PP Control & Automation launch new video to kick-start exciting plans for 2017 – Manufacturer.com

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A UK specialist in electrical control systems, cable harnesses and sub-contract manufacturing solutions has launched a major promotional campaign to help it boost sales and target new markets in 2017.

PP Control & Automation, which employs 200 people at its state-of-the-art facility in the West Midlands, is looking to build on a record 20m turnover last year by looking to finalise exciting new opportunities domestically and overseas in Germany and North America.

The company has seen a massive surge in demand from machinery builders looking to outsource non-core capabilities and is expecting export sales to surge past the 35% mark over the next 12 months.

To support this expansion drive, the firm has invested in developing a new promotional video that takes you around its 40,000 sq ft factory, detailing its expertise in electronics, mechanical assembly, pneumatics and supply chain management.

We are starting to create a global reputation for delivering world class quality through world class connectivity and that is winning us new orders, explained Tony Hague, managing director at PP Control & Automation.

Over the last twelve months, we have worked really hard on our promotional material and in growing our digital activity through LinkedIn, Twitter and a host of new informational videos on YouTube. The website has been translated into German to help with growth over there and weve even hosted joint workshop with some of our key technology partners.

He continued: The new two-minute promotional video was the next step. It guides you through our capabilities, our 1m investment in automation and our in-house training school that delivers 200 hours training every year for each member of staff.

This year is set to be a significant year for PP Control & Automation, with the factory extension on course to be completed by the end of February.

This will give the company an additional 10,000 sq ft of production space, including a new logistics department and clean assembly area.

Thirty new staff are also in the process of being recruited for the first phase of expansion, with the control and automation specialist keen to invest in six new apprentices as part of this recruitment drive.

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PP Control & Automation launch new video to kick-start exciting plans for 2017 - Manufacturer.com

‘What Is My Future After This?’ – Human Rights Watch

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Two in five adolescents are out of school in Tanzania, although the country has declared education a national priority and abolished school fees and financial contributions. Lack of money is, however, only one of the reasons why education ends after primary school for so many young people. Barriers include exams that limit access to secondary schools, long distances to schools, and outmoded policies, Human Rights Watch found in researching a new report, I Had a Dream to Finish School. Girls have a particularly hard time. Subject to widespread sexual harassment and outright expulsion if they become pregnant, their dropout rate is higher than that of boys. Human Rights Watchs Birgit Schwarz talked to researcher Elin Martinez about violence in schools, broken dreams, and what Tanzanias government can do to improve access to education.

Tanzania has long made education a priority and recently removed school fees for lower-secondary education. So why did you decide to investigate this issue?

Since 2005, Tanzania has taken important steps to increase access to secondary education. Yet, 1.5 million adolescents are still out of lower-secondary school. We decided to look at barriers other than financial ones that stop adolescents from going to school. While additional resources are clearly needed for example, to build more schools and infrastructure there are a variety of improvements that do not necessarily require lots of additional resources but instead a change of mindset and policy reforms.

More than 120 Form II students prepare to sit their mock exams in a secondary school in Mwanza, northwestern Tanzania.

2016 Elin Martnez/Human Rights Watch

You interviewed more than 200 young people for this report. What did they tell you about their dreams and why they dropped out?

Fees had been a major reason for children to drop out. Teachers would send the kids home and tell them to only come back once they had paid up. In some cases, children told us their teachers would beat them up if they didnt pay the fees.

One girl we interviewed had almost finished lower-secondary school, but had to drop out just before the final exam because her parents could not afford the final exam fee. A nongovernmental organization (NGO) referred her to a vocational center, and now, at 17, she was training to become a mechanic. But what she really wanted was to go back to secondary school and become an engineer.

Many children said they had not passed the Primary School Leaving Exam, which is currently necessary to continue on to secondary school. If they dont pass, theyre not allowed to re-take the final year of primary school or the exam. Many drop out without learning basic skills or being able to read or write properly.

We interviewed many girls who had become domestic workers after they dropped out. They work extremely long hours, sometimes for an abusive employer. Some wanted to have their own small businesses, others wanted to go to secondary school to become doctors or engineers. But the second they start working, their dreams of further education come to an end.

Fewer than a third of girls entering lower-secondary school graduate. What causes girls to drop out more frequently than boys?

Teenage pregnancy, a huge public health issue in Tanzania, is a big barrier to girls completing school. More than 8,000 girls drop out of school annually and permanently because of pregnancy, although this is a gross underestimate according to many NGOs, and we found that schools often dont report the reasons why students drop out. School officials regularly run mandatory pregnancy tests and expel girls who are pregnant. The government punishes any offense against morality with expulsion, because it thinks this will keep teenage pregnancies at bay. Married girls are automatically expelled in most and perhaps all schools. With almost two in five girls marrying before the age of 18, these policies affect a huge number of girls. The government is working on policies that would mandate schools to accept young mothers back at school. But even some government officials we talked to think that these reforms would encourage other girls to get pregnant.

Once they leave school, girls have limited options to return to formal schooling. There is no way for many of them to realistically raise their children while studying. Until the government sets up a good system to support them when they go back to school, their only option would be to attend alternative or informal educational programs. But this would not give them the skills or accreditation to get back on track.

An unfinished science laboratory next to a classroom at a secondary school in Shinyanga region, northern Tanzania. Construction work was put on hold when school officials were no longer allowed to ask parents for financial contributions following the governments abolition of school fees and contributions in December 2015.

2016 Elin Martnez/Human Rights Watch

Also, in some cases, families do not have resources to send all their children to secondary school, and they will opt to send the boys, while the girls are made to work.

And finally, there are many safety issues. Many girls told us of teachers who had harassed them or their friends. Several girls told us that their friends had become pregnant because a teacher had coerced them into a sexual relationship. While the girls had to drop out of school, the responsible teachers are still in the school. All of this combines to push girls out.

Does sexual harassment not get reported?

In most schools, there is simply no confidential reporting mechanism, and school officials seldom report incidents to the police. Girls told us that even when they turn to female teachers for help, they will be accused of having instigated the incident. NGOs and government officials are advocating for a system of trained counselors who can provide guidance and counseling and report abuse. But the reporting mechanism needs to be fully confidential and linked to law enforcement to ensure that sexual abuse is investigated and that the perpetrators are prosecuted rather than sent to a different school.

What fate awaits those who are expelled or drop out?

Once they are out of the formal education system, children must often pay private institutions to study for the equivalent grades. This means that secondary education remains an inaccessible dream for many of them.

In Mwanza, we met a large group of young mothers and pregnant girls who had been enrolled in a vocational course by a nongovernmental organization. They were learning computer literacy and other subjects. Many of these girls told us that their families were not supportive. One girl, whose parents were church leaders, had been kicked out of her home while pregnant. She went from one house to another, until she found a room. She worked extremely long hours in a factory, until she was eight months pregnant and in so much pain that she had to stop. Once she had given birth, she had to leave her baby behind when at work, with the door to her room open so that neighbors could keep an eye. But she simply had no choice. It was either that or going hungry.

Even now that she is doing this course, she is asking herself, What is my future after this? What am I going to do next?

Was there a story that moved you more than others?

It was painful and frustrating to hear children talk about the brutal nature of corporal punishment that is inflicted on them in schools. It was shocking to see the marks and scars on the girls legs, or hear how teachers were venting their anger and frustrations with a cane on children, hitting them on breasts or buttocks, teaching them fear. No one really learns in those conditions. It also goes against scientific evidence that shows that childrens cognitive development is particularly affected by repeated exposure to violence during adolescence.

Speak English signs found in secondary schools in Ukerewe, an island on Lake Victoria, and Mwanza, in northwestern Tanzania. Many secondary schools strictly enforce the use of English a new language for most secondary school students, as Kiswahili is the medium of instruction in primary schools. Many students are not given adequate support to transition from Kiswahili to English, and some reported being punished for not speaking English in class. In 2014, the government adopted a policy to allow the dual use of Swahili and English as languages of instruction in secondary schools.

2016 Elin Martnez/Human Rights Watch

There was a girl named Lucia who I met in Mwanza. She had first told us she had dropped out because of the distance to school. She had to negotiate a very rocky path each day. But when we carefully probed a bit further, she started talking about her teachers attempts to seduce her and coerce her into meeting him after sports practice. She first stopped going to field practice, then she stopped going to school for days. Her performance dropped and she felt she could not concentrate in class. In the end, she said she decided to stop wasting her parents money and to drop out altogether.

