The Introduction is the zeroth mission in Grand Theft Auto Online, introducing the player to Los Santos and its surroundings. The introduction is a series of several small missions.

Before starting the introduction to GTA Online, the player has to create their own character for the game. The player can choose the character's gender, appearance (via choosing the character's heritage), lifestyle and clothes.

Meeting Lamar

Main article: Mall or Nothing

The player arrives at the Los Santos International Airport where he/she meets up with Lamar Davis, who is friends with the player on Lifeinvader. The two enter Lamar's Emperor, and the player is given a pistol by Lamar.

Lamar drives the player throughout the city, explaining him/her about Los Santos and some of the people the player can interect with, such as Hao and Simeon Yetarian. The two head to Hao's place, where they are involved in racing against each other.

Meeting Gerald

Main article: Learning the Ropes

After the race, the player is told by Lamar to get drugs from an exchange between the Los Santos Vagos and the Ballas for Lamar's friend, Gerald. The player heads to Olympic Freeway, gunning down the dealers and taking the drugs back to Gerald's apartment at Forum Drive.

The player is introduced to Gerald by Lamar, and gives the drugs to the former. Gerald awards the player with $500 and tells the player to bring him "anything else interesting" if the player finds any.

Holding up

Following the meeting Gerald, the player is told to buy new clothes. Soon afterwards, Lamar phone calls and tells the player about missions he/she can do for Lamar and other people in the city.

The player is given a mission to hold up a store, stealing its cash and escaping the police.

Los Santos Customs

The player receives a phone call from Simeon Yetarian, Lamar's boss, who tells the player to take a vehicle to Los Santos Customs to make it the player's personal vehicle by buying a tracker and insurance, for free thanks to Simeon's ties.

With the deed is done, the player can finally explore the area, do jobs for Lamar and his associates, purchase safehouses and garages and rise through the ranks.

Video walkthrough

GTA Online - Intro, Creation System & Tutorial

GTA Online - Intro, Creation System & Tutorial

Off the Plane Achievement-GTA Online

Off the Plane

  • Completing the Introduction awards the player with the achievement/trophy "Off the Plane", which is a reference to the achievement/trophy "Off The Boat", unlocked after completing the first mission in GTA IV.
  • Upon meeting Lamar, if the player is male, Lamar will act like the player is his friend and tell him he's shorter than what he looked like on Lifeinvader. If the player is female, Lamar will hold a flower and flirt with the player, albeit being rejected.
  • Although the player and Lamar are friends on Lifeinvader, the player is unable to access Lifeinvader in-game.
  • While the player character is looking out the window of his plane, other characters by other players can be seen in the plane along with him/her.


This article, Jason DeNiro, is property of BalrogLune.

This article is a Work in Progress.

Mr. Nightmare

Jason DeNiro

Jason DeNiro, also known as Mr. Nightmare, is a warlock with mastery over demonology and is the main protagonist of the Mr. Nightmare franchise.

Appearence and personality

He is a white haired youth, naturally given, who is fond of black clothing and wears a skin tight pleather suit with a fashioned white "X" on its chest. On his side, he carries a book holster where he keeps his Black Grimoire, listing the 9 Demons Lords that he can call upon for aid.

While he is a mook when socializing with humans, with only a rare few human girls finding him attractive, he is considered quite charismatic towards those from the great beyond (referring to creatures and beings outside of the catagory for humans). Indeed, he has more "non-human" love interests than human ones.

Unlike most protagonists, Jason is by no means 'hot blooded' outside of fights and often thinks ahead about his actions. Despite this, whenever the going gets tough- he is more than likely to throw in some heat every once and a while.

Abilities and Weaponry

For a human, Jason is amazingly tough, having once fought an entire gang over the lives of 30 under-aged girls. As a warlock, he has various abilities over dark magical energy. Outside of magic, Jason is mostly a fist fighter with experiences in boxing and street style brawling.

Whenever it is necessary, he will use his greatest weapon: the Black Grimoire of Shadorex. In it is a variety of spells, incantations, special techniques, and instructions on how to use them. Also, within the book is an exclusive list of Demon Lords (pacts like these are made consensually) which only he is allowed to invoke in order to fuel his spells.


This article covers mathematics. Other uses of the word function include:

The concept of function is fundamental in mathematics and the sciences. The words "function", "mapping", "map" and "transformation" are usually considered synonymous. Functions whose arguments are natural numbers are better known as sequences.

Table of contents
1 Introduction
2 History
3 Formal Definition
4 Domains, Codomains, and Ranges
5 Graph of a functions
6 Images and preimages
7 Injective, surjective and bijective functions
8 Examples of functions
9 n-ary function: function of several variables
10 Composing functions
11 Computable and non-computable functions
12 References
13 External links

Intuitively, a function is a way to assign to each value of the argument x a unique value of the function f(x). This could be specified by a formula, a relationship, and/or a rule. This concept is deterministic, always producing the same result or output from the same input. A function may be thought of as a "machine" or "black box" converting valid input into a unique output.

The most familiar kind of function is that where the argument and the function's value are both numbers, and the functional relationship is expressed by a formula, and the value of the function is obtained from the arguments by direct substitution. Consider for example

which assigns to any number x its square.

A straightforward generalization is to allow functions depending not on a single number, but on several. For instance,

In the sciences, we often encounter functions that are not given by (known) formulas. Consider for instance the temperature distribution on Earth over time: this is a function which takes location and time as arguments and gives as output the temperature at that location at that time.

We have seen that the intuitive notion of function is not limited to computations using single numbers and not even limited to computations; the mathematical notion of function is still more general and is not limited to situations involving numbers. Rather, a function links a "domain" (set of inputs) to a "codomain" (set of possible outputs) in such a way that to every element of the domain is associated precisely one element of the codomain. Functions are abstractly defined as certain relations, as will be seen below. Because of this generality, functions appear in a wide variety of mathematical contexts, and several mathematical fields are based on the study of functions.

As a mathematical term, "function" was coined by Leibniz in 1694, to describe a quantity related to a curve; such as a curve's slope or a specific point of said curve. Functions related to curves are nowaday called differentiable functions and are still the most frequently type of functions encounted by non-mathematicians. For such kind of functions, one can talk about limits and derivatives; both are measurements of the change of output values associated to a change of input values, and they are the basics of calculus.

The word function was later used by Euler during the mid-18th Century to describe an expression or formula involving various arguments; ie: y = F(x).

By broadening the definition of functions, mathematicians were then able to study "strange" mathematical objects such as functions which are nowhere differentiable. Those functions, first thought as purely imaginary and called collectively "monsters" as late as the turn of the 20th century, were later found to be important in the modelling of physical phenomena such as Brownian motion.

Towards the end of the 19th century, mathematicians started trying to formalize all of mathematics using set theory and they sought definitions of every mathematical object as a set. It was Dirichlet that gave the modern "formal" definition of function (see #Formal Definition below).

In Dirichlet's definition, a function is a special case of a relation. In most cases of practical interest, however, the differences between the modern definition and Euler's definition are negligible.

Formal Definition

Formally, a function f from a set X of input values to a set Y of possibly output values (written as f: XY) is a relation between X and Y which satisfies:

  1. f is functional: if x f y (x is f-related to y) and x f z, then y = z. i.e., for each input value, there should only be one possible output value.
  2. f is total: for all x in X, there exists a y in Y such that x f y. i.e. for each input value, the formula should produce at least one output value within Y.

Consider the following three examples:

This is not a "well-defined" function; because, the element 3, in X, is associated with two elements b and c in Y (Condition 1 is violated). This is a multivalued function.
This is not a "well-defined" function; because, the element 1, in X , is associated with nothing (Condition 2 is violated). This is a partial function.
This is a function, called a discrete function (or rarely piecewise function); of which the range is {a,c,d}. It can be stated explicitly as

Occasionally, all three relations above are called functions. In this case, the function satisfies Conditions (1) and (2) is said to be a "well-defined function" or "total function". In this encyclopedia, the terms "well-defined function", "total function" and "function" are synonymous.

Domains, Codomains, and Ranges

X, the set of input values, is called the domain of f and Y, the set of possible output values, is called the codomain. The range of f is the set of all actual outputs {f(x) : x in the domain}. Beware that sometimes the codomain is wrongly called the range because of a failure to distinguish between possible and actual values.

Graph of a functions

The graph of a function f is the collection of all points(x, f(x)), for all x in set X. In the example of the discrete function, the graph of f is {(1,a),(2,d),(3,c)}. There are theorems formulated or proved most easily in terms of the graph, such as the closed graph theorem.

If X and Y are real lines, then this definition coincides with the familiar sense of graph. Below is the graph of a cubic function:

Images and preimages

Notice that the range of f is the image f(X) of its domain. In our example of discrete function, the image of {2,3} under f is f({2,3})={c,d} and the range of f is {a,c,d}.

In our example of discrete function, the preimage of {a,b} is f −1({a,b})={1}.

Note that with this definiton, f -1 becomes a function whose domain is the set of all subsets of Y (also known as the power set of Y) and whose codomain is the power set of X'.

Some consequences that follow immediately from these definitions are:

These are valid for arbitrary subsets A, A1 and A2 of the domain and arbitrary subsets B, B1 and B2 of the codomain. The results relating images and preimages to the algebra of intersection and union work for any number of sets, not just for 2.

