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So I was invited to attend the EU Fan Day in Brighton earlier this week and as part of the activities, we had a teleconference Q and A session with a few of the ArenaNet team. We got an hour to ask questions which turned out to be about 1 from every fansite in attendance. There's quite a variety of questions and some juicy answers too! Because it takes quite a while to transcribe something of this length, part of the Q and A is here and the other part can be found over at GuildMag.
Attendees from ArenaNet were Eric Flannum (Lead Game Designer), Colin Johanson (Lead Content Designer), Ree Soesbee (Writer and Lore & Continuity Designer), Kristen Perry (Character Artist) and Josh Petrie (Tools Developer). Regina Buenaobra was also there live tweeting. As I don't know everyone's tags and it feels wrong to post real names on the internet, I've sourced questions according to the fansite. If I get permission later to release the audio I recorded, I will do so. Note that I have tried to be as accurate as possible without including all the "erms" and "ums", but there may be some inaccuracies. Also the audio was unclear at some points – I've indicated where that has occurred.
Nerdy Bookahs: How does the overflow shard work? We know we can play PvE, but can we play structured PvP while we're on the overflow shard and can we join structured PvP matches with friends who are on other servers?
Eric Flannum: So I guess I can take that. Yes you can join structured PvP when you are on the overflow server. People who are on other servers, the matchmaking in structured PvP are between different servers so you will be able to play with people from different servers.
Attached to Keyboard: What is the biggest challenge that you've had to face to get the game to its current stage, either programming or just trying to decide what it is that you want to make out of Guild Wars 2?
Josh Petrie: From a programming perspective at this point in the game the biggest challenge we have is optimising everything, making sure it's all going to run as fast as we can get it on all the hardware we're going to run it on.
Kristen Perry: From an art point of view its sort of the same thing we've been doing all along just making sure everything is as polished and as awesome as we can get it in the time we have going on.
Eric Flannum: I guess design wise balance is kind of the optimisation for us. You know working on creature balance, skill balance, making sure that all the various numbers that we have in the game work actually together and everything is exactly right. That's always tricky and takes a while, but I think is often the difference between an ok game and a great game.
Ree Soesbee: From a story perspective we now have thousands and thousands and thousands of lines of text in the game written by lots of different people in the company from events to story, dungeons to everything else, and making sure that they've all said the same lore can be very difficult because someone will make a small point about a hylek in one map that absolutely has to be carried over everywhere else or it doesn't make any sense and we have to find that tiny little assumption that somebody made and make sure it's even throughout the game.
GW2NL: What mechanics do you consider unfinished and will be developed further in the future?
EF: I think just about every feature is eligible to be worked on depending on feedback that we get. So even if there's something we think is perfect, it's completely done, if when the game releases we then realise "oh ok well that thing's not as great as we thought it was" we'll absolutely work on it. We have a fairly sizable live team that we're going to dedicate to creating all kinds of stuff after the game ships. One of those teams is kinda just an R & D team to come up with cool new things and to fix things that aren't as good as they could be. You can expect to see a lot of additions and refinements and all kind of things after the game ships.
GuildMag: Can you tell us anything about the upcoming PvP maps and specifically the underwater PvP map?
EF: Upcoming PvP maps, I think we released a screenshot that showed a little bit of one the other day with the guardians and the warrior, both with hammers. So we've for 2 more PvP maps that we haven't revealed yet, they're both capture point, one of them… I don't want to totally give them away 'cos I think we're planning on revealing them. One of them is actually going to be pretty nostalgic for GW1 players so you can expect that to be something that has a lot of familiar elements for GW1 players and the second one actually is a pretty cool one that has a lot of underwater combat and involves a pirate ship so those are both pretty cool and we'll be talking more about those I think pretty soon.
CJ: Guild Wars 1 players are going to be pretty excited I think.
GWOnline/OnlineWelten: Most achievements in an MMOG at least in people's interests, translate directly into time spent in game. At the same time these achievements have some kind of social value to them. People like to compare their characters, dungeon runs etc. How will micro transactions affect the social dimensions of MMORPG and game play?
EF: Some of the items in the shop that you guys have seen are basically things that can kind of circumvent a bit of time spent in the game and our achievements, if you go back and look at them, are a combination of things that take time as well, but there are also lots of things, I think even the majority of things, that don't really take time and can't really be effected by cash shop things. So achievements like killing other player in WvW or for PvP, or achievements for things like finishing dungeons or doing things like that, most of those things really can't be circumvented or rushed along by using micro transaction and then we've got kind of just the way that our achievement score works, it's kind of just an aggregate score and so there's no real top limit to it. So when you're comparing with your friends, you kind of just have this one achievement score that you're comparing. I don't think micro transaction, it will have some affect on it, but it won't be the major determining factor in whether someone has a super high achievement score or not.
CJ: Some of those things too that you show off in game as achievements of stuff that earned, So like if you do explorable dungeons and collect the rare armor sets or rare weapons that come from that dungeon, those are things where you can't take those items and trade them around with everyone. They're bound to your character for completing that stuff, so it's a sense of this is your ability to show off to everybody else "I did this" and people can't get those abilities from the cash shop. Those are purely things that people playing the game, who are skilled enough to beat the dungeons can earn them and that's the only way to get them. We think that's really important too is things like that are achievements that allow you to show off to everybody. Those will stay limited to people who can earn them and the amount you spend will have no effect on those.
DragonSeason: What is your number one thing you are worried might just go wrong?
(Everyone laughs)
KP: There's always something to go worry about, it's just preparing and making sure everything doesn't go wrong.
RS: Yeah if we thought of something that we're scared will go wrong, we've been trying to address it.
Everyone: Yeah
EF: The big thing is something always goes wrong, I think we learnt that from our previous game releases, so the big thing is to be ready for when that happens and be able to respond to it. But I mean, if there were anything that er, I mean the sort of the "I'm pretty sure this isn't gonna happen" but you always worry about some progression stopping bug getting through right, like I think we had that with Nightfall where something snuck through, but with a game as big as Guild Wars 2 is, I think you always worry about the you know how can we have possible seen everything that could possibly happen with it. We worry about that. But the big thing is we're always ready to respond to that. We know that the day we release is not the end day; it's kind of the beginning. We always have the mindset of we're ready to respond immediately.
KP: Yeah especially if there's ever a wardrobe malfunction I need to be on that.
CJ: My biggest fear is that the day the game comes out people will forget to eat and sleep. That is very important. Please remember to sleep and eat. We don't want to lose any of our community!
KP: Well look at it that way too, that the hallucinations from sleep deprivation will be some added special effects!
Wartower: I'm a big fan of raiding and I was very happy to hear an attrition mechanic so ultimately players are going to go game over and turn around. But what I didn't like was the addition of a micro transaction that could circumvent this attrition. Do you have any plans for the raiding community to lock that item out of final group raiding?
CJ: That item is actually not usable in dungeons. It is not usable in the high level raiding type stuff.
Gaming-insight.de: I'm really interested in craftable items compared to normal loot you get from dungeons concerning the end game and raid content. How important will it be to rely on craftables and how much do I need my dungeon loot?
EF: Our basic philosophy on all of that is that the base power level that you need to get to in order to do things, is attainable multiple ways, its attainable in whatever way you most enjoy playing the game. So those items will be available to WvW players, I can get those items in WvW. If I'm a dungeon player and all I want to do is play dungeons then I can get sort of to that power level by playing dungeons. If I'm a player who really enjoys crafting and really enjoys being out in the open world, I can get those items by either crafting or through drops or like that. In a lot of game there's sort of a power tier that's reserved for a particular type of content and then what happens is that content suddenly becomes the end game of the game, it becomes the thing you have to do because it's the only way to get that power. And so what we did is spread that power out, throughout all the different types of content so you shouldn't feel like you have to do dungeons or that you have to do WvW or that you have to do this.
A big part of Guild Wars 2 is all about playing the game the way you want to play. And as Colin mentioned before, if I get that tier of items by playing dungeons those items will have a certain appearance and the only way to get that appearance is by having attained those items through dungeons. The same goes for crafting, there's a certain look to the super high level crafted items that you can only get by crafting the item. There's a certain look, there's a WvW armor set that you can only get through playing WvW. And so that high end reward thing, appearance is really the thing, but as far as power goes, you can get power by doing any part of the game.
Guild Wars 2 Fan Blog: I wanted to ask you a question about Martin Kerstein's blog post about building community. Recently he wrote that you will be opening new forums, the official ones, and I wanted to ask what kind of a shift does it mean for your community policy. I mean your community managers were often present on different fan forums like Guild Wars Guru, does it mean they will be coming back to the official forums and they won't be appearing on community forums? When will the forums officially be launched and will they be available only in English or will there be sub forums in other languages?
Regina: I guess that's my question. In terms of what it means for the community, it means that we will be participating on the official forums but we don't think that it means that the fan sites will die out as some people have been predicting. The thing is that a lot of people enjoy having the freedom and being able to speak their mind. They don't want to be moderated by "the man" which can happen on official forums and our community philosophy is that is that we want to have a welcoming and friendly community with productive discussion and we will moderate to that effect. And it does mean that we might not have as much time to communicate on different fan forums, but that doesn't mean we won't still be reading and that we won't still be watching. In terms of supported languages the forums will be in languages that we have community managers for, so the main languages for the game.
