NSA Leaker Outed Thanks to Modern Printer Technology – Lifehacker

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On Saturday NSA contractor Reality Leigh Winner, who leaked classified documents to The Intercept, was arrested. The leaked intelligence report from the NSA detailed Russian cyberattacks allegedly directed at election officials and electronic voting equipment company VR Systems.

The Justice Departments arrest warrant request stated the classified information printed was tracked to Winner, one of six who printed out the report, and the only one who had e-mail contact with The Intercept. The printed report scanned and published by the publication contained tracking information used to identify and arrest Winner.

The U.S. Government Agency conducted an internal audit to determine who accessed the intelligence reporting since its publication. The U.S. Government Agency determined that six individuals printed this reporting. WINNER was one of these six individuals. A further audit of the six individuals desk computers revealed that WINNER had e-mail contact with the News Outlet.

Security researcher Robert Graham showed how the NSA tracked Winner down using only the scanned report. Turns out, nearly every printer is actually a sneaky fuck that will out you, thanks to a little trick called printer steganography.

Like regular steganography, which is the practice of hiding data (think invisible ink or a watermark on a photo) inside another piece of data, printer steganography uses dots or lines printed throughout the document that correspond to a certain pattern. Its an invisible watermark that contains metadata like the date and time of printing and the printer used.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, these steganography dots appear on color laser printers and color laser photocopiers, and are usually unavailable on pages printed in black an white or on color inkjet printers. The ones on Winners printed page were from a Xerox DocuColor printer, and show the page was printed on May 9, 2017 at 6:20am. The EFF has a DocuColor tracking dot decoder so you can verify its data yourself.

Its safe to assume the NSA just took a look at the timestamp hidden on the scanned report and found out who was printing what and when. Most new printers have this watermarking functionality preinstalled. You cant exactly stop your printer from lacing your document with tracking information, and theres no foolproof way to confound it or anyone attempting to read it if they know how to decipher the pattern.

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NSA Leaker Outed Thanks to Modern Printer Technology - Lifehacker

US falling behind in energy technology, say generals – Financial Times

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Financial Times
US falling behind in energy technology, say generals
Financial Times
The US is falling behind other countries in advanced energy technologies, threatening national security and undermining its global influence, former generals and admirals in the US military are warning the Trump administration. The CNA Military ...

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US falling behind in energy technology, say generals - Financial Times

California and China Have Signed an Agreement to Develop Clean Energy Technology – Fortune

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The government of California said on Tuesday it will work with China's science ministry to develop clean energy technologies, cooperate on emissions trading and explore other "climate-positive" trade and investment opportunities.

The two sides agreed to establish the California-China Clean Technology Partnership designed to drive innovation and commercialization in areas such as carbon capture and storage, as well as advanced information technology that could help cut greenhouse gas emissions.

President Donald Trump announced last week that he would pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change, a move branded as "insane" by California governor Jerry Brown, who is visiting China this week.

Joint pledges by China and the United States ahead of the Paris talks helped create the momentum required to secure a global agreement, and included a promise by China to establish a nationwide emissions trading exchange by this year.

Brown told Reuters last week that he would discuss linking China's carbon trading platforms with California's, the biggest in the United States.

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California and China Have Signed an Agreement to Develop Clean Energy Technology - Fortune

Ford Price Estimate Revised To $12.50 On Ride Sharing, Technology Risks – Forbes

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Ford Price Estimate Revised To $12.50 On Ride Sharing, Technology Risks
Forbes
Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) announced a change in its executive team earlier this month. Mark Fields, who took over the CEO post in July 2014 and oversaw the two most profitable years in the company's history on a pre-tax basis, will be replaced by ...

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Ford Price Estimate Revised To $12.50 On Ride Sharing, Technology Risks - Forbes

Trump’s Solution to His Administration’s Lack of Progress: Lying About It – Slate Magazine (blog)

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President Trump signs a letter of initiative Tuesday to privatize the nation's air traffic control system during an event staged to resemble an official signing ceremony.

Getty Images

Donald Trump, you may have noticed, is not terribly good at being president. Nearly five months into his term, the White House seems stymied by its own ineptitude and a Congress that Trump has found more difficult to command than the underlings he bossed around for the past 40 years. Naturally that hasnt stopped him from continuing to make moribund promisesBloombergs Toluse Olorunnipa writes Monday morning that the administration reliably misses its self-imposed deadlines on just about everything it sets out to door shifting blame. On Monday, for instance, Trump attacked Democrats for stalling his nominations. Dems are taking forever to approve my people, including Ambassadors, he tweeted. They are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS! For the most part, Democrats havent even been sent nominations to obstruct. The administration has yet to nominate candidates for hundreds of key positions, and as Politicos Seung Min Kim writes, the administration frequently takes weeks to formally submit the nominations of the candidates it does name:

And McAleenans nomination is far from alone in taking weeks to be sent to the Senate, where Republicans are growing impatient and bewildered with the Trump White Houses historic lag in filling administration posts.

[...]Its unclear exactly why the Trump White House has been so slow to officially submit some nominees paperwork, but it comes amid broader struggles by the new president to vet senior officials and staff his administration.

Of course, Trumps woes in office thus far arent purely the consequence of inexperience. The presidents inability to meet his own deadlines highlights his struggle adjusting to the pace of Washington, Olorunnipa writes.That's only partially truehis record thus far also highlights his craven dishonesty. Trump has, after all, spent many years jilting, shortchanging, and letting down parties ranging from contractors to his own wives. Relatedly, two recent stories suggest that the administration might be leaning more heavily on one of its favored strategies for overcoming its lack of progress: faking it.

On Monday, the Brookings Institutions Bruce Riedel reported that according to defense industry and congressional contacts, the $110 billion arms deal reportedly struck between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia is largely illusory. From Brookings:

According to Riedel, the Saudis and the Trump administration compiled a list of potential deals either considered or approved by the Obama administration and presented them as a new deal. Moreover, its unlikely that the Saudis could pay for a $110 billion deal any longer, due to low oil prices and the two-plus years old war in Yemen, he writes. What is coming soon is a billion-dollars deal for more munitions for the war in Yemen. The Royal Saudi Air Force needs more munitions to continue the air bombardment of the Arab worlds poorest country.

Also on Monday, the New York Times Julie Hirschfield Davis noted that Trumps unveiling of his plan to privatize the nations air traffic control had been staged to resemble signing ceremonies for actual legislation:

This kind of stagecraft and deception, of course, isnt new. But these charades are and will continue to be particularly useful for a shambolic administration that has few achievements thus far. Useful, that is, as long as the media covers his nonevents and empty pronouncements as though Trump isn't fundamentally a huckster.

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Trump's Solution to His Administration's Lack of Progress: Lying About It - Slate Magazine (blog)

Teddy Bridgewater’s progress surprises Mike Zimmer in his return – ESPN (blog)

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Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater goes through a resistance drill at Vikings practice on Tuesday.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- While Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer was able to pore over film of the team's practices during the two weeks of organized team activities he missed while recovering from eye surgery, he didn't get much of a sense of how quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was doing in rehab from his knee injury.

So when Zimmer returned to the team's practice facility on Monday for the final week of Vikings OTAs, Bridgewater's progress caught him off-guard to some degree.

"Sometimes, when you see a guy every day, you don't notice the progress that he's made," Zimmer said. "I'm gone for two weeks, and obviously, he's not on the tape. I come back yesterday, and I said, 'Wow, Teddy looks [like] he's moving better,' and quite a bit better, in my opinion."

Bridgewater was able to get more work in the Vikings' team drills during Tuesday's open practice, dropping back and lofting a long pass for Isaac Fruechte during individual drills. He's still a long way from returning, and has yet to be cleared by doctors to practice, but the Vikings sound a bit more hopeful about Bridgewater's progress with each passing week.

"I think he's happy with the progress. He's very impatient about wanting to get out there and go, but we have to do what's in the best interests of him in the long run. In the end, the final say is going to be the doctors, when they say he's good to go. They gave him the green light to do a little bit more stuff on the side, as you saw today. It's just going to continue to take time."

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Teddy Bridgewater's progress surprises Mike Zimmer in his return - ESPN (blog)

Air Force looking how to progress forward after BE-4 testing incident, official says – SpaceNews

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A Blue Origin BE-4 engine powerpack undergoing testing on a company test stand. Credit: Blue Origin

An Air Force acquisition official said the service is looking how to progress forward on engine development after a BE-4 testing incident.

Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch said Monday that he was aware of last months setback by Blue Origin, which said it lost a set of engine powerpack hardware during a test.

He said he was working with the Space and Missile Systems Center to figure out how to progress forward on efforts to develop a replacement for the RD-180 engine, work that includes funding of another engine, Aerojet Rocketdynes AR1, as well. [Investors Business Daily]

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India is basking in the successful first launch of its largest rocket to date. The Indian space agency ISRO said the GSLV Mark 3 rocket operated as planned, releasing the GSAT-19 satellite into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) about 16 minutes after liftoff Monday. The GSLV Mark 3 can place up to 4,000 kilograms into GTO, mch more than earlier versions of the rocket. The rocket could also be used for a future Indian human spaceflight program, although there is no major effort currently underway by ISRO to launch humans into space. GSAT-19, weighing 3,166 kilograms at launch, carries a Ka- and Ku-band high-throughput payload. [PTI]

Ahead of its merger with MDA, DigitalGlobe is already offering access to Radarsat data. DigitalGlobe said Monday it now includes Radarsat 2 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery as part of its cloud-based geospatial big data platform called GBDX. That platform already includes optical imagery from DigitalGlobes own satellites as wellas Landsat and Sentinel data. MDA, which operates Radarsat 2, announced plans in February to acquire DigitalGlobe, a deal expected to close later this year. [SpaceNews]

A Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station Monday morning. The Dragon, flying a cargo resupply mission designated SpX-11 by NASA, was grappled by the stations robotic arm shortly before 10 a.m. Eastern and berthed to the station later in the day. The Dragon brought more than 2,700 kilograms of cargo, primarily experiments and related hardware, to the station. The mission is the second flight of the same Dragon spacecraft, which flew the SpX-4 mission in 2014. [Spaceflight Now]

A startup is working on its first SAR cubesat after closing a funding round and lining up its first customer. Capella Space closed a $12 million Series A round in May after an undisclosed customer paid $10 million up front for access to SAR imagery from the companys first satellite. That spacecraft, scheduled for launch in the next six months, will later be joined by dozens more to provide global SAR imagery at a resolution of one meter, updated hourly. [SpaceNews]

The flight of a Chinese experiment on the latest Dragon mission could open new doors for U.S.-China space cooperation. The experiments on the Dragon mission include an experiment developed by the Beijing Institute of Technology to test the biological effects of space radiation and flown through an agreement with NanoRacks. The commercial arrangement between NanoRacks and its Chinese customer is not subject to federal bans on bilateral cooperation between NASA and China, and people in both the U.S. and China believe it could help enable more space cooperation between the the two countries. [Xinhua]

GEOINT 2017 news: An expert in geospatial intelligence advised the community to keep in mind the needs of users in the field. Patrick Biltgen, the technical director of analytics for Vencore, said developers of such systems have to make their solutions useful for troops deployed in the field with limited network access. DigitalGlobe unveiled a subscription service called SecureWatch Sites that allows users to identify specific geographic locations of interest and obtain frequently updated satellite images of those locations. Descartes Labs presented a new geospatial machine-learning platform to potential defense and intelligence customers that pulls in remote-sensing data from a variety of sources. Planet announced plans to offer data from its constellation of global Earth-imaging cubesats through Harris Geospatials ENVI desktop platform. [SpaceNews]

