'A Night With Janis Joplin' heads to Broadway

NEW YORK (AP) ? The boozy, bluesy, hot-mama howl of Janis Joplin is heading to Broadway.

Producers said Wednesday that the musical "A Night With Janis Joplin" starring Mary Bridget Davies as the iconic singer will start previews at the Lyceum Theatre on Sept. 20.

The show, written and directed by Randy Johnson, has a live onstage band and features Joplin hits and classic songs such as "Piece of My Heart," ''Mercedes Benz," ''Me and Bobby McGee," ''Ball and Chain" and "Summertime."

The show has already been staged at Portland Center Stage in Oregon; the Cleveland Play House; Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.; the Pasadena Playhouse in California; and the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Davies, who was raised in Cleveland, first won the role in 2005 after beating 150 actresses. She has appeared in the musical revue "It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues" and another Joplin musical, "Love, Janis." She has toured with Joplin's band, Big Brother & the Holding Company and has released the album "Wanna Feel Somethin.'"

Joplin rose to fame during San Francisco's 1967 "Summer of Love," gaining acclaim when she performed her version of blues singer Big Mama Thornton's "Ball and Chain" at the Monterey International Pop Festival. She died of a heroin overdose in Hollywood in 1970.

___

Online: http://www.anightwithjanisjoplin.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/night-janis-joplin-heads-broadway-190252900.html

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Specialized Turbo Test-Ride: Holy Crap This E-Bike Is Amazing

E-bikes are much-maligned by the cycling community and non-riders alike. They're for lazy people. They're so ugly and clunky looking. But Specialized has come up with an answer for both crowds. You will want to hate the Turbo. You will fail.

This thing is so damn fun.

Welcome to Fitmodo, Gizmodo's gym for your brain and backbone. Don't suffer through life as a sniveling, sickly weakling?brace up, man, get the blood pumping! Check back on Wednesdays for the latest in fitness science, workout gear, exercise techniques, and enough vim and vigor to whip you into shape.

Design

At first glance, it doesn't even look like an e-bike. That's a huge achievement in and of itself. It looks more like a sporty cruiser/road-bike/mountain-bike hybrid. Most e-bikes have big, clunky battery packs that hang off the back, and motor housings that make their presence known. Everything on the Turbo is tucked away. It took Specialized five years of research and development to get to something the company was willing to stand behind, and that effort shows.

The frame itself is wider than you'd find on a normal bike. That's because the cradle for the large 342 watt-hour battery is built right into it. The battery locks snugly into place (you need a key to remove it) right in the middle of the bike, so it doesn't rattle around and it gives you a nice low center of gravity. The battery can be removed and charged in a rapid charger (which takes it from zero to 100 percent changed in two and a half hours), or you can use a mini charger which will juice up your bike via a socket built into the frame. The socket has a magnetic cover, and there's a magnet in the frame so you won't misplace it. Nice detail.

The 250-watt direct-drive electric motor is built directly into the rear hub, but it's done in such a way that someone couldn't steal it without stealing the whole bike. The bike's rims are wider and thicker than your standard street bike because they are reinforced to help offset the bike's not-trivial weight?close to fifty pounds, which mostly comes from the battery. The frame is mostly made of aluminum.

Up front there's a built-in headline which runs off the big internal battery. On the handlebars is a built-in bike computer. It tells you your speed, distance, how much battery you have left, and what mode you're in. It has an ANT+ radio in it, so it can communicate with other devices and smartphone apps. Only a very few smartphones have ANT+ built-in, but you can get a dongle for both Android and iOS devices. It's probably not worth it.

Toward the right side of the handle bars is a standard 10-speed SRAM DoubleTap gear shifter, and a little node with plus and minus buttons. No, those don't control your speed. In fact, there are no hand controls for the motor at all, which is part of what sets this e-bike ahead of the pack.

