Lets start with the level of confidence that the Intelligence Agencies have that the Russian Government aspired to help Trump's election. First off with such a vague statement this level of confidence rating really means nothing. Its like saying at what level of confidence do you have that Clinton tried to win the election by discrediting Trump... dumb
• CIA: High
• FBI: High
• NSA: Moderate
•
• Guess NSA didn't get the memo
Summary:
• While reading through this document it was very obviously tooled to be a form of propaganda which I found alarming.
•
• Its mentioned that both parties where hacked but we only talk about one party throughout the whole document.
• Throughout the document there is a serious of noncommittal and weak language that points to no notable conclusion.
•
• Example: Putin most likely wanted to discredit Clinton as he has publicly blamed her for inciting protest.
•
• Sounds more like gossip then an actual assessment from the FBI/CIA
• They must of got this verbiage straight from CNN
• Claims that "Kremlin Bloggers" prepared to use #DemocracyRIP tag on election night if Clinton won.
•
• In the text it said this was determined by Social Media Activity... Guess you can predict what people will say next based on Social Media Activity... dumb
• Guccifer 2.0 is apparently Russian
•
• In the document it states that Guccifer claims to be Romanian but is likely Russian although citing that the Press suggest more than one person claimed to be Guccifer 2.0
•
• Why is this report referencing media sources... I find this very concerning.
• RT is refereed to as "Kremlin's Principal International Propaganda outlet"
•
• RT collaborated with Wiki leaks by providing a place for Julian Assange to speak("to denounce the United States" as stated in the document).
• Apparently part of Putin motivation is that the US made Russia look bad at the Olympics
•
• Russia has conducted revenge hacks on US athletes apparently according to this document
• Russian Intelligence got access to Multiple state or local electoral boards
•
• It was determined these are not involved in vote tallying
• Why would you state multiple state or local electoral boards... seems uncertain
• Russia was going to drink champagne if Trump won
•
• Apparently this was worth mentioning in the document
• Russia unleashed Trolls
•
• Apparently the Internet Research Agency is a group that pays trolls which is located in Saint Petersburg
• Only somewhat solid statements in this are ones of historical "fact" related to Soviet Russia
• Moscow wanted Trump because they want to partner against ISIL
Google Capital, which now goes by the name of CapitalG, is an arm of Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company. Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Alphabet, has been a staunch and active supporter of Hillary Clinton and is a longtime donor to the Democratic Party.
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On Thursday, a senior law enforcement official told CNN that the DNC ''rebuffed'' the agency's request to physically examine its computer servers after the alleged hacking. Instead, the FBI relied on CrowdStrike's assessment that the servers had most likely been hacked by Russian agents.
''The FBI repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the necessity of obtaining direct access to servers and data, only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated,'' CNN quoted the senior law enforcement official as saying. ''This left the FBI no choice but to rely upon a third party for information. These actions caused significant delays and inhibited the FBI from addressing the intrusion earlier.''
The news network was following up on a BuzzFeed report that first broke the story that the FBI did not examine the DNC's servers before issuing a joint report with the DHS last week accusing Russian civilian and military intelligence services of compromising networks and infrastructure associated with the 2016 presidential election.
Contrary to the claim from the FBI about being rebuffed, Eric Walker, the DNC's deputy communications director, told BuzzFeed that the FBI never requested access to the servers.
''The DNC had several meetings with representatives of the FBI's Cyber Division and its Washington (DC) Field Office, the Department of Justice's National Security Division, and U.S. Attorney's Offices, and it responded to a variety of requests for cooperation, but the FBI never requested access to the DNC's computer servers,'' Walker wrote in the email.
BuzzFeed further reported on the FBI's reliance on CrowdStrike's assessment about the alleged Russian hacking:
The FBI has instead relied on computer forensics from a third-party tech security company, CrowdStrike, which first determined in May of last year that the DNC's servers had been infiltrated by Russia-linked hackers, the U.S. intelligence official told BuzzFeed News.
''CrowdStrike is pretty good. There's no reason to believe that anything that they have concluded is not accurate,'' the intelligence official said, adding they were confident Russia was behind the widespread hacks.
The CNN report also affirmed that the FBI relied on CrowdStrike's findings.
CrowdStrike is a California-based cybersecurity technology company co-founded by experts George Kurtz and Dmitri Alperovitch. The company's website explains the firm was founded because Alperovitch and Kurtz ''realized that a brand new approach was needed '-- one that combines the most advanced endpoint protection with expert intelligence to pinpoint the adversaries perpetrating the attacks, not just the malware.''
In an Esquire profile, Alperovitch, a Russian expat, recalls he first discovered that Russia allegedly hacked into the DNC when one of his analysts installed a proprietary software package into the DNC's system and immediately discovered the alleged Russian breach.
''Are we sure it's Russia?'' Alperovitch says he asked the analyst.
Esquire reported:
The analyst said there was no doubt. Falcon had detected malicious software, or malware, that was stealing data and sending it to the same servers that had been used in a 2015 attack on the German Bundestag. The code and techniques used against the DNC resembled those from earlier attacks on the White House and the State Department. The analyst, a former intelligence officer, told Alperovitch that Falcon had identified not one but two Russian intruders: Cozy Bear, a group CrowdStrike's experts believed was affiliated with the FSB, Russia's answer to the CIA; and Fancy Bear, which they had linked to the GRU, Russian military intelligence.
Alperovitch then called Shawn Henry, a tall, bald fifty-four-year-old former executive assistant director at the FBI who is now CrowdStrike's president of services. Henry led a forensics team that retraced the hackers' steps and pieced together the pathology of the breach. Over the next two weeks, they learned that Cozy Bear had been stealing emails from the DNC for more than a year. Fancy Bear, on the other hand, had been in the network for only a few weeks. Its target was the DNC research department, specifically the material that the committee was compiling on Donald Trump and other Republicans. Meanwhile, a CrowdStrike group called the Overwatch team used Falcon to monitor the hackers, a process known as shoulder-surfing.
According to the Esquire story, Alperovitch was surprised when the DNC, which had contracted CrowdStrike for cybersecurity, wanted to go public about the alleged Russia hack, which took place at around the same time Donald Trump was being accused of having a relationship with Russia.
Esquire documented:
Hacking, like domestic abuse, is a crime that tends to induce shame. Companies such as Yahoo usually publicize their breaches only when the law requires it. For this reason, Alperovitch says, he expected that the DNC, too, would want to keep quiet.
By the time of the hack, however, Donald Trump's relationship to Russia had become an issue in the election. The DNC wanted to go public. At the committee's request, Alperovitch and Henry briefed a reporter from The Washington Post about the attack. On June 14, soon after the Post story publicly linked Fancy Bear with the Russian GRU and Cozy Bear with the FSB for the first time, Alperovitch published a detailed blog post about the attacks.
Google financing
CrowdStrike advertises on its website that it is ''proud to have received major funding from some of the world's most prestigious technology providers and investment firms'' '' most prominently Google Capital, which ''led (a) $100M investment in CrowdStrike.''
''It's extremely gratifying to bring in a high-caliber investor like Google Capital which shares our passion for innovation and sees the opportunity to completely transform the security industry,'' CrowdStrike's co-founder and chief executive officer Kurtz said after the completion of the financing in July 2015. ''As we continue to experience hyper-growth, this capital injection will help us firmly establish our SaaS-based endpoint protection platform as the leading solution to address today's sophisticated attacks and will allow CrowdStrike to further accelerate our domestic and international expansion.''
In November, Google Capital re-branded itself and now goes by the name of CapitalG. It is a venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc.
CapitalG explained: ''Founded in 2013 in Mountain View, California, we began as Google Capital, a growth equity investment fund. We changed our name to CapitalG in 2016, after Google created Alphabet to serve as its parent company. Though our name has changed, our goal remains the same: to make return-driven investments in leading companies around the world and help entrepreneurs rapidly grow their businesses.''
CapitalG's website documents its close links to Google:
''Our Google connection is our key asset. We call on experts from Google's offices around the world to help our portfolio companies grow'... CapitalG works with Google experts to advise on product, engineering, marketing, sales, operations, and other essential areas to help companies scale effectively. The Googlers draw upon knowledge from their day to day roles to offer valuable technical advice'--from scaling architecture, to making the transition to the cloud, to mobile development, to cybersecurity, and much more.''
Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Alphabet, which owns CapitalG, has been a staunch and active supporter of Hillary Clinton.
In November, the Wall Street Journal reported on an email released that month claiming Schmidt was ''ready to fund, advise recruit talent'' for Clinton's campaign and that he ''clearly wants to be head outside advisor.''
The Journalreported:
Mr. Schmidt in April 2014 backed a startup dubbed Timshel that helped develop some of the technology behind Mrs. Clinton's campaign website, including functions to sign up supporters and accept donations, according to the emails.
Around that time, Mr. Schmidt sent a Clinton campaign official a lengthy memo with advice on running the campaign. He told campaign officials he was ''ready to fund, advise recruit talent,'' and ''clearly wants to be head outside advisor,'' according to a 2014 email from Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta to campaign manager Robby Mook. Mr. Schmidt's memo to Clinton aide Cheryl Mills is included in the leaked emails.
Schmidt drew up a plan for Clinton's campaign a year before she announced her White House bid, released emails showed. He sent the memo to top Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, chief of staff to Clinton when she was secretary of state.
The Daily Mailreported:
The Google titan outlined a number of things, including one Clinton definitely listened to '' where she should base her campaign headquarters. 'Its important to have a very large hiring pool (such as Chicago or NYC) from which to choose enthusiastic, smart and low paid permanent employees,' Schmidt argued.
He also nixed Washington, D.C., as an idea, even though it's a thriving city for millennials. 'DC is a poor choice as its full of distractions and interruptions,' he wrote in the memo, emailed to Mills.
She then passed it along to John Podesta, whose emails were hacked and made public by Wikileaks.
Schmidt was spotted at Clinton's nixed election night party wearing a ''staff'' badge.
Meanwhile, Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike Services and CSO of the firm, is a retired executive assistant director of the FBI.
''Henry, who served in three FBI field offices and at the bureau's headquarters, is credited with boosting the FBI's computer crime and cybersecurity investigative capabilities,'' his CrowdStrike bio says.
Last April, CrowdStrike General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer Steven Chabinsky was appointed to President Obama's White House Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.
A CrowdStrike press release explained:
Under the Commission, Chabinsky and 11 other industry leaders have been directed by the White House to recommend ''bold, actionable steps that the government, private sector, and the nation as a whole can take to bolster cybersecurity in today's digital world.''
President Obama, in an official statement, commended the members for bringing ''a wealth of experience and talent to this important role,'' and charged the Commission with ''the critically-important task of identifying the steps that our nation must take to ensure our cybersecurity in an increasingly digital world.''
CrowdStrike co-founder Alperovitch, meanwhile, has a bad taste for Russia, according to the Esquire profile:
Alperovitch knows a thing or two about what the Russians call ''active measures,'' in which propaganda is used to undermine a target country's political systems. He was born in 1980 in Moscow, in an era when people were afraid to discuss politics even inside their homes. His father, Michael, was a nuclear physicist who barely escaped being sent to Chernobyl as part of a rescue mission in 1986. Many of Michael's close friends and colleagues died of radiation poisoning within months of flying to the burning power plant. The takeaway for Dmitri was that ''life is cheap in the Soviet Union.''
Alperovitch is a nonresident senior fellow of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council. The Council takes a hawkish approach toward Russia and has released numerous reports and briefs about Russian aggression.
The Council is funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc, the U.S. State Department, and NATO ACT.
Another Council funder is the Ploughshares Fund, which in turn has received financing from billionaire George Soros' Open Society Foundations.
In an interview with PBS, host Judy Woodruff asked Alpervotich whether he had a conflict of interest in the alleged Russia hacking case since his firm, which was helping to publicize the Russia claims, was employed by the DNC.
Here is a transcript of that section of the interview:
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, Dmitri Alperovitch, we want to point out and we said earlier, you were '-- your company was the one that uncovered this in the first place. You were working for the Democratic National Committee. Are you still working '-- doing work for them?
DMITRI ALPEROVITCH: We're protecting them going forward. The investigation is closed in terms of what happened there. But certainly, we've seen the campaigns, political organizations are continued to be targeted, and they continue to hire us and use our technology to protect themselves.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I ask you that because if there's a question of conflict of interest, how do you answer that?
DMITRI ALPEROVITCH: Well, this report was not about the DNC. This report was about information we uncovered about what these Russian actors were doing in eastern Ukraine in terms of locating these artillery units of the Ukrainian army and then targeting them. So, what we just did is said that it looks exactly as the same to the evidence we've already uncovered from the DNC, linking the two together.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart's Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, ''Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.'' Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.
The Democratic National Committee rebuffed requests by federal agents to inspect computer servers that had been breached last year during the presidential campaign, forcing them to rely on third-party cyber security data to investigate the hack, the FBI said.
The revelation came hours before U.S. intelligence chiefs are set to brief President-elect Donald Trump on their assessment that Russia was behind the attack. On Capitol Hill Thursday, they rejected Trump's repeated skepticism about their findings that senior Russian officials were to blame for the hacking and leaks of e-mails from Democratic officials and organizations backing Hillary Clinton.
After the hearing, Trump took to Twitter to again express his doubts about their conclusions.
"The Democratic National Committee would not allow the FBI to study or see its computer info after it was supposedly hacked by Russia......" Trump said. "So how and why are they so sure about hacking if they never even requested an examination of the computer servers? What is going on?"
The FBI Thursday released a statement confirming Trump's claim.
''The FBI repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the necessity of obtaining direct access to servers and data, only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated," the agency said. "This left the FBI no choice but to rely upon a third party for information. These actions caused significant delays and inhibited the FBI from addressing the intrusion earlier."
Technical DetailsDirector of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey are scheduled to brief Trump Friday.
While intelligence agencies hadn't previously confirmed that the DNC refused to provide access to its computers, they had disclosed that they depended on private cyber security companies.
In October, Timothy Barrett, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said that U.S. intelligence "independently observed technical activity that is consistent with the forensic evidence identified by a private cyber-firm and is consistent with our general understanding of cyber activities by the Russian government."
Although Barrett didn't name the company, CrowdStrike Inc. released technical details last year to demonstrate hacking attacks against the DNC and other groups were carried out by the Russian government.
CrowdStrike said it found evidence that hacking attacks were carried out by two Russian government hacking groups. One that it calls Fancy Bear is believed to be an arm of Russia's military intelligence agency. The other, which it calls Cozy Bear, is believed to be run by Russia's Federal Security Service, the successor to Russia's KGB, where Putin once worked.
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You will now receive the Game Plan newsletter''Beginning at the time the intrusion was discovered by the DNC, the DNC cooperated fully with the FBI and its investigation, providing access to all of the information uncovered by CrowdStrike - without any limits," DNC Press Secretary Eric Walker said in a statement. ''The DNC had several meetings with representatives of the FBI's Cyber Division and its Washington (DC) Field Office, the Department of Justice's National Security Division, and U.S. Attorney's Offices, and it responded to a variety of requests for cooperation, but the FBI never requested access to the DNC's computer servers.''Clapper Thursday told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the intelligence agencies' confidence in their findings is now ''very high'' and they are ''even more resolute'' about Russian involvement than when they first weighed in on the issue publicly on Oct. 7. Yet Clapper also emphasized that Russian hacking didn't change the vote count that made Trump president.
President Barack Obama last week imposed sanctions against top Russian intelligence officials and agencies and expelled 35 Russian operatives from the U.S. Russia has denied any role in the computer attack. Putin has vowed '' a proportional'' response, though is holding off until after Trump takes office Jan. 20.
MoreWikiLeaks condemned the Obama administration and the CIA on Friday for leaking information to NBC News, despite the fact that WikiLeaks prides itself on disclosing secret government documents.
The digital activist organization's rather ironic denunciation came in a tweet after NBC aired an ''exclusive, inside look'' at a report from U.S. intelligence agencies on Thursday night. The report, which President Obama was briefed on Thursday, is said to provide evidence that the Russian government supported hacks against the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign as part of a multifaceted campaign to interfere with the U.S. elections. According to the Obama administration, those cyberattacks led to WikiLeaks publishing thousands of emails from Democrats '-- many of them politically embarrassing.
Amid a deluge of disparagement, WikiLeaks said the apparent leak did not reach the organization's standards because no documents were published. In a subsequent tweet, WikiLeaks defined what it called a ''pseudo leak'': ''Where the White House authorizes officials to funnel anonymous claims to pet 'journalists' for political advantage.''
Two top intelligence officials with knowledge of the intelligence report told NBC News that Moscow led cyberattacks against the White House, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Department of State and U.S. companies '-- some were successful, some were foiled.
According to the officials, Russia's motivation in targeting the United States was to disrupt the American democratic process and as payback for Obama doubting Russian President Vladimir Putin's legitimacy. This meddling goes back to at least 2008, they said.
Whereas Obama has expressed faith in the U.S. intelligence community and denounced Putin, President-elect Donald Trump has expressed skepticism of the U.S. intelligence community and praised Putin '-- variously calling the Russian strongman a real ''leader'' and ''very smart.''
Trump announced that he would ask Congress to investigate why the report had been shared with NBC before his Friday briefing on the classified information.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greets supporters and members of her staff after conceding the U.S. Presidency to Republican challenger Donald Trump. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Hillary Clinton failed to defeat DonaldTrumpin the general election, but theDemocratic Party is giving Clinton campaign staffers another chance by appointing several of them to a ''war room'' to take on President-elect Trump's administration.
The Washington Postreported, ''TheDNC'snew communications and research operation, to be staffed by former aides to HillaryClinton'spresidential campaign, will be one of several efforts from across the Democratic firmament to take on Trump, including the office of Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Center for American Progress, and American Bridge.'' Clinton campaign manager John Podesta founded the Center for American Progress, andClintonsurrogate and former aide Neera Tanden serves as its president. American Bridge, a super PAC, is runby controversialClinton propagandist David Brock. Combined with the office of Schumer, theDNCcouldn't have created a less effective way to fight Trump.
After losing an election they treated as a certain victory, the Clinton campaign staff is being rewarded for their loyalty with jobs at the DNC. Thewar room's director will be Zac Petkanas, the Clinton campaign's rapid-response director, who will also serve as aDNC senior adviser. Petkanas was vice president of Brock's Media Matters. The DNC's national press secretary will be Adrienne Watson, aClinton campaign spokesperson. Additionally, just as former DNC chairDebbie Wasserman Schultzdid before the primaries began, the organization is now being stacked with Clinton loyalists by interim chairDonna Brazile, who CNN severed ties with after WikiLeaks revealed shehelpedthe Clinton campaign cheat before the primary debates. Despite violating the DNC charter, theDemocratic Party is allowing Brazile to remain interim chair until a new one is electedin February.
The idea of establishing a ''war room'' againstTrump is a desperate attempt for the DNC to look relevant. Given its dramatic title, the ''war room'' was likely conjured up by David Brock. If the Democratshave any intention of ever winning an election again, Brock'--who used over $1 million to hire internet trolls to ''correct'' online criticisms ofClintonduring the primaries'--is the last person they should have stringing together the party's staff. In addition to participating in the ''war room,'' Brock is hosting aprivate retreat with billionaire donors in West Palm Beach during Trump's inauguration. Brock told Politico, ''what better way to spend inaugural weekend than talking about how to kick DonaldTrump'sass?''
The creation of the Trump''war room'' and the recentappointments to theDNC signal that the Democratic Partyhas no intention of reform. The losses that the Democrats have suffered this election cycle should have been a wake-up call. Instead, Democrats are creating a hyperbolic distraction, doubling down on everything that is wrong with theparty,and repeating the mistakes that led them to their current predicament.
Disclosure: Donald Trump is the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, the publisher of Observer Media.
In a two-page memo to The Washington Post, Trump outlined for the first time how he would seek to force Mexico to pay for his 1,000-mile border fence, which Trump has made a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and which has been repeatedly scoffed at by current and former Mexican leaders. Read about Trump's plan
Trump reveals how he would force Mexico to pay for border wall - The Washington Post
Donald Trump says he would force Mexico to pay for a border wall as president by threatening to cut off the flow of billions of dollars in payments that immigrants send home to the country, an idea that could decimate the Mexican economy and set up an unprecedented showdown between the United States and a key regional ally.
In a two-page memo to The Washington Post, Trump outlined for the first time how he would seek to force Mexico to pay for his 1,000-mile border fence, which Trump has made a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and which has been repeatedly scoffed at by current and former Mexican leaders.
The proposal would jeopardize a stream of cash that many economists say is vital for Mexico's struggling economy. But the feasibility of Trump's plan is unclear both legally and politically, and it would test the bounds of a president's executive powers in seeking to pressure another country.
In the memo, Trump said he would threaten to change a rule under the USA Patriot Act antiterrorism law to cut off a portion of the funds sent to Mexico through money transfers, commonly known as remittances. The threat would be withdrawn if Mexico made ''a one-time payment of $5-10 billion'' to pay for the border wall, he wrote.
''It's an easy decision for Mexico,'' Trump said in the memo, on campaign stationery emblazoned with ''TRUMP Make America Great Again!''
The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa sat down with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Here's how the interview went. (Lee Powell/The Washington Post)
After the wall was funded, Trump wrote, transfer payments could continue ''to flow into their country year after year.'' He gave the memo to The Post in response to a written question provided to him before an interview last week.
Nearly $25 billion was sent home by Mexicans living abroad in 2015, mostly in the form of money transfers, according to the Mexican central bank. In his memo, Trump said that ''the majority of that amount comes from illegal aliens.''
But that figure includes cash from around the world, not just the United States. In addition, a Government Accountability Office report in January said it is difficult to track how much money Mexican immigrants working illegally in the United States are sending vs. money sent by those working legally.
Another complication in Trump's remittance proposal is that he also wants to deport all 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States, many of whom come from Mexico.
President Obama sharply criticized Trump's remittances proposal Tuesday and told reporters at the White House that foreign leaders are peppering him with questions ''about some of the wackier suggestions'' coming from Trump and his main Republican rival, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.).
''This is just one more example of something that is not thought through and is primarily put forward for political consumption,'' Obama said. ''The notion that we're going to track every Western Union bit of money that's being sent to Mexico, good luck with that.''
Crist"bal Alex, president of the Latino Victory Fund, blasted the idea as ''a very dangerous and unrealistic proposal.''
From the start of his campaign, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been promising that he will build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and that Mexico will pay for it. Not if these men have anything to say about it. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
''This is nothing but another attack against immigrants that would have devastating consequences for Latinos and Americans overall, endangering our economy, our democracy, our foreign policy and security,'' Alex said.
Throughout the campaign, Trump has claimed that he could build his proposed U.S.-Mexico barrier for about $8 billion '-- a figure that numerous experts have described as dubious because of the costs and other obstacles to building a lengthy, impenetrable concrete barrier through numerous jurisdictions.
Trump's proposal to pay for such a wall is also fraught with challenges. Although there is a shortcut in the Administrative Procedure Act that allows for ''interim'' regulations that take effect immediately without going through the regular public notice and comment process, there are limitations on that authority.
Based on the process for changes laid out in the Federal Register, Trump as president could potentially invoke a change by making the argument that illegal immigration is an emergency that must be addressed immediately or is a threat to public health or safety.
But such a rule would presumably apply to limiting wire transfers, canceling visas or raising visa fees '-- not about directly limiting immigration. That could make it harder for Trump to argue that any of those criteria meet the exceptions, according to some experts.
After reviewing Trump's proposal, one expert on immigration law said he is skeptical.
''Trump is giving an extremely broad definition of this section of the Patriot Act and what it allows, and it'd surely be litigated,'' said Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonpartisan think tank in Virginia. ''It would be a large expansion beyond what the text reads.''
Anderson said Trump's memo also leaves unaddressed how normal financial transactions across borders would be affected and whether there would be an overly aggressive federal intrusion into the growing number of financial transactions that take place over the Internet.
With the subject line ''Compelling Mexico to Pay for the Wall,'' the memo is the latest attempt by the Republican presidential front-runner to offer more specifics about his proposal at a time when he faces tough head winds, including a loss to Cruz on Tuesday night in Wisconsin's Republican primary.
The memo includes rationales for a number of potential intimidation tactics, including increased trade tariffs, the cancellation of visas and higher fees for border-crossing cards.
But at the core of Trump's approach is a focus on the remittances of illegal immigrants, which he argues are crucial to Mexican economic stability and are a way of pressuring the country to disburse billions of dollars to the United States to fund construction of his wall.
Trump's official immigration plan, released last year, featured a pledge to ''impound all remittance payments from illegal wages'' and to hike fees on temporary visas, among other actions, but it did not go into further detail.
The playbook outlined in Trump's memo echoes suggestions that have long been made by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a Trump confidant and a hard-line voice on immigration policy within the Republican Party. Stephen Miller, a former top aide to Sessions, is Trump's policy adviser.
Starting on ''day 1,'' Trump writes, he would issue a warning to Mexico that unless it pays his desired amount, he will promulgate a new federal provision that would lead to a sweeping confiscation of funds sent by Mexicans in the United States who lack documentation of their ''lawful presence.''
On ''day 2,'' Trump continued, ''Mexico will immediately protest.'' But he would declare that Mexico must choose between the enforcement of his provision or acquiescing.
To explain how he would have the standing to pursue his aggressive strategy, Trump begins by citing a provision in the Code of Federal Regulations that sets the standards for financial institutions in identifying their customers.
That provision, Trump says, makes it possible for the executive branch to ''issue detailed regulations on the subject.'' He predicted that Mexico would react by initially balking, then doing what he wants.
Trump writes that ''if the Mexican government will contribute $_ billion to the United States to pay for the wall, the Trump Administration will not promulgate the final rule, and the regulation will not go into effect.''
Many academics and economists have said that Trump's notion of impounding remittances could have devastating consequences, harming poor communities and families that rely on funds from abroad to provide food and shelter.
Trump leaves open the option of using other methods to coerce Mexico, including ''trade tariffs, or enforcement of existing trade rules,'' ''cancelling visas'' and ''visa fees.''
''Our approvals of hundreds of thousands of visas every year is one of our greatest leverage points,'' Trump writes. ''We also have leverage through business and tourist visas for important people in the Mexican economy.''
Trump ends with a scathing critique of Mexico, claiming that it has ''taken advantage'' of the United States for years through ''gangs, drug traffickers and cartels'' responsible for ''the extraordinary daily cost of this criminal activity.''
''We have the moral high ground here,'' Trump concludes, ''and all the leverage.''
Evelyn Duffy and Eric Yoder contributed to this report.
Intersectionality (or intersectional theory) is a term first coined in 1989 by American civil rights advocate and leading scholar of critical race theory, Kimberl(C) Williams Crenshaw. It is the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination. Intersectionality is the idea that multiple identities intersect to create a whole that is different from the component identities. These identities that can intersect include gender, race, social class, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, age, mental disability, physical disability, mental illness, and physical illness as well as other forms of identity.[1] These aspects of identity are not ''unitary, mutually exclusive entities, but rather'...reciprocally constructing phenomena.''[1] The theory proposes that we think of each element or trait of a person as inextricably linked with all of the other elements in order to fully understand one's identity.[2]
This framework can be used to understand how systemic injustice and social inequality occur on a multidimensional basis.[3] Intersectionality holds that the classical conceptualizations of oppression within society'--such as racism, sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia and belief-based bigotry'--do not act independently of each other. Instead, these forms of oppression interrelate, creating a system of oppression that reflects the "intersection" of multiple forms of discrimination.[4]
Intersectional identities usually aren't addressed or mapped out in normal social discourses and often come with their own set of oppression, domination, and discrimination. Because laws and policies usually only address one form of marginalized identity but not the intersection of multiple oppressed identities, intersectional identities often go overlooked. Since these identities are overlooked, there is a lack of resources needed to combat the discrimination, and the oppression is cyclically perpetuated.[5]
Intersectionality proposes that all aspects of one's identity need to be examined as simultaneously interacting with each other and affecting one's privilege and perception in society, and that these facets of identity cannot simply be observed separately.[6] As such, intersectionality is not simply a view of personal identity, but rather an overarching analysis of power hierarchies present within identities.[6] The framework of intersectionality also provides an insight into how multiple systems of oppression interrelate and are interactive.[6] Intersectionality is not a static field; rather, it is dynamic and constantly developing as response to formations of complex social inequalities. Intersectionality can be seen as an ''overarching knowledge project.''[1] Within this overarching umbrella, there are multiple knowledge projects that evolve ''in tandem with changes in the interpretive communities that advance them.''[1]
Intersectionality is an important paradigm in academic scholarship and broader contexts such as social justice work or demography, but difficulties arise due to the many complexities involved in making "multidimensional conceptualizations"[7] that explain the way in which socially constructed categories of differentiation interact to create a social hierarchy. For example, intersectionality holds that there is no singular experience of an identity. Rather than understanding women's health solely through the lens of gender, it is necessary to consider other social categories such as class, ability, nation or race, to have a fuller understanding of the range of women's health concerns.
The theory of intersectionality also suggests that seemingly discrete forms and expressions of oppression are shaped by one another (mutually co-constitutive).[8] Thus, in order to fully understand the racialization of oppressed groups, one must investigate the ways in which racializing structures, social processes and social representations (or ideas purporting to represent groups and group members in society) are shaped by gender, class, sexuality, etc.[9] While the theory began as an exploration of the oppression of women of color within American society, today the analysis is potentially applied to all categories (including statuses usually seen as dominant when seen as standalone statuses).
Intersectionality is ambiguous and open ended, and it has been argued that its "lack of clear-cut definition or even specific parameters has enabled it to be drawn upon in nearly any context of inquiry".[10]
Historical background[edit]The concept of intersectionality came to the forefront of sociological circles in the late 1960s and early 1970s in conjunction with the multiracial feminist movement.[12] It came as part of a critique of radical feminism that had developed in the late 1960s known as the "revisionist feminist theory". This revisionist feminist theory "challenged the notion that 'gender' was the primary factor determining a woman's fate".[13] This exploration sprang from a historical exclusion of black women from the feminist movement. Similarly, women of color have long been excluded from the civil rights movement. In many ways, the introduction of intersectional theory supported claims made by women of color that they belong in both of these political spheres.
