[body_image width='1029' height='1200' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430409633.jpg' id='51650']Employees only zone curtain. All photos by Ji Yeo

Tonight at the Camera Club of New York's new Baxter Street location, photographer Ji Yeo will unveil a new body of work titled It Will Hurt A Little that goes inside Seoul's plastic surgery clinics. For the past decade, Yeo has been engaged in an intensive study of South Korea's booming cosmetic surgery industry. "Like many Koreans, my interest in cosmetic surgery began at a young age, with a desire to have procedures done on myself," Yeo writes in her artist statement. "Since then, cosmetic surgery has come to be treated more as a necessary routine than as a carefully considered option."

The exhibit's photos depict empty spaces, with no patients or doctors in the frame, and a single portrait of a plastic surgery consultant. Previously, Yeo has made dramatic portraits made in the recovery rooms of plastic surgery centers and staged performances where she invites the public to draw on her body with permanent marker, suggesting which procedures she should have done.

Below is a preview of tonight's show, and look forward to more of Yeo's new work in a forthcoming MATTE magazine dedicated entirely to her pictures.

[body_image width='1029' height='1200' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430409649.jpg' id='51652']Gyalumhan Plastic Surgery consultation manager

[body_image width='1200' height='1029' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430409763.jpg' id='51662']Gyalumhan Plastic Surgery waiting room

[body_image width='1200' height='1029' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430409828.jpg' id='51664']Wonjin Aesthetic Surgery Clinic waiting room

[body_image width='1200' height='1029' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430409864.jpg' id='51665']Gyalumhan Plastic Surgery reception area

[body_image width='1200' height='1029' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430409917.jpg' id='51666']Herche Plastic Surgery waiting area

[body_image width='1200' height='1029' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430409986.jpg' id='51668']Regen Medical Group VIP lounge

[body_image width='1200' height='1029' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410054.jpg' id='51671']Herche Plastic Surgery consultation room

[body_image width='1200' height='1029' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410075.jpg' id='51674']Hyundaimihak Plastic Surgery consultation rooms

[body_image width='1200' height='1029' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430411127.jpg' id='51695']Wonjin Aesthetic Surgery Clinic, President doctor's office

[body_image width='1200' height='1028' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410149.jpg' id='51676']Mega Plastic Surgery operating theater

[body_image width='1200' height='1028' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410173.jpg' id='51677']Herche Plastic Surgery operating theater

[body_image width='1200' height='1028' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410198.jpg' id='51678']Mega Plastic Surgery infrared light therapy

[body_image width='1200' height='1028' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410225.jpg' id='51679']Gyalumhan Plastic Surgery operating theater

[body_image width='2000' height='846' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410248.jpg' id='51681']Operating theater details

[body_image width='1200' height='1028' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410284.jpg' id='51683']Medical waste

[body_image width='1200' height='1028' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410303.jpg' id='51684']Medical waste

[body_image width='1200' height='1028' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410326.jpg' id='51685']Liposuction fat bottles in an employee only zone

[body_image width='1200' height='1029' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410404.jpg' id='51686']Regen Medical Group air showers

[body_image width='1500' height='1286' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='inside-seouls-plastic-surgery-industry-405-body-image-1430410481.jpg' id='51687']Supply trays in an employee0only zone

It Will Hurt a Little opens tonight, April 30, at the Camera Club of New York with a reception from 6 to 8 PM. It will remain on view until May 15.

Ji Yeo has studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design, the International Center of Photography, and Seoul National University. See more of Ji's work on her website.

Read more VICE articles on the Camera Club of New York here.

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[body_image width='726' height='457' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='chinese-men-are-bang-into-sex-dolls-583-body-image-1430390150.png' id='51391']
All stills from Chinese Cockblock: The Sex Doll Industry

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

Thousands of excruciatingly horny men throughout China are buying silicone models of women. To have and to hold. And to fuck. But these aren't your entry-level women replicas—these are $3,000 worth of thermoplastic elastomer. They come in many brands: MICDOLL, HITDOLL, and more. It's a revolution that is apparently sweeping the country at precisely the same time men are reportedly struggling to get it up with actual human beings.

In a country that supplies 70 percent of the world's sex toys, and has a burgeoning middle class with more freedom and cash than ever before, it's no surprise that people are getting their jollies in more experimental ways. Porn is a national offense, and the creator of the nation's largest porn site is serving life in prison. Despite this, the sex-toy industry is worth roughly $2 billion in China, because love will always win.

Nevertheless, I had a lot of questions: What's so special about these dolls in particular? Why go to the financial and personal extremes of purchasing a soulless woman-puppet?

With the help of a translator, I spoke directly to MICDOLL owner Zang Han. "Current users of these sex dolls do so for the following three main reasons," Zang says. "First, to satisfy a physiological need. Second, to take photos with and share with others. Third, cosplay."

Why, then, has there been a sudden boom in their popularity? MICDOLL have recently launched a " Road to the US" range, supposedly to foster international, er, love. These appear to have far more realistic replications of the vagina. "These dolls have an external appearance much like real people, and they can move very much like real people," says Zang Han. "The best sex dolls are a modern-day work of art. In the same way that a young woman can have a beautiful Western face, so can a lifelike sex doll. She can satisfy our heart's most tender dreams and desires."

"The current sex dolls are fully waterproof," says Zang Han. "You can wash them in the bathroom just like you would wash a real person." And, yeah, you can remove their head and genitals, too, if you're feeling creative. But I'm not here to judge. If having sex with a headless doll is your thing, then all power to you, my friend. Functionally, this is most likely to ease cleaning, but I can't help imagining rows office workers with hundreds of plastic vaginas in their backpacks.

Another brand is HITDOLL, which is even more sophisticated. These dolls have their own temperatures (98.6 degrees, thanks), a "metal skeleton," and a "real sex voice," so you know she's not faking it. Their website urges you not to use the doll when it's heating, which is presumably because it'll melt your junk. There's quite an extensive care Q&A provided, complete with handy advice on washing the anus—"directly." In other words, unlike the head and the vagina, if you do your business in the ass then you're going to have to clean it the hard way. And, yes, HITDOLL allows you to create a doll with your own face on it.

"The reality is, lifelike sex dolls are a hobby or interest, not unlike skateboarding or photography," Zang tells me.

This is echoed in an interview with the Japan Times by doll enthusiast Liu. When asked if he would consider the less expensive blow-up alternative, he responded: "No way [he'd] have sex with that kind of cheap plastic." His disgust was quite palpable at the mere suggestion he'd swing his wang anywhere beside his wife or doll 156, his personalized, lifeless doorway into all his sexual desires. This makes sense: If you're a beer fan, you're not going to drink Hamm's when you can get a Sierra Nevada, are you?

"I have a workshop," Zhang Han says, "where I design the newest and most advanced sex dolls. In my opinion, the next generation of sex dolls will on the one hand use the most cutting-edge materials and technology, and on the other give the impression of being even more true to life. Another area we are putting a lot of effort into is developing the capability to interact."

I still had questions.

In a country where the cost of one doll is roughly twice the average salary in Shanghai (the nation's highest) and the primary function is sex, which can be provided by the free resource known as your hand, what's the point of all this effort?

As Zang had warned me, it's not all about sex. Sex is only a part of it. After a week of delving into the darkest corners of Mandarin Google, I discovered that there are many options for the Chinese doll lover, provided you speak Mandarin and can afford to spend far more than your monthly salary on items like wigs and dresses.

There's a community growing online, such as this forum, where people go to chat about anything from how to make a plaster cast of your model's face to lean your phone against or buy someone's used doll. Here's a short and charming tale of one man taking his doll to the office, to the bar and, eventually, to the bath. Here's one where a guy, tongue-firmly-in-cheek, talks about how the film My Fair Lady changed his life—now, with his two dolls, he can watch as much porn as he wants without a woman nagging him. Good on him, right?


Not exactly.


Going back to what Zang said, that these dolls can "satisfy the heart's most tender dreams and desires," I began to wonder if he was perhaps living on Cloud 9. In 2013, it was reported that 50 percent of the male population of China abuse their partners, and 20 percent admitted to forcing them to have sex. And here was a growing community of men who were actively opting to spend money on a doll rather than their family.

"Liu" from the Japan Times article makes the pretty threatening comments that "the only way" a doll is "better" than a woman is that a doll "won't resist, so people can do whatever they want with it." All this implies the presence of a fourth reason to buy these dolls: to extinguish much darker feelings. I managed to have a very brief chat with one user who wished to remain anonymous, who told me that he's "away from home for sometimes ten to 12 days in a row," and that he "keeps his doll in the city to stop him feeling alone."

But was he happy with his purchase?

"Very much so. It is better than sleeping with a woman who is not my wife. And I can do what I want."

A few days later I spoke with another user and creator named Chen Lichao. "I have studied all the first-class high-end dolls around the world and some of the less good ones," he tells me. "And, from this research, I developed the best dolls available myself. One is the most realistic looking but inside the skeleton has some limitations, so it's not very fit for hot sex; the other is very hot in bed, soft as a real woman when she's lost control. I love both. Anatomically correct high-end dolls are the only choice, because my desire is not a doll, but a sex daydream that I can't enact in real life," he says.

Related: Outtakes from our VICE on HBO episode 'Chinese Cockblock: The Sex Doll Factory.'

