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A world riden with war struggles to servive the ever advancing vampire rampage. In retaliation a small group hunters were formed from small town villagers. Will they survive or will they be destroyed.
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Tens of thousands of British jobs with Japanese firms could be at risk if the UK pulled out of the European Union, the government in Tokyo has indicated.
Its submission to the Foreign Office's review of the relationship with Brussels said Japanese firms were attracted to the UK because it offered a gateway to the prized European market.
The Sunday Times reported that the memo from the Japanese government expects the UK to maintain a "strong voice" in Brussels.
David Cameron has committed to renegotiate the UK's relationship with Brussels and then hold an in/out referendum on staying in the 28-member bloc before the end of 2017 if the Tories win the general election.
In its submission to the Government's "balance of competences review", Tokyo said it was "committed to making its relationship with the EU stronger than ever before".
It added: "In this context, it expects that the UK will maintain a strong voice and continue to play a major role in the EU.
"The UK, as a champion of free trade, is a reliable partner for Japan. More than 1,300 Japanese companies have invested in the UK, as part of the single market of the EU, and have created 130,000 jobs, more than anywhere else in Europe. This fact demonstrates that the advantage of the UK as a gateway to the European market has attracted Japanese investment."
In a statement to the Sunday Times the Japanese embassy in London said: "We know some countries decided not to submit comments but as a non-EU nation and major investor in the UK we thought it was appropriate.
"We have taken advantage of this occasion to express our expectations ... If the UK leaves the single market, countries investing in the UK and exporting to the EU would have to pay tariffs, and that is not good news."
But eurosceptic Tory MP Julian Brazier told the newspaper: "It's kind of the Japanese to give us guidance on our national destiny but at a time when the eurozone is in a crisis unseen for nearly a century I'm not sure they are well qualified to see the way forward for Britain. In deciding on our national interest we may have to disappoint their expectations."
Disney Researchers develop software tools to create physical versions of virtual charactersPublic release date: 19-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Liu jennifer.c.liu@disney.com 818-905-9905 Disney Research
Systems produce mechanical and actuated deformable characters
Achieving a desired motion in an animated physical character, whether it be a small toy or a full-sized figure, demands highly specialized engineering skills. But research teams at Disney Research have created a pair of software packages that can open the design process to people with a broader spectrum of skills and provide more creative choices.
One set of software tools can take a drawing of an articulated character and produce a type of animation that pre-dates video and film gear-driven mechanical characters, such as a dancing clock, a galloping horse or a Sisyphean character pushing a heavy load. The other set takes digital characters that are deformable rather than articulated, such as jelly monsters, plants and jiggling buildings, and helps transform them into elastic figures that can simulate the movements of their virtual forebears. In both instances, the design pipelines take advantage of rapid manufacturing methods, such as 3D printing, to fabricate the physical characters.
"Translating animated characters to the real world is an extremely difficult task, whether you are building a mechanical character such as a wind-up duck or something that has only existed in the virtual world, such as a dancing Eiffel Tower," said Bernd Bickel, research scientist at Disney Research, Zrich. "It's a process that has always required expert designers and engineers, but our new software tools could open the process to non-experts while expanding the creative choices available to all designers."
The two research projects involved investigators from Disney Research, Zrich, Disney Research, Boston, ETH Zrich and MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Both teams will present their results at ACM SIGGRAPH 2013, the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, July 21-25 in Anaheim, California.
"Although mechanical characters have been part of the toy industry since the 19th century, the design process is largely trial and error, even for the experts," said Bernhard Thomaszewski, a Disney Research, Zrich associate research scientist. "Most mechanical characters are therefore limited in scope
and complexity, inhibiting the creative freedom of designers."
He was part of a team that developed a computational design framework for mechanical characters. To make the process as easy and flexible as possible, the framework can work with arbitrary types of mechanical assemblies, including both external drives and internal gearing. To handle the complex and non-linear motions of such assemblies, they selected some representative mechanisms and then pre-computed a sampling of possible motions.
A designer can then input an articulated character into the software system, select a set of actuation points on the character and sketch a set of curves to indicate the motion desired at each point. The system then draws upon the motion library to identify the mechanical assembly and its related set-up that best matches the desired motions. Simulation software then optimizes the assembly to achieve the animation envisioned by the designer.
In further steps, the gears driving the mechanisms are connected to each other through a gear train designed in a semi-automatic fashion. The system then checks to see that mechanical components won't collide when in operation; if problems are found, they are reported to the designer, who can edit the assembly to fix them. Finally, support structures to hold the components in place are designed, making the mechanical character ready for fabrication.
The researchers demonstrated the versatility of their software pipeline by designing ten animated characters and manufacturing seven of them. Design took less than a half hour in each case.
"Our characters are currently restricted to cyclic motions," said Stelian Coros, an associate research scientist at Disney Research, Zrich. "However, our research brings us one step closer to the rapid design and manufacture of customized robots that can sense and interact with their environments to carry out complex tasks."
The creation of deformable characters presents a different set of problems since by their very nature these characters lack articulation. As input, the design system begins with a 3D representation of the figure in its neutral state as well as a set of target shapes representing the desired deformations. The user can then select actuation points in the figure or, particularly when the character lacks any apparent articulation structure, the system can suggest a number of actuators and their locations.
