By Debbie Haine Vijayvergiya

Words matter just ask Girl Scout Troop 20923.

The troop, comprised of sixth-graders from Maplewood and South Orange, has spent the past year cultivating a grass-roots advocacy effort, #IWILL.

They are asking that Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) modify the Girl Scout Promise and Law to be more empowering for girls everywhere.

#IWILL was born out of a Womens Leadership conference troop co-leader Jaime Barnes attended where she heard Dr. Cindy Wahler, psychologist and expert in human behavior, speak about female communication style.

Dr. Wahler shared that women, juxtaposed to men, often resist self-promotion and use communication tags, or indirect language, when offering insights or contributions to discussions. By doing this, women inadvertently and often unconsciously diminish the strength of their message and their brand.

She went on to use the Girl Scout Promise and Law vs the Boy Scout Oath and Law as an example of how ingrained this is in our language and our culture.

The Boy Scout Oath states, I will and the Girl Scout Promise says, I will try; The Boy Scout Law states, A Scout is and the Girl Scout Law says, I will do my best to be.

Her talk was eye opening for Ms. Barnes, her co-leader, Catherine DOrazio, and their troop. Before coming to any conclusions, the troop did their own research to understand what Dr. Wahler was referring to.

They began by observing the behaviors of their classmates, both girls and boys. The results were astounding. They noticed that boys were quicker to answer questions and stated their responses with confidence. In contrast, girls in their classrooms tended to hang back, hesitate when called on, and had a hard time expressing their thoughts in a concise manner.

The troop also researched women in leadership positions across business, entertainment and politics and were dismayed to learn that women still hold a minority of these important roles across all sectors of our society.

In the end, Troop 20923 recognized Dr. Wahlers point and unanimously agreed that things had to change! Originally, the troop leaders were only going to modify the promise and law for their troop. But the Troop felt a sense of responsibility to the Girl Scout community and decided to raise awareness for all Girl Scouts.

Troop 20923 observing the behaviors of their classmates, noticing that boys were quicker to answer questions and stated their responses with confidence. In contrast, girls tended to hesitate when called on, and had a hard time expressing their thoughts in a concise manner.

Their request is simple - that GSUSA revise the Girl Scout Law and Promise by eliminating the words try and do my best to be more inspiring and confidence-instilling. Even though the edits are minor, Troop 20923 is confident that the impact on the Girl Scout community will be major.

As the troop leaders explained, 'try is just three letters, but it has serious implications to how girls value themselves and what we, as a society, expect of them. An organization with a mission to develop "girls of courage, confidence, and character should not continue using language that inadvertently and potentially unconsciously, diminishes girls strength and confidence.

When Juliette Gordon Low founded GSUSA in 1912, she envisioned an organization to prepare girls to meet their world with courage, confidence, and character." Girls Scouts is one of the most prominent leadership development organizations for girls today. With over 2 million members, GSUSA has an obligation to shape this next generation of girls and women so that they can have the success and achievement they desire and deserve.

No, more than ever, its important that we send the right messages to girls, so that our future leaders have the confidence to express themselves with authority and assurance.

Speaking for myself, I sincerely hope that Troop 20923 gets the opportunity to be heard. Theyve written letters to GSUSA and submitted a formal request through Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey for inclusion in the G.I.R.L. 2020 Convention. A change like this can only be achieved through a vote at the tri-annual convention. They are now working on getting the word out and building support for #IWILL. The troop is doing their part, so please do yours.

Dr. Cindy Wahler said it best, These girls are our role models for both our current and future generations! They have courage and are bold. Please show them having a voice matters. Empower them to make a difference by signing their petition.

Debbie Haine Vijayvergiya is a stillbirth parent advocate. She lives in Maplewood with her husband and two kids.

The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.

The rest is here:
Why is it that boy scouts will, but girl scouts try? Change the Promise, please. | Opinion - NJ.com

Communication issues are at the top of the list of challenges 21st-Century leaders are facing. Leaders who learn to communicate best win. Lets dig into a simple approach that may help you successfully navigate one communication issue internal conflict.

I sat down with a Millennial leader yesterday to discuss how to deal with conflict in his organization. The issues he face are not unique. Leaders across the country are dealing with conflict either with or between their employees. We ended up discussing a theory that could be very valuable tool for leaders.

In the 1960s, psychiatrist Eric Berne developed the theory ofTransactional Analysisto explain human behavior. The real value I see in this theory is that it is easily understandable for most anyone. A person does not have to be a psychiatrist or some sort of genius to understand the basics. Once a person understands this theory, its easy to see the root issue and the starting point for solving communication issues. Lets dig in!

In order for managers and supervisors to be successful in todays multi-generation workforce, they must take a very individualistic approach to leading employees. The Transactional Analysis theory is a great tool to help leaders do that.

The foundation of the theory is based on what Berne callsego state. Putting this into my own words as I understand it, Id say the ego state is where a personshead is atin the moment when it comes to the situation.

For leaders, understanding that people approach situations with different perspectives and thought processes is key to correctly breaking down the conflict and moving forward in a positive direction. Bernes theory states that there are 3 ego states: Parent, Child and Adult. Everyone can experience each state. Lets dig into what you need to know.

The theory explains the Parent ego state is created with the experiences a person has in the first five years of life. During this time, kids are hearing lots of Do this and Dont do this statements.

In the workplace, employees in the Parent ego state will likely be the ones telling others what to do or how it is most of the time. You might say they have a my way or the highway approach.

The Child ego state is different than the Parent ego state in that the Parents mindset is around control, where as the Child ego state is more focused around feelings. The theory says that this ego state, just like the Parent ego state, is created with the experiences a person has in the first five years of their life. However, instead of processing commands from authority figures as Do this or that, the Child ego state processes things less on what is being said to them and more how it made them feel.

In the workplace, employees acting in the Child ego state may be operating more on feelings than facts.

The theory says that the Adult ego state starts becoming present as early as one year old. In really simple terms, the Adult ego state allows a person to be able to see things as they really are, not just as they have been told or felt. Those operating in the Adult ego state are able to separate feelings from fact.

In the workplace, your goal as a leader should be to get your people to consistently operate from the Adult ego state. Through the Adult ego state, people are able to make sound decisions for themselves and for the business.

It does a leader no good to learn something new and never put it into practice. So, with the Transactional Analysis theory weve just discussed, take action! Start simply solving communication issues among your team today.

Figure out your own current ego state. Next, take the time to figure out the ego state of your people. Then, educate and empower your people with this theory.

My favorite thing about this theory is that most every employee no matter their level of education or sophistication can understand the foundational difference between the words Parent, Adult, and Child. Once briefly explained, its very clear that everyones goal should be to approach everything as an adult.

If you are dealing with conflict, explaining this theory to everyone involved may help them correctly identify their current ego state and potentially shift their approach accordingly. This may help you as a leader open your employees eyes to root communication issues. When everyone has a clear understanding of the problem, you can work moire successfully towards a solution.

Ultimately, we are all adults working together but we dont always act and think like it. Its your responsibility as a leader to get people to where they need to be. My hope is that when you are working to solve communication issues, this theory will be a valuable tool in your pocket to help you do just that!

Excerpt from:
Communication Issues to Solve? Try This - Thrive Global

Equating scientific perspective with the classic NBC sitcom Friends is probably something no one was expecting, but its happened thanks to celebrated scientific author, Malcolm Gladwell. Latter recently wrote a new book called Talking to Strangers that examines how we read people and whether body language is really accurate.

As Gladwell is known for, he uses a lot of pop culture examples to arrive to his conclusion that most of us cant really read other people accurately. Equating this idea to Friends may seem like a stretch, yet Gladwell makes a very interesting point connecting the famous sextet to how people think.

Perhaps it wont surprise many to learn Gladwell has a big issue with Friends in how it depicts people in the real world. Well, what should we expect from just a sitcom?

Back in September, Gladwell appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and explained the basic premise of formers Talking to Strangers book.

As one of the greatest scientists alive on examining how we think and human behavior, Gladwell notes there really isnt an accurate way to read body language.

All of the science saying the public can is really false after all based on how many mismatched people there are.

A good example is someone in an audience whos sitting with their arms folded and looking unresponsive when, in reality, theyre very engaged. Gladwell says theres more people like this in the world than not, making it impossible to really know whos telling the truth or lying anymore.

According to Gladwell, Friends is the perfect metaphor for describing those who are matched with how they think and body language. The problem, Gladwell says, is this doesnt reflect how the real world works.

