Marvel executive says emphasis on diversity may have alienated readers

Marvel’s vice president of sales has blamed declining comic-book sales on the studio’s efforts to increase diversity and female characters, saying that readers “were turning their noses up” at diversity and “didn’t want female characters out there”.

Over recent years, Marvel has made efforts to include more diverse and more female characters, introducing new iterations of fan favourites including a female Thor; Riri Williams, a black teenager who took over the Iron Man storyline as Ironheart; Miles Morales, a biracial Spider-Man and Kamala Khan, a Muslim teenage girl who is the current Ms Marvel.

But speaking at the Marvel retailer summit about the studio’s falling comic sales since October, David Gabriel told ICv2 that retailers had told him that fans were sticking to old favourites. “What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity,” he said. “They didn’t want female characters out there. That’s what we heard, whether we believe that or not.”

Published by : theguardian.com

Edmonton military veteran frustrated he has to annually fill out form to say his legs are still missing

Retired Master Cpl. Paul Franklin lost both of his legs from just above knee when a bomb hit the vehicle he was driving during a Canadian Forces tour in Afghanistan in January 2006.

Ten years later, he is getting ready to fill out yet another set of forms to tell the Canadian government that, in fact, his legs are still missing.

“It’s insane,” Franklin said. “My problem with all this is if you have someone who has post-traumatic stress disorder or some sort of brain injury, or you have a combination of the two and they’re on street drugs or alcohol or whatever, the chance of them filling out the forms correctly is minimal at best.”

When a veteran wants to fill out disability and pension forms, it can sometimes involve multiple applications to several bodies, including insurance companies, even for permanent injuries like Franklin’s.


He said veterans should deal only with Veterans Affairs and the process should be far more simple. If medical status has changed, he said, a doctor’s note should suffice. If it hasn’t, no forms should be needed, he said.

Published By : edmontonjournal.com

House Repeals FCC Broadband Privacy Rules

In a victory for ISPs, advertisers and tech companies that had opposed the new FCC's broadband privacy rules, the House has voted along purely party lines to repeal those rules, with only the President's signature needed to make it official.

The vote on the Congressional Review Act resolution Tuesday (March 28) came after heated and sometimes loud debate, mostly on the Democratic side, over the issue and even extended to talk about underwear size after Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) said that ISPs should not be able to sell information on what size of underwear he buys to garment companies.

The Senate approved the CRA resolution March 23 by a party line vote of 50 to 48. The resolution removes the rules, approved on a party line vote Oct. 27, from the congressional record and prevents the FCC from adopting substantially similar rules in the future.

Published by : multichannel.com

US students are fleeing law schools and pouring into engineering

As part of its annual US graduate school rankings, US News has released data that tracks enrollment and tuition growth for the schools it ranks.

Despite substantially higher costs across the board, most disciplines have seen rising (rapidly, in the case of engineering) or steady enrollment. A notable exception is law school, for which enrollment is declining. Despite the tough climate for American law school graduates, tuition has continued to increase for the past decade.

At private schools, tuition has risen by 66% since 2005. For public schools, it has more than doubled:

Read Full Content : qz.com

TIL only 18% of americans can drive a stick

Report: Only 18 Percent Of Americans Can Drive Manual

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A new report shows fewer Americans own a car with manual transmission let alone know how to operate one. And there appear to be a number of reasons for it.

The report from U.S. News and World Report show only 18 percent of U.S. drivers know how to operate a stick shift. It says that because of advancements in automatic transmissions and fuel economy, only about 5 percent of vehicles sold in the U.S. today come with a stick shift. That’s down from 25 percent of cars in 1987.

The third pedal is also bad for re-sale value, on average selling for $2,000 less than cars with automatic transmissions.

Read Full Content : minnesota.cbslocal.com

Donald Trump speaks on the Congressional heaings of Hillary Staff members involved in the deletion of her emails on Sep. 13 in Clive, lowa

Donald Trump is setting America up for failure with his newly proposed budget plan. As Trump has previously shared his naive disbelief in climate change, it should come as no surprise that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the largest government agency to be cut.

Trump's negligence to believe in proven science is deplorable and unacceptable behavior from a leader. Statements from the White House argue the EPA's impending budget cut is due to it being a "waste of money," reflecting the popular Republican belief that global warming isn't an issue.

The 31 percent budget cut to the EPA will mean more than 3,000 people will lose their jobs. Therefore, this is not simply a loss for the environment but a loss for job production as well.

The area that will be most drastically impacted by the EPA's budget cuts will come to the environment, and the research and promotion of cleaner air, water and power initiatives.

Read Full Content : iowastatedaily.com "Spanbauer: Trump's EPA cuts are nonsensical"

Over 40M people of Irish descent are in the United States, 8x more than the population of Ireland

The Irish people (Irish: Muintir na hÉireann or Na hÉireannaigh) are a nation and ethnic group native to the island of Ireland, who share a common Irish ancestry, identity and culture. Ireland has been inhabited for about 9,000 years according to archaeological studies (see Prehistoric Ireland).
For most of Ireland's recorded history, the Irish have been primarily a Gaelic people (see Gaelic Ireland). Anglo-Normans conquered parts of Ireland in the 12th century, while England's 16th/17th century (re)conquest and colonization of Ireland brought a large number of English and Lowland Scots to parts of the island, especially the north. Today, Ireland is made up of the Republic of Ireland (an independent state), and the smaller Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom). The people of Northern Ireland hold various national identities; including Irish, Northern Irish, British, or some combination thereof.

The Irish have their own customs, language, music, dance, sports, cuisine, and mythology. Although Irish (Gaelic) was their main language in the past, today the huge majority of Irish people speak English as their first language. Historically, the Irish nation was made up of kin groups or clans, and the Irish also had their own religion, law code and style of dress.

There have been many notable Irish people throughout history. After Ireland's conversion to Christianity, Irish missionaries and scholars exerted great influence on Western Europe, and the Irish came to be seen as a nation of "saints and scholars". The 6th-century Irish monk and missionary Columbanus is regarded as one of the "fathers of Europe", followed by saints Cillian and Fergal. The scientist Robert Boyle is considered the "father of chemistry", and Robert Mallet one of the "fathers of seismology". Famous Irish writers include Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Bram Stoker and James Joyce. Notable Irish explorers include Brendan the Navigator, Robert McClure, Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean. By some accounts, the first European child born in North America had Irish descent on both sides. Many presidents of the United States have had some Irish ancestry.

The population of Ireland is about 6.3 million, but it is estimated that 50 to 80 million people around the world have Irish forebears; making the Irish diaspora one of the biggest of any nation. Historically, emigration from Ireland has been the result of conflict, famine and economic issues. People of Irish descent are found mainly in English-speaking countries, especially the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. There are also significant numbers in Argentina, Mexico and New Zealand. The United States has the most people of Irish descent, while in Australia those of Irish descent are a higher percentage of the population than in any other country. Many Icelanders have Irish and Scottish Gaelic forebears.

Read Full Content : en.wikipedia.org