Tag: unity

Sacramento region celebrates Kwanzaa with unity and cultural festivities

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BY MOSCOW AND KYIV. WELL, TODAY MARKS THE FIRST DAY OF KWANZAA. IT’S A CELEBRATION THAT HONORS AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE. THE ANNUAL CELEBRATION HAS DEEP ROOTS HERE IN CALIFORNIA. KCRA 3’S CECIL HANNIBAL IS LIVE IN RANCHO CORDOVA, WHERE THE COMMUNITY IS GATHERED TONIGHT. DEEP ROOTS IS FOR SURE. THIS IS THE FIRST DAY OF KWANZAA, OF COURSE, AND IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW, IT WAS ACTUALLY CREATED IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NEARLY 60 YEARS AGO. NOW, THIS SEVEN DAY CELEBRATION, THIS HOLIDAY IS CELEBRATED BY PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD OF AFRICAN DESCENT. THIS EVENT IS STILL GOING ON RIGHT NOW. FOR A CLOSER LOOK INSIDE, I WANT TO SHOW YOU THIS VIDEO. IF YOU CAN TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR SCREEN FOR ME REAL QUICK. EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO THIS EVENT, REGARDLESS OF RACE OR CULTURAL BACKGROUND. IT’S A CHANCE TO, OF COURSE, COME LEARN, BUT ALSO TO BUY THINGS FROM HANDMADE NECKLACES TO CLOTHING AND EVEN BOOKS THAT TEACH ABOUT BLACK HISTORY IN THE PAN-AFRICAN MOVEMENT. THERE’S A NUMBER OF SPEAKERS TONIGHT FROM THE MAYOR OF RANCHO CORDOVA. RIGHT NOW, A PASTOR IS SPEAKING. WE ALSO HEARD FROM THE ORGANIZER, MICHAEL HARRIS, WHO SAYS HE STUDIED UNDER THE ORIGINAL CREATOR OF KWANZAA, DOCTOR MAULANA KARENGA, AND EXPLAINED WHY THIS HOLIDAY IS SIGNIFICANT TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY AND HIS NOTION OF A HOLIDAY THAT CELEBRATED AFRICAN CULTURE IN A TIME WHERE BLACK FOLKS DIDN’T HAVE NO CLUE WHO THEY WERE. WITH NO BLACK STUDIES PROGRAM, AND FOR PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT TO DO A DEEP DIVE AND ASK THOSE QUESTIONS. WHO ARE YOU? WHO ARE YOU REALLY? ARE YOU? WHAT IS AFRICA TO YOU? WHAT IS AMERICA TO YOU? SO BACK OUT HERE LIVE. THEY ARE ALSO HAVING LIVE CULTURAL PERFORMANCES, REFRESHMENTS AND ARTS AND CRAFTS FOR KIDS. NOW THERE ARE SEVEN DAYS OF KWANZAA. TODAY IS UMOJA, WHICH STANDS FOR UNITY. SO THE HOPE OF THIS EVENT IS TO REALLY BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER ALL IN ONE ROOM AND TO CELEBRATE THIS HOLIDAY TOGETHER. RANC

Sacramento region celebrates Kwanzaa with unity and cultural festivities

Sacramento region celebrates Kwanzaa with unity and cultural festivities

Updated: 12:20 AM PST Dec 27, 2025

Editorial Standards ⓘ

The city of Rancho Cordova celebrated the first day of Kwanzaa with a cultural event inviting people from across Sacramento County to city hall on Friday.It’s part of the 27th Annual California State Capitol Kwanzaa celebration, organized by Michael Harris, president and CEO of the California Black Agriculture Working Group.Harris, who studied under Kwanzaa’s original creator, Dr. Maulana Karenga, emphasized the holiday’s significance to the Black community. “We carry the oldest, largest, most accurate notion of authentic California Pan African Ancestry,” Harris said. The event, which began on the first day of Kwanzaa, Dec. 26, features a variety of activities, including live cultural performances, arts and crafts for children, and a “Farm to Fork Friday” event offering samples of Pan African cuisine. The celebration includes speeches from notable figures such as Pastor Carl Dee Amattoe and Rancho Cordova Mayor Garrett Gatewood, along with other regional community leaders.Guests can also purchase handmade items like necklaces and Afrocentric clothing. The event aims to bring people together from diverse backgrounds to honor African culture and the seven principles of Kwanzaa, starting with Umoja, which means unity. The celebration continues throughout the week, offering a chance for reflection, dialogue, and shared creativity in the spirit of unity.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. —

The city of Rancho Cordova celebrated the first day of Kwanzaa with a cultural event inviting people from across Sacramento County to city hall on Friday.

It’s part of the 27th Annual California State Capitol Kwanzaa celebration, organized by Michael Harris, president and CEO of the California Black Agriculture Working Group.

Harris, who studied under Kwanzaa’s original creator, Dr. Maulana Karenga, emphasized the holiday’s significance to the Black community.

“We carry the oldest, largest, most accurate notion of authentic California Pan African Ancestry,” Harris said.

The event, which began on the first day of Kwanzaa, Dec. 26, features a variety of activities, including live cultural performances, arts and crafts for children, and a “Farm to Fork Friday” event offering samples of Pan African cuisine.

The celebration includes speeches from notable figures such as Pastor Carl Dee Amattoe and Rancho Cordova Mayor Garrett Gatewood, along with other regional community leaders.

Guests can also purchase handmade items like necklaces and Afrocentric clothing.

The event aims to bring people together from diverse backgrounds to honor African culture and the seven principles of Kwanzaa, starting with Umoja, which means unity.

The celebration continues throughout the week, offering a chance for reflection, dialogue, and shared creativity in the spirit of unity.

See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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December 27, 2025
A beginner’s guide to Kwanzaa

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Kwanzaa has become a nationally recognized celebration of African culture and community in the United States since its founding in 1966, and also is celebrated in countries with large African descendant populations. The holiday, which serves as a nationwide communal event reinforcing self-determination and unity in the face of oppression, spans seven days from the day after Christmas through New Year’s Day. It is observed in large, city-sponsored events as well as in smaller communities and homes across the nation. Kwanzaa has grown in popularity in the decades since its founding and is celebrated by 3% of the country, according to a 2019 AP-NORC survey. Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all released statements commemorating the holiday, and in 1997, the U.S. Postal Service began issuing Kwanzaa stamps. It is not recognized as a federal holiday. Kwanzaa emerged during the Black Freedom Movement of the 1960s as a way to reconnect Black communities in the U.S. with important African cultural traditions that were severed by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It also promotes unity and liberation.”It was also shaped by that defining decade of fierce strivings and struggles for freedom, justice and associated goods waged by Africans and other peoples of color all over the world in the 1960s,” Maulana Karenga, the holiday’s founder, wrote in his annual Kwanzaa address in 2023. “Kwanzaa thus came into being, grounded itself and grew as an act of freedom, an instrument of freedom, a celebration of freedom and a practice of freedom.”Karenga, an African American author, activist and professor, founded Kwanzaa following the Watts Riots, also known as the Watts Rebellion, in Los Angeles in 1965.Karenga described Kwanzaa as a “political-motivator holiday” in an interview with Henry Lewis Gates Jr. for PBS. “The idea is for African and African descended people to come together around family, community and culture so we can be in spaces where, in Dr. Karenga’s words, we feel fully African and fully human at the same time,” said Janine Bell, president and artistic director at the Elegba Folklore Society in Richmond, Virginia. Many people who observe Kwanzaa, which is a secular holiday, celebrate it alongside religious festivals such as Christmas. People of any faith, race or ethnic background can participate.The name Kwanzaa derives from “mutanda ya kwanza,” a Swahili phrase meaning “first fruits” or “first harvest.” The final “a” was added to the name to accommodate the seven children present at the first Kwanzaa, each of whom was given a letter to represent.The holiday is governed by seven principles, known collectively as the Nguzo Saba, and a different principle is celebrated each day: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith). The Nguzo Saba is represented by a candleholder with seven candles called a kinara. Each night, one of those candles is lit. The candles are the same colors as the Kwanzaa flag: Black representing the people, red their struggle and green their hope.Large Kwanzaa celebrations happen across the country every year in cities including Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit. These events often feature storytellers, music and dance. The holiday is also observed in individual homes, often focusing on children because they are key to the survival of culture and the development of community. This concept of children and the future they embody is often represented symbolically by corn.”The intention is that it’s 365 (days a year),” Bell said. “The need for the principles and the strengthening value of the principles don’t go away on January 2nd.”Family celebrations also involve giving gifts and sharing African American and Pan African foods, culminating in the Karamu, a feast featuring dishes from across the African diaspora. Typical meals include staples of Southern cuisine like sweet potato pie or popular dishes from Africa like jollof rice. Activities over the seven days are geared toward reaffirming community bonds, commemorating the past and recommitting to important African cultural ideals. This can include dancing, reading poetry, honoring ancestors and the daily lighting of the kinara.

Kwanzaa has become a nationally recognized celebration of African culture and community in the United States since its founding in 1966, and also is celebrated in countries with large African descendant populations.

The holiday, which serves as a nationwide communal event reinforcing self-determination and unity in the face of oppression, spans seven days from the day after Christmas through New Year’s Day. It is observed in large, city-sponsored events as well as in smaller communities and homes across the nation.

Kwanzaa has grown in popularity in the decades since its founding and is celebrated by 3% of the country, according to a 2019 AP-NORC survey. Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all released statements commemorating the holiday, and in 1997, the U.S. Postal Service began issuing Kwanzaa stamps. It is not recognized as a federal holiday.

Kwanzaa emerged during the Black Freedom Movement of the 1960s as a way to reconnect Black communities in the U.S. with important African cultural traditions that were severed by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It also promotes unity and liberation.

“It was also shaped by that defining decade of fierce strivings and struggles for freedom, justice and associated goods waged by Africans and other peoples of color all over the world in the 1960s,” Maulana Karenga, the holiday’s founder, wrote in his annual Kwanzaa address in 2023. “Kwanzaa thus came into being, grounded itself and grew as an act of freedom, an instrument of freedom, a celebration of freedom and a practice of freedom.”

Karenga, an African American author, activist and professor, founded Kwanzaa following the Watts Riots, also known as the Watts Rebellion, in Los Angeles in 1965.