British astronaut Tim Peakes second spaceflight could be in jeopardy because of a funding dispute. The British government said in January that Peake, who flew on the ISS in 2015-2016, would get another flight as part of the governments commitment to ESAs human spaceflight program. However, ESA has reportedly asked the UK to significantly increase its contribution to that program, which the UK has apprently declined to do. Other ESA members argued that the UK got a discount on its first flight and should pay its fair share of the program for another flight opportunity. [Financial Times]

OneWeb formally abandoned its merger with Intelsat last Friday, as expected. The merger was all but dead last week when Intelsat gave up on efforts to swap debt with bondholders, a condition of the merger deal and financial backing from Japans SoftBank. OneWeb formally withdrew from the merger deal late Friday. The two companies will continue to collaborate commercially, and OneWeb founder Greg Wyler said his company is still on track to deploy its broadband low Earth orbit constellation. [SpaceNews]

Russia plans to launch the first in a new generation of navigation satellites next year. Russian satellite manufacturer ISS Reshetnev said Monday that it expects the first Glonass-K2 satellite to launch some time next year. The K2 series of satellites feature addiitonal signals and power, with each satellite weighing twice as much as the earlier K1 series. [TASS]

Astronomers have found an exoplanet that is hotter than many stars. The Jupiter-sized planet, KELT-9b, is so close to its star it completes one orbit in just 1.5 days. The side of the planet facing the star has temperatures of 4,300 degrees Celsius, `approaching the temperature of the suns photosphere of 6,000 degrees. Astronomers said that, because of its intense heat, the planets atmosphere is almost certainly unlike any other planet weve ever seen and that the stars ultraviolet radiation may ultimately evaporate the planet. [Space.com]

William Shatner wants to create a TV series highlighting NASAs rising stars. Shatner, best known for portraying Capt. James T. Kirk on Star Trek, spoke at the GEOINT 2017 conference Monday and pitched his proposed The Young Guns of NASA series. The series seeks to profile young scientists who are involved in planning new things at NASA, JPL and find out what they want to do in space. [SpaceNews]

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Air Force looking how to progress forward after BE-4 testing incident, official says - SpaceNews

SDF Begins Raqqa Offensive, Progress Continues in Mosul – Department of Defense

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SOUTHWEST ASIA, June 6, 2017 The Syrian Democratic Forces and their Syrian Arab Coalition partners launched the offensive to unseat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria from its so-called "capital" of Raqqa in northern Syria today.

The SAC and SDF began marching on Raqqa in November and have been rapidly tightening the noose around the city since their air assault behind enemy lines in coalition aircraft in March to begin the seizure of Tabqah.

The multi-ethnic SDF is the coalitions local ground force partner in the fight against ISIS in northern Syria and they have proven themselves in Manbij, Tabqah and countless other towns and villages across northwest Syria over the past two years.

Decisive Blow

Army Lt. Gen. Steve Townsend, the commander of Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, said the fight for Raqqa will be long and difficult, but the offensive would deliver a decisive blow to the idea of ISIS as a physical caliphate saying, "Its hard to convince new recruits that ISIS is a winning cause when they just lost their twin 'capitals' in both Iraq and Syria," he said.

"We all saw the heinous attack in Manchester, England," Townsend said. "ISIS threatens all of our nations, not just Iraq and Syria, but in our own homelands as well. This cannot stand."

Coalition forces will continue to support the SAC and SDF during their Raqqa offensive as part of their advise and assist mission, providing equipment, training, intelligence and logistics support, precision fires and battlefield advice.

The SDF have encouraged civilians to depart Raqqa so that they do not become trapped, used as human shields or targets for ISIS snipers. Once Raqqa is liberated, SDF officials said it will be turned over to a representative body of local civilians who will provide security and governance.

Mosul

In Iraq, Iraqi forces continue to make steady gains in brutal, close-quarters urban combat against ISIS on the west side of Mosul.

"The international coalition and our partner forces are steadily dismantling the physical caliphate of ISIS," Townsend said. "Once ISIS is defeated in both Mosul and Raqqa, there will still be a lot of hard fighting ahead, but this coalition is strong and committed to the complete annihilation of ISIS in both Iraq and Syria."

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SDF Begins Raqqa Offensive, Progress Continues in Mosul - Department of Defense

France ‘must make progress’ on labour reforms, says French PM – FRANCE 24

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France 'must make progress' on labour reforms, says French PM - FRANCE 24

Message on Stanford’s commitment to progress on climate change … – Stanford University News

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Dear Members of the Stanford Community,

We write to let you know that Stanford has signed on to a statement on tackling climate change issued by a number of Ivy-Plus universities on Monday. We have included the statement text below. Our commitment to leadership on this issue remains undiminished.

Our work at Stanford includes developing sustainable operational practices for our campus, engaging in the research and education that will lead to improved understanding of the causes and effects of a warming planet, and developing solutions to slow climate change and mitigate its effects.

We undertake these efforts because we acknowledge the imperative. The scientifically documented rise in global average temperature has far-reaching implications for the environment, the economy, social stability, food security, human health and international relations. As part of our mission to contribute knowledge for the benefit of humanity, we and our peer research universities have an important role to play.

In our operations, we have taken a major step with the Stanford Energy System Innovations (SESI), which is reducing campus greenhouse gas emissions by 68 percent. Thanks to our new solar plant and expanded rooftop panels, we are now obtaining 65 percent of campus electricity from solar and other renewable resources. Our campus-wide Sustainable Stanford movement, with initiatives like My Cardinal Green, is involving students, faculty and staff in efforts to reduce our personal environmental footprint. And we continually seek ways of doing more, and better.

In our academic enterprise, meanwhile, we have some of the worlds leading contributors to scientific and policy knowledge about climate. They are exploring carbon-removal technologies, more efficient batteries for storing renewable energy, implications of human displacement from sea rise, and numerous other urgent subjects related to the climate challenge. Our students are actively participating in coursework, research and public service to advance climate understanding and solutions, as well.

The Board of Trustees and then-President Hennessy articulated Stanfords commitment to these efforts in a letter to the conveners of the Paris climate conference in 2015. Today we reaffirm the importance of these efforts and our resolve to make further progress.

We also are featuring on the Stanford website a collection of recent stories about how Stanford is contributing to the international scientific and policy discussions around climate change. We encourage you to take a look at the path-breaking work being done by students and scholars in our community. And we hope youll be inspired to consider anew how you will contribute, individually, to the sustainability of our planet.

Marc Tessier-Lavigne President

Persis Drell Provost

The following statement was released today by the presidents of 12 leading U.S. research universities, commonly referred to as the Ivy-Plus group.

June 5, 2017

In 2015, we were proud to be among 318 institutions of higher education in signing the American Campuses Act on Climate Pledge, affirming our commitment to accelerate the global transition to low-carbon energy while enhancing sustainable and resilient practices on our campuses.

Today, we reaffirm that commitment, which is consistent with the Paris Agreement and recognizes the concerted action that is needed at every level to slow, and ultimately prevent, the rise in the global average temperature and to facilitate the transition to a clean energy economy. Universities have a critical role to play in reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions, continuing to advance evidence-based understanding of the causes and effects of climate change on the environment, the economy and public health, and developing solutions.

The scientific consensus is clear that the climate is changing largely due to human activity, that the consequences of climate change are accelerating, and that the imperative of a low carbon future is increasingly urgent. As institutions of higher education, we remain committed to a broad-based global agreement on climate change and will do our part to ensure the United States can meet its contribution.

Signed:

Christina Paxson, President, Brown University Lee C. Bollinger, President, Columbia University Martha E. Pollack, President, Cornell University Philip J. Hanlon, President, Dartmouth College Richard H. Brodhead, President, Duke University John J. DeGioia, President, Georgetown University Drew Gilpin Faust, President, Harvard University Ronald J. Daniels, President, Johns Hopkins University L. Rafael Reif, President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Marc Tessier-Lavigne, President, Stanford University Amy Gutmann, President, University of Pennsylvania Peter Salovey, President, Yale University

American Campuses Act on Climate Pledge (2015)

As institutions of higher education, we applaud the progress already made to promote clean energy and climate action as we seek a comprehensive, ambitious agreement at the upcoming United Nations Climate Negotiations in Paris. We recognize the urgent need to act now to avoid irreversible costs to our global communitys economic prosperity and public health and are optimistic that world leaders will reach an agreement to secure a transition to a low carbon future. Today our school pledges to accelerate the transition to low-carbon energy while enhancing sustainable and resilient practices across our campus.

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Message on Stanford's commitment to progress on climate change ... - Stanford University News

Want to See US Climate Progress? Support City and State Leaders and the Grassroots Groups Who Hold Them … – Common Dreams

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Want to See US Climate Progress? Support City and State Leaders and the Grassroots Groups Who Hold Them ...
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Supporting those cities and states (and the grassroots coalitions that hold them accountable) provides a significant opportunity for progress on climate change and for making gains on health, equity, and economic vitality. Hours after President Trump ...
Schwarzenegger on Paris agreement: 'One man cannot destroy our progress'CNN
Chris Bryant: Trump can't stop climate progressThe Spokesman-Review
Donald Trump Is Bragging About the Progress of a Tax Bill That Doesn't ExistTeenVogue.com
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What’s Up with ACICS Colleges? – Center for American Progress – Center For American Progress

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The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) may be fighting for its life in the courts, but the schools it oversees have almost universally started moving on. Just seven institutions that the troubled accreditation agency oversees appear to be at risk of losing access to federal financial aid this month, according to data obtained from the U.S. Department of Education through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The data that the Center for American Progress obtained provide the best picture to date on which accreditors the various schools are trying to get approval from. For example, the best known of the troubled institutional brands that still had ACICS campusesthe Art Institutesis trying to obtain approval from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Several institutions that have faced investigations from state or federal actors, meanwhile, are trying to switch to the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools. The Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training (ACCET) will be considering one of ACICS largest remaining chains as well as a group of schools owned by a private equity company where Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos had investments.

Keeping an eye on what happens to these schools and others over the coming months will be important for ensuring that institutions are truly meeting higher standards from other accreditors and not slipping through the cracks.

For years, ACICS served as a rubber stamp for access to federal financial aid programs. As an accreditation agency, its job was to verify the quality of postsecondary institutions so that these schools could offer federal grants and loans to their students. But a CAP analysis showed that ACICS was often willing to look the other way when problems arose and even honored schools that faced federal and state investigations for alleged wrongdoing. Recognizing the host of unacceptable problems at ACICS, the Department of Education terminated the agencys ability to act as a gatekeeper to federal funds in December 2016. While ACICS continues to litigate this decision, the roughly 269 institutions it oversaw have, by law, up to 18 months to find a new accreditor.

Recognizing that giving schools a full year and a half without oversight from an approved accreditation agency represented a risk to taxpayer dollars, the Department of Education established several deadlines institutions had to meet over roughly a year to maintain their access to federal financial aid. The first of these was March 13. By then, institutions had to show they had an application in process with another accreditor. Those that do not have an application pending had to submit a teach-out plana document that lays out what would happen to students if the school closesand also tell students that they had not applied to a new accreditor and could lose access to federal financial aid as a result. These schools will lose access to federal financial aid for new students if they still do not have an in-process application by June 12.

Only seven ACICS schools appear to be at risk of losing their access to financial aid next month, according to the data. Three of them (Broadview University in Utah, Global Health College in Virginia, and Trinity College of Puerto Rico) do not have an in process application but have implemented teach-out plans and student disclosures. Another four (Jose Maria Vargas University in Florida, Pacific Institute of Technology in Georgia, SOLEX College in Illinois, and School of Communication Arts of North Carolina) have failed to meet all the required terms. Overall, these seven schools are quite small, with a combined enrollment of just under 3,300.

The more interesting story, then, is what is going on with the rest of the ACICS schools. Which ones are planning to close? And for those that arent closing, which accreditation agencies are they pinning their hopes on?

