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Netflix has blocked an episode of its show "Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj" from streaming in Saudi Arabia after the Saudi government complained that the episode which is critical of the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman violated its cybercrime laws. In the episode, first shown in October, Mr. Minhaj critiques the United States' longstanding relationship with Saudi Arabia after the murder of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "Now would be a good time to reassess our relationship with Saudi Arabia," Mr. Minhaj said, "and I mean that as a Muslim and an American." After receiving a takedown request last month from the Saudi government's Communications and Information Technology Commission, Netflix removed the episode from viewing in Saudi Arabia last week. The news was first reported by The Financial Times. In a statement, Netflix defended its decision: "We strongly support artistic freedom worldwide and only removed this episode in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal request and to comply with local law." The episode remains available to Netflix customers elsewhere in the world, and it can also be seen by viewers in Saudi Arabia through the show's YouTube channel, according to The Financial Times. YouTube did not immediately respond on Tuesday to an email asking whether it had received a complaint from the Saudi government. The "Patriot Act" episode appears to be the only program that the Saudi government has asked Netflix to block there. Mr. Minhaj has not commented publicly on the removal of the episode. But in an interview published in The Atlantic last month, Mr. Minhaj spoke of the fear he felt after creating it. "There was a lot of discussion in my family about not doing it," he said in the interview. "I've just come to personal and spiritual terms with what the repercussions are." Article 6 of the Saudi anti cyber crime law, which was cited by the Saudi commission in its request to Netflix, prohibits the "production, preparation, transmission or storage of material impinging on public order, religious values, public morals and privacy" on the internet. Journalism advocates call it a powerful and all encompassing instrument for the Saudi government to censor virtually any speech online. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which rates Saudi Arabia the third most censored country in the world, has documented the growing crackdown on journalists since the appointment last year of Prince Mohammed, who was first promoted as an agent of modernization and reform. Under Prince Mohammed's rule, "authorities have wielded state mechanisms ostensibly focused on terrorism to silence journalists," according to a blog post published in September by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The Communications and Information Technology Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is not unheard of for Western news organizations to have critical reports censored in authoritarian countries. But that action is often taken by local partners, and sometimes without notice. In 2014, for example, a report about Pakistan's relationship to Al Qaeda was deleted from thousands of print copies of the International New York Times in Pakistan resulting in a blank spot on the front page "without our knowledge or agreement," a representative of The Times said at the time.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Media
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Where would that leave the beatniks and the goths? The Audrey Hepburn wannabes? Where would it leave the fashion folk, and all the social and cultural groups that have seized on the color as an identifier thanks to its long term associations with ... well, take your pick ... darkness, existential angst, artistic endeavor, intimidation, obscurity, rigor, efficiency, mystery, depression and sophistication? Where would it leave the protesters? This is perhaps a more apropos question. After all, it is the pro democracy protesters in Hong Kong who have become known most recently for wearing black as they take a stand against the attempts of the Chinese government to make their region less semiautonomous. And it is those protesters who have become the target for a possible ban at least, that's the word on the street on the import of black clothing from mainland China to Hong Kong. This follows an earlier ban, issued by the Hong Kong chief executive, on the wearing of face masks. According to the South China Morning Post, the no black imports edict was first issued in July but recently became more all encompassing. By banning the import of new garments including black T shirts, headbands and goggles the government (or its minions; it's hard to tell if the ban is in anticipation of the government's wishes or reflects its actual wishes) is effectively trying to cut off protesters' access to their uniform. And those enacting the ban don't appear to discriminate between the kind of black clothes one might wear to the gym, say, and the kind one might wear on the latest front line. Which reflects both the intelligence of adopting an easily accessible, everyday color as an idiom of opposition and how hard it will be to combat. Though that hasn't stopped couriers from doing their best to obey. A Hong Kong shipping company called 4PX, for example, told customers last month that it was illegal to ship black T shirts (also gas masks, laser lights, ski goggles, towels, bandages, loudspeakers and headbands, among other items). When asked where this order originated, a 4PX employee said the list came from China Post, the postal carrier controlled by the Chinese government. China Post did not respond to requests for comment. Brian Au, the Hong Kong born, Canada raised founder of CHSN1 ("chosen one"), a street wear meets gym wear line that is manufactured at factories in Guangzhou and offers predominantly black clothing, said his most recent drop had been stuck in customs since September. "Basically all courier services have refused to pick up anything black or remotely black," he said. "I couldn't even get my samples in. Not a single T shirt or jacket." "I'm empathetic to the situation, but it's out of our control," said Mr. Au, who noted that he was not particularly political. "There's nothing to do at this point except ride it out and be patient." To date, the ban does not seem to have had any visible effect on the protesters, who have more than enough black in their closet already, or even on the availability of black clothing, which is still being sold in shops. But even if black garments did ultimately become a scarce resource, the Chinese government, in focusing on the color, is missing the point. Yes, black clothing "remains a hugely significant form of oppositional dress," as Dr. Erin Vearncombe, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto whose research focuses on dress and the body, wrote in an email. It "signals everything from independent thought to outright defiance and revolution." Yes, it has a long and storied history as the color of refusal. Queen Victoria used it to signify her separateness as a widow; the Black Panthers wore black leather jackets, black pants and black shades; the Time's Up protesters wore black red carpet gowns at the Golden Globes; and for "black bloc" and antifa protests against the far right, it's become a signature. (It is also seen as a signal of menace. As Dr. Vearncombe noted: "Across historical and geographical contexts, people have considered black clothing as 'looking' malevolent, guilty, dishonest, violent.") Yes, "clothing's uniquely affective, declarative and performative capacity has meant it has long operated as a central communicative site for political activism and demands for social reform," as two researchers at the University of Brighton put it. "The use of dress as a form of 'nonverbal resistance' seems more prevalent than ever in recent times," they added. And yes, black has long been worn as a signal of opposition in Hong Kong, including in the protests against attempts by the Chinese government to introduce a new "moral and national education" plan in 2012 and by the pro democracy marchers of 2017.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Style
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The package of eccentric ideas known as modern monetary theory for example, that annual deficits are too small, and that the United States can essentially print money to pay off its debt has been on the receiving end of a remarkable level of vitriol. In policy circles, heavyweight economists have churned out scathing attacks. In the business arena, titans like Laurence D. Fink and Bill Gates have labeled it "garbage" and "crazy talk." And in academia, when the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business asked top scholars about a couple of its claims, they split between the 28 percent who disagreed and the 72 percent who strongly disagreed. But M.M.T., as it's known, is attracting a conspicuous number of fans in an unexpected place: Wall Street. Money managers, chief executives and business analysts maintain that the approach offers several important and overlooked insights, and far from finding it fanciful or deranged, they are using M.M.T. to build economic forecasts and even trading strategies. "I don't look at labels in terms of what's on the left and the right," said Jan Hatzius, the chief economist at Goldman Sachs. "I try to look at what makes me have a better chance of getting the forecast right, and I do find some of the ideas useful." So does Paul A. McCulley, a former chief economist at the behemoth asset firm Pimco. Ideas like M.M.T. that rub against the grain of conventional economics, he said, have "for all of my career been a very useful framework for analysis." That framework helped produce billion dollar gains for the company after the 2008 financial crisis. Dismissing alarms about outsize government debt and white knuckle interest rates, Pimco instead bet successfully that rates would remain low. When it came to decision making during this period, Mr. McCulley said, M.M.T. and other unorthodox approaches helped him "get it right." Richard C. Koo, chief economist at the Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo, said he had been telling his clients for years that "even with huge budget deficits in the U.S., interest rates would actually come down, not go up." Wall Street is not immune to the herd mentality, but Mr. Koo and several other analysts argued that academic economists had a vested interest in certain theories and were, therefore, more likely to suffer from groupthink. In an article posted on Wednesday on the website of Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo Company, known as GMO, the strategist James Montier wrote: "For me an economic approach must help me understand the world, and provide me with some useful insights (preferably about my day job investing). On those measures, let me assure you that M.M.T. thrashes neoclassical economics, hands down." And Daniel Alpert, a managing partner of the investment bank Westwood Capital, credited the theory with preventing him from panicking that rates would soar when the Federal Reserve set off a brief "taper tantrum" in 2013 and announced it was easing its stimulus program. Over the past couple of years, he said, the Fed tried everything "it did a belly dance to get long term interest rates up" and it didn't work. M.M.T., Mr. Alpert said, "successfully debunks 40 years of misassumptions of how markets and public credit work." Progressive politicians like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York are among the most vocal supporters of M.M.T., but the theory's appeal crosses political lines in part because it offers a narrative for a series of events that the established wisdom failed to anticipate or explain. Big government deficits, for instance, were supposed to mop up available pools of capital and drive up interest rates, which would, in turn, elbow out private investors, damage growth and feed inflation. But the last decade was different. When deficits soared after the recession, interest rates fell and savings rates climbed. Investors are awash in capital. The economy has been expanding, slowly, for 10 years, with unemployment and inflation rates ensconced at record low levels. One reason for the misjudgments may be that the economic models that confidently strode down the mainstream were hammered out in the decades after World War II, when American companies had an enormous appetite for capital investment. "We don't live in that world anymore," said Mr. Koo of Nomura. Today, vast fortunes shift across oceans in an instant, currencies are untethered from gold, and your local coffee shop may no longer accept cash. Technological advances, demographic shifts and persistently lower interest rates have further altered the global economy. Mohamed A. El Erian, chief economic adviser at the financial firm Allianz, wrote in an email that "modern monetary theory has merit in stimulating debate" on whether those changes provide "for governments to run larger economically sustainable deficits than was previously thought possible." Besides the risk of government deficits, M.M.T. throws out a drawerful of other venerable assumptions with Marie Kondo esque ruthlessness. To start, it instructs you to erase that textbook drawing of a white haired Uncle Sam collecting tax dollars from the public and then using them to pay for military weapons, highway repairs, federal workers' wages and more. Tax revenues are not what finance the government's expenditures, argues Stephanie Kelton, an economist at Stony Brook University and one of the most influential modern monetary theorists. What actually happens in a country that controls its own currency, she says, is that the government first decides what it's going to spend. In the United States, Congress agrees on a budget. Then government agencies start handing out dollars to the public to pay for those tanks, earth movers and salaries. Afterward, it takes a portion back in the form of taxes. If the government takes back less than it gave out, there will be a deficit. "The national debt is nothing more than a historical record of all of the dollars that were spent into the economy and not taxed back, and are currently being saved in the form of Treasury securities," Ms. Kelton said. Ms. Kelton, a frequent speaker at business and financial conferences and the chief economic adviser to Mr. Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign, points out that every dollar the government spends translates into a dollar of income for someone else. So a deficit in the public sector simultaneously produces a surplus outside the government. The reverse is also true, Ms. Kelton maintains, and that can lead to trouble. The seven biggest American depressions or downturns going back 200 years, she said, were all preceded by government surpluses. What she disagrees with is the reason given. In her view, deficits are not a sign of excessive spending or necessarily a forerunner of inflation. They can be too big, especially if they are not used to increase the nation's productive capacity, or if there is a shortage of labor, raw materials and factories. "If Congress authorizes too much spending and businesses are not nimble enough" to absorb it, there can be bottlenecks and price pressure, she acknowledged. But she argues that it is much more likely that deficits are too small, depriving the economy of critical investments. The best way to stabilize the economy and ensure full employment and a humming economy, she said, is to have the federal government guarantee every American a job. The notion that surpluses could cause economic downturns flips conventional thinking. Yet the idea of sectoral balances that government or nongovernment deficits are offset by surpluses on the other side is what some financial economists find so illuminating, even if they stop short of endorsing all of the theory's tenets. "It is a great way of summarizing whether households and firms are living beyond their means," said Mr. Hatzius of Goldman Sachs. "It is a great indicator of potential financial crises." In his view, giant private sector deficits are much more alarming than public sector ones because households and companies are at much greater risk of losing access to credit in a downturn. Unlike the Treasury, they can't print money or issue bonds when they run out. Mr. McCulley, now retired from Pimco, used the same kind of analysis to guide his investing decisions after the financial crisis. He figured the only way that private borrowers could shrink their vast storehouse of debt was to have the government buy up those assets. He was unconcerned that the federal deficit would balloon as a result. Pimco's view during the crisis, he said, was "shake hands with the government," because it had the largest checkbook. That is why the firm invested heavily, for example, in the federally guaranteed mortgage backed securities that most other firms were shedding. Mr. Koo of Nomura has further developed the idea of sectoral balances to explain the most recent wave of recessions and argue for larger government deficits. The problem that major economies in Japan, Europe and the United States have today, he said, is that despite low interest rates, investment opportunities in domestic markets don't offer sufficient returns to lure borrowers to go into debt, using the vast pools of available savings. That means "the government has to spend money to keep the economy going," he said. And as long as the government invests in projects that produce an economic return greater than the yield on 10 year Treasury notes currently about 2.5 percent "this will never be a burden on taxpayers." Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge funds, made a similar point in a paper he released recently about saving capitalism. Without any specific reference to M.M.T., he noted that "policymakers pay too much attention to budgets relative to returns on investments." Covid's impact on the supply chain continues. The pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of the global supply chain and made all kinds of products harder to find. In turn, scarcity has caused the prices of many things to go higher as inflation remains stubbornly high. Almost anything manufactured is in short supply. That includes everything from toilet paper to new cars. The disruptions go back to the beginning of the pandemic, when factories in Asia and Europe were forced to shut down and shipping companies cut their schedules. First, demand for home goods spiked. Money that Americans once spent on experiences were redirected to things for their homes. The surge clogged the system for transporting goods to the factories that needed them and finished products piled up because of a shortage of shipping containers. Now, ports are struggling to keep up. In North America and Europe, where containers are arriving, the heavy influx of ships is overwhelming ports. With warehouses full, containers are piling up. The chaos in global shipping is likely to persist as a result of the massive traffic jam. No one really knows when the crisis will end. Shortages and delays are likely to affect this year's Christmas and holiday shopping season, but what happens after that is unclear. Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said he expects supply chain problems to persist "likely well into next year." A couple of M.M.T.'s academic strongholds are the University of Missouri Kansas City and the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College. And there, too, Wall Street's attraction to the theory has played a role. Warren Mosler, a hedge fund mogul who resides in low tax St. Croix, helped bankroll some of the work at those schools, donating money for student scholarships and conferences. Mr. Mosler developed some of the ideas underlying M.M.T. from his own observations of financial operations, and has written a couple of short treatises. He is used to doubters. "It's astounding," he said. How could the Fed chairman be wrong, he mused, and "somebody sitting in St. Croix in a pair of shorts be right?" Ron Biscardi, chief executive of the investment firm Context Capital Partners, was one of those persuaded by the guy in shorts. When he read Mr. Mosler's book, the ideas struck him as both revolution and revelation. Mr. Biscardi's company also runs conferences for the hedge fund industry to which he has invited Ms. Kelton as a speaker. He had recently returned from one at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach that featured tete a tetes between hundreds of investors and alternative asset managers and a keynote speech by Gary Cohn, the former director of the Trump administration's National Economic Council. Mr. Biscardi described himself as a libertarian and conservative. To him, modern monetary theory means not only more government spending on infrastructure, but also lower taxes on the wealthy. After all, if government deficits can grow larger, there's no need to raise as much revenue. To many mainstream economists, though, M.M.T. is a confused mishmash that proponents use to support their political objectives, whether big government programs like "Medicare for all" and the Green New Deal or smaller taxes. Think of the Mirror of Erised in the Harry Potter saga, which shows the heart's desire a tantalizing prospect that ultimately brings ruin. From this perspective, M.M.T. is a version of free lunchonomics, leaving the next generation to pay for this generation's profligacy. Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 2009 to 2015, is aware of the conflicts between M.M.T. and the traditional framework developed by John Maynard Keynes, in which it is rooted. But he is more struck by their similarities rather than their differences. Both recommend that government should spend when the private sector isn't doing enough to employ the nation's work force, raw materials and factories to prompt growth. Both deem inflation to be insidious. The inflationary threat looms particularly large for economists of his generation, Mr. Kocherlakota, 55, said. For them, the seminal experience was the scarring inflation of the 1970s. "The big lesson was that resources are always scarce," he said. But over the past decade, he said, his thinking has evolved. Now Mr. Kocherlakota is more inclined to believe that scarcity is not the overriding problem and that the federal government could spend more without risk of excessive inflation. If you put aside the theoretical disputations, Mr. Kocherlakota said, the important question is: How far is the United States from reaching the limits of its capacity? Even with a jobless rate under 4 percent, he believes there is room to maneuver. Mr. Kocherlakota said that compared to those within the Fed, chief executives, financiers and analysts who operate internationally tend to be more open to modern monetary theory in their analyses of government deficits and inflation. "Folks who take a global perspective are much more likely to see a lot of unused capacity," he said. They realize "inflation is not built at home anymore, it's built through global pressures." Mr. McCulley, the Pimco alumnus, would put his money on that. Increasing the deficit so that the government could invest in infrastructure and the labor force "would not make me bearish on the stock market at all," he said. "At all," he repeated. "If anything, it would make me bullish."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Economy
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This summer, Isabella Boylston, the American Ballet Theater principal, will realize a dream, to bring ballet to her hometown, Sun Valley, Idaho. Ballet Sun Valley, a three day event with performances Aug. 22 and 24 at the Sun Valley Pavilion, and free classes for children on Aug. 23, will feature dancers from major companies, including Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, the Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and the Mariinsky Ballet. "I always wanted to have the opportunity to curate a show of my own," Ms. Boylston, 30, said in a telephone interview. "This feels like a very personal project." She isn't revealing her dancers yet, but added, "They're all people I have a relationships with and love as friends as well as dancers." She is hoping that Ballet Sun Valley will turn into an annual event. Along with works by George Balanchine, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon and Justin Peck Ms. Boylston will dance the part originally created for Sara Mearns in Mr. Peck's "The Bright Motion" there will be a commission by Gemma Bond. Inspired by the idea of a solar eclipse, Ms. Bond's premiere will be performed by 10 Ballet Theater dancers and features a new score by Judd Greenstein and video designs by Kate Duhamel. "We wanted a ballet that related to the area in some way, and during the week that we're performing, there will be a full solar eclipse directly over Sun Valley," Ms. Boylston said. "We thought that would be a cool theme to draw inspiration from."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Dance
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The governors of New York, California and Texas on Monday expressed support for a return of major professional sports from their coronavirus related shutdowns in the coming weeks, telling leagues that they should come up with plans if they want to host in those states. A key caveat for all three states would be having no fans present. "Hockey, basketball, baseball, football, whoever can reopen. We're a ready, willing and able partner," Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York said, adding that he had been encouraging the leaders of major sports leagues to tailor their plans to television audiences. "Yes, I do want to watch the Bills," Cuomo said, "but that is not subverting my role as governor. I think this is in the best interest of all the people and in the best interest of the state of New York." Cuomo's remarks during his daily coronavirus briefing came as all the top leagues had been looking for a path to return to the field. M.L.B. team owners have proposed an 82 game schedule beginning in July. To minimize travel, teams would play only against divisional rivals as well as opponents in the corresponding geographic division of the opposite league. Any return would need the approval of the players' union.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Sports
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A Machine May Not Take Your Job, but One Could Become Your Boss When Conor Sprouls, a customer service representative in the call center of the insurance giant MetLife talks to a customer over the phone, he keeps one eye on the bottom right corner of his screen. There, in a little blue box, A.I. tells him how he's doing. Talking too fast? The program flashes an icon of a speedometer, indicating that he should slow down. Sound sleepy? The software displays an "energy cue," with a picture of a coffee cup. Not empathetic enough? A heart icon pops up. Mr. Sprouls and the other call center workers at his office in Warwick, R.I., still have plenty of human supervisors. But the software on their screens made by Cogito, an A.I. company in Boston has become a kind of adjunct manager, always watching them. At the end of every call, Mr. Sprouls's Cogito notifications are tallied and added to a statistics dashboard that his supervisor can view. If he hides the Cogito window by minimizing it, the program notifies his supervisor. Cogito is one of several A.I. programs used in call centers and other workplaces. The goal, according to Joshua Feast, Cogito's chief executive, is to make workers more effective by giving them real time feedback. "There is variability in human performance," Mr. Feast said. "We can infer from the way people are speaking with each other whether things are going well or not." The goal of automation has always been efficiency, but in this new kind of workplace, A.I. sees humanity itself as the thing to be optimized. Amazon uses complex algorithms to track worker productivity in its fulfillment centers, and can automatically generate the paperwork to fire workers who don't meet their targets, as The Verge uncovered this year. (Amazon has disputed that it fires workers without human input, saying that managers can intervene in the process.) IBM has used Watson, its A.I. platform, during employee reviews to predict future performance and claims it has a 96 percent accuracy rate. Management by algorithm is not a new concept. In the early 20th century, Frederick Winslow Taylor revolutionized the manufacturing world with his "scientific management" theory, which tried to wring inefficiency out of factories by timing and measuring each aspect of a job. More recently, Uber, Lyft and other on demand platforms have made billions of dollars by outsourcing conventional tasks of human resources scheduling, payroll, performance reviews to computers. But using A.I. to manage workers in conventional, 9 to 5 jobs has been more controversial. Critics have accused companies of using algorithms for managerial tasks, saying that automated systems can dehumanize and unfairly punish employees. And while it's clear why executives would want A.I. that can track everything their workers do, it's less clear why workers would. "It is surreal to think that any company could fire their own workers without any human involvement," Marc Perrone, the president of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents food and retail workers, said in a statement about Amazon in April. In the gig economy, management by algorithm has also been a source of tension between workers and the platforms that connect them with customers. This year, drivers for Postmates, DoorDash and other on demand delivery companies protested a method of calculating their pay, using an algorithm, that put customer tips toward guaranteed minimum wages a practice that was nearly invisible to drivers, because of the way the platform obscures the details of worker pay. There were no protests at MetLife's call center. Instead, the employees I spoke with seemed to view their Cogito software as a mild annoyance at worst. Several said they liked getting pop up notifications during their calls, although some said they had struggled to figure out how to get the "empathy" notification to stop appearing. (Cogito says the A.I. analyzes subtle differences in tone between the worker and the caller and encourages the worker to try to mirror the customer's mood.) MetLife, which uses the software with 1,500 of its call center employees, says using the app has increased its customer satisfaction by 13 percent. The best argument for workplace A.I. may be situations in which human bias skews decision making, such as hiring. Pymetrics, a New York start up, has made inroads in the corporate hiring world by replacing the traditional resume screening process with an A.I. program that uses a series of games to test for relevant skills. The algorithms are then analyzed to make sure they are not creating biased hiring outcomes, or favoring one group over another. "We can tweak data and algorithms until we can remove the bias. We can't do that with a human being," said Frida Polli, Pymetrics' chief executive. Using A.I. to correct for human biases is a good thing. But as more A.I. enters the workplace, executives will have to resist the temptation to use it to tighten their grip on their workers and subject them to constant surveillance and analysis. If that happens, it won't be the robots staging an uprising.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Technology
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MEXICO CITY President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's visit with President Trump in Washington this week will no doubt embarrass many Mexicans and outrage many Americans. The meeting, intended to bolster Mr. Trump's campaign, is an opportunity for Mr. Lopez Obrador to return a favor. When, in April, Mexico balked at reducing its oil output, endangering a global agreement to shrink oil production, Mr. Trump stepped in and promised that the United States would pick up the slack for its southern neighbor with its own cuts. "They'll reimburse us, sometime at a later date, when they're prepared to do so," Mr. Trump said of Mexico. Mr. Lopez Obrador is doing just that by breaking his custom of never leaving Mexico. The only precedent for such acquiescence in modern Mexican history was in August 2016, when Mr. Lopez Obrador's predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto, invited Mr. Trump, not yet elected, to the presidential residence. Nothing justified that invitation, and after it was extended, many of us demanded that Mr. Pena Nieto at least ask for a public apology from Mr. Trump, who had branded Mexicans as "rapists and murderers." We urged him to tell Mr. Trump that Mexico would never pay for his wall. But Mr. Pena Nieto avoided the issue of the wall altogether and even stooped so low as to absolve Mr. Trump's affronts. After spending four hours in Mexico City probably the most profitable hours of his campaign Mr. Trump returned home to a political rally where he declared that Mexicans would pay for the wall. Mr. Pena Nieto and Mexico got nothing, while Mr. Trump got the photo opportunity he needed to look presidential. American liberals might wonder why Mr. Lopez Obrador would repeat Mr. Pena Nieto's mistake. They have a hard time seeing the rather unconventional similarities between Mr. Trump and Mr. Lopez Obrador, who has projected the image of a nationalist left wing fighter for social justice while the American president is a populist racist oligarch. But, in fact, their convergence proves the anachronism of ideologies in our time. Both seek the absolute dominance of the executive branch. They dismiss institutions and the rule of law. They attack the critical independent press: Mr. Trump cries "fake news," while Mr. Lopez Obrador repeats, "I have other data." They scorn science and have confronted the pandemic irresponsibly and ineffectively, and with total lack of empathy. Both cultivate a twisted cult of personality. There is only one power that Mr. Lopez Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, recognizes and fears, and that is the only power greater than himself the United States. A saying that he is fond of alludes to the futility of trying to take down Samson in a fistfight. Having cut his teeth in Mexico, where presidents used to reign as emperors, Mr. Lopez Obrador equates Samson and the United States with Donald Trump. That's why when Mr. Trump threatened to abandon the North American Free Trade Agreement or to impose tariffs on Mexican products, he agreed to turn Mexico into Mr. Trump's wall. The new National Guard, which was supposed to prevent and combat this country's unspeakable drug violence, has instead been deployed on our southern border turn away Central American migrants and, on the northern border, to keep them penned up in subhuman conditions. Until Trump, servility was never the hallmark of Mexican diplomacy vis a vis the United States. In the nearly two centuries of relations between our countries, full of diplomatic and military conflicts, there have been only a handful of episodes in which Mexican leaders, driven by fear and necessity, prostrated themselves before "the giant of the north" most famously the Mexican American War, which ended in 1848 with Mexico ceding more than half of its territory to the United States. And in 1859 Benito Juarez and James Buchanan signed a treaty that, had it not been for the outbreak of the American Civil War, would have resulted in the additional loss of sovereignty. Thereafter, notwithstanding minor concessions, Mexican diplomacy has maintained an attitude of dignity, lending to a positive neighborly relationship. In 1927, when Plutarco Elias Calles resisted pressure from Calvin Coolidge over a law that threatened American oil company operations in Mexico, Hearst's sensationalist press urged invasion against "Soviet Mexico." The Mexican government then released secret documents that revealed the United States' intent to invade. Coolidge gave in, sending to Mexico the sensible and practical ambassador Dwight M. Morrow, who brought the two countries closer. The moral was clear: Dignity pays off. The relationship between two truly progressive presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lazaro Cardenas, was established on that basis of respect and good faith. The United States was tempered in its reaction to Cardenas's 1938 decree expropriating oil companies. And in 1942, Mexico joined the Allied powers in World War II. That base of dignity, firmness, respect and good faith has been lost, not only because of Mr. Trump, with his racist discourse and his hostility toward Mexicans who live in the United States, but by Mr. Lopez Obrador's submission to his every whim and threat. Just as Mr. Pena Nieto did, he is betting that he will benefit if he helps Mr. Trump win the Latino vote. But as unjustifiable it was back in 2016, it is also offensive and foolish in 2020, when the entire world has seen and suffered Mr. Trump's outbursts. We Mexican democrats will not forget Mr. Lopez Obrador's reverence to the man who has maligned us. And American Democrats will not forget the service Mr. Lopez Obrador is doing to the president who has caused them so much harm.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Opinion
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Ron Shiffman, an Israeli born, Bronx raised urban planner and a Park Sloper long before the Slope was chic, has spent half a century trying to make New York a more livable city. The journalist Jack Newfield once wrote that Mr. Shiffman "has saved more New York neighborhoods than Robert Moses has destroyed." Many of Mr. Shiffman's fellow New Yorkers would agree. He is a former member of the New York City Planning Commission and the recipient of the 2012 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. A burly, voluble bear of a man, Mr. Shiffman is at 74 also deeply engaged in of the moment issues. His efforts to make New York's residential neighborhoods more environmentally healthy have resonated throughout the city. A On the contrary, it's a necessity. With our mass transit, density and good bones, New York has the framework for being a more sustainable place. But if we don't take advantage of these benefits, we'll suffer. And as we learned from Hurricane Sandy, we have to develop good plans. We have to adapt to rising sea levels and to more severe storms, which will determine how and where we build. We have to create buildings that are both resilient and sustainable. Q What are the benefits of making New York a greener city? A Making New York greener will make it more pleasant. It will lead to a vastly improved environment, one that's more beautiful and has more open spaces where people can gather. There will be more trees and plants to absorb water, reduce heat from sidewalks, provide more shade and have a cooling effect on hot days. Q Some people think that a greener New York is simply a matter of sealing up windows so heat doesn't escape. What's your answer to them? A There's a lot of misinformation out there. Avoiding heat loss certainly results in a healthier environment and makes buildings cheaper to operate. But the larger issues involve reducing and recycling waste and reducing our need for natural resources. And of course less waste means less pollution. Q Given its excellent mass transit, is New York greener than other cities? A In terms of consumption of fossil fuels, New York compares very well to other cities around the world. It doesn't rank as high as many cities in Europe or Asia, but it ranks better than nearly every city in America. Houston is far more auto dependent than New York. Another benefit for New York is its density, thanks largely to its mass transit system. The new bike routes also make a big difference. But there's an optimal level of density. You don't want to overburden the transit system or to build where a transit system doesn't exist, as happened with some of the new development along the Brooklyn waterfront. Q Is New York going green fast enough? A No place is going green fast enough. But the danger is that because people feel that they can't do enough, they throw up their hands and do nothing. Q In terms of being a green building, what's better a tower or low rise? A It's not an issue. You can have low rise buildings that are environmentally sound look at Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, with its interior courtyards. But although density is important, the solution isn't just to create more density. Parts of New York are too dense. There has to be optimal density, and that depends on a proper infrastructure. Q What can average New Yorkers do to make their buildings greener? A A lot. They can buy nontoxic cleaners and water based paint, and get rid of all the toxic hazardous materials like turpentine under their sinks. One reason the Rockaways were so polluted after Sandy is that people's basements were filled with hazardous materials. They can make their hot water systems more efficient. They can paint a black roof white so it reflects heat and keeps their house cooler. Q If you had one message for New Yorkers who want to make the city greener, what would it be? A I'm not good at sound bites. But I'd tell them that going green is not something to fear but something to embrace, something that will protect their children and grandchildren. Q What's your answer to New Yorkers who don't believe that climate change is a problem? A I'd reframe the argument. I'd ask them: Do you want to pay less for energy? Do you want to live in a building with more light and fresher air? Do you want a cleaner city, one with less soot? Do you want to have to depend on a car to get around, especially as you get older, the way you do in places like New Rochelle? Set aside the issue of climate change. Think about what will make your living conditions better. Q Are there places in the city where environmental changes are working well? A The area around Hunts Point and the Bronx River is a good example. They've cleaned up the river. They've rerouted trucks. There are planted medians that make the area healthier, and tree pits that capture water. And because this is a working class neighborhood, working class New Yorkers are benefiting. Another success story is the former West Side Highway area, with its parks, its bikers, its runners. The area smells better, it looks better, and the traffic moves well. The best thing you can do for the environment is maintain and retrofit existing buildings, as people have been doing in Brooklyn neighborhoods. And very modest efforts can make a difference too. At my house we bought rain barrels, which cost less than 20 or 30 apiece, to store rainwater. Instead of the rainwater going into the city sewer system, it goes into the rain barrels and we run hoses to the backyard to water our plants. A Studies show that with a green building, you can save 20 to 70 percent in operating costs for items like fuel, electricity and repairs. With more greenery, you lower heating and air conditioning costs, a big issue now that we have more 100 plus degree days a year.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Real Estate
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It's old fashioned and romantic, she knows, but Sigrid Nunez still views writing the way Edna O'Brien characterized it, as a lifelong vocation akin to being a nun or a priest. Early in Sigrid Nunez's novel, "The Friend," a group of writers gather at a memorial for a well known novelist who has committed suicide. Most have come not to grieve or pay their respects, but to network and gossip about literary prizes and money and to dissect the latest review of a certain widely detested author. "If reading really does increase empathy, as we are constantly being told that it does," the novel's narrator, an unnamed novelist, observes, "it appears that writing also takes some away." It's quite an admission to make about one's chosen vocation, but it's far from the most cutting observation Nunez makes in "The Friend," which takes frequent, unflinching aim at the backstabbing, status obsessed literary world. "Writers really are like vampires," a character declares. Another author compares the publishing industry to "a sinking raft that too many people are trying to get onto." In one display of collective self flagellation, Nunez lists some of the insults that authors have lobbed at their own kind: writers are "monsters" (Henry de Montherlant), "aggressive, hostile" bullies (Joan Didion) and "morally indefensible" (Janet Malcolm). Then there's the memorable moment when the narrator opens an email advertisement for a literary wall calendar featuring 12 authors posing nude a detail that Nunez insists isn't that far fetched. "I can imagine it well, I did imagine it," Nunez said in a recent interview of the (still, thankfully, fictional) naked author calendar. "Maybe we'll see it." And yet despite her acid critique of writers and their discontents, or perhaps because of her dead on depiction, Nunez has won over the literary world with "The Friend." The novel, an acerbic but often poignant exploration of love, friendship, death, grief, art and literature, received this year's National Book Award for fiction and drew euphoric reviews from critics, who hailed it as a subtle, unassuming masterpiece. (Writing in The Times, Dwight Garner called Nunez "a crisply philosophical and undervalued novelist.") The rapturous reception has stunned Nunez, 67, who has been quietly writing and publishing books for the past 23 years. She's the kind of writer the heroine of "The Friend" laments doesn't exist anymore one who views writing as a sacred calling rather than an exercise in self promotion and branding. So Nunez was a bit surprised to be cast into the spotlight, embraced as a breakout literary star and titanic talent, more than two decades after she published her debut novel. "I became a writer because it was something I could do alone and hidden in my room," Nunez said, perched on a stool at the counter of a coffee shop near the High Line on a gray November morning. That's more or less what she's been doing for the last three decades. Ever since she was young, she's never wanted to do anything else: "I just wanted to do one thing well, and that was the thing." Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. None Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more. See what's new in October: Among this month's new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric. Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125. That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books. Growing up in the housing projects of Staten Island in the 1950s, the daughter of a German mother and a Panamanian Chinese father, Nunez was an imaginative child who turned to books for solace and escape. Her father worked seven days a week, as a kitchen worker in a hospital and weekends as a waiter in various Chinese restaurants, and her mother took care of the household. She studied English at Barnard College and later got her Masters in Fine Arts from Columbia University. After graduating, she worked at The New York Review of Books as an editorial assistant to the editor, Robert B. Silvers. Through her work at the Review, she got to know Susan Sontag, and became close to her later when she began dating her son. That friendship gave Nunez an up close glimpse of the life of a professional writer, and she realized that Sontag's fame, and the attention and obligations that came with it, held no appeal for her. "It was very clear to me that even if I wanted something like that, I could never handle it," she said. "I wanted quiet." Nunez has hardly been laboring in obscurity she's published eight books, and she won several literary awards before receiving the National Book Award, including the Whiting Award and Rome Prize. Her work is beloved by fellow novelists (more than a decade ago, Gary Shteyngart called her "one of the most dizzyingly accomplished of our writers"). But she's kept a deliberate distance from the literary scene, which gives her "a certain amount of freedom and outsiderness," she said. In an era when publishers expect writers to constantly market themselves and court fans on Twitter or Instagram, she maintains a sort of stoic silence online, and has no social media accounts. For better or worse, it's also kept her work somewhat under the radar, while many of her peers have ascended to prominence. "The way that she sets herself apart, you might not notice, but that's what she's doing," said the novelist Alexander Chee. "It definitely costs her. It's not easy to live that way." It's old fashioned and romantic, she knows, but Nunez still views writing the way Edna O'Brien characterized it, as a lifelong vocation akin to being a nun or a priest. Like the narrator of "The Friend," who's distressed by the eroding place of literature in society, Nunez worries that we've lost that notion of writing as a lofty art worth pursuing for its own sake. "The idea of Flaubert holed up writing his sentences is not part of our culture any more," she said. She never married or had children, a choice she said that has allowed her to focus on her writing without having to worry about her financial situation. She's had the same apartment near Union Square since the 1980s. To supplement her writing income, she teaches she's currently teaching writing and literature seminars at Boston University, Brooklyn College and the New School. "I've never had a real job, I've been living like a grad student forever," she said. In her fiction, Nunez has experimented with a dizzying range of genres and themes she's written a fictional biography of Virginia Woolf's pet marmoset ("Mitz"), a novel about a 13 year old boy who survives a global flu pandemic ("Salvation City") and a memoir about Sontag ("Sempre Susan"). But most of her books are marked by a spare, intimate, confessional tone. In her 1995 debut novel, "A Feather on the Breath of God," she wrote about her youth and coming of age. (The New York Times anointed her a formidable new voice, calling the book "a forceful novel by a writer of uncommon talent.") There were also elements of auto fiction in "The Last of Her Kind," which features two young women who are roommates at Barnard College in 1968, and "For Rouenna," which is narrated by an unnamed writer partly modeled on Nunez, who strikes up a friendship with a military nurse who served in Vietnam. "The Friend" is perhaps her most autobiographical work since her debut novel, though she didn't set out to write it that way, Nunez said. About a year and a half ago, she decided to write a novel about a woman who is grieving for a friend who killed himself, a subject she was drawn to because so many people she knew seemed to be contemplating or discussing suicide. While she was working on it, one of her friends, a writer, jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge to his death, she said. She didn't plan to make her narrator a writer who so closely resembles her, but details from her own life seeped in. "I had no interest in writing about a writer, really, but all these years I've spent so much time thinking about writing and the teaching of writing that it came very naturally," she said. In the novel, the narrator adopts her dead friend's 180 pound Great Dane, Apollo, an unlikely companion she grows to love deeply despite the fact that she's a "cat person" who lives in a tiny New York apartment. Nunez is also a self declared cat person, (though she has had "stepdogs," and like the narrator, has had several beloved cats, and a bunny who would lie in front of her speakers when she played classical music). But she always wanted to write a novel with an animal as a central character, and was moved by stories of dogs mourning for their owners.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Books
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The stakes in the current debate around fashion, cultural appropriation and racism, in which a variety of brands from Gucci to H M have been called out and publicly flayed for making products that display striking historical ignorance or may exploit the work of others , have just been raised. This week Alejandra Frausto, the cultural minister of Mexico, wrote a letter to Carolina Herrera, the New York fashion brand, accusing it of using, for its own ends, embroidery techniques and patterns specific to certain Mexican indigenous communities in the resort 2020 collection, which was shown in a series of appointments last week at the Herrera headquarters in the garment district. (The letter was first reported in El Pais.) The collection, in sunrise shades, had been inspired, said Wes Gordon, the current creative director of the label, by the lifestyle of its founder, Mrs. Herrera, who is Venezuelan, and the idea of a "Latin holiday." Recently Mr. Gordon and his husband had taken a trip to Mexico, where, he said, they were "mesmerized by its beauty." The show notes given out at the time name checked "Sunrise in Tulum; the light of Lima; Strolls in Mexico City; The waves of Jose Ignacio; Dancing in Buenos Aires; The colors of Cartagena." But the collection also included floral and bird embroidery on strapless gowns, perforated leather coats and baby doll cocktail dresses that Ms. Frausto cited as belonging to the community of Tenango de Doria in Hidalgo, as well as a striped knit shirtdress that she saw as too closely resembling a serape from Saltillo. Last November, Dolce Gabbana was forced to cancel a planned show in China over promotional videos the label had released depicting a Chinese model attempting to eat pasta with chopsticks; then Prada got in trouble for a window display of giant handbag charms that bore an uncomfortable resemblance to Little Black Sambo figures. Earlier this month at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards ceremony in New York, Hasan Minhaj, a presenter, poked very pointed fun at Gucci for putting "white guys in turbans." But while in the past such offenses have most often been uncovered by industry watchdogs and the groups in question, this is the first time a national government has gotten involved. In the letter, Ms. Frausto wrote, "This is a matter of ethical consideration that obliges us to speak out and bring an urgent issue to the UN's sustainable development agenda: promoting inclusion and making those who are invisible visible." Herrera, which is owned by the Spanish fashion and beauty group Puig, has not posted a public response on any of its social media channels, issued a clear apology or revealed plans for reparations; rather, it made a fairly anodyne statement noting that the collection had always been intended partly as a tribute to and celebration of Mexico. In part, it said: "The emblematic fashion house recognizes the wonderful and diverse craft and textile work of Mexican artisans, its collection inspired by the culture's rich colors and artisanal techniques." The statement went on to say that Mrs. Herrera was "a great admirer of Mexico" and that Mr. Gordon "wanted to show his deep respect for various techniques and traditional elements of Mexican craftsmanship and celebrate it at the level of haute couture craftsmanship." In a phone call, however, Mr. Gordon said that the label was in internal talks about what actions it would take in response. "We want to do what it takes to make everyone feel the same joy about this collection we felt when making it," he said, noting that he and Mrs. Herrera had not talked at length about the issue since, as creative director, it was his responsibility. "We are going through a big social shift in how we talk about gender, culture and identity," he continued. "These are important discussions to have. We take this very seriously." As should others, since the Herrera issue underscores the way that traditional fashion practices are increasingly problematic and out of date. See, for example, the fact the industry has been paying "homage" to various cultures and ethnic rituals since at least Yves Saint Laurent's Russian collection in 1976. The Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute staged an entire blockbuster show in 2015 dedicated to Western designers' visions of China that was practically a study in appropriation over the last century. For years the "inspiration trip" to a far flung location in search of new materials, shades and shapes to expand a repertoire was a basic practice of most houses (at least until the internet made actual physical movement unnecessary). Indeed, in many ways that has been the designer formula: Take a smidgen of silhouette from here, a dash of decoration from there, sprinkle with a touch of art or architecture and voila! new collection. That is certainly what happened at Herrera, where Mr. Gordon took the signature vocabulary of the house its uptown, gala on the lawn essentials and mixed those up with more unexpected designs to give it new life. It's just that now, because of our connected world, those who provide the "inspiration" are more aware of it than ever, and have begun to think of the result less as a tribute than as stealing and to call it such. Those unexpected other designs happen to be someone else's signature. Just because that signature does not belong to a particular designer doesn't mean it's fair game. But since most fashion designs don't enjoy intellectual property protections, there's not much recourse for a wronged party other than naming and shaming. Whether that is the answer to the current situation, however, is not entirely clear. And there is obviously a difference between racism (as displayed by Dolce, Gucci in their blackface turtleneck and Prada) and appropriation, though they tend to be conflated under the category of Gross Fashion Infringements. When it comes to appropriation, anyway, most of the designer borrowing is not done with malice aforethought, though in its blithe usage it is clearly a hangover of an old colonial mentality. Ignorance is not an excuse; nor is history. (History is full of terrible precedent, now recognized for what it is.) "We're in a moment of understanding and acknowledging that what we've done in the past isn't right always any more," said Steven Kolb, chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, who also said he believed Mr. Gordon had only the best intentions. "We're all at a point where we have to do better." The issue is how do you wake designers up to that reality, rather than simply force them into a defensive crouch? The natural end result of this particular trend, after all, is that designers and the brands they work for become so worried about offending that they cease to look at the world outside, defining their aesthetic ever more narrowly. Their own experience becomes their sole creative fodder. And that serves neither them nor us. It does not lead to new ways of being in an ever evolving world. It leads to stasis.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Fashion & Style
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SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE 11:30 p.m. on NBC. The Wakandan King and the Bronx Queen on "Saturday Night Live" the same night? That sounds too good to be true. But Chadwick Boseman and Cardi B will be featured on this week's show. Mr. Boseman already has a grab bag of impressions ready to go from playing Jackie Robinson, James Brown and Thurgood Marshall. And while there was already one "Black Panther" sketch on "S.N.L." this season, you can bet he'll reprise his role in that record breaking film. Cardi B will be the musical guest, on the heels of releasing her brash debut album, "Invasion of Privacy." POETRY IN AMERICA 7:30 p.m. on WLIW (check local listings) or online. Joe Biden, Shaquille O'Neal, Bono and other luminaries show up in this series led by the Harvard professor Elisa New, which explores the ways in which poetry shows up in places you might not expect. The first episode dives into Emily Dickinson and looks at how poetry can move across mediums. The cellist Yo Yo Ma, the dancer and choreographer Jill Johnson, and the actor and now gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon appear to read and discuss poetry.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Television
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We Tried 5 Cold Weather Experiments . Instant Slushies, Frozen Bubbles and More. For the latest developments, read our cold weather live briefing. EVANSTON, Ill. It was minus 15 degrees here on Wednesday afternoon, near the epicenter of the polar vortex, and school had been canceled for much of the week. "How are we going to survive?" one mother asked on a text thread Tuesday night. My phone pinged at 9 a.m. Wednesday with a plaintive message from someone else: "We've already gone through my two craft projects, painted and watched an hour of TV." At times like these, modern parents turn to Google and YouTube and Pinterest, which beckon with seemingly simple and fun science experiments for frigid temperatures. But as my 7 year old son, Gus, and his friend Eren, 8, learned on Wednesday when we tested a handful of popular cold weather experiments, science doesn't always follow the neat path of a viral video. We shook up two one liter bottles of Sprite and placed them outside of our front door, where my phone told me it was minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit. We also put a small bottle of spring water alongside them to test the instant ice trick. The idea was to try to cool the soda and the water below their freezing point without turning them solid. Without the impurities found in tap water, there is nothing to start the nucleation process that causes water to freeze, delivering a supercooled liquid that, once jostled or disturbed, will instantly turn to a slushy ice. But two hours later, the bottles outside our house were already halfway solid. Eren, Gus and my 3 year old daughter, Hildy, didn't seem to care as they slurped down cups of the stuff. "What did we learn today?" my husband, Alex, said. "The internet is broken." Olivia Castellini, a senior exhibit developer at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, offered several other possible explanations. Our spring water might not have been pure enough, and we may have waited too long. Next time, she recommended timing how long it took to freeze one bottle, then putting out another bottle and returning about 15 minutes earlier to catch the liquid at exactly the moment. "You have to find just the right amount of time to super cool it," Dr. Castellini said. This experiment is designed to show how the volume of a gas expands as it warms, and contracts as it cools. The method: Blow up balloons in warm air, then expose them to cold air and they will deflate. They will reinflate when you return them to warm air. This is the same reason car tires deflate in cold weather, said Michael Kennedy, a research professor and director of Northwestern University's Science in Society, a science education center. We inflated half a dozen balloons inside, then bundled up and went outside to wait for them to shrink in the minus 39 degree windchill. And we waited. Gus and Eren decided to bury their balloons in a snow bank. Hildy's flew into the street. When we could no longer feel our noses, we put the remaining balloons in a bag, tied it to the door handle, and rushed inside. After about 45 minutes, the balloons had deflated only slightly and we realized we hadn't been very scientific: It might have been wise to first measure the balloons' original circumference, for example. Alex, the lab assistant, prepared the balloon experiment for the scientists. Danielle Scruggs for The New York Times Once back inside, the balloons did return to their previous shape, but by this time only the adults cared. The child scientists wanted more Sprite slushies. Dr. Castellini recommended tying a string around the balloons, placing them outside, in a window, where you can watch them from the comfort of your home. When the string falls off, they've shrunk. Of all the cold weather experiments, the one I was most looking forward to was the frozen bubble trick. The online videos are magical, demonstrating how a normally ethereal soap bubble hardens into a lacy globe when the temperature is just right. We tried two versions of bubble wands a more traditional wand with a small, round opening, and a large, oblong variety designed for bigger bubbles. Once outside, both wands created perfect bubbles, but it was hard to get a look at them because the wind whipped them down the street. Still, it was fun to watch them pop as they flew out of the wands, leaving frozen skins that dropped to the ground. If we waited too long, the bubble solution froze in the wand, creating a translucent pane that we could poke with our fingers. Bubbles, Dr. Castellini said, are really a "water and soap sandwich," with soap encasing a layer of water. In warmer weather, the air inside the bubble expands as it warms, popping the bubble before it gets far. But in cold weather, the water sandwiched inside the soap has a chance to freeze before the bubble pops. Dr. Kennedy suggested experimenting with different solutions to create the longest lasting bubbles. Many people add glycerin, which gives the bubble strength, he said. This trick resurfaces during nearly every cold snap, along with the inevitable safety warnings (to riff off Jim Croce, don't throw it into the wind). "The cool thing about water is that it can exist in liquid, solid and gas states all at the same time," Dr. Castellini said. By throwing boiling water into frigid air, she said, "you're manipulating that transition." Because cold air can't absorb water the way warm air can, the water that is thrown has to go somewhere so it freezes in tiny droplets and falls to the ground in a dramatic cloud. The experiment works best with extremely cold air, and we certainly had that on Wednesday. We repeated the experiment four times throwing about a half of a cup of boiling water out of a steel travel mug and each time, the water dissipated in a billowing puff of ice crystals. Given the demand for Sprite slushies, I had saved our other sugar laden experiment for last. Several websites describe a simple recipe for maple syrup taffy. Pack snow into a pan and place it in the freezer. Heat maple syrup to about 240 degrees Fahrenheit, checking with a candy thermometer. Pour the syrup over the snow, where it will harden into a chewy taffy. The hypothesis: That pouring boiling maple syrup on cold, cold snow would make taffy. Danielle Scruggs for The New York Times Our syrup boiled over when it reached about 220 degrees, preventing us from heating it to the right temperature. By now, the children had ripped their blankets from their beds, fashioned them into capes, and were begging for iPad time. I poured the syrup over the snow, and the hot liquid turned everything into a slushy mess. No taffy in sight. Use a larger pot next time, our science consultants suggested, and cook the syrup more slowly. There's still time to try again, I suppose. The high on Thursday is expected to be just slightly warmer, at minus 1 degree, and school is still canceled. Not all experiments turn out as planned. "But that's really the fun of science, is that you didn't get the results you expect," Dr. Kennedy said. "You start asking questions about why didn't I get what I thought?" "At the heart of science are questions," he said, "not facts."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Science
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Raj Qsar is eyeing the sky nervously. It's early afternoon in Corona Del Mar, Calif., and his six man camera crew is on the clock only until sunset. But clouds are rolling in fast over this wealthy Southern California neighborhood, and the next scene on today's docket a glamorous drive down the Pacific Coast Highway followed by a beachfront double date is now feeling tricky. On other film sets, the producer and director might huddle and order a break, or call it a wrap until tomorrow. But Mr. Qsar isn't a director he's a real estate agent. And the star of his film is not a good looking young actor (although there are four of those on set), but rather, a 1.7 million Orange County home. This short and sudsy film, he hopes, in which two young couples drink wine, play board games and wander through sleek, neat rooms, will do the trick to attract a buyer. "Telling stories and creating connections with people takes more than just photos," said Mr. Qsar, who heads a luxury brokerage called the Boutique Real Estate Group. "For us now, it's all about the power of video." Video marketing is not new territory for home sales wide angle walk throughs of staged living rooms and sweeping drone footage of leafy neighborhoods have become common tools in real estate agents' kits. But cinematic mini films, complete with paid actors, lighting crews and full fledged story boards, are something new. Mr. Qsar began dabbling in cinematic videos in 2008, just two years after leaving his job as a pharmaceutical sales representative to jump into the Orange County housing boom. He came across a wedding videographer who was producing emotionally charged, story driven films for brides and grooms, and, he says, a light bulb went on. "I had an idea about telling the story the same way, but as the story of a house," he said. "One of the things I always tell my clients when they walk through is, 'Can you see yourself having Christmas dinner here or birthdays and bar mitzvahs here?' I wanted to really pull out the emotional aspect." After putting the wedding videographer on his payroll and investing 20,000 of his own money in video equipment, he made a handful of short film promotions for homes in the 1 million to 2 million range in Orange County, including a four bedroom Mediterranean style estate in Villa Park. When that home sold, for 1.7 million, it set a record as the most expensive home sale ever in Villa Park. "Once real estate agents started doing high end video productions, putting in models and actors was a no brainer," said Jimm Fox, president of OMM Video Marketing, a Canadian agency that tracks trends in cinematic storytelling. "You're not just selling an address, you're selling a lifestyle. And to do that, you need humans." Production budgets for these films can range from 3,500 to 70,000. Often the real estate agent is picking up the tab, but in some cases, agents discuss their plans with sellers and agree to split the bill or have the costs added to their fees. Mr. Fox said the trend for Hollywood style videos kicked off around 2007 and was a natural progression from the lush but empty footage of staged homes that preceded it. "Real estate at the high end is always an aspirational sell," he said. "You want to showcase a lifestyle. So you start shooting homes, and then you add models to make it more vibrant, and very soon you want to turn it into a story." The Australian production studio PlatinumHD claims to have been the first to produce these Hollywood style real estate films. In 2011, the studio helped the trend spread internationally by producing a video for the Queensland based property management firm Neo Property. The film, of course, is as much about the appeal of the model as the home. But by using sex, helicopters and shots of a gleaming red Corvette to sell the property, Neo made it quite clear: In this sort of marketing, peddling a fantasy can help close a deal. Ben Bacal began adding actors to his listing videos in 2014. The Los Angeles based agent, a former film student who also dabbles in internet companies and has more than 2 billion in sales to his name, is a fixture on the high priced home circuit in Hollywood. He offers his clients a professionally produced video for every home he agrees to represent, and he estimates that in 40 percent of those cases, he includes actors and a story line. Some are sweet: A home in Bel Air, which he listed in March 2016 for 48.5 million, shows a brother and sister channeling their best Ferris Bueller impressions, faking sickness in their custom bedrooms before dashing out to their backyard infinity pool with skyline views after their parents head off to work. (The home sold for 39 million in December 2016.) Others are more slapstick, like the film for a home on Rising Glen Road in Los Angeles (the house where the actress Brittany Murphy died), in which an adorable corgi named Sherlock Bones inherits the mansion listed for 18.5 million and heads there to live his best canine life. (That home sold in 2017 for 14.5 million.) In all of Mr. Bacal's videos, plots are thin but visuals, and humor, are laid on thick. That's intentional, he says. "Instead of telling a long dramatic story, I like to pull characters through the house and do something that makes it voyeuristic, where you can see the property. Focusing too much on story takes away from the home," he said in a phone call from Mykonos, Greece, where he was on vacation. "I'm not Quentin Tarantino." His greatest triumph to date is a home on Hillcrest Road in Beverly Hills. Markus Persson, the Swedish video game programmer behind Minecraft, saw the short film that Mr. Bacal produced for the eight bedroom, 15 bath home, showing two young women arriving in a Rolls Royce and enjoying the home's features, which include a candy room and a 24 seat theater. Beyonce and Jay Z were also reportedly interested in the property, which was priced at 85 million. Just seven days after seeing the film, Mr. Persson purchased it for 70 million. Mr. Bacal credits his success to his ability to not just create compelling footage, but also to distribute it effectively. "When I see these videos, or something like a camel at an open house, that's a clear sign of something that's overpriced," he said. Mr. Qsar, the Orange County real estate agent, produces a video for every home that he represents, spending from 2,500 to the low six figures to produce them. He pays out of his own pocket. While he has had eight figure listings, most of his sales are in the 1 million to 2 million range. "Fifteen years ago, I never thought I'd be shooting films," said Mr. Qsar. "I had a day job and just wanted to sell a couple houses and see what happened. But then I sold 10 and then 15 and 20, and then social media hit, and I thought, 'O.K., how can I be different?'" In the hypercompetitive world of Southern California real estate, he said, it's worth it because his videos give him a definitive edge. "Our listings are recognizable before they even hit the market, because people see them on social media," he said. "So now, every time I get together with my team on a house, the first question we ask is, 'What is the story going to be on this house?'"
