The standard Lorem Ipsum passage, used since the 1500s "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?" Thanks for your interest in Kalkine Media's content! To continue reading, please log in to your account or create your free account with us.291 jili 。

Winning start for Van Nistelrooy as Leicester beat West HamBy Lauren Beavis An adorable little donkey named Wonder has received a new prosthetic leg to help her stand and walk - just in time for Christmas. Wonder was born with two deformed hooves leaving her unable to stand or walk. But since being fitted with a specialist prosthesis, the young mule is now able to walk "better than ever before". At a young age, she was admitted to Donkey Sanctuary Bonaire in the Netherlands - a center for neglected, abused, confiscated, sick or old donkeys . Wonder the donkey with its new leg. ( When veterinarians at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Ghent University heard about Wonder's condition, they got in touch with Wesley Michiels from Pet Orthopedics - a company that makes prostheses and braces for animals. Wesley Michiels, head of Pet Orthopedics , said: "The vets contacted us and explained that they wanted to amputate the leg - asking us how they could best go about it to ensure that the donkey would be able to walk again with a view to a prosthesis. "We were on site for about three weeks to carry out the measurements on Wonder." As the vets amputated her little hooves - the orthopedics were able to fit a prosthetic leg that grows as Wonder does. (Pet Orthopedics via SWNS) Wesley said: "The cooperation results in a perfect amputation stump so that the prosthetic device also fits perfectly. "Wonder is still a little donkey who still has to grow in the future, so the prosthesis is adaptive so we can adjust it when she grows. "In the beginning, she has to learn how to use the leg more - but with the prosthetic device she is now already walking better than before." (Pet Orthopedics via SWNS) Wesley says he has worked with donkeys before - but a full prosthesis for the species was a new task for him. He added the new technology has helped many species - from alpacas to dogs and now donkeys . Wesley said: "In the past, the legs of animals were completely amputated up to the shoulder or up to the hip for a problem with toes for example - then sometimes you couldn't do anything with one leg. "But now many vets first call us to ask for advice about the amputation, so that we can put a prosthesis afterwards."

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces legal perils at home and abroad that point to a turbulent future for the Israeli leader and could influence the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, analysts and officials say. The International Criminal Court (ICC) stunned Israel on Thursday by issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 13-month-old Gaza conflict. The bombshell came less than two weeks before Netanyahu is due to testify in a corruption trial that has dogged him for years and could end his political career if he is found guilty. He has denied any wrongdoing. While the domestic bribery trial has polarized public opinion, the prime minister has received widespread support from across the political spectrum following the ICC move, giving him a boost in troubled times. Netanyahu has denounced the court’s decision as antisemitic and denied charges that he and Gallant targeted Gazan civilians and deliberately starved them. “Israelis get really annoyed if they think the world is against them and rally around their leader, even if he has faced a lot of criticism,” said Yonatan Freeman, an international relations expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “So anyone expecting that the ICC ruling will end this government, and what they see as a flawed (war) policy, is going to get the opposite,” he added. A senior diplomat said one initial consequence was that Israel might be less likely to reach a rapid ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon or secure a deal to bring back hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza. “This terrible decision has ... badly harmed the chances of a deal in Lebanon and future negotiations on the issue of the hostages,” said Ofir Akunis, Israel’s consul general in New York. “Terrible damage has been done because these organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas ... have received backing from the ICC and thus they are likely to make the price higher because they have the support of the ICC,” he told Reuters. While Hamas welcomed the ICC decision, there has been no indication that either it or Hezbollah see this as a chance to put pressure on Israel, which has inflicted huge losses on both groups over the past year, as well as on civilian populations. IN THE DOCK The ICC warrants highlight the disconnect between the way the war is viewed here and how it is seen by many abroad, with Israelis focused on their own losses and convinced the nation’s army has sought to minimize civilian casualties. Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, said the ICC move would likely harden resolve and give the war cabinet license to hit Gaza and Lebanon harder still. “There’s a strong strand of Israeli feeling that runs deep, which says ‘if we’re being condemned for what we are doing, we might just as well go full gas’,” he told Reuters. While Netanyahu has received wide support at home over the ICC action, the same is not true of the domestic graft case, where he is accused of bribery, breach of trust and fraud. The trial opened in 2020 and Netanyahu is finally scheduled to take the stand next month after the court rejected his latest request to delay testimony on the grounds that he had been too busy overseeing the war to prepare his defense. He was due to give evidence last year but the date was put back because of the war. His critics have accused him of prolonging the Gaza conflict to delay judgment day and remain in power, which he denies. Always a divisive figure in Israel, public trust in Netanyahu fell sharply in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas assault on southern Israel that caught his government off guard, cost around 1,200 lives. Israel’s subsequent campaign has killed more than 44,000 people and displaced nearly all Gaza’s population at least once, triggering a humanitarian catastrophe, according to Gaza officials. The prime minister has refused advice from the state attorney general to set up an independent commission into what went wrong and Israel’s subsequent conduct of the war. He is instead looking to establish an inquiry made up only of politicians, which critics say would not provide the sort of accountability demanded by the ICC. Popular Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth said the failure to order an independent investigation had prodded the ICC into action. “Netanyahu preferred to take the risk of arrest warrants, just as long as he did not have to form such a commission,” it wrote on Friday. ARREST THREAT The prime minister faces a difficult future living under the shadow of an ICC warrant, joining the ranks of only a few leaders to have suffered similar humiliation, including Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi and Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic. It also means he risks arrest if he travels to any of the court’s 124 signatory states, including most of Europe. One place he can safely visit is the United States, which is not a member of the ICC, and Israeli leaders hope US President-elect Donald Trump will bring pressure to bear by imposing sanctions on ICC officials. Mike Waltz, Trump’s nominee for national security adviser, has already promised tough action: “You can expect a strong response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC & UN come January,” he wrote on X on Friday. In the meantime, Israeli officials are talking to their counterparts in Western capitals, urging them to ignore the arrest warrants, as Hungary has already promised to do. However, the charges are not going to disappear soon, if at all, meaning fellow leaders will be increasingly reluctant to have relations with Netanyahu, said Yuval Shany, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. “In a very direct sense, there is going to be more isolation for the Israeli state going forward,” he told Reuters.

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We all know what happens when voice acting goes wrong. There’s a reason your brain still reads "It's-a-me, Mario!" in Charles Martinet’s legendary voice, not whatever Chris Pratt’s doing (or isn’t doing) in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog family flicks are playing the same adaptation game, but avoid making the same mistakes when it comes to gimmick casting that doesn’t benefit the role. That's the problem with celebrity stunt casting in animated movies and why it should be avoided — you sacrifice quality for a (hopeful) box office cheat code. Everyone's favorite Parks and Recreation brat isn't just Ben Schwartz-ing through Sonic's dialogue. The actor strives to honor Sonic's voice in past SEGA video games while putting his spin on a more juvenile character interpretation. There's an art to Schwartz's voice acting and acknowledgment of Sonic's prior iterations. Like Mario, Sonic's voice appears in television shows and video games when speech became more than 8-bit garble or speech synthesis. Why would you want to erase all that history and relation? The difference in quality between The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise depicts the stark contrast between memorable and forgettable revamps. Universal and Illumination's mushroom-eating adaptation opts for the aforementioned celebrity stunt castinga cold and transactional method focused on maximizing profits at all costs. Sonic the Hedgehog invests in transformative voice acting, where the draw isn't who's behind pixelated recordings but the characters on screen. It's an animated film's job to immerse audiences in fantastical worlds, which the hybrid live-action Sonic movies accomplish whether in the fictional town of Green Hills, modern-day Tokyo, or a digitized mushroom planet. That’s because no matter the backdrop, Schwartz and company want you to believe Sonic, Tails, and the whole gang are real. They don’t want the credit themselves. The Super Mario Bros. Movie boasts a stacked cast, but what do they bring to their character personalities? Jack Black grumbles and croons as a serviceable Bowser (Black himself is a cartoon character, so that checks out), but even impressionist Keegan-Michael Key's Toad is oddly flat. Luigi sounds like Charlie Day but vaguely New Yorker, Donkey Kong is straight-up Seth Rogen, Princess Peach is an unaltered Anya Taylor-Joy — there's no passion behind vocal development. It's the equivalent of dialogue cosplay if purchased on Temu, like slapping a novelty mustache on