Shonda Rhimes, one of Hollywoods most popular and powerful women, has joined the national board of Planned Parenthood.

Rhimes, creator and producer of prime-time television shows Greys Anatomy and Scandal, assumes a formal role in the organization at a time when antiabortion activists and some Republican lawmakers have set their sights on defunding Planned Parenthood.

The fact is that womens health is under fire right now, Rhimes said in an interview with Elle Magazine, which first reported the news. And so to me, it feels like its important to help fight back.

Rhimes has used her shows to present leading female characters who are celebrated for exercising their agency, and for exploring a range of social issues including abortion. Olivia Pope, the heroine of Scandal, had an abortion in a 2015 episode that also included a floor fight in Congress over defunding Planned Parenthood. In 2011, a female character in Greys Anatomy also had an abortion.

[Scandal stuns views with an abortion scene]

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, told Elle that the organization would look to use Rhimess creative energy and storytelling ability to educate the public about the organizations work.

And she couldnt be joining us at a better time, Richard said. When so much basic health care is under attack, as we saw just a few weeks ago as a room full of men negotiated away maternity benefits for women, its never been more important for peoples stories to be told.

She was referring to a much-criticized White House meeting in which President Trump and Vice President Pence met with members of the House Freedom Caucus to discuss a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Among the benefits under consideration for elimination was maternity care. The effort failed after factions within the GOP failed to agree on an overall plan. The Republican-led Congress also has been unable to come up with a measure to defund Planned Parenthood.

[Conservatives fall short of another goal: Defunding Planned Parenthood]

Anti-abortion groups and conservative lawmakers have for years sought to block the use of Medicaid funds to reimburse Planned Parenthood for services it provides to low-income patients. Federal law prohibits the use of Medicaid funds for abortions, except in the case of rape, incest or to the save the life of the mother.

Planned Parenthood has argued that the vast majority of its services involve providing basic gynecological health care, including Pap smears, offering low-cost contraceptives and providing referrals for other screenings, such as mammograms.

Rhimes, who has served on the Planned Parenthood Los Angeles board, told Elle that shes never used the organizations services but has friends who have.

The fact that Ive never had to use a Planned Parenthood, the fact that Ive never been in need of medical services I couldnt afford or didnt have access to, doesnt mean I shouldnt be concerned about the fact that other women dont have that access, she said.

Fans of Shonda Rhimes's shows already know Meredith Grey, Olivia Pope and Annalise Keating, and they're about to get acquainted with Alice Vaughan on "The Catch." Here's how Rhimes's newest TV drama uses some signature traits of a Shondaland show. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)

Read more here:
Shonda Rhimes, creator of 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Scandal', joins Planned Parenthood board - Washington Post

The day before law enforcement arrested the Rev. Kenneth Adkins in August 2016, he admitted to Georgia Bureau of Investigators agents he sent photos of his male anatomy to a man hes accused of molesting when that person was underage.

Adkins is on trial in Glynn County Superior Court regarding multiple felonies for allegedly engaging in sexual acts with two victims A.J., a boy, and T.V., a girl when they were both 15 years old, between August 2009 and March 2010.

Prosecutors played for the jury a recording of the GBIs interview with Adkins, in which after a friendly back-and-forth, the agents began pressing Adkins for clearer answers on his involvement with evidence they already had in hand.

At one point, they specifically questioned his involvement with two photographs of a black males private parts sent from Adkins public relations companys email account to A.J. in November 2014.

One agent could be heard saying, I know it was sent from your phone to your email to (A.J.).

Adkins then said he only sent the photos because A.J. asked for them. That also occurred well after A.J. reached majority age, and Adkins reiterated that he did not mess around with children.

Lawrence Kelly, a special agent with the GBI who specializes in mobile phone data forensics, said metadata pulled from the emailed images showed they were sent from a Samsung Galaxy Note 4, operating on a Verizon network. The data also showed the phone was registered the day before the images were sent, which means the phone was likely, but not conclusively, obtained the day it was registered.