Many stories I heard were like this stories of adolescents who had so much potential but who were pushed out or felt forced to leave because there was simply not enough money, because a teacher was trying to take advantage of them, or because they were pregnant.

What barriers to education do children with disabilities face?

A very small minority of students with disabilities make it to secondary education at all. An average school does not have the capacity to accommodate students with disabilities. Even in schools that are supposed to cater to students with disabilities, we found that buildings were not accessible, or the terrain was very difficult to navigate on a wheelchair or for blind students. Some students with disabilities told us they feel ignored and excluded in schools. There were many issues with students who are blind or have low vision, for example. The lack of equipment to translate materials into braille, for example, meant that these students dropped way behind the rest of the class, and many did not have adapted textbooks. Some students had to wait for over a month to get the material they need to follow whats taught in class. Some students told us they want to become engineers or study science, but theyve been told they can only study social sciences because math or science subjects are only available for sighted students.

How would you describe the quality of education in general?

Secondary education remains of poor quality in Tanzania, and the government recognizes this challenge. We found that many schools are not able to teach core compulsory subjects like science or mathematics because there is a substantial shortage of fully trained and qualified teachers, especially in rural areas. Most students only speak Swahili in primary school, but once theyre in secondary school, the language of instruction switches to English. Many told us they find it hard to follow their subjects because they dont have enough support to learn and communicate in a new language. And while the average class size should be 40 to 45, we found classes that had up to 70 pupils.

Frances (pseudonym), 21, struggled to pay for secondary school. She worked as a domestic worker to help pay her school fees: From 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. I studied, then from 5 p.m. 11 p.m. I worked [at her employees home] and I also worked over the weekends ... I got 30,000 shillings [US$14] per month not enough to pay for school. She failed the secondary school exam and dropped out of Form IV.

2016 Elin Martnez/Human Rights Watch

Has the loss of income from school fees exacerbated the financial problems faced by schools?

The governments decision to abolish all official school fees and additional financial contributions, including private tuition, as of January 2016, opened the doors to many adolescents whose parents or guardians could not afford to pay school fees for secondary school. Removing fees tackled one of the main barriers keeping children out of secondary school. However, school principals told us they were very worried because previously most schools would use parental contributions or funds raised by the community to pay for the school needs. But in January 2016, they had to stop new construction projects, such as building science labs that used to be mandatory, or separate latrines with running water for girls. Schools can no longer afford to hire temporary teachers to solve the teaching gap. On a positive note, the policy is nevertheless widely respected. It will be up to the government now to find ways of supplementing school budgets and ensure that schools can provide basic infrastructure and a conducive learning environment.

Tanzania is a low-income country. Can the government afford free secondary education?

Tanzania aspires to become a middle-income country by 2020, and education is a central component of that transformation. The government has shown a lot of political will to ensure access. In 2017, more than a fifth of the national budget is earmarked for education. The money partly came from cuts to all ministerial travel budgets, or expenses for national festivities, and an expanded tax base. But to continue making progress, the government will progressively need to allocate additional resources to cover the deficit in school budgets and to accommodate the increasing number of students who will enroll for secondary education now that it is free.

What needs to be done to improve the conditions for students who are currently in school?

The government should focus on the quality of education at all levels. This means all students should learn the basics early on in primary school so that they can confidently access and benefit from secondary school education. The government should phase out the primary school exam as a selective tool, and focus on ensuring all children are supported to complete lower-secondary education.

Discriminatory practices of expelling girls who become pregnant or marry should be abolished immediately, and policies to allow girls who dropped out to re-enter school should be put in place.

All forms of violence or abuse in schools, including corporal punishment, should be banned, and should definitely not be encouraged as a way of managing classrooms and enforcing discipline. The government needs to provide teachers with in-service training, particularly in classroom management, and cut down on class size. But to tackle the endemic nature of corporal punishment, the government needs to send out a clear message that it has no place in schools. Sexual abuse is certainly affecting a significant percentage of female students and also needs to be taken seriously. The government needs to set up monitoring mechanisms in schools and take action against teachers found to be abusing students. And in the long term, the government needs to build better infrastructure in every ward across the country and ensure that schools are adequately resourced with qualified teachers, equipment, and books.

Was there any story that gave you hope?

One of the people we worked with, Angel Benedict, was a former child domestic worker. She dropped out of school but was able to study the condensed secondary education curriculum with support from an NGO. She now runs an organization that helps child domestic workers and enables them to go back to school so that they can continue their education, graduate, and get proper jobs. She has become an important role model for many girls. Some call her their angel.

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'What Is My Future After This?' - Human Rights Watch

Mastering Trump’s mastermind: Sebastian Gorka and the struggle between Islam and the West – EUROPP – European Politics and Policy (blog)

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British-born Sebastian Gorka was appointed as Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States by Donald Trump in January and is viewed as one of the key figures behind the Presidents national security strategy. Steve Fuller presents an analysis of Gorkas world-view, writing that his conception of an ideological struggle between Islamic jihadism and the West may ultimately be difficult to square with the views of Trumps core supporters, who have a sharper focus on territorial integrity and the material security of American citizens.

When one thinks of who might be the mastermind behind Donald Trumps presidency, Steve Bannon of Breitbart and fake news fame is the obvious candidate. However, arguably a deeper thinker in the same mould is Sebastian Gorka, Trumps deputy assistant and an increasingly familiar face to television audiences, as he offers asserts may be a better word straightforward justifications for the byzantine turns in Trumps policy initiatives. What follows is my presentation of Gorkas world-view, which is by no means crazy but not so easy to square with the world-view of the seemingly solid block of 40% of Americans who back Trump because they think their material security is his primary concern. In any case, it helps to begin with some history.

The Cold War was often portrayed as a struggle between competing ideologies, capitalism and socialism. Its original master thinker, George Kennan, believed that it was a struggle without end, since the two ideologies are irreconcilable: Both demand global domination and each has its own way of legitimising this demand. Indeed, they do so in ways that could appeal to members of the other side, given a fair hearing. So there are only two possible strategies for each side: either destroy or contain the other (i.e. simply block its spread). Destruction, while technically feasible with nuclear weapons, could also result in mutually assured destruction, so containment would be the more sensible option to lead with.

However, for all practical purposes, the Cold Wars so-called ideological struggle was really between the United States and the Soviet Union, two nation-states, each of which amassed other nation-states in various political, economic, military and cultural alliances. The Cold War was transacted in state-minted currency, which in turn was spent to fund an arms race and a space race that was claimed to have universal import.

But contra Kennan, the Cold War came to an end less than a half-century after it started. One of the anchor nation-states, the Soviet Union, had effectively gone bankrupt and sought a peaceful exit strategy, which the US clumsily managed. The so-called ideological struggle between capitalism and socialism ended at that point, notwithstanding pockets of resistance in places like Cuba. Other nation-states, most noticeably China, had no problem adapting its own geopolitical conduct to the newly relaxed capitalism-socialism divide.

Gorkas world-view begins with the claim that today the Wests struggle against Islamic jihadism is a much more literal version of a Kennan-style ideological struggle than Kennan himself had envisaged the Cold War to be. This is because at least one of the parties to the struggle is not defined in nation-state terms. Islamic jihadists are emboldened by certain radical Muslim thinkers to read the Quran for themselves so as to interpret jihad (humanitys struggle to arise from its fallen state) as not simply a personal struggle but a geopolitical one, the full resolution of which requires universal conversion to Islam.

That highly esteemed Muslim religious leaders may not support such an inflated sense of jihadism is irrelevant to the true jihadi, as religious leaders can always already appear compromised in some way. Thus, Gorka does not place any special burden on normal Muslims to counter jihadism. That would be like expecting the established Christian churches both Catholic and Protestant to have taken responsibility for all of the violence of the Christian dissenters, say, in the 17th century English Civil War and other modern freedom-fighting movements. Arguably one such movement was the American Revolution itself, which drew on St Augustines theology of human exceptionalism (i.e. our having been created in the image and likeness of God), without subscribing to any particular church.

Here the trope of Protestantism, which in recent years has been invoked by liberal Muslims such as Reza Aslan as the path to reforming Islam, should be seen in a more nuanced light. Just because the historical outcome of the Protestant Reformation has been, broadly speaking, a victory for secular democratic values, the forces that unleashed both jihadism and secular liberalism are largely the same. (Consider, say, the violent tone in which the original modern classic of freedom of expression, John Miltons Areopagitica, is written.) In both cases, people were encouraged to take the sacred book into their own hands as a source of personal empowerment, with the book read as posing to each reader an existential challenge.

