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2018-06-04 00:00:00

2018

6.0

4

Mayapple Center for the Arts and Humanities, Inc.

The Mayapple Center Presents “The Art of Protest,” an Art Activism Workshop

This one-day workshop on June 16 previews a ten-day residential workshop on art as political resistance planned for June 2019 at Sarah Lawrence College. Whether by direct action or through their work, artists and scholars have long been at the forefront of protest movements in the United States and around the world. In these fraught political times, the necessity of art that responds to injustice has never been more urgent. On June 16, Sarah Lawrence College and the Mayapple Center for the Arts and Humanities will conduct a one-day workshop for artists and scholars to reflect on their own practice of activist art, and, more broadly, on the potential(s) for art as political resistance in America in 2018. The workshop will consist of panel discussions and collaborative small group sessions with artists, scholars, and panelists, including Dar Williams, Mahogany L. Browne, Felix Endara, David Birkin, Nicolaus Mills, and Michelle Slater. The Mayapple Center invites anyone (18 and older) who seeks to express their intellectual and artistic creativity in a setting that promotes cultural vitality. The workshop fee is $25 and includes lunch. Registration required. June 16, 2018 Sarah Lawrence College 10am-3.30pm Learn more and register at sarahlawrence.edu/mayapple.

https://hyperallergic.com/445339/the-mayapple-center-presents-the-art-of-protest-an-art-activism-workshop/

Hyperallergic

2016-05-05 14:10:02

2016

5.0

5

Matthew Yglesias

Add Puerto Rico's debt crisis to the list of issues Donald Trump doesn't understand

Now that Donald Trump has secured his place as the Republican Party's presidential nominee, the fact that his statements on matters of public policy often don't make sense will be taken much more seriously. The latest example came during yesterday's interview between Trump and CNN's Wolf Blitzer in which, among other things, Blitzer asked Trump about Puerto Rico. You can read our explainer on the Puerto Rico situation here, but the long and short of it is that Puerto Rico owes a ton of money and, due to population loss, it can't pay. Under normal circumstances, a city or county or business in this situation would file for bankruptcy to reduce its debt burden, but the existing bankruptcy code doesn't let Puerto Rico do this. The White House and many congressional Democrats have proposed creating a bankruptcy process for Puerto Rico, but Republicans — at the behest of distressed debt funds that bought up Puerto Rican bonds — have blocked it. Here's Blitzer trying to ask Trump if he agrees the bankruptcy law should change: WOLF BLITZER: They're prevented from using the bankruptcy laws, Puerto Rico, as opposed to all the US states. You've used those bankruptcy laws over the years. DONALD TRUMP: I'm the king — I understand. By the way — WOLF BLITZER: Should Puerto Rico have an opportunity to use the bankruptcy laws? DONALD TRUMP: As a very successful person I would buy companies, throw them in a chapter, bankrupt it, negotiate — I would do great deals, I didn't use them for myself, I used them as a businessperson. Many of the top people in my category use the laws. I know more about debt than practically anybody, I love debt. I also love reducing debt, and I know how to do it better than anybody. I will tell you with Puerto Rico they have too much debt. You can't just restructure; you have to use the laws, cut the debt way down, and get back to business, because they can't survive with the kind of debt they have. I would not bail out if I were — if I were in that position I wouldn't bail them out. WOLF BLITZER: Would you let them have a bankruptcy option? DONALD TRUMP: They're going to have no choice. if they're not going to pay the bill they're not going to pay the interest on the bonds — WOLF BLITZER: They can't. DONALD TRUMP: They can't. You can't — you know, the expression you can't take it out of the grave if they don't have it. Whether they officially declare or not, but ultimately what they have to do is cut the debt way down. They're never going to pay that debt off, they have to cut it way down, and the United States is going to be in that position very soon because they have too much debt. Trump is so busy here being defensive about his business record that he's not understanding what the question is. He seems to think that Puerto Rico legally can file for bankruptcy and the problem is they haven't done so, and that what they need is a smarter leader/negotiator at the helm who can clean up the balance sheet the way he would have in one of his real estate deals. But the whole political issue is that a) Puerto Rico can't do this, legally speaking, and b) the political party that Trump leads is blocking the Obama administration from changing the law. But Trump has no idea what's going on and doesn't seem to be listening to Blitzer's questions. It's easy to go numb to these kinds of things, roll your eyes at pedantic coverage, and say Trump's success so far shows voters don't care about small details like whether or not the president has any idea what he's talking about. But the fact of the matter is that very few people vote in primaries at all, and lots of people don't pay much attention to early campaign coverage. The fact that Trump repeatedly shows up to interviews totally unprepared to discuss the issues of the day in an informed manner and proceeds to wing it in an inconsistent and ideologically unpredictable way is important, and people need to keep hearing about it.

https://www.vox.com/2016/5/5/11595610/puerto-rico-debt-crisis-trump

Vox

2019-06-26 00:00:00

2019

6.0

26

S.Korea's S-Oil says Saudi Aramco to give advice on $6 bln petchem project

SEOUL, June 26 (Reuters) - S-Oil, South Korea’s No.3 oil refiner by capacity, said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with its top shareholder, Saudi Aramco, for technical advice on a multi-billion dollar petrochemical plant it is looking to build. S-Oil said in a statement on Wednesday that the cost of the proposed project in the southeast of South Korea was estimated at $6 billion, up from the $4.3 billion it had previously expected. The MOU coincides with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to South Korea this week as the two countries seek to bolster economic ties. Saudi Aramco said in a separate statement on Wednesday that it had signed 12 pacts with South Korean partners worth billions of dollars. S-Oil said it hoped to complete the plant by 2024 as part of a drive to expand its petrochemical business. The South Korean refiner said it was looking to build a so-called steam cracker with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum and olefin downstream facilities in the plant. The cracker would produce ethylene and other basic petrochemical products, while the olefin downstream facilities would churn out high-value petrochemical products including polyethylene. S-Oil said last August that it was conducting a feasibility study into building the cracker and olefin downstream facilities. Separately, S-Oil last year finished building two other petrochemical plants in South Korea. They began operating in November, producing 405,000 tonnes per year of polypropylene, 300,000 tonnes per year of propylene oxide, and 21,000 barrels per day (bpd) of gasoline. ($1 = 1,157.7000 won) (Reporting by Jane Chung; Editing by Joseph Radford)

https://www.reuters.com/article/southkorea-s-oil-saudi-aramco/skoreas-s-oil-says-saudi-aramco-to-give-advice-on-6-bln-petchem-project-idUSL4N23X0ND

Asia

Reuters

2018-01-10 00:00:00

2018

1.0

10

Drake 'Documentary' Not Drake Approved

Drake's Houston team has a warning for fans about a new documentary on his rise to fame -- they have absolutely nothing to do with it, despite how it seems in a clip going viral. The video was put together by a guy who goes by MarQuis Trill on Instagram, and he claims he's produced a documentary called "Toronto to Houston" -- featuring several Drake performances and interviews. MarQuis claims the film he directed and edited is coming out in the summer, and that Rap-A-Lot Records is down with the production. We're told that's just not true. Our Drake sources say neither Jas Prince nor Drake participated in the documentary. Ditto for James Prince and anyone at Rap-A-Lot. We're told all the interview clips used in the trailer were pulled from previously released productions. Our sources also say MarQuis' claim on Twitter that he'll be shooting footage inside Drake's new home in Toronto ... is totally bogus. In this case ... you really can't believe the hype.

https://www.tmz.com/2018/01/10/drake-documentary-unauthorized-not-approved/

TMZ

2019-05-20 00:00:00

2019

5.0

20

Idrees Ali

U.S. warship sails in disputed South China Sea amid trade tensions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military said one of its warships sailed near the disputed Scarborough Shoal claimed by China in the South China Sea on Sunday, angering Beijing at a time of tense ties between the world’s two biggest economies. The busy waterway is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and Taiwan. China struck a more aggressive tone in its trade war with the United States on Friday. The tough talk capped a week that saw China unveil new retaliatory tariffs in response to a U.S. decision to raise its levies on $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25% from 10%. The U.S. destroyer Preble carried out the operation, a U.S. military spokesman told Reuters. “Preble sailed within 12 nautical miles of Scarborough Reef in order to challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law,” said Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the Seventh Fleet. Speaking in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the ship had entered waters near the shoal without China’s permission, and the Chinese navy had warned it to leave. “I must stress once again that the U.S. warship’s relevant actions have violated China’s sovereignty and undermined the peace, security and good order in the relevant sea areas. China is firmly opposed to this,” Lu told a daily news briefing. The United States was trying to disturb regional peace and stability by using the issue of freedom of navigation and flight, he added. “We strongly urge the United States to immediately stop such provocative actions so as not to undermine Sino-U.S. relations and regional peace and stability.” It was the second such U.S. military operation in the South China Sea in the last month. On Wednesday, the chief of the U.S. Navy said its freedom of navigation movements in the disputed South China Sea drew more attention than they deserved. The U.S. military has a long-standing position that its operations are carried out throughout the world, including areas claimed by allies, and they are separate from political considerations. The operation was the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as Beijing’s efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters, where Chinese, Japanese and some Southeast Asian navies operate. China claims almost all of the strategic South China Sea and frequently lambastes the United States and its allies over naval operations near Chinese-occupied islands. Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have competing claims in the region. China and the United States have repeatedly traded barbs in the past over what Washington says is Beijing’s militarization of the South China Sea by building military installations on artificial islands and reefs. China defends its construction as necessary for self-defense and says the United States is responsible for ratcheting up tension by sending warships and military planes close to islands Beijing claims. Last month, China’s navy chief said freedom of navigation should not be used to infringe upon the rights of other nations. Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-military/u-s-warship-sails-in-disputed-south-china-sea-amid-trade-tensions-idUSKCN1SQ067

World News

Reuters

2016-01-29 00:00:00

2016

1.0

29

Tito Ortiz: Elevator Nightmare ... We're Trapped (Please Don't Fart)

Scary moment for MMA superstar Tito Ortiz ... when he was trapped in an elevator in Houston with a group of people for nearly an hour ... and begged the people inside to please don't fart! Tito was on a media tour at a CBS radio station -- giving away tickets to Bellator 149 in Houston -- when the elevator came to a grinding halt ... trapping at least 5 people inside. Tito turned to social media to call for help -- and offered tickets to the show if someone came to save the group. Eventually, the Houston Fire Dept. showed up and saved the day ... and the heroic moment was captured on video. So, do they get tickets?

https://www.tmz.com/2016/01/29/tito-ortiz-rescued-from-trapped-elevator-video/

TMZ

2018-07-29 00:00:00

2018

7.0

29

Halsey Hosts Playboy's Midsummer Night's Dream Party in Vegas

Halsey hosted Playboy's Midsummer Night's Dream party Saturday night in Vegas ... and she did not disappoint. The bash went down at the Marquee Nightclub inside the Cosmopolitan on the Strip. She was joined by bunnies ... not sure if they're real Playboy bunnies or faux, but it truly doesn't matter. The event used to be held at the Playboy Mansion in L.A. ... this one's a spin-off. The suggested attire for the evening ... lingerie and sleepwear, of course. Hef may be gone, but Halsey is making damn sure ... his memory will live on.

https://www.tmz.com/2018/07/29/halsey-hosts-playboy-midsummer-nights-dream-party-vegas/

TMZ

2016-04-21 18:55:00

2016

4.0

21

Joe Bish

London Is Getting Its First Naked Restaurant This Summer

Read: Is East London's New Death Row Pop-Up Restaurant for Real? Can't really remember when eating dinner became synonymous with 'having a mind-bending holistic experience,' but it was probably around the time people started consuming previously unheard of grains and beans and feeling smug about it. We here at VICE have a penchant for bad-mouthing themed restaurants, and the reasons for that are simple: they're fucking lame, they fucking suck, the people who go to them are shit. And here we find ourselves again in the grip of a pop-up trying to make us think. The Bunyadi is a naked restaurant that will open somewhere near London Bridge in June, I'm told. You can sit in there on a wooden stool in the buff and have your tea, though you'll be given a gown to cover your disgusting shame if you so wish. The concept comes from a company called Lollipop, who previously masterminded experiences such as 'eating canapés with an owl' and 'the Breaking Bad cocktail bar,' tickets to which would have set you back $45 for two hours (with two free cocktails!). When asked about the hygiene implications of having everyone's asshole plonked on a tree stump, a representative from Lollipop told me that people would put their gowns "under their bum." Of course, not everyone is incapable of wiping themselves adeptly, but I feel enough people are for me to not want to risk it. You don't have to worry about Peter Pervert staring at your wife's tits, either, because a suave arrangement of bamboo will curtail any aims of Tom-peepery. It will be an au naturel kitchen too, devoid of metal and plastic, and have the feeling of a spa. I don't know about you guys, but I've never been to a spa and had to worry about getting pasta sauce all over my cock and balls. Maybe I need to go to different spas? Whatever the weather, we can all rest assured that one of our primary human functions, the consumption of sustenance, will be conceptualized and monetized to the point where you won't be able to get a chicken burger on the high street without having to dress up in a full suit of armor and re-enact the beheading of Anne Boleyn. Follow Joe Bish on Twitter.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mvxm3x/naked-restaurant-opening-in-london-cant-wait

Food by VICE

Vice

2016-11-28 14:45:00

2016

11.0

28

Josh Baines

Stream a Fantastic New Single by Balearic Big Dog Apiento

Paul Byrne is one of the big dogs of the British Balearic scene. Better known to most of us as Apiento, Byrne's spent the last few years heading up the ever-wonderful Test Pressing site alongside Dr Rob, as well as hosting a sumptuous NTS show and working alongside Mark Barrott on International Feel, which has been a longterm favorite label of ours here at THUMP UK. When he's not doing all that, he manages to record and release incredible music on the likes of World Unknown, Golf Channel, and Claremont56. Byrne's back with a pre-Christmas cracker for those of us who like our seasonal soundtrack to be more reminiscent of lazy days by Ibizan pools than half-thawed turkey crowns eaten in Nuneaton. "Dish"—which officially arrives on the 30th of December on Kenneth Bager's Music for Dreams imprint—sees Byrne hook up with regular collaborator LX for a track first used in a fashion show by Danish artist Trine Lindegaard. We're bringing you an exclusive listen to both the original and the hefty dub version right here. Oh, and we had a quick chat with Byrne too. Check it all out below. THUMP: Can you tell us a little about how you came to work with Trine Lindegaard?Apiento: I've known Trine for ages since she used to live in London. She said she was working on a new project a while back and needed some music for the show and asked could I help. It was that simple really. She's pretty free with the projects she creates (one day its a mad wall of cross-stitch another time it'll be making something out of African fabrics and weaving) and this one was super interesting as she was working with immigrant ladies with psychological and physical problems in Copenhagen. They have some issues with the far right over there in that there Denmark so a lot of her work is about bringing folk together. So basically, she created a fashion collection around the idea that food brought people together. So I got her to record a load of these people talking about their favorite dish and where they were from etc. From there I wrote the music around it, Alex mixed it... Job done. And what's your working relationship with LX like?Alex (aka LX) I have known for years. He is actually Alex Tepper from London not another mate of mine, Lexx from Zurich (who I think some people think he is). Alex Tepper is one of the best mix and sound engineers I know. I've got him on the new Mark Barrott stuff at the moment. I've known him for years since when I used to manage producers. I sort of brought his band through when I used to manage Joey Negro, John Ciafone from Mood II Swing and people like that... I realised very early on (just after "The Orange Place" which did alright) that what he brought to the table was as important as what I wrote so from there we now co-credit everything. We'll be writing in the studio soon which is always a good time. It's just finding that time to do it. Obviously sleeves are (I assume anyway) incredibly important to you...who're your favorite current designers working in music?Yeah I think sleeves are double important. I sort of bowled out of a project recently over creative differences. In the week I am part of a design studio called Village Green who make lovely branding and 3D work for the likes of Nike so am around design all day long. Sleeve-wise right now I am biased but I'm a fan of Ill Studio who creatively direct all the sleeves for the DEEWEE label I run for 2manydjs. Those sleeves are just ridiculous...It's quietly building into a special record label that one. Hopefully a lot of THUMP readers will also read Test Pressing too. What can we expect from that site over the next few months?Not sure at the minute. We've got a nice recording from the party at Brilliant Corners me and Lexx did the other week. It's the best venue in London for me—good people, food and music—and Lexx played super nice music. Other than that on Test Pressing I just leave Dr Rob to write what he wants when he wants from Japan. He's always up to something so there's always new content to read up there. Hopefully we'll pull together some of the projects that are running in the background. Finally, Paul, we're nearly at that time of the year...what's the best Balearic Christmas record?"Driving Home For Christmas". Got any Chris Rea? "Dish" by Apiento and LX drops on Music for Dreams on the 30th of December. Pre-order it here.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mgwng8/apiento-single-balearic

Noisey

Vice

2019-07-07 00:00:00

2019

7.0

7

Libya's Mitiga airport resumes air traffic following a missile strike

CAIRO (Reuters) - Air space re-opened at the Libyan capital’s only functioning airport, Mitiga, on Sunday after it was halted following a fall of missiles, according to a post on the Mitiga airport authority’s Facebook page. The airport authority added that the carrier companies will begin receiving passengers to complete the rest of their re-scheduled flights for the day shortly. Three Afriqiyah airlines employees were injured and a plane was hit. No immediate comment was available from the carrier. An airplane coming from Tunisia Carthage airport to Mitiga was redirected earlier Sunday to Misrata international airport that serves the Mediterranean coastal city of Misrata in Libya instead, after Mitiga’s air space shut down, according to the authority’s Facebook page. Reporting by Alaa Swilam; Editing by Chris Reese

https://www.reuters.com/article/libya-security-airport-air-space/libyas-mitiga-airport-resumes-air-traffic-following-a-missile-strike-idUSL8N2480WM

World News

Reuters

2018-05-15 00:00:00

2018

5.0

15

Josh Smith, David Brunnstrom

Safety, verification questions hang over North Korea's plan to close nuclear site

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Shutting down North Korea’s nuclear test site is trickier than it might seem. A botched tunnel collapse could spread radioactive debris. Nuclear material might be buried, but accessible enough to be dug up and reused in a weapon. And even if all the testing tunnels are destroyed, North Korean engineers could simply dig a new one if they want to conduct another nuclear test. Disarmament experts have raised many such scenarios after North Korea said over the weekend that it would use explosives to collapse the tunnels of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site next week. Pyongyang has publicly invited international media to witness the destruction, but not technical inspectors, leaving disarmament experts and nuclear scientists wondering how effective the plan is – and whether it will be safe. Recent reports indicate that some areas of the Punggye-ri test site have become unstable after the latest and largest nuclear test in September. More explosions would be unnecessarily risky, but there are steps North Korea could take to make the shutdown more credible and safe, said Suh Kune-yull, professor of nuclear energy systems engineering at Seoul National University. “Blowing up isn’t the most ideal way,” Suh said. “It might be less dramatic than an explosion, but filling the tunnel up with concrete, or sand or gravel would be best.” There is still a considerable amount of radiation being detected at one of the tunnel complexes where most of North Korea’s nuclear tests have taken place, including the latest test of what North Korea said was a fusion bomb, he said. But underground nuclear test tunnels and shafts are typically designed to be sealed by the nuclear bomb’s blast wave before radioactive material can escape. Some experts noted that North Korea over the course of its six nuclear tests probably learned how to prevent radiation leaks. “If it’s done well, there is no risk of radiation being released. But the question is, are these tunnels being sealed in a way that they couldn’t again be used?” said Jon Wolfsthal, the director of the Nuclear Crisis Group and a former senior arms control official at the U.S. National Security Council. “The only risk I see is that we will take the destruction of a couple of tunnels as a physical barrier to the resumption of testing in the future.” (GRAPHIC: North Korea's nuclear test site IMG - tmsnrt.rs/2wGynpf) North Korea’s shutting down its test site could be an effort to mirror other nuclear powers that have ended testing, but hung onto their weapons, analysts say. Suh said beyond closing tunnels and knocking down buildings, the entire Punggye-ri site will need to be secured to prevent the North Koreans or profiteers from digging up nuclear material that could be reused in weapons or sold on the black market. Previous efforts to close underground nuclear test sites have sometimes been messy, drawn-out affairs, he said. In 1999, the United States provided $800,000 to pay for a blast equivalent to 100 tons of dynamite to collapse a tunnel at a former Soviet test site in Kazakhstan. Known as “Plutonium Mountain,” the Soviet Union’s Semipalatinsk Test Site covered an area roughly the size of Belgium and was the scene of 456 nuclear tests during the Cold War, including at least 340 underground blasts. Cleaning up and securing that site took 17 years and $150 million, according to a report by Harvard’s Belfer Centre. France, which performed 13 underground nuclear tests in the Sahara Desert in the 1960s, says it “shut down and dismantled its nuclear test facilities,” and a 2005 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that most of the sites in Algeria show “little residual radioactive material.” But local people and Algeria’s government said the tests - including the 1962 “Beryl Incident” when radioactive rock and dust escaped from an underground nuclear blast - left a legacy of environmental devastation and health problems that last today. China, Pakistan, India are also known to have conducted underground nuclear tests. South Africa - which dismantled its entire nascent nuclear weapons program in 1989 - closed down its underground shafts without conducting a test. The United States, meanwhile, detonated at least 828 nuclear bombs underground at its Nevada Test Site. The site remains open, although no U.S. nuclear tests have been carried out since 1992. Nuclear experts say the shutdown plan is at least an encouraging political gesture ahead of talks with the United States in June. But they caution it is not necessarily the first step of the “complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement” of the nuclear program the United States has sought. The U.S. State Department did not give a specific response when asked whether the United States had asked to send observers to the dismantling of the site or for international monitors to be present. A spokesman said: “A permanent and irreversible closure that can be inspected and fully accounted for is a key step in the denuclearization of (North Korea). We look forward to learning additional details.” China - which borders North Korea only about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Punggye-ri - has not publicly said whether it would help dismantle the site or monitor the process. “To my understanding, the North Korean side has not raised this kind of request to the Chinese side,” a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday. On Tuesday, the state-backed Global Times ran an editorial saying that abandoning the testing site “would bring huge benefits to the region.” Many doubt North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will ever fully relinquish his expensive and treasured nuclear weapons, but even if he curtails his program, analysts warn it will be a long process. “I am concerned that Kim Jong Un may take unilateral actions that are hard to dispute - like closing the test site - and implement them without any observation,” said Sharon Squassoni, a research professor at the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy in Washington. “This would set up a complicated situation wherein North Korea was taking actions that we would normally applaud, but without any verification.” Additional reporting by Christine Kim in SEOUL, Matt Spetalnick in WASHINGTON, and Christian Shepherd in BEIJING; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Gerry Doyle

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-nuclearsite/safety-verification-questions-hang-over-north-koreas-plan-to-close-nuclear-site-idUSKCN1IG0T5

World News

Reuters

2018-08-29 12:01:57

2018

8.0

29

Dylan Scott

Florida primary: Andrew Gillum wins Dem governor nod

Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum prevailed in the hotly contested Democratic primary election for Florida governor, giving the left another marquee win in the 2018 midterms. Gillum is the first black Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Florida history. He won out over Gwen Graham, a former member of Congress, the daughter of a former governor and senator, and the presumed Democratic frontrunner; former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine; and businessman Jeff Greene. He will face Republican Ron DeSantis in November’s general election, a race that election forecasters have rated a toss-up. The state capital’s mayor since 2014, Gillum is young at 39, black (he would also be Florida’s first black governor), and pretty far to the left ideologically. He received the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Our Revolution, and Democracy for America in the primary. He has proposed hiking the state’s corporate tax rate to fund education, raising its minimum wage to $15, and he endorsed a Medicare-for-all single-payer health care system at the national level. Gillum also supports expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, which Florida has thus far refused to do, leaving hundreds of thousands of its poorest residents without coverage. He has also joined with other progressive leaders who want to abolish the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency after the family separations crisis. There is also, however, an ongoing FBI investigation into corruption in the Tallahassee city government — though Gillum has not been implicated in any way, according to the Tampa Bay Times. DeSantis, currently a member of the US House, has done everything he can to embrace Donald Trump, complete with a campaign ad in which he builds a wall with his daughter and puts his young son in a Make America Great Again onesie. Gillum had led in no independent polls before Tuesday’s primary, so his win is a genuine surprise. But political operatives in the state had picked up a sense of momentum for his campaign, and the last St. Pete Polls survey before the election found him trailing Graham by just 7 points. State politicos thought Gillum benefited from being the odd man out in what was at times a fierce battle between Graham and Greene in particular. Graham, who served one term in the US House and had the endorsement of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), had led in almost every public poll. “Gillum is definitely rising,” Steve Schale, a Democratic operative in the state, told me before the primary. “When you have four people in the race, typically the one who is rising at the end is the one not being attacked.” Progressives have made inroads in Democratic primaries, but they’ve also lost plenty of races like the Florida governor’s race where there was an establishment alternative. Gillum stands out as the of the left’s biggest wins in 2018. Now he’s on to the general election.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/28/17793198/florida-primary-results-andrew-gillum-governor

Vox

2017-03-29 20:50:00

2017

3.0

29

Sarah Hagi

Americans Still Don't Think Fathers Deserve Paternity Leave

When it comes to parental leave, America lags behind most countries. In fact, recent data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development looking at 41 countries found the United States in last place, with a total of zero weeks of federally required paid parental leave. Now, a new study from Pew Research suggests that while Americans generally support parental leave, we're still a nation divided on who we deem deserving—and gender plays a big role in where we fall on the issue. The new report found that about 15 percent of those surveyed believe men shouldn't take paternity leave (whether paid or unpaid), while three percent believe women should not receive any paid maternal leave. Unsurprisingly, these results have less to do with actual facts and more to do with antiquated views on how gender affects caregiving. Fifty-three percent of people surveyed believe that (even discounting the topic of breastfeeding), women do a better job caring for children than men. And while this could be seen as a matter of opinion, researchers concluded, "Attitudes about gender roles and caregiving are linked, at least in part, to views about the impact of paid leave on men." They also concluded that more than half of all adults (53 percent) believe American society values the contribution men make at work more than contributions they make at home. These ideas about gender and caregiving also affect support for paid paternity leave. Of those who said that women are naturally better caregivers than men, 61 percent supported paternity leave—a dip from the 78 percent of participants who said men and women are equally-qualified caregivers and support paid paternity leave. Overall, the report concludes that "majorities of adults express support for paid leave for mothers and fathers after the birth or adoption of their child," and nearly all participants agreed that if all Americans had access to paid paternal leave, the impact would be positive for individuals, families, and the economy. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development recommends an average paid maternity leave time of just under 20 weeks—but with zero guaranteed weeks of paid paternal leave, America still had a long way to go. And while Trump has been keen to give a nod to the idea of expanding maternity leave, his proposed policy will likely only benefit the rich, leaving many parents in the dark.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7xzbg9/americans-still-dont-think-fathers-deserve-paternity-leave

Identity

Vice

2019-02-06 02:30:30

2019

2.0

6

Alex Ward

Venezuela: why Trump backs Guaido and protestors want Maduro out

A long-time dictator and international pariah maintains he won a widely disputed election to stay in power. A fresh-faced, low-profile opposition leader calls him a “usurper” and has incited large-scale protests to hasten his ouster. And the United States — knowing the growing tensions could lead to greater violence — stokes the roaring fire from afar. That’s the situation in Venezuela, where thousands of demonstrators plan to fill the streets on Wednesday in an effort to depose President Nicolás Maduro, the socialist leader who has overseen one of the most devastating economic collapses in the world. The rally is mostly in support of Juan Guaidó, the leader of the country’s opposition-controlled legislative body, who has asked anti-government Venezuelans to demonstrate against Maduro. Guaidó, along with the Trump administration and a number of other international observers, asserts that Maduro isn’t the rightful president of the South American nation. They argue that last May’s presidential election was rigged so that the dictator could win a second six-year term. Citing Venezuela’s constitution, Guaidó and others say the sham vote means that he, as the head of the National Assembly (the country’s legislative body), is the rightful — albeit temporary — leader of the country since there’s no legitimate president. Guaidó wants the military to back him and has called for the people to protest — on the 61st anniversary of when a military dictatorship fell in Venezuela, no less — to compel Maduro’s resignation. Guaidó says he will start to assume the presidential role and that in the future will call for new elections. He doesn’t plan to hold on to the presidency indefinitely, he says. There are good reasons why Guaidó and the anti-Maduro movement have found an audience. Millions have fled the country due to a crippling economic downturn. Inflation is through the roof. Hunger rates have skyrocketed. And diseases once thought eradicated from Venezuela have sparked a new health crisis. Unsurprisingly, all of this and more have made Maduro an unpopular leader. The Trump administration, which often prefers to side with dictators around the world, has taken an unusually strong interest in the power struggle in Venezuela. Senior administration officials including National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have publicly stated that they want to see a new government in Venezuela and that the National Assembly is the country’s only democratically elected body. On January 22, Vice President Mike Pence posted a video on Twitter in which he directly addresses the Venezuelan people. Speaking in English with Spanish subtitles, Pence declared that America offers its “unwavering support ... as you, the people of Venezuela, raise your voices in a call for freedom.” Pence labels Maduro “a dictator with no legitimate claim to power,” calls the National Assembly “the last vestige of democracy” in the country, and says the US supports Guaidó’s “courageous decision” to call for Maduro to be removed from power and replaced by a transitional government. As the good people of Venezuela make your voices heard tomorrow, on behalf of the American people, we say: estamos con ustedes. We are with you. We stand with you, and we will stay with you until Democracy is restored and you reclaim your birthright of Libertad. pic.twitter.com/ThzIAqBoRn That’s a powerful statement coming from the vice president of the United States. But Trump went one step further: on Wednesday afternoon, Trump himself put out a statement saying he recognizes Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president. “In its role as the only legitimate branch of government duly elected by the Venezuelan people, the National Assembly invoked the country’s constitution to declare Nicolas Maduro illegitimate, and the office of the presidency therefore vacant,” Trump said in a statement sent by the White House. January 23’s demonstration, which has already led to at least four deaths, will represent the strongest pushback yet against Maduro’s unquenchable thirst for power by the citizens and officials he’s subjugated for years. But experts caution that the odds of Maduro maintaining his grip on the country remain in the dictator’s favor, mainly because he still has a strong hold over the country’s major institutions. “It’s most likely that Maduro will remain in power and that Venezuela will continue to worsen — remaining in its miserable, critical condition,” Ronal Rodriguez, an expert at the University of Rosario’s Venezuelan Observatory in Colombia, told me. Protests have broken out throughout the country in recent years, and have picked up against in recent days. And just this week, nearly 30 Venezuelan soldiers supportive of Guaidó’s movement had their mutiny quickly thwarted. Those efforts have added to mounting unrest that in some instances set parts of the capital city of Caracas aflame. But it’s worth pausing briefly to take a look at how the country reached this boiling point. The roots of Wednesday’s demonstrations date back to when Hugo Chávez, the populist firebrand, took over as as president of Venezuela in 1999. He steadily pushed the country away from democracy and spearheaded the country’s experiment with socialism. Chávez is a legendary figure in Venezuela who transformed the country’s political and economic landscape by nationalizing industries and funneling enormous amounts of government money into social programs. Under his rule, Venezuela’s unemployment rate halved, income per capita more than doubled, the poverty rate fell by more than half, education improved, and infant mortality rates declined. And while he sparked ferocious opposition among the country’s elites and conservatives, (and from the United States), the country’s poor and working class loved him. A massive oil boom in the early 2000s that brought roughly a trillion dollars into the country’s coffers — making Venezuela Latin America’s richest country — helped Chávez remain in power until his death in 2013. It also gave him the space to flex his authoritarian muscles. He stacked the country’s courts with political allies, passed laws restricting the ability of journalists to criticize the government, and consistently sought ways to remove checks on his power. However, even Chávez had his limits, and experts say he thought of the electoral system as a key way to make himself more effective as a leader. Maduro, who was Chávez’s vice president and handpicked successor, reveres his former boss and has tried to emulate him ever since Chávez’s demise. The problem is that his attempt to recreate the Chávez era has failed spectacularly and led to a horrific economic, social, and political crisis of his own making. When oil prices crashed in late 2014, Venezuela’s economy crashed with them. Neither Chávez nor Maduro had done anything to diversify the country’s ability to make money, instead relying almost exclusively on oil revenue to fund the state. So when oil prices suddenly took a nosedive, it helped trigger a crisis that saw the nation transform from a regional powerhouse into a failing — if not failed — state in a staggeringly short amount of time. And Maduro has also mismanaged the country’s fiscal policy. As Venezuela expert Francisco Toro wrote for Vox in 2016: Venezuela has been running enormous, unmanageable GDP deficits of more than 10 percent for years, even back when oil prices were high. Needless to say, it didn’t bother to save when the takings were good, and so it now finds itself facing a kind of fiscal Armageddon. The government is so broke it can no longer afford to fly in the planefuls of fast-depreciating bolivar bills (the Venezuelan currency) it gets printed abroad; in effect, the country doesn’t have the money to pay for its money. Inflation now hovers above a million percent, and could reach 10 million percent this year. Food and medicine is too expensive for many to purchase. And since 2015, over 3 million Venezuelans have left the country in search of better opportunities elsewhere, primarily in Colombia. (It’s expected that another 2 million will become refugees in 2019 alone.) As a result, Maduro has become deeply unpopular: His approval ratings have rarely topped 20 percent in recent years. And in December 2015, for the first time in two decades, Venezuelan voters gave opposition parties a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. The hope was that those lawmakers would check Maduro’s power and perhaps work with him to put the country back on a better economic path. That’s not what happened, though. Instead, Maduro fought back — and kicked off a series of events that led to his current predicament. The dictator and his allies made three stunning moves that demonstrate how much control he aimed to wrest for himself. Venezuelans didn’t just sit back and let this happen without voicing their displeasure, though. They protested furiously in Caracas and throughout the country for years, clashing with Maduro’s security forces in skirmishes that led to hundreds of deaths. Maduro, however, remained in power. He also called an election for early 2018 — a move that might seem positive at first glance, but in reality was a crafty power move intended to cement his authority even further. As Toro explained in the Washington Post at the time, Maduro called for the early election while representatives for his government and the opposition were involved in negotiations — backed by international observers — aimed at hammering out new rules for holding freer and fairer elections. “By announcing an election without an agreement, the regime signaled that this [wasn’t] going to happen,” Toro wrote at the time. And, sure enough, Maduro banned two of the most popular opposition leaders, Leopoldo Lopez and Henrique Capriles, from running in the election — all but solidifying his victory. He won with 68 percent of the vote. International organizations and many democratic countries in North and South America and Europe called the vote a sham, as did many Venezuelans. “Jesus Christ could be the candidate and Maduro would still prevail because the system is set up for him to win,” Carlos González, an anti-government activist, told the Guardian right after the vote. That anger remained when Maduro was sworn into office two weeks ago. But it erupted in full force on January 15 when the National Assembly, headed by the 35-year-old Guaidó, called Maduro a “usurper” — stating that he was not the legitimate leader of Venezuela. Guaidó’s ascent is quite surprising, according to Ronal Rodriguez, the Venezuela expert in Colombia. Guaidó is not the most popular figure among the opposition — Rodriguez even said he’s seen as “third-rate” and “uncharismatic.” But pictures of him speaking to large crowds have made the industrial engineer seem like his country’s Barack Obama, Rodriguez explained, although he clearly lacks the former American president’s political skill. But what’s made him so central to the current drama is that he claims he’s the rightful president of his country. Guaidó cites Article 233 of Venezuela’s constitution, which basically says that if the president fails at his or her duties — or if there is an absence in leadership — the National Assembly’s chief will take temporary charge of the nation. Guaidó says he doesn’t have plans to hold onto the office permanently, but rather that he would use his authority to hold a new — and fair — elections while distributing humanitarian aid. Maduro and his supporters, of course, scoff at Guaidó’s claims — both because Maduro won last year’s election, and because the lawmaker’s interpretation of the constitution is somewhat disputed. Guaidó and other opposition politicians have cleverly turned this argument back around on Maduro’s government, using it to rally people to the anti-government cause by arguing the people’s will is what matters most in a democracy. At a January 11 speech in Caracas, Guaidó proclaimed: “Is it enough to lean on the constitution in a dictatorship? No. It needs to be the people, the military and the international community that lead us to take over.” Asumo el deber impuesto por la CRBV y el art. 333 que obliga a todos los venezolanos, investidos o no de autoridad, a luchar para la restitución del orden constitucional #ANRutaPorLaLibertad#CabildoAbierto pic.twitter.com/jBqN7S1hmk But although Guaidó has been able to rally support from everyday Venezuelas, US officials and experts tell me he’s unlikely to get the critical military support he needs to actually force Maduro from power. The vast majority of Venezuela’s armed forces remain fiercely loyal to Maduro, officials and experts say. And on Monday, the military quickly put down an uprising from 27 anti-Maduro national guardsmen who seemingly aimed to foment the president’s ouster. While the small effort failed, it instigated protests near Maduro’s palace where, in one instance, security forces used tear gas on people who set trash on fire for a makeshift barricade. In addition, many of Maduro’s loyalists are still in charge of the country’s most important institutions. As long as the leader still enjoys those safety blankets, he probably won’t cede or lose power. The demonstrations may still have some effect on the country’s future, experts say. “The current protest could represent a new high water mark in terms of challenging both international and domestic perceptions of the government’s legitimacy,” Daniel Erikson, a Latin America adviser in the White House from 2015 to 2017, told me. One country the protesters don’t have to convince of Maduro’s legitimacy deficit, though, is the United States. In August 2017, Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, that he was considering a “military option” for Venezuela to overthrow Maduro. His comments, which came seemingly out of the blue, shocked pretty much everyone — not least Maduro’s government. The Trump administration also held secret meetings with rebel Venezuelan officers throughout 2018 in which they discussed plans for a potential coup, according to the New York Times. As of now, though, there is no indication that the US is actively considering militarily intervening in the country — partly because Venezuelan opposition figures and other Latin American leaders have said they’re opposed to such a move. But even a vague threat of that happening, especially when paired with other actions the Trump administration has taken, puts serious pressure on Maduro’s government. Since May 2017, the Trump administration has placed ever-increasing sanctions on the Maduro regime, citing issues like corruption and undemocratic practices. The financial penalties mainly target government officials in Maduro’s inner circle, and even the dictator’s wife. Experts say that while those measures do hurt the government, they also hurt the people of Venezuela, who are already suffering from the crippling economic and health crisis. National Security Adviser John Bolton has said that the squeeze will continue until Maduro changes his ways. In a November 2018 speech that named Venezuela as part of a “troika of tyranny” along with Cuba and Nicaragua, Bolton said Maduro had to release the country’s roughly 340 political prisoners, allow for humanitarian aid to reach those in need, hold free elections, and champion the rule of law and democratic institutions before he could expect any relief. The US even considered labeling Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism. The country does have ties to the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah and the National Liberation Army (ELN), a Marxist guerrilla group in Colombia, but it’s not known to export terrorism purposefully around the world in the same way that, for example, Iran does. Yet despite mounting pressure, Maduro has shown no signs of giving in to America’s demands. In fact, he says the US is orchestrating a coup against him, which has led him to “revisit” his country’s diplomatic ties with the US. That doesn’t bother the Trump administration, which still actively speaks out against the regime while supporting Guaidó. In a Tuesday Wall Street Journal op-ed released just ahead of the protests, Pence called the National Assembly leader “courageous” for speaking out. The vice president also said the situation in Venezuela is a matter of US national security because the crisis exacerbates human trafficking, international crime, and the export of drugs, weapons, and terrorism. “For the sake of our vital interests, and for the sake of the Venezuelan people, the US will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles,” Pence wrote. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has been among the most vocal advocating for the US to recognize Guaidó, which Trump did on Wednesday. “As the people of Venezuela stand in support of their country’s Provisional President Juan Guaidó and their right to self-determination, I applaud their courage in rising-up against Nicolás Maduro’s narco-terrorist tyranny,” Rubio told me. “The world supports [their] fight for freedom and democracy.” On the one hand, the US so forcefully speaking out against an odious regime is a good thing. America traditionally stands and fights for democracy around the world, at least in theory, and Maduro is clearly no democratic champion. On the other hand, such an avid push could be dangerous. Protesters may now understandably believe that the US government — and perhaps even the US military — has their backs. That could lead demonstrators to take risks they otherwise might not, hoping America will somehow come to their aid. Unless the Trump administration somehow plans to directly intervene in Venezuela, though, that’s unlikely. Which means that while Maduro may personally lose prestige after Wednesday’s demonstrations, he’ll still have the power to imperil his country even further. “Venezuela’s long and painful political stress test still has no clear end in sight,” Erikson, the former White House adviser on Latin America, told me.