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Real Estate
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A modified version of the standard Ferrari 275, the GTB Competizione, with a body by Scaglietti, was a race specific model that featured a new for 1966 3.3 liter V12 engine. With reinforced hubs, wider wheels, a dry sump oiling system and a lightweight alloy body, the car was cutting edge for its time. By the 1970s, the car's racing career with Filipinetti had come to an end, and it passed among a number of collectors. After a fire damaged the body in 1985, Bonhams says, its owner at the time sent it to Italy to have the bodywork rebuilt. The engine, drivetrain and chassis had emerged from the conflagration unscathed. Since then, it has, Bonhams says, earned honors at several shows, including the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, and has proved its competence in a number of vintage car events. Jared Zaugg, a consultant to Bonhams, said in an email that although the auction house was not publishing a formal price estimate for the sale, he thought it would bring more than 10 million.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Automobiles
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PARIS Some performances come at just the right time. On Monday, the French author Virginie Despentes was greeted with a roar when she stepped onstage at the Theatre Bobino for "Viril," a performance that was part rock concert, part feminist monologues. After Roman Polanski's triumph three days earlier at the Cesar Awards, France's equivalent of the Oscars, Despentes had just published a furious opinion piece in the French newspaper Liberation under the headline "From Now On, We Get Up and We Leave" and the youthful crowd was clearly on her side. The contrast with the chill that had descended during the Cesars ceremony spoke to a deep rift in the French arts world. Led by Adene Haenel, a handful of actors and directors walked out after Polanski, who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, was named best director. (Polanski denies the accusations.) In her piece, Despentes pointed the finger at French cinema's disregard for gender inequality, writing that "the real message is: Nothing must change." French theater, which shares many artists with the film industry, has some of the same problems. Yet audiences can vote with their wallets. Alongside "Viril," which was presented for one night only as part of the "Paroles Citoyennes" festival, a number of female led productions are currently among the best nights out in Paris, and bring diverse characters mythical, historical and contemporary to the fore. Anne who wrote the text, co directed with Francoise Fouquet and plays the role of Gouges focuses on the activist's final months. Gouges was arrested in 1793, at the time of the Terror that followed the Revolution, and sentenced to the guillotine. Many former revolutionaries lost their lives along with Gouges because of political disagreements with the new regime, and "I Dreamed the Revolution" explores that bloody period. In the play, the mother of the young guard tasked with watching Gouges becomes fascinated with her, and covertly gives her a key to escape. Anne captures the openhearted, infectious confidence in justice that leads Gouges to refuse the offer. Opposite her, the guard (Pol Tronco), who childishly believes his superiors, and his illiterate mother (Luce Mouchel) grapple with moral dilemmas about political loyalty and women's role in social movements, in scenes that take place almost entirely in the family's home and in Gouges's cell, divided only by a screen onstage. A final, didactic excursion into the present featuring two contemporary characters who tell us about Gouges's importance feels forced, but the rest of "I Dreamed the Revolution" is sharply written and to the point. Not that female directors should be expected to bring only overtly feminist stories to the stage. The lovers of "Pelleas et Melisande" have a timeless quality, like the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde, which the playwright, Maurice Maeterlinck, drew on heavily. His play, which premiered in 1893, is less often seen these days than the opera that Claude Debussy based on it, but the director Julie Declos has come up with a convincingly graceful production at the Theatre de l'Odeon. The challenge lies in Maeterlinck's symbolist style, which resists psychological realism at every turn in favor of evasive dialogue and sibylline details. A prince, Golaud, happens upon Melisande in a forest. She is lost, and there is a crown at her feet, which she begs Golaud to leave behind. Where does she come from? What happened to her? The two characters promptly marry, and we never find out. The central, forbidden love story, between Melisande and Golaud's brother, Pelleas, is hardly even articulated. When they first meet, she simply loses her wedding ring in a fountain a silent acknowledgment that the wheels of their doomed relationship have been set in motion. Declos directs with restraint, working hard to sustain Maeterlinck's dreamlike tension. The initial encounter in the forest is filmed and projected on a screen, and Golaud and Pelleas's family castle is represented by a mostly empty two tier set. Light is a central symbol in the text, and Mathilde Chamoux's shadowy lighting leaves the lovers nearly in the dark at key moments a counterintuitive yet effective choice. It is refreshing, too, to see the cast strip back the stereotypical gestures of onstage romance and aim for stillness. Looking apathetic is rarely a quality onstage, but Alix Riemer, as Melisande, manages to project detachment without being bland. She seems to grasp her love for Pelleas, played by Matthieu Sampeur, only at the last possible moment, and after Golaud kills him, she convincingly suppresses any memories of the event. Regardless, she dies of a broken heart. The first half of the 90 minute production, which Granat also directed, is as captivating as it is strange. Olivier Werner, who plays the nameless central character with a sense of manic despair, initially appears to show up at his ex girlfriend's door, much to her distress. But he also controls her and her new partner like puppets at times: A table onstage is set with figurines that represent them, and whenever Werner shakes or throws them, the actors wobble and fall, too. This device renders every scene brilliantly unpredictable, as the cast alternates between believable domestic drama and absurd physical theater. "V.I.T.R.I.O.L" is a portrait of Werner's restless mind, and resourcefully mimics its fits and start. The second half doesn't quite build on that promise, unfortunately, in part because it sidelines the female character (a playful performance by Kasperski) in favor of an emphasis on theory, as the men discuss excerpts from radio interviews with psychology experts. The relationships "V.I.T.R.I.O.L" sets up may be imaginary, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't reach a meaningful conclusion. Granat, who is also an actor, is still relatively new to stage direction; she can certainly build on this idiosyncratic offering. As France fights over old narratives, it's worth remembering that women are writing new stories. Viril. Directed by David Bobee. Festival "Paroles Citoyennes"/Theatre Bobino. Further performances in Rouen, May 12 16, and at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, July 1. J'ai Reve la Revolution. Directed by Catherine Anne and Francoise Fouquet. Theatre de l'Epee de Bois, through March 8. Pelleas et Melisande. Directed by Julie Duclos. Odeon Theatre de l'Europe, through March 21. V.I.T.R.I.O.L. Directed by Elsa Granat. Theatre de la Tempete, through March 29.
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Theater
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Facebook said on Friday that it would agree to an audit of information it provides to marketers and provide them with new, more precise measurement data, less than two weeks after Procter Gamble, America's biggest advertiser, criticized the lack of transparency provided by digital ad platforms. The social network, which came under scrutiny last year for repeated inaccuracies in its tools for measuring ads, also said Friday that it would give marketers new options for buying video ads this year. For example, marketers might pay only if an ad was viewed to completion or if the sound was on. The nonprofit Media Rating Council will conduct an audit to "verify the accuracy of the information" Facebook gives marketers, the company said in a blog post, adding that it was also working with 24 third party measurement companies. Facebook announced the changes after Marc S. Pritchard, the chief brand officer at Procter Gamble, demanded that the digital ad industry "grow up," criticizing the different ways platforms, including Facebook and YouTube, define whether an ad has been viewed and the lack of accredited outside sources used to measure digital ad performance.
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Media
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Twenty one people, including current and former students at Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Appalachian State University, have been charged with dealing thousands of pounds of marijuana, hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and other drugs on campus and in fraternity houses, federal prosecutors said on Thursday. Matthew G.T. Martin, the United States attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, said those charged were part of a sophisticated network that fueled a "drug culture" at fraternities and universities in North Carolina. They funneled large amounts of cocaine and marijuana as well as LSD, steroids, Xanax and other drugs into the universities and the surrounding towns over several years, he said, sometimes operating right out of their fraternity houses. The defendants used encrypted apps and electronic payment methods like Venmo and PayPal and laundered their proceeds, which exceeded 1.5 million, he said. "This is not a situation where you have single users, where you have a 19 year old sipping a beer, where you have someone taking a puff of a joint on the back porch of a frat house," Mr. Martin said at a news conference. "These are 21 hardened drug dealers." At least 11 of those charged are believed to be current or former students at Appalachian State, Duke or U.N.C., Mr. Martin's office said. The other 10 defendants are either not students or investigators are not sure when and where they attended college. Prosecutors said the investigation had uncovered drug sales at the U.N.C. Chapel Hill chapters of Phi Gamma Delta, Kappa Sigma and Beta Theta Pi between 2017 and spring 2020. Prosecutors also charged a member of Delta Chi at Appalachian State, in Boone, N.C., with dealing LSD. No fraternities at Duke have been implicated in court documents, Mr. Martin's office said. Mr. Martin said sales were taking place inside fraternity houses, with dealers set up inside their rooms, "poisoning fellow members of their fraternity." In one case, a defendant who has been cooperating with investigators described regularly supplying drugs to a Phi Gamma Delta member at U.N.C. Chapel Hill who sold only to other fraternity members, prosecutors said. The cooperating defendant said he felt safe selling to the fraternity member, Charles Poindexter, because most of the sales took place in the fraternity house, behind closed doors. Drugs were sold for frat parties with bigger parties requiring more drugs, prosecutors said. Mr. Poindexter, 23, told investigators that he had bought cocaine, marijuana and MDMA, known as Molly, from the cooperating defendant. And he said that all 22 members of his fraternity pledge class "went in" to buy an ounce of cocaine for spring break in his sophomore year, Mr. Martin's office said. Mr. Poindexter was charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, use of a communication facility to facilitate a drug felony, and distribution of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a public or private college or university. A graduate of U.N.C., he has not yet entered a plea but has "great remorse for his actions," according to his lawyer, David B. Freedman. "Mr. Poindexter comes from a great family," Mr. Freedman said. "He has been very cooperative with the process. Unfortunately, when kids go off to college, they live in a bubble, and don't realize there are real life consequences to their actions." Kevin M. Guskiewicz, the chancellor of U.N.C. Chapel Hill, said the university was "extremely disappointed to learn of these alleged actions on our campus." "The university is committed to working with law enforcement to fully understand the involvement of any university individuals or organizations so that disciplinary action can be taken," he said in a statement. "Although none of the individuals named today are currently enrolled students, we will remain vigilant and continue to work with our law enforcement partners to identify and address any illegal drug use on our campus." Phi Gamma Delta said in a statement that it was "disheartening to learn of the allegations involving our chapter and members at the University of North Carolina." "The allegations suggest conduct that violates our laws, policies and values," the fraternity said, adding that it would cooperate with law enforcement agents and the university. "Such conduct will not be tolerated." Mr. Martin's office said the investigation began several years ago when the Orange County Sheriff's Office received information about illegal drug sales at U.N.C. Chapel Hill. Ultimately, investigators discovered that people involved had been shipping cocaine through the mail from California and transporting marijuana by car. A primary supplier, Francisco Javier Ochoa Jr., 27, of Turlock, Calif., was the first person charged in the investigation, prosecutors said. He was indicted in November 2019 on charges that he supplied about 200 pounds of marijuana and two kilograms of cocaine every week to a cooperating defendant in Orange County, N.C. Mr. Ochoa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana on Nov. 24 and was sentenced to just over six years in prison and five years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a 250,000 forfeiture. In addition to Mr. Ochoa, seven other defendants have pleaded guilty to at least one charge and are scheduled to be sentenced next year. Michael Schoenfeld, a Duke spokesman, said the university took the allegations seriously and would cooperate fully with law enforcement agents.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Education
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Want more basketball in your inbox? Sign up for Marc Stein's weekly N.B.A. newsletter here. Thibaut Courtois is a 6 foot 6 Belgian and one of the finest goalkeepers in the world. He joined Real Madrid in August 2018 after spending four seasons at Chelsea. Given his club and his country, plus his physical stature, they don't come much bigger in global soccer than Courtois. I am a stocky 5 foot 9 scribe who was moved to celebrate when I was once charitably described as a "cool nerd" by Steve Nash, the N.B.A.'s two time Most Valuable Player Award winner. I never imagined someone like Courtois and I could have much in common. Then I met Courtois on a recent Zoom call arranged by N.B.A. Europe to promote his weekly "NBA 2K Sundays" video game duels against fellow soccer and basketball players, which are broadcast weekly on Courtois's Twitch channel. Courtois showed up for the occasion in a black game worn Jose Calderon Atlanta Hawks jersey, even though the retired Calderon spent just 247 minutes on the floor with the Hawks, during the 2016 17 season. Herro didn't appear to realize in the moment who Courtois was, but the 27 year old goalkeeper has been making such junkets at least once a season for the past four years. The tradition peaked in February 2017. Chelsea's players were promised extra time off by their manager, Antonio Conte, if they beat their London rivals Arsenal in a 12:30 p.m. kickoff on Feb. 4, 2017. After Chelsea's resounding 3 1 victory, Courtois headed straight for the airport to fly to New York. The flight made good time, and he got to see LeBron James score 32 points in the Cleveland Cavaliers' victory over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden that same night when he had expected to catch only the second half. The next day, Courtois flew to Houston to watch his first Super Bowl, in which the New England Patriots famously overturned a 28 3 deficit to beat the Atlanta Falcons. On Feb. 6, 2017, Courtois then flew back to New York to see the Knicks host the Lakers, which furthered his friendship with the devoted Chelsea fan Larry Nance Jr., who was then playing for Los Angeles before being traded to the Cavaliers. "Nice trip," Courtois said, smiling at the memory. Soccer players' close tracking of basketball, and vice versa, certainly isn't new. NBA 2K and EA's FIFA, as two of the world's most popular video game franchises, have only strengthened the ties between the two sports. But Courtois's willingness to regularly expose himself to otherworldly jet lag on his N.B.A. excursions is an uncommon level of devotion. With no particular favorite team, Courtois embodies the modern breed of N.B.A. fan whose attachments are based more on specific players than franchises. Courtois was introduced to Embiid by the former 76ers guard Sergio Rodriguez. He likes to watch the Dallas Mavericks because of a fondness for the European duo Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis. He credits the Golden State Warriors' recent run of three championships in five consecutive trips to the finals with drawing him deeper into N.B.A. fandom. Along with those from Calderon and Nance, Courtois has game worn jerseys in his collection from Charlotte's Willy Hernangomez and Utah's Rudy Gobert. He is a big Trae Young fan because, well, he just likes watching Trae Young. So as I wrote about the soccer loving Nance and New Orleans's Josh Hart in March, Courtois finds himself trying to fill multiple sporting voids in his life because of the coronavirus outbreak. Real Madrid's title chases in La Liga and the Champions League have been placed on indefinite pause and the same holds for Courtois's go to pastime. A big part of staying busy has been "NBA 2K Sundays," which extends to its sixth week this Sunday when Courtois takes on Nance. Courtois got off to a 4 0 start, including comfortable victories over his Belgian national team teammate Romelu Lukaku of Inter Milan and Manchester City's Sergio Aguero. Then he ran into the Atlanta Hawks' John Collins: Wearing a retro Belgium World Cup shirt that won him big points here at Newsletter HQ, Collins used the All Time Lakers to rout Courtois's All Time Bulls. Yet Courtois did supply the evening's standout revelation when he told a story about throwing down a dunk at AmericanAirlines Arena during his recent Miami trip. "When you play them, it's quite nice to have that interaction," Courtois said. I admit it: I am frequently guilty of hunting down crossover stories for our Tuesdays together which allow me to explore connections between my two other sporting obsessions (soccer and tennis) and the N.B.A. But it's likewise because I am fascinated by world class athletes who still allow themselves to lapse into sports nerdy behavior with another sport like Nance tweeting about his fondness for the intense soccer simulation game Football Manager, which is all about running a club rather than replicating game action. Also: My 13 year old son, Aaron, is a goalkeeper, which has completely changed the way I watch soccer. It has made me take keen interest in a position that I had never deeply studied before. You ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I'll field three questions posed via email at marcstein newsletter nytimes.com. (Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you're writing in from, and make sure "Corner Three" is in the subject line. Letters may be lightly edited.) Q: I don't disagree, but I think the "best decade" for the N.B.A. is whichever lined up with your formative years as a young fan. I'm hypernostalgic for the 1990s even though I know the basketball wasn't great all the time. Kristofer Habbas (Phoenix) Stein: Thank you, Kristofer, for getting me. During a round of N.B.A. Twitter hysteria on Sunday night, which coincided with two new episodes of "The Last Dance" documentary, I followed up a comment by my good pal Marc J. Spears from The Undefeated about the majesty of the 1980s by proclaiming it the undisputed greatest decade in N.B.A. history. It was not a tweet I dispatched in hopes of sparking deep debate. I'm in complete agreement with Mr. Habbas: N.B.A. fans are bound to have unreservedly deep attachments to whichever decade coincided with the events that stoked and cemented their fandom. So there's little sense arguing about it. I fell in love with the N.B.A. in the mid 1970s as a young kid in Western New York, and in the summer of 1978 I had to endure the departure of my beloved Buffalo Braves to San Diego and our family's move to the West Coast. It was a lot for a 9 year old to take, but the 1980s were around the corner, about to make the league irresistible even for a bewildered young fan who had abruptly lost his favorite team. (And, for the record, I could not just bring myself to adopt the San Diego Clippers as a replacement despite living only an hour north of them. Even with Randy Smith and Swen Nater on the original Clippers roster, it was Braves or bust for me.) I know I've previously waxed annoyingly about the sport's revolutionary surge of popularity in that time, thanks largely to the greatness and global appeal of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and all those "Fannnnntastic" commercials set to The Pointer Sisters' "Hot Together" but I can't help it. The 1980s footage in "The Last Dance" has swept me up in the moment as much as or more than any of the new stuff. But I also understand that children of the 1990s and early 2000s feel just as passionately about the era they grew up in as I do about my teen years. It's totally natural and, I swear, my tweet was really all in fun. Kristofer knows. Q: You don't know the context of that era. There were genuine fears of a court invasion by the Detroit fans that could have endangered the safety of Celtics players. 5mintillZeitnot from Twitter Stein: Wrong. I am very aware of the "context of that era" and how the Boston Detroit series ended in 1988 compared to the Detroit Chicago series in 1991. Maybe I didn't spell it out well on Twitter, which happens sometimes, but I will expound here on why I believe Isiah Thomas has a legitimate complaint about the unrelenting manner in which his Pistons have been criticized for nearly 30 years for walking off the court without shaking the Bulls' hands while the Celtics who lost the 1988 Eastern Conference finals to Detroit have scarcely been questioned for doing the same. Security concerns have been cited as the reason some Celtics players left the court with time still left on the clock in their Game 6 elimination at Detroit in 1988. Jon Jennings, who worked on the Celtics' staff as a video coordinator that season, explained in a story on Monday by The Boston Globe's Adam Himmelsbach that Boston Coach K.C. Jones and his assistants, Jimmy Rodgers and Chris Ford, came up with the idea to get the Celtics' stars to the locker room before the final buzzer. The problem: None of this was well explained at the time or, frankly, for years after. Jennings' comments in 2020 may be the most detailed on the matter. John Salley, one of Thomas' Detroit teammates, appeared on ESPN's "SportsCenter" with Scott Van Pelt on Sunday night and described the Celtics' actions in the same way that Thomas did. So this was not just "Isiah's theory." Those Pistons believed most of the Celtics snubbed them at the final buzzer and there hasn't been much of a rush from Boston to correct them. For a sense of the animosity between those teams, here is a quote from Danny Ainge found in Michael Wilbon's Game 6 story from The Washington Post in June 1988: "Can I wish them good luck?" Ainge said. "No. It's just hard for me to root for them, that's all. I don't like the Detroit Pistons. We put up a good effort and got beat by a better team. I will say that. They've proven they're the better team. But it's tough to lose to anybody, and losing to the Detroit Pistons makes it even worse." I totally get that the "Bad Boys" Pistons, after embracing their villainous reputation to the hilt and using it as the platform for back to back championships, aren't going to win an ounce of sympathy now claiming that history has treated them unfairly. But Isiah, as he admitted in a Monday interview with ESPN, has indeed "paid a heavy price" for what happened at the end of one game in 1991 from what all parties seem to agree was a scheme hatched by Bill Laimbeer. Compared to what the 1987 88 Celtics faced for what, at the very least, can be classified as a similar transgression, there is a massive inequity in the reaction, even accounting for how nasty the Bad Boys could be. Q: I used PonTel in the 1990s and 2000s to start my love affair with the N.B.A. in the United Kingdom. I waited eagerly every week for the tape to drop through the letter box. I, too, was a Bulls fan. One thing, though: It's a Swiss company, rather than German. elyuw from Twitter Stein: In last week's newsletter about Toronto's Nick Nurse studying Phil Jackson game film while he was coaching in England in the 1990s long before Nurse ever dreamed of coaching in the N.B.A. I identified PonTel as the German distributor to which Nurse subscribed for the regular shipment of Bulls games on VHS tapes. A few of you wrote in to note that PonTel is actually in Switzerland, where it continues to operate as a licensed distributor of recorded N.B.A., N.F.L. and Major League Baseball coverage for audiences in Europe, Asia and Australia. But there are a couple of pertinent clarifications for the handful of readers who have posed questions on this topic over the past week: None PonTel actually opened in Germany in the 1980s before, according to the company, moving to Switzerland in 1994. None Nurse said the shipments were often made via German DHL, even if the tapes were actually dispatched from Switzerland, which added to the confusion. Dennis Rodman's last N.B.A. stint came 20 years ago with the Dallas Mavericks: 35 days with his hometown team in the 1999 2000 season. The Mavericks' courtship of Rodman began in January 2000, shortly after Mark Cuban reached an agreement to buy the team from Ross Perot Jr., but Rodman's signing was delayed for more than a week while he attended the Super Bowl to satisfy a pre existing promotional contract. Here are a Dallas Morning News game story from Rodman's Mavericks debut on Feb. 9, 2000, and a Sunday night Twitter thread with more details about Rodman's final season in the N.B.A. One question "The Last Dance" certainly will not pose given Michael Jordan's level of control over the project: How is M.J. coping with mediocrity in N.B.A. management after all his on court success? Charlotte reached the playoffs in 2009 10, less than two months after Jordan became the Hornets' majority owner, but they have qualified for the N.B.A. postseason only twice since despite residing in the (easier) Eastern Conference. When the N.B.A. suspended this season on March 11 in response to the coronavirus crisis, Charlotte was 23 42 and seven games out of the East's final playoff spot, with 17 games left on its schedule. Tim Floyd, who replaced Phil Jackson as the Bulls' coach starting with the N.B.A.'s lockout shortened season in 1999, told ESPN Radio (104.5 FM) in Baton Rouge, La., recently that Jerry Krause, Chicago's general manager of that era, had begun courting him in 1989. In the interview, Floyd also said Krause wanted to oust Jackson and hire him in the summer of 1996 after the Bulls had gone 72 10 and won the fourth of their six championships in eight years. The N.B.A. maintained bank shot data for the final 13 seasons of Tim Duncan's career, during which Duncan averaged 72.7 converted bank shots per season. Here are four elite power players of today with their bank shot totals for this season in parentheses: Anthony Davis (7), Giannis Antetokounmpo (6), Joel Embiid (6) and Karl Anthony Towns (6). Taiwan Beer has been pushed to a Game 7 in the Super Basketball League finals by the Yulon Luxgen Dinos, despite being spotted a 1 0 lead to start the series by league rules after finishing in first place in both halves of Taiwan's S.B.L. season. Led by 46 points from the former Central Michigan star Marcus Keene, Yulon won Game 6 on Tuesday in what is the only widely recognized professional basketball league that remains active during the coronavirus crisis. FIBA, basketball's international governing body, has joined Taiwan's Eleven Sports (via Twitch) in broadcasting S.B.L. finals games (via YouTube). Hit me up anytime on Twitter ( TheSteinLine) or Facebook ( MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram ( marcsteinnba). Send any other feedback to marcstein newsletter nytimes.com.