The movement led by women of color disputed the idea that women were a homogeneous category essentially sharing the same life experiences. This argument stemmed from the realization that white middle-class women did not serve as an accurate representation of the feminist movement as a whole.[14] Recognizing that the forms of oppression experienced by white middle-class women were different from those experienced by black, poor, or disabled women, feminists sought to understand the ways in which gender, race, and class combined to "determine the female destiny".[13]
Leslie McCall, a leading intersectionality theorist, argues that the introduction of the intersectionality theory was vital to sociology, claiming that before its development there was little research that specifically addressed the experiences of people who are subjected to multiple forms of subordination within society.[15]
The term also has historical and theoretical links to the concept of "simultaneity" advanced during the 1970s by members of the Combahee River Collective, in Boston, Massachusetts.[16] Members of this group articulated an awareness that their lives'--and their forms of resistance to oppression'--were profoundly shaped by the simultaneous influences of race, class, gender, and sexuality.[17] Thus, the women of the Combahee River Collective advanced an understanding of African American experiences that challenged analyses emerging from Black and male-centered social movements; as well as those from mainstream white, middle-class, heterosexual feminists.[18]
Feminist thought[edit]The term intersectionality theory was first coined by legal scholar Kimberl(C) Crenshaw in 1989.[19] In her work, Crenshaw discussed Black feminism, which argues that the experience of being a black woman cannot be understood in terms of being black and of being a woman considered independently, but must include the interactions, which frequently reinforce each other.[20] Crenshaw mentioned that the intersectionality experience within black women is more powerful than the sum of their race and sex, and that any observations that do not take intersectionality into consideration cannot accurately address the manner in which black women are subordinated.[21]
In order to show that women of color have a vastly different experience from white women due to their race and class and that their experiences are not easily voiced or pinpointed, Crenshaw explores two types of male violence against women: domestic violence and rape. Through her analysis of these two forms of male violence against women, Crenshaw depicts that the experiences of women of color consist of a combination or intersection of both racism and sexism.[5] Because women of color are present within discourses that have been designed to address either race or sex, but not both at the same time, women of color are marginalized within both of these systems of oppression.[5]
In her work, Crenshaw identifies three aspects of intersectionality that affect the visibility of women of color: structural intersectionality, political intersectionality, and representational intersectionality. Structural intersectionality deals with how women of color experience domestic violence and rape in a qualitatively different manner than white women. Political intersectionality examines how feminist laws and anti-racist laws and policies have paradoxically decreased the visibility of violence against women of color. Finally, representational intersectionality delves into how pop culture portrayals of women of color can obscure the actual, real life experiences of women of color.[5]
The term gained prominence in the 1990s when sociologist Patricia Hill Collins reintroduced the idea as part of her discussion on black feminism. This term replaced her previously coined expression "black feminist thought", "and increased the general applicability of her theory from African American women to all women" (Mann and Huffman, 2005, p. 61). Much like her predecessor Crenshaw, Collins argued that cultural patterns of oppression are not only interrelated, but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional systems of society, such as race, gender, class, and ethnicity.[22]:42 Collins referred to this as "interlocking oppression".[23]
Patricia Hill Collins sought to create frameworks to think about intersectionality, rather than expanding on the theory itself. As a field, she identified three main branches of study within intersectionality. One branch deals with the background, ideas, issues, conflicts, and debates within intersectionality. Another branch seeks to apply intersectionality as an analytical strategy to various social institutions in order to examine how they might perpetuate social inequality. The final branch formulates intersectionality as a critical praxis to determine how social justice initiatives can use intersectionality to bring about social change.[1]
Of course, the ideas behind intersectional feminism existed long before the term was coined. For example, in 1851 Sojourner Truth delivered her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, in which she spoke from her racialized position as a former slave to critique essentialist notions of femininity.[24] Similarly, in her 1893 essay, "The Colored Woman's Office," Anna Julia Cooper identifies black women as the most important actors in social change movements, because of their experience with multiple facets of oppression.[25]
According to black feminists and many white feminists, experiences of class, gender, sexuality, etc., cannot be adequately understood unless the influences of racialization are carefully considered. This focus on racialization was highlighted many times by scholar and feminist bell hooks, specifically in her 1981 book Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism.[26] Feminists argue that an understanding of intersectionality is a vital element to gaining political and social equality and improving our democratic system.[27] Collins' theory represents the sociological crossroads between modern and post-modern feminist thought.[22]
Marie-Claire Belleau argues for "strategic intersectionality" in order to foster cooperation between feminisms of different ethnicities.[28]:51 She refers to different nat-cult (national-cultural) groups that produce unique types of feminisms. Using Qu(C)b(C)cois nat-cult as an example, Belleau acknowledges that many nat-cult groups contain infinite sub-identities within themselves. Due to this infinity, she argues that there are endless ways in which different feminisms can cooperate by using strategic intersectionality, and these partnerships can help bridge gaps between "dominant and marginal" groups.[28]:54 Belleau argues that, through strategic intersectionality, differences between nat-cult feminisms are neither essentialist nor universal, but that they should be understood as results of socio-cultural contexts.[28] Furthermore, the performances of these nat-cult feminisms are also not essentialist.[28] Instead, they are strategies.[28]
Marxist-feminist critical theory[edit]Collins' intersectionality theory and its relative principles have a wide range of applicability in the sociological realm, especially in topics such as politics and violence (see, for instance, Collins, 1998). The struggle faced by Black women in the economic sector, for example, demonstrates how the interrelated principles of Collins' theory come together to add a new dimension to Marxist economic theory. Collins used her insight and built a dynamic theory of political oppression as related to Black women in particular.
W. E. B. Du Bois theorized that the intersectional paradigms of race, class, and nation might explain certain aspects of black political economy. Collins writes: "Du Bois saw race, class, and nation not primarily as personal identity categories but as social hierarchies that shaped African American access to status, poverty, and power."[22]:44 Du Bois omitted gender from his theory and considered it more of a personal identity category.
Cheryl Townsend Gilkes expands on this by pointing out the value of centering on the experiences of black women. Joy James takes things one step further by "using paradigms of intersectionality in interpreting social phenomena". Collins later integrated these three views by examining a black political economy through both the centering of black women's experiences and using a theoretical framework of intersectionality.[22]:44
Collins uses a Marxist feminist approach and applies her intersectional principles to what she calls the "work/family nexus and black women's poverty". In her 2000 article "Black Political Economy" she describes how the intersections of consumer racism, gender hierarchies, and disadvantages in the labor market can be centered on black women's unique experiences. Considering this from a historical perspective examining interracial marriage laws and property inheritance laws creates what Collins terms a "distinctive work/family nexus that in turn influences the overall patterns of black political economy".[22]:45''46 For example, anti-miscegenation laws effectively suppressed the upward economic mobility of black women.
The intersectionality of race and gender has been shown to have a visible impact on the labor market. "Sociological research clearly shows that accounting for education, experience, and skill does not fully explain significant differences in labor market outcomes."[attribution needed][7] The three main domains on which we see the impact of intersectionality are wages, discrimination, and domestic labor. Most studies have shown that people who fall into the bottom of the social hierarchy in terms of race or gender are more likely to receive lower wages, to be subjected to stereotypes and discriminated against, or be hired for exploitive domestic positions. Study of the labor market and intersectionality provides a better understanding of economic inequalities and the implications of the multidimensional impact of race and gender on social status within society.[7]
Sexuality and class, in addition to race and gender[edit]Though intersectionality began with the exploration of the interplay between gender and race, over time other identities and oppressions were added to the theory. For example, in 1981 Cherre Moraga and Gloria Anzaldºa published the first edition of This Bridge Called My Back. This anthology explored how classifications of sexual orientation and class also mix with those of race and gender to create even more distinct political categories. Many black, Latina, and Asian writers featured in the collection stress how their sexuality interacts with their race and gender to inform their perspectives. Similarly, poor women of color detail how their socio-economic status adds a layer of nuance to their identities, unknown to or misunderstood by middle-class white feminists.[29]
Caste and gender[edit]Though intersectionality started with race and gender, the race dialogue has been distinct from the element of caste as it plays out in India. In 2016, Kirthi Jayakumar noted the impact of caste in the gendered oppression of women in India in Choice, Circumstance and Consequence,[30] through the example of a Dalit Woman:
"....As a community of people, they have faced years and years of oppression and marginalization, and are placed vulnerably at the bottom of the hierarchical ladders of India's caste system, class segregations and gender identities. If feminism was not intersectional and looked at her from a choice-consequence dimension, it would view the Dalit Woman as one identifying as a Woman; as one who is vulnerable to violence; as one who is, well, like other women. Intersectional feminism, however, would see her differently. Vulnerable as a woman, disenfranchised as a caste, marginalized as a caste, isolated and oppressed in society and therefore, even more vulnerable than most other women. And there are numbers, facts, stories and truths to back this correct understanding of a Dalit Woman's position. There is enough and more in the form of evidence to show you exactly how Dalit Women are exploited, oppressed, discriminated against, isolated and vulnerable to violence. In a nutshell, not only are they dominated over by men in the power relations of a patriarchal social order, but are also fighting against a toxic hegemonic pillar of power in the form of caste, and coping with the poverty that comes in with a progressively divisive class system. This establishes the circumstance.
Let's say a Dalit Woman and a woman from a caste and class that are higher up (let's call her privileged woman) in the hierarchy are brought into the mix. Let's just say that the both of them have aspirations for their lives ahead, and let's say that they aspire to pursue a course that would make them Mechanical Engineers. (If you raised an eyebrow, check your privilege and break those limiting stereotypes inside your head). The Dalit Woman is encumbered by the burden of a system that started with her exclusion: she had no access to education that would suitably enable her to attempt the entrance exam, which, by the way, is administered in English. But the privileged woman has had the benefit of school, extra classes and access to resources online. They take the test. The privileged woman makes it, but the Dalit Woman doesn't. Strike one. She still harbours some hope, that she will make it in the quotas that have been reserved for a range of castes and classes. But no, she is among the last few in the pecking order, and therefore, waits, and waits, and waits. Strike two. Almost like an afterthought, she is sent an admission letter '' a rarity, for many of her caste are left at the bottom of the pot. But the fee she is expected to pay is the next new hurdle in her path. Where can she afford to pay a year's tuition if her family can't scrape enough to afford a square meal? Strike three. This shows you how constrained choice truly is.
These ''choices'' are not choices. And so, even without the right to make a choice, she has to bear consequences."[30]
Categorical complexity[edit]There are three different approaches to studying intersectionality. The three approaches are anticategorical complexity, intercategorical complexity, and intracategorical complexity, and they serve to represent the broad spectrum of current methodologies that are used to better understand and apply the intersectionality theory.[15]
Anticategorical complexityThe anticategorical approach is based on the "methodology that deconstructs analytical categories".[15] It argues that social categories are an arbitrary construction of history and language and that they contribute little to understanding the ways in which people experience society.[31][full citation needed] Furthermore, the anticategorical approach states that, "inequalities are rooted in relationships that are defined by race, class, sexuality, and gender".[15] Therefore, the only way to eliminate oppression in society is to eliminate the categories used to section people into differing groups. This analysis claims that society is too complex to be reduced down into finite categories and instead recognizes the need for a holistic approach in understanding intersectionality, according to the anticategorical approach.[32]
Intercategorical (aka categorical) complexityThe intercategorical approach to intersectionality begins by addressing the fact that inequality exists within society, and then uses this as a basis for discussion of intersectionality.[15] According to intercategorical complexity, "the concern is with the nature of the relationships among social groups and, importantly, how they are changing."[15] Proponents of this methodology use existing categorical distinctions to document inequality across multiple dimensions and measure its change over time.[15]
Intracategorical complexityThe intracategorical approach provides a midpoint between the anticategorical and intercategorical approaches.[32] It recognizes the apparent shortcomings of existing social categories, and it questions the way in which they draw boundaries of distinction.[32] This approach does not completely reject the importance of categories like the anticategorical approach, however; the intracategorical approach recognizes the relevance of social categories to the understanding of the modern social experience.[32] Moreover, intracategorical complexity focuses on studying the neglected social groups at the intersection of anticategorical and intercategorical.[15] To reconcile these contrasting views, intracategorical complexity focuses on people who cross the boundaries of constructed categories in an effort to understand the complexity and intersectionality of human interactions.[15]
Key concepts[edit]Interlocking matrix of oppression[edit]Collins refers to the various intersections of social inequality as the matrix of domination. This is also known as "vectors of oppression and privilege".[33]:204 These terms refer to how differences among people (sexual orientation, class, race, age, etc.) serve as oppressive measures towards women and change the experience of living as a woman in society. Collins, Audre Lorde (in Sister Outsider), and bell hooks point towards either/or thinking as an influence on this oppression and as further intensifying these differences.[34] Specifically, Collins refers to this as the construct of dichotomous oppositional difference. This construct is characterized by its focus on differences rather than similarities.[35]:S20
Colorism[36] is skin tone stratification and it typically has the lighter skin tones at the top of the hierarchy while darker skin tones are treated less favorably and have been denied of things allocated to those lighter. In America, a common expression of colorism stems from the notion that some African Americans with lighter complexions have ties to "house slaves" and Africans Americans with darker complexions have ancestral ties to "field slaves".[37] Some implications have been that those in the house were being treated better than those in the field because of the intensity of field labor as well as being inside. However, there are two sides that being a "house slave" came with the danger of being subject to more trauma, such as rape, as well as other dangers of interacting with the white slave owners more often. Colorism also exists strongly today on an everyday level with tangible and long-lasting results, in, for example, the education system. How African Americans and Latino/a students are treated by staff, teachers, administrators, etc. may be biased by the student's skin tone.[38]
Colorism is not a synonym to racism as colorism can occur, and often does, within racial and ethnic groups. The brown paper bag test[39] was used in American for black people to be further divided: those lighter than a brown paper bag were allotted some privilege that those darker were not permitted to. The brown paper bag test and colorism add to the fuel of intersectionality: recognizing the different identities of an individual in order to better understand one's lived experiences which can be different by race, gender, sexuality, as well as color,[40] amongst other qualities. The brown paper bag test is not used outright today but there are still implications of colorism; for example in media, lighter skin black females are often more sexualized than their darker counterparts.[41]
Standpoint epistemology and the outsider within[edit]Both Collins and Dorothy Smith have been instrumental in providing a sociological definition of standpoint theory. A standpoint is an individual's unique world perspective. The theoretical basis of this approach views societal knowledge as being located within an individual's specific geographic location. In turn, knowledge becomes distinctly unique and subjective; it varies depending on the social conditions under which it was produced (Mann and Kelley, 1997, p. 392).
The concept of the outsider within refers to a unique standpoint encompassing the self, family, and society.[35]:S14 This relates to the specific experiences to which people are subjected as they move from a common cultural world (i.e., family) to that of the modern society.[33]:207 Therefore, even though a woman'--especially a Black woman'--may become influential in a particular field, she may feel as though she does not belong. Their personalities, behaviors, and cultural beings overshadow their value as an individual; thus, they become the outsider within.[35]:S14
Resisting oppression[edit]Speaking from a critical standpoint, Collins points out that Brittan and Maynard claim "domination always involves the objectification of the dominated; all forms of oppression imply the devaluation of the subjectivity of the oppressed."[35]:S18 She later notes that self-valuation and self-definition are two ways of resisting oppression. Participating in self-awareness methods helps to preserve the self-esteem of the group that is being oppressed and help them avoid any dehumanizing outside influences.
Marginalized groups often gain a status of being an "other."[35]:S18 In essence, you are "an other" if you are different from what Audre Lorde calls the mythical norm. "Others" are virtually anyone that differs from the societal schema of an average white male. Gloria Anzaldºa theorizes that the sociological term for this is "othering", or specifically attempting to establish a person as unacceptable based on a certain criterion that fails to be met.[33]:205
Individual subjectivity is another concern for marginalized groups. Differences can be used as a weapon of self-devaluation by internalizing stereotypical societal views, thus leading to a form of psychological oppression. The point Collins effectively makes is that having a sense of self-value and a stable self-definition not obtained from outside influences helps to overcome these oppressive societal methods of domination.
As praxis[edit]Some scholars have called for the inclusion of practices in the political world,[42] education[15][25][43][full citation needed] healthcare,[44][full citation needed][45][full citation needed] employment, wealth, and property.[46][full citation needed] Within the institution of education, Jones' (2003)[full citation needed] research on working class women in academia takes in to consideration meritocracy within all social strata, but it is complicated by race and the external forces that oppress. In the systems of healthcare and people of color, researchers found that six months after 9/11, an increase in poor birth outcomes of children with parents with Arab- or Muslim-sounding names. Research also found that immigration policies also directly impact the fundamental causes of disease.[45][full citation needed]
Additionally applications with regard to property and wealth can be traced to the American historical narrative that is filled "with tensions and struggles over property'--in its various forms. From the removal of Indians (and later Japanese Americans) from the land, to military conquest of the Mexicans, to the construction of Africans as property the ability to define, possess, and own property has been a central feature of power in America ... [and where] social benefits accrue largely to property owners."[46][full citation needed] One would apply the intersectionality framework analysis to various areas where race, class, gender, sexuality and ability are affected by policies, procedures, practices, and laws in "context-specific inquiries, including, for example, analyzing the multiple ways that race and gender interact with class in the labor market; interrogating the ways that states constitute regulatory regimes of identity, reproduction, and family formation";[47][full citation needed] and examining the inequities in "the power relations [of the intersectionality] of whiteness ... [where] the denial of power and privilege ... of whiteness, and middle-classness", while not addressing "the role of power it wields in social relations."[48][full citation needed]
Policies, practices, procedures, and laws[edit]Intersectionality applies in real world systems within policies, practices, procedures, and laws in the context of political and structural inequalities. Examples include:
Voting Rights Act Section 5: On June 25, 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder, the United States Supreme Court invalidated the formula used to determine which states are covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. This decision no longer requires pre-approval by certain states to change voting rules. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Section 5 has blocked laws established in 2012 that restricted voting rights for those of color, the elderly, the disabled and college students in Texas, South Carolina and Florida. After this decision, the Department of Justice sought to block North Carolina's restrictive voting laws.[49]School-to-Prison-Pipeline: Zero-tolerance policies in schools have led to a significant increase in disciplinary actions that involve law enforcement officers. A school district in Mississippi has police arrest students for minor classroom disruptions, and a school district in Alabama has a police officer on campus in all high schools. Racial minorities and children with disabilities are often subjected to this institutional system of structural inequality disproportionately to white and able-bodied children.[50]Social work[edit]In the field of social work, proponents of intersectionality hold that unless service providers take intersectionality into account, they will be of less use, and may in fact be detrimental, for various segments of the population. They must be aware of the seemingly unrelated factors that can impact a person's life and adapt their methods accordingly. For instance, according to intersectionality, the advice of domestic violence counselors in the United States urging all women to report their abusers to police would be of little use to women of color due to the history of racially motivated police brutality, and those counselors should adapt their counseling for women of color.
Women with disabilities encounter more frequent domestic abuse with a greater number of abusers. Health care workers and personal care attendants perpetrated abuse in these circumstances, and women with disabilities have fewer options for escaping the abusive situation. There is a "silence" principle concerning the intersectionality of women and disability, which maintains that there is an overall social denial of the prevalence of the abused and disabled and this abuse is frequently ignored when encountered.[citation needed] A paradox is presented by the overprotection of people with disabilities combined with the expectations of promiscuous behavior of disabled women.[citation needed] This is met with limitations of autonomy and isolation of the individuals, which place women with disabilities in situations where further or more frequent abuse can occur.[51]
Psychology[edit]Researchers in psychology have incorporated intersection effects since the 1950s, before the work of Patricia Hill Collins. Psychology often does through via the lens of biases, heuristics, stereotypes and judgements. Psychological interactions effects span a range of variables, although person by situation effects are the most examined category. As a result, psychologists do not construe the interaction effect of demographics such as gender and race as either more noteworthy or less noteworthy than any other interaction effect. In addition, oppression is a subjective construct, and even if an objective definition were reached person-by-situation effects would make it difficult to deem certain persons as uniformly oppressed. For instance, black men are stereotypically perceived as violent, which may be a disadvantage in police interactions, or attractive,[52][53] which may be advantageous in courtship.[54]
Psychological studies have been shown that the effect of "oppressed" identities is not necessarily additive, but rather interact in complex ways. For instance, black gay men may be more positively evaluated than black straight men, because the "feminine" aspects of the gay stereotype tempers the hypermasculine and aggressive aspect of the black stereotype.[54][55]
See also[edit]References[edit]^ abcdeCollins, Patricia H. (2015). "Intersectionality's Definitional Dilemmas". Annual Review of Sociology. 41: 1''20. ^DeFrancisco, Victoria P.; Palczewski, Catherine H. (2014). Gender in Communication. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-4522-2009-3. ^Crenshaw, Kimberle (1 January 1989). "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics". The University of Chicago Legal Forum. 140: 139''167. ^Knudsen, Susanne V. (2006), "Intersectionality '' a theoretical inspiration in the analysis of minority cultures and identities in textbooks"(PDF), in Bruillard, ric; Horsley, Mike; Aamotsbakken, Bente; et al., Caught in the Web or Lost in the Textbook, 8th IARTEM conference on learning and educational media, held in Caen in October 2005, Utrecht, The Netherlands: International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media (IARTEM), pp. 61''76, OCLC 799730084, archived from the original(PDF) on 11 December 2006. ^ abcdCrenshaw, Kimberle (1991). "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color". Stanford Law Review. 43: 1241''1299 '' via www.jstor.org/stable/1229039. ^ abcCooper, Brittany (August 2015). "Intersectionality". www.oxfordhandbooks.com. Oxford University Press. ^ abcBrowne, Irene; Misra, Joya (August 2003). "The intersection of gender and race in the labor market". Annual Review of Sociology. Annual Reviews. 29: 487''513. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100016. JSTOR 30036977. ^Somerville, Siobhan B. (1 October 2012). Queering the Color Line. Duke University Press. doi:10.1215/9780822378761. ^Meyer, Doug (December 2012). "An intersectional analysis of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people's evaluations of anti-queer violence". Gender & Society. Sage. 26 (6): 849''873. doi:10.1177/0891243212461299. JSTOR 41705739. ^Davis, K. (1 April 2008). "Intersectionality as buzzword: A sociology of science perspective on what makes a feminist theory successful". Feminist Theory. 9 (1): 67''85. doi:10.1177/1464700108086364. ^"Kimberl(C) Crenshaw - On Intersectionality - keynote - WOW 2016: Southbank Centre". Southbank Centre at YouTube. Retrieved 31 May 2016. ^Thompson, Becky (Summer 2002). "Multiracial feminism: recasting the chronology of Second Wave Feminism". Feminist Studies. Feminist Studies, Inc. 28 (2): 337. doi:10.2307/3178747. JSTOR 3178747. ^ abhooks, bell (2014) [1984]. Feminist theory: from margin to center (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781138821668. ^Davis, Angela Y. (1983). Women, race & class. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 9780394713519. ^ abcdefghijMcCall, Leslie (Spring 2005). "The complexity of intersectionality". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Chicago Journals. 30 (3): 1771''1800. doi:10.1086/426800. JSTOR 10.1086/426800. ^Wiegman, Robyn (2012), "Critical kinship (universal aspirations and intersectional judgements)", in Wiegman, Robyn, Object lessons, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, p. 244, ISBN 9780822351603. ^Einstein, Zillah (1978). "The Combahee River Collective Statement". Combahee River Collective. ^Norman, Brian (2007). "'We' in Redux: The Combahee River Collective's Black Feminist Statement". differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies. Duke University Press. 18 (2): 104. doi:10.1215/10407391-2007-004. ^Crenshaw, Kimberl(C) (1989). "Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics". University of Chicago Legal Forum. PhilPapers. 140: 139''167. Pdf.^Thomas, Sheila; Crenshaw, Kimberl(C) (Spring 2004). "Intersectionality: the double bind of race and gender"(PDF). Perspectives Magazine. American Bar Association. p. 2. ^DeFrancisco, Victoria P.; Palczewski, Catherine, H. (2007). Communicating gender diversity: a critical approach. Los Angeles: Sage. ISBN 9781412925594. ^ abcdeCollins, Patricia Hill (March 2000). "Gender, black feminism, and black political economy". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Sage. 568 (1): 41''53. doi:10.1177/000271620056800105. ^Collins, Patricia Hill (2009) [1990]. Black feminist thought: knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415964722. ^Brah, Avtar and Phoenix, Ann (2004). Ain't I A Woman? Revisiting Intersectionality. Journal of International Women's Studies, 5(3), 75-86^ abCooper, Anna Julia (2009) [1893]. Lemert, Charles, ed. "The Colored Woman's Office". Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings (Fourth ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press. ^hooks, bell (1982). Ain't I a woman: black women and feminism. London Boston, Massachusetts: Pluto Press South End Press. ISBN 9780861043798. ^D'Agostino, Maria; Levine, Helisse (2011), "Feminist theories and their application to public administration", in D'Agostino, Maria; Levine, Helisse, Women in public administration: theory and practice, Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning, ISBN 9780763777258. Preview.^ abcdeBelleau, Marie-Claire (2007), "'L'intersectionalit(C)': Feminisms in a divided world; Qu(C)bec-Canada", in Orr, Deborah; et al., Feminist politics: identity, difference, and agency, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, ISBN 9780742547780. ^Moraga, Cherre; Anzaldºa, Gloria (1981). This Bridge Called My Back. New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. [ISBN missing]^ ab"Circumstance. Choice. Consequence | World Pulse". World Pulse. 2016-11-18. Retrieved 2016-11-18. ^Ronquillo, T. M. (2008). Normalizing knowledge and practices.^ abcdBhattacharya, Shubha (December 2012). "Reflections on intersectionality: bell hooks". Indian Journal of Dalit and Tribal Social Work. Insight Foundation. 1 (1): 61''90. Archived from the original on 7 March 2014. Pdf.^ abcRitzer, George (2013). Contemporary sociological theory and its classical roots: the basics (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 204''207. ISBN 9780078026782. ^Rachel A. Dudley. "Confronting the Concept of Intersectionality: The Legacy of Audre Lord". scholarworks.gvsu.edu. Retrieved 17 November 2015. ^ abcdeCollins, Patricia Hill (December 1986). "Learning from the outsider within: the sociological significance of black feminist thought". Social Problems. Oxford University Press. 33 (6): s14''s32. doi:10.2307/800672. JSTOR 800672. ^"On Dark Girls". The Association of Black Psychologists. 23 June 2013. ^"Malcolm describes the difference between the 'house Negro' and the 'field Negro'". ^Hunter, Margaret (2016). "Colorism in the Classroom: How Skin Tone Stratifies African American and Latina/o Students". Theory Into Practice. 55 (1): 54''61. doi:10.1080/00405841.2016.1119019. ^Norwood, Kimberly Jade (2015). "'If You Is White, You's Alright...' Stories About Colorism in America". Washington University Global Studies Law Review. 14 (4). ^Abrams, Sil Lai (28 June 2016). "Your Blackness Isn't Like Mine: Colorism And Oppression Olympics". The Huffington Post. ^Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele (29 June 2015). "Viola Davis on Colorism in Hollywood: 'If You Are Darker Than a Paper Bag, Then You Are Not Sexy, You Are Not a Woman'". The Root. ^Hancock, 2007;[full citation needed] Holvino, 2010[full citation needed]^Jones 2003^Kelly 2009^ abViruell-Fuentes, Miranda & Abdulrahim 2012^ abLadson-Billings & Tate IV 1995^Cho, Crenshaw & McCall 2013^Levine-Rasky, 2011^"Voting Newsletter: DOJ challenges North Carolina restrictions". Brennan Center for Justice. 4 October 2013. ^Elias, Marilyn (Spring 2013). "The school-to-prison pipeline". Teaching Tolerance. Southern Poverty Law Center. 43. ^Lockhart, Lettie; Danis, Fran S. (2010). Domestic violence intersectionality and culturally competent practice. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231140270. ^Lewis, Michael B. (9 February 2012). "A facial attractiveness account of gender asymmetries in interracial marriage". PLOS ONE. Public Library of Science. 7: e31703. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031703. PMC 3276508. PMID 22347504. ^Lewis, Michael B. (January 2011). "Who is the fairest of them all? Race, attractiveness and skin color sexual dimorphism". Personality and Individual Differences. Elsevier. 50 (2): 159''162. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.09.018. ^ abPedulla, David S. (March 2014). "The positive consequences of negative stereotypes: race, sexual orientation, and the job application process". Social Psychology Quarterly. Sage. 77 (1): 75''94. doi:10.1177/0190272513506229. ^Remedios, Jessica D.; Chasteen, Alison L.; Rule, Nicholas O.; Plaks, Jason E. (November 2011). "Impressions at the intersection of ambiguous and obvious social categories: Does gay + Black = likable?". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Elsevier. 47 (6): 1312''1315. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.05.015. Further reading[edit]Bates, Laura (31 March 2014). "Sexism, double discrimination and more than one kind of prejudice". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Clarke, A. Y., & McCall, L. (2013). Intersectionality and social explanation in social science research. Du Bois review: social science research on race,10(02), 349-363.Collins, Patricia Hill; Andersen, Margaret L. (2015) [1992]. Race, class, & gender: an anthology. Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning. ISBN 9781305093614. Collins, Patricia Hill (2009) [1990]. Black feminist thought: knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415964722. Collins, Patricia Hill (1998). "The tie that binds: race, gender and US violence". Ethnic and Racial Studies. Taylor & Francis. 21 (5): 917''938. doi:10.1080/014198798329720. Crenshaw, Kimberl(C) W. (1989). "Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics". Chicago Legal Forum, special issue: Feminism in the Law: Theory, Practice and Criticism. University of Chicago. 1989: 139''167. Table of contents.Reprinted in: Crenshaw, Kimberl(C) W. (2001), "Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics", in Mabokela, Reitumetse Obakeng; Green, Anna L., Sisters of the academy: emergent Black women scholars in higher education, Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Pub, pp. 57''80, ISBN 9781579220396. Pdf of chapter.Crenshaw, Kimberl(C) W. (July 1991). "Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color". Stanford Law Review. Stanford Law Review. 43 (6): 1241''1299. doi:10.2307/1229039. Doucet, Andrea; Siltanen, Janet (2008). Gender relations in Canada: intersectionality and beyond. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195423204. Don, Giorgia (March 2013). "Interconnected modernities, ethnic relations and violence". Current Sociology, special issue: Violence and Society. Sage. 61 (2): 226''243. doi:10.1177/0011392112456507. Harnois, Catherine E. (2010). "Race, Gender, and the Black Women's Standpoint". Sociological Forum. Wiley. 25 (1): 68''85. doi:10.1111/j.1573-7861.2009.01157.x. Hancock, A. M. (2016). Intersectionality: an intellectual history. NY : Oxford University Press.K¶llen, Thomas (2014): A review of minority stress related to employees' demographics and the development of an intersectional framework for their coping strategies in the workplace. In: Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being (12), 41''82.Lee, Butch; Rover, Red (1993). Night-vision: illuminating war & class on the neo-colonial terrain. New York: Vagabond. ISBN 9781883780005. Lockhart, Lettie; Danis, Fran S. (2010). Domestic violence intersectionality and culturally competent practice. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231140270. Mann, Susan A.; Kelley, Lori R. (August 1997). "Standing at the crossroads of modernist thought: Collins, Smith, and the new feminist epistemologies". Gender & Society. Sage. 11 (4): 391''408. doi:10.1177/089124397011004002. Mann, Susan A.; Huffman, Douglas J. (January 2005). "The decentering of second wave feminism and the rise of the third wave". Science & Society, special issue: Marxist-Feminist Thought Today. Guilford Publications. 69 (1): 56''91. doi:10.1521/siso.69.1.56.56799. JSTOR 40404229. Ritzer, George; Stepinisky, Jeffrey (2013). Contemporary sociological theory and its classical roots: the basics (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780078026782. Robertson, Eleanor (23 December 2013). "In defence of intersectionality '' one of feminism's most important tools". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Schuster, Julia (September''October 2016). "Intersectional expectations: young feminists' perceived failure at dealing with differences and their retreat to individualism". Women's Studies International Forum. 58: 1''8. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2016.04.007. Smooth, Wendy (September 2006). "Intersectionality in electoral politics: a mess worth making". Politics & Gender. Cambridge Journals. 2 (3): 400''414. doi:10.1017/S1743923X06261087. Sunderland, Jane (April 2012). "'Brown Sugar': The textual construction of femininity in two 'tiny texts'". Gender and Language. Equinox. 6 (1): 105''129. doi:10.1558/genl.v6i1.105. Vidal, Ava (15 January 2014). "'Intersectional feminism'. What the hell is it? (And why you should care)". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Weldon, S. Laurel (June 2006). "The structure of intersectionality: a comparative politics of gender". Politics & Gender. Cambridge Journals. 2 (2): 235''248. doi:10.1017/S1743923X06231040. Guti(C)rrez y Muhs, Gabriella; Niemann, Yolanda Flores; Gonzlez, Carmen G.; Harris, Angela P., eds. (2012). Presumed incompetent: the intersections of race and class for women in academia. Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 9780874219227. External links[edit]
BOB BLAND | CEO + Founder of Manufacture New York Bob@ManufactureNY.org
Bob Bland is the CEO + Founder of Manufacture New York (MNY), a social enterprise that is rethinking the fashion ecosystem (design, development, distribution) and creating a new, vertically-integrated business model that will transform apparel & textile production for the 21st century. Their mission is to reawaken and rebuild America's fashion industry, foster the next wave of businesses, and create a transparent, sustainable global supply chain.
Ms. Bland founded MNY in 2012 based on her decade of experience in the New York City industry as a corporate fashion designer for Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs & Triple 5 Soul and as the founder of independent streetwear label Brooklyn Royalty. After 7 years of working with local manufacturers to produce her collection, she designed the MNY vision as a comprehensive response to the needs of post-recession fashion entrepreneurs and urban manufacturers dedicated to domestic ethical production.
An international speaker + advocate for domestic manufacturing, ethical supply chains and design entrepreneurship education, Ms. Bland has presented Manufacture New York as a case study in Copenhagen, Seoul, Los Angeles, Raleigh, Las Vegas, Washington D.C. and NYC. She has also been featured in two books, Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present & Future (2015), We Own the City (2014); the film ''Making It In America: Empowering Global Fashion;'' and multiple TV interviews including CNBC & CBS Evening News.
The office tasked with overseeing ethics and conflicts in the federal government struggled to gain access to leaders of the Trump transition team, and warned Trump aides about making decisions on nominees or blind trusts without ethics guidance, according to new emails obtained by MSNBC.
Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub emailed Trump aides in November to lament that despite his office's repeated outreach, "we seem to have lost contact with the Trump-Pence transition since the election."
Trump aides may also be risking "embarrassment for the President-elect," Shaub warned, by "announcing cabinet picks" without letting the ethics office review their financial information in advance.
The perils for White House staff were even more severe, Shaub argued, because they might begin their jobs without crucial ethics guidance, raising a risk of inadvertently breaking federal rules.