https://www.vox.com/world/2019/1/23/18193533/venezuela-maduro-protest-guaido-pence-trump-23-enero

Vox

2019-06-19 00:00:00

2019

6.0

19

U.S. mortgage applications fall from 33-month high

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. mortgage applications declined last week from about a 33-month peak as most home borrowing costs moved up from their lowest levels since September 2017, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday. The Washington-based group’s seasonally adjusted index on loan requests, both to buy a home and to refinance one, fell to 511.8 in the week ended June 14. It fell 3.4% from the prior week’s 529.8, which was the highest reading since September 2016. Interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate “conforming” mortgages, or loans whose balances are $484,350 or less, averaged 4.14% last week. They were up 2 basis points from prior week’s 4.12%, the lowest level since September 2017. Other 30-year mortgage rates MBA tracks were unchanged to 3 basis points higher from the week before. Meanwhile, 15-year mortgage rates averaged 3 basis points lower at 3.50%, while the average borrowing costs on five-year adjustable home loans rose 2 basis points to 3.45%. Mortgage rates generally increased in line with higher bond yields last week as traders pared their safe-haven bond holdings after U.S. President Donald Trump called off threatened tariffs on Mexico and encouraging data on retail sales and industrial output. MBA’s seasonally adjusted gauge on refinancing applications fell 3.5% to 1,888.8 from prior week’s 1,956.5, which was the highest since November 2016. The refinance share of mortgage activity grew to 50.2% of total applications from 49.8% the week before. “Borrowers were sensitive to rising rates, but the refinance share of applications was still at its highest level since January 2018, and refinance activity was at its second highest level this year,” Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting, said in a statement. The group’s barometer on loan applications for home purchases, which is seen as proxy on future housing activity, slipped 3.5% to 268.6. The latest figure was up almost 4% from a year ago. “Strong demand from first-time buyers and low unemployment continue to push this year’s purchase activity above a year ago,” Kan said. (Graphic: U.S. mortgage applications interactive - tmsnrt.rs/2RnEpRD) Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mortgages/us-mortgage-applications-fall-from-33-month-high-idUSKCN1TK1NK

Business News

Reuters

2018-09-25 00:00:00

2018

9.0

25

Senior China diplomat says confrontation with U.S. lose-lose

BEIJING (Reuters) - Confrontation between China and the United States means both sides lose, and talks with Washington cannot take place under threats and pressure, the Chinese government’s top diplomat State Councillor Wang Yi told U.S. business leaders. Meeting representatives of the U.S.-China Business Council and National Committee on United States-China Relations in New York, Wang said certain U.S. forces have been making groundless accusations against China on trade and security, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. These accusations against China have poisoned the atmosphere of Sino-U.S. ties, Wang added. Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-minister/senior-china-diplomat-says-confrontation-with-u-s-lose-lose-idUSKCN1M50DR

Business News

Reuters

2019-01-25 23:05:00

2019

1.0

25

Allie Conti

Check Out This Dude's 'Emotional Support Gator'

Joie Henney didn't want to take medication for his depression, so he did what he considered the next best thing—register his five-foot pet alligator, Wally, as an emotional support animal. After noticing that his mood lifted whenever the 60-pound animal was around, he got a doctor's permission to bring him outside on a leash, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The 65-year-old, who lives about 100 miles west of Philadelphia, adopted Wally from Orlando, and came to increasingly rely on him for companionship after losing three close friends in quick succession. Wally spends his time in Henney's living room watching shows like Gator Boys on TV, eating chicken wings, and enjoying the occasional head-rub. When he's not wading in a 300-pound plastic pond, he's cuddling with his owner. Henney, who also owns a smaller gator named Scrappy, told the Inquirer that he's even let Wally sleep with him in his bed. "We caress and wrestle. He loves to wrestle,” he said. "He whacks me with his tail." Henney is an animal lover who grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania, has nursed injured owls and ridden in rodeos. Raising a gator that might grow to be well over 1,000 pounds presumably presents a unique set of challenges, but he swears Wally is just a big sweetheart. He apparently "likes to give hugs," and befriends goldfish and bullfrogs rather than eat them. He's also afraid of cats. Though Wally does meet-and-greets and is reportedly good with most of Henney's 18 grandkids, along with his initially skeptical girlfriend, not everyone is fully convinced that having an emotional support alligator is a great idea. The Inquirer reporter, who did say that the gator genuinely seemed to cuddle with Henney, wrote that he got a little riled whenever he put on his leash. And— even in a world where people are registering emotional support peacocks—the Service Dog Registration of America seemed to think that domesticating what's basically a dinosaur is taking things a step too far. "Our therapist would never approve a client to have an alligator as an emotional support animal," a rep for the organization told the paper. Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily. Follow Allie Conti on Twitter.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvypq5/emotional-support-gator-wally-pennsylvania-vgtrn

The Nice Guide to Right Now

Vice

2017-04-24 14:31:00

2017

4.0

24

David Anthony

Black Flag’s 'Damaged' Is an Iconic Record, so Why Isn’t It More Influential?

But the lineup that produced Nervous Breakdown didn't last. Vocalist Keith Morris and drummer Brian Migdol left the band, with bassist Chuck Dukowski and guitarist/bandleader Greg Ginn soldiering on, finding new members to record with. But those new members would wash out just as quickly, establishing a pattern that would be repeated over and over again throughout Black Flag's history—even in the present day, with Ginn often asking strangers he meets at the grocery store to play bass. By the time the band found itself on somewhat stable ground in the early 80s Black Flag's reputation had grown, for better and worse. Their shows in the southern California area often became full-on riots, making it hard for Black Flag to actually play music in a live setting. And though the group's first release established hardcore's ethos, it was the band's tireless commitment to touring that would establish the DIY touring network that so many young bands take for granted. Despite laying the groundwork for hardcore, and seemingly inventing an approach to touring that bands use to this day, Black Flag still had yet to put out a proper full-length album, even if the material was there. Long before their debut album, Damaged, was released, the band would be playing these songs across the country, giving new kids an idea of what was to come, but also the ability to build upon it. Before we go any further, it's important to state that Damaged really is damn good. Even now, nearly 40 years on, the record remains a thrillride. From the anthemic "Rise Above," to the riotous, us-against-them anger of "Police Story," to the darkly introspective "Depression," all the way down to the untethered lunacy of the album's closer "Damaged I," each one of these moments captures something few records of that time did. And it still resonates. It's an introduction to late 70s, early 80s hardcore that's still exactly that for many people interested in the genre. But somehow, it feels as if it exists in a vacuum. By the time of Damaged's release in December of 1981, the sound Black Flag created was not only gaining traction throughout North America, it was mutating in every regional outpost that took to it. Soon after singer Henry Rollins joined Black Flag and moved to California, the bands Rollins came up alongside began getting attention. Minor Threat's unbridled anger and anti-drug ethos would inform the straight edge and youth crew movements that would come into vogue over the next decade. Bad Brains' groovy, warp-speed attacks would introduce a new set of virtuosity and flow to a genre often seen as being full of slipshod compositions. In both San Pedro, California, and Austin, Texas, the Minutemen and Big Boys would begin incorporating a funk-laced swing to hardcore's primal stomp. In San Francisco, the Dead Kennedys would offer a sardonic bit of storytelling and sci-fi to lyrics that were often simplistic sloganeering. Canada's NoMeansNo would take the Dead Kennedy's lyrical approach and incorporate it into their jazz-leaning compositions. Descendents were bringing oodles of pop hooks to the table and singing about fast food and coffee. And in the Midwest, Hüsker Dü was cranking the reverb until their songs sounded like rattling speakers instead of discernible guitar riffs. Hardcore had changed, but Black Flag was still Black Flag. All that touring and interpersonal instability meant that Black Flag had been touring on the songs found on Damaged for years, and instead of the songs feeling a part of the scenes that were revolutionizing the form, Black Flag felt, well, out of step with the world of hardcore. To kids craving a faster, louder, and harder version of the songs on Nervous Breakdown, Damaged sounded like the band getting lapped instead of setting the pace. By then, other bands began touring, and Black Flag went from being the only game in town to the band with a target on its back—after all, punks of that time didn't have a ton of interest in paying tribute to what came before it. Much like Black Flag's reputation as a raucous live band hindered its ability to actually play shows in southern California, a failed distribution deal with Unicorn Records—a subsidiary of the major label MCA—would bungle Damaged's release, too. The record didn't hit shelves across the country in the way the band hoped, though it still gained plenty of attention on its own, but the fiasco forced the band to distribute it through Ginn's own SST Records—taking on a lawsuit from Unicorn in the process. This legal battle would make it nearly impossible for Black Flag to release new music, instead forcing the band to release the odds-and-ends collection Everything Went Black and The First Four Years compilation as holdovers. At a time when hardcore was reaching a fever pitch, Black Flag's growth was stunted, forced to rely on its old material at a time when fans were demanding something new and forward-thinking. By the time Black Flag would re-emerge in 1984 with a trio of full-lengths, the band's sound had shifted dramatically—and so too had the hardcore scene. Bands had hit a wall creatively, many of which had broken-up, and it allowed Black Flag to swoop back in with My War and reclaim the throne it had left vacant. The newly minted lineup of Rollins, Ginn, and Descendents drummer Bill Stevenson offered new direction in a way Damaged never could. My War was a mid-paced stomp, full of Ginn's stair-stepping, polyrhythmic riffs and Rollins' more refined vocal stylings. But it was the record's B-side, a three-song suite of lengthy, glacier-slow dirges that would—just like Nervous Breakdown before it—launch a thousand ships. Few records have Facebook pages dedicated to their B-sides, let alone can be seen as the nexus point for genres as disparate as sludge metal and grunge—that is, if Kurt Cobain's opinion is counted. My War is the record that would allow bands like the Melvins to find a blueprint from which they could continually build upon, and it offered a different approach to the emerging crossover between hardcore and metal. If the songs that made up The First Four Years collection offered hardcore a set of standards—exactly three million covers of "Nervous Breakdown" have been performed to date [citation needed]—My War paved a path forward, even, if it lead to the band's destruction in 1986. But what about Damaged, the iconic first record from hardcore's biggest name? Despite being a record that's basically flawless, it's hard to see what lasting influence it's had on the genre it is tied to. In a way, it became the gateway to hardcore for kids with a budding interest in hardcore, and it's often times the single hardcore record that non-hardcore fans have heard. The cover of Damaged—which, in a staged photo, sees Rollins breaking a mirror with his balled fist—is as iconic as Metallica's Master Of Puppets. Even if you don't know what Damaged sounds like, the cover tells you exactly what it sounds like. It's what has made it the perfect shorthand for teenage rebellion, exemplified by James Franco nodding along to it in an episode of Freaks And Geeks making perfect sense to fans of an NBC comedy. Through the 90s and early 2000s, hardcore continued to evolve, with new sub-genres popping up and bands became less tethered to its history. Much like trends in rap today, hardcore moved incredibly fast back then, experimenting with new sounds and approaches, and having less interest in idol worship. Where the music found on The First Four Years offered bands a way to something new, Damaged felt tied to hardcore's gestational period instead of its invigorating present. While none of this diminishes Damaged's place in history, it can't help but feel like an album whose imprint on the actual sound of hardcore got lost along the way. The two-year gap between Nervous Breakdown and Damaged isn't a long time, but it was enough to keep Black Flag from setting a true benchmark with its first album. Sure, every kid in a hardcore band says they like Black Flag, but how many of them are talking about the Black Flag found on Damaged? David Anthony's got nothing to do but shoot his mouth off on Twitter.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gv7d74/black-flags-damaged-is-an-iconic-record-so-why-isnt-it-more-influential

Noisey

Vice

2016-09-23 14:56:00

2016

9.0

23

Kyle Kramer

A Year of Lil Wayne: "Renegades” feat. Kidd Kidd

Day 4: "Renegades" feat. Kidd Kidd – SQ4, 2002 Kyle: One of the great things about deciding to blog about Lil Wayne for a year​ is that, if you are a person with cool friends such as myself (I definitely have friends, and many of them, I promise), other people think the idea sounds fun and want to join in, potentially relieving you of the burden of actually having good insights every day. Not that I wouldn't. But I'm taking no chances. Plus, having guests keeps the format fresh! My first guest is my new colleague Lawrence, who just started working at Noisey this week. Welcome Lawrence! He knows a lot about Lil Wayne and has good opinions. We're going to try something out: On Fridays, Lawrence will join in and we'll have a chat about a Lil Wayne song. This week, Lawrence sent me a bunch of Wayne songs, including this one from the famous Sqad Up mixtape run​, a period of Wayne with which I have to admit I am not very familiar. It is Jay Z and Eminem's "Renegade" beat, and it features 2015 XXL Freshman Kidd Kidd! It was released in 2002. You do the math on that one. Anyway, Lawrence, this is the first song you wanted us to discuss, so tell me a bit about what it is and why you like it. Lawrence: The era of Sqad Up Wayne is kind of my coming-of-age period in my Weezy fandom. My first interactions with Wayne came really early—I was probably in third or fourth grade. The game had to be passed down to me. My older sister had every desirable album stacked up in her room: Hot Boyz, Three 6 Mafia, Jay-Z, Lil Kim, etc. When she was out, I would slip in there and steal her albums to listen. I listened to Tha Block Is Hot probably every day. I wanted to be a Hot Boy. My cousin and I specifically asked our parents for Reebok Classics and we would walk to school swagged out in a nightgown-length white tee, jeans, and our Freaky Ree's. My stepbrothers showed me Baller Blockin' when I was about ten—way too young to be watching it. By the time Hot Boys were done, and Wayne started to develop an identity as a solo act, I was fresh into middle school and feeling myself. I was at an age where I didn't need the game given to me. All the older dudes on my block were raving over how much better Wayne had gotten and they started playing Sqad Up tapes on our porches. I got absorbed by it and started playing those tracks all day long. It was the first time I felt like I was choosing the music I was taking in. It made me feel grown. I didn't need to scavenge my sister's collection or wait for my stepbrothers to come through with the bootleg DVD. I started trading mixtapes with my friends around the way and I'd go home, upload them to Windows Media Player and burn them for myself. The tape I played and burned the most out of that Wayne era was SQ4, by far. I had no idea Lil Wayne could rap like that. Nobody did. It was the start of his true rise to being respected as a proper MC. Looking back, "Renegades" always sticks out the most to me, and I revisit it all the time. I makes me miss the fun in rappers regularly jacking for beats. The whole SQ series is nothing more than a seven-part flex on the industry, and Wayne took on a song here that, at that time, probably felt untouchable for most. This is one of the few instances (possibly only) where the public decided that Jay was lyrically upstaged on a track of his own, so for a 19-year-old to grab hold of this and spit shit like, "I'm younger than Kobe, vet like Rob Horry / I made it hot, bubbly, your buddy is getting chubbier than N.O.R.E." and "If this was the block, I'd be moving a eighth or more / But I soar through the block in that grape Azzure / I see hate galore but I straight ignore because my cake is more / Peep how your date adore" I'm smiling to myself as I'm listening and typing right now because this is gassing me. I have to acknowledge the horrid "rape your whore" line in there and be thankful that most of us—both rappers and fans—are better educated on such irresponsible takes. Overall, this is one of the most relentless displays of Wayne's early career, and it should be acknowledged when recognizing his greatness. Kyle: "Wayne came to paint your kitchen," and, truly, he did. If we're talking greatness, let's talk about how he raps a single verse for three minutes straight. Or how he just becomes the song here, using his voice percussively as he bounces through the various twists and turns of his verse, until the beat kind of just fades away as background noise. A great Wayne tactic is how he just continually hammers rhymes home for far longer than is possibly logical, like he does here with the "oy" sound at the beginning of the verse (including twisting the word "boy" about four directions). Another is the way he'll just chew on words and roll them around in his mouth, like he does with the word "road" here. Wayne doesn't just rap words, he creates new forms of expression. I'm probably going to say that again at some point, but it doesn't make it any less true. This song? It's good. ​Follow Lawrence Burney on Twitter​. Follow Kyle Kramer on Twitter​.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nnen38/a-year-of-lil-wayne-renegades-feat-kidd-kidd

Noisey

Vice

2017-01-23 00:00:00

2017

1.0

23

Yordano Ventura Crash ... Investigators Believe He Was Speeding

Transportation authorities in the Dominican Republic tell TMZ Sports they believe Yordano Ventura was speeding at the time of his fatal crash. The K.C. Royals pitcher was traveling on a mountainous highway around 4 AM on Sunday when he lost control and flipped his customized Jeep ... killing him in the process. We're told the speed limit in the area is 25 kph ... which is only about 15 mph ... and a local official tells us they believe there's evidence showing he was over the limit. Officials have previously said Ventura was driving through a foggy area and over-corrected when his tires went off the road. He was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash and was thrown from the vehicle. We're told there was no obvious signs of drugs or alcohol at the scene -- but toxicology tests are being done anyway. Results can take about 3 weeks.

https://www.tmz.com/2017/01/23/yordana-ventura-crash-speeding/

TMZ

2018-05-20 00:00:00

2018

5.0

20

Streetball Legend Larry 'Bone Collector' Williams Going for NBA Deal at 37 Years Old

Can Bone Collector really ball at the NBA level at 37 years old? He thinks he can ... and tells TMZ Sports he's seriously making a push to get a shot with a pro team. Bone Collector -- real name Larry Williams -- famously killed EVERYONE on the AND1 mixtapes back in the day -- but says he still balls out all the time with a stable of NBA stars, including Steph Curry. "I think I'll be a good 6th-man addition to a team," B.C. says ... noting that he looks up to guys like 41-year-old Vince Carter for inspiration. Watch the video ... dude's still as confident as ever -- telling TMZ Sports he's still breaking ankles in the gym and bragging, "Nobody can guard me." SOMEBODY MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!

https://www.tmz.com/2018/05/20/bone-collector-gunning-nba-deal-larry-williams/

TMZ

2016-10-17 00:14:00

2016

10.0

17

Ty Schalter

The Pittsburgh Steelers Machine Has a Cog Missing

What on earth is happening with the Steelers right now? Ben Roethlisberger is playing MVP-caliber quarterback, the Steelers' multi-dimensional backfield is blowing everyone's doors off, and Kevin Colbert apparently found the legendary Fountain of Wide Receivers in the mountains of western Pennsylvania. Yet a funny thing keeps happening to this unstoppable winning machine: They keep losing to mediocre teams. The Steelers flew down to miserable Miami, where the newly christened Hard Rock Stadium has seen plenty of Easy Listening football. There, a Dolphins squad that needed overtime to beat the Cleveland Browns—and tally their only win so far this season—skunked the Steelers, 30-15. The 34-3 shocker Pittsburgh suffered in Week 3 felt like an ignorable outlier, a perfect storm of one-off foibles and failures: An in-state rivalry game featuring a little-seen rookie quarterback executing a picture-perfect Philadelphia Eagles gameplan that exploited a mismatch of scatback Darren Sproles on beefy linebacker Ryan Shazier. Roethlisberger was sacked four times and picked off once by a new-look Eagles defense. Wendell Smallwood scored a touchdown, and I don't know if he's even a real guy. This time around in Miami, the failures felt real. Roethlisberger was picked off twice by a defense that had only one interception all year—tied for last in the NFL. He was sacked twice, and temporarily knocked out of the game by a pass rush that ranked 18th in sacks. The Steelers' ground attack was nonexistent against the NFL's worst rushing defense; Darrius Heyward-Bey's gimmicky 60-yard scamper on a jet sweep nearly matched the rest of the team's rushing total (68 yards): It was just as bad on the other side of the ball. The Steelers defense had allowed just 77 rushing yards per game over their first five games. But Dolphins tailback Jay Ajayi rambled for 204 yards on just 25 attempts. Beleaguered quarterback Ryan Tannehill posted his highest-rated game of the season (97.4). This is the scariest thing about these two losses: It's not just one thing, it's everything. Roethlisberger gutted out the rest of the game, but told NFL Network's Aditi Kinkhabwala his knee "obviously hurts" and will be getting an MRI: Of course, the season's far from over. The Steelers are 4-2, and still one game clear of the rest of the AFC North. But they face the New England Patriots next week, and could easily go into their bye week 4-3 (and definitively not among the AFC's best). Until this afternoon, the Steelers seemed to be an offensive Doomsday Machine chewing up the rest of the league. But there's clearly something wrong under the hood—and if Roethlisberger's gone for any length of time, the machine could stall entirely.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pgn97z/the-pittsburgh-steelers-machine-has-a-cog-missing

Sports

Vice

2016-09-29 15:10:09

2016

9.0

29

Jeff Stein

Watch: Gary Johnson can't name a single foreign leader he admires, admits to having "an Aleppo moment"

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson couldn’t name a single world leader he admires in a painfully embarrassing exchange during a live MSNBC town hall aired Wednesday night. Pressed by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews to pick one leader he respected from anywhere in the world, Johnson froze up and said he couldn’t do it. He then admitted to having an “Aleppo moment” — a reference to when Johnson copped to not knowing the Syrian city during an interview on MSNBC. Here’s the deer-in-the-headlights moment: When Johnson first deflected the question, Matthews said, "Go ahead: You got to do this. Anywhere. Any continent. Canada, Mexico, Europe, over there, Asia, South America, Africa. Name a foreign leader that you respect." The exchange continued: JOHNSON: I guess I'm having an Aleppo moment ... the former president of Mexico. MATTHEWS: But I'm giving you the whole world. JOHNSON: I know, I know, I know. MATTHEWS: But I'm giving you the whole world. Anybody in the world you like. Anybody. Pick any leader. JOHNSON: The former president of Mexico. MATTHEWS: No — Which one? JOHNSON: I'm having a brain..." At that point, Johnson’s running mate — former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld — intervened and started naming former Mexican presidents like Vicente Fox. Matthews then posed the initial question to Weld, and Johnson’s No. 2 quickly produced an answer: Weld said he admired German Chancellor Angela Merkel. As Weld spoke, Johnson’s eyes drifted downward, and he looked at the floor.

https://www.vox.com/2016/9/29/13106496/gary-johnson-aleppo

Vox

2019-07-01 00:00:00

2019

7.0

1

Russia's Novak says all producers favour 9-mth oil output deal extension

VIENNA, July 1 (Reuters) - Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday that all OPEC and non-OPEC countries favoured extending their global oil output deal by nine months under the same terms agreed in December. “Everyone supported the general proposal to extend by nine months. The OPEC meeting will happen today where these proposals will be looked at. The JMMC recommended specifically this option for further cooperation,” Novak told reporters. (Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Jason Neely)

https://www.reuters.com/article/oil-opec-russia-extension/russias-novak-says-all-producers-favour-9-mth-oil-output-deal-extension-idUSR4N23Y00R

Energy

Reuters

2019-06-19 00:00:00

2019

6.0

19

Howard Schneider

WRAPUP 1-Fed likely to leave rates steady, despite market outlook and Trump demands

WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve concludes its latest two-day policy meeting on Wednesday expected to leave interest rates on hold but flag whether it plans to cut rates later this year as investors expect and the U.S. president has demanded. The central bank may nod to recent weaker-than-expected jobs numbers and softer inflation, and drop from its policy statement a pledge to be “patient” before changing rates - opening the door to a possible rate reduction later. But the level of concern raised around fresh economic risks, and the language Chairman Jerome Powell uses in his post-meeting press conference, will be read by investors and perhaps even more significantly by President Donald Trump as a sign of whether officials are poised to act soon or are still biding their time. The policy statement and new economic projections are to be released at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT), followed by a Powell press conference at 2:30 p.m. (1830 GMT). “If they don’t (reduce the interest rate) in June, the words he uses are going to have to be pretty careful that they are open to July,” said Mark Stoeckle, CEO of Adams Funds, which caters mostly to individual investors. Fed policymakers “don’t want to make it sound like (they) are beholden to the market or to the president,” he said, but even a token single rate cut in July “buys you some time to get more data ... It saves face for everybody.” As Fed officials gathered in Washington on Tuesday, news reports surfaced describing efforts by Trump earlier in the year to determine if he could remove Powell as chairman of the central bank. Powell, as head of an independent agency, is thought to be insulated from such a move by law. Still it was a reminder to policymakers that as Trump gears up his 2020 reelection effort he remains convinced the Fed is hampering an economy whose performance may prove central to his chances at a second term. Fighting a trade war on several fronts and with some expectation growth may slow this year, he has singled out central banks globally for his ire. He has noted that China’s monetary policy was shaped by politicians in a way he felt left him at a disadvantage in trade negotiations. On Tuesday he slammed European Central Bank President Mario Draghi for raising the possibility of fresh stimulus to bolster weak European growth, which Trump saw through the lens of a weaker euro, a stronger dollar, and higher prices for U.S. exports. “Very unfair to the United States!,” Trump said on Twitter. But for a year the criticism of Powell has been biting, and on Tuesday Trump sent a thinly veiled threat as Fed officials were in the middle of their two-day deliberation over rates. Asked by reporters outside the White House if he wanted to demote Powell, Trump said “let’s see what he does.” The Fed’s short-term overnight interest rate influences a variety of other borrowing costs. That shapes economic activity by determining what consumers pay to buy houses and cars, how investors evaluate assets, and even what happens in a stock market that Trump often cites as a proxy for his performance. Fed officials feel their four interest rate increases last year, far from crimping the recovery, were an appropriate response to the fact that Trump’s tax and spending policies pushed the economy, at least temporarily, to accelerate faster than had been expected. In the Fed’s view they helped guard against inflation, possible financial market bubbles and other problems. But since then other risks have become more central, including the danger that some of Trump’s own trade policies may damage a global economic expansion in more profound ways than initially thought, undermining business confidence and slowing investment and hiring. That narrative has caused investors to bet that the Fed this year will approve two or three reductions of a quarter-percentage-point to the federal funds target rate, set in a range of between 2.25% and 2.5% since December. New projections for the appropriate year-end policy rate are unlikely to match those expectations. To do so would require the bulk of the 17 policymakers to cut their rate outlook by a half a percentage point or more, a large shift by historic standards. Not only do Fed officials downplay risk of a serious economic slump in the near future, they also, somewhat ironically, see Trump’s very volatility as a reason to remain noncommittal. Just as unexpected tariff threats sent markets down in early May, the possibility of progress toward a China-U.S. trade deal, which helped markets rally on Tuesday, has led some officials to want to keep their options open. (Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns and Andrea Ricci)

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-fed/wrapup-1-fed-likely-to-leave-rates-steady-despite-market-outlook-and-trump-demands-idUSL2N23P0ZL

Market News

Reuters

2018-10-03 15:06:00

2018

10.0

3

Jordan Pearson

Canada’s Favorite ‘Authentic’ ‘Pasta’ ‘Experience’ Hacked With ‘Military Grade Algorithms’

East Side Mario’s is a Canadian restaurant chain that can only be described as the Cheesecake Factory of Italian food. The Statue of Liberty holding a tomato instead of a torch is its mascot, and its slogan is “Budda boom budda bing!” The interior of these places is an absurd, kaleidoscopic parody of Italian-American identity. The food sucks, but it’s nonetheless a national treasure. And last week, according to the CBC, hackers forced some East Side Mario’s locations, which may as well be called West End Luigi’s Authentic Pasta Experience, to close temporarily. But American Joe’s Mama Mia Pizza Trough wasn’t the only restaurant hit. Besides Brooklyn Steve’s Loose Spaghetti Bucket, Canadian favourites like Swiss Chalet and Harvey’s, among others, were forced to close. The chain’s parent company—Recipe Unlimited—was hit with ransomware that locked up the company’s systems and demanded bitcoins to end the digital siege. According to the CBC, the ransom note that popped up on computers in the restaurants stated that they had been hit by “military grade algorithms” (actually just normal encryption algorithms) and appears to have been identical to a stock ransom note associated with malware known as Ryuk. Recipe Unlimited told the CBC that the company keeps diligent data backups and so it’s not really being held ransom, but multiple restaurant locations remain closed. Yes, it’s a sad day for Upper West Side Tony’s Sauce Stain, but generally for all Canadians. Get six of our favorite Motherboard stories every day by signing up for our newsletter.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9k7nxd/east-side-marios-swiss-chalet-hacked-ransomware-canada

Tech by VICE

Vice

2016-06-30 04:00:00

2016

6.0

30

Juno DeMelo

What Actually Happens if You Never Wash Your Sheets?

Ah, friends. They're like family but cooler. Fully customizable. Fall and one of them will be right there to pick you back up. But as great as friends can be, they also do a lot of really stupid stuff. Stuff that blows your mind. Like, sometimes it seems crazy that you even hang out with people who make such crappy decisions. Stuff that, were it to get out, would be mortifying for anyone with even a shred of self-respect. Lucky for your friends, they've got you to ask their deepest, darkest questions for them. And lucky for you, we started this new column to answer those most embarrassing of queries. The scenario: Your "friend" strips the bed, oh, every couple of months. What you're afraid of: You'll He'll contract a flesh-eating disease and/or scare off a potential mate. The considerations: "When you don't wash your sheets, large quantities of particulates accumulate, including human skin cells," Philip Tierno Jr., a professor of microbiology and pathology at the NYU School of Medicine, told VICE. "Those cells serve as foodstuff for dust mites, whose feces are very allergenic." As in, they can cause coughing, sneezing, itchy eyes, and postnasal drip. On top of that, dirty sheets can collect fungal spores, mold, insect parts, dust, lint, and pollen, all of which can exacerbate allergies and asthma if you inhale them for eight hours a night, Tierno said. Worse, staph bacteria can survive on bedding that isn't regularly washed in hot water. For the most part, staph tends to live harmlessly on skin and inside nostrils (or it causes minor infections), but on rare occasions it can be fatal if it gets into the bloodstream via a cut. Technically you or a guest could carry staph onto freshly laundered sheets, but the longer you go without washing them, the more staph builds up in your bed and the higher the likelihood is of it infecting you. On a less concerning note, the cosmetics, lotions, oils, and other products your buddy puts on his face and hair pile up on your—er, his—pillowcase and are transferred back to his skin if he sleeps on his side or stomach. Hence his regular breakouts. The worst thing that could actually happen: Your friend will get a drug-resistant, life-threatening staph infection. What is more likely to happen: His allergies will get worse, or he'll develop new ones. What to do: Here's what Tierno suggests to keep allergies, infections, and acne in check: Throw your sheets in the washer once a week, and invest in protection. "Even if you wash weekly, you still have buildup in the core of your mattress and pillows," he said. "You can't get it out, but you can prevent further deposits and trap what's already in there with mattress and pillow protectors." The National Sleep Foundation recommends PureCare covers. Sweet feces-free dreams!

