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void XtRemoveSignal(id)
XtSignalId id;
void XtNoticeSignal(id)
XtSignalId id)
Upon receipt of a signal from the operating system, the application may call XtNoticeSignal passing the id returned by the call to XtAppAddSignal.
XtNoticeSignal is the only Intrinsics function that can safely be called from a signal handler. If XtNoticeSignal is called multiple times before the Intrinsics are able to invoke the registered callback, the callback is only called once. Logically the Intrinsics maintain ``pending'' for each registered callback. This flag is initially False and is set to True by XtNoticeSignal; the Intrinsics invoke the callback whenever the flag is True, and the flag is set to False just before the callback is invoked.
The XtRemoveSignal function is called to remove the specified Intrinsics signal handler. The client should disable the source of the signal before calling XtRemoveSignal.


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If you want to make a movie, you generally need a lot of money. And filmmakers have to be creative about raising it.
Just ask the filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival, taking place this week in Park City, Utah. Some 10 percent of the films selected for this year's iteration of the prestigious festival raised money through the crowd-funding website Kickstarter.
In the three years since the website launched, Kickstarter-funded films have been nominated for Oscars, picked up by Showtime and HBO, and honored with awards at Sundance, South By Southwest and Cannes.
Kickstarter is used by artists in every discipline, but film is its biggest category. And, as one Kickstarter employee put it, "filmmakers are natural hustlers."
Just check out the videos they make to get you to give them money. There's the you-get-stuff pitch. There's the humorous, feel-sorry-for-us pitch. There's even a pitch from people who you'd think already have the money, like Whoopi Goldberg.
And those campaigns are successful. Goldberg raised over $73,000 for a documentary about the comedian Moms Mabley. Another Kickstarter-funded documentary, Detropia, was recently short-listed for an Oscar.
According to Kickstarter, more than $100 million has been pledged to films on the site.
"We quickly began to realize that this was something really capturing people's attention and excitement, and allowing people to connect with creative endeavors — [something] that was sort of transformational," says Keri Putnam, executive director of the Sundance Institute.
When Sundance supports a film, it's highlighted on a special page on Kickstarter. "They can make more money through Kickstarter than they can through a Sundance grant," Putnam says.
Sometimes filmmakers can nab a lot more, especially if they're already artists with a track record. Charlie Kaufman wrote the movies Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. He and the animation company Starburns Industries ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a film based on his play, Anomalisa.
In their recorded campaign pitch on the site, they said they hoped to make the film "without the interference of the typical big studio process."
They raised more than $400,000. Yancey Strickler, co-founder of Kickstarter, says Kaufman and the animators are the kind of artists who use the site because Hollywood isn't working for them.
"They're always butting up against a system that has different ideas about how art should work," Strickler says. "But yet, they have huge fan bases. Here, they're able to go directly to those audiences and make something the way they wanted to."
Cultivating that fan base is turning out to be another major benefit for filmmakers who run successful Kickstarter campaigns. In raising cash for a project, they also raise awareness, which could result in a bigger audience for their film once it's released.
The people who pledge are called backers. Filmmaker Audrey Ewell is premiering a documentary, 99% — The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film, at this year's Sundance Festival. She says Kickstarter calls the effort a "campaign" for a reason. She raised more than $23,000 from hundreds of backers.
"These are the people who are becoming the community that's going to support you, so it's important to involve them," Ewell says. "Encourage everybody to reach out for you on your behalf."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
What is positron emission tomography (PET)?
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a type of nuclear medicine procedure that measures metabolic activity of the cells of body tissues. PET is actually a combination of nuclear medicine and biochemical analysis. Used mostly in patients with brain or heart conditions and cancer, PET helps to visualize the biochemical changes taking place in the body, such as the metabolism (the process by which cells change food into energy after food is digested and absorbed into the blood) of the heart muscle.
PET differs from other nuclear medicine examinations in that PET detects metabolism within body tissues, whereas other types of nuclear medicine examinations detect the amount of a radioactive substance collected in body tissue in a certain location to examine the tissue's function.
Since PET is a type of nuclear medicine procedure, this means that a tiny amount of a radioactive substance, called a radiopharmaceutical (radionuclide or radioactive tracer), is used during the procedure to assist in the examination of the tissue under study. Specifically, PET studies evaluate the metabolism of a particular organ or tissue, so that information about the physiology (functionality) and anatomy (structure) of the organ or tissue is evaluated, as well as its biochemical properties. Thus, PET may detect biochemical changes in an organ or tissue that can identify the onset of a disease process before anatomical changes related to the disease can be seen with other imaging processes such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
PET is most often used by oncologists (doctors specializing in cancer treatment), neurologists and neurosurgeons (doctors specializing in treatment and surgery of the brain and nervous system), and cardiologists (doctors specializing in the treatment of the heart). However, as advances in PET technologies continue, this procedure is beginning to be used more widely in other areas.
PET may also be used in conjunction with other diagnostic tests, such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to provide more definitive information about malignant (cancerous) tumors and other lesions. Newer technology combines PET and CT into one scanner, known as PET/CT. PET/CT shows particular promise in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, evaluating epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and coronary artery disease.
Originally, PET procedures were performed in dedicated PET centers, because the equipment to make the radiopharmaceuticals, including a cyclotron and a radiochemistry lab, had to be available, in addition to the PET scanner. Now, the radiopharmaceuticals are produced in many areas and are sent to PET centers, so that only the scanner is required to perform a PET scan.
Further increasing the availability of PET imaging is a technology called gamma camera systems (devices used to scan patients who have been injected with small amounts of radionuclides and currently in use with other nuclear medicine procedures). These systems have been adapted for use in PET scan procedures. The gamma camera system can complete a scan more quickly, and at less cost, than a traditional PET scan.
How does PET work?
PET works by using a scanning device (a machine with a large hole at its center) to detect photons (subatomic particles) emitted by a radionuclide in the organ or tissue being examined.
The radionuclides used in PET scans are made by attaching a radioactive atom to chemical substances that are used naturally by the particular organ or tissue during its metabolic process. For example, in PET scans of the brain, a radioactive atom is applied to glucose (blood sugar) to create a radionuclide called fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), because the brain uses glucose for its metabolism. FDG is widely used in PET scanning.
Other substances may be used for PET scanning, depending on the purpose of the scan. If blood flow and perfusion of an organ or tissue is of interest, the radionuclide may be a type of radioactive oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, or gallium.
The radionuclide is administered into a vein through an intravenous (IV) line. Next, the PET scanner slowly moves over the part of the body being examined. Positrons are emitted by the breakdown of the radionuclide. Gamma rays called annihilation photons are created when positrons collide with electrons near the decay event. The scanner then detects the annihilation photons, which arrive at the detectors in coincidence at 180 degrees apart from one another. A computer analyzes those gamma rays and uses the information to create an image map of the organ or tissue being studied. The amount of the radionuclide collected in the tissue affects how brightly the tissue appears on the image, and indicates the level of organ or tissue function.
Why is PET performed?
