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Far Cry 3's Jeffrey Yohalem On Racism, Torture And Satire
Escape The Loop
Having completed Far Cry 3 a while back, I found that so much of the game's story just didn't sit right with me. Not simply in the sense that it appeared to contain colonialist nonsense and clumsily handled rape plots, but that I felt I was missing something. That the game was trying to say something to me, perhaps partly through that which I found problematic, and I hadn't been able to hear it. So I pursued the game's author, Jeffrey Yohalem, to talk it through.
Yohalem proves to be a very animated, very passionate writer, who sees Far Cry 3 as a complex exploration of many ideas, mostly questioning the role of the player in a game, and what they'll do in order to win. It was, he says, an attempt to break the loops of modern gaming, to ask the player to start to demand better. Fortunately, I'm animated and passionate too, so we get to discussing how successful this really was. What follows is a heated chat about what gaming could and should be. I return at the end with some thoughts on the conversation.
A frame of reference: Far Cry 3, an undoubtedly brilliant shooter, seemed to come with some odd baggage. Many who played it, including me, found its apparent use of "white messiah", "magical negro" and "noble savage" tropes to be somewhat disconcerting. While there was certainly no hatred or malice displayed to a particular race (unless that race is translucent white Hollywoodians), it seemed difficult to understand how the game wasn't employing stereotypes more familiar to 19th century literature. Along with that was a strangely vapid sequence in which you learn of the repeated rape of a friend, and some very peculiar sex scenes, all of which seemed like the worst of gaming in the midst of the best of gaming.
But at the same time, it didn't feel that simple. It felt like it was there for a reason – but a reason I couldn't grasp, and one I didn't think was explained by the time the game had ended. That's the position from which I began our spoiler-filled conversation.
RPS: My impression of Far Cry 3 was a game that wanted to say a lot more than most games do, but also a game that perhaps didn't quite manage to say some of those things. What was your overall goal when you started writing this game?
Jeffrey Yohalem: My goal was to say exactly what I think I say. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. There's not really anything I would point to – I mean, there are a couple of things missing I guess, but those things supported points that are already made. The goal was to create a videogame that examined what shooting does to us in a videogame. When I play a videogame there are all kinds of systems that work on my brain, and most videogames try to hide those systems under a story. And that story is intended not to be about what's going on in the game. Almost every story in videogames is – I don't love this term but – ludo-narratively dissonant. It's purposeful, because stories usually pave over potholes in videogames. There are systems that don't quite work together, there are systems that create emotions in the animal parts of our brains that are uncomfortable, and so story is used not as something that conveys meaning, but as something that hides uncomfortable stuff, sublimates uncomfortable emotions.
RPS: Can you give an example of the kinds of things that are hidden by games like that?
Jeffrey Yohalem: You have a secret ops agent who's killed hundreds of people before as your protagonist, so it means that if you shoot hundreds of people over the course of the day in your videogame – which would never happen in reality unless you had a mass-murderer – that you, the player, are okay with that because the story has paved over the pothole. There's a lot of secret stuff going on behind the scenes in videogame companies and development houses. Players aren't seeing inside the box. I'm trying to expose the mechanisms inside the box.
RPS: I guess one of the key moments for what you're talking about in FC3 is when you return to the caves. Each time you return to the cave, and you see your girlfriend and friends, you have those moments of reconnecting to your humanity. But midway through the game those stop. So where do you see that continuing commentary on how Jason is being affected by shooting so many people? Or indeed how I'm being affected.
Jeffrey Yohalem: It's the player. The player is experiencing the loop. There's that moment where you're torturing your little brother to get information, which is taking something to the extreme. Other games have torture scenes and they try to pave over the pothole, by saying it's essential to saving humanity, you've got to find the terrorist and the bombs going to go off soon. They're trying to get the player to be okay with torturing somebody, because the gameplay mechanics of doing it are fun for them. So in this case it's torturing your little brother, and there's no real reason to be doing it. You're not saving the Earth, you're not doing anything that makes that act okay. That was meant to really shock people.
Also, the end! The end of this game is all about what you as a player are. It's your turn to be whoever you want to be. Who you want to be in the face of these gameplay loops. Throughout this whole game we took you through all of these loops, and at the end we point them out to you. Citra literally says it, that she's going to erase your save game, and she says if you want to win, you're going to complete the final tattoo. So the question is, do you want to win? Do you want to go through these gameplay loops.
So I think there's this misperception out there – and this is the most interesting misperception that I've found – people who thought the game was going to be an examination of shooting. Like, what it would be like to be a real person in this jungle, shooting people, and if you kill hundreds of people what happens to you. That's not what this game is about. It was never what this game was about. That may be what Spec Ops: The Line was about, it's not what this game is about. This game is about entertainment, and about how far will you go in these loops, and how much entertainment are you actually having from them. Are you willing to kill these characters in the game in order to finish your entertainment.
It's not a judgment about you, either. It's really something for the player to approach as smart, intelligent grown ups. It's a riddle for the player to solve. The player goes to the game and experiences this riddle – and if you go to this game without looking at it as a riddle, it's like looking at a building that has four supports and should have six. The game is not supposed to make sense if you're not looking for the riddle. It's supposed to destabilise your sense of what a traditional story is in a videogame. If you look at the story on the surface, then it doesn't hold up. There are all sorts of shocking exaggerations that are there to intentionally destabilise the player.
RPS: Would you suggest that one of those destabilisations is what has been perceived as racism?
Jeffrey Yohalem: Yes! It's NOT! It's the opposite! The game is the opposite. It's so funny to me. I've seen these arguments on forums, and I think these arguments are fantastic because people are engaging in a discussion about art, which is exactly what I was hoping would happen. But, the game's argument is that Jason is basically used by everyone on the island – Jason is basically a gun, that is upgraded by the natives on the island. It's the opposite of Avatar. And it's fantastic to me, because Citra is standing in front of the home tree when you first meet her, you're called Snow White, the people are called the Rakyat, which means "the people". It's the laziest name for a tribe ever, they're not real, they're a metaphor. People need to be looking at the names of these things. There are all kinds of secrets in this game for people to figure out, that tie into the main plot. It's all part of what the game is trying to say.
I wanted to create this gigantic riddle. I created the glyph puzzles in Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and this is a gigantic glyph puzzle.
RPS: Do you not think there's a danger of having your cake and eating it? You're deliberately being a hokum story, you're deliberately evoking lazy stereotypes, but at the same time, aren't you just evoking lazy stereotypes?
Jeffrey Yohalem: Yes! Do you know what the name of the island is?! It's Rook Island! Which means to fraud people! Look up the definition – the definition of "rook" is, someone that steals your money, or it's a piece in chess. So this is an island that is a fraud. The point is, look under the surface. Not because the game is a fraud, the game is not a fraud, but the island is. What is going on on this island, and the clues are right there in front of you. In my mind it's an interesting undertaking to take on some kind of examination of deeper issues like this, because like you said if people don't examine it that way, then maybe they don't see it? But like I told you, I was building a building that has four legs instead of six. If you don't see those issues, the thing doesn't make sense. I find it fascinating again, all the stuff that people are discussing on the internet, because you can see that the people who only looked at the surface are really uncomfortable. So much so that they keep discussing it. So to me that says that the story is not fitting. If the story functions correctly, like say Avatar – Avatar allows you to fit with the story. The story completes, then there's nothing to discuss any more. So your brain goes, "Yes, I like it." As humans we're always looking for meaning, and for things to make sense. So if you miss the deeper meaning it doesn't make sense any more.
The end of this story is very blatantly a subversion of any kinds of racist stereotypes. What I feel like what's happened is to explain this story you need more than a soundbite, and I feel like a lot of people just glancingly looked at the thing and then got upset. They didn't actually explore the whole game.
RPS: When I got to the end of the game what I saw was a depiction of a tribe, standing topless in simple clothes, dancing in a tribalistic way. It was very clearly an image of this archaic 19th century perspective of natives on an island. And I was given the choice to join them and as a white man become their leader, or walk away. I'm not quite sure how that squares up with a dramatic statement. How is it more than what I saw on the screen?
Jeffrey Yohalem: [Very animated] Because if you choose to become a part of that tribe and become their leader, it's completely manufactured in your head! It doesn't come from them at all! They never said "become our leader"! She says "become our king", she doesn't say "become our leader"! And then if you choose the tribe, she kills you! It turns out you were being used by them. The entire time you thought you were the leader of the whole tribe, you were nothing. You were just a gun that she upgraded with tattoos.
RPS: But is that any different from the tribe making you their leader, carrying you on their shoulders, and then boiling you in a pot?
Jeffrey Yohalem: [laughs] Yeah! It's exactly… I'm playing with all of that! The game is about playing. I was just reading an article this morning about the conceptual artist who did Lose/Lose, the space invaders game that deleted your files, created by Zach Gage. He did a piece where you'd come in a museum, and stand in front of the piece, and when you stand in front of it, it tallies that you stood in front of it. The point was to be a satire of popularity. Why would you judge something by the number of people who've seen it? Some people said, "This is great, that I stood in front of this piece and it's acknowledging my existence." So they were missing the satire. The artist is very clear in the article about what he wanted to say with that piece. So what I was hoping for with this game is that people would say, "Maybe there's something more interesting and different going on here that I can examine?" That videogames can be more than what they've been before. Which is covering up potholes in meaning instead of conveying it.
RPS: Do you not think that part of the problem of people's not interpreting it this way comes from the fact that the majority of games' stories are as bad as the thing you're parodying? They are atrocious. So people come into a game expecting these incredibly immature and incredibly simplistic, and often incredibly stereotyped storylines, so when they approach Far Cry 3, instead of saying "This is an arch commentary on that," they say, "Well this is another one of what most games are like."
Jeffrey Yohalem: That question is an interesting one, because I thought we went so extreme in such a huge number of ways, that we had been totally exaggerated. I've played all of these games, so the shocking thing for me is that people would think this is serious. At the same time, all of the articles coming out didn't come out for other games. So there must be some form of exaggeration, I must have succeeded at exaggerating. For example, the rape by Buck being glossed over, where he rapes Keith, or implied rape, that's so exaggerated because it's taking the exploitation of female characters in videogames and saying, well what if it's a man, how do you feel then?
In most games that exploitations is glossed over, so in this case it's glossed over. So by swapping out the Keith character for a female character, and then not having this deep emotional scene acknowledging the sadness from how these guy feels from that, it makes you really uncomfortable.
