So our first talk is a fault attacks made easy differential fault analysis automation on assembly code by Jacob Brie, Jalu Hu, Lang Lui and presented by Jacob Brie. Thank you. So good morning everyone. So this is the outline of my talk. First I will present some general background on fault injection attacks, differential fault analysis and I will present the motivation of automating this. Then I will explain data which stands, then I will present data which stands for DFA automation tool for assembly code, which is the tool which implements the methodology from our work. Then I will present the case study on present cipher which we analyzed by the attack and finally I will come to conclusion. So what are fault injection attacks or fault attacks? So they are semi-invasive physical attacks. For this kind of attack, often a device the packaging is required in order to get the direct access to the chip. These attacks exploit the possibility to insert a fault in the process of the algorithm execution in a way that could help reveal the key. So basically these attacks change the values during the processing of the algorithm. This idea was introduced more than 20 years ago. First, Bonach, Damilo and Lipton targeted CRT version of RSA algorithm. There are several fault injection techniques which can be used. These are probably the most common ones. So we have voltage glitching which varies the supply voltage of the chip to change the values. Similar to this is clock glitching which varies the clock signal of the chip. Then we have electromagnetic fault injection which can be either harmonic one which is a stable pulse which affects analog circuits or pulse injection which affects digital circuits. Then we have lesser fault injection which is probably the most precise one out of these. For this the deep packaging is required in order to have access on the chip. So after we inject the fault we need to do some analysis method in order to recover the secret. For our work we used DFA or differential fault analysis which is the most popular fault analysis technique to target symmetric block savers. It was also introduced more than 20 years ago by Bihem and Shamir. For this attack the attacker injects a fault into the chosen round of the algorithm. Normally it's one of the last three rounds. Then he gets the faulty cipher text and at the end he compares the faulty cipher text with the original one to get the secret key information. Why do we decide to automate this? So far all the current symmetric block ciphers have been shown to be vulnerable against faulty text especially against DFA. So the question is not whether the algorithm is secure or not but which part of it is particularly insecure. And to this question automated methods can provide an answer fast with a minimal need of human intervention which is more error prone. And then why automation assembly code? So in practice the attack always has to be done on a real device so we are not doing it on a high level cipher representation. And different implementations of the same algorithm do not share the same, do not have to share the same vulnerabilities. And also there might be an exploitable spot in the implementation which we can't really see from the cipher design because the implementers use techniques to optimize the algorithm execution. So while there are works which focus on the cipher design level, one of them will be presented by Shia and Iblater, there is no work aiming at the FA on the assembly level to such extent. So we try to bridge this gap by our work. This is the overview, the high level overview of the attack. So the tool takes the assembly code as an input. It constructs customized data flow graph which preserves important aspects of the implementation. So for example what are the ciphertext nodes, key nodes, plaintext nodes and which instructions are nonlinear because these are important for the DFA. And then based on user-specified output criteria, I will talk about this later, it selects vulnerable nodes. For each vulnerable node it creates a sub graph. So the sub graph is basically portion of DFG which captures the fault propagation from the vulnerable node all the way to the ciphertext. And for each of the sub graphs it generates a set of fault analysis equations or DFA equations which can be directly used for the attack. So what are our assumptions? The first one is common for DFA. It assumes known ciphertext model and a single fault adversary. The second one, the single fault adversary means the attacker can inject exactly one fault during the algorithm execution. Then we assume the implementation is known to the attacker which is also a common assumption for DFA. He can also add annotations to assembly code just to specify the rounds, round keys, ciphertext words, et cetera. For our work we have chosen the admin IVR instruction set. However, if you take the whole framework, only the parsing sub-system has to be changed in order to use some different instruction set. The analysis works on the DFG and that part is universal. Also the methodology presented in the paper is universal. And the last assumption is we assume the implementation is unrolled. So there are no direct or indirect jumps. It has been shown before that if we actually have these jumps the attacker can always skip them and then trivial fault analysis can apply. This is a dummy cipher, an example program and corresponding data flow graph generated by DataTek. So we can see that DataTek identifies certain nodes like the key nodes and it analyzes instruction by instruction. So here we have highlighted the anti-instruction which is a nonlinear instruction in this code. So it splits into rounds and when it targets some instruction it takes the fault propagation all the way to the ciphertext. The vulnerable nodes are selected according to output criteria. So what are these? The user can specify, for example, how many ciphertext nodes should be affected by the vulnerable node. Then what is the distance? What is the minimum distance and maximum distance from the vulnerable node to the ciphertext node? So this means what is the number of nonlinear instructions in this path? Then the user can select what is the number of round keys. So this basically specifies up to how many rounds from the last round we will be targeting and what is the number of keywords we want to target by this single vulnerable node. So if you take the previous example, let's say we select the output criteria to be all ones. So just one ciphertext node, the distance is exactly one. The number of keywords is one and also we want only to attack the last round key. And the DataTek selects vulnerable nodes. This is one of the nodes, R0. And the second one, it creates subgraph for this. So there is another important parameter, which is depth. Depth specifies how many layers above the vulnerable node we want to see. This is important when we analyze the equations because sometimes we can't really see the full propagation directly from the node, but we can see it if we go several instructions higher above the node. So on the left side of the picture we can see the depth 0. On the right side there is depth 1, so there is basically one instruction above the vulnerable node. Now if you take the right side picture with the depth 1, DataTek generates the equations which are here. And for this we can already see how to do the DFA. So for example for this case in the first equation we can see that some value is ended with some constant which has four zeros in the beginning. So in case we skip the instruction number 8, in equation number 3, we get directly first four bits of the secret key in the ciphertext because instead of the product of the third equation, actually the product of the second will be used, sorry, the product of the first equation will be used. So the exor will contain four zeros at the beginning. This might see as a simple example, but I will show later that some implementations actually use constants heavily to optimize the code. So just a simple recap of present cipher which we used for case study. It has block length of 64 bits, key length can be either 80 or 128. It is based on substitution permutation network. So it has a key addition, S-box layer with 4-bit S-box and a bitwise permutation. So these three operations are repeated in 31 rounds and then there is a post-wetting key addition at the end. If we construct the data for graph of present, it is very complex and it is very hard to analyze manually. The unloading implementation consists of over 4,700 instruction actually. However, if you use data it only takes a couple of seconds to actually construct the subgraphs and equations for each of the vulnerable nodes. So what we found is an implementation-specific attack on present. So we just took publicly available implementation and unrolled it. Then we selected kind of default output criteria which is all ones. And the attack found can recover the last round key by just 16-fold injections. So far the DFA is on present. Always explore the S-box lookup which requires the analysis of the difference distribution table. However, our attack which is implemented in specific takes the implementation characteristics into account and it exploits the OR operations operation which is used in this implementation. So how does it work? Basically the vulnerability of the implementation is in a way how the S-box layer and the permutation layer are combined into the form of tables. And basically then the output of these tables is always two bits from each table. And we need to combine the outputs of these tables. So for combining the outputs, a series of ORs and ANDs are used together with the usage of some constants. So for example, this is one of the attacks. We can see that some intermediate value is ended with 0, 3, which means the first six bits are zeros. And in this node the R23, if we flip some of the first six bits, we can get the values here because the rest up to the ciphertext is linear. And once we have the first six bits of R22, we can very easily get the first six bits of one of the key nodes. Because the first six bits are linearly related. When we want to recover the other two bits, in this case we need to go higher. So we need to use depth up to 3 to get the equations which actually show us all the other constants where the last two bits are actually zeros. And then we can recover the other portion of the keynote. And in the similar fashion, we can recover all the other key nodes because they are done in a similar fashion. So what is important with automation tools is scalability. What we did, we tested data on AES with different number of rounds. So we varied from one round up to 50 rounds. And we can see that in a case of 50 rounds we have over 10,000 nodes and over 16,000 edges. And yet the analysis time is still below 40 seconds. And the memory consumption is below half GB. And the analysis was done on a relatively older Core i7 processor with just 8 GB of RAM. So to conclude, we propose the methodology which is capable of finding vulnerable spots in software implementations of crypto algorithms. We created a tool which implements our methodology. It takes the assembly implementation and the user-specified output criteria as an input. And then it outputs a series of vulnerable nodes with subgraphs corresponding to each node and with equations corresponding to each subgraph. By this, we found a new attack on present AT which exploits weaknesses which are not actually visible from the cypher design level and can be only found when targeting the implementations. As I showed, the tool is scalable and it is capable of analyzing current algorithms efficiently. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you for the presentation. Would it be possible to use your tool to prove the security? To prove the security. I'm sorry, it's still... I think you were saying would it be possible to use this to prove the security of the implementation? Okay, so actually, we have a follow-up to this work which also automates the last portion of the analysis. So it uses a set solver to actually solve the equations. So for this, the formal proof is sound. So which means in case data finds some vulnerable spot and we do all the analysis, we do the subgraphs, the equations, then we solve them by set solver, it is a proof that this vulnerable spot is really vulnerable. So it can be really exploitative. However, so far it doesn't work from the other side. So it doesn't guarantee that it finds all the vulnerable spots. Maybe time for another quick question, if anyone. So sort of a link to that, would it be possible to use this to sort of test a countermeasure? Can you distinguish between faults that would be caught and faults that wouldn't be caught? Yes, so far, yeah, of course you can analyze the countermeasure. But you need to take into account that it does just single faults. So let's say if you have already done the single-measure, in order to break the countermeasure, you need to inject at least two same faults into each of the circuits. So yeah, you can test whether it is safe with respect to single-fault adversary. So it is also for a follow-up work to do multi-fault adversary to analyze more comprehensive countermeasures. Thanks. I thank the speaker again. Thank you. Thank you.


