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Two Eataly employees, the oleologist Nicholas Coleman and the wine expert Dan Amatuzzi, are leading an olive oil and wine trip to Tuscany as part of their new venture, an olive oil brand called Grove and Vine. Guests on the weeklong getaway stay at Villa Montecastello, an 11th century restored hillside fortress situated an hour south of Florence. Activities include a workshop on Tuscan grape and olive varieties; visits to boutique wineries in San Gimignano, Chianti and Montalcino; tours and tastings at several well regarded olive oil estates; a class on pizza making where the pies are baked in a 1,000 year old outdoor pizza oven; a walking tour of the city of Arezzo; and an all day trip to Florence. Prices from 3,900 a person, which includes accommodations, activities and most meals. The trip is Aug. 13 to 20 and can be booked by calling 973 327 2336. The trip is also available for year round booking for a group of eight to 12 travelers. Standard luggage goes high tech with this week's launch of Raden, a luggage company that is trying to make getting to destinations a little bit easier. Raden's suitcases, available in both carry on and check in sizes, are equipped with an integrated scale, built in charger and location awareness technology. When travelers pair the bags with the company's app, they're able to weigh their luggage at home and access information relevant to their trip, like the best routes to reach the airport, Transportation Security Administration line wait times and the weather at their destination. The bags are scratch proof and available in seven colors. The 22 inch carry on case is 295, the 28 inch check in case is 395, and the two cases are sold together for 595. A NEW LOOK FOR A GREEK BOUTIQUE HOTEL Grace Santorini, a luxury boutique property perched on a hill overlooking the Aegean Sea on the island of Santorini in Greece, is reopening for the summer season on May 2 after undergoing a renovation over the winter. The 21 rooms and two bedroom villa have been refurbished with an elegant, simple aesthetic that includes contemporary furniture mixed with handcrafted Greek pieces; the hotel will also have a new Champagne and cocktail lounge more than 1,000 feet above sea level that's an ideal spot for watching the sunset, a Mediterranean restaurant called Vassalti, complimentary twice daily yoga sessions and areas for fitness and Pilates. Prices from 600 euros (about 670) a night including breakfast. The island of Pangkor Laut, located off the coast of Perak, Malaysia, is a little known destination with pristine private beaches and lush rain forest. A new package from the Estates at Pangkor Laut, a collection of eight villas ranging from two to four bedrooms, gives travelers the opportunity to book a getaway; it includes luxury yacht transfers to and from the island, all meals, a personal butler and a sunset cruise. Prices from 1,875 a night for two people. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
When Ernest Withers was a press photographer in Memphis in the mid 1950s, he put a slogan on his business cards: PICTURES TELL THE STORY. Indeed they did. He was no effete aesthete; he was a working reporter, one whose job was to get there, get in close, get the powerful shot and (if all went well) get paid. He was African American, often publishing in The Chicago Defender and Jet magazine; drawn toward the biggest story around, he was soon covering the civil rights movement. And because he was good at his job, those pictures have vigor and punch. At the trial of Emmett Till's murderers, he defied a judge's no cameras order and got off one quick, sharp frame as an accuser fingered one of the killers. He hung around a local blues club and photographed the rising star Elvis Presley as he soaked up the local musical culture he later reinterpreted for the rest of the world. He was with Martin Luther King Jr. aboard one of the first integrated bus rides in Montgomery, Ala., in 1956, and he was there when King lay in a funeral home in 1968. Which made it all the more astounding when, a few years after his death in 2007, the truth came out. Starting in the early 1960s, Withers had spent nearly two decades as a paid informant of the F.B.I., feeding its agents information about the activists he photographed. He not only informed; he took requests. At one anti Vietnam War march, he was asked to photograph all of the 30 odd protesters, taking special care to catch all their faces, and he turned 80 8 by 10 prints over to his F.B.I. contact. On occasion, he sold his work to a local paper, then gave copies to the bureau. His daughter Rosalind, the youngest of his nine children and the one who handles his estate, was blindsided when the news came out via a series of FOIA requests and legal fights undertaken by Marc Perrusquia, a reporter from The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. Perrusquia wrote about Withers and the revelation of his intelligence work in his own book, "A Spy in Canaan," which was published last year. It's a smart journalist's book, crisply marching through Withers's F.B.I. records and the paper's battle to pry them out of the government's grip. "Bluff City," by Preston Lauterbach, aims instead for something less snappy and more lyrical. Its subtitle is "The Secret Life of Photographer Ernest Withers," which suggests that it's a biography, but it isn't quite that, or at least not a comprehensive one. Big stretches of Withers's life get a fairly cursory look, and Lauterbach basically calls it a day after King's assassination in 1968, dispatching the photographer's subsequent four decades in an introductory chapter and an afterword. Nor is this a book about photography history, examining the photographs the way an art historian might. There are 18 pictures, most, though not all, by Withers, enough to hit the main points but no more. (Which is fine. Decisions about including photos in a book like this tend to be limited by the cost of rights, and anyway there are several nice volumes of Withers's pictures out there. Or, you know, Google.) Instead what Lauterbach, a former Memphis resident and the author of two other books set in the South, "Beale Street Dynasty" and "The Chitlin' Circuit," is going for is a loose, rangy history of the civil rights movement in Memphis, using Withers and his camera as the (literal) lens. He's done the work, tracking the complex, intertwined dances of the radicals and the centrists, the local ministers and visiting heavyweights like King. Weirdly, though, his very thoroughness and deep interest in this time and place have the almost certainly unintended effect of diminishing Withers rather than keeping him front and center. There are long stretches where, say, Stokely Carmichael appears, and we get 10 enthusiastic pages about his politics and S.N.C.C. and the dynamics between Carmichael and King, and then Withers pokes his head in to snap a few pictures and go meet his F.B.I. contact. Some of those scenes are nicely wrought, but the secrets in this life are often other people's rather than Withers's own. The narrative tightens up and gains momentum as it builds toward that deadly evening at the Lorraine Motel. Much of the book is structured around the final days of King's life, as he tried to manage a sanitation strike in Memphis that turned violent, leaving him dejected. That was the protest at which Withers shot his best known photo, of a line of strikers bearing signs that read I AM A MAN. The men are carrying the signs on sticks that Withers himself helped saw, and when the march turned violent, those pine two by twos became weapons. (Lauterbach expends some energy trying to figure out whether Withers had supplied them in hopes of creating a stir.) A week later, Withers was not on the scene when King was shot, although he arrived shortly after. Those famous pictures of King's associates, pointing toward the direction of the rifle shot? Withers didn't take them, but the young South African photographer who did, Joseph Louw, was too rattled to develop them himself, and nearly botched the processing. Withers stepped into the darkroom alongside him and made sure it got done right. The central question a reader is likely to ask of this book (and of Perrusquia's as well) is: Why did a man whose life and work were knitted into the civil rights movement feed information to J. Edgar Hoover? The F.B.I. director's explicit goals, after all, were to disrupt all the organizing, to drain the movement's influence, to humiliate and destroy King. Lauterbach has a few theories, and all are probably true to varying degrees. For one thing, Withers needed the money. He raised his big family on a freelance photographer's pay, and put most of his kids through college. (Some civil rights activists from the era say that, since they were operating in the open, Withers was not betraying them but simply conning the F.B.I. for some cash.) For another, he disliked the anti American language on the fringier end of the left, especially when it turned communistic. He was preternaturally inclined toward a law and order point of view. In fact, he'd been a cop before he was a photographer, and a crooked one at that. In the early 1950s, he left the Memphis Police Department involuntarily, after he'd been caught selling illegal liquor under the table. Twenty four years later, he was appointed to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and then was stung again, this time by the F.B.I. itself, as he worked a scheme to get a prisoner out of jail in exchange for a cash payment to the governor. "Bluff City" may not get to Withers's inner life, but it is not without pleasure. Lauterbach is justifiably sympathetic to his subject, noting that one has to be generous about judging the things a black man in the Jim Crow South did to get by. (Withers was beaten during at least one march he covered.) And Lauterbach likes the other central character in the book even better, that being Memphis itself. In his first chapter, he describes a day in 2005 when he dropped by Withers's studio for a tour and got a lift home from the photographer in that old sedan. "He drove in a manner many people familiar with Memphis will recognize slowly, drifting right." That kind of describes his book, too. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Clambering down into the half buried ruins of San Juan Paringuricutiro, past stone archways subsumed in lava less than 80 years ago, I glanced up over jagged spires of black basalt to the ash cone of Paricutin, one of the world's youngest volcano, hovering like a specter on the horizon. I'd seen views like this one before, rendered in expressionist shades of cobalt and eggplant gashed with dazzling flares of orange by the painter known as Dr. Atl. Starting in 1943, when the volcano emerged from a cornfield here in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, Atl, along with dozens of artists and scientists from around the world, spent years recording this geological miracle. Yet none of his paintings had prepared me for the hallucinatory strangeness of the real thing: a place that inverts geological time, where the ground underfoot is younger than the orphaned church spires rising above it, where a mountain an immovable part of any ordinary landscape is only a few decades old. Paricutin, it occurred to me while contemplating the church's miraculously preserved, fern garlanded altar, makes a fine metaphor for the surrounding region of the Tarascan Plateau (known in Spanish as the Meseta Purhepecha), an area known for its fiercely protected Indigenous communities and the unparalleled craft traditions that thrive within them. While urban Mexicans and foreigners often treat those traditions as static relics, in the region, they're dynamic and ever changing, producing new icons with the same spontaneous creative energy that forced Paricutin up through the earth's crust. I'd been planning on visiting Paricutin since I moved to Mexico in 2016, but had been hesitant to make the trip. Closely associated with the United States backed drug war that has ravaged Mexico's countryside since 2006, Michoacan is not the easiest place to visit. Particularly in the Meseta, tourism infrastructure is limited, and violent flare ups spurred by the 2.4 billion avocado trade are not uncommon, particularly in the periphery of Uruapan, Michoacan's second largest city and the main urban hub for the Meseta. Unlike Morelia and Patzcuaro, colonial showstoppers both, Uruapan's pleasures are humble: evenings spent people watching on the broad central plaza; snacking on sweet corn tamales, called uchepos, at the Mercado de Antojitos, or snack market; and sipping dark, fragrant coffee at Cafe Tradicional, a dim, wood paneled coffee house with atmosphere as dense as cigar smoke. It was here that I met the historian and teacher Arturo Avila on my first evening in town. "Uruapan, throughout the centuries, has always been a crossroads," he told me. An Indigenous town before the arrival of the Spanish, the modern city of Uruapan was established by Franciscan monks in 1533 and declared a settlement for Indigenous peoples in 1540. A communal garden and public hospice formed the center of the town, where weavers would come to trade cotton shawls for clay bowls thrown in ceramics towns farther north or woven mats from the lakeshore. The products we think of as artesania, or craft, Mr. Avila told me, were initially developed out of necessity, using available materials and binding communities through mutual reliance. More than art objects, they were known, Mr. Avila said, as "the skill and destiny" of each town, a division of labor consolidated under colonial rule. Uruapan's "skill and destiny" was mercantile, first as a center of trade for surrounding artisans who flocked to the town in particularly large numbers during Holy Week. Vestiges of that tradition remain during the city's Easter celebrations, when artisans from across the state sell their wares in the central plaza and under the squat stone arches of the old hospice, now the Huatapera Indigenous Museum. On Palm Sunday, easily the best day of the year to visit, Uruapan puts on the finest of Michoacan's more than 20 craft competitions, gathering all the state's most accomplished artisans in one place. The morning after meeting Mr. Avila, I took a short taxi ride to the hilltop Hotel Mansion Cupatitzio, a throwback to 1960s hacienda style glamour, where I sipped a coffee in the flower draped gardens, then wandered into the Cupatitzio Canyon National Park, one of Mexico's most beautiful urban parks, established in 1938. I spent the better part of an hour wandering down stone paths damp with mist kicked up from waterfalls. I followed the river as it poured itself into iridescent blue plunge basins, rushed under arching bridges and slipped over geometric fountains designed in the pre Columbian revival style. On the day I visited, Ms. Illsley, along with Rewi and Rewi's daughter Clara, showed me through the Fabrica's vast central gallery high and narrow and suffused with tropical warmth then down into the basement, among rows of obsolete machinery lined up under bending rays of dusty light: a museum to a dead industry. Upstairs, we visited the Fabrica's small shop, selling a rainbow of napkins and tablecloths made on the Illsley handlooms, and garments by the Japanese designer Minori Kobayashi, who came to Uruapan in the 1970s and never left. We flipped through the swatches of fabrics that Bundy Illsley had developed and produced for Knoll and Herman Miller. "Design," Ms. Illsley said, "has always been part of our world." For dinner that night, I went, at the Illsleys' recommendation, to Cocina M, where the chef Mariana Valencia turns out surprising dishes like crisp petals of cecina (dried beef) to dip in a blazing sauce of Manzano chilies and dashi, and a decadent avocado mousse tempered with a bracing yuzu sorbet. Ms. Valencia, who grew up in Uruapan in a family of Lebanese origin, opened the restaurant with her Colombian husband, Marino Collazos, in April 2016, after several years working in restaurants in Miami, where the couple met. In a modest house down a concrete paved side street, I met Rosa Liliana Bautista, whose grandmother, she said, had been the first artisan to stitch feathers into the hems of her shawls, the style for which the village is now famous. Though Ms. Bautista herself spent five years living in the United States, continuing to weave with materials shipped north by her mother, it wasn't until returning home in 2014 that she found a market for her work largely among other Michoacan immigrants in the U.S. Barely 10 minutes away by road, in the village of Aranza, at the hem of forested mountain slopes, Genoveva Zacari showed me blue, black and yellow cotton as delicate as lace that she and her sisters had learned to weave under their mother's tutelage. "The imagination, the skill, even the love you feel for the work will affect the pattern. Like this one, for instance, was made by my sister, and I can tell that she wasn't in a good mood when she made it," Ms. Zacari told me. From the textile villages, I went west to Angahuan, the jumping off point for full day hikes to Paricutin's otherworldly crater, spending the night at the spartan, community run Centro Turistico Angahuan. Two mornings later, after a day hike to Paricutin's summit through the ruins of San Juan Parangaricutiro, its lava choked chapel the only surviving remnant of the village, I drove north to the ceramics towns near the border with Jalisco. In Patambam I stopped in the workshop of the Ayungua family, which locals in this pretty, terra cotta roofed village call "the museum." Here, three generations of potters decorate unglazed red clay pottery with paints made from white clay, a recent deviation from the traditions of burnished red and green glazed pottery practiced by most families here, according to the craft expert Rick Hall, who runs an annual guided tour through the Meseta during Holy Week via his Patzcuaro based gallery, Zocalo Folk Art. Just a few minutes down the road from San Jose, in the village of Ocumicho, I visited the home studio of Tomasa Gonzalez Sanchez, populated with hundreds of winsome clay figurines painted in psychedelic acrylics: whistles shaped like peacocks, devils cavorting on a bridge that Ms. Gonzalez had seen once years before on a trip to Mexico City, and a miniature Last Supper of mermaids eating watermelon. Until the 1960s, Ms. Gonzalez told me, no one in town made figurines like these. Then a potter called Marcelino Vicente Mulato had a vision of the devil that he translated into clay: another spontaneous reinvention of the cultural landscape. "When we dream, we carry these images in our heads, then we realize them in clay," Ms. Gonzalez said. "I can take the things I see and imprint them on the material with my hands." The charming rooms at the Hotel Mansion de Cupatitzio are a perfect jumping off point for walks into the Barrancas de Cupatitzio National Park and start at 1,700 Mexican pesos ( 87) during the high season around Holy Week. Just a few blocks from Uruapan's central square, the Hotel