Category Archives: Transhuman News

Developer Voidpoint, LLC and publisher 3D Realms took to Twitter to tease that their well-received previously released retro-inspired action title Ion Fury will be releasing on Nintendo Switch. When asked in follow up tweets, they also confirmed the title will make its way to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. They did not state a release date, but the month of May has been floated around from various locations. Ion Fury previously released back in August of 2019 on PC via Steam.

If youre unfamiliar with Ion Fury, it follows Shelly Bombshell Harrison, who has earned the code name for being able to defuse bombs for the Global Defense Force. When an evil transhumanist mastermind by the name of Dr. Jadus Heskel decides to unleash the members of his cybernetic cult onto the streets of Neo DC, Shelly decides its time to start causing explosions, instead of preventing them. Shellys quest will lead players down a path full of carnage, gigantic explosions, levels with multiple pathways, tons of secrets to discover, and inhuman enemies set to stop your path. Players will find that there is no regenerative health, and will instead need to utilize cover and run and gun methods to defeat enemies. Other features are as follows:

Are you excited for Ion Fury coming to more platforms? Will you be picking it up? For those whove played it on PC, would you recommend it? For other indie titles to keep an eye on, make sure to check out VirtuaVerse, Shop Titans, and Jet Lancer. To stay up to date on Ion Fury, make sure to follow the developers on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and their official website.

Read more here:
'Ion Fury' Coming to Consoles - Exclusively Games

Make It Scream, Make It Burn, Leslie Jamison

Leslie Jamison knows how to write a good personal essay because she doesn't assume you want to read about her personally. This was true in her first collection, Empathy Exams, and it is true in her second, Make It Scream, Make It Burn, which pieces together the things that interest Jamison most. In "Sim Life," Jamison examines our e-companions, those virtual characters we find ourselves strangely invested in. In "The Quickening," she reflects on the anxieties of pregnancy, at times addressing her unborn daughter directly, drawing the reader into the most private spaces of pre-parenthood. Each essay is an exercise in thoughtful restraint, never allowing itself to be confused for the work of a diarist.

Black Is the Body, Emily Bernard

On its most superficial level, Black Is the Body is a collection about storytelling within the familyas Bernard lays out in the subtitle, these are 12 stories from her grandmother's time, her mother's time, and her own. Beneath that, Black Is the Body is an expertly crafted collection about blackness in America, as only Bernard has lived it. One essay, "Interstates," documents the time when Bernard, her parents, and her white fianc pulled over to change a flat tire, exposing the family to every prejudice that may pass them on the highway. Other stories examine the relationship between white and black life in the American South, two experiences "ensnared in the same historical drama."

Interior States, Meghan OGieblyn

There are some writers who leave the worlds of devout religionworlds that are at once large, and impossibly smalland spare no second thoughts, rejecting both the baby and the bathwater. Meghan O'Gieblyn's debut collection leaves no thoughts behind, turning to her upbringing of conservative evangelicalism for a series of essays offering razor-sharp cultural criticism on the state of American life. "Ghost in the Cloud," a particular strong point, sews together the parallel theologies of transhumanism (technology that works to avoid death) and Christian millennialism (salvation that works to avoid death). O'Gieblyn is unapologetic in her takes, producing wholly original commentary slated for these times.

Human Relations and Other Difficulties, Mary-Kay Wilmers

Mary-Kay Wilmers, one of the founders of the London Review of Books and its sole editor since 1979, has a lot to say about writing, and women, and the ways women write for themselves and for men. Human Relations and Other Difficulties is the product of a veteran career in book reviewing, and it showsthe essays are clever, frank and delightfully readable. Some provide the literary commentary that Wilmer is known foron Joan Didion, Alice James and Jean Rhyswhile others turn inward, looking to Wilmer's own life as a child and a parent. "There's nothing magical about a mother's relationship with her baby," Wilmer writes of early motherhood. "Like most others, it takes two to get it going."

If there were ever a time to renew your love for the natural world, as the late poet Mary Oliver did throughout her career, it's now. Upstream, a collection of essays published three years before Oliver's death, is the author in her purest formreflecting on the beauty of codfish, grass, and seagulls on the beach. Life, as she writes about it, is precious in all things, without ever dipping into sentimentality. Oliver's meditation on her literary counterparts, including Walt Whitman, a childhood "friend," gives rare insight into the making of the poet, while other essays invite the reader to observe the outdoors with new eyes.