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Sports
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We are here, today, to announce enforcement actions of historic significance. This morning, the Department filed criminal charges in New York against the Goldman Sachs Group and its Malaysian subsidiary, charging each with conspiracy to violate the anti bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. These charges stem from Goldman Sachs' central role in a massive global scheme to loot billions of dollars from the government run Malaysian investment fund known as 1MDB, and the subsequent use of those funds by senior Goldman bankers and their co conspirators to pay billions of in bribes to senior government officials around the world. Goldman Sachs Malaysia pleaded guilty to those charges just a short while ago. And its parent entity, the Goldman Sachs Group, has entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice, deferring prosecution on those charges for three years, provided certain conditions are met. In a reflection of the seriousness of the bank's conduct, today's resolution includes the largest monetary penalty ever paid to the United States in a corporate criminal foreign bribery resolution, and requires the bank to pay a total of over 2.9 billion in criminal fines, penalties and disgorgement. In addition to the involvement of several senior Goldman executives, other personnel at the bank allowed this scheme to proceed by overlooking or ignoring a number of clear red flags. That today's resolution is significant. it includes criminal charges against the bank and a guilty plea by its Malaysian subsidiary.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Economy
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ARE you married or single? Have you been widowed or divorced? Is your credit history less than stellar? Your answers to those questions can affect the rates you pay for car insurance. Your driving record and habits factor into your premiums, of course. But many insurers also use a variety of other data, like your marital status and a version of your credit score, to set your rate. An analysis by the Consumer Federation of America found that online quotes from most companies were almost always higher for single, separated and divorced drivers than for married drivers. Notably, the study found that quotes for annual premiums for a young woman were an average of 14 percent higher if she was a widow, rather than married. Stephen Brobeck, the federation's executive director, and another researcher examined quotes from six major insurers in 10 American cities based on a hypothetical 30 year old single woman. (Differences in marital status probably hold for single men as well, Mr. Brobeck said.) For the analysis, the researchers obtained premium quotes from the auto insurers' websites for the minimum liability coverage required by states. (All states but New Hampshire require liability coverage.) In seeking quotes, the study varied the driver's marital status while keeping other characteristics constant. The test driver had no accidents or moving violations, held a high school diploma, worked as a bank teller and rented in a ZIP code with median household income of 30,000. Average quotes for a widowed driver obtained from five insurers Geico, Farmers, Progressive, Nationwide and Liberty Mutual were higher than for a married driver, ranging from 3 percent more (Nationwide) to 29 percent more (Geico). State Farm was the only insurer that did not quote higher premiums for a widow in any of the markets. The company's quotes in a given city were the same, regardless of the driver's marital status. Eric Hardgrove, a spokesman for Nationwide, said in an email statement that a number of factors affected a customer's price. "Nationwide doesn't have different prices based solely on whether a driver is widowed or married," he said. He said that significant life events like a marriage or a death in the family "warrant a conversation with an insurance professional who can determine an individual's specific insurance needs and advise on the appropriate coverage at the right price." Geico did not immediately return emails and a phone message seeking comment. David Snyder, a spokesman for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, said that rather than showing a penalty applied to widows or other unmarried people, the analysis reflected that many insurers gave a discounted premium to married couples, because they tended to be more responsible and had a lower rate of filing claims. So if drivers are not married, they will not receive a quote with that discount. Also, Mr. Snyder said, punching information into a website to get a quote doesn't reflect what occurs with actual customers. If a customer becomes widowed and later receives a premium increase, she can call her agent and explain that her spouse has died. "I don't think there's an agent out there that wouldn't adjust the rate," he said. Consumer Reports recently published an analysis that examined two billion insurance price quotes from 700 insurers and concluded that factors that don't have to do with driving like your credit history and whether you use store or bank credit cards are increasingly used as criteria in setting rates. A single New Yorker, for instance, with merely "good" credit would pay an average of 255 more in annual premiums than someone with "excellent" credit, the analysis found. Mr. Snyder again said that insurers were basing their premium decisions on data that indicated higher risk: "It's not people being judged," he said. Rather, he said, "certain factors correlate to increased risk." Mr. Brobeck argues that because auto insurance is state mandated, insurance companies should be more transparent about how they set rates and should stick primarily to driving related factors to set premiums. He cited as an example California, which has mandated that driving related factors must be the primary criteria used to set premiums. (Three states, California, Hawaii and Massachusetts, prohibit insurers from using credit scores to set insurance rates.) Here are some questions to consider asking about auto insurance rates: How can I increase my chances of getting a good auto rate? Because information in your credit report can affect your premium, you should check your report for possible errors and seek to have them corrected, said Margot Gilman, money editor at Consumer Reports. Using national bank credit cards rather than store specific cards may help, she said, because insurers rank bank cards more highly. And, she said, if you receive notice of a rate increase, push back by contacting your insurer and asking for a lower premium. Do I have recourse if my credit score harmed my premium? Many states allow consumers to ask their insurer for an "extraordinary life circumstances" exception, which would eliminate the use of their credit score as a factor in setting their premium if they are affected by a job loss, illness or other serious life event. Consumer Reports suggests seeking an exception, although it's unclear how often such requests are granted. Does it still make sense to shop around for insurance rates? Yes, said Ms. Gilman. But checking one or two different insurers isn't enough. Most consumers check three insurers at the most, she said, "and falsely convince themselves that they've shopped around." To get the best premium, she said, you should check rates "broadly and frequently" and that means up to a dozen quotes. "It's a pain in the neck," she said. "But it's worth it."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Your Money
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Lisbon has it all: world class cuisine for the gastronomically inclined, ancient fortresses, art and architecture for the cultured traveler, and a vibrant local bar, music and night life scene for everyone in between. We have tips to help you explore everything Lisbon has to offer in our local guide. Before you go though, pack these essentials to make the most of your trip. We've shared packing essentials for any 36 hour trip in previous lists, so we talked to Ria Misra, an editor at Wirecutter, about some of the things you might want specifically for a trip to Lisbon, and her thoughts on the best products to fill those needs. Here are her picks. None A good camera and a travel tripod. With gorgeous hilltop views and sweeping overlooks of both the city and the sea, you'll want a great camera to capture the scene. The Olympus OM D EM 10 Mark II delivers crisp, clear images, but also is compact enough that you can comfortably transport it around the city. A travel tripod will help you set up those shots (or just give yourself time to jump in frame after setting a timer!) but walking up Lisbon's hilly terrain will make you glad to shed any unnecessary weight. The MeFoto Roadtrip Travel Tripod packs down comfortably small for easy carrying. Ms. Misra reminded us to secure that camera, too especially before a hilly walk. The BlackRapid Sport Breathe was the most comfortable camera strap Wirecutter tested, and also leaves your camera easily accessible for quick snapshots while you walk around town. None A sheddable, lightweight outer layer. With nighttime drinks in Lisbon's gorgeous rooftop bars and cafes, and afternoon walks by the waterfront, you'll want a layer that you can slip on easily when the wind off the water kicks up, but that disappears inconspicuously when you head into a local bar for a glass of port and today's market specials. Outdoor Research's Tantrum Hooded Jacket packs down tiny, but is easy and comfortable to layer over an outfit when you want to. None A bag for all your souvenirs, and then some. If you pick up some of the cork souvenirs that the city is known for (over a third of the world's cork forests are in Portugal) along the way, you'll need a place to hold it and Baggu's Duck Bag is roomy and durable enough to give you a place to stash it (plus a few of your other essentials as you move around the city). This canvas bag has a long strap in addition to its handles, so you can sling it around your shoulder when wandering through museums and shops. None An ebook reader. If you have one, you probably already take it with you everywhere, but stick with us here. An Amazon Kindle Paperwhite in your tote will keep you entertained through an afternoon coffee break at one of Lisbon's world class coffee bars (like Fabrica Coffee Roasters, for example) or just while people watching in the square. Both of those are activities we heartily recommend. Another virtue, though, is that you can also flip through a travel guide as you move around the city, without looking like you're flipping through a travel guide great for the tourist who wants to blend into the crowd. (Don't forget to protect your Kindle with a cover Wirecutter likes this one from Omoton before you tuck it into your bag, too.) None Sunglasses. Like any city on the sea, a pair of sunglasses is a must to protect your eyes from glare off the water and bright, direct sun. This pair of keyhole sunglasses from Kent Wang is polarized to protect your eyes, sprucely put together, and lightweight enough for me to wear comfortably all day long. Be prepared for an occasional turn of weather the other way, too, with a good, compact umbrella.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Travel
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The prosecution contended the women's testimony showed a series of "prior bad acts" that fit the pattern of conduct in the Constand case. But the defense challenged the existence of such a pattern and said the admission of the women's testimony had hurt the presumption of innocence toward their client. Kristen Weisenberger, a lawyer for Mr. Cosby, said the experiences of the five women were not sufficiently similar to the Constand case to establish a pattern of "prior bad acts," as required under Pennsylvania law. In fact, Ms. Weisenberger said, their experiences were "different across the board," and to argue their similarity in front of a jury was "prejudicial." But Judge John Bender seemed skeptical, asserting that the women's testimony had supported the prosecutors' argument that Mr. Cosby had treated them in the same way that he treated Ms. Constand, a former Temple University employee whose complaint led to Mr. Cosby's conviction on three charges of aggravated indecent assault. "He gives them drugs, then he has sex with them," Judge Bender told Ms. Weisenberger. "That's the pattern, is it not?" The trial judge, Steven T. O'Neill of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, had allowed only one additional accuser to testify at Mr. Cosby's first trial, which ended with a hung jury. Adrienne Jappe, assistant chief of the appeals division for the Montgomery County District Attorney's office, said the judge had shown restraint in the second trial by allowing testimony from only five of the 19 women that prosecutors had hoped to call as witnesses.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Television
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The rapper Pop Smoke had been out that night, returning late to the four bedroom Spanish style house where he was staying in the Hollywood Hills. Around 4 a.m., soon after he came home, the police said, four men in hoodies broke in and shot him twice. A bullet to the torso left the promising 20 year old musician dead. A week after his death, the Los Angeles Police Department is trying to untangle whether Pop Smoke, whose real name was Bashar Jackson, was the victim of a random robbery or if he was targeted, perhaps because of what he was posting on social media. There have been no arrests. In the weeks before his death, Pop Smoke had posted pictures on Instagram showing him next to or holding large stacks of cash. One such picture was posted the day before he died. He also posted about a gift bag he had received, in which the address of the Hollywood Hills home was clearly visible. "It's an angle we're looking at," Capt. Jonathan L. Tippet said of Pop Smoke's Instagram posts. "It also extends the pool of people that would have known where he was at and could have targeted him for a variety of reasons."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Music
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Now that the dust has settled from Tuesday morning's announcement of the Oscar nominations, what can we glean from who made it in and who didn't, and what do these nominations suggest about the social issues that Hollywood is still grappling with? Below, your Carpetbagger walks you through four subjects that have been on his mind since the Oscar race got real. Check out the full list of nominees Read more about the snubs and surprises. Blockbusters were well represented, with some caveats This is the first time since 2009, when the best picture field was expanded in the hope of including more hits, that there have been three nominees that each grossed more than 200 million domestically: "Black Panther," "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "A Star Is Born." It's also the first time since 2009 that we've had a 700 million grosser in the mix then it was "Avatar"; this year it's "Black Panther." Though the rest of the best picture nominees are not quite at that level of box office performance, there are no small specialty films among them. Even "The Favourite" has so far grossed more than 20 million, with the potential to make plenty more in the weeks to come. (Netflix declined to report theatrical grosses for "Roma," but it's primarily meant to be watched on a streaming service that's in more than half of American households.) This is heartening news for an academy that nearly introduced a popular film Oscar to try to wedge more blockbusters into the telecast. 'Crazy Rich Asians' and 'A Quiet Place' missed best picture for different reasons Still, this best picture crop could boast even better box office figures had it included "Crazy Rich Asians" and "A Quiet Place," which each made just under 200 million domestically. Why did Oscar look the other way? It's hard to earn a best picture nomination without a few other nominations in other categories, and that's what ultimately held "Crazy Rich Asians" back from contending for the big prize (or indeed any prize). The three races in which the film had the strongest shot were all uphill battles: The costume design in "Crazy Rich Asians" is fabulous, but contemporary films are usually overlooked in that race; the movie's adapted screenplay was competing in a tough, crowded category; and Michelle Yeoh was not as ubiquitous a presence on the awards circuit as a supporting actress bid often demands. "A Quiet Place" at least managed a nomination for best sound editing, but the academy can be skittish about nominating genre films for best picture. When a horror movie like last year's "Get Out" makes it in, it's because those thrills are wrapped around a social message that resonates. For its award season rebranding, "A Quiet Place's" director, John Krasinski, tried to emphasize the family drama at the heart of his horror movie, but it still lacked a strong theme to punch through. To meet multiyear membership goals intended to make the academy more diverse, the group has increasingly reached out to artists who hail from other countries, and that's begun to have a profound effect on the nominations. After the Screen Actors Guild failed to recognize the Mexican cast of "Roma," the academy delivered in a big way, nominating Yalitza Aparicio for best actress and Marina de Tavira for best supporting actress. That's only the second time a film has received two acting nominations for foreign language performances; the first was "Babel," which was recognized for supporting actresses Rinko Kikuchi and Adriana Barraza but was still toplined by Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and contained plenty of English language sequences. The directors branch has been among the most profoundly diversified by the academy's push, and though this year's crop of best director nominees still lacked a woman, it notably eschewed homegrown Hollywood auteurs like "A Star Is Born's" Bradley Cooper and "Black Panther's" Ryan Coogler in favor of Alfonso Cuaron for "Roma" and the Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski for "Cold War." Germany's foreign language contender, "Never Look Away," even managed a cinematography nomination, one of Tuesday morning's most surprising inclusions. With OscarsSoWhite and MeToo, there is still work to do These two hashtag driven campaigns for social change became major movements in part because of award season. Do this year's nominees indicate that Hollywood has taken their lessons to heart? Yes and no. On the OscarsSoWhite front, several actors of color were nominated, and "BlacKkKlansman" director Spike Lee earned his first long overdue nominations for best director and best picture. In the less prominent categories, nominees of color included "If Beale Street Could Talk" writer Barry Jenkins; "Black Panther" production designer Hannah Beachler the first African American ever nominated in her field; and Domee Shi, who directed the animated short "Bao" for Pixar. But when it comes to MeToo, it's another story. The day after the Oscar nominations were announced, The Atlantic published an explosive article containing multiple accusations of rape against Bryan Singer, the credited director of the best picture nominee "Bohemian Rhapsody." Singer, who on Wednesday called the article a "homophobic smear piece," has long been trailed by accusations of sexual misconduct. He's also missed work, which got him fired from "Bohemian Rhapsody" with just weeks left in the shoot. (He was replaced by Dexter Fletcher.) "Bohemian Rhapsody's" star, Rami Malek, who is nominated for best actor, has deflected questions about Singer in interviews, instead crediting the producer Graham King for getting the film made. Malek also told The Los Angeles Times that he was unaware of a high profile lawsuit with allegations against Singer when the director was releasing the 2014 "X Men: Days of Future Past." (The lawsuit was later dropped.) But if the industry takes MeToo as seriously as it has claimed, this can't be a cause that stops at red carpet ribbons and mild expressions of support. The academy is a big organization with several thousand members, so the same group that expels Harvey Weinstein for accusations of sexual harassment and assault can also include members willing to look the other way when nominating artists like Mel Gibson and Casey Affleck, both of whom have been the subject of troubling accusations. Singer was not nominated himself, but his name is still on a film that scored five Oscar nominations. Though Malek would prefer not to have his best actor bid tarnished by Singer's involvement, a lot of tough conversations need to be had in the coming months about what people in the industry are willing to tolerate when it comes to the pursuit of gold.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Movies
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Three years in, President Trump's vow to "drain the swamp" stands as one of his more ludicrous campaign promises. That said, his spring cleaning of inspectors general has exposed a patch of grime that threatens to make life awkward for one of his staunchest allies, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Late on Friday, Mr. Trump informed Congress that he was ousting yet another internal watchdog the fourth in six weeks. His latest target: Steven Linick of the State Department. The president offered no explanation for the firing, saying only that he no longer had "the fullest confidence" in Mr. Linick. Pressed on his decision on Monday, the president insisted that he personally had no problem with Mr. Linick. "I never even heard of him," he told reporters. "But I was asked to by the State Department, by Mike." Stressing repeatedly that he has the "right to terminate" as many pesky I.G.s as he wants to especially those appointed by President Barack Obama Mr. Trump professed ignorance of the details: "You'd have to ask Mike Pompeo." Democratic lawmakers, journalists and even some Republicans are now lining up to do just that. Because as it turns out, Mr. Pompeo asked the president to ax Mr. Linick while the inspector general was in the midst of investigating potential misconduct by ... Mr. Pompeo. Some of the secretary's alleged behavior suggests a pattern of petty swampiness. For instance, he and his wife, Susan, are accused of inappropriately directing a staff assistant to handle domestic chores, including picking up their dry cleaning, booking restaurant reservations and walking the family dog, Sherman. Similar charges surfaced last summer, when House Democrats were looking into a whistle blower complaint that the Pompeos had misused diplomatic security. According to CNN, the couple would dispatch agents to run personal errands such as picking up their adult son from the train station, retrieving Sherman from the groomer and fetching Chinese takeout prompting agents to grouse that they were being treated like "UberEats with guns." Also last year, Mrs. Pompeo ruffled feathers in the department by tagging along on her husband's trip to the Middle East during the government shutdown, running up costs and requiring staff members who were going unpaid because of the shutdown to tend to her. Questions have also arisen about why she has her own security detail, even when not traveling. Going back further, Mrs. Pompeo prompted grumbling during her husband's tenure as director of the C.I.A. As the honorary head of the Family Advisory Board, she would borrow offices on the seventh floor of the agency's headquarters, where Secretary Pompeo and other top officials work; C.I.A. staff members would assist with her projects. Using taxpayer funds to make their lives easier or more glamorous has been a continuing issue for Trump administration officials. Remember Tom Price's love of private planes? David Shulkin's European sightseeing and tickets to Wimbledon? Pretty much everything Scott Pruitt ever did? At this point, a Trump cabinet secretary could perhaps be forgiven for assuming that this sort of behavior is the new normal. But Mr. Pompeo's issues may go deeper. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, has revealed that Mr. Linick was also investigating whether the administration unlawfully declared an "emergency" last year that enabled Mr. Pompeo to circumvent a congressional ban and approve the resumption of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Pompeo has denied that Mr. Linick's scrutiny of him played any role in his dismissal. He has claimed, in fact, that he didn't even know that he was under investigation for misusing staff members. So far, the secretary has been vague about why he wanted Mr. Linick gone something about how the I.G. wasn't "performing a function" that was "additive." One of Mr. Pompeo's aides, Brian Bulatao, told The Washington Post that there had been concerns about Mr. Linick's office leaking to the media. Mr. Bulatao said the secretary also was miffed that Mr. Linick had not embraced the new "ethos statement" the department put out last year. Democratic lawmakers would like a smidgen more clarity. Mr. Engel and Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, announced Saturday that they would conduct a joint investigation into the matter. This scrutiny comes at an inconvenient time for Mr. Pompeo. It is among Washington's worst kept secrets that he harbors ambitions for higher office. Some people think he plans to run for president in 2024. He had been eyeing this year's Senate race in his home state, Kansas, and spent a striking amount of time schmoozing with folks back in the state not exactly a focal point of American foreign policy. In January, he reportedly told the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, that he had decided against running. But with Republicans increasingly anxious about keeping control of the chamber, Mr. McConnell has been leaning on Mr. Pompeo to jump in. Whatever Mr. Pompeo's plans for the future, he can look forward to answering uncomfortable questions about how he's been handling his current job.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Opinion
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JOHN AMAECHI first picked up a basketball when he was 17, after suffering through years of playing rugby in England. He soon left for Ohio to finish high school. Six years later, he started at center for the Cleveland Cavaliers and went on to have a solid N.B.A. career. Mike Trombley, a quarterback and a pitcher in high school, went to Duke University without an athletic scholarship. He made the baseball team and was drafted in his junior year by the Minnesota Twins, pitching for 11 seasons. And Travis Dorsch never would have thought to play football had he not scored a goal in soccer from midfield as a boy in Montana. A friend suggested he consider becoming a kicker. He got a scholarship to Purdue University, where he earned All American honors and went on to kick for the Cincinnati Bengals. These men represent the dreams of many children and more often their parents. They excelled in the three sports many children play, used that ability to play in college (and often pay for it) and then had lucrative professional careers. But these three athletes, now in their 30s and 40s and from different backgrounds, agree on one thing: The way youth sports are played today bears no resemblance to their childhoods, and the money, time and energy that parents spend is probably misplaced. Mr. Dorsch, who is now an assistant professor at Utah State University, where his research involves parents' engagement in their children's sports, said that spending on sports has grown so high up to 10.5 percent of gross income in his research that it is hurting family harmony. "A family bringing in 50,000 a year could be spending 5,500," he said. "Without being judgy, I'm fine with families spending that kind of money. What's wrong is when that investment brings out some sort of negative parent behavior. Or if the kid says mom and dad are spending 10,000 on me a year, what are they expecting in return? Is it a college scholarship? The chances are slim to none of a kid getting a scholarship." With travel teams and indoor versions of outdoor sports now in full swing, some former top athletes and even the coaches who feed parents' obsessions are encouraging caution. The willingness to spend heavily in money, time, emotion and a childhood needs to be looked at more carefully, they say. None Week 11 Takeaways: Here is what we learned this week. N.F.L. Tightens Covid Protocols: As cases rise and Thanksgiving approaches, the league is requiring masks inside team facilities and increasing testing. The Jets Lose Again: Falling to the Miami Dolphins, the Jets receiver Elijah Moore offered consolation. What Will the Giants Do With Daniel Jones? The team must evaluate the quarterback ahead of a contract decision. Playoff Simulator: Explore every team's path to the postseason, updated live. The financial cost is easy to see. This weekend, 135 young quarterbacks from 36 states will fly to Los Angeles for a two day camp with Steve Clarkson, a sought after quarterback coach. Parents of these children, from third through 12th grade, will pay about 800 each, not including airfare, hotel and other expenses. Mr. Clarkson, who had a limited professional career, opened his Dreammaker Academy in 1986 and has since coached top N.F.L. quarterbacks, like Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He also worked with the youngest quarterback known to receive a scholarship offer to a big time football program, David Sills, who committed to the University of Southern California at 13, though he ultimately enrolled at West Virginia University this year. In addition to camps around the country and his work with professional quarterbacks, Mr. Clarkson also offers private coaching starting at 400 an hour. Parents pay it and their children attend, even though Mr. Clarkson acknowledges that expectations can sometimes be out of whack. "What I hope parents understand is that there are some three million high school players and by the time they scale that down to the quarterback position there are a couple of hundred thousand starters," he said. "Then you get to Division I and II, and there are 360 quarterbacks. When you get to the N.F.L. there are 64. When you think about the odds, that's not very good odds." Even so, he said, football can provide children with opportunities they might not have had otherwise. Mr. Trombley agreed, saying he looked at baseball and football as sports that might get him into a better college than he would otherwise. "There is no question that baseball got me into Duke University," he said. "I think I lucked out making it a profession. It just kind of happened by accident. It wasn't all or nothing. We stress that with our kids: It's wonderful to play a sport, but it could go away." After years of playing rugby, John Amaechi first picked up a basketball when he was 17. He went on to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Andrew Sullivan for The New York Times Yet today, Mr. Trombley, 47, a financial adviser in his hometown, Wilbraham, Mass., laments that the highest level of youth sports may be out of reach for many children. He said the farthest he ever traveled for a game was a couple of towns over, but recently his family drove hours to a weekend long high school tournament in New Jersey. "Some people are not in the financial situation to pay for their kid to do it," he said. "I think sometimes kids aren't playing multiple sports anymore because it's just too expensive." Financial costs are easy to quantify. There are also the injuries and the psychological scars. Mr. Amaechi, who was a reluctant athlete until he was introduced to basketball, said he thought parents were misguided when they justified spending so much time and money on sports to teach their children life lessons. "Sport teaches what we want it to teach," he said. "If you want it to teach about teamwork you can teach that through sports. If you want it to teach about social justice it can. It just takes an awful lot of effort." Mr. Amaechi cited a study of 4,000 British children conducted by Britain's Child Protection in Sport Unit that found that 75 percent of the respondents reported various types of psychological harm, like feeling diminished or undermined by coaches and teammates. This was compared with 2 to 5 percent who reported sexual abuse. Of course, plenty of adults have fond memories of playing sports. But Bob Bigelow, who was a first round N.B.A. draft pick in 1975 and is the author of "Just Let the Kids Play," said many of those memories probably came from playing with friends in unstructured, playground games. The first time he was on an organized basketball team was his freshman year in high school. "I live up here in ice hockey central," he said of Winchester, Mass. "One of the hockey coaches up here told me there is no more cynical or delusional an adult than the parent of a 16 year old kid who is pretty good but is not going to get a scholarship. The parents have spent all this money and they still have to pay for college." Mr. Bigelow, who played for the Boston Celtics and the Clippers when the team was in San Diego, reserves his greatest ire for the coaches and administrators who run the leagues and are often the parents who have the greatest stake in their children's athletic futures. "The biggest challenge of youth sports in this country is so many of the adults who propagate the culture have no background in child development or physical education," he said. "Their background is they played high school sports somewhere and they watch ESPN. Those are the two worst qualifications, ever." More qualified coaches would seem to be the answer. But despite all the money and time parents spend on sports, coaches in many communities are held to a lower standard than educators. "Coaches are allowed to be emotionally illiterate," Mr. Amaechi said. "I've watched as a coach stood screaming inches from the face of a girl and the parents were in the stands and instead of being incensed they continued screaming at her when she came to them. "All you need to do to see what sport gets wrong is flip that scenario indoors and make that coach a French teacher," he continued. "Your French teacher is inches away from your child's face and screaming because she can't conjugate a verb? Parents would stand by and allow that? No, they'd be incensed." Mark Hyman, an assistant professor at George Washington University who has written books on youth sports, said that parents whose goal is to give their children the best chance in life or to get them a scholarship to college were not looking at the statistics. "Parents think these investments are justified; they think it will lead to a full ride to college," he said. "That's highly misinformed. The percentage of high school kids who go on to play in college is extremely small. In most sports it's under 5 percent. And the number for kids getting school aid is even smaller it's 3 percent." His advice? "What I tell parents is if you want to get a scholarship for your kids, you're better off investing in a biology tutor than a quarterback coach," he said. "There's much more school dollars for academics."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Your Money
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. Jane and Abe Goren retired here five years ago to escape the higher cost of living they had abided for decades in the suburbs of New York City. They did not anticipate having to write monthly checks for health insurance that would exceed their mortgage and property taxes combined. Ms. Goren, 62, is paying nearly 1,200 a month for coverage through the individual insurance market (her husband, 69, is on Medicare) and accumulating enough debt that her sons recently held a fund raiser to help. For next year, her insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, has proposed raising premiums by an average of 22.9 percent, a spike it is blaming squarely on President Trump. For months, the Trump administration has threatened to stop billions of dollars in payments that lower out of pocket medical costs for nearly six million low income patients. Mr. Trump's hedging has created deep uncertainty in the Affordable Care Act markets, the impact of which may become clearer on Wednesday, the deadline for insurers to say whether they plan to sell next year on the federal marketplace created under the health law and to file rate requests. North Carolina has more than 300,000 people benefiting from these "cost sharing" subsidies, which reimburse insurers for absorbing the deductibles and co payments of low income customers. The Affordable Care Act requires that these customers' out of pocket costs be lowered one way or another. If the federal government stops reimbursing insurers, many insurers have said they will make up for it by raising premiums. Paradoxically, that will primarily hurt not poor customers but millions of middle class people like the Gorens, who earn too much to qualify for premium assistance under the law and will bear the full brunt of any rate increase. Across the nation, individual market customers like them are seeing signs of big premium increases, which insurers are largely attributing to the possibility of losing the federal cost sharing subsidies and of Mr. Trump's not enforcing the health law's mandate that most people have coverage or pay a penalty. Mr. Trump has repeatedly pointed to such increases as signs that the markets are in "a death spiral" and to bolster support as the Republican Senate leadership rushes to vote on a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act next week. Maryland's largest insurer, CareFirst, has asked to raise rates by an average of 52 percent, for example, while Virginia's largest insurer, Anthem, has proposed an average rate increase of 34 percent. Pennsylvania's insurance commissioner said rates would rise by 8.8 percent next year if the cost payments continue; if Mr. Trump ends them, rates will soar by 36.3 percent. While some insurers and state regulators have discussed limiting the sharpest increases to plans for people who receive premium subsidies allowing unsubsidized customers to get lower rates outside the marketplaces it remains to be seen how widespread such actions would be. Some insurers are pulling out of the marketplaces completely: Several dozen counties in Ohio, Missouri and Washington State have no insurers signed up for next year. In North Carolina, Blue Cross and Blue Shield said it would have sought an 8.8 percent average increase, instead of 22.9 percent, if not for the uncertainty. In Ms. Goren's case, her coverage has been a lifesaver. Infected with hepatitis C through a blood transfusion 30 years ago, she was found to have liver cancer in 2014 and received a new liver last September. Though transplants are among the most expensive surgeries, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, under the health law her out of pocket costs are capped at about 7,000 a year. But combined with her monthly premiums which have nearly tripled since 2014, the first year people could buy Affordable Care Act plans the financial burden is enough that Ms. Goren started taking her Social Security retirement benefits early, which lowers the amount. "We will use every available resource we have financially until we've ground it down to nothing," Ms. Goren said during an interview in her home in a rural subdivision outside Asheville. "But I'm scared of what's coming." With the distinct possibility that the Affordable Care Act could soon be repealed altogether, she is afraid to touch the 15,000 that her two sons raised this spring through a 5K race to help with her medical expenses. "We're sitting on it like Horton with the egg," Ms. Goren said, referring to the Dr. Seuss book. When President Barack Obama was still in office, the Republican controlled House sued to stop the cost sharing subsidies on grounds that Congress had not appropriated the money. A judge sided with the House last year, but the Obama administration appealed. Mr. Trump, who has talked about using the payments as a bargaining chip to help pass a Republican health bill, has twice asked the court to delay a ruling. Although the 5.9 million low income Americans who do benefit from cost sharing payments will continue to have deductibles and co payments waived as long as the Affordable Care Act survives, they, too, are facing uncertainty about the future of their health care. If Republicans in Congress succeed at repealing and replacing the law still a big "if," but the House has already passed a bill that would do so and the Senate is hurrying to finish its own version insurance costs for low income Americans could leap. The House bill provides flat premium subsidies based on age, not income a formula that penalizes older and poorer people. Lonnie Carpenter, 55, a self employed roofer in Winston Salem, N.C., is in that category. His back was badly injured in a car accident in 2013, and he has not been able to work full time since. Last year, his spinal surgery was paid for by his Affordable Care Act plan from UnitedHealthcare. He owed only about 2,000 thanks to cost sharing reductions, compared with 11,000 for an operation in 2014, before he got subsidized insurance under the law. "I'm in a position where I'm maxed out with bills because I've missed so much work in the last four years," Mr. Carpenter said. "But it would have been a whole lot tougher to survive without that insurance. If I hadn't had that, I'm being honest, I don't know where I'd be right now." Cost sharing reductions apply to people with annual incomes up to 250 percent of the poverty level; that comes to 29,700 for a single person and 60,750 for a family of four. Deductibles for those with incomes below 150 percent of the poverty level were reduced to 243 on average this year, from 3,703, according to Avalere Health, a consulting firm. Even as Mr. Trump has remained coy about whether to continue the cost sharing reductions next year or even, for that matter, after this month some powerful Republicans in Congress have begun lobbying for him to do so. They include Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Health Committee, who urged in a hearing last week that the payments be extended through 2019. "The payments will help to avoid the real possibility that millions of Americans will literally have zero options for insurance in the individual market in 2018," Mr. Alexander said, adding that Republicans should "do some things temporarily that we don't want to do in the long term." In North Carolina, Blue Cross and Blue Shield increased rates even more this year and last than it is proposing for 2018, blaming unexpectedly high claims costs among its marketplace customers. But the insurer said last month that it now had "a better handle on expected medical costs," and thus would seek a far more modest rate increase if the cost sharing payments were guaranteed. "You don't mean to wish your life away, but my prayers are that I wake up and my wife is 65," said Mr. Goren, a former radio advertising salesman, referring to the age at which people become eligible for Medicare. "We saved, but that money, it goes fast."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Health
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ERIC B. RAKIM at Sony Hall (Dec. 27, 9 p.m.). Rap is unique among musical genres in that most of its founding members are not only alive, but living in the New York metropolitan area. Long Island's Eric B. Rakim, one of the genre's foundational acts, reunited in 2017 after a hiatus from public performance of more than 20 years. Now old school and young rap fans alike have a chance to see the legendary duo in action, performing hits like the jazzy "Don't Sweat the Technique" and "I Ain't No Joke." 212 997 5123, sonyhall.com HOLIDAY JOY: A GOSPEL CELEBRATION at the Apollo Theater (Dec. 22, 2 p.m.). CeCe Winans, who has won 12 Grammys over more than three decades in gospel music, will perform selections from the recently released "Something's Happening! A Christmas Album" at this holiday centric show. Her sound, which skews toward the polished, grand side of church music, will be balanced by Brooklyn's own Hezekiah Walker and his Love Fellowship Choir, who favor a more raucous, groove driven take on gospel. Both Walker and Winans are pastors, so the concert will likely feel something like a service but if that's the way you like to celebrate the holiday season, you'd be hard pressed to find better music. 212 531 5305, apollotheater.org LIL LOUIS at Output (Dec. 21, 10 p.m.). A veteran of the period when house music was still fairly deep in dance's underground, Lil Louis remains a fixture at electronic music festivals around the world. The D.J. is a Chicago native, and his contributions to the city's dance scene helped reinforce its status as house music's birthplace. His influential 1989 single "French Kiss" went mainstream, peaking at No. 50 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, despite its distinctly not safe for work backing vocal track; it will likely appear on the set list at this show, among the final ones at the five year old club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which will close on Jan. 1. outputclub.com KENNY BARRON TRIO WITH REGINA CARTER at the Village Vanguard (through Dec. 23, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.). Barron, an expert pianist, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master and a classicist with a sharply articulate style, closes his two week run at the Vanguard with a series of shows featuring Carter, arguably jazz's foremost violinist. The band is rounded out by Kiyoshi Kitagawa on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums. The weekend shows at 8:30 p.m. are sold out. 212 255 4037, villagevanguard.com FREDDY COLE QUARTET FEATURING JOEL FRAHM at Birdland (through Dec. 25, 8:30 and 11 p.m.). Cole will never fully escape the shadow of his brother, Nat King Cole, who died in 1965 at age 45. But the younger Cole also a pianist and singer with a low, lambent voice and a repertoire that centers on romantic balladry has become a popular performer in his own right, particularly over the past few decades. He plays here in a quartet featuring Frahm, a luminous tenor saxophonist. On Dec. 24 and 25, the young vocalist Veronica Swift will join as a second special guest. 212 581 3080, birdlandjazz.com COUNTDOWN 2019: JOHN COLTRANE FESTIVAL at Smoke (Dec. 21 30 and Jan. 1 6; 7, 9 and 10:30 p.m.; Dec. 31, 6:30 and 9:45 p.m.). Smoke is uptown Manhattan's trustiest home for world class, straight ahead jazz; the venue also runs its own in house record label. For the next two and a half weeks, it will present a festival featuring all star groups made up of some famed performers who typically grace its stage, and its albums. This Friday through Sunday, a quintet featuring the trumpeter Eddie Henderson and the pianist George Cables will play. From Monday through Wednesday, it's another heavy hitting five piece, this time guided by the bassist Buster Williams and the drummer Louis Hayes. From Thursday through Jan. 2, the pianist Harold Mabern will lead his quartet. Throughout the festival, there will be separate performances at 11:45 p.m. and 12:45 a.m. each night, New Year's Eve being the only exception. From Friday through Thursday, the pianist and vocalist Johnny O'Neal will play these midnight sets; for the rest of the festival, they will feature the pianist Marc Cary and his Harlem Sessions ensemble. 212 864 6662, smokejazz.com ROY HARGROVE TRIBUTE CONCERT at the Jazz Gallery (Dec. 21 22, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). The unexpected death of the pre eminent trumpeter this fall shocked the jazz community particularly in New York City, and especially at the Gallery, a club he co founded over 20 years ago. Hargrove typically played every holiday season at the Gallery, and this weekend, an all star squad of musicians pays homage to him: the alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, the pianists Orrin Evans (on Friday) and David Virelles (on Saturday), the bassist Eric Revis and the drummer Nasheet Waits. The group will be joined by various special guests over the course of the two evenings. 646 494 3625, jazzgallery.nyc BARRY HARRIS TRIO at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola (Dec. 21 23, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.; Dec. 24, 7 p.m.). A tireless advocate for bebop and an unfailingly entertaining improviser, Harris has been a stalwart jazz pianist, organizer and educator since the 1960s. Now 89, Harris appears at Dizzy's in a trio featuring the bassist Ray Drummond and the drummer Leroy Williams. 212 258 9595, jazz.org/dizzys GILAD HEKSELMAN at Cornelia Street Cafe (Dec. 21 22, 8:30 and 10 p.m.). Hekselman, a fiercely melodic guitarist and an increasingly shrewd composer, released a strong album this year, "Ask for Chaos." He appears at Cornelia Street with the rising star vibraphonist Joel Ross and the drummer Kush Abadey on Friday, then alongside the tenor saxophonist J. D. Allen and the drummer Colin Stranahan on Saturday. The shows are worth catching on their own merits, but it also bears noting that this storied performance space will close on Jan. 2, after 41 years in Greenwich Village. 212 989 9319, corneliastreetcafe.com HOUSTON PERSON at Jazz Standard (through Dec. 23, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). A rollicking tenor saxophonist with his feet firmly planted in the soul jazz tradition, Person improvises with great fluency and creativity treating blues cliches as valid ingredients, but mixing in plenty of lyrical originality as well. A former collaborator with Horace Silver, Etta Jones and Jack McDuff, he appears here in a quartet featuring Lafayette Harris on piano, Matthew Parrish on bass and Vince Ector on drums. 212 576 2232, jazzstandard.com GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Music
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The weekend's box office totals laid bare the have and have nots of Hollywood in brutal fashion. The No. 1 movie in the United States and Canada as could have been predicted a year ago was the Disney Marvel juggernaut "Avengers: Endgame," which collected roughly 146 million. Total domestic ticket sales for the all star superhero movie stand at 620 million, according to Comscore. The film has collected a jaw dropping 2.2 billion globally since arriving in theaters less than two weeks ago. What to read if you want more Avengers. Our writers and critics talk all things Avengers. That left three new movies to compete for scraps. "The Intruder" (Sony) did the best. A thriller directed by Deon Taylor, "The Intruder" took in about 11 million, a respectable debut for a lightly marketed movie that cost just 8 million to make. Lionsgate, which has been suffering from a shortage of hits, with its stock price falling about 40 percent over the last year, tried to compete with "Long Shot," an R rated comedy starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Movies
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Supporters of a National Museum of the American Latino are the closest they have ever been to gaining a spot on the National Mall. On Monday, the House passed a bill to establish such a museum within the Smithsonian, delivering a significant victory to a yearslong effort to build an institution devoted to the history and contributions of Latino Americans. Legislation establishing such a museum was first introduced in 2011, but this was the first time it secured House approval, and it did so by voice vote with bipartisan support. Prospects for a Senate version of the bill are unclear, but its Republican lead sponsor, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, said that he hopes that the chamber will be able to make the museum a reality. In the past, the proposal has met with opposition from legislators concerned about budget pressures who said the Smithsonian should focus on improving the museums that it already had. But Latino activists, artists and legislators gained traction in Congress at a time when President Trump's standing with Hispanics remains low after his inflammatory remarks about, and efforts to curb, immigration from Central and South America. In the House chamber on Monday, Democratic legislators gestured toward that rhetoric as one reason for the necessity of a National Museum of the American Latino. "Our community has been used as scapegoats for the problems that America faces," Representative Tony Cardenas, a Democrat from California, said on the House floor. "The American people deserve to learn the truth of our history and our heritage." The effort to establish the museum dates back to 1994, when a report found that the Smithsonian "displays a pattern of willful neglect toward the estimated 25 million Latinos in the United States," noting that the institution had no museum or permanent exhibition that features Hispanic American art, culture or history. (That figure has more than doubled. In 2017, there were nearly 60 million Latinos in the United States, equaling about 18 percent of the total population, according to Pew Research Center.) The report, issued by a 15 member task force that was appointed by the Smithsonian's secretary himself, cited how few Hispanics had roles in the Smithsonian's top management or were featured in the "notable Americans" section of the National Portrait Gallery. Three years later, the Smithsonian Latino Center was created to ensure that the contributions of the demographic were represented throughout the museum system. But despite calls for a museum dedicated entirely to Latino Americans, it wasn't until 2008 that Congress passed legislation authorizing a commission to plot out the specifics. At the time, the National Museum of the American Indian had recently opened and the National Museum of African American History and Culture was in the works, contributing to an unwillingness in Washington to offer the same level of federal funding to another new museum. The report by the commission, released in 2011, proposed a 310,000 square foot building, roughly the same size as the African American museum, that would be situated prominently on the National Mall. It assured legislators that the museum would need no federal appropriations in the first six years after it was established, relying instead on private funding. The report estimated that the project would cost 600 million and set a private fund raising goal of 300 million. The commission identified possible locations on the National Mall where the museum could be constructed, but nothing has been finalized. The plan that was passed in the House bill on Monday, however, involved the government providing funds to reach 50 percent of the money needed for the design and construction of the museum, the same financial model that was used for the African American museum. (The government paid for two thirds of the American Indian museum.)
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Art & Design
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In the latest tumultuous twist for the Recording Academy, the embattled organization behind the Grammy Awards, the institution's brand new chief executive, Deborah Dugan, was removed from her position on Thursday, just 10 days before this year's ceremony. In a statement late Thursday, the academy said that Ms. Dugan, who joined the organization in August, had been placed on administrative leave "in light of concerns raised to the Recording Academy board of trustees, including a formal allegation of misconduct by a senior female member of the Recording Academy team." The board, it said, had retained two independent investigators to look into the matter. On Thursday, the academy declined to elaborate on the reasons for Ms. Dugan's dismissal. But according to a person with direct knowledge of the events, Ms. Dugan had been removed after a complaint was filed by the assistant to her predecessor, Neil Portnow, who had also worked temporarily for Ms. Dugan. The assistant accused Ms. Dugan of a bullying management style, the person said, which contributed to the assistant taking a leave of absence. Ms. Dugan's dismissal also came less than three weeks after she sent a memo to the academy's head of human resources that detailed her concerns about the governance and practices of the organization, which she said led her to believe that "something was seriously amiss at the Academy."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Music
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Danielle Brooks as Beatrice, far left, and Grantham Coleman as Benedick in the play "Much Ado About Nothing" at the Delacorte Theater. "I think this is your daughter," says one man to another, indicating a young woman he hasn't met. "Her mother hath many times told me so," the second man retorts. Just as it must have in London in 1599, the line gets a big laugh in Central Park, where the Public Theater's production of "Much Ado About Nothing" opened at the Delacorte Theater on Tuesday. But surely that laugh rings differently today than it did 420 years ago, or even just one. What for centuries was merely mild ribaldry now touches hot button issues: the question of women's sexual self rule and the problem of male paranoia passed off as pleasantry. That's a change this delicious, admirably clear production, directed by Kenny Leon, acknowledges and builds on as it gently but firmly escorts the great comedy into a MeToo, Black Lives Matter world . The MeToo aspect is inevitable in a play about varieties of attraction and ownership. After all, the central plot is set in motion when that young woman, Hero, having become engaged to marry the soldier Claudio, finds herself the victim of a smear campaign impugning her virginity. Claudio viciously renounces her, hardly having troubled to investigate the claim. So does her father. And in the subplot, which dominates the other with the dazzle of its dialogue, the witty Beatrice and Benedick argue the terms of their intimacy despite having forsworn marriage and especially each other. Their love looks so like mistrust, even to themselves, that their friends must trick them into acknowledging the truth. Before the two couples can come together as they must in a comedy, Shakespeare requires them to discover a better balance of power than the one society seems to offer. And as played by two smartly contrasting pairs of actors Danielle Brooks as Beatrice and Grantham Coleman as Benedick; Margaret Odette as Hero and Jeremie Harris as Claudio that balance seems both complicated and hard earned. If you know Ms. Brooks from six seasons of "Orange Is the New Black" (or from her marvelous turn as Sofia in the 2015 revival of "The Color Purple") and Mr. Coleman from previous Public productions like "Buzzer," you will understand at once how Mr. Leon brings race into the picture. They and the rest of the cast are black and not in a colorblind casting way, which would suggest they were pretending to be white. Rather, the actors play specifically black characters, drawing on their own resources of emotion and style to make those characters rich. Yes, there are interpolations of jive, hip hop and the occasional "okurr!" in a production that has the loose limbed feeling of a '70s variety show. (The music is by Jason Michael Webb and the dances are by Camille A. Brown.) But sticklers for historical plausibility are just going to have to get over that, because the result is a convincing and thoroughly enjoyable reframing for our time. Or at least for a time not far hence. The production is set in 2020, on the eve of an election in which, as some prominent banners on Beowulf Boritt's set suggest, Stacey Abrams is running for president. (Ms. Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia in 2018, was herself in the audience on Friday evening.) At a manse in what appears to be an upper class black suburb of Atlanta, Hero's father, Leonato (Chuck Cooper), is hosting a regiment of soldiers lately returned from victory at war; they ride onstage in a real S.U.V. But what kind of soldiers, and what kind of war? The placards the men (and women) carry when marching in formation suggest they are not returning from literal battle: "Now More Than Ever We Must Love," "I Am a Person." Are they civil rights warriors? Pride paraders? Election guards defending the integrity of the vote? Shakespeare didn't specify, nor does Mr. Leon, but you quickly understand that, beneath the comedy, this production reflects a world in which domestic violence is more of a threat than the foreign kind. Not for nothing does it begin with Beatrice on a parapet singing the 1971 Marvin Gaye hit "What's Going On." And when this merges into a mash up with "America the Beautiful," sung seriously by the serving ladies Ursula and Margaret, we begin to sense how patriotism and despair are going to make love very difficult. But mostly it is the credulousness of men that does so. Mr. Coleman hilariously demonstrates the popinjay self regard just waiting to crack Benedick's sangfroid . (He's a toxic bro with bleached blond hair.) What Mr. Harris's mild Claudio is hiding is scarier: the violence of male vanity injured. Both men have been played upon by gossip, deception, fake news. That oversupply of unreliable words, clotting the discourse, feels awfully familiar, even if today most of them come at us electronically. So denatured is Benedick by his habit of disguising his true feelings behind banter that he cannot bring himself to say the word "marriage" even as he finally offers it; Mr. Coleman stutters, swallows and eventually manages to eke it out in a pathetic whisper. The women speak clearly, though: fighting back, setting boundaries. Ms. Brooks makes Beatrice's ornate resistance seem completely commensurate with the threat; why should she volunteer to blunt herself in a marriage that exists only on someone else's terms? Indeed, she is so powerful that, for a while, I worried whether Mr. Leon could bring about a convincing happy ending to the courtship; what Shakespeare calls a "merry war" can look awfully menacing to modern eyes. Still, he does it, in a way that is shocking and, in retrospect, inevitable.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Theater
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Ninety miles north of San Francisco, Mendocino County is just far enough away to have narrowly escaped the Bay Area's radical transformation during the tech boom years. In contrast to other formerly quiet Northern California backwaters, Mendocino maintains its rural identity and eccentricities, including its longstanding status as one of the country's major marijuana producing regions. Where there is big news, it's largely culinary. The 30 year old chef at Elk's Harbor House Inn was recently named a James Beard award semifinalist for Best Chef in the West. Besides the Harbor House's eight to 12 course, 150 per person prix fixe dinners, there are cheesemakers, upstart breweries, exceptional farm stands notably Fort Bragg's Nye Ranch and Caspar's Fortunate Farm and farm inspired restaurants, like the long awaited, soon to open Fog Eater Cafe, which began as a farm pop up, and will serve "California cuisine with a Southern twang." After years of population stagnation, young people are moving in, or coming home, and committing themselves to Mendocino's fertile soil and sea. It's a second wave back to the land movement and a welcome reprieve from the Bay Area's buzz. Take Highway 128 through the Anderson Valley, to Hendy Woods State Park, where you can stretch your legs beneath the awe inspiring giant redwoods or take a dip in the Navarro River. Then, backtrack to Boonville's Pennyroyal Farm, the sister farmstead to one of Mendocino's most beloved wineries, Navarro Vineyards. Sample rich goat and sheep milk cheeses, fresh and aged, exceptional pinot noir, and farm made pickles and preserves. Sit out back, beside a gurgling fountain, and watch sheep meander beneath the vines. In the spring, a farm tour (11 a.m. daily) offers the overwhelming cuteness of nursing lambs and kids. For dinner, reserve a table at the Boonville Hotel, a former roadhouse that's now a beautiful, family owned inn with a wide porch, flickering fireplaces when the weather's cool, and a seductive patio garden for outdoor dining during the warm months. The restaurant's new chef, Perry Hoffman, is from Sonoma's James Beard award winning SHED and, before that, Napa's Michelin starred Etoile. Here, his prix fixe menus (starting at 58) include lively dishes and unexpected flavor combinations. Imagine mussels with charred cabbage, grapefruit, fennel and seaweed or a whole stuffed quail with artichokes, shiitake mushrooms, bolting kale and brown rice vinegar. After winding through the redwoods and along the coast, head for the former logging town of Fort Bragg, for some small town night life. The 135 year old Golden West is a dive bar that was bought in 2015 by a couple who grew up locally and returned after living in Los Angeles. The bar has maintained its vintage character (neon signs, shuffleboard and pool tables, faded black and white photos of logging scenes) while upgrading its extensive liquor cabinet and serving excellent cocktails, and has occasional but unexpectedly good live music, as well as a Sunday Bloody Mary bar. Or, for a family friendly pub in a tucked away location, seek out Mendocino's newest brewery, Overtime Brewery, which teams with Nye Ranch in making its exotic seasonal beers, like the "Thistle Dew" artichoke ale or Nye Ranch Cucumber Batch. Take a couple of crowlers a 32 ounce can filled from the tap and sealed on site of your favorite beer to go. Tucked into a strip mall, Cafe Jaavy the younger sister of the longtime local favorite, Los Gallitos has colorful oilcloth tablecloths, a salsa bar and a breakfast menu that includes savory Mexican breakfasts like chilaquiles (tortilla chips simmered in a flavorful, mildly spicy sauce, served with beans and eggs, 9.50) and standout huevos rancheros with chorizo ( 9.50), plus sweeter offerings like banana and berry crepes ( 8.99) and generous smoothies ( 4.50) made with fresh fruit. The Tropical, with mango, apple, pineapple, melon, chili and lime is particularly tasty. Then, head for the 47 acre Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, where 124 species of rhododendrons put on a spectacular show in April and May. Drive south to Mendocino village to walk its photogenic streets and gawk at the immaculately preserved Victorians. Pop into Frankie's for a scoop of locally made Cowlick's ice cream. Among the cafe's 16 rotating flavors are chai, Campari grapefruit sorbet, yellow cake batter and mushroom. Then, take a restorative soak in Sweetwater Spa's communal and clothing optional eight person redwood tub, sweat in the cedarwood sauna, or indulge in a massage (starting at 110 for 50 minutes). There are also private tubs ( 25 per hour), which are enclosed but open to the sky; if a starry soak is your thing, Sweetwater is open until 9 p.m. Fort Bragg's signature attraction, a former town dump that was transformed by time into a beach of gleaming sea glass, has been badly picked over and is no longer the dazzling sight it once was. For a glimpse of its former glory, head to the odd little International Sea Glass Museum south of town, where Captain Cass sells bags of so called Seed Glass ( 4.95) to replenish the beach's supply. Across Highway 1, the Glass Fire Gallery displays fantastic blown glass creations in the form of jellyfish chandeliers and mushroom shaped table lamps. While in the area, go for a stroll along the newly opened Noyo Headlands Coastal Trail. After more than a century of the headlands being occupied by a sprawling mill site, the town now has access to its coastal bluffs, where California poppies blaze orange in the spring, when it's also possible to spot migrating whales spouting offshore. Have an early, California style dinner by the water in Noyo Harbor, where you have a difficult choice of dining options. For fresh, crispy fish and chips, bundle up and sit on the riverside deck at Sea Pal Cove, where dinner guests include sea gulls, there are 5 pints of high end craft beer, and views of passing fishing and, in season, whale watching boats. A few doors down, Princess Seafood Market Deli is a woman owned and run fishing operation with its own boat and seafood restaurant. Princess serves reasonably priced, locally caught seafood, including whole Dungeness crab ( 27.95), barbecued Royal Miyagi oysters ( 12.95 for a half dozen, and a grilled prawn po boy ( 15.95). During chilly coastal evenings, the deli's tented seating area provides heat lamps and freshly laundered blankets. Then, pick up a Coast Packet and take a gamble on a local performance. One of the joys of small town cultural life is the unexpectedness of what's available from week to week, whether it's the wonderful independent Flynn Creek Circus or a riotous political play at the Mendocino Theatre Company. On your way through Mendocino, grab a takeout breakfast an organic housemade bagel with lox and "all the veggies" ( 12.50) or "market inspired" quiche ( 8) at Mendocino's Good Life Cafe. Sip your coffee to go as you drive a breathtaking stretch of Highway 1 to the village of Elk, population 200. Tote your breakfast down to Greenwood State Beach to sit on a piece of driftwood, look out over the volatile Pacific and take a long breath of sea air. Then, visit Elk Greenwood Museum and Visitor Center originally the town's post office to learn some Greenwood lore from the center's knowledgeable docents. Take Philo Greenwood Road back to Anderson Valley and taste your way out of town. The options can be overwhelming, but the redwood tasting room at Toulouse Vineyards and Winery is especially beautiful and its wines are excellent renditions of classic local varietals: Alsatian whites and pinot noirs. For three wineries in one Spanish style plaza, stop at The Madrones complex, where Drew Family Cellars, Smith Story Winery and the newly opened Long Meadow Ranch, which has estate grown Burgundian varietals, share a plaza.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Travel
