God, too, will keep you away from things like poverty and failure. On June 16, Rubio tweeted, Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

What was Rubio talking about this time? Repealing Obamacare?

At any rate, Baden opines:

Some of the statements in Proverbs look strikingly similar to those made by modern-day conservative policymakers. Take, for example, Representative Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who, arguing that poorer people should pay more for health care, recently said, Those people who lead good lives, theyre healthy. Its not quite a direct quote from Proverbs, but its not too far from these: The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry (Proverbs10:3) and A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich (Proverbs 10:4).

According to Baden, the Book of Proverbs presents a "harsh, almost social Darwinist worldview"--which obviously fits every Republican you've ever met to a T.

This made me wonder: If Proverbs is the most Republican book in the Bible, what's the most Democratic book? I came up with several candidates:

1. The Book of Genesis. Remember this passage (Genesis 27:41), when Esau erupts in rage because his father, Isaac, has given his planned inheritance to his younger brother, Jacob? And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob."

Sounds f like the way liberal media pundits' heads exploded on the night of Nov. 8 when Donad Trump defeated their anointed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. (Of course we know they don't want to literally slay Trump, but they sure are loving on that Julius Caesar prduction in Central Park.)

2. The Book of Ruth. Here's a passage (Ruth 2:1-3) that should warm Dem hearts: 'And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter. And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers."

Going after the rich to grab what you can via tax hikes.

3. The First Book of Samuel: "Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth" (1 Samuel 17:49.

Again, what the Dems would like to do to Trump (metaphorically, of course).

4. The Acts of the Apostles. "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need (Acts 2:44-45).

Socialism! Need I say more?

5. The Book of Revelation. "So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns (Revelation 17:3)

I think the Bible is talking about Sarah Palin here.

So see? If the Book of Proverbs is the most Republican book in the Bible, all you have to do is vote for one of the above, Democrats, and you'll have your own book!

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Pundit Calls Proverbs the "Most Republican Book in the Bible" Because It Preaches "Social Darwinism" - Independent Women's Forum...

Biologist Laments, I Want Deeply for [Darwinism] to Make Sense – Discovery Institute

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

In his important new book, coming out on September 12 from HarperOne, State University of New York biologist J. Scott Turner tells the story about the Christmas pony. As a gift for a child who wants a pony, a poor family could afford only a pile of horse manure. Traipsing downstairs on Christmas morning to behold this well-intentioned mess, the child delightedly squealed and clapped.

Her parents asked her why. She answered, Because I know theres a pony in there somewhere.

In evaluating the coherence of Darwinian theory, Dr. Turner finds many of his fellow biologists in much the same mood. Squealing and clapping, they know theres a coherent theory in there somewhere.

His book, Purpose and Desire: What Makes Something Alive and Why Modern Darwinism Has Failed to Explain It, underlines that Turner is not an anti-Darwinist. On the contrary, he explains that I want deeply for it meaning the modern theory of Darwinian evolution to make sense. The reasons for his disillusion, which he outlines in this fascinating contribution to the evolution debate, turn upon long-ignored problems with the theory, and counterevidence from the mysterious nature of life itself.

It is still a couple of months too early for reviews of Purpose and Desire, but Kirkus welcomes it with a pre-publication starred review as an ingenious mixture of science and philosophy that points out major defects in Darwinism and then delivers heterodox but provocative solutionsa highly thought-provoking book.

Turner writes:

For the longest time, weve been able to fudge these problems, carried along on the faith that, to paraphrase the punch line of an old joke, there had to be a pony in there somewhere. But the dread possibility is beginning to rear its head; what if the pony isnt there?

The problem for modern Darwinism is, I argue, that we lack a coherent theory of the core Darwinian concept of adaptation.

It all unravels from there, thanks to unexpected insights from Biologys Second Law homeostasis and the great 19th-century French physiologist Claude Bernard, writing just six years after Darwins Origin of Species. After some delay, the crisis for the evolutionary biologist is at hand.

Without giving away any more punch lines, I recommend this: Pre-order Purpose and Desire now, because if you do so, for a limited time only, youll also get two free e-books to go along with it. The free e-books are Fire-Maker: How Humans Were Designed to Harness Fire and Transform Our Planet, by biologist Michael Denton, andMetamorphosis, which I edited as a companion to the Illustra Media documentary. Find the details here. (Note: When we first pointed out this offer, the web page wasnt working correctly. Its now fixed.)

Well. Turners book is a great read, and while hes not a proponent of ID, he turns a fresh new page for the case for design in nature. Promise: Well have more to say about his argument in due time.

Photo credit: Azaliya (Elya Vatel) stock.adobe.com.

Biologist Laments, I Want Deeply for [Darwinism] to Make Sense - Discovery Institute

Five reasons to attend TC Sessions: Robotics next week at MIT – TechCrunch

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Next week TechCrunch is hosting its first ever one-day event centered around robotics. Called TC Sessions: Robotics, there are still a few general admission tickets left which grant the holder access to the conference, workshops, and networking events. Plus there are going to be robots as far as the eye can see. We hope you can make it and heres why.

Join us next Monday, July 17, and get your ticket now before Kresges limited seating is sold out.

9:00 am 9:05 am Opening Remarks from Matthew Panzarino

9:05 am 9:25 am Whats Next at MITs Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory with Daniela Rus (MIT CSAIL)

9:25 am 9:50 am Is Venture Ready for Robotics? with Manish Kothari (SRI), Josh Wolfe (Lux Capital) and Helen Zelman (Lemnos)

9:50 am 10:10 am The Future of Industrial Robotics with Sami Atiya (ABB)

10:10 am 10:35 am Collaborative Robots At Work with Clara Vu (VEO), Jerome Dubois (6 River Systems) and Holly Yanco (UMass Lowell)

10:30 am 11:15 am WORKSHOP: Fresh Out of the MIT Lab with Robert Katzschmann, Claudia Perez DArpino and Andrew Spielberg

10:35 am 10:55 am Coffee Break

10:55 am 11:20 am Robots, AI and Humanity with David Barrett (Olin), David Edelman (MIT) and Dr. Brian Pierce (DARPA)

11:20 am 11:45 am Building A Robotics Startup from Angel to Exit with Helen Greiner (CyPhy Works), Andy Wheeler (GV) and Elaine Chen (Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship)

11:45 am 12:05 pm Imagineering Disney Robotics with Martin Buehler (Disney Imagineering)

12:15 pm 1:00 pm WORKSHOP: Educating the Next Generation of Roboticists with David Barrett (Olin College), Ryan Keenan (Udacity), and Dr. Robert McMahan (Kettering University)

1:00 pm 1:20 pm Robots at Amazon with Tye Brady (Amazon Robotics)

1:20 pm 1:55 pm Building The Robot Brain with Heather Ames (Neurala), Brian Gerkey (Open Robotics) and Deepu Talla (Nvidia)

1:55 pm 2:20 pm When Robots Fly with Buddy Michini (Airware), Andreas Raptopoulos (Matternet) and Jan Stumpf (Intel)

2:20 pm 2:40 pm Bringing Robots Home with Colin Angle (iRobot)

2:40 pm 2:50 pm Demo with Carl Vause (Soft Robotics)

2:50 pm 3:00 pm Demo with David Perry (Harvard University SEAS)

3:05 pm 3:25 pm Coffee Break

3:15 pm 4:00 pm WORKSHOP: Getting the Most Out of DARPA with Dr. Brian Pierce

3:35 pm 4:15 pm Robotics Startup Pitch-off

Contestants: CP Robotics, Hand4Help, Tangible Media Group and Franklin Robotics // Judges: Jeremy Conrad (Lemnos Labs), Helen Greiner (CyPhy Works), Daniel Theobald (Vecna Technologies) andMelonee Wise (Fetch Robotics).

4:15 pm 4:35 pm The Age Of The Household Robot with Gill Pratt (Toyota Research Institute)

4:35 pm 4:55 pm Fireside Chat with Rodney Brooks (Rethink Robotics)

4:55 pm 5:05 pm Demo with Bruce Welty (Locus Robotics)

5:05 pm 5:15 pm Demo with Sangbae Kim (MIT Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory)

5:15 pm 5:20pm Wrap Up

5:20 pm 7:00 pm Reception

DARPA The mission of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is to prevent and create strategic surprise by developing breakthrough technologies for national security. The agencys project-oriented approach to science and engineering, however, is different both in approach and execution from other U.S. governmental funding agencies. In this workshop, DARPA leadership will discuss the Agencys vision and goals, provide overviews of each of the organizations technical offices, in addition to an explanation of the mechanics of working with DARPA. The objective of the workshop is to elicit help in fomenting institutional evolution in Americas broader science and technology ecosystem that is needed to better and more rapidly respond to future challenges.