See the original post here:
Five Essay Collections to Read in Quarantine - Willamette Week

When an artist as monumental as Prince passes away, he leaves a gaping hole in the landscape of popular music that is not easily filled. As we reach the four-year anniversary of the artist's passing, his influence is still as present as ever.

Houstons downtown venue Lucilles holds a yearly tribute to Prince and Antonio Eyez is a natural fit for the event. Eyez was the main attraction for this year's online event and he did Prince good, as he always does, in addition to performing some of his powerful original songs.

He will also be performing an online concert at R&R studios on Thursday, April 30 at 9 p.m., as part of a socially distant concert series that the studio has been putting out. The studio is the ideal setting to keep artists at safe distances while providing quality sound and streaming capabilities on multiple platforms.

Eyez is accustomed to the Prince comparisons and was even tapped by Morris Hayes himself, Princes longtime keyboardist and musical director. Eyez reached out to Hayes in the simplest way, through Facebook, and didnt really expect to gain any traction from their interactions.

When Hayes held an event for his World Symphony for Peace organization here in Houston, he asked Antonio Eyez to participate. More than anything, he was just surprised I think, says Eyez of the impression he made on Hayes that night.

It was like, We get a lot of people who do Prince, but not make it their own, he was surprised and intrigued by that. It was really cool to experience him as a musician and an artist himself, says Eyez.

Hayes even recently gave a shout out to Eyez while discussing his work and friendship with Prince via Facebook on the anniversary of the singers death.

Eyez was raised in a musical family here in Houston and has played guitar from a young age. His mother, father and grandfather surrounded him with music and were active in gospel quartet groups. Eyez describes it as, Its kind of like if you hear D'angelo mixed with some church, you're going to get quartet, he chuckles.

The multi-instrumentalist and singer embodies the future and breaks down prefabricated rules of genres and gender. Anyone who caught his electrifying set at this year's BowiElvis Fest can testify that he is one part Jimi Hendrix, another part Prince and a perfect fit for Bowie but mostly, hes just himself.

Even at an event as diverse as BowieElvis, Eyez stood out musically and visually with his performance. He donned a fishnet mask, large gold earrings and blew the roof off of the small and packed Big Top lounge that night.

"To be honest, I just want to be able to have a clear message of truth and bringing back real musicianship. I really want to bring that truth to musicianship and artistry back to the stage and also being in fashion, having to look like what you sound like," says Eyez of his approach to performing live.

Its all in there you know, says Eyez of his influences. I think that comes from a lot of studying for sure. I studied D'angelo, Prince, George Clinton, Sly Stone, a whole bunch of other people. I try to get a good combination of all of those elements and make it my own.

Eyez has had the opportunity to work as a touring band member for many artists, including CJ Chenier, son of the King of Zydeco Clifton Chenier. When asked what lessons he has taken from being a backing member to fronting his own band, Eyez says wisely, the importance of the longevity of the music as opposed to just getting in, getting a buck and leaving.

This year Eyez released his solo album, The Second Coming on his own record label, Spacewar Music. The Second Coming sonically is a funky trip to outer space with Eyez maintaining both feet grounded lyrically, tapping into basic human emotions and the common experience of mankind.

Songs like Transhuman show off Eyez vocal abilities and his unique knack for being understated yet powerful.

It's pretty rough right now for a lot of people, says Eyez. Thats why we wanted to write songs like Transhuman, because there's all kinds of people on this world that are looking for something and ultimately they're looking for themselves and where they fit in this world. I think that's something that needs to be spoken about at this particular time.

The Second Coming is rooted in funk but has strong elements of rock sprinkled throughout the album. "Aquarius Rage" takes Eyez down a darker road, with its heavy bass lines sounding off as a warning to the listener of the impending rage they are about the experience.

Eyez admits that people in his personal life often mistake the angry track to be directed at them, but in reality it was his response to being told repeatedly that his music didn't fit neatly enough into any category to be played on the radio stations he approached.

"Right now things are changing in the way where the old system is not going to be the same once things get back to normal because people are finding different ways to get heard and there's not going to be a need for the old radio formula," says Eyez.

