kate

Each month, the GM Toolbox offers advice and insights on topics specifically for those brave souls who keep the action moving–the Gamemasters. This month, we begin the first in a series covering different play styles GMs can encounter in the field and how to handle them. This month we take a look at The Rules Lawyer, The Power Player, and The Thespian.

Players, like the characters they bring to the table, have their own personality quirks and idiosyncrasies. But believe it or not, they also have their own classes. While not as grand as The Spellfinger, The Murderbeard, or The Sneakypants, these secret (usually to them) classes are just as powerful when determining the actions their PCs will take and the shape of the campaigns you’ll run. When brought together at a table, their fel powers combine to form a multi-headed, headache inducing Hydra of Heartburn. That is at least, if you don’t know what you’re dealing with. Last month we talked about what to do when players do the unexpected. This month, we’re going to begin to explore the why. Each of the examples below are the extremes of their ilk and not all Players will be as terrifying as the horrors below. (Also, I still love you Players. After all, I’m one of you as well.)

The Rules Lawyer:
Frequency: Too Often
Terrain: Any (Most often their favorite game’s message boards)
No. Appearing: 1 Too Many
Special Attacks: Mind Palace of Obscure Rules
Special Defenses: Endless Reference Material

The Rules Lawyer is perhaps the most well-known and dreaded of all the foul denizens of the Playerverse, for they know all and will take extreme joy in sharing their knowledge with you and the rest of the party. During a game. Outside of a game. Via text message. At 4:30 in the morning. (Please send help.)

Rules Lawyers are usually the kind of people who go straight from beginner to expert in record time. They will spend hours pouring over the books, extracting every nugget of mechanical knowledge about the game they can. Most often they genuinely know the rules quite well. In fact, you can count on them knowing the rules at least as well as you, if not better. This would all be fine if they wouldn’t spend every possible opportunity contesting a ruling that doesn’t go their way. It’s a little known fact, but Rules Lawyers are the best pro-bono legal counsel in the world. They never lose a case (at least in their own mind.) If they’re decent humans, they’ll faithfully and accurately tell you what the rule is. If not, well…you should probably ban them from play until the can be above-board.

How to deal with them:

The dread Rules Lawyer has but one weakness: they aren’t running the game. A GM’s chief job is to help keep the game fun for everyone at the table, and its the GM who ultimately referees the game. Don’t be afraid to overrule or even ignore a Rules Lawyer if their insistence on a particular interpretation of the rules threatens to derail the game. If they have a problem with that, then maybe they need to take a break, or maybe your game isn’t for them. On a bright note, the power of the Rules Lawyer can be used to benefit everyone. When rules conflicts emerge, ask the Rules Lawyer to pitch in and be a point of reference. Most of the time they takes to this duty with gusto and it can go a long way to integrating a fearsome but lovable Rules Lawyer into the party.

The Power Player:
Frequency: Every. Damned. Time.
Terrain: Among the Scattered Remains of Their Enemies
No. Appearing: THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!
Special Attacks: Absurd Damage Rolls
Special Defenses: Absurd Damage Rolls

The Power Player is the best they are at what they do. These avatars of carnage seek the power of the gods and let nothing stand in their way. They may not know all the rules, but they know how to optimize their damage with a Gurgleburgle’s Ceremonial Decapitator.

Power Players (also known as Munchkins…yes like the game) are easy to spot. They will gladly tell people how awesome their character (and they) are. They may not always be Murderbeards, but they will be ridiculously good at being strong/pretty/magicky/fast/skillful or anything else they can take to 11. They can sometimes be competitive with other players and may get upset if they’re character doesn’t get the magic Wookydoodle of Slaying that another Player happened to find.

How to deal with them:

Power Players can unbalance things for a GM if left to their own devices. GMs will need to plan with the strengths of the Power Player’s character in mind–either by compensating for them or by making encounters that other members of the party will be instrumental in defeating. The Murderbeard’s Death Tomato is of little use when an encounter requires magic, stealth, or diplomacy, for example. Good-natured Power Players (or benevolent paragons in their own minds) might also be encouraged to help other members of the party optimize their characters to increase overall Party Badassery. Most Power Players love a challenge to test their character’s awesome power. Don’t be afraid to give it to them (and hopefully the rest of the party survives).

The Thespian:
Frequency: The Perfect Scene
Terrain: The Center of Attention
No. Appearing: What do you MEAN there are others!?
Special Attacks: Overly Dramatic Monologue
Special Defenses: Impassioned Acting

A lesser-known, but no less dangerous creature of the great dark beyond the GM Screen is the Thespian. Capable of accurately portraying literally everyone, the Thespian glories in acting out their adventures. The rest of the party? Eh, whatever. The Thespian helps keep the game moving…as long as moving means revolving around themselves.

There are role players and then there are character actors who happen to be at a table rolling dice with the rest of the party. Thespians crave attention and want to be at the center of the action every time. They often mistake their need to constantly drive the action as enthusiastic role-playing. Thespians are often the least introverted of people at the table. They make wonderful GMs if they can spare the time away from their pet character or NPC.