[Becoming agitated again] The sex scene [at the midpoint] – first Jason is shooting at that gigantic monster. He kills the monster, and it jump-cuts to him orgasming with Citra! He's firing sperm at this gigantic monster, and then suddenly he's on this alter with Citra, having sex with her, and then he thinks he's the leader of the tribe and makes the big speech, and it's his power fantasy! That's the other thing – it's all from first-person, so it's completely unreliable. There's a reason why Jason is a 25 year old white guy from Hollywood – these are all ideas that are in his head. You're seeing things through his eyes. That's why the Alice quotes are there, and why Willis's database entries are written from Willis's perspective, and not written from a universal perspective. So the game is all from a series of perspectives, and I think it's all there. And again, you could say to me, "Why isn't this even more exaggerated?", but why should it have to be? I don't understand why what I did isn't so insanely exaggerated already. What you're saying is that games are so bad with this stuff that it has to be so through the roof – I mean, male rape, having this transition, having the end of the game be that she kills you while having sex with you? And she says, "you win," as you're dying. The only thing more outrageous I could think of is if she castrated him.
RPS: You say the rape scene is critiquing how mawkishly rape scenes can be shown, but I'm not sure I understand your point when you say you changed it to a man to say something. When I played it, I saw that it was a situation where a man had been repeatedly raped. I didn't think, "Ah, but it's a man rather than a woman." I didn't find anything to make me compare it to rape scenes featuring women. What I fear with that scene is that it ends up becoming a sarcastic remark, at the expense of a really traumatising subject.
Jeffrey Yohalem: Well, I don't think it downplays a traumatising subject. Keith is not okay after that. He says very little for the rest of the game. You know, in Assassin's Creed II your mother is raped, and she doesn't talk for the rest of the game. So Keith is very similar. What he says after the rape is he tells you your brother is dead. Then he doesn't talk. I don't think that it downplays or is sarcastic. None of this is intended to be ironic – I don't like games, or jokes, that hold people at arm's length – that the only emotion that people can experience is the irony or the sarcasm of it, which is something I think was going on a lot in entertainment three or four years ago, maybe even two years ago, where it was all about, "Look how funny we are – we're making fun of this." That's not the point at all.
It's not intended to be glossed over in that sense. The intent was to not allow there to be some kind of cathartic sad scene where people get to deal with the fact that Keith's been through this. I don't give you the satisfaction, and it is a satisfaction, when you watch a character go through experiencing the torture of what they've just been through, it satisfies the player's expectations of that thing being addressed. So that scene is taken away from the player. So you have this disturbing exchange of power, something Jason and Buck experience, where Buck forces Jason to call him sir, demeans Jason and his manhood, this diminishing of who Jason is – of who the player is, because the player is in Jason's body.
And then the player experiences what Buck did to Keith. I really do think that it being a man matters. Throughout the game you have Daisy and Lisa, and Citra, and you expect certain things, the mistreatment of those characters, because of how past videogames have treated them. I don't think you're expected Keith to be treated as an object in that way. The fact that Buck did that is shocking, because it hasn't really happened in videogames before. And at the same time, videogames have a primarily male audience, so it's very easy to have this gratuitous portrayal of women in other games be glossed over and allowed by its audience, because it's not them. To really hit someone where they live, I think destabilises the trope. I'm hoping in the future when you encounter the objectification of women in games, you go, "Maybe this is uncomfortable, the way I felt uncomfortable in Far Cry 3."
To be fair, Far Cry does it twice. When Citra kills you at the end, it's like Mario thinking he's rescuing the princess for the whole game, and then the princess stabs Mario, and says "You win". The point is, she didn't need saving. She didn't need rescuing, she's not a princess in a castle, and she's not waiting for you to save her. In fact, it's all part of this elaborate ritual. It's not even clear that she needed your help to begin with. In fact Vaas was there to do it first, and Vaas left because he didn't want to be a part of her crazy ritual. It's not that she needed a white saviour at all. She didn't need a white guy at all. She was just looking for the ultimate warrior and someone to be her gun.
RPS: The problem for me is I didn't choose that ending. I chose not to slit the throat of my girlfriend! There's no way I was going to do that, so I walked away. While you get one less scene of her tits, you get a more elaborate ending for walking away, but you don't get this delivery of the punchline.
Jeffrey Yohalem: Correct. And with YouTube so big right now, I assumed everyone would go and look at the other ending, and I created it that way.
RPS: And I did – the first thing I did was look at the other ending on YouTube. But then I was vicariously seeing someone else's ending, I wasn't experiencing my ending, I wasn't getting my punchline to the game.
Jeffrey Yohalem: But if you don't choose to win, if you don't choose to get the final tattoo, to me you've chosen who you are – you're the guy who saves the girlfriend. The curation for you is different.
RPS: Do you think this understanding was carried by the rest of your team? I'm listening to your arguments, and I understand the points you're making, and I'm coming from the position of thinking this is one of the best games I've played in a long time. But stuff like the hunting for skins is so ridiculous in the game…
Jeffrey Yohalem: Right! Right, cos Jason asks why he's doing it. Isn't there a line where he says, "What am I supposed to do?", and an objective pops, an objective gives you what you're supposed to do.
RPS: Yeah, but the way it's delivered by the game, the mechanics of the game, don't seem to be carrying the same satire. To the point where, when you 'skin' an animal its skin is left on and you seem to take a lump of guts. Do you think the delivery of the game in some places fell short of the message you were trying to convey?
Jeffrey Yohalem: To me that helped the delivery. Games are built by gigantic production teams. So even if everybody on the team doesn't understand what the point of the game is, what I understood was: here's the direction that these people are going to go in. So to me all that continues to support the message of the game. Because the message of the game is, look at all these systems that we're creating, and if they're illogical, and if they're not challenging you as an individual but are just things for you to do that pass the time, then see how that makes you feel. The crazier the things that you're doing are, the more interesting it is that you're not going and helping the friends.
People who have looked at the surface of the game think that the story and the game are at war with each other as they are in most games, with the story just plugging potholes and the gameplay is going along its merry way. I think it's very exaggerated that, "Oh, go save the friends! Go save the friends!" but most people are out on the island doing all this other crazy stuff and experiencing the gameplay. And that's actually the point of the story.
It's not a game about go save your friends. It's a game about – doing a lot of picking skins from things, and wait, it's just a pile of meat – this doesn't even make sense, yet I'm still doing it instead of saving the friends.
RPS: How on board were the project leads with your ideas?
Jeffrey Yohalem: The director was a hundred percent. Pat Plourde is a genius. We worked together on Brotherhood and AC2, and something called The Lost Archive, which was a DLC for Assassin's Creed Revelations, where we started exploring some of these ideas. Of how gameplay and story could be one-to-one. That's about a guy named Clay, who's got all these support structures in his life, like his parents and assassins and his job. And gradually he loses all those support structures or they fail him. It's a game where you shoot blocks, and a block is a support structure that you're walking on, so the game gets increasingly harder to play, an ultimately he runs out of blocks and he has to kill himself by falling. It's a game about the loss of support, and that's conveyed literally through the gameplay. If you muted it, you'd still experience a game that's about the loss of support.
Far Cry 3 is a continuation of those ideas. He was entirely on board. And everyone else, in all of their different departments, understood what was going on, and what we were trying to say. But again it's such a labyrinthine production – as it is with every triple-A game – that on some levels it's like the Wild West. You have this freedom to express things in a way you wouldn't have in a blockbuster movie.
RPS: In Roland Barthes' essay The Death Of The Author, he argues that the author is meaningless once the piece is out there, that the understanding is in the interpretation of the viewer. If most people come away from this game saying either it's racist, or it's old-school colonialism, do you still think you've succeeded in what you've set out to do?
Jeffrey Yohalem: I think that's an interesting hypothetical question, because my feeling is most people aren't feeling that way. I get the impression that it's a small minority of people who feel that it's racist, or talking about that. So my hope is that a vast majority of people do not come away feeling that way, because then they'll have missed the point. But, the point is for them to examine who they are. I feel like we're living in this incredible time when you can actually experience someone else's curated mind. To me that's what games are. To me that's where the Death Of The Author argument doesn't necessarily hold up. This experience is curated. It's curated by us. So all the systems you're playing on that island, and all the things that happen in the story, and all the moments that you play, are chosen. If an artist curates his installation in an art gallery, and it's very important spacially how things are laid out, although you could just ignore that and go to the bathroom in the art gallery instead of looking at anything, I think that there's no argument that if someone goes into that installation they're going to have some kind of impact that the author intended.
My argument is that the player is an actor, and the game is the director. And it's the job of a great director, as opposed to a bad director… A bad director says, "Look at this thing! Look at this! Feel what this thing is! Feel the power of this – cry!" A bad director tells an actor, "Cry now." Which the actor in their head goes, "Fuck this guy. I'm not feeling that." In fact, I want to do the opposite of what the director just told me. Not explaining why – it's really offensive. It's distrusting the actor's intelligence. Or even the actor's essence. So a great director instead says, "Here are all the things that are going on in the world in which this play occurs, and the script. We take those and see what fits with you and give me that." The goal of Far Cry 3 is to allow players… I think the problem with narrative in the past has been that writers are trying to say something, and they're trying to get the players to sit down and listen to it. My feeling is that games are interactive, they're about what you're doing in the world, they're about gameplay, and they're not about sitting there and telling anyone anything.
So they player gets up, and explores the world, and explores the curated experience, and he can't find everything in the world in that experience, and that's very intentional. The director has chosen what this island is made up of – it's called Rook Island, it's not called some other island – and the Alice quotes have an effect on you, and there's a meaning behind all the Alice quotes. And there's meanings you may find then in those things that surprises me as the author. Which is wonderful, because it's then like you're expressing your self. You take the story, and the puzzle pieces in the story, and you put them together in a pattern that I didn't realise, I go, "Wow, that isn't what I thought of at all when I was writing it." And it works. The only thing I wanted to ensure was that the surface reading of this plot didn't work. Like I said, I was trying to remove support structures from the building so the building would fall down if it was analysed that way.
RPS: Right, but I'm coming at this with the perspective of a player. So take the boss fight – in that moment it doesn't matter whether this is metaphorical, or if it's an arch commentary on the nature of boss fights – the reality is I'm still having to play through a really crappy boss fight. In that moment it doesn't really matter what commentary it's making – as a player I'm still having to struggle through a crappy fight. Do you see how the intention can become mistranslated in the mechanics of what the player has to do?
Jeffrey Yohalem: This is the most collaborative art form we've ever done as a species. It's incredible. If what you're saying is that not every element in this game lived up to what you feel is good as the player, that's valid because there are so many different art forms here. At the same time, what we try to do with Far Cry 3 is – you're choosing to go on this vision quest mission. So you could be hunting animals, or you could be… And by the way, you're hunting endangered species on these island – that's also intentional – it's supposed to be an exaggeration of things you do in other games. It's supposed to make you uncomfortable. Everything that we curated in there is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable in some way. Some of it I think didn't quite succeed, because it wasn't exaggerated enough as you said, but a lot of it is.
RPS: But again, we've just been trained over decades to shoot endangered animals in Tomb Raider and Uncharted and so on – we're just used to shooting endangered animals. It's just another game having us shoot endangered animals at this point.
Jeffrey Yohalem: Yes, but if that were true then I wouldn't see articles on the internet about it.
RPS: But people have always mocked the Tomb Raider games for the fact you're shooting endangered species!