Injective, surjective and bijective functions

Several types of functions are very useful, deserve special names:

  • injective (one-to-one) functions send different arguments to different values; in other words, if x and y are members of the domain of f, then f(x) = f(y) if and only if x = y. Our example is an injective function.
  • surjective (onto) functions have their range equal to their codomain; in other words, if y is any member of the codomain of f, then there exists at least one x such that f(x) = y.
  • bijective functions are both injective and surjective; they are often used to show that the sets X and Y are "the same" in some sense.

Examples of functions

(More can be found at List of functions.)

  • The relation wght between persons in the United States and their weights.
  • The relation between nations and their capitals.
  • The relation ln between positive real numbers x and their natural logarithms ln(x). Note that the relation between real numbers and their natural logarithms is not a function because not every real number has a natural logarithm; that is, this relation is not total and is therefore only a partial function.
  • The relation grav between a point in the punctured plane R2 \\ {(0,0)} and the vector describing the gravitational force that a certain mass at that point would experience from a certain other mass at the origin (0,0).

Most commonly used types of mathematical functions involving addition, division, exponents, logarithms, multiplication, polynomials, radicals, rationals, subtraction, and trigonometric expressions. They are sometimes collectively referred as Elementary functions -- but the meaning of this term varies among different branches of mathematics. Example of non-elementary functions are Bessel functions and gamma functions.

n-ary function: function of several variables

Functions in applications are often functions of several variables: the values they take depend on a number of different factors. From a mathematical point of view all the variables must be made explicit in order to have a functional relationship - no 'hidden' factors are allowed. Then, again from the mathematical point of view, there is no qualitative difference between functions of one and of several variables. A function of three real variables is just a function that applies to triples of real numbers. The following paragraph says this in more formal language.

Composing functions

If YX then f may compose with itself; this is sometimes denoted f 2. (Do not confuse it with the notation commonly seen in trigonometry.) The functional powers f of nf n o ff n+1 for natural n follow immediately. On their heels comes the idea of functional root; given f and n, find a g such that gn=f. (Feynman illustrated practical use of functional roots in one of his anecdotal books. <which?> Tasked with building an analogue arctan computer and finding its parts overstressed, he instead designed a machine for a functional root <fifth?> of arctan and chained enough copies to make the arctan machine.)

Inverse function

An example of an inverse function, for f(x) = x2, is f(x)−1 = √x. Likewise, the inverse of 2x is x/2. The inverse function is the function that "undoes" its original. See also inverse image.

Pointwise operations

for all x in X.

Computable and non-computable functions

External links


Animal Farm Essay Research Paper Animal Farm

Animal Farm Essay, Research Paper

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm compared to the Russian Revolution

All of the characters in Animal farm have counterparts in real life. This book was based on the Russian Revolution, and all the important populace of the revolution are symbolized. Some of the animals represent individuals in the Russian Revolution, and some types of animals represent different types of Russian citizens. The book carries out much like the actual revolution. It starts out with hopes of an empire where all are equal and the unfair unjust leader is thrown out. Then it moves on to where some individuals begin to take more power than is rightfully theirs. At the end the rulers have completely taken over and the kingdom is as it was under the original rulers. I will compare the animals from top of the social class to the bottom. At the top were the pigs. Each pig represented someone different in the revolution. Old Major is compared to Lenin. He was an ideologist who dreamed up a wonderful government where all the animals were equal and the humans, or the czars, were pushed out. Unfortunately his dream would never materialize. Then we are left with his predecessors. The first is Snowball. Snowball believed one hundred percent in Old Majors ideals. He wanted all the things Old Major wanted, such as the welfare of the animals. In the Russian Revolution his counterpart would be Trotsky. Trotsky believed and wanted the same things as Lenin, and wanted to continue what Lenin had started. Then comes Napoleon. Napoleon was selfish and greedy. He did not want to share the power or the decision making with any other individual. This was the same for Stalin. At first Napoleon and Snowball shared the decision making and had debates about what course of action they would take. This worked for awhile. Then Napoleon grew weary of long debates, and he thought he could make the decision by himself. He then forced Snowball out of the farm and started to spread lies about Snowball to get the entire farm against him. Stalin did the same thing against Trotsky and forced Trotsky into hiding into Mexico, where he was eventually assassinated. Both Stalin and Napoleon ruined any hopes of equal and fare government and instead set up dictatorships. Then comes the final important pig, Squealer. Squealer did not make the decisions in the government but acted more like the controlled media as in the Russian government. His job was to influence the people by exaggerating and re-writing history and sometimes telling plain lies all together. The people would listen to him, and he would always listen to Napoleon. Other animals were the worker class type citizens. The types of citizens range from hard working to selfish and lazy. Molly, for instance, only cared about her ribbons, and wasn’t much of a thinker. All she wanted to do was eat sugar, and look pretty. Benjamin was a critic who always said “I’ve seen that before” and “It’ll never work.” The cat was just plain lazy, and was always disappearing whenever work had to be done. The ducks were weak and did not get much done. Then there were other donkey’s which worked much harder and never thought of their own needs. The pigeons acted as message carriers spreading propaganda between farms, spreading Napoleon’s words from farm to farm, or in the actual Russian Revolution, country to country. Although all these animals are very different, they all shared one common trait. They were all weak. They all let Napoleon take over without much resistance. Just like Stalin took over Russia. These animals were too weak, too scared, or just lacked the intelligence required to do something about it. This is where it is the fault of the people. They should have stood up to Napoleon for what they fought for in the first place. The people must stand up to those who would destroy the system or else all is lost. I think that this story was a good representation of the actual Russian Revolution. But it is even more than that. It shows how people can let certain individuals get away with anything just because they do not feel like standing up to them. If you tried, this story could also be compared to other times in history when the people let dictatorships form in their own country. I enjoyed this book a lot but I do not think that it should be just compared to the Russian Revolution.

Animalism Vs. Marxism

The animal Napoleon can be compared as a character representing Stalin in Russia. Both were very mean looking, didn’t talk very much but always got what they wanted through force. In one part of the book Napoleon charged the dogs on Snowball, another animal. Stalin became the Soviet Leader after the death of Lenin. He was underestimated by his opponents who always became his victims, and he had one of the most ruthless, regimes in history. In was not till very many years later that the world found out about the many deaths that Stalin created in Russia during the Revolution. For almost 50 years the world thought that the Nazis had done the killing in Russia, when in fact it was Stalin. (Imse 2). The last characters that are symbolic of each other are the animal Snowball with the Russian leader Trotsky. Snowball was very enthusiastic and was a leader who organized the defense of the farm. He gave speeches and instructions but was not very beneficial. All the other animals liked him, but he was outsmarted by Napoleon. Trotsky and Stalin’s relationship was very much like Snowball’s and Napoleons. Trotsky organized the Red Army and gave speeches and everyone in Russia thought he would win power over Stalin. After Lenin’s death Trotsky lost all his power to Stalin and was expelled from the communist party. He was at one time considered the second most powerful man in Russia. (Trotsky” Comptons 290). Besides characters there are many items that can be compared as symbols in the book and in Russia. The whip that Napoleon used in the farmyard to wield power can be compared to the power that Stalin used on the Russians. Napoleon carried a whip in his trotter. Stalin used his power to starve the Russian people and to have Lenin arrested. Stalin’s main goal was to maximize his personal power. (“Stalin,” Britannia 576). Stalin “whipped” his people into shape by collectivizing agriculture, by police terror, and by destroying remnants of individual prosperity. He also led the Soviet Union into the nuclear age (Clarkson 442). Propaganda is another item that was used in the Russian revolution. It can be compared to Squealer in Animal Farm. Squealer brainwashed (a form of propaganda) the barnyard animals into believing that they did not like apples and milk, while he and Napoleon were stealing the food for themselves. In Russia, the Bolsheviks carried out propaganda on the people by passing out leaflets and putting stories in the newspapers that were not true. They told workers, soldiers, and peasants to not trust their own hands and to take away land from the landowners. (Golubeva and Gellerstein 80). Another item that is similar in both Animal Farm and Russia are the dogs and the secret police. Napoleon trained his dogs when they were puppies to guard him and to obey his every command. They chased Snowball away. Stalin trained his secret police to do his bidding whenever he issued an order. Stalin had his secret police kill between 60,000 to 70,000 people. These police were called the Checka and the graves filled with bodies stacked upon each other with bullets in each skull were found many years later. (Imse, C2).

Another symbolism that exists in the book and in Russia is a similarity to events that took place. The windmill that is present in Animal Farm can be compared with the growth of industry in Russia or the Industrial Revolution. Snowball first introduced the windmill concept to the farm but Napoleon disagreed with him and had the dogs chase him away. Napoleon then presented the windmill as a good idea and the animals were presented with hope that things would get better on the farm. When it blew down, Napoleon blamed it on Snowball. Napoleon thought that if he could keep the barnyard animals busy all the time replacing the windmill that they would not realize how bad their living conditions were, and he could blame the destruction all the time on Snowball. The windmill is the only thing that was holding the animals together as a unit. In Russia the growth of factory and industry was very depressing but depended on the obligatory labor of serfs. Russia hoped that by keeping the serfs working all the time and promising them a better world that they would not realize how bad their living conditions were. The Industrialists were pressing their own constitutional demands. (Clarkson 352). None of the social classes were fighting each other because there were no classes left. What Russia got working was to make the people think that the prospect of loss of potential improvements in conditions of life of the here and now, could only be attained by stimulating labor to unprecedented efforts.

