1980 Swiss Opera House Riot

Opernhauskrawalle is the Swiss German term generally used for the youth protests at the end of May 1980 in the Swiss city of Zürich, a municipality in the Canton of Zürich. Also called Züri brännt ("Zürich is burning"), this even marked the 'rebirth' of the Hippie movement in Switzerland in the 1980s.

Background

A three-day celebration of the Zürich Opernhaus and the opening of a festival was celebrated on 30 May 1980. Uninvited, about 200 protesters demanded an autonomous youth center. The communal Stadtpolizei Zürich and state Kantonspolizei Zürich police corps were informed before and stationed in the foyer of the opera house. As the youths occupied the stairs, the demonstration degenerated into a street battle between the demonstrators and the police, who were equipped with water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets. A public referendum contributed to the riots, as the city of Zurich planned to grant CHF 61 million to the opera house of the rich Zürich people for a renovation and an extension of the building, but nothing to the planned Rote Fabrik in Zürich-Wollishofen, on the other side of the Zürichsee lake shore. The demands of the young people to have their own cultural center had been studiously ignored for years. Their reaction was now "long pent-up anger" as a newspaper headlined. "Züri brännt" is a household word, and is originally a punk song of the band TNT. Andreas Homoki, director of the opera house, described the situation in the "hot summer of 1980" as explosive, and in fact "there was not enough room for a youth culture", and that the then astronomical subvention on the one hand and on the other hand, the lack of commitment for the youth by the then conservative government of Zürich.

Thus, the extremely high subventions, but lacking of alternative governmental cultural programs for the youth in Zürich, occurred the so-called Opernhauskrawall, meaning riots or youth protests at the Zürich Opera House (German: Opernhaus). The youth protests culminated on 30/31 May 1980, at the present Sechseläutenplatz square in Zürich, but also in the whole city, spreading to others municipalities in Switzerland in 1980 and again in 1982. The youth protests mark the beginning of the modern youth movement in Switzerland, maybe started a hype of the alternative and former Hippie movement.

Aftermath

A first political compromise was the so-called AJZ (a shorttime youth centre at the Zürich main station), and the establishment of the so-called Rote Fabrik alternative cultural centre in Wollishofen in late 1980. Rote Fabrik still exists, and claims to be one of the most important alternative cultural places in the greater Zürich urban area. The most prominent politicians involved were Sigmund Widmer and Emilie Lieberherr, then member of the city's executive (Stadtrat) authorities. The Swiss newspaper WOZ Die Wochenzeitung exposed in 2006 that even an undercover police officer saw action in 1980 – in October 2016 a book about Willi S's double life as revoluzzer and police officer was published.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opernhauskrawalle

Video Game Walkthrough Guides

A video game walkthrough is a guide aimed towards improving a player's skill within a particular video game and often designed to assist players in completing either an entire video game or specific elements. Walkthroughs may alternatively be set up as a play-through, where players record themselves playing through a game and upload or live-stream it to the internet. Walkthroughs may be considered guides on helping to enhance the experience of players, to assist towards unlocking game achievements or simply as a means to socialize with like-minded individuals as a distraction from everyday life.

Walkthroughs originated as text-based descriptive instructions in magazines for playing through a video game. With the growth in popularity of computers and the internet, video game walkthroughs expanded to digital and video formats, with the typical average age of watchers being 23 years old and predominently male, according to a study undertaken in Finland during 2015. Some individuals and companies have been known to earn lucrative income through the process of recording and offering guides publicly.

History

Video game walkthroughs were originally included in video game magazines or on text-bulletin boards. In the late 1980s through to the mid 2000s, video game walkthroughs were also available through telephone 'hot-lines' in the United States. Despite the rise in popularity of internet based guides, text-based walkthroughs are still present today in both print and digital formats. Examples of print publications include strategy guides published by Prima Games, whereas text-based digital guides are hosted on gaming websites such as IGN, GamesRadar, and GameFAQs, often in the form of wikis. Until its closure by parent company Future plc, Computer and Video Games (CVG) also created and hosted digital guides on their (now defunct) website, computerandvideogames.com.