How to deal with them:

One way to deal with Thespians is to interrupt their monologues. No self-respecting Killmonster is going to let Sir Shinypants word it to death. You can also use this technique to move on to the other beleaguered party members so they can have a chance to act (literally and figuratively). In groups where there’s a greater emphasis on role-playing the Thespian can actually fit in quite well (chances are you’ve got multiple Thespians) and it can even be fun at times to let them improv. If you have a more tactical boardgame style campaign, chances are the focus on combat mechanics will bore Thespians, which could cause them to leave the game, to the sadness (or relief) of everyone else. A great way to keep a Thespian engaged in a game is to occasionally let them do their thing. They’ll feel important and it’ll help keep them satiated until “drama fever” overtakes them again.

All Players have a style of play uniquely their own, and just like in many games, most Players multi-class into multiple play styles. Hopefully the extreme examples we’ve talked about here can help you and your Players get the most the game and each other. Next month, we’ll have a look at The Silent One, The Alpha, and The Storyteller.

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First impressions are great but what about our thoughts after we’ve watched an entire series week to week? We figured our listeners might want to hear our final impressions as well so we’ve created the Case Closed Review podcast. Just like the S.W.A.T. Reviews, these will be mini-podcasts and completely off the cuff.

Here are the shows we finished which ended this winter:

Listen – Final impressions of GARO the Animation from MAPPA. It is streaming on Hulu and Funimation.

Listen – Final impressions of Death Parade from MADHOUSE. It is streaming on Hulu and Funimation.

Listen – Final impressions of Yurikuma Arashi from Silver Link. It is streaming on Hulu and Funimation.

Listen – Final impressions of SHIROBAKO from P.A. Works. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Final impressions of Yowamushi Pedal: Grande Road from TMS/8PAN. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Final impressions of Your Lie in April from A-1 Pictures. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Final impressions of Durarara!!x2 Shou from Shuka. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Final impressions of Aldnoah.Zero S2 from A-1 Pictures. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Final impressions of Gundam Build Fighters Try from Sunrise. It is streaming on Gundam.info.

Listen – Final impressions of Gundam Reconguista in G from Sunrise. It is streaming on Gundam.info.

Listen – Final impressions of Magic Kaito 1412 from A-1 Pictures. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Final impressions of Rolling Girls from Wit Studio. It is streaming on Hulu and Funimation.

cosmicotton:

evilseedlet:

LOOK?? WHAT MY BOYFRIEND GOT ME?? FOR MY BIRTHDAY???????????

AN UTENA/ROSE QUARTZ CAKE?!!!??? AR EYOU KIDDING ME??????

BLESS THIS MAN

If you have any suggestions for what to highlight on an APB drop us a line via email or Twitter.

 Alain’s picks:

• Death of the Sun
  While there were a good deal of people predicting the death of Anime Sols it is still rather sad that in closing up shop.
  
• Rock the Planet
  It is amazing to see what a cultural icon Lum still is in Japan. Tetsuro, Maetel, and Astro are hardly chump change as well.
• Sister Sledge Approved
  I know that Ben McGraw keeps telling me to watch Steven Universe.
• Mahou Tsukai Sayla no Uta
  The Cockpit podcast talks about the first episode of Gundam: The Origin.
• Delicious Smelling Art
  There is a free of Yurikuma Arashi exhibition of artwork and production materials at Nakano Broadway until the 21st. I assume Kunihiko Ikuhara’s commentary on the material is as ambiguous as usual.
• Welcome to The Jersey Devil Triangle
  I admit it. I just assume all of New Jersey is how it is pictured in Nothing but Trouble.

  Kate’s picks

• Goin’ Back in Time!
  Just a couple days left on the Back to the Future documentary Kickstarter!
• From Santa Company to Coluboccoro
  Kenji Studio’s has a new Kickstarter this time focusing on a plant creature. It is already very close to being funded with tons of time to spare.
• New City and Taking Corporate Expansion to the Extreme
  A sci-fi project which combines story and CG animation to imagine these corporate landscapes.
• A Very Strong Bad April Fool’s
  He may hate the holiday like so many of us, but I’m at least grateful it brought us a new video!
• A Social Network That Might Actually Do You Good
  A project currently in beta for doling out advice and helping people with everyday anxiety.

I, I, You & Ai:

There's a small war waging between churro vendors in New York subway stations and the police: Ana Alvarado — who sells the Spanish-style doughnuts daily in places like Times Square, Grand Central, and 59th Street in Manhattan — has faced seven arrests over two years, and says she lives "running and hiding from the police."

The practice is illegal on a few levels: It's against the law to act as a food vendor without a Health Department license, and New York also forbids commercial activity in subway stations without MTA authorization. After getting arrested, Alvarado has had to watch police confiscate and eat her churros right in front of her — rude! — and she was once held in a cell overnight. The risk is worth it because the profit margin is so high: Alvarado can purchase 200 churros in bulk for $46, and then make close to a $100 profit per day — helping her feed herself and her children.

But here's the good news: The Manhattan borough president Gale Brewer is working toward a solution, and is pushing the MTA to selectively allow vendors, since "there is clearly a market for mobile concessions in subways stations." Hopefully, it won't take too long until vendors and hungry commuters can do churro-related business in peace.