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A deluxe double room starts at PS259, or about 320. With its new hotel at Marble Arch, Hard Rock Cafe International, Inc. brings it back to where it all began: London. The eponymous music, merchandise and restaurant company now has 186 cafes, 29 hotels and 12 casinos worldwide, but it started by two Americans with a small burger serving diner in the city's Mayfair district in 1971. After nearly 50 years, you might think the idea is tired, but on a recent Saturday night stay, at least in its first London hotel, the party is still going strong. Take the large open concept lobby and restaurant area, where two bars and a stage welcome guests with brightly colored furniture, friendly staff and nonstop tunes. Homage to rock music and rock musicians is found in details large and small, starting above the check in desk, where hundreds of drum sticks hang down vertically from the ceiling, with electric lights at their tips. Rock memorabilia, including instruments, costumes and other clothing adorn the walls, and a Hard Rock merch shop is just across the lobby. Alas, the hotel, particularly its housekeeping arm, seemed to focus only on the fun, not the functionality. The 900 room hotel, operated by GLH Hotels Management, is situated in a stately building once occupied by the Cumberland Hotel, on a corner of busy Oxford Street. I arrived at 2 p.m., one hour before check in and was told, absolutely yes, I could be upgraded to accommodate the last minute arrival of a friend. Housekeeping would convert the king bed with two single mattresses, within 15 to 20 minutes. Would I mind waiting, or perhaps come back in a short while? Eight hours later, we still didn't have those mattresses. While my friend Fiona and I waited for housekeeping, me struggling with jet lag, we took in all that was good and not so good with the room. It was immaculate and with double paned windows overlooking the park and Oxford Street, thankfully quiet. Embroidered guitars decorated the duvet cover, with red and blue throw pillows, one emblazoned with the word "London." Amy Winehouse looked down at us cheekily from a drawing hung from one wall. We were told "everything you want or need" could be had by dialing Star Service, the in room hospitality number. Unfortunately, no one picked up any of my multiple calls first for the mattress, then to get a free Crosley turntable as a distraction, then simply for a sanity saving drink (There was no minibar to be found, only the menu). I finally gave up and joined another queue in the lobby to complain. The music particularly the guitar theme continued in the bathroom, where a good sized bathtub was shaped like one. The staff kindly hung a sign suggesting guests use a mat to avoid slipping, and I would have, if I could have found the mat. (It must have been with the minibar.) Heated bathroom mirrors were a nice touch, and the bathroom too was spotlessly clean. Before our mattress debacle, we had headed to the lobby to hear the music and experience the bar scene. By ordering a Mexican drink at an American hotel in the English capital, perhaps I have only myself to blame: My on the rocks margarita arrived in a martini glass, without ice. It did have a nice salt rim. Fiona turned her nose up at the nachos, but she's British. They were delicious. The breakfast buffet is available at additional cost . Offered daily underneath the stage of the Hard Rock Cafe, it deserves a mention. After a short wait in line, we had everything we needed to make ourselves an English, American, continental or even Middle Eastern breakfast, or multiple combinations thereof. Yes, we struck out with the turntable (and a Fender guitar was another in room option lost to the lack of housekeeping), but the evening's free music show made up for it. Every night on the Hard Rock stage, a musical act puts on two performances, and we had the chance to hear a Scottish band called Delphi. It was an incredibly pleasant evening, after a long day of travel, to be listening to great live music while catching up with a wonderful old friend. When I first walked through the automatic doors into the lobby area, blasting through the ceiling speakers was the classic song by Dr. John, "Right Place, Wrong Time." Soon I would learn that the first few lyrics, "I been in the right place but it must have been the wrong time," conveniently encapsulated my stay. The Hard Rock Hotel is rocking, the housekeeping was not. Let's hope the service improves and the party can keep going. 52 PLACES AND MUCH, MUCH MORE Follow our 52 Places traveler, Sebastian Modak, on Instagram as he travels the world, and discover more Travel coverage by following us on Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter: Each week you'll receive tips on traveling smarter, stories on hot destinations and access to photos from all over the world.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Travel
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Chrysler said Tuesday that it was recalling about 184,215 Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicles from the 2014 model year because of an electrical problem that could affect the supplemental restraint system. About 126,772 of the vehicles are in the United States, 8,106 are in Canada and 3,722 in Mexico. The automaker says a short circuit in the occupant restraint control module could illuminate air bag warning lights, which can mean that the air bags and seatbelt pre tensioners are disabled. A supplier alerted Chrysler to the problem before the recall was issued, prompting an investigation by the automaker's engineers. Chrysler says there have been no accidents or injuries related to the defect.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Automobiles
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From a cattle ranch in the country's northeast to a gym in Beijing, Jade Gray has been involved in his share of start ups since arriving in China from New Zealand in 1996. He is therefore no stranger to China's many rules on investing in the country. "It's a very laborious process, and there a lot of hoops to jump through," said Mr. Gray, who began his fifth venture, the Gung Ho! Gourmet Pizza Factory delivery service, with a fellow New Zealander a year ago. China's limits on the use of its currency, the renminbi, in foreign trade and investment have been in the spotlight for the way they help Beijing manage the renminbi's exchange rate and arguably tilt the direction of trade in China's favor. But when it comes to doing business in China, Mr. Gray and other experts say, China's capital controls pose only a minor aggravation for foreign investors willing to do their homework. "It's loosened up a lot in the past 5 to 10 years," Mr. Gray said. China may be the world's second largest economy after the United States, and the largest exporter, but the renminbi remains almost unheard of in international currency flows. "There are technically very few ways for renminbi to flow out of China," said Christopher Xing, who advises on Chinese taxes at KPMG in Hong Kong. That is because when China began opening up its economy in the 1980s, it decided against opening its currency market to avoid the kind of money inflows and outflows that can blunt a central bank's ability to manage an economy. Perhaps the best example of the perils of an internationally convertible currency is none other than the United States. "The problem with the U.S. is that the U.S. dollar is not only the dollar of the U.S. economy, but the dollar of the international economy," said Ye Xiang, a former economist at the Chinese central bank who is now co head of a fund management firm in Hong Kong. "So when the Fed wants to reduce interest rates and put liquidity into the U.S., liquidity will flow out and go into international markets." While it may be many companies' dream to sell to the 1.3 billion Chinese, getting money into China to set up is a formidable hurdle. "This is the biggest challenge in terms of setting up your business," said Mr. Gray, who started Gung Ho! with an initial investment of 400,000. A foreign company cannot convert a single dollar into renminbi whether to open a bank account, hire an employee or lease an office without first getting investment approval from the local branch of the Ministry of Commerce. "If you want to bring in money into China for investment purposes, you need to have a project approved by the government," said Flora Sun, director of the China office in Shanghai of the consulting firm Brian Cave International Trade. The process is different for investors who want to buy Chinese stocks. Once largely off limits to foreigners, China began in 2003 allowing some foreign investors to become qualified foreign institutional investors. For businesses that want to start ventures in China, the easiest path may be to first set up a sales representative office, experts advise. But that means not being able to book any sales inside of China. Another route is to set up a joint venture with a Chinese partner. The third option is to establish a wholly foreign owned enterprise. Approval depends on whether the investment is in an industry prohibited for foreign investment, like, say, agriculture or publishing. If the proposed investment is not restricted and is below 300 million, it can be approved by the municipal or provincial authorities. Anything larger has to go to the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing. If the proposed investment is in a restricted industry, the investment limit for local approval falls to 50 million. Once the investment is approved and a business license is issued, the company has to get approval to convert its investment into renminbi from China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange. And only after getting that can a foreign company open a local bank account and start spending money in China. This presents some investors with a Catch 22: they need to invest renminbi to get approvals but cannot until they have approval to invest. One solution, Mr. Xing said, is to open a pre investment bank account. This allows companies to spend up to 100,000 to set up their businesses and get investment approval, with the amount spent counted toward the new venture's approved investment capital. The approved investment amount is an important number. It represents the maximum amount of capital the company can bring into China and convert into renminbi. If a foreign company wants to bring in more, it needs to get the investment reapproved through largely the same process, which can take up to two months. As a result, some companies tend to apply for a larger amount of investment than they think they need, just in case, which leaves them with a surplus of cash sitting in a Chinese bank. But another strategy is to mix start up investment capital with loans from the company's owners, Mr. Xing said. The larger the investment, the more China allows the new venture to borrow. So while investors of 3 million or less can borrow only up to 30 percent of their total approved investment, those of 30 million or more can borrow up to two thirds of their start up capital, he said. Whatever the mix, the company cannot convert any of its approved investment without proper documentation to show the bank. "They won't allow you to convert U.S. dollars into renminbi immediately," Mr. Ye said. Investors need to show their bank an invoice or service agreement to convert their deposits and spend them. Companies in China have to provide documentation an invoice and customs declarations to convert renminbi into foreign currency to purchase goods abroad. In recent years, China has begun a pilot program that allows banks in a number of cities and provinces to settle cross border trades in renminbi, part of a gradual effort by China to promote the use of its currency in international trade. But the transactions have to be approved by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and the counterparties must be in Asia, Mr. Xing said. China also regulates how foreign companies can repatriate their profit. Companies need to make sure they have paid corporate taxes first. China then requires that they put 10 percent of their earnings into a general reserve. They can then apply to pay the remainder as dividends to their foreign owners by showing their books and a board resolution. China charges a 10 percent withholding tax on the payment, a relatively low amount in Asia, according to experts.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Global Business
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If you were looking for a primer on our nation's ability to discuss its racial history, you couldn't do much better than the remarks by the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, on the eve of the House Judiciary Committee's hearings in June on H.R. 40. If passed, the bill would allow the formation of a commission to study just study the possibility of reparations for slavery and subsequent racially discriminatory government policies. But McConnell couldn't abide discussion. "I don't think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea," he said at a news conference ahead of the hearings. "We've tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We elected an African American president." McConnell's remarks bear the rhetorical hallmarks of white America's stunted engagement with race: the attempt to isolate anti blackness to the institution of chattel slavery; the gesture toward self exoneration through a rejection of personal culpability for slavery; and, most important, an insistence that discrete acts of atonement nullify the need for conversation about race. In his new essay collection, "White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American Imagination," the novelist Jess Row trains his attention on moments like McConnell's news conference, when American discourse on race addresses anti blackness by not addressing it at all or, at least, not in a serious way, one that would threaten white people's place atop the nation's racial hierarchy. Row, whose 2014 novel "Your Face in Mine" satirized liberal desires to dissolve racial difference into a vague concept of "togetherness," works like a Freudian analyst in these searching, loosely structured essays. Armed with a bevy of sources, from Flannery O'Connor to Eve Sedgwick, he casts his eye upon a diverse swath of American culture in order to suss out what it has to tell us about race even, or especially, when it doesn't mean to tell us anything. "In these essays I'm only interested in confessions, proclamations of guilt, sudden or absolute or unquestioned epiphanies ... to the degree they can be named, understood, redescribed, even satirized," he writes, charting the critical ground he hopes to cover. Confession isn't as generative for him as what he calls "the inner racial life of Americans," an "unconscious life embodied in American fictions, which often sustains, and sometimes undermines, the political conditions of white supremacy the country still inhabits." If, as Row puts it, American fiction most often addresses race through silences and omissions, he wants to force these silences to speak, to reveal themselves as self serving meant to protect white supremacy. It's a project that owes a debt to Toni Morrison's 1992 book "Playing in the Dark." Morrison wrote of an "Africanist" presence in American literature that amounted to no authentic black presence at all, only static figures representing "notions of excessive, limitless love, anarchy or routine dread." Row extends that analysis by turning his attention to the giants of postwar American literature, in whose work new forms of marginalization take root. Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. None Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more. See what's new in October: Among this month's new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric. Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125. That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books. In wrestling with such fiction's relationship to race, his collection draws its title and central concept from a distinctly 20th century phenomenon: the exodus of white Americans from inner cities as the federal government experimented with integration policies and social unrest overtook communities across the nation. In his 2014 essay "The Case for Reparations," Ta Nehisi Coates argued that white flight was a socially engineered conspiracy, an attempt to maintain white political and economic domination at a moment when black activism and federal intervention threatened to erode both. For Row, there's an analogue in contemporary fiction: white authors fleeing the problem of race. Literary white flight into imagined worlds from which black people and the urgent questions their presence begs have been absented is no less a matter of power. Row demonstrates this through astute close readings in which he analyzes postwar fiction with a loving sternness that avoids didacticism even as he pingpongs among cultural artifacts, decoding everything from Don DeLillo's "Underworld" to emo music. In the title essay, he considers the setting of nearly all Anne Tyler's work: Baltimore, particularly the neighborhood of Roland Park. Tyler is a writer "rooted in a place that is so comfortable, unthreatening and familiar that it becomes almost featureless, a state of psychic stability that needs no explicit expression." So, too, Roland Park is a site of timeless normalcy, a place where the white world "will never be significantly altered." Yet this normalcy depends on the general absence of black people. If Tyler were to give them a voice, they might recount stories like the one told by a former colleague of Row's who grew up in Baltimore. "When I was young, our name for Roland Park was Hang a nigger," he tells Row. "My parents made sure I knew never to go up there, not for any reason." The effect of literary white flight is to regulate the American imagination and reproduce racialized power. Flight allows whiteness to function as if it were universal, a stand in for "human," rather than a particular racial category that relies on blackness for its expression. What Row desires is fiction that acknowledges the ways in which Americans are entwined with one another physically, psychically and socially. In the ambitious experimental essay "Parts of Us Not Made at Home," he attempts to model such writing by delving into his own interracial background. He writes of his great grandmother Amy Brazil, a woman who passed as white but who was an immigrant from the Azorean island of Flores and was most likely mixed race, as many Flores islanders are. In uncovering this history, and perhaps even extending it through fiction, Row hopes to reveal stories of racial purity as what they are fictions that we must counter with new ones. For all of these inventive and insightful readings, however, it's unfortunate that Row does not suggest concrete strategies for intervening in the stalled conversation he picks apart. When he recommends specific texts Theresa Cha's experimental novel "Dictee," James Alan McPherson's classic story "Elbow Room" or James Baldwin's "Another Country" his glosses fail to identify what, on an aesthetic level, makes these titles worthy of admiration. In any case, it seems beside the point to uphold writers of color who do this work, as they have since the nation's founding, when Row's chief concern is that white writers should develop their own means for thinking critically about race. It doesn't help that the book includes some fumbling gestures. At one point, Row suggests that calling South Dakota's Black Hills mountain range by the name the Lakota call it, "Khe Sapa," might be a way of registering racial injustice. "Is it a self conscious and ludicrous performance of guilt?" he muses. "Maybe I sound like Kevin Costner, in 'Dancing With Wolves.'" Reading this, I can't but feel that if one must wonder at such a thing, you should think twice about writing it. In "Eating the Blame," an essay that posits Sedgwick's notion of "reparative writing" as an alternative to a facile liberalism, he announces that he will donate his book advance to a Native owned art collective in South Dakota. It's a strange gesture: The essay purports to be about aesthetics and racial justice in writing, only to mutate into a meditation on charity. But perhaps such disconcerting moments are an inherent feature of Row's project: How can a white author not stumble when addressing such a fraught topic? "There are only more or less awkward ways for me to name" racial injustice, Row says of the ongoing conversation he hopes we'll join him in. Despite, or perhaps because of, these flaws and the discomfort they inspire, we should accompany Row through this important inquiry.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Books
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Netflix put up more than 50 original programs on its streaming service in March, including series, specials and movies. Thus truly began a long promised deluge of what the kids call "content," and just how much original content Netflix will put up before the year is over is something not even Netflix can say. The influx of original programs coincides with news reports about Netflix's thorny relationship with cinema. The Cannes Film Festival, making good on a pledge last year, has codified its ban on Netflix produced films in its competition. (If it's a Netflix movie, it will not screen in competition.) This is because of what Cannes regards as Netflix's intransigence about showing its films in theaters. Add to that a recent interview with the director Steven Spielberg in which he said that films produced by Netflix and other streaming platforms ought not to be eligible for Oscar consideration but compete for the Emmy Awards instead. That brings the immortal question "What Is Cinema?" to the forefront yet again. Along with it are the debates over the ostensibly sacrosanct value of the Communal Theatrical Experience. It's not this column's job to provide definitive answers to the questions these debates raise. I like going to the movies as much as the next fellow, but I've seen plenty of pictures in theaters that made me think afterward, "That wasn't even a movie." For the rest of April I'm going to post my responses to original pictures I watched on Netflix. For starters, I went to my spiritual cinephile home and considered sci fi and horror fare and was gratified to find that the titles I chose were, it turned out, movies, even. "Mute," a sci fi effort co written and directed by Duncan Jones, made its debut on Netflix in February and was largely panned by the critics. Mr. Jones is known for the films "Moon" (2009), a well received original, and "Warcraft" (2016), a video game adaptation that confused critics who thought it a little cheesy relative to Mr. Duncan's previous projects.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Movies
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The Enhanced Campus Culture initiative awarded Ms. Ng 3,000 toward her idea an Earth themed room with waterfall, plant wall, inspiration whiteboard and another 1,000 toward her Project Smile, which sends morale boosters like chocolate "gratitude grams" and hands out Bubble Wrap for the popping to address, she says, "campus stress culture." Mindfulness probably has more research backing. A C.M.U. study in the June issue of Psychoneuroendocrinology found that just 25 minutes of mindfulness meditation for three days significantly reduces stress. Be present, be still, just be. Now do your homework.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Education
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In a sign of just how upside down and surreal the idea of fashion is at the moment, at the end of the Dior show on Tuesday the first big show of the final week of the collections a woman popped onto the runway waving a big yellow banner that read "We Are All Fashion Victims." And most of the audience, including the Dior chief executive, was not sure if she was a protester or part of the finale. As it turned out, she wasn't a Dior model, but a member of Extinction Rebellion, the environmental organization whose goals include trying to put an end to fashion week, with all its associated waste and carbon footprint. But you can understand the confusion. After all, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior's artistic director of women's wear, has rarely met a feminist slogan she didn't want to splash on a show. It wouldn't have been outside the realm of possibility, given everything that is going on in the world and the way the pandemic has hit not just fashion but all its related industries, to imagine she was issuing some meta commentary on the business. Especially given that right now the messaging and the mediums (live shows and livestreams; short films and look books; puppet shows and paper dolls) are all messed up. Besides, there was, in fact, a slogan of sorts involved. Not on the runway but on the shift dresses of an all female choir that provided the music for the show. To be specific, "Destiny is in your hands," a line from the artist Lucia Marcucci that Ms. Chiuri keeps on her office wall. But here's the thing: For once, it actually made sense. Both in the show and beyond it. We keep being told the world is teetering on the edge. Things may all fall apart. What we choose to do now who we vote for; what actions we take, or don't take; what protests we join matters. Even what we choose to wear. And not just when it comes to masks. So the choir members, their voices raised in a 19th century lament, alternately elegiac and in full atonal wail, stood in a giant black box built to mimic a cathedral with soaring stained glass windows composed of brightly tinted collages by Ms. Marcucci, as models in highly worked artisanal loungewear streamed out. There were tapestry knits and elastic waisted embroidered trousers, easy collarless jackets that harkened back to Japanese housecoats tied around the waist with rope belts and faded chambray denim dresses inset with flowers. There was rainbow jute and Indonesian Ikat and ankle length dresses in whispering chiffon. All of it inspired, Ms. Chiuri said in a Zoom call after the show, by the belief that rather than force the body to conform to an idea of dress (what she called the underpinning of couture, especially Dior's famous Bar jacket), dress, right now, had to shape itself according to the body. The result was beauty without escapism or the infantilism of her recent playsuit obsession (or the hokey fantasy of her couture video). Eschewing the Bar born out of the crucible of World War II, and perhaps having finally served its purpose and acknowledging that this is a new time, with new needs, seemed to have set her free. In any case, Ms. Chiuri was not the only designer thinking destiny. It was also the subject of Thebe Magugu's video, "Counter Intelligence," one of the best fashion films of the season, which told an illuminating story about the way clothes are used to conceal, reveal and otherwise create identity. It was told through the real life accounts of men and women who were spies under South Africa's former apartheid government. Shot as if captured on CCTV, with voice over descriptions of how young women and men were conscripted and used, Mr. Magugu dressed his spies not in the trench coats and fedoras of pop culture imagination but in the body conscious ribbed knits, asymmetric fan pleats and cool trouser suits of seduction.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Style
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BERLIN Hundreds of artworks that were hidden for decades by Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of a Nazi era art dealer, will at last go on view beginning in November, in exhibitions in Bern, Switzerland, and in Bonn, Germany, two museums have announced. The long awaited exhibitions were scheduled after a Munich court ruled in December that Mr. Gurlitt, who died in 2014, had been of sound mind when he bequeathed his collection of roughly 1,500 works to the Kunstmuseum Bern. The Bern museum will host "Dossier Gurlitt: 'Degenerate Art,' Confiscated and Sold," from Nov. 2 to March 4, 2018. The Bonn show, "Dossier Gurlitt: Nazi Art Theft and Its Consequences," will run from Nov. 3 to March 11, 2018, at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly known as the Bundeskunsthalle. It will focus on works seized by the Nazis and on Jewish art collectors and dealers who were persecuted.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Art & Design
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The Jonas Brothers returned to No. 1 on Billboard's album chart for the first time in a decade, thanks to a bundling deal that tied copies of the album to tickets to the band's reunion tour. "Happiness Begins" (Republic), the Jonas Brothers' first studio album since 2009, claimed the top spot with the biggest overall number of the year so far. According to Nielsen, it had 414,000 "equivalent album units" in the United States a number that includes 68 million streams and 357,000 copies as a full album. But many of those full albums went to fans who bought tickets to the Jonas Brothers' tour, rather than buying the album by itself. How many of them? Nielsen does not break out those numbers. But Billboard's report on the chart notes that the Jonas Brothers' opening week sales position for "Happiness Begins" was "largely powered" by those ticket sales. Deals like those have increasingly come under scrutiny as critics and even some artists who participate in them have questioned whether they distort Billboard's weekly rankings. Also this week, Billie Eilish's "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" holds at No. 2, and a number of new releases debuted in high positions. Santana's "Africa Speaks" starts at No. 3, the 15th time that band led by the guitarist Carlos Santana has reached the Top 10. The country singer Luke Combs opened at No. 4 with "The Prequel," a five song EP, and Future is No. 5 with "Save Me," another mini album, with just seven songs.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Music
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via the artist, Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Photo by Gary Sexton via the artist, Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Photo by Gary Sexton Credit... via the artist, Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Photo by Gary Sexton "They Took the Faces From the Accused and the Dead ... (SD18)," a grid of 3,240 mug shots, by Trevor Paglen. It is part of the show "Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI" at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. This article is part of our latest Artificial Intelligence special report, which focuses on how the technology continues to evolve and affect our lives. Adjusting to technological developments is not a new concept for the art world. Wood panels were once the standard for paintings, but by the 17th century they were largely overtaken by canvas, and the paint itself changed, too. Video art, a mainstay now, was a new phenomenon in the 1960s. More recently, augmented reality and virtual reality have captured the imagination of artists as ways to tell stories that we could not have imagined even 20 years ago. But the rise of artificial intelligence in art, a phenomenon in recent years, has a different cast to it. Not only is A.I. a tool for artists, who are employing machine intelligence in fascinating ways, it is also frequently a topic to be examined sometimes in the same piece. And underlying many of the works is a deep unease. As Lisa Phillips, the director of New York's New Museum, put it, the worries come down to "the prospect that machines are going to take over." She added, "What are we unleashing?" Even the art market was alerted to a new realm when an A.I. generated portrait that was initiated by the Paris based art collective Obvious was sold for 432,500 at Christie's in 2018. It was like a traditional portrait of a man, but his features were smudged and blurry. Museums and other exhibition spaces have also produced a flurry of current and coming shows involving A.I. that were scheduled for this spring, some of them delayed after closings because of the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Paglen is one of the best known artists in the A.I. territory. His work on it, and on the subject of state surveillance, helped him win a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship (the "genius" grant) in 2017. "I've been working on it for a while," Mr. Paglen said. "Once I started thinking about it, I haven't stopped." He is based in New York, where he has two of his three studios; the other is in Berlin. His work at Altman Siegel tries to connect the surveying of the American West in the 19th century with the way computers perceive the world via the data they are given how what is officially "seen" creates power dynamics. Mr. Paglen has a work in "Uncanny Valley," too, called "They Took the Faces From the Accused and the Dead ... (SD18)," a grid of 3,240 mug shots, used without the subjects' consent, from the American National Standards Institute, a nonprofit group founded in 1918 that helps set agreed upon standards across industries, including a wide array of tech fields. The images were used to train facial recognition programs, and Mr. Paglen uses them to question "how is data weaponized," he said. It has been a theme for other artists, too: Because machines have to be trained by people, what implicit biases are being passed on along the way? "We live in a world in which things are being sorted into categories that are not inherent in nature," Mr. Paglen said. In addition to critiquing A.I., Mr. Paglen has used it to create art. For his 2017 series "Adversarially Evolved Hallucinations," he created an A.I. system that made a series of images. "I was making my own training sets," he said. "I built the taxonomies from scratch." The resulting works, including a view of what a computer thinks a man looks like, may strike some as a bit spooky. The organizer of "Uncanny Valley," Claudia Schmuckli the chief contemporary curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which includes the de Young said that in her view, the overall tone of the works in "Uncanny Valley," which features the work of 14 artists or collectives, was one of "concern, rather than anxiety." "A lot of the works in this show look at A.I. as an applied form of machine learning, how it actually works, not the speculative fantasy of A.I.," she said. "It may be that not a lot of deep thinking has occurred about the potential consequences in the long run." Ms. Schmuckli moved from Houston to San Francisco in 2016, and she said it was partly the postelection revelations about hacking, Facebook and the data firm Cambridge Analytica that got her thinking. "I felt like this was an area I needed to urgently understand," she said. In the tech focused Bay Area, the show has hit a nerve. "The turnout for the opening was wholly amazing," Ms. Schmuckli said. "We saw a lot of people who have never stepped foot in this museum before." Perhaps befitting a full time techie, his work has a more positive spin than that of some others working with A.I. His Artechouse piece "Expression Mirror," originally created for the 2018 London Design Biennale, reads the facial expressions of a user, tracking muscle movements at 68 points on the face. But when people look at the "mirror," they do not see themselves. "Your face is replaced with someone's face who has used it before," Mr. Lieberman said. "It matches your expressions, like a smile or frown, and it learns as it interacts." He calls this a "face action coding system," a version of a "fingerprint." Mr. Lieberman said he understood why some artists plumbed the dark side of A.I., because of its long term implications and because anything to do with machines could unsettle. "It's this black box that you feed things into," he said. "It's inscrutable in some way." But Mr. Lieberman said he encouraged a diversity of views on matters technological. "I think it's important to create artworks for the public to have all kinds of conversations be they critical or playful or anything else." "Everything in the world has a positive and negative side," he said, adding that "it's in our power" to explore both sides of A.I. "As long as we can find the off button on the computer."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Art & Design
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"If I really am so good," said the fearless and licentious Italian artist Carol Rama in 1983, "then I don't get why I had to starve so long, even if I am a woman." Her first show, in 1945, was shuttered by the Turin police before it even opened, and for decades after, her erotic watercolors and rubber slicked abstractions were appreciated by only a few. Some great artists wait their whole lives for recognition. Some female artists have to wait even longer. Rama, a self taught maverick, died two years ago at the age of 97. She at least enjoyed the fruits of success late in life: She was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2003 Venice Biennale, and European institutions began to mount retrospectives in her ninth decade. At last, if posthumously, she's getting the full New York treatment, with "Carol Rama: Antibodies," a large and illuminating tour of 60 years of Rama's unsettling art, at the New Museum. (A smaller exhibition, drawn from her archive, opened this week in Venice, alongside the Biennale.) With more than 150 works hung a little too tightly for comfort, but satiating all the same the New Museum's show may shock some viewers, and Rama would no doubt be delighted if she could see a new generation's reactions to her paintings and assemblages of masturbators, bike tires and cows' udders. But the sex is just the start: This is a show that will take you to the edge of madness, and will force you to acknowledge the fine line between genius and lunacy. It will also force you to reckon with the artistic significance of gender and to consider just how much Rama's womanhood informed the frenzy that fired her art. This show anchors the New Museum's third season in recent years devoted to women, and "Antibodies" will surely color your views of two concurrent exhibitions, one very strong and one off target, by younger female artists. Rama, born in 1918, made her most scandalous works at the start of her career: blotchy, mysterious watercolors of nude figures behaving very badly, as well as disembodied limbs and mouths. As early as 1940, under a Fascist government, the young Rama painted women in bed wearing nothing but high heels and golden crowns, and went out of her way to emphasize their sex organs. In most cases she depicted these women upright, flattened out into simple two dimensional totems, and relied on color especially runny reds and pinks, which stain the paper like blood to provide the jolts. Frequently the women stick out their tongues, in acts of seduction or, more likely, defiance. One figure here, painted at the height of the war, is preparing to fellate two men, each equipped with multiple members. Another, eyes bulging and tongue wagging, fumes as a snake emerges from her private parts: Is she copulating with the serpent or giving birth to it? You can trace the extremity of these early works to the artist's mother, who was committed to a psychiatric institution when Rama was a child. Rama often visited the asylum, where she witnessed electroshock therapy, and numerous watercolors from the 1940s depict nude women in states of confinement trapped in a narrow wheelchair, perhaps, or tied down to a surgical bed. Though restrained, the women do not lack independence, and they wag their tongues as defiantly as ever. Insanity, fury, irrepressible passion: These risky paintings were not just assaults on Fascism but also expressions of uncontrollable femininity that roiled a patriarchal Italy. If the troubles of Rama's mother informed her psychosexual discoveries, those of her father were no less formative. He owned a bicycle factory, but it went bankrupt, and he killed himself in 1942. Rama, after the early watercolors and a postwar period of rather negligible Informel painting, began to create dark abstract panels from which she hung sliced, deflated strips of rubber tires. They hang like abject bodies, squashed and subdued, though their detumescent forms also have a sexual connotation that's hard to miss. Rama returned to figurative works in her later years, when she made even more literal the overlapping of bodies and contraptions. She redeployed engineering diagrams as canvases on which she painted angels and lovers, tongues lapping the air as they float amid pistons and valves. Her strangest series was inspired by the outbreak of mad cow disease in Britain in the mid 1990s, and consists of rounded spots of leather and rubber fashioned onto mail sacks. The ovoid forms, in beige, puce and black, recall human breasts as much as cows' udders or sex organs, and for Rama, anyway, sexual readings were never to be evaded. Around the time of the mad cow works, an interviewer asked her to imagine the reaction to her art from five viewers of different national backgrounds. Rama, then almost 80, had a particular theory about transcending cultural differences she'd ignore the viewers' artistic tastes and sleep with all five of them "because instinct and pleasure are universal." Upstairs from the Rama retrospective are two eagerly awaited shows. The better one is by Kaari Upson, a live wire of an artist from Los Angeles, whose sculptures and videos share some of Rama's themes: bodies in extreme states, family inheritances and the insights that can come from lifelong obsessions. Ms. Upson, whose work is also on view in this year's Whitney Biennial, is best known for her casts of couches and beds, rendered in parti colored urethane and drooping from the wall like Rama's rubber tires. The casts form part of a complex array of artworks in which houses take on the lives of the people who occupy them, and psychological and emotional dramas are expressed through objects and built spaces. Along with a wonderfully creepy installation of dozens of dolls, resembling the artist's mother and arrayed on shelves straight out of Costco, Ms. Upson is also showing a dementedly forceful video in which the artist inspects a number of Las Vegas tract houses, appraising their value as she jams her body under the kitchen cabinets. That Ms. Upson appears in the video dressed up like the dolls that is, like her mother is only one of the many disturbances in this psychological hall of mirrors. Less convincing is a new exhibition by the British artist Lynette Yiadom Boakye, who presents a rushed and feeble new suite of oil paintings that continues her project of fictionalized portraiture. The artist's untidy paintings of dancers and dandies are inventions of hers, rather than true likenesses of individuals, and their wet brush strokes and cold tones recall the portraits of British modernists like Duncan Grant or Gwen John. Yet even more than usual, Ms. Yiadom Boakye paints so hastily that she undoes her own best efforts. Backgrounds are often so light that you can see the weave of the linen underneath; faces are reworked carelessly, and the edges between the figures and backgrounds become scumbled. All but one of the 17 paintings here are from 2017, and her insistence on painting each work in a single day is not serving her well. Perhaps Rama, and Ms. Upson too, have a lesson to impart. Ms. Yiadom Boakye produced all the works here specifically for the New Museum, whereas Rama, the Italian master, and Ms. Upson, the Los Angeles prodigy, think across years, even decades. It's a wonderful thing to make an exhibition, but often the greatest insights come haphazardly, discursively, through the slow and unpredictable invention of the studio.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Art & Design
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There were no fans providing atmosphere when Teofimo Lopez's arm was raised in victory on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Nevertheless, the result electrified the boxing world. Lopez, 23, had won a unanimous decision over Vasiliy Lomachenko, widely considered one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, if not the best. He had unified the W.B.A., I.B.F., W.B.O. and Ring lightweight titles. The undefeated Lopez, who grew up in Brooklyn, in the Sunset Park and Bay Ridge neighborhoods, discussed boxing, confidence and what he has learned from parkour. How did you get started in the sport? My father took me to Red Hook, Gleason's Gym, when I was real young. When I was 2 years old, my father put gloves on me. He was training himself for amateurs, the Golden Gloves. How old were you when you first actually got in the ring and tried to hit another kid as hard as you could? I was 6. Yeah, they're not doing that anymore. Did Covid 19 affect your preparation for the fight? No, not at all. Despite wearing masks and dealing with the protocols, everything felt the same. Until Saturday night, fight night. Definitely that was different. You don't hear a big crowd. It doesn't feel as big. In prefight interviews, you were very confident. How did you go into a fight that challenging and yet have so much confidence? What may separate myself from the rest is that when I say I believe in myself I really mean it. In my head, it already played that I beat you. All I have to do is display that when I have the opportunity. I've always had this confidence. Once you got in the ring, did it go the way it played in your mind, or did he have any surprises? Especially for the first half of the fight, he almost couldn't touch you. Is that what you expected? No. I was disappointed. Everybody was speaking so highly about this guy, I wanted to see it for myself. But when I got there it was the total opposite. I don't take anything away from the guy. But he played our game. We took him into our game plan. Whatever they had in mind, we took away his blueprint. In the second half of the fight, he got some shots in on you. Did he hurt you? Did you feel he was turning the tables? No. I wanted to lure him in. It was going to be a boring fight. I didn't want it to be that type of fight. I wanted him to slowly progress into his comfort zone, and that way I would find more openings when I needed to. We knew he wasn't going to hurt us. He's too small of a guy. A lot of what I took from him was from head butts. I got cut in the last round. It's annoying. When you're an orthodox fighter facing a southpaw, you're going to clash heads, but a lot of them felt intentional. It was just baiting him in. Making him feel like he was doing something. I took advantage. I started hitting him to the body. I started moving a lot more. Had he started from the start, it would have been worse for him. I would have knocked him out. It would have been a longer beating for him.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Sports
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How an Underground Queer Zine Became the Best Blog in Opera James Jorden was a frustrated, often out of work stage director in New York in the early 1990s when a casual hookup gave him the idea for Parterre Box, now the most essential blog in opera. "I went to his place and we got high," Mr. Jorden recalled recently. "And when we took a break, we were talking about what we did with our lives." The guy told Mr. Jorden about a friend of his, an architect who began writing about architecture because he wasn't getting any commissions. Perhaps, he suggested, Mr. Jorden could do the same with opera. Thus was born the irreverent, passionate Parterre Box, which began as that most unlikely of media properties: a queer opera zine. The first issue was published 25 years ago this month and distributed in bathroom stalls at the Metropolitan Opera. Now its writers are credentialed press at the Met. Mr. Jorden couldn't have predicted that on the night of that hookup, or soon after, when he merely thought of the punk zines he had seen around the East Village. There was, it goes without saying, never one for opera fans. Scott Levine, an artist manager and the first person to write a fan letter to Parterre Box, recalled that it "was able to enjoy the more ridiculous aspects of the art form and not let that get in the way of the more sublime." And it was, he added, "a really nice alternative to the strait laced Opera News and the very sort of academic opera and music magazines that were available." Parterre Box found its readership haphazardly. Mr. Jorden would leave copies at the now closed Tower Records near Lincoln Center, and scatter them in the stalls of the men's rooms at the Met. He started stuffing them into the schedules and brochures stocked in the Met's lobby, which aroused the company's ire. One night, placing copies just before a performance of "Salome," Mr. Jorden was caught, security guards took his ticket, and he was told to leave. Apparently there had been a de facto warrant out for him at the Met, and in those days he wasn't hard to find. All the guards had to do was look for the 40 year old in cutoff jeans, army boots and a leather jacket with no shirt. "It was a very activist time in the gay community, in terms of fighting back against AIDS," he said. "And I view Parterre Box as part of that bigger cultural trend. It wasn't afraid to be in your face or confrontational or angry. I felt it was therapeutic." That gay men have historically been attracted to an art form as over the top and fervent as opera, Mr. Jorden said, is a function of the closet of having needed to hold back their feelings. But there was nothing restrained about Parterre Box. It had the quippy, sometimes savage humor of gays gossiping during intermissions. Yet it was also authoritative, with a voice that could come only from profound knowledge, and love. This was the period when Parterre Box began to settle in as a widely read and respected member of the opera media ecosystem. (Mr. Jorden has become more widely read and respected in his own right as the critic of The New York Post, then The New York Observer.) The blog is still pungent, but less bitchy. It has six regular critics in New York, and many more sending dispatches from around the world. At the Met, which long shunned Parterre Box, it now has press seats, just like any other major news outlet. Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, wrote in an email that his house and the zine have "a symbiotic relationship." "If not for the Met, Parterre would have an existential problem," he added. "There would be nothing to complain about. And if not for Parterre, some of our most outspoken fans would be without an outlet to vent." These days, Mr. Jorden is looking for younger writers, and perhaps even a younger editor who could eventually take over. Not quite yet, though. "I put it out on Dec. 3, 1993, saying this was Maria Callas's 70th birthday," Mr. Jorden recalled. "And it wasn't." Callas was actually born on Dec. 2, though she preferred to celebrate on Dec. 4. "So now I'm stuck with the anniversary of Parterre on Dec. 3, which is nothing." Once he printed the debut issue, Mr. Jorden took copies to the Met, where he tried handing it out. That, he said, was a "horrible failure." Then he thought about the bathroom. "Obviously, the men's room at the Met is going to have a really high concentration of gay men who are interested in opera," he said. So at a performance he left some during the first intermission; by the second, they were gone. In the mid 90s, Mr. Jorden was going to a gym near the Met. One day, a man in the locker room introduced himself as part of the soprano Deborah Voigt's publicity team. He offered an interview with her to Parterre Box. Mr. Jorden was a podcast pioneer, putting out "Unnatural Acts of Opera" long before the medium took off. He made about 200 episodes over four years. It was the first time the world heard the voice of La Cieca, which Mr. Jorden described as "part Mary Boland from 'The Women' and part Regina Resnik." Eventually he came up with the idea of airing "Mercury Theater" like radio plays called "Apocryphal Opera Anecdote Theater of the Air," in which he would act out famous stories from opera history. But running a podcast takes a lot of time, especially with a day job and website to run. Mr. Jorden wound down production after a boyfriend complained, "Can't we just go to a movie tonight?" On opening night of the Met's 2015 16 season, Parterre Box was a credentialed member of the media, with press tickets for the critic Christopher Corwin to review the new production of Verdi's "Otello." This step, the apotheosis of Parterre Box's road to legitimacy, was about a year in the making, Mr. Jorden said. The blog had been recognized elsewhere, but the Met remained a white whale. Sam Neuman, the company's press director at the time, took the steps that eventually led to what Mr. Jorden called "a total game changer. It felt like being an adult." Mr. Gelb was less sentimental: "Parterre's readership is sufficient to warrant press tickets."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Music
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With each passing day, the World Wide Web is becoming an outdated name. Facebook warned on Monday that it would block users and news organizations in Australia from sharing local and international news stories on its social network and Instagram if the country passed a proposed code of conduct aimed at curbing the power of Facebook and Google. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the country's top competition authority, is drafting a bill for Parliament that would require both companies to negotiate with media publishers and pay them for content that appears on their sites. Google also hinted that it might have to cut off its services in Australia in an open letter to users on Aug. 17. Google said the government's draft legislation would give large media companies "special treatment" so they could make unreasonable demands that would make it difficult to keep Google search and YouTube videos free. Google, which owns YouTube, didn't indicate how it would respond, but said its free services would be "at risk." By taking aim at Google, whose dominant search engine is the gateway for information and news, and Facebook, the largest social network with billions of users, Australia's regulator seeks to address what it calls "power imbalances" between news publishers struggling with the collapse of traditional media and conglomerates with thriving online ad businesses. In Australia on Tuesday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the government's efforts followed an 18 month long inquiry by the country's competition authority. "Australia makes laws that advance our national interest," he said in comments to The Australian Associated Press. "We don't respond to coercion or heavy handed threats wherever they come from." The proposals, Mr. Frydenberg added, "will help to create a more sustainable media landscape and see payment for original content." The situation in Australia, while still playing out, demonstrates how government measures to diminish the influence of technology companies are creating digital fences between countries. While China has imposed restrictions on companies operating there for years, the United States has shown a recent willingness to exercise exclusionary tactics on popular services from Chinese internet companies. The proposed changes in Australia could also contribute to the spread of disinformation, since news from legitimate news sources would be harder to find. Over the past two months, the Trump administration has squared off against the Chinese government over the forced sale of ByteDance's viral video app, TikTok, to an American technology company. According to President Trump, ByteDance's ties to the Chinese government are a national security risk to the United States. The White House gave the Chinese company until Sept. 15 to divest its American assets or risk being shut down in the United States. Facebook said publishers and users in Australia trying to share news on its site would be greeted with a notification saying they were no longer able to do so and pointing to the legislation. "The proposed law is unprecedented in its reach and seeks to regulate every aspect of how tech companies do business with news publishers," said Will Easton, managing director of Facebook in Australia and New Zealand, in a company blog post on Monday evening. Mr. Easton added that it would force Facebook to pay news organizations for content that the publishers voluntarily placed on its services. Facebook signaled that it would continue to make investments in news despite the decision, including expanding its Facebook News tab a paid partnership program dedicated to showing curated news stories inside the mobile app to more countries and paid partners. The company is also building more support for outside subscriptions into the product, including an account linking feature that allows subscribers to stay logged in to their news accounts while reading articles on Facebook. As global regulators devise different strategies to rein in technology giants, companies are facing the complicated decision of modifying their products for different markets. European competition authorities have demanded changes and Google has complied for how Google directs users of its Android smartphone software to its own services. Google has also agreed to concessions in its search engine in Russia at the behest of regulators. In a call with investment analysts in August, Robert Thomson, chief executive of the media giant News Corp, said the legislation in Australia was an "inflection point" for the internet. "I can assure you that not only regulators but media companies around the world and the digital platforms are watching Australia closely," he said. Facebook said that the country's regulators did not understand the relationship between news and social media, and that publishers benefited more from Facebook than the other way around. "We want to pay for journalism we believe in journalism and have demonstrated that," said Campbell Brown, vice president of global news partnerships at Facebook, in an interview. "Our plan was to make real investments in news in Australia. But this is not a workable outcome." Historically, Facebook has not had the strongest relationships with publishers. News organizations have bristled at its willingness to make drastic changes to its News Feed algorithm, often causing digital traffic for publishers to plunge. Attempts to bridge the divide between the two sides have been scattershot, including short lived partnerships in paid article syndication, video content deals and livestreamed news initiatives. Google took issue with a part of the legislation that would require the company to disclose algorithm changes to publishers in advance. The search giant said this would give media companies an unfair advantage to manipulate the search engine to vault its content higher in results. Google also objected to requirements to share information about the "collection and availability of user data." While Google and Facebook both said they would be willing to pay for news, there appears to be a disagreement on the true value of that content and the appropriate way to set a fair price. Both companies said they had major problems with a part of the proposal stipulating that if publishers could not agree on a price, it would be determined through arbitration. This is not the first time a country has pushed the internet giants to pay for news. In 2014, Spain passed a law requiring publishers to charge Google for headlines of their stories appearing on Google News. The company responded by shutting down Google News from Spain and removing Spanish publishers from the service. In a series of questions and answers on its website, Google said the Australian legislation was written much more broadly and would presumably include a loose definition of news. "We'd have to undertake a mass cull of content globally to stop them being visible to Australians," Google wrote.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Technology
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When a parent or spouse is revealed to have a secret identity, it's supposed to be a game changer. The information invites a total recalibration of the relationship. Trish Sie's uninspired action comedy "The Sleepover," now streaming on Netflix, follows this formula superficially, but never grounds the reveal, or its consequences, in much emotional truth. Without that core believability, the kidnapping of Margot (Malin Akerman), a former jewel thief and current domesticated mother, never upends the family's dynamics convincingly because her life has so little detail. The oafish Kevin (Maxwell Simkins) and the awkward cellist Clancy (Sadie Stanley), her children who embark on an adventure to save her, have unsure chemistry as siblings, and their jabs at one another feel forced and unnatural. Ken Marino, too, feels out of place as her husband Ron. He's presented not only as ordinary to a point of mockery but also as the film's source of its wackiest attempted jokes.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Movies