Once the number and approximate locations of the actuators have been decided, the system optimizes the design, taking into account whether actuation will be applied using strings, pins or clamps.
In the third design stage, the system computes the distribution of stiff and soft materials within the character that will enable the desired deformations, while maintaining the overall shape of the character. Soft materials, for instance, might be placed near joints, with stiffer materials used in the limbs. This step took the most computation time of the three, but proved powerful; the researchers demonstrated, for instance, that material optimization enabled a straight bar to be deformed into four shapes very close to the target shapes using just two clamp-type actuators.
The researchers designed and fabricated both two-dimensional and three-dimensional characters six in all with the prototypes showing good agreement with their simulations.
"We believe our method is an important step toward physics-based design of real-world characters," Bickel said. "Now, we'd like to explore using a larger number or range of materials to build these characters and to design more elaborate actuation systems so that the animation of complex structures could be automated."
###
In addition to Bickel, the team developing the design system for deformable characters included Coros, Thomaszewski, Melina Skouras and Markus Gross of Disney Research, Zrich. For more information and a video, visit the project website at http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/actuated-deformable-characters/.
The team developing the system for mechanically animated characters included Bickel, Robert Summer and Gioacchino Noris of Disney Research, Zrich, Shinjiro Sueda and Moira Forberg of Disney Research, Boston and Wojciech Matusik of MIT, as well as Coros and Thomaszewski. For more information and a video, visit the project web site at http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/mechanical-characters/.
About Disney Research
Disney Research is a network of research laboratories supporting The Walt Disney Company. Its purpose is to pursue scientific and technological innovation to advance the company's broad media and entertainment efforts. Disney Research is managed by an internal Disney Research Council co-chaired by Disney-Pixar's Ed Catmull and Walt Disney Imagineering's Bruce Vaughn, and including the directors of the individual labs. It has facilities in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston and Zrich. Research topics include computer graphics, video processing, computer vision, robotics, radio and antennas, wireless communications, human-computer interaction, displays, data mining, machine learning and behavioral sciences.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Disney Researchers develop software tools to create physical versions of virtual charactersPublic release date: 19-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Liu jennifer.c.liu@disney.com 818-905-9905 Disney Research
Systems produce mechanical and actuated deformable characters
Achieving a desired motion in an animated physical character, whether it be a small toy or a full-sized figure, demands highly specialized engineering skills. But research teams at Disney Research have created a pair of software packages that can open the design process to people with a broader spectrum of skills and provide more creative choices.
One set of software tools can take a drawing of an articulated character and produce a type of animation that pre-dates video and film gear-driven mechanical characters, such as a dancing clock, a galloping horse or a Sisyphean character pushing a heavy load. The other set takes digital characters that are deformable rather than articulated, such as jelly monsters, plants and jiggling buildings, and helps transform them into elastic figures that can simulate the movements of their virtual forebears. In both instances, the design pipelines take advantage of rapid manufacturing methods, such as 3D printing, to fabricate the physical characters.
"Translating animated characters to the real world is an extremely difficult task, whether you are building a mechanical character such as a wind-up duck or something that has only existed in the virtual world, such as a dancing Eiffel Tower," said Bernd Bickel, research scientist at Disney Research, Zrich. "It's a process that has always required expert designers and engineers, but our new software tools could open the process to non-experts while expanding the creative choices available to all designers."
The two research projects involved investigators from Disney Research, Zrich, Disney Research, Boston, ETH Zrich and MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Both teams will present their results at ACM SIGGRAPH 2013, the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, July 21-25 in Anaheim, California.
"Although mechanical characters have been part of the toy industry since the 19th century, the design process is largely trial and error, even for the experts," said Bernhard Thomaszewski, a Disney Research, Zrich associate research scientist. "Most mechanical characters are therefore limited in scope
and complexity, inhibiting the creative freedom of designers."
He was part of a team that developed a computational design framework for mechanical characters. To make the process as easy and flexible as possible, the framework can work with arbitrary types of mechanical assemblies, including both external drives and internal gearing. To handle the complex and non-linear motions of such assemblies, they selected some representative mechanisms and then pre-computed a sampling of possible motions.
A designer can then input an articulated character into the software system, select a set of actuation points on the character and sketch a set of curves to indicate the motion desired at each point. The system then draws upon the motion library to identify the mechanical assembly and its related set-up that best matches the desired motions. Simulation software then optimizes the assembly to achieve the animation envisioned by the designer.
In further steps, the gears driving the mechanisms are connected to each other through a gear train designed in a semi-automatic fashion. The system then checks to see that mechanical components won't collide when in operation; if problems are found, they are reported to the designer, who can edit the assembly to fix them. Finally, support structures to hold the components in place are designed, making the mechanical character ready for fabrication.
The researchers demonstrated the versatility of their software pipeline by designing ten animated characters and manufacturing seven of them. Design took less than a half hour in each case.
"Our characters are currently restricted to cyclic motions," said Stelian Coros, an associate research scientist at Disney Research, Zrich. "However, our research brings us one step closer to the rapid design and manufacture of customized robots that can sense and interact with their environments to carry out complex tasks."
The creation of deformable characters presents a different set of problems since by their very nature these characters lack articulation. As input, the design system begins with a 3D representation of the figure in its neutral state as well as a set of target shapes representing the desired deformations. The user can then select actuation points in the figure or, particularly when the character lacks any apparent articulation structure, the system can suggest a number of actuators and their locations.