CJ: Wherever you post we're always watching!
Regina: Even if we don't post, we're reading.
Guild Wars 2 Spain: (audio unclear) What you can tell us about Ebonhawke?
RS: Ebonhawke is the last real bastion of the Ascalon resistance, the Ebon Vanguard. They're being assisted by the queen of Kryta who has sent seraph, who have an Asura Gate in Divinity's Reach through which she sends supplies to make sure they're provided for against the charr. They've been holding out for a very long time right now and they're on the edge of a treaty with the charr. If that goes through Ebonhawke's position will probably be a lot more stable but as it is they are sort of losing the battle against the charr in Ascalon. The charr have had Ascalon now for a very long time and have pretty well kept the line against the humans; the humans have resorted to guerrilla tactics to try to keep the charr off balance. But they just don't have the forces to commit to taking any part of Ascalon back, they can only really keep the fortress.
A lot of people in Ebonhawke feel that if the Queen would give them more support, more troops they might be able to take part of Ebonhawke back, so there's a certain amount of friction there. There's also friction in the fact that the people holding Ebonhawke tend to be the descendants of Ascalon, the descendants of King Adelbern and so forth, and the Queen of Kryta sort of rules them right now and they feel like they should be an independant country but they're trapped in the position where they have to rely on Kryta so they can't really be independent. They're hoping that if they can work this through, then they can once again have their own leadership, their own king.
Guild Mag Spain: My question is focussed on the lore in Guild Wars 2. In the game how will we be able to explore the lore of the early Tyria?
RS: There are a lot of ways that we get lore across to the player. One is in the personal story where your character actually goes investigates the Durmand Priory which is very big on finding out ancient lore finding anything that was left by the (not clear, lords possibly?) in particular hopefully to fight the dragons with, but you can follow a story chain, you can make choices that will give you more information on that if that's what you're interested in.
Throughout the rest of the game we've also got places you can go find, people you can interact with, locations you can recognise from Guild Wars 1 and some that are even older than Guild Wars 1. When you go to Orr you're going to get a lot of information going back and forth from place to place about how that country operated, how the people there lived and that will give you a lot of very initial information on the humans in Tyria.
CJ: There's a lot of unanswered questions from Guild Wars 1 that the answers are scattered all throughout Guild Wars 2 as well, so there's lot of great Easter Eggs for people who love Guild Wars 1 lore. And we tried to give all the lore of the world in there so people who have never played Guild Wars 1 can actually understand the story and understand the history without having to go back and play GW1. You're going to learn all that by just playing Guild Wars 2.
RS: By playing Guild wars 2 we want you to love Tyria, and if you love Tyria then this past information, this historical egg, stuff in the background is going to be important to you as well.
Guild Wars 2 Spain: Will the game be made available with Spanish voice acting as well as text at some point in the future?
KP: I don't think we're sure about that.
EF: I think that's something that we're continuing to investigate, I'm not sure we actually know about that. Sorry.
CJ: The people who can answer that are not sitting in this room.
Mediavida: In our community, everybody plays a lot of games especially esports like for example League of Legends our mates are very interested if you're likely to orient your PvP into an esport in a more competitive way, organising tournaments etc.
EF: We would definitely like our PvP to become an esport. I think there are a lot of things you have to do to support that. The first thing you have to do is come out with a game that is sort of broadly appealing that can bring in a big PvP audience and keep those players playing it. So that's kind of the thing that we've been concentrating on the most, is trying to make the PvP game that is really accessible that people that can kind of get into and really play and has a lot of ability to really master it. I think once we do that then you have to kind of come in with that second tier of support like observer mode and being able to watch matches and having tournaments and having support for all of that. So it's fully our intent to support the game as an esport and right now we're concentrating on releasing a broadly appealing accessible and fun to watch form of PvP and that's kind of our concentration at the moment to do that, but we definitely look at our competitive PvP as an esport.
Mmorpgmania.it/gw2italia.it: We had a chance to try the game and noticed that the side kicking system didn't work inside instances. We were wondering if you are going to confirm this or if in the future or in the release there is a side kicking system inside instances or dungeons?
CJ: There is side kicking in all of dungeons in the game. Each dungeon whether it is a story dungeon or an explorable dungeon has a correlated level that your character gets side kicked down to if you are over the level of the dungeon, but we do not sidekick you up to the level of the dungeon. So to do any of the dungeons in the game you need to get be high enough level to participate in it and then if you go over level for it, we'll side kick you down to keep it challenging and fun for you. So for example the Ascalon Catacombs story dungeon is a level 30 and if you get up to say, level 38 we'll side kick you down to the level of the dungeon so you can keep playing it with everyone and have it be fun and challenging for you.
EF: One thing to note is that, earlier we talked about how we were going allow players to sidekick up in level we actually don't have that functionality in the game and the reason we don't have it is because when we were going through the game we thought one of the really important moments in the game was kind of that moment where you ran into something and you weren't quite powerful enough to overcome it, or skilled enough to overcome it, and we wanted to give people the ability to kind of be able to build their character in such a way that you could by those moments instead of just bypassing them by getting artificially side kicked up a level. And so we don't have side kicking up anymore in the game anymore except for in WvW. So if you want to think of how our dynamic level adjustment works is that it automatically happens downwards in PvE and automatically happens upwards in WvW. And competitive PvP obviously you get set to equal level everybody. So that's kind of how that works now.
You can read the other half of the Q and A session on GuildMag
22 Responses to "EU Fan Day Q & A session"
[…] now, please enjoy reading this transcription of the whole Video Q&A and be sure to head over to Attached To Keyboard where Tasha Darke has transcribed the other half of the […]
[…] Part 1 of the interview(Thank you, Tasha Darke for transcribing this.) […]
[…] [Attached To Keyboard] EU Fan Day Q & A session […]
[…] and Dutch Sunshine have just posted the transcription of the interview. You can find the first part on her blog and the second one on […]
[…] and Dutch Sunshine have just posted the transcription of the interview. You can find the first part on her blog and the second one on […]
Nice work tasha!
[…] fan sites have posted more in-depth versions of the questions and answers. You can check them out here and here. $j = jQuery.noConflict(); $j(document).ready(function() {$j("#rps […]
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[…] literally have said bupkiss about it until the EU fanday that took place recently. Thanks to Tasha for the transcript. One thing to note is that, earlier we talked about how we were going allow […]
"One is in the personal story where your character actually goes investigates the Durmand Priory which is very big on finding out ancient lore finding anything that was left by the (not clear, lords possibly?) in particular hopefully to fight the dragons with,"
My proverbial money would be on that being "dwarves". They're the ones where all of the ancient lore on the dragons has come from previously. 😛
[…] posted a transcription of the Q & A session, and Tasha Darke of Attached to Keyboard posted the first half of that Q & A as well. The first half at ATK is more lore and raid/character focused, whereas the Guildmag […]
Good Job!!
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[…] ganze Q&A könnt ihr zum Beispiel hier oder hier […]
[…] EU Fanday Q&A Transcription. "Like we have stated in an earlier blogpost, we would be getting a Q&A sessions with the developers over at ArenaNet. While I had hoped to get more of your questions answered, I think that all the questions together are sufficient enough for now. I have to note though, that I'll be having a follow up interview to have more of your questions answered in the near future. For now, please enjoy reading this transcription of the whole Video Q&A and be sure to head over to Attached To Keyboard where Tasha Darke has transcribed the other half of the Q&A!" […]
guild wars 2 – mmorpg…
[…]Attached To Keyboard » EU Fan Day Q & A session[…]…
[…] des Entwicklerchats Teil 1 bei Attached To Keyboard und Teil 2 bei […]
[…] GuildMag/Attached to Keyboard: EU Fanday transcription. The two fanday participants collaborated on transcribing the EU Fanday Q&A session for the rest of us to read. Lots of good info! (Forum Discussion) […]
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Which Side Was Rabelais On?
The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century: The Religion of Rabelais
The original version of this book was first published in 1942 (there were reprints in 1947 and 1962). It was primarily a polemical work directed against the interpretation of Rabelais as a militant anti-Christian atheist that had been put forward by Abel Lefranc in his introduction to Pantagruel in 1922. There is therefore some need to justify the publication of an English translation of a French book published forty years ago, and dealing mainly with French literature, that is directed against a view of Rabelais sixty years old and, one would have hoped, now completely obsolete. I think this publication can, however, be justified, for the following reasons.
Although roughly half the book is devoted to a demolition, detailed and thorough, of Lefranc's view of Rabelais, Febvre's aim was far wider than this: namely, to demonstrate the wrongness and folly of anachronistically reading back into the sixteenth century opinions and attitudes that only became possible after the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment, such as the rejection of any kind of Christianity and of all supernatural phenomena.