"They run the risk of having inadvertently violated the criminal conflicts of interest restriction at 18 USC 208," Shaub wrote, citing a federal conflicts law in an email to Trump Transition aide Sean Doocey.
"If we don't get involved early to prevent problems," he added, "we won't be able to help them after the fact."
Shaub also warned that if Trump tried to create his own "blind trust" without the ethics office, the effort could be dead on arrival.
Related: Trump Pushes Back Announcement on Business Conflicts of Interest
The government might decide potential trustees were not independent, he cautioned, if Trump aides talked to them "before consulting" with the ethics office.
In contrast to most proposals floated by the Trump transition team, Shraub added that the ethics office only considers a trust blind if its underlying assets have "been sold off."
In his public remarks, Trump has mostly focused on who would manage the Trump Organization. He has not suggested he would divest, or sell off its assets.
The emails were obtained through a Freedom of Information Request from MSNBC and The James Madison Project, and represented by the law office of Mark S. Zaid.
Richard Painter, former ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, says the email exchanges suggest the ethics office is "trying to touch base so they can take these issues seriously," while the Trump transition team evinces less "desire to sit down and work through the issues."
Norm Eisen, a former ethics lawyer for President Obama, offered ethics advice to Trump aides before the election, and has criticized Trump's approach to business conflicts since his victory.
"My view is that Office of Government Ethics and Director Shaub have been strong and outspoken in advocating ethics to the new administration, and this confirms it," Eisen said.
The ethics office provided hundreds of pages of material, including correspondence with and about the Trump transition team.
Much of the material reflects routine transition preparation, including ethics guidance, trainings and tutorials on how to file financial disclosures required by federal law.
The correspondence shows Trump transition officials provided financial information and email responses to the ethics office, reflecting a cooperative approach on many issues, while ethics office staff also sought more detailed and frequent interaction.
After some lapses in responses, there are government emails asking Trump officials if they "are still with the transition team," and a reference to the struggle to "pin" down Trump lawyer Don McGahn for a call. In one email, a Trump official acknowledges the "difficulty in getting touch with counsel's office," an apparent reference to reaching McGahn, who Trump has since appointed as his White House counsel.
While the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request sought materials about Trump's potential divestment from his company, that topic rarely arose in the materials, which included some redacted email.
Bradley Moss, a federal employment lawyer who oversaw the FOIA request, said that absence was concerning.
"Conspicuously absent is any evidence of the preparations allegedly being undertaken by President-Elect Trump to resolve potential conflicts of interest through some manner of divestment," Moss said.
"If the President-Elect's lawyers and compliance officers are not coordinating with OGE, who, if anyone, within the government are they coordinating on these matters?" he asked.
It is also possible that other correspondence on conflicts between Trump officials and the ethics office exists, but was withheld as privileged under federal law.
Trump announced and rescheduled a press conference to unveil more detailed plans for his business, now slated for next week.
While the email correspondence mostly shows behind-the-scenes preparations for a new administration, the apparent frustration of the ethics office with Trump spilled into public view in late November.
That is when the normally staid office posted several dramatic tweets about Trump's business plans, citing its past advice for Trump to divest.
Related: Government Ethics Office Applauds Trump Business Announcement
The tone was so unusual, some asked whether the office's account had been hacked '-- including a government relations staffer for Twitter, who contacted the office.
The newly released emails add more context, showing those tweets came after Director Walter Shaub's concerned and frustrated emails to Trump aides. As another batch of emails obtained by NPR showed, it was Shaub who personally ordered the tweet-storm, telling an aide, "post them all at once."
On Saturday, a Trump Transition official said their preparation was going well.
"President-elect Trump is putting together the most qualified administration in history and the transition process is currently running smoothly," the official said in an email to MSNBC, adding "it is disappointing some have chosen to politicize the process in order to distract from important issues facing our country."
WASHINGTON (AP) '-- Citing increasingly sophisticated cyber bad actors and an election infrastructure that's "vital to our national interests," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced Friday that he's designating U.S. election systems critical infrastructure, a move that provides more federal help for state and local governments to keep their election systems safe from tampering.
"Given the vital role elections play in this country, it is clear that certain systems and assets of election infrastructure meet the definition of critical infrastructure, in fact and in law," Johnson said in a statement. He added: "Particularly in these times, this designation is simply the right and obvious thing to do."
The determination came after months of review and despite opposition from many states worried that the designation would lead to increased federal regulation or oversight on the many decentralized and locally run voting systems across the country. It was announced on the same day a declassified U.S. intelligence report said Russian President Vladimir Putin "ordered" an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election.
The declassified report said that Russian intelligence services had "obtained and maintained access to elements of multiple U.S. state or local electoral boards." None of the systems targeted or compromised was involved in vote tallying, the report said.
A 2013 presidential directive identified 16 sectors as critical infrastructures, including energy, financial services, health care, transportation, food and agriculture and communications.
The designation announced Friday places responsibilities on the Homeland Security secretary to identify and prioritize those sectors, considering physical and cyber threats against them. The secretary is also required to conduct security checks and provide information about emerging and imminent threats.
Such a change does not require presidential action, and only requires the secretary to first consult with the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism.
Discussions about whether to designate elections systems as critical infrastructure surfaced after hackers targeted the voter registration systems of more than 20 states in the months prior to the November election.
While the designation puts responsibilities on the Department of Homeland Security, it does not require entities that are determined "critical infrastructure" to participate. Much of the nation's critical infrastructure is in the private sector.
Johnson said election infrastructure included storage facilities, polling places and vote tabulation locations, plus technology involved in the process, including voter registration databases, voting machines and other systems used to manage the election process and report and display results.
The designation allows for information to be withheld from the public when state, local and private partners meet to discuss election infrastructure security '-- potentially injecting secrecy into an election process that's traditionally and expressly a transparent process. U.S. officials say such closed door conversations allow for frank discussion that would prevent bad actors from learning about vulnerabilities. DHS would also be able to grant security clearances when appropriate and provide more detailed threat information to states.
The Obama administration has proposed international cyber rules for peacetime that would expressly note that countries shouldn't conduct online activity targeting critical infrastructure, which will now also include election systems.
President Barack Obama used sanctions last week to retaliate against Russian efforts to interfere in the U.S. election process by expanding a prior executive order that allows for their use in the case of cyberattack on critical infrastructure to entities "interfering with or undermining election processes or institutions." With election infrastructure designated as critical, an attack that takes the system down would also qualify for a response of sanctions.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, commended Johnson's action and said, "In the long term, this will put our electoral systems on a more secure footing and maintain public confidence in our elections."
Rep. Jim Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat and co-chairman of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, said in a statement that the decision "demonstrates the vital need to ensure votes can't be tampered with. We must also act as a nation to build our resilience against future information warfare attacks."
Georgia Secretary of State Brian P. Kemp, who is a member of the U.S. Election Infrastructure Cybersecurity Working Group run by DHS, is among those who have opposed the designation. Testifying in September to a House Oversight subcommittee, Kemp said more federal oversight could make systems more vulnerable and could make protected records more accessible.
When Johnson discussed the likelihood of the designation in a conference call with state officials on Thursday, Kemp called the action "a federal overreach into a sphere constitutionally reserved for the states." According to a copy of his comments released by his office, Kemp told Johnson on the phone that "this smacks of partisan politics" given the dwindling days left in the Obama administration.
Kemp has appealed to President-elect Donald Trump to investigate "failed cyberattacks" on the Georgia secretary of state's network that traced to the Department of Homeland Security, calling the department's technical explanations insufficient.
___
Follow Tami Abdollah on Twitter at https://twitter.com/latams
Executive Order -- Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities | whitehouse.gov
TAKING ADDITIONAL STEPS TO ADDRESS THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO SIGNIFICANT MALICIOUS CYBER-ENABLED ACTIVITIES
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, in order to take additional steps to deal with the national emergency with respect to significant malicious cyber-enabled activities declared in Executive Order 13694 of April 1, 2015, and in view of the increasing use of such activities to undermine democratic processes or institutions, hereby order:
Section 1. Section 1(a) of Executive Order 13694 is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 1. (a) All property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:
(i) the persons listed in the Annex to this order;
(ii) any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged in, directly or indirectly, cyber-enabled activities originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States that are reasonably likely to result in, or have materially contributed to, a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States and that have the purpose or effect of:
(A) harming, or otherwise significantly compromising the provision of services by, a computer or network of computers that support one or more entities in a critical infrastructure sector;
(B) significantly compromising the provision of services by one or more entities in a critical infrastructure sector;
(C) causing a significant disruption to the availability of a computer or network of computers;
(D) causing a significant misappropriation of funds or economic resources, trade secrets, personal identifiers, or financial information for commercial or competitive advantage or private financial gain; or
(E) tampering with, altering, or causing a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes or institutions; and
(iii) any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State:
(A) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged in, the receipt or use for commercial or competitive advantage or private financial gain, or by a commercial entity, outside the United States of trade secrets misappropriated through cyber-enabled means, knowing they have been misappropriated, where the misappropriation of such trade secrets is reasonably likely to result in, or has materially contributed to, a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States;
(B) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, any activity described in subsections (a)(ii) or (a)(iii)(A) of this section or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order;
(C) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or
(D) to have attempted to engage in any of the activities described in subsections (a)(ii) and (a)(iii)(A)-(C) of this section."
Sec. 2. Executive Order 13694 is further amended by adding as an Annex to Executive Order 13694 the Annex to this order.
Sec. 3. Executive Order 13694 is further amended by redesignating section 10 as section 11 and adding a new section 10 to read as follows:
"Sec. 10. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to determine that circumstances no longer warrant the blocking of the property and interests in property of a person listed in the Annex to this order, and to take necessary action to give effect to that determination."
Sec. 4. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
Sec. 5. This order is effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on December 29, 2016.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,December 28, 2016.
Letter from the President -- Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities | whitehouse.gov
TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENTTO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESAND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
December 28, 2016
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order (the "order") that takes additional steps to address the increasing use of significant malicious cyber-enabled activities to undermine democratic processes or institutions. These steps have been taken with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13694 of April 1, 2015.
The order amends section 1(a) of Executive Order 13694 by providing authority for blocking the property and interests in property of any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged in, directly or indirectly, cyber-enabled activities originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States that are reasonably likely to result in, or have materially contributed to, a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States and that have the purpose or effect of tampering with, altering, or causing a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes or institutions. The order also blocks the property and interests in property of the persons listed in the Annex to the order.
I have delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury the authority, in consultation with the Attorney General and Secretary of State, to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the order. All agencies of the United States Government are directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of the order.
I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.
PhotoCampbell Brown said on Facebook that her new role would ''help news organizations and journalists work more closely and more effectively'' with the social media site.Credit via FacebookFacebook is turning to a former television news journalist to help smooth over its strained ties to the news media, which views it as both a vital partner and a potentially devastating opponent.
It has hired Campbell Brown, a former NBC News correspondent and CNN prime-time host, to lead its news partnerships team, starting immediately.
The position is a new one for Facebook. In the role, Ms. Brown will ''help news organizations and journalists work more closely and more effectively with Facebook,'' she wrote on her Facebook page on Friday afternoon.
The addition of Ms. Brown comes as Facebook is struggling with its position as a content provider that does not produce its own content '-- that is, as a platform, not a media company.
Facebook's ambivalence in applying editorial judgment to the information coursing through its site has repeatedly drawn the company into trouble.
In the past few months, Facebook has faced criticism for giving too much prominence to fake news; for censoring as offensive an iconic Vietnam War photograph of a naked girl fleeing a bombing attack; and for allegations that members of its ''trending topics'' team, which is now disbanded, penalized news of interest to conservatives. In recent months, Facebook has taken several steps to try to limit the exposure of fake news on its site, including working with a group of news organizations.
Facebook executives emphasized that Ms. Brown's role was not to act as the sort of editor in chief that some commentators, including Margaret Sullivan, the Washington Post media columnist, have said it needs. They said she would not be involved in content decisions.
Rather, they said, she will work as a liaison with news organizations so that Facebook can better meet their journalistic and business imperatives and lessen some of their suspicion about the social media giant.
In recent years, Ms. Brown has emerged as a major player in the pitched political battles over charter schools, prominently clashing with teachers' unions while coming out against teachers' tenure. She is married to Dan Senor, a Republican foreign policy adviser and former White House adviser, who is making his own media foray with a bid to buy the Israeli financial newspaper Globes. And during the campaign Ms. Brown was critical of Donald J. Trump.
But Facebook executives said they were hiring Ms. Brown for her understanding of the news industry as a onetime White House correspondent, co-anchor of ''Weekend Today'' and primary substitute anchor of ''Nightly News'' at NBC News, and prime-time anchor on CNN, which she left in 2010.
Some commentators noted Ms. Brown's ties to the Republican donor Betsy DeVos, Mr. Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Education. Ms. DeVos's family foundation funds The 74, an education-focused journalism site co-founded and led by Ms. Brown.
In a post to the site on Friday, Ms. Brown said she was stepping away from her daily editorial role at The 74, but will remain on the company's board of directors.
Facebook declined to comment beyond Ms. Brown's original post on Facebook.
The social media site's relationship with the news media is, at best, in frenemy territory.
The company relies on major news organizations '-- including The New York Times '-- for reliable news content. News organizations, in turn, rely on Facebook for distribution to its 1.8 billion users, who are increasingly turning to its news feed for information instead of to news organizations' own home pages.
That shift has allowed Facebook to eat up a huge share of the online advertising market, contributing to devastating consequences for the ad-supported news organizations. So, Facebook has gotten double blame in recent months for enabling the circulation of false news items while contributing to the financial pressures that are causing the continuing, national wave of newsroom buyouts and layoffs.
Facebook executives said Ms. Brown would help find better accommodations between Facebook and its journalistic partners so that both find the partnerships equally worthwhile '-- whether through Facebook Live, its Instant Articles feature or its news feed.
The company does have some seasoned journalists in its ranks. But it does not have any in a senior position working on its newsroom partnerships, contributing to a disconnect between the company and news organizations when discussing how to collaborate on projects.
A version of this article appears in print on January 7, 2017, on Page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: Facebook Hires Former NBC Correspondent to Lead News Partnerships Team.
Campbell Brown was born Alma Dale Campbell Brown in Ferriday, Louisiana, the daughter of the former Louisiana Democratic State Senator and Secretary of State James H. Brown Jr., and Brown's first wife, Dale Campbell.[1][2] Alma Dale was her maternal grandmother's name.[5]
Brown was raised as a Roman Catholic,[6][7] though her father is a Presbyterian. She has two sisters.[8]
Brown grew up in Ferriday, Louisiana, and attended the Trinity Episcopal Day School. Her family was involved in hunting, politics, and cooking, "It was all about Cajun and tight-knit families and big parties," according to Brown.[9]
She was expelled from the Madeira School for sneaking off campus to go to a party.[10] Brown attended Louisiana State University for two years before graduating from Regis University. After graduation, she spent a year teaching English in Czechoslovakia.[11] In her 2006 wedding announcement in the New York Times, she was described as having "spent her postcollege years as a Colorado ski bum." [9]
She began her career in local news reporting for KSNT-TV, the NBC affiliate in Topeka, Kansas, and then for WWBT-TV, the NBC affiliate in Richmond, Virginia, and also reported for WBAL-TV in Baltimore, Maryland, and WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. Brown joined NBC News in 1996. She was later assigned to The Pentagon and covered the war in Kosovo. Before Weekend Today, she was the White Housecorrespondent for NBC News.
Presidential election coverage in 2000EditDuring the 2000 U.S. presidential election, she covered George W. Bush, the Republican National Convention, and Republican party primary elections. She became the main substitute anchor for Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News.
In March 2006, Brown was named as one of five women who might replace Katie Couric when she left the Today Show. The position went to Meredith Vieira.
Move to CNNEditBrown announced July 22, 2007, on Weekend Today, that she would be leaving NBC News after 11 years to devote time to her family and expected baby. CNN confirmed it had hired Brown, and that Brown would start work for CNN in February 2008 (originally November 2007), filling the spot previously held by Paula Zahn, who left the network. Brown began anchoring CNN Election Center, which ran from February through October 2008.[12] The show was renamed Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull in October 2008, shortly before the election in order to ensure a smooth transition when the election was over. Roland Martin filled in as guest host in April and May 2009 while Brown took maternity leave. When she returned in June 2009, the show was renamed again to simply Campbell Brown.
Interviews during the 2008 election seasonEditOn September 1, 2008, Brown conducted a controversial interview with Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, concerning Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Brown questioned Palin's executive experience and asked for examples of decisions Palin had made as the commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard. Bounds did not name an example, but he stated that Palin had more executive experience than Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama. The McCain campaign later accused Brown of anti-Republican/anti-McCain bias, and said she had "gone over the line."[13]
DepartureEditIn the face of low ratings, CNN released Brown from her contract. On May 18, 2010, Brown announced that she would be leaving CNN. In a statement that was described as "very heartfelt and candid,"[14] she wrote, "I knew on the day that I accepted my job at CNN that a ratings victory at 8pm was going to be a formidable challenge... due to the incredible talents of my 8pm competitors." Since "the ratings for my program are not where I would like them to be," she wrote, "I am stepping down as anchor of CNN's 'Campbell Brown'." She added, "I could have said, that I am stepping down to spend more time with my children (which I truly want to do). Or that I am leaving to pursue other opportunities (which I also truly want to do). But I have never had much tolerance for others' spin, so I can't imagine trying to stomach my own. The simple fact is that not enough people want to watch my program, and I owe it to myself and to CNN to get out of the way so that CNN can try something else.'' While praising her cable competitors, ''the indomitable Bill O'Reilly, Nancy Grace and Keith Olbermann,'' Brown said that ''Shedding my own journalistic skin to try to inhabit the kind of persona that might co-exist in that line up is simply impossible for me. It is not who I am or who I want to be; nor is it who CNN asked me to be at any point. This is the right decision for me and I hope it will be a great opportunity for CNN.''[14]
She later told the Los Angeles Times that she had originally hoped that a straight news program like hers could compete successfully against the opinion-driven shows of her competitors, Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann. But she now recognized that ''People are drawn to the echo chamber, and they want to have their opinions validated more often than they want to have their opinions challenged.''[15] Olbermann responded by naming Brown as a runner-up in his daily ''Worst Person In The World'' segment.[16]
Brown's last day at CNN was on July 21, 2010. Beginning on July 22, her 8:00 p.m. prime time slot was filled by a second hour of Rick Sanchez's Rick's List TV program.[17] In October, the show Parker Spitzer debuted at the 8:00 p.m. time slot.
Post-CNN journalismEditAfter leaving CNN, Brown began writing opinion pieces for publications that included The New York Times,[18][19]The Wall Street Journal,[20]The Daily Beast[21] and Slate.[22] Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol proposed that Brown run for Charles Schumer's Senate seat.[23]
In May 2012, Brown published a New York Times op-ed in which she criticized President Obama for sounding ''paternalistic'' when he speaks of women. Noting his repeated practice of describing women as ''smarter than men,'' she commented: ''It's all so tired, the kind of fake praise showered upon those one views as easy to impress.'' Brown added that the women of her acquaintance ''who are struggling in this economy couldn't be further from the fictional character of Julia, presented in Mr. Obama's Web ad, 'The Life of Julia,' a silly and embarrassing caricature based on the assumption that women look to government at every meaningful phase of their lives for help.'' Brown outlined the lives of relatives of hers who have rescued from business failure by ''Friends and family, not government.''[24] On November 12, 2015, she appeared as a guest co-host of Bloomberg Politics With All Due Respect from the GOP debate from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In a June 23, 2012, op-ed, Brown wrote that Planned Parenthood had a ''shrinking number of defenders'' and had ''only itself to blame'' for its situation, given that it had ''adopted a strategy driven by blind partisanship.'' Brown cited the case of GOP Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who despite her support for funding for Planned Parenthood had not won the endorsement of the group.[25]
In January 2017, Facebook announced that Brown would be joining to lead the company's news partnerships team.[26]
Brown has become an outspoken advocate for school choice and "education reform".[27] In June 2013, Brown founded the Parents Transparency Project,[28] a nonprofit watchdog group on behalf of parents seeking information and accountability from the teachers' unions and New York Department of Education on actions impacting children in schools. The group, working with the New York Daily News,[29] investigated and reported on school employees who were accused of sexual misconduct with children but still kept their jobs.
In a January 2014 op-ed, Brown criticized teachers' unions for failing to support a bill before Congress that would require more stringent background checks for teachers. Noting that 97 tenured New York City teachers or school employees had been charged with sexual misconduct during the previous five years, she complained that while ordinary employers would exhibit zero tolerance toward such offenders, New York law required an elaborate, expensive process that involves the participation of the teachers' unions, which ''prefer suspensions and fines, and not dismissal, for teachers charged with inappropriate sexual conduct.''[30] United Federation of Teachers vice president Leo Carey disputed Brown's account of this process and its outcome, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg agreed with Brown, saying that ''maybe if you were a serial ax murderer, you might get a slap on the wrist.''[31]
In April 2014, Brown launched the website CommonSenseContract.com, to influence New York City's contract talks with the United Federation of Teachers. Brown stated, "We want the Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers to consider the views of parents."[32]
Brown has also focused on reforming teacher tenure policies through the judicial system. She wrote a number of op-eds voicing her support for the successful Vergara v. California case in 2014, which overturned California's teacher tenure, dismissal, and seniority policies. Brown called Vergara ''the most important case you've never heard of'', and praised the plaintiffs' efforts, saying they were ''[taking] aim at laws that go directly to the heart of a good education: the ability to have, keep, and respect good teachers and dismiss utterly failing ones.''[33] She celebrated Vergara as ''A historic victory for America's kids'' and previewed the national ramifications of the ruling, saying, ''It would be no surprise to see parents in New York and elsewhere take the cue of the Vergara plaintiffs and take matters into their own hands.''[34]
Partnership for Educational JusticeEditIn June 2014, Brown founded the non-profit organization Partnership for Educational Justice,[35] which aims to help students, families and communities advocate for public school reform through coalition building and legal action.[36] Brown explained, ''As a journalist, I spent my professional life helping people tell their stories '' and now as a parent, I'm advocating for these families to have their voices heard.''[37]
In its first major endeavor, Brown's group helped nine New York families organize and file a lawsuit against New York state, challenging the state's teacher tenure, teacher dismissal, and ''Last In, First Out'' seniority statutes.[38] In Wright v. New York, filed in New York City on July 28, 2014, the plaintiffs claim that these teacher tenure, dismissal, and seniority policies violated their children's state constitutional right to a ''sound basic education''. Brown said she hoped that taking the issue of teacher tenure reform to the courts would ''force a new legislative process'' around New York's tenure policies.[39]
In September 2014, the case was consolidated with another lawsuit challenging New York tenure laws, and now is in litigation as Davids v. New York.[40] The case is ongoing.[41]
In May 2016, the Partnership for Educational Justice became involved in a lawsuit against Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius, Governor Mark Dayton, the Minnesota Department of Education and the state of Minnesota, stemming from a teacher tenure dispute in the Anoka-Hennepin School District which claims in part that Minnesota's Continuing Contract Law and Tenure Act, in particular its "last in, first out" layoff rules, is unconstitutional on the grounds that it denies students a "'uniform' and 'thorough' education".[42]
The 74EditIn July 2015, Brown co-founded The 74,[43] a non-profit, non-partisan news site covering education in America; it gets its name from the fact that there are roughly 74 million children under the age of 18 in the United States.
On April 2, 2006, Brown married Daniel Samuel Senor, the former chief spokesperson for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.[8][47] Senor is also a former advisor to Mitt Romney and close associate of Paul Singer, Republican power broker and charter school supporter.[48] They had met in Iraq in March 2004, when Senor was spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad and Brown was one of the journalists covering his daily news conferences. After Senor returned to Washington in 2004, Brown called him. "I was wildly, wildly curious about his experience in Iraq," she later said. According to the New York Times, "their first date was a group dinner, with Tom Brokaw and another journalist." Senor and Brown married at the Beaver Creek Chapel in Beaver Creek, Colorado.[9] Brown converted to Judaism, her husband's faith.[6][49][50] Brown had been married before, briefly, to a Washington, D.C., real estate broker.[10] That marriage ended in divorce.[9]
On June 24, 2007, Brown announced on Weekend Today that she and her husband were expecting their first baby.[51] On December 18, 2007, Brown gave birth to their son, Eli James Senor, named after his grandfather, James Senor.
In an August 2008 article, Brown addressed charges that her marriage to Senor, who at the time was working as an advisor for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, represented a conflict of interest for her as a journalist. Brown noted that such marriages were commonplace in Washington, with NBC reporters Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell married to a Democratic consultant and Alan Greenspan, respectively.[52]
On October 27, 2008, during a guest appearance on The Daily Show, Brown announced her second pregnancy.[53] On April 6, 2009, Brown gave birth to her second son, Asher Liam Senor. She returned from maternity leave on June 1.[54]
^ ab"Famous Ferridians". The Town of Ferriday. ^ ab"Campbell Brown (II)". IMDB. Retrieved May 21, 2010. ^"Nominees for the News and Documentary Emmy Awards". National Television Academy. [dead link]^"Dan Senor & Campbell Brown (profile)". Greater Talent Network Speakers Bureau. [dead link]^Clehane, Diane (February 26, 2007). "So What Do You Do, Campbell Brown?". Mobile Media News. Retrieved July 25, 2007. ^ ab[1][dead link]^Interfaith Celebrities: CNN's Intermarried Beauties and E!'s Interfaith Ingenue By Nate BloomArchived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. September 6, 2007^ abBrady, Lois Smith (April 9, 2006). "Weddings & Celebrations: Campbell Brown and Dan Senor". New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2007. ^ abcdBrady, Lois. "WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS: VOWS; Campbell Brown and Dan Senor". New York Times. 2014 The New York Times Company. Retrieved August 21, 2014. ^ abSt. John, Warren (November 23, 2003). "A Potential Contender In a Post-Couric Derby". The New York Times. Retrieved February 6, 2010. ^"Anchors & Reporters: Campbell Brown". CNN. Archived from the original on July 11, 2008. Retrieved October 22, 2008. ^"Campbell Brown Quietly Begins Her Tenure At CNN". StarPulse.com. March 31, 2008. Retrieved May 13, 2008. [dead link]^Brown, Campbell (September 5, 2008). "Brown: Tucker Bounds interview becomes lightning rod". CNN. ^ ab"Campbell Brown Leaving CNN". Media Bistro. Media Bistro. Retrieved August 28, 2014. ^Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/31entertainment/la-et-cnn-20100531. Retrieved August 1, 2014. [dead link]^"Olbermann SLAMS 'Lame Duck' Campbell Brown". TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. Retrieved August 28, 2014. ^"Rick Sanchez: Rick's List Moving to 8 PM '' TVNewser". Mediabistro.com. 2010-07-12. Retrieved 2014-08-03. [dead link]^"Obama: Stop Condescending to Women". The New York Times. nytimes.com.org. Retrieved July 19, 2013. ^"Planned Parenthood's Self-Destructive Behavior". The New York Times. nytimes.com.org. Retrieved July 19, 2013. ^"Campbell Brown: Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/. Retrieved July 19, 2013. ^"Campbell Brown: Keep Newtown Off the Culture War Battlefield". The Daily Beast. thedailybeast.com/. Retrieved July 19, 2013. ^"Confessions of a Romney Wife". Slate. Slate.com/. Retrieved July 19, 2013. ^Shea, Danny. "Bill Kristol: Campbell Brown For Senate". The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. Retrieved August 28, 2014. ^Campbell, Brown. "Obama: Stop Condescending to Women". New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved August 28, 2014. ^Brown, Campbell. "Planned Parenthood's Self-Destructive Behavior". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved August 29, 2014. ^Rutenberg, Jim (2017-01-06). "Facebook Hires Campbell Brown to Lead News Partnerships Team". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-01-06. ^Farhi, Paul (July 14, 2014). "Campbell Brown goes after teacher tenure in transition from journalist to advocate". The Washington Post. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 30, 2015. ^"The Parents' Transparency Project". The Parents' Transparency Project. parentstransparency.org/. Retrieved July 19, 2013. [dead link]^"Sex predators remain in NYC schools thanks to discipline system, group finds". New York Daily News. NYDailyNews.com/. Retrieved July 19, 2013. ^Brown, Campbell. "Keeping Sex Predators Out of Schoolrooms". The Wall Street journal. Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Retrieved August 29, 2014. ^"Leo Casey, UFT Vice President, Accuses Michael Bloomberg, Campbell Brown Of 'Blood Libel'". The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. Retrieved August 29, 2014. ^Chapman, Ben. "Former CNN journalist launches website to influence city's contract talks with teachers union". New York Daily News. New York Daily News. Retrieved August 30, 2014. ^"Vergara v. California: The Most Important Court Case You've Never Heard Of". The Daily Beast. ^Brown, Campbell. "A historic victory for America's kids". NYDailyNews.com. NYDailyNews.com. Retrieved August 30, 2014. ^"Partnership for Educational Justice". ^"Our Mission". Partnership for Educational Justice. Retrieved May 15, 2015. ^"New York Families Announce a Historic Lawsuit Challenging Teacher Tenure Laws". Partnership for Educational Justice. Partnership for Educational Justice. Retrieved May 15, 2015. ^"New York Lawsuit". Partnership for Educational Justice. Partnership for Educational Justice. Retrieved May 15, 2015. ^"New York State Challenge Planned on Teacher Tenure Law". Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 15, 2015. ^"New York City Teacher Tenure Dispute in Court". Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 15, 2015. ^"NY Teacher Tenure May Continue". Education Week. Education Week. Retrieved May 15, 2015. ^Alveshere, Olivia (May 18, 2016). "Anoka-Hennepin parent is lead plaintiff in suit challenging teacher tenure provisions statewide". ABC Newspapers. ECM Publishers, Inc. Archived from the original on May 20, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2016. ^"The Seventy Four". The Seventy Four. The Seventy Four. Retrieved August 26, 2015. ^"Board of Directors". Success Academies. Retrieved January 13, 2016. ^"Turn Around USA". Turn Around USA Charter Schools. turnaroundusa.org/. Retrieved July 19, 2013. ^IWMF website "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 4, 2010. Retrieved 2016-01-30. ^Silverman, Stephen M. (April 2, 2006). "NBC's Campbell Brown Gets Married". People. People.com. ^"Mother Crusader". ^"Power couple discusses politics, war and marriage". Cleveland Jewish News. October 25, 2007. [dead link]^New Jersey Jewish News: "Former CNN anchor recalls journey to Judaism 'I was not supposed to go without shellfish,' jokes Campbell Brown" by Robert WienerArchived May 17, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. November 9, 2011^Silverman, Stephen M. (June 25, 2007). "NBC's Campbell Brown to Be a Mom". People. Retrieved July 5, 2007. ^Brown, Campbell. "Confessions of a Romney Wife". 2014 The Slate Group LLC. Retrieved August 22, 2014. ^"Campbell Brown Pregnant '' TVNewser". Mediabistro.com. 2008-10-27. Retrieved 2014-08-03. [dead link]^"Campbell Brown Welcomes Baby Asher Liam Senor". The Huffington Post. April 6, 2009. Retrieved April 6, 2009. ^"The Characters". American Foundation for Equal Rights. afer.org. Retrieved March 19, 2012.
The leader of Italy's populist, euro sceptic 5-Star Movement (M5S), Beppe Grillo, said on Tuesday that ''journalists are in the business of manufacturing false news.''
He added that their work should be judged by a randomly chosen popular jury.
''Newspapers and TV news are the prime fabricators of fake news with the purpose of helping those in power to maintain their position'', Grillo said.
The statement by the founder, leader, and self-appointed ''guarantor'' of the M5S prompted private TG La7 TV news director Enrico Mentana to say he will sue the comedian in court.
''While we wait for a popular jury, I suggest Grillo get himself a lawyer,'' Mentana wrote on Facebook, calling Grillo's allegations ''an irredeemable offence''.
The comedian's attack on the media came as M5S rank and file voted on Grillo's proposed new internal code of ethics, which takes a more lenient stance on party members involved in investigations.
Critics of the comedian quickly dubbed the new code a ''save-Raggi'' measure after Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi, whose right-hand man Raffaele Marra was arrested in December on suspicion of taking bribes from a real estate developer.
Raggi is widely believed to be next in line for investigation after a December 21 finding by Italy's National Anti-corruption Authority (ANAC) that Marra had a conflict of interests in the promotion of his brother, Renato Marra, from deputy traffic police chief to city tourism department head.
If Raggi comes under investigation, under current M5S rules she would have to step down or at least suspend herself.