Karenga described Kwanzaa as a “political-motivator holiday” in an interview with Henry Lewis Gates Jr. for PBS.

“The idea is for African and African descended people to come together around family, community and culture so we can be in spaces where, in Dr. Karenga’s words, we feel fully African and fully human at the same time,” said Janine Bell, president and artistic director at the Elegba Folklore Society in Richmond, Virginia.

Many people who observe Kwanzaa, which is a secular holiday, celebrate it alongside religious festivals such as Christmas. People of any faith, race or ethnic background can participate.

The name Kwanzaa derives from “mutanda ya kwanza,” a Swahili phrase meaning “first fruits” or “first harvest.” The final “a” was added to the name to accommodate the seven children present at the first Kwanzaa, each of whom was given a letter to represent.

The holiday is governed by seven principles, known collectively as the Nguzo Saba, and a different principle is celebrated each day: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith).

The Nguzo Saba is represented by a candleholder with seven candles called a kinara. Each night, one of those candles is lit. The candles are the same colors as the Kwanzaa flag: Black representing the people, red their struggle and green their hope.

Large Kwanzaa celebrations happen across the country every year in cities including Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit. These events often feature storytellers, music and dance.

The holiday is also observed in individual homes, often focusing on children because they are key to the survival of culture and the development of community. This concept of children and the future they embody is often represented symbolically by corn.

“The intention is that it’s 365 (days a year),” Bell said. “The need for the principles and the strengthening value of the principles don’t go away on January 2nd.”

Family celebrations also involve giving gifts and sharing African American and Pan African foods, culminating in the Karamu, a feast featuring dishes from across the African diaspora. Typical meals include staples of Southern cuisine like sweet potato pie or popular dishes from Africa like jollof rice.

Activities over the seven days are geared toward reaffirming community bonds, commemorating the past and recommitting to important African cultural ideals. This can include dancing, reading poetry, honoring ancestors and the daily lighting of the kinara.

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December 26, 2025
On the front line of Europe’s standoff with Russia’s sanction-busting shadow fleet

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Out on the western Baltic, a coastguard officer radios a nearby, sanctioned oil tanker.

“Swedish Coastguard calling… Do you consent to answer a few questions for us? Over.”

Through heavy static, barely audible answers crackle over from a crew member, who gradually lists the ship’s insurance details, flag state and last port of call – Suez, Egypt.

“I think this ship will go up to Russia and get oil,” says Swedish investigator, Jonatan Tholin.

This is the front line of Europe’s uneasy standoff with Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet”; a term that commonly refers to hundreds of tankers used to bypass a price cap on Russian oil exports.

After the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many Western countries imposed sanctions on Russian energy, which Moscow is accused of dodging by shipping oil on aged tankers often with obscure ownership or insurance.

European coastguards and navies are regularly coming in contact with vessels in Russia’s shadow fleet which they suspect are transporting oil [BBC]

Some “shadow” ships are even suspected of undersea sabotage, illicit drone launches or “spoofing” their location data.

Out on the waves, where freedom of navigation is a golden rule, the ability and appetite of coastal countries to intervene is limited, even though the risk they face is escalating.

As the BBC has learned, a growing network of “shadow” ships are sailing without a valid national flag, which can render vessels stateless and without proper insurance.

That is a troubling trend, given many are practically “floating rust buckets”, says senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward AI, Michelle Wiese Bockmann. If there is an accident, like a billion-dollar oil spill, “good luck with trying to find somebody responsible to pick up any cost”.

Driven by record sanctions and tighter enforcement, the number of falsely flagged ships globally has more than doubled this year to over 450, most of them tankers, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) database.

The BBC has been tracking one ship that appears to have sailed without a valid flag.

The head of Estonia’s navy, Commodore Ivo Värk, says that vessels travel back and forth, past Estonia, to major Russian oil terminals [BBC]

The head of Estonia’s navy, Commodore Ivo Värk, says they have seen dozens of such passing vessels this year whereas they used to see just one or two.

The rise is alarming, he tells me, as we talk in his office overlooking the Gulf of Finland, a narrow gateway to the major Russian oil terminals of Ust-Luga and Primorsk.

What’s more, he suggests, it’s brazen: “There’s no secret made about it.”

We spot the tanker Unity on the MarineTraffic app, the day we board an Estonian (British-built) Minehunter that is also used in Nato’s Baltic Sentry patrols to protect critical infrastructure.

Journeying east, Unity is over 100 miles away but sailing in our direction.

The BBC has investigated its history and it offers an illuminating insight into the enigmatic life of a shadow ship.

Tracking data shows that Unity has passed through the English Channel four times in the last twelve months, including journeys between Russian ports and India; a key oil customer that has not signed up to the price cap.

Originally known as Ocean Explorer, the tanker was built in 2009 and flew the flag of Singapore for more than a decade.

Back in 2019, it was named in a UN report for alleged involvement in a ship-to-ship transfer with a vessel that had been sanctioned for its role in transporting fuel to North Korea – which is among other countries also charged with utilising elusive shadow ships.

By late 2021, the vessel – which that year operated under the name Ocean Vela – took the flag of the Marshall Islands but was struck from that list in 2024, a registry spokesperson told us, because the ship’s then-operator and beneficial owning company had been sanctioned by the UK.

The tanker appears to have had three further names since 2021 (Beks Swan, March and Unity) and three further flags (Panama, Russia and Gambia) but always retains a unique IMO number.

In August, ship broadcasting data shows Unity claimed the flag of Lesotho which was designated as “false”. Lesotho is a small, landlocked African enclave kingdom that, according to the IMO, does not have an official registry.

Over the past year, Unity has made several voyages to and from Russian oil ports [BBC]

The BBC has tried to contact Unity’s listed owner, a Dubai-registered company called FMTC Ship Charter LLC, but our emails and our calls went unanswered.

The beneficial owners of 60% of shadow fleet vessels remain essentially unknown, according to maritime intelligence company Windward AI.

Opaque ownership structures – and frequent name or flag changes – have become a signature trait of the shadow fleet as a means of avoiding detection.

Purged from reputable registries and having circled the drain of poor-quality alternatives, some ships are now at a point “where they just don’t even bother at all”, says Michelle Wiese Bockmann.

Unity’s most recent journey saw it sail through the North Sea in late October before entering the Baltic and passing countries including Sweden and Estonia – the point at which we spotted it.

By 6 November, it was anchored outside the Russian port of Ust-Luga where it remains at the time of publication.

The tanker was added to the UK and EU’s ever-growing list of sanctioned vessels earlier this year but, like so many others, continues to do business despite other difficulties.

Back in January, it reportedly sheltered in the English Channel after suffering a mechanical failure during a storm. The following August it was reportedly detained at a Russian port due to technical issues and unpaid wages.

At the time of publication the vessel was anchored just outside the major Russian oil port, Ust-Luga [Planet Labs]

Unity is just one of hundreds of vessels subject to UK and EU service and port bans as both London and Brussels try to increase pressure on the Kremlin.

Nevertheless, Russian revenues from crude and oil product sales were $13.1bn (£9.95bn) in October alone, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) – although this was down by $2.3bn when compared with the same month a year ago.

Analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air finds that “shadow” tankers, either sanctioned or suspected, account for 62% of shipped Russian crude oil exports, while China and India are by far the biggest customers for crude, followed by Turkey and the European Union itself.

While politicians talk of toughening action, navy and coastguard officers point out that a country’s power to act fades the further you go out to sea.

The right of innocent passage remains a cornerstone of maritime law, but stateless vessels technically are not entitled to it.

Countries such as France, Finland and Estonia have detained ships, and they can do so where a crime is suspected, however such drastic controls remain a relatively rare event.

“There’s a complexity associated with it,” argues Commodore Ivo Värk. “With the Russian presence next to our borders, the risk of escalation is too high to do it on a regular basis.”

The Estonians speak from experience.

When they attempted to intercept a flagless tanker in May, Russia briefly deployed a fighter jet and has “constantly” had about two naval vessels in the Gulf of Finland since, says Commodore Värk.

The fear of escalation sits alongside broader concerns of commercial retaliation if a more aggressive approach were to be taken.

“Every day in the Baltic, there’s suspicious activity,” a Nato official told the BBC, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Nevertheless, the official added, “we don’t want to be cowboys and jumping on ships. The act of monitoring ships is a deterrent in itself”.

“Freedom of navigation is the lifeblood of all of our economies.”

Back on the bridge of the Swedish coastguard ship, the radio call with the sanctioned tanker has wrapped up.

“Thank you for your co-operation,” says the officer as the vessel carries on towards Russia.

The exchange lasted just over five minutes.

“You need to see it in a larger perspective,” says investigator Jonatan Tholin when I suggest these measures appear less than muscular: “This information can be used in our maritime surveillance.”

But as Europe steps up checks and watches the waves, Windward’s Michelle Wiese Bockmann spies something else: “You can literally see the international rules-based order crumbling through the sanctions-circumventing tactics of these vessels.”

There is a lot at stake for the environment and on security, she says, and meanwhile “the dark fleet is getting darker”.

The BBC approached Russia’s embassy in London for comment. In response, a spokesman said that the West’s “anti-Russian sanctions” were “illegitimate” and “undermine established principles of global commerce”.

“Labelling ships used to export Russian oil as ‘shadow fleet’ is discriminatory and misleading,” the embassy said, and instances of invalid flags were typically down to “easily resolved” issues such as administrative delays.

It was sanctioning countries, the spokesperson said, that had “heightened” the risks by “forcing shipowners and operators to navigate an increasingly fragmented and restrictive regulatory landscape”.