Chris Pratt while he holds a plunger. Meanwhile, Ben Schwartz has a motormouth zip about his words that matches Sonic's hyperspeed lifestyle. Schwartz can be hilarious as Sonic does his best Quicksilver from X-Men impression during slow-motion action scenes, but also heartfelt and emotional when Sonic faces insurmountable odds or learns everlasting lessons. There's depth to Schwartz's vocal performance that speaks to the values of professional voice acting, which is infinitely harder than it looks. You’re reading lines off scripts in silent isolation, unable to interact with co-stars who’ll share scenes with your pixelated and dubbed role — yet Schwartz makes it look easy. Sonic never feels out of place next to James Marsten or Jim Carrey, as Schwartz’s range, through sound only, hits more dimensions than live-action actors benefitting from all their theatrical tools. What's distracting and frustrating about The Super Mario Bros. Movie is how all the film's voices have countless reference points, none of which the studio cares to duplicate or reward. When novels or comic books are adapted to film, there's a freedom to cast without direct audible comparisons. But a video game series with hours upon hours of line readings from voice actors who are still readily available for role reprisals? It's not only disrespectful to the artists who've mastered their crafts and helped galvanize a studio's brand, but distracting from a fanbase standpoint. Slaslfilm’s BJ Colangelo makes a compelling case to "stop screwing with legacy characters," and she's right. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 takes its reverence for its source material a step farther,, introducing beloved animal buddies Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles the Echidna. Now, Tails has one of the more unique voices in the Sonic universe — so Paramount went right to the source by hiring Tails' voice actress since 2010, Colleen O'Shaughnessey. Knuckles eventually went to Idris Elba, but not as stunt casting. Elba's take on Knuckles understands the fight-first character, echoing his Drax-like barbarian mannerisms with a gruff warrior's tone. There's even a video of Elba wearing personalized Knuckles gloves during recording sessions so he can disappear into the role, which helps us forget there's an Englishman in a box somewhere reading lines. Then there's the casting of Keanu Reeve as Shadow in Sonic The Hedgehog 3. A handful of voice actors have put their spin on Shadow as a baddie and anti-hero, which Reeves manipulates into his John Wickian hedgehog. You can hear Reeves in Shadow's bluntness and gravel, but there's a more profound parallel. Shadow's history is one of coldness and tragedy at the hands of G.U.N., which Reeves handles with empathy. Reeves himself has dealt with unthinkable hardships throughout his life, tying this sympathetic bond between actor and character. Keanu Reeves isn’t playing Shadow the Hedgehog, he is Shadow the Hedgehog, and the parallels between actor and character help develop a well-rounded alien who is himself on screen, not the man behind the words (even if he sounds just like him). Each actor's connection to their colorful counterparts is the secret sauce that's elevated Paramount's Sonic franchise above other video game adaptations. The Super Mario Bros. Movie sold itself on the backs of Chris Pratt, Jack Black, and the entire ensemble cast. Sonic the Hedgehog has enlisted equally impressive stars, but these movies aren't about Keanu Reeves or Idris Elba. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow are the stars — the characters are who we’re talking about after after the credits roll. When you watch any Sonic the Hedgehog after or before The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the debate over celebrity stunt casting falls apart. As an Italian, I laughed when Chris Pratt was announced as Mario but kept an open mind only to be proven wrong. As a Sonic fan who saw those nightmare first renderings of Sonic with teeth, I entered even more nervous — once again proven wrong. Paramount's voice cast choices have been aces thus far, endearing these movies to Sonic fans instead of pushing them away. Let's give kudos where appropriate — the fantastic voice actors selflessly bringing Sonic and his buddies to life on the big screen.A quarter-century ago, Michael and Patricia Ferry diligently prepped for the potential crash of computer systems across the world as the year changed from 1999 to 2000. The "Y2K bug" whipped up concerns across the globe about a technological collapse that could affect computer-reliant businesses, governments and more. As programmers shored up computer infrastructures worldwide, countless survival guides — many with intense titles such as "The Y2K Tidal Wave: Year 2000 Economic Survival" and "The Millennium Meltdown" — were published. The Year 2000 problem, or simply Y2K, refers to potential computer errors relating to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after the year 2000. Many programs represented four-digit years with only the final two digits, making the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900. The fear was that this byte-saving tactic could have disastrous impact when the year flipped, with "2000" read as "1900," possibly taking down power grids, banks, flights and more. As the U.S. government, under then-President Bill Clinton, relied on compliance and education-related initiatives to boost both government and