However her administration is seen as a test case for the M5S's ability to lead the country, and a failure in Rome could spell doom for its government ambitions.
The M5S is Italy's second-largest party after Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni's center-left, pro-EU Democratic Party (PD), and claims that unlike Italy's traditional parties it is untainted by corruption and cronyism.
Online voting on Grillo's new ethics code ends at 7 pm (dpa/NAN)
Leave a commentTags:Italy, Journalist, NANUjuUju Valarie Ubatu, is a graduate of computer science, She is very vast on internet research and has a zeal for acquiring information from as many sources as possible.She loves to travel, meet people and watch programmes on TV.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Esteban Santiago, the accused killer at the crowded baggage claim area of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, told the FBI in November that the government controlled his mind and forced him to watch ISIS videos.
The 26-year-old former combat engineer was born in New Jersey and raised in Puerto Rico. His brother, Bryan Santiago, lives in Penuela, where they grew up. He told reporters their father died, while his brother was serving overseas in the military.
His maternal aunt, Maria Ruiz, who lives in Union City, told reporters in New Jersey that he wasn't the same when he came back from Iraq.
"He lost his mind," Ruiz said in Spanish, as she referred to a psychiatric hospitalization that occurred after he allegedly suffered from hallucinations.
Federal law enforcement officials investigated Santiago last year. He told FBI agents that he heard voices in his head that told him to watch Islamic State materials, but he said he was in control and had no intention of hurting anyone, according to The New York Times.
His girlfriend and his co-workers warned authorities about Santiago's struggles.
Records show Santiago had three driver's licenses from Alaska, New York and Puerto Rico. When he was arrested for the shooting that killed five, wounded eight and turned the Fort Lauderdale airport into chaos, he had a pending criminal case in Anchorage, Alaska. He was due in court in March.
After Santiago's military service in Puerto Rico and Alaska from Dec. 14, 2007 to August 2016, the former Army private first class was still undergoing psychological treatment, according to relatives.
"When he came out of Iraq, he wasn't feeling too good," his uncle Hernando Rivera told the Bergen Record newspaper.
Santiago served in Iraq with the Puerto Rican National Guard's 13th Engineer Battalion from April 23, 2010 to Feb. 19, 2011. The Pentagon said Santiago had gone AWOL several times during his stint with the Alaska National Guard and was demoted from specialist to private first class.
He was discharged for "unsatisfactory performance" and was given a general discharge under honorable conditions, which is lower than an honorable discharge.
Santiago's brother told reporters in Puerto Rico and New York that after his military service, Santiago went back to school and when he couldn't find work in Puerto Rico, he moved to Alaska, where he was arrested in January.
Santiago was the father of a baby, who was born in September, Ruiz told Telemundo in New York.
Santiago's brother also said he had been getting into "fights with a lot of people." Police officers with the Anchorage Police Department responded to a domestic-violence incident. Prosecutors charged him with misdemeanor counts of property damage and assault and one count was dismissed.
On Friday, Santiago checked a bag with a firearm before boarding a Delta Air Lines flight from Alaska to Minneapolis. His final destination was Fort Lauderdale. When he arrived and grabbed his luggage, he walked into the men's restroom to load the weapon.
He walked to the baggage claim area, where witnesses said he pulled the trigger and appeared to be aiming at victims' heads. Witnesses said Santiago didn't say a word. He shot his weapon until he ran out of ammunition. He threw the gun down and laid spread-eagle on the ground until a Broward Sheriffs' Office deputy came up to him.
Travelers ran for cover. Authorities shut down the airport. Families rushed to Broward Health Medical Center desperate for news about their loved ones.
The bloodshed is likely to raise questions of whether aviation safety officials need to change the rules.
The attack also exposed another weak point in airport security: While travelers have to take off their shoes, put their carry-on luggage through X-ray machines and pass through metal detectors to reach the gates, many other sections of airports, such as ticket counters and baggage claim areas, are more lightly secured and more vulnerable to attack.
George Piro is a Beirut-born Assyrian-AmericanSpecial Agent in Charge (SAC) at the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Miami Field Office. He was the Team Leader and Lead Interrogator of the Saddam Hussein Interrogation Team.[1][2]
The television show 60 Minutes revealed in January 2008 that he had secretly gained the confidence of Saddam Hussein while interrogating Hussein while he was imprisoned after the second war in Iraq.[3] During his conversations with the former dictator, Piro reported that Hussein had not expected a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Piro also confirmed through their discussions that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction at the time of the U.S. invasion in 2003, but that Hussein would not give up attempts to obtain them in order to secure his country from the perceived threat posed by Iran and its weapons program. Further, any links to Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were denied, as Hussein held himself as a secular ruler and did not believe in the creation of an Islamic state.[4]
Born in Lebanon of Assyrian heritage, Piro is the son of Mr. & Mrs. Lazar Piro who immigrated to Turlock, California during the Lebanese Civil War when he was 12 years old. Turlock is located in California's San Joaquin Valley, which has a large Assyrian population.[5] After he graduated from high school, Piro enlisted in the United States Air Force and served as a security policeman.[6] After his service in the U.S. Air Force, he began his career in law enforcement with the City of Ceres Police Department in 1989. He went to night school to earn a college degree.[7] Working his way up the ranks in the Ceres Police Department, Piro became a Criminal Investigator II for the Stanislaus CountyDistrict Attorney's office, where he investigated felony cases involving career criminals and was assigned to the Stanislaus County Drug Enforcement Agency. In 1999, he began his career with the FBI and was assigned to the Phoenix Field Office.[1]
He speaks English, Arabic and Aramaic (Assyrian) fluently as well as French.[8] As a relatively new agent (he only had 5 years of experience with the Bureau before being given the assignment to interrogate Saddam), Piro's fluency in Arabic opened high-level opportunities for him during the Iraq War, at a time when approximately 1 in 1000 FBI special agents spoke the language.[4]
By 2007, Piro was serving as Supervisor of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in the Washington Field Office.[1] Piro was listed as being a Special Agent in the FBI Field Office in Miami in January 2017 when he served as the agency's spokesman concerning the FBI's investigation of Fort Lauderdale Airport shooter Esteban Santiago.[9]
References[edit]^ abc"Congressional Record, V. 153, Part 19, October 1, 2007 to October 16, 2007". Government Printing Office '' via Google Books. ^"Daily News". New York. ^Pelley, Scott (2008-01-27). "Interrogator Shares Saddam's Confessions". CBS News. Retrieved 2008-02-08. ^ ab"Inside: Interrogating Saddam", National Geographic, 2010.^Graff, Garrett M. (28 March 2011). "The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror". Little, Brown '' via Google Books. ^http://www.washingtonian.com/print/articles/6/174/18975.html^"Interrogator Shares Saddam's Confessions". CBS News. ^http://www.lcnj.com/Lebanese-Newsletter-February-2008.htm^"Fort Lauderdale airport shooter 'came here specifically' to attack, FBI says". 7 January 2017. External links[edit]
As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
There is going to be screaming again about American gun laws over the terror event in Florida involving Esteban Santiago who was birthed in New Jersey, but there is something incredibly wrong with this case in Santiago was transporting an illegal weapon through Canada.
As the MSM never reports the vital facts, the above photo is of Santiago holding a handgun, which is probably the weapon in Florida, but it appears even with distortion a large caliber in a 40 +. It looks like a 45 caliber in a concealed carry, and not a 10 mm in the big package handguns. In others words, this gun hurt to shoot.
The Canadian connection is important as Canada REQUIRES permits to transport firearms through Canada, and any handgun which is less than a 4 inch barrel, is not allowed to be brought into or leave Canada.In whatever the situation, Canada has lengthy permits and feeds to transport firearms, and this gun came through Canada from Alaska, and this looks like a big bore, short barrel concealed carry, which Canada should have seized, as Canada seizes coal burning stoves in being so paranoid of metal and smoke.
Santiago also in Pizzagate Pedo, as he had a travel restriction with the TSA, meaning he was a sexual pervert.
This Podesta voter should have been flagged in Alaska boarding, in Canada, and when he entered Florida as he is a sex offender, but in Obama trans sexuals into little girls bathrooms, Santiago was not detained.If one examines the above, Esteban was convicted guilty in 2002 in New York, yes liberal Governor Cuomo of perversion, in case number 2002 - 38438.
In this, one can see this perv 4 aliases he is operating under.
Esteban Santiago has nothing to do with gun owners, the US military in the weekend warriors, but is the Podesta Pedo Pizzagate voter, in one can ascertain he appears to be a Puerto Rican gangbanger, tossing around expired military credentials and while "sexual abuse in the second degree" is a misdemeanor, meaning the person Santiago attacked was most likely passed out, this is an Obama Clinton voter to the hilt.If this perv had been charged as he should of and not coddled, it would have been a felony and none of Florida would have happened.
Things though are not right, as once again we have a second shooter reported like in all of these cases, in it appears another Sirhan Sirhan candidate, and this is aimed at stopping gun control repeals, in something was done to this candidate's mind.
The story fades.
agtG
Shut Up Slave!
Norway warned plan to switch off FM radio will 'cut off millions'
Norway is to become the first country to shut down its FM radio network, despite concerns that millions are not ready for the switch to digital.
Critics have warned it is both risky and unpopular, not least because an estimated two million cars on Norwegian roads are not equipped with DAB receivers.
There are also fears that elderly and vulnerable people, often cut off by fjords and mountains, may be left unable to receive emergency warnings - traditionally broadcast on FM.
A poll by a national newspaper in December found that 66% of Norwegians were opposed to the switchover, and only 17% were in favour.
The change is being pushed through regardless, and the northern city of Bodoe will be first to go DAB-only on Wednesday.
Norway's parliament voted in favour of switching off FM radio after hearing it would lead to a greater choice of radio stations, as well as clearer sound.
But Ib Thomsen, an MP from the Progress Party, said: "We are simply not ready for this yet.
"There are two million cars on Norwegian roads that don't have DAB receivers, and millions of radios in Norwegian homes will stop working when the FM network is switched off. So there is definitely a safety concern."
Ole Joergen, head of Digital Radio Norway, has admitted that cars will be the "biggest challenge" because a good digital adapter for an FM car radio costs about 1,500 Norwegian crowns (£142).
Other countries will be watching with great interest, with Switzerland planning to retire its FM network in 2020.
The UK government says it will consider a switchover once 50% of listeners are using a digital radio - a milestone which analysts say could be reached by the end of this year.
NA-Tech News
54% of organizations have not advanced their GDPR compliance readiness
More than half of organizations have failed to begin any work on meeting minimum General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance, according to a study conducted by Vanson Bourne.
Intended to harmonize data security, retention and governance legislation across European Union (EU) member states, GDPR requires greater oversight of where and how sensitive data'--including personal, credit card, banking and health information'--is stored and transferred, and how access to it is policed and audited by organizations. GDPR will not only affect companies within the EU, but extend globally to the U.S. and other countries, impacting any company that conducts business in the region or with an EU organization.
The research findings from The Global Databerg Report'--which surveyed more than 2,500 senior technology decision makers in 2016 across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the U.S. and Asia Pacific'--reveal 54 percent of organizations have not advanced their GDPR compliance readiness.
With a quarter of the EU's grace period over before the legislation takes effect in May 2018, the responses bring into focus a number of operational, compliance and planning issues, in particular the ownership of GDPR processes and the ability to implement data cleansing policies and end of life requirements.
Unclear Executive Ownership of GDPRFindings from the research revealed a lack of preparedness for GDPR and confusion over who is ultimately responsible for its adherence and compliance. Almost one third, or 32 percent, of survey respondents believe the Chief Information Officer is responsible for GDPR, compared to 21 percent for the Chief Information Security Officer, 14 percent for the Chief Executive Officer and 10 percent for the Chief Data Officer.
According to the survey, those individuals responsible for implementing a GDPR process also face a variety of risks if data is not handled properly. Just under one third, or 31 percent, of respondents were worried about reputational damage to their organizations from poor data policies, while almost 40 percent were fearful of a major compliance failing within their business.
Data Pressure PointsFragmentation of data and loss of visibility are among the biggest data challenges organizations face, making it more difficult to comply with GDPR regulations. An estimated 35 percent of those surveyed flagged this issue as their biggest concern. In particular, the rise of unmanaged cloud-based file storage and consumer file-sharing services in the enterprise raised fears about future compliance issues.
A quarter of respondents admitted to using cloud-based services, such as Box, Google Drive, Dropbox, EMC Simplicity or Microsoft OneDrive, against their current company policies. Another 25 percent reported running unrecognized off-site file storage services, making it even harder for IT departments to manage their use with recognized tools.
In addition to the storage challenges, respondents pointed to perceived risk factors that any security and regulatory compliance must address. Over one half, or 52 percent, of respondents said they were concerned about the threat of data loss from the business, with 48 percent particularly concerned about data being lost in transit between sites and systems. Four in 10 respondents were also concerned about employees mishandling data and undermining compliance efforts in the process.
The right to be forgottenWith GDPR, businesses must analyze and act on legitimate requests from individuals to have their data purged by organizations if it is no longer relevant or necessary. However, the combination of data fragmentation and unstructured data hoarding within organizations makes it almost impossible for companies to comply with these requests.
The lack of visibility into dark data and information held outside of corporate IT systems complicates compliance and exposes organizations to substantial financial and legal risk. These and other GDPR compliance failures carry a harsh financial cost for businesses: a maximum fine of '¬20 million ($22.3 million) or up to four percent of worldwide revenue, whichever is higher.
''GDPR is the most significant change to data protection in a generation and an imminent global issue that will dominate data privacy, management and regulation discussions in 2017,'' said Mike Palmer, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Veritas. ''To avoid potential regulatory fines or worse, damage to their corporate brands and reputations, global enterprises must take action now to understand where their data resides and how to protect it.''
CES 2017: Tech preview of Las Vegas's biggest launches - BBC News
Media captionWATCH: A device that lets children create their own bedtime stories is just one of thousands of new products that will go on show at CESCES provides a first glimpse at the future.
Pretty much all of the tech giants attend the vast Vegas expo - either to unveil new products or to clinch deals behind the scene.
But in recent years it's been start-ups that have had many of the most eye-arresting and sensational reveals.
There are more at this year's show than ever before, thanks in part to crowdfunding. They now have to convince retailers - hunting through the halls for the next bestsellers - that the promise of their concept videos has been delivered upon.
Media captionWATCH: A start-up offering virtual reality thrills without the need for a headset is one of more than 200 French companies at CES this yearDozens of start-ups are also there thanks to help from governments and other national bodies - France, Israel, Ukraine and the Netherlands all have stands where they'll fly the flag for local talent.
But China may make the biggest splash with more than 1,300 registered exhibitors.
"Every year at CES I meet the people who work on the technology that affects our lives and you can see literally every part of the tech industry represented," innovation evangelist Robert Scoble told the BBC.
Of course, there's a lot of crud too - the challenge is to distinguish the potential hits from the glitch-ridden flops.
Below, we have picked what could be some of the week's highlights:
Voice control and other new interfacesCES marks the beginning of a land grab by three of the leading virtual assistants: Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana and the Google Assistant.
The companies all want their voice-controlled AIs to power third-party products. And Amazon looks to have the head start.
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption The C by GE table lamp has a central blue ring that responds when Alexa is summoned The headphones specialist OnVocal will be showing off wireless earphones that link up to Alexa, and GE has also preannounced a table lamp that doubles as a speaker powered by Amazon's voice service. Sonos too aims to add the facility to its wireless speakers, though we believe it isn't quite ready to show off its efforts.
But don't count the other two out.
We know Microsoft is working with Harman Kardon on a "premium audio" speaker, and the firm has teased adding Cortana to other types of products, including toasters. And Google has secured at least one bit of kit at CES - the Aivia speaker - to host its cloud-based intelligence.
Image copyrightAiviaImage caption Aivia says its smart speaker will be equipped with Google Assistant One expert suggested others will also try to gatecrash the party.
It's not all about voice though.
The French start-up Bixi will be making the case for gesture controls. It will be demoing the final design of a gizmo that lets you control smartphones and tablets with a wave of a hand.
Media captionWATCH: Bixi's glowing pad lets smartphones and tablets be controlled with a wave of the handMore groundbreaking perhaps is the Blitab, a tactile tablet described as the iPad for the blind.
The Austrian innovation produces small physical bubbles in an area above its touchscreen which delivers refresh double lines of dynamic Braille.
Image copyrightBlitabImage caption Blitab plans to show off an Android tablet with a dynamic braille display Year of the robot?We're still decades away from having the type of androids seen on TV shows such as Westworld or Humans.
But CES is still an opportunity to see how far along more specialised kit has become.
London-based Emotech is one to watch.
Image copyrightEmotechImage caption The Olly robot learns over time how best to behave with different users It will unveil Olly - a tabletop bot with its own smart assistant that recognises different household members and adapts it personality to suit each one.
The project was developed with help from academics at University College London, Imperial College and Edinburgh University, and has already secured $10m (£8.2m) of investment from China.
There will also be a range of modular robots.
Several companies are backing the concept, which allows users to switch about parts to change skills and manoeuvrability.
Image copyrightEvovacsImage caption The Unibot offers changes function depending on which modules are connected to its base Examples will include Modi, a Lego-style kit that lets owners build a bot out of small cubes - each offering different functions such as motors, lights and infra-red detectors.
Another is Unibot, a robotic vacuum cleaner that trebles up as a mobile home security camera and an air purifier/humidifier.
Meanwhile, OAPs can look forward to Cutii, a robot that resembles an iPad on wheels, which will supposedly become their "companion".
And there will also be bots that zoom round tennis courts picking up balls, remove droppings from cat litter, and even move physical chess pieces around a board.
Image copyrightITRI Taiwan/Auto-pets/Yumii/TennibotImage caption There will be a range of robots specialising in niche tasks at the show Keep an eye out for Laundroid, too. The Japanese clothes-folding machine raised $60m from Panasonic and others for its giant clothes-folding droid following an appearance at last year's CES.
Some have described the idea as ridiculous.
But it will be interesting to see if it works well enough to go on sale later this year, as planned.
Image copyrightSeven DreamersImage caption Potential buyers of the Laundroid will have to make sure they have room to install it Health and wearables
Pregnancy seems to be one of health tech's preoccupations this year.
There is both Ava, a sensor-equipped wristband that apparently alerts women to when they are most fertile, and Trakfertility, a DIY sperm count test that tells an associated app what steps the owner should take to boost their numbers.
Image copyrightAva ScienceImage caption Ava claims its wearable will help women "understand" their bodies better to help them get pregnant And just in case you are tempted to pair off with the wrong partner, Milo Sensors is in town with what it describes as the world's first blood alcohol wearable.
It's easy to joke, but health tech is booming and analysts are competing to predict how many billions of pounds it will be worth in a decade's time.
The ultimate goal is to create something resembling Star Trek's Tricoder - an all-in-one device that diagnoses any ailment.
An Israeli start-up will be showing off a gadget that promises to get us at least partly there.
Image copyrightTytoCareImage caption TytoCare says it wants to put "health in the hands of consumers" with its diagnostic devices The TytoHome is designed to let families take heart, lungs, throat, abdomen and other organs' readings and send them to their clinicians. Its slogan is a "check-up without the check-in", but medics may need convincing.
There will doubtless be new twists on the fitness tracker too. It would be unwise to suggest the market for such devices has peaked - Fitbit's app topped Apple's App Store this Christmas, indicating people are still buying them in droves.
But a more intriguing development is wearables with built-in airbags.
Image copyrightInemotion/ActiveProtectiveImage caption At least two companies at CES are trying to adapt the car's airbag for the human body ActiveProtective is promising to show off a prototype smart belt for the elderly that triggers a cushioning action over their hips if it detects a fall.
And Inemotion has developed ski racing clothes with a similar function to prevent injuries on the piste.
France's Wair has a different spin on discreet wearable tech with a internet-connected scarf that doubles as an air filter.
Media captionWATCH: Wair's smart scarf promises cleaner air with a focus on fashionBut the question remains whether wearable tech has a profitable future beyond health.
There will be more app-laden smartwatches - including the possibility of the first Android Wear 2.0 devices - at the show, but the sector has not been the hit many had predicted.
We're also promised the world's first vibrating tight cut jeans that offer their wearers directions without having to look at a screen.
Image copyrightSpinali DesignImage caption Spinali Design's jeans connect to a smartphone to buzz different sides of the wearer's body to direct them to turn left or right TelevisionsIf you had asked the experts a decade ago, they would probably have predicted OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TVs would be the norm by now. But the tech has faced several setbacks.
It's stubbornly refused to become as cheap to manufacture as hoped, it doesn't go as bright as LED equivalents and some complain that it "crushes the blacks" making it hard to distinguish detail in the shadows.
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption Panasonic was once famed for its plasma TVs, now its focus is OLED Even so, OLED retains a wow factor thanks to its ability to control the light of each individual pixel, helping its images to have more "pop", and its screens to be ever thinner.
Panasonic has hinted it will show off an OLED display at CES that will better handle dim scenes, and there is speculation Sony has similar news.
Plus there's reason to believe prices are about to drop.
Until recently, LG manufactured all the OLED panels used by itself and other brands. But now BOE - a Chinese company - has a rival component. The question is who will break ranks to adopt it.
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption QLED, UHD, HDR, HLG - OMG!!! - be prepared to get your head round a lot of acronyms if you want to understand the latest TV tech Expect Samsung to make a loud noise about QLED, a new spin on its "quantum dot" technology that allows its screens to be brighter than ever before.
That's important because of HDR - another acronym you're going to have to get used to. It refers to high dynamic range, which allows images to appear more vibrant and detailed - especially in scenes containing both glints of light and shadows.
Image caption Dolby claims its version of HDR offers the best picture quality, but most TV-makers have opted to support the open source HDR10 standard instead The problem is that there are three rival HDR standards - HDR10, Dolby Vision and the BBC's forthcoming HLG - meaning the potential for another format war.
But it is possible to support all three, so it will be revealing to see if any of manufactures make a commitment to do so with their new screens.
Smart home and other "internet-of-things"It's now relatively cheap and power-efficient to add sensors and wireless data links to products. That's led to an explosion of ideas - some more sensible than others.
Image copyrightGenicanIt's debateable how many of us really need Genican, for example, a device that scans rubbish's barcodes as it is thrown away in order to build up a shopping list of replacement items.
Likewise, it's not clear whether an aromatherapy diffuser needs to be smartphone-controlled, even if its scents really boost memory and clean lungs, as claimed.
Media captionWATCH: A new gadget at CES allows users to change the smell of a room via a tap of an app.Where things get more interesting is when tech genuinely makes lives simpler without requiring too much effort.
One way firms are trying to do this is by focusing on the refrigerator.
LG has a model that activates a sterilisation process when it senses temperature and/or humidity issues in order to extend food's shelf life.
And for those who would prefer to retrofit their existing equipment, UK start-up Smarter Applications has Fridgecam: a device that keeps track of what its owners have in stock and when it expires, sending alerts to buy new items when necessary.
Image copyrightSmarter ApplicationsImage caption The Fridgecam shows owners what's in their fridge and can suggest recipes based on the contents But one expert says if the sector is to achieve its potential, consumers need to be reassured that the risks do not outweigh the benefits.
"In the last 18 months the conversation about security and privacy has moved from the tech pages to the front pages of newspapers," said John Curran from the consultancy Accenture.
"To make these devices easy to connect and easy to use, some companies have hardcoded passwords or put no security measures in place, and that made them an easy target.
"At CES we're looking for businesses to be more transparent about what data is being collected, how it's being used and with whom it's being shared.
"And they need to make it easier for consumers to adjust their security settings."
Virtual and augmented realityImage copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption HTC beat Sony and Oculus to bring a virtual reality headset to market in April There are rumours that HTC will unveil a second-generation Vive VR headset at CES - possibly introducing wireless capabilities - but the system is only nine months old, so that seems a tad optimistic.
The two other big virtual reality firms - Sony and Facebook's Oculus division - launched their kit even more recently.
Even so, there should still be lots of developments.
Huawei has just hired Steve LaValle, one of the brains behind Oculus, and the Chinese firm is set to reveal more about its VR plans at the show.
It's a safe bet that several third-party headsets previously teased by Microsoft will also be on display.
Image copyrightMicrosoftImage caption In October, Microsoft disclosed that several firms were working on Windows 10 compatible VR headsets And we will also see the introduction of Fove, a crowdfunded VR headset with eye-tracking abilities, allowing gamers to control action with shifts in their gaze.
Fove won't be the only one trying to offer new ways for users to interact with virtual experiences.
Image copyrightFoveImage caption Fove raised $480,000 for its eye-tracking headset via Kickstarter and plans to start delivering them during the week of CES A foot controller that lets you direct where your character walks, a sensor-laden T-shirt that tracks your torso's movements, and various haptic devices that try to let consumers feel virtual objects are just some of the products with CES stands.
With augmented reality - where graphics and real-world views are mixed together - things are still at an early stage.
But Asus and others may reveal handsets that include Google's Project Tango depth-sensing technology, adding basic AR capabilities.
Image copyrightIntelImage caption Most augmented headsets overlay graphics over the real world, but Intel is taking the reverse approach Intel will have more to say about Project Alloy - a headset that lets you see your hands and other real-world objects within VR worlds.
And a start-up called Occipital will demo a contraption that uses an iPhone to create something akin to Microsoft's HoloLens mixed-reality headset.
While hardware may dominate the headlines, it could be content that determines which products are winners.
Image copyrightOccipitalImage caption Occipital's Bridge headset scans the surrounding area to create a digital copy in which the user can interact with virtual characters "In the US the National Basketball Association recently announced that it will broadcast games in virtual reality," noted Mr Curran.
"And as other big media and content companies get involved, they will attract more types of consumers to VR, rather than just the tech-enthused.
"So, I'll be looking to see which platforms the media providers target as they pursue opportunities in this space."
TransportationThere's going to be a lot of talk and demos of self-driving cars by the big automakers on and off the Las Vegas strip.
Image copyrightRinspeedImage caption Rinspeed will be exhibiting a concept vehicle designed for a self-driving future Menawhile, rival chipmakers - including Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm - will be excitedly pitching their processors and 5G chips as the potential heart of the autonomous vehicle revolution.
But you'll have to wait for a future CES to find anything road-ready that allows the "driver" to really ignore the steering wheel.
Image copyrightBMWImage caption BMW says the functions of its concept car can be controlled without any physical contact This time round, look instead for new ways to interact with your vehicle.
BMW will unveil its HoloActiv Touch system, in which motorists use finger gestures to interact with graphics that project out of dashboard screens.
And Continental will demo facial recognition tech that recognises who is driving and adjusts mirror and seat positions accordingly.
Faraday Future is also back for a second year to convince sceptics that it can launch an electric car before its funds dry up.
Image copyrightFaraday FutureImage caption Faraday Future has posted teaser videos in which it claims its car can accelerate from standstill more quickly than the Tesla Model X There will also be all kinds of alternative transport ideas including an intelligent scooter that shuts off its power if it detects an accident, a motorised rideable suitcase and the latest evolutions of the hoverboard.
Odds and endsAnd we've still barely scratched the surface. There are zones dedicated to drones, beauty tech and 3D printing.
Plus there's room for oddities, such as a device that claims to be able to record smells.
Image copyrightAEE/Magic InstrumentsImage caption AEE will be showing off a "flying selfie stick" while Magic Instruments claims people can learn to play its Mi Guitar in minutes The BBC tech team will do its best to keep you across all the major developments from the first press day on Tuesday until the show floors shut on Sunday.
You can keep up to date at bbc.co.uk/ces2017 and by following our Twitter list of those covering CES.
Cycles
CLIODYNAMICS-Society Could Collapse In A Decade, Predicts Math Historian | The Huffington Post
The end of the world as we know it could be near ' possibly just years from now, according to a scientist who uses historical and mathematical modeling to predict events.
Peter Turchin, a professor at the University of Connecticut's department of ecology and evolutionary biology, warns in a Phys.Org article published this week that society could risk implosion within the decade because of increasing social unrest.
And, no, a collapse wouldn't necessarily be President-elect DonaldTrump's fault ' though Turchin writes that he sees the businessman's election win as confirmation that ''negative trends seem to be accelerating.'' Trump's campaign marked an ''unprecedented collapse of social norms governing civilized discourse,'' Turchin adds.
''We should expect many years of political turmoil, peaking in the 2020s,'' the cultural evolution researcher writes.
''This is a science-based forecast, not a 'prophecy. It's based on solid social science.''
Turchin is a leader in cliodynamics, an interdisciplinary field of study that sees historical events such as the collapse of empires as following predictable mathematical models based on historical data.
The professor has tracked 40 factors in society that hit some kind of turning point in the 1970s. They include such aspects as wealth inequality, stagnating well-being, growing political fragmentation and governmental dysfunction.
The key to society's armageddon will be ''elite overproduction'' in which the number of rich grow larger while the majority of society grapples with a stagnant standard of living and poor fiscal health, he believes. The upper echelons, too, will be ripped apart by bitter competition with a population of capable but angry ''elite-wannabes'' who will be shut out of power. That fissure will undermine the spirit of co-operation and cause society to fragment further, Turchin says.
His predictions come after a report in TheWorldPost's year-end roundup found that the world already passed a ''dangerous tipping point'' in 2016. ''A search for identity amid the swell of anonymous forces from globalization to technology'' drove the year's ''anti-elite political upheaval,'' the article states.
But it's not all bad news, Turchin says. Awareness of our problems could help us stop them before they pitch us over the edge.
''The descent is not inevitable,'' he writes. Perhaps ''we can avoid the worst '-- perhaps by switching to a less harrowing track, perhaps by redesigning the rollercoaster altogether.''
Cliodynamics Lab | Digital History Research Centre
IntroductionThe University of Hertfordshire has the distinction of being the home of the Cliodynamics Lab, the first lab in the world dedicated explicitly to the exciting new research area of cliodynamics.
Cliodynamics reveals how actual historical societies functioned, interacted, and evolved through time by taking a transdisciplinary approach to history. Cliodynamics combines insights from a broad range of disciplines, from historical macrosociology, economic history and cliometrics to evolutionary anthropology and archaeology and uses the scientific method to produce the data necessary to empirically test competing theories about historical processes. This is accomplished in two broad phases. First, cliodynamicists translate rival verbal theories about historical processes into mathematical models and extract quantitative predictions from these models. Second, they test quantitative predictions using rich datasets. When rich historical datasets are not available, cliodynamicists use state-of-the-art techniques to build them.
The University of Hertfordshire's Cliodynamics Lab is the world's premier lab dedicatedly explicitly to cliodynamic research and plays an integral role in this rapidly emerging research area. The Lab's director, Dr. Pieter Fran§ois, leads a rapidly growing team of scholars who embrace scientific workflows to rigorously study the past. To learn more, explore the following resources:
The University of Hertfordshire's Cliodynamics Lab hosts several innovative research projects.
ProjectsSeshat: Global History DatabankThe flagship project of the Lab is the Seshat: Global History Databank project of which Dr. Pieter Francois, together with Professor Peter Turchin (University of Connecticut) and Professor Harvey Whitehouse (University of Oxford), is a founding editor. Seshat aims to be the premier home to test social sciences theories with historical and archaeological data. For a write up of the project, see our 2015 paper 'Seshat: the Global History Databank'. The project is supported by a range of grants, including the ESRC large grant 'Ritual, Community, and Conflict ', the John Templeton Foundation grant 'Axial-Age Religions and the Z-curve of Human Egalitarianism', the Tricoastal Foundation grant 'The Deep Roots of the Modern World: The cultural evolution of economic growth and political stability', and the European Union Horizon 2020 grant 'ALIGNED. Quality-centric, software and data engineering'. The Cliodynamics Lab spearheads an important part of the data gathering activities of the Seshat project, and plays a key role in establishing procedures and workflows to increase levels of productivity in data gathering, and in establishing metrics for data quality.
Big Data in the HumanitiesThe Cliodynamics Lab is also the home of the Santander Partnership project 'Big Data in the Humanities' which started in January 2015. This project seeks to map existing big data projects in the humanities and to foster collaboration between these projects and activities.
Sample Generator for Digitized TextsThe Cliodynamics Lab co-hosts, together with the British Library Labs, the 'Sample Generator for Digitized Texts' project. The Sample Generator is a digital tools which allows you to create unbiased structured samples of digitized texts taking into account parameters from much larger paper collections. Currently the Sample Generator works on both the nineteenth century digital and paper collections of the British Library. For a write up of this project, see the British Library's Digital Scholarship Blog.