When questioned by Adkins attorney Kevin Gough if it was possible Adkins could have sent the photos accidentally, Kelly said it was. Kelly also acknowledged that the timestamps of when the email was sent and received indicated that, as Gough suggested in a question, it was sent from Georgia and received by A.J. while on Army deployment in Germany.

A contention made by prosecutors is the photos indicate a physical relationship between Adkins and A.J., though Kelly admitted it would be rather difficult to have a physical relationship at that immediate time, separated by an ocean.

According to investigators, one woman, J.C. who was of age at the time told them she, A.J. and Adkins engaged in sexual acts at an area hotel, though she was initially reluctant to do so. Adkins allegedly warned her about saying anything about it, and gave her $200 to remain quiet.

In the GBI interview, Adkins, at first, denied getting a room for A.J. or the three of them, saying he frequently reserved rooms for any number of functions. But, again, pressed on the topic, Adkins said, I dont think I was in the room with A.J. and J.C., and reiterated that he did not have sex with them.

At the end of testimony Tuesday, the defense had to wrap up one of the basic logistics of trial work not typically seen by the public Adkins had run out of ties. Gough asked Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett if he could give his client his own tie, but after a short discussion in which the participants appeared to understand the light humor of the situation in comparison to those of such gravity beforehand Gough was allowed to take the necessary sartorial items to Adkins at the Glynn County Detention Center during a meeting scheduled for later Tuesday.

Court is scheduled to resume with testimony by A.J. at 9 a.m. today at the Glynn County Courthouse.

See the article here:
Adkins admits emailing photos of male anatomy | Local News | The ... - The News (subscription)

Thomas Gallatin Apr. 5, 2017

The Washington Post recently ran a story with the provocative headline, GOP lawmaker: The Bible says the unemployed shall not eat. The article referenced comments made during a House Agriculture Committee hearing over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) a.k.a. food stamps. The original version of the article at least acknowledged that Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) cited 2 Thessalonians 3:10 in a rebuttal to an expert witness a representative from the Jewish anti-hunger group MAZON, who made reference to a passage in Leviticus about feeding the hungry.

Yet the Washington Post didnt actually quote Arrington in its rush to indict and label him and Republicans as uncaring and out of touch with the needs of the poor at least not until later revisions were made. The article states, House Republicans have historically cited the verse if a man will not work, he shall not eat as justification for cutting some adults' SNAP benefits. Arrington referenced the verse in a discussion about increasing the work requirements for unemployed adults on the food stamp program. But critics say that advances a pernicious myth about the unemployed who receive SNAP.

The truth is it was the Washington Post that was actively attempting to advance a pernicious myth regarding both the intent and reasoning of Republicans and Rep. Arrington specifically. And they were exposed for it.

Shortly after the articles release, The Federalists Sean Davis called out the Beltway rag over its sloppy and biased reporting. Davis pointed out that the Post failed to quote Arrington and failed to properly apply the Biblical context of both Scripture references.

The Washington Post, evidently catching wind of criticism for its lackluster piece, responded by heavily editing the original article, including changing the headline to GOP lawmaker: The Bible says if a man will not work, he shall not eat, as well as adding Arringtons exact words.

Arrington said, I did hear, Mr. Protas [the MAZON representative], your opening remarks where you quoted Leviticus, I believe and I think thats a great reflection on the character of God and the compassion of Gods heart and how we ought to reflect that compassion in our lives. But theres also, you know, in the Scripture, tells us in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 he says, For even when we were with you we gave you this rule: If a man will not work, he shall not eat. And then he goes on to say, We hear that some among you are idle. I think that every American, Republican or Democrat, wants to help the neediest among us. And I think its a reasonable expectation that we have work requirements. I think that gives more credibility, quite frankly, to SNAP. Tell me, what is a reasonable and responsible work requirement as part of the SNAP program?