[DNAinfo]

Read more posts by Sierra Tishgart

Filed Under: the law, churros, drama, food vendors, government, mta, new york, subway stations

It's not easy to cover up the circumstances around the violent death of a research subject in a botched university drug study. It's even harder when the mutilated corpse of the subject is discovered in a blood-soaked bathroom in the middle of the night, the head almost completely severed from the body. Yet my employer, the University of Minnesota, managed to do just that for nearly eleven years, until two weeks ago, when the state's Legislative Auditor delivered the results of an eight-month investigation into the case. The Auditor's blistering report included evidence of coercion, conflicts of interest, a deeply flawed research oversight system and a series of false and misleading statements by university officials designed to prevent external scrutiny.

This story began in 2003, when Dr. Stephen Olson, a psychiatrist at the University of Minnesota used the threat of involuntary commitment to coerce a psychotic young man named Dan Markingson into the so-called "CAFÉ" study: an AstraZeneca-funded trial of antipsychotic drugs aimed at patients experiencing their first psychotic episode. His mother, Mary Weiss, objected to her son's enrollment and tried desperately for months to get Dan out of the study, warning Olson and his co-investigator, Charles Schulz, that her son's condition was deteriorating and that he was in danger of committing suicide. Her warnings were consistently ignored. On May 8, 2004, five months into the CAFÉ study, Dan died after trying to decapitate himself with a box-cutter.

The university managed to keep Dan's violent death out of the public eye until 2008, when the scandal was reported by Paul Tosto and Jeremy Olson in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. When that report was ignored by university officials, I wrote about the case for Mother Jones. The study sponsor, AstraZeneca was in the process of settling a half-billion dollar federal fraud investigation, in which unsealed documents suggested that AstraZeneca was rigging, spinning and burying studies in order to market their antipsychotic drug, Seroquel. Some of those studies appeared to lead to the University of Minnesota. Specifically, they led to Charles Schulz, the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and a well-compensated AstraZeneca consultant.

Read Carl's previous story: The Deadly Corruption of Clinical Trials

"Thus far, we have buried trials 15, 31, 56 and are considering COSTAR," an AstraZeneca official wrote in 1999. "The larger issue is how do we face the outside world when they begin to criticize us for suppressing data."  As it turned out, the outside world would be brutally critical. In Mother Jones, I wrote about the role Schulz played in the self-described "smoke and mirrors job" that AstraZeneca performed on Study 15, a notorious trial that cast serious doubt on the efficacy of Seroquel and linked it to weight gain and diabetes. A year later, Andy Mannix of City Pages did the same with Schulz and the burial of Study 41, which showed an extended-release version of Seroquel to be no better than placebo.

The AstraZeneca study in which Dan Markingson died appeared to be little better. Psychiatric experts I spoke to called it a "non-study" with "very little value."  It appeared to be designed not to produce scientifically valid results, but rather to generate a positive marketing message for AstraZeneca. "It looks like an entirely marketing-driven exercise," one expert said. This revelation raised a profoundly disturbing ethical question. As I wrote in 2010:

But what if a research study is not really aimed at producing genuine scientific knowledge at all? The documents emerging in litigation suggest that pharmaceutical companies are designing, analyzing, and publishing trials primarily as a way of positioning their drugs in the marketplace. This raises a question unconsidered in any current code of research ethics. How much risk to human subjects is justified in a study whose principal aim is to "generate commercially attractive messages"?

In the years since my article in Mother Jones appeared, University of Minnesota officials have consistently refused to look into the case or even discuss it. Instead, they have defended themselves by claiming that the case had been reviewed by a long list of internal and external bodies, all of which had exonerated the university. While this defense worked for years, it was almost completely untrue. According to the Legislative Auditor's report, university officials "dismissed the need for further consideration for the Markingson case by making misleading statements about past reviews."  The report noted that this "insular and inaccurate response has seriously harmed the University of Minnesota's credibility and reputation."

In fact, the university's credibility and reputation were already reeling. In February, an external review requested by the Faculty Senate blasted the university's research protection system, writing that its failures and deficiencies raise "profound questions" about its ability to review studies adequately. The review described a "culture of fear" in the Department of Psychiatry, where panelists heard "stories of intimidation by researchers and fear of retaliation should staff voice opposition to practices that were of concern."  So damning was the external review that the consumer rights group Public Citizen immediately called for a federal investigation.

If anyone in the university administration has been chastened, they have not spoken up. At first President Eric Kaler tried to minimize the fallout, saying that was "particularly gratified -- but not surprised" that the university's hand-picked review panel had found "no legal or compliance violations." That did not play well. So three weeks later, when the Legislative Auditor presented him with hard evidence of deliberate wrongdoing, Kaler responded by disputing the report, issuing a series of half-hearted apologies to Dan's mother, Mary Weiss, and finally, with a straight face, claiming that no previous review had alerted the university to ethical breaches in the case. 

