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The rehabilitation treatment of patients with psychosis of the residential structure of the mental health operative unit of Torre Annunziata
Asl Napoli 3 sud: a path of emotional literacy
Perfetto Viviana, Alfano Vincenza
Pub.Info
Perfetto Viviana
Alfano Vincenza
Submission Date: 2020-11-05
Pubblication Date: 2020-12-03
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36017/jahc2012-001
The recognition of emotions in others and in oneself is a delicate argument to confront four psychiatrists because often it refers to an ability to compromise And is the source of many difficulties. We define emotion as the subjective component of an affective sensation that goes together with and individual's conduct. While in the past and in pre science psychology, emotion was considered a disordered factor in the behavior of rational man, Darwin introduced a significant and revolutionary opposing opinion: emotions are an evolutionary mechanism that aids in the survival of a species that effects an individual in their environment.
The traditional definition of emotional categories often refers to primary or basic emotions: fear, anger, happiness, sadness surprise or disgust. These emotions can often be traced to the original response characteristics.
In the opinion of Eckman (1992), these emotions are innate and universal, characterized by a pattern of specific physiological activation. They are established quickly, and have an automatic mechanism to evaluate stimuli.
Social and emotional withdrawal is a component commonly found in schizophrenia and depression as a manifestation of affective dulling. An affective dulling and loss of logical connections are also in the same vicinity as the construct of alexithymia, the difficulty in identifying and communicating feelings, the problems in distinguishing between feelings and somatic sensations of emotional activation, an impoverished and restricted imaginative life, and a style of concrete and reality-oriented thinking. Alexithymia is considered a very important feature of affective dysregulation disorders, a prerequisite for the development of negative symptoms.
The initial idea of a path to emotional literacy with residential hospital patients was born after evidence emerged of a marked difficulty to recognize and express emotions by patients with psychotic psychiatric pathologies. The professional team, made up of a psychiatrist, a psychologist and a psychiatric rehabilitation technician often met to compare notes on the need for an intervention that could be useful in counteracting the alexithymia that characterizes many guests and that can have an important impact on interpersonal relationships. The underlined objective is to evaluate, using the appropriate tools, the impact of a path of emotional literacy could have on these patients. The first element to be pursued is maintaining commitments made by consistently participating in meetings. The path considers development one of the biggest emotional competencies, and the acquisition of generalized abilities for everyday life and in relationships with family and friends.
The proposed work, lasting a year, consists of a weekly path with the structure's residents, and is assessed at T0 and T1 using the TAS-20 (Toronto Alexitimia Scale) and ESCQ-45 (Emotional Skills & Competence Questionnaire). The topics covered range from the recognition of emotions based on facial expressions to the description and sharing of fears and desires, passing through the recognition of the parts of the body involved in an emotion; very important for these patients were the meetings dedicated to anger management and awareness of their own personal way of reacting to it.
Description of the sample of patients involved
The chosen sample for the path of emotional literacy consists of 10 users, of which 7 are men and 3 are woman, homogenous in that they are all residents, and of the diagnosed pathology (psychosis), albeit with different types of comorbidities. Table 1.1 illustrates the main characteristics of the sample involved.
Initials Age Gender Schooling Marital Status Years of Illness
A.N. 49 M 8 years unmarried 15
C.L. 49 M 8 years unmarried 28
C.M. 42 M 13 years unmarried 24
I.G. 60 M 13 years unmarried 29
M.A. 53 F 8 years married 20
M.D. 50 M 8 years unmarried 27
M.J. 61 F 11 years separated 23
P.G. 47 M 13 years unmarried 17
V.A. 51 M 8 years umarried 15
V.G. 51 F 10 years Separated 21
Tab. 1.1 – Description of the sample patients involved
The entire central team worked together to choose these patients for the emotional literacy study. The selection criteria took into consideration each patient's psychopathological compensation condition and their difficulty in recognizing and managing emotions, and as a result of this the patient's need of a path that addresses these issues. In addition to this, the ability to support this work from start to finish without suspensions and or a necessity to exit the project was also taken into consideration. Each patient deemed as a suitable recipient of the proposed work was then informed about the start of the path, the topics that would be covered, the timing and purpose of the project, and gave his or her consent to take part to his or her healthcare professional.
Analytical Evaluation Scale
The analytical evolution scale used to monitor the results of the emotional literacy study, which were administers at the beginning and end of this work, were the T.A.S. – 20 [1] (Toronto Alexitimia Scale – 20 Item) and the ESCQ – 45 [2] (Emotional Skills & Competence Questionnaire – 45 Item).
The questionnaires were individually administered and filled out by the involved patients, but some requires help to fully understand some parts. All of the participants gave answers consistent with what was then demonstrated by them during the course they took, and expressed the difficulty they felt in recognizing and verbalizing their own and others' emotions with varying intensity.
The Structure of the Eotional Literacy Intervention
The emotional literacy course, which participants attended weekly in a space dedicated to rehabilitation groups from S.I.R. who hosted the participants, was created by a team that believed in the idea of gradual progress. The topics covered and the tasks assigned were of increasing difficulty, starting from the definition of emotions necessary to be able to manage themselves and interpersonal relationships. The entire project lasted one year, and all the patients followed the project one meeting at a time with view absences and with growing interest as time passed, motivated by the possibility of using the new skills gained in everyday life. There were several moments where it was necessary to remind and encourage participants of their goals to keep the group homogeneous and avoid that temporary moments of personal crisis that could affect participation in the group and affect the continuity of the work carried out, but these moments overall had a positive effect and the group remained united from the beginning to the end of the proposed work. In the course of this year each participant continued to follow other project associated with S.I.R. and maintained individual psychological and psychiatric appointments, where it was possible to assist, monitor and support the emotional literacy project.
At the beginning of each meeting each participant was asked to fill out the following form to reflect on their current emotions and to verify that patients were more aware of their own emotions, and that adequate recognition of those emotions was gradually being acquired.
Fig. 1.1 – "Today I feel…because…"
After filling out the sheet, each participant could choose to share their work with the group, and in so opening themselves up to the group, or to send them to the project operators without comment. This was also used as a way to note gradual changes in participants.
Emotional Recognition
After the first one on one meeting and administration of analytical evaluation scale, the course began with the identification of 6 primary emotions in order of complexity: happiness, sadness, dear, surprise, anger and disgust. Each of these emotions was described using facial images that express that emotion and the underline the physical characteristics of these emotions (open or closed lips, corners of the eyes turned up or down, eyebrows arched or raised etc..); below each face depicting the emotion the interventions of the patients were reported regarding:
what do I feel when I feel this emotion
on what occasion do I feel this emotion
when I feel this way
The 6 primary emotions along with the participants comments are used in the following sheets, filled out by each participant as a way to report all the interventions, and then place them on a notice board for illustrative purposes; each participant, on the other hand, had a personal form where they could record their own responses. The sheets of each participant were then collected in a personal file, which later would attest to the progress and reactions of each participant in a clear and intuitive way. This first work was completed over an arch of meetings for each emotion described, each of them lasting about 60 minutes. Only the appropriate responses for identifying emotions were reported in the general form, but it should be emphasized that not all interventions were congruous and that often a description of a state of mind or an experience did not match with the emotion under examination, demonstrating the initial confusion experienced by patients. The attempt put in place was therefore to bring order, reporting on the form the contributions deemed appropriate and at the end illustrating the result of the joint work: the description of the emotion and self-reflection on the personal moments their were the protagonist of.
Sadness and fear were the emotions that evoked the most immediate and numerous responses, some of them with disarming clarity; with other emotions, like disgust and surprise, the group experienced more difficulty and required a clearer guide. On the whole, useful schemes were obtained for framing each specific emotion, which were also subsequently used to quickly review the notions learned and to add adequate content as the participants' awareness of their emotions was increasing.
The results obtained are shown below.
Fig. 1.2 – Happiness
Fig. 1.3 – Sadness
Fig. 1.4 – Fear
Fig. 1.5 – Surprise
Fig. 1.6 – Anger
Fig. 1.7 – Disgust
We then worked by showing patients different faces and asking them to identify the emotion depicted so they could memorize each characteristic and expression. Other forms instead asked for emotions elicited by certain sentences; in this phase the participants worked on the sentences over several different meetings, using a profile of each of the 6 fundamental emotions. Form 1.8 is an example of this.
