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The Supreme Court's decisions on marriage rights this week continued to be a main source of humor on late-night television Thursday. The Tonight Show's Jay Leno got into the machinations of the defense of DOMA, while Jimmy Kimmel wondered what the founding fathers would think about gay marriage. With the decision on the Voting Rights Act, Conan O'Brien wondered what a certain celebrity thought about this week.
On CBS, The Late Show's David Letterman showed another installment of "Memorable Presidential Speeches on the Environment," this time featuring presidents Clinton, Nixon and Bush. Leno also looked at the purpose of Barack Obama's trip to Africa this week and his message to the people of Senegal.
On Comedy Central, The Daily Show's John Oliver mocked Vladimir Putin's comments on the whereabouts of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Stephen Colbert looked at the Gang of Eight and their stewardship of the immigration bill, specifically examining the border security plan in the bill.
Fast forward to 3:20 to see Colbert's suggestion as to how to protect the United States/Mexico border.
Read more from Government Executive.
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After following up Dirt with Dirt 2 last year, the studio behind the rally racer confirms that it's working on a Dirt 3
Gavin Cheshire, the vice president of Codemasters Studios, told Edge magazine that the U.K. publisher is indeed working on a sequel. Characterizing Dirt as a reboot (of the Colin McRae Rally series) and then Dirt 2 as a reboot of a reboot, Cheshire says we can expect, what, a three-boot with this one?
"Dirt was a complete reboot – we threw away what was going on and redid it completely – and then we rebooted Grid because it wasn't top gun, and then we rebooted Dirt 2," Cheshire said. "I'm not saying we're throwing all the codebase away, but we're throwing the thoughts away and coming out with something fresh and new. Because if you don't innovate, you're dead."
He also indicates we might hear more words like "aluminium" and "shed-ule" in the sequel.
"Dirt 2: brilliant game but it's all American accents, so maybe we're a little over the top with those," Cheshire said. "Maybe we should fly the flag a bit more."
Dirt 3 Confirmed [Edge Online]

subset: commoncrawl


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Jimquisition: Dumbing Down for the Filthy Casuals
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I'm actually mildly happy about an easy mode for dark soul
Though I do kinda get the whole backlash against it
But opening it up is a good thing. and There'll always be those who would just ignore the easy mode, or start with easy & replay on the harder version
So if I've got the math right, the last award is unveiled on doomsday?
Sure have a great sense of timing Jim X3
OT - I'd also be quick to point out many games on their Easy mode also make you earn your endgame. The recent X-COM, Emperor: Battle for Dune and of course things like Diablo III where the harder settings are non-existant or locked off until you finish "Easy" first X3
Here's the problem with Dark Souls having an easy mode. The challenge of Dark Souls is mainly knowledge and choice based. Knowing I could've made a very clear choice at the beginning of the game to allow me to trounce a boss devalues the choices I can make with my build and equipment because they're the less important ones. The challenge has meaning in Dark Souls because it's a constant, and an easy mode removes that constant and with it much of my enjoyment of the game. I don't care how other people play the game, but knowing that I had to overcome that level of challenge, that there was no easy way out handed to me, is what lets me have any sense of elation over overcoming that challenge.
*edit* There are plenty of games with easy modes, very few without. Can people just let there be some without them, so that the game can cater to the niche it was made for?
I got a lot of 'false positives' in New Super Mario Bros. It would occasionally present me with a special powerup or automatic playthrough if I die too many times while trying to pull off some crazy trick and dying many times in the process :p
I'm trying to do something wicked-awesome so trying to help me beat the level is the opposite of what I need :p
I'm going to link my favorite counter argument towards adding easy mode in every game;
I'll be recycling a lot of the same arguments.
The issue I have is the idea that every game needs to be the same; have the same goals and offer the same options.
The simple fact is that every game has different goals, based on the views and tastes of the people behind them. The idea that every game needs to be enjoyed by everyone is just silly. Everyone is going to gravitate towards games of their own personal preference and difficulty should be apart of that. Not every game needs to be difficult, and easy modes shouldn't be done away with complete. It just depends on the type of game it is.
Dark Souls and Demon's Souls is obviously at the center of this debate. The game's goal is to create an atmosphere of dread and hopelessness, while offering a sense of satisfaction and achievement for completing. You're dropped into this world where little is spelled out for you directly.
The difficulty comes not from the technical challenge presented in the game, but from the knowledge base players need to acquire to complete the game; understanding enemy move sets, how they attack, understanding the moves sets of the different weapons you can equip, when to block, attack, and dodge, understanding stamina consumption, learning how to create a good weapon, learning where to go to advance through the game, discovering better items through exploration, all learned through trial and error.
An easy mode, where everyone is expected to beat Dark Souls regardless of whether they understand the basic mechanics behind it, runs counter intuitive to the developer's goals when creating the game. Dark Souls is not a game designed, or paced to be easy in any aspect of it's design. If you provide an easy mode where everyone is expected to finish the game, you are going to shoot through a threshold of difficulty and players are going to beat the game in under 10 hours. It's just not that big. And while Dark Souls has a very rich lore, it's also inaccessible just like the rest of the game and if players all just blaze through content, no one is going to even notice it's there. If you take out the difficulty, all you have is a mediocre RPG with almost no story, no major puzzles, and is very short overall. I don't think anyone playing a hypothetical easy mode for Dark Souls is going to actually enjoy it.
At the same time, the fact that is someone is having trouble with the Dark Souls' normal mode, and can just switch to an easier mode and be guaranteed to win the game cheapens the game. All the effort to create a Dark, imposing, hopeless game world vanishes because the game ceases to be either imposing nor hopeless.
Compare this with, say, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Skyrim is about putting players in a massive world filled with towns, NPCs, and giving them an epic and lengthy adventure with all sorts of customizable abilities and a huge amount of quests. Combat and difficulty are not really that important to the overall game. Just check out the melee combat as proof. Modal difficulty works in that game because the goals of that game don't require difficulty.
The analogy about books and movies is flawed as well. Books all have their own reading comprehension level. Not to mention the fact that many older works of fiction are often difficult to understand because language changes overtime. The same goes for movies (Though language hasn't evolved enough for the latter to take effect).
Not every game needs to be the same. Just like not every book and movie needs to be the same. It's why people read books from different authors, and play games from different developers. Not every game needs to be easy or accessible. Not every game needs to be difficult either. It depends upon the specific game and the goals the developer have when creating it.
For Dark Souls specifically; the stated goals the developer had when creating the game.
If the problem is that there's a part of your game that's not fun or feasible to beat, then the solution is not to put in an easy mode. Putting in an easy mode is a pathetic hack by lazy developers who were unwilling to come up with a REAL solution.
I'm glad you mentioned the way NSB does it, because that's the proper way.
I didn't know this was an issue... for selfish people.
Definitely getting my son a snail costume. I don't care if Halloween is over.
Jim's right. If someone has to resort to things like easy mode or 'Make CPU-Luigi do it', they should rightfully shamed for doing so. Maybe disable trophies/achievements (sorry kid, but these are for people who are overcoming actual challenges), or change the appearances of enemies and bosses to reflect their adjusted difficulty.
Only Jim Sterling can make eating a carrot funny how do you do it?
This is my favorite time of the week, and I always make sure to watch the the newest Jimquisition. Normally, I agree with just about everything you have to say about a particular subject. Today, that isn't the case.
I'm happy that games are being more accessible to a broader audience. It means that I will find more people who share my hobby and I can hang out with. What I'm not happy about, is how my favorite game series have been slowly but surely 'streamlined' for new gamers.
I loved Civilization III, it happened to be one of my favorites. Civilization IV came along, and I was still extremely happy with it. Then, Civilization V came around. This game took the elements that made the previous two titles I had played, like individual happiness for each city, along with sickness, and threw them out. Many people I've spoken with love this, but, I feel like it's taken a large part of planning out of the game.
Maybe I'm a masochist, but, I've always enjoyed a challenge. I think a lot of developers, but, not all, are taking this challenge out of the game entirely. I'm always open to change, though some of these changes feel like they're for the worse if the trend continues.
for the most part these have been very different topics, and just because they can be summed up in the same way because they all have the same baser rational (none) behind them you automatically assume that they are the same argument.
hey here is some info from formal debate: some even vastly different argument/topics can be refuted with similar lines of logic,
and besides he is basically pointing out that the only real problem(s) in the gaming industry either lead back to a lack of innovation, or a feeling of entitlement on the part of the player or developer. would you rather the biggest real problem in gaming be that vast legal repercussions will be levied against anybody who buys a shooter game
So, they are willing to add an easy mode to Dark Souls in order to broaden the audience and sell more copies, but they aren't willing to make a working PC port that could potentially do the same thing? Well, sure, I can totally understand that, but I'm still a little bit offended.