In fact, to be unaware of these ethical breaches would have meant spending the past four years in a sound-proof bunker. The Markingson case has generated international condemnation. Hundreds of academic experts have called publicly for an investigation, including the editor of The Lancet and three former editors of The New England Journal of Medicine. The controversy has been reported by journals ranging from Science to the Medical Journal of Australia. A former governor of Minnesota, Arne Carlson, has become deeply involved in the case and met with Kaler personally to express his concern. Only a year ago, to mark the tenth anniversary of Dan Markingson's death, activists interrupted a meeting of the Board of Regents to present Kaler with funeral flowers. University of Minnesota bioethicist Leigh Turner proceeded to lambaste the Board for its willful blindness. And now, four years into his administration, Kaler is shocked, shocked to discover that research misconduct is taking place.

Kaler and his management team have proposed a series of uncontroversial "initiatives" and "action plans" designed to deflect criticism. Last week, the Regents unanimously approved these plans at a public meeting that combined the best elements of a Soviet propaganda display and an amateur puppet show. One after one, the Regents affirmed their trust in President Kaler as a "president of great integrity" and their patriotic belief that medical research saves lives. If any of the Regents appreciated the gravity of the situation, they disguised it well. Faced with an eleven year cover-up, a mutilated corpse and a mother whose life has been utterly destroyed, Regent Linda Cohen responded by saying, "I am really proud of this university."

The university's only substantive concession has been to suspend new enrollment in psychiatric drug studies until the university can hire an "independent," for-profit Institutional Review Board to review them. President Kaler has taken no action against the two psychiatrists most responsible for the debacle, Dr. Stephen Olson and his department chair, Dr. Charles Schulz. Nor has he done anything to make amends for the mistreatment of a second mentally ill subject whose experience at the hands of university psychiatrists was alarmingly similar to that of Dan Markingson. The university completed an internal investigation of that case nearly six months ago, but it is still refusing to make that investigation public. 

Amid all the frenzy that has come with the Legislative Auditor's report, a striking omission has gone largely unnoticed. The Legislative Auditor did not actually answer the question that he was asked. He was asked to investigate how many research subjects had died or been seriously injured in psychiatric research studies at the University of Minnesota, and what the circumstances were that led to those deaths and injuries. But the report he returned dealt only with a single case: that of Dan Markingson. The report did not explain why this larger question was left unanswered.

Of course, university leaders would like for everyone to forget the question was ever asked. They claim to be cleaning up the mess described in the report while pretending not to notice that their cover-up was the object of the report's most scathing criticism. Yet without knowing how many deaths, injuries and coerced enrollments there have been, it will be impossible to move forward–not least because it will be impossible to know how far the cover-up extends.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the drought in California, especially since this past week, when Gov. Jerry Brown introduced mandatory water cuts for the first time in the state's history. So what exactly makes this drought so bad? And what are people doing about it? Here are a few important points to keep in mind:

Drought is the norm in California. How bad is this one? There are always wet years and dry years, but the past three years have been among the driest on record—and state officials worry that 2015 will be even drier. Last week, for the first time in the state's history, Brown imposed mandatory water restrictions, requiring all cities and towns to cut their water usage by 25 percent. Though agriculture uses more than 80 percent of the state's water, the regulations merely require farmers to submit "water management plans."

California's reservoirs have about a year's worth of water left. Groundwater levels, seen as a "savings account" that the state can draw from in dry times, are at an all-time low. The US Drought Monitor comes out with weekly drought maps based on satellite imagery, precipitation, and water flow data; the Central Valley—America's bread basket—is covered in dark red, "exceptional drought."

What exactly is groundwater, and why are people in California freaking out about it? Groundwater is the water that seeps through the ground when it rains. Over the centuries, it accumulates in vast underground aquifers, with older water found deeper in the earth's crust. Accessed through wells, groundwater is often compared to a savings account in California—good to have in dry times but difficult to refill. The issue now is that with reservoirs (above ground) so depleted, groundwater use is spiking. Farmers are drilling deeper and deeper for water—using water that fell 20,000 years ago. Usually, groundwater makes up about 40 percent of the state's freshwater usage, but with the recent drought, that number has leapt to 65 percent. This year, it may rise to 75 percent.

What are the state's biggest water users? Farming in general, and alfalfa (used to feed cows) and almonds in particular. California grows half of the fruits and veggies produced in the States, including more than 90 percent of the country's grapes, broccoli, almonds, and walnuts. Here are some of the state's most thirsty crops:

Alfalfa is a superfood of sorts for cows, and it's in high demand in the Golden State, which leads the country in dairy production and is also a major beef producer. (Fun fact: It takes nearly 700 gallons of water to grow the alfalfa necessary to produce one gallon of milk, and 425 gallons of water to produce 4 ounces of beef.) Almonds are second from the top, both because it takes a lot of water to produce nuts (a single almond takes a gallon of water) but also because the crunchy snack is in vogue in the United States and abroad. The water that's used to grow the California almonds that are exported overseas in one year would be enough to fuel Los Angeles for nearly three years.

What about fracking? Fracking uses a lot of water, since the process involves injecting water and chemicals into the earth to release oil and gas. According to a recent Reuters article, California oil producers used about 70 million gallons of water in 2014—about the amount that San Francisco homes use collectively in two days. But that's just the water from fracking. The amount of water that was produced by California's oil and gas production in 2014—which is to say, the groundwater that bubbled up during production and wasn't returned to the original aquifers—was about 42 billion gallons. That's enough to fuel San Francisco homes for 3 years.