business, the Ferrys did their own prep. Throughout 1999, the couple stockpiled their home in Cochranton, Crawford County, with enough nonperishable food to last the family of four for months, stacked wood that would last two winters, and kept oil lamps and a solar cooker on hand. All in case the worst-case scenario became reality. "We figured if the entire grid went down, we had the ability to eat and keep ourselves warm," Ferry, now 63, told the Post-Gazette — where he and his wife's preparations ahead of Y2K were featured on the front page of the newspaper in an edition published on Jan. 3, 1999. Most Americans were aware of the "millennium bug" issue, with a March 1999 Gallup survey of 2,653 adults finding that just 7% reported hearing "nothing" about it. The Ferry's preparations raised some eyebrows among others in the community, Ferry recalled, but he paid no mind. "There's always pushback," he said. "There's always those that stand on the sidelines. ... I said, 'If everything goes bad, I'm ready.' If everything goes good, I was prepared and could use what I've got to provide for my life." With an estimated $200 billion to $600 billion spent across the globe to avert it, the large-scale crash never happened. The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economics and Statistics Administration, in a November 1999 report, noted that, "(t)o find and fix their Y2K problems, businesses and government agencies have diverted in the neighborhood of $100 billion from other purposes in recent years." A regional preparedness While the Ferrys readied themselves ahead of Y2K, so did hospitals, banks, utilities, schools and numerous other organizations across the region. The Pittsburgh Public School District purchased software packages that fortified the computers against any potential Y2K glitches. The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh updated the central computer system — holding financial and payroll information — for its schools to prevent any issues as well. Meanwhile, hospital networks across the region, including Pittsburgh Mercy Health System and the UPMC umbrella, readied generators and reviewed biomedical equipment to evaluate the propensity to malfunction in late 1999. At the time, West Penn Allegheny Health System, now under Allegheny Health Network, "had a full-scale emergency operations team that began working together months in advance of the turnover, anticipating every possible element of our operations that might be impacted," Dan Laurent, AHN vice president of corporate communications, stated in an email. Municipalities across the region also followed suit. Murrysville officials formed a committee a year before New Year's Day 2000 that came up with a 15-step plan to prepare for any issues a computer glitch could bring. In Whitaker, buildings were identified ahead of the new year to house people if needed. West Mifflin police set up a system where a siren would sound outside the fire hall with the press of a button in case phone lines went down. In Pleasant Hills, borough officials even discussed identifying "street leaders" throughout the community who would be given a borough-provided two-way radio to request help in the case of an emergency, though former emergency management coordinator Bob Martys said recently that he does not recall if that plan was ever enacted. He did, however, remember how he spent New Year's Eve in 1999: with his family, alongside other borough officials, including the fire chief and mayor, at the Pleasant Hills Volunteer Fire Company. "We just didn't know what was going to happen with phone communications or anything like that, so once we got closer to New Year's, we decided let's all spend New Year's Eve together at the fire company," Martys said. In the lead-up to 2000, he said, anticipating any issues related to computers was at the forefront of the minds of borough leadership. "It was a big priority for us," he said. "Of course, as you can imagine, the borough officials, mayor and council folks, we were very concerned." And despite the fact that no major outages occurred, Martys said, looking back, he is still happy the borough prepared as much as it did. "I am certainly glad that we were, what I would call at this point in time, overly prepared, just in case," he said. "We're a close-knit community. We just wanted to make sure that we were able to take care of our residents and do whatever we needed to make that happen." Ferry — who now lives with his wife in remote and sparsely populated Spray, Ore. — said the education he got while prepping for the turn of the millennium stuck with him. In order to be prepared for other potential emergencies, "whether it be earthquake, wildfire or a devastation of the national grid," the Ferrys are ready. That includes having three different sources of power for their home — solar, propane and car-powered — maintaining a well for clean water and keeping a stockpiled pantry. In 1999, as "a 37-year-old that thought he was invincible," Ferry said he learned a lot, both about himself and how to prepare for the worst. "I had to evaluate, what if some neighbors don't have the ability to provide for themselves? Can I make what I have stretch to provide for my community?" (c)2024 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at www.post-gazette.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Number of women who are state lawmakers inches up to a record high

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