Mi Solar occupies a late 19th century mansion that was remodeled as a hotel in 1943 (standard rooms from 1,232 Mexican pesos during Holy Week). Cocina M offers the most interesting food in town. A dinner for two, including starters, mains and a glass of wine, should run about 1,100 Mexican pesos. Another local favorite, famous for serving traditional cooking from the Tierra Caliente region of the state, is Rincon de Aguililla, where a filling meal for two will cost roughly 350 Mexican pesos. The best option for visits to Paricutin is an overnight stay at the community run Centro Turistico Angahuan, where a simple cabin with a working fireplace starts at 500 Mexican pesos. Guides often wait at the entrance to the hotel and the staff can help plan excursions, which usually start at 1,200 Mexican pesos for two people. Most of the artisan towns have many families dedicated to craft but little infrastructure to help find their studios. A good starting point is the Casa de las Artesanias in Morelia, where the knowledgeable staff can help guide you. The owners at some of the more established galleries in Patzcuaro, like the Zocalo Art Gallery, are even greater fonts of knowledge about the region. Once in the craft villages, you can ask for the artisans you want to visit by name. As you leave one workshop, it's always worth asking for that artisan's recommendations for studios. Otherwise, just stop in the central plazas of a village to ask for artesania; this will almost always bring you to someone's home studio. Prices can vary dramatically. Small, simple pineapples in San Jose de Gracia may cost no more than a few dollars, while more elaborately worked objects can easily run hundreds of dollars, if not more. Bartering is frowned upon, unless you're in a large market and buying in bulk. Keep in mind that whatever you're being asked to pay is almost certainly a modest price for the amount of work involved. 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. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places list. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
He turns his search toward the story of the story itself, the idea and the artists who picked it up and remade it and sent it through the ages: Augustine; Milton; Darwin; Mary Shelley, whose "Frankenstein" terrifies partly because it's the old story without God; Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Mae West; and Hemingway, who all through his life "referred to his mother as 'that bitch.'" It's the best sort of exegesis, with Feiler finding Adam and Eves all over the modern world. (If it's not happening now, it has no meaning.) Mae West is Eve, for example, pushing mankind toward greater freedom. The Columbine killer Dylan Klebold is Cain, author of the first murder, forced to live as "a fugitive and a vagabond." His mother's decision to write a memoir "inadvertently created a remarkable midrash on one of the least understood stories of the Bible," Feiler writes, a midrash being a kind of commentary on a story in the ancient Scriptures. The idea for the book came to Feiler in a flash. He was standing with his daughters amid the tourists in the Sistine Chapel, staring up at Michelangelo's great work. "One of my daughters took one glance at the magisterial image of God, flying superhero like through the air, reaching his index finger toward a listless Adam, and said, 'Why is there only a man? Where am I in that picture?' Her sister, meanwhile, not to be undone, pointed out something I had never seen before. 'Who's that woman under God's arm? Is that Eve?'... I decided at that moment ... to revisit the tangled story of Adam and Eve." This gets at Feiler's real mission. He wants to redeem the story, free it from the sexist taint of the original phrasing ("In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee") and give us a new parable and a new Eve fit for the current moment. Whereas the story had once been understood as one of temptation, sin and Fall, all of it brought on by the weakness of the woman and the suppleness of the snake, Feiler understands it as a celebration of Eve's curiosity and the ups and downs of any healthy marriage. "Eve is the first teacher, the first to trust her eyes, the first who wants to know. In so doing, she becomes the first to commit the ultimate modern act of not accepting the meaning of others but insisting on making meaning yourself. She writes her own story." At times, this can shade toward self help or how to, with Adam and Eve behaving like chatty talk show hosts offering practical tips on overcoming challenges: How to Fall in Love; How to Lose Paradise; How to Bury a Child; How to Suffer and Survive; How to Age and Die. The story of Adam and Eve, as with the rest of the book of Genesis, has endured partly because of its literary power. It's clipped and strange, full of elisions. You can spend your entire life obsessing over what certain passages suggest but don't say. Our religion has grown up in those gaps, amid phrases that raise maddening questions. If God did not want man to eat from the tree, why put it in the Garden? How is it that Enoch, the father of Methuselah, is able to enter the next world without passing through death? And what are the Nephilim, the product of the mad coupling of the "sons of God" with mortal women, doing in the first pages of Genesis? If you read all this allegorically, you're open to still another nature of meaning, with the snake leading Eve to enlightenment before "God," threatened by human potential ("And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"), banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
The for sale ad appeared last week in an underground internet bazaar that specializes in selling stolen accounts and data. It was for access to a filched unemployment insurance claim in California that had been approved and offered benefits worth 17,550. The black market sale of jobless benefits is just one sign that the unemployment insurance system the main artery for delivering financial assistance to laid off workers has been besieged during the coronavirus crisis by criminal networks intent on bilking the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars. In California, fraud was so pervasive that officials have suspended processing jobless claims for two weeks to put new controls in place and reduce a bulging backlog. The U.S. Labor Department recently made fraud detection a priority, dedicating 100 million to combat the problem. But several state officials and cybersecurity experts say some of the efforts have been misdirected, designed to uncover workers misrepresenting their eligibility instead of large scale identity theft. "The focus continues to be on lying instead of stealing," said Suzi LeVine, the commissioner of the Employment Security Department in Washington, one of the first states to be flooded with fraudulent claims. Social service agencies have historically been preoccupied with preventing potential beneficiaries from cheating the government individuals who lie about seeking a job or the date of their return to work. "Anti fraud systems are organized around that," Ms. LeVine said. "Saying I was looking for a job when I was actually on a beach in Cabo." But most fraud is now being engineered by cybercriminals, some of them working together, who have stolen or bought other people's identities and are using them to raid state unemployment systems. Since March, Washington State has turned up nearly 87,000 impostor cases. From January 2018 to June 2019, there were 184. Traditional fraud prevention strategies, Ms. LeVine said, "will not help us catch these thieves." Think of it as the difference between an attack within and one coming from the outside. Previously the cheating came mostly from workers who were in the system and trying to get something they were not entitled to. Now "it's people outside of the system who are impersonating other people or breaking in," explained Roman Sannikov, director of cybercrime and underground intelligence at the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Using stolen identities to steal from the government, of course, is not new. Such thefts have bedeviled programs from school loans to Medicare and disaster relief. But unemployment insurance has generally not been a ripe target because states have been reducing benefits and tightening access since the last recession and caseloads have been falling. That changed after Congress moved in March to deliver assistance to suddenly jobless workers when the coronavirus outbreak upended the economy. "Criminals go where the money is," said Avivah Litan, an analyst at the research and consulting firm Gartner. After Congress passed the CARES Act, the emergency relief including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and a temporary 600 weekly supplement was where the money was. And that is where the bulk of the fraud has been aimed. Handled by the states, pandemic jobless benefits were meant to fill gaping holes in the safety net by covering self employed, part time and gig workers; independent contractors; and others ordinarily ineligible for unemployment insurance. But the desire to quickly get money to households facing eviction, hunger or financial ruin made the program vulnerable to swindlers. In Ms. Litan's view, the federal government has not devoted sufficient resources to secure its systems against cybercrime and identity theft. Some of the schemes, like those that hit Washington State in the spring, were linked by federal investigators to a Nigerian based criminal ring called Scattered Canary. The ring used stolen Social Security numbers and other identity theft, and was suspected of operating in North Carolina, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Florida. 