Anyway, I'm more worried about one particular thing. The gamers have gotten used to streamlining and hand-holding, and the developers force those things on all players. I don't like big flashing objective markers that can't be turned off, I like my levels big and easy to get lost in, and I like to figure out stuff on my own. I'm fine with games having options for casual players as long as they don't force all those things on me.
And one more thing: do you see many RPGs nowadays where you are explained how to get to your objective when you are given a quest? I don't. Instead I see those damn objective markers. That's just laziness, and the game's atmosphere suffers somewhat as a result.
Adding an easy mode to Dark Souls is not what Dark Souls 2 needs. I have convinced a vast sum of people to play the game, and it seems that once they get over the "hump" they love it and are in. They progress nicely and the game is no longer the ridiculous challenge everyone makes it out to be. And once you are over this "hump" other Souls games become easy. I think Dark Souls 2 will get some undeserving flak for being "easier then Dark Souls" cause all the Dark Souls players have been trained at the way a Souls Game plays and will have little difficult with it. I know this from Demons Souls in which i powered through my first play through in 20 hours because I had played Dark Souls first.
So what it needs is, a proper tutorial, a thorough manual, and smoother curve into the experience to smooth out getting over the "hump". In Dark Souls you get dumped into a world with 3 paths. And though the first NPC you meet says, "Go up". If you wander into the Graveyard or "go down" you will get killed. Eventually everyone goes up. How will an easy mode solve that? The Ghosts in New Londo can't be killed, and the Skeletons even with a significantly reduced challenge are so much higher level than a starting character might not be impossible in the graveyard, but when you go a tad further into the Catacombs, the endlessly self resurrecting hordes will slaughter you the same. So unless the easy mode is literally "god mode" its still going to be hard, and demand players to adapt to the design of the world.
The next issue is PvP, can you still be invaded and ganked on easy mode? Turning human in the early game in Dark Souls is an invitation to death, but you do so you can the gain the advantage of being able to summon an ally to down a hard boss. But the invaders are people who have beaten the game on lvl 0-10 and will kill you and your buddy with delicate ease.
Issues of this nature pop up across the game. How does easy mode solve the Anor Londo archer scene? How does it solve NPCs/Merchants that don't come back if you accidentally kill them? Not to mention the game is littered with deadly traps that plummet you to your immediate deaths, how is that solved? How is the entire soul loss mechanic from which the game is built around going to work? Are they going to remove permanent soul loss as well?
To make an Easy mode for Dark Souls, you would have to make HUGE design over hauls or else it will not really be an easy mode. This will change the fundamental structure of a game whose inherent mechanics and world design are intentionally cryptic. Because you can lower enemy health and pour souls into players hands, but its not going to stop that Silver Knight Anor Londo from knocking the newb off that ledge 100000 times, or someone from constantly invading and murdering the you.
The issue is that you haven't played it Jim, so you miss that the challenge of the game is more then just "tough monsters".
It does work out swell. Game design revolves around delivering on those core aesthetics.
Take Skyrim for example (that light the gaming world on fire). I play on the hardest difficulty with a build that's tailored to not be overpowered. My girlfriend plays on normal mode with a pretty kick ass build. The two of us are playing for different core aesthetics. She's all about exploration and narrative (ie the lore ie reading in-game books all the time) and doesn't want challenge to get in the way. I'm more about challenge and expression while exploration and narrative take a back seat.
Good to see someone agrees with me about Nintendo's Super Guide option. It's only an option, and for it to even appear in the first place, you need to have died several times in the same section of the level.
It's about time Jim started using his powers to play God himself.
This is the first Jimquisition that I flat-out didn't enjoy. My stance on this has been said multiple times in this thread, but I'd add that video games are not books or movies for a reason. There's Russian philosophy, and there's Twilight. Should Radishchev have released additional pages in the front of his works with shorter and more concise vocabulary because there's a rule that all books need to accommodate every reader because they cost money and it makes him elitist to only appeal to those versed in Russian philosophy? I'm sick of this "elitist" thing. It's almost like we're supposed to frown upon and shun the thrill of accomplishing something challenging or advanced because it makes you, as I believe I heard you say "a whiny, elitist douchebag". Shouldn't "elitist" apply to the behavior of a person, rubbing superiority in your face, as opposed to simply being happy that they're in a small club that requires skill and sacrifice?
I'm fighting the urge to say this, but...with this, the geek girls, and other videos, this isn't about a personal crusade to knock ignorant/abusive publishers/companies down a notch, but to attack with insults some parties in forum threads that have 1,000+ page views. Just assuming here.
Dark Souls already has an easy mode.
'Easy Mode' can't be a simple difficulty selection in a title such as Dark Souls.
For that reason it is IMPOSSIBLE to add an easy mode without changing the normal gameplay.
No, Demons/Dark Souls are a bad example, Jim. They're two of the few games in which the difficulty isn't just a raw game mechanic - it's an intrinsic part of the game's experience. Part of the story, the atmosphere, as well as the entire point of playing the game. Without the challenge the game presents it would be, quite frankly, a rather bland fantasy action RPG with some interesting visuals. It would never have become the phenomenon it did. No chance.
Of course, the other problem is with the PvP mode. Either players playing on Easy mode would have to fight exclusively against other people playing on Easy mode, or not have access to the PvP element at all. Full stop. Because either "Easy mode" is going to allow them access to items that make the game simpler, in which case it isn't fair to pit them against the people playing on Normal, or they're going to make health/stamina less of an issue, in which case Easy players are never going to master the mechanics the same way those people playing Normal are forced to just to proceed through the game, and they're going to get butchered.
To be honest, if Dark Souls II announces an Easy mode that doesn't severely limit their level of interaction with the rest of the player base, I probably won't buy it.
Problem is, having an easy mode would make it so that the game design would HAVE to take easy mode into consideration. Not having it doesn't require that and to be honest, if Dark Souls had an easy mode does indeed ruin the point. The game's atmosphere is dark and depressing, making it easy not only goes against that but ruins any reward feeling and not only that but would make the game boring. I love Dark Souls but an easy mode would make it just a very mediocre action-RPG. It's difficulty is part of the experience as to what makes Dark Souls, well Dark Souls.
You completely failed to comprehend the issue that I addressed and instead illogically responded to some imaginary post you made up in your head. Or at least I'm struggling to hope for it. If you honestly believe that SKYRIM of all games is the masterful creation in question where all its different aspects and mechanics are not only as perfect as in games that SPECIALIZE in them, but also somehow work in perfect haromy without interfering with or taking away from one another, you're a total fucking imbecile, my forum warnings regarding civil behavior be damned. You just revealed that it's YOU who has no fucking idea what he's talking about in the slightest, and conceded that YES, game design theory is apprarently totally obsolete. You're a moron who's not worth my time.
On an unrelated note, the Mario example mentioned in the video is a good way to go about things, though obviously Mario games are not hardcore. This is key.
I love the phrase "filthy casual" it always makes me laugh
What I am saying is every game has its selling point. La noire has it's facial recognition thing that made the interrogations work, the Elder Scrolls has its immersive worlds, Bioshock has its story and dark souls has its difficulty. You take any of those things away and you have a game that isn't really worth playing and would be a complete waste of money.
The best way I can put my point is I am not a big fan of the assassins creed games because I don't like platforming so I wouldn't expect or even want Ubisoft to make a platforming free version just so I can play it because it wouldn't give the full experience that was intended by the designers.
People fear Dark Souls getting an Easy Mode because they feel it would remove difficulty from future games as developers feel the need to cater to the casual market who wouldn't want to play a difficult game.
this of course is wrong as developers pretty much start at the hardest difficulty as "how the game should be played" then dial down enemies for lesser difficulties. People who hate the idea of easy mode feel as though easy mode is destroying games.
which is also wrong. I remember easy mode as far back as Doom (and possibly even existed before that). So if Easy Mode was going to destroy video games as a medium, it would have happened a long time ago. You people need to just calm down.
So there'll be an easy mode in this super hard video game.
You guys who are fairly skilled at video games struggle through the normal mode of it. You'll probably find the easy mode piss easy, as expected of skilled players. Lucky the normal mode will still be there, eh?
How about, though, that person who has way less skill than you do? Who simply looks at the cover of Dark Souls and gets a big YOU DIED in his face? Easy Mode might actually be a challenge to that guy. People complain that taking the difficulty away will ruin the experience of the game, but just because you personally do not find something challenging doesn't mean that the everyone else won't. So that guy who is bad at video games may find challenge in easy mode, but not the impossibility he previously faced with the normal mode.
So yes, if YOU, Mr Skilled Player, plays through easy mode instead of normal, you will be diminishing your experience, and that'll be your own fault for choosing easy mode. Not the fault of the developer for putting it in their game. They are not forcing you to play it. They are simply making their game more accessible to those who have less skill.