Particular attention was paid to the sentences referring to contexts that allowed the manifestation of multiple emotions at the same time (eg "I fought with my brother" ➜ anger / sadness), talking about them at length and underlining how it would be possible to use more than one emotion while handling a similar situation. The theme of emotional ambivalence was also introduced in this phase, and with this how it could happen that people might have contrasting emotions in the same situation, which was particularly hard for the participants. While the coexistence of two emotions at the same time, like anger and sadness or joy and wonder, was easy for participants to accept, not all participants were ready to accept the complexity of ambivalent emotions, which generally evoked amazement and disbelief. It was therefore decided to proceed step by step and return to the topic later.
Fig. 1.8 – Indicate the corresponding emotions given the circumstances
Three meetings were dedicated to anger, to it's definition and how to handle it, as was necessary as it was strongly felt in all the participants. Given this emotion was so complex and difficult to manage for the participants , these meetings also took place in the presence of the Service psychologist.
After quickly repeating the expressions that characterize an angry face and speaking about what situations can result from this emotion, the participants were asked to remember particular moment in which they had been overcome by this emotion. They were able to think of an instance of anger with little difficulty, and sometimes felt the emotion resurface as they explained the situation to the group. This created the opportunity to for them to describe their personal reactions to anger which was different for each of them, and an opportunity to think of way to better confront similar situation. Form 1.9 was proposed to identify emotions and mental states that hide behind anger which trigger and angry reaction.
In this way it was possible to identify two contrasting behaviors in response to anger, described by patients in a clear way: an explosive reaction, expressed by fights, a short temper and breaking things, and a submissive reaction, characterized by closed oneself off, isolation and silence. From the description of these two reactions to anger, a rich discussion was born that went beyond simple handling of anger. It was difficult to make participants understand that there was another way to reaction besides their usual reactions, and most of all it was difficult to make the patients with "explosive" reactions understand the "submissive" reactions and vice versa, which was in line with definition of "anger" even if they don't share common characteristics.
From that point an alternative way to handle angry reactions was searched for, leading to a middle road between the two types of anger, which were divided into the following steps:
I try to calm down;
I speak to the person who made me angry;
I explain what made me angry and how this action made me feel;
I listen to his point of view and, if possible, try to clarify it; if not, I go away.
As result a conversation begun about each participants preferred way to calm down: listening to music, taking a walk, resting or speaking to someone about what had happened. Each of them expressed their personal preferences along with their personal difficulties, drawing inspiration from the suggestions introduced by others.
The implementation of the modeling by the psychiatric rehabilitation technician and the psychologist, and the role play by a couple of patients who self-applied to the experience, was very important in depicting the steps proposed above. This allowed the group to elaborate their own experiences regarding the meetings dedicated to anger management, and at the same time created a playful atmosphere that soothed the moods that the previous discussion had rekindled.
Each meeting regarding anger lasted about 90 minutes given that wealth of ideas expressed and the conversations and debates that grew from it. The entire group of participants were more involved and engaged, and reacted well to the proposed stimuli.
Fig 1.9 – The Anger Iceberg
Fig. 1.10 – Conflict and Me
Emotional Nuances
After having described and recognized the base emotions, the moment had arrived to broaden viewpoints by exploring the horizon of the infinite emotional nuances that define the moods that everyone experience. In the same scope, each participant was asked to complete a form about the most common secondary emotions. The participants were asked to associate each secondary emotion with a situation or event, as they had done for the original 6 emotions.
Fig. 1.11 includes some secondary emotions with participant's relative responses regarding each of them. The idea was inspired by the theme of contrasting emotions that can coexist in the same person or the same situation; each participant was asked to color a heart, filling it with different colors to represent different emotions to depict the emotions that characterized their mood at that precise moment. Fig. 1.12 shows M.d's exemplary results., who was one of the patients who had shown more difficulty in understanding the coexistence of conflicting emotions.
Other forms and exercises required participants to place secondary emotions in the right categories, recognizing the macro-areas they belong to and stimulating the identification of numerous nuances of daily experience.
Form 1.11 – Nuances emotions
Fig. 1.12 – The heart of emotions, M.D.
Physical monitoring of emotions
Every emotions, be it positive or negative, has a personal physical positioning; you belly or the knees can avert us to fear, just as sadness can involve the heart or the head. The work carried out in order to stimulate self-observation and recognition in the body part most affected by each emotion was very engaging for the group, who felt free and listened to their body in each way. Here there was no wrong answer, as the physical perception of emotions is subjective and extremely variable between people; the participants took part in this group with total autonomy. To express the physical aspect of emotions, an activity was created that involved cutting out, pasting and placing the chosen emotions along a large outline of the human body. Each participant took their own outline representing themselves, and cut out from numerous cards with the names of the emotions most felt in that moment; each name was then glued to the area of the body where the patient believed to have felt that emotion.
Physical monitoring of emotions created an occasion to, in a playful and dynamic way, pass time dedicated to self-observation and reasoning. From the outside, it was good to see the patients touching their heads, bellies, to see them put their hands on their hearts and close their eyes, as a way to show their understood that they would find the emotion right there. Patient feedback on the proposed exercise was positive, and was confirmed by the precision with which most of the templates were "filled in ".
In some cases, the participants asked for clarification about the meaning of certain terms, but never tried to "copy" the placement of the cards on the template from one another. Once the task was completed, the comparison regarding the results obtained was complete and not without food for thought both for participants and for us operators.
Fig. 1.13 shows the outline built by C.M., in which the choice of exclusively negative emotions and the placement of the word "angry" on the foot stands out; M. was one of the patients who showed, in fact, an "explosive" reaction to anger while working on conflict management.
Fig. 1.13 – Physical monitoring of emotions, C.M.
Anxious stimuli
A meeting was dedicated to reflection on the situations that represent the main sources of anxiety for many patients in the group, the most common comorbidity among the participants. Anxiety often leads to avoidance, implemented by many patients in a massive and generalized way, as can be seen in form 1.14, compiled by P.G. It strongly represents his state of being and the isolation that this condition induced in him. The form requires participants to assign a number from 1 to 10 to the various situations or places proposed, where number 10 is representative of the situation most avoided and the number 1, least feared.
By filling out this form, apparently simple and easy to understand, rich discussion between the patients involved was stimulated, which allowed the opportunity to address ideas not previously addressed within the group. Some were surprised by the answers given by fellow participants, trying to convince the others that they shouldn't fear certain situations; others felt relief in confronting the group about their problems, as if this could be a way to warn the other about situations in which they would not want to be involved.
The purpose of the meeting was certainly not to solve the problems presented, but rather to stimulate the group's participants to open up to the other, to share and confront each other.
Fig. 1.14 Anxious stimuli
Another noteworthy meeting dedicated to fears and the strategies implemented to deal with them. Here too, the discussion was rich and stimulating, where an ever greater openness on the part of patients as palpable as the path of emotional literacy progressed.
Introduced by form 1.15, which depicted some of the most common fears with their most tangible solutions, the topic was then addressed by each participant in the group individually, drawing their fear and writing something about it. The discussion expanded with the personal contribution of each participant about the moments in which the fear in question was experienced, and the ways to cope without reaching a personal limit. The origins of each fear and how they arose was also discussed.
Fig. 1.16 represents the work carried out by I.G. .
Patients had revealed themselves to be, at this stage of the journey, already more mature and aware of their moods; confrontations were more fluid, uncertainty and confusion were less, and all were now dedicated to the proposed work with greater willingness. The commitment made during the journey is evident and we noticed the habit of getting together in groups and talking about something that unites them, of dealing with issues in a more natural way. They started to accept experiences that are different from their own and perhaps with conflicting ones as well.
Fig 1.15 – Make fear go away [3]
Fig. 1.16. – My fears, I.G.
Fig. 1.16.1 – My fears, I.G.
To encourage socialization, natural connections and personal openness between participants and operators, games and other expressive activities with an emotional theme were introduced to the group.
Fig. 1.17 shows a brief description of C.L.'s mood after he had spent the night with tachycardia, and of P.G., who shares his sadness. This exercise includes the recognition of the emotion you are experiencing, the representation of the face that characterizes it, the description of what you feel and the physical monitoring of the chosen emotion.