Those who accept the challenge may join to form communities of various sorts, but these are never more than temporary holding patterns until the Kingdom of God is realised for all to see what on this reading of the Quran is the true caliphate. However, it is the sacred book not some particular human authority that ultimately licenses that activity. The resulting political sensibility may indeed be totalitarian yet without being especially authoritarian. (Here the writings of Eric Voegelin on political theology are useful.)

It is this permanently revolutionary sense of Protestantism to which Gorkas jihadism harkens, rather than the more settled secular versions exemplified by the US Constitution and other democracies formulated on similar grounds in the modern era. In these cases, the original revolutionary violence was specifically focused on more-or-less politically unified territories. Thus, the conflicts were broadly comprehensible within whats still called the Westphalian settlement, named for the 1648 European treaty that established the convention that nation-states are the primary units of political sovereignty. This fundamental assumption of modern international relations at both the diplomatic and military levels is now called into radical question by Gorkas totalising sense of jihadism.

Moreover, the plausibility of Gorkas world-view is facilitated by the de-territorialisation of ideology that information technology increasingly permits. In other words, Islamic jihadists can coordinate their activities across self-organising networks that are distributed across many countries, most if not all of which may otherwise abhor the ideology. Moreover, Islamic jihadism is a genuinely transhumanist ideology in that its self-identifying members think of themselves primarily as platforms for advancing the ideology, the full realisation of which they may or may not be personally involved in.

At one level, this sense of self-sacrifice is familiar from both capitalist and socialist narratives, which argue that the current generation lays the basis for subsequent generations to live better lives. In these explicitly secular narratives, which were pervasive during the Cold War, the expectation was that ones children or grandchildren might live in the utopia that the current generation was struggling to achieve. However, Islamic jihadism possesses at least three features that serve to undermine this Cold War intergenerational template of geopolitical struggle. I will go through them quickly.

I do not wish to comment here on the accuracy of Gorkas characterisation of so-called Islamic jihadists. But he certainly means to take them seriously so much so that he believes the United States and its allies should mirror much of their modus operandi. For example, Gorka thinks that security agencies should treat mosques and other religious institutions as secular public spaces, just as the jihadists themselves do, since the jihadists regard law-abiding Muslims as spiritually suspect unless proven otherwise. These spaces then become sites of ideological contestation, in which the religious authorities nominally in charge of them have little standing with either the jihadists or the US security agencies.

An epistemologically interesting consequence of Gorkas mirror strategy pertains to the role of information. It reflects the ease with which Steve Bannon and the Breitbart crowd surrounding Trump can live with the idea that we live in a post-truth world. Information is treated quite literally as a political football to be batted back and forth spun and re-spun. One might even speak of information as having become weaponised much more thoroughly than in past propaganda campaigns, which tended to emanate from a few authorised sources.

The key general insight, which underwrites the phenomenon of fake news, is that the distributed character of computer networks effectively blurs the difference between the production and consumption of information. But this goes beyond the mere fact that those who consume information can also produce it. Of greater significance is that it becomes harder for the consumer to tell how the information was produced. Indeed, as productive capacity is increased, accountability is decreased. Here Gorka is influenced by David Kilcullen, an Australian military strategist of counterinsurgency, a term he has made his own to characterise the mirroring posture that he would have the US and its allies adopt towards Islamic jihadists.

Kilcullen was a vocal critic of the Iraq war and especially the use of drones in warfare, as Barack Obama had begun to normalise in Afghanistan. In terms of the information war with the jihadists, all that did was provide visual ammunition for the enemy. Any image of a successful drone mission could be repackaged as having killed many innocents by some artful (or not, as the case may be) textual and visual recontextualisation. In that case, the sheer immediacy of the message combined with its multiple seemingly independent reproductions say, on social media would override concerns about the images authenticity, which may have been untraceable in any case. (Jacques Derrida must be either turning over in his grave or laughing to the bank.)

What is perhaps most striking about Gorkas world-view is his Platonic sensibility about the nature of war it is all about winning hearts and minds, not lands and lives. His own writings make it clear that s/he who strives the hardest the longest ultimately wins, regardless of the body count. While this ethic will be immediately recognisable to the so-called Islamic jihadists, it is not so clear how it will play with Trump supporters who identify their interests including what they mean by security with something having a much more restricted world-historic scope. In other words: How exactly can a potentially endless ideological struggle be fought when one of the parties the United States seems under President Trump to be keener than ever to protect its territorial integrity and the material security of its citizens?

Please read our comments policy before commenting.

Note: This article gives the views of theauthor, and not the position of EUROPP European Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics.

_________________________________

About the author

Steve Fuller University of WarwickSteve Fullerholds the Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick.

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Mastering Trump's mastermind: Sebastian Gorka and the struggle between Islam and the West - EUROPP - European Politics and Policy (blog)

Milk Makeup Is Celebrating Its Anniversary With A New Campaign – NYLON

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Its hard to believe that its only been a year since cult-status Milk Makeup first burst onto the scene. A brand on the forefront of gender fluidity, self-expression, and inclusivity, they certainly breed more of a lifestyle than your average cosmetics brand.

In celebration of their very first birthday, Milk Makeup is introducing Live Your Look, a campaign that exudes the brands core values. Over the past year, its been amazing to see how truly broad our audience isfrom male to female, old to young, bare to full face. We gave a wide range of people the license to their own unique brand of confidence through their look, says co-founder and creative director, Georgie Greville. The common denominator between everyone is not one look or product, its a lifestyletheyre all unique and they all do what they want; they arent afraid to play.

Kicking off Live Your Look, which is all about embracing the journey to self-discovery, is an anthem video starring creatives such as mask-donning artist Leikeli47; influencer and Milk Makeup employee Chelsea March; and makeup artist, painter, and cat eye-loving mom Bethany McCarty. Each embodies Milk Makeups values, emanating self-expression while encouraging others to do the same.

Now, more than ever, its time to really appreciate that everyone is a part of the spectrum of individuality, says Greville on the importance of the campaigns message. There should be no rules for how you express the unique person you are, and were here to help you do thateven if its in a totally new way every day. We want to spread a movement of personal empowerment, equality, and freedom of self-expression. If the world felt as free and inclusive as a Milk Makeup party, we would be in a really good place.

The campaign coincides with the brands spring launchesincluding the must-have Blur Stick (which Greville dubs a game-changer, and we couldn't agree more)which are all available now at MilkMakeup.com, Sephora.com, and UrbanOutfitters.com.

Check out the Live Your Look video, below, and be sure to live your own looks and tag #LiveYourLook on Instagram. @MilkMakeup will be posting their favorites all year long.

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Milk Makeup Is Celebrating Its Anniversary With A New Campaign - NYLON

Bells University, New Horizons sign MoU On ICT empowerment for students – NIGERIAN TRIBUNE (press release) (blog)

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Bells University of Technology and New Horizons, the worlds largest international certification-oriented ICT and e-business training organisation, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost the employability and entrepreneurial chances of its graduates by formalising a Strategic Training Partnership.

At the MoU signing event at the university campus last week, the universitys Vice Chancellor, Professor Jeremiah Ojediran, expressed his excitement at the great opportunities which the programme will primarily accord the students irrespective of their academic disciplines and the relevant university staff members who will also enjoy periodic staff training.

Speaking, the Vice Chancellor reiterated that the seamless mandatory schedule will guarantee that every student of the university will undergo specialised international certification- based Professional IT and E Business Skills training and acquire a minimum of four International Professional Licences in lucrative technologies.

He reasoned that given the global economic challenges and the shrinking employment opportunities worldwide and in Nigeria especially, Bells University graduates would be able to use the extra internationally validated professional skills-set as the Icing Crown on their BSc and BA Academic Degree Cakes to become the toast of the employers for lucrative jobs as well as get opportunity to become self-employed as specialists and consultants in these globally hot skills and certification areas.

According to the VC, time is now ripe for Bells University to lead others to produce the next generation of the likes of Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mack Zuckerberg of Facebook and so on that will enable Nigerian graduates leverage the huge potentials in ICT to reposition Nigerian economy from an oil dependent nation to an ICT giant nations like, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and India that transformed their poor economies through ICT.