Once the number and approximate locations of the actuators have been decided, the system optimizes the design, taking into account whether actuation will be applied using strings, pins or clamps.
In the third design stage, the system computes the distribution of stiff and soft materials within the character that will enable the desired deformations, while maintaining the overall shape of the character. Soft materials, for instance, might be placed near joints, with stiffer materials used in the limbs. This step took the most computation time of the three, but proved powerful; the researchers demonstrated, for instance, that material optimization enabled a straight bar to be deformed into four shapes very close to the target shapes using just two clamp-type actuators.
The researchers designed and fabricated both two-dimensional and three-dimensional characters six in all with the prototypes showing good agreement with their simulations.
"We believe our method is an important step toward physics-based design of real-world characters," Bickel said. "Now, we'd like to explore using a larger number or range of materials to build these characters and to design more elaborate actuation systems so that the animation of complex structures could be automated."
###
In addition to Bickel, the team developing the design system for deformable characters included Coros, Thomaszewski, Melina Skouras and Markus Gross of Disney Research, Zrich. For more information and a video, visit the project website at http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/actuated-deformable-characters/.
The team developing the system for mechanically animated characters included Bickel, Robert Summer and Gioacchino Noris of Disney Research, Zrich, Shinjiro Sueda and Moira Forberg of Disney Research, Boston and Wojciech Matusik of MIT, as well as Coros and Thomaszewski. For more information and a video, visit the project web site at http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/mechanical-characters/.
About Disney Research
Disney Research is a network of research laboratories supporting The Walt Disney Company. Its purpose is to pursue scientific and technological innovation to advance the company's broad media and entertainment efforts. Disney Research is managed by an internal Disney Research Council co-chaired by Disney-Pixar's Ed Catmull and Walt Disney Imagineering's Bruce Vaughn, and including the directors of the individual labs. It has facilities in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston and Zrich. Research topics include computer graphics, video processing, computer vision, robotics, radio and antennas, wireless communications, human-computer interaction, displays, data mining, machine learning and behavioral sciences.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The investigator who wrote a scathing report about the Internal Revenue Service targeting tea party groups says he is "disturbed" the agency withheld newly released documents showing progressive groups may also have been singled out for additional scrutiny.
IRS Inspector General J. Russell George told a congressional panel Thursday the IRS did not provide the documents to his office during a yearlong audit. George said he just received the documents last week.
George issued a report in May that said IRS agents in a Cincinnati office improperly singled out groups with "tea party" and other conservative labels for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.
George's report blamed ineffective management for allowing the practice to continue for more than 18 months, delaying hundreds of applications for more than a year.
Since the revelations were made public, three congressional committees and the Justice Department launched investigations and much of the top leadership was replaced, including the acting commissioner.
"The reason the report focuses on the terms 'tea party,' 'patriots' and '9/12' is that the IRS provided us a document at the beginning of our audit that shows these were the terms they used to select the potential political cases," George told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Last month, the IRS provided documents to Congress that suggested some liberal and progressive groups may have been singled out for additional scrutiny as well ? information that was not included in George's May report. Some Democratic lawmakers said this was proof that George's report was one-sided.
"The committee has obtained new documents that raise serious questions about the inspector general's report, his testimony before Congress and his subsequent assertions in letters to members of Congress," said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the oversight committee.
George, however, said he first saw the documents last week.
"They were not provided during our audit, even though similar documents that list 'tea party' but not 'progressive' were," George said. "I am very disturbed that these documents were not provided to our auditors at the outset, and we are currently reviewing this issue."
George also noted that IRS officials publicly agreed with his findings that the targeting focused on tea party groups.
"IRS staff at multiple levels concurred with our analysis citing 'tea party,' 'patriot' and '9/12' and certain policy positions as the criteria the IRS used to select potential political cases," George said.
The IRS did not respond to a request for comment.
The IRS was screening the groups' applications because agents were trying to determine their level of political activity. IRS regulations say tax-exempt social welfare organizations may engage in some political activity, but the activity may not be their primary mission. It is up to the IRS to make that determination.
George's report said applications from 298 groups were set aside for special scrutiny. Of those applications, 72 included the term "tea party," 13 included "patriots" and 11 included "9/12," the report said. No other labels were listed in the May report.
On Thursday, George said three groups had the word "progressive" in their name and four used the word "progress."
___
Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., joined by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., right, speak to reporters after the Senate stepped back from the brink of a political meltdown, clearing the way for confirmation of one of President Barack Obama?s long-stalled nominations, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., joined by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., right, speak to reporters after the Senate stepped back from the brink of a political meltdown, clearing the way for confirmation of one of President Barack Obama?s long-stalled nominations, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks to reporters as lawmakers moved toward resolving their feud over filibusters of White House appointees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican senators, from left, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., walk from the floor to a closed-door caucus after a compromise between the Democratic majority and the GOP minority on filibuster rules, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid credited Sen. McCain, with helping broker a breakthrough.The Senate just voted 71-29 to end a two-year Republican blockade that was preventing Richard Cordray from winning confirmation as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate majority leader Harry Reid smiles as he speaks to the media as lawmakers moved toward resolving their feud over filibusters of White House appointees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and GOP leaders talk to reporters after the Senate stepped back from the brink of a political meltdown, clearing the way for confirmation of one of President Barack Obama?s long-stalled nominations, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. At far left is Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate stepped away from the brink of a meltdown on Tuesday, confirming one of President Barack Obama's nominees long stalled by Republicans, agreeing to quick action on others and finessing a Democratic threat to overturn historic rules that protect minority-party rights.