As a result, a real card game was created using the emotion cards shown in sheet 1.18; the game consisted of cutting out the cards, shuffling them by placing them in a pile to be turned over on the table, and taking turns drawing a card from the deck. Depending on the emotion that each participant drew, they would then have to stage it by mimicking their face or depicting an event that would evoke that emotion. This game proved to be both useful and fun, and was very much appreciated by the group; the operators also took part in it, contributing both to a modeling action and to the creation of a playful group atmosphere, in which getting involved would not have involved any kind of judgment. Some patients at first preferred not to take part in the game, remaining as observers, but all of them then gradually entered during the game or participated in the meetings proposed later, on different days. At the end of the course, everyone in the group caught at least one emotion, even the most introverted like P.G. .
Card 1.19 instead shows an expressive activity in which patients were asked to write down the prevailing emotion at the time of the exercise, draw something related to it and assign it a music or a song, to be listened to all together during the execution of the drawing. The use of music was often proposed along the way, and it helped emotions to come out, to take shape, and to be shared without the need to be verbally described.
M.D., in the card shown, started with the choice of music (Ludwig Van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5) and linked the composer's drawing and the emotion aroused,
sadness. Before the end of the meeting, D. then added a cartoon that clarified the choice completed work: "When I was little I listened to Beethoven's symphonies and even my father Filippo cried". A memory, a piece of music, an emotion and a drawing.
Fig 1.17 – My emotions today, C.L. e P.G.
Fig. 1.18 – The Emotion Cards
Fig. 1.19 – Emotion, music and drawing, M.D.
Results and Conclusions
Table 1.1 shows the results obtained by individual patients at T0 and T1 according to TAS-20.
Tab. 1.1 – TAS-20 Scores at T0 and T1.
The ESCQ-45 scale, on the other hand, shows a marked improvement in V.G., who shows a difference of 32 points between T0 and T1, and so is the user who has obtained the greatest increase in emotional and social skills.
With reference to the partial results obtained from the subscales, the "expression and recognition of emotions" subscale was the one recorded in V.G. the greatest improvement (T0 = 15, T1 = 22).
On the other hand, the one who recorded the lowest score increase with the ESCQ-45 was I.G., in accordance with the results obtained by the same patient at the TAS-20.
Also from the analysis of the results obtained with the compilation of the ESCQ-45 it appears that all patients have reported improvements as a result of the emotional literacy process, to a greater or lesser extent. The analysis of the subscales also shows a correlation between the items of the TAS-20 and those of the ESCQ-45: a high score in the "difficulty in identifying feelings" subscale of the TAS-20, for example, is often combined with a low score in the ESCQ-45 "expression and recognition of emotions" subscale.
In addition to improving their emotional skills, the group of patients involved in the emotional literacy path has shown, in my opinion, to be more aware of their skills as well as their shortcomings. It happened, for example, that some items of the evaluation scales that at T0 indicated a sufficiently high competence, recorded a "worse" score at T1 not for a lack of results, but for a greater awareness of the meaning of each request and of the personal limits of each one.
The participant who most has been shown to have achieved improvements in the recognition, identification and knowledge of emotions, as well as in the ability to "look inside", was C.L., as evidenced by the results of the TAS-20. The music therapy course certainly supported the result achieved, visible to the naked eye and very important for the path that the patient is carrying out in S.I.R. . C.L. followed the entire process assiduously, with a great motivation for change, and with a personal and cultural background that allowed him to carry out an effective job. To date, he is more attentive to the state of mind of others, more aware of his emotions and better able to manage them adequately.
The patient who instead reported the least evident results was V.A. who, already of an outgoing and self-confident character, has not always managed to participate in a relevant manner in the meetings held. At the end of the course the patient seems to report a greater theoretical knowledge about emotions, but the personal involvement expected and experienced by others is still far away.
All the participants were involved, at the end of the course, in a restitution meeting in which they discussed results obtained together and their perception of their own path within the group. Most of the patients reported the feeling of greater openness to one another, while almost all observed an increase in the ability to self-observe and recognize their emotions.
Apfel R.J., Sifneos P.E., Alexithymia: concept and measurement. Psychoterapy and Psychosomatics, 1979.
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Ciarrochi J., Chan A., Caputi P., Roberts R., Measuring emotional intelligence. Psychology
Di Pietro M., L'ABC delle mie emozioni. Erickson, 2015.
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Kirkmayer L.J., Robbins J.M., Cognitive and social correlates of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Psychosomatics, 34, pp. 41-52, 1993.
Parker J.D.A., Bagby R.M., Taylor G.J., Endler N.S., Schmitz P., Factorial validity of the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, European Journal of Personality, 7, pp. 221-232, 1993.
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[1] Taylor G.J., Bagby R.M., Parker J.D.A., Toronto Alexithymia Scale, 1992
[2] Takšić V., Mohoric T., Duran M., Emotional Skills & Competence Questionnaire, 2001
[3] Di Pietro M., L'ABC delle mie emozioni, Erickson, 2015.
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Moose Jaw Miller Express > In the News > Late-game rally leads to Miller Express win over Mavericks
Late-game rally leads to Miller Express win over Mavericks
Moose Jaw overcomes 6-4 deficit with six runs in seventh, hold on for 10-9 win in Medicine Hat
The Moose Jaw Miller Express just keep finding ways to get things done in Western Canadian Baseball League action.
Their contest with the Medicine Hat Mavericks on Thursday night offered the latest example, as for the second straight night the game turned into a bullpen battle, and for the second straight night the Express came away with the win.
Moose Jaw scored six runs in the seventh inning to overcome 6-4 deficit and would hang on for a 10-9 victory in Medicine Hat in a contest rescheduled from a June 4 rainout.
It wasn't the best of beginnings for the visitors, as standout starter Tim Carlson had a relatively off outing by his standards — the Mavericks scored one in the second, three in the third and two more in the sixth to build their lead.
Carlson came into the contest having allowed a run or less in his previous three starts. He ended up allowing six runs, four earned, on 10 hits in 5 ? innings of work.
That all just meant the Moose Jaw offence had to pick up the slack, and with the way things have been going for the local squad at the plate this season, that wasn't an issue.
Thing is, the Miller Express didn't really need their bats with how the seventh inning played out.
Four straight walks brought in the first run of the inning, and it just got worse from there — Austin Gurney was hit by a pitch to bring home Zach Campbell, Cam Grant was hit by a pitch to score Nate Mensik, Bryan Reyes scored on a wild pitch, Gurney scored on a wild pitch and Grant crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly to close out scoring in the inning.
The scoreline? Six runs scored on no hits and no Medicine Hat errors.
The Mavericks rallied in their half of the inning with three runs on two hits and three walks off reliever Triston Seitz, but that would be the last bit of good news for the home side. Kellan Voggesser tossed a scoreless eighth and Jesse Scholtz picked up the save in his league-leading 16th appearance of the season.
Scholtz has pitched 17 ? innings in that span, allowing only six runs, striking out eight and currently sporting a 2.07 earned run average.
Mensik finished the night 2-for-3 with three runs scored while Gurney had a single hit and also crossed the plate three times. Bryan Reyes was 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI, Hunter Barrett 2-for-4 with two RBI.
The Miller Express improved to 14-6 with the win and remain a game up on the Swift Current 57's for first place in the WCBL East Division. Their five-game winning streak is tops in the WCBL; only Swift Current has a better record over the last 10 games at 8-2 to Moose Jaw's 7-3.
That all leads to Friday night's first place showdown at Ross Wells Park, as the 57's make the trip east to face the Miller Express. First pitch is 7:05 p.m.
VIA: https://www.moosejawtoday.com/local-news/late-game-rally-leads-to-miller-express-win-over-mavericks-5517026
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Bollywood »
Priyanka Chopra to appear next on Stephen Colbert's TV show
Enid Judith D'souza| Updated On: 1 Feb 2017 10:47 AM GMT | Location :
Priyanka Chopra has appeared on popular shows like Ellen DeGenerges show, Jimmy Kimmel and The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, Kelly and Michael.