Will we get back the water we lose? Your elementary school teachers didn't lie to you—the water cycle is really a thing. But as Peter Gleick, the president of the Pacific Institute, explained, the water that California is losing "is still falling—it's just falling somewhere else." It's impossible to know exactly where the water that would normally fall in California is going, but there are plenty of places, especially in the North and Northeast, that have been having abnormally wet years. Scientists are also concerned that climate change is both increasing the likelihood of drought and accelerating its effects: As the earth warms, water evaporates more easily from reservoirs, rivers, and soil.

California is on the coast. Can't we desalinize the ocean? Because desalinization technology is so expensive and energy-intensive, most water officials—and taxpayers—don't see it as a viable option. The latest attempt is the Carlsbad desalinization plant, just outside of San Diego, which will be complete in 2016. The project will cost taxpayers $1 billion and produce 50 million gallons of water per day—the largest desalinization plant in the Western Hemisphere—and it will provide just 7 percent of the county's total water needs.

Well, this is depressing. What are viable solutions? There's no silver bullet, but the good news is that there are some good solutions. This chart, part of a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pacific Institute, sums up some of the options. California could reduce its water use by 17 to 22 percent with more efficient agricultural water use, including fixes like scheduling irrigation when plants need it and expanding drip and sprinkler irrigation. Urban water use could be reduced by 40 to 60 percent if residents replaced lawns with drought-tolerant plants, fixed water leaks, and replaced old toilets and showerheads with more water-efficient technology. And instead of channeling used water into the ocean, the state could treat it and reuse it—a practice that tends to gross some people out (because of the "drinking pee" factor) but has long been used in Orange County and is becoming more popular as the drought continues.

This article has been updated.

For years, Washington politicians and policymakers been talking about cutting Social Security benefits. The Beltway consensus, unduly shaped by deficit hawks and Wall Streeters, has been that the system is broken and must be pared back, and progressives who support Social Security have often had to play defense.

Continue Reading »

Fire up your Lyft app! Refill that metro card. MoCCA Festival takes place next weekend, April 11-12, but leading uyp to it is a very full week of lectures, panels, film screenings and workshops, culminating at the MoCCA Fest itself. I’ll actually be moderating Friday’s panel at Word BRooklyn on Euro comics, so please com eby and see these great cartoonists talking. Here’s the lineup:

 

THURSDAY APRIL 9 

Left to right: Louis Krubich, Jason Aron, Lee Leshen.

By: Nick Eskey

“Back to the Future” has been marked in movie history as one of the greatest. Try to look at a DeLorean and not wonder if there’s a flux capacitor in the back, or whether something weird happens when it hits 88mph. Still to this day, shows and other film make tribute references to the movie.

This year will mark the 30th anniversary of the film, just in time for a documentary on it. It is being made and produced by Louis Krubich, Jason Aron, and Lee Leshen.

The three didn’t set out to do a documentary because of the anniversary though. Jason admits the idea came to him from a Bar Mitzvah. “[The client] wanted the video to be that he was going back in time to see his dad, and his dad’s dad,” said Jason. “We rented a DeLorean for it. There was no flux capacitor or anything, but it was still very cool…”

The car got his brain going, thinking that a documentary on Back to the Future would be awesome. But he kept his hopes low, thinking that after all this time someone must have had done one already, breaking to bits his awesome idea. “I looked all over the internet, and surprisingly there wasn’t one.”

During his internet searches for some sort of documentary, Jason came across a few very comprehensive websites. One of which was 88mphtimemachine.com, a father and son who lived and ran the site from Massachusetts, displaying their collection of Back to the Future cars, including Marty McFly’s actual pickup truck, and a DeLorean holding the record for the most paid for ($540,000). Jason and Louis contacted the two men to interview them. They accepted, and Jason and Louis soon had enough material for their Kickstarter.

While the campaign was active, Louis said he was contacted by someone going by Adam Goldberg, who was interested in co-producing the documentary.

“He said that he had a pilot called ‘The Goldbergs’ that was getting picked up,” said Louis. “And in my head I was like ‘Yeah, and I’ve had eleven of those myself… I thought it was just one of those Kickstarter hoaxes I’d heard about.”

But he was the real deal, and Adam Goldberg joined the project. By the end of the Kickstarter campaign’s first 60 day run, it had funded $45,000, beginning the documentaries two year production. It was after the Kickstarter ended though that Lee saw the page. He contacted Jason and Louis, saying he really wanted to help with the project.
From there, the team went across the country. Fans volunteered their time for the documentary, and eventually cast and crew followed, giving the filmmakers what they felt was some legitimacy.

First they traveled to Las Vegas for a DeLorean show, then heading to Los Angeles where they shot a couple of the cast on the set of “The Goldbergs” on the the Sony lot. From there, they went to Santa Monica, London, back to Hubbardston, Massachusetts, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, New York City, Las Angeles again, Lake Placid, New York City again, and finally again in Los Angeles. Some of the cast and crew they interviewed along the way were Lea Thompson, James Tolkan, Alan Silvestri, Bob Gale, and Michael J. Fox.