"Nobody wants to come to Armageddon here," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat whose talks with Arizona Republican John McCain were critical in avoiding a collision that had threatened to plunge the Senate even deeper into partisan gridlock.
McCain, a veteran of uncounted legislative struggles, told reporters that forging the deal was "probably the hardest thing I've been involved in."
The White House reaped the first fruits of the deal within hours, when Richard Cordray's nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was approved 66-34. He was first nominated in July 2011 and has been in office by virtue of a recess appointment that bypassed the Senate.
In a written statement, Obama said he was pleased by the developments and that he hoped Congress would "build on this spirit of cooperation" to pass immigration legislation and rein in interest rates on student loans, among other measures.
As part of the Tuesday's agreement, both parties preserved their rights to resume combat over nominations in the future, Republicans by delaying votes and Democrats by threatening once again to change the rules governing such delays.
Still, officials in both parties said they hoped the deal would signal a new, less acrimonious time for the Senate, with critical decisions ahead on spending, the government's borrowing authority, student loan interest rates and more.
Under the agreement, several of seven stalled nominees would win confirmation later in the week, including Labor Secretary-designate Tom Perez and Gina McCarthy, named to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Fred Hochberg, appointed head of the Export-Import Bank, is on track for approval on Wednesday.
Even before the agreement was ratified by the rank and file, Cordray's long-stalled nomination to head the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau advanced toward approval on a test vote of 71-29, far more than the 60 required.
Two nominees to the National Labor Relations Board, Richard Griffin and Sharon Clark, are to be replaced by new selections, submitted quickly by Obama and steered toward speedy consideration by Senate Republicans. Obama installed Griffin and Clark in their posts by recess appointments in 2011, bypassing the Senate but triggering a legal challenge. An appeals court recently said the two appointments were invalid, and the Supreme Court has agreed to review the case. Republicans refused to confirm them, first because the Senate was bypassed, and later saying the nominations had been tainted by the court ruling.
In their places, Obama nominated Nancy Schiffer, a former top lawyer for the AFL-CIO, and Kent Hirozawa, counsel to NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said their appointments would be reviewed and voted on in committee on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, and then come before the Senate for confirmation the following day.
Pearce, awaiting confirmation to a new term, is the seventh appointee at issue. His pick is relatively uncontroversial, and he is likely to be approved along with the replacements for Griffin and Clark, if not before. The NLRB appointments, if confirmed as expected, would prevent the virtual shutdown of the agency because of a lack of confirmed board members to rule on collective bargaining disputes between unions and companies.
"I think we get what we want, they get what they want. Not a bad deal," said Reid.
"Crisis averted," said the Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
There was more to it than that.
Scarcely 24 hours earlier, Reid had insisted that if Republicans didn't stop blocking confirmation of all seven, he would trigger a change in the Senate's procedures to strip them of their ability to delay. At the core of the dispute is the minority party's power to stall or block a yes-or-no vote on nearly anything, from legislation to judicial appointments to relatively routine nominations for administration positions.
While a simple majority vote is required to confirm presidential appointees, it takes 60 votes to end delaying tactics and proceed to a yes-or-no vote. Reid's threat to remove that right as it applied to nominations to administration positions was invariably described as the "nuclear option" for its likely impact on an institution with minority rights woven into its fabric.
The same term was used when Republicans made a similar threat on judicial nominations in 2005 ? an earlier showdown that McCain helped defuse when it was his own party threatening to change the rules unilaterally.
As part of the deal over Obama's nominees, Republicans agreed to step aside and permit confirmation of several, some of whom they had long stalled. Cordray was first appointed in July 2011, but a vote was held up by GOP lawmakers who sought to use his confirmation as leverage to make changes in the legislation that created his agency.
McCarthy was named to her post in March, and Republicans dragged their feet, demanding she answer hundreds of questions about the EPA. At one point, they boycotted a committee meeting called to approve her appointment.
Perez, also nominated in March, is a senior Justice Department official, and was accused by Republicans of making decisions guided by left-wing ideology rather than the pursuit of justice.
As described by officials, the deal is strikingly similar to a proposal that McConnell floated in remarks on the Senate floor last week during an unusually personal exchange with Reid. At the time, the Kentucky Republican also said he had told Obama last January to drop his hopes of confirmation for Griffin and Clark and instead name two replacements for quick consideration. He relayed the same message again last month to Vice President Joe Biden, a former senator with whom he has a long relationship.
Tuesday's developments unfolded the morning after a closed-door meeting of nearly all 100 senators, many of them eager to avoid a rules change that could poison relations between the two parties at a time the Senate is struggling in an era of chronic gridlock. About three dozen lawmakers spoke in the course of a session that lasted more than three hours, and while few details have emerged, several participants said later it had been a productive meeting.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she had urged others to "look ahead and think about the time when we would have a Republican president with Republican Senate and there could be someone appointed who was completely unacceptable to my Democratic colleagues and was nominated to run their favorite program" She said she asked if they "really want to give away their right to filibuster that individual."