Now it is very doubtful whether this kind of anachronism is today quite obsolete. As recently as 1957 Henri Busson published a revised edition of his Les Sources et le développement du rationalisme dans la littérature française de la Renaissance – (1533-1601) (The Origins and Development of Rationalism in French Literature of the Renaissance), also dating from 1922. In his foreword about Febvre's general attack on anachronistic history he writes bitterly: "Sans aucune vanité, mais avec fermeté, nous dirons que l'on est étonné que dans les deux cents pages consacrées par M.L. Febvre à cette question, notre étude sur le Rationalisme du XVIe siècle non seulement n'est pas réfutée, mais qu'elle n'y est pas même citée une seule fois" (With no vanity, but with firmness, we will say that it is astonishing that in the two hundred pages devoted by M.L. Febvre to this question, our study on rationalism in the sixteenth century not only is not refuted, but is not even cited once).
In fact Febvre cites Busson's large thesis at least five times (pages 15, 53, 207, 232, 233). But it is true that he does not refute it, except by implication. This is a pity, since Busson was a very erudite, if somewhat misguided, scholar, and his book contains not a few genuine counter-instances to Febvre's general thesis that radically anti-Christian opinions were impossible, literally "unthinkable," in the sixteenth century.
Such opinions were unthinkable, Febvre argues, because there were no non-Christian philosophical systems available to provide the terms in which anti-Christian ideas could be thought or expressed. Like all negative historical arguments, this thesis is very fragile and vulnerable; we never know enough about any period in history to be able safely to make negative universal statements. In fact, Febvre soon refuted his own thesis by publishing in 1942 a study of the Cymbalum Mundi, an anonymous work of 1537 which Febvre took to be radically anti-Christian. In this study,…
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Prof. Francis Boyle: Israel Is Committing Genocide
Michele Steinberg
Published: Wed 3 Feb 2010 01:22 PM
Prof. Francis Boyle: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza by Michele Steinberg
Jan. 27--``What we're seeing in Gaza now, is pretty much slow-motion genocide against the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in Gaza.... If you read the 1948 Genocide Convention, it clearly says that one instance of genocide is the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a people in whole or in part,'' stated Francis A. Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois in Champaign. ``And that's exactly what has been done to Gaza, since the imposition of the blockade by Israel; then the massacre of 1,400 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were civilians, in Operation Cast Lead. And that also raises the element in the Genocide Convention, of murder, torture, and things of that nature.''
Boyle spoke to {EIR} on Jan. 15, 2010, giving his assessment of Gaza, one year after the Israeli attacks. He stressed that he was speaking only for himself.
While the Israelis stopped the artillery bombardment and air strikes just before the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009, the deaths of Palestinians continue--from lack of medicines, infrastructure, clean water, and everything else that the world community--as shown in emergency aid to Haiti--{knows} is necessary to sustain human life.
But no international action has been taken to stop genocide in Gaza--despite the finding by the UN's Goldstone Report that Israel committed war crimes in the wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure, and in the killing of civilians, and despite the Jan. 21, 2010 letter by more than 50 members of the U.S. Congress to President Obama that due to ``the unabated suffering of Gazan civilians,'' he must press to end the Israeli blockade.
Similarly, according to Turkish Prof. Bulent Aras, there is almost no hope for a peace agreement, or for ending the growing isolation of Israel from the international community, unless Gaza is opened and reconstruction begins. Aras was speaking on a Jan. 14 conference call, sponsored by the Turkish SETA and New America Foundations in Washington, D.C. He was addressing the recent tensions between Israel and Turkey after the Israeli Foreign Ministry insulted the Turkish ambassador, and on the collapse of the Turkish-mediated Israel/Syria negotiations, which ended with the Israeli attacks on Gaza.
According to Boyle, the question of the Gaza opening must be immediately taken up by the Obama Administration. ``We need all the openings to Gaza, the crossings from Egypt and Israel, opened immediately. {Massive} provision of humanitarian assistance, medical supplies to Gaza--exactly what Obama's doing today, with respect to Haiti--I support that! But why aren't they doing it to Gaza? You have 1.5 million people over there.
``Unless this step is undertaken, certainly on Gaza, relieving the people of Gaza with massive humanitarian relief supplies, I really think we're going to see a dog-and-pony show,'' being run by the Obama White House, and the sending of Sen. George Mitchell to the region.
So far, what the U.S. has done is, ``once again, provid[ed] diplomatic cover for Israel to stall and delay its objectives, and meanwhile, they continue to steal Palestinian lands, destroy their orchards, destroy their olive fields, and build more settlements. This has been going on, right from the beginning of the Middle East peace negotiations in 1991, when I was legal advisor to the Palestinians and the Syrians at that time.''
But, ``miracles can always happen: Look at the darkest days of the apartheid regime in South Africa, and all of that collapsed,'' said Boyle. ``Well, here we have another apartheid regime, Israel. It's apartheid to its core, it always has been. This whole situation could turn around and collapse very quickly--I just don't know. But I'll hang in there, certainly, with the Palestinians.''
And recent events in the field of international law lead Boyle to say that, as in the case of Chilean fascist Pinochet, law may catch up with Israeli criminals.
- No Immunity Under Nuremberg Codes -
Few international figures can speak in as much detail about the decades-long fight against Israeli war crimes, and the political blocks to prosecuting them, than Professor Boyle, who has led successful campaigns at the United Nations to bring war criminals--for example, those who committed crimes against the citizens of Bosnia-Herzogovina in the 1990s Balkan War--before an international tribunal.
Even before ``Operation Cast Lead,'' Boyle had proposed that the UN General Assembly establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a ``subsidiary organ'' under UN Charter Article 22. Boyle's proposal has been endorsed by Malaysia and Iran, and supported in General Assembly debates by some dozen Arab and Muslim nations.
His work on bringing Israelis to justice for war crimes goes back much further--to the 1982 massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, conducted under the watch of top Israeli officials like Gen. Ariel Sharon and Gen. Amos Yaron.
Boyle told {EIR}, ``I think that I was probably the first lawyer ever to file a lawsuit against a major Israeli war criminal--that was back in about 1986, when I represented several women who were next of kin of the victims of the massacre of Sabra and Shatila, and I sued General Yaron, whose forces were occupying the Sabra and Shatila camps, and the whole massacre took place under his direction and control.''@s1
``I sued him ... about 1986. Eventually I lost the lawsuit, when the Reagan Administration entered the lawsuit through the State Department, and claimed that Yaron, since he was being admitted to the country and accredited as Israel's military attache@aa to Washington--which we tried to stop, and indeed, we held up for quite some time--had diplomatic privileges and immunities, could not be sued.''
``I dealt with that issue, saying that under the Nuremberg principles, there are no privileges and immunities in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.'' But the court decided that because Yaron got a ``formal certification'' by the Reagan Administration, ``this was a political question and the Court could not do anything to the contrary.'' But that was not the end of it. Since then, he has followed ``all the lawsuits against Israeli war criminals'' internationally, ``and they've really taken off, and they will take off'' further. In the U.S. he says, ``because of the pretty much Zionist control and domination of the American judiciary, none of these lawsuits have gotten anywhere,'' he says, but ``abroad, they are making progress.... ``I advise the Belgian lawyers. They filed another lawsuit, 20 years later [in 2002], against Yaron, Sharon, Elie Hobeika, and [Gen. Rafael] Eitan for the massacre at Sabra and Shatila,'' which was a criminal case. Boyle explained that the 2002 case came to an end {only after the Belgian law was changed by the Parliament under pressure}--because someone else had sued U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld under the same law. Rumsfeld threatened Belgium and NATO unless that law was rescinded, and Parliament killed it.
``But, at this point, it doesn't matter: The genie is out of the bottle. Twenty-five years ago, or so, when I filed that lawsuit [over Sabra and Shatila], there weren't too many lawyers qualified to do that work. Today, with the expansion of the human rights community, you have all sorts of lawyers qualified to do that work, and they're doing it.'' Asked about recent arrest warrants issued in Britain against Israeli officials, Boyle exclaimed, ``That's starting now! They're going after them in Britain; they're going after them in Belgium.... ``So, I think, eventually, we're going to get one of these people, just like the human rights lawyers in Britain got General Pinochet. Indeed, now we know, that before Israeli government officials travel abroad, they have to get legal advice as to where they can travel--which is good. Unfortunately, they can still pretty much freely travel here to the United States! And that's all they really care about.
``But they're really in a sort of pariah status now, in many other countries, especially in Europe. And that will continue, for sure.''
- Open Gaza Now; End Apartheid –
Nearly 30 years after Boyle's first lawsuit, U.S. policy still gives Israel impunity for war crimes, beginning with Gaza.
``In the Obama Administration, they are continuing to aid and abet the genocidal Israeli policies against the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza,'' Boyle told {EIR}. Just recently, the U.S. ``pressured the Egyptians to build a steel wall on the border of Gaza, to cut off Gaza, to stop the tunnels that were bringing food, relief supplies, medicines, and everything else to the people,'' he revealed. And it was done with the assistance of U.S. Army engineers. This ``makes a mockery of the claim by the Obama Administration and the alleged efforts by Senator Mitchell, to reconvene the Middle East peace negotiations,'' he said. And unless Mitchell and the Obama Administration are prepared to do something--immediately--to stop the war crimes in Gaza, then the mission will be just another ``dog-and-pony show.''