The Post truncates his last few sentences, but upon reading the updated and edited article, the papers dubious characterization of both Arrington and the Republicans loses credibility, showing more glaringly the articles original bias as being primarily an anti-Republican propaganda piece. So much for the Posts Democracy Dies in Darkness tripe.

This episode proves to highlight a couple of important points. First, the Post is as agenda-driven as ever. The leftist commitment of the paper is beyond question. There simply is no reasonable attempt at balanced reporting in the entire piece, even after the edits it was shamed into making.

Second, and far more important, the article exposed the fundamental disagreement between leftists and conservatives when it comes to understanding the role of government.

The U.S. has a long history arguing over the extent government should play in contributing to welfare. Historically, conservatives have long championed a limited government that allows taxpayers to keep more of their money so as to assist their needy family, friends and neighbors as they are able and see fit. Conservatives have correctly argued that massive government income redistribution programs create greater dependency and less individual responsibility. Often these welfare programs, no matter how well intentioned, prove to rob individuals of the needed motivation to work as they lose the initiative for self-reliance, one of the foundational keys to pursuing happiness.

Leftists, on the other hand, dont trust individuals to make wise enough decisions and see the federal governments role as primary in determining what is in the best interests of its citizens. Therefore, regarding problems like poverty, leftists see only a need for greater federal involvement, which of course translates into greater spending as well as loss of freedom. For leftists, statism is the only solution.

Arringtons statement and quotation of Scripture voiced a legitimate concern over the abuse of a system that provides food stamps designed as a safety net, not a free-for-all. The Bible does indeed place a high value on looking out for the needs of others, but it also spends a great amount of text on rebuking laziness, as well as condemning theft and deceit. Due to the propensity of mankind to act selfishly, individuals are often motivated by these base evil desires and take advantage of the generosity of others, be it the government or other individuals.

Essentially, the Washington Post condemns without offering any genuinely honest or thoughtful commentary over the realistic concerns voiced by conservatives regarding both the appropriate role of government and the attendant budgetary concerns. Nor does the Post even attempt to accurately portray the various Biblical statements.

Its quite evident that the Post is content to misconstrue and grossly misinterpret Christian teaching in an effort to shame all Republicans for not supporting excessive government welfare programs.

At the Washington Post, it is truth, not democracy, that is dying in darkness.

Excerpt from:
Culture, Science & Faith Anatomy of a Smear Piece - Patriot Post

Maggie Pierce is not having a good week.

The Greys Anatomy doctor just lost her mother to breast cancer last episode in a heartbreaking hour. After finally learning abouther moms condition, Maggie (Kelly McCreary) set out in her usual type-A fashion to fix her from risky surgery to a cutting-edge clinical trial treatment. Sadly, nothing could save Maggies mom, and she passed away.

Maggie may not have been able to fix her mother, but she can fix somebody. So in this weeks episode, she takes on a big case even though her fellow doctors arent sure she should.

Perhaps theyre right, because in this exclusive clip, asMaggie and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) perform surgery, the patient starts to lose vitals.

Dr. Pierce, whats your move here? Arizona asks. Maggie remains still and silent. Is she freezing up? Is she unable to continue out of grief?

Greys Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC. Watch recent episodes of Greys Anatomy for free on Yahoo View.

Read more from Yahoo TV: Prison Break Recap: Michael Scofield is Resurrected, With a Twist Brockmire Preview: Star Hank Azaria Talks Creating One of TVs Funniest New Characters Spring TV Preview 2017: Get the Scoop on New and Returning Shows

Read the original post:
'Grey's Anatomy' Sneak Peek: Maggie Is Paralyzed [Video] - Yahoo - Yahoo TV (blog)

Have you ever wondered why it is that Street Fighter characters all seem to be based on the same basic build? You haven't? Oh. Well...off you go.