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5gqzvn/asking-for-a-friend-what-actually-happens-if-you-never-wash-your-sheets

Health

Vice

2017-05-01 00:00:00

2017

5.0

1

Fabio Blames California Governor For Home Burglary

Fabio says the criminals who burglarized his home were lucky his Rottweilers weren't out, but ultimately it's the governor and state of California's fault it happened at all. The romance novel legend vented to us about the recent increase in L.A. burglaries -- and he firmly believes the passing of Prop 57, which Gov. Jerry Brown championed, is to blame. 57 made thousands of non-violent crime felons eligible for parole. As we reported, many cops also think those ex-cons are behind the string of burglaries at homes of celebs like Nicki Minaj, Alanis Morissette and many more. Fabio was reportedly burglarized for about $200k worth, but you can tell he's definitely more pissed about the law than his stuff.

https://www.tmz.com/2017/05/01/fabio-california-governor-jerry-brown-home-robbery/

TMZ

2018-09-03 00:00:00

2018

9.0

3

Michelle Price

On Labor Day, Trump hits back at largest union leader

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Labor Day hit back at Richard Trumka, president of the United States’ largest federation of labor unions, after Trumka said on Sunday that the president’s policies had hurt American workers. Trumka, who is head of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), said on Fox News of Trump’s policies: “Unfortunately, to date, the things that he’s done to hurt workers outpace what he’s done to help workers.” The AFL-CIO president cited changes to the tax code that encourage companies to outsource jobs, the administration’s failure to produce an infrastructure program and its overturning of regulations, including some protecting health and safety. On Monday, the national Labor Day holiday, Trump tweeted that Trumka had represented his union “poorly.” “Some of the things he said were so against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly,” Trump added. In follow-up tweets, the president hailed economic growth, adding: “The Worker in America is doing better than ever before!” A spokesman for Trumka, John Weber, declined to comment on Trump’s tweets. Trumka had also questioned Trump’s Saturday tweet that there was no need to keep Canada in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The president warned Congress not to meddle with the trade negotiations or he would terminate the trilateral trade pact altogether. “It’s pretty hard to see how that would work without having Canada in the deal,” Trumka said on Sunday, noting that the economies of Mexico, the United States and Canada were heavily integrated. Trumka, who met with Trump alongside other labor leaders last month to talk about trade issues, is a highly influential figure on trade issues and his support will likely be necessary for the passage of any legislation on trade promoted by the administration. Democrats are working to get union members to vote in the Nov. 6 midterm congressional elections. Former Vice President Joe Biden marched in a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh, campaigning on behalf of Democrats. “We’re in a fight for the soul of America,” he said. “It’s about time we restore dignity to work.” Reporting by Michelle Price; Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Dan Grebler

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-labor/on-labor-day-trump-hits-back-at-largest-union-leader-idUSKCN1LJ1H1

Politics

Reuters

2018-09-04 00:00:00

2018

9.0

4

Kathy Finn

Tropical Storm Gordon makes landfall near Alabama-Mississippi border

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall on Tuesday just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border, lashing the U.S. Gulf Coast with high winds and heavy rain, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Gordon was about 35 miles (55 km) south-southwest of Mobile, Alabama and was packing maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) after making landfall, the Miami-based weather forecaster said. “Rapid weakening is forecast after Gordon moves inland, and is forecast to become a tropical depression on Wednesday,” the NHC added. As of Tuesday night, the storm had not reached 74 mph winds, the minimum to become a hurricane. Hurricane and storm surge warnings and watches were in effect across the region, the NHC said. Though the Louisiana coast remained calm as of early Tuesday evening, Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and companies cut 9 percent of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production. “I’m asking all residents to do their part in getting ready for this storm,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement. “The city’s absolute No.1 priority is to ensure the safety of our residents.” Tropical-storm force winds were already lashing the Alabama and western Florida panhandle coastlines and some areas still recovering from last year’s storms could see 12 inches (30 cm) of rain. Beaches around Mobile, Alabama were washed by storm-driven waves, said Stephen Miller, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “We’re expecting an increase in winds,” Miller said in a telephone interview. “We could see flooding.” Sea levels could rise as much as 5 feet (1.5 m) from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama, forecasters said. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency told South Mississippi residents to be prepared to evacuate. At LaFrance Marina near Ansley, Mississippi, a mile north of Heron Bay on the Gulf of Mexico, marina owner Sue Cates said that a tidal surge is sure to push water into the marina’s low-lying campgrounds, making evacuation “the only choice” people have to protect themselves. Nevertheless, she said she and her husband will remain in their home, which sits on tall pilings, 24 feet above ground. Built after Hurricane Katrina, the home is made to withstand a 150 mile-an-hour wind, she said. “We’re way up here, and I think we’ll be OK,” Cates said. “People around here are well-trained for this sort of thing.” U.S. oil producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp evacuated workers and shut production at two offshore oil platforms on Monday, and other companies with production and refining operations along the Gulf Coast said they were securing facilities. The Gulf of Mexico is home to 17 percent of U.S. crude oil and 5 percent of natural gas output daily, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. Coast Guard said the ports of New Orleans and Gulfport and Pascagoula, Mississippi, may have to close within 48 hours. Last year, hurricanes hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, causing widespread destruction and thousands of deaths. The Inn at Ocean Springs and the Roost Hotel in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, had guests planning to ride out the storm, said Kristin Smith, general manager of both hotels. “A lot of guests are real comfortable sticking it out in our rooms,” Smith said in a telephone interview. “Any of our guests who feel like they want to go home we encourage them to follow their instincts.” Reporting by Kathy Finn in NEW ORLEANS; Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus in NEW YORK, Brendan O'Brien in MILWAUKEE, Scott Malone in BOSTON and Dan Whitcomb in LOS ANGELES; Editing by Toni Reinhold, Lisa Shumaker and Darren Schuettler

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-storm-gordon/tropical-storm-gordon-makes-landfall-near-alabama-mississippi-border-idUSKCN1LK0V8

Environment

Reuters

2019-07-12 00:00:00

2019

7.0

12

Emma Ockerman

ICE Raids Are Coming to 9 Major Cities on Sunday. Here's What You Need to Know.

Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here. Undocumented immigrants scheduled for deportation will lock their doors this weekend as federal agents scour some of the largest U.S. cities looking to make arrests. They’ll take sanctuary in churches. They’ll keep their lawyers and advocates close. But they’ll be ready. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are expected to swarm nine major cities on Sunday to arrest thousands of undocumented family members in a massive, multi-day raid, according to the New York Times, which spoke to three anonymous officials on the matter. The raids were supposed to start two weeks ago but were postponed after Democrats objected. Raids are typically a surprise, but media attention and the postponement allowed advocates time to prepare. The target cities include Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Miami, and San Francisco. New Orleans was initially on the list, but ICE operations there were suspended due to tropical storm Barry. Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here. Undocumented immigrants scheduled for deportation will lock their doors this weekend as federal agents scour some of the largest U.S. cities looking to make arrests. They’ll take sanctuary in churches. They’ll keep their lawyers and advocates close. But they’ll be ready. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are expected to swarm nine major cities on Sunday to arrest thousands of undocumented family members in a massive, multi-day raid, according to the New York Times, which spoke to three anonymous officials on the matter. The raids were supposed to start two weeks ago but were postponed after Democrats objected. Raids are typically a surprise, but media attention and the postponement allowed advocates time to prepare. The target cities include Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Miami, and San Francisco. New Orleans was initially on the list, but ICE operations there were suspended due to tropical storm Barry. While the raids are meant to target 2,000 undocumented immigrants who have already received deportation orders, they’ll also likely result in “collateral” deportations that sweep up not-targeted immigrants who happen to be nearby during arrests. Already, a massive family detention center in Dilley, Texas, has stopped admitting new detainees so it can clear more room for the families immigration officials expect to sweep this weekend. But it’s unclear how successful the raids might be in achieving the goal to break up families and send people back to their countries of origin, since President Donald Trump tweeted about the raid weeks ago and gave immigrants and advocates ample time to prepare, change addresses, and read up on their legal rights. (When ICE officials are choosing which immigrants to target, they’ll typically gather data like a person’s last address and place of employment.) Trump criticized the mayor of Oakland, California, for similarly giving immigrants a heads-up ahead of a raid last year. “The immigrant community knows that this is coming, and we’re doing everything we can to prepare,” said Omar Angel Perez, the lead organization for the Congregation Action Network in the D.C. area. The ICE raids were scheduled to take place in late June, but Trump postponed them after Democrats expressed outrage. He handed them an ultimatum instead: reach a Congressional deal on asylum reform and emergency funding for the border, or the raids would be rescheduled. Congress failed to take action within two weeks, and it was widely reported earlier this week that the raids were back on. ICE has repeatedly said it doesn’t comment on the timing or details of planned operations. Still, advocacy organizations had time to host know-your-rights trainings, and churches had time to see if their congregants would be willing to take in families hiding from ICE. Advocates have also been reminding immigrants that ICE agents aren’t allowed to force their way into a home if they don’t have a warrant signed by a judge. Plus, immigration officials typically won’t make arrests at hospitals, churches, or schools — turning some of those places into sanctuaries for immigrants. That doesn’t mean people won’t be scared or intimidated into giving up their rights at their home or a sanctuary, though, said Fernando Andrade, a paralegal with the immigrant protection unit of the The New York Legal Assistance Group. He urged people who have to leave their homes or sanctuaries to go to work to form a contingency plan with family members in the event they’re arrested, and talk with their bosses. He said his group has been urging immigrants to carry so-called “red cards” offered by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. The cards offer a script recommended for non-citizens who are approached by law enforcement, reading “I do not wish to speak with you, answer your questions, or sign or hand you any documents based on my Fifth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution.” READ: Why Jews are getting themselves arrested at ICE centers around the country “We’re not sugarcoating anything — this might happen,” Andrade said. “If ICE comes to your door, don’t open the door. Be firm. It’s going to be hostile. Ask them if they have any warrant.” “If ICE comes to your door, don’t open the door. Be firm. It’s going to be hostile. Ask them if they have any warrant.” The American Civil Liberties Union also filed a preemptive lawsuit Thursday demanding any arrested immigrants receive a fair court hearing ahead of any deportation process, since they may have missed a previous court hearing due to bureaucratic errors or ignorance of the system. It’s not uncommon for immigrants and asylum-seekers placed on the U.S. immigration system’s fast-tracked docket programs to miss their initial hearings. Undocumented immigrants might lack legal representation or awareness of how the U.S. immigration system works, putting them at risk for deportation orders. Nearly 100 percent of migrant families who have legal representation and know they need to appear in court do show up, according to the Syracuse University-based Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. That’s why some advocates find Sunday’s sweep unfair. “For the many families who came here as refugees fleeing violence, deportation is a death threat. We will fight to ensure no one faces this kind of peril without having their case considered in court,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a news release Friday. Cover: In this Oct. 22, 2018, photo U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surround and detain a person during a raid in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/qv7qnd/ice-raids-are-coming-to-9-major-cities-on-sunday-heres-what-you-need-to-know

Vice News

2019-06-13 00:00:00

2019

6.0

13

Roberta Rampton

White House says it will meet two-year deadline for Huawei ban for contractors

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House Office of Management and Budget has told the U.S. Congress it will now meet a two-year deadline to ban federal contracts with companies that do business with Chinese telecom giant Huawei, part of a defense law passed last year, according to a letter seen by Reuters. “Congress has made it clear in recent days the importance of implementing the law within the two years provided, and we will,” Russ Vought, the acting director of OMB, said in a letter to Senator James Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Last week the OMB had said it would need more time to implement the ban, which requires third-party suppliers and contractors to restrict their purchases and use of Huawei equipment. But the White House reversed course after “recent conversations with Congress,” Vought said in the letter dated Wednesday. “As we move forward to meet the statutory deadline without further delay, we will work with Congress to address any unforeseen issues that arise,” Vought said. The ban is one part of a multifaceted U.S. push against Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world’s largest telecoms network gear maker, which Washington accuses of espionage and stealing intellectual property. Huawei has repeatedly denied it is controlled by the Chinese government, military or intelligence services. It has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government over the restrictions in the defense policy bill. The defense law, called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), placed a broad ban on the use of federal money to purchase products from Huawei, citing national security concerns. It included a ban on direct federal purchases of Huawei equipment, which will take effect this year. Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Eric Beech and Sandra Maler

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-huawei/white-house-says-it-will-meet-two-year-deadline-for-huawei-ban-for-contractors-idUSKCN1TE033

Business News

Reuters

2017-05-01 18:01:00

2017

5.0

1

Mike Steyels

Uninamise Is Bringing Brooklyn’s Flex Dance Music to the World

Last summer, a dance circle broke out in Boiler Room's small, raw space in Brooklyn. Inside, performers battled and sessioned to driving dancehall riddims as a crowd looked on, many standing on the benches lining the wall to get a better view. This was one of the first times that flex dance music, or FDM, was broadcast to an international audience, and Uninamise was one of four selectors behind the decks. Known as Willie Perkins to family, Uninamise is a Brooklyn-born producer who's reserved around new people and usually has braids sticking out from under a dad hat. For him, as with most producers in the genre, it all started with a Brooklyn public access TV show called Flex N Brooklyn. The show first aired as an outlet for hip-hop and reggae dancing in 1992, though flexing didn't crystallize as a form in its own right until the late 90s, and it didn't get a name until the mid-2000s. On the show, dancers would perform on stage in front of an audience, who would in turn get a chance to dance in the crowd for the cameras. The original flex dancers were versed in a similar style of dance called bruk up, which had come straight from Jamaica. But they kept adding their own contributions until people in the streets began calling them "flex dancers," after the show's name. The dance is centered around a few basic elements, which include "gliding," a sort of 3D version of the moonwalk, and "bonebreaking," a series of arm contortions any escape artist would be jealous of. The music associated with the dancing consists mostly of dark, electronic instrumental dancehall, with chopped-up samples and riddims at its core. In its early days, producers created flex tunes by of stacking riddims like "Volume" and "Anger Management" on top of each other, adding in a few new elements for personal style. Eventually, they started producing the tunes from scratch, but those sounds remain a hallmark of the style. Uninamise first became interested in the scene after hearing classmates talk about the show during early middle school in Flatbush—an epicenter of the nascent flexing culture. "I saw the showcases and used to watch dudes dancing in the park, on the train, at block parties—practicing on their bruk up and all that," he remembers over the phone from his current home in upstate New York. Soon, his family moved a few neighborhoods away—first to Coney Island, and then to Sheepshead Bay, where they lived in a one-family house. But Flatbush kept drawing him back. Eventually, he started getting involved in flexing as a dancer. At first, he specialized in a style called "connecting," a flexing element where every movement is based off which part of the body you last touched (i.e. the hand touches the elbow, which touches the knee, and so on). "Sometimes we used to cut school and go to the park to play basketball or dance, and record songs with a little camera," he remembers. "We'd post them to Youtube." In 2006, dancing was everything in Flatbush. Alongside the flexers, some dancers were still doing the bruk up, and there were shotta dancers, too, which was another style imported from Jamaica. (Shottas used moves popular on the island like "pon di river," where you lift and sort of wiggle your foot in front of you like you're testing the water's temperature.) Teen dance parties flourished at local event spaces and social clubs like Sea Breeze, Elks lodges, and the Brooklyn Masons. Even the Empire Skate Rink had a teen night where flexers could be found. "There were these party crews throwing events," Uninamise explains. "We used to go to the ones that DJed more dance songs. The DJ would go back and forth. You would dance, maybe grinding and stuff. Do the shotta dances. Then you'd hear flex; the riddims would come on." By 2007 or 2008, when Uninamise was in high school, the Empire Skating Rink shuttered, and Flex N Brooklyn stopped airing. A couple years later, other venues followed suit. "A couple people got killed," Uninamise recalls. "Crazy shoot ups. It stopped a lot of the parties." In the absence of regular parties, Flexing had been becoming increasingly battle-oriented, revolving around sessions like Regg Roc's Flexhouse and Kareem Baptise's Battlefest. Though Uninamise was still involved in the battles, he'd also been producing rap beats and learning his way around a studio, mostly at a local spot in Crown Heights, where some older heads taught him things like Protools and chords. Later, after high school, he'd end up at Puff Daddy's Bad Boy studios, where he knew one of the A&Rs. "I got ripped off for a beat," he recalls. "That's why I stopped going there. Like, when you recorded in there, they took everything. But it was a good experience. It was after high school, and I didn't have anything really to do." In his mid-20s, Uninamise finally started making FDM tunes in earnest. In 2014, he dropped one of his first tracks, "Murdera," an aggressive exhibition of rolling percussion made in collaboration with Doc, a well known dancer born Ares Fraizer. Soon after, Uninamise unveiled the Kaviar Dreams mixtape, which drew from the atmospheric vibes he'd cultivated through studying other genres. The dancers immediately embraced it—"As soon as I dropped it, that's when the push was crazy," he says. Still, he decided to keep it low-key for a while, dancing simply as "Will" but producing under his new alias, Uninamise. "Nobody knew it was me, but everybody loved its sound quality," he says. "Nobody was making sound quality like that." At that time, Hitmakerchinx and DJ Aaron were the biggest producers in flexing culture, though Epic B had also started making a name for himself. Along with Uninamise, they're considered pioneers in FDM, though there are other producers, like DJ Blue and Doc, who were influential in building the sound. Uninamise often collaborates with these artists, helping boost their production quality so their individual styles can shine. "Fate Of Two Worlds"—a collaboration with Blue full of arpeggiated lasers and apocalyptic choral samples—emphasizes this community building, bringing the urgent, earth-shaking quality of earlier flex tunes into clearer focus. As an ambassador of the scene, he's frequently called upon for gigs outside of the dance circuit that birthed his music, like spinning on The Lot Radio or playing the odd Boiler Room party. "When I play, it's a mixture of dancehall and FDM," Uninamise explains. "Some people might not like some of the rhythms or might not get it. But once you start mixing in the dancehall, everybody goes crazy. We always bring a dancer, and they'll put on a little performance, too." Uninamise doesn't dance much these days, unless it's behind a pair of CDJs. But dancing still plays a big role in his music. He likes creating with friends and writing tunes as they try out new moves, freestyling ideas on the spot: "I do everything on the speakers," he says. "They might hear a certain sound, and come up with some weird ideas. It's back and forth. I look at the styles, see what story they create." With his greater visibility, Uninamise's now focused on spreading FDM throughout the world. At the end of May, he plans on releasing a tape of Weeknd remixes called FDMBOY, which has the potential to be his most accessible release to date.  On the one hand, it draws out the Canadian singer's melodic and moody tendencies, reorienting them towards the dancefloor with detailed and dynamic percussion. On the other, it gives FDM newcomers something to latch onto in the flurry of crackling rhythms and thunderous percussion—a familiar voice calling out in the darkness. But he's keeping thing grassroots too, reaching out to dancers along the East Coast. In Jersey, where there's a smaller flexing scene brewing, he helped teach up-and-coming producer Mastermind the ropes. And in Virginia, he's working with a couple more producers. There's Yokai, who uses soul samples, or will grab a 90s Wu Tang beat and turn it into a flex track; and there's Klasick, a dancer who comes from a krumping background and mixes that sound into his flex tunes. Still, for Uninamise, even as the sound spreads, it all comes back to borough that birthed it. "When I play at these new parties," he says, "people come up to me and say, 'This sounds like Brooklyn.'"

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bm9wpq/uninamise-fdmboy-interview-flex-dance-music

Noisey

Vice

2019-02-20 00:00:00

2019

2.0

20

Rich the Kid's Estranged Wife Says He's Legally Ghosted Her

Rich the Kid's playing hard to get in his divorce case ... so claims his estranged wife who wants the judge to make him pay for being a pain in the ass. Antonette Willis has filed new legal docs claiming she's been trying to serve the rapper with papers, but he's nowhere to be found. And, in her multiple attempts, she's racked up tons in legal fees and wants him to pony up some of the dough to pay her lawyers. In the docs, Antonette says Rich has been shelling out $4,500 for her rent and around $3k in other expenses. She says she has no income and her expenses -- which includes $1,225 per week in a luxury car rental -- makes it hard for her to pay her lawyers. She wants $30k from him to help with her legal bills. She says Rich can afford it cause he makes well over $100k per month. This is just the latest in their ongoing divorce. TMZ broke the story ... Antonette filed for divorce in March 2018. She claimed he forced her to have multiple abortions and alleged he was violent. Rich the Kid and Antonette have 2 kids together, whom the rapper hardly sees, according to her. We've reached out to Rich the Kid's camp for comment, so far, no word back.

https://www.tmz.com/2019/02/20/rich-the-kid-divorce-case-baby-mama/

TMZ

2017-08-22 00:00:00

2017

8.0

22

Mayweather vs. McGregor Fight Called By Announcer Who Hates McGregor

So much for an impartial announcer ... One of the guys commentating on the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight hates Conor McGregor's guts with a passion ... which begs the question, why is Showtime allowing Paulie Malignaggi to call it?! Paulie was Conor's training camp sparring partner until a nasty breakup last month. Since then, Paulie's been on a media blitz, blasting Conor to every media outlet that will have him on. He's called McGregor everything from a dirtbag to a bum fighter -- and insinuated that he was set up by McGregor's people to be a fall guy in order to make Conor look like a legit boxer. Despite the declaration of war, Showtime says Paulie will remain on the broadcast team -- they see the situation as a "non-story." But it's a big story ... commentators have a BIG influence on how the public sees the fight and a constant, slanted trashing of McGregor could unfairly hurt his image. In most cases, announcers tasked with working major sporting events like NFL or MLB games are mandated by networks to keep their opinions to themselves until the game. So, why not Showtime? They won't say ...

https://www.tmz.com/2017/08/22/showtime-mayweather-mcgregor-fight-paulie-malignaggi-announcer/

TMZ

2016-11-01 00:00:00

2016

11.0

1

Celebs at Halloween Parties

Not exactly Tupac vs. Biggie, but celebs on both coasts tried to outdo each other Monday night, partying hard. On the East ... Heidi Klum, Kelly Bensimon, Questlove, Alicia Quarles, Jay Pharoah, Jessica Williams, Danielle Brooks, Serena Williams, Deborah Cox, Ice-T, Coco, Bethenny Frankel, Adrienne Moore, Chanel Iman, Tinashe ... and that's just what's in our video. On the West ... Karrueche Tran, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Bow Wow, Wiz Khalifa, Sofia Richie, Ryan Phillippe and DeAndre Jordan. A good time ... had by all.

https://www.tmz.com/2016/11/01/halloween-celebrities-east-coast-west-parties/

TMZ

2016-03-14 13:19:00

2016

3.0

14

Sarah Kliff

Pi Day, in one pie chart

See more great pie charts, in honor of Pi Day, here.

https://www.vox.com/2015/3/14/8209657/pie-chart-pi-day

Vox

2019-01-29 05:00:00

2019

1.0

29

Philip Eil

The Secret Lives of People Obsessed with Going Deep Underground

Will Hunt has completed an impressive number of trips below the Earth’s surface. He’s done some of the more obvious, urban-explorer stuff, like visiting sewers and subway tunnels in New York City, or trekking from one end of Paris to another in a below-ground excursion where, as he put it, “every step... of course, would be illegal.” But he’s also walked through labyrinthine tunnel-towns in Turkey, explored an ochre mine in Australia believed to be sacred by local aboriginal descendants, and taken an elevator a mile down into an abandoned gold mine in South Dakota, where NASA-affiliated microbiologists are studying intraterrestrial life. At one point, he spent 24 hours in a cave in West Virginia for an unofficial experiment in the psychological effects of being immersed in what he described as “heavy, ancient... Book-of-Genesis dark.” (After just a couple of hours, he saw “small glowing orbs of light...moving in a soft, pulsing dance” and felt an “uncanny weightlessness.”) As Hunt’s journey—research for his new book Underground: a Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet—progresses, you get the sense these forays are about more than just an adrenaline rush. What Hunt is really chasing, through the muck and darkness and stench and clammy cold, is a story of shared humanity. “Virtually every accessible cave on the planet contains the footprints of our ancestors,” he writes, adding, “The dark zone journey may well be humankind’s oldest continuous cultural practice, with archaeological evidence going back hundreds of thousands of years, before our species even existed.” He finds similar threads of universality in practices of mining, burrowing, and religion. In one chapter, he explains how creation stories about life beginning underground are found in “cultures in every part of the world,” from France to Mexico to Australia to India to Eastern Europe to Native American tribes such as the Zuñi and Hopi. In another, he argues it’s “impossible to overstate” just how frequently we find stories of seers and prophets descending into caves to achieve new wisdom and altered states of consciousness, from shamans of the Shoshone and Lakote, to oracles in ancient Greece and Rome, to mystics in the Wolof culture of Senegal, to characters in both the Old and New Testament, to Muhammad, the founder of Islam. “Our connection to caves may well be our most universal, most deeply inscribed, perhaps our original religious tradition,” he suggests. In other words, to step below ground, whether through a manhole or the mouth of a cave, is to be reminded of who we are as a species and what we share. I recently spoke to Hunt, a freelance writer and visiting scholar at New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge, about his trips into a “parallel reality,” and the place he calls “our ghost landscape, unfolding everywhere beneath our feet, always out of view.” VICE: What do you like so much about going underground? Will Hunt: I first fell in love with the underground in Providence, Rhode Island, when I was a teenager. I discovered the [abandoned train] tunnel running under the East Side, which I found to run almost directly beneath my house. It was a tremendous revelation for me, because... here’s this patch of Providence where my family has been living for a long time, and I thought I knew every corner of it, and it was revealed to me that there was this enormous, mysterious, echoing space directly beneath that. And while I didn’t have the self-awareness or the language to articulate this at the time, that’s been a theme in my falling in love with the underground, which is that you can be walking through any landscape on the surface and think you know it, and beneath your feet there is magic. There’s these giant, ancient caverns. There are tombs. There are cemeteries. There’s all kinds of strange infrastructure that are just out of view, but they’re there, and they are affecting our lives, and they embody our history. So that’s one level. [Then] when I was in New York—where I fell deeper in love with the underground after exploring under Providence—I started going underground in a way where I was really enjoying the thrill. It throws you for a sensory loop. It switches you outside of your everyday reality. So there’s something extraordinary about dropping into a sewer with a couple urban explorer friends, and within the space of a few feet, you’re only ten feet beneath the surface, but you’re inside of this hole, you’re in total darkness, you’re hearing echoes that you don’t hear on the surface. You’re smelling things. You access this wrinkle in reality that you didn’t even know existed. Later in this process, as I travel a lot and [have] been to all of these underground spaces, what I really enjoy now is it’s this lens into humanity. We’ve had this really deep relationship with underground spaces forever. And it kind of brings out what’s most interesting [and] what’s most exciting about humans. We tend to become obsessed. We dream about subterranean spaces. We slip into altered states of consciousness. We’re irrational or messy or disorderly. And I feel like that nature in us is embodied in the decision to not stay on the surface and to go into darkness. If we were rational creatures living for the economics of everyday life, we would stay on the surface. There’s no reason to go into the dark, but we do. There’s a moment in the book that takes place in a cave in France, when you’re led through various chambers to the room where there are these ancient clay sculptures of bison. And at that moment, you start to cry. Why was that moment so emotional for you?One of the things that’s so extraordinary about subterranean spaces and the subterranean landscape [is that] everything is magnified underground. It’s like your entire nervous system is like blooming. So everything you encounter in a subterranean space, in pitch darkness, when you’re surrounded by these strange echoes, is inherently magnified. It just feels so dramatic. It’s really like being inside of a separate reality. So that was one level of just the dramatic tension of crawling through this cave for several hours and you’re kind of totally detached from the surface world and you emerge into this really small chamber, in complete darkness, and everything is exactly as it has been for 14,000 years. You can see the fingerprints of the people who made those sculptures. You can see their footprints in the mud. [And] beyond the sensory level it’s... this confrontation with the roots of humanity. You’re looking at something that is, history-wise, time-wise, so removed from you, and yet it feels so familiar. Whatever drove the people who made those sculptures to go that deep into the cave to create these artworks was powerful, was something urgent. Otherwise there was no reason for them to go to such lengths. And even though we can’t really say what that thing was, as humans, when you’re in that space, you can feel it. You can feel the electricity of whatever it was that moved them, that compelled them to make those bison where they did. Before reading this book, I didn’t necessarily think a lot about life underground, from microscopic creatures to larger animals. I suspect I'm not alone. But you spend a fair amount of time talking about exactly that. Just how much life is there we don't really see?This is one of my favorite things to talk about. Because when I was writing the chapter about microbes and bacteria, [I was] thinking, “Oh God, no one is going to give a shit about this.” Because who cares about microbes, right? But the thing is, in the underground there is a such a wild abundance of life. It’s just teeming. And it’s this extraordinary thing because, just a couple decades ago, most people assumed that that it was a desert inside of our planet. And it turns out that there[are] billion of tons of life beneath the surface of the earth. It’s more, by weight, than all of [current] human life combined. [So] on one hand, yes, there are these little wriggling single-cell organisms, and who cares? At the same time, that’s fucking crazy. It’s like on the scale of a Copernican revolution for me, to realize that surface life on the planet is perhaps the minority. That’s amazing. Were you surprised by how many different kinds of people—and how many people, period—you met underground in your research?When I started spending time in New York, [I] discovered that there basically was just a whole tribe of people in New York who were tunnel enthusiasts, and then learned that it was not only in New York, but like every city in the world had a similar tribe of urban explorers, some of whom are extremely intense. And then beyond that, I was going into the world and almost testing this thesis a little bit, trying to find the bottom of that fascination with the underground. I wanted to know how deep and broad this relationship was. And what I saw was that it’s bottomless. It’s everywhere. We have had this very visceral relationship with subterranean spaces with as long as we’ve been human and much longer. And that was what was so exciting, as far as putting a book together, which was that this is something that is inside of all of us. Even if it’s latent and vestigial, we all have this. We’re all descended from people who had this relationship with underground spaces. There are certain people who are afflicted with this fascination more than others, and I am one of them. But everywhere I went, I just found people who way moreso than me had dedicated their entire lives to going underground, from these compulsive burrowers to cave explorers to graffiti artists. In the book you briefly mention billionaires who have been building underground living spaces. And I’m wondering if you think, as the surface of the earth becomes less and less habitable due to climate change and other reasons, that in the future we’re going to see more people living underground.Absolutely. I think it’s kind of a dark, depressing truth, [because] as much as I love the underground, I don’t think it’s a place to live. [But] I think that, especially in large cities, where we have just a shortage of space everywhere we look, it’s making more and more sense to build down. In a lot of the east Asian megacities, you find crazy underground infrastructure. And [for] one of the amazing comments on this, there’s a writer, Rosalind Williams, who talks about how the underground environment as a living space is the culmination of our technological existence, meaning it’s a habitat which is completely unnatural, where every aspect of a given space is manufactured. We’re pumping in air. All the light is artificial. We’re creating sunrises and sunsets. We’re creating smells. Everything is manufactured. And it’s a reality we’re already living in. Part of me thinks about that and is spooked because it’s sounds like a science-fiction narrative. But when I think about how so many people spend their lives, and how easy it is to go long periods of time without going out of your apartment or home, we might as well be living underground. *Correction 1/29/2019: A previous version of this article featured a photo caption that incorrectly described an ochre mine as a cave. We regret the error. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. Learn more about Hunt's book here. Follow Philip Eil on Twitter.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjqzxw/the-secret-lives-of-people-obsessed-with-going-deep-underground

Entertainment

Vice

2016-08-01 23:00:00

2016

8.0

1

Javier Cabral

Meet the Sommelier Bro Who Is Trolling the Wine Industry

If there is one community in the food and drink world that needs to take a chill pill every once in awhile, it's the wine world. And young people unaccustomed to the world of disposable income and leisurely dining out are more inclined to order a beer or cocktail than a bottle of wine, often thanks to how overwhelming the ordering process can be. This is where Adam Vourvoulis, a.k.a. @naturalwhine, comes in. For the past year, he's been trolling the hell out of the wine industry with a very simple formula: memes that expose the elitism surrounding certain wines every day. Some memes are more clever than others but there is no denying that his trolliness is challenging the established norms of wine industry. If Vourvoulis's name sounds familiar, it is because he is one-half of the dynamic duo that created the world's first wine rave and hashtag-ridden wine menu, the latter of which catapulted him into becoming one of the most loathed individuals in the American restaurant world. While it may be easy to just dismiss him as another troll on the interwebs, his pretense-free wine attitude is definitely resonating with other wine-loving Millennials. He has worked in some of Los Angeles's most prestigious restaurants—including Osteria Mozza, Ink, and Trois Mec—so the man knows his wines. We caught up with Vourvoulis to find more about his wine memes and whe hopes to accomplish with them. OMG. Who made this?!? #sommlife MUNCHIES: Why do you hate the wine industry so much? Adam Vourvoulis: I wouldn't say I hate it. I just think we've been doing it all wrong. I think we could do it better. I'm in the punk-rock-meets-Backstreet-Boys school of the wine industry. I think it lost its way and turned into luxury when that's not what it is really about.] What is the wine industry about then? First and foremost, it is all about fun. It's alcohol. The process of making wine is simple: Get grapes, put them in a container, wait a few weeks, and then bam! You've got wine. Now, is this great wine? Will this wine be the one that will win awards? That is in the eye of the beholder. Wine is deeper than all of this. It is about a sense of place and being around people and celebration. It's not about bragging and showing off online. It's not about unicorn wines. It's not about expensive Champagne. Fetishizing wine in any way is the problem—even cheap stuff. I guess I am just starting a campaign of sorts. Instead of spending $100 or more on a bottle of wine, spend $50 and use the rest of the money for a charity, please. But wouldn't that hurt your job as a wine director for a premium restaurant? Almost all of the wines at the place I work at are under $100. I want people to learn that buying two bottles of $50 wine is way better than one bottle of $100. Just think about where your money is going. Also, I'm lucky that the restaurant in LA I currently work at is owned and operated by mostly young people who understand and support my posts. You describe yourself as a "wine activist" on your Instagram account's bio. What exactly does that mean? Part of it is tongue-in-cheek. Think about it: The concept of a "wine activist" is a little bit ridiculous. I'm just trying to inform a group of people who think of wine as being this elitist thing that there is much more out there to explore in wine. I don't think it is possible to completely take the pretentiousness out of wine. That is like saying, "I want to take the pretentiousness out of collecting Rolexes." I just want to make a social commentary on it, even though I am getting a shit-ton of hate for it. And I've dedicated my life to it... #sommlife What initially sparked @natural_whine? I would say this was the natural evolution of the wine rave. My social consciousness got the best of me and while riding LA's public transit to work, I realized that I was part of the wine problem. Obviously you spend a lot of time on your phone on the bus in LA; thus I started making memes to entertain myself. If I had to choose between giving up on memes or wine, I would choose wines. I've been doing this for a year, but I had remained anonymous until recently. One day, I just said "fuck it!" and put myself out there. Surprisingly, there are enough people out there who have similar ideologies with me. What has the feedback been like so far? Whenever I run into other wine industry people in real life, they support me and tell me, "Keep doing what you're doing!" But they whisper it to me because obviously a lot of people are in this business to make money, and they are afraid of their support ultimately affecting their bottom lines. Just the other day, I heard that people were talking about my memes for half an hour during a dinner among industry people. What is your goal with @natural_whine? To really change the conversation and change the idea of what wine is to the consumer. Wine is not just for a certain demographic of people; wine is for everyone. No one should be excluded from this conversation just because you've never had wine before, or because you think a certain style is better than another style. It should always be inclusive rather than exclusive. Champagne is just wine. Marketing has made it what it is today—the marketing of luxury and exclusivity. No more exploitation in wine. Thanks for speaking with me.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nzk4ek/meet-the-sommelier-bro-who-is-trolling-the-wine-industry