Jeffrey Yohalem: Yeah, but then there are all these articles online talking about how disgusting it is in Far Cry. Modern art felt like it couldn't shock anyone any more. Modern art's been in this strange period where it's trying very hard to be relevant, and to shock people, and this videogame seems to have shocked a lot of people.
RPS: But so do sick, stupid videogames. A game like Medal Of Honor I felt was deeply revolting, a really vile game. I find it problematic that the writer of that game could come back and say, "Ah, but it was satire." Do you see – it's maybe too easy a get-out?
Jeffrey Yohalem: Yes, of course it's too easy a get-out! That's why I put all the clues in there. There are dozens of clues! Of course it's lazy if it's not real satire. If it's not real satire I can't come after the fact and tell you – that's the point of the clues. Before the game is produced, all the clues are put in there, so when you say exactly what you just said to me, I go, but wait, look at this, this, this and this.
You may say that the things I'm saying to look at, like the name of the island – if you analyse each of the Alice quotes it's about the metaphor behind each of the characters you're experiencing – and the island is clearly Never Never Land, and there are all these references… You pointed out one of the clues – the Snow White clue. If this was about the white messiah motif, would I be so stupid as to have a main character's nickname be Snow White? I'm making fun of that!
RPS: But I think where you say, "Would I be so stupid?" you really get to the key issue here. Most games writers are being stupid! We don't have any background to assume you're being smart here. It's so much simpler for the player to assume you were being as stupid as most game stories are.
Jeffrey Yohalem: My experience of this has been that literally… that gameplay has a tutorial at the beginning of the game, where it's explained how to play. Or over the course of the game – in Assassin's Creed, over the course of the whole game you're explained how to play all the different systems. So I never thought that story should have a tutorial until experiencing this. Whether maybe there was a point where I should have literally had a tutorial in the game. For me it was the death of Grant, that Grant as the main videogame classic protagonist being shot in the head at the beginning of the game – this game is not that. And Alice quotes at the beginning. All of that was supposed to put you in this state of, "Okay, I'm going to examine this differently." Maybe I needed to be even clearer. What I've been doing now in interviews is trying to explain the story tutorial, which for me is not a negative because gameplay gets to do it. I don't feel like I'm cheating in some way to say that maybe you should examine this as a riddle or a puzzle. That's what I would have put at the beginning of the game if I were putting a tutorial in. What I was trying is create a game with the story, which means it's interactive. And it's something that players come to if they want, not something that they're forced to.
My biggest surprise has been that people didn't expect something like this, and I guess I should have anticipated that.
RPS: Do you think that because this is following on from Far Cry 2, for whatever it achieved it didn't have this sort of depth behind it. Do you think people's expectations are set because it's the third game in a series?
Jeffrey Yohalem: I don't think so. I think Far Cry 2 talked a lot about philosophical and artistic issues, and that was my opening. For me FC2, with the guns jamming and the malaria and all these systems that were considered not fun, it was about deconstructing the fun of a videogame. I thought Clint was very clear in a lot of interviews he did that that was what he was doing. He was trying to be philosophical about videogames, about their fundamental mechanics. If you have a gun that can jam at any point when you're shooting it disrupts the flow. So he's examining what makes a game fun, if I take away what's considered traditionally fun.
So Far Cry 3 is actually doing the same thing – and I'm surprised that no one's referenced that connection between the two of them – it's just that Far Cry 3 is saying, what if I give you so much quote-unquote fun that it becomes uncomfortable. It's a different approach to the same problem – they're both trying to approach building the same building, I think. Everyone keeps saying how they're so different, but in reality I think conceptually he approached it from the mechanical side by disrupting the mechanics, and I approached it from the story side by disrupting the story.
RPS: But at the same time you can argue, you know, I'm spending my £30 on this game – I don't want to have my fun interrupted, and that…
Jeffrey Yohalem: YES! That's my…
RPS: …I don't want to be the victim of your experiment.
Jeffrey Yohalem: That's my argument! What I experienced in Far Cry 2 is that I didn't have fun playing it, although I found the ideas really, really interesting – let's say. I'm not saying that was my experience, but that's something that you see out there. If you approach Far Cry 3 you're not going to find any of those problems. This is where the level of exaggeration issue comes in – if you turn the volume to 11, it's like you're screaming at the player and it's very uncomfortable. It turns a lot of players off. I was trying to reach a volume of, err, six. Like Cronenberg's A History Of Violence, you can approach Far Cry 3 on the surface level and still have a lot of fun. Now you may say that compromises some kind of artistic ideal, that if I had cast it so it was so exaggerated that it was not entertaining at all, unless you read it as commentary, then I would agree with you that it is forcing my opinion down the player's throat and being a bad director. My goal was to bring joy to everyone. But at the same time I'm hoping players can look at the riddles in the story and see that there's a lot more going on there. And actually look into themselves and learn something through the journey. The goal was really not to waste players' time, because we're going to die soon, and there's so much to read and watch and do on this planet.
RPS: You talked about how in previous Assassin's Creed games you questioned themes and tropes, and have gone far farther with that Far Cry 3. Do you think it's a fair criticism to say, why not make a game that doesn't make all these mistakes? Why set out to highlight the mistakes or the laziness, or the issues, or the laziness in the players – why not set out to make a game that's really good?
Jeffrey Yohalem: First of all, I don't think there's any laziness in the players. I think our players are some of the most intelligent, grown up, free-thinking people that there are. I feel like a lot of games don't respect that. I feel like we're in this place in the videogame industry where we're in an abusive relationship. Players feel like game developers don't respect them, and don't create meaningful works for them, so they call a lot of games stupid. And a lot of developers get upset because things are being called stupid, and they say that players don't get it anyway, so they just handhold them all the through. I think that's an abusive relationship. You need to break that cycle. You need to cause both sides to step back and say, "Maybe there's something else that we can both have between each other." We can create situation where players go, "Huh, maybe games have something interesting to say after all, and I'm going to listen." And then that puts the pressure on game developers to not create lazy crap. Players will see it. As soon as players are listening, game developers have to deliver. In that context you can see that Far Cry 3 is trying to break that loop, rather than create the thing that's going to happen when people are definitively sitting there, listening.
I feel like we're in a place still where there's this dark anger between the two sides. Far Cry 3 was trying to break that loop and say, maybe what we've been doing before… Vaas's insanity speech is the lynchpin of the game, because he's talking about videogames. If you take what's been done before, and you see it for what it really is, then can we make something better? Which is what Jason's speech and the good ending is about. Where he says, "I've been a monster, maybe I can't come back from this." But he thinks he can. So it's a statement of hope about the industry.
RPS: So are you now going to go on to make something better?
Jeffrey Yohalem: Yes… I'm not allowed to say anything…
[At this point a PR on the line panics and jumps in, assuming I'm asking what his next game is. I explain that I'm not. That it's a philosophical question.]
Jeffrey Yohalem: I'm not going to give away anything, but there's a statement at the end of that game, and I will hold true to it.
RPS: That seems a great place to stop. Thank you for your time.
So then. I think what I feel most strongly at this point is a wish that I'd experienced the Far Cry 3 Yohalem believes it is. It's unquestionably one of my favourite games in a good long time, but not because of the story, and perhaps even despite it. I can only imagine how more brilliant it would have been to have been understanding the experience on that level, alongside adoring the simple mechanics of playing the thing. I'm also fascinated to realise that the game's biggest mistake might have been covering up your tattoo with a wing suit. If completing it was so important, concealing it for the second half of the game seems to be a surprisingly dumb decision.
It's tempting to believe that some of Yohalem's claims about the game's intentions are a little too convenient, but he's right – what about all the clues? He said there were dozens more, but he wants people to find them for themselves. While I doubt very much that things like the crappy skinning animations are really a deliberate conceit to this meta-analysis, I have come away far more convinced that much of what felt simply poor about the game was genuinely an attempt to make me feel uncomfortable, to "destabilise" me, as Yohalem would put it. I think the mistake, perhaps, was the belief that being destabilised would have any profound effect on a player.
There's one larger issue, however, when it comes to my feeling that this is a case of wanting to have their cake, and smear it all over their faces. You may well have noticed that at the start of the interview, Yohalem says,
"The goal was to create a videogame that examined what shooting does to us in a videogame."
Then surprisingly soon after he said,
"This is the most interesting misperception that I've found – people who thought the game was going to be an examination of shooting. Like, what it would be like to be a real person in this jungle, shooting people, and if you kill hundreds of people what happens to you. That's not what this game is about. It was never what this game was about."
Where might they be getting this misconception from?! And it's worth noting that in a previous interview Yohalem said,
"We want this game to be about shooting. Let's make a game about shooting, and what it does to humanity. This game is our statement, and it's a very clear statement, about what we feel shooting means."
There's definitely an impression that the answer changes to excuse the game. With such stark contradictions in intent, it doesn't seem too surprising that the game has failed (in my mind) to convey the meaning he wished.
And as I say a few times above, we're pretty well worn when it comes to dealing with exaggerated, unbelievable plots, and no more so than with shooters. We make excuses for nonsensical stories because we enjoy the mechanic of shooting at targets in well designed locations, so there was no jarring moment in Far Cry 3 to make us think this was being any different. In a year that's contained the jingoistic stupidity of Black Ops 2, and the outright racist stupidity of Medal Of Honor, if anything Far Cry 3 felt less exaggerated and offensive. Throwing in racial stereotypes and colonial backward thinking just feels disappointing, rather than shocking. When you make a game that's satirising shooter power fantasies, and questioning what the player will do in order to progress through a game, you have to be more effecting and more grotesque than the norm, and Far Cry 3 simply isn't.
Sure, you aren't trying to save the world when you're torturing your brother, but you are trying to get through this scene so the game you paid for keeps progressing. And that's the same reason you might simulate torture in a game where there's some loose plot about preventing a terrorist – it doesn't matter that Jason's intentions are personal, we're only ever doing it to turn the page, and the point gets lost. In neither is the real world in any peril – there's only the concern that we don't get to see what happens next. Sure, that's something that's open to satire, but the mistake here was believing that there was ever any player-perceived noble intent in any of the other games that asked you to do it.
That's the mistake Far Cry 3's plot keeps making. I love that it was trying to be about gaming itself, that it was a statement, and I applaud it wholeheartedly for attempting this. But again and again, what Far Cry 3's story really does is just put another selection of negative examples on the piles of negative examples in gaming. From my perspective as a player, it wasn't pointing at them and asking me to question them – it was joining in with them, and asking me to accept it yet again. Yohalem is completely correct that his missing support structures for his house made me feel unsure what it was really about – I ended up writing much about how that made me feel, as did many others. Like he says, if all these articles are appearing about his game, and not the others, he must have done something right. But unfortunately, I think, rather than making us aware of the horrors of the starving Irish when he says they should eat their babies, instead it too often felt like he was publishing baby recipe books to the very hungry. As a work of satire, Far Cry 3 fails, simply because it required this interview to be apparent. But as an attempt, I'm delighted it's there, and I am thrilled to see what comes next.


