Hello, all! Did you enjoy your spring break? We did. It gave us plenty of time to prepare for this awesome SCP-Containment Breach weeklong! That's this week, by the way. WOOHOO.

So, here are the days, missions, and lecture halls, in that order. All missions would be at 7pm.

Monday: "Repurposed Murderbots" in the usual spot: MEYR 030/LH2.

Tuesday: "Silent Hill" in LH1.

Wednesday: "Marker Troubles" at Commons Stairs.

Thursday: "The Operator is Loose" in the usual spot: MEYR 030/LH2

Friday: "Broken Foundations" in MEYR 030/LH2.

Slides will be revealed to you each night. Friendly reminder that you need not attend every night (although it would be really cool if you did!). Also, remember that there is no daytime play.

Invitational will be May 2nd! Are you excited? We are. Registration will be opening soon. We will need people to help us out, and to house visiting players from other schools. Please fill out this form if you would like to be a mod, and this form if you would be interested in housing other players. Also, if you want more information about our Invitational in general, go to this Facebook page!

Two other schools are hosting Invitationals as well! Shepherd University will be hosting theirs on March 28th and 29th. That's right--it's two days long! If you would like to go, you can register with this form. If you are interested in helping us organize housing or a carpool, please fill out this form. We are extending the deadline for filling these forms out. You have until after the mission on Tuedsay, 3/24. If you would like to find out more information about this, please check out this link for the Facebook event page.

Penn State is having their Invitational on April 11th. If you are interested in playing at the Penn State invitational, please fill out this form. We're extending this deadline as well! You have until after the mission Thursday, 3/26 to fill this out. Also, for those interested in being an OZ check out the Facebook event page for details regarding that, but make sure to fill out our form as well. Also, we will be trying to organize a carpool for the drive up there, so if you think that you can be ready to leave at 4 in the morning, please fill out the carpool part of the form.

We would like to thank everyone who donated to the First Aid Kit fund. We collected $32!

We would also like to remind our players that the officers are always here to listen to your feedback--positive or negative. You are always welcome to come to our open officer meetings every Sunday at 1pm in MathPsych 105.

And, as always, here are our Facebook page, our Twitter, our myUMBC group, and our website. 

It’s the big business behemoth, the profit powerhouse, the ruler of riveting rollbacks!

It’s Walmart – the biggest retailer in the world – and it has a divisive reputation. The mega-chain didn’t get to be on top without a few controversial choices. 

In the latest chapter of Walmart’s reign, there comes a plot twist. The company announced last month an increase in their minimum wage to $9/hr, starting in April.

That’s more than the minimum in many states.

What’s behind this unusual decision? Rather than a big-business betrayal, it seems Walmart might be trying to clean up its act in order to stay on top.

“What’s driving us is we want to create a great store experience for customers and do that by investing in our own people” – Doug McMillan, Walmart CEO

A higher wage, which is expected to rise to $10/hr next year, is certainly a start for an investment in workers. The change doesn’t make Walmart a beacon of business ethics by any means, but the company may finally be getting it. It’s not always smart to put profits over people.

CSEE’s Dr. Rick Forno discussed cyber warfare in Ash Hunt’s latest policy paper ‘Cyber Quantifiable Restrictions: The Requirements to Generate Agreed Restrictions on the Use of Cyber Capabilities’ appearing in The Diplomatic Courier. Among other things, Hunt attempts to show that agreed restrictions should not blanket the use of cyber capabilities, but rather the unacceptable use of a range of capabilities that could be used to harm human life.

Recently, it has become apparent that “we’re in a [cyber] arms race” in a largely unregulated domain—the cyber wild west. With the increased diffusion of technology, nations have begun amassing offensive cyber capabilities: utilizing zero-day exploits, distributed denial of server (DDOS) attacks, and weaponized malware technology. Already, “the U.S. has poured billions of dollars into an electronic arsenal,” whilst the “stockpile of exploits runs into the thousands, aimed at every conceivable device.” This exponential growth of cyber arms is particularly dangerous considering the lack of rules and conventions governing the fifth arena of warfare. Dr. Richard Forno from the University of Maryland concedes, “there is no international agreement over what level of cyber warfare is acceptable.” He further recognizes that national systems such as power grids, water treatment plants and medical facilities “do not have adequate protection from hackers.” Clearly, “principles and agreements on cyber warfare must designate sensitive infrastructure as red lines.” It is necessary to afford our critical organizations the same level of protection from cyber hostility as we do from the multitude of other tangible threats.