What this all means is that these dolls open the door toward a much larger social issue, which began in 1980 with the enactment of the infamous one-child policy. Initiated in order to stem the consumption of natural water and food, it's had the worrying effect of engendering people to not to want to bang—in case they conceive. At the end of the 80s, 84 percent of newlyweds in China were virgins.

Add to this that China's male-to-female ratio is drastically slanted toward male (at a ratio of 116 to 100), meaning that there literally aren't many other fish in the sea, so to speak. There are, potentially, a lot of frustrated men in China.

Playing the game of numbers here, imagine that, in ten years, China's population of 1.357 billion is divided precisely down that ratio and then, one day, for no reason whatsoever, other than to satisfy my desire to illustrate a point, China stages the world's greatest matchmaking game of all time where every woman is partnered with every man.

Of course, this would never happen for a multitude of reasons, like age, sexual orientation, and not to mention, the large economic cost of doing something so idiotic but, in the interest of science, let's imagine that's exactly what happened.

Put the sex-doll away and get the lube on ice because everyone's getting laid, yeah? Wrong. That's not how life works. Some 100,526,500 men would be left to their own devices with nothing but their hands for company. That's 100 million men scratching their ass and watching TV in their boxers. A hundred million men on the busiest pub dance floor ever conceived. Two hundred million sets of blue balls. Porn sales would go through the roof. There would be a worldwide tissue shortage; deforestation would increase a rapid rate. Global warming would triple in rate. Package brides to China would become a legitimate career path for women across the world. World War III would start—with women, rather than water, being the coveted resource.

If that sounds frightening to you—and it should—then luckily, this is just a game, so relax. It's not real. The balls are currently satiated. They are not coming for you. But the point is: These sex dolls actually serve a social function in China. If the gender imbalance continues to widen, then the prevalence of these sex goods certainly helps to defer the social, political, and sexual issues. Far better for the male population of China to make sweet love to a plastic doll than cause an international crisis.

Follow David on Twitter.

Last night in New York, Denver, Houston, Washington DC, Boston, and Minneapolis, protestors marched in solidarity not just with Freddie Gray and the people of Baltimore, but with all victims of police brutality, symbolizing what has become a nationwide struggle for racial justice and accountability.

In Manhattan, police reportedly arrested 120 people; in Denver, cops arrested 11 and deployed pepper spray; in Houston, police outnumbered demonstrators; and during a quiet, curfewed night in Baltimore, police arrested 18 more people, bringing the total number detained in that city to more than 250 since Monday's initial unrest.

Late Wednesday afternoon, thousands of people gathered in and around Union Square in Lower Manhattan for a rally intended to kick off what would have been a massive march. Organizers with Millions March NYC and female relatives on police brutality victims addressed the massive crowd through microphones, struggling to be heard over the sound of NYPD helicopters circling overhead, while police loudspeakers (technically a fancy device called an LRAD) advised demonstrators that marching in the streets or blocking sidewalks would result in an arrest for disorderly conduct.

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All photos by the author

Still, despite sound problems—and with a little help from an Occupy Wall Street–style People's Mic—the message of the rally's speakers was clear: This #BlackLivesMatter movement is not only about Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, or Michael Brown. It is, as Asha Rosa, a fierce organizer with Black Youth Project 100 and the most audible voice at the rally put it, "For Rekia Boyd, and Mya Hall," and other victims of police violence across the country. The movement, speakers said, must be nationwide, and it must be intersectional.

"We need to be saying that not only able-bodied, cis-gendered, straight-presenting, black men's lives matter, but that black women and girls lives matter, the lives of black queer folks matter, the lives of black trans and gender queer folk matter, undocumented and noncitizen black people matter," Rosa said. Her message echoed earlier presentations, which included cries like "Black women matter!" "Trans lives matter!" and "Queer lives matter!"

Organizers stressed that black women started the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and movement, and bemoaned the underreporting of what they called the devaluing of black women's bodies, alongside the importance of their place in the struggle for freedom.

Other common themes were black resistance and the importance of not placing a hierarchy on victims—labeling some as criminals and some as straight-A students—or on demonstrations as "peaceful" or "violent." Many protesters said that though rioting may not be deemed "right," it is the culmination of pain, suffering, and helplessness in the struggle to be heard, to be considered human.

[body_image width='1600' height='1067' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='freddie-gray-protests-swept-across-america-last-night-430-body-image-1430409747.jpg' id='51660']

Collete Flanagan

Collette Flanagan, who founded Mothers Against Police Brutality after her son was killed by Dallas police in 2013, said at the rally she understands but does not necessarily condone destruction in Baltimore, adding that "When someone lays a hand on your son, you go HAM."

"What do we want?" the speakers asked, while the audience replied "Justice!"

"When do we want it"?

"Now!"

"If we don't get it?"

"Shut it down!"

On that note, and following a final warning from cops that demonstrators who marched in the street would be arrested, the protest took off west down 17th Street, but hardly made it a block before police turned it around. Almost immediately, the NYPD held the street and forced demonstrators onto overflowing sidewalk corners. Officers plucked, grounded, and cuffed demonstrators, hauling them one by one down 17th Street and into their vehicles. The crowd cried out in distress, watching as police forcefully shut down an event that had only just begun.

Marchers dispersed into separate actions all over the Manhattan, showing up at the West Side Highway, the Holland Tunnel, City Hall, and ultimately, Times Square, where the same forceful—and often seemingly unprovoked—arrests continued as participants refused orders to stay on the sidewalks.

When marchers were able to proceed without police intervention, the rowdiest, most disorderly thing they did was bang their hands on the side of buses, cheering as they hurdled through the street to the sound of horns honking in solidarity. Once the police descended, though, people blocked intersections, ran down the streets, and shouted angrily. In other words, as cops got more involved, protesters become more disruptive.

After finally making it from City Hall to Times Square, a nearly four-mile walk, a relatively small group of demonstrators erupted in joy at reconnecting with another group of activists. Upon arrival, I saw a familiar sight: a young woman of color, crying in handcuffs, being loaded into a squad car. In the hour before, a series of arrests took place, and once we arrived, the group swelling through the tickets booth pavilion took off toward Columbus Circle, where dizzied and dwindling demonstrators asked, "What's next? Where is everybody?"

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Some organizers eventually settled in at Grand Central Station, where a small group formed a circle where they held a four-minute moment of silence, symbolic of the amount of time it took for medical attention reach Eric Garner on Staten Island in July. Then came a discussion about tactics, how to approach the dilemma of marginalization and economic injustice, and how to show solidarity for the lives lost in cities across the nation. Things got heated before settling down into a question of how the group could re-connect in the future, with organizers deciding on the hashtag #FreedomFightersNYC and, standing in a circle holding hands, quoting Assata Shakur: "It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains."

Finally, at the behest of 18-year-old regular organizer Prince Akeem, who started the quiet chant, each member of the circle said one word to commemorate their evening. "Unity." "Respect." "Solidarity." "Empowerment." "Liberation."

"Take that one word and carry it with you for the rest of our life. We have nothing to lose but our chains," said Akeem.

With that, a march that had been plagued by separation and confusion ended for this group with an inspirational moment of elusive unity, not just with each other, but with groups in the streets across the country.

Follow Kristen Gwynne on Twitter.

[body_image width='620' height='349' path='images/content-images/2015/04/30/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/04/30/' filename='quit-freaking-out-about-drugs-flakka-edition-285-body-image-1430417377.jpg' id='51725']

Flakka is the new drug craze coming for your child! Sort of. Or not. Photo courtesy Broward Sheriff's Office

A Global News article on the newest terrifying street drug contained a strange comparison in its first sentence, when the writer referred to "flakka" as "the street version of bath salts." One man apparently impaled himself while on flakka, and another allegedly sexually assaulted a tree before telling police he was Thor. The comparison to bath salts is strange, first because bath salts are the street version of bath salts, and second because bath salts are flakka's direct antecedent in a long line of overhyped drug crises.

It's been happening since at least the early 20th century, when films like Reefer Madness terrified parents everywhere about the marijuana, the menace that would drive their children to commit murder or suicide, or worse, fall victim to "the ultimate end of the marijuana addict: hopeless insanity."

[youtube src='//www.youtube.com/embed/sbjHOBJzhb0' width='500' height='281']

As everyone but young children and sincere far-right demagogues now knows, marijuana may have negative effects on people, but it won't drive an otherwise healthy person to commit heinous crimes or lose their mind. But the climate of fear created by law enforcement and propaganda films like Reefer Madness did its job and allowed the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to criminalize marijuana, ushering in the first stage of the now-global drug war.

Not all drug scares are as monumental as the marijuana scare or the crack scare of the 1980s, which arguably led to the creation of the prison-industrial complex so overwhelmingly focused on black and brown men that Michelle Alexander calls it the "new Jim Crow." But according to University of Guelph sociology professor Andrew Hathaway, who specializes in drug use and treatment research, most drug scares have the common trait of distracting from the serious and ongoing concerns of drug abuse and treatment.

"If you're going to sustain a larger-scale drug war, you always need to renew that furor," Hathaway said, "and if there's concern about that dying down, that's problematic for media and law enforcement. Keep the message up, and if there's occasional new causes for alarm, I think that serves the purpose of the war on drugs in general, right?"

The frequency with which law enforcement trumpets a new drug menace about to sweep the nation, and with which media outlets give those officials a platform, certainly speaks to Hathaway's point. In the last two decades alone we've seen supposed epidemics of PCP, ecstasy, huffing, tussin'/robo tripping, spice, bath salts, salvia, dabs/shatter, and now flakka. While these drugs obviously have their dangers, none of them have borne out the predictions made about their widespread use.