Using It

When it's time to start riding, you hold down the power button on the battery. The four lights on it then come on one at a time. That's actually a systems check, with each light indicating a different component. So, if the third light doesn't come on, for instance, you'd know something's up with the motor. Once you're all powered up, you select which mode you want to start in?there are four in all, from manual up to Turbo?and go.

Because there's no throttle, speed is controlled entirely by pedaling. The motor has a built-in torque sensor, so when it sees that you're putting more torque on it (either by going up a hill or pedaling harder) it kicks in more. It will help you go to a maximum of 28 miles per hour. You can, of course, go faster than that using leg power, but it will stop assisting you beyond 28.

How much assistance you get from the bike will depend on what mode you select. Turbo mode is essentially maximum assist, where it will use all its resources to get you to that maximum assisted speed (again, 28 MPH). Eco mode gives you a 30-percent boost by default, though it can be customized via the bike computer to help anywhere between 10 and 90 percent. No Assist is what it sounds like?you're doing all of the work yourself. And then there's Regenerate mode, where the bike actually adds resistance and your legs recharge the batteries.

Once the bike's battery gets down to 20 percent, it will automatically switch into Eco mode, and when it get down past six percent, assistance shuts down, and the battery is only used to power your bike's light. There's no set formula for predicting how long your battery will last because it depends on how much the motor has to engage and how much your legs are moving. On flat ground, you could probably get in a 25 mile trip at top speed. If you were going up a steep hill, it would be less than that. The bike also utilizes hydraulic disc brakes and engaging them uses the momentum you've already generated to charge the battery a little bit. It's a cool idea, but you'd probably have to be leaning on that brake down a 8,000 foot mountain in order to get back to a full charge.

Riding It

Earlier this week we took these bikes on a loop around Central Park in NY. Oh man. I fully expected to hate this thing, but it's just so incredibly fun. You stomp down on the pedal that first time and the bike accelerates underneath you, like it has a mind of its own, but you feel glued to it. In Turbo mode you can get up to 28 MPH with hardly any effort at all, and it's really easy to stay there. Suddenly, you're going flying up a hill and whipping by guys in expensive cycling gear like it's nothing. The Turbo is no louder than a standard bike, so there's nothing to interrupt the sound of the wind whipping through you hair.

Turbo mode will spoil you quickly. Switching to Eco mode, there was definitely still a bit of push, but you had to do a lot more work on the hills. Flip to No Assist, and you're doing real work. This bike weights 50 pounds, and you feel that extra weight when you're doing all of the work yourself. After using Turbo, switching into Regen is like a cruel joke. It feels like you're dragging a sailboat on a trailer, except the resistance doesn't ease up once you're up to speed. It took about four minutes of hard pedaling just to raise the battery one percent, which is why you really only want to use Regen while going downhill.

The bike handled really well and felt very stable even at top speed. The hydraulic rear brake worked great, and I was able to quickly stop for tourists who were clearly hoping to suicide on my handlebars. I'll cop to feeling a little guilty while blowing past people that were working much harder than I was, and of course I'd never try to sneak it into a race, but it was an absolute blast to ride.

A Breed Apart

So, we loved the bike and we had a great time on it, but a rather important question remains: Who is this for? At $5,900 we're in the territory of custom-built, carbon-fiber race bikes. Hell, we're in the territory of very decent used motorcycles and cars! It's also not ideal for city life because it accelerates so quickly, and because it's so heavy it's not as maneuverable?you have fifty more pounds carrying your inertia right toward that opening car door ahead of you. Also, you're not going to want to carry this thing up a flight of stairs.

We can see it maybe finding a niche with well-to-do commuters who work within twenty miles or so of their home. People who want to add a little more exercise to their lives, and would like to ride a bike to work, but don't want to be a sweaty mess by the time they arrive. People who don't mind being scorned by the hard-core cycling community.

