Category Archives: Survivalism

A state senate bill would "criminalize a father teaching his own son how to use a hunting rifle."

Mike Adams on Wednesday, November 27th, 2019 in a blog.

ByWarren Fiskeon Tuesday, December 17th, 2019 at 6:00 a.m.

A prolific conspiracy theorist is sounding a "TYRANNY ALERT" about a bill introduced in the state Senate that he claims would ban firearms training and martial arts instructionin Virginia.

"It would even criminalize a father teaching his own son how to use a hunting rifle," wrote Mike Adams in a Nov. 27, 2019 post on NewsTarget, one of several websites he operates thatare anti-vaccine, critical of science, and promote guns and survivalism.

Adams is based in Cody, Wyo. In June 2019, Facebook revoked an Adams page promoting alternative medicine for violating spam rules. The page, called NaturalNews, reportedly had 2.9 million Facebook likes.

Adams recent post on Virginia centers on a bill recently introduced by state Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, that would add restrictions to Virginias paramilitary activities laws. Passed in 1987, the laws make it a felony to assemble - or teach how to assemble - guns, explosives or incendiary devices with the intention of abetting civil disorder. Violators face a maximum 10 years in prison and $2,500 fine.

Lucas bill would also make it a felony for people to gather "with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons by drilling, parading, or marching with any firearm, any explosive or incendiary device, or any components or combination thereof." It comes after the August 2017 white supremicist rally in Charlottesvillethat left one counterprotestor dead and others injured.

Adams wrote that the bill, in addition to banning a father from teaching his son how to hunt with a rifle, "would also criminalize all firearms training classes, including concealed carry classes."

He added, "The law would instantly transform all martial arts instructors into criminal felons."

In fact, the legislation would do none of these things.

Lucas bill, as we noted, adds to the list of illegal acts and Virginias paramilitary laws. But it leaves intact the next section of the code, whichwhich exempts from paramilitary laws:

*"Any activity, undertaken without knowledge of or intent to cause or further a civil disorder, which is intended to teach or practice self defense or self-defense techniques such as karate clubs..."

*"Lawful activities related to firearms instruction ortraining intended to teach the safe handling and use of firearms."

*"Lawful sports or activities related to the individual recreational use or possession of firearms."

We tried to contact Adams, but received no reply to three emails sent to an address on one of his websites for media inquiries. A person answereing the phone in Adams' media relations office, who didnt give her name, told us "there probably wont be a response."

It should be noted that Lucas introduced identical bills in each of the last two years that were killed in Republican-controlled Senate committees. GOP senators voiced concern that the bill would be hard to enforce and might violate citizens constitutional right to assemble. Videos of the hearings show no one raising concerns that the bill would affect firearms training or self-defense instruction.

The bill may face better prospects this year, with Democrats controlling both chambers of the General Assembly for the first time this century. Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, has endorsed the legislation.

Our ruling

Adams wrote that a bill in the General Assembly "would criminalize a father teaching his own son how to use a hunting rifle."

Thats flat out wrong. The bill would add a clause to the states paramilitary laws making it a felony for groups to train or march with weapons with "the intent of intimidating others." The bill, however, does not change a code section that exempts from the paramilitary act "lawful activities related to firearms instruction."

Another ridiculous Adams claim: The bill "would instantly transform all martial arts instructors into criminal felons." State paramilitary laws specifically exempt common efforts to "teach or practice self defense or self-defense techniques such as karate clubs."

Adams claims are devoid of truth and inflammatory. We rate them "Pants on Fire."

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Would a Virginia bill really ban dads from teaching sons how to use hunting rifles? - PolitiFact

Say what you want about Jeff Bezos not too loudly, Alexa is listening but the man has decent taste in science fiction. The Amazon founder and CEO has peppered his career with Star Trek references, hired Snow Crash writer Neal Stephenson to work at his space exploration company, Blue Origin, and last year took it upon himself to personally announce that Amazon was going to rescue the critically acclaimed former SyFy Channel space drama The Expanse from cancellation. Amazon's Christmas gift to sci-fi fans returns to the airwaves netwaves? this week after a year of production and reminds us why The Expanse captured the attention of so many in the first place.

Those wondering how the sudden influx of Amazon-level money would affect the show need not worry. The CGI may be sharper and the look of the show may be more cinematic, but the show feels essentially the same at the core. We get some new sets, but the heart of the show politics in space remains intact.

Of those new locations, the planet of Ilus the one demanded by the plot of the book upon which the season is based is intentionally desolate, reflecting the hardscrabble survivalism of the Belter refugees who have settled there. Their presence ruffles the feathers of an Earth-based corporation with a mining charter, however, resulting in a political tinderbox that's primed to blow at any moment. U.N. Secretary-General Chrisjen Avasarala (played with gleefully foul-mouthed zeal by the great Shohreh Aghdashloo) sends James Holden (Steven Strait) and the crew of the Rocinante to keep the peace and investigate alien superstructures dotting the surface of the planet, no big deal.

While Holden along with drawling Martian pilot Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar), Belter engineer Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper) and weirdly sympathetic psychopath Amos Burton (Wes Chatham) dips his toes into that hornet's nest, we get our first extended look under the domes of the Martian Congressional Republic as recon marine Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) gets involved with the rise of a criminal element in the shadow of a planetwide economic recession, brought about in part by the cessation of hostilities between Earth and Mars. The Expanse has always had a strong sense of realpolitik, and in this season it acknowledges that "peace" is just a different set of problems.