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September 02, 2015
Atrial fibrillation (A-Fib) is the most common heart rhythm disturbance, affecting more than 2.3 million Americans. The electrophysiology team at Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point will be show you the procedural suite and discuss the newest minimally invasive technologies now available as you tour the electrophysiology lab.
This presentation is sponsored by the arrhythmia center of Florida at Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point and will take place at Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, entrance d, 14000 Fivay Road, in Hudson, on Monday, September 14, 2015 from 2:00-2:30 p.m.
This event is free to the public. Due to limited spacing, reservations are required, and can be made by calling (727) 869-5498 or 1-888-741-5119.

subset: commoncrawl


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(I removed my motivation because it may be misleading :) )
Let $A$ be a noetherian commutative ring and let $M \neq 0$ be a finitely generated zero-dimensional (i.e. $\mathrm{dim} \ \mathrm{Supp}(M) = 0$) $A$-module. Then the submodule $0 < M$ has primary decomposition $0 = \bigcap_{\mathfrak{p} \in \mathrm{Supp}(M)} M(\mathfrak{p})$, where $M(\mathfrak{p})$ is the $\mathfrak{p}$-primary component of $M$, i.e. the kernel of the canonical morphism $M \rightarrow M_{\mathfrak{p}}$. I have proven (it's hopefully correct) that the canonical morphism $\mathbf{j}:M \rightarrow \bigoplus_{\mathfrak{p} \in \mathrm{Supp}(M)} M/M(\mathfrak{p})$ ist an isomorphism and that $\mathbf{j}(M \lbrack \mathfrak{q}^\infty \rbrack) \leq M/M(\mathfrak{q}) \leq \bigoplus_{\mathfrak{p} \in \mathrm{Supp}(M)} M/M(\mathfrak{p})$, where $M \lbrack \mathfrak{q}^\infty \rbrack$ is the $\mathfrak{q}$-torsion part of $M$ ($0$-th local cohomology with support $\mathfrak{q}$). Now, my question is if in general $\mathbf{j}(M \lbrack \mathfrak{q}^\infty \rbrack) = M/M(\mathfrak{q})$ so that $M = \bigoplus_{\mathfrak{p} \in \mathrm{Supp}(M)} M \lbrack \mathfrak{p}^\infty \rbrack$, or do I need to assume that $A$ is a Dedekind ring (and perhaps also that $M$ is a torsion module) and if so, how can I prove this?


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Book of Saints – Augustine of Canterbury
AUGUSTINE of CANTERBURY (Saint) Bishop (May 26) (7th century) Saint Augustine shares with Saint Gregory the Great the title of Apostle of the English. Saint Gregory himself, hefore his advancement to the Papal See, set out to convert the English, but was recalled to Rome. Five years after his election to the Pontifical Chair, he sent forth a band of forty monks from the monastery of Saint Andrew in Rome, under their Prior Augustine, to begin a mission in England. They landed at or near Ebbsfleet in the Isle of Thanet, where they were received and listened to by King Saint Ethelbert, who received Baptism and established the holy missionaries at Canterbury (A.D. 597). Saint Augustine was consecrated the first Archbishop of Canterbury, it is said, by Virgilius, the Metropolitan of Aries. Saint Gregory, on hearing of the success of the mission, sent the pallium (an ornament distinctive of Archbishops) to Augustine, together with a reinforcement of labourers, among whom were Mellitus, Paulinus and Justus. These were appointed to the Sees of London, York and Rochester. Saint Augustine died within a short time of Saint Gregory (A.D. 604). He was buried in the Abbey church without the walls of Canterbury, which he had founded.