``When President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton called for Netanyahu to freeze the settlements, and Mitchell did, too, Netanyahu stood up to them and forced them to back down.
``So--I'm not questioning Senator Mitchell's good faith and intentions and experience--but if Netanyahu has already successfully stood him down on the settlements, how is he going to get Netanyahu to do anything? Secondly, how is he possibly going to engage in any type of good faith negotiations between Israel and Palestine, brokering them, when he--Senator Mitchell--Obama, and Clinton, are working with the Israelis and the Egyptians, to starve 1.5 million Palestinians? How can this be done?''
According to Boyle, Obama had already decided on the track of ``toeing the line'' for Israel during the 2008 campaign, when in response to Republican John McCain's claim that he was ``soft'' on supporting Israel, Obama promised Jewish voters in Florida that he would appoint Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. ``Now, Emanuel is an agent of the AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee], which, in turn, is an agent of the Israeli government.... [David] Axelrod is a Zionist; Dennis Ross is now at the White House, he's a Zionist.... [Most of] the cast of characters there in the White House ... are Zionists,'' Boyle said. ``Fortunately, Senator Mitchell, in charge of these negotiations, is not. But I really don't know how much freedom Senator Mitchell has to do anything under these circumstances.''
- The Two-State Solution -
There are international actions in the works to use every possible avenue to stop the war crimes against the Palestinians, and Boyle is involved in many of them.
``Right after Operation Cast Lead ended, I did advise Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President,'' says Boyle, ``to send in a declaration, under Article 12, paragraph 3, of the Rome Statute for the International [Criminal] Court, accepting the jurisdiction of the Court, and requesting prosecution of the Israelis, high-level Israeli officials, for what they did to the people of Gaza. And President Abbas did do this....
``Just recently the ICC prosecutor, [Luis] Moreno-Ocampo, did make a public statement to the effect that he is investigating this, for two reasons: 1) to determine, do the Palestinians have sufficient government and state capacity to make this declaration; and then, 2) were war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel against the Palestinians part of Operation Cast Lead?
``That statement by Moreno-Ocampo was [issued] before the Goldstone Report came out, and Goldstone determined that, in fact, Israel had committed war crimes and crimes against the Palestinians.... ``Right now, as we speak, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the League of Arab States has proposed a resolution to be submitted to the Security Council for Palestine to be admitted as a UN member-state, with the 1967 boundaries. ``Admission to the UN is done by the General Assembly, but it must be upon recommendation by the Security Council. The problem there, is, of course, it could be subject to a veto by the Obama Administration. I don't know what position they are going to take on this: I would hope they are going to abstain. Certainly, the votes for the admission of Palestine to the United Nations are there.
``Right now, today, the State of Palestine is recognized bilaterally {de jure} by about 126 states. It has all the rights of a UN member-state, except the right to vote; it has state membership in the League of Arab States, the Islamic Council Organization [ICO], and then, also, in the advisory proceedings by the World Court on Israel's [Separation] Wall, the State of Palestine was invited to participate in a state capacity.
``So, that is another initiative. Now, the problem is, Israel is claiming, fatuously, that somehow, this is going to interfere with the peace process. Well, first, right now, there is no peace process. But, second, this is ridiculous, because if Palestine is admitted to the United Nations with the 1967 boundaries, we will have two states at the UN: We will have Israel and we will have Palestine, and we will have the [UN Resolution] 242 boundaries. Even Netanyahu has recently stated that he is favor of two states, {mirabile dictu}! Obama has stated he's in favor of two states. Even Bush said he was in favor of two states!
``This would be--as I saw it originally in my advice to President Abbas--a way to produce two states, for two people, living in peace and both bound by the requirements of the United Nations Charter for the peaceful resolution of international disputes, that would overcome the fact that there are no Middle East peace negotiations going on right now. So, those are three initiatives, I want to have taken myself.'' Boyle has a fourth initiative, which is gathering international steam--disinvestment.
``Back in 2000, I did call for the establishment of the Israeli disinvestment campaign, and have worked quite hard to push that. That's a grassroots movement. Certainly in my lifetime, which goes back to civil rights for African-Americans, the only progressive change we have ever seen in this country is by a grassroots movement by the common, ordinary, everyday people of America. And, as of 2000, the Palestinians did not have a grassroots movement in their support, so I decided to set one off, and it's doing quite well. Indeed, it's take off worldwide.''
- Dershowitz Accused of War Crimes - On one issue--the Jewish settlements in the occupied lands--Israel has {already} been found, by an international court, to be in violation of international law. This has caused a firestorm of reaction from Israel, and its apologists, like Harvard's Alan Dershowitz. But, Boyle and a number of other American human rights advocates have taken Dershowitz on, and are ready to do it again.
The settlements are ``clearly illegal and criminal,'' said Boyle. ``All the settlements, as the World Court ruled in the advisory opinion on the [Separation] Wall, all these settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention is a war crime. All these so-called settlers are committing war crimes, except the children, who are obviously not old enough to formulate a criminal intent.
``Indeed, Alan Dershowitz began attacking the World Court for this ruling and attacking their credibility, and this, that, and the other.
``Well, Dershowitz is not a trained international lawyer; he's not a trained human rights lawyer. I debated him once, and he sort of gratuitously conceded that I was the expert on these subjects. ``But in any event, what Dershowitz was not aware of, was that in the advisory committee proceedings, the American judge, Thomas Buergenthal, {who is a Holocaust survivor, himself}, joined the ruling--he dissented against a lot of other things by the World Court [International Court of Justice]--but Judge Buergenthal ruled that the settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. And to Judge Buergenthal's credit--I've known him for many years; I have a lot of respect and admiration for him--he made this ruling.
``So, in other words, Dershowitz was attacking the integrity of a Holocaust survivor. But of course, that doesn't surprise me: He attacked [Prof.] Norman Finkelstein's mother; he also attacked Prof. Israel Shahak, one of the leaders of the peace movement in Israel, himself a Holocaust survivor, unfortunately, no longer with us, but a great man.
``I've dealt with [Shahak], I have great respect, and indeed, he was going to have a lecture tour here in the United States, in, I guess, the Fall of 1990, and he was coming to speak in Champaign, [Ill.], and the organizers of his lecture tour asked me if I would put him up in my home as my guest, in order to conserve on expenses, and I agreed. And I was greatly looking forward again to meeting Professor Shahak.... But as you know, with the Gulf crisis, Professor Shahak decided to cancel his lecture tour and stay home with his own people, which was certainly understandable.
``Dershowitz couldn't care less. Whatever kind of outright character assassination he has to apply to anyone, even Holocaust survivors like Judge Buergenthal, Professor Shahak, Norman Finkelstein's mother, it doesn't bother Dershowitz. Indeed, my understanding is, he's trying to run to become President of Israel, to take Peres's place. Well, fine, it would be great to get him out of Harvard Law School--my dis-alma mater!--and ship him over to Israel with all the other war criminals over there. ``In fact, I say that, because Dershowitz admitted, publicly, that he is part of a Mossad committee that authorized the assassination of Palestinians.
``You can find that article on counterpunch.org, by Prof. [Liquat Ali] Khan. Well, the Palestinians are all protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention, and for Dershowitz to authorize their murder is a war crime. So, Dershowitz is a {prima facie} war criminal, who should be prosecuted himself. [Footnote 2]
``And there he is, teaching at the Harvard Law School, and advocating torture, crimes against humanity, war crimes against the Palestinians. As you know, he said, `Well, we should just be obliterating their villages. You know, if they do this, there's a terror bombing here, we [should] destroy one of their villages.'
``And, of course, Dershowitz also advocates torture here, in America. The guy's shameless.
``I remember, [when] I started [at Harvard], Dershowitz started as an assistant professor, and his first big case was defending a pornographic film star in `Deep Throat.' Dershowitz likes to present himself as some great defender of the First Amendment.... Well, as Catherine McKinnon has, I think, taught us all, pornography is a form of violence against women: It's a human rights matter. So, it doesn't surprise me that Dershowitz started his career defending pornographers and pornography, and was and still is greatly proud of it--and now he moves on to defending war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and in addition, over the years, became a war criminal himself.
``But the sum of it is, he's still teaching there at Harvard Law School. So, I hope he goes back to Israel and becomes President, sure! Be great to see him go: Bon voyage.''
Footnote 1.
http://www.derechos.org/human- rights/mena/doc/boyle2.html
Footnote 2. Prof. Liquat Ali Khan, ``The Harvard Law Professor Who Sat On An Israeli Assassination Target Review Panel: The Jihad of Alan Dershowitz,'' {Counterpunch}, Sept. 30, 2004.