Heres what we know: There are 269 main campuses enrolling 527,000 students that received access to federal financial aid through ACICS. (The total number of locations is higher because some schoolssuch as ITT Technical Institutecombine multiple campuses under one identifier.)

Apart from the departments action, a large number of ACICS schools had already either closed, announced plans to close, or lost access to federal financial aid. All told, 52 institutions enrolling 159,000 students fell into these categories.* This includes institutions such as ITT Technical Institute , which shut down in September after the Department of Education banned it from providing federal aid to new students, or Minnesota School of Business and Globe University, which both lost access to federal financial aid after a judge found they had committed fraud involving these programs and several appeals were unsuccessful.

Only eight schools, enrolling 7,500 students, have closed since the departments decision to terminate ACICS recognition. However, it is not clear if they might have closed anyway due to the broader financial challenges facing the sector.

Eleven institutions enrolling 25,000 students, meanwhile, have already obtained a new accreditor.* All but one of these schools applied for a new accreditor prior to the December termination of ACICS recognition. The most noteworthy of these schools is Ultimate Medical Academy, a Florida institution run by former executives from Trump University. It obtained accreditation from the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES). Notably, the Trump administration recently overruled a recommendation from an expert panel to reject a request from ABHES to approve masters degree programs. That means schools with approval from this accreditor can now operate at the graduate level, where the amounts of federal debt a student can take on are much greater.

Excluding closures and already successful accreditation moves leaves 199 schools enrolling 339,000 students with active applications at other accreditation agencies. Of these schools, 134 enrolling 221,000 students applied to one of two agencies: 47 schools enrolling around 114,000 students applied to the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training (ACCET), while 87 institutions enrolling approximately 108,000 students applied to the Accrediting Commission for Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC). This count reflects unduplicated 12-month enrollment and includes some schools, such as campuses formerly owned by Corinthian Colleges, which had already applied for accreditation at a different agency before the Department of Educations action.

When it lost recognition, ACICS oversaw several colleges that faced investigations and settlements. Though many of those institutions have since closed or been sold, heres the status of the remaining schools: National College and Spencerian College are all applying to ABHES. These two schools were both sued by the Kentucky attorney general in 2011 and 2013 for allegedly misrepresenting job placement rates. The Spencerian case is still ongoing. National College, meanwhile, paid a fine in 2016 for failing to respond to a subpoena. Similarly, Salter College, which settled with the Massachusetts attorney general in 2014 over allegations regarding job placement, is applying to ACCET. Meanwhile, Daymar College, Fortis Institute, and Lincoln Technical Institute are all trying to move to ACCSC. Daymar College settled with the Kentucky attorney general in 2016 over allegations that included misrepresentation of credits. Fortis College, which is operated by Education Affiliates Inc., is also trying to move to ACCSC. In 2013, Education Affiliates settled with the Department of Justice for $13 million over allegations mostly at campuses not accredited by ACICS about providing financial aid to ineligible students. Finally, Lincoln Technical Institute settled with the Massachusetts attorney general in 2015 over allegations that it improperly calculated job placement rates. None of the schools mentioned above admitted to any wrongdoing.

The moves of a few other schools merit particular mention. One is the campuses owned by the Education Corporation of America (ECA), which are trying to move to ACCET. These campuses operate under the brands Brightwood and Virginia College. These schools enroll almost 60,000 students, and ECA is one of the largest companies that is not publicly traded and has ACICS accreditation. The move to ACCET is interesting because several of the Brightwood campuses used to operate under the Kaplan brand. Many of those campuses had switched to ACICS after facing sanctions for failing to meet certain requirements for student outcomes at ACCSC and the Council on Occupational Education.

The Delta Career Education Corporation schools are also looking to move to ACCET. These operate under the brands of Miller-Motte, McCann School of Business, Berks Technical Institute, and Tucson College. They are owned by a private equity firm where Secretary DeVos had invested. All of the Delta schools applied for accreditation with ACCET on March 10, 2017two days before the departments deadline.

Even though ACICS operated as a national accreditormeaning schools from any part of the country could apply for recognition17 schools are now seeking accreditation from regional agencies. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Senior College and University Commission has the most of these applicants with eight. The most noteworthy applicant, however, is the Art Institutes, which is trying to get approval with the Middle States Commission on Higher Educationthe agency that oversees the Mid-Atlantic. The Art Institutes are part of the Education Management Corporation (EDMC), which has settled lawsuits over the years for alleged wrongdoing related to recruitment, among other issues, but has never admitted to wrongdoing. Other Art Institute branches already have Middle States accreditation, so the move is not particularly surprising. It does matter, though, because EDMC is currently trying to sell itself to a small nonprofit organization based in California, and the timing of any potential accreditation switch could affect whether ACICS also has to sign off on the sale.

The number of schools and affected students trying to move to a new accreditor could present a challenge for some of the smaller agencies to ensure they keep up with the applications without sacrificing any rigor in their processes. This worry is particularly prominent for ACCET and ABHES. For instance, the number of campus locations under consideration at ACCET (135) is greater than the total number it currently approves (103). Similarly, the 47 schools it is considering would represent a 70 percent increase over its current size.*

Though not as extreme as the ACCET case, ABHES is also poised to grow significantly. It is considering 28 additional schools at 59 locations. Thats an increase of 27 percent and 34 percent, respectively.

The initial March deadline is a pretty minimal bar for schools to hit since all they had to do was send in an application. The real test will come October 10. By that date, the 199 schools seeking accreditation elsewhere will have to show they had a site visit from a new agencya sign that the accreditor is seriously considering accepting the institution. Those that do not will lose access to financial aid for new students and must submit a letter of creditbasically, a financial guarantee of a certain sum of moneyto the Department of Education to cover expected costs if an institution closes. How many schools can meet the visit requirement will provide a more telling picture of whats going to happen to these institutions.

Ben Miller is the senior director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress.

*Authors note: These data are based on U.S. Department of Education databases and FOIA requests and are available here.

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What's Up with ACICS Colleges? - Center for American Progress - Center For American Progress

Upcoming "Far Cry" video game is set in Montana – KTVQ.com | Q2 … – KTVQ Billings News

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BILLINGS -

The latest release of the popular "Far Cry" video game series will feature a Montana setting, and promoted with video shot near Poplar.

A press release from the Montana Department of Commerce says that Far Cry 5 takes place in fictional Hope County, Montana. Although usually set in exotic, foreign locations such as the Himalayas and a fictional African country, Far Cry 5 is the first entry set in America. Its scheduled to be released in February 2018.Since 2004, sales of Far Cry games have reached more than 42 million.

The press release states:Players will have a large game world to explore while fighting off a hostile occupation of the county. In between the action, players will get a taste of Montanas outdoor recreation with hunting and fishing challenges. We know from the film industry that movies can be some of the best tools available for promoting a destination, but the interactive nature of video games represents an exciting opportunity weve never quite had before, said Montana Film Commissioner Allison Whitmer. Audiences around the globe not only will see Montana, theyll experience it virtually.

The officialFar Cry 5 websiteprovides this overview:Welcome to Hope County, Montana, land of the free and the brave, but also home to a fanatical doomsday cult known as The Project at Edens Gate that is threatening the community's freedom. Stand up to the cults leader, Joseph Seed and the Heralds, and spark the fires of resistance that will liberate the besieged community. In this expansive world, your limits and creativity will be tested against the biggest and most ruthless baddest enemy Far Cry has ever seen. Itll be wild and itll get weird, but as long as you keep your wits about you, the residents of Hope County can rest assured knowing youre their beacon of hope.

A spokesperson for Ubisoft said Montana was a natural fit for the series because of its diverse landscape and the do-it-yourself attitude of its people. The developers visited several times to shoot thousands of photos and interview residents.

A location scout identified a church near Poplar where promotional video for the game was shot. The crew employed three people from Montana. Between labor and other expenditures related to the production, the shoot is estimated to have generated $20,000 for the Poplar economy.

While the Montana Department of Commerce is focused on the promotion of Montana, many gaming sites and reviews are focused on the actual premise and game-play.

An article atKotakunotes:Its about blasting through a section of modern Montana controlled by a Bible-thumping madman who runs a heavily-armed militia. Youre up against The Father, Joseph Seed, who along with his family has spent the last dozen years sinking deep roots into the fictional Hope County while establishing a cult called The Project at Edens Gate.

Sam Machkovech, writing forArsTechnica, said:"The 13-year-old Far Cry gaming series returns once more in February 2018, and, at least conceptually, this might be its most intense entry yet. While Far Cry games traditionally drop players into exotic, international locales with only a gun and a prayer, this year's entry, Far Cry 5, lands in the U-S-of-A. Specifically, the open, rural wilds of Montana. Your mission: invade a militarized cult's massive compound and take down its gun-toting, Jesus-invoking leader."

FromWired:When it arrives next February,Far Cry 5will unfold in a small town in Montana, where a religious cult tinged with American survivalism has emerged. (Think the Bundys, though no shortage of legalese will doubtless back away from that comparison.) Youll play a young police officer, a man or a woman, depending on your decision, and youll be tasked with (ugh) taking this slice of America back.

The Montana setting and choice of villains in the game has even sparked anonline petition, which has garnered nearly 2,000 signatures.

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Upcoming "Far Cry" video game is set in Montana - KTVQ.com | Q2 ... - KTVQ Billings News

Survivalist shares experience in Harker Heights | Local News … – The Killeen Daily Herald

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HARKER HEIGHTS In front of retired veteran Sergio Martinez sat a green bag no bigger than the carry-on a passenger on an airplane would stow in the overhead storage bin. What he kept inside of it was not to be used for a family vacation though, and a number of the items probably wouldnt be permitted on an airplane.

Martinez, an extreme survivalist, gave a presentation to a dozen people at the Stewart C. Meyer Harker Heights Public Library on Saturday morning. He talked about what kind of items to pack away in case of emergency, and how to prepare for a disaster situation.

It was toward the end of summer 2005 when Martinez first became aware of disaster preparation. He had family members who lived in Houston that were coming to stay with him during Hurricane Katrina. There wasnt enough food in the pantry, so he decided to head to H-E-B to stock up on some more groceries. When he walked out of the store, the only thing he had was a couple of loaves a bread and some cans of food. Thats when it dawned on him he wasnt nearly enough prepared for survival.

Sometimes you need to trip and fall, and then youre going to learn, he said.

Soon enough, Martinez began teaching himself about survivalism. He read books, talked to experts and watched Youtube videos, and eventually got the chance to compete for a survivalist show that airs on the History Channel.

Martinez recommended preparing meals ready to eat MREs long in advance. His prepackaged MREs included peanut butter crackers, bottles of water, freeze dried food and protein bars. Canned foods including soups and beans are good to pack, too, but in moderation. Too many cans can weigh down a bag, and depending on the situation, you might have to walk for long periods of time. In those situations, any reduction in weight can help.

There were typical items found in Martinezs survival bag, such as an extra pair of clothes, a sleeping bag and a hammock. But there were also nifty tools such as a crank-up flashlight that triples as a cellphone charger and an AM/FM radio. He also pulled out a miniature propane stove and a water filter. At one point, he removed a Bible in a plastic bag.

Staying calm is good when youre out there, he said. Like it or not, everyone is going to get religious at some point. Why not have a Bible?

Much like he was prepared for any potential disaster, Martinez was ready to answer questions from the audience. One person asked him about the difficulty of catching your own food through hunting and fishing, and preparing it while in the wild.

Martinez said that with a little practice, it wasnt that difficult.

But dont expect it to taste good, he said. Once you kill the game, how do you prepare it? We dont have chefs out there.