Evolution of LiteracyThe Cliodynamics Lab is home to the Evolution of Literacy project, headed by Dr Daniel Mullins. This research project uses innovative and rigorous scientific methods to rapidly enhance our understanding the formation and effects of literate behaviour around the globe, providing authoritative answers to long-standing questions of widespread concern, including:
Why did literate behaviours emerge independently around the globe?What were the major drivers of the adoption and spread of literate behaviour?How have literacy and socio-political organisations interacted throughout human history?To answer these questions, the Evolution of Literacy project combines insights from evolutionary anthropology, archaeology, history, grammatology, cognitive science, and big data sciences with high-quality empirical datasets from archaeological, historical, and ethnographic sources. Analysing these data with rigorous formalised models and statistical methods enables researchers to discriminate between competing hypotheses and discover new ways of understanding literate behaviour. The resulting empirical datasets are made publicly available online. This open-source data will allow other researchers to analyse and elaborate on these datasets, contributing to the rapid-discovery model of scientific historical study known as Cliodynamics. To learn more, read Mullins, Atkinson, and Whitehouse (2013).
Who we areInternal membersExternal membersContactWant to be a cliodynamicist? Contact Dr. Pieter Fran§ois (p.francois@herts.ac.uk) if you are interested in participating in any of the above projects or the Lab in general. Prospective PhD students should contact Dr. Pieter Francois to discuss potential projects and funding opportunities.
2TTH
GOP Lobbyist Offers $100K Reward for Information in Slaying of DNC Staffer | NBC4 Washington
What to KnowSeth Rich was shot to death in northwest D.C. July 10.Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.Police said last month they have no evidence the slaying was connected to Rich's work at the DNC.A Republican lobbyist is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the death of a Democratic National Committee staffer.
Someone shot 27-year-old Seth Conrad Rich multiple times in the 2100 block of Flagler Place in northwest Washington, D.C., July 10, police said.
''There are too many dimensions to the tragedy and none seem to make any sense," lobbyist Jack Burkman said in a press release. "I hope the $100,000 in additional money will finally get to the truth of what happened here and will either debunk the conspiracy theories or validate them. But for the sake of Mr. Rich's parents, family, friends, co-workers and the D.C. community at large, the murder needs to be solved and those responsible held accountable.''
Last month, police said they don't have any evidence suggesting the slaying is connected to the victim's work at the DNC. Attempted robbery has been cited as a possible motive.
President-elect Donald Trump received a briefing from U.S. intelligence officials at Trump Tower on Jan. 6, 2017 on allegations that Russia may have meddled in the U.S. presidential election process through cyberattacks aimed at Democratic targets. (Published Friday, Jan. 6, 2017)
WikiLeaks previously offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in Rich's death.
A reward of as much as $25,000 is also being offered by the Metropolitan Police Department.
Rich, a Nebraska native, was a rising star in the DNC, colleagues said.
His mother, Mary Rich, said she took comfort knowing her son tried to make the world better.
Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call police at 202-727-9099 or send a text message to 50411.
Published at 3:05 PM EDT on Sep 14, 2016
To find killer of DNC staffer Seth Rich, GOP lobbyist announces new billboard, bus bench ads | #PRNC
(PR NewsChannel) / January 3, 2017 / WASHINGTON GOP lobbyist Jack Burkman (left) with Seth Rich's parents, Joel and Mary Rich, on November 21 in the neighborhood where Mr. Rich was murdered.
Today, on what would have been murdered Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Rich's 28th birthday, the GOP lobbyist who volunteered to help Mr. Rich's family find his killer announced that a billboard and bus benches featuring Mr. Rich will go up this month in and around the neighborhood where Mr. Rich was murdered.
''Seth was part of my D.C. family and all of us who chooses a life of politics are connected so this murder hit all of us hard,'' says Mr. Burkman, a Republican and principal at Burkman & Assoc. ''The fact remains there is still a killer lose and we don't know what the motive for the killing was. Was it robbery or was it something else? The Rich family needs answers and our community needs answers.''
Jack Burkman already has put up $105,000 in reward money to find Mr. Rich's killer, bringing the total reward money to $130,000''the largest ever in D.C.
Seth Rich, a DNC employee who was responsible for a groundbreaking voter outreach project, was shot to death in D.C. in July as he walked to his apartment in the wee hours of the morning two weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Seth Rich was murdered while walking home in the early morning hours. Police say they have no suspects.
Joel Rich, Seth's dad, urged those who knew Seth or now know of him, to commit themselves to an act of kindness ''as a way to both honor his memory but also ensure that we are all pitching in to do the work of making the world a better place.''
Joel Rich wrote on Facebook: ''Those who knew him or knew about him, know he wanted to 'make a difference!' He wanted to help others and make things better. He believed that we should all strive to be our best selves, and that we should treat all people, and animals, with respect, dignity and kindness.''
In November, Joel Rich and his wife Mary joined Mr. Burkman to flyer the neighborhood where Mr. Rich was gunned down.
For more about Jack Burkman: goo.gl/Xwk4Ox
MEDIA CONTACTS:Adam FarragutPR firm: The Publicity Agency(202) 600-2414 ext 7778Mobile: (770) 881-3034adam@seligmultimedia.com
Direct link: https://www.prnewschannel.com/2017/01/03/to-find-killer-of-dnc-staffer-seth-rich-gop-lobbyist-announces-new-billboard-bus-bench-ads/SOURCE: J.M. Burkman and Assoc.
This press release is distributed by PR NewsChannel. Your News. Everywhere.
SJW/BLM
Obama Calls Facebook Torture Video 'Despicable', But Optimistic About Race Relations In U.S'.... | Weasel Zippers
The torture of a teenager streamed live on Facebook is ''despicable'' but not a sign of worsening racial tensions, President Obama said Thursday in an interview with CBS 2 Special Contributor Jay Levine.
In a one-on-one conversation at the White House as Obama winds down his term in office, the president was asked about the state of race relations in America.
Obama said he doesn't believe racial tensions have gotten worse, but that the public exposure is more prevalent in the digital age.
''In part because we see visuals of racial tensions, violence and so forth because of smart phones and the Internet,'' the president said.
''What we have seen as surfacing, I think, are a lot of problems that have been there a long time.
Defining a Hate Crime A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a ''criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.'' Hate itself is not a crime'--and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties.
These efforts serve as a backstop for investigations by state and local authorities, which handle the vast majority of hate crime cases throughout the country.
The FBI's Role As part of its responsibility to uphold the civil rights of the American people, the FBI takes a number of steps to combat the problem of hate crimes. The following efforts serve as a backstop to investigations conducted by state and local law enforcement agencies, which handle the vast majority of bias crime investigations throughout the country.
Investigative Activities: The FBI is the lead investigative agency for criminal violations of federal civil rights statutes. The Bureau works closely with its local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement partners around the country in many of these cases.
Law Enforcement Support: The FBI works closely with state/local/tribal authorities on investigations, even when federal charges are not brought. FBI resources, forensic expertise, and experience in identification and proof of hate-based motivations often provide an invaluable complement to local law enforcement. Many cases are also prosecuted under state statutes such as murder, arson, or more recent local ethnic intimidation laws. Once the state prosecution begins, the Department of Justice monitors the proceedings in order to ensure that the federal interest is vindicated and the law is applied equally among the 95 U.S. Judicial Districts.
Prosecutive Decision: The FBI forwards results of completed investigations to local U.S. Attorneys Offices and the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, which decide whether a federal prosecution is warranted. Prosecution of these crimes may move forward, for example, if local authorities are unwilling or unable to prosecute a crime of bias.
Hate Crimes Working Groups (HCWGs): The majority of the FBI's field offices participate in local Hate Crime Working Groups. These Working Groups combine community and law enforcement resources to develop strategies to address local hate crime problems.
Public Outreach: The FBI has forged partnerships nationally and locally with many civil rights organizations to establish rapport, share information, address concerns, and cooperate in solving problems. These groups include such organizations as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Association of University Women, Anti-Defamation League, Asian American Justice Center, Hindu American Foundation, Human Rights Campaign, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Center for Transgender Equality, National Council of Jewish Women, National Disability Rights Network, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, National Organization for Women, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, The Sikh Coalition, Southern Poverty Law Center, and many others.
Training: The FBI conducts hundreds of operational seminars, workshops, and training sessions annually for local law enforcement, minority and religious organizations, and community groups to promote cooperation and reduce civil rights abuses. Each year, the FBI also provides hate crimes training for new agents, hundreds of current agents, and thousands of police officers worldwide.
Hate Crime Statistics The FBI has gathered and published hate crime statistics every year since 1992. Our latest reports:
It may have seemed like 2016 was never going to end, but here we are at the beginning of what we're hoping will be a happy and healthy 2017. Overall it's been a pretty steady ride, but boy are we excited to kick off a new chapter! We've had a great year at Pornhub, and our Insights blog has delivered tons of awesome data over the course of 2016. Throughout the year we've covered interesting search trends analyzing the cultural intersection between Pornhub and the likes of Clowns, Pokemon, Politicians, and even Super Heroes.
We've also looked at how certain events can affect traffic to Pornhub including the Olympic Games, Major League Baseball, Snow Storms and of course the Presidential Election. As we've done for the past three years and counting, we're wrapping it all up with a pretty bow and delivering you all of 2016's top stats for Pornhub's 4th annual Year in Review.
2016 was a busy year for Pornhub users. Nearly 92 billion videos were watched over the course of 23 billion visits to the site by many millions of very horny visitors. That's 64 million visitors per day, or 44,000 every minute. Collectively, that's 4.6 billion hours of porn watching stuffed into just one year. To break it down really quickly, in order to deliver that volume of free porn, our servers streamed 99 Gigabytes of data every second. To help put this into perspective, try to picture the size of a 16GB USB stick. Now imagine 194 million USB sticks, spanning 11,000km (6800 miles) from end to end; or around the entire circumference of the moon. Still can't imagine it? Take another look at the infographic above, and it will surely help clarify everything.
TRAFFIC TRENDS
This year several countries got bumped up, down and even (for one) off our list of Top 20 countries that bring the most viewers to Pornhub. Notably, Japan jumped 7 spots making it into our top 5 this year, pushing Germany (now in 7th place) out of the top 5 for the first time since 2013. As always, the United States dominates this list, driving a whopping 40% of visits to the site, with the UK following in second place and Canada, a close 3rd. Our friends in South Africa have climbed 4 spots since 2015 to make it into our top 20, coming just ahead of former Top 20 country, Romania.
SEARCH WATCH
Next up let's take a look at some of Pornhub's most popular search terms from 2016! For the second year in a row 'lesbian' was the number one search term worldwide. 'Step mom' was second (up 1 spot from last year) followed by 'MILF' up 2 places from 2015. 'Lesbian scissoring' jumped a couple dozen positions to make the top 20 this year. An all-new term that shot into our top search terms lists of 2016 is 'Overwatch', in reference to the popular video game released earlier this year. Well known for its fast action and overtly sexualized characters, the game quickly became the subject of hundreds of fantasy porn parodies and tribute videos. ''It appears that the trend is moving more toward fantasy than reality. 'Generic' porn is being replaced with fantasy specific or scenario specific scenes. Is this as a result of boredom or curiosity? One thing is certain; the typical 'in-out, in-out' no longer satisfies the masses, who are clearly looking for something different'' notes Dr Laurie Betito, sex therapist and author of The Sex Bible for People Over 50'".
Here we'll take a step into North America and see what search terms were trending in the United States over the course of the year. 'Step mom' remained in the top spot as the most searched term among Americans in 2016. 'Lesbian' kicked out 'cartoon' to take the title for second most searched term in the USA, while 'step sister' also made its move up this year and secured the 3rd place. Other terms that were highly popular among Americans this year include 'ebony' (jumping 12 spots from last year), 'lesbian scissoring' (+18 spots), 'massage' (+63 spots) and the greatest increase of all, 'overwatch' (up 452 spots from 2015). Some terms that still made our list but dropped in popularity include 'teen', 'black', 'anal' and 'celebrity sex tape'.
Curious to see where some of 2016's top terms are most popular? Well we've put together a special gallery below, just for that. Some stand outs include 'lesbian' which is by far more popular in North America and Australia than anywhere else. 'Hentai' is shaded a dark orange in Asia (more specifically China, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan) where it is most popular. 'Cartoon' is gaining popularity worldwide, with more countries shaded in dark purple this past year compared to 2015. Interestingly enough 'MILF' is more popular in the Western hemisphere, while 'mom' is dominating the East.
The popularity of these search terms is determined by comparing its proportion of all other searches performed in each country. As opposed to the raw number of searches, this allows our statisticians to adjust for population density and traffic levels to what countries are more or less interested in each search term.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
This year we achieved our New Years resolution to last a little longer. 2016 has 16 seconds up on 2015, establishing an average time on site of 9:36. This could be because we can now take porn with us everywhere we go and more and more people are starting to take advantage of mobile technology in this way. We've also seen a huge increase in mobile traffic this past year (+1424% since 2010), but we will look into that a little later.
The Philippines is holding onto its first place position here with an average visit length to Pornhub of 12:45, exactly the same as where they were at in 2015. South Africa is in 2nd position, increasing their average visit by 11 seconds to 10:45. Followed closely by the U.S. of A (10:15, +24 second from 2015), Canada (+22 seconds up to 9:49) and Australia (9:44 up 8 seconds from 2015) to round up our Top 5. Some countries whose average time per visit dropped includes India (8:20, down by 1:10 from 2015) and Japan (7:27 compared to 7:48 in 2015). Russia and Mexico maintained the status quo however, shifting their time by a mere 1 or 2 seconds. Countries who prefer to keep their visits short and to the point include Cuba'' keeping it just under 5 minutes, along with Mongolia clocking in at 5:23 and Bolivia at 6:41.
We've also looked into average time per visit by state, and some stand-outs include Mississippi (at the top of the group for the longest visits, 11:08), Alabama and Arkansas tied for second at 10:48 and Louisiana a close third just 3 seconds under at 10:45.
States that came and left faster than others include Oregon (9:27), Utah (9:39) and Kansas (9:44). Interestingly enough, much like last year the three states with the longest average visits were all southern states.
Taking a cue from our popular Fappy hour post, we expanded the search to see what time of day and which day of the week Pornhub users around the world were getting busy the most. Hourly traffic rates to our site haven't shifted much from last year. There is generally a lull in traffic between 2am and 9am, when people are either sleeping or heading out of the house to start their day, and traffic then reaches its highest levels from 10pm to midnight. This trend stays true throughout most of the week, with our happiest hour from Sunday through Thursday holding strong at 11pm, and then at 12am on Friday and Saturday'' when people take a break from their regular routine by staying up later at night and sleeping in longer in the mornings.
SEARCHING THE WORLD
For this portion of the review, we will take a deeper dive into our top 20 countries. We will break down the 10 most searched terms, top 5 gaining terms that grew in 2016 plus the top 3 pornstars and most viewed categories. We also have the top 3 searches that are relatively more popular in each country when compared to the rest of the world. Kicking off the list this year, it's the home of Lady Liberty and the country that drove 40% of Pornhub's visitors to the site- the U.S.A.
The United States makes it to the top of our list for another year and just like the last, 'step mom' and 'lesbian' are at the top of the ''most searched for'' list. 'Step sister' and 'milf' made some moves in 2016 putting them into the top 5. Other notable fun facts to mention, BBL (or Big Booty Latina) is searched more in America than the rest of the world, Kim Kardashian is still being searched for more than any other porn star on the site and the 'lesbian' category is still #winning for most views.
Next up on the list, the United Kingdom'' where 'lesbian scissoring' and 'lesbian seduces straight' made leaps and bounds to land in the country's top 10 searches. Only fitting since the #1 category in the U.K is 'Lesbian'. 'Giantess' is another term that gained some love this past year, up 354% from 2015. We hope the search results for these terms helped everyone in Britain overcome the results from the Brexit vote in June. To see how the U.K.'s favorite searches differ from region to region, be sure to check out our detailed United Kingdom Divided post.
Some interesting changes happened in the great white north otherwise known as Canada. The list of top searches saw a lot of newcomers this year. 'Mom' shot up by 19 spots, while 'step dad and daughter' a saw a massive 83 spot jump and- one that is sure to make you giggle, 'creampie,' is up by 6 spots this year. Interestingly enough, Canadians seem to be really into new tech with 'VR' among their top gaining searches this year, followed by 'virtual reality'. And although Canadians aren't searching for 'Canada' on the daily, the number one relative search is none other than La Belle Province, 'Quebec' followed by 'Canadian' and 'French' in second and third.
Most countries take great pride in their nationality, but India takes it to a whole other level as made evident by their top searches on Pornhub. The majority of searches (top, relative and gaining) include 'Indian'. One top term that came seemingly out of nowhere to make it into the top 10 list was 'Indian aunty with young', flying up to the top by 81 spots. India's own Sunny Leone (NSFW) is again, the number one searched pornstar in the country and 'Lesbian' makes it to the number two spot in the top categories.
Moving up an impressive 7 spots, Japan comes in at number 5 on our list. Some interesting new terms have climbed into the top 20 this year, including 'Japan game sex show', 'Japanese amateur ass', 'Japanese boy' and 'mmd' (in reference to MikuMikuDance, a 3D tool that lets people make their own animated videos). Looks like they love a good game show in japan as 'Japan sex game show' is the number one top gaining search (+957%). And interestingly enough the 'amateur' category bumped 'Asian' out of the top three most viewed in the country, with the 'Hentai' category sitting pretty at the top of the list.
This year 'maman francaise' jumped 14 spots to make it into the top 3 most searched terms in France. This top gaining term of 2015 is now in the country's top 10 search terms of 2016, landing in 3rd place. Searches for 'VR' have also increased by 772% this past year. Mia Khalifa (NSFW) knocked out French local Clara Morgane to become the #2 most searched pornstar in France, behind national favorite, Kim K (NSFW). Be sure to check out our detailed France's Favorite Searches post to see how France's porn tastes differ from region to region.
Germany remained quite patriotic throughout 2016. 'German' held it's position at the top of the list for most searched terms, 'deutsch' came in third place, 'german mom' made a few strides to secure 4th place (up 16 spots from last year) and 'german dirty talk' climbing 17 spots to make it to number 9 on the list. Check out our Germany in Review post for more details. 'VR' continues to be a major trend this year, even in Germany where searches for the term increase by almost 630%. Former Miss Frankfurt (2005) Gina Lisa Lohfink, beat out Lexy Roxx (NSFW) to become the number 1 searched pornstar in Germany.
The step mom trend seems to be over down under as Australia is all about VR this year. 'Virtual reality' and '360 VR' are the top two gaining searches this year, increasing by an impressive 523% and 440% (respectively). Some interesting new search terms that made it to the top include 'cartoon' (up 39 spots from last year) and- following along with the worldwide increase in popularity, 'overwatch' which is a brand new search term in Australia, ranking 7th place in the list of the country's top searched terms.
Italians do love their mamas as made evident by the fact that in 2016 search terms 'MILF', 'mom' and 'step mom' were quite popular among Italians, and 'MILF' is also incidentally the number one viewed category in the country. The most impressive change here is that 'Harley Quinn' was the second top gaining search term of 2016. So Italians love their mamas and fictional super-villains with colorful makeup and hair dye (if this is true, might we interest you in reading our Halloween post?). Searches for the leading lady increased by an impressive 642%.
Next up we have the largest country in South America, and the country driving the 10th highest amount of traffic to our site, Brazil! Surprisingly enough some interesting terms took over the top searches this year. Starting with a new one, 'overwatch' took the cake in first place, while 'pokemon' moved up 10 spots into number 4 and 'cartoon' rounds out the top Brazilian searches of 2016 on Pornhub in 10th place. 'Lesbian' was a big hit as well- the term was number 2 in the top searches list, followed by the more patriotic 'brazilian lesbian' a little further down the list. 'Lesbian licking' was the #1 top gaining search (+459%) in the country and the 'lesbian' category got bumped up a spot from last year into the position as second most viewed category in Brazil.
Making it in at number 11 on our list is Mexico. Moving into the spotlight as number one most searched for pornstar in Mexico this year is brunette babe Dillion Harper (NSFW). There is no shortage of patriotic love here, with the top search being 'mexicana' and the top three relative searches being 'mexicana', 'mexicanos' and 'mexico'. 'albaniles mexicanos', or in English, Mexican builders/bricklayers, increased in popularity by 392% over the course of 2016.
Interesting searches are popping up in Russia'' despite the ban that was implemented this September. 'Overwatch' has taken over first place in the country's top 10 searches of 2016, bumping 'Russian' down into second place. And 'Harley Quinn' shot up an impressive 110 spots to make it to number 9 this year. The ever popular VR trend is also of high interest in Russia, where it is the top gaining search term, marked by a 663% increase in searches.
Coming in at number 13 for the second year in a row is sunny Spain. We here at Pornhub often wonder: ''Are you more of a tits guy or an ass guy''? Well in Spain the answer is ass, with 'Anal' being the number one category viewed in the country this year. Other popular search terms in Spain include 'overwatch' coming in at #3 this year, 'VR' jumping an incredible 478 spots to #9 and 'pov' (Point of View) up by 55 spots to round out Spain's top 10 most searched terms of 2016.
Keeping it local this year, the Philippines top searches of 2016 were filled with terms like 'pinay', 'pinoy' (how Filipinas and Filipinos, respectively, refer to themselves) '' both of which are also ranked number 1 and 2 in the country's relative search terms, 'pinoy jakol', 'filipina' and 'filipino'. When our Filipino fans are searching for the hottest babes on the Internet, those they're seeking out most are Maria Ozawa and Mia Khalifa.
Since last year searches for '360 degrees' and 'virtual reality' have increased by 877% and 703% in the Netherlands, respectively. Whereas last year the Dutch seemed to prefer cartoon porn, this year they've moved away from that fantasy, although 'cartoon' still ranks in at number 6 among the country's top searched terms. An addition to the list is 'Arab' which climbed 11 spots making it into the 9th spot this year. Gatestone Institute reported that the Netherlands have one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe, which could explain the increase in searches for 'Arab'.
It seems however that the Poles like their porn to be more on the mature side than some other countries. 'MILF' and 'Mature' are among the top viewed categories in the country, while 'mom', 'milf', and 'step mom' all rank in the country's top 10 searches of 2016 as well. And when they aren't searching for those terms they are on the lookout for anything related to their nationality with 'Polish' being the number one search term, and 'poland', 'polska' and 'polish' dominating the top relative searches.
Following suit with many other countries in our list, 'VR' and '360 degrees' are gaining huge popularity in Sweden. The searches have increased by 584% and 353%, respectively. 'Silicone sex doll' and 'star wars' are also huge among the swedes.
Argentina became slightly more patriotic over the last year. Even 'pokemon' which jumped 26 spots this year to number 3 doesn't come close to the number one search '' 'argentina'. It doesn't stop there, as the nation's top search terms also include 'argentina anal' and 'argentina teen' which increased 37% from last year. Be sure to check out our Argentina Insights post for a more in-depth look at this nation's porn preferences.
From 'step mom' to 'milf' to 'sister' or 'step sister' Belgium made a step-family affair of it this year. Seems they like their porn a little edgier than other nations, since 'robbers', 'black mail' and 'punished' all increased in popularity this year as well (233%, 179% and 92% '' to be exact).
And last but not least, popping its 'top 20 list' cherry, South Africa! Pushing Romania off the list for the first time since the beginning of Year in Review posts in 2013, South Africa rounds out our list for 2016 and it seems they are quite patriotic down there as well. Terms containing ''South African' dominate the top searches list. And if your jam is 'black' anything, you have something in common with South Africans whose number one viewed category is 'Ebony.' 'Black south african', 'big ass ebony mom' and 'big black booty' all increased in popularity by (respectively) 279%, 224% and 171%.
DARING DIVAS
Kim K may be the star of Pornhub's most viewed video of all time, but she is no longer the most searched for pornstar on the site. Kim dropped 2 spots this past year sliding her way down to 3rd place, making way for everyone's favorite MILF queen- Lisa Ann (NSFW), and Lebanon's very own mega-babe Mia Khalifa (NSFW). Canada's most searched for pornstar Riley Reid (NSFW) also made it into the top 5 most searched stars on Pornhub. Some of 2016's up and cumming pornstars include Dani Daniels and Piper Perri, who jumped up 10 and 52 spots (respectively) to make the top 20 list this year.
To give you an idea of just how much Pornhub viewers love these pornstars, let's take a look at the numbers. Although Lisa Ann was the most searched for Pornstar on Pornhub, the number of times her videos were viewed came second to Riley Ried's, whose videos were watched the most this year- an incredible 340,127,207 times (Lisa coming in at 234,170,207). In third place with 195,122,070 video views is Mia Khalifa followed by everyone's favorite reality star, Kim Kardashian with 81,601,096 views this year. And closing out the top 5 is Bollywood babe Sunny Leone whose videos were viewed 53,945,505 views.
For those wondering, some of Pornhub's most searched for male pornstars include Mandingo (NSFW), in second place close behind is James Deen (NSFW) and Italian stallion Rocco Siffredi (NSFW) comes in at number 3. Although they rank high among male Pornstars, when looking at the most searched for Pornstars- male or female, these guys come in at number 26, 33 and 38. Rounding out the top ten list is Kid Bengala (NSFW) ranked 169, and Rico Strong (NSFW) ranked 180 overall.
CATEGORICAL ANALYSIS
The 'Lesbian' and 'Teen (18+)' categories held their ground this past year, both maintain their 1st and 2nd positions as the top viewed categories of 2016. Following close behind, in third place was the 'ebony' category and in 4th 'MILF'. Rounding out the top 5 was 'Anal,' jumping up 4 spots from 2015. Some new categories that made the list this past year were 'Shemale' and- one of Canada's favorites, 'Creampie' jumping 7 and 8 spots respectively. 'Cartoon' which was new to the list in 2015, and 'Babysitter' (down 7 positions from last January) close out this year's list of most viewed categories.
The heat map below shows us exactly where in the world each category is the most popular. The four colors that stand out the most are red, light blue, orange and sage. Countries like Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia, Norway and Colombia are all hitting up our 'lesbian' category the most. While South America, Russia, and a good portion of Western Europe and Northern Africa are more common frequenters of Pornhub's 'anal' category. The sage color you see represents the higher proportion of views in the 'Ebony' category, which is more concentrated in Africa. And the orange that covers most of Asia, shows where the 'hentai' category gets the most love. There is still quite a bit of yellow spread throughout the map, which indicates a preference for the 'teen (18+)' category.
Check out these popular Insights posts from 2016 to learn what video categories are watched for the longest, and what categories are most popular with Pornhub Gay visitors.
SOMEONE LIKE YOU
Everyone knows girls are made of sugar and spice, and guys are made of snails and puppy dog tails, but what makes each of them tick? If it weren't for our visitors '' and of course, the help of our analytics tool that allows us to pull anonymized data from our sites, we wouldn't be able to bring you some of our best Insights posts on the inherent differences between men and women when it comes to porn. Up next, we've compiled what seems to turn the ladies and the gents on the most when they visit Pornhub. And as always, ladies- who make up 26% of Pornhub's visitors worldwide, first.
WHAT WOMEN WANT
Keeping in check with our top 20 countries, the Philippines who have been holding down the number one spot with the largest share of female viewers for the last two years, were blindsided by Brazil. Brazilian babes caught up to the Philippines, tying the reigning champs for first place with an impressive 35% of visitors to Pornhub from these countries belonging to the fairer sex. Top 20 newbie, South Africa came in at number 3 with an astounding 33% female viewership, pushing India 4th place, tied with Sweden, Argentina and Mexico (all with 30% female viewership). Countries like the United States, Canada, UK and Italy, all who were at the top of our top 20 countries fell closer to the bottom here. We took our search outside the top 20 countries and found that Jamaica actually had the highest proportion of female visitors in the world at 46%. Followed closely by Micronesia (a sub-region of Oceania) and Bahamas (both at 42%). ''Women appear to be more in control of their sexuality and what excites them. It's interesting to note that the majority of the countries where female viewership is the highest are democratic countries'' says Dr Laurie, ''this trend will hopefully continue, to the point where women have as much control of their sexuality as men''.
Interestingly enough it seems that there are more female visitors down south than in the rest of the world. If we were to look at countries north of the equator most are predominantly male visitors.
Moving on to search terms. Women seem to have a lot of love for 'lesbian' porn. The term dominated women's top searches. From 'lesbian scissoring' to 'lesbian seduces straight' even to 'lesbian threesome' there was a definite request for anything female on female among our female viewers. And while the ladies' preference was 'Lesbian' by a long shot, the difference in numbers between men's most popular searches is less apparent. 'MILF' is the number one searched term by dudes visiting Pornhub, followed very closely by everything and anything step-family related- namely 'step mom', 'step sister', 'mom', 'step mom and son'.
Naturally, there's a considerable difference in categorical preferences between men and women as well. Once again, women are drawn to the 'lesbian' category whereas men are more interested in viewing videos in the 'teen' and 'ebony' categories. ''Looking at the statistics, one might assume that women who are bi-curious are turning to Pornhub for education, ideas, validation and inclusion'' says Dr Laurie. Although the number 1 category for each gender is very different from the other, there are many similarities in the two lists. It seems both parties have an affinity for 'big dicks', 'MILF', 'anal', 'big tits', and 'hentai'. There are some terms however that universally more searched for by women than men. One that takes the cake is 'pussy licking'. Gentlemen take note, women are enjoying content in the 'pussy licking' category 369% more than you are. The 'female friendly' and 'lesbian' categories follow with 218% and 168% more popularity with women, respectively.
In 2016 Kim Kardashian remained the most searched for Pornstar by women. However, Mia Khalifa shot up into second place, not too far behind Kimmie K. She also beat out James Deen (NSFW) who came in third and MILF queen Lisa Ann, fifth behind Sunny Leone. Not surprisingly, James Deen was more popular among the ladies than the men (searched 407% more by the ladies). Bruce Venture (NSFW) and Celeste Star (NSFW) were also searched more often by women compared to men (247% and 236% more, respectively).
To learn more about what makes Pornhub's female visitors tick, check out these popular Insights posts from 2016.
AGE IS BUT A NUMBER
The majority of Pornhub visitors are millennials'' comprising an impressive 60% of viewership, to be exact. As we climb up through the age brackets, the percentage of visitors to our site, drops. For instance, seniors aged 65+, make up the smallest percentage of our visitors, at 4%. You will notice however, that depending on the country in question these numbers may vary. In India for example, the proportion of viewers between 18 and 24 is much higher than in Spain, where majority of users are aged between 25 and 44.
We took a look into each one of our age brackets, to see what each group was searching for most, their top gaining terms and highest relative categories compared to other ages '' the results, very interesting. 'Lesbian' makes it to the top two for our viewers aged between 18 and 44, but is the number one search term for 18 to 24 year olds. 'Japanese' comes in at number one for 25-34 and 35-44 year olds. ''It seems people generally seek out that which is either very familiar or the polar opposite of their day to day reality'' says Dr Laurie. ''It's not surprising that younger viewers seek out scenarios that they probably have not yet tried but are curious about, and the older ones look for scenarios that in a perfect world, could happen to them, with age appropriate partners.''
It seems that everyone over the age of 45 is looking for 'MILF' porn the most. Our middle age viewers are also searching for 'step mom' and 'lesbian'content in high amounts, while our seniors (65 and up), are more into 'granny' porn than their younger counter parts. 'Overwatch' is among the top gaining searches for 18''24 year olds (+833%), probably because they are the ones most likely to be playing (or interested in) the game. 'VR' was also a popular top gaining term in 2016 (+721% for 25-34 year olds and +832% for 45-54 year olds). The 'double penetration' category is significantly more popular among the 25-34 age group while the 'mature' category got considerably more views from users over the age of 65 (109% more than other age groups).
DIGITAL DEVICES
As we touched on earlier, visits to Pornhub from smartphones are continuously on the rise. In 2016, traffic to our site from these types of devices increased from 53% up to 61%, stealing shares from desktop which dropped 8% from a year ago. Tablet is the one device to remain almost at par from 2015. Two countries that have seen the highest increase in mobile traffic include Cuba and Turkey. Cuba seeing an increase of 310% '' possibly because diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba were restored earlier in 2016, there might have been an ease in restrictions (may be more phones or more wireless companies on the market?). In third was Sudan, trailing far behind the top two countries with an increase of 87% in mobile traffic share. Ukraine and Belarus experienced a 75% increase in mobile traffic and Armenia rounded out the top ten list with an increase of 65%.