A common argument here seems to be that if Easy Mode exists, the obvious right answer is to take it, because duh, frustration sucks.
There is no Higher Calling for gamers, where we are supposed to flagellate ourselves to get through a game, just so we can say we suffered through it. If you want to prove you're Badass and Hardcore and Disciplined, go do something in the real world that shows it. Don't make people turn their Fun Time into Stressful Hardcore Time. Some people don't like doing that, and they should have the option not to do it.
Also, if the obvious right answer is to take it, and you do, despite your convictions that you should be doing it the Hardcore Way, then it's *your* fault you took Easy Mode. No one piloted you into the option. Plenty of people play games on Hard Mode instead of Easy just for the challenge. I know people who play Touhou on Lunatic, and that shit is ridiculous. It is utterly unnecessary, but they do it anyway, because they want to. Do you want to do that hard enough to actually go click that difficulty mode and take the plunge?
Honestly, if you're going to play Easy Mode, own up to it and do it. If you feel like Easy is too much "temptation" for you...well, maybe *you* aren't disciplined enough for your own Hardcore Experience.
Thing is though, Dark souls really isn't hard. No really it's not. The enemies usually don't have that much health, the game isn't that long, all it takes is patience.
But here is the thing, Easy mode for Doom is not the same as Easy mode for Dark Souls. If you take difficulty out of Dark souls what do you have? A very mediorce Action-RPG with little to no story (at least not straight to the point), and that's it. You literally suck the soul out of the game.
Doom on easy? It's an FPS which adjusts well to easy mode and still is enjoyable.
The issue, however, is that the people who feel "happy that they're in a small club that requires skill and sacrifice" (we're still talking about video games here, right?) often "rub superiority in your face", as if they're better than everyone else because they're in this "small club".
And then tell everyone else that if they can't harden up and just be better at video games, they shouldn't be allowed to "enter" this "club".
That's elitism. And that's the problem. As soon as you start actively excluding people because they're "just not good enough", you're succumbing to elitism.
Tangentially related, I find it hilarious that the people who want gaming to remain a small niche hobby will simultaneously bash "hipsters" for liking things that aren't "mainstream".
OT: I actually had a discussion about this with a fellow Bro a few days ago. If they implement an "Easy" mode and it has no direct impact on the normal difficulty of the game, which means I'll still get the "true" experience if I don't select the Easy mode, then I have absolutely no issues with it.
For Dark Souls specifically, I'm not really sure how they could actually make it much easier outside of reducing the amount of damage enemies do. The game is as much about being aware of your surroundings as it is actually taking down enemies, and there are very, very few enemies that really take more than two or three swings provided you're upgrading your weapons accordingly to the location you're at. Bosses are the only true "damage sponges", and even some of them don't take too long (Pinwheel comes to mind). If they change how perilous the environments are... well, that's not even really an issue of "dumbing down", it's just an issue of the developer being dumb. The environments are a huge part of what make the Souls games what they are.
*Sees that Jim posted a video about why hating casual gamers is dumb*
I must say I'm rather tired of this trend. I just don't understand why it's a problem when an easy mode is added, but not when the game already comes with an easy mode. I don't recall seeing this kind of hate for games like DDR or Guitar Hero because there were play modes that required little to no effort from a hardcore gamer.I don't recall those play experiences being ruined by that either. I use these two games as an example, as like Dark Souls, they have a unique play style. However, even when any of us were trying to get good on playing expert, we didn't get mad when we failed and feel pressured to drop to a lower difficulty. No, what do we do? We beat it. Why? Cause we're gamers, and the games don't beat us.
I agree it may be silly to spite others for getting an "easy" mode, but especially in the case of something like Dark Souls, I do kind of get it.
Imagine you started work at a crappy fast food restaurant at $6.00 an hour. After four years of smiling at hateful people who want a refund because there's an onion ring in their french fries box, with a raise of a $0.25 a year, your hard work pays off, and you move into a management position at $9.00 an hour.
Three months later, central management announces that now all entry-level positions are going to make $9.00 an hour. And you and everyone is still going to get the lousy $0.25 raise. How do you feel about that four years you put in?
Probably pretty pissed off. And you might try to justify it, saying that your experience is worth so much more, no matter what central management may imply with the new wage structure. That these entry-level Johnny-come-latelies are somehow inferior, despite their getting exactly the same reward for their work that you get for yours. It's the journey, dammit, not the destination, and your journey was so much more meaningful than theirs.
In fairness, there might even be something to be said for that point of view. Our foolish human nature is such that if we pay twice as much for something, we may enjoy it more through pure expectation. And we certainly appreciate a handful of crackers more after running a marathon than we do a five-course banquet after dragging our butts off of a beanbag chair.
But that, alone, isn't reason enough to get apoplectic about easy modes.
Jim, I feel you're misunderstanding the issue in the case of Dark Souls.
Disclaimer: I am fully in favor of optional difficulty modes for any game that doesn't rely on challenge as a core game mechanic. Any game that allows you to quicksave, has checkpoints, doesn't use death as a learning experience, uses gameplay as a means to tell the story etcetc. would benefit from as many optional dificulty modes as possible.
THAT SAID. Dark Souls isn't any of those. The core function of Dark Souls is engagement: to activate your brain, to make you think of cunning ways to bypass situations, to see all the game has to offer and use it, to experiment and create your own setups for an optimal gameplay style. When engaged, the game is easy: you can summon someone to guide you all the way through the level including the boss. You can be effectively walked through by signs on the ground with a big enough community. You can take your time and get a few extra resources that will allow you to upgrade your items and make your life that much easier. It's only when you want to casually smack the puny monsters with your Giant Sword of Overcompensating without paying attention to what's going on that the game gets punishingly hard even if you're played the game a few times already and know all of its tricks. Engagement is the reason Dark Souls is a good game, and without it it would just be an average game with a crappy storyline and a broad array of useless combat mechanics. Because you're not paying attention to details, you're just using the same combat style you're used to, you're not adapting, you're not thinking. And you're not practicing.
Only playing Demon's Souls, I cannot comment directly on Dark Souls, but I liken the difficulty to this:
Mega Man vs. Ninja Gaiden. In Mega Man, you had a real challenge, but it seems that every time you die, you learn a bit more and push a bit further, and eventually even at the age of seven, I was able to beat the game. Ninja Gaiden was still a great game, but I never felt like I was getting further or pushing ahead at all. Often I would make negative progress between deaths. And that, to me at least, was very frustrating.
So, bringing an Easy Mode to Dark Souls to bring it down to the level of Mega Man is actually very appealing to me. I assure you "harcore" fans that this will in no way make the game more casual, just more accessible to people like myself who love games, but just do not have the time or energy to invest in a game with such punishing difficulty.
Although I do agree with the episode, I don't think think Dark Souls was the proper example for this, because the difficulty in that game plays a bigger role in the overall design. If we would get a easy mode in that game one thing that certainly will happen is the splitting of the online community. which will lessen the overall experience of the game, because of the smaller presence in the game of your fellow players.
What also is possible is that many of the mechanics in the game become obsolete, because you don't need them anymore to beat the game. MP, weapon upgrades, armor upgrades and more work and are interesting because they help you beat the game. If the game doesn't give you an incentive to get those, because the game is not giving you any difficulty, then you are missing a huge part of the game.
and don't get me wrong, I would love to see more people play this franchise, but an easy mode will not give them the same experience that is scaled for their skill. With the recent announcement of DS II, the developers already said they want to make this game more accessible. I hope they mean with that, that they want to explain their mechanics better. that is the biggest of flaw DS: the lack of explaining the mechanics, which made it Difficult for many people at the start of the game.
My logic is this:
If easy mode is put into Dark Souls 2, I will still play the game, just on the standard hard difficulty. The existence of an easy mode does not bother me, and in fact there are just some certain things that should be fixed difficulty wise, regardless if easy mode is actually available. The tutorials could easily be improved, especially in regards to teaching players what things such as poise or humanity actually do. Dark Souls was one of my favorite games to come out last year, and even I didn't know what these things did until I went online. So I do agree that there are indeed some difficulty issues that are just inexcusable or have no real added challenge. That said, easy mode in the CURRENT VERSION of Dark Souls wouldn't actually work that well
Simply put, many of the level designs, enemy encounters, and item placements and such are designed in such a way that it anticipates the player playing on the current hard difficulty or above. If there was an easy mode put into the game now as it is, players would probably beat the game in 5-6 hours. And that's what worries me about easy mode in a game that wasn't designed to anticipate such a mode. Sure, more people will pick it up and play, but if they beat the game and don't see the big appeal to it then I feel a little disappointed that another player wasn't able to enjoy what it is I enjoy in the game. Now, if the current version of Dark Souls got a major overhaul or if Dark Souls 2 designs itself in such a way where both the traditional hard mode and easy mode can give players a sense of power and enjoyment, then I say bring on easy mode.