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Survivalist shares experience in Harker Heights | Local News ... - The Killeen Daily Herald

It Comes at Night | Film Review | Slant Magazine – slantmagazine

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Like The Witch, It Comes at Night is an object lesson in how to stylize asceticism. Writer-director Trey Edward Shultss second film is a survivalist parable, and though it aggressively traffics in the iconography of pop horror and sci-fi, it subverts the world-building impulses of those genres. It Comes at Night is set in a cabin in the woods with a menacing red door, and its post-apocalyptic near-future is imperiled by some kind of bacterial plague, but all of the films suspense derives from how little the audience knows about the circumstances its characters are trying to survive. Something is going to come knocking on the heavily secured red door, but not knowing what form the titular it will take is terrifying and, at least for a little while, liberating.

Whats even more exciting is how Shults leads us to that door. He and DP Drew Daniels make perfect use of widescreen: The cabins narrow hallway feels squat and cramped, but the frames extra width allows us to scan the family photos on the walls on a search for clues about the home in which were trapped. There are none, so maybe those distractions just help to relieve the uncanny tension of the cameras movement, which is aloft and gliding, headed slowly but surely to whatever is banging the hell out of the door. Shults and Daniels use this trick repeatedly, inside and in exterior scenes, in a motif that essentially flips the script on a horror film with a similar title. In It Follows, death and (sexually transmitted) disease can take the shape of any human being, and it comes for us unrelentingly; the finest shots in Shultss film suggest that were inexorably drawn toward this very thing.

If only the edifice surrounding this precocious mastery of the camera could support such a reading, or any reading at all. The films minimalism is rigorous, but its every moment of barebones craftsmanship is accompanied by plodding drama and an unsustainable heap of unanswered questions. The film begins with a mercy killing: Husband Paul (Joel Edgerton), wife Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), and teenage son Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) move cautiously through the cabin, rifle at the ready, their path lit by a flashlight attached to the barrel. Theyre wearing gas masks and their dialogue is hard to parse, but after they haul an old man (David Pendleton) branded with icky lesions out of the house and into a ditch, their distress is evident. The man, immolated to curb the spread of infection, was the family patriarch, and Edgertons stern but loving father is left as the leader and protector of his clan.

How is it that a film so beholden to dull, unnecessary exposition can be so eager to avoid explaining itself?

Maybe this is life after wartime, or maybe its a boilerplate zombie apocalypse, but a few shots of a Bruegel painting get at the films general vibe: a civilization surrounded by fire and beset by disarray. Vigilance and the primacy of family relationships are paramount, a solemn state of affairs distilled at nightly dinners, where sad plates of peas and carrots are illuminated by a harsh campers lantern. The disquiet is punctured both by Traviss nightmareseerily nested images of future portentand by an intruder named Will (Christopher Abbott), who breaks into the boarded-up cabin assuming its empty and seeking provisions for his wife, Kim (Riley Keough), and young child, Andrew (Griffin Robert Faulkner). The two families cautiously decide to combine their resources: Paul is enticed by Wills livestock, and Will craves Pauls access to water and safe shelter. Their negotiations are rigorously practical, but its from this moment that the film starts to feel less like a crafty exercise in moderation than an early chapter of Survivalism for Dummies, or a particularly morose round of Settlers of Catan.

Though it prides itself on skeletal thrills and sparse dialogue, It Comes at Night is stacked with exposition. In its contradictory layers of emotional transparency, Shultss debut, Krisha, got to the fraught heart of familial relationships in a manner reminiscent of HBOs The Leftovers. But here the conversations are rote: As Shults develops the heightening distrust between the two families, he undermines the naturalism of his actors by having them punctuate tense scenes of rule-making and negotiation with obvious sentiments. Some variation of My familys all that matters and We have to be smart; we cant be emotional arrives with metronomic regularity, and its not long before these insipid statements become suffocating. (Edgertons natural mix of stoicism and warmth nearly redeem a thin character, but Abbott may as well be auditioning for a hunky antihero role on The Walking Dead.) The only character in the film who seems to imagine an alternative life or even convey any sense of interiority is the haunted teen Travis, robbed off his youth and creeping on Will and Kims nocturnal encounters.

What this frustration and unease add up to is left to the audiences imagination. How is it that a film so beholden to dull, unnecessary exposition can be so eager to avoid explaining itself? Just as he withholds the it of the title, Shults never attempts to justify the escalating paranoia of his characters. This is a sensitive decision, and an interesting one for a film that documents a failure of empathy, in which a mixed-race family offers a white family respite from encroaching doom. Every film about societal collapse is, in part, a political allegory; the causes of civilizational decline are nearly always a result of human decisions, and if theyre not, human nature reveals itself in the aftermath of said decline. But Shults so assiduously strips elements of politics and history from It Comes at Nights characters that they come to seem like empty husks. Whats left is a strangely hollow genre exercise, at once distinctive and utterly bereft of identity or interiority.

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It Comes at Night | Film Review | Slant Magazine - slantmagazine

Click Your Hiking Boots Together: Oz Farm Is NorCal’s Eco … – 7×7

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Who knew so many organically-grown apple trees shouldered the Yellow Brick Road?

Camping, more than often, can be an exploration in the mundane minutiae of survivalism. We pitch tents in order to shelter ourselves from Mother Nature's elemental fury; bonfires are lit to keep our core temperatures in a homeostatic balance. Water canteens, mulishly straddled to our waistlines, batter and bruise our hips with each pressing hike. Needless to say, such existential odysseys aren't exactly everyone's cup of Early Grey tea. That's, however, when the wonderful witches and wizards of Oz Farm come into frame to help us experience the softer, gentler edges of the great outdoors

One-hundred-thirty miles north of the Presidio in Mendocino County, Oz Farma 240-acre span of redwood forests, snaked through by the Garcia Riveraims to enchant all those who stay within its eco-chic confines. Completely off the grid, Oz Farm is self-sustained entirely by a network of solar panels and a single Bergey wind generator. (You won't find a PG&E electrical line for miles.)

Working in tandem with one another, they not only light up each of Oz Farm's nine rentable structures, they also provide the necessary amount of water to maintain the 72-acres of organically grown crops that sprout up from the heart of the property. From Pink Pearls to White Winter Pearmains, some 14 different varieties of trellis-grown apples are cultivated here; the farm is also well known for pressing some of the best all-natural apple juice anywhere in the state.

So, who's helping maintain all this sweet natural splendor? Well, Oz Farm is far from a one-man (or woman) show.

Above all other recreational endeavors, Oz Farm is a place where aspiring agriculturists can get their hands dirty andin a very literal and metaphorical senseplant the fruit-bearing seeds for their future ambitions as sustainable farmers. Through apprenticeship programs, Oz Farm aims to educate and provide the intellectual capital and real-life experience necessary to create the next generation of sustainable farmers.

Regardless if you want to hone your green thumb or just want to spend a weekend under the trees, Oz Farm will take you back to your minimalistic, pre-smartphone roots. All you have to do is follow the 65 MPH Yellow Brick Road (the 101) up there to get out of Dodge for a bit.

Reserve your next foray into the Wonderful World of Oz, courtesy of Hipcamp.

Location: 41601 Mountain View Rd. (Manchester)

Bedrooms: 9 rentable cabins, with a community house located at the front of the property; cooking supplies, hot tubs, and killer views are all included.

Bathrooms: 9-plus bathrooms; hot showers can be taken at the main community house.

Pet Friendly: There's already a gaggle of welcoming canines and somewhat aloof felines on the property, forewarning. (So, in short: yes.)

Extras: Fresh produce as far as the eye can see, friendly staff to help you navigate all the farm's hidden treasures, bonfire pits, and serene hiking trails! Also, Oz Farm may just be the perfect place to have your future wedding...just saying.

Emerald City's never looked more green or eco-friendly.

(Photo courtesy of Hipcamp)

Books don't need batteries to enjoy.

(Photo courtesy of Hipcamp)

Outdoor patio vibes for day on end.

(Photo courtesy of Hipcamp)

Livin' the lush life.

(Photo courtesy of Hipcamp)

Who needs spring board when you've can just lay your mattress on a bed of mulch?

(Photo courtesy of Hipcamp)

Deep breaths and chill.

(Photo courtesy of Hipcamp)

Airplane Modeor else.

(Photo courtesy of Hipcamp)

So gang, let's all click our heels thriceand celebrate the homecoming songs of summer over Oz Farm bonfires.

(Photo courtesy of Rice Paper Scissors)

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Click Your Hiking Boots Together: Oz Farm Is NorCal's Eco ... - 7x7

Via ‘The Florida Project,’ meet two of the youngest stars in Cannes Film Festival history – Los Angeles Times

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Last week, two of the breakout stars of the Cannes Film Festival were looking to take a breather after a grueling session of interviews, press roundtables and photo shoots. They decided to mark the moment with a toast.

"To a great drink," said Brooklynn Prince, who is 7.

"To a great trip," said Valeria Cotto, who is 6. The two clinked glasses, filled with Italian sodas of various fruity provenance, as the Mediterranean lapped at the beachside restaurant behind them.

The festival, which ended Sunday, often revels in and renews existing stars. Nicole Kidman, with four works in the official selection, became an adored fixture this year. But the gathering also has the ability to mint young personalities.

Even, in the case of the Florida natives Brooklynn and Valeria, really young personalities.

The girls are the stars of "The Florida Project," the new film from Sean Baker, writer-director of the indie sensation "Tangerine. Florida centers on the so-called hidden homeless members of the underclass who live in motels and other makeshift spaces. Its set in a part of America rarely seen on screen: Baker cast from and shot in Orlando, in the counterpoising shadow of Walt Disney World. Though thousands of miles away, in distance and sensibility, from the Wonder Woman enthusiasm going on back home, the girls were nonetheless very much of the same shatter-the-ceiling mind-set.

Brooklynn plays the outgoing and at times obnoxious Moonee, who with her mother (Bria Vinaite) and best friend (Valerias Jancey) finds joy amid the bleak survivalism of the Magic Castle Motel and Futureland Inn they respectively call home. Moonee, Jancey and a third friend, Christopher, are often getting into trouble with pranks that can border on the delinquent. But they do it with winning mischief, thus remaining endearing throughout.

In its willingness to see the world radically from young peoples point of view, The Florida Project takes its cues from movies as varied as E.T. and Kids, and exists spiritually somewhere in between. Unlike the children in more burnished Hollywood enterprises, they act like, well, kids. The girls form alliances, act out with exuberance (and, sometimes, petulance), and follow their curiosity into trouble. They remain joyfully oblivious to the hardships of the adult world around them while occasionally just occasionally signaling a bracing awareness. Interested in character moments and episodes more than narrative arcs, the film wowed critics with its lived-in naturalism.

Driving that naturalism are the two young leads. As they fielded a barrage of questions from a table of a dozen reporters, Brooklynn and Valeria showed uncommon poise.

What do your parents do? a European reporter at a roundtable asked them.

In the movie or in real life? Valeria asked.

Real life.

My mom sells tickets for events and my dads job is, hes in a position, where he makes furniture, Valeria said, before clarifying it was upholstery.

My dads a scientist and my mom's an acting coach, Brooklynn said with practiced aplomb.

You never told us your age, a reporter said to Valeria.

You never asked, she replied, reasonably.

The tendency with actors this young is to assume they are merely playing themselves. But the characters and many moments in the film are carefully scripted, and the girls are legitimately acting.

Theyre doing what adult actors do, which is listening closely, Baker said in an interview. Even in improvisation, theyre receiving lines, and digesting them and spitting them out as character. Both girls easily memorized the script, a point that will resonate for any parent whos ever had a 6-year-old try to prepare for a spelling test.

Their polish came in part from on-set guidance, both from Baker and his partner, actress Samantha Quan, who worked with the children for a month before shooting, using a variety of kid-specific workshopping techniques. Quan would do things like bring the girls into a room and have them describe objects as though they were giving a museum tour, all with an eye toward preparing them to react spontaneously to their surroundings during shooting.