If we take a closer look at our top 20 countries, our new friends in South Africa drove the most traffic to the site through smartphones (73%), which equates to a 15% increase in market share from 2015. The USA, India and the Philippines are not far behind each with an impressive 70% of hits to the site coming from smartphones. Although countries like Russia, Germany and Belgium had relatively low usage rates on smartphones (34%, 42%, and 42%, respectively), they all experienced growth in their respective mobile market shares. The countries that experienced the highest growth in smartphone traffic however, are Poland (+46%) and Argentina (+42%). The least amount of growth occurred in Australia'' but nonetheless still increased, by 9%. Want to know more about mobile traffic, check out our insights post Porn on the Go: Mobile Traffic Takeover.
OPERATING SYSTEM UPDATE
When it comes to porn, we usually ask if you're more into ass or tits, though the increasingly more important question when it comes to porn consumption is Apple or Android? And Pornhub never misses a chance to report on the different behavior between different OS users. So looking back at 2016, we (of course) dug into the difference in traffic and tastes by operating systems. Let's start with desktop. While Windows continues to dominate when it comes to which operating system users count on to watch Pornhub (about 80% of desktop users), Mac OS and Linux are on the rise, with Mac OS up 8% in traffic share and Linux up an impressive 14%.
Moving onto mobile. The playing field is pretty even here, with Android and Apple iOS almost at par with one another. Android leading with 3% more users on Pornhub than Apple iOS (47% of Pornhub's mobile users). Android's mobile market share has increase by 5% over the last year.
BATTLE OF THE BROWSERS
If you asked people on the street which browser they use while on desktop and which they use on mobile, the answer will most likely be different for each. 51% of desktop users seem to prefer watching their porn from Chrome, whereas mobile users are torn between Chrome and Safari (each browser holding 43% of Pornhub users). Let's take a closer look, beginning with desktop.
Chrome is the number 1 web browser being used by Pornhub viewers on desktop and they've gained a small 5% of the market share this year. Nothing compared to Edge (the default browser shipped with Windows 10), usage which grew by 845% this year, although they still come in 5th place when we look at the percentage of user traffic from the browser. Coming in at number 2 (by a long shot) is Internet Explorer with 14% of Pornhub fans using it for their daily viewings. Although they are in second, they have lost a big portion of the market, dropping 21% of their shares, although we suspect many of those users migrated to Microsoft's new Edge browser. Firefox- also losing a chunk of their traffic share (35%, to be specific) is the browser used 3rd most by Pornhub viewers.
Looking now at which mobile browsers are preferred by Pornhub viewers, Chrome and Safari are tied, each claiming 43% of users. However Chrome has gained 25% of the traffic share while Safari has only gained 1%. Android's Browser taking the biggest hit of them all, down 56% this year. This seems to be a global trend, Statcounter reports that although Chrome has been growing over the last 12 months, it is clear that traffic from Android's Browser has dropped by approximately 55%.
FUN AND GAMES
Whether you are a kid or a grown-ass adult, some people will always love to play video games. Back in the day, the poison of choice was N64, and there wasn't much other competition. Nowadays there a ton of different consoles and they aren't just for gamers. You can watch your favorite Netflix shows or even- on some, search the internet. And on that front, it seems that more and more people are choosing to view their porn on PlayStation. 53% of Pornhub's traffic from game consoles stems from PS, up from 46% in 2015. Behind PlayStation is Xbox who has the 2nd most Pornhub users coming from game consoles, however they have lost 10% of their traffic share from 2015. PS Vita has the biggest loss in game console traffic share, down 38% from 2015.
THE NEW REALITY
In June 2014 Google released ''Google Cardboard'', a somewhat disposable and easily affordable VR headset. Fast forward a few years and Facebook and Samsung released their own version of the headset (Gear VR), Sony has their Playstation VR headset and Pornhub launched its own VR category- which initially only had 30 videos. By the end of the year the category had over 1,800 videos, and counting. Some of the most popular 'VR' related search terms on Pornhub include (as we saw in our Top 20 countries review) '360 VR', '360 Degree', 'VR Hentai' and 'shemale VR', to name a few.
We also found that when compared to other age groups the VR category is most popular among 25 to 34 year olds and interestingly enough it seems that this trend is not only true among Pornhub users. Touchstone reports that the experience of VR is most appealing to millennials.
With respect to enjoying the VR content on Pornhub, it seems Asian countries are the ones most interested in VR porn. China, Thailand and Hong Kong are the top three countries where VR is most searched (proportionate to their total searches) while countries a little over to the west like Egypt and Chile round up the top 10.
PORNHUB INTERUPTED
From all the years of insights posts we've done here at Pornhub, I'm sure you are well aware of the shift in traffic major media events and holidays bring to the site. In this final section of our 2016 Year in Review, we will examine how various holidays, sporting events, elections and entertainment events affected traffic to the site around the world. None more so than New Year's Eve, so let's begin with that. On December 31st, worldwide traffic to the site dropped lower than any other day of the year (44% to be exact). With everyone getting ready to ring in the New Year, people seem to be too busy to watch porn. From Sweden to Belgium- even in Italy and France, drops of 60% and more were recorded.
Between 6 pm and midnight on Christmas Eve, traffic to Pornhub dropped about 37% worldwide, versus 14% throughout the entire day of Christmas. The largest drops in traffic came from Belgium and France, falling by 63% and 62% the evening of December 24th. Countries that closely follow these include Poland, Germany, Spain, Argentina and Sweden. Traffic to the site from these countries fell between 57% and 55% on Christmas Eve. While countries like Australia, the U.K. and Canada experienced lesser changes in traffic on Christmas Eve, on Christmas Day they experienced the largest traffic drops; -27%, -27% and -22% respectively.
Want to know more about some of your favorite hallmark holidays? Like how many times 'stuffing' was searched on Thanksgiving or the increase in 'bunny' searches on Easter. Is 'santa claus' or 'mrs clause' more popular at Christmas? And who celebrate's more patriotically '' Canada or the U.S.? Check out the holiday coverage released during 2016 below!
For those more interested in (lesser-known) international holidays- because Lord knows there's more to celebrate and be grateful for in this world than Halloween, just take a look at the chart below. It shows how some major international holidays affected traffic to Pornhub. On August 15th, Italy celebrated the Assumption of Mary- AKA Ferragosto, and traffic to Pornhub from the country dipped by 21%, more than any other holiday worldwide. Argentina's Independence Day on July 9th came in a close second, traffic dropping by 19% on that day. Other worldwide holidays that created a change in traffic include Diwali in India (-17%), Thanksgiving Sunday in Canada (-16%) and New Year's Day in Russia (-15%) to round out the top 5. Some holidays made just enough noise to rock the boat, including Saint Patty's day in Ireland and Carnival in Brazil (both down 6%) and the March 15th Spring Equinox in Japan (traffic to the site from the country dropped 7%).
HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES!
As we stated earlier, the majority of Pornhub's viewers are made up of millennial-aged men. So not surprisingly, when a major sporting event takes place, search terms related to the event usually see a high increase. Traffic to the site is also greatly affected by these sporting events- usually the countries or cities that are apart of the event will see a significant change. Take Super Bowl 50 for example. Although kick-off was at 6:30 pm ET, traffic started to taper off at about 2 pm ET, when the pre-game show started. Traffic to the site from the United States hit it's lowest point around 7 pm ET, and traffic from the participating cities- North Carolina and Colorado, dropped to it's lowest (down 47% and 55%, respectively) during the first hour of the game. We also see that around 8pm (AKA half time), throughout the board traffic starts to rise again. Enough about that for now. If you want to read more about the Super Bowl, check out our insights post.
Moving onto what was arguably one of the most talked about and exciting sports events of 2016 (at least for Chicago Cubs fans) the MLB World Series. Winning their first title since 1908, the Cubs ended the century long (almost) drought. Like the Super Bowl, we checked out the traffic patterns on Pornhub of the two participating cities (Cleveland and Chicago) as well as the United States, here's what we found. During the game traffic to the site dropped 26% in Cleveland and 17% in Chicago. Interestingly enough, traffic peaked all the way up (cue Fat Joe's rapper voice) after the game in both cities and all over the U. S. of A. We can assume it was due to all the pent up stress and excitement (or frustration in Cleveland's case, no offense guys) from the 10-inning, Game 7 thriller. Whatever the reason, we're happy to be of service to you.
Although these events saw an increase in the countries and cities most implicated in the matches, sometimes a sports event is so big, it gets the whole world to take a short break from Pornhub. This was the case for the UEFA Champions League Final against Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. Like the last two events we touched on, traffic to Pornhub took a hit (world wide) during the UEFA final on May 28th. Given both teams are from Spain, it's no surprise that their home country stopped everything to watch the final. Traffic in Spain was down almost 20% during the soccer match. Others countries that saw a heavy decrease in traffic were Iceland (-17%), Malta (down 15%) and Norway (-14%).
Next up, the Rio Summer Olympics. For this event there was just too much to report on, so read on for your quick fix and if you want the full break down, check out our insights post here. Searches related to 'Athletes', 'Olympic' and 'Gymnastics' saw the largest increase during the games. On average, searches related to the term 'Olympics' increased by 2729% during the two weeks of the Olympics. If you check out the Olympics post on our insights page, you'll see some examples of these searches like 'olympics sex' or 'nude olympics'. Searches related to 'athlete' were up by an average of 417% during the games, peaking at 618% pm August 16. And finally, any term you can imagine related to 'gymnastics' saw an average increase of 254% during the Rio Summer Olympics of 2016.
TUNE IN AND TUNE OUT
Just like any other event, major television events and broadcasts have a huge impact on traffic to the site. During an awards show for example Pornhub usually sees a (although not huge) drop in traffic. The Golden Globes is the show that decreases traffic to the site most, bringing it down by 5% followed by the Oscars and Grammy's at -4%. Awards shows typically affect traffic from the US, however there are some series (or season) premieres that affect traffic around the globe, like the examples shown below.
Another example is from Germany. During the 'Schutzlos' episode of Tatort (the German equivalent of ''CSI'' or ''Law and Order'' type series, according to the NY Times), traffic to Pornhub dropped 17%. Also, during the Eurovision Song Contest Finale, traffic throughout Europe dropped by 11%. And funnily enough, during the Apple iPhone 7 keynote speech, traffic from iOS around the world, dropped by 9%.
We've already dove into a few specific sporting events but let's take a look at a few that distracted Pornhub viewers the most. First on the list the Euro Cup Final of 2016, bringing traffic down by 22%. The final match between Portugal and France had a larger impact on traffic than the Super Bowl, during which traffic dropped by 17%. Pornhub also experienced a small drop in traffic during the NBA Championship (-10%) and UFC 205 (-4%) which took place in New York.
Finally, the number one entertainment show of the year, the US Presidential elections. Millions of people tuned into the debates and of course, the live election, to see who makes it out alive- Hilary R. Clinton or Donald J. Trump.
There's quite a bit to say here so feel free to check out our insights posts for more details, but here's the quick and dirty version. The candidates took us on quite the journey right from the get-go. During the first debate Pornhub traffic from the US dropped 13%, and by the second debate we were down 16%, the lowest it would drop during the campaign. During the evening of the election day, the site saw a dip in traffic of 15%.
PLAYING WITH YOURSELF
2016 had its share of downers that is certain, but it also had some fun. It got adults to let loose and chase Pokemon on the streets, it re-introduced us to some of our favorite movies characters and it revealed some great updates for eSports fans. We checked in to see how some of the most talked about events affected searches on Pornhub. Let's start with Overwatch. Since May 5th, when Overwatch entered public beta, searches on Pornhub for 'overwatch' have been increasing. On May 9th, just a few short days after the release, searches containing 'overwatch' went up by 321%. After May 9th, you see a slow down in these searches, but they pick right back up around the 24th of May, when Blizzard Entertainment released the official version. The growth in searches containing 'Overwatch' peaked on May 29th at +447%, and have remained comfortably above average since.
Next up on the list a game that some accused of being a ploy by FLOTUS Michelle Obama to get people moving, you guessed it- Pokemon GO. Immediately after it's US release date, Pornhub saw a huge increase in searches containing 'Pokemon'. Even if the worldwide release wasn't until July 13th, searches on Pornhub including 'Pokemon' peaked on July 13th at +271% (viewers must have been curious from to all the buzz surrounding the US release).
After seeing these results is it any surprise that characters from both of these games dominated the list of top searched video game characters of 2016? Although Lara Croft remained on top with close to 2.5 million searches overall, Sombra- Overwatch's latest sexy hero, experienced the largest peak increase in searches on November 8th at +597%. While Tracer (another Overwatch hero) followed very close behind Lara Croft in terms of number of searches. Searches for Pokemon's 'Misty' peaked on July 19th a few days after the game's worldwide release. Fellow Pokemon Pikachu and Pokemon trainer, Ash, also made the shortlist.
To learn more about searches for your favorite game characters, check out these popular Insights posts released in 2016.
STEPPING OUT OF CHARACTER
Much like video games, usually when a highly-anticipated movie is released, or a big event makes headlines, the characters/personalities involved seem to creep into the top searches on Pornhub. Lets start with some of 2016's top movie characters. The ladies of Ghostbusters, had the largest percent increase in searches (+929). Everyone's favorite super hero- Batman (just admit it already!), received closed to 4 million hits on Pornhub after the release of Batman vs. Superman. Star Wars: The Force Awakens put 'Rey' on the map through much of 2016, increasing search results for the movie character by 816%. And finally, Harley Quinn had the highest total number of searches, clocking in at number one with more than 10 million searches.
2016's femme fatale of choice, Harley Quinn. After the release of Suicide Squad- an action film following a task force formed by a government agency, composed of some of the most dangerous incarcerated super-villains including Quinn, searches on the site for parodies of 'Harley Quinn' skyrocketed up by 310%. After the release of the film, searches began to decrease however right around Halloween you see a second pick up in searches including the sexy super-villain, up 239% on the 31st of October.
To learn more about how movies can affect searches on Pornhub, check out these popular Insights posts from 2016.
CELEBRATING CELEBRITIES
While movie characters and media events always make for a good search, nothing beats good old celebrities. Once again Kim Kardashian broke Pornhub with close to 29 million searches in 2016. Half sister Kylie Jenner followed in second place with 4.5 million searches, with a peak increase of 1073% on May 21st (right around the time news broke of her short split with Tyga). Falling under his wife, and three of his sister-in-laws, Kanye West made more than enough headlines in 2016 to make it to our list of most popular celebrity searches. Searches for Yeezy peaked at 1612% in early March, around the same time Kim's searches peaked- could this have something to do with the whole 'he said she said' battle that was going between the Wests and Taylor Swift at the time? Another family that made some noise this year to make it onto Pornhub's list of most searched for celebrities, the Jolie-Pitts. After the announcement of Brangelina's divorce late September, searches for Angelina Jolie and Marion Cotillard (who was accused of having an affair with Brad) peaked at 217% for Jolie and 982% for Cotillard.
Next, everyone's favorite reality show of 2016, the US presidential election. First up, former Miss Universe Allicia Machado, whose searches peaked on September 30 a few days after the first presidential debate, when Clinton called out Trump for calling Machado ''Miss Piggy''. On this day searches including her name increased by 6540%. And as we've just seen, members of the Trump family saw massive search increases on Pornhub the day after the presidential election.
Finally, some other celebrities that made the list of most popular celebrity searches in 2016 include Beyonce, who rocked the Super Bowl half-time show on February 7th explaining the peak increase in searches for Queen Bey the following day. Prince shocked the world with his death on April 21st, the following day searches for the singer-songwriter reached it's highest point with an increase of 992%. When it comes to percentage increase in searches, no one comes quite as close as U.K Secretary of State, Boris Johnson. On June 29th- a few days after the Brexit vote, searches for the Secretary of State and Brexit advocate, reached it's peak up by a whopping 14624%.
Our friends at the Irish Mirror asked what Irish celebrities were most searched in 2016. International star Colin Farrell topped the list with over 95K searches worldwide, followed by Actor/Musician Jamie Dornan, although model Georgia Salpa managed to outpace Jamie 7 to 1 for searches within Ireland.
YOU'RE HIRED
Ladies and gentlemen next I would like to introduce you to the 45th first family of the United States of America, the Trumps. On November 9th, the day after the US election, not only did searches including President Elect Donald Trump increase (+874%, to be exact), but so did those of most of (sorry Eric) his family members. Although normally she might be one of the least talked about members of the family, searches on Pornhub including 'Tiffany' had the highest increase, up by 2548%. Following her is step-mom Melania, searches for the future First Lady increased by 1538%, and close behind Ivanka Trump with an increase of 1169% in searches.
Throughout 2016 news and media was awash with coverage of the primaries and elections, and Pornhub Insights was no different. To wrap up our 2016 Year in Review, here are some of the most popular election stats we released throughout the year.
Happy 2017 to all of our Pornhub fans! Thanks for making 2016 one for the record books.
_______________Some graphic resources courtesy of Freepik.
Inside The Surprisingly Big Overwatch Porn Scene | Kotaku Australia
Angel-winged Mercy having sex with the devilish Reaper. Spunky mech pilot D.Va pleasuring herself in front of a webcam. Blindingly speedy Tracer caught in Widowmaker's web. Overwatch porn has been all over the internet for months, though the game's creators at Blizzard don't seem to eye it too favourably. Illustration by Sam Woolley.
(Warning: Definitely NSFW.)Users of the online site Pornhub have searched for Overwatch porn more than 600,000 times this calendar year. There are more than 700 Overwatch porn animations. It's gotten so popular that even the game's developer, Blizzard, has taken notice. All this before the game was even released.
It's not unusual for people to make porn of video games. Seemingly, the more popular the game, the more people want to see porn related to it. On Pornhub, the most popular video game-related porn search is Minecraft followed by Halo, Clash of Clans and Call of Duty, according to the site's VP, Corey Price. That list indicates that the most widely perused video game porn involves games people typically play for competitive multiplayer rather than character-driven stories. Perhaps it's a matter of simple metrics. Those games are so widely played, they might overwhelm porn searches tied to single-player games with sheer volume. But Overwatch porn combines the popularity of a multiplayer game with the character-rich nature of a single-player one, and this makes it perfect for porn.
Sex (With Personality) SellsOverwatch makes for good porn for the same reason it makes for a good game. It's got a colourful cast of characters whose visual styles pop with personality. Simply looking at Tracer, Widowmaker or Genji gives you an immediate idea of what they're like. It's in everything, from their clothes to their poses to Genji's remarkably underrated butt. (Sorry, Tracer.) They're packed with personality. They're expressive. It doesn't hurt that there's a higher-than-average number of lady characters, and many of them are thin and wear skin-tight clothing. Rule 34 about people making porn out of things on the internet certainly is in effect with Overwatch.
"I was drawn to do Overwatch porn because its characters ooze, well, character," said an artist who goes by the handle Tsoni, who claims to have gotten into the video game porn scene because of an interest in 3D animation. A model for the Overwatch character Widowmaker caught their eye last spring and got them making longer, more story-driven videos about Overwatch characters hooking up. Tsoni really likes the characters. "They're expressive, have a unique look, and their models are high quality, which makes them a joy to animate."
Overwatch porn is also pretty easy to make, which goes a long way in helping it proliferate. A lot of video game porn is made in Valve's Source Filmmaker, a tool that allows people to animate high quality 3D scenes quickly and intuitively. "Aside from the popularity and character design, there's also the fact that literally anybody can do their own porn animations by downloading the software that most artists use for this," one of the heads of OverwatchHentai.net, who goes by Richard, told me.
The Source Filmmaker community is built around the sharing of assets, nude models included. You don't need to be a professional artist to make Overwatch porn '-- you can just download what you need and get right to the meat of it. That doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to make good porn, but you'll definitely have naked video game characters joyously clipping their junk into each other in no time.
Credit: Eddy Productions.
It also helps that the character models were available long before the game's launch. Overwatch entered closed beta late last year, and some Source filmmakers took to ripping character models straight from the game, Tsoni told me. It began with clothed characters getting it on in the barest of fashions, but Source Filmmaker users soon created custom models with ripped clothes, pieces of clothing removed and, of course, nude models. Despite all this, a lot of Overwatch porn is still fairly rudimentary, taking the form of loops that last a few seconds. However, creators like Tsoni have begun to experiment with longer and more elaborate story content.
Only a select few people in the video game porn community have actually played Overwatch yet. "Many people in the SFM porn community play video games, and so a lot of people were excited for Overwatch," said Tsoni. "But they couldn't play it, so I suppose making porn of it is the next best thing. This sort of thing doesn't happen often, because people don't usually get access to models before a game's release, but it has happened before with Street Fighter V."
***
''But they couldn't play it, so I suppose making porn of it is the next best thing.''***
Overwatch's characters have personality and backstory, but there's still so much we don't know about them, both because of their design and because so many people haven't played the game. They're foundations to build upon, vessels for the imagination. These are characters we're meant to embody as players. By design, they can't be fully fleshed out. There has to be room for player identity.
Porn also often involves projection onto a pre-established actor, imagining that you're the one receiving the lapdance so tantalising you think you're gonna lose your mind, or having someone go down on you for 20 minutes (oh the chafing), or getting ravaged by a tentacle monster. That midpoint between developed character and blank slate makes Overwatch characters perfect for porn.
Credit: Ellowas.
Mei x Zarya 5 EverA lot of Overwatch porn is bad. Character movements can be unsettlingly rigid, and the sex is shot from amateurish angles with little variation. It quickly becomes rote, repetitive and unexciting '-- the exact opposite of what anyone with a pulse wants out of porn. But for every ten clips that suck and/or blow in bad ways, there's one that sucks and/or blows in good ways.
Most are only a handful of seconds long, meant to loop indefinitely while people jack it. The bad ones are like watching leathery Barbie dolls squirt sunscreen from their genitalia. But the good ones are legitimately sexy. Since many clips are brief, every little bit counts. Bleh's movies have good small details. Eyes flutter, jaws clench and tremble and flesh moves roughly 100 times better than it does in any actual video game.
If you're not at work, watch this one of D.Va and Hanzo. See how she gazes up at him before sensation overtakes her, forcing her gaze downward? See all the rapid expressions in between? Hanzo's not exactly being gentle. D.Va's into it, but there's a lot of pain mixed with the pleasure. Take notes, Blizzard. That's called economy of storytelling. No hammy dialogue, either!
Some of the most minimal clips and images tell the best stories. They're often character traits taken to a logical conclusion of a sort. For instance, here's a still shot of D.Va cam-whoring. Makes sense, right? She used to be a pro gamer, she probably streamed and the porn version of streaming is cam-whoring. Is it stereotypical in way that's kinda shitty to actual women streamers? Sure. But for the purposes of the internal lore logic of porn in the Overwatch universe, it checks out. Here's another of D.Va getting fucked by a new upgrade to her mech. Sex with machines is common in anime porn. Here, it's a strong lore-friendly application of a pre-existing trope. But D.Va's also playful, so here she is sneaking up on Widowmaker (who's too distracted by sniping to notice) and popping her top off. D.Va is nothing if not a canvas for the soul's deepest, darkest, robot-fucking-est desires.
Credit: Badcompzero.
Tracer, however, is the most popular character. Of course she is. She's been in all the marketing, and her butt fell into the crosshair of an overblown but nonetheless telling video game controversy. People think Tracer's sexy, but in a fun, flirty way. "The most popular characters have to be Tracer and Widowmaker, but it's not really surprising considering how much of a limelight those characters have gotten in recent gaming news," said Dickson. Several searches of major porn sites concurred.
Naturally, Tracer's been the central subject of some of the most detailed Overwatch porn clips. I'm talking between two and four minutes long, with full sound effects and voice acting. When Tracer porn isn't straightforward, no-frills fucking, she's generally portrayed as either fun-loving or submissive. (Unfortunately, women rarely take charge in Overwatch porn, unless they're having sex with other women.) In this voiced clip, Tracer quips the whole time, not unlike when she's racing around blasting people, except totally unlike that because she's having mind-blowing sex. In this especially narrative-driven video by Tsoni, Tracer gets ambushed by Widowmaker (her foil in both Overwatch lore and many porn clips) '-- lured, trapped and taken advantage of. The sex itself is a little weak, but the setup offers a tantalising look at what's to come for Overwatch porn.
Characters like Pharah, Symettra and Mercy show up sometimes, but far less frequently. I've seen a few clips involving Mei. Zarya '-- the least "traditionally" (read: what 18-34 year-old straight dudes are into) attractive character '-- played a major role in one of the most elaborate videos I've come across. On the rare occasions she shows up, the muscular Zarya usually pushes around other girls, ultimately revealing that she has a dick. Things sometimes get rapey, something that is, for better or worse, pretty common in animated porn. The contrast between Mei and Zarya's gentle, loving relationship in the Overwatch shipping community and their sometimes brutal one in the porn community is jarring.
Credit: Tsoni.
It's still porn, which means it often caters to certain less lore-friendly proclivities. In a detailed breakdown of Overwatch porn searches, Pornhub reported that the third biggest Overwatch-related search term (behind "Overwatch Tracer" and "Cartoon Overwatch") is "Overwatch Futa". Futa, short for futanari, is a genre of hentai in which otherwise feminine-looking characters either grow dicks or are revealed to have them. It's become extremely big in Japanese animated porn, and it's crossing over into Western creations. Bleh pointed out that futa and other fetishes like bestiality are big moneymakers on Patreon, where a lot of video game porn makers get paid. Into tentacle porn? Monster porn? Don't worry, you're gonna be OK. There's also a fair amount of vanilla (sex between two characters) and Gang Bang (sex between multiple characters) content.
Overwatch's male characters show up rarely. If there's a guy involved, it's often a Generic Porn Dude model that somebody had lying around. It makes sense: nude models of some characters are still tough to come by. Occasionally you get a fully clothed Genji with his dick out, at which point commenters are quick to question why it's not part-robot like the rest of him. It's interesting to consider the futa trend in that light. Did it come about due to the tastes of viewers, or because it was easier for creators to just slap an erect cock on a pre-existing nude of, say, Widowmaker? It's not like forceful penetration doesn't fit her personality, either. I mean, she's a sniper. She's all about forceful penetration. It is literally her job.
There's a lot of humour in the nascent Overwatch porn scene. For instance, here is Tracer, bewildered by a forest of butts. And here's a video of Reaper and Mercy (both tough to find in Overwatch porn so far) going at it, subtitled, "Reaper reaps Mercy's asshole, showing no mercy." The game is fun, so why can't its porn be fun too?
Exposing Your WinstonOverwatch is riding something of a wave right now. Pornhub's Corey Price told me that cartoon porn '-- something with which video game porn frequently overlaps '-- is surging right now. "In 2015," he said, "we found that searches for 'futanari' grew over 400% in Russia, and 'cartoon' gained 4 spots to become Pornhub's fourth most searched for term worldwide."
Most Overwatch porn gets posted to places like Tumblr and Reddit's Rule 34 subreddit. For a while, that's where it stayed. As Overwatch porn has become more popular, however, people (not necessarily the makers of said porn) have started spreading videos around to large porn-focused sites like Pornhub and Xvideos, which has helped it really take off.
The creators I spoke to don't seem to mind their work becoming widely available for free, since they either do it for fun or make a little money from Patreon backers. They share a love of smut, but after that, their interests diverge. Some want to tell saucy stories involving their favourite characters. "I love to tell a story," Dickson said. "It's what I love the most when I animate. The sex sequences are just a bonus to keep the viewers interested."
***
''I love to tell a story. It's what I love the most when I animate. The sex sequences are just a bonus to keep the viewers interested.''***
Others want to flex their 3D animation muscles. "I was interested in learning to animate in 3D, not specifically porn, but that's what I eventually started doing," said Tsoni. "I found it hard to come up with any ideas to animate or at least, ideas that I could summon the passion to create. However porn was easy to create, it wasn't time consuming, and it wasn't hard to come up with an idea for a porn scene."
OverwatchHentai's Richard just needed a summer job. "I am actually 18," he told me, "and when my mom forced me to get a job this summer I just decided to start a porn site." He partnered with a more experienced Rule 34 community member, and the rest is history.
Nobody expected it to get this big, but they're all enjoying the ride. For as long as it lasts, anyway.
Credit: Comandorekin.
Over and Out?Blizzard is trying to make a game that falls squarely in the PG to PG-13 range, so they're not exactly helping make all this porn possible.
According to OverwatchHentai's Richard, Blizzard has turned up the heat in the weeks leading up to the game's official launch. "They removed multiple Overwatch models on the Internet for fans to use (both for artistic purposes and porn) via copyright claim," he claimed. "They shut down some sites dedicated to Overwatch porn. My site got a DMCA notice from a company acting on behalf of Blizzard a few days ago, and there is a chance overwatchhentai.net might shut down."
Prominent Steam Source Filmmaker community Overwatch SFM backs up these assertions. Starting April 26, multiplemembers began reporting DMCA takedown notices on their models, most of them not for use in porn. It was likely a copyright thing. However, as of May 16, it seems that Blizzard started to whitelist some models, implying that they're cool with the general practice, if not the porn that comes of it. In a March interview with Th3Jez, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan said he thought the models were "awesome" and added that he wanted to see more movies made about Overwatch. Porn, however, didn't come up in the discussion.
The precedent isn't promising for those hoping for more elaborate Overwatch porn. Prominent maker of brutal video game fetish porn, Studio FOW (who we've profiled in the past), allegedly received a cease-and-desist order from Blizzard last year pertaining to a World of Warcraft-related project. Due to that incident and complications that arose from it, Studio FOW's not rushing to delve into the world of Overwatch porn. "It's not a process I'm happy to repeat because I have better things to do than argue semantics all day with jumped up, tiny, hypocrite attorneys," they wrote in a recent Tumblr post. "So yeah, sorry if you don't get your Overwatch waifus, but there are more important things in life such as looking out for my team and feeding families."
At the moment, the Overwatch porn scene is in an uncertain place. Will Blizzard start treating Overwatch porn like it's treating other Overwatch movie models, or will it continue cracking down? I reached out to Blizzard for comment on all of this, but they have yet to reply.
***
''It would be impossible for Blizzard to remove all trace of Overwatch porn on the Internet.''***
OverwatchHentai's Richard told me that he's in the process of gathering prominent Overwatch porn animators to start a petition against Blizzard's removals, arguing that Overwatch porn counts as transformative fair use. Even if a worst case scenario were to occur, however, Richard doesn't think the flow of Overwatch porn would stop entirely.
"It would be impossible for Blizzard to remove all trace of Overwatch porn on the Internet," he said.
The question, though, is whether or not they will try. Blizzard is more open to fan creations these days than they have been in the past, but this is a lot to swallow. Some Overwatch porn might be clever and faithful to the game in its own way, but it still (usually) ends in, you know, sex. Unfortunately, the way people tend to learn of big companies' policies on things like these is through action, rather than direct communication. I suppose the next few weeks will say a lot about Blizzard, one way or another.
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Trending Stories Right NowIt's 2017 and things are looking up, if only because it's not 2016 anymore. Also we're getting a new Mass Effect game.
And in the strangest thing to happen this week, here we have two Google Homes arguing with each other - then falling in love and pledging vows to each other.
Overwatch is a team-based multiplayerfirst-person shooter video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released in May 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Overwatch puts players into two teams of six, with each player selecting one of several pre-defined hero characters with unique movement, attributes, and abilities; these heroes are divided into four classes: Offense, Defense, Tank and Support. Players on a team work together to secure and defend control points on a map and/or escort a payload across the map in a limited amount of time. Players gain cosmetic rewards that do not affect gameplay, such as character skins and victory poses, as they continue to play in matches. The game was launched with casual play, while Blizzard added competitive ranked play about a month after launch. Additionally, Blizzard has developed and added new characters, maps, and game modes post-release, while stating that all Overwatch updates will remain free, with the only additional cost to players being microtransactions to earn additional cosmetic rewards.
Overwatch is Blizzard's fourth major franchise, and came about following the 2014 cancellation of the ambitious massively multiplayer online role-playing gameTitan. A portion of the Titan team came up with the concept of Overwatch, based on the success of team-based first-person shooters like Team Fortress 2 and the growing popularity of multiplayer online battle arenas, creating a hero-based shooter that emphasized teamwork. Some elements of Overwatch borrow assets and concepts from the canceled Titan project. After establishing the narrative of an optimistic near-future Earth setting after a global crisis, the developers aimed to create a diverse cast of heroes that spanned genders and ethnicities as part of this setting. Significant time was spent adjusting the balance of the characters, making sure that new players would still be able to have fun while skilled players would present each other with a challenge.
Overwatch was unveiled at BlizzCon 2014 in a fully playable state, and was in a closed beta from late 2015 through early 2016. An open beta in May 2016 drew in more than 9.7 million players. The release of the game was promoted with short animated videos to introduce the game's narrative and each of the characters. Upon official release, Overwatch received universal acclaim from critics, who praised its accessibility and enjoyable gameplay. Overwatch has become recognized as an eSport, and in addition to sponsoring tournaments, Blizzard has announced plans to help support professional league play starting in 2017.