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Tag: Nike
Best erging shoes for rowing indoor rowers
December 8, 2016
I have been doing my erg sets rocking Saucony Jazz running shoes since I was actually running in legit waffle-soled Jazz trainers back in my University rowing team. Recently, however, I have also taken on functional training in the form of weights, boxing, TRXm and the mighty kettlebell. One thing I do know about […]


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ESA's Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang reaches orbit
ESA-PR 44-2006. Christer Fuglesang was launched last night onboard NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery on a mission to proceed with the assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) and to bring back to Earth another ESA astronaut, Thomas Reiter, who has been working in the orbital outpost for five months.
Flight STS-116 started in the night of 9 December , when Discovery lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 20:47 local time, 02:47 Central European Time (CET) on 10 December. This was the first night launch of a space shuttle since its return to flight. Discovery successfully entered low Earth orbit after about 8 minutes of powered flight. Onboard the orbiter is a crew of seven, including one ESA astronaut, Christer Fuglesang.
The first five hours of the mission are devoted to configuring Discovery for on-orbit activities before the first sleep period. On its first full-day in space, the crew will conduct a series of in-flight inspections to ensure that Discovery has not suffered any damage during launch. Then the orbiter will manoeuvre to rendezvous with the space station. Docking is planned in the night of Monday 11 December at 23:05 CET.
Onboard the ISS, Fuglesang will be welcomed by fellow ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter from Germany, who has been serving as flight engineer on the ISS permanent crew since his arrival - also onboard Discovery - on July 6.
The STS-116 mission is the fourth Shuttle flight since the shuttle returned to flight last year and the second ISS assembly mission. It is due to deliver a new segment of the ISS truss as well as space station supplies, equipment and research payloads such as additional shield panels to protect the Russian Zvezda Service Module from micrometeorites and space debris. The crew will also perform a major reconfiguration of the ISS power supply and thermal control, patching in the new set of solar arrays and radiators delivered by Space Shuttle Atlantis in September.
First Swede in space
A Swedish physicist specialized in particle physics, Christer Fuglesang was selected in May 1992 to join ESA's Astronaut Corps at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, and STS-116 is his first flight in space.
In 1995, he served as back-up to Thomas Reiter on the 179-day Euromir 95 mission. Training both in the US and Russia, Fuglesang qualified for flight assignment as a NASA Mission Specialist in April 1998 and was awarded the Russian "Soyuz Return Commander" certificate in October 1998, also qualifying him to command a three-person Soyuz capsule on its return from space.
Fuglesang's current 12-day mission in space was named "Celsius" in reference to famous Swedish scientist and astronomer Anders Celsius, who not only invented the international temperature scale that bears his name but also collected observations of aurorae borealis and ventured into northern Scandinavia to take measurements that helped confirm Newton's belief that the Earth was flattened at the poles.
Mechanic, electrician, heating engineer…
Christer Fuglesang will spend one week onboard the ISS and will participate in two out of the three Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) planned as part of the ISS assembly mission.
On Tuesday 12 December he will leave the station with NASA astronaut Robert Curbeam for a 6-hour spacewalk to install a new truss segment that will enable the relocation next summer of the initial solar arrays from the top of the Destiny module to the port end of the ISS truss. Fuglesang and Curbeam will conduct another 6-hour EVA on Thursday 14 December to undertake the complex task of connecting the new solar arrays and radiators mounted on a truss segment delivered in September to the station's power supply and thermal control systems.
"Christer is participating in an important mission for the development of the station's capabilities," said Daniel Sacotte, ESA's Director for Human Spaceflight. "ISS assembly is now proceeding and the upcoming reconfguration and increase in power supply will be a critical step towards preparing the ISS for the flight of Europe's two key contributions to this international effort: the ATV resupply ship and the Columbus laboratory , both scheduled for next year".
… But also scientist and sportsman
In addition to these "outdoor" activities, Fuglesang will conduct a series of experiments developed by European scientists to assess the effects of cosmic radiation on human physiology, a topic of tremendous importance for the preparation of future long-duration missions beyond Earth orbit.
The ALTEA experiment will investigate the effects of such radiation on brain function, tracking its passage through the astronaut's brain while monitoring his cerebral activity. Another experiment, Chromosome 2, will study the impact of this radiation on human genes. Like Thomas Reiter has done since boarding the ISS in July, Christer Fuglesang will also wear European Crew Personal Dosimeters (EuPCD) to measure the cumulated dose of radiation received through the flight.
In addition, Fuglesang will perform some educational demonstrations dealing with radiation in space and, as a former Swedish national frisbee champion, he will try to break the current record for maximum time aloft for a frisbee, obviously an easy task in a microgravity environment.
Discovery will undock from the ISS on Monday 18 December with both Christer Fuglesang and Thomas Reiter onboard. Before returning back to Earth, Christer Fuglesang will be in charge of deploying three US nanosatellites from the orbiter's payload bay.
Touchdown on Cape Canaveral's Shuttle Landing Strip is due on Thursday 21 in late evening at 21:36 CET.
For further information, please contact:
ESA Media Relations Office
Tel: +33(0)188.8.131.5255
Fax: +33(0)22.214.171.12490


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MINNEAPOLIS, MN — The Navy SEALs have one of the military's most successful physical training programs, and they'd like to introduce it nationally to coaches as an athletic standard of excellence.
The Navy SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare Center Recruiting Directorate were at the Minnesota-Oklahoma State wrestling match in early December at the University of Minnesota Sports Pavilion to promote the Trident Challenge, an athletic competition of running, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and swimming.
The challenge is open to everyone, not just those interested in joining the military, and is an opportunity for civilians to see how they stack up against the Navy's best. The ultimate goal of the Trident Challenge is to promote physical awareness and to set a level of standards that someday may be picked up not only by college and high school athletes but by all Americans in their everyday lives.
"The pilot program is not necessarily a recruiting event; it is more of a physical awareness campaign," says Chief Special Warfare Operator Darek Laviolette. "It's something that America needs. America is getting a lot bigger, and we think if Minnesota embraces this, then we might be able to convince other people to say, 'Let's do this on a national level. Let's try to do that at every high school and college around America.'"
Because Minnesota and Oklahoma are two of the top wrestling schools in the country, the pavilion was at standing room only capacity, making it an ideal time to advertise the challenge to the community.
The challenge also broadens the awareness of the Naval special warfare community and highlights the physical requirements of becoming a Navy SEAL.


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OCEAN CITY – Starting tomorrow, most anglers fishing in the resort area or practically anywhere else in the state will have to register with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) before wetting a line, thanks to the implementation of a new federal program designed to better manage saltwater fish populations.
Federal officials have implemented the new initiative, known as the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP), in an effort to produce more accurate information to determine the condition of various fish stocks. According to NOAA officials, the data collected through the national angler registry will be used to allow fishermen, fisheries managers and others to effectively and fairly set strategies to ensure the long-term sustainability of recreational saltwater fishing.
Ironically, the new angler registry takes effect on Jan. 1, 2010, just about three months after the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) shut down the black sea bass fishery in the Atlantic, abruptly closing one of the most popular fisheries in the mid-Atlantic region during the height of the fall season. In response, a national recreational fishing advocacy group along with charter captains from North Carolina to Maine, including several in the Ocean City area, filed a multi-party civil suit against the federal agency seeking to reverse the closure.
According to Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials, the new angler registration program is an essential part of a national commitment to effectively manage saltwater fish populations. It will reportedly allow fishermen and policy makers to work together to assess the contributions and impacts of saltwater anglers on ocean ecosystems, coastal economies and fish populations.
The new registration requirement includes anglers fishing in any saltwater areas in and around the resort area. Because the program includes any angler who may catch an anadromous species, or one that moves from saltwater to freshwater environments, the registration requirement has been extended to any angler who fishes in coastal waters including the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.
However, not all anglers are required to register. For example, anglers under 16 years of age do not have to register, nor do anglers fishing on a charter boat, commercial fishermen, holders of highly migratory species permits or anglers who hold a saltwater fishing license from a state where they are automatically registered. Anglers who fish in Maryland's Free Fishing areas or who are otherwise exempt from buying a Maryland fishing license still need to register with NOAA, however.
State and federal fisheries managers acknowledged the economic impact of recreational fishing and couched the new registration requirement in terms suggesting it will allow recreational anglers to participate in the management process.
"According to a recent NOAA Fisheries Survey, saltwater anglers had an overall economic impact of $82 billion and generated more than a half a million jobs nationwide," said Maryland DNR Fisheries Service Director Tom O'Connell this week. "It's only appropriate that recreational anglers be counted and thereby have a substantial impact on the management and health of coastal fish stocks."
DNR officials anticipate changes to the Maryland fishing license will accommodate the requirements of the national saltwater registry by 2011, but in the meantime, anglers must register directly with NOAA starting Jan. 1. The process is simple and free of charge and can be completed online at www.countmyfish.com or by calling 1-888-MRIP-411.


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'It's encased entirely in a comfortable, rubberized soft touch housing. '
'the Nexus 5 display is immaculately sharp.'
'At this size it's an easy phone to manage, especially with some devices now getting too big to handle as phablet popularity grows. '
'Beastly specs usually mean high prices but the Nexus 5 retails from £299, making it one of the most affordable high-end smartphones ever produced. . '
'easy and comfortable viewing'
'I really enjoy holding it for long periods of time and have reverted back to reading books on my phone, something I haven't done since using my diddy-screened iPhone 4 two years ago.'