Additional reporting by Adrienne Murray, Michael Steininger and Ali Zaidi

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November 19, 2025
Goats on the go: ‘Free goat walks’ provide a neighborhood with a quirky mental health escape

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Goats on the go: ‘Free goat walks’ help neighbors unite and de-stress

Updated: 8:44 PM EST Nov 13, 2025

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When residents in an Idaho neighborhood need some time to unwind, they know the drill. The neighbors in Boise’s Bench neighborhood head over to the Ching family’s home, grab a leash, and take a goat for a walk. Kerry Ching told KIVI that her family uses goats to “help eat the weeds, clear the area, and be something kind of fun and different to have in the neighborhood and also for ourselves.””People come by to the goat area and then just enjoy watching the goats. So we thought about making this as a community engagement,” Tony Ching said, later adding, “So many people will just drive by, they’ll roll down the window and be like baaa.” Noticing how much their neighbors love the animals, the family created Chingóat, which is a free neighborhood activity that allows neighbors to walk, feed, or just spend time with their goats. The family says their free goat walks have become a popular activity, and they’re particularly beloved by Boise State University students who live nearby and cherish a chance to get a mental health break.”You can just like forget everything and just really be present in that moment and just look at these cute little goats and relax,” Kerry told KIVI.And the goats are also providing joy to people who don’t live in town.That’s because Chingóat offers a livestream of the goats. The “goatcam” can be viewed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.The goats have gained popularity far beyond Boise.”Coworkers who are in other states, even other countries … they log on as a mental health break,” Kerry said.To see more, watch the video from KIVI in the player above.

(Video above: KIVI via CNN Newsource) —

When residents in an Idaho neighborhood need some time to unwind, they know the drill.

The neighbors in Boise’s Bench neighborhood head over to the Ching family’s home, grab a leash, and take a goat for a walk.

Kerry Ching told KIVI that her family uses goats to “help eat the weeds, clear the area, and be something kind of fun and different to have in the neighborhood and also for ourselves.”

“People come by to the goat area and then just enjoy watching the goats. So we thought about making this as a community engagement,” Tony Ching said, later adding, “So many people will just drive by, they’ll roll down the window and be like baaa.”

Noticing how much their neighbors love the animals, the family created Chingóat, which is a free neighborhood activity that allows neighbors to walk, feed, or just spend time with their goats.

The family says their free goat walks have become a popular activity, and they’re particularly beloved by Boise State University students who live nearby and cherish a chance to get a mental health break.

“You can just like forget everything and just really be present in that moment and just look at these cute little goats and relax,” Kerry told KIVI.

And the goats are also providing joy to people who don’t live in town.

That’s because Chingóat offers a livestream of the goats. The “goatcam” can be viewed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The goats have gained popularity far beyond Boise.

“Coworkers who are in other states, even other countries … they log on as a mental health break,” Kerry said.

To see more, watch the video from KIVI in the player above.

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November 13, 2025
Where the ‘PayPal Mafia’ Is Today: Founders, Fortunes and Feuds
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Peter Thiel, PayPal’s first CEO, turned his fintech fortune into a far-reaching empire of influence spanning venture capital, politics and power. Marco Bello/Getty Images

In 2007, Fortune magazine reimagined a classic mafia scene with a Silicon Valley twist: 13 male founders and early employees of PayPal, all long gone from the company, posed at a San Francisco café with slicked-back hair, poker chips and dozens of whiskey glasses. The crowd included some of the most recognizable names in today’s tech scene, like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman. The magazine dubbed them the “PayPal mafia,” not for their time at the fintech company, but for their outsized impact on Silicon Valley through the companies they launched afterward.

PayPal went public in early 2002 and was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion the same year. Most of its early employees left the company after the acquisition. They went on to found YouTube, SpaceX and LinkedIn, among other legendary names in Silicon Valley. However, like their cinematic namesake, the group hasn’t avoided controversy. These former colleagues have built billion-dollar businesses while also finding themselves in the crosshairs of public criticism.

For instance, Thiel has faced controversy over his political affiliations and, most notably, for funding Hulk Hogan’s 2012 lawsuit against Gawker Media with $10 million — a case that ultimately drove the online media company into bankruptcy. Musk has also faced criticism for his takeover of Twitter and his prior role in the Trump administration, where he led widespread federal employee firings.

Here’s what they are up to these days:

Peter Thiel: venture capitalist

Peter Thiel. Marco Bello/Getty Images

Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Luke Nosek founded PayPal in 1998, originally as a software security company. After merging with Elon Musk’s X.com (unrelated to the social media platform he owns today), PayPal shifted its focus to digital payments.

Thiel served as CEO from 1998 until 2002, leaving after the company was sold to eBay. He then co-founded Palantir Technologies, a major U.S. government contractor providing data analytics services. The company now has a market capitalization of $439 billion.

Thiel is also known as a prolific angel investor. He co-founded Clarium Capital, Founders Fund, Valar Ventures and Mithril Capital. In 2004, Thiel became Facebook’s first outside investor after acquiring a 10.2 percent stake in the company for $500,000.

Thiel is among the many former PayPal employees who have entered political and high-profile public arenas. An active donor to the Republican Party, Thiel supported Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign but withheld donations during the 2024 election. He is also credited with helping JD Vance reach the Vice Presidential ticket.

Elon Musk: entrepreneur, the world’s richest person

Elon Musk. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Elon Musk briefly served as PayPal’s CEO before being ousted by the board in 2000. He went on to build one of the most influential portfolios in technology, spanning electric vehicles, space exploration, social media and A.I.

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 and has led Tesla since 2008. He also founded Neuralink and The Boring Company, expanding his reach into brain-computer interfaces and infrastructure. In 2022, Musk gained global attention for acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, later rebranding it as X.

His ties to A.I. run deep: Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015 but left in 2018 over strategic disagreements. In 2023, he returned to the field by launching xAI, a research venture focused on building A.I. that is more understandable for humans.

Today, Musk is the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $400 billion. He is also perhaps the only PayPal alumnus to ascend into direct political influence. During the Trump administration, he led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a name shared with his cryptocurrency venture—before stepping down in May after clashing publicly with the President.

Max Levchin: computer scientist

Max Levchin. John Lamparski/Getty Images
- Position at PayPal: co-founder, chief technology officer from 1998 to 2002
- Companies later founded: Affirm
- Net worth: $1.8 billion
As PayPal’s chief technology officer, Max Levchin helped lead the company’s anti-fraud efforts by co-creating the Gausebeck-Levchin test—the foundation for the widely used CAPTCHA security tool. After leaving PayPal, he launched the media-sharing platform Slide in 2004, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Levchin briefly served as Google’s vice president of engineering until Slide was shut down the following year.

In 2012, he co-founded Affirm, a leading “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) company, where he continues to serve as CEO. Today, Affirm has a market capitalization of $27.5 billion, with 21.9 million consumers and more than 350,000 merchant partners on its platform.

Levchin has also held board positions at Yahoo and Yelp. In 2015, he became the first Silicon Valley executive appointed to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s advisory board, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between companies and regulators.

Reid Hoffman: entrepreneur, investor

Reid Hoffman. Kimberly White/Getty Images for WIRED
- Position at PayPal: chief operating officer
- Companies later founded: LinkedIn, Greylock Partners
- Net worth: $2.5 billion
Before joining PayPal, Hoffman worked as a senior user experience architect at Apple, contributing to the company’s online social network eWorld. He later became director of product management at Fujitsu. After his online dating startup, SocialNet, folded, Hoffman joined PayPal in 2000 as chief operating officer.

In 2003, he co-founded the career networking site LinkedIn. Following Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2017, Hoffman joined Microsoft’s board, a move that greatly increased his wealth.

Over the years, Hoffman has served on the boards of Airbnb and OpenAI, where he was also an early investor. Through the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, he has backed dozens of A.I. startups. In 2022, he co-founded Inflection AI with Mustafa Suleyman, who now serves as CEO. Earlier this year, he teamed up with cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee to launch Manas AI, a startup focused on drug discovery.

David Sacks: investor, White House A.I. and Crypto Czar

David Sacks currently serves as the White House A.I. and Crypto Czar. JC Olivera/Variety via Getty Images
- Position at PayPal: chief operating officer from 1999 to 2002
- Companies later founded: Craft Ventures
- Net worth: $200 million
Since leaving PayPal, David Sacks has built a career spanning film, tech, investing and politics. In 2005, he produced and financed a political satire that earned two Golden Globe nominations. The following year, he founded Geni.com, a genealogy-focused social network that later spun off Yammer, one of the earliest enterprise social networking platforms. He went on to co-found Craft Ventures, the startup Glue, and the podcast platform Callin.

Today, Sacks serves as the White House’s Special Advisor for A.I. and Crypto, a role created by the Trump administration to guide policy on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

Jeremy Stoppelman: engineer, Yelp CEO
- Position at PayPal: vice president of engineering
- Companies later founded: Yelp
- Net worth: $100 million
Jeremy Stoppelman joined Musk’s X.com in 1999 and became vice president of engineering after its transition to PayPal. In 2004, he co-founded Yelp, where he has served as CEO ever since. Under his leadership, the company turned down a 2010 acquisition offer from Google and went public two years later. Stoppelman’s net worth is estimated at more than $100 million.

Ken Howery: investor, U.S. ambassador
- Position at PayPal: chief financial officer from 1998 to 2002
- Companies later founded: Founders Fund
- Net worth: estimated $1.5 billion
Ken Howery served as PayPal’s chief financial officer from 1998 to 2002. After PayPal’s sale to eBay, he became eBay’s director of corporate development until 2003. He later joined Peter Thiel at Clarium Capital as vice president of private equity and went on to co-found Founders Fund as a partner. Beyond investing, he is a member of the Explorers Club, a nonprofit dedicated to scientific exploration, and an advisor to Kiva, the micro-lending nonprofit founded by former PayPal colleague Premal Shah.

Howery is also among the former PayPal executives who have moved into politics. He has donated at least $1 million to Donald Trump’s campaign through Elon Musk’s political action committee. During Trump’s first term, Howery was appointed U.S. ambassador to Sweden and today serves as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark.

Roeloth Botha: venture capitalist

Roelof Botha joined PayPal as director of corporate development shortly before graduating from Stanford University. He later became vice president of finance and went on to serve as chief financial officer until the company’s acquisition by eBay.

After leaving PayPal, Botha joined Sequoia Capital, where he oversaw investments in YouTube and Instagram. He currently sits on the boards of MongoDB, Evernote, Bird, Natera, Square, Unity and Xoom.

Russel Simmons: entrepreneur
- Position at PayPal: software architect from 1998 to 2003
- Companies later founded: Yelp, Learnirvana
Russel Simmons helped design PayPal’s payment system as a software architect. After leaving the company, he and fellow PayPal alum Jeremy Stoppelman set out to build a platform for restaurant reviews. With a $1 million investment from Max Levchin, they launched Yelp in July 2004. Simmons served as chief technology officer until his departure in 2010. At the time, Yelp said he would remain a “significant” shareholder, though the size of his stake—and whether he still holds it—remains unclear.