When it came time to begin editing the footage, the team realized the $45,000 was about all spent. “So we had to have a second Kickstarter,” said Jason. “But we wanted to show everyone what we had… I was looking to score the video, and Adam Goldberg said he knew someone who he’d used a number of times… He insisted I used him. Well, we really couldn’t afford him. But the money went to the scoring and editing the video for the second Kickstarter.”

This time, the documentary was shooting for $150,000. Lee explained that they needed to finish, edit, create an original score, at sound, and wanted the film to be in six languages. At the time of this writing, it has raised $129,000 of it. There’s in fact still more time to pledge to it.

The team promises that the film will be done in time for the 30th anniversary. When it does come out, you can bet that it’s going to be a wealth of Back to the Future nostalgia and fandom. If you wish to check out the project, and perhaps help it out, their website is backintimefilm.com.

A couple weeks ago we posted about the return of Kenji Itoso's Coluboccoro anime, with a trailer teasing an imminent Kickstarter campaign. Well, the crowd-funding efforts have since gone live, and Coluboccoro has done very well for itself in its opening days. 

The campaign hopes to raise $38,000 to "do the English translation, subtitling, and put the film on DVD/Blu-ray." Stretch goals include added scenes for a 30 minute run time at $100,000.

Here's the official Kickstarter video: 

Kenji Itoso goes into his background a bit:

Hello Everyone, Kenji Itoso here. Thank you very much for taking a look at my new project. Before we get to that though, I would like to introduce myself to you. Throughout my career, I have produced and directed live action films, music videos and commercials, but the heart and soul of my work is with animation. I am also a university professor, where I teach and do research on film and video techniques. I learned the art of animated film direction studying under Hayao Miyazaki of STUDIO GHIBLI and Satoshi Kon of MADHOUSE. From that experience I had hoped to one day bring to life an animated film with my own vision for the world. Not stopping there, I wanted to rethink the whole process of animated film production, so I started jumped in feet first to create my one man original work, COLUBOCCORO.

And explains why he chose Kickstarter:

The big reason I chose Kickstarter as the outlet for this film was for the great reception and support that I received from everyone abroad on my previous project here on Kickstarter, Santa Company. Santa Company was my first Kickstarter, so of course there was a lot I was not used to, and not being that good at English, I’m sure people had their doubts about the project, but it turned out great and am so thankful for everyone who helped make it happen.

Coluboccoro is already at over $30,000 with 26 days to go, so it just might hit some of its stretch goals at this rate. We'll find out how well it ends up doing when it comes to a close on April 30. 

-------

Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. His first mini-comic, SLIME, is now available. His blog can be found at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter @Moldilox.

According to Baltimore Sun reporter Aaron Wilson, the NFL has hired its first female official, Sarah Thomas. And even though she’s a groundbreaker on the field, Thomas doesn’t see herself in the minority: “Being raised with brothers I’m just one of the guys, I guess,” she said. “…I look at myself as an official. With their respect and the respect that I have for them, it just doesn’t feel like it’s a male dominated profession.” 

Thomas has made milestones at a steady pace throughout her career: In 2007, she became the first woman to officiate an NCAA football game, and in 2009, she was the first woman to officiate a college football bowl game. 

She joins a group of female pioneers in male-dominated sports, like Becky Hammon, the NBA’s first full-time female coach, and Mo’ne Davis, the first girl to pitch a shutout in the Little League World Series.

And as much as Thomas would rather not be recognized for her gender, it’s an important step forward for the NFL, which risked alienating its female fans after its lenient domestic violence policy became all-too-clear last year. Thomas’ appointment could open the door for more female leadership in the League, eventually proving that America’s richest sports empire is indeed interested in hearing female voices.

Update: On April 8, the NFL confirmed that Sarah Thomas is the League's first full-time female official in its 95-year history. 

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Yesterday, anyone set on eating a bacon Croissan'wich from a Burger King in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, had to first get past a large pig protester. Staffers showed up per usual at 5 a.m., only to discover the black pot-bellied animal had moseyed over from a nearby farm and was "just sitting behind our door." Naturally, people retreated inside, and it sounds like the pig saw this as an invitation to rule over the entire parking lot, leaving a warning trail of smudges on the door, and then blocking cars from entering the drive-through. Neighbors came by just to watch, and one brave customer who tried reasoning with the animal met its snout. "The pig just kind of walked up to her and bit her right on the foot," an employee explained.

The woman was fine, and police eventually reunited the animal with its owners, but not before one worker tried feeding it bacon. Thankfully, the manager intervened before the poor creature unwittingly ate its own kind.

[WTAE]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: here piggy piggy, burger king, news, pennsylvania, runaway pig, the chain gang

Seeing as how 17 years passed between the final TV episode of Sailor Moon and its reboot, Sailor Moon Crystal, it’s no surprise that the latter makes far more use of digital animation production. But while the newer anime’s designs have sharper line work, some traditionalists still prefer the old school look of the original series.

However, if you’d rather have your Sailor Senshi not just rough around the edges, but downright rectangular, merchandiser Bandai is ready to fill that need with this line of Sailor Moon merchandise done in the style of eight-bit pixel art.