[youtube src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Dd76imsbVlc' width='500' height='281']

Caution: doing salvia is a gateway to listening to 90s alt-rock.

"Usually, with these things that are highly dangerous, which it sounds like [flakka] is," Hathaway said. "They have a kind of self-limiting or self-regulating function within drug-using communities. I think the word gets out pretty quick that, you know, any kind of short-lived fun you could have with this has dramatic adverse consequences as well."

Meanwhile, there are still around 2.5-million alcohol-related deaths worldwide each year, and drug treatment is shamefully inadequate in many western nations.

None of this is to say that flakka isn't dangerous, or that the public shouldn't be made aware of a new drug on the black market. But the next time you see a headline trumpeting a wildly popular new drug possessing heretofore unknown levels of danger or toxicity, remember that it's probably not the next crack. Even crack wasn't the crack we were told it was.

I shot up in bed to the sound of a roaring crack along with the most intense vibrating I've ever felt in my life. It was getting stronger and stronger. The dresser, table, and bed were all vibrating across the floor, losing all of the stuff I had put on them. I didn't know what was happening, whether I was dreaming or not. I pulled the curtains open and looked outside. People were flooding into the empty construction lot in front of my hotel from all the surrounding buildings.

Earthquake. Time to get the fuck out. Without thinking I was up and in my sandals, grabbing things as I ran for the door. A thundering rumble now accompanied the vibrating. When I got into the hall, Moe was angled out, running down from the fourth floor. Or maybe I was the one who was angled out. Maybe it was the building.

"Come on, let's get the fuck outta here," he said. I could only respond with "Holy shit!" which I kept repeating to myself over and over.

As I made my way down the stairs I couldn't help feeling as if I was in a giant water bottle being shaken up. The building swayed. It vibrated. The earth roared. When I think of it now I'm surprised I didn't fall. People running out were doubled over to maintain a better centre of gravity during the shaking.

I made it outside. The vibrating stopped a few seconds after. I thought I had better put on my pants. The only other thing I grabbed was my phone. I still wasn't sure if this was real or not. Some people were smiling in shock and relief while others' faces were full of fear. Some yelled, some huddled together, some held each other. Two young boys grabbed onto their father while reciting what I assumed to be Hindu prayer chants. I tried to cheer them up but they were too shaken. Worry was everywhere. To the shock of many, some people came out of buildings well after the initial quake, with bags packed. What was even more surprising was how quickly some returned inside.

That had been the fastest I'd moved in a while. Six days earlier, I was on an operating table for an emergency procedure to remove an abscess. It wasn't a big operation but it was the first I had ever gone through, and it also left a hole in my body. I was told not to travel and that I needed two weeks for an open wound to close and heal. No stitches. It has to close from the bottom up. I was staying in Thamel, a backpacker district in Kathmandu that all tourists stop in at least once. It's full of narrow streets and old, tall buildings made up of hotels, guest-houses, tour companies, restaurants, and souvenir shops.

I sent a message back home saying I was OK and connected with the friends with whom I was traveling. They were safe and sound in Chitwan, which was unaffected. I connected with two friends I met traveling, who I was supposed to meet that day. They were fine as well, but I haven't heard from them since.

I was relieved that at least I had somewhat of an open space in front of my hotel. We waited outside for a few hours. Tremors came and went. They make the solid earth feel like you're out on rough, wavy water. The tremors were always followed by peoples' screams.

When we finally thought it was safe enough, Moe and I ran back inside to get some clothes on. Moe is an American from outside Detroit who I met two months earlier at the airport when I arrived in Nepal a few days ahead of the other friends I'd planned to travel with.

We went to look for food. Everything was closed. All stores, shops, restaurants had their security gates down. Some street fruit vendors remained around. Other than that, Thamel eerily seemed like a ghost town, with people rushing away in all directions.

We walked towards the main road that leads into Thamel and began to see damage. Our hotel was mostly OK. Lots of furniture down but still strong and intact. The main street told a different story. A taxi lay underneath a fallen pole and downed power lines. The outer wall of the Garden of Dreams was half its height. It's a miracle that no one was under it when it fell. At least there weren't any signs of injured people there. The driver of the taxi seemed as if he would have been all right. Another fallen pole 20 steps away also hit nothing. Down an alleyway, a motorcycle lay buried under rubble. This was a good 20 to 30 feet of fallen wall. Again, no one seemed to have been underneath. I thought things might not be that bad, but knew I was being naïve. I had felt the power of that quake and knew that somewhere, something must be very damaged.

Phone service was off and on, but usually off. I wasn't able to make any calls. Some messages got out, but any data and Wi-Fi seemed gone as well. Moe and I headed into Thamel to check on our friend's bar. He, Peter, had called me in the morning while I was sleeping. I'd later find out he was calling to head out to Bhaktapur, the old capital district where 50 percent of the buildings were said to have come down. Luckily, he didn't go because I didn't answer the phone. We found him and another friend Kathryn, from the US, walking around looking for us.

Peter's an ex-paratrooper from Australia living in Kathmandu. "Get a bag ready and meet back here in 20," he said. "We're leaving the city." I wasn't arguing. If anyone in our group knew what to do in this situation it was him.

Moe and I rushed back to the hotel and packed some things into knapsacks. I cleaned my wound and we headed out and brought Christian, a German staying next door, with us. When we met up with Kathryn and Peter again, he said that the people we were headed out of town with already left, so we were headed to a field. I suggested the big field that was behind the first hotel I had stayed at in Kathmandu. It was just around the block. I thought it was a police base, but in reality it's the office of the vice-president, which has a police base on it, and a big open lawn in front The day before they had an event, so tents were still set up. We set up there for the night. It was open air, but there was nothing to fall on us, the ground was soft, and I had my sleeping bag with me.

That evening, Peter, Christian, and I went for a walk. Destruction lined our path. A high school we passed by was severely damaged. Much of it had crumbled. It's a good thing it was a Saturday.

Hundreds of people with nowhere to go huddled into open spaces of street intersections. Further down the street, others filled a field. We arrived just as food and water was brought in. People were lining up for food. All I could do was observe. There were many saddened faces, tired faces, fearful faces. Two men had just received food and saw us watching. They told us to get in line and eat. We didn't dare and told them that food was for the people here first.

"You are our guests," said one man. "We have to take care of you. We have to give you what we have even in a disaster or else we are not good hosts."

That's the thing about Nepali people. They'll give you what they have, even when it's almost nothing. They'll treat you like family.

It started to rain when we arrived back at our own field so we moved under the tents where many others were already sleeping.

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At the camp. Photo by author.

The next day, Kathryn found out that we were directly across from the American Mission Abroad (AMA) clubhouse and that they were taking in American, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and UK citizens. The AMA compound was set up as an offshoot of the American embassy and giving refuge. It's surrounded by high walls and armed Nepali police. It seemed like a good idea to move, given the amount of people pouring into our current location. It's safe to say the number multiplied four times over by the next day with those coming off the streets. Many had their own tents and slowly, and makeshift shanty town materialized. We also thought we'd receive information at the AMA. There wasn't any way of getting info online.

We gave our passports to check in and were given a tour of the facility. Another tremor hit during that time. Tents were set up in a baseball/soccer field. There were bathrooms but no running water from their well at the time. Maintenance teams connected the pool to the locker rooms the next day. Now we had hot showers, which was more than I could say for thousands of others. We had Meals Ready-to-Eat (MREs), clean water, and cots or padded cushions to sleep on and blankets if needed. Really, we were in a good spot. I couldn't ask for a better place to recover from my operation. I'm at risk of gangrene and more if I don't take care of the wound properly, and this facility was clean. We had clean drinking water as well, and even a medical station.

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Canada's C-17. Photo by Moe Ahmed.

I learned there were other Canadians there as well, and that our embassy was non-existent. We had a consulate that was said to be a guy and an office in a building. I still haven't been.

More and more people arrived throughout the first few days. Tremors became less frequent as the days moved on, but a second earthquake the second evening made some people nervous. We knew it was a second quake because of the strength and length of it. A murder of screaming crows darkened the sky. Sometimes the birds fly before we feel the tremor. Funny how quickly you start to learn about earthquakes in a situation like this.

No one had any word from the Canadian government. What American officials knew was that our government personnel were on route from surrounding countries. The high commission for the consulate of Nepal is in Delhi, India. They were having trouble entering the country. They were also asking Canadians if they had any information. The only thing that was known was that we weren't allowed to stay at our consulate, and that the consular was a volunteer doctor from Nepal who did this as a second job. They had no answers and couldn't provide our citizens with any information other than to say they were in contact with the Delhi. Those who were there were referred to the British embassy. Later they were brought to the AMA.

On the 28 of April, the fourth day after the initial quake, two Canadian officials had arrived from Delhi. More were on the way. I didn't know until that time how many of us there were at the compound. Most of us were upset by the response from our government. Many lodged complaints right away about the lack of information and help. The officials that arrived weren't able to provide much help right away. They knew very little information about what was going on and asked our citizens to provide any information they had to help them out.

Shortly after, they were gone. They had left to check on the consulate and Canadians at the compound were once again wondering who to talk to. There just wasn't enough staff to handle very many things at once, and there was a lot to do.

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Canadians waiting for their turn. Photo by author.

