
Harris' campaign leaders say there was a 'price to be paid' for shortened campaign against TrumpThere are some who grow to love baseball. And then there are those like Kirk Doyle, who are born into it. Among Doyle’s earliest memories are of him cavorting in a Major League clubhouse while father Brian played as a backup infielder on the 1978 world champion New York Yankees. It stood to reason that Doyle — a fair athlete in his own right — would follow in his father’s footsteps on the diamond. Though Kirk couldn’t match his father’s foot speed or hand-eye coordination to play professionally, he was good enough to play collegiately. And his passion for the game was unparalleled, even after hanging up his cleats for good. That’s when he joined his father’s famed Doyle Academy, for years one of the country’s preeminent training grounds for fledgling baseball players itching for a chance to play pro ball. At its peak — and through the formative years of Kirk’s childhood — the Florida-based Doyle Academy worked with upwards of 20,000 players and 10,000 coaches a year. But times change, and so do life circumstances. Kirk got married, switched careers after his son fell ill, and eventually got back into coaching a decade or so ago. Now 49, Doyle finds himself at the helm of the Allen Community College baseball program. He was appointed in November as interim head coach after college trustees placed his former boss, Clint Stoy, on a leave of absence at the start of the 2024-25 school year. “The reason I came was I saw an opportunity at a place that’s on the verge of something really cool,” Doyle said. DOYLE was born into a family of ball players. His father was one of three Doyle brothers — along with his twin brother Blake and older brother Denny — to have been drafted and played pro baseball. “That should be your story,” Doyle laughed. “Their story is nuts. They’re from this itty bitty town in the Middle of nowhere and win the state championship from the smallest school in Kentucky.”
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USC and Lincoln Riley hope to halt out-of-state exodus on early signing dayFounder of failed crypto lending platform Celsius Network pleads guilty to fraud charges NEW YORK (AP) — The founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network could face decades in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to federal fraud charges, admitting that he misled customers about the business. Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press Dec 3, 2024 3:24 PM Dec 3, 2024 3:50 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message FILE - Alexander Mashinsky, founder and former chief executive of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network, leaves Manhattan federal court with his legal team, July 25, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) NEW YORK (AP) — The founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network could face decades in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to federal fraud charges, admitting that he misled customers about the business. Alexander Mashinsky , 58, of Manhattan, entered the plea in New York federal court to commodities and securities fraud. He admitted illegally manipulating the price of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token while secretly selling his own tokens at inflated prices to pocket about $48 million before Celsius collapsed into bankruptcy in 2022. In court, he admitted that in 2021 he publicly suggested there was regulatory consent for the company's moves because he knew that customers “would find false comfort” with that. And he said that in 2019, he was selling the crypto tokens even though he told the public that he was not. He said he knew customers would draw false comfort from that too. “I accept full responsibility for my actions,” Mashinsky said of crimes that stretched from 2018 to 2022 as the company pitched itself to customers as a modern-day bank where they could safely deposit crypto assets and earn interest. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a release that Mashinsky “orchestrated one of the biggest frauds in the crypto industry” as his company's assets purportedly grew to about $25 billion at its peak, making it one of the largest crypto platforms in the world. He said Mashinsky used catchy slogans like “Unbank Yourself” to entice prospective customers with a pledge that their money would be as safe in crypto accounts as money would be in a bank. Meanwhile, prosecutors said, Mashinsky and co-conspirators used customer deposits to fund market purchases of the Celsius token to prop up its value. Machinsky made tens of millions of dollars selling his own CEL tokens at artificially high prices, leaving his customers “holding the bag when the company went bankrupt,” Williams said. An indictment alleged that Mashinsky promoted Celsius through media interviews, his social media accounts and Celsius’ website, along with a weekly “Ask Mashinsky Anything” session broadcast that was posted to Celsius’ website and a YouTube channel. Celsius employees from multiple departments who noticed false and misleading statements in the sessions warned Mashinsky, but they were ignored, the indictment said. A plea agreement Mashinsky made with prosecutors calls for him to be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison and to forfeit over $48 million, which is the amount of money he allegedly made by selling his company's token. Sentencing was scheduled for April 8. Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Science News Global warming fills New England's rich waters with death traps for endangered sea turtles Dec 3, 2024 1:47 PM FBI tells telecom firms to boost security following wide-ranging Chinese hacking campaign Dec 3, 2024 12:36 PM Global warming fills New England's rich waters with death traps for endangered sea turtles Dec 3, 2024 10:32 AM