The Top-Tekker Zig-Zag Dribble. You need a ball and six markers you can dribble around. Keep the ball close to your feet and stay light on your toes. Use the inside and outside of your feet to move the ball. Accelerate quickly away from each marker.  Keep practicing until you're ready to take the challenge and claim your trophy.


nded, is yes, 62. No, 54. There were six abstentions. The motion as amended is therefore agreed. I propose to ask a single question on parliamentary bureau motions 1570, 1572 and 1573. If any member objects a single question being put, please say so now. No one objects. I put the question therefore that we agree motions 1570, 1572 and 1573. Are we all agreed? We are all agreed. That concludes decision time. We will now move on to members' business. Members could change their seats.


Hello people of the internet! My name is Johnny. Welcome back to Five Nets at Freddy's Top 1 & 2. I, um, I accidentally got an ending off-camera. Well, it wasn't off-camera. I was still recording, but I didn't get it while I was, like, commentating or expecting to get an ending. Because it all started off in the FazCade, because, you may notice, I do have it unlocked, but at the end of the last episode, we were missing this final Fazzer Blast level. And you have to do a very complex series of steps to unlock it. So I'm going to show you guys first off in this video how you can unlock that final level for Fazzer Blast. First thing you're going to want to do is go to the first level in Fazzer Blast, and there's some rockets you got to shoot. That's not the rocket. It's a smaller rocket. It's going to have a target on it. So as you can see, this is the first Fazzer Blast level. This is the space one. And during this second segment, where all the characters are flying by, not that rocket again, should be around here when Lullhack starts coming out. Here it is. So you got to hit that. It's going to freak out. And it's going to, I think it comes out, it crashes over here and it knocks down this board. And then once you've done that, honestly, you can just quit out the game and move on to the next Fazzer Blast level. You don't actually have to complete the minigame. So next up, go to the second one. This is the old Western Fazzer Blast level. During this segment with the train on the second level, you got to hit these to open up the windows in the train. And in the background, that's where the ship's going to show up. And it goes by very quick. So hopefully I can hit it. Here we go. It took a little bit. And I think that knocks down that hay bale and falls right there. This is all important. Now I've got a hard mode and we need to go to FNAF 1. This is going to be the final rocket ship. And then in FNAF 2, this is a bit more extra steps. Alright, it's going to be in this first little office segment here. I want to make sure there's nothing in the way so like, targets can get in your way and you can miss the ship. Of course, get rid of these guys because they'll jump scare you and take up the whole screen. Should be coming up pretty soon. Chica, go away. Bonnie, no. I hear you. Where are you at? You're up there. I hear it. There we go. Freddy, no. And that's going to knock down that barrel. So the thing about the FNAF 2 Feather Blast is that you literally have to play FNAF 2. So, let's see Foxy. So the thing about Foxy is you need to shine the hallway light and then knock down all of his limbs. I hear a bitty bab. Go away. Go away. I need to get the puppet. Don't jump scare me. There you go. Look around a bit. Hey, bitty bab. Okay, so Bonnie's in the vent. So what are you going to do? Go to this vent and you're going to pop all the balloons that make up the animatronics. It doesn't seem like you have to get all of them. Let me just get the puppet as well. But at least a good majority of all the balloons. I hear you. Go away. Just look around a bit more. Wind up the box. Let's see. Where's... Okay, the balloon boy's in the vent now. Just wind that up. The balloon boy's in the vent. Get rid of his balloons. Ironically enough. See, we're looking for Toy Freddy, Toy Chica, Toy Bonnie. Okay, there's Toy Chica. Get rid of her. You got to shoot away the cupcake made of balloons. There you go. I hear you. Go away. And yeah, throughout all this, you're still being hunted by the bitty babs. Okay, there's Mangle. Get rid of Mangle. This is honestly so fun. Go away. You're in the sky. I understand. I need to throw the balls to get rid of the take cake guys. But I'm not really after them. Okay, there's Toy Freddy. For Toy Freddy, we got to put on the mask. Just like that. And he's going to go away. Awesome. Now, we need Toy Bonnie. I think he's the last one. Oh, shoot. I'm going to shine the light. Where's you? Go away. Go away, Bonnie. And I think, if you do it right, yep, here goes. This is what happens. So everything we've done in the previous games that blows up that barrel, a whole fire starts, corny sets on fire, and that is how you unlock the final game in Fazer Blast. Let's see, what do we get for burning down the whole carnival? We got, oh, the celebrate poster. So I have not seen what this game is like. As you can see, I've not even done the tutorial. So I don't know what we're in store for. Oh no. Springtrap's lurking around.  What? So I got to do the regular, oh no. Am I going to see like the charter remains of the carnival? Oh, no. Oh, shoot. Carny. Jesus. Oh my, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, I got to hit him from all the way over here? There's a thing in my way. No. Shoot. Okay. Oh, shoot. Of course, you're still here. No. Go away. Springtrap. Is that even the real Springtrap? That just looks like he's got, oh no. It looks like he's just a cutout. Where is he? He's over here. Oh, can I get his head?  I see his eyes now. I heard you. Go away.  Okay, go on him. What is that? What can I do with those? Oh, no. How am I supposed to get you? Where? Springtrap. Hate you again? Okay, nice. Okay, that knocked off a lot. Shoot. So his organs are like little balloons. They're made out of balloons. What's left is pelvis. Where do you go? No. Can I hit you with a ball? Look at that shot. Wait, I see his heart. No. Springtrap. You still got something on your leg. Go away. Got that. What? I saw you. Where are you? Go away. Stop. What? Dude, you're behind planks. I can't even see you anymore. Where's my laser? Here. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop, stop. Jesus Christ. What is this? Wait, Glitchtrap?  Yippee. What'd I get? Burned corny. Oh, I feel bad for corny. He didn't mean it. Well, actually, he was pretty rude.   Alright. Well, I think, so I beat it then, right? Yeah, I did beat it. Okay, so all we have left to do for minigames is I think food prep. Let me just double check. We've done everything there. Backstage. Yup. So all we have left to do is food prep. So let's do the Fazbear Theater and then I will show you guys the ending when you get all of the what's my mask? So in between grinding all these phaser blast levels, I noticed the gift box here that previously just gave me this Freddy figure. If I put it on this pedestal, it would keep resetting and it would give me new figures of Chica, Bonnie, Foxy, Golden Freddy and the Puppet. And eventually, if you get all of them, they'll combine into, as you saw in the ad, the phastron, you know, the ultimate like Gundam guy. And then once you get that, you get the ending and it is just, I lost my mind. Luckily I was recording so you can see my reaction, but I'll show you guys again anyways. But first up let's finish off the minigames just so we have them all out of the way. So Fazbear Theater I figured out what I was doing wrong in this one. Yeah, so the blendies you have to put a cup right down. Sorry, I didn't mean to do that just yet. You have to put a cup right there obviously because it makes another drink.  That looks really gross though, Chica. You actually want to drink this. Alright, whatever. I need a pretzel with some nacho cheese on it. Hey, I'm getting you your food. Relax. Lemon bar, exotic blendie. Oh boy. Oh, that's right. I forgot about the endos. Wait, why does it have an X? I did that right. Pretzel. Are there different pretzels? You're not happy are you? Jesus, hi. Wait, what? Okay, I'll get it again. You want ketchup on your popcorn for some reason. That sounds disgusting, but I won't judge you. Okay, then exotic blendie lemon bar. Let's get this. I need a bit of this. I'm getting your food. Relax. And then Sodoroni blendie. I got that. Hi, hi, hi. Relax, relax. So does the X mean like you don't want it? Like I'm not supposed to put it on the tray even though it's listed on the board? Blendie butter or yes. Okay. So this should be it then, right? Take it. Yes. You happy with that? Does that mean you don't want that? I'm very confused. I'm very confused. Whoa. Oh God. All right, they're here. Get ready for these guys. You go away if you get close enough, right? Wait, I can't flash. Okay, I don't like that. I don't like that. I need to buy this. You need to go away, sir. Stop. Okay, it might be better to like lure you and then flash you to go away. If it would flash, okay. Hi, need popcorn with ketchup. Chico, you're weird. You're that popcorn with ketchup and then a pretzel with ketchup. Is it a weird pretzel? I can't tell. Is there another one of you? Yes, there is. Okay, I can't tell which pretzel is what pretzel. So I'm just going to hope that that is the correct pretzel. Got everything there. Here, Endo, you come over this way. Or are you gone? You're gone. Okay. Hey Chica, you like that? That's good. Okay. I feel like I hear them. Okay, exotic beverage. I got that. Hot dog with ketchup. Ketchup. I hear one of you. No, it's just Chica. Chowder with ketchup. I see one of you now. Are you faster? Hot dog with cheese. Hot dog with cheese. That is cheese. And then a Techno Cooler. So this. No! Chica! Crap! What else am I missing? No, I got it. Right? I think I got it. Do you leave when I get the order? It seems like it. I just need to get Chowder. I just need Chowder. I think that's everything. You're gone, right? Yeah, seems like they do de-spawn. Let's get that ready. Chica, how many steps do you have? Because this is already getting pretty intense. Don't be more. Don't. Yes! Okay, thank god. And that's all the minigames. Wait, that actually wasn't too, too bad. Where do I get? I got, great, a meat pretzel. Yippee. Yes! Near the what? This. Okay. So, I do kind of know what that's alluding to because I was told that there is another ending, but it requires a butt ton of steps. But speaking of endings, let me show you the ending you get for getting all of these guys.  So, I guess that's how you get it? Well, let me show you my reaction first, and then we'll go through and we'll replay it. If I reset. Can I just open the last one? Uh, yeah. Let's have a look. This is the puppet. Cool. Whoa. Well, they're gone now. Whoa, big prize. What's this, dude? What? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! What? Was that glitch trap? Dude, what is going on? It is way too late at night. I can't be screaming right now. Whoa!  