GameplayOverwatch is a first-person shooter that features squad-based combat with two opposing teams of six players each.[1] Players choose one of several hero characters, each with their own unique abilities and role classes. The four character roles include: offense characters with high speed and attack but low defense, defense characters meant to form choke points for enemies, support characters that provide buffs and debuffs for their allies and enemies respectively (such as healing or speed alterations), and tank characters that have a large amount of armor and hit points to withstand enemy attacks and draw fire away from teammates. During the pre-match setup, players on a team will be given advice from the game if their team is unbalanced, such as if they are lacking defensive heroes, encouraging players to switch to other heroes pre-match and balance the starting team.[2] Within a match, players can switch between characters in-game following deaths or by returning to their home base. The game is designed to encourage players to adapt to the opposing team during a match by switching to characters that better "counter" their abilities.[3][4]
Each hero has a primary attack or skill and at least two additional skills that can be invoked at any time, some requiring a brief cooldown period before they can be used again. Furthermore, each player slowly builds up a meter towards their character's "ultimate" skill; this meter builds up over time but can build up faster for defeating opponents or performing other beneficial tasks for their team such as healing other team members. Once ready, the player can use this skill at any time which may last for a few seconds (such as increased attack strength or immunity to attacks) or be a single powerful action (such as resurrecting any recently-fallen team members), after which they then must wait for the meter to fill up again. Opposing players will be alerted to the use of this ultimate ability by an exclamation from the character, often in the character's native language; for example, gunslinger McCree will call out "It's high noon" as the player engages the ultimate ability to target multiple visible enemies and deal lethal damage to those still in sight. This gives opposing players a brief moment to try to take cover or respond appropriately.[5]
A second meter tracks how many in-round points a player has scored over time, which are rewarded for killing or assisting in killing, providing team defense or healing, and scoring objective points. When a certain threshold is reached, the player character's icon will be "on fire," representing that that character is a threat, but otherwise does not directly affect gameplay.[6] This meter will slowly drop if the player does not continue to score points.
Overwatch employs an automated instant replay system, designed to highlight important moments of the game. After the game's end, the server selects a fragment of the match which had a large impact on the game's progression, such as a rapid succession of kills or an effective use of team healing, and then broadcasts it to all players from the point of view of the player responsible for it. This is called a "Play of the Game" (often abbreviated to "PotG"),[7] or "Play of the Match" ("PotM") in competitive games that have longer matches. Afterwards, a result screen is shown, highlighting up to four individual players from both teams for their achievements during the match (such as damage dealt, healed or shielded, or time spent on the objective), and all players are given the option to commend one of them.
Players gain experience following a match towards a metagame experience level based on several factors such as whether they won or lost, how effective they used their character's main powers, being awarded gold, silver, or bronze medals for their team across six categories such as most time spent on the objectives, and beating past personal records in these categories; this experience is only gained when playing on the game's matchmaking modes and not in custom games. On gaining an experience level, the player can earn a loot box, each which contains four random cosmetic items for individual heroes, including victory poses, paint sprays, alternate skins (costumes), emotes and voice lines. Such items are given out based on their rarity level, which range from Common through Legendary. They may also earn in-game currency called "credits" which can be used to purchase specific cosmetic items directly, with their cost based on the item's rarity. Items associated with limited-time events cannot be purchased in this manner.[8] Other items can only be acquired by completing in-game achievements. Duplicate items are rewarded with in-game currency. Players also have the option to buy loot boxes with real-world money through microtransactions.
RolesCharacters in Overwatch come in four varieties: Offense, Defense, Tank, and Support. These roles serve to categorize the heroes of Overwatch by similar characteristics that can be used to describe them and their play style. The first appearance of an Overwatch character in a released game was on April 19, 2016 in Heroes of the Storm.[9]
Offense: Offense characters have high mobility and are known for their ability to deal large amounts of damage. To balance this, offense characters have a low number of hit points.[10][11][12]Defense: Defense characters excel at protecting specific locations and creating choke points. They can also provide several means of field support, such as sentry set-up and trapping the enemy team.[10][11][12]Tank: Tank characters have the most hit points out of all the characters in the game. Because of this, they are able to draw enemy fire away from their teammates to themselves, so as to disrupt the enemy team.[10][11][12]Support: Support characters are utility characters that have abilities that enhance their own team and/or weaken the enemy team. They might not deal the most damage or have the most hit points, but the buffs and debuffs they provide ensure that their teammates who do will make short work of their opponents.[10][11][12]Map typesEach Overwatch map has a specific game mode that it supports, which include:[13]
Assault: The attacking team is tasked with capturing two target points in sequence on the map, while the defending team must stop them.[3][4]Escort: The attacking team is tasked with escorting a payload to a certain delivery point before time runs out, while the defending team must stop them. The payload vehicle moves along a fixed track when any player on the attacking team is close to it, but will stop if a defending player is nearby; should no attacker be near the vehicle, it will start to move backwards along the track. Passing specific checkpoints will extend the match time and prevent the payload from moving backwards from that point.[3][4]Hybrid (Assault/Escort): The attacking team has to capture the payload and escort it to its destination, while the defending team tries to hold them back.Control: Each team tries to capture and maintain a common control point until their capture percentage reaches 100%. This game mode is played in a best-of-three format.Each mode includes an "Overtime" period lasting for only a few seconds if an objective is not yet completed by the attacking team, such as if the attackers in Escort have not moved the payload to the next checkpoint, or have failed to take the control point held by the other team in Control. Overtime continues if attackers continuously push at their objective, but will end quickly if the attackers are kept away from the objective.
Most of the game's maps are inspired by real-world locations;[14] the first four maps, "King's Row", "Hanamura", "Temple of Anubis", and "Ilios" are inspired by London, Japan, the ruins of Ancient Egypt, and Greece respectively.[4]
Game modesOverwatch features several means of gameplay, including tutorials and practice modes against computer-controlled opponents, casual matchmaking, weekly brawls, custom games, and competitive play.[15]
Casual matchmaking allows players, alone, or in a party with invited friends, to be randomly matched against others. The game servers will attempt to match the gathered players in party via a dynamic queue with others based on general skill level, only broadening outside this search range if it takes a long time to find matching players.[16] Blizzard works to adjust this matchmaking approach to making sure players will find matches of people with roughly equivalent skill level. For example, in June 2016, Blizzard removed the option for players to avoid specific opponents; the option was meant for players to be able ignore trolls, but instead found that highly skilled players were being put on these avoidance lists and were having difficulty finding games or would be matched with new and less-skilled players.[17]
Overwatch was launched with a rotating Weekly Brawl mode, inspired by Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft's Tavern Brawls.[18] These matches featured unique rules, such as players forced to play a specific hero or a specific class of hero, or may force a random hero on the player each time they respawn; as the mode's name suggests, these Brawls will change weekly.[18] The Weekly Brawl was merged into an Arcade mode, featuring a rotating variety of games based on one-on-one and three-on-three matches and from which players can earn unique in-game items or loot boxes; the Arcade mode was added on November 15, 2016.[19][20][21] The Weekly Brawl and Arcade mode may feature themed events designed by Blizzard, such as a three-on-three soccer-type game during the 2016 Summer Olympics,[22] and a co-operative player-versus-environment defense mode during the game's first Halloween event.[23]
Custom games enable players to have open or private games with several possible options that can be adjusted, such as match length, which maps to play, limitations on character selection, and similar options that are used to create the Weekly Brawl or Arcade matches. Players do not gain any experience from playing in custom games as they would in the causal, ranked, or weekly brawl modes.[24]
Competitive modeCompetitive mode enables players, segregated in both region and platform, to participate in ranked play.[25] Competitive mode is run in seasons that last for three months each with a short break (on the order of a week to two weeks) between each season to allow Blizzard to make necessary changes to this format; an exception was made for the first season which ran for 1.5 months to align timing for future seasons as to fall on calendar seasons.[25][26] Players must have reached level 25 from casual matches to partake in competitive play. Before they can play any ranked matches for that season, they must play through ten preliminary matches which assigns a skill rating, which is partially influenced by the player's previous skill ranking on the last season. This ranking is subsequently used for matchmaking purposes in future competitive games they play that season. The player's skill level can move up or down during a season, influenced by their performance and by winning matches against higher-ranked players or losing matches to lower-ranked ones.[16][27] Specific aspects of the skill system over the seasons are described below.
In Season 1, skill rankings were assigned on a scale of 1 to 100, the latter representing the best players. Players were rewarded at the end of the season with in-game currency based on this ranking. Blizzard found that players were focusing on this number too closely during the season, prompting changes for Season 2.[28]In Season 2, skill rankings were assigned on a scale of 1 to 5000; a player was then subsequently assigned one of seven tiers tied to the skill ranking: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster. A player could enter a new tier by increasing their skill ranking. For all tiers up through Diamond, the player could never lose that tier ranking even if their skill dropped below the tier's threshold. Master and Grandmaster tiers required the player to continue to play; losing too many matches or not playing over a period of time could cause the player to fall out of that tier. End of season rewards were based on these tier rankings.[29] Blizzard found that the method of bringing forward Season 1 skill rankings to Season 2 caused too many players of lower skill rank to be filtered into the Gold and Platinum tiers. This caused a wide distribution of player skills within these rank tiers and also caused players that started in Gold or Platinum tiers to have their skill rank drop significantly despite having even win-loss records.[30]In Season 3, Blizzard used a skill ranking calculation at the onset of the season that decreased the player's Season 2 skill ranking to better sort players into the initial tiers, keep relative player skill in each tier consistent at the start of the season, and prevent rapid drops of a player's skill at the season's onset; they had found that their algorithms placed too many players in the Gold and Platinum tiers at the start of Season 2, creating imbalanced matchmaking and rapid declines of player rankings, and anticipate that this chance will better spread out players over tiers and improve matchmaking.[30][31]Players on a team in competitive mode must each choose a unique Hero to use, and can swap only to a different unused Hero mid-match; this aspect was added a few weeks after the launch of competitive mode.[32] Competitive matches taking place on Control maps are played in three-out-of-five rounds rather than two-out-of-three as in casual gameplay. Competitive matches taking place on Assault, Escort, and Hybrid map types are broken into two rounds, with teams swapped between attackers and defenders each round. Teams can score a point only as the attackers, by completing each objective (capturing a control point or escorting the payload past a checkpoint). For Escort and Hybrid maps, if the attackers do not escort the payload to the final endpoint, the farthest distance they obtained is used for scoring. After these two rounds, the team with the highest score wins. In some situations, ties are broken with additional rounds, or the match could end in a draw. The draw-breaking mechanism has changed during the seasons:[25][29][33][34]
In Season 1, tied matches were resolved by a sudden death round; one team was randomly selected as the attackers and given about two minutes (time varying by map) without any overtime to secure a control point to win the match; otherwise, the defenders won. Blizzard had quickly recognized this method of resolving ties was not popular.In Season 2 and beyond, tied matches are resolved based on much time each team had left after their round as attackers. If the teams are tied and neither has any time left, the match is considered a draw. Otherwise, each team alternates as attackers while they still have cumulative time left to try to score as many points as possible until either both teams exhaust their time (ending in a draw) or one team scores more points than the other. Completing objectives does not reward the attackers any additional time in this mode, and there is less leeway allowed for overtime situations.Each match a player wins in competitive mode earns them some units of in-game "competitive currency": 10 for a win, and 3 for a tie.[35]
Players who complete the prerequisite ten placement matches will gain cosmetic items unique for that season. At the end of a season, players will be rewarded with additional competitive currency based on their final skill ranking; for the first season, these varied between 10 and 300 competitive currency units, while season two increased those rewards by a factor of ten.[36] This currency can then be used to purchase cosmetic rewards such as spending 300 (Season 1) or 3000 (Season 2 onward) competitive currency units to obtain a "golden" weapon for a specific character.[16][27][35][37][38] Kaplan remarked that competitive play was Blizzard's "big focus", anticipating that it will "require a few season's worth of iteration before we're in the place we want to be."[39] During the first season of competitive play, Blizzard announced that a team's probability of winning would no longer be recalculated after a player leaves the match; this decision was made after player feedback revealed a negative reception to the mechanic.[40]
PlotThe backstory to Overwatch is described through animated shorts and other information distributed by Blizzard in promoting the game.[41][42]
Overwatch is set sixty years into the future of a fictionalized Earth, thirty years after the resolution of the "Omnic Crisis". Prior the Omnic Crisis, humanity had been in a golden age of prosperity and technology development. Humans developed robots with artificial intelligence called "Omnics", which were produced worldwide in automated "omnium" facilities and put to use to achieve economic equality. The Omnic Crisis began when the omniums started producing a series of lethal, hostile robots, which turned against humankind. The United Nations quickly formed Overwatch, an international task force to combat the omnic threat and restore order.
Two veteran soldiers were put in charge of Overwatch; Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison. Though Overwatch successfully quelled the robotic uprising and brought a number of talented individuals to the forefront, a rift developed between Reyes and Morrison, and Morrison became the leader of Overwatch while Reyes took charge of Blackwatch, Overwatch's covert operations division. Overwatch maintained peace across the world for several decades in what was called the "Overwatch Generation," but the rift between Morrison and Reyes intensified. Several allegations of wrongdoing and failures were leveled at Overwatch, leading to a public outcry against the organization and in-fighting between its members, prompting the UN to investigate the situation. During this, an explosion destroyed Overwatch's headquarters in Switzerland, purportedly killing Morrison and Reyes among others. The UN passed the Petras Act, which dismantled Overwatch and forbade any Overwatch-type activity.
Overwatch is set some years after the Petras Act; without Overwatch, corporations have started to take over, fighting and terrorism have broken out in parts of the globe, and there are signs of a second Omnic Crisis occurring in Russia. Former members of Overwatch decide to reform Overwatch despite the Petras Act, recruiting old friends and gaining new allies in their fight.[43]
DevelopmentDevelopment of Overwatch followed after the 2014 cancellation of the ambitious massively multiplayer online role-playing gameTitan, a game that had been in development at Blizzard for seven years.[44] Blizzard co-founder Michael Morhaime stated that with Titan, "We didn't find the fun. We didn't find the passion." even after re-evaluating the project.[45] The large Titan team was cut to a much smaller group and tasked to come up with a new project; Overwatch became Blizzard's second attempt at launching a new franchise since StarCraft in 1998.[46][47] Creative director Chris Metzen noted that to avoid the same failure that Titan became, their group had to rethink how Blizzard's more successful games had come about, ignoring the scale and business opportunity of the end result and instead understand what tools and skills they had already to build from.[47] In brainstorming ideas, the team thought about the current state of first-person shooters (FPS), a genre that many on the team had played throughout their careers, which has enjoyed many groundbreaking titles but still has a potential for innovation, according to director Jeff Kaplan.[48]
Kaplan states that some of the ideas in the current FPS they wanted to emulate were the trend of near-future realism exhibited by games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the use of in-game maneuvers like rocket jumping and grappling hooks that helped players move with fluidity across maps, and team-based shooters such as Team Fortress Classic and Team Fortress 2.[48] At the same time, multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games were starting to take off, which required players to cooperate with others to successfully win the match. Kaplan said that their team considered how to adapt the large-scale and fast-paced gameplay of Team Fortress 2 with the smaller scale and cooperative nature of MOBAs, forming the basis of Overwatch.[48] Metzen also commented that the concept of teamwork in Overwatch was partially influenced by their own team's current morale following the cancellation of Titan. Metzen said that during Titan's development, the team was highly fractured which impacted the project's cancellation. On starting Overwatch with a smaller group, they all wanted to come together and support each other to make their next game a success, "a redemption story for us as people and as craftsmen".[47] Morhaime described Overwatch's intention as to "create an awesome [first-person shooter] experience that's more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love."[14] On the FPS nature of the game, Kaplan commented that "the real focus of the shooting in the game is not to chase realism. We don't have real world guns in the game. You're not playing a soldier in a present-day military conflict."[15]
Initial development of the game began with creating the first Hero character, Tracer, who was based on a character from Titan with similar time-manipulation abilities.[49] They used Tracer and a single map based on the Temple of Anubis, to test how well the core mechanics played, according to assistant game director Aaron Keller.[50] They added three more Heroes'--Widowmaker, Reaper, and Pharah'--to start polishing the gameplay mechanics, which even at this stage Keller stated that it compared very closely with what the released game would present. They had even considered releasing Overwatch with a limited set of heroes at this point, as they had felt the game already had a finished feel to it.[50]
Instead, they spent about two years on developing out the rest of the characters, gameplay balance, and graphics.[50] In addition to character balance, the development team needed to find ways to balance the characters with the various maps, wanting to provide areas across the maps for each character to have an area where they could be effective.[51] The number of characters in the game was not fixed; though released with 21 different heroes, Kaplan stated the team played around with various goals, potentially as high as 40 unique heroes and across six different classes.[48] Kaplan credits Jeff Goodman, a veteran designer in Blizzard, for figuring out the right number of heroes, classes, and balance between the characters.[48] Keller noted that as the cast starting approaching about 15 characters, the team started to worry that there were too many for players to learn and may dilute the experience, but they strived to assure both uniqueness and balance across the slate of Heroes.[50] The team felt the game was ready for release in November 2015 after adding the last two characters, Mei and D.Va, to the roster.[50]
Overwatch was developed with half a dozen features to bring in a wider audience, including an accessibility feature for color blind individuals.[44] During development, one important goal was to have "combat clarity" for the player, so that when a player moved into a new area, enemy characters would be clearly visible. This was enabled by contrasting the hues and saturation levels used for players to those used within the maps, and creating characters with distinctly different silhouettes to allow a player to identity the hero from a distance, including whether they were friend or foe.[50] They found during development that having players be able to change heroes in mid-match to be important to gameplay. This inspired them to forego plans to release Overwatch as a free-to-play model with microtransactions or with paid downloadable content but instead make it a single-purchase title. Keller said that they wanted players to be able to jump to any Hero as necessitated by the situation, and the free-to-play or downloadable content approach could limit that ability if none of the team's players had purchased access to that hero.[50] Keller also stated that the free-to-play/downloadable content model could fragment their player community, with gamers only playing with friends that had the same content instead of all available players.[50] A further goal in development was to avoid the negativity that often occurs in other competitive game environments, and, along with strides to make the narrative give a positive message, made specific choices in gameplay design to remove elements they felt fed negativity. One such choice was omitting kill/death ratios from the various statistic summaries, as according to Kaplan "some characters don't need to kill to be effective".[44] To promote a friendlier playing environment, Blizzard penalizes players that "rage quit" (purposely leaving a match before it is complete) with a penalty on player experience points after a match,[52] and will permanently ban players that they find "cheating or using hacks, bots, or third-party software".[53] Blizzard performed one such mass-ban of players they had found to be using aimbots and other cheating assistants in late July 2016.[54] Following Overwatch's release, Blizzard sought legal action against Bossland Hacks for Watchover Tyrant tool that enables certain cheats and advantages to players in Overwatch, among other features.[55]
Blizzard's initial idea for competitive mode were to limit play to six-on-six matches where players had formed their own teams outside of normal matchmaking, with rankings based on team rather than individual performance; Kaplan stated that this would avoid issues relating to matchmaking and players dropping out mid-game in terms of tracking the team's rating. When they presented this concept to players early on, they received a large amount of negative feedback, with many players wanting to be able to play competitively solo rather than grouped with a team.[56] From this feedback, they redesigned competitive mode to be based on a progression system, similar to Hearthstone, where initially a player would generally progress along a five-tier ladder system the more matches they played, but as they moved into higher ranks, would find further progression to be based more on skill. This approach had been tested in the beta period but Blizzard found that low-ranked players to be pitted frequently against much more highly ranked players, and that they had not accounted for players to fall out of a tier if they started to perform poorly.[16] They further found players wanting a finer resolution of their competitive ranking to be able to better compare to other players.[56] They opted to hold back on including competitive mode at release, and later redeveloped the mode to use the 100-point ranking system to meet these issues while continuing to look for other ways to improve the ranking system.[56]
An improved competitive mode entered open beta testing within Battle.net's public test region on June 21, 2016.[57][58][59] Competitive mode for Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 was added on June 28, June 30 and July 1, 2016, respectively.[26][60][61]
The United States Patent and Trademark Office suspended Blizzard's application for a trademark for Overwatch due to "a likelihood of confusion" with a previously registered trademark by Innovis Labs.[62] On October 13, 2015, Innovis Labs and Blizzard settled a pending lawsuit. A week later, on October 21, 2015, Innovis Labs surrendered their trademark registration for Overwatch.[63]
NarrativeTo develop the game's themes, Kaplan stated they wanted to create a future that was not typical of what a post-apocalyptic world might be like, opting instead for a future where conflict still exists but a "bright and aspirational vision" is maintained.[48] The title's creative director, Chris Metzen, acknowledged that parts of Overwatch, such as maps, share "continuity" with Titan.[45] Citing a desire to keep its game styles "simple", and because it contradicted its emphasis on accomplishing goals as a team rather than trying to achieve large numbers of kills, Overwatch does not contain a traditional deathmatch mode.[3][4] Metzen stated that "we have a long legacy of developing multiplayer games, and it came down to 'is it even possible to build a shooter that doesn't feel cynical, that doesn't feel cruel, that doesn't feel nasty? Can you build one that really promotes teamwork and relationship and having fun with your friends, and not getting killed with a thrown knife from halfway across the map as soon as you jump in?'"[64] Kaplan has expressed that this theme continued into the aesthetics of the game, commenting, "when it comes to the setting and art style and tone of the universe, a lot of games like to approach the future in either a very dystopian way, or a post-apocalyptic way," and adding, "we wanted to make something bright and welcoming, that featured a lot of deep, rich colors. A lot of the modern realistic games tend to focus on gritty gray, brown palettes."[15]
The narrative for Overwatch is led by Blizzard's senior game designer Michael Chu.[2] Creating a narrative for the game was a challenge compared to past Blizzard titles as the game lacks a single-player mode or a traditional story-telling mechanic. Instead, the story crafters for the game sought to create a spanning narrative that could be injected into the game through the short in-game dialogue and unlockable hero skins. Outside of the game, the narrative is primarily driven by a transmedia storytelling method.[65] This gives the developers some flexibility as to where they can take the story as Overwatch is expanded over the years.[2] The narrative can still be seen being hinted at through map environments and character dialogue within the game itself; Chu explains that "you get a character like Soldier: 76 and he says, like: 'back in my day we'd have this payload delivered'. And then you get a character like Zenyatta, the robot monk, and he would say something like, "becoming one with the objective." So we find these ways to really differentiate them and it makes for unexpected and sometimes ridiculous lines."[66] Blizzard felt they had strength in developing a narrative for a large universe of characters as they had done for Warcraft. Chu expressed that they wanted to diverge from the fantasy and science fiction elements that were prominent in their main three franchises (Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo), stating "we wanted to try something different with Overwatch, so what we decided to go for was the future of Earth. We always wanted the game to be about heroes, so we took a lot of inspiration from comics and superhero stories of our youth and today."[66] Once it was determined Overwatch would be played on a near-futuristic version of Earth, the writers recognized the possibility of having a global-spanning set of characters and locations set in an "inspirational future".[2] Metzen sees the Overwatch universe as having potential dynamics over time, but Blizzard does not yet have plans for how to implement this within the game.[67]
CharactersThe cast of playable characters in Overwatch was selected to portray diverse representations of genders and ethnicities, including males, females, and non-human characters such as robots and a gorilla.[14][68] The need for a diverse cast was important to the developers, as some of Blizzard's previous games had been criticized before for missing this mark; Metzen explained that even his daughter had asked him why all the female characters from Warcraft seemed to be only wearing swimsuits.[68] Metzen stated: "Specifically for Overwatch over the past year we've been really cognizant of that, trying not to oversexualize the female characters."[69] Kaplan explained that the industry was "clearly in an age where gaming is for everybody," going on to say that "increasingly, people want to feel represented, from all walks of life, boys and girls, everybody. We feel indebted to do our best to honor that."[68] When one questioner asked Metzen on the inclusion of gay characters, Metzen confirmed the presence of multiple LGBT characters in the game, but also remarked "we want it to play out organically," adding "we don't want it to be a data point or feel contrived in any way."[70] Blizzard later released tie-in material revealing Tracer as one of these LGBT characters, stating "as with any aspect of our characters' backgrounds, their sexuality is just one part of what makes our heroes who they are. From the very beginning of our work on Tracer's story, it just felt right to make this an aspect of her character."[71] Michael Chu expressed that the diverse group of characters is a result of Blizzard's approach to game design, elaborating that "We've tried [to] have a diverse cast of characters and diverse locations that you go through, and hopefully these characters - even beyond national diversity; just seeing their personalities, their backstories, their occupations - hopefully people will find things in common with these characters."[66] After Tracer's sexual orientation was confirmed, Blizzard reiterated their goal to have a diverse cast, stating, "from the beginning, we've wanted the universe of Overwatch to feel welcoming and inclusive, and to reflect the diversity of our players around the world."[72]
The team envisioned the characters akin to superheroes in this narrative, each with their own abilities, background and personality that could stand on their own, but could also fit into the larger story; this notion translated into the characters being agents for the game, which Metzen said still captures the "heroism and vibe" that superhero stories carry.[67] The team did not want to have any characters that served solely as villains in the game, but did develop some of the characters, like Soldier: 76, to have an unsure purpose within the narrative.[67]
Kaplan credits artist Arnold Tsang from coming up with the preliminary designs of all the heroes in the game.[48] The narrative and characters themselves were then developed through an iterative process between the gameplay developers, artists, and promotional media as they worked to bring the narrative together. One example given was that of Doomfist, a character introduced into one of the game's promotional videos where his gauntlet was on display. This led to the creation of one of the maps that expanded upon the Doomfist concept, making that a title passed down among others in the past, and seeding some of the existing heroes' backstory has had connections to the Doomfist title. Though they have no plans to introduce Doomfist as a playable character, this process gave them a sufficient starting point to work from should they introduce Doomfist in the future.[67] Other examples of similar iterative expansion to the characters given by Metzen and Chu include the heroes Genji and Hanzo who were characters borne out of an initial single character concept and leading to them being rivals of each other, and the introduction of Lucio as a means to expand upon the loosely connected Vishkar Corporation concept that was part of Symmetra's backstory.[67]
Character animations were created by Blizzard's David Gibson.[73] To help give more personality to the 3D-rendered animation, Gibson applied traditional methods used in 2D limited animation, such as smear animation, instead of relying on motion blur effects, creating more exaggerated animations that support the feel of the game.[74][75]
While the developers were aiming to avoid sexualization of the characters, there was some criticism of the female characters of the game during its development. Anita Sarkeesian commented on the lack of diversity in the female heroes' body types from the game's first twelve revealed characters,[76] while Nathan Grayson of Kotaku remarked that "Overwatch's women are mostly super slim and clad in cat suits."[69] In response to these criticisms and to reassert their commitment to diversity and avoiding sexualization, the team developed a new female character, Zarya, a Tank class character with an atypical body shape.[77] Following promotional images featuring the female character Tracer in March 2016, a thread on Blizzard's official forums drew attention to one of Tracer's victory poses, which was critiqued by a user as out of character and oversexualized. Games Director, Jeff Kaplan, apologized for the pose, stating "The last thing we want to do is make someone feel uncomfortable, under-appreciated or misrepresented," and confirmed that Blizzard planned to replace the pose. Kaplan's response drew mixed reactions from the gaming community, with many claiming Blizzard had forgone its creative control over the game and censored its content to placate one offended user, while others praised Blizzard's willingness to listen to the community and adhere to standards for portraying a character according to their personality. Jeff Kaplan later stated that the team was already unsure of the pose and was thinking of changing it.[78] The following week, a replacement pose was released, although it was noted to be similar to the original pose.[79][80] The replacement pose was alleged to be influenced by a Billy De Vorss cheesecake pin-up illustration. The pose was replaced during the game's beta period, before the game's launch.[79][80]
Following the game's release, some of the alternative outfits for characters had come under criticism for using cultural stereotypes, such as a Native American headdress option for the character of Pharah. Kaplan noted that they considered for all these outfits if they were appropriate, believing they were respecting the cultures of the characters they had created, and would make necessary changes if they felt there were valid concerns. Kaplan commented that many players have responded positively to these outfits and feel they fit in appropriately with the idealized version of Earth.[56]
Post-release developmentBlizzard will support the game through various updates, such as the competitive mode that was added in June 2016, and potential changes to how the Play of the Game is selected to showcase non-attacking-based Heroes.[16] Other updates will come from monitoring the game and adjusting various attributes of the Heroes to better manage their expectations they had in designing the game and in response to player feedback. For example, one of the first planned updates was to change the strength of McCree's alternate fire "Fan the Hammer" ability, which could do a great deal of damage to most targets. Blizzard felt this attack should be lethal to most of the Heroes but should not be able to take out Tank-based characters in a single shot, and reduced the damage to address this.[16] Similarly, Symmetra is to have a major character update in late 2016 that gives her additional abilities including a second Ultimate, the changes being made in response to Blizzard's observations that she is infrequently selected by players.[81]
Not all updates will be equivalent across platforms; a planned update will reduce the damage of Torbj¶rn's auto-aiming turrets on console versions but will not be applied to the Windows version,[82] while a later patch for consoles helped to improve the precision of aiming with controller analog sticks.[83] In September 2016, Blizzard added in support for high bandwidth network play on the Windows client for users with sufficient Internet connections, which reduces the amount of interpolation delay in client and server-side prediction, making the game smoother and more reactive for those players. Players on slower bandwidth connections are grouped with others of this type of avoid any disadvantage of connection speed. Blizzard is looking for how to implement high bandwidth support in the console versions.[84]
Blizzard has plans to add new characters and maps to the game. With respect to characters, Kaplan expected they will release these one at a time, rather than in groups, allowing the new character to be stabilized before adding the next. Kaplan referred to the negative feedback received after the grouped introduction of the final three characters'--Genji, Mei, and D.Va'--during the closed beta period, which if repeated could be "disruptive" to the game's community.[16] For example, the first new character, Ana, was revealed and playable on the Public Test region from July 12, 2016,[85] and made available to all on the Windows version on July 19 with console versions following in the days after.[86] Other characters like Sombra were added in a similar manner, along with other new features.[87] In regards to maps, Blizzard first announced a new map, called "Eichenwalde", on August 16, 2016.[88] Blizzard is also able to add in new game modes, cosmetic skins, sprays, victory poses, and the like, which include promotional items such as a limited-time availability of items related to the 2016 Summer Olympics.[22][89]
MarketingAnnouncement, promotion and releaseOverwatch was formally announced at the BlizzCon event on November 7, 2014; the game was playable during the event to all attendees, with fourteen characters available to select from.[90] During this event Blizzard released a cinematic trailer and an extended gameplay video for the game.[44][91] A month after the BlizzCon event, in December 2014, Blizzard published character introduction videos to its YouTube channel, and followed up on this May 2015 by posting weekly videos of game footage and character highlights.[90]