Food by VICE

Vice

2016-12-19 00:32:22

2016

12.0

19

April Glaser

Here’s a robotic hand that handles objects as delicately as a human

Scientists at Cornell University’s Organic Robotics Lab have developed a robotic hand that has a level of sensitivity that approaches a human’s — it’s sensitive enough to detect the shape, softness and overall texture of what it touches The silicone hand — developed by a team of roboticists led by Robert Shepherd, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Cornell — is filled with optical fibers that can detect how light that passes through the hand changes as it moves and comes into contact with other objects. Watch the soft robot pick the ripest out of three tomatoes, in various stages of maturity, just by touching them. Unlike most tactile robots that feel with sensors on the outside of the machine, this robotic hand has its sensors on the inside, more similar to a human. Typically, robots that sense what they touch rely on the object being able to conduct electricity, which the robot could then detect to try to learn things about what it’s touching. The hand made by the Cornell lab only works when the machine moves and changes shape. “If no light was lost when we bend the prosthesis, we wouldn’t get any information about the state of the sensor,” Shepherd said in an interview with the Cornell Chronicle. “The amount of loss is dependent on how it’s bent.” The Cornell researchers say this technology may one day power prosthetic hands that restore people’s sense of touch, or could give biologically inspired robots a more delicate and sensitive style of physical contact. Huichan Zhao, the Cornell doctoral candidate who is the lead author on the research on the soft robo-hand published in the Science Robotics journal this month, told NPR that she estimates that her team’s soft robotic hand could be made for as cheap as $50. But, as with other soft-robot projects, the hand from the Cornell lab needs to be filled with compressed air to cause the fingers to balloon, bend and hold their shape. And right now, air pumps are generally too big for a person to comfortably wear. This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

https://www.vox.com/2016/12/18/14001048/robotic-hand-cornell-delicately-human-soft-robots

Vox

2019-06-20 00:00:00

2019

6.0

20

Green grabs first round lead at Women's PGA Championship

(Reuters) - Australian Hannah Green held a one-shot lead at the end of the opening round of the Women’s PGA Championship on Thursday after Michelle Wie was reduced to tears as she pondered her future in the wake of an opening round 84. Green fired four birdies in an otherwise flawless round for a four-under-par 68 on a wet and windy day in Chaska, Minnesota to earn her first career lead at a major tournament. South Korean Kim Hyo-joo made the early running at the Hazeltine National Golf Club with four birdies and a bogey in her 69 but that was only good enough for a share of second place with England’s Melissa Reid. Another three South Koreans were among six players tied for fourth after shooting 70s, including defending champion Park Sung-hyun who stumbled to a double bogey at the par-four 14th in an otherwise solid round. The tough weather conditions played havoc on scorecards with only 16 of the 154 players in the field going under par for the day. Among those struggling was world number one Ko Jin-young of South Korea who carded five bogeys and in a round of 77 to sit at five-over par in a tie for 102nd. Inbee Park, who won the tournament three consecutive years from 2013-15, and American Lexi Thompson, who has three consecutive top-two finishes including a one-stroke victory at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, both finished with par 72s. Canadian Brooke Henderson, fresh off her ninth LPGA Tour victory at the Meijer LPGA Classic on Sunday, was unable to build off the momentum as she struggled to a four-over 76. Michelle Wie, back in action after a two-month layoff dealing with a lingering wrist injury, endured a dismal return to competition in a round that included a quadruple-bogey, two double-bogeys, six bogeys and two birdies. The former U.S. Women’s Open champion, who has endured a start-stop return to competitive golf after hand surgery last October, hit just six of 14 fairways and 10 of 18 greens in regulation while needing 35 putts to complete her round. “It’s hard,” the tearful 29-year-old said. “It’s just one of those situations where I’m not, you know, I’m not entirely sure how much more I have left in me, so even on the bad days, I’m just, like, trying to take time to enjoy it,” said the five-time winner on the LPGA Tour. “But it’s tough.” Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto and Rory Carroll in Los Angeles, editing by Ed Osmond

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-golf-women-pgachamp-kim/green-grabs-first-round-lead-at-womens-pga-championship-idUSKCN1TL2TQ

Sports News

Reuters

2018-03-05 16:09:00

2018

3.0

5

MIT study that found low pay for Uber drivers to be revisited

Uber is disputing an MIT study that said that nearly three-quarters of Uber and Lyft drivers make less than minimum wage.The study found that drivers were making just $3.37 an hour in profit.The study's lead author says he is going to re-run some of the numbers.

https://www.businessinsider.com/r-mit-study-that-found-low-pay-for-uber-drivers-to-be-revisited-2018-3

Business Insider

2018-07-18 00:00:00

2018

7.0

18

Drake Sends Goodbye Message to DeMar DeRozan

DeMar DeRozan is getting a touching goodbye message from his good friend, Drake ... with the Toronto Raptors ambassador pouring his heart out for the freshly traded NBA star. The 6 God weighed in on the face of the franchise getting shipped to San Antonio in exchange for Kawhi Leonard on Thursday ... saying, "To my brother @demar_derozan I want to say 10 million thank you’s on behalf of YOUR city. You are a fixture in Toronto forever and you gave everything you had." "Through your leadership we had the most exciting years in franchise history. I am grateful to have witnessed your combination of skill, persistence, and loyalty from the same seats every night. Thank you for being an incredible captain and an even better friend." It's a nice gesture from Drake ... but, DeRozan is reportedly super pissed about the deal ... and feels the team lied to him about their plans for the future. The "In My Feelings" rapper also welcomed the ex-Spurs superstar to the North ... saying "we look forward to a this new chapter and we welcome you to the most intense and supportive city in NBA basketball!!!"

https://www.tmz.com/2018/07/18/drake-says-goodbye-to-demar-derozan/

TMZ

2018-09-24 22:24:58

2018

9.0

24

Emily Todd VanDerWerff

Fall TV: why we’re not doing a fall TV preview

Technically, a new fall TV season begins today, Monday, September 24. Technically. I mean, did you even notice? There was a time when the start of a new TV season would bring with it endless pomp and circumstance. The Emmys would air the night before the season started, to reward the best of the past season. The networks would air preview specials in the weeks leading up to the new season, showing off the best moments from their new shows. You would be all but unable to escape the endless onslaught of advertising for those new shows, and the TV Guide would be the thickest, chunkiest issue of the year. And that’s to say nothing of the on-network promos that gathered up all the biggest stars to sing and dance to some cheesy pop knockoff (or, in the case of the WB, brood beautifully to the tune of This Way’s “Crawl”). But we’re living through an era when almost all of that is disappearing. As with summer movie season, “fall TV season” increasingly feels like an anachronism, a way to mark the passage of the entertainment year that has been drowned out by a glut of programming. How can it be fall TV season when it’s always fall TV season? Okay, yes, technically, there are still a few months where it doesn’t feel like 500 new shows debut every week. After Thanksgiving, basically no shows launch, due to the end-of-year slump in programming (though Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon have all experimented with launching shows in this window), and August is still relatively quiet, though that, too, is changing. But the age of “fall TV season” — roughly September and October — and “midseason” (which sort of loosely comprised the January through March window) is essentially done for. Yes, lots of shows still launch in those windows, but we’ve also got a new “prestige TV” season (March through May), and there are so many more summer shows launching in June and July, and January is more crowded than ever, and ... and... Fall TV is still important for broadcast network shows, and ABC, CBS, the CW, Fox, and NBC will be launching 20 new series before the end of October. That’s not nothing. But where all but a handful of cable networks and streaming service programs used to stay away from the fall glut, now there are even more of them adding to the pile-up. FX launched its Sons of Anarchy spinoff Mayans MC in early September, HBO has its new Jennifer Garner vehicle Camping in October, and all three major streaming services have multiple programs debuting in these two months. And I haven’t even mentioned returning shows. Now, the argument here might be, “So fall TV season hasn’t disappeared. It’s just gotten worse.” I suppose that’s technically true, but only because there’s so much more television (more than 500 scripted shows, almost certainly) that everything has gotten worse. When Netflix is dedicated to launching a new show, or a new season of a show, on every weekend but a couple of holiday weekends, it’s hard to single out “fall” as a particularly important part of the TV calendar. This doesn’t mean we should completely abandon the other aspects of what fall TV season used to stand for — and, indeed, we here at Vox are going to be running weekly programming guides for you to make sense of the giant glut of new shows coming at you between now and Thanksgiving (when that glut mercifully calms down a bit). But the idea of fall as sink-or-swim time for new TV shows is increasingly antiquated. So why do we still cling to it like an essential part of the calendar? The whole reason we have a fall TV season in the first place largely stems from advertising. In particular, car manufacturers liked having new shows to place commercials on in the fall because it allowed them to advertise the new models as they began to hit car lots in the last three months of the year. (This is still true.) But ad-supported TV is a slowly dying model. It’s not like it’s going to completely disappear in the next few years (or even the next decade), but the focus of the TV industry is less and less on the ways that advertisers can make or break the bottom line. Indeed, if a network launches a new series in the fall, and it struggles to find an audience, there are many more arguments for sticking with that series than there used to be, especially if a network owns that show and can sell it overseas or to streaming services. (I’ve written a lot more about this slow, steady downward trend in cancellation.) So, then, why take a show that your network believes in and leave it to struggle for attention in the fall, when it might be better served launching somewhere else on the calendar? This has led to the very strange phenomenon of networks holding shows they clearly believe are their prestige players for midseason, while burning off more rote programs in the fall. There are exceptions, of course — NBC launched This Is Us in the fall and seems to be really into its (not that great) mystery drama Manifest and (perfectly adequate) medical drama New Amsterdam this year. But fall TV means less and less for networks in terms of quality, as well as in terms of their bottom lines. And for streaming services and cable networks, the economic incentive is to just keep producing and producing shows. Volume is the way to keep making money if you’re Netflix, because every show you produce might become the favorite of just enough subscribers that they keep paying for subscriptions. And if you launch all of those episodes at once, as Netflix does, well, you need dozens upon dozens of shows in production, and you need to scatter them all across the calendar. This is less true for services like Hulu, which release some shows weekly, but even those are ramping up production to better fill out the year. What’s more, the sheer number of shows on the broadcast networks launching in the fall window (the one thing still notably different about this part of the calendar) is down from where it was just 10 years ago. In the 2000s, it wasn’t rare for the number of new shows on broadcast to flirt with 30; in the past few seasons, it’s been rare for that number to go over 20. (And, really, my 20 count above is a lie, since it includes the not-actually-new Murphy Brown and only sort of new Roseanne spinoff The Conners.) Will fall TV continue to be important in the future? The answer is yes, but a qualified yes. In the sense that it marks a busy point in the TV calendar, sure, it’s worth paying attention to. But when the entire TV calendar is filled with new shows, when every week feels like the fall TV seasons of yore, the importance of fall premiere week every late September wanes. It’s not fall TV — it’s all TV.

https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/9/24/17885202/fall-tv-shows-best-new-preview

Vox

2017-03-16 16:49:00

2017

3.0

16

Michael Marot

Indiana fires Tom Crean just as the NCAA Tournament begins

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Indiana coach Tom Crean has been fired after nine often lackluster seasons. BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Indiana coach Tom Crean has been fired after nine often lackluster seasons. Athletic director Fred Glass announced the decision Thursday as the NCAA Tournament was beginning. Indiana failed to make the NCAA Tournament and lost to Georgia Tech in the first round of the NIT on Crean won two Big Ten regular-season championships over the last five seasons but went 18-16 this year and missed the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in nine years — including each of his first three seasons after taking over a gutted team following an NCAA scandal. The 50-year-old Crean went 166-135 at Indiana overall. Business Insider's Cork Gaines contributed to this report. ___ More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 .

https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-indiana-fires-tom-crean-after-9-seasons-2017-3

Business Insider

2016-08-30 16:41:00

2016

8.0

30

Will Magee

The Cult: Ricky Ponting

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports UK. When Ricky Ponting walked to the wicket on the third day at Trent Bridge, he could not have fathomed what was about to happen. He might have envisaged his first few strokes, he might have dreamed of turning the tide against England, but there was no way he could have predicted just how important his innings would turn out to be. It was the Fourth Test of the 2005 Ashes, a series which was already shaping up to be one of the greatest of all time. He was about to make an error which would define the game, and react in a manner which would seal his place as England's ultimate cricketing antagonist. For almost two hours, Ponting looked like he might repeat his heroics in the Third Test. Then, when Australia had needed him most, he put in a Man of the Match performance and salvaged a draw for his struggling side. His seven-hour, 156-run innings at Old Trafford had seriously dented England's momentum, and stopped them from taking a 2-1 lead in the series with two Tests left to play. Afterwards, Mike Atherton told him: "You're probably the most unpopular man in England right now." Now, in the Fourth Test, Australia needed another heroic intervention from Ponting. The visitors' first innings had been borderline disastrous, with England's bowlers tearing through their batting order and leaving them 259 runs behind. In a bold move from England captain Michael Vaughan, Australia were given a humiliating slap in the face. The top team in Test cricket, the undisputed masters of the sport, were asked to follow-on for the first time in 17 years and 190 Tests. Ponting and his teammates were not best pleased. It showed in their response, which was to grit their teeth and battle their way to within 37 runs of England's total by evening. It was then, in the evening session, that the unfathomable happened. Ponting had put 48 runs on the scoreboard, having faced a mere 89 balls. He looked to be on his way to another tenacious top-order innings, and to frustrating England's bowlers once again. Suddenly, he was in terrible peril. Suddenly, he was in a losing footrace with a hurtling, arrowing, hard-flung ball. With the towering Freddie Flintoff bowling, Ponting's batting partner Damien Martyn nudged a delivery into the offside. Emboldened by the presence of his captain, he called Ponting out for a precarious single. In Martyn's mind it was good, aggressive batting, but in reality he had put Ponting in danger. Australia's would-be saviour set off, sprinting with all his might for the line. In those endless few moments, a little-known substitute had gathered up the ball. He went by the name of Gary Pratt, and was about to live out the highlight of his career. Seeing Ponting dashing for his life, he leapt into action. He threw straight for the wicket, and smashed the bails from the stumps while Ponting was still an outstretched bat from the refuge of the crease. Ponting's emotions in the aftermath of his run out came in three distinct stages. In the split second after he'd seen his bails go flying, there was ice-cold shock. When he turned to see who had thrown the fatal ball, there was a creeping sense of confusion and anger. Then, as he left the field, there was boiling, bubbling fury, inspired by the fact that he had not a fucking clue who his vanquisher was. Gary Pratt was not an England regular, see. He wasn't even a regular at county level, and had failed to make a single first-class appearance that year. Of all the protagonists of the 2005 Ashes series, he was one of the most minor. He was nothing more than a substitute fielder and, as far as Ponting was concerned, he shouldn't even have been on the pitch. Ponting's grievance stemmed from the fact that, prior to the start of the series, Australia had identified a pattern in England's use of substitutes. Their opponents had, for the past few months, been using substitute fielders not only as replacements for injured players, but also as tactical pawns. Temporary substitutions for the likes of Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Flintoff and so on would give England's bowlers a chance to rest up, consult with their coaches and refresh themselves at convenient points, before they returned to the field and resumed their duties. While there was no rule against this, Ponting and his teammates saw it as an infringement on the spirit of the game. Before the First Test, he had gone as far as to mention his concerns to the match referee. When he saw that he had been run out by an unfamiliar substitute, Ponting lost it. He directed a barrage of abuse at those nearest to him, before trudging up to the pavilion, muttering under his breath. When he arrived, he caught sight of England coach Duncan Fletcher on the balcony. In an outburst that some might argue was itself 'not cricket', he fired off a verbal volley of obscenities that left the nearest spectators looking, well, a bit traumatised. This was not an edifying moment for Ponting. Already unpopular for his thorny air of superiority when it came to England – not to mention his relentless batting displays – he would be fined 75% of his match fee for his paroxysm of rage. More importantly, his anger in this case was anything but righteous. Gary Pratt had, in fact, been on the field in the place of Simon Jones, who had been taken to hospital with an ankle injury which would end his participation in Test cricket for good. While England's use of substitutes may have been controversial, in this case the swap was necessary and entirely legitimate. Even when he looks back on that run out, Ponting rarely admits that he was wrong about Pratt's presence. Australia's talisman had been an antagonist to England before, but this took him to another level. He was roundly booed for the rest of the series, which England went on to win for the first time since the late eighties. The turning point was their narrow victory in the Fourth Test, which could have been so different without the contribution of Gary Pratt. Before the 2005 Ashes series began, Ponting did at least show a certain wariness of England. Having held the treasured urn for 18 consecutive years at that point, Australia's cricketing community was still largely dismissive. Fast bowler and fellow antagonist Glenn McGrath suggested that the series could be a whitewash in the months leading up to the contest, while most Australian pundits were confident of victory. Ponting struck a more measured note, however, admitting in a pre-series press conference that "England have a bit of a winning habit and winning culture, which they haven't had for a while." When it came to damning with faint praise, nobody did it better than Ponting. England had been resurgent in the years previous, rising from fifth place in the world rankings to a very respectable second. For Ponting, that represented "a bit of a winning habit" which, lest anyone forget, England had been lacking for well over a decade and a half. Nobody could have mistaken his tone of condescension, even in what was ostensibly a compliment. The thing is, much like the rest of his countrymen, Ponting was not quite wary enough. He could nod to the idea of England's improvement, but he couldn't bring himself to face the uncomfortable truth. Duncan Fletcher's side were now ready to rival the old enemy, and the balance of cricketing power had subtly shifted. The era of crushing Australian dominance was over, and there was more than "a bit of a winning habit" about their foes. Though Ponting's snarling exit from the Fourth Test sealed his status as the villain of the piece, there had been bad blood between him and the England team since long before he was run out by Gary Pratt. Here was a man who had so often frustrated his opponents at the crease, captaining his first series on English soil. Ponting had played a vital role in Australia's 4-1 triumph in the 2002/03 series, racking up several centuries as Nasser Hussain's side were taken to pieces in the Land Down Under. He was cool, collected and unflinchingly combative, while his sledging was known to be as snide as it was fierce. If Ponting needed a reminder of his opponents' resentment, it came from the arm of Steve Harmison in the First Test. England were pumped up for the occasion after months and months of Australian mind games and – despite the fact that they would go on to lose the series opener – their aggressive approach marked a change in attitude. England were ready to make things personal, an approach which Ponting had never had a problem with. That's where Harmison stepped in, and gave his opponent something to think about. Harmison started the Test in bellicose fashion, hitting Justin Langer with a nasty bouncer on the elbow early on. The Australians were somewhat shaken, until Ponting came in to steady the line. When Harmison spotted their captain coming out to bat, he felt the fire of acrimony burning in his belly. Not long after he'd taken his place at the wicket, Harmison smashed Ponting on the helmet with a wicked bouncer, which left a bright red gash on his cheek. While Harmison had gone too far in his belligerence, Ponting had been reminded of what England thought of him in no uncertain terms. In this, perhaps the greatest Ashes series of all time, he was England's cricketing nemesis. In this, the hardest-fought of all matches, he was going to get as good as he gave. "You fucking, cheating cunts." Ricky Ponting, having been run out by Gary Pratt. @W_F_Magee

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jp7gak/the-cult-ricky-ponting

Sports

Vice

2019-03-26 00:00:00

2019

3.0

26

Andrew Chung

U.S. top court backs Sudan over American sailors in USS Cole bombing case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday prevented American sailors injured in the deadly 2000 al Qaeda bombing of the Navy destroyer USS Cole from collecting $314.7 million in damages from the government of Sudan for its alleged role in the attack. In a 8-1 ruling, the justices overturned a lower court’s decision that had allowed the sailors to collect the damages from certain banks that held Sudanese assets. The decision represented a major victory for Sudan, which denies that it provided any support to al Qaeda for the attack in Yemen. Sudan was backed by President Donald Trump’s administration in the case. In the ruling, the justices agreed with Sudan that the lawsuit had not been properly initiated in violation of U.S. law because the claims were delivered in 2010 to the African country’s embassy in Washington rather than to its minister of foreign affairs in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. “Sudan is pleased with the decision,” said Christopher Curran, who represented Sudan’s government in the case. “No one disputes that the sailors on the Cole were the victims of a brutal terrorist attack. But Sudan vehemently disputes any culpability in that attack, and is determined to clear its name.” A lawyer for the sailors, Kannon Shanmugam, expressed disappointment. “The fight for justice for the Cole victims and their families continues,” Shanmugam said. A lower court had levied damages by default because Sudan did not defend itself against allegations that it had given support to the Islamist militant group. The Oct. 12, 2000, attack killed 17 sailors and wounded more than three dozen others when two men in a small boat detonated explosives alongside the Navy guided-missile destroyer as it was refueling in the southern Yemeni port of Aden, blasting a gaping hole in its hull. The vessel was repaired and later returned to full active duty. Fifteen of the injured sailors and three of their spouses sued Sudan’s government in 2010 in Washington. At issue was whether mailing the lawsuit to Sudan’s embassy violated the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a U.S. law governing when foreign governments may be sued in American courts. Writing for the court’s majority, conservative Justice Samuel Alito said that other countries’ foreign ministers must be reached where they normally work, “not a far flung outpost that the minister may at most occasionally visit.” Alito expressed sympathy toward the sailors, writing that the ruling may seem like it is enforcing an empty formality. “But there are circumstances in which the rule of law demands adherence to strict requirements even when the equities of a particular case may seem to point in the opposite direction,” Alito said, adding that the case had sensitive diplomatic implications. Alone in his dissent, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas said that allowing litigants to send notices of lawsuits to embassies would comply with both U.S. and international law. The Trump administration had told the justices that a ruling against Sudan could impact how the U.S. government is treated by foreign courts because the United States rejects judicial notices delivered to its embassies. The sailors were highly critical of the administration’s position. “Particularly given this administration’s solicitude for veterans, its decision to side with a state sponsor of terrorism, against men and women who are seeking to recover for grievous injuries suffered in the service of our country, is inexplicable and distressing,” they said in a legal brief to the court. In 2012, a federal judge in Washington issued a default judgment of $314.7 million against Sudan. Individual plaintiffs were to receive between $4 million and $30 million each. A separate judge in New York later ordered certain banks to turn over assets they had held for Sudan to partially satisfy the judgment. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld those orders in 2015. Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-sudan/u-s-top-court-backs-sudan-over-american-sailors-in-uss-cole-bombing-case-idUSKCN1R71PQ

World News

Reuters

2017-12-21 16:50:02

2017

12.0

21

Alissa Wilkinson

Downsizing review: Matt Damon stars in an audacious, uneven sci-fi fable

Vox's guide to the year’s most essential films, from the Toronto International Film Festival to the Academy Awards. The premise of Downsizing is a great one: Scientists in Norway come up with the technology to reduce humans safely and efficiently down to about the size of your thumb. Small people, the thinking goes, generate less waste, consume fewer resources, and take up less space than their full-sized counterparts. On an overpopulated planet that’s becoming overrun with waste, more and more expensive, and gradually less inhabitable, downsizing could be what saves everyone. The unintended consequences will quickly present themselves to the average viewer: What happens if everyone shrinks down in a world that is still very much full-sized? Doesn’t a world overrun by, say, regular-sized house pets become Jurassic Park? Wouldn’t the economic benefits eventually disappear? But Downsizing is science fiction, a genre in which the concepts are often great but the corresponding stories often have to wave their hands around a bit to keep you from seeing the plot holes. In this case, the hand-waving comes by way of a long, meandering story that seems to take a sharp left turn in several spots. By the end of Downsizing you can barely remember where you began. I’m not convinced that’s a strike against the movie. It seems to be imitating the journey of its protagonist, Paul Safranek (Matt Damon), who is a blandly friendly fellow on the road to self-discovery. Downsizing — directed by Alexander Payne (Nebraska, Sideways) from a screenplay he wrote with frequent collaborator Jim Taylor — likely would have benefited from a bit more vision and control, some more streamlined shifts in focus. But its unwieldy, occasionally baffling progression has a charm all its own. After the Norwegian scientists invent the shrinking technology, a pilot group of 36 people bravely shrink themselves and live successfully in a colony for a few years, and then their existence is announced to the public. As with many socially conscious endeavors in more affluent parts of the world, downsizing carries benefits for the planet as a whole, but more benefits for the people who actually downsize. For one thing, there’s a kind of status that comes along with the process, signaling that everyone who participates is brave, a pioneer, an adventurer. But the biggest, most immediate benefit to those who downsize has to do with how much more inexpensive it is to live in the small world. Their full-sized assets, once liquidated, make them wealthier than they’d ever been in the real world. People who once were barely getting by in a small home now can afford a big, stylish McMansion in a gated community called Leisureland; “small-only” and corporate-owned, the place has zero crime and there’s plenty of time for pleasurable pursuits. Not everyone jumps at the opportunity — some people are too poor to even afford the downsizing, some have medical issues (such as replacement hips) that make it impossible, and some just don’t want to make such a drastic change to their bodies and lives. But for those who can, it seems like an exciting, viable thing to do. Choosing to downsize is essentially like hitting the reset button, and it’s something that Paul and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) start looking into after two of their high school classmates (Jason Sudeikis and Maribeth Monroe) turn up small at a reunion. It’s a way of shedding your mortgage, your dead-end job, and your old life, and to start out fresh in a community of people who are just like you. Things do not go as planned. Through a series of unfortunate events, Paul finds himself living in a Leisureland one-bedroom apartment below a loud neighbor named Dusan (Christoph Waltz) and his buddy Konrad (Udo Kier), two international playboys who throw a lot of parties. At one of those parties, Paul meets a Vietnamese refugee named Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau) who stowed away in a TV after being shrunk against her will in a prison for dissidents. (Turns out authoritarian governments have their own ideas about how to use the shrinking technology.) Paul becomes fascinated with Ngoc Lan, who lives outside the wall of Leisureland in a tenement-style building that’s home to a lot of immigrants and poor small people. (The metaphors in Downsizing are not particularly subtle.) Ngoc Lan spends her time doing all kinds of things, but especially making sure that the old, sick, and hungry among her neighbors get some kind of care, as best she can. She represents something Paul hasn’t experienced in a long time: passion and drive, and a sense of responsibility. But then one day, both Dusan and Ngoc Lan get calls from the man who invented downsizing. He wants them to come see him in Norway. Paul, who’s fallen pretty hard for Ngoc Lan, tags along, and what the trio discovers there is that the act of downsizing itself, corporate-style, isn’t the solution to what ails the planet. And they’re offered another way to save themselves from the coming apocalypse. Downsizing is among several movies this year that posit the apocalypse in the form of imminent environmental catastrophe (Mother! is another, if Darren Aronofsky is to believed). It is, then, a kind of pre-apocalyptic movie crossed with science fiction, and on that level it succeeds out of sheer weirdness. The fun of this kind of story is in the world-building, and though the world that Downsizing starts with is, ahem, small, it telescopes outward over the course of the film. Along with Paul, we slowly take in the various consequences and repercussions of the downsizing effort. If you can settle in and just go with it, there’s pleasure in watching the whole thing unfold. At its best, it does what stories like this should do: present various social issues like — overconsumption, bias, willful blindness to the world’s problems — in a new context, so that we see them afresh. Downsizing isn’t perfect, though, and while it seems at times like the film is making a feint toward satire, it never really gets there. There are a lot of ideas in the mix, but the film lacks the follow-through to give it real punch. Since Downsizing’s festival run, there’s been criticism of Chau’s character, who has a heavy accent that is played (quite a lot) for laughs. (More generally, Payne has been criticized in the past by those who feel his movies are condescending toward their characters.) Perhaps more disappointing, however, is that Paul, played by Damon (who has been repeatedly shoving his foot into his mouth during the press tour for the film), is just not a terribly compelling or interesting person. That’s part of the idea, of course — his main trait is passivity — but it doesn’t make for a very good protagonist, especially next to Chau’s character, who is a pragmatic spitfire, and Waltz’s, who is an unmitigated weirdo. I can’t exactly recommend Downsizing. It’s hard to say whether it’s successful in its aims, since it’s not entirely clear what those aims are. But while I watched, I found myself thinking about Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her, which is similarly set in the very near future and posits another kind of apocalypse, one that’s specifically linked to our over-reliance on technology. Jonze was more successful in showing how our humanity is what binds us together, and what really comprises that humanity; I think that’s what Payne was after in Downsizing, too. He succeeds only in fits and starts. But in the end, I have to admire him for attempting at all. Downsizing opens in theaters on December 22.

https://www.vox.com/2017/12/21/16803222/downsizing-review-matt-damon-kristen-wiig-hong-chau

Vox

2018-08-13 00:00:00

2018

8.0

13

'Last Chance U' Coach Turned Down 400 Recruits After Netflix Release

'Last Chance U' coach Jason Brown tells TMZ Sports ... HUNDREDS of players have hit him up wanting to transfer to his school, thanks to the way he was portrayed on the Netflix show. FYI, to say Brown is "fiery" is a tremendous understatement -- during the show, he unloaded full-throated nuclear verbal attacks at players, refs and his own coaches ... and many have criticized him for being way too aggressive. But Brown says his coaching style hasn't scared anyone away -- in fact, it's attracted so many recruits to Independence Community College in Kansas, he's had to turn away hundreds of players. "We've had to turn down about 400 kids in the first weekend alone. I had about 5,000 emails in 24 hours." But that's not the only perk from being on the show -- Brown says he's gotten A LOT of attention from female fans looking to get to know the coach on a personal level ... though Brown says he's playing hard to get. And this is just the beginning, Netflix has announced they're working on a season 4 ... which will also feature ICC and Coach Brown. Brown admits he hasn't watched the full series of the show yet, but says he's not gonna make any changes to his approach to coaching. So, be ready for more tough love. And expletives. LOTS of expletives.

https://www.tmz.com/2018/08/13/last-chance-u-coach-jason-brown-recruits-netflix/

TMZ

2018-01-26 00:00:00

2018

1.0

26

Entire USA Gymnastics board to resign in wake of sex abuse scandal

DETROIT (Reuters) - The entire USA Gymnastics board will resign in the wake of the scandal stemming from the sexual abuse of female athletes by former doctor Larry Nassar, bowing to the demands of U.S. Olympic officials, a USAG spokeswoman said on Friday. “USA Gymnastics will comply with the USOC requirements,” USAG spokeswoman Leslie King said in an email. She was responding to a question about whether the federation board would resign by Wednesday as demanded by U.S. Olympic Committee Chief Executive Officer Scott Blackmun. Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gymnastics-usa-nassar-board/entire-usa-gymnastics-board-to-resign-in-wake-of-sex-abuse-scandal-idUSKBN1FF2NA

Politics

Reuters

2018-03-30 00:00:00

2018

3.0

30

Sweden says Russia expels one diplomat

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Russia is expelling a Swedish diplomat in a tit-for-tat move after the Nordic country expelled a Russian diplomat after the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said on Friday. The Swedish government said on Monday it would expel one Russian diplomat in response to a nerve agent attack in Britain that the British government has blamed on Moscow. A Swedish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the Russian move in response was “unfortunate, but not unexpected”. Reporting by Niklas Pollard; Editing by Edmund Blair

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-russia-sweden-expulsion/sweden-says-russia-expels-one-diplomat-idUSKBN1H6170