Dude, what the frick was that? I did not mean to get an ending right now. Dude, it is literally like midnight right now. Everyone else is asleep. I was just trying to, I was just trying to grind for the ending. I didn't know this was the ending. Hey, guys. Oh my god. Wait, did they? Yeah, I thought they changed Cassie's model. Her face looks so different. It looks so good. So, for the ending, because I mean that has to be the ending, because the frickin credits played, I was not prepared for that. Can I rewatch it, actually? That's weird, too. That's not there. There's graffiti around the place now. Yeah, like this Ballora thing wasn't there. There was there was Hopi earlier. Oh, wait. Oh my god, this is great.  We were the mask bot and we gave Cassie, we were the ones that gave Cassie the digital Vanny mask. Let me watch that again, because I didn't can I watch it again? Here we go. So, this is where are we? Okay, we're here. And who is that? Oh my god. It seems Hey guys. It seems like glitch trap's hand. It seems kinda yellow and lanky. So, I'm guessing that's glitch trap. And then the nightmare-y own staff bots attack us. Kinda like how they attacked Freddy. Take a mask. Take a mask. Yeah, Cassie looks so good. Oh my god. What an amazing touch up on the model. And then we are giving her the mask. That's weird. So, upon getting the ending, you get this that you can put up on the stage. New model Cassie, the mask bot from Ruin. I still don't entirely know what the ending means. I don't know if where. The mask bot, I'd assume throughout this whole game we're a bot that's being trained through all of these scenarios. A lot of people assume we are probably Cassie's dad, which I guess works too. I can't remember if this is the floor that happened in that scene with Ruin, because that happens in I think Monty's area. But we're a mask bot giving Cassie the Vanny mask. And then she puts it on, and then that's it. It's a very, very strange ending. So, I'd honestly love to know your guys' thoughts and theories on that ending because, man, it's so, it's so interesting. I was not at all expecting to see Cassie, dude. I freaked the frick out. So, the final thing I want to do in this video, before we end it off, is get the final coins needed for Candy Cadet Story. I think I'm missing three, and I know where they are. So, first up, we need to go back to Arts and Crafts with the Sun. Should be... Is this it? Yes, here it is. Hi, Sun. Then we need to go to Hard Mode. We need to go to Backstage with Roxanne. And then in a drawer, we should find the second coin we need. Here it is. How did I miss this? It's just out in the open. Here. You want this? That looks funny. Is that the bitty bab's mouth? Looks like it. What else do we got here? Just while we're looking. What is this? I don't think you want that. Whoa! Hey, why are you getting up in my face? It's because you don't want any of this. Come on, you look good! Gosh, she really doesn't like this. Alright, I'm getting out before she kills me. Finally is the Private Room. I think with Ennard, I was just told the Private Room, but there's multiple games that take place in the Private Room office, so we're gonna have to... This might be a bit of trial and error, but it should be behind the monitor kind of somewhere to the FNAF 2 coin. I don't want to hit any of my desks here. Oh, here! Oh! I hit my mic though, but we got it. So now, Candy Cadet finish the story. Okay, seems like a good plan. Oh. So, I'd assume... Wait, am I missing one? Wait, it only gave me two. Maybe I didn't count the last one I got in Ennard for some reason, because I had to reset my game. Wait, let me go back and check. So, I'm assuming that this boy is Gregory, this woman is Vanessa, and the witch is William Afton? Glitchtrap? The Mimic? Anyone? I don't know. Yeah, there we go. Because I had to reset my game, I guess it didn't count it. Is that it? I'd have to check if that's it, but I think... I think that's it. Oh my god. Great. How could you do this to me? Alright, now I think I have all the coins. Wait, so that's it? Alright. So, I feel like that's either about Gregory, Vanessa, and Glitchtrap slash Afton, or Gregory, Cassie, and the Mimic. But that is going to do it for this very complex episode of Help Wanted 2. This has been an absolute hassle to record, and probably to edit as well. But next episode I think will probably be the final one. I know we've got some secret ending to get with all of these, you know, secret graffitis around the map, Ballora here too, Helpy up there. So yeah, we're going to figure out how to do that. It's a lot of steps. But thank you so much for watching this video on Help Wanted 2, and I'll see you all on the flipside. Goodbye.


Tom's territory and the Beavers thrilled to be at home for the first time in a month, taking on Merrimack's scoreless in the first. Dylan Eichstadt throws one on net. The rebound goes right to Nick Cardelli for his first goal of the year. Just three minutes later, an eerily similar play. Cardelli the low shot, the rebound comes out. Dan Billett right place, right time, it's two to nothing. Still in the first, Beavers working on the power play. Good puck movement to Adam Brady. The shot hits a defender, it chips up over the goalie. They go up three, they score two more within two minutes for a five goal first period. They cruise eight to three. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


This paper discusses the development of a community-based research network, CBIAN, to address the lack of evidence-based programs for people aging with long-term physical disabilities, PAWLTPD. The authors propose using the practice-based research network, PBIAN, model to draw together aging and disability organizations to create a collaborative environment for conducting research and providing education. After a year of operation, the CBIAN has successfully recruited nine organizations across the state of Missouri and has already begun its first research project. This article was authored by Britney C. Miner, Jessica Dashner, Sandra M. Espinteo and others.


So, are we now in the final phase of a Congress Mukhbhara? Does the Congress party have any future at all? Can it ever replace the BJP as the party of rule? A party which is dominant decides the agenda of all other parties, all other parties react to it. Like all parties do to the BJP right now. Remember for large part of its history, India's history, the Congress was the absolutely dominant party. Everyone else was fighting the Congress, was reacting to the Congress. And the Congress couldn't be budged from the center. In a sense, the BJP has occupied that space and what that has done is that it has completely decimated the Congress. The Congress is virtually nowhere and look at what has happened even in the states where it was supposed to have been able to give a strong fight. Punjab, incumbent, thrown out, an absolute sweep by the up, look at Uttarakhand and Goa where they were supposed to have had a fighting chance to form a government. They couldn't come even close to the BJP. The vote share was far behind the BJP. And of course in Uttar Pradesh, they fought it alone. Priyanka Gandhi camped there, spent many, many days trying to probably convince the not just voters but even Harkada, the Congress party workers to enthuse them to work. Nothing happened, just less than 2.5% vote share for the Congress party and two seats but no real impact on the ground. The Congress party therefore now is present in only a few states, if you look at it. And in a sense, it still has the hangover of being the national party, that we are everywhere, we have the right to dictate terms to others. Whether it is Bihar, whether it is UP. If we are not given the majority of seats to fight, then we will not go into an alliance. It still has that hangover of being the Sarkar, the Maibaap of all other parties. Whereas it actually now is the weakest link in all of the opposition in a sense because it really has no regional presence in that sense. And other regional parties are able to hold their own against the BJP which is now the ubiquitous supreme national party. Except for the South. Now what does the Congress really need to survive or even to remain in a decent position for the next 15-20 years? It has to focus on the states where it still has a presence. That's number one. Number two, it has to define itself in contradiction from other parties. Now you look at a party like UP, it comes and says, we don't really care about religion if there is a bit of Communism here and there. We are going to turn a blind eye. We only look at development of the very standard capitalist kind but with welfare. We want schools, we want hospitals, we want good roads, we will give you cheap electricity and we are relatively corruption free. We are honest and we work hard. That's UP. A great message for the urban middle class, the urban law middle class and maybe with a certain, after a few years, maybe able to make inroads into rural India. If you look at something like the Samajwadi party, the Samajwadi party clearly has a position that it is a party which is trying to rebuild the social justice platform which was the Mandir platform. And it is a strongly secular party in the sense that it believes in protecting the rights of the minorities in a state like Uttar Pradesh. You take something like the DMK, strong old progressive, druvid politics as they call it. You take the left very defined ideology strong in Kerala, weak in other places. The Trinamool Congress has defined itself more or less in as a reaction to the left. It might have to find some space for itself as to what it wants to define itself as. But the Congress party literally has no USP, no brand, nothing to tell people that we are going to do this. The only thing that they can say that we used to do this. We used to do this. The first few prime ministers were all ours and we did this and look, we did so well. If you did so well, why did the people throw you out? Now that is the number two point. Number three is of course the question of leadership. Does Congress need a leadership change? Do the Gandhi's need to go? And finally number four, how can the Congress really fight elections if those who fund elections, those who you need money to fight elections, those who fund elections, those who control the media are largely inimical to you and you yourself have returned them into your enemies. So these are the four key things that the Congress has to deal with. Number one, let's take the question of strength and presence in places. The Congress has literally and for years wasted time in states where it cannot do well. Uttar Pradesh, no chance. It's just a complete waste of time spending so much of your time in a state where you have no presence. It's just 2%. There's no way you can be there. It is better to let your party, local party function there, have an alliance with a strong regional party which is aligned against the BJP. Let them give you one or two, two, three seats, whatever they give you, tell them, give us this, we'll fight this and rest of the time we will support