MIT CSAIL MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is tasked with researching activities around the bleeding edge of technology. Attendees of this workshop will get an insiders look at some of the hottest projects being developed in CSAILs labs and engineering bays. Robert Katzschmann will present Soft Robotics and the teams creative approach to allowing robots to manipulate objects. Claudia Perez DArpinos presentation will demonstrate how robots can learn from a single demo and Andrew Spielberg will explain a novel process to create and fabricate robots.

Building Roboticists David Barrett, a professor of mechanical engineering at Olin College, Ryan Keenan, curriculum lead for Udacity, and Dr. Robert McMahan, President of Kettering University will lead a workshop discussing their views on the best way to train the next generation of roboticists. Each of these educators leads vastly different programs, but the aim is universal: to train the next generation of globally competitive engineers. Its important that these students learn through hands-on experience how to not only write code, but deploy code in a viable manner that results in a sustainable product.

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Five reasons to attend TC Sessions: Robotics next week at MIT - TechCrunch

Why I Think Home Robots Will Become Invisible – IEEE Spectrum

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Photo-illustration: IEEE Spectrum; Roomba image: iRobot In this guest post, Joe Jones, the inventor of the Roomba, argues that home robots will follow computers into the shadows.

How many computers do you own?

If you picked a number close to three (say, laptop, tablet, and smartphone) youre way off. The answer is probably dozens. There are computers in your car, in your appliances, in your thermostat, and maybe even in your light bulbs. Every year the number goes up.

Today, visible computers are just the slimmest tip of the iceberg. Most computers are hidden away, quietly performing their jobs without you even being aware of the work they do for you. Thats as it should be. You have no interest in the computers themselves, you just want certain tasks done.

Cute, social robots currently get a lot of press, but are these engaging devices early emissaries of our robotic future? Are we entering an era where no one would dream of living without a cheerful electromechanical companion? In my view, companion robots offer novelty over utility, but once the novelty wears off, its only utility that people will pay for.

Rather than being front and center, home robots, I believe, will follow computers into the shadows. Why? Because people dont want robots. (I say this despite 30-plus years as a practicing roboticist.) Consumers want a spotless floor; not a machine buzzing around underfoot. Every morning, you want to find your dresser filled with clean clothes; you have no need to socialize with a laundry-bot no matter how exuberant it may be. People want the things a robot can do for them; the robot itself may just get in the way.

Acknowledging that consumers dont love robots the way we do might help roboticists build better products. The robot, I think, should not be an end in itself but instead should be the simplest, most cost effective way to deliver what our customers truly want. Furthermore, if a proposed robot is not the simplest, most cost effective solution to a problem consumers want solved, then we shouldnt build that robot.

In the fairytale of the shoemaker and the elves, the shoemaker awakens each morning to find that his work is done. Discovering how the work was accomplished requires effort on the part of the shoemaker. This, I think, is good inspiration for robot developers.

Home robotics hasnt achieved that happy ideal yet. We can program Roomba to emerge and work when no one is home, but its still necessary to empty the dirt compartment and clean the brushes. My newest robot, Tertill, which is available on Kickstarter, is another step in the direction of invisibilitydelivering a weed-free garden with almost no attention from the gardener.

I look forward to the day when the logistics of home life will simply run smoothly and no one need trouble themselves with the details. Unless they want to.

Joe Jones is co-founder and CTO of Franklin Robotics, which is developing a solar-powered garden-weeding robot named Tertill. Previously, he was co-founder and CTO of Harvest Automation and a senior roboticist at iRobot, where he was the co-inventor of the Roomba vacuuming robot. Follow him on Twitter: @JoeRobotJones

IEEE Spectrums award-winning robotics blog, featuring news, articles, and videos on robots, humanoids, drones, automation, artificial intelligence, and more. Contact us:e.guizzo@ieee.org

Sign up for the Automaton newsletter and get biweekly updates about robotics, automation, and AI, all delivered directly to your inbox.

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Billed as a Replacement for Man, the Hughes Mobot combined strength with a delicate touch 26May

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Why I Think Home Robots Will Become Invisible - IEEE Spectrum

Robots to haul luggage, and fight crime, in train stations – CNET

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Robots will carry luggage, assist lost travelers, clean floors and catch shoplifters in Japan's railways.

Traveling can be a pain, especially when lost luggage, delayed flights and confusing train station layouts are the norm.

Japan is hoping to make traveling safer, and maybe even more fun, by adding robots to give a helping mechanical hand at train stations.

East Japan Railwayslast week announced the creation of JRE Robotics Station, a company that will design robots to help travelers navigate train stations and get to their trains on time.

Other robots will be designed to carry luggage -- mainly assisting travelers with disabilities, not merely those who hate to lug around heavy suitcases.

The robots will also be programmed to understand a variety of languages to accommodate foreign visitors. Other robots will be designed to clean floors and otherwise tidy up the train stations.

Security robots that can detect shoplifters are also part of the new initiative. The idea of futuristic RoboCops makes sense considering the railway company also manages a number of hotels and shopping centers in Japan.

But if you want to see this new robotic workforce in action, you may have to wait awhile. JRE Robotics Station has yet to announce when the robots will be in place to servetravelers.

The coolest robots from UK Robotics Week 2017

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Robots to haul luggage, and fight crime, in train stations - CNET

Robotics competition held at Taylor Sportsplex – Southgate News Herald

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

The Big Bang happened in Taylor July 7-8 when the Taylor Schools robotics program held its annual invitation of the same name.

In all there were 23 schools from the U.S. and Canada represented.

Joe Horth, the robotics director for the school, said this was a bigger version of the invitational they started hosting last year, but that he would like to see it continue to grow.

The competition was outside of the traditional high school competitive season, but if Horth has his way, that might change in the future as well. He said the school might attempt to host a high school district competition in the future.

The competition was held in the Belle Tire Arena, with the staging held at the other ice arena. The ice surfaces at both arenas are down during the summer months.

Is Video a Game Changer for Virtual Reality? – eMarketer

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Adoption of virtual reality (VR) headsets hasnt grown by leaps and bounds. For one, the devices arent cheap. While there are affordable options out there, some can leave a substantial dent in a consumers wallet.

And many consumers dont want to shell out money for a device they feel doesnt have enough content. But video may change their perception.

A study of VR device users worldwide by Ericsson found that more than half (54%) of respondents felt that VR devices will be the new screens for video. And almost as many (53%) said video will be one of the most popular uses of VR.

Just over half of respondents think video in VR will become popular because it will combine with social networking.

But not everyone had a positive attitude toward video in VR. In fact, over a third of respondents (38%) felt that watching video via a VR headset was restrictive, because they would only watch it alone and not share the experience with anyone else.

And theres also the question of quality. A third of VR device users felt their video experience via a headset would be restricted because of poor resolution.

VR has been slower to catch on in the US, and will not reach mass adoption in the foreseeable future, according to eMarketer.

eMarketer expects just 22.4 million people in the US will engage with a form of VR at least monthly this year, with that figure increasing to 49.2 million by 2019.

But while VR headsets provide a more immersive experience, engagement will remain low due to their often high cost. This year, only 2.9% of the US population will use a VR headset at least monthly, eMarketer estimates, with that number growing to just 5.2% by 2019.

Rimma Kats

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Is Video a Game Changer for Virtual Reality? - eMarketer

Virtual reality baseball a hit at the All-Star FanFest – Daily Commercial

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

By RONALD BLUM, AP Baseball Writer

MIAMI BEACH Nicholas Montes put on goggles and a catcher's mitt and crouched.

The 13-year-old will never catch a 104 mph pitch from Aroldis Chapman. But at the All-Star FanFest, he felt what it's like to be Buster Posey snagging virtual strikes.

"It like I was actually in the game. When I was catching, I felt the ball move and everything," the 13-year-old from Miami said enthusiastically Sunday. "And then when I saw it go in my glove, I tried touching the ball, but I felt the remote control thing. So it was pretty cool."

Developed by GMR Marketing, the Esurance Behind The Plate With Buster Posey VR Experience allows fans to "catch" fastballs, curveballs and sliders from a generic pitcher at velocities ranging from 86-93 mph.

"I've always said that I thought it would be cool for the average fan to either step in the box or like this get behind the plate and get the same sense of what it's like to see a 90-plus, 95-mile an hour fastball coming your way," Posey explained last week.