Finding the young actors wasnt easy. Baker was ready to scrap the whole project for lack of a lead until Brooklynn came along, via a local casting agency. He was immediately taken with her confidence and her loose-limbed intelligence. Valeria was found in a less likely place: Target. Baker was doing a walk-through in the hope of locating a non-pro; when he spotted Valeria, he approached her mother and asked if shed like to bring her daughter in for an audition.

Despite their closeness, the two girls are very different. Brooklynn is a natural extrovert, taking the hand of adults she just met, dropping in a French phrase she knows will impress, and describing her favorite Cannes activity as going for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea.

Valeria has a more studied and if this can be said of a 6-year-old darker personality, with a preternatural wisdom; several journalists who talked to her thought she was at least several years older.

Shes a quirky kid, said her mother, Ivelisse Rijos, as her kindergartner daughter name-checked books she liked, including the Junie B. Jones series, the standard-bearer for go-your-own-way childhood thinking.

Since making the movie a year ago, the girls have bonded and now regularly make the 40-minute trip across the Orlando suburbs for play dates.

At Cannes, they sat at a restaurant between photo shoots, hugging each other and talking about matters of the day.

I like Daisy Ridley and Britney Spears, and Cara Devello, or whatever her name is, Brooklynn said, as she gave her costar a big squeeze.

Britney Spears isnt an actress, Valeria coolly replied.

Thats true but I still like her. And Elle Fanning, of course, Brooklynn said.

A handler told her Fanning had several movies at the festival.

Shes here? Brooklyn said, her eyes widening. We need to leave right now and find her. No, really, lets find her.

Rijos wasnt looking for a role for her daughter when Baker approached her in the Target; she in fact thought it was weird when the director handed her a card emblazoned with two chihuahuas, the logo of his production company. She was about to disregard it when an Internet search showed her it was the real deal.

Brooklynns parents were skeptical too, for a different reason: Theyre people of faith and thought some of the profanities Moonee had to utter in the film werent in keeping with their values.

There was some choice words and tumultuous language, and we were going to turn it down for that reason, father Justin Prince said. It was Brooklynn who convinced us she should do it. The elder Prince, who works as an environmental scientist, grew up in a world not unlike that of the movie, living for a time in a trailer in a backyard behind his grandfathers trailer in Ohio.

"I think she was happy to say some of those words because she doesn't get to say them at home, said a laughing Vinaite, herself a non-actor who Baker found on Instagram, to a reporter.

Also of the grown-up world: a Cannes premiere. Nearly a thousand people the night before had watched in the hallowed theater of the Directors Fortnight section, where both girls had tears in their eyes as they acknowledged the crowd.

I did cry last night, potentially, Brooklynn admitted.

I cried because there are some sad scenes and it brought back lots of memories of me and my friends, Valeria added. At the after-party, both girls had taken over the dance floor, well past the fashionable Cannes hour of midnight. Dance like nobodys watching, Valeria said and shrugged the following day.

Someone on a roundtable asked Vinaite what it was like to have such an important role in a movie as a first-timer.

I was definitely nerve-wracked because Id never acted, Vinaite said.

You were very good, Valeria reassured her.

Though the word precocious comes to mind when talking to the girls, Baker was intent in the film on avoiding the trap of the old-soul young person. Indeed, much of The Florida Project feels a lot like peeking in on everyday children who think no adults are watching impressive, given that on a set many dozens were.

Weve always had a very strong reaction to the kids you usually see in Hollywood films, Baker said. It always feels fake; it always feels stilted. We wanted to do the opposite of that.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour

That goal becomes more difficult circa 2017. As kids have cameras on them more than at any point in human history never mind dreams of stardom drilled into their minds a naturalistic portrayal becomes that much more difficult. Young people have more tools to star in a movie than ever before, but fewer ways to seem like real kids when they do.

A lot of people asked us how we got Brooklynn to reach certain places, Baker said of critical dramatic points in the film. But most of the time she would just do it herself. Before [a big crying scene], someone on the crew came over to her and started talking. And Brooklynn says, I have to focus right now because Im about to cry.

Brooklynn is probably the youngest Method actor youve ever met, Quan added, laughing.

As the girls sipped on their Italian sodas at Cannes, they began debating not the craft but a more important subject: their favorite movies.

Star Wars, Harry Potter all the Harry Potters, obviously, Brooklynn said. She ticked off some genre fare her family saw during a Halloween movie marathon.

I watch the Disney Channel, Valeria said.

A24 bought Florida at Cannes and is weighing when to release it. Brooklynn could well garner awards buzz if the Moonlight studio decides to put it out during the competitive heat of the fall. If she were to be recognized by Oscar voters, she would shatter by several years the record for youngest lead actress nominee, currently held by Quvenzhan Wallis, who was nearly 9 when she was shortlisted for her turn in Beasts of the Southern Wild in 2013.

Though Justin Prince said he was both intrigued and daunted by Oscar hullabaloo, his daughter was none the wiser.

In between interviews, the young girl walked up to a chalkboard at the restaurant that held the messages from film luminaries and put her own stamp on it. Bonjour. I love Cannes. I am in France, she wrote in a mixture of green and white lettering.

Brooklynn had put her entry right under one from the French director Claire Denis, another female trailblazer at the festival.

When the juxtaposition was pointed out, Brooklynn gave a curious look. "That's cool," the 7-year-old said, and maybe what was most cool was that she didn't realize how cool it was.

steve.zeitchik@latimes.com

Twitter: @ZeitchikLAT

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Via 'The Florida Project,' meet two of the youngest stars in Cannes Film Festival history - Los Angeles Times