World News

Reuters

2016-11-09 07:36:33

2016

11.0

9

Matthew Yglesias

Media obsession with a bullshit email scandal helped Trump to the White House

The media’s coverage of the 2016 race didn’t win the election for Donald Trump, but it didn’t help. Back in September, Gallup presented the findings of an important research project that, in retrospect, ought to have prompted a lot more soul searching among members of the press. What they did was, over an extended period of time, survey people and ask them what they were hearing about the two candidates. The answer is that with regard to Hillary Clinton, they heard a lot about email. With regard to Trump, they heard about nothing in particular. The way Frank Newport, Lisa Singh, Stuart Soroka, Michael Traugott, and Andrew Dugan put it for Gallup is that compared with the email-centric view of Clinton, “Americans' reports of what they have read, seen or heard about Donald Trump over this same period have been more varied and related to his campaign activities and statements.” Journalists are accustomed to thinking of the media primarily in terms of the inputs we deliver to public understanding of major events. To thinking, in other words, of what stories we publish. And by that standard, the overwhelming conventional wisdom among journalists has been that we, as a profession, held Donald Trump’s feet to the fire. Major media outlets have, after all, done reports on all of the following: One could further emphasize the point by adding to the list. But any reasonable person would judge that there has been no shortage of negative coverage of Trump. A strikingly wide range of character weaknesses have been probed and exposed in the mainstream press. Clinton has, by contrast, mainly been subjected to two negative storylines. One concerns the question of whether she gave favorable access to donors to the Clinton Foundation, and the other concerns the propriety of her decision to use a private email server to conduct business while serving as secretary of state. The problem is that if you think of campaign journalism as not just a series of stories but a collective effort to produce public understanding as an output, then we have failed. You see it right there in the Gallup graphic. People heard loud and clear that Clinton was in some kind of trouble related to email whereas the stories about Trump — with the exception of the sexual assault allegations, which came after this study — do not seem to have broken through. Indeed, there’s the alarming possibility that Trump actually benefited from the sheer range of negative stories about him. To cover any one Trump story — his refusal to disclose his income taxes or to commit to putting his business holdings in a blind trust — as extensively as the Clinton email story was covered would have necessarily required that less attention be paid to other important lines of inquiry into Trump. But by trying to cover all the different negative storylines about Trump, the press created a muddle in which nothing in particular stood out. Conversely, the fact that there actually weren’t very many negative angles to pursue against Clinton ended up blowing the email story out of proportion. If you have journalists assigned to cover Clinton, they need to do some kind of stories. And they’re going to want to do some tough stories. So if the only topic to do tough stories about is emails, you’re doing to get a lot of stories about emails. And a natural implication that people are going to draw is that Clinton’s email server is a crucially important story. The truth, however, is that the email saga was profoundly unimportant. Federal IT at the time would have required her to carry two separate BlackBerrys, one for her personal email and one for her work email. That’s what an ordinary State Department employee would have had to do, but Clinton was the boss, so she chose to exempt herself from the rule and just use one email account. It was a little selfish (a perfect boss would have played by the rules while insisting on finding a department-wide solution to the problem) but not especially important. Most of all, it wasn’t criminal, and it didn’t endanger national security. Indeed, the use of a private email system has nothing to do with the inquiry into the emailing of classified material that it spawned. Government personnel aren’t supposed to discuss classified matters on non-secure channels like email at all. And as a rule, they don’t. But it happens from time to time accidentally and it’s not a crime. The truth, however, is that the email server scandal is and always was overhyped bullshit. Clinton broke no laws, as the FBI concluded twice. But beyond that, basic familiarity with the relevant law would have made it clear to anyone that no FBI investigation of the matter was even vaguely likely to conclude that she had. For starters, the bulk of statutes related to classification require some form of intent to establish criminality. The exception is 18 USC § 793, an 18th-century statute whose text sets a lower “gross negligence” standard. If that was all you knew, then the inclusion of classified information in email exchanges that Clinton conducted on a non-secure system might sound like it fits the bill. But experts uniformly say otherwise. As Jack Goldsmith, one of the top lawyers in George W. Bush’s administration, explains, such a prosecution “would be entirely novel, and would turn in part on very tricky questions about how email exchanges fit into language written with physical removal of classified information in mind.” Ben Wittes, a veteran legal journalist and Brookings fellow who has spent the past several years specializing in national security law, wrote that James omey’s characterization was clearly correct: For the last several months, people have been asking me what I thought the chances of an indictment were. I have said each time that there is no chance without evidence of bad faith action of some kind. People simply don't get indicted for accidental, non-malicious mishandling of classified material. I have followed leak cases for a very long time, both at the Washington Post and since starting Lawfare. I have never seen a criminal matter proceed without even an allegation of something more than mere mishandling of sensitive information. Hillary Clinton is not above the law, but to indict her on these facts, she'd have to be significantly below the law. It’s true that to a layman the Espionage Act’s reference to “gross negligence” sounds similar to Comey’s characterization of Clinton’s actions as “extremely careless.” But as Philip Zelikow, a counselor to Condoleezza Rice during the Bush administration and currently the director of the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, explains, they only sound alike “unless you do a tiny bit of homework” on the history and case law of the statute. Did Hillary Clinton do something criminal with her emails? Philip Zelikow walks you through. #election2016 @AnnCompton @pastpunditrypic.twitter.com/kS8Z4dq9Qf — Miller Center (@Miller_Center) November 3, 2016 As the Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez writes, attempting a prosecution for non-malicious mishandling would likely result in the statute being held unconstitutional: “the Supreme Court’s opinion in Gorin v. United States (1941), which suggests that the Espionage Act’s intent requirements are an important feature that save it from unconstitutional vagueness.” This legal analysis is important because people who understood it would have understood that the “bombshell” revelation that more emails had been discovered on Anthony Weiner’s laptop was going to be a non-story. Even if for some reason the emails turned out to be new (and it now looks like they weren’t), there was absolutely zero reason to believe they would show the malign intent that you would need to demonstrate that Clinton broke the law. But by that point, email mania had become a locked-in story. The press had covered emails so much, and public perceptions of Clinton were so dominated by emails, that the mere hint of new email news itself became a meta-story. Neither the headlines nor the accompanying articles had much in the way of actual content — there was no information, after all — but they simply asserted the self-fulfilling prophecy that people talking about emails would jolt the race. Which, according to all the evidence, it did. The massive overweighting of emails in Americans’ news diet was not the only failing of journalism this cycle. As Jonathan Bernstein writes, press coverage did not really convey one of the most remarkable things about Trump — his profound lack of support from inside the Republican Party. Neither of the GOP’s former presidents supported him. A number of sitting United States senators declined to endorse him. So did a smattering of Republican governors from Tennessee and Ohio to Maryland. Only 5 percent of Republican state legislators explicitly endorsed Trump. This should have been presented to voters as what it was — a huge, anomalous situation; the political equivalent of flashing red warnings lights on the highway. But it was not. That was in part due to a lack of backbone on the part of many of the Trump-skeptical Republicans. But it was also in part a result of deliberate editorial strategies. CNN chose to sideline much of its regular stable of conservative pundits and replace them with professional Trump apologists. That let them stage their normal fair and balanced pundit roundtables rather than exposing the audience to the reality that the underlying situation was abnormal. That abnormality should have been the dominant theme of the election. As Ezra Klein wrote after the national conventions, “This campaign is not merely a choice between the Democratic and Republican parties, but between a normal political party and an abnormal one.” That Trump was not really normal was, I think, properly conveyed by the bulk of the coverage. But the impact of wall-to-wall email stories was to excessively abnormalize Clinton. Clinton is, fundamentally, a regular, center-left Democratic Party politician who’d be largely interchangeable with Amy Klobuchar or Chris Murphy or Kirsten Gillibrand or whoever else as president. One can reasonably criticize this whole group of politicians for being too liberal or for being too moderate or many other things. But they’re banal, just like Clinton. The impact of the email story was to exoticize and abnormalize Clinton in an entirely unwarranted way. To create the impression that the election pitted two abnormal characters against each other, when in truth nothing of the sort was going on. Analysis of Trump’s victory will naturally tend to focus on the broad structural forces that drove his rise. But elections are close-run things. The difference between a narrow win in Florida and a narrow loss in Florida is just a few thousand votes. The typical Trump supporter was drawn to him out of either baseline partisanship or attraction to the peculiarities of his message. But the marginal Trump supporter is the reason he won. And that supporter was very likely influenced by the overwhelming media focus on the email matter. Future historians will look back on this dangerous period in American politics and find themselves astonished that American journalism, as an institution, did so much to distort the stakes by elevating a fundamentally trivial issue.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/9/13570724/media-obsession-emails

Vox

2019-04-09 00:00:00

2019

4.0

9

Rex Santus

Ilhan Omar straight-up called Stephen Miller a white nationalist

President Donald Trump may not believe that white nationalism is a growing threat, but Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar thinks he has one in his ranks. Omar tweeted Monday that Stephen Miller, one of President Trump’s top advisers, is a “white nationalist.” Miller, a far-right political activist, has reportedly masterminded some of the Trump administration’s most aggressive immigration moves, such as the now-defunct “zero tolerance” policy, which separated children from their parents at the U.S. southern border. “Stephen Miller is a white nationalist,” Omar wrote on Twitter. “The fact that he still has influence on policy and political appointments is an outrage.” Omar linked to a piece from Splinter about Miller’s reported attempts to dismiss high-ranking officials within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because they weren’t hard-line enough on immigration. The former Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, said Sunday that she would resign from her position. She had reportedly pushed back on the president’s wishes to reinstate family separations, and Miller called her “too weak” to handle the position. President Donald Trump may not believe that white nationalism is a growing threat, but Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar thinks he has one in his ranks. Omar tweeted Monday that Stephen Miller, one of President Trump’s top advisers, is a “white nationalist.” Miller, a far-right political activist, has reportedly masterminded some of the Trump administration’s most aggressive immigration moves, such as the now-defunct “zero tolerance” policy, which separated children from their parents at the U.S. southern border. “Stephen Miller is a white nationalist,” Omar wrote on Twitter. “The fact that he still has influence on policy and political appointments is an outrage.” Omar linked to a piece from Splinter about Miller’s reported attempts to dismiss high-ranking officials within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because they weren’t hard-line enough on immigration. The former Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, said Sunday that she would resign from her position. She had reportedly pushed back on the president’s wishes to reinstate family separations, and Miller called her “too weak” to handle the position. With Nielsen gone, Miller is expected to push for a more hard-line crackdown on immigration. Omar, one of two Muslim women ever elected to Congress, has repeatedly criticized Israel and its relationship with the U.S., and she supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel’s human-rights abuses in occupied Palestinian territories. Her outspokenness has caused several controversies and even led her opponents to paint her as anti-Semitic. (Her supporters, however, have dismissed the accusations as nothing more than attempts to silence any criticism of Israel.) Trump supporters, including the president’s son, have joined in on the name-calling against Omar. And during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday on rising white nationalism, ranking member Rep. Doug Collins, a Georgia Republican, took an indirect swipe at her. Omar’s stances on Israel have also led to multiple death threats against her. Last week, the FBI arrested a man who allegedly threatened to shoot Omar in the head and likened her to a “terrorist.” The man identified himself as a Donald Trump supporter. Cover image: White House senior adviser Stephen Miller listens to President Donald Trump speak during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, June 21, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/qv7ddw/ilhan-omar-straight-up-called-stephen-miller-a-white-nationalist

Vice News

2019-01-25 14:24:02

2019

1.0

25

Nicole Fallert

Lara Trump: the shutdown is a “little bit of pain” for workers, but worth it

It’s more than a month into the longest government shutdown in American history, and federal workers are facing a second missed paycheck. Lara Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law and reelection campaign adviser, had a message for the furloughed workers and those working without pay: It will be worth it. “Listen, it’s not fair to you, and we all get this, but this is so much bigger than any one person,” she said in an interview with Bold TV. “It’s a little bit of pain, but it’s going to be for the future of our country.” Future Americans will be grateful for the shutdown, Trump said: “Their children and their grandchildren will thank them for their sacrifice right now.” Although she said she empathized with workers’ plights — “I know they have bills to pay, they have mortgages, they have rents that are due” — Trump’s comments sparked a backlash because of her personal wealth. Regardless, she said fixing immigration policy was more important: “He knows we need a wall — or a structure, however you want to talk about it,” she said of the president, adding that the “broken” immigration system needed these workers to be strong for their country. She then expressed gratitude to the workers who have been going without paychecks for more than a month. Democrats in Congress are calling for President Trump to reopen the government and then debate funding for the border wall. Lara Trump claimed it’s “sad” Democrats don’t care enough about federal workers to come to the discussion table. She blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for refusing to accept the president’s latest offer — but that’s because Democrats are firm about not letting Trump hold federal paychecks hostage to achieve campaign promises. But while Lara Trump claims “the president is trying every single day to come up with a solution here,” he actually has the power to end the standoff, as Aaron Rupar writes for Vox: The White House is trying to criticize Democrats for not doing more to end the government shutdown, but it’s actually Trump who refuses to budge on reopening the government until he gets funding for his border wall. Aside from caving to Trump’s demands, it’s unclear what else Democrats can do at this point. Trump stormed out of a meeting with Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer last week, after Pelosi indicated she’s still not interested in allocating money for Trump’s wall. His strategy since then has been to tweet about how much time he’s spending in the White House.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/23/18194348/lara-trump-shutdown-workers

Vox

2016-06-22 00:00:00

2016

6.0

22

UFC: No Sale Yet ... Not Even Close

Reports are swirling that the Fertitta brothers are no longer the proud owners of the UFC ... but TMZ Sports has learned it's just not true. According to reports, WME talent agency, along with a Chinese media org and a group led by Robert Kraft snagged the MMA powerhouse for around $4 billion. Sources tell us ... there are negotiations but "a deal isn't even close." In fact, we're told there has not even been an agreement on whether 100% of the UFC will be sold or just a portion. Nor have the parties agreed on price. One report says the deal was finalized Sunday between WME CEO Ari Emanuel, Lorenzo Fertitta and other UFC execs at a dinner meeting in Hollywood. But we've learned Emanuel was on a plane Sunday flying back from a bar mitzvah out of the country and Lorenzo was in Vegas all day. We're told Dana White and Frank Fertitta were also in Vegas all day. We're told if a deal is consummated, it won't happen this week and it's possible it will never happen.

https://www.tmz.com/2016/06/22/ufc-not-sold/

TMZ

2019-06-22 00:00:00

2019

6.0

22

Thailand bans pig imports from Laos after African swine fever outbreak

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand will ban pig imports from Laos for 90 days after its neighbor confirmed the first outbreak of deadly African swine fever, an official notice said. The ban would cover live pigs and carcasses in an effort to prevent the disease from spreading into Thailand, said a notice on the Thai Department of Development of Livestock on Friday. The move follows a similar ban on Friday by China. Laos on Thursday confirmed its first outbreaks of deadly African swine fever - which is fatal to pigs but does not harm humans - in its southern province of Saravane, the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health said on Thursday. Lao authorities reported seven outbreaks of ASF in villages in Saravane, which led to the deaths of 973 animals, the OIE said on its website, citing information from Laos’ Agriculture Ministry. Millions of pigs have been slaughtered in China, Hong Kong and Vietnam to try to stop the spread of the disease. Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Alison Williams

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-swinefever-laos/thailand-bans-pig-imports-from-laos-after-african-swine-fever-outbreak-idUSKCN1TN0CL

Health News

Reuters

2019-07-01 00:00:00

2019

7.0

1

Russia says organic chloride level in Ust-Luga oil at normal level

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Organic chloride levels in oil loaded at Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga stood at 3.7 parts per million (ppm) on Monday, a level well within the normal range, Russia’s energy ministry said. Organic chloride levels have been closely scrutinized following a major oil contamination earlier this year. The ministry said it expected levels this week to range from 3.5 to 4.7 ppm. The maximum permitted level is 10 ppm, it said. Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy, Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Deepa Babington

https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-oil-organic-chloride/russia-says-organic-chloride-level-in-ust-luga-oil-at-normal-level-idUSR4N23E067

Commodities

Reuters

2017-08-04 12:11:10

2017

8.0

4

Edoardo Maggio

Anthony Levandowski was reportedly working with Larry Page on flying cars

Former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski allegedly worked with Alphabet (Google's parent company) CEO Larry Page on flying cars in one of Page's startups, The Wall Street Journal reports. Levandowski was one of Google's top engineers who worked on the company's self-driving car technology, and was accused by Google of stealing sensitive, classified information he allegedly brought with him to Uber through the acquisition of Ottomotto, the startup he founded immediately after leaving the search giant. According to the WSJ report, months before his departure, Levandowski was working on a flying car project at Kitty Hawk, one of Larry Page's privately owned startups. He wasn't a formal Kitty Hawk employee, apparently, but he was allegedly testing prototype aircrafts with Page at one point. In the ongoing litigation between Google and Uber, which involves Page and Levandowski, Google's cofounder claimed that he tried to ward off Levandowski when it came to opening new businesses, especially if they were competing with his own work at Google. Levandowski was highly regarded among Google's top executives, the Journal says, and worked on side projects outside of the company. However, when Levandowski declared his interest in self-driving trucks — which were technically not part of his work at Google — this didn't sit well with Page. "I told him very, very clearly that I thought that was highly competitive and not a good idea," said Page, according to the transcript of his deposition, released last Wednesday. "I'm like, 'No, that's not fine. Like, that's the same thing as what you're doing here. I mean, you can do that, but we are not going to be happy.'" Google did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Get the latest Google stock price here.

https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-levandowski-larry-page-flying-cars-2017-8

Business Insider

2016-08-26 14:35:00

2016

8.0

26

Mike Pearl, VICE Staff

What Are Whip Its? The Side Effects and Dangers of Doing Them

Time for "How Scared Should I Be?" the column that quantifies the scariness of everything under the sun, and teaches you how to allocate that most precious of natural resources: your fear. I know what you're thinking: Is there a conceivable universe where whippits—inhalations of nitrous oxide gas, typically sucked out of a whipped-cream can—are scary? Last week, when someone I know asked if it was a good idea to buy a huge box of whipped-cream chargers at a bargain basement price, all I could give him was a hunch: It seemed like it might not be a good idea to buy that many. I wasn't sure why. Here's what you already know: Nitrous oxide gas makes cream into whipped cream, makes Vin Diesel's car go faster, and makes dental work slightly less awful. And if you take a lungful of it for fun, you'll be like "whoooooo..." for about the time it takes to breathe in and out. That's the whole thing. It's not exactly heroin. Right? "You can die using it in some circumstances," said Matthew Howard, social worker and editor of the Journal of Addictive Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Fortunately, he added, "Most people are engaged in intermittent episodic use. That's not nearly as problematic." To find out more about what kind of drug nitrous oxide is, I spoke to Kate Leslie, head of anesthesia research at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. She said it "puts people to sleep, takes away pain, and it has euphoric effects." She called the amount in a normal whipped-cream charger—three or four lungfuls—"a small-ish dose," but she also said it's "about the same as we've used to put someone to sleep." Here's a breakdown of how whippits can go wrong. And yes, they can go very wrong if you work hard enough at it. When it comes to casual use of nitrous oxide, one of the biggest dangers is probably that you'll "become unconscious, collapse and hit your head, or break your arm or fall off something," Leslie said. If you do pass out, and someone calls 911, Leslie recommended that when the paramedics inevitably ask why you went unconscious, you just tell them "whippits" instead of going, "Maybe I was hungry!" You might end up being subjected to a lot of unnecessary tests if you lie. The legal consequences of confessing aren't exactly dire. Whippits aren't legal, but prosecutions are very tricky, and the paramedics can help you. "They'll put you on oxygen," she said. And if you're short on vitamins from breathing too much nitrous oxide (more on that below), you can be "topped up" and on the road to recovery in no time. Another potential concern for casual users, Leslie said, is that "nitrous oxide causes vomiting." (While this is something she and others believe, lab experiments haven't really proven it conclusively.) Still, if you've ever done whippits, you know they can make you feel nauseous, so a little caution in this area is wise. "You breathe in your vomit, and you choke to death. That's the way a lot of people die of drug overdose," Leslie said. So just like when you're super drunk, it's a good idea not to lie flat on your back if you've just been doing whippits. Nitrous oxide isn't oxygen, which is something you need in order to, y'know, stay alive. It's definitely a bad sign if your lips turn blue, but you probably won't die from oxygen deprivation by sucking on a whipped-cream can. It's worth noting, though, that Demi Moore ended up in hospital in 2012 after allegedly sucking on industrial grade whipped-cream chargers. From here, our definition of "whippits" starts to get expansive. Imagine for a moment, you love whippits so much, you make the decision to toss the whipped-cream cans altogether, and start buying your gas in larger quantities. "The fatal cases usually involve wearing a mask," Howard told me. Generally, the way people die, he said, is that they "kinda knew what they were doing and put on some kind of mask. "When people pass out, they'll drop the balloon or whatever and start breathing air," Howard said. "If you've got a gas mask on, you won't." This is doubly true if you do what Andrew McCoy of Blacksburg, Virginia, did and put a bag on your head in order to get more nitrous oxide into your lungs. McCoy asphyxiated and died. So basically, stick to whipped-cream cans and balloons, and open a window. Whippits are usually something people do when a pool party starts getting weird, not a serious, sit-around-and-do-it-all-day drug. But according to Howard, there are people who can find themselves tempted to do whippits all day every day: those who work with big tanks of nitrous oxide and are prone to boredom. Medical side effects can set in, he said, from "the kind of use you see among dentists, dental hygienists, and people who work in the food service industry." What can happen to these folks is similar to what happened to patients in early intensive-care units: "Patients developed a condition called Subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord," Leslie told me. This comes from a vitamin deficiency, and if you get an injection of vitamin B12 soon enough, it can go away. Otherwise, you can wind up with permanently stiff limbs, grogginess, weakness, and tingly hands. In 2012, a kid in north London inhaled some kind of gas from a balloon, mistakenly thinking it was nitrous oxide, and then died of a heart attack. An investigation by the Daily Mail revealed that what he'd actually inhaled was, horribly, some kind of comedy prop called a "smelly balloon" meant to stink up a room when popped. It contained butane, isobutane and pentane, all of which are toxic. And in the course of researching this topic, I noticed that it was common to conflate whippits with the use of other inhalants, including volatile solvents or spray duster. "Those are really, super toxic," Howard told me when we briefly spoke on the subject. They deserve their own entry in this column, frankly. It was hard to take this topic seriously, because on one hand, if you're sucking nitrous out of a can every once in a while, you'll be fine. On the other hand, this evil gas of death somehow claimed 17 lives in the UK between 2006 and 2012. Conditions associated with long-term use of nitrous oxide like the aforementioned subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord, as well as myeloneuropathy legitimately scary, but they're also very unusual. For God's sake just do it around people. Don't wear a mask. And just generally take it easy with that stuff. Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5gqg4q/how-scared-should-i-be-of-whip-its

Health

Vice

2016-03-08 17:10:24

2016

3.0

8

Kurt Wagner

Samsung's Media Struggles Continue: Its Milk Virtual Reality Boss Has Left

Matt Apfel, the executive in charge of Samsung’s Milk VR content efforts, has left the company. Milk VR is Samsung’s play for virtual reality video content — and a key part of the hardware maker’s strategy to plant its flag in the emerging field. As smartphone sales have slowed, Samsung and other Android manufacturers have looked to VR for a new revenue stream. Milk VR is its platform built for 360-degree videos, which currently live inside its Gear VR headset, a partnership with Facebook’s Oculus. A spokesperson confirmed the departure and sent the following statement to Re/code: “Samsung remains committed to delivering engaging, connected entertainment experiences through our Milk platform, including Milk VR.” So Samsung claims it still cares about VR videos. But Apfel’s departure, regardless of the reason, doesn’t look great for Samsung’s entertainment and software strategy, a long handicap for the Korean conglomerate. The company already shut down Milk Video and is reportedly shutting down its Milk Music service, too. The perception in the VR industry is that Milk VR has been a relative bust. Part of the challenge is that Samsung has lots of competition from other video libraries like Oculus Video and YouTube and smaller, independent services like Littlestar and Vrideo. With its Oculus partnership, Samsung surrendered much of the content control to Facebook, according to a former Samsung employee. Apfel, a VP of creative content and strategy for Samsung, joined the company in 2014. He was previously the chief digital officer for the Core Media Group. Samsung doesn’t have a replacement for Apfel, but we will update this story if we hear anything new. In February, Samsung released the Gear 360, a consumer camera for capturing VR content that competes with offerings from Google and other startups. Additional reporting by Ina Fried. This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

https://www.vox.com/2016/3/8/11586790/samsungs-media-struggles-continue-its-milk-virtual-reality-boss-has

Vox

2019-04-03 00:00:00

2019

4.0

3

Carter Sherman

Two more women accuse Joe Biden of inappropriate touching

Want the best from VICE News in your inbox? Sign up here. Two more women have come forward to accuse former Vice President Joe Biden of touching them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. That makes four women in the last week who've said that the potential 2020 candidate touched them inappropriately. One of the women who came forward Tuesday, 22-year-old Caitlyn Caruso, said that Biden put his hand on her thigh and hugged her “just a little bit too long” after the two met at a campus event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she told the New York Times. Caruso, who was then 19, had just shared her story of sexual assault. “It doesn’t even really cross your mind that such a person would dare perpetuate harm like that,” Caruso told the Times. “These are supposed to be people you can trust.” D.J. Hill, a 59-year-old writer, also told the Times that Biden once put his hand on Hill’s shoulder and slid it down her back in a way that made her “very uncomfortable,” she said. The two had just taken a photograph together at a 2012 fundraiser in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her husband reportedly saw the gesture and stopped it by making a joke. Want the best from VICE News in your inbox? Sign up here. Two more women have come forward to accuse former Vice President Joe Biden of touching them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. That makes four women in the last week who've said that the potential 2020 candidate touched them inappropriately. One of the women who came forward Tuesday, 22-year-old Caitlyn Caruso, said that Biden put his hand on her thigh and hugged her “just a little bit too long” after the two met at a campus event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she told the New York Times. Caruso, who was then 19, had just shared her story of sexual assault. “It doesn’t even really cross your mind that such a person would dare perpetuate harm like that,” Caruso told the Times. “These are supposed to be people you can trust.” D.J. Hill, a 59-year-old writer, also told the Times that Biden once put his hand on Hill’s shoulder and slid it down her back in a way that made her “very uncomfortable,” she said. The two had just taken a photograph together at a 2012 fundraiser in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her husband reportedly saw the gesture and stopped it by making a joke. Neither woman said anything publicly at the time, though Caruso said she squirmed in her seat to make it clear that she was uncomfortable. They did not classify what happened as sexual assault or harassment, and no one has accused Biden of such behavior. But some believe Biden’s familial style of touching strangers and supporters, perhaps without permission, is out-of-touch in the wake of the #MeToo movement — and a potential political liability for the 76-year-old Democrat’s chances in the 2020 presidential election. “He has to understand in the world that we're in now that people's space is important to them, and what's important is how they receive it and not necessarily how you intended it,” House Speaker Nancy Pelsoi told Politico. But, Pelosi said, she doesn’t see the allegations against Biden as “disqualifying.” And over the last few days, many women who know Biden or who have worked with him have publicly said that Biden tries to use touch to convey kindness and support. But not everyone sees his behavior that way. On Friday, former Nevada state legislator Lucy Flores said that Biden gave her an unwanted kiss on the back of her head just minutes before the two went onstage at a 2014 rally. Three days later, on Monday, Amy Lappos, a Connecticut woman and former congressional aide, said that Biden rubbed noses with her, which she felt was inappropriate, when she encountered him at a 2009 fundraiser. Neither women spoke up publicly at the time. “I never filed a complaint, to be honest, because he was the vice president. I was a nobody,” Lappos told the Hartford Courant. “There’s absolutely a line of decency. There’s a line of respect. Crossing that line is not grandfatherly. It’s not cultural. It’s not affection. It’s sexism or misogyny.” In a statement last weekend, after Flores came forward, Biden said he did not intend to act inappropriately and make anyone uncomfortable. “If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention,” he said. “I may not recall these moments the same way, and I may be surprised at what I hear. But we have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experiences, and men should pay attention. And I will.” Cover image: Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Biden Courage Awards Tuesday, March 26, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/qvy78d/two-more-women-accuse-joe-biden-of-inappropriate-touching

Vice News

2019-03-29 00:00:00

2019

3.0

29

Irish PM to meet Germany's Merkel, France's Macron on Brexit

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar will visit French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday to take stock of the latest Brexit developments, two days before he welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Dublin. “Both leaders have been strong and consistent allies of Ireland in responding to the unique challenges we face from Brexit. I will again express the government’s gratitude for their continuing solidarity,” Varadkar said in a statement. “Our bilateral relations with both Germany and France are better than ever - and will become even more important as we move to a European Union of 27 members.”  Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-ireland/irish-pm-to-meet-germanys-merkel-frances-macron-on-brexit-idUSKCN1RA14G

World News

Reuters

2018-11-15 14:20:04

2018

11.0

15

Kelsey Piper

Midterm voters in Fargo, North Dakota, approved a new election system

Finding the best ways to do good. Made possible by The Rockefeller Foundation. There are a lot of different ways to hold a democratic vote. Experts think the system most Americans know best — called “first-past-the-post” — might be among the worst of them. Under our current system, you vote for one candidate; the candidate with the most support at the end of the day wins. So what’s wrong with that? Quite a lot, actually. First-past-the-post favors two-party systems. It makes it unnecessary to appeal to a broad share of the electorate in multi-candidate races. Voters often have to vote strategically — for the major party candidate they dislike least — rather than honestly — for the candidate they actually want. Last week, the voters of Fargo, North Dakota, decided to opt out of this way of electing people. They voted overwhelmingly — 64-36 — for a different voting system, one that has never been tried anywhere. It’s called approval voting, a system that allows you to vote for more than one candidate — basically, any of the candidates you approve of on the ballot. The move toward it is part of a growing interest in improving our democracy by changing the way we vote, toward methods that promote less polarization. Fargo elects its city commissioners. In 2015, there was a six-way race for one seat and the winning candidate won with 21.8 percent of the vote. That inspired members of the commission to wonder if that was really the output of a healthy democratic process. They created an election task force, and the election task force set to work looking at different options for conducting Fargo elections. They hit on approval voting. The resulting landslide vote in favor of the system — which goes into effect the next election cycle — suggests that voters are intrigued by the idea of improving our political processes. Fargo’s election task force reached out to the Center for Election Science, which researches better voting systems and works to get them put into practice. Aaron Hamlin, its executive director, told me of our first-past-the-post system: “It’s the worst voting method there is.” Because it forces a voter to vote strategically from a slate of candidates, it’s demoralizing for voters, and it likely contributes to the predominance of the two major American political parties. First-past-the-post is particularly badly equipped for elections like the one in Fargo, with six candidates running — a candidate who is loathed by most of the electorate can still win (though to be clear, this isn’t necessarily what happened in Fargo). First-past-the-post, Hamlin told me, “tends to split votes for moderates. ... It favors more polarized candidates. Third parties and independents often get an artificially low amount of support.” Of course, a moderate candidate isn’t necessarily a better one. But anyone who is poorly represented by the platform of either major party might be excited at the idea of more alternatives on their ballot. One of Hamlin’s favorite examples of the failures of first-past-the-post voting is the 1991 Louisiana gubernatorial election. There was a moderate candidate: widely liked Democratic incumbent Gov. Buddy Roemer. Among the other candidates were the notoriously corrupt Democrat Edwin Edwards, later sentenced to a decade in federal prison for racketeering, and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, a Republican. Roemer did overwhelmingly better than Edwards in head-to-head polling. Roemer also did overwhelmingly better than Duke in head-to-head polling. But he lost to both of them in the three-way open primary, so the general election was between a racketeer and a white supremacist — even though the electorate of Louisiana preferred Roemer over either of them, according to Hamlin. (Edwards eventually won, after a runoff election known for bumper stickers that said “Vote for the crook. It’s important.”) Approval voting seeks to avoid such scenarios. The system is exceptionally simple: You just vote for all the candidates you like. Say there are six candidates on the ballot and you happen to like three of them. Under approval voting, you mark all three on your ballot. Whoever nets the most approval votes win. “Approval voting allows you to always support your honest favorite,” Hamlin told me. “It seems simple, but it’s surprisingly hard to do.” In approval voting, you don’t have to vote strategically — you are never better off leaving your favorite off your ballot. The Center for Election Science has argued that approval voting is better than most other voting systems at electing a candidate who would beat all other candidates in a head-to-head match, if there is such a candidate. That might mean we’d elect more candidates who had broad favorability and fewer who appeal to a narrow base. In an election with more than two candidates, it matters a lot which voting system you’re using. One way it matters is the effects on third-party candidates. In ranked-choice and approval voting systems, you can express support for more than one person, which can be a good way for third-party candidates and independent candidates to get a toehold. That’s strongly disincentivized by first-past-the-post. There’s actually an entire field of study dedicated to ways of holding a democratic vote. No voting system is perfect across the board. No system is simple, fair, proportionate, incentivizes honest rather than strategic voting, and chooses the candidate voters want in every single election. But that doesn’t mean some systems aren’t much better, or much worse, than others. Approval voting is one such alternative. Another is something called ranked-choice voting. Ranked-choice voting, also known as instant-runoff voting, lets voters list their first, second, third, etc. choice of candidates. “You vote for whoever you want,” said Lee Drutman, senior fellow at the New America Foundation and a contributor to Polyarchy, an independent blog published on Vox and produced by the political reform program at New America. “And then you pick your second, third, and fourth choice, and when your top choice is eliminated, your vote gets transferred.” Ranked-choice voting has been put into use in municipal elections from Portland, Maine, to San Francisco, and in 2018 it was used in a congressional election for the first time, in Maine. (Maine is still figuring out who won.) Ranked-choice voting means that a third-party candidate is less likely to be a “spoiler.” It could allow more third-party candidates to run. It also means that candidates can form informal alliances — telling their supporters “vote for me first, and vote for this other candidate second.” Drutman thinks this might make vicious attack ads against your opponents less appealing as a strategy: “You need to get the other candidates to vote for you a little bit, to say, ‘Vote for me, but put them second,’ which encourages more civility.” Critics of ranked-choice voting complain that it doesn’t fully solve the problem of strategic voting. In a contested three-way race where all three candidates have a credible shot at winning, it can still make strategic sense to rank someone else above your favorite. Critics also worry that, while ranked-choice voting should in theory promote the growth of third parties, it doesn’t seem to have done that in the cities where it’s been implemented so far. But Drutman emphasized that ranked-choice voting has increased viewpoint diversity and ensured winners better reflect the cities they represent — it’s just that most cities are single-party in the US. All three of the candidates in San Francisco’s recent ranked-choice mayoral election were nominally Democrats — but they had genuine differences in ideology and worldview, and voters used the ranked-choice system to select a moderate. “Ranked-choice voting has been used for 100 years in Australia,” Drutman said, “A proportional form of it has been used in Ireland.” He is optimistic it will catch on here, too. Ranked-choice voting encourages voters to pick their first, second, third, etc. choice. That allows for more nuanced ballots, but it also makes for more complicated ballots. Some research has found that ranked-choice voting produces an unusually high rate of spoiled ballots. That might just be because voters aren’t used to ranked-choice voting. But it’s also inspired some cities to experiment with other voting systems. As for approval voting, some people worry that it might be frustrating or unclear for voters. “Approval voting just says, ‘I’m okay with all these people,’” Drutman says, “but it doesn’t allow you to say that you’d like one more than the rest.” It’s not clear how much voters will make use of their opportunity to vote for more than one candidate. But what Hamlin and Drutman both agree on is that the current system is plainly worse. “Any elections expert will tell you that it’s probably the worst voting system for broader representation,” Drutman told me, echoing Hamlin’s lament. Fargo decided to heed these critics’ calls. Their new election law will go into place the next time they go to the ballot box. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who served from 1916 to 1939, once said that the role of states in America was as “laboratories” of democracy. Each state, and each city, can try things that haven’t been tried before. Others can observe and copy the methods that are working the best. In that way, these small-scale experiments with obscure voting systems can grow into something that transforms American politics. Sign up for the Future Perfect newsletter. Twice a week, you’ll get a roundup of ideas and solutions for tackling our biggest challenges: improving public health, decreasing human and animal suffering, easing catastrophic risks, and — to put it simply — getting better at doing good.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/15/18092206/midterm-elections-vote-fargo-approval-voting-ranked-choice

Vox

2018-09-21 00:00:00

2018

9.0

21

China urges U.S. to withdraw sanctions on Chinese military

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Foreign Ministry on Friday said it strongly urged the United States to withdraw sanctions on the Chinese military, after the Trump administration imposed the penalties for buying fighter jets and missile systems from Russia. Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the comments at a daily news briefing in Beijing. The United States said China’s armed forces were in breach of a sweeping U.S. sanctions law punishing Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Writing by Michael Martina; Editing by Darren Schuettler

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions-china/china-urges-u-s-to-withdraw-sanctions-on-chinese-military-idUSKCN1M10PC

World News

Reuters

2017-07-24 16:00:06

2017

7.0

24

Garet Williams

This folk song based on Trump Jr.'s emails is surprisingly good

A Reddit user has turned Donald Trump Jr.’s emails into a folk song — yes, those emails. The ones in which Trump Jr. told Rob Goldstone during his father’s presidential campaign that he would “love it especially late in the summer” if Goldstone could indeed help him get intel on Hillary Clinton, courtesy of the Russian government. The song, “I Love It (Especially Late in the Summer),” published last Wednesday by redditor spiritgiants, is a surprisingly catchy folk piece written for Song a Week, a subreddit community where the users write and record a song every week, usually but not necessarily related to a particular theme. Last week’s theme was satire. The song draws on two emails sent by Trump Jr. The first, from June 3, contains the infamous “I love it” line referenced by the song’s title: Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back? The other, from June 7, is where Trump Jr. outlines who from the Trump campaign will attend the meeting: Great. It will likely be Paul Manafort (campaign boss) my brother in law and me, 725 Fifth Ave 25th floor. In spiritgiants’ hands, these flip lines — which could potentially be used as evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia — become a soulful and mellow meditation on meeting up with a friend in the summer.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/24/16019874/trump-jr-emails-folk-song-reddit-soundcloud