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Ronald H. Coase, whose insights about why companies work and when government regulation is unnecessary earned him a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1991, died on Monday in Chicago. He was 102. His death was announced by the University of Chicago. By his own description, Professor Coase (rhymes with doze) was an "accidental" economist who spent most of his career teaching at the University of Chicago Law School and not its economics department. Yet he is best known for two papers that are counted among the most influential in the modern history of the science. In one, "The Nature of the Firm," which was largely developed while he was still an undergraduate and published in 1937, Professor Coase revolutionized economists' understanding of why people create companies and what determines their size and scope. He introduced the concept of transaction costs the costs each party incurs in the course of buying or selling things and showed that companies made economic sense when they were able to reduce or eliminate those costs by performing some functions in house rather than dealing in the marketplace. The ideas laid out in the paper explain why, in the first half of the 20th century, companies tended to become more vertically integrated (for example, Ford Motor building its own steel mills and buying its own rubber plantations rather than relying on suppliers), and why, more recently, companies have tended to do the opposite, aggressively outsourcing even basic functions like paying their employees. In the second of his groundbreaking papers, "The Problem of Social Cost," published in 1960, Professor Coase challenged the idea that the only way to restrain people and companies from behaving in ways that harmed others was through government intervention. He argued that if there were no transaction costs, the affected parties could negotiate and settle conflicts privately to their mutual benefit, and that fostering such settlements might make more economic sense than pre empting them with regulations. The paper made the idea of property rights fundamental to understanding the role of regulation in the economy. It grew out of a study by Professor Coase on how the Federal Communications Commission licensed broadcasters. The practice of issuing the licenses more or less permanently for small fees to whoever applied first and met legal requirements made little economic sense, he argued; better to treat them as property, auction them off and allow them to be freely transferred. Decades later, his ideas were used to raise billions of dollars for the Treasury when radio frequencies were assigned for cellular phone services. Ronald Harry Coase was born on Dec. 29, 1910, in Willesden, England, the only child of two postal workers. Though he spent more than 50 years living and working in the United States, he retained his English accent and habits all his life. His father was an amateur athlete of some renown, but Ronald's interests were more academic, not least because of weakness in his legs that obliged him to wear iron braces for a time. In his autobiographical essay written for the Nobel committee after being awarded the prize, he recalled being taken by his father at age 11 to a phrenologist to hear what could be discovered from the shape of his head. The phrenologist detected "considerable mental vigor," Professor Coase wrote, and recommended that he work in banking or accounting and raise poultry as a hobby. Because of his leg braces, Professor Coase wrote, he attended a special primary school and enrolled in secondary school a year late, missing the chance to pursue a concentration in history or Latin. Science was his third choice, but he found he had little patience for the mathematics involved, so he studied the only other subject available: commerce. At the University of London, he was on his way to becoming an industrial lawyer when a seminar with Sir Arnold Plant, a well known economist of the time, changed his focus again, this time for good. After graduating from the London School of Economics, he taught there and at other British universities, and married Marion Ruth Hartung in 1937. The couple immigrated to the United States in 1951, when he joined the faculty of the University of Buffalo. He left for the University of Virginia in 1958. While teaching at Virginia, Professor Coase submitted his essay about the F.C.C. to The Journal of Law and Economics, a new periodical at the University of Chicago. The astonished faculty there wondered, according to one of their number, George J. Stigler, "how so fine an economist could make such an obvious mistake." They invited Professor Coase to dine at the home of Aaron Director, the founder of the journal, and explain his views to a group that included Milton Friedman and several other Nobel laureates to be. "In the course of two hours of argument, the vote went from 20 against and one for Coase, to 21 for Coase," Professor Stigler later wrote. "What an exhilarating event! I lamented afterward that we had not had the clairvoyance to tape it." Professor Coase was asked to expand on the ideas in that essay for the journal. The result was "The Problem of Social Cost." Professor Coase was soon invited to become editor of the journal, and to join the Chicago faculty, where he stayed the rest of his life, disdaining the equation heavy approach of what he called "blackboard economics" in favor of insights grounded in real markets and human behavior.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Economy
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In the past, it took lengthy and arduous ground based telescopic observations to winnow impostors like double stars and other pretenders from the planet list. But the numbers have grown too large, the cosmos too verdant, for this case by case analysis. The new results rely on a statistical technique developed by Timothy Morton, an astronomer at Princeton University, to vet the potential candidates in bulk, by analyzing the shape of the dips they make in starlight and taking into account how common the various types of impostors are and assigning a reliability score to each one. "Planet candidates can be thought of like bread crumbs," said Dr. Morton in a NASA teleconference on Tuesday. "If you drop a few large crumbs on the floor, you can pick them up one by one. But if you spill a whole bag of tiny crumbs, you're going to need a broom. This statistical analysis is our broom." So far, two dozen of the planets found and confirmed by Kepler occupy the so called Goldilocks zones of their stars where liquid water and perhaps "Life as We Think We Know It" could exist. Extrapolating these results to the entire galaxy, Natalie Batalha, Kepler mission scientist from the Ames Research Center, said there could be 10 billion roughly Earth size planets in the galaxy within their stars' habitable zones. The nearest habitable planet, she estimated, could be as close as 11 light years. In the cosmic scheme of things, that is next door and reachable in our lifetimes with current or near future technology. Last month, scientists announced a plan to try to send smartphone like spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, which is 4.4 light years away.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Science
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Credit...Susan Wright for The New York Times When planning a family trip to Montenegro last spring, I found myself telling perplexed friends who knew next to nothing about the Balkan country: "Imagine yourself in Venice, sail down the Adriatic coast, look east and stop before you reach Albania." But since President Trump described the country, in a Fox News interview in July, as likely to trigger World War III and Montenegrins as "very aggressive," the questions have trended from "Where is it?" to "What's there?" For starters, there is dramatic natural beauty, including the imposing mountains that wall the coast and inspired 15th century Venetians to name it Monte Negro, or Black Mountain. A statement from the government in reaction to Mr. Trump's characterization cited Montenegro's "peaceful politics," noting that during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, the country was "the only state in which the war didn't rage during disintegration of the former Yugoslavia," of which it was a part. As the granddaughter of immigrants from Montenegro and a repeat traveler in the region, my experience of Montenegrin aggression is limited to receiving large portions of food and admonishments to clean my plate. Those, along with the Ottoman forts strung along the coast, testify to the centuries long fight for control of this strategic region by the great seafaring powers of the 14th through mid 19th century. (Montenegro only began to gain its shore from the Ottomans and the Austrians in the late 1800s.) Not that tourism is exactly new: After all, in the 1970s, celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren vacationed at Sveti Stefan, a peninsular village turned luxury resort, now run by Aman hotels and still favored by the glitterati (the Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic was married here in 2014). But more recent foreign investment has fueled its expansion, with luxury developments like Porto Montenegro in Tivat, home to a Regent hotel and a yacht marina, and the Miami like high rises that surround the walled heart of Budva, now filled with restaurants and cafes. As you push farther south, and mosques begin to mingle with monasteries, time and tourism seem distant. At Stari Bar, an 11th century ghost town that was once traded between the Venetians and the Turks, we scrambled around the deserted ruins and found a cat nurturing a litter of kittens in an ancient urn. By the time we got to southernmost Ulcinj, we had the walled city virtually to ourselves, from the archaeology museum, filled with ceramics, coins and carvings from the Romans through the Ottomans, to the new Pirate seafood restaurant overlooking the sea. Many visitors arrive by ship, sailing through the fjordlike Bay of Kotor to the walled city of Kotor, long under Venetian reign, with the winged lion of St. Mark on its sea facing gate to prove it. CruiseCritic.com just named Kotor the second most popular port in the eastern Mediterranean, after Dubrovnik. We found ourselves in Kotor, along with thousands of passengers from a Celebrity Cruises ship snapping pictures of the stray (but evidently well fed) cats that stalk the cobblestone plazas and nap on stone staircases. A series of these steps climbs a mountain to the fortress of St. John, a medieval stronghold improbably guarded with walls that ascend nearly 900 feet. It's an exhausting post to reach, but one that rewards you with sunset views over the bay plunging mountains. When the ship sailed out that evening, romance returned to candlelit restaurant terraces within the walls, and Niksicko beer drinking yacht crews filled the outdoor tables in view of a 17th century clock tower. Behind the coastal mountains of Montenegro, via a dizzying switchback road, lies an entirely different country that is rugged, largely undeveloped and a real bargain, as epitomized by the six inch high cevapcici sausage sandwich at Kole Restaurant in Cetinje, which costs 2 euros, or about 2.30. Cetinje, the former capital of the Montenegrin kingdom, established in the 15th century, remains the country's cultural heart. A cluster of pedestrian only lanes, where art students paint en plein air, surrounds a series of national museums devoted to art and history. A joint ticket (10 euros) provides entry to six museums, including the Biljarda, the 19th century residence of Montenegro's favorite king, the poet and philosopher Petar II Petrovic Njegos, and named for his billiard table, the country's first. He died in 1851 and is buried in a monumental mausoleum on Mount Lovcen outside town. Its last king, Nikola Petrovic Njegos, inhabited a modest palace across from the Biljarda until he fled the country in 1918, as Austrian forces invaded during World War I. Now known as King Nikola's Museum, it is filled with treasures, including antique Chinese urns, Persian carpets, Venetian mirrors, Indonesian furniture and royal portraits from families across Europe. That the royal collection survived the World War II occupation of Montenegro by Italian forces is miraculous. "He was known as the father in law of Europe," said our guide proudly, explaining that five of the king's daughters had married into royal families across the continent, including Princess Elena, who wed an Italian royal and earned an in law's respect. "Because they were family, the Italians preserved the home." On the suggestion of our Airbnb host in Zabljac, we signed up with Rafting Tara Triftar, run by Goran Lekovic. Our excursion seemed to encapsulate Montenegro with its mix of entrepreneurial gamble and sincere hospitality. An inscrutable van driver likely limited by the language barrier distributed well worn wet suits and mismatched neoprene bootees to us and a backpacking couple from Switzerland. At the river launch, rival guides with emergency radios and the muscles of seasoned river runners pushed off in profiles that were in stark contrast to our captain, Mr. Lekovic himself, who chain smoked, wore loafers and limited his safety instructions to "Team, paddle!" on approaching the rapids. Despite appearances, he competently navigated the turbulent, high water rollers as we rollicked for the next few wet hours. The lunch promised in the 45 euro excursion turned out to be a three course homemade feast, featuring roast lamb on the nearby Lekovic farm, followed by warm offers of Turkish coffee and cigarettes. The river curves through the northern section of Durmitor National Park, home to 50 peaks above 6,000 feet. Here, bare limestone crests shade pockets of snow, and scree slopes run down to glacier carved lakes and wildflower filled meadows. Over the May holiday celebrating Montenegro's 12 year independence, we hiked lightly traveled but well signed paths, forded streams, crossed under waterfalls and picnicked on lakeside boulders in fragrant pine groves. "New country," smiled the park attendant at the admission booth, granting us, like everyone else, free admission on the holiday. "But old place." Populated, I might add, by people curious about outsiders, rather than aggressive toward them.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Travel
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Q. How do I see what version of Google Chrome is on my computer? A. For both the Windows and the Mac versions of Google's Chrome browser, open the program and click the three dot More menu icon in the upper right corner of the tool bar. On the More menu, select Help and then choose About Google Chrome. You then land on the About Chrome page, which displays the software's version number in the middle of the window.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Technology
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"Kodachrome" is based on an article that A.G. Sulzberger, who became the publisher of The New York Times this January, wrote in 2010. It concerned the international rush on Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kan., which became the world's last processor of the discontinued color film Kodachrome. But in a twist that may make camera buffs' heads explode, the feature, directed by Mark Raso, arrives courtesy of Netflix, which bought the movie after it was made. Despite a credit noting that the movie was shot (to little effect) on 35 millimeter Kodak film, "Kodachrome" will mostly be seen on the streaming platform, whose current business model hastens the destruction of physical media. The purchase might make a good working definition of "chutzpah" having conquered DVDs and theaters, is Netflix now trying to own nostalgia? but there's no cause for alarm. If this earnest and forgettable road movie represents a meaningful tribute to taking pictures, we ought to go back to cave drawing.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Movies
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Remarkably, in these fractious times, President Trump has managed to forge a singular area of consensus among liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats: Nearly everyone seems to agree that he represents a throwback to a vintage version of manhood. After Mr. Trump proclaimed his "domination" over coronavirus, saluting Marine One and ripping off his mask, the Fox News host Greg Gutfeld cast the president in cinematic World War II terms a tough as nails platoon leader who "put himself on the line" rather than abandon the troops. "He didn't hide from the virus," Mr. Gutfeld said. "He was going to walk out there on that battlefield with you." Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia tweeted an altered WrestleMania video in which the president was portrayed as pummeling senseless an opponent with a spiked coronavirus head. "President Trump won't have to recover from Covid," Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida gloated. "Covid will have to recover from President Trump." Meanwhile, the putatively liberal news media was conjuring its own version of the boxing ring: with Mr. Trump in one corner as atavistic chest beater and Joe Biden in the other as evolved exemplar of feminist sensitized manhood. Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden "evoke different brands of manliness," a Washington Post article argued: Mr. Trump channels "old fashioned machismo" "aggressive, physically tough, physically strong, never back down" (in the words of a gender equity educator, Jackson Katz) while Mr. Biden models what Mr. Katz calls "a more complex 21st century version of masculinity," defined by "compassion and empathy and care and a personal narrative of loss." But what if the one thing people agree on, they're wrong about? What if Mr. Trump's style of bullying and bombast aren't relics of the old manhood, but emblems of a masculinity very much au courant? If that's so, we may be fooling ourselves in declaring that his noxious model is heading for a natural extinction. Mr. Trump's handlers have long packaged him as a leatherneck commander, a la "Sands of Iwo Jima" the embodiment of a retro virility that American society supposedly once celebrated until feminists torpedoed it. Mr. Gutfeld isn't the first to have reached for World War II metaphors when describing the president: Steve Bannon noted during the 2016 race that Mr. Trump's popularity was "predicated on that Greatest Generation determination, that grit," while paying homage to that era's manhood as "the guy in the trenches, the guy that had to climb the cliffs" on D Day. Others in the inner circle put it differently: "The era of the 'Pajama Boy' is over," Sebastian Gorka, soon to be a White House deputy assistant, gushed in December 2016. "The alpha males are back." Except that the coming alphas would be gun fetishists in Hawaiian shirts, storming state capitols and planning the abduction of a governor they called a "tyrant bitch." Greatest Generation, really? How about the opposite? The masculine archetype of the 1930s and '40s was the anonymous common man who proved his chops through communal building, not gunslinging. In a 1932 speech, Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that "the man of ruthless force had his place in developing a pioneer country" but he now endangered the nation. "The lone wolf, the unethical competitor, the reckless promoter," he said, "whose hand is against every man's, declines to join in achieving an end recognized as being for the public welfare, and threatens to drag the industry back to a state of anarchy." New Deal America championed a manliness of usefulness, demonstrated through collective service and uncelebrated competence. The '30s ideal of heroic civil servant carried into World War II, and was enshrined in Ernie Pyle's battlefront dispatches valorizing unsung grunts "the mud rain frost and wind boys." Pyle disparaged the silk scarfed "flyboys," whose camera ready star turns Pyle instinctively distrusted. Of the grunt ethic, Pyle wrote, "We are all men of new professions, out in some strange night caring for each other." This service oriented prototype of manhood tending to the needs of others, providing protective support, spurning the spotlight was essentially a maternal masculinity, all the purported qualities of motherhood, recoded for the Y chromosome. If anyone in the race is channeling that precept, it's Mr. Biden, who, a day after federal officers tear gassed peaceful protesters to make way for Mr. Trump's photo op outside St. John's Church, called the presidency "a duty of care to all of us." Ernie Pyle would have worn a mask, because it comported with the masculine ethos of his era: shielding others from harm, being enlisted in the country's defense. Mr. Trump could not be more at odds with that ethic. His is a Potemkin patriarchy, the he man re engineered for an image based, sensation saturated and very modern entertainment economy. How to characterize this new form of masculinity? In a word: ornamental. Contemporary manliness is increasingly defined by display in Mr. Trump's case, a pantomime of aggrieved aggression: the curled lip, the exaggerated snarl. Display permeates his ratings obsessed presidency. It's why he chose his vice president (he "looks very good") and his former defense secretary ("If I'm doing a movie, I'd pick you, general"). The chief executive of Newsmax, Chris Ruddy, noted of his friend Mr. Trump's inclinations, "It's more about the look and the demeanor and the swagger." Ornamental manhood is the machismo equivalent of "I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV." Or, in the boogaloo movement's version, "I'm not actually a soldier but I wear camo and walk around downtown with my big gun." (In Mr. Trump's case, it's "I'm not a successful builder but I played one on 'The Apprentice.'") The great shame is not that Mr. Trump brought an anachronistic masculinity into the Oval Office, but that he used the Oval Office to market a very modern brand of compensatory manhood with a twist. The hallmarks of contemporary ornamental masculinity being valued as the object of the gaze, playing the perpetual child, pedestal perching and mirror gazing are the very ones that women have, for half a century, struggled to dismantle as belittling, misogynist characterizations of femininity. The preoccupation with popularity, glamour, celebrity, appearance what are these qualities but the old consumer face of the Girl? If Mr. Trump is reclaiming a traditional stereotypical sex role, it's one that long belonged to women. Why have so many of the modern day grunts who mourn the loss of "old fashioned" manhood hitched their wagon to a silk suited flyboy? Since at least the 1990s, and at full tilt in the era of social media, men have been faced with a quandary: how to define their sex in a culture where visibility, performance and marketability are the currency. You could say that Mr. Trump has, if nothing else, found a way. But he's done so not by defending the Greatest Generation man, but by abandoning him. The gender gap in this election can be simply explained. Most women are turned off by the toxic displays of chest beating that many male voters notably but not exclusively white find exciting. That level of ostentatious macho arrived in the Oval Office on a wave of 21st century male insecurity. We should pay attention to that wave because it's not receding. Women were trapped in their ornamental cage because they were locked out of productive work and economic self sufficiency assets now increasingly denied to men. But if men respond to the frustrations of modern manhood by retooling a shopworn and castoff model of ornamental femininity, then we'll all be in trouble.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Opinion
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According to conventional N.F.L. wisdom, there are two probable causes of any sudden injury rash: too much high intensity practice, and not enough high intensity practice. Many high profile N.F.L. stars suffered significant injuries on Sunday. The San Francisco 49ers lost quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, the Pro Bowl defender Nick Bosa, running back Raheem Mostert and others in their victory over the Jets. Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey suffered an ankle injury that is expected to sideline him four to six weeks. Giants running back Saquon Barkley tore his anterior cruciate ligament, as did Seattle Seahawks defender Bruce Irvin, Denver Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton and others (including Bosa). And those are just the biggest names who went down in one weekend. It's possible that some players were not quite game ready in the opening weeks because of upended workout routines and the shortened training camp. It's also irresponsible to draw conclusions based on a handful of isolated incidents. After all, conventional wisdom also suggested that N.F.L. games would look like the sloppy combination of a kindergarten fire drill and a medieval peasant revolt because of the cancellation of those all important preseason rehearsals. In fact, play has been crisp over the first two weeks. Also, Week 1 was (by N.F.L. standards) relatively light on injuries. Some teams have been harder hit so far than others. The Broncos, for example, lost the All Pro defender Von Miller during camp and quarterback Drew Lock for two to six weeks to a shoulder injury on Sunday, in addition to Sutton and others. None Week 11 Predictions: Here are our picks against the spread. N.F.L. Tightens Covid Protocols: As cases rise and Thanksgiving approaches, the league is requiring masks inside team facilities and increasing testing. The Packers' Defense Is Their M.V.P.: Green Bay's oft overlooked defense has kept the team from falling out of the Super Bowl chase. The Long Path to the Super Bowl: With 18 weeks in the regular season and fewer teams earning byes in the playoffs, the Super Bowl is still a long way off. Playoff Simulator: Explore every team's path to the postseason, updated live. Pointing fingers at individual coaches or organizations would be inappropriate. Team by team training regimens vary wildly in normal circumstances and surely varied even more as coaches and team staff adjusted on the fly. While most organizations used the best available sports science to keep players at close to football shape, a few may have told the guys to rub some dirt on the pandemic and go straight to the blocking sleds. Some teams just have notoriously rotten injury luck, even when jogging through spring walk throughs. The Philadelphia Eagles, for example, were fortunate this year that half of their roster didn't electrocute themselves while logging onto Zoom meetings. The new turf at MetLife Stadium is also a suspect in this week's injury mystery, with 49ers players referring to it after Sunday's game as "sticky" and "trash." Subtle defects in a playing surface can have a major impact on elite athletes performing at peak capacity and effort, which explains why the Jets weren't affected. The N.F.L. is reportedly investigating the MetLife situation in advance of Sunday's 49ers Giants game. If the turf really does exacerbate injuries, the 49ers may have to call Joe Montana and Jerry Rice out of retirement to get them through the season. While Sunday's list appears unusually long, the inclusion of big names often turns injuries into a bigger story than the typical weekly rundown of battered offensive linemen and backups. The losses of Barkley and McCaffrey, in particular, were a major blow to millions of fantasy football enthusiasts. Forget the 49ers or Broncos: The real crisis this week is that your cousin Carmine's Metuchen Murder Hornets will use up all of their fantasy waiver points. This year's N.F.L. injury uptick even appears to be slightly behind schedule. There's typically an annual outcry to curtail or eradicate the preseason in mid August, at the precise moment when a handful of noteworthy preseason injuries dovetails with midday television sports talk hosts' mounting boredom with training camp news. In past years, the same players hurt on Sunday might have gotten hurt weeks earlier in a game that didn't even count to their team's record. That wouldn't have made their injuries less devastating, personally or to their franchises, but that timing would also have made the news less immediate and dramatic. The simple truth is that most football injuries are not caused by disruptions in conditioning routines or the friction coefficient of the playing surface, but by huge men crashing at full speed into one another. Lock, for example, was hurt when Pittsburgh Steelers defender Bud Dupree slammed his shoulder to the ground. Bosa's leg twisted at an unnatural angle when he was driven backward by a blocker onto a pile. Nothing that happened in June or August could really have protected them. The truncated off season is a possible contributing factor in some cases, but the league's pandemic procedures also mean that teams are more capable of coping with injuries than they would be in a typical year. Practice squads are expanded, injured reserve protocols are more flexible, and teams are (theoretically) ready to call upon free agent reinforcements, whether to play through a coronavirus outbreak or a bunch of high ankle sprains. So while the 49ers' playoff hopes are in jeopardy, the Giants' latest rebuilding plan is in peril and many well known players face weeks or months of challenging rehabilitation, the current N.F.L. injury rash will have no more impact on the league itself than many others had in the past. Meanwhile, the annual argument about whether the preseason is helpful or harmful will wage on until sports medicine discovers optimal practice procedures that get players fully ready to play without subjecting them to undue strain. N.F.L. coaches will then reject those procedures because they sound too scientific and not enough like "real football."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Sports
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The meatpacking district in Manhattan is about to grow even busier, as office towers and Samsung move in and add a layer of transformation to an area that once reeked of slaughterhouses and literally vibrated with railway commerce. New arrivals include two commercial structures a 10 story glassy tower and a six story Samsung flagship building across from the Standard Hotel at Washington and West 13th Streets. On May 1, the Whitney Museum of American Art's new building, designed by Renzo Piano, will open along the High Line, drawing even more pedestrian and tourist traffic to the area. And construction could begin next year on Pier 55, a 130 million park and performance space planned on the Hudson River between West 14th and Little West 12th Streets. "There are really few neighborhoods who've had as many next acts as the meatpacking district," said Lauren Danziger, executive director of the Meatpacking District Improvement Association. "We're absolutely on the cusp of something really special." By the end of this year, tenants could begin moving into 860 Washington Street, the 10 story tower, which was developed by Property Group Partners in partnership with Romanoff Equities. Designed by James Carpenter, the building will have two floors of retailing, with the second aligned with the High Line walkway so shoppers can see the park from within. The eight higher floors will be leased for office space. The tower replaces a squat, two story meat cooler facility that at one point opened directly onto the High Line, receiving deliveries from the refrigerated train cars that traveled along the elevated platform. Diagonally across from the tower is 837 Washington Street, a new trapezoidal brick, glass and steel structure built atop a historic brick facade. Last summer, Samsung leased the entire six story building, with plans to showcase its mobile products and house its brand marketing team there. Critics have worried that the district's lingering historic character, reflected in its Belgian block streets and converted meat coolers, will be marred by a deepening invasion of office workers and glassy commercial buildings. (The district's association estimates that 600,000 square feet of commercial space will be added within three to five years, including a hotel, retail and office space and an expansion of Chelsea Market.) "This next stage of its evolution to a high end office district I fear will make the meatpacking district feel even more indistinguishable from Midtown," said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has been critical of the size, scale and design of the 10 story tower at 860 Washington Street. "There is no denying that the district has traveled a long way from its workingman roots, and there is no turning the clock back." Retail changes are also altering the area, with neighborhood institutions continuing to disappear. The Rockfeld Group does not plan to renew the lease of the Gaslight Lounge, a neighborhood fixture with heavy red drapes and antique furniture at 400 West 14th Street, when it expires in 18 months. Instead, Rockfeld hopes to market the ground floor of the five story landmark building to a high end retail tenant. "Kind of like what happened in SoHo, the first guys to come in are the restaurants and the bars, and then the restaurants and bars get priced out," said Steven Feldman, a managing partner at the Rockfeld Group, a family held company that has owned the building for 85 years. Last fall, Restoration Hardware signed a 15 year lease for 9 19 Ninth Avenue, a building that previously housed Keith McNally's French bistro Pastis. The developers of 860 Washington are seeking top prices for leasing, 600 a square foot for ground floor retail space and 300 a square foot for the second floor, a premium in the neighborhood. The average asking price for ground floor retail space is about 340 a square foot, according to Karen Bellantoni, an executive vice president at the brokerage company RKF. People familiar with the market are skeptical that retail space could fetch prices approaching those in well trafficked neighborhoods like SoHo. "I think the retail is inflated," said Jeffrey Nissani, an associate broker at Marcus Millichap. "The thing in the meatpacking district is the foot traffic is not that high, other than at night." While the district is certainly a popular weekend and evening destination, some developers are banking on an increase in daytime visitors. For example, now that the Whitney Museum's new home will be twice the size of its most recent one, the Marcel Breuer building uptown on Madison Avenue, it is expected to draw far more visitors than the 350,000 a year who viewed its exhibits on the Upper East Side. Aside from tourists and art devotees, office workers including an expected 400 at 860 Washington provide a growing presence. The neighborhood already has a sizable number of office workers, particularly in the technology industry. The Apple retail store at 14th Street and Ninth Avenue has been a neighborhood anchor since 2007. Chelsea Market, which spans Ninth and 10th Avenues between 15th and 16th Streets, is home to several technology companies including Google, which expanded its offices there last year. Google's New York City headquarters are nearby, at 111 Eighth Avenue, and it also has offices at 85 10th Avenue. And Palentir, a computer software company, has offices on Little West 12th Street. The developers of 860 Washington hope to draw companies more typically associated with Midtown, including finance and law firms. "The neighborhood has become a magnet for the financial tenants," said Stuart Romanoff, a vice chairman at Cushman Wakefield, which is marketing the development. Mr. Romanoff is a member of the Romanoff family, which has owned the site for decades.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Real Estate
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Matthew Polenzani, left, and Ailyn Perez in "La Boheme." Instead of the scrim used in Franco Zeffirelli's original staging, falling snowflakes now suggest a hazy dawn in winter. As general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, Peter Gelb has steadily been replacing productions by Franco Zeffirelli, the unabashed emperor of extravagance, with new ones he deems more contemporary and effective. His judgment has not been flawless: Mr. Gelb admits that retiring the lavish Zeffirelli "Tosca" was a mistake, since the sordidly modern Luc Bondy staging that succeeded it was generally savaged by audiences and critics. (That production was subsequently replaced by a more traditional staging that looked suspiciously similar to Zeffirelli's old show.) The Met is unlikely to retire its two remaining Zeffirelli productions, of beloved Puccini works, both audience favorites: "Turandot" (which returned to the house on Oct. 3 ); and "La Boheme" (which opened on Friday with a wonderful cast). These were the first Zeffirelli revivals at the Met since the director died in June at 96 . Still, Mr. Gelb reserves the right to tweak the Zeffirelli stagings, as he has for this revival of the 1981 "Boheme": The patterned scrim that Zeffirelli deployed to soften the look of the snow swept scene in Act III has been removed. In an email explaining the decision, Mr. Gelb said he only regrets not making the change years ago. The scrim certainly softened the atmosphere of the scene, which takes place at dawn near a tollgate in Paris. But it was an "impediment for the singers and the audience, both visually and acoustically," Mr. Gelb said. The scrim made lighting their faces difficult and "muffled their voices slightly," he added. Without it, he asserted, the singers feel more physically and vocally connected with the orchestra and the audience. That was my takeaway. This act is the core of the opera, when the lovers Mimi and Rodolfo (the beguiling soprano Ailyn Perez and the robust tenor Matthew Polenzani), agree to stop quarreling and remain together at least until spring comes, though this is a stopgap: Rodolfo, knowing that Mimi is gravely ill, feels helpless and panicked. The falling snowflakes and dusky background still suggest a hazy dawn in winter. But on Friday you could see the expressions on the faces of the singers, and their voices came through with bloom and directness. Scrims, an easy way to suggest murky atmosphere, are too often resorted to in opera productions. Good riddance to this one. Ms. Perez, singing with melting sound and affecting vulnerability, made an endearing Mimi, a sensual young woman not afraid to let go when feelings of romantic longing welled up at the first sight of Rodolfo. Mr. Polenzani, ardent and impetuous as Rodolfo, summoned Italianate colorings and ringing top notes, while singing with subtlety and rhythmic punch. The baritone David Bizic was a hearty voiced, amusingly hotheaded Marcello. And there were three auspicious Met debuts: the Moldovan baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky brought burly sound and impish charm to Schaunard ; the stentorian South Korean bass Jongmin Park was an acerbic and likable Colline; and the vivacious, bright voiced Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska was a dazzling Musetta . The conductor Marco Armiliato led a vibrant performance that was sensitive to the interpretive nuances of this youthful cast. Devotees of the Zeffirelli "Boheme" can rest assured that the staging of the Cafe Momus act, showing a Paris square bustling with some 250 revelers, remains untouched. As usual, the set drew gasps and applause from the audience when the curtain went up. Through Nov. 21; with a different cast, Jan. 9 May 7. 2020. 212 362 6000; metopera.org.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Music
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Amy Coney Barrett promises to "apply the law as it is written" and leave policy decisions to the other branches of government. If that's all judges need to do, we'd have no need for judges. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes observed, the law, the Constitution above all, is not a set of "mathematical formulas." Most questions of law, particularly at the appellate level, come down to claims of competing rights that judges are called upon to balance with sensitivity, rigorous analysis and an appreciation for their actual consequences to society at large. Judges judge, which is why their personal philosophies matter and inescapably determine policy, whether they admit it or not. As Holmes astutely observed, judges who deny they are settling policy questions in their decisions are more likely to import their personal prejudices into the law than those who forthrightly acknowledge this obvious fact, and openly explain their reasoning. Stephen Budiansky Leesburg, Va. The writer is the author of "Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Life in War, Law, and Ideas." There is nothing to stop the appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett as the next associate justice of the Supreme Court. We progressives are just going to have to buck up and get over it. Mitch McConnell snookered us. Let's face it: If Democrats had given any serious consideration to the possibility of a Trump victory in the 2016 election, we'd have been protesting outside the Capitol every day for months to demand a hearing for Judge Merrick Garland. Instead, we let the Senate majority leader get away with it. Our bad. Now, I suggest we accept the outcome and move on. Instead of counting on the Supreme Court to legislate for progressive causes, let's demand that Congress legislate. Passing well crafted laws, as long as they don't run afoul of the Constitution, is the surest way to advance the progressive agenda. There is nothing stopping Congress from acting to limit climate change, protect the right of same sex couples to marry, protect the Dreamers and pass immigration reform. I believe that Democrats should resist all temptation to escalate the partisan warfare. Just say no to court packing. Take the high road, and we'll be able to look ourselves in the face. Can Mr. McConnell? The Democrats' strategy opposing Judge Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation is clear: raise the boogeyman that she will overturn the Affordable Care Act and millions will immediately lose their health insurance coverage. Nonsense. First, the case before the court next month raises a different issue than the one Chief Justice John Roberts decided and she criticized. Second, she hasn't read the briefs or heard oral arguments, and thus no one can predict her vote. Third, the court can strike the offending provision at issue and keep intact the provisions that the Democrats are wailing about, such as coverage for pre existing conditions. Finally, in the unlikely event the law were to be struck down in its entirety, the court can, and likely will, stay its decision to allow Congress time to remedy the statutory defect as it has done in other cases. In short, the Sturm und Drang prediction by the Democrats regarding Judge Barrett's future ruling on the A.C.A. sounds a false note. Paul Kamenar Chevy Chase, Md. The writer is counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center. For the first time in a long time, the possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned is very real. I've always been pro choice, but never thought that landmark decision would have an effect on my life. Then in June 2016, I found out the very wanted, very loved baby I had been carrying for almost 21 weeks was sick. The doctors told us the baby was "incompatible with life." We knew what we needed to do. We made the heartbreaking decision to end the pregnancy. This was the hardest decision we have ever had to make, but it was our decision. Many people, including some in my own family, did not agree with it. We chose to save our child from a very short existence filled with hospitals and pain. I'm asking that our representatives ask Amy Coney Barrett the hard questions and not allow even the possibility of Roe v. Wade to be overturned. The government has no business making personal decisions such as these for us. The Supreme Court hearings on Amy Coney Barrett have been a disgrace. Both Democrats and Republicans have made it into a series of political speeches by senators rather than an opportunity for the public to get to know Judge Barrett. The improper politicization of the nomination process is at odds with the idea that the judiciary should be independent and beyond politics. The fact that the Republicans consistently outmaneuver the Democrats is irrelevant. The process should be one in which the ability and character of the nominee are investigated and one in which nominees should be required to answer questions about legal analysis (which is different than expressing how they would decide on particular issues). Unfortunately, partisans seek to appoint judges who will decide issues in a particular way rather than judges who have superior skills of legal analysis. Disagreement with Judge Barrett about political issues is not important; what is important is knowing that she has the character to know that her role will be to make decisions independent of partisan politics and religious beliefs, and that she has the ability to give every legal argument on every side a fair and independent evaluation.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Opinion
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Sometimes it takes a long haul flight and a 12 hour time difference to bond with the person with whom you once shared a bunk bed or tattled on. As young boys in Penang, Malaysia, Aik Wye and Sean Ng routinely watched English Premier League soccer, something of a national obsession, on TV. They witnessed the way their community gathered in kopi tiams, or coffee shops, to catch the action from afar. They remember their friends and family members growing impassioned with each goal made or missed. And although some of their uncles attended matches at Old Trafford, the iconic stadium in Manchester, England, the Ng brothers were relegated to rooting for Manchester United from thousands of miles away. That is, until the brothers were in their mid 20s, and finally traveled to Manchester to see their favorite team play live. "It was surreal. We had tickets high up in the stands it was like watching tiny dots but it was still amazing," said Aik Wye Ng, 38, a managing director at a New York City based public relations agency. The Ngs spent their childhood boomeranging around Asia with their parents, traveling to Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia and more. Now grown men, they see each other a few times a month (Sean Ng, 44, and his wife live in Fort Lee, N.J.). But that doesn't stop the brothers from planning ambitious leisure trips together. Last year, they swung through Lisbon before making their way back to their beloved Manchester. Call it what you will: the sibling moon, the (cringe) bro liday. By any moniker, vacationing with one's adult siblings is a unique endeavor with particular benefits and challenges. But those who have done it agree: Sometimes it takes a long haul flight and a 12 hour time difference to bond with the person with whom you once shared a bunk bed or tattled on to Mom. "Traveling provides extended quality time and unique circumstances where you're working through things together, experiencing new things together, and doing activities that are good for building relationships," said Elizabeth Dorrance Hall , a Michigan State University professor who studies family communication. Patty Diez has been traveling with some combination of her three sisters two of whom are her roommates in Brooklyn for a decade. As the youngest, Ms. Diez, 28, is accustomed to going with the flow. In August 2017, she decided to accompany one sister to Portugal after seeing enticing photos of the resort. The next year, after receiving her tax return, she booked a 704 plane ticket to Hanoi, tacking herself onto another sister's 10 day Vietnam expedition. Having vacationed as children in a lakeside cabin in Ontario, Canada, Marissa and Jessica Talbot, a 27 year old teacher in Miami Beach, and a 24 year old nurse in Oahu, Hawaii, respectively, felt lured by the great outdoors when planning a weeklong Pacific Northwest trip in March. They snowshoed around Mount Rainier in Washington State, explored Bainbridge Island, just off Seattle, and bonded over their love of adventure with new friends at StormBreaker Brewing in Portland, Ore. "We got deeper into different conversations the ones we don't have time to have when we're running in between work and other things in life," Jessica Talbot said. "It was really nice to get that one on one time and discuss things that we can't always discuss." Of course, like many Google Maps wielding tourists in a new place, the Talbots had a couple of tiffs about directions. "We're sisters, so of course we bicker, but there were no major fights," Marissa Talbot said. The ability to recover from a minor spat, usually an inherent element of sibling relationships, can be helpful on vacation, said Dr. Dorrance Hall, who regularly travels with her sister. And the mere act of planning a trip together can spark meaningful conversation. "It gives you something to talk about for months leading up to it. Then you make the memories when you're there, and you have something to talk about next time you see each other as you reminisce," she said. This summer, all it took for Jeremy MacKechnie to pull the trigger on a trip with his husband, brother and sister in law something the two couples had been loosely considering, with little headway were 7 upgrades on flights to Cancun that seemed too good to be true. "I decided to just book first and ask questions later," said Mr. MacKechnie, whose daughter was then 18 months old. His brother and sister in law hadn't taken a break since their sons, then 2 and 7, were born. "Now that we have kids, we don't get that much time to just hang out as adults," said Mr. MacKechnie, 33, who works at a tech start up in New York City. "It was the best vacation I ever booked." Whereas Mr. MacKechnie and Marissa Talbot are both the designated planners, other siblings are more likely to share that task. Priya Gursahaney, 37, an obstetrician gynecologist in Cincinnati, and her younger brother, Vivek, 33, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, both have "strong personalities" her words and collaboratively craft vacations that suit their mutual love of culture rich cities and active travel. Together they have attended a string quartet concert at the Municipal House, a famed building in Prague, and visited La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. But what the Gursahaneys value most are the simpler moments; say, sharing a packed sandwich at Laguna de los Tres, a lagoon in Patagonia, while gazing upon the staggering Monte Fitz Roy. "It's a nice thing to have, especially as we get older. I don't have a family of my own yet, so all the more reason to share that closeness with my brother," Dr. Gursahaney, 37, said. "You're not done working on your sibling relationship after you're a teenager," Dr. Dorrance Hall, the communication expert, said. "You will continue to build that relationship your whole life." If there's anyone who knows a thing or two about that, it's Ramesh Gursahaney, 71, the Gursahaneys' father. In September, the semi retiree, who lives in Hudson, Ohio, took a 12 day National Parks vacation with two of his six living siblings, ages 73 and 76, plus spouses. "It's the first time in a long time when it's just us and nobody else," said Mr. Gursahaney, joking about choosing the easy trails in Zion. "Spending time with family: That's gold." None Get on the same page about finances. When Dr. Dorrance Hall travels with her sister, they keep a running tab of all the costs and settle up at the end. "That way you're not trying to split checks, which can slow things down and ruin a special moment together," she said. And the Gursahaneys are philosophically aligned. "Since we were raised in the same household, we have the same views on money," Dr. Gursahaney said. "When it's something that we think is a once in a lifetime experience, we don't mind paying a little more. None Divide the tasks as much as possible. "One thing that's really important in terms of relational maintenance for siblings is sharing tasks splitting up the planning for your trip," Dr. Dorrance Hall said. "It's a really good tool for keeping up communication." None Embrace solo side trips. If Ms. Diez wants to get up early and explore a new city but her sister wants to sleep in, no worries. "We just do our own thing and meet up later that way no one's sacrificing anything they want to do in that moment," she said. None Have real conversations, even if they're difficult. One night, while having dinner in Vietnam, Ms. Diez and her sister, who were living on opposite coasts at the time, got into an emotional talk about their need to see each other more. "We had a very open discussion, and of course we were both upset," she said. "We walked back to our hotel in silence and eventually someone said something. After that, we were fine." Sarah Firshein writes the Tripped Up travel advice column for The New York Times. 52 PLACES AND MUCH, MUCH MORE Follow our 52 Places traveler, Sebastian Modak, on Instagram as he travels the world, and discover more Travel coverage by following us on Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter: Each week you'll receive tips on traveling smarter, stories on hot destinations and access to photos from all over the world.
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As an African American woman who has written about baseball for decades, the question I am most asked about my career choice is: "Why?" The answer is really as succinct as the question: Jackie Robinson. He was the man who, born 100 years ago, successfully took on the challenge of transforming baseball and, by extension, the entire country by becoming the first African American to play in the modern era. By stepping onto a major league diamond as a Brooklyn Dodger 72 years ago, he allowed a sport that thought of itself as the national pastime to finally be just that. What Robinson did, what he stood for, what he conveyed not only to black America, but to all of America, has resonated with me for as long as I can remember, and nothing else played as big a role in fueling my desire to be a writer, a recorder of history, a storyteller. On Jackie Robinson's 100th Birthday, 100 Photos of an Icon I did not personally feel the tectonic shift that took place on April 15, 1947, when Robinson made his Dodgers debut. Alas, I did not see Robinson's first game, nor even his last, a decade later. I came of age years after he played his final game for Brooklyn. But I wish I could say, with a straight face, that I actually heard Robinson's name while still in the womb. He was, in fact, still on the Dodgers then. And yes, my mother was that big a fan of Robinson and the Dodgers and surely was urging him on out loud while she was pregnant with me. Indeed, tales of the lengths to which she and other family members went in order to listen to Dodgers games on the radio were among my favorite bedtime stories as a child. Back then, I sensed the reverence that was still reserved for Robinson in my household, even though he had by then retired. After all, what African Americans who were adults in the middle of the last century, as my mother and father were, could resist being drawn to him? In an era of ongoing repression, African Americans wanted heroes of their own. So, as a child, you would hear of the exploits of Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Paul Robeson. And Jackie Robinson. It did help that, by the time I reached third grade, I had something more than an oral history to reference when it came to worshiping him. And that's because the nuns at St. James Elementary School in Elkins Park, Pa., decided one day to break the rote and routine of our structured school life and spirit all of us to a first floor sanctuary in the school. They did so in order to show us a film, a grainy, 76 minute biopic entitled "The Jackie Robinson Story." The movie was pure Hollywood, and never destined to be an epic. Still, for this one child, the black and white rendering brought color and depth to the Robinson story. And playing opposite the great Ruby Dee (who portrayed Rachel Robinson in the movie) was none other than Jackie Robinson, portraying himself. All these years later, I can still remember how intensely I watched Robinson on the screen, giving life to his own story. There, in the sanctuary, I could see the man as well as the athlete, could hear his voice, could sense that sprinkled in among all the Tinsel Town touches were more than a few hints of truth. When Jackie Robinson spoke in the movie, it was as if he were speaking to me. And that mattered. It was the early 1960s and as the lone African American child sitting in the pews that afternoon, and in my classroom every single day, I didn't often see anyone on the big screen or on television who looked like Mom and Dad, or my relatives. In this one modest movie, Dee and Robinson came as close to mirroring us as anything I'd ever seen before. It would, of course, take years for me to fully realize what Hollywood dared not show at the time. It would take years of growth to realize that my worst day could never possibly compare to the things Jackie Robinson went through. And yet, by Jackie Robinson entering my life the way he did, by way of my mother's tales and that memorable day watching him in a movie bearing his name, I began to understand what the battle for civil rights one that my own parents and grandparents were fighting valiantly was all about. In the decades that followed, as I pursued the career I had chosen, I was able to get to know Rachel Robinson, an outright national treasure who was and is as integral to the legend of No. 42 as Jackie himself. As well, I got to meet their daughter, Sharon, who, with her philanthropic efforts, has made her own valuable impact in keeping the Jackie Robinson story alive. It is, at heart, the story of the man who, at his best and bravest, showed us all how to be strong enough not to fight back but rather to fight on and on and on, even now on the 100th anniversary of his birth. And I'm proud, in my own small way, to have helped tell it.
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The author Rudolfo Anaya at this home in Albuquerque in 2011. He was a leading figure in the literary movement forged by Chicanos in the 1970s. Rudolfo Anaya, a writer whose trailblazing explorations of the folkways of the Southwest helped define the Latino experience in the United States, died on Sunday at his home in Albuquerque. He was 82. His niece Belinda Henry said his death followed a long illness. Mr. Anaya burst onto the American literary scene in 1972 with his novel "Bless Me, Ultima," about a Chicano boy growing up just after World War II in the llano, or plains, of hardscrabble eastern New Mexico. Published when Chicano scholars and activists were questioning Anglo dominance of the Southwest, the book describes the guidance provided by Ultima, an elderly healer who uses herbal remedies and other Native American traditions incorporated over centuries into New Mexico's Hispanic culture. A major theme in the book is the tension between Roman Catholicism and the spiritual practices embodied by Ultima. The novel reframed the way many in New Mexico viewed their own history, prioritizing the blending of mythologies, bloodlines and religious practices over simplistic attempts to characterize the culture in which Mr. Anaya was raised as Spanish. "Bless Me, Ultima" repeatedly drew the ire of censors, who cited what they viewed as foul language and anti Catholic messaging. The book was banned in California, Colorado and even Mr. Anaya's own state, New Mexico. In 1981, the school board in Bloomfield, N.M., burned copies of "Bless Me, Ultima," according to a news report in The Albuquerque Journal that Mr. Anaya sometimes showed visitors. In 2012, the state of Arizona forced teachers in Tucson to ban the book and dismantle Mexican American studies programs, part of a nativist push to curb immigration and limit the influence of Latinos. As is often the case, the censorship efforts bestowed new prominence on "Bless Me, Ultima," lifting sales of the book while cementing Mr. Anaya's standing as a leading figure in the literary movement forged by Chicanos in the 1970s. Mr. Anaya's novel "Bless Me, Ultima," published in 1972, was banned in many school districts for its profanity and what critics saw as an anti Catholic message. The censorship efforts boosted both the book's sales and Mr. Anaya's reputation. Rudolfo Alfonso Anaya was born on Oct. 30, 1937, in Pastura, N.M., a small farming village. He was the eighth of 10 children in a Spanish speaking family whose presence in this part of the West predated the American conquest of New Mexico in the 1840s. His mother, Rafaelita Mares Anaya, came from a family of farmers; his father, Martin, came from a family of vaqueros, who herded cattle and sheep around the Llano Estacado, the tablelands encompassing parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. "We were all poor, and had the curanderas the healers that helped," Mr. Anaya said in a 2016 interview with The Las Cruces Sun News. "We had the vaqueros, the cowboys, who came in and out of the village. On Saturday evenings, my dad would take out a guitar, and somebody would bring beer, and my dad would sing some of the old New Mexico songs." "All of that," he added, "crawled into my DNA." When Mr. Anaya was 14, his family moved to Albuquerque, part of the postwar migration boom from rural New Mexico to the state's largest city. They settled in the barrio of Barelas, not far from downtown. At 16, he suffered a spinal cord injury after diving into an irrigation canal, a harrowing experience that left him temporarily paralyzed and served as inspiration for a later novel. After graduating from the University of New Mexico with a degree in English, Mr. Anaya taught in Albuquerque's public schools while writing and accumulating rejections from publishers. After "Bless Me, Ultima" was published by Quinto Sol, an independent Chicano publishing house founded at the University of California, Berkeley, it went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide. Mr. Anaya followed "Bless Me, Ultima" with "Heart of Aztlan" (1976) and "Tortuga" (1979), completing a trilogy about Chicano identity and empowerment. He also wrote a mystery series featuring the Chicano detective Sonny Baca; children's books including "Farolitos for Abuelo" (1998); travel chronicles like "A Chicano in China" (1986); and story collections including "The Silence of the Llano" (1982). Still, "Bless Me, Ultima" endured as Mr. Anaya's best known book, adapted into a play, an opera and a 2013 feature film. Mr. Anaya, a longtime childhood literacy advocate, and his wife, Patricia, who died in 2010, used proceeds from his book sales to establish a scholarship fund for underprivileged youth in New Mexico. They also frequently lent their guesthouse in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico to writers in need of a quiet place to work. In 2016, Mr. Anaya received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama for his "pioneering stories of the American Southwest." "His works of fiction and poetry celebrate the Chicano experience and reveal universal truths about the human condition," Mr. Obama said. "And as an educator, he has spread a love of literature to new generations." Mr. Anaya is survived by two stepdaughters, Elynn Cowden and Melissa Morris, and three grandchildren. While known as a literary figure, Mr. Anaya also cultivated a mischievous side, which he revealed in a series of wine reviews, sprinkled with New Mexican Spanish, that he submitted to Alibi, Albuquerque's alternative news weekly.
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Fees at 17 popular national parks may soon be rising sharply. On Oct. 24, the National Park Service announced a proposal to begin charging higher peak season fees for five months per year at some of the country's most beloved parks, including Yosemite National Park, Yellowstone and Joshua Tree National Park. The park service said that the increase in funds would be used to address maintenance issues that affect the visitor experience, such as roads, campgrounds and bathrooms. Under the proposal, entry fees at 17 parks during the peak season in 2018 would increase to 70 for noncommercial vehicles, 50 for motorcycles and 30 for pedestrians or cyclists. By comparison, in 2017 the entrance fees at Grand Canyon National Park are: 30 per vehicle, 25 per motorcycle and 15 for visitors on foot or bike. An increase in fees is also proposed for commercial tour operators, while the cost of the annual pass, with access to all national parks, would remain at 80. The proposed hike in peak season fees is similar to surge pricing, popularized by Uber, when high demand results in higher prices. The increased fees would begin as soon as Jan. 1, 2018 for Joshua Tree National Park; May 1, 2018 for 12 parks, including Glacier National Park and Olympic National Park; and June 1, 2018 for four parks, including Acadia National Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. The 17 parks included in the peak season proposal "are the top revenue parks," according to the National Park Service. In a document released by the park service detailing the fee increases, it is noted that these parks "collect 70 percent of the total of all entrance fees throughout the country." Out of the 417 sites run by the park service, 118 currently charge entry fees (the majority offer free entry). Funds from fee charging parks support others with free entry; according to the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, "80 percent of an entrance fee remains in the park where it is collected. The other 20 percent is spent on projects in other national parks." Recreational visits to national parks have risen steadily in recent years. The park service reported more than 330 million visits in 2016 in 2000, the number was 286 million visits. An increase in visitors and aging infrastructure both contributed to a backlog of maintenance projects in the parks. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said in a statement, "The infrastructure of our national parks is aging and in need of renovation and restoration." The park service said that the proposed peak season fees would increase revenue by 70 million, a 34 percent increase. Yet while it is generally agreed that national park infrastructure needs maintenance, it is not agreed where those funds should originate. In reaction to the proposal, Theresa Pierno, the chief executive of the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association, spoke out in a statement on the group's website. "We should not increase fees to such a degree as to make these places protected for all Americans to experience unaffordable for some families to visit," she said. "The solution to our parks' repair needs cannot and should not be largely shouldered by its visitors." The National Park Service is open to comments from the public regarding the peak season fees proposal via their website, through Nov. 23. An increase in fees at national parks has been a recent trend. In August 2017, the cost of a lifetime senior pass was raised to 80 from 10 (the cost had been 10 since 1994). In January 2017, entry fees at Joshua Tree National Park were raised to 25 per vehicle from 20. Outside of the peak season fees, individual national parks have released proposals for increased entry fees in 2018. Proposals for modest increases include Great Falls in Maryland and Virginia, to 15 from 10 per vehicle. Other parks announced new rates starting in 2018, including Gulf Islands National Seashore, where the cost of entry for a private vehicle is being raised to 20 from 15. Price increases aren't limited to entry fees. In January 2017, fees for group picnic areas in Washington, D.C. area national parks rose significantly. At Fort Dupont Park in Washington, fees increased to 65 from 45 for a half day group picnic site. In Fort Washington Park in Maryland, group picnic area rates increased to 75 per day from 25. The cost of camping is also expected to rise. A proposal from Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas includes an increase to 15 from 8 per night for camping in a tent or R.V. A similar proposal from Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri would increase the nightly cost of backcountry campsites to 10 from 5, and the cost of cave tours to 10 from 5. A proposal from the Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah would increase camping fees to 15 from 10 during the period of March 1 to Oct. 31 each year. Travelers seeking value in the national parks may want to investigate hotel packages, especially during the off season. Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite offers "hot dates" specials through December starting at 149 per night (rates start at 361 in July). At the Old Faithful Snow Lodge in Yellowstone, winter 2017/2018 rates are as low as 151 per night for a frontier cabin. In 2017, the National Park Service offered free entry on several holidays, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 16), Presidents' Day (Feb. 20), weekends of National Park Week (April 15 to 16 and April 22 to 23), National Park Service Birthday (Aug. 25), National Public Lands Day (Sept. 30) and Veterans Day weekend (Nov. 11 to 12).