Even though it’s officially dubbed the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal Dot Bit Series, that doesn’t mean Sailor Moon and her pals are depicted with the willowy proportions the characters have in Crystal. Instead, they’re rendered in the sort of low-res mosaic evocative of video gaming’s pre-polygon period.

While we’ve looked at 2-D Sailor Moon video game artwork before, the series’ original TV run straddled the 16 and 32-bit eras, when smoother lined pixel art was giving way to three-dimensional models. But had Naoko Takeuchi got the ball rolling on her magical girl saga a few years earlier, when eight-bit consoles likes the Famicom/NES were still in their heyday, the licensed games’ graphics might have looked a little something like what we see here.

Each of the Inner Senshi are represented in the line, as are Tuxedo Mask, Chibi Moon, and cat mentors Luna and Artemis. Sailor V, alter-ego of Sailor Venus, also shows up, perhaps as a nod to the in-series Sailor V video game that main character Usagi likes to play to blow off steam.

▼ Tote bag (2,700 yen [US$23]), front and back

▼ Smaller “lunch tote bag” (2,1600 yen), sized to carry your bento lunch box in

▼ Laminated zip-up pouch (1296 yen)

▼ Three-piece drawstring pouch set (3,456 yen)

▼ Cushion (3,456 yen)

▼ Scrunchie (1,080 yen)

▼ Mirror (1,080 yen)

▼ And finally, a whole bunch of rubber charms, priced at 756 yen each

The entire lineup is available directly from Bandai, here and here, through the company’s Premium Bandai website. All of the items are scheduled to ship in May.

Source: Premium Bandai (1, 2)
Top image: Premium Bandai
Insert images: Premium Bandai (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

Origin: New Sailor Moon merch goes old school as the magical girls turn into eight-bit pixel art
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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The team hopes to rebuild somewhere new.

The owners of beloved fry haven Pommes Frites, which was destroyed in last week's terrible East Village explosion and fire, have said they hope to return one day soon with their fries and many sauces. To that end, they've just announced on their site and Facebook page that they are currently accepting donations to help them reopen:

Asking for help is not easy for us. We have been inundated with requests as to how we can get our doors open once again. Our steadfast staff, some of who experienced the explosion, want to get back to work. Your contributions will be used to help us to rebuild and find a new home for Pommes Frites. cash.me/$pommesfrites

This is not a Kickstarter, so there's no set goal, and the donation site doesn't allow contributors to see how much has been given, but the Facebook update has been shared 50 times already. And given that the shop trended on Twitter in the hours following the explosion, it should find plenty of supporters of its effort to secure a new home.

GameStop.com had a bit of trouble today as people scrambled to pre-order the latest batch of Nintendo’s amiibo figures announced at Nintendo Direct yesterday. Now the pre-ordering option is off the table, according to GameStop, who issued a brief statement on its Facebook page. Nintendo is basically saying "it's not our problem" in this particular situation (and rightfully so, because it really has nothing to do with them).

You can read GameStop's statement below:

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Rob Morris started his PhD in media arts and sciences at MIT without having taken a single computer science class—"which, in retrospect, was really one of the dumbest things I've ever done," he says. Scrambling to keep up with classmates who had far more coding experience, he found himself spending a lot of time on Stack Overflow, an online forum where programmers help each other write and debug code. He got better, but he couldn't stop stressing out about what he saw as his inferior skills. Then he had an idea: "Just as we can get a crowd of people to help us find and fix bugs in our code, perhaps we can get people to help us fix bugs in our thinking."

That insight led Morris to develop Panoply, an online tool that crowdsources treatment for depression and anxiety, which he's now turning into a consumer app. (Currently the app, which is called Koko, is invite-only; prospective users can sign up here.) People with depression and anxiety often have irrational thought patterns that cause them to perceive normal situations in a distorted, often negative way. To break those thought patterns, Panoply relies on a technique that psychologists call cognitive reappraisal.

When a user is upset—say she's lost her job and she doesn't feel like she'll ever find another one, or her roommate walked past without saying hi and she thinks he's angry at her—she posts a description of the situation as she perceives it. Then other users point out specific ways in which she might be falling into distorted patterns of thinking and try to help her reframe the situation. Maybe the right job just hasn't come along yet; maybe the roommate had a bad day at work and just doesn't feel like talking.

A study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Internet Research this week suggests that Panoply's engagement tactics—and its overall approach to improving mental health—are effective. Of 166 study participants who had previously exhibited symptoms of depression, those who spent three weeks using Panoply for at least 25 minutes a week ended up significantly less depressed and better at cognitive reappraisal than those who spent three weeks doing an expressive writing exercise, a typical treatment for depression.

Morris teamed up with Stephen Schueller, a clinical psychologist from Northwestern University, to design Panoply. But he has his own background in psychology: He majored in it as an undergraduate at Princeton, and he briefly worked in a clinic after college. He says he came to MIT knowing that he wanted to use technology to educate people about psychological health, especially people who wouldn't or couldn't seek traditional therapy.