Esurance Insurance Services Inc., a subsidiary of Allstate Corp., became a sponsor of Major League Baseball in 2015 and signed Posey as a brand ambassador. The company had a 180-degree photo experience at the 2015 FanFest in Cincinnati, then provided 360-degree videos of fans taking swings last year in San Diego.

In a dual setup at FanFest, which opened Friday and runs through Tuesday, people get to signal for three pitches over about 90 seconds as Posey's recorded voice offers tips. They can choose the pitch type by pointing their glove toward an icon on the screen, triggering a sensor. When a pitch is successfully caught, the person hears and feels the mitt snap.

"It is as real as it can be," Danny Devarona, a 48-year-old who coaches youth baseball in Miami Lakes, said after taking his turn.

Commercial and social media content was shot over two days during spring training in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Posey's San Francisco Giants train. Posey's voice-over was recorded after the season started.

"Are you ready? All right, let's see what you've got," Posey's voice tells fans. "This guy throws a nasty curve. The trick is to keep your glove below the ball and your eye on it. ... Keep your chin down and be ready to slide to your right, because this one might hit the dirt."

"Nice job! Right in the pocket," he tells fans when they succeed.

"Yeah, that was a tricky one," he says when they fail.

Based on PITCH f/x data, breaks of 38-to-52 inches are simulated.

"Fans will receive a social-sharable video for them that they can then distribute to their friends," said Kristen Gambetta, Esurance's brand partnerships manager. "With VR, there's something really entertaining about seeing people's facial reactions and kind of seeing their movements and how they react to having a ball flying at their face."

Several thousand fans were expected to put on the electronic "tools of ignorance" over the five days. And unlike real catchers, they won't have to stuff sponges in the glove to absorb the impact.

"Let's just say I'm pretty impressed. I don't think I can ever catch or hit for that matter a Major League Baseball curveball," said Pablo Souki, a 38-year-old from Venezuela who lives in Miami. "That was pretty eye-opening."

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Virtual reality baseball a hit at the All-Star FanFest - Daily Commercial

Grant of $10000 will link students in rural Danforth to virtual reality – Press Herald

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

A small rural school in Washington County just 5 miles from the Canadian border is going high-tech next year, thanks to a $10,000 grant that will allow school officials to integrate virtual reality into lesson plans for studying history, biology, engineering and other subjects.

The Danforth community is devoted to our children, and at East Grand School we are always looking to provide important opportunities for our students, said Jennifer Gillman, a math teacher who beat out 83 other applicants to win the grant. The money will be used to buy virtual reality headsets, which retail for about $800 each, and set up a dedicated space for VR, a 3D printer and other hands-on technology.

(The students) have the ambition and the ability, but they dont always know whats out there in the world for them, Gillman said. There are about 150 students in the school, which spans pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

The grant is the fourth annual $10,000 technology award by Kepware Technologies, a Portland-based software development firm sold several years ago to PTC Inc., a Needham, Massachusetts-based technology company. The grants are intended to spur interest and experience with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and develop the states workforce.

Technology is key to enhancing student learning, said Tony Paine, chief technology officer of Industrial Automation at PTC. Access to technology enables students to develop a strong foundation of technical skills and inspires them to explore their talents. The Kepware School Grant Program continues to supply students in our home state with tools to succeed in STEM disciplines and overcome the technology gap facing many Maine schools.

Noel K. Gallagher can be contacted at 791-6387 or at:

[emailprotected]

Twitter: noelinmaine

#DIFF2017: Africa in Virtual Reality – Independent Online

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Electric South and the Goethe-Institut at this years Durban Film Mart at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) will present New Dimensions Virtual Reality Africa, a selection of specialised productions from Kenya, Senegal and Ghana.

Each of these works, said organisers in a statement, offered a view of the vibrant, diverse and ever-changing cultural landscape of contemporary Africa.

Ingrid Kopp and Steven Markovitz, Founders of Electric South, said: The aim of this collaboration with the Goethe-Institut is to provide funding support to African storytellers and artists in the development and production of their own VR ideas, and introducing African and international audiences to African-produced VR.

Said Lien Heidenreich-Seleme, Head of Cultural Programmes for Subsaharan-Africa at the Goethe-Institut South Africa: As part of our work with the theme future, we are exploring virtual reality not only with filmmakers, but with artists from very different disciplines all over Sub Saharan Africa. We are excited to see how new technological means will allow for new stories being told.

Included was the VR work Spirit Robot by Ghanaian science fiction author and founder of the Afrocyberpunk website Jonathan Dotse who explored the Chale Wote Street Art Festival in Accra.

Kenyan photographer Ngendo Mukii produced a poetic city symphony on Nairobi in the VR piece Nairobi Berries, consisting of her lyrical voice-over alongside surreal, layered images of the city.

Her synopsis reads: In the empty spaces we cannot claim as our own, in forests full of smoke and beneath still waters, two women and a man wrangle. Each must hollow out the others core for fruits promised but only ever borne in dreams. For this is Nairobi, the city we call home.

Senegalese fashion designer Selly Raby Kane presents a magical 360 piece, in which a little girl is chosen to discover the invisible Dakar.

Kenyan The Nest Collective created an interactive work set in the distant future, when a group of Africans have left the Earth to create a colony on a distant planet.

The Mercury

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#DIFF2017: Africa in Virtual Reality - Independent Online

DARK NIGHTS: METAL 101: The Immortal Man & The Four Tribes – Newsarama

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Credit: DC Comics

Immortality lies at the center of Dark Nights: Metal. Not only is immortality the driving force behind the investigations being conducted by both Hawkman and Batman, but the event will feature a set of immortal characters in its cast - including one aptly named The Immortal Man.

In Dark Days: The Forge #1, readers discovered that Hawkman has been investigating Nth Metal for years, trying to unlock its abilities. During his studies, he comes to understand that its conducting powerful energy from somewhere beyond his understanding.

That powerful energy is also being investigated by Batman, and the story of its discovery - and the Dark Multiverse it reveals - is at the center of DCs summer event series Dark Nights: Metal, which launches in August and reunites writer Scott Snyder and his Batman co-creator Greg Capullo.

The Forge and its this week's upcoming counterpart Dark Days: The Casting are written by Snyder and James Tynion IV, serving as prequels to Metal and introducing concepts that will form the backbone of the events story.

The Forges Clues

Hawkmans investigation not only leads him to an understanding of energy, but it reveals a link to the Earths past. Hawkman says he got a glimpse of a historic clue - and by glimpse, he was probably referring to one of the visions that he says occur in his reincarnation process, like dreams during his time between lives.

He describes the glimpse as a story that began with the first men to walk the Earth - three tribes. Hes shown to also have some type of artifacts that represent what he discovered about these tribes, as readers are shown what appear to be the sign of a hawk, a bear, and a wolf.

In the same issue, readers were also introduced to the Immortal Man, a modern version of the character from DC Comics history. The character was first introduced in 1965 in Strange Adventures #177, in a story titled I Lived a Hundred Lives.

Immortal Origin

In various stories in Strange Adventures, the character's portrayed ase a modern man who has strange powers he doesnt understand. Raised as an orphan, his only clue to his past lies in an amulet he finds that was left with him when he was a baby. When he looks into the amulet, he remembers that he has lived hundreds of lives, from his time as a caveman until present day, and his body and mind have retained the knowledge they gained during those lives.

There it was before me in the amulet reflection, the character said in his debut. The explanation to all the mystery that plagued my present life! For then and there I realized I had lived not one life, but a multitude of lives.

Originally, the character was only shown to be from a race of powerful cavemen, but in later stories, the Immortal Man was given a more DC-centric origin.

He was Klarn Arg, the caveman leader of the Bear Tribe and archenemy of Vandar Arg of the Wolf Clan (better known as Vandal Savage).

In this origin story, Vandal and the Immortal Mans pre-historic origins were linked - they were battling each other when a meteorite hit the Earth 50,000 years ago.

The meteorite made Vandal immortal, but the Immortal Mans powers lie in an amulet he fashioned from the meteorite. Each time he is resurrected - sometimes as a baby and sometimes as an adult - he is an enemy of Vandal Savage.

Because of this connection between the two characters, and the use of the Bear Tribe and Wolf Clan in their past stories, its likely that the Dark Days: The Forge reference to tribes with the signs of a bear and a wolf refers to these two characters. The hawk that represents the third tribe is probably a sign of Hawkman himself, although its possible it could relate to other DC characters, including the Blackhawks, who are also in The Forge.

Team Player

In post-Crisis continuity, the Immortal Man worked with a team of heroes to stop the evil machinations of Vandal Savage. His team was called the Forgotten Heroes. Although none of those heroes seem to be involved in the current story of The Forge and Metal, a similar idea might be behind the formation of the Immortal Men." This team, also mentioned in The Forge, has been given their own DC title beginning in the fall. Among the team members announced by DC is Immortal Man.