Player created digital walkthroughs are typically designed to assist other players in accomplishing certain feats within video games and are similar to text-based or telephony-based walkthroughs, except they can also be solely for entertainment purposes. These digital walkthroughs are typically uploaded to video sharing websites such as YouTube or live-streamed play-throughs to media streaming sites such as Twitch.tv. Let's Play videos are a special type of walkthrough generally more focused on entertaining rather than informing the viewer through humorous commentary given by the video's host as they complete the game.

Format

Given there is no standardized format for the creation of text-based walkthroughs, guides exist that contain extensive examples and step-by-step instructions on how to write text-based walkthrough content. Prima Games and Computer and Video Games have produced walkthroughs. Prima Games produces official, dedicated text-based video game walkthroughs and strategy guides for a variety of video games in both print and digital formats. Computer and Video Games (CVG) published both text and video based walkthroughs of video games on their website and official YouTube channel until their closure by Future in February of 2015 in asset consolidation between various Future brands. IGN also creates and publishes video game walkthroughs in both text and video formats.

When it comes to video walkthroughs of games, gameplay may be recorded in multiple ways, such as through the use of screencast software, built-in recording features in some emulators or via a video capture device connected to a console or another computer. Some video games also include built-in recording features, such as Grand Theft Auto V (2013), which included in-game recording and editing features in its PlayStation 4 and Xbox One re-releases, allowing players to record and edit gameplay to share with others. Video content is typically shared over the internet via streaming, using video sharing and media streaming websites such as YouTube and Twitch, where the content has a potential audience consisting of millions of people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_walkthrough

Hurricane Harvey (2017)

Hurricane Harvey is a currently active tropical cyclone that recently made landfall in Texas as a Category 4 hurricane. It is the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Wilma in 2005, ending a record 12-year period with no storms making landfall in the United States as a major hurricane. Harvey is the first hurricane to hit the state of Texas since Ike in 2008, and the strongest to hit the state since Carla in 1961. In addition, it is the strongest hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Rita in 2005 and the strongest to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Charley in 2004.

                                                       Track of 2017 Hurricane Harvey
The eighth named storm, third hurricane, and the first major hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, Harvey developed from a tropical wave to the east of the Lesser Antilles on August 17. The storm crossed through the Windward Islands on the following day, passing just south of Barbados and later near Saint Vincent. Upon entering the Caribbean Sea, Harvey began to weaken due to moderate wind shear and degenerated into a tropical wave north of Colombia early on August 19. The remnants were monitored for regeneration as it continued west-northwestward across the Caribbean and the Yucatán Peninsula, before re-developing over the Bay of Campeche on August 23. Harvey then began to rapidly intensify on August 24, re-gaining tropical storm status and becoming a hurricane later that day. Moving generally northwestwards, Harvey's intensification phase stalled slightly overnight from August 24–25, however Harvey soon resumed strengthening and became a Category 4 hurricane late on August 25. Hours later, Harvey made landfall near Rockport, Texas at peak intensity.

Hurricane Harvey has been confirmed to have caused at least 2 fatalities; one in Suriname and another in the United States

President Donald Trump remained in contact with Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and received a briefing from acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long. FEMA worked with the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to prepare for the storm and its aftermath. The agency placed disaster response teams on standby at emergency posts in Austin, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Harvey

Nazi Bank Note Counterfeiting

Operation Bernhard was an exercise by the Nazis to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the British economy. The first phase was run from early 1940 by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) under the title Unternehmen Andreas (Operation Andreas). The unit successfully duplicated the rag paper used by the British, produced near-identical engraving blocks and broke the algorithm used to create the alpha-numeric serial code on each note. The unit closed in early 1942 after its head, Alfred Naujocks, fell out of favour with his superior officer, Reinhard Heydrich.

The operation was revived later in the year; the aim was changed to forging money to finance German intelligence operations. Instead of a specialist unit within the SD, prisoners from Nazi concentration camps were selected and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp to work under SS Major Bernhard Krüger. The unit produced British notes until mid-1945; estimates vary of the number and value of notes printed from £132.6 million up to £300 million. By the time the unit ceased production, they had perfected the artwork for US dollars, although the paper and serial numbers were still being analysed. The counterfeit money was laundered in exchange for money and other assets. Counterfeit notes from the operation were used to pay the Turkish agent Elyesa Bazna—code named Cicero—for his work in obtaining British secrets from the British ambassador in Ankara, and £100,000 from Operation Bernhard was used to obtain information that helped to free the Italian leader Benito Mussolini in the Gran Sasso raid in September 1943.