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LOS ANGELES In late summer, Verizon Communications came to Rupert Murdoch with a surprise acquisition offer. Verizon locked in battle with AT T, which was then finalizing its 85.4 billion takeover of Time Warner wanted to buy pieces of 21st Century Fox, Mr. Murdoch's television and film conglomerate. Representatives of the two companies secretly met at least once to discuss a merger. Mr. Murdoch, 86, shrugged off the talks as uninspiring, according to an associate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wanted to maintain his access to the media titan. Verizon declined to comment, but the overture prompted Mr. Murdoch to start to think seriously for the first time about selling his Hollywood treasures. Not only would a sale solve a business problem, it could solve a family one. Several months later, Mr. Murdoch agreed to sell much of 21st Century Fox to the Walt Disney Company. The proposed 52.4 billion deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, has the potential to radically reshape the entertainment world, but it also has many wondering what the future holds for Mr. Murdoch and the two sons who seemed to be on the cusp of taking over his vast media holdings. 21st Century Fox had tried to bulk up to remain competitive. But its attempt to buy Time Warner in 2014 had failed. Its recent bid to become the sole owner of Sky, the British satellite television giant, has been stuck in purgatory. British regulators said in June that a sexual harassment scandal at Fox News had amounted to "significant corporate failures," but added that Mr. Murdoch and his top lieutenants were "fit and proper" to hold broadcasting licenses in Britain. The British government is also weighing whether owning Sky would give the Murdochs too much control over British media. In recent years, Mr. Murdoch had molded a succession plan that handed his businesses to both of his sons. In 2015, he named his elder son, Lachlan, executive co chairman, giving father and son equal standing. And he had installed his younger son, James, as chief executive of 21st Century Fox. The three would govern as one big happy family, they all insisted. But at times, James had grumbled that his role as chief executive was limited, according to three people who know him who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. His father did not relinquish much control and became more involved with the company's most important asset, Fox News, after the cable channel's pugnacious leader, Roger Ailes, was forced to resign in 2016 following allegations of sexual harassment. (Mr. Ailes died in May.) Fox News, the company's financial engine and a hugely influential platform for Republican politics, has been the source of family friction. James, who holds some progressive views, has privately expressed embarrassment about some elements of Fox News, including its sometimes skeptical coverage of climate change, according to the three people who are friendly with him, a stance not shared by his more conservative brother and father. The tension bubbled into public in August when James sent an email to a list of blind copied recipients that repudiated President Trump for his response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va. Mr. Trump counts Rupert Murdoch as a friend and informal adviser. It was becoming increasingly clear to many analysts, investors and Hollywood agents that the three pronged leadership structure Mr. Murdoch had put in place was not going to work over the long term. The dynamics of the Murdoch family are continuously shifting, and outsiders are kept at a distance. To Hollywood, the Disney deal looked like a family schism, with Lachlan, 46, solidly back in line to succeed his father as overseer of the family's remaining businesses and James, 45, without a clear future at Disney. Associates of James, however, say that he encouraged the deal, in part because he had grown weary of the dysfunctional push and pull with his brother and father. The Murdochs declined to be interviewed for this article. When Rupert told his sons that Robert A. Iger, Disney's chief executive, had called him to propose a takeover, James got on board rather quickly, according to four people briefed on the sale process. Like his father, James saw the merits of the proposed deal. Mr. Iger had expertly acquired Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm and used them to make Disney into a movie, theme park and consumer products juggernaut. Adding most of 21st Century Fox's businesses would transform Disney into a colossus with a real shot at competing against the Silicon Valley giants. And the Murdoch family would be Disney's biggest noninstitutional shareholder. (Only the mutual fund company Vanguard has more shares.) Disney's offer also provided Rupert Murdoch with the opportunity to establish the like minded Lachlan as his clear heir, putting him in a position to eventually take over Fox News, which Disney was not buying, and the family's other company, the newspaper focused News Corporation. Lachlan understood the threat posed by the technology giants, but he saw less need to rush into Disney's arms. Most of 21st Century Fox's businesses were doing quite well. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. "There is a lot of talk about the growing importance of scale in the media industry," Lachlan said on an earnings conference call with investors in early November. "Let me be very clear. Fox has the required scale." He had also just gotten his family settled in Los Angeles as part of the 2015 management arrangement. The primary property Disney was leaving behind Fox News was based in New York. Although Lachlan has not yet made a decision, Rupert has made it clear that he wants his elder son to run what they are calling New Fox, which will house Fox News and the other businesses left behind by Disney, including the Fox broadcast network and a chain of TV stations. That signals a return to his original succession plan, which went awry in 2005 when Lachlan abruptly left the family business after sparring with Mr. Ailes. He decamped to Australia, where he founded and ran a successful investment company. He returned to his father's side in 2014. "This may be his way of being immortal," the London based analyst Claire Enders, who has followed the Murdochs for more than three decades, said of Rupert, "because he clearly sees that Lachlan is the right person and shares his views and will support him for the next 10 years." What James will do is more of a mystery. People close to him say he may try to strike out on his own. Unlike his brother, James has never worked outside the family businesses, other than the hip hop record label he founded after dropping out of Harvard. His father bought it, bringing James into the corporate fold. A senior job at Disney is also a possibility, but there were "no guarantees of any sort," Rupert said in the Sky News interview. "He will be integral to helping us integrate these companies over the next number of months," Mr. Iger said on a call with investors after the deal was announced. "Over that time, he and I will continue to discuss whether there is a role for him here or not." Beyond the family dynamics, the deal may allow James to finally vanquish memories of his role in the phone hacking scandal at family owned tabloids in Britain. He was never found to have had direct knowledge of the hacking by members of the paper's staff, but a parliamentary committee accused him of "willful ignorance" after he acknowledged that he had failed to read emails that referred to settlement payments made to hacking victims. Moreover, James is likely to emerge with a stake in Disney worth at least 1 billion. "That's a good return for putting up with your father for 20 years," Ms. Enders said. As for Rupert Murdoch, he may now turn his attention to buying local television stations to buttress New Fox and compete with Sinclair Broadcast Group, which agreed in May to buy Tribune Media for 3.9 billion. If the proposed deal with Tribune Media goes through, Sinclair will reach some 70 percent of households in the United States. It has been suggested that Rupert could look at buying stations in political swing states, where there is a lot of money to be made in political advertising during election years, to say nothing of potential influence. Some have also mused that Mr. Murdoch may try to combine New Fox with News Corporation, the owner of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post. In his interview with Sky News, he brushed aside the immediate possibility. "There's logic to it, but we're not planning it at this stage," he said. In any case, Mario Gabelli, a longtime media investor whose Gamco holds roughly 350 million in 21st Century Fox shares, predicted that Rupert would relish having a voice at Disney, even if the deal did not come with a board seat. "He now becomes Disney's largest single shareholder," Mr. Gabelli said, "with an ax to grind."
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WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve is watching developments surrounding the deadly coronavirus closely, but a top official on Tuesday signaled that the central bank is not yet ready to act. Vice Chair Richard H. Clarida said that economic disruptions in China from the virus "could spill over to the rest of the global economy" but added that "it is still too soon to even speculate about either the size or the persistence of these effects, or whether they will lead to a material change in the outlook." Mr. Clarida is the highest ranking Fed official to speak since numbers reported over the weekend suggested the virus had begun to spread more quickly outside China's Hubei Province. The coronavirus has now infected more than 80,000 people in at least 33 countries. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday warned Americans to prepare for the disease to spread in the United States, and a day after its worst one day slide in two years, the S P 500 continued to tumble. Mr. Clarida's remarks suggest that the central bank is not yet prepared to cut interest rates to cushion the economy against the risk, even as investors bid up the chances that policymakers will cut borrowing costs this year. It is hard for economists and Fed officials to assess just how significant the coronavirus fallout will be, as it remains unclear how far and fast the illness will spread. Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, played down the risk, declaring on CNBC that the virus had been "contained" and would not do serious harm to the economy. "We've contained the virus very well here in the U.S.," Mr. Kudlow said, adding, "I don't think it's going to be an economic tragedy at all." The coronavirus could affect the United States economy in several ways. If supply chains are disrupted by quarantines in trading partners, there could be a short term hit to production and growth. If the spreading virus makes investors skittish and causes a protracted market slump, that could feed through to credit conditions, making it harder for households to borrow and spend. If more infections come to American shores, prompting quarantines, the fallout would be even more pronounced. As stocks slid for the second day running, Mr. Kudlow predicted that "the virus story is not going to last forever," and that the United States economy would be able to overcome any headwinds. He suggested that it was a good time for long term investors to buy equities and said he did not expect the Fed to "make any panic move." "The markets are obviously reflecting a lot of new fears," Mr. Kudlow said. "I do not think these are fundamental factors." Covid's impact on the supply chain continues. The pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of the global supply chain and made all kinds of products harder to find. In turn, scarcity has caused the prices of many things to go higher as inflation remains stubbornly high. Almost anything manufactured is in short supply. That includes everything from toilet paper to new cars. The disruptions go back to the beginning of the pandemic, when factories in Asia and Europe were forced to shut down and shipping companies cut their schedules. First, demand for home goods spiked. Money that Americans once spent on experiences were redirected to things for their homes. The surge clogged the system for transporting goods to the factories that needed them and finished products piled up because of a shortage of shipping containers. Now, ports are struggling to keep up. In North America and Europe, where containers are arriving, the heavy influx of ships is overwhelming ports. With warehouses full, containers are piling up. The chaos in global shipping is likely to persist as a result of the massive traffic jam. No one really knows when the crisis will end. Shortages and delays are likely to affect this year's Christmas and holiday shopping season, but what happens after that is unclear. Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said he expects supply chain problems to persist "likely well into next year." Robert S. Kaplan, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, signaled in an interview that he was not particularly concerned with the stock market swoon. "It broke to the high side," Mr. Kaplan said of stock market valuations before the recent decline. "I watch this market correction in the context of where we started." But he and his colleagues are watching the virus itself carefully, he said, and Mr. Kaplan is especially attuned to what it means for supply chains and logistics. "We're just going to have to monitor this very carefully over the next X number of weeks," he said. Fed officials entered 2020 planning to leave interest rates unchanged for a time, and they are waiting for something to significantly change their economic outlook before they alter that course. The Fed slashed its policy rate three times last year to blunt the effects of a global growth slowdown and to cushion against uncertainty stemming from President Trump's trade war. The economy is now growing steadily, with a jobless rate that has hovered near a half century low for more than a year and inflation that has remained persistently below the Fed's 2 percent target. That gives the Fed room for patience before it moves again, officials have said. Investors, for their part, increasingly expect the Fed to act. Markets have nearly fully priced in a rate cut by year end, and see high odds that the Fed could cut more than once. Fed officials next meet on March 17 and 18 in Washington, giving them time to watch incoming information before they make any decisions.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Economy
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NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, England Bill Corcoran is in his usual spot, in the shadow of St. James' Park, opposite Shearer's bar, rattling his bucket, when a pack of a dozen Manchester United fans marches past. They are wearing black jackets, hoods raised to stave off the cold. Just as they reach Corcoran, they launch into a deeply unflattering, mildly profane chant about the man after whom the bar is named: Alan Shearer, favorite son of both Newcastle the city and Newcastle the team. A few home fans jeer in response. The heckling just makes the interlopers sing louder. Toward the tail of the group, one man spots Corcoran, and veers in his direction. He pulls his wallet from his pocket, and leafs through a fistful of green, orange and purple notes. "Who are you collecting for, mate?" he asks. His accent is broad Mancunian. "Newcastle fans' food bank," Corcoran replies, his vowels unmistakably North Eastern. The man pauses. He shuffles the bills, and chooses a purple PS20. He slips it inside the bucket, and hurries after his group. He picks up the refrain effortlessly. He is back to taunting Shearer, and Newcastle, before Corcoran has even had a chance to thank him. Over the next hour or so, dozens of fans stop at the same spot. Some donate money. Some come bearing bags of groceries, filled to the brim with canned fruit and breakfast cereals and dried pasta, to be dropped off at the makeshift booth behind Corcoran. Today is not a special occasion: the same thing happens every time Newcastle plays at home. So acute is the hunger in Newcastle now, so intense is the demand, that Corcoran, and a handful of other volunteers, do this every two weeks. Everything they raise and they have raised a lot, somewhere in the region of PS200,000 ( 258,000), they believe is sent to the West End Food Bank, in one of Newcastle's most deprived areas. It is the largest institution of its kind in Britain. "We can't have people in this city starving," Corcoran said. "It is a badge of shame." That dire state of affairs is not, though, unique to Newcastle. The demand for food banks in Britain has soared in recent years: the Trussell Trust, which runs more than 400 such programs, said it distributed some 1.3 million food parcels from its centers in the fiscal year ending in March , an increase of 13 percent. The spike, the charity's chief executive, Emma Revie, said last year, can be attributed to the fact that too many people do not have "enough money coming in to cover the rising cost of absolute essentials like food and housing." Earlier this month, the government's Environmental Audit Committee warned lawmakers that more than two million people in Britain could be considered "food insecure," meaning they struggle to eat regularly and healthily. Philip Alston, the United Nations' special rapporteur for extreme poverty and human rights, described the problem as a "social calamity" on a fact finding mission to Britain last year. And so, across the country, the same thing has happened: soccer, and in particular its fans, has stepped into the breach. Newcastle's is not the only food drive; Corcoran and his colleagues said they took their inspiration from a similar initiative that started in Liverpool in 2015. Celtic fans have been running one in Glasgow for years. In recent months, fans in Manchester, Sunderland and London among others have done the same. In front of stadiums filled with multimillionaire superstars, fans have taken it upon themselves to help those who need it most. "I like to feel I am doing my bit to give something back," said Sandra Farn, as she dropped off a donation at the booth behind Corcoran. She and her son, Alex, drive the two hours from Nottingham for every Newcastle home match. They stop at a supermarket first, and load up. That, now, is part of the ritual of going to a game. Jonathan Yaseen comes to Newcastle games with his 15 year old son, Zain, but also, usually, only after stopping at a local store for rice, cookies and canned fish. "He has asked me before why we are having to do this," Yaseen said. "It is hard to explain." John McCorry, the chief executive of the West End food bank, believes there has been a surge in demand for his organization's services in the years since Britain's Conservative government introduced a trial version of its Universal Credit welfare system in Newcastle in 2015. The program rolls a number of social security payments into one benefit, but claimants face a five week wait to receive their money while their application is assessed. Others in need, McCorry said, have been cut out by technology: Universal Credit must be applied for online, and not all of those who seek it have internet access. "These policies have been designed by people who have no experience of the realities of life for those who are affected by them," he said. The new system was designed to replace its "complex, outdated and wildly expensive" predecessor, as Iain Duncan Smith, a Conservative lawmaker, said when it was launched. His colleague Esther McVey has said it helps move more people into employment, and remain in work longer, than the previous approach. In his report, however, Alston, the U.N. rapporteur, described some of the government's social security policies as "punitive, meanspirited and often callous." If Universal Credit helped provide the impetus that sparked Corcoran and others into action, Liverpool offered the blueprint for how to help. Fans Supporting Foodbanks had been created in 2015 by fans of Liverpool and Everton, troubled by the sight of long lines for a local food bank and reports that it was struggling to cope with the demand, according to Dave Kelly, one of the founders. To Spong, fans have long possessed a natural political activism. "We have seen at Charlton that people will protest a bad owner relentlessly," he said. "Or come together when ticket prices are too high." That activism can be harnessed, he said, "if you take the issue of the indecency of the existence of food banks to a space where people do not normally think about it." Mostly, though, it is something much more obvious. The Premier League all soccer, in fact may now be a global enterprise, but the teams that comprise it remain, at heart, not just representative of but rooted in the local. "Football teams are about a place," Corcoran said, as fans buzzed past him on their way into St. James' Park. "Increasingly, they're the only thing cities like this have. Newcastle used to have the shipyards, the mining. They have even taken Newcastle Brown Ale away. They don't brew it here any more. Now it is just the team. Teams symbolize cities in a way that nothing else does."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Sports
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LOS ANGELES Peter Chernin, who has made a career of beating Hollywood at its own game, is moving deeper into a crowded corner of the entertainment industry: streaming services. Mr. Chernin and AT T unveiled plans on Wednesday to turn their jointly owned Fullscreen, a YouTube based video supplier, into a subscription based streaming service. For 5 a month, the Fullscreen channel will offer 800 hours of advertising free programming, including new scripted and unscripted series and episodes of throwback television shows like "Dawson's Creek" and "Saved by the Bell." The service, which will be available worldwide and have a user interface designed for viewers to interact with one another in real time, will debut on April 26. It will focus on what is sometimes called the "social first generation," or people 13 to 30 years old who spend significant time on social networks like Snapchat and Instagram. "There are a lot of broad based SVOD services," Mr. Chernin said by telephone, referring to streaming video on demand, "but none that target this audience it's one of the great white spaces out there." Although Mr. Chernin's company already operates several niche streaming services, including the anime focused Crunchyroll, Fullscreen is more akin to the cable television networks of the past: MTV for the social media age. Referencing his extensive experience in traditional television he helped build the Fox network in the late 1980s and introduce the Fox News Channel in the 1990s Mr. Chernin added: "I certainly see this as a better opportunity than creating the fourth broadcast network or yet another cable channel. People thought we were out of our minds." Still, Internet based streaming services have proliferated in recent years. To some extent at least, Fullscreen will be battling the likes of Netflix, HBO Now, Hulu Plus, Go90 from Verizon and NBCUniversal's digital comedy service, Seeso not to mention YouTube Red, an ad free paid video and music offering, and a profusion of free online video. Mr. Chernin, whose company, the Chernin Group, has been behind films like "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and "Spy," said he believed that the "liveliness" of Fullscreen's programming, which will be updated daily, and its "extremely rich" user interface, would make the service stand out from the pack. "It needs to feel like a destination, and it will," he said. Mr. Chernin declined to say how much money the long in the works service cost to create.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Media
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For decades, American workers have seen their power erode and their wages stagnate. The current crises have only made things worse. But Congress has a chance to begin the reversal of these trends and to accelerate the economic recovery by enacting a fair wage guarantee, which makes sense economically and could be a win for both major parties. Such a guarantee would function by turning the recently increased unemployment insurance benefits, which expire later this month, into a permanent wage increase for millions of Americans. The temporary unemployment insurance supplement came from the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed in March. There is now a stalemate between Democrats and Republicans over how to update the federal response. Broadly speaking, Democrats support extending the benefit increase for the unemployed while Republicans support eliminating or modifying it on the assumption that it will induce people to return to work. Congress would do well to extend these benefits before they expire as a bill that already passed the House of Representatives does but an extension alone misses the opportunity to translate this short term boost in income into a longer term increase in wages. By making a few simple changes to the current unemployment insurance expansion, the stated goals of both major parties' leaders can be achieved. Let's start with an evaluation of the current landscape. Standard unemployment insurance provides fired workers with a fraction of their former income, but the March relief package increased benefits by 600 per week for all recipients, regardless of their previous income. In a typical state where a fired worker would normally get half their former wages in unemployment insurance someone who had been making 480 a week (or 12 an hour for a 40 hour workweek), would receive 840 in weekly unemployment insurance benefits (or the equivalent of 21 an hour for a 40 hour week) instead of 240. As a result, 68 percent of unemployed people are bringing in more from unemployment insurance than they did in weekly earnings from their last job, according to an analysis from the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago. This infusion of income, mostly for workers who are likely to spend the money on basics like rent and groceries, has propped up the economy and kept the poverty rate from skyrocketing. Even if Congress extends the current unemployment insurance supplement, millions will lose their increased benefits if they turn down what's called "suitable" work. The definition of "suitable" varies by state, but it generally means a job with wages comparable to those for a person's last job and prevailing wages in the industry. That means our former 12 an hour worker would lose her present 21 an hour benefits if she passed up a 12 an hour job offer, or even a less generous offer, in many states. With more employers likely to pick up hiring again, as they did in June, millions would experience a sudden drop in income, which isn't just a problem for laid off workers and their families. It would deeply harm our still teetering consumer driven economy. The latest June data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that average wages dropped as more low wage workers were called back to work, a troubling indication that a surge of income loss may already be underway. Congress can address this dilemma with two tweaks. First, change the rules so that people lose unemployment insurance only if they turn down offers with wages comparable to their current unemployment benefits. That gives laid off workers leverage to bargain for an offer that sustains their new, higher level of income. Second, to protect employers and encourage them to offer these higher wages, provide employers with a federal subsidy that covers the full difference between an unemployed worker's former wage and their new one. Call it a "fair wage guarantee." For instance, if an employer hires our former 12 an hour worker at her new 21 an hour income level, then the employer would get a federal subsidy equal to 9 an hour to cover it. That way the employer can offer higher wages without taking on the new costs. To ensure that employers have the money to cover higher wages up front, the subsidy could be administered as a refundable payroll tax credit. It's crucial to note both the business credit and unemployment insurance increase would be phased out once the unemployment rate declines to normal levels. And to ensure fairness across the work force, Congress should still commit to hazard pay for essential workers who currently have work. The fair wage guarantee would raise wages for millions of formerly low wage workers as they come off unemployment, which produces big long term gains for them and for our economy. Wages, as economists say, are "sticky." There's ample evidence that once wages go up, employers often don't reduce them. So raising wages for lower income workers right now could create significant lifetime gains in income and spur consumer demand. The fair wage guarantee is far better for workers than the proposal from Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, of a "back to work" bonus of 1,200 for accepting a job. With more than four unemployed workers for every job opening, employers will have leverage to use the bonus to justify a lower wage job offer. Unlike our Fair Wage Guarantee, which ensures that workers capture the government subsidy in the form of higher base wages, the back to work bonus is likely to let employers capture some or all of the subsidy. Many businesses particularly in the leisure and hospitality industry are still reeling from lagging demand. With their margins so tight, employers simply aren't going to be offering generous pay even if they wanted to. The fair wage guarantee helps resolve these legitimate business concerns without undercutting low wage workers in the process. It took nearly 10 years after the Great Recession for workers to see decent wage growth. Members of Congress, for their own good and for posterity, can seize the opportunity now to raise wages and reverse inequities in economic power. Families can't afford another decade of waiting. Bharat Ramamurti is the managing director of the Corporate Power Program at the Roosevelt Institute and a member of the Congressional Oversight Commission. Lindsay Owens is a fellow at the Great Democracy Initiative housed at the Roosevelt Institute. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter ( NYTopinion) and Instagram.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Opinion
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ALMATY, Kazakhstan On a recent Friday night, Mitya Koksharov was dancing exuberantly to techno music in a crowded former sauna. The spindly young man in dark rimmed glasses bent his leg and fell dramatically to the floor a vogueing move known as a dip, invented decades ago in New York's underground L.G.B.T. ballroom scene. When he landed and ostentatiously stretched out his arms, the crowd around him screamed in delight. It was the kind of dancing you might expect to see at a party in Brooklyn, not in an authoritarian former Soviet republic, but this was no ordinary Kazakh dance floor: It was Zvuk ("sound," in Russian), a regular techno event with a uniquely progressive bent here in Kazakhstan's largest city. Koksharov said later that it was the only party in the city where he felt comfortable dancing like this. "This is the only place where I feel like myself," he said. Zvuk is the brainchild of Nazira Kassenova, a 28 year old Kazakh D.J. who performs as Nazira. She was behind the decks that night, spinning her characteristic blend of hard charging techno to the approximately 200 attendees. "I wanted to create a space where people can be a freak be free, gay, straight, rich, poor, undress if they want to undress," she said, before correcting herself. "Wait, nobody undresses in Kazakhstan." Political opposition and freedom of speech are severely repressed in this oil rich Central Asian country. After 30 years in office, the country's longtime president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, stepped aside last year. His handpicked successor, Kassym Jomart Tokayev, won the election to succeed him last summer, in a vote that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe denounced as unfair. Kazakh society remains deeply conservative and, for some minority groups, oppressive. The country is ranked 158th out of the 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index. L.G.B.T. people regularly face the threat of violence, and Human Rights Watch has denounced the country's widespread domestic violence problem. But when two demonstrators were imprisoned for 15 days after unfurling a protest banner at the Almaty marathon last spring, there was a groundswell of public opposition to the government, on social media and in illegal street protests that have continued through the fall and winter. A meeting by a nascent opposition political party in late February was disrupted when the police arrested party leaders and would be delegates. In an interview, Amir Shaikezhanov, the co founder Kok.team, an L.G.B.T. rights organization (the name refers to the Kazakh word for light blue, a color associated with L.G.B.T. people in the country), said Kazakhstan seemed to have reached a "turning point." The desire for reform was especially strong among younger Kazakhs, he added, who have been reared on Western pop culture and, in some cases, on electronic music. "Techno is unbiased music. It is the kind of music that brings people together," he said, pointing out that Zvuk is the only party in Kazakhstan where L.G.B.T. and other liberal minded people openly dance together. "I'm not sure if Nazira understands what kind of impact she has just by being here." Sitting in a cafe in the center of Almaty, a city of over 1.8 million people nestled below the towering Tian Shan mountain range, Nazira said she wanted Zvuk to be a kind of utopian "microcosm" for Kazakhs, "so that when they go back outside afterward, there's a small shift." Born to what she called a "superconservative" family in the southern city of Taraz, Nazira originally intended to become a molecular biologist, she said. But while studying on a scholarship at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, she visited influential dance venues like the Sub Club in Glasgow and became enamored of the ways electronic music broke down barriers between club goers. After moving back to Almaty in 2014, she began D.J.ing and organizing parties that replicated the feelings of freedom she had experienced in European clubs. Until recently, Zvuk had no regular venue. One edition took place in a bunker, another in a club that was forced to close after neighbors saw two men kissing outside. The party is now organized by a collective made up of Nazira and five others, and often takes place at Bult, a former sauna that's run by a lesbian couple. In recent years, Nazira's international DJ career has become what she describes as a "Cinderella story." In 2015, Mat Schulz, the artistic director of Unsound, a popular electronic music festival in Poland, saw Nazira play a set at a small party in Almaty. "Nazira was like a beacon," he said in an email, describing her D.J. sets as "fluid and wide ranging" and praising her blend of classic techno and rarely heard Eastern European tracks. After his visit to Almaty, Schulz invited Nazira to play the main stage at Unsound in 2017, and the dance music magazine Mixmag selected her as one of the 15 breakthrough D.J.s for 2019. She has appeared on Boiler Room, the popular dance music broadcasting platform, and at many of the world's best known techno clubs, including Tresor in Berlin, Nitsa in Barcelona and Bassiani in Tbilisi, Georgia. Nazira said she was inspired by the way Bassiani had become the center of a broad movement for civil liberties in the country. But Kazakhstan is far less permissive and liberal than Georgia, Nazira said. "I stay positive, because if I compare it to five years ago when I started doing parties, it is a huge change," she said. "And if we keep going, in five years it's going to happen." Around 2 a.m. at Zvuk, the crowd surrounded Nazira's turntables and began chanting her name as she finished up her set. Sitting upstairs in the club's bar, Mutali Moskeu, 24, said that Nazira had played a "crucial" role in establishing an expanding electronic music scene in Almaty, in part by organizing workshops to teach people how to D.J. themselves. Two years ago, he attended such an event, he said, and has since started his own party, called Groovchick. Another attendee, Zhangir Mukhametkhana, 21, a language school employee, said that Kazakhstan's Communist past had made it especially difficult for the country's residents to let themselves go. "Zvuk is a place where I can engage with other people and realize I'm not the only one who doesn't like what's happening in our country," he said. "Nazira created this atmosphere in this city that shows that things can be different."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Music
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Monica Gagliano says that she has received Yoda like advice from trees and shrubbery. She recalls being rocked like a baby by the spirit of a fern. She has ridden on the back of an invisible bear conjured by an osha root. She once accidentally bent space and time while playing the ocarina, an ancient wind instrument, in a redwood forest. "Oryngham," she says, means "thank you" in plant language. These interactions have taken place in dreams, visions, songs and telekinetic interactions, sometimes with the help of shamans or ayahuasca. This has all gone on around the same time as Dr. Gagliano's scientific research, which has broken boundaries in the field of plant behavior and signaling. Currently at the University of Sydney in Australia, she has published a number of studies that support the view that plants are, to some extent, intelligent. Her experiments suggest that they can learn behaviors and remember them. Her work also suggests that plants can "hear" running water and even produce clicking noises, perhaps to communicate. Plants have directly shaped her experiments and career path. In 2012, she says, an oak tree assured her that a risky grant application proposing research on sound communication in plants would be successful. "You are here to tell our stories," the tree told her. "These experiences are not like, 'Oh you're a weirdo, this is happening just to you,'" Dr. Gagliano said. Learning from plants, she said, is a long documented ceremonial practice (if not one typically endorsed by scientists). "This is part of the repertoire of human experiences," she said. "We've been doing this forever and ever, and are still doing this." Dr. Gagliano knows that these claims, based on subjective experiences and not scientific evidence, can easily be read as delusional. She also knows that this could damage her scientific career plant scientists in particular really hate this sort of thing. Back in 1973, an explosively popular book, "The Secret Life of Plants," made pseudoscientific claims about plants, including that they enjoy classical music and can read human minds. The book was firmly discredited, but the maelstrom made many institutions and researchers reasonably wary of bold statements about botanical aptitude. Regardless, last year Dr. Gagliano published a heady and meandering memoir about the conversations with plants that inspired her peer reviewed work, titled "Thus Spoke the Plant." She believes, like many scientists and environmentalists do, that in order to save the planet we have to understand ourselves as part of the natural world. It's just that she also believes the plants themselves can speak to this point. "I want people to realize that the world is full of magic, but not as something only some people can do, or something that is outside of this world," she said. "No, it's all here." Language, for example, doesn't seem to be limited to humans. Prairie dogs use adjectives (lots of them) and Alston's singing mice, a species found in Central America, chirp "politely." Ravens have demonstrated advanced planning, another blow to human exceptionalism, by bartering for food and selecting the best tools for future use. The list goes on. Leaf cutter ants not only invented farming a couple million years before we did, but they have their own landfills and garbagemen. Even slime molds can be said to make "decisions," and are so good at determining the most efficient route between resources that researchers have suggested we use them to help design highways. But it may be plants whose capacities are the most head rattling, if only because we tend to view them as decor. Plants can do a lot of things we can't. Trees can clone themselves into 80,000 year old superorganisms. Corn can summon wasps to attack caterpillars. But research suggests we also have some things in common. Plants share nutrients and recognize kin. They communicate with each other. They can count. They can feel you touching them. So we know that plants respond to their environments in sophisticated, complex ways "far more complex than most of us realized a few years ago," said Ted Farmer, a botanist at University of Lausanne in Switzerland and one of the first to defend the concept of inter plant communication. Dr. Farmer is among those still "very" uncomfortable describing plants, which lack neurons, as "intelligent." But now it's "consciousness" another word without a firm definition that's really raising hackles in the scientific community. A group of biologists published a paper this summer with the matter of fact title "Plants Neither Possess nor Require Consciousness." The authors warned against anthropomorphism, and argued that proponents of plant consciousness have "consistently glossed over" the unique capacities of the brain. Though her book went unremarked upon, Dr. Gagliano's experiments and statements ascribing feelings and subjectivity to plants were among those critiqued, and she was categorized witheringly within "a new wave of Romantic biology." Versions of this debate have been simmering for years. In 2013, Michael Pollan wrote about Dr. Gagliano presenting the results of an experiment to an incredulous audience. That study is likely her most widely known. In it, she sought to discover whether plants, like animals, could demonstrate a basic type of learning called "habituation." The Mimosa pudica you may know it as the "sensitive plant" contracts its leaves when touched. So, in the experiment, potted mimosas were dropped a few harmless inches onto foam. At first, the leaves closed up immediately. But over time, they stopped reacting. It wasn't that they were fatigued, Dr. Gagliano wrote, because, when the pots were shaken, the leaves closed up again. And when the dropping test was repeated a month later, their leaves remained unruffled. The plants had "learned" that the drop wasn't a threat, Dr. Gagliano argued. The plants remembered. And subsequent research has suggested that plants may indeed be capable of some type of memory. But Dr. Gagliano's conclusion didn't go over well at the time. Her framing of the data didn't help. She insists that she doesn't use metaphors in her work, and that "learning" is the best description we have for what took place, even if we don't know how the plants are doing it. To communicate with plants, Dr. Gagliano followed the dieta, or the shamanic method in the indigenous Amazonian tradition by which a human establishes a dialogue with a plant. The rules can vary, but it usually involves following a diet (no salt, alcohol, sugar or sex; some animal products may also be prohibited, depending on the culture) and drinking a plant concoction (sometimes hallucinogenic, sometimes not) in isolation for days, weeks or months. An icaro, or medicine song, is said to be shared by the plant, as well as visions and dreams, and the plant's healing knowledge becomes a part of the human. It's not fun, she warned. Dr. Gagliano worked with multiple plant shamans, or vegetalistas, in Peru. There she bathed in the foul smelling pulp of an Ayahuma tree, which then designed a scientific experiment for her, instructing her to "train young plants in a maze and give them freedom of choice." The Ayahuma also helped her diagram a 2017 study investigating pea plants' use of sound to detect water. In the memoir, she wrote that she also traveled to California to work with a health care professional who conducts vision quest ceremonies (that's when the oak tree spoke to her). She visited "the Diviner," a man trained by the Dagara people of Ghana and Burkina Faso to channel nature spirits. At a certain point, Dr. Gagliano began going solo, "working with" plants like basil in her own veggie patch. "Did you ever wonder if you were going insane?" I asked. "Absolutely," she said, and laughed. "I still do." But she believes she should be free to talk openly about these experiences. "Maybe we should admit that we hardly understand who we are, we hardly understand where we are at, we know very little compared to what there is to know," she said. "To be open to explore and learn, I think that is the sign of wisdom, not of madness. And maybe wisdom and madness do look very similar, at some point." But Dr. Gagliano's journey, her supporters say, is rooted in a desire to challenge dominant assumptions. "I have been working with the idea of plant intelligence for many years," said Luis Eduardo Luna, an anthropologist and ayahuasca researcher in Brazil who has collaborated with Dr. Gagliano. Back in 1984, he published a paper in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology detailing the concept of plants as teachers in the Peruvian Amazon. Dr. Luna said he was excited to hear these ideas expressed by a scientist, rather than someone in the humanities. "Perhaps we are living in a much more interesting universe, perhaps we are living in a planet full of intelligent life," Dr. Luna said. "I think it's very important that we recover, somehow, this idea of the sacrality of nature, in the terrible situation in which we are today." "I'm really interested in the notion of plants as teachers, what we can learn from them as models," said Robin Wall Kimmerer, an author, botanist and SUNY professor, and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. "And that comes from my work with indigenous knowledge, because that is a fundamental assumption of indigenous environmental philosophy." Dr. Kimmerer doesn't see Dr. Gagliano's experiences as mystical processes so much as poorly understood ones. Given this context, it's logical that critique over her approach hasn't stopped Dr. Gagliano from finding an audience. She spoke about plant intelligence at last year's Bioneers Conference, and was invited to speak at last year's Science and Nonduality conference, along with Deepak Chopra and Paul Stamets, a respected mycologist who believes that mushrooms are trying to communicate with humans through their hallucinogenic properties. This summer, Dr. Gagliano sat on a sold out panel called "Intelligence Without Brains" at the World Science Festival. There I eavesdropped on a woman excitedly explaining Mr. Pollan's recent book on psychedelic therapy to her mom. Why had they come? "We're plant ladies!" said one, beaming. "There's a lot about plants that we don't know that might end up saving us, in some regard." Dr. Gagliano spoke about plants with pointed familiarity. In her telling, they became jaunty little characters; she used pronouns like "he" and "they" never "it." At the festival, a young woman asked Dr. Gagliano how her scientific work had changed her understanding of the world. "The main difference is that I used to live in a world of objects, and now I live in a world of subjects," she said. There were murmurs of approval. "And so, I am never alone."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Style
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Big Break He honed his campy aesthetic as the visual content creator for Vogue, where he was commissioned to post low fi clips of Anna Wintour in her office on the magazine's official Snapchat handle and created short and sweet viral videos on everyone from Beth Ditto to the communities of Standing Rock. He left the magazine in March to pursue a freelance career. "I usually don't know what I'm doing or where I'm going," he said. "I love taking things on and seeing where they go." His compass less playbook appears to be working. Dazed Digital recently gushed that Mr. Zeinali possesses "the best Instagram of all time." Latest Project His biggest budget effort yet, a 90 second video on the actress and singer Zendaya exploring "beauty through the decades," had its premiere last month on Vogue's website. Mr. Zeinali said he was still pinching himself for collaborating with industry luminaries like the makeup artist Pat McGrath and the fashion editor Jorden Bickham. "I'm proud of myself that I can even be in that company," he said. Next Project He is in conversations to direct a music video for the New York rapper Junglepussy. "I think a kind of mega music video is on the rise again because there's so many valid outlets for motion images now," he said. Drag Racer Mr. Zeinali has plastered more corporate logos on his body than a Nascar racecar. His tattoos include the Playboy bunny logo, the palm tree insignia from the cult West Coast burger chain In N Out and the McDonald's arch (not to mention the three wire coat hangers on his left forearm, the word "boho" etched on his left kneecap and "U.S.A." drawn in bubble letters on the back of his right calf). "They all have a great memory," he said, "but they're also all completely ridiculous."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Fashion & Style
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A monumental Brutalist casino on the Lido. An empty piazza in front of an even emptier beach, spotted with abandoned cabanas. Billowing smoke and hard core disco strains. Also a stream of masked women in thigh high boots and trigger finger hot pants, black shadows of capes at their backs and jackets with shoulders like flying buttresses on top, Pepto Bismol pink wisps of chiffon bandaging their torsos and sequined swathes of something knotted around the hips. This was "Death in Venice," the Rick Owens way: Take some Thomas Mann, mix it up with a dash of Dante (specifically Phlegethon, one of the five rivers of the Greek Underworld, featured in "The Inferno"), throw in some Donna Summer and stir into a fashion show. The references are enough to make your head spin, and the clothes looked more "Mad Max" than Penguin Classics, but the clash of cultures was enough to jolt anyone out of the fugue of digital viewing, or the Slough of Despond. He's onto something. It would be easy faced with the dispiriting mix of rising Covid cases, the chaos of the American presidential race, the quarantined White House and the fact it's hard to feel, in the wake of such news, that any of this really matters for a designer to retreat into "wearability." But it's also increasingly clear that to do so is a mistake. You could see it at Chloe, where Natacha Ramsay Levi staged a show before the show, capturing her models as they stood around outside poking at their phones, chatting and otherwise passing the pre runway time in lacy little dresses, prairie florals and bright, slogan bedecked separates chirping "Hope." It was perfectly pretty and awfully easy to wear (half the public didn't seem sure who was a model and who was not, except the models didn't wear masks) but also so soft focus it slipped away before it ever really came into view. It was all about the shoulder mega pagoda for women, way out there for men matched with bike shorts or stretchy flared jersey trousers/bodysuits. (Mr. Rousteing, on a yes! call, likened them to sweats.) They were wide enough to carry the weight of the world but firmly rooted in the idea of the Zoom meeting, when what matters most happens above the waist. The problem is that's a look of last summer, not the future. And shouldn't the future be where we are all heading? It's fine to go digging around in the past, but only if you use it to build something new. Glenn Martens did, at Y/Project, with the fashion equivalent of Transformers: a swish crimson evening skirt with a waist bustle that can be unknotted and reworked as a top; a trench that unbuttons down one side to expose a new layer (and attitude) beneath. As Mr. Van Noten said on yet another call (it is the pandemic equivalent of the backstage interview): "I think we need beauty, but not beauty that is nostalgic, that says the past was a better place. Beauty that gives you energy." That makes you want to get out of bed in the morning and do something. At Loewe, Jonathan Anderson didn't give anyone a choice; he sent a box. A very big artist's portfolio box. That required opening. Then he one upped his own previous show in a box experience of cut 'n' keep paper dolls, created for his JW Anderson line (then reinvented as a portable photo gallery for his Moncler collaboration), and sent out a show on a wall: a giant cardboard container holding wallpaper, 16 bus station sized posters, glue, a brush, scissors, sheet music and even a beetroot scented ceramic, so that recipients could paste 'n' mount their own shadow play, in the order and position they wanted. "It was extreme," Mr. Anderson said (also on a call, framed by his wallpaper in the background). "If you're in this deep, you've just got to go for it." He was right: It was forced engagement of the most roll your eyes kind. But also fabulous.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Style
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Here are the main recommendations for improving Uber's workplace culture as laid out in a report after an inquiry by Eric H. Holder Jr., the former attorney general, and his law firm, Covington Burling. The report urged that the responsibilities of Uber's chief executive, Travis Kalanick, be reallocated: The Board should evaluate the extent to which some of the responsibilities that Mr. Kalanick has historically possessed should be shared or given outright to other members of senior management. The search for a Chief Operating Officer should address this concern to some extent. Mr. Kalanick, who announced a leave of absence as the report was disclosed, has been under fire for his flouting of rules and norms, including transportation and safety regulations. The report called for the company to use performance reviews to hold executives accountable and to increase the powers of the company's head of diversity: The position should be renamed the "Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer," and the position should report directly to the CEO or the COO. This action is intended to reflect the elevated status of this role and demonstrate the company's commitment to this issue. Recommendations included the addition of more independent board members, an independent chair of the board, an oversight committee, and using compensation to hold senior executives accountable: The report called for Uber, which has been heavily criticized for a management culture that is slow to respond to employee complaints, to make sure it had good tools in place to track employee data, including complaints: Recommendations also included mandatory leadership training for executives, human resources training and manager training.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Technology
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Juice WRLD, who rapped about his struggles with substance abuse and achieving meteoric success, died of an accidental drug overdose during a December drug raid at Midway Airport in Chicago, a medical examiner ruled on Wednesday. The rapper, whose real name was Jarad A. Higgins, died on Dec. 8 as a result of oxycodone and codeine toxicity, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said. He was 21. The autopsy findings corroborate law enforcement accounts that Mr. Higgins had gone into convulsions while officers searched a private jet that had been carrying the hip hop star for drugs and guns. Federal agents gave Mr. Higgins Narcan, a drug used to revive people thought to be overdosing on opioids, but he died within a couple of hours at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., the authorities said.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Music
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ESPN's most prominent basketball reporter has been suspended for a two word vulgar email reply to the office of a United States senator on Friday morning in response to the senator's critical statements about the N.B.A.'s relationship with China. The reporter, Adrian Wojnarowski, sent the email to the office of Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri, who posted a screenshot of it on Twitter. The suspension, which was confirmed by someone close to Wojnarowski, means he will not be traveling this week to report on the N.B.A.'s resumed season at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Florida. On a recent podcast episode, Wojnarowski said he had sent a number of packages to the Orlando area in advance of his planned arrival on Sunday. Hours after sending the email, Wojnarowski apologized, saying he was "disrespectful" and "made a regrettable mistake." ESPN called his email "inexcusable" and said it would address it with him internally. A spokesman declined to comment on the suspension. The Washington Post reported the suspension would be from one to two weeks. Wojnarowski was responding to an email sent by Hawley's press office to a number of journalists, criticizing the N.B.A. for "kowtowing to Beijing" and its decision to allow players to wear social justice messages on their jerseys during the coming restart of the N.B.A. season in Florida. The list of acceptable messages, which was agreed to by the N.B.A. and the union representing the players, includes "Black Lives Matter" and "I Can't Breathe." None reference last year's widespread protests in Hong Kong or China's increasing grip on the city. The matter called into question Wojnarowski's distance from a league he covers and appeared to be defending. Hawley has been known to selectively criticize the N.B.A.'s relationship with China. The N.B.A. has been a frequent target for many Republicans since the league's rift with China began before the season started. Several castigated the N.B.A. accusing the league of not firmly standing behind Daryl Morey, the Houston Rockets' general manager, who posted an image on Twitter that was supportive of the pro democracy Hong Kong protesters in October. This incensed the Chinese government, which has since limited its business with the N.B.A. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, even called for the N.B.A. commissioner, Adam Silver, to testify on the subject. When prominent and frequently outspoken league figures like Steve Kerr, LeBron James and James Harden were asked about Morey's comments, they either demurred or declined to support Morey. When it comes to the leader of their own party, President Trump, Republicans have mostly been silent, including after Trump said to Axios that he wanted to avoid punishing China for its mass internment of ethnic Uighurs last year because of ongoing trade talks. Trump has also spoken warmly about President Xi Jinping of China, referring to him as "a friend of mine" and "an incredible guy," and urged the country to investigate the Bidens. After Wojnarowski's tweet, conservative critics like the sports blogger Clay Travis pounced. Travis sarcastically tweeted about ESPN's "left wing bias," and Hawley reshared that tweet with his followers. Travis's site, Outkick, later was first to report about Wojnarowski's suspension. For years, conservative critics, and often some competitors, have accused ESPN of liberal bias and claimed, with little evidence, that it has resulted in lower ratings. Still, Jimmy Pitaro, who became ESPN's president in 2018, has sought to steer the network in a direction that focuses more on what happens on the field. In the last few months, that position has been challenged, as there have been few sports to cover because of the coronavirus pandemic and as athletes have spoken out about racism in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in police custody.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Sports
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Paris It was announced in November with fanfare. Jeff Koons would donate a monumental sculpture, a hand holding a bouquet of balloon tulips, to the City of Paris to honor victims of the 2015 terrorist attacks here. The brainchild of the United States ambassador to France, it was a gift the city could hardly refuse. Seven months later, the project is caught up in delays. A private foundation has taken longer than it expected to raise the estimated 3.5 million euros ( 3.9 million) needed to make and install the work, which is more than 40 feet high. (Mr. Koons donated the concept, not the construction.) And although the plaza Mr. Koons selected for display of "Bouquet of Tulips" provides a view of the Eiffel Tower in the distance, the pavement isn't strong enough to support the sculpture. "It's a very difficult work to install, it's 30 tons, and at the moment we're facing a lot of technical problems," said Jean de Loisy, president of the Palais de Tokyo, one of two contemporary art museums that share a building and the plaza where the sculpture is expected to land permanently in the city's 16th Arrondissement. He said that he appreciated the project and Mr. Koons's art but was reluctant to alter underground exhibition rooms by installing pillars that would support the sculpture. Still, despite the complexities, Mr. de Loisy added that he was "very confident" the problems would be resolved. The gift was arranged between the former United States ambassador to France and Monaco, Jane D. Hartley, and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, to honor French American friendship and to help boost tourism in a city that lives with the constant threat of terrorist attacks. The announcement was rushed last November, before Ms. Hartley, an appointee of President Obama, left Paris, but also before the permits and approvals had been worked out. Some in French cultural circles contend that the sculpture was practically foisted on the city; they have called it more of a coup for the artist and his private donors than for Paris. "They presented this bouquet as a symbolic present to Paris, but then we realized it wasn't exactly a present, since France had to pay to install it," said Isabel Pasquier, an art critic at France Inter, one of the country's leading public radio stations. "Whether you appreciate his art or not," she added, "Jeff Koons is a businessman, and we quickly understood that he was offering Paris to himself as a present." A kind of omerta has fallen over Paris about the project; few art critics or curators would speak openly about it even if privately they said they found the sculpture in poor taste. (They said they didn't want to offend the former American ambassador, the city or Francois Pinault, a collector of Mr. Koons's work and one of France's most powerful businessmen and art patrons.) Fabrice Hergott, director of the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, which shares a building with the Palais de Tokyo, said he welcomed the sculpture, which he hoped would draw more visitors to the museums. "It's a nice project," he said. "It speaks to our era," he added. "I think it will be much less kitsch in several years and people will find it very appropriate for the location." The project could also be a new frontier for Mr. Koons. "It's superconceptual," said Judith Benhamou Huet, a French art critic and blogger, in that "he's giving the concept but not the realization." She compared the approach to that of Sol LeWitt, who sold wall drawings that buyers then executed on their own. The city proposed several other sites to Mr. Koons, but some had structural or aesthetic challenges. He chose the one in front of the contemporary art museums for its symbolic value. The plaza is not restricted by historic preservation provisions. Mr. de Loisy said that he had been consulted ahead of time to a point. "Of course they asked me," he said last week at an art opening at the Palais de Tokyo for the exhibition "Dioramas" and several other shows. Asked if he had a say in how to respond, Mr. de Loisy grew silent and smiled. Asked if his silence was a no comment, he replied, "Just silence," and smiled again. A spokeswoman for the city administration said that she expected the project to move forward but would not rule out finding a new location if the current one proved too complex. "In life you can't rule anything out," she said. France's Culture Ministry is overseeing the logistical studies and permits, which have not yet been issued. The ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Some delays are expected because a new culture minister and team were put in place after President Emmanuel Macron was elected last month. In a statement, the American Embassy in Paris said that it is "not currently involved in this project, although the embassy welcomes the mayor of Paris's strong support expressed at the project's unveiling at the ambassador's residence last year." It added, "The project exemplifies the strong cross cultural ties between our two nations and has not caused any strains between the U.S. and France." Fonds Pour Paris, or Funds for Paris, a foundation that seeks private money for public projects in the city, is overseeing the fund raising. "We have the EUR3 million ( 3.3 million) we need for installation," said Anne Celine Delvert, the foundation's deputy director. She added that it was looking for a private enterprise to donate the anticipated EUR500,000 ( 556,000) in construction services. The work can begin once permits are issued. She said that she hoped the sculpture, which is being made in Germany, could be installed this year or in early 2018. On the timing, "we're being prudent," she said. Emmanuelle de Noirmont, Mr. Koons' French gallerist, said the private funds came from French and American companies. She said that she would not name them until the Culture Ministry issued the approval to move forward. Now that she is a private citizen again, Ms. Hartley, the former ambassador, said she planned to donate personally and that she was also helping with fund raising in New York. She said that Mr. Koons had been talking up the project in New York, sharing images of "Bouquet of Tulips" at a recent dinner party. "He passed around his cellphone he had the photo on his cellphone and people were so excited," Ms. Hartley said. That sentiment is not universally shared in Paris, where some welcome the delays and even wish the project would just disappear. "I'm not in a hurry," said Ms. Pasquier, the France Inter art critic.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Art & Design
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The Windows 10 parental controls can set limits on a child's screen time, as well as the types of content available without getting permission. To set up the family options, a parent needs to be signed into a Windows 10 PC with a Microsoft account. The parent then needs to create a separate Microsoft account for the child and persuade the child to log in and use it. To set up the child's account, go to the Start menu, select the gear shaped Settings icon and choose Accounts. On the Accounts screen, select "Family other people" and then "Add a family member." Choose "Add a child." If the child does not have a personal email address already, you can create one here. The child uses this address to log into the new Windows 10 account.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Technology
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Laurie Tisch in the living room of her Upper East Side apartment, where she displays, from left, Edward Hopper's "Hodgkin's House," Barbara Chase Riboud's sculpture "Zanzibar Table Black," Thomas Hart Benton's "The Beach" and Alexander Calder's mobile "Peacock." Laurie M. Tisch's apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan has spectacular views of Central Park. Reflecting her passions and role as a trustee at the Whitney Museum of American Art, it is filled with classic paintings by the country's renowned modernists, including Edward Hopper, Milton Avery, Jacob Lawrence, Thomas Hart Benton and Georgia O'Keeffe (with a radiant new acquisition of her "Blue Morning Glories"). Yet what often captures the attention of visitors, Ms. Tisch said with amusement, as she gave a recent tour of her home, are her trophies from the New York Giants' Super Bowl XLII and XLVI victories. "Those were two very close games against the Patriots, where New York basically had no business winning," said Ms. Tisch, whose father, Preston Robert Tisch, bought half the team in 1991. Now Ms. Tisch has inherited his stake in the Giants, together with her brothers, since the passing of their mother, Joan Tisch, at age 90 in November. "I grew up with six boys two brothers and four male cousins not the easiest thing being the only female," said Ms. Tisch, as she pointed to Jenny Holzer's marble bench in the foyer, carved with the artist's "truism": "Men don't protect you anymore." While some of those Tisch men now run Loews Corporation, passed on from her father and uncle, who started in business by buying and revamping hotels, Ms. Tisch has followed in her parents' philanthropic footsteps with the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. "My mother brought so much money and attention to the Gay Men's Health Crisis," said Ms. Tisch. "My father started Take the Field, which rebuilt 43 sports fields in New York City schools. I had good role models." Ms. Tisch has made her own mark in arts education, first in the 1980s by helping build a small program begun in a firehouse into the Children's Museum of Manhattan. Starting in the late 1990s, she steered the Center for Arts Education, helping restore art programs that had been cut from New York City public schools. Simultaneously she joined the board of the Whitney Museum as she began collecting 20th century American art. The following are edited excerpts from our conversation. Has working with the Whitney helped develop your collecting tastes and knowledge? Absolutely. The curator Barbara Haskell guided me. She's one of the world's great experts in the field of American modernism. It was what I was drawn to aesthetically. She and I started the American Fellows in 1999 , a patron's group that meets several times a year. What was an important early personal acquisition? The Hopper painting. It's called "Hodgkin's House." I was really nervous about it. It was at the time certainly the most expensive thing by far I had ever bought. It belonged to David Geffen. It's one of the things that's skyrocketed in value. There are just so few in private hands. Do you consider yourself an avid collector? Collecting is a part of me that I'm really lucky I can do, and I love looking at the art. But it's not the most important thing that I do. I never understand at an auction when something goes for 100 million and everybody starts clapping. I always think, Did they also cure cancer? Or did they just buy a painting? Do you ever buy at auction? Three or four things. A few years ago, I was on the phone with a top auctioneer bidding on this beautiful Georgia O'Keeffe white flower. He said, "I can't tell you who you're bidding against, but you probably don't want to stay on the phone much longer." That was good advice. It went for 45 million. A year later, I found out the two bidders were Paul Allen and Alice Walton! What's going on in this Richard Artschwager painting? Is the building collapsing? This was the Traymore Hotel in Atlantic City. In 1972, it was imploded. There are four or five paintings Artschwager did of this, from newspaper articles. One is owned by one of my brothers, and one is owned by one of my cousins. My father and uncle bought the Traymore in the 1950s, and we moved to Atlantic City for a while. It's where the Miss America pageant took place. My father was a judge. There definitely seems to be a New York theme to a lot of the works here, in cityscapes by John Marin, Charles Sheeler and Joseph Stella. I like the Brooklyn Bridge. And winter scenes, like this William Glackens of the park. The George Washington Bridge is by Margaret Bourke White; the Flatiron is by Berenice Abbott. I love the city. More than 80 percent of my foundation's resources go to greater New York, leveling the playing field to the extent that I can. The first thing we did were those fruit and vegetable stands in all five boroughs, where there was little access to healthy foods. We're starting a new arts initiative, with geriatrics and Alzheimer's, and looking into programs with prison reform and PTSD. It's using the arts almost as a healing tool.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Art & Design
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"Athena," produced by the Hearth, is a much more conventional play than Ms. Gardner's "P Sludge," a surrealist yowl that won the American Playwriting Foundation's Relentless Award. (The title is relentless, too.) The structure of "Athena" can feel too pat, the culminating bout predictable. But to the director Emma Miller's credit, that bout is a long, real time slog up and down the piste, effortful and tough, and a little ugly. (The simple set, with the girls' foils playing against Jack's aluminum foil walls is by Emmie Finckel. The costumes, little more than white sneakers and electrified uniforms, are by Dara Affholter.) And the play never diminishes or mocks the importance of a relationship that flourishes and maybe dies over a couple of months during junior year. It treats these girls and their ambitions with the seriousness they deserve. Ms. Awe and Ms. Greer play their roles with humor, grit and team spirit palpable even behind those mesh masks. Ms. Awe plays Mary as childlike, but also as the more confident of the pair. Ms. Greer's Athena is more worldly, but also much needier and more fragile. The twining of these characters and performances makes "Athena" hugely appealing and stealthily moving. Then again, I would say that. They're the ones holding the swords. They've been trained to use them. The play is a work of realism. Parts of it cut so close to lived female experience the white, urban, middle class version, anyway that they hardly feel like fiction at all. But the play made me think about science fiction and the time machine I'd need to send my teenage self to the show. (She read a lot about the Warhol Factory and would have dug the foil walls.)