To test this out, he says he carefully studied all the facial expressions of the Friends characters.

Further enhancing his point, Gladwell told Kimmel he watched various episodes of Friends with the sound on mute to see if he could still figure out the plot based entirely on facial expressions.

It turned out Gladwell could, based on how the characters always emote so strongly to situations.

Of course, this is typical of sitcoms anyway as a way to enhance the comedy. Nobody should consider that anywhere close to being how the real world works, though.

In Gladwells mind, Friends is the most unrealistic depiction of people ever placed on TV, which could be argued as inaccurate.

Almost every sitcom in existence has done the same process of having characters react in exaggerated ways to the plot scenarios. Nobody would ever say a sitcom is trying hard to mimic reality anyway, even if Friends fans keep watching because they think it really did capture the zeitgeist of friendships in the 1990s.

Perhaps this insight about Friends will make the cast members more self-conscious about whether they emote just as much in real life as they did on the show.

If Gladwell convinced everyone its becoming impossible to determine whos lying and who isnt nowadays, he at least admitted some people in the world have perfectly matched expressions with how they think.

Maybe the cast of Friends were some of the rare ones who projected exactly whats going on in their heads. Should there be any truth to this, they maybe werent entirely acting. Of course, the best reactions are when actors encounter something unexpected in the show if theres ever any potential for improvising.

The only way to really test this is to look at interviews of Friends cast members to see if they really emote to what theyre thinking. It seems Jennifer Aniston definitely does, perhaps making her stunning performance on The Morning Show one paralleling her own life a little too closely.

The rest is here:
The 1 Big Problem With 'Friends' According to Malcolm Gladwell - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

To this day Im not sure how I created such chaos and wound up in that headspace, Charlie Sheen said in an interview this past April, reflecting on his infamous 2011 meltdown. Its as though there were some alien or demonic possession going on, he continued, evoking a kind of eldritch, body-invading nemesis in remembrance of his old months-long televised bender.

While surely figurative, Sheens contemporary rhetoric about his past is appropriate given the contrast of his recent form to that of eight years ago. Now he is so much more still and measured. He is not shaking, twitching, hyperbolizing, and arching his eyebrows disturbingly whenever he speaks. He is not, as he once was, proclaiming that he is winning while he clearly suffers.

He is calmer, now, because he is no longer on a ton of drugs and lying about it, and he is no longer the gleeful antihero in an absurd saga, about the lowering of standards for broadcasted human behavior. Sheens spectacular, protracted breakdown was similar to that of Howard Beales in Network, not in message (Im mad as hell, and Im not going to take it anymore) but in how thoroughly it exposed the lack of ethical foundation in media how little of a push the industry needed to turn into an unfettered clown show, a carousel of unwell men being pushed into worse and worse shape so that the public would never look away.

Charlie Sheen doing some good old-fashioned drugs in order to revel in his most manic and egotistical self after his dismissal from Two and a Half Men was not, in either a traditional or a for-the-public-good sense, a newsworthy event. Celebrity implosions had been manically covered for years, but Sheens breakdown came at an inflection point for media, showing how Wow, This Guy Is Actually Nuts would become a defining narrative structure in the years ahead, and how a collapsing protagonist could actively shape the way they were covered. In a few scant years, the rules had changed entirely: Imagine if Britney Spears, who suffered through an indefinitely cruel newscycle following a public breakdown in 2007, had the same media ecosystem, and could have told her story more her own way.

Whether or not it was Sheen who was somewhat randomly chosen by the meeting of technology and time, though, someone would soon be the face of this shift. The internets promise of utopian sprawl was beginning to wear off, as it narrowed into a limited collection of hegemonic data networks masked as community spaces. Much of the omni-directional energy that people brought online was being consolidated into the arenas of just a handful of tech giants, suddenly working on a scale large enough to disrupt traditional media and drastically change the way journalism works.

Sheen, too obviously fucked up to wittingly do much of anything, stepped into the eye of this hurricane, caused by the rising friction between a growing internet and old-school media institutions. This is when he again, not intentionally, because he was entirely too drunk and coked out to be calculating in this way began writing the blueprint for a new kind of fame, a pioneering form of burning out that has since taken regular boundless flight on Twitter. His 2011 bluster has, ever since, been endemic to the platform, embedded in its personality.

In 2011, social media was firmly on its path to cultural dominance but its presence was also still just a fraction of what it is today Twitters total userbase was less than a fifth of its current figure. The larger internets impact on what kind of stories would be reported was already real, however, and very presently becoming much realer. After he insulted showrunner Chuck Lorre in multiple interviews, in March CBS fired Sheen, then their highest-paid sitcom star at nearly $2 million per episode. They would quickly learn that they couldnt just make him go away. Sheen started a Twitter account during his breakdown, literally setting records for follower growth when he did, before even publishing a single tweet. Rivals NBC and ABC would soon air unhinged interview segments with Sheen, but only after demand for wacky-ass Sheen antics not just his posts, but his actual behavior was further created when he first broke his silence by talking to one of the very worst men to ever find success on the internet: Alex Jones.

On Jones InfoWars, an internet-first radio show centered around an angry and conspiratorial worldview that was gaining in FM syndication, Sheen talked of liv[ing] inside of a moment between a moment You either love, or you hate, and you must do so violently, he said. You have to hate everybody thats not in your family, because theyre there to destroy your family, and they will come at you in all forms and shapes. And therefore theres nothing in the middle. I dont live in the middle anymore, because thats where you get slaughtered, thats where you get embarrassed in front of the prom queen, and thats just not an option.

Its hard not to quote the entirety of the interview, a frankly beautiful burst of hubristic gibberish, a remarkable outpouring of the id of a famous person operating outside of their usually tightly controlled context. Youve got to work through your resentments, he said in an intentionally stupid voice, mocking the possibility of going to therapy. Yeah, no, he responded rudely to his own impression. Im going to hang onto them, and theyre going to fuel my attack. Theyre going to fuel the battle cry of my deadly and dangerous, secret and silent soldiers You thought you were just messing with one dude sorry: Winning, he exclaimed, birthing a catchphrase.

With Jones encouragement, Sheen went on to claim that Alcoholics Anonymous was a bootleg cult and that he quickly cured his alcohol and drug addiction with my brain. Then he called Thomas Jefferson a pussy. Next was TMZ, who sent a large man wearing a track jacket and a lot of hair gel to Sheens house for a 42-minute video interview in lawn chairs. During the interview, Sheen claimed he was 100 percent sober, but also took a whiff from a cup he was drinking out of and said you can smell the vodka.

It is, again, difficult not to share every word Sheen says through all of this, because every phrase from his mouth is a unique car crash of demented dude mantra; he was a warlock with tiger blood, he was a rock star from Mars, he was surrounded by goddesses (porn stars who lived with him, and who he suggests he paid to live with him), he was post-death, he had a different head and a different heart than anyone else, capable of enduring monstrous volumes of narcotics; he was a Vatican assassin; he was, himself, a drug that, if ingested, would cause children to weep over your corpse. He frantically leaned to and fro as he said these things about himself, twirling his fingers nervously, repeatedly leaving conversations with journalists to perform entire dialogues all by himself.

Saint Mary's Gaels fans hold up signs before the team's game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the championship game of the Zappos.com West Coast Conference Basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena March 7, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

In the years that have followed, the Sheen-made tragicomedy has been streamlined, if not perfected. Twitter, in particular, has evolved into the quintessential podium on which to shuck all embarrassment and shame to say shiningly stupid things, to fast-growing audiences. It is the number one place where, if you happen to strike all the right chords of cognitive and cultural dissonance, you can make yourself into a soaring, eye-catching comet of bullshit.

Sometimes this tradition is intentional, knowing, ironic: dril, arguably the poet laureate of the medium, curates a feed that can often be described as a series of satirically cocksure micro-poems, delivered in the voice of a man who is falling but insists that hes rising. Other times, and more importantly, the sensation is actual, and can touch every end of the class spectrum. In recent times, weve seen an angry Long Island loser living in his van become a summer celebrity on Twitter, after going on a powerfully misogynistic rant in a bagel store, and NFL star Antonio Brown captivate the platform with some performative, empty chest-puffing against his team, all of which ultimately looked like a distraction from his soon-to-be-discovered abuse of women (something Sheen and Brown have in common). And of course, in the post-Sheen years, we have seen Donald Trump use the platform to rant Sheen-like as he grew a gnarly, racist political power on the platform that helped him become the president. The list gets longer: Kanye West, Roseane Barr, Azealia Banks, Jose Canseco, Heidi Montag, Ted Nugent, Alec Baldwin, Courtney Love, and many, many more have all used the platform to express an anger and lack of mental wellness thats reshaped our understanding of Celebrity.