In general, PET scans may be used to evaluate organs and/or tissues for the presence of disease or other conditions. PET may also be used to evaluate the function of organs, such as the heart or brain. The most common use of PET is in the detection of cancer and the evaluation of cancer treatment.
More specific reasons for PET scans include, but are not limited to, the following:
To diagnose dementias (conditions that involve deterioration of mental function), such as Alzheimer's disease, as well as other neurological conditions such as:
Parkinson's disease. A progressive disease of the nervous system in which a fine tremor, muscle weakness, and a peculiar type of gait are seen.
Huntington's disease. A hereditary disease of the nervous system which causes increasing dementia, bizarre involuntary movements, and abnormal posture.
Epilepsy. A brain disorder involving recurrent seizures.
Cerebrovascular accident (stroke)
To locate the specific surgical site prior to surgical procedures of the brain
To evaluate the brain after trauma to detect hematoma (blood clot), bleeding, and/or perfusion (blood and oxygen flow) of the brain tissue
To detect the spread of cancer to other parts of the body from the original cancer site
To evaluate the effectiveness of cancer treatment
To evaluate the perfusion (blood flow) to the myocardium (heart muscle) as an aid in determining the usefulness of a therapeutic procedure to improve blood flow to the myocardium
To further identify lung lesions or masses detected on chest X-ray and/or chest CT
To assist in the management and treatment of lung cancer by staging lesions and following the progress of lesions after treatment
To detect recurrence of tumors earlier than with other diagnostic modalities
Find an Imaging Location
How is PET performed?
PET scans can be done on an outpatient basis. It is also possible that some hospital inpatients may undergo a PET examination for certain conditions.
Although each facility may have specific protocols in place, generally, a PET scan procedure follows this process:
The patient will be asked to remove any clothing, jewelry, or other objects that may interfere with the scan.
If asked to remove clothing, the patient will be given a gown to wear.
The patient will be asked to empty his or her bladder prior to the start of the procedure.
One or 2 IV lines will be started in the hand or arm for injection of the radionuclide.
Certain types of scans of the abdomen or pelvis may require that a urinary catheter be inserted into the bladder to drain urine during the procedure.
In some cases, an initial scan may be performed prior to the injection of the radionuclide, depending on the type of study being done. The patient will be positioned on a padded table inside the scanner.
The radionuclide will be injected into the IV. The radionuclide will be allowed to concentrate in the organ or tissue for about 30 to 60 minutes. The patient will remain in the facility during this time. The patient will not be hazardous to other people, as the radionuclide emits less radiation than a standard X-ray.
After the radionuclide has been absorbed for the appropriate length of time, the scan will begin. The scanner will move slowly over the body part being studied.
When the scan has been completed, the IV line will be removed. If a urinary catheter has been inserted, it will be removed.


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Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate and famed Burmese democracy advocate, is currently on tour in the U.S., where she'll be feted and honored at every stop she makes. On Sept. 19, she received the Congressional Gold Medal and met privately with President Barack Obama. Suu Kyi spent the better part of two decades imprisoned and kept under house arrest by Burma's thuggish military junta. But she was released in 2010 and now, as the junta has given way to a quasi-civilian government, is a ranking member of parliament. This week, the Burmese government released 541 prisoners in a new round of amnesties (87 of whom are recognized as political prisoners). Still, Suu Kyi bears with her the legacy of a half century of dissent and struggle in what was one of the world's most repressive states, and warns foreign audiences that Burma's path to a just society has a far way to go.
Working on a series originally entitled 'Even Though I'm Free I Am Not,' photographer James Mackay spent three years taking portraits of Burmese dissidents and democracy activists, including Suu Kyi. In each photo, the subject lifts his or her hand in the classic Buddhist gesture of the 'abhaya mudra,' a sign representing protection, peace and the dispelling of fear. Inscribed on their raised hands are the names of allies, friends, kindred spirits who were still in detention at the time the photo was taken.


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The U.S. Department of Justice sued eBay last week for agreeing not to poach employees from rival Intuit. According to the Department's press release, "eBay's agreement with Intuit hurt employees by lowering the salaries and benefits they might have received and deprived them of better job opportunities at the other company." DOJ maintains that agreements among rivals not to compete for workers have long been deemed per se illegal. (Indeed, Google, Apple, Adobe, and Pixar quickly settled antitrust claims based on similar non-poaching arrangements in 2010.)
DOJ is right to attack this type of arrangement. Apart from harming individual employees, non-poaching agreements occasion a societal harm: They preclude labor resources from being channeled to their highest and best uses. To poach a competitor's star employee, you must offer to pay that employee more than she's currently making (or otherwise adjust the terms of her employment in a way she deems desirable). Her current employer will usually have a chance to counter your offer. If you win the bidding war, it's likely because the current employer's willingness-to-pay for the employee—an amount reflective of the degree by which the employee enhances her firm's value—is less than yours. If you can derive more value from the employee, you should have her. When employers agree to limit competition for workers, they preclude labor resources from flowing to their highest and best ends, causing an "allocative inefficiency."
So perhaps DOJ should go after the members of the Association of American Law Schools. Pursuant to a Statement of Good Practices to which AALS members scrupulously adhere, each law school has agreed to limit competition with its rivals by refraining from making lateral offers of employment after March 1 each year. Unlike the eBay/Intuit arrangement, the competing law schools' trade restraint is applicable for only part of the year–from March 1 until the fall hiring season–but it has the same basic effect as the eBay arrangement. And, despite the law schools' claims to the contrary, it isn't justified on efficiency grounds.
By preventing law professors from credibly threatening to leave their existing employers after March 1, the AALS restraint significantly reduces professors' ability to negotiate higher wages or more favorable employment terms. If you announce a competing school's offer six weeks before fall classes start, you're much more likely to receive an attractive counter-offer from your current employer than you would be if you sprang the news of your potential departure six months before the start of classes, when you're more easily replaced. What's more, law schools generally don't tell professors what they'll be earning the following year until after March 1, when it's too late for a disgruntled professor to secure another offer elsewhere. The AALS restraint thus artificially depresses the salaries of a school's most desirable professors.
Now this might not seem like something to get worked up over. Most people think law professors are a spoiled lot. They have relatively low teaching loads and, despite the fact that most lack PhDs, they generally earn a good deal more than most academics. Why should DOJ intervene on behalf of these fat cats? Because the law schools' non-poaching arrangement diminishes the quality of legal education. Here's why.
At most law schools, where equality of end-states tends to be fetishized, professors are generally compensated in lock-step according to seniority. There's some variation, but apart from endowed positions, starting salaries and annual raises are around the same level for everyone.
Talent and effort, by contrast, are not evenly distributed. Most law schools have some super-stars who are exceptional teachers and scholars, a number of "solid" professors who put in their time and provide competent teaching and enough scholarship to stay engaged, and a fair bit of dead weight. Lock-step compensation depresses the incentive to move into the first category and enhances the attractiveness of the last. It's favored by administrators, though, because it permits them to avoid awkward conversations about merit.