The last event that was similar in the book and in Russia was the animal rebellion on the farm and the Russian Revolution of 1917. Farmer Jones was drunk a lot and would forget to feed the animals on the farm. The withholding of this food is what finally forced the animals on the farm to rebel against Farmer Jones. In Russia, there were many food shortages which caused the people to demonstrate and then the Russian soldiers refused to suppress them and the leaders demanded that Nicholas transfer his power to parliamentary government because everything was getting out of control. Soviet workers and soldiers formed a special committee and established a government. The same day the emperor abdicated. (“Russian Revolution,” Grolier npa). This actually backfired in Russia and the war continued and the people still starved. Many lessons can be learned by reading Animal Farm that can help countries and governments around the world from making mistakes in wielding their power against their people. If a population is suppressed and not allowed to accumulate things for themselves then an overthrow of the government that is suppressing them will be the result.

Clarkson, Jesse. A History of Russia. New York: Random House, 1969.

Golubeva, T. and L. Gellerstein. Early Russia – The Russie. Moscos, Press Agency Publishing House, 1976.

Imse, Ann. Mass Grave Seen as Evidence of Massecure by Stalins Police. “Hunstsville Times, 13, August. 1990.

rwell, George. Animal Farm. Signet 50th Anniversary Edition, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1996.

Pares, Sir Bernard. The Fall of the Russian Monarchy. New York: A division of Random House, 1939. “Russian Revolution of 1917.” Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. 1992 ed. “Stalin, Joseph.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 1917 ed.

Copyright © 2015-2018. All rigths reserved.


Saturday, July 1, 2017

Trump bashes wind energy in a state that gets a third of its electricity from wind
"Iowa is the leading producer of wind energy in the country and generated 36.6 percent of its electricity from wind in 2016. Statewide, the wind industry employs between 8,000 and 9,000 people and has added $11.8 billion to the state’s economy through capital investments. Wind farms that are built on private land, which is leased to wind developers, collectively earn farmers and landowners an estimated $20 million annually. The mining industry in Iowa, by contrast, employs around 2,200 people — and is primarily made up of stone mining and quarrying jobs. Because of the way Iowa breaks down its employment data, that number also includes natural gas and petroleum extraction. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the wind industry currently employs more than 100,000 people in the United States, and wind turbine technician is the fastest growing occupation in the country. In 2016, wind capacity — the total amount of output a particular electricity generator can produce at a given time — passed hydropower to become the largest source of renewable energy capacity in the United States."


Is A Black Power Holiday Still Necessary?

Is A Black Power Holiday Still Necessary?

This year, as I pondered about whether to drag my Kinara out along side my Christmas tree, I began to think if Kwanzaa was past its prime.

I admit I sometimes don’t know what to make of the holiday. I can’t figure out if it is good to have a holiday that celebrates Black culture, another way to “other” a marginalized population.  It’s a reminder of a movement that reached its peak years ago, or just a great excuse to watch a Sandra Lee attempt to delve into “Black” culture using acorns and chocolate frosting.

I understand that for many, Kwanzaa’s relevancy today is minimal, but being raised with the holiday, I too recognize the voices of those who believe it’s an essential part of African American culture. Reading the vibrant debate about the holiday online made me think that maybe the root of the issue is less about whether Kwanzaa is a good or bad idea, but about whether we still need a Black power holiday.

Kwanzaa, despite all its current Hallmark glory, was started by a Black Nationalist as an offshoot of the Black Power Movement. Activist Ron (Mualana) Karenga, who believed that culture was a vital part of empowering Black communities, founded it in 1966 as he sought out an alternative to what he saw as the commercialization and Eurocentricity of Christmas. He combined African rituals with the idea of a commemorative African American tradition to create a seven-day holiday that takes places from December 26 to January 1, using candles, libation, song, and dance to celebrate the African American experience.

According to Keith Mayes, a leading expert on Kwanzaa, the holiday proved to be a life changing experience for some people like Elizabeth Campbell, who participated in the first Kwanzaa celebration in California. She said, “At last I had a culture of my own. I felt a connection to my ancestors so strong that everything I had ever experienced in my whole life came back to me and I was changed forever.”

I don’t know many people from my generation who say that Kwanzaa has had that kind of impact on them. But, then again, as members of Generation X and Y, the way we’re experiencing “Black Power” is far different from our parents and grandparents, which I think is where the problem lies.

When the holiday was created, the oppression of Blacks was fairly clear. There were rules and laws and social codes that explicitly excluded Blacks.  It also didn’t help that Blacks were barely on television, and certainly not in many political positions of power. And despite the fact that there was dissension on how to reach those goals, the mission in many ways was always unified; the “struggle” was about gaining freedom, power, choice, and influence.

In the millennial world, where African Americans are still suffering greater than their White counterparts, it’s harder to pin down what Black Power means. Perhaps, it is because this idea of “Black Power” is too ambiguous of a term that many can’t relate to it, more less, a holiday celebrating its tradition. Black Power now means so many things to different people: It’s the politician. It’s the minister in the pulpit. The teacher in the classroom. Diddy. The young Black filmmaker. Voting. Oprah. To be able to rap about whatever you want. Wall Street. To learn. To be you. It’s marginalized, it’s mainstreamed. It’s debated and it’s derided.

But do we need a holiday to celebrate it?

There aren’t many concrete numbers on the annual participants of Kwanzaa, but its popularity amongst Blacks seems to be on the decline. Though its founder says that almost thirty million people celebrate the holiday, scholar Mayes puts the number between five hundred thousand and two million people, saying that interest has waned as the Black Power movement faded.

Yet, for its decline in the Black community, there is one area that Kwanzaa seems to be vibrant: in the public sphere, particularly the White institutional sphere. It’s celebrated in schools, by the US Postal Service, presidents make proclamations in its honor, and even Google has animation for the holiday. Kwanzaa is now a part of the mainstream multicultural movement.

Sure, many, especially the academic types may say this is once again “othering” the Black experience.  But, I think, Kwanzaa is a way for White (a.k.a.) mainstream society to celebrate Black culture, to celebrate Black power. It’s not a bad thing. I think America needs Kwanzaa – but, now back to the question of whether Black America needs it?

It’s so many different things to so many different Black people I’m not sure there’s a collective answer that is right or wrong. Kwanzaa certainly doesn’t seem to be a negative part of Black culture, so maybe it’s best to just let people do whatever they want with the holiday. I think however, figuring out what and how the Black Power Movement is being carried on today is part of the key to the future of the holiday for Black Americans.

In trying to make sense of this all, I thought about last year when I set up my Kwanzaa table so that the kids of a family friend could see a “real” Kwanzaa. I remember the kids, who were around ten and eight at the time, passing by the table casually glancing at the Kinara and fake vegetables as if it were some artifact in a museum or some remnant of the past. As their mom explained the holiday, they nodded in understanding, but I could tell they just didn’t feel connected to it. It seemed distant. So they made their way to the Christmas tree. When they found their two presents they excitedly cheered and started reading right away. The gifts? Two books on Barack and Michelle Obama.

  1. don't forget that the Kwanzaa language isn't even totally African – Swahili is an Arab-African mix.

    Most black slaves in the West are from West Africa. Karenga is a nut: he models Kwanzaa after East African stuff. How come black people in the U.S. won't embrace original black religions like Yoruba?

  2. I can't believe someone would even ask this question–without asking the same of Columbus Day, Valentine's Day or President's Day? This is part of the disempowering forces that perpetuate white supremacy. Inequality can't exist without an effective Sambo. Most Black people are NOT into Kwanzaa (unlike me) for three reasons: 1. don't want to be an outcast, 2. don't know anything other than a Christmas, and 3. fear of going outside their comfort zone._And @ Jin: you think Arabs aren't African or Africans are not Arabs? Imperialists are the ones who set up "political boundaries." That's why America can't figure out where Afghanistan ends and Pakistan begins…Karenga is like many Americans: a visionary who acted upon a vision


Drama / Music / Soap  7.7/10
Returning Series – episode 4x11 aired 2 days ago, episode 4x12 airs in 4 days
42: Full Circle(October 4, 2017 – 6 months ago)
With Leah still insisting that he is a monster, Lucious sneaks away in hopes of finding out what type of person he was before the explosion. Cookie panics that Lucious has gone missing on Claudia's watch, until she realizes he found his way to Uncle Eddie, a music icon who has since become family to the Lyons. Meanwhile, with Anika still behind bars, Hakeem and Tiana grow more…

A.K.A. KR: Empire.2015  LT: Imperija  TW: 嘻哈世家


Samuel Strauch Shares How He Brings Ideas To Life

When it comes to real estate Samuel Strauch is a name we should all remember. After graduating from 3 prestigious universities, Harvard University, the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and Hofstra University in New York, Samuel Strauch went on to work in the banking industry.

After a few years he decided it was time to move on and join the family real estate business. In 2002 Samuel Strauch took the ultimate leap of faith and started his own company, Metrik Real Estate. To this day he still works every single day to grow and expand his company.

Besides being an astute real estate investor, Strauch is also an investor in several restaurant and internet businesses.

Follow Samuel Strauch on Twitter

How Does Samuel Strauch Bring Ideas To Life

Entrepreneurs are creative and forward thinking by nature. Coming up with new and exciting ideas is in their DNA. Its who they are and what they do every single day. You talk to any entrepreneur and they will tell you they have hundreds of ideas running through their minds at any given moment.

But the question is how do they bring those ideas to life? How do they get the ideas out of their heads and turn them into something that can make an impact on the world?

For Samuel Strauch keeping an open mind is the first step to bringing ideas to life. No matter how big or small the idea is, Strauch and his team analyze the viability of every idea they have.