Free ethical relativism Essays and Papers – 123helpme

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Title Length Color Rating Ethical Relativism and Cultural Relativism - In explaining Cultural Relativism, it is useful to compare and contrast it with Ethical Relativism. Cultural Relativism is a theory about morality focused on the concept that matters of custom and ethics are not universal in nature but rather are culture specific. Each culture evolves its own unique moral code, separate and apart from any other. Ethical Relativism is also a theory of morality with a view of ethics similarly engaged in understanding how morality comes to be culturally defined. However, the formulation is quite different in that from a wide range of human habits, individual opinions drive the culture toward distinguishing normal good habits from abnormal bad habits.... [tags: moral codes, opinions, habits] 714 words (2 pages) Better Essays [preview] Critical Analysis of Ethical Relativism - When it comes to moral dilemmas between cultures, there is a grey area that can sometimes make it difficult to resolve issues surrounding the dilemma. What is morality. How is it possible to know what is morally correct when cultures differ so vastly. To answer these questions, and many more regarding the moral dilemmas in the world, there are theories that have been developed to resolve them. One example is known as Ethical Relativism. Ethical Relativism has been developed on the basis that there is no common set of values that can apply to everyone, as there are an infinite number of cultures that exist and clash with each other.... [tags: Moral Dilemmas, Cultures] :: 5 Works Cited 1065 words (3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Critical Response to Ethical Relativism - ... Just because one society or culture comes to an implicit agreement about what their morals are going to be doesnt mean that those morals are morally acceptable. Imagine two groups of people come to different agreements about killing people. One group comes to an understanding that killing people out of aggression or revenge is morally wrong and the other believes it to be morally right. According to ethical relativism, no one should judge either group of being morally wrong for choosing to believe either way.... [tags: moral beliefs, ethics, values] 640 words (1.8 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Theory of Ethical Relativism - The Theory of Ethical Relativism The theory behind ethical relativism states that ethical standards are not concrete for all societies and times, but rather are relative to the standards of individual societies and time periods. I disagree with this theory because societies should be judged by their moral beliefs on the foundations that time doesn't change what is morally right and wrong and their should be more emphasis based on the individual rights as opposed to respecting the morals of that individual's society.... [tags: Papers] 377 words (1.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Ethical Relativism - Ethical Relativism What is right and wrong is a widely opinionated discrepancy among the human race. It varies between cultures, societies, religion, traditions, and endless influential factors. Ethical relativism is described by John Ladd as the doctrine that the moral rightness and wrongness of actions varies from society and that there are no absolute universal moral standards binding on all men at all times.... [tags: Papers] 986 words (2.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Utilitarianism vs. Cultural and Ethical Relativism - Utilitarianism vs. Cultural and Ethical Relativism Utilitarianism is an example of Consequentialist Ethics, where the morality of an action is determined by its accomplishing its desired results. In both scenarios the desired result was to save the lives of thousands of people in the community. Therefore, a Utilitarian would say that the actions taken in both of the scenarios are moral. Since an (Act) Utilitarian believes that actions should be judged according to the results it achieves. Happiness should not be simply one's own, but that of the greatest number.... [tags: Papers] 718 words (2.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Meta-Ethical Cultural Relativism - Meta-Ethical Cultural Relativism The thesis of meta-ethical cultural relativism is the philosophical viewpoint that there are no absolute moral truths, only truths relative to the cultural context in which they exist. From this it is therefore presumed that what one society considers to be morally right, another society may consider to be morally wrong, therefore, moral right's and wrongs are only relative to a particular society. Thus cultural relativism implies that what is 'good' is what is 'socially approved' in a given culture.... [tags: Papers] 739 words (2.1 pages) Good Essays [preview] Psychological and Ethical Egoism, Mill vs Kant, and Ethical Relativism - ... For example, if Jack wants to steal something to benefit himself, he should do so because it is the right thing for him to do. The main argument against psychological egoism is that people do in fact act to fulfill others desires. For example, Jack was playing video games and his mother asked him to help her with the dishes and he does so. He is doing this not to fulfill his desires, but to fulfill hers; he was already sitting down doing something that fulfilled his desires at the time but chose to help his mom.... [tags: philosophy exam] 910 words (2.6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] A Discussion to Compare Moral Theories - ... For the ethical relativist, there are no universal moral standards -- standards that can be applied to all peoples at all times. Culture and personal morals cause a person to make certain moral decisions. Personally, my beliefs align with ethical relativism, as I do not believe that all morality adhere to universal laws or the fear of a spiritual deity. I feel that the way we treat each other as human beings, the lessons taught by my culture and my own internal feelings of right and wrong guide me.... [tags: ethical, abolutism, relativism] :: 2 Works Cited 707 words (2 pages) Better Essays [preview] Relativism between Societies - The meta-ethical theory of relativism claims that there is no universal moral standard that can be used to evaluate the practices and beliefs of other cultures. For the relativist, 'true' only means 'true for my culture', while at the same time, what someone in another culture deems as true, regardless of the contrast, can be equally so (Williams 1976: 34). This means that the criterion for what is deemed acceptable for a given society, is reflective of the views of the prevailing culture. I disagree with this meta-ethical view.... [tags: meta-ethical, culture, society] :: 6 Works Cited 1088 words (3.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Deliberating Ethical Decisions - How are we as individuals or even professionals to know the right thing to do? Unfortunately there is no road map, or tutorial that spells out what is right vs. wrong or how we are to incorporate that into our everyday lives. As a child we are taught values that are centered on the golden rule, and then as we grow older learn about laws and regulations that reinforce what is taught to be right and the repercussions for wrongs. All of these teaching are the foundation we build on as we go through life in understanding the difference between right and wrong.... [tags: Relativism, Perspective, Morality] :: 4 Works Cited 916 words (2.6 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Ethical Dilemma of Defining Moral Absolutes - When our ancestors began to develop cognitive thought, they began to compare themselves to one another in an attempt to decide what is morally permissible behavior, and what is not. Although, our global community has grown to be very large, and culturally diverse these same moral debates still linger in todays society. Fundamentalist believe that there are absolute moral codes that apply to all societies. Inherently the fundamentalist view sounds like an ideal view that all cultures should respect.... [tags: moral absolutes, fundamentalist, relativism] :: 2 Works Cited 1272 words (3.6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Ethical Standards to Protect The Rights of Service Providers and Consumers - ... Some are similar to the earlier core principles, but others touch on different areas that are equally important. Moreover, the legal requirements that bind chemical dependency counselors also affect my ethical lens. For example, chemical dependency professionals are required to report any suspected neglect or abuse of a child (Revised Code of Washington 26.44.030). There is a reason this law exists and there is a reason it is mandatory; there are greater concepts that back laws such as these, and when I become a counselor, I don the legal responsibilities required of the profession.... [tags: moral relativism, injustice, maltreatment] 1447 words (4.1 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Ethics and Relativism - Considering the fact that Relativism forsakes the search for an ethical theory (Mosser, 2010, p. 50), and states more accurately that we should recognize that there are no universal or general ethical standards, that one's ethical view is relative to one's culture, society, tradition, religion, worldview, or even one's own individual values (Mosser, 2010, p. 50), and In light of the fact that Relativists see things in accordance to culture, genders, religion, and so on; they appear to allow that we can simply agree to disagree (Mosser, 2010, p.... [tags: Culture] :: 9 Works Cited 1350 words (3.9 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism - Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are two contrasting terms that are displayed by different people all over the world. Simply put, ethnocentrism is defined as judging other groups from the perspective of ones own cultural point of view. Cultural relativism, on the other hand, is defined as the view that all beliefs are equally valid and that truth itself is relative, depending on the situation, environment, and individual. Each of these ideas has found its way into the minds of people worldwide.... [tags: Ethnocentrism Cultural Relativism Culture Essays] 500 words (1.4 pages) Good Essays [preview] The Fundamental Claim of Cultural Relativism - ... A moral code is the system of rules which direct you to act ethically and morally. A society is a collection of people who interact knowingly and unknowingly to create a sustainable economy. An agent is just the individual who is deciding whether to perform an act or not. Let us now perform a simple thought experiment. You are a very religious person and want to show your ultimate devotion and gain favour with your holy figure. To do this, you perform a human sacrifice. In ancient Egypt, Humans were often sacrificed to show the God Osiris how faithful the pharaoh or human being sacrificed is (reference).... [tags: right, wrong, moral code] 1269 words (3.6 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Argument Against Moral Relativism - Argument against moral relativism This paper will debate advantages and disadvantages of both moral relativism and deontology. I will argue against moral relativism by showing that deontology gives a better account of our moral intuitions than moral relativism. I will use examples from the film The Ballad of Narayam, and James Rachels The Challenge of Cultural Relativism to illustrate why moral relativism should be rejected, and deontology should be accepted. Moral Relativism Moral relativism takes the position that moral and/or ethical propositions do not reflect universal moral standards.... [tags: deontology, ethics, morality] 1570 words (4.5 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Conceptual Relativism and Radical Social Constructionism - Conceptual relativism is concerned with truth and knowledge and belongs specifically with the ability of the human mind to construct different realities, people have different versions of realities but there is no one reality as is the same with truth there is no one absolute truth there are only truths. (Lazar 1998)Many authors have described the nature of this in their own languages and this has bought about many different views of conceptual relativism. It was Daniel Littles belief that conceptual relativism was concerned with the fact that as the world is separated into so many different countries, cultures, religions and beliefs.... [tags: Philosophy, Truth and Knowledge, Realism] 1330 words (3.8 pages) Good Essays [preview] Relativism - The year was 1943. Hundreds of Jewish people were being marched into the gas chambers in accordance with Adolf Hitler's orders. In the two years that followed, millions of Jews were killed and only a fraction survived the painful ordeals at the Nazi German prison camps. However, all of the chaos ended as World War II came to a close: the American and British soldiers had won and Hitler's Third Reich was no more. A certain ethical position would state that the anti-sematic Nazi German culture was neither right nor wrong in its actions.... [tags: ethics beliefs cultural relativism essays papers] :: 1 Works Cited 2304 words (6.6 pages) Research Papers [preview] The Case Against Moral Relativism - "Who's to judge who's right or wrong?" In the case against moral relativism Pojman provides an analysis of Relativism. His analysis includes an interpretation of Relativism that states the following ideas: Actions vary from society to society, individuals behavior depends on the society they belong to, and there are no standards of living that apply to all human kind. An example that demonstrates these ideas is people around the world eat beef (cows) and in India, cows are not to be eaten. From Pojman second analysis an example can be how the Japanese take of their shoes all the time before entering the house.... [tags: Pojman] 278 words (0.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Relativism: The Tangible Theory - Relativism: The Tangible Theory Since the beginning of rational thought, philosophers have searched for the true meaning of morality. Many theorists have attempted to answer this question with reasoning, in an attempt to find a universal set of rules, or a way to distinguish right from wrong. Some theorists believe that this question is best answered by a single moral standard, while others debate if there can be a single solution. Cultural Relativism explores the idea that there can be no one moral standard that applies to everyone at any given time.... [tags: essays research papers] 1914 words (5.5 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Relativism vs. Christianity - Standards of right and wrong are the mere products of time and culture. Morality is a neutral concept - there is no such thing as an absolute right or wrong. Instead, morality is defined by what is 'good' or 'bad' in a given society, by the social norms. What held true one thousand, one hundred, or even twenty years ago may or may not hold true now. The human race has grown and continues to expand; our technology, culture, customs, and laws constantly change and evolve. Perception is reality. What one believes to be right or wrong could be completely different from what someone else believes.... [tags: Ethics Morals Values] 757 words (2.2 pages) Good Essays [preview] Moral Relativism - Relativism comes from the word Relative which means measured, judgment, clever or a meaning or assessment that can only be recognized and may change depending with circumstance or background. It can also be used in a way of showing that something is true to a particular degree when it is being compared with other things (Cambridge Advanced Dictionary) There are different types of relativism and can be grouped or categorized into different stages namely: Moral, Cultural Just to mention but a few.... [tags: Philosophy] 885 words (2.5 pages) Better Essays [preview] Relativism in Farenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury - ... Millies answer proves this when Montag asks her if she has ever truly been bothered by something real (49). To a part of Millie, everything is relative and morals are not even a part of life. The other part of her is bothered and struggles with lack of principles and understanding, which is what tears her apart. Beatty, on the other hand, disguises lies for truths. He believes that history and values are irrelevant to the wellbeing of society, and in fact, have a negative effect (55). Nonetheless, Millie and Beatty both lived hollow lives and died meaningless deaths.... [tags: Farenheit 451 Essays] :: 7 Works Cited 833 words (2.4 pages) Better Essays [preview] Views of American Culture - Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day (Rohn1). Viewing pop culture it is common to see people who are being judged. These people are judged and put down in harsh ways, most frequently these stars are doing simple things that the average person would do.Is it so abnormal for a young woman in her twenties to drink. The legal drinking age is twenty-one. Is it so bad that people lose control of things occasionally under stress.... [tags: pop culture, egoism, relativism] :: 14 Works Cited 1650 words (4.7 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] What is Culture Relativism: Views by James Rachels - ... This being unheard of, immoral to the people of America but since the time of Herodotus they have notice the idea that conceptions of right and wrong differ from culture to culture. I think this concept is right however, I havent actually seen a culture as different as my, I have seen some small differences and I know some culture have big differences to mine but I havent encounter them. I have encounter people that have different ideas than me, in all subjects of life and school. Thats why I defiantly agree with Rachelss statement that if we assume that our ethical ideas will be shared by all people at all times, we are merely nave. Religion is something that people agrees ther... [tags: values, ethics, religion] 957 words (2.7 pages) Better Essays [preview] Ethical Issues in Nigeria - ... A relativist would point out that it would be normal for the Royal Dutch/Shell Oil Group to operate their business in Nigeria under the governments military support. In the case of Universalism, it may be a universal value that Shell Oils that companys shouldnt practice environmental destruction that upsets ecosystems including polluting the water, air and land, but the fact that there is no universal set of ethical behaviors presently agreed upon by all societies at this time so a Universalist cannot say for sure whether the ethical behavior is right or wrong.... [tags: environmental regulations] 1567 words (4.5 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Ethical Treatment of Prisoners - A Utilitarian View of Prison Labor & Behavioral Impact of Prisoners INTRODUCTION The ethical theory of utilitarianism and the perspective on relativism, of prison labor along with the relativism on criminal behavior of individuals incarcerated are two issues that need to be addressed. Does the utilitarianism of prisoners right laws actually protect them. Or are the unethical actions of the international and states right laws exploiting the prison labor. Unethical procedures that impact incarcerated individuals and correctional staff, the relativism of respect as people and not just prisoners; the safety of all inmates and correctional staff, are all issues worth continuous reflection.... [tags: Criminal Justice] :: 1 Works Cited 2597 words (7.4 pages) Term Papers [preview] Ethical Issues in Global Trading - ... 