Much of the information they had received was from Canadians on the ground compiling their own intel with help of family and friends back home. The movement of citizens in Nepal and at home has really helped push things forward here.

By nightfall, five officials had arrived from Delhi and surrounding areas such as Bangkok, Islamabad, and even all the way from Canada. They were working hard on providing as much information as possible, but there was still a lot of uncertainty. Talks of a possible C-17 flight out of Kathmandu to Delhi were unconfirmed and many wondered what price tag it came with. My first information about the C-17 came from my mother back home speaking with the Foreign Affairs department. It seemed bleak as at one point an official told her most Canadians already had their own tickets booked out of Kathmandu so there was no point in sending a plane to get the others.

I'm happy to say that the following day we found out it was a free flight to Delhi. Flights home from Delhi are now a third cheaper than those out of Kathmandu, which are said to range over $3,000. Many feel the evacuation should be all the way home. After arriving in Delhi, citizens will be on their own and are expected to arrange their own plans to Canada. Much of the Canadians in the camp have now gone but some remain. It's unclear what efforts are being made to reach Canadians outside of Kathmandu.

As for myself, I'm beginning to see this situation in a new light. Lack of information has kept me ignorant to the extremity of the situation, but with information flowing from back home and finally being able to connect to news sources online, I feel lucky to be alive. Initially, I never felt in grave danger even while the building sounded like it was being torn apart. But the death toll keeps climbing and projected figures estimate the final count will be around 12,000.

People whose villages have been completely wiped out have started entering the city seeking aid. There are only so many supplies and facilities to accommodate the thousands of injured, displaced, and people seeking refuge. International aid seems to be pouring in from all sides of the world. There's a strong will to help from travellers as well. Groups of tourists are organizing to help in any way they can and I can't feel all but helpless here as I recover, unable to go volunteer for fear of having my still open wound become infected with all the dead bodies that'll soon start to rot.

Casey Fernandez-Irwin is a Toronto writer who has been teaching English on an island north of shanghai for the past two years. He came to Nepal to meditate and be around the mountains and was planning on going to teach English and martial arts east of Kathmandu in a small mountain village that still hasn't been heard of since the quake.

Earlier this week the Australian Tax Office released their taxation statistics for the period of 2012 to 2013. This is basically an accountant's version of what's hot or not. It lists the richest postcodes in the country by taxable income, along with the poorest. Predictably, eastern Sydney residents were the most well-off, with the average tax payer from Rushcutters Bay, Edgecliff, or Point Piper earning $177,514 ($140,000 USD) a year.

On the other end of the scale is a town called Delungra. This is a rural area about 350 kilometers (217 miles) west of Coffs Harbour in northern New South Wales. There the average resident earns just $21,691 ($17,089 USD) a year, making it the poorest region in Australia.

Yesterday, the ABC called this a "dubious distinction," while the Sydney Morning Herald pointed out that an Aboriginal massacre had taken place near here in 1838. This all seemed a bit bleak, so we thought we'd let the residents of Delungra speak for themselves. Here's how they defended their town.

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A historical display from the town. Photos via the Inverell Shire Council.

Meagan Smith, Delungra Hotel Licensee
I haven't been here long but the town has been nothing but welcoming. The pub had an old fireplace that was boarded up so the whole community helped to get it working again. We had a local engineer build the bits that go inside and someone else to clean the chimney. They've been fantastic.

We serve Tooheys New, XXXX Gold, Hahn Light, Hahn Super Dry 3.5, and Extra Dry. There's not a lot here so the pub is a good place for people to meet. Aside from us, there's the Liberty Service Station, a bowls club, and a trade center down the end. That's about it and we're in the middle.

I'm surprised that the town has been rated so poorly. We've had a bit of rain lately and the paddocks are looking green. There's a lot of mixed farming here—people farm beef and lamb and then there's an abattoir in Inverall. I didn't think the farmers were doing it so hard.

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Peta Blyth and Sandy McNaughton, Friends
Sandy: The sign says population 330. I can account for the 30, but I don't know where the other 300 went. No, I'm joking. It's a very tiny place, but it's great to live here. It could even be the best place on Earth.

Peta: You're joking again. Look, we both live a few kilometers out of town but the countryside around here is beautiful. There are also lots of locals committed to making the community strong. There's a cricket club, a girl guides. No rugby though, because there's not enough people.

Sandy: I think the best thing about it is the freedom of growing up in a small community. You know everyone and it gives you a sense of belonging. You cherish the feeling of not feeling threatened. You can leave the door unlocked at night and that gives you a lot of independence.

Peta: Yes and when it doesn't rain everyone is in the same boat. We've been in a drought for years but it makes you equal. I've learned a certain amount of acceptance by living here. Hey, you know who you should talk to? Jimmy. He runs the local garbage dump. He always checks the recyclables are separate from the rubbish. He keeps my rubbish honest.

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Jimmy Townsend, Runs the local post office and dump
I was born here in 1938 and in that time I've seen everything change. It used to be a thriving place. We had two groceries, two banks, even a bakery. But then they pulled out the railway in the 1980s and it's been declining ever since. The young people have moved away. It's a town full of retirees.

In September last year the post office got a letter from Australian Post saying they were closing the shop. Since then we've run it with 10 volunteers. I also manage the dump by myself. You have to keep an eye on people. A lot of them think that rubbish is rubbish, so I show them how to sort the recyclables. I'm very careful about that.

On the upside it's a very free town. You can walk down the main street and no one hassles you. It's safe and clean and I have a lot of pride in the area. I'm Delungra through and through and I love it.

Follow Julian on Twitter

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Illustrations by Joel Benjamin

Sometimes when I watch porn, I believe that the dude is in love with the woman. This happens when the movie features an eye-gazing, mouth kissing, pussy-eating bro, like James Deen, who is so attentive and sensual as to seem obsessed. It makes me sad, then, when I see James show the same level of devotion to hundreds of other women in other vids. I'm like, Wait! Stay obsessed with the first one. I was pretending she was me.

The other day I was browsing Pornhub, preparing to masturbate, when I found a scene where James fucks his "girlfriend's mom." Through the tabs, I discovered that the female lead is Melissa Monet, who also stars in a lost favorite of mine: Milf Melissa and Her Hot Teen Daughter Missy Share Cock. (Those links are very NSFW, obvs.)

Milf Melissa and Her Hot Teen Daughter Missy Share Cock is a movie I used to masturbate to on the reg. I loved this movie, because I have mommy issues and Melissa Monet plays the ultimate hot nurturer: patient, generous, kind. Also, she is Jewish like me, so in my fantasies she could actually be my mother.

When I masturbate to porn, I don't just masturbate to porn. I have a very tangential mind that asks a lot of questions, which is probably why it takes me, like, three years to have an orgasm. I was able to track down Melissa Monet and ask her some of my questions about emotional attachment, vulnerability, and what love even is.

So Sad Today: The scene you did with James Deen was so beautiful. Like, all that kissing and eye-gazing. Did you feel any sadness or emotional attachment after it was over? And, if not you, do you think the character you were playing would feel any emotional attachment after? The next time she sees him with her daughter will she be jealous or feel a pang of longing? Do you think she will want him to text her? Or was it just completely, purely physical for her and a one time thing?
Melissa Monet: There was a big backstory to my scene with James Deen. As I have different roles behind the scenes, a lot of the actors and actresses didn't know that I was also a performer. I was technically not in front of the camera for 12 years, so up until that point, James only knew me as a producer. It was strange, even awkward for me, which he seemed to revel in. Thinking back, it created a sexual tension and anticipation not often seen in this type of situation. The scene itself was very personal—he whispered to me, called me by my real name, and cared more about my pleasure than about the scene. I didn't feel any emotional attachment or sadness afterwards. Perhaps in my younger days I might have, but definitely not at the time.

As for my character, I would think she would have felt a deep emotional attachment. She cheated on her husband and betrayed her daughter, both of whom she was supposed to have loved. There should be deep regret and an attachment to the person you are throwing all that away for. I don't know about the jealousy part. I think maybe a little, but with guilt thrown in. Her need is to be with a younger man who finds her desirable, a man who excites her and brings her to orgasm in a fury that she no longer experiences with her husband. She would want him to text her, call her, and pursue her in any way possible just because her ego would require it.

In my fantasies, James's character would become emotionally attached to your character as well. But in reality, it seems likely that she would ultimately—if not quickly—have her heart broken. The track record for older women and much younger men isn't great in terms of lasting love.

How am I to differentiate between love and lust in my own life, and in my own heart, when great works of art and great works of female-friendly porn inspire me to want a lasting love with the intensity of a short-lived scene? It sounds like it is possible—as a woman—to experience profound sex with another person in ways that are deeply intimate, whispery, first name-calling, without becoming emotionally attached. I'm wondering what age has changed for you.
Are there statistics on older women/younger men relationships? How do you know it doesn't always pan out? From what I know (I don't date younger men), most of the women feel insecure... others prefer that the guy not be younger than their children (for obvious reasons). I think it's too complicated to actually have a theory about it. I always wonder what we would talk about... our music tastes are probably different, school and timeline experiences, etc.

I think a lot of people have a hard time distinguishing between love and lust/possession/desire. Love plays in all of those things and vice versa, not always in a sexual way, but everyone wants something out of it, even if it's just love... though that is never enough, is it?