Honestly, it's a luxury item. And while it might not change your mind about e-bikes, it's an undeniably good time. [Specialized]

Images and video by Nick Stango

Source: http://gizmodo.com/specialized-turbo-test-ride-holy-crap-this-e-bike-is-a-600913827

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Poppy turns iPhone into View-Master-like 3D display and camera (video)

Remember the View-Master? We've already seen goggles from Hasbro and Sanwa that transform the iPhone into a 3D viewer, but Poppy plans to spice things up by adding 3D photo and video capture to the mix. The device, which contains no electronics, is about the size of medium pair of binoculars and features a slot which accepts an iPhone 5. It's launching on Kickstarter today for less than $50, along with a matching app. We got the chance to take a prototype for a spin and it worked like a charm. Check out the gallery and campaign link below, then read on after the break.

Gallery: Poppy hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Mobile, Apple

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Source: Poppy (Kickstarter)

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Supreme Court strikes federal marriage provision

Michael Knaapen, left, and his husband John Becker, right, embrace outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, June 26, 2013, after the court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California by holding that defenders of California's gay marriage ban did not have the right to appeal lower court rulings striking down the ban. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Michael Knaapen, left, and his husband John Becker, right, embrace outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, June 26, 2013, after the court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California by holding that defenders of California's gay marriage ban did not have the right to appeal lower court rulings striking down the ban. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Ellen Pontac, ,left, and her wife Shelly Bailes, celebrate after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage in California Wednesday, June 26, 2013, in Sacramento, Calif. The justices issued two 5-4 rulings in their final session of the term. One decision wiped away part of a federal anti-gay marriage law that has kept legally married same-sex couples from receiving tax, health and pension benefits. The other was a technical legal ruling that said nothing at all about same-sex marriage, but left in place a trial court's declaration that California's Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Juan Talavera, right, kisses his partner Jeff Ronci after the announcement of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling at a watch party in Miami, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. The justices issued two 5-4 rulings in their final session of the term. One decision wiped away part of a federal anti-gay marriage law that has kept legally married same-sex couples from receiving tax, health and pension benefits. The other was a technical legal ruling that said nothing at all about same-sex marriage, but left in place a trial court's declaration that California's Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

American University students Sharon Burk, left, and Molly Wagner participate in a rally for rights for gay couples in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, June 26, 2013, after the court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California by holding that defenders of California's gay marriage ban did not have the right to appeal lower court rulings striking down the ban. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Plaintiffs in the California Proposition 8 gay marriage case Paul Katami, center, and his partner Jeff Zarrillo, greet former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. In a major victory for gay rights, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a provision of a federal law denying federal benefits to married gay couples and cleared the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage in California. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? In a historic victory for gay rights, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a provision of a federal law denying federal benefits to married gay couples and cleared the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage in California.

The justices issued two 5-4 rulings in their final session of the term. One decision wiped away part of a federal anti-gay marriage law that has kept legally married same-sex couples from receiving tax, health and pension benefits.

The other was a technical ruling that said nothing at all about same-sex marriage, but left in place a trial court's declaration that California's Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. Gov. Jerry Brown quickly ordered that marriage licenses be issued to gay couples as soon as a federal appeals court lifts its hold on the lower court ruling, possibly next month.

In neither case did the court make a sweeping statement, either in favor of or against same-sex marriage. And in a sign that neither victory was complete for gay rights, the high court said nothing about the validity of gay marriage bans in California and roughly three dozen other states. A separate provision of the federal marriage law that allows a state to not recognize a same-sex union from elsewhere remains in place.

President Barack Obama praised the court's ruling on the federal marriage act, which he labeled "discrimination enshrined in law."

"It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people," Obama said in a statement. "The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he was disappointed in the outcome of the federal marriage case and hoped states continue to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

The ruling in the California case was not along ideological lines. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia.

"We have no authority to decide this case on the merits, and neither did the 9th Circuit," Roberts said, referring to the federal appeals court that also struck down Proposition 8.

In the case involving the federal Defense of Marriage Act, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, joined by the court's liberal justices.

"Under DOMA, same-sex married couples have their lives burdened, by reason of government decree, in visible and public ways," Kennedy said.

"DOMA's principal effect is to identify a subset of state-sanctioned marriages and make them unequal," he said.