MEDINA — Cole Callard poured over the Medina record books growing up. But it took years before realizing he could etch his name in them. With the ball at his dancing feet, Callard would make a move in either direction, keeping defenders on high alert in the process. And once an opportunity presented itself, the 6-foot-1 midfielder fired a shot and the goals began to pile up. By season’s end, Callard walked away with numerous accolades, his name at the top of numerous. . And, along with receiving the Niagara-Orleans League Player of the Year, Callard helped Medina win 15 games and advance to its first Section VI final in four years, finishing as B2 runners-up to Southwestern. Callard was at the top of the section, leading all goal scorers and Medina’s new single-season record 44 goals and had 64 total points. The combination of breaking Medina’s records and being unstoppable on the pitch earned Callard Greater Niagara Newspapers Player of the Year. As Callard gained more experience at the varsity level, the stronger his desire for the records became, after an 18-goal campaign two years ago. “After my first couple years, I was like, ‘I can definitely do this,’” Callard said. “And then, obviously, being able to do it is a big accomplishment, as fun as putting the ball in the back of the net.” Named the Niagara-Orleans League Player of the Year, Callard led the Mustangs to a runners-up finish in Class B2. Callard tallied 64 points on 44 goals and 20 assists. Callard led Section VI in goals and points. Callard registered a point in 17 of 19 games, including 11 multi-goal games and five multi-assist games. Callard leaves as Medina’s all-time leader in goals (98), assists (42) and points (140). A first-team All-Niagara-Orleans League pick, Herrmann helped the Lakemen defend their league title. He posted a team-high 26 goals and 47 points. Herrmann recorded a point in 16 of 18 contests, including nine multi-goal games. Herrmann scored a season-high three goals in the season opener against Kenmore West. Herrmann also had seven multi-assist games.. In his final season, Kroening was second on the team with 17 goals and finished with 26 points. Kroening recorded a point in 13 contests for the Mustangs, including two four-point outings. Kroening also scored in 11 games and had multi-goal outings five times. Kroening scored a season-high three goals in a regular season contest against Akron. In his second varsity season, Leardini doubled his scoring totals for the Class A runners-up Lancers, tallying 54 points on 38 goals and 16 assists. Leardini scored at least three goals in six contests, including two five-goal games against CSAT. An All-NFL first team selection, Leardini recorded one point and one goal in 14 of Lew-Port’s 20 games. Leardini recorded 11 goals and 24 assists for the Class A sectional champions. Leardini recorded a point in 14 contests and scored a season-high three goals against CSAT. Leardini tallied two or more assists in seven contests, including a season-high five in the second meeting with CSAT. Leardini was a first-team All-Niagara Frontier League selection. Mullen finished with 10 goals and tied for the team-high of 24 assists. Mullen recorded a point in 11 contests and had one multi-goal game when he scored twice against CSAT. Mullen recorded an assist 11 times, including more than two assists in five contests. Mullen recorded a season-high three assists against North Tonawanda. Named to the All-Niagara Orleans League first team, Neumann finished with 20 goals and 32 points to help the Lakemen earn the No. 1 seed in Class C. Neumann scored in 10 contests, including a season-high four goals against Albion. Neumann recorded a point in 12 of the Lakemen’s 18 contests, with six multi-goal games and three multi-assist games. After competing abroad in Brazil for two years, O’Keefe scored a hat trick in his debut against CSAT. O’Keefe finished second on the team in goals (28) and points (37). An All-NFL third team pick, O’Keefe recorded a point in 15 of 20 games and 10 multi-goal games. O’Keefe also tallied at least three points seven times, with a season-high five in two separate contests. Pachla led the team in goals (21) and assists (24). Pachla scored twice in Grand Island’s Section VI Class A1 championship win against Williamsville East, one of five multi-goal games. Pachla recorded a point in 12 of 20 games, including five multi-assist games. He notched a season-high five assists against Cheektowaga to open sectional play. In his final season, Parrish led Lockport to the Niagara division title of the Niagara Frontier League. An All-NFL first-team pick, Parrish led the 12-5 