Image from Dark Days: The Forge #1

The description of Immortal Men indicates that five siblings have eternal life, fighting foes in an eternal war. Its not clear whether the Immortal Man is one of these five siblings or not. But in The Forge, as hes discussing the Immortal Men, there are two people talking and four other individuals shown - a total of six. So Immortal Man, whos described in the issue as the great and powerful Immortal Man, may be more of a leader of the five siblings.

In this incarnation, Immortal Man is an older man, with a streak of white in his hair. He works in secret in a lair located a mile beneath Philadelphia. He reveals that he offered Elaine Thomas (mother of Bat-family teen hero Duke Thomas) the opportunity to become immortal somehow. Whether Elaine is one of the Immortal Men, reincarnated without realizing it, or whether the offer was a new one, is not clear.

One of the heroes shown in the Immortal Men scene in The Forge appears to be Native American, and her origin might be tied to the DC hero of the past known as Super Chief. This character, in his original incarnation, was also part of the Wolf Clan and was imbued with powers by a meteorite.

Crisis Tie

Another Bear Tribe member was Anthro, the first boy on Earth who played a key role in Grant Morrisons Final Crisis. Morrison also included the Immortal Man in his Mutiversity mini-series, although the hero was part of a group on Earth-20 and was there revealed to be Anthro, a hero imbued with powers from a meteorite.

Its possible all these meteorites and the energy within them can now be linked to Nth Metal and to the dark energy that will lead Batman to the Dark Multiverse.

Its also obvious, reading through Immortal Mans history, that his powers of reincarnation and flight can be easily connected to Hawkman and Hawkgirl, which seems to be the direction Snyder is heading with Metal.

In the three tribes scene in The Forge, Hawkman adds a fourth tribe - one with the symbol of a bat. This symbol can also be connected to Anthro and Final Crisis, as Batman was tossed back in time by the events in that story and its Morrison-penned follow-up, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne.

Struck by the space-bending Omega Beams of Darkseid, Bruce Wayne becomes stranded in time, jumping into different eras - beginning with the paleolithic era. During his time as a caveman, he fights against the tribe led by Vandal Savage.

The word Crisis is also used by Immortal Man himself in the issue, although it refers to future possibilities. He says the "world of public heroes is careening toward a crisis unlike anything they've seen before."

Looking at Immortal Mans history and the Metal possibilities for his Immortal Men and Hawkmans tribes, its pretty clear that Snyder is connecting many different dots in the history of the DCU. And although the entire picture wont become clear until readers get their hands on Augusts first issue of Metal, there are definitely some obvious lines being drawn related to immortality in the DCU.

Continued here:

DARK NIGHTS: METAL 101: The Immortal Man & The Four Tribes - Newsarama

DARK NIGHTS: METAL #1 First Look – The Hints, Symbols, & ‘Ocean of Possibilities’ – Newsarama

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Credit: DC Comics

DC Comics released the first handful of pages from Dark Nights: Metal #1 and theyre a doozy. Not only do they feature DCs greatest heroes in a knockdown, drag-out battle on an alien planet befitting the rock n roll epic feel that Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are going for, there are a number of fun cameos and Easter eggs hidden throughout.

The Symbols?

Page one opens with three symbols in the sand - a wolf, a paw, and a bird. The symbols echo what readers were shown in June's Dark Days: The Forge #1, which Snyder has described as a "zero issue" to the event. In Forge, Hawkman described a "glimpse" he experienced while investigating Nth Metal - a story that began with the first men to walk the Earth - three tribes. He was shown to have some type of artifacts that represented what he discovered about these tribes, as readers are shown what appear to be the sign of a hawk, a bear and a wolf.

Other clues in The Forge indicate that the three symbols probably refer to the following:?

It's worth noting here that Vandal Savage, the Immortal Man, and Hawkman were all three given immortality by a metal that fell from the sky (the first two from a meteorite and the last from a spaceship). With Metal's exploration of the "dark energy" in certain metals on Earth (which all seem to be connected to Nth Metal), it's likely that Snyder is connecting those pre-historic meteorites to the same strange energy in Nth Metal. After all, they all imbued earthlings with immortality.

Of course, this is just speculation, and the three tribes don't necessarily refer to these characters. This is a Batman story and Batman has been teaming with Vixen over in Justice League of America, who would lend herself well to symbols featuring animals. Also, considering the Grant Morrison connection that shows up elsewhere in the issue, maybe this is a reference to Animal Man and an opportunity for Snyder to make a more meta-statement about these DC heroes.

In the last couple panels of the "symbol" page, a shadow that looks like Batman's cowl appears, seemingly looking at the three icons. In the next panel, it looks like someone (Batman? Or an alternate version of Batman?) has wiped away the three symbols, spilling blood on top of them.

More symbolism, we presume?

Mongul's Warworld?

The next couple of pages show off the coliseum-like setting known as Warworld, introducing the Justice League and the villain Mongul. Warworld has shown up in past DC stories where Mongul forced heroes to participate in gladiatorial games, and this scene seems to go along with that premise. The heroes are wearing armor and, at least in the scenes we're shown, are not using all their powers.

Aside from Capullos excellent interpretation of Mongul, there are some interesting hints on the pages. We get close-ups of Supermans crest, what looks to be the Flashs foot, and Wonder Womans crest. Whats notable here is that Diana is sporting a golden snake on her breastplate. The snake could also be a clue about the involvement of some serpent-themed characters from Wonder Woman's mythos - maybe Medusa or Deimos (a minor god with something of a snake theme), or even some new god-like threat such as Apep or Apophis. Maybe Diana has called upon some dark power to aid in this fight?

Then again, the snake could just be an attempt by Capullo to make Wonder Woman's armored costume even more intimidating.

There's another character on one of the Warworld pages - a more generic-looking gladiator fighting near Aquaman. He could be fighting beside the Justice League, or he might just be one of Mongul's "gladiator handlers" who got caught in the crossfire.

Watching the fight, Mongul sits in a huge throne-type chair with a small human nearby. It appears to be Hiro Okamura, the young Toyman, who previously turned from being a menace to Superman and Batman to being the Justice League's helpful ally. It looks like Hiro is a prisoner, and maybe that's why the Justice League is being forced to fight. Or even more likely, the genius Toyman was forced by Mongul to design custom giant robots to fight each of the heroes, because...

There are a couple more pages of the League fighting giant robots that are matched to their costumes and, probably, designed to counteract their various skills and powers.

Mountain Invasion

The next page shows a mountain that has apparently risen up and destroyed part of a city (possibly Gotham, if that Wayne-like tower looming over other buildings means anything). The mountain resembles the Challengers of the Unknown mountain (which, honestly, we wouldn't have realized if not for the following page featuring the Challengers themselves).

Standing in the city, looking at the mountain, is the League, in their normal costumes. The Flash scouts ahead and finds a door that features an hourglass logo in a circle. That hourglass might be a reference to Hourman, but it's more likely a play on the Challengers of the Unknown symbol an "X" in a square.

However, the X symbol here is in a circle, and it indicates that time is passing. (In fact, the hourglass looks like there's very little time left.)

Blackhawks and Cameos?

The last two pages have a ton of cameos of fan-favorite heroes - but they're only in pictures that are being shown to the Justice League by the Blackhawks.

This isn't the old-school Blackhawks (although they show up in one of the photos). This is the new Scott Snyder Blackhawks - the group calling themselves the "Blackhawks" who showed up in recent issues of All-Star Batman, fighting against Batman. And someone calling herself "Lady Blackhawk" (but wearing a mask while piloting a jet) was seen in The Forge, talking about hiding something from Batman.

On these preview pages, a woman with dark auburn hair is showing League members photos from the past. Wearing a Blackhawk symbol on her uniform, this might be Lady Blackhawk.

The photos feature the Challengers of the Unknown, the old-school Blackhawks, Red Tornado, the Metal Men, their creator Dr. Will Magus and T.O. Morrow and Starman. They're all seemingly from the past (the Starman is the Will Payton one from the '80s). Also, keep in mind that DC is launching a New Challengers title (by Snyder and Andy Kubert) this fall when the "Dark Matter" line spins out of Metal.

And theres what leads us to a big reveal in all of this. One of the Blackhawks is holding the Map of the Multiverse, last seen in Grant Morrisons epic Multiversity.

Due to the nature of that event, readers werent able to look at every piece of the Multiverse - some earths were still unknown, left for other writers to explore in later stories. That might be an explanation for some of the strange Batman characters teased in upcoming Metal one-shots - they're from other worlds. This Multiversity map certainly indicates that's true.