A screenshot of Panoply. (Click to enlarge) Courtesy of MIT

Panoply wasn't Morris' first approach. "Being at the MIT Media Lab, you're surrounded by so many crazy futuristic toys," he says. "There's a group next to mine that just has all these robots walking around and interacting with people. Of course I thought, I can steal one of those robots and create a robot therapist that follows you around." He settled on creating a social network instead when he realized that copying the addictive qualities of Facebook and Twitter could solve a problem with existing mental health apps: There's nothing to keep users coming back day after day. "They feel a bit like homework," he says.

Like other social networks, Panoply pings users every time someone comments on one of their posts. Morris hopes the community-building aspect of the site will keep people engaged. "It's a really powerful feeling to spend a few minutes thinking really hard about how to write two to three sentences to help someone and then finding out that you made someone feel better," he says.

Still, Morris says he plans to roll out the mobile app slowly, in part so that he can ensure it won't be plagued by trolls. He already has some safeguards in place. Every time someone posts a response, Mechanical Turk workers get paid a penny each to determine whether it passes certain criteria before it goes live. In addition, algorithms search the text of each post and quarantine those that feature potentially offensive words or phrases.

Even though the study of Panoply focused on depression symptoms, Morris says he doesn't want to pigeonhole his app as "a depression app." He prefers the term "stress-reduction app," because he worries that stigma around the word "depression" will drive potential users away. He wants people to feel like they can use the app even if they don't have a diagnosed mental health condition, if they're just having a bad day. "I think in our society we spend a ton of attention on fitness and how to eat," he says. "Not so much on emotional well-being."

This could potentially be a pretty big deal: Google has found a way to make Android apps run on any device that can run the Chrome browser - including Windows, Linux, and Mac-based PCs. According to this BBC report, Google's new "Arc Welder" tool acts as a wrapper around Android apps.

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Client: I have a photograph of an old car of mine I’d like you to retouch for me. Can you do that?

Me: Sure! Just bring in the photo and we’ll scan it in and see what we can do.

A few days later, the man comes back and hands me the photo of his car he wants her to retouch.

Me: I think you might have handed me the wrong image. This is a photo of a barn.

Client: No, that’s the right one. My car is parked behind the barn. You’ll need to edit out the barn so you can see my car.

Ars Technica reports that a federal judge has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission does have jurisdiction to sue AT&T for allegedly throttling customers. In its argument before the federal court, AT&T - who hates net neutrality and didn't want to be classified as a common carrier - said that the FTC did not have jurisdiction to take it to court because it is... a common carrier.

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1st preview of “Sherlock Hound” Figma figure.

Last October, the Homestar Runner gang emerged from obscurity , and now it's the moment we have all been waiting for! Strong Bad is back to answerin' emails. Sort of. Kind of. Hey, at least he hates April Fools' Day too. Bless the return of Homestar Runner!

Read more...

Today, California Governor Jerry Brown announced mandatory water restrictions for the first time in the state's history. The announcement follows a drought of more than three years, which has officials worrying that Californians may have only one year of drinking water left.

The regulations require California cities to decrease water use by 25 percent, though, crucially, only requires agricultural users to report their water use and submit drought management plans. Agriculture accounts for about 80 percent of California's water usage. (For more drought background, check out our past coverage on agricultural water use—almonds are the biggest suck—and municipal water use.)

From the press release:

The following is a summary of the executive order issued by the Governor today.

Save Water

For the first time in state history, the Governor has directed the State Water Resources Control Board to implement mandatory water reductions in cities and towns across California to reduce water usage by 25 percent. This savings amounts to approximately 1.5 million acre-feet of water over the next nine months, or nearly as much as is currently in Lake Oroville.

To save more water now, the order will also:

Replace 50 million square feet of lawns throughout the state with drought tolerant landscaping in partnership with local governments;
Direct the creation of a temporary, statewide consumer rebate program to replace old appliances with more water and energy efficient models; Require campuses, golf courses, cemeteries and other large landscapes to make significant cuts in water use; and
Prohibit new homes and developments from irrigating with potable water unless water-efficient drip irrigation systems are used, and ban watering of ornamental grass on public street medians.

Increase Enforcement

The Governor’s order calls on local water agencies to adjust their rate structures to implement conservation pricing, recognized as an effective way to realize water reductions and discourage water waste.

Agricultural water users – which have borne much of the brunt of the drought to date, with hundreds of thousands of fallowed acres, significantly reduced water allocations and thousands of farmworkers laid off – will be required to report more water use information to state regulators, increasing the state's ability to enforce against illegal diversions and waste and unreasonable use of water under today’s order. Additionally, the Governor’s action strengthens standards for Agricultural Water Management Plans submitted by large agriculture water districts and requires small agriculture water districts to develop similar plans. These plans will help ensure that agricultural communities are prepared in case the drought extends into 2016.

Additional actions required by the order include:

Taking action against water agencies in depleted groundwater basins that have not shared data on their groundwater supplies with the state;
Updating standards for toilets and faucets and outdoor landscaping in residential communities and taking action against communities that ignore these standards; and
Making permanent monthly reporting of water usage, conservation and enforcement actions by local water suppliers.

 

Since the passage of a "religious freedom" law, Indiana has begun to feel the heat.