The realm of virtual reality knows no bounds, and that now includes the boundaries of gender.
On June 3rd EA Games announced their newest update of The Sims 4 will now have the option to Customize your Sim’s gender.
In the original gameplay while creating your Sim although you could alter their physical appearance almost any way you pleased, there was only a “male” and “female” option when selecting their gender.
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This was true in all four versions of the game until this recent update.
But now, you can still choose the traditional male and female options, but now may also “Customize Gender.”
This option asks a variety of questions about the Sim you are creating including if your Sim has a more feminine or masculine frame, what their toilet behaviors are, and whether or not the Sim is able to get pregnant.
Clothing selections will also not be limited based on a male or female Sim and will be able to be worn by any Sim.
On their official website, thesims.com, this is what the team had to say about the newest update:
“The Sims is made by a diverse team for a diverse audience, and it’s really important to us that players are able to be creative and express themselves through our games. We want to make sure players can create characters they can identify with or relate to through powerful tools that give them influence over a Sims gender, age, ethnicity, body type and more.”
This update can be done for anyone who currently owns the Sims 4 game, and will a permanent feature to any future buyers of the game.
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Cover Photo Credit: EA Games
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Poland Is Swiftly Drifting Towards Authoritarianism And It Could Put Us All In Danger
Poland’s ruling party, the Law and Justice Party (PiS), has been the source of controversy in Poland and throughout Europe nearly since their arrival to power in October of 2015.
This has been driven by the party’s Euroskeptic agenda, questionable legislation, and generally hostile behavior. As a result, the strategic readiness of the entire Euro-Atlantic area is compromised due to growing fissures between European allies.
The Party’s platform in regards to Poland’s relations with other states emphasizes expansion and modernization of Poland’s military, as well as strong cooperation with the UN, NATO, and in particular the United States.
They are wary of integration with the EU than NATO, but not outright opposed like other European right-wing parties like UKIP in the United Kingdom. It should also be noted that PiS favors further centralization of Poland’s government, which is the source of PiS’s disruptive effect on alliance readiness and cohesion.
The troubles began in December, when PiS moved to replace 15 judges on the Constitutional Court, the primary check against the Parliament.
The troubles began in December, when PiS moved to replace 15 judges on the Constitutional Court, the primary check against the Parliament. This resulted in weeks of protest from concerned Poles.
Shortly after this affront to checks and balances, military police were dispatched to replace officials at a NATO Counterintelligence Center in Krakow.
This change of staff was not relayed to other members of the alliance, including Slovak officials charged with cooperatively coordinating the facility who chastised the move, though no changes were made to the Slovak staff.
From (L to R) the Polish Flag, EU flag, and the NATO flag. Photo Credit: Pawel Kabanski/Flickr (CC by S.A.2.0)
On Jan. 7 of this year, President Andrzej Duda (who resigned from PiS after being elected last May to serve as an independent) signed into law new supreme powers for the Treasury Minister over appointments and firings from state media, as opposed to the previous system of contests hosted by the National Broadcast Council.
This was followed by further protests against the government, and the first of its kind investigation by the EU of PiS’s undemocratic legislation. In the most extreme circumstances this can lead to Poland having its voting rights in the EU Parliament suspended.
The Polish government has responded to this inquiry with aggression at the perceived source of this hostility (Germany) with attacks.
This includes drawing allusions to Nazi Germany in both print, depicting Chancellor Angela Merkel in the garb of Adolf Hitler, and a tough letter from Poland’s Justice Minister aimed at the German EU commissioner.
“You demanded that Poland be placed under supervision. Such words, spoken by a German politician, have the worst possible connotations for Poles,” Poland’s Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said in a letter to the German EU commissioner Gunther Oettinger according to the Financial Times.
This verbal jab is in spite of relations being so warm in 2014 that Germany and Poland agreed to an exchange of commanders of battalions, a German commanding a Polish unit and vice versa, in order to better understand how their allies work.
