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There is talk of Breitbart bureaus opening in Paris, Berlin and Cairo, spots where the populist right is on the rise. A bigger newsroom is coming in Washington, the better to cover a president elect whose candidacy it embraced. Mainstream news outlets are soul searching in the wake of being shocked by Donald J. Trump's election last week. But the team at Breitbart News, the right wing opinion and news website that some critics have denounced as a hate site, is elated and eager to expand on a victory that it views as a profound validation of its cause. "So much of the media mocked us, laughed at us, called us all sorts of names," Alexander Marlow, the site's editor in chief, said in an interview on Sunday. "And then for us to be seen as integral to the election of a president, despite all of that hatred, is something that we certainly enjoy, and savor." Breitbart not only championed Mr. Trump; its chairman, Stephen K. Bannon, helped run his campaign. On Sunday, Mr. Trump named Mr. Bannon as his chief White House strategist and senior counselor, further closing the distance between Breitbart's newsroom and the president elect. Those who consider Mr. Trump, who has vilified the news media, a threat to the free press view Mr. Bannon's appointment as more cause for alarm. Critics say Breitbart now has the potential to play an unprecedented role in a modern presidency, as a weaponized media adjunct for the White House. "It will be as close as we are ever going to have hopefully to a state run media enterprise," said Kurt Bardella, a former Breitbart spokesman who quit the site this year, saying it had turned into a de facto "super PAC" for Mr. Trump. Breitbart has been denounced as misogynist, racist and xenophobic, and it served as a clearinghouse for attacks on Mr. Trump's adversaries, spreading unsubstantiated rumors about Hillary Clinton's health and undermining its own reporter, Michelle Fields, after she accused Corey Lewandowski, then Mr. Trump's campaign manager, of assaulting her. But the site's influence on social media, where more and more Americans now consume information, has been palpable. On election night, Breitbart's Facebook page received the fourth highest number of user interactions on the entire platform beating Fox News, CNN and The New York Times. Mr. Marlow, the editor, praised Mr. Bannon on Sunday, saying, "Steve understands the voters, the American people, better than just about anyone." But he rejected the premise that Breitbart could become an American version of Pravda. "Our loyalty is not going to be to Donald Trump; our loyalty is to our readers and to our values," Mr. Marlow, 30, said. "That's regardless of what role Steve has." "If Trump runs his administration and honors the voters who voted him in, we're all good," Mr. Marlow added. "But if he is going to turn his back on those values and principles that drove his voters to the polls, we're going to be highly critical. We're not going to think twice about it." What happened on Day 2 of Elizabeth Holmes's testimony. Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay 31 million to the 'House of Cards' studio after sexual harassment allegations. For now, Breitbart is supporting the president elect. Its post Election Day coverage has been, if anything, emboldened: "Meltdown Continues: Wave of Fake 'Hate Crimes' Sweeps Social Media," read a headline on its home page on Sunday, attempting to cast doubt on a wave of reports of intimidation and harassment by Trump supporters. "Anti Democracy Crybabies March by Thousands Nationwide," read another. The site's expansion of political coverage comes at a time when other news outlets in Washington are concerned about staying relevant with readers and girding for tensions with a president elect who denounces reporters as dishonest, or worse. A spokesman for the White House Correspondents' Association, which coordinates press coverage of the White House, declined to comment on Mr. Bannon's appointment. Andrew Breitbart, the site's founder, who died in 2012, "used to talk about the Democrat media complex," recalled Ben Shapiro, Breitbart's former editor at large. "It's hard to think of a more Republican media complex than Breitbart and the Trump team," Mr. Shapiro said. "I'll be fascinated to see if there are any points of departure, any points of criticism at all." Outlets like Fox News, which has a large Republican audience, insist that Breitbart is no competitor, saying that an online only outlet with few known personalities can hardly compete with television networks that reach tens of millions of homes. Breitbart receives far fewer unique web visitors than Fox News's digital sites, according to statistics from comScore. Still, its Facebook audience has more than doubled in the last year, and it frequently sets the agenda for social media users with their own mass followings. The site has spotlighted nationalist views and conspiracies once relegated to the right wing fringe. Larry Solov, Breitbart's chief executive, declined on Sunday to provide revenue figures for the site. Nor would he comment on whether Mr. Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs banker, retains a financial stake. (Mr. Solov is a part owner, along with Andrew Breitbart's estate and the family of Robert Mercer, a wealthy Trump donor.) Speaking by telephone from Hearst Castle in California, which he was visiting for a postelection vacation, Mr. Solov said that his teams had been flooded with resumes from reporters and even some aspiring journalists with no experience, "who feel motivated and energized." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Theaters may have shut down across the world, but theater remains alive on our screens. Over the past few weeks, the number of new and archival shows available for home viewing has exploded. "We thought that people still want to experience stage performances in this period," Lisa Burger, a chief executive of the National Theater in London, said in a phone interview. Every Thursday, its new National Theater at Home initiative uploads an archived production on its YouTube channel, where it can be seen for free for a week. The series began with the wildly popular comedy "One Man, Two Guvnors," starring James Corden. "Some people even went as far as printing tickets," Burger said. In April, the Actors Theater of Louisville is usually busy with its Humana Festival of New American Plays. Now, two shows from this year's edition are available until April 20 through the company's new initiative, Actors Theater Direct. Tickets start at 15 and are good for only one viewing. Jeff Augustin's "Where the Mountain Meets the Sea" is about a father son relationship in a Haitian American family and features music by the Bengsons ("The Lucky Ones"). The other show on offer, "Are You There?," is an omnibus of three short plays about, fittingly, communication in a high tech age. This platform's rich, varied catalog includes plays and musicals, Broadway hits and lauded regional productions. (Subscriptions cost 8.99 a month or 99.99 a year.) If you want names, they're here: April additions include Elton John's wildly popular "Billy Elliot: The Musical," for instance. Truffle hounds should head straight to the eye popping "Vintage" section, where they can find Meryl Streep and Debbie Allen in "Alice at the Palace" (1982), or Ingrid Bergman in "The Human Voice" (1966). Disney has accrued quite the collection of earworms, and a good way to revisit them is with this tribute recorded at the New Amsterdam Theater in November. Starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, the concert whose performers include notable Disney alums like Susan Egan, Sherie Rene Scott and Sierra Boggess will be available for a week on the Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS YouTube channel and the sites of ABC owned TV stations nationwide, among others. The upload (rescheduled from Monday) is a fund raiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS's Covid 19 Emergency Assistance Fund. This Off Off Broadway institution's online offerings reflect its adventurous nature, with an emphasis on new opera, multimedia experiments and genre hybrids. An archival full length production is posted on Facebook every Wednesday at 7 p.m. and will remain available until HERE reopens. Coming up on April 15 is the fabulous "Arias With a Twist," a demented fantasy that combines Joey Arias's sultry lounge singing with Basil Twist's puppetry. This relative newcomer in the performing arts streaming game is stronger in dance, but it does have a big card up its theatrical sleeve: a deal with the Royal Shakespeare Company that includes a "Tempest" starring Simon Russell Beale. Also of note is the Donmar Warehouse's stupendous all female Shakespeare trilogy, led by Harriet Walter. Subscription plans start with a special of 69.99 a year, or 8.99 monthly; like many platforms, Marquee TV has extended its free trial period to 30 days. Good old, reliable public television: Nothing cutting edge in its web catalog, but cozy is just right for right now. The Great Performances series includes Kevin Kline in Noel Coward's "Present Laughter" and Danielle Brooks in a raucous "Much Ado About Nothing" recorded last year in Central Park. Head over to the culture hub All Arts for Ed Asner and Tovah Feldshuh in a "concert reading" of "The Soap Myth," or, in the vault area, a 1974 Shakespeare in the Park production of "King Lear" starring James Earl Jones in the title role, along with Raul Julia and Paul Sorvino. Playbill's new streaming series focusing on musicals starts Friday at 8 p.m. with a recording of the vastly underrated Broadway show "Bandstand" ( 6.99, through April 17). Corey Cott plays a World War II veteran who starts a swing ensemble made up of fellow vets; Laura Osnes co stars as a widow who joins the band as the singer. Andy Blankenbuehler won the 2017 Tony Award for best choreography and he deserved it. In just a few weeks, Jeremy Wein and Mirirai Sithole's scrappy new company has presented an impressive series of panels and readings featuring names like Tessa Thompson, Michael Urie and Celia Keenan Bolger. The readings must be watched live and start at 5, with proceeds going to various charities and arts organizations. The next installment, on April 17 at 8 p.m., is a reading of Jonathan Caren's "Four Woke Baes," directed by Susanna Fogel (writer of the films "Booksmart" and "The Spy Who Dumped Me"). The cast includes Gayle Rankin (Sheila the She Wolf on Netflix's "GLOW"), Malcolm Barrett ("Timeless") and Danny Pudi ("Community"). While many major European companies, such as the Comedie Francaise in France, are making shows available online, the Schaubuhne in Berlin is among the few to provide English subtitles for several of its daily offerings (mark your calendar as the plays don't stay up). Productions by the Schaubuhne's gifted artistic director, Thomas Ostermeier, turn up regularly, including Yasmina Reza's "Bella Figura" on Saturday, "Returning to Reims" on April 16 and "The Marriage of Maria Braun" on April 23. Another likely highlight is Simon McBurney's adaptation of the 1939 Stefan Zweig novel "Beware of Pity," on April 13. This British company, which operates in a reconstruction of the Elizabethan playhouse, keeps much of its large on demand catalog behind a paywall (about 7.30 to rent and 14.70 to buy), but it is rolling out several productions for free on its YouTube channel. The first out of the gate is a gender bending "Hamlet" starring the company's artistic director Michelle Terry (through April 19), to be followed by Dominic Dromgoole's "Romeo and Juliet" (April 20 May 3). "Stars in the House": Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley interview Kristin Chenoweth and Josh Bryant, with special guests Mary Mitchell Campbell and Raul Esparza. Created by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley, the charmingly lo fi "Stars in the House" features daily chat and sing sessions with Broadway stars like Kristin Chenoweth (who has a Saturday evening residency), Stephanie J. Block and Laura Benanti. Look for a "Desperate Housewives" reunion with Marcia Cross, Dana Delaney, Eva Longoria, Brenda Strong and Vanessa Williams on Sunday. Those webcasts remain available after they first stream, unlike the couple's reading series "Plays in the House," which must be watched live on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m. Next up on Saturday is a reading of David Lindsay Abaire's 1999 comedy "Fuddy Meers" by the original cast, led by J. Smith Cameron. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Directed by S. Leo Chiang and Yang Sun, "Our Time Machine" shows Maleonn, an energetic and still boyish looking fellow now in his 40s, enlisting his parents as collaborators in a multidisciplinary work called "Papa's Time Machine." The work is a tribute to his parents and also a way to preserve portions of the past, which are slipping away from Ma Ke as dementia erodes his memory. The movie begins with a quote from H.G. Wells about how each of us has our own time machine: memory to visit the past, dreaming to visit the future. This often visually beautiful movie sometimes ventures full time into Maleonn's own dreams and is frank in its depiction of the conflicts in the family as well as of Maleonn's struggles to be a good son and an active artist, as his ambitions for the project run ahead of his financial resources. Our Time Machine Not rated. In Chinese, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 26. Watch through virtual theaters. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Credit...Christian Monterrosa for The New York Times In early March, 36 Wesleyan University track and cross country alumni signed a letter describing a culture of rampant body shaming and eating disorders within the program that they said a prominent coach had fostered. In pleading for major changes, the athletes said the coach, John Crooke, had held "fat talks" with runners, telling them to lose weight to run faster. He told them to keep food diaries and check in with him to review their logs, they said in interviews. Athletes were told to not discuss those meetings with other runners. The university confirmed on Wednesday that Crooke retired last week. He did not answer requests for comment and officials at the Connecticut private school declined to elaborate on the decision. He is leaving the university after the athletes' anger and frustration redoubled when a four month investigation that concluded in July found he had not violated any policies and administrators placed him in charge of leading a cultural shift in athletics to address the concerns. The outcry over the coach was part of a wave of public denouncements by female athletes against coaching they have found abusive and exploitive. The Wesleyan letter was organized by Yuki Hebner, a 2017 alumna, who said she was motivated to do it after reading about Mary Cain, once America's most promising young runner, who said she experienced years of ridicule about her body from Alberto Salazar, her former coach. Salazar has denied the accusation. Hebner said she recognized her experience in Cain's words. "I knew it was still happening on my team," Hebner said. "The amount of pain that it caused me is preventable." She reached out to fellow alumni, and runners responded in droves. Hebner said multiple student athletes had complained to athletic department officials and to Crooke himself about Crooke's behavior since at least 2012, and nothing had been done. Many runners developed eating disorders and needed treatment. Many still struggle with their relationship with food and body image today. The university publicly announced that it had begun an investigation the same day, March 2, that the letter was published and in an email to students added that Crooke had been placed on leave. In their letter, the former runners didn't initially demand that Crooke be fired. They asked for sweeping changes to how coaches and administrators treat student athletes and respond to red flags. "This letter is not to disparage or oust the coach, but rather to shed light on a highly toxic culture that has gone unaddressed at Wesleyan for generations and continues to damage women long after they leave the program," Hebner wrote. The letter included a list of recommendations focused primarily on the cross country team alongside 24 testimonials and a timeline documenting when runners had gone to the athletic administration to voice their concerns. Yet, in the end, the university found Crooke had not violated any policies and reinstated him. He sent an email to the cross country team in mid July to prepare for the 2020 season. "Through a review of all information and interviews with more than 50 alumni and current students on the team, past and present assistant coaches and parents, it became clear to the investigative team that the experiences with Coach Crooke were extremely personal and varied widely with individual experience and expectation," Deborah Katz, a university spokeswoman, wrote in an email shared with The Times. Crooke was tasked with engaging with the current athletes "to discuss next steps" alongside the director of athletics, Mike Whalen, according to an email sent by Debbie Colucci of the university's office of equity and inclusion. Crooke and Whalen did not respond to requests for comment. Alumni and current student athletes said they were galled that the coach was anointed the leader to reform the environment he created. They also say the recommendations the university put forth were vague and lacked mechanisms for enforcement and accountability. "There needs to be an outside body requiring them to make the changes specified in our demands," said Rachel Unger, a 2015 graduate who helped organize the campaign. Current student athletes, who did not sign the letter in Wesleying, the student run blog where it was published, went directly to administrators to express their displeasure with the ruling, and threatened to quit if forced to run under Crooke. One current runner, who asked to remain anonymous as to not jeopardize her position with the team, said the coach had to go. "The only way I can see real change happening on our team is with him gone," she said. Team members said they learned of his departure Wednesday hours before publication of this article. Under Crooke, who would have entered his 21st season as head coach, the women's team has qualified for the N.C.A.A. Division III championship only twice since 2009, and the men's team last advanced in 2015. Retention on the team has been low. Claire Palmer, a 2014 graduate, said she remembers learning of the "fat talks" from more senior teammates during her first semester. But she was told not to worry; the coach wouldn't give that talk to first year students. Yet Brianna Parsons, another 2014 graduate, said she was brought into Crooke's office in her first year and was asked to lose weight to improve her race times. "It's hard to think back about it," she said, pausing. "I do remember the phrase 'overweight for a runner.'" Crooke told Parsons to write down everything she was eating and to review the journals with him, she said. He told her to keep their discussions private, just as he had done with other runners, because, he said, it would "cause people to stress and worry and it would negatively affect the team's performance," Parsons said. In the spring of 2012, Palmer spoke with the then outgoing athletic director John Biddiscombe and incoming athletic director Whalen about the culture on the track and cross country team. While her weight had not been addressed by the coach, she felt responsible to speak up on behalf of her teammates, bringing their testimonials to the meeting. She said they asked her what she wanted to change in her relationship with the coach. When Palmer said she was not concerned about her relationship with coach, the meeting came to a close. "If I was a better, faster runner maybe he would have had the 'fat talk' with me and I could talk about my own experience," she said. "I was trying to bring to light a cultural systemic problem. They weren't hearing that." When runners are told to drop weight, they can quickly and dangerously find themselves lacking the energy required to maintain their health, said Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, the director of the Female Athlete Program at Boston Children's Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ackerman pointed to Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports, a common syndrome in female runners marked by the loss of a period or missed periods, low bone density, disordered eating, and debilitating injuries. "People are not unidimensional," said Dr. Paula Quatromoni, an associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Boston University and an expert on the intersection of sports nutrition and eating disorders. The university had stopped short of responding to specific demands the former runners had made and experts have recommended. Unger, in an email to the administrators, pointed out line by line what she believed they had failed to address and asked for additional, clarifying information. "We need to make sure the pressure stays on," she said. Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan, responded to her email a few days later. "This will be a process with plenty of consultation, especially with current students and with alums, like yourself, who remain very engaged with the program," he wrote on Friday. The coach's retirement from Wesleyan went into effect the same day. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Now that the movie mogul has been convicted, Hollywood's culture of secrecy and exploitation and the cynicism that fuels it needs to be blown up. The Harvey Weinstein verdict is at once gravely disappointing and grimly satisfying. Until the verdict, the only sliver of satisfaction came from the fact that the legacy he built had been destroyed. Now, though, because he's been convicted of two out of five counts rape and criminal sexual act the first line in his obituary won't be about his Oscars or "alleged" acts, but about his felony convictions. His name will also forever be synonymous with the worst excesses of the entertainment world, whose power brokers have too often acted as if they were above the law. Harvey Weinstein is going to prison, and that is profound. (He faces other, similar charges in Los Angeles.) So, Weinstein is no more. Yet there are no silver linings here. Women were hurt and traumatized, and their lives and careers irreparably damaged. The verdict doesn't change that. Yes, there was a surge in activism after news of his abuse broke in October 2017, but women were already angry, already organizing. The African American activist Tarana Burke launched MeToo in 2006; the first Women's March took place in Jan. 2017, the day after Donald J. Trump became president. In the end, Weinstein is part of a far larger story about contemporary feminist activism, including in the entertainment industry, where women have been fighting sexism for decades. That sexism is both systemic and symptomatic of the industry's history of acting as if it is above the law. This has led to a wide range of exploitation including racism and on set fatalities, exploitation that has been habitually rationalized as the cost those without power pay for doing business in a putatively glamorous industry. It's hard to think of another business, outside of sex work, that has sexually exploited people so openly and whose abusive practices emblematized by the casting couch have been trivialized, at times with leering giggles. It's well known that the industry is grossly exploitative of both men and women why have we tolerated this? During Weinstein's decades long career, for instance, I occasionally heard accusations about his egregiously offensive, even threatening behavior: the male director he bullied, employees he screamed at, the journalists he tried to get fired. (I was one of the latter when I was a film critic for The Los Angeles Times.) Since the sexual allegations surfaced in 2017, I have often wondered why I never considered that his exploitation included sexual assault. For one thing, I found him too physically repulsive to even consider that sex or, more rather, the sexualized abuse of power was part of his modus operandi. It was easier not to think about it. It may seem puzzling that many bought Weinstein's charade. Yet mainstream journalism often operates under the assumption that there is an obvious division between the private and public spheres: the business section largely sticks to profits, losses and deals; the style section looks at families, wives, husbands, exes; the arts covers the creative output. Yet Weinstein himself demolished the divide between public and private by having business meetings in his hotel rooms and turning those meetings into sexual transactions. The nondisclosure agreements that some of his victims felt compelled to sign only reinforced this division, which gave him cover. What happened in his hotel room stayed in his hotel room, until it didn't. The history of American cinema is punctuated with similar outrages in hotel rooms and studio suites, one that is inseparable from its history of routine racism and sexism, structural discrimination, individual affronts and even criminal assaults. One of the significant differences between many of the wrongdoings in the past and those done by Weinstein is that he was put on trial. In old Hollywood, trespasses and illegal offenses were regularly cleaned up and hushed up by fixers like Eddie Mannix, an executive and enforcer for Metro Goldwyn Mayer back in its glossiest, outwardly glamorous heyday when any whiff of scandal, any ostensible deviance, was quietly concealed. Navigating abuse could be tough for women in old Hollywood both because they were generally excluded from power positions in the industry and because their on camera value was sometimes contingent on their perceived desirability. When it came to actresses, the director Elia Kazan said, the studio bosses had "a simple rule": Do I want to have sex with her? Like women in the outside world, women in film nevertheless worked and some thrived. They stuck around because they needed the work, because they loved the work. You can, after all, be a victim and flourish. Yet without power or legal protections, they had to submit, ignore, dodge or fight back. That women continued to fight or submit and still do makes it clear that, post Weinstein, we need to rethink how some stories about the industry are framed, and who benefits from certain kinds of framing and why. Like journalism, American film history tends to be rather too neatly divided between sober, apparently disinterested chronicles and gossipy counter histories, some persuasive, others fantastical. The sober side likes to package the past into biographical portraits, production practices and technological innovations; sometimes, they nod at the more unsavory stories and use words like womanizer when they really mean rapist. The gossipy accounts, by contrast, repeat unsourced or unconvincing dirt about abusers and victims. I assume that some historians and journalists omit certain of these appalling stories because they dismiss them as mere gossip and perhaps tantamount to fake news. Yet like Weinstein's assaults, this behavior Twentieth Century Fox's longtime boss Darryl F. Zanuck had a well documented habit of flashing his penis at women is as much a part of American film history as the organization of labor, the invention of new lenses and executive decisions. These abuses are, in turn, part of a larger, complex and contradiction filled story about women, men and power, one that involves every aspect of American cinema and which created an overwhelmingly white, male dominated business that has remained stubbornly resistant to change. Not long after the recent death of a movie star, my colleague, the critic Jessica Kiang, sent out a tweet stating that "We're going to have to get better at memorializing great men with astonishing, unassailable professional legacies who also did, or were credibly rumored to have done, awful things." I knew the story she meant involved a now dead teenage starlet who, in the mid 1950s, is said to have been raped by the dead male star. I won't identify either here because I haven't found a convincingly reported account. Like Kiang, I am not sure what we should do with gossip. Yet I agree that we need to figure out what to do with the shadowy corners. "The rumor mill," as Kiang wrote in follow up tweets, "is the only way that many real stories of rape/abuse have been recorded, because of the silencing mechanisms of 20th century sexism, and that to ignore them wholesale on the basis of their unverifiability is to perpetuate a broken system." Before Weinstein's fall there were several attempts to see if the rumors of sexual predation were true. David Carr, of The New York Times, and Ken Auletta, of The New Yorker, both tried to get that story. People were too afraid of Weinstein or had signed NDAs. That said, this doesn't explain why so many other reporters continued to run flattering profiles of him, to solicit his opinions and quotable commentary, and helped turn him into a boldface name. Journalists described him as "brash" and "aggressive," predictably referred to his swagger and belligerent business practices, fawning over him to secure the access that, in turn, helped secure their own reputations. He made for good copy. He was "a star," as one reporter told me. Even when Weinstein publicly crossed the line almost coming to blows with a rival at Sundance in the 1990s, for instance the nastiness faded, becoming part of his roguish public identity."He's a Hollywood legend of the old school," one 2003 article cooed. A year later, I wrote a jokey story in the form of a letter ("Dear Harvey") about missing Weinstein in that year's Oscar race. It wasn't funny then, it's excruciating to reread now. That kind of blithe attitude, however ironically couched, helps the industry continue its self protective culture of secrecy. That culture needs to be blown up. That doesn't mean we should risk destroying lives based on rumor, to be clear. But if the same stories keep circulating attention should be paid. Maybe those rumors deserve a closer reported look or at least skepticism about power, rather than cheap jokes and cynicism. Power brokers who behave as if they are above the law depend on that cynicism, with the winks and jaundiced shrugs that help maintain the status quo. The Weinstein story, it is worth remembering, wasn't broken by entertainment journalists who need him to fluff up their copy. Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey broke the story in The New York Times; Ronan Farrow followed up soon after with his own revelations in The New Yorker. Simply wishing Weinstein away would be too easy; it would also be in keeping with the industry's history of erasing its wrongs with plastic smiles and dissimulating public relations. If anything, we need to keep telling and retelling the story of what Weinstein did and how he did it, to see it as part of the complicated, intertwined legacy of Hollywood history, entrenched misogyny and the dangerous fetishization of powerful men. We need to keep reminding ourselves of the mind blowing measures that some extremely wealthy, seemingly untouchable people will take to protect themselves. Because if we do, we will also remember that power can be destroyed. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
At left: the Carnival Panorama, which was docked in Long Beach, Calif., while a passenger was tested for coronavirus. Passengers were allowed to disembark after a delay. At right: Micky Arison, chairman of the Carnival Corporation, offered his idled ships as makeshift hospitals. WASHINGTON The idea was floated between friends. At White House news conferences on Thursday and Friday, President Trump told reporters that Micky Arison, a former business associate and the chairman of Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise operator, had offered to make its ships available as floating hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic. They would be used for patients battling illnesses unrelated to the coronavirus, to relieve strain on the health care system. "You could increase places to stay. Let's say places to stay, if it works. I mean, you know, I don't know. Maybe people won't want them, but he made the offer. It was a very generous offer," Mr. Trump said on Thursday, adding that the cruise ships would present "lots of rooms" and could be docked in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. "We're discussing where it can be most useful," he added on Friday when asked about the idea. "If we needed something, they would be willing to. So far, we haven't needed to." The idea, which the White House declined to explain, was Mr. Trump's latest in a string of seeming improvisations, as he has come under pressure from states facing the prospect of swarms of new patients in hospitals running out of room to care for them. Like a new but limited Google related testing website and an experimental antiviral treatment he has praised in the past week, they are free form relief ideas, independent of his administration's official policymaking. Roger Frizzell, a spokesman for Carnival Corporation, said that the ships for hire idea had been discussed for days, and escalated quickly after Mr. Arison spoke to the president on Thursday. Carnival, which made close to 19 billion as recently as 2018, would not profit from the plan, Mr. Frizzell said, and would only charge for "essential costs" like food and drink. But an abrupt transfer of hospital patients would likely mean that outside medical staff would need to contribute to the efforts. If a city or hospital needs to transform the facility, Mr. Frizzell said, they would have to cover the costs. An American city and a foreign country have been in touch with Carnival in the past 24 hours about the offer, Mr. Frizzell said, declining to identify them. The potential public private partnership with Carnival has also prompted concerns about how Mr. Trump might be leveraging past business relationships in a public health crisis. Carnival has been at the center of the coronavirus storm, since the Diamond Princess cruise ship, operated by its Princess division, was first quarantined in Yokohama, Japan, on Feb. 3, with an outbreak onboard. More than 700 people fell ill, and the company's response has been criticized as slow and inadequate. The president has talked to Mr. Arison a handful of times in recent months as the cruise industry has fallen on hard times; they spoke in particular about yet another Carnival ship, the Westerdam, which was turned away from several ports in Asia over coronavirus fears in mid February. The ship ended up docking in Cambodia. Mr. Trump spoke to Mr. Arison twice before the docking, according to people familiar with the calls, and at least once before their conversation this week. One passenger tested positive for the coronavirus, but that was later said to be in error. Mr. Trump and Mr. Arison have been associates for over a decade, and their businesses have at times overlapped. There was a 2005 "Apprentice Legend Cruise" from New York to the Caribbean that included cast members from the show. And Carnival sponsored "The New Celebrity Apprentice" reality series, which was broadcast in 2017. If Carnival supplies cruise ships to the public, it would not be the first time it has responded to health emergencies in the United States. The federal government has used the company's vessels several times after crippling hurricanes, including in 2005, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency spent 236 million in a hastily signed agreement with Carnival for three ships on the Mississippi River and in Mobile Bay, and tens of millions more for another ship that housed relief workers on the island of St. Croix after Hurricane Maria. The difference this time, public health experts warned, is the rapid transformation of the ships, which are designed like hotels, into hospital like space for an unknown variety of ailments. Carnival said that up to 1,000 rooms could be outfitted with remote monitoring devices, and that up to seven intensive care units with ventilators could handle another batch of patients. Inspectors for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year gave the Carnival ship Fantasy one of its worst ratings ever, noting that it had "brown water discharged from two shower hoses in the medical center." And epidemiologists have said that the layout of cruises makes them especially vulnerable to disease spread; ships have often had to deal with outbreaks of norovirus. In recent years, Carnival has had to pay tens of millions of dollars in fines for illegally dumping oil contaminated waste into the sea, discharging plastic into waters in the Bahamas, falsifying records and interfering with court supervision of ships by sending in teams ahead of inspections to pre empt environmental violations. Mr. Trump on Friday said that the Carnival ships are "very clean." For health emergencies, cruise ships are a "worst case scenario," said Tara C. Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Kent State University who has written about the health challenges of cruise travel. "All of the rooms are very tiny. They're difficult to get in and out of," she said. "Even if you're not thinking about Covid 19, you still need to think about infection control." Ms. Smith said that transmission of normal infectious agents like MRSA, which is common in hospitals, could introduce other kinds of outbreaks on ships that might not have trained janitorial workers familiar with hospital procedures. Carnival is among the cruise companies that suspended operations to and from American ports earlier this month, and the industry globally is at an almost total halt. After lively debates between officials on the Trump administration's coronavirus task force, the State Department this month advised Americans against traveling on cruises, warning that they presented a higher risk of coronavirus infection and made people vulnerable to possible international travel restrictions. Demand for cruises, which form a 45 billion global industry, had already plummeted in recent months after the high profile outbreaks on ships. Cruise companies have had to pull new lines of credit as their stocks have dropped dramatically amid cancellations. Industry experts have estimated that it can cost a large company millions of dollars to cancel even a four day cruise. Mr. Trump has said the cruise industry is a "prime candidate" for a bailout in the coming months. Carnival defended its push to provide ships to areas with severe outbreaks of the coronavirus, saying that it was a way to use its vessels that otherwise would be docked or anchored but without passengers. "We just want to help and try to make a difference, since we find ourselves in this very unusual position where our ships are paused right now," said Mr. Frizzell, the Carnival Corporation spokesman. Critics said that Mr. Trump's idea could be a way for the company to carve out new revenue, camouflaged as a sunny public relations maneuver, with costs that could include staffing and maintenance. "It's a way of generating income, so they can generate a million or two million in income. They're not idiots," said Ross Klein, a sociologist at Memorial University of Newfoundland who studies the cruise industry. Mr. Klein said that it was suspicious that the Trump administration would not look to other cruise companies around the world that might make a contract competitive. Carnival, he said, could dock off the American coasts as the beneficiary of friendly loopholes in the tax code, which have allowed the company to pay virtually no corporate taxes. "Why not put out a bid?" Mr. Klein said. "Maybe there's a foreign vessel that would come over here and do it cheaper." To help alleviate the pressure on hospitals, Mr. Trump on Wednesday promised that two Navy hospital ships would be deployed to the east and west coasts and "launched over the next week or so," a claim that Mark T. Esper, the defense secretary, had to quickly walk back, saying it would take at least several weeks. Unlike the Carnival ships, the U.S.N.S. Comfort, which is being prepared in Norfolk, Va., is outfitted with a hospital like layout and geared for trauma care, with as many as 1,200 doctors, nurses and other medical specialists, who can use the ship's dozen operating rooms and radiological and laboratory resources. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York called the U.S.N.S. Comfort "literally a floating hospital." "The Navy hospital ships were purposefully altered to be floating hospitals," said Bryan McGrath, a national security consultant and managing director of the FerryBridge Group. "Carnival cruise ships are built for a very different purpose, and I suspect a bit of a gimmick here in using them for this purpose in order to justify provision of economic relief to the cruise ship industry." Noah Weiland reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York. Tariro Mzezewa contributed reporting. Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Akram Khan's "XENOS" begins pleasantly, with a concert of Indian classical music in progress as the audience walks in. The sound and the colors are warm, enveloping; the vocalist Aditya Prakas and percussionist BC Manjunath sit on the floor of what looks like a lavish living room. But periodically lightning seems to strike the stage, and static drowns out their music, foretelling the struggle and isolation to come. "Xenos" is Greek for stranger or foreigner, and in this affecting but at times overbearing work, which had its United States premiere on Wednesday at the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center, Mr. Khan embodies a lost, tortured soul. Billed as his final full length solo he is 44 and, understandably, ready to give his body a rest the show draws from stories of the more than one million Indian soldiers enlisted by the British in World War I. In an interview in the program, Mr. Khan, who grew up in London with Bangladeshi parents, said he was shocked to learn of these soldiers only a few years ago, that he hadn't known this part of history. "The untold stories need to be told," he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
A local investor has bought this 1913 five story walk up. The mixed use building, 40 feet wide and with 12,100 square feet, has been owned by the same family for 34 years. Half of its eight two bedroom apartments are market rate and vacant; the other half are rent stabilized and occupied. A travel agency/check cashing outlet and a nail and hair salon occupy the ground floor. The maker and distributor of Brooklyn Republic Vodka, formerly in Clinton Hill, has signed a five year lease, with a five year option to renew, for this 3,300 square foot 1964 one story, column free warehouse, which has a small office and 15 foot ceilings. The owner is installing a drive in garage door. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Mirza, the landlord of Fatima Mahal, the picturesquely crumbling mansion at the center of the Hindi film "Gulabo Sitabo" (streaming on Amazon Prime), is fighting a long, cranky war with the tenants he regards as vermin in his house. He steals their light bulbs, cuts their power and locks them out of spare bathrooms when the communal latrine becomes unusable. A swift kick of frustration was all it took to make a person size hole in its wall. The main focus of Mirza's hostility is Baankey, who lives with his mother and sisters in a few crowded rooms, and pays the grandfathered in rent of 30 rupees (less than a dollar). When their battle escalates who will pay to fix the bathroom wall? a small time lawyer becomes involved. Also snooping around: a government archaeologist, who has his own plans for Fatima Mahal. Set in old Lucknow, with the modern world intruding at first only in a few objects (a motorcycle, a cellphone), "Gulabo Sitabo" is at once a lightly allegorical riff on the forces and counterforces of Indian modernization and a character based comedy powered by two Bollywood stars. In one corner, the heavyweight champ: Amitabh Bachchan, Hindi cinema's angry young man turned grand old man. Hunched over and mumbling, his famous face hidden behind a bushy beard and a hawklike prosthetic nose, Bachchan plays Mirza with a character actor's delicacy and attention to detail. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
The television star Nick Cannon was fired by ViacomCBS on Tuesday for making anti Semitic remarks during a recent podcast in which he discussed conspiracy theories about Jewish people and praised a minister notorious for anti Jewish comments. ViacomCBS is the parent company of MTV and the cable channel TeenNick, both of which prominently showcased Mr. Cannon for years on various platforms. Mr. Cannon, 39, had worked as an executive producer and chairman of TeenNick, a spinoff of the network Nickelodeon geared toward teenagers. He had also been a host and executive producer of the MTV comedy show "Wild 'N Out." A ViacomCBS spokeswoman said in a statement that the company categorically denounced all forms of anti Semitism. "We have spoken with Nick Cannon about an episode of his podcast 'Cannon's Class' on YouTube, which promoted hateful speech and spread anti Semitic conspiracy theories," she said. "While we support ongoing education and dialogue in the fight against bigotry, we are deeply troubled that Nick has failed to acknowledge or apologize for perpetuating anti Semitism, and we are terminating our relationship with him." On Twitter on Monday, Mr. Cannon said, "Anyone who knows me knows that I have no hate in my heart nor malice intentions." On Wednesday, Mr. Cannon said in a statement on Facebook that he "must apologize to my Jewish Brothers and Sisters for putting them in such a painful position, which was never my intention." "Systemic racism is what this world was built on and was the subject in which I was attempting to highlight in the recent clips that have been circulating from my podcast," he said. "If I have furthered the hate speech, I wholeheartedly apologize." In the lengthy statement, Mr. Cannon said he was "now receiving death threats, hate messages," but also an "outpouring of love and support from the Jewish community." He said he had "dedicated my daily efforts to continuing conversations to bring the Jewish Community and the African American community closer together." Mr. Cannon said that he had tried to speak with Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of ViacomCBS, "to have a conversation of reconciliation and actually apologize if I said anything that pained or hurt her or her community." But he said he had heard "Dead Silence!" and that ViacomCBS "wanted to show me who is boss, hang me out to dry and make an example of anyone who says something they don't agree with." He also accused the company of "mistreating and robbing our community for years" and of "underpaying talent on their biggest brands." Mr. Cannon demanded an apology from ViacomCBS, full ownership of the "Wild 'N Out" brand and an end to "the hate and backdoor bullying." Mr. Cannon, an actor and a musician, is also a host of the Fox show "The Masked Singer." In a statement on Wednesday night, Fox said that it immediately spoke with Mr. Cannon about the situation and was satisfied with his response. "He is clear and remorseful that his words were wrong and lacked both understanding and context, and inadvertently promoted hate," Fox said in the statement. "Nick has sincerely apologized, and quickly taken steps to educate himself and make amends," the statement continued. "On that basis and given a belief that this moment calls for dialogue, we will move forward with Nick and help him advance this important conversation, broadly." Mr. Cannon's dismissal by ViacomCBS came after the star wide receiver DeSean Jackson was fined and disciplined by the Philadelphia Eagles last week for sharing an anti Semitic quotation attributed to Hitler. On the June 30 episode of his YouTube podcast an audio only version of the interview was posted a week earlier on podcasting platforms Mr. Cannon spoke with the rapper Richard Griffin, known as Professor Griff, about his dismissal from the hip hop group Public Enemy in 1989. Mr. Griffin left the group after he said in an interview with The Washington Times: "The Jews are wicked. And we can prove this." He also said that Jews were responsible for "the majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe." Speaking to Mr. Cannon, Mr. Griffin doubled down on his past remarks about the influence of Jewish people on the music and media industries. "I'm hated now because I told the truth," Mr. Griffin said. "You're speaking facts," Mr. Cannon said. "There's no reason to be scared of anything when you're speaking the truth." Mr. Cannon said it was an honor to have the "legend" Mr. Griffin on his podcast. He also said it was a shame that Louis Farrakhan, a minister known for his history of anti Semitic comments, had been silenced on Facebook. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
In the summer of 2013, R. C. and Valari Staab were searching for a rental at the beach as an escape from their apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, with a few requirements in mind. "It had to be close to the city, accessible by public transportation, and the public transportation had to allow you to bring pets, because we didn't have a car," said Mr. Staab, a playwright. They soon determined that the Seastreak ferry was their best option. After studying its routes, they rented a small cabin in Sea Bright, N.J., a borough on a sliver of land between the ocean and the Shrewsbury River, just south of Sandy Hook. Although the area was still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, which had wreaked havoc there the previous fall, the Staabs were smitten and determined to build their own home there. "He likes to swim in the ocean and I like to swim in the river," said Ms. Staab, the president of NBC Universal owned television stations. In Sea Bright, they could easily do both, or they could walk along the beach with their dog, Jack, in the morning, and go stand up paddle boarding on the river in the afternoon. In 2015, they bought two adjacent empty lots that stretched from ocean to river, interrupted only by the single avenue that passes through the borough, for 1.6 million. The Staabs had plenty of ideas about what they wanted to build. "We wanted it very connected to the land and to feel like Sandy Hook," Ms. Staab said. "We wanted to be able to live on one floor, because we hope we have the house forever." "We're not just sticking it on stilts, but having it be one with the landscape, so that it's meant to work with the water and wind," said James Ramsey, a principal of Raad. "We wanted to restore the dune scape that we imagined might have once been there, paying attention to the way that water might sluice back and forth through the site." There was just one problem: There were no dunes. "It was a tabletop, just a flat plane," said David Kamp, the principal of Dirtworks Landscape Architecture, which designed the outdoor space. Still, the architects directed the contractor, Lead Dog Custom Homes, to build a network of concrete walls and piers to underpin the house and decking. Then, a design by Dirtworks, built by the Todd Group, covered much of that structure with enormous mounds of sand planted with beach grasses and plants like serviceberry, bayberry and beach rose. Completed in May for about 2.4 million, the 2,400 square foot house is reached by an elevator or by a light filled glass stairwell topped by skylights. The main level holds an open living room, dining area and kitchen as well as the master suite. Two guest suites are upstairs. All the furniture and finishes are designed to be carefree, including porcelain counters in the kitchen that won't etch or stain if wine is spilled, and indoor outdoor upholstery fabric that can stand up to wet swimsuits and sun. "We just wanted it to be comfortable, livable and easy to maintain," said Meryl Santopietro, the couple's interior designer. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
FRANKFURT The European economy grew more slowly than expected in the fourth quarter of 2010, a sign that some countries are still suffering from too much debt and not enough competitiveness. Gross domestic product in the euro zone, which included 16 countries in 2010, grew an estimated 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter, Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, said Tuesday. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast euro area growth of 0.4 percent. The three biggest countries Germany, France and Italy also expanded more slowly than expected. "In a climate of strong global demand and very low interest rates, the region should in fact be achieving far stronger growth," economists from Commerzbank said in a note. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
With the snowbird migration underway, warm weather deals can be hard to find. But winter is a good time to seek a bargain in cities, especially cities where the cold weather may be bleak. But what's a little rain to a museum goer? Stay in New York during the period of Jan. 6 to 15 to participate in the deals offered by Hotel Week NYC. Over a dozen hotels, many of which regularly charge at least 500 a night, will offer rooms for 100 or 200 a night. They include the Archer Hotel New York in the garment district ( 200), the Cosmopolitan Hotel TriBeCa ( 100), the Hotel Gansevoort in the meatpacking district ( 200) and the Econo Lodge Times Square ( 100). Most require a booking code found at the Hotel Week NYC website. In Canada, Montreal will mark its 375th birthday in 2017. To celebrate, a number of hotels are offering Sweet Deals accommodation packages from Jan. 1 to April 30 with 50 percent off room rates the second night. The collection of hotels represents a range of prices, from budget to luxury, and includes Hotel Le Saint Sulpice next to the Notre Dame Basilica, from 139 for the first night; and the Hotel Le Crystal downtown with an indoor pool, from 122. Travelers booking these deals will also receive a discount booklet with coupons for activities and attractions valued up to 290. Between Jan. 12 and Feb. 4, Igloofest will take place, including an igloo village and a snowsuit contest. Salt Lake City is day trip distance from four ski resorts. Many hotels are offering special rates beginning at 118 a night downtown. The Super Pass, which starts at 82 a day with a three day minimum, offers ski access to Alta, Brighton, Snowbird and Solitude resorts and 20 to 40 percent off ski rentals. It also includes rides on the light rail line and ski buses to and from the resorts. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
This, she explains, is a return to her roots. In her early 30s, she's moved back to Los Angeles (specifically to a metaphorically ideal, ramshackle cabin on a crumbling hillside in Laurel Canyon), and is using this time "while I wait for my next life to start" to call up her childhood and discover how she became "a woman in love with conflict." Danler tries to impose structure onto this wide webbed life story, which ranges from her birth right up to the writing of this book. Its first section, "Mother," details the woman who raised two daughters alone, working 40 hours a week as a secretary, helplessly attached to the bottle, and eventually the victim of a crippling brain aneurysm. Somewhat down on her luck, Danler's mother was raised with the grit and sense of taste to always elevate herself above her station. Mason Pearson hairbrushes, "an extravagance that started with my great grandmother Adelaide and has made its way to me," still remind Danler of the time her mother hit her with one across the cheek. In the next section, "Father," come the travails of her once successful aerospace engineer father, who fled her life when she was 3 but took her back in again in high school, only to leave her with "no real supervision," but plenty of NyQuil and Ambien to lull herself to sleep. He is, she learns from her aunt at age 8, a cocaine addict, albeit a charming one. The third and final section is devoted to "the Monster," a married man with whom Danler has been carrying on an uncertain love affair. He's a jerk. (There's real pleasure to be found in imagining him reading "Stray.") The table of contents is a veritable who's who of the people who have let Danler down. The question Danler seems to be asking of herself in "Stray" is: Am I a victim or a perpetrator? Or: How does a victim become a perpetrator? Certainly, tales of her mother yanking her hair and screaming in her face ("You think you're special? You think you're the only one who wants to die?") are alarming, even for a jaded reader of the most perturbing memoirs. But Danler in turn inherits her parents' genes for self destruction and self regard. She wants the Monster to reveal their affair and leave his wife. As a teenager she pushes her mother down the stairs. When her younger sister confronts her, in adulthood, about having abandoned her with their negligent if not malignant parents, the author hisses at her to stop crying and tells her to "get out of this house if you really feel that way." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