If late-in-time departures of professors were a real possibility, administrators would have a stronger incentive to keep their most productive folks happy. They could stand to lose teachers with low course enrollments, so they probably wouldn't worry too much about keeping their salaries relatively high. They'd also know that their less productive scholars are unlikely to receive a late offer. But highly productive scholars who also provide lots of the thing the law school is ultimately selling–law teaching–would likely begin to earn higher salaries than their less valuable colleagues. With compensation more accurately reflecting the value professors provide, labor resources would be allocated more efficiently. And, of course, law professors would have an increased incentive to make themselves both "poachable" and indispensable by firing on all cylinders–teaching, scholarship, and service.
But don't the law schools need their non-poaching arrangement in order to prevent scheduling disorder that would hurt students? That's certainly what they claim. The "Statement of Good Practices" memorializing the law schools' collusive agreement begins:
[T]he departure of a full-time law teacher always requires changes at the law school. Unless the school is given sufficient time to make the necessary arrangements to find another to offer the instruction given by the departing teacher, the reasonable expectations of students will be frustrated and the school's educational program otherwise disrupted. To serve the best interests of the program of legal education from which the teacher is departing and that to which she or he may be going, the Association urges that law schools and law faculty members follow these suggested practices….
A horizontal restraint of trade, though, isn't necessary to prevent the sort of harm the law schools envision. If a law school believes it needs some amount of lead time to prepare for a professor's departure, it may unilaterally negotiate contracts with its professors obligating them to provide a certain amount of notice before any departure and specifying liquidated damages for breach. Unlike the "one-size-fits-all" AALS restraint, such contracts could accommodate heterogeneous needs and preferences. For example, required lead times and the amount of liquidated damages could vary based on the location of the school (urban with lots of adjunct possibilities vs. rural with few), the degree to which the professor's course offerings require a specialized background (Securities Regulation vs. Contracts), and the pedagogical importance of the courses (Business Organizations vs. Law & Literature). Moreover, this contractarian approach, unlike the AALS's horizontal restraint, would further allocative efficiency across law schools: If Raider Law is willing to pay Target Law's hot professor an amount that will increase her salary and cover the liquidated damages she owes Target because of an untimely departure, then Raider must value her more than Target and should get her. Thus, it is possible to achieve the practical benefit the AALS restraint purports to pursue without using a horizontal restraint and in a manner that permits allocative efficiency.
A horizontal agreement not to compete should not be allowed to stand when a less restrictive, easily achieved vertical option could secure the retraint's benefits. See, e.g., Maricopa County Med. Soc'y (condemning an efficiency-enhancing maximum price-fixing agreement among physicians and observing that the procompetitive benefit occasioned by the restraint could be achieved via vertical agreements rather than a horizontal restraint); NCAA (refusing to allow the need for competitive balance to immunize a naked horizontal restraint because such balance could be achieved less restrictively); cf. Professional Engineers (horizontal agreement not to engage in price negotiations in order to assure high-quality engineering illegal when substantive quality standards could achieve same result).
Perhaps one day the DOJ will acknowledge that American law schools are competitors and, for the benefit of law students and the legal profession, ought to act like it.


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Monday, August 2, 2010
Thinking 'bout Psionics
My own renewed interest in psionics is twofold. First, ever since my stillborn attempt to produce an old school psionics system for use with the retro-clones, I've thought that I ought to revisit the topic from a slightly different angle. Second, without revealing too much to my players, I think there's definitely a place for psionics in my Dwimmermount campaign. Indeed, over the last few sessions, I've found myself thinking that I really need to come up with a psionics system that "feels right," so that I won't miss the opportunity to introduce it into the campaign when the moment arises.
So far, though, I don't have any new insights into the topic and so I'm left more or less where I was last time. I remain committed to using Eldritch Wizardry's system as a starting point, because, to me anyway, that funky system has a great deal of flavor that I want to preserve. Figuring out a way to preserve that flavor and create something that's, well, actually playable and isn't a bookkeeping nightmare. Beyond that, I am not yet sure how to proceed, but it's something I am cogitating upon a lot these days, so don't be surprised if you see a bunch of psionics posts here over the next couple of weeks.
32 comments:
For me, the questions become; what is psionics other than just another magic system? Why is it needed, when you have magic-user spells, illusionist spells, cleric spells, and druid spells? If you want to make a new type of spell caster, fine and dandy; do so, make the spells, and move on.
I think the whole notion of it not being a good fit with D&D stems from its filling the same ecological niche as magic. I'd put the AD&D psionics rules in a game of Gamma World or Metamorphosis: Alpha in a heartbeat (with maybe a tweak or two). But in D&D, they're superfluous.But in D&D, they're superfluous.
I see psionics vs. magic as roughly equivalent to orcs vs. [insert your favorite humanoid race here], demons vs. devils, clerics vs. paladins, or innumerable other similar topics. No, they're not needed and, yes, they fill a similar role to magic spells but they bring another option to the table in terms of both mechanics and flavor.James, since you base your D&D in the pulp fantasies that inspired it, is there one or more that mix psionics and magic in the same world in a way that they feel genuinely different?
I can't think of any pulp fantasies that do this, but the distinction between magic and mental powers is a strong one in comic books throughout the Silver Age of the medium. I'd hazard a guess that it's from comics that the idea the notion took root and spread to gaming.Gygax once said that the whole inspiration for psionics came from some group of gamers he met with for an afternoon in Chicago (if I'm remembering the details correctly). He regretted it from the start.
But to your other point, if it's "just another way of making stuff happen supernaturally", why not just call it magic and give it a list of unique mental-type spells? I still don't see the need for an entirely different, and yet parallel, system.Gygax once said that the whole inspiration for psionics came from some group of gamers he met with for an afternoon in Chicago (if I'm remembering the details correctly). He regretted it from the start.
As I understand it, Steve Marsh was the immediate origin of the Supplement III psionics rules. He created a whole class built around it and Gary pulled the class apart to create a more generalized system.
It's certainly the case that Gary regretted it, as he did many other aspects of AD&D, which is fine. I don't think anyone should feel bound to include psionics in their campaigns, but I do think there's a place for it.
But to your other point, if it's "just another way of making stuff happen supernaturally", why not just call it magic and give it a list of unique mental-type spells? I still don't see the need for an entirely different, and yet parallel, system.
As I said, there's no need for it, but, if one likes the idea of psionics, and the basis for its powers is different than magic, why not use a different system? I'm not a big fan these days of shoehorning everything into a one-size-fits-all template, which is my biggest beef with most psionics systems for D&D. I find the welter of parallel systems in D&D to be fun and interesting rather than annoying, but I can appreciate it's not to everyone's taste.In a D&D-like world, I'd imagine that most people would consider psionics to be magic, even if the psionicists and wizards didn't.
Maybe the resulting pedantic geek-rage fuels their psionic powers :)
What flavour would a psionicist class have? I'd think of ancient, advanced, enlightened but world-weary aliens/evolved ex-humans, rather like the Watcher of Marvel Comics, or to a lesser extent Mr Spock.
I like how OD&D states that psionic powers derive from yoga.I'm working on psionics rules over at Huge Ruined Pile but am not sure if I'll implement them. If I don't, it'll be because of mechanical concerns.