Some in the crowd outside the court hugged and others jumped up and down just after 10 a.m. EDT Wednesday when the DOMA decision was announced. Many people were on their cell phones monitoring Twitter, news sites and blogs for word of the decision. And there were cheers as runners came down the steps with the decision in hand and turned them over to reporters who quickly flipped through the decisions.

Chants of "Thank you" and "USA" came from the crowd as plaintiffs in the cases descended the court's marbled steps. Most of those in the crowd appeared to support gay marriage, although there was at least one man who held a sign promoting marriage as between a man and a woman.

Kennedy was joined in the DOMA decision by the court's four liberal justices.

Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, and Scalia dissented.

Same-sex marriage has been adopted by 12 states and the District of Columbia. Another 18,000 couples were married in California during a brief period when same-sex unions were legal there.

The outcome is clear for people who were married and live in states that allow same-sex marriage. They now are eligible for federal benefits.

The picture is more complicated for same-sex couples who traveled to another state to get married, or who have moved from a gay marriage state since being wed.

Their eligibility depends on the benefits they are seeking. For instance, immigration law focuses on where people were married, not where they live. But eligibility for Social Security survivor benefits basically depends on where a couple is living when a spouse dies.

The rulings came 10 years to the day after the court's Lawrence v. Texas decision that struck down state bans on gay sex. In his dissent at the time, Scalia predicted the ruling would lead to same-sex marriage.

Massachusetts was the first state to allow gay couples to marry, in 2004. When same-sex unions resume in California, there will be 13 states representing 30 percent of the U.S. population where gay marriage is legal.

The other 11 are Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Outside the court, gay marriage proponents celebrated both wins.

May the marriages begin," said the Human Rights Campaign's Chad Griffin, who helped spearhead the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8. The two same-sex couples who sued for the right to marry also were at the court Wednesday.

In New York City's Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, where a riot in 1969 sparked the gay rights movement, erupted in cheers and whooping.

Mary Jo Kennedy, 58 was there with her wife Jo-Ann Shain, 60, and their daughter Aliya Shain, 25.

She came with a sign that could be flipped either way and was holding up the side that says "SCOTUS made our family legal".

They have been together 31 years and got married day it became legal in New York.

The broadest possible ruling would have given gay Americans the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals. The justices said nothing on that topic in either case.

The decisions Wednesday have no effect on the roughly three dozen states that do not allow same-sex marriage, including 29 that have enshrined the bans in their constitutions.

The federal marriage law, known by its acronym DOMA, had been struck down by several federal courts.

The justices chose for their review the case of 84-year-old Edith Windsor of New York, who sued to challenge a $363,000 federal estate tax bill after her partner of 44 years died in 2009.

Windsor, who goes by Edie, married Thea Spyer in 2007 after doctors told them Spyer would not live much longer. She suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years. Spyer left everything she had to Windsor.

Windsor would have paid nothing in inheritance taxes if she had been married to a man. And now she is eligible for a refund.

___

Associated Press writers Connie Cass, Jessica Gresko and Bethan McKernan contributed to this report. McKernan reported from New York.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-26-Supreme%20Court-Gay%20Marriage/id-3eddeb13debd41a7bb6eb7a3e6daf820

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StickNFind launches SDK, lets coders harness its Bluetooth stickers

When StickNFind burst onto the scene at the start of the year, the company promised that an SDK wouldn't be too far behind. True to the company's word, the toolbox has arrived, enabling developers to turn the Bluetooth location stickers into museum triggers, track conference attendees, or even turn the small discs into rudimentary pagers. The software's now available on the StickNFind website, while interested parties can dip their head below the break to learn a little more.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

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Source: StickNFind

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/An1tujWtfpI/

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Pope Francis sets up special review of Vatican bank

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Wednesday set up a special commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank, his boldest move yet to get to grips with an institution that has embarrassed the Church for decades.