An investigation by NBCUniversal's legal team exonerated NBC News management of any wrongdoing regarding Matt Lauer's workplace conduct, the company said on Wednesday. The report came five months after NBC News fired Mr. Lauer, the former "Today" show star, following a complaint about inappropriate sexual behavior with a subordinate. Although the inquiry absolved network leaders, NBC also faced concerns including from Mr. Lauer's former "Today" show co anchor, Ann Curry about how thoroughly it had investigated itself. "We found no evidence indicating that any NBC News or 'Today' show leadership, News H.R. or others in positions of authority in the News Division received any complaints about Lauer's workplace behavior prior to Nov. 27, 2017," the report concluded. In the wake of Mr. Lauer's ouster, there had been questions about what executives at the network knew about their star's behavior. But unlike other news organizations, like Fox News and NPR, that have dealt with workplace misbehavior, NBC News opted not to have an outside legal firm conduct its review. The investigation was overseen by Kimberley D. Harris, the general counsel of NBCUniversal. After facing some criticism on Wednesday, a company spokeswoman clarified that two law firms, Proskauer Rose and Davis Polk Wardwell, had been consulted. "Proskauer Rose and Davis Polk both reviewed the report and gave their stamp of approval on the methodology and findings and recommendations for next steps," said Hilary Smith, the senior vice president of corporate communications at NBCUniversal. Lawyers for those firms did not sit in on interviews with NBC employees or supervise the investigation, Ms. Smith said. Before the investigation ended, she said, "we consulted the law firms to be sure we conducted an appropriate process. There was nothing else they recommended we do." More pushback came from Ms. Curry, who was quoted in The Washington Post last month saying that she had once urged two NBC managers "to keep an eye on" Mr. Lauer, after hearing that her co host had harassed a staff member. (Ms. Curry was forced out of her co anchor job at the "Today" show in 2012.) On Wednesday, NBC's legal team said that Ms. Curry had "a discussion" with the network's investigators, and, in reference to Ms. Curry's comments to The Post, noted that "members of NBC News and 'Today' show leadership at the time with whom we spoke denied having any such conversation with Curry." Ms. Curry took issue with that characterization. "I have not participated in any formal investigation by NBC on sexual harassment," she wrote in a statement. Instead, according to a person briefed on the conversation, Ms. Curry received an unexpected phone call from an NBCUniversal lawyer, shortly before The Post's article was published. The call, which did not last long, was focused solely on what Ms. Curry had told The Post, the person said. There was no follow up conversation with Ms. Curry, who said she stood by what she told the Post. Ms. Smith, the spokeswoman, said that a NBCUniversal lawyer involved in the investigation reached out to Ms. Curry after the network learned of her comments to The Post. 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. "Ann declined to name the alleged complainant, nor would she identify the person in management to whom she says she raised a concern at the time about Lauer," Ms. Smith said. "This is accurately noted in our report." NBC News and in particular its chairman, Andrew Lack, who was close to Mr. Lauer has faced scrutiny about whether a culture of harassment was allowed to fester at the network. Last month, allegations surfaced that Tom Brokaw, the network's longtime anchor, had harassed a correspondent in the 1990s. Mr. Brokaw denied the claims, but the news coverage was a reminder that the NBC investigation, promised by executives in the wake of Mr. Lauer's firing last year, had not yet emerged. The report, sent to NBC employees on Wednesday morning, did include some caveats. One woman, who eventually came forward about a sexual encounter with Mr. Lauer, said she told a manager in 1996 about an interaction where Mr. Lauer "placed his hand on her thigh and made a sexually suggestive comment." The manager, who was not identified, agreed at the time to reassign the woman so that she would not travel alongside Mr. Lauer. The report also said that, of four women who filed complaints about Mr. Lauer's misbehavior, two believed that senior managers at NBC News and the "Today" show were aware of the anchor's sexual misconduct. "The former leaders with whom we spoke denied any such knowledge, however, and we were unable to otherwise substantiate it," the report said. NBC's investigators said they interviewed 68 individuals for the report, including current management at the news division and current and former members of the "Today" staff. The report indicated that former NBC News executives were contacted, but did not say whether interviews with those executives had taken place. Following the release of Wednesday's report, the woman who accused Mr. Brokaw, Linda Vester, wrote an op ed column in The Post that criticized NBC for relying on its own in house counsel. "I want NBC to stop fighting MeToo within its own walls," Ms. Vester wrote. "I ask NBCUniversal to retain an outside investigator to look into sexual harassment and any coverup of sexual harassment at NBC News." An advocacy group that grew out of the MeToo movement, Press Forward, also issued a statement describing the nature of NBC's review as "an inherent conflict of interest." The group, which is focused on improving workplace environments for women in the media industry, added, "No one is going to be fully candid when speaking to management for fear of losing their jobs." If there was criticism to be found in the NBC report, it came in an assessment of NBC News's human resources operation. The investigators found it "troubling" that no formal complaints had been filed about Mr. Lauer despite his engaging in sexual relationships with subordinates. The report found that network staff members were fearful of retaliation and did not feel confident that their complaints would be kept confidential, in part because human resources managers occupied glass walled offices in full view of other NBC News employees. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Facebook and some of the other largest technology firms in the world faced sharp criticism on Wednesday for failing to disclose the extent of the social network's data sharing deals, many of which went back to the company's early years. Details of the deals, revealed in a New York Times report on Tuesday, set in motion a fresh round of rebukes from legislators who had singled out Facebook's sharing practices in the recent past. And they came at a moment when the Trump administration, Congress and even some Silicon Valley executives are calling for stricter privacy laws that would govern Facebook and other businesses that trade in huge amounts of personal information. Lawmakers in the United States and Britain on Wednesday called for greater oversight of Facebook, the world's dominant social media platform. But critics also focused on statements that Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, had made in recent months while defending the company. Senator John Kennedy, the Louisiana Republican, said the revelations made him question Mr. Zuckerberg's decision making. "I know he's smart, but sometimes I think he's got no sense," Mr. Kennedy told Fox News, adding that the disclosures were cause to consider stricter privacy laws. "Congress is going to have to regulate them and stop this, and I hate to do it, but by God I will if they can't clean up their act." The outcry came in response to The Times's findings that Facebook had granted business partners, including Microsoft, Amazon and Spotify, more intrusive access to user data than it had divulged allowing some partners access without users' permission. Last June, The Times uncovered a subset of Facebook's partners, all of them device makers, that pulled user data onto smartphones and tablets. Facebook officials said the deals did not violate user privacy or a 2011 consent agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that barred it from sharing data without permission because the companies were acting on Facebook's behalf. In a post published on Facebook on Tuesday, Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, the company's director of developer platforms and programs, defended the partnerships, saying the company entered into the agreements to let users interact with Facebook friends across devices and popular websites. But he also acknowledged that Facebook had made mistakes in managing some of the deals. "We recognize that we've needed tighter management over how partners and developers can access information," he wrote. Facebook was already dealing with fallout from reports that a political consulting company, Cambridge Analytica, obtained the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users. Cambridge used the information to build tools later deployed in President Trump's election campaign. The F.T.C. launched an inquiry into Facebook's practices after the data leak became public, and the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are also investigating the social network. News of the deals on Wednesday further roiled the technology industry as policymakers and privacy advocates directed anger at Facebook's leaders and its partners. Senator Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat, attacked Mr. Zuckerberg for not disclosing the full scope of the agreements during a Senate hearing in the spring, when Mr. Zuckerberg assured officials that users had complete control of their data. Let Us Help You Protect Your Digital Life None With Apple's latest mobile software update, we can decide whether apps monitor and share our activities with others. Here's what to know. A little maintenance on your devices and accounts can go a long way in maintaining your security against outside parties' unwanted attempts to access your data. Here's a guide to the few simple changes you can make to protect yourself and your information online. Ever considered a password manager? You should. There are also many ways to brush away the tracks you leave on the internet. "Mark Zuckerberg had a lot of chutzpah telling Congress that Americans could control their data, when seemingly every other week Facebook faces a new privacy scandal for abusing our personal information," Mr. Wyden said. Senator Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat, called for the F.T.C. to police the company more aggressively. "Facebook's seemingly unrestrained sharing of user data is the privacy equivalent of the BP oil spill," Mr. Blumenthal wrote on Twitter. "Ongoing, uncontained toxic. We will be paying the price for decades." Damian Collins, a British lawmaker whose parliamentary committee is investigating online disinformation, said Facebook officials should answer for why they had not been more forthcoming. "I feel that we have been given misleading responses by the company when we have asked these questions during previous evidence sessions." Facebook has sought to contain the damage in part by winding down many of its data sharing partnerships. Facebook said on Wednesday that it had brought more than 60 of its agreements to a close. But deals with two giants of the technology world Amazon and Apple remain in place. Facebook officials said the deals must continue because of contracts the social network signed with the companies. Records obtained by The Times showed that the social network granted Apple devices broad access to people's personal data, even when users had disabled sharing. Facebook gave Amazon access users' email addresses without permission, among other things, the records revealed. An Amazon spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. An Apple spokesman said that the company stopped integrating Facebook into its operating systems earlier this year, but that the access continued to accommodate users of older systems. In addition to those partnerships, Facebook will continue allowing special access for Tobii Technology, a company that makes devices allowing people with neuromuscular diseases to use the social network, a Facebook spokeswoman said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
THE sun had long set on a frigid Monday afternoon in February, and the lights had come on along West 58th Street. They illuminated the storefronts that make up Piano Row, framing glossy Steinways and polished Sauters like oil paintings on a gallery wall. Inside Klavierhaus (211 West 58th), a wiry haired man had his head inside a baby grand. The music of strings wafted from the rear of the store. "You can go back," said the nice fellow at the desk. "They'll give you a program." There, on an otherwise unremarkable workday, a master class in chamber music was just getting under way. As unknowing pedestrians hustled by on the sidewalk, the violist Paul Neubauer led four musicians from the New York Youth Symphony through a Mozart string quartet that any passer by could stop and listen to, free of charge. That is just one of many secrets this street has hiding in plain sight. West 58th Street, from Fifth Avenue all the way to the West Side Highway, is sandwiched between the more celebrated stretch of Central Park South to the north, and the main drag of 57th Street to the south. It has a backdoor quality. Natty businessmen slip into the New York Athletic Club, whose proper entrance is at 180 Central Park South, through a revolving door on West 58th, adding a clandestine elan to the private club's already heady exclusivity. And when it's complete in 2013, the 90 story One57 (a k a 157 West 57th Street), the residential tower on top of a Park Hyatt hotel that will not so much scrape the sky as pierce it, will have what the marketing materials call a "discreet" entrance on West 58th Street. Like much else here, it will be out of the way, right in the thick of things. When Michael Fisher, a consultant in the biotech industry who is based in New Jersey, was looking for a pied a terre in Manhattan, he chose a two bedroom two bath apartment in the Windsor Park, a converted 1920s hotel at 100 West 58th, just west of the Avenue of the Americas. "One thing that attracted me was the location," he said. "It's literally the center of the city. But really, it's the center of the world." Indeed, if you were to pop down from, say, Apartment 11AB, a three bedroom, 2,154 square foot unit at the Windsor Park listed by the DeNiro Group at Prudential Douglas Elliman for 3.45 million, you might hear five different languages spoken on your one block warm up to a run in Central Park, and five more en route to the Whole Foods in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, two blocks west. Stop in at Windsor Pharmacy (1419 Avenue of the Americas), a wonderful relic that has held its ground on the corner of 58th Street since the 1940s, and the clientele and the inventory might make you mistake it for a boutique at Galeao International Airport in Rio de Janeiro. Look south from Seventh Avenue, and you don't even have to squint to read the flashing billboards in Times Square. There's a subterranean theater in the bottom of the Museum of Arts and Design (2 Columbus Circle) where the sensibility runs to David Bowie retrospective and the aesthetic is modern, unchanged by the extensive renovation of the Edward Durell Stone building. There's even a suggestion of Florence, circa 1989: the Park Savoy at No. 158, a no frills, pension like hotel that offers a double room with a queen size bed for 106 a night and keeps room keys in cubbyholes at the reception desk. The eastern end has a distinct air that, once upon a time, would have been called cosmopolitan. Here, Bergdorf Goodman (see the arched and very civilized 58th Street side entrance, whose revolving door propels you into a little corner of handbags) and the Plaza Hotel frame the Grand Army Plaza, which gives way to Central Park. Quite Continental. In 1948, when the Paris Theater, the art house cinema at No. 4, opened just off Fifth Avenue, Marlene Dietrich cut the ribbon. Today she might raise a very thin eyebrow at the office workers huddled outside around smoker's poles. But she'd be right at home at No. 182, the Art Deco bar at Petrossian housed in the Alwyn Court, a 1909 luxury apartment house. An ornate French Renaissance landmark, it appears unchanged since Lili Marlene was in her prime. Heading toward the Hudson River, the street sheds some of its tone as the neighborhood now known as Midtown West becomes Clinton. Yet the blocks are still peppered with treasures. For instance, 1790 Broadway, a 1912 Beaux Arts skyscraper designed by Carrere Hastings, once housed the United States Rubber Company. Accorded landmark status in 2000, it is now an office building, but the soaring lobby is open to the public. There are also any number of 1960s co ops, so well preserved you half expect Oscar and Felix to tip their hats to the doorman on their way out. One, the Coliseum Apartments at No. 345, spans 58th to 60th Street and hides a very European interior garden that abuts the back of the Time Warner Center. A one bedroom overlooking the half moon driveway and across the street from the Hudson Hotel is on the market for 500,000. "The view from the window is like sitting in a Parisian cafe," said Albert Attias, an agent with Citi Habitats. At the westernmost end, beyond Roosevelt Hospital on 10th Avenue, the street starts to seem a bit desolate. There is a hulking Con Edison power plant, and traffic flies by the sanitation facilities on the far side of the highway. But, if the glassy new Skidmore Owings Merrill addition on the 11th Avenue side of John Jay College is any indication, it won't be desolate for long. "The new building has connected us to the community," said Jeremy Travis, the college's president, "as part of the new West Side." That construction site? It's the future home of West 57, a pyramid shaped apartment complex designed by Bjarke Ingels that will be developed by Durst Fetner Residential and very likely transform this part of town, including the ConEd plant across the street. A facility with enormous arched windows and faded Renaissance Revival beauty, it is the former Interborough Rapid Transit Powerhouse, designed by Stanford White and completed in 1904. And it is the focus of a preservation initiative that envisions it transformed into a marketplace or a museum along the lines of the Tate Modern in London. Paul Kelterborn, an urban planner who is a founder of the Hudson River Powerhouse Group, a nonprofit interested in the redevelopment of the station, says talks are ongoing with Con Edison. "It's moving in a good direction," he said. "The neighborhood is really coming alive, so it's important for everyone active in that neighborhood to take an interest. A chugging, steaming power plant is sort of out of place right now." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
FRANKFURT The long suffering euro zone may be slowly emerging from recession, as manufacturers in Germany and France begin to ramp up production to meet stronger demand, according to a closely watched report published on Wednesday. The survey of purchasing managers by Markit, a data provider, suggested that Europe might be near the end of a prolonged slump that has pushed unemployment to record highs. But the recovery is likely to be slow and fragile, economists warned, and recession could persist in some southern countries. Evidence also appeared Wednesday that a credit squeeze in the euro zone was easing. A survey of banks by the European Central Bank showed that credit for consumers was becoming more available for the first time since the financial crisis began in 2008. While credit for businesses remained tight, tentative signs indicated that lending could begin to recover within months. "The recession in the euro zone seems to be coming to an end after two years," Ralph Solveen, an economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, said in a note to clients. But he added that the upturn could be uneven, with some indicators continuing to fall. "Activity is still dampened by numerous problems," he wrote. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
There is no rewind button in live performance, and it might be that my ears deceived me. But I could almost swear that, as Tyne Daly made her entrance in Theresa Rebeck's chilling new domestic thriller "Downstairs" the other night at the Cherry Lane Theater, she called her brother Tim's character Timmy. He's Teddy, actually, but she addressed him as Timmy once later in the show, too a charming slip in a fine performance, and an easy one to make, given that the Dalys are playing siblings. Ms. Rebeck wrote "Downstairs" with them in mind, and for the first half it comes across as a comfortably uncomfortable dysfunctional family drama about the psychologically fragile Teddy and his protective older sister, Irene, who is letting him stay on the couch in her unfinished basement. From the play's wordless opening scene in this Primary Stages production, Teddy is comically, endearingly O.K. with his subterranean surroundings, rooting around amid rusty tools for a bowl for his cereal. (The grimy set is by Narelle Sissons.) Irene, who pops down to visit, likes having him there. It gives her someone to talk with, to cook and bake for, even if he rants sometimes in ways she finds upsetting about the guy at his office who he's sure has been poisoning him or the money their mother left to Irene, which she and her controlling husband, Gerry (John Procaccino), used to buy their house. "You want to act this crazy, go act this crazy somewhere else," she tells her rumpled brother. "I am not going to allow you to act this crazy in my basement." Teddy does have trouble staying tethered to reality, but he's a smart and curious guy who loves Irene even as he uses her, and to his credit he's too ingenuous to be a decent liar. Interspersed with his apparent delusions are observations of the sharpest lucidity: about his isolated sister, how the world really works and the dangers that she has elected not to see. Gerry's malevolence, for instance. Ms. Daly's Irene is a timid, beaten down woman with a nervous smile and a Judy Garland flutter to her voice. So obedient to Gerry that she doesn't work because he doesn't want her to, she is the sort of person whose kindness and eagerness to please make her credulous, and far too tolerant of her husband's cruelty. "So you've been living with a demon for, what, 30 years or something?" Teddy says, and it's both disquieting and funny that he means demon literally. Directed with striking clarity and command by Adrienne Campbell Holt, "Downstairs" is a well constructed play of whipsaw moods that have much to do with Teddy's instability a restless volatility that Mr. Daly struggles to embody in a performance that is the production's most amusing yet least convincing. But this is ultimately a kind of horror story, and in its second half we understand that the danger has been lurking in the house all along. What Ms. Rebeck is exploring here is the struggle between good and evil, and the tendency of decent people with honorable intentions to doubt their own perceptions when what they perceive is too sinister to seem plausible. "Downstairs" is about the realization that horrific actions that might have seemed solely the province of scary movies, or paranoid delusions, can be perpetrated by people in your life perhaps against you and the ones you love. So it goes for Irene, anyway. Ms. Rebeck and Ms. Campbell Holt are politically minded artists, and there is a larger social point in all this. It's not just about domestic abuse (though it is about that) or looking after the most vulnerable among us (though it's about that, too). It's about shaking off willful naivete and confronting menace instead of allowing it to determine how we live. If that sounds heavy handed, it's actually quite entertaining, all the more so when Gerry makes his entrance halfway through the intermissionless performance. A gray haired suburban thug, he descends into the basement, and the play instantly thrums with tension, becoming the kind of show where it seemed perfectly natural that the young woman next to me started whispering urgent instructions to the characters, as if she were watching them on T.V. Mr. Procaccino's Gerry is a magnificent villain belligerent, dangerous and so habitually, casually vicious that he chews on a nail as he gives Irene a devastating, off the cuff list of reasons he married her. When one of them is "You're pretty," it's a little bit heartbreaking to see her blatant need as she asks, "You think I'm pretty?" But by then she has already realized something crucial about the ties that bind us to one another. Some deserve strengthening. Others must be severed for dear life. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Facebook has been criticized in recent years over revelations that its technology allowed landlords to discriminate on the basis of race, and employers to discriminate on the basis of age. Now a group of job seekers is accusing Facebook of helping employers to exclude female candidates from recruiting campaigns. The job seekers, in collaboration with the Communications Workers of America and the American Civil Liberties Union, filed charges with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday against Facebook and nine employers. The employers appear to have used Facebook's targeting technology to exclude women from the users who received their advertisements, which highlighted openings for jobs like truck driver and window installer. The charges were filed on behalf of any women who searched for a job on Facebook during roughly the past year. Debra Katz, a Washington based employment lawyer not involved in the case, said the advertising campaigns appeared to violate federal law, which forbids employers and employment agencies like recruiting firms to discriminate on the basis of gender, among other categories. Some state laws also forbid aiding and abetting discrimination. "That seems pretty egregious," said Ms. Katz, who specializes in bringing discrimination cases. She said Facebook's technology made it akin to an employment agency. "The fact that they're using this tool to facilitate discrimination absolves neither the hiring business nor Facebook." "There is no place for discrimination on Facebook; it's strictly prohibited in our policies," said Joe Osborne, a Facebook spokesman. "We are reviewing the complaint and look forward to defending our practices." The lawyers involved in the case said they discovered the targeting by supervising a group of workers who performed job searches through their Facebook accounts and clicked on a variety of employment ads. For each ad, the job seekers opened a standard Facebook disclosure explaining why they received it. The disclosure for the problematic ads said the users received them because they were men, often between a certain age and in a certain location. For example, the Facebook disclosure for an ad by Nebraska Furniture Mart of Texas seeking staff members to "assemble and prepare merchandise for delivery" said the company wanted to reach men 18 to 50 who lived in or were recently near Fort Worth. The lawyers and their team collected the ads between October 2017 and August 2018. The New York Times contacted three of the employers to inquire about the allegations. Two of them, Renewal by Andersen, which sells and installs windows and doors, and Defenders, which sells and installs home security systems, declined to comment. Nebraska Furniture Mart did not respond. In principle, the companies could have simultaneously aimed similar ads at women, but they do not appear to have done so, according to the lawyers involved. Some conceded that they had directed the ads only at men, and some promised to stop doing so, according to Peter Romer Friedman, counsel at Outten Golden, one of the lawyers in the case. Some employers, responding to similar accusations in the past, have argued that their Facebook ads are only one component of a broader recruiting campaign that is more inclusive, in which they use different media to reach different audiences including ads on platforms like LinkedIn or Indeed and on other websites or on television. LinkedIn and Google also generally allow advertisers to exclude men or women from receiving ads. LinkedIn said in a statement that it would take down job ads that exclude a gender; Google said it would remove ads that discriminated against a protected class but declined to say if it would take down ads like those in the Facebook case. Facebook said that it was still reviewing the ads but that it generally did not take down job ads that exclude a gender. In practice, Facebook, with its more than two billion monthly active users, can be the most important tool for reaching certain types of workers, such as hourly workers, who often do not use other platforms like LinkedIn and sometimes do not even have resumes. 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. Bobbi Spees, a 35 year old mother of three from Smethport, Pa., who is one of those bringing the charges, said that she was a part time job coach for special education students and that she had sought a better paying position. Ms. Spees spent several years in her 20s working at a container factory where, she said, the pay was roughly two to three times what she currently makes and her health coverage was impeccable. She said she would like to find a similar job and had used Facebook actively for her search but had difficulty finding leads. By contrast, Ms. Spees said, her husband saw numerous ads for high paying manual jobs when he was searching online for a job two to three years ago. "It really came to my attention that I was seeing hardly any jobs offered other than home health and stuff like that," Ms. Spees said in an interview. In a sense, Ms. Spees was lucky to receive such intelligence from her husband. More often, said Galen Sherwin of the A.C.L.U., her lawyer, "people don't know they're not seeing an ad." "The more it gets into the use of these algorithms to really start narrowing down the matching, the more it moves toward looking like an employment agency," Ms. Kim said. But she said that how far a platform like Facebook must move down that path before it is considered an employment agency remains "an open question." To show culpability, the lawyers in the case point out that Facebook requires advertisers to indicate which gender they want their ads to reach, and that two of the three choices for this category male only and female only are illegal for employment ads. (Only the third choice, "all," would past muster under federal anti discrimination law.) Even if Facebook argues successfully that it is not an employment agency, future plaintiffs could bring complaints under state laws, such as California's Fair Employment and Housing Act, that bar aiding and abetting employment discrimination a more liberal standard. Traditionally, Facebook's strongest defense has been the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that includes a provision shielding internet companies from liability for content generated by third parties. But the immunity does not apply if the platform is involved in the "creation or development" of the unlawful content, which could be the case for ads that are targeted in a discriminatory way, experts have said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
"Easter, I'm sure you know or maybe you don't know. We don't know anything anymore is on Sunday. And tonight marks the second night of Passover. I know people who are having virtual Seder and Easter dinners, which is the best we can do, I guess, but also very weird. It's odd to end a holiday family dinner by pressing 'leave meeting.'" JIMMY KIMMEL "Traditionally on Passover, you save a place for Elijah and someone gets up and checks to see if he's at the door. But this year, if he's there, don't let him in he's 3,000 years old." STEPHEN COLBERT "Easter is also this weekend, and it's going to be a strange one. Instead of celebrating in the church, we'll be celebrating in sweatpants or in no pants. Depends on your denomination." STEPHEN COLBERT "Easter is this Sunday. Said Jesus: 'Forget it. I'm not coming out. You guys aren't social distancing well enough.'" SETH MEYERS "Easter doesn't feel at all exciting this year, probably because I've spent the last three weeks driving around looking for eggs already." JIMMY KIMMEL "I saw that Pope Francis will be streaming Easter Mass on YouTube. You know these are strange times when Easter Mass ends with 'Be sure to like and subscribe. Smash that like button.'" JIMMY FALLON | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Confronted by a rising rate of suicides in some groups of veterans., the Department of Veterans Affairs on Friday decided to approve the use of a new and costly depression drug, d espite concerns among doctors and other experts about the drug's effectiveness. The decision to endorse the drug called Spravato, and manufactured by Janssen, a unit of Johnson Johnson came days after President Trump offered to negotiate a deal between the drug maker and the agency. Johnson Johnson reportedly was working with associates at Trump's Mar a Lago club, and the company has been supporting V.A. suicide prevention efforts. A spokesman for the V.A. said that the decision to approve the drug, which would cover its use by doctors in its nearly 1,000 clinics nationwide, was a medical one. In a statement, the agency said, "V.A. will closely monitor the use of esketamine" the generic name for Spravato "in veterans to more fully understand its relative safety and effectiveness as compared to other available treatments. Based on this information, V.A. may revise its clinical guidance" and the availability of the drug. The V.A. stopped short of putting Spavato on its formulary, the list of drugs it requires to be carried in its 260 or so pharmacies. The approval enables V.A. doctors to offer the drug to patients they believe could benefit. Some Congressional Democrats expressed concern at the fast approval process. "I am incredibly alarmed by reporting today that suggests Spravato, a controversial new drug, is being rushed through critical reviews and may be prescribed to veterans before fully vetting the potential risks and benefits," said Mark Takano, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Committee on Veteran's Affairs, in a prepared statement released Wednesday. The top Republicans on the House and Senate Veteran's Affairs committees said this week that they had yet to take a position on the issue. The V.A. has rushed to distribute Spravato through its system ever since the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, in March, for severe depression. The approval stirred excitement among doctors, because it represented a new direction in depression treatment: Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. The spray contains esketamine, an active portion of the ketamine molecule, and the recommended course is twice a week, for four weeks, with boosters as needed, along with one of the commonly used oral antidepressants. But psychiatrists, pharmacologists and suicide experts who have seen the data presented to the F.D.A. are far from persuaded that the drug will be a game changing addition . "It's doing something, all right, but it's not all it's cracked up to be," said Dr. Erick Turner, a former F.D.A. reviewer and an associate professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health Science University. "I just don't think it's going to live up to all the hype." Cost is another issue. Janssen is charging the public from 4,720 to 6,785 f or a course of treatment, and clinic costs will add more to the bill, not to mention monthly boosters, if needed. The V.A., not veterans, would foot the bill for whatever price it negotiates with Janssen. But nasal spray formulations of generic ketamine are already cheaply available from compounding pharmacies, which mix individually tailored doses to order for doctors. F.D.A. approval requires that people taking Spravato be monitored in a doctor's office for at least two hours, and their experience entered in a registry. Like ketamine, the drug often causes out of body sensations and hallucinations. It is unclear how much of that cost insurers would cover. The V.A. and the Department of Defense have been trying to reverse an alarming trend of suicide among veterans and members of the military since the late 2000s, when rates began to rise. Suicide rates in the V.A. system have been higher than in the general population for at least a decade, according to Robert Bossarte, an associate professor in the department of behavioral medicine at West Virginia University, in Morgantown. The overall veteran suicide rate decreased recently, from 30.5 per 100,000 in 2015 to to 30.1 per 100,000 in 2016, but longer term trends are alarming in some groups. In 2015, the suicide rate for male veterans age 18 to 34 rose to 44 in 100,000 per year, from 25 in 100,000 in 2005. "I've tried the generic ketamine nasal spray in about 20 patients with treatment resistant depression, and a handful of them have done very well on it," said Dr. William Niederhut, a psychiatrist in private practice in Denver. Dr. Niederhut had the patients take four or five doses over a month, making sure a friend or family member was present, given the disorienting effects. He had the spray made at a local compounder. The development of Spravato followed a number of small studies over the past decade, which found that doses of the generic anesthetic ketamine could provide fast relief to some severely depressed people who hadn't responded to other treatments. Generic ketamine has been available for years, at hundreds of clinics around the country; these provide a course of intravenous doses, at 400 to 500 a dose, usually a half dozen over a couple weeks with boosters as needed, for mood problems. The V.A. is already running its own trials of IV ketamine for severe depression, and the agency could easily have the nasal spray made very cheaply, experts said. Ketamine and esketamine seem to have similar benefits and risks, although careful comparisons have not been done. For depression, esketamine has been studied far more rigorously than generic ketamine. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
There are 150 species of tulips, half of them wild, and thousands of varieties. They're categorized in 15 groups, defined by characteristics like their size, bloom time, petal shape and color. During the renowned Dutch tulip festival called Keukenhof, from March to late May each year, you might get to see many of them, planted by the thousands like colorful blankets strewn across fields. But there's one kind of tulip you're unlikely to see in these iconic fields: the broken tulip. Broken tulips are the tragic beauties of the Tulipa flower genus. Afflicted by viral infections that alter pigments in the cells of their petals, the flowers bloom in patterns of flames and feathers. The virus that creates these blazing beauties also kills them. The flowers wilt early, leaving behind little energy for the bulbs to use to develop, multiply or blossom. Broken tulips produce fewer bulbs that carry the virus from one generation to the next. And over time without care, the flowers disappear. That's why Mr. Wall planted his broken tulips a mile from the unbroken ones and why broken tulips are illegal in the Netherlands without special provision. Planting them can spread the virus to unbroken tulips or lilies, which are also susceptible to the virus. But there was a time when broken tulips weren't illegal in the Netherlands; by contrast, they were highly prized. In 1576, Carolus Clusius, the botanist who essentially brought the tulips to Holland from their native home in Central Asia, was among the first to describe the "viral" flowers. And by 1636, a rare tulip with petals of red and white stripes that flowed out like ribbons of peppermint candy became so popular that for the price of a single bulb, a person could purchase eight pigs, four oxen, 12 sheep (all fat), 24 tons of wheat, twice that much rye, two hogsheads of wine, four barrels of beer, 4,000 pounds of butter, a quarter that much cheese, a silver drinking cup, a pack of clothes, a bed (including mattress and bedding) and a ship, according to a pamphlet from the time. Its name was Semper Augustus. This was the peak of Tulip Mania, the first modern economic bubble, which was fueled in part by an obsession with broken tulips. Today the Semper Augustus is gone, and a few broken varieties Mr. Wall can name only three exist in private conservatories. The streaked tulips of today that appear broken are most likely impostors, bred to look that way using basic genetics. But on Saturday, you can get a view of some broken tulips, as judges determine the best looking English Florist Tulip at the Wakefield and North of England Tulip Society's 182nd broken tulip show. And it's in settings like this that one can appreciate a broken tulip's intricate blossom. "You don't plant them for mass, you plant them for close up observation, because of their beauty," said Mr. Wall, who cut his preservation efforts short after he began losing his eyesight to macular degeneration about a decade ago. If you're content with more traditional tulip displays, and just in time for Mother's Day, you can find a grand tulip festival in another Holland Holland, Mich. There, half a million visitors have started gathering this week for Tulip Time, where nearly five million tulips have been peppering lawns and parks in this small town. And you can catch a festival this weekend in Albany or the end of another in England, also organized by the Wakefield and North of England Tulip Society. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
The Brooklyn based playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize on Monday for "Fairview," her much lauded play that deals with issues of race and family and one particular family preparing for an important dinner. The Blackburn Prize which comes with 25,000, as well as a signed print by Willem de Kooning is awarded every year to a woman who writes for the English language theater. Ms. Drury's "Fairview" was co commissioned by Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Soho Rep, and debuted to sold out theaters at both places in 2018. Sarah Benson was the director. After its run at the Soho Rep was extended three times, "Fairview" will go to Theater for a New Audience in Brooklyn this June. It will also have its London premiere in November. "It's exciting and it's surprising," Ms. Drury, 37, said in an interview on Monday. "When we were working on the play, I think no one really had a sense of whether or not it would be received well. I was just excited to experiment, so to have it win a prize, and going to London is sort of surreal." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
The N.F.L. has rescheduled Monday's game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots to next week, and reshuffled several other games on the league's cluttered schedule to accommodate a rash of positive tests for the coronavirus. The Broncos and the Patriots, whose game had already been moved to Monday from Sunday afternoon, will now play next Sunday. (The original Monday night matchup between the Los Angeles Chargers and the New Orleans Saints was not affected.) To fit in the Broncos Patriots game, the league moved seven other games involving four other teams the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Chargers, the Miami Dolphins and the Jets. The cascade of rescheduled games reflected the league's struggle to keep to its original 17 week regular season. The N.F.L. wants to avoid having to add an 18th week, which would delay the start of the playoffs. Try to keep up: To squeeze in the Broncos Patriots matchup next Sunday, the league said the Broncos Dolphins game that was set for next weekend was moved to later in the schedule, Week 11. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
The 91st Academy Awards or Oscars, if you prefer is the hostless show that everyone will be talking about for at least a couple more hours. You can see all the beautiful pictures in our slideshow here or you can follow our live updates of the 2019 Oscars ceremony. Here's what we found notable as the stars arrived: None The arrival of the best actress nominee Lady Gaga in the enormous Tiffany Yellow Diamond. None And a very brief moment of exciting gender fun but overall a very traditional view of mens' and womens' dressing. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Paul Kostick, a New Yorker by way of Colorado (where he studied acting and directing) and Seattle (where he began his career in 1992 working for Tom Hanks) has seen the inside of more of the city's homes than most New Yorkers. As a location scout, location manager and producer, Mr. Kostick, who lives in the East Village with his wife and two children, has spent nearly two decades checking out every possible locale, including countless houses and apartments, largely in the five boroughs, to see if they qualify for star turns in movies, television shows, commercials and videos. Q How would you describe what you do? A It's like detective work. You're always trying to find a one of a kind place, one that no one has ever seen before. But the location also has to work from a technical point of view. And it has to please a lot of people the client, the production designer, the art team and most of all the director. Q How many locations in the city have you visited? A Easily over 10,000 locations. For just one movie, you could be looking at several hundred locations over a solid month. You might see three places in an hour. I've probably taken 400,000 pictures. That's just digital. Q What strikes you about the places you've seen? A I get to see the ways people live, so many extremes. I've seen SoHo lofts with a closet as big as some people's apartments, and it's just the shoe closet. I remember an apartment in the West Village so small the kids slept in the kitchen. What people will do to live in New York is amazing. Q What are some of the most impressive things you've seen? A I've seen places with museum collections on the walls Rothkos and Basquiat paintings. I've seen some amazing triplexes in TriBeCa that would blow your mind. I remember a living room in Brooklyn that was filled with vintage Porsches. A There was a place in Carroll Gardens before the neighborhood popped. When I talked to the owner on the phone, the guy was thrilled, said he couldn't wait for me to pay a visit. When I arrived, there was three feet of garbage on the floor, plus this terrible odor. I politely took some pictures, and then the guy said, "So what do you think?" I said: "It's great. I'll let you know." What else can you say? Q What makes people want to have their home used as a film site? A Nobody's ever going to earn a living, but the money, which can range from 1,000 a day up to 40,000 a day for super high end, can pay for a nice vacation or go to a kid's college fund. But most people do it because it's fun. It's cool. They're flattered to be chosen. Your home might be in the next "Law Order" or Cheerios commercial. A Most people have no idea what's involved. There are dozens of people in your home for 18 hours a day. It's hugely disruptive, which is why people may decide to move out and stay in a hotel, which the production sometimes pays for. New York film crews generally try hard to take care of people's homes, but floors get scratched, the silk wallpaper can accidentally get ripped. Once we got permission to knock down a wall to allow for certain camera angles. We rebuilt it, then after three weeks, we had to knock it down again. Q People are sometimes amazed at how different their homes look on screen. Why? A You may have incredible furniture and great taste. But the space has to work for the client's or movie's needs first the plot, the character, the color palette. The art director says, "It's great, but I want it blue." So during the prep period, we get rid of some things we love but don't work. We might remove all your furniture and bring in our own. We'll ask if we can repaint the walls. We cover your appliances with stainless steel Contact Paper or replace the doors on your 10,000 fridge. We never just walk in and shoot. Q How do you find locations? A I always have my camera with me. I'm always looking, always taking notes. There are also location services, like Andrea Raisfeld Locations, Featured in Films or the Location Department. When we zero in on a neighborhood we want, sometimes we blanket an area with fliers. We talk to doormen. Maybe we get 40 callbacks. Seven places will work, and the director likes one. So you need a lot of choice. A It has to do with the bones of a building, the layout, the flow. How can you place a camera in a space and make the space look interesting? How much depth can you see through a doorway? Prewar is always great. Those Classic 6's on Riverside Drive and West End Avenue are perfect. A Walk ups are nearly impossible. You're carting up so much equipment semis full of stuff, along with sometimes 60 plus people the grip and lighting crew, the art department, and props, plus client and agency. If I chose a fourth floor walk up, the grips would hang me. Too much glass can be a deal breaker, too, because you have to control the light. That's sometimes a problem with lofts. Q Do people object if you're going to film a murder scene? A Are you kidding? Everyone loves the idea of a bloody body in the lobby. With "Damages," we often needed a place to dump a dead body. You'd think this would have turned people off, but no one ever batted an eye. For one job, I told a woman whose house we wanted to use, "There's going to be a rape, a murder, a body thrown in the bushes to decompose." And she said, "That sounds great." Q What is the hardest thing to find? A Believe it or not, it's kitchens. Everybody's got one, but you can't see them from the street. You have to get into the apartment because the front of the building isn't going to give up any clues what's inside. Then the kitchen has to be beautiful. And big. Q What's your best memory from working on "Sex and the City"? A Filming the scene on East 92nd Street when Aidan proposes to Carrie. We were right under Woody Allen's apartment, and all day long I saw his wife, Soon Yi, looking down and watching us. With all the commotion, it's like a circus, so I waved up and apologized for all the disruption. But she was very nice. "It's fine," she said. "I never get to go to film sets." She watched the whole thing. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
By 1673, the year in which "City of Crows" is set, the papal bull officially recognizing the existence of witches had been stoking superstition in Europe for nearly 200 years. The bad luck of seeing a spider in the morning, the methods of assisting a husband "in the bedroom" and the hovering presence of Hellequin and his Wild Horde, "leading fresh souls to the underworld," capture that superstition's all pervading nature. By interweaving the trivial, the humorous and the grisliest of the grisly, straps us in for a shivery ride. It starts with a bang. Immediately, we are confronted with the grotesqueries of the plague by which Charlotte Picot, an already bereaved mother, is about to be widowed and from which she flees with her sole surviving child, 9 year old Nicolas. Mother and son are quickly separated, and Charlotte's desperate hunt for him yokes her to Adam du Coeuret, a man she believes she has summoned from the spirit world. In reality, du Coeuret (later Lesage in a nice pun, he abandons his "coeur") is a convict recently released from the galleys, his crimes "impieties and sacrileges" and his talents tarot card readings and sleights of hand involving wax balls and sulfur. Crucially, he is also a man in search of a witch. To the sorceress/mother and the convict/charlatan are added a whole host of others, including the old crone Madame Rolland, with her "black book"; the troubadour family Leroux; and the Parisian witch Catherine Monvoisin. It's a colorful cast, some of them fictional, some of them real, and when you include the child trafficking into which Nicolas has been pitched, a side story involving the king's mistress and, naturally, an old map leading to buried treasure, there's enough plot for several novels. This abundance supplies admirable energy. It does, however, reduce the narrative's scope for subtlety and this is a problem, not least for Lesage. The revelation that he fell into sorcery through love of his "dimwitted" younger son and his pivotal cry, "One cannot unlearn what one has learned," are touching, but still his occasional tendernesses seem more contradictory than poignant. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
"With monetary policy locked for now on a path of restrained loosening, inflation can be safely relegated from the top spot of government concerns," Alistair Thornton, an analyst based in Beijing for IHS Global Insight, wrote in an analyst's note on Friday. "That said, price gains are not totally off the radar, given structural pressure from demographic shifts and high international commodity prices. Indeed, there is a tricky balance to be played going forward." Officials and economists in Beijing appear to be bracing themselves for global factors that would contribute to a slowdown in growth in China this year. Some senior officials have also spoken about the need to rebalance the economy by veering it away from a heavy reliance on exports and investment and more towards domestic consumption, a policy that would also lead to a slowdown if actually embraced. On Monday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao predicted at the opening of an annual meeting of the National People's Congress that China's growth for 2012 would be 7.5 percent, a steep drop from the 9.2 percent of last year. But Mr. Wen said his estimated growth was still in line with the targeted average growth rate of 7 percent through 2015 that was set in a five year plan unveiled in 2011. "The concern I've been picking up is largely about whether growth will hold up this year, because there's the anticipation of a big external shock," said Eswar S. Prasad, an economist at Cornell University and former head of the International Monetary Fund's China division. "The U.S. economy is picking up, but not a great deal. Europe is in trouble. And these two countries together account for about 45 percent of China's exports. So it's not looking good in terms of the export markets." In the final quarter of 2011, growth dipped to 8.9 percent, the lowest in two and a half years. A slowdown in exports prompted officials to loosen monetary policy in December. Chinese leaders have been trying to solve the conundrum of how to tamp down inflation, including cooling property prices; keep up growth; and rebalance away from exports and investment. Critics of the Chinese economic model say China's growth is driven too much by capital intensive investment projects, and that household consumption makes up too small a percentage of gross domestic product. In addition, they say, there are increasingly serious structural problems with the dominance of state owned enterprises, which curbs market forces. Those enterprises are at the forefront of what many Chinese scholars critically call the "vested interests" that hold enormous sway over the Chinese leadership and that have resulted in a rollback of economic reforms. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