Priyanka Chopra has been creating a storm in Hollywood, first with her show Quantico and now with the promotions of her upcoming film Baywatch which is scheduled to release on May 26 this year. After an amazing chat session with Jimmy Kimmel, Priyanka Chopra will now be seen on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Priyanka Chopra plays the villain in Baywatch, which also stars Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron. Although the first trailer didn't highlight our
desi girl, the next one, highlighted our diva create fire on the screen.
While Deepika Padukone made the lungi dance famous on The Late Late Show with Jimmy Corden during the promotions for xXx: Return of Xander Cage, it would be interesting to see Priyanka Chopra create some magic, being a veteran in appearing on talk shows.
Priyanka Chopra has appeared on popular shows like Ellen DeGenerges show, Jimmy Kimmel, The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, Kelly and Michael, and has been loved by her fans in India and around the world for her spontaneous personality and fun nature.
Apart from this, Priyanka Chopra recently won her second People's Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic TV Actress.
It would be interesting to see the combination of Priyanka Chopra and Stephen Colbert, who is known for his tongue-in-cheek humour and politically incorrect statements. This episode will air on Tuesday, February 7, 2017 on Star World Premiere HD.
Enid Judith D'souza


French Prosecutor asks for dissolution of Scientology in France
By Michael Cosgrove Jun 15, 2009 in World
In an unprecedented move that has taken France and Scientologists completely by surprise, the Scientology trial has taken a new turn, and the severity of the sentences being demanded is leading commentators to envision the end of Scientology in France.
The Public Prosecutor in the Scientology trial being held in Paris has demanded that the Church be made illegal in France. The Church is accused of organised fraud, as are some of its organisations, who may face fines of up to two million Euros.
The trial is the result of a joint court case brought by several individuals who have accused the Church of abusive and fraudulent financial practices as well as mental abuse.
The Prosecutor's trial representatives, Maud Morel-Coujard et Nicolas Baïeto, are also said by French daily Le Figaro to have demanded today that the Spiritual Association of the Church, 'Celebrity Centre,' and the Church's library receive fines of 2 million euros each.
These are extremely heavy sentence recommendations, even for France, a heavily secular country, which has never hidden its suspicions concerning the Church of Scientology.
At the same time, a 150 000€ fine, four years suspended prison and five years of privation of civic rights were demanded for the head of the Celebrity Centre, Alain Rosenberg. Suspended prison sentences and heavy fines were also recommended for five other individual Scientology Church members.
This decisive trial phase means that the Church of Scientology may soon face obligatory dissolution in France, after a trial which has seen it and its members facing the sort of tough questioning it has not experienced up to now.
This article will be updated for the next six hours.
The French government has asked Iranian authorities to do more to protect the French Embassy, which is the object of violent demonstrations at this time.
(More details on the trial can be read here)
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May 1, 2021 Wayne Northey
Trump's Secret Rules for Drone Strikes Outside War Zones Are Disclosed
The release of the 2017 policy — with redactions — stemmed from open-records lawsuits by The Times and the A.C.L.U.
photo above: Targeted killings away from conventional war zones have been a central feature of the sprawling war on terrorism, raising legal and policy questions that remain in flux. Credit… Janis Laizans/Reuters
WN: Of course the use of drones–as any aerial bombing–invariably murders civilians–often vast numbers. Two classic studies of aerial warfare by Tami Davis Biddle are: (2019) Air Power and Warfare: A Century of Theory and History, and (2004) Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945.
With reference to drone warfare, the author in the first mentioned book cites Professor Rosa Brooks:
Professor Rosa Brooks explained, "to go after an ever-lengthening list of bad actors, many of whom appear to have only tenuous links to al Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks, and many of whom arguably pose no imminent threat to the United States."1 This warning came in Brooks' testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in the spring of 2013.
Ms. Biddle writes further:
The work is carried out quietly and off the front pages of newspapers. This means that it has little immediate political cost. Thus, the strikes can have the appeal of a silver bullet — a low-cost, almost magical way to dispatch enemies. However, dangers lurk in this seductive appeal. One first-order question is simply about due process of law. The target of an RPA strike has no opportunity to face the charges against them or argue a case before a court. Who ought to have the authority to be judge, jury, and executioner (all three) in these cases? Using RPAs for the targeted killing of enemies concentrates vast power in a few hands — and this sets up a situation that can be quite readily abused if it is not overseen and monitored for compliance with domestic and international law. There is also a concern about mission creep. How high on the enemy leadership chain need one be to qualify for an RPA strike? What evidence must that person reveal of intent to do harm? How imminent and clear must that threat be?
Many critics of RPAs during the Obama years saw their use as evidence of American high-handedness and arrogance — evidence that Americans do not feel themselves to be bound by any rules or constraints in their international behavior. They perceived an American President using RPAs rather like a self-proclaimed Zeus, hurling thunderbolts from the sky. (Institute, Strategic Studies; War College Press, U.S. Army. Air Power and Warfare: A Century of Theory and History (pp. 58-59). Kindle Edition; emphasis added.)
The reality is, "Good Guys" snipers trained in Canada, the U.S. and other Western nations, hurl their smaller, equally deadly, thunderbolts across vast distances through use of a scope, thereby raising the identical question: Who ought to have the authority to be judge, jury, and executioner (all three) in these cases? Combine these murderous atrocities with treacherous (or just plain faulty) intelligence, and no telling how many rival warlords, warlord enemies, and hated persons at the local level are murdered through Western "intelligence" gathering. Whole wedding parties, etc., have been slaughtered through this callous calculus.
Who is to know who and how many fell victim to wanton slaughter in Afghanistan, Syria etc., –by the "Good Guys"? For instance (from my Front Page):
The Vietnam War is classic instance of what it means for America to be "leader of the free world". It was prosecuted under five Presidents: from Eisenhower to Nixon, 1955 to 1975. The New York Times ran an article in 2003 about a series published by The Toledo Blade, based upon accounts of several Vietnam War veterans, entitled "Report on Brutal Vietnam Campaign Stirs Memories." The article reads in part:
The report, published in October [2003] and titled 'Rogue G.I.'s Unleashed Wave of Terror in Central Highlands,' said that in 1967, an elite unit, a reconnaissance platoon in the 101st Airborne Division, went on a rampage that the newspaper described as 'the longest series of atrocities in the Vietnam War.2
For a highly disturbing/tragic read of what happens to such perpetrators upon re-entering society, see: Killing from the Inside Out: Moral Injury and Just War. Of the book we read:
Armies know all about killing. It is what they do, and ours does it more effectively than most. We are painfully coming to realize, however, that we are also especially good at killing our own "from the inside out," silently, invisibly. In every major war since Korea, more of our veterans have taken their lives than have lost them in combat. The latest research, rooted in veteran testimony, reveals that the most severe and intractable PTSD–fraught with shame, despair, and suicide–stems from "moral injury."3
And of course with the advent of aerial warfare, Pandora's Box was opened, and in the ancient Greek myth, only Hope (ἐλπῐ́ς • elpís) remained inside. But such Hope was not invariably positive as in today's English usage. It was more an expectation that rendered the future to be of uncertain outcome, even foreboding. Saint Paul however specifically writes by contrast in Romans 5:
ἐλπὶς οὐ καταισχύνει—Hope does not make ashamed . . .
So we are left indeed with ". . . a self-proclaimed Zeus, hurling thunderbolts from the sky." But this is ever the case in aerial warfare, any kind of warfare. Combine that with nuclear warfare, and even more beyond the pale "Star Wars" warfare, as in my post: The Pentagon's New Wonder Weapons for World Dominion, and we are into literal stratospheric moral wrong! An excerpt:
Back in the 21st Century
Now imagine us back in the 21st century. It's 2030 and an American "triple canopy" of pervasive surveillance systems and armed drones already fills the heavens from the lower stratosphere to the exo-atmosphere. It can deliver its weaponry anywhere on the planet with staggering speed, knock out enemy satellite communications at a moment's notice, or follow individuals biometrically for great distances. It's a wonder of the modern age. Along with the country's advanced cyberwar capacity, it's also the most sophisticated military information system ever created and an insurance policy for global dominion deep into the twenty-first century.
That is, in fact, the future as the Pentagon imagines it and it's actually under development, even though most Americans know little or nothing about it.