A closed beta period for Overwatch across all three platforms began on October 27, 2015.[92] The closed beta was put on "extended break" in December and brought back in February 2016.[93] Following the March 2016 release announcement, Blizzard also announced an open beta period from May 5 to 9 for any registered user of the Battle.net client.[94][95] The open beta proven popular with Blizzard reporting over 9.7 million players participating,[96] and as a way of showing thanks, extended the open beta period by one extra day.[97]
In the week prior to release, Blizzard arranged to have three giant-sized boxes (approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) tall) of various Overwatch heroes, as if being sold as packaged action figures, put on display across the globe at Hollywood, Paris, and Busan, South Korea.[98][99][100] The displays were created by Alliance Studios, led by Steve Wang, who has collaborated with Blizzard before on past projects, and Eddie Yang.[101] After planning the design of the sculptures in January 2016, teams across the world, including Droga5, Scicon, Stratasys and Egads, raced to print, finish and assemble the works in time for the game's release.[102] Propelled by Overwatch, Blizzard had over 50% of the American advertisement share among gaming industry brands from May 16 to June 15, 2016.[103]
Overwatch was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One platforms on May 24, 2016, with the game servers coming online at 00:00 BST that day. Blizzard allowed retailers to sell physical copies of the game on May 23 to help players prepare for the servers' launch.[104][105] Unlike previous Blizzard releases, there are no plans for a version of Overwatch for OS X.[106] Blizzard has expressed interest in supporting cross-platform play between console systems in the future, though has no plans for Windows-supported cross-play due to the advantage of keyboard-mouse controls over controller-based ones.[107][108] The game will be supported by updates, including new maps and characters. All of the additional content will be free for existing players and does not require additional payment. Blizzard hoped that through this method they can alleviate the concerns of some players.[109]
Two special editions of Overwatch were released alongside the base game. The Origins Edition, available both as a downloadable and retail product, includes the base game and five additional character skins, as well as other bonus items for other Blizzard games via Battle.net.[110] The Collectors Edition, only available as retail, includes the Origins Edition content as well as a statue of Soldier 76, one of the playable characters, the game's soundtrack, and a source book.[111]
Related mediaBlizzard opted to tell the story of Overwatch across various mediums, rather than include a story mode; Chu stated, "One of the things that's really great is we're able to leverage the strengths of these different mediums to tell different parts of the story," citing Soldier: 76's appearances in fake news reports, an animated video narrated from his perspective, as well as the Hero short.[66] Chu has also remarked that the reasoning for Blizzard's method of storytelling with Overwatch was an emphasis on a "gameplay first" philosophy.[112]
In March 2016, Blizzard announced that they would be releasing comics and animated shorts based on Overwatch in 2016. The related media included plans for a graphic novel called Overwatch: First Strike, which would have focused on the story of several in-game characters including Soldier: 76, Torbj¶rn, Reaper, and Reinhardt. The novel was to be penned by writer Micky Neilson and artist Ludo Lullabi.[113] Blizzard opted to cancel First Strike in November 2016, with Chu stating that since the announcement of the graphic novel, Overwatch's narrative development has gone in a somewhat different direction, changing out these origin stories would work. Blizzard still plans to reveal more of the characters' backstory in time.[114]
Blizzard began releasing the series of animated shorts in March 2016; the shorts maintained the style of the game's cinematic trailer, which centered on a battle in which Tracer and Winston fought Reaper and Widowmaker in the Overwatch Museum.[91] A collection of these cinematic sequences played in movie theaters across the United States as part of the game's launch event.[115] The first episode of the animated short series, Recall, was released on March 23. It centers on Winston and Reaper, and features flashbacks to Winston's childhood.[116] The second episode, Alive, showcased a standoff between Tracer and Widowmaker, and was released on April 5.[117] The third episode, Dragons, featuring the brothers Hanzo and Genji, was released on May 16.[118] The fourth and final episode of the series' first season, Hero, stars Soldier: 76, and was released May 22.[119]
Blizzard and Dark Horse Comics announced a partnership at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con International that will have Dark Horse publish the existing Overwatch comics to date under their label as well as future comics, and will publish a 100-page art book The Art of Overwatch to be released mid-2017.[120]
According to Activision Blizzard spokesperson Stacey Sher, there are plans for an Overwatch movie and animated series.[121]
Professional competitionAccording to Kaplan, Overwatch was not developed with any dedication towards eSports. Although Blizzard had success with committing to eSports with the development of Starcraft II, they had found that "it's dangerous to be overly committed to esport too early in the lifespan of the game", instead seeing how the community developed this over time as they saw from Hearthstone.[51] Kaplan stated they included and planned for features for the game to support the competitive community.[51] Dan Szymborski writing for ESPN stated that Overwatch was poised as the next big eSport for having a sufficiently different look and playstyle from established eSports titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Call of Duty, enough variety in maps and characters, and strong support from Blizzard to maintain the game for a long time.[122] Bryant Francis writing for Gamasutra also noted the speed and short match times of Overwatch make the game highly favorable for viewership, further supporting the title as an eSports title.[123]
Just prior to the game's release, PC Gamer writer Stefan Dorresteijn contacted professional eSports players and hosts for their opinions. Longtime eSports host Paul Chaloner stated that "[Overwatch] needs a much better spectator system," going on to elaborate, "Right now, it's incredibly difficult for commentators and viewers to see the skills of the players: who used their ultimates and how did they interact? Who is on cooldown and who has changed hero?"[124] Fellow eSports player Seb Barton and Michael Rosen criticized the game's map designs and game modes; Barton remarked that "the game modes are a little hit and miss," adding that "King of the hill [Control] is super exciting and fast paced but then you have the payload [Escort] maps, which are just a snoozefest for everyone involved."[124] Rosen expressed a need for tweaking to the maps used for the control game mode, as they are "just too prone to the snowball effect. The moment the attacking team captures the first control point they don't just have the momentum but also the last advantage for the second and final capture point."[124]
In June 2016, the eSports organizer ESL announced that they would host the first international Overwatch competition in August 2016, called Overwatch Atlantic Showdown.[125] The competition will use four open qualifiers beginning in June, followed by regional qualifiers and then a final online qualifier. Eight teams will then compete for a six-figure prize in the finals to be held at Gamescom 2016 from August 20''21.[126]Turner Broadcasting's ELeague announced the first Overwatch Open tournament, starting in July 2016, with a total prize pool of $300,000, with plans to broadcast the finals on Turner's cable channel TBS in September 2016.[127] Blizzard will host their own Overwatch World Cup, allowing users to vote for teams to represent their nation/region, with finals taking place during the BlizzCon in November 2016.[128]
Overwatch LeagueDuring the 2016 Blizzcon, Blizzard announced their plans for their Overwatch League, using an organization of permanent teams in league placements similar to more traditional physical sports,[129] rather than the use of relegation and promotion used in a series like League of Legends Championship Series.[130] Blizzard will help to organize potential team owners and aim to include more geographically-local teams to participate, which they hope will help spark more interest in eSports from spectators and potential sponsors through new activities around supporting a local team. Blizzard anticipates the Overwatch League will have a seven-figure payoff for the winning team at the end of a season, but plans on paying a salary to all players within the league. The first, shortened season of the League is expected to start in Q3 2017, but will begin in full seasons starting in 2018, with the League having half-year long seasonal breaks starting in Q4 of that year.[130] A meeting for prospective team owners was held at Blizzcon after the announcement, with New England Patriots' owner Robert Kraft, and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke among the attendees.[131]
ReceptionPre-releaseBefore its release, Overwatch experienced a period of pre-launch attention not typically expected; Game Revolution noted that "[Overwatch's] reputation has quickly permeated through cyberspace, attracting attention from people who may not traditionally put down $40 to $60 each time a new first-person shooter releases."[148] The game's open beta, which attracted 9.7 million players, was also noted to be heavily covered by the media.[149]
Critical receptionOverwatch received universal acclaim upon release, according to video game review aggregatorMetacritic.[145][146][147]
IGN's Vince Ingenito praised the game's characters and maps, writing "Overwatch takes just about every possible opportunity to make its cast and locales seem like people and places rather than puppets and scenery." Ingenito added that the game has a "strong online experience that gets you into games quickly and reliably."[150]The Verge's Andrew Webster praised Overwatch and previous titles Titanfall and Splatoon as "friendly online shooters" that have room for both new and casual players who may not desire to master the game but can still compete fairly with others, and for expert players that can utilize the various heroes to adapt to the dynamic tactics of the game.[151] Webster went on to cite the atmosphere of Overwatch as a reason for the game's approachability, writing, "The first thing that makes Overwatch's world appealing and approachable is, well, its world. This isn't the dour brown-and-grey shooter you might be used to. Instead, it's bright and colorful, with a cast of characters that's eclectic and diverse."[151] Caty McCarthy of Kill Screen echoed similar thoughts, writing "When playing Overwatch, the player is absorbed by its radiating positivity. It's a world filled with lively color and energetic, playful competition, much like Nintendo's creative kid-friendly ink-shooter Splatoon."[65] Mike Minotti of VentureBeat commending the team-based gameplay, the game's diverse character roster and colorful settings, as well as the unlockable cosmetics earned through level progression and the smooth server connection.[152] Referencing its similarities to Team Fortress 2, Minotti confirmed that "[Overwatch has] distinct classes, the team- and objective-based combat, and a bright, cartoon-like art style," and that "Overwatch certainly takes plenty of inspiration from Valve's online shooter series," but opines that "[Overwatch is] just better."[152] Daniel Tack of The News & Observer also positively received the game, expressing that "no matter what happens '' win or lose '' you're going to have fun," adding that "the game's strength lies in its simplicity and polish."[153] Tack went on to praise the game's characters, writing "Unforgettable characters are the lifeblood and driving force of Overwatch."[153]The Denver Post's Hugh Johnson lauded the game for its emphasis on characters, rather than focusing on traditional first-person shooter tropes, such as weapon load outs and incremental level upgrades.[154] Johnson went on to insist that the characters are balanced writing, "The big question with class-based shooters like these is whether or not the characters are balanced," expressing that "some characters are naturally better, but no character is so overpowered that their mere presence spells doom for their opponents."[154] In June 2016, Vulture's Joshua Rivera listed Overwatch as one of the "best video games of 2016 (so far)," writing, "It's hard to separate Overwatch the game from Overwatch the phenomenon '-- and why bother, both are fascinating."[155]
The online magazine Inverse, while expressing an overall positive reception for the game, pointed out the balance of McCree, teams composed of only one character, issues with matchmaking, and the Play of the Game as problems that should be fixed by the game's development team.[156] Gabe Gurwin of Digital Trends, directed criticism at Blizzard, for their decision to exclude the story from the game, which left players "with a great game, a great story, and no way to reconcile the two."[112]
Shortly after the game's competitive play mode was released, Kotaku's Nathan Grayson stated that "Overwatch's competitive mode [is not] all that bad, for how new and unpolished it is," but opined that "high-stakes competition and toxicity tend to go hand-in-hand, and Overwatch's competitive mode already has an ugly toxic stain." Grayson concluded his piece with "Overwatch is, most of the time, a feel-good team game. Introducing high-stakes competition with a muddled message about the importance of individual skill drags the game into confused, oftentimes negative territory. If Blizzard wants this thing to work, they're gonna have to figure out a competitive framework that's true to Overwatch's spirit, rather than just the spirit of competition."[157] Kaplan acknowledged that with the introduction of competitive mode that the whole of the Overwatch community has become more toxic, and they are constantly adapting elements behind the scenes to help deal with aggressive players in a more responsive manner, while trying to promote more enjoyable matches.[158]
Commercial receptionA week from its launch, Blizzard reported over 7 million Overwatch players with a total accumulated playtime of 119 million hours;[159] Blizzard reported more than 10 million players by mid-June,[160] over 15 million by early August,[161] and over 20 million by October.[162] The NPD Group, a video game industry tracking firm, reported that Overwatch was the third best-selling retail video game (nb. discounting digital sales through Battle.net) in the US in May 2016 on the month of its release, and was the top-selling game in June 2016.[163][164] With digital sales, Overwatch was the fastest selling game during its release month.[165] SuperData Research estimated that Overwatch brought in more than $269 million in revenues from digital sales worldwide in May,[166] and over $565M in sales on personal computers along by the end of 2016, making it the highest revenue-generating non-free-to-play game for personal computers in the year.[167]
In June 2016, Gametrics, a South Korean internet cafe survey website, reported that Overwatch overtook League of Legends as the most popular game played across 4,000 of South Korea's PC bangs.[168]
Fan baseOverwatch's fan base has been noted to be generally kind and supportive; Daniel Starkey of Wired wrote, "where many fresh games struggle with an endless stream of player complaints and developer-prodding, Overwatch's community is vivacious and jubilant."[44] A gamer with cerebral palsy publicly praised the game's customizable controls, which let him make his first snipe in a video game.[169][170] One of Blizzard's artists, Roman Kenney, drew concept art based on one gamer's daughter's original Overwatch character design.[171] Blizzard altered one of the game's maps to include a tribute to an avid Chinese fan of the game who died from injuries while trying to stop a motorcycle theft on the day before the game's public release.[172]
Blizzard has encouraged fans of Overwatch to make artistic content based on the game.[173] To support this, Blizzard released the hero reference kit before release, providing official colors and costume and weapon designs for all 21 heroes present at the game's launch.[174] Fans have used these, the game's animated media, and other assets to create a large amount of content, including art,[175][176] cosplay,[177][178] and anime opening-style music videos.[179][180] Some Overwatch concepts have created internet memes such as "Gremlin D.Va", which focuses on the character D.Va, portrayed through Western gamer stereotypes.[181] In some cases, Blizzard has reciprocated these fan creations back into the game, such as an emote for D.Va, based on the Gremlin meme.[182]
There also exists pornographic fan art of the game, with Pornhub searches of Overwatch characters partaking in sexual activities spiking by 817% shortly after the release of the open beta.[183] A large amount of such pornographic fan works are created with Valve Corporation's Source Filmmaker tool and make use of the game's actual models, which were ripped from the game during its closed beta and consequently spread over the internet.[184] Aoife Wilson of Eurogamer described the works as often being of "high-quality", though criticized how female characters were commonly portrayed in a submissive manner outside of futanari works.[185] In contrast, Mo Mozuch of iDigitalTimes noted that much pornography of the character Mei is fairly body positive.[186] The character Tracer is by far the most commonly searched Overwatch-related subject.[187][183][188] Blizzard made efforts to remove the works.[173] Game director Jeffery Kaplan stated that while they do not want to infringe on anyone's freedom of expression, Blizzard is mindful that many players are teenagers or younger and would hope the community would try to keep such imagery away from them.[56]
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"Lara Croft and Tracer Porn is the Most Searched on YouPorn". Crave Online. ^Sheridan, Connor (November 18, 2016). "Overwatch scoops five awards, Firewatch wins Best Indie Game: Here are all the Golden Joystick 2016 winners". GamesRadar. ^Loveridge, Sam (September 15, 2016). "Golden Joystick Awards 2016 voting now open to the public". Digital Spy. Retrieved October 29, 2016. ^Makuch, Eddie (November 16, 2016). "All the 2016 Game Awards Nominees". GameSpot. Retrieved November 16, 2016. ^Stark, Chelsea (December 1, 2016). "The Game Awards: Here's the full winners list". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved December 1, 2016. ^"The Best PC Games of 2016". Retrieved January 1, 2017. ^"The Best Xbox One Games of 2016". Retrieved January 1, 2017. ^"The Best PS4 Games of 2016". Retrieved January 1, 2017. ^"Game of the Year 2016 Countdown: #1". Retrieved January 1, 2017. ^"Giant Bomb's 2016 Game of the Year Awards: Day One". 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Bugs!
University of Sydney discovers 1500 viruses in insects | Daily Mail Online
Almost 1,500 viruses have been found in the bugs and spiders that live in homes and backyards, the University of Sydney has now discovered.
The remarkable number of diseases have been uncovered in insects, spiders and worms - those insects surrounding humans in their day-to-day lives.
The number has baffled researchers who say its far more than ever thought before.
University of Sydney (pictured) claims the study 're-writes the virology textbook'
The university claimed the number of diseases even 're-writes the virology textbook'.
In the study released on Thursday, the University of Sydney also found that human diseases like the common flu was derived from those diseases found in insects.
And while the study showed that invertebrates like insects were the 'true hosts for many types of virus' researchers revealed it was not all bad news.
The remarkable number of diseases have been found in insects, spiders and worms (pictured)
Although humans were surrounded by the viruses, researchers claim they did not transfer easily to humans
Professor Edward Holmes from the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity lead the project and said although humans were surrounded by the viruses, they did not transfer easily.
While insects like mosquitoes were well-known for their potential to transmit viruses like the dangerous zika and dengue, Professor Holmes said the majority of insects shouldn't be feared because most were not transferable to humans.
The ground-breaking study results, which were released on Thursday, also reveal good news for human diseases.
The University of Sydney (pictured) said technologies used in the study could help to answer questions about human diseases
Professor Holmes said the majority of insects shouldn't be feared because most viruses found were not transferable to humans
Using the same techniques they used to discover the invertebrate viruses, they said could also be used to determine the cause of some human diseases, even the controversial Lyme-like disease.
Lyme disease is claimed to occur after a tick bite but there are still unanswered questions.
Lyme disease is still not recognised within the Australian medical community as even existing in Australia, despite rapidly growing numbers of Australians claiming they have been diagnosed with Lyme.
National Health and Medical Research Council Australia Fellow Professor Holmes said the new technologies used by researchers in the study proved the 'ultimate diagnostic tool'.
National Health and Medical Research Council Australia Fellow Professor Holmes said the new technologies used by researchers in the study proved the 'ultimate diagnostic tool'
CLIPS AND DOCS
VIDEO - Hillary Clinton EXPOSED No Med Cocktail, No Camera Filters, No Professional Makeup & No Booster Seat - YouTube
After a horrific Facebook Live video yesterday showed four black youths torturing a young white disabled man while shouting anti-white and anti-Trump epithets, the media have been slow to report on the story at all. ABC and NBC ignored the story on Wednesday's evening news broadcasts while CBS simply gave a pithy few lines to it. CNN Tonight did report on the story Wednesday night, but repeatedly cast doubt on the idea that this was a politically and racially motivated hate crime.
Read the rest on Newsbusters here.
VIDEO - CBS Wakes Up to Idea That Maybe Russia Didn't Make Hillary Lose | MRCTV
[See NewsBusters for more.] CBS This Morning and ABC's Good Morning America on Friday awoke to the concept that maybe Russia didn't cause Hillary Clinton to lose the presidential election. CBS co-host Norah O'Donnell observed, ''It's true, actually, that the Clinton campaign spent more money in Georgia and Arizona than Wisconsin and Michigan. That's a fact.'' Regarding Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's testimony before Congress, Thursday, GMA reporter Jon Karl allowed, ''There's nothing in the report, I'm told, that said this actually affected the outcome of the elections. Nobody in the intelligence community is suggesting this is why Donald Trump won.''
VIDEO - "FUCK WHITE PEOPLE!" Don Lemon "IS THIS A HATE CRIME?" - YouTube
It doesn't get any better than this. Mary Catherine Hamm, Guy Benson, Katie Pavlich, S.E. Cupp and more give out the most potent does of the liberals own medicine in this video mocking every Hollywood political lecture ever given.VIDEO BY Townhall Media
(forgive me.. but I decided to 'archive' this stuff on RPF... "There's RATS in the Cornfield... Lawz Yeesss."
Seth Rich Hacked the DNC.
Watch Assange shake his head yes and reply with "We don't comment on our sources".
The guy's is brilliant. He took a huge shiit on that globalist fuccktard interviewer.
And then Hillary had him killed.
That's the part the left leaves out.
This is why Russia is being blamed.
They want this story gone.
Its also why Wikileaks released the Podesta E mails.
They wanted to Avenge their source.
Its also why Assange's Internet was cut off.
1+1 still equals 2
Any MSM news source about the 'Russian Hacks" that allows comments type this in:
"Seth Rich Hacked the DNC."
It will be removed instantly.
Seth Rich Died for Hillarys Sins!
They know they have been busted by at least 20% of the population.
Technically, Assange told Hannity it was not a hack but a leak.#SethRich hashtag tweets on Twitter will be shadow blocked.
Yesterday's Assange interview in case you missed it.
Thumbdrive smuggled.... not Internet transfer to Wikileaks.
American University (the hand off location) and Bloomingdale (where Rich was murdered) is approximately five miles apart.
Was it Clinton Foundation tie Sid Blu that arranged and ordered the hit on Seth Rich?
Who IS CTR Media Matters Sidney Blumenthal?
and:
NOT ONLY is Eric Braverman (still) missing..But now all of George Webb's videos are 'missing' as well!!George Webb is relentless and brilliant.He has the instincts of a 'special prosecutor' 'investigative journalist'
Day 54 - Where is Eric Braverman?
Day 53 - Where is Eric Braverman?
(Unfortunately all of George Webb previous videos were recently wiped out by Ytbe. Some are STILL HERE.)\
George Webb posted 2 days agoI am going to throw some dead man switch info out there just in case.I'm George Webb Sweigert from Portland, Oregon.If the videos stop, check the news and carry on the torch.
SAVING some of George's links:Twenty Years Of Looking the Other Way.
Were the 1,000 Hidden Donation Funneled Through Giustra Enterprise Partnership to avoid the eyes of Eric Braverman?https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...=.69c48ae5db68
Easily the biggest Pentagon bilking operation in DOD history - $163B overbudget in 2014 and 7 years behind schedule.Hillary is very pro F-35. Lockheed bundles through Hollywood stars to hide most of the donations.
FORT LAUDERDALE-HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - A passenger on a flight that landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport opened fire in a baggage claim area, Friday afternoon, killing at least five people and injuring many more, authorities said.
FLL officials said the shooting took place in the lower level baggage claim area, in Terminal 2, at around 12:55 p.m., Friday.
By 1 p.m., the subject, 26-year-old Esteban Santiago, was in custody.
During a press conference, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel confirmed the fatalities. ''The active shooter shot at least 13 people. Eight people, as I know, are in area hospitals being treated. Five people have succumbed to wounds and are dead,'' he said.
Late in the evening, Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue confirmed 37 patients in total were transported to area hospitals. Beyond those suffering gunshot wounds, officials said four other patients were transported with minor trauma injuries, and the rest were taken for medical complaints like twisted ankles, chest pains and heat-related issues.
''No one who arrived at the hospital has expired '... Everybody is stable,'' said Dr. Ralph Guarneri, a trauma surgeon at the hospital.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson was he first to identify the subject during a televised interview, noting Santiago was carrying a military ID at the time of his arrest.
Esteban Santiago
The suspect's brother, Bryan Santiago, told the Associated Press that his brother had been receiving psychological treatment while living in Alaska.
Officials said Santiago had a gun inside of his checked bag. Once he opened his suitcase at the lower level baggage claim area, in Terminal 2, he started firing shots.
''He must have been between baggage claim [areas] 1 and 2, firing into everybody that was at baggage claim 3,'' passenger John Schlicher told Fox News.
Witnesses said Santiago unloaded his clip, reloaded and then began firing again. ''He's shooting a 9-millimeter, about an eight-round mag, and he was as calm as can be,'' said witness Mark Lea. ''He was just walking like nothing was going on, not a peep.''
''All of a sudden, we heard 'pop, pop, pop,''' said witness Debra Fugleberd, ''and then the crowd of people came running around from the corner.''
Panicked travelers ran for cover inside the terminal, and on the runway, people caught in the crossfire sprinted outside.
''I remember saying, 'Now I know what a stampede is like,''' said witness Montgomery Byers.
Cellphone video showed first responders helping a bleeding victim outside the terminal.
''It didn't matter whether you're male or female, white, black, child. It didn't matter. He just pointed and shot,'' said Lea. ''Some of the were point blank, to five, 10 feet away, or maybe 20 feet away, max.''
Meanwhile, good Samaritans were seen on their knees as they tried to render aid to those shot at the baggage claim area. The carpet was filled with pools of drying blood in some areas.
A witness saw what may have been a chase to apprehend the subject. ''I arrived to Terminal 1 on Southwest,'' he said. ''Terminal 2 was already evacuated. We were minding our own business, then the shooting happened in our building '... I saw a man run down the escalator with BSO in pursuit.''
A motive is unclear at this point. ''The subject is currently being interviewed by the FBI '... At this point, it looks like he acted alone,'' said Israel.
At 2 p.m., the FAA issued a ground stop for all flights at FLL. American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines later confirmed they had suspended all FLL-bound flights for the remainder of the day.
FLL officials eventually said they hope to reopen the airport on Saturday, at 5 a.m. However, Terminal 2 could remain closed through the weekend.
One man from flew in to FLL from Ohio for a work retreat shot cellphone video of the chaotic scene. He came to Broward Health because members of his team needed medication.
''It was crazy. It was stressful. There was a lot of running and pushing,'' said the visitor. ''We escaped out the back of the airport, under the fence, and there were cops and guns everywhere. I got into Terminal 1, and then the alarm went off, and there was massive panic. They shuttled everybody off under the runway.''
At around 2:35 p.m., TSA sent out a statement that there was an active shooter at FLL. Scores of police and law enforcement officials descended on an airport parking garage, located between Terminals 1 and 2, after reports of an unconfirmed second shooting.
Witnesses reported hearing more gunshots. SWAT teams responded, and FBI agents moved in, as people ducked behind cars.
Israel, however, said, ''We have area Broward Sheriff's Office SWAT teams clearing the entire airport. There's no confirmation of any type of gunshots anywhere at the time of this horrific, horrific incident.''
Just after 3 p.m., civilians, including travelers with suitcases, migrated off of the airport property, walked around the railroad tracks and ended up underneath an overpass of Interstate 595.
''We were in a terminal waiting for a flight when we heard four to five shots,'' said one unnamed witness. ''It was total pandemonium.''
Authorities first cleared the terminal around gates D4 and D5, located at the north side of the airport. They also closed off the lower level, between terminals 2 and 3.
Dozens of police vehicles from multiple law enforcement agencies completely blocked the northbound airport expressway ramp, on Interstate 95. Authorities questioned every single person and motorist outside FLL.
BSO officials told 7News they detonated a suspicious device they found underneath the airport's new runway.
Meanwhile, according to Miami International Airport, extra security measures are in place there out of an abundance of caution.
Officials said at least seven flights that were headed to FLL were diverted to MIA. ''We were all a little concerned about what was going to happen,'' said Michael Hogan, a passenger on one of those diverted flights after landing at MIA.
Just after 5 p.m., Port Everglades reopened, following the incident at FLL.
At around 5:15 p.m., 7News cameras captured Florida Gov. Rick Scott beginning a news conference at FLL. ''Whoever is responsible will be held accountable to the full extent of the law,'' he said.
''My heart goes out to every family impacted,'' Scott added.
Gov. Scott said he has reached out to President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence but not President Barack Obama. However, speaking with reporters, later Friday night, he confirmed he also spoke with Obama.
According to FLL Director Mark Gale, they are going step by step, methodically checking every corner of the airport.
FLL has set up a hotline for people trying to reach and locate friends and relatives: 866-435-9355.
Broward County officials said Family Assistance Center has been established at the Renaissance Hotel, located at 1617 S.E. 17th St., in Fort Lauderdale, for stranded passengers who have nowhere else to go. The telephone number of the hotel is 954-626-1700.
Officials said many of the passengers are being transported to Port Everglades, and from there they can go wherever they need.
Authorities reopened U.S. 1 to traffic, just before 8 p.m.
Copyright 2016 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
VIDEO - If You Are Part Of The Anti-Trump Movement You Need To Know This -VIDEO -
There's something big bubbling under the surface right now. An anti-Trump movement is quietly building and really gaining steam. There's a real grass-roots effort steadily growing to fight Trump. It starts at the local level and we can all participate.A group of former Congressional staff members have written a guide of sorts which gives us a clear plan of action to resist Trump at every turn. The guide patterns in some ways the successful methods of the Tea Party'....without all of the negatives that the anti-Obama movement entailed.
If you want to be part of this major anti-Trump campaign, you should begin by reading this step-by-step guide which is titled Indivisible.
Indivisible explains,
''Donald Trump is the biggest popular vote loser in history to ever call himself President-Elect. In spite of the fact that he has no mandate, he will attempt to use his congressional majority to reshape America in his own racist, authoritarian, and corrupt image. If progressives are going to stop this, we must stand indivisibly opposed to Trump and the members of Congress (MoCs) who would do his bidding. Together, we have the power to resist '-- and we have the power to win.
We know this because we've seen it before. The authors of this guide are former congressional staffers who witnessed the rise of the Tea Party. We saw these activists take on a popular president with a mandate for change and a supermajority in Congress. We saw them organize locally and convince their own MoCs to reject President Obama's agenda. Their ideas were wrong, cruel, and tinged with racism '-- and they won.''
On Wednesday night, Rachel Maddow further explained this guide and how it's fueling a real grass-roots effort to block Trump's agenda. This movement starts by organizing at the local level. And already there are major marches planned in every state across the nation.
This is a call to action. And if there's ever been a time that we need to remember and utilize ''Stronger Together'' now is that time.
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VIDEO - Trans Teen's Gender Confirmation Surgery Beautifully Documented By Nat Geo | The Huffington Post
An intimate and powerful new video from National Geographic is telling the story of one transgender teen undergoing gender confirmation surgery and coming to live more fully as her authentic self.
Seventeen-year-old Emmie Smith allowed her story ' and surgery ' to be documented by NatGeo in conjunction with their January ''Gender Revolution'' issue, and specifically an article titled ''Rethinking Gender.''
Smith, who has a cisgender identical twin, told National Geographic that she hopes the film will help with a growing public understanding about the nuances of gender confirmation surgery.
''It's not science fiction or mythology,'' Smith said. ''It's what happens to women just trying to be at peace with themselves and their bodies.''
National Geographic first announced its ''Gender Revolution'' issue, which made history by featuring 9-year-old Avery Jackson on the cover, in mid-December 2016. According to the publication, the issue examines the ''cultural, social, biological and personal'' aspects of gender identity, and is tied to an upcoming documentary hosted by Katie Couric called ''Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couric.''
The two-hour documentary is slated to debut on National Geographic on Feb. 6.
VIDEO - Even head NSA joke | User Clip | C-SPAN.org
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NBC News correspondent Ron Mott made an odd statement when discussing the four Chicago teens who kidnapped and tortured a mentally challenged young man.
Mott told wondered aloud to MSNBC's Ali Velshi why the four suspects ''made so many errors'' and broadcasted their crime on Facebook Live ''if they were truly trying to be criminal.''
WATCH:
''Ron, let me ask you this,'' Velshi posed to Mott. ''The police chief originally came out and said '-- he called them kids, they're really adults '-- but he said kids do stupid things.''
''I'm not going to get into whether it was a hate crime just yet, but stolen vehicle, burglary, all these things? This sounds a little more than stupid kids.'' (RELATED: Hate Crime Charges Filed In Kidnapping, Torturing Of Chicago Teen)
''Well, you look at it on the surface and you think kids can make some really poor decisions from time to time,'' Mott answered.
Screencap of kidnapped Chicago teen (YouTube)
''But when you add in the criminal element here, the fact that they stole someone's vehicle, the fact that they apparently broke into a house where this alleged attack took place, the fact that they, you know, physically harmed this young person, held him against his will and then apparently, you know, texted the parents demanding some sort of monetary exchange to send him home.''
''It goes beyond just stupid decisions by kids,'' he added. ''But because they made so many errors, if they were truly trying to be criminal, to obviously broadcast your crime is not a smart thing to do.''
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VIDEO - Bernie Just Printed a Gigantic Trump Tweet and Brought It to the Senate Floor
The Senate is currently debating the repeal of Obamacare. And since Senators love their visual aids, it makes sense that Bernie Sanders brought one along with him to work today. But Bernie's sign marks the dawn of a new era in a lot of ways. He literally just printed out a tweet from President-elect Donald Trump.
To help demonstrate his point that Donald Trump promised not to cut Medicare and Medicaid benefits, Bernie decided that perhaps his argument could best be made with Trump's own words. Or own characters, as it were.
The tweet dates from May of 2015 and proclaimed, ''I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me.''
Bernie said that if Trump plans to cut Medicare or Medicaid that he should just admit now that he was lying.
''Millions of people voted for him on the belief that he would keep his word,'' Sanders said on the Senate floor, referring to Trump's promises during the election campaign.
''If he was sincere, then I would hope that tomorrow or maybe today he could send out a tweet and tell his Republican colleagues to stop wasting their time and all of our time. And for Mr. Trump to tell the American people that he will veto any proposal that cuts Medicare, that cuts Medicaid or that cuts Social Security.''
This is it. This is how the world ends. Not with rival tweet fights but with gigantic printed out tweets.
Update, 3:46pm: And if you were wondering who might be the poor soul who had to lug that huge printed out tweet around DC, allow us to paint the picture for you.
Mike Casca, Deputy Communications Director for Bernie Sanders, apparently got a chuckle out of Ted Cruz today while taking the tweet into the Senate.
Update, 3:52pm: And, of course, it's getting meme'd now:
Update 4:25pm: Hey look, there's a Photoshop contest now, brought to you by Gizmodo.
[C-SPAN 2]
Matt Novak is the editor of Gizmodo's Paleofuture blog
President-elect Donald Trump's behavior on Twitter is "insane," Silicon Valley angel investorJason Calacanis told CNBC's "Squawk Alley" on Wednesday.
After Trump tweeted Tuesday night that his intelligence briefing had been "delayed" to Friday, he tweeted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's comments regarding the hacking of Democratic email accounts during the campaign. According to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Trump has also expressed "healthy skepticism" about U.S. intelligence conclusions. Calacanis said Trump's demeanor toward intelligence reports is worrisome.
"Forming opinions and then spewing them on Twitter at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. without thinking about them or having collected the information is idiotic." he said. "Let's not sit here and try to normalize what Trump is doing. This is insane behavior."
On whether Wednesday's episode could be a sign of things to come for Trump as president, Calacanis saw nothing that would suggest otherwise.
"I would say we're starting to see exactly how disastrous the Trump presidency can be," Calacanis said. "Tweeting first and then getting the intelligence second is the worst possible strategy you could have when dealing with cyberattacks."
Afterwards, the angel investor took to Twitter to continue the discussion.