you naturally and if we make it to government, we'll ensure that you get a participation in the central government. That is the kind of alliance the Congress needs not just in Uttar Pradesh where it has wasted, Priyanka Gandhi has wasted a lot of time which he could have actually spent on other states. She's wasted it on Uttar Pradesh which will give no dividends to the Congress party. Even Bihar, there are some pockets where the Congress party is strong but rest of it, it is just a complete waste of time for the Congress party to look at these states. They cannot do well. There's no way for it to end. And that's a lot of time, a lot of area, a lot of space which it cannot get anything from. It's just not worth it. It should just abandon it and move on to the rest of India. There are some states where it can only win in alliance. One of these of course is Tamil Nadu where the dominant parties are DMK and AI or DMK and the old days the Congress used to switch between the two. Now for the past few, almost a decade, it has been two decades broadly. It has aligned broadly with the DMK steadily and the DMK has won. So the Congress party's role has to be to ensure that the DMK, its alliance with the DMK stays strong. It can support the DMK. It's carder can strengthen the DMK so that AI or DMK does not win and strengthen the NDA. That is the Congress party's role elsewhere. It has Rajasthan, Gujarat, it has lost Punjab and it seems that it's very difficult for it to retain it because AI will build on that for several years. It has Uttarakhand where it can fight. It has Karnataka, it has Telangana. It has very little, it can find some way to participate in Andhra Pradesh. It has to give up on West Bengal. Again West Bengal is something where they can't do anything. There's no point in wasting time. Better to have an alliance with Mamta Banerjee and get it out of the way. Let her give you a few seats. Alright, there's a Sam. Focus on that. So look at the states where you can Haryana. These are the states where the Congress party has to spend all its energies and forget about these two large states which need to be covered in a lot of detail which cause a lot of heartburn to the Congress party. A lot of people say, and that brings us to this point, that a lot of people say that if you don't have a presence in UP, you cannot form a government at the center. But that is not necessarily true because if you remember, Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister in 2004 with the Congress having just nine seats in Uttar Pradesh. So it is possible to actually have an alliance with UP parties to have a strong support from the South, have a strong presence in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and make it to the center which you cannot do if you put all your energies into what is the core Hindi bet. That is out of bounds for the Congress. Alright, now the question of leadership. Can the Congress party do without the Gandhi's? And my view is that actually it cannot because the Gandhi's are the only national brand they have. It is all very well for the Delhi Liberal Chaturati to talk about the Sachin pilots and oh look, so and so has gone, this person has gone, that person has left. All these young people who could have let the party or look at Shashi Tharoor, he could have let the party, they have no national presence. It is only the Gandhi's who have because of the extreme depth of support for dynastic politics in a sense in India, that is the real politic in India, that is what is unfortunately what the Congress parties only strength is at this moment. So they cannot do without the Gandhi's. But what the Gandhi's need to do is to clearly identify what they stand for. They cannot move from one topic to another and only cater to the liberal intellectuals who have certain pet projects who believe in certain things and say I stand for this, I stand for that, which is only great for Twitter and for those and that echo chamber. The Congress party has to clearly identify what it stands for. Does it stand for free market privatization? Does it stand for liberalization? Or does it stand for increased role of the state in the economy? Does it believe in the role of big capital as we seem to be seeing in the case of the BJP, where it seems to be supporting big capital and monopoly capital, this government, or does it believe in supporting the state, supporting small capital, MSMEs? Can it organize MSMEs who have clearly been badly hit first by demonetization, that's by GST? Can it take up their causes in different states? Be there on the ground for them, play the role of the opposition, not to just win elections, but to put pressure on the administration to get concessions for them, agitate on the ground, can they do that? Can they collect money which is absolutely essential, funds from MSMEs, from small businesses, can they do that to fight elections? Can they look at those businesses which have been affected by the formation of a few monopolies, few families getting everything? Can they tap into them and say, look, we believe in better, more open competition? We oppose monopolies and therefore we need your help. We will help you, we will represent you, we need your help. The Congress party is really not a socialist party, it's not really a left party. It is a centrist party with a slightly leftward tilt in the sense of whatever the Sondhya Gandhi's NSE did, but the Manmol Singh government was hardcore right-wing on when it came to the economy. So therefore the Congress party needs to rethink how does it get funds, how does it capture the media, how does it create a different discourse, how does it find an alternate space? Its target has to be about 100 seats in Lok Sabha. It's very difficult for it to cross that and it should understand that and that means it will have to be the junior partner. In most places, in most states, it has to be a junior partner to get a few seats here and there. It has to give up its grand-elucent dreams of being the BJP again or the grand old party once again. Those days are gone. Social conditions in India no longer support what the Congress stands for. So the Congress has to be a party which will become a bulwark for a coalition of federal forces. So the Congress has to be the cement for federalism and that's its only future. That's the show today. Keep watching NewsClick. Like us, subscribe to us and do share this video.


Hello teachers, welcome back. Our students come with different gifts and challenges. You must have observed that, that there is a wide diversity in our students with respect to their likes, interests, kind of parental support at home, readiness for learning and motivation levels. These differences become more glaring when we observe the varied levels while they are learning a concept. Some students are way ahead while others are lacking behind in the same concept. These differences matter and effective teachers attend to them thoughtfully and proactively. The teacher's response to the learner's needs is called differentiated learning. The two most common ways in which a teacher can differentiate learning in their classes are content and process. We will learn more about these two types of differentiation in this video. Differentiating content means differentiating the knowledge, concepts and the skills that students need to learn based on the curriculum. In the teacher tools, when you click on the assignment section and then go to the score button, you will see scores of your students. With these insightful reports, you will be able to identify the level of learning for each student and the content that needs more attention. Let's see how you can differentiate for the content with an example. Let us say students in your class are working on division. However, based on students' scores on Khan Academy, you notice that some of the students need to spend more time understanding division as a process of repeated subtraction, while others need to work on dividing three digit numbers by two digit numbers. Alternatively, you may also have a group of students who need to work on solving word problems based on division as their real struggle is comprehension. For each of these cases, as a teacher, you can identify the right videos and assignment questions from the content available on Khan Academy and assign it to the student as per their need. We have already seen how you can assign additional content to the selected students in the previous videos. Differentiating by process means using different strategies for different students to learn the same skill. Let's see how you can differentiate for the process with an example. As a first step, I will take a look at the data available to us on student learning in the scores section of the teacher tools. We will take an example of the students' scores for the topic of multiplying two digit with one digit with an area model. Based on this data, I can see there are three categories of students. First, those who have mastered this concept like Akash, Aditya and Ashish. Second, those who have attempted but not mastered this concept like Sanket, Swati and Maninderji. And third, those who have not attempted this assignment at all, like Sandeep, Ekta and more. Now in addition to this data, I have observed that some of the students would need help from me while few other students just need to try once again to achieve mastery. There are some students who could be given a chance to support others. There could be some students who learn from their peers. So here is how I would plan for differentiating process for my next class. As a first step, I would reintroduce the concept of multiplication using the area model to the whole class. Then I would divide the students in different groups. Group number one, I would support struggling learners by giving them a simple hands-on activity. It could be pieces of papers with varying shapes mentioning the dimensions. So instead of solving the multiplication only on the basis of a question, these students will solve using an area model of the real piece of paper. These are the students who definitely need additional support from me. In group number two, another group of students who have not attempted the exercises yet but may not need my support, they could be assigned a buddy who has already mastered a concept. In this group, students can learn from each other while the teacher is supporting group number one with the hands-on activity. Students who have already mastered the skill can also be assigned work from the next topic so they can keep moving forward. In group number three, I will have those students who have already attempted the quiz but have not mastered it yet. So these students could be given another opportunity to master the content by reattempting the quiz independently. Implementing differentiation requires careful planning and thinking about each and every student in your class. At the core of differentiation is a belief that all children can achieve excellent results. As a teacher, imagine the happiness that we get when all our students achieve mastery on the topic we have taught.