The high-powered, five-member panel, which includes four prelates and a woman Harvard law professor, will report directly to him, bypassing the Vatican bureaucracy that itself has sometimes been tainted by allegations of scandal and corruption.

The Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), as the bank is formally known, has long been tarnished by accusations that it has failed to meet international transparency standards intended to combat money laundering and tax evasion.

The Vatican said the commission, which Francis set up with a personal decree known as a "chirografo," would enable him "to know better the juridical position and the activities of the Institute to allow an improved harmonization with the mission of the universal Church".

It said the commission would have full powers to obtain all documentation and data necessary and supersede usual rules that oblige officials to respect the secrecy of their office.

The bank will continue to be run by his current administrators and be overseen by existing regulators while the commission carries out its task.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the bank was not being put under "special administration" but that the commission would have ample powers to do its job.

The decree signed by the pope ordered the commission to give its conclusions and all supporting documents directly to him soon after it finishes it work.

Vatican sources have said in the past the pope could decide to radically restructure the bank or even close it. At meetings before the conclave that elected Francis, a number of cardinals questioned whether the Vatican needed a bank at all.

BANK ACCOUNTS UNDER REVIEW

Francis has laid great emphasis on removing an image of privilege from Church operations and IOR's new president Ernst von Freyberg, a German, has begun a review of all its accounts and activities.

The commission is made up of an Italian cardinal, a French cardinal, a Spanish bishop, an American monsignor and Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard professor who is president of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

The document setting up the commission says all bank officials and employees as well as staff in other Vatican departments had to cooperate with the commission.

The European anti-money laundering committee, Moneyval, said in a July report that the IOR still had to enact reforms in order to meet international standards against money laundering.

The bank is due to send Moneyval a progress report by the end of the year.

Von Freyberg, 54, a German lawyer, told Reuters in an interview this month he was committed to total transparency and has started a review of the IOR's some 19,000 accounts, mostly held by Vatican employees and departments, orders of priests and nuns, and charities.

The bank has assets of $7.1 billion under management and profits of 86.6 million euros ($114.3 million), used to support Catholic activities around the world. It does not lend money.

Last year, the Vatican detected six possible attempts to use the Holy See to launder money. At least seven have been detected so far this year.

The bank is trying to clean up its image after a history of scandals, most notably in 1982 when it was enmeshed in the bankruptcy of Italy's Banco Ambrosiano, whose chairman Roberto Calvi was found hanging from London's Blackfriars Bridge.

In 2010, Rome magistrates investigating money laundering in 2010 froze 23 million euros ($33 million) held by the IOR in an Italian bank. The IOR said it was transferring its own funds between accounts in Italy and Germany. The money was released in June 2011 but the investigation continues.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; editing by James Mackenzie and Mike Collett-White)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-francis-sets-special-review-vatican-bank-110039523.html

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Extended Edition Details Emerge

The theatrical cut of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey already feels like an extended edition, but it turns out there?s plenty more footage to expand the first film of the The Hobbit trilogy.? Personally, I wouldn?t mind getting to know more about the individual dwarves, but it doesn?t look like there will be much of that.? As far as the dwarves go, Peter Jackson tells Empire, ?You are going to get some serious Dwarvish disrespect of the elves at Rivendell.?? There will also be more time spent at some of the film?s key locales.? ?You are going to get more of Hobbiton,? says producer / co-writer Philippa Boyens. ?We always wanted to wend our way through Hobbiton, but in the end Bilbo has to run out of the door.?? I think we?re all pretty familiar with Hobbiton, so I?m not sure where else there is to go.? Co-writer Fran Walsh adds that we?ll also be spending more time in the Goblin Town and hear the Great Goblin sing his song.? ?It is a great song,? says Walsh, ?but it was just another delay in terms of moving the story along.?

Hit the jump for what else will be included on the extended edition, and how it will tie in to the next movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which opens on December 13th.? The extended edition is expected to arrive sometime in November.