1. Employment Practices A multinational firm should not accept lower standards of the foreign country for its operations even when these standards are legal if they fail the ethical test. On this norm, using a subcontractor to condone such exposure is also not acceptable. Many companies like Nike, Levis Strauss had to abandon use of subcontractors who were perceived to be unethical. Many companies have instituted policies that enable them to have an annual monitoring by independent auditors for all subcontractors (Charles W.... [tags: multinationals, corruption, business] 996 words (2.8 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Relativity of Ethical Issues - Nowadays moral ethics are considered relative. Relative to culture, relative to the needs of a person, relative to circumstances and relative to what one assumes is right or wrong. Everyone has a different perspective on what is true; a person might believe that x is true while another may not. The same concept applies to ethics, one person might say killing animals for food is correct and another might say it is incorrect as we can survive on natural food. So each person has a different estimation on making truth claims about ethics, the opinion depends on what is right or wrong and what is ethical and what is not.... [tags: Morality/Ethics] 1278 words (3.7 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Evolution and Moral Truths - ... An article published in Psychology Today argues that there are two main reasons for believing that moral bears the imprint of evolutionary history: nonhuman animals exhibit some aspects of human morality, and there is an impressive collection of theories explaining how standard, moral behavior has evolved. It is with these two reasons that the analysis of this paper will begin. The first argument the Psychology Today asserts is that while animals dont reason explicitly about right and wrong, they do exhibit some aspects of human morality (Stewart-Williams).... [tags: god, moral relativism, natural selection] :: 4 Works Cited 1402 words (4 pages) Term Papers [preview] Ethical Decisions in Business - Throughout the ages businesses have developed through technological advancements and innovative ideas but there has always been a common struggle that they are faced with, ethical decisions. Everywhere we look there is some level of ethical deterioration (Norman V. Peale, 1988), immoral millions made through inside trading information, a day hardly passes without the head of some major organisation who has been involved in some aspect of an ethical dilemma. This essay will break down why businesses struggle with ethical decisions but before examining such a sensitive issue we must understand what an ethical decision really is.... [tags: business, ethics] :: 13 Works Cited 2254 words (6.4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Personal Ethical Development - Personal Ethical Development Given the almost collapse of the very foundation of the financial industry in the United States which then rapidly metastasized to a financial and economic crisis with global proportions, ethics and ethical behaviours in doing business and the lack of it was one of the major factors why the mortgage meltdown happened. Thus, it is even more necessary now that organizations focus on the personal ethical developments of all of its individual members. This paper aims to explore the developmental aspect of one's ethics including the importance of ethics and ethical systems.... [tags: Ethics] :: 6 Works Cited 1140 words (3.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Varying Global Ethical Standards in Business - When in Rome, Do As The Romans Do. This proverb is generally accepted by many people all around the world. Should this idea of cultural relativism be applied in the formation of ethical standards of international business. Or, there is a single list of truths that require exactly the same behavior across the different cultures, as the theory of ethical imperialism claim. (Donaldson, P. 477) Here I am presenting some cases related to core business activities and business relationship between various stakeholders and their expectations in different cultures (especially united states, India, and Nepal).... [tags: International, Culture, Commandments] :: 1 Works Cited 2028 words (5.8 pages) Term Papers [preview] Evaluating Ethical Decisions and Defining a Universal Standard of Good - Evaluating Ethical Decisions and Defining a Universal Standard of Good It is difficult to provide a concrete definition for the word right. Right can mean many different things in different situations. For example, the right answer to one plus one is two. Yet, doing the right thing isnt a simple answer like the previous example. In determining the difference between right and wrong, the pursuit of making an ethical decision is born. There are many concepts of right and wrong. Despite the number of concepts of right and wrong, there is a foundation that can be used to guide ethical decision making.... [tags: Morality/Ethics] :: 2 Works Cited 1468 words (4.2 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The Ethical Continuum - The Ethical Continuum An April 2002 ethics survey conducted by Zogby International included the question, which of the following statements about ethics was most often transmitted by your professors, but it provided only two answer choices: a general definition of absolutism and a specific definition of relativism.1 The pollsters, along with many who contemplate the issue, commit a false dichotomy and blind themselves by seeing relativism and absolutism as black and white. Contrary to the beliefs of moral nihilists and Kantians, ethics need not be ruled by extreme definitions of relativism or absolutism.... [tags: Essays Papers] :: 19 Works Cited 1624 words (4.6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Ethical Philosophies and the Hippocratic Physician - Ethical Philosophies and the Hippocratic Physician Twenty four centuries ago, Hippocrates created the profession of medicine, for the first time in human history separating and refining the art of healing from primitive superstitions and religious rituals. His famous Oath forged medicine into what the Greeks called a technik, a craft requiring the entire person of the craftsman, an art that, according to Socrates in his dialogue Gorgias, involved virtue in the soul and spirit as well as the hands and brain.... [tags: Philosophy Medicine] :: 7 Works Cited 1785 words (5.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of my Afghanistan by Nelofer Pasira - According to Taylor culture is defined as a complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs ,arts ,morals ,laws and customs and any other capabilities acquired by man as members of the society. Anthropologists like Hertzkorits define it as a man-made part of the environment. Kluckhon and Kelly define culture as all that is historically created design for living explicitly and implicitly, rational and irrational which exists at any given time as potential behavior of man. The first meaning presents culture as an idea and a realm of observable phenomena of things and events out there in the world.... [tags: Culture Relativism, Ethnocentrism] :: 1 Works Cited 1102 words (3.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Womens Equality in Ethical Theory and Perspective - Society has long since considered women the lessor gender and one of the most highly debated topics in society through the years has been that of womens equality. The debates began over the meaning between a man and womans morality and a womans rights and obligations in society. After the 19th Amendment was sanctioned around 1920, the ball started rolling on womens suffrage. Modern times have brought about the union of these causes, but due to the differences between the genetic makeup and socio demographics, the battle over womens equality issue still continues to exist.... [tags: utilitarian, deontological theories] :: 14 Works Cited 2226 words (6.4 pages) Term Papers [preview] The Differences between Logical, Ethical and Dialectical Reasoning - ... In other words, if the original statement is true then necessarily the conclusion should be true as well. It does not provide any new information just a rearrangement of previous information just like deductive reasoning. Informal reasoning possesses all the elements of formal reasoning, like the deduction part, however it also includes probabilities and truths about premises and conclusion .It is very similar to abductive reasoning because the truth may seem obvious based of the likelihood of the situation.... [tags: philosophical analysis] :: 7 Works Cited 1670 words (4.8 pages) Term Papers [preview] Ethical Theories Lying within In the Wake by Per Petterson - ... Arvid is unsure how to handle this having already lost a lot, he is reluctant to go visit his brother in the hospital.At the end of the novel you see the two brothers come to the conclusion that they have both hit the end of their ropes. They toast and look forward to a place where they can only go up now that rock bottom has been met. Ethical relativism can be found within the relationship between Arvid and the neighbor he has, Naim Hajo, because this man comes from a northern section of Iraq.... [tags: philosophical analysis] 604 words (1.7 pages) Better Essays [preview] Defining Right: Using Ethical Framework to Define the Term Right - Defining Right The topic of morality and what is right or wrong is a deeply complex and profound subject. There is not a basic rule as there is in physics; there is no Newtons law of motion and conservation of mass to base all theories upon. The shape of right and wrong must be modeled after the morals and values of the given culture, using the moral compass as a guide. There are frame works such as utilitarianism and deontological that pose questions that help use analyze the find the right thing to do.... [tags: Ethics ] :: 4 Works Cited 1168 words (3.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Ethical Philosophy - Virtues with intention centering on moral fiber is characteristically viewed as disposition to conduct ones self in customs which render the weak in aggressive circumstances. For example, a truthful individual is inclined to telling the truth upon requested. These dispositions are characteristically looked upon as comparatively steady and elongated. Further, they are also typically understood to be robust consistent across a wide-spectrum of conditions. We are unlikely, for example, to think that an individual who tells the truth to her friends but consistently lies to her parents and teachers possesses the virtue of honesty.... [tags: Ethics] 986 words (2.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Taking a Look at Meta-Ethics Concepts - ... First, moral universalism, also known as, universal morality, is the position that a number of moral value can be applicable to everyone, or is universally accepted. Because it is a branch of moral objectivism it still holds true that it is independent of other peoples beliefs and opinions. These judgments made from moral universalism are free of anything related to religion, race, gender, culture etc. (philosophy index). The second version is stronger than moral universalism. Moral realism is also a branch of ethical objectivism, and therefore, again it is independent of other peoples opinions and beliefs.... [tags: ethical subjectivism, moral objectivism] 1120 words (3.2 pages) Research Papers [preview] My Meta-ethical Position - My Meta-ethical Position When asked the question "Are there any ethical truths?" I respond with a resounding "Yes" and when asked "What makes the ethical truths true?" I respond "Facts independent of anyone's say-so". That makes me an ethical realist. I reject all forms of conventionalism and also subjectivism. There are three different forms of conventionalism, the first is Divine Command Theory which says thing are right or wrong based solely on God's say-so. While I do believe in God I reject that ethical view because who is to say what God says are believes is right or wrong.... [tags: Papers] 418 words (1.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Ethical Perspectives - Ethical Perspectives Introduction Ethics involves identifying, differentiating, and defending concepts of right and wrong, and what values humanity retains from ethical growth and development. The Williams Group for Ethics and Management developed an exercise, called the Ethics Awareness Inventory, which analyzes responses to a set of questions, and categorizes the results under four ethical perspectives: Character (or Virtue Ethics), Obligation (or Deontological Ethics), Results (or Utilitarianism), and Equity (or Relativism).... [tags: Ethics Morals] 1285 words (3.7 pages) Good Essays [preview] The Ethical Goodness or Badness about an Action - The Ethical Goodness or Badness about an Action To make a statement on the ethical goodness or badness about some action can be neither true nor false due to the fact that this statement is merely an opinion of mine and not actually based on facts. This opinion is an extension of my expression that this action performed is wrong. I can express my opinion in many different ways such as body language or speech but none of these will make the opinion I have, or in this case the statement I make, true or false.... [tags: Papers] 649 words (1.9 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Cultural Morality: Comparative Analysis between a Fine Balance and the Poisionwood Bible - ... Ruth May, young and oblivious, believes that everything her father did was right, however it is not entirely her fault, much like most people who are ignorant towards the issues of ethnocentrism. In conclusion, Ruth May faces death for het ignorance. Ruth May doesn't avoid the snakes as one who is familiar with the environment normally would, Kingsolver is clearly implying how destructive it can be to use ones beliefs in another cultural setting. At first, Leah trusted everything her father said, but towards the end she recognizes the imperfections in his system.... [tags: principle, relativism, religion, moral, idea] 1306 words (3.7 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Increase of State Surveillance in the United States and United Kingdom - ... From this examination of state surveillance through ethical systems, a conclusion of whether it is ethical or unethical will be apparent. What do ethics refer to. Ethics is a system of moral principles that affect how individuals formulate decisions and lead their lives. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy. Ethical issues conversely according to are difficult social questions that contain controversy over what is the right thing to do (Pollock, 2012, pg14).... [tags: ethical, privacy, power] 521 words (1.5 pages) Good Essays [preview] Discussing Ethical Judgments in the Production of Knowledge in Both Arts and Sciences - Ethical judgements limit the methods available in the production of knowledge in both the arts and the natural sciences. Discuss. To a certain degree, ethics can be considered a matter of ones heart, the source of emotional life, as well as their head, the center of a human beings faculty of intellect and reasoning. Ethics, or moral philosophy, is a set of ideas that are systemized, defended, recommended in differentiating behaviour as either right or wrong prescribed by social and cultural taboos.... [tags: ethics vs production of knowledge] :: 13 Works Cited 2508 words (7.2 pages) Research Papers [preview] Compare and Contrast 7 of the Main Ethical Principles - Despite the implementation of a certain code of conduct and belief system into most individual's everyday lives, the concept of ethics or moral philosophy remains a hazy area, left to be tackled by philosophers and exceptional theorists. The assessment of major ethical systems over the course of the semester has forced me to reevaluate the fundamentals of my own moral philosophy and reconsider the role of ethics as a more average field of thought than I had once considered. Included in the major ethical systems examined throughout the course were: Cultural Relativism, Religious Ethics, Ethical Egoism, Utilitarianism, Kant's Moral Absolutism, Social Contract, and Ethics of Virtue.... [tags: Ethics] :: 2 Works Cited 4242 words (12.1 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Ethical and Philosophical Questions about Value and Obligation - Ethical and Philosophical Questions about Value and Obligation I Recall the distinction between metaethics and normative ethics. Normative ethics deals with substantial ethical issues, such as, What is intrinsically good. What are our moral obligations. Metaethics deals with philosophical issues about ethics: What is value or moral obligation. Are there ethical facts. What sort of objectivity is possible in ethics. How can we have ethical knowledge. Recall, also, the fundamental dilemma of metaethics.... [tags: Metaethics Normative Ethics] 971 words (2.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Does Europe's history of migration and colonialism oblige states to open their borders to migrants today? - ... Efforts to civilise and educate people without their consent might merely be an altruistic veneer to hide ulterior motives since the imposition of cultural rules on people without their consent is regarded as a form of oppression. Cultural relativism is a much-debated concept even today, and the presumed universalism of Western morals may not be a sufficient justification on its own to impose arbitrary measures on other civilisations. Our concepts of universal human rights and cultural relativism present us with a complex ethical dilemma even in the 21st century.... [tags: ethical, moral dilemmas, Europe, immigration] :: 8 Works Cited 2230 words (6.4 pages) Term Papers [preview] Human Being Existence - Since long before Plato philosophers have attempted to accurately describe the ways human being exist in relation to the world around them. Many different systems and meta-narratives were created by numerous philosophers as they used reason to determine what it meant to exist and how knowledge was possible. Most philosophers were acutely aware their philosophical arguments that provided either metaphysical or epistemological descriptive claims would necessarily lay the foundation for normative ethical positions.... [tags: existence, ethical system, Plato, Nietzsche, ] 1293 words (3.7 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Ethical Decision on Embryonic Stem Cell Contributions - ... Realistically, this way of thinking is limited. Taking advantage of freedom of speech inadvertently turns private matters into a public spectacle. Decisions to donate embryos, like all medical decisions, are a private matter. When the original owner(s) of the embryo give ownership to the doctor, they are aware that it would potentially be disposed of or used for stem cell research. Considerations should be made to allow for a change in resources and the times. In contrast, Kant would probably be in support of stem cells being that he preached that helping others was our duty.... [tags: medical technology issues] :: 7 Works Cited 1025 words (2.9 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Personal Ethical System - ... In return, they formulate moral guidelines that are later termed as absolute truths in strong opposition of the Western Worlds ideologies. This has seen the emergence of radical religious affiliations, which is justified by subjective application and interpretation of moral theories (Barnosell, 2012; Iqbal, Bhatti, & Zaheer, 2013). The number of suicide bombers and radical Muslims engaging in terrorist activities has increased in recent years (Zarakol, 2011). My personal code of ethics negates subjective application of these theories and the disjoint implications emerging from fallacious ideologies propelled by a section of religious leaders.... 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Why Is It Difficult to Live Together in Differences? (A Reflection) – Netralnews