In 2014, Simmons co-founded Learnirvana, an online learning platform.

Andrew McCormack: entrepreneur
- Position at PayPal: assistant to Thiel from July 2001 to November 2002
- Companies later founded: Valar Ventures
Andrew McCormack began his career as an assistant to Peter Thiel at PayPal and followed him into subsequent ventures. From November 2002 to April 2003, he oversaw operations at Thiel’s hedge fund, Clarium Capital.

In 2010, McCormack co-founded Valar Ventures with Thiel and James Fitzgerald, focusing on fintech investments. He remains a general partner at the firm.

Luke Nosek: investor
- Position at PayPal: co-founder and vice president of marketing and strategy from 1998 to 2002
- Companies later founded: Founders Fund, Gigafund
In 2005, Luke Nosek joined Peter Thiel and Ken Howery to launch Founders Fund, a San Francisco–based venture capital firm that has backed companies such as Airbnb, Lyft and SpaceX. While his exact net worth is unclear, Nosek has made substantial investments through his venture firms. At Founders Fund, he led one of the firm’s earliest major deals with a $20 million investment in SpaceX, later serving on its board.

In 2017, Nosek left to co-found Gigafund, which went on to invest $1 billion in SpaceX, according to the company. He also sits on the board of ResearchGate.

Premal Shah: entrepreneur
- Position at Paypal: product manager
- Companies later founded: Kiva
Three years after leaving PayPal, Premal Shah co-founded Kiva, a nonprofit that provides loans to entrepreneurs in underserved communities worldwide. He also serves on the boards of other nonprofits, including the Center for Humane Technology, the Change.org Foundation, Watsi and VolunteerMatch.

Keith Rabois: investor
- Position at PayPal: executive vice president of business development
After leaving his executive role at PayPal, Keith Rabois became an active investor, backing companies including Slide, YouTube and Palantir. He also invested in LinkedIn, where he served as vice president of business and corporate development, and Square, where he was chief operating officer.

Rabois joined venture capital firm Khosla Ventures from 2013 to 2019 and was a partner at Founders Fund from 2019 to 2024.
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Irza Waraich

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October 5, 2025
Embracing Heart-Led Living Amidst Divisive Influences

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It is a significant task to tame our minds and connect with our hearts, especially amid external influences that divide and manipulate. As we navigate complex beliefs and divisive rhetoric, fostering unity and compassion becomes paramount for our shared humanity. Let’s step back from the chaos, find inner harmony, and strive to spread love and peace in our daily interactions.

Heart-led living requires us to tune into the whispers of the heart and invite those messages to be amplified. Easier said than done, no doubt, especially when we’re inundated with thousands of messages everyday triggering us to do the exact opposite.

To be clear, this isn’t about becoming ‘soft’ or weakened, or needing to hop onto the woowoo train. No. Leading and living from the heart invites us to tune in to the root of our confidence, where we are in complete alignment with our soul and becoming wildly strong.

To tune into our hearts, we must first quiet our minds and reflect on our core beliefs, and distinguish between those rooted in love or fear, abundance or lack, unity or division. Failing to do so makes us susceptible to societal chaos and propaganda, disconnecting us from the source of universal love and reality.

We cannot tune into our hearts when we have never taken a moment to try and tame our own minds, to ask the most basic of questions:

What do I believe?

Why do I believe what I believe?

Are the core beliefs I have built my life upon based on love or fear? Abundance or lack? ‘Us’ vs. ’Them’?

Without asking big questions of ourselves and sitting quietly to explore the answers honestly, free of ego, we become easy prey.

When society is in chaos we get swept into the game. We easily become manipulated by the propaganda, the fear, and internal soul conflict that becomes reflected in our day-to-day interactions.

Our pain points have been tapped and we are lost- further disconnected from the heart, the source of universal love, as our minds become less hinged to what is real.

We all have our inherent biases, but it is only when a foundational truth is challenged that more people wake up and rise up against the new agents of war: manipulative messaging, catch phrases, trending hashtags, and cancel culture, where every mobile device is the weapon.

The thing about propaganda is that most people can only see it conflict strongly with a pre-established belief, and in most cases, there is a pre-existing social network that is also in agreement.

We think we see it so clearly as we ask:

How is everyone being manipulated by this? it’s so obvious…

How can you of all people not see?

They’re spreading lies.

Can’t they see how clearly this stance contradicts what they were outraged about last month?

It takes a lot ego-checking to see the persuasive messaging and manipulation when it aligns with our existing beliefs and confirms our own biases.

We especially love when a person who, for all superficial reasons, should be with the ‘other side’ but instead affirms our beliefs and views. We love that. That gives us an I told you so and even one of *yours* says I’m right affirmation.

Challenging this is hard work for the brain.

We watch the news networks, follow the accounts, and now it seems, keep only the friends that affirm us.

We share the stories that make us right and call ‘misinformation’ to those that make us wrong. We immediately say the other is lying (and they may very well be), doing whatever it takes to make us feel more and more right.

With all of this, what we are actually doing is disconnecting further from the heart. Without realizing it, as we feel so empowered and right, we too have become agents of division.

What a thing to witness, watching people shuffle around every other week to work out the new “team” they’re on with whatever issue we are to be outraged about, and working out who from the old team is coming along to this new one. Along with this, we now check in on who we are now disappointed by and must separate ourselves from. It’s a rapid action of follows and unfollows to remain in our safe, belief affirming echo chamber.

It gets tricky though.

For when we are persistently swayed by the all mighty external messaging powers, we lose our way, don’t we?

Many of us can see it. Having complex beliefs around complex topics is complex to reckon with.

When you can see it from the outside, what you are witnessing is a complete loss of self as the heart and mind cannot contend with the ridiculous hypocrisy and most basic impossible conflict of how one stance can’t actually exist in alignment with the last one taken.

We lose the ability to tame our own minds, to tune into our hearts, and to truly know thyself.

We forget that we are all human, and we are all connected.

The human species requires deep connection for basic survival, but the ongoing need to align with a side only causes more division- especially when that alignment is based on what was read in memes or trending videos (which are, of course, just more of the aforementioned tools of control).

To continue creating separation from others only serves our own growing sense of aloneness and separation from our own souls, while feeding the thin veneer of righteousness.

What we are all feeling is our basic sense of humanity: outrage at the suffering, and a yearning for justice that will never come through aggressive, divisive action.

Where does it end?

We choose.

The answer to all of this is easy to speak, but takes a monumental amount of work to accomplish.

It can end when we all find ourselves standing alone, completely divided over the abundance of very real issues we are told to take a side on to the point where we each exist utterly and completely alone, afraid to broach difficult topics and have the necessary difficult conversations. The result of this culture, of course, is that we silence the now nearly inaudible wise whisper of our own heart, and give in to the pull of the tide, the all encompassing, ear splitting roar of the media machine.

Or it can end when we decide to join hands, tune in and live and lead from the heart, to not allow that external voice to get any louder and instead work to amplify the whisper of the heart. It ends when we choose to love, allowing the infinite tidal wave of compassion that exists within all of our hearts to take the lead.

It ends when, in our everyday lives, not as keyboard warriors, we are walking embodiments of peace.

It ends when we look up from our screens and into each others eyes and see that we all want the same thing.

We smile.

We serve.

We love unconditionally.

We aim to be the joy, the delight, and the inspiration in someone else’s day.

We operate from kindness.

What if we extricate ourselves from the nitty gritty horrific details? Yes, you can know the news, but then step back and get centred. Get into coherence, into harmony, and ask, what can I do today to be an agent of love and peace? How can I choose, in this moment and the next, to live and lead from the heart?

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Meghan Telpner

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May 1, 2025
A Year Later, Unity Cancels Controversial Runtime Fees Completely

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Unity is canceling its controversial Runtime Fee and returning to a more traditional subscription model for its popular video game engine used by small and big developers worldwide. However, the price of some subscription plans will increase next year.

The Boys Star Karen Fukuhara On Kimiko’s Character Arc, Karate, And More

A year ago, in September 2023, Unity announced a seismic change to how it charged developers to use its engine. Once a game was downloaded a certain number of times and had made a specific amount of money, Unity would start charging developers a Runtime Fee every single time someone installed any game developed using Unity, like Pokémon GO or Cuphead. Many smaller devs and creators criticized the decision and claimed it would lead to developers abandoning the engine to avoid paying thousands of dollars in install fees. This could have led to game delays and there was even fear that some devs might remove older games from sale, preventing players from re-installing them in order to avoid the Runtime Fees.

All of this was a giant mess that eventually led to Unity partially walking back some of these decisions a week later. It also led to Unity’s CEO retiring and another exec resigning. And now, after all that, the company is fully ditching the install fees completely.

On Thursday, in a blog post on Unity’s website, CEO Matthew Bromberg announced the news that “effective immediately” the company was removing all Runtime Fees from the engine.

“I’ve been able to connect with many of you over the last three months, and I’ve heard time and time again that you want a strong Unity, and understand that price increases are a necessary part of what enables us to invest in moving gaming forward. But those increases needn’t come in a novel and controversial new form,” said Bromberg.

Unity reveals price increases for some plans

So Runtime Fees are gone and Unity will return to a subscription model. Bromberg confirmed that Unity Personal licenses will remain free until a game brings in over $200,00 in revenue or funding. Meanwhile, starting in January 2025, Unity Pro subscriptions will increase by 8% and cost $2,200 a year. Unity Enterprise will also see a price increase of 25%.

Unity Personal will remain free, with the revenue and funding ceiling increased from $100,000 to $200,000, giving developers more flexibility before being subjected to Unity’s fees. The Made with Unity splash screen will be optional for games developed with Unity 6, set to launch later this year.

Starting January 1, 2025, Unity Pro will see an 8% price increase, raising the annual subscription fee to $2,200 per seat. Unity Enterprise will experience a 25% increase, with new minimum subscription requirements for customers generating over $25 million in annual revenue. These changes will apply to all new and existing subscriptions from that date. (Because these licenses involve major companies, the prices can vary based on different packages.)

Bromberg stressed in his blog post that Unity will continue to increase prices as it needs to, but will only do so annually via subscription fees going up. It won’t try to squeeze pennies out of every developer using the engine based on how many times people install your game.