There's definitely no *need* for a psionics system, it adds a layer of relatively complex bookkeeping, it works differently than magic, and it's not a perfect thematic dovetail with the default setting implied by the rules.
However, part of the attraction of OD&D for me is that it's a baroque edifice with lots of nooks, crannies, and overhangs that add up to something pretty neat, like a sprawling mansion designed by 12 different brilliant but crazy architects.
(Contrast with Harn, which is much more of a spitwad than is popularly recognized, but in which psionics are still a bit jarring.)
I'm blithely unaffected by concerns of thematic or mechanical consistency, or I sure wouldn't be playing OD&D, which is a nightmare in those regards. I just think psionics are kind of cool, and if I work out a system I can live with, I'll be happy to let the Lanierian psychic hang out with the Vancian wizards, the medieval militants, and the Hobbits.
Word verification: dhumb ;)Psionics to me scream Lovecraft. Mind Flayers, su-monsers, intellect devourers. 4E took the right track with really emphasising the aberrant nature of these creatures, or "the far realm".
A demon can be summoned with magic, A demon-lord can use magic, but it's the psionic powers that it has that melts your mind! It's the mix of vance and lovecraft.I'm also working on psionics to include in my Labyrinth Lord game, but I'm only including them as something a character can acquire in a very specific way by interacting with a specific group. I'm making the separate from the magic system specifically to distinguish them as one of the more science fiction-style elements of my world. I haven't decided on the mechanics yet, but I've been looking at Eldritch Wizardry, AD&D (1st and 2nd eds), Traveller, old Dragon magazines, and even 3.x for ideas. I'm basically trying to wrap my head around all of the various ideas and come up with something that has the flavor I want, works in the game, and isn't a bookkeeping nightmare. So I'm pretty much working along the same lines but planning to keep it more rare and less generally available in my campaign. If you want to knock some ideas around, let me know.
ReplyDeleteWhy not make psionics the "7th stat". Kind of like the idea that gets bandied about like "perception" being part of the 3d6 str/dex/con/int/wis/cha that gets rolled at character creation. Or "tech level" in that one science fiction game. 3d6. A 17 psionic score means 170 attack and defense points. Not everyone needs this 7th stat of course.
/shrugI'm looking forward to your thoughts, James. I've always envisioned psionics as something that requires extraordinary mental discipline -- e.g., something that shows up in pulp kung fu. In that sense if I were trying to come up with a mechanic, I'd want to somehow capture that constrained randomness...maybe by making some proportion of level be the modifier to a roll. I'd also want to somehow capture the idea that an effect only persists via intense concentration, but since I hate point-based systems, I'd have to think about that. And the "effects" / "abilities" could be limited in very interesting ways. E.g., They might be mostly self-oriented, or emotion-oriented, or purely "read minds" / "explode brains." :)
ReplyDeleteRolemaster's Spell Law categorises magic (quite well, I think) into three main areas. Chanelling: magic direct from 'the gods' or other external source; Sorcery, which manipulates some kind of magical force inherent in the world; and what it calls Mentalism (=psionics) which is a little like Chanelling except that the energy comes from the individual, and the effects are generally personal or person to person, affecting moods, emotions or mental states, as Mark suggested.
The game Dragon Warriors also has the Mystic class, which are basically Mentalists or Psionicists. Their magic has a slightly different system and the spells have a different flavour to the sorceror.
The Tekumel game also has psionic type spells/effects though of course that is more science-fantasy.
And like UWS Guy says, those crazy psionic monsters in D&D like the Mind Flayers, Githyanki, Su Monsters etc. are scary because they are so alien, and save vs. spells doesn't work against Psychic Crush.My problem with psionics is not one of flavour, but of (and I know you hate this word) balance. Referring to your previous posts, it seems psionics are arbitrarily rare, fairly powerful, unlikely to be explored in any detail and disconnected from all the cost/reward systems of the rest of the game (level limits, numbers of XP per level etc). In one way I can appreciate the idea behind this - psionics are radically uncontrolled and unpredictable talents, a matter of luck rather than choice - but in another way I think it's a mistake to add big systems to the architecture of the game which do not obey the principles of that architecture.
I am greatly in favour of psionic monsters, equipment, castles, islands, alien bases, and so on. Psionic characters... I'd be inclined to increase the unpredictability in use OR restore the character class. After all, who trains them?I had been using BRP's psychic powers set just tacked onto to 1e prior to the release of Classic Fantasy and using the much maligned RQ3 Spirit Combat as a model for psionic combat. I love psionics. 1e's system was a little too complicated for me. The powers were fine, but the attack and defense modes were really clunky.
ReplyDeleteJust as I loved the AD&D psionic rules, if I had to create new psionic rules for a retro-clone I would take a totally different route.
Indeed I would create a system of Psionics as "super powers" so creating different groups of psionic powers and giving specific powers (no power points, no fire and forget) with level growing effects. Since this would be always on they should require to hit, saving throw and not be overly powerfull (something you can also do with magic weapons only in a more super ways).I like the option to have psionics - it's another tool in the box. But using every tool for every job is dumb. I don't like kitchen sink fantasy.
In actual fact psionics are much closer to how I like magic to appear. I don't like fireworks and lasers and other special FX. I like magic to be subtle and unseen.
In my dream campaign I would throw out the arcane and divine magic rules and replace them with psionics. It would still be 'magic' and would be called as such, but it would look and work like psionics.
Maybe one day.- AnonymousAugust 3, 2010 at 7:40 PM
You can certainly have both. The Marvel Universe works fine with both Professor X and Dr. Strange.
There was one of the R.A. Salvatore books (Starless Night?) that dealt with a particular house of Drow with psionics. I thought it was handled well. if you were running a game of GW, or M:A, or even Mutant Future, would you want to include a Vancian spell system to include magic into the setting? If not, why not?
Interestingly, I have in fact done just this in the past. I once ran a game that freely mixed magic and mutations, as per the DMG, and found it enjoyable. Would I always want to do it? No, but it's a viable option and one that is as well grounded within gaming history as D&D's inclusion of psionics side by side with magic.However, part of the attraction of OD&D for me is that it's a baroque edifice with lots of nooks, crannies, and overhangs that add up to something pretty neat, like a sprawling mansion designed by 12 different brilliant but crazy architects.
Now that I think of it, maybe that's the issue here. I'm looking at this from an OD&D perspective rather than an AD&D one. AD&D has always felt more "unified" to me, right down to its cosmology, so perhaps it does make sense to say, in that context, that psionics "don't fit." But OD&D? Nah, anything goes. :)Maybe you could start with the Turn Undead mechanic. You've got a chart of HD, and you roll 2d6 against it. Here's the results for "Telephathy" chart:
R - Read thoughts.
P - Project a though/idea. This might be telepathy, or an illusion, or just a memory of how incredibly tasty those cookies are.
B - Mind blast. Like a Mind Flayer, but start with stuns and Sleep-like effects.
W - Mind wipe. Leaves the target catatonic. A really high potency it simply wipes out their memory and personality forever.