tial that the entirety of either board will not may not buy into it and so that's I think if we're limiting the the scope of this initial subcommittee to answering questions whether the representation component is not necessarily relevant Elaine? I agree with you Andy on that that where we live has no bearing on this conversation right now however in the interest of moving forward and making sure that we are making progress on this question that our residents want us to make progress on I would rather appoint folks in a way that makes the entire board satisfied because we know from experience that if we are not entirely satisfied with the process the process will be attacked until it falls apart so my recommendation would be that we do the best we can with what we have and we assemble a subcommittee that is satisfactory to the majority of the board Mike? What are your thoughts? I agree with Andy I really don't think that the makeup of the subcommittee at this particular juncture has anything to do I mean if I live in the village and I am going to volunteer to be a select board representative to the subcommittee which I would like to do I don't I don't see the fact that I live here in the village but I'm going to be representing the board as a negative I have to agree with Andy I don't I really don't think that I have not represented to Essex in its entirety for the six years that I've been on the board I think it's been all about Essex I don't care what your address is it's all about what's good for Essex so for me I'm going to volunteer to be on this you guys can decide whether the fact that I live in the village is going to be a detriment to that or not I don't think it is or else I wouldn't be standing up How would we know when we get to a point where maybe that makes a difference to be honest with you I really don't see that being an issue until we come until we have something in place because then you're going to have a series of elections you can't go in and just dynamite two different boards because you've decided that you're going to have five from each community and you don't have that right now so you can't dynamite the boards because you're going to lose you're just going to lose a lot so I guess the way I'm thinking is to figure that out by elections so I I really don't see that being a real issue until we get to a point where we're coming to where the subcommittee is coming to the boards with a recommendation of how we do this as far as I answer the questions you see it's okay I agree with Mike the initial purpose of this subcommittee is information gathering and there's going to be quite a bit of that and there's going to be lots of discussion about potential models and then once those models are presented perhaps that's the time we reconstitute or we move on to a new phase where we talk about representation or we talk about taxation or whatever the next topic is but initially it's information gathering it doesn't have a home I'm hearing from my peers on the board that they feel they adequately represent the entire town and I've never otherwise in fact our charge is to represent the entire town what we've heard from residents from the town outside the village for six or eight months now is that they don't feel adequately represented because they have no board comparable to the trustees that keep their interests in mind they would on their behalf because we don't see things the way they do we represent the entire town we represent the village but they themselves represent outside the village interest only and if we're not going to admit people like that on to our committee I think it will be problematic Lane I'm just going to say again this is information gathering I don't see this is for the two boards to do and we're going to gather information from expertise from expert resources and bring it through to the boards uninterpreted just questions are being answered and information will be provided I don't see how the fact that Mike is a village resident will change the answer that the secretary of state gives him when he asks the question it just seems pretty simple to me due to work commitments and personal commitments I have five days in the month of July that I would be available to participate in this I work a full-time job it's not clear to me that I can arbitrarily take time off to go spend a couple hours in the secretary of state's office traveling down there and spending time in there so if this work needs to happen by October I would be very challenged to engage prior to sometime in August so you know this is essentially a volunteer job we're doing here maybe a day after tomorrow I'll have more free time on my hands I don't know I just can't commit to this as I said I've got five days and I'm sorry I'm not going to sacrifice one of them for this okay so we talked about what we think the subcommittee would do and that's the answer to the questions we've had discussions about does it matter where you live or not if we can get the answers we can get the answers to our questions and have it balanced then it'll be a win-win right for everybody if we can do that and I would say that after you know each phase if we get all these questions answered which my guess is that's going to be a continuously filling bucket of questions but we may say okay now maybe it's time for somebody else to step in because it may be arduous for four people to burden that I think it's important that we don't dump it on staff because they got way more than on their plates then they don't need this either Mike? I think with respect I think you run the risk where if you reconstitute the board or you have somebody come in if you have somebody come in and start and then all of a sudden you arbitrarily pick a spot where okay now we have to change we're going to take up you're going to spend you're going to lose an awful lot of time and an awful lot of institutional knowledge that has built up over that first step trying to bring somebody else in to acclimate them on where you've been already I see that as a colossal waste of time with respect I think if we can go back to joint meetings the other month and not every month I would be willing to step forward and try to go through the answers to questions two houses away from the village border but if that makes peace I'd like to see us move forward in a cohesive way together I think it's important that we have a good working relationship and if that's what it takes for me to step forward and say I would put in this extra work then I would be willing to do that it's important I'm busy too but my hours are more flexible because of who my employer is thank you Mike I just I don't know that you're going to get all five people over the moon about whatever decision gets made here tonight I know that's true so what I'm saying is I'd be willing to toss my hat into the ring I don't think I would have to do too much arm twisting on Irene would you like to so you'd like to be on that too I'd be willing to to be clear I'm thrilled the pieces on the subject matter I would love to be on this committee but I just don't have the I just can't put the time you have a different ploy than I do let me go back to school I would go to law school it's never too late maybe on Wednesday so would that be okay if Irene and I did it we can always review it again after this phase because this phase is really just data gathering and we're going to just share with everybody everybody has the same level of knowledge and if we want to do something different because I'd probably say ad nauseam we can check and adjust if that's okay and if Mike you look like you're not happy you already know my opinion I'm not going to state it again so what's the board's pleasure second okay thank you Elaine and Mike any further discussion on that pointing to Irene and Marco Andy I'm going to go to the the physical location of where the participants live in order to make the decision amen brother agree I have to agree on this particular case I don't see it's important but it is to some and I'm looking to try to get us to be together as a whole organization to do the business of the people that we know needs to be done in a way that we can be proud of you know the outcome so okay any other discussion all those in favor of pointing Irene and me to the governance subcommittee signify by saying aye okay motion passes unanimously thank you for that discussion all we're going to go on to the next item which is approval of the minutes of June 4th 2018 the select board corrections so I have motion select board minutes of June 4th 2018 no matter how late it is with select board corrections thank you Irene do I have any comments on page one wait hold on slow down let me get there thank you Andy do I have a second on Irene's motion second okay is everybody there no okay comments on page one Irene comments 34-35 do you have these Greg? I left them for Sam okay so on 35 the second word due to transparency needs for the public to be educated on an issue seems to me like I misplaced modifier to minutes so I just like to move that phrase earlier on this sentence so that would read Mr. Andy was in favor of transparency needs for the public to be educated on an issue and was opposed to blah blah blah are you okay with that doesn't change the the content okay anything else on one page two page three Mike you have something well I've got something I can't find it on this bloody machine I should have been smart enough to write the line number down and I didn't no page four page five I have a correction on line 206 where it says Mr. Let's Confirm for Mr. Levy that the developer wants to implement this project regardless of development so I believe it's Mr. Let's Confirm for Mr. Levy that the town wants to implement this road project regardless of development okay pretty good okay anything else on five I found it on three okay excellent perfect timing what's your correction it saves heaven from having to negate it because we're going backwards instead of forward so line 237 it reads about midway through Mr. Plegman was confused about the logic of moving money around I don't believe that was the thought at all I believe what I said was that I couldn't ever recall us reducing awards simply because they were the first time in I believe so what wording would you like well that's there's there in life's the rub so I would say Mr. Plegman could not recall ever having made pounding decisions based on an entity's entry into the pool based on their first time entry into the pool anything else on five we'll go to six and Irene I'm just going to mention this I didn't mark that on my sheet because I just wanted to throw it out for absolutely sorry basically you can save the Mr. Plegman Greg and get rid of the rest and then just cut up I'm good in lines 262 263 the corrections are just out of order and that struck me as odd but I'm fine with leaving it I just wanted to point out that I noticed it see how like line 124 is after line 28 blah blah I'm just mentioning it don't need to change it as long as it doesn't bother you I can love it anything else on the n6 we should note that it was seen page 7 Andy this has to do with actually 337 and 338 but I don't those aren't the lines that need to be changed I don't think our conflict of interest policy requires that conflicts of interest be disclosed in open meeting and while we were in executive session a select board member recused himself from a portion of the meeting and there was no public disclosure of the conflict that led to that so there's a recused vote and the select board member that recused himself should add a comment in here about that recusal you're supposed to explain why you're recusing yourself before you recuse yourself before you do it it didn't really happen what line number are we on? it's line 337 338 there was a vote that passed 4-0 and there's no comment about recusal there's no public disclosure of conflict of interest so just as 334 I left right perhaps if we said something like on 334 left executive session at 10-01 p.m. due to a conflict of interest or an explanation of suitable nature and then that would explain the 4-0 vote in the following lines doesn't 334 explain it Irene Renner left executive session at 10-01 not the issue the issue is that there's no public disclosure of the conflict of interest that led to that recusal I can say to avoid conflict of interest do you want to say that? because I didn't state it no you did not I'm just saying that there's a violation of our policy here I just want to make sure Duke should you know sometimes when there are incorrect facts in here we will correct those too so I'm just wondering whether we should identify you know for conflict what the conflict is it's our policy that you have to publicly disclose