The sound of the show is getting better and better. Well done.
Thumbs up on the conclusions as well. I pick my difficulties based on my experience in the genre, and do not wish (bad amounts of)frustration on any gamer because there isn't a difficulty suited to their level of experience.
We were all once casuals and probably are in some genres.
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|Statement by Ambassador LIU Zhenmin, Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, at the 2009 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities
New York, 9th November 2009
Madame President,
The Chinese delegation wishes to take this opportunity to announce China's voluntary contribution to the United Nations funds, programs and agencies in 2010. As a developing country with a strong sense of responsibility, China has all along vigorously supported a greater role played by the United Nations in international affairs, and valued its cooperation with the United Nations development system. Despite the impact of the international economic and financial crisis, China has continued as always, to provide support to the work of the United Nations development system.
Madame President,
In 2010, China will contribute on a voluntary basis a total of 11.48 million US dollars and 5.15 million RMB yuan to the following United Nations funds, programs and agencies:
The Chinese government will make the payment for the above-announced contributions after the formal approval by the China National People's Congress.
Thank you, Madame President.


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Magic Wand is an expansion bank of 127 Meta Instruments for CA Alchemy VSTI
New : 11/02/2010 : As promised The Oculus, our first free Add On for Magic Wand has been released and sent to all Magic Wand users.
The soundset covers Basses (18), Keys (54), Pads & Atmos (37), Leads (24), ARPs and Chord Sequences (28), Semi-real instruments and misc (33)
Magic Wand is suitable for all kinds of musical genres, and offers a mix of pure synthesis, rompler like, and hybrid instruments. It proposes an hopefully pleasant mix between Bread and Butter and unique and never heard instruments.
All the instruments have been carefully designed to take advantage of the 8 variations Remix Pads of Alchemy, as well as its awesome real time control possibilities.
Note : For maximum convenience and ease of use, some variations, called Z presets, of the primary 127 meta Instruments have been saved into various category folders, so that you wont miss an important variation of an instruments when browsing Alchemy presets. Some meta variations, called XV presets have also been saved in the appropriate folders. This explains why the number of instruments (194) is higher than the number ( currently 127) of Primary Meta Instruments. You can find more details about the Z and XV presets there.
Of course the total number of distinct instruments in Magic Wand is even higher than 194 : In Alchemy, a simple Bass Preset can actually be a container for 8 totally different instruments.
Magic Wand in short :
Lotuzia (programmer of the bank) : Alchemy belongs to the very private club of the UberSynths, where the sound design possibilities are only limited by your imagination. It certainly can't do all the possible instruments, but is indeed capable of building a huge range of them .
Note : Magic Wand is part of our Fair Play Sales Program. Fair Play means that earlier adopters of the bank will get more than 50% free additional instruments in forthcoming updates. Find more details about Fair Play here
Note : Magic Wand is Mac compatible Link to Camel Audio Alchemy Page
Requirements : Alchemy V1.11 ( This version can be DLed for free for all Alchemy users on Camel Audio site ) ( Warning : Unfortunately the Alchemy PLAYER ONLY version doesnt load 3rd Party Soundbanks like Magic Wand, you need the Alchemy standard verson )
Hear the demos :) As usual, this audio demos is in our naked truth style : No Fx, no EQ, no comps, no nothing : Only Alchemy and internal effects .
Separate Instruments Demos : Only One instance of Alchemy at a time during 4/8 bars.
Pads Demo Keys Demo
Basses Demo
Leads & Misc Demo The Oculus -1rst Magic Wand Expansion set
Minisongs Demos : Uses several instances of Alchemy playing simultaneaously
Funk Demo Vintage House Demo
Note : The Funk demo won the Alchemy Song Contest Demo. On the 22 instruments used in the Funk and Vintage House demos, 4 belong to Alchemy Factory library. The other 18 remaining presets can only be found in Magic Wand.
West Coast Rock Demo
Tim Conrardy Song : In Memoriam
Note : Tim's song presets are not included in the soundset, though all made by Alchemy. Only the key preset is included. This track is only here to remember Tim, who was a great guy. Rip Tim +
User Feedback - Echoes of the real world
"Thanks for creating great sounds with Alchemy "
Ben Gillet -Ceo of Camel Audio and father of Alchemy, in CA official forum. - Btw did anyone noticed that the Sea of Possibilities preset appearing on the Alchemy Player picture on CA site was one out of the dozens instruments we made for Alchemy's factory library ? :) -
" .....Magic Wand aims to provide a mix of bread & butter sounds and unique sounds, and it delivers. The presets are very inspiring and musical."
Magic Wand in depth Review at Rekkerd.org Audio News site. Read the complete review here.
"Thank you very much for the ultra-highspeed delivery.I tested Magic Wand yesterday and I found it very good and inspiring "
Roland M. (Munchen Germany) in Email
"I am still not finished with all the patches but my impression so far is that those patches are just excellent. For example the Pads and Arps are beautiful and evolving (even more with the remix pads) but for sure not the usual "bread & butter" stuff. The reasons why it takes so long for me to browse through the patches are first the meta presets / remix pads and second that most of the patches are REALLY usable and inspiring so i instantly have to play a bit longer with those patches."
Ingonator on Kvr music Forum
" An extremely well crafted collection of extraordinarily engaging instruments. I know that I will continue to be inspired by these sounds for a long time to come. Definitely what I would call an excellent value."
Bobsled in Camel Audio Support Forum
"Thanks for support : worked well and fast ... Lot of inspiring stuff and very good documentation ! "
Torsten K. -Germany- in Email
".... Your soundsets are great. "
Charles L. ( USA) in Email, speaking of Magic Wand AND a lot of other soundsets (2013 )


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Wolfgang Amadeus MozartBorn 27 January 1756. Died 5 December 1791
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Biography (BBC)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756, the son of a violinist at the court of the local Prince-Archbishop. His father, recognising early the boy's extraordinary musical talents, proceeded to take him on performing tours throughout Europe so that he could be exposed to as wide a range of musical styles and cultural milieux as possible. By the age of 16 Mozart had visited England, Italy, France and Germany, had met many important musical and political figures, and had had three operas performed in Milan.
It was the sort of education he could never have gained in Salzburg; and, while the constant travelling may have contributed to his lifelong poor health, it was doubtless also a major factor in the formation of his cosmopolitan musical style.
Throughout the 1770s, however, Mozart was a member of the Salzburg orchestra. Growing frustration with his position led him to try his luck in Mannheim and Paris in 1777–8, but the trip brought only disappointment and within a few months he was back in Salzburg. A breakthrough of sorts came when a commission from Munich led to his first great opera, Idomeneo (1781), a work into which he poured all of the musical experience he had so far gained.
The year 1781 finally saw him break with Salzburg and move to the musically more sophisticated Vienna, where he embarked on the life of a freelance composer, pianist and teacher. At first he enjoyed considerable success, particularly as a pianist in his own concertos and with his lively comic opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782). There followed three of his greatest operatic masterpieces – The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787) and Così fan tutte (1790) – but by the time of the last his popularity had waned and he found himself seriously in debt. He died in December 1791, not long after the successful premiere of his final opera, The Magic Flute.
Profile by Lindsay Kemp © BBC
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Biography (Wikipedia)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period.
Born in Salzburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in Vienna, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his early death at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death have been much mythologized.
He composed more than 600 works, many of which are acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is considered among the greatest classical composers of all time, and his influence on Western music is profound. Ludwig van Beethoven composed his early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote: "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years".