A Telepath can voluntarily take an effective 4-level penalty on his chart to make an area (multiple target) effect instead of a beam (single target) effect.
You could also have charts for ESP, Telekinesis, whatever.
I don't know if I'd base this system is monastic asceticism or Weird Tales "stuff from the beyond", but I would definitely include rules to play up whatever source I chose.- AnonymousAugust 23, 2010 at 11:37 AM
If you're looking for a fantasy author who combines a lot of different magic systems, including psionics, Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos novels are ideal.


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Bent Prongs
Bent prongs can occur for a number of reasons, whether its because you've accidentaly dropped a heavy object on your ring, the prongs have been caught by cloth, you closed the door on your ring or it was slammed against an object. In these situations, you run the risk of one prong or several prongs being misshapen, pulled off of the diamond or broken off entirely. Once a problem is noticed, the ring should be brought to your jeweler for a professional assessment.
Missing Side Stones
If any of your side gemstones are missing, it is critical to bring your jewelry in to any reputable jeweler to assess why it happened and the cost to replace it.
Bent Bottom Shank
Picking up heavy weights (with most of the weight resting on the bottom of the ring,) hitting something too hard, or any strenuous work could ultimately result in bending the bottom half of your ring. In the event of this happening, take it to a reliable jeweler to assess the problem.
Ring Stuck On Your Finger
In the event that your ring simply will not come off, it is best to seek a reputable jeweler to cut off the ring for you; they typically insert a ring cutter that fits between the bottom of the ring and your finger to carefully cut a very small section off. Once this is complete, you can slowly pull the ring apart and bring it over your knuckle. After this process, it is still possible to repair the ring; ask the jeweler about the cost associated with fixing the missing piece of metal.
Loose Side Stones
If you find that any of your side stones are loose, have a reputable jeweler tighten the prongs or metal surrounding or holding the stone.
In-Store Jewelry Maintenance
In an effort to fix any problems that may have been previously overlooked, it is important to bring your jewelry in every six months for inspection. Not only can this potentially save you time and money - it will also catch any gemstones that may be loose before they have fallen out.


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A critical thinking experiment in real time
I've been talking a lot lately about teaching kids critical thinking. I've been pretty hard on the schools, for stressing memorization and regurgitation, and ignoring the process
But on Monday, April 26, we all have a chance to strike a blow for critical thinking on a global scale.
Let me explain.
Over the past six months or so, a variety of garden-variety idiots have variously attributed tectonic plate phenomena to cosmic wrath.
Pat Robertson explained on national TV that the Haitian earthquake was caused by retribution for the Haitians' "pact with the devil" over the bloody slave revolt in 1790 (wow, did that take the deity a seriously long time or what?).
Rush Limbaugh blamed the Icelandic volcanic eruption on cosmic wrath over the American health care bill (because the best way to seek vengeance against the American liberals is to seriously inconvenience John Cleese).
And Iran's Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi announced that "Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes." (We are women, hear us roar–our boobs have unimaginable power.)
This last inane statement, unlike the first two, is what we science types call a "testable hypothesis."
And it is going to be tested. Oh, yes. A critical thinking experiment is being planned in real time. The brainchild of Jen McCreight, who blogs at Blag Hag. BOOBQUAKE is designed to test the concept that immodest dress causes tectonic plate disruption.
Women are asked to wear their lowest cut, most immodest blouse on April 26th. If you happen to wear a short skirt, too, I can't imagine that that would skew the results.
I have a see-through t-shirt that should do nicely.
To drive the lesson home to our kids, though, it's important to make sure they understand the working hypothesis of the experiment. Then park them in front of CNN for the day, and let them watch, like we did when Katrina was leveling New Orleans.
I'm going to pop popcorn.


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The Romak-3/PSL is the military version of a Romanian sniper rifle that is now available in the U.S. The commercial version is just called the Romak-3, and it looks to be an interesting foreign offering.
The rifle is basically the romanian version of the…
Russian Dragunov sniper rifle.
Click here to visit the Romak-3/PSL page at Dragunov.net.
Click here to read a range report on the Romak 3.


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Billionaire Michael Bloomberg's plan to invest $50 million in what he describes as a mom-driven grass-roots effort to support pro-gun-safety candidates grabbed headlines Wednesday, and energized gun control activists.
The commitment, the former New York City mayor says, aims to beat back the profound political influence of the National Rifle Association in 15 targeted states — to "make them afraid of us," he told NBC's Todayshow.
"This is what the American public wants," Bloomberg said, referring to his group's intended focus on gun-purchase background checks.
Polls show that Bloomberg, 72, is correct — Americans overwhelmingly support background checks for all gun purchases.
But Bloomberg and his ally in this , Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, have so far fallen short of overpowering the NRA, and Bloomberg's critics have argued his efforts aren't worth the money.
Just a year ago, in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 children and six adults dead, the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate failed to pass bipartisan gun safety legislation that included expanded background checks. Bloomberg spent millions supporting the legislation, including paying for tough television advertisements.
Since Newtown, a dozen state legislatures have passed stricter gun safety laws, but twice as many have loosened restrictions. Two Colorado legislators who supported that state's new gun control legislation were removed from office in a recall election viewed as a proxy war between the NRA and Bloomberg. (A third legislator facing recall resigned.)
And in the dozen-plus years that have passed since hundreds of thousands of gun safety activists participated in the Million Mom March on Washington in 2000, that momcentric effort has largely fizzled.
What suggests that Bloomberg, whose Mayors Against Illegal Guns has joined with Moms Demand Action to form the new group, will see a better result?
"Politically, this looks very similar to the past, when there is an impulse for change that falters," says Robert Spitzer, who has written extensively on gun politics, including the 2012 Encyclopedia of Gun Policy and Gun Rights.
The difference now, Spitzer says, is that "there are substantial, high-visibility, well-funded groups that didn't exist previously." Those groups include Bloomberg's and the political action committee created by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and her husband. Giffords was seriously injured in early 2011 in a mass shooting that killed six people.
Her PAC, Americans for Responsible Solutions, reported raising $2.5 million the first three months of this year, has $7.7 million on hand, and has raised $14.5 million since its creation last year.
Bloomberg insisted Wednesday that he's not undertaking a "battle of dollars" with the NRA, which in the 2012 campaign cycle spent about $20 million. But the claim seemed more than a bit disingenuous.
"That's real money," Spitzer says of Bloomberg's financial commitment and the Giffords' successful PAC.
Jennifer Coffey, national spokeswoman for the pro-gun-rights Second Amendment Sisters organization, says she sees Bloomberg's investment as a waste of money.
"I think he has a very unhealthy fascination with firearms, and how this inanimate object is a threat to everyone in the world," she says. "He lives in a state where people are in food lines with not enough to eat, who are jobless — why doesn't he focus on them? Or on criminals running through his streets, destroying homes, families, businesses?"
Coffey says her major concern with gun-purchase background checks is proposals that would put mental health records into a national database. She predicts that first responders who have sought counseling because of job stresses would be targeted, as would those who have been treated for depression.