This is an article from Turning Points, a special section that explores what critical moments from this year might mean for the year ahead. Turning Point: The coronavirus pandemic plunged the 2.5 trillion worldwide fashion industry into a crisis, prompting store closures, layoffs and bankruptcy filings in the West and threatening the livelihoods of millions of garment workers around the world. This year the world has had to confront two monumental challenges: Covid 19 and the economic catastrophe the disease has caused. Both have taken a heavy toll on economically vulnerable workers, who already had to contend with low wages and few social protections. Their plight has exposed the rampant inequality pervading many corners of the globalized world, including the fashion industry. The economic pressures created by the pandemic have demonstrated just how dependent fashion is on the exploitation of cheap labor and how devastating this interdependence can be in times of calamity. With the World Bank warning that as many as 150 million people could fall back into extreme poverty by the end of 2021 because of the pandemic, the issue cannot be ignored. When Covid 19 began to spread and lockdowns brought the world to a standstill, millions of underpaid garment workers in developing countries bore much of the pain. As fashion supply chains were disrupted, payments frozen and orders canceled, factory owners in Vietnam, Cambodia, India and Bangladesh suffered a body blow. Many in the work force were sent home without pay, left to fend for themselves amid a global health crisis. As Covid 19 continued to rage, human rights activists also brought attention to the role of the fashion industry in abetting the repression of the Uighur population in China's Xinjiang region. The country's largest Muslim ethnic minority, Uighurs have become the target of a campaign of repression by the ruling Communist Party; as many as one million people have been detained, forced to abandon their traditional way of life and used in coercive labor programs. According to a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, at least 80,000 people were transferred out of Xinjiang to factories throughout China from 2017 to 2019, where they were put to work, unable to leave and under surveillance. The transfers appear to have continued in 2020, even as the country confronted the pandemic, according to China's state run news media. In July, a coalition of international organizations called End Uyghur Forced Labor published the names of fashion brands that it believed had not taken adequate steps to ensure their supply chains were not linked to forced labor from Xinjiang. (About 85 percent of China's cotton amounting to almost 20 percent of global output comes from Xinjiang.) A worker wearing a face mask in a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during a lockdown imposed by the Bangladeshi government in March to contain the spread of Covid 19. Garment workers in Asia are not the only ones struggling. An investigation by The Sunday Times of London in July found that workers at a factory in Leicester making clothes for the ultrafast fashion retailer Boohoo were being paid as little as PS3.50, or 4.64, an hour. (In Britain, the minimum wage for people over age 25 is PS8.72 an hour.) According to Labour Behind the Label, a nonprofit campaigning for workers' rights, several garment factories in Leicester remained open during the pandemic with little regard for social distancing measures; some employees said they were told to go to work even if they had tested positive for Covid 19. Over all, the outlook for low paid workers is grim, especially as the world battles a deadly disease. A study by researchers at Imperial College London indicates that in low income and lower middle income countries poor people are much more likely than wealthy ones to die from Covid 19. In the United States, the pandemic's economic repercussions have been worst for low income adults. In 2016, at Voices, a gathering of fashion industry innovators organized by The Business of Fashion, the Dutch trend forecaster Li Edelkoort asked: "How is it possible that a garment is cheaper than a sandwich? How can a product that needs to be sown, grown, harvested, combed, spun, knitted, cut and stitched, finished, printed, labeled, packaged and transported cost a couple of euros?" It's a question that has stuck with me since. The cotton, textiles and garment industries were bound up with labor exploitation well before Covid 19 exposed the rot. The fashion industry has long been complicit in a system that pays people below subsistence wages to maximize profits. This business model, focused on selling mountains of clothes at inherently unsustainable prices, has given less and less in return to those who create them. Take Bangladesh, which is home to four million garment workers. Many of them earn little more than the government mandated minimum wage: only 8,000 taka, or less than 100, per month. Fair wage campaigners say that double the amount would be needed for workers to live comfortably. Even the loftiest fashion brands participate in the exploitation of the most vulnerable workers in their supply chains. Luxury labels like Dior and Saint Laurent often turn to subcontractors in India for the production of intricate embroideries and embellishments at lower costs. The highly skilled artisans hired to do the job receive little credit or money for their work. In fact, some hiring companies will often carry out the garments' final assembly in Europe and misleadingly label them as "Made in Italy" or "Made in France." It's said that the real character of people is shown in how they react during a crisis. The same could be said of the 2.5 trillion global fashion industry and the challenges it faces. The pandemic has led to a significant decline in its revenues, a wave of bankruptcy filings among retailers and uncertainty among consumers. A joint report by The Business of Fashion and McKinsey Company I was a co author of estimates the industry will contract by up to 30 percent by the end of the year. Will the fashion business be able to draw on the urgency of the moment and change for the better? The industry must take greater responsibility for overhauling a business model that is fundamentally rooted in unfairness. The solution is not to cancel contracts, move manufacturing to local factories and replace humans with robots, but rather to dedicate meaningful resources to the improvement of working conditions for the sector's most essential workers: the people who make our clothes. Fashion companies should keep them in mind as they plot the long path to recovery. Imran Amed is the founder and chief executive of The Business of Fashion. 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 and Twitter, and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
Paternal. Sexless. Infinitely square. The cardigan sweater is generally considered the Mister Rogers of men's wear, and for good reason: Fred Rogers made sure of it. Over the course of 895 episodes and 33 years of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," Mister Rogers advertised his gentle, nonthreatening nature by slipping from a jacket and tie symbols of the messy, scary adult professional world into a humble knit zip up that was homely both in the British definition ("Simple but cozy and comfortable, as in one's own home") and the American (I mean, yikes). Mister Rogers's many, colorful cardigans one of which is now in the Smithsonian were originally knitted by Mr. Rogers's mother, Nancy McFeely Rogers. According to a recent article on Smithsonian.com, she made a new one for her famous son every Christmas (a McTouchy McFeely detail if there ever was one). After she died in 1981, the show's art director looked to that bastion of saucy style, the United States Postal Service, for inspiration, relying on hand dyed versions of mail carrier cardigans. Fashion, of course, was not the point. Mister Rogers's talismanic cardigan, which is faithfully recreated by Yasemin Esmeck for the new film "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," starring Tom Hanks, was the sartorial equivalent of a lullaby sweet, comforting, bland and it helped lull generations of American preschoolers into the cozy Neighborhood of Make Believe, where there are no bad people and no bad thoughts. This worked well for children, but did no favors for the sweater itself, helping brand the cardigan any cardigan as doofuswear, the male equivalent of a chastity belt. (Likewise considered slightly sorority sister for women, it got a power boost after being worn by Michelle Obama for, among other occasions, drinks with the Queen of England.) It wasn't all Mr. Rogers's fault. Unlike the standard form fitting pullover, many midcentury male cardigans artfully hid the male physique inside a woolly tomb with the contours of a sleeping bag. Generally speaking, this was comfort clothing, designed to steer men toward the den, not the bedroom. Lingering associations with sitcom dads (think Ward Cleaver ) and lettermen sweaters of the Pat Boone '50s (sis boom blah) only underscored the point: The cardigan was a buttoned up sweater for a buttoned up era. Would it ever recover? Searches for men's cardigans on Poshmark, a fashion resale site, spiked 79 percent since the Tom Hanks film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September, as Rachel Tashjian recently reported in GQ . Last month, the shabby chic olive green cardigan that Kurt Cobain wore for his famous "MTV Unplugged" performance in 1993 made h eadlines, selling at auction for 334,000, apparently a record for a sweater. With thrift store origins, unkempt mohair fibers and early '90s stains intact, the Cobain sweater is a fitting rebuttal to the Rogers cardigan. A symbol of shaggy punk nihilism, it is the knitwear equivalent of a power chord loud enough to scare the meow meow out of Henrietta Pussycat . The bad boy potential of the cardigan is also on full display in HBO's "Succession," in which Logan Roy , the dark lord media mogul played by Brian Cox , has made the avuncular shawl cardigan the uniform for his weekly adventures in corporate mayhem and subterfuge. Outfitting an assassin of the C suite in an item of apparel typically associated with doting grandfathers and white haired Irish poets is a mordant costume choice, like slipping an M 80 firecracker into an Easter flower arrangement. Even so, it is hardly the first time anyone has attempted to infuse the cardigan with a little swagger. Steve McQueen occasionally rocked a cardigan in the 1960s. Then again, Steve McQueen could rock a scarlet Bozo the Clown wig. At the height of the disco era, Paul Michael Glaser of television's " Starsky Hutch " injected the cardigan with a dose of street cred. Mr. Glaser's Starsky looked extremely happening or at least, extremely '70s in his trademark south of the border shawl cardigan, which was, if nothing else, less risible than the cop duo's red Ford Gran Torino with the faux Nike white swoop. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The Turkish steam baths called hamams first gained a following during Ottoman rule in the 1400s. Inspired by the Roman thermae, they feature multiroom experiences that traditionally start with the camegah, an entrance where guests sip a soothing beverage, before moving on to a heated dry iliklik that allows for acclimatization of temperature, and then a sicaklik, or humid room, where guests are scrubbed down on marble stones. The ITC Grand Bharat, which opened in May in Gurgaon, India, features Persian influenced hamam therapies that can be traced to the Mughal era, including a 70 minute ritual that uses steam and a rich soap with a massage followed by a body exfoliation (approximately 130). Because many hamams are architecturally elaborate and require significant investment, some spas offer treatments inspired by hamams instead of the more traditional multiroom therapies. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
This being Greek tragedy, blood will flow, starting when the glamorous Christine (outfitted by Kaye Voyce in a body hugging emerald evening gown) murders Ezra so that she can be with her lover (again Mr. Bhabha, the cast standout). This being O'Neill, emotions will get overwrought, and family history will be twisted into doom. This deftly streamlined production ushers the audience from space to space in Abrons Arts Center's Playhouse Theater the lobby, the balcony, the orchestra, the stage in a fascinating experiment in proximity: How close is too close to this play, and how far away is just far enough? The inquiry pervades the show, and it's about more than physical remove. What happens when the actors distance themselves from their own roles, performing with flat voices and stylized gestures, and how does it change when they slip into their characters' skin? When words are spoken at a whisper but the sound (designed by Mr. Herskovits with intricate precision) is as hushed and resonant as a voice in your ear, will it bring you closer to the drama? Nearer to O'Neill? This remarkably fluid production, which turns out to be fully capable of encompassing those many variations, is faithful to O'Neill's text while relentlessly questioning it perfectly comfortable, for instance, with eliciting laughs where the playwright wouldn't have wanted them. The surprising result is both Kabuki soap opera and vivid clarity: an interpretation of this play that feels alive right now. The Mannons are forever hiding behind their public masks, even in private, so it is ingenious that the masks are signified here by thin black microphone cords, one bisecting the forehead of each family member. The microphones are essential to our eavesdropping on the production's one scene of ambushing vulnerability: the predawn talk between Ezra and Christine, right before she kills him. We are in the balcony, but we might as well be in the bedroom with them. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Edward St. Aubyn's five Patrick Melrose novels published beginning in 1992 and collected, to lavish praise, in 2012 owe their popularity to the way they cross genres to satisfy two distinct cravings. Mr. St. Aubyn does a reasonably good rendition of a classic style of British social satire, withering and mock grotesque, for those who pine for the early works of Evelyn Waugh and Kingsley Amis. (As they should.) But he puts it in service of a more contemporary form, the recovery story, tracing Patrick's life from horrific abuse as a child to unbridled addiction (the second novel, "Bad News," is a straight up junkie phantasmagoria) to tenuously sober, emotionally fragile adulthood. Neither side of the equation would necessarily be notable on its own, but the combination clicks. "Patrick Melrose," a Showtime mini series (beginning Saturday) starring Benedict Cumberbatch, isn't really able to do either side justice. Part of that is compression: Five hours may seem like plenty of time to tell one life's story, but it means that each novel is squished into just an hour of screen time. Based on the three episodes Showtime made available, that wasn't enough to approximate the texture of Mr. St. Aubyn's work the way pathos, for better or worse, peeks through the cracks of his comic splenetic detachment. There's no way of knowing what the writer, David Nicholls, and director, Edward Berger, would have done with more space. But as it is, it feels as if they're scrambling just to work in all their favorite bits from the books. What they haven't found time for, or didn't know how to achieve, is a cinematic equivalent for Mr. St. Aubyn's framing consciousness, the way Patrick and the other characters the family members and friends who inhabit his desiccated upper class milieu pick over their own lives, fighting a battle of wits with no winners. Instead they seem to have focused on getting across the story, whose shattering elements don't prevent it from feeling too familiar, a tale whose various parts we've heard before. Mr. Nicholls flips the order of the first two books, beginning with "Bad News," in which the 22 year old Patrick flies to New York to retrieve his father's ashes and goes on an epic cocaine and heroin bender, and following with "Never Mind," the first novel, set during a day at the Melrose's home in southern France in Patrick's childhood. The change disrupts the chronology but makes for a more unified, recovery focused narrative, hitting us up front with Patrick at his most damaged. (And, of course, starting with Mr. Cumberbatch in the foreground rather than Sebastian Maltz, who plays Patrick as a child.) Other decisions also seem aimed at providing a coherent narrative experience at all costs. Mr. Nicholls deals with the books' reliance on interior monologue and description by putting snippets of Mr. St. Aubyn's prose into the characters' mouths as conventional dialogue, sometimes to salvage an acerbic bon mot but often just to get in background information. And some choices feel as if they were made with concern for sensibilities that Mr. St. Aubyn did not have to consider. Female characters behave with more assertiveness and conviction onscreen than they did in the books. Most noticeably, the precipitating trauma in Patrick's life, perpetrated by his father, is presented quite differently. In the novels it takes you by surprise, happening in an almost offhand (but utterly frank) way that renders it all the more horrible. In the series, triggering is avoided the brutality is fully, morbidly foreshadowed (and takes place literally behind a closed door). Mr. Berger ("Deutschland '83") and his cinematographer, James Friend, package all this in a glossy, fluid that makes the bare bones of Patrick's story entertaining, if not terribly compelling. "Patrick Melrose" might be better viewing if you haven't read the books and aren't aware of what you're missing. And of course there's the consolation of watching Mr. Cumberbatch exercise his peerless technique. Patrick Melrose isn't much of a challenge for an actor who's brilliantly portrayed real eccentrics like Julian Assange and Alan Turing, but it's fun to watch Mr. Cumberbatch riffing through the voices in Patrick's head during his cocaine binges in "Bad News" (more fun than it was to read). A few casting decisions don't quite work (Jennifer Jason Leigh as Patrick's mother, Indira Varma as an American friend of his parents), but Mr. Cumberbatch gets good support from Hugo Weaving as Patrick's monstrous father, Pip Torrens as a somewhat less ghastly family friend and Jessica Raine as an old flame. Seen through their characters' eyes, "Patrick Melrose" commits a basic sin: It errs on the side of obviousness. It's not bad, just a little vulgar, don't you see? | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
They knew it was a cool painting. But Buck Burns and David Van Auker hadn't thought it a masterpiece until visitors to their New Mexico furniture and antiques shop began asking about the work that they had bought as part of an estate. It turned out it was indeed an important work, a painting by Willem de Kooning stolen 31 years ago from the University of Arizona Museum of Art and lost until Mr. Van Auker positioned it in a public place lying on the floor of their shop in Silver City. "Woman Ochre" one of a number of Abstract Expressionist paintings that Mr. de Kooning did of women in the 1950s was stolen on the day after Thanksgiving in 1985. There was no surveillance video, but investigators pieced together a rough narrative of the theft that began with a man and a woman following a staff member into the museum around 9 a.m. The woman distracted the staff member, while the man cut the painting from its frame with sharp blade. In less than 15 minutes, the two departed with the painting. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Artists like to wrestle with strong texts; it's good exercise for them. But what does it do for the audience? What value is added, for instance, to Joan Didion's classic essay "The White Album" by turning it into a piece of theater? After all, you can read the original easily enough on your own. Or, right now, as part of a trial offer from Audible, you can hear it recited, if somewhat dryly, by the actress Susan Varon for free. Neither of those experiences will be especially visual, so one enhancement provided by the elaborate production of "The White Album" that opened on Wednesday night as part of the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music is something spectacular to keep your eyes busy. To begin with, at center stage, there is a kind of glass house the kind whose inhabitants shouldn't throw stones. Over the course of the 90 minute work, this structure, designed by the P A T T E R N S architectural firm, will represent several locales, including the Los Angeles home Ms. Didion lived in during the period covered by her essay. But it also represents the essay's central theme: The attempt to corral chaotic experience within the architecture of storytelling. For Ms. Didion, that was not just a literary but a spiritual exercise, conducted in opposition to what she calls the "accidie" the moral torpor of the late 1960s. Her essay, a triumph of New Journalism, crosscuts scenes involving Huey Newton, the Doors, campus protests and the Tate LaBianca murders with descriptions of her own physical ailments and moral confusion. What's new onstage and off: Sign up for our Theater Update newsletter But as staged by Lars Jan for his Early Morning Opera company, the connective tissue is missing. He does give us, as Ms. Didion, the actress Mia Barron, reciting (from memory) the essay in its entirety. Though this figure occasionally enters the action or, at one astonishing moment stands atop it, she for the most part exists in her own world, well apart from the house in which Mr. Jan creates illustrations of her words. The glass panels give those illustrations the boxed appearance of a comic strip, as does the often buffoonish action within them. Jim Morrison flies through a Doors recording session like a child playing a superhero; campus radicals write empty watchcries on a whiteboard. When the essay reaches its climax in the Charles Manson material, Mr. Jan counters with a grotesque cartoon shootout between a police officer and a protester, complete with Tarantino style spatterings of blood. But it's the text that is killed, by literal upstaging. That's a shame, because Ms. Barron, dressed like Ms. Didion in a sweater and long skirt, recites it beautifully, with just the right ratio of reserve and terror you might have imagined when reading it in print. And no one could say that Ms. Barron, who is credited along with Mr. Jan as a creator of the piece, hogs the spotlight. (In fact, the lighting design, by Andrew Schneider and Chu hsuan Chang, often leaves her in the dark.) Perhaps it is a relief to her when snippets of the original text that represent dialogue what a doctor tells her, what Huey Newton says at a news conference are ladled out to four performers who portray many of the ancillary characters. It's not a relief for us, though. The fragmentation of the storytelling seems to undermine Ms. Didion's authority, not to mention her coherence. This unfortunate effect is enhanced by another of Mr. Jan's notions: the addition of a second (or "inner") audience of volunteers who participate in the show. At first they do so merely by watching it picturesquely while sitting on the floor of the stage, but later they are herded into the box to serve as extras in party scenes and as student protesters at San Francisco State College. I suppose this inner audience is meant to connect our time to that one. But like many once avant garde notions the Next Wave Festival has become a museum of them the idea is more satisfying than the reality. I found my mind wandering from questions of apathy and political engagement to questions of stage management. How do those 20 or so volunteers know when to rise, when to shout, when to do a little dance? In any case, Mr. Jan's use of them cuts against Ms. Didion's premise. As written, "The White Album" suggests that the root of the anomie and paranoia of the 1960s was conformism: the stories Americans had for decades been told to tell themselves. By the time the era ended for most people Ms. Didion pinpoints the day as Aug. 9, 1969, when the Manson murders occurred that mandate was just beginning to lose its grip. We now live in the aftermath of that seismic change: no less of a hell, perhaps, but a fresh one. The avant garde, at least as purveyed here, is way too old hat to capture it. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Seven American makers of solar panels filed a broad trade case in Washington against the Chinese solar industry on Wednesday, accusing it of using billions of dollars in government subsidies to help gain sales in the American market. The companies also accused China of dumping solar panels in the United States for less than it costs to manufacture and ship them. The trade case, filed at the Commerce Department, seeks tariffs of more than 100 percent of the wholesale price of solar panels from China, which shipped 1.6 billion of the panels to the United States in the first eight months of this year. The filing, which the Commerce Department must review under federal rules, is certain to be controversial. For one thing, if successful, it would drive up the price of solar energy in the name of trying to breathe life into a flagging American industry. High costs have already kept solar power from becoming more than a niche energy source in the United States. The case also coincides with criticism by Congressional Republicans of the Obama administration's efforts to support American clean energy companies. Republicans argue that federal loan guarantees of more than a half billion dollars to the now bankrupt solar company Solyndra show the folly of the administration's efforts to guide industrial policy in that field. The filing might also add fuel to the anti China sentiments that are running high in some Washington corridors and have started to seep into the presidential campaign. Chinese commerce officials had no immediate comment about Wednesday's solar panel filing, but have vehemently opposed such trade cases. A Chinese solar company manager, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in a telephone interview that in any trade case filed by the American industry, "We would be well prepared and are confident we could defend it." Two Democratic senators on Wednesday joined the news conference in Washington announcing the trade case, which is being led by an Oregon solar panel maker, SolarWorld Industries America. "American solar operations should be rapidly expanding to keep pace with the skyrocketing demand for these products," said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. "But that is not what has been happening," Mr. Wyden said. "There seems to be one primary explanation for this; that is, that China is cheating." He was joined by his Oregon colleague Senator Jeff Merkley, also a Democrat, who said China was engaging in "rogue practices." Whatever the partisan positioning, though, the trade case will procedurally begin above the political fray. It will follow a quasi judicial path at the Commerce Department and a related American agency, the International Trade Commission, that is intended to operate without partisan influence. Other recent industry cases against China that have followed this process include one filed in late March, involving galvanized steel wire. The most recently completed case against China, in late May, resulted in tariffs of about 33 percent levied against certain types of imported aluminum products. Initial jobless claims drop to their lowest point since 1969. The U.S. effort to cut energy costs may not have the intended effect. Catch up: Elizabeth Holmes points fingers at others and says she was a believer. The White House on Wednesday declined to comment on the solar trade filing. But President Obama recently appeared to support the American solar industry's concerns. In a White House news conference on Oct. 6 he said: "Even if the technology was developed in the United States, they end up going to China because the Chinese government will say, 'We're going to help you get started, we'll help you scale up, we'll give you low interest loans or no interest loans, we will give siting, we will do whatever it takes for you to get started here.' " In response, Mr. Obama's senior campaign strategist, David Axelrod, countered that Mr. Romney was once again flip flopping, having criticized Mr. Obama in the past as protectionist for mounting a trade case against China on behalf of American tire producers. Wednesday's filing could prove too late to save the American solar panel industry. China already accounts for three fifths of the world's solar panel production, giving it enormous economies of scale. China exports 95 percent of its production, much of it to the United States, which has helped push wholesale solar panel prices down from 3.30 a watt of capacity in 2008 to 1.80 by last January and now to 1.20. A typical solar panel might have a capacity of 230 watts. The trade case seeks tariffs "well in excess of 100 percent" on the wholesale price of Chinese solar panels on arrival at American docks, as punishment for dumping goods. Including installation, the American solar power market is worth about 6 billion a year. So far, though, solar power generates only about one tenth of 1 percent of the United States' electricity because it is still more expensive than fossil fuels. Any price increase in the technology particularly an effective doubling of the price of Chinese imports through tariffs is not likely to improve that ratio. SolarWorld Industries America, the largest maker of conventional solar panels in the United States, made the decision in late spring to assemble a coalition for a case against China, even before Solyndra's difficulties became widely known, according to Gordon Brinser, SolarWorld's president. Significantly, the other six companies that joined the case have withheld their names, as they are entitled to do under Commerce Department rules. Many companies fear that the Chinese government is ready to retaliate against any business that challenges its policies. Many American companies also receive subsidies from federal, state and local programs as in the instance of Solyndra's 528 million in federal loan guarantees. And Mr. Brinser said that SolarWorld was in the process of obtaining 4 million in research assistance from the federal government. An Energy Department report in July said that federal subsidies for solar power totaled 1.134 billion in the 2010 fiscal year, up from 179 million in 2009. But because few American companies export 95 percent of their production, they are less likely to run afoul of trade rules against export subsidies. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
JANA McCLELLAND is a third generation dairy farmer in Petaluma, Calif. This October, she expects 600 to 1,200 people to visit her family's farm. She plans to take them to the nursery, the milking parlor and the pastures. "We know people care where their food comes from," she said. It is all part of an outreach strategy from Organic Valley, which bills itself as the largest cooperative of organic farmers in the United States. Call it table to farm marketing. These initiatives, which include a new website, are meant to cater to what the Organic Trade Association describes as people's increasing interest in "transparency in the supply chain and to know where food comes from." According to the trade group, sales of organic food and nonfood products in the United States climbed to 44.3 billion in 2015 from 40.4 billion in 2014, which represents the industry's largest dollar gain ever; 39.7 billion of last year's total sales were for organic food. The association also said organic food sales rose 10.8 percent in 2015. Organic food sales now make up almost 5 percent of the food sold in the United States. According to the trade group, millennial consumers, particularly in urban centers, are driving much of that growth. Authenticity is "the biggest key for consumers," said Sarah Z. Masoni, product and process development manager at the Food Innovation Center at Oregon State University. "They want to know who's creating their food. Consumers want to trust the suppliers of their food." Organic Valley introduced its new website in April, with the goal of telling farmers' stories and, in doing so, personalizing people's consumption of organic products. The group was careful to make the website mobile friendly, a vital quality since people often employ their phones to do research and share information as they shop for food. The site features a tool to help consumers identify local stores that carry Organic Valley dairy products, as well as stories about farmers across the United States who belong to the cooperative and more than a dozen recipes for dishes that contain Organic Valley products, with new ones added twice a year. There are also new product and recipe photos by Jody Horton, a James Beard Award winning photographer. Founded by seven dairy farmers in 1988 in La Farge, Wis. (population: about 750), Organic Valley now counts as members more than 1,800 farmers, mainly in the United States. Of those, 1,456 are dairy farmers, 342 raise beef cattle and 174 grow produce. The members' total sales for 2015 reached 1.04 billion. About 40 percent of the dairy produced by the cooperative is sold as bulk milk and other ingredients to manufacturers like Stonyfield, while dairy products made by Organic Valley and carrying its brand are sold by retailers including Whole Foods Market, Costco, Walmart and Target, as well as by conventional grocery, convenience and specialty food stores. Netflix buys a visual effects company in a move to support its global ambitions. 15 minimum wage for federal contractors will take effect Jan. 30. The cooperative, which for many years invited retailers and others in the food industry to visit its members' farms, began offering free "farm discovery tours" to the public in 2014. This year it is offering four: in Kutztown, Pa., and Kewaskum, Wis., in June; in Enumclaw, Wash., in August; and in Petaluma, Calif., in October. The June tours catered to visitors from New York, Philadelphia and Milwaukee, and the later tours are aimed at visitors from Seattle and San Francisco. "For every person who goes there, they'll tell many of their friends, who will spread the word," Ms. Masoni said. "Conversation will happen across communities." Regina Beidler, who runs an Organic Valley dairy farm with her husband in Randolph Center, Vt., advises the cooperative on its marketing efforts in the eastern United States. She suggested that the visits were a good way to get entire families excited about organic food. "They love to give an opportunity to a child to see what farms are like," she said of visitors who are parents. "And it's interesting for us to hear the questions people have." Farm visits also are central to Organic Valley's new social media efforts. The cooperative invited so called social influencers like Eva Amurri Martino of Happily Eva After, Naomi and Josh Davis of Love Taza, and Naomi Robinson of Bakers Royale to participate in the Kutztown farm tour last month, and it plans to work with others in the future. The hope, according to Karen Zuckerman, chief creative officer of the agency HZDG, which worked with Organic Valley on its marketing strategy, is that the influencers will share their experiences on the farm with their many followers on social media, who will then investigate organic farming for themselves. "Our hope is by building the movement, our business will grow with it," said Lewis Goldstein, vice president for brand marketing at Organic Valley, which is spending 500,000 to 1 million on the new website, and social media initiatives. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Mr. Comey has no doubt benefited from wall to wall television coverage. He has given revealing interviews on every major news network, drawing angry tweets from President Trump, which in turn prompted more news coverage of the book. That cycle will likely drag on as Mr. Comey continues his book promotion tour this week with an appearance at a CNN Town Hall and an interview on Fox News Channel. Click here to read The Times review of the book. But the book is also, not surprisingly, polarizing, much like Mr. Comey himself. Some have praised it as a revealing and honest account of Mr. Comey's role in some of the biggest political scandals of our time, including the investigation into Mrs. Clinton's use of a private email server, the investigation into Russian collusion and his fraught relationship with the president. But others have argued that Mr. Comey has undermined his own message about the need for nonpartisan, ethical leadership by discussing some of the more salacious and sensational aspects of the Russia investigation, and by withholding his unsettling opinions about the president's fitness for office until his book tour to maximize publicity. In a sign of how fraught and politicized the conversation surrounding the book has become, Amazon limited reviews of "A Higher Loyalty" to Amazon customers who have purchased the book through the site, presumably to prevent trolls and cheerleaders who haven't read the book from skewing the ratings. Normally, anyone can leave a review of a book without having to purchase it through Amazon. The filter suggests that Amazon noticed that people were flooding the site with political opinions rather than straight book reviews. "This product currently has limitations on submitting reviews," a message on the site says. "This may be because we detected unusual review behavior on this product." Amazon said that its action in limiting reviews for Mr. Comey's book wasn't that unusual, and noted that reviews aren't suppressed simply for being nasty. "We never reject reviews based on star rating or sentiment," the company said in a statement. "When numerous reviews post in a short amount of time that are unrelated to the product, we suppress all non Amazon Verified Purchase (AVP) reviews." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
After my first experience of Theater for One back in pre pandemic days, when it meant sharing a small booth with an actor who performed a short play for you I imagined it as what speed dating would be if you fell in love with everyone you met. Sitting that close to an actor's face, hearing a story I could not avoid being part of because no one else was there to hear it, I was instantly drawn into the uncanny, enraptured collaboration of theater, with its roots in campfire tales and community bonding and a parent's hushed voice at bedtime. So when I learned that Theater for One was returning for six Thursdays this summer, in socially distanced form online, I worried that its contract with the audience would be broken. I'd attended enough Zoom meetings to know that "eye contact" had become metaphorical, a digital illusion mediated in both directions by the computer's camera. How often I'd tried to wink or wave at a colleague, only to realize I was signaling 40 people indiscriminately and reaching none. But Theater for One, the brainchild of the scenic designer Christine Jones, turns out to be more adaptable than I thought. In "Here We Are," its first online project, it has found workarounds for some of Zoom's most alienating aspects, in the process creating not just a substitute version of the earlier experience but, in some ways, a moving improvement on it. Its theatrical core is unchanged. Just as in Times Square or Zuccotti Park or any other location where T41 (as it is abbreviated) used to perform in person, you begin by getting in line only now the line is virtual. Prompts like "What space are you creating in your heart today?" open conversations among anonymous theatergoers in the queue, who type answers that show up and disappear like fireflies on the screen. (Those answers are far more revealing than they would be in real life.) After a while, when a slot opens, you are whisked into a private space, not knowing whom or what you will see there; the assignations are random. I caught four of the eight "microplays," averaging about seven minutes each, that T41 commissioned for "Here We Are." (The other four include works by Lynn Nottage and Carmelita Tropicana.) In honor of the centennial of ratification of the 19th Amendment, and in support of Black Lives Matter, all were written, directed, designed and performed by people of color, most of them women. The monologues are variously witty, worshipful, angry and determined as they take on subjects as widespread as writer's block, political action, foster care and suffrage itself. If no single theme unites them, they do share, as the omnibus title suggests, an intense feeling of the immediate present. In Jaclyn Backhaus's "Thank You Letter," a South Asian woman played by Mahira Kakkar writes to Representative John Lewis shortly after his death in July, in gratitude for his lesser known work on immigration. And in Regina Taylor's "Vote! (the black album)," Taylor plays a Black woman planning to honor her forebears, who dressed in their Sunday best to cast their ballots, by putting on a mask to mail hers. The pandemic is a given in all the plays but generally takes second place to other concerns. In Lydia R. Diamond's "whiterly negotiations," directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene, a "crazy ish Black woman writer" played by Nikkole Salter vents on Zoom about a white editor's microaggressions. But neither her dudgeon nor the Zoom itself turn out to be what they first seem; in a code switching coda, Diamond suggests just how confusing our world's new terrain can be. Part of the cleverness and effectiveness of "whiterly negotiations" comes from not knowing who you, the viewer, alone in a virtual space with Salter, are meant to be in the story. If you are white, as I am, you might wonder whether you are standing in for the white editor, which is uncomfortable but eye opening. If you are Black you might think you are a friend listening for the umpteenth time to the character's spiel. One thing you can't ever feel, because Salter looks right at you, is that you are a disinterested bystander. That dynamic more or less informs all four plays I saw. In "Vote!" I felt like both a generalized ear and, because Taylor is such a compelling actor, the specific recipient of her intended message. (She is beautifully directed by Taylor Reynolds.) In "Thank You Letter," Kakkar's character immediately enlists you in her story by thanking you for listening. "Hi I don't know you but I'm going to talk if it's okay?!" she says. "I come from a long line of nontalkers." The conflict I have often felt between being an observer and a participant in the stories I go to the theater to see is intensified and finally obviated by T41's approach. You have to be both, at least in part so as not to seem rude to the actor, who is being both for you. I felt this most acutely in Stacey Rose's "Thank You for Coming. Take Care," directed (like "Thank You Letter") by Candis C. Jones. Patrice Bell plays a woman serving a long sentence in prison; I played, and you will too if you see it, a foster parent who has been raising the woman's daughter for two years and now hopes to adopt her. "You don't look anything like I expected," Bell's character says at the start. "Like your hair, I thought it'd be" and here the script instructs her to describe a kind of hair that's "opposite to" whatever yours is. "I thought it'd be blond" is what she said to me. "Thank You for Coming," so specific and evenhanded, would have been a heartbreaker in any format. But especially now, in moments like that, enhanced by terrific acting, you feel seen in a way that has been too often absent these six months and maybe longer. Intimacy in the live theater is always touch and go. On display alone in our homes, we are much more seen than usual. Seen and sometimes implicated. After all, everyone is part of everyone else's story. In our isolation, it can be hard to remember that. From its title on, "Here We Are" is not about to let us forget. Theater for One: Here We Are Performances each Thursday through Sept. 24; theatreforone.com. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
"The Prom" begins when a theater critic for The New York Times writes a pan so poisonous that the show he's reviewing dies on the spot. That's ridiculous. It could never happen. At any rate, it won't happen now, because "The Prom," which opened on Thursday at the Longacre Theater, is such a joyful hoot. With its kinetic dancing, broad mugging and belty anthems, it makes you believe in musical comedy again. These days, that takes some doing. How, after all, with so much pain in the air and so many constraints on what's allowed to be funny, do we find the heart and permission to laugh? As in many classic musicals, the authors of "The Prom" begin by holding a distorting mirror up to the theater itself. The show shut down by the horrible critic is a bio musical about Eleanor Roosevelt that naturally features a hip hop number. Its stars, Dee Dee Allen and Barry Glickman, are narcissistic gasbags who mistake their exhibitionism for humanitarianism. Career rehabilitation for widely mocked middle aged divas is no easy matter. How can Dee Dee (Beth Leavel) and Barry (Brooks Ashmanskas) "appear to be decent human beings" without giving up a shred of self love? Their friends aren't in much of a position to answer. Angie (Angie Schworer) has been stuck in the chorus of "Chicago" for 20 years. Trent (Christopher Sieber) is a superannuated cater waiter who can't stop reminding everyone that he went to Juilliard and had a flicker of fame in a '90s sitcom called "Talk to the Hand." Still, they come up with the solution: celebrity activism. It would be enough for a show like this to maintain a cruising altitude of giddy. The authors book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin, songs by Mr. Beguelin (lyrics) and Matthew Sklar (music) have on their combined resumes both "The Drowsy Chaperone," that peerlessly inane 1920s showbiz spoof, and "The Wedding Singer," an underrated musical comedy about an entertainer so humbled he winds up in a dumpster. But working with the director choreographer Casey Nicholaw, who staged "Chaperone" as well as the current "Aladdin" and "Mean Girls," the team behind "The Prom" has attempted a more difficult gymnastic maneuver. As in many of the greatest Golden Age musicals, they latch onto a subject of topical importance, using its gravity to anchor their satire and their satire to leaven its earnestness. In full "Hairspray" mode, they mostly succeed. What's new onstage and off: Sign up for our Theater Update newsletter The subject in this case is heartland homophobia. A quick Twitter search leads Dee Dee and Barry to the perfect object for their insincere concern: a 17 year old lesbian whose high school won't let her bring a girl to the prom. (The theater executive Jack Viertel came up with the idea after reading about several similar cases, including one in Mississippi in 2010.) Dragging along their exasperated press agent, the four vain actors hitch a ride to Indiana with a bus and truck tour of "Godspell," hoping to rekindle their careers by wowing the "Jesus jumping losers and their inbred wives" into submission. "We're gonna help that little lesbian," Barry sings, "whether she likes it or not." Like segregation in "Hairspray" or, for that matter, racism in "South Pacific" anti gay intolerance offers a comfortable target and a teachable moment. Sincerity can be dangerous for comedies, though, burning away laughs and landing everyone in a lake of treacle. If that problem is mostly avoided here, it is at a slight cost to depth and texture. Emma, the girl at the center of the storm, turns out to be a perfectly adjusted young woman with no satirical qualities except in her wardrobe. (The hilarious costumes are by Ann Roth and Matthew Pachtman.) Though smartly played by Caitlin Kinnunen, and provided with intolerant parents we never meet, the character as written is something of a blank. That seems strategic to me. The lovely romantic ballads Emma is given to sing, with titles like "Dance With You" and "Unruly Heart," are completely anodyne or would be if it weren't for the context, which turns them into breakthroughs. But the other Indianans are blurrier, as if the authors couldn't quite decide how much ribbing they could take. The local teenagers might as well be from "Bye Bye Birdie" and they evolve from antagonists to allies with the scantest provocation. Even the school principal (Michael Potts) turns out to be unflappably noble; more surprising, as Dee Dee discovers, he's a fan of hers and yet straight. Other than that, the comic focus is squarely on the interfering, elitist New Yorkers, and here "The Prom" excels. Ms. Leavel is, as always, scarily brilliant at portraying self involvement and making that passion big enough to justify belting about it. As the title character in "The Drowsy Chaperone" she had but one showstopper, which won her a Tony Award; here she has two. Mr. Ashmanskas is likewise playing a variation on flamboyant characters he's mastered before, but at such an extreme level as to leave mere earth behind. His auto da fey stylings twinkle toes pirouettes and pursed lip mincing ought to be offensive but somehow wind up as poetry instead. I wish his big number (like the one given to the terrific Mr. Sieber) were a better song; despite Mr. Nicholaw's ecstatic staging, it never quite lifts off. That is not a problem in general the ensemble's big numbers, set to Glen Kelly's dance arrangements, are a blast. So is the textbook perfect second act opener, "Zazz," in which Ms. Schworer, with her "crazy antelope legs," gives Emma an unlikely lesson in Fosse esque "style plus confidence." Those attributes, perhaps not as easily achievable as the song suggests, are part of what makes "The Prom" delicious despite its flaws. Moving so fast you can hardly see the cracks in the road, it consistently delivers on its entertainment promises as well as its Golden Age premise: that musicals, however zazzy, can address the deepest issues dividing us. Like a certain cockeyed optimist, you may even note a lump in your throat when Emma finally gets her perfect kiss while the supportive Hoosiers and godless Broadway interlopers cheer her on and sing backup. If that means that "The Prom" trades in some of the same cheesy mawkishness it satirizes, that's O.K. Cheese has always been part of the American recipe and rarely hurt the apple pie underneath. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
EACH morning as the sun rises over Stuttgart, Mercedes Benz executives must give thanks for the rise, fall, evolution and endurance of the S.U.V. It certainly took Mercedes a while to find its calling in this lucrative all wheel drive market: the original M Class, an Alabama built cracker barrel with the soul of a minivan, did not portend a bright future when it arrived in 1998. Five years later, Mercedes began officially importing its G Class, ne Gelandewagen. Conceived in 1979, this 75,000 Austrian off roader had built a tiny following strictly on the gray market, with truck loving Yankees paying well over 100,000 for used specimens. Such action figure S.U.V.'s won many battles, but eventually lost the war: As the rough riders fell back, overrun by car based crossovers, the market essentially fell into Mercedes's lap. What Americans want from today's S.U.V.'s is exactly what Mercedes is genetically programmed to provide: not armor plating and off road prowess, just space for the family to relax in peace, along with comfort and safety. If those buyers rise to the luxury ranks, said S.U.V. must add a sprinkling of techno treats and a leather scented wrapper that suggests a desirable ZIP code. With this third generation M Class, Mercedes's confidence that its S.U.V. values are the right ones has never been clearer. This is a subtle but enormously skilled contender in the midsize luxury class. That is, if you can forgive a price that soars with every rich schmear of options. In looks, performance and, now, luxury, ML buyers will feel as though they're driving a mildly downsized version of the sumptuous GL, the three row S.U.V. that's arguably the best of the big luxury barges. If the two row ML dovetails with your tastes, your family size and your credit score, the only question is how to fill 'er up: gasoline or diesel? In this corner, the ML350 4Matic will be America's popular choice, with its 302 horsepower 3.5 liter V 6, upgraded with direct fuel injection. But after weeklong workouts with both models, I lean toward the challenger: the ML350 Bluetec 4Matic with a 240 horsepower 3 liter turbodiesel V 6. Math majors may ask why a 240 horse diesel is preferable to a 302 horse gas engine; especially when the diesel's base price of 51,365 is 1,500 higher. So consider another number, 455, which describes not the engine of a vintage Pontiac GTO, but the incredible torque of the Mercedes diesel. That 455 pound feet is 55 more than last year's ML Bluetec (horsepower has increased by 30), and it dwarfs the 273 pound feet of the gasoline version. The diesel's estimated economy rating of 20 miles per gallon in town and 27 on the highway also tops the 17/22 m.p.g. estimate of the premium unleaded ML. Both models deliver power through a seamless 7 speed automatic transmission. The ingot solid chassis is shared in part with the Jeep Grand Cherokee, a vestige of Daimler's former ownership of Chrysler. The body, roughly an inch shorter and lower than before, adopts some of the stacked Lego look of the E Class sedan. The grille is upright and simplified, braced by an angular metal chin and an enlarged three pointed star. Large, scooped out air inlets, striped with LED lighting, have replaced demure fog lamps. The cargo area is usefully box shaped, bigger than you may expect, with a wide floor and little intrusion from the wheel wells. Like its big brother, the GL, the M Class looks classy and satisfied, a sport ute with nothing to prove. It also retains its forward slashing C pillars, a look that some people can't abide a "Russian Tonka truck," one colleague sniffed. If it's all a little on the conservative side, so are the suburbs the M Class will call home. The cabin receives the more visible sprucing up, with Benz worthy wood and leather, firm but comfortable seats and an S Class's worth of gizmos. Most of this costs extra, including the wood and leather steering wheel ( 590) and soft ambient lighting ( 155). A well designed self parking unit uses radar to scan for available spots at up to 20 m.p.h., then neatly parallel parks the vehicle, requiring the driver only to marvel and to brake. That feature adds 970. Do you detect a pattern? The ML is as smooth as Wonka's chocolate river and as good at ferrying children. It's as quiet as any S.U.V. I've tested. Even the diesel's unobtrusive tick tock sound, audible with the windows open, is virtually extinguished in the sealed compartment. Mercedes estimates a dead heat 0 to 60 m.p.h. run of 7.3 seconds for either the gasoline or diesel model. That's rather snappy performance for a vehicle that weighs more than 5,000 pounds. But the ML's improved cornering was the real surprise, especially with the Dynamic Handling Package, which adds an adaptive air suspension, 20 inch alloy wheels and the Adaptive Curve system. As the ML swings into a curve, the system hydraulically couples its stabilizer bars, limiting how much the body can lean over. In a straight line, the wheels are freed to help tame bumps. Decoupling the bars also helps the M Class negotiate off road terrain. So equipped, the ML cornered virtually as flat as a BMW X5 on a downhill run, though the Mercedes couldn't match the BMW's sporty, communicative steering. The diesel, naturally, thrives at very low engine speeds. And for many people, that smooth, unstressed power is ideally suited to a well marbled S.U.V. Yet the revised gas burner has its own charms. Its newly enlarged V 6 revs with gusto to its much higher 6,500 r.p.m. redline and responds quicker to the throttle. Either ML will tow a stout 7,200 pounds, though a special off road package, including driver selected modes for handling various terrains, won't be available until the 2013 model year. The diesel registered 27 m.p.g. for a New York to Boston trip. The E.P.A. estimates that the average owner of the diesel ML will spend 2,800 a year on fuel, some 450 less than for the gasoline version. The diesel does burn through another pricey liquid: AdBlue, the urea solution that is steadily metered into the exhaust stream to neutralize smog forming nitrogen oxides. Diesel buyers must refill the seven gallon urea tank every 10,000 to 15,000 miles. Some dealers charge around 300 for the service, though owners can top off on their own for much less. The ML's base price is unchanged from last year despite the upgraded powertrain and more standard equipment, including a power liftgate, heated front seats, driver's knee air bag and LED running lamps and taillamps. Solidly equipped, the Bluetec Benz reached 65,810. But my gas powered test car, which starts below 50,000, came with nearly 25,000 in options half the price of the base vehicle! for a staggering total of 74,325. In the ML's defense, many buyers can and will live without a lot of the extras, like the Dynamic Handling Package (a steep 5,150); night vision ( 1,780), rear seat DVD entertainment ( 1,970); adaptive cruise control, lane departure and blind spot warnings ( 2,950); three zone climate control ( 1,450), the auto parking unit; and an all seeing, all knowing xenon headlight system for 1,290. Eliminating just those options would keep the price under 60,000. If you insist on splurging, you can still get the ML550 with a 4.7 liter 402 horse Biturbo V 8; it starts at 58,465. Those who want to make a truly mad dash to the ski cabin can opt for the ML63 AMG, upgraded with a 518 horse Biturbo V 8, for 95,865. A basic two wheel drive ML350 arrives in September. Considering the shared genes of the Mercedes and Jeep, is an ML worth 15,000 to 25,000 more than a Grand Cherokee or, for that matter, the fine new Ford Explorer? For a Jeep or Ford fan, a colorful adjective precedes the "no." For a Benz loyalist, an education analogy might be in order: he may complain about the tuition, but he's not about to take his child out of private school. INSIDE TRACK: An E Class wagon on steroids and stilts. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