While we don't get much in the way of character-building in the first six episodes of the 10-episode season, season standouts include Wes Chatham's Amos along with Burn Gorman's (Game of Thrones, Torchwood) take on the season's villain, Adolphus Murtry. Amos, the Rocinante crew's muscle, carries the same sense of cold practicality to his sex life, we discover, as he does to applying violence wherever necessary. The situation with his new sex-interest, Chandra Wei (Jess Salgueiro, Letterkenny), is complicated by the fact that she's Murtry's second-in-command.

Cibola Burn, the book on which the new season is based, is often cited as a low point in the series by James S.A. Corey (a collaborative pen name of writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). Amazon seems confident that the showrunners can overcome the book's faults and the decision to give Avasarala and Bobbie plenty of screen time is a good start. The show has been renewed for a fifth season, already in production. For once, passionate fans get to relax, take a breath and rest easy knowing that their show is in good hands.

This story appears in the Dec. 11, 2019, print issue of Orlando Weekly. Stay on top of Central Florida news and views with our weekly Headlines newsletter.

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Amazon's holiday gift to Orlando's sci-fi fans is a revitalized season of 'The Expanse' - Orlando Weekly

AT&T and Time Warner, Disney and Fox, Comcast and Sky. Which conglomerates are on the hunt for major mergers and acquisitions? Pixabay

A food chain is defined as a hierarchical series of organisms dependent on the next as a source of food. This suggests that the entropy of the unchecked wild is merely instinctual, natural order masquerading as chaos. Sharks eat minnows, lions eat gazelle, and the whole world keeps on turning. We understand that the natural world is governed by such linear survivalism, but rarely do we acknowledge that the unnatural world we createdthe one of business and economicsis also dictated by the same Darwinian laws.

The strong prey on the weak, or, at the very least, eye every conceivable opportunity to grow strongereven at a cost to others.In the media and entertainment landscape, this is regularly accomplished through mergers and acquisitions. AT&T acquired Time Warner in a landmark $85 billion deal; The Walt Disney Co. gobbled up 20th Century Fox for $71 billion; Comcast dropped $39 billion on Sky; and Viacom and CBS re-merged to form a new company valued at roughly $30 billion. Scale in media is purely carnivorousone company feeds on another. Its almost Shakespearean in its lethal simplicity.

SEE ALSO: Hollywood Is Running Out of Room, and It Might Be Hurting Your Favorite Movies Most

While major dominoes have already fallen, there is undoubtedly more still to come. A tiger cant change his stripes, after all, and the increasingly volatile entertainment media industry cant be satiated in a time of conglomerate hunger. So we talked to a handful of industry experts in an attempt to identify realistic potential mergers and acquisitions on the horizon.

Mary Ann Halford, a former Fox EVP and senior advisor at OC&C Strategy

Halford believes the first question to tackle under this umbrella topic is identifying the major players who are still left in media and entertainment. To her, that list that includes AMC, Discovery, Lionsgate, Sony, Imagine Entertainment and MGM Entertainment.

Of course, regarding Discovery and Lionsgate, Liberty Media (controlled by John Malone) has a significant interest, which could make for interesting dealmaking, Halford said.

Steve Birenberg, Founder of Northlake Capital Management

An expert in the financial field, Birenberg is eying Lionsgate for an acquisition. Im not exactly sure by whom, he says, but ViacomCBS makes the most sense if and when they prove their merger is working and their stock prices is way, way up from here.

Despite ongoing speculation throughout the industry, Birenberg does not believe Apple will acquire a studio as he doesnt deem it necessary to further their product services priority. If Apple were to acquire anything, I think Roku would be the smart move, he noted.

Similar to others quoted here, he views Discovery Communications as a prime target, thanks to its high floor non-fiction strategy and healthy balance sheet. While no obvious partner comes immediately to mind, there are non-traditional alternatives that Discoverys unscripted content lends itself to.

Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst for Comscore

Dergarabedian believes we are witnessing the greatest amount up upheaval in the media industrys history. From a practical perspectivebecause there is so much content that it can be overwhelmingthe future may revolve around consolidation, he says. The question on his mind is: How do we get all of this content in one place?

Outside of Roku and Apple TV housing streaming apps for several services, the competitors are not concerned with making it easy for consumers to access a wealth of content. The sheer volume of options may be the primary barrier of adoption for some.

Future merges will be dictated by technology with unexpected players that may not even exist yet driving the industry, he predicts. We need to open our minds to the intersection of technology and content. Sony was a tech-first company when they acquired Columbia Pictures; Netflix began by selling DVDs and is now a full-blown studio. If we travel 20 to 30 years back, we couldnt have envisioned the entertainment industry of today with streaming and everything. So the future will likely be a manifestation of what were not even aware of yet.

Mark Williams, Chief Revenue Officer, Americas, for Merrill Corporation

Williams notes that merger and acquisition deal-making in the technology, media and telecom (TMT) sector remains healthy, with $324.2 billion in 2018 and growth expected to continue in 2019 and beyond. As we discussed in our recent Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) M&A Spotlight panel, this is a result of technology being so embedded in the business world, that the M&A opportunity lies not within technology or a specific industry, but at the intersection of them both, he said.

Based on discussions from Merrills(TMT) M&A Spotlight panel, interactive content such as video gaming may provide the greatest growth potential within TMT moving forward. This lane is expected to emerge as a long-term catalyst for M&A deal-making, Williams explains.

Gaming has evolved, becoming very social, multi-player, and online driven. This shift can be attributed to technology itself. People tend to start playing video games on their mobile devices, and in time, as players become more committed to gaming, they often subscribe to cloud-based platforms.

Dock David Treece, Senior Financial Analyst at FitSmallBusiness.com

On Disneys earnings call earlier this month, CEO Bob Iger said the company was not looking to add any major pieces following the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox over the last 15 years. But how long will this stance hold, especially with Iger stepping down in 2021?