Source: The Diplomatic Courier Volume 9, Issue 1, January/February 2015

We, the Hearts, have something to say. So we might as well sing it.

We have voices. Are you surprised?

– From “The Hearts’ Manifesto” by Christie Finn

On stage in the concert hall of UMBC’s Fine Arts Building last March, Christie Finn ’07, music was rehearsing Triptych of Gossips – a composition by UMBC professor of music Linda Dusman based on a poem by Serena Sue Hilsinger – with violinist and associate professor of music, Airi Yoshioka.

The two musicians ran through the witty and ebullient piece with Dusman, who sat in the audience with the score and helped the duo navigate more challenging passages.

Triptych of Gossips is a challenging and comic piece – a summoning and séance of sorts. It’s a perfect composition to showcase the talents of Finn – a soprano who’s made a name for herself not only as a singer of new work by rising composers, but also as a performer with the wit and flair to pull off challenging and theatrical performance work in highly inventive and colorful stagings.

Since graduating from UMBC, Finn has forged a career singing in the Unites States, in Germany and in the Netherlands. She is a two-time winner of an interpretation prize at the International Stockhausen Concerts and Courses, and has played at festivals and concert halls with numerous ensembles as well as giving solo recitals.

The field of new music and (especially) active collaboration with composers in which Finn works is particularly energetic and fertile at present, and the soprano is maintains several active collaborations – including her experimental music duo NOISE-BRIDGE with clarinetist Felix Behringer as well as work with Ensemble Hörwerk, a vocal ensemble for microtonal music, and the Vokal und Instrumental Labor Stuttgart, an experimental ensemble for music and theater. One also finds Finn singing in world premieres of operas – and self-described “comic book/sitcom” operas.

Watch Finn perform and you can see why she’s in such demand. The other piece Finn performed at UMBC in March – Georges Aperghis’ Récitations pour voix seule – is a physically demanding piece lasting over 40 minutes in 14 sections that stretches Finn’s voice from moments more spoken (or chattered) to dizzying ascents to high notes, with breaths, squeaks, and squeals woven in.

You can see videos of the Récitations and a delightful performance of another Aperghis’ piece “Sept Crimes de l’amour, by Finn and Behringer as NOISE-BRIDGE with a percussionist Phillip Lamprecht at Finn’s website (christiefinn.com). The latter composition (and performance) is especially visual, featuring moments in which the clarinet is played into a drum perched precariously on Finn’s head, and where Finn chomps down on an apple (and sings) while holding sheet music for Behringer to play.

Making a career as an American singer in Europe is a challenging path, and during her visit to UMBC, Finn delineated her trajectory for an eager class of music students hoping to follow in her path of making music both their life and their livelihood.

“You have to seize all of your opportunities,” Finn told the students. “Don’t be afraid of anything. You can always make it work somehow.”

Finn is also a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program and she took a Master of Music in Voice from Southern Methodist University. Part of making her advanced studies and career work, she added, was to find a job that matched up well with a career in the arts.

In addition to her busy performing career, for instance, Finn also works as managing director of The Hampsong Foundation – a nonprofit organization that to promotes intercultural dialogue and understanding through song in many of its forms.

“You can have other jobs that feed your artistry,” Finn told the UMBC students. With music, she continued, “you’re choosing a lifestyle, not a career.”

As Finn continues to make waves, including a recent September appearance at the Resonant Bodies contemporary vocal musical festival in New York City (which received a glowing review in The New York Times), she credited her growth as an artist to a philosophy that accentuates the opportunities and successes over naysaying and setbacks.

“In music, you definitely get a lot of negative voices,” she told the class. “You have to find a way past that. My goal is to cover them with positive things.”

– Richard Byrne ’86

 Read more from UMBC Magazine.