For the rest of you, it turns out that the classic Street Fighter look has nothing to do with a lack of creativity on the part of the designers, but rather a basic anatomy template that Capcom has been using for years.

As part of a Gamasutra article, Toshiyuki Kamei spoke about a guide Capcom uses which outlines the basic anatomy structure they adhere to for some of their characters. The guide was partially created by former Capcom artist Akira Yasuda and goes into pretty in-depth detail regarding the basic design and movement of certain Capcom charactermodels.

The guide seems to largely focus on Capcom fighting games - particularly Street Fighter - and Kamei admits that it hasn't really been formally updated over the years. That means that most of the technical design references it mentions actually relate to the sprite era of gaming graphics.

Even so, the guide is treated as the foundation of fighting game character design to this day. It's not hard to see why. The sketches within the book detail everything from shoulder muscle movement to the proper design of abdominals (Spoilers: the proper design is "ripped") and giveyou a good idea of what kind of detail character artists have to think in if they want to create semi-believable characters.

Actually, the outdated nature of the guide makes many of the sketches featured within it that much more impressive. At a time when technology barely allowed for anything more advanced than a pixel, artists were already imagining details and designs that wouldn't even be possible until decades later. The fact that any of this information is still relevant - much less valid - is pretty shocking.

The drawings are pretty stunning, and well worth looking over carefully if you've an interest in game design or comic book art: we love that Yasuda's even gone to the effort of showing cross-sections of the character's limbs.

Continue reading here:
Street Fighter: the anatomy guide Capcom uses for its games - Den of Geek UK

Ellen Pompeo may have made her directorial debut on Grey's Anatomy last week but it was Kelly McCreary's Maggie who took center stage in "Be Still, My Soul." The emotional hour focused on a desperate Maggie putting her mother Diane (LaTanya Richardson Jackson) on an aggressive experimental treatment in attempt to save her from inflammatory breast cancer and firing Meredith (Pompeo) as her mother's surgeon in the process. Unfortunately, Diane passed away after complications from the clinical trial. Grey's Anatomy Recap: Is Maggie Able to Save Her Mother?>>>

According to McCreary, who went through a range of emotions in the episode, she struggled with her character's tough situation. She also had to put herself in Maggie's shoes as she prepared for the inevitable tragedy.

"To prepare, I did a lot of reading about IBC and the treatments, just the way that Maggie goes through trying to find out about what other patients had experienced," she continued. "In other words, I did research in the same way that Maggie did as she was trying to figure out how to treat her mother."

Despite the devastating loss that will surely have an immense impact on Maggie's life moving forward, McCreary takes some comfort in knowing that Maggie was able to make peace with her mother before she died.

McCreary also believes that Maggie will stay true to her character even while suffering the loss of her mom. "That's who Maggie is at her core," McCreary says of Maggie's optimism. "I don't think that this is going to change that. But I do think she's going to take to heart all of that lovely advice that her mom gave her in her final moments, when she told Maggie to just live life more fully and give herself permission to be a little messy."

"Are we going to see Maggie go dark? I don't know what the future holds, but Maggie will grieve in the way that seems, from the outside, to be relatively healthy. The thing about grief is that we think of it in stages, or we've been told that it's stages, but those stages go in cycles. So when she gets to anger, or returns to anger or denial, maybe some dark stuff will come up then," she explained.

Obviously Maggie will have to lean on Meredith at this very difficult time and hopefully what they have or have gone through will be stronger than the outcome of the whole Nathan situation.

"Maggie's mom has died now. So, the question of whether Meredith should have told her becomes less about the fact that they are together and Maggie wants him. It's less about the fact that Meredith took something that Maggie wanted, and more about ... something else. ... It's not about Meredith taking the boy Maggie had a crush on. Maggie has experienced something that makes that sort of trivial at this point. I don't want to give too much away about that storyline, because it is one of the major questions left to be answered this season," she told TV Guide.