Vox

2017-11-15 00:00:00

2017

11.0

15

Pope Francis Blesses Donated Lamborghini, Puts It Up for Auction

Pope Francis is officially the most overqualified used car salesman -- but God, does he have a sweetheart of a deal for you on a Lamborghini!! The Pope was gifted a special edition Lambo Huracan, which he's putting up for auction through Sotheby's -- but not before bestowing a papal blessing on the exotic whip. The $200k ride seems fairly blessed already -- zero to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds on 600 horses -- but the Pope's word has to get ya out of a few tickets, no? Plus, auction proceeds go to charity. So, what's a Pontiff gotta do to get you in this thing today???

https://www.tmz.com/2017/11/15/pope-francis-blesses-a-lamborghini-donated-to-him/

TMZ

2019-04-22 20:18:38

2019

4.0

22

Theodore Schleifer

How tech founders are trying to disrupt — and replicate — the Giving Pledge

Silicon Valley, though, thrives on disruption. And in an age when billionaires are on the ropes — and when tech leaders are reckoning with their corporate and personal responsibilities — there is new movement behind the scenes in tech to broaden the conversation that Gates began nearly a decade ago. That’s the backdrop for efforts gaining steam like the Founders Pledge, which on Monday shared with Recode that it had amassed $1 billion in commitments. That milestone reflects both its recent momentum and also (in tech-speak) the strength of an incumbent like the Giving Pledge, which is expected to route close to $500 billion in commitments to philanthropy. Rivals to the Giving Pledge — including a separate effort spearheaded by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff — are, in ways, trying to both disrupt it and replicate it simultaneously. “They sort of made the market of pledges of this kind, and started challenging the wealthiest of the wealthy to do more than token philanthropy — to really put their name and reputation on the line,” David Goldberg, the head of Founders Pledge, said in an interview. “Founders Pledge is a way to hold their future selves to account.” To be clear, the Founders Pledge has not signed up brand names like Warren Buffett or Mark Zuckerberg. Its highest-profile commitments are from people like Miguel McKelvey, a cofounder of WeWork; Niklas Adalberth, the founder of Klarna; and Jose Neves, the founder of Farfetch. But it’s trying to appeal to a younger, less-endowed class of the aspiring rich — and focusing exclusively on tech. In fact, not only do you have to not be a billionaire to sign the Founders Pledge like you must with the Giving Pledge, you don’t even have to be a millionaire. Or even have a likely company exit. Or even have company revenue. Or anything, really. (Okay, you generally need to be the company’s founder.) All it asks is that you commit to a future gift. It’s a percentage of your profits — a minimum of 2 percent of your personal proceeds — which leaves open the possibility that you could be giving away hundreds of millions of dollars if you build a unicorn company or, more likely, a big fat zero. That also makes the effort much more accessible. About 1,500 people have signed the Founders Pledge — eight times the number who have signed the Giving Pledge — which has led to about $360 million in commitments that have been fulfilled, according to the organization. The big idea here: What if there were a way for today’s younger aspiring tech billionaires to publicly affirm their willingness to donate some of their personal fortunes — but to do so before they really have the money to make good on the promise? But the easiest-to-convince pledgers signed up, as you’d expect, early on: 122 people committed in the first four years, but only 65 over the next five years (three have signed up so far in 2019). And while adding roughly 15 people a year might sound like a lot, only about 7 percent of the world’s billionaires have affixed their name to a document; the Giving Pledge particularly has work to do overseas. The most prominent snub is the world’s wealthiest person, Jeff Bezos, whose omission fits with his historically paltry giving to charity (although he has recently tried to atone for that). Some of the wealthiest people in tech remain conspicuously absent from the Giving Pledge rolls: Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Steve Ballmer, and Michael Dell, who are each worth tens of billions of dollars. And the on-the-rise set? The 40-and-under leaders of the next generation of iconic tech companies? People like Evan Spiegel, Adam Neumann, or Ben Silbermann are also no-shows. Rob Rosen, who oversees philanthropic efforts like the Giving Pledge from his perch at the Gates Foundation, argues that it still appeals to today’s younger tech entrepreneurs, naming recent additions like Brian Armstrong, the founder of Coinbase; Garrett Camp, the co-founder of Uber; and especially citing the trio of 30-something Airbnb founders who announced together in 2016 that they would join the effort. Rosen said it felt it had “strong representation” from the tech community, with his team pointing to 46 couples that it says signed the pledge from that sector. The broader challenge for the Giving Pledge — and, to be fair, for all philanthropic efforts — is that newly rich CEOs are often less than eager to want to commit to giving away half their net worth. Who knows what life could bring? So they tend to set up family offices, preserving their options; maybe they’ll begin to think more seriously about philanthropy as they get older, when the money appears less “spendable,” so to speak. But a big push in the philanthropy world is to encourage lifetime giving so that the principals can be hands-on with their charitable efforts rather than passing those duties to offspring. More time to give also means more time to improve as philanthropists. That’s why younger entrepreneurs can have such a big impact if they commit early. That’s essentially the premise of the Founders Pledge — but committing even earlier. People who experiment with philanthropy only when they become billionaires, Goldberg says, are going to have some pretty painful experiences. “When you’re a billionaire, those mistakes are at a different scale than when you’re just Joe on the street,” Goldberg said. Neither Rosen nor Goldberg considers the other a rival — you could certainly sign both pledges, or maybe you’d graduate to the Giving Pledge once a few more millions hit your bank account. “One of the goals of the pledge is to put the conversation on the table of what’s even possible,” said Rosen. “Tech has historically been quite innovative in doing this, so it’s not surprising that you’re seeing some traction.” One reason why rivals’ efforts are gaining traction? Well, the problem with megadonors committing $5 billion to the Giving Pledge in 2019, for instance, is that they still might have $5 billion more in assets that they’re not committing to the Giving Pledge. And being a billionaire is not particularly popular right now. Some Giving Pledge signers these days, such as hedge funder Paul Tudor Jones, are barely publicizing when they sign it lest they remind people of their massive net worths during a time when voices on the left are pounding billionaires for personifying American income inequality. Rosen said his donors are as aware as ever about how their wealth is perceived, but that when it comes to the new dialogue about bllionaires, “net-net, I don’t think it’s had an impact.” Another big difference between the two: The Giving Pledge, as its critics point out, has no teeth but is merely a public affirmation. Founders Pledge is a binding document; it can recoup the money if the signatory renegs. The Founders Pledge, which is headquartered in London and at first hooked European founders, clearly is getting beat in Silicon Valley. So, last month, it opened an office in San Francisco, and Goldberg visits the Bay Area once or twice a quarter for dinners with prospective pledgers. He says his program has merely been a “beta test” until now. What Goldberg has been hearing from Silicon Valley millionaires during that beta: Show me the numbers, not the narrative. “Our members were increasingly frustrated with being told stories,” Goldberg said. “The same way we invest money — we’re hyper-rational and utilitarian in a certain respect — I’d rather achieve more return than less,” he said. “They want to be as rational with their philanthropy as they are with their investments.” And just like Silicon Valley investors claim to offers startups more than money, almost all Silicon Valley-focused philanthropic efforts claim to be more than soliciting money: They offer a “network.” They help you think “long term” and are “patient.” They are a “partner” that wants to be part of a “movement.” More than 8,500 companies have signed this classic initiative in corporate and social responsibility, which Pledge 1% says has led to over $500 million in philanthropy. Amy Lesnick, the Pledge 1% CEO, said she considered the two other efforts not competitive because she is focused on signing up a company rather than a billionaire. But her organization is still competing for the mindshare of a company founder — who might be a Giving Pledge-eligible billionaire, too — who is trying to weigh his personal and professional charitable obligations. Lesnick still stressed ways in which her organization differs from the other pledge drives trying to remake tech philanthropy. “I think that Pledge 1% has a reach and accessibility that is infinitely broader,” Lesnick told Recode in an interview. “We are not just saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to look at who are going to be the companies that are going file for IPO in the next 12 months — and we are only going to talk to them.’” To be sure, there is a world in which all three of these programs patch together to make a philanthropic quilt. Maybe a young entrepreneur signs the Founders Pledge, setting a standard for her personal philanthropy, and then Pledge 1% to set a standard for her company’s philanthropy. And when she really makes it big — becoming a bona fide billionaire — she signs the Giving Pledge. For instance, Benioff, the Salesforce founder behind the Pledge 1% initiative, has signed the Giving Pledge as well. But Benioff is perhaps Silicon Valley’s most omnipresent (and, yes, abrasive) advocate for philanthropy. And given Benioff’s own words in the past about Silicon Valley billionaires, it probably wouldn’t surprise him to learn that they’re not jumping to participate in all three programs simultaneously. “Not all of them are giving money away. A lot of them are just hoarding it,” he told the Guardian last year. “They’re keeping it. That’s just who they are and how they look at their money.” This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

https://www.vox.com/2019/4/22/18491577/founders-giving-pledge-tech-philanthropy-billionaires

Vox

2018-06-01 00:00:00

2018

6.0

1

EU confident Italy's new government will cooperate with partners

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Friday it was confident that Italy’s new anti-establishment government would cooperate “constructively” with its EU partners. Italy’s governing coalition was being installed on Friday, calming markets spooked by the possibility of snap elections that might have become a de facto referendum on quitting the euro. “We have full confidence in the capacity and willingness of the new government to engage constructively with its European partners and EU institutions to uphold Italy’s central role in the common European project,” a spokeswoman for the EU executive told a regular news briefing in Brussels. She dismissed as “misleading” media reports suggesting that Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had shown a lack of respect toward Italians at a conference on Thursday. Italy’s new nationalist deputy premier Matteo Salvini called Juncker “racist” after media reports that he had said Italians needed to work harder and be less corrupt. The Luxembourger Juncker, speaking in English, had defended EU support for southern Italy as generous and said it was the responsibility of national leaders in Rome to do more to help the region, to promote employment and combat corruption: “Italians have to take care of the poor regions of Italy. That means more work, less corruption, seriousness,” he said. “We will help them, as we always did. But don’t play this game of loading with responsibility the EU. A country is a country, a nation is a nation. Nations first, Europe second.” The spokeswoman said on Friday: “President Juncker is committed to work with the new Italian government to take on the many common challenges that Italy and Europe are facing, from trade to migration and many more.” She said Juncker would meet new Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte next week at a Group of Seven meeting in Canada. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Alastair Macdonald

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-eurozone-commission/eu-confident-italys-new-government-will-cooperate-with-partners-idUSKCN1IX4IK

World News

Reuters

2017-08-01 19:58:00

2017

8.0

1

Tim Scott, Ashley Goodall

Remembering The Time Sonny Rollins Kept Playing With a Broken Heel

In August 1986, jazz legend Sonny Rollins and his ensemble performed at Opus 40, a spectacular stone monument in an abandoned bluestone quarry outside Saugerties, a town in upstate New York. Created by pioneering American sculptor, painter and earth artist Harvey Fite, Opus 40 was inspired by Mayan dry-stone construction and scattered rubble was transformed into a series of stone ramps, pedestals and platforms. Rollins chose the site as the monument not only embodied the 'Saxophone Colossus,' his nickname, and the title of his seminal 1956 album, but the stunning and striking visual imagery was a unique backdrop for an open air jazz concert. But as well as being the world premiere of a new Rollins number titled "G-Man," the concert was remembered for a dramatic incident that involved the jazz great misguiding a mid-solo jump from the rock stage and landing heavily on the stone surface six feet below. After a brief and tense pause Rollins continued to play while lying on his back even though it was later learned that he'd broken his heel in the fall. Filmmaker Robert Mugge was there filming his documentary Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus, and captured the moment Rollins fell. "My initial concern was entirely for Sonny's well-being. That said, I'm a documentary filmmaker, trained to film whatever happens. So, as I ran to see if he was okay, I instructed my four cameramen to keep filming. I should also say that I always try to center my musical portrait films around special moments in the lives of my artist-subjects. In some cases, those moments are events or activities arranged in advance. But in others, we simply happen to be present with cameras running when something unexpected happens." The footage of Rollins playing, while lying on his back, in a red sweater, white trousers, and Keds, is some of the punkest in jazz, but the moments before were also some of the most tense. "Initially, Sonny simply lay there with his eyes closed, leading us to believe that he could have been seriously hurt in the jump," Mugge told Noisey via email. "But when he lifted one leg casually overtop of the other and began to play the opening to "Autumn Nocturne" while still lying on his back (a feat of impressive physical strength, in and of itself), all of the previous tension was suddenly released." Mugge, who had shot footage of Rollins playing in Tokyo earlier that year, and who had also directed documentaries on Al Green, Gil Scott Herron, and Sun Ra, later learned that during the Optus 40 performance Rollins was growing frustrated with his newly lacquered saxophone. "Sonny tried to explain away his behavior as simply an effort to go out and play directly to the audience, complicated by poor judgement regarding the distance he would have to jump from the stage," explains Mugge. "But his wife Lucille later revealed to me what he had told her, which was that, sometime after the orchestral premiere in Tokyo, he had had his saxophone lacquered. "When he was doing the solo improvising that day, it was as if he would try to play a vowel, but out would come a consonant. Over time, he became so upset by this that he essentially had a nervous breakdown onstage—at least, that's how Lucille described it to me. Of course, Sonny is such a brilliant musician that, if his horn plays a "wrong note," he can instantly create a new musical context in which the "mistake" makes fresh musical sense. However, in the film, you can see him beginning to pace back and forth like a caged animal until he finally makes the six-foot leap off of the stage. At the time, it was the only way he could think to end his distress. Sadly, the jump did lead to a personal injury, but it also led to moments of suspense, and then of magic, as he launched into that beautiful ballad, like a sunrise following a dark night. It's the kind of scene that takes on special resonance because it was neither staged nor expected, and because it exemplifies the risk-taking genius of our greatest living jazz improviser." "Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus", is available in Blu-ray, DVD and digital formats on Aug 4.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xayp5/remembering-the-time-sonny-rollins-kept-playing-with-a-broken-foot

Noisey

Vice

2016-06-15 18:04:00

2016

6.0

15

Elena Holodny

Fed released summary of economic projections

The Fed Reserve's policy setting committee released the outcomes of its two-day meeting at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday. And it also just released its latest Summary of Economic Projections. The Fed now expects 2016 GDP to grow around 1.9% to 2.0% in 2016, down from its previous outlook of 2.1% to 2.3%. However, the Fed now projects core PCE inflation to be around 1.6% to 1.8% this year, slightly up from its March projection of 1.4% to 1.7%. As for unemployment rate, the Fed kept its projection steady at 4.6% to 4.8%.

https://www.businessinsider.com/fed-released-summary-of-economic-projections-2016-6

Business Insider

2018-01-22 18:48:38

2018

1.0

22

Ezra Klein

Government shutdown: are Democrats becoming more like Republicans?

On October 7, 2013, President Barack Obama took the podium at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and made the case to the American people that compromise, not ideological showdown, was what the country needed. America was in the midst of a weeks-long government shutdown, a fiasco triggered by the Republican Party’s demand to defund the Affordable Care Act in exchange for funding the government, and Obama’s remarks from that moment are worth reading today. They show how much the Democratic Party has changed — and how much it hasn’t: I heard a lot of talk over the weekend that the real problem is, is that the President will not negotiate. Well, let me tell you something — I have said from the start of the year that I’m happy to talk to Republicans about anything related to the budget. There’s not a subject that I am not willing to engage in, work on, negotiate, and come up with commonsense compromises on. What I’ve said is that I cannot do that under the threat that if Republicans don’t get 100 percent of their way, they’re going to either shut down the government or they are going to default on America’s debt so that America for the first time in history does not pay its bills. That is not something I will do. We’re not going to establish that pattern. In this, you hear Obama make two arguments. One is that budget negotiations should be limited to policy “related to the budget,” that the functioning of the federal government shouldn’t be used as leverage on other policy issues. The second is that Obama is ready and willing to compromise, and that the problem is Republican unwillingness to cut a deal. Today, Democrats still believe half of that formulation. On Friday, congressional Democrats voted en masse against funding the government’s continued operations. They did so not because of anything in the bill, but because of something that wasn’t in it — a deal to grant legal status to the young unauthorized immigrants known as DREAMers. This has left Democrats in an uncomfortable position: In holding government funding hostage to another policy priority, they are employing the same tactics they condemned Republicans for using in the past. Indeed, in 2013, Sen. Chuck Schumer used immigration as an example of a non-budgetary policy that it would be ridiculous to shut the government down over. Well this is awkward. Chuck Schumer in 2013. #Chuckdown pic.twitter.com/3todBxmgj0 The emerging deal to end the shutdown doesn’t change the underlying strategy: Democrats will vote to fund the government for three weeks on the promise of a DREAMer vote, but they are reserving the right to oppose funding again if either the process or the outcome angers them. As was true for Republicans before them, Democrats are now using the continued funding of the government as leverage for their policy priorities. “Democrats, little bit by little bit, are becoming more like the Republicans,” wrote Michael Tomasky in the New York Times. It is a signal of the Democratic Party’s shift toward tougher tactics in the Trump years that some of the loudest voices pushing congressional Democrats to refuse to fund the government without securing legal status for DREAMers are the former Obama staffers who now host the podcast Pod Save America. The group, which runs Crooked Media, has whipped votes, kept tallies, exhorted listeners to call wavering congressional Democrats, and termed the elected officials who agree with them “the Fight Club” and those on the fence “the Waffle House.” They even filmed themselves calling the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a moderate California Democrat, to push her toward confrontation. Trump rejected a bipartisan government funding deal. We asked our Senators to protect Dreamers and children's health insurance, not Republicans in Congress. You should too! The deadline is Friday. Let us know what they say. We'll be keeping track here: https://gettowork.crooked.com/ In this, the Crooked Media hosts have lots of allies — virtually the entirety of the Democrats allied activists and interest group organizations are demanding a hard line. This basic dynamic — outside media and activist groups driving members of Congress to use the continued functioning of the federal government as leverage — is exactly what Democrats condemned the Republican Party for in the Obama years. What Democrats haven’t adopted is the GOP’s policy intransigence. Where Republicans in the Obama years demanded absurd ransoms — like the complete defunding of the president’s signature legislative achievement — Democrats are asking Trump to accept the kind of deal he said he wanted all along, a deal key congressional Republicans have already embraced. The problem is that Trump refuses to make a deal. “I’ll take a bucket, take bricks, and I’ll start building it myself,” said Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL), of Trump’s wall, which Gutiérrez loathes as an idea but which he’s willing to fund to protect DREAMers. “We will dirty our hands, in order for the DREAMers to have a clean future in America.” Indeed, it’s the Trump administration that has unexpectedly fought a series of bipartisan immigration compromises that trade legal status for DREAMers — which Trump says he supports! — for border enforcement, funding for the US-Mexico border wall, and assorted other immigration concessions. “Every time we have a proposal, it is yanked back by staff members,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told reporters Sunday afternoon. “As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we are going nowhere.” But congressional Republicans have broadly backed the White House. “The guys here are together on our position that we’re not negotiating,” said Republican Study Committee Chair Mark Walker (R-SC). “We’ve done our work.” That’s quite a quote: “we’re not negotiating.” In this respect, Democrats feel like they’re stuck in the same position they held in the Obama years: They’re ready and willing to compromise, even on issues like the wall that they really oppose, but Republicans are too deeply in thrall to their own right wing to cut a deal. In 2016, political scientists Matt Grossmann and David Hopkins published Asymmetric Politics: Ideological Republicans and Group Interest Democrats. The book argued that America’s two major political parties weren’t mirror images of each other; they were different kinds of coalitions that were composed in different ways, saw politics through different lenses, and employed different tactics. At the base of Grossmann and Hopkins’s book was reams of data showing that the Democratic Party was a more fractious coalition of interest groups that were primarily interested in policy concessions — as such, they took a more transactional approach to politics, prizing strategies that would get them a deal and accomplish their policy goals. Republicans, by contrast, were a more homogenous coalition that cared deeply about conservative principles — as such, they took a more ideological approach to politics, prizing strategies that demonstrated philosophical purity and the performative pursuit of their side’s ideals. This cleavage seemed to explain the different tactics prized and employed by the two parties. For instance, polling showed Democrats consistently prefer politicians who compromise and Republicans consistently prefer politicians who stick to their principles. This seemed to explain why Republicans had shut down the government and threatened the debt ceiling in the Clinton and Obama eras but Democrats did nothing of the kind in the Bush era. Today, Grossmann thinks the Democratic Party is changing. “There is a direct attempt to copy Republicans tactically, particularly in terms of activism and online media trying to hold leaders’ feet to the fire,” he says. But those changes are in service of the Democratic Party’s traditional constituencies and ends: There is a policy outcome of paramount importance to one of the party’s key interest groups, and they’re willing to compromise to get it done. This does make Democrats different from Republicans. Asking Trump to accept funding for the wall, which he supports, alongside a permanent solution for DREAMers, which he also says he supports, is just not the same as asking Obama to defund Obamacare, or to gut federal spending in order to raise the debt ceiling. The tactics are similar, but the goals are different. A simple way of putting both the similarities and the differences may be this: In the Obama years, a highly mobilized and increasingly powerful conservative base demanded hardline congressional tactics instead of permitting policy compromise. In the Trump years, a highly mobilized and increasingly powerful liberal base is demanding hardline congressional tactics in order to force policy compromise. But even if the motivations are different, the reality is both political parties are increasingly embracing hardline congressional tactics, and that creates a logic of escalation that’s difficult to disrupt. As the parties fight harder and dirtier, the other side’s partisans demand that their elected officials respond in kind. Earlier, I quoted from Mike Tomasky’s New York Times column worrying that Democrats were becoming a “mirror image” of Republicans, but even in that piece, you see the logic of escalation’s power: For now, liberals should cheer this unreservedly. ... The Republicans have been playing this way for years. If Democrats won’t, they’ll just lose. You can’t bring a squirt gun to the O.K. Corral. I hear this even from Democratic members of Congress. The tactics Republicans employed in the Obama era have left them feeling like they’d be suckers to swear off similar approaches in the Trump era. As a theory, it makes an overwhelming amount of both emotional and logical sense. But as a governing dynamic for an advanced democracy, it makes continued crises, and eventual disasters, all the more likely.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/22/16918882/shutdown-compromise-democrats-republicans-blame

Vox

2019-06-11 00:00:00

2019

6.0

11

Commodities trader Trafigura posts sharp rise in H1 profit

LONDON, June 11 (Reuters) - Commodities trader Trafigura posted a net profit of $425.7 million for the first half of its financial year that ended in March, up 92 percent from $221.8 million in the same period the year before, the company said on Tuesday. The Geneva-based firm said the result was principally due to the performance of its crude and oil products trading division. Reporting by Julia Payne; Editing by Mark Potter

https://www.reuters.com/article/trafigura-beheer-results/commodities-trader-trafigura-posts-sharp-rise-in-h1-profit-idUSL8N23I1S7

Basic Materials

Reuters

2017-11-08 01:14:20

2017

11.0

8

Andrew Prokop

Virginia governor's election results: polls, live updates, and what to expect

Update: Ralph Northam (D) has won the Virginia governor’s race, according to calls by multiple outlets. Original post: The most closely contested governor’s election of the Trump era so far is here. Voters in Virginia will cast their ballots for either Democrat Ralph Northam or Republican Ed Gillespie Tuesday, in a race that could have major implications for both parties in next year’s midterm elections. Polls have now closed in the state. Polling has shown Northam, the current lieutenant governor, and Gillespie, a longtime Republican operative and lobbyist, in a close race, with Northam generally holding a slight edge in averages and being viewed as the favorite. Still, Democrats have been exceedingly nervous about how this race will turn out, in part because of Northam’s perceived lack of charisma, in part because Virginia polls overstated Democratic leads in a pair of recent high-profile elections, and in part because Gillespie has been hammering Northam on culture war issues like immigration and Confederate monuments. But there’s more at stake in the state than just the governorship — all 100 seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates will be on the ballot too. Republicans currently hold a 66-34 majority in the chamber, a majority that has hamstrung the efforts of Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe to pass sweeping legislation. (The state Senate, which Republicans control much more narrowly, won’t be up for election again until 2019.) More broadly, Democrats have hoped that Donald Trump’s unpopular presidency could energize their votes and help deliver them down-ballot gains in governors’ mansions, congressional, and state House races across the country. Virginia’s elections today will be a major test of whether that’s actually happening. The vote count will be updated below and at this link: Virginia is one of the few swing states in which Hillary Clinton improved on Barack Obama’s 2012 margin of victory — she beat Trump by about 5 points. It’s also a state where Democrats have long held both US Senate seats, and where there is an incumbent Democratic governor with pretty strong approval ratings (McAuliffe, who was elected in 2013). Incumbent governors are not permitted to run for reelection in Virginia, though, so Democrats needed a new nominee. The choice of the state party establishment was Ralph Northam, who was a US Army doctor and then a pediatric neurologist before he entered politics to be a state senator and then lieutenant governor. This would traditionally be considered a strong résumé for a politician, but Democrats have worried that he hasn’t generated enough excitement among their base voters. Republicans, meanwhile, nominated Ed Gillespie, a longtime Republican operative and lobbyist who chaired the Republican National Committee, ran the Virginia Republican Party, and worked in George W. Bush’s White House. Gillespie was the party’s nominee for a US Senate race in 2014, and he ended up coming shockingly close to defeating the incumbent Democrat Mark Warner in a race that few expected would be close. Gillespie is not an outsider candidate in any way, shape, or form — biographically, he’s the anti-Trump. And yet he’s adopted an extremely Trumpy campaign strategy. In a flurry of ads, he’s attempted to tie Northam to the international gang MS-13 on the thinnest of policy pretexts. (Northam once voted against a Virginia law to officially ban “sanctuary cities” — but Virginia doesn’t even have any sanctuary cities, as Dara Lind explains.) He’s also attacked Northam for proposing to take down some monuments to Confederate generals. Northam, meanwhile, has attempted to run a more traditional jobs- and economy-focused campaign, while portraying Gillespie as a corrupt lobbyist who represents special interests. It’s a strategy that does appear to have kept him in the lead in most polls throughout the race. Still, most recent polls show his lead in the low single digits, which is a bit too close for the comfort of Democrats still traumatized by the 2016 outcome. Another thing giving Democrats heartburn is that in both the 2013 governor’s race and the 2014 US Senate race, polls overestimated Democrats’ support. That was particularly true in the latter case, where the GOP nominee — Gillespie — lost by less than a point despite trailing in polls by 10. The flub raised questions about whether pollsters of the state were properly sampling rural white voters. But it should be noted that the polls of the state’s presidential race in 2016 were right on target. Overall, though, the race’s outcome will be important in influencing the strategies of Democratic and Republican candidates across the country in 2018. If Gillespie pulls off the upset, expect many more GOP challengers to follow his lead and fully embrace Trumpist issues — and expect much more Democratic hand-wringing of how best to respond. But if instead it’s a great night for Democrats — say, if Northam pulls out a strong victory and his party makes significant gains in the state House — it will likely be Republicans who panic.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/7/16603958/virginia-governor-results-2017

Vox

2016-08-15 00:00:00

2016

8.0

15

The Game Says 'I F***** Three Kardashians'

The Game went raw over the weekend. The rapper dropped a new track, "Sauce," Saturday on SoundCloud and straight up raps he banged 3 Kardashians. Game doesn't say which ... but we're guessing the 3 oldest. Have a quick listen ... somewhere Usher's scratching his head too.

https://www.tmz.com/2016/08/15/the-game-sex-kardashians-sauce-song-rap/

TMZ

2016-08-15 19:20:00

2016

8.0

15

10 of the world's most breathtaking waterfalls

There are few things in nature that have a lure as irresistible as a waterfall. People often trek countless miles, endure rain and insects, and sleep on the hard ground in order to catch a glimpse of the cascading water at the end of the journey. The excitement only builds as they inch closer and hear the H2O rushing through the trees. And while most offer a pleasant sight, there are certainly some that outshine others. Here, we rounded up a list of 10 of the most amazing waterfalls around the world. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Niagara Falls in Canada and New York Sure, you could stay in the U.S. to witness this beauty, but Niagara Falls (or Horseshoe Falls) on the Canadian side offer the superior view -- and is well worth going through border inspection. And what it lacks in size (it measures about 167 feet high), it makes up for in culture. The falls conjure memories of 1950s honeymoon postcards, Nik Wallenda scaling a tightrope, and daredevils in barrels. For some Americans, it's often even their first experience with waterfalls -- and a magical one at that. Check out Niagara Falls Hotels here >> Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Angel Falls in Venezuela Angel Falls is not only one of the world's prettiest waterfalls, but it's also the highest, piercing the clouds at a whopping 3,212 feet. It gets its name from U.S. aviator Jimmie Angel, who was the first to zoom over the falls in a plane -- and what a sight that must have been. Nestled in Venezuela's Canaima National Park, the stunner launches from Auyantepui, a sandstone mountain that dramatically rises out of the surrounding jungle. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Ban Gioc-Detian Falls in Vietnam and China These falls sit on the Quây Sơn River, which is nestled in the rocky Karst region between Chinaand Vietnam. Rushing down 98 feet, the site is actually a double whammy -- two sister waterfalls. Expect a kaleidoscope of bubbling water, weaving between rocks and trees to create a picture-perfect view. Note: The falls are known to swell during the rainy season. Check out Vietnam Hotels here >> Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Yosemite Falls in California The wide-open ruggedness of the American West comes into startling focus at the highest waterfall in North America. Located in California's Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Falls travels fastest during the spring snowmelt. It features a series of three different drops that culminate in a waterfall that rushes down a total of 2,425 feet to the towering pines in the valley below. Best of all, the nearby visitor's center makes for a truly personal experience. Check out California Hotels here >> Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Kaieteur Falls in Guyana One of the world's most breathtaking and powerful waterfalls is also the most remote. Guyana's Kaieteur Falls, which is hidden deep in the Amazon, hasn't made many bucket lists. But that's not surprising, considering it requires a three-day overland trek to reach (an easier method is via the local airstrip). If you do decide to take the plunge to this South American wonder, you'll be richly rewarded when you reach the Potaro River and experience its foamy water that tumbles 741 feet down into the pool below. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Plitvice Falls in Croatia The Croatian coast is a dreamy getaway as it is, but for an even more surreal experience, head inland to the cavernous Karst region, which is home to Plitvice Lakes National Park. The falls here are memorable for the sheer number of streams -- it appears as if a hundred waterfalls are flowing together in a cacophonous harmony. Follow the system of lakes and rivers and you'll see water colors that range from turquoise to azure. The falls also mark the confluence of the Plitvica and Korana rivers. Check out Croatia Hotels here >> Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Sutherland Falls in New Zealand Thanks to Hollywood, travelers fly to New Zealand expecting to be transported back to a quasi-medieval fantasyland. While we can't guarantee that the entire country will deliver, this straight shot of water tumbling down from a cobalt blue glacier is pretty cinematic in its own right. Located on Milford Sound on South Island, the 1,902-foot falls are the tallest in New Zealand and one of the tallest in the world. Check out New Zealand Hotels here >> Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Gullfoss in Iceland Iceland is home to numerous falls, but Gullfoss remains the favorite for tourists hoping to see the rugged beauty that made this island nation a top vacation destination. In fact, it makes up one of the legs of the legendary Golden Circle tour. It's not particularly high, but contains two different plunges -- one at 36 feet and another at 68 feet. Here, you can't help but experience the sublime view of the Hvítá river mysteriously disappearing into the crevice. Check out Iceland Hotels here >>

https://www.businessinsider.com/10-of-the-worlds-most-breathtaking-waterfalls-2016-8

Business Insider

2018-08-26 00:00:00

2018

8.0

26

Hayley Jones

Mass shooting at Madden 19 tournament in Jacksonville

A disgruntled gamer shot and killed two people and wounded 11 others Sunday at a video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, before turning the gun on himself. The suspected shooter was identified by the Jacksonville Sheriffs Department as 24-year-old David Katz of Baltimore, who was armed with a handgun that some witnesses said had a laser scope. The gamers who were killed have yet to be officially identified, although their names are being shared online by friends and family, and in the media as Eli Clayton, 21, of Woodland Hills, California and Taylor Robertson, 27, of Ballard, West Virginia. Robertson, a husband and father of two, reportedly won the event last year while Katz is believed to have won it the previous year. Two other victims were injured trying to escape. One firearm was used in the killings, police said. A disgruntled gamer shot and killed two people and wounded 11 others Sunday at a video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, before turning the gun on himself. The suspected shooter was identified by the Jacksonville Sheriffs Department as 24-year-old David Katz of Baltimore, who was armed with a handgun that some witnesses said had a laser scope. The gamers who were killed have yet to be officially identified, although their names are being shared online by friends and family, and in the media as Eli Clayton, 21, of Woodland Hills, California and Taylor Robertson, 27, of Ballard, West Virginia. Robertson, a husband and father of two, reportedly won the event last year while Katz is believed to have won it the previous year. Two other victims were injured trying to escape. One firearm was used in the killings, police said. Law enforcement officials searched Katz’s house in South Baltimore Sunday, according to the Baltimore Sun, as well as seizing his vehicle. “Pray for Jacksonville as we deal with this senseless tragedy," said Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry. Police were initially concerned that there was a second shooter, but by Sunday evening Sheriff Mike Williams said police had cleared the scene and "we have no outstanding suspects." Police did not have a motive for the shootings, but witnesses said that Katz was angry having lost the tournament. The "Madden 19" Xbox tournament was being broadcast online via the Amazon-owned Twitch streaming service. In videos shared online you can hear the gunshots and players' reactions before the stream goes dead. Jacksonville’s sheriff office said the shooting occurred during the qualifying event at Chicago Pizza in Jacksonville Landing. Game developer EA called the shooting "a senseless act of violence that we strongly condemn. Our most heartfelt sympathies go out to the families of the victims whose lives were taken today and those who were injured," a company spokesperson said to Reuters late on Sunday. The shooting seems certain to re-ignite the gun control debate in Florida, which has been the scene of multiple mass shootings over the past several years at the Margory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, and a mass shooting in 2017 at Fort Lauderdale Airport. One player, Drini Gjoka, was struck in the thumb, according to Complexity Gaming CEO Jason Lake. “The tourney just got shot up. I’m leaving and never coming back,” Grjoka tweeted. “We’re obviously shocked and saddened by this afternoon’s events our player, Drini, was hit in the thumb but is going to be fine,” he said in a statement to VICE News. “He managed to escape and run down the street to a nearby gym. He’s currently cooperating with the authorities and we will be flying him out of Jacksonville as soon as we are given the green light from the officials on the ground.” Florida Governor Rick Scott said he'd spoken to the White House, which offered federal resources needed to respond. Cover image: A Jacksonville Sheriff officer helps keep the perimeter secure as law enforcement investigates a shooting at the GLHF Game Bar at the Jacksonville Landing on August 27, 2018 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/wjk9ax/mass-shooting-at-madden-19-tournament-in-jacksonville

Vice News

2016-01-28 00:00:00

2016

1.0

28

Allison Meier

How Five American Indian Dancers Transformed Ballet in the 20th Century

Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads Five dancers who started their careers in the 1940s redefined dance in the United States, becoming some of the first American prima ballerinas in the world’s top companies, from the Ballets Russes to the Paris Opera Ballet. And they were all American Indians from Oklahoma. Yvonne Chouteau, one of the “Five Moons,” as they were anointed, died this past Sunday at the age of 86. Along with Moscelyne Larkin (Shawnee, 1925–2012), Rosella Hightower (Choctaw, 1920–2008), Marjorie Tallchief (Osage, b. 1926), and, most famously, Maria Tallchief (Osage, 1925–2013), she rose in the ranks of dance when ballet was still not widely appreciated in this country. The women had distinct careers, but they all danced when they were young at powows and caught performances by the traveling Ballets Russes and other companies, propelling them to study professionally. Chouteau, who was Shawnee-Cherokee, explained how she started ballet in Lili Cockerille Livingston’s book American Indian Ballerinas: Of course, my parents were not about to let ballet take me away from my Indian dancing, but they made it possible for me to do both. Looking back, that was very wise, because the recognition I had gained as an Indian dancer offered me tremendous opportunities to perform. I think the San Diego Exposition was the first place that I did both ballet and Indian solos. From then on, I rarely did my exhibition Indian dances without at least one ballet piece. … I had been taught the sanctity of dance as it is seen in the eyes of the Indian and approached ballet the same way. Chouteau joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at the age of 14 after, as she put in a 2005 documentary, she auditioned on “a lark.” After touring the world, she returned to Oklahoma and helped start the dance program at the University of Oklahoma in 1960, then went on to direct the Oklahoma City Civic Ballet. You could fill a long litany with the five dancer’s accomplishments, but Larkin’s time in the Original Ballet Russe and her founding of the Tulsa Ballet stand out in particular. Hightower was also part of Ballet Russe and remained involved in ballet throughout France, earning the Chevalier de la Légion in 1975 — while her greatest feat came in 1947, when she learned the lead for Giselle in just under five hours. Marjorie Tallchief was the first American “premiere danseuse étoile” in the Paris Opéra. Her older sister, the unrivaled Maria Tallchief, married choreographer George Balanchine, who in the 1940s and ’50s created leading parts for her in his major ballets, including The Firebird, Swan Lake, and the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker.  The five never performed together, although all of them but Maria Tallchief, who by then had retired, took part in Louis Ballard’s 1967 The Four Moons at the Second Oklahoma Indian Ballerina Festival. The piece merged movement from ballet with the dancers’ heritage and featured Hightower’s fluid, Choctaw-inspired solo; Larkin’s Shawnee-influenced dance with quick, compacting movement; Marjorie Tallchief’s gestural performance, which evolved from Osage dance; and Chouteau’s somber choreography, developed from the Cherokee and Shawnee dances of her youth. Nora Boustany wrote in Hightower’s Los Angeles Times obituary that the women’s “remarkable accomplishments showcased American dance and talent to the world when Russian stars still dominated that scene.” And as Larkin said in a short documentary produced by NewsOK: “It’s not just a fluke that we are all Native Americans and that we all became dancers.” In the Oklahoma State Capitol, a mural of the five dancers adorns the rotunda. Painted by Mike Larsen, it shows them posed in white tutus, the shadows of the Trail of Tears behind them. Each had a unique style and left her own legacy, but together they promoted their indigenous heritage through the art of dance.

https://hyperallergic.com/271205/how-five-american-indian-dancers-transformed-ballet-in-the-20th-century/

Hyperallergic

2019-03-28 00:00:00

2019

3.0

28

Zachary Small

Was Man Ray the Inspiration Behind the Black Dahlia Murder?