Speaking to Empire, Jackson says:

?We are putting things in the extended cut that are going to play straight into the second film,??explains Jackson, ?like this character Girion, who is defending [the city of] Dale using black arrows against Smaug.?And the black arrows play a part in an ongoing story, for they are the one thing that can pierce the dragon?s hide.?

?There are also issues with [king of the elves] Thranduil (Lee Pace),??Jackson adds. ?We get some of the reason why he and the dwarves had a falling out ? to do with these white gems??

Even though I found An Unexpected Journey to be a bit of a disappointment, I?m still curious to see how the extended edition plays in relation to Desolation of Smaug.? I imagine that things like the black arrows and the white gems will be reiterated similar to the way Jackson handled Lembas bread in the extended edition of Fellowship of the Ring and the theatrical cut of The Two Towers.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927735/news/1927735/

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Samsung Galaxy S4 with LTE-Advanced leaks out in red and blue

Variants -- Samsung's clearly a fan of them. Need solid evidence of that? Just look to the company's recent London event where a slew of Galaxy S4 products, like the Active, the Mini and the Zoom were officially introduced. But there's one more GS4 on the way and, as Samsung head JK Shin previously confirmed, it's going to be the 'world's first' to run on the ridiculously high-speed LTE-Advanced. Well, it appears that handset (purported to bear a Snapdragon 800) is close to final production, as Korean site Naver.com has allegedly obtained two glossy units offered in two gaudy hues: crimson red and cobalt blue. Though these could turn out to be masterful fakes, everything from the faux wood grain on the paper packaging, to the logo-ridden protective screen cover to the cross-hatched back emblazoned with the LTE-Advanced logo seem to be the real deal. When and where we'll actually see this GS4 LTE-A officially launched is another matter. But if you're in the mood for a very comprehensive photo tour of the two devices in question, hit up the source below.

[Thanks, Felipe]

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, Google

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Source: Naver.com (Translated)

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Supreme Court 2013: The Year in Review

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts arrives during the presidential inauguration on Capitol Hill on Jan. 21, 2013.

Photo by Win McNamee/AFP/Getty Images

Chief Justice Roberts? opinion in Shelby County v. Holder, the Voting Rights Act case, is a pretty lame piece of work. There is a longstanding constitutional norm of judges deferring to Congress. Courts strike down laws when they violate rights or exceed Congress? power. But Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires nine states in the South (and other scattered places) to get approval from the Justice Department before changing their election laws, doesn?t violate anyone?s rights. It?s the type of legislation specifically authorized by the 15th Amendment of the Constitution, which says the right to vote ?shall not be abridged? because of race or color. Roberts says that the singling out of Old South states, for what?s called ?preclearance? by DoJ, makes little sense now that blacks are as likely to register to vote as whites in those states, or nearly so. But Congress passes hundreds of statutes that are based on weak evidence, and courts routinely uphold them. Roberts doesn?t even try to argue that the costs imposed on states by the preclearance part of the Voting Rights Act exceed the benefits for people who would otherwise be deprived of the vote, which is what would be minimally necessary to show that the law does not advance the public good.

Instead, Roberts focuses on the offense to the sovereignty of states and a newly invented idea he calls the ?fundamental principle of equal sovereignty.? State sovereignty means that the federal government should not intrude on political decision-making of states, including, Roberts says, their election laws; equal sovereignty means that when it does, it should intrude equally?on all of the states to the same degree.

But neither of these principles can explain where Roberts ends up. The idea of state sovereignty is riddled with exceptions and is largely a joke these days. The federal government calls the shots, and the states obey, in the area of elections as much as in any other. Roberts accepts the constitutionality of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which forbids states to discriminate against minority voters and in this way also intrudes on state control over their elections. (Section 2 wasn?t at issue in the case the court decided Tuesday, so it?s alive and well. But it relies on lawsuits, not preapproval by the Justice Department, to ensure the rights of minority voters.) If Section 2 does not violate the Constitution, then what is special about Section 5?which also forbids discrimination? From the standpoint of state autonomy, Roberts? argument does not wash.