If they determine the idea has potential they will immediately start putting resources into it. This could be in the form of both time and money.

Speed of implementation is vital to getting ideas out to the marketplace as quickly as possible. The longer you wait to implement an idea the less likely you are to ever act on it.

If you never implement your idea the result will always be zero. So act fast and worry about mistakes later. Its not about being perfect, its about getting started.

You can always hone your idea as you go along. Getting it out there as quickly as possible will help you determine if its something you should continue to spend your time and money on.

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Important Business Tips from Market America Convention 2017

Market America Inc. runs as a product brokerage company that specializes in one-to-one marketing. For any business to succeed, it has to provide products or services to sell to retail customers. Market America offers products in various niches, including anti-aging, personal care, cosmetics, home and gardening, internet, pet care, auto care, social shopping services, financial services, weight management, and health and nutrition.

Market America Inc. also offers nutraceuticals for health experts, including children’s health, isotonic-capable, digestive health, sports nutrition, prenatal, anti-aging, skin health.

The 25th Market America Convention 2017 was held on 9th to 13th August in Greensboro, N.C. More than 20,000 people attended this event. The setup of this convention was unique and reminded people that Market America Inc. is a family; they help each other in difficult times and celebrate together in good times.

At the Market America Convention 2017, JR Ridinger, Market America Inc. CEO urged the audience to share business ideas that they have learned and help promote the ideas of this business that has made many people wealthy over the year with the UnFranchise.

Jim Winkler, Market America Inc. VP of Sales explains at length what UnFranchise means. He talks about the importance of having the right attitude. Winkler pleads with entrepreneurs to incorporate the following business traits into their businesses and see how it’s going to affect their UnFranchise.

The first thing that he recommends is to stay up-to-date with Market America’s news and current features. You have to work hard to achieve success. Winkler also suggests calling your senior partner at least once per week. He says that maintaining a better working relationship with your superior is very important. Participating in conferences and meeting calls is also an ideal way to boost your knowledge.

Your attitude towards Market America Inc. UnFrancise business is determined by the people that you associate yourself with. To be on the safe side, you need to surround yourself with positive people to succeed.

Forward Thinking Fabletics

Fabletics is sweeping the nation as a fashion phenomenon! Kate Hudson is a superstar who has broken barriers and crossed borders. She has taken Hollywood stardom to the next level and started a Forbes List business. She believes in the rights of modern women to be comfortable and fashionable. She loves the idea of a woman’s freedom of choice in working out and going to the grocery store.

Fabletics is a great brand that focuses on comfort and functionality. The clothes are known for their colorful patterns and brightly woven material. The leggings are form fitting and perfect for all weather. The tops come in different sizes and are perfect for a quick run or a casual walk. You can wear them and show off your midriff or relax with bare shoulders.

The business model of Fabletics is very unique. They started off as an online company and quickly switched into adding brick and mortar stores. Currently, there are 16 locations and counting. The physical stores serve as a sort of showroom for customers who are free to window shop, try on clothes, and consider their purchases for a later date. This is called reverse showrooming. Many companies have seen a dip in profits from customers’ practice of trying on clothes in store and buying online from cheaper alternatives like Amazon. But, Fabletics embraces this practice and takes the pressure off of customers to buy on the spot.

Fabletics isn’t without its challenges but since the firm evolves and moves to new lands (as well as brand new competitors) the total amount of life, consumer instruction and client experience appears to be paying off time and time again. On site press and creative teams which scale Fabletics around 10 countries are centered on data engineering and yield to investment. They are constantly developing and evolving. They take the time to study customer trends and focus on creating new experiences.

Fabletics could be recorded as one of a growing military of nimble, data-aware and risk-positive brands that know that the “brand new” consumer. Everything is moving into the internet and Fabletics proudly embraces forward thinking technological advances. But, purchasing physical retail centers along with adopting a new form of showrooming have been controversial for older proponents. Kate Hudson has prevailed and proved herself to be a savvy CEO. Fabletics appears to be willing to take every bullet in its own arsenal to grant the customer the ideal experience if that’s offline or online.


Jallikutta: India’s Running of the Bulls

India’s yearly event of Jallikattu has many social organizations around the world aflutter, claiming that the traditional practices involved puts animals and humans in too much harm.  As a way to garner divine support, residents in these rural areas host a three-day event in order to bring good fortune to the area and its inhabitants.  “If we do not conduct ‘jallikattu’ the village is in danger of being affected by an epidemic,”—a villager of Palamedu (a central location for the ceremony) explains the importance of the ritual.

What is particularly worrisome for many, however, is the specific ritual that takes place on the third and final day.  It is on this day that a number of bulls (sometimes upwards of 1,000 bulls) are let loose into an arena of male youths waiting to take charge of the animals and ride it with little to no effort.  What this entails for the animals, however, is much pain and suffering.  According to John Carmody, founder of one of Ireland’s largest animal welfare organizations, Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN), Jallikattu is “an activity in which terrified bulls are surrounded by hundreds of shouting men, are hit with fists, have their tails twisted and pulled—and some even snapped and broken—and are jumped and wrestled to the ground.”

And the bulls are not the only victims.  Every year, many people (whether participants or bystanders) are trampled and injured in the melee; and for some, the injuries incurred are so severe that they lead to death.  Such was the case of Uchiveeran, a 50-year-old man and victim of this year’s games, who, along with twenty other persons from Boothamangalam in the Madurai district, were injured when bulls lashed into a crowd.  And he was not alone this year: one other has died, while well over 100 more were reported injured from eight other Jallikattu events in the Sivaganga district.

Currently, there are government restrictions and guidelines set by the Supreme Court in order to ensure the public (and animal’s) safety, however, these rules are not always abided.  “They did this without informing us,” explained a police official present to the games.  “By the time we learnt that the bulls were being let into the ground, things went out of hand.”

It is because of these dangerous margins of error that animal rights groups are most troubled.  Groups like Carmody’s ARAN are urging the Indian Tourism board to take a hardline stance against the events of Jallikattu.  The ARAN has already launched a campaign to boycott the country and its southernmost regions in order to ensure the future safety of the animals.  In a letter to India’s Minister of Tourism, Carmody writes: “India’s reputation for treating animals with the utmost compassion and care is a major draw for almost everyone who is considering visiting your beautiful country,” further explaining that this particular bull taming event does not run in accordance with this sympathetic view towards animals.

In 1960, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act was passed in order “to prevent the infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering on animals and for that purpose to amend the law relating to the prevention of cruelty to animals.”  Jallikutta, however, is a direct contradiction to the mission stated by this legislation.  To help put an end to the violent sport of Jallikutta in India, write to India’s Board of Animal Welfare, and sign the petition here.

Photo Credit: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Bullriding-India-PONGAL_festival-Tamiword25.jpg

Feral Swine Pose Problems for Farmers in State of New York

Feral pigs have been plaguing farming communities in New York prompting wildlife managers and researchers to explore various management options, such as poisons, snares, and even aerial shooting, in a bid to control their growing population.  Feral pigs are not commonly found in the northeast due to colder temperatures, but as of late, there have been sightings in 5 of the 62 counties in New York state.

Feral pigs, also referred to as wild boars and feral swine, are nocturnal animals similar in appearance to domesticated swine.  However, unlike their domesticated counterparts, feral pigs are aggressive and can pose an ecological and economical threat.  They have no known natural predators and are known to have voracious appetites.  Feral pigs will feast on crops and vegetables, domestic livestock, ground-nesting birds, fawns, and reptiles.  They are also breeding machines and can start to breed as early as 6 months of age.

Several concerns arise over the proliferation of feral pigs including the threat they pose to other wildlife.  For instance, the state of Wisconsin has had problems with feral swine competing with their native white-tailed deer, and in other states, there have been population declines in quail and wild turkey because of wild pigs.  Furthermore, feral pigs can also carry and transmit diseases and parasites to other animals and humans.  Diseases such as brucellosis, pseudorabies, and tuberculosis are of especial concern to farmers and veterinarians, who come into close contact with animals on a regular basis.  Brucellosis is an infectious bacterial disease that can cause abdominal pain, fatigue, fever, muscle and joint pain, and weakness.  In addition, brucellosis can be chronic and can last for years.  On the contrary, pseudorabies does not cause illness in humans, but can be transmitted to cats, dogs, cattle, and sheep and can often be fatal.

State officials in New York have set their sights on controlling the wild boar population that has popped up in parts of New York.  Feral pigs were first spotted around a decade ago in Onondaga and Cortland County.  It is believed that there are about a few hundred feral pigs in the state of New York and an estimated five million feral pigs in the United States, with high concentrations in Alabama, California, Florida, and Texas.

Ed Reed, a wildlife biologist for New York state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, notes that there is an urgency to control feral pig populations because once they have settled in a particular area, it is extremely difficult to completely eradicate them.  In addition, feral pigs are smart and can sometimes even outwit traps.  In New York, hunting rules have been relaxed in order to control the wild pig population.  For instance, on the Department of Environmental Conservation’s web site, it has been declared that hunters with small game licenses may shoot and even keep any number of wild pigs at any time.  So far, state officials in New York have settled on trapping feral swine given that it is difficult to hunt them because of their nocturnal nature.