"I think that it will definitely bring her closer to Meredith -- and Amelia, too, with the loss of her father. Even though the circumstances are completely different, they share something that they didn't share before, and it'll bring a new level of understanding and closeness, I think, to those relationships," she added.

(Image courtesy of ABC)

Link:
'Grey's Anatomy' Star Kelly McCreary Discusses Filming Maggie's ... - BuddyTV (blog)

Youd be hard-pressed to find a show more inclusive of Greys Anatomy did you see those docs wearing hijabs last week? but it still comes up short in one regard.

There are no major male characters who are into other men.

Its time that changed, and we have 16 reasons why.

Greys Anatomy Season 13 airs on Thursdays at 8 p.m ET on ABC.

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None of the shows 13 seasons so far has featured a major gay male character, so this inclusion seems long overdue.

Characters like Callie, Arizona, Eliza, Penny, Erica, and Sadie have paved the way and countless Calzona shippers prove how well these same-sex storylines can work.

Just this season, for example, two male fiancs arrived at the hospital after a turkey fryer accident. (Culinary foolishness knows no sexual orientation, apparently.)

As Marketplace reports, the show has cashed in on the Netflix effect. That is to say, young viewers who were too young to be aware of Greys when it premiered in 2005 have discovered the shows past seasons on Netflix and have caught up to its live airings.

When a fan asked the Greys Anatomy creator Why all the gay and lesbian storylines? in 2012, she wrote a lengthy response.

I believe everyone should get to see themselves reflected on TV, she said.

As long as someone feels like it is okay to ask the question Why all the gay people on your shows, then there is still a huge problem that needs to be solved.

Gay and bisexual men play prominently in Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, and The Catch.

In her capstone project, American University student Annie Kanter quoted a 23-year-old Greys fan singing its praises:

With Greys Anatomy, when there were lesbians, it was always like, Oh my god, there are lesbians on this show! People were threatening to stop watching it.

Now it has totally passed that. Now it is more of This is the gay couple on the show and eventually it will hopefully move to This is just another couple.

Gay men have been conspicuous by their absence, at least among the doctors, wrote one viewer.

Oh sure, theyll often have a gay male patient, whose partner will be allowed to give him an affectionate peck now and again. But gay male doctors ripping their clothes off and jumping on each other in the medical supply room? Nary a sign.

Just look at the reaction from right-wing site Newsbusters to the lesbian teen romance in Greys Anatomys Season 12 premiere:

Apparently the episode was titled Sledgehammer to indicate that they are going to beat us over the head with the same liberal themes all season long, the site wrote.

In its most recent Network Responsibility Index, GLAAD gave ABC a good rating, especially because the network had the highest volume of LGBT-inclusive content that year. That said...

Former Greys star Sara Ramirez has called out two regressive moments on ABC this year a joke targeting bisexual individuals in The Real ONeals and the exclusion of overtly-bisexual figures in When We Rise.

Remember when Callies love interest Erica Hahn walked into the hospital parking lot in Season 5 and was never seen again? Thats because actress Brooke Smith had been fired amid reports ABC execs wanted to de-gay the show.

Speaking of Greys Anatomy scandals, Isaiah Washington lost his role as Preston Burke in 2007 after referring to co-star T.R. Knight as a ft, which in turn forced T.R. to publicly come out as gay.

Even a decade later, none of us have forgotten about that on-set homophobic slur, but a male-male romance would help make the painful chapter a distant memory.

According to GLAADs 2016 Where We Are on TV report, 4.8 percent of the series regular characters expected to appear on broadcast scripted primetime programming in the coming year were identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer.

However, that statistic is low when you consider that 7 percent of millennials identify as LGBT, according to a recent study.

Recurring guest star Moe Irvin, for example, has appeared in 29 episodes, more than some of the shows full-time cast members.