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President Obama has previously talked about "red lines" regarding Syria and chemical weapons. That line's been crossed.
The Cable spoke with two doctors who were on the scene in Homs on Dec. 23 and treated the victims. Both doctors said that the chemical weapon used in the attack may not have been Agent 15, but they are sure it was a chemical weapon, not a form of tear gas. The doctors attributed five deaths and approximately 100 instances of severe respiratory, nervous system, and gastrointestinal ailments to the poison gas.
"It was a chemical weapon, we are sure of that, because tear gas can't cause the death of five people," said Dr. Nashwan Abu Abdo, a neurologist who spoke with The Cable from an undisclosed location inside of Homs.
Abdo said the chemical agent was delivered by a tank shell and that the range of symptoms varied based on the victim's proximity to the poison. The lightly affected people exhibited gastrointestinal symptoms, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain, he said. Victims who received a higher concentration of the poison, in addition to the gastrointestinal symptoms, showed respiratory symptoms as well.


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Where to Celebrate Christmas and New Year
14 Dec, 2012, 09:30 GMT
LONDON, December 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
• Brits expected to travel abroad this Christmas and New Year
• Greece and Mexico expected to prove popular destinations
• Thomas Cook offer range of family holidays for winter travellers
Every festive season, more and more British residents are choosing to give up the annual turkey and fireworks. Instead, they're on the hunt for new experiences, customs and traditions that the world has to offer.
Travel professionals Thomas Cook have put together a list of the best Christmas and New Year's Eve destinations for winter travellers. So, whether you're searching for the ultimate New Year's Eve celebration or looking for a Christmas break that's all about family, here are three suggestions that are perfect for single trips, romantic breaks or family holidays.
Greece boasts one of the oldest civilisations in the world and for centuries the Greeks have been celebrating the importance of family during the festive season. What better way to show your kids the importance of family during the holiday season than by spending Christmas on a Crete, Kos or Skiathos holiday?
Be sure to take part in local traditions while you're here. Skip the Christmas tree and instead keep a fire burning day and night: a superstition that's used to keep the Kallikantzaroi, or Christmas goblins away.
Be sure to keep an eye out for Saint Nicholas but rather than the fat man in a red suit, the Greek Islanders celebrate him as the patron saint of sailors. This means he's often portrayed drenched in seawater from saving ships.
Skip the queues and steer clear of the dreary British weather. Opt instead for pristine secluded beaches, hilltop taverns and a taste of authentic island life.
Eastern adventures
For a winter wonderland Christmas with a difference, head to the Eastern countries of Europe. Not only do locations like Prague, Germany and Poland get behind the festive season with gusto, there are also countless deals, packages and cheap holidays abroad for you to choose from thanks to Thomas Cook.
Head to the Czech Republic to enjoy mulled wine and trdelnik pastries fresh from the Prague Christmas markets and be sure to place a cherry tree cutting in some water to see if your family is due some good fortune in the New Year.
Mexico for New Year
For anyone searching for the ultimate party experience on New Year's Eve, look no further than Mexico. All year round holidays to Cancun promise a non-stop, unabashed party break.
Matched with stunning beaches, affordable prices and a beautiful fishing village environment, New Years in Mexico is an experience like no other.
SOURCE Thomas Cook


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#RSL Tweets of the Day (@RealSaltLake)
Recap: #RSL beats BYU 1-0, @wingert17 in front of 6,335 at Rio Tinto Stadium //www.realsaltlake.com/news/2013/04/exhibition-recap-rsl-1-0-brigham-young-university …
Kwame Watson-Siriboe @Kwamekazi
Thank you RSL Fans for coming out and supporting us tonight. It shows a lot about our futbol rich community. Ride or Die Fans. #BestInMLS
Enzo Martinez @Enzo_Martinez90
Rsl showed today why they have some of the best fans in soccer. Really thankful to all those that showed up to support the team every game
Great win tonight boys! It was great to be in the stands and meet some fans! #loved
Lalo Fernandez @Lalofernandez_1
Thank you all for coming and support us today! You guys made it feel like a first team game! #bestfans #RSL #RSLFAM #THANKS
great experience to play in front of six thousand people at the rioT #RSL #blessed
Andy Williams @bommadog
6,000 plus for a reserve game how awesome are our fans. Great job Twitches #RSL
RealSaltLake.com: Highlights: RSL 1-0 BYU
RealSaltLake.com: Jeff Cassar Reaction: RSL 1-0 BYU
ESPN 700: RSL GM Garth Lagerwey joins On Frame
ESPN 700: RSL Head Scout Andy Williams joins On Frame
ESPN 700: NBC Sports commentator Arlo White joins On Frame
ESPN 700: RSL DF Nat Borchers on The Bill & Hans Show
MLSsoccer.com: ExtraTime Radio – April 1
Real Salt Lake News & Notes
RealSaltLake.com: Exhibition Recap: RSL 1-0 Brigham Young University
RealSaltLake.com: Horton: Sandoval very solid in his first start
RealSaltLake.com: Tactical Recap: RSL 2-1 Seattle Sounders FC
The Salt Lake Tribune: Chris Wingert makes return in exhibition with BYU
MLSsoccer.com: Real Salt Lake looking to build on set-piece success after nifty goal vs. Seattle
Deseret News: RSL reserve squad takes down BYU 1-0 at Rio Tinto
Standard-Examiner: Feisty Kreis still pleased with the play of RSL
For the Fans, By the Fans
RSL Soapbox: RSL defeats BYU 1-0 as Chris Wingert returns to action
RSL Soapbox: Reserve appearance marks road to recovery for Chris Wingert
Keepin' it Real: Lovel Palmer: "I feel as if I'm learning soccer again"
MLS, Other News & Notes
MLSsoccer.com: CCL: A dozen years after last triumph, MLS teams still looking for milestone win
MLSsoccer.com: CCL: Santos Laguna arrive at full strength for semi first leg vs. Seattle
MLSsoccer.com: CCL: Seattle Sounders hope Santos Laguna series will help them improve MLS form
MLSsoccer.com: CCL: LA Galaxy face stiff test, but believe they have solid shot against Monterrey
MLSsoccer.com: MLS Player of the Week: Heroic brace sees Portland Timbers' Will Johnson win Week 5 award
MLSsoccer.com: MLS Power Rankings: After Montreal Impact fall, a new No. 1
MLSsoccer.com: The Word: Merritt Paulson, John Spencer and what went wrong for the Portland Timbers
MLSsoccer.com: Injury-hit Colorado Rapids see benefits from move to 4-4-2 formation
MLSsoccer.com: April Fools! Kei Kamara, Herculez Gomez, YP Lee, Amr Zaki among MLS pranksters


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Article Description
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Going Big in Downtown Seattle
Rainier Square Tower will be occupied by residents of 200 luxury apartment units, guests of the 150-roo... READ MORE
Going Big in Downtown Seattle
Rainier Square Tower will be occupied by residents of 200 luxury apartment units, guests of the 150-room hotel, customers of the 30,000 square feet of retail space and occupants of 722,000 square feet of office space.
Brundage-Bone helps give shape to the city's second-largest building
STURTEVANT, WI (September 24, 2019) – Seattle is synonymous with its culture, nature and otherwise. The music, the technology, the mountain views — all of them unique, none of them available anywhere else. It's only fitting that its signature architecture lives up to a similar standard. When the stakes were high, Brundage-Bone's Washington branch turned to its reliable fleet of Putzmeister machines to make it happen.
Rainier Square Tower, a mixed-use skyscraper located in Seattle's downtown district, is already considered an iconic touch point among the city's skyline. At 850-feet tall, the 58-story building will become the second-tallest building in Seattle upon completion in 2020. Though it has the potential to dominate the city from a visual standpoint, it elects to cooperate and complement that which already exists. It lives up to the words of legendary architect and Seattle native Minoru Yamasaki, who designed the adjacent Rainier Tower more than 40 years ago: "A building must be like a human being. It must have a wholeness about it, something that is very important."
Already famous for its sweeping shape that — depending on who you ask — resembles either a high-heeled shoe or a golf tee, Rainier Square Tower was a one-of-its-kind project that demanded an intelligent approach in all disciplines, including concrete. They included two BSA 14000 HP E electric-powered concrete pumps, a truck-mounted 56Z-Meter boom pump, and a truck-mounted 63Z-Meter boom pump.
"Putzmeister equipment is reliable," said Brett Young, Equipment Allocation and Specialty Equipment Manager at Brundage-Bone Concrete Pumping. "We had no issues while on the jobsite."
High Expectations
Work on Rainier Square Tower began in September 2017 with Amazon initially announced as the sole lessee of the building's 722,000 square feet of office space. Though plans would change as the tech giant elected to sublease the tower to other tenants, the shape and spirit of the design remained consistent. Instead of the usual high-rise core, which wraps steel around a rebar-reinforced concrete core, Rainier Square Tower instead went with a modular system of steel plates situated between concrete. A boundary system was used to give the core shape, and the cross-tiered plates were positioned in place and filled on site. For Brundage-Bone, who began work at the jobsite in September 2018, this resulted in a much more efficient process.
"The pour was much quicker than a typical building or concrete structure," Young said. "For the core wall, there was no aggregate in the mix. There was also no rebar. We were able to pump concrete at over 100 yards an hour for the full height of the building."
Because of the building's massive size, the reach of its concrete pumping equipment had to be equally as robust: 900 vertical feet, 400 vertical feet.
"We went with it [BSA 14000 HP E electric-powered concrete pump] because it was reliable — there isn't a high-pressure trailer pump that's trusted at that elevation. It was also quieter than other available options, which meant we could adhere to the morning sound requirements near apartments and condos. It saved a lot of money, because it meant we didn't have to utilize a night-time schedule."
Time is of the essence
Not only did the alternate construction method help to give the superstructure its distinct size and shape, it also gave the project a surprising timeline: several months sooner than a comparable tower of its size.
"The speed was incredible," Young said. "The pre-manufactured steel panels helped us work very fast — a typical building like this would take twice as long."
In total, the building will require 130,000 cubic yards of concrete on a schedule of seven hours a day, four days a week. To stay on target with the project timeline, Brundage-Bone had to work efficiently in all aspects — including a novel approach that maximized concrete.
"Using Putzmeister valves helped us to save a considerable amount of material," Young said. "They allowed us to clean out the whole slick line without wasting concrete. It was the first time anyone has been able to do that on a job site in the United States — a company in England, who uses the same Putzmeister valve — showed us how to do it. It saves contractors a lot of money, and it's much more environmentally friendly than typical techniques."
Rainier Square Tower topped out in August 2019 — a process that took only 10 months to construct everything from the basement to the roof.
Premium Space
Located at Union Street between 4th and 5th Avenues, Rainier Square Tower is positioned in a heavily trafficked area in a major American city. As a result, jobsite space became a challenge with which Brundage-Bone had to contend.
"Being in the heart of Seattle was one of the more interesting aspects of the job," Young said. "Road closures made the job site even harder to get to — we didn't have a lot of access."
Luckily, Putzmeister's 63Z-Meter Truck-Mounted Concrete Boom Pump gave them the advantage they needed. It was designed to combine an extended reach with precise maneuverability, which is ideal for confined workspaces. Likewise, the 56Z-Meter boom pump — also used on the Rainier Square Tower project, provides a big reach in a smaller footprint. Together, they helped Brundage-Bone work at a rapid pace.
"This job site was all about getting material to the building quickly," Young said. "We had to maximize road use, and try to pour before afternoon traffic got going. We worked as fast as possible."
Looking to the future
When Rainier Square Tower opens in 2020, it will serve as a gathering place at the center of the block that draws people in. It will be home to residents of the 200 luxury apartment units, guests of the 150-room hotel, customers of the 30,000 square feet of retail space, and occupants of 722,000 square feet of office space.
"We think it captures the spirit of the Northwest as one of the regions where new things happen, where exciting buildings come along every few decades," said Greg Johnson, president of Wright Runstad & Company, the project's developer.
For Young and Brundage-Bone, the project has become a feather in their cap.
"It's been a very successful project so far for all parties, and the atmosphere is pretty great to work in," Young said. "It's been a good job."
Owner/Developer: Wright Runstad & Company
General Contractor: Lease Crutcher Lewis
Ready Mixed Supplier: Stoneway concrete
Equipment Supplier: Brundage-Bone Concrete Pumping
Equipment: Two BSA 14000 HP E electric-powered concrete pumps, a truck-mounted 56Z-Meter boom pump, and a truck-mounted 63Z-Meter boom pump