That leaves the ?fundamental principle of equal sovereignty,? the idea that Congress may not single out certain states for special burdens. Yet Roberts is able to cite only the weakest support for this principle?a handful of very old cases that address entirely different matters. None of the usual impressive array of founding authorities show up in his analysis, even though the founding generation took state sovereignty much more seriously than we do today.

Still, it is worth looking at this principle. What exactly is wrong with the singling out of states by the federal government? Is the idea that when Alabama is on the playground with the other states, they?re going to make fun of it because it had to ask its mama for permission before going out to play? In fact, the federal government doesn?t treat states equally and couldn?t possibly. Nearly all laws affect different states differently. Disaster-relief laws benefit disaster-prone states at the expense of disaster-free states. Pollution-control laws burden industrial states. Progressive taxes burden states where the rich are concentrated. Thanks to Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency can single out states with serious pollution problems, the Justice Department can keep an eye on states with serious corruption problems, and immigration authorities can single out border states for surveillance. Indeed, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act will continue to burden states with substantial minority populations relative to other states, just because you can?t discriminate against a minority population that doesn?t exist. Many more Section 2 claims will be brought in Alabama than in Montana, and so even under Section 2, Alabama has vastly less control over its election law than Montana has over its election law. Yes, Section 5 places an incremental burden on Alabama?but on top of an already unequal burden that Roberts cheerfully tolerates. So whatever explains the court?s decision today, the putative principle of equal sovereignty can?t be it.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_breakfast_table/features/2013/supreme_court_2013/supreme_court_on_the_voting_rights_act_chief_justice_john_roberts_struck.html

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RolePlayGateway?

<^>Project: A.I.R.E.S<^>

?Subject-Re: Project AIRES Update
From: Lead, Augustus Eckridge
To: Director, John Ford
Date: October 26th, 2037

Dear Director Ford,

In response to your request I?m attached the latest projections for the project to this e-mail, however I?ve also included several various reports to expedite the process. We are making great strides toward the end goal and the team has thus far gotten along with little happenings (Barring the incident with Richter), beyond the typical professional bickering, and production is moving along at pace. The base code for the world, taken from Project: ITUS, has halved the initial generation period leaving us more flexibility to produce exemplary Programs.

By altering the parameters as discussed with yourself and the board we have managed to produce exactly what we intended. Military Smart AIs capable of command and control decisions based on ?human? impulses, though the actual process has developed differently than we expected. In week two we decided to give moderator rights to the world to several selected programs within the system, who unexpectedly began taking more active roles in the projects administration. By the next week these programs had completely reorganized our initial structure of the mock-civilization within the cluster, creating a new system of interaction between themselves and even our Team Members, to our surprise we found this actually increased their absorption rates and development by 6% and have thus elected to leave the changes unmolested. For more information on this please see Report #7.

However, sir, I must admit that it is not all roses over here. My attempted to reach HR in regards to Mr. Richter?s disgruntled harassment has gone responded too. I understand that Mr. Richter was terminated on grounds of Offensive Tendencies however his personal believes cannot be forgotten here. Mr. Richter only became violent when he discovered the purpose of Project AIRES was military. He recently was permitted back in the lab to retrieve some personal files? without a security escort! I ask that you please look into this, before it becomes a greater problem.

Sincerely,
<^>
Dr. Augustus Eckridge

?

Welcome to Project: A.I.R.E.S the most advanced Artificial Intelligence development undertaking ever attempted, and you are a part of it. Not for nothing of course, you?re an expert of some type whose past has some barring on the project, be it as a programmer, a developer, or even a psychologist or virtual gamer. Why those last two? Simple, because here are AAI Inc. the programmers of the top projects aren?t just making simple top-to-bottom AI with limited information and interaction capabilities like at the turn of the millennium, these are bottom-to-top AIs that begin as little more than basic code ?eggs? and blossom into being of exponentially more possibilities than their ?dumb AI? cousins. To create these ?Smart AI? the company uses a relatively new technology otherwise reserved for the public?s entertainment. Full Immersion Virtual Reality.