In the same vein, Ojediran appreciated the other two great benefits which the strategic partnership will bestow on the staff members in terms of the free ICT and E Business trainings that will boost their official and personal productivity and the second benefit of an annual financial awards/ prizes that will be won by three best published academic lecturers as the Companys CSR for promotion of healthy academic rivalry and excellence.

Speaking, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of New Horizons, Nigerian branch, Mr Tim Akano, commended the visionary management of the university for the partnership initiative. He restated the necessity for such strategic synergies between the academics and the Industry in this information Age, such that will aid the universities to regain and fulfil their traditional role of serving as the manufacturing/incubating house for production of future fully-baked graduates empowered with both academic excellence and ICT-driven professional competences for both the employment and self- employment industry.

Akano equally recapped that the programme will further serve to augment the Webometric ranking of the university, since the training infrastructure to be supplied by New Horizons including, branded 200 Computers, Smart interactive

Boards, networking, original high-end software, and top International Professional skills and Certifications like: Androids, Robotics, CISA, Oracle, Java Programming, Multimedia, Information Security, etcetera constitute variables that will boost the IT-driven stance of Bells University as part of the global ranking metrics.

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Bells University, New Horizons sign MoU On ICT empowerment for students - NIGERIAN TRIBUNE (press release) (blog)

Fire service receives funding to deliver ‘personal development … – Wiltshire Times

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Children take on the role of firefighters at a Salamander session

A NEW eight-week programme which will give children a glimpse of what its like to be a firefighter will begin in April.

Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service recently received funding of 5,000 from Westbury Area Board to deliver the Westbury Salamander programme, which will be open to children aged between 13-19 selected by the fire service.

Rob Guy, youth intervention manager for Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: The Salamander Project is a tailored personal development programme designed to promote empowerment in a positive environment to help build young peoples confidence and skills.

Working in partnership with Youth in Focus, street-based youth workers will work with local partners to target young people aged 13-19 in need of positive activities to build confidence, develop new skills or those who are in danger of engaging in risk taking behaviour.

We would like to thank Wiltshire Council, Westbury Area Board and the Local Youth Network Management group for their support in enabling us to provide positive activities for young people in the area.

At the sessions, held at Westbury Fire Station, children will undertake tasks including using fire hoses and investigating mock car crashes, learning why dangerous driving is a bad idea.

Salamander programmes have in the past been run as intensive five-day courses in other towns but this is the first time it will be delivered at weekly sessions.

At the end of the programme, participants will have a chance to demonstrate what they have learned to their family members at a passing out parade.

Contact Mr Guy on 07739 899293 if you need more information.

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Fire service receives funding to deliver 'personal development ... - Wiltshire Times

Katy Perry Dances Till the World Ends and MIA Starts a New Wave – New York Times

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New York Times
Katy Perry Dances Till the World Ends and MIA Starts a New Wave
New York Times
... while on the lines about how we use abandon to overlook the troubles of the world, she triples down on the vowel sounds, emphasizing feeling over content.) In the past, Ms. Perry has emphasized personal empowerment, but times are changing now ...
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Katy Perry Dances Till the World Ends and MIA Starts a New Wave - New York Times

Is Magic Leap Lying About Its Acid Trip Technology? – Vanity Fair

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Magic Leap C.E.O. Rony Abovitz.

By Brian Ach/Getty Images.

Despite raising more than $1 billion since its 2011 founding, augmented reality start-up Magic Leap still doesnt have much to show for itself. What the company promises, a concept called cinematic reality, described by C.E.O. Rony Abovitz as a combination of virtual reality and an acid trip, does sound magical. But unlike Microsofts virtual-reality headset, the Hololens, which is already available to developers for $3,000, Magic Leaps product is reportedly still years away from market. On Friday, Business Insider published a leaked photo of what appears to be a prototype of Magic Leaps technology, featuring a bulky backpack computer connected to a headset. The photo seemed to confirm an earlier report that Magic Leap is having a hard time shrinking down its technology to fit into a consumer-size device.

Magic Leap C.E.O. Rony Abovitz pushed back on the report over the weekend, explaining on his companys Web site that its technology is still in an early testing phase and promising fans that its eventual product will enable your digital and physical worlds to come together in a very personal, social, and magical way. The leaked photo, he claimed, did not show its prototype but rather a test rig used to collect spacial data for its machine learning.

Abovitzs explanation contradicts the report by Business Insider, whose source told the publication that the bulky, poorly constructed device shown in the leaked image was, in fact, the real wearable prototype, a more finished version of which would be shown to the Magic Leap board this week.

Magic Leap has long faced questions about its much-hyped technology and allegations that it has misled supporters and investors about its progress. Last year, former Magic Leap employees told The Information that Magic Leap had over-promised and would likely under-deliver. According to The Information, the technology behind Magic Leaps initial prototypenicknamed The Beast and described as a rectangular, shoulder-width box that people could look into and see computer-generated images projected over the real worldlikely wouldnt be used in whatever product the company releases commercially.

Not everyone is concerned that Magic Leap hasnt yet finalized its prototype, despite working on its device for about six years. Andreessen Horowitzs Benedict Evans, who says he has seen Magic Leaps technology, joined Abovitz on Twitter over the weekend to defend the start-up. There are a bunch of great people at great companies working on A.R., he tweeted. No one is shipping a final product yet. Evans, whose firm invested in Magic Leap during its Series B fund raise, also dismissed critics of Magic Leaps technology, and added that gloating about any negative news (real or fake) about a start-up is just as bad as uncritical praise. Maybe worse.

Andreessen Horowitz partner Kyle Russell also tweeted a picture of the iPhones prototype, to argue that even Apples flagship device appeared unsightly in the initial phases of its development process.

Unlike the iPhone, however, Magic Leap has been hyped for years by the tech press and by Magic Leaps own marketing team, without plans to launch any time soon. In 2015, the company published a marketing video on YouTube called Just Another Day in the Office, offering a mind-blowing, first-person demo to show off its tech. Magic Leap, which is valued at $4.5 billion, later conceded that its too-good-to-be-true video was just a collection of special effects, created by Weta Workshop, a team based in New Zealand. The video, former employees told The Information last year, was aspirational, and intended to mislead the public about the companys progress.

Sundar Pichai, Googles C.E.O., was born in Chennai, India, immigrating to the U.S. to attend Stanford in 1993.

Alphabet president and Google co-founder Sergey Brin was born in Moscow and lived in the Soviet Union until he was six, immigrating with his family to the United States in 1979.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, was born and raised in South Africa. He obtained Canadian citizenship in 1989 and briefly attended college at Queen's University in Ontario. He transferred to University of Pennsylvania, in part because such a move would allow him to get an H-1B visa and stay in the U.S. after college.

Safra Catz, who served as co-C.E.O. of Oracle, was born in Israel. She resigned from her executive role in December after joining Donald Trumps presidential transition team.

Trump supporter Peter Thiel, who has expressed support for the presidents executive action restricting immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries, is an immigrant himself. Before he co-founded PayPal and made one of the earliest large investments in Facebook, Thiel moved with his family from Germany, where he was born. In 2011, he also became a citizen of New Zealand, adding a third passport to his growing collection.

Born in Hyderabad, India, Microsoft C.E.O. Satya Nadella came to the U.S. to study computer science, joining Microsoft in 1992.

Garrett Camp helped co-found Uber. He was born in Alberta, Canada, and now resides in the Bay Area.

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Sundar Pichai, Googles C.E.O., was born in Chennai, India, immigrating to the U.S. to attend Stanford in 1993.

By Simon Dawson/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Alphabet president and Google co-founder Sergey Brin was born in Moscow and lived in the Soviet Union until he was six, immigrating with his family to the United States in 1979.

By FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, was born and raised in South Africa. He obtained Canadian citizenship in 1989 and briefly attended college at Queen's University in Ontario. He transferred to University of Pennsylvania, in part because such a move would allow him to get an H-1B visa and stay in the U.S. after college.

By Justin Chin/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Safra Catz, who served as co-C.E.O. of Oracle, was born in Israel. She resigned from her executive role in December after joining Donald Trumps presidential transition team.

By David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

The founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, was born in France to Iranian parents. He immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s.

By Ramin Talaie/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang moved from Taiwan to San Jose, California, in 1978, at the age of 10.

by Scott Olson/Getty Images.

Brothers John Collison and Patrick Collison, twenty-something college dropouts who emigrated from Ireland, co-founded Stripe, a $9.2 billion payments start-up.