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21st Century Coffering
The Port Ceiling System is a drop ceiling product series designed in partnership with MNML that transforms interiors through both cutting edge aesthetics and acoustical performance. Made to magnetically snap to the underside of a tee grid, Port can be attached directly under preexisting tiles while also obscuring the tee grid itself; this is where collaboration yields brilliance.
- Edge Options: Exposed Felt
- Component: Rare earth magenets. 15/16″ tee grid. 9/16″ tee grid.
- Durability: Contract
- Maintenance: Vacuum occasionally to remove any particulate matter and airborne debris or dust. Compressed air can be used to dust the material in difficult to reach areas or for large assemblies.
- Lead Time: Shipped in 6 – 8 weeks.
- Environmental: 5mm PET felt board is made with recycled polyester plastic, the majority of which comes from recycled water bottles. TURF is pursuing product transparency for LEED V4 MR Credit 4 Option 1, and MR Credit 3 Option 2 for recycled content. TURF is pursuing a Declare Label for this product.
- Variation: PET Felt uses a traditional 'felting' process to create its panels. This often results in a pleasing heathered effect, where multiple tones are present in the fiber. Slight and consistent variations in color should be expected when using this sustainable material.


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All News Releases By Date
EPA, Southern California Edison Mark Recycling of 1 Million Refrigerators
Release Date: 05/24/2012
Contact Information: U.S. EPA: Nahal Mogharabi, firstname.lastname@example.com, (213) 244-1815 SCE: Vanessa McGrady, firstname.lastname@example.com, (626) 302-2255
$1 Billion in Energy Costs, 3.9 Million Tons of Carbon Dioxide Emissions Offset So Far
COMPTON, Calif., May 24, 2012 – Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the founding partners of U.S. EPA's Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) Program and a 2012 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence award winner, today reached a national conservation milestone by crushing its 1 millionth refrigerator. SCE is the first utility to achieve the 1 million mark. The event was held at an Appliance Recycling Centers of America facility that recycles household refrigerators and freezers, using best available environmental practices.
As one of EPA's 47 RAD partners, SCE's recycling efforts have avoided emissions of more than 177,000 pounds of substances that harm the ozone layer, and about 3.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of removing 760,000 cars from the road.
"We congratulate SoCal Edison and its customers for their efforts to protect our atmosphere and conserve energy," said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA's regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. "The recycling of a million appliances makes a difference to the environment by safely disposing ozone-destroying refrigerants, mercury and toxic PCBs."
Since 1994, SCE customers have recycled a million appliances, preserving 7.9 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity – or $1 billion in energy savings for SCE customers. Emissions avoided by taking those inefficient refrigerators and freezers off the grid equal:
· Planting 140 million trees.
· Powering 1.1 million California homes for a year.
· Removing 760,000 cars from the road.
"The credit for this milestone goes to our customers for their enthusiastic participation," said Gene Rodrigues, SCE director of Energy Efficiency and Customer Solar. "SCE's energy efficiency programs are crucial to the success of California's ambitious environmental goals."
Without programs such as this one, old refrigerators and freezers may be disposed in unsafe, environmentally unfriendly ways, or sold secondhand (in Southern California, for example, an old inefficient refrigerator can waste up to $180 a year in electricity costs). These efforts work to recover and reclaim or destroy ozone-depleting substances from old household appliances, minimizing harmful emissions and keeping recyclables out of landfills. It is illegal to dump a refrigerator in a California landfill.
SCE's Appliance Recycling Program offers customers $35 for their old, working refrigerators or freezers, and free pickup. Those who want to learn more about SCE's refrigerator recycling may visit www.sce.com/pickup, or call 800-324-9722.
To thank its customers for reaching this conservation milestone, SCE is giving away an ENERGY STAR-qualified refrigerator. Customers can enter through July 31 at www.facebook.com/socaledison, and talk about appliance recycling on Twitter with the hashtag #SCEfridge. SCE also has a short movie about the recycling process on its YouTube channel.
The Environmental Protection Agency's RAD Program has 47 partners, including utilities, manufacturers and retailers, as well as state affiliates. Utility partners encourage the removal of inefficient refrigerators and freezers, typically by offering appliance owners a financial incentive for the collection of their old units, and/or by providing rebates toward the purchase of new ENERGY STAR qualified units. This helps utilities meet energy efficiency goals by reducing customer power needs, lowering customers' bills and avoiding the environmental and financial costs of building another power plant. Southern California Edison has been an ENERGY STAR partner since 1997; this year marks the 20th anniversary of ENERGY STAR.
An Edison International company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation's largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.
# # #
Search this collection of releases | or search all news releases
View selected historical press releases from 1970 to 1998 in the EPA History website.