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. Washington State officials shut down the unemployment system for two days in mid May as part of an effort to halt illegitimate payments that ended up totaling 576 million. The state has recovered 346 million so far. Parker Crucq, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Recorded Future, said the number and types of perpetrators had grown, ranging from organized networks and technological whizzes to bush league hucksters. "While many of these threats require knowledge of social engineering techniques, they likely do not require a degree of technical sophistication," Mr. Crucq wrote in an assessment of unemployment insurance schemes. "This means that there is a low barrier to entry for potential scammers and criminals who are interested in getting involved with this form of fraud." In hacker forums and on the so called dark web, where users can hide their identity and location, "some of these actors are specifically calling out state agencies by name, boasting that it's quite easy to fill out applications on multiple occasions from information scraped from previous data breaches," he said. Over three weeks in September, the police in Beverly Hills, Calif., arrested 87 people from states as far away as Alaska and New York on charges related to unemployment insurance fraud. The accused were not working in tandem but followed a similar pattern, applying for benefits with Social Security numbers stolen from people who had died or were in prison or nursing homes, said Lt. Max Subin, a department spokesman. Those involved used the cards often several at a time to embark on shopping sprees, buying high end handbags, belts, wallets, shoes and clothing or renting luxury cars, the police said. Identify theft is a particularly insidious form of unemployment insurance fraud, frequently pre empting benefits for those entitled to them and undermining confidence in the program. "The thing that is so maddening about impostor fraud is that it strikes at the core of how unemployment insurance systems operate," said Scott Jensen, director of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. "If fraudsters are giving us fake information, it's hard to verify it." An inaccurate Social Security number, for instance, is spotted immediately. "But if a fake Scott Jensen comes in with the real Scott Jensen's Social Security number, then it checks out," he said. Most of the fraud is not discovered until people get letters or checks from the agency and call to say they never applied. For years, "this has been a weakness that has been really hard to fix," Mr. Jensen said. "What is different now is the scale." Fraud linked to identity theft made up about 3 percent of all unemployment claims last year, according to government audits. With the pandemic program, that figure has skyrocketed. Last week, Arizona said it had flagged over one million of 2.4 million claims more than 40 percent as potentially fraudulent. Over the summer, Colorado found that 77 percent of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims were faked. With state unemployment claims, there is a built in verification process because employees have to submit their W 2 tax form and a document from their employer showing that they are no longer employed. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, by contrast, depends largely on individuals' certifying that they are unemployed because of the coronavirus outbreak. State and federal officials are caught between getting money as quickly and efficiently as possible to people who desperately need it and erecting roadblocks to cut off criminals from improperly collecting benefits. "There are a lot of fraud tools," like multifactor identification, said Mr. Jensen, Rhode Island's labor chief, "but if you front load the unemployment insurance system with them, then claimants can't get through." Mr. Jensen contends that significant improvements and more sophisticated detection tools including questions to verify a user's identity, like the model of a first car could be put in place quickly and inexpensively if unemployment insurance systems, antiquated in many states, switched to cloud based computing. "People are always going to try to steal money," he said. "We have to work harder and faster and smarter to defeat them." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
In Massachusetts, Inmates Will Be Among First to Get Vaccines Tens of thousands of prison inmates in Massachusetts will be among the first to be offered coronavirus vaccines, before home health aides, seniors and medically vulnerable residents of the state. The inmates, along with people who live in homeless shelters and other congregate settings, will be vaccinated by the end of February, after health care workers, emergency medical workers and residents of long term care facilities receive the shots. The state's high prioritization of inmates is unusual. A dozen states have listed prisoners among those set to receive vaccines in the first round of inoculations, but none ranks inmates so highly. Federal health officials have recommended that corrections officers and staff at state facilities receive high priority but have said nothing about inmates. The federal prison system has said it will vaccinate officers and staff first. "This is all because there is limited supply," said Jennifer Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and H.I.V. policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. "Tough decisions have to be made." Some of the largest coronavirus outbreaks in the country have taken place in the nation's prisons. At least 400,000 cases have been reported among inmates, and at least 1,800 deaths have been reported among inmates and staff, according to a database maintained by The New York Times. There are more than two million incarcerated people in the United States. An estimated 20 percent have been infected with the coronavirus. Inmates are four times more likely to be infected than the general population, and twice as likely to die of Covid 19. While the stereotype of prisoners is that they are young, more than one in 10 nationwide is over age 55 and therefore more vulnerable to the virus, according to Lauren Brinkley Rubinstein, co founder of the Covid Prison Project, which tracks cases among incarcerated people nationwide. Inmates also have higher rates of chronic medical conditions, like diabetes and hypertension, that increase the risk of severe disease if they become infected. Many suffer from mental illness. Prison infections can lead to outbreaks in the community. One in seven infections in Chicago, for example, was linked to people going in and out of the Cook County Jail, according to a recent study in the journal Health Affairs. The jail is "one of the largest known nodes of SARS CoV 2 spread in the United States," the researchers said. Yet there has been no comprehensive plan to roll out the vaccine for inmates. Even in those states prioritizing prisoners for early vaccination, details are often vague. Some states have simply decided that when older adults and medically vulnerable residents are vaccinated, inmates in those categories will be included but not other prisoners. The decision in Massachusetts to prioritize prisoners was driven by a commitment to equitable access amid a pandemic that has taken a disproportionate toll on people of color, who are also overrepresented behind bars, said Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious disease specialist and a member of the state's Covid 19 vaccine advisory group. "We used equity as a core principle in our recommendations," Dr. Wildes said. "We have had a lot of cases of Covid in the prisons, and we wanted to make sure those at highest risk were getting the vaccine first." Black and Hispanic people account for just over half of the prison and jail populations in Massachusetts, although they represent fewer than 20 percent of the state's population, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, an advocacy organization. Allocating scarce medical resources to people in prison can be controversial, and the Massachusetts advisory committee had some "very robust discussions," Dr. Wildes said. But criticism so far has been muted. Nearly 4,000 infections have already been reported among inmates and corrections officers in Massachusetts, and the number of incarcerated people testing positive has been steadily increasing since November. Who should get a booster shot? It depends, Dr. Scott Gottlieb says. In recent weeks, an outbreak at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Concord infected 47 employees and 161 inmates, about one quarter of the prison's population. Outbreaks of similar size occurred among inmates at M.C.I. Norfolk and M.C.I. Shirley in November, and several county jails have also reported large outbreaks recently. Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. At least three inmates died of Covid 19 in December alone, but many deaths may go unreported. For example, Milton Rice, 76, was granted medical parole from the Norfolk prison but died of Covid 19 at a nearby hospital one day later, on Nov. 25, according to his lawyers. While advocates have applauded the state's decision to allocate vaccines to inmates, they said they hoped it would not detract from the need to take other urgent steps, including early releases to reduce crowding and increased testing to identify cases. Many institutions are testing only inmates who display obvious symptoms of coronavirus infection. But since solitary confinement and lockdowns are used to contain the virus, many inmates are reluctant to report symptoms, said Monik Jimenez, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who is studying prison conditions. "It's kind of like the Wild Wild West of testing they pick and choose what they do," she said. "When you don't have comprehensive testing, you know you're only seeing the tip of the iceberg." Carol Rose, executive director of the A.C.L.U. of Massachusetts, said, "Prisons and jails are just petri dishes for the coronavirus." She added, "We need to reduce incarceration levels and release people who aren't a danger to society, so more people are alive to receive the vaccine when it becomes available." But in Massachusetts, as in other parts of the country, efforts to reduce the number of people behind bars largely by releasing people held in pretrial detention have slowed. And the numbers have crept back up: As of Dec. 7, there were 4,306 inmates being held in pretrial detention in Massachusetts, exceeding the 4,194 who were being held in early April. Though the state has a process for granting medical parole, many inmates who have chronic illnesses that would put them at risk for severe Covid 19 don't qualify. "You have to be terminally ill, within 18 months of dying, or permanently incapacitated," said Elizabeth Matos, executive director of Prisoners' Legal Services of Massachusetts, an organization that defends prisoners' rights and advocates the least restrictive imprisonment. The organization is representing a 78 year old inmate who was denied medical parole this past spring, even though he has heart disease and chronic lung disease and is dependent on supplemental oxygen. There is no guarantee that offering the vaccine to prisoners will end the epidemic behind walls, several experts noted. Simply getting the doses to prisoners will be difficult. Prisons don't have the ultracold refrigerators required to store the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, and are often located in remote areas. And tracking patients to ensure they receive both doses will also be challenging inmates cycle in and out of jails, and prisoners are frequently transferred. Distrust of the medical system is rampant, and doctors who work in the state's prisons anticipate deep skepticism about the vaccine, among both inmates and correctional officers. "I'm expecting a lot of resistance," said Dr. Alysse Wurcel, an infectious disease specialist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. "There's just a lot of distrust," added Dr. Wurcel, who is also a Covid 19 consultant to the Massachusetts Sheriffs' Association. "If you don't trust the medical care you're getting in the facility, how are you going to trust the needle in your arm?" Leslie Credle, 54, who spent four years in prison and now runs Justice for Housing, a group that fights discrimination against former inmates, says some who are still incarcerated have told her they don't trust the state Department of Corrections to administer the doses. "'They'll take it home to their wives, and we'll get water' that's what one person told me," Ms. Credle said. "If I were still in there, I wouldn't take it myself." She fears vaccinations will put an end to efforts to depopulate the state's prisons and jails. "They keep going back and forth, saying they're going to release, and then they don't," Ms. Credle said. "Now the vaccine has come out, they're not going to release people." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
, whose series of health advice books, "Younger Next Year," written with his patient Chris Crowley, sold in the millions, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 58. The cause was prostate cancer, his partner, Laura Yorke, said. In the late 1990s, Dr. Lodge became concerned about the patients he was seeing at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, where he was an internist with a specialty in geriatric medicine. Far too many in their 50s and 60s were having strokes, developing diabetes, falling down and suffering fractures. "You take care of somebody, and you see him gaining five pounds a year and being sedentary," he told U.S. News World Report in 2006. "Then really awful things happen strokes, heart attacks, and people becoming apathetic and withdrawn. It became clear to me that this was lifestyle choice. Very little of it was related to luck or genetics." Together the two men translated their experience into an advice book, "Younger Next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You're 80 and Beyond," published in 2004 by Workman. Alternating chapters, the authors delivered a breezy guide to better living that rested on seven rules that blend physical and spiritual disciplines. Readers were told to work out daily and stop eating junk food, but also to "connect and commit." Putting an evolutionary spin on diet and exercise, Dr. Lodge argued that humans remained, from the physical point of view, hunters and gatherers who thrived when in motion and surrounded by others. With his patient Chris Crowley, Dr. Lodge wrote a series of health advice books, starting with "Younger Next Year" in 2004. The idea of resetting the biological clock proved deeply appealing to the swelling population of Americans approaching old age. The Hartford Courant called the book "a near cult item among some baby boomers, who appear to be fueling a good part of the sales through word of mouth, with one reading it, then pestering a friend to get a copy." "Younger Next Year" and the rest of the series, "Younger Next Year for Women: Live Like You're 50 Strong, Fit, Sexy Until You're 80 and Beyond" (2005), "Younger Next Year Journal" (2006) and "Younger Next Year: The Exercise Program" (2015), have more than two million copies in print and have been translated into 21 languages. "Most aging is just the dry rot we program into our cells by sedentary living, junk food and stress," Dr. Lodge wrote in Parade magazine in 2006. "Yes, we do have to get old, and ultimately we do have to die. But our bodies are designed to age slowly and remarkably well. Most of what we see and fear is decay, and decay is only one choice. Growth is the other." Henry Sears Lodge Jr., known as Harry, was born on Oct. 20, 1958, in Boston and grew up in Beverly, Mass. His father, who died two days before him, was chairman of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority and the first president of the Metropolitan Center theater for the performing arts in Boston. His grandfather was Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the Massachusetts senator and ambassador to the United Nations. His mother, the former Elenita Ziegler, was a freelance writer and editor active in civic affairs. He attended Groton and took pre med courses at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1981, he earned his medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1985. After completing a three year residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan, he became an internist at Presbyterian Hospital (now NewYork Presbyterian Hospital). He also taught at Columbia University Medical Center, where he was the Robert Burch family professor of medicine. In 1996 Dr. Lodge created New York Physicians, a multi specialty medical group that, unusually, operates as an independent group practice but maintains an affiliation with Columbia University and NewYork Presbyterian Hospital. As it grew, it became an entry point for younger doctors to gain a foothold in the medical profession. He served as its chairman and chief executive until his death. His marriage ended in divorce. In addition to Ms. Yorke, he is survived by his mother; his daughters, Madeleine and Samantha Lodge; a sister, Felicity Lodge; his brothers, Fred and John; and Ms. Yorke's sons, Elliott and Coleman Snyder. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
While onboard entertainment is the focus of enormous ocean faring ships, river cruises in Europe emphasize onshore activities one major reason that families (recommended for ages 8 and up) are hopping aboard. "River cruises are all about destination immersion," said JD Lasica, the chief executive of Cruiseable, a consumer travel publication and booking site. "The attraction centers on the activities along your route. It's a great way to broaden your children's horizons." In 2017, Uniworld's Jewish heritage themed Rhine Main Discovery trip, for example, will be tailored for families. In addition to regular programming (including visits to Nuremberg's Nazi Party Rally Grounds and the former Rothschild palace turned Jewish Museum in Frankfurt) the trip incorporates hands on experiences for young passengers, including a visit to a medieval crime museum in Rothenburg, Germany, and a torch led tour of the underground passageways in Nuremberg. This year, AMA Waterways introduced Adventures by Disney River Cruises on two newly built ships with connecting cabins, a first for river cruises. Programming (zip lining through the Black Forest, clog decorating in Amsterdam, chocolate making in Cologne) is overseen by Disney trained staff members. (For families with teens, the brand offers hiking and biking "family breakaway" departures developed with the adventure travel company Backroads.