It makes sense that Disney would slow down merger and acquisition activity in the near future as it tries to absorb Fox, but this break will likely only be temporary, Treece said. In the meantime, I think we can look for additional acquisitions from Netflix, which has only dabbled in acquisitions today.

Treece expects Netflix to target smaller production companies and minor streaming services that offer technological innovations that Netflix would like to own. He also pinpoints Discovery as a potential mover-and-shaker.

Each of these companies has net revenue over $1 billion annually (about 10 percent of Disneys net earnings) and will likely try to take advantage of Disneys slowdown to grow strategically to compete with the new giant of Disney-Fox.

Sam Williamson, Founder of Streaming Movies Right

Williamson highlights a specific niche that Apple should target if it is indeed hunting for an acquisition.

What weve noticed is that horror is where Netflix have a clear advantage over Disney, and many people love the horror content that Netflix puts out, he said. So if Apple want to enter this horse race, the next big acquisition we may see could be Apple attempting to acquire one of the more successful horror studios so they can place more horror content on their platform.

Williamson notes that Netflix is producing at least one decent horror film per month while Disney has a bank of horror films to last them for a while. Though Apple has signed a multi-picture pact with indie studio A24, the latters production cycle generally produces three horror movies per year. I dont think that output would be enough to draw people away from Netflix, so theyll likely have to step up the production of content, he says.

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Market Experts Weigh in on the Next Major Mergers & Acquisitions in Media - Observer

For a long time, John Krasinski was America's boyfriend. His most famous role Jim Halpert on "The Office" became his de facto identity, and he appeared to shareJim's defining character traits: sensitivity, intelligence, humor, unabashed Snow Patrol fandom.

But as you and I both know insert a knowing look at the camera here nothing gold can stay, and now Jim Halpert is waxing poetic about the CIA.

The interview went viral on Twitter yesterday. While the clip itself appears to be from 2018, when "Jack Ryan," Amazon's splashy show about Men Who Blow Things Up, initially premiered, it elicited a strong reaction for good reason: Listening to Jim Halpert talk about how he "nerded out" when he got to the CIA and how we should "be saying thank you every single day" to the organization is an incredibly jarring experience. (The endless stream of Jim Halpert reaction gifs in the replies doesn't hurt, either.)

As MEL's Miles Klee argued, "one can no longer deny that Jim from 'The Office' is a cop." Judging from the responses on Twitter, many people were surprised by Krasinski's transformation. But this is merely the latest chapter in Krasinski's curious journey from lovably rumpled sales guy to special-ops acolyte.

In 2016, he starred in a movie about Benghazi directed by wait for it Michael Bay, which was criticized for, among other things, being inaccurate. (He also got buff.)The same year, he also talked about how he almost played Captain America, the ultimate stars-and-stripes macho man.

In 2018, he directed and starred in "A Quiet Place," which centered on a family that must remain silent lest they tip off the murderous aliens inhabiting the planet. Though it was generally well-received, it was also deemed a "fantasy of survivalism" with questionable politics by The New Yorker. Some criticized its gender dynamics, while others wondered about its ostensibly pro-gun messaging. It also featured Krasinski in a familiar role: bearded white patriarch fighting back against "foreign" enemies.

Yet nothing has done more to solidify his patina of red-blooded Americana than his role as Jack Ryan. The first season of the series, which is based on the novels by Tom Clancy, was described as a "patriotic nightmare" by Vanity Fair, and focused on Ryan's hunt for a terrorist named Mousa bin Suleiman. The second season hasn't fared much better: It's been criticized for its muddy and one-dimensional portrayal of the region's politics, and for its conflation of American intervention with American heroics.The trailer even drew outrage from Venezuela's culture minister Ernesto Villegas, who called it "crass war propaganda disguised as entertainment."

Meanwhile, in a different interview about the show, Krasinski claimed that many people who work for the CIA are "apolitical," which seems questionable given the group's history in several different countries, but who's counting?

Anyway, Jim Halpert is gone, and now we have a veritable Abercrombie model devouring a piece of steak with his bare hands instead. You win again, 2019.

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A brief history of John Krasinski's transformation into a guy who absolutely loves the CIA - Business Insider

Retired Cpl. Joseph Logue talks about receiving a mortgage-free home in Collingswood on Wednesday. Adam Monacelli, Cherry Hill Courier-Post

CAMDEN A Brooklawn man whose computer allegedly held a video of a white-supremacist attack set to music faces a federal charge of conspiring to intimidate minorities.

Richard Tobin, 18,is accused of directing members of a racially motivated violent extremist group to vandalize synagogues in two Midwestern states, according to a criminal complaint filed in Camden federal court.

The complaint does not name the group but describes it as a self-styled white protection league that promotes an extreme form of survivalism and preparedness.

It alleges Tobin and other members engaged in online discussions in September that focused on recruiting prospective members, promoting the creation of a white ethno-state and encouraging violence against minorities.

More: Police: Shooting at Camden High football game tied to Atlantic City dispute

More: Public's help sought as probe continues into kidnap-murder of Curtis Jenkins III

The complaint accuses Tobin of no violent crimes, but alleges documents in his computer showed how to make plastic explosives and how to arrange barrels inside a rental truck to be used as a bomb.

In a recorded interview, Tobin described once being enraged by the number of black shoppers at a Central Jersey mall, FBI Special Agent Jason Novick said in an affidavit accompanying the Nov. 12 complaint.