“Canceling the Runtime Fee for games and instituting these pricing changes will allow us to continue investing to improve game development for everyone while also being better partners,” said Bromberg.

“Thank you all for your trust and continued support. We look forward to many more years of making great games together.”

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Zack Zwiezen

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September 12, 2024
Thousands remember Pulse victims at 8th annual Rainbow Run in Orlando

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Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando was filled with love Saturday morning. It’s been almost eight years since the massacre that forever changed Orlando.The CommUNITY Rainbow Run helped residents come together to honor the 49 lives taken and all those impacted by the Pulse tragedy. This year’s race has a new location and route. It moved from Wadeview Park to Orlando City Hall Plaza, located at 400 South Orange Ave., in downtown Orlando. Runners started at City Hall Plaza, went down Orange Avenue to Esther Avenue and back to the plaza.Forty-nine lives were taken in the Pulse Nightclub shooting, and dozens were injured on Jun. 12, 2016.Orlando Mayor Buddy Dryer says this race is showing the city’s kindness, compassion and commitment to inclusion. A week of remembrance for the victims, their families, first responders, and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community kicked off Saturday.Thousands filled the streets of Orlando with pride, running, walking, showing support for the LGBTQ+ community and honoring those affected by the Pulse Nightclub shooting. John Larese is a relative of Eddie Justice and Jason Josaphat, two of the 49 victims who were killed at the Pulse nightclub.“It still affects our family every day, and Eddie’s mother is grieving every single day. We all go on with our lives, but they are left to grieve every single day,” said Larese. This is the first year the city is hosting the CommUNITY Rainbow Run after the One Pulse Foundation dissolved. On Friday, the city of Orlando announced it had hired a company to help put together a committee with survivors, family members and people from the community.The plan is to pick the committee this month, start meeting in July, and have a design concept for a permanent memorial by the end of the year. “It feels great that we finally have a concrete plan and that we are going in the right direction,” said Brian Zieth, who attended the run. The city said the meetings will be public and can be seen in person or online. And in contrast to previous efforts by other organizations, the city said feedback is welcome from everybody. Dyer said all the proceeds from the run will go toward the memorial.

ORLANDO, Fla. —

Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando was filled with love Saturday morning. It’s been almost eight years since the massacre that forever changed Orlando.

The CommUNITY Rainbow Run helped residents come together to honor the 49 lives taken and all those impacted by the Pulse tragedy.

This year’s race has a new location and route. It moved from Wadeview Park to Orlando City Hall Plaza, located at 400 South Orange Ave., in downtown Orlando.

Runners started at City Hall Plaza, went down Orange Avenue to Esther Avenue and back to the plaza.

Forty-nine lives were taken in the Pulse Nightclub shooting, and dozens were injured on Jun. 12, 2016.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dryer says this race is showing the city’s kindness, compassion and commitment to inclusion.

A week of remembrance for the victims, their families, first responders, and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community kicked off Saturday.

Thousands filled the streets of Orlando with pride, running, walking, showing support for the LGBTQ+ community and honoring those affected by the Pulse Nightclub shooting.

John Larese is a relative of Eddie Justice and Jason Josaphat, two of the 49 victims who were killed at the Pulse nightclub.

“It still affects our family every day, and Eddie’s mother is grieving every single day. We all go on with our lives, but they are left to grieve every single day,” said Larese.

This is the first year the city is hosting the CommUNITY Rainbow Run after the One Pulse Foundation dissolved.

On Friday, the city of Orlando announced it had hired a company to help put together a committee with survivors, family members and people from the community.

The plan is to pick the committee this month, start meeting in July, and have a design concept for a permanent memorial by the end of the year.

“It feels great that we finally have a concrete plan and that we are going in the right direction,” said Brian Zieth, who attended the run.

The city said the meetings will be public and can be seen in person or online. And in contrast to previous efforts by other organizations, the city said feedback is welcome from everybody.

Dyer said all the proceeds from the run will go toward the memorial.

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June 8, 2024
Social Bonding Through Movies: The Emotional Magic Behind Watching Films Together

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Movies can be an excellent social bonding experience in a variety of situations, including first dates, family movie nights, group watches, couples therapy, and professional settings. Learn more about the emotional dynamics behind watching films together.

Beyond being a source of entertainment, films have the power to foster social bonds and create shared experiences among individuals.

Whether it’s getting together at a friend’s house on a weekend night, embarking on a first date at the theaters, or upholding a family tradition of watching the same movie during holidays, watching movies together is one of the most common ways we connect with others.

But what’s the psychology behind these cinematic connections? Let’s dive into the many social benefits behind movie watching and how they can improve our relationships in a number of different social settings.

Shared Experiences

Every time you press “Play” on a new movie, you are starting a collective journey with whoever you are watching with. No one knows what will happen, so you are both entering the unknown together and experiencing it for the first time.

Every film is a rollercoaster of different emotions – joy, laughter, surprise, fear, suspense, disgust, sadness, anger – and everyone is experiencing those emotions together as a “hive mind.” Research shows emotions are contagious, and when multiple people are experiencing the same emotion in unison, feelings are often amplified more than if you were just experiencing it by yourself.

Movies create new shared experiences that mark new chapters throughout our relationship. “Remember that one time we saw Wolf on Wall Street? That was fun!” A memorable movie can become a distinct event in our relationship’s storyline, especially if it symbolizes a special day like a first date, birthday, or anniversary, giving us a positive memory to look back on and reminisce about.

Watching movies together doesn’t require much work, it effortlessly creates a sense of unity among the people watching. Even if everyone hates the movie, it still creates a shared bond, “Wow, that movie was really stupid!” and then you can all laugh about it.

Icebreaker and Conversation Starter

Watching films together serves as an excellent icebreaker, especially in situations where individuals may be meeting for the first time or trying to strengthen new connections.

The movie theater, often considered a classic venue for a first date, provides a natural conversation starter. After the credits roll, initiating a conversation becomes as easy as asking, “Did you like the movie? Why or why not?” Ask about favorite scenes or whether they’ve seen other movies featuring the same actor or actress.

Use the film as a springboard into other topics to talk about. If you’re skilled at conversation threading, you should be able to take one thing from the film and branch off into more important subjects. If it’s a film about music, inquire about their musical preferences or whether they play an instrument. For sports-themed movies, explore their favorite sports or childhood sports experiences.

Icebreakers aren’t exclusive to first dates; they’re equally helpful in building connections in various scenarios, whether it’s getting to know a coworker outside the office or deepening a friendship.

One fair criticism of movies as a bonding experience is that you don’t get to do much talking during them. It’s a passive experience, not an active one. But there are also benefits to this: it’s a shared experience with little effort (no pressure, just sit and watch), and it gives you a convenient starting point for more meaningful conversation later on.

Nostalgia and Tradition

For many, watching films together is not just an occasional activity but a cherished tradition that spans multiple generations.

Family movie nights play a pivotal role in strengthening the bonds between parents and children. Holiday film marathons, especially during festive seasons, elevate our collective spirit and enhance the joyous atmosphere. Revisiting favorite childhood movies creates a profound sense of nostalgia, keeping us connected to our past.

One popular family tradition may be during Christmas, such as having A Christmas Story playing in the background as you decorate the tree or watching It’s A Wonderful Life every Christmas eve.

These traditions are about more than just the movie; they’re about creating a whole family experience. Infuse your own unique twist by turning it into a game, baking homemade cookies before watching, or simply enjoying jokes and good company. The film itself is just one aspect of a complete family ritual and bonding experience.

When families embrace these shared traditions, they contribute to a profound sense of belonging and unity. These rituals become the threads weaving together the fabric of family ties and friendships over long periods of time.

Team Building and Group Bonding

Beyond personal connections, watching films together can be an effective team-building activity in professional settings.

Organizational unity can be difficult to achieve for many companies, especially when workers have radically different jobs and skillsets, often being assigned to work within one department of a company but being siloed off from the organization as a whole.

Movie nights and film screenings can be an effective way to provide employees with a stronger sense of unity and camaraderie. Different departments that normally don’t see each other get to cross-pollinate and make connections with faces they don’t often get to see. Scheduled events like this can foster a team of teams mindset, helping to interconnect different departments into a cohesive whole.

Perhaps certain movies depict an idea, philosophy, or mindset that an organization wants to embrace more of. Requiring every employee to watch a movie together is more than just making friends at work, it can also tap into a deeper meaning behind the organization’s mission and purpose.

Couples Therapy

Movies can serve as bouncing points to important conversations that need to be had between spouses and loved ones.

It’s not always easy to bring up certain topics of conversation, but through film you can organically dive into subjects that otherwise wouldn’t get brought up in everyday discourse, like mental health, sex and intimacy, or experiencing grief after a tragedy or loss.

It’s common for a couples therapist to recommend a specific movie to their clients. You may already know of a movie that you’d like to share with someone. You can also ask friends or seek recommendations online. Ask yourself, “What’s something I really want to talk about with my partner?” then “What’s a good movie that can introduce this topic?”

A powerful film can help couples process their relationship more clearly. It shows the universality of humanity – you’re not alone with whatever you are going through – and brings ideas out in the open that need to be expressed or talked about.

One exercise you can try together is to each take notes or fill out a movie analysis worksheet while watching.

Communal Bonding and Bridging Social Divides

On a larger scale, film watching can help bridge cultural and social divides, as well as be used as a tool for communal bonding.

Social events such as public screenings, outdoor showings, movie festivals, or drive-thru theaters are great settings to watch a movie among a large and diverse group of people within your community.

These days with easy access to streaming services at home, most people watch movies all by themselves, but there used to be a time when movie-watching was an intrinsically social activity done in public spaces.

As we continue to see a decline in community feeling, movies may be one avenue to start bringing people together again as a cohesive group.

One idea is for local organizations to throw more public events with film features to celebrate holidays or special events – or you can set up a projector on your garage door and invite some neighbors for a weekend movie watch.

Conclusion

Watching films together is more than just a passive form of entertainment; it is a dynamic social activity that brings people together, creating lasting bonds and shared memories.

Films are universal connectors. Whether it’s with family, friends, or colleagues, the act of watching a movie together creates an automatic bond and sense of unity.

Are you a big movie watcher? In what situations can use film watching to improve your relationships with family, friends, loved ones, or coworkers?