Lions with 14 goals and 25 points. The forward recorded a point in 13 of 16 games, including two multi-goal games and three multi-assist games. Parrish scored a season-high four goals against North Tonawanda. Named Niagara Frontier League Player of the Year for his defensive prowess, Redfern also tallied a career-high eight goals Redfern scored twice against CSAT and later in the Class A1 semifinal against Williamsville South. Redfern also recorded a point in five contests for Grand Island and scored his final goal in the Class A1 championship against Williamsville East. Named the Niagara-Orleans League Player of the Year, Callard led the Mustangs to a runners-up finish in Class B2. Callard tallied 64 points on 44 goals and 20 assists. Callard led Section VI in goals and points. Callard registered a point in 17 of 19 games, including 11 multi-goal games and five multi-assist games. Callard leaves as Medina’s all-time leader in goals (98), assists (42) and points (140). A first-team All-Niagara-Orleans League pick, Herrmann helped the Lakemen defend their league title. He posted a team-high 26 goals and 47 points. Herrmann recorded a point in 16 of 18 contests, including nine multi-goal games. Herrmann scored a season-high three goals in the season opener against Kenmore West. Herrmann also had seven multi-assist games.. In his final season, Kroening was second on the team with 17 goals and finished with 26 points. Kroening recorded a point in 13 contests for the Mustangs, including two four-point outings. Kroening also scored in 11 games and had multi-goal outings five times. Kroening scored a season-high three goals in a regular season contest against Akron. In his second varsity season, Leardini doubled his scoring totals for the Class A runners-up Lancers, tallying 54 points on 38 goals and 16 assists. Leardini scored at least three goals in six contests, including two five-goal games against CSAT. An All-NFL first team selection, Leardini recorded one point and one goal in 14 of Lew-Port’s 20 games. Leardini recorded 11 goals and 24 assists for the Class A sectional champions. Leardini recorded a point in 14 contests and scored a season-high three goals against CSAT. Leardini tallied two or more assists in seven contests, including a season-high five in the second meeting with CSAT. Leardini was a first-team All-Niagara Frontier League selection. Mullen finished with 10 goals and tied for the team-high of 24 assists. Mullen recorded a point in 11 contests and had one multi-goal game when he scored twice against CSAT. Mullen recorded an assist 11 times, including more than two assists in five contests. Mullen recorded a season-high three assists against North Tonawanda. Named to the All-Niagara Orleans League first team, Neumann finished with 20 goals and 32 points to help the Lakemen earn the No. 1 seed in Class C. Neumann scored in 10 contests, including a season-high four goals against Albion. Neumann recorded a point in 12 of the Lakemen’s 18 contests, with six multi-goal games and three multi-assist games. After competing abroad in Brazil for two years, O’Keefe scored a hat trick in his debut against CSAT. O’Keefe finished second on the team in goals (28) and points (37). An All-NFL third team pick, O’Keefe recorded a point in 15 of 20 games and 10 multi-goal games. O’Keefe also tallied at least three points seven times, with a season-high five in two separate contests. Pachla led the team in goals (21) and assists (24). Pachla scored twice in Grand Island’s Section VI Class A1 championship win against Williamsville East, one of five multi-goal games. Pachla recorded a point in 12 of 20 games, including five multi-assist games. He notched a season-high five assists against Cheektowaga to open sectional play. In his final season, Parrish led Lockport to the Niagara division title of the Niagara Frontier League. An All-NFL first-team pick, Parrish led the 12-5 Lions with 14 goals and 25 points. The forward recorded a point in 13 of 16 games, including two multi-goal games and three multi-assist games. Parrish scored a season-high four goals against North Tonawanda. Named Niagara Frontier League Player of the Year for his defensive prowess, Redfern also tallied a career-high eight goals Redfern scored twice against CSAT and later in the Class A1 semifinal against Williamsville South. Redfern also recorded a point in five contests for Grand Island and scored his final goal in the Class A1 championship against Williamsville East. Callard provided his talents in other facets for Medina’s offense, too. He registered a point in 17 games, with five multi-assist games, including a season-high three in a Class B2 quarterfinal win against Silver Creek/Forestville. But once he found the back of the net, Callard couldn’t be stopped, scoring multiple goals in 11 contests. Callard recorded a season-high five goals twice in contests against Albion and Roy-Hart, one year after his seven-goal performance against Buffalo Academy set the single-game record at Medina and the second most ever in a New York State game. Callard didn’t have to look far to get hooked on playing soccer. Growing up, Callard enjoyed watching his cousin, Medina 2018 graduate and Roberts Wesleyan player Ethan Leonard, play as a center midfielder, the