A Brooklawn man is charged in Camden federal court with conspiring to intimidate minorities.(Photo: Jim Walsh, Courier-Post)

"That day, he had a machete in his car, and he wanted to 'let loose' with it," Novick said.

Tobins computer, seized during a Nov. 8 raid at his home, held numerous photos, videos and Internet activity which reflects an obsession with neo-Nazi propaganda, terrorism and acts of brutal and mass violence, Novick said.

One video showed a man using a shotgun and assault rifle to kill worshippers at a mosque, while a soundtrack played Another One Bites the Dust, the affidavit says.

It notes the video was made on March 15, 2019, the day a white extremist attacked two mosques, killing 51 people, in Christchurch, New Zealand.

According to the affidavit, Tobin and group members communicated through encrypted messages, chat rooms and online platforms between Sept. 15-23.

It says a swastika and a three runic symbols used to identify the group were found painted on a synagogue in Hancock, Michigan, on Sept. 21. The temple on Michigan's Upper Peninsula is almost 1,200 miles from Brooklawn.

Similar vandalism was found one day later at a synagogue in Racine, Wisconsin, about 850 miles from South Jersey.

Tobin admitted his role in the vandalism, which he described as Operation Kristallnacht,according to Novick.

Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, was the name originally given to the widespread destruction of Jewish properties in Germany in November 1938.

Representatives of the targeted synagogues said the bigotry had brought their communities closer together.

This really is not in line with the character of this community, David Holden, president of Temple Jacob in Hancock, said in an online statement. What is more in character is the responses not just of kindness, but actual engagement by numerous people who saw what had happened and acted.

He said people with no connection to the temple pitched in to help paint, scrub and power wash."

I would like to thank the thousands of individuals who showed their love and support, Rabbi Martyn Adelberg of Beth Israel Sinai Congregation in Racine posted at the temples Facebook page.

Tobin described different emotions in an FBI interview, Novick asserted

According to the affidavit, Tobin reported that he experienced depressed feelings for the last three years, and had thoughts of suicide by cop or becoming a suicide bomber regularly."

Jim Walsh is a free-range reporter whos been roaming around South Jersey for decades. His interests include crime, the courts, economic development and being first with breaking news. Reach him at jwalsh@gannettnj.com or look for him in traffic.

Help support local journalism with a Courier-Post subscription.

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Richard Tobin of Brooklawn accused of conspiring to initimidate minorities - Courier Post

The post The Terminator Created a New Kind of Hero With Kyle Reese appeared first on Consequence of Sound.

This editorial originally ran in October, 2014. Were re-publishing it for the films 35th anniversary.

John Connor gave me a picture of you once. I didnt know why at the time. It was very old torn, faded. You were young like you are now. You seemed just a little sad. I used to always wonder what you were thinking at that moment. I memorized every line, every curve. I came across time for you, Sarah. I love you; I always have. Kyle Reese

Ive longpreferred James Camerons unassuming 1984 sci-fi thriller, The Terminator, overits blockbuster juggernaut sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Which is weird because a.) T2 was the first R-rated filmI actually saw in theaters (as opposed to VHS or HBO) and b.) given the casting of Edward Furling, the endless merchandising, and widespread teenaged fanaticism of its sequel, youd think a curious seven-year-old would be hooked. Not the case: Even as a youngster, I couldnt shake off a character as troubledand honest and sympathetic as Michael Biehns Kyle Reese.

Thirty-five years ago, Cameron and writer/producer Gale Anne Hurd told the story of a lethal cyborg assassin sent back in time to kill the mother of a future leader of the human resistance. While billed as a science fiction action film, the nearly two-hour vehicle also served as a tragiclove story between its two leads: Biehns Reese and Linda Hamiltons victimized Sarah Connor. Come with me if you want to live are Reeses first wordsto Connor amidst a vicious shoot-out at a Los Angeles night club. He, too, is from the future: a resistance fighter withthe sole mission of protecting his commanders mother.

Terminator-1984-poster

Everything about the films production has become legend: how the studio originally wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger to play thehero and O.J. Simpson the titular role; how FX guru Stan Winston wasnt Camerons first choice; how Hamilton sprained her ankle early in production and suffered throughout filming; how Schwarzenegger struggled with the iconic line,Ill be back; how the majority of filming across the city of Los Angeles took place at night guerilla-style; and how actor Lance Henriksen stormed into a meeting dressed as a Terminator to convince John Daly of Hemdale Pictures on the project.

Whats fascinating is trying to imagine Schwarzeneggeras Reese. While he would go on to surprise audiences by assuming thehero role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, hed remain a T-800 cyborg and wouldnt have to sell a love story. Well, thats not true. His paternal relationship with Furlongs young John Connor was certainly similar in nature, but even so, it was more Old Yeller than Romeo & Juliet. No, suffice to say, Schwarzenegger as anything but the Terminator would have changed the films fabric altogether, especially if he nabbed the part as Reese. He would have shattered the character.

Many almost did. As Hurd notes, Almost everyone else who came in from the audition was so tough that you just never believed that there was gonna be this human connection between [Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese]. They have very little time to fall in love. A lot of people came in and just could not pull it off.

Instead, Biehn delivered exactly what the filmneeded: humanity. On the surface, The Terminator tells a very simple story of man vs. machine. Think of it asJohn Carpenters Halloween with more muscle, metal, and homemade pipe bombs. What makes both films stalk accordingly is their willingness to relate to theiraudience. From inception, Sarah Connor was always going to be the more human character; shes a struggling, young waitress who we see day in and day out. What elevated the storywas making Biehn equally accessible.