When you hear about the soprano Lise Davidsen, you might find yourself questioning the facts. Could someone who didn't even see an opera until she was in her 20s really be making her Metropolitan Opera debut at 32? Surely she hasn't been singing opera for only a decade? But it's true. Ms. Davidsen who stars in Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades" at the Met beginning Nov. 29 and will be a fixture there in the coming seasons is the rare newcomer to opera who has not only caught up to the field but dashed to its forefront, sweeping contests and gaining a reputation as the great Wagnerian promise of her generation. "It's a one in a million voice," the conductor Antonio Pappano said in an interview. Esa Pekka Salonen, who led the Philharmonia Orchestra on Ms. Davidsen's recent debut album, is convinced that "she's going to go very, very far." Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, described her as being "in a league of her own." Such high praise is difficult for Ms. Davidsen to contemplate, since just 10 years ago, on a visit to New York, she posed for a photo outside the Met almost as a joke, thinking she would never perform there (and lacking the money for a ticket). The Met wasn't anywhere near Ms. Davidsen's radar as she grew up in small town Norway, where the nearest major opera house was almost two hours away by train. The daughter of an electrician and a health care worker, she played handball and sang in community choirs and annual Christmas shows. Then, as a teenager, she began to take guitar lessons, with the distant dream of becoming a singer songwriter. She did follow her ambition to Bergen, where she studied voice at the Grieg Academy but not opera, which Ms. Davidsen said "was so far away not because of the music, but because the whole idea of being onstage was too scary." She preferred to sing Bach and Handel. By the time she graduated, in 2010, and arrived at the Royal Opera Academy in Copenhagen for her master's degree, Ms. Davidsen had decided that she was a mezzo soprano, and she would sing Baroque music. Her teacher disagreed. "She turned my life upside down," Ms. Davidsen said. "At our first meeting, she said, 'No you're not a mezzo, you're a soprano, and you should be doing opera.'" For a young singer, news like this can set off an identity crisis. "As students, you are so unsure about everything, so what you can hold on to, you hold on to with everything you have," Ms. Davidsen said. "My whole plan was sort of settled. So how was I just going to become a soprano, how was I going to learn a whole new repertoire?" But she convinced herself that being good was the only thing that mattered. And her education truly began: She saw her first opera, Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier," and was overwhelmed by its beauty and intensity. She listened to recordings of the great sopranos, like Jessye Norman, Kirsten Flagstad and Birgit Nilsson. She experimented with singing "Dich, teure Halle" from Wagner's "Tannhauser," even though her voice's lightness at the time w as better suited to Mozart. Ms. Davidsen had originally wanted to become a singer songwriter to describe and communicate her feelings. "And now the stage, and opera, was where I could find that communication," she said. "This feeling that it can go straight to your core there isn't really anything else that can do that. I realized that this is what I need to do." Finished with school, several years into her life as an operatic soprano and with some professional work that showed signs of promise for a viable life as a singer, Ms. Davidsen began to enter competitions. And in 2015, with "Dich, teure Halle" as her showpiece, honors came in rapid succession, including the top prize at Operalia. Attention came suddenly. Europe's top opera houses all wanted to book her, journalists wanted to interview her, congratulations flooded in from friends and family. "It was all good," Ms. Davidsen said, "but too much of anything can be overwhelming." After Operalia, she tried to take a break with her boyfriend in Paris. "I couldn't go anywhere," she recalled. "Whatever he proposed, I started crying." This still happens every now and then: Ms. Davidsen calls it "hitting a little wall," which can be cured by a good cry, an hour at the gym, or "watching 'Sex and the City' for the 150th time so I can scroll Instagram." With a penetrating voice and a height of over six feet, she commands a stage with ease. Mr. Pappano recalled a rehearsal in London for Wagner's "Ring": "When she opened her mouth, we were all stunned. The voice has a light in it." Mr. Salonen has a similar story from inside the studio for her Decca album, which contains two selections from "Tannhauser" as well as Strauss selections, including his "Four Last Songs." "When she sang the first phrase of the 'Tannhauser,'" he said, "the orchestra kind of collectively dropped their jaws: 'Did that sound really come out of a person?'" Opera is always difficult to capture in recording, and Ms. Davidsen's album isn't the best introduction to her immense dynamic range. So the consistent quiet of Elisabeth's prayer from "Tannhauser," for example, comes off better than the peaks and valleys of "Dich, teure Halle." What little criticism she received, though, was mostly reserved for her choice to program, somewhat precociously, the autumnal "Four Last Songs." "It pisses me off a little bit that you have to be a certain age to feel certain feelings," Ms. Davidsen said. "Teenagers have all those feelings, and more, in a day. If someone at the age of 80 says, 'I don't want to hear Lise do those songs because she's too young,' well, fine: Then you can find another recording, because there are so many beautiful ones." "But I do believe that I'm entitled to take on these feelings, to take on the difficulties in life," she continued. "That's our job in opera, and that's the same with the 'Four Last Songs.' I really hope that if I keep on singing, I get to record them again in 15 or 20 years." By then, if Ms. Davidsen continues at her current pace with no less determination than when she was in school, yet with the restraint not to take on new roles before she's ready she will have conquered large swaths of Wagner, a personal favorite. She has already sung minor parts in the "Ring" and the rarity "Das Liebesverbot." "She has a unique carrying voice," Ms. Wagner said. "Even the quietest and finest piano of her voice can be heard in every corner of the auditorium, and every forte floods the audience. It is also obvious that even more important vocal parts than Elisabeth will come in future." (Indeed, Ms. Davidsen will be back next summer as Sieglinde in "Die Walkure.") During a rehearsal last week, Ms. Davidsen sang onstage at the Met for the first time, with an electricity that left many in the theater speechless. "This is a major artistic event," Mr. Gelb said afterward. "It's always awkward to raise people's expectations, but in this case I don't have any qualms. Ultimately, she's going to be the next great Brunnhilde." If Ms. Davidsen has the sound and presence of a diva in the making, she doesn't have any of the haughtiness that's thought to come with it. Mr. Pappano, who will reunite with her for "Fidelio" at the Royal Opera House in London next spring, described her as "extremely observant and analytical" in rehearsals; at the Met, she has been solemnly receptive to notes from the conductor, Vasily Petrenko, and friendly with fellow cast members. After a chorus singer complimented her, she held her hand to her chest and said, "That made my day!" After all, Ms. Davidsen doesn't believe she's a Nilsson or a Flagstad just yet. "Those singers are inspirational, and idols," she said. "If I could ever achieve a percentage of what they have done, I would be happy. But I would not know until I've been in the business a couple of years." Ms. Davidsen was quick to clarify: She didn't mean literally two years; obviously, she said, it would take many more. But, given what she's accomplished in a single decade, "a couple of years" sounded entirely possible. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
StrongArm Technologies, a start up company in Brooklyn, makes "ergo skeletons" that look a bit like futuristic versions of the back support belts that warehouse workers often wear. Sensors embedded in the devices monitor a worker's movements, and artificial intelligence software uses that information to suggest rest, stretching or posture changes an automated safety coach for preventing back injuries. StrongArm, a fledgling outfit with just 20 employees, is one of a new wave of start ups making all sorts of devices that offer a glimpse of the future for the manufacturing of high tech hardware in America's cities. The company's home in Brooklyn is a vast, renovated industrial building, where World War II battleships were once made. Now it is dedicated to commercializing digital age hardware start ups. New Lab, a public private partnership, opened the doors to the 84,000 square foot space last June. It now hosts 80 companies across a range of industries and in various stages of development, but they typically have three to 20 employees. Vincent Tullo for The New York Times On Thursday, New Lab announced that 14 of its companies, including StrongArm, are joining an urban technology initiative with the New York City Economic Development Corporation. The goal is to generate technology for urban challenges ranging from traffic congestion to local food cultivation. "We want them to not only make technology in New York, but to deploy it in New York City," said Alicia Glen, New York's deputy mayor for economic development. That you don't have to be a giant company to have a good hardware idea has been evident for years at Maker Faire events, where inventors showcase their homemade engineering projects. Last year, more than one million people attended Maker Faire events worldwide. But progress in hardware the messy physical world tends to take longer than in the digital only realm of software. For a decade now, cloud computing and open source software have drastically lowered the cost of starting a software company. So the number of software start ups has surged. Now, it seems, is the time for hardware, where a similar phenomenon is getting underway. It is helped by the software trend, but it is really driven by new hardware tools like 3 D printing and laser cutters as well as low cost, open source hardware that allows for rapid prototyping that accelerates the pace of development. The hardware start ups tend to be clustered in urban settings like San Francisco, Boston and New York. The Urban Manufacturing Alliance, a nonprofit community development organization created in 2011, now has about 550 members representing more than 150 cities. There are signs that manufacturing employment in cities has stabilized, and is reviving in places. After steadily declining for three decades, the number of manufacturing jobs in New York increased by 3,000 from 2011 to 2015, to more than 78,000, the most recent figure available. But there are signs of a groundswell of high tech hardware start ups, beyond breakout companies like the electric carmaker Tesla and Nest Labs, the digital thermostat company, which Google bought for 3.2 billion and is now a subsidiary of the parent company, Alphabet. Funding is becoming more plentiful from traditional venture capitalists, the venture arms of major corporations and venture funds that are dedicated to hardware start ups, like Bolt and Lemnos Labs. The companies in New Lab, for example, have raised more than 250 million. For most companies in New Lab, the Brooklyn center is headquarters, and where their design and development are done. As the hardware start ups grow, how much manufacturing will be done in the city is an open question. StrongArm, for example, is starting to gain momentum, having sold more than 4,000 units of its digital safety wear in the last couple of years. Its manufacturing is done by contractors, one in an industrial district elsewhere in New York City and another in upstate New York. "What we do requires a ton of equipment, and that's what got us in the door," said Sean Petterson, the company's 26 year old co founder and chief executive. A handful of corporate partners, including General Electric, Intel, JetBlue, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Autodesk, have signed up to work with the New Lab start ups in various ways. The cities of Copenhagen and Barcelona, Spain, also plan joint innovation programs with the Brooklyn hardware center. And New Lab says it is setting up a fund, New Lab Ventures, to invest in its companies, with a goal of raising 50 million. Beth Comstock, vice chairwoman of G.E., who is in charge of new business development, has visited New Lab several times. Ms. Comstock even did a video interview with Andrew Shearer, chief executive of Farmshelf, a New Lab start up that is using sensors and software to develop hardware units for locally grown food. "We need to be constantly learning, connecting with new companies coming up, and seeing new business models earlier," Ms. Comstock said. New Lab itself began as a test and learn start up. In 2013, it created a "beta" space nearby in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in a building with 8,000 square feet. "It wasn't obvious that companies would want to come here," said David Belt, chief executive of New Lab. But come they did. New Lab has fielded more than 400 applications to select its 80 companies. An idea and enthusiasm are not enough to make the grade. Companies, Mr. Belt explained, must have a product and usually a seed round of funding. Mr. Belt and his partner at New Lab, Scott Cohen, also recruited companies they thought could contribute a lot to their hardware community and mentor younger outfits. Nanotronics Imaging was one of them. The company, founded in 2010, grew out of the research of Matthew Putman, then a scientist at Columbia University. Its automated microscopes employ artificial intelligence and robotics to analyze and detect flaws in high tech manufacturing for semiconductor, aerospace and other industries. Nanotronics has raised more money than any other New Lab company, 41 million, and its investors include Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Gordon Moore, a co founder of Intel. Nanotronics started in Ohio, and it still has an office there, but its headquarters are now in Brooklyn, where it does its design work and employs 20 of its 60 employees. It operates a factory in Hollister, Calif. In addition to the 3 D printers and other prototyping equipment at New Lab, Justin Stanwix, chief revenue officer at Nanotronics, said a vital asset of the Brooklyn work space was the connections and idea swapping to improve manufacturing, tap investors and manage intellectual property. "That really helps mitigate the risks for these start up companies," Mr. Stanwix said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
The Romance Writers of America, grappling with the backlash to a racism dispute that has spurred furious debate over diversity and inclusion issues within the romance genre, said Thursday that its president and executive director have resigned. In a statement, the trade organization, which has more than 9,000 members, called the events of the past few weeks "the most painful and tumultuous" of its history. Damon Suede, its president, has stepped down, "effective immediately," and Carol Ritter, its executive director, has also resigned, though she will remain in the position for the coming months to assist with the leadership transition. The R.W.A. said it would not immediately name a new president, instead "working transparently with its membership" to develop a process for appointing Mr. Suede's successor. It didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Writers, agents and others in romance publishing a lucrative segment of the overall publishing industry with a deeply engaged base of readers have called for Mr. Suede and Ms. Ritter's resignations since late last year, when the organization came under scrutiny for its handling of an ethics complaint against Courtney Milan, a writer and former R.W.A. board member. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
I woke to the gentle prodding of a flight attendant asking me to raise my window shade for the landing in Windhoek. I complied, and was immediately assailed: a bolt of white fury forced my eyelids to contract in submission, never to open again. Or, at least, not until it was time to deplane. A road trip across Namibia is an education in its own right, filled with trials, pop quizzes and even the occasional all nighter spent stargazing. Thanks to my brief foray into sightlessness, my schooling had begun before I even touched down. Lesson 1. The Namibian sun is every bit as potent as you've heard. At midday, the formidable orb that lights the Namibian sky blazes so fiercely that the landscape resembles an overexposed photograph. Slipping on a pair of sunglasses has the effect of adding an Instagram filter, retouching the panorama with definition, warmth and saturation. Namibia has been called the Land God Made in Anger or, less poetically, the Gates of Hell but I wonder if the Land God Forgot About might be more accurate. On a road trip through more than 1,500 miles of its stark terrain, it seemed as though Namibia's blueprint had been carefully conceived but abandoned midthought: dried out riverbeds left thirsting for water; rolling savannas devoid of vegetation; towering mounds of sandy dunes shifting aimlessly for millenniums, waiting to be sculpted into something permanent. And plenty of space, but few humans to fill it. Namibia is more than twice the size of Germany, but with just over two million people, it's one of the least densely populated countries on the planet. It's austere, charred, forsaken and that ferocious sun certainly doesn't help its case. God blessed Namibia with plenty of light, but didn't bother bestowing many places to find respite from it. 2. As soon as you've booked your flight, book your 4 by 4. After consulting a map, I narrowed down a circuit encompassing the mighty Sossusvlei dunes, the quaint beach town of Swakopmund, and the notorious Skeleton Coast it is said it is so named because it's where ships and whales come to die, studding the shore with their sun bleached remains before veering inland, through the phantasmagoric mountainscape of Damaraland, back to Windhoek. It's a well trodden route, but you'd never guess it. Another feature lacking in Namibia: good, tarred roads. Barring a few major highways, most of Namibia is linked by jarring dirt thoroughfares of variable quality, which means a four wheel drive is a requisite if you're brave enough to drive. Since I was traveling in August, Namibia's peak travel season winter months translate to pleasant daytime highs in the 80s and 90s 4 by 4s can be in short supply. My friends Sabiha, Safiyyah, Aadila and I secured a silver Toyota Fortuner, and we learned right away why it was indispensable. At the outer limits of Windhoek, the highway clocks out without notice, giving up and giving way to an endless sandy ribbon. We christened our car Dusty. 3. A group of women road tripping through the brutal terrain is an unusual sight. We set off from Cape Town over South Africa's Women's Day weekend. It was a fitting tribute to girl power, but from hotel staff to gas station attendants to fellow travelers, people we encountered seemed pleasantly surprised by the makeup of our entourage and occasionally a bit concerned. It's no breezy girls' getaway; Namibia has cemented a reputation as a masculine undertaking. The sides of the roads were flecked with shredded tires, making me wonder how much rubber had succumbed to the ravages of Namibian gravel. But while we might have been the first group to hit Namibia's desert to a soundtrack of "Barbie Girl," "Heaven Is a Place on Earth," "Sweet Child O' Mine" and assorted Bollywood tracks, testosterone is not a requirement to go hurtling down rugged terrain with a plume of dust billowing in your wake. Case in point: Charlize Theron in last year's adrenaline filled "Mad Max: Fury Road," which was filmed across this harsh landscape. From Windhoek, we drove four hours through an alternating backdrop of featureless plains and undulating hills before taking a break. To call Solitaire a town would be generous; its popularity stems significantly from the very fact that it exists, since gas station sightings are less common than a mirage in Namibia's hinterland. Solitaire bloomed on the horizon just when we needed it, and we lingered over a slab of Moose McGregor's Desert Bakery's famous apple crumble. The town sign, proudly proclaiming a current population of 92, is a hit with tourists, artfully surrounded by rusting car wrecks embedded in the dirt. That night we checked into the Namib Dune Star Camp. Nine solar powered cottages are perched atop the dunes, and each queen size bed comes on wheels so it can be rolled out onto the deck for the evening. Namibia's skies continue their theatrics well past dark: From bed, I tried to discern constellations, marveling at how explorers looked to the skies for centuries to navigate continents and oceans, when I can't tell the difference between shooting stars and airplanes. That night, I slept swathed in a glittering blanket of stars, with the sound of the wind whistling through the dunes remarkably reminiscent of the ocean. 5. If you get the opportunity to run down a dune, take it. "Do you have a rope?" the man asked us by way of greeting the next afternoon. We'd just arrived at the Sossusvlei dunes, an hour in from the Namib Naukluft National Park entrance, and were deflating our tires to make our way through the last few sandy miles of off roading. The shuttles that ferried less intrepid visitors were running their last rounds, and it was clear that this park staffer didn't have much faith in the abilities of four women in a 4 by 4. He gestured to another Toyota Fortuner, stuck in the velvety sand barely 50 feet away. "We're finishing up for the day," he warned. His message was clear: if when we got into trouble, we were on our own. We sailed past Dusty's kinsman foundering in the dirt, revving into our destination in 15 minutes. But that wasn't the hard part. Ascending to heights of more than a thousand feet, Namibia's ancient dunes are among the tallest in the world. "They look like mountain ranges," Sabiha had remarked when we first spotted them on the horizon. I'd admired the hulking red peaks for a moment before I realized "they" were the very dunes I'd traveled this far to behold. All around us, ocher sands rose in sinuous curves toward sharply chiseled ridges. The Namib Desert is the oldest in the world, and at 1,066 feet, Big Daddy, the tallest dune in the area, is the one we chose to conquer the next morning. We plunged into the powdery slopes, sneakers absorbing sand at every step, and reached the summit in an hour and a half. Tawny silhouettes cascaded ad infinitum around us, and directly below, at the foot of a near vertical drop, lay the notorious Deadvlei: the desiccated clay pan, or "dead marsh," a sprawling expanse of petrified white earth studded with carcasses of acacia trees crisped into charcoal stumps. The effect is macabre, surreal, like a Dali painting come to life except it's utterly devoid of life. The fastest way to get a closer look is to sprint all the way down, and that's exactly what I did, kicking up an avalanche of dust with every stomp. "That was at least a double black diamond," said Sabiha, sinking contentedly into the sand. 6. Know how to change a flat tire (or at least how to hail for help). That afternoon we pressed on northwest from Sossusvlei toward the Atlantic coast but first, an age old rite of passage. Every Namibian trip has at least one flat tire written into its destiny; we met our fate an hour out of Walvis Bay. The sun was gliding away from us, so we saved time by playing the damsels in distress routine everyone expected of us, knowing that four women with a flat wouldn't be stranded for long. A cheerful Austrian family in a passing camper gamely helped us out. What they couldn't help with: salvaging the tire. Not opting for tire insurance turned out to be a costly oversight. A refreshing change from the desert, the seaside towns of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund are perpetually cradled in a misty embrace. In Walvis Bay, we watched flamingos wading in the lagoon, their flashy fuchsia brightening the gloomy day. Half an hour north, Swakopmund is a mini Bavaria on the beach, complete with cakelike German colonial buildings in pastel shades. But its genteel environs belie the area's status as Namibia's adventure capital opportunities for sand boarding, parasailing and extreme dune driving abound. One morning we went on a guided tour to Sandwich Harbour, where the dunes spill into the ocean; the next, we tried quad biking, spending an adrenaline fueled hour on an all terrain vehicle thrashing a loop through the desert. 7. The moon lies about 20 miles east of Swakopmund. If you ask for directions to the moon, you are likely to get blank stares. We realized this on our way out of Swakopmund, searching for an area marked simply on our map as Moon Landscape. From faux Germany, we were on a mission to faux outer space. "Are you sure they didn't just mean ... this?" I asked Safiyyah as we drove in circles, gesturing to the same barren terrain we'd been seeing throughout Namibia. "No, this isn't what the moon looks like!" she shot back. When we finally found it, the scenery was as lunar as advertised. Safiyyah piloted Dusty into an otherworldly, crater riddled setting, a rocky canyon marked by outcroppings rippling for miles in the distance. Just when you think Namibia's terrain is unlike anything on earth, it goes celestial on you. We returned to Earth by way of Cape Cross, a remote outpost that's home to a tidy lodge, a smelly seal colony and little else, driving along a road lined with testaments to Namibian ethics. The fields surrounding the highway shimmer with salt crystals, and enterprising souls have meticulously gathered and cleaned the most beautiful, displaying them on makeshift, unmanned stalls. Prospective shoppers pull over, select their favorites, consult a price list and drop the appropriate amount into a peanut butter jar, presumably to be collected in the future. This honor system would never work in neighboring South Africa, where the next car would pull up and empty the jar, taking all the crystals for good measure. But with a population about the size of Houston scattered over a land mass bigger than Texas, parts of Namibia manage to retain the quirks of a virtuous small town. Cruising onward through Skeleton Coast National Park a cheerful skull and crossbones welcomes you at the gates we counted two cars in three hours. I'm an avowed teetotaler, but I couldn't help but wonder if anyone has thought to take a shot every time they pass another car in these parts; it would seem a benign enough drinking game that even the driver could safely partake. For more of a buzz, though, you might want to have a sip every time you spy something unusual at the side of the road: upside down sedans tanning their bellies; an abandoned oil rig rusting in the sun; a wheel less wheelbarrow; a solitary leather boot; shipwrecks bobbing in the sea. Drivers should sit that game out. Driving in Namibia is not for the easily distracted: A high tolerance for monotonous roads and an ability to focus as an uninterrupted terra cotta canvas unfurls around you is imperative. It's not uncommon to brake for an oryx sprinting across the highway. The heat warps your vision, convincing you that puddles exist in places that haven't seen rain in months or that the scorched asphalt is vaporizing in the sun. From the coast we turned inland toward Damaraland, home to curiously shaped mountains that conceal millenniums old rock carvings, creating an expansive open air art gallery. Stops to view etchings at Twyfelfontein, Namibia's first Unesco World Heritage site, and the aptly named Organ Pipes rock formation meant we ended up driving the final 150 miles of the day in the dark. The dodgy roads are challenging enough in the blazing sun, but at night they're positively treacherous. Safiyyah and Aadila had just dozed off in the back when two shadowy giants loomed from the bushes, and the occasional elephant crossing sign I'd noted with amusement became all too real. A few seconds earlier and we might have gotten a trifle too close for comfort; a few seconds later and we would have missed them entirely. But our timing was perfect. We stared, entranced, as the pair lumbered over a fence, blurring out of focus as quickly as they'd come in. Predictable is one attribute God left out of His Namibian plan. 10. Namibia gets under your skin. And your nails. And inside your nostrils, behind your ears, around each hair follicle, between every fold of your suitcase. No matter how much I shook off my clothes or scrubbed my skin, I found traces of the distinctive red earth for days after I left a dusty diploma I inadvertently carried back as proof of my graduation from Namibia's tests. Namibian soil is the souvenir that reappears when you least expect it, bringing with it a sand storm of memories. IF YOU GO Namib Dune Star Camp, Hardap; gondwana collection.com; doubles from 1,374 Namibian dollars, or 86 at 16 Namibian dollars to the U.S. dollar, per person, including breakfast. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
While these suits have alleged systemic fraud in at least five states, the evidence they have offered has been different. At least so far, it has been limited, narrow and, according to several judges and experts, unlikely to affect let alone to overturn the outcome of the race. "The level of evidence they've produced is actually very low," said Kermit Roosevelt, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. "It has a sort of conspiracy theory feeling to it. There are sweeping claims that don't have a lot of evidence at all and evidence that turns out to be irrelevant." Even if you take what is presented as proof in the suits at face value, it speaks to claims made by individual voters and poll observers in a few scattered voting locations across the country. None of the evidence presented so far has the breadth or scope to reverse the relatively large leads amassed by former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in any of the key swing states. Consider the suit filed last week in Nevada, seeking to stop elections officials there from using a vote counting software that they claimed was illegal. The lawyers based their case against the software on a single sworn statement by a voter named Jill Stokke. In her statement, Ms. Stokke claimed that she had tried to vote on Oct. 28 in Las Vegas, but a poll worker told her that someone had already returned her ballot by mail. Ms. Stokke, who is in her 80s, said that she had never signed the mail ballot and claimed without any proof that the software had improperly verified its signature as hers. Earlier this week, two Republican poll challengers filed suit in state court in Michigan, claiming multiple fraud conspiracies in the voting and counting in Detroit. At a hearing on Wednesday, David Kallman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, asked a judge to halt the certification of the ballots in Detroit and laid out evidence for his various accusations. Much of Mr. Kallman's evidence was found in an affidavit filed by a local poll worker, Jessy Jacob, who claimed that she had seen other poll workers "coaching voters to vote for Joe Biden." Ms. Jacob also said that during the count her supervisor had ordered her to change the date on thousands of late arriving absentee ballots. But Ms. Jacob's affidavit was the only one of its kind from Detroit and contained no corroboration of her charges. As lawyers for the Michigan Democratic Party later wrote, her statement was, at best, evidence of "isolated instances of potential misconduct at a single vote tabulation location." On Tuesday night, Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, appeared on Fox News addressing the question of proof of fraud. "We keep hearing the drum beat of where is the evidence," Ms. McEnany said, holding up a thick stack of documents. The documents, she claimed, were more than 200 pages of "sworn affidavits from real people" about to be filed in yet another case. That case was filed on Wednesday in a federal court in Michigan and closely mirrored Mr. Kallman's state court case. But while the Trump campaign had promised "shocking" evidence of misconduct in Detroit, the affidavits Ms. McEnany touted turned out to be largely a grab bag of complaints by Republican poll watchers who felt uncomfortable in Detroit or who said local elections officials had treated them unkindly. One poll watcher, for example, claimed that workers in Detroit were wearing clothes with Black Lives Matter logos. Another claimed that the public address system the poll workers were using was "distracting." A third poll watcher seemed not to like the looks that she was getting. "I felt intimidated by union people who were staring at me," she said. Perhaps the strangest and the least founded suit so far was filed on Tuesday in Federal District Court in Williamsport, Pa. The suit was brought by four ordinary citizens a farmer, a retired pastor, a nurse anesthetist and a corrections officer who accused state elections officials of cheating during the vote count in several Pennsylvania counties. Claiming "sufficient evidence" to place in doubt the results of the election, the suit essentially rehashed several arguments that had already been made in previous suits in Pennsylvania. The lawyers who filed it, however, promised something new: to hire an expert who would prove precisely how many "illegal ballots" had been cast through a "sophisticated and groundbreaking" data analysis program. Lawyers for the state of Pennsylvania immediately ridiculed the idea. In court papers filed on Wednesday, they dismissed the suit as a group of "unsubstantiated stacked hearsay allegations," saying it was founded on a "hope that their unidentified expert will analyze data they do not have." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Funeral homes owned by the largest "death care" chain typically charge much more than local competitors, and don't post prices online for easier comparison shopping, a new analysis by two consumer groups finds. The Funeral Consumers Alliance and the Consumer Federation of America examined pricing at dozens of funeral homes in nine major markets, and found that homes owned by Service Corporation International usually charged more for similar services, whether a simple cremation, a simple burial or a traditional, full service funeral. Service Corporation International describes itself as the largest "death care" provider in North America, with about a 16 percent market share in the United States and Canada, based on revenue. The publicly traded, Houston based company owns more than 1,500 funeral homes which often operate under the Dignity Memorial brand and 470 cemeteries. The new report is based on a study of prices at 35 Service Corporation funeral homes and 103 independent funeral homes in nine markets (Atlanta, Denver, Washington, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Seattle, Tucson, Princeton, N.J., and Orange County, Calif.). None of the Service Corporation funeral homes posted price information online, the report found, making it difficult for consumers to shop for services. The Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule requires funeral homes to provide prices to consumers over the phone and in person. But the rule, enacted in 1984, does not require online price disclosure. Research by the two consumer groups in 2015 found that just about a quarter of funeral homes with websites post prices online. The consumer groups are urging the F.T.C. to update the rule to mandate online price posting. The rule is scheduled for review in 2019, the F.T.C. says, but the groups are seeking earlier action. "We take the rights of client families, the Funeral Rule, and other industry regulations and requirements seriously," Service Corporation said in a written statement. "We provide our associates with a comprehensive training program as well as continuing education to ensure all industry requirements and guidelines, including those related to sharing pricing information, are met or exceeded." The company further said that "having a personal conversation to understand how families envision honoring their loved ones goes far beyond simply using an online resource and is the best way to help families during a very difficult time." Service Corporation said that its Dignity Memorial outlets consistently receive high scores in J. D. Power customer satisfaction surveys. Joshua Slocum, executive director of the funeral alliance and author of the report, said that most consumers surveyed (78 percent) agreed that funeral homes should be required to disclose price information online. (The market research company that did the survey, ORC International, polled 1,004 people by phone in February; the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.) Most consumers begin comparison shopping for expensive products on the internet, Mr. Slocum said in a call this week with reporters, and would prefer to start their search for funeral services that way as well. The lack of price disclosure on funeral home websites, he said, hinders comparison shopping. The analysis found that median prices charged by Service Corporation funeral homes, with a handful of exceptions, were "far higher" than other funeral homes in the markets studied. For a full service funeral, Service Corporation funeral homes charged a median price of 7,705, while the median for the other homes was 5,241. For a simple cremation, Service Corporation's median charge was 2,700, compared with 1,562 for the other funeral homes. For the study, the consumer groups obtained 2016 price lists from the Service Corporation funeral homes. For the independent funeral homes, the study used 2015 prices obtained in a previous analysis, then adjusted for inflation. The full report is available online. Here are some questions and answers about funeral services: How does the F.T.C. enforce the Funeral Rule? The agency uses undercover inspectors, who visit funeral homes pretending to be consumers planning a funeral, to test compliance with the rule's requirements. In 2015 and 2016, the agency said, investigators working in nine states found failures to disclose pricing to consumers in 31 of 133 funeral homes visited, or just under a quarter of them. Where can I get information about shopping for funeral services? The Funeral Consumer Alliance offers shopping guides on its website. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
The semiautonomous Chinese territory is closed to almost everyone except residents, and a highly organized series of stations awaits arrivals at the airport. At the first one, health workers make sure travelers have filled out a health declaration form and downloaded the government's StayHomeSafe app. Next, the tracking bracelet is secured to your wrist. Then someone calls your phone to make sure the number on file is correct. At another station you receive the quarantine order, along with an at home test to be taken on Day 10 and a form for recording your temperature twice a day. Don't have a thermometer? Here's one for free. Arriving passengers are sent for testing, where they stand in private cubicles and spit into specimen bottles. ("Make a 'kruuua' noise," the instructions suggest.) Anyone who tests positive is sent to a hospital; their close contacts are quarantined. Passengers who land in the morning have to wait at the airport all day for their test results. But since my flight arrived late, we were taken to a hotel for the night, where we each got a dinner box and an electronic key card good for one use only. After receiving a negative result the next day, we were allowed to check out. Once at home or a hotel, quarantined residents open the phone app and walk around the perimeter to map its boundaries. The app may at any time ask you to scan the QR code on your bracelet to verify your location, and officials might conduct random checks by phone or in person. Violating the quarantine order can mean fines or imprisonment. Those in quarantine are not permitted to go out for groceries or a walk or even to take out the garbage you order everything online or ask friends for help. You just keep yourself busy inside your tiny Hong Kong apartment, counting down the days. In August, I moved back to New York from Hong Kong with my family. We didn't know what to expect at Kennedy Airport, but we were ready to navigate whatever safety measures we found. What we found was nothing, other than one of the quickest trips through the U.S. immigration process we've ever experienced in years abroad. No temperature checks. No travel history or contact information paperwork. No order or even suggestion to voluntarily quarantine for two weeks. No apparent enforcement of mask discipline for incoming travelers (though only a few were obviously flouting it). The only check came at the very end, when the immigration officer perfunctorily asked me whether we had traveled abroad anywhere other than Hong Kong over the previous two weeks. I said no, and he said, "Welcome home." When I flew back to Tokyo from San Francisco in June, Japan's borders were closed to travelers from more than 100 countries, so the only people arriving were a smattering of Japanese citizens or foreign residents with special exemptions to leave and return after a family emergency in my case, the death of my father. The flight had been relatively empty, but to maintain social distancing, flight attendants asked passengers to disembark in small groups. We filled out some forms, had our temperatures taken and shuffled into a waiting area before being called into cubicles for our nasal swab tests. Clearing customs took nearly an hour while officials checked my documents, including my father's death certificate and a letter from the funeral home director. They asked me to prove our family relationship, so I frantically texted my husband to send me a digital copy of my birth certificate. After I retrieved my luggage, I was escorted to an unused baggage hall where cardboard cubicles had been set up for arriving passengers to wait to be picked up. I would be required to quarantine at home for 14 days and had to attest that I would not use public transit to get back to my family's apartment in central Tokyo. The cubicles contained makeshift cardboard beds for those forced to wait overnight. When my ride arrived, the escort walked me to the curb to confirm that I was not getting into a taxi, which was considered a form of prohibited public transit. At home, my family had set up an isolation chamber in the bedroom with my desk and our exercise bike nestled by the window. It was a week before I received a call from a local public health center confirming that I was staying inside. The clerk was about to hang up when I asked her about my test results. "Oh, yes," she said. "You're negative." Australia has restricted the number of international travelers who can arrive each day, so my first impression on arriving at Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport was one of eerie emptiness. I counted myself lucky not to be among the many Australians stranded abroad after their tickets were suddenly canceled by airlines enforcing the cap on arrivals. Passengers shuffled off the plane, joking among ourselves about where we would spend the next two weeks. Australia requires travelers to quarantine for 14 days in government assigned hotels, which could mean a grim room near the airport or a five star room overlooking Sydney Harbor. After living through the pandemic in China, where people wore masks as a matter of course, it was unnerving for me to see Sydney airport workers without masks, which are not compulsory in most parts of Australia. Would we be safe? Would they be safe? Masked medical workers took our details and temperatures, rattling off a series of questions: Any fever, coughing, other possible signs of the virus? We passed through immigration and picked up our luggage. Still no hints of where we were being sent. Police officers pointed us to lines of waiting buses; families on one bus, solo travelers on another. We climbed aboard, and after some prodding the driver told us that we wouldn't know our hotel until we arrived the authorities didn't want us phoning our families to meet us there and risk infections. A stroke of good fortune: The bus stopped in front of a luxury hotel overlooking Hyde Park in the city center. But the soldiers chaperoning us to our rooms were a reminder that this was no holiday. I had enough experience with quarantine already this year three stretches locked in hotel rooms in Beijing, Hong Kong and once before in Sydney to know how to cope: keep busy with work, stick to a routine, exercise. South Korea certainly takes its virus control measures seriously though they are not airtight. After arriving at Incheon Airport, we were guided through a series of checkpoints, including one where we were asked to download an app on which we were to record any symptoms for the next 14 days. Agents made us show that we had downloaded the app before allowing us to proceed to the baggage area. Most foreign nationals arriving in South Korea have to quarantine for 14 days in a designated facility, sometimes with angry protesters banging drums outside. But I had an exemption for work reasons, and my family was allowed to serve their quarantine in a hotel. In the airport, an employee gave my wife the address of the government health office closest to our hotel, and directed her and our children to one of the specially designated "disinfection taxis" that transport new arrivals in the country. After arriving at their hotel, my wife and children discovered the biggest hole in South Korea's system. They were allowed to walk, unaccompanied, to the local health office for their coronavirus tests. They resisted the urge to dash into a convenience store for chocolate milk. Before I left Hong Kong for London, where a second wave of infections is building, I had to fill out a form telling the British government that I hadn't traveled anywhere else in the previous 14 days. I assumed this was just the beginning of what would be a highly unusual travel experience. Wrong. That was just about the last time the virus was a factor in my trip, aside from wearing a mask on the flight and being extra careful about opening the lavatory door with a paper towel. There were no forms to be filled out upon arrival at Heathrow Airport. No temperature checks, no tests, no instructions I just waltzed through customs and the baggage claim and looked for the taxi stand, just as with any other voyage. The only apparent restriction was requiring passengers older than 11 to wear masks inside the terminals. The baffling convenience prepared me for life in London, where mask use is much more sporadic than in Hong Kong. I found myself in an unimaginable situation: wishing my airport experience had been a little more complicated. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Robert D. Richardson Jr. in an undated photo. One critic wrote that his biographies of Thoreau, Emerson and William James "form one of the great achievements in contemporary American literary studies." His books about Thoreau, Emerson and William James won him national awards and a fan letter from the celebrated author who would become his wife. Robert D. Richardson Jr., whose work as the biographer of Henry Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and William James was acclaimed as "a virtual intellectual genealogy of American liberalism and, indeed, of American intellectual life in general," died on June 16 in Hyannis, Mass. He was 86. His daughter Judge Anne K. Richardson, of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, said the cause was complications of a subdural hematoma resulting from a fall. Mr. Richardson devoted 10 years to researching and writing each of his three biographies, devouring everything his subjects wrote as well as books they had read. He concluded that while they were products of the 19th century, their legacy was enduring. "In their pluralism, in their liberation from Puritanism, in their respect for mind, those three are, together and singly, voices for democratic individualism," he told The Los Angeles Review of Books in 2012. "Each voice counts. Every voice counts." "Henry David Thoreau: A Life of the Mind" (1986) did not win any major literary awards. But it prompted a fan letter from Annie Dillard, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" (1974). They ended up marrying in 1988, Ms. Dillard later recalled, after "two lunches and three handshakes." "Emerson: The Mind on Fire" (1995) won the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians and was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. In his review for The New York Times, David S. Reynolds said that the book described "in rich detail the intellectual milieu" that nurtured Emerson, and praised Mr. Richardson for his "felicitous phrasing, as when he writes: 'Emerson's adult life seems to have been half epiphany and half cordwood. He needed both ecstatic experience and pie for breakfast.'" Mr. Richardson's biography of the psychologist and philosopher William James won the Bancroft Prize for American history. "William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism" (2006), Mr. Richardson's biography of the psychologist and philosopher who was the older brother of the novelist Henry James, won the Bancroft Prize for American history. The award jury hailed it as an "intellectual genealogy of American liberalism." Writing in The New York Review of Books in 2009, the Irish novelist John Banville said that together the three biographies "form one of the great achievements in contemporary American literary studies." "Aside from his learning, which is prodigious," Mr. Banville added, "Richardson writes a wonderfully fluent, agile prose; he has a poet's sense of nuance and a novelist's grasp of dramatic rhythm; he also displays a positive genius for apt quotation, the result of a total immersion in the work of his three very dissimilar yet subtly complementary thinkers." Mr. Richardson once said, paraphrasing Emerson, that all biography is autobiography. His very choice of subjects proved his point. He and they had Harvard and New England in common; in addition, Mr. Richardson lived as a child at a parsonage in Medford, Mass., across the street from where Emerson and Thoreau had attended a meeting of what became known as the Transcendental Club. Robert Dale Richardson III was born on June 14, 1934, in Milwaukee. His father was a Unitarian minister. His mother, Lucy (Marsh) Richardson, later wrote a memoir. The family moved to Massachusetts when Robert (who preferred to use the less pretentious suffix Jr.) was a young boy. He was unimpressed by the local literati. ("My chief interests were not Emerson and Thoreau, but getting a car and meeting girls," he once said.) Nor was he inspired by Thoreau in college. After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, he majored in English at Harvard, where he was motivated by Prof. Walter Jackson Bate, a literary critic and biographer and later the subject of Mr. Richardson's book "Splendor of Heart" (2013), and earned a bachelor's degree in 1956 and a doctorate in 1961. In 1959, he married Elizabeth Hall; their marriage ended in divorce. In addition to their daughter Anne and Ms. Dillard, his second wife, he is survived by another daughter from that marriage, Dr. Lissa Richardson Biddle, a veterinarian; three stepchildren, Carin Clevidence, Shelly Clevidence and the author Cody Rose Clevidence; a brother, David; and three grandchildren. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
"Now and Forever," the old Winter Garden Theater posters used to read. Loosely translated, that means you've had the equivalent of forever to see "Cats" in one incarnation or another. But maybe, despite everything, you never got around to it, or maybe you saw it so long ago that you no longer recall what all the fuss was about. Or maybe, just maybe, you saw the much reviled trailer for the forthcoming film version and lost whatever coordinates you once had. Spooky catpeople with swishing tails and human digits? Judi Dench in a big chinchilla coat? Taylor Swift in a hammock? James Corden looking like he's auditioning for Penguin in the next "Batman" flick? Digital fur technology? There won't be any story. Not much of one, anyway. "Cats," composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, is based on a collection of light T.S. Eliot verses that lack anything in the way of narrative thread, so the show's creators give us a slender reed of theological suspense: Which lucky cat will get to ascend to the Heaviside Layer by evening's end? In "Six Degrees of Separation," John Guare boils that down to "a bunch of chorus kids in cat suits prancing around wondering which of them will go to kitty cat heaven." That's unkind but not exactly wrong. Knowing this, you can view the rest of the movie as a time killing music hall revue or, if you like, a series of existential auditions, with each character implicitly vying to make the Heaviside Layer cut. ("But I danced my ass off! I belted an E flat! I make the trains run!") If you've been as weaned as I have on Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," you might also wonder if the whole business is a disguise for ritual sacrifice. Population control, even. The point is this is all the story you're going to get. The cats won't know how to pronounce their tribal name. At least when it comes to Jellicle, their tribal name, the cats in the stage show are still figuring out which syllables to stress. "Because JELL icles are and JELL icles do,/Jell ih KUHLS do and Jellicles WOULD/Jellicles would and JELL icles can/Jell ih KUHLS can and Jellicles DO." There will be a lot of cats. Twenty two in the original New York production and, it would seem, rather more in the film version. They hail from a junkyard and are not engineered for cuddling. In the original show, the cats routinely break the fourth wall and prowl the aisles. (A friend of mine recalls his 6 year old self being frozen in terror by a human size cat yanking on his ear.) The movie's felines, by contrast, will be cavorting on roofs, tearing up pillows, dancing across dining tables and, at one point, joining in a mass cat salute. Some cats will be more equal than others. The Jellicle guru is Old Deuteronomy, a traditionally male role essayed here by Dench. In the stage show, Munkustrap (Robbie Fairchild) was a useful master of ceremonies for the proceedings, but Lloyd Webber has said that the movie will be seen through the eyes of Victoria, the White Cat (Francesca Hayward). That represents something of a promotion for this character, who will also be getting her own brand new Oscar bait Lloyd Webber song, with lyrics by one T. Swift. Rum Tum Tugger, usually an Elvis impersonator, due for a welcome hip hop/R B updating at the hands of Jason Derulo. Macavity, the Napoleon of Crime, who, onstage, plays a relatively minor role in his own number. Odds are that onscreen, the top billed Idris Elba will get more action. Gus the Theater Cat, a Centrum Silver a ctor who drags on about his days on the Victorian stage. Let us hope Ian McKellen can pump some juice into him. Bustopher Jones, a tuxedoed, white spatted dandy who will be channeling the pathologically crowd pleasing spirit of James Corden. Grizabella the Glamour Cat is the de facto protagonist because, well, she's the only one something happens to. A former prosti kitty, she once "haunted many a low resort" and is now a social pariah among the snotty Jellicles. Her destiny is to totter into the spotlight at evening's climax and sing That Song. Which reminds me ... For the love of all that's holy, it's not called "Memories." I don't care what your great aunt Celia says, or the woman who cuts your hair or the man you're married to. It's "Memory." Speaking of singular: Even if you're seeing "Cats" for the first time and, unlikelier, hearing "Memory" for the first time, it will still be the one song you take away. That's because Lloyd Webber cunningly plants the seeds for it at the end of Act 1 and brings it to raging life at the end of Act 2. The devil is in the key change. Grizabella croons the first form in B flat, allows the bridge to be briefly co opted by some younger cat, then comes roaring back in D flat. The effect of that minor third is, well, major: "Touch me! It's so ea sy to leave me!" Listen to Betty Buckley (who won a Tony for the original Broadway production), and you'd swear the theater's roof was being ripped off. The song's range and degree of difficulty have made it a rite of passage for generations of belters, so it's pleasing to hear it filtered through Jennifer Hudson's lustrous pipes in the movie trailer. What's less pleasing is Grizabella's fancy feast makeover, which, in the words of one wag, gives her the look of an anchorwoman for Cat News Network. Where is the burnt out babe with the Miss Havisham locks? And, hey, does "Memory" still work if the singer has hair on her chest? Which leads us to ... More than most shows, "Cats" demands not just a suspension of disbelief but a fairly complete surrender. In the live theater, this means accepting that the hot, sinewy humans in front of you are cats. In the movie theater, it will mean accepting that the cat human hybrids in front of you are ... well, what? (As a friend put it, turning the characters of "Cats" into actual cats is a bit like doing "Swan Lake" with actual swan bills.) Stage stylization doesn't always translate to the more naturalistic confines of the screen, so we can only hope that the movie's pixelated creatures will cohere into something recognizably something before kitty cat heaven calls them home. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