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. Last April, when Rob Flaherty, the digital director for Joe Biden's presidential campaign, told me that the former vice president's team planned to use feel good videos and inspirational memes to beat President Trump in a "battle for the soul of the internet," my first thought was: Good luck with that. After all, we were talking about the internet, which doesn't seem to reward anything uplifting or nuanced these days. In addition, Mr. Trump is a digital powerhouse, with an enormous and passionate following, a coalition of popular right wing media outlets boosting his signal, and a flair for saying the kinds of outrageous, attention grabbing things that are catnip to the algorithms of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. And after I wrote about Mr. Biden's comparatively tiny internet presence last spring, I heard from legions of nervous Democratic strategists who worried that using "heal the nation" messaging against the MAGA meme army was like bringing a pinwheel to a prizefight. But in the end, the bed wetters were wrong. Mr. Biden won, and despite having many fewer followers and much less engagement on social media than Mr. Trump, his campaign raised record amounts of money and ultimately neutralized Mr. Trump's vaunted "Death Star" the name his erstwhile campaign manager, Brad Parscale, gave to the campaign's digital operation. Figuring out whether any particular online strategy decisively moved the needle for Mr. Biden is probably impossible. Offline factors, such as Mr. Trump's mishandling of the pandemic and the economic devastation it has caused, undoubtedly played a major role. But since successful campaigns breed imitators, it's worth looking under the hood of the Biden digital strategy to see what future campaigns might learn from it. After the election, I spoke with Mr. Flaherty, along with more than a dozen other people who worked on the Biden digital team. They told me that while the internet alone didn't get Mr. Biden elected, a few key decisions helped his chances. In the early days of his campaign, Mr. Biden's team envisioned setting up its own digital media empire. It posted videos to his official YouTube channel, conducted virtual forums and even set up a podcast hosted by Mr. Biden, "Here's the Deal." But those efforts were marred by technical glitches and lukewarm receptions, and they never came close to rivaling the reach of Mr. Trump's social media machine. So the campaign pivoted to a different strategy, which involved expanding Mr. Biden's reach by working with social media influencers and "validators," people who were trusted by the kinds of voters the campaign hoped to reach. "We were not the biggest megaphone compared to Trump, so we had to help arm any who were," said Andrew Bleeker, the president of Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic strategy firm that worked with the Biden campaign. One validator at the top of the team's list was Brene Brown, a research professor and popular author and podcast host who speaks and writes about topics like courage and vulnerability. Dr. Brown has a devoted following among suburban women a critical demographic for Mr. Biden's campaign and when Mr. Biden appeared as a guest on her podcast to talk about his own stories of grief and empathy, the campaign viewed it as a coup. Also high on the list was the actor Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, whose following skews center right and male. Mr. Johnson's endorsement this fall of Mr. Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, created a so called permission structure for his followers including some who may have voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 to support Mr. Biden, members of the campaign staff told me. Celebrity endorsements aren't a new campaign strategy. But Mr. Biden's team also worked with lesser known influencers, including YouTubers like Liza Koshy, and struck a partnership with a group of creators known as TikTok for Biden, which the campaign paid to promote pro Biden content on the teen dominated video app TikTok. Perhaps the campaign's most unlikely validator was Fox News. Headlines from the outlet that reflected well on Mr. Biden were relatively rare, but the campaign's tests showed that they were more persuasive to on the fence voters than headlines from other outlets. So when they appeared as they did in October when Fox News covered an endorsement that Mr. Biden received from more than 120 Republican former national security and military officials the campaign paid to promote them on Facebook and other platforms. "The headlines from the sources that were the most surprising were the ones that had the most impact," said Rebecca Rinkevich, Mr. Biden's digital rapid response director. "When people saw a Fox News headline endorsing Joe Biden, it made them stop scrolling and think." 2. Tune Out Twitter, and Focus on 'Facebook Moms' A frequent criticism of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign was that it was too focused on appealing to the elite, high information crowd on Twitter, instead of paying attention to the much larger group of voters who get their news and information on Facebook. In 2020, Mr. Biden's digital team was committed to avoiding a repeat. "The whole Biden campaign ethos was 'Twitter isn't real life,'" Mr. Flaherty said. "There are risks of running a campaign that is too hyper aware of your own ideological corner." As it focused on Facebook, the Biden campaign paid extra attention to "Facebook moms" women who spend a lot of time sharing cute and uplifting content, and who the campaign believed could be persuaded to vote for Mr. Biden with positive messages about his character. Its target audience, Mr. Flaherty said, was women "who would go out and share a video of troops coming home, or who would follow The Dodo," a website known for heartwarming animal videos. One successful clip aimed at this group showed Mr. Biden giving his American flag lapel pin to a young boy at a campaign stop. Another video showed Mr. Biden, who has talked about overcoming a stutter in his youth, meeting Brayden Harrington, a 13 year old boy with one. Both were viewed millions of times. Voters also responded positively to videos in which Mr. Biden showed his command of foreign policy. In January, after a U.S. drone strike killed the Iranian general Qassim Suleimani, the campaign posted a three minute Facebook video of Mr. Biden explaining the situation. Despite the snoozy title "Joe Biden Discusses Donald Trump's Recent Actions in the Middle East" the video became one of the campaign's earliest viral successes. One of the campaign's goals, Biden staff members told me, was promoting content that increased "social trust" in other words, avoiding the kind of energizing, divisive fare that Mr. Trump has used to great effect. But Mr. Biden's digital strategy wasn't all puppies and rainbows. The campaign also joined ranks with a number of popular left wing Facebook pages, many of which are known for putting out aggressive anti Trump content. They called this group the "Rebel Alliance," a jokey nod to Mr. Parscale's "Death Star," and it eventually grew to include the proprietors of pages like Occupy Democrats, Call to Activism, The Other 98 Percent and Being Liberal. On the messaging app Signal, the page owners formed a group text that became a kind of rapid response brain trust for the campaign. "I had the freedom to go for the jugular," said Rafael Rivero, a co founder of Occupy Democrats and Ridin' With Biden, another big pro Biden Facebook page. "It was sort of a big, distributed message test," Mr. Flaherty said of the Rebel Alliance. "If it was popping through Occupy or any of our other partners, we knew there was heat there." These left wing pages gave the campaign a bigger Facebook audience than it could have reached on its own. But they also allowed Mr. Biden to keep most of his messaging positive, while still tapping into the anger and outrage many Democratic voters felt. In its internal tests, the Biden campaign found that traditional political ads professionally produced, slick looking 30 second spots were far less effective than impromptu, behind the scenes footage and ads that featured regular voters talking directly into their smartphones or webcams about why they were voting for Mr. Biden. "All our testing showed that higher production value was not better," said Nathaniel Lubin, a Biden campaign consultant. "The things that were realer, more grainy and cheaper to produce were more credible." So the campaign commissioned a series of simple, lo fi ads targeted at key groups of voters, like a series of self recorded videos by Biden supporters who didn't vote in 2016, talking about their regrets. In addition to hiring traditional Democratic ad firms, the campaign also teamed up with what it called "small batch creators" lesser known producers and digital creators, some of whom had little experience making political ads. Among the small batch creators it hired: Scotty Wagner, a former art school professor from California, who produced a video about young people who supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary sharing things they didn't know about Mr. Biden, and Jawanza Tucker, a TikTok creator, who made a video styled after a TikTok meme about why he was voting for Mr. Biden. One of the biggest obstacles the Biden campaign faced was a tsunami of misinformation, much of it amplified by the Trump campaign and its right wing media allies. There were baseless rumors about Mr. Biden's health, unfounded questions about the citizenship of Ms. Harris and spurious claims about the business dealings of Mr. Biden's son Hunter. The campaign formed an in house effort to combat