conflicts of interest in open meeting I've done this before where I've recused myself from executive session discussions and I did it prior to the start of the executive session and I I didn't see it didn't see it happen the reason for going into executive session is a public document self-evident so the conflict should be noted what it is if you don't mind it is a complaint filed by Miss Renner for a public records request therefore Miss Renner should not have been in that session and recused herself so I think the minute should reflect just that and we could put that in there that's the conflict and it should be and maybe our minutes taker was trying to be very it was never said and she's not in executive session either so we will add that to these lines okay thank you thank you okay anything else on 7 page 8 oh sorry 340 oh yeah render on page 340 oh yes let's fix that now anything else on 8 hearing none all those in favor of the June 4th 2018 select more minutes with corrections signify by saying aye okay motion passes unanimously 5-0 we're on to consent agenda can I have a motion for that I would go ahead I'll hopefully approve the consent agenda thank you Elaine do I have a second second for discussion on consent items check warrants of June 8th and 15th okay Irene just ask about the seed building at the tree farm at one point we were told we couldn't that's the reading file oh sorry okay any comments on the check warrants of either June 8th or the 15th hearing none all those in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying aye passes 5-0 on that so what about the seed building way back when we got the tree farm I felt there were conditions on what we could and couldn't destroy so has that been mitigated with the state who sold us the property and said don't touch anything the state has been consulted on the seed building and they have said it's okay to take it down that note was actually in our packet just saying it for the public I think they came to the same understanding we had that that building needs to come back it's a goner Elaine you had your hand up did you want to comment on that? I was going to remark that the state historic preservation officer approved it and it's in the packet they weren't happy but they recognized that okay any yes while not in the reading file there's been some staff back and forth on what we have actually called the super sucker 5000 and the grant it really just sucks things out of catch basins and other things so it's a whole lot easier to just call it that and it's catchy when the same the village has applied for a grant to replace their machine that the town does use from time to time actually very often and there's an issue with Buy America and getting a waiver for the machine so there's back and forth so just FYI there's a belief that we may at some point have to just delay the grant or turn back the grant we're hoping not to have to do that it is about $300,000 and I'm sure any day now the relations between the United States and Canada will resume um but we do need to get a waiver there are two vendors and both of them need to go get a waiver from the federal government to be able to comply so if anybody from the federal government's listening really good use of that good luck with that okay any other comments on the reading part okay we do not need an executive session because we made our appointments in public right do I have a second on adjourning second you know those favorite adjournings signify by saying aye aye okay we're done so we're just a reminder July 9th is our next break


Great ESP and EAP coursebooks and where to find them. What are ESP and EAP? English for specific purposes, ESP, is an area of English language teaching and learning that encompasses business English, and English for academic purposes, EAP, as well as courses that teach English needed for specific jobs and industries. As a qualified TEFL teacher, you will likely teach ESP in some form, and in this post I'll look at coursebooks aimed at teaching English to those in certain professions such as finance, law, tourism, medicine and aviation as well, as books used for teaching EAP. EAP focuses on the language and skills needed for students to study in English at university level. As with other English teaching, EAP deals with reading, writing, listening and speaking, as well as vocabulary and grammar but these are linked to the student's specific study needs such as essay writing. Who publishes ESP and EAP coursebooks? There are several publishers involved in producing coursebooks for ESP and EAP classrooms. The main ones are Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. These two publishers produce ESP and EAP coursebooks across a range of levels in British, American and international English varieties. Other publishers include Pearson Longman and Garnet Education. Oxford University Press. The first publisher I'll look at is Oxford University Press, which has a wide selection of coursebooks to choose from for ESP and EAP teachers. It is clear which sectors English for cabin crew, medicine, and English for legal professionals are aimed at while highly recommended is for those working in the tourism industry. For EAP teachers Oxford EAP and headway academic skills will be useful resources to draw on. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge University Press publishes books for several professions and titles include Cambridge English for Nursing, Introduction to International Legal English, Cambridge English for Scientists and Flight Path. EAP coursebooks published by Cambridge are English for academics, in focus, skills and language for study and Cambridge academic English. Pearson Longman. Pearson Longman's ESP selection covers industries such as banking, tourism and oil and includes titles such as English for banking and finance, English for international tourism and English for the oil industry. Garnet Education. Garnet Education's coursebooks include take off for the aviation industry and English for global industries, oil and gas for the oil and gas industry. Their EAP books are English for academic study, English skills for university and English for specific academic purposes, which is a series of books for specific university subjects. Where can you buy these books? Most of these books can be bought direct from the publisher's websites, Amazon or in the EFL section at your local bookshop. If they don't have them in stock, you can always order them through the bookshop. Any good quality language school will have a well-stocked resource library, with plenty of titles to choose from for your classes. If you are working as a private tutor, you will need to buy your own coursebook, and you are bound to find something to suit your and your student's needs online or at a bookshop. Get ready to teach English abroad.


Okay, good afternoon and welcome to the Office for the Advancement of Research's second book talk for the fall semester. This talk is featuring Nikki Phillips and Stacy Strobel's 2013 book, Comic Book Crime, Truth, Justice, and the American Way. And we will be featuring also Discussant from the Philosophy Department, James DiGiovanna. Comic Book Crime is an analysis of approximately 200 comic books sold from 2002 to 2010. And it also draws on several years of the author's immersion in comic book fan culture. And it explores some of the themes and plots popular comics feature in a post-911 context. The OAR sponsors two book talks every semester and we will have two more in the spring. So for those who are interested, we do send out regular communications about these. So please keep yourselves informed about what's coming next. Just to introduce quickly our authors and Discussant, immediately to my right is Stacy Strobel. Stacy is an associate professor here at John Jay in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration. She is the 2009 winner of the British Journal of Criminology's Red Zinowitz Memorial Prize for her work on the criminalization of domestic workers in Bahrain. Her areas of specialization are women in policing in the Arabian Gulf, multi-ethnic policing in Eastern Europe, and comic book portrayals of crime in the United States. Earlier in her career, she worked as a U.S. probation officer and a crime journalist. Dr. Strobel completed her doctorate in criminal justice here at the City University of New York's Graduate Center and received her MA in criminal justice here at John Jay as well and her BA in Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. So we are proud, of course, to claim Stacy as an alum as well as a faculty member and our next author is an alum as well, Nikki Phillips, associate professor in the Sociology and Criminology Department at St. Francis College. Professor Phillips' research looks at comic book villains to crime on television news and it also focuses on a wide range of media portrayals of crime and justice. Professor Phillips co-founded CRIMcast, a virtual resource devoted to critical conversations about criminology and criminal justice issues. The site's blog posts, Twitter feeds, podcasts, and other content provide an overview of trends, research, commentary, and events of interest to criminal justice practitioners, academics, and the general public. She's also the director of the Center for Crime and Popular Culture. Earlier in her career, Professor Phillips worked as a police officer and aircraft rescue firefighter at Metro Nashville Airport Authority. And finally, our discussant for today is James DiGiovanna, an assistant professor here in our philosophy department. His philosophical writings include Dr. Manhattan, I presume, in Watchmen and Philosophy. Is it right to make a robin in Batman and Philosophy and You're Not the Person I Knew? Eclecticism and Context in Continuity of Identity. In Appraisal, the Journal for the Society of Post-Critical and Personality Studies. His fiction has appeared in Slipstream City, Sport Press, Blue Moon Review, and 20x18. He was an assistant editor at Marvel Comics from 1988 to 1990 and was the multiple award winner film critic for the Tucson Weekly from 1998 to 2011. Just so you know, today we will be starting with a presentation from the authors, which will follow some discussion led by our discussant, Professor DiGiovanna. And finally, we'll end with an opportunity for the audience to ask questions and for the authors to respond to those questions. And last but not least, for those who are interested, the book itself is, sorry about that, available for sale at the table just outside the door to your left. Thanks for coming. Thank you so much for coming. Nikki and I are delighted to be presenting this here in our home base of John Jay College. We'd like to thank Dan Stagemann and the OAR for inviting us to give this talk. And also the folks at the school Barnes and Noble Bookstore, Jovi Codrington in particular, for helping us set up the book stand that's just out here. So we thank you. Like all good comic book characters, Nikki and I have an origin story or at least an origin story of how we started this research. We were both doctoral students here at the Graduate Center. That's housed here at John Jay. And while we were students, we worked for Dr. Maria Volpe and Dispute Resolution Consortium, and we shared an office together research. We were her research assistants. And one day, we both saw each other's bags. And in both of our bags were floppy comic books. And we sort of had that moment of, you read those? We were both sort of on the download because when you're in graduate school, sometimes you're trying to make sure that you appear so intellectually sophisticated to have been there in the first place. The idea that one would read comic books maybe didn't fit into that pattern. Although, things have changed. And there's been a resurgence of folks willing to stand by their graphic literature. So we decided that we had our other research ideas and our dissertations around topics totally different. But we decided that criminal justice and criminology was lacking a really serious interrogation, if you will, of comic books. Which was necessary because comic books overwhelmingly have themes of crime and justice. And so we took up this side project which became more of a side project at times. And eventually ten years later, and it's been about ten years since our original moment of conception, there's a book. So these things can happen and they can happen here at John Jay. So it's a very cool story. So the goals for our book, not only just to give comic books the attention they deserve from the criminal justice world and criminologist. We also wanted to discuss the dominant ideological orientations that one would take if you took comic books seriously as cultural artifacts. And also to engage with the