However, we should remember that Scott Snyder specifically told Newsarama all the way back in May that Dark Nights: Metal is exploring the "Dark Multiverse" beyond Multiversity.

He made it clear that he was exploring something outside of the 52 universes that Morrison had established - in fact, he said the Dark Multiverse was 'beneath" the known Multiverse.

"I started thinking," Snyder told Newsarama, "what if the Multiverse essentially has these 52 universes, but has almost this ocean of possibility, this ocean of almost reactive matter beneath it that's like a Dark Multiverse."

The preview ties directly into the 52 universes, but as Newsarama readers know - and, apparently, Batman and Hawkman are discovering - there's something dark and sinister beyond them.

Do the Blackhawks know about the Dark Multiverse? Are they trying to hide it from Batman? Why are they telling the League about it? Why is Challengers Mountain suddenly invading the DCU? And what do the Metal Men and Starman have to do with it?

We can't even begin to guess on the answers to those questions. But we should emphasize that just about everything else we've said is just that - a guess. There's a reason comic books (generally) have words on them. Sometimes it's a little hard to know exactly what youre looking at. But theres no harm in guessing.

Excerpt from:

DARK NIGHTS: METAL #1 First Look - The Hints, Symbols, & 'Ocean of Possibilities' - Newsarama

Sacred Space, University of Miami partner to educate community on wellness – Miami Herald

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Miami Herald

Sacred Space, University of Miami partner to educate community on wellness
Miami Herald
She will work with Osher Center Director Dr. Robert Schwartz, who shares her passion for alternative medicine. Schwartz was named director of the new Osher Center in May as a result of a $5 million endowment from the Bernard Osher Foundation. Schwartz ...

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Sacred Space, University of Miami partner to educate community on wellness - Miami Herald

Valtrex after expiration – Alternative medicine for herpes simplex 2 – Van Wert independent

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Submitted information

OHIO CITY The Ohio City Park Association and the Lambert Days Committee has finalized plans for the 2017 festival.

Lambert Days is always the third full weekend in July. This years dates are July 21-23. This is also the 50th anniversary of Ohio Citys celebration of the life of John W. Lambert and his invention of Americas first automobile.

This years edition of Lambert Days will feature a communitywide garage sale. For more information, contact Laura Morgan at 419.965.2515. There will also be food all weekend in the newly renovated Community Building on Ohio 118.

Friday, July 21

Festivities start off with a steak dinner (carryout is available), starting at 4 p.m. Friday. Ohio Citys American LegionHarvey Lewis Post 346 will have aflag-raising ceremony at 5 Friday evening, while kids games and inflatables will also open at 5. At 6 p.m., the Lambert Days Wiffleball Homerun Derby will take place. For more information, contactLorenzo Frye 419.771.7037.

There will also be entertainment at 6 p.m. featuring Cass Blue. At 7, there will be a adult Wiffleball tournament. For more information, contact Brian Bassett419.203.8203. A Texas Hold em Tournament will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, along with Monte Carlo Night, which begins at 8 p.m. For more information, contact Jeff Agler at 419.513.0580.

Entertainment for Friday night starts at 8 and will be the band Colt & Crew. There will also be a fireworks display at 10:15 p.m. Friday (Saturday night is the rain date).

Saturday, July 22

Saturday morning begins with a softball tournament at 8. For more information, contact Brian Bassettat 419.203.8203. There will also be a coed volleyball tournament that starts at 9 a.m. Saturday. For more information, contact Tim Matthews at 419.203.2976. The Lambert Days Kids Wiffleball Tournament starts at 10 a.m. Saturday. For more information, contact Lorenzo Frye at 419.771.7037.

Kids games and Inflatables continue at 11 Saturday morning. Cornhole tournament registration and 3-on-3 basketball tournament registration start at noon, while both tournaments begin at 1 p.m. For more information on cornhole, contact Josh Agler at 567.259.9941 and for 3-on-3 basketball, contact Scott Bigham at 419.953.9511.

The Hog Roast Dinner starts at 4 p.m. Saturday and carryout is available. There will also be music under the tent by Jeff Unterbrink at 4. Bingo will start at 5 p.m., and the night ends with entertainment by Megan White and Cadillac Ranch.

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Italy set to put Belfrit into law with final botanicals list and degree – NutraIngredients.com

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Italy has published a final decree which could bring a consolidated Belfrit list into full European law as early as this autumn.

The country, which was the firstof the three Belfritcountries (Belgium, France and Italy) to adopt theinitial list in 2014, at first did so by amending its plant food supplement decree of 2012.

This initial amendment had two annexes - one containing the original Italian list and one with a combined Belfritlist. However, the plan had always been for this to be replaced with a single merged list which was then written into European law, Luca Bucchini, managing director of Hylobates Consulting told us.

With stakeholder feedback the plan was to merge the two lists; it took from 2014 to 2017 because of different positions, he said noting that some stakeholders defended the presence of plants in the Italian list despite scant evidence that those plants even existed.

Belgium and France objected to some plants in the Italian list, commented Bucchini. In the meantime Belgium and France adopted theBelfritlist, though partially.

Now Italy has notified the European commission (EC) on a consolidated list , which brings together the Italian andBelfritlist.

If there are no objections by Member States, and I expect no significant objections, the decree will be adopted, probably in the autumn, said the Rome-based Italian legal expert.

Ingredient manufacturers as well as companies selling food supplements with plants in Italy should be ready to provide all documents required under the guidelines, when this decree is approved and becomes legally binding, he said.

A consolidated list but key differences remain

Bucchini said the new decree is significant progress, and that Italian authorities should be praised for consolidating the lists noting that harmonisation in the sector of botanicals will take a valuable step forward, despite remaining differences even amongBelfritcountries.

For example, he noted that the Italian legislation brings it into line withBelfritin Belgium and France in terms of warnings for plants with hydroxyanthracenes, such as senna, but that Italy (unlike Belgium) has not included upper limits for active constituents.

The Italian notification also includes other warnings, as well as compositional requirements, for some plants which differ from those in France and Belgium, he said.

Stakeholders should check the implications for their own preparations, keeping in mind that the list it longer and similar, but not identical, to the Belgian or French lists, he said.

According to Bucchini, another key difference from French legislation is that medicinal legislation is not quoted: Italian authorities do not plan to use medicinal legislation extensively to decide whether the composition of a product is suitable for food supplement use.

Further points of note

Further interesting items in the new decree include the addition of plants onto the consolidated list which were excluded from the originalBelfritlist.

This include Muira puama (Ptychopetalum olacoides Benth) which is actually listed as banned in Belgium, said the Italian expert.

The list also clarifies that Wasabia japonica, the source of the Japanese wasabi, is not a novel food - which for some time had been the unsustainable position of some authorities.

Despite these changes, the Wasabia japonica plant is still not listed as permitted in Belgium or France.

It also clarifies the status of chilli and maize used in food supplements, in line with Belgium and France.

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Italy set to put Belfrit into law with final botanicals list and degree - NutraIngredients.com

End-Of-Life Policy Solutions: A Cautionary Note – Health Affairs – Health Affairs (blog)

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

In a new special issue of Health Affairs focused on health care around the end of life, we see that health care costs rise as patients approach death and/or after they are diagnosed with a life-limiting disease. This relationship holds across many diseases, ages, and types of health care systems and countries. Whether describing the cost-savings associated with palliative and hospice care, training primary care physicians to have conversations about prognosis and care planning, or the need to better understand patients preferences for treatment or comfort, most the papers in the issue take an optimistic stance regarding the impact of informed patient choice and transparency. That is, if only the barriers to real communication could be brought down or the proper incentives established, inappropriate care at the end of life would decline dramatically. As Ill explain, while some optimism may be warranted, there are many forces pulling in the opposite direction.

What all these strategies for better end-of-life conversations have in common is the assumption that if people talked realistically about their prospects and preferences, or if physicians could take the time necessary to explain things clearly, patients and families would come to accept their prognosis and not seek costly treatments; they would avoid intensive care units (ICUs) and accept palliative and hospice care earlier in the end-of-life process. There are significant barriers, however, to shared decision making in the face of unfamiliarity and ambiguity. Simply understanding prognostic predictions requires sophisticated numeracy, which most of us dont possess. Physicians approach to practice and communication style are other important variables that go into the mix.

