Disney

LOS ANGELES — Disney cut 5 percent of its consumer products and digital media staff on Wednesday, or about 250 jobs, a spokesman said, the latest in a series of belt-tightening moves by the world’s largest entertainment conglomerate.

While small in a broad sense — Disney has more than 180,000 employees worldwide — pocket-size layoffs have been frequent at the company in recent months. In May, more than 300 workers lost their jobs when Disney pulled the plug on Infinity, a video game and toy line. In July, 30 people were let go by Maker Studios, a Disney-owned video business. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts has also made cuts, including a downsizing at its Imagineering research and development unit in early August, a move that the company said was tied to the completion of Shanghai Disneyland.

A portion of the new layoffs have hit video game workers, as Disney continues to shift its game approach to a licensing model and away from internal development, according to Brian Nelson, a Disney spokesman. A group of affected employees worked at a Bellevue, Wash., facility that supported the company’s Marvel: Avengers Alliance mobile and social network games. The games were shut down last week after a sequel failed to catch on, a relatively routine occurrence in this fast-changing corner of the industry.

Additional cuts were the result of streamlining at the Glendale, Calif., headquarters of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media. Disney combined the two businesses into a single operation last year, in part to save money by eliminating overlapping departments, including marketing and human resources.

After a period of blistering growth fueled by the “Frozen” and “Star Wars” franchises, Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media has recently emerged as an area of concern for some analysts. A lavishly promoted line of interactive toys called Playmation was a sales disappointment last Christmas. Starting in the spring, the unit reported back-to-back quarterly declines in profitability, even as every other Disney division delivered improvements.

Keyword :

conglomerate 使聚集

downsizing 縮小規模

licensing 批准

headquarters 總部

eliminating 消除

blistering 酷熱的

profitability 收益的

Who:Brian Nelson

Where:Disney

Why:A group of affected employees worked at a Bellevue, Wash., facility that supported the company’s Marvel: Avengers Alliance mobile and social network games. 

AlphaGo

Go fans have noticed a couple of key moments in the match between world champion Lee Sedol and Google's DeepMind AlphaGo computer. They appear to show Lee realising for the first time just how outmatched he was by the machine.

After his 3-0 defeat today, Lee told the press:

I apologise for being unable to satisfy a lot of people's expectations. I kind of felt powerless," Lee said, acknowledging that he had "misjudged" the computer programme's abilities.

"Yes, I do have extensive experience in playing the game of Go, but there was never a case where I was under this much pressure.... and I was incapable of overcoming it."

Lee's first realisation that AlphaGo was playing at a level w-a-a-a-y above him appears to have come at move W107 in Game 1, as noticed by this thread on Reddit. We've made a gif of the move below. AlphaGo, playing in white, drops a stone on the right side of the board about halfway up, at the lower diagonal from three black stones arranged vertically. It's completely unexpected, because it seems to be unconnected with the rest of the white strategy on the board. Redditor "balancetraveller" wrote:

Lee literally dropped his jaw at W102. Lee's reaction was not aired in the official YouTube live stream. The move is considered the tide-turning move.

You can see a video of the move here, at timestamp 2.30.20. This gif shows that at first he seems paralysed, and then he rocks backwards in surprise:

It was Game 2 when AlphaGo's superiority was confirmed, as noted by Wired. Move 37 by AlphaGo baffled everyone who saw it:

[European champion] Fan Hui thought the move was rather odd. But then he saw its beauty. "It's not a human move. I've never seen a human play this move," he says. "So beautiful." 

You can watch the move on video here at timestamp 1.18.27. AlphaGo, playing black, puts a stone on the right-middle of the board, at a diagonal to an isolated white stone. This photo shows Lee's reaction: He gets up from his chair and walks away from the board. You can see Lee's empty chair at right.

Who:Lee Sedol

What:between world champion Lee Sedol and Google's DeepMind AlphaGo computer

How:Lee realising for the first time just how outmatched he was by the machine.

Keyword:
expectations 預期
acknowledging 確認
incapable 不能勝任的
vertically 垂直的

Syrian civil war

The Syrian civil war is reaching a turning point. Over the past two weeks, the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad seized several villages north of Aleppo, the country's largest city and one of the last remaining strongholds of Syria's nonjihadist rebels.

The advance cut off Aleppo's anti-regime groups from their last remaining supply lines into Turkey, and put Assad in a position to retake a fiercely contested city that had a prewar population of over 2 million.

Assad's gains have come on the backs of foreign militaries that are themselves showing signs of strain. 

Iran has been forced to send Afghan refugees to fight in Syria, while Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese proxy, has seen as many as one-third of its fighters killed or injured in the country's war. And the Aleppo offensive would have stalled without Russian air support - Damascus failed to retake substantial territory when it first launched its Aleppo offensive six months ago.

Who:Bashar al-Assad

Where:Aleppo

Why:seized several villages north of Aleppo, the country's largest city and one of the last remaining strongholds of Syria's nonjihadist rebels.

How:foreign militaries that are themselves showing signs of strain

Keyword:

regime 政權

seized 攻佔

retake 取回

substantial 真實的

territory 領土

Malala

Despite multiple efforts, Yousafzai has not been able to return to Pakistan, although it is her ultimate dream to continue her campaign there. "I'm hoping in the future, very soon I will go back ... This is where I started and this is where I want to continue, to make sure every girl in Pakistan gets quality education."

She admits it's a challenge to continue this balancing act of being a global campaigner and trying to be a regular high school student. But her motivation stems from knowing what it feels like to be banned from school and fighting extremism, she added.

This has contributed to her connection with children who are suffering in places such as Syria, Iraq and the Palestinian territories. "You should stand for what is right in your heart and you should not be silent," she said.

Being encouraged by her father to stand up for women around the world, Yousafzai understands the importance of teaching boys the value of a woman in society. "If my father would not have allowed me or encouraged me to speak, I would not have been able to be here. So men's role is crucial."

She had a final thought on the upcoming US election -- admitting that she would love to see Hillary Clinton as President of the United States. She said she hoped to see more women in power and in leadership roles across the world.

Who:Yousafzai

Where:Pakistan

What:It's her ultimate dream to continue her campaign there.

Why:To make sure every girl in Pakistan gets quality education.

Keyword:campaign(戰役),motivation(動機),territories(領土)