Photo credit: dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/PUBL/wlnotebook/Pig.htm

Greatest Show on Earth? Not for the Stars of the Show. New Law to Protect the Well-Being of Circus Animals

circus-circusImagine for a moment, a large metal dog crate, one that could hold a German Shepherd or a Great Dane.  Climb inside.  What do you think?  Comfortable?  Sure.  OK, make yourself at home.  Take a load off, have a seat.  Sir for an hour.  Or ten.  Oh yea, imagine the crate’s outside.  Now how do you feel?  Are you hungry?  Do you want to stretch your legs?  What about the bathroom?  Do you need to use it?  Are you hot?  Cold?  Have your feet fallen asleep yet?

What’s unfortunate is that this example, although easy to imagine, is one that gets repeated on a daily basis for the wild and exotic animals that perform in traveling circuses.  Animals that normally travel almost 25 miles a day by foot in their natural habitat are kept cramped in cages like the one described above for up to 48 out of the 52 weeks in a year in conditions that are uncomfortable at best, dirty, unsafe, and basically just not right at all.

All of this is about to change though.  On Wednesday, November 2, 2011 a new bill was introduced to Congress that will greatly alter the inclusion of animals in U.S. traveling circuses.  Former Price is Right host and animal advocate, Bob Barker, was instrumental in introducing The Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act (TEAPA) on Capitol Hill.  Other supporters included CSI actress Jorja Fox, Animal Defenders International, and the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) who all aided Congressman Jim Moran in initiating the bill into action.

Details of the bill are meant to protect and prevent the most dangerous of situations for wild and exotic traveling animals but if the bill gets passed, animals will not be allowed to perform if they have been traveling in temporary shelters for the 15 days before they are to go on stage.  The goal of the TEAPA bill though is to fully exclude current wild and exotic animals from any of their performing ‘duties’ and to eliminate any future use of new animals from U.S. traveling circuses.  You can read the full bill here.

During the introduction of the bill to Congress, Congressman Moran, who in addition to Bob Barker, has been a long time animal supporter and who co-chairs the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, talked about the great costs, both mental and physical, that destroy the well-being of the animals that are forced to travel with these circuses.  He stated that animals are kept in conditions that are not only unsanitary but unsafe for both the animals and the trainers.  Eye-witness reports, both those of bystanders, former circus workers, and planted investigative workers tell us that animals are treated with electric shock, prodded with a device called an elephant hook or ankus, forced to move (or not move) with weighted ropes and whips and prevented from eating with the use of muzzles and tight ropes that restrict the animal’s movement.

Bob Barker went on to say that the animals that are affected the most by living in captivity are naturally the larger animals.  On a typical day a tiger can traverse 2,000 square miles.  The average human walks 2-3 miles per day.  Think about how you felt imagining yourself in that dog crate for ten hours.  Now think about how the tiger feels when he travels a path 1000x longer than yours on a daily basis.  These animals are kept in confined quarters that don’t even begin to resemble an acceptable level of comfort and then forced to do behaviors that are so wildly unnatural to them it’s difficult to even describe.  Unlike domestic animals like cats and dogs who easily learn tricks and may even get some enjoyment out of doing them (or at least in the bone or can of tuna they get after completing the trick), wild and exotic animals get no such pleasure.  They often don’t know what they’re even doing and instead of operating on the same principles of positive reinforcement, their trainers use force and violence to get them to turn tricks and various ‘feats of wonder’ that are foreign and go against their normal instincts.  Although one would never know by watching a traditional traveling circus show, tigers are terrified of fire and yet for many shows one of the bigger acts involve tigers jumping through giant rings exploding with vicious flames.  The tigers emerge horrified and physically burned because they don’t know what to do around the fire but are forced to go near it.

Although the Vice President of Corporate Communicates for Feld Entertainment, which produces the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, responded to the introduction of the bill by saying that “this bill doesn’t do anything to improve animal care.  We’re the experts on taking care of our animals; we’ve been doing it for over 140 years” it is apparent from previous documented accounts that the Circus’s animals are not treated well at all and do fall victim to many of the torturous techniques described earlier in this article.  Viewer beware, but you can see for yourself the cruel and unusual punishment circus animals undergo in order to prepare and perform at a show.

This law comes at a time when the American public is finally beginning to realize that Circuses are not the happy, wholesome family show they appear to be.  In a recent poll conducted in the UK, results showed that 72% of people believed that animals should be banned from performing in shows.  Governments in other countries across the world such as Austria, Costa Rica, Israel, and China have all already instituted such bans.  Although the PEATA bill will not include stationary exhibits such as zoos and places like Sea World, it is a great first step in confronting a long ignored problem.  Experts believe that the bill will likely pass and will hopefully become a stepping stone to future legislation that will help to end all forms of animal cruelty exhibits and shows that masquerade as educational and lighthearted entertainment.

Photo credit: flic.kr/p/ARRNC

Majority of Wyoming’s Wild Horses to be Culled

Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) launched roundup plans for 700 wild horses from two of Wyoming’s free-ranging herds.

Backing ranching and business interests, the BLM intends to cull nearly 70% of Sweetwater County’s herds to support what advocates are calling an ecologically responsible management of Wyoming’s land and natural resources.

Conservationists, equine enthusiasts, and Westerners, who value the roaming horses as symbols of American heritage, are leading the opposition, citing mismanagement and animal cruelty among other BLM offenses.

Since the passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act by Congress in 1971, wild horses and burros have been protected by law to roam freely through designated areas of the American West.

The law charges the Secretary of the Interior with protecting these animals and their range lands as “sanctuaries for their protection and preservation.”  To that end, it affords the BLM the authority to determine the amount of land necessary to sustain free-roaming herds, with the goal of maintaining the land’s “thriving natural ecological balance.”

The legislation also advises authorities to respect the government’s multiple-use mission of accommodating various uses of public land while preserving the integrity of its resources.

In so stipulating overpopulation as just cause for the removal of horses and burros from their natural habitats, the legislation has allowed ranchers to capitalize upon an ecological imbalance that they disingenuously attribute to horses in order to lobby the BLM to cull the herds.

Cattle and sheep overgrazing have degenerated the quality of public range lands to the detriment of the very ranchers who are responsible for its condition.  By blaming relatively small, free-roaming horse herds for overgrazing and ecological imbalances, the ranchers have managed to persuade the government to remove the horses, securing even more land for their livestock to use exclusively.

In efforts to thwart the round ups, opposition groups have stressed that horse herds are allocated only two to three percent of forage in these herd management areas, while the remaining majority is already reserved for livestock.

Revered legal analyst Andrew Cohen makes the compelling point that, “even though cattle and sheep outnumber wild horses on public lands by at least a ten-to-one margin, the BLM largely blames the horses for roiling the resources of the range…The BLM grades the wild horses harshly for their impact on the range. But it does not appear to grade the cattle and sheep for the impact they bear upon it…The BLM is focusing upon the two percent that is relatively easy to fix rather than upon the 98 percent which is not. The reason is not hard to fathom. The ranchers have a powerful lobby. The horses do not.”

Further, a new, independent field review conducted by range scientist Robert Edwards, formerly of the BLM, presents scientific evidence the horses are not to blame for the degeneration of the land and shrubbery.

He concluded that “the wild horses do not need to be removed in order to achieve the goal of a thriving natural ecological balance,” and further, that “removing the wild horses will not achieve that goal.”

While the lands observed in his study were reported to be in only fair grazing condition, Edwards found that “removing a large percentage of the wild horses is not likely to result in an improvement of range condition since the percentage of forage allocated to wild horses is very small compared to the amount of forage allocated to livestock.”

His findings indicate that better management of livestock grazing patterns will help to restore ecological balance in those areas.

As Suzanne Roy of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign reminds us: “Congress deemed wild horses to be worthy of protection as national symbols of freedom whose presence on Western public lands is an important part of our history and heritage. The Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act designated the lands where wild horses were found in 1971 as habitat to be managed principally but not exclusively for wild horses.

“The BLM has turned this mandate on it head by allocating the majority of resources in federally designated wild horse areas to private livestock and not wild horses. The multiple use mandate does not require livestock grazing and it certainly does not require the imbalance of resource allocation that exists today.

“If the BLM wants to live up to its mandate to protect and preserve America’s wild horses then it will begin to address the inequities of resource allocation on the small amount of BLM lands on which wild horses reside. It will also shift resources away from the current costly and cruel roundup, remove and stockpile strategy toward on-the-range management of wild horses, utilizing cost-effective and humane fertility control strategies where necessary.”

With compelling arguments such as Roy’s and scientific refutations like Edwards’s, wild horse enthusiasts still have some leverage in their fight against their powerful ranching adversaries.  Yet, with the round up already underway, hundreds of horses are already at risk of slaughter if procured by the wrong people in the adoption process.

The wild horses of the West are quickly vanishing, despite laws in place to protect them.  Help force the necessary policy changes by signing the petition, “Save Wyoming’s Wild Horses from Slaughter.”

Photo credit: /farm3.static.flickr.com/2743/4384321268_ed005f9a86.jpg

Fountain of Youth: The Immortal Jellyfish Spans Oceans

The concept of immortality has long captivated man. The novel idea of starting-over, beginning anew, and wiping the slate clean for eternity has become the obsession of scientists and the inspiration for countless beauty campaigns. Novels, plays, and films imagine the outcome of attaining immortality. But for the Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish species, the notion of true rejuvenation isn’t unattainable—it’s routine.