A few of them, like Roseanne, actually experienced material professional consequences for publicly exploring the range of their inner noise. But mostly not: Like Sheen, these people were rewarded for their terrible, graceless behavior with a larger following. For the most part, famous people going off like this has increased attention for them in a way that can be monetized. The past decade of social media has made a weighty truth more true with each moment: no press is bad press. The fences between audiences and public figures (whether they already are a public figure, or about to become one with the right amount of online ballast) have collapsed mightily.

This, of course, is not precisely a bad thing the positive community gains of the internet, and the potential for more, are unspeakably large and worth plenty of optimism. But increased connective capacity has no intrinsic moral charge, in any direction, and requires cooperative, systemic stewardship. Without better institutional standards for passable online behavior, we will keep seeing wind advance the sails of bad people.

Alex Jones, a highly watchable person, kinetic and passionate and always unfathomable in his loud delusions, is an online character thoroughly in the vein of Sheen, expanding his internet presence immensely by losing his mind in an entertaining way. He also spreads lies to a hateful, radicalized audience, posing real public danger. His 2018 dismissal from all the major social media platforms gives us an example of how the webs overlords might deal differently with his form of internet-climbing a more advanced, pernicious form of the Sheen strain, to be sure over the course of the coming decade.

And we could probably all, as individuals, do less to enable Sheens upon Sheens, collectively leaning in to watch proudly performed pathologies, creating a culture that asks for more and more of them. Charlie Sheen was the seminal carrier of a cultural infection that has clearly spread, and a healthier future for the internet increasingly a synonym for the world depends in part on if we ever properly contain it.

More:
Charlie Sheen invented never logging off - The Outline

During the past years, artificial intelligence (AI) the capability of a machine to mimic human behavior has become a key player in high-techs like drug development projects. AI tools help scientists to uncover the secret behind the big biological data using optimized computational algorithms. AI methods such as deep neural network improves decision making in biological and chemical applications i.e., prediction of disease-associated proteins, discovery of novel biomarkers and de novo design of small molecule drug leads. These state-of-the-art approaches help scientists to develop a potential drug more efficiently and economically.

A research team led by Professor Hongzhe Sun from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), in collaboration with Professor Junwen Wang from Mayo Clinic, Arizona in the United States (a former HKU colleague), implemented a robust deep learning approach to predict disease-associated mutations of the metal-binding sites in a protein. This is the first deep learning approach for the prediction of disease-associated metal-relevant site mutations in metalloproteins, providing a new platform to tackle human diseases. The research findings were recently published in a top scientific journal Nature Machine Intelligence.

Metal ions play pivotal roles either structurally or functionally in the (patho)physiology of human biological systems. Metals such as zinc, iron and copper are essential for all lives and their concentration in cells must be strictly regulated. A deficiency or an excess of these physiological metal ions can cause severe disease in humans. It was discovered that a mutation in human genome are strongly associated with different diseases. If these mutations happen in the coding region of DNA, it might disrupt metal-binding sites of the proteins and consequently initiate severe diseases in humans. Understanding of disease-associated mutations at the metal-binding sites of proteins will facilitate discovery of new drugs.

The team first integrated omics data from different databases to build a comprehensive training dataset. By looking at the statistics from the collected data, the team found that different metals have different disease associations. A mutation in zinc-binding sites has a major role in breast, liver, kidney, immune system and prostate diseases. By contrast, the mutations in calcium- and magnesium-binding sites are associated with muscular and immune system diseases, respectively. For iron-binding sites, mutations are more associated with metabolic diseases. Furthermore, mutations of manganese- and copper-binding sites are associated with cardiovascular diseases with the latter being associated with nervous system disease as well. They used a novel approach to extract spatial features from the metal binding sites using an energy-based affinity grid map. These spatial features have been merged with physicochemical sequential features to train the model. The final results show using the spatial features enhanced the performance of the prediction with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.90 and an accuracy of 0.82. Given the limited advanced techniques and platforms in the field of metallomics and metalloproteins, the proposed deep learning approach offers a method to integrate the experimental data with bioinformatics analysis. The approach will help scientist to predict DNA mutations which are associated with disease like cancer, cardiovascular diseases and genetic disorders.

Professor Sun said: Machine learning and AI play important roles in the current biological and chemical science. In my group we worked on metals in biology and medicine using integrative omics approach including metallomics and metalloproteomics, and we already produced a large amount of valuable data using in vivo/vitro experiments. We now develop an artificial intelligence approach based on deep learning to turn these raw data to valuable knowledge, leading to uncover secrets behind the diseases and to fight with them. I believe this novel deep learning approach can be used in other projects, which is undergoing in our laboratory.

This project was supported by the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong and The University of Hong Kong (Norman and Cecilia Yip Professorship in Bioinorganic Chemistry).

Read the rest here:
HKU scientists develop a deep learning approach to predict disease-associated mutations of the metal-binding sites - India Education Diary

By Julien Legrand, Operation Security Manager, Socit Gnrale

Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword that can be used as a security solution or as a weapon by hackers. AI entails developing programs and systems capable of exhibiting traits associated with human behaviors. The characteristics include the ability to adapt to a particular environment or to intelligently respond to a situation. AI technologies have extensively been applied in cybersecurity solutions, but hackers are also leveraging them to develop intelligent malware programs and execute stealth attacks.

Security experts have conducted a lot of research to harness the capabilities of AI and incorporate it into security solutions. AI-enabled security tools and products can detect and respond to cybersecurity incidents with minimal or zero input from humans. AI applications in cybersecurity have proved to be highly useful. Twenty-five percent of IT decision-makers attribute security as the primary reason why they adopt AI and machine learning in organizational cybersecurity. AI not only improves security posture, but it also automates detection and response processes. This cuts on the finances and time used in human-driven intervention and detection processes.

Organizations use AI to model and monitor the behavior of system users. The purpose of monitoring the interactions between a system and users is to identify takeover attacks. These are attacks where malicious employees steal login details of other users and use their accounts to commit different types of cybercrimes. AI learns the user activities over time such that it considers unusual behavior as anomalies. Whenever a different user uses the account, AI-powered systems can detect the unusual activity patterns and respond either by locking out the user or immediately alert system admins of the changes.

Antivirus tools with AI capabilities detect network or system anomalies by identifying programs exhibiting unusual behavior. Malware programs are coded to execute functions that differ from standard computer operations. AI antiviruses leverage machine learning tactics to learn how legitimate programs interact with an operating system. As such, whenever malware programs are introduced to a network, AI antivirus solutions can immediately detect them and block them from accessing systems resources. This contrasts from signature-based traditional antiviruses which scans a signature database to determine whether a program is a security threat.

Automated analysis of system or network data ensures continuous monitoring for prompt identification of attempted intrusions. Manual analysis is nearly impossible due to the sheer volume of data generated by user activities. Cybercriminals use command and control (C2) tactics to penetrate network defenses without being detected. Such tactics include embedding data in DNS requests to bypass firewalls and IDS/IPS. AI-enabled cyber defenses utilize anomaly detection, keyword matching, and monitoring statistics. As a result, they can detect all types of network or system intrusion.

Cybercriminals prefer email communication as the primary delivery technique for malicious links and attachments used to conduct phishing attacks. Symantec states that 54.6 percent of received email messages are spam and may contain malicious attachments or links. Anti-phishing emails with AI and machine learning capabilities are highly effective in identifying phishing emails. This is by performing in-depth inspections on links. Additionally, such anti-phishing tools simulate clicks on sent links to detect phishing signs. They also apply anomaly detection techniques to identify suspicious activities in all features of the sender. These include attachments, links, message bodies, among other items.

Hackers are turning to AI and using it to weaponize malware and attacks to counter the advancements made in cybersecurity solutions. For instance, criminals use AI to conceal malicious codes in benign applications.They program the codes to execute at a specific time, say ten months after the applications have been installed, or when a targeted number of users have subscribed to the applications. This is to maximize the impacts such attacks will cause. Concealing such codes and information requires the application of AI models and deriving private keys to control the place and time the malware will execute.

Notwithstanding, hackers can predefine an application feature as an AI trigger for executing cyber-attacks. The features can range from authenticating processes through voice or visual recognition to identity management features. Most applications used today contain such features, and this provides attackers with ample opportunities of feeding weaponized AI models, deriving a key, and attacking at will. The malicious models can be present for years without detection as hackers wait to strike when applications are most vulnerable.