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Steven Handel

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February 5, 2024
Report: Unity Cutting About 1,800 People In Company's Largest Layoff

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Image: Unity

A new report says Unity is cutting around 1,800 jobs, or about 25 percent of the its employees, according to a regulatory filing and internal company memo obtained by Reuters on Monday.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Actors Share Their Most-Flubbed Lines

This is reportedly the largest round of layoffs in the software company’s history—far larger than what happened in November of last year—and it will be completed by the end of March. Unity has gone through three prior rounds of layoffs within the last 12 months.

“We are … reducing the number of things we are doing in order to focus on our core business and drive our long-term success and profitability,” interim CEO Jim Whitehurst wrote in an internal memo obtained by Reuters. The memo was sent to all Unity employees on January 8.

Kotaku has contacted Unity Software for comment.

Unity Software’s main product is the Unity engine, a flexible and popular game engine that powers numerous big and small games—including Hearthstone and Pokemon GO. The company was at the center of a massive controversy last September when it announced changes to how it would charge developers and publishers to use its tech. Devs would potentially be on the hook to pay for every install, which could be costly for free-to-play mobile hits or popular games on platforms like Steam. Following the failed rollout of these changes, a huge backlash from developers quickly followed. It grew so loud that eventually the company apologized and walked back most of its new plans.

In October, shortly after this all happened, Unity’s then-CEO John Ricetello resigned. That’s when the current interim CEO, Whitehurst, took over the company. In November, during the last round of layoffs, the new CEO claimed the company needed a “reset.”

These latest layoffs continue a horrible trend in the video game industry that saw an estimated 6,000 jobs lost during 2023. And it seems things aren’t going to get better in 2024.

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Zack Zwiezen

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January 8, 2024
Embracing Heart-Led Living Amidst Divisive Influences

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It is a significant task to tame our minds and connect with our hearts, especially amid external influences that divide and manipulate. As we navigate complex beliefs and divisive rhetoric, fostering unity and compassion becomes paramount for our shared humanity. Let’s step back from the chaos, find inner harmony, and strive to spread love and peace in our daily interactions.

Heart-led living requires us to tune into the whispers of the heart and invite those messages to be amplified. Easier said than done, no doubt, especially when we’re inundated with thousands of messages everyday triggering us to do the exact opposite.

To be clear, this isn’t about becoming ‘soft’ or weakened, or needing to hop onto the woowoo train. No. Leading and living from the heart invites us to tune in to the root of our confidence, where we are in complete alignment with our soul and becoming wildly strong.

To tune into our hearts, we must first quiet our minds and reflect on our core beliefs, and distinguish between those rooted in love or fear, abundance or lack, unity or division. Failing to do so makes us susceptible to societal chaos and propaganda, disconnecting us from the source of universal love and reality.

We cannot tune into our hearts when we have never taken a moment to try and tame our own minds, to ask the most basic of questions:

What do I believe?

Why do I believe what I believe?

Are the core beliefs I have built my life upon based on love or fear? Abundance or lack? ‘Us’ vs. ’Them’?

Without asking big questions of ourselves and sitting quietly to explore the answers honestly, free of ego, we become easy prey.

When society is in chaos we get swept into the game. We easily become manipulated by the propaganda, the fear, and internal soul conflict that becomes reflected in our day-to-day interactions.

Our pain points have been tapped and we are lost- further disconnected from the heart, the source of universal love, as our minds become less hinged to what is real.

We all have our inherent biases, but it is only when a foundational truth is challenged that more people wake up and rise up against the new agents of war: manipulative messaging, catch phrases, trending hashtags, and cancel culture, where every mobile device is the weapon.

The thing about propaganda is that most people can only see it conflict strongly with a pre-established belief, and in most cases, there is a pre-existing social network that is also in agreement.

We think we see it so clearly as we ask:

How is everyone being manipulated by this? it’s so obvious…

How can you of all people not see?

They’re spreading lies.

Can’t they see how clearly this stance contradicts what they were outraged about last month?

It takes a lot ego-checking to see the persuasive messaging and manipulation when it aligns with our existing beliefs and confirms our own biases.

We especially love when a person who, for all superficial reasons, should be with the ‘other side’ but instead affirms our beliefs and views. We love that. That gives us an I told you so and even one of *yours* says I’m right affirmation.

Challenging this is hard work for the brain.

We watch the news networks, follow the accounts, and now it seems, keep only the friends that affirm us.

We share the stories that make us right and call ‘misinformation’ to those that make us wrong. We immediately say the other is lying (and they may very well be), doing whatever it takes to make us feel more and more right.

With all of this, what we are actually doing is disconnecting further from the heart. Without realizing it, as we feel so empowered and right, we too have become agents of division.

What a thing to witness, watching people shuffle around every other week to work out the new “team” they’re on with whatever issue we are to be outraged about, and working out who from the old team is coming along to this new one. Along with this, we now check in on who we are now disappointed by and must separate ourselves from. It’s a rapid action of follows and unfollows to remain in our safe, belief affirming echo chamber.

It gets tricky though.

For when we are persistently swayed by the all mighty external messaging powers, we lose our way, don’t we?

Many of us can see it. Having complex beliefs around complex topics is complex to reckon with.

When you can see it from the outside, what you are witnessing is a complete loss of self as the heart and mind cannot contend with the ridiculous hypocrisy and most basic impossible conflict of how one stance can’t actually exist in alignment with the last one taken.

We lose the ability to tame our own minds, to tune into our hearts, and to truly know thyself.

We forget that we are all human, and we are all connected.

The human species requires deep connection for basic survival, but the ongoing need to align with a side only causes more division- especially when that alignment is based on what was read in memes or trending videos (which are, of course, just more of the aforementioned tools of control).

To continue creating separation from others only serves our own growing sense of aloneness and separation from our own souls, while feeding the thin veneer of righteousness.

What we are all feeling is our basic sense of humanity: outrage at the suffering, and a yearning for justice that will never come through aggressive, divisive action.

Where does it end?

We choose.

The answer to all of this is easy to speak, but takes a monumental amount of work to accomplish.

It can end when we all find ourselves standing alone, completely divided over the abundance of very real issues we are told to take a side on to the point where we each exist utterly and completely alone, afraid to broach difficult topics and have the necessary difficult conversations. The result of this culture, of course, is that we silence the now nearly inaudible wise whisper of our own heart, and give in to the pull of the tide, the all encompassing, ear splitting roar of the media machine.

Or it can end when we decide to join hands, tune in and live and lead from the heart, to not allow that external voice to get any louder and instead work to amplify the whisper of the heart. It ends when we choose to love, allowing the infinite tidal wave of compassion that exists within all of our hearts to take the lead.

It ends when, in our everyday lives, not as keyboard warriors, we are walking embodiments of peace.

It ends when we look up from our screens and into each others eyes and see that we all want the same thing.

We smile.

We serve.

We love unconditionally.

We aim to be the joy, the delight, and the inspiration in someone else’s day.

We operate from kindness.

What if we extricate ourselves from the nitty gritty horrific details? Yes, you can know the news, but then step back and get centred. Get into coherence, into harmony, and ask, what can I do today to be an agent of love and peace? How can I choose, in this moment and the next, to live and lead from the heart?

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Meghan Telpner

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November 9, 2023
One Of Gaming’s Most Hated CEOs Says Goodbye, Again

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CEO John Riccitiello has retired from game development software company Unity after possibly its worst month of bad headlines ever. The tech company that’s slowly morphed into an in-game advertising firm announced a confusing and seemingly predatory new set of fees for game makers in September, only to walk the policy back after studios threatened to abandon the Unity engine moving forward.

The Week In Games: What’s Coming Out Beyond Lords Of The Fallen

James M. Whitehurst, former head of the IBM-acquired open source software company Red Hat, will take over from Riccitiello as interim CEO while Unity’s board of directors search for a new long-term replacement. “It’s been a privilege to lead Unity for nearly a decade and serve our employees, customers, developers and partners, all of whom have been instrumental to the Company’s growth,” Riccitiello said in a press release. “I look forward to supporting Unity through this transition and following the Company’s future success.”

Riccitiello joined Unity back in 2014 shortly after leaving Electoronic Arts. He oversaw the game engine company’s shift from one-time licensing fees to an ongoing subscription model, launched the IPO in 2020, and made a series of acquisitions, including the in-app monetization firm IronSource in 2022. When Unity first went public, its stock price was around $68. Today it’s just over $30.

Once synonymous with the explosion of creativity and experimental design in the indie gaming space, Unity is being left by Riccitiello a month after a bungled new monetization strategy rollout burned bridges with tons of game makers. The initial messaging made it sound like game developers might be charged fees every time their game was installed, including retroactively.

A follow-up apology by president and general manager Marc Whitten later clarified that the new terms would only apply beginning in 2024, and laid out much bigger carve-outs for smaller studios whose games don’t hit a certain threshold of income. But for many developers it was too late. Their trust in the company had already been irrevocably shaken. Re-logic, maker of the Steam hit Terraria, pledged $200,000 toward the creation of a Unity competitor, and Slay the Spire dev, Mega Crit, says it will still move to rival game software platform Godot.

Rethinking monetization more aggressively was also one of Riccitiello’s legacies at EA. His seven years at the FIFA (now EA Sports FC) and Battlefield publisher saw it experiment with day-one DLC, microtransactions, and a focus on post-launch content. While there was no week-long crisis moment on the scale of what happened at Unity last month, it’s clear he helped usher in the company’s current live-service era, which many players now feel nickel-and-dimed by. Madden and FIFA’s lootbox modes were both added while he was head of EA, though they didn’t become the billion-dollar windfalls they are today until the tenure of his successor, current CEO Andrew Wilson.

Perhaps nothing summed up Riccitiello’s time at both EA and Unity better than another controvertial incident last year. In an interview with Pocketgamer.biz in July 2022, he called developers who don’t think about monetization early in the process “fucking idiots.” He immediately walked the comments back the next week, calling articles about it “clickbait” that took his comment out of context, but later apologized, saying he should have chosen his words more carefully.

That unforced error came shortly after the company revealed hundreds of layoffs at the same time it was buying IronSource in a $4.4 billion all-stock deal. Six hundred more were laid off at Unity earlier this year. Meanwhile, Riccitiello, in addition to the millions he has in Unity stock, will be kept on salary until April of 2024.