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Mass testing has become a major part of how the Chinese government plans to eradicate coronavirus and keep the economy on track. WSJ's Chao Deng explains how the tourist city of Qingdao wants to test 9 million residents after a cluster of new cases. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
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South Korea's Universal Basic Income Experiment to Boost the Economy
Harris, Pence Spar on White House Handling of Covid-19
Inside One of the Worst Covid Outbreaks in an American Nursing Home
France, Germany Impose Lockdown Measures as Coronavirus Cases Rise
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced new lockdown measures Wednesday, as Europe sees mounting cases and deaths related to the coronavirus. Photo: Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images
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Vail Valley Voices: Vail traffic takes a toll
Vail, CO, Colorado
Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from the Vail Homeowners Association monthly report. We publish weekly excerpts from the association, which keeps a close eye on economic and political trends in and outside of the town. The newsletter electronic version with links to supporting documents is available at http://www.vailhomeowners.com
Stresses are beginning to appear, caused by unanticipated consequences from the press of new consumers produced by the Vail Renaissance and its associated marketing strategies.
These consumers, seeking to achieve the full measure of enjoyment out of their Vail short-stay holiday, are noticeably getting in each other's way as they crowd onto the town center's streets and recreational paths. The perception of traffic conflicts and congestion is raising public safety concerns in several town center neighborhoods.
Expansionist leadership did not fully assess the consequences of an unprecedented upsurge in boom era growth. The rule of unintended consequences now applies.
The community's traffic circulation system needs investment and increased enforcement. A plan as to what needs to be done is now necessary as the next phase of growth is beginning to stir. There are rising voices calling to expand the area of restricted public vehicular access as has been carried out in Vail Village and Lionshead. Officials have yet to study the cumulative effect of a substantial increase in more density upon highly trafficked neighborhoods. The Homeowners Association is calling for a comprehensive review of traffic congestion management and safety enforcement in affected neighborhoods.
Vail's founders took great care to balance both commercial and residential interests as they considered each as an important contribution to the community's economic growth and sustainability. They did so within the larger context of protecting and preserving Vail's stunning and fragile natural environment.
Vail's natural environment in need of serious repair and protection: Going largely unnoticed or quietly spoken of, is the deterioration of Vail's natural environment, which has been sidelined in the larger debate over local economic development and social equity issues. Nearly all major tree species have become afflicted with devastating ailments, which many attribute to climatic warming.
The fear of wildfire multiplies as the toll of dying trees mounts. Large swaths of national forest lands are being cleared in a purported effort to rebalance the mix of native trees, which will take decades to show results and years to restore the areas' scenic beauty.
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A CUBAN court has found US contractor Alan Gross guilty of crimes against the state and sentenced him to 15 years in prison, a verdict that's sure to have sweeping repercussions for already-sour relations between Washington and Havana.
The court said yesterday prosecutors had proved their case that Gross, 61, was working on a "subversive" program paid for by the United States that aimed to bring down Cuba's revolutionary system. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence.
The Maryland native was arrested in December 2009 while on a USAID backed democracy-building project. The US government and Gross's family say he was working to improve Internet access for the island's Jewish community, and should be released.
Cuban officials called him a mercenary and maintained his motives were more nefarious. The court said the program that Gross worked on – part of a $US20 million ($A20.04 million) Washington effort to support democracy on the island – showed the US government continues to seek the government's overthrow.
The court found that evidence "demonstrated the participation of the North American contractor in a subversive project of the US government that aimed to destroy the Revolution through the use of communications systems out of the control of authorities", according to a statement read out on the afternoon news.
Bethesda, Maryland-based Development Alternatives Inc, or DAI, was awarded a multi-million-dollar contract for the program in which Gross was involved, and Gross received more than $US500,000 ($A501,100) through his company, despite the fact he spoke little Spanish and had no history of working in Cuba. Gross travelled to the island several times over a short period on a tourist visa, apparently raising Cuban suspicions.
The USAID programs have been criticised repeatedly in congressional reports as being wasteful and ineffective, and funding was held up briefly in 2010 over concerns following Gross' arrest. The money has begun flowing again, though US officials say DAI is no longer part of the program.
Now that Gross has been convicted, his backers will try to get him released through a court action or executive pardon, possibly on humanitarian grounds. His wife Judy says Gross has lost more than 40kg since his arrest, and that his 26-year-old daughter and 88-year-old mother are both suffering from cancer.
Several Cuba experts have said Havana hoped to use Gross's case to shine a light on the democracy-building programs. Now that he has been convicted, they argue, Cuba has no strategic reason to keep him in prison much longer.
However, such a process could take weeks or months to play out, if it happens at all. In the meantime, the conviction is sure to plunge relations to a new low. US officials have said repeatedly that no rapprochement is possible while Gross remains jailed.
There was no immediate reaction to the verdict from Washington, or Gross's family.


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The Southwest map covers the region from the breathtaking heights of the Rocky Mountains to the otherworldly Sonoran desert of southern Arizona. Published in October 1977, this map is half of a two-piece set in the "Close-up: U.S.A." series, accompanied by the "Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado: Surprise and Challenge Amid Sere Beauty" travel poster.
Coverage Area: Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico


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First Look: Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina Lands at Chelsea Market
Note: First Looks give previews of new dishes, drinks, and menus we're curious about. Since they are arranged photo shoots and interviews with restaurants, we do not make critical evaluations or recommendations.
At first, Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina might look like any other smart but unfussy Italian trattoria, with its exposed beams and brick walls, uncovered aged wooden tables, and copper pots hanging from the ceiling. The history of how this restaurant came to be, though, is a little bit different, and it starts in Italy.
Giovanni Rana is the founder, president, and face of Giovanni Rana, a pasta company that is well known in Italy and throughout Europe for the fresh pasta he sells in grocery stores and a chain of small, casual restaurants.
Mr. Rana has been in the business since the 1950s. His parents owned a bread bakery, and divided duties among their three sons: one worked with the bread, one with the pastry, and Giovanni made pasta by hand. In the late 50s, he started his own business with his wife Laura. He bought a motorbike with a loan from a friend and used it to deliver his hand-stuffed tortellini door to door. The war had driven Italian housewives into the workforce, and this presented a perfect niche for Mr. Rana's business. Soon he was able to buy a car and a storefront, and the business continued to grow from there. By the seventies, he was consulting with engineers to build custom machines that would create pastas as if they had been done by hand.
Still, it wasn't really until the 1990s that his business blew up in a major way. His son Gian Luca Rana, the company's CEO, started an advertising campaign that made his father the brand itself. He put him in the commercials, and put his face on the products. The company is now such a phenomenon in Italy that university students study the company in business classes. And throughout it all, it's remained a family business.
Opening an Italian restaurant in Chelsea Market so different from his other ventures (which are small fast-casual restaurants) may seem like a strange move, but according to Mr. Rana, he is simply realizing a long-held dream. He has always been obsessed with America and American culture, and has always wanted to bring his pasta to New York. He cites 1945 as the year he fell in love with America, when American soldiers stationed in Italy gave him a piece of chocolate. "It was so good, I fell in love with America as soon as I tasted it." The family sees this restaurant as their introduction to the country, and they wanted to do something new, something special and personal. With chefs Francesco Berardinelli and Giancarlo Perbellini, they have an expanded Italian menu that focuses on, but is not limited to, fresh pasta.
The lofty space, the design of which was overseen by his daughter-in-law Antonella and a group of local designers and artists, is filled with reminders of the company's beginnings: there are several of Mr. Rana's original custom pasta machines, one of which sits in a glass box underneath the host's desk. The red motorbike he used to make his deliveries way back when hangs on the wall over the bar. "My motorbike brought me so much luck," says Rana, "Which is why I brought it here."
Towards the back is the elevated and windowed kitchen, as well as a shop, called A Casa Mia, which occupies a corner of the dining room and sells Italian staples like olive oil, cheese, and some cookware. Beyond that is the real second half of the business: a takeout area with a door into the market (the dining room has its own door from the street). Here you find a glass case of gloriously varied and colored fresh pastas, displaying everything from a stuffed tortellinis to chili, beet, or squid ink flavored spaghetti, among others. You can get your pasta in a bag to take home, or they'll make it for you on the spot and toss it with sauce. At noon on a Wednesday, this area was filling up with lunchers and tourists coming in from Chelsea Market.
* Mr. Rana spoke through a translator.
See more dishes in the slideshow »
Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina
75 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10011 (map)
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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You want to go for some serious hardrock climbing?! (Not for beginners!!!!!)
3 Sisters Climbing Rock (private property=>use of our rocks with any commercial purposes are strictly prohibited)
Rules and Regulations:
Entrance fees should be paid at the counter of EWN/3 Sisters Adventure Trekking before approaching the climbing rock. (office opens at 10 AM)
A maximum of 12 people are allowed to use the climbing rock at one time.
Use of the wall will only be granted to qualified climbers or climbers with a qualified climbing guide (able to lead a minimum of grade 5b/c).
Top roping is only allowed with use of the double top anchors or top chains.
The bottom anchors are only suited for self belay. Not for direct belay.
Changing or removing anything at the climbing wall and cutting trees and bushes is not allowed.
All rubbish and trash, even organic food leftovers, should not be left at the climbing rock surroundings, and should be deposited in appropriate vesicles.
Only use the existing path (no shortcuts) to the climbing rock to avoid erosion and respect the wildlife and neighborhood (no music or loud voices).
All malfunctions (loose bolts or damages at the rock) should be reported in detail to the counter of EWN/3 Sisters Adventure Trekking.
Climbers and belayer should always wear appropriate helmets, harnesses, and shoes.
EWN/3 Sisters Adventure Trekking has the right to refuse entrance at any time in case of not following the rules or dangerous behavior.
As it is a newly made, be aware that some parts of the rock are delicate and small holds or steps could break out (specially, the white chalk parts are unstable).
For all climbs a 50 meter single rope is needed (minimum 9.7 mm if leading), a minimum of 10 quick runners and 3 4 lock karabiners.
There is a traverse between nr.13 and Nr. 10 (belay chain around the corner at the left side of nr. 10) and climb out to the top, 3 bolts,( belay on two top bolts) Grade 4c/5a
Between climb nr,3 and nr.2 there is a traverse possible, ending at top of nr. 2
Sector ABC is located above the cable way; from there the climbs start. Climb A starts in the chimney and is graded 4c/5a 8 bolts - belay chain on the wall end. 15 mtrs. Climbs B and C start from the cable; B is graded 4b/4c (6 bolts), C is graded 4c/5a (6 bolts) and 15 meters Belay on chain. Climbs are marked in red. No top roping on B&C, sharp edge can damage your rope! Top belay or use long tape sling to avoid it.
Left of the ABC section there is a new climb called Spider. Belay at the top near the tree on two bolts (no top rope, walk down). Grade 5c+ / 11 bolts and 20 meters.
The Climbs:
Climb #Name # of Bolts Top Belay Grade Meters
1 Watch Me 5 Chain 5c+/6a 14 mtr
2 Orange 4 Chain 5b 14 mtr
3 Muscles 6 Chain 5c 18 mtr
4 Elevation 6 Chain 5c/5c+ 14 mtr
5 No Guts, No Glory 8 Chain 5b+/5c 19 mtr (two ways: left 5b+ right 5c)
6 A Zig Zag 9 Chain 6a+ (direct way 6b) 20 mtr
7 Dare It 8 Chain 7 b/c 18 mtr
8 Victorious 8 Chain 6a+/6b 18 mtr
9 Empowerment 3 Chain 5c 12 mtr
10 Nanga Parbati 10 2 Chain 5c+/6a 23 mtr
11 Tendis Fall 9 Chain 5b+ 20 mtr
12 U Can Do It 9 Chain 5b 20 mtr
13 Revival 5 Chain 4b 18 mtr
14 Energizer 4 Chain 4c/5a 10 mtr
The section between 1-2-3 and 4 etc has some possible new climbs. Still we need to clean up some parts but it is in a lower grade and more easy. We hope to finish some more new climbs by the end of 2015. Information at the desk of EWN.
Contact for information about Climbing, rental, instructor service, etc, only through Empowering Women of Nepal / 3 Sisters Adventure trekking ltd
mail to: firstname.lastname@example.com or email@example.com
tel: 061-462231 or 061-461749
Office hours (and services offered) from 10 am until 5 pm
Booking at least one day ahead. Equipment like harness, quick draws, helmet, etc, are on rent available. Shoes limited up to size 45. Please wear socks.
If rope needed only with service of Climbing instructor. Bring ID or Passport with you when renting gear, without that no deal.
Be aware that rock Climbing is a dangerous sport if guided by non autorised persons. The EWN/3 Sistes instuctors are all well trained and experienced.
Have a safe climb!
More information on video -> click here