By Jerome Favre/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Adam Neumann, raised on an Israeli kibbutz, moved to the U.S. in 2001, after briefly serving in the Israeli army as a navy doctor. Now hes the chief executive of the $16.9 billion New York-based WeWork, which sublets space to individuals and companies.

by Noam Galai/Getty Images.

The co-founder and C.E.O. of health insurance start-up Oscar, Mario Schlosser, came to the United States from Germany as an international student, receiving his M.B.A. from Harvard.

By Kholood Eid/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Trump supporter Peter Thiel, who has expressed support for the presidents executive action restricting immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries, is an immigrant himself. Before he co-founded PayPal and made one of the earliest large investments in Facebook, Thiel moved with his family from Germany, where he was born. In 2011, he also became a citizen of New Zealand, adding a third passport to his growing collection.

By Roger Askew/Rex/Shutterstock.

Born in Hyderabad, India, Microsoft C.E.O. Satya Nadella came to the U.S. to study computer science, joining Microsoft in 1992.

By Stephen Brashear/Getty Images.

Garrett Camp helped co-found Uber. He was born in Alberta, Canada, and now resides in the Bay Area.

By Justin Lane/EPA/Rex/Shutterstock.

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Is Magic Leap Lying About Its Acid Trip Technology? - Vanity Fair

Parents and technology How much is too much? – WGBA-TV

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GREEN BAY -

Nearly every person, even children have smart phones. Most of the time, experts talk about kids spending too much time on their phones, but what about parents?

As parents we've all been there and felt guilty after spending too much time on our phones while the kids are around.

But there are things you can do to break free from the technology and create a happier family life.

Emily Yonke and her husband are both teachers. They are parents to two little boys. They understand how difficult it can be juggling kids, work and technology. Emily said she spends about an hour a day on the phone, talking with family or on social media.

After a while with Harrison, I started to realize I was on it too much, said Emily.

She noticed times where she wasn't in the moment. Its a guilt many parents feel, her husband did as well.

Why aren't we talking and winding down together? Why is it winding down on your phone? said Emily.

And the Yonkes aren't alone.

You say okay, is it good that for an hour every night, I'm like this on my phone when I have my children around me doing homework, asking me questions, and I'm totally tuning them out, said Dr. Lynn Wagner, an Integrated Lifestyle Physician with BayCare Clinic.

Dr. Wagner says she sees it every day, even in her own life.

I'll put my phone in the trunk, or make a pact when I get home, Ill silence my phone and not look at it, said Dr. Wagner.

She uses Facebook for her business and is constantly checking email from patients.

Dr. Wagner said technology can actually become an addiction.

The first thing they do when they wake up is go through their Facebook or social media, and check their e-mails, said Dr. Wagner.

Using your phone, being on social media -- the comments, the likes -- it gives you a high.

If you're happier on technology on Facebook, or social media platforms than you are in your own life, it should just be an awakening for you that something needs to change in your life, said Dr. Wagner.

So as parents -- even grandparents -- adults in general, what do we do?

It's not going away so I think it's learning how to work with it and make it work for you, said Dr. Wagner.

She explains the first step is do not feel guilty, it's okay. Then, take a look at your habits and then structure your time. Start small. Set aside maybe 30 minutes in the morning 30 at night and dedicate that time to your phone. Otherwise, its out of sight, out of mind.

That's exactly what they Younkes did.

We put them back in the office area over there just to not have it as a distraction with the children around, said Emily.

They came up with the rule about a month ago. Every night after work, their phones go in a box in the office.

At first, Emily says it was difficult.

We both break the habit once in a while, she said.

But now, it's normal and makes their family happier.

Being able to watch them and realize, they're more entertaining than technology is, said Emily.

Exactly what Dr. Wagner talks about -- life is more than technology.

Human connection is so critical for health, for well being, for having a long happy life, said Dr. Wagner.

Jena Richter Landers, a Social Media Specialist at UW-Green Bay also gave us some tips to cut out some technology. She suggests doing things the old school way. Instead of using your phone as an alarm, start using an alarm clock. That'll stop you from looking at your phone first thing in the morning and getting sucked in right off the bat.

She also said use a grocery list, instead of the notepad in your phone. That will stop you from picking up the device so frequently.

You can also delete apps so you physically have to open them in a browser and youll be aware of the choices youre making.

Landers also said you can take disconnected breaks while on vacation.

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Apple’s Eddy Cue says technology companies have a responsibility to combat fake news – Recode

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Apples senior vice president of software and services, Eddy Cue, says that since most people are receiving their news online through devices, technology companies have a special responsibility to the people who depend on them to their receive news.

We wanted Apple News to be available to everyone, but we wanted to vet and be sure that the Apple News providers are legitimate, said Cue at the Code Media conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, Calif., this evening. Were very concerned about all the clickbait and how that's driving a lot of the news coverage.

All of us in technology and services own a responsibility for it. We dont have all the answers by any means. We need to work on it, Cue said.

On Friday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview that fake news is killing peoples minds and called for a a massive campaign with technology companies to get to work to start to fix it.

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Apple's Eddy Cue says technology companies have a responsibility to combat fake news - Recode

Valentine’s day: what’s your secret technology crush? – Naked Security

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Naked Security
Valentine's day: what's your secret technology crush?
Naked Security
Valentine's day is traditionally a time when you can act on your secret crushes and let them know how you feel about them. Anyone who cares about security and technology has an app or a platform or a programming language or something that might not be ...

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How dangerous is technology? – OUPblog (blog)

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Technological advances have provided immense improvements in our lives, but often with a hidden cost. Even the historic skills of bronze and iron working were driven by a desire not only for ploughs and tools, but for better weapons of war. This is still the case for much of modern science. Technical knowledge has helped to combat diseases, improve health, provide more food, offer faster travel, or ease hardship, and this is progress. We like novelty and innovation, but forget they happen at the limits of our understanding. We rarely see, or cannot predict, potential dangers. Innovation and knowledge are expanding at unprecedented rates, but we individually understand an ever-smaller percentage of the total.

The numbers of our daily exchanges of emails, phone calls, texts, photographs, and blogs was unimaginable just a few years ago. We receive them but ignore, delete, or forget them far faster than we did with hand-written letters and photographs. Technological progress means the life expectancy of stored data is rapidly shortening as our computer systems evolve and old data are incompatible with the modern storage and software technologies. We have photos of grandparents but do not expect electronic pictures to survive for our grandchildren. Stone carvings did not say much, but they exist.

Unexpected dangers lie in our reliance on computers and communications that are dependent on electrical power, optical fibre links, and satellites. Satellites are crucial for communications yet they have a finite life expectancy, and can fragment into thousands of high speed components that will destroy other satellites. This is a runaway situation, and current plans to improve data rates by doubling the number may mean satellite-based technology is doomed within a few decades. Failed satellites already contribute to a myriad of orbiting fragments, so further collisions are inevitable. Chunks as small as a mobile phone, at orbital speeds, can have kinetic energy 500 times greater than a military tank shell. Impacts are spectacular. Satellite technology may self-destruct; only the time scale is uncertain. Political, or terrorist, acts could rapidly remove satellites.

Such dangers are predictable, unlike natural phenomena such as sunspot emissions which strike the Earth. They make beautiful aurora in the night sky, but have destroyed power networks. We are vulnerable as we are totally dependent on electrical power, electronics, and satellites. Major solar emissions that intersect our Earths orbit are inevitable, and they can cause a total loss of power in advanced societies, including the destruction of satellites. The consequences are so horrendous that few people wish to consider them.

The tangible benefits of technological progress are wonderful, but are matched by irreversible damage to our global resources. To support almost eight billion people, our attempts to provide sufficient food are made with limited regard to the land or other creatures, and we have destroyed cultures and hundreds of languages. Crop yields and health care have advanced with the aid of drugs and chemicals but they are not, and cannot be, confined to their original locations. Food and water supplies are seriously contaminated with a cocktail of chemicals and drugs which no earlier civilization has ever experienced. Despite warnings and research, the potential for allergies, ill health, and mutagenic and fertility changes are ignored by the majority. Humans have always been concerned with the present, self-interest, and profit. This is why we have advanced. The difference now is that we have outgrown our potential resources.