same position he would eventually play. But along with watching YouTube videos and Medina games or competing in travel leagues, Callard participated in multiple camps. To start, Callard’s parents enrolled him in the Olympic Development Program, a once-a-month program for five months at Sahlen's Field when he was 13 or 14 years old. Callard later joined training camps at Buffalo State and Roberts Wesleyan two years ago, where he learned how to attack the open space and not be afraid to make mistakes. But the ODP camp helped develop his craft. “The ODP helped a lot with my ball skills, learning different touches and different moves,” Callard said. “That was probably the main thing I learned from them, just a lot of ball skills and stuff that helped open up space on the field. ... Just doing 100 touches or 1,000 touches, it’s a bunch of different skills that you can do. Just working on your first touch. Wall ball is a big thing.” Since attending the offseason camps, Callard also spent three years playing year-round with the Lockport Lightning of the Lockport Soccer Club, allowing him to compete against faster and more skilled players. But the progression also came during each of his four seasons at Medina. With Callard in the lineup, the Mustangs won 48 games, the most by any player in program history, and posted double-digit wins three times. Along with his skill with the ball, Callard expanded his offensive style of the play with his passing over the four years. “He knows to give the ball up to get it back in a better position,” Medina head coach Steve Luksch said. “Let the defense concentrate on him, whoever has the ball, and he just takes off and everybody forgets about him for a second or two and then he’s got you beat... He’s super unselfish but he’s super smart at the same time ... I knew he wouldn’t take a bad shot.” Medina's Cole Callard was named Greater Niagara Newspapers Player of the Year after tallying 44 goals and 64 points this season. With the high school season over, Callard faces a decision on what he wants to play next, between continuing with soccer or pursuing kicking in football, which he dual sported with the Mustangs for three seasons. Callard is weighing his options and hasn’t made an official choice, but is contemplating a roster spot for kicking at SUNY Cortland and an offer for soccer from Berkeley College, a USCAA Division II school in New Jersey. Soccer became Callard’s first passion at age 5, but his interest in kicking grew as he got older. . “It kind of opened my eyes,” Callard said. “I think, with football, I kind of have a better opportunity, because it’s here in America. And then soccer, you got all those European countries where there’s a lot of good, good players, so I think I have a better chance to go farther at football.”Published 4:29 pm Tuesday, November 26, 2024 By Staff Reports If you’re looking for the best bet to make among the 16 NFL games in Week 13, we’re on the Buccaneers at -6 in terms of the point spreads. Don’t stop there, though — scroll down, because we have lots more suggestions, which you could take advantage of in a parlay. Take advantage of our predictions to make your NFL picks this week. BetMGM has all the information you need to begin betting on the NFL. LAC-ATL | SEA-NYJ | IND-NE | MIA-GB | PIT-CIN Make smart decisions . Use those stats when making your NFL picks and place your bet on BetMGM. Catch every NFL touchdown with NFL RedZone on Fubo. Not all offers available in all states, please visit BetMGM for the latest promotions for your area. Must be 21+ to gamble, please wager responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, contact 1-800-GAMBLER .Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy say they’re hunting for ways to make American government more efficient. One possible target: the semiannual changing of the clock that so many Americans dislike. “Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes!” Musk wrote last week on his social platform, X, linking to another user’s online poll that found most respondents wanted to end daylight saving time. The practice of shifting clocks forward one hour in March and back one hour in November is intended to maximize Americans’ exposure to sunlight during working hours but has long been derided for causing groggy mornings, missed appointments and even some public health problems. “It’s inefficient & easy to change,” Ramaswamy wrote in a reply to Musk. It was not immediately clear whether the two men, whom President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to run a new effort dubbed the “Department of Government Efficiency” were seriously floating a new policy priority or just spitballing on social media. It was also unclear how a Trump White House would seek to end clock changes, given that Congress – not the executive branch – has controlled the nation’s time shifts, and lawmakers’ recent legislation has stalled. Ramaswamy did not respond to a request for comment. X and Tesla, which Musk also owns, did not immediately respond to requests sent to them asking for comment from Musk. In a follow-up post, Musk told Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) that he did indeed want to end the time changes. The simmering fight over how Americans set their clocks, and