Rather than tossing him a helmet, a gun, and some chewing tobacco, Biehns stripped of everything literally. Our first introduction to the character finds him helpless, confused, and naked as he confronts Los Angeles bleak underbelly with the citys finest patrolmen close behind. He smuggles clothes from a department store, yanks off pants from a vagrant, and has to lean on his limited resources to do the one thing hes supposed to do: protect. Yet that gritty sense of survivalism is what makes Reese such an enigmatic character.

Again, it goes back to the casting: Biehns a slim guy with understated muscle. A cursory glance has himpegged for the waves overany sort of militia. Hes unassuming with boyish looks and a nearly effeminate demeanor. When he finally catches a breathwith Hamilton, he assumes thesoldier archetype with a hint of playfulness: Cyborgs dont feel pain. I do. Dont do that again. Later, during an interrogation sequence at the police station, he gets theatrical playing the tough guy: You still dont get it, do you? Hell find her! Thats what he does! Thats ALL he does! You cant stop him! Hell wade through you, reach down her throat, and pull her fuckin heart out!

These little inferences speak to Reeses overall mindset and insist thathes just as terrified as Hamilton. The fear comes out in his facial expressions specifically, those young, manic eyes that highlighthistemperament ineach situation. Hes a vulnerable hero, ajuxtaposition toSchwarzeneggers unstoppable killing machine, and theres a level of uncertainty to his abilitiesthat creates an unnerving through-line to Connors own survival arc. In other words, despite his early heroics, theres absolutely no reason to believe Reese will be successful in protectingConnor.

That uncertainty separates The Terminator from its successors. Whileeach story has always pittedan underdog against a titan, whether its the T-800 vs. T-100 or the T-850 vs. T-X, the stakes have never been higherthanReese and Connors struggle for survival. (Cmon! With Schwarzenegger on your team, its hard to really feel any uncertainty, even if Robert Patricks eagle eyes are terrifying enough to fry a hard drive.) Yet Cameron and Hurd make it even more dire by introducing the aforementioned love story, giving audiences more reason to fear for the protagonists lives.

Their whole romance could have been a cheesy, one-dimensional relationship, but the chemistrybetween Reese and Connor is palpable. Throughout the film, the two depend on one another, whether its propping each other up, building homemade plastique, or offeringemotional support during moments ofrespite. On your feet, soldier, Connor pleads towards the end, and theres a sense of despair that strikes the heart. So, by the end, only heartless cynics would scoff at Sarah, when she says that in the few hours we had together, we loved a lifetimes worth.

terminator 1984 The Terminator Created a New Kind of Hero With Kyle Reese

Biehn would play a similar role in Camerons exceptional sequel to Ridley Scotts Alien as Corporal Dwayne Hicks. Like Reese, Hicks plays the soldier with a heart a literal locked one, no less who winds up relying on a female figure. By comparison, theyre about the same hero and archetype, though Hicks is easily swept aside by Sigourney Weavers Oscar-nominated Ellen Ripley, who takes charge in ways Hamilton wouldnt until Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Regardless, Reese and Hicks both highlight the human vulnerability that Biehn brought to the silver screen.

Personally, I still get choked up watching The Terminator. As a child, I would stop my VHS tape shortly before the T-800 rose from the flames, pretending that Connor and Reese were able to drive off and raise John together. Stupid, I know, but Reese was such a hero in my eyes that I couldnt stomach the thought that he died so tragically on those factory stairs. (You could imagine how I reacted in theaters when I saw Alien 3.) Part of it was attraction, sure, but I just couldnt stand to watch him die. He meant too much to me.

But Im not alone. In the summer of 2014, Biehn participated in Entertainment Weeklys oral history on the film, in which he discussed the influential nature of Kyle Reese. He said, I meet kids all the time who come up to me and say, My name is Kyle and my parents named me after you. But one of the bittersweet occurrences that happens is that guys come up to me on the street and say, I went into the military because of you. And usually theyre okay or they look okay but thats a heavy burden, especially if you know how I feel about war.

One might argue Biehns feelings on war helped shape and inform the Reese weve always known and cherished. Because while, yes, hes a soldier by design, its only because he has to be. This was the life he was given. He doesnt live for this shit, hes living in it.Thats why one of the more understated revelations of the film isnt just that hes the father to John Connor, but that he deliberately signed up for the time-traveling task out of love. As he admits, upon seeing that photo of Sarah Connor, he fell in love, a feeling that was strictly instinctual, and that notion speaks volumes.

Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese

Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese

Its a notion that Cameron absolutely believes in. One hundred percent. No, ifs, ands, or buts about it. Weve seen it throughout the remainder of his career, be it Aliens, The Abyss, Titanic, Avatar, hell, you could even toss in True Lies. Love conquers all in his stories; its the currency that binds his protagonists. But heres the thing about that: Love has to be earned. Its a divine feeling that you cant just paint, you have to construct. With Kyle Reese, Cameron carved out a universal archetype in the heartthrob hero, but he did it by tossing aside the callousness of an action star and keeping the formula simple.

Zero bravado, full heart, cant lose.

The Terminator Created a New Kind of Hero With Kyle ReeseMichael Roffman

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The Terminator Created a New Kind of Hero With Kyle Reese - Yahoo Entertainment

Bitcoins recovery from $7,714 at the end of last month gave the bulls more reason to be upbeat. At this price, BTC was down from its 2019 high of $13,880 by almost 45%. To experienced traders, these price swings are somewhat normal. Most importantly, such traders expect the bulls to soon gain momentum and push the price up.

Unfortunately, according to these analysts, bitcoins value could soon drop to worrisome levels.

Wyckoff Logic was created by popular stock trader and investor Richard Wyckoff. According to this method, the price cycle of a traded instrument (such as bitcoin) is comprised of four distinct stages: accumulation, markup, distribution and markdown.