Eyez recorded the album in the most futuristic yet simplest way possible, on his iPhone. He described how he used accessible technology to achieve the interplanetary sounds he was seeking, without stepping into a studio.

The artist has been hustling in the way Houston is known for, putting out new songs and videos during this time in quarantine. Though he, like all artists, had his gigs canceled due to COVID-19, he's not letting that stop him from putting out content any way he can.

The good thing about right now is that people are listening and they are able to use platforms to push it and get people more interested.

For his online concert at R&R Studios, Eyez assures he will have all the bells and whistles and will take advantage of the space he is being provided with to help Houston get out of its collective funk with some good funk, seeing this as an opportunity to reach new audiences.

The online concert will be streamed live through the R&R Studio YouTube page, Facebook page, Twitch and Instagram as well on Antonio Eyez own social media accounts.

Gladys Fuentes is a first generation Houstonian whose obsession with music began with being glued to KLDE oldies on the radio as a young girl. She is a freelance music writer for the Houston Press, contributing articles since early 2017.

Read the original post:
Things To Do: Antonio Eyez Will Perform At R&R Studios April 30 - Houston Press

OISTE.ORG Foundation endorses preserving the human right to privacy statement during the Covid-19 pandemic signed by a group of more than 300 academics and experts on the human right to privacy

Geneva, 23 April 2020 - OISTE.ORG, a Swiss based foundation with special consultative status with ECOSOC and a recognized member of the not-for-profit constituency of ICANN endorses the views expressed in the Joint Statement on Contact Tracing dated April 19, 2020 and signed by a group of more than 300 academics and experts on the human right to privacy.

Governments worldwide have declared or will soon declare national states of emergency to face the Covid-19 threat. Under a state of emergency, governments are legally entitled to dictate measures of exception that would not be accepted or tolerated under normal circumstances. States of emergency are used as a rationale for suspending constitutional rights and freedoms because there is a higher public good that makes it justifiable. Nevertheless, experts sound a warning alarm: there is a high risk that governments will overstep and impede rights and freedoms in response to Covid-19. At the present critical juncture, some of the contact tracing applications that are being proposed may override the privacy-protection clauses of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The debate about contact tracing using modern digital technologies and the respect of the fundamental human right to privacy is one example of the need to be vigilant of the breaking point where exceptional measures can do more wrong than good. The liberal state has the same obligation to ensure the health and the well-being of its citizens as to guarantee that State surveillance of the individual does not become the norm. There is no doubt that digital technologies have a role to play on the lockdown ease, but not at any price.

Recently, a number of European institutions launched the Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing: https://www.pepp-pt.org/ with the objective of interrupting new chains of SARS-CoV-2 transmission by informing potentially exposed people using their Bluetooth devices, though very quickly the two main Swiss technological universities, the EPFZ and the EPFL withdrew their support to the initiative since it is privacy intrusive. That is why the Joint Statement makes the following recommendations:

The authors of the Joint Statement point the following privacy-protecting initiatives as examples of good practice: DP-3T : https://github.com/DP-3T,TCN Coalition : https://tcn-coalition.org/, PACT (MIT) : https://pact.mit.edu/, PACT (UW) : https://covidsafe.cs.washington.edu/

Carlos Moreira, Secretary General of the OISTE Foundation and co-author of the bestselling book The Transhuman Code noted: The digital universe has to be infused by ethical principles. The human right to privacy has to be protected and respected at all times, even during the present pandemic. Applications that permit contact tracing and respect the human right to privacy are being developed.

The OISTE Foundation signed The International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance right after they were launched at the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2013. OISTE invites other organizations to join: https://necessaryandproportionate.org/

About OISTE FOUNDATIONFounded in Switzerland in 1998, OISTE was created with the objectives of promoting the use and adoption of international standards to secure electronic transactions, expand the use of digital certification and ensure the interoperability of certification authorities e-transaction systems. The OISTE Foundation is a not for profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, regulated by article 80 et seq. of the Swiss Civil Code. OISTE is an organization in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) and belongs to the Not-for-Profit constituency (NPOC) of the ICANN.

Company Contact:Dourgam KummerFoundation Council Memberdourgam.kummer@oiste.org

Read the original:
OISTE.ORG Foundation endorses preserving the human right to privacy statement during the Covid-19 pandemic signed by a group of more than 300...