Technologies isolate many people from society, especially the poor or elderly. Our dependence on computers offers an obvious example as the changing systems are expensive or too complex for such people. Instead of benefitting them, they are side-lined. Further, the technologies are invariably designed by, and for, the young, who cannot appreciate how age has reduced sight, sensitivity to pale colours in display contrast, or manual dexterity. Lack of understanding can equally increase vulnerability to computer scams on their data and money. Technology is spawning an exponential growth in cyber-crime. This is globally running at many billions of dollars per year, and steeply rising.

I am highlighting dangers of new technologies that are often unexpected and unforeseen. They are hidden by very positive aspects of new science, but are placing advanced civilizations in danger of a sudden and total collapse. My comments are not anti-technology, but are intended to raise awareness of our vulnerability to the dangers that exist. It is absolutely essential that we recognise this and actively make contingency planning to minimise undesirable consequences. There is urgency, otherwise advanced civilizations will crash within decades. Over exploitation of resources can be addressed if we have the political will. It needs governments with intelligence to recognise that there are natural disasters, such as the sunspot emissions, that are inevitable. These can strikeat any time, and we must have contingency measures in place.

Featured Image credit: Satellite by PIRO4D. CC0 Public Domain viaPixabay.

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Formula 1 now capable of ‘internet’ broadcasts with new technology – autosport.com

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Formula 1 is now capable of delivering broadcasts directly to internet users following tests carried out in 2016.

Work carried out by Tata Communications in conjunction with Formula One Management, which included a test run at last year's Singapore Grand Prix, has proved that the technology is now in place for 'Over the top' broadcasts, more commonly known as 'OTT'.

This would allow for F1 action to be broadcast direct to a viewer via the internet, rather than requiring access to a particular television channel, which has been F1's mode of delivery for decades.

Tata's managing director of F1 business, Mehul Kapadia, said a lot of effort has gone into removing the delay often associated with watching something live through an internet connection.

"One of the challenges that OTT has faced in the past is that what you see on your television versus what you see on your iPad or phone would not be synced up," he told Autosport.

"That was the one big technology challenge that we have worked on solving, and demonstrating that we can do it.

"This was something we ran at the Singapore race and I would say the technology is now there to do it."

However, F1 is unlikely to witness a quick shift to OTT as its main form of broadcast, with TV companies still paying high fees for exclusive rights.

Kapadia added: "OTT has a couple of answers needed from a commercial standpoint.

"It is a commercial challenge about whether sports franchises want to directly reach to consumers and then not have the scale that comes to them from broadcasters."

While new F1 owner Liberty Media is unlikely to be able to create a shift in the championship's TV model in the short term, Kapadia expects plenty of areas to improve for fans in terms of the viewing experience.

"Loads of opportunities are still there, and there are so many things that we can work on," he added.

"The entire digital transformation that is happening, whether it is the way we work or the way we look at the sport, or how we interact with the sport when you are at the race track or at the stadium.

"Whether you are watching football, F1 or cricket, the entertainment value is coming from being immersive and closer to the sport.

"While some part of that immersion has been solved by what sort of data you can get on your second screen, fundamentally your primary viewing experience, irrespective of the screen size, needs to give you more immersion, more choice in terms of how you want to view it, and a higher degree of what data points you now want to look at.

"We are looking at a 360-degree digital transformation that is going to happen, and all of it catering for fans."

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For Honor Review In Progress – GameSpot

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For Honor, Ubisoft's weapon-based combat game, has the makings of a brutal power fantasy. Its bleak, war-torn medieval world is populated by three of history's most iconic warrior classes: Knights, Vikings, and Samurai. Due to the focus on multiplayer, my time playing so far has been brief. The servers have only gone live recently, which has given me little chance to dive into everything For Honor has to offer. Fortunately, I've managed to complete the first of the game's three story mode chapters (in just under three hours). While there's still a lot more to play, what I've experienced so far has me excited to dive deeper into the subtle nuances of For Honor's distinct take on melee-action.

Rather than feel like a full-on single-player experience, For Honor's story mode comes across more like a tutorial for multiplayer. Each scenario acts as a means of introducing you to the game's various mechanics. For example, one stage presents the rules of the "capture the point"-inspired Dominion multiplayer match, while another acts as a tutorial to familiarize you with a faction's specific hero class. The function of story mode has made it an enriching undertaking so far, despite the hollow characterization of the ongoing storytelling that attempts to link each of the scenarios together.

While For Honor's story mode is straightforward, there is a multitude of engaging one-on-one battles to be had, even against AI. The ruthless combat system is by and large its standout feature, managing to be both elegant and simple, while displaying a level of nuance in the restraint it demands. Quick reflexes are needed to win, but victory also requires steady, deliberate movements and well-timed attacks. Button mashing drains your character's stamina, leaving you vulnerable to attacks. For Honor punishes recklessness, forcing you instead to follow its more measured pace.

The slow speed of combat can easily breed impatience at first, as it demands you to unpack years worth of habits that faster-paced melee-action games might have instilled in you. Coming out on top in a fight is more about patience and your ability to read a foe than the execution of brute force or button mashing. Even against an AI-controlled warrior, this level of patience and skill is paramount. I can only imagine how this all feels when put into practice against a human opponent, who also fully understands these tenets.

One-on-one battles are fun and challenging for the way they punish you for thoughtless play. But this heavily contrasts with fighting For Honor's AI minions, which frequently feel mundane; defeating them simply requires mindless swinging rather than the calculated execution of one-on-one combat. Fighting these "opponents" also proves middling due to the inability to lock onto them directly. More often than not you'll find yourself swinging your weapon wildly at the air rather than hitting them.

Despite these evident shortcomings, For Honor already has the workings of a well-made multiplayer fighting game. However, I still have a lot to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of each class, and how to exploit them in the heat of battle. So, for the next few days, I'll be fighting my way through the rest of its single-player campaign, and facing off against other combatants online once the servers are populated with more players.

Stay tuned for our full review in the near future, and in the meantime, check out our For Honor footage and features below.

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Sniper Elite 4 review in progress – PC Gamer

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Theres more than one way to kill a fascist. My favorite method in Sniper Elite 4 is pretty vanillaa bullet through the helmet from very far awaybut I also enjoy using the occasional explosive barrel or net full of cargo (dropped on a head). Once I filled a neighborhood with mines, fired my rifle into the air three times, and ran away. Any fascists who werent turned into mist walked into my scope. This is easily the best game in the Sniper Elite series.

Theres no voice in your ear telling you what to do: Youre on your own against a map full of AI soldiers.

I havent been able to try Sniper Elite 4s multiplayer yet, so Im not committing to a final review right now, but I suspect the co-op and competitive modes will only make me like it more. I have played most of the campaign as of now, and its really good. The WW2 story about Allied subterfuge in fascist Italy is routine war game stuffthough I do like that I get to team up with Italian partisans and the mobbut the yappy cutscenes dont intrude on hours of skulking through complex maps with a Springfield rifle and a pocket full of tripwire.

Each mission drops you into a large mapthink Battlefield size or a bit largerwith tons of enemy soldiers, multiple primary objectives, and several secondary objectives. Your main tools are: A) a set of binoculars to tag enemies with, B) a sniper rifle, C) an SMG and pistol, and D) medkits, mines, and as many satchel bombs as you need.

Theres no voice in your ear telling you what to do: Youre on your own against a map full of AI soldiers, who are thankfully an improvement over Sniper Elite 3s buggy Nazis. I havent encountered a single noticeable bug in SE4 yet, even in the pre-release review build I was provided.

It's a game with gruesome slow-mo x-ray shots of organs exploding, including brains and balls, so I wouldnt expect to find sleep darts.

The enemies are still simple-minded, though. Take a shot and theyll hear it and take cover. Take another shot or two from the same location and its on: they know where you are and theyll open fire. But they dont have great eyesight. Run away without being respotted (a red ghost image of yourself shows you where they think you are) and hide for a minute and theyll feebly search for you and eventually return to their routines. Classic videogame enemies: they witness you shoot the spleens out of a hundred of their friends and then go back to strolling around and mumbling.

If you wait for sound coverplanes overhead, artillery fire, or malfunctioning generatorsyou can ghost snipe. I once plopped down in a bush and spent 20 minutes killing soldiers on a bridge, using the explosions from a railway gun to mask my shots. I enjoy camping, though opportunities to have a nice lie down are rare. Sniper Elite 4 would rather you pack up and relocate often, but it does give you more opportunities to snipe quietly than Sniper Elite 3 did thanks to small supplies of suppressed ammo you can carry.