Bitcoins chart has followed the four stages beginning with the accumulation phase in December of 2018 when bitcoin was trading at around $3,000. This was followed by the markup phase when bitcoin rallied from the December lows to the June 2019 high close to $14,000.

At the moment, bitcoin is in the markdown phase where the bears are striving to gain control of the market and the price drops to new lows. The Wyckoff Logic analysis by trader and analyst Moe Mentum predicts that bitcoin will dive to $6,000 or lower in the near-term.

Analyst at Cane Island Advisors Timothy Peterson is of a similar opinion. He believes bitcoin could plunge to the $6,000 zone due to the gap between the price of bitcoin and Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) premium. According to Peterson, there is a notable relationship between the premium paid by investors for OTC shares of GBTC and bitcoins price where bitcoins price follows the trend of the GBTC premiums.

In the past few weeks, the premium of GBTC dropped whilst bitcoin stayed quiet as its price remained relatively unmoved. This unmet gap, according to Peterson, is what could catalyze a more than 25% drop in bitcoins price in the next month or so.

He noted:

When bitcoins price was well above the GBTC premium, it fell substantially. Now, a gap has opened up again. GBTCs premium has fallen from $4.00 per share to $2.00 per share. This implies that bitcoins price should fall from about $12,000 to $6,000.

Peterson added:

The relationship between GBTC premium and bitcoin price has not been stable and predictable over time. However, our fundamental models also value BTC at about $6,000. It appears that institutional and long-term US investors in GBTC are expecting this price level for BTC as well.

Financial analyst and swing trader going by the name Financial Survivalism (@Sawcruhteez) analyzed bitcoins price based on Wyckoff Logic and concluded that bitcoin is going up, not down.

On October 8, Financial Survivalism noted that bitcoins chart pulled from the last week of September up until now depicts the Wyckoff accumulation. Survivalism suggested that the Wyckoff accumulation would be confirmed if the current pullback leads to a higher low above $8,000. Survivalism implied that bitcoin could return to the $10k region if this bullish pattern pans out as expected. On the bright side, at the current price of $8,301, bitcoin is still up 120% compared to the start of the year.

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Bitcoin Might Head To The $6,000 Region In The Near-Term According to Wyckoff Logic - ZyCrypto

It can be hard to recognize when a life-defining moment falls into your lap, especially when youre still just a scrawny teenager who feels like hes watching the world go by from the sidelines. As desperate as we are to grow up, people seldom clock the moment they start coming of age. Peter (Jaeden Martell) doesnt have that problem. When this frustrated kid stumbles upon a bag full of $100,000 in buried treasure, he can practically hear the starting gun ringing in his ears.

Growing up on the Jersey Shore, Peter and his better-developed older brother Alan (Alita hunk Keean Johnson) havent really been able to appreciate the romantic allure that brings wealthy tourists to their blue-collar hometown. But a small fortune in gold coins has a way of altering your perspective in a hurry. This will be their one magic summer. This will be the year when everything changed. This will be the season when these two boys decide what kind of men they want to be. This is your origin story, Sergeant Kent (Shea Whigam) tells Alan, unaware that the juvenile delinquent sitting across from him is hiding a huge secret. Are you going to grow up to be the good guy, or the bad guy?

A sharp coming-of-age crime saga that hardens The Goonies with the kind of salt-of-the-earth survivalism that bled through The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Kevin McMullins Amblin-inflected Low Tide couldnt make its stakes any clearer. The movies shrewd first scene, in which a group of masked ruffians break into a beachside mansion, explicitly defines the moral dilemma that will hang over the rest of this 87-minute calling card. Its just another summer night for Alan, Red (a volatile Alex Neustaedter), and Smitty (Daniel Zolghadri), who rob houses because its easier than working. Besides, its not like the loaded out-of-towners are going to miss any of this shit, right?

But panic ensues when the house owners come home early; two of the boys make clean escapes, but Smitty breaks his ankle when he tries to jump down from the second floor. His accomplices eventually go back for him, but its hard to say if they rescue Smitty out of friendship, or rather because they dont trust him not to rat them out to the cops. Later, when Sergeant Kent tells Alan that bad guys never think theyre bad guys, you can all but see the kid replaying this incident in his mind.

Low Tide is at its best during these early stretches, as McMullins script charts the ways that fragile young friendships can ebb and flow. The movies setting isnt quite as specific as its circumstances its tough to shoot a period piece on an indie budget but McMullin turns that feature into a bug. Our past seems like the movies present. Details come into focus slowly, and without calling attention to themselves. A transistor radio and a boxy television are the first clues that were back in time; the fashion and haircuts dont shout at us, but a preppie from out of town poses himself against the hood of his (dads) Mustang convertible in a way that feels like hes trying to cosplay Risky Business. The lighting is soft and sweet like a memory, and the horny teen hot spot relocates from the hot dog stand to the fairgrounds when the sun goes down.

The boys hang out on the boardwalk and gawk at the girls who walk by. Alan isnt as level-headed as his younger brother, but hes got a good head on his shoulders. Red is the pistol-packing id of the group, though his violent streak isnt well-shaded enough for him to become a convincing villain. Smitty is somewhere in the middle, a Spanish-speaking immigrant who fell in with the biggest outsiders he could find. It would all feel like a Bruce Springsteen song if Alan believed in that stuff (Miracles dont happen in New Jersey, he teaches Peter), especially once he starts making eyes at Mary (Kristine Froseth), a golden-haired Connecticut girl whos on her way to college. The writing is never as rich as when Peter suddenly becomes when he stumbles upon that loot the circumstances behind that discovery are too simple to seem real, and too complicated to sustain much interest but you understand where these kids are in their lives. And how fast it could all change on them.