Update 10/11/2023 4:50 p.m. ET: SFGate reports that Riccitiello is set to earn up to $8.4 million through stock options over the next six months. That’s in addition to the roughly $253 million he already holds in current Unity stock.

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Ethan Gach

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October 11, 2023
Devs React To Unity’s Newly Announced Fee For Game Installs: ‘Not To Be Trusted’ [UPDATE]

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Unity, the cross-platform game engine that powers games like Rust, Hollow Knight, and Pokémon Go, has introduced a new, controversial fee for developers, set to take effect next year. Indie developers quickly responded to the announcement, with many suggesting the costs of this policy would kill smaller games, while confusion spread as devs wondered how it would affect their bottom line. Unity’s attempts to provide clarity have only fueled devs’ frustration and spawned more questions from those with both currently active and in-development games using the engine.

This Action Game Asks What If Ninja Gaiden Let Its Hair Down

The new Runtime Fee, announced in a September 12 Unity blog, is based on the number of installations a game built with the Unity engine receives, as well as the revenue it generates. Though it won’t start until January 1, 2024, the Runtime Fee will apply to any game that has reached both a previously established annual revenue threshold and a lifetime install count. Games developed with the lower-cost Unity Personal and Unity Plus plans reach that threshold at $200,000 of revenue in one year and 200,000 lifetime installs, while Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise accounts must reach $1 million in revenue and 1 million lifetime installs for the fee to kick in.

Read More: Unity CEO Calls Mobile Devs Who Don’t Prioritize Monetization ‘Fucking Idiots’

Unity Personal and Unity Plus devs will have to pay $.20 for every game installed past their subscription-specific thresholds, Unity Pro devs will have to fork over between $.02 and $.15 for every install past theirs, and Unity Enterprise devs’ costs range from $.01 to $.125. Developers in emerging markets will have lower costs per install past their threshold. The announcement was met with widespread confusion, as devs of free-to-play games scrambled to figure out if they’d end up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars, charity bundle creators became concerned about potentially being punished for supporting a good cause, and more.

Developers react to Unity Runtime Fee

Shortly after the policy was announced, Rust developer Garry Newman wondered if “Unity [wants] us to start paying them $200k a month” before doing the math and realizing that Facepunch Studios would owe the game engine company about $410,000 total.

“While this isn’t much, here’s some stuff I don’t like,” Newman shared to X (formerly Twitter). “Unity can just start charging us a tax per install? They can do this unilaterally? They can charge whatever they want? They can add install tracking to our game? We have to trust their tracking?”

Though many devs initially thought this new fee would apply to all games made in Unity (including free ones), and reacted accordingly, it soon became clear that the fee will only apply to monetized titles. Axios’ Stephen Totilo shared some clarification he’d received from Unity a few hours after the initial announcement, including that charity games and bundles are excluded from fees. But some of Unity’s clarifications only served to further suggest the notion that it didn’t really think this initiative through.

When a decision like this gets announced, and you’re three years into a five-year journey, you have little to no choice. You’re stuck with a partner who may be actively working against your interest, and who you increasingly cannot trust. — developer Xalavier Nelson Jr.

“If a player deletes a game and re-installs it, that’s 2 installs, 2 charges,” Totilo posted. “Same if they install on 2 devices.” This means that developers could be “vulnerable to abuse” from bad actors who repeatedly uninstall and reinstall their games. “Unity says it would use fraud detection tools and allow developers to report possible instances of fraud to a compliance team.” So, if you get a massive bill from Unity, you’ll just have to wait on their customer support line. Shouldn’t be an issue, right?

Xalavier Nelson Jr., head of Strange Scaffold, the indie studio behind games like El Paso, Elsewhere and An Airport For Aliens Currently Run By Dogs, expressed concerns about the entire situation. “This is the danger of modern games and game development cycles becoming exponentially more complicated, lengthy, and prone to immense dependency,” he told Kotaku via DM. “When a decision like this gets announced, and you’re three years into a five-year journey, you have little to no choice. You’re stuck with a partner who may be actively working against your interest, and who you increasingly cannot trust.”

Tiani Pixel, indie developer and co-founder of Studio Pixel Punk, the studio behind the 2021 Metroidvania Unsighted, told Kotaku via DM that “there’s a lot of things in Unity’s statement that aren’t clear and are very worrying.” She brought up not only how complicated it is to measure actual installs, but the privacy issues inherent with such a policy.

“There are some certifications you need for having such service in your game and releasing it on consoles and other platforms. You need an end-user license agreement (EULA), because you’ll be sending info from the player’s device to an external server. So, will indies be forced to add such DRMs on their games so they can track the installs? Again, Unity does not make it clear. Forcing DRM on games has a long (and bad) history in gaming. Many tools used for this are literally indistinguishable from malwares…There’s no benefit to the devs or the user here.”

She also pointed out how these new fees could affect indie developers. “Small indie games, like our game Unsighted, which had the chance to appear on services like Xbox Game Pass, (in which the game isn’t sold directly to the consumer), might be penalized for becoming popular there, because we will be charged for every install,” she said.

Brandon Sheffield, creative director at Necrosoft Games, warned game developers off the engine in a scathing op-ed for Insert Credit. “But now I can say, unequivocally, if you’re starting a new game project, do not use Unity,” he wrote. “If you started a project 4 months ago, it’s worth switching to something else. Unity is quite simply not a company to be trusted.”

The op-ed ends by stating that Unity is “digging its own grave in search for gold.”

Unity continues to court controversy

Shortly after Unity’s blog post went live, game developer John Draisey posted that Unity had “eliminated Unity Plus subscriptions” and that the company was automatically switching members to its Pro subscription next month. Draisey shared an image showing the price difference between the two subs, which are billed annually, and it was nearly $3,300. “Be careful not to have auto-renew on your account if you can’t afford the price. And this is with just 2 people on my team with project access,” he warned.

It’s unclear how the potential change in subscription options will translate to the newly minted Runtime Fee, as the thresholds are different for each sub. Kotaku reached out for clarification, and a Unity spokesperson pointed us to their FAQ page. When asked for further clarification, the spokesperson sent this statement: “Unity Plus is being retired for new subscribers effective today, September 12, 2023, to simplify the number of plans we offer. Existing subscribers do not need to take immediate action and will receive an email mid-October with an offer to upgrade to Unity Pro, for one year, at the current Unity Plus price.”

The bigwigs at Unity have been making some, uh, interesting decisions as of late. In June, the company announced two new machine-learning platforms that would be integrated into its engine: Unity Muse (essentially ChatGPT for using Unity, a service that would allow devs to ask questions about coding and get answers from a bot) and Unity Sentis, which “enables you to embed an AI model in the Unity Runtime for your game or application, enhancing gameplay and other functionality directly on end-user platforms.” As former Kotaku writer Luke Plunkett pointed out at the time of the announcement, AI technology heavily relies on “work stolen from artists without consent or compensation,” so Unity Sentis raised a ton of eyebrows.

And as Rust’s Newman shared shortly after the latest Unity announcement, it seems these changes are having a negative impact on the company at large: their market shares tanked as of 11:17 a.m. EST. Let’s see if Unity sticks with these changes, or makes adjustments based on feedback from developers.

Image: Facepunch Studios

Unity responds to negative feedback

At 6:38 p.m. EST, the official Unity X account shared a post on the game engine’s official forums titled “Unity plan pricing and packaging updates.” The post contains a series of frequently asked questions that cropped up shortly after the announcement of the Runtime Fee, many of which were focused on game installations.

As many devs worried on social media before these FAQs were released, under Unity’s new policy, multiple reinstalls or redownloads of games will have to be paid for by creators—and the definition of “install” also includes a user making changes to their hardware. Further, any “early access, beta, or a demo of the full game” will induce install charges, according to the FAQs, as can even streamed or web-based games. And Unity won’t reveal how it’s counting these installs, posting that “We leverage our own proprietary data model, so you can appreciate that we won’t go into a lot of detail, but we believe it gives an accurate determination of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project.”

The FAQ does not clarify how Unity will ensure it does not count installations of charity games or bundled games with its “proprietary software.”

The Verge’s Ash Parrish was quick to point out that the multiple install charges could give right-wing reactionaries a new way to damage a game and/or studio: revenue bombing. If certain groups are angered by, say, a queer character in a game or a Black woman lead (both of which have whipped gamers into a frenzy before), then they could repeatedly install said game over and over again, racking up Unity’s Runtime Fee for the studio.

“I can tell you right now that the folks at risk of this are women devs, queer devs, trans devs, devs of color, devs pushing for accessibility, devs pushing for inclusion—we’ve seen countless malicious actors work together to tank their game scores or ratings,” developer Rami Ismail wrote on X.

Nelson confirmed to Kotaku via DM on the evening of September 12 that “concrete talks are happening among some of the most significant developers in the space” regarding a class-action lawsuit against Unity.

Update 09/12/2023 7:35 p.m. ET: Updated to include information from an official Unity forum post, more reactions from devs, and the confirmation of a potential class-action lawsuit.

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Alyssa Mercante

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September 12, 2023
Unity Announces Big ‘AI’ Plans, Developers Have Concerns

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Video games engine provider Unity announced earlier today the introduction of two new machine-learning platforms, one of which in particular has developers and artists asking questions of the company that, at time of publishing, have yet to be answered.

The Week In Games: What’s Releasing Beyond Lara Croft

From Unity’s blog:

Today we’re announcing two new AI products: Unity Muse, an expansive platform for AI-driven assistance during creation, and Unity Sentis, which allows you to embed neural networks in your builds to enable previously unimaginable real-time experiences.

Muse is essentially just ChatGPT but for Unity specifically, and purports to let users ask questions about coding and resources and get instant answers. Sentis, however, is more concerning, as it “enables you to embed an AI model in the Unity Runtime for your game or application, enhancing gameplay and other functionality directly on end-user platforms.”

Because “AI” is a technology that in many cases is utterly reliant on work stolen from artists without consent or compensation, Unity’s announcement led to a lot of questions about Sentis, with particular focus on the tech’s ability to create stuff like images, models and animation. Scroll down past the announcement tweet, for example, and you’ll see a ton of variations of the same query:

just to jump on the train, which dataset y’all pull the art from???