Why cant Nurse Tyler have a bigger role and a male beau? (After all, he is the one who came up with the nickname McSteamy even before Mark Sloan arrived.)

But for that matter...

Characters with fluid sexuality are all the rage on TV, so dont take a major characters romantic history as proof of their sexual orientation.

Any of the shows single male docs DeLuca, for example, or even Nathan could explore his placement on the Kinsey scale.

Youd be hard-pressed to find a show more inclusive of Greys Anatomy did you see those docs wearing hijabs last week? but it still comes up short in one regard.

There are no major male characters who are into other men.

Its time that changed, and we have 16 reasons why.

Greys Anatomy Season 13 airs on Thursdays at 8 p.m ET on ABC.

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View original post here:
16 Reasons Why 'Grey's Anatomy' Needs a Romance Between Two Men - Wetpaint

April 4, 2017 Highlight showing the sides of the tombs containing the bull/ram skulls, spheres/circles linked by cords and the shell (A). Note the similarity of the skull and horns to the uterus and fallopian tubes, respectively (B). The shell contained in image A clearly resembles the shell contained in Sandro Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" (1483), Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy (C). Image B of the uterus and adnexa from Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy with permission Philadelphia: Elsevier. Credit: Clinical Anatomy

Michelangelo often surreptitiously inserted pagan symbols into his works of art, many of them possibly associated with anatomical representations. A new analysis suggests that Michelangelo may have concealed symbols associated with female anatomy within his famous work in the Medici Chapel.

For example, the sides of tombs in the chapel depict bull/ram skulls and horns with similarity to the uterus and fallopian tubes, respectively.

Numerous studies have offered interpretations of the link between anatomical figures and hidden symbols in works of art not only by Michelangelo but also by other Renaissance artists.

"This study provides a previously unavailable interpretation of one of Michelangelo's major works, and will certainly interest those who are passionate about the history of anatomy," said Dr. Deivis de Campos, lead author of the Clinical Anatomy article. Another recent analysis by Dr. de Campos and his colleagues revealed similar hidden symbols in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.

Explore further: Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel may contain hidden symbols of female anatomy

More information: Deivis de Campos et al, Pagan symbols associated with the female anatomy in the Medici Chapel by Michelangelo Buonarroti, Clinical Anatomy (2017). DOI: 10.1002/ca.22882

Publications on the works of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel indicate that numerous codes and hidden messages may have been inserted for various purposes.

New research provides mathematical evidence that Michelangelo used the Golden Ratio of 1.6 when painting The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Golden Ratio is found when you divide a line into two ...

Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown has yet to write a book on the hidden pictures in Michelangelo's artwork, but maybe he can start working on a thriller that takes Robert Langdon on a journey through the Renaissance master's ...

Prolonged hammering and chiselling accelerated degenerative arthritis in the hands of Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter and one of the greatest artists of all time. But the intense work probably helped him keep the ...

Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel ceiling paintings in the Vatican have been brought to life with innovative light emitting diode (LED) lighting. The new installation, developed by the EU-funded LED4ART project, enables ...

Engineers and imagers from the University of Warwick's Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and anatomists from Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick are helping Art historians from the University of Cambridge ...

Approximately 13,500 years after nomadic Clovis hunters crossed the frozen land bridge from Asia to North America, researchers are still asking questions and putting together clues as to how they not only survived in a new ...

A study of the DNA in ancient skeletal remains adds to the evidence that indigenous groups living today in southern Alaska and the western coast of British Columbia are descendants of the first humans to make their home in ...

A cave in southern Oregon that is the site of some the oldest preserved evidence of human activity in North America was also once home to not-too-distant cousins of the common bed bug.

Reader preferences for liberal or conservative political books also attract them to different types of science books, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Chicago and Yale and Cornell universities. ...

Two monkeys grooming each other about 20-30 million years ago may have helped produce a remarkable new find - the first fossilized red blood cells from a mammal, preserved so perfectly in amber that they appear to have been ...

The Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE) team, based in Griffith's Environmental Futures Research Institute, together with Indonesian colleagues, have shed new light on 'Ice Age' human culture and symbolism ...

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Excerpt from:
Michelangelo's Medici Chapel may contain hidden symbols of ... - Phys.Org

Capcom reveals the 20-year-old guide it still uses today.

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 04/04/2017

Capcom has published scans of a 20-year-old guide it still uses today when creating Street Fighter characters.

That's Demitri Maximoff from Darkstalkers on the cover.

At GDC last month, Capcom's Toshiyuki Kamei delivered a talk on the art direction of Street Fighter 5. As part of it, he discussed Anatomy: A Strange Guide for Artists, a document created 20 years ago around the time Darkstalkers was being made.

This document was edited by legendary Capcom artist Akira "Akiman" Yasuda, who intended for it to help teach the company's artists the rules of exaggerated anatomical features to be followed when making cool-looking pixel art.

Now, Capcom has published scans of the guide on its website, and while the accompanying text is in Japanese, we still get a decent idea of what Anatomy: A Strange Guide for Artists is all about.

The cover shows Demitri from the Darkstalkers series, and inside we see figure drawings similar to the style of Andrew Loomis, the American illustrator, alongside notes.

"It explains shortcuts and rules about how we take musculature and a character's frame and make a sprite out of it," Kamei explained during his GDC talk.

"If you exaggerate this part of the musculature it looks cool, or if you make this part slimmer it can be more efficient in the visual language. There are a lot of different rules.

"Even though this is over 20 years old, having this information about what's important and not important is still used today."

Kamei revealed an example of how this guide was used in the creation of Street Fighter 5 characters.

"When you're looking at an arm from the front, the rule is the upper arm should be thinner than the lower arm," he explained. "But when looking at it from the side, that same arm should look narrow in the forearm and wider for the upper arm.

"By following this one rule you can convey a lot of information about how this character is extending their arm, whether they're doing a straight punch or an uppercut in a really short amount of time."

Capcom created a Street Fighter 5 prototype that used photo-realistic visuals and realistic proportions, but found it made the game harder to play, so it stuck with a more exaggerated style for the game.

It's really cool to see scans of Anatomy: A Strange Guide for Artists, and get a peek behind the curtain of how Capcom's fighting games are made. Credit to Akiman, then, for his early days work on establishing the rules that would help in the creation of fighting games for the next 20 years.

The rest is here:
The anatomy of a Street Fighter Eurogamer.net - Eurogamer.net

President Trump started off this morning as he often does, by settling in to watch the festival of nincompoopery that is Fox & Friends. On the show, he saw something that he believes vindicates the bizarre and false charge he made that Barack Obama was tapping his phones during the presidential campaign.

Ill try to sort through the substance of all this. But I also want to make a broader argument about how Trumps support system inside his government but especially in the conservative media and on Fox, which is where he apparently gets most of his intelligence information is playing to his worst instincts, harming him politically, and making his presidency even more dangerous.

Todays antics all started with a report on Fox & Friends in which correspondent Adam Housley reported that a high-ranking Obama administration official had requested the unmasking of the names of Trump officials who were caught up in surveillance of foreign targets. Ordinarily, when a U.S. person shows up in such surveillance say, talking to a Russian ambassador whose communications are being monitored that persons identity is blacked out in reports on the surveillance. While Housley did not identify the Obama administration official, he did say that Trump associates were being picked up by this surveillance for a year before Trump took office.

Then we get this report from Eli Lake, identifying former national security adviser Susan Rice as the Obama official who requested the unmasking. Id like to highlight this passage:

Rices requests to unmask the names of Trump transition officials does not vindicate Trumps own tweets from March 4 in which he accused Obama of illegally tapping Trump Tower. There remains no evidence to support that claim.