Besides, AI technologies are unique in that they acquire knowledge and intelligence to adapt accordingly. Hackers are aware of these capabilities and leverage them to model adaptable attacks and create intelligent malware programs. Therefore, during attacks, the programs can collect knowledge of what prevented the attacks from being successful and retain what proved to be useful. AI-based attacks may not succeed in a first attempt, but adaptability abilities can enable hackers to succeed in subsequent attacks. Security communities thus need to gain in-depth knowledge of the techniques used to develop AI-powered attacks to create effective mitigations and controls.

Also, cyber adversaries use AI to execute intelligent attacks that self-propagate over a system or network. Smart malware can exploit unmitigated vulnerabilities leading to an increased likelihood of fully compromised targets. If an intelligent attack comes across a patched vulnerability, it immediately adapts to try compromising a system through different types of attacks.

Lastly, hackers use AI technologies to create malware capable of mimicking trusted system components. This is to improve stealth attacks. For example, cyber actors use AI-enabled malware programs to automatically learn the computation environment of an organization, patch update lifecycle, preferred communication protocols, and when the systems are least protected. Subsequently, hackers can execute undetectable attacks as they blend with an organizations security environment. For example, TaskRabbit was hacked compromising 3.75 million users, yet investigations could not trace the attack. Stealth attacks are dangerous since hackers can penetrate and leave a system at will. AI facilitates such attacks, and the technology will only lead to the creation of faster and more intelligent attacks.

Disclaimer: CISO MAG does not endorse any of the claims made by the writer. The facts, opinions, and language in the article do not reflect the views of CISO MAG and CISO MAG does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. Views expressed in this article are personal.

Excerpt from:
Artificial Intelligence as Security Solution and Weaponization by Hackers - CISO MAG

Its that time of year again.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates released his annual end-of-year book list earlier this week, highlighting an unusual trend from past years.

In a blog post, Gates said he moves to more fiction than usual this year because he wanted to explore another world, but despite that proclamation, his list of five recommendations only includes one work of fiction. However, Gates highlighted a few of his fiction reads including David Foster Wallaces Brief Interview with Hideous Men and even hinted at possibly picking up Wallaces legendary novel Infinite Jest next year.

I think theyre all solid choices to help wrap up your 2019 or start 2020 on a good note, Gates said, recommending five books this year.

Heres what Gates recommends to end your year:

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Amazon)

A New York Times and Washington Post notable book from 2018, An American Marriage is a love story about a black couple in the South torn apart by forces beyond their control. Gates said Tayari Jones prose is so strong that it made him empathize with both of her main characters, even with circumstances present.

The subject matter is heavy but thought-provoking, and I got sucked into Roy and Celestials tragic love story, he writes.

These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore (Amazon)

The entire history of the United States in 800 pages, Gates said Jill Lepores These Truths created the most honest and unflinching account of the American story Ive ever read. He said readers, even if youre a US history buff, will learn something new from this book.

Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities by Vaclav Smil (Amazon)

Gates has recommended multiple works by Vaclav Smil in the past, who he considers one of his favorite authors. In Growth, Smil explores what we can learn through growth in nature and society. While Gates admitted he doesnt necessarily agree with Smil all the time, hes still one of the best thinkers out there at documenting the past and seeing the big picture.

Prepared: What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life by Diane Tavenner (Amazon)

Moving into parenting mode, Gates called Diane Tavenners Prepared a helpful guidebook into transitioning your kids for life after high school. He said the book shows how to make that process as smooth and fruitful as possible.

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker (Amazon)

Gates said this was the most interesting and profound book about human behavior he read this year, which explores what actually makes a good nights sleep. Why We Sleep even impacted Gates himself.

Walker has persuaded me to change my bedtime habits to up my chances. If your New Years resolution is to be healthier in 2020, his advice is a good place to start, Gates said.

Read more:
What Bill Gates recommends reading this winter - Ladders

Ben Wasserman December 15th, 2019 - 2:33 PM

The 2010s have seen their ups and downs in the realm of cinema. Weve seen monumental superhero franchises rise and change the face of Hollywoods distribution. Weve seen a new generation new horror films geared towards the struggles of our era. Weve seen social media dominate the way we consume news and even hear about films, for better and for worse. On the other hand weve seen the industry go all in on endless sequels, reboots, remakes, live-action remakes and everything but new, original films. And the inner workings of this business has seen a reckoning against toxic sexist behavior with the #Metoo movement and ousting of Harvey Weinstein, amongst other figures.

The list below offers mxdwn Movies top 20 films across the entire decade. Some were created by longtime veterans of the industry. Others came from newcomers who made a splash on the filmmaking scene with their breakout hits. But they are the best of the best, the films drew the most attention, provoked the most discussion and will stay with us long after the ball drops this month. Theres no telling what the 2020s will bring, but heres what stood out amongst the 2010s:

The best way to describeHell or High Water is a postmodern western movie, one that offers both an honest deconstruction and a glorious last hurrah for the western genre. All the tropes and elements that once made up Western films are present and accounted for, except this time they are being played out in the harsh reality of the 2010s. The beautiful plains of West Texas are covered in billboards for debt relief, the small town shops bare foreclosure signs, the robbers ride around in crappy cars instead of on broncos, the Rangers are all worn-out, and it turns out that the bank robbed the robbers first. Also, the Native American characters make it no secret how much they have and are still suffering at the hands at the government. But this film never insults or parodies westerns.

Not a single shot or scene in Hell or High Waterfeels wasted. The characters arent just western clichs dropped into 2016, but feel deep and interesting. The acting is superb and of course you dont need to be told that Jeff Bridges is good at playing an old cowboy. However, the entire movie is stolen by an angry old waitress in a single scene.Hell or High Wateraffects me personally because it is such an accurate depiction of West Texas culture this generation.

Arden Terry

Review here:

Though the 2010s media culture has seen an increasing number of positive queer representations and relationships, yet these stories are still outnumbered by heteronormative characters. Call Me By Your Name tells the story of a queer young man that doesnt grapple with the self-hatred that permeated a lot of past LGBTQ stories, and it does so with breath-taking acting by Timothe Chalamet and Arnie Hammer, stunning cinematography, and delicately poignant dialogue delivered masterfully by Michael Stuhlbarg. The film just captures something about coming-of-age love stories that many films struggle to achieve: a truly romantic, yet energetic vibe. Director Luca Guadagnino tells his in such a nuanced way, utilizing every aspect of the Italian countryside and his actors to create a romance between his viewers and the film.

Marisa Thomas

Review here:

Originally considered a financial disappointment upon its initial release, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World proved to just be a late bloomer. Pulled from the graphic novel series straight to the silver screen, director Edgar Wright tells the story of 22 year-old Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), who must battle through a gauntlet of his current love interest Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) evil exes to keep their relationship intact. Heavily influenced by video game themes and iconography, Wrights direction helps illustrate the vibrant and outlandish visual effects that keep this films pace moving forward. A haven for future DC and Marvel superhero stars like Winstead, Chris Evans and Brie Larson, Scott Pilgrim laid out its unique storytelling blueprint for a new generation of moviegoers just around the corner. Now that the decade has reached its end, were reminded of the brilliance of Scott Pilgrims world and how it prepared us for an even more explosive era of filmmaking.

Rudy Ortega

Retrospective here:

Wes Andersons films have really increased in mainstream recognition this decade, but if theres one film of the 2010s that captured the best of his work, its easily The Grand Budapest Hotel. One reason this film stands out is how it manages to feel rather unique even compared to the rest of his filmography. Often Andersons films have been criticized for using the same tropes and stylistic choices and, while that distinctive style is still here, the fact that its utilized for a crime thriller distinguishes Grand Budapest from similar genre films.

Even taking it out of Andersons filmography, Grand Budapest still stands as an incredibly well-crafted piece of work. The story is gripping with the right amount of twists and is elevated even further by a great ensemble cast including Ralph Fiennes, Jeff Goldblum, William Dafoe and many more. It also serves as an excellent period piece, with everything from the elaborate costumes and set designs, the quirky yet pleasant score and the way every single shot is set up works to create a classic aesthetic. Anderson manages to utilize what was seen in older films and his past work to create something very new and creative, with both memorable characters and great pacing throughout the experience.