when they must do it, has drawn unusual coalitions in Washington based more on geography than on politics. Republicans and Democrats, mostly from the coasts, have called for year-round daylight saving time, saying that permanently advancing the clocks one hour and never “falling back” would allow more people to enjoy sunshine and avoid the frustrations involved with resetting clocks. “Switching the clocks just doesn’t make sense for a country on the move,” Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts) said in a statement to The Washington Post. “But we need permanent daylight saving time – more hours of daylight in the evening means more hours to get things done.” Politicians in the center of the country have often balked at the idea, warning that a year-round “spring forward” would mean winter sunrises that could creep past 9 a.m. in cities such as Indianapolis and Detroit. Meanwhile, public health groups have said that permanent standard time would be more natural for our circadian rhythms, citing research that the clock changes increase the risk of heart attacks, stroke and other health problems. “There is a significant stress on the body, and changes that occur, when we are not aligned to the right internal clock,” Lourdes DelRosso, a sleep medicine physician at the University of California at San Francisco-Fresno and co-chair of this year’s World Sleep Day awareness event, said in an interview earlier this year. A March 2023 YouGov poll found that 62% of Americans want to end the practice of changing the clocks, but there was little consensus over what to do next. Half of respondents said they wanted year-round daylight saving time, just under one-third wanted permanent standard time and the remainder said they were unsure or had no opinion. For more than a century, Americans have shifted their clocks forward every spring and back every fall, a tradition that was eventually enshrined in federal law. Voters’ complaints about those clock changes are not new. Lawmakers in the early 1970s moved to permanently adopt daylight saving time, but the decision almost immediately backfired with nationwide complaints, such as children waiting in the dark for school buses to arrive. Congress rolled back the change after 10 months. That defeat has not stopped Markey and other lawmakers who have steadily pushed to lengthen the number of days that Americans spend under daylight saving time, extending that period in 1985, and again in 2005. Most Americans now live with daylight saving time for 238 days a year – nearly eight months. (Two states, Hawaii and most of Arizona, have opted out of the semiannual time changes and remain on permanent standard time, which states are allowed to do.) But states cannot adopt permanent daylight saving time unless Congress passes a bill that allows them to do so. There is a growing political movement attempting to do just that; the Senate in 2022 passed a bill that died in the House. Twenty states have also approved measures that would allow them to adopt year-round daylight saving time if Congress passed a bill making it permanent nationwide, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Other countries have ended their own clock changes, including Mexico, which moved to abolish daylight saving time in 2022. Musk was born and spent his childhood in South Africa – which does not follow daylight saving time – and has previously mocked America’s semiannual time changes. “Finally, an explanation for daylight savings that makes sense ...” the billionaire entrepreneur wrote on social media in 2017, linking to a video by the Onion, a satirical news site, that lampooned the practice. President Biden’s views on time changes are unclear. The White House has not responded to questions in the past two years about whether Biden supported efforts in Congress to adopt year-round daylight saving time, which may have stifled lawmakers’ attempts to attract support for their bill. But the next president appears more receptive. “Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!” Trump wrote on social media in March 2019, the Monday morning after the “spring forward” took effect that year. The Transportation Department oversees the implementation of daylight saving time, and agency officials have said DOT does not have the authority to change it without an act of Congress. It is not clear whether Musk and Ramaswamy, who have argued that recent Supreme Court decisions would allow the White House to make regulatory changes without going through Congress, see a path to doing so with daylight saving time. Their commission is supposed to make its recommendations to the president by July 4, 2026 – the date they’ve targeted to wind down their panel. Musk and Ramaswamy may have other allies in Trump’s emerging administration. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Trump’s pick to serve as secretary of state, has spent years calling to end clock changes and make daylight saving time year-round. “My Sunshine Protection Act would end this stupid practice of changing our clocks back and forth,” Rubio said in a statement in March, referencing his legislation. His office did not respond to a request for comment about whether Rubio had spoken with Musk and Ramaswamy about ending the semiannual clock changes. “Can we just stop changing our clocks twice a year?” Jim O’Neill, Trump’s pick to be deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, wrote on X in 2022. “The one industry that doesn’t need disruption is daylight.” We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use . More information is found on our FAQs . You can modify your screen name here . Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday as well as limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve. Please sign into your Sun Journal account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe . Questions? Please see our FAQs . Your commenting screen name has been updated. Send questions/comments to the editors. « Previous Next »