- Falling in love with a masterpiecehttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p07yrtds.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p07yrtds.jpg2019-12-23T11:28:00.000ZPianist Jonathan Biss tells us what made him fall in love with Mozart's Clarinet Quintet.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p07yrs76
Falling in love with a masterpiece
- Eimear Noone: the power of Mozarthttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p06h33ys.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p06h33ys.jpg2018-08-10T10:17:00.000ZJohn Eliot Gardiner brings out life and energy in Mozart's Requiem.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p06h338p
Eimear Noone: the power of Mozart
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarthttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p06d7tx5.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p06d7tx5.jpg2018-07-27T12:00:00.000ZDonald Macleod explores the life and work of undisputed master, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p06frt8f
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Mozart: Don Giovannihttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p06d7tx5.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p06d7tx5.jpg2018-07-09T08:53:00.000ZBuilding a Library surveys recordings of Mozart's Don Giovanni.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p06d7tbf
Mozart: Don Giovanni
- Mozart: 'Prague' Symphony - No. 38 in D, K504https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p01l69gs.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p01l69gs.jpg2017-12-30T12:02:00.000ZBuilding a Library surveys recordings of Mozart's 'Prague' Symphony - No. 38 in D, K504.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p05scjrg
Mozart: 'Prague' Symphony - No. 38 in D, K504
- Mozart: Horn Quintethttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p024q7mb.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p024q7mb.jpg2017-09-16T12:34:00.000ZBuilding a Library makes a recommendation from recordings of Mozart's Horn Quintet.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p05g949s
Mozart: Horn Quintet
- Mozarthttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p05dm3w0.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p05dm3w0.jpg2017-09-08T12:00:00.000ZDonald Macleod explores the miraculous chamber music of Mozart's Vienna yearshttps://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p05fh45z
- Mozart: Violin Concerto No 3 in G major, K 216 (3rd mvt - excerpt) (2017)https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p0591k56.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p0591k56.jpg2017-07-23T19:50:00.000ZAward-winning German violinist Isabelle Faust, the soloist in Mozart's graceful Violin Concerto No 3.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p0591h92
Mozart: Violin Concerto No 3 in G major, K 216 (3rd mvt - excerpt) (2017)
- Proms interval talks: An introduction to Mozart's Requiemhttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ph31k.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ph31k.jpg2016-08-26T22:03:00.000ZSara Mohr-Pietsch talks to Esther Cavett and Sir Nicholas Kenyon about Mozart's Requiem and the mythology around the music.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p04606tm
Proms interval talks: An introduction to Mozart's Requiem
- Proms interval talks: An Introduction to Mozart's Mass in C minorhttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ph31k.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ph31k.jpg2016-08-20T20:11:00.000ZIan Skelly talks to Matthew Head and Timothy Jones about Mozart's Mass in C minor.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p045c19t
Proms interval talks: An Introduction to Mozart's Mass in C minor
- Flash Prom with the Aurora Orchestrahttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p0434q7w.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p0434q7w.jpg2016-07-31T14:13:00.000ZNicholas Collon and the Aurora Orchestra surprise shoppers at Westfield Centre in advance of their BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hallhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p0434q97
Flash Prom with the Aurora Orchestra
- Mozarthttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p040dhy1.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p040dhy1.jpg2016-07-15T12:00:00.000ZDonald Macleod explores Mozart's relationship with his home city of Salzburg.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p041kj0d
- "... I have never heard anything so extraordinary in all of my life". Teodor Currentzis' recording of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte.https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ydvzt.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ydvzt.jpg2016-06-15T10:54:00.000ZPianist James Rhodes reveals his favourite recording from the last 10 years: Teodor Currentzis' recording of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p03ydw02
"... I have never heard anything so extraordinary in all of my life". Teodor Currentzis' recording of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte.
- Mozart: Piano concerto No.24 in C minor, K491 (extract)https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03phprk.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03phprk.jpg2016-04-20T11:00:00.000ZPreview of music performed at the BBC Proms.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p03ny66f
Mozart: Piano concerto No.24 in C minor, K491 (extract)
- Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K219 'Turkish' (extract)https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ny0pq.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ny0pq.jpg2016-04-20T11:00:00.000ZPreview of music performed at the BBC Proms.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p03ny8j4
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K219 'Turkish' (extract)
- Mozart: Piano concerto No.22 in E flat, K482 (extract)https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ph1j4.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ph1j4.jpg2016-04-20T11:00:00.000ZPreview of music performed at the BBC Proms.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p03ph1y0
Mozart: Piano concerto No.22 in E flat, K482 (extract)
- Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K467 (extract)https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ph2ll.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03ph2ll.jpg2016-04-20T11:00:00.000ZPreview of music performed at the BBC Proms.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p03ph34y
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K467 (extract)
- Mozart: Clarinet concerto in A major, K.622 (extract)https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03nxmch.jpghttps://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/240x135/p03nxmch.jpg2016-04-19T11:00:00.000ZPreview of music performed at the BBC Proms.https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/audiovideo/popular/p03nxmpp
Mozart: Clarinet concerto in A major, K.622 (extract)
Featured Works
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Speedmax CF SLX 9.0 Team Katusha TR
- Selected color: team replica - katusha
Attention: Pro bikes may come built with custom components. See component list
Weight7.70 kg
MaterialCarbon (CF)
AthleteEnrico Battaglin
Speedmax CF SLX 9.0 Team Katusha TR Great performances don't happen by chance. If you have often wondered what it would be like to ride the sort of bikes that the pros spend their days on, now you can find out when you order a Katusha Speedmax CF SLX.
This bike has the following custom equipment:
Frame: Canyon Speedmax CF SLX
Fork: Canyon F32 CF
Rear Derailleur: SRAM RED eTap
Front Derailleur: SRAM RED eTap
Shift Lever: SRAM RED eTap - 2x11s
Brake: Sram / Canyon B11-16 TT Front - Sram / Canyon B12-16 TT Rear
Cassette: SRAM PG-1170 11-28 11s
Rear Wheel: Zipp 202 - tubular
Front Wheel: Zipp 202 - tubular
Rear Tyre: Continental Competition Pro LTD - 25mm tubular
Front Tyre: Continental Competition Pro LTD - 25mm tubular
Crank: Quarq SRAM Red - 56/42 - 170mm
Bottom bracket: SRAM Pressfit GXP
Handlebar: Canyon H33 Drop- 410mm
Extensions: Canyon CF I-Bend
Handlebar Tape: Ergon
Saddle: Selle Italia Team Edition SLR Carbon
Seatpost: Canyon S32 - Setback 50/-10
All components
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Bikes of this category are designed for riding on hard-surface roads where the wheels remain in permanent contact to the ground. These are in general road racing bicycles with racing handlebars or straight handlebars, triathlon or time trial bicycles. The permissible maximum overall weight comprising rider, luggage and bicycle should not exceed 120 kg. Under certain circumstances this permissible maximum weight can be further limited by the component manufacturers' recommendations for use. Proven cyclocross and gravel bikes with racing handlebars and cantilever or disc brakes are a special case in this category. In addition, these bikes are also suitable for gravel paths and off-road trails where a short loss of tyre contact with the ground due to small stairs or steps at a height of 15 to 20 cm can occur.
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Our business model gives us the advantage of knowing exactly where our products come from, how they are made and what they are capable of. Canyon products are exclusively available at Canyon.com, so you can trust the quality you are getting.
Subject to technical modification without notice. Errors and omissions excepted.


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Poor performances by key countries in the fight against illegal wildlife trade are threatening the survival of wild rhinos, tigers and elephants, a new WWF report has found.
The analysis, released as governments gather in Geneva this week to discuss a range of issues related to wildlife trade, rates 23 of the top African and Asian nations facing high levels of poaching and trafficking in ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts.
The report, entitled Wildlife Crime Scorecard: Assessing Compliance with and Enforcement of CITES Commitments for Tigers, Rhinos and Elephants, examines of the many countries considered as range, transit or consumer countries for these species. It gives countries scores of green, yellow or red for each animal, as applicable, as an indicator of recent progress. WWF has found that illegal trade persists in virtually all 23 countries reviewed, but the scorecard seeks to differentiate between countries where it is actively being countered from those where current efforts are entirely inadequate.
Asian demand drives poaching
Among the worst performers is Viet Nam that received two red scores, for rhinos and tigers. Viet Nam is identified in the report as the top destination country for rhino horn, which has fuelled a poaching crisis in South Africa. A record 448 South African rhinos were killed for their horns in 2011 and the country, which itself receives a yellow for rhinos, has lost an additional 262 already this year. According to the report, many Vietnamese have been arrested or implicated in South Africa for acquiring rhino horns illegally, including Vietnamese diplomats.
Inadequate enforcement of domestic ivory markets in China is also highlighted in the report. China receives a yellow score for elephants indicating a failure by the country to effectively police its legal ivory markets. "The ongoing flow of large volumes of illegal ivory to China suggests that such ivory may be moving into legal ivory trade channels," the report says.
China is urged to dramatically and consistently improve its enforcement controls for ivory and to communicate to Chinese nationals in Africa that anyone caught importing illegal wildlife products into China would be prosecuted, and if convicted, severely penalized.
Poaching crisis across Africa
Tens of thousands of African elephants are being killed by poachers each year for their tusks and China and Thailand are top destinations for illegal African ivory. Thailand receives a red score for its failure to close a legal loophole that makes it easy for retailers to sell ivory from poached African elephants.
Elephant poaching is at crisis levels in Central Africa, where rhinos were likely poached to extinction. Last year witnessed the elephant highest poaching rates across the continent since records began. Early this year hundreds of elephants were killed in a single incident in a Cameroon national park. "Given the escalation of elephant poaching in Africa and the increased levels of organized crime involved in the trade, it is clear that the situation is now critical," the report found.
Wildlife crime not only poses a threat to animals, but is a risk to people, territorial integrity, stability and rule of law. Regional cooperation is needed in Central Africa to counter the flows of illegal ivory and arms spilling across borders. WWF commends Central African governments for signing a regional wildlife law enforcement plan and urges them to make its implementation a top priority, allocating resources to the plan and improving the efficacy of prosecutions for those implicated in poaching or illegal trade.