I can't speak for everyone, but when you have that lust/passion/love triangle and also manage to like and be compatible with that person, it's pretty spectacular. How realistic is it? Hard to say. When you're in the middle of the peak of the relationship, it's all rosy and the beginning should be intense and amazing, but somewhere at the drop (and they all drop) disappointment sets in and then disillusionment. How long and when depends on the individuals and how hard they latch on to that one portion of the relationship where it was phenomenal.

Sex without emotional attachment is relative. Who's to say there isn't an emotional attachment all the time? It might be very short lived or perhaps fizzle out with a word or action that gets in your craw and snaps you back to reality. Women who can have sex this way usually pick a pet peeve and give themselves an excuse to kick the person to the curb.

I don't have any statistics about older women and younger men, other than what I've experienced in my own life and amongst my friends. In a lot of these situations, it seems like the women don't even necessarily want to be in a committed relationship with the men. A relationship would probably be a disaster. But we want the assurance that we could have a committed relationship if we wanted it.

I think that the desire to be irresistible is one of the top turn-ons for many women—regardless of our age or the age of our sexual partners. In the book A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the Internet Tells Us About Sexual Relationships (one of my favorites) the authors talk about the idea of the "magic hoo-hoo" and its prevalence in romance novels, wherein the male hero gets "one taste" of the heroine's vagina and he becomes emotionally, and physically, hooked on her. Perhaps this is part of James's popularity as a performer amongst women. He looks hooked.

I've also read that cis women release the bonding hormone, oxytocin, when we have an orgasm, whereas cis men do not (though I've certainly gotten attached to people with whom I've faked orgasms or had no orgasms). There have been so many times that I've gone into a sexual situation with the intent that I am not going to get attached, but if the sex was good—or the person was hot and just a good kisser—I got attached. I feel like my chemistry betrays me! Have you ever gotten emotionally attached to one of your co-stars? Or have you seen it happen when you were in directing or producing roles?
I personally have not and I have a fairly strict policy of not shitting where I eat as far as talent goes. I did it once with a male performer (the very first week I came into the biz... great guy and great fun) and once with a female performer (within the first year of being in the biz... psycho and not fun). I have seen it a couple of times within the performers, but it really runs the gamut and some people just wear their hearts on their sleeves.

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I want to say that one thing I love about you as an actress is that your orgasms seem real to me. I like that you close your eyes and look lost in your own world. I can't have an orgasm without closing my eyes and going into my own little world, so when that's mirrored to me as an "OK" thing to do—to dissociate a little, even with a partner—it makes me feel better about myself.

Often, when I watch straight porn, the actresses present themselves as so easily orgasmic, whereas it takes me, like, at least 30 minutes of sustained cunnilingus and/or me touching myself or using my vibrator to have an orgasm with another person. Are your orgasms onscreen real or fake? Do you have trouble letting go? Or are you super orgasmic in real life?
Thank you! I don't fake my orgasms, but I don't have to, I can literally come at the drop of a hat. Even if I get distracted, it might delay it, but it doesn't change much.

I am so jeal. I wonder if the ease with which one comes has anything to do with self-esteem. Like, feeling worthy of receiving pleasure. It seems like you have a lot of confidence. I feel like it takes a lot of confidence to be in the seductress role, as you are in Milf Melissa and Her Hot Teen Daughter Missy Share Cock. One might think that Missy is ostensibly more vulnerable, because she is younger and less experienced. Yet to me, the role of the seductress is more vulnerable, because I fear rejection. Obviously, in porn, no one gets rejected. But can you talk about what it's like to play the role of an older pursuer and instigator, rather than the pursued.
For me it's not about confidence... if that was the case I would not come as easily. It's really about physiology. My nerve endings are extremely close to the surface so I don't need a lot of stimulation, nor do I need hard or heavy stimulation. I can't use a Hitachi or play on a Symbian for more than a few seconds, it's a waste for me and takes away the build up of my pleasure. With every great thing comes a curse... LOL.

I think you are confusing confidence with too many variables. A lot of seductresses are extremely insecure. They use the seductive trait as a way to distract themselves from their shyness or insecurities. I may be a totally different animal, as I just go and try not to think. If I did I may not have the confidence to be with anyone.

While you would think porn doesn't have rejection, it most certainly does. I have faced it twice, both with loser performers. One was high and tried to use me as his scapegoat as to why he couldn't get hard. It was unfortunate for him that I had performed with the director many times when he was talent and he loved fucking me. The other was when I first came back after a 12-year hiatus. Some newer loser said he couldn't get hard because I was too old and gross. I heard him behind my back say all kinds of asshole shit. I refused to finish the scene and walked out. I almost didn't perform again because of it, but the next scene was the one with James Deen.

Yes, you're right. I think seduction can definitely be used to cover up insecurities in other areas. I've definitely sent some of my filthiest sexts when I felt the most needy. Like, if a bro isn't texting back, I know I can get him to text me back if I hit him with the nudes or the hot sexts. But then where does that get me? It only recently dawned on me that using sex to get attention just means that dudes want sex. Like, it isn't that hard to get that kind of attention. I think I used to get way more validation out of it, particularly if the dude was a lot younger, because I saw it as an "I've still got it" thing. Now I'm kind of like, "Got what? He'd probably fuck anybody."

What I meant by no rejection in porn is that the viewer never sees it. But those experiences sound painful. But speaking of the inability to get it up, I have one last question from a guy friend. I told him it's a dumb question, but he's like "When are you going to have this resource again?" He wants to know how the dudes in porn stay hard for so long without coming? (Of course he does.)
How the guys stay hard runs the gamut... some are just naturals, some are automatons, some take a lot of time or breaks, some don't do so well under pressure or only do well under certain circumstances, and some use medical help (Viagra and the like). It depends on so many things. And most of the guys don't last as long as it seems, there is something called "movie magic," you only see what we want you to see.

Melissa Monet is a porn star, writer, director, and producer, among many other things. She loves animals, sci-fi, and the New York Rangers.

So Sad Today is a never-ending existential crisis played out in 140 characters or less. Its anonymous author has struggled with consciousness since long before the creation of the Twitter feed in 2012, and has finally decided the time has come to project her anxieties on a larger screen, in the form of a biweekly column on this website.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Police Commission voted to make LA the largest city in the country to require all patrol officers wear cameras on the job. The new policy, which passed by a vote of three to one, comes on the heels of racially-charged civil unrest in Baltimore over alleged police misconduct and a nationwide outcry over cops routinely killing unarmed people of color. Police reformers have argued for some time that officers should be equipped with body cameras in order to document their uses of force and interactions with civilians, so this news seems in many ways like a victory for them.

But according to some civil liberties advocates and LAPD critics, the department's body camera rules are riddled with loopholes.

The camera the LAPD officers will use is made by the folks over at Taser (the same company that manufactures devices that can shock—and even kill—suspects). It's roughly the size of an old-school pager, with a fisheye lens, battery, and memory all onboard; there are no clumsy wires leading to a camera attached to a pair of sunglasses, as there were in some older models of body camera. It hooks onto the officer's shirt, usually at the topmost button. But one of the most important product specs is the "record" button, which means that the cops will be in control of when the cameras come on.

The new policy states that LAPD officers will be required to record anything they do that qualifies as "investigative" or "enforcement," and are being asked nicely to notify citizens when they're being recorded. Of course, nothing in the rulebook says citizens have to consent to be recorded. No police officer can modify a recording, according to the rules, and they'll have to make sure their camera is operating correctly.

This feature is actually consistent with the ACLU's take on officer discretion; certain interactions, like those with victims or witnesses who are potentially subject to retaliation, shouldn't be recorded, the civil rights group argues.

Related: Watch our documentary about a kid who had a bad experience with California police.

The problem, police reformers say, is that the cops will be the ones reviewing their own footage, and that they'll be able to write reports after seeing the videos.

"It's absolutely a farce if the officers can see the video before they file their reports," said Joe Domanick, a longtime LAPD critic, journalist, and associate director of the Center on Media, Crime, and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Investigators can theoretically deny officers the ability to look at the footage in cases where a criminal probe is underway, but when and how this will work is unclear.

"It really falls short on most of the issues that we thought a body camera policy had to address," Peter Bibring, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California, which does not support the camera program, told the LA Times.

Lest we forget, the LAPD is recovering from a serious reputation problem. As Domanick put it, LA cops have "a long history of officer-involved shootings and officers being allowed to get their stories together before their interview by internal affairs. This is just a repeat of that.

"It doesn't hold the officers accountable at all," he added.

The ACLU would rather officers not rely on anything but their memories when describing events in reports. There are several reasons for this, but one of them is that viewing the videos beforehand enables a them to lie more effectively if they're trying to hide evidence of wrongdoing.

Worst of all for transparency activists is that the LAPD body cam videos are not going to be made public. Police Chief Charlie Beck has maintained throughout the slow lead-up to the adoption of this policy that he doesn't plan to release any footage to the public unless the department is required to do so by a judge.

That's in stark contrast to a pilot program launched last year by the Seattle Police Department, which set up a YouTube channel devoted to broadcasting a nightmarishly filtered video version of every single event recorded by the dozen cops outfitted with boy cameras. Disclosure rules are confusing, with citizens using the YouTube feed to file requests for impractically large quantities of raw video. Then there's the lingering issue of victims' privacy, and whether people's anguish should be left online for all the world to see.

It's a complicated issue, and one that will have to be navigated as more and more cities across the country adopt body cameras for officers.