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said the sense of history hung over the meeting, which was held in the Old Senate Chamber, where lawmakers had debated slavery and other great national issues for much of the 19th century. "Senator McCain talked about Webster, Jefferson and Madison. We knew that we were on sacred political ground," he said.
McCain told reporters that with McConnell's knowledge, he had been involved in talks for several days in search of a compromise, speaking with Biden, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and numerous senators.
"At least 10 times it came together, and then fell apart because there's always some new wrinkle," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Charles Babington, Donna Cassata, Josh Lederman and Sam Hananel contributed to this story
LONDON (Reuters) - The four surviving original copies of Britain's Magna Carta, the document that first defined government powers as limited by law, will be brought together in 2015 for the first time to mark the charter's 800-year anniversary.
The British Library said on Monday the four documents, currently held by Lincoln Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral and two by the British Library, would be united at the national library in London for a three-day exhibition.
Originally published in 1215, Magna Carta, meaning "The Great Charter", was intended by then-King John to placate powerful English barons who were rebelling against him over unsuccessful foreign policies and rising taxes.
Written in Latin on sheepskin parchment, the charter limited King John's hitherto arbitrary powers by asserting for the first time that English royalty was to be subject to the law.
All but three of the Magna Carta's 63 clauses have now been repealed. Those that remain include one protecting the liberties of the English church, another confirming the privileges of the city of London, and the most famous clause concerning civil liberties and guaranteeing judgment through the law.
The text became the foundation for the English system of common law and remains an important cornerstone of the unwritten British constitution in its use to defend civil liberties.
Its principles are also echoed in the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"(Magna Carta) is venerated around the world as marking the starting point for government under the law," Claire Breay, lead curator of medieval and earlier manuscripts at the British Library, said in a statement.
The 2015 event will give researchers and the public a chance to study the texts side-by-side to look for clues about the still-unknown authors of the work.
The British Library said that 1,215 members of the public would be chosen by ballot to receive free tickets to see the unified manuscripts.
"Bringing the four surviving manuscripts together for the first time will create a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for researchers and members of the public to see them in one place," said Breay.
The original box for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The Nintendo Entertainment System, which turned 30 Monday, may seem like a relic in an era of consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One ? but it helped define those systems and the games on them in more ways than one.
Lasting franchises
Nintendo
New Super Mario Bros Wii, one of the latest titles in the Mario line of games.
The power of the series was apparent to Nintendo, existing as it did in the days of "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones" and "Back to the Future." So the company was happy to make and publish sequels and spin-offs, even if it had little to do with the original. The result is that the "core" franchises became a staple of gaming. That began on the Nintendo, perhaps best exemplified by "Super Mario Bros."
The original game smashed records (largely due to being included in the box), the second was a bizarre cult hit (but still an excellent game) and the third is hailed by many as one of the best games ever made, regardless of age.
Nintendo and its stable of developers would continue this pattern for decades with other major properties: with repetition, "Legend of Zelda," "Mega Man," "Castlevania," and many more became ingrained in the minds of young gamers ? gamers who grew up to compose Nintendo's current core audience.
It may have been a tactical move to avoid risk and stick with what worked, but the fact is that Mario and Link have become utterly iconic through their constant presence, an accomplishment others have tried with varying success to imitate.
Games that defined genres
While "Super Mario Bros." may be the most obvious success story, the NES was also home to games that both inspired genres and still define them.
For instance, "Final Fantasy" and "Dragon Warrior" elevated the comparatively obscure role-playing game genre to playable form. The extreme length and depth of these games created gamers who would not be satisfied by mere arcade thrills, helping move games from then-rare PCs and arcades into the home. And their sequels (now numbering in the double digits) still act as yardsticks for others in the genre.
Nintendo
The original "Legend of Zelda," still used as a reference and inspiration by gamers and developers.
But it's not just sequels that inherited Nintendo game qualities. To this day, games can be described in terms of the Nintendo games that preceded them: "Zelda"-esque item hunting, "Metroid"-style exploration, "Contra"-quality shooting, "Battletoads"-level difficulty. If you want to make someone understand the basic gameplay of even a major modern game, NES titles are the common vocabulary, something that everyone understands.
For better or worse, it made gaming child's play
Nintendo
An ad for the original NES emphasizing its family-friendly nature.
Nintendo's most dubious legacy, in full force on the NES, was its insistence on being family-friendly. The NES was, after all, originally called the Famicom, or family computer. From the beginning, games and accessories were designed with friends and family in mind ? and while that meant lots of bright, accessible games, it also meant mature themes were generally avoided.
This occasionally resulted in some mind-boggling mix-ups and errors ? the neutered "Mortal Kombat," the inexplicably un-censored exploding Hitler head in "Bionic Commando" ? but its main effect was to establish home gaming systems as the province of kids. Never mind that some games were more difficult than anything that came before or after ? the stigma, which Nintendo worked actively to promote, was that games were Disney-level entertainment.