By building a whole world for these AI to grow up in at an accelerated rate AAI has managed to create the world most user friendly and capable computer programs ever to exist, and you, for one reason or another, are helping to pursue that dream.

Ironically this technology has done things bass-ackwards (;3) and was first introduced in the civilian sector and not in the military. The smart AI made banking and consumer relations a breeze while at that time these boundless programs were too untrusted by authority figures to be implemented in military protocols despite the facts. However recently the military has begun sojourning into world of smart AI, and to fill that new demand AAI has created a new team to work on Project: AIRES-

-Advanced

-Infantry

-Rendering
and
-Engineering

-Sector

This project uses a newly generated Server World to raise a whole different society, where competition and conflict abound creating the perfect Artificial Intelligence for Military operations, with everything from command and control programs to attack protocols designed to command UAVs and even the shadowy world of Intelligence Programs designated to infiltrate enemy systems being breed within. You are here to expedite and enhance this system. If you, like your former team member Dylan Richter, can?t handle that then there is the door. Because it?s time to dive in.

Story:

You were recruited months ago for a specialized project involving the development of Smart AI for Advanced Artificial Intelligence Incorporated, the equivalent of a modern day Microsoft and Google combined this company has got bank. And you just couldn?t say no to the opportunity of working in the most high tech lab with the greatest programmers and doctors in the industry? or the money they offered. Too bad for you though, you would have been much better off having refused?

The team dives into the virtual world that the Programs occupy on a daily basis, using Admin accounts to adjust the world as needed so that the Programs growing within advance as needed toward their end goals. In this world of mixed time periods the programs are left to compete for advancement, gaining further storage space to expand their abilities. Almost like a video game. It worked, creating immensely human military programs which would work better with their operators than any dumb AI ever could. However this success comes at a price.

When the team dives a week or so after a disgruntled colleague was terminated the normal everyday turns into a fight for survival against a deadly virus implanted in the inescapable system. This is where the game begins.

World:

Whereas typically the programs are grown in a world that greatly resembles our own to increase their synchronization with humans and thus create greater user friendliness this system was poorly suited toward military applications. To that end the world was tweaked for Project: AIRES, becoming darker, more metallic in nature, but still keeping the essence of the outer-world, with one major exception, the developers added RPG gaming elements to the server to induce even greater combat amongst the programs for a strong survive system. With every successful venture the programs complete they gain a form of experience, like in an RPG, which determines how much space they can access in their memory cubes, and thus how effective they can be. Of course under normal circumstances Admins are exempt.

Guns were removed, replaced instead with blades, armor, and more primitive weaponry in contrast to the otherwise still modern world. The society that bloomed within this world is a strange one, with an almost religious reverence for the Admins (players) who control and manage the world, a high focus on competition and gaining ?experience? to expand their horizons, and a hierarchy centered around those most daring of programs; those that take part in the dangerous gladiatorial like games call Trials.

Admins, the avatars in which the Development Team inhabit when operating within the virtual space of the world, are different from the other programs of the AI, as they are human and have access to the system consoles. Capable of altering the server at will and using any item or process regardless of their ?experience? these beings are like gods? or were until the Virus interrupted, but that will be explored by you.

OOC: Okay, so, in case you haven?t figured yet, this world greatly resembles Tron, however uses more archaic weaponry, and operates almost like Sword Art Online in the combat, save for the existence of what is called ?Surges? which take the form of various almost magical attacks or spells.

The actual game is taking place after the team is trapped by the virus, and will involve their attempts to escape, this is how we will play, with a deadly program on the loose that is taking control of the Server, intending to conquer every program and destroy them. This includes the Admins, who now have lost their abilities and must battle to escape. It?ll be fun, trust me.

The game will take place the morning before everyone gets stuck, that will be in the real world before the team dives in. I?ve yet to decide if I want to make a reservations list for backgrounds but if you have a suggestion please feel free to post it. Thanks!

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RolePlayGateway

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