these rumors, known as the "Malarkey Factory." But it picked its battles carefully, using data from voter testing to guide its responses. When the Hunter Biden laptop story emerged, for example, some Democrats worried that it would be 2020's version of the Hillary Clinton email story suggested that the Biden campaign should forcefully denounce it. But the campaign's testing found that most voters in its key groups couldn't follow the complexities of the allegations, and that it wasn't changing their opinion of Mr. Biden. "We had running surveys so we could see in real time how people were responding," said Caitlin Mitchell, a digital adviser for the Biden campaign. "The two big metrics were: Are you aware of this? And many people had heard of it. The secondary category was: Are you concerned by it? And the clear answer was no." The campaign still responded to the reports, and Mr. Biden defended his son on the debate stage. But it stopped short of mounting a full throated counter messaging campaign. When it did respond to misinformation, the Biden team tried to address the root of the narrative. After right wing influencers posted compilation videos of Mr. Biden stumbling over his words and appearing forgetful, the campaign surveyed voters to try to figure out whether the attempt to paint him as mentally unfit was resonating. It discovered that the real concern for many people wasn't Mr. Biden's age, or his health per se, but whether he was an easily manipulated tool of the radical left. The Biden team identified the voters who were most likely to see those clips and ran a targeted digital ad campaign showing them videos of Mr. Biden speaking lucidly at debates and public events. Mr. Flaherty, the campaign digital director, said the campaign's focus on empathy had informed how it treated misinformation: not as a cynical Trump ploy that was swallowed by credulous dupes, but as something that required listening to voters to understand their concerns and worries before fighting back. Ultimately, he said, the campaign's entire digital strategy the Malarkey Factory, the TikTok creators and Facebook moms, the Fortnite signs and small batch creators was about trying to reach a kinder, gentler version of the internet that it still believed existed. "It was about how do we throw the incentives of the internet for a bit of a loop?" he said. "We made a decision early that we were going to be authentically Joe Biden online, even when people were saying that was a trap." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
THE familiar two digit name of the 9 5 gives no clue to the car's troubled birth or to the near miraculous survival of Saab. This all new sedan needs a more evocative name. The Saab Lazarus, perhaps, or the Kummback. With Pontiac and other brands already felled by the bad economy, it is only natural to hope that the Swedish automaker can stick around. Yet as the revived company's first would be savior with the 9 4X crossover and a new smaller 9 3 sedan to follow the 9 5 reveals a handsome face but feet of clay. Saab had been one of the brand castaways of the recession, cut loose by General Motors with few white knights in sight. But just when Saab seemed to be sunk, the owner of a speck sized Dutch maker of exotic cars Victor Muller of Spyker stepped in to acquire the Swedish automaker for 400 million, including 74 million in cash. Now comes the hard part: reviving a proud company whose sales have plummeted so sharply that some consumers assume Saab is dead and buried. Both the new management and some journalists place all of the blame on G.M. and its distracted stewardship. These critics seem to have forgotten where Saab was headed before G.M. threw it a lifeline. Even before 2000, when G.M. fully absorbed the brand, the Swedes were getting their herring creamed by hungrier, nimbler luxury brands. Despite game changing threats from Lexus and other fast movers, Saab clung to an obsolete strategy, offering scant model choices with limited appeal beyond a core group of fans. These few models were updated roughly every dozen years as rivals revamped their entire lineups in half that time, leaving Saab behind the competitive curve. The complacency continued under G.M. The last generation 9 5 was a tired soldier after 13 years. And G.M. failed to give Saab the luxury crossovers that the company desperately needed. Ultimately, even loyal Saabistas got tired of being taken for granted. Mr. Muller's mission, as he sees it, is to win back owners who've fled from Saab to Audi far more than to any other brand, he said in a recent interview by recapturing the Scandinavian character that had leaked away during the G.M. years. Yet even as G.M. and Saab have divorced and squabbled, they still have to get along for the sake of the children: The new 9 5 is handsomely, unmistakably a Saab, yet under the skin the car remains a G.M. creation to its core. It shares its front or all wheel drive platform with the solid Buick LaCrosse. Its engines and other components can be found in several G.M. models. That's not a major issue in itself. But a car born in such corporate turmoil bears the scars of separation. While G.M. was fighting for its life and trying to unload its foster child it abandoned development work on future Saabs, said G.M. executives and engineers deeply involved in its projects. In Detroit, the 9 5 sat untouched and unfinished for well over a year. Unfortunately, the 9 5 leaves just that impression, of a car whose finishing touches were hastily applied or even overlooked. It's a car you want to love, with a swept back elegance that makes a refreshing contrast to trendy or generic Asian luxury cars, and to the ubiquitous Germans that dominate the midrange luxury market. The 9 5 also feels especially roomy, front or back. But a key missing ingredient is chassis refinement, that alchemist's blend of a smooth ride and taut control that characterizes the 9 5's main rivals, including the Audi A6, BMW 5 Series, Cadillac CTS and Infiniti M37. There's much to admire in the 9 5, beginning with its graceful lines. Huge front air inlets and a wrapround cockpit nod to Saab's aircraft roots. The roofline falls sweetly, buttressed by strong, sweeping rear pillars. And where so many rivals conform to a wheels at the corners approach, the Saab strikes a more classic profile with a long tail that extends far beyond the rear axle. The 9 5 looks modern yet stately. Like the best Saabs of the past, it's an individualist's car, with a timeless character that should look as good a decade from now as it does today. This Saab is also huge, roughly seven inches longer and three inches wider than the previous 9 5. At 197 inches, the Saab stretches past any car in its class, with a spacious back seat that puts a 5 Series or CTS to shame. The cabin shows more good design. It is so attractive and comfortable that you nearly overlook the mediocre materials or the many bits obviously borrowed from the G.M. parts bin. Saab's offbeat Nordic charm shows in driver's gauges with green needles that glow as threateningly as Darth Vader's light saber; matrix style air vents and a "night panel" button that blacks out most of the instrument panel. A keyless pushbutton replaces the key switch at the traditional location on the console no more fishing for dropped keys between the seats. The seats are handsome and supportive. The controls, which initially seem haphazard, are smoothly functional. The car's Detroit derived hardware is a mixed bag. The intuitive G.M. based touch screen navigation system is one of the most appealing interior features. Some switches, however, would look at home in a Chevy. And while the metal ribbed shifter for the 6 speed automatic transmission looks good, it clomps noisily through its gate like a Clydesdale on a hardwood floor. I drove an Infiniti M37 back to back with the 9 5, and the contrast of the cabins was unavoidable. The encompassing richness of the Infiniti, to name just one competitor, makes a luxury statement that leaves the Saab wanting. Again, it's the underripe nature of the car that draws criticism. I drove the 9 5 Aero, with its solid Haldex all wheel drive system, that starts at a heady 48,390. With options including the navigation system and 19 inch wheels, the price reached 52,360. On the plus side, the 9 5 delivers respectable fuel economy for its size: 16 miles per gallon in town and 27 on the highway. Saab offers a far more affordable Turbo4 model, starting at 39,350 with front drive and a turbocharged Ecotec 4 cylinder. Options on that version include a 6 speed manual transmission and all wheel drive. But on paper, the Turbo4's numbers raise concern: how smartly can a 220 horsepower G.M. engine lug around a two ton luxury sedan? For now, the 300 horsepower 9 5 Aero is powered by G.M.'s turbocharged 2.8 liter V 6, an engine that's competent but no prize winner. As mentioned, the Saab shares its platform with the LaCrosse, whose critical praise is well earned in part because the Buick costs barely 30,000, not 50,000. To its credit, the 9 5 smooths out the turbo's uneven power delivery. The 9 5 gathers power in a linear, pleasantly silent rush. There's just enough grunt to make the Saab feel not so slow; Car and Driver magazine recorded 0 to 60 acceleration at 6.3 seconds. But many competitors are downright fast. Weight is one issue: at 4,365 pounds the 9 5 Aero is the class heavyweight. The Saab's transmission can be slow and stubborn, even when you're changing gears with the the paddles on the steering wheel. There's plenty of tire grip, but so little steering feel that the 9 5 doesn't transmit much confidence or pleasure at high speeds. The Saab's boomy ride is its weakest point. A selectable system dials up three modes Comfort, Intelligent and Sport to adjust parameters including the suspension, throttle, transmission and stability control system. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