'The new look and feel brings with it a crisper and thinner font, a greater use of colour, and a layering system that gives everything added depth. '
'The iPhone 5S fully supports 2G and 3G (DC-HSPA and HSPA+) bands just as before but this time Apple has added in a host of additional 4G bands. '
'wide viewing angles'
'the screen is larger without making the phone bigger.'
'The phone is available in your choice of white or black with faux chrome trim, and I think the visual and textural treatment looks nice.'
'It's a very sharp display, and even tiny text has superb clarity. '
'The LG G2's display is very bright, and it's certainly very readable in bright daylight.'
'Text on the G2 looks incredibly sharp, and it makes for a really great viewing experience.'
'It's thin enough to fit into your pocket without too much fuss. .'
'The display remains cool to the touch.'
'Some might see the plastic as regressive rather than progressive - it depends how much a lick of colour does for you - but any fears that you may have that C in 5C stands for "cheap" will disappear the moment you pick up the phone.'
'With the camera app, you have a new Automatic HDR mode, which applies HDR filters to objects and scenes before image capture. .'
Bright and cheerful new colors, Solid value
It's a cheaper iPhone, not a cheap iPhone
'Updated with Motorola's newest Mobile Computing System, which is comprised out of a natural language processor, contextual computing chip, and a quad-core 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC coupled with 2GB of RAM, we're seriously impressed by the Moto X's super snappy responsiveness. '
'However, sharpness is slightly disappointing at the resolution, with less fine detail in evidence than the best 8-megapixel phones. '
'With normal use, we could picture most people getting an entire day's life without any battery-saving adjustments. '
Google and Moto almost made a truly standout Android phone
'On the screen of the Galaxy S4, everything is smooth and free of graininess.'
'The Note 2, Galaxy SIII and Galaxy S4 have excellent incoming and outgoing voice quality with good volume. '
'gigantic 5-inch screen'
'top-flight camera'
Free under contract, has long-lasting battery life
Employs some of the new LG Optimus UI enhancements
Amazing battery life, Solid build quality
Sluggish benchmark performance, Lackluster camera
Qualcomm's lightning-quick quad-core processor
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Beefy hardware makes for a fast phone
Exquisite noise cancellation & calling quality
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Story highlights
- Body of unidentified child -- named Baby Hope by police -- was found on July 23, 1991
- Authorities have identified the father, want to talk with him
- NYPD assistant chief: "Confident" an arrest will be made
- Authorities able to identify the mother through tip, DNA
The New York Police Department has identified the father of "Baby Hope" and want to speak with him as part of their 22-year investigation into the girl's death.
Police stopped short of calling the man a suspect.
"He is someone we definitely have to talk to," NYPD Assistant Chief Joe Reznick told CNN on Thursday, "But can we arrest him for this right now? The answer is no, definitely not."
Investigators are looking for the father and believe he is in New York City.
"We're very interested in him," a law enforcement official told CNN.
"Baby Hope," a little girl whose body was found in a blue and white picnic cooler in a wooded area near the Henry Hudson Parkway on July 23, 1991, was never identified until this week.
Police now believe "Baby Hope" was South American, according to Reznick.
Reznick is "confident" an arrest will be made in this case, but could not state when that might happen.
"Trust me when I say the investigation is probably more active now than it's ever been during the course of 22 years," Reznick said.
As CNN previously reported, police have identified the little girl and her mother but will not make either name public because of the ongoing investigation.
The girl, then believed to be 3 to 5 years old, was smothered and sexually molested. Her body was so badly decomposed that several sketches were made to suggest what she looked like.
Thanks to a tip, the department confirmed the identity of the girl's mother through DNA testing, according to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. The body was exhumed in 2011.
"A DNA match was made with the mother and the mother has been cooperating," Kelly told reporters Tuesday. He declined to name the mother or provide details on the case.
"Homicide is a distinct possibility here, so it's going to go forward in that direction," Kelly said of the investigation.
The girl was never reported missing and police could not track down anyone who might have known her.
The NYPD Cold Case Apprehension Squad never gave up hope, continuing to hand out flyers and canvas nearby neighborhoods every year on the anniversary of the discovery of the body.
"We have been able to identify the mother of Baby Hope as a result of, in my judgment, outstanding detective work," Kelly said on Tuesday.
Detective Robert Dewhurst, a member of the squad, told CNN in July that several detectives were still on the case and that people with information may speak many years later for many reasons, such as feeling safer after moving to a new area where they don't see the person responsible every day.
Sometimes people "want to get it off their chest," said Dewhurst.
For months after Baby Hope's body was found, police went back to the site hoping whoever was responsible, driven by guilt, had left some type of memorial that would have helped police.
Baby Hope, two years after she was found, was laid to rest in a donated plot. She was buried in a white dress bought by a detective's wife.


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Salaam and Greetings of Peace:
Alhamdulillah! The interview went well, I think :) The very kind and gracious Sister Hadayai, of the Blog Talk Radio series Baitul Salaam, interviewed me on Wednesday, June 25th about the Sufi path of Love and the novel Master of the Jinn, for the half hour show called Spiritually Inspired Literature.
Just click HERE to listen to the show. It will start as the page opens, after a commercial and a pause.
Note: The interview did run out before I finished reading an excerpt from Master of the Jinn, a Sufi story called The Judgment of God. If you would like to read the whole thing, click HERE.
Ya Haqq!


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I'm convinced that organized religion and god are complete nonsense, but DO believe people of the same zodiac sign very often share similiar personality characteristics. I'm new here, just joined, and I don't know how my beliefs will fit-in with this groups beliefs?
That is not a popular belief here, but that doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't be here. Think Atheist promotes critical thinking and has a strong Skeptical bent.
I would ask what exactly you believe to be true about astrology and why you believe it?
I believe the possibility exists that biological changes that occur within the mothers womb during the fetal development of the childs brain ("possibly" caused by magnetic/lunar forces in nature) "might" be the reason for such similiar characteristic tendencies in individuals that share the same zodiac signs (such as virgos being analytical, cancers being emotional etc.). Of course, I realize the upbringing of an individual can weigh greatly on their overall character and tendencies... But, I have known four other people that share my August 31st birthday and we are all very similiar in thoughts and tendencies, and as a whole most virgos that I associate with are very similiar... I am by no means suggesting this is Gods "master plan", I think it is more of an evolutionary process.
Nelson what a great graphic. Aries my "sign's" unique word is "whatever"! Explains a lot. DAMN YOU ASTROLOGY! WHATEVER!
Thank you for saving me the trouble of coming up with an almost identical reply that would point out everything you just did.
The zipper on your trousers generates more gravitational force on you than the nearest star. And the nearest star isn't even in a constellation.
Besides, constellations only appear the way they do in a particular time frame and from a particular angle.
Wow, that's a really good response. But than you always have the best responses. :)
Perhaps the differences you refer to, which I think are mostly anecdotal and not scientifically proven, may be due to the effect on children of the behavior of people in their lives who BELIEVE in astrology. But I doubt if there really is any correlation other than that engendered by the subconscious mental filters operating in the minds of people who believe in astrology and thus are more likely to notice confirming evidence than disconfirming evidence. Like I said, where is your SCIENTIFIC evidence? It's hard to imagine how constellations, which may appear in a flat-looking sky to make a vaguely coherent grouping, but which are composed of stars which vary in distance from us wildly, could function as a group to form human personality into highly discrete chunks of humanity who are all alike in terms of some personality traits. Astrology is just a way to form preconceptions about people you don''t know very much about, which makes it somewhat akin to racism.
It could be argued that when you are born determines what seasonal environments you are exposed to first. It also would effect what seasonal environment the mother experiences as you are developing in her womb.
I actually think this is possible. I mean think about it. If you are experiencing the hustle and bustle of the Fall/Winter season like many do (Indoors, visiting with family, attending parties, etc.) during an important developmental stage it could shape your personality.
So maybe it has less to do with birthdays and more to do with your developmental stages and the season within which they coincide.
In short I think it's possible.
I think the reason that zodiac signs often seem to suit their holders, is that the first year of life will be different for a baby born in the cold winter, and kept bundled up indoors, than for a baby born in the early summer who is dressed lightly, without constraint, and who is taken outside among people and activity. Just as wth other mysterious natural phenomena, when we look beyond the woo, there may lurk some proveable reality.


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Christian Finnegan has toured nationally as a stand-up comic, released the album Two For Flinching, appeared on Comedy Central's Premium Blend, and turned up in the Chappelle's Show sketch "Mad Real World" as Chad, the doomed white roommate. Even so, he'd be the first to admit that he's most likely to be recognized as a talking-head commentator from VH1's Best Week Ever and MSNBC's Countdown With Keith Olbermann. But Finnegan hopes that will change now that he's released his first one-hour Comedy Central special, "Au Contraire!" Taped during a live gig in Philadelphia, "Au Contraire!" finds Finnegan foregoing celebrity snark in favor of honest, self-deprecating stories about closer-to-home things, like the burdens of his very Irish name and being intimidated by his father-in-law, who's currently in prison for attempted murder. The A.V. Club recently spoke with Finnegan about finding his own comic niche, what he owes to Whitney Houston, and why he'll never be comfortable as "the dude who talks pop culture."