In the preface to his novel "Muse," an affectionate sendup of the publishing industry, Jonathan Galassi pines for a bygone era when "literature was life" and "books were revered, hoarded, collected." During a publishing career that covers more than four decades, Mr. Galassi, 68, the publisher of Farrar, Straus Giroux, has often been hailed as one of the last living specimens of a dying breed of scholarly, old fashioned publishing executives. A translator and poet who studied at Harvard with Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, Mr. Galassi, who joined FSG in 1986, has helped to shape the careers of some of our era's most celebrated writers: Jeffrey Eugenides, Jonathan Franzen, Marilynne Robinson, Jamaica Kincaid and Mario Vargas Llosa, among others. But after nearly 20 years as FSG's publisher, Mr. Galassi felt it was time to appoint a successor. Later this year, Mitzi Angel, 43, the publisher of Faber Faber in London, will join FSG as its new publisher and senior vice president, and will oversee the company's editorial and marketing operations. Mr. Galassi, who will remain as president and continue to acquire and edit books, summed up his thinking, naturally, by quoting the Italian novelist Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
A wall will go up in Washington Square Park on Sept. 7, but come down by the end of the day. Called "Muro," this wall will be the artist Bosco Sodi's first public installation in New York, in partnership with Paul Kasmin Gallery. It will be more than 6 feet high and about 26 feet long, made with 1,600 clay timbers fired in Oaxaca, Mexico. Mr. Sodi has made these timbers with the help of about 20 craftspeople in Oaxaca and has had them sent to New York by truck. On the morning of the event, Mr. Sodi said in an interview, he is to install the wall with the help of Mexican artists and friends who live in New York. Starting around lunchtime, though, visitors of any nationality would take apart the wall. Each participant would be invited to take home a clay timber. "I wanted to create a wall made by Mexicans with Mexican earth," Mr. Sodi said. "Then the disappearance of the wall will be by the community and all kinds of people who visit the park." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
TEL AVIV Who is the ultimate Israeli of 2020, the personification of this country's soul? Is it the sunburned soldier? The shaggy tech hustler in Tel Aviv? The hilltop fanatic? The correct answer was revealed to me and 9,000 others a few weeks ago in Tel Aviv: the apparition in a glittering crystal minidress rising from beneath the stage on invisible hydraulics to a burst of strobes and smoke and a teenage shriek into my ear: "Nasreeeen!" In China it's the Year of the Rat, but here in Israel it's the year of Nasrin Kadry, who began life on rough Arab streets near the docks in Haifa and has now, at 33 years old, ascended to the pinnacle of pop in the Jewish state. The biggest concert venues, the judging dais of "The Voice," A list duets all belong to Nasrin. Her improbable rise has much to say about this society and specifically about the way it operates in the places where highbrow experts don't look. She'd been singing for years before that, starting as a kid holding a squeegee stick like a microphone in the mirror, mimicking the actresses in the Egyptian musical melodramas that used to be broadcast on public television here every Friday afternoon. The movies had cult status not just among Israeli Arabs like Nasrin's family, one fifth of the population, but also among Israeli Jews, about half of whom have family roots in the Middle East or North Africa. "My mother would yell from the living room, 'Enough, you're driving us crazy!' I'd make a lot of noise, and it was a small apartment," Nasrin recalled when we spoke recently in a cafe near the upscale tower where she lives in Tel Aviv. At 17 she was spotted by a few Moroccan Jewish musicians playing Arabic music at the home of a friend, an Arab girl from Nazareth. After that she spent years working in bars, singing the classics of the Egyptian diva Oum Kalthoum, fending off aggressive and drunk men. "It was a tough world, but that's where I learned," she said. She had no other musical education. She lived at home in those years, helping her diabetic mother and cleaning houses to supplement what her father made driving a cab. In the evenings she'd wait for the band to pull up and honk. "I'd come home from work, shower, get up on high heels, put on jewelry, red lipstick, my huge fur coat and go to the clubs to sing," she said. This was a questionable pursuit for a Muslim girl. "My mother didn't want to let me, because what will the neighbors say, the relatives," she remembered. But the family needed the money, and that settled it. Winning the TV song contest in 2012 propelled her from the bars onto the bottom rungs of the mizrahi pop scene. She had a hit with the single "Learning to Walk" in Hebrew and a string of others like "Albi Ma'ak," Arabic for "My Heart Is With You," which blended both languages in a way that seemed completely natural. Her Hebrew, which she says she picked up in earnest only after high school, improved with coaching, and her look was modified by the glam technicians. But her style remained that of the grand divas of Lebanon and Egypt, like Oum Kalthoum, about whom it's said that she'd wear boys' clothes to sneak into the mosque with her brothers to escape the strictures of her Egyptian childhood and unleash her female voice. In 2017, fresh off a gig opening for Radiohead in the United States, the pop star sang at Israel's official Independence Day celebration, an unusual gig for an Arab artist. The invitation came from the Likud culture minister, Miri Regev, a sharp tongued hard liner whose family roots are in North Africa, like those of many Likud voters. Ms. Regev has said that Arabic music "has something to offer Israeli culture." If you can understand why it makes sense for that statement to come from a right wing politician and not from the left, you understand something tricky and important about Israel. The Israelis who are closest to the Arab world the Jews whose families are native to that world tend to lean to the political right, in part because they were treated with disdain by the left, and in part because Arab Muslim societies marginalized them, expelled them, seized their property and then, after 1948, subjected their new state to wars and a siege that has gone on for more than 70 years. Israel's founders always wanted the country to be European, and its Middle Eastern side was long kept in the cultural basement. This was reflected in the status of mizrahi music as a fringe scene scorned by critics and trafficked on bootleg cassettes. But in the past decade or two, Israel's old elite, which was rooted in Eastern Europe and inspired by the socialist ideal of the kibbutz, has aged out of relevance, and the country's repressed Middle Eastern soul has surged into the vacuum. This helps explain why Israeli politics and culture and pop music are increasingly discordant for Westerners. There's a renewed interest in the Jewish sages and religious poetry that flourished in the Islamic world, for example, like the liturgical form known as piyyut, which now shows up not just in college courses but on Top 40 radio. Even an Israeli supermarket aisle is confusing for a shopper expecting what a North American would consider Jewish food: the shelves are heavy on couscous, eggplants and the rest of the pantry of the Levant. There's more and more about Israel that's easier to grasp if you're a Muslim from Beirut than if you're a Jewish New Yorker. This is a key trend in the country right now, and Nasrin's riding it. Yaron Ilan, an influential mizrahi radio host, sees a generational change. People around his age, 50, still call the music mizrahi or Mediterranean. "They still think of the Mediterranean sound as something different from Israeli music," he said. But that has changed among younger listeners. To them, what Nasrin is singing is Israeli music and she's doing it not in small clubs in south Tel Aviv but in the Menorah Arena, the biggest indoor venue in the city. If Nasrin is representative of the hybrid culture emerging here, there's one part of her biography that's truly unique: her decision not just to sing in Hebrew but also to actually embrace Judaism. This is something that almost never happens in the Middle East, where religion isn't a private decision but a tribal affiliation that's virtually impossible to leave. The exceptions are so scandalous that they're remembered, like Leila Mourad, a movie superstar in mid 20th century Cairo, who was Jewish and converted to Islam. As Nasrin describes it, her childhood home was Muslim but not particularly religious, and her first interest in spirituality was through a Jewish boyfriend, a darbuka drummer from a traditional Moroccan family. She began fasting on Yom Kippur and keeping the Sabbath in her 20s. They broke up a few times over the course of a decade, got engaged, then broke up again. But she decided to go through with conversion anyway in 2018, immersing herself in a ritual bath, accepting religious commandments and adding a Hebrew name, Bracha, or "blessing." It was all covered by the tabloids. This has been painful for her parents. "I don't make light of my own religion and I don't forget where I'm from," she said. "I never wanted to hurt my family or anyone else." Conversion certainly hasn't hurt her popularity with her Israeli audience, but the truth is they loved her before, and she dismisses any suggestion of a motivation beyond the spiritual. She has been speaking to God for years, she said, in the language spoken by Jews. "When I need him, I speak to him only in Hebrew," she told me. "He stayed with me. He helped me. Everything I asked for until now he made come true." Complicating Nasrin's conversion, in a state where religious status is controlled by an Orthodox bureaucracy, is her job. The sparkling red jumpsuit she sometimes wears in concert, which looks like it might have been borrowed from Rihanna's closet, doesn't quite match rabbinical standards of modesty. And when she was recently spotted in a seafood restaurant in Tel Aviv, her P.R. people had to release a statement clarifying that she didn't actually eat the seafood, which isn't kosher. At the same time, she has had to fend off prejudice from some Jewish Israelis (who sometimes tell her that because they love her she's not "really Arab") and anger from Muslims who see her as a traitor ("A Love Story Led Her to Treachery," read the headline on a Saudi celebrity site). She's navigating a country that is simultaneously more open to its own Arab spirit and more suspicious of Arabs: a country where Nasrin can show up on TV at the "Big Brother" house to dedicate a song to one of the residents, the Israeli Arab transgender beauty queen Talleen Abu Hanna and also the country that recently passed the "nation state law," which downgraded the status of Arabic as an official language. Nasrin criticized the law in a radio interview, saying it "canceled the language of my mother and father, of my neighbors, and of millions of Arabs who live here." The law was championed by politicians like Miri Regev, whose own family spoke Arabic a generation or two ago and who thinks Israeli culture should learn from Arabic music. It's a complicated place, and Nasrin is charting a complicated course. But the secret of her success is simple, said Yaron Ilan, the D.J., and doesn't have much to do with her ethnicity. "Nasrin is a once in a generation talent," he said. Being Arab hasn't helped her or hurt her. "People accept her as she is," he said. "I don't think it held her back for a moment, and she never used that ticket." Mizrahi pop isn't doctrinaire; it's commercial and unapologetic about pushing any button that works. At the concert in Tel Aviv there was a buzuki solo and darbuka drums, but also some effusive strutting to Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" and a bit where Nasrin posed against a backdrop of satanic flames flanked by two guitarists wailing like Slash. There was a lot going on. The audience liked all of that, but it was "Dalaleh Dalaleh," an Arabic number popular here at weddings, that made them lose it, the peroxide matrons twirling their wrists, all the single ladies maneuvering on heels. Everyone seemed to know the songs not just the regular fans but also the Tel Aviv celebs who'd come out tonight to see the Arab queen of the Israeli scene, gazing up from the V.I.P. seats at her dazzling boots. Few singers in Israel can sell out the basketball arena by themselves, but Nasrin just had. After the show ended, she announced that she'd be back next month. Matti Friedman ( MattiFriedman), a contributing Opinion writer, is the author, most recently, of "Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel." 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. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
AGATHA RAISIN THE HAUNTED HOUSE Stream on Acorn TV. In this Halloween season special, Agatha Raisin (Ashley Jensen) tries to make the jump from amateur investigator to professional sleuth. When her detective agency struggles to draw clients, Raisin's boyfriend, James (Jamie Glover), suggests she turn her attention to a local landmark, Ivy Hall. Some claim the home is haunted, and that its current owner, Olivia (Richenda Carey), is too. But the police refuse to investigate. Raisin steps in but things become more complicated when Olivia is killed and all of the village residents are potential suspects. THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS (2006) Stream on Netflix. Rent on Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu and YouTube. Will Smith stars as Chris Gardner, a struggling entrepreneur competing for a job at a stock brokerage firm and taking care of his young son, Christopher Jr. (Jaden Smith), while homeless. In her review for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis questions the film's treatment of poverty and success. "It's the same old bootstraps story, an American dream artfully told, skillfully sold," she wrote. But Dargis also praised Smith's "warm expressiveness" and called both his and his son's performances "likable in the extreme." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Nearly geeky in its optimism and all the better for it this friendly Tennessee city is a breath of fresh air. Nestled against the Tennessee River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Chattanooga, Tenn., has transformed itself in recent decades from an unassuming town to a hyper clean, high tech ("Gig City" was the first in the United States to offer gigabit internet speeds), outdoorsy family destination that offers hiking trails, rock climbing, museums, one of the finest educational aquariums in the world, and innumerable food and entertainment venues. Families can share experiences that lean more toward kayaking and mountain biking than meeting Mickey or riding Space Mountain, though the region has a number of its own natural rides (white water rafting on the nearby Ocoee River, for example, and Lookout Mountain Hang Gliding school is just 20 minutes away). The region "where cotton meets corn" is evident in Chattanooga's straddling of two cultures: the mountain communities of Southern Appalachia to the north and the cotton growing states to the south. Nearly geeky in its optimism and all the better for it Chattanooga is a breath of fresh air. Start out slow at the Hunter Museum of American Art in the Bluff View Arts District overlooking the Tennessee River. The outstanding collection housed in an early 20th century mansion, a modern 1970s era building and a contemporary structure of steel and glass represents the sprawling artistic talent of the American soul, from the Colonial period to the present day, with works by Thomas Cole, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Helen Frankenthaler, among many others. There is also photography by Lorna Simpson and Sally Mann, and glass works by Karen LaMonte and Dale Chihuly, and, for children, plenty of hands on activities. Adult admission: 15. Children under 17: free. There will soon be action verbs in your sentences, so head to nearby Tony's Pasta Shop Trattoria in a former carriage house of a Victorian mansion for some fancy carb loading that won't break the bank. Just about everything here is made from scratch and time tested. Grab a seat on the upper deck under the wisteria, and try the Low Country linguine with sauteed crawfish and mushrooms ( 13) or seafood ravioli with dill sauce ( 14). Warning: It's all too easy to gorge on the olive oil dip with bits of pecorino, so go easy. Avoid the tourist crush at Ruby Falls by opting for the lesser known Ruby Falls Lantern Tour, which squires and schools small groups through the Lookout Mountain Caves to a 145 foot waterfall more than 1,000 feet below the surface, and named after the wife of its discoverer. The tour traverses a maze of corridors with formations the guides explain along the way. At some point, the guide will require participants to turn off their lanterns to experience total darkness, but not after hitting the switch on the falls' spectacular light show. Lantern Tours are available from February through November and cost 29.95. After breakfast (suggestion: alderwood smoked salmon frittata for 8.75 at The Bluegrass Grill) make your way to Zip Stream Aerial Adventure, also at Ruby Falls. Zip lining is fast becoming a bucket list item for many outdoor enthusiasts, and this zip line run is family friendly for those who can reach up to 70 inches and whose weight falls between 60 and 275 pounds. Choose from one of the courses developed for children that include tunnels, zigzag bridges and swinging logs with zip lining at the end. Just want to fly through the pines at about 35 miles per hour? The park offers a zip line experience, a la carte, for 29.95. This isn't the time to steer away from fried food. Family owned Uncle Larry's fries up fresh catfish to something close to sublime. Tilapia and other fish, shrimp and pork chops are on the menu, but it's the delicately battered catfish that keeps the locals coming back. It all started at a family reunion when the owner, Larry Torrance, was goaded into going commercial. Two large pieces of fish with two sides and a soda will set you back about 14. Add on a slice of key lime cake ( 3.35) to complete the diet fail it's worth it. New to the Chattanooga Choo Choo campus on Station Street and gaining national attention for its rare vintage guitar collection, Songbirds Guitar Museum is a staggering compilation that appeals to both guitar connoisseurs and those who wouldn't know a Fender from a fender. The self guided tour takes patrons through the origins of rock 'n' roll, showcasing music history from the 1930s through the 1970s ( 15). There is a collection of custom color Stratocasters and one of the most complete sets of Gibson Firebirds, Telecasters, Esquires and Jazzmasters in the world. For 38.95, you can take a guided tour through "the vault," which houses some extremely rare guitars. In the evening, consider a visit to the museum's live venue, Songbirds South. V isit bikechattanooga.com, then find one of the numerous bike stations close to the waterfront. For 8 an hour, you can bike along the river and past the diverse merchants on Broad Street and its environs. Take a nostalgic trip through Americana at the Moon Pie General Store, a novelty gift shop where Moon Pies are still made, or help create your own glass ornament at Ignis Glass Studio (Ignis suggests calling first: 423 265 2565). Find time to get to Highpoint Climbing and Fitness Gym to watch people scaling the gym's surreal 60 foot high outdoor climbing wall. Or send the young ones (or yourself) scrambling skyward. The Boathouse Rotisserie Raw Bar is one of the few foodie haunts in Chattanooga situated right on the Tennessee River. Ask the bartender about the Boathouse's Sips program, which allows one to taste any of the 16 rotating high end wines at a fraction of the cost. The "sips" are four ounces. The minimum is 10, and there is no cap. The massive deck that surrounds the restaurant blasts heaters that keep diners warm in cooler seasons. Try the Lotta Lotta Garlic Chicken with arugula, pineapple, tomatoes, avocado and feta cheese ( 17) or go old school with the wood grilled rib eye ( 35). Called one of the best designed bars in the country by the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects, The Flying Squirrel, in Chattanooga's hip Southside, is a gorgeous gastro pub built from remnants of a 115 year old barn in McMinnville, Tenn. The menu is well thought out, and the cocktails are award winning. The Reverend (Elijah Craig Bourbon, Luxardo Maraschino liquor, Fernet, orange cream bitters and orange peel) was voted one of the best new cocktails by Restaurant Hospitality magazine. Or try the Electric Eye (New Amsterdam gin, Aperol, Lillet Blanc, orange bitters, orange, 9). Head to the Tennessee Aquarium for a morning of water ballet. The mission of the aquarium which underwent a major expansion in 2005 is to connect the movement of water from the mountains to the sea with the beings that both live in or are dependent on the world's water system; it's a well told conservation story that includes lemurs, birds, otters, penguins and a wondrous Butterfly Room. There are thousands of colorful reef fish, prehistoric looking sturgeons, the nation's largest salamander and the feared red bellied piranha. In Stingray Bay, guests can touch sharks and stingrays. The aquarium's app (tnaqua.org/app) tells users where experts will be throughout the day. Adult admission is 29.95; children 3 to 12, 18.95; under 3, free. A few blocks from the aquarium is the entrance to the 2,376 foot long Walnut Street Bridge, a Chattanooga centerpiece that is on the National Register of Historic Places. The pedestrian bridge connects the Bluff View Arts District to the city's vibrant North Shore, and is considered a "linear park," with places of rest and bits about the bridge's history stationed along the way. At night, the bridge is nearly an aphrodisiac, lit up and reflecting across the water part City of Lights, part Bridge of Sighs. Make your way to Milk Honey for homemade gelato; try the velvety coffee and cream gelato ( 5.50) or choose a fresh paleta (a much improved Popsicle) for 3. If shopping is on the schedule, this is the neighborhood to roam; the free spirited North Shore merchants include art galleries, handmade jewelry and gift shops, clothing stores, cafes, tattoo parlors and record stores. If you're exiting Chatt Town on the south side, veer over to Rock City on Lookout Mountain to where ostensibly one can see seven states. All you have to do is stand there and take in the vista, and this one is grand. Once a Civil War fortification, the retro chic The Dwell Hotel (120 East 10th Street; thedwellhotel.com; from 225) is a colorful boutique hotel that seems well suited to the population Chattanooga serves particularly well the young and the cool. The DoubleTree by Hilton Downtown Chattanooga (407 Chestnut Street; doubletree3.hilton.com; rooms start at 175 per night) is in the heart of Chattanooga and close to many of the riverfront attractions, as well as the Bluff View Arts District. Amenities include a swimming pool; family packages are also available. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
FROM the second floor of the modern home that Andrew Anderson built on a sandy lot here, expansive views of Napeague Harbor are visible to the north, and a sliver of the Atlantic Ocean sparkles beyond the dunes to the south. But in this land of ocean liner sized waterfront mansions, the most surprising feature of his four bedroom two and a half bath "Beach Box" is what it's made of: six repurposed steel shipping containers the kind usually found stacked 8 to 10 high on cargo ships. "You are giving them a second life," said Mr. Anderson, the owner of beachboxit.com, who explained that the 8 by 40 foot crates, usually retired after 20 years, are costly to melt down. Repurposing is an environmentally friendly way to build something "10 times stronger" than a traditional home, he said. The containers are engineered to withstand saltwater and storms at sea. In this chic Hamptons setting, they also fuse luxury with a way to save the planet. On June 15, Mr. Anderson listed the 2,000 square foot modular home for 1.395 million. The house, three blocks from the shore, is clad in hardy fiberboard; it has 1,300 square feet of decks on two levels and sits on a property landscaped with indigenous beach grasses. The white rubber roof reduces energy costs by reflecting solar energy. The East End is already home to an artist's studio made from a steel container, but the Beach Box is believed to be its first such residence. Evidence of its humble origins includes a ribbed section of wall in the first floor hallway where a bit of a container's corrugated exterior was left exposed. Similarly, the ribbed ceiling in the two upper containers forming the second story living spaces was left uncovered. "It lets you know you're in a container," Mr. Anderson said. "It has an architectural element." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
As Katrin Bennhold of The Times has written: By the time Germany recorded its first case of Covid 19 in February, laboratories across the country had built up a stock of test kits ... Early and widespread testing has allowed the authorities to slow the spread of the pandemic by isolating known cases while they are infectious. It has also enabled lifesaving treatment to be administered in a more timely way. Testing is the key to every effective strategy for fighting the virus. It allows the sick to be treated effectively. It enables government officials and hospitals to focus their resources on the areas that need it most. And it makes sure that people who have the virus without symptoms and can unknowingly spread it to others can be isolated. The troubled response to the virus in the United States began with testing failures, and there are still not nearly enough tests being conducted. As Michael Osterholm and Mark Olshaker write in a new Op Ed: "Far too few tests are available in the United States. Some are shoddy. Even the ones that are precise aren't designed to produce the kind of definitive yes no results that people expect." The testing problem will need to be solved before states can return to normal as some are now taking early steps toward without sparking new outbreaks. None Scott Gottlieb, of the American Enterprise Institute: "If we can develop a point of care, swabable stick that gives a readable result in the doctor's office it can dramatically increase screening." None Shan Soe Lin and Robert Hecht, Yale University: "What's needed is widespread testing of people with no known symptoms ... We need to aggressively search for asymptomatic carriers, particularly among people who have frequent contact with the public and among vulnerable populations. This includes those who are infectious but will never develop symptoms and those who will develop them days after the test." None And more from Osterholm, an infectious disease expert, and Olshaker, a writer: "Governments throughout the world and the research, medical supply and clinical lab industries must unite to vastly increase global production of reagents and sampling equipment. Achieving this will take months and require building new capacity, presumably with public subsidies. The time and costs involved will be considerable, but such an effort is the only way to test large populations for this infection (and for others in the future)." If you are not a subscriber to this newsletter, you can subscribe here. You can also join me on Twitter ( DLeonhardt) and Facebook. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter ( NYTopinion) and Instagram. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
WHAT IS IT? The sporty version of Lexus's popular midsize crossover. HOW MUCH? 49,635 for the 2015 F Sport; 52,390 for the 2014 model as tested, including blind spot monitor ( 500), Navigation Package with backup camera and Sirius XM Radio ( 2,775) and intuitive parking assist ( 500). WHAT'S UNDER THE HOOD? 3.5 liter V6 with variable valve timing (270 horsepower, 248 pound feet) and 8 speed automatic transmission. IS IT THIRSTY? With a rating of 18 m.p.g. in the city and 26 on the highway, it's not terrible for a luxury utility vehicle. Say I was a gentleman of comfortable means, past the age of spirited driving (well, safe spirited driving), requiring a utility vehicle for country duty but still drawn to a twisty road and some gears to wade through. Might a toughened up Lexus RX 350 be the answer? By coincidence, I meet some of the above criteria, and I recently spent 10 days in the RX 350 F Sport, a Lexus whose ambition is to inject an element of derring do into a venerable luxury crossover that has gained a loyal following with its traditional Lexus virtues of comfort, quiet, competence, convenience and value, but that has been somewhat wanting in excitement. "Sport" is a term with widely different definitions in the automobile world, and in the case of the RX, it does not mean more power. What the F Sport gets over the base model is an 8 speed transmission with paddle shifters, instead of a 6 speed; a stiffer suspension with "performance dampers"; 19 inch wheels with a chic black finish; sporty mesh inside Lexus' signature "spindle grille"; and a few other cosmetic touches. To find out what this all means in practice, I selected a familiar stretch of winding road in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec at a time when traffic was scarce. I put the shifter that juts from the dashboard into manual mode and started playing with the paddles and the drilled metal pedals. The V6 same as in the regular RX 350 is not particularly muscular, but with eight ratios at my command it was possible to keep the pistons pumping briskly, the exhaust pipes singing and the pace reasonably entertaining. The wheels remained firmly planted even over winter induced distortions in the road, and the bulky vehicle never felt as if it was about to disagree with me about which way to go. Basically, it was fun, especially given that I'd used paddle shifters only once before, and so could still appreciate the novelty of blipping up and down just like Lewis Hamilton, and with as many cogs as he has. But is it fun enough to justify the rougher highway ride of the performance dampers? Or to play with the likes of Range Rover Evoques, Audi Q5s or BMW X3s? These are wagons in roughly the same price range, but with more sport and speed in their blood. I suspect a younger driver in search of enthusiastic motoring would look at them first. But then the entire notion of a utility vehicle as a driving machine is something of a contradiction in terms. On the S.U.V. side of the equation the extra room, extra height and extra convenience that have made these oversize wagons so popular the F Sport shares the qualities that have made the RX a favorite since it arrived in 1998, essentially creating a new market niche. The RX is spacious, comfortable and richly endowed with useful features and high tech driving aids. My favorites were the power liftgate and the blind spot monitor, with lights on the side mirrors that illuminate when a car is nearby the latter is optional, though it should be mandatory. Also, over many hours on the road, I came to appreciate the ventilated and heated front seats. None of this is unusual for a luxury crossover, but it all comes with the Lexus hallmarks of high quality and attention to detail. The dark wheels and special grille do not disguise the S.U.V. look, but in the dark blue that Lexus calls Deep Sea Mica, the test vehicle was not unpleasant to look at, and refined enough to seem at home in the Hamptons, our first destination. On the Interstate, my only complaint was the somewhat stiff ride. So on balance I would certainly advise the gentleman described at the outset to check out the F Sport, but I would urge him to make sure he was prepared to pay the 8,000 premium over a basic RX 350 and suffer the stiffer ride for the occasional reminder that driving can be fun. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
CONTACT! at National Sawdust (April 2, 7:30 p.m.). Esa Pekka Salonen is doing double duty at the New York Philharmonic this week, in his role as a valued guest conductor and as the orchestra's composer in residence. First up, he hosts what may well be the last concert of the Contact! series, Alan Gilbert's important yet ill fated contemporary music endeavor. It had to be saved from oblivion once and will be retired under the new music director, Jaap van Zweden. This program looks at current Russian composers, including music by Nikolay Popov, Denis Khorov, Marina Khorkova, Dmitri Kourliandski and Alexander Khubeev. 212 875 5656, nyphil.org JENNIFER KOH at National Sawdust (March 31, 7 p.m.). "Limitless" is the latest of Ms. Koh's pioneering commissioning projects, in which the violinist plays newly written duets with their composers, who have deliberately been chosen to present an inclusive vision of classical music's present and future. On this second program of two, there is music by Lisa Bielawa, Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, Nina Young and Du Yun. 646 779 8455, nationalsawdust.org | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Hobart, with its vibrant arts and culinary culture, is now firmly on the radar of travelers. David Moyle was among the first chefs to champion the farm to table concept in Tasmania when he opened Franklin in 2014. Moyle has since moved on, but the new head chef, Analiese Gregory, a rising star in Australia's culinary world, and the rest of her team still regularly dive for sea urchin and wakame seaweed, and forage for mushrooms, saltbush and succulents to use in the kitchen. What ingredients they can't source themselves, they procure from local suppliers, such as wallaby from a game hunter on Bruny Island, south of Hobart. This past winter (summer in the United States), the restaurant served it raw with beetroot, pepperberry and horseradish for 22 Australian dollars, or about 15. Reserve seats at the bar for a view of the focal point of the kitchen a 10 ton, wood fired Scotch oven, also made locally. With its sandstone streetscapes, penal colony history and moody, damp weather, Hobart feels like a town with plenty of secrets to divulge. Little surprise, then, that The Story Bar, in the newly opened MACq 01 hotel, trades in Tasmanian lore. Sip one of the 27 Tasmanian gins on the menu (Hartshorn Sheep Whey, 14 Australian dollars, and Poltergeist Unfiltered, 15 Australian dollars, are highly recommended) and take in the Hobart history around you. Broadsheet banners from the local newspaper archives tell the tales of tragic shipwrecks and fires, while grainy video footage on the wall highlights the sporting heroics of cricketers. Nothing tops the views of the colorful sailboats bobbing in the River Derwent, however, from a perch on the waterfront deck outside. The local go to spot for breakfast in the historic Battery Point neighborhood is Jackman McRoss, set in an airy, rambling building that has been home to various bakeries and butchers over the past 150 years. This latest incarnation, founded by a baker chef team 20 years ago, is as popular as ever for its hearty breakfasts: clay pot poached eggs with chorizo polenta in a black bean ragout (15 Australian dollars), a delectable selection of baked goods, such as strawberry and pistachio tarts (7 Australian dollars), and prune and walnut sourdough bread (6.90 Australian dollars). Afterward, drop into On Hampden Creative across the street to peruse the homewares, handprinted textiles and vintage women's hats and scarves made by 60 local artisans and designers. Not shopped out yet? Just behind the market is the wonderful Salamanca Arts Centre, a series of early 19th century warehouses that were restored in the 1970s and transformed into an arts, theater and design hub. There are numerous galleries and studios here (including Handmark), as well as plenty of creative shops. Stop at The Maker for Japanese handicrafts and women's fashions made with Japanese sourced linens and wools; Bruny Island Cheese Co. for pinot washed raw milk cheeses and small batch beers made with Tasmanian grains and hops; and the Hammer Hand Metal and Jewellery Collective for handmade earrings, necklaces, sculptures and stainless steel utensils, forged by local artisans. To put Tasmania's recent rebirth in the proper perspective, it's necessary to understand its dark history. From 1803 until 1853, some 75,000 convicts were transported to Tasmania (then called Van Diemen's Land) from Britain and other British colonies, and many passed through the Hobart Convict Penitentiary, part of which still stands today. A tour of this bleak yet fascinating relic provides a glimpse of convict life over the years: pitch black solitary confinement cells, subterranean tunnels leading to a courtroom, the gallows where 300 prisoners were hanged. Little has changed in 185 years, which only adds to the spooky feel of the place. (For those who want an extra fright, ghost tours are offered at night, too.) Admission is 25 Australian dollars. Cascade beer is to Tasmania what Budweiser is to America. Not only is Cascade the quintessential lager for most Tasmanians, the beer maker is also the oldest continually operating brewery in all Australia. The building alone is worth the 15 minute drive out of Hobart the sandstone facade of the brewery, originally built by convicts in the early 1800s, looks magnificent set against imposing Mount Wellington, particularly when the peak is snow capped in winter. Brewery tours (30 Australian dollars) end with a tasting of the beers, but the expansive garden also makes a nice setting for a leisurely pint of Cascade Pale Ale (9.50 Australian dollars) and a cat nap. The vibe at cozy, 22 seat Templo, tucked away on a quiet Hobart backstreet, perfectly encapsulates the youthful food movement transforming Tasmania at the moment. The setting is fun and casual, with attractive, chatty servers and a large communal table that promotes easy conversation with fellow diners. (A few glasses from the extensive wine list surely help; try one of the bottles of minimal intervention wine made exclusively for the restaurant.) The Italian inspired menu changes daily; on a recent visit, standout dishes included the homemade gnocchetti with broccolini, chile, anchovy and pangrattato (24 Australian dollars) and the housemade mustardela (blood sausage) with dragoncello sauce (18 Australian dollars). The Museum of Old and New Art (entry 30 Australian Dollars), founded by David Walsh, an art collector who built a fortune from gambling, has become much more than an art institution. It's spawned two popular (and more than a little subversive) art and music festivals MOFO and Dark MOFO in addition to art filled luxury pavilion accommodations (from 750 Australian dollars a night) and, coming soon, a 172 room hotel (as yet unnamed after several controversial choices). The museum itself is a lot to take in, so arrive early and plan to get lost in the cavernous space showcasing Mr. Walsh's outlandish collection. Be sure to check out the four fantastically disorienting James Turrell light installations commissioned for the new Pharos wing (separate tickets and advance booking, 10 to 25 Australian dollars), as well as the newly opened underground network of tunnels and chambers filled with works by Ai Weiwei and Alfredo Jaar. On a pleasant day, take a break on the lawn with a glass of Moorilla sparkling Riesling (10 Australian dollars) or a Moo Brew Pilsner (9 Australian dollars) Mr. Walsh owns the winery and brewery, too. A fast ferry offers 25 minute connections to the museum from downtown Hobart (from 22 Australian dollars roundtrip). Long before Tasmania became a foodie destination, Rodney Dunn and Severine Demanet ditched city life to set up a farm and cooking school in the Tasmanian countryside. Nearly a decade later, the couple completed the farm to table circle with the opening of The Agrarian Kitchen Eatery in a rather unlikely location: a sprawling asylum in the town of New Norfolk (about 20 miles from Hobart), which operated for over 170 years before closing in 2000. A tour of the grounds reveals glimpses of the institution's notorious history, but inside, the focus is on the seasonal menu, which highlights ingredients from the farm and other local producers: sugarloaf cabbage with lovage seed mayonnaise and preserved fish (23 Australian dollars) and slow roasted Derwent Valley lamb (a sharing dish for 140 Australian dollars). It's a glimpse of the present day potential of the island, risen from a painful past. Hobart is an extremely walkable city if you base yourself centrally near the wharf on the River Derwent. Check out the Battery Point neighborhood, which is accessible to Salamanca Place via the 19th century Kelly's Steps; apartments here on Airbnb rent for 200 to 250 Australian dollars per night. From the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman (the first European to land on Tasmania) to the cricket hero Ricky Ponting, each of the 114 rooms at the new MACq 01 Hotel is devoted to a different character in Tasmanian history, with illustrations on the door and their full stories and other artifacts featured prominently inside. Doubles from 240 Australian dollars. The nearly 150 year old Lenna of Hobart was once the mansion of a wealthy Tasmanian whaling merchant, Alexander McGregor, who oversaw the largest individually owned fleet of ships in the Southern Hemisphere. Doubles from 208 Australian dollars. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
The forward slash. In the age of texting and Twitter bios, it has become a ubiquitous piece of punctuation for those who want quick shorthand to describe their social lives (dinner/drinks), their career ambitions (work/play) or even their romantic entanglements (friend/lover). But for some millennials, it's become more than that, evolving into a kind of identity marker (paralegal/actress; fashion publicist/D.J.; advertising executive/gluten free baker) for those who operate in two (or more) different worlds. Unlike the legions of Americans who work several jobs out of necessity, these young people elect to stretch themselves thin. While one job usually pays the bills, another gig provides a more creative outlet. More than hobbyists, these career jugglers consider their cocktail of roles essential to their well being and dismiss the notion that they ought to focus on one thing for the rest of their adult lives as boring and antiquated. "One thing for the rest of my life? Absolutely not," said Maxwell Hawes IV, 25, who toggles between gigs at a San Francisco advertising technology firm and a men's clothing start up. "I can't imagine what that would be." Here is a look at six members of the "slash generation." Growing up in New Orleans, Thomas Oden, a forensic psychiatrist, surrounded himself with music and played the saxophone in his high school jazz band. He stopped when he went to Morehouse College. "I felt I had to make the choice to be all about academic work," he said. "I really kind of missed it, and I didn't know at the time that I was giving up an outlet, a release from things." Later, at medical school parties in Boston, Dr. Oden found himself fascinated by the D.J.s. "Seeing that mental energy that had to take place to make people in a party have a good time, that really kind of impressed me," he said. He began spinning music for his friends' get togethers and posting mixes online. When he moved back to New Orleans for his residency, his reputation preceded him, and offers for paid gigs began coming in. "At that point, from all the medical training, you learn how to be empathetic to people's concerns," said Dr. Oden, who goes by the stage name D J Diagnosis. "They don't know their diagnosis, they need reassurance, they're scared. I realized I could use that skill set in a completely different way, for people who just want to have a good time. I was able to feel the other spectrum." Occasionally, worlds collide: Someone at the hospital will recognize Dr. Oden, 32, from his night gig and call him out. "That can be kind of embarrassing because I try to separate the two," he said. "People assume I'm some kind of social butterfly." For Margaret Choo, the mash up started at Vanderbilt, where she majored in neuroscience, minored in art history and worked at an art museum. After moving to New York to work as a researcher for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she learned about Live in the Grey, an organization that promotes an Oprah esque "live your best life" way of looking at work by sharing stories of people who blend what they like to do with what makes money. "It addresses a lot of the multifaceted lives that millennials tend to lead," Ms. Choo said. "There's so much to get inspired by, there's so much to take on." Ms. Choo, 27, had been a baker since childhood, and her friends pushed her to offer her services for events. She now rents space in a commercial kitchen in Midtown Manhattan, where she makes custom confections for clients like Kiehl's. Her museum colleagues benefit, too. "They're aware and supportive of it," Ms. Choo said, "especially if it means they can try some of the products." Mr. Platt, who has a law degree, has negotiated absences from his legal work to go on auditions and take on roles that require him to be on set during normal working hours. His work with BBQ Films runs into his nights and weekends: He helped organize and starred in a recent tribute to "Weekend at Bernie's," playing Bernie's similarly crooked son, a character dreamed up by the team at BBQ Films. "I'm lucky I'm still on this high and I haven't burned out yet," Mr. Platt said. "Check back with me in a few years." Amy Lipkin is the vice president for retail operations at the John Derian Company, the home goods purveyor. But shortly after she became a founder of a digital video production agency, North Sea Air, she asked her boss if she could scale back her time. Ms. Lipkin, 35, spends two days a week at the Midtown offices of North Sea Air, where she and her business partner, Graeme Maclean, produce promotional videos for clients like Mercedes Benz and the Glenlivet. "The only way that I'm able to achieve this balance financially is to never have a weekend," she said. As an avid writer and reader who majored in English literature at Boston University, she was drawn to narrative. Three years ago, Mr. Maclean, who at the time was also working for Mr. Derian, asked Ms. Lipkin to help him produce a film about the lamp maker Robert Ogden. "I felt like I was putting air in a tire that had gone flat, and I didn't even know that it had gone flat," Ms. Lipkin said. As a life coach/writer/singer, Sally A. Mercedes champions "full authentic expression in all areas of your life." Her Instagram account is rife with motivational hashtags and images, like a watercolor blotch with cutout magazine words that asks, "Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?" Ms. Mercedes, 30, got the hint two years ago, while working at Latina magazine. "I kind of got lost for a while, like, 'I need to get a better job, I need to get higher pay,' " she said. "I got very caught up in the external hustle of New York life." She also felt guilty "because there was nothing wrong. I had a good job, I had a good apartment, I had a roommate. Why was I unhappy?" To slay her ennui, Ms. Mercedes decided to fulfill a long held dream of living in Paris. She booked a plane, quit her job and completed an online program that laid the groundwork for her life coaching service, Unmuted Expression, which she runs from wherever she happens to be in the world (she moves between New York and Paris, among other cities). This year, she raised money via the crowdfunding platform Go Fund Me for her first vocal performance. It happened in New York in August; a YouTube video shows a barefoot Ms. Mercedes belting out an Alanis Morissette medley along with a band. Ms. Mercedes said her "creativity coach" inspired her to do the show. "She's also a dancer, and she's putting together a one woman show," she said. "She's one of those women where it's like, 'Oh, if she can do all of these things and be reasonably successful, then I can do all of these things, too.' " Thomas Tessier's day job in the admission office of Stanford University's online high school is relatively buttoned up. His nighttime job, making spandex clad troops sprint and squat at the San Francisco branch of Barry's Bootcamp, encourages a different workplace etiquette. "Stanford is interactive and I meet people, but I can't get on a microphone and make snarky comments about Britney Spears and stomp around," he said. "It's different." Mr. Tessier, 26, coached lacrosse and cross country in boarding school, and he worked at a wine bar on Sundays before becoming an instructor at Barry's Bootcamp. While his side gigs are, in practice, different from his professional pursuit, the notion of slash has managed to seep in there as well. "The standard question, 'What do you want to do when you grow up?,' it doesn't exist anymore," he said. "As somebody whose job it is to ask people this, it's like. ..." He paused and shrugged. "There's a million answers." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
A week before his 20th anniversary salon style show, held on the Wednesday morning before New York Fashion Week officially opened, Narciso Rodriguez was in his Gramercy Park office showing off a gray flannel coat with three wooden buttons and a hood, lined in felted black wool. It was, like most of his clothes, understated and chic and perfectly tailored. It was also about a foot long. It was a one off, made for Ivy Carolyn, one of his 8 month old twins. "I have come to believe smaller is better," Mr. Rodriguez, 57, said. He wasn't really talking about clothes. He was talking about work/life balance. It's an unusual topic in fashion, where the choices between the professional and the personal have rarely been part of the industry conversation the way they have in other sectors, like finance and law. For an industry that prides itself on being on the vanguard of social change, it's another way in which fashion lags behind. But after two decades in the business after a stint in the spotlight at Loewe as part of the first generation of designers to take over old houses and jazz them up; after seeing fashion move from being about silhouette and seam to being about entertainment; after rejecting the gilded cage of creative directorship and returning to New York and an independent business; after weathering Sept. 11 and the recession of 2008 Mr. Rodriguez had decided to put the matter on the pattern making table. "I don't need a yacht," he said. "I never aspired to that. I realized early on that being famous was not something I wanted to do. I aspired to have the freedom to do what I want." That means making what he wants, an idea clearly on display in Mr. Rodriguez's retrospective capsule collection with Barneys New York, which debuted last week. One of the striking things about the effective tour through nine of his most well known dresses, including those worn by Rachel Weisz and Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Aniston (though not his most famous client, Michelle Obama), is the consistent commitment to the architecture of the body and a refusal to indulge in frou. Also, showing it as he wants, when he wants (that we've heard before) while still being able to have breakfast, bath time and bedtime with his children. "I have been waiting decades for this conversation," said Donna Karan, who, when she was working at Anne Klein, famously got a call from work just after she gave birth to her daughter, Gabby, because Ms. Klein was sick. "I said, 'Do you want to know if I had a boy or a girl?'" Ms. Karan said. "And they said, 'Yeah, but can you come back?'" Family has been, up until now, the missing piece in the fashion world's continuing conversation about the unsustainable pace of the collection system. There is much public talk about consumer product fatigue, the need for instant satisfaction and the impossibility of being genuinely creative every six weeks. Yet, despite the fact many designers have had families (Ralph Lauren, Miuccia Prada, Angela Missoni, to name a few), the human side of what is often characterized as an inhuman cycle has often not been addressed. "But it's not just about deliveries," Ms. Karan said. "It's also about families. It's all part of the bigger conversation." Steven Kolb, the chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, agreed. "It's definitely a big conflict in our industry," he said. "The time commitment is enormous it directly clashes with back to school, holidays and that is driving big questions." Part of the problem, Mr. Rodriguez said, is this: "Families are not cool." Daniella Vitale, the chief executive of Barneys, who has two sons, said: "We are an industry obsessed with youth, image and appropriation. Kids, family and significant others never really fit into that." They are representative of the routine, the settled, the familiar. They have no part in the myth of the obsessive creative (think Cristobal Balenciaga, Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, even the Daniel Day Lewis character in "Phantom Thread"). And many of those things were, for a long time, off limits to a substantial part of the fashion population: gay men. At this point, however, social and cultural changes have significantly altered the landscape. And Mr. Rodriguez has become representative of a group of designers who are taking a different approach to the issue. They are not trying to be superpeople as much as real people. "This is a time when everyone is looking at the way they work, and changing it in different ways," he said. Christopher Bailey, the chief creative officer of Burberry, has two small daughters Iris, 3 1/2 , and Nell, 2. "We're talking about all these things more openly gender, sexuality and it's about time the fashion culture changed," he said. Indeed, Mr. Bailey said that the desire to spend more time with his family was a factor in his decision to leave Burberry after 17 years: "Designers have to do so much today marketing, social media, logistics it can be quite challenging to put the brakes on and say, 'Within all that, I'm going to prioritize my family and put as much effort an emphasis on that as on work.'" Before he resigned, Mr. Bailey had already altered his routine. Instead of getting to the office at 6 or 7 a.m., he arrived two hours later; he was rigorous about going out only once a week and never spending a weekend away. Even so, he decided he wanted a bigger change. Similarly, Tom Ford has talked about how having a son has prompted him to reshape his working life. In fact, Mr. Kolb said, one of the attractive side effects of the current discussion about New York designers moving from the traditional ready to wear schedule, with shows taking place in September and February, to the pre collection schedule of January and July, is that it will leave August open for normal life. "It's about a business model," Mr. Kolb said. "But a big part of the motivation is also balance." When Mr. Rodriguez's children were born (Ivy's brother is Callum Thomas), he took three months off. This may not sound surprising, but when Phoebe Philo had her first child, in 2007, she was believed to be the first designer at the top of a major global brand (Chloe) to take an official maternity leave since fashion became a global industry. (She was followed by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen.) It was a marked departure from the past, when, said Diane von Furstenberg, who raised two children at the same time as her namesake line, "I used to joke the business was their third sibling." Then, when Mr. Rodriguez returned to work just in time for his show in September, he gave up his usual 8 p.m. Tuesday night slot and held small presentations during the workday instead. "I realized what was important to me was having people here to see what we do up close, to focus on the nuance of material and cut, or what can't be seen on Instagram," he said. He has also scaled back his time in the office to three or at most four days a week. He and his husband, Thomas Tolan, live in their country house in Westchester County (they are expanding their New York apartment to make it more child friendly) and commute to the city. They have a nanny who works four days a week, but she does not live with them. "I have learned to edit," Mr. Rodriguez said. "To be more precise with my fittings, delegate more to my team, and to be tougher with my own schedule." He thinks the discipline has made his collections better. To be fair, he has more ability to rethink his days than many other designers might: He is the sole owner of his business, and, thanks to a highly successful perfume license started 16 years ago, he has had a steady income no matter what is happening in the ready to wear market. It gives him a certain leeway in his decision making. To acknowledge, for example, that "things have changed." "Not just for me," he said. "Shopping has changed. People are so much more conscious of having experiences and not being a slave to fashion. I felt the same way." In his office, baby gifts now share space with stacks of art books and collections (cars, rocks) and walls full of black and white portraits of models and famous friends in his clothes. Two antique Russian children's thrones, given to him by Candy Pratts Price, a former editor at Vogue, are arrayed in front of a giant faux Warhol print of Elizabeth Taylor by Deborah Kass, one piled high with Baby Gap outfits. They are not accessories; they're equal clutter. "Today fashion is so driven by celebrity and marketing," Mr. Rodriguez said. "That's fine it's how it has evolved. But that's never been the part that seduced me. For me, it has always been about the craft. Fashion hijacked my life a bit, but I have been here long enough, and made enough dresses, to know it does not replace, or even come close, to what I have at home." Entering his third decade in fashion, he has opted for a third way. "That shows other people it's O.K.," Mr. Kolb said. "You're not proving your success by how many hours you spend in the office or how many events you are at. You prove it by what you make." When Mr. Rodriguez started his business, Ms. Vitale said, "he figured out that women want simplicity, femininity and maybe a little function without compromising who they are. He influenced so many designers." Now the question is whether he will do the same with his willingness to make his family part of the fashion equation. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Linda Jaquez for The New York Times Linda Jaquez for The New York Times Credit... Linda Jaquez for The New York Times Paul McCartney and his wife, Nancy Shevell, just bought a penthouse duplex at 1045 Fifth Avenue. A duplex penthouse at 1045 Fifth Avenue, a bronze glass apartment building in a neighborhood where limestone and brick prewar co ops are more the norm, sold to Paul McCartney and his wife, Nancy Shevell, for 15,500,000, and was the most expensive closed sale of the week, according to city records. The monthly carrying costs for the 10 room aerie, PH15, near 86th Street, are 12,935, according to the listing with Douglas Elliman Real Estate. Deanna Raida was the listing broker. The penthouse was reserved and customized for the developer, Manny E. Duell, who considered the 1967 building his masterpiece. Mr. Duell died just a decade after moving in; his wife, Irene, lived and entertained there until her death last summer at 92. The sellers were their children Thea and Benjamin Duell. The former Beatle and his wife, who were married in October 2011, paid the full asking price for the apartment, which entered the market for the first time in February. A big selling point, undoubtedly, was the panoramic view across the Central Park reservoir, visible on each level from more than 800 square feet of wraparound balconies reached through glass sliders. But Mr. McCartney and Ms. Shevell will likely have their work cut out for them: Little has been done to the unit, which, according to the listing, has five bedrooms, five full baths and one half bath. The couple can use the apartment as a part time residence unlike many of the co ops on Fifth and Park Avenues, this one permits pieds a terre. A duplex penthouse directly opposite Central Park at 1045 Fifth Avenue, a postwar co op distinguished by its unusual bronze glass facade, was bought by Paul McCartney and his wife, Nancy Shevell, for the asking price of 15.5 million. The 10 room aerie was the residence of Irene Duell from 1967 until her death last summer at 92. She had been married to the building's developer, the late Manny Duell. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None A duplex penthouse directly opposite Central Park at 1045 Fifth Avenue, a postwar co op distinguished by its unusual bronze glass facade, was bought by Paul McCartney and his wife, Nancy Shevell, for the asking price of 15.5 million. The 10 room aerie was the residence of Irene Duell from 1967 until her death last summer at 92. She had been married to the building's developer, the late Manny Duell. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None The living room on the main level of the penthouse has parquet floors and shares a 40 foot wide terrace overlooking the park with the adjacent den/library. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None A view from the den/library looking northwest across the reservoir. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None The double height gallery has marble floors and a floating staircase of glass, bronze, and marble that leads to the bedrooms on the upper level. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None The formal dining room has white marble floors and north and east exposures. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None Manny Duell, the developer of 1045 Fifth, and his wife, Irene, liked to have breakfast at this small table beneath the north window in the dining room so that Irene could watch the joggers on the reservoir trail. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None The original 17 foot by 9 foot kitchen has a tile floor, laminate counter tops, and an eastern exposure. There is a staff suite off the kitchen. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None The bathroom at the south end of the foyer is a melange of black marble and faux finishes. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None The 19 foot by 13 foot master bedroom has unobstructed views of the western and northern horizons from the 40 foot wide balcony it shares with the adjacent sitting room. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None The elaborate master bath, with its marigold hued soaking tub and double marble vanities has access to a balcony that wraps around the back of the apartment. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times None A view from terrace outside the living room, facing northwest. Linda Jaquez for The New York Times The week's runner up, at 11,250,000, was a brick Italianate townhouse on a tree lined street in the West Village. The annual property taxes for the 21 foot wide, four story house at 32 Grove Street are 31,299, according to the listing with Sotheby's International Realty, which showed an asking price of 11,750,000. Jeremy V. Stein, Robin Stein and Jennifer Lanza represented the seller, Richard Grand Jean, a veteran money manager who spent more than two decades at the former Salomon Brothers and, more recently, served as a managing director of Hall Capital Partners. They also represented the buyers, Richard Robb and Ianthe Jeanne Dugan. The house built in the 1850s, according to the listing has five bedrooms, four full baths and one partial bath, along with a full basement. Many of the original architectural flourishes remain intact, including a triple parlor, original plaster cornices, glass paned pocket doors, marble mantels and floor to ceiling windows. In the back of the house is a landscaped garden with a magnolia tree. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