Ryan Pineda

Review here:

Hereditary takes horror cinema to a whole new level. The film is brilliant because it brings so many emotions to the table: gore, terror, distress, and heartbreak. This film is almost painful to watch, because its a combination of tragedy and horror. Every one of the casts performances are brilliant but Toni Collette completely stands out, perfectly capturing pain and dread in her face so strongly that you will feel her emotions in your soul. This plot is not for the faint of heart, as it traumatizes the audience not even an hour inand then continues to escalate things until the harrowing conclusion. Hereditary isnt simply just a horror film, though, dealing with deep themes like family relations, family history, inheritance, and past trauma. Its one of the most unnerving films of the 2010s and will trap you until the 127 minutes are done.

Rachel Walkup

Review here:

Darren Aronofskys Black Swan stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in an incredibly dark, twisted, and original tale of how the intense pressure placed on a young ballet dancer soon drives her to madness. Portmans performance as the films lead won her the Oscar that year, with Black Swan also receiving nominations in the categories of Best Feature, Directing, Cinematography, and Editing. It incorporates themes of perfection, beauty, self-discipline, mental illness, and more, crossing the boundaries of horror, drama, and psychological thriller with its character sacrifices everything, sanity included, to achieve the perfect performance. With equal parts brutal and beautiful imagery, this is a film that tends to linger in the mind long after it is watched for the first time.

Leilani Reyes

Retrospective here:

Our only real cheat on this list, but for good reason. On the surface,John Wicksounded like your standard action movie that wouldnt get that much attention, and even our site didnt think much of it at first. Yet it surprised everyone by becoming the surprise sleeper hit of 2014 and inspiring a subgenre of copycats.The story of a hitman brought back into the life he left is not a new idea, butJohn Wicksucceeded for a couple of reasons, and not just because someone killing his dog justifies all the murder. The mysterious assassins underground and Continental Hotel, Wicks status as Baba Yaga, and of course, incredible action sequences so cleanly choreographed and edited that the movie dares you to look away for even a second.

The first John Wick was our introduction to Wicks world, Chapter 2 an appetizer and the third entry,Parabellum,proving to be the main course and icing on the cake. Much like the Jason Bourne trilogy,John Wickjust gets better with every entry. Keanu Reeves does great work as the legendary assassin who everyone fears and is seemingly impossible to kill, but a special mention must go to director Chad Stahelski, whose excellent direction reshaped action cinema and produced one of the best action trilogies this century. He deserves high praise for giving us an action film that isnt bogged down by over-editing and explosions as seen in most other action films.

John Wickwas an unexpected surprise that thrilled audiences and critics alike. Just watching the movie in theaters is an experience because audiences are either on the edge of their seats or cheering when the action gets better and better. This is an action trilogy that Keanu Reeves can be proud and weve loved visiting our favorite protector of animals across all three films!

Rick Rice

Reviews for Chapters 2 and 3 here and here

Lady Bird is one of those fantastic movies that manages to be much more than the sum of its parts. With expert direction and screenwriting from Greta Gerwig in her directorial debut, Lady Bird features career-defining performances of longtime actors Laurie Metcalf and Saoirse Ronan while also highlighting the talents of industry newcomers Beanie Feldstein, Lucas Hedges, and Timothe Chalamet. Its relatability is universal Lady Bird takes us all back to the moments that defined our transition to adulthood, including the love and loss along the way. Hilarious, heartbreaking, clever, and at times even surprising, Id argue this 2017 film was the best debut of the decade.

Anabel Prince

Review here:

Pixars Inside Out was a powerful release in 2015 for reasons beyond the multitude, but what really stood out were the dynamic between the five personality traits within Rileys mind and their striking ability to help her adapt to various life challenges. Apart from the vibrant and colorful animation crafted by director Pete Docter, Inside Out triumphs with a shining story that tackles difficult subjects like depression and homesickness with a spark of Disney magic. It examines human psychology from the literal mind of a child with the backing of an exuberant comedic voice cast including Amy Poehler, Lewis Black, Bill Hader, Phyllis Smith, and Mindy Kaling. Outside the many Pixar sequels released in the 2010s, Inside Out separates itself from their lineup as not just an original release, but an exciting character study entrenched in the human mind.

Drew Mattiola

Review here:

There are certain high concept movies that have been pitched over the years. Avatar, The Avengers, Gravity andInception are just a few that come to mind. But probably the biggest and most challenging high concept movie this decade was Richard Linklaters 2014 indie epic Boyhood. I had never seen a movie quite like it before in my entire life and to see a boy literally grow up right before our eyes across twelve years was something magical. I thought that I had seen the same thing before with Harry Potter, but this was different.

I couldnt even call Boyhood a movie because it wasnt really a movie. There was no plot, just people living their lives. Its not the acting, directing, or even writing that makes this movie a masterpiece, but rather the execution of its high concept. Boyhood could have easily felt like a compilation of twelve short films, but it never did. Instead, it really felt like we were given a glimpse into this boys life and, for those of us who grew up in his era, the experience was both relatable and unique. It was literally just life on screen and the life I saw was beautiful.

Noah Pfister

Review here:

To make an impression on 2019 America, most films would need a superhero, lots of blood, or animated characters. Parasite does not feature any of these but doesnt need it to get under your skin and remain there for days to come. Bong Joon-Ho has crafted a socially conscious, culturally aware feature about family and the lust of wealth. The details of Parasite are best kept under wraps, preserving its surprise of where the pursuit of success can take us when we crave it. What sets Parasite apart from the thousands of films in the past decade is the refreshing restraint Joon-Ho demonstrates in holding a mirror to his audience, showcasing what our greed reveals about who we truly are. Unapologetic and wholly original, Parasite is a masterclass in character study, human behavior, and examining social classes.

Ryan Sterritt

Review here:

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse might be yet another Spider-Man film, but this computer-animated superhero film managed to separate itself from other Marvel installments with its striking visuals, laugh-out-loud moments, and genuine heart. Rather than solely focus on the typical protagonist Peter Parker, hes instead featured as the reluctant mentor to our true main character: Miles Morales. The two share a sharp, back-and-forth relationship between them as they try to save the world and its various dimensions from the Kingpins Super Collider machine. Both are accompanied by various delightful alternative versions of Spider-Man, ranging from Spider-Ham (a Looney Toons-like spider who was bitten by a radioactive pig) to Spider-Man Noir (a brooding, black-and-white Spidey from the 1930s).

With a fantastic ensemble cast that includes John Mulaney, Nicolas Cage, Hailee Steinfield, and Jake Johnson (as well as uncredited cameos from Chris Pine and Oscar Isaac), Spider-Verses comedy is handled extremely well making it a genuinely hilarious watch thatll be good to see with either friends or family. Though the plot is a bit fast, its made up for by the films most striking feature its stunning visuals. This film is almost overwhelming in its detailed-ladden and kinetic animation, which required obvious effort to produce that more than deserved its Oscar. In a world of high budget CGI movies, seeing one as stunning as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is an appreciable treasure. Its highly unlikely that youve seen a cartoon movie like this one due to the sheer ingenuity and creativity put into it.

Avalon Allen

Review here:

The Wolf of Wall Street combined the publics love for true crime retellings and convoluted vision of the American Dream created by rampant consumerism to deliver the adrenaline pumping story of Jordan Belfort. The film follows Belfort on his journey to committing white collar crime by manipulating penny stocks and scamming his way into millions. Filled with drugs, sex, and mountains of cash, Martin Scorsese depicts the modern American fantasy of living in absurd excess and doing anything in your power to get there.

Based on a true story about ripping off middle class Americans, this narrative hit home for many who had experienced loss during the Great Recession. However, Scorsese also depicts the thrill of experiencing what it could have been like to outsmart the system and take advantage of it, as Belfort did. Witty scenes and engaging plot kept the audience rooting for whatever crazy scheme the con-artist could come up with to avoid arrest. Played with devious charisma by Leonardo DiCaprio, Belfort reinvents what it meant to make it and had audiences cheering someone who almost had it all, regardless of the pockets he drained to get there.

Natalie Holderbaum

Review here:

WhenToy Story 3came out in June 2010, it was an emotional ending to a wonderful family movie trilogy. At least until Toy Story 4came out this year. An older Andy going to college marks the end of his childhood, a moment that mirrors how Toy Storys formerly younger audience will have grown up and matured with the franchise since its first installment. The themes are darker this time, as Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the remaining toys believe themselves to be unwanted after they are accidentally thrown out and moved to a daycare center. Throughout their adventures at Sunnyside, the film explores change, friendship, identity, community, jealousy, and even death. What made Toy Story 3 so special is that the toys not only learn to move on and rediscover the joy of being toys with a little girl named Bonnie, they find greater friendship in each other.