Most jellyfish have a lifespan of hours or months, but Turritopsis dohrnii, dubbed the “immortal jellyfish,” breaks the norm. In many ways, Turritopsis dohrnii are similar to most jellyfish. They have the same umbrella shaped body and flowing tentacles. They grow from polyps, asexually reproduce to form many jellyfish and sexually reproduce at maturity. As the lifecycle ends there for most jellyfish species, for Turritopsis dohrnii, it has only begun. When a Turritopsis dohrnii is deprived of ample nutrition or physically injured, the animal becomes, simply, a blob. The damaged jellyfish attaches its fragile body to a stable object and its cells revert to their juvenile stage. The process of transdifferentiation allows cells to be used for different functions than they previously served as the animal rebuilds itself. The jellyfish goes back to its polyp stage and then grows into its full mature stage again. This process repeats as needed for survival.

While some species of salamanders can grow new limbs (arms, legs, tails) after one has been amputated, these jellyfish are the only animal known that can revert to its polyp stage after sexual maturation. These 4-millimeter creatures are the only immortal animals known to man.

Discovered in 1883, the Turritopsis dohrni’s regenerative capacity was recently realized in the 1990s. Today, genetically identical Turritopsis dohrni have invaded tropical and cooler waters, adapting with ease to the environment. Though the species originated in the Caribbean ocean, swarms of these jellyfish are found worldwide. Scientists speculate that the jellyfish glom onto ships in their cyst state and are transported to faraway oceans, populating the seas with these undying creatures. These animals are only susceptible to death by contracting a disease in their polyp stage or by being prayed upon.

But as these jellyfish continually replicate, fears are arising concerning the ever-booming population. Found off the shores of Spain, Japan, Panama and the Caribbean, these jellyfish may overrun the oceans. Scientists only recently discovered the presence of these immortal jellyfish after the species was well established, highlighting the inconspicuous spread of the species. Scientists have emphasized how difficult it is to detect the presence of these jellyfish until a full swam of them hits the sea. Now, the question remains if the immortal jellyfish population needs to be monitored to prevent an aquatic imbalance and how their presence will affect the existing ocean habitat.

As far as applying this discovery for human benefit, scientists insist that the information they obtain will not work toward advancing beauty creams or other products. Instead, the focus is on cancer. They suspect that these jellyfish have an unparalleled cellular repair mechanism and cancer is spawned from rogue cells. Understanding these jellyfish’s regenerative abilities may shed light upon the cancer epidemic that plagues so many people.

Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/phoenixation/2984477902/

Rare Giant Squid Specimen Found Off Florida Coast

Marine biologists have been offered an exciting chance to study one of the ocean’s most elusive animals, after a group of Florida fishermen brought in a recently-deceased giant squid last week.  The 25 foot-long specimen is now being carefully preserved at the Florida Museum of Natural History, where it will give researchers the opportunity to study the anatomy and genetic makeup of a species that has hardly ever been seen alive.

Recreational fishermen Robert Benz, Joey Asaro, and Paul Peroulakis found the squid drifting in the water about twelve miles off the Florida coast, and immediately realized they’d discovered something unusual.  Though already near death, the tentacles of the enormous invertebrate were still moving slightly when they found it.  The men managed to get the creature onto the back of their 23-foot boat, and took it in to shore.

“I thought we definitely need to bring it in, because no one’s going to believe us if we don’t,” said Benz. “I didn’t want to leave it out there and just let the sharks eat it.”

By the time University of Florida scientists arrived on the scene the squid was dead, but still in good enough shape to be extremely valuable for research.  The researchers quickly put it on ice to preserve it, and took it to the natural history museum so the body can be preserved with chemicals.  The preservation process is expected to take about two weeks, after which time scientists will examine the specimen to find out its age and sex, and analyze genetic date from the dead squid.

“We don’t really have a good handle on the biogeography of these critters, so this will add to that knowledge base,” said Roger Portell, an invertebrate paleontologist at the museum. “Because they are so rare, we have so few samples where we get a fresh specimen and can actually do genetic work.”

If the preservation process goes well, it may even be possible to place the squid on display where the public can see it.

At 25 feet long, the specimen found by the Florida fishermen is actually a rather “small” giant squid—individuals of its species can reach a length of up to 60 feet.  Because they inhabit the deep ocean and are very secretive, the scientific study of giant squids was for decades confined to examining dead specimens washed up on beaches, sometimes in a partially decayed state like in the picture at left.  Giant squids glimpsed by early sailors are also thought to have inspired myths of sea monsters.

In 2004 a team of Japanese scientists captured a giant squid on camera in its natural habitat for the first time ever, but it remains one of the least-studied large animals in the ocean.  Marine biologists believe it is an active predator that hunts for prey in the chilly depths of the ocean, thousands of feet below the surface.  The squids are themselves a source of food for deep-diving sperm whales, which have been found with scars from giant squid tentacles on their bodies.

The squid found off the Florida coast was probably dying of a natural cause when the fishermen ran across it.  Based on the life cycles of other squid species, scientists believe giant squids only mate once in their lives and then die.  The one found by Benz, Asaro, and Peroulakis may have just reproduced and reached the end of its natural lifespan.

Scientists who study marine invertebrates were pleased with how quickly the fishermen brought in the squid and notified authorities.  “It’s so rare to get these specimens and they’re such deep-water animals that we don’t know much about how they live,” said John Slapcinsky of the Florida Museum of Natural History.  “This specimen provides an excellent opportunity to learn things about these creatures we couldn’t find out any other way.”

Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/vitenskapsmuseet/5375410538/

Fossil Of World’s Smallest Dinosaur Discovered

Scientists have discoverd a fossil which they believe to be the world’s smallest dinosaur. Informally dubbed “Ashdown maniraptoran,” the feathered, bird-like dinosaur lived more than 100 million years ago and was just over a foot long. The findings of the recent discovery are published in the most recent issue of the journal Cretaceous Research.

According to the findings, the bone indicates that the dinosaur lived in the Cretaceous period 145 million to 100 million years ago. The bone belongs to a maniraptoran, a group of theropod dinosaurs that scientists speculate eventually evolved into present-day birds. Because the dinosaur has not been formally named yet, researchers refer to it as “Ashdown maniraptoran.” The name reflects the type of dinosaur (maniraptoran) and the location in which it was found (the Pivensey Pit at Ashdown Brickworks, a site located in East Sussex, UK). The dinosaur will be given a formal, scientific name if and when more fossils of its kind are discovered.

Scientists speculate that “Ashdown maniraptoran” was bipedal, meaning it walked on two legs, most likely with its body and tail in a horizontal position. Darren Naish, a paleozoologist who co-authored the research, described the dinosaur as having “a fairly short tail, long neck, long slim hind legs, and feathered clawed forelimbs.”

The neckbone of the dinosaur was discovered in the southern United Kingdom by researchers from the University of Portsmouth. The size of the bone, which is just a quarter inch long, allowed scientists to estimate the full size of the dinosaur. The bone has been identified as a posterior cervical vertebra. Researchers used two methods to estimate the size of the dinosaur. First, scientists built a digital model of the dinosaur’s neck, then fitted the neck into the silhouette of a maniraptoran. The second technique involved using neck-to-body ratios of related dinosaurs to determine the length of the dinosaur. Both of these techniques allowed scientists to estimate that the “Ashdown maniraptoran” measured between 13 and 15.7 inches long.

Despite the tiny size of the dinosaur, researchers have confirmed that it was fully grown when it died. The neckbone that was discovered does not have a neurocentral suture, which is a rough, open line of bone that only closes when a dinosaur is fully grown.

Because the skull of “Ashdown maniraptoran” has yet to be discovered, scientists are not entirely sure about the diet of the dinosaur. Based on similar small dinosaurs, such as oviraptorosaurs and other small maniraptorans, researchers have theorized that the dinosaur was an omnivore that could have eaten small creatures, such as insects, as well as other things like leaves and fruit.

The discovery of the new dinosaur indicates that southern England and other parts of Europe were home to a large population of similar dinosaurs during the Early Cretaceous period. Because there were land bridges connecting Europe to North America during this period, dinosaurs found in Europe share many similarities with dinosaurs found in the United States.

“Ashdown maniraptoran” is not the only tiny dinosaur to have been discovered lately. A dinosaur called Hesperonychus elizabethae was recently discovered in North America. Six inches longer than “Ashdown maniraptoran,” the dinosaur weighed around four pounds and was similar to a velociraptor. A small dinosaur known as Albertonkyus borealis, which had long legs and large claws, is another fairly recent discovery.

If “Ashdown maniraptoran” proves to be the smallest dinosaur in the world, it will take the title of smallest dinosaur previously held by Anchiornis, a bird-like dinosaur that lived in China 160 million to 155 million years ago. Because modern day birds are technically dinosaurs, the world’s smallest dinosaur is the Cuban bee hummingbird, which is 2 inches long and weights just .063 ounces.

Photo Credit: blm.gov/wo/st/en/res/Education_in_BLM/Learning_Landscapes/For_Teachers/science_and_children/paleo/

Worm Breaks Record for Deepest-Underground Animal

nematode-underground-record-deepestA newly discovered nematode (roundworm) species has set a new record for a known animal life form living naturally at the greatest depth beneath the Earth’s surface.  The worm—named Halicephalobus mephisto by scientists, and nicknamed the “devil worm”—occurs at depths where only microorganisms like bacteria were previously known to live.  At 0.5 millimeters long, it is the largest life form known to thrive this deep underground.

Nematodes (like the ones pictured at left) are one of the most abundant groups of animals on Earth, and are found in almost every habitat imaginable.  Though some are parasites living in the bodies of humans and other animals and plants, the majority are microscopic or near-microscopic decomposers that feed on dead organic material, or predators that hunt for microbes.  90,000 individual nematodes have been found living in one rotting apple—a statistic that provides a glimpse of how common these creatures are in nature.