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Theater
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The first signs that Hilaria Baldwin's life was going seriously off the rails came from the same place where she usually derives her sense of control. "I started seeing comments on my Instagram," she said in an interview Tuesday. "It's a very strange thing and you can just be living your life," she said, when suddenly comments begin to mount suggesting that you, a famous person who has shared so much of yourself with your hundreds of thousands of followers, are not who they thought you to be, and you find your very identity the subject of international debate and skepticism. Over the last week or so, millions of people, cooped up and tired and probably too online at the end of the year, have been surprised to learn that Hilaria Baldwin, 36 and the mother of five children with her husband, the actor Alec Baldwin, is not a Spaniard but an American who was born and raised in Boston and who was known, at least until 2009, as Hillary. "It's very surreal," said Ms. Baldwin who said she had been called Hilaria by family members for most of her life. "There is not something I'm doing wrong, and I think there is a difference between hiding and creating a boundary." For days now, the internet and the news media have dogged her, sharing evidence of Ms. Baldwin speaking in a Spanish accent in this video but not that one, of fluffy magazine spreads in !Hola! that cite her as a native Spanish speaker, of a "Today" show clip showing her making gazpacho and asking Telemundo's Evi Sisko what the English word for cucumbers is and of a biography posted on the website of Creative Artists Agency, the talent organization, that said she was born in Mallorca, Spain. Ms. Baldwin is bilingual, and she speaks English with varying degrees of a Spanish accent depending on how happy or upset she is feeling, she said. She didn't know that !Hola! magazine, for which she has twice posed for the cover and which has written some 20 items about her on its English language website so far this year, repeatedly reported inaccurately that she was a Spaniard because she said she didn't read articles about herself. She got confused about the word for cucumber because it was one of her first times appearing on live television and she was nervous ("brain fart," she said). As for the C.A.A. bio, she can only assume the agency used unverified information from the internet to write a sloppy bio. "I rarely at all work with C.A.A. now," she said. "It was very disappointing." (A spokeswoman for !Hola! declined to comment. A spokesman for C.A.A. declined to comment.) But all these misconceptions are why she agreed to speak to a reporter for 80 minutes as she cuddled and nursed her infant son. "Today we have an opportunity to clarify for people who have been confused and have been confused in some ways by people misrepresenting me." "One of the most important places to start is this idea of boundaries," said Ms. Baldwin, who invites social media followers into her home life with Mr. Baldwin and their five fair haired young children by routinely sharing images like her underwear clad workout routines, innumerable pregnancy selfies and the sponsored diaper ad videos of her infant son. "We have this thing called oversharing, which I've actually been accused of," she said. But she says that idea oversimplifies and misunderstands her boundaries. "My children are young enough and I'm just sharing sweet little things of them." The trouble began for Ms. Baldwin on Dec. 21. That is when a woman who uses the Twitter handle Lenibriscoe (like the "Law Order" character Lennie Briscoe, get it?) decided to answer her pandemic holiday ennui by thumb typing out something that had been on her mind. "You have to admire Hilaria Baldwin's commitment to her decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person," the woman wrote. She went on to post about the accent inconsistencies, clips showing the decidedly non Spanish, entirely New England establishment bona fides of Ms. Baldwin's parents and the unfortunate cucumber moment. She said that Ms. Baldwin's American upbringing was an open secret among many people in New York and she just decided to make it less secret. "We're all bored and it's just seemed so strange to me that no one had ever come out and said it, especially for someone who gets so much media attention," said the woman, who was granted anonymity by The New York Times because she said she was scared that Mr. Baldwin, who agreed to take an anger management course in 2019 in order to dispose of charges after a fight with a man over a parking spot and has been arrested, escorted from a plane and suspended from a job as an MSNBC host, all in the last decade, would punch her. (A spokeswoman for Mr. Baldwin declined to comment.) The tweets took off ("Fake Twitter accounts accusing me of a fake identity!" Ms. Baldwin pointed out with incredulity) and the media found its end of December replacement for the fodder usually provided by an unusually restrained President Trump, delivering everything from a New York Post cover to a Washington Post explainer. Periodistas on the other side of the Atlantic weighed in too, with El Mundo, the widely read Spanish newspaper, writing: "Hilaria Baldwin confesses that she was not born in Spain and her name is not real." Ms. Baldwin said she made her Boston heritage clear to her husband when they met at a vegan restaurant in 2011. She was speaking in Spanish to an Argentine man and his girlfriend who were seated at a table next to one where Mr. Baldwin was seated. "I walked by him," she said of Mr. Baldwin and he called out to her, "'Who are you, I must know you, I must know you,'" she recalled. "He said, 'Where are you from?' And I said, 'I'm from Boston.' That was the first thing I said, that has always been my narrative." (Still: "My wife is from Spain," Mr. Baldwin once said, on television, to David Letterman.) As much as she loves Spain, it was not a topic she wanted to discuss publicly because doing so threatened to intrude upon her parents' privacy. "I want to talk about the things I am passionate about," she said. "My intention is not to be an American TV personality. My intention is not to be a Spanish TV personality. My intention is to talk about health and fitness and being a mom." Spain is a country long loved by her parents, David L. Thomas Jr., who practiced real estate law for white shoe firms, and Dr. Kathryn Hayward, a retired internal medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Through a spokeswoman for Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Thomas and Dr. Hayward declined to comment. Spain "was something that was part of my father's childhood," Ms. Baldwin said. "He would go there when he was younger and created these deep, deep, deep bonds and it was something that was part of my childhood. It was something my father introduced to my mother when they met, when they were pretty young." Ms. Baldwin first visited Spain with her parents when she was a baby, she said, and she went at least yearly thereafter. She declined to explain in detail how frequently they traveled there or how long they stayed. "I think it would be maddening to do such a tight time line of everything. You know, sometimes there was school involved. Sometimes it was vacation. It was such a mix, mishmash, is that the right word? Like a mix of different things." When the family visited Spain, they spent much of their time in Madrid, Seville and Valencia, she said. When they were at home in Boston, Ms. Baldwin said, the family spoke Spanish and cooked Spanish food. Family friends from Spain would often live with the Hayward Thomases for extended stays when visiting the United States. "When we weren't in Spain, we called it 'we brought Spain into our home,'" she said. Ms. Baldwin's older brother, Jeremy, moved to Mallorca, a Spanish island in the Mediterranean. Mr. Thomas and Dr. Hayward moved there as well in 2011. These experiences explain why the Spanish language, culture, food and traditional dance are so important to her identity, she said, and she and Mr. Baldwin are working to recreate this for their children. "I send them to a bilingual school where they have Spanish in school and I speak to them in Spanish at home." After the pandemic, she said, she and Mr. Baldwin plan to spend more time with their children in Mallorca. "My family, this is where they've decided to spend their lives," she said. "I guarantee you they are going to live there and they are going to die there. That's their home and that's because this is not something new, no one put a map up on the wall and threw a dart at it and said, 'Oh, Spain sounds good.'" She said she didn't think that her referring in online posts to her travel to Spain as "going home" was misleading. "Home is where my parents are going to be," she said. "If my parents move to China, I am going to go to China and say, 'I'm going home.'" (Though she has said her family has roots in Spain, she said she was speaking colloquially. "These people who I call my family, I am learning in this particular situation, I have to say, 'People who we have considered to be our family.'") She said she did not believe her story was one that bears any connection to cultural appropriation because, she said, as much as American culture has shaped her, so too has the culture of Spain: "Who is to say what you're allowed to absorb and not absorb growing up?" "This has been a part of my whole life," she said, "and I can't make it go away just because some people don't understand it." She is trying to find value in the drama swirling around her. "There is a reason this conversation is happening right now," she said. "These are important conversations to have. But as people are able to come out as different parts of themselves and how they identify and have people listen, I think that's extremely important." She doesn't understand why anyone would think she has portrayed herself as anything other than who she is: someone steeped in two cultures. Evidently, she said, "people don't have the attention span for that kind of thing." Mr. Baldwin, as well, suggests our attention span is limited. "And, as is often the case in a society such as the US is right now, the ravenous appetite for scandal will consume someone else," he commented on her Instagram feed. Ms. Baldwin's name change especially is what confounds people who knew her in her Hillary years. "The whole 'Hilaria' thing is hilarious to me," said Alexander Rechits, who was Ms. Baldwin's competitive dance partner from 2006 until 2009 and who now is the founder of AVR Dynamics, a business and marketing consultancy. When they danced the rumba and the cha cha in events like the New York Dance Festival and the M.I.T. Open, he knew her as Hillary Hayward Thomas. Sometime after she and Mr. Rechits stopped dancing together, Ms. Baldwin took on the Spanish inspired version of her given name. "I understand why she did it," said Mr. Rechits, who said that Ms. Baldwin was a kind, caring and talented person. "It was always her desire to be considered Spanish. She had roots in Spain, her brother lived there, she visited there a lot. But Hillary is a very good strong name, so why would you change that when you were born here and you weren't born in Spain?" "I have a lot of nicknames in Russian," said Mr. Rechits, who immigrated to New York from Belarus. "But I'm still Alexander everywhere I go."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Style
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To be a recovering addict is to admit that your highest purpose is to avoid your worst impulses. Whether you regard this as a practical fact of life or a tragedy depends on your relationship to pleasure, and whether your particular pleasures are endorsed or reviled by your social environment. In the case of Adele Robinson, the pleasure is risky sex and the social environment is upper middle class Paris. Adele pounds champagne, eats potted yogurt, wears scarves and destroys lives. You in yet? "Adele" is the first novel by , the French Moroccan author of "The Perfect Nanny," which won one of France's most prestigious literary awards, the Prix Goncourt, in 2016 and was translated into almost three dozen languages. In the wake of nannymania, Slimani's debut novel has been made available in English, albeit with a title downgrade from its original "In the Garden of the Ogre." Adele is 35 years old, beautiful, a newspaper reporter who has been married nine years to a successful doctor. Despite her good fortune she harbors some Madame Bovary tendencies, aching for a life of pampered thrills and finding her own existence a spacious apartment, luxury vacations shabby. Her family's money "smells of work, of sweat and long nights spent at the hospital," she determines. "It is not a passport to idleness or decadence." So she finds decadence by compulsively seducing strangers, co workers and acquaintances, loathing the sex but finding comfort in the immediate aftermath, when she is "suspended between two worlds, the mistress of the present tense." That interim of numbness might seem like an underwhelming reward, but to someone as miserable as Adele it offers reprieve. Her descent is marked by the usual signs of addiction: an eroding sense of limits, a stream of banal lies, a metabolic incapacity for contentment. "Nothing ever happens fast enough," Adele thinks. Her life becomes a frenzied scheme to avoid boredom.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Books
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The scent of a rose fades over time, and has for hundreds of years. For centuries, generations of breeding in the quest for longer blooms and petals in shades of nearly every hue have dulled the sweetest smells that once perfumed gardens around the world. French researchers have now figured out precisely which genes make a rose smell so sweet, and where to tinker in the genome to enhance its distinctive scent. Although the rose genome has been mapped before, a newly published version is far more complete, indicating which genes tend to travel together scent and color, for instance and which genes are responsible for continuous blooming, among other traits. "I think it's a huge improvement on the current rose sequence," said Rob Martienssen, a plant biologist and professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island. "A lot of these genes were known before, but it's a very nice way of putting them all together and showing their history. And I think it'll be very important for breeding," said Dr. Martienssen, who was not involved in the new study. The new sequence is one of the most complete maps of a plant's genetics. By identifying genes with great precision, it will be useful for breeding plant species other than the rose, as well, he said. Now, to develop a new type of rose, breeders typically make thousands of hybrid offspring, looking for the combination of traits they want. Then, they have to select and identify the offspring that have the desirable trait. It's a process that can take up to 10 years and require lots of greenhouse space and land, as well as water, said Mohammed Bendahmane, a senior author on the paper and research director at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, in France. With data from the more detailed sequence of the rose genome, this process should be significantly shortened, reducing the cost and energy consumption needed to introduce new species, he said. Because of centuries of breeding, most of the modern rose cultivars have four copies of genes, two from each parent rather than the more typical one from each parent. This complexity makes the genome tricky to sequence and to assemble. To circumvent this, the researchers created a rose with just a single copy of each of the genes. Dr. Bendahmane and his colleagues and partners started with a rose variety called Rosa chinensis "Old Blush," which originated in China and was introduced to Europe in the 18th century. European rose breeders hybridized their plants with some from China to take advantage of the continuous blooming, scent signatures and color of the Asian plants. The researchers also sequenced genomes from ancestral rose species and newer hybrids to understand the composition and the structure of modern roses and the origin of important traits. Up to date gene sequencing technology also allowed the team to develop a more detailed genetic map, said Todd Mockler, a principal investigator at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, who was not involved in the new research. "If you only have 80 percent of the genome, you wonder what's in the 20 percent you're missing," he said, noting that previous sequences often missed genes involved in disease. "The completeness is a big deal." Dr. Mockler, whose team sequenced 400 plant genomes last year, said the paper marked a new "democratization" of plant research. A decade ago, a study like this one would have cost 20 million or more, he said, and would have been feasible only for high value, high production crops like wheat, corn and soy. Now, he said, such detailed sequencing is becoming much cheaper and more widely available. Editing the genes of crops like roses to reduce pesticide and water use, for instance will also become more realistic now that there's a good road map of those genes, he said. "The big challenge is you need to know what to edit," Dr. Mockler said. "You can't just randomly start editing. You have to know what to target. The only way to know that is to have a genome sequence."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Science
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INDIAN WELLS, Calif. Deservedly No. 1 in the world at age 21, Naomi Osaka has not made it past the round of 16 in her first two tournaments wearing the crown. After stumbling at the first hurdle in Dubai last month, she won two matches here in Indian Wells before running into Belinda Bencic. Though it is too early to start scurrying around the halls and sounding the alarms, it is not too early to observe that Osaka is in the midst of an adjustment process that could take more time to work through than she imagined. In a little more than six months, the Japanese American with Haitian roots has become a multicultural star with global reach, fired the coach who helped her zoom to No. 1 by winning two Grand Slam singles titles in a row, and hired a new coach who had yet to be a head coach at this level. It is a lot to handle, a lot to digest, particularly with people like me poised to parse every performance for signs of trouble. Bencic gave her plenty to digest, beating Osaka at her own game on Tuesday by taking time and the initiative away as she ended Osaka's title defense in just 66 minutes in the round of 16 by the no argument score of 6 3, 6 1. "Naomi was rushed and didn't have time to dictate," said Chris Evert, an 18 time Grand Slam singles champion. "I don't think Naomi had come across a player like that. All these big hitters like Aryna Sabalenka, and even Serena, are not that close to the baseline. They are two or three feet back. But Bencic plays an entirely different game, and she played a flawless match. She's back, very back." The proof is in her 11 match winning streak, which includes a title in Dubai and five victories over top 10 players. Born in 1997, the same year as Osaka, Bencic has the skills to challenge her often in the seasons to come if she can keep her head and health together. Bencic will play fifth seeded Karolina Pliskova in the quarterfinals on Thursday. "I think at a time like this with that score line, I would usually feel very depressed and sad," Osaka said at her surprisingly upbeat post match news conference. "But I feel pretty good right now, because I think given the circumstances I tried my best, and I don't really have any regrets. I tried to be positive throughout the entire match. Honestly, she was just playing so well." It was not Osaka's first look at Bencic, who turned 22 this month. They first played in a small money event in Alabama on clay in 2013, and Osaka beat Bencic, 6 3, 6 3, which came as a shock considering that Bencic already was a highly regarded junior player from Switzerland and that Osaka had barely played junior tennis at all. But there was no catching Bencic by surprise on Tuesday. She already had beaten Osaka in straight sets at the 2018 Hopman Cup team event, which is technically an exhibition. And after reaching the top 10 in 2016 and then dropping back because of wrist surgery, she is playing with the point by point focus of someone who knows that tennis success, with all its trappings, is not a given. "I know how frustrating it was when I wasn't able to play at all," Bencic said, sounding sage beyond her years. Osaka sounds a bit wiser herself. The meandering, sometimes cryptic interviews of 2018 have given way to something more considered and open with occasional dashes of her trademark whimsy. This is not a coincidence. She watched clips of her past news conferences and did not like some of what she saw: the "ums," the "likes." At this new stage, she greets questions, of which there are many, with respect, giving the impression that she is weighing each one before answering. Asked to compare herself now with when she won Indian Wells as an unseeded player in 2018, she gave another measured response, even in defeat. "I guess one of the biggest things is I wanted to be more mature," she said. "I feel like this is something I'm still working on on and off the court. It's one of the biggest goals that I have had in my entire life." "I might have thrown a few tantrums last year," she added. "And this year it's something that I'm working on improving, and I feel like it's going well. I think I'm just more confident in myself." Dismissing Sascha Bajin, her silken voiced German coach, was certainly a bold move. Under his guidance, she defeated Serena Williams, Bajin's former employer, twice in 2018: once in the first round in Miami and once under much more duress in the United States Open final. With Bajin still by her side, but apparently no longer in her confidence, Osaka fought through another rough and tumble draw to win the Australian Open in January. Neither has explained their split in detail, although Osaka has said it was not a matter of money. She or some members of her team were looking for a lower profile coach, but there were clearly personal issues at work, too. "Something happened that must not have been good, although that's just speculation," said Evert, who often watched Osaka and Bajin train in Boca Raton, Fla. "They were laughing and having fun practices and teasing each other, and it was great, and then just before the Australian and after the Australian, it was tense." Bajin is gone now, replaced by Jermaine Jenkins, a former standout at Clemson University who spent several years as the main hitting partner for Venus Williams, who dismissed her coach, David Witt, and Jenkins in the off season. Jenkins was quickly hired as a national coach by the United States Tennis Association to work out of its national campus in Orlando. He was just settling in when he got a text message from Osaka's agent, Stuart Duguid, inquiring about his availability. "I had a great new gig at the U.S.T.A., and I was doing my expense report and I get that text message," Jenkins said with a chuckle this week. "When a great adventure is offered to you, you cannot refuse it." Jenkins, 34, knows full well that job security at this level is fragile, which is one of the big reasons he was drawn to the U.S.T.A. post. "My wife and I live there in Lake Nona," he said. "Plus, with the coaching carousel, I didn't want to go back out with another player and then they wake up on the wrong side of the bed and say, 'Hey I'm not feeling this.' I was thinking more about security because there are only a few, I feel like, out there that are worth being out here for." Osaka, with her talent and star power, is certainly on that short list, and she and Jenkins are now 2 1 after their first tournament together, which included one on court coaching visit that Osaka jokingly began by suggesting she was having a midlife crisis. "I just wanted to break the ice," she said. Keeping the mood light and keeping tennis in perspective seem like the right idea when there are all sorts of new and powerful forces at work, including celebrity and megamillions. This also seems a good time for Osaka to remember that the controlled power and controlled emotion that she displayed to win in New York and again in Australia were anything but a fluke.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Sports
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INTRADE is an online betting site with an enviable record for predicting Oscar winners and political events. It's gotten the last two American presidential elections right. Now it's wading into the perils of the euro zone. The long running European crisis has already roiled financial markets around the world, with investors shifting away from riskier assets like stocks and parking their money in havens like German, Swedish, Dutch and United States government bonds, whose yields are now extraordinarily low. Just about everyone agrees that in the last month, the chance of Greece abandoning the euro has risen, with consequences that could be much more disruptive. European leaders meeting in Brussels on Wednesday failed yet again to come up with an enduring solution. But how high is the probability of a euro breakup? Intrade says it's about 40 percent. More precisely, as of Friday, Intrade assessed the probability of Greece or some other country announcing its intention to drop the euro by year end at 41.7 percent. It rises to 60 percent for a breakup by the end of 2013, and to 68.7 percent by the end of 2014. How seriously should these projections be taken? "The numbers on Intrade are an incredibly quick and useful way of figuring out what the average expert opinion is on a given subject," says Justin Wolfers, a visiting professor of economics at Princeton, who has studied Intrade and other prediction markets. While "most political discourse is qualitative you say, 'this is likely to happen for these reasons' this is quantitative," he observes. "You've got a number, and a pretty good number at that." Intrade is based in Dublin, though many of its traders live in the United States. People bet on contracts stating that a particular event will take place by a given time, and have traded more than 68 million worth of contracts this year through Thursday, according to Carl Wolfenden, exchange operations manager for the Web site. Like stock or bond prices, its predictions, often expressed as probabilities, are derived by matching buyers and sellers. The probabilities are intended to embody the aggregate information of the market the "wisdom of crowds," as the author James Surowiecki calls it. The pricing mechanism used by Intrade is "virtually identical" to that of mainline financial exchanges, Mr. Wolfers says. The site's projections are imperfect, but, he added, "empirically, they have been better than the alternatives," including opinion polls and individual expert opinion. To put the projection of a euro breakup into context, it is a slightly higher probability than the one Intrade lists for Mitt Romney's chances of being elected president in November. As of Friday, it was 39.4 percent, the site says. At the same time, it gave Barack Obama a 57.1 percent chance of re election. If Mr. Romney is formally nominated as the Republican candidate, his chances would presumably rise. THERE is no evidence that Intrade is being widely used to handicap events that are important to financial markets, but it isn't being entirely ignored, either. Ned Davis Research, the financial research firm based in Venice, Fla., has included charts of the Intrade Greek probabilities in recent reports. "They correlate very closely with the flight to safety in the sovereign bond markets," said Will Geisdorf, senior research analyst for the firm, which also relies on many other indicators that suggest deep pessimism and "high fear readings" among investors. Analysts using other indicators share the view that the euro crisis has unmoored many markets. Largely because of Greece and the euro quandary, for example, Deutsche Bank predicted in a report last week that the yield on the 10 year United States Treasury note, which dropped to a low of 1.698 percent this month, could tumble below 1.5 percent this year. Robert P. Brown, president of the bond group at Fidelity Asset Management, said in an interview that "if the Greek issue isn't resolved," he wouldn't be surprised if yields fell below current levels, perhaps even below 1.5 percent. Falling bond yields and rising bond prices have been accompanied by a weak stock market, a reversal of the traditional pattern, Ed Yardeni, an independent economist, wrote recently. "Prior to the financial crisis that started in 2007," he said, " falling bond yields tended to be associated with rising valuation multiples in the stock market. The relationship has been reversed since then." The primary reason has been fear of contagion from a financial collapse, originally in the United States and, in recent months, in Europe. The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and other central banks have deliberately lowered interest rates, but the sinking yields of relatively safe government bonds in recent weeks have overshot the expectations of most investors. Hedging against the risk of a profound disruption helps explain the premium being paid for these low yielding assets. And, at the moment, the Greek election on June 17 is being widely viewed as a pivotal event. If that election results in a government that rejects bailout terms that have already been imposed, a Greek exit from the euro zone could follow. In the financial markets, contingency planning for such an event is well under way.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Your Money
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new video loaded: In Chesapeake Bay Cleanup, a Larger Ecosystem at Stake
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Science
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A mother's depression may have long term effects on her child's immune system and psychological health. Israeli researchers followed 125 babies from birth through 10 years. About 43 percent of the mothers had a diagnosis of major depression, and the rest constituted a control group. The study is in Depression Anxiety. The investigators tested the children's and mothers' saliva for cortisol, the stress hormone, as well as for an antibody called secretory immunoglobulin A, or SIgA, high levels of which indicate activation of the immune system. They also visited the families to assess the mother's emotional health and to observe behavioral problems in children. Compared to controls, depressed mothers had higher cortisol and SIgA levels and tended to exhibit more intrusive and insensitive behaviors toward their children.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Well
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The black box theater at Abrons Arts Center looked as if a storm had swept through it. Feathers, wigs and masks were strewn across the floor. Tulle, tinsel and deflated blowup dolls cascaded down the aisle between seats. The artist Jaamil Olawale Kosoko was preparing his new work, "Seancers," and had just rehearsed a section that involved cloaking himself in these materials, then artfully shedding them. Much of the detritus, as he called it, seemed disposable or replaceable. Yet one item stood out as more precious: a framed photograph of Mr. Kosoko's mother, who died when he was 16. "Her portrait I keep returning to it," he said. "It keeps showing up in my work. She's back again." In exploring notions of resurrection, Mr. Kosoko, who is Nigerian American and grew up in Detroit, has also been thinking more broadly about "ideas that may be extinct or dying," he said, particularly in relation to the black church, black folk tradition and the erosion of old modes of congregating. "I'm curious about what we worship now," he said. "In a way, we are practicing a kind of ritual of praise to the cellphone, to Hulu, to the computer." "Seancers" allows other kinds of rituals to unfold, through movement, song, spoken word and a sound score by Jeremy Toussaint Baptiste. Slipping into and peeling off disguises and second skins, Mr. Kosoko undergoes many transformations, at times stepping into the shoes, literally, that his family members might have worn. In those moments he considers "what it means to embody a spirit, be overcome by a spirit," he said. "To become my mother or father and take on that physicality." An avid reader who came to performance through writing poetry, Mr. Kosoko anchored the creation of "Seancers" in several texts, including Audre Lorde's 1978 poem "Power," Howardena Pindell's 1980 short film "Free, White and 21" and a recent radio interview with the civil rights activist and theologian Ruby Sales. Fellow performers anchor him, too. A different guest artist, or seancer, will join Mr. Kosoko onstage each night, helping to usher in the work. "It's really an unruly experience that we're trying to frame inside of this black box," he said. That unruliness reflects the personal history embedded in the piece, a life that has been anything but tidy. As a child Mr. Kosoko lived mostly in Detroit with his mother, who, he said, struggled with alcoholism, paranoid schizophrenia and scleroderma, an autoimmune disease. He also lived in Mississippi with his grandmother, a more stable caretaker; she died before he went to high school. In 2015, his brother was stabbed to death in Denver at the age of 22. Shortly after, his grandfather died. And this August, while creating "Seancers," he received news of his father's death. "What might these losses reveal to me?" Mr. Kosoko said. "I'm thinking a lot about trying to heal, strategies of survival that have been embedded in black thought, black life, really since black people landed on the Americas about larger societal traumas and my own personal traumas and how they're engaged in this dance." Amid what he calls his "very complicated upbringing," Mr. Kosoko found space to process loss, or begin to. He attended high school on a full scholarship at the bucolic Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, studying writing and photography. As a student at Bennington College in Vermont, he began taking dance classes and choreographed his first piece, "Schizophrenia." "I needed to learn how to feel less awkward inside of myself," he said, and dance helped. In some ways "Seancers" is a continuation of his last evening length show, " negrophobia," presented at Abrons in 2016 as part of the American Realness festival. That work, a more explicit reckoning with his brother's death and violence against black men in the United States, has toured Europe over the past two years. It was at American Realness that Mr. Kosoko met the composer M. Lamar, who investigates similar themes in a different medium. The two began a dialogue that has informed "Seancers"; M. Lamar will be the guest artist on opening night. Asked what his role entails, he replied, "I'll be singing, and I'll be talking, very simply."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Dance
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HOLLYWOOD'S action heroes may thrill audiences with well timed leaps from crash bound cars, but trying such a stunt in the real world is bound to be painful. In fact, federal statistics make it clear that exiting a vehicle in the course of an accident almost always leads to serious injury and is often fatal. A safety standard issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Jan. 13 is intended to prevent occupants from being ejected through the side windows in accidents. The final rule requires automakers to incorporate technology designed to protect both belted and unbelted passengers. In a news release, N.H.T.S.A. said the newly mandated system "prevents the equivalent of an unbelted adult from moving more than four inches past the side window opening in the event of a crash." According to N.H.T.S.A. studies, more than half of those who died in ejection incidents were unbelted. The agency says that in 2001 7 more than 10,000 deaths resulted from rollovers. According to its Fatality Analysis Reporting System, 47 percent of vehicle occupants killed in 2000 9 rollover accidents were fully ejected. N.H.T.S.A. estimates that the safety technology will cost 31 per vehicle and predicts that it will save 373 lives and prevent 476 serious injuries annually. The new rule will be phased in over several years. Large volume automakers will have to install ejection mitigation provisions in 25 percent of their vehicles starting in September 2013, with 100 percent compliance required by September 2017. Smaller makers will not have to meet the phase in schedule, but they must reach the 100 percent level in 2017. Convertibles and police vehicles are exempt, as are taxis and limousines with security partitions. Along with the rule, N.H.T.S.A. developed test procedures to verify the effectiveness of the systems. The test requires that a linear impactor a device shaped like a human head and attached to a shaft be fired at the window area in several specific locations and at a designated speed. To pass, the system must prevent the impactor from traveling more than a limited distance beyond the plane of the window a stipulation that might necessitate tethers attached to the car to keep the air bags in place. The safety agency has also encouraged automakers to install stronger window glass. It is worth noting that N.H.T.S.A. uses the term "ejection mitigation," an acknowledgment that there is no practical way to provide total protection. In the vernacular of safety, there are few absolutes. In contrast to earlier safety standards, the government is not leaving it up to automakers to determine which technology is used to meet the standard. Rather, it is requiring carmakers to develop side curtain air bags that, when deployed, will cover the full opening of each side window adjacent to the first three rows of seats and a portion of any windows in a cargo area. Steve Cassatta, a senior staff engineer at General Motors, said in a telephone interview that rollover capable side curtain air bags were part of G.M.'s strategy before the new rules went into effect. "From a technology standpoint, it isn't inconsistent with our approach," he said. Current side curtain air bags, engineered to be effective with seat belts, deploy from above the windows and help protect occupants in side impacts and rollovers. But they do not provide enough window coverage to assure that unbelted passengers will be kept inside the vehicle. Jim Vondale, who until recently was the director for automotive safety for Ford Motor the company that introduced side curtain air bags in 2002 said in a telephone interview that to meet the ejection test requirements, the curtain air bags would have to be considerably larger than those in today's vehicles. He said the air bags would be tucked behind the headliner and roof pillar trim, possibly intruding on interior space somewhat. Safety standards mandated by the government have generally been engineered with the presumption that safety belts were being used. Some experts see a risk that the new regulation, by mandating protection for unbelted occupants, could undo the decades of progress that have resulted from campaigns that promoted belt use. "One of the concerns we have about having to design systems that protect unbelted people is it sends an inconsistent message," Mr. Vondale said. "We want to consistently say that the most important element is the safety belt."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Automobiles
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The drug maker Novartis concealed manipulated data from the Food and Drug Administration while applying for approval of an extremely expensive gene therapy treatment and then delayed reporting the issue, the agency said on Tuesday. Officials said the inaccurate data, which involved testing in mice of two different strengths of the treatment, did not affect the safety or efficacy of the therapy, Zolgensma, used to treat a rare, often fatal genetic disease called spinal muscular atrophy. The F.D.A. said patients were not at risk, and that the treatment could still be sold. But the news that a drugmaker had manipulated or mishandled data is an unsettling moment for the pharmaceutical industry. Many companies are racing to develop breakthrough gene therapy treatments for rare and intractable diseases. And the F.D.A. has granted a record number of expedited approvals for novel drugs and treatments in recent years, and Zolgensma was among those given top priority. Dr. Peter Marks, director of the F.D.A.'s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said the drug's approval probably would have been delayed had the agency known of the manipulated data. The public "expects us to have accurate data when we approve products," he added. Dr. Marks said the F.D.A. would continue to investigate and would determine whether Novartis should face civil or criminal penalties. Shares of Novartis, a Swiss drugmaker that also makes the multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya, were down 2.77 percent, at 88.22 a share, on Tuesday. In a statement, Novartis said it stood behind its product. "At no time during the investigation did the findings indicate issues with product safety, efficacy or quality," the company said. "We remain fully capable of releasing high quality, fully compliant Zolgensma to patients in need." Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. Many gene therapy treatments use a disabled virus to carry genetic fixes into human cells, halting some diseases and holding out the possibility of a cure for others. Although Zolgensma was only the second gene therapy to be approved by the F.D.A. a blindness treatment, Luxturna, was the first many more are in the pipeline. By 2025, the F.D.A. has said it expects to approve 10 to 20 new gene therapies a year. Spinal muscular atrophy is a rare muscle wasting disease that, in its most severe form, kills many babies before they turn 2. Spinraza, a drug approved in 2016, also treats spinal muscular atrophy but must be taken for the rest of the patient's life. Zolgensma is a one time treatment and, in clinical trials, it appeared to halt the progress of the disease. The F.D.A. approved the treatment for children under 2 with all forms of spinal muscular atrophy. Novartis has said there are about 400 new patients a year, or about 30 a month. In addition, 700 patients who already have the disease are eligible for the treatment. Although it is hailed as a breakthrough and was given expedited approval by the F.D.A. the multi million dollar price tag has given insurers pause. At least one insurer, UnitedHealthcare, declined to approve some cases, although it later reversed course under pressure from distressed families and intense media coverage. Erin Kelly, a spokeswoman for the patient group Cure SMA, said in a statement: "We fully trust the regulators to address this issue. Cure SMA will continue to support our families and urge them to work with their clinicians to determine the best course of treatment." The F.D.A. said it was notified of the data manipulation issue on June 28, more than one month after Zolgensma was approved, even though officials at AveXis, the Novartis unit developing the product, learned of the problem in March. The problems involved experiments on mice used in early phases of the research. An F.D.A. inspection report dated July 24 to Aug. 2, 2019 noted lapses and discrepancies in record keeping by the company, and improper procedures in quality control in gathering data on the mice. In some instances, the report said, records stating how long the mice lived "were different from the actual value," and in four cases "discrepancies of greater than one day were noted (ranging from 2 to 19 days)." The F.D.A. said the data were "mismanaged" or "manipulated," and declined to say whether the information was deliberately falsified. "It's unclear to us, at this point, exactly why this occurred," Dr. Marks said. In data manipulation cases, he added, the motive is not always clear. "Many times people do things for stupid reasons, because if they would have left well enough alone, everything would have been O.K."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Health
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Because I am. I'm relishing this liminal space, this Great Global Pause. I've been in mourning since last August when my adored doorman, Dave Burton, who always helped me zip up my dresses, died of prostate cancer. Nearly two months later, my friend Andy suffered a fatal stroke. Not long after that, another close friend, Diane, succumbed to ovarian cancer. Then, on March 1, my 53 year old sister, Hillary, died suddenly, leaving behind a daughter, a husband and a Silicon Valley career. My parents, brother and I were lucky enough to be able to fly to San Francisco for the funeral. But because of social distancing and the risk of infection, we canceled the shiva. It was devastating you want to surround yourself with people during a time like that, you want to embrace friends and family in person. But we couldn't. And yet, so many others are in similar, or worse, positions. Many of them can't even hold a funeral. The world is bereft. We're united in loss. Everyone knows someone who's ailing or who has died from coronavirus. Or else they're hearing about them on the news, like the story of my lovely friend Dr. Lorna Breen, who played cello with me in the New York Late Starters String Orchestra. Lorna was on the front lines in the emergency room but ended up taking her own life. Everyone is grieving something: A person. A business. A graduation. The ability to inhale without a face covering. We're all in the same boat. Or at least, we're all in boats. Some are bigger, some are smaller, a few will capsize, and others are parked in the Mediterranean. Wherever we're anchored, we're all in foreign waters together. It's like Hands Across America, but with masks, gloves and a six foot berth. Yet since the pandemic hit, I've never felt less alone, even though I live by myself. I came down with symptoms of the virus in early April and didn't leave my apartment for 25 days. It was terrifying. In addition to the headaches, dizziness, nausea and sore throat, it felt like Dom DeLuise was doing the hora on my chest. I felt obligated to survive; my parents couldn't lose another child. But I live in a building with a super and doormen and nearby friends who took great care of me. They brought me orange juice. They left my packages at my door. They checked in after the E.M.T.'s came and talked me through my angst. I wasn't alone. There have been other benefits, too. As someone afflicted with a mild case of FOMO, or fear of missing out, I've long been convinced that the world was at a giant party to which I haven't been invited. It's not that I necessarily wanted to attend; I just wanted to be asked. Sanctioned sequestration has pretty much quashed those feelings. There's no FOMO when there's no MO. I no longer feel like everyone's hanging out without me, because they're not. Except maybe on Zoom, but that thrill wore off after I learned how to change my backdrop. Since we began sheltering in place, I feel less pressure to do it all. I'm insulated from my own ambition, from minor social anxieties, from the demands of routine urban existence. Now that I feel better physically, I'm practicing my cello. I'm watching "After Life" and finally reading "Hamilton." The city is quiet, and the imposed seclusion has given me room to grieve without distraction. Let's face it: One of the big hurdles right now is that we're forced to confront ourselves head on. There's no theater. No dining out. No shopping for items you think will make you happy but won't (think: scented candles). It's just us, and our pain. Lockdown is conducive to sorrow. We're having real conversations about loss and heartache and death and despair. We're discovering the difference between solitude and loneliness. As someone who's always been hyper attuned to mortality perhaps to a fault I find it refreshing. The universe is finally on my page. My mother recently told me that after her mother, my grandmother, died, she wanted to scream from the rooftops, from her car, from the produce aisle at Publix, "MY MOTHER IS DEAD!" Her friends were sympathetic, of course, they said and did the right things. But the trauma wasn't the same for them. How could it be? It wasn't their relative. Unfathomable though it was, the world didn't stop. I keep wondering what W.H. Auden would make of these last few months, whose oft quoted poem "Funeral Blues" includes the lines: Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'. Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, In a sense, Auden got his wish: The clocks have basically stopped; no one knows what day it is. The traffic policemen may not be wearing black cotton gloves, but they are wearing rubber ones. Airplanes "circle moaning overhead," filled not with cheery folks on glamorous vacations, but with military personnel saluting front line workers. To paraphrase Auden, it really does feel like we've put out every star, packed up the moon, and dismantled the sun. I'd like to think that whenever our "new normal" comes, whatever it looks like, I'll be more grounded, less critical of myself, less worried about missing out. But who knows? The body forgets so quickly.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Well
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Orcas from pod J in Puget Sound just west of Seattle. The number of orcas in the area, listed as endangered since 2005, has dwindled to a 30 year low. SEATTLE For the last three years, not one calf has been born to the dwindling pods of black and white killer whales spouting geysers of mist off the coast in the Pacific Northwest. Normally four or five calves would be born each year among this fairly unusual urban population of whales pods named J, K and L. But most recently, the number of orcas here has dwindled to just 75, a 30 year low in what seems to be an inexorable, perplexing decline. Listed as endangered since 2005, the orcas are essentially starving, as their primary prey, the Chinook, or king salmon, are dying off. Just last month, another one of the Southern Resident killer whales one nicknamed "Crewser" that hadn't been seen since last November was presumed dead by the Center for Whale Research. In March, Gov. Jay Inslee issued an executive order directing state agencies to do more to protect the whales, and in May he convened the Southern Resident Orca Task Force, a group of state, tribal, provincial and federal officials, to devise ways to stem the loss of the beloved regional creature. "I believe we have orcas in our soul in this state," he said. At another point, he wrote of the whales and Chinook salmon that "the impacts of letting these two species disappear would be felt for generations." The orcas are also facing a new threat. The recent agreement between the Canadian government and Kinder Morgan to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline would multiply oil tanker traffic through the orcas' habitat by seven times, according to some estimates, and expose them to excessive noise and potential spills. Construction is set to begin in August, despite opposition from Governor Inslee and many environmentalists. Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. In the late 1990s, there were nearly 100 of these giant whales in the population. Following the salmon, they migrate in the Salish Sea to the northern coast of British Columbia and often surface in the south at Puget Sound within sight of downtown Seattle, especially during the spring and summer months. The males, which can weigh up to 22,000 pounds, typically live about 30 years, and females, up to 16,000 pounds, survive longer up to 50 or 60 years, although one J pod member, Granny, lived to be 105 years old. Not only are there fewer calves in recent years, but signs of inbreeding also point to a weakening population. In the 1970s and 80s, theme parks like Sea World captured nearly 4 dozen orcas from the region, possibly shrinking the pods' gene pool. In the last three decades, just two males fathered half the calves in the last three decades, and only a third of the females are breeding, just once every decade instead of every five years. Researchers worry that reproducing females are aging out of the population, and won't be replaced. Some conservationists are concerned that the orcas' decline is another sign of a marine ecosystem in collapse. Beginning in 2013, something known as "The Blob" a gigantic mass of nutrient poor, extremely warm water warmed the Pacific from Mexico to Alaska, as much as six degrees above normal. Several years ago, starfish succumbed to a wasting disease and vanished from tide pools. The biggest contributing factor may be the disappearance of big king salmon fish more than 40 inches long. "They are Chinook salmon specialists," said Brad Hanson, team leader for research at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center here, part of NOAA. "If they could, they would eat Chinook salmon 24/7." Orcas gobble 30 a day. Hunting enough smaller prey requires a lot more energy. The underwater world in the region is also getting noisier, especially an area between the San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island called Haro Strait. It is one of the orcas' favorite foraging grounds in the summer. "It's also essentially a big rock ditch where sound bounces off. When you add in commercial vessel traffic going to Vancouver, recreational boaters and whale watching operations, it's a pretty noisy place," Mr. Hanson said. Researchers are studying noise there now. They believe the cacophony of ship traffic interferes with echolocation and makes it harder for the whales to locate their prey and to communicate prey location among themselves. It can also cause hearing loss. In recent years, officials have expanded the distance which vessels, including whale watching boats and kayaks, must keep from the whales. And there is a voluntary no go zone near the San Juan Islands. "Just the presence of boats can cause the whales to spend less time feeding," said Lynne Barre, of NOAA Fisheries, recovery coordinator for the orcas. "And it's harder to communicate. They have to call longer and louder when boats are nearby." Of most concern are the lingering effects of chemicals and pesticides, including the now banned DDT, as well as PCBs and PBDE, widely used in flame retardants and found through the world. The pollutants accumulate in salmon as they feed, and when the whales eat salmon they also ingest PCBs at even higher levels. "It's very lipophilic, which means it stays in the fat, and the females transfer a huge proportion of the contaminant burden to their offspring," Dr. Hanson said. "About 85 percent gets transferred to calves through lactation." And while much of the pollution is from the region's industrial past, Boeing disclosed this spring that over the past five years it had discharged highly toxic PCBs into the Duwamish River, which flows into Puget Sound, thousands of times over the legal limit. These toxins suppress the whales' immune systems, making them more susceptible to disease. They can also impede reproduction. That may be why tests show a high number of females who have become pregnant have failed to calve. However, the decline of the whales can't be pegged, experts say, to contaminants alone. A separate population of transient whales near here eat mammals that eat fish, and so consume concentrate contaminants at even higher levels many times as high as the resident pods. Yet they are thriving, which has left scientists scratching their heads. Global populations are robust as well. One possible scenario is that the dearth of salmon coupled with the interference of engine noise, which can affect their immune system, too, deprives the orcas of a sufficient diet. Their bodies then draw on fat reserves, which are laced with chemicals that suppress their immune system and reduce fecundity. But experts aren't sure what is raising their mortality rate. Often, when whales die, their carcasses sink or wash up onto remote beaches and are hard to find and test. In recent years, researchers have been focusing on anthroponeses, diseases that humans may be passing to wildlife. Scientists have sailed out among the pods with a petri dish at the end of a 25 foot long pole to pass through the mist that whales exhale and see what they carry in their lungs. They found a range of pathogens that could be from humans, including antibiotic resistant bacteria and staphylococcus, which can cause pneumonia. "It doesn't mean they are sick, we don't have evidence for that," said Linda D. Rhodes, a research biologist expert in marine microbes and toxins and part of the study. "It means they are being exposed. Whether or not the whales get sick is a product of how much of it is present in the environment and how well is the whale able to defend itself." There is deep concern that a fatal human or animal disease has, or will, cross the species barrier and find its way into these immuno compromised killer whales. "I've had dreams about it at night," said Joseph K. Gaydos, a veterinarian with the SeaDoc Society in Eastsound, Washington in the San Juan Islands, who studies the southern residents. "Disease smolders in the environment but can break out. If there were a highly virulent virus to come through here it would take out a large part of the population and totally stop recovery efforts." Disease threats are myriad. A young killer whale died from a fungal infection last year. Toxoplasmosis is a disease spread by parasites in the feces of cats. It is one of the top threats to the Hawaiian monk seal, killing eight of the remaining 1,400 since 2001. It's not known, though, to affect whales.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Science