The A.V. Club: Did you have any apprehensions about taping your first comedy special?
Christian Finnegan: Of course. Growing up as a comedian, the first thing you dream of is having your own album, but even more than that, I always wanted that hour special on cable. I grew up in the era of Bill Cosby: Himself, Eddie Murphy: Delirious, Carlin On Campus. To me, that was what made you a stand-up comedian. Of course, the world is different now. There's a glut of comedians with specials, so it's just not possible to make an impact the way Bill Cosby: Himself did. It's like, The Beatles were amazing, but it also helped that not many bands were putting out albums then. So while I don't think this will ever measure up to those other specials, it's a good first step toward being the sort of comedian I'd like to be someday.
AVC: What sort is that?
CF: Better. I'd like to think I'm a little more memorable or specific now. People laugh at me in a way they wouldn't laugh at another comedian, rather than being like, "Okay, who's the next joke-slinger? Give me some jokes so I may laugh and go about my day!"
AVC: Where do you see yourself fitting into the current comedy scene?
CF: I've always prided myself on being able to perform in the "alt-comedy" zone, but also being able to do comedy for people who aren't media-saturated, and maybe don't have the latest Dan Deacon album. I probably won't be the most popular guy at Zanies in Nashville, and I'll never be the coolest dude at Largo, but I like that I can swim in both those waters. Yuck. Did I just say that? There are people that inspire me—like Louis C.K., who's a great model for anyone trying to be specific without being overly exclusive. The things he says are incredibly personal, but they're not designed to make the audience feel stupid, the way I feel like a lot of "I'm so smart" comedy comes off. Claiming to be influenced by Louis C.K. is a lot like saying "I like beer," but it's true. I also like comedians like Doug Stanhope. He has his intellectual ducks in a row, and he's actually saying something that's not just "What's up with salt shakers?"
AVC: You're known as a pop-culture and political commentator, but your act mostly steers clear of those things. Is that something you consciously avoid?
CF: It is. It's my genius plan of avoiding any career momentum whatsoever. Definitely the pop-culture thing is something I've avoided in my act. It's just too transitory and ephemeral. It's like cotton candy—making a dumb fucking Octomom joke. It's funny this week, but it ages badly. I do love throwing in obscure pop-culture references, because I am a trivia person—which is how I got into Best Week Ever in the first place, because I was known among comedy people in New York for knowing a lot of trivia. I won a car on a game show once for knowing '80s music videos. It was on a short-lived VH1 show, actually, before I was involved with them as quote-unquote "talent." It was called Name That Video. The final round was where you had to name like 10 videos in 60 seconds, and I think—in fact, I know. Who am I kidding with "I think"? The final video was "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston—a song I've never liked, but now I have a real fondness for.
AVC: It got you a car. That's more than it's done for most people.
CF: [Laughs.] Yes, it got me out of crippling debt with MasterCard, so I will always be thankful to Whitney Houston. So yeah, I enjoy spicing up my comedy with bizarre references that maybe not everybody's going to get, but I don't want them to be things that would bring an audience to a complete halt. I don't want to make, like, an Upstairs At Eric's reference. And as far as political humor, it just requires so much exposition to set it up. I do think I'm headed in that direction. Not in terms of, like, "Did you guys hear about this healthcare vote?" But I want to talk about what it means to be a good person in the world we live in, and what it means to live a life that's relevant and that you don't have to be ashamed of. But it doesn't mean I'm ending my set with a call to contact your congressman.
AVC: There's a theory that says most comedy comes from a very dark place. Do you subscribe to that?
CF: I certainly do believe that a lot of comedy comes from awkwardness and embarrassment—pointing out the ways things are uncomfortable. Definitely the stuff that interests me. I don't necessarily think that comedy comes from a dark place, like you have to be a strung-out heroin addict. But I don't think it comes from happiness, that's for sure. It comes from frustration and suppressed rage, and wishing the world were different.
AVC: When did you first know you could make a living from comedy?
CF: I knew early on that I had no choice but to make it as a comedian, because I am not particularly gifted with a lot of marketable skills. Unless I really want to spend the rest of my life temping, or teaching drama to third-graders, I don't have a lot of other options—which is freeing, in a way. I never have to say, "Well, I could always go back to law school."
AVC: You mention in your act that you once played Danny in Grease. Whatever happened to those ambitions?
CF: [Laughs.] My abject hatred of actors and the acting world. I went to college as an actor, and halfway through, I switched to playwriting and directing. Then I spent a couple years working in publishing, doing some freelance journalism for The Village Voice and Musician magazine. I thought my life was going to be as a writer, but then I realized I missed performing, so I got into comedy. It was a nice combination of things I was sort of good at. I was a pretty good writer and a decent actor, but I didn't really like acting, and I didn't have the discipline to be a writer.
AVC: A lot of comedians view stand-up as a stepping stone to movies and sitcoms. Do you?
CF: I find that really loathsome. It infuriates me. I don't encounter it as much now that I'm performing more with other working comics, but when I was first starting at those "new talent showcases," I would see all these people who were obviously actors just trying to get an agent. And I know a lot of comedians now who, when they get that break, stand-up goes by the wayside, and they're just interested in being movie stars. That's fine, but it's not what I want at all. There's something so awesome about being able to get up in front of a microphone and do exactly what you want. Stand-up is as close as you're ever going to get to being 100 percent in control of a situation artistically, and I don't understand why people wouldn't want to keep doing that. There's also only so many hours in the day, and I only have so much energy. And I have friends, and a wife I love, and videogames that need my attention. Something's gotta give. If the right opportunity came along, maybe, but I'm more focused on trying to create a TV show where I can be myself, rather than playing a wacky neighbor. Although, I would gladly play a wacky neighbor of any sort. Please call me.
AVC: How did your role as a guest commentator on Countdown With Keith Olbermann come about?
CF: It all came from Best Week Ever. Paul F. Tompkins was on there before me, and I guess they went down the list of the other nine people, and all of them were busy, so they decided to give me a shot. The first couple of times I went on, it was all Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, so it was a pretty simple transition—although you can be a little bit wordier and nerdier on Countdown, obviously. Then I let them know that I would love to talk about other things, because I've always been very conscious that it would be really easy to brand yourself as "the dude who talks pop culture"—which I enjoy, but I don't want to be that guy. That's probably had a negative effect on my career. I'd probably have a million other things going on if I really embraced that pop-culture mantle the way someone like Kathy Griffin has. But for me, it would feel like I was ignoring three-quarters of my personality. So they started bringing me on to talk about the lighter side of politics, like, "Hey, what's with Michelle Obama's arms?"
AVC: How does it feel to be a tool of the liberal elite?
CF: Pretty good. I sleep very well at night. Sure, there are times when they're a little more strident or polemical than is necessary or even helpful. I do believe in nuanced discussion. The only time I have a problem with the quote-unquote "liberal media" is when I feel like they're making things less complicated than they really are. A lot of these issues, even things like the Bush administration and torture and stuff, they're not black and white. I probably agree with Rachel Maddow and Keith 99.99 percent of the time, but I can see the other side. Not that they can't, but sometimes I wish it were a little more nuanced. I do enjoy making fun of smug liberals and ironic hipsters and how much better they think they are than the quote-unquote "rednecks." Anybody can go to some rock club and talk about Rush Limbaugh being an idiot, but can you get up there and, you know, say something more controversial? I'm just babbling at this point. Can you put in brackets, "Interview descends into mumbling"?
AVC: Do you find it a blessing or a curse that Best Week Ever is what you're most recognized for?
CF: Collectively, I'd say Best Week Ever is what I'm most recognized for, but honestly, the one thing I still get the most is Chappelle's Show. It's probably Best Week Ever 60 percent, Chappelle's Show 30 percent, and Countdown 10 percent—but those 10 percent are the ones you really want. The people who recognize me from Chappelle's Show, they're not coming to see me in a club. They're just like, "You were on TV!" They don't care. I could be from Survivor. It's literally, "I have watched you on a television!" To a certain degree, that's true for Best Week Ever too. They may like what I do, but really, they're just pop-culture fans. A lot of them really do read In Touch and Us Weekly without any irony, and they don't understand that the people who do Best Week Ever actually hate all that stuff, and that a lot of it comes from a serious loathing of celebrity journalism.
But it would be ridiculous for me to complain about people recognizing me. If 10 years from now, people even remembered Best Week Ever, that would be nice, but I hope for my own sake there will be something else that people will recognize me for. That's what this special is—the first step toward people thinking of me as a comedian first, and a pop-culture commenter second. It's enraging when you read a review and it's like, "This former Best Week Ever funnyman decided to try stand-up comedy." Are you fucking kidding me? How do you think I got that job in the first place? Do you think I applied at the pop-culture factory? But whatever… I'm very excited about where I'm going. You have to trust that things are gonna work out. If you want a safe career path that makes sense, you wouldn't get into comedy in the first place. You have to be at peace with not knowing what the fuck next year is going to be like.