fans and how they read these books. And how that may affect or influence their attitudes about crime and justice. So we are drawing very specifically on a theoretical orientation known as cultural criminology which is most often associated with Jackie Young who's here at John Jay and also Jeff Ferrell and Keith Hayward. And this is a form of criminology that's taking a step back from the dominant frame here in the United States of being sort of obsessed with quantitative methods and big data sets. And saying if we don't understand the cultural frame of what's happening in crime and justice then we're not getting a complete understanding. And so we're taking that very, very seriously. And so we went to comic books with this notion that we could look at these as a virtual imagined community which had policy messages. So we don't think that people necessarily read them as policy, and we hope policy makers don't read them for policy purposes. Maybe they do. But what if you did? What would you make of the comic book world and what would the lessons be for justice? How justice should be served, how it is carried out, and so on. We want to put out there that these cultural scripts that we find them important to shaping attitudes and maybe reflecting attitudes. We are not of the school of thought that thinks that these comic books directly influence behavior. So we're not in the discourse of you read a comic book, it's very violent, and then you go out and slug somebody. We're not saying that. We are speaking more about attitudes than we are behavior. So the methods were alluded to in the introduction. This is a textual analysis, but in this case a textual and graphic analysis of 200 popular titles post 9-11 from 2002 to 2010. What's very important to what we're going to talk about today that we read the most popular comic books. So this is not necessarily the comic books that we were reading when we became fans. In fact, we actually read a lot more of the less popular stuff than the popular stuff. But we said, well, what does the average person reading the most popular comic books in this contemporary landscape? What kinds of crime and justice plots are they exposed to? What kinds of crime and justice policies are they exposed to? So we did this through this popular approach. We just want to emphasize that we're going to make a lot of generalizations, but we're making generalizations from the stuff that sells. And there's a lot of great stuff that doesn't sell. And it's awesome, but it doesn't sell. So we're being populists when we look at this. And we also did this through immersing ourselves in fan culture so that earlier slide in the beginning was some cosplay, some costume play at a Comic-Con just last month here in New York. We did focus groups with fans. And we really were interested in finding out how people read crime and justice, who enjoy this medium. This is really a post-911 story in a lot of ways, not just because of the time period, but we articulate in chapter three. We won't be talking about this today, but in chapter three in the book, we put forth the notion that the primary crimes that are being played out in comic books now have shifted towards terrorism and giant global politicals, national security type of plots. Historically, comic books have been in the realm of violent street crime, organized crime, government corruption, think of Gotham and its city managers and police and so on. There's definitely a response to our war on terror that you can see in these books and we do talk about that. We also talk about this moment of criminal crisis. So comic books have a formula, at least the most popular ones that sell pretty much follow a certain basic arc that there are ways of manipulating it a bit. But the idea is that there's a criminal crisis and it's very dire. And it's a big emergency. And so think of Gotham, dark crime, rats, sewers, subways, graveyards, gargoyles, horrible things are going on. Who can you trust? The mayor is involved. There could be aliens swooping down from all sorts of mayhem and you're in a moment of criminal and in many cases even sort of beyond criminal crisis. And because of that moment of severe crisis, you have this sort of utopian yearning for something better. And it's often framed, it's very interesting because as we have here in this beautiful slide of Gotham with the Batman hovering over, looking at a decaying city that he hopes to better. It's also a nostalgia for, and this is gonna become very important to what we have to say later in the presentation, but it becomes a nostalgia for an imagined past and an imagined community in the United States, which may or may not have ever existed. And what we're going to argue here is that this is very much a utopian fictional space, but it's a utopian fictional space for a very, for a particular imagining of the United States. That is suburban, is white, is crime free, okay. It does not have the vice and grime that we associate with Gotham. People read comics because they're fun, splashy graphics, heroes, villains, violence, beautiful artwork, mostly good writing, not always. But they also get this package, whether they mean to or not, whether they want it or not, of heroes who are often vigilantes acting outside the law because things are so bad. Fighting for crime, saving the world, what we're obsessed with with comic books is heroes who have the will to act in this criminal apocalyptic crisis that we find ourselves in. They engage in a path to justice which suggests cultural notions of who is the violent and vigilante crime fighter. So one of the main themes that we're gonna talk about today comes from chapter six of our book, which has to do with who are these heroes? Okay, particularly the heroes that are the best selling characters that are heroic, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, etc. And how do these heroes meet out violence to achieve justice or decide not to use violence perhaps? And so in essence, we're drawing on some of Jack Young's work in terms of scripts about vocabularies of motives.  And we really see this as a discourse of difference. We're making a big claim here and saying that we find that, and this is the stuff that sells, that this is an overwhelmingly still in the contemporary age, a heterosexual white male world, okay? That though there are some exceptions, we find that in terms of what sells that we are still in terms of the comic book culture focused on white men and that heroes of color, women heroes, of the gay sexual orientation, they all get a different treatment in the mainstream comics than perhaps our white heroes do. And so a couple of quick examples, recently in the past ten years in the Civil War, excuse me, the final crisis series from DC Comics, Black Goliath, a very famous black superhero. He had been resurrected, didn't been in comics in a while. He gets resurrected and killed off pretty much immediately, caused a lot of fan fire, so if you're familiar with the critiques of horror movies, where the black character is soon to die, well unfortunately you still see some of that effect here in comic books even today. Similarly in the Marvel Universe, you have Freedom Beast who had a very similar short run during the same time period. So we want to say here at the outset that the reason we're harping on this, you might say, well yeah, you can always do a race and sexual orientation and gender analysis of anything. What we're saying here is that comic books have gone uninterrogated in a way that movies and films and television and other mediums have not. And you can get away with racial stereotypes, female stereotypes and other stereotypes in this medium that you can't get away with in others. And so we're trying to sort of unearth why that is. Is it just because it's a small subculture? True that it is a very small subculture, but it's also the inspiration for our top selling blockbuster movies. So you can't argue that it's so insular that it doesn't matter. And so I'm going to turn it over to Nikki to give you some more details on the hero's journey and how heroes of color are portrayed and women heroes in comic books. Is that better? Good. Okay, thanks. So one of the things that we do in the book is we structure it in a particular way that follows a common narrative arc. And so I'll talk a little bit about that. There is a point of crisis that occurs in these mainstream books that is generally apocalyptic in nature. It's a threat to the social order. The citizens look for a savior. They look for a hero. They look for someone to save them. There is a path to justice that this hero embarks on. Will to action and articulation of the need for justice. There is a deliberation, a weighing of decisions that are made. And we'll talk a little bit about that in terms of a concept we call death worthiness. And there is an enforcement or execution of their plan. And then there are certain policy implications that we argue sort of flow from these narratives. So what I'm going to talk about a little bit is the backdrop of the action and how the action plays out, the style in which this occurs and what it means in terms of conceptions about retributive justice. So the relationship to the rule of law in these books is really one of unease. So what we see in these stories a lot of times is that there is a threat to the social order, but it is too great for ordinary law enforcement responses. The villain is too strong, the threat is apocalyptic. It's too much for ordinary law enforcement, ordinary agencies to control. So there is a need for a hero to step in. The backdrop though is one of ineffectiveness, often times, ineffectiveness and corruption. So the existing system, either they're not strong enough, they're incapable, or they're ineffective, a lot of times they will be portrayed as sort of bumbling stooches, kind of police officers are eating donuts or things like that. Reading the newspaper when the action unfolds behind them, things like that. So they may be inept, ineffective, or there might be the presence of corruption or brutality. This is just one example from Wolverine, The Brotherhood. This is an ATF agent interrogating a suspect. And at other times, the villains simply take control of the system. They control the police, they control the courts, they control the correctional system. And this could be something like Norman Osborn in Dark Avengers when he was sort of taking the helm and taking control of the system in a bad way. So there is this backdrop that sets up the dichotomy between good versus evil. And it is in this context that the heroes articulate the need for justice. And they operate outside the law. So the justification for operating outside the law then occurs within this ineffectiveness and corruption. So this path to justice then is enacted in various ways. There's no single way and there's no one way. And this is what is most interesting for people, the fans they told us, that they're very invested and interested in the path to justice. This is where we see most clearly crime control ideology at odds with due process. So the heroes frequently brush aside concerns for due process on their path to justice. Their crime control measures are almost always extreme and violate the law. Because the crisis is so great, it sort of mirrors the discourse that we had in the run up to the Iraq war when President Bush at the time said, we're facing a new kind of evil. Do you guys remember the speeches when he was saying it's a new kind of evil? The threat is so great, the old ways don't work anymore. This is something that plays out over and over in these books. The threat, it's just too great, it's too new, it's too different. So it requires a new kind of justice, which is extra legal. We found that the fans were intensely engaged in this path to justice. And frequently there are discussions and debates around the stories were about how far the hero would actually go in meeting out justice. And basically this sort of revolved around this notion of what we call death worthiness, which is basically a determination of whether or not the villain should be killed in the path to justice. And sometimes the determinations were quite, it was a lot of dialogue, a lot of back and forth about whether or not killing is appropriate and in what context. So this plays out a lot in the books. And the fans themselves find this debate a sort of transgressive pleasure for themselves because they're working out these moral issues in the books. But as a way of thinking through their own moral boundaries and what they think is appropriate in real life or not and under what circumstances. And they really do talk about this a lot. And they find a lot of interest in engaging with other people to talk about these kinds of issues. But since most books are not disruptive of the status quo, a common theme is really just a tease, right? So it's not whether or not the hero actually kills. It's that determination that's interesting to people and how that plays out. So the process of making those determinations is what we call death worthiness. The outcome is what we call apocalyptic incapacitation. So basically what we found most frequently is that rather than killing or enacting a very strict notion of retributive justice, the hero stops short of retribution. They incapacitate, but they don't kill. So we call this apocalyptic incapacitation. And it serves as really basically a revolving door, which is why we chose that image of Joker coming out of Arkham Asylum. Like many of these institutions are revolving doors for these villains. They live to fight another day, continuity is preserved in the books. And so apocalyptic incapacitation then is a common policy message that we found in these stories. How it plays out is what we refer to as the retributive tease. It is incapacitation, but within the veneer of retribution. It is very emotionally satisfying. It feels like retribution, but it is not. It doesn't go that far. It's incapacitating. So this is just one example, but there are many examples. This is Daredevil. He is battling a villain. He is severing all the nerves in the villain's arms and legs to incapacitate. And he's very explicit about his no kill policy. I don't kill. I'm never going to kill. But what the reader gets is this very satisfying, very violent, very graphic, hyper-violent style of art that is, again, serves as a sort of transgressive pleasure for the readers. For many fans, though, what is heroic about these heroes is that they actually don't kill.  