"Although most Central African countries receive yellow or red scores for elephants, there are some encouraging signals. Last month Gabon burned its entire ivory stockpile, to ensure that no tusks would leak into illegal trade, and President Ali Bongo committed to both increasing protections in the country's parks and to ensuring that those committing wildlife crimes are prosecuted and sent to prison," said WWF Global Species Programme manager Wendy Elliott.
A haunting but disturbing video, titled "Dying for Ivory", produced by Elephant Advocacy as a contribution to the salvation of the African Elephant:
Best performers
Other bright spots from the report are green scores for India and Nepal for each of the three species groups. In 2011, Nepal celebrated a year without any rhino poaching incidents, which was largely attributed to improvements to anti-poaching and other law enforcement efforts.
WWF's Wildlife Crime Scorecard is being released as member countries of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) hold their annual Standing Committee meeting. The conservation organization is set to launch a global campaign to fight illegal wildlife trade, which is putting the future of elephants, rhinos and tigers at risk.
Learn more at WWF's Wildlife Trade Campaign.
The above news item is reprinted from materials available at WWF and Wildlife Pictures Online. Original text may be edited for content and length.
(Source: WWF, 23.07.2012; Wildlife Pictures Online, 2011)


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photo courtesy ATO Records
A lot of it has to do with the open tunings I use. The moment you open tune your guitar, you're stepping back a 1000 years to when they originated—whether you planned it or not. I remember as a kid hearing the bagpipes of the army marching down the street or Ravi Shankar at Woodstock and it always created something very spiritual within me and it just moved me in way that other music didn't. I just really embrace and love that organic Celtic stuff and I'm happy it has found a way into my music. I'm not trying to emulate or reproduce something or someone, but I'm just happy that influences like that are able to come through my music.
Some guitarist are overwhelmed by the idea of 12-string, but it appears to be your go-to guitar. Why is that?
After playing two gift guitars—a cheap electric and a cheap nylon acoustic—for a few years I was about to buy my first guitar and my guitar teacher had a 12-string. So I thought to myself "I'll give that a go," and it kind of just stuck. I played it as 6-string, a 12-string and it finally ended up being an 11-string. What makes that guitar so appealing to me now is that I can make it sound like a banjo, a mandolin or like two acoustics—so if one instrument can be so versatile, why not use it?
When I listen to your records and hear the 12-string there is a lot more going on than just a 12-string guitar. What is all going on there?
[laughs] I know, right? It just becomes another beast when it's electrified. When I stick it through my 1975 Marshall JMP Super Lead it can sound like I'm using an overdriven chorus, which turns the 12-string into a multi-harmonic instrument that I've never heard before. A lot of times when I use it with the band and use open tunings I can hear a Hammond in the background and all these other overtones ringing all around me. I've always liked a big, warm fat sound so a setup like that just works for me.
A Marshall and a 12-string isn't a run-of-the-mill combination. How did you land on that setup?
Well, I used to run my acoustics through an older Fender Bassman and I was pretty happy with it until I landed a festival gig where I had to use a backline rig. All they had to use were Marshall amps and cabs, so I set my signal chain up and it took my sound to another level. So I went to a store in Australia and picked out that 100 watt Marshall JMP Super Lead and it has been my main amp since. It has that power, low-end and absolute mid-cut that I wanted and needed. I've dabbled with other heads like Fender, VOX, Orange and all sorts of things but that Marshall just kind of nailed it. I enjoy playing other amps, but when it comes down to it I don't need to buy another amp.
How do you use the volume pedal?
Well it all started when I got familiar with Australian guitarist Jeff Lang who is just an amazing player and we became good friends. He would always blend in this crazy distorted guitar through a volume pedal—much like a pedal steel player—so he could have his clean, acoustic sound and then he could slowly bring up this distorted sound. It was too cool to ignore and I'm not big on copying or emulating players, but that was something I just needed to incorporate—especially for my live shows. I even asked Jeff if I could use that setup of a volume pedal and he just looked at me as if I was the weirdest person ever to ask if I could do that [laughs] … it just seemed so revolutionary to me but he looked at is something quite elementary.
In addition, you use the Tube Screamer quite a bit, too. How do you use that to compliment your tone?
A lot of times I just kick it on to give my acoustic a little bit of hair in certain parts. A lot of time—at the beginning of songs—I need some grit and the volume pedal will need to be set at about halfway, so I can use the Tube Screamer to cut the mids, give my acoustic tone just a little bite. I compare it to old blues recordings where you can hear the distortion on acoustics because of those old mics. It drives my acoustic tone really early so I can have a pinch of growl but not have to mess with my overall acoustic clean tone. The clean acoustic is pretty much there all the time, so have that pedal in my arsenal allows me to push my tone a little harder with some heavier, darker overtones.
And why have you decided to make it an 11-string?
It is just that silly high G string. In the early days it just kept breaking and so when I could afford strings for every time it broke—I found I didn't like it. It's the highest note on your guitar—higher than the high E—and it is right there in your mids. I like to have my mids nice and thick and full and focused, but with that high G string you have something three semitones higher than the high E. It gives the 12-string guitar a little more focused and grounded tone. But between it breaking all the time and ruining my mids, it just pissed me off. [laughs] I don't bring him out to play because it is like my revenge against the insubordinate string.
Are there any contemporary guitarists that you've been listening to lately?
Whenever I see Jeff Lang perform he is always pushing the envelope. Tom Morello is definitely one of the most innovative guitarists in the past 20 years. People seem to think he's got a board of tricks, but he really only uses like five pedals. It is just amazing what he can do. Ben Harper is always pushing music in a new, positive direction whether it is with the Relentless7 or as a solo artist. Another guy that has been doing an amazing job is José González … much like Rodrigo y Gabriela—those three artists do a great job of combining their styles, traditions and influences and pushing their resulting music in a completely new direction. You hear a lot of guys emulating the prophets like Hendrix and SRV so when I want something like that I usually just go to the source [laughs].
John Butler's Gearbox
Maton 425/12-string
Maton ECJ85 12-string Jumbo acoustic guitar with a custom cedar top
Cole Clark FL2A/12 12-string
Larivee 6-string
Carson Crickmore Weisenbourne-style lap steel
Bacon 5-string banjo
'72Fender Telecaster Deluxe
Silvertone Jupiter
Amps and Cabinets
'75Marshall JMP Super Lead 100W head
Marshall 4x12 cabinet loaded with Celestion 30 watt speakers
** All effects go through Avalon U5 Wireless units**
DigiTech Whammy,
Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive
Voodoo Labs Microvibe
Boss RV-2 Digital Reverb/Delay
Jim Dunlop Crybaby Q Wah
Ibanez TS9 DX Turbo Tube Screamer
Akai Headrush Tape Echo/Delay
Ernie Ball Volume pedal
JLM Audio Custom Box
**This box is a master volume/mute & phase switch with a transformer isolated split which we have used in the past to send to a second amplifier.


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Apple News
Najee Ali Creates the 'Muslim Democratic Club of Southern California'
*"We plan on helping ensure we get Trump out the White House!," says Najee Ali, CEO of Project Islamic Hope, one of the leading activists in Los Angeles.
Ali finds himself in the history books again as the Founder and President of the "Muslim Democratic Club of Southern California," which is the first and only Muslim Democratic Club in Southern California history.
This new club received a unanimous vote of acceptance at Wednesday's Los Angeles County Democratic Club meeting.
Ali's political career began in 1988 as an aide to Rev. Jesse Jackson campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. And with over three decades of political and social activism, he's worked with or for political leaders that include former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Senator Kamala Harris and Congressmember Karen Bass' Current chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Ali currently serves as the first Muslim chaplain in the history of the Mayor's office in Los Angeles, is the founder of the city of Los Angeles Muslim Heritage Month and was the leading activist who helped write the first draft and spearheaded the successful California state law AB 1422. The Sherrice Iverson Act which was signed in 2001 by Governor Gray Davis.
This law was named in memory of the seven-year-old child who was kidnapped raped and murdered in a Las Vegas casino on May 25, 1997 and helps protect children from pedophiles. It's the first law named in the nation after a slain black child.
Ali states the "Muslim Democratic Club of Southern California" is open to all Democrats.
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Pastor Cal Keeps Love Alive on 'Married at First Sight' (EUR EXCLUSIVE!)
*For 11 seasons, "Married at First Sight" (MAFS) has been the ultimate experiment in matchmaking as couples who have never met – complete strangers – tie the knot.
If you are not familiar with the popular Lifetime series, people looking for love are matched by relationship experts (Dr. Pepper Schwartz, Dr. Viviana Coles, and Pastor Calvin Roberson-known as Pastor Cal) and agree to tie the knot before meeting their mates.