In total, about 12,000 nematode species are known to science—but there is little doubt that thousands more await discovery.  Some scientists predict as many as 500,000 species of nematodes actually exist, most of them as yet un-described.  Because of their role as decomposers and predators, nematodes are important to the functioning of many of the world’s ecosystems.

The devil worm was found 2.2 miles below the Earth’s surface, much deeper than most scientists had previously believed animal life could live.  The search that led to finding the new species was prompted in part by the discovery of nematodes in a gold mine in South Africa.  At first researchers thought the worms might simply have been transported deep underground on mining equipment or the clothing of miners—but scientists from the University of Ghent in Belgium launched an effort to see if nematodes might occur naturally in deep water veins nearby.

After sampling thousands of gallons of water, the researchers found multiple types of nematodes, including a species already known from shallower depths, and the new species Halicephalobus mephisto.  The research team published their findings on June 1st in the scientific journal Nature.

The devil worm probably feeds on bacteria that scientists long known to occur deep beneath the surface of the Earth.  However the underground environment poses unique challenges for animals, including extreme heat and pressure.  Somehow the worms have adapted to live under such conditions, and it looks as though they have been doing it for a while.  Isotope dating techniques suggest the water where devil worms were found is at least 3,000 years old, and perhaps as old as 12,000 years.  This means the species has probably already survived in its challenging environment for millennia.

The discovery of the devil worm and other deep-underground nematodes raises the question of whether there might be other animals living underground at depths far greater than researchers have looked for them previously.  If so, they are likely to be very small creatures like nematodes and related near-microscopic worms.  But their existence miles beneath the planet’s surface could re-shape scientific understanding of the kinds of harsh conditions where some form of animal life can survive.

Scientists are also asking whether animal-like life forms could exist deep underground on other planets.  In the search for extraterrestrial life, research teams have usually assumed any life encountered far below the surface of a planet or moon would consist of relatively simple bacteria-like organisms.  But if more complex life can survive at such depths on Earth, the same could be true of other planets.

The discovery of the devil worm, which is not only a new species but a representative of animal life found at previously unknown depths, is a reminder of how much remains to be learned about life on Earth.  Like the depths of the ocean, the canopies of tropical rainforests, and other comparatively unexplored environments, pockets of water deep beneath the planet’s surface likely hold many other surprises that could re-shape our understanding of life in the world around us.

Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/snickclunk/200926410/sizes/m/in/photostream/

New Findings Show Affect of Sonar to Marine Life

When giant squid turned up dead off Spain about ten years ago, scientists suspected their cause of death to be due to powerful sound pulses from ships. A new study shows that this might, indeed, be the case. According to Barcelona’s Technical University of Catalonia, low-frequency sounds from human activities can affect squid and other cephalopods alike.

The findings show that noise pollution in the ocean is a matter that should not be taken lightly.

“We know that noise pollution in the oceans has a significant impact on dolphins and whales, which use natural sonar to navigate and hunt, but this is the first study indicating a severe impact on invertebrates, an extended group of marine species that are not known to rely on sound for living,” study leader Michael Andre stated.

About a decade ago the remains of giant squid were found off Spain’s Asturias province not long after ships had used air guns to conduct low-frequency sound-pulse exercises in the region. Affects on the squid included reduced mantles, bruised muscles, and lesions throughout their bodies. These organs, which are located behind the squids’ eyes, help it to maintain balance and position.

In the early 2000s, however, marine biologists were unable to prove that these frequencies were causing harm to the squid and surrounding marine life. Now, though, the evidence is in.

“With this study, we now have proof,” said marine specialist Angel  .

The researchers conducted the study by examining the effects of low-frequency sound exposure in 87 individual cephalopods of four different species. After two hours of constant exposure to various intensities of sound waves, the animals showed signs of damage to their statocyst tissue.

“This is a typical process found in land mammals and birds after acute noise exposure: a massive acoustic trauma followed by peripheral damage, making the lesions worse over time,” continued Andre.

The giant squid from the shores of Spain may or may not have suffered the direct impact of the sound waves, however, in either case their statocysts were practically destroyed causing the squid to become disoriented.

“The disoriented animals might wander up from the depths to the surface, where the temperature difference kills them,” explained Guerra.

Although the new research points out overwhelming evidence towards the leading cause of death for these giant squid, more research is necessary before a solid case can be made that human-made noise pollution is causing significant damage to marine life.

Photo Credit: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/07philippines/logs/oct13/media/squid_600.html

New Giant Crayfish Discovered in Tennessee Stream

January 26, 2011- Nick Engelfried

It’s a common assumption that in our scientifically enlightened age, almost all plant and animal species have been discovered and catalogued by researchers—at least in highly populated temperate countries like the United States.  However a new discovery from the streams of Tennessee shows scientists are not done discovering new and fascinating creatures even in the US.  Last week researchers from Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced they have discovered a species of crayfish—a freshwater aquatic invertebrate that looks a bit like a small lobster—in the deeper waters of a Tennessee creek.

The species has been given the scientific name Barbicambarus simmonsi, and has been referred to as the “bearded crayfish” because of its long antennae covered in hair-like bristles.  It is notable for its large size compared to other crayfish in the area, and reaches a length of about five inches.  Yet despite its distinctive size and appearance it had until now been overlooked by scientists; because it is sparsely distributed in the streams it calls home, the bearded crayfish escaped detection for years.

Then in 2009 Christopher Taylor, a researcher at the University of Illinois, and Guenter Schuster of Eastern Kentucky University, received reports that a fellow scientist might have spotted a new and comparatively very large crayfish species.  A team of researchers combed freshwater streams from the area where the unusual crayfish had been reported, hoping to find a live specimen so they could verify it as a new species.  At last they found a bearded crayfish hiding under a submerged boulder in Shoal Creek, Tennessee.  A DNA analysis later confirmed that it was indeed a new species.

The Southeast United States, now known to be home to the bearded crayfish, is also the center of global crayfish diversity.  Worldwide there are more than five hundred species in the crayfish family, and North America is home to more than any other continent.  Most of the US species live in the Southeast, and some are so restricted in their range that they are known only from a few individual streams or underground cave systems.  Because of their limited distribution, these crayfish are especially vulnerable to extinction if the body of water they depend on becomes polluted or otherwise degraded by human activity.

In an example of the remarkable diversity crayfish in the Southeast have attained, the bearded crayfish turns out to be not just a new species—it is closely related to only one previously known species, known to scientists as Barbicambarus cornutus.  This related species is also very large, and is found in the freshwater streams of Kentucky.

Many people don’t realize that discovering new species is not particularly unusual in the world of field science, especially when it comes to insects and other invertebrates in remote regions of the world.  Scientists catalogue thousands of new species every year, many of them found in the canopies of tropical rainforests or the depths of the world’s oceans.  Around 1.75 million plant, animal, and microbe species are currently known and have been given scientific names.  The number of undiscovered species is probably much larger, with the UN Global Diversity Assessment estimating that more than thirteen million species exist in total.

Even in the United States discovering a new species of invertebrate is not necessarily an astonishing feat.  However finding one as large as the bearded crayfish, and living in a habitat that is neither remote nor unexplored, truly is unusual.  The discovery of this unusual-looking creature is a reminder of how much remains unknown in the natural world around us.

Photo credit: Justin Miller


CRM_J 420 Midterm: Exam 2 Notes

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Criminal Justice
CRM_J 420
C Hemmens