"I'm not saying everything should be made public, but controversial shootings should be made public," Domanick said.

VICE contacted the LAPD for comment about concerns over the new program, but they did not answer multiple requests for comment.

Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.

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A scene from Fractured Land. Photo Via Hot Docs.

To the public, the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival is a friendly, audience-focussed event. Afternoon screenings are free for students, interested attendees can chat with filmmakers after the show, and friendly volunteers in green shirts greet everyone with a smile. But behind closed doors it's different story. Hot Docs is one of the most prestigious documentary film festivals in the world, which means that it's also a marketplace with millions of dollars at stake. Directors and producers frantically pitch their films to the hundreds of representatives for broadcasters, distributors, and funding agencies from across the world.

The scene at the Rogers Industry Centre this week was chaotic and sweaty. The Centre is located at the University of Toronto's stately (but poorly ventilated) Victoria College. In an adjacent room that was off-limits to media, the Distribution Rendezvous was taking place, a festival-organized event that facilitates meetings between filmmakers with completed films and distributors looking to purchase them.

It's often said that these meetings are like speed-dating in that they consist of short chances to make an impression and get a phone number, but I found it to be a bit more like Tinder: representatives organize meetings with promising "matches" and feel each other out to decide if they want to pursue a relationship with the filmmaker across the table. And like a bar full of singles on the look-out for their dates, the place was packed.

"What a lot of people don't necessarily recognize about festivals is that there's this whole back end, which is about putting films and filmmakers in touch with buyers and broadcasters," says Damien Gillis, who co-directed (along with Fiona Rayher) Fractured Land, a Hot Docs premiere about First Nations activist Caleb Behn and his battle against the fracking industry in northern British Columbia. Gillis and Rayher already licensed the film in Canada, but they came to the festival to gauge interest in international distribution.

I was at the Distribution Rendezvous to sit in on a short one-on-one meeting between a German TV buyer and the directors of Fractured Land. While the festival organizes various events within the marketplace (like the Deal Maker session, which helps filmmakers find funding for the documentaries, or the Hot Docs Forum, which allows filmmakers to pitch their film to a long table full of people with money), filmmakers and buyers often reach out to each other for informal meetings outside of the festival structure.

Everyone at these meetings knows something—if only a little—about the people they're sitting across from, but they're also eager to turn these short one-on-one meetings into long-lasting meaningful relationships. "If someone's interested in you, you book a longer meeting later," says Gillis.

On this day, Gillis and Rayher were pitching Fractured Land to a representative from a boutique German documentary channel backed by RTL Television. I was asked not to print the details, but for about 15 minutes they discussed existing business details and gauged each other's interest. At the end of the meeting, the German delegate promised to show the film to his partners. "This was a very productive meeting," Gillis told me afterward, "but it's not like contracts are coming out and fountain pens are being dipped in this very room."

Gillis and Rayher were also here two years ago, where they pitched their concept to broadcasters and granting agencies at the Deal Maker sessions. They can't boil down their success to any single meeting, but between Hot Docs and meetings at some other festivals (including the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam and the Banff World Media Festival), they patched together a budget just shy of $500,000 from a variety of sources, included the Documentary Channel, British Columbia's Knowledge Network, and government granting agencies like the Canadian Media Fund and the BC Arts Council.

Mostly, the meetings help filmmakers put the word out there and in the hopes that one of your matches calls you later, maybe after you've won an award or two and increased your desirability, or maybe after a distributor has discussed you with some mutual friends. "[An award] would be icing on the cake," says Gillis "but whatever form of buzz comes from it, that's a helpful strategy." While the Toronto International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival generate buzz for their multi-million dollar distribution deals, most documentaries generally get financed through a variety of sources. It's rare for a distributor to be "exclusive" with their suitors, at least until things "get serious" and have to be clarified later on.

The Deal Maker session, which is more about finding production funds than distribution or broadcasting rights, looks more like "speed dating" than the previous meeting, but a festival staffer informs me that it's not that random; all the meetings are scheduled in advance. It takes place in a grand University of Toronto debating hall with long tables lined up. "Decision makers" (a festival term for people offering money), including reps from big players like France's Canal+ and Germany's ZDF, were seated at the tables and identifiable by makeshift nameplates. At almost every spot, filmmakers sit across from their prospective partners with laptops, showing of their concept trailers. After 15 minutes, a happy-looking volunteer rings a bell and everyone moves on to their next set of meetings.

After one of these 15-minute sessions, I moved to the lobby and chatted with Matthew C. Kennedy, the filmmaker behind Blind Date, an unfinished documentary about a woman in an arranged marriage in central China. He informed me that he just had a meeting with the Knowledge Network to gauge interest in the film, which he hoped to submit to festivals soon. "They basically just said that it's a great story and they admire it," says Kennedy, "but they have too many similar topics from other cultures." While things didn't work out the way Kennedy had planned, there were no hard feelings. Like Tinder, part of playing the festival game means moving on when things don't work out, and hoping for better luck next time.

Follow Alan Jones on Twitter.

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One of the 'Don't Vote' posters in Aldwych. All photos via the Strike! Facebook.

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

With a general election in the UK hyped as "seismic" just around the corner, it's hard to avoid the many calls to vote here in London.

The pamphlets; the posters; the plans to shut E4 down for a day so young people vote instead of watching the How I Met Your Mother episode they could find with three clicks of a mouse; the Facebook friends saying stuff like, "I implore you to make your voice heard—people died for your right to vote," as if the concept of democracy is something only they have been privy to until now. People want you to vote, and they want everyone to know that they want you to vote.

But yesterday, something unexpected happened: adverts appeared in bus shelters around London urging passers-by not to vote. Instead, the posters suggested, people should "engage with politics," "spoil their ballot," and "take to the streets."

Like the anti-police posters slipped into bus shelters late last year, the design for the posters was released online by the anarchist magazine STRIKE!, but the posters were put up by anonymous activists calling themselves the Special Patrol Group (SPG).

I tracked down a member of the SPG to find out why they think people have more power away from the ballot box.

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A poster in Warren Street.

VICE: Hi. When did you put the posters up?
SPG: Yesterday morning and early afternoon.

And no one stopped you?
You have to hide in plain sight; people just trust that you're meant to be there if you look like you're meant to be there. You just get your tools out, put your hi-vis vest on. Anyone can do it, no one says anything.

How many did you put up?
There are 20 and they're kind of dotted all around—New Cross, Euston, Chalk Farm, Westminster, Milbank, a few other places.

So why don't you think people should vote?
Obviously people can make up their own mind, [but] the role of alternative and radical media—like STRIKE!, who made the design—is to present other points of view. The [mainstream] media will never present the idea that not voting is a possibility because they're part of the system. Something like 30 percent of people don't vote, which is almost the same amount that's always elected the winning party. I think we have to stop ignoring that mass of people.

We also wanted to represent some of the classic arguments against voting: we think that voting is basically this facade that upkeeps the system. [There's] this dogma that voting is our one big chance to get involved in politics and have a choice in the running of our own lives. We're discouraged from protesting, we're discouraged from resisting, we're heavily policed at protests, we're ignored if we try to speak up, and all direct action and resistance is kind of laughed at in the mainstream.

Politicians just don't engage with it. But come election time, everyone everywhere is like, "Vote, vote, vote! Engage!" Actually, so many people are engaging in so many different ways. The voting dogma is just to disempower us rather than empower us, as if to say: "This is the only system and you have to engage in this one or you can't do anything else." We're encouraging people to think in a different way.

Related: Do you, like this SPG member, want an alternative? Try moving to South Thanet and voting for the Al-Zebabist Nation of OOOG. But first, watch this film we made about them.

What's wrong with the current system? Why are all the candidates "idiots"?
They're just part of the system—they're all pro-austerity, they're all neoliberal, capitalist, part of the elite. Obviously there are other candidates, but it's just not possible for the good people to have any actual control in this system.

What about the Green Party? They generally seem to be viewed as all right among those who actively don't vote.
I think a lot of the Green Party policies are really good, but if you look at the way people react to their big long term plans, they're just laughed at, and I think that's because people know it's not possible for them to actually implement those ideas within the current system. They're in a system that's never going to let them change things inside. The only way to change things is outside of that system through direct action.

How would you like the system to change?
That's a tricky one. It's such a massive thing. We're not saying we have the blueprint for an entirely new system, but we're saying individually and collectively we can be empowered by using our voice in ways outside of the ballot box.

What immediate, practical things can people do to engage with politics outside of the ballot box?
So, for example, people are really upset and angry about UKIP, and obviously I'm upset and angry about UKIP—they're fucking evil. So get involved in the amazing actions that support migrants; there's a huge No Borders campaign.

Any issues that people think are affecting them, get involved. The Radical Housing Network has people all over the country. There are all sorts of things that you can do other than just joining a political party.

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A poster in London Bridge.

OK, but what if I don't vote and the Tories—who I personally don't want to win—get in again?
Lots of people have said that to us, but did you vote for the Liberal Democrats in the last election? And what happened? If you just keep voting for the lesser of two evils, it just upkeeps the system, and you get this shit system that you don't want. If you vote for Labour because you don't like the Tories, then you're voting for their tough stance on immigration, you're voting for all their bullshit policies.