30 years later, the games industry is still recovering from this: games are often reduced in the public eye to "blasting aliens" or "saving the princess" despite having shed those limitations long ago. And that which helped Nintendo reach millions of living rooms in the 1980s and 1990s may now be holding it back: more gamers than ever want Hollywood-level content in both tone and setting, meaning sex and violence that Nintendo even now is barely willing to tolerate.
The NES may not have been the first game console by a long shot, but for millions it was the first they owned and loved. After 30 years it still resonates with gamers, and probably will for decades to come.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
Source: www.tripolipost.com --- Thursday, July 11, 2013 Libya?s national carrier, Libyan Airlines plans to codeshare with Tunisair to launch a Tripoli-Tunis-Montreal service next year. ...
Party sources said the Labour leader was ?furious? about suspicions that members of the Unite union broke the law in a bid to install a Left-winger as a parliamentary candidate in Falkirk.
Mr Miliband?s aides yesterday ?contacted Scotland?s Procurator ?Fiscal to offer to hand evidence about alleged union fixing to police.
But the Tories claimed that Labour were panicking and Mr Miliband had only been ?bounced? into acting after Conservative backbencher Henry Smith made an official complaint.
And they accused Mr Miliband of ?cowardice? for continuing to accept donations from Unite.
A senior Tory source said: ?Ed ?Miliband is coward if he does not stop taking Unite?s money and continues to refuse to publish his party?s report into this scandal.?
Labour insiders fear he is facing the biggest crisis of his leadership.
His election supremo Tom Watson quit the front bench and two party ?officials were suspended on Thursday following the allegation that Unite attempted to flood the Falkirk constituency party with new members in an attempt to fiddle the general election candidate contest.
The crisis deepened yesterday when Len McCluskey, general secretary of the public sector super union, denounced the Labour leadership?s handling of the scandal as ?amateurish? and ?disgraceful?.
In an emotional outburst, he said: ?The Labour leadership have shot themselves in the foot and created this media storm over what is a genuinely irrelevant issue to ordinary workers.
?As far as Unite are concerned, we have done nothing wrong. We are being attacked mercilessly by the media. It is a nonsense and the way it has been handled by Labour Party headquarters is nothing short of disgraceful.?
A senior Labour source said: ?Ed is angry. He is determined to put the integrity of the party above everything else. The suggestion that we have been slow to act is wrong. We have acted swiftly and thoroughly throughout.?
Mr Smith wrote yesterday to ?Scotland Chief Constable Sir Stephen House raising concerns Unite union officials may have committed fraud by signing up members to the Labour Party without their ?knowledge.
Manufacturing activity grew in June, rebounding from an unexpected contraction the prior month, but hiring in the sector was the weakest in nearly four years, an industry report showed on Monday.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity in June rose to 50.9 from 49.0 in May, a touch above of expectations of 50.5. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.
The gauge for new orders rose to 51.9 from 48.8, while production jumped to 53.4 from 48.6, helping the overall index bounce back from May's contraction - the first in six months.
But a measure of employment fell to 48.7, the lowest reading since September of 2009. It stood at 50.1 in May.
That could feed concern about the strength of the U.S. recovery, particularly now that the Federal Reserve has said it is considering scaling back its massive stimulus program.
Economists polled by Reuters expect the broader U.S. economy to have slowed to 1.7 percent in the second quarter, though most say it should pick up steam in the second half.
The economy grew at a 1.8 percent rate in the first three months of the year, with consumer spending having grown less than initially thought.
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President Barack Obama addresses a crowd at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, Sunday. Obama makes the point that 60 percent of Africans are under 30-years-old while discussing the region's future.
By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News
President Barack Obama on Sunday announced a sweeping?initiative?to help bring electrical power to some of Africa's poorest regions, while reflecting on the legacy of Nelson Mandela and urging the continent to continue the work of?South Africa's ailing former leader.
Speaking at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the president announced a?$7 billion initiative?to bring electrical power to sub-Saharan Africa in an effort to help modernize the continent and better connect it with the rest of the world.
The program, called "Power Africa," will also include more than $9 billion in investment from private companies, according to the White House.??The iniative will focus on six African countries:?Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania.?
"We believe that nations must have the power to connect their people to the promise of the 21st century. Access to electricity is fundamental to opportunity in this age," Obama said.
"It's the connection that's needed to plug Africa into the grid of the global economy.? You've got to have power," he added, citing that two-thirds of the population in sub-Saharan Africa does not have regular access to household electricity.?
Obama's hopes to modernize the continent came the same day as he urged Africa's youth to remember the?sacrifices?of beloved leader Mandela, who is in "critical but stable" condition in a South African hospital, according to government officials.
Earlier Sunday, the president and his family visited Robben Island prison, the place where Mandela spent most of his 27 years in jail. The 94-year-old anti-apartheid champion has been in the hospital for weeks, and his health has become one of the main?story lines?of the president's week-long trip.
In his speech in Cape Town, Obama said that standing in Mandela's small cell helped his daughters appreciate the?sacrifices made by?the the leader and is an experience they will never forget.
"Nelson Mandela showed us that one man's courage can move the world," he said.
White House officials said the speech drew inspiration from remarks delivered by Robert F. Kennedy in June of 1966 at the same university. Kennedy's now famous "ripple of hope" speech was delivered soon after Mandela was?sentenced?to prison also called on African youth to fight against injustice.