Steve Hodel believes his father — a friend of the surrealist — committed the grizzly Hollywood murder as an emulation of the artist’s techniques. Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads The daytime television talk show Dr. Phil has been running for 17 seasons but has rarely dipped into art historical drama for its content. That changed yesterday when the eponymous Phillip McGraw invited Steve Hodel onto the show to discuss his almost two-decade-long investigation into the Black Dahlia murder — and how his father may have killed the aspiring Hollywood actress as an emulation of the artist Man Ray’s surrealist aesthetic. The death of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short in 1947 captivated the country because of its gruesome details of dismemberment and torture. Her brutal demise was the subject of relentless press coverage; the Los Angeles Record reported on the police investigation of the crime on its front cover for 31 consecutive days. And even today, cold-case enthusiasts routinely visit the details surrounding Short’s death to glean new evidence on the unsolved crime. But few of their hypotheses are as personal as Hodel’s. The former LAPD homicide detective believes his father, George Hodel, is responsible for the Black Dahlia murder and nearly a dozen other lone woman killings in Los Angeles around the same time. Described as a grandiose doctor with a distinct personality, the elder Hodel was the frequent subject of police investigations. Problems began in 1945 with the drug-overdose death of his secretary, Ruth Spaulding, who detectives believed Hodel murdered to cover up a financial fraud case involving illegal abortion services. In 1949, his daughter Tamar accused him of incest, a charge he was later acquitted from in court. That same year Hodel became a prime suspect in the Black Dahlia case and the subject of the police’s investigation into Louise Springer’s murder. One year later, Hodel abandoned his family to live in the Philippines; he wouldn’t return to the United States until age 83 in 1990. Steve’s suspicions grew after his father’s death in 1999. Rifling through George’s old possessions, he found a photograph of a woman that looked remarkably like Elizabeth Short; he also found portraits of his family taken by Man Ray, a family friend. Fast-forward 18 years later: Hodel has made a career investigating his father’s relationship to the Black Dahlia murder and surrealist art. He has written five books about the subject including a New York Times bestseller, Black Dahlia Avenger. And he is certainly not the first person to suggest a connection between Short’s death and avant-garde art at the time. Famously, Marcel Duchamp’s “Étants donnés” (1946–66) was partially inspired by the killing. However, the driving forces behind Hodel’s argument are the visual similarities between Man Ray’s work and the Black Dahlia murder. The former detective believes that his father was trying to emulate the surrealist artist’s work with mutilation of Short’s body. “This is dad’s surrealistic masterpiece,” he told Dr. Phil. “I talk about his scalpel being his paintbrush and her body was the canvas. It’s that twisted.” There are a handful of artworks that Hodel analyzes, including “L’Equivoque” (1943). On the talk show, he said that there are “strong indications that [Short] actually could have posed for Man Ray in 1943” and thereafter. In his painting, Man Ray depicts a female subject with a scratched-out face; Hodel believes that his father appropriated this image with his scalpel to create a similar “crime signature” on Short’s body as an homage to his surrealist friend. Hodel also says that Man Ray’s “Minotaur” (1934) may have also served as inspiration for his father’s alleged mutilation of the Black Dahlia. Made from the torso of a woman’s body, the photograph references the mythological beast imprisoned in a labyrinth on the Greek island of Crete, where youths were sacrificed to appease the gods; as a surrealist work, it also references the suppression of libidinal impulses a la Freud. In 1969, Man Ray also created a lithograph called “Les Invendables,” which he believes matches with the crime scene photography of Short’s body that had circulated through the public at that point in time. Not everyone agrees with Hodel’s analysis, and although his theories have generated significant interest by the public, law enforcement officials have expressed zero interest in reopening the Black Dahlia case based on his evidence, which critics have called circumstantial and highly questionable. Nevertheless, Hodel stands by his claims that connect his father to one of the country’s most infamous murders and the surrealists. “One of the early clues was my recognizing through Man Ray’s artworks,” explained Hodel during his segment on Dr. Phil. “This exact picture of a woman bisected at the waist, carefully posed … it’s of course identical to the crime scene photography.”

https://hyperallergic.com/492217/was-man-ray-the-inspiration-behind-the-black-dahlia-murder/

Hyperallergic

2016-09-27 19:20:00

2016

9.0

27

VICE Staff

How Alicia Bognanno Left the Sound Studio and Became Bully's Frontwoman

In this episode of VICE's Autobiographies, we talk with grunge-punk outfit Bully before the group plays the biggest show to date at London's Forum. After hitting the arcade, lead singer Alicia Bognanno explains how she started out studying as a sound technician student and became the frontwoman and songwriter for a successful touring band.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mvkgzp/autobiographies-alicia-bognanno-bully

Noisey

Vice

2016-02-04 15:51:13

2016

2.0

4

Mark Bergen

Why Google's Artificial Intelligence Boss Is Taking Over the Search Empire

As it ballooned, Google’s research group has nabbed a shocking number of computing’s biggest brains. Geoffrey Hinton. Peter Norvig. Ray Kurzweil. Titans of the field. And it held onto its homegrown talent younger minds, like Jeff Dean, a fabled technician. All of them worked the tech and research circuits, got their faces out there. But all of them work for a much lower-key engineer: John Giannandrea. Starting next month, the entire search organization — the beating heart of Google’s $75 billion colossus — will work for him, too. On Wednesday, Google’s veteran search chief, Amit Singhal, announced his retirement from the company. Rather than tapping one of his deputies, Google put Giannandrea, who runs its sprawling research division, in his place and merged the two divisions. The shift caps a broader trend, as machine intelligence advances have crept into Google’s core product. (Google’s founders are, after all, artificial intelligence nerds.) And it reveals the company’s thoughts on the future of search, which is moving to places that need smart AI, like voice, and is something Google must innovate upon and control. It is especially critical on smartphones, where users prefer apps over the Web and which Google doesn’t dominate the way it does desktops. The retiring Singhal, who came to Google from AT&T’s Bell Labs in 2000, is part of a small circle of longtime execs with influence over core products at Google. He is respected inside Google and in the world of Web search and is known as a fierce defender of the sanctity of results (and his search domain). Yet Singhal is not known well outside the company. Even fewer know Giannandrea. But the mild-mannered engineer — described, like many of CEO Sundar Pichai’s deputies, as lacking a big ego — is no novice. He cut his teeth at pioneering Internet companies, and since joining Google in 2010 has overseen the herculean task of moving some of its more far-fetched research from the lab into actual consumer products. “He’s an OG Valley technology visionary,” said Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, where Giannandrea worked as chief technologist during its peak growth. Before that, Giannandrea had stints at early tech firms Silicon Graphics and General Magic. “[He’s] always on the leading edge; [I] always learn new things when I talk to him,” Andreessen continued in an email. “Great news for Google.” Google declined to make Giannandrea available for an interview. But back in the fall, he opened a small information session on machine learning for reporters at Google’s campus. He spoke softly but with a clear command of the material, walking through the significance of the field for Google, very briefly, before handing the stage to his lieutenants. “Recently, it’s been taking an increasingly important role,” Giannandrea said then about the AI approach. “We think that something really big is happening — something new and significant.” That something new is a renaissance in the subfield of artificial intelligence — one where Google is ahead, albeit with ambitious rivals behind it. Machine learning is, in brief, a method for computers to process data on their own, without being explicitly programmed. Thanks to hardware advances and the now gigantic corpuses of data tech companies have, the decades-old science is rapidly entering the real world. For instance, it’s coming to search. From its birth, Google’s search algorithm has been advanced — a secret sauce of weights to surface results. It was also coded by human hands. For some years, Singhal was reluctant to bake machine learning into results, according to former Googlers. But it has slowly crept in, beginning with instant search results and the “knowledge graph” — a connective web of related things that Giannandrea helped bring to Google. Then last year, the company rolled out an AI, dubbed RankBrain, into the search sauce, as Bloomberg first reported. It can, among other things, process never before seen searches with more efficiency. This is key in keeping Google’s engine from growing stale. It also enables more predictive search, delivering results with alarming accuracy. Google cracked intent, overhauling a decade-plus of search engine optimization practices in a short time, said Rand Fishkin of Moz, a marketing software firm. Deciphering first-time searches is critical too because more future queries will come on mobile devices in languages other than English, a point Giannandrea made at the session in the fall. He came to Google in 2010 with the acquisition of Metaweb Technologies, where he was CTO, working on a different variant of AI — one based on connecting related things automatically. Google does this, along with other AI approaches, but it has embraced machine learning systems, like the one behind RankBrain, more warmly. “They allow for much more sophisticated and accurate classifications and predictions about data,” said Chris Nicholson, co-founder of deep learning startup Skymind. “That’s important for Google, because they want to make more accurate predictions about what people are searching for, and what they’re going to buy.” To do that, Google has to be a part of the search. Getting cut out of that process remains one of the gravest concerns at the company. Despite still raking in search ad money, Google faces the threat of losing mobile searches to apps and rivals Amazon and Apple, which have their own machine learning efforts. Hence the rapid evolution away from the old 10 blue links toward Google’s own content, particularly on mobile. Hence the aggressive push to index mobile app content for search, which Singhal led. And hence the absorption of Google Now, the company’s AI-enabled personal assistant, into the search group. While key to Google’s search strategy, that shift created some ripples inside the company. It’s now the type of politics Giannandrea has to handle. A former Googler sang his praise, suggesting that he may be able to change entrenched, “religious” practices in the search org. If he does, he’ll have to do so while also managing the growing team of very smart researchers, ensuring that their work is relevant for Google. And he’ll have to keep the magic alive in that unit, which is competing for talent with several tech giants. “We actually don’t know what the future of our science is going to be,” Giannandrea said at the fall event. “Once it starts working, people don’t think it’s impressive anymore.” Re/code Replay: Amit Singhal at Code/Mobile 2015 This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

https://www.vox.com/2016/2/4/11587564/googles-artificial-intelligence-boss-and-why-he-will-run-the-search

Vox

2017-01-30 00:00:00

2017

1.0

30

Tom Brady's Stupidly Handsome Face ... Like a Fine Wine (PHOTO GALLERY)

The NFL has been very good to Tom Brady's face ... so has Father Time ... 'cause the guy seems to get better looking with age. Here's Tom though the years ... starting as a fresh-faced college QB back in the late '90s and going right up to 2017 ... when he's still a fresh-faced 39-year-old insanely good-looking football God. Quarterback don't crack.

https://www.tmz.com/2017/01/30/tom-brady-through-the-years-photos/

TMZ

2016-12-02 20:59:37

2016

12.0

2

April Glaser

Magic Leap’s former marketing chief is leaving to work with Andy Rubin

Brian Wallace, the former chief marketing officer for Magic Leap who left the secretive VR company in November, is heading over to a new project led by Andy Rubin, according to sources. Wallace comes from the mobile phone world. He’s previously had gigs at Samsung, BlackBerry and Google, where Rubin also used to work on mobile projects. Now Rubin runs Playground, a hardware incubator that’s looking to fund the next hit products. Andy Rubin is known as the main creator behind Android. And until a couple of years ago, he led Google’s robotics division. Under Rubin’s leadership, Google raced to acquire a handful of promising robotics startups, including Boston Dynamics, which Google now hopes to sell. During Wallace’s tenure at Magic Leap, the company raked in venture capital, raising more than $1.3 billion, including funds from Qualcomm Ventures and Google. Magic Leap was valued at $4.5 billion earlier this year, according to Bloomberg. Recode reached out to Rubin to ask for additional details, but he did not immediately respond. Bloomberg reporter Mark Bergen earlier announced the move on Twitter. This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

https://www.vox.com/2016/12/2/13822136/magic-leap-andy-rubin-brian-wallace-playground-google

Vox

2018-02-20 00:00:00

2018

2.0

20

Zachary Small

An Artist Prescribes Herbs and Institutional Critique for Social Ills

The culmination of her residency, Rachal Bradley’s conceptual exhibition, Interlocutor, revolves around low-fi remedies to our high-fi, high-tech institutional ills. Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads LONDON — An art critic, an herbalist, and a former nun walk into a gallery. I shuffle into a side room alongside other curious visitors for what will be a three-hour tutorial on herbal ointment preparation. The culmination of her residency, Rachal Bradley’s conceptual exhibition, Interlocutor, revolves around low-fi remedies to our high-fi, high-tech institutional ills. Produced by Gasworks in South London, Bradley has transformed the gallery’s interiors with a tonic-infused resin meant to ameliorate the encroaching forces of capitalism assailing the art world. Although it may sound ridiculous, this hippie-dippy endeavor has spent significant time in the planning stages. Rooted in a feminist lineage of institutional critique, Bradley is interested in reviving the autonomy of individuals within patriarchal organizations and arguing for a revival of more spiritual strains of thinking against the cold logic of capitalism. To accomplish this project, she enlisted the help of her sister, Lucie Bradley, a medicinal herbalist based in Glasgow. Before the exhibition opened, both had interviewed the gallery’s employees about their jobs, creating the trademarked and patent pending Infinite Resistance™ ointment that now lacquers the gallery’s floors as a salve. Back in the workshop, we drink marigold tea and watch rosemary-infused oils boil on a hot plate. This is a serious seminar about herbalism, an obvious fact that evaded me for the initial minutes of the session as we discussed the evils of modern medicine and (gulp) vaccinations. (The art world’s appetite for snark has clearly clouded my judgment. How could an Infinite Resistance™ ointment not be a joke?) Lucie Bradley leads us in an open discussion about the history, uses, and implications of herbal remedies. As a diehard urbanite, the idea that seasoning herbs from the kitchen can combat colds, coughs, and the flu sounds far-fetched. Nevertheless, Bradley explains that even dried herbs from Tesco can have some palliative effect on your health. With a background in the hard sciences, Bradley’s justification of herbal medicine is initially convincing. She is not a puritan: she does not demand the end to modern medicine, but rather, the end to normative care. Herbalism is a practice based on hyper-local traditions, organics, and ancestral recipes. As such, it resists the notion that medicinal cures can be standardized without significantly affecting patients. Like her sister, Bradley prizes autonomy as a technique of empowerment against institutional hierarchies. She wants us to trust our instincts when it comes to our pain. This issue, she claims, has to do with normative standards of medical care that treat patients as problems to efficiently solve. Bradley and the former nun agree that doctors in the United Kingdom rarely listen to their patients or read their medical histories. The workshop participants collectively estimate that, at most, physicians spend ten to twenty minutes maximum talking to their patients.  (Actual statistics vary from country to country, but one study from Spain claims that general practice doctors spend less than seven minutes per patient.) Treating pain is also obviously a gendered issue. Numerous anecdotes and studies have shown that doctors often ignore female pain as constructed or exaggerated. I wish that Rachal Bradley’s exhibition had as clear a thesis as her sister’s workshop. Later, with rosemary ointment in hand, I revisited the artist’s exhibition. Although I understand the concept behind Bradley’s empty gallery — presenting this institution as a vapid, empty structure in order to critique other institutions — I find this a lackluster point. The resin-soaked floor of the white cube space feels unbalanced and shifty — a reference to the fragility of cultural structures? In spots, the resin seems to be cultivating mold. I have nothing personal against the mold (except allergies), but it looks less like a solution to institutional ills and more like an aggravation. However, Bradley’s second room is dimwitted. There, inside a fake washing machine, a Mike Piscitelli photograph hangs. An odd addition, it depicts the professional skateboarder Jason Dill, who stands arms crossed in front of the crumbling Twin Towers on 9/11 — billowing smoke and all. Why is this here? As an image of institutional collapse? As an image of tourism? Is such destruction what the Infinite Resistance™ ointment will germinate? More likely, I think, Bradley chose this photograph as a vision of nonchalance in the face of mass atrocity without thinking through its broader implications. Outside, Bradley has added to the gallery’s façade a machine the press release calls “a series of purpose-engineered, vacuum-formed units,” which apparently “transform the organization into a negative ion generator.” Another subject bordering on scientific scrutiny, negative ions are thought to purify the air of harmful pathogens and alleviate depression. Comparing the faltering art magic of Rachal Bradley with the herbal medical-mysticism of her sister, I may just have to side with the plants on this one. Interlocutor continues at Gasworks Gallery (155 Vauxhall Street, London) through March 18.

https://hyperallergic.com/427375/an-artist-prescribes-herbs-and-institutional-critique-for-social-ills/

Hyperallergic

2019-06-24 00:00:00

2019

6.0

24

Matthew Lavietes

Truck driver in deadly New Hampshire crash arrested on negligent homicide charges

(Reuters) - The driver of a pickup truck who crashed into a group of motorcyclists near New Hampshire’s White Mountains, killing seven of them, was arrested on Monday and charged with seven counts of negligent homicide, officials said. Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 23, was driving a company vehicle hauling a trailer on a highway in Randolph, police said, when he slammed into a group of 10 motorcyclists. State authorities described the wreckage as the worst they had ever seen. Zhukovskyy was arrested at his home in West Springfield, Massachusetts, on Monday morning, the New Hampshire deputy attorney general’s office said in a statement. He later appeared in a Massachusetts state court, where he agreed not to contest extradition to New Hampshire. A Massachusetts court-appointed defense lawyer appeared with Zhukovskyy, who will receive a new one when he faces criminal charges related to the crash in New Hampshire. The National Transportation Safety Board on Saturday said it was sending a team to the site of the crash to conduct a safety inquiry and work with local authorities, who are doing their own investigation. Officials said on Sunday that the victims, five men and two women ages 42 to 62, all died of blunt trauma. The group was associated with the Jarheads Motorcycle Club, which consists mostly of U.S. Marine Corps veterans and their relatives. Reporting by Matthew Lavietes in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Steve Orlofsky

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-hampshire-crash/truck-driver-in-deadly-new-hampshire-crash-arrested-on-negligent-homicide-charges-idUSKCN1TP2DD

U.S.

Reuters

2019-06-19 00:00:00

2019

6.0

19

Huw Jones

Britain's bankers call for more support, tax cuts after Brexit

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain should create a new body to promote a positive “vision” for banking and cut taxes on the industry after failing to support the sector adequately ahead of Brexit, banking trade body UK Finance’s chair said on Wednesday. Britain is due to leave the European Union on Oct. 31 but so far has not secured an exit deal. To avoid disruption, London-based banks have moved some staff and activities to new hubs in the European Union to maintain customer links, raising questions about the capital’s future clout in global finance. The government dropped its support for the finance industry’s proposal for mutual recognition post-Brexit to focus instead on a more generous form of future market access to the EU than normally given to non-EU countries. “I do not think it’s unfair to say that since the financial crisis and particularly during the Brexit negotiations, our sector and services generally have seen nothing like the level of strategic support and attention from government that has been granted to goods and to technology,” Bob Wigley told the UK Finance’s summer reception. Wigley said the government should create a new, formal body made up of regulators, government officials and the Bank of England governor to set out a positive national vision for the role of the finance industry. The aggregate rate of tax paid by banks in New York and Frankfurt is much lower than in London, he said. “This cannot be sustainable post Brexit without an even larger outflux of international banks than Brexit itself may deliver,” Wigley said. UK Finance members like RBS and Lloyds had to be bailed out by taxpayers during the financial crisis that ushered in years of belt-tightening for millions of Britons. As a result, the industry is considered still too unpopular for politicians to be seen supporting it even though finance is Britain’s biggest economic sector, generating an annual trade surplus of about 70 billion pounds. “With the loss of passporting on Brexit, we will need to find ways of making the UK internationally attractive if we are to retain and attract international banks here,” Wigley said. Banks were not pitching for a return to pre-financial crisis light regulation, though better coordination among regulators was needed, he said. “Right now, we are seeing a multitude of new regulatory interventions being delivered by multiple regulators with at best insufficient coordination and at worst conflict,” Wigley said. “So the first thing this body needs to do is ensure that regulatory initiatives are formulated and implemented with what we call effective air-traffic control – prioritisation and orderly implementation.” He called for a review of rules to ease the burden on mid-tier and smaller banks, saying poor promotion of competition in the sector meant there is only one mid-tier bank with assets over 50 billion pounds. He singled out a letter from the Bank of England last week telling 20 small “challenger” banks they needed better controls as they could underestimate the impact of a downturn on their loan books. It “illustrates an embedded anti-growth, anti-competition bias within the system” that a new body should correct, Wigley said. In a week when Facebook said it was looking to launch its own crypto currency to expand into payments, Wigley said that “Big Tech” firms moving into banking services should be regulated in a similar way to banks. “Regulation 2.0 needs to be developed to deal with their business models,” Wigley said. Reporting by Huw Jones. Editing by Jane Merriman

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-banks/britains-bankers-call-for-more-support-tax-cuts-after-brexit-idUSKCN1TK2IJ

Brexit

Reuters

2017-02-22 21:27:00

2017

2.0

22

Sarah Bellman

A Timeline of Controversial Statements at the Oscars

On Sunday, we will witness one of the most politically charged Academy Awards in the ceremony's illustrious and complicated history. Not only has the Trump administration angered a large portion of the population, but, for better or worse, the films and actors themselves have polarized Hollywood. Race, women's rights, diverse LGBTQ representation, and the industry's willingness to sublimate sexual assault are all in the foreground this year. With our current political climate, it's practically guaranteed that actors, directors, and other industry figureheads will take the stage to make impassioned statements—hopefully before getting played off stage. If we learned anything from Meryl Streep's Golden Globes speech, these statements won't just lead to countless thinkpieces and op-eds—they could possibly stand to be commented on by our own president on Twitter. But politics have always found their way onto the Oscars stage, and in that spirit, we've rounded up a timeline of some of the most controversial moments in Oscars history. 1972: When Jane Fonda won Best Actress for Klute, she tersely accepted her award, saying there was too much to discuss with little time. Backstage, she expressed to the press her strong opposition toward the Vietnam War, as well as why she didn't talk about it on the stage: "While we're all sitting there giving out awards, which are very important awards, there are murders being committed in our name in Indochina. And I think everyone out there is aware of it as I am, and I think that everyone out there wants it to end as much as I do. And I didn't think I needed to say it. I think we have had it. I really do. I think everyone feels that way." 1973: Marlon Brando sent a young Apache activist, Sacheen Littlefeather, to refuse his award for Best Actor, which he received for The Godfather. She provided a summary of Brando's letter of explanation, which was later published by the New York Times and beyond. "He very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award," Littlefinger told the confused crowd. "The reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry and on television in movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee." The Academy immediately banned acceptance speeches by proxy except for rare cases of a winner's death. 1974: On a much more bizarre note, just one year later, gay rights activist and artist Robert Opel streaked on the stage while throwing up a peace sign during David Niven's speech. In good spirits, Nivens addressed the audience with a hilariously savage clapback: "Ladies and gentlemen, that was almost bound to happen. But isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?" 1978: Because of actress Vanessa Redgrave's open support of Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Jewish Defense League protested her presence at the award show, forcing her to be escorted to the Oscars in an ambulance. When she won Best Supporting Actress for Julia, Redgrave threw around some strong fighting words, which were met with boos and hisses. Mid-speech, she called protesters "a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums" and described their behavior as an "insult to the stature of Jews all over the world, and to their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression." 1990: Not all political statements occur on the stage, or are even vocalized: During McCarthy's attack on the entertainment industry, known as the Hollywood Blacklist, Elia Kazan infamously outed fellow directors and actors for having Communist ties. This swiftly made the iconic filmmaker a pariah in the community. Although years have gone by since the damages of McCarthyism, when Kazan took the stage to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, he was met with mixed reactions. While some stood and applauded as per tradition, many sternly sat with their arms crossed. Others, like Steven Spielberg, halfheartedly applauded from his seat. It was one of the most uncomfortable moments in Oscars history, to say the least. It seems that Hollywood never forgets and rarely forgives. 2000: After Cider House Rules won Best Screenplay, writer John Irving thanked the Academy for honoring a film that tackles abortion—which, obviously, is still one of the most heated topics in politics today. Irving also thanked Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights League. "I want to thank the Academy for this honor to this film on the abortion subject, and Miramax for having the courage to make this movie in the first place," he said.  And just this week, John Irving wrote an op-ed for the Hollywood Reporter, urging Hollywood to get political with its speeches this year. 2002: Halle Berry was the first black woman to win Best Actress in a Leading Role for Monster's Ball. Because of this landmark moment, the teary-eyed actress naturally spoke about those who were historically rejected because of their race. "This moment is so much bigger than me," she emotionally proclaimed, dedicating her award to actresses who, before her, failed to get the award, and "every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance, because this door tonight has been opened." Most famously, when her speech ran on, she (rightfully) stated that this moment was 74 years in the making, and she was allowed to take her time. 2003: Michael Moore has never been one to stay silent about his opinions. When he took an Oscar for his documentary Bowling for Columbine, the controversial filmmaker lambasted George Bush and the war in Iraq. However, he wasn't alone. Moore brought the other documentary nominees onto the stage, speaking on their collective behalf. "We like nonfiction, and we live in fictitious times," he said to a heated crowd. "We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons, whether it's the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts. We are against this war, Mr. Bush! Shame on you, Mr. Bush! Shame on you!" 2004: Following in Michael Moore's footsteps, Errol Morris made his own statement about the war when The Fog of War won Best Documentary. "Forty years ago this country went down a rabbit hole in Vietnam and millions died," the iconic documentary filmmaker said. "I fear we're going down a rabbit hole once again. And if people can stop and think and reflect on some of the ideas and issues in this movie, perhaps I've done some damn good here." 2007: Politician Al Gore's important documentary about climate change, An Inconvenient Truth, won Best Documentary a few years later. It was inevitable that the subject—which, despite hard scientific evidence, is still denied or downplayed by conservatives—would arise. "It's not a political issue, it's a moral issue," Gore said. "We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act. That's a renewable resource. Let's renew it." 2009: This year, LGBTQ rights was the hot topic. After winning Best Actor for Milk, Sean Penn, who played the openly gay politician Harvey Milk, discussed same-sex marriage—that at the time was still not legal—and California's Proposition 8, which reinstated the state's ban on gay marriage. "I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support," he said. "We've got to have equal rights for everyone." The film's openly gay director, Dustin Lance Black, also made an impassioned speech, telling "all of the gay and lesbian kids out there" that "very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours." He was right. The United States legalized gay marriage in 2015. 2010: When The Cove won for Best Documentary, activist Ric O'Barry, one of the experts used in the film, held up a sign that read "Text Dolphin to 44144." The Academy immediately cut them off by blasting music to force them off the stage before director Louie Psihoyos could finish his acceptance speech. However, it all worked out in the long run, because the brutal and unapologetic documentary inspired many people globally to take into account the horrors that occur to dolphins. 2011: In line with other Best Documentary Feature winners, when Inside Job director accepted his award, Charles Ferguson got heated about the movie's subject, proclaiming it was wrong that those responsible for the financial crisis were never held accountable. "Three years after a horrific financial crisis caused by massive fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong," he pointed out right away. 2015: During the budding height Black Lives Matter movement and protests featuring "hands up, don't shoot"—which is just as crucial today—it was obvious from the start that if Selma would win, the subsequent speeches would get very political. So it came as no surprise that when accepting their award for Original Song for Selma's "Glory" (which lyrics even address Ferguson), John Legend and Common spoke out about what afflicts the black community today, including poverty, racism, and America's flawed prison system. "We live in the most incarcerated country in the world," Legend controversially proclaimed. "There are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850." In addition, Boyhood's Patricia Arquette also went on to talk about wage inequality and the glass ceiling. As you'd expect, it drew controversy after she said, "We have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and women's right for everyone in America." 2016: As you probably know, 2016 was the year of #OscarsSoWhite, so it was already steeped in controversy. Even host Chris Rock addressed it at every chance he could. However, that wasn't the only political topic brought up that year. For instance, when Leonardo DiCaprio finally won Best Actor, he dedicated his precious time to discuss climate change, proclaiming that we should not take our planet for granted. "Climate change is real. It is happening right now," DiCaprio, who is famously an environmental advocate, said. "We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters or the big corporations, but who speak for all of humanity." In addition, The Big Short's screenwriter Charles Randolph ranted about big business in politics, saying, "If you don't want big money to control government, don't vote for candidates that take money from big banks, oil, or weirdo billionaires: Stop!" Most eerily relevant today, The Revenant director Alejandro G. Iñárritu gave a speech about xenophobia: "I'm very lucky to be here tonight," he said as the exit music blared behind him. "But unfortunately many others haven't had the same luck." He then quoted the film, which tragically deals with issues of racism, talking about how people to this day are judged by the color of their skin: "What a great opportunity to our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice and tribe of thinking, and to make sure for once and forever, that the color of the skin become as irrelevant as the length of our hair." Follow Sarah Bellman on Twitter.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ypxwjx/a-timeline-of-controversial-statements-at-the-oscars

Entertainment

Vice

2017-05-04 00:00:00

2017

5.0

4

Starbucks Sued for Ripping Off Unicorn Frappuccino from Brooklyn Coffee Shop

Starbucks' pink and blue Unicorn Frappuccino craze has a Brooklyn coffee shop feeling straight-up blue ... and super pissed off. Owners of The End claim the idea of a brightly colored, multi-flavored drink was theirs, AND they came up with it months before Starbucks. In a lawsuit, The End says its Unicorn Latte features pink and blue colors and ZERO coffee ... just like Starbucks' concoction. According to the suit ... The End started selling its Unicorn Latte in December 2016 and filed paperwork to own the name in January. Starbucks rolled out their beverage in April, and The End says it's confusing consumers -- Unicorn Frapp, Unicorn Latte ... tomato, tomahto. The End wants Starbucks to stop using Unicorn on all its drinks and pay up for stealing it. Not fuh nuthin' but ... the Brooklyn shop also wants a public apology. A Starbucks rep tells us ... the suit is without merit, and its drink was inspired by many unicorn-themed foods and drinks trending on social media.

https://www.tmz.com/2017/05/04/starbucks-sued-unicorn-frappuccino-unicorn-latte-brooklyn/

TMZ

2019-06-11 00:00:00

2019

6.0

11

Emma Ockerman

Alabama Can Now Chemically Castrate Convicted Pedophiles

Want the best of VICE News in your inbox? Sign up here. Some of Alabama’s sex-offender inmates will now be required to undergo chemical castration if they want to be released from prison. Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, signed a bill into law on Monday that forces sex offenders whose victims are younger than 13 to take a series of pills that greatly reduce sexual libido as a condition of their parole, according to AL.com. The controversial legislation passed through Alabama’s Statehouse last month, despite it being unclear whether chemical castration works to reduce sex crimes. Alabama is the seventh state, including California, Florida, Montana and Louisiana, to have a chemical castration law, although it’s unclear how often the punishment is utilized. "This bill is a step toward protecting children in Alabama," Ivey said, according to CNN. The inmates will have to pay for their own treatment unless a court rules that’s unreasonable, and will start the process of chemical castration at least one month before they’re released. If parolees stop taking the medication before a court allows it, they’ll be sent back to prison. The procedure can be reversed, and is not as severe as surgical castration, which would remove a man’s testicles. Want the best of VICE News in your inbox? Sign up here. Some of Alabama’s sex-offender inmates will now be required to undergo chemical castration if they want to be released from prison. Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, signed a bill into law on Monday that forces sex offenders whose victims are younger than 13 to take a series of pills that greatly reduce sexual libido as a condition of their parole, according to AL.com. The controversial legislation passed through Alabama’s Statehouse last month, despite it being unclear whether chemical castration works to reduce sex crimes. Alabama is the seventh state, including California, Florida, Montana and Louisiana, to have a chemical castration law, although it’s unclear how often the punishment is utilized. "This bill is a step toward protecting children in Alabama," Ivey said, according to CNN. The inmates will have to pay for their own treatment unless a court rules that’s unreasonable, and will start the process of chemical castration at least one month before they’re released. If parolees stop taking the medication before a court allows it, they’ll be sent back to prison. The procedure can be reversed, and is not as severe as surgical castration, which would remove a man’s testicles. Rep. Steve Hurst, a Republican, introduced the legislation multiple times over the past several years, and told AL.com Monday he hopes “to track it and to make sure what medical works for what individuals.” He does not consider the law inhumane, and has previously advocated for surgical castration. "What’s more inhumane than molesting a small, infant child?' Hurst asked. However, the bill might contradict the Eighth Amendment, which blocks cruel and unusual punishment. A law professor at the University of Florida, John Stinneford, argued in a 2006 paper that such laws should be struck down. Alabama’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also thinks it runs afoul of the Eighth Amendment, according to AL.com. “Because chemical castration is designed both to shackle the mind and cripple the body of sex offenders, it is doubly cruel, and should be struck down as a violation of the Eighth Amendment,” Stinneford wrote. Cover: In this June 18, 2015, file photo, prisoners stand in a crowded lunch line during a prison tour at Elmore Correctional Facility in Elmore, Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/a3xy4j/alabama-can-now-chemically-castrate-convicted-pedophiles