Exam 2 Notes 2/9/2017 Stop and thisk - 4 Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and to make a search, you must have probable cause. o Any arrest or search that occurs without probable cause, is unreasonable and invalid. o Courts have allowed the police to do things that are less than full searches or arrests for less than probable cause a.k.a. stop and frisk. - Stop and Frisk came from Terry vs. Ohio (1969). o When the police don’t have probable cause but they have reasonable suspicion they can stop and frisk. o A stop is the beginning to an investigation. - Seizure o Arrest ▪ Form of seizure, all arrests are seizures. o Stop ▪ Not an arrest, but a form of seizure. ▪ Not all seizures are stops & not all seizures are arrests. ▪ Limited in time and limited in scope. o Encounter - Search o Cavity o Full body ▪ When you arrest somebody. o Frisk ▪ A form of search but different than full body or cavity searches, limited form of search. ▪ Police can do this if they think that they are in danger and that their safety is in danger. ▪ Minnesota vs. Dickerson (1993)- police were outside of a crack house, the police watched a man go up to the door and exchange something through the door. They didn’t know what it was. The police decided that they should investigate. They approached Dickerson who decided to run away from him. • Justice Scalia said: If an officer during a frisk feels something that is immediately recognizable as contraband, the police may go into the outer clothing and pull it out. • Dickerson’s case got thrown out because the crack was not immediately recognizable. o Encounter Reasonable Doubt Preponderance of the Evidence Probable Cause- need for full arrest/full search. Reasonable Suspicion- allows the police to do something, not as much as if they had probable cause, but they can do a stop and frisk. Suspicion that is reasonable and that is based on facts (articulable). “I had a suspicion that this person was up to criminal activity… I saw this/I saw that..” If a police officer has reasonable suspicion that a crime occurred or is about to, the officer has limited search and seizure authority. Totality of the Circumstances= Probable Cause and Reasonable Suspicion Mere Suspicion Terry vs. Ohio (1969) - Purpose - Scope - Standard of Proof - Stop and Frisk 2/14/2017 Stop and Frisk - Terry vs. Ohio (1969) o Where stop and frisk came from. - Reasonable Suspicion o (Something less than probable cause but more than mere suspicion). - Investigative Detention o Seizure that is limited in purpose to investigate. Basis for Stop - Personal Observation o Anything that a police officer sees that is a suspicious activity. - Informant Information o When the officer doesn’t personal observe something but an informant does. ▪ The officer has to look at the totality of the circumstances in regards to the informant (basis of knowledge, if the informant is a criminal etc. - Anonymous Tip, with Corroboration. o An anonymous tip alone= no reasonable suspicion. o The police have to corroborate the information. They have to collect additional information in order to act on the tip. - BOLO - Drug Courier Profile o A profile about what a typical drug courier looks like. ▪ What they tend to wear, drive, etc. ▪ May be used to develop reasonable suspicion. ▪ What is one thing that can never be used for this profile: race, ethnicity. • This violates the 14 amendment. ▪ Creates the level of suspicion so that they are able to take action. Duration of Stop - 90 minutes to search luggage. o The court said that this is too long to search someone’s luggage. o U.S. vs. Place (1983). - Removal from public to private area o Not okay because the public to private place changes the encounter. Then it becomes more like an arrest. o Florida vs. Royer (1983) - 27 hours for drug courier. o This is okay because under the circumstances, this was the amount of time that was required.22 o U.S. vs. Montoyade Hernandez (1985) Vehicles - Michigan vs. Long (1983) - Reasonable suspicion, they may frisk the driver and the passengers. They also may frisk the vehicle (look around the vehicle)ee Roadblocks - Discretion Limited o Can only do so much. - Time Limited o Officer has time to stop them and ask them about their ID, etc. Just have enough time to do a little bit of talking and asking for ID. - Balance of Purpose vs. Intrusion o 4 amendmentintrusion. o Very minor intrusion on rights. Arrest th - 4 Amendment-: Covers all seizure - Definitions: o Custody- taking someone in custody to either investigate them or to prosecute them. o For investigate/prosecute o Force or submission to authority o Has to have all of these - Test: MI vs. Chesterut (1988). Elements of Arrest - Seizure o Actual o Constructive - Intent to arrest o Express o Implied - Arrest Authority o With warrant- 95% of arrests occur without warrants, but that doesn’t make them unlawful. ▪ No criminal liability if the warrant ends up not being right or being messed up. ▪ The officer has to make an arrest if they know that there is a warrant somewhere out there. o Without warrant ▪ Has to have probable cause (totality of the circumstances). - Resisting Arrest o Lawful o Unlawful ▪ You can’t resist even if it’s an unlawful arrest. ▪ You have to submit to their arrest and then sue them later. ▪ Wyoming and a state in the south still let people resist an unlawful arrest. o Today, you will end up getting arrested. 2/16/2017 MI vs. Chesternut (1988). - Reasonable Person o A person is under arrest, when a reasonable person, viewing the situation in totality of the circumstances would not feel free to leave at the end of the encounter. - “Free to leave” Arrest - Custody, by force/submission - Intent to arrest o The police show that they are going to arrest you. Arrest Authority (can arrest with a warrant or without a warrant). - Warrant - w/o warrant Warrant - Jurisdiction o If you have an arrest warrant for Whitman county and you are in Seattle, you are allowed to be arrested their. - Extradition o If you have an arrest warrant for Whitman County and you get caught in Idaho, you have to be moved back to the county where the arrest warrant was issued. o If that person doesn’t want to challenge the warrant, then they can say no and get a hearing in the state they are found in to make sure that the warrant is right. W/O Warrant - Felony o Presence ▪ Greater authority to arrest. o Public or private ▪ Cannot arrest in someone’s home without a warrant unless they see that the crime occurred in their house. - Misdemeanor o Presence only ▪ Limited authority to arrest, only if the officer sees it then the officer can arrest, but they cannot arrest without a warrant. o Domestic Violence o Traffic Accident ▪ They have the authority to arrest when there’s something like a DUI. o Assault ▪ Can also be charged to someone for domestic violence. ▪ Getting close to the level of felony. ▪ Have to arrest he
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Censors Close In on Global Internet Freedom Four Years Running

EspañolInternet freedom around the world has declined for the fourth consecutive year, warns the latest report from Freedom House. More and more governments have increased their censorship and monitoring of the web, using increasingly sophisticated and aggressive methods.

On the American continent, Venezuela (56), the United States (19), and Mexico (39) were the three countries that registered the greatest slip in their rating out of 100 points, with a loss of three, two, and three points, respectively.

The Freedom on the Net 2013 report, published December 3, examined 65 countries between May 2013 and May 2014, analyzing laws affecting the internet and the accessibility of web pages, and interviewed those who used the web as both a method of communication and for online activism.

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With zero being the best rating and 100 the worst, Iran (89), Syria (88) and China (87) were the worst-scored countries in the study. China was found to have intimidated  — and in some cases arrested — users who had posted criticisms of the government online.

In Syria, pro-government hackers infected more than 10,000 computers with a virus that hid warnings of ongoing cyber attacks. The report classifies the war-torn state as the most dangerous place in the world for journalists: 24 reporters were killed between 2013 and 2014.

Russia (60), Turkey (55), and Ukraine (33) were the countries that increased their control over web content the most, such as blocking access to information during political crises, above all during the Russian annexation of Crimea. In the past year, Turkey has increased blocks on social networks, and expanded its program of cyber attacks against Twitter, YouTube, and news and opposition websites.

Conversely, internet freedom has increased in only 12 countries. The majority of the improvements were due to the further reduction of technical controls on internet use, rather than a broader, genuine approach by governments to lessen their control over the internet.

India was the most successful in decreasing restrictions on web access, largely due to the removal of blocks to web content, imposed in 2013 with the stated aim of preventing civil disturbances in the northeast of the country.

Tabla que demuestra los países que más retrocedieron en libertad en internet. (Freedom House).
Decline in internet freedom by country.  (Freedom House)

Censors of Latin America

Cuba (84), Venezuela (56), Mexico (39), and Ecuador (37) were the Latin-American countries considered to be partially or completely without internet freedom. In these nations, web access is often difficult, be it through economic restraints which limit frequent use by part of the population, or by government efforts — such as regulations on telecommunications companies, blocking technological applications, or laws prohibiting internet access.

In 2013, Cuba extended access to the internet, albeit with connection points designed and monitored by the government, and with a prohibitively expensive hourly price approaching some 20 percent of the national minimum wage.

Cuba and Venezuela, ruled by authoritarian regimes, are the countries with the least internet freedom in the Americas.
Cuba and Venezuela, ruled by authoritarian regimes, are the countries with the least internet freedom in the Americas. (Freedom House).

The Venezuelan government, in turn, blocked access to the internet on several occasions during the examined period. The most important instance took place in February 2014, while street protests against the government of Nicolás Maduro continued for 36 hours.

In the same month, the government blocked over 400 websites hosting political and economic information. One notable example was the censorship of the Colombian media outlet NTN24, after it published a video showing the murder of a Venezuelan student and activist.

The study found that Mexico was one of the most hostile atmospheres for journalists and activists worldwide. Reporters were constantly the victims of intimidation because of material they published.

The delay of seven months in passing the Telecommunications Law — which included measures against the monopoly of internet and cell-phone service provision — also served to knock points off the country’s score.

For its part, the Ecuadorian government was judged to have attacked internet freedom by approving the Communications Law, which censored those traditional media outlets with a web presence.

Lands of the Free, Online

Meanwhile, Colombia (30), Brazil (30), Argentina (27), the United States (19), and Canada (15) are the countries that enjoy the greatest internet freedom.

In Colombia, 100,000 low-income families now have access to the web, thanks to a government initiative which installed connections points in their houses. Another action which boosted Colombia’s rating was a ruling in favor of Google, exempting it from responsibility for the content of the web pages produced by its search engine.

Brazil was highlighted for creating a law which gave tax exemptions to certain types of smartphones, and approving a law nicknamed “the Internet Constitution,” which protected the privacy of users, among other positive measures.

Argentina, although boasting easy access to the web, was the scene of several cases of online censorship. The most well-known took place in December 2013, when Juan Pablo Suárez, content editor of the Última Hora website, was arrested for filming the arrest of a police official.

Further north, Canada debated in October 2013 a proposal aiming to combat cases of online harassment, but which contained articles making it easier to find out the details of net users.

In the United States, the vetoing of laws against net neutrality was highlighted, alongside a legislative proposal which obliged internet service providers to hand over details of their users only upon receipt of a search warrant. On the other hand, September 2013 saw still further details come to light about the massive espionage program carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Internet Freedom at a Crossroads

During the presentation of the report, its findings were analyzed by six representatives from various think tanks in favor of internet freedom. Among them were the director of the study, Sanja Kelly, and the founder of Yahoo’s human-rights program, Michael Samway.

The experts concluded that the internet is currently at a key moment for the future of humanity. They emphasized how information about the huge political and social changes of recent years has been rapidly disseminated around the world via the internet.

All the panelists agreed that, in order for the web to continue being free, civil society must be vigilant about legislative proposals to control the creation, spread, and free access of online media.

None were optimistic about the immediate future of web freedom, but they underlined the importance of continuing to fight in favor of liberty online, arguing that a free internet is synonymous with human well-being, freer markets, and economic progress.

Translated by Laurie Blair.

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