The show follows the couples for a few weeks as they experience their first meeting at their weddings, their honeymoons, meeting each other's families, and other milestone events all the while being counseled by the experts. At the end of each season, the couples are given the chance to continue in their marriage or get a divorce.
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While some may question the show's premise, the EUR spoke to Pastor Cal recently and he said the series is genuine.
"My job on the show is to get these couples, put them together, and make sure they stay together," said Pastor Cal. "My goal is to look at their differences, see where they're compatible, counsel them and in some cases, threaten them, to make it work. All the experts, our focus, is simply making sure the couples stay together."
As for a method in which the couples are matched, he added, "There isn't a solid formula we apply to every couple. It has to be tweaked as we find out people's peculiarities. It can be nerve-wracking but it's rewarding in the end."
Like many MAFS seasons, there are surprising revelations and this one, featuring couples from New Orleans, is no exception.
"Season 11 has brought us so many surprises," Pastor Cal said. "Even in casting, one of the couples we thought would get along much quicker is one of the ones lagging behind. And one couple we thought would move slower to intimacy are moving ahead. And that's with Miles and Karen being the slower and Woody and Amani being the faster of the two."
He continued, "Also, by my own admission, I fall on the sword on this one, I was not expecting Bennett and Amelia to get along so well. I thought she would be put off more by his lack of profession. It was a big surprise to me."
The next MAFS season will include Atlanta couples and after that the show heads to Houston, which is casting now. Pastor Cal told the EUR that the show adapts to the couples from each city.
"I believe that every city we film in brings a certain flavor and the participants from that city take on the flavor from that city," Pastor Cal said. "New Orleans is laid-back, they party, and it's a very fun city as opposed to a city like D.C. that is very political, buttoned up, and tight. But definitely we found that every city influences the participants. We definitely see different personalities coming out of each city."
Speaking of Atlanta, Pastor Cal is the lead pastor at Progression church in the peach city. He and his wife Wendy have a marriage coaching organization that offers marriage and relationship conferences, boot camps, and seminars worldwide.
While COVID-19 may have slowed down the in-person events, that has not stopped people from contacting Pastor Cal for love connections, "Because of COVID, we're online. I get more people through DM's, email, etc. asking me to match them."
And how does the church feel about the show?
"My church actually loves it." Pastor Cal said. "They are so supportive and such an incredible group of people. They tell people about the show. Our church was actually founded on relationships, so it was an easy fit. Our church was founded on positive marriage and positive family."
Look out for Pastor Cal's book, "Marriage Ain't for Punks," slated to come out next year.
If you are interested in being on "Married at First Sight" and live in Houston, click here to apply.
For more information on MAFS' current season, click here.
Apple News
Nigerian Bread Seller Lands Modeling Contract After Photobombing Rapper's Shoot
She was discovered on the streets of the city of Lagos by international photographer Ty Bello, who was shooting with English rapper Tinie Tempah. Unintentionally, Orisaguna came out in one of the images.
Days later, Bello shared pictures from that shoot on his social media but with interest of finding out who the bread seller was in the photo.
"WHO IS SHE? Everyone has been asking if this lady is a model… She definitely SHOULD be a model… I'll find a way to track her down somehow. You guys can also help," the photographer captioned the post.
CHECK THIS OUT: New Trailer: 'Spell' Starring Omari Hardwick ('Ghost'), Loretta Devine and More!
BEATIFULX : WHO IS SHE.Every one has been asking if this lady is a model .. It was just perfect coincidence … She just happened to be walking by while I photographed . It happened so fast .She definitely SHOULD be a model. .. I'm happy to help her build a portfolio if she's interested .She's so beautiful and photographed so well. I'll find a way to track her down somehow . You guys can also help #lagos #doesanyonerecognizeher #okunorentwins #tinietempah @thisdaystyle #lagos #phaseone
As PEOPLE notes, from that moment on, her life changed forever. In less than a year, Orisaguna managed to sign contracts with recognized agencies. Earlier this year, she wrapped up her tour of South Africa and she also launched a vlog and reality show.
"I never expected this would ever happen to me," she told CNN. "My friends have told me they saw me on the TV and they are really happy. My parents cannot believe their own child can become such a success."
In March, she celebrated the one year anniversary of her discovery. In an exclusive interview with Pulse in January, Orisaguna spoke about the people who have been influential in her rise to fame. During the interview, she thanked Azuka Ogujuiba of ThisDay Newspaper, as she was instrumental in Olajumoke's success story.
Orisaguna, who left her two children and husband to sell bread, is now being offered by a bank to pay for her kid's education through college.
'Origin of Everything' on PBS Sparks Interest with Controversial & Everyday Topics (EUR Exclusive!)
*"Origin of Everything," available on PBS.org, has been exploring topics since 2017 that run the gamut. The show jumps into a variety of subjects by investigating daily life like the words we use, pop culture, and why we are hooked on technology.
The show does not shy away from controversial topics such as slavery, race and ethnicity, and mass incarceration of African Americans.
Danielle Bainbridge, Ph.D., the host and lead writer of "Origin of Everything," told the EUR in a recent interview that the series is about making people think beyond the restrictive ways we have been taught to view history.
"It's a show about our collective story and how we are envisioning history," Dr. Bainbridge said. "How do we think about history that includes all of us and just not the figures and facts that we were taught in school. So, it's a show about under told and underrepresented history. We're trying to make history feel very present to the people who watch it."
She continued, "One of the reasons to watch it is if you're curious about how did we get to our current moment? How do small things such as why do we eat popcorn at the movies or what is the origin of ethnicity and how do these things still impact the way we think about the world?"
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Deftly equipped to talk about controversial topics, Dr. Bainbridge holds a Ph.D. in African American Studies and American Studies from Yale University and graduated Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in English & Theatre Arts. She is also a faculty member at Northwestern University in Theatre and African American Studies
In early 2017, when she was a graduate student, she was contacted by PBS about working on the show and thought it was a joke.
"When they first reached out to me, I thought it was a hoax," Dr. Bainbridge said. "I was thinking how would they even know who I am because I was a graduate student? But I think they found me through a since defunct janky website that I had set up. They reached out to me, I auditioned, did a screen test, and a writing sample and after that I was hired to help develop the show."
Viewers are encouraged to be interactive with the series because it is digital. With instant commentary from the audience, the show knows immediately what viewers think, which for the most part is positive. However, when it delves into controversial subject matters things can get sticky.
"I would say overall people are pretty positive about the series because most of the folks who watch it are longtime watchers who tune in every week for episodes," Dr. Bainbridge said. "The only exception is if we cover more sensitive topics like, race, gender, or sexuality we will get some pushback. I think that's just the cost of doing business with open discourse."
One of the most controversial shows was about the transatlantic slave trade.
"We did one episode on why Europeans enslaved Africans and that was probably our most viewed episode as well as our most critiqued one," Dr. Bainbridge said. "I think often times if you view yourself as pretty well versed in history from what you learn in school and then you learn something that goes in the opposite direction it can be jarring or for some people upsetting. We think of it as our value or service to our audience to present accurate history or history that doesn't get told that often so that people can be informed with the whole picture."
She added that she has an answer for those who point out that Africans sold slaves to Europeans.
"Slavery was not invented with West Africans and Europeans," Dr. Bainbridge continued. "Some form of enslavement – whether through war, becoming a prisoner of war, or through different systems – goes back to ancient societies from around the world. So, it is not distinct to West Africa or Europe or any other region of the world."
Dr. Bainbridge added, "But the difference with this particular moment in slavery was that it intersected with capitalism in a way that was very different with slavery that preceded it. People were taken into the system and their children inherited their status as a slave and that is where the differences started to emerge. We have to think about these things as distinct only because the system that existed with chattel slavery was so radically different than the slavery that existed around the world beforehand."
With the ongoing protests against police brutality, "Origin of Everything" has also tackled the racist beginnings of United States law. Dr. Bainbridge breaks down the discriminatory history by looking at colonialism, slavery, the Jim Crow era, and mass incarceration.
"I decided to write this episode about legal discrimination, and I didn't have a particular agenda in mind," she said. "As I started doing the research it was overwhelming. I started to find (material) that just dealt with legal discrimination about black people in this country from its origin to now. I thought it was something that people needed to know."
"I was never taught in any history class that I took through high school any of the information from that episode. I was taught that things are fair and that a lot of the blame was placed inadvertently or inherently on black communities, impoverished communities, or communities that struggle. When I saw that in some ways the law was stacked against black people and certain other populations, I thought that was important to bring to light. In this moment, people are looking for reliable sources and this could add to the conversation."
New episodes of "Origin of Everything" are available on PBS.org and the PBS Digital Studios' YouTube Channel. Join the conversation by visiting Twitter-@PBSOrigin and Instagram-@pbsoriginofeverything.