"Mental illness is not a crime," Coffey says.
At the California-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, however, Executive Director Robyn Thomas hailed the mayor's investment — and his potential future contributions — as something that will give state legislators courage to pursue gun safety efforts.
"One of the challenges in getting smart laws even considered has been the NRA's money and influence in the political arena," she said. "This investment and this commitment neutralizes some of that.
"Unlike the Million Mom March, having really organized, effective grass-roots efforts in conjunction with the money — that combination has the potential to be incredibly effective."
The grass-roots appeal to women remains a powerful tool, though, political scientist Spitzer says. The focus on women — and mothers in particular — makes demographic sense, he says. Gun control is one of those gender gap issues: Not only do a higher percentage of women support expanding gun safety laws but women also are more likely to believe that gun crime is worse than statistics show.
"In many ways, this is about emotion," Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, said on Today. "We're going to go out and educate moms and women and Americans."
The message, she said: "Gun violence prevention, gun violence prevention, gun violence prevention."
With that mantra, plus money, can Bloomberg be a gun law game changer?
"The jury's out," Spitzer says.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Updated and Effective as of October 2018
We have prepared this policy ("Privacy & Cookie Policy") to explain to you how we collect, use, and share information and Personal Data (as defined under applicable law) we obtain through your use of the Internet sites, applications and online services ("Services") that are operated by, controlled by or affiliated with Bassline Ltd. and Vega-RG Ltd., including without limitation bassline.bg and dsgnclinic.com (collectively, "we," "us" or "our"). This Privacy & Cookie Policy only covers information collected through the Services and via direct communications between you and Bassline Ltd. and Vega-RG Ltd., and does not cover any information collected at any other website, application or otherwise by us (unless specifically stated), including when you call us, write to us, or communicate with us in any manner other than through the Services. By using the Services, you consent to such use of your information and Personal Data and agree to the terms of this Privacy & Cookie Policy.
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By using our Services, you automatically agree with this Privacy & Cookie Policy and the changes in it.
01. Information We Automatically Collect
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(i) Generally. We may share Non-Personal Data, including Usage Data, de-identified Personal Data and aggregated user statistics, with third parties in our discretion. We may share User Information, including Personal Data, as otherwise described in this Policy, and under the following circumstances:
(ii) Service Providers. From time to time, we may enter into relationships with third parties who provide services to us (for example, analytics companies, advertisers and ad agencies, data management and storage services or credit card processing services, sweepstakes or contest prize fulfilment). In those circumstances, we disclose User Information so that such service providers may perform those services. These service providers are only permitted to use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to enable them to provide their services to us. They are required to follow our express instructions and to comply with appropriate security measures to protect your Personal Data.
(iii) Third Party Marketing. You will have a choice (opt-in or opt-out) before we share your information with third parties for marketing purposes. Provided that you have chosen to receive marketing messages from third parties, we may share your information (including Personal Data) with third parties for those third parties' own direct marketing purposes. Please note, messages delivered from a third party will subject you to the third party's privacy policy. We may also match your email address with third parties with whom you have also consented to share your email address and use such match to deliver custom offers or emails to you on the Services and off the Services provided you have consented to receiving such offers or emails
(iv) In the event we go through a business transition (such as a merger, acquisition by another company, bankruptcy, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, including, without limitation, during the course of any due diligence process), your Personal Data will likely be among the assets transferred. By providing your Personal Data, you agree that we may transfer such information in those circumstances without your further consent.
(v) Other Disclosure Scenarios. We reserve the right, and you hereby expressly authorise us, to share User Information: (1) in response to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish, protect, or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims; (2) if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, fraud, or situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person or property; (3) if we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding significant abuse of the Services infrastructure or the Internet in general (such as voluminous spamming, denial of service attacks, or attempts to compromise the security of information); (4) to protect and defend our legal rights or property, our services or their users, or any other party, and to protect the health and safety of our users or the general public; and (5) to our parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with us (in which case we will require such entities to honour this Privacy & Cookie Policy).
When we use the term "anonymous data," we are referring to data and information that does not permit you to be identified or identifiable, either alone or when combined with any other information available to a third party. We may create anonymous data from the Personal Data we receive about you and other individuals whose Personal Data we collect. Anonymous data might include analytics information and information collected by us using cookies. We make Personal Data into anonymous data by excluding information (such as your name) that makes the data personally identifiable to you. We use this anonymous data to analyse usage patterns in order to make improvements to our Services.
If you identify any User Information as public, you are authorising us to share such information publicly. For example, you may elect to make certain of your User Submissions (such as your alias, bio, email or photos) publicly available. Also, there may be areas of the Services (for example, comment forms, message boards, discussion rooms, and other online forums) in which you are able to post information that automatically will be available to all other users of the Services. By choosing to use these areas, you understand and agree that anyone may access, use, and disclose any information that you post to those areas.
The Services are operated in Bulgaria. If you are located in another jurisdiction, please be aware that information you provide to us will be transferred to, stored and processed in Bulgaria. By using the Services or providing us with any information, you consent to this transfer, processing, and storage of your information in Bulgaria, a jurisdiction in which the privacy laws may not be as comprehensive as those in the country where you reside or are a citizen. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy & Cookie Policy.
(a) Generally. We may use other companies under agreements with us to serve third-party advertisements when you visit and use the Services. These companies may collect and use click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over during your visits to the Services and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use tracking technologies to collect this information. Other companies' use of their tracking technologies is subject to their own privacy policies, not this one.
(b) Targeted Advertising. In order to serve offers and advertisements that may be of interest to our users, we may display targeted advertisements on the Services, or other digital properties or applications in conjunction with our content, based on information provided to us by our users and information provided to us by third parties that they have independently collected. We do not provide Personal Data to our advertisers when you interact with an advertisement.
(c) Mobile. We may from time to time offer certain location or pinpoint based services, such as location assisted navigation instruction. If you elect to use such location-based services, we must periodically receive your location in order to provide such location-based services to you. By using the location-based services, you authorise us to: (i) locate your hardware; (ii) record, compile and display your location; and (iii) publish your location to third parties designated by you by means of location publication controls available within the applications (for example, settings, user preferences). As part of the location-based services, we may also collect and store certain information about the users who elect to use such location-based services, such as a device id. This information will be used to provide you the location-based services. We may use third-party providers to help provide location-based services through mobile systems (unless you opt out of such location-based services with such providers) and we may provide the information to such providers to enable them to provide their location-based services, provided that such providers may use the information in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy.
We offer you the opportunity to manage your communications from us. Even after subscribing to one or more newsletters and/or opting in to one or more offers to receive marketing and/or promotional communications from us or our third party partners, users may elect to modify their preferences with the "Unsubscribe" link provided in an email or communication received. You may also be able to change your preferences by updating your profile or account, depending on which of our Services you are using. Please be aware that if you wish to remove yourself from a newsletter and/or other marketing emails from third parties that you consented to through the Services, you must do so by contacting the relevant third-party. Even if you do opt-out of marketing emails, we reserve the right to send you transactional and administrative emails including those related to the Services, service announcements, notices of changes to this Privacy & Cookie Policy or other Services policies, and to contact you regarding any goods or services you have ordered.