Though later we read:
The Future of Wonder Weapons
By the mid-2020s, if the military's dreams are realized, the Pentagon's triple-canopy shield should be able to atomize a single "terrorist" with a missile strike or, with equal ease, blind an entire army by knocking out all of its ground communications, avionics, and naval navigation. It's a system that, were it to work as imagined, just might allow the United States a diplomatic veto of global lethality, an equalizer for any further loss of international influence.
But as in Vietnam, where aerospace wonders could not prevent a searing defeat, history offers some harsh lessons when it comes to technology trumping insurgencies, no less the fusion of forces (diplomatic, economic, and military) whose sum is geopolitical power. After all, the Third Reich failed to win World War II even though it had amazingly advanced "wonder weapons," including the devastating V-2 missile, the unstoppable Me-262 jet fighter, and the ship-killing Hs-293 guided missile.
Washington's dogged reliance on and faith in military technology to maintain its hegemony will certainly guarantee endless combat operations with uncertain outcomes in the forever war against terrorists along the ragged edge of Asia and Africa and incessant future low-level aggression in space and cyberspace. Someday, it may even lead to armed conflict with rivals China and Russia.
"Because we can" is devastatingly amoral and immoral.
In The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II, John W. Dower (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2017. See also my post on this here.), we read:
In retrospect, he [early Cold War nuclear warrior General (George) Lee Butler] decried the "wantonness," "savagery," "reckless proliferation," "treacherous axioms," and voracious "appetite" of deterrence — for which he himself had helped create many systems and technologies, including "war plans with over 12,000 targets."… Elegant theories of deterrence," he exclaimed in one speech, "wilt in the crucible of impending nuclear war." In later recollection of the folly of deterrence, Butler pointed out that at its peak the United States "had 36,000 weapons in our active inventory," including nuclear landmines and sea mines and "warheads on artillery shells that could be launched from jeeps." He concluded that mankind escaped the Cold War without a nuclear holocaust by some combination of diplomatic skill, blind luck and divine intervention, probably the latter in greatest proportion. (ibid, pp. 36 & 37).
Thank God there is indeed a better Elpís! And unlike King of Rock Elvis, this Hope never leaves (the building) nor forsakes! (Hebrews 13:5)
Finally: to take a panoramic step back, one wonders about "moral injury" in the context of the entire sweep of Western civilization. Whether former Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land's defence of "Just War" and of capital punishment4, or theologians I personally know who all too glibly reject pacifism (minds too nimble–or–moral compass faulty?) and defend such state violence, J'accuse is legitimate generic indictment of vast Western populations past and present in light of endless atrocities committed by Western "Civilization." Vast in scale and number: atrocities.
"Mission creep" is generic reality in all things military. "Moral corruption creep" is peculiar to all civilizations: no less to Western . . . President Roosevelt wrote this in response to German bombing that led to World War II:
Appeal of President Roosevelt to Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Poland
"THE ruthless bombing from the air of civilians in unfortified centres of population during the course of the hostilities which have raged in various quarters of the earth in the past few years, which have resulted in the maiming and death of thousands of defenseless women and children, has profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity.
"If resort is had to this sort of inhuman barbarism during the period of tragic conflagration with which the world is now confronted, hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings, who have no responsibility for, and who are not even remotely participating in, the hostilities which have broken out, now will lose their lives.
"I am therefore addressing this urgent appeal to every Government, which may be engaged in hostilities, publicly to affirm its determination that its armed forces shall in no event and under no circumstances undertake bombardment from the air of civilian populations or unfortified cities, upon the understanding that the same rules of warfare will be scrupulously observed by all their opponents.
"I request an immediate reply." (emphasis added)
The "inhuman barbarism" of the Nazis at the beginning of the War was far outpaced in sheer volume of carpet bombing savagery in Germany and Japan by War's end–by the Allies!, of which two atomic bombs dropped were the "inhuman barbarism" capstone. Unalloyed, gargantuan savagery had come home to roost. That despite this:
Carpet bombing of cities, towns, villages, or other areas containing a concentration of civilians is considered a war crime[5] as of Article 51 of the 1977 Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions.[6][7][8]—Wikipedia
Moral corruption creep became the West's unique signature ever since . . .
Where do we go then in the West for authentic moral absolution? Dare we seek it? What is our collective penance?
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has disclosed a set of rules secretly issued by President Donald J. Trump in 2017 for counterterrorism "direct action" operations — like drone strikes and commando raids outside conventional war zones — which the White House has suspended as it weighs whether and how to tighten the guidelines.
While the Biden administration censored some passages, the visible portions show that in the Trump era, commanders in the field were given latitude to make decisions about attacks so long as they fit within broad sets of "operating principles," including that there should be "near certainty" that civilians "will not be injured or killed in the course of operations."
Read the document:Partly declassified Trump-era rules for drone strikes
At the same time, however, the Trump-era rules were flexible about permitting exceptions to that and other standards, saying that "variations" could be made "where necessary" so long as certain bureaucratic procedures were followed in approving them.
In October, Judge Edgardo Ramos of the Southern District of New York had ordered the government turn over the 11-page document in response to Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed by The New York Times and by the American Civil Liberties Union. The Biden administration inherited that case and sought a delay but has now complied, providing a copy to both plaintiffs late on Friday.
The Biden administration suspended the Trump-era rules on its first day in office and imposed an interim policy of requiring White House approval for proposed strikes outside of the war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. At the same time, the Biden team began a review of how both Obama- and Trump-era policies had worked — both on paper and in practice — with an eye toward developing its own policy.
The review, officials said, discovered that Trump-era principles to govern strikes in certain countries often made an exception to the requirement of "near certainty" that there would be no civilian casualties. While it kept that rule for women and children, it permitted a lower standard of merely "reasonable certainty" when it came to civilian adult men.5
Drone strikes began under the administration of George W. Bush and soared during Barack Obama's first term — along with political and legal battles over reports of civilian casualties and, in 2011, the government's deliberate killing of an American citizen suspected of terrorism, Anwar al-Awlaki, without a trial.
Please click: Trump's Secret Rules for Drone Strikes
Rosa Brooks, "The Law of Armed Conflict, the Use of Military Force, and the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force," Statement for the Record Submitted to the Senate Committee on Armed Services, May 16, 2013, p. 2, available from https://www. armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Brooks_05-16-13.pdf; Rosa Brooks, "The Constitutional and Counterterrorism Implications of Targeted Killing," Testimony Before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, April 23, 2013, available from https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/ download/testimony-of-brooks-pdf.
Institute, Strategic Studies; War College Press, U.S. Army. Air Power and Warfare: A Century of Theory and History (p. 84). Kindle Edition.[↩]
It continued:
'For seven months, Tiger Force soldiers moved across the Central Highlands, killing scores of unarmed civilians – in some cases torturing and mutilating them – in a spate of violence never revealed to the American public,' the newspaper said, at other points describing the killing of hundreds of unarmed civilians.
'Women and children were intentionally blown up in underground bunkers,' The Blade said. 'Elderly farmers were shot as they toiled in the fields. Prisoners were tortured and executed – their ears and scalps severed for souvenirs. One soldier kicked out the teeth of executed civilians for their gold fillings." The New York Times confirmed the claimed accuracy of the stories by contacting several of those interviewed. It reported: "But they wanted to make another point: that Tiger Force had not been a 'rogue' unit. Its members had done only what they were told, and their superiors knew what they were doing.
"Burning huts and villages, shooting civilians and throwing grenades into protective shelters were common tactics for American ground forces throughout Vietnam, they said. That contention is backed up by accounts of journalists, historians and disillusioned troops…
'Vietnam was an atrocity from the get-go,' [one veteran] said in a recent telephone interview. 'It was that kind of war, a frontless war of great frustration. There were hundreds of My Lais. You got your card punched by the numbers of bodies you counted.'
Current likely Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry was also quoted giving evidence before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971. He reported that American soldiers in Vietnam had "raped, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.
Nicholas Turse [later author of: Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam], a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, has been studying government archives and said they were filled with accounts of similar atrocities.
"I stumbled across the incidents The Blade reported," Mr. Turse said by telephone. "I read through that case a year, year and a half ago, and it really didn't stand out. There was nothing that made it stand out from anything else. That's the scary thing. It was just one of hundreds."