Vice News

2016-03-20 23:14:00

2016

3.0

20

Michael Scott Barron

One Death Reported After Ultra Music Festival

Reports are coming in that a college senior has died after attending the Ultra Music Festival. According to the Miami Hurricane, the University of Miami's school paper, senior classman Adam Levine passed away on Friday night in the city's Jackson Memorial Hospital. While no cause of death has been released and no direct correlation proven, the notice stated "Levine had attended Ultra Music Festival Friday, according to students who knew him." This story will be updated as more information is released.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ae8kqg/one-death-reported-after-ultra-music-festival

Noisey

Vice

2017-09-27 00:00:00

2017

9.0

27

Taylor Dolven

13 Puerto Rico prisoners escaped during Hurricane Maria

Thirteen prisoners escaped from a prison in Puerto Rico last Thursday, and two are still at large as the island struggles to maintain law and order in the wake of Hurricane Maria. The escape happened after 900 inmates in Puerto Rico’s easternmost prison in Rio Grande were evacuated to another facility before the storm tore through the island last Wednesday. The escapees are just one headache for the beleaguered prison system in Puerto Rico, which includes one federal and more than 30 local prisons holding thousands of inmates. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons began to evacuate Inmates at Puerto Rico’s federal prison in Guaynabo — which holds 1,389 people — on Monday due to “difficulties in securing supplies and maintaining power.” The agency would not say whether those inmates are relocating to mainland U.S. or other areas in Puerto Rico. READ: Puerto Rico is desperate and aid isn’t coming fast enough Thirteen prisoners escaped from a prison in Puerto Rico last Thursday, and two are still at large as the island struggles to maintain law and order in the wake of Hurricane Maria. The escape happened after 900 inmates in Puerto Rico’s easternmost prison in Rio Grande were evacuated to another facility before the storm tore through the island last Wednesday. The escapees are just one headache for the beleaguered prison system in Puerto Rico, which includes one federal and more than 30 local prisons holding thousands of inmates. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons began to evacuate Inmates at Puerto Rico’s federal prison in Guaynabo — which holds 1,389 people — on Monday due to “difficulties in securing supplies and maintaining power.” The agency would not say whether those inmates are relocating to mainland U.S. or other areas in Puerto Rico. READ: Puerto Rico is desperate and aid isn’t coming fast enough A week after the hurricane struck the island, very little is known about the conditions for inmates who live in the island’s prisons, which are clustered near high-risk flood zones on the coasts. As the days go by with no communication from prison facilities, families of inmates in Puerto Rico are more and more desperate for updates about their loved ones, who they have not been able to visit since Sept. 18. The phone line and website for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are down, and many people have tried unsuccessfully to inquire about their relatives via Facebook. Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Erik Rolón, said Tuesday that the department’s central office is flooded, and prison facilities suffered “minor damage,” but assured the public that the department is keeping inmates safe. READ: Trump still won’t lift shipping restrictions on Puerto Rico “The entire [inmate] population is alive,” Rolón told El Nuevo Día. “I understand the importance of seeing family, even more so in difficult times like these, but that depends on how fast we recover as a country. My goal is that maybe next week we can touch the issue.” A woman who has been trying to reach the corrections department through its Facebook page said her son is an inmate at a prison in Guayama. “I live in San Antonio, that’s why I’m so worried,” Lorna Yamira Colon, 41, said via Facebook. “My family there has not been able to communicate with anyone and it’s too difficult for them to get to the prison in Guayama now.” During Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans officials abandoned some inmates in their flooded cells for several days leading to chaos and attempted escapes. After Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in August, inmates reported dire conditions in the federal prison there, including food shortages and sewage flooding. Miami officials decided thousands of inmates would “shelter in place” as Florida braced itself for Hurricane Irma earlier this month. Only 27 percent of Puerto Rico has cell phone service, making it very difficult for people to communicate with authorities or call 911. The police in San Juan reported several robberies on Tuesday, according to El Nuevo Día. Officials said they have made 43 arrests for violating the “dry law” prohibiting the sale of alcohol and 11 arrests for curfew violations. Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police Michelle Fraley said Wednesday that her agency is low on officers and resources, “opening the door so that break-ins and other types of crimes can’t be prevented.”

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/bjd54w/13-puerto-rico-prisoners-escaped-during-hurricane-maria

Vice News

2018-06-22 13:59:10

2018

6.0

22

Tara Golshan

Compromise immigration bill: House GOP delays their much-anticipated DACA bill vote 

House Republicans are going back to the drawing board on immigration. On Thursday, House Republicans failed to pass a conservative immigration bill originally introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), which would have drastically cut the nation’s legal immigration levels and provided an extension to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. All Democrats and 41 Republicans voted against the bill. This was supposed to be the first of two votes on Republican-led immigration bills on Thursday: Goodlatte’s conservative proposal and a “compromise” bill between House conservatives and moderate Republicans. But House leadership keeps delaying the vote on the “compromise” bill, which offers a Republican solution to DACA and the family separations policy at the border — first for one more day, and now not until next week — in yet another attempt to reconcile some intra-party turmoil between party factions. In other words, they’re preparing themselves for failure on immigration — but they are buying a little more time first. Leadership held a briefing for Republican House members walking them through each provision of the “compromise” bill Thursday evening, after it became increasingly clear that lawmakers didn’t even know what exactly they were supposed to be voting on, and that both bills would have likely failed. “The fact that the room’s full is instructive — there are a lot of questions about the bill,” Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) told reporters coming out of the closed-door Republican briefing. “Well, let me put it this way, I don’t imagine you go through the bill section by section if you have 218 votes.” Meanwhile, Trump tweeted Friday morning that Republicans should “stop wasting their time” with the whole immigration effort and wait until after November when he said there would be a “Red Wave” election, blaming Democrats for “obstructing” negotiations. Needless to say, neither proposal was designed to get any Democratic support, and Republican lawmakers themselves aren’t optimistic they’ll be making any electoral gains in November. Republicans might be delaying the vote, but it’s far from certain that time will reconcile the big divisions on immigration within the Republican Party. The Republican immigration negotiations began to fall apart Wednesday afternoon when conservative Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Mark Meadow (R-NC) came out of a heated debate with House Speaker Paul Ryan and declared the compromise immigration bill was not “ready for primetime.” The Freedom Caucus controls enough votes to tank either bill. The dispute, Meadows said, was over certain provisions — about border security and judicial purview over immigration cases — that he was told would be in the bill but weren’t. “I don’t care anymore,” Meadows said angrily in his final words to Ryan on the floor. “It doesn’t matter anymore.” By Thursday morning, Meadows said it was unlikely the “compromise” bill could pass on the House floor. At that point Ryan said he would still put up both bills for a vote even if they would fail, simply saying the two votes are so members can “express themselves by voting for the policies they like.” But by Thursday afternoon, conservatives and some in House leadership — like Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) — had advocated for a little more time to negotiate. They also needed more time to tell lawmakers what they would actually be voting on, scheduling a briefing with House Republicans to go over the “compromise” GOP immigration proposal Thursday evening. By the end of the meeting, top Republican lawmakers were saying the bill would be seeing additional changes, including possibly adding conservative proposals like mandating E-Verify, an electronic system that allows employers to check the immigration status of possible employees against federal records before hiring. As it stands, the “compromise” bill would offer legal status for young unauthorized immigrants known as DREAMers and a path to citizenship for some, based on merit; direct billions of dollars toward a southern border wall; make cuts to legal immigration; and make it harder to seek asylum. Confusion about which bills would be getting a vote started Wednesday afternoon. Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), a member of the Republican whip team, came out of a meeting with House Republicans and told reporters there are three possible immigration bills, two of which could get votes Thursday — a sentiment that was echoed by several other Republican lawmakers in interviews with Vox. But House leadership said there are only two. The confusion seemed to be rooted in the fact that Goodlatte is sponsoring both bills, leading some lawmakers to believe there are two conservative proposals and a third consensus bill with moderates. “Believe me ... there’s a bunch of us in there that have got this same issue,” Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) told Vox. “But we have got to vote on it.” There’s a world in which Congress could pass immigration reform. We do not live in that world. Rather, the Republican “compromise” is a clear reflection of Trump’s hardline immigration views; it asks moderate Republicans and Democrats to accept a slew of conservative reforms to almost every arm of the immigration system, legal and illegal, in exchange for a partial and less-than-certain path to citizenship for DREAMers. Already, Democrats have balked at both Republican immigration proposals. And the bill still isn’t enough for conservatives, many of whom are decrying it as amnesty. The partisanship in this House Republican immigration debate is by design. For weeks, House Republican leaders, aligned with the White House, have been urging members to abandon an effort that would have forced votes on bipartisan immigration bills through a discharge petition and instead focus on a partisan Republican-only immigration bill. Ryan and White House officials argued that finding consensus among House Republicans would ensure Trump’s support. But it’s clear this process won’t actually make law. Not only are Republicans having a difficult time finding consensus among their own ranks in the House, neither the Goodlatte proposal nor the GOP “compromise” has Democratic support. Even Trump asked what the “purpose” of the two House bills is, if they are unable to get nine Democrats in the Senate to support it, again blaming the left for “obstructing” the process. But despite Trump’s desire to use Democrats as a punching bag, it’s clear there’s enough chaos among House Republicans alone.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/21/17484842/compromise-immigration-bill-delay-goodlatte-house

Vox

2016-05-09 00:00:00

2016

5.0

9

Ari Akkermans

Turkish Government Censors Video Projection and Youth Biennial Artworks

Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads ISTANBUL — This year hasn’t been particularly easy for members of the arts community in Turkey, as they have come increasingly under fire, facing growing censorship and cancellations of exhibitions. It’s an uncertain, tense environment in which there is little tolerance for artistic dissent. This past New Year’s Eve, members of the arts community were arrested during the peaceful demonstration “Barış İçin Yürüyorum (I Am Walking for Peace)” in Diyarbakır, and while they have been subsequently released they might be eventually charged like hundreds of others have been in the aftermath of the Gezi Park protests, including minors and the elderly. In February, the exhibition Post-Peace, curated by Russian curator Katia Krupennikova, to be held at the cultural nonprofit Akbank Sanat, was cancelled a week before the opening because of the delicate situation in Turkey in the aftermath of the Ankara bombings. In March, ARTER, one of the city’s leading institutions, cancelled the opening reception for its major exhibitions of the season, also in response to recent bombings. On the evening of April 26, the 30-by-20-foot screen on the roof of the Marmara Pera Hotel in central Istanbul, host to the community-driven public art project YAMA, stopped playing on a loop the video “Time to Sing a New Song” (2016) by Turkish artist Işıl Eğrikavuk; it had recently opened, on April 23, with its removal becoming the most recent act of censorship by city officials. YAMA’s curator Övül Ö. Durmuşoğlu sent a statement to Hyperallergic explaining that after the screen went dark, she quickly got in touch with the management of the hotel and learned that municipal police ordered a shutdown on the basis of an anonymous complaint, claiming that the new work by Eğrikavuk insulted religious sensibilities. The video animation projected the slogan, “Finish up your apple, Eve!” Eğrikavuk told Hyperallergic by email: “For a long while I have been interested in how, as women we can produce new discourses in public space that say ‘no’ to the existing ones. This slogan says ‘no’ to religious mythical stories that are created by a dominant male language, but also to the current situation in Turkey where hundreds of women are killed by male violence every year.” YAMA has long been the most visible public art project in Istanbul, previously having screened works of internationally renowned Turkish artists such as Emre Hüner and Banu Cenetoğlu. According to Durmuşoğlu’s statement, the PR manager of the Marmara Hotels informed her that there had been a preexisting shutdown order issued by municipal police in response to Finnish artist Pilvi Takala’s work “Workers’ Forum,” also screened by YAMA in February 2016. The shutdown order does not concern only the artworks of Eğrikavuk and Takala, but the entirety of YAMA’s programming, on the basis of “visual pollution.” Both Durmuşoğlu and Eğrikavuk will file for civic action against the Istanbul municipality in the coming days. Eğrikavuk is no stranger to the political climate of Istanbul, to which she has regularly responded: She was for several years a reporter and editor at a daily national newspaper, a columnist on art for the liberal newspaper Radikal, and a lecturer in video and contemporary art at Istanbul’s Bilgi University. Recently, she held a solo at SALT Ulus titled Art of Disagreement where she borrowed excerpts from Turkish parliament sessions and reenacted them. In an email exchange, Eğrikavuk told Hyperallergic about the current mood in Turkey: “Censorship in arts, academia, journalism, in every form of speech is getting wider and more internalized. On the other hand, I am really interested in how, as artists we can deal with this situation. For the past three years there is definitely a shift to act collectively, which manifests itself in more community art practices, but in general we are going through some really dark times.” On May 11, Durmuşoğlu will organize, on behalf of YAMA, a public open debate about the definition of “visual pollution” and the many obstacles for the public visibility of contemporary art in Turkey. YAMA has invited lawyers and a legal expert on censorship to participate in this debate, as well as artist Banu Cenetoğlu and curator Özge Ersoy. The organization has also requested from the municipal police of the Beyoğlu district to send an expert who could accurately define the legal framework of visual pollution. At the same time, on May 8, PASAJ, an artist-run independent space based in Istanbul, informed Hyperallergic that they had resigned as of April 20 from their position as curators of the 4th Istanbul Children and Youth Art Biennial (April 19–May 23), hosted by the municipality of Beyoğlu, and cited censorship. The biennial featured artwork from children from ages 4 to 18, as well as work by professional artists focused on children or inspired by children’s art. During installation week, members of PASAJ witnessed visits from the Beyoğlu municipality, after which children’s artworks that were found troublesome were moved from the Beyoğlu district to the Beşiktas district. Other artworks were removed on the eve of the opening, including a project by Nurdane Turkmen that features drawings by children of the Syrian-Kurdish town besieged by ISIS, Kobane, and 10 videos of images from Gezi Park protests, among others. At that point the PASAJ team decided to withdraw from the biennial after finishing their work with the local children. The biennial committee claims there was no censorship and that PASAJ simply did not do their work properly, according to a statement issued by PASAJ. In response, a number of artists withdrew their work, including Anna Borghi, Ekmel Ertan & Seçil Yaylalı, Esin Turan, Geocyclab, Grete Aagrad & Lars Henningsen, Local A., Stefan Endewart, and Julia Brunner. As of today, the biennial website has not updated its program, which will later travel to state-controlled exhibition spaces in the contested Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Hatay province, along the Syrian border. The actual procedure for arts censorship is unknown and the rules remain seemingly ambiguous, enough to serve only the purpose of targeted censorship. This opinion was shared by a spokesperson, who prefers to go unnamed, for Siyah Bant, a research platform that documents censorship in the arts across Turkey. “Throughout the 2000s, censorship in Turkey has been ‘effective’ mostly because it was arbitrary, and rather than working through direct bans, the government relied on mechanisms of de-legitimation and discouragement,” she told Hyperallergic via email. “Eğrikavuk’s case is an example of how the government censors art by using other regulations as an excuse. It is the government’s new strategy across all artistic disciplines, to legitimize their censorship acts as a part of a procedural act. The questions raised by Eğrikavuk’s work can be thought as a starting point to discuss all those issues in the wider public.”

https://hyperallergic.com/297665/turkish-government-censors-video-projection-and-youth-biennial-artworks/

Hyperallergic

2018-12-30 00:00:00

2018

12.0

30

John Yau

A Dozen Memorable Exhibitions from 2018

Just because most museums in America are still asleep at the wheel, it doesn’t mean all is lost. Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads In a turbulent year marked by increasing nationalism, constant attacks on the free press, a retreat from dealing seriously with climate change, and a further, sanctioned erosion of women’s rights, my roundup of memorable exhibitions is nothing more or less than a list of shows that made a lasting impression on me, mostly by opening my eyes and mind to something challenging. These shows reminded me that nothing should be taken for granted, whether it’s drawing with a pencil or crayon, painting with a brush or broom, writing a line of poetry, or reading and interpreting text, from the classical to the arcane. My list is not arranged hierarchically. 1. The exhibition Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, organized by Tracey Bashkoff, Director of Collections and Senior Curator, with the assistance David Horowitz, Curatorial Assistant, challenges any fixed view of art that you might still cling to, despite the museum’s botched, blatant attempt to normalize af Klint by treating her retrospective as a run-up to a related show by R. H. Quaytman. Spirits guided af Klint’s hand and eye. You cannot blame the Guggenheim curators for being flummoxed. They are used to dealing with marketable products, not spiritual inquiries. 2.  Gray Foy: Drawings 1941–1975 at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art was an eye-opener on every conceivable level. Working with, in the artist’s own words, “a hard pencil and untoned paper,” Foy made a small body of drawings of mind-boggling precision and sensual texture. They went unseen for years until this exhibition, which reintroduced this inimitable minor master to a wider public. Initially influenced by Surrealism and the visual hijinks of Salvador Dali and Pavel Tchelitchew, Foy arrived in his own territory when he began making highly detailed, botanically inspired drawings in the 1950s. From that moment until he stopped drawing altogether, Foy pursued his own course. 3. The exhibition Ed Clark: A Survey at Mnuchin Gallery was the latest indication that this important postwar abstract artist is finally beginning to get his due. His contribution to both abstraction and black abstraction has yet to be recognized, partially because he belongs to the generation of abstract artists that was branded as “Second Generation Abstract Expressionists.” If painting had died around 1960, as many have proposed, then what happened in painting after that would have to be a closed book — but, of course, it isn’t. Just because most museums in America are still asleep at the wheel, it doesn’t mean all is lost. 4. In the marvelous exhibition, Harriet Korman, Permeable/Resistant: Recent Paintings and Drawings, at Thomas Erben Gallery, Korman contemplated something basic — the division of a painting’s surface through color and geometry. Instead of regarding painting’s rectangle as a problem, she finds freedom within its limitations, without limiting herself to a signature style. This is a remarkable achievement that has never received the attention it warrants. 5. First known for his concrete poems, Ian Hamilton Finlay moved with his family in 1966 to a small farm on the moors of Pentland Hills, near Edinburgh, Scotland. There, on seven acres of land, he expanded the notion of poetry, spending the rest of his life concretizing words and passages he read (and reread) into sculptures and art works, which were then integrated into gardens and other areas that he carefully cultivated. In the beautifully organized exhibition, Ian Hamilton Finlay: “The Garden Became My Study,” at David Nolan, viewers encountered work where poetry and art, language and object, met. Not derived from a dictionary or thesaurus, Finlay’s use of language comes from his deep reading in divergent subjects, from the French Revolution to classical literature, and a punster’s sensitivity to homophones and other links. It was one of the great shows of the season that seemed to fly under the art world’s radar. 6. Covering nearly four decades, the exhibition Vera Molnar: Drawings 1949-1986 at Senior & Shopmaker offered a fruitful glimpse into the trajectory of Molnar’s career, from post-Constructivist abstraction to algorithmic drawings to — in 1968 — her first use of a computer as a drawing tool, which she has continued to do for nearly 50 years. Other artists have used the computer, of course. Frederick Hammersley made a series of computer-generated geometric drawings in 1969, but Molnar was never interested in making any kind of imagery. The journey she undertook is dazzling. Her pioneering use of the computer and her de facto position, by Sol LeWitt’s definition, as a conceptual artist, give us a glimpse into the unique terrain that Molnar occupies. 7. The exhibition Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today at the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University, curated by Denise Murrell, focuses on the depiction of the black female figure, beginning with Edouard Manet’s 1860s portrayals of the model known only as Laure, who also posed as the maid in “Olympia” (1863). Frédéric Bazille’s “Young Woman with Peonies” (1870), which is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., is one of the many must-see works in this groundbreaking exhibition. 8. Marilyn Lerner is an outlier in the domain of abstract art: her inspirations include Hilma af Klint, game boards, tantric art, and trips to Turkey, Africa, and Southeast Asia during the 1970s and ‘80s. While her work shares something with two other underrated painters of cross-cultural hybrids, Simon Gouverneur and Stephen Mueller, Lerner has long followed her own path. Her debut exhibition at Kate Werble Gallery, Marilyn Lerner: Walking Backward Running Forward, reminded me that Lerner’s work is unlike anything else being done.  That should be a good thing, but in an age of copying and plagiarism, originality seems to be getting short shrift. 9. Lois Dodd is one of our best painters. Her exhibition, Lois Dodd: Flashings at Alexandre Gallery, consists of paintings done on flashing, a common construction material made of aluminum. Dodd’s paintings on aluminum generally measure around 5 by 7 inches. They are done in oil with small brushes. Her subjects can include the corner of a house at night, a nude sitting in a garden, a bumblebee landing on a flower, or a pinecone. As Faye Hirsh has stated, they are “unsentimental, untouched by nostalgia or melancholy […].” 10. In the two-person exhibition of Tammy Nguyen and Nicole Won Hee Maloof, One Blue Eye, Two Servings at CRUSH Curatorial, the artists used the motif of the banana to express their concern about the way Asians are perceived in and by America. Although Maloof works in video, etching, and silkscreen, and Nguyen makes paintings, the work in this exhibition reveals the thoroughness of their research. No matter what subject they focus on, they dive deep into every corner as well as ponder every possibility. There were two reasons to see this exhibition. The first was Maloof’s single-channel video, What color is a banana (color, sound, 2017), which touches upon the banana as slang, as a color, and as a fruit farmed by large corporations that care little for their workers. The other reason to go was Nguyen’s “Đức Mẹ Chuối,” which means “Holy Mother of Bananas” (2018), a nearly life-size painting that restates Sandro Botticelli’s well-known depiction of a female nude in “Birth of Venus” (1484-1486) as a yellow-skinned, female Cyclops. 11. The exhibition, Lydia Cabrera and Édouard Glissant: Trembling Thinking at the Americas Society, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Gabriela Rangel, and Asad Raza, has stayed with me. Cabrera and Glissant were important, influential thinkers and writers who are central figures in the postcolonial history of the Caribbean. The exhibition contained early editions of books by Cabrera and Glissant, magazines with their articles, drawings by Cabrera, and a wonderful film interview with Glissant. Many of the other works — but not all — directly address or deal with Glissant and Cabrera and their considerations of identity. The list of artists included Etel Adnan, Kader Attia, Tania Bruguera, Manthia Diawara, Mestre Didi, Melvin Edwards, Simone Fattal, Sylvie Glissant, Koo Jeong A, Wifredo Lam, Marc Latamie, Roberto Matta, Julie Mehretu, Philippe Parreno, Amelia Peláez, Asad Raza, Anri Sala, Antonio Seguí, Diamond Stingily, Elena Tejada-Herrera, Jack Whitten, and Pedro Zylbersztajn. While the show was modestly sized, it opened or pointed to many doors that I have begun to research further. Cy Twombly, “Untitled (In Beauty it is finished)” (1983–2002), [detail], acrylic, wax crayon, pencil and pen on handmade paper in unbound handmade book, 36 pages; each page: 22 3/8 × 15 3/4 inches, collection Cy Twombly Foundation (© Cy Twombly Foundation, image courtesy Gagosian Gallery)12. This first in-depth exhibition of the artist’s drawings, Cy Twombly: In Beauty It is Finished: Drawings 1951-2008, at Gagosian proved beyond a doubt that Twombly cared deeply about poetry, from the archaic Greek poet Sappho, whose work survives in fragments, to the 13th-century Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi, to the radical 19th-century Italian, Giacomo Leopardi, to the first modern poet, Charles Baudelaire. His passions and enthusiasms extended to paintings of all kinds, as well as to history, mythology, music, and much else, and he did not care if others did not share them. He was learned in a non-scholarly way. For him, culture was a living thing. Twombly’s drawings are about the awakening of the senses and the recognition of the transience of an erotic awakening. This compact state of intense sensory consciousness and its unavoidable dissipation are themes that few artists have ever expressed so precisely in their work. There has been no one like Twombly in American art. He was a self-indulgent hedonist of the highest order, which is to say a formally rigorous artist for whom line and color meant everything.

https://hyperallergic.com/477540/a-dozen-memorable-exhibitions-from-2018/

Hyperallergic

2016-06-22 00:00:00

2016

6.0

22

Whitney Houston: Here's Proof Emmy Auction Is Illegal ... TV Academy Sues

Whitney Houston's Emmy award will NOT be auctioned off without a fight ... the Television Academy just filed a lawsuit accusing Heritage Auctions of theft. TMZ broke the story ... the Academy is trying to block Heritage from putting the statuette on the block -- on behalf of Whitney's family -- claiming it contractually MUST be returned to the Academy. In the docs -- filed in L.A. and obtained by TMZ -- the Academy included the sticker it says has been affixed to the bottom of EVERY Emmy handed out between 1978 to 1994. Whitney won hers in 1986. The sticker makes it clear the statuette is the Academy's property and the winner's heirs are "obligated to return" it ... as opposed to selling it or throwing it away. Heritage thinks the Academy is bullying the Houston family ... because more than 3 dozen other Emmy awards have been auctioned off without a peep. The live auction for Whitney's trophy is set for Friday, but the online auction is already up and running ... and someone's already bid $10k!

https://www.tmz.com/2016/06/22/whitney-houston-emmy-auction-lawsuit/

TMZ

2017-03-30 22:52:00

2017

3.0

30

Jason Koebler

We Are Living in the Age of the Reusable Rocket

What you're looking at above is the first stage of a rocket that's been to space twice. For the first time, SpaceX has reused one of its Falcon 9 rockets, this time to deliver the SES-10 communications satellite to geostationary orbit.  You can watch the rocket launch here, which looks just about the same as any other SpaceX launch and landing. Which is, of course, exactly the point. If SpaceX can routinely reuse its rockets, it can bring the price of space launches down dramatically. Though other space companies—most notably Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin—have plans to launch reusable rockets, SpaceX has a considerable head start; it's the only company to launch the same rocket into orbit twice (Blue Origin's rockets are suborbital).  Motherboard has written a few times about what living in the era of reusable rockets might be like. Each time, it was a thought experiment, an optimistic look at the future, a consideration of the only dream Elon Musk has had for SpaceX short of going to Mars. We don't have to wonder anymore. We're there. 

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/783qz4/we-are-living-in-the-age-of-the-reusable-rocket

Tech by VICE

Vice

2016-04-30 00:00:00

2016

4.0

30

Nicole Murphy -- Good Luck Filling Strahan's Shoes

Nicole Murphy says her ex-fiance Michael Strahan will be a tough act to follow on "Live" ... and the next to fill his chair better be funny. Murphy, who had a 5-year engagement with Strahan was out with a group at Craig's in WeHo Friday night. Our photog asked who she thought could take Michael's place next to Kelly Ripa ... and while Nicole didn't have a certain person in mind, she did say they gotta make the audience laugh. As for the unexpected divorce comment Ripa made to Michael on Friday's show, Nicole didn't have much to say ... but you can definitely tell she's still in Michael's corner.

https://www.tmz.com/2016/04/30/nicole-murphy-michael-strahan-kelly-rip-live-host/

TMZ

2018-10-13 00:00:02

2018

10.0

13

Stavros Agorakis

Vox Sentences: Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard

The news, but shorter. Your daily wrap-up for the day in news. Subscribe to get Vox Sentences delivered straight to your inbox. Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what’s happening in the world. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions. A lawsuit against Harvard University goes to court Monday; the Turkish government says it has proof that Jamal Khashoggi was killed by Saudis. “Sexy four more years.” [In a now-viral tweet that suggests your Halloween costume should be “Sexy + your biggest fear,” comedian Kumail Nanjiani revealed his costume for later this month / Twitter] A legal loophole makes juries less diverse. [YouTube / Ranjani Chakraborty and Mallory Brangan] The case for abolishing the Supreme Court Princess Eugenie’s royal wedding: a fashion FAQ Can consumer choices ward off the worst effects of climate change? An expert explains. Ancestry DNA databases can be used to find you — even if you don’t sign up What happens to Mueller’s investigation if Jeff Sessions is fired or quits?

https://www.vox.com/vox-sentences/2018/10/12/17971440/vox-sentences-harvard-affirmative-action

Vox

2017-09-21 00:00:00

2017

9.0

21

David Gilbert

Apple shouldn't worry about Google's $1.1B HTC deal just yet

Despite the failure of its 2012 Motorola takeover, Google made another big investment in its long term smartphone strategy Thursday, acquiring a division at Taiwanese manufacturer HTC in a $1.1 billion deal. The “big bet” on hardware sees Google gain 2,000 engineers from struggling HTC as well as the non-exclusive use of some of the firm’s intellectual property. The engineers, many of whom already work on Google Pixel devices, will stay in Taiwan and not move to the U.S. company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. HTC said it would continue to produce phones, including a new flagship model, and remains committed to the development of its Vive virtual reality headset. Google will reveal its latest devices at the “Made by Google” event in San Francisco next month, including a smartphone made in collaboration with HTC. Despite the failure of its 2012 Motorola takeover, Google made another big investment in its long term smartphone strategy Thursday, acquiring a division at Taiwanese manufacturer HTC in a $1.1 billion deal. The “big bet” on hardware sees Google gain 2,000 engineers from struggling HTC as well as the non-exclusive use of some of the firm’s intellectual property. The engineers, many of whom already work on Google Pixel devices, will stay in Taiwan and not move to the U.S. company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. HTC said it would continue to produce phones, including a new flagship model, and remains committed to the development of its Vive virtual reality headset. Google will reveal its latest devices at the “Made by Google” event in San Francisco next month, including a smartphone made in collaboration with HTC. Google is already a major player in the smartphone market; it’s Android software runs on 85 percent of all new devices. Google’s previous foray into the hardware market was a questionable flop. It acquired Motorola for $12.5 billion in 2012, before selling it two years later to Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo for $2.9 billion. Google reset its smartphone hardware strategy last year, launching the critically acclaimed Pixel line. But an inability to scale manufacturing meant they sold in small numbers. Some technology watchers had predicted a more dramatic HTC takeover — including its manufacturing plants — as a way to compete with Apple and Samsung, however by acquiring the smartphone-savvy talent — along with a few patents — Google has done little to change the hardware market dynamic. Rick Osterloh, Google’s head of hardware, posted a blog announcing the deal. He said it was part of Google’s “continuing big bet on hardware” and that it was “investing for the long run.” Reacting to the deal, Benedict Evans, a former telecoms analyst who now works at Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, said Google would need to make a more sizeable investment in order to compete with Apple or Samsung. “A few years ago Samsung was spending $10billion a year on marketing handsets. Would Google go to war?” Evans tweeted. Unlike Apple, which makes most of its money from hardware, Google’s approach is to make money from being everywhere. If Google changed this approach — to making money from devices — it would undermine the companies who build and sell over a billion Android smartphones every year. It is unclear if Google is willing to do this.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/xwv54w/apple-shouldnt-worry-about-googles-1-1b-htc-deal-just-yet

Vice News

2016-03-18 14:00:17

2016

3.0

18

Jason Del Rey

Payments Startup Stripe to Help Cuban Internet Startups Set Up Shop in the U.S.

Stripe, the high-profile Silicon Valley payments startup, has long said it wants to make it easier for entrepreneurs located in one part of the world to do business with customers based in another. The next step along that path? Helping Cuban Internet startups with global ambitions to incorporate as a U.S. business and gain access to the U.S. banking system. The foray into Cuba is an extension of a new program called Stripe Atlas aimed at giving overseas entrepreneurs easier access to the U.S. financial system, while funneling more international startups into Stripe’s core payment processing business where it makes the vast majority of its revenue. It comes on the heels of President Obama’s easing of parts of the U.S. embargo against Cuba that had restricted Cuban citizens living in Cuba from earning money in the U.S. or opening a U.S. bank account. Stripe CEO Patrick Collison said the expansion into Cuba came together quickly after White House officials recently visited with aspiring Cuban entrepreneurs who requested such a service. “Banking and payments, and generally the movement of money, was extremely difficult for them,” Collison said, “and those are the primary impediments to a thriving ecosystem.” Stripe will work with a Havana-based group called Merchise Startup Circle to help navigate the nuances of the Cuban startup scene and find businesses that would be a fit. The Atlas program is geared toward Internet businesses that want to sell to customers globally or in the U.S., secure investment from American investors or set up some sort of presence in the U.S. For $500, Stripe will help Cuban businesses incorporate as a Delaware business, open a bank account and get some basic legal and tax consultations. The $500 price tag is a lot of money in some parts of world, but co-founder John Collison previously told Re/code that’s “deliberate” to make sure the program is attracting serious entrepreneurs who recognize “incorporating a company is a serious thing.” The program in Cuba will face hurdles. Less than 5 percent of Cuban households have Internet access in their home today, and while the privatization of the economy has been happening, there’s a way to go. But the government has said it wants 50 percent of households to have Internet access by 2020, which is one of the reasons Stripe thinks now is a smart time to start building relationships there. “A majority of the world’s developers are in what we currently call emerging markets,” Patrick Collison said. “Companies that fail to take these markets seriously are really going to be left behind.” This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

https://www.vox.com/2016/3/18/11587068/payments-startup-stripe-to-help-cuban-internet-startups-set-up-shop

Vox

2016-06-13 22:59:55

2016

6.0

13

Recode Staff

Full video: Didi President Jean Liu and Grab CEO Anthony Tan at Code 2016

Didi Chuxing President Jean Liu and Grab Group CEO Anthony Tan talked with The Verge's Walt Mossberg and Recode's Kara Swisher at the 2016 Code Conference about operating ride-hailing services in China and Singapore, respectively. Since December, the two companies have partnered with Lyft and one another in what some have called an anti-Uber alliance. Here's the full video of the interview. And via our podcast Recode Replay, here is the full audio of Liu's and Tan's appearance: They discussed why they still subsidize ride-sharing prices even though they have raised ample cash, including, in Didi's case, $1 billion from Apple. Tan also announced that Lyft's global fleet will now be accessible through Grab's app. This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

https://www.vox.com/2016/6/13/11835682/jean-liu-anthony-tan-didi-grab-uber-full-video-code

Vox