You may access the information we hold about you. If you wish to exercise this right, please contact us using the details in the Contact Us section below. If you would like to update, correct, modify or delete from our database any Personal Data you previously submitted to us, please let us know by accessing and updating your profile. If you delete certain information you may not be able to order services in the future without re-submitting such information. We will comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. Also, please note that we will maintain Personal Data in our database whenever we are required to do so by law.
Please note that we may need to retain certain information for record keeping purposes and/or to complete any transactions that you began prior to requesting such change or deletion (for example, when you enter a promotion, you may not be able to change or delete the Personal Data provided until after the completion of such promotion). We will retain your Personal Data for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy & Cookie Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
We have implemented commercially reasonable security measures to help protect your Personal Data from loss, misuse, or unauthorised access or disclosure; unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your User Information, we cannot guarantee its security. You use the Services and provide us with information at your own initiative and risk. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of any account you might have with us has been compromised), please immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us using the details in the Contact Us section below.
Bassline Ltd. and Vega-RG Ltd. Services and Web sites are using SSL Secure connection so the Personal Data you provide to is secured and encrypted. All un-secure requests with an "http" protocol are automatically redirected to "https". Find out more about SSL here https://www.ns1.bg/ssl-certificate/
The Services may contain links to other websites that we do not control, and the Services may contain videos, audios, photos, advertising and other content hosted and served by third parties. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third-party.
The Services are intended for a general audience and are not intended for and may not be used by children under the age of 14. We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 14 and we do not target the Services to children under the age of 14. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with information without their consent, he or she should contact us using the details in the Contact Us section below. We will delete such information from our files as soon as reasonably practicable.
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Detaining immigrant kids is now a billion-dollar industry
Detaining immigrant children has morphed into a surging industry in the U.S. that now reaps $1 billion annually — a tenfold increase over the past decade, an Associated Press analysis finds.
Health and Human Services grants for shelters, foster care and other child welfare services for detained unaccompanied and separated children soared from $74.5 million in 2007 to $958 million in 2017. The agency also is reviewing a new round of proposals amid a growing effort by the White House to keep immigrant children in government custody.
Currently, more than 11,800 children, from a few months old to 17, are housed in nearly 90 facilities in 15 states: California, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
They are being held while their parents await immigration proceedings or, if the children arrived unaccompanied, are reviewed for possible asylum themselves.
In May, the agency issued requests for bids for five projects that could total more than $500 million for beds, foster and therapeutic care, and "secure care," which means employing guards. More contracts are expected to come up for bids in October.
HHS spokesman Kenneth Wolfe said the agency will award bids "based on the number of beds needed to provide appropriate care for minors in the program."
The agency's current facilities include locations for what the Trump administration calls "tender age" children, typically under 5. Three shelters in Texas have been designated for toddlers and infants. Others — including in tents in Tornillo, Texas, and a tent-and-building temporary shelter in Homestead, Fla. — are housing older teens.
Over the last decade, by far the largest recipients of taxpayer money have been Southwest Key and Baptist Child & Family Services, AP's analysis shows. From 2008 to date, Southwest Key has received $1.39 billion in grant funding to operate shelters; Baptist Child & Family Services has received $942 million.
A Texas-based organization called International Educational Services also was a big recipient, landing more than $72 million in the last fiscal year before folding amid a series of complaints about the conditions in its shelters.
The recipients of the money run the gamut from nonprofits, religious organizations and for-profit entities. The organizations originally concentrated on housing and detaining at-risk youth but shifted their focus to immigrants when tens of thousands of Central American children started arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years.
They are essentially government contractors for the Health and Human Services Department, the federal agency that administers the program keeping immigrant children in custody. Organizations such as Southwest Key insist that the children are well cared for and that the vast sums of money they receive are necessary to house, transport, educate and provide medical care for thousands of children while complying with government regulations and court orders.
The recent uproar surrounding separated families at the border has placed the locations at the center of the controversy. A former Wal-Mart store in Texas is now a Southwest Key facility that is believed to be the biggest child immigrant facility in the country, and First Lady Melania Trump visited another Southwest Key location in Phoenix.
What it took to reunite one immigrant family separated under U.S. 'zero tolerance' policy »
Advocates on both sides of the aisle criticize that a growing number of kids are housed in government shelters, but they have different reasons — and they blame each other.
"You can't put a child in a prison. You cannot. It's immoral," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who has been visiting shelters.
Gillibrand said the shelters will continue to expand because no system is in place to reunite families separated at the border. "These are real concerns that the administration has not thought through at all," she said.
But President Trump says cracking down on immigration ultimately can lead to spending less money and having fewer immigrants in government custody.
"Illegal immigration costs our country hundreds of billions of dollars," he said at a recent rally. "So imagine if we could spend that money to help bring opportunity to our inner cities and our rural communities and our roads and our highways and our schools."
In April, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions announced a "zero tolerance policy" directing authorities to arrest, jail and prosecute anyone illegally crossing the border, including people seeking asylum and without previous offenses. As a result, more than 2,300 children were turned over to HHS.
In a recently released report, the State Department decried the general principle of holding children in shelters, saying it makes them inherently vulnerable.
"Removal of a child from the family should only be considered as a temporary, last resort," the report said. "Studies have found that both private and government-run residential institutions for children, or places such as orphanages and psychiatric wards that do not offer a family-based setting, cannot replicate the emotional companionship and attention found in family environments that are prerequisites to healthy cognitive development."
Some in the Trump administration describe the new policy as a "deterrent" to future would-be immigrants and asylum-seekers fleeing violence and abject poverty in Central America, Mexico and beyond.
But Steven Wagner, acting assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families — a division of HHS — said the policy has exposed broader issues over how the government can manage such a vast system.
"It was never intended to be a foster care system with more than 10,000 children in custody at an immediate cost to the federal taxpayer of over $1 billion dollars per year," Wagner said in a statement.
The longer a child is in government custody, the potential for emotional and physical damage grows, said Dr. Colleen Kraft, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"The foundational relationship between a parent and child is what sets the stage for that child's brain development, for their learning, for their child health, for their adult health," Kraft said.
"And you could have the nicest facility with the nicest equipment and toys and games, but if you don't have that parent, if you don't have that caring adult that can buffer the stress that these kids feel, then you're taking away the basic science of what we know helps pediatrics."
Last month, a judge in California ordered authorities to reunite children with their families by July 26 — and children younger than 5 by July 10. The government missed the July 10 deadline, though it completed more than 50 of the reunions of children under 5 by Thursday and said dozens of others are ineligible for reunification.


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This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Scott Simon is away. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Talks on Iran's nuclear program are taking place today in Istanbul. Negotiators for six world powers are hoping that Iran is prepared to make concessions to back up its claim that it's only interested in nuclear energy and not nuclear weapons. Concern has been growing that Israel might launch a pre-emptive strike in an effort to derail Iran's uranium enrichment program, which is growing closer to weapons-grade levels. NPR's Peter Kenyon is at the site of the talks in Istanbul. Peter, good morning.