“House of the Dragon” Season 2 steps up the truly fantastic elements promised in its title. There are way more dragons and Dragonriders in this turn of the same wheel that Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) and Danenyrs Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) will one day attempt to break, many years from the time of George R.R. Martin’s cheekily historiographical telling of the great Targaryen civil war. But for the entire filmmaking team on the HBO series , more spectacle meant focusing on finding ways to make the series look and feel both visually and emotionally grounded. This starts with showrunner Ryan Condal and the “ House of the Dragon ” writing team. Most book adaptations are about synthesis and building visual expressions of what’s conveyed through a first- or third-person narration, but because “House of the Dragon” is a patchwork quilt of different, fictional historians weighing in on events with their own particular biases (shoutout to Mushroom ), Condal and the writers are doing a lot more additive work. For Season 2, that meant not only organically building in the Dragonseeds who will eventually claim their (bastard) birthright but finding moments of emotional context for the decisions our core characters make and then the emotional context of the unintended consequences those decisions create. But every department works in this way — from Ramin Djawadi’s score providing the most immediate route to our characters’ interior life to the VFX team building out dragons so that they each have a sense of real personality to go with their massive scale. Production designer Jim Clay told IndieWire that he believes his role is to create “the psychological climate for the writer’s narrative. And, of course, that plays directly to the actors who must feel. That atmosphere, that mood. [Actors] must feel that they’re really in that space.” In the videos below, watch how VFX supervisor Dadi Einarsson, VFX producer Tom Horton, production designer Jim Clay, and showrunner Ryan Condal all manage to keep “House of the Dragon” grounded, even when those dragons are soaring overhead. Season 2 gave the “House of the Dragon” VFX team a clear gift and a clear challenge: More dragons, please. And so VFX supervisor Dadi Einarsson and VFX producer Tom Horton approached the new designs with clarity as a goal. They wanted each dragon to have its own personality and be as immediately clear to the audience as any other character on the show through their size, color, movement, and expressions. But they also wanted the dragons’ size to be clear to the filmmakers. “It’s very easy in an action sequence in previz to create a very exciting looking sequence when the dragons are low-resolution CG. It all looks great, but when you get all the flesh on the dragons, and the size, and you see a real person on it, suddenly you realize that the dragon is traveling a little too fast, and turning the corner a little too rapidly,” Horton told IndieWire. So for Season 2, the team used motion control cameras on the dragon-riding so that each glorious aerial swoop over a battlefield and each horrified closeup of a rider in trouble could be precisely controlled. “Having the dragons all consistent with one another, having the camerawork feel like it has the constraints of real camerawork. Gives the audience a kind of a base of believability, even though it’s all fantasy and it doesn’t exist, but, you know, having it rooted in something that they’re familiar with helped them suspend their disbelief,” Einarsson told IndieWire. In the video above, watch how Einarsson, Horton, and the VFX team built dragons from digital bones and sinew. There’s no rest for the weary on Season 2 of “House of the Dragon,” and so even though production designer Jim Clay continued to explore familiar places like Dragonstone and King’s Landing, he needed to expand them for Season 2. Clay built out the craggy, sharp corners of Dragonstone to cage Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) in a prison of her own making while he tied the exteriors of the Red Keep to the wider world of King’s Landing, and the common people ever under Aegon’s (Tom Glynn-Carney) shadow. Clay also built a new version of Harrenhal, designed to be as psychologically torturous to Daemon (Matt Smith) as it is wrecked by the history of dragons in Westeros. It’s a great example of physical sets melding with the set extensions and dragon VFX to create a space that threatens to swallow Daemon’s sanity. However painstakingly