"There is no question that Africa is on the move, but it's not moving fast enough...That's where you come in -- the young people of Africa.? Just like previous generations, you've got choices to make. You get to decide where the future lies," Obama said.
While in Cape Town, the president also visited an HIV/AIDS clinic where he commended the work of President George W. Bush in helping fight AIDS in Africa.?
"We have the possibility of achieving an AIDS-free generation...and making sure that everybody in our human family is able to enjoy their lives and raise families, and succeed in maintaining their health here in Africa and around the world," Obama said.
Sanford police Detective Doris Singleton, a prosecution witness in the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman, said he did not show any anger or ill-will toward Trayvon Martin during questioning after the shooting.
By Chelsea B. Sheasley,?Correspondent / July 1, 2013
Sanford police officer Doris Singleton holds up a copy of George Zimmerman's written statement from the night of the shooting, while testifying in Seminole circuit court, in Sanford, Fla., Monday, July 1.
Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/AP
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The first police officer to interview George Zimmerman the night he shot Trayvon Martin testified Monday that Mr. Zimmerman appeared ?shocked? when she told him Trayvon was dead.
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?He?s dead?? Detective Doris Singleton, the Sanford police investigator, recalled Mr. Zimmerman saying in an interview at the Sanford police station the night of Feb. 26, 2012. ?
?I thought you knew that,? Detective Singleton told the court she said in reply. ?He kind of slung his head and just shook it,? she testified.
Singleton, a prosecution witness, also said during cross-examination by defense attorney Mark O?Mara that Zimmerman did not show any anger or ill will when talking about Trayvon that night. In order to convict Zimmerman, who is facing second-degree murder chargers, prosecutors must show that he acted with ill will or a depraved mind.
Prosecutors, led by assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda, sought to cast doubt on Zimmerman?s statements to police.
?Mr. Zimmerman, wouldn?t you agree, was trying to convince you that he hadn?t done anything wrong?? Mr. de la Rionda asked Singleton.
Prosecutors also tried to point to discrepancies in Zimmerman?s oral testimony to Singleton and the written statement he made just after the interview.
In particular, de la Rionda focused on Zimmerman?s repeated reference to Trayvon as ?the suspect? in his written statement, but not in verbal testimony. Singleton testified that she didn?t ask Zimmerman to use that language and that it is the term officers use to refer to suspected criminals.
That testimony may be important for prosecutors since they are tying to portray Zimmerman as a ?vigilante? who wanted to be a police office and profiled the unarmed black teenager the night of Feb. 26, 2012.
Also Monday, prosecutors called to the witness stand an FBI voice analyst who testified that a 911 call that captured shouts for help was too short and too far away to be used for evaluation.
"That type of sample is not fit for voice comparison," the analyst, Hirotaka Nakasone, said.
Mr. Nakasone was one of the audio experts whose testimony at a pretrial hearing discredited state voice experts who said Trayvon was the one screaming. The state experts were prohibited from testifying in the trial because the judge said there was not enough evidence to prove their techniques are tested or reliable.?
Nakasone testified Monday that people familiar with the voices of Trayvon and Zimmerman would be the best people to identify the voices, but that there is a risk of increased listener bias.?Trayvon?s parents and Zimmerman?s father both say it?s their son screaming in the tape.
The potential witness list for Zimmerman's trial includes about 200 people, including family members of both Zimmerman and Trayvon, according to USA Today. More than 20 witnesses testified last week in the opening week of the much-anticipated trial. Trayvon?s death and the initial decision of the Sanford Police Department not to arrest Zimmerman sparked hundreds of protests across the country and a national debate about race, equal justice, self defense, and gun control.?Zimmerman was arrested 44 days after the shooting following the appointment of a special prosecutor.
Zimmerman has said he fatally shot Trayvon in February 2012 in self-defense in the midst of a fight in which the teenager was banging his head into a concrete sidewalk. The volunteer watchman has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charges, for which he?could get life in prison if convicted.
The state argued in its opening statement that Zimmerman profiled and followed Trayvon in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight behind townhomes in the gated community he was patrolling.
Zimmerman has denied that the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and their supporters have claimed.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Opponents of gay marriage filed a long-shot petition on Saturday with the Supreme Court asking the justices to immediately halt same-sex weddings taking place in California since Friday, when an appeals court lifted a 5-year-old ban on gay matrimony.
Marriage ceremonies of gay and lesbian couples went ahead after a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco removed its stay of a trial judge's order declaring the gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, unconstitutional.
The stay had been in force while the decision striking down Prop 8, a state constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2008, was appealed to the Supreme Court. Political supporters of the measure were left to appeal the case because state elected officials declined to defend it.
But the justices on Wednesday ruled Prop 8 proponents lacked legal standing to defend the ban, a decision that left the trial judge's ruling intact and paved the way for gay marriage in the state to resume.
The Supreme Court had said its ruling would not go into effect for at least 25 days, the amount of time normally given the losing party, in this case, Prop 8 backers, to seek a rehearing of the matter.
But California Attorney General Kamala Harris publicly urged the appeals court to lift its stay sooner than that, and on Friday the 9th Circuit did so in a surprise move that prompted a flurry of hastily arranged same-sex weddings up and down the state.
Harris herself officiated the very first one, a ceremony in which one of the two couples named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Prop 8, Kristin Perry and her fianc?e, Sandy Stier, exchanged vows on a balcony overlooking the grand staircase at San Francisco City Hall.