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Sunday, Feb 06, 2011
Silva KO's Belfort in Highlight Reel Fashion
By FCF Staff
Anderson Silva added another highlight reel finish to his storied resume tonight in Las Vegas, Nevada, as the UFC Middleweight Champion stopped challenger Vitor Belfort in the first round, to extend his record to 28-4. After an uneventful opening minute, Silva began to pick up the pace and sent Belfort crashing to the mat with a snapping front kick. As a dazed Belfort tried to recover, Silva landed several more punches while standing above his fellow Brazilian, bringing the bout to a close at just the 3:29 mark.
Not only did Jon "Bones" Jones take out fellow prospect Ryan Bader with a second round, guillotine choke, the Greg Jackson trained fighter was informed by commentator Joe Rogan afterwards, that he will face light-heavyweight champ Murilo "Shogun" Rua next.
Jones controlled Bader throughout the bout with timely takedowns and a dominating top game, before sinking in the fight ending choke at 4:20 of round two. Rogan then proceeded to inform Jones that Rashad Evans will be unable to fight Rua as scheduled due to an injury, and that the 23 year-old fighter will compete for the title next.
In the card's other feature attraction, Forrest Griffin worked his way to a unanimous decision win over accomplished vet Rich Franklin, to give the former light-heavyweight champ his first victory since 2009. While the bout was fairly competitive, Griffin was able to score points with takedowns and ground-and-pound strikes, as well as win more of the striking exhanges.
UFC 126 Broadcast Results
Anderson Silva def. Vitor Belfort via KO (strikes) – R1, 3:25
Forrest Griffin def. Rich Franklin via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Jon Jones def. Ryan Bader via submission (guillotine choke) – R2, 4:20
Jake Ellenberger def. Carlos Eduardo Rocha via split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)
Miguel Torres def. Antonio Banuelos via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Donald Cerrone def. Paul Kelly via submission (rear-naked choke) – R2, 3:48
Chad Mendes def. Michihiro Omigawa via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Demetrious Johnson def. Norifumi Yamamoto via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Paul Taylor def. Gabe Ruediger via knockout (strikes) – R2, 1:42
Kyle Kingsbury def. Ricardo Romero via TKO (punches) – R1, 0:21
posted by Full Contact Fighter @ 2:00 am
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text: I have a spare RPi 3B lying around doing nothing. Couple o days ago it was mining verium until i found i was only making 1 pence per day. Ive looked around online and found many projects to do, but they almost all require buying something extra; camera, display, etc. Is there any projects that don't require a lot of money to do? I was going to do an alexa project, but it no use since you have to use a button, you are not allowed to use voice acivation. I alerady have a web server (Rpi 0 w)and a Front door camera. (RPi 2B) and a desktop (RPi 3B+). I dont need a media server or a game server as these require quite some bandwidth. As for a retrogame console, I alerady have a the OS on my RPi 3B+.


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Visitors can listen to this website with BrowseAloud, which is free to website visitors and can be easily downloaded from the BrowseAloud Website.
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BrowseAloud is the world leading text-to-speech solution from Texthelp Systems Ltd which is designed to improve website accessibility for those with literacy difficulties, learning difficulties such as dyslexia, mild visual impairments or where English is a second language. With a choice of 17 high quality voices covering nine international languages and a number of unique features, BrowseAloud is quickly being adopted worldwide.
Texthelp Systems Inc was formally incorporated in 1996 and specialises in the design of assistive software solutions to support those struggling to read and write. The company is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, an Adobe Solutions Network Developer, an Apple Business Partner, an HP Business Partner and is ISO 9001:2008 accredited. For the past ten consecutive years, Texthelp Systems Ltd has been a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 award winning company.
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text:
Serves 2
- 1 teaspoon olive or vegetable oil
- ½ pound chicken breast, sliced
- 4 scallions (green onions), diced
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- ½ cup canned mandrin oranges, drained and rinsed - ½ grapefruit, peeled and sliced into small pieces, with pith removed
- 1 5.7 oz. box cous cous, cooked (follow instructions on box)
- 1 tablespoon sliced almonds, toasted*
In a large pan on medium-high heat, heat oil and then add chicken slices. Brown them lightly on all sides. Making sure they're cooked throughout, remove them and set aside. Add scallions to pan and saute them for 5-10 minutes until tender. Stir in broth and bring to a simmer. Stir in orange segments, grapefruit segments, and chicken, and simmer for 5 minutes until all ingredients are heated throughout. Add cooked cous cous and stir well. Sprinkle with toasted almonds, and serve.
*To toast almonds, spread them in a small pan and bake them at 350 F. for just 5-6 minutes, stirring once, until they have developed a pale brown color.
Nutritional analysis: Calories: 550 Kcal, Fat: 7.1 g, Cholesterol: 67 mg, Fiber: 6.1 g, Sodium: 123 mg, % Calories form Fat: 12%
Courtesy of www.5aday.com
*DISCLAIMER*: The information contained in or provided through this site section is intended for general consumer understanding and education only and is not intended to be and is not a substitute for professional advice. Use of this site section and any information contained on or provided through this site section is at your own risk and any information contained on or provided through this site section is provided on an "as is" basis without any representations or warranties.


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More than a third of Americans say they trust financial advisors most when it comes to understanding retirement issues, LIMRA reported Friday. The survey noted, however, that fewer consumers said they would seek advice about generating retirement income or managing risks and expenses in retirement.
"Many of today's retirees and future retirees will not be able to depend on a pension or a retirement health plan," Matthew Drinkwater, associate managing director for LIMRA retirement research, said in a statement. "So it is particularly troubling to see that consumers are not as interested to learn how to generate retirement income or manage risks like health care, which will be essential for financial security in retirement."
Drinkwater is optimistic though that despite many people being uninformed about generating retirement income, investing retirement assets and managing risks and expenses in retirement, the "good news is people are willing to turn most often to financial planners/advisors to seek help when planning for retirement."
LIMRA reported that current retirees are more likely to say they trust their advisors for help understanding investing retirement assets than they were to say they trust them for help generating retirement income or managing risks and expenses in retirement.
Young workers were more likely to say they trust their family, friends and coworkers for help understanding investing retirement assets, but found they also turn to their employers, financial websites and their retirement plan providers for help with some retirement issues.
Earlier research from LIMRA found that less than half of Americans are planning for a retirement that could last 20 years or more and few have planned for how they will pay for things like health care, long-term care, rising taxes and inflation.
The biggest risk many will face, according to the company, is simply running out of assets. LIMRA found less than 35% of respondents feel they are saving enough to last them through their retirement years.


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Mavic 2$ 2,399.00$ 2,999.00$ 2,649.00Mavic AirMavic Mini$ 598.00$ 795.00
Xiaomi$ 59.00
- Drone RepairDJI
DJI Phantom 4 Repair
Quick Overview
- Step 1: Call our Sydney Office on 0455880407 or email email@example.com
- Step 2: Ship us your drone
- Step 3: Receive diagnosis and estimate
- Step 4: Physical repair
- Step 5: Fine tuning & Testing
- Step 6: We ship it back to you
- Final Step: 100% satisfaction guarantee
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Our goal is to offer you the best shipping options, no matter where you live. Every day, we deliver to hundreds of customers across the world, ensuring that we provide the very highest levels of responsiveness to you at all times.
The time frame for order delivery is divided into two parts:
- Processing time: Order verification, tailoring, quality check and packaging. All orders are sent for dispatch same day or next day.
- Shipping time: This refers to the time it takes for items to be shipped from our warehouse to the destination.
- Australia Orders Take 3-4 business days to arrive.
- Our Couriers work weekends, Thursday / Friday orders normal arrive Monday / Tuesday
- UK & Europe Orders are dispatched using Fedex or DHL and Take 3-5 days to arrive.
Warranty Feel free to drop us a line via this contact form. The duvolab Sport team is always looking for feedbacks and comments from you to improve our servi
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What is not covered:
1. Remote Control
2. Batteries.
3. Water Damage ( Red water indicators triggered)
Pro Support covers most damage but it does not cover intentional damages of any kind, nor does it cover loss such as theft or a drone "fly away". It does not cover purposeful damage, misuse, damage due to neglect, fire damage, full immersion in water or salt water exposure. Natural disasters (ie: hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, wind, storm, fires...etc), or damage that is incurred by an animal or pet (ie: dog chewing) are also not included. It does not cover damage caused by the use of a product in a way not intended by or which voids the warranty of the manufacturer, including 3rd party accessories, add-ons or modifications. 3rd party accessories or add-ons are not covered but the stock drone, remote, propellers and batteries are covered.
Claims: There is a $199 fee applicable for all claims. Upon shipping your drone back to us (with all parts included new or damaged), we will inspect and diagnose your drone, send you an invoice for $199 fee, once paid your drone is normally ready in 5-7 business days.