Unity needs to be fully transparent about what ML models will be implemented, including the data they have been trained on. I don’t see any possible way ML, in current iterations, can be effective without training on countless ill gotten data.

REALLY concerning image generator stuff. What datasets?

Hi, what dataset was this trained on? Is this using artwork from artists without their permission? Animations? Materials? How was this AI trained?

You do realize that AI-created assets can’t be used commercially, so what was the rationale for adding this feature?

Which datasets were used in development of this? Did you negotiate & acquire all relevant licenses directly from copyright holders?

It’s a very specific question, one that at time of publishing Unity has yet to answer, either on Twitter or on the company’s forums (I’ve emailed the company asking the question specifically, and will update if I hear back). Those familiar with “AI”’s legal and copyright struggles can find the outline of an answer in this post by Unity employee TreyK-47, though, when he says you can’t use the tech as it exists today “for a current commercial or external project”.

Note that while there are clear dangers to jobs and the quality of games inherent in this push, those dangers are for the future; for the now, this looks (and sounds) like dogshit.

Experience the art of the possible | Unity AI

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Luke Plunkett

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June 27, 2023
How Xbox Research accomplished worldwide virtual playtesting with Parsec
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They needed a solution that had the high performance and high fidelity required to remotely demonstrate the truest gameplay experience. They tried many alternatives, but none were able to mimic local gameplay, which was essential to both delivering the greatest control and receiving the most accurate feedback.

“Parsec was a total lifesaver – it gave us a completely new way to test our games outside the confines of our physical labs to deliver the high-quality, local gameplay feel required for our research,” said Daniel Gunn, Director of User Research for Xbox Research. “We wouldn’t have been able to continue remote playtesting at the same level of quality without it.”

The solution:

After successfully leveraging Parsec to playtest Halo Infinite, Xbox Research deployed Parsec to start playtesting with the next Age of Empires release. The initial round of tests proved that Parsec’s seamless gameplay experience produced meaningful user research.

Xbox Research didn’t see any evidence of reduced testing quality or quantity after using Parsec for remote playtesting for a year. Their reports looked as if those studies had been running in person as usual. And now that Parsec has enabled them to once again test with gamers around the world, Xbox Research can focus on scaling virtual game testing. Without the limits imposed by on-prem hardware, they’ve been able to conduct tests with up to 60 concurrent gamers on Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines (VMs).

Using Parsec has taken us beyond where we ever thought we could go with playtesting and usability,” said Brian Walker, Principal Research Operations Lead for Xbox Research. “We’re leading the game industry with our ability to do this level of remote testing at scale, and it’s all enabled by Parsec.”

By the numbers:
- Xbox Research was established in 2000
- Number of workstations running Parsec concurrently: 120
- Number of playtests (of different games) running concurrently: 20+
- Number of testing participants per month: 150+
How Xbox Research accomplished virtual playtesting with Parsec

Scaling to meet demand: In-person playtesting on dedicated hardware has firm limits in time, space, and numbers. Only so many people can fit in one test space at a time, and budgets can limit access to machine hardware. Virtual playtesting enables Xbox Research to reach gamers regardless of geography so the team can run as many consecutive tests as they need to at a lower cost. During their initial effort using Parsec for Teams Enterprise and Microsoft Azure to create VMs for playtesting, Xbox Research was able to keep methodological control over their testing and meet the demand of the game studios.

Gaming without limits: For remote playtesting to provide statistically viable feedback, gameplay needs to feel the same in a gamer’s living room anywhere around the world as it would in the Redmond lab. Xbox’s rigorous research methodology requires a predictable and consistent gameplay experience across geographic divides with near-zero lag and latency – which Parsec delivered with flying colors. With Parsec for Teams Enterprise, Xbox Research can connect with multiple markets and gamers of all abilities knowing the user experience is virtually identical.

Secure connections: Keeping intellectual property safe is a primary concern of game developers. Leaks and piracy threaten the success and reputation of billion-dollar franchises. With Parsec for Teams Enterprise, Xbox Research has fine-grained control over what both internal team members and guests on the system can access and when. Additionally, Parsec connections are peer-to-peer and end-to-end encrypted, so game studios can run content securely.

”Playtesting is such a complicated beast, given the interactive content and the hardware requirements,” said Walker. “Parsec made remote playtesting efficient, reliable, and more secure.”

Moving forward: Integrating Parsec more deeply with Microsoft

Xbox Research’s success is real-world proof of Parsec’s value for real-time 3D applications. So much so that the Microsoft Studios developer ecosystem has continued wider adoption of Parsec for Teams Enterprise, partnering with Microsoft Azure. Through the Azure Marketplace, creative teams can deploy VMs preconfigured with Parsec in five minutes or less.

Parsec is going to allow us to scale in scenarios we’ve never been able to before,” said Walker. With Parsec, we can spin up an Azure virtual machine lab anywhere in the world. This is our future.”

Ready to playtest your games from anywhere? Try Parsec for free.
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May 8, 2023
Pray.com to Host National Day of Prayer Livestream May 4
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Pray.Com Founders Join Prominent Faith Leaders in Lifting Prayers for the Nation in Annual Observance
LOS ANGELES, May 2, 2023 (Newswire.com)
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Pray.com, the No. 1 app for prayer and faith-based audio and video streaming content, will broadcast the annual National Day of Prayer livestream on Thursday, May 4, at 8 p.m. EDT. Founders Steve Gatena and Matthew Potter will add their prayers for the nation to those of other participants, centered around this year’s theme, “Pray Fervently in Righteousness and Avail Much,” based on Scripture found in James 5:16b: “the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (NKJV).”

The event will be co-hosted by Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Pastor of New Season Christian Worship Center in Sacramento, Calif., and National Day of Prayer Task Force President Kathy Branzell. Other participants in the line-up of both prayer and worship music include:
- Gold Medal Olympian Madeline Manning Mims
- Senate Chaplain Barry Black
- Congressman Tony Hall
- Gateway Church Pastor Robert Morris
- Evangelist Nick Hall
- Award-winning musician Lecrae
- And many more
“We are honored to partner with so many faithful Americans. It’s a joy to lead millions gathered across the country to lift our nation in prayer,” said Pray.com founder and CEO Steve Gatena. “This is such an important day, recognized by Presidential Proclamation, to come together as a people who pray, while recognizing our help comes from God.”

Specific areas that will be prayed for include government, military, education, families, churches, businesses and racial unity. “We each have a role to play in bringing our divided country back together as ‘one nation under God,’ and National Day of Prayer is a great opportunity to unite in prayer for one another and our leadership,” added Matthew Potter, Pray.com cofounder.

This is Pray.com’s fourth year being a part of the National Day of Prayer, first hosting its own livestream events and now partnering with the official National Day of Prayer Task Force. The event will be broadcast from Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., and in addition to being livestreamed on Pray.com, will be carried on multiple other radio and television networks.

About Pray.com
Founded in 2016 with a mission to grow faith and cultivate community, Pray.com is the world’s No. 1 app for daily prayer and Bible-based audio content. Reaching more than 10 million people worldwide through its mobile app and website, it is the easiest way to incorporate prayer into your daily life. Pray.com founders are Steve Gatena, Mike Lynn, Ryan Beck and Matthew Potter. See https://alarryross.com/pray-com for more information.

About the National Day of Prayer
The National Day of Prayer tradition predates the founding of the United States of America, evidenced by the Continental Congress’ proclamation in 1775 setting aside a day of prayer. In 1952, Congress established an annual day of prayer, designated in 1988 as the first Thursday in May. For more information, visit www.nationaldayofprayer.org.

Source: Pray.com
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May 2, 2023
Pastors Invited to Unite and Strengthen the Churches They Lead With New Resource ‘Hope Again: Good News for a Broken World’

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In a world torn by chaos, a new resource by Pastor Steve Robinson titled “Hope Again: Good News for a Broken World” unifies and strengthens churches with a six-week spiritual growth campaign focused on the power of the gospel.

Press Release
–

Jan 4, 2022

NEW ORLEANS, January 4, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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A new resource for pastors, churches and small groups is uniting, strengthening and reaching people with the power of hope. Created by Pastor Steve Robinson of Church of the King in New Orleans, Louisiana, “Hope Again: Good News for a Broken World” is a six-week spiritual growth campaign focused on the transforming power of the gospel. Pastors, churches, and individuals from all backgrounds are invited to participate in this spiritual journey, with free resources to unite and strengthen churches globally.

“People are hurting…our world is broken. The challenges of leading ministries are greater than ever before,” states Pastor Robinson. “There is only one thing that will unite and strengthen us, and that’s the hope only found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

With sermon transcripts, small group videos and transcripts, personal devotionals, and a small group coaching guide, “Hope Again: Good News for a Broken World” provides everything pastors need to lead their churches in a study through the first eight chapters of the book of Romans. Starting January 15, Robinson will be leading his church through this study with more than 10,000 people participating in 1,000 small groups.

Robinson has two decades of experience with successful spiritual growth campaigns. This new study was written from his inspiration to unite churches, strengthen faith, and bring stability to families, churches and communities.

“I’ve always been impressed with Steve Robinson’s deep theological understanding and insight into the Bible,” shares Dino Rizzo, executive director of the Association of Related Churches (ARC). “His new resource, ‘Hope Again,’ is no exception to this. This amazing guide…provides the keys to overcoming the hopelessness of our broken world. I would recommend every pastor and church utilize this great resource.”

Watch a video by Pastor Steve Robinson and download “Hope Again” resources for your church at https://steverobinson.com/hopeagain/.

About Pastor Steve Robinson
Founder and senior pastor Steve Robinson leads Church of the King with a ministry of thousands across six physical locations along the gulf coast, a new campus in Atlanta, an online campus, Hope Today radio and television broadcast. Robinson is a graduate of Tulane University and is completing his Doctorate of Ministry at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida in Spring 2022. Robinson serves on the boards of Equip, a worldwide leadership organization led by John Maxwell, and Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is co-founder of the global prayer movement, Unite714. His passion is to see people far from God reached and discipled into fully devoted followers of Christ. https://steverobinson.com/

CONTACT: Sean Snyder
Director of Communications, Marketing, and Media
Church of the King
ssnyder@churchoftheking.com
(504) 810-2405

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Source: Church of the King

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January 4, 2022