The game changing news: The F.B.I. has identified its first Illegal, a male accountant in Chicago code named Harvest and notable (to Stan and Dennis) for his ability to seduce a male Altheon engineer and obtain a blueprint for part of the radiation sensor. The bureau is watching him and learning things about safe houses, garages and cars bought for cash that could lead them to Elizabeth and Philip. "This is it," Dennis says to Stan. "You should be here." Of course, it wouldn't be a Dennis and Stan operation without a loose end. Harvest figures out he's been made and sends an S.O.S. to Central, which contacts Claudia, who tells Elizabeth she has to go to Chicago on Thanksgiving, that most American holiday and deal with the situation. Which is how Elizabeth ends up in the Windy City, accompanied only by a frightened Marilyn, with a shaky plan to grab Harvest despite his F.B.I. tail. And that's why Philip ends up in that phone booth, agreeing to come save the day and possibly his wife's life, even though she's left in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner prep. The tightening noose was the episode's crisis, but its dramatic center was Elizabeth and Philip's continuing woes. The show may be pushing the marriage and Cold War and espionage metaphors a little too hard, but they're generally smart and effective in themselves. The opening scene cleverly conflated Philip's announcement that he wasn't going through with the Kimmy operation and a husband's declaration that he was done with an extramarital fling "It's over" doing double duty. And Elizabeth let slip how sexual jealousy was mixed in with her anger at Philip's dereliction of his patriotic duty. Elizabeth stomped upstairs to Paige's room and Philip turned the other direction, to the master, a telling moment in a show that so often pictures them hanging out in bed together. We also saw their rift through the eyes of Henry, who was home for Thanksgiving Philip leaving the room when Elizabeth entered, Elizabeth sleeping in Paige's bed. Philip blowing up when his slot car kept running off the track. (Was public slot car racing a thing in the late '80s? I missed that.) After a sad phone conversation with his mom, the kind and perceptive Henry now that we're actually getting to see him, he's a great guy to have around says to his dad, "I just really don't understand why she's so unhappy." Philip, wrapped up in his business worries and his anger about Ilya (Sofia's son), says, "What?" I'm not sure I buy that the Philip we've been watching for the last six seasons would be that oblivious, but it was the needed transition to the final scene. Why "Rififi"? It allowed for a mention of the blacklisting of the director Jules Dassin, but from the title I was expecting something that would invoke the film's famous, nearly silent, half hour robbery scene. Maybe there was meant to be a connection to Elizabeth's plan, which we haven't seen yet, to make Harvest disappear. (On a more obscure level, you could note that "Rififi" ends with the antihero putting himself at risk to save a young boy.) The script also worked in references to several other old movies, including the great Jean Pierre Melville gangster flick "Bob le Flambeur." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
I've always sort of wondered what I wasn't getting about "Little Women." I'm pretty sure I read it in school, though I would be hard pressed to recall a single scene. I know I saw at least part of the 1994 film the one with Winona Ryder, Claire Danes and Christian Bale but I remember walking out of the room midway through and never returning, much to my mother's dismay. Nothing about the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott's perennial best seller particularly stuck with me, and as an adult, annoyance overshadowed apathy as I tried to understand how the literary heroine of so many women I admired the spunky, independent writer Jo March would, by the end of the novel, relinquish her art for marriage, and then proclaim that she is the happiest she'd ever been. It appears that what I was missing was Greta Gerwig along with the real life story of Alcott, on whose life the book was based, with a few major differences. Of course, Gerwig isn't the first to change the way "Little Women" gets told. People have been adapting, and then critiquing, and then adapting, and then critiquing it for decades each iteration a kind of Rorschach test for how the world feels about women at the time. So is it any surprise that Gerwig's "Little Women," at the end of a decade in which we confronted female power in a whole new way, feels positively radical? It still has the cozy fireplace scenes and the long dresses. But the characters question social mores ("I'm sick of being told that love is all a woman is fit for," says Jo, played by Saoirse Ronan), deliver critical context about the structural barriers limiting women (the economics of marriage, for instance, in which a woman's earnings became property of her husband) and are at times flat out angry at a world that, as the book puts it, in the words of the youngest character, Amy, "is hard on ambitious girls." (It still is.) "I think 'Little Women' is always a secretly subversive story," Amy Pascal, a producer on the film, said in an interview. "Little Women" tells the story of the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, who live in Concord, Mass., during and after the Civil War. Depending on whom you ask (and when), it is a girls' coming of age narrative, a New England family saga, a war story, a love story, a heartwarming Christmas tale, or a feminist text about women's choices (or lack thereof). In Gerwig's version, which opened on Christmas Day, it is also the story of Alcott, perhaps the real heroine of the Marches, who never married ("I'd rather be a free spinster and paddle my own canoe," she said), built a fortune on the "Little Women" books, and on whose life and letters Gerwig said she relied upon as a guide. "As a child, my hero was Jo March," Gerwig has said. "But as an adult, it's Louisa May Alcott." Alcott would write feverishly, locked in a room she taught herself to be ambidextrous when her hand got tired and was known for losing her temper. She was raised in a progressive family of Transcendentalists and became the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Mass., in 1879, years before the 19th amendment was passed. 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. She hadn't initially wanted to write a book for girls, but when the publisher asked, she obliged, basing it on her own life. Though she remained single it was simply not realistic to want to be a writer and a wife and a mother at the time she married off her literary heroine because her publisher and readers demanded it. As Alcott wrote in a letter to a friend: "Jo should have remained a literary spinster but so many enthusiastic young ladies wrote to me clamorously demanding that she should marry Laurie, or somebody, that I didn't dare refuse out of perversity went made a funny match for her." (That funny match was Professor Bhaer.) There have been a variety of iterations since then: two silent films, radio versions, plays, an opera, a 1933 film starring Katharine Hepburn as Jo and a Technicolor version with Elizabeth Taylor as Amy that proclaimed on its movie poster: "World's greatest love story!" A BBC mini series, which aired in 1970, should perhaps have been the first feminist adaptation, writes Anne Boyd Rioux, the author of "Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of 'Little Women' and Why It Still Matters" as it emerged amid the height of the second wave women's movement. But its reception was the opposite: A 1973 review in The Times, "Does 'Little Women' Belittle Women?" noted that the story "might understandably strike a contemporary woman" as "a disgusting, banal and craven service to male supremacy" in which marriage is presented as the "sweetest chapter" and motherhood "the deepest and tenderest experience of a woman's life." It was not until 1994 that "Little Women" got the woman treatment the first adaptation by a female director (Gillian Armstrong), writer (Robin Swicord) and shepherded by Pascal, then a junior executive. This was the Winona Ryder "Little Women," and the producers needed her to get the film greenlit Pascal, who had been trying to get that film made for more than a decade, said that when she presented the script to Sony executives, one of them told her "he read it holding his nose." "People just weren't that interested in a movie with a lot of women in it, especially women wearing long dresses," Swicord said recently. (It was 15 men in suits who watched the rough cut.) The film was a success, perhaps in part because of low expectations but also because of Ryder, it actress of the moment, who played Jo (and was nominated for an Oscar). But it was marketed as a family film, not one expressly for girls. Pascal, Swicord and Armstrong worried about it being portrayed as "feminist." "This was the era of family values, remember?" Barbara Berg, a historian and author who grew up acting out scenes from Alcott's book in her own "Little Women Club," reminded me. She noted how Hillary Clinton, then first lady, had been vilified because she worked, wanted to keep her maiden name and refused to bake cookies. Two years prior, during his re election campaign, then Vice President Dan Quayle had chided Murphy Brown the fictional character played on the CBS television series by Candice Bergen, who has a child outside of marriage for contributing to America's "poverty of values." "When the '94 film was made, there was so much backlash against the idea that women could be independent," said Rioux, the "Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy" author, and an English professor at the University of New Orleans. "It was this all or nothing proposition this idea that if they had careers, they would leave their families behind." Which isn't to say that the '90s adaptation was entirely tame: Marmee, the girls' mother, played by a Susan Sarandon fresh off "Thelma Louise," lectured on the negative health effects of corsets and the benefits of girls' education. Jo made the case for women's right to vote, which isn't in the book. But the film still ends on the love scene, and it is Professor Bhaer, whom Jo ultimately marries, who takes her book to the publisher, not Jo herself making him, not her, the instrument of her success, noted Rioux. The girls' choices, in other words, are delivered as individual, not structural. "I so wish I could give my girls a more just world, but I know you'll make it a better place," Marmee tells them. Twenty five years later, that seeming resignation wouldn't fly. And neither would the standard end to the story. "One of the first things Greta said to me was, 'You know we can't actually have her marry Professor Bhaer,'" said Pascal. In this interpretation, the characters take on more dimensions. Meg's story does not end when she gets married her struggles continue as she raises twins and buys nice things she can't afford. Beth, destined for death, is depicted as an artist in her own right. Amy, long viewed as the bratty younger sister, develops into a young woman whose clarity in her ambition is enviable. "I think the world has caught up in the sense that a girl or a woman who speaks her mind, whether we like what she says or not, is a character we can now cheer," said Pascal. And Marmee is not simply "a downtrodden mother," as Pascal put it, raising her girls while her husband is away. She is pissed off. In one of the film's most poignant scenes one that was plucked from the book but has not made it into most previous adaptations Jo confides her own anger to Marmee. "You remind me of myself," Marmee tells her. "I'm angry nearly every day of my life," Marmee says. But it is the film's ending, at least for me, that was the most satisfying. In it, the character Jo (or is it Alcott? Part of the brilliance of Gerwig's interpretation is that she melds the two women) gets the satisfaction of watching her book be "born" its pages bound and leather stamped by the printer. We also see her negotiate to retain the copyright to her work something Alcott did in real life, allowing her to support her family for years to come. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
The HuffPost newsroom in Manhattan. The website's platform for 100,000 unpaid contributors will be replaced by new opinion and personal sections. Since its founding nearly 13 years ago, The Huffington Post has relied heavily on unpaid contributors, whose ranks included aspiring writers, citizen journalists and celebrities from the Rolodex of the site's co founder Arianna Huffington. An early example of the unfiltered amateur journalism that propagated on the internet, the contributor pages were a mix of reported pieces and personal essays, and even generated national news. In 2008, Mayhill Fowler, a woman who said she had sold her car to fund travel on the campaign trail, set off a firestorm when she quoted Barack Obama at a fund raiser saying that working class voters "cling to guns or religion." But the site's days of encouraging everyday citizens to report on the news are over. On Thursday, it said it was immediately dissolving its self publishing contributors platform which has mushroomed to include 100,000 writers in what is perhaps the most significant break from the past under its editor in chief, Lydia Polgreen, who joined the news site, which is now called HuffPost, a year ago. The site's everyone is welcome ethos was once seen as a democratizing force in news. But Ms. Polgreen said in an interview that unfiltered platforms had devolved into "cacophonous, messy, hard to hear places where voices get drowned out and where the loudest shouting voice prevails." "Certainly the environment where fake news is flourishing is one where it gets harder and harder to support the idea of a 'let a thousand flowers bloom' kind of publishing platform," Ms. Polgreen said. In place of the unpaid contributors platform, the site introduced new opinion and personal sections that will include paid contributors who will work with HuffPost editors. 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. The elimination of the platform, which drove 10 to 15 percent of the site's traffic, is only the latest change for the site since Ms. Polgreen, 42, took the helm after Ms. Huffington stepped down. In short order, she changed the site's name and redesigned its home page. Though she is closing one of the site's most populist components, she has also articulated an inclusive vision for the site inspired by big city tabloids and local television news and aimed at an ideologically agnostic population of Americans who are "never going to pay for news." Her first year has not been without its challenges. Over the summer, HuffPost laid off some 40 employees, including the site's only Pulitzer Prize winner, David Wood. (HuffPost has roughly 210 editorial employees in the United States, in addition to the 340 who work for its international editions.) Within the company, there was a sense that the Washington bureau had been hit particularly hard, which some viewed as unsettling given HuffPost's long association with political reporting. Also, Ryan Grim, the Washington bureau chief, and Sam Stein, the senior politics editor, left the site last year. Ms. Polgreen has refocused the political coverage to include more in depth reporting beyond Washington and New York. "We're thinking less about how many people are crawling around the halls of Congress asking the same questions to the same senators all day every day," she said. She added that she wanted to have "a large cadre of journalists" who reported from around the country. And while Ms. Polgreen has not been shy about sharing her vision for HuffPost and her opinions about journalism she has appeared three times on CNN's media analysis program, "Reliable Sources," since joining HuffPost and is a frequent presence at media events not all of her ambitious plans have been borne out yet. Ms. Polgreen, for instance, has yet to hire any reporters outside Washington and New York. She said in the interview that she had been focused first on building out an editing team and intended to hire more reporters this year. Traffic to the site has fallen in the last several years, though Ms. Polgreen said she cared more about connecting with readers than audience size. Neither she nor Jared Grusd, HuffPost's chief executive, would comment on whether the company was profitable. During the interview, in a conference room that serves as her makeshift office, Ms. Polgreen, a former correspondent and editor at The New York Times, spoke enthusiastically about her global ambitions (almost 60 percent of the site's traffic comes from outside the United States) and her plans for HuffPost's business model (she did not rule out offering some sort of subscription product in the future). She also showed no concerns about running a historically left leaning, labor supporting website owned by the corporate giant Verizon. "We're working as part of a company that's developing really exciting new products that will be consumed on mobile phones," she said. "And we actually work for the phone company." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
SAN FRANCISCO Facebook offered 3 billion to buy the ephemeral messaging app Snapchat in 2013. Snapchat's founder, Evan Spiegel, turned down the offer. Ever since, Facebook and some of its top apps including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger have been trying to tap into the explosively popular photo sharing features pioneered by Snapchat. The latest sign of that came on Monday as WhatsApp, a mobile messaging application used by 1.2 billion people, unveiled a version of its Status feature that takes a significant number of cues from Snapchat. Similar to Snapchat's Stories feature, WhatsApp's Status now lets people share images, GIFs and videos as a status update, all of which last for 24 hours before disappearing. The move follows a string of actions by Facebook to emulate Snapchat. In August, Instagram introduced a Stories feature that was a near exact copy of Snapchat's. In December, Messenger revamped its look and feel to emphasize sending photos, just like Snapchat. As Snapchat's parent company, Snap, has positioned itself as a camera company, Facebook has experimented with making a camera feature the first thing people see when opening up the social network's main app. Even if imitation is the highest compliment, WhatsApp executives are not admitting it. "We build things because we really hope people will want to use them even more," Randall Sarafa, a product manager at WhatsApp, said in an interview about the new version of Status. Avoiding any direct mention of Snapchat, he added, "We don't really think about building things for other reasons." A Snapchat spokeswoman declined to comment on the similarities with WhatsApp, and a press officer for Instagram declined to comment beyond past public statements. But the Facebook Messenger spokeswoman Jennifer Hakes said: "In some ways, the camera is now replacing the keyboard. As more people use Messenger in their everyday lives, we wanted to make it faster, simpler and more fun to send photos and videos so we built the new Messenger camera." Facebook's moves are unfolding at a critical moment for Snap. The company is set to go public next month in what is likely to be one of the biggest technology public offerings since those of the social media service Twitter in 2013 and the Chinese e commerce giant Alibaba in 2014. Investors have been grousing about how unprofitable Snap is and how its number of users appears small. On Sunday, Sriram Krishnan, a top Snapchat product manager, said on Twitter that he was leaving the company. Facebook's emulation of Snapchat has a broader significance in that the network and its apps are moving toward a more visual and interactive form of communication. For years, applications like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter were primarily text based. Twitter rose to popularity by capitalizing on SMS short form texts, and the majority of the more than than 50 billion WhatsApp messages sent on a daily basis are text based. But in 2011, Mr. Spiegel saw a new possibility when he and Bobby Murphy, his Stanford University fraternity brother, founded Snapchat. Their focus was on making it simple to send photos and videos to friends. Making the camera the focus unlike competitors, Snapchat makes it the first thing you see after opening the app allows people to send images much faster than with other apps, which often require two or three steps to open the camera. Snapchat's emphasis has also been on ephemerality, with photos and stories disappearing shortly after they are sent. That focus has made it far easier for people to send more photos to one another because they do not have to worry about those images sticking around forever. Snapchat's users send more than 2.5 billion messages and images each day, according to the company's initial public offering prospectus. WhatsApp's Status now lets people share images, GIFs and videos as a status update, all of which last for 24 hours before disappearing. Competitors like Instagram, the photo sharing site owned by Facebook, eventually realized how popular different models of sharing photos and multimedia status updates had become. After reports of a decline in photo sharing inside its app, Instagram began making changes to keep users coming back and sharing more photos. Last March, Instagram switched to an algorithm driven, personalized feed of photos, a shift from the reverse chronological order it had historically used. In August, Instagram introduced its Snapchat look alike, Stories. How much coordination there is within Facebook and among WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger over how to grapple with Snapchat is unclear. While executives at the company regularly meet with Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, to check in and give updates on long term product strategy, they have said in past interviews that they maintain a level of workplace autonomy. "We operate in a largely independent way from Facebook," Mr. Sarafa, of WhatsApp, said in a recent interview. Still, many of the product executives at these companies acknowledge that some of their updates are not entirely original and give credit to Snapchat for creating a new kind of "format." In an interview in August, Kevin Systrom, a founder and the chief executive of Instagram, did not mention Snapchat by name but acknowledged that "other companies deserve all the credit" for popularizing disappearing photos and videos. "This format unlocks a new version of creativity for us," Mr. Systrom said. "I think Instagram will be judged by where we go from here and what we make of it in the future." Instagram's Stories product the Snapchat look alike has since become a hit: More than 150 million people use it daily. In its initial public offering filing, Snap cited the direction of Instagram as a potential risk factor to its own growth. At WhatsApp, the Status feature was originally conceived as a text based away message, similar to the one in AOL's Instant Messenger product of the 1990s, which made it easy to let friends know if you were around to text or if you were too busy. The updated Status feature replaces that text with richer multimedia. Now, as with Snapchat's Stories, WhatsApp users can post photos, videos and GIFs as their status, which lasts for 24 hours before disappearing. WhatsApp users can also send their status updates as messages to individual or multiple friends at once, much the way Snapchat's messaging system is structured. WhatsApp recognizes that its latest feature may not be completely original. But it still hopes it will bring the app similar success. "Obviously we're all seeing broad adoption of this format across the industry right now," Mr. Sarafa said. "Our hope is that with this update, people will find new ways to share and consume media on WhatsApp, too." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
She got me at the introductory video, before she ever set foot on stage. All those women, generations of us, races of us, ages of us; all those marches, and rallies, and speeches, and demonstrations. All that work, that hard, hard work, filled with fury and frustration, over all these many, many years. To get the vote. To get equal rights. To get to be whatever we dreamed of being. Our history, as liberated women, is so short, but it feels so painfully long. And then Hillary appeared, making her way to take command of that podium, looking as joyful and comfortable as I have ever seen her, under that glittering glass ceiling in Brooklyn cracking it wide open, claiming that nomination as the first woman to represent a major political party, so that we may say to our daughters: But of course you can run for president. There have been times, during both of Hillary's campaigns for the presidency, when I've felt as if I've been trapped in that familiar nightmare that haunts our collective unconscious. The one where you're running and running and running, your heart pounding, your lungs exploding and you are not moving. That was the feeling when Hillary had to cede the race to Barack Obama: No matter how hard we tried, women were frozen in place. I wept in disappointment at her gracious withdrawal, but then, given a different gift of healing, wept with pride and pleasure at the inauguration of the country's first African American president. And yet. My inbox hasn't been filling with those "can you believe isn't this thrilling?" notes I would have expected. The responses of many of my friends and family have been tepid at best. One young man I work with told me, "We are so exhausted by the cynical, nasty fog of politics that we can't even recognize a chance for happiness when it is right in front of us." My 30 year old son tried to explain it to me, when I told him I was feeling a bit deflated by the general deflation. "Mom, it seems a little late for this to be happening, doesn't it?" he said. "I mean, it was inevitable, wasn't it?" Yes. And no. How could a milestone in American history seem ho hum? Why are citizens of this great country choosing this particular world historic moment to yawn, whine and shrug their shoulder pads? Well, I'm sending up hosannas. I still don't take anything for granted when it comes to advancement in what remains an intractably sexist world. I've been on pins and needles about just how far Hillary would get, and I will be worrying right up until Election Day in November. I sure haven't been surprised when either of her opponents male started hurling new levels of double standards at her. That she isn't qualified when her resume is much, much bigger than any man's hands. That she's weak because her marriage wasn't destroyed by yet another wandering husband with something to prove about the size of his hands. At the end of the Brooklyn rally, she and Bill clasped each other tightly, and I choked up at the durability of that bond. I've been dismayed, and disgusted, to see how easy it is to be nasty. Pundits marvel at how nothing sticks to Donald Trump, but they neglect to consider that they're the ones taking the Teflon pan off the burner. Hillary is serious. She requires an attention span. And like Peter Pan, who lost his shadow, we have mislaid our attention spans in a server somewhere. We can't remember how to find the serious interesting, especially if it comes from a woman's lips. But maybe we're the ones with the problem, not Hillary. Maybe the sense of inevitability comes from knowing Hillary too well. She's become a stand in for the archetypal women who frighten and repel us: The woman betrayed. The castrating woman. The cookie woman. The dowdy woman. Right now, some very loud people are not ready for what Hillary really is: the indomitable woman. Barring anything unprecedented, the nominee. Real, and brave. Defying all caricature. And so we forget to be surprised by Hillary's achievement. We begrudge her, and ourselves, a few moments to bask. We expect Hillary to do great things. That's always been the Wellesley girl problem no one can be surprised by her accomplishments. We expect nothing less. She's always among the smartest in any room. And so she raises the bar. How exhausting it must be. How demanding we are. Nothing women do is ever really good enough. I've been stunned by some of the pieces I've read, by women who were supposed to be her friends. Lacerating, petty, misguided, judgmental and arrogant friends. She isn't likable, they say. Somehow the mean girls always grab the mike at a party. Never mind that millions of us not only "like" Hillary, insofar as that means anything, but we are inspired and awed by the years of service she has devoted to us! Millions of us find in her a model of thoughtfulness, of temperance, of discretion, of intelligence, of diligence and resilience, those most undersung of her sturdy values. She's a model of sly wit, of compassion and, yes, of integrity. I wish I could spend hours picking her brains about stuff, hard stuff, like how to keep the perfect from becoming the enemy of the good. Or how she raised such a terrific daughter. I cannot fathom how she finds the energy, much less the fortitude, to still be slogging it out on the campaign trail. It cannot ever have been easy to be Hillary, probably not even back in those days of waking up to Chelsea mornings. But there it is, the hardest lesson I've had to learn over the years, the trait we all have to develop to get anywhere in this world. Hillary is tenacity personified. And it is beautiful to behold. We can't like Hillary, we can't know who she is, the guys tell us, because she doesn't know how to have fun. "What do you do for fun?" is a question millions of women hate, by the way, and it usually comes from men who don't have a clue about what's such fun about the things women love doing. Having heart to heart talks with old friends, or cuddling a grandchild, or watching the paint dry in the living room, or, yes, actually even having fun at our jobs! Traveling the world! Meeting interesting people! So I'm celebrating. I would never vote for someone just because she's a woman. And that's not what Hillary's asking me to do, either. To have someone who has spent a lifetime leaning in, and been forced to lean out, too and has done so without toppling over or even carrying on about it; someone I've grown up with but can never take for granted to have all this in a person who has a shot at being the country's first female president, and this, after we've had our first black president? Well, if this comes to pass in my lifetime, then our big bulging boom of a generation will have done a few things right. More than a few, actually. We live in amazing times. We are among the luckiest and most privileged women of the world. We may not be roaring, quite yet. We're too busy knocking wood. But Hillary fatigue? Don't count on it. I'm just starting to fall in love with her, all over again. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
This article is part of David Leonhardt's newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it each weekday. The United States is not an authoritarian country. President Trump has failed to carry out many of his authoritarian impulses like, say, banning Muslims from entering the United States or jailing his political opponents. And yet, the events that have taken place in the Senate this week would nonetheless have been unimaginable for most of our modern history. They are the makings of authoritarianism in which the party in power decides it can reject democratic principles for the simple reason that it holds power. A majority of senators, all Republican, are not interested in hearing evidence of presidential wrongdoing. Many are on the verge of accepting Trump's argument, made by his lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, that any action a president takes to help his chances of re election are, by definition, in the national interest. The nation, according to this argument, is indistinguishable from the president. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
Dawn Wells as Mary Ann Summers on an episode of "Gilligan's Island" in 1964. Her character and her look Gingham blouses, short shorts and double ponytails personified the girl next door. Dawn Wells, the actress who radiated all American wholesomeness, Midwestern practicality and a youthful naive charm as the character Mary Ann on the hit 1960s sitcom "Gilligan's Island," died on Wednesday at a nursing home in Los Angeles. She was 82. Her publicist, Harlan Boll, said the cause was related to Covid 19. Debuting on CBS in 1964, "Gilligan's Island" followed an unlikely septet of day trippers (on a "three hour tour," as the theme song explained) who ended up stranded on a desert island. There, shipwrecked alongside a movie star (who spent most of her time in evening gowns), a science professor, a pompous, older rich couple, and two wacky crew members was Mary Ann Summers (Ms. Wells), a farm girl from Kansas who had won the trip in a local radio contest. The first version of the show's theme song mentioned five of the characters "and the rest," but the lyrics were soon changed to name the professor (Russell Johnson) and Mary Ann as well. The others in the cast were Bob Denver (Gilligan), Alan Hale Jr. (the Skipper), Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer (as the couple Thurston Howell III and Lovey Howell), and Tina Louise (as the actress, Ginger). Ms. Louise is the last surviving member of the original cast. That the premise of "Gilligan's Island" was pretty much implausible and its humor simplistic made no difference to the show's millions of fans or its producers, who would discover in the years to come that they had spawned a cultural phenomenon. Though "Gilligan's Island" lasted only three seasons, canceled in 1967, it hardly slipped from the horizon. Endless reruns ensued, and the cast members had a series of encore performances. Ms. Wells, for one, reprised her role as Mary Ann in three reunion TV movies: "Rescue From Gilligan's Island" (1978), "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island" (1979) and "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island" (1981). In 1982, she did the voices of both her character and Ms. Louise's movie star for "Gilligan's Planet," an animated spinoff series. And she went on to play Mary Ann in episodes of at least four other (unrelated) shows: "Alf" (1986), "Baywatch" (1989), "Herman's Head" (1991) and "Meego" (1997). "Gilligan's" themed episodes had a certain camp value. Even her career as an author related directly to the series. "Mary Ann's Gilligan's Island Cookbook," which included Skipper's Coconut Pie, was published in 1993. "What Would Mary Ann Do? A Guide to Life," a memoir she wrote with Steve Stinson, appeared in 2014. Mary Ann's advice in the book included this thought: "Failure builds character. What matters is what you do after you fail." The San Francisco Book Review called the book "a worthwhile mix of classic values and sincerity." Asked decades later about her favorite "Gilligan's Island" episodes, Ms. Wells mentioned "And Then There Were None," which included a dream sequence in which she got to do a Cockney accent. She also cited "Up at Bat," an episode in which Gilligan imagined that he had turned into Dracula. "I loved being the old hag," she said. Dawn Elberta Wells was born in Reno, Nev., on Oct. 18, 1938, the only child of Joe Wesley Wells, a real estate developer, and Evelyn (Steinbrenner) Wells. Dawn majored in chemistry at Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., then became interested in drama and went to the University of Washington in Seattle. She graduated in 1960 with a degree in theater arts and design, having taken some time off to win a state beauty title and compete in the 1960 Miss America pageant. "Big deal," she said in a 2016 interview with Forbes, making light of her Miss Nevada win. "There were only 10 women in the whole state at the time." For the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, her talent performance was a dramatic reading from Sophocles' "Antigone." A 1961 episode of the drama "The Roaring Twenties" was her screen debut. When she was cast on "Gilligan's Island," she had appeared onscreen only about two dozen times, mostly in prime time series, including "77 Sunset Strip" (multiple episodes), "Surfside Six," "Hawaiian Eye," "Bonanza" and "Maverick." After her television career cooled down, Ms. Wells returned to her first love: theater, doing at least 100 productions nationwide. Her last television role was in 2019, as the voice of a supernatural dentist on the animated Netflix series "The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants." Her last onscreen appearance was in a 2018 episode of "Kaplan's Korner," about actors running an employment agency. Her only soap opera appearance was in a 2016 episode of "The Bold and the Beautiful," in which she played a fashion buyer from a wealthy family. Ms. Wells's marriage in 1962 to Larry Rosen, a talent agent, ended in divorce in 1967, the same year "Gilligan's Island" went off the air. She is survived by a stepsister, Weslee Wells. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Mr. Thaler wrote that we know how to fix much of the retirement problem, and we can afford to, but need to figure out ways to help people who are just dropping the ball. He proposed automatically enrolling workers in I.R.A.s if their companies do not already provide sponsored retirement savings accounts. Automatic enrollment, with the freedom to opt out, he said, will solve one of the biggest barriers to saving: procrastination. Opting In vs. Opting Out Many people in the United States say they are willing to become organ donors but never take the steps required to do so filling out a form or officially registering their consent in some other way. Mr. Thaler said organ donation rates would increase with methods like "mandated choice" a requirement that you make your preference about organ donation known, one way or the other or with smartphone apps that make such choices much easier. Medical care is expensive, Mr. Thaler said, in part because there are too many incentives to do costly things that are unnecessary. As technology improves, for example, it is easier to investigate physical abnormalities even when they are unlikely to cause problems. Extra testing increases costs, as do malpractice suits. Patients need to be better informed, he said, and should be empowered to opt out of procedures that are likely to rack up big bills without providing much benefit. Getting the Most Out of Social Security Annuities are an excellent retirement savings vehicle, he said, but many consumers find them confusing and off putting. Yet most American retirees will receive an inflation adjusted annuity anyway: Social Security. Those who can afford to wait for Social Security payouts should delay at least until they turn 70, he said, increasing their annual income appreciably. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
PHILADELPHIA Plans for expansion of a Mormon complex along two blocks of north central Philadelphia are providing city officials with a hope of reconnecting those sections to the city's core business district of Center City. The development on the 1600 block of Vine Street, which is the northern border of Philadelphia's downtown area, would consist of a 32 story tower containing 258 apartments, as well as 13 rental townhomes and the 24,000 square foot meeting house where members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints would worship and hold community events. Designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects, the project is planned for the block next to a Mormon temple that is already under construction and due to be completed in 2016. While the temple will be reserved for major religious ceremonies, in keeping with Mormon tradition, the new meeting house will include a chapel for regular services, meeting rooms and classrooms for community and recreational events, officials said in announcing the project on Feb. 12. Alan Greenberger, the city's deputy mayor for economic development, said the temple and the planned Mormon housing and retail complex which would be built on a parking lot occupy two "unspoken for" blocks between the business district and the northern section of the city. He praised the church for taking a step that private developers were less likely to tackle, that is, committing to such a project without more evidence of economic vitality in the surrounding neighborhood. "Most developers are followers," Mr. Greenberger said. "Few are pioneers, and the Mormons are pioneers by religion." In another redevelopment of the Logan Circle Parkway section, city officials announced Tuesday the renovation of a family court building on the adjoining 1800 block of Vine Street. The 247,000 square foot building will become a 199 room hotel operated by the Kimpton chain after a project that will cost 85 million, Mayor Michael A. Nutter said on Tuesday. The repurposed building, completed in 1941, will preserve 37 interior murals that are listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. The redevelopment, headed by the Peebles Corporation, will begin after the family court moves into a new building at 15th and Arch Streets. Officials said they hoped to open the hotel to guests in the first quarter of 2016. Of the Mormon expansion, church officials have declined to specify the cost of the project. Mr. Greenberger estimated the church's investment at "many tens of millions" of dollars. While the meeting house is exempt from taxes because it is a religious building, the church will pay taxes on the apartment building and townhouses because they are commercial developments. But the buildings will be eligible for a 10 year tax abatement. By building the meeting house, the church will fulfill its own interest in extending the "sacred space" around the temple, blocking any competing developments whose nature might not be suitable nearest to the temple, said Michael Marcheschi, senior real estate manager for the church's special projects department. "The church is sensitive to what can be developed next to its temple and wanted to have something that would be very compatible with the sacred nature of it," Mr. Marcheschi said in an interview. "The church would like to control to a certain degree its environs." For example, a theater showing movies that were not of the "right moral fabric" would not be desirable in an adjacent space, Mr. Marcheschi said. Even while the temple is under construction, the church has taken steps to ensure that behavior on the site meets its standards. Workers are barred from smoking cigarettes or drinking coffee, in keeping with Mormon law, and signs at site entrances ban "profanity or discourteous behavior." The Mormon population of Greater Philadelphia, estimated at 25,000 to 28,000, already has 47 meeting houses, said Corinne Dougherty, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia region of the church. The new meeting house will allow some church members to relocate their regular worship and community activities, she said. The residential section of the new development will be open to anyone who wants to rent an apartment within walking distance of Philadelphia's central business district or the museums on nearby Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The project also represents an investment opportunity for the church in a strengthening real estate market that is benefiting from a growing move from the suburbs to the city, said Tom King, a director of Property Reserve, a real estate investment affiliate of the church. "There was a portion of the site left over after the meeting house and that coincided with residential housing need," he said. Dr. Eugenie Birch, co director of the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Urban Research, said the development was likely to spur a renewal of adjoining areas to the north. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
The latest episode in the long running saga of Carlos Ghosn, his news conference in Beirut on Wednesday, was a fitting sequel to the drama of his arrest in Japan, his stints in jail and his made for TV flight concealed in a large trunk and accompanied by a former Green Beret. Longtime viewers will recall that in earlier seasons, Mr. Ghosn, the son of three continents, had leapfrogged across the globe to save two auto companies from ruin (or was it three?), had staged a fabulous wedding at the Palace of Versailles and had done feats too many to list. Now, having fled to Lebanon, the home of his ancestors, the 65 year old fugitive executive tirelessly, at times passionately, held forth in English, French, Arabic and Portuguese before a packed room of reporters, flashing hard to read documents on a screen to proclaim that he was innocent of all the charges he faced in Japan, insisting that he had not fled from justice, since none was possible in Japan, but rather in search of justice against a political mugging. Claiming that Japanese officials had sought to paint him as a "cold, greedy dictator," he dramatically insisted that he was the opposite a man who loved the Japanese, who could have made a lot more money if, for example, he had accepted an offer to take charge of General Motors, and who was never accused of being a tyrant until his arrest in November 2018. And to prove that he deserved whatever compensation he had received, he noted that Renault and Nissan had been doing very badly since his arrest and forced resignations. The story is fantastic, even by the standards of today's TV dramas. It is also important, a look at the underside of a high stakes multinational industry, brutal corporate intrigue, extravagant compensation packages and complex international deals, both above and below board. Mr. Ghosn was the master of all these, and his leadership of a rocky alliance of three major auto companies Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi will, as he rightly claimed, be long studied among the case histories of business schools. He also lived high, spending big and hopping among grand residences in Brazil, Lebanon and France. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