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What Five Foods Can't You Live Without?
Somebody asked me this at a party last week. This question has vexed me for years. I find it difficult if not impossible to limit myself to five foods. If you asked me for ten or 15 or 20 or even 25 foods I couldn't live without, that would be much easier. But I've always had a problem with limits when it comes to food.
But here goes. I'm going to do it, as painful as it might be, but I will not suffer alone. Serious Eaters, join me on this exquisitely difficult assignment. Tell me what the five foods are you couldn't live without. Then we can compare notes—or should I say crumbs.
Remember, list five foods, not six or seven or ten.
1. Pizza (preferably from Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix or Una Pizza Napoletana in New York City)
2. Fried Chicken (preferably from Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken in Memphis and Mason, TN or from Scott Peacock's Watershed Restaurant in Atlanta)
3. Barbecue (either brisket from Black's in Lockhart, Texas, Pork Shoulder Sandwich from Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur, AL, a smoked Elgin sausage from Southside Market in Elgin, TX, or ribs from Lem's in Chicago, IL)
4. Pie (any pie except pumpkin made by Karen Barker at the Magnolia Grill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina), served with an ice-cold glass of milk.
Number 5, the last one, always kills me. It seems so final, so limiting, so unfair. How can I not include a cheeseburger with or without fries (is that one food or two?); or a Gene & Jude's Chicago hot dog served with fries on top of the dog (now that is most certainly one food); or a plate of fried clams with homemade tartar sauce; or an oyster po' boy; or a pastrami sandwich; or a bowl of ramen or the pork buns from Momofuku in New York, or a bowl of pasta Mark Ladner would cook for me at the Enoteca at Del Posto in New York, or some warm chocolate chip cookies with a glass of really cold milk; or the gnudi or the prosciutto tart at the Spotted Pig; or a perfectly dry-aged Porterhouse at Peter Luger; or a hot fudge sundae made with frozen custard at the Shake Shack. All right, I can't take it anymore. I can't take the fifth, so I'm going to choose the fifth.
Number 5. A cheeseburger with french fries.
Forgive me, food lovers, for I am sure I have sinned.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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All News Releases By Date
EPA to Provide Smart Growth Technical Assistance to Atchison, Kan.
Release Date: 02/07/2013
Contact Information: Kris Lancaster, 913-551-7557, email@example.com
Environmental News
(Lenexa, Kan., Feb. 7, 2013) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that the City of Atchison, Kan., will receive technical assistance through the Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program. The announcement was made at the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Kansas City, Mo.
EPA awarded Atchison, Kan., a Land Use and Water Quality Workshop. The workshop will provide Atchison technical assistance to identify green infrastructure measures to better manage stormwater runoff.
"The Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program coordinates federal investments in infrastructure and helps communities make smart planning choices," said Karl Brooks, EPA Region 7 Administrator. "This assistance will provide the city of Atchison strategies that will protect water quality and reduce combined sewer overflows."
EPA's technical assistance will help Atchison find ways to reinvest in the city's core by establishing the proper mix of land uses and strengthening existing neighborhoods transforming the city into a more sustainable community. The assistance will result in water quality improvements and protect the Missouri River from harmful pollutants.
Across the nation, EPA awarded 43 communities with technical assistance through the Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program. EPA selected this year's recipients from 121 applicants through a competitive process in consultation with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The partnership is helping communities across the country create more housing choices, make transportation more efficient and reliable, reinforce existing investments, and support vibrant and healthy neighborhoods that attract businesses.
With assistance from EPA-funded private sector experts, the communities will focus on a specific development tool, such as green building, land use strategies to protect water quality and using smart growth to produce economic and fiscal health. Communities will also learn about other strategies for development that can improve the environment and the economy.
More information on the Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities
More information on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities
View all Region 7 news releases
Locate this and other Region 7 news items on the News Where You Live interactive map
Connect with EPA Region 7 on Facebook: www.facebook.com/eparegion7
Search this collection of releases | or search all news releases
View selected historical press releases from 1970 to 1998 in the EPA History website.


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Invoke LiveCycle Data Services via SOAP
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[Adobe Developer Connection] [Duane Nickull - Platform Evangelist] Hello, I'm Billy Idol. No, actually, I'm not. I'm Duane Nickull. I'm an Adobe Evangelist. But today we're going to work with LiveCycle ES2, instead of singing a song like White Wedding. We've done some initial setup for our developer environment in the previous episode of this series. And in this series, we're going to continue on some of the concepts, so we set up the default EJB SDK client, and we made a call to LiveCycle ES server. Now, I have the server still up and running on my laptop and we're going to change it now because we run into a problem sometimes when we have to make calls over a corporate firewall that the JMP protocol starts to disintegrate or not get through, based on how the firewalls are configured. And a lot of people have moved to a synchronous messaging SOAP service, and this provides a very, very robust transport layer with a lot of extra features. So in order to take our previous sample and convert it to work with SOAP, it's very, very simple. Just to get started, I'll just review the code that we wrote in the first one, and then we'll see where the changes had to been made. So here is my project. I've set it up with the connection properties, and in this case, I've made a lot of imports. I've imported all of the Adobe LiveCycle client side, SDKs. The jar files are in my project folder. I have a lot of them. And we've set up the service client factory properties to use the EJB endpoint, a JNP 1099, and when we make a call, it takes a document from this particular path, and it will convert it to a PDFA document and dump it back in this path here. So if you run that, it works really well. I'm on the same machine, the local host. So this doesn't really have any problem getting through, and we can get a result and see the document that is being created. Now, the problem comes when you start to go to an environment where you have to cross corporate firewalls or when you have to get to a remote endpoint that's not within your domain. And this is where you may want to move to the SOAP protocol. So luckily, changing this to work on SOAP is very, very easy. I'll show you how. We just delete this line of code here. I'll make this a little bit larger, so we can see what's going on. The code complete guide is here, so we're going to save. Instead of using the service client EJB_ENDPOINT, we're going to pick the SOAP_ENDPOINT. And the SOAP_ENDPOINT is going to have to have the URL. And in this case, it's "http://localhost: --instead of port 1099, this now runs on port 8080. Our next one, we've got the DSC_TRANSPORT_PROTOCOL set. Now, in this case, we're using the EJB_PROTOCOL, and we're going to go back and set that to the SOAP_PROTOCOL and there it is in our code complete. And the server type is the same, and our USERNAME and PASSWORD can remain exactly as they are. We'll just save this. And shrink it down, and we'll give this a run. And it has returned the document. Let's run that again, and just give it a different name than the adc1 document, so we'll call it adc2 and run that again. Now, this time it runs a little bit faster, and we have our adc2.pdfa document. And you can see right that it says, "You are viewing this document in PDF/A mode. So thanks to the work of Scott McDonald and Tyler Rushdon and some of the other celebrities over on the LiveCycle ES2 team, this stuff is really easy to use. So if you're a Java developer, you're a little bit curious about LiveCycle ES, download it, contact us here at the show. We can get you a developer license DVD out there and point you at all of these code samples. And with these videos, you'll be able to be up and running in no time. Thank you. [rocket noise]
Video Details
Duration: 4 minutes and 33 seconds
Language: English
License: All rights reserved
Genre: None
Views: 85
Posted by: adobetv on Oct 21, 2010
Join Platform Evangelist Duane Nickull as he further explores how a Java developer can work with LiveCycle Data Services and LC Enterprise Suite 2.
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