But if you don't vote, you can't complain about anything for the next five years, right?
That is the worst thing! Saying that if you don't vote you can't have a say leads to the most apathy, because it's saying voting is the only way of having a say, which is the worst thing you can possibly tell people—that's so disengaging and individualist. If all you do is turn out once every five years and put a cross in a ballot box for the lesser of two evils, or whatever, isn't that apathetic? Isn't that disengaged? Isn't that stupid? I think it's so patronizing when people say not voting means you can't have a say.

So what about this kind of moralistic argument that it's your duty as a citizen to vote? That people died so you could vote.
That's my favorite one. I mean, do people actually think about what the suffragettes were fighting for? It was like one part of equality, this idea of having a vote, but the majority of suffragettes—and suffragists, to be more general—were radical movements; they were fighting to actually change things and create a new and better system. They didn't die for us to be led by elite, white, conservative men. They were revolutionaries, they weren't reformists.

We live in this society that's heteropatriarchal. It's built on colonialism, it's built on imperialism, and an election isn't going to change that. Other forms of collectivity can change those massive things: campaigns to change attitudes, things like alternative media, talking about stuff, those can change the way we think and the way we work and the way people are represented. An election is not about to [do any of that].

Follow Charlotte on Twitter.

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About a thousand people came out in Lower Manhattan last night to protest the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Baltimore resident who died earlier this month after sustaining a severe spinal cord injury in police custody.

Activists began showing up at Union Square Park just before 6 PM, so we sent photographer Pete Voelker to have a look at the scene. Unfortunately, he didn't last very long, getting arrested at around 7:15.

"I actually tried to get to the sidewalk to avoid being nabbed but was blocked by officers," Voelker said aferward in an email. "So I turned back, got distracted, took a photo of a girl getting arrested—she had just punched a cop. There was an anonymous guy in the background (who soon after got arrested)... [I] took a photo of that and some others, but then they grabbed me. I was punched and elbowed in the face and hit with a club, instantly dropped to the ground, and had four officers pushing on my arms with their knees."

Voelker wasn't released until 4:30 AM, but was struck by the vibe in his holding cell, where protesters broke into song every time another of their own was brought in. He told us the atmosphere was joyful, even if the cops in the street demonstrated a new ferocity he hadn't recognized at police protests last fall.

Fortunately, another activist recovered Voelker's camera. Here's what he saw before he was taken to jail.

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See more photos by Pete Voelker on his website.

Today's video - Jordan's King Abdullah II talks Syrian refugees and the battle against the Islamic State in Ottawa and walks away with new aid money, Brixton anti-gentrification clashes erupt in the UK, no backing down against pipelines, and can voodoo and veganism mix?

Exclusive: No Pipelines, Part 4

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All photos courtesy of the author

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

Since withdrawing from full-time games journalism in 2014, I've had a lot of time to revisit retro and modern classics rather than feeling the demand to hammer through new releases for review. As someone with a huge fondness of old-school gaming, this has been insanely refreshing and, in some ways, really addictive.

I've still got my childhood Mega Drive console, which sits proudly next to other timeless machines like a NES, SNES, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and others in our spare room. There's noting quite like coming home on a Friday night after a long week at work, blowing the dust out of my Streets of Rage 2 cartridge and locking myself away for a few hours of goon-smacking, neon-dripped 90s nostalgia. It's pure bliss.

In all honesty, retro fans haven't had it this good in years. Nintendo's Virtual Console, PSN, Xbox Live and Steam all boast decent collections of older titles at reasonable prices, while the emulation scene helps enthusiasts play the rarest games of all time without dropping a dime. If you want to play it, the internet can help you find and emulate it for free. That's a brilliant thing, indeed.

I'm not against emulation—I do it often, in fact—but nothing compares to having the actual game cartridge or disc in its original form, putting it into the classic machine, then taking those sturdy, simple controllers in hand to relive fond memories in their purest form. Without any obligation to devote my time to new games, I've been beefing up my retro collection over the past year, seeking out those missing games from my childhood so I could catch up on everything I had missed.

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One game I never owned as a kid was the original Castlevania on NES, which is criminal seeing as its 16-bit remake Super Castlevania IV, the DS masterpiece Dawn of Sorrow and PSone smash Symphony of the Night are treasured favorites of mine. Konami's 1986 original had always eluded me in cartridge form, so I went onto eBay with the hope of picking a copy up cheap, only to find the PAL cart has become quite rare and expensive.

You'd have to be very lucky to find someone selling Castlevania for less than $50, while sealed, pristine copies go for over $60. I wasn't prepared to pay the same as a new PS4 or Xbox One game for something released almost 30 years ago, but was sure if I simply stayed patient, someone who didn't really know what they were doing was bound to post a copy for a tenner or thereabouts. It's been a about a year and I still don't haven't found a copy available for anywhere close to that slight amount.

When I first started my quest to find a cheap copy of Castlevania, I set up countless eBay alerts and routinely searched through all the NES games on offer in the hope of finding other bargains. Whenever I'd come across games like the exemplary Gremlins 2, Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers or Star Wars for dirt cheap, I'd snap them up in an instant. Before long, I realized I had the makings of a decent collection brewing.

Watch: VICE's documentary on eSports

The same went for other formats as well. I've bought mint-condition Dreamcast discs without boxes for an absolute pittance—a double pack of Virtua Tennis and Ecco: The Tides of Time cost me just $10 on eBay—while classic Sega carts like Ristar, Decap Attack, and Kid Chameleon came along as steals. Although it only feels like I've been spending a few quid here and there, I've now dropped well over the cost of a single Castlevania cart on the lot, but the nostalgia trip has been priceless.

I also get a bit excited when I come home from work to find a new parcel lying in my hall, housing another new-to-me cartridge to place proudly on my shelves (and into the console in question, of course). You simply don't get that same feeling when downloading a game digitally, but perhaps that's something lost on younger gamers these days. That's not a dig at all—it's just a different time nowadays, with gamers having a different view on content delivery. Some call it progress; I call it losing a part of gaming heritage. Sunrise, sunset.

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Nowadays, I'd liken the experience of trawling through eBay search results and custom alerts, scrutinizing prices and bidding carefully to browsing through stalls at a record fair for a rare find, or looking over shelves in one of the UK's near-extinct retro gaming shops. There's still an incredible rush to be had when you stumble across a key game missing from your collection at a bargain price, which is how I felt as a kid in the early 90s when rummaging through boxes of old carts in our local indie store.

It's 2015 now, and there's only one shop like this left in Edinburgh. It's called Game Masters, and it's round the corner from our flat. The store has been there for literally as long as I can remember, and while it's nice to see it surviving after all this time, I feel sadder every time I pop in to see what new retro arrivals the chap has, only to learn he's had nothing traded in for weeks. As much as I hate to admit it, I feel like the store's on life support now. It feels like the eleventh hour for shops like his.

I get why we've gotten to this point though, and appreciate that many gamers today likely have zero affinity towards playing retro games at all—or if they do, they'll likely try them in digital form instead. While I'd much rather pick up my classic NES controller and listen to the clacking of quaint buttons as I fire through another session of Ninja Gaiden or Punch-Out!!, even I can't deny there are some companies paying a great deal of respect to gaming's heritage.

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Take Japanese firm M2 for example—the team behind 3DS re-releases of 3D After Burner II, 3D Fantasy Zone and its recently released sequel, 3D Out Run (read VICE's feature on that classic here), and others. These are some of the finest treatments of classic gaming I've ever had the pleasure of playing, and not only are they arcade- or console-perfect ports, they also come with new modes, variable tweaks and features that don't impede on the bare-bones experience.

M2's sheer respect for the source material is admirable, and the same can be said for the Strider reboot from Double Helix, as well as Obsidian's crowdfunded title Pillars of Eternity (read VICE's review feature here) for the way it immaculately encapsulates all that was right about mid-90s RPG gaming. You also have new games that tap into the retro mindset, such as Team Meat's Zelda-like The Binding of Isaac, Roll7's 2D take on Tony Hawk's in OlliOlli, and the Metroidvania brilliance of Rogue Legacy.

The same can't be said for many modern reboots out there, however. While some really enjoyed the Starbreeze interpretation of Bullfrog's strategy title Syndicate, others found the first-person shooter presentation and accompanying Skrillex soundtrack harder to stomach than some next-morning leftover kebab.

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Then there's EA's piss-poor Dungeon Keeper reboot on mobile, which embodied everything that's wrong with so called free-to-play gaming, alongside howlers like Sega's PS2-era Altered Beast and Shinobi reboots, followed by their Golden Axe retread that made critics sick up in their mouths. It's a shame that the good name of pure classics can be so brutally curb-stomped by half-assed treatments like these, but some publishers will do anything to make a quick buck, right?

So there are great examples of retro experiences done justice in the modern age, and others that ride the coattails of a cherished IP only to miss the mark completely. Nostalgia sells and game publishers know the mere mention of a classic game or series will have many of us throwing money at our screens. There's no right or wrong way to enjoy the classics as it's purely subjective, but for this fan of pixels and Mode 7 there's only one way to fly, and that's playing on the original formats.

One day I probably should just bite the bullet and drop 40 sheets on Castlevania for NES but, truth be told, I'm having so much fun bidding for cheaper finds and searching eBay's treasure chest of retro gems that I can stand to wait a little longer in case someone posts a cheaper version. I also need a copy of the original Contra and its sequel, but don't even get me started on how much they're going for these days, seriously.

How do you prefer to enjoy the classics—carts, discs or digital?