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With New Study, New Mothers Seeking IUDs Are No Longer Urged to Wait After childbirth, some new mothers wishing to avoid another pregnancy ask their doctors to provide reversible contraception, like an intrauterine device. But normally, new mothers are told to return for contraception six weeks after giving birth after fully half of them have already resumed sexual relations. A study, published on Monday in Obstetrics and Gynecology, suggests that this practice should change. Women who received IUDs during cesarean sections were far more likely to be using them six months later than women who were told to return to the doctor's office to receive one. The authors concluded that altering the practice could help reduce unintended pregnancies and the number of babies conceived within 18 months after a previous birth, thus mitigating a number of infantile risks, including prematurity. "We are meeting a woman's needs better when they get their contraception at the time of delivery," said Dr. Lisa M. Goldthwaite, an author of an editorial accompanying the new study and a family planning fellow at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "You can't continue to use an IUD you never got." The study was a randomized trial of 112 women giving birth at North Carolina Women's Hospital in Chapel Hill who wanted an IUD. Eighty three percent of women whose IUDs were placed during their C sections were still using them six months postpartum, compared with just 64 percent of women who had planned to get IUDs at a separate office visit. Participants received free IUDs and were paid nominally for visits. Still, a quarter of women assigned to get an IUD at six weeks never showed up. The months after childbirth are "an intense, busy, hard time for most women," said Dr. Erika E. Levi, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. "We need to make it easier for women to get access to the kind of contraception they want as new mothers." Research on postpartum IUDs has mostly focused on those implanted after vaginal births, not C sections. Women don't necessarily realize "this can be done at the time of a C section," said Dr. Erika Werner, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University. A study published in the journal Fertility and Sterility recently found in hospital insertion of an IUD prevented an estimated 88 unintended pregnancies per 1,000 women over a two year period, compared with routine placement between six and eight weeks. A 2010 review of nine randomized trials in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews found that immediate insertion of an IUD after both vaginal and cesarean deliveries appears to be safe and effective. But a higher percentage of those IUDs are expelled, compared with those placed later. That held true in the new trial, too. Eight percent of women who got IUDs in the hospital during their cesareans lost the devices, compared with only 2 percent of women who got an IUD later. Nevertheless, nearly 20 percent more of the in hospital group still had IUDs at six months. Expulsion is a problem if it goes unnoticed, because then a woman mistakenly thinks she is using birth control. But "expulsion in and of itself isn't a big deal," Dr. Goldthwaite said. Dr. Levi and her colleagues urged physicians who have long hesitated to offer immediate implantation of IUDs to reconsider. Yet the biggest barrier to getting an IUD just after delivery remains a lack of reimbursement. Delivery costs are bundled in a package, so hospitals are not paid for implanting an IUD, which can range from 625 to 900.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Health
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GEORGE CLINTON PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC at Rumsey Playfield (June 4, 6 p.m.). After more than a half century in the music industry, Clinton, an Afro futurist pioneer, is ready to hang up his bedazzled hat. With Parliament Funkadelic, an umbrella for the slew of musicians spinning through his orbit who also make up two discrete sister groups, Parliament and Funkadelic Clinton has departed on a "One Nation Under a Groove" farewell tour, named for the 1978 Funkadelic album that marked their commercial breakthrough. Proceeds from their stop in Central Park, at which their New Orleans based funk disciples Galactic and others will also perform, will support SummerStage's free seasonal programming. 212 360 1399, cityparksfoundation.org THE GOVERNORS BALL MUSIC FESTIVAL at Randalls Island Park (May 31 June 2). New York real estate is some of the least hospitable to festival promoters; with Panorama on hiatus in 2019 and the Meadows dormant for the second year in a row, Governors Ball stands as the city's sole major music festival this summer. As such, this iteration will feature some of the biggest names across a range of genres, including country pop's reigning queen Kacey Musgraves; the R B chanteuses Jorja Smith and SZA; the rappers Vince Staples, Sheck Wes and Tyler, the Creator; and indie rockers like the Strokes and Mitski. Single day general admission tickets remain available for all three dates, as do three day passes. governorsballmusicfestival.com GLEN HANSARD at Beacon Theater (June 1, 8 p.m.). Though he is perhaps best known for his appearance in the Oscar winning film "Once," this Irish singer songwriter's discography is much denser than his filmography. Since the 1990s, he has helmed the Dublin based folk rock group the Frames, and, as the Swell Season, recorded with his "Once" co star Marketa Irglova. Hansard is also an active solo artist whose most recent effort came out in April. Titled "This Wild Willing," it sees him breaking from the restrained balladry of previous releases and experimenting with a wider range of musical textures, with help from the Iranian born Khoshravesh brothers and a suite of familiar collaborators. 212 465 6000, msg.com HOT 97 SUMMER JAM at MetLife Stadium (June 2, 6:30 p.m.). While Governors Ball draws crowds to the east of Manhattan throughout the weekend, a star studded lineup across the Hudson River will pull some music lovers in the opposite direction on Sunday. As one of the first formatted hip hop stations in the country, Hot 97 has been a distinctly New York institution since the early '90s, when it first started hosting its annual Summer Jam. This year's performers include Cardi B, the Bronx born rapper behind ubiquitous hits like "Bodak Yellow" and "I Like It," and her husband's Atlanta based trap group, Migos. Other notable names on the bill include Philadelphia's Meek Mill and Houston's Megan Thee Stallion. 800 745 3000, metlifestadium.com LION BABE at Industry City (June 5, 7 p.m.). This electro R B outfit's performance will kick off City Farm's Summer Series, a lineup of outdoor music events at this commercial space in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, through September. This set also serves as an another kind of beginning for the duo, which comprises the producer and D.J. Lucas Goodman and the singer Jillian Hervey: It's their first on the United States tour for their latest album, "Cosmic Wind." From that record the single "Western World" feels particularly fit to herald the arrival of summer, with its deep set bass groove and laid back vocals that waft like a warm breeze. cityfarmpresents.com Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead. MEMPHIS MINNIE: IN SEARCH OF THE HOODOO LADY at Waterfront Plaza at Brookfield Place (June 1, 6:30 p.m.). Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the trailblazing singer and guitarist, was inducted into the Rock Roll Hall of Fame just last year; the tardiness of this recognition signifies the extent to which black women's contributions to rock have been overlooked. At this Lower Manhattan waterfront spot, the New York Guitar Festival will pay tribute to another underrecognized figure: Memphis Minnie, one of the first blues artists to go electric, and an influence on Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. Performers at this free concert include the indie turned soul singer Nicole Atkins, the Canadian folk artist Kaia Kater, and Rachael Vilray, a jazz duo featuring Lake Street Dive's Rachael Price. 212 417 2414, bfplny.com OLIVIA HORN JOANNE BRACKEEN AND LONNIE PLAXICO at Mezzrow (May 31 June 1, 7:30 and 9 p.m.). Brackeen is an inventive pianist and a vastly underrated composer, whose coarse but exuberant harmonies and irrepressible rhythmic intensity strike a special balance between the influences of Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner and Thelonious Monk. A recently inducted National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, she performs here with Plaxico, a bassist whose flexibility will come in handy (over a more than 30 year career he's proved himself to be comfortable at the crossroads of avant funk, hard bop and Afro Caribbean jazz). 646 476 4346, mezzrow.com RAVI COLTRANE at Birdland (June 4 8, 8:30 and 11 p.m.). A saxophonist of lissome grace, Coltrane has a talent for warping and curling his notes without sacrificing clarity as if showing you a message that can only be read properly when seen through curved glass. At Birdland, he'll be joined by a revolving cast of musicians in the prime of their careers: the pianist David Virelles, the bassist Dezron Douglas and the drummer Johnathan Blake. Not all of them will play at each show: The first night will feature just saxophone, piano and bass, and others will feature saxophone, piano and drums with no bass. 212 581 3080, birdlandjazz.com NICK DUNSTON at Roulette (June 4, 8 p.m.). Dunston is a young bassist with hungry ears and a commanding but wide open style. Lately he's become an indispensable player on the New York avant garde, playing with the likes of Marc Ribot, the esteemed downtown guitarist, and Ches Smith, the top flight drummer. For the past year Dunston has been a Van Lier fellow at Roulette; as part of that program he has written a multipart suite titled "La Operacion," an abstract meditation on issues of post colonialism, sexism and necropolitics in late 20th century Puerto Rico. He will debut the composition here, joined by the soprano vocalist Stephanie Lamprea, the alto saxophonists David Leon and Noah Becker, the fellow bassist Ben Rolston, and the percussionists Lesley Mok and Stephen Boegehold. 917 267 0368, roulette.org MARK GUILIANA at the Village Vanguard (through June 2, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.). Last month, Guiliana, a drummer, released "Beat Music! Beat Music! Beat Music!" the product of a yearslong foray into the nexus between live performance and electronic production. Using synthesizers, drum machines and acoustic instruments, he creates giddy music landing somewhere between the left field hip hop of the early 2000s and the 8 bit sounds of an Atari soundtrack. But Guiliana, who has brought his genre agnostic approach to a vast range of projects (with the likes of David Bowie, Meshell Ndegeocello and Brad Mehldau), is equally dedicated to his so called Jazz Quartet, a group of acoustic musicians comprising the saxophonist Jason Rigby, the pianist Shai Maestro and the bassist Chris Morrissey. Though its sonic palette is different, the quartet shares some head bobbing proclivities with Guiliana's "Beat Music" project. 212 255 4037, villagevanguard.com KIRK LIGHTSEY at Nublu 151 (June 5, 8 p.m.). An 82 year old pianist with a diaphanous harmonic sensibility and a redoubtable resume (he toured and/or recorded with Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker and Woody Shaw, among countless others), Lightsey is now based in Paris and seldom performs on this side of the Atlantic. But on Wednesday he will make a rare New York appearance, playing a tribute concert to the trumpeter Jerry Gonzalez, his former collaborator, who died last year after a celebrated career at the intersection of Puerto Rican folklore, Afro Cuban music and classic jazz, and who would have turned 70 on the night of this show. Lightsey will be at the helm of a quintet that includes Itai Kriss on flute, Santi Debriano on bass, Daniel Dor on drums and David Balilty on percussion. nublu.net JOEL ROSS'S GOOD VIBES at Jazz Standard (June 4 5, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). Even before releasing a standout debut album earlier this month, Ross was already the most chatted about young musician in New York. Possessed of a bracingly forthright attack and a broad historic awareness, this 23 year old vibraphonist can pull together elements of 1960s post bop, 1990s neoconservatism and nouveau hip hop fusion without forcing the issue. At Jazz Standard he will perform music from the new album, "Kingmaker," with Immanuel Wilkins on alto saxophone, Jeremy Corren on piano, Kanoa Mendenhall on bass and Jeremy Dutton on drums. 212 576 2232, jazzstandard.com GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Music
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COLUMBUS, Ohio You might think that managers and workers at Banner Metals would be up in arms over the Trump administration's trade policies. After all, tariffs on imported steel and aluminum have pushed raw material prices up and margins down, forcing the company to delay plans to purchase a new 1 million cutting machine and hire two new employees to operate it. But the reaction at the plant is based on more than self interest. "I'm not looking at what's best for Banner right now," said Bronson Jones, a part owner of the company and its chief executive. "I'm looking at what's best for the national economy. The U.S. has been taken advantage of for too long." That proposition, tracing a volatile political fault line, is frequently encountered on the factory floor here, a few miles from this prosperous city's gleaming downtown. Casey Jackson, a maintenance technician, said he would support the tariffs even if they cost him personally. "If it comes out of my paycheck, so be it," he said. "You got to look at the big picture. That tiny bit of sacrifice we make will create jobs." While the manufacturing sector is on the upswing nationally factories have added 344,000 jobs since the beginning of 2017 there is an abiding sense of siege among factory workers and executives alike, of having been shortchanged in the trade equation. Mr. Trump, in departing from the traditional Republican embrace of free trade, struck a chord in 2016, carrying this battleground state by eight percentage points. And the workers on the factory floor underscore his reservoir of blue collar support even as he pursues a trade conflict in which key American industrial sectors could be hit. For them, there is still a larger wrong that must be righted. Divisions on the issue remain stark. In a poll conducted by SurveyMonkey for The New York Times in early July, 76 percent of Republicans supported the metal tariffs, while 79 percent of Democrats opposed them. Nearly half of workers with a high school diploma or some college said they approved of the tariffs, compared with 39 percent of college educated workers. As Mr. Jackson, a 34 year old Air Force veteran, sees it, the current trade war recalls past military conflicts. "We had victory gardens in World War II," he said during a break between shifts, which run from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and then from 4:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. "I know the tariffs have an impact on us, but I don't think it was a mistake." Besides the 20 to 25 percent increase in raw material prices in recent months, Mr. Jones has found himself scrambling to line up shipments of the steel and aluminum that Banner's two story tall stamping machines turn into parts for aircraft brakes and seats. Bigger manufacturers have been hoarding metal supplies, he said, ordering larger amounts to get ahead of rising prices and leaving smaller firms like Banner at a disadvantage. "We were accustomed to four weeks' lead time, but now it can be as long as 16 to 20 weeks," he said. In response, Banner has been flying in steel from an Austrian supplier, an expensive proposition when the price of airfreight and the new tariffs are taken into account. With about 70 percent of Banner's business coming from the aerospace industry, Mr. Jones can't easily switch metal suppliers. Anything going into an airplane has to be carefully certified beforehand, restricting Banner's options when raw material is delayed. "With aerospace, you can't pick up and move it," Mr. Jones said. Mr. Jones had planned to buy a laser cutting apparatus that would be able to do some production currently outsourced, but pressure on profit margins forced him to postpone the order in May. He even visited the manufacturer while the machine was under construction and had a spot picked out for it at the plant. "He's going for the jugular, which is typical Trump style," he said. "I'm not used to it, and it's not a presidential style we are accustomed to. But he's the only president who's taken a significant stance on trade, and we need a brash approach." The scope of the trade tensions has been widening 25 percent tariffs on imported steel went into effect this spring, and the White House imposed duties on hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of Chinese imports this month. The Commerce Department has also been examining whether imports of foreign cars pose a national security threat, a prelude to protectionist steps in the auto industry. The steel tariffs have resulted in the creation of some new jobs. After going cold in 2015, for example, the blast furnaces are restarting at U.S. Steel's plant in Granite City, Ill., in large part because of higher prices for the tubular steel churned out there. But a vast majority of economists argue that over all, tariffs cost more jobs than they create. And there are many more metal consumers out there, like Banner, than metal producers like U.S. Steel. Even though manufacturing accounts for only 8.5 percent of the nation's work force, compared with 15 percent a quarter century ago, it continues to offer opportunity at plants like Banner's. Machine operators earn 15 to 20 an hour, and experienced tool and die makers can earn twice that. There are also avenues for advancement Mr. Jones himself started in the shipping department at Banner 24 years ago, earning 8 an hour as a quality assurance inspector. He eventually rose into management and bought the company with two partners in 2013. Covid's impact on the supply chain continues. The pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of the global supply chain and made all kinds of products harder to find. In turn, scarcity has caused the prices of many things to go higher as inflation remains stubbornly high. Almost anything manufactured is in short supply. That includes everything from toilet paper to new cars. The disruptions go back to the beginning of the pandemic, when factories in Asia and Europe were forced to shut down and shipping companies cut their schedules. First, demand for home goods spiked. Money that Americans once spent on experiences were redirected to things for their homes. The surge clogged the system for transporting goods to the factories that needed them and finished products piled up because of a shortage of shipping containers. Now, ports are struggling to keep up. In North America and Europe, where containers are arriving, the heavy influx of ships is overwhelming ports. With warehouses full, containers are piling up. The chaos in global shipping is likely to persist as a result of the massive traffic jam. No one really knows when the crisis will end. Shortages and delays are likely to affect this year's Christmas and holiday shopping season, but what happens after that is unclear. Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said he expects supply chain problems to persist "likely well into next year." "We believe in promoting from within, and we encourage people to go back to college," he said. In some cases, Banner will pay for additional training for employees. Even as the talk of a trade war has intensified, and new duties go into effect, Mr. Jones said he saw the Trump administration's moves as part of a negotiating strategy, not a fundamental move away from free trade, which he said he supported. Mr. Sayre concurred with one caveat. "I never cared much for the way Trump does it, but he's doing O.K. as far as I'm concerned," he said. What exactly doesn't he like? "The way he bullies everybody and bends the truth," Mr. Sayre said. Back on the factory floor, Mr. Jackson said he was comfortable with the president's game plan. "It's aggressive, it's tough, and he won't back down," Mr. Jackson said. "Using trade as a bargaining chip will help someone else put food on the table." James Ford, another hourly employee, who is a production supervisor, jumped into the conversation. "I like that Trump doesn't sugarcoat anything," he said. "People get offended very easily by somebody being direct." Other workers, like Todd Grizzle, a 25 year old maintenance technician, said he could see both sides of the tariff debate. But his memories of the closing of Columbus Casting on the city's South Side are still fresh. Once the nation's largest foundry, the century old complex employed 800 people when it filed for bankruptcy in 2016. "There was a flood of people looking for work," Mr. Grizzle said. The red brick factory, which looked like something out of Dickens and covers 90 acres, is being demolished. The lesson that Mr. Grizzle said he had learned was that American jobs needed to be protected. "I like the idea of the U.S. having allies," he said. "But if this can bring more jobs back to America, that's a good thing."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Economy
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Deaths related to H.I.V. in the United States fell significantly from 2010 through 2018, regardless of sex, age, race or region, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday. The death rate declined over all by about half, a welcome sign in the fight against the virus, experts said. But the data also highlighted some troubling trends: Gains among women, Black people and those of multiple races were much smaller. And the rate of death was about twice as high in Southern states as in the Northeast. And it is possible the pandemic has dampened these improvements. The C.D.C. did not offer numbers on testing for H.I.V. or access to pre exposure prophylaxis therapy over the past few months, but many facilities have shuttered their H.I.V. clinics or reported decreases in the number of people using their services, the researchers said. Still, experts said the news was a testament to the enormous strides made in efforts to end the H.I.V. epidemic. "The reduction in death is something that we couldn't have imagined even as recently as 2010," roughly a decade after the introduction of powerful antiretroviral drugs, said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, who was not involved in the work. "The fact that these therapies have become so standard and turned things around for so many people is just incredibly gratifying and astonishing." Dr. Marrazzo credited the success to investments in H.I.V. care, including through the federal Ryan White H.I.V./AIDS Program, for such services as nutritional support, social work, psychiatry and other assistance. "This is not just about the drugs. It's the entire structure that supports people," she said. "Sometimes that's lost in the dialogue." From 1990 through 2011, deaths among people with AIDS decreased significantly. They dropped even more after 2012, when treatment guidelines began recommending antiretroviral therapy for anyone with H.I.V. C.D.C. researchers analyzed data from the National H.I.V. Surveillance System from 2010 through 2018 of people older than 13 years who had received a diagnosis of H.I.V. They looked at raw numbers as well as age adjusted rates of death per 1,000 people. They parsed deaths from 2010 through 2017 as resulting directly from H.I.V. or from other causes, including drug use, cardiovascular disease or other conditions. The overall death rate among people with H.I.V. dropped by about one third, the analysis found. But the rate of deaths directly related to H.I.V. decreased by 48.4 percent, or a decline to 4.7 deaths per 1,000 people with H.I.V., from 9.1 per 1,000, whereas deaths as a result of other causes fell by only 8.6 percent. The results were published on Thursday in the C.D.C.'s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In 2017, more than 16,000 people with H.I.V. died, and about 5,500 of those deaths were from H.I.V. related causes, positioning the virus among the 10 leading causes of death in certain groups. "There's still work to be done," said Karin Bosh, the C.D.C. epidemiologist who led the study. The earlier the diagnosis, the sooner people can get sustained care and treatment and suppress the virus in their body, Dr. Bosh said. For instance, the proportion of younger people dying from H.I.V. is higher than older people because younger people are less likely to have continuing access to care, either because they lack of health insurance, or because they don't seek care regularly. "This is concerning, because H.I.V. deaths are preventable," Dr. Bosh said. The lack of improvement in deaths from other causes is particularly worrying for women and substance users, other experts said. "It really speaks to the things that we think work in public health mobilization and community engagement," said Dr. Eileen Scully, an infectious diseases physician at Johns Hopkins University. "And that is not how the epidemic has been among women in the United States." Unlike gay men, women with H.I.V. "come from many different walks of life" and are often disconnected from networks of support, she said. "We still have a lot of work to do, both to build trust and to bring in particular, minority women into the health care system in ways that they feel safe and supported." Race also played an outsized role in H.I.V. deaths, with the highest rates among Black people or those of multiple races. Dr. Marrazzo compared the high numbers in the American South to the "Global South" resource poor countries in sub Saharan Africa and elsewhere that also cope with issues of stigma and opaque sexual networks, particularly among gay Black men. "The fact is that a Black person living with H.I.V. in Mississippi is more than six times more likely to die of H.I.V. than a white person in New York and that's pretty astonishing, if you think about it," said James Krellenstein, executive director of the advocacy group PreP4All Collaboration. Although "the top line numbers are impressive," he said, "this does point to a real crisis in the American health care system's ability to deliver H.I.V. treatment equitably." Mr. Krellenstein also sharply criticized the C.D.C. for not closely tracking people's access to PrEP. Gilead Sciences, which manufactures the only two drugs approved for PrEP, reported an 8 percent drop in use of PrEP in the second quarter of this year, and an uptick of 4 percent in the third. Some clinics, like Fenway Health in Boston, have reported a 20 percent decline in patients with PrEP prescriptions, researchers reported at an infectious diseases conference in July. The C.D.C. should be gathering and reporting data on national trends in PrEP use, Mr. Krellenstein said. "It's not acceptable that they don't have an answer, and that no one really has an answer as to what's going on with PrEP." Fenway Health, like many other clinics, also reported a steep drop in tests for H.I.V., a big worry, Dr. Marrazzo said. "The next step really is going to be continuing to ratchet up those people who are diagnosed, and diagnosed early," she said, because early treatment has been shown to be key to getting the virus under control. "The earlier you can do it, the better."
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Health
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Trey and Kelsey Garza have been looking to buy a two to three bedroom condo in Brooklyn since last fall. Currently renting in TriBeCa, they are taking their time, monitoring new listings, visiting different neighborhoods, comparing amenities from building to building. And, in one instance, sitting down to a six course meal in a pricey new condo's dining space. On a March evening, the Garzas ate their way through a relaxed dinner in the first finished unit of a Morris Adjmi designed building in Williamsburg. There was no sales pitch at this table for 12. Instead, guests heard descriptions of each course from the professional chef, Matt Cruz, who whirled around the open kitchen's quartzite topped island. Attending a private supper club in a new luxury property was a first for the Garzas. "It made sense in all aspects," said Mr. Garza, 34, who works in finance. He and his wife, 29, a textile importer and wholesaler, were able to get an early peek at the North 10th Street building (which goes on the market in May) immerse themselves in the space, and enjoy a gourmet meal on the developer's dime. "We both loved the event," Ms. Garza said. "Particularly the intimacy of having the chef personally serve each course, explaining the nuances and inspiration behind each dish. It felt like a dinner party with close friends." "We are in Manhattan's most challenging market in the last decade," said Nikki Field, a senior global real estate adviser at Sotheby's International who has worked on several co branded events in a 58 million penthouse for sale at the top of 212 Fifth Avenue. "People are looking at everything and everywhere. They are no longer focused on certain neighborhoods a complete pivot from the old Manhattan centric buyer because the city has grown in luxury options in all directions. They have a lot of choices." It's not new for brokerages to host party style events in their high end listings, often as a cross promotion for a new jewelry line, art gallery or wellness guru. But with so many events now cluttering the market, some firms are getting more creative, offering more than a free glass of wine and proximity to celebrity. "There's too much inventory everyone gets lost in the shuffle," said Vickey Barron, an associate broker with Compass who last year brought in world renowned ballroom dancers to wow a wealthy audience in the penthouse at 100 Barclay Street, in TriBeCa. "Everyone is fighting for that buyer." The relationship is symbiotic, of course. Halstead gets an interesting event that will bring in foot traffic, Mr. Mommsen gets the space, and together they hope to generate a stir on social media. Attendees may be invited by brokers, or they can book a reservation with Resident privately (for 150 a person). The developer pays for the Halstead sponsored dinners, which on the night the Garzas attended included such fare as scallops with Meyer lemon, turnip and chive, and Wagyu beef with sunchoke and black truffle, each with its own wine pairing. Guests were free to roam around the apartment, which was also hung with works by local street artists. But there was no hard sell. In fact, the only pitch that night was Mr. Mommsen's introduction of the chef. "Because it's a very intimate building, with just nine units, we felt that the marketing approach should be as such," said Jacob Hamway, a partner in Industrie. "Let people get together with good food in a social setting to really get a firsthand experience of the product. It's a really strategic approach it's new, it's edgy and I love it." Just a few weeks before, a different type of experience unfolded in a new townhouse for sale on Degraw Street, in Carroll Gardens. For two days, the townhouse's four floors played host to a "fleeting retail" event put together by Big Lives, a company that stages shopping events featuring rising designers. An invitation only Friday night event drew a packed house, while the Saturday open house was sparsely attended. Guests could try on jumpsuits created by Brooklyn based Combine De Filles and "size free" jackets by House Dress. The spacious master bath was given over to Loli organic beauty products. Several designers were there to chat with visitors, while Big Lives founder Sam Alston played hostess. Paige Goodings, 23, was among the Saturday shoppers, sporting a white, button up shirt created by Grammar, another designer brand in attendance. A special events coordinator at Karla Otto, Ms. Goodings said that while she wasn't currently in the market for a seven figure townhouse, she was a fan of Big Lives, and had been to several events in other locations. "It's somewhere new every time," she said. "I like being able to explore a new neighborhood in the city, and step out of what I'm used to." The listing agent, Rotem Lindenberg, with Compass, said it was the first time she'd linked a property with fashion. This townhouse, with its minimalist design vibe, a finished basement area suitable for use as a studio, and "a great backyard for inspiration," seemed particularly well suited to an event aimed at a creative minded audience, she said. "Even if those visitors weren't buyers, they have friends, families, parents it puts the word out there," Ms. Lindenberg said. "Two years ago, you just put a property on the website and it would sell by itself. Today, you have to be more creative about cooperating with other industries to make things happen." Ms. Field, with Sotheby's, has aligned 212 Fifth Avenue with a number of luxury brand partners for events targeting a select group of potential buyers for the building's 10,000 square foot penthouse. (The building, which has 47 units in all, is 90 percent sold, she said.) Among the events they've hosted since the penthouse went on the market in January 2018 (then for more than 70 million) are a chamber orchestra performance to raise money for music education and an exclusive preview of Fendi's upcoming fur collection. "I know that my penthouse buyer is going to come from the exposure through one of these events," Ms. Field said. "In a challenging market, you need to send the right message to the right people through the right events." Outside the city, the same trend is beginning to play out in suburban markets, though to a less ambitious degree. In Stamford, Conn., for example, Trinity Financial has used a series of experiential events to help build a brand around its 209 unit luxury rental complex, Vela on the Park, which is now almost fully leased at rents from 1,900 to 6,800 a month, said Abby Goldenfarb, a vice president in the Boston office of the developer. In February, they invited Sh t That I Knit, a Boston company that sells merino wool knitwear (mainly hats) handmade by women in Lima, Peru. "This is a creative, sophisticated company that is getting a lot of attention, and it helped us create a buzz on social media," Ms. Goldenfarb said. "The two hour event brought in people who may not lease, but now they know who we are. And it helps get the word out." In Wilton, Conn., Michele Ferguson Nichols, an agent with Douglas Elliman, recently attempted to draw attention to her listing on Pipers Hill Road by hosting an art show open house and organic cooking demonstration there. The five bedroom colonial, currently listed for 1.099 million, has been on and off the market for the past two years, and local agents "weren't paying a lot of attention to it anymore," Ms. Nichols said. The owner, Cabell Molina, is a multimedia artist and gallery owner, so she hung various works throughout the house. Ms. Nichols also spruced up the decor with creations by other local female entrepreneurs, including decorative sofa pillows and floral arrangements. She promoted a Thursday evening event for agents and a public open house. Only three agents showed up for the broker night initially a disappointment, but one later returned to show the house to a client. Turnout for the open house, where Chef Via Melissa prepared and served her versions of stuffed mushrooms and asparagus quesadillas, was a little more encouraging, with around 40 people. "I was hoping for more, but I'll take it!" Ms. Nichols said. If the event didn't yield any offers, it did result in five showings. "It was a good learning experience for me," Ms. Nichols said, "which will help me make the next event more successful." Because, in this housing market, there's always another event. For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: nytrealestate.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Real Estate
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The PGA Tour expanded coronavirus testing of players, caddies and officials this weekend after five time tour winner Nick Watney became the first golfer to test positive for the virus since golf's tournament schedule resumed last week following a three month layoff. Watney, 39, tested negative for the coronavirus at the RBC Heritage event in Hilton Head, S.C., on Tuesday and played in Thursday's first round. On Friday, he consulted with a physician after experiencing Covid 19 symptoms. The results of a subsequent test for the virus came back positive, and he withdrew from the competition. The tour's health protocols mandate that Watney begin a self isolation and recovery period of at least 10 days. He will not be allowed to compete until he comes up negative in additional tests. The PGA Tour resumed last week with a tournament in Fort Worth and since then nearly 1,000 virus tests have been administered in the pro golf community. Watney, who is currently ranked 234th in the world and has not won a PGA Tour event since 2012, was the first golfer, caddie or tour official to test positive. Officials for next week's Travelers Championship recently announced that they plan to increase testing, to include volunteers and members of the media.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Sports
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The salaries of the Los Angeles Galaxy's Javier Hernandez, who is known as Chicharito, and other top players will not be a part of the M.L.S. salary cap. Major League Soccer and its players announced an agreement in principle on Thursday for a five year collective bargaining agreement that raises pay and improves working conditions. But whether it will go far enough to enhance the respect M.L.S. carries in the soccer world remains in question. For years, M.L.S. has operated with a mission to become one of the world's top leagues in the 2020s, even as the price of attracting the best soccer talent in the world continues to rise and as the sport's top players earn annual salaries that dwarf what an M.L.S. club pays an entire roster. The new deal, which raises the league's limited salary cap a foreign concept in every other top league to 11.6 million from 8.5 million, represents an evolution in how the league operates, not a revolution. As M.L.S. enters its 25th season this month with 26 teams, and with four more being added by 2022, the financial restraints that have kept the league solvent far longer than any of its predecessors remain in place. On the other hand, those limits have hampered its ability to compete with leagues worldwide, critics say. The deal, which will run through the 2024 season, must still be approved by the league's board and the union membership. With the season starting on Feb. 29, and some teams beginning CONCACAF Champions League play a week and a half earlier, there was some pressure to complete the agreement before any games could be lost. The old collective bargaining agreement expired at the end of last month, but the two sides agreed to extend the deadline for reaching a new deal to Friday. Players will earn more money under the new agreement. In addition to the rise in the salary cap, the minimum salary for senior players will rise to 109,200 by 2024, from 70,250 last season, and players will see increased 401(k) contributions and other increases in benefits. The main mechanism by which teams can exceed spending limits to sign players like Javier Hernandez, known as Chicharito, and Carlos Vela three "designated player" roster slots remains largely the same. Also, the league removed a provision that limited which players could receive a specified pot of 1.2 million. That rule had served as an attempt to raise salaries for players who are good but not superstars players who make the rosters of teams in European leagues so much deeper. As far back as 2013, Don Garber, the league commissioner, stated that the goal of M.L.S. was to become one of the top leagues in the world by 2022. In 2015, he shifted the year to 2025. While the definition of a top league is amorphous, it is clear that M.L.S. dreams of competing with the English Premier League and Germany's Bundesliga. A more realistic goal would be to challenge leagues in the Netherlands, Portugal and Mexico. That could be difficult to accomplish under the new agreement. Although players will be paid more, and the designated player rule and other exceptions mean M.L.S. clubs can have more capital to sign players, the bottom half of M.L.S. rosters will continue to earn comparatively low wages. The average M.L.S. player earned 411,926 in guaranteed compensation in 2018, according to the M.L.S. players' union, but the median was 179,000, indicating that outsized compensation for a few players pulled that average up. A full third of the league, 238 players, earned less than 100,000. In 2018, Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, said the United States had "all the ingredients" for M.L.S. to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world. "As it is," he continued, "in the world, maybe it is No. 20 or 30," which is borne out by most rankings of world soccer leagues. The best team in M.L.S., Los Angeles F.C., is the 136th best team in the world, according to the data news site FiveThirtyEight's rankings. Twenty four other leagues have at least one team better than M.L.S., and the average ranking of all teams puts M.L.S. 20th, just behind the Greek Super League and just ahead of Germany's second division. M.L.S. isn't seen as the best league in its hemisphere, or even its continent. The Brazilian and Argentine leagues are better, and while the gap is shrinking, the Mexican league is ranked higher as well. No M.L.S. team has won the annual continental club championship since 2000, with Mexican clubs winning the last 14. M.L.S. is around the 10th highest grossing league in the world by revenue, according to multiple studies and reports. Team and player salary limits largely don't exist in soccer leagues in the rest of the world, and M.L.S. dedicates a much smaller percentage of its revenue to salaries than other leagues do. For the time being, however, there are a number of other provisions in the new agreement that will improve player pay and working conditions. The criteria for players to become eligible for free agency, which first came to M.L.S. in 2015, have been loosened. If players are 24 or older and have five years of service in M.L.S., they will become free agents when their contracts expire. Previously, they had to be at least 28 and have eight years of service time. Teams will have to use charter flights for eight legs of travel in 2020, as well as for all playoff matches and CONCACAF Champions League games requiring international travel. That figure will rise to 16 by 2024. The majority of travel will still involve commercial flights, as many team owners have objected to the cost of charter travel. Players could also directly share in media revenue for the first time. The league's national media rights agreements expire in 2022, and if the new agreements increase media revenue by 100 million or more, 25 percent of the increased revenue above 100 million will go to player salaries.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Sports
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"The Shadow of a Gunman," Sean O'Casey's tragicomic 1923 play about gun violence, patriotism and empty rhetoric, has returned to the Irish Repertory Theater, the first production in a season devoted to his work. And like most Irish Rep shows, there's little interest in reinterrogating the play: This is a revival, not a reinvention. Instead, the director Ciaran O'Reilly aims to show how playable "The Shadow of a Gunman" remains. Its context the Irish war of independence won't be especially familiar to most audiences, but the idea of people fighting and dying for beliefs they may understand only imperfectly isn't exactly dated. O'Casey, a luminary of the Anglo Irish renaissance, was a satiro comic writer with a big time dark side and an enduring faith in human self deception. He practiced the kind of realism in which you can smell how filthy the sheets are. Despite the comedy, the Dublin slum dwellers who populate his plays are fully realized characters, not shabby cartoons, and he had a cocked ear for the absurd poetry of their speech. He also knew how quickly and ruinously a joke might go wrong, how comedy can in an instant turn its face to tragedy. In "The Shadow of a Gunman," Donal Davoren (James Russell), a would be poet, and Seumas Shields (Michael Mellamphy), a threadbare peddler with I.R.A. sympathies, share a grungy tenement room. During an ordinary morning, Seumas's friend Mr. Maguire, an I.R.A. gunman, comes to drop off a bag, and Seumas tells Donal that everyone in the building thinks Donal is a gunman on the run. Donal doesn't hate the idea, especially when Minnie Powell (Meg Hennessy), the Republican babe a few rooms over, implies that she finds gunmen sexy. "What danger can there be in being the shadow of a gunman," he wonders to himself. Maybe he should look inside Maguire's bag.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Theater
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He wants to punish Europe but thousands of American businesses will suffer instead. I have spent 20 years building a wine import company. On Jan. 14, the Trump administration could destroy it all by imposing a 100 percent tariff on European wine. Mine is not the only American business that would suffer. The United States imports over 4.25 billion a year in European wine, which is handled by thousands of importers, distributors, wine stores and restaurants. In recent weeks we've all been scrambling to avoid disaster. We are sending emails and letters to clients, begging them to call their representatives in Congress. We are fighting not just to be able to drink European wine; we are fighting for our livelihoods and for our hundreds of thousands of employees. We have already been hurt by tariffs. In October a peak season for wine sales the government imposed a 25 percent tariff on French, Spanish and German wines, along with single malt Scotch and other European food products. I and most of the other importers I know spent weeks on the phone negotiating with winemakers to keep working with us. Many of them wanted to walk away from the United States market; after all, these days demand from Asia is huge. We cut margins and raised prices as little as possible, all the while wasting precious time we would have normally devoted to trying to increase our sales. Many American companies put the brakes on hiring and expansion plans, waiting to see if the tariff would come down after a few months. Instead, it's about to go much, much higher. Worse, the new tariff covers more products, including sparkling wine and wine over 14 percent alcohol content, categories that had been spared before. The purported reason for the tariffs is European financial support for the aerospace company Airbus, a major competitor of Boeing. The World Trade Organization declared that this support amounted to an unfair subsidy and in October approved retaliatory American tariffs on European luxury goods including cheese, olive oil, cashmere sweaters, handbags, cosmetics, spirits and wine. Tariffs do nothing to protect jobs. On the contrary, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has published a map showing how American businesses and consumers including those in areas whose elected officials loudly support these tariffs are already being harmed by a global trade war. You might think, "Who cares if the price of European wine goes up? People can just buy domestic wines instead." And they will. But in the process, the vast industry responsible for importing and selling billions of dollars in wine, whisky and other products from Europe will suffer especially small businesses with narrow profit margins. Investment will grind to a halt. People will lose jobs. Adding a new producer to our book from the Loire Valley? Not now! Ordering containers of wine? I'll wait to see if the tariffs go through. Some of the winemakers in our portfolio are among the most sought after in the world, with limited capacity to expand. If they cannot sell to the United States, they will gladly go to China or Russia and if the tariffs ever go back down, we could find ourselves at the back of the line. The wine industry is linked to other industries, like hospitality. Importing companies sell to wholesalers (which together employ 100,000 people), which sell to retail shops and restaurants (three million employees). Trucking, warehouse and shipping companies will all be affected. Office assistants, truck drivers, forklift operators, logistics coordinators, bookkeepers and restaurant chefs and servers could all see their jobs in peril. Full service restaurants are a 179 billion industry. High end restaurants that serve wine have done particularly well in the last five years, with wine sales making up for their losses on food. Likewise, wine and liquor stores are one of the few bright spots in the brick and mortar retail economy. They had an estimated total revenue of 61 billion in 2019, with a growing amount of that coming from high end, imported beverages. No one I know would argue that the Trump administration is wrong to protect American industries by pushing back when it sees unfair practices by other countries. But tariffs make no sense if we insist on charging European winemakers more to sell their products in the United States, they will easily find another buyer. The only ones hurt will be American businesses and consumers. My company plans to celebrate its 20th anniversary on April 19. We had been hoping to have a big party. If the tariffs go through, my employees and I could instead find ourselves on the unemployment line, mourning the loss of our livelihood and the death of an industry that has brought much joy to the world. Jenny Lefcourt is president and co founder of Jenny Francois Selections, a natural wine importer. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter ( NYTopinion) and Instagram.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Opinion
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LONDON Facebook is trying to make it easier for users to move photos from the social network to rival online services, reacting to European privacy laws and criticism from regulators that its size and control over data hinder competition. On Monday, Facebook said it would begin testing a "data portability" tool in Ireland that would allow users there to move photos and videos from Facebook to Google Photos. Critics immediately said the initiative did not go far enough. Facebook's control over personal data has been central to current antitrust investigations in Washington and Europe. Authorities say Facebook holds so much information about its users, data it uses to fuel its digital advertising business and improve its services, that it creates a competitive imbalance that rivals can't match. The company has long benefited from so called network effects, where the value of its services increases as more people join. But many users have felt they can't leave Facebook because transferring photos and videos elsewhere was too difficult. To foster more competition, officials have debated how to make companies let users take their content and data to other services.
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N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification
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Technology
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