Anastasia Hanna

In 2016, Moonlight filled a space in the coming-of-age genre that was immensely lacking, and further surprised everyone with the infamous 2017 Oscar mix-up. Barry Jenkins Best Picture winner centers on Chiron, a shy black boy from Miami, and follows him through adolescence and adulthood as he wrestles with his homosexuality. The triptych of Chirons life unfolds with painterly care, carried by an unforgettable score, fluid camerawork, and powerful performances from the entire cast. A melancholy look at black male identity, sexuality, parental figures, and abuse, Moonlight illuminates perspectives that are too rarely seen on screen.

Alicia Devereaux

Review here:

Its rare beyond words for a film franchise with twenty-two movies to bring an epic story to a universally approved ending. Marvel Studios and head impresario Kevin Feige took their three-hour magnum opus Avengers: Endgame as an opportunity to knock the ball far out of the park. Everyone, from the writers, producers, directors and cast all seized the chance to perfect this movie as a true finale of a saga. Truly, it was the event film to end all event films, but where it succeeded most was feeling and emanating a proper, satisfying conclusion to the Marvel Cinematic Universes Infinity Saga.

In Endgame, the broken, sullen remnants of the Avengers must figure out how to accept something truly impossible. Thanos plan to eradicate half the universe with the six Infinity Stones in Avengers: Infinity War was successful. The entire universe is lost in grief and tumult when Paul Rudds Scott Lang/Ant-Man is luckily brought back to Earth through random circumstance, albeit five years later. Lang does what he does best: solve all of realitys problems with a heist. From there, the outstanding cast is all mirthful glee as they try to pull an incredibly elaborate plan off with just barely the materials to do so.

Before the genre-defining 3rd act final battle, the joy of Endgame is seeing the interplay and surprisingly pleasant timbre of its cast as they render this story. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evan, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johannson, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, Don Cheadle, Brie Larson and Jeremy Renner all deliver command performances, taking their small corners of this massive film and make them sing. Mark Ruffalo in particular shines as a new version of the Hulk, demonstrating the heart, intellect and mirth this story revels in. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo deserver extra credit for taking something that could have easily been a jumbled mess and made it look like the Godfather of superhero films.

Avengers: Endgame is that seldom-experienced moment where genius cinema and pop culture perfectly coincide. All the money earned is deserved. All the acclaim, justified. This may just be the new paragon of popcorn prestige pictures. Avengers assemble indeed.

Raymond Flotat

Review here:

The 2010s were defined predominantly by the growth and corruption of social media, but The Social Network warned us of its risks as far back as the decades first year. Granted, not even Aaron Sorkin could have envisioned a movie scene where Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg would testify before Congress on why he wont regulate those wishing to use Facebook for lies and propaganda. But film Zuckerberg, played with aloof perfection by Jessie Eisenberg, was already a dick from the start. After all, the film implies he started the first Facebook prototype due to being dumped by his ex, played by Rooney Mara, and mostly as a sexist forum for men to rate women by their hotness.

Like the best of films, so much of The Social Network continues to feel relevant. Sorkins script and David Finchers direction are second to none, and Eisenberg is joined by solid breakout performances from Andrew Garfield and Arnie Hammer, as well Justin Timberlakes super dark take on Sean Parker. All these actors engage in a plot defined by coarse legal arguments, business backstabbings and scathing social commentary on the toxicity of holding power. Just makes you realize that such toxic and misogynist social media behavior started from the top down.

Both inside the film and out, Zuckerberg turned our desire for connectivity into a commodity, forever defining how Millennial and Gen Z culture interact with the world and how everyone gets news. But The Social Networks snappy line delivery focuses on a different part of that legacy: how some Ivy League assholes built an enterprise due to rejection and a need for acceptance. When Zuckerbergs ex reprimands what his site has become, she notes how those who like what hes selling write your snide bullshit from a dark room because thats what the angry do nowadays. Admittedly, Id say Twitter and 4chan do that a bit more frequently.

Ben Wasserman

Retrospective here:

With a star studded cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, Ellen Page, and more, Inception started off the decade with a bang and set up the trajectory for sci-fi and fantasy films for years to come. Directed and written by Christopher Nolan, the film establishes a visually beautiful world where people have the technology to enter other peoples dreams, accessing their innermost thoughts in the process. Inception won numerous Oscars for sound mixing, sound editing, visual effects, and cinematography, and remains a cult classic almost ten years later.

Blending dreams with reality, the film stretches the limits of what film can accomplish as a storytelling medium. It attempts to visualize something that otherwise only occurs in the individual mind and make it instead into a group viewing experience with a compelling story. The special effects Nolan uses to accomplish this otherworldly, off kilter landscape were unlike anything that had been seen before, making it a primary staple of the 2010s films.

Inceptions constant weaving of its plot and ambiguous ending also helped to keep viewers coming back for more. Combined with sharp, complex visuals, it makes for quite the thought-provoking experience. Following this film, more sci fi films have been released that aim for the same level of intrigue, such as Looper, Gravity, Annihilation, Ex Machina, and even Nolans own Interstellar.

Leilani Reyes

Retrospective here:

Everyone knew Jordan Peele for his clever comedy sketches inKey and Peele,yet no one couldve foreseen what his debut film could bring to the table.Get Outfeatures an incredible cast and intricate story that both keeps us on our toes and leaves us with an experience unlike anything wed seen before. Telling the story of an interracial couple meeting the white girlfriends parents for the first time is scary enough, but Peele made us question the familys motives in ways that a horror film works best- by making the audience think.

Get Out smartly blends nail-biting suspense with some surprising moments of comedy thrown in, particularly involving Lil Rel Howery. This isnt one of those standard horror films that showcases a lot of on-screen violence, instead opting for a character study of an entire family and one mans quest to understand it all. It leaves the audience holding their breath and wanting to experience it again and again.

It was no surprise when this film won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and we saw Peele thank everyone who witnessed his directorial debut exceed expectations.Get Outis thought-provoking, intelligent, terrifying and funny, all wrapped into a horror/comedy package thatll be talked about for years to come. Jordan Peele is a man who well be happy to follow throughout his career. Im sure hell make some more great movies, butGet Outis nothing short of a masterpiece!

Rick Rice

Analysishere:

On a purely technical level, Mad Max: Fury Road is the best action film of the decade, bar none. Its a roaring symphony of carnage, vehicular destruction and post-apocalyptic wonder that takes a simple truck chase and makes each second of it a non-stop thrill. With director George Miller revisiting his franchise decades after Beyond Thunderdome and Tom Hardy taking on the role of Max Rockatansky after Mel Gibson went a bit too mad, Fury Road creates practical action scenes and stunts so daring youll wonder how they pulled them off without CGI. These are the type of kinetic car fights and explosions Michael Bay wished he could be praised for pulling off.

But, looking back on Fury Road four years later, its narrative might be more relevant than ever. Like most Mad Max entries, Max is not the star but an observer to the wastelands worse off inhabitants: the brides of tyrant Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who commands massive resources to oppress citizens, an army of War Boys who revere him like a god, and dehumanizes women as property. And coincidentally one month after the films release, America saw its own Immortan Joe copycat rise to power with similar cult followings and sexist personality traits. Then came the #MeToo movement and so many women decided to take the path of Charlize Therons Imperator Furiosa: fight back.

Haters may hate, but this is an action film where female empowerment is key to kicking ass taking down the evil misogynist tyrant. And they do so with guns, cars, thundersticks, robot arms, and whatever scrap is left on the table. Max might be the films title character, but Furiosa no doubt became its star. And working together they preserver a chaotic battle for survival unlike anything Id witnessed this decade, or have yet to witness since. Each re-watch only confirms that nitrius-fueled adrenaline rush is still kicking, and nothing has come close to topping it. What a lovely film indeed!

Ben Wasserman

More here:
Mxdwn Movies Presents: Ranking the 20 Best Films of the 2010s - mxdwn.com

The ocean is a powerful force, and there are a lot of things that we still don't know about it. What's more, lots of things happen in it that can't always be explained. Of course, we don't always know about what's happening way down under the waves.

Except, sometimes, the evidence winds up on shore. People have found all kinds of interesting, amazing, and downright creepy things on ocean shores all around the world. The question is, why do these things happen, and where the heck does the stuff come from?

Sometimes there are answers, and other times, the details remain a mystery. Either way, it's fascinating to look at, so we have here 20 disturbing photos of all manner of things that washed ashore around the world.