You can also sneak into objective sites and use melee takedowns and suppressed pistol kills, but stealth in SE4 isnt quite as fun and playful as it is in similar games, namely Metal Gear Solid 5. Sneaking is slow and the gadgets are straightforward: rocks to toss, a whistle, and explosives. The complexity maxes out at luring enemies to a spotwith a corpse, or an explosion, or a tossed rockand blowing them up or shooting them when they get there. There are no cardboard boxes or nonlethal options. Granted, it is a game with gruesome slow-mo x-ray shots of organs exploding, including brains and balls, so I wouldnt expect to find sleep darts.

I can't help but think of the Crypt Keeper whenever this happens.

I started having more fun after I stopped striving for stealth perfection. Instead of how can I sneak in here and take out my target silently, the game has become how can I kill every fascist on this map?

One tactic Im fond of is to take a shot to make some noise, then circle around the alerted soldiers and embarrass them, shooting the backs of their heads while they look the wrong way. Or Ill fully play it as an action game. On one big, green section of the Italian countryside, for example, I decided that a certain hill was mine, and disregarded stealth altogether. I ran to one side, then the other, and then back again for I-dont-know-how-long, killing every soldier who tried to climb the hill and root me out. After that, I strolled up to formerly locked down objectives, satisfied by the knowledge that everyone who used to be guarding them was in a heap at the bottom of a hill.

Sniping is as simple or difficult as you want it to be. You can remove ballistics all togetherbullets always go where the crosshairs meetor include gravity and wind in the equation. Even with those influences turned on, letting out your breath slows time and produces a big red box that shows you where your bullet will go, so its still not hard to hit an eyeball. Bump up the difficulty to Hardcore, however, and its up to you to judge distance and wind.

Using the guide removes most of the challenge to aiming (its probably different using a controller) while having no guide requires intimate familiarity with a rifles bullet velocity, and is something Id only attempt on a second playthrough. It does feel markedly better to sink a shot without such direct help, though, so I wish there were a middle ground. Maybe the red box fades away after a moment? Its a tough thing to solve. I also wish the custom difficulty settings were more granular. I haven't found a way to remove the guide without playing in Hardcore mode, which removes a bunch of other HUD elements, such as the minimap and ammo counter. It's possible I'm missing something, so I'll keep trying different settings, but it isn't obvious.

Getting good enough to play without any UI help takes practice.

Another minor annoyance: Sniper Elite 4 tends to autosave in the middle of fights rather than during safe moments, and I've ended up reloading into near-death situations. Thankfully its possible to manually save whenever you want, which becomes a necessary discipline. The weapon progression isnt great either. So far Ive had no incentive to try guns other than my starting Springfield, which has better stats than any of the other rifles I could unlock thanks to upgrades Ive earned by using it. And before the games even out, there are multiple greyed out rifles marked DLC, which is disheartening.

Sniper Elite 4 runs great, though. The big levels take seconds to load on my SSD, it supports ultrawide resolutions, and outside of tiny graphical glitches Ive noticed during cut scenes, it looks sharp. The animations and environments lack much in the way of charactermost of it is best described as World War 2 videogame artbut the Italian hills and villas are pretty, and on my old Nvidia GTX Titan it runs at a comfortable 60-80 fps at 2560x1080.

Theres still a lot for me to play withthe entire campaign can be played in co-op, plus theres a co-op survival mode and competitive multiplayer modesbut Id be happy with Sniper Elite 4 if it were just the solo campaign. It's out on Tuesday, and I'll have a full review after I've done some sniping with friends.

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Guilford Schools annual report shows mixed results on progress – Greensboro News & Record (blog)

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GREENSBORO Guilford County Schools has made measurable progress on many different fronts over the last three years but not much when it comes to increasing the overall percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced on end-of-grade or course tests.

On Monday, the administration released its annual report on the progress made toward strategic goals. Officials have been working toward the 2016 goals since 2013.

Among the highlights, the district:

The district is also hovering within striking distance of its 2016 goal of 90 percent of students graduating from high school in four years. The graduation rate is 89.4 percent a district record up from 86.2 in 2012-13.

However, the report showed the district made what it called good progress on only one of its 12 End of Course or End of Grade proficiency goals. Specifically, the percentage of students scoring at college- and career-ready levels on end-of-grade tests in fifth- and eighth-grade science.

Since 2013-14 thats increased from nearly 50 percent of students scoring at advanced levels to nearly 58 percent still short of the 61.6 percent goal the district wanted.

On another goal, the district came up short. Grade-level proficiency in third through eighth grade reading has stayed right around 52 percent for the last three years despite a goal of 66.5 percent.

Today, our schools fall on a spectrum, with some excelling beyond state and national standards and others still struggling, Contreras, the districts new leader, wrote in her introduction to the report.

Interestingly, district leaders did point to progress on end-of-year tests but by a different measure. Proficiency which the state stresses measures the percentage of students scoring at grade level or at college and career levels on end-of-grade tests. But tests can also measure how much schools increase individual students knowledge and capabilities in a given year.

Thats known as growth and theres currently a raging battle in education circles about the relative merits of proficiency versus growth.

By using growth as a measurement, though, the district is succeeding. According to the report, almost 83 percent of all schools met or exceeded their expected growth in 2016. Thats up from about 80 percent of schools in 2015. Its also above the state average of 73.6 percent.

Reached by phone Monday, Contreras said the state emphasizes proficiency over student growth in how it evaluates schools and districts. Thats not her preference. She thinks measuring how much progress schools make in educating each student is a fairer method.

However, 80 percent of a schools letter grade from the state comes from proficiency and 20 percent from student growth.

I disagree with that, she said.

Asked whether the district is likely to keep the same goals for EOC and EOG tests given that they werent met Contreras said its premature for her to say. Shell make decisions about the next round of goals in cooperation with the countys board of education.

She said she and other district leaders are proud of where progress has been made. In addition to academic measures like the number of students taking or passing a college course, she pointed to a major increase in the number of students earning a service-learning certificate for the work theyve done in high school.

The district also blew away a goal for decreasing out-of-school suspensions. The goal was to decrease suspensions by 10 percent from the 2011-12 school year to 2015-2016. Instead, the number decreased by about 22 percent.

Contact Jessie Pounds at (336) 373-7002 and follow @JessiePounds on Twitter.

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Guilford Schools annual report shows mixed results on progress - Greensboro News & Record (blog)

Ionis Earns $75M Milestone from Bayer for Progress of Antisense Drug Program – Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (press release)

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Ionis Pharmaceuticals will receive a $75 development milestone payment from Bayer, relating to the continued clinical development of the antisense drug IONIS-FXIRx and the start of a clinical program for a second antisense candidate, IONIS-FXI-LRx. Ionis says it plans to start a Phase IIb study with IONIS-FXIRX in patients with end-stage renal disease who are on hemodialysis. "We recently completed a Phase II study in patients with end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis, in which IONIS-FXIRxdemonstrated robust reductions in Factor XI activity and no treatment-related major bleeding, " stated B. Lynne Parshall, COO at Ionis Pharmaceuticals. The firm will also take IONIS-FXI-LRx through Phase I development. Under terms of the agreement with Bayer, once these studies have been carried out, and if Bayer decides to progress the programs, the German drugs giant will take over responsibility for all global development, regulatory, and commercialization activities for both drugs. Ionis will be eligible for development milestones, plus tiered royalties up to the high 20% range, on gross margins of both drugs combined.

IONIS-FXIRx and IONIS-FXI-LRx are antisense drugs designed to reduce the production of Factor XI. IONIS-FXI-LRx has been developed using Ioniss Ligand Conjugated Antisense (LICA) platform. We are pleased that Bayer has decided to expand our collaboration and initiate development of a LICA antisense drug targeting Factor XI," Parshall added. "Our LICA technology enables flexible, low, and infrequent doses and dose regimens, which may be preferred for a drug targeting broad indications."

Earlier this month Ionis earned a $5 million milestone payment from partner Biogen following the validation of a neurological disease target. Biogen and Ionis have a broad drug development collaboration in the field of neurological disorders. In December 2016, the FDA approved the firms' antisense drug SpinrazaTM for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy in pediatric and adult patients. During January of this year, Novartis agreed to a potentially $1B global option and collaboration agreement to develop the Ionis subsidiary Akcea Therapeutics's cardiovascular disease candidates AKCEA-APO(a)-LRx and AKCEA-APOCIII-LRx.