Peter becomes the protagonist once he strikes it rich, and Martell (so good as a wannabe Ben Shapiro in Knives Out) perfectly manages to evoke the trembling insecurity of a little kid on the precipice of a big moment. He only tells Alan about the gold, but Alan who buys himself a sweet car effectively tells everyone else. Everything falls apart from there, only some of it by design.

McMullin, so eager to carve out a spare thriller that he leaves a ton of meat on the table, eats up the middle of the movie by focusing on the logistics of it all instead of the emotional machinations behind them. The second act drifts somewhat aimlessly between the inciting discovery and the inevitable fight to keep it safe, as Alans posse grows suspicious and everyone turns against each other. Sergeant Kent isnt given the time to emerge as a proper father figure in a town full of absent men, Alans crush on Mary doesnt go much deeper than a rainy makeout session in the backseat of his car, and the dynamic between Red, Smitty, and the rest is never developed beyond the mistrust that was always growing like a weed around its roots.

These boys have been raised to believe that no one in this life would ever give them anything, and so they feel as if they have no choice but to take it for themselves. They have a code (no stealing from locals), but the desperation thats lurking just under the surface is laid bare during low tide. A very promising debut thats lensed with confidence even when it lacks a more cohesive vision, the film may not quite hold together as a crime story, but McMullin a New Jersey native is better at tracing his own emotional turmoil than he is at following in John Hustons footsteps. If Low Tide recedes all too fast, it still leaves behind a clear sense that life doesnt always happen on schedule, and that the hardest part of growing up is figuring out what to share with people along the way.

Low Tide is now available on DirecTV Cinema. A24 will release it inselect theaters on Friday, October 4.

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Low Tide Review: The Goonies Meets The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in Sharp Coming-of-Age Thriller - IndieWire

Michael Mobbs has triggered an important conversation by coming out as a climate survivalist. He expects societal collapse a total breakdown within the next three to five years, so hes selling his ground-breaking and beautiful off-grid sustainable home in Chippendale and planning to move to the New South Wales South Coast.

Mobbs has contributed an enormous amount over many years, but this latest intervention is deeply problematic. It is wrong in fact and wrong in approach, and could contribute to making an already bad situation worse.

While climate breakdown is well under way, and societal collapse is a very real possibility within my lifetime if not necessarily his, there is no serious projection to justify a timeframe as short as three to five years for total breakdown. And the approach of running for the hills (or the coast) is neither sensible nor helpful. It only makes societal collapse more likely, by curtailing action and dividing the community even further. And, in that scenario, it wont even help you survive.

Far be it from me to criticise Mobbs personal choice here. His exhaustion and lack of hope is completely understandable. He has been actively working for solutions to ecological destruction for decades, leading whole communities towards action, while being ignored by the vast majority.

Some of the responses to his declaration, suggesting his approach has been an individualist one ignoring the need for collective action, are ignorant of his work. Mobbs has been working for collective action, using his own personal action as an inspiring example to support others to follow suit and work together for systemic change, as all effective collective organising does. In this way, he has driven vital shifts in building regulations, and more important shifts in understandings of how we humans can and should live as part of the natural world rather than trying to separate ourselves from it. Ecological thinking teaches us that all collective action is made up of interwoven and interlinked individual action. As Greta Thunberg says: We need system change rather than individual change, but you cant have one without the other.

Which brings us to why talking of literally burning bridges is not helpful.

If were to survive in the far-less-hospitable world that two centuries of institutionalised greed, selfishness and short-sightedness have bequeathed us, it will only be together. It will only be by using the coming years to cultivate resilient, cohesive, cooperative, equitable communities, embedded in the natural world.

Thats why, while Mobbs is of course entitled to choose to retire with our thanks for what hes achieved, the criticism of his public declaration of survivalism as embedded in a culture of white supremacy and the right of wealth is also entirely legitimate.

Survivalist retreat shuts off the possibility of action. It assumes that there is no longer any chance of preventing catastrophe, that there is nothing left to be done, that no action to reduce our impact will have any effect. While the scientists whose research I read and who I speak to are increasingly desperate, none condone this view. All argue that, even if we were to pull out all stops now and drive the fastest and largest transition in human history, we will still face severe impacts for generations to come. We will almost certainly lose all corals, including the Great Barrier Reef, for example. Fires and storms and droughts will continue to get more intense and frequent. Make no mistake, things will be bad. But, if we act fast, it doesnt have to mean extinction. The worst thing to do right now would be to cut off that option and give in to those who want to keep milking profits out of the destruction of our only home. That only makes it less likely that any of us will survive.

Retreat, of course, by definition, is only available to a select few. This is why the focus of the responses to Mobbs declaration from the left, in particular Amy Grays searing critique, attack it as inequitable and racist. My addendum is that just as survivalism makes extinction more likely by cutting off the option of action, dividing our society even further makes societal collapse even more likely. This would be the worst outcome of all.

At this point in history, now that we have locked in ecological disruption on a scale our species has never known, we must learn the lessons of ecology. And the number one lesson is that resilience is the key. Resilience, not dominance, is the real strength, especially in hard times. And the secret to resilience is connected diversity, cohesion, cooperative coexistence.

That means that in many ways our most important task right now is to build social cohesion while learning to live within natural limits. Luckily, there are ways of making sure that the two go hand in hand. Whether its urban community agriculture or local sharing and repair groups; whether its models of participatory democracy like Voices for Indi or community renewable energy cooperatives; whether its stripping corporations of the rights of legal personhood unless they properly respect social and environmental norms, supporting worker- and user-owned cooperatives to compete with them, or prioritising the long-term interests of traditional owners and workers over the profits of fossil fuel corporations; all these point the way towards holding off the worst ecological impacts of climate disruption while building the resilience to avoid the societal collapse it could trigger.