In early 1945 the unit was moved to Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria, then to the Redl-Zipf series of tunnels and finally to Ebensee concentration camp. Because of an overly precise interpretation of a German order, the prisoners were not executed on their arrival; they were liberated shortly afterwards by the American Army. Much of the output of the unit was dumped into the Toplitz and Grundlsee lakes at the end of the war, but enough went into general circulation that the Bank of England stopped releasing new notes and issued a new design after the war. The operation has been dramatised in a comedy-drama miniseries Private Schulz by the BBC and in a 2007 film, The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher).

On seeing the quality of the notes, one bank official described them as "the most dangerous ever seen". Counterfeit notes worth £15–20 million were in general circulation at the end of the war. With such a volume in general circulation, in April 1943 the Bank of England stopped releasing all notes of £10 and above. In February 1957 a new £5 banknote was issued; the blue note was printed on both sides and "relied on subtle colour changes and detailed machine engraving" for security. Other denominations were also reintroduced: the £10 in February 1964, the £20 in July 1970 and the £50 note in March 1981.

The Tilhas Tizig Gesheften, a small group formed from the British Army's Jewish Brigade, obtained a supply of counterfeit pounds from Jaacov Levy, one of Schwend's money-laundering agents. The forged notes were used to buy equipment and to bring displaced persons to Palestine, in defiance of the British blockade of the territory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bernhard

A Primer on Animation

Animation is the process of making the illusion of motion and the illusion of change by means of the rapid succession of sequential images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general—is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon and beta movement, but the exact causes are still unclear.

There are some forms of animation that do not feature a rapid succession of sequential images, but these are usually not considered "true" or "full" animation. For instance, the physical movement of image parts through simple mechanics in magic lantern slides and the movement of the projector (the magic lantern) in phantasmagoria provided popular moving picture shows.

Animators are artists who specialize in the creation of animation. Animation can be recorded with either analogue media, a flip book, motion picture film, video tape, digital media, including formats with animated GIF, Flash animation, and digital video. To display animation, a digital camera, computer, or projector are used along with new technologies that are produced.

Animation methods include traditional animation, and methods that use stop motion animation of two and three-dimensional objects, paper cutouts, puppets, and clay figures. Images display in a rapid succession, usually 24, 25, 30, or 60 frames per second. Computer animation processes generating animated images with the general term computer-generated imagery (CGI). 3D animation uses computer graphics, while 2D animation is used for stylistic, low bandwidth and faster real-time renderings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

The 12 Basic Principles of Animation

Squash and Stretch

Anticipation
Staging
Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
Follow Through and Overlapping Action
Slow In and Slow Out
Arc
Secondary Action
Timing
Exaggeration
Solid drawing
Appeal

          [see the link below for a thorough description of each of these principles]

Disney's Twelve Basic Principles of Animation were introduced by the Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their 1981 book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. Johnston and Thomas in turn based their book on the work of the leading Disney animators from the 1930s onwards, and their effort to produce more realistic animations. The main purpose of the principles was to produce an illusion of characters adhering to the basic laws of physics, but they also dealt with more abstract issues, such as emotional timing and character appeal.

The book and some of its principles have been adopted by some traditional studios, and have been referred to by some as the "Bible of animation." In 1999 this book was voted number one of the "best animation books of all time" in an online poll. Though originally intended to apply to traditional, hand-drawn animation, the principles still have great relevance for today's more prevalent computer animation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation

Coming: Intelligent Automation

Great Links About the Coming Revolution in Automation
By the Blog Author

The Structural Jobs Fiasco No One Knows How to Deal With from 2014 (includes a grueling, 15-minute video about automation): 

http://wolfstreet.com/2014/10/08/the-structural-jobs-fiasco-no-one-knows-how-to-deal-with/

The middle of this linked article leads to this 15 minute video, “Humans Need Not Apply.”  In the middle of the video is a diagram that displays the heart of artificial intelligence programming, a neural network that consists of:

             Inner Layer

             Hidden Layer
             Output Layer

The “hidden layer” is set up in a manner that mimics the wiring of the cerebral cortex of the brain.