Over the last few decades, improving advance care planning has been the mechanism widely promoted to ensure that patients receive the type of end-of-life care they want. Whole communities have been the targets of The Conversation Project, a program that encourages families to establish an actionable plan for end-of-life care. Since physicians are so often in the position of explaining to their patients what a diagnosis means and what treatment options are available, numerous programs have been directed at improving their communication skills on these delicate topics, all with the goal of reducing the rate of inappropriate end-of-life care. Increased access to palliative care, concurrent with disease modifying treatment, has also been advocated to allow for patients gradual transition from costly, aggressive treatments with limited chances of arresting disease progression.

However, it is likely that all physicians have had more than one patient caught in a paradox of understanding their prognosis while not being able to internalize its meaning for their own lives. They continue to live with some degree of denial and make choices as if each new sign of worsening disease is a minor setback or side effect from which they will recover. While this is probably more prevalent among younger patients, families of older patients sometimes play the role of denier by proxy continuing to press for treatment long after health care professionals (and at times the patient) think warranted.

Since stated advance care preferences are acknowledged to be unstable over the course of an illness, physicians are likely to be wary of making assumptions about what patients want as they approach end-of-life health care decisions. Many physicians will remember a surprise remission or recovery and may be loath to propose options that preclude that same opportunity to another patient lest they feel responsible for a terminal phase that could have been delayed. Any indication of patients ambivalence might lead physicians to offer treatments that might not be offered were there no ambiguity. Physicians fears of foreclosing options may be as great as those of patients and families, so all conspire to do what the other wants.

This natural ambivalence is amplified by very real changes in the effectiveness of treatments for even advanced disease. Even though small and incremental, there are enough examples to shift the tone of the discussion, engendering doubt about patients resolution to forego further treatment. Personalized medicine, with molecular or genetic targeting, has achieved some tantalizing successes, raising hopes of patients and physicians alike while complicating discussions about palliative and hospice care.

Perhaps in consideration of this discussion, we should be more tolerant of the slow progress advance care planning has made and the difficulty of getting physicians to have in-depth and definitive conversations about care preferences. It may not just be the inadequacy of the financial incentives or the poor training physicians receive in holding such conversations. Nor is it necessarily the fractionated process of referring patients from one part of the health care system to the other that keeps patients from hospice. Ambivalence, hope, and denial may all serve to alter our willingness to make definitive decisions to stop treatment and to embrace palliative care. This combination can undermine patients, families and physicians decisions to pursue palliation and comfort care. This makes it so much easier to fall into the inertia of ongoing treatment, hospitalization, and even ICU admission, particularly in light of the growing availability of such services.

If this is the case, our calculus about cost savings from advance care planning, physician training, and palliative care may not be as large as research suggests. Patients, families, and physicians volunteering to participate in research studies may not be representative of the entire population approaching end-of-life decision making. While research clearly points to a way to reducing inappropriate care at the end of life, in the US, at least, these initiatives are unlikely to put a halt to the relentless rise of disease-oriented treatment at the end of life in the foreseeable future. Financial incentives in our health care system conspire with the legitimate reluctance of patients, families, and physicians to give up hope for life extension.

On the other hand, there is reason to be somewhat optimistic since the changes discussed in this special issue of Health Affairs are prone to make a difference. However, the scope of the difference is likely to leave plenty of room for further interventions, although what types these will be remains to be seen.

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End-Of-Life Policy Solutions: A Cautionary Note - Health Affairs - Health Affairs (blog)

The truth about the Summer of Love – The Week UK

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Fifty years ago, 100,000 hippies converged on an unassuming San Francisco neighbourhood, launching a grand-scale living experiment known as the Summer of Love.

To most Americans, 1967 hardly seemed like an auspicious year for a summer of love.

After the first US boots hit the ground in Vietnam, the spectre of conscription hung over every young man's head. On college campuses, students destroyed their draft cards and took to the streets to protest the country's bloody involvement in the conflict.

There was domestic unrest, too, as tensions stirred up by the Civil Rights movements exploded into race riots across the country.

For many suburban young people exposed to these harsh realities, their parents' vision of the American Dream - a land of white picket fences and even whiter communities - began to look increasingly hollow.

Sickened by the Vietnam War and what they saw as a shallow, consumerist culture, these "flower children" pushed back against the idea that the path to happiness was littered with gleaming, white kitchen appliances.

Soon, this subculture developed its own signature "look" - long, untamed hair, bell-bottom jeans, sandals and kaftans - much of it influenced by their interest in Native American culture.

Many experimented with marijuana and psychedelic drugs as part of their quest to reject traditional values and discover a new meaning in life, an attitude exemplified by Timothy Leary's famous phrase: "turn on, tune in, drop out".

In 1967, these aspiring drop-outs converged on San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood, already a focal point for the burgeoning west coast counterculture movement.

When spring break and then the summer holidays rolled around, the ranks of the hippie community swelled by thousands of high school and college students flocking to the mecca of "flower power".

The newcomers slept and lived wherever there was space, often establishing communes where members were expected to work together as equals and pool resources.

By June 1967, the "flower children" of Haight-Ashbury were a fully-formed community of 100,000, with regular food distributions, a free medical clinic and their own newspaper, the San Francisco Oracle.

San Francisco's Summer of Love was a utopian living experiment on a scale never before seen in the US, and its ideology of love, peace and the freedom from social constraints, inspired poetry, art and music.

For many, the anthem of the movement was San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) by The Mamas & the Papas, a bestseller throughout the summer, while others preferred the rawer sounds of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane.

The Grateful Dead's Grace Slick remembers that time as "just a whole bunch of people playing music and hanging out and having fun".

"It was pretty much that simple," she told Voice of America.

William Schnabel, who was a 17-year-old San Francisco high school student during the Summer of Love and went on to write a book about the era, told the Los Angeles Timesthat there was a dark side to life in Haight-Ashbury, however.

Despite the utopian vision behind the movement, ingrained prejudices and social tensions reared their heads.

For one thing, most "flower children" were white and middle-class - a fact not lost on mostly black, working-class residents of the neighbouring Fillmore district, where the sight of suburban kids calling for a rejection of materialism sounded hopelessly naive, says Schnabel.

"The Afro-Americans wanted part of the American dream," he said. "They wanted all these so-called meaningless goods that the hippie culture was rejecting."

Women attracted to the hippie movement for its rejection of gender norms and embrace of sexual freedoms often found themselves disappointed, too, according to Schnabel.

"In many ways, women did seem to have a subservient role in the counterculture," he said. Even in communes whose departure from social norms was shocking mainstream America, the lion's share of cooking, cleaning and child-rearing fell to the female residents.

Nonetheless, the San Francisco movement spawned offshoots across America and beyond. Hippie hubs "were blooming in every major US city from Boston to Seattle, from Detroit to New Orleans," Timemagazine wrote in a July 1967 story.

London soon caught the hippie spirit, with the capital's countercultural art, fashion and music scene earning it the title "Swinging London".

Soho clubs hosted daring new groups like the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, while established bands like The Beatles and The Small Faces tapped into the zeitgeist and embraced the psychedelic sounds of the hippie movement.

As autumn approached, the idyll of the Summer of Love started to turn sour, thanks to "an influx of violent heroin dealers into the Haight, subsequent overdoses and, eventually, tourist buses arriving to gawk at the hippies", says The Guardian.

Little by little, the flower children drifted away - many returned to their colleges and schools, taking their radical politics back with them, while some hold-outs decamped into the unspoiled backcountry to set up smaller communes.

Despite its short lifespan, 50 years on the Summer of Love still "looms large over popular culture", says The Conversation.

By questioning every "social, political, economic and aesthetic feature of mainstream Western society", the Summer of Love represented a break from postwar conformity and the dawning of the age of individuality.

Reykjavk’s Planning Debacle – Reykjavk Grapevine

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Published July 11, 2017

First-time visitors to Icelands capital are often struck by the city planning patchwork that Reykjavk is. Soviet-style apartment buildings, modernist structures and old-timey 19th century timber houses seem to be scattered amongst one another without rhyme or reason. As you might imagine, this was far from intentional. But as you look around the city, what you are witnessing is the citys growth in four dimensions, as the city made its way through struggles economic, social and political, all of which shaped the urban landscape of today. Trausti Valsson is probably Icelands most eminent planner. His new book, Shaping the Future, tackles the issues of planning and design. He took the time to share with us how we got the Reykjavk that we know and love today, for better or worse. We started with this European style, he tells us, referring to the Danish timber houses you find downtown. But we soon discovered that we needed more space, such as for the university and other institutions. After World War II, the expansion of Reykjavk really took off. There was a plan made in 1948 that was too grand in scale.