If, at this moment, we turn even more against each other, we have no future. The strongest will survive for a while. Then they, too, will be lost.

In reality, Michael Mobbs solution of urban living in harmony with the natural world, brought together with deep democracy and cultivating social cohesion, is the only path to survival.

Tim Hollo is executive director of the Green Institute

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As the climate collapses, we can either stand together or perish alone - The Guardian

Trapped in the R.A.W., A Journal of My Experiences during the Great Invasion by Kaylee Bearovna, Kate Boyes (Aqueduct 978-1-61976-159-9, $20.00, 312pp, tp) July 2019.

Every once in a while, a novel seems to drop in from out of nowhere, with little to go on but a promo letter and in the case at hand the reputation of the publisher. Aqueduct Press has earned a reputation not only for promoting feminist speculative work, but for discovering distinctive new voices. Sarah Tolmie (The Little Animals) and Isaac R. Fellman (The Breath of the Sun) are are two fairly recent examples. So its not too surprising that Id never heard of Kate Boyes, whose biographical note in her first novel Trapped in the R.A.W. tells us that shes a playwright and writer of travel and nature essays, but mentions no prior published fiction at all. This is surprising, because, despite an unpromising title (the full iteration of which is Trapped in the R.A.W., A Journal of My Experiences during the Great Invasion by Kaylee Bearovna, With an Afterword by Pearl Larken and Appendices Compiled by the We Survived Series Group), the novel demonstrates a impressively assured voice, an ingenious, casebook-like structure in which the journal of the title is supplemented by several appendices written years later, and an equally creative use of illustrative material, drawn mostly from 19th-century books and the illustrations of Walter Crane. All of this creates the initial impression that this might be a sort of alternate-history period piece, like the variations on Wellss The War of the Worlds that have appeared more often than necessary, but in fact its a near-future alien invasion tale set mostly in a university special collections library and told mostly in the form of the journal of Kaylee Bearovna, who barricades herself inside during the first couple of months of an inexplicable invasion that nearly wipes out the global population. The R.A.W. of the title comes from the librarians nickname for the collection rare and wonderful.

Alien invasion apocalyptic dystopias, of which there are many, tend to align along a spectrum, with brutalist survivalism at one end (think of Cormac McCarthys The Road) and elegiac humanism at the other (one of the best examples remains George R. Stewarts Earth Abides). Boyes lands firmly in the latter camp, not only celebrating the value of libraries and the preservation of culture, but also focusing far more on character than spectacle. Kaylee hasnt had a particularly easy life she was horribly betrayed and abused by a professor some years earlier, and has lost touch with her beloved daughter but her quick-thinking response to the sudden invasion marks her as a classically competent SF hero. When she hears the screams of the dying and sees hundreds of odd figures in faceless brown outfits slaughtering people with a single touch, she barricades herself in the library and immediately begins sorting the details of her survival, from securing food and water, to such mundane details as toilet paper (which creates an almost comical dilemma in a rare-books library). Her journal makes for compelling reading, detailing her failure to save another survivor who makes it to the library door and eventually describing her tentative relationship with one of the invaders, whom she comes to call the Tall Man. When she decides to leave the library, she leaves the journal behind.

This leads to Boyess neatest touch: the journal is discovered decades later by an expeditionary team, resulting in a series of documents, mostly trying to discover what happened to Kaylee. Our new narrators include the editor of the published version of the journal, the leader of the expeditionary team, a contemporary friend of Kaylees who also survived, an academic cultural historian, and an anthropologist who presents interviews with other survivors who might have known Kaylee or her family. Boyes doesnt always fully differentiate these voices (several sound a lot like Kaylees original journal), but the effect is unarguably moving, as we watch Kaylee transformed from a desperate and lonely figure into a kind of librarian legend, whose story only becomes richer as we piece it together from these later documents. There are plenty of unanswered or inadequately answered questions about the invasion itself, the aliens, and their own motives and social structures (though Boyes does think up an ingenious explanation as to how they could mate with humans), but thats not really the point of a novel such as this. In a few pages you can wipe out most of a civilization with disease, war, alien invasion, or natural catastrophe, but it takes a deeply humane novel to convince us that continuity and community can be built from the ashes.

Gary K. Wolfe is Emeritus Professor of Humanities at Roosevelt University and a reviewer for Locus magazine since 1991. His reviews have been collected in Soundings (BSFA Award 2006; Hugo nominee), Bearings (Hugo nominee 2011), and Sightings (2011), and his Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature (Wesleyan) received the Locus Award in 2012. Earlier books include The Known and the Unknown: The Iconography of Science Fiction (Eaton Award, 1981), Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever (with Ellen Weil, 2002), and David Lindsay (1982). For the Library of America, he edited American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s in 2012, with a similar set for the 1960s forthcoming. He has received the Pilgrim Award from the Science Fiction Research Association, the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, and a Special World Fantasy Award for criticism. His 24-lecture series How Great Science Fiction Works appeared from The Great Courses in 2016. He has received six Hugo nominations, two for his reviews collections and four for The Coode Street Podcast, which he has co-hosted with Jonathan Strahan for more than 300 episodes. He lives in Chicago.

This review and more like it in theJuly 2019 issue of Locus.

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Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Trapped in the R.A.W., A Journal of My Experiences during the Great Invasion by Kaylee Bearovna by Kate Boyes - Locus Online