Footnote

For decades, I contended that the human brain doesn’t have and doesn’t need a central processing unit (CPU) as exists for computers since the CPU was invented by John von Neumann in 1947.  Computers still run on CPU architecture.  So I have stated many times that computers will never “really” achieve genuine artificial intelligence until they achieve a design that doesn’t need the CPU.

But a neural network with a hidden layer will provide a substitute kind of brute force intelligence if the memory available is large enough… millions and millions of bytes… which are now available on modern computers.  For details and a diagram of the neural network that is identical to the above video, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neural_network

As a result of these searches, I retract my former contention that genuine artificial intelligence certainly requires a computer without a CPU.  If the hidden layer has huge memory capacity, it may exhibit intelligence.  Which means the article and video linked above are to be taken very seriously.

PS:  I have ordered a 1965 paperback that includes the novella “The Midas Plague,” by Frederick Pohl.  It describes an analogy to a world where machines make everything.  It hasn’t arrived yet.  I only ordered it because of the deserved fame and genius of Pohl.  I read some of his stories back in the 1960s and early 1970s, but not this one.

PPS:  The political left (weary sigh) has already rolfed up the notion that intelligent automation will create permanent high unemployment and therefore make a mandatory free base wage (sometimes called a “negative income tax”) absolutely necessary.  My personal view is that this approach is an incompetent bribe that will be fiercely resented by the recipients.  The new unemployed need to interface with artificial intelligence and plot their own futures.  Trapping intelligent people into living as couch potatoes will result in millions of resentful addicts.

Triple Talaq Banned in India

Triple talaq (also known as talaq-e-mughallazah—Irrevocable divorce) is a form of Islamic divorce that was practised by Muslims in India. It allowed any Muslim man to legally divorce his wife by stating the word talaq (the Arabic word for "divorce") three times in verbal, written, or more recently electronic form. It has been a subject of controversy and debates within the country, raising the issues of justice, gender equality, human rights and secularism. The government of India and the Supreme Court of India have been involved in addressing the issues. On 22 August 2017, the Indian Supreme Court struck down instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddat) and termed it unconstitutional. Three judges on the five judge Constitution bench decided against triple talaq while two ruled in favour.

The issue has also caused a debate on the need for a uniform civil code in India.

Practice

Triple talaq is a form of divorce that was practiced in India, whereby a Muslim man could legally divorce his wife by pronouncing talaq (the Arabic word for divorce) three times. The pronouncement could be oral or written, or, in recent times, delivered by electronic means such as telephone, SMS, email or social media. The man did not need to cite any cause for the divorce and the wife need not be present at the time of pronouncement. After a period of iddat, during which it is ascertained whether the wife is pregnant, the divorce becomes irrevocable. In the recommended practice, a waiting period was required before each pronouncement of talaq, during which reconciliation is attempted. However, it had become common to make all three pronouncements in one sitting. While the practice was frowned upon, it was not prohibited. A divorced woman might not remarry her divorced husband unless she first married another man, a practice called Nikah Halala. Until she remarried, she retained the custody of male toddlers and pre-pubertal female children. Beyond those restrictions, the children came under the guardianship of the father.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), had told the Supreme Court that women could also pronounce triple talaq, and could execute nikahnamas that stipulated conditions so that the husbands could not pronounce triple talaq. The practice of instant divorce is already banned in 20 Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan.

Judgment

A multi-faith bench heard the controversial Triple Talaq case in 2017. Though 2 judges upheld validity of Triple Talaq (Talaq-e-Biddat), the three other judges held that it was unconstitutional, thus barring the practice by 3:2 majority. The bench asked the Central government to promulgate legislation within six months to govern marriage and divorce in the Muslim community. The court said that until the government formulates a law regarding Triple Talaq, there would be an injunction against husbands pronouncing triple talaq on their wives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_talaq_in_India