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Ionis Earns $75M Milestone from Bayer for Progress of Antisense Drug Program - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (press release)

Jeff Sessions’ appointment threatens decades of civil rights progress – The Hill (blog)

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For decades, the Department of Justice has been a key ally in protecting our most fundamental rights including voting rights, anti-discrimination protections, and due process.

As Attorney General Jeff SessionsJeff SessionsWith Flynn leaks, the White House shadow warriors draw first blood In civil liberties fight, never say never Chicago mayor visits White House to meet with Trump aides MORE takes the helm of the Justice Department, the civil rights community watches with great concern the impact his leadership will have on these very issues.

Prior to becoming attorney general, Jeff Sessions built a political career on staunch opposition to immigration reform, voting rights, LGBT protections, and womens rights. Sessions' views are clearly consistent with the anti-immigrant Trump movement, and he now has one of the most powerful platforms to make his vision a reality.

If the last twenty years in the Senate are any indication of how Sessions will run the Justice Department, the results for civil rights could be disastrous. Just within the last month of the Trump presidency, we have seen the administration target immigrant communities in an unprecedented way.

President Trumps executive orders on immigration have put a religious litmus test on immigrants from parts of the Muslim world, and his threat to punish sanctuary cities is an effort to dismantle the trust between the immigrant community and local law enforcement.

Given the attorney general often has a broad mandate over how the law is enforced, Sessions could begin to push his draconian vision of immigration reform to courtrooms and law enforcement agencies across the country.

Armed with President Trumps executive order that ramps up immigration enforcement and targets municipalities that refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sessions already has the legal mechanisms in place to destroy the way of life for undocumented immigrants currently living in the country.

Specifically, Attorney General Sessions may attempt to take legal action against sanctuary cities in an effort to force them to effectively serve as immigration agents. Civil rights advocates are concerned that he will attempt to control immigration courts by limiting access to legal counsel programs and accelerating the immigration court backlog, which would dramatically increase the number of deportations.

If that happens, immigrant families will be torn apart and the good faith relationship that presently exists between immigrants and law enforcement will be finished, making our communities less safe.

The immigration raids that began last week across the country are the latest example in this administrations aggressive enforcement tactics.

From California to Georgia, hundreds of immigrants were detained.

Although the Trump administration has spoken of targeting only criminal immigrants, many of those apprehended were hardworking individuals who were here providing for their families. These immigrants may be some of the first victims of the Trump administration, and with Attorney General Sessions in charge of the enforcement of the law; we can expect things to get much worse.

Civil rights organizations like LULAC have stood against such anti-American policies in the past and we will continue to do so.

In fact, LULAC pledges to work with all civil rights organizations in an effort to call attention to the Trump administration's unlawful actions and make every effort to protect minority communities.

Brent Wilkes is the executive director of the League of Latin American Citizens, which advocates for the political, economic and educational rights of Hispanic Americas. Follow him on Twitter@BrentWilkes. Follow LULAC on Twitter @LULAC

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Jeff Sessions' appointment threatens decades of civil rights progress - The Hill (blog)

Russian Lawmaker Says Jews Once ‘Boiled Us In Cauldrons’ – Forward

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(JTA) A Russian lawmaker in President Vladimir Putins party said the ancestors of two Jewish opposition politicianshad killed Christians.

Christians survived despite the fact that the ancestors of Boris Vishnevsky and Maksim Reznik boiled us in cauldrons and fed us to animals, Vitaly Milonov said Sunday, according to Agence France-Presse.

Jewish groups and leaders condemned Milonovs statement.

For a State Duma deputy, it is unacceptable to make such irresponsible statements, said Rabbi Boruch Gorin, the spokesman fortheFederation of Jewish Communities of Russia,AFP reported.

The president of the Russian Jewish Congress told AFP thatit wasclear to any normal person that these lawmakers are of Jewish descent and that he means Jews.

The National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, an American nonprofit advocating for Jews in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, urged the Russian government to condemn the remarks.

Milonovs rhetoric invokes dangerous anti-Semitic hatred that has historically been used to justify widespread violence against Jews in Russia, the group said Monday in a statement. NCSEJ urges Russias local and national government to repudiate Milonovs remarks and make clear that he does not speak for the government of Russia or the Russian people.

In 2014, Milonov made statements suggesting that Jews killed Jesus.

They vilify any saint, it is in their tradition of 2,000 years, beginning with the appeals to crucify the Savior, ending with accusations of anti-Semitism against St. John of Kronstadt, Milonov said during a speech before the citys legislative council.

Milonov was advocating a bill to declare June 14 a municipal holiday in honor of John of Kronstadt, a 19th-century leader of the Orthodox Russian Church. His legacy remains controversial because of his membership in the Black Hundred, an ultranationalist and declaredly anti-Semitic movement that supported pogroms against Jews.

But Milonov said such criticism was based on complete lies, a modern neo-liberal fable with a sulfuric, deep history of Satanism.

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Russian Lawmaker Says Jews Once 'Boiled Us In Cauldrons' - Forward

Barnaby Joyce condemns WA Liberals’ preference deal with One Nation – Warrnambool Standard

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13 Feb 2017, 1:04 p.m.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has condemned the Western Australian Liberal Party's unprecedented decision to preference One Nation ahead of the Nationals at the upcoming state election, a deal that has been defended by Mr Joyce's federal Liberal partners.

Prime Minister and Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull with Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop. Photo: Andrew Meares

Trade Minister Steven Ciobo has defended One Nation's record defending the government, while Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has warned the deal could cost the Liberal Party government in WA. Photo: Andrew Meares

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has condemned the Western Australian Liberal Party's unprecedented decision to preference One Nation ahead of the Nationals at the upcoming state election, a deal that is splitting opinion in the federal Coalition ranks.

Striking a different note to Liberal colleagues, former prime minister Tony Abbott agreed with the argument that One Nation leader Pauline Hanson was a "better person" today than when she was previously in Parliament but said the Nationals should be preferenced above all other parties.

While Mr Joyce described the deal as "disappointing", cabinet colleague and Trade Minister Steve Ciobosaidthe Liberal Party should put itself in the best position to govern and talked up Ms Hanson's right-wing populist party as displaying a "certain amount of economic rationalism" and support for government policy.

Mr Joyce said the conclusion "that the next best people to govern Western Australia after the Liberal Party are One Nation" needed to be reconsideredand the most successful governments in Australia were ones based on partnerships between the Liberals and Nationals.

"When you step away from that, there's one thing you can absolutely be assured of is that we are going to be in opposition," he told reporterson Monday morning.

"[WA Premier] Colin Barnett has been around thepoliticalgame a long while and he should seriously consider whether he thinks that this is a good idea or whether he's flirting with a concept that would put his own side and Liberal colleagues in opposition."

The deal will see Liberals preference One Nation above the Nationals in the upper house country regions in return for the party's support in all lower house seats at the March 11 election.

The alliance between the more independent WA branch of the Nationals and the Liberals is reportedly at breaking point over the deal, which could cost the smaller rural party a handful of seats.

"Pauline Hanson is a different and, I would say, better person today than she was 20 years ago. Certainly she's got a more, I think, nuanced approach to politics today," Mr Abbott told Sydney radio station 2GB.

"It's not up to me to decide where preference should go but, if it was, I'd certainly be putting One Nation ahead of Labor and I'd be putting the National Party ahead of everyone. Because the National Party are our Coalition partnersin Canberra and in most states and they are our alliance partners in Western Australia."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declined to criticise the deal, stating that preference deals in the state election were a matter for the relevant division who "have got make their judgment based on their assessment of their electoral priorities".

Mr Ciobo joined the Prime Minister and other federal Liberal colleagues in defending the WA division's right to make its own decisions.

"What we've got to do is make decisions that put us in the best possible position to govern," he told ABC radio of the motivations of his own branch in Queensland.

After Industry Minister Arthur Sinodinos called the modern One Nation more "sophisticated" now, Mr Ciobo also praised the resurgent party.

"If you look at, for example, how Pauline Hanson's gone about putting her support in the Senate, you'll see that she's often voting in favour of government legislation.There's a certain amount of economic rationalism, a certain amount of approach that's reflective of what it is we are trying to do to govern Australia in a fiscally responsible way.One Nation has certainly signed up to that much more than Labor."

When in government, former Liberal prime minister John Howard declared that One Nation would always be put last on how-to-vote cards.

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Barnaby Joyce condemns WA Liberals' preference deal with One Nation - Warrnambool Standard