Yet there were few prosecutions.
Please consult further two of many websites: Major US Vietnam War Atrocities Case Exposed by Ohio Newspaper; and The Mad Men Premiere's Dark Vietnam Subtext.[↩]
"Moral injury" has most commonly come to mean the transgression, the violation, of what is right, what one has long held to be sacred—a core belief or moral code—and thus wounding or, in the extreme, mortally wounding the psyche, soul, or one's humanity. As with so many concepts for which definitions fall short, moral injury is most clearly seen and understood in stories. –Meagher, Robert Emmet. Killing from the Inside Out: Moral Injury and Just War (p. 4). Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.[↩]
please see my account of interaction with him: Why I Oppose the Death Penalty: "The Talking Place: Discussing the Death Penalty" Forum on the Death Penalty, Fairbanks Alaska, March 22, 1997; also here.[↩]
A rose by any other name . . . Murder is murder, no matter the victim![↩]
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It's ԁifficuⅼt to find educated people about tһis topic, but yoᥙ seem like you know what ʏou're talking about!
I guess we always must weigh others' opinions–especially in, as is often said, a "post-truth world".
I try to reference my opinions at least. My primary criterion is authenticity in both what I read, and write. It's up to the reader to go from there.
I'm also always willing to dialogue.
Best to you.


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Sullivan introduces measures to aid abuse victims
Posted by Elizabeth Gabriel | Aug 7, 2019
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) speaks in Ketchikan in 2018. (KRBD file photo by Leila Kheiry)
Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan was in Ketchikan for the 44th Annual Blueberry Arts Festival and stopped by to speak with KRBD about current events in the US Senate—specifically his recent efforts to tackle abuse.
On August 2, Senator Dan Sullivan and Delaware Senator Chris Coons introduced the Electronic Service for Effectiveness, Reduction of Violence, and Improved Court Efficiency Act. The E-Service Act is a pilot program to allow up to 10 state or tribal courts to serve protection orders electronically. Currently, Sullivan said the process of serving protective orders against abusers can be difficult.
"The estimates are up to 50% of protective orders in the country don't ever get served because the perpetrator—the abuser—is avoiding service," said Sullivan. "So he can say, 'Wait, I didn't get that order.'"
According to Sullivan, the pilot program would allow more effective ways of serving abusers, such as through the internet, a phone call, or even a text message. He said it's been a top priority for many abuse advocacy groups.
"We think it would get to the issue of—hey, if there's a perpetrator, there's a protective order against him to say, 'Stay away from the woman you've been abusing,' said Sullivan. "And [if] he avoids it, this is a creative way to serve him and say, 'Alright, you answered that text, you've now been served with this order,' and let the legal process kick in."
He said they're still exploring the feasibility and effectiveness of serving protection orders electronically.
"You know, you've gotta make sure you get it right," said Sullivan. "There's some due process elements. Hey, what if there's a text message that's actually sent, but the guy doesn't receive it. How do you know that they've received it? There's some things you need to work out. We don't wanna do some sort kind of broad based initiative and then realize that there's major flaws in it."
The next step for the act is the Senate judiciary committee.
Sullivan said he began advocating against abuse as Alaska's Attorney General 10 years ago. At the time, he was helping create the Choose Respect Initiative to address problems with domestic violence and sexual assault in Alaska.
"I took a lot of those ideas, when I got elected to the senate, national," Sullivan said. "Because I think Alaska knows that we have this problem, but I think the rest of the country in the last couple of years has recognized that we have a big problem with regard to these crimes and domestic violence, and abuse of women."
In April, Sullivan and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the Choose Respect Act. That would help change the culture of domestic violence and abuse by implementing national Public Service Announcements.
Another bill he is working on would provide more legal resources for victims. In June, Sullivan and co-sponsor California Senator Kamala Harris, introduced the Ensuring Representation for Survivors Act which will give victims a right to counsel.
"A perpetrator of these kind of crimes, that person gets a sixth amendment right to counsel—say like an accused rapist," said Sullivan. "That person gets a lawyer no matter what, even if they can. That's what the Constitution requires, okay. But the victim doesn't get anything."
Sullivan hopes to put all three bills in the Violence Against Women Act. He hopes this will help make a difference for the entire country, especially the state of Alaska.
"We're an amazing state with so much potential, but the fact that the studies show that almost 50% of the women in Alaska have experienced some kind of violence or assault," said Sullivan. "We've gotta do better, we have to do better."
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December 27, 2015 Paul Czarnowski
Ant-Man (2015) Movie Review
What I watched: Ant-Man
That's one of them Marvel Universe Movies, right? Well we like to call it a "Malibu Comics Spin-Off Movie," but whatever.
Does it have one of those scenes where a guy invites a lot of VIPs to his big tech company to reveal the weapon he'll use at the end to fight the hero? Yeah, and it takes a few minutes. Like, "fly all the way here, our presentation takes 3 minutes, thanks for coming!"
Aside from Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas, there's really not a lot of star power to this one, is there? Well, I don't know about that, there's Evangeline Lilly and Haley Atwell makes an appearance and OH MY GOD THAT'S KITTY FROM ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT!
Ant Man is part of the Whatever Happens Next After Avengers phase of the Marvel Comics universe, in the event that they run out of comics ideas or something, I don't know. I don't read Variety or CBR or entertainment news sites that want me to believe I'm a participant in how and why these movies are made. Who cares what the long term plan is? Just make the movies good.
I don't really care that these movies are connected. That they are, sure it's fun, but it kind of ruins the potential for the movie to be a great thing by itself. These stories already are less about stories and more about the macguffin itself. Two thirds of each one of these are entertaining and fun, with fresh takes on the characters played by actors giving them outsized personalities. Then the last third is the big laser light show. Get the cube! Or the sphere! Or the other suit! Whatever! We did it. We saved the world, but we did it for ourselves and not for Samuel L. Jackson, but wait he's at the end of the movie and he's introducing someone after the credits. DID YOU STAY FOR THE CREDITS?
Ant Man starts off with the movie introducing Michael Douglas as someone upset with other characters from the Marvel U, to remind you that it's part of Marvel. Douglas is Hank Pym, Marvel's original Ant-Man character. He doesn't want anyone using his magical Ant-Man formula. Then we cut to Paul Rudd, who is leaving prison. He moves in with Wacky Minority Criminal gang. He wants to go straight so he can see his daughter, being raised by Kitty from Arrested Development and her boyfriend who is a cop. Uh oh! Contrasts!
Rudd is described as a convict guilty of robbing from the rich and powerful and giving to the powerless, but his break in into Pym's home suggests he has extensive background in being an amazing 2nd story man (of which is a neat heist, by the way). I don't know if this was something that was going to be played up, that he's a misunderstood guy who did one thing wrong but REALLY he's been a career criminal his whole life. The former is what nearly everyone but his Wacky Minority Criminal gang seems to believe. The latter is potentially far funnier, and more fitting to the Eric O'Grady character from Robert Kirkman's Irredeemable Ant-Man series. Did the filmmakers think that a total jerk who stumbles upon the suit wouldn't be relatable or interesting?
Well, regardless, Paul Rudd is a guy who looks like he could be the male lead in more serious action flicks but he's played a lot of ridiculous characters in screwball comedies. This is a movie begging to go screwball comedy but has to fit into the Serious Marvel Adventure. So there's a middle section of this movie where he just stands to the side and Mike Douglas and Evangeline Lilly have moments while explaining things to him, plus training montages. This goes on for what seems like forever, with so many scenes of Douglas & Lilly staring at TV screens (ugh, the worst action movie bit. Stop with that).
Oh, Falcon from Cap America 2 shows up and they have the patented comic book superheroes-meet-for-the-first-time-and-they-fight and it's just as boring as it is in the comics. It showcases Ant-Man's suit and fighting abilities that he had learned in the "it was just the last 10 minutes ago" montage. It felt like they were squeezing this in to remind you that it's part of the other movies. I don't mind forgetting that there's other superheroes for a few movies. Skip the training, have Ant-Man fuddle with his suit while he tries to break into the Avengers storage room as the test run.