As the Zika virus bears down on the United States, federal health officials are divided over a politically and ethically charged question: Should they advise American women to delay pregnancy in areas where the virus is circulating? Some infectious disease experts are arguing that avoiding conception is the only sure way to prevent the births of deformed babies, according to outside researchers who serve on various advisory panels. Women's health specialists, on the other hand, counter that the government should not tell women what to do with their bodies. Indeed, federal health officials have never advised all the women in a region of the country to stop having children. Moreover, they say, most babies conceived during Zika epidemics in Latin America have been born healthy. Several federal experts central to the discussion declined to be interviewed for this article. Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, described the internal debate as "a very long conversation." For now, "we do not have a recommendation to not become pregnant," Dr. Frieden said at a "Zika summit" held recently at disease agency headquarters in Atlanta. "We do recommend access to contraception." On Wednesday, the agency confirmed what many experts already believed: that the mosquito borne virus, which is usually mild in adults, can cause severe brain damage in infants. Yet the W.H.O. does not follow that policy. Dr. Bruce Aylward, the agency's head of emergency response, called avoiding pregnancy "a complicated decision that is different for each individual woman." Currently, the question affects Americans only in Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa, where the Zika virus is circulating locally. But if the virus spreads as expected this summer, women in Hawaii and many Gulf Coast states may also be faced with tough choices. Despite the C.D.C.'s stance, Puerto Rico's health secretary, Dr. Ana Rius, has been advising women to avoid pregnancy, although she has done so in public interviews, not in a large health campaign. Women on the island may be following her advice, she said; preliminary figures indicate that there are 8 percent fewer pregnancies than there were at this time last year. For women living on those islands, the disease agency's current guidelines do not advocate delaying pregnancy, instead calling the timing of conception a "deeply personal and very complex decision" and suggesting that women consult their doctors for "pregnancy planning." But tourists visiting the islands receive specific advice to avoid pregnancy for eight weeks after a visit, and for six months if male partners have had symptoms of Zika infection. Dr. William Schaffner, the chairman of department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical School, who also described the outlines of the split, said that withholding conception advice might leave couples adrift. "They have to think it through by themselves," he said. "They may hear it from their doctors or mothers or friends at the beauty parlor, but not from the C.D.C." First, they do not believe that even the most aggressive mosquito control efforts can protect pregnant woman 24 hours a day for nine months. No country yet has stopped dengue or chikungunya, which, like Zika, are spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, and the disease agency itself has warned that reductions of 80 percent to 90 percent in those mosquito populations sometimes does not reduce disease transmission. Second, no vaccine is expected to be ready for at least two years. Third, evidence is mounting that Zika outbreaks are intense but brief. In French Polynesia in 2013, the virus infected 66 percent of the population within seven months and then disappeared. Because women who recover from Zika appear to be permanently immune, experts argue that delaying conception spares them the risk of having a child with severe birth defects, along with the agonizing worry and lets them conceive safely a year later. In framing the language of the guidelines, Dr. Frieden said he was "guided by the perspective" of Dr. Denise J. Jamieson, a medical officer in the disease agency's division of reproductive health. In an interview, Dr. Jamieson described birth defects as a rare complication of Zika infection. Even during an epidemic, she said, "most women will have healthy babies." Further, Dr. Jamieson said, delays "would also prevent wanted pregnancies," especially in older women struggling with fertility, for example. Advice from government doctors on such personal decisions, she added, "is not likely to be effective." Asked what advice she would have given during the last American rubella epidemic which killed or severely handicapped an estimated 20,000 babies she answered: "I would have said, 'This is an extraordinarily risky time to get pregnant.' " But she does not endorse giving the same advice this time, she said, because rubella was unavoidable in those prevaccine days, whereas now, "highly motivated women can take measures to avoid mosquito bites." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Yolanda Foster, the mother of Gigi Hadid and a former model herself, was at the Park Avenue Armory on Monday, watching from the front row as her daughter walked in the Tommy Hilfiger show. As loyal viewers of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" know, Ms. Foster has battled Lyme disease these last few years (as well as other cast members who have questioned whether she has been exaggerating her illness all that time), while also getting divorced from her husband, the music producer David Foster. "You know, this is actually only the second time I've ever been able to make it out to see her walk," Ms. Foster said of Gigi, her 20 year old daughter from her first marriage, to the Southern California real estate developer Mohamed Hadid. (Ms. Foster said on the talk show "What Watch Happens Live" Tuesday night that she has decided to revert to the name Hadid, to be consistent with that of Gigi and her two other children, Bella and Anwar.) "I managed to make it to the Victoria's Secret show, and now this, but otherwise it's too much for my body to handle," Ms. Foster said. "But I live stream everything. I make sure to watch it all online. Oftentimes I end up crying because I am just so proud. They grow up so fast, don't they? But maternal instincts never stop." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Four years ago, Charles G. and David H. Koch seemed poised to control some of the country's biggest newspapers. Known for using their vast wealth and network of donors to advance their brand of libertarian infused conservatism, the titans of Koch Industries explored buying the Tribune Company's eight newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune. David Koch Died on Aug. 23 at the Age of 79 They ended up not making a bid, and in an interview at the time with his hometown paper, The Wichita Eagle, Charles Koch suggested that Koch Industries was rethinking whether it was wise to enter such a troubled industry. "There are tremendous changes going on in media," Charles Koch said. "We're back at square one, analyzing where is the most change, where are the best opportunities for new entrants to come in and add value?" The answer, it appears, was the magazine business. In a move that came to light on Wednesday, the Kochs have tentatively agreed to back an offer by the magazine publisher Meredith Corporation for Time Inc., the owner of titles including Time, People and Sports Illustrated. Koch Industries, the sprawling industrial conglomerate controlled by the two brothers, plans to support the deal. Meredith and Time Inc. have discussed the details of a potential transaction over the last week and are hoping to announce a deal, should it occur, on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Under the preliminary terms of Meredith's proposal, the company would pay 18 to 20 a share for Time Inc., people involved in the talks said. Meredith, the Iowa based company behind popular monthly magazines like Family Circle and Better Homes and Gardens, has arranged for a 600 million cash infusion from the Koch brothers through their private equity arm, Koch Equity Development, these people said. Under the terms of the proposal, Koch would receive preferred shares in the company. According to people involved in the talks, Meredith has also lined up 3 billion in financing from four banks: Citibank, Barclays, Credit Suisse and Royal Bank of Canada. Meredith has been busy lately reviewing Time Inc.'s financials, which have become somewhat complicated, because the company had been in the process of selling several magazines including Sunset and Golf and a stake in Essence. Meredith has indicated that it would acquire all of Time Inc.'s properties, but was still seeking clarification about the status of those sales, these people said. The Kochs have long tried to shape political discourse through their support of nonprofit organizations, universities and think tanks. Beyond their flirtation with Tribune, they have expressed little interest in running a media company. Some Koch allies suggested that the brothers' investment would be passive and would not give them any operational control over the company. These people said that the Kochs saw a potential moneymaker in Time Inc., rather than a megaphone for advancing their free market ideology. For that to happen, the storied company, which Henry R. Luce helped found in 1922, would have to morph into an entity able to thrive in the fraught 21st century media business. Other Koch associates, however, surmised that the Kochs' involvement in the possible deal was partly driven by their desire to advance their views. Should Meredith succeed in acquiring Time Inc., Koch Industries would have a stake in a company with access to millions of online and print readers. "Knowing the Kochs, I think they'd have to see it as a business that could at the same time further their political interests," said Stanley S. Hubbard, a longtime associate of the brothers and a donor to their advocacy groups. Although it now has a diminished role in the crowded landscape, Time magazine, with its influential Person of the Year and Time 100 issues, still reaches a weekly paid audience of roughly three million. Mr. Hubbard said he doubted the Koch brothers approved of Time in its current form. "In their view," he said, "they probably see Time magazine as a left wing rag. I'm sure that they would like to see it be more objective and also to straighten it out to make it a profitable venture." 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. Mr. Hubbard, who owns television and radio stations across the United States, said he had not talked with the Kochs about the possible acquisition but had discussed other prospective media investments with them over the years. Spokesmen for Koch Industries and the Kochs' political operation both declined to comment. Spokesmen for Time Inc. and Meredith also declined to comment. For Meredith, which was founded in 1902, the addition of the Time Inc. titles to its stable would represent the culmination of a yearslong courtship. In 2013, a deal between the two publishers collapsed after Meredith reportedly said it had no interest in some of Time Inc.'s most robust titles, including Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. Meredith was also among the parties circling Time Inc. earlier this year before it walked away in part because it could not secure sufficient financing. Until now, the Kochs who lead a company that brings in more than 100 billion in annual revenue have sought to influence public discourse at some remove from the media business. If Meredith, with the Kochs' help, succeeds in buying Time Inc., the brothers would join a growing list of billionaire business people with significant stakes in media properties. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company, for instance, owns 31 daily newspapers, and Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Sheldon G. Adelson, a casino magnate and powerful Republican donor, acquired The Las Vegas Review Journal in late 2015. The Kochs, who have made a name for themselves as philanthropists with their donations to Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History, have preferred to wield their influence away from the glare that comes with owning major media properties. Through a network of conservative donors and advocacy groups, they have spent or raised more than 1.5 billion in an effort to reshape American policy around an ideology based on free market Austrian economics. Their foundations have helped fund organizations affiliated with conservative media outlets, including the libertarian Reason magazine and the Daily Caller website. The Charles Koch Institute, one of the brothers' philanthropic arms, offers a yearlong media and journalism fellowship. David Koch has donated millions to public television. Media properties with a wider reach than, say, Reason magazine, like those in the portfolios of Meredith and Time Inc., could amplify the Kochs' message and complement the work of the groups they support, including the nonprofit advocacy group Americans for Prosperity. The completion of the proposed deal may also give the Kochs a way to merge the vast trove of voter information held by a data analytics company controlled by their network, i360, with the publishers' data on consumers. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values . It is separate from the newsroom. Stay home. Avoid crowds. Work remotely. Keep at least six feet between you and other people. As the coronavirus tightens its grip, the pleas from health experts for people to limit face to face contact are growing ever more pointed and urgent. And yet, even as workplaces and schools are being shut down across America, the federal government has been slow to shift to an emergency footing with its sprawling work force, breeding chaos and confusion and endangering lives in agencies and offices from coast to coast. Despite having told workers weeks ago to prepare for a major shift to working remotely, few administration agencies have made more than minor adjustments, according to The Washington Post. Some offices, most notably those with employees who have tested positive for the virus, have sent workers home to telecommute. Others have instituted rotating schedules to limit crowding. Nonessential travel has been curtailed, and public tours canceled. But unlike during other types of emergencies, there is little guidance about how agencies and departments should approach this pandemic. Only a small percentage of workers have been cleared to work from home, The Post noted, leaving a majority to continue crowding into cubicles and other work sites. Messaging from the top, specifically the Office of Management and Budget, has been at best muddled. On Thursday evening, the budget office issued a memo urging agency and department heads to maximize telework specifically for employees considered at increased health risk. Three days later, faced with growing complaints, the budget office issued updated guidance encouraging agencies in the Washington area where only 15 percent of the federal civilian work force is to offer "maximum telework flexibilities" for all eligible workers. Such vague, shifting, uneven direction is insufficient and unacceptable. The nation is in the midst of an emergency. Nonessential workers should be sent home. Those eligible to telework should be directed to do so. If this requires obtaining special permission for, say, call center workers to answer phones from home, then such permission should be expedited. Admittedly, a shift to telework of this magnitude would be an unprecedented challenge for the federal government. It is made even more difficult by the fact that the Trump administration has scaled back telework levels established during the Obama era. It is incumbent upon the White House to meet this challenge. The situation on Capitol Hill is also unsettling. After being sent home last Thursday, senators are back in Washington this week to vote on a couple of key bills, including an emergency relief measure aimed at softening the economic devastation of the pandemic. Such relief is desperately needed, but what is not needed is for lawmakers to be zipping to and from their home states at a time when air travel is being discouraged in general. Bluntly put, because of the Senate's age two thirds of members are over 60 it is a high risk group. Already, one aide has tested positive for the coronavirus, leading to office shutdowns and further testing and huge anxiety in other offices. The House has its share of older members as well, including the bulk of the Democratic leadership. There is a compelling argument to be made that its recess this week should have been canceled, avoiding hundreds of members' spreading out across the country. Many congressional staff members have been frustrated by the lack of guidance from the top as to how offices should manage the crisis. Additional laptops have been ordered to facilitate telework, and a "genius bar" has been established to help people get up and running on the remote network. That said, it took until March 12 for congressional leadership, in consultation with the sergeants at arms for both chambers and the Capitol's attending physician, to shut down tours and close the Capitol complex to anyone not on official business. Most decisions about office safety and operations are left to individual lawmakers, leading to an inconsistent, piecemeal approach that has fueled stress and confusion. Some lawmakers have shut down their offices. Others remain open for business, prompting staffs to question why there has not been a mandated shift to skeleton crews, with all nonessential workers sent home as would happen in a shutdown. On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to members, encouraging them to take steps to "promote social distancing" in their Washington offices. "This may entail more than half of your Washington staff teleworking from home," she wrote. This is a welcome step. But such gentle guidance seems inadequate to the moment, especially when dealing with members like Representative Devin Nunes, the California Republican, who has been pooh poohing all the alarm and urging people to go out to bars and restaurants. The people's work needs to be done, especially in times of crisis. But it is vital that across the branches, federal officials focus on how to do so while protecting the health of their own workers for the sake of those workers and of the millions of Americans who rely on them. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, our case today is against the most powerful man in the world. And using the most powerful weapon of government by the people, you can hold this man accountable for the first time in his life, when you pass judgment on Nov. 3. We will show that President Trump has made a mockery of the Constitution, has lied to you more than 20,000 times and is currently trying to sabotage the Postal Service in a desperate bid to cling to power. But worse than any of that, he is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans during his willful mismanagement of the pandemic. The case against him is "open and shut," as your prosecutor said Wednesday, and factually incontrovertible. That prosecutor, , is a woman who has spent most of her professional life going after criminals. And since that prosecutor will occupy a space inside Trump's head for the next three months, he should grant her the decency of properly pronouncing her name. It's not Ca mall uh, as he has said. It's Comma la. Let the record show that she has already called him what he is. "I know predators, and we have a predator living in the White House," she said last year. "The thing you must importantly know, predators are cowards." So, to the case: Let's begin with the loss of more than 165,000 lives from Covid 19 in the United States, on Trump's watch, and maybe as many as 200,000. Each of them had a story, a life, people they loved and were loved by. Now gone before their time. Their voices cry out from the grave. You've already heard that the United States, with barely 4 percent of the world's population, has 25 percent of the coronavirus cases. And that the U.S. leads the world in total number of Covid 19 deaths, with a fatality rate five times as high as the global average. Remember that the next time the president praises himself. But just consider a single day, Tuesday, when Joe Biden announced Harris as his pick. Covid 19 took the lives of 1,450 people in the United States on that one day. For Canada, it was four. Trump owns this failure. We are a pariah nation, shunned and pitied, unable to travel outside our borders, prisoners of his fatal malfeasance. Some of you have excused this president's incompetence, his quackery, his buffoonery, his vile character, his consistent insults of women, minorities, the free press, the courts so long as it was just the daily respiration of a narcissist. But we know now, and you must never forget, that his ignorance is lethal. Other countries in the world the places where people are watching sports in stadiums, where kids are going to school without fear, where businesses have been saved had a national plan. Trump has never had one. Instead, he tweeted conspiracy nonsense from an ex game show host and promoted ingesting household disinfectants. The presidency, as Biden says, "is a duty to care." This president has failed at the primary duty to keep you safe. Every day, he's finding new ways to make your life miserable. He is actively working to take away health care from millions, through his assault on Obamacare. His attack on the Postal Service, if successful, is not just an attempt to break this democracy, but could also deprive many of you from getting your lifesaving meds on time. But the economy, he will say. It was the best ever until the pandemic. Not true. With his tax cuts for the rich that blew a trillion dollar hole in the federal budget, he promised economic growth of up to 6 percent. It never got to even half that high in the first three years of his presidency. Unemployment now is at Depression era levels. "He inherited the largest economic expansion in history," as your prosecutor said. "And then, like everything else he inherited, he ran it straight into the ground." What has this president done to protect his base of working class whites, many of them deemed "essential" workers? Nothing. As we speak, he's trying to take away the rights of workers to sue an employer in an unsafe workplace. He will distract you by trying to tie the Democratic ticket to the intolerant, mob ruled far left, epitomized by the Jacobins on the Seattle City Council who recently hounded out the city's first female African American police chief. But those who rule by bullhorn and bullying have nothing in common with your prosecutor and her running mate. As she has said, "No good public policy ends with an exclamation point." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night's highlights that lets you sleep and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If you're interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox. President Trump has worked hard to stem and suppress the various investigations surrounding him, leaving him open to accusations of obstruction of justice, according to a New York Times report published this week. He has also publicly attacked the investigation more than 1,100 times since he took office, The Times found. (When the article came out, Trump remained true to form: He savaged it.) Stephen Colbert highlighted one part of the report, which points out that Trump's behavior has slowly come to feel like the norm for many Americans. Colbert urged his viewers not to become inured to the president's behavior. "Please don't do that! Please don't lose track! I just want to remind you that that mildly nauseous feeling you have is because for the last two years, Donald Trump has been spinning you in a tumble dryer full of turd." STEPHEN COLBERT "The president attacking his Justice Department, trusting Putin over his own intelligence community, calling the F.B.I. a bunch of corrupt, deep state coup plotters is not normal. It is strange. It's like how Jack in the Box sells tacos for some reason? It may not be illegal, but it certainly violates something sacred." STEPHEN COLBERT "Speaking of the Russia investigation, Donald Trump would prefer that we not speak of it. In fact, he has tried very hard to make all investigations of him vanish faster than a cheeseburger at bedtime." STEPHEN COLBERT Trevor Noah followed up on the recent discovery, through a court filing, that the Sackler family was much more directly involved in covering up the addictive qualities of OxyContin than had been previously known. The family is widely known for its philanthropy, but it has also played a major role in the scourge of opioid abuse that suffused America over the past quarter century. Purdue Pharma, the Sacklers' company, aggressively marketed the drug to doctors, sometimes with the help of exotic dancers. Noah commented on one pharmaceutical executive and former stripper who allegedly bribed and engaged in sexual acts with doctors she was trying to persuade to prescribe more opioids. "That's right, this drug company didn't just bribe doctors to push opioids; they sent strippers to bribe the doctors. And let me just say, when a stripper starts paying you, something fishy is going on. That just doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense. It's like a crackhead begging to give you 5. 'Hey, brother, you look like you could use some help. Come on, man, take it!'" TREVOR NOAH "This one family made 4 billion by allegedly lying about how addictive opioids are. That is straight up evil. If your product is addictive, you have to be upfront about it. I mean, that's why we always start our show with a disclaimer: 'Do not consume more than three episodes of "The Daily Show" if you are addicted to Africans with dimples.' All right? I could be a billionaire if I didn't show that warning. I have to do that." TREVOR NOAH Seth Meyers pointed to a new argument that's becoming popular on Fox News: that perhaps Trump shouldn't declare a national emergency to build the border wall (a move that could well be struck down by federal courts anyway, experts believe) because then a future Democratic president might invoke emergency powers to fight climate change. It's clear which situation Meyers thinks would be the real emergency. "That's what you're worried about? That's like saying, 'I would give this homeless guy a dollar, but you know he's just going to use it to print out his resume and find a job.'" SETH MEYERS Meyers played a clip of Trump trying to persuade the Fox News host Chris Wallace that the worsening of California forest fires isn't due to climate change, but lack of forest maintenance. The president claimed that one governor had told him raking the leaves below trees would help solve the problem. (He wouldn't name the governor.) "Why won't you say which state it was? Seems to me, if a governor figured out how to stop forest fires with a rake, they'd want their name out there. Is it because they're from Neva happen da?" SETH MEYERS Then Meyers rolled tape of a Trump rally at which the president warned that proponents of the Green New Deal wanted to prevent people from owning cows. "Man, Trump is getting really desperate. In two years, he's gone from 'they're going to take your guns away' to 'they're going to take your cows away.' No one is outlawing cows. You know what we call that? Fake moos." SETH MEYERS "After a guy in Dallas finished last place in his fantasy football league did you hear about this? he had to go to a dog park covered in peanut butter. His friends laughed, then got concerned when he went back again the next day." JIMMY FALLON "I read about a vegan woman who recently got married and banned all meat eaters from her wedding. Then her friends and family were like, 'Oh, no, we're not allowed at your vegan wedding? Oh, bummer.'" JIMMY FALLON "The Bernie Sanders campaign has announced that in the first 12 hours after launching his presidential bid, Sanders raised more than 4 million in donations, which is great for Sanders. Great for Sanders, but terrible for the guy behind him at Coinstar." SETH MEYERS In the "Late Show" cold open, Kermit the Frog became a symbol of the Green New Deal. He promised he wouldn't kill all the cows. (Maybe.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Lee Higman, a 71 year old artist from Bellevue, Idaho, who considers herself a law abiding citizen, was shocked last month when she got a notice from the Food and Drug Administration telling her: "A mail shipment addressed to you from a foreign country is being held." The 90 tablets of Vagifem, prescribed by her physician, that she had ordered from a Canadian pharmacy had been impounded as an illegal drug at Los Angeles International Airport. First marketed in 1988, Vagifem estrogen tablets are used by millions of women to relieve symptoms of menopause. There is no generic version available in the United States, and brand name drugs are expensive here. So about five years ago, Mrs. Higman started ordering the tablets from Canada, where a year's supply that would cost about 1,000 in the United States sells for under 100. "The price went up. And we'd lost a lot on the stock market, and we're living on fixed incomes," Mrs. Higman, who is an artist, said in an interview. She and her husband, a writer, are covered by Medicare. In an e mail to the Food and Drug Administration, she sought the release of the package, explaining, "When it became economically imperative I ordered it from Canada, a country with strict drug requirements." The high price of many prescription drugs in the United States has left millions of Americans telling white lies and committing fraud and other crimes to get their medicines. In response to a New York Times article about the costs, hundreds of readers shared their strategies, like having a physician prescribe twice the needed dose and cutting pills in half, or "borrowing" medicines from a friend or relative with better insurance coverage. But an increasingly popular though generally illegal route is buying the drugs from overseas. The Canadian International Pharmacy Association, a 10 year old group, said its members fill prescriptions for one million Americans each year. "It's the Americans who are seeking us out," said Tim Smith, the group's general manager. "Clearly there's a need." In surveys from 2011 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 2 percent of adults and about 5 percent of the uninsured said they had bought prescription drugs from other countries. The figures most likely underestimated the practice because people may be reluctant to admit to doing something illegal, even though the law is rarely enforced in such cases. The Food and Drug Administration says on its Web site that "in most circumstances it is illegal to import drugs into the U.S. for personal use" because the agency cannot guarantee they are safe and effective. The government also prohibits "reimportation" of drugs made in the United States because it cannot guarantee the medications were not tampered with or stored improperly. The agency said it does not track the volume of such imports. However, it "typically does not object" to people buying imported medicine for personal use "under certain circumstances," the agency said. Those include using the drug to treat a serious condition for which an effective alternative is unavailable in the United States and purchasing less than a three month supply. But those ambiguous edicts have left patients wary. Dr. Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist and health care advocate in North Carolina, said he has saved thousands of dollars buying medicines from overseas in the past decade. "It may be technically illegal, but I don't think anyone would ever get prosecuted," he said, adding that such laws reflected "protectionism" for drug makers. Although the Obama administration initially proposed allowing some importation of drugs, the idea was dropped from the Affordable Care Act after intense opposition from the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Smith, of the Canadian pharmacy group, said members follow strict pharmacy and prescription protocols and dispense only medicines approved by Health Canada, which regulates them. Members also broker purchases from licensed pharmacies in other countries, like Britain and Australia, which may further reduce the costs. Package inserts in foreign languages must be translated into English. He acknowledged that consumers must take care to ensure an online pharmacy is legitimate, noting that in 2011 his association sent hundreds of cease and desist letters to Web sites some of which were not based in Canada and were not even pharmacies that were fraudulently using the group's certification seal. Dr. Barrett said he uses Web sites like PharmacyChecker.com to screen online pharmacies and prefers products from English speaking countries. Some purchases from overseas pharmacies are identical to products sold in the United States. When a Food and Drug Administration compliance officer told Mrs. Higman that her order of Vagifem was held because it was an "unapproved" drug, she responded, "This drug might come from Turkey, however, it is in the same box, the same packaging, the same labels, the same manufacturer, Nordisk, as the outrageously priced Vagifem in the United States." Identical drugs sold in other countries may have different package inserts, slight variations in dose or different brand names. But that is frequently a function of patent law and business decisions by drug makers, rather than medical efficacy. Diana Simonson, 42, a freelance computer programmer in Glens Falls, N.Y., said she started ordering her inhalers from Canada after she nearly died of an asthma attack in the United States, where she cannot afford her preventive treatments. For decades, she was able to control her asthma with a steroid inhaler. But it was banned a few years ago because it contained a propellant that was deemed environmentally harmful. The replacement product cost 250 a month. "That was like another car payment I couldn't do it," said Ms. Simonson, who has a high deductible insurance policy through the Freelancers Union. With an income of about 35,000 and a child to raise, she tried to do without. But at an air show with her 7 year old son, she became so short of breath that she had to be rushed by ambulance to an emergency room. The inhalers she gets from Canada every three months are the same brand, and by the same manufacturer, that she used to buy in the United States. But often they are produced in a third country, like Turkey or Malaysia. Kristen Bailey of Colorado started ordering medicine by mail from India when she was given a diagnosis of Crohn's disease after graduating from college in 2011 with no insurance. Her medicine retails for tens of thousands of dollars in the United States. The process is simpler for patients who live near the border. Joshua Kalish, 70, of Silver City, N.M., said that before he was eligible for Medicare, he drove to Mexico to fill his prescriptions, calling it a "common practice." Mrs. Higman said she is also heading for the border. Despite her pleas, the Food and Drug Administration told her that her Vagifem tablets would be returned to Canada or destroyed. To tide her over, she has spent 233 for two months of Vagifem at a local pharmacy. "Fortunately my children and grandchildren live in Seattle, so the next time we go over there, I'll take a little trip up to Vancouver, British Columbia, to buy my medicine," she said. "I'll save enough money to get room service in a five star hotel there and still have enough left to claim I saved a couple of bucks." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Democrats may not agree on much these days, but on the matter of their greatest wish, there is resounding consensus: They want to beat Donald Trump this November. Full stop. So it's of no help to the cause when Hillary Clinton, the party's 2016 nominee, disparages other Democrats and shatters party unity based on her own festering resentment. "Nobody likes him," Mrs. Clinton said of Senator Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic nomination in 2016 and a leading candidate today, in a new documentary, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician. It's all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it." That'll play nicely in a Trump campaign ad if Mr. Sanders is the Democratic nominee. Worse, Mrs. Clinton declined to commit to campaigning for Mr. Sanders, or even supporting him, if he wins the nomination. "I'm not going to go there yet," she said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "We're still in a very vigorous primary season." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
Alan Peckolick, who overcame a failed art school career to emerge as a leading designer of some the world's most distinctive logos, died on Aug. 3 in Danbury, Conn. He was 76. The cause was brain damage sustained after a fall, his wife, Jessica Weber, said. He had Parkinson's disease. A protege and partner of the influential graphic designer Herb Lubalin, whose acolytes also included the art director George Lois and the photographer Art Kane, Mr. Peckolick was a virtuoso man of letters. His typography distinguished familiar logos, like GM's (just the two initials underscored by a muscular solid bar), and the typefaces for company names, including Pfizer, Revlon and Mercedes Benz, and institutions like New York University and the City College of New York. "Basically, for me, if a word was a beautiful word, it wasn't the sound of the word that intrigued me but the look of the word," Mr. Peckolick (pronounced PECK oh lick) told The Huffington Post in 2015. "I saw each letterform as a piece of design. Cat is not 'cat' it's c a t. That's what led to the beginning of the expressive topography." Seymour Chwast, a fellow designer and illustrator, said in an email that Mr. Peckolick "was totally dedicated to design, its history, its function and what it might offer in the future." Eventually fed up with being a rainmaker for the advertising agencies he worked for, diverting his creative his energies to courting clients, Mr. Peckolick took up painting. As an artist, he was captivated by weathered billboards and their faded evocations of a vanishing cityscape. "Signage has been covered so often by photography that as a subject it is a commonplace," Grace Glueck of The New York Times wrote in reviewing an exhibition of his work at a SoHo gallery in 2002, "but Mr. Peckolick, good at the colors and textures of erosion, nicely captures the sense of time past that gives these brief messages their nostalgic appeal." Alan Jay Peckolick was born on Oct. 3, 1940, in the Bronx to Charles Peckolick, a letter carrier (actual letters, not the kind his son would work with) and the former Belle Binenbaum. "I never knew anything about design or graphics or any of those fancy words," Mr. Peckolick recalled in 2015. "But I used to draw. I used to draw everything. When my mother used to send me out to get groceries, by the time I was back there were little drawings on the grocery bags." He graduated from Elmont Memorial High School on Long Island, just across the Queens border, after which, he said: "My mother put together a portfolio which was made of anything I drew on handkerchiefs, scraps, whatever and put it literally into a brown paper bag. She sent me out into the world to go to places like Cooper Union and the School of Visual Arts. Both schools, he said, "immediately saw there was no talent here, and they rejected me." Pratt Institute in Brooklyn accepted him, in the illustration department. But three months later, he was told to leave because his work was not improving. A schoolmate discovered him in a coffee shop, dejected. "I explained to him," he recalled, "that I was kicked out of art school because I couldn't draw very well. He said: 'Well that's no problem. Why don't you just become a graphic designer?' I said, 'What's that?' He said, 'Don't worry about what it is, but you don't have to know how to draw!'" Mr. Peckolick graduated from Pratt in 1964 and opened his own office. In 1972 he joined Lubalin, Smith Carnase (the firm later became Pushpin Lubalin Peckolick Associates). Through his mentor, Mr. Lubalin, Mr. Peckolick recalled, "I discovered other people like Saul Bass, Lou Dorfsman, George Lois people who could think as well as design." "Then," he added, "I was in the lap of luxury; I could steal from the best." He and Ms. Weber, who is also a graphic designer, lived in Manhattan and Sherman, Conn. In addition to her, he is survived by his brother, Paul, and his sister, Gael Rae Garwood. Mr. Peckolick was the author of several books, including "Teaching Type to Talk" (2013), and illustrated a number of others. Despite his growing fame for defining corporate identities and designing annual reports, book jackets and posters, his longevity at advertising agencies mirrored his art school experience. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Where the first lady, Melania Trump, is concerned, theories abound. From morning show hosts to Twitter pundits to protest poster artists, everyone has an opinion: Mrs. Trump is a prisoner in her own home. Mrs. Trump rules the roost. Mrs. Trump is complicit, clueless, estranged from her husband, advises her husband, loves Washington, hates Washington, just wants to be left alone. If the current administration is a Rorschach test, the first lady is a splash of ink across the White House. A member of the White House press corps focused on the first lady and the Trump family, the CNN reporter Kate Bennett may be uniquely qualified to weigh in. Now she shares her own theories in an unauthorized biography, "Free, Melania," which comes out this week. The book does not include an explanation of the comma in its title, nor any discussion of the Trumps' 13 year old son, Barron, except as a factor in his mother's decision making. (In an author's note, Bennett writes, "I don't believe being born to public figures should render a child fair game for public scrutiny.") But "Free, Melania" does provide insight into the first lady's life, opinions and relationships (she is well liked by her staffers, with Bennett describing the East Wing as "the White House's tightest ship"). Here are six of Bennett's revelations. Mrs. Trump unveiled her child focused kindness campaign, "Be Best," over a year ago. Here is Bennett's assessment of the first lady's signature initiative: "To this day it has no publicly stated framework, timeline or markers for progress ... The likelihood that it will ever have the impact of Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign or Nancy Reagan's Just Say No is slim to none." According to a trusted source, Bennett writes, "Melania's medical issue was indeed not minor and that an embolization of a growth of some sort, small or large, when attached to the kidney, as hers might have been, made for a dangerous and complicated procedure." Bennett adds: "Couple that with the amount of pain she had apparently been in, according to close friends, and how long she had been in pain prior to the surgery, and there was concern that if her recuperation was not careful and extended, her type of condition could possibly result in the loss of her kidney." Mrs. Trump and Karen Pence are not close At one point Bennett was sitting in the back section of a C 32 military jet that Mrs. Trump and Karen Pence, Vice President Mike Pence's wife, were also taking. From that vantage, Bennett remembers "watching someone who looked a lot like Karen Pence, moving from the section ahead of ours, typically where aide and advance teams sit, and head toward the back lavatory." Mrs. Trump did not bring Mrs. Pence into her spacious cabin, nor did she remove her four inch heels when the two landed in Texas; as a result, the first lady towered "almost comically" over the second lady. (Mrs. Trump usually wears a low heel or flat when walking or being photographed with someone of modest stature.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
The musical's plot has Melissa Errico discovering through hypnosis that in a past life she was an aristocrat in love with Edward, a dashing painter played by John Cudia. Bizarre subjects are no deal breaker for musicals; think human meat pies and philosophical felines. But few shows have as bewildering a topic as "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever," the 1965 jaw dropper about ESP, telekinesis and past life regression that's a weird mix of laughably earnest woo woo and chipper Broadway savvy. For the savvy, we have the score to thank: a treasure trunk of standards with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Songs like "Hurry, It's Lovely Up Here," "What Did I Have That I Don't Have?" and "Come Back to Me" are so catchy and well constructed that, stripped of context, you'd have no idea they were originally attached to such strange ideas. (In the musical, "Hurry, It's Lovely Up Here" is sung to a flowerpot.) For the strange ideas, Lerner has to take the blame. It was he who, obsessed with the New Age fads flitting around the era, devised a story about a love triangle among a psychiatrist, his patient and her former incarnation that became, over the years, Broadway's pity project: the Golden Age book most in need of rescuing. My conclusion, based on the 1970 Barbra Streisand movie, the 2000 Encores concert starring Kristin Chenoweth, the complete rewriting of the show as a Harry Connick, Jr. vehicle in 2011 and the cute revisal that opened at the Irish Repertory Theater on Thursday, is: It can't be fixed. The pleasures of "On a Clear Day" are so intertwined with its absurdities that no theatrical version can separate them. You have to enjoy it for what it is, or not. The Irish Rep production, led by Melissa Errico in the dual role of wacky Daisy Gamble and grand Melinda Wells, gives it a good go, on a very small scale. (The cast has been reduced to 11 from 47 and the orchestra to five from 31.) Songs, subplots and characters have been dumped, including Daisy's boyfriend, Warren presumably to enhance Daisy's agency in the story. She goes to see the hypnotherapist Mark Bruckner (Stephen Bogardus) not because her smoking threatens Warren's advancement at work (as in the original) but because it threatens her own. Which might make more sense if we ever learned what Daisy does. But Dr. Bruckner isn't really interested in her smoking anyway; he's interested in her ESP and telekinetic powers. She anticipates phone calls, intuits the location of missing objects and makes flowers burst from their pots "as if the cops were after them." Sign up for Theater Update, a weekly email of news and features. It is while fishing around in her subconscious that Dr. Bruckner discovers her previous incarnation as Melinda, the highborn daughter of an antislavery crusader in Georgian England. Compared to Daisy, Melinda is confident, unconventional and uninhibited; naturally, Dr. Bruckner falls in love with her. Alas, Daisy's the one who falls in love with him. The rules of hypnotically induced past life regression are murky. Apparently, other characters from Daisy's past like Melinda's lover, Edward (John Cudia) can hitch rides into the present, so they get to sing flowery arias like "She Wasn't You." And the therapist himself can hitch rides back, which gets confusing fast. When Dr. Bruckner tries to save Melinda from drowning on a ship bound for America around 1800, the story enters a causal loop paradox that makes some people snigger and others throw up their hands. I did both. Improbability need not be an impediment in a musical. Real cats, you may point out, don't get reborn either. But, at least when imagined by T.S. Eliot, they do have metaphorical import for humans. It could be argued that Daisy and Melinda and Dr. Bruckner do, too, suggesting the unsuspected lives we all carry around within us. Who might we have been under different circumstances? Who might we yet be? Well, no. "On a Clear Day" doesn't want your helpful interpretation. It's truly about what it says it's about. Nor does the Irish Rep's version, staged and adapted by Charlotte Moore, make a bid for a charitable deep read. It has about as much layering as a school pageant about American presidents. If everything is flat out, that doesn't mean it's unpleasurable. Any chance to hear Ms. Errico sing is a chance worth taking. She was a big part of the reason the Irish Rep production of "Finian's Rainbow," another Golden Age oddity, albeit one with an obvious Irish connection, was so delightful. She doesn't disappoint here, either, especially in the big numbers. And if no one is likely to approach the melancholy comic genius of Barbara Harris, the original star, Ms. Errico gets more out of Daisy than the passivity of the role might suggest. The rest of the cast also sings powerfully, suggesting something bigger than is actually there, and James Morgan's watercolor projections likewise help compensate for the bare bones set. A full scale production would be impossible today and unwarranted. A revue featuring just the songs, lovely though they are, wouldn't hang together: They are too strangely disparate. If a scrappy Off Broadway miniature isn't a totally satisfying solution either, it may be the only future possible for this much reincarnated but still beguiling show. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
This article contains spoilers for Season 8, Episode 5 of "Game of Thrones." Varys justified his betrayal in Sunday's episode of "Game of Thrones" with a vintage Westerosian observation: Every time a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin and the world holds its breath. Sound familiar? It should; Cersei entertained a similar thought on the eve of the last siege of King's Landing. "Half the Targaryens went mad, didn't they?" she asked Tyrion. "What's the saying? Every time a Targaryen is born, the gods flip a coin." But was the Targaryen dynasty really so riddled with "madness?" Or is the stigma overstated? And is Dany being judged in part because of gender based stereotypes about "crazy" women? True, some members of that royal line, which is full of incest, were afflicted with mental illness. But most expressions of Targaryen madness have other explanations. Even if the gods do flip a coin, the results aren't so clear as heads or tails. Sometimes, the coin lands on an edge. Read our ultimate guide to "Game of Thrones." Sign up for our Watching newsletter for film and TV recommendations. Let's start with dragon dreams, a peculiar form of prescience that some Targaryens possess. When Dany had one such dream, she knew she could walk into the funeral pyre with her dragon eggs and that they would hatch, as she revealed later in Qarth. "When I stepped into the fire, my own people thought I was mad," she told the Spice King. "But when the fire burned out, I was unhurt, the mother of dragons. Do you understand? I'm no ordinary woman. My dreams come true." Having such dreams might drive anyone mad. Testing their truth can require major risks. Centuries before the War of the Five Kings, Daenys Targaryen had dragon dreams about the Doom of Valyria 12 years before it happened, prompting the family's migration to Westeros. That move might have seemed irrational at the time, but it turned out to be a wise decision. A volcano eruption is said to have wiped out the city of Old Valyria, and the Targaryens were the only dragonlords to survive. But the family's track record when it comes to dragon dreams is pretty hit or miss. Prince Aerion Targaryen drank a cup of wildfire, believing it would transform him into a dragon; it didn't, and he died. King Aegon Targaryen V tried to hatch some dragon eggs and burned down the great castle of Summerhall instead. Their dreams looked a little less like prophecy and a little more like madness. And yet, Aerion and Aegon's brother Prince Daeron Targaryen did have dreams that came true, even if he didn't always understand them when he had them. Meanwhile, the other royal brother, Maester Aemon, who refused the throne, didn't have such dreams until he was on his deathbed. The actions of King Maegor Targaryen, known as Maegor the Cruel, were sometimes attributed to madness, but his cruel nature might have been rooted in a traumatic brain injury, not heredity. (During a trial by combat, he took a blow to the head, collapsed and fell into a deep coma for about a month.) Likewise, King Baelor Targaryen, known as Baelor the Blessed, fasted himself to death after he also suffered a great injury. In his case, he sustained multiple snake bites in a Dornish serpent pit until he lost consciousness. Some considered Baelor a holy man, but others thought him erratic and wondered whether it was the snakes' venom, not his genes, that had damaged his brain. Was Prince Rhaegel Targaryen insane because he liked to dance naked around the Red Keep, or was he simply a natural nudist? We have only secondhand recollections, so it's impossible to know whether this man was sweet tempered and gentle, as some said, or basically feebleminded. Queen Helaena Targaryen certainly suffered from depression. It drove her to suicide. But she also had been forced to make an awful Sophie's Choice between which one of her two sons had to die. All three of her children had been threatened with death if she refused to make a choice, and so she reluctantly named her youngest son only to have the assassins kill her eldest instead. Racked with guilt, she refused to eat, bathe or even look at her youngest son. That hardly seems genetic. King Aerys II, the Mad King, was definitely mentally unstable. But then consider the trauma he suffered as a prisoner for six months during the Defiance of Duskendale. (And it's possible that Varys helped feed the Mad King's paranoia with whispers of traitors and treason.) Dany's brother Viserys was probably the closest to their father in temperament, given to delusions of grandeur, irrational furies and an obsession with regaining that which he perceived to be his birthright. Even Rhaegar, Dany's other brother, was something of a wild card, reckless and obsessive. Compared to these other Targaryens, Dany always seemed the most reasonable. If Targaryen incest made an inheritance of mental illness more likely, it seemed to have skipped her. Has her mental health actually changed? Dany is in a dark frame of mind right now, having lost two of her dragon "children," and Jorah, and Missandei. She's in mourning. She has faced a series of setbacks and betrayals. Her ruthless decision to take revenge on a surrendered enemy and the innocent population of King's Landing may not be defensible, but it's not insane. It's a war crime. How different is it from the terrible things we've seen done by many men in this narrative (on a smaller scale, because they didn't have dragons)? How many of them were called crazy? | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
The group was created in 2004 by Mr. Miranda, Mr. Veneziale and Thomas Kail when they were working on the development of Mr. Miranda's first Broadway musical, "In the Heights," which Mr. Kail directed. Mr. Miranda went on to create and star in "Hamilton," also directed by Mr. Kail; Mr. Veneziale has become an improv educator. Freestyle Love Supreme has performed periodically around the world, and had a short lived television show. It had an Off Broadway run earlier this year at the Greenwich House Theater, which is run by Ars Nova, the nonprofit that also housed the first public performances of Freestyle Love Supreme years ago. "We're going to try to take all the feeling we captured downtown and put it in the middle of Times Square," Mr. Kail said in an interview. "It's a secret more people should know about." The Broadway run of "Freestyle Love Supreme" is being produced by Mr. Kail, Mr. Miranda, Jenny and Jon Steingart (founders of Ars Nova), and Jill Furman (a producer of "Hamilton"). It is scheduled to begin performances on Sept. 13 and to open Oct. 2. The " Freestyle" run will be one of two on Broadway this season the other is a one week run by Dave Chappelle this summer that will require patrons to secure their smartphones in a locked pouch throughout the performance. The pouches, made by Yondr, are used in other venues, and these shows will be early experiments for Broadway, which has been grappling with how to manage the disruption and distraction caused by cellphones. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
The most powerful executives in the banking industry didn't go to the government. The government came to them. Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve; Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary; and regulators like Mary L. Schapiro of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Gary Gensler of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission made their way last month to a room called the Nest at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington. There, the members of a group called the Financial Services Forum awaited them. The event with the forum, which is composed of chief executives, underscored how influential banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies remain in Washington, despite all the critical campaign rhetoric from the White House, Capitol Hill and other quarters. And Tuesday's midterm elections are likely to leave them in an even stronger position, blunting the most serious overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression. The widely expected prospect of a Republican takeover of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate would be warmly welcomed by the banks, who want a break from the regulatory push of the last two years. Divided government makes it harder to pass new legislation and brings with it other benefits for the banks, like reducing the chances of an increase in corporate taxes. "At this juncture, gridlock is good," said Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association. "It's time we take a breather from all the excess of regulation and Congressional legislation. Our members and customers are ready for common sense to reappear." A Republican victory would also shift control of the oversight and appropriations process in Congress, and lobbyists are hoping that means less money for agencies like the S.E.C. and the C.F.T.C. to hire staff and aggressively enforce the Dodd Frank financial regulatory reform bill passed this summer. While that bill is already law and a rollback would be tough, other attempts at an end run around it are likely, especially if the Senate also switches hands. In that case, Republicans could block appointees the industry considered hostile at the Treasury, as well as at the S.E.C. and C.F.T.C. Nominees for two of the five commissioner's seats at the S.E.C. will require approval by the Senate during the next session, while the term of one commissioner at the five member C.F.T.C. expires. In addition, analysts and lobbyists say a Republican controlled Congress may be less likely to investigate industry practices or hold oversight hearings that may embarrass the industry. While that won't affect hearings like ones set for later this month in the Senate that will examine the foreclosure mess, it makes them much less likely in the next Congress. "It changes the tone in Washington," one industry lobbyist said. "If a regulator knows they're going to get yelled at on Capitol Hill, that influences their decisions." Federal policy is likely to loom larger as the foreclosure crisis goes on the majority of those foreclosed homes are owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government sponsored enterprises that dominate the mortgage market and are now controlled by the Treasury. What is more, some Democrats who have called for a moratorium on foreclosures, like Senator Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who is the Senate majority leader, are facing tough re election fights and their exit could be a boon for the banking industry. Indeed, campaign donations from the financial industry in recent months have heavily favored the Republicans. In September, 71 percent of campaign donations went to Republicans, compared with 44 percent a year ago, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group. "It's a dramatic shift and there's little irony that it coincided with Democratic led financial reform," said Dave Levinthal, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics. "The industry wasn't at all thrilled with this legislation and since Democrats were driving it, they had an incentive to put their money with the party that might give them a more favorable shake in coming years." A shift in party control could also alter the rhetoric coming out of the capital. On Wall Street, there is a feeling among many executives that the White House has demonized the big banks and that complaint surfaced repeatedly at the Financial Services Forum event, as well as at one on one meetings in the last two months, according to several participants. Jamie Dimon, the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase and Lloyd C. Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs, spoke the most, said one participant, although other top chief executives were present, including Brian T. Moynihan of Bank of America, Oswald J. Grubel of the Swiss bank UBS and Abigail Johnson of the mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments. There are lighter moments during the meetings, as well. At a Washington get together earlier this year, Mr. Dimon teased Mr. Blankfein, repeating the latter's famous remark that he "was doing God's work." A jovial Mr. Blankfein responded, "I'll be the judge of that." Mr. Dimon and Mr. Blankfein aren't the only executives to occasionally lighten the mood. Before Mr. Geithner addressed the Financial Services Forum last month, the chief executive of the American International Group, Robert H. Benmosche, joked that he had nothing to say. "I'm just going to sit back and listen to my largest shareholder," he said, a reference to the 79.9 percent stake the government holds in A.I.G. after its bailout by Washington. . While top government officials may occasionally come to them for group sessions like the Financial Services Forum, executives have also spent plenty of time recently calling on them individually at their offices. Unlike some other bank chiefs who left after the Financial Services Forum meeting wrapped up, Mr. Dimon stayed in Washington, meeting privately Oct. 8 with Elizabeth Warren, who was appointed in September to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They discussed eliminating the fine print from credit card offers and streamlining mortgage disclosures so consumers would have a better idea of the exact terms of their loans. A month earlier on Sept. 15, Mr. Dimon met privately with Mr. Bernanke at the Federal Reserve, as did Mr. Moynihan, who sat down on Sept. 3 for a 30 minute meeting to discuss the economy. More recently, on Oct. 13 and Oct. 14, the president of Goldman Sachs, Gary Cohn, met with officials at the C.F.T.C. to go over the rulemaking process, touching on subjects like reporting requirements for trades as well as limits on trading. "The intersection of Washington and the financial services sector has never been as important as it is now," said Rob Nichols, president of the Financial Services Forum. "It's critical to have a seat at the table and participate in a dialogue." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