And the fans very much appreciate that. For example, one of our focus group participants said of Spider-Man, quote, even though Spider-Man beats the mess out of the Green Goblin, he didn't kill him. So that speaks a lot to his character and what lines he's not willing to cross. So there is sort of an embrace of this retributive tease that we see play out in these books. While fans revel in this emotional delight of vengeance, most clearly expressed their admiration for heroes who are unwilling to kill, however, there is basically no limit to the amount of violence, physical damage short of killing that can occur. And that is very much appreciated. This justice, though, primarily belongs to white male straight crime fighters. And I'll just say a few of our findings about gender and sexual orientation. We have three broad findings. And we're not suggesting that what we say is anything particularly groundbreaking or new about gender and sexual orientation or that it's never been interrogated before, but that we do want to emphasize that these remain present in contemporary comic books. First is even though there was a loosening of the comics code, which was basically a self-imposed code by the publishers that restricted how crime, violence, and sexuality was presented in the books, even though that's been loosened, there is still a very heavily paternalistic undercurrent running through many of the books.  Two, there is still a stigma attached to reading female-centric comics. Even people would tell us that they do read those sometimes. They don't really read them in public. They don't really read them on the train. They get some resistance even from their friends about female-centric titles. So there is some cultural, that we felt was an indicator that there's some cultural resistance accepting female superheroes on the same terms as male superheroes.  Although, there has been some effort to integrate those types of characters more recently into the mainstream. But there's a history and documentation of ways in which female and gay characters often meet sort of grisly and untimely ends, which you had mentioned before. Basically, through our analysis of gender and sexual orientation, we look at how readers interpret these relatively narrow constructions of who and what type of person is heroic. And we find that these are, books really are cultural artifacts that contribute to this cultural construction of hegemonic masculinities. And this we can think of as masculinities that are hierarchical, right? So for example, as masculinity expressed by violence, rather than peacemaking is privileged, a masculinity that being gay is subordinate to heterosexuality and that the physical sense of being male is performed through, for example, sex appeal, toughness, muscular, stature, and so forth. And we find that these comic books reinforce these hegemonic masculinities in a number of ways. Women and children are frequently in peril. They need rescuing by the male superheroes. And even the female superheroes are frequently portrayed as needing the protection of their fellow male superheroes. Or they need to be at home fulfilling some sort of domestic duty. So we do see that too. There's hypermasculinity in the books. Often this is through body images that exude strength and power at times with exaggerated proportions and so forth. This is cable protecting one of the last mutant babies. And men are expected to do crime fighting in a way, in a gendered way that privileges heterosexuality. There's a lot of anti-gay banter sometimes, between these characters, which sort of reinforces heterosexuality. And then thirdly, women must fight crime in ways that embrace a notion of emphasized femininity, which is basically a compliance with more traditional gender roles. Domesticity, childcare, nurturance, that sort of thing. And in this context, there's a lot of hypersexualization of the female characters. And this occurred even in the late 80s and into the 1990s. The artistic style was exaggerated proportions of the female skimpy outfits and so forth. That you've probably seen a lot of examples of those. We also see a hypersexualization as well as empowerment in the female characters. So you will get this emphasized femininity where the female heroes can wear their high heels, they can shop, they can date, and they can fight crime all at the same time. You can go to the next. It is when though that women who violate the traditional gender norms, those then are potentially marginalized. So for example, women romantically linked to other women might be portrayed as manlike, violent, mentally ill or psychopathic. And this is just one example. This is from Punisher Warzone, The Return of Manucci. This is a character named Molly.  And she talks about her years of working for the police force. She suffered a lot of misogyny while on the force and she's now bitter. She's resentful. She's downright psychopathic in the story.  Her violence in the story is one means of negotiating her sexual orientation. She fights in bars. She is dominant over her girlfriend, controls her girlfriend's relationships. And all of this negotiation of her sexual orientation is never far removed from her objectification as a female. And we just wanna show one scene. In this series of panels, Molly is partnering with the Punisher in a mafia. This is a showdown with the mafia.  And then there's this bra and panty showdown. And the final panel of the showdown, which we don't have a shot of, but there's a panel where it's the newspaper headline after this mafia showdown occurs and it says, lethal weapons, sexy lesbian lieutenant and Punisher team up carnage on the headline of the paper. So what we suggest then, and this is just one example, but it's a good one, but there are others. We do find space for these characters that are marginalized. There is a space for the gay crime fighter, but it's firmly within the hegemonic masculinity. And we suggest that the concept of who can be heroic is tied to these hierarchical notions, but it is negotiated over time. So there is effort to integrate gay characters and other marginalized characters, but not without resistance though. So we thought we'd also read a passage from the book that gets a little bit more to the potential marginalization of heroes of color. So in August, 2011, Marvel Comics introduced Miles Morales to the Ultimates universe. And the Ultimates universe is an alternate universe of Marvel, so it doesn't destroy the continuity of the regular Marvel universe for those who are worried, okay? The controversy surrounding the character was not due to the notion that a new Spider-Man would be populating the Ultimates universe, but rather to Morales' ethnic heritage, half Latino, half African-American. When USA Today ran a story about the character, the site received impassioned comments from readers, ranging from cheers, this is a good thing, to cheers. Why does everything have to be politically correct? Well, that nails it, Spidey's dead to me. These comments demonstrate that culturally, we have not passed into a post-racial environment where race ethnicity no longer matters in our conceptions of who may be considered heroic. Instead, there continues to remain resistance around heroes of difference. This is especially true with regard to characters facing double marginality, those that are racial ethnic minorities and gay and or female. These prejudiced sentiments are fueled by popular political pundits, such as Glenn Beck, who commented on the introduction of Morales on his Glenn Beck radio program. After declaring that he does not care one bit about the race ethnicity of this character, Beck revealed that his single concern is that the introduction of Morales was the result of a nefarious plot by first lady Michelle Obama to change the traditions of this country. Through this bizarre conspiracy theory, Beck reveals that he has threatened, he has demonstrated that changes in the identities of superheroes are no less than attacks on conservative American values. This is one reason we, as well as a majority of our focus group participants, feel it is so vitally important to increase the representation of minorities within the pages of mainstream comic books. The promise of an America as a just place for all its inhabitants starts with its popular mainstream imaginations. While the past decade or so has opened up possibilities for heroes of difference, there remains a tendency for comic book characters race and sexual orientation to reflect those of their creators, primarily straight white males. This is significant because our findings suggest that readers are eager for their beloved fictional heroes to represent them in their diversity. As it stands, the industry lags behind in providing fully dimensional heroes of diversity. Until that happens, the question of whether gay, black or female heroes are quote believable or quote relatable will continue to be posed. Alternatively, the lack of diversity could make these books more comfortable. So here we get a little controversial, more comfortable for readers who remain in privileged positions within white hegemony and patriarchy. At one point in the review of various discussion boards and podcasts, we sensed that some male fans might be more socially comfortable around hypothetical aliens and zombies than around females, particularly quote strong females. On the other hand, we found a strong representation of male fans of color suggesting that racial and ethnic inclusiveness may be less important for men in a genre that celebrates traditional notions of masculinity. Readers may be attracted to comic books precisely for the conservative ideological content from retribution to white hegemony. The apocalyptic incapacitation that is violently enacted, for example, acts as a transgressive voyeuristic pleasure in which readers may explore getting tougher on crime than perhaps their off-page selves would find reasonable. So we will end there with that food for thought. And we turn the stage over to Professor Dijavana to discuss.


Favorite sports mom that I've seen? I've been in the World Series in 2009. Kirk Gibson's World Series homerun is my favorite. I did a Geter last walk-off, basic walk-off at home. That was one of my favorite moments in my life. U.S. scene Notre Dame Bush-Bush. Russian Barry Bonds breaks the homerun record. Incredible to the kids watching that. It made the game look easy. I've witnessed the LSU National Championship in 2020. The 2006 Stanley Cup, the Hurricanes winning it. Pass Iron Bowl as an Alabama fan. Fun game. Favorite sports moment that I witnessed on TV was when Eagles won the 2017 Super Bowl. I'd say like the first time Tiger won the Masters. Derek Geter's play where he ran down the line and flipped it to get the guy out at home. I was at the game with Johan through a no-hitter. So just to be there randomly for that game, I'd say that's pretty cool. I was in Cleveland for the World Series 2016, and Rajeev Davis hit in the homerun. I was saved by the Dominic Allen Wednesday World Classic.