Oh, then there's the villain. Yellowjacket. It's this bald guy who wears dark suits. I seriously think he's supposed to be Brian Michael Bendis. He's the one who invites the VIPs to Pym's former company to brag about the Yellowjacket suit, even though the tech is unfinished. Because he's still testing it. This is like Norman Osborn in Spider-Man 1 corporate incompetence. If there was a board of directors he could convince to oust Pym from Pym's own company, there must be a board of directors that could see how unhinged and unprofessional Yellowjacket is to kick him out as well.
There's also some story about Pym & Yellowjacket's teacher student bond but it's just talk. You know what would be interesting? Showing that, beyond Yellowjacket just showing up to Pym's place to basically say "I'm unhinged, I'm plotting something, what happened to us, why aren't we friends?" Why not have that be the story, Yellowjacket kicks Pym out of the company and then Pym discovers Paul Rudd burglarizing things.
I guess then you wouldn't get the convoluted set up, that he had pegged Rudd as the perfect pawn-ant in his game of bug chess (wait, Pym is a sub-atomic scientist AND bug biologist? What?). You also wouldn't get Michael Pena's description of how they get the info about Pym's safe in his home.
The rest of the movie is both illuminated by and distracts you with shiny special effects. Wacky Minority Team helps both Ant-Man and Pym break into Yellowjacket's lab. Yellowjacket is prepared to sell Pym's formula to Hydra and from there it's Rudd vs. some ridiculous situations. The fight between Falcon & Ant-Man feels even more wedged in. The effects of Ant-Man riding around on the ants in zooming camera shots of fake giant computer rooms to typical swelling superhero orchestral soundtracks, meh. Ant-Man taking on guards and (especially) fleeing bullets on a scale model of the corporate headquarters? Brilliant. I hope viewers appreciated not just the effect of Ant-Man running around on that model, but how it parodies every serious full scale carpet bombing aimed at one guy running through a city street in other action movies.
Obviously what still sets these Marvel movies apart from the grim DC (and non-Disney Marvel) movies is, well, that they're not grim or serious. Maybe ten years from now these won't be as fun, the witty dialog won't hold up as well, the whole experience will be just as disposable as their competitors and will get their reboots. But I would LOVE for there to be a scene where Bruce Wayne has to work at a Baskin Robbins. Maybe The Dark Knight would have been cheapened with "Baskin Robbins always finds out" especially in five or ten years.
Look at Pulp Fiction (watch it several times). Filming a movie is expensive, right? So why have conversations about Quarter Pounders With Cheese? Why does it not start out with "we're criminals, we should always be talking in exposition about our crimes"? Because those discussions about nothing related to anything else in the movie (other than the Big Brain On Brett) draw you in. They're talking about something you know about, you're practically part of the conversation now.
There's still scenes that are clearly a giant computer cartoon with Ant-Man & Yellowjacket duking it out inside a briefcase, but it's fitting because their powers are surreal and that's the realm where the fight keeps taking them. This might have been another crossroads to see where Rudd's character would go, from misunderstood criminal by default or he's chaotic neutral; he fights Yellowjacket with his daughter in near danger, and the cop boyfriend from earlier is the one who shows up to actually protect her. Is this the point where he realizes he IS a bad person, and has no business in being part of her life? Or will he later be hanging around recapping with the nuclear family who respects what he had just sacrificed for them in his attempt to redeem himself? Even if it's the latter, cop boyfriend is still like "Well, I was happy to go the extra mile for YOU, guy who endangered my family." Sheesus. Rudd plays a fun character and I'm pulling for him, but you shouldn't forgive him that quickly. Do your job, officer! At least tell Rudd to grow up. You know, with great power etc…
Well, I laughed plenty of times during the, now that I think about it, very long fight. You could have cut so much of the exposition and montages (plus, Hank Pym is introduced as a character being basically RETIRED from the Marvel Universe, so thanks key character from Marvel's Silver Age, here's your gold watch) and focused more on either Rudd's douchebaggery or Pym's relationship with Yellowjacket that drives both men to stop the other, taking advantage of Rudd while Rudd figures out who he is.
So what it a zany Marvel movie or a self important DC superhero movie? Um, it's like there was this wacky slapstick adventure, about these goofball criminals granted high tech powers, wanting to get out from the grasp of the heavy drama about men and women arguing over who deserves to wear a special suit and save the day. They even have their own separate soundtracks, with the original score letting you know how serious this is, and some jazzy poppy songs following people practically winking at the camera while up to no good.
Wow, that fight with Falcon seemed really tacked on. I know. It looked bad too. Maybe that and Ant-Man trying to escape the dance floor scene were for 3D, but both looked kinda terrible.
Was it good? The wacky slapstick adventure, yes. The rest, no. I fulfilled my obligation as a fan of comic books to see this movie, so can I go now?
There's a bad guy at the beginning of the movie that Pym punches, and then he's there when Yellowjacket gives his presentation in front of Pym, and then he's there at the end when Yellowjacket tries to sell Pym's formula to Hydra. Why is Pym surprised to see this guy for the 3rd time in the movie? I don't know, Pym hasn't seen movies before.
Previous Movie review: The Man From U.N.C.L.E
Next Star Wars 7: The Sequel To Leonard Part Six


State Senate Approves Lifting Limits on Campaign Contributions
Critics say it goes beyond the U.S. Supreme Court case, 'Citizens United.'
Jake Neher/WDET
State Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive)
Michigan won't limit how much money corporations and unions can spend to influence elections in the state – under legislation that's cleared the state senate.
In 2010 the U.S. Supreme Court said corporations and unions could spend as much money as they wanted on political campaigns.
Seven years later, Michigan lawmakers are putting that standard into state law.
State Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof voted in favor of the bills, "Because everybody should have free speech and the Supreme Court has said that free speech equals money in what you give," he says.
But critics of the legislation say it gives special interests too much influence over elections. They also say it goes beyond the Supreme Court case, Citizens United.
Under the bills, candidates could solicit unlimited amounts of money for certain Super Political Action Committees (PACs).
Craig Mauger, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, says the bills go beyond the Supreme Court case. They allow candidates to effectively go around current limits on how much money candidates can raise.
"The state has these limits on how much individuals and PACs can give to people and this bill would allow an easy way around that," he says. "Because you could solicit unlimited contributions to an entity that you could then work pretty closely with."
Super PACs wouldn't be allowed to directly give money to candidates. But, the groups could use the money to support candidates through things like mailers and TV commercials.
Image credit: Jake Neher/WDET
This post is a part of 2017 Local Elections: How's metro Detroit doing?.
This series includes WDET's coverage of candidates' in local elections -- including Detroit's mayoral, clerk and council races.
Cheyna Roth
Cheyna has interned with Michigan Radio and freelanced for WKAR public radio in Lansing. She's also done some online freelancing and worked on documentary films.
CRoth@MPRN.org Follow @Cheyna_R


Melodea develops two recyclable cellulose barrier coatings
The barrier coatings are designed to offer a sustainable alternative to plastic without compromising safety or performance.
Melodea's high-barrier coatings are being trialled by several major firms. Credit: Melodea / PRNewswire.
Israel-based green technology start-up Melodea has developed two recyclable cellulose-based barrier coatings to protect packaged products and reduce plastic waste.
The first of these products is MelOx, a high-performance, plant-sourced barrier coating that can prevent products from the transmission of oxygen, oil and grease.
The company has also developed Melodea VBcoat, a coating designed to stop water vapour, oil and grease from coming into contact with goods.
Melodea uses wood pulp as a raw material to create barrier coating instead of traditionally used materials such as plastics and aluminium.
The company extracts cellulose nanocrystals from wood pulp from industrial forests using its patented technology.
Melodea CEO and co-founder Shaul Lapidot said: "Cellulose, the primary building block of the cell walls of all plants, is the most abundant biopolymer on the planet.
"It provides plants with extraordinary strength and is a lightweight—yet strong—material.
"We found that this bounteous and renewable material can be utilised to produce novel, eco-friendly packaging alternatives for the packaging industry."
According to Melodea, the sustainable barrier coatings do not compromise products' quality or performance and can be used for both solid and liquid items.
In addition to being recyclable, the coatings are compostable and non-toxic for people and the environment.
The high-barrier coatings can be applied to a broad range of packaging products, including pouches, lids and food and beverage cartons.
They are currently being trialled by a number of companies in the industry.