Out with the old, in with the new By this, Trausti means the concept of zoning: attempting to fully separate residential, commercial and industrial areas. However, the zeitgeist soon shifted away from the old style and into a more modernist approach. During this period people lost interest in the old types of buildings, Trausti explains. Even as I was growing up, and I was born in 1946, there was hostility towards the old buildings. With the arrival of the Americans, and our strong ties with them, came these modernistic ideas about buildings and architecture. So the planners at that time suggested we demolish more or less all of downtown, and some lots were developed with new buildings. However, not all of these modernist buildings fit into the landscape, and some of them were decidedly unpopular. By the 1960s, the pendulum began to swing in the other direction.

And in with the old again Along came the hippie movement, and people started to say, Wait a minute, these old buildings are so beautiful. We shouldnt demolish them, Trausti says. There were huge protests against some of the planning projects for more modern buildings, and some of these projects were stopped. Basically, architects didnt consider trying to find a way to make the new buildings fit in with the old ones. They just assumed the entirety of downtown would be new and modern buildings.

The idea that we can contain Reykjavk within the old boundaries is not going to work.

Some ideas, such as to build massive highways through and sometimes even over the city (you can see the remnants of one such highway on the roof of Kolaporti), never got past the planning stages. And naturally, politics also played its part.

Politics ruins everything

The House of Icelandic Studies, for example, was started by [former Prime Minister] Jhanna Sigurardttirs government, he says, referring to the giant open pit in front of the National and University Library. They had gotten as far as the foundation being dug out when new elections came, and a right wing government came to power. Now its been included in the five-year planning outline, but theres a delay in this because of these political tug-of-wars. When the leftist government came to power in Reykjavk in 1978, they threw all the plans of the conservative government into the waste basket, and when the conservatives came to power in 1982, they did the same thing [to the leftists]. Its childish, and its been very sad for the city. Trausti is not terribly positive when it comes to the state of city planning today, as he sees tourism having a disproportionate impact on the landscape of the city.

Tourism is killing downtown

Things have already gone too far, and we cant stop it, he tells us. Rent is increasing, and not just for apartments; tourist shops make so much money that they can just buy out the old stores. Its not interesting anymore to go downtown. Not least of all for tourists. I am very fearful that many of these young people will say, We cant afford to live in the only urban area in Iceland; Ill just move abroad to some nice city somewhere else.

Trausti believes one way to remedy this problem would be to move the domestic airport out of the city, thereby freeing up land to build affordable housing thats close to downtown. Ultimately, though, the citys very boundaries are going to have to change with the times.

The idea that we can contain Reykjavk within the old boundaries is not going to work, he says. Were going to need to expand them.

How and where these boundaries will expand is an unknown to be answered by future generations.

Reykjavk's Planning Debacle - Reykjavk Grapevine

Mller criticises Pope for the way he dismissed him and offers to help mediate ‘deep rift’ in the Church – The Tablet

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

10 July 2017 | by Christa Pongratz-Lippitt 'Churchs social teaching must also be applied to the way employees are treated here in Rome', Mller told a German newspaper

Cardinal Gerhard Mller, who was informed by Pope Francis on 30 June that his mandate as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) would not be prolonged, has sharply criticised the way in which the Pope dismissed him.

The Pope informed me within one minute of his decision not to prolong my mandate. He did not give a reason, just as he gave no reasons for dismissing three highly competent members of the CDF a few months ago. I cannot accept this way of doing things. As a bishop one cannot treat people in this way. The Churchs social teaching must also be applied to the way employees are treated here in Rome, Mller told the Bavarian daily 'Passauer Neue Presse' on 6 July.

He had informed Cardinal Joachim Meisner of the Popes decision not to renew his [Mllers] mandate in a long telephone conversation on the evening of 4 July, a few hours before Meisner unexpectedly died in his sleep. Meisner had been particularly upset to hear of the Popes decision, Mller said. He thought it would harm the Church.

Meisner had also been most concerned about the current situation of the Church, about the disputes and altercations that were standing in the way of church unity and the truth, Mller added.

Asked if Meisner had been upset that Pope Francis had not answered the letter he (Meisner) and three other cardinals had written to the Pope and later published asking Francis for clarification on whether or not remarried divorcees could in certain individual cases receive the Eucharist, Mller said it would have been better if instead of publishing the letter, thedubia, that is the four cardinals doubts, had been discussed at a confidential meeting.

He recalled that he himself had never taken part in the dubia debate, but added, I must stress with all due clarity that the attempts to date to explain how the balancing act between dogma, that is church teaching and pastoral practice can be achieved by Cardinals Schnborn, Kasper and others, are simply not convincing.

He recommended that Pope Francis discuss the dubia with the three remaining cardinals. And I suggest the Pope entrust me with the dialogue as I have the competence and the necessary sense of responsibility required. I could moderate the discussion.

He had no intention, however, of allowing himself to lead a movement which was critical of Pope Francis. Dialogue and cooperation were called for. Bridges are needed to prevent a schism, he emphasised.

Asked in the 'Passauer Neue Presse' interview of 6 July on his relationship with Meisner and what he thought of Meisners views, Mller replied:

We were on good terms and I admired his courage to raise his voice against certain currents of the zeitgeist. It is easier to swim with the current than to speak up for the truth. The Apostles already experienced that standing up for the truth meant giving witness, and giving witness has something to do with martyrdom not necessarily martyrdom of the blood. There is also martyrdom of the word for which one has to suffer certain disadvantages - especially if one is not part of the main stream.

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Mller criticises Pope for the way he dismissed him and offers to help mediate 'deep rift' in the Church - The Tablet

How Charlize Theron Got Ripped, Bruised (and Naked!) for ‘Atomic Blonde’ – Variety

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Danzig

Playing an ass-kicking international spy cant be easy, but Charlize Theron really suffered for her craft in Atomic Blonde. She twisted her knee, bruised her ribs and had to undergo extensive dental surgery, because she clenched down so hard on her jaw she cracked two teeth while getting in shape to throw burly men over her shoulders.

This story first appeared in the July 11, 2017 issue of Variety. Subscribe today.See more.

It happened the first month of training, Theron says. I had severe tooth pain, which I never had in my entire life. She thought it was just a cavity at first, until her dentist told her shed need to have an operation before leaving for the shoot in Budapest. Having to cut one of the teeth out and root canals, Theron says. It was tough. You want to be in your best fighting shape, and its hard. I had the removal and I had to put a donor bone in there to heal until I came back, and then I had another surgery to put a metal screw in there.

Its the kind of confessional that would make even the toughest male star wince. But Theron tells the story matter-of-factly, offering a look to a reporter that signals: Next question?

Atomic Blonde, a high-adrenaline action movie that feels like a mash-up of The Bourne Identity and Alias set in 1989 Berlin, is poised to be a summer hit when Focus Features debuts it on July 28. Following the success of Wonder Woman, which has grossed more than $350 million at the U.S. box office, it just may be that female action stars are finally getting some respect in the business where cash speaks even louder than sexism. At the same time, their macho big-screen counterparts, Tom Cruise, the Rock and Charlie Hunnam, have suffered costly box office disasters this summer.

Director Patty Jenkins, who made Wonder Woman, says shes hopeful that the age of the female action star has dawned. For our films to be successful and make a lot of money as well as having a female lead sends a huge message to the world that this is something possible, she says. People are watching and paying attention. Although Jenkins hasnt seen Atomic Blonde yet, she feels a kinship to the project because she directed Theron in her 2003 Oscar-winning role in Monster. Every once in a while, Jenkins adds, Ill see a newspaper with a picture of Gal Gadot on the left and Charlize on the right, and Ill get emotionally confused. Those are my girls!

It feels like the perfect moment in the zeitgeist for strong women to roar on-screen, amid a renewed wave of feminism that has risen up against the Trump administration. But this wouldnt be the first time that Hollywood was stuck in the past. Even an A-list star like Theron wasnt being courted for tentpole action pictures until power agent Bryan Lourd slipped her the script to Mad Max: Fury Road, and she met with director George Miller for the part of the one-armed Imperator Furiosa.

I got offered a lot of stuff in action movies that was either the girl behind the computer or the wife, Theron says. At a peak in her post-Monster career, in 2005, she tried to launch a strong female hero, only to be savaged by terrible reviews. When Aeon Flux came to me, I thought that could be something. I was never completely sold on the entire concept, but I really loved [director] Karyn Kusamas movie [Girlfight]. So I threw myself into that with the belief that shes a great filmmaker.

And then we fed it all up, she says with a laugh. I just dont think we really knew how to execute it. And its disappointing, but it happens. Ive been in this business long enough to know that you cannot get it right every time. I might have gotten this right because of that.