Dont underestimate the power of the supermoon and the tides it brings along. In 2011, almost 100 World War II bombs washed ashore on Calshot beach in Hampshire, UK. Royal Navy took matters in their own hands and detonated them so they no longer posed a threat.

In January 2019, the Dutch island Terschelling woke up to their shores being covered in shoes, furniture, and even car parts.The incident amused them at first, but when they realized the span of pollution, they understood the gravity of the situation, quickly organized themselves and started cleaning.

A pitbull, a raccoon, a turtle? This mutant animal washed up in Long Island and was found scorching in the sun. The image instantly went viral. What is even more disturbing than its sudden appearance is its mysterious disappearance. A very similar carcass appeared this year again.

Whale vomit, also known by its more glamourous sounding synonym ambergris, sometimes, is an unsettling, yet a very exciting beach find. If you find it and somehow power through its horrific smell, you might sell it for big bucks, as the material is used to make perfumes.

The oldest message in a bottle was floating around for 151 years before being picked up in Japan. Written by Chunosuke Matsuyama, it describes the sad fate of 44 seamen looking for a treasure, castaway on an island where they slowly died of starvation and dehydration.

It doesn't look as dreadful when next to a ship, but when compared to a car on a beach, a ship's fender looks quite intimidating. No one has reported it missing. Once people got used to the sight and heard about it, it actually became a local tourist attraction.

In Hawaii, larvae of the 7-11 crabs is not an uncommon sight, but when there are so many in an environment that is deadly for them, it leaves us feeling uneasy. Apparently, the little crabs couldn't dive due to air bubbles in their shells, leaving them stranded on the beach.

Since 2007, human feet, clad in trainers have been showing up on the coastline of British Columbia. So far, there have been 14 incidents and none of the feet were identified. No one has any idea how they got there and where the rest of the bodies are.

If the eyeball alone is so big, imagine the size of the sea creature this eye belongs to. Scientists concluded it does not belong to a squid as there are bones around the eye. It probably belongs to a majestic deep-water fish of some sort.

This story is storm Sandy's silver lining. 57 love letters, written between 1942 and 1947 reappeared out of the big blue sea. The finder managed to identify the lovebirds and return the letters where they belonged.At least this time, love conquered time and even the vast ocean.

When this object appeared on a Hawaiian beach, someone took it to Reddit, where people took educated guesses at what it is as the press did not give people answers. It may be a submarine communication buoy and no one is sure how old it is.

The abovementioned Dutch Island of Terschelling is a popular spot for things lost at sea. In 2007, residents found hundreds of bananaswashed onshore. Not sure if they were edible or not, they suggested donating them to the zoo. Why do things always end up there?

"No real than you are," says the 2.5 m tall lego manthat has surfaced on various beaches around the world. Made by an unknown Dutch artist who goes by a nickname Ego Leonard, it has appeared in the Netherlands, UK, US, and Japan.

Every year, there are moreand more news stories about whales being washed ashore worldwide. The occurrence is to some extent natural but in some cases, it is the consequence of irresponsible human behavior. Sometimes, whales are found with lethal amounts of plasticin their stomachs.

It is a combination of ice, wind the shoreline and some magic: the result is a formation of icy snowballs in the Gulf of Ob. Deep in Siberia, in the arctic circle, snowballs of different sizes formed along a 17 kilometer stretch of a beach.

It is huge, it has no teeth and no tail - it is the weirdest fish you have ever seen. This elusive freak of nature has never been spotted in the northern hemisphere and its appearance in Californiagot both the scientists and regular beachgoers all shook up.

The sight of a severed shark's head is mortifying enough as it is, but it is only when we begin to wonder what bit its head off that we start feeling the chills. The head was found in Australia and it weighed 100 kg.Nature is scarily fascinating!

29,000 rubber ducks were set free somewhere in the Pacific in 1992 after a cargo ship leaving from China spilled. Ever since they have been going with the flow around the ocean, appearing in the UK, Australia, South America - basically worldwide. Scientists use them to follow ocean currents.

This shipfound a harbor on a Liberian coast, with no lifeboats or survivors on it. What is its story? No one is sure, but it couldbe it was looted by pirates or the owner could not pay up his workers and therefore abandoned it.

Many people find this harmless-looking animal beautiful without knowing it can kill them. Portuguese-man-o'-war is an enchanting is a sea creature resembling a jellyfishthat you should avoid at all costs. Sometimes, they can be found on beaches, but generally, they float around in oceans.

More here:
20 Disturbing Photos Captured Of Things That Washed Ashore - TheTravel

Alison Ruttan: All Down the Line from the series Dark City, 2016-2017. Series of nine white ceramic buildings. Courtesy of the artist.

In the following Q&A, University Galleries Director and Chief Curator, Kendra Paitz, and artist Alison Ruttan talk about Ruttans exhibition Unmaking of Places and Histories, currently on view at University Galleries of Illinois State University through December 15. University Galleries events are free and open to the public.

Kendra Paitz: We have chosen to focus on your new and recent architectural ceramic work for Unmaking of Places and Histories at University Galleries. Although you have been making this work for several years, it started as you finished a photographic project inspired by Jane Goodalls research. Could you talk about your The Four-Year War at Gombe (20092011) and how it led to these works?

Alison Ruttan: The Four-Year War at Gombe is an epic photographic series installed in chapter-like groupings. Based on Goodalls discovery that chimpanzees, like us, carry grudges, defend their territory, and wage war, the series follows her accounts of a troop that lived together peaceably for many years before splitting into two communities. Over a period of four years, half of the original group hunted down and killed all of the former members of their troop. It seems that, like us, the bloodiest feuds and civil wars are waged against those to whom we have the closest ties. Goodall wrote about chimpanzee violence and she saw us in them, both in our ability to cooperate and in having the same kind of strategic thinking that goes into planned warfare. I started the ceramic project A Bad Idea Seems Good Again (2010ongoing) while I was in the middle of editing the Gombe project. The U.S. was in the middle of the war in Iraq. It seemed important to return to human affairs, to be in the present, and to look directly at the state of the world we live in. I see the two projects as linked, in that the Gombe story is like an origin story for our own history of violence.

Each of your bodies of work involves long-term research, often, as you mentioned, involving human behavior. Well get to your materials and processes in a few minutes, but could you discuss some of the reading, conversations, and travels that influenced your research for the ceramic workscontent-wise, in terms of cultural, political, and architectural history? Was there one particular moment or story that compelled you to start down this path?

The heart of these projects was a need to understand our own human relationship to violence. Much of my reading during that period followed the questions, How much of our behavior is rooted in the core of our biological identity and how captive are we to these impulses? I read books by primatologists Frans de Waal and Jane Goodall as well as Wrangham and Petersons book, Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence. I met with scientists working in evolutionary biology and had residencies at primate research stations. I also became curious about Teresa Brennans work on affect. Some of her research looked at how the behavior of individuals in groups is influenced by the hidden effects of pheromones that can lead to both social cohesion and aggressive actions. I found connections in the war journalist Chris Hedges War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and in J. Glen Grays The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle. They both created deep questions for me; each wrote about the terrible seductive power that war holds over those caught in its annihilating embrace. It is hard not to wonder if we are forever destined for endless wars. The ceramic works have functioned as a form of witnessing from afar the conflicts that have now spread throughout the Middle East. While we in the U.S. have become consumed by our own internal politics, we should not forget that American politics have played a significant hand in these wars. On a more positive note, I recently read Steven Pinkers The Better Angels of Our Nature, which statistically counters many of my fears with clear evidence of significant improvement in human behavior over the centuries. Nice to know. My scale and material choices were inspired by funerary models from the Han Dynasty, several examples of which can be seen in the Art Institute of Chicagos permanent collection. I have passed by thesesculptures regularly in my many years teaching at SAIC (School of the Art Institute of Chicago). The models feel remarkably modern in that the buildings are very specific but simplified, not unlike the balanced proportions that we admire in early Renaissance paintings by artists like Piero della Francesca. I felt that my reconstructions of destroyed architecture in the Middle East should honor the specificity of the buildings they are sourced from, but also should not be weighed down with unnecessary attention to detail. It is a matter of where I want you to focus; the skill I apply should be enough to be believable but not so perfect that you become lost in the craft. In 2016, I went to China to see more of these sculptures. I was also able to see historical buildings still in use that had inherited many of these same qualities.

Youve also cited the influences of Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt, among others, for their repetitions of geometric forms. And youve talked about the failures of Modernism, particularly in relation to Modern architecture distributed throughout the world. Could you elaborate on this?