Melodea chief financial officer Zvika Weiss said: "Our cellulose-based barrier coatings offer an economically affordable, naturally abundant and sustainable alternative to oil-based products.
"Our coatings can easily be integrated into standard industrial coating lines, including slot dies, rod coaters and gravures."
Earlier this year, US-based compostable packaging company World Centric introduced a range of takeaway boxes with bio-based linings as part of its NoTree packaging line.
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Calla answered
It is masturbating, not master baiting, as you though. And when you masturbate, you finger yourself for sexual pleasure.
Masturbation is when you finger your self for sexual pleasure it's when men finger themselves if they can't get a wife
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Home Technology Frontier customer bought his own router—but has to pay $10 rental fee...
Frontier customer bought his own router—but has to pay $10 rental fee anyway
Enlarge / A Wi-Fi router.
Buying your own router instead of renting one from an ISP is one of the few reliable ways to save money on a broadband bill.
But what if you buy and use your own router and the broadband provider still charges you a $10-per-month rental fee? That's the bitter reality for Frontier Communications customers such as Rich Son of Texas.
Son has been a Frontier customer since April 2016 when Frontier purchased Verizon's wireline networks in Texas, California, and Florida. Prior to that, he was a Verizon FiOS customer and purchased Verizon's FiOS Quantum Gateway router for $200 in order to avoid monthly rental fees.
Son and his wife, Karen, still use that FiOS router with their Frontier service at their home in a suburb near Dallas, and Son says Frontier never provided him with another router. But Frontier started charging them $5 a month for what's listed as a "Wi-Fi Router" fee on their bill, and the company raised the router fee to $10 a month in April of this year. Including the router rental charge, the couple pays $90 a month for a 150Mbps broadband plan with no TV or phone service.
Using the FiOS router to avoid rental fees "worked well for me until the takeover happened with Frontier and I began getting charged for using my own equipment," Son told Ars. "I have continued to call Frontier and was repeatedly assured that the fees will be taken off my bill."
But that didn't happen. While Son was able to get three months' worth of credits at one point last year, he said he's otherwise had to pay the $5 and now $10 router fees every month since Frontier bought Verizon's Texas network.
Complaint to FCC goes nowhere
Son filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission; Frontier responded to the complaint but stuck to its position that he has to pay the fee. A voicemail that Frontier left with Son and his wife said the company informed the FCC that "the router monthly charge is an applicable fee, and it will continue to be billed."
Another voicemail from Frontier told them they can avoid the monthly rental fees if they purchase a Frontier router.
"We can reimburse you if you purchase a Frontier router. We cannot reimburse you if you have a Verizon router—we are not Verizon," the voicemail said. "You can choose to use your own router, however you will be still charged the monthly fee… the difference is we do not service the router that you choose to use."
Enlarge / A Frontier Communications van.
Getty Images | jetcityimage
The FCC's complaint process can help customers in some cases but doesn't require the provider to do anything other than respond within 30 days. The FCC complaints team told Son in an email, "We reviewed the provider's response and based on the information submitted, we believe your provider has responded to your concerns."
With FCC Chairman Ajit Pai having deregulated the broadband industry, there's little to no chance of the commission taking action to stop fees like the one charged by Frontier.
"It's $10 today—but how much will it cost us tomorrow?" Son said. "I'd consider letting it go if their customer service blew me out of the water, but they've been terrible ever since Verizon forced Frontier on us."
Frontier defends router charge
We contacted Frontier about Son's case. The company confirmed that it refuses to stop charging the Wi-Fi router rental fee even when customers use their own router and claimed it does so in order to cover higher support costs for customers like Son.
Frontier told Ars:
Our Frontier Residential Gateway (router) is Frontier equipment provided with every service order and specifically designed to work with our service. Our advertising and our residential Internet terms and conditions make clear that our service includes equipment charges, such as the router charge, and neither our advertisements nor our terms and conditions provide any exceptions. A customer may choose to use their own router, but if the customer does, our router charge continues to apply. Also, we cannot support or repair the non-Frontier equipment.
Though infrequent, when a customer chooses to use a non-Frontier router, we see increased complaints and more difficulty with troubleshooting, performing online resets, and providing simple resolutions, so it costs more to serve that customer. Therefore, if a customer uses their own router, the charge still applies to cover these costs. Frontier cannot support or repair non-Frontier equipment.
Frontier's website states simply that "Frontier charges you a monthly lease fee for your Frontier router or modem—whether you use it or not," and it claims that the Frontier-provided router is "the exact model needed for the peak performance of your voice, TV, and Internet services." Specifically, Frontier uses an Arris NVG468MQ router but also notes on its website that "Frontier Internet works with a variety of routers, like the Arris NVG443B and the Netgear D220D."
While Frontier told us that its equipment is "provided with every service order," Son says he never received a router from Frontier. The company is literally charging him every month for a router that was never provided to him.
And while Frontier claims non-Frontier routers cause support problems, this is hard to believe in Son's case: he is using a router specifically designed to work with the FiOS network and which continues to work more than three years after Verizon sold the FiOS network to Frontier. Son told Ars that he hasn't needed to call Frontier about any problems with his router, though he has called the company plenty of times to dispute the router rental charge. Customers that buy their own routers are often more tech-savvy than the general public and are thus able to troubleshoot problems themselves, Son noted.
"It's in Frontier's interest"
To defend the fee, Frontier is trying to make the simple act of hooking up a router seem more complicated than it really is.
"I think it's in Frontier's interest to make it seem like this is some weird specialized equipment that communicates with their backend in some advanced technical way, but that's not true," Senior Counsel John Bergmayer of consumer-advocacy group Public Knowledge told Ars.
With FiOS fiber service, each house is equipped with an Optical Network Terminal (ONT), which does the heavy lifting of communicating with the FiOS network. Using your own router to set up Wi-Fi is not complicated even if it isn't officially supported by the ISP.
"This is discriminating against users who want to use their own equipment," Bergmayer said. Since "it's just a standard router, it's not some proprietary network interface where there's a good reason for it."
Since Frontier charges the fee even when customers use their own router, the actual cost of service is $10 more than Frontier's advertised rates, Bergmayer pointed out.
"Any time you have a fee which is not part of the advertised service but you can't opt out of the fee and everyone has to pay it whether or not you're using the thing [the fee is supposed to cover], then that's just part of the service charge" and should be listed in the advertised rate, Bergmayer said.
Legal options are limited
Theoretically, the Federal Trade Commission or state attorneys general could file lawsuits against ISPs and argue that this type of fee is unfair and deceptive and therefore violates consumer-protection laws.
It would be easier to stop this kind of practice at the FCC—the US agency that exists specifically to regulate telecommunications networks. But the Pai FCC's elimination of net neutrality rules and deregulation of broadband also got rid of rules requiring ISPs to be more transparent with customers about hidden fees. Pai's broadband deregulation also eliminated a general prohibition against unjust or unreasonable prices and practices. In short, the FCC gave up most of its authority to regulate broadband providers.
"For categories of behavior that are never OK, it's just preferable to have a rule against it rather than having to rely on state AGs to enforce their general-purpose consumer-protection statutes," Bergmayer said.
The FTC has to regulate many industries besides telecom. "It's not like they have this endless supply of investigators to throw at consumer complaints," Bergmayer said.
The FCC enforces a rule against negative option billing, the practice of charging a customer for services or equipment the customer did not affirmatively request. But that rule applies only to TV service, not broadband.
Other Frontier users fight same losing battle
Son is not alone in his frustration with Frontier. A Reddit user and Frontier customer reported the same problem in a post last year.
"When the technician was setting things up I told him I wouldn't need the router provided by Frontier since I would use my own. He removed the router from my account and took the router with him," the customer wrote.
Like Son, this customer was charged $10 a month for renting a router that wasn't being used.
"After talking to four different customer service people, it seems that the router rental is part of the package and can't be removed," the customer wrote. "Which seems ridiculous to me since, if I want to keep my Internet service with them, I have to pay $10 a month for something I don't want."
Other Frontier customers posting in the same Reddit thread also reported that Frontier refused to waive the fee. As one customer wrote, "I feel like this is a fraudulent practice because I am being charged a rental fee for an item that I do not have possession of."
routerbut
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