Dozens more couples lined up on Saturday at City Hall as officials kept the doors open to accommodate gay and lesbian couples eager to tie the knot.
The scene was upbeat but subdued, with many couples casually dressed as they waited to obtain marriage licenses. The calm was punctuated about every 15 minutes by loud clapping when a wedding ended, as family and friends of a newly wedded couple joined in applause with marriage license applicants.
City Administrator Naomi Kelly said at least one couple came from as far away as Texas.
One pair of San Francisco newlyweds, Ken and David Miller, who have been together for 24 years, said they decided to seize the moment on Saturday out of concern that the window for same-sex nuptials could somehow close again.
"We knew how the courts can play games and pull the plug," said Ken Miller, 60. "But the courts are closed over the weekend and the city was open, so we thought we should do it."
In their application asking the Supreme Court to overrule the 9th Circuit and reinstate the gay marriage ban, opponents argued the appeals court had jumped the gun in lifting its stay.
The Arizona-based group Alliance Defending Freedom argued that the 9th Circuit lacked authority to act when it did, and that it violated the terms of its own stay requiring the ruling remain in place "until final disposition by the Supreme Court."
'WEAK ARGUMENT'
But the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which sponsored the federal court challenge to Prop 8, issued a statement insisting the 9th Circuit acted under its own "broad discretion" to issue its stay in the first place.
"Now that the Supreme Court has decided that the injunction against Proposition 8 must stand, it was entirely appropriate for the 9th circuit to dissolve its stay of that injunction," the alliance said in a statement.
Foundation lawyer Ted Boutrous said Friday's move was hardly unprecedented and that appeals courts had acted similarly in previous, lower-profile cases without drawing attention. Prop 8 supporters, he said, "should hang it up and quit trying to stop people from getting married."
Margaret Russell, a constitutional law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law in California, told Reuters the petition by Prop 8 backers had little chance of success.
"The 25 days isn't a final date. It's a period of time, and the 9th Circuit has the right, actually, to act within the 25 days," Russell said. "They lost the case, so I think that's a weak petition and a weak argument."
Daria Roithmayr, a University of Southern California law school professor, said she expected the petition to be dismissed.
With the federal appeals court action on Friday, California became the 10th state, in addition to the District of Columbia, where gay marriage is legal. Laws legalizing same-sex marriage are due to go into effect in the coming weeks in three more states - Delaware, Rhode Island and Minnesota.
About 18,000 gay couples were previously married in California during a five-month window in 2008 after the state Supreme Court swept aside an earlier ban but before Prop 8 was passed in November of that year.
In August 2010, then-U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker declared Prop 8 unconstitutional following a three-week trial that marked the first challenge in federal court to any state law barring same-sex matrimony. It was his injunction against further enforcement of Prop 8 that had remained stayed by the appeals court pending resolution of the case.
The renewed tolling of wedding bells for same-sex couples in California capped a historic week for gay rights nationwide. The Supreme Court on Wednesday also struck down a U.S. law that denied various federal benefits to married gay couples.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman and Alex Dobuzinskis; Writing by Steve Gorman; Additional reporting by Patrick Creaven in San Francisco and Lawrence Hurley in Washington; Editing by Eric Walsh and Eric Beech)
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden discussed self-professed NSA leaker Edward Snowden with Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, according to a senior White House official.
By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News
Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa about fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden on the phone, a senior White House official told NBC News on Saturday.
?They engaged in a broad conversation on the bilateral relationship. They did discuss Snowden,? said Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security advisor.
Rhodes did not disclose specific details about the phone conversation but said the U.S. government believes Snowden is still in Russia.
But Correa said that the U.S. had asked him not to grant asylum to Snowden, Reuters reported.?"He communicated a very courteous request from the United States that we reject the (asylum) request" Correa said during his weekly TV broadcast.
Snowden, 30, is thought to be hiding out at a Moscow airport awaiting a ruling on his request for asylum from the government of Ecuador. Snowden flew to Russia from Hong Kong on June 23 but has not been seen since his arrival.
Russian officials told Reuters that he remains in a transit area at Sheremetyevo airport.
The call between Biden and Correa ? the highest-level exchange reported between the U.S. and Ecuador since Snowden?s June 24 plea for asylum ? came just two days after President Barack Obama said he was ?not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker? and should not have to speak personally with the leaders of Russia and China to return Snowden to the U.S.
Obama pledged not to engage in ?wheeling and dealing and trading and a whole host of other issues, simply to get a guy extradited so he can face the justice system here in the United States.?
Inside the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport are shops, restaurants and a hotel that could make the possibility of an extended stay for NSA leaker Edward Snowden not so bad. NBC's Ghazi Balkiz reports.
Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, claimed to have leaked details of two top-secret government data-gathering programs to the British newspaper The Guardian and The Washington Post.
The publication of the leaked information triggered a global manhunt for Snowden, who has been charged with theft of government property and two violations of espionage statutes.
Ecuadorian officials have said they cannot begin reviewing Snowden's asylum request until he arrives in the country or one of Ecuador's embassies, according to The Associated Press.
NBC News' Shawna Thomas, Jim Maceda, F. Brinley Bruton and Matthew DeLuca contributed to this report.
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