Much of the architecture we see in todays cities is indebted to Modernism and that had roots in utopian ideals that emerged in the first half of the 20th-century. The buildings forms followed their function, with many architects advocating standardization in architecture and creating mass construction of rationally designed apartment blocks for factory workers. This style of building quickly became a sign for modern living. Modernism eventually merged with what we now call International Style, which further streamlined the idea of functional buildings that were pure and free of decoration. Module and mass-produced apartments and homes changed the way cities and neighborhoods looked across the world. In reality, this type of building quickly became synonymous with cheap construction. The communities that inhabited these suburban enclaves have suffered the largest casualties of these wars. Older buildings in the city centers have fared much better due to their sturdier construction. The dreams of a better, modern, and more egalitarian life have been left in rubble as a visible scar.

The crumbled and shredded buildings in the source images on your studio walls really are shocking. On a slightly different note, I appreciate your dexterity among mediums. You were working in photography and thinking about making a film right before starting this project, but youve also made drawings, collages, videos, and installations. Once you decided that clay was the right way to convey your thoughts about this you started taking ceramics courses. You said that the clay breaks like concrete, so you could make convincing buildings and rubble.

That material similarity of clay to cement was a big part of my choice to work in ceramics. I was also attracted to the use of slab construction. I am not an artist who works in a materially specific way, but I do value the aesthetic, cultural, and historical associations that come with each medium. I usually have a learning curve at the beginning of new projects, and the craft that develops always informs the possibilities and ideas I am exploring.

Materials-testing and research are incredibly important to this body of work. One of our graduate students and a ceramics professor said they were geeking out over your glazes. You make tiny models of buildings to experiment with the variety of surfaces and colors you can achieve with the glazes. What does that process look like? And do you keep detailed notes about the outcomes?

It takes so much time to build each one, so I am very careful with the glazing. I do extensive glazetesting using tiles for color, surface, and glaze fit. From there I make quick ceramic studies that have a formal relationship to the finished work but feel far more like sketches. I often use multiple layered glazes and the studies allow me to test how the different glaze combinations will react. I try to label all the tests and keep notes on what I used and in what order on each final piece.

Youve also developed methods using cheesecloth, plastic tenting, and cycles of moistening and drying?

Yes, Ive become the expert at doing things the wrong way. If youre after something that is broken, you have a lot of leeway. At the same time, things that would be a disaster for another artist are often cultivated in my work. For Line in the Sand (20142015), I cast 650 vehicles from 15 different molds. I deliberately let some over-dry in their molds, causing tearing when removed, while others were removed too early, causing slumping and warping. I engineer the sliding pancaked rubble by sandwiching cheesecloth between two ceramic slabs and re-running through the slab roller. I allow the slab to dry and then break it. I then wrap it in wet towels to re-moisten, and then I can drape it over an architectural section that has damage. I keep the sculptures in a moist plastic-tented environment for about two weeks to help the debris bond to the clay it is resting on. The cheesecloth burns out in the first firing so getting the clay to re-bond is essential.

Theres a tendency for people to initially become enamored with your process. In addition to the engineering of these works, you also enact violence upon them with crowbars and BB guns. You can even see some of the remaining BB pellets or semi-melted ones within the compartments of some of the buildings.

I am conscious that the amount of rubble must relate to the perceived amount missing from the building. That is why I make them as complete forms before wrecking them. I use a crowbars bent end and a BB air gun, which has a fairly low impact that I can control. The BB gun allows me to rip through the walls.

How did you decide to display the sculptures on tables like this? You talked about navigating city blocks.

The tables were originally designed to represent the unevenly shaped blocks in Beirut. The wooden tabletops are covered in troweled clay to give them a matte surface that is dusty in appearance. I wanted to create different elevations, so some of the tabletops are higher and supported by loose bricks, wood, and plastic bagsmaterials commonly found in rubble. The rusted steel tables were designed as open grids that reference steel girders, windows, and doors. The buildings are sparsely set within the open expanses of the tabletops to suggest the loss of additional buildings that once inhabited the now forlorn landscape. The environment is meant to feel out of time, and one might wonder At what point are we seeing this destruction?

Could you talk a bit about the visual research youve done for studying these sites? For example, The Egg is based on an actual building in Beirut that was supposed to be a movie theater.

I have amassed a large collection of photographs gathered from web searches that document many of the war-torn regions of the Middle East. All of my work is made in reference to this material. Most of the ceramic buildings are specific, not conglomerations, but the building referred to as The Egg is the only significant work of architecture in this series. In 1965, it was designed by Joseph Philippe Karam to be part of the Beirut City Center, which would have included a shopping mall, this cinema, and residential buildings. In 1975, the civil war in Beirut left the buildings bullet-riddled and largely unfinished. Today, only the cinema and the underground parking exist. The Egg remains a monument of sorts and its future is still undefined. The buildings unusual characteristics were what drew me to it: the challenge in making it, as well as its obvious reference to a failed utopian future. I think it stands today as a reminder of those hopes and not as a warning.

The newest works in the exhibition include found furniture. The ceramic components project upward, collapse into, and spill over these objects that are rooted to our sense of a domestic environment. Youre thinking of these works as more of a micro view, connecting the devastation to ones sense of home?

Yes, the furniture is an experiment with creating an alternative pedestal to suggest a domestic life that might have been but has now vanished along with the residents who lived or worked in these buildings.

And you ultimately decided on furniture styles after searching Airbnb sites in these countries?

I researched what middle-class homes would look like in cities like Homs and Aleppo. I looked online for magazines or merchandise websites but was not very successful in getting a sense of ordinary homes. I then began looking at Airbnb sites. I didnt find any in most of Syria, but I did locate a few in Damascus and Beirut. The interiors pictured looked very much like middle-class homes anywhere in the world with a mix of heirlooms and standard modern furniture. I noticed a preference for darker woods, lighter marble, white, gold, and metal work, so I tried to stay close to that, picking up pieces from second-hand stores as well as buying a few new pieces. The furniture choices came first, and from there I would scour my large archive of images, looking for buildings that could be integrated into the furniture. Then I cut into most of the furniture pieces with an eye toward creating a relationship between the two forms.

We titled the exhibition for a phrase that you used in our first studio visit. You were talking about the undoing and unmaking of places and histories. The phrase is heavy and ominous; it conveys the calculated and deliberate destruction of sites and/or cultures. How did you come to this particular language?

Many of the Middle Easts Arab regions have been controlled by outsiders going back to the Ottoman Empires rule (15171918). Following WWI, Britain and France secretly drew up a treaty (the SykesPicot Agreement) to partition much of the Ottoman Empire into British and French-controlled territories. The divisions that were made have never fit with the ethnic populations living there. It was essentially a land grab to gain access to the Mediterranean. The agreement negated the promise Britain had made to the Arabs to give support to the creation of a long-desired Arab homeland in greater Syria, in exchange for the Arabs support against the Ottoman Empire. The legacy of this broken agreement has continued to create mistrust among Arabs that reaches into present-day conflicts in the region. The continued fighting over control of territories is a form of unmaking and has created a terribly unstable region and much suffering for its populations.

Its complicated to address such horrific human experiences, particularly when one is not from that area. These works not only draw attention to the devastation of violence, but also to its aftermath. Youve described these works as your way of witnessing from here. They prompt a sense of empathy, in part, because of their intimate scale. Its also important to note that there are no figures, no people or traces of them, within the works.

My understanding of what is, and has been, happening there is primarily from what I see on television or on my laptop. I am not a deep expert on the region, its politics, or its people, but on the other hand, it shouldnt take an expert to see that what is happening is deeply wrong. As an ordinary American citizen, living at a great distance from the crisis, I have few options to effect change, but I can refuse to look away. I can refuse a narrowing of my viewpoint to only that of my own backyard. The lack of people noted in the work suggests a kind of disappearance, both literally and metaphorically.

Also in our first studio visit, you described these works as purposely intimate anti-war monuments. When you gave your lecture at University Galleries, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran came up to share his appreciation for your approach and message. Could you share some of the feedback youve received from people who have experienced the type of violence referenced in this work?

I am pleased when I havent offended anyone by my ignorance. I do not wish to speak as an authority or suggest personal knowledge, of which I have none. I usually just try to listen, as I am keenly aware that it is someone elses story. It has meant a lot to me to hear from students, immigrant families, and veterans that my making of this work has meaning for them.

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Unmaking of Places and Histories: Artist Alison Ruttan and curator Kendra Paitz in conversation - News - Illinois State University News