designed the final VFX ends up being, the work during production still requires the actors and the filmmakers to make huge mental leaps to “see” the fantastical elements and the larger scale of Westeros. So Clay designs the sets of “House of the Dragon” to act as an imaginative bridge everyone can cross confidently — at least with more confidence than the Dragonseeds. “I always feel it must be incredibly hard for the actors to, you know, have to imagine the space in their head and still perform their character. Whereas if I can give them the 360 [degree] surrounding environment, I feel I’m at least setting them off with a bit of a plus,” Clay said. In the video above, watch how Clay starts the filmmaking of “House of the Dragon” off on the right road and crafts a psychological landscape to immerse both the actors and the audience in each unique environment. With “House of the Dragon” Season 2, showrunner Ryan Condal wanted to make sure that each expansion feels at least as satisfying from a structural storytelling point of view as the expanded visuals and spectacle do. Neither the Blacks nor the Greens really want an all-out war, but the choices they make pull them into a spiral from which they cannot escape. It was important, therefore, that the Battle of Rook’s Rest, which kicks off hostilities, feels like a series of reveals and reversals in which characters think they’re in control and realize too late that events are in control of them. “We really have to deliver on this visually, but it can’t just be a visual spectacle. There has to be a character engagement and simple cinematic storytelling engagement that gets people sitting forward in their seat,” Condal told IndieWire. For Rook’s Rest, that engagement is two-fold from a structural, writing perspective. First, there’s traps within traps and the suspense of who will wriggle out of what — wAemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Ser Cristan Cole (Fabien Frankel) think they’ve cornered Rhaenys (Eve Best), but the arrival of Aegon spoiling their plans and maybe the war. Then Condal ties the horrifying reality of what dragons do on a battlefield directly to Cole. “When one of [the dragons] dies or falls or crashes, it’s bad news for everybody on the ground. You see how this very seasoned, experienced soldier is changed by the realization that a nuclear arm went off. He realizes that he is essentially a moot object in this new generation of modern warfare,” Condal said. “What I was really interested in, on a thematic level, is how does this change the game for warfare.” In the video above, watch how Condal changes the game “House of the Dragon” is playing across battlefields literal, political, and emotional. Everything in Season 2 gets more complicated, and Condal makes sure that we feel what each character loses by it.
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None"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" To keep reading, please log in to your account, create a free account, or simply fill out the form below.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s health minister has been removed from his post following a deadly gang attack on the largest public hospital in the capital, Port-au-Prince , government officials said Thursday. According to two government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the subject, Health Minister Duckenson Lorthe will be replaced by Justice Minister Patrick Pelissier until a new health minister is found. Two journalists and a police officer were killed Tuesday as gang members burst into the General Hospital and fired indiscriminately at reporters who were there to cover the facility’s reopening. It was one of the worst attacks on Haitian media in recent memory. Seven other journalists were wounded. Jean Feguens Regala, a photographer who survived the attack , said journalists had been invited to the hospital by the health ministry but there was little security at the site. “The fact that the minister of health invited us, you feel that preparations have been made already,” Regala told The Associated Press. “When we made contact with a police unit, the police told us they were not aware of the event.” The health minister did not show up at the event, for reasons that have not been explained. Shortly after the attack, Johnson “Izo” André — considered Haiti’s most powerful gang leader and part of the Viv Ansanm group of gangs that has taken control of much of Port-au-Prince — posted a video on social media claiming responsibility for the attack. The video said the gang coalition had not authorized the hospital’s reopening. Gang violence has worsened in Haiti, with coordinated gang attacks on prisons, police stations and the main international airport crippling the country’s capital and plunging Haiti into an unprecedented crisis. Gangs are believed to control 85% of Port-au-Prince. The Caribbean country has struggled to organize an election that will restore democratic rule, and is currently governed by a transitional council made up of representatives of political parties, business groups and civil society organizations. Evens Sanon, The Associated PressManmohan Singh India's 'reforms' man and politician with a difference
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