PETER KENYON, BYLINE: Morning, Linda.
WERTHEIMER: Now, before these talks were set, U.S. officials said their opening position might include a demand that Iran close its enrichment site, which is buried inside a mountain in Fordo, near the holy city of Qom. Peter, is there any chance Iran would agree to something like that or is this an opening gambit?
KENYON: Well, the analysts I spoke to said they hope it's an opening gambit because they view it as a non-starter as far as the Iranians are concerned. It does reflect the mounting concern in places like Israel that if Iran is secretly trying to get a weapon, a nuclear weapon, or the capacity to build one quickly, this deep underground facility would be a likely place to do that and it would be extremely to take out from the air. From Iran's perspective, there's no reason to close the Fordo site. It's on the list of nuclear facilities that the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear agency, regularly inspects more than two dozen times a year. So, these analysts that I spoke with are hoping that progress will be made elsewhere.
WERTHEIMER: So, what do you think is the chance of progress? In the run-up, the Iranian officials suggested their negotiators were coming from Istanbul prepared to make progress. What do you think that means?
KENYON: Well, judging by what the Iranians said, it sounded like they were prepared to talk about limiting their production of 20 percent enriched uranium. This is nominally needed for a medical research reactor in Tehran. But nuclear experts worry that it's much closer to weapons-grade uranium than Iran's previous stockpile. There was an effort and a deal on this subject a couple of years ago, but you may remember, first Iran balked on its commitment and then when it finally agreed, the U.S. had lost interest and was pursuing the sanctions path. If they can get some kind of agreement on limiting the 20 percent uranium enrichment, that would be a small step forward, hardly enough to resolve this issue, but maybe a reason to keep the negotiations process going.
WERTHEIMER: Peter, the pressure on Iran has been escalating dramatically over recent months because of the ever more punitive sanctions approved by the EU and by the United States. Do you think that that is what might be softening Iran's position?
KENYON: It's possible, although officially, the Iranian position is unchanged, which is to say the more you punish us the more defiantly we will cling to our nuclear program, which is, of course, a source of national pride in Iran. But these latest sanctions, by many accounts, have done serious damage to the economy in Iran. So, while it's unlikely Iran would ever admit to responding to pressure, if a face-saving way to make a concession is presented, Tehran might be more likely to go for it now than it was, say, two years ago.
WERTHEIMER: Peter, not present at these talks but very much a factor is Israel, which has been contemplating a preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. Do officials there believe these talks can reduce that risk?
KENYON: That is exactly the hope, Linda. There's U.S. presidential elections coming. Any Iran crisis would be greatly magnified. There are serious risks of regional destabilization, a possible huge spike in oil prices. Israel says it can't afford to wait until this enrichment site at Fordo is so well-fortified that they can't reach it with their bombs. So, they have a much earlier deadline than the U.S. So, both sides, both Iran and the international players, have a strong incentive to keep the focus on negotiations now and not the military possibilities. The question is whether they can accomplish it.
WERTHEIMER: That's NPR's Peter Kenyon, who is covering the conference in Istanbul. Peter, thank you very much.
KENYON: You're welcome, Linda. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Rollie Pemberton is a poet — in fact, he was poet laureate of his hometown, Edmonton, Alberta, for a couple of years. That meant he was expected to write three poems a year about events in a town sometimes nicknamed "Dirt City." But outside of Edmonton, Pemberton is better known under a different name: Cadence Weapon, the hip-hop artist.
In poetry and song, Pemberton finds inspiration, tough and otherwise, in his Edmonton roots. The latest Cadence Weapon album, his third, is called Hope in Dirt City.
"The Edmonton I'm talking about is young Edmonton. It's my Edmonton. I'm trying to translate my experiences and relate the way people my age feel living in Edmonton, and sometimes there's a dissonant feel," Pemberton tells NPR's Scott Simon. "You know, we're famous for having a mall. It's hard to reconcile that as an artist."
Pemberton has been rapping since age 13, when a friend in math class asked him to collaborate on a rap he was writing. He says the content of his first rhymes was "lame" — but that he liked the experience well enough to keep at it.
"I always liked words growing up," he says. "I've always been kind of obsessed with words and how they connect to each other. It became kind of an exercise. I used to go on the computer and I'd be on these online message boards — you know, RapMusic.com. And I'd be battling people, text-style. I'd be writing battle raps to some stranger on the Internet, and that's how I was honing my musical personality."
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Remarks provided by the White House Press Office
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. I've just been briefed by my national security team, including FBI Director Mueller, Attorney General Holder, Secretary Napolitano, and my Counterterrorism and Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco, on the attacks in Boston. We continue to mobilize and deploy all appropriate law enforcement resources to protect our citizens, and to investigate and to respond to this attack.
Obviously our first thoughts this morning are with the victims, their families, and the city of Boston. We know that two explosions gravely wounded dozens of Americans, and took the lives of others, including a 8-year-old boy.
This was a heinous and cowardly act. And given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism. Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror. What we don't yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why; whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual. That's what we don't yet know. And clearly, we're at the beginning of our investigation.
It will take time to follow every lead and determine what happened. But we will find out. We will find whoever harmed our citizens and we will bring them to justice.
We also know this — the American people refuse to be terrorized. Because what the world saw yesterday in the aftermath of the explosions were stories of heroism and kindness, and generosity and love: Exhausted runners who kept running to the nearest hospital to give blood, and those who stayed to tend to the wounded, some tearing off their own clothes to make tourniquets. The first responders who ran into the chaos to save lives. The men and women who are still treating the wounded at some of the best hospitals in the world, and the medical students who hurried to help, saying "When we heard, we all came in." The priests who opened their churches and ministered to the hurt and the fearful. And the good people of Boston who opened their homes to the victims of this attack and those shaken by it.
So if you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil — that's it. Selflessly. Compassionately. Unafraid.
In the coming days, we will pursue every effort to get to the bottom of what happened. And we will continue to remain vigilant. I've directed my administration to take appropriate security measures to protect the American people. And this is a good time for all of us to remember that we all have a part to play in alerting authorities — if you see something suspicious, speak up.
I have extraordinary confidence in the men and women of the FBI, the Boston Police Department, and the other agencies that responded so heroically and effectively in the aftermath of yesterday's events. I'm very grateful for the leadership of Governor Patrick and Mayor Menino. And I know that even as we protect our people and aggressively pursue this investigation, the people of Boston will continue to respond in the same proud and heroic way that they have thus far — and their fellow Americans will be right there with them.
Thank you very much. And you can expect further briefings from our law enforcement officials as the day goes on. When we have more details, they will be disclosed. What I've indicated to you is what we know now. We know it was bombs that were set off. We know that obviously they did some severe damage. We do not know who did them. We do not know whether this was an act of an organization or an individual or individuals. We don't have a sense of motive yet. So everything else at this point is speculation. But as we receive more information, as the FBI has more information, as our out counterterrorism teams have more information, we will make sure to keep you and the American people posted.
Thank you very much, everybody.