The military exchange is set to occur in mid 2016. This kind of exchange is critical to belaying atrophy in a highly critical region of NATO’s frontier. If relations deteriorate to the point that this kind of mutually beneficial cooperation is cancelled, it would be a bad signal to Euro-Atlantic security.
These continued worrying actions in affairs, both foreign and domestic, will likely only further isolate Poland from its allies, which in turn damages the readiness of the entire alliance.
While these effects are likely short-term, and may be rectified due to the popular discontent of the Polish people, and pressure from the EU, serious disagreements are a real possibility. Allied states being unwilling to train together would present a much weaker deterrent to any hypothetical Russian adventures in the Baltic Region, due to the much weaker unit cohesion.
With NATO’s 2016 Warsaw Conference coming up, frosty relations may limit the effectiveness of any measures taken at the conference. This would be in stark contrast to the highly productive 2014 Wales Conference, which established the Very High Readiness Joint Taskforce (VJTF), a multinational brigade that can be deployed within 48 hours to respond to a crisis, preceding the full force of the 40,000 man NATO Response Force (NRF).
Thus, it is in the best interest of a party that claims to value Poland’s NATO membership to repair these ties, and perhaps reevaluate how much it values NATO’s deeply entwined sister organization, the EU.
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Cover Photo Credit: Dennis Jarvis/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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How To Livestream ‘Adele Live In New York City’ Concert
Adele’s first concert in four years, titled Adele Live In New York City, will air on NBC Monday at 10 p.m. EST. To watch a livestream of Adele Live In New York City, you will want to log on with your cable provider credentials at NBC.com/live. You could also download the official NBC app on either… Read More
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This Professor Denies That Sandy Hook Happened And Is Finally Being Fired
A conspiracy theory peddling professor at Florida Atlantic University has been given notice by the college that he is in line to be fired in coming days after years of controversial statements according to the Sun Sentinel.
The professor, James Tracy is a leading denier of the Sandy Hook shooting and has claimed that the shooting and every other mass shooting in recent years were staged by governmental agencies.
Adam Lanza, a disturbed 20-year-old man shot and killed 26 people- including 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Tracy is a professor of media history and analysis and has been one of the most vocal deniers that Sandy Hook happened. He disseminates these controversial views on his website called Memory Hole and via a Facebook page called Sandy Hook Hoax.
In a recent blog post, Tracy explained how he came to think that Sandy Hook was faked.
“After several days of reflection, however, my instincts as a media analyst took charge,” Tracy wrote in a post. “In reviewing news coverage of the Sandy Hook School massacre I began to recognize very unusual features in the alleged forensics, the emergency response and the overall way the event was being reported.
“Commonplace emergency protocols were abandoned. There was no surge of EMTs into the building, no proper triage protocol employed or Med-Evac helicopters called. Parents were not even allowed to view and hold the bodies of their deceased children, and law enforcement oddly admonished those who questioned the official narrative online were subject to criminal prosecution.”
Tracy’s views have not been taken seriously by nearly anyone else in academia or media.
Last week, the Sun Sentinel published an opinion piece by Veronique and Lenny Pozner, the parents of a child who was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting.
In the piece, the parents bashed Tracy for asking them to prove that their son actually existed and that they were his parents.
“Tracy is among those who have personally sought to cause our family pain and anguish by publicly demonizing our attempts to keep cherished photos of our slain son from falling into the hands of conspiracy theorists,” Veronique and Lenny Pozner wrote.
FAU made the following statement to the media:
December 16, 2015
Today, James Tracy, an associate professor in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, was served a Notice of Proposed Discipline — Termination by the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Florida Atlantic University.
In accordance with the University’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the United Faculty of Florida union, by which the University and James Tracy are bound, faculty who receive such notice are afforded a grievance process. James Tracy has 10 days to respond to the notice after which final action may be taken.
In accordance with university practice regarding personnel issues, the university will make no further comment for the time being.Have a news tip? Send it to [email protected]. Like to write? You can become a Rise News contributor.
Cover Photo Credit: katiedidd_/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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