David and Sindhu Nordquist deliberated for years about where to buy a second home, and then last summer, while renting a house in the Hamptons for the first time, they decided to find a place on the East End of Long Island to call their own. "We just loved it, and all our friends and family loved it," said Mr. Nordquist, 51, a retired financier from Manhattan. "It had to be here, and it had to be now." With Timothy O'Connor, an agent at Halstead, the Nordquists looked at more than 60 listings, searching for "a beach house in the woods," Mr. Nordquist said. "We wanted privacy and didn't want neighbors around us." "We negotiated pretty hard on the price," Mr. Nordquist said. "I bargained a lot. I felt the market was softening." As Aspasia G. Comnas, the executive managing director of Brown Harris Stevens, observed, "Sellers in the Hamptons are used to the market always going up every year, and if they priced aggressively it didn't matter." But in today's market, homes that are not priced competitively "are going to have to go through a series of price reductions" before they sell, she said at all levels of the market, not just at the high end. Buyers seem to be staying on the sidelines. The number of single family homes on the market during the first three months of 2019 was nearly double that of a year earlier: 2,327, up from 1,201. And sales of single family homes have dropped, to 287 from 350 in 2018. One thing making buyers hesitate, said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel and the author of the Douglas Elliman report, is the new federal tax code approved by Congress in late 2017, which makes it more expensive to own luxury property because homeowners can deduct only up to 10,000 in state and local taxes from their federal income taxes. "The Hamptons are trending much like the New York City metro area," Mr. Miller said, noting that the situation is similar in other parts of the Northeast and in California, where real estate is pricey and property taxes are high. "The slowdown in sales represents the disconnect between sellers, who are anchored to better times, and buyers, who have a lot of changes to process," Mr. Miller said. Any sense of urgency was further quelled by the "intense volatility of the financial markets at the end of last year, along with the close linkage of Wall Street to the Hamptons," he added. A 17 percent dip in bonuses in the finance industry in 2018 likely also discouraged Wall Street workers from buying second homes in the Hamptons. The average bonus for financial market employees in 2017 was 184,400; in 2018, it dropped to 153,700, according to a report from the New York State Comptroller. Those who did buy, though, found bargains. Figuring it didn't hurt to look, Maria and Stephen Zak, of Saddle River, N.J., toured a 2007 harbor front house with four bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, a heated pool and a hot tub, on an acre in East Hampton, listed for 3.2 million. "We loved it, but it was way out of our budget," said Mr. Zak, 53, the chief financial officer of a boutique investment bank. They had been looking for a second home for about a year. The price of the 3,400 square foot house had already been reduced from the original 2017 asking price of 3.995 million. So "we threw out an offer we were comfortable with," Mr. Zak said. And in November, the Zaks closed on the house, for 2.735 million. "It's like the dog that chases the car and actually catches it," Mr. Zak said. "It's still not cheap, but it was fair and it was in move in condition." They have since installed a new kitchen, painted and brought in new rugs. In the shifting luxury real estate market, the highest priced homes are taking longer to sell, said Laura Brady, the president and founder of Concierge Auctions, in Manhattan. The company's Luxury Homes Index report, released earlier this month, noted that the 10 most expensive homes sold in the Hamptons last year had an average sale price of 24,079,286, and spent an average of 706.7 days on the market. Luxury homes that lingered on the market tended to go for less, selling at discounts of nearly 40 percent after six months, Ms. Brady said. In Montauk, the 20 acre oceanfront estate that belongs to Dick Cavett, the former talk show host, has been on the market for two years. The 7,000 square foot, six bedroom, four bathroom house, which was listed for 62 million in June 2017, was designed by McKim, Mead White in the 1880s and rebuilt in 1997 after a fire, using "forensic architecture techniques" to replicate the original house with a wraparound porch and a bell tower, said Gary DePersia, an associate broker with Corcoran. The price dropped to 48.5 million last August, then Mr. DePersia re listed it in February, for 33.95 million. "They are motivated sellers," Mr. DePersia said. "Where are you going to get 20 acres with 900 feet of oceanfront and utter privacy with a historic house for that kind of money in the Hamptons? You are not." According to a first quarter report from Bespoke Real Estate, which deals exclusively with 10 million plus properties, 122 homes priced over 10 million were on the market at the end of March, with 13 between 30 and 40 million. Most 10 million plus buyers already have a home in the Hamptons, said Zachary Vichinsky, a principal at Bespoke Real Estate, and have spent "in some cases the better part of two years exploring the market and defining what works best for them," whether that means upgrading or building a new home closer to the water. "There is a lack of urgency on their part, in a lot of cases, but the special inventory continues to move pretty quickly," Mr. Vichinsky said. In 2018, a total of 41 homes sold for 10 million or more in areas that brokers refer to as the "alpha market," which includes East Hampton, Southampton, Water Mill, Bridgehampton, Sagaponack and Wainscott. But there was one bright spot in the market overall: homes listed for 500,000 to 1 million. That sector of the market accounted for 34 percent of sales in the first quarter, according to a report from Brown Harris Stevens. Mr. Baltimore scraped paint off beams and gave his new Hamptons home "a nip and a tuck, to get it summer ready," he said, adding that eventually he plans to renovate more extensively. "Finding potential wasn't easy," Mr. Baltimore said. "You have to look at a lot of what's out there to see where the value is. You have to kiss a lot of frogs." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
After more than 12 years, six albums and 10 Grammy Awards as the star of the Nashville based Big Machine Records, Taylor Swift has a new label. The singer who became a free agent this month, a year after the release of her latest album, "Reputation" announced Monday on Instagram that she had signed a multiyear, multi album agreement with Universal Music Group and its subsidiary, Republic Records. As part of the deal, Swift, 28, will own her master recordings moving forward, she said. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. In photos of a typed note posted to her personal account a rare, public facing moment of music business messaging from a star of her stature Swift added that she had negotiated with digital streaming in mind. The singer said she and Universal agreed that if the company sells any of its equity in Spotify, which went public earlier this year, the money would be distributed to artists. "It's really important to me to see eye to eye with a label regarding the future of our industry," Swift said in her statement. "I feel so motivated by new opportunities created by the streaming world and the ever changing landscape of our industry. I also feel strongly that streaming was founded on and continues to thrive based on the magic created by artists, writers and producers." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
"This announcement reaffirms our concern from the outset that Tribune's board never intended to engage with us, necessitating that we make our proposal public," John Jeffry Louis, chairman of the Gannett board, said in a statement. "It is unfortunate that Tribune's board would deny their shareholders this compelling, immediate and certain cash value by rejecting our offer without making a counterproposal or otherwise negotiating or providing any constructive feedback." Gannett, which owns USA Today, went public on Monday with its intent to solicit so called withhold votes ahead of Tribune's annual shareholder meeting. This tactic, infrequently used in the world of deal making, encourages shareholders of the target company to essentially boycott their votes for director nominees. Gannett said it had filed preliminary proxy materials, urging investors to withhold their votes in the election of eight directors. The move is primarily symbolic, in that it will probably not block the nominees from being elected. "We intend to give Tribune shareholders the opportunity to send a clear message to the Tribune board that its lack of engagement with our board and management team regarding our highly compelling premium offer for 12.25 per share in cash is unacceptable," Gannett's chief executive, Robert Dickey, said in the statement on Monday. Gannett missed the nomination window to submit its own slate of directors, a move that might have put even more pressure on Tribune's board. On April 12, Gannett sent a letter to Tribune Publishing's management team with an offer of 12.25 a share. After waiting two weeks for an answer, Gannett tried to bring Tribune Publishing to the table by disclosing the bid and corresponding letter. If the acquisition were to go through, it would expand Gannett's portfolio to nearly 120 newspapers and give it more of a presence in major markets, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Baltimore. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
That was the case for a rare two toned lobster that was plucked recently from the icy waters off Stonington, Me., and which scientists say is a one in 50 million find. The lobster, split from head to tail into halves of black and orange, was found in Penobscot Bay by Capt. Daryl Dunham when he was fishing in the coastal waters there, according to Patrick Shepard , a fishing scientist at the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries. The fisherman donated the male crustacean to the center, where it will live in rarefied company for a few weeks. The center already has three other unusual lobsters in its tanks, including a blue lobster, a one in two million find, and two calico lobsters, whose shells resemble a constellation of orange and black and which people who fish have a one in 30 million chance of catching. The bifurcated shell is a result of a genetic anomaly, Mr. Shepard said. Aside from the four lobsters on display, he said, scientists there have seen other rare lobsters that are albino and yellow with black spots. Fishermen frequently bring them to the center, which has a teaching lab and where people can learn about lobsters and Maine's fishing industry. About 7,000 people visited last year, he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
One of the most persistent myths about Bach is that his work is marked by a fundamental conflict between the sacred and the secular. According to this view, Bach's ideal appointment was his stint from 1717 to '23 as Kapellmeister (director of music) for Prince Leopold of Anhalt Kothen. Leopold's court observed the Calvinist faith, a liturgically austere branch of Protestantism that prohibited elaborate music in its church services. So here unlike in his previous positions at the Lutheran court of Weimar and at Lutheran parishes in Arnstadt and Muhlhausen Bach was freed from having to continually oblige the church. He could focus instead on "pure" instrumental music, like the "Brandenburg" Concertos, today's holiday season standbys. See what our critics chose as the best classical events of 2018. And listen to our favorite recordings of the year. Secular and liturgical works were both religious: A central purpose of all serious minded music, wherever performed, was to honor God. Consider Bach's manuscripts for the Six Harpsichord Concertos (BWV 1052 57) and the church cantata "Now come, savior of the gentiles" (BWV 62), both of which open with his inscription "Jesus, help me" right before the first bar of music and close with "To God alone the glory" after the last bar. Those today who view religion negatively sometimes go even further and view Bach's church cantatas as essentially instrumental concertos, with the religious texts more or less extraneous. But historically informed interpretation suggests the opposite: Bach's instrumental concertos, including the "Brandenburgs," are essentially church cantatas with implicit (and therefore harder to read) "texts" that do have real meaning. Scholarly consensus now holds that Bach composed some of the "Brandenburg" Concertos during his Kothen tenure and others in his final years at Weimar. But although his aristocratic employers, had they known about it, might have disapproved of his formally dedicating any of "their" music to someone else, it hardly seems likely that in 1721 Bach could have drawn upon an untapped hoard of concertos. So by all indications, the "Brandenburgs" would have been included in the weekly programs of the Kothen palace concerts, and these pieces do indeed line up well with Leopold's documented interests. Remarkably, the prince's investiture festivities, in 1716, had included not only a superabundance of concert offerings, but also a scholarly oration exploring how musical order and societal order are analogous. As it happens, each of the six "Brandenburgs" delves into issues of hierarchy and order. The Sixth is musically and socially the most unconventional of the set. Two violas, with cello, are pitted against two viols, with violone. At the time, violas were customarily low rent, undemanding orchestral instruments, while viols were high end, virtuoso solo instruments. Bach reversed these roles, such that the violas perform virtuosic solo lines while the viols amble along in repeated eighth notes. Pursuing these two radical instrumental treatments within the same work was unprecedented (and wouldn't be imitated). It's an excellent musical illustration of the time honored theme of the "world upside down." Visual examples include mice chasing cats; servants riding on horseback while noblemen have to go behind on foot; and peasants serving communion in the cathedral while priests sweep the adjacent streets. These kinds of inversions play a significant part in Christian scripture, which frequently proclaims that with God the first shall be last while the last shall be first; the lowly shall be exalted while the exalted shall be brought low. The function of the world upside down imagery in Bach's Lutheranism, as in scripture, was not to foment earthly upheaval, but to inspire heavenly comfort: The hierarchies of this sinful world are a necessary injustice for the sake of order, but, in light of the equality that awaits the blessed in paradise, they are ephemeral. A marvelous example of inverted imagery in Bach's church cantatas is the fourth movement of "Whoever lets only the dear God rule" (BWV 93), where a soprano alto duet gives voice to a hymn text by means of instrument like countermelodies, while the violins and viola nonverbally intone the actual hymn tune. Voices and instruments, upside down. The audiences at Leopold's palace, however, would have heard this as an egregious breach of musical and social decorum. The violin's rowdy flare up occurs not within an episodic solo section, as it ought properly to have done, but interloping into the start of the group refrain, an elegant French court dance led by the pair of recorders. A parallel example of a soloist's hollow virtuosity fluttering atop an elegant dance like group refrain is the alto aria from Bach's church cantata "Whoever may love me will keep my word" (BWV 74). Here the violin's jangling figurations serve to bolster the text's notion that Jesus's blood renders the enraged rattling of hell's chains as comically useless: | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Trautwein's newspaper is howling into the void, compared with the megaphone of Nazi propaganda, yet the uncomfortable facts he sends to his emigre readers still annoy party officials in Berlin. While the threat of violence often hovers over the characters, Feuchtwanger shows us that it is the destabilizing, disruptive experience of exile that is the greatest harm to befall them. The misery of being uprooted and purposeless, with nowhere to go, leads several of the characters Trautmann's wife, Anna (Maja Beckmann, noble in the face of panic), and the young revolutionary poet Harry Meisel (the chameleon like Julia Riedler, who also plays two other roles) to suicide. Without reducing either of these multifaceted productions to a clear cut moral this is theater, not advocacy taken in tandem they offer an compelling defense of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which in the aftermath of World War II outlined the rights of displaced people along with the legal obligation to protect them. At a political moment when such rights and obligations are being questioned, the Kammerspiele reaffirms them through powerfully engaging works of art. This is important, urgent work that demands to be seen; yet much of the Munich theatergoing public seems to have turned its back on the Kammerspiele and its artistic director. Since arriving in Munich in 2015, Mr. Lilienthal, a Berlin native who spent much of the 1990s at the Volksbuhne theater there, has shifted the focus away from classical theater and toward harder to classify performance based works, often mounted by outside groups and artists. It's a strategy not too dissimilar from the one pursued by Chris Dercon during his brief, controversial tenure at the Volksbuhne. (Mr. Lilienthal didn't make many friends in Berlin by supporting Mr. Dercon's appointment, at least initially). The Christian Social Union, the conservative party that has recently strong armed Ms. Merkel into setting up "transit centers" for refugees at the German border, has made no secret of its dislike of Mr. Lilienthal. In March, after the party's politicians vowed not to vote to renew his contract, Mr. Lilienthal announced he would leave Munich at the end of his current term, in the summer of 2020. Shortly before this news broke, the theater mounted "1968," billed as an "occupation of the Kammerspiele." It examined the legacy of that pivotal year and seemed designed to offend bourgeois, conservative sensibilities. Before Mr. Lilienthal's spat with the Christian Social Union, the theater's audience attendance had been hovering around 60 percent. At most of the performances I've visited since then, that figure has seemed considerably less, with the notable exception of "No Sex," Toshiki Okada's droll, karaoke filled exploration of sexual abstinence and emotional repression featuring the German film star Franz Rogowski. By insisting the Kammerspiele respond to contemporary issues, Mr. Lilienthal has been successful in attracting a younger audience, but the approach has appeared to alienate the theater's traditional base, who seem to want something less polemical or at least more safe from the stage. Perhaps the extremely personal perspective on Syrian asylum seekers offered by "What They What to Hear" is not a point of view that people here in Munich want to hear. Programming that work in the same season as "Wartesaal," which so affectively plumbs the psychology of exile, sends the message that the only way forward in dealing with the largest refugee crisis since the end of World War II is to learn from the past. Feuchtwanger's emigres in Paris, Mr. Al Kour and the members of the Open Border Ensemble share fundamental experiences of dislocation, insecurity and powerlessness. Implicit in both productions is an injunction that we listen to their stories. Even though his days in Munich are numbered, Mr. Lilienthal looks sure to use his remaining two seasons here to challenge, provoke and disrupt. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Louise Lawler is one of the great light heavyweights of the 1980s Pictures Generation, an artist of stealth, wit and elegant understatement, adept at playing the art world against itself. Her uncanny photographs of artworks in their natural habitats, and her carefully worded aphorisms can bruise, but ever so gently. Her love of ephemerality her works have appeared on cocktail napkins flies in the face of traditional museums' commitment to preserving treasured objects. Even so, there is plenty to look at in "Louise Lawler: Why Pictures Now," the artist's gorgeous, startlingly spare retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. For years Ms. Lawler has been one of art's better kept secrets, admired both by theory buffs and by those unthreatened by aesthetic pleasure. Her low profile is no accident. She seems to have nurtured an innate shyness into an effective Dickinsonian persona. It deliberately mutes her presence as an individual artist, as do her frequent collaborations with, among others, artists like Sherrie Levine, Allan McCollum and Lawrence Weiner. As reflected in this show, Ms. Lawler has made few art objects usually quite small and in concert with Mr. McCollum. Moreover, none of her artworks are unique; everything is editioned, whether limited or not. She underscores this by listing all the owners of her photographs, produced in editions of around five, on their labels. Ms. Lawler and Roxana Marcoci, the exhibition's curator, have devised something quite different: an open, airy survey with lots of room for roaming, some chairs for sitting and two conjoined, markedly different halves focusing on Ms. Lawler's activities with pictures and then words. The first half is dominated by photographs in various shapes and guises, including mural size images. The second, which seems almost empty at first, contains two large vitrines of ephemera that show off Ms. Lawler's gifts for graphic design and for language, with displays of everything from matchbook covers and napkins to exhibition announcements and art books that she photo edited. Born in Bronxville, N.Y., in 1947, Ms. Lawler earned a B.F.A. from Cornell University in 1969, then moved immediately to New York. She emerged with other Pictures artists among them Richard Prince, Ms. Levine and Barbara Kruger in the early 1980s, building on Conceptual Art's breakthroughs. Some of her confreres were intent on exposing the complex roles of photography in everyday life, especially in advertising and movies. Ms. Lawler and others fixated instead on dissecting and exposing, often through photography, the power dynamics of art world institutions, business practices and devotional tendencies. Targets included museum display, the fetishizing of art objects and the myth and marketing of artists as (mostly male) geniuses. Since the mid 1980s, Ms. Lawler has taken the art world as she has found it, although in some fairly rarefied circumstances, making it the unwitting collaborator and image bank for her quietly subversive appropriation. Perhaps most passively, Ms. Lawler has hijacked other cultural events as her work, as when she invited guests to a performance of "Swan Lake" by New York City Ballet, while noting that tickets must be purchased at the box office. She also announced a one night exhibition at Metro Pictures, her gallery, on Feb. 15, 2003, a day of widespread protests against the Iraq War with a card that stated "No Drinks for Those Who Do Not Support the Anti War Demonstration." Ms. Lawler is best known for sly, arresting color photographs that capture valuable, mostly blue chip artworks, in museum storage rooms or exhibitions, though more often somewhere in between. They're also seen in collectors' color coordinated homes and at auction houses, where they must again prove their worth. These photographs are tender; they catch the art at odd, vulnerable moments moments of unflattering intimacy. Works are seen up close, from sharp angles and rarely whole. They lean against walls, are held by art handlers, sit disassembled on storage crates. One small photograph gives us part of a white "Net" painting by Yayoi Kusama clearly at an auction; it's impinged on by the unmistakable shadow of an early Alexander Calder stabile. Ms. Lawler's images have multiple lives, exposing the ceaseless flexibility of photographs. Constantly recycled, they go from framed and portable to paperweights to the wall covering murals of her "adjusted to fit" series. In the show's first half, four "adjusted" photos cover immense, staggered walls, looming like ocean liners sliding out of their docks. Their monumentality thrills but also chides the art world for its embrace of spectacle and the overblown. In one, "Triangle (adjusted to fit)," we get a worm's eye view of a museum's gleaming Minimalist works; in another woozy wall size scene, a big Murakami inflatable seems about to bite into some Warhols. It is titled "Pollyanna (adjusted to fit, distorted for the times)," which, like its fun house distortions, seems right for an era of "fake news." Ms. Lawler's images also circulate among posters, exhibition announcements and postcards. (It's not surprising that she was involved with all aspects of this show the aforementioned, along with catalog design and marketing.) An especially extreme transformation occurs in her new "traced" series, which converts the photographs to large, black vinyl outlines that adhere to white walls. Eight of these ghostly drawinglike works come into focus on the walls of the ephemera gallery. Drained of color, these iterations give each part of the image equal weight, which confuses, for example, the artworks and their reflections in "Triangle (adjusted to fit)," making them strange and new. Swimming among the show's images are words and wordplay that can have a few layers. One of Ms. Lawler's better known photographs shows Jasper Johns's creamy "White Flag" (1955) hanging above a bed with an equally creamy monogrammed satin spread. The image is sensibly titled "Monogram," all the more fittingly since "Monogram" is also the title of one of Robert Rauschenberg's combines from the 1950s, when he and Mr. Johns were lovers. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Martha Graham in her 1937 solo "Immediate Tragedy." "I was dedicating myself anew to space, that in spite of violation I was upright and that I was going to stay upright at all costs." The choreographer Martha Graham "had been in a valley of despair." It was 1937 when Graham, worried about the Spanish Civil War and the rise of fascism in Europe, confessed her state of mind in a letter to the composer Henry Cowell. "Whether the desperation lies in Spain," she wrote, "or in a memory in our own hearts, it is the same." The result was her solo "Immediate Tragedy," a companion piece to another dance inspired by the war, "Deep Song." Both featured music by Cowell; both were explorations of harrowing events. In "Immediate Tragedy," Graham told him, "I was dedicating myself anew to space, that in spite of violation I was upright and that I was going to stay upright at all costs." "Immediate Tragedy" is a lost work, yet its of the moment title, along with Graham's determination to remain upright no matter what, feels right for the current moment. Now the solo is coming back reimagined for the digital world and for multiple dancers. But with the dancers in quarantine, Janet Eilber, the company's artistic director, had an idea to keep them working while sheltering at home. "Why don't we use all the ephemera that we collected for 'Immediate Tragedy' for a completely different project?" she said. "Let's see what we can build out of it for the digital world referencing today's immediate tragedy." On Friday, the Graham company, in collaboration with Wild Up and the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, will present the premiere of the new "Immediate Tragedy." (The video will be available starting at 7 p.m. Eastern on the Facebook pages of the Soraya and the Graham company; the Graham company's YouTube Channel will feature it on its Saturday Martha Matinee presentation. "Immediate Tragedy" will remain up indefinitely on Graham's YouTube site.) But after the protests ignited by the killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, the theme or the feeling of the dance expanded. "The great thing about Martha's abstraction is it can contain so many different issues and tragedies," Ms. Eilber said. "Her best works absorb the context of just about any era." For the dancer Leslie Andrea Williams, the events of the last few weeks changed the tone of her performance. At first, she said, she was full of angst brought on by feeling isolated and "wanting to escape this reality." But when she reshot her section she had to fix the lighting she felt "acute grief," she said. "It's that idea of blood memory: You feel this weight and you also feel confused." The dancers were tasked with creating phrases of choreography; each was given four photographs from which to draw inspiration. "One of the directions the dancers got was to try to get inside Martha's head, and part of their direction was really to stay in the Graham world," Ms. Eilber said. "They could be creative about it, but to stay in Martha's brain. Graham is in their bodies." Those images, captured at a 1937 concert "Robert was in the front row, snapping away," Ms. Eilber said were part of the reason she thought the solo could be reimagined: His contact sheets show the order of Graham's poses. Judging by photographs, which feature Graham in a torso hugging white top and a long black skirt "I wore my hair in a new way, like a bull fighter's cue queue , tied with a narrow red ribbon," she wrote to Cowell the dance was passionate, daring and full of power. Limon wrote of Graham's "consummately sinuous torso, the supple, beautiful arms, the hands flashing like rays of lightning," and her head "thrust forward in defiance, or flung back, far back, as in a despairing cry." In the photos, Graham's positions show her holding her arms high overhead. There is a punch with an arabesque and poses on the knee, which resonate today. Ms. Eilber also provided dancers with photographs from the Spanish Civil War; several feature a fist salute with the thumb not in front, but to the side of closed fingers. "It's the fist that Martha's using in the punch arabesque, and it's the fist that protesters are using right now," Ms. Eilber said. As the videos dance along the screen there are at times multiple dancers, and in other moments only a soloist; it's hypnotic, as is the score. Mr. Rountree said he was inspired by Graham's oath to remain upright, and created space for contemplation as well as action. "In terms of the melodic content, I really wanted something to feel like this thing kept trying to get energy, and the energy keeps getting sucked out of it," he said. "And then there's this other music, which is kind of spacious and just chords." Along with the music and dance, there is a third creative element at play: the choreography of the film itself. For that, Ms. Eilber worked closely with Ricki Quinn of the Soraya who is in charge of digital design and editing the videos, which were shot indoors. "This dance is about space and the restraint is something you can use," Ms. Eilber said. "Part of this exercise is that we are restrained: That works for Covid, and now it works for the racial injustice theme as well." And the experiment also showed Ms. Eilber something about her dancers, like who has an affinity for choreography. Ms. Williams, for one. "I got to mix my movement style with Martha," Ms. Williams said. "I had to picture if I was Martha, what would I do? Which was pretty insane. But instead of trying to create Graham shapes, I tried to think of it in a very broad sense. The way she choreographed was pretty crazy. She would make sounds and she would sort of swing herself through the air." It helped guide her as she came up with movement. "It's a feeling that causes me to move as opposed to creating shapes," Ms. Williams said. "I started doing the move from the picture, and then I just kept going with it and saw where it took me. Sometimes I would get disoriented. I definitely flung myself through space. It was a lot of going wherever my body took me." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
The turquoise killifish lives in a fleeting world: the ponds that appear only during the rainy season in East Africa. As a new pond forms, turquoise killifish eggs buried in the mud spring from suspended animation. The eggs hatch, and in just 40 days the fish grow to full size, about 2.5 inches. They feed, mate and lay eggs. By the time the ponds dry up, the fish are all dead. Even when hobbyists pamper them in aquariums, turquoise killifish survive only a few months, making them among the shortest lived vertebrates on Earth. So the turquoise killifish may not seem the best animal to study to discover the secrets of a long life. But researchers are finding that this tiny fish ages much as we do, only at a much faster pace. "It's a compressed life span," said Itamar Harel, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University. Dr. Harel and his colleagues recently developed a set of tools to probe the biology of the turquoise killifish. Old people may seem a more logical focus for scientists looking to discover the mechanics of aging, but progress would be glacial. "Who has 70 years to study somebody else's aging process?" asked Sarah J. Mitchell, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute on Aging. Instead, scientists have sought the secrets of aging in a series of animal models. But none has perfectly mirrored what happens to humans. Dr. Mitchell studies mice, which live three to four years. From them, she has learned how genes become more or less active in old age, and she has been able to test drugs that make mice live longer. Last year, Dr. Mitchell and her colleagues showed that a compound called SRT1720 extends the life span of mice by 8.8 percent on average while improving their health. But even short lived mice can slow down aging research. So some researchers have turned to a tiny nematode worm called Caenorhabditis elegans, which reaches old age in just a few weeks. Scientists have discovered that some genes that influence its aging also function in humans. When Anne Brunet arrived at Stanford University in 2004 as an assistant professor of genetics, she started studying both mice and worms. But she felt something was missing. Although worms grow quickly, they couldn't answer some of her most pressing questions about aging. Since they have no skeleton, for example, there is no way to learn from them why bones get brittle. But then a graduate student told her about the turquoise killifish. After the species was discovered in 1968, scientists found many parallels between its aging and human aging. Old turquoise killifish lose muscle mass, as we do. The females stop producing fertile eggs. Their immune systems falter. They even get worse at learning new things later in life. In 2006, Dr. Brunet started assembling a team of postdoctoral researchers and graduate students to study turquoise killifish at a new level of detail. But a string of setbacks slowed them down for years. A parasitic infection wiped out all their fish, for example; after a thorough bleaching of the lab, they had to start from scratch. Once the scientists figured out how to keep the animals happy, Dr. Brunet's team got down to the scientific work. They sequenced the entire genome of the turquoise killifish, identifying a number of genes known to influence aging in other species, including mice and humans. Dr. Harel then built molecular tools the team could use to tinker with the fish's genes. Using a new technique called Crispr, he created molecular scissors that could snip out any piece of killifish DNA and replace it with a different one. To test his tools, Dr. Harel and his colleagues tinkered with a gene called TERT, which protects DNA from wear and tear. It encodes a protein that helps build caps at the ends of DNA molecules called telomeres. Telomeres, like the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces, keep DNA from fraying. As cells divide, their telomeres get shorter, and this change probably plays a role in aging. But how is still a mystery. Dr. Harel and his colleagues succeeded in altering the TERT gene so that the fish could no longer make the protein. The engineered fish developed from embryos normally, but as adults they suffered from a number of defects. The males became almost entirely infertile, for example, while the females made fewer eggs. Their gut linings atrophied, and they made fewer kinds of blood cells. These results intrigued the researchers. On one hand, the changes they observed in the fish were similar to some of those in humans as they age. Yet the fish didn't die any sooner than ones with working TERT genes. Dr. Brunet was thrilled to have gotten these kinds of results so quickly from the fish. "It's one of those moments you live for in science," she said. She and her colleagues published their findings this month in the journal Cell. Dr. Brunet plans to experiment with other turquoise killifish genes implicated in aging in other species, and then search for genes relevant to aging that may have been missed in longer lived animals. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
The Drawing Center has built its reputation on specializing in such material. Founded in 1977 by Martha Beck (1938 2014), a curator of drawings at the Museum of Modern Art, it is one of three small, non collecting nonprofits, called alternative spaces, that sprang up in the decade and it has managed to persist in downtown Manhattan despite rising rents. (The other two are White Columns and Artists Space, which have both found new, affordable quarters this year, as has a fourth space, the Swiss Institute, founded in SoHo in 1986.) The Drawing Center, which attracts 55,000 visitors annually, covered a broader span than the others. It has expanded the history of drawing with, for example, an exhibition of Victor Hugo's little known ink studies, while also emphasizing the medium's flexible role in contemporary art, with surveys of Terry Winters (through Aug. 12), Judith Bernstein and Rashid Johnson, among many. It showed the drawings of architects including Inigo Jones of 17th century England and the postwar American Lebbeus Woods; of American Plains Indians and tattoo artists; and of the Spanish master chef Ferran Adria. It exhibited tantric drawings, and Shaker gift drawings and the little scraps of paper on which Emily Dickinson scribbled drafts of poems. Ms. Hoptman said in a recent telephone interview that it had "the ingredients to take it to another level." She expressed an interest in broadening its audience and exploring lesser known corners of drawing, especially its "connectivity to vernacular culture." Ms. Hoptman began her career in the late 1980s as an assistant curator at the Bronx Museum, later doing graduate work at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. She worked in the Modern's department of drawings from 1996 to 2001, organizing the ambitious "Drawing Now: Eight Propositions," which featured eight artists who often worked representationally and in large scale. She was director of the 54th Carnegie International, in Pittsburgh in 2004, and between 2006 and 2010 was curator at the New Museum. After returning to the Modern in 2010 she oversaw large exhibitions devoted to Bruce Conner, Kai Althoff and Isa Genzken as well as the museum's first survey of contemporary painting in more than half a century, "The Forever Now." In the telephone interview, Ms. Hoptman said she welcomed the change "from giant to miniature," adding that New York's alternative spaces tend to have a "big impact and small footprints" that enable them to "act with greater freedom, closer to the ground." At the same time she heralded the Drawing Center's "museum like level of seriousness and scholarship" and also its uniqueness as the only institution in the United States devoted exclusively to drawing. She spoke of drawing as the most accessible medium, one that "breaks through all cultural borders." She added, "It is the medium of everyone and everything as far as I'm concerned." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
SEATTLE This is the University of Washington's new math: 18 percent of its freshmen come from abroad, most from China. Each pays tuition of 28,059, about three times as much as students from Washington State. And that, according to the dean of admissions, is how low income Washingtonians more than a quarter of the class get a free ride. With state financing slashed by more than half in the last three years, university officials decided to pull back on admissions offers to Washington residents, and increase them to students overseas. That has rankled some local politicians and parents, a few of whom have even asked Michael K. Young, the university president, whether their children could get in if they paid nonresident tuition. "It does appeal to me a little," he said. There is a widespread belief in Washington that internationalization is the key to the future, and Mr. Young said he was not at all bothered that there were now more students from other countries than from other states. (Out of state students pay the same tuition as foreign students.) "Is there any advantage to our taking a kid from California versus a kid from China?" he said. "You'd have to convince me, because the world isn't divided the way it used to be." If the university's reliance on full freight Chinese students to balance the budget echoes the nation's dependence on China as the largest holder of American debt, well, said the dean of admissions, Philip A. Ballinger, "this is a way of getting some of that money back." By the reckoning of the Institute of International Education, foreign students in the United States contribute about 21 billion a year to the national economy, including 463 million here in Washington State. But the influx affects more than just the bottom line campus culture, too, is changing. While the University of Washington's demographic shifts have been sharper and faster international students were 2 percent of the freshmen in 2006 similar changes are under way at flagship public universities across the nation: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and University of California campuses in Berkeley and Los Angeles all had at least 10 percent foreign freshmen this academic year, more than twice that of five years ago. And at top private schools including Columbia University, Boston University and the University of Pennsylvania, at least 15 percent of this year's freshmen are from other countries. A few places have begun to charge international students additional fees besides tuition: at Purdue University, it was 1,000 this year and will double next year; engineering undergraduates at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign had to pay a 2,500 surcharge this year. "We're in something akin to the gold rush, a frontier style environment where colleges and universities, like prospectors in the 1800s, realize that there is gold out there," said David Hawkins, the director of public policy at the National Association for College Admission Counseling. "While it's the admissions offices butting up against the issues most right now, every department after them, every faculty member who comes into contact with international students, is going to have to recalibrate as institutions become more international. I see a cascading list of challenges." They have already begun here at Washington's flagship university, where orientation leaders last fall had to explain, repeatedly, the rigorous campus recycling practices, reinforce no smoking rules and, at the make your own sundae bar, help people get the hang of the whipped cream cans. But there are deeper issues, like how much latitude professors should give in written assignments. "We recognize that people from other countries often speak with an accent," said John Webster, director of writing at the university's College of Arts and Science. "If we're truly going to be a global university, which I think is a terrific thing, we have to recognize that they may write with an accent as well." For example, because Mandarin has one pronunciation for "he," "she" and "it" and nothing like "a" or "the," many Chinese speakers struggle with pronouns and articles. And English verb forms, like past participles, gerunds and infinitives, can be difficult to master, since Chinese verbs are unchanging. Given that Chinese students' writing will be "accented" for years, Mr. Webster believes that professors should focus less on trying to make their English technically correct and more on making their essays understandable and interesting. But he knows this could be a controversial issue, reminiscent of the Ebonics debate decades ago. The international influx is likely to keep growing, in part because of the booming recruiting industry that has sprung up overseas. That includes the use of commissioned agents, who help students through the admissions process and sometimes write their application essays. Amid controversy over such agents, Mr. Hawkins's group has named a commission, to meet for the first time next month, to formulate a policy regarding recruiters. Nationwide, higher education financing has undergone a profound shift in recent years, with many public institutions that used to get most of their financing from state governments now relying on tuition for more than half their budgets. But legislators and taxpayers still feel deep ownership of the state institutions created to serve homegrown students and worry that something is awry when local high achievers, even valedictorians, are rejected by the campuses they have grown up aspiring to. "My constituents want a slot for their kid," said Reuven Carlyle, a Democrat state representative from Seattle. "I hear it at the grocery store every day, and I've got four young kids myself, so I get it. "We are struggling with capacity, access and affordability," he said. "But international engagement is part of our state's DNA. We have a special economic and social relationship with China, and I am happy to have so many Chinese students at the university." Still, Jim Allen, a counselor at Inglemoor High School in Kenmore, Wash., an affluent suburb north of Seattle, said: "Families are frustrated. There aren't as many private colleges here as in the East, and a lot of families expect their children to go to U.W." Unlike many other state universities, the University of Washington did no overseas recruiting before this academic year, when it staged recruiting tours in several countries. So the rapid growth in international applications to more than 6,000 this year from 1,541 in 2007, with China by far the largest source was something of a surprise. Last spring, another surprise was the percentage who accepted offers of admission: 42 percent decided to enroll, up from 35 percent the previous year. "As best I can make out, it's just word of mouth," said Mr. Ballinger, the admissions dean. "We're well known in China, we're highly rated on the Shanghai rankings, and we have a lot of contacts." Applications from abroad present some special challenges. Because the SAT is not given in mainland China, the university does not require international students to take it. Although it does not pay recruiting agents, Mr. Ballinger said he knew many applicants hired them, so the university does not consider Chinese applicants' personal essays or recommendations. (Yes, he also knows that some affluent applicants in the United States get extensive help from paid private counselors.) Some in state students said they had trouble knowing what to make of the fact that international students, on the one hand, help underwrite financial aid, and on the other, take up seats that might have gone to their high school classmates. "Morally, I feel the university should accept in state students first, then other American students, then international students," said Farheen Siddiqui, a freshman from Renton, Wash., just south of Seattle. "When I saw all the stories about U.W. taking more international students, I thought, 'Damn, I'm a minority now for being in state.' " Actually, nearly two thirds of Ms. Siddiqui's classmates are from Washington, but her inaccurate sense of the population was echoed by all of the three dozen freshmen interviewed including those from other states and from China. Most, like Ms. Siddiqui, estimated that half to two thirds of the class was international. Ms. Siddiqui cited a psychology class in which the professor asked the 600 plus students about the nature of the families they grew up in. With clickers recording the responses, Ms. Siddiqui said, about 60 percent said their families were "collectivist," rather than "individualist," something she perceived as more Asian than American. Alison Luo, who grew up in Chongqing, a major city in southwest China, had mixed feelings about the trend that she is part of. "Before I came, I saw the online chatting in China, with hundreds of people coming to the University of Washington," Ms. Luo said. "I was kind of worried about that. I paid to study abroad, and it was almost like I was studying in China." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
After two improbable, gravity defying years, the streak is over. What streak am I talking about, exactly? It's this: On Dec. 31, 2011, the Standard Poor's 500 stock index closed at 1,257.60. On the first trading day of 2012, it rose at the opening bell and never dropped below that level all year long. And on Dec. 31, 2012, it closed at 1,426.19 and, again, for all of 2013, never fell into negative territory. In other words, the market remained in the black for two consecutive years, a feat it accomplished just once before in modern history, in 1975 and 1976. But you're forgiven if you didn't notice. The recent streak wasn't visible unless you were looking for it. It was a string of no big deal, Steady Eddie achievements much like the ironman streaks of Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken Jr., who showed up at the baseball park every day for so many years that people finally realized they were staring at feats of monumental proportions. This streak wasn't featured on television, as far as I know, and no contests or T shirts have celebrated it. But it seems worth noting, not just because it was quirky but because it symbolizes the lighter than air quality of the stock market over the last two years. Now, with stock valuations beginning to be stretched and the Federal Reserve starting to taper its loose monetary policy, an enchanted time for stock investors may be coming to an end. If you're a regular reader of this column, you may actually recall the streak. It started unremarkably: Stocks rose and the market closed higher at the end of the first week of 2012 than it stood at the beginning. Nothing startling about that. But as the year went on, the S. P. 500 never dropped below its opening level for the year, not even once, and that was unusual. That had happened only eight times before. I became aware of the phenomenon late in 2012, when Paul Hickey, co founder of the Bespoke Investment Group, brought it to my attention. It seemed especially surprising at the time because 2012 never made headlines as a great year for stocks. When the streak continued in 2013, I wrote about it twice. Week after week, the market remained in positive territory for a second consecutive calendar year. Even though the streak itself never became a fixture of the popular imagination, public opinion about the market shifted as time passed: Investors began to move money into stock mutual funds and exchange traded funds, and just about everybody knew that a bull market was underway. The streak ended when trading began for this year on Thursday, Jan. 2. The market fell that day, and dropped further the next day, closing down for the week. (The first positive day for stocks was this past Tuesday, and the market is now down slightly for the very young year.) But what a two year run it was. With a chain of moderately positive weeks, and no truly big breakout sessions, the market mounted a stealth rally in 2012, up 13.4 percent for the year. It picked up steam in 2013, gaining 29.6 percent. (That reversed the earlier streak's pattern: up 31.6 percent in 1975 but only 19.2 percent in 1976.) Those are the numbers. But what are the implications? The streak itself was an anomaly, with no particular statistical significance in itself. But markets typically don't rise this steadily or rapidly. A rally of these dimensions has consequences. For one thing, the accelerating double digit increases in stock market prices outstripped the rise in corporate earnings over the same period. Stocks were relatively cheap at the beginning of the streak. They're much more expensive now. Mr. Hickey and Justin Walters, the other Bespoke co founder, put it this way in a report on the investment outlook: "2013 really marked the year where investors recognized that equities were attractively valued." But that realization changed the market: Investors bid up prices, and by year end, valuations had shifted sharply. The Bespoke analysts focused on the price to earnings ratio, a commonly used valuation measure. When the ratio is high, which occurs when investors pay a higher price for corporate earnings, stocks are relatively expensive. Using trailing earnings those accrued over the preceding 12 months they noted that the ratio soared 23 percent, from 14.64 at the beginning of the year to 18.01 by the end. That valuation shift accounted for most of the market's gains for the year. What's more, they said, the P/E's historical average was only 15.3. In short, at the beginning of the year, the market was cheaper than average. By year end, they said, "technically speaking," the market was overvalued. That implies that stocks are no longer a bargain and that investors may be taking on greater risk when buying shares. It implies less certainty and greater volatility. But it doesn't necessarily mean that the market's upward trend will reverse soon. History shows that markets often rise for a while when they are overvalued. In an interview, Mr. Hickey said the market wasn't likely to be as steady as it was during the streak, but he expected it to rise further: "In the later stages of bull markets, valuations generally expand and that's what's happened here," he said. "Prices today aren't nearly as attractive as they were, but typically bulls don't end with the market at an average valuation. Bull markets typically overshoot." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
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