AVC: What do you think next year will be like?
CF: Not a clue. I'm far too old to be the next big thing. I'll never be an enfant terrible. But I could also be working the cash register at Quizno's. One can never tell.


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Twice each weekday Oregon Tech offers campus tours followed by information sessions with Admissions Counselors, Financial Aid Counselors, faculty and athletics staff. Tours leave promptly at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. from the Admissions Department in the College Union.
Let us know you're coming, so we can maximize your time at Oregon Tech.
Interested in bringing your students to explore the Oregon Tech campus? Register online to maximize their experience.
Visit our Youth Programs page for information about programs designed for elementary, middle and high school students.
Bring your transcripts (if applicable); make a list of questions; make appropriate travel arrangements; pack a jacket and comfortable shoes for walking.
You have several options when visiting Oregon Tech. Consider staying on campus in the residence halls. To make arrangements for this, simply contact the Housing Office for more information at 541.885.1094.
Search local places to stay and eat by visiting the Klamath County Chamber of Commerce.
Explore the Klamath Basin by visiting www.discoverklamath.com.


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Greener solar cells are now possible thanks to research done by Ayomi Perera, a doctoral student in chemistry, who graduated from Kansas State University. While other researchers focus on the efficiency of solar cells, Perera's research is making technology greener by improving dye-sensitized cells. Perera combines less toxic dye with a bacteria in order to create cells that are more sustainable to living organisms and the environment.
Perera starts by using a special species of the bacteria Mycobacterium smegmatis, that can be found in cornflakes and in the soil. It produces the protein MspA, which can be applied to various applications after it has been purified. Once purified, the protein is combined with a dye that is less toxic than traditional dyes. The mixture is then applied to individual solar cells and tested.
The technology is the first of its type, even though the process doesn't improve the efficiency of the solar cells. "This type of research where you have a biodegradable or environmentally friendly component inside a solar cell has not been done before, and the research is still in its early stages right now," Perera said. "But we have noticed that it's working and that means that the protein is not decomposed in the light and electric generating conditions. Because of that we believe that we've actually made the first protein-incorporated solar cell." As oil fields run dry, these new cells are a sustainable alternative for the future.
A video about Perera's research is available at http://youtu.be/70-RhGEL38I.


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We loved the LG 47LX9900 for its design and 2D picture quality. We also really liked the LG Cinema 3D 47LW550T when it comes to watching 3D movies, so could a television that merges the two together be the best TV LG has ever made?
We're about to find out, because the 55LW980T is a screen designed to merge both 2D picture quality, with jaw-dropping 3D. Which we're hoping will make this a set ideal for home cinema fans.
The LG 55LW980T is designed to be thin, to be sleek, and to be as minimal as possible. And that it is. The television is just 27.5mm thick (the LX9900 was 31mm) and the bezel is virtually non existent (17mm) with the glass design going to the full edge of the display rather than a thick black bezel as found on most televisions including the one in your lounge right now.
There is an edge of course, just not one that you'll need to notice or pay much attention to.
The 55LW980T or its smaller brother, the 47-inch 36LW980T, can be stand mounted or fixed directly on to a wall. The stand is simple, but functional, with some movement to help you get a better left and right angle. You can't change the vertical positioning however.
Around the back there are a plethora of connections; four HDMI, two USB with DivX Plus / HD playback, a PCMIA card slot, component in, antenna in, optical audio out, RGB in, RGB out, LAN, and phono connection options too. There is also Wi-Fi connectivity as standard saving you having to worry about an extra wire and the proximity of your router to your TV for Internet connectivity.
All the HDMI ports face the side making it easy once you've positioned your TV on the wall to manage said connections especially those USB slots.
Touch sensitive power, volume and other selection buttons are found on the front, but disappear from view when the TV is on. You won't notice them, nor are they distracting.
The days of a TV just being a TV are long gone, and LG acknowledge this with a dedicated home on the TV for apps, games and other bits and bobs.
Smart TV features the holy trinity of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It also adds BBC iPlayer, something that helps it be genuinely engaging, alongside a bucket of other apps including a 3D video zone, Sudoku and content from AceTrax, the HIT Entertainment channel, Box Office 365, the Cartoon Network, iConcerts and Daily Motion.
Everything is controlled, including the basic web browser, via the accompanying remote or an iPad or iPhone app. Those expecting to get the company's Magic Wand Wii Remote style remote shouldn't, it isn't included in the box, although you can spend an additional £50 to get it if you want. Having had one in our home for around six months now, and it never coming out of the draw, we honestly wouldn't bother.
The iPad app is, however, worth the effort, especially if you plan on surfing the web - you get a keyboard for typing into the browser for starters.
As you would expect the BBC iPlayer works a treat. Whether you'll venture into Google pictures app, Picasa, is another question.
Watching TV
Navigating the TV begins at "Home", which is made up of six pop-up icons presented along the bottom of the screen. Choose "TV guide" to display a simple, high-res, 8-day EPG for Freeview HD, which floats over the current channel and shows schedules for 2 hours over five channels - and in a highly readable, large, font.
Other shortcuts reach an inputs screen, which only shows live devices - such as an attached Blu-ray player and a USB stick in either of this set's two USB slots. NetCast takes you to LG's nice-looking online content portal. and then there's "MyMedia", which accesses digital files via either USB or Wi-Fi. Every single test file of ours played quickly and stably, including DivX HD and WMV HD files.
2D screen quality
Working to improve the screen technology over its 2010 flagship, the LX9900, LG has also used Nano Full LED technology that creates brighter, clearer and smoother pictures.
What does that actually mean in non-marketing gobbledygook? Well the main tech used here is direct LED lighting behind the panel. This gives the set more backight control, which should enable it to produce much better black levels. It does this by only lighting up certain areas of the screen, rather than pushing light from the edges of the screen.
The TV sports an IPS panel. For those without a degree in television technology, that's a technology that allows the TV to be viewed from a wide range of viewing angles. This is great if you don't watch TV sitting directly in front of the screen. A 400Hz processing mode will help keep flicker to a minimum and ensure that motion looks as smooth as possible - as long as you pick the right settings, something that isn't all that hard.
Both the 2D and 3D images are very good indeed. For 2D we tested it with a number of different sources and footage including Frozen Planet in HD via Sky HD, Tron on Blu-ray, and Uncharted 3 on the PS3.
We were impressed in all cases with the TV, it copes exceptionally well with the blacks and bright colours of Tron, and the fast-moving action in Uncharted 3 (video game) and the whites and blues in Frozen Planet.
3D image quality
While the industry continues to argue over active versus passive glasses, LG has stuck its neck on the line and opted for the later. This TV uses the company's Cinema 3D technology, which uses passive glasses to produce a 3D image.
That's a marked change from the LX9900, which used active glasses, but we think it's the best move.
Having used both at home, passive is certainly easier on the eyes and easier to get glasses for - your local cinema for one - even though purists will cry that the resolution isn't as good. And, it has to be said, from a technological point of view, they're right.
The difference can be summarised thus: active sets send a Full HD image to each eye, so show more detail from 3D Blu-ray. Those TVs depend on using heavy, active (hence the name), 3D glasses that cost £50 each, are often uncomfortable and need to be regularly charged.
Passive, however, halves the resolution. In theory, this means you aren't gertting an image that's as sharp as from an active set, but you really aren't going to notice, unless you really look closely. In the end, the comfort and cost of passive glasses is a big deal, especially for families.
In the box you get seven pairs of specs, yes seven, to get you started and as they only really cost 50p not £50 it's easy to bulk up if they are damaged or you are having a party. Critically, you can still watch all 3D content, including 3D Blu-ray, Sky's 3D channel - passive is Sky's choice of 3D tech anyway - Virgin's Eurosport 3D channel, PlayStation and Xbox 360 3D games and more.
For 3D we tested it with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Meerkats via Sky 3D, Avatar on Blu-ray 3D, and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary on the Xbox 360.
When we tested the LX 9900 we loved the 2D screen quality, but felt a bit let down by the 3D offering. Here, that isn't the case, with all our 3D content performing as well as the 2D content. Sit in the wrong place in your living room and you'll notice plenty of ghosting, but sit in a normal, head on, position and you'll be fine. If you are wall mounting make sure you angle the TV down towards your eye line for best results.
Gamers will also be able to benefit from dual-screen mode that, combined with special glasses, will allow two players to both enjoy full screen gaming on the LW980T at the same time. Sadly we weren't given access to those glasses for this review.
Sounds good enough. There's enough power to get you by, but we suspect that if you've just laid out £2500 for a brand new 55-inch television you are going to have a sound system to match. LG makes its own system to match the design, or you can check out the hundreds of different options out there on the market instead.
The LG 55LW980T is one of the televisions of the year for us, with a great picture quality for both 2D and 3D.
If that isn't enough, and it seems that these days it isn't, this LG TV makes sure that it has gone a long way in making itself future proof with wireless internet connectivity, four HDMI slots, DLNA and USB offerings, as well as an iPad / iPhone remote control to boot.