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Illustration: Living together in differences. (Special)

JAKARTA, NETRALNEWS.COM - Diversity on this planet Earth is already a necessity. Diversity is also actually the most beautiful gift of the Creator. So denying diversity is silliness.

The diversity is not only in humans with all the aspects that surround it, such as social, economic, political, cultural, religious and so on, but also in biodiversity: the flora and fauna.

For humans, in particular, there are not only men and women, but there are also thousands of tribes, languages, skin colors, and so on. And all of it was created by the divine greatness, not because we asked for it.

Reconstruction of Differences

The presence of a person or something can only be accepted with gratitude. Behind the gratitude, there is also a sense of responsibility to maintain it. Different religions as well as different tribes must be accepted and cared for, mutually nurturing and mutually developing them.

It is strange that the pluralist reality is not accepted for mutual enrichment, but instead serves as a source of prejudice that leads to the birth of various kinds of conflict. Tragically, the conflict often runs at a fairly high frequency and gets some sort of justification as a necessity. In fact, the conflict is actually due to a conflict of interest due to personal egoism.

Then, what must be done is to reconstruct diversity or pluralism in a more appropriate framework of understanding. It needs to be continuously conscious with theological or religious approaches, that diversity must be accepted for mutual care, mutual respect and mutual growth.

By mutual acceptance and mutual respect, everything in that difference can progress toward a better stage of life.

That is the moral and ethical foundation in living life on this planet earth. It is actually a common commitment in our being Indonesians, when it is liberated and established. The ideals with the fighters against the invaders are to build a just and prosperous life together.

Learning to Live in a Difference

There is, therefore, no other smoother path and a more beautiful way of life, in addition to continuing to learn to accept the differences and to unceasingly bring togetherness in the distinction. We learn tolerance, mutual respect and mutual respect, aka accept each other deficiencies and advantages.

Likewise the right hand should receive the left hand, although the left hand feels less functioning because it cannot write, or because of rheumatic attack or stroke. Or, the left eye is smaller than the right eye, but they must accept each other and help each other to more clearly see the desired object.

That is, as great as any medical science and sophisticated whatever medical technology, under the microscope we still cannot distinguish blood from which tribe, what religion, sex and so forth, because all of it is God's creation.

The rest, cultural or ethnic prowess and any proud superiority of religiosity of any ethnic or religious entity will be useless if there is no sincerity and desire of each entity to learn to behave appropriately in difference.

This means what is needed is the seriousness and sincerity to continue learning to be a pluralist or diverse citizens. That's where intelligence in living together. Or, says a pluralist Chung Hyung, that pluralism is the most enlightened position when dealing with other entities in difference.

But, above all, there is one thing in the author's mind, about why we are at odds with each other, or why we are still difficult to live together in differences? Below is a snippet of phrase from Gus Mus (KH.A. Mustofa Bisri) that can be a common musing.

Atheist is despised for being godless

Theist is despised because of different gods

Same god is despised because of different prophets

Same prophet is despised because of different religious schools

Same religious schools are despised because of different party

Same party is despised because of different opinions.

Do you want to live alone on the Earth to satisfy the lust of greed?

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The Gallows Pole By Benjamin Myers: A Playlist – The Quietus

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The Gallows Pole is a novel inspired by a real gang of criminals who lived in the Upper Calder Valley of West Yorkshire in the 18th century shortly before the industrial age reshaped the landscape and lifestyles of a nations. They were the Cragg Vale Coiners and are every bit as important to the occultist history and narrative of this country as the tails of Beowulf, King Arthur, Robin Hood or Dick Turpin, but much less widely known. Theirs is as story of survival, enterprise, community, grand folly, rich versus poor, crime and class warfare. Some early reviews have mentioned comparisons to The Wire, Deadwood and The Sopranos had they been filmed in the windswept uplands of the Pennines.

It is also a walking novel. It was conceived, research and partly written on foot, at an average of 5 miles per day through woods and across moors around West Yorkshire. The real life protagonist of The Gallows Pole is King David Hartley, a folk anti-hero who is prone to delusions of grandeur, extreme hallucinations featuring stag-headed men and supreme acts of cruelty and violence.

In the prose I hope to convey movement and drag the reader through the mud of the Pennines in the same way that film director Alan Clarke often had his characters always on the move think of The Firm, Scum, Elephant or Made In Britain. I was aiming for a steadicam-style narrative, so some of my musical choices are included for their rhythmic or repetitive qualities, or perhaps because they evoke landscape. The title for the book came quite late in the day and was inspired by the traditional folk song The Maid Freed From The Gallis Pole, which was later recorded many times over as The Gallows Pole.

This playlist was put together during a very early draft of the book.

Odetta The Gallows Pole

There are dozens of versions of this song but Odettas voice is a revelation, so dark and ominous but soothing too, and with a restraint and subtlety that Led Zeppelins more famous version lacks. The themes of the song money, poverty, betrayal, execution run alongside themes of the book too. A perfect fit.

Matt Berry Gather Up

I cant say Im particularly a fan of the over-inflated thespian routine that Matt Berry seems to employ in all his TV characters, but the tone of this song matches that whcih I was aiming to achieve in the novel a sort of haunted and ethereal earthiness, which draws on a limited vocabulary and heavy use of repetition. The Gallows Pole features the names of people and places repeated over and over again almost to absurd and annoying levels, in an attempt to induce a trance or evoke a rural reverie within the reader. Berry achieves that here by listing various indigenous plants and herbs in a song that is definitely a homage to a lot of the folk-horror films that I am also a fan of.

Donovan The Song Of The Wandering Aengus

True music snobs seem to despise Donovan, and it is a hatred that I suspect is partly based on the humiliation he suffered at the hands of Bob Dylan in the biopic Dont Look Back. But Ive always gravitated towards the bands youre not meant to like for that very reason The Doors are another example and though his hippy-dippy shtick can grate, actually Donovan did his own thing. This track was recorded for an album aimed at children and is an adaptation of a WB Yeats poem that is elemental and feverish. Set to music it is unnerving, beautiful, dream-like and stands knee-deep in the fast-flowing waters of some forgotten rural backwater: And when white moths were on the wing / And moth-like stars were flickering out / I dropped the berry in a stream / And caught a little silver trout.

Stealing Sheep Not Real

Stealing Sheep have carved a sound of their own intricate arrangements, amazing playing, perfect harmonies. Theyre a rare band who actually sound better live than on record and somehow manage to find a common ground between futurist electro-pop and traditional folk music, with shades of Scouse psychedelia in there too. The last time I saw them play a friend who happens to be an amazing guitarist in a pretty successful band was utterly baffled as to how they were achieving certain sounds. I like their entire presentation: theyre an ideas band.

Winterfylleth The Divination Of Antiquity

The musical equivalent of a raging moorland tempest, a storm twisting down a fecund gulch. Sometimes you have to unleash your inner black metal bastard.

Noel Coward The Stately Homes Of England

An unexpected inclusion perhaps, but the flipside to the story of the rise of the Cragg Cale Coiners, who were uneducated peasants, weavers and landworkers, was their downfall, which was brought about by the intervention of one Lord Rockingham, former Prime Minister, and owner of the largest and most opulent house in England. As much as anything The Gallows Pole is a story about class divide and working class insurrection. Im a big fan of Noel Coward (who was neither upper nor working class); his lyrics are acerbic, catty and often unapologetically offensive, and the way that certain songs such as Mad Dogs And Englishmen scan and flow is not a million miles away from some of todays hip-hop and grime and There Are Bad Times Just Around The Corner could have been written for today.

The Stately Homes Of England perhaps encapsulates a Britain that very few of us will ever get to see though that of mad toffs, clinging to old ideas and past glories, a life preserved in aspic. Im quite fascinated by the landed gentry from an anthropological standpoint those people with old money, as opposed to the tasteless nouveau riche, who think that style and taste can be bought.

Marmaduke Duke Blunder & Haggis

This is just pure lo-fi electro malevolence, a piece of bad mood music created by Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro the side of him that his day-job probably doesnt reveal. Im quite confident that it hasnt been covered on The X-Factor.

Richard Dawson - The Ghost Of A Tree

Richard Dawson can do as much with his voice and the stamping of his feet than an entire orchestra. Theres a sense of confrontation and courage to what he does, and a timelessness to his lyrics, but also a lot of humour which is perhaps overlooked in the clamour dissect his output. Its folk music delivered with a court jesters sensibility. I often wonder who the legends of the future might be, those who transcend genre and era to stay the distance; people like Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen or John Martyn. I think Richard Dawson will one of them and The Ghost Of A Tree is the closest sound to the stories in my head, a modern gothic novel set to minimal music that digs deep into our DNA as humans who once roamed the earth in small tribes.

Various Hanging Johnny

Id not heard this old sea shanty, traditionally sung a capella, until The Futureheads did a rendition on their Rant album a few years back. Its a dark story about snapped necks, gibbets and nooses, and can I imagine it being sung as King David Hartley was lead from York Castle to Tyburn, where he was hung in front of a crowd of several thousand in 1770, and consequently hailed as a martyr by many.

The Memory Band When I Was On Horseback

I dont really know anything about The Memory Bank, nor how I even discovered their music, but their 2013 album On The Chalk (Our Navigation Of The Line Of The Downs)is another record whose feel, pace and atmospherics sits right. Its heavily topographical, a flaneurs collection that rolls along like clouds; foreboding and portentous one moment and then shot-through with blinding bursts of sunbeams the next. Also, I wanted to include a song that influenced a horseback riding scene in the novel.

Black Widow Come To The Sabbat

Ive a fascination for that period in the late 1960s and early 70s when a confluence of old and new ideas mythology, literature, folklore, drugs, paganism, Satanism, sexual liberation, black magick and other esoteric practices emerged and, for a short time, suggested a bold anything goes direction for society. Out of that period so much good music emerged, such as this mock-baroque anthem by Leicesters Black Widow. Like all good rock songs it borders on the ridiculous and with its Jethro Tull-inspired flutes and Brian Blessed-like satanic chant actually offered a gentle face of devil worship. Ah, England. What a stupid and brilliant place.

The Horse Loom Lie Here

The Gallows Pole was partly written with the big screen in mind its structure follows that of a film, and I knew that an imaginary soundtrack should include this. The Horse Loom is Steve Malley, who played guitar in a number of north-east bands including The Unit Ama, Kodiak and Crane, who were like Newcastles own Fugazi when I was a teenager. Now he plays very intricate and intimate guitar music that is part of the same lineage as Bert Jansch, John Renbourne and Nick Drake and, for me, captures something unspoken about the north of England. Its very cinematic, timeless and technically dazzling, in a very understated and humble way.

Lead Belly The Gallows Pole

Its almost embarrassing the amount of white artists who have covered Huddie Ledbetter, and almost certainly always to greater financial reward. But along with Odetta, his is the only other version of The Gallows Pole worth listening to.

The Gallows Pole is out now, published by Blue Moose

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The Gallows Pole By Benjamin Myers: A Playlist - The Quietus