Atomic Blonde was a passion project for Theron that she produced through her company Denver & Delilah Prods. (named after her dogs), run by Beth Kono and AJ Dix. She spent five years developing the material, after reading a treatment based on a then unpublished graphic novel named The Coldest City. She hired screenwriter Kurt Johnstad to expand on the character, an enigmatic woman named Lorraine who is ruthless and tough.And she brought on David Leitch (John Wick) as the director, after interviewing both men and women, to choreograph dazzling fight sequences on a shoestring budget for the genre of $30 million.

Word of mouth has been so positive since the movie premiered in March at SXSW that executives at Universal took over the marketing from its indie division, sidelining Focus from its own release. It does look like a big movie, says Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley, who envisions the story as the first in a franchise. Its a phenomenal character that shes created, and I see deploying that character in many different adventures and scenarios.

Yet even the budget of the movie points to gender disparity in the industry. When Matt Damon and Vin Diesel flex their muscles on-screen, the studios line up with buckets of dough. Theron, who is making $10 million a film after starring in hits like Snow White and the Huntsman and Prometheus, took a pay cut in exchange for a percentage of box office receipts.

The actress spent a long time preparing to step into the stilettos of Lorraine, a mysterious Brit with no attachments or backstory. You know nothing about this woman, says Theron, who wanted to avoid contrivances like having her grieve for a dead husband. Its so rare that a female gets that in a movie. A lot of critics had issue with that thats such old-school thinking. You dont need to be emotionally manipulated to feel something for someone.

For two and a half months before the shoot, Theron trained for four hours a day to learn how to fight convincingly. It was daunting. Im coordinated because I was a dancer, and I definitely have movement memory, but Ive never been a fighter, she says. Im also really tall and a girl. That tends to make you look like youre Big Bird.

Theron appears in nearly every scene in the film, and she staged many of her own stunts. On the second day, while rehearsing an elaborate fight sequence in a stairwell, she twisted her knee. I was like, Why are you rehearsing! Leitch says. We got to get this on camera. The 50-day shoot was emotionally draining because they kept resetting the big fights. After Theron caught the flu in the freezing Budapest winter, she worked through her fever. Even when she was sick, shes wearing a little miniskirt and kicking ass, says co-star James McAvoy.

Theron wanted to break the rules that had been set for women in the genre. When Lorraine gets hit, she bleeds, and Theron wore a prosthetic on her face to suggest that she was on the verge of death. A lot of times studios or producers are not comfortable with seeing a woman with bruises, she says. We really wanted to pay attention to that authenticity. After a fight in the third act, she trades her vanity for a swollen face and a sealed-shut eye. We had early makeup tests where she had no whites in her eyes, Kono says. Thats how far they wanted to go.

For a love interest, Lorraine is too suave to be impressed by the male colleague played by McAvoy. Instead, she has sex with another female spy (Sofia Boutella), without stopping to explain her bisexuality. I just loved it, Theron says about the idea. For so many reasons: My frustration of how that community is represented in cinema, or lack thereof. And also, it made perfect sense. It just suited her. It just felt there was a way through that relationship and the fact that it was a same-sex relationship to show a woman not having to fall in love, which is one of those female tropes. Its a woman; she better fall in love otherwise, shes a whore!

And the sex scenes are right out of the 007 playbook, although Theron rolls her eyes at the comparison. James Bond doesnt have such hot you-know-what, she says. I loved that we didnt hide under the sheets.

Theron acknowledges that shes following a path carved out by other high-octane female action stars. I think we would be remiss not to acknowledge Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton, she says about the protagonists of, respectively, the Alien and Terminator franchises. Weve had moments like this, where women really showcase themselves and kind of break glass ceilings. And then we dont sustain it. Or theres one movie that doesnt do well, and all of a sudden, no one wants to make a female-driven film.

And look, she says, I am ashamed that Im part of an industry that has never allowed a woman to work with a budget higher than what the budget has been on Wonder Woman. Thats so fing caveman-like. I am always hoping that this is the movie thats going to change it and keep it for us.

Theron didnt have a movie playing at this years Sundance Film Festival, but she still flew to Park City on a snowy Saturday morning in January, on the day after the inauguration, to march for womens rights. I went there because Im a woman. I went there because I have kids, she says, referring to her two children.

A photo from the event went viral because it showed Theron in tears. Its so weird, she says, explaining what happened. I made eye contact with a man she starts to cry, thinking back to that day I think it just caught me off guard. I wasnt expecting to see a man so emotionally charged in that march. I just felt like he had kids, or maybe little girls. It touched me, as you can tell, she says, wiping away the tears running down her cheeks.

Therons drive was instilled in her from a young age, growing up in a country governed by apartheid. I had to be very resilient as a kid in South Africa, she says. As she was helping one of her children prepare for a class assignment recently, she remembered a moment from her grade school days. The teacher asked us to go home and find an outfit and come back the next day and talk about what we wanted to be, Theron recalls. And I said I wanted to be a doctor because I found a really good coat that looked like a doctors coat and goggles. She says she had no interest in medicine. I think there was an actor inside me even at that age.

She harbored dreams of being a ballerina and landed early work as a model. When she came to the United States at age 18, she arrived with only $300 and a single fabric suitcase (which shed stitched with bobby pins because it was worn) packed with clothes and maps from the places she traveled all over Europe, with a pager, waiting for her next job. When did she think she made it? When I got an extra role on Children of the Corn III, she says. I called my mom and said I can see the Hollywood sign and I just did a movie. And by doing a movie, I ran through a field with 100 other kids and had my scream looped.

She was never afraid to shed her beauty for a role, like when she packed on 40 pounds to play a serial killer in Monster. Winning the Oscar turned her life inside out. As far as work goes, it opens up a lot of doors, Theron says. But also, its so overwhelming to have everybody clamoring and saying, This is what you should do. Theres so much noise. I felt a little unstable afterwards. Asked how she found her way, she says, Someone else wins. So it takes it off you.

When she finished Atomic Blonde, she was looking for a role in a small film where she could lose herself. Thats why she reunited with her Young Adult director, Jason Reitman, on Tully, which required her to gain weight again to play a mom with three kids. But it was harder for her now than when she was in her 20s. It was brutal in every sense, Theron says. This time around, I really felt it in my health. The sugar put me in a massive depression. I was sick. I couldnt lose the weight. I called my doctor and I said, I think Im dying! And hes like, No, youre 41. Calm down.

If you walk down the Universal lot, past the statue of the foulmouthed talking teddy bear Ted, youll come upon Therons production offices, decorated with posters of her previous movies and her awards (including two trophies from Victorias Secret for Sexiest Legs of the Year). Her company, which she launched 14 years ago, signed a first-look deal with Universal in 2015 that gave it a studio home. I think our mission and mojo remains the same, says Dix. Its a mandate to fall in love with great characters and great worlds.

Along with movies, Denver & Delilah makes TV shows, such as Netflixs Girlboss. Theron doesnt need to star in all of the projects; shes happy to launch young talent. She doesnt see a differentiation between movies and TV anymore either. Its the same thing, she says.

When she co-starred in That Thing You Do!, she recalls asking Tom Hanks to sign her script. He obviously had done Bosom Buddies, and Id never seen it, Theron says. He wrote in my script the most flattering, most beautiful things about how hell always say he discovered me. And he ended it with Promise me youll never do television. And I bet hes eating his words.

Theron has kept her eye out for material anchored by female characters, estimating that more than 60% of her projects center on women leads. Many female stars in Hollywood talk about the importance of mentoring other young women, but Theron walks the walk. She first met Kono years ago, when she was answering phones at the desk of her late agent, J.J. Harris. When Kono was at a crossroads in her career, Theron brought her on as a personal assistant on her movie sets, giving her room to grow into a full-fledged producer. Im so lucky, Kono says. Ive been so fortunate to work for some of the most wonderful women who nurture other women.

Yet in spite of some progress thats been made in Hollywood, theres still a long road ahead. After the Sony hack, Theron negotiated to receive the same pay as Chris Hemsworth on Snow White and the Huntsman, but she doesnt necessarily see that as a victory. We have a ways to go, she says. I asked for it, Universal was supportive of it and it happened. The fact that I got that doesnt mean 90% of women get that, especially not in our industry.

On the day of our Variety interview, Theron had spent the morning glued to the TV, watching the James Comey hearing. This is a very big thing thats happening in our country right now, she says. Im concerned about all of that stuff. Does she think shell see a female president in her lifetime? She sighs. I mean, we would literally be the last country to come to that party, Theron says. Thats not even special anymore! Look at the world. The world is like, You guys are seriously still having this conversation?

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How Charlize Theron Got Ripped, Bruised (and Naked!) for 'Atomic Blonde' - Variety

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