But Rices multiple requests to learn the identities of Trump officials discussed in intelligence reports during the transition period does highlight a longstanding concern for civil liberties advocates about U.S. surveillance programs. The standard for senior officials to learn the names of U.S. persons incidentally collected is that it must have some foreign intelligence value, a standard that can apply to almost anything. This suggests Rices unmasking requests were likely within the law.

Id say that if members of the Trump team were in communication with foreign actors who were under surveillance, that damn sure has foreign intelligence value, and its not too surprising that the national security adviser would want to know about it. Were talking about associates of a presidential candidate communicating with representatives of a foreign power.

Lets back up for a moment and go through the series of events here to get some context. Heres what has happened, with the caveat that some of the information is sketchy:

1. On March 4, President Trump sends out a series of tweets claiming that Barack Obama tapped his phones, apparently because of an article Trump saw on Breitbart. In subsequent days, the FBI director, the NSA director, the former director of national intelligence and everyone in any position to know make clear that not only didnt Obama tap Trumps phones, the president has no power to order phone-tapping.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer has been repeatedly defending President Trump's unproven claims that former president Barack Obama ordered a wiretap on him in 2016. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

2.Because Trump never backs down from even the most ridiculous lie, his employees and allies are now required defend his claim. So spokesperson Sean Spicer argues that because in a different tweet Trump put the words wire tapping in quotes, that means he was referring to a whole host of surveillance types and not his phones being tapped, despite the fact that he said President Obama was tapping my phones. Trump himself will later pick up this argument.

3.Two White House officials, Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Michael Ellis, locate intelligence reports that include Trump officials in communication with Russians under surveillance by American intelligence agencies. The White House says they came across those reports in the ordinary course of business and were not actually looking for something that would back up Trumps claim; you can decide how plausible you find that. In any case, they then call Rep. Devin Nunes, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, to the White House so he can view the information. Nunes then holds a news conference announcing the find and briefs Trump on what Trumps own staff has told him.

All of this was designed to allow Trump to say that he was right all along that he was being targeted by Obama, which of course he does.

4. Im skipping over some smaller developments and plenty of details. But today, we have the following series of events: Trump officials leak that Rice requested the unmasking of the identities of Trump associates who were in communication with foreigners under surveillance; those reporters publish their stories; then the president himself calls attention to them on his Twitter feed:

This particular PR maneuver is not unprecedented, but the point is this: Whats obviously of most importance to the president of the United States isnt the fact that his associates were in contact with people from Russia (or other countries) who were of sufficient interest to U.S. intelligence that they would be under surveillance, but whether or not each new detail that emerges does or does not support his idiotic tweets.

And this is why I argue that Fox and some of Trumps allies are only helping him hurt himself. Much of the time, having a supportive amen chorus has great political utility, because it helps buck up your base and disseminate the arguments youre making. But its one thing when those arguments are things like We should cut taxes or Obamacare is a disaster. Its something else when theyre trying desperately to claim that every stupid thing Trump ever said is actually true.

In this case, clinging to the idea that the Obama administration unfairly monitored the Trump campaign only encourages further investigation of what could turn out to be one of the biggest scandals in American political history. Nuness buffoonish efforts on Trumps behalf havent helped him at all. Quite the contrary, theyve made his committee utterly irrelevant and increased pressure on the Senate Intelligence Committee to conduct a thorough and objective review. Nunes has zero credibility, and so he can no longer be an asset to the White House.

But when Trump tunes in to Fox & Friends every morning, he learns that hes right about everything. He doesnt need to listen to his intelligence briefers or anyone else who might tell him something he doesnt want to hear. He can keep telling tall tales and pursuing his petty grievances. He never does anything wrong and never has to change. I shudder to think how that dynamic will play out when this administration faces its first foreign policy crisis, with untold numbers of lives at stake.

See original here:
Anatomy of a fake scandal, ginned up by right-wing media and Trump - Washington Post (blog)