Follow Dave on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

You might have noticed that there's a general election looming in the UK (and if not, get yourself over to VICE's coverage of it, pronto). Seems a reasonable time to look over some of the "greatest" politicians to have graced video games, doesn't it? It does. So we will.

Mike Haggar

Once a wrestler, now mayor of Final Fight's Metro City, Mike (pictured above) isn't someone who you'd want to get on the wrong side of during a debate, given he'd likely counter your position on immigration with an argument-ending clothesline. But while he's certainly a hard man, his record in office isn't bulletproof. In 1989's first Final Fight, he was one of three tough customers who stood up to the plague of the Mad Gear gang. All was quiet for a while, but four years later Mad Gear resurfaced in the sequel, going on a rampaging road trip across Eurasia. Way to palm your problems off on other people there, Mike.

Indeed, over the years the paths of various gang types and this muscle-bound bylaw imposer have crossed repeatedly, and our hero has never quite buried the criminal menace threatening his townspeople as the voting public would expect. He's also easily distracted, turning up at wrestling events when he should be signing off new contracts for local waste recovery and in Flash-powered cartoons, not to mention bagging cameos in several more Capcom crossovers. C'mon, Mike, seriously: Think of those you serve before you serve yourself.

The President of the United States

As in, the one seen (and played as) in Saints Row 4 who, unlike Haggar up there, has the whole world to think about when it comes to combating an alien invasion. And how is he—or she—going to do that? By crashing a VR version of an entirely made-up all-American town, murdering NPCs with dubstep, showcasing an array of superpowers, and escaping the bowels of the enemy mothership to the strains of Haddaway's eternal "What Is Love" while also gently taking the piss out of Star Fox. Oh, baby, don't hurt me—just take my vote. (The use of Stan Bush's "The Touch," and that dialogue, seals the deal, as per the below video.)

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Steven Armstrong

You see this prick? Massive prick. A difficulty-spiking prick of the highest magnitude. The Colorado senator, campaigning for presidency in 2020, is the final boss in Platinum Games' generally incredible Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, a game so deliriously brilliant and dizzyingly fast that they had to give it the maddest title they could in order to keep complete idiots from picking it up expecting a standard Metal Gear experience.

At the climax of a series of events so bewildering that outlining them here would turn the average reader's eyes to the very finest dust—at one point you're fighting a guy with detachable arms who throws helicopters at you, just because—this governmental meathead, loaded up on strength-increasing nanomachines, represents an unbeatable wall of flesh and steel that our man Raiden's most furious fists and flashiest kicks can't leave a scratch on. But salvation comes in the form of a mechanical wolf thing that tosses Raiden the sharpest sword the world has ever seen, which he swiftly thrusts into the guts of the errant Armstrong, before pulling out his heart. Game over. No, really: that is the end of the game.

BunnyLord

An anthropomorphic purple rabbit from the future who wants to be mayor. Only in vidya. (As featured in the forthcoming indie game Not a Hero, which we played here and will soon have a fresh feature on, so, keep those not-yet-disintegrated eyes open, if you're into pixely gore.)

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Kevin Spacey

Seen House of Cards? Kev is right good in that as a politician overlooked for a promotion who then takes it upon himself to strive for even greater power, ultimately becoming the President of the United States (albeit one without spaceships or a fine collection of early 1990s Europop). In 2014's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Kev's meaner still, playing the part of a private military CEO and showing up at the United Nations to tell those assembled that they're the problem with the world. Which means he's not actually a politician himself, but his actions are very much in keeping with those specializing in power play maneuvers. He talks the talk, too, spending the first half of the game acting like butter wouldn't melt and smarming up to Troy Baker before revealing the knife he had on him all along and twisting it down, deep. What a shame, then, that just a few in-game hours later he'd fall to his death as everything he'd previously built up collapses around him. Shame, shame, shame.

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Governor Elaine Marley

The Tri-Island Area's boss lady was once envisioned as a hard-edged, no-nonsense character in the Monkey Island series, but she's a lot more memorable the way her makers ultimately realized her: a love interest for our incompetent hero Guybrush, sure, but absolutely independent, fiercely brave, and wickedly intelligent, and the exact opposite to so many damsel-in-distress types populating video game narratives (like, say, Mushroom Kingdom ruler Princess Peach). She wasn't all that much help in The Curse of Monkey Island, spending much of that game as a solid gold statue, but she races to Guybrush's aid in the first installment of LucasArts' pioneering pirate tales, and would have prevented his lungs flooding right through if we, the player, hadn't already intervened.

Monkey Island's very final scene of action is Elaine's moment to really shine. In Telltale Games' Tales of Monkey Island, as Guybrush is rendered, well, fairly dead, it's up to her, alongside bounty hunter Morgan, to finally send series villain LeChuck packing. Which she does, with the pointy end of a sword, and they all live happily ever after. Which is rubbish because another Monkey Island game would be lovely. Send your letters to Disney, and hope they don't Caribbean it all up.

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Abraham Lincoln as Played by Wil Wheaton from 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and Other Stuff You've Never Heard Of

Nintendo's Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. for the 3DS stars the 16th President of the United States, in which he battles aliens as captain of an airship called the Lady Liberty. And yes, I am getting this information from Wikipedia because the game itself is not out in the UK until the middle of May, so I'm yet to play even a second of it.

The premise—a president appearing in a game whose play is set within the frames of a comic book and also features Queen Victoria, the Lion from The Wizard of Oz, and Lovecraft's Necronomicon—isn't that hard to get a handle on. What is: the Gamergate-opposing Wheaton starring in the same game as the Gamergate-creating actor Adam Baldwin, who voices lead protagonist Henry Fleming. Were the two ever in the same studio, do you think? Perhaps their collaboration is a sign that, hey, all of this nonsense has blown over. Wouldn't that be nice?

Follow VICE's coverage of the real-life UK election here.

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The notorious Jade Helm 15 map. Credit: US Army Special Operations Command

The US Army is up to something. It's teaming up with all branches of the armed forces for a plan called Jade Helm 15 that, for secret military reasons, will happen this summer all over the Southwest United States.

The fact that the military keeps secrets is not, in and of itself, a secret. But as VICE News pointed out last month, this particular exercise triggered a wildfire of paranoia after part of the plan for Jade Helm 15 leaked online. The scary-looking map (above) marks Texas, Utah, and a sliver of Southern California as "hostile," and some of the media's more unconventional thinkers have taken that to mean there's some kind of plan to impose martial law.

Paranoid questions about Jade Helm 15 finally reached the White House Wednesday, forcing Obama's press secretary Josh Earnest to come up with something to say that would allay fears that the Southwest United States is about to be plunged into martial law.

Related: Watch our documentary about David Icke, Lizard People and the New World Order.

The fragments of the plan that have been declassified have—understandably—left questions unanswered: "What are the troops doing?" "Why?" "What are the military's specific goals for this exercise?" "Is the military really being trained, or is the population being exposed to a military presence in order to prepare us for the onset of totalitarianism by Obama's liberal government, which has been driven mad with power thanks to the efforts of those of us who have seen behind the curtain, and aren't willing to be cowed into complicity?"

The Army tried to answer these questions. It issued a statement back in March, explaining that this is about maintaining readiness, that the exercises were happening in the Southwest because that's the kind of terrain troops might encounter abroad, and that since it would all be carried out on private property the Army is being permitted to use, no one's Third Amendment rights are being violated. They also tried to spin it as a good thing:

The most noticeable effect the exercise may have on the local communities is an increase in vehicle and military air traffic and its associated noise. There will also be economic gain: an increase in the local economy, in fuel and food purchases and hotel lodging.

But prominent alarmists like Alex Jones's Info Wars andTeaParty.org, continued to elude to the ominous nature of the exercise. The entertaining Austrian economics blog ZeroHedge included accounts of beefed-up military presences around the areas marked in red on the map, and also embedded videos by citizen journalists, including a scary-looking clip of troops marching down a residential street in Southern California, ostensibly to give the viewer a sense of just what Obama's martial law is going to look like. However, the timing of the video doesn't seem to line up with Jade Helm 15, since it's timestamped November. November of 2073!

But things started to get out of hand earlier this week when Army Lieutenant Colonel Mark Lastoria stood for questions at a meeting in Bastrop County, Texas, in the hopes of extinguishing tfears by explaining the exercise to attendees. It backfired, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Lastoria had to endure a two hour bombardment of questions from frightened Texans about whether Obama was bringing ISIS fighters to Texas, and planning to confiscate their guns. Apparently, he wasn't able to reassure them that these ideas were off base.

So now, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has taken matters into his own hands, indicating in a letter that members of the Texas State Guard will be ordered to monitor the United States military as they carry out the Jade Helm 15, scheduled to run from July through September.

That was weird news for the Obama administration. In a news conference, Obama's press secretary Josh Earnest had to address Abbot's decision. "I have no idea what he's thinking," Earnest told reporters. "[I]n no way will the constitutional rights or civil liberties of any American citizen be infringed upon while this exercise is being conducted," he added.

So, if you're in the American Southwest from July 15 through September 15, the army's official position is that you might notice an "increased military presence," and that might include some noise. They say if you see any soldiers, they might just be toting guns loaded with blanks.

At this time, only Texas can expect the additional beefed-up presence of State Guard troops, making sure the citizenry's "safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed." It remains unclear what the Texas State Guard plans to do if the US military really does start pushing people around. We talked to some Texas secessionists last month who probably have a few ideas, though.

Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.