MOSCOW Ask a Russian what the country makes well, and the answer, more often than not, will be the Kalashnikov rifle. Russian made cars may be rickety, and its passenger airplanes such fuel guzzlers that even the country's flag carrier, Aeroflot, has switched to a mostly Western fleet. But Russians could always point with pride to the fearsome reputation of their weapons the Kalashnikov and the MIG and Sukhoi fighter jets. Indeed, until recently, Russia's military exports were second in volume only to the United States. But in today's Russia, the 40 billion military equipment industry is withering alongside civilian manufacturing. Once legendary Russian weapons are suffering embarrassing quality control problems. Algeria, for example, recently returned a shipment of MIG jets because of defects. An aircraft carrier refurbishment for India is four years late and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. In perhaps the most poignant sign of trouble, Russia's own military is now voting with its rubles: Moscow is in talks with France to buy four French amphibious assault ships. If a deal is struck, it would be Russia's most significant acquisition of foreign weapons since World War II. The purchase of Mistral class ships would be "the most salient example of the deficiencies in the Russian defense industry," said Dmitri Trenin, a military analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, a policy research organization. Outside Russia, the potential deal has led to geopolitical hand wringing. Critics say France is selling out its Eastern European NATO allies. Yet opposition to the deal has been nearly as fierce inside Russia by supporters of the weapons industry. Even as military manufacturing shrank to 4.28 percent of gross domestic product last year, down from 20 percent under communism, Russia's armed forces relied on domestic producers for nearly every screw and bullet in the arsenal. Self sufficiency in military manufacturing was a "sacred cow" of national security, Mr. Trenin said. "Have we forgotten how to make military hardware?" a Communist Party deputy, Svetlana Savitskaya, said Wednesday at a hearing in the Russian Parliament about the potential purchase. "And if we do not have certain secrets that other countries know, what is our military technological intelligence service for?" Many experts say the decline began with the end of the Soviet Union. When Russia became capitalist, they say, so did its military industry. Like much of Russian industry, it was privatized haphazardly. For example, factories and the engineering departments that designed what these factories made were sold separately. Over time, this had a deleterious effect on quality. Big companies that inherited export contracts with China, India and the Middle East made profits on older designs and legacy parts but did little to upgrade. The end of generous Soviet military budgets, too, caused assembly lines to creak to a halt at tank and airplane factories. Workers assemble rifles at the Izhmash firearms factory in Russia. Izhmash makes roughly 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles every year. More recently, the sector suffered from an insidious economic problem known as the "Dutch Disease" when an increase in revenue from natural resources (oil and natural gas, in Russia's case) pushes up a country's currency, making exports more expensive on world markets. This has whittled away at the competitiveness of Russian weapons merchants abroad. The ruble appreciated through most of the decade, before tumbling in the financial crisis. But it is gaining again. The ruble has risen almost 16 percent against the dollar in the last 12 months alone. Other problems have beset Russian military contractors. Many engineers have emigrated, leaving a work force that is near retirement. Even with these troubles, some companies have succeeded and gone public, listing their shares on the Russian Trading System stock exchange. United Aircraft, the umbrella company for the makers of the MIG and Sukhoi fighter jets, has a market capitalization of more than 2 billion, according to Marina Alekseyenkova, an industrial analyst at Renaissance Capital, a Moscow investment bank. The question is, will Moscow buy from these relatively successful companies? So far, domestic military spending has been spread across the entire gamut of Russian military suppliers to maintain the illusion of Russian self sufficiency. This has meant spending money on hopeless losers, like Russian walkie talkie makers. Abroad, Russia's share of arms sales plummeted with the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, according to a Congressional Research Service report on the international arms trade released in September. Russia sold 3.5 billion worth of weaponry globally that year, down from 10.8 billion in 2007. That was well behind the United States, whose companies sold 37.8 billion worth of weapons 68 percent of the total global arms business that year. In the developing world, where Russia surpassed even the United States in military exports in 2004 and 2006, its market share collapsed. Over all, developing world sales were flat in 2008, but Russia's share tumbled, from 25.2 percent of all deals in 2007 to 7.8 percent in 2008, the latest year for which figures were available. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
Eureka moments are supposed to happen in unlikely locations, like the one Archimedes had in his bath. But my revelation about planning and money came in a terribly likely spot, a centuries old ceremonial hall at Oxford University. The sociologist Anthony Giddens was at a conference there talking not of personal finance but about the challenge of shifting the politics of climate change. One reason it is so difficult, he suggested, is that while people see the present in crisp high definition, the future is blurry. He mentioned teenagers taking a first cigarette to impress friends who are in sharp focus now and ignoring the diaphanous image of their 60 year old selves with emphysema. Behavioral economists have a term for this phenomenon. They call it hyperbolic discounting. Our myopia sets in quickly, hence the "hyperbolic" part. We are vague about the future even a few months from now. There is even a test. Economists make people an offer: 100 now or 120 at this time next year. Most people pick immediate gratification, even though the smart choice is more money later. After all, what other investment is going to yield a guaranteed 20 percent return? In search of some kind of pill or corrective lens, I called a man who studies these things, Joseph Kable, a neuroscientist and assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. "I think we are all looking for a cure," Professor Kable joked. Discounting, he told me, affects decisions about our health, government policy choices about budgets and, yes, personal finances. If there is no cure, some exercises may help. Professor Kable said even brief reveries pondering future events might help reduce discounting's effects. One exercise I like is not my invention but seems right out of Charles Dickens. Before making a big financial decision, why not try interviewing one's future self? After all, the Ghost of David Brancaccio Future has skin in the game, and that ghost deserves to have his say. It is this future self who might judge that it is right to spend a fortune on college because my children will end up with more fulfilling lives. Yet my future self might warn me from 2045 that he is stuck eating cat food because of that golden 17,000 Apple Watch I really had to have in 2015. But since I cannot actually interview my future self, perhaps I could speak to a surrogate. Recently, I visited the man I would like to be decades from now. Herbert R. Mayer, 93, is a gifted entrepreneur with a way with money that took him from humble origins near the Dodgers' old Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to a comfortable life in Southern California. I like to think he was Amazon decades before Amazon. Instead of the Internet, he used catalogs and snail mail to sell custom paper products directly to hospitals. I interrogated my future self, I mean Herb, about several practical choices. I haven't been saving enough for retirement because of those aforementioned college tuitions. This year I might be able to kick in 10,000 to a 401(k), but I could raise the contribution to 16,000 if I canceled a much needed family vacation that we were planning in Spain. Herb's answer was swift. Cut the cost of the vacation in half and put the cash saved toward retirement. "You can do it both ways," he said. I figure that might be easier if we disinvite our three young adult children or switch to a vacation that does not involve airfare, such as a drive to a cabin in my home state, Maine. Next choice: Interest rates are low, and I can get a home equity loan to fix up a Nixon era kitchen. If we don't get too crazy, that could cost 50,000 in my part of New Jersey. Herb blanched at an estimate that high. His prescription: Do inexpensive improvements now with the money at hand. I should find a way to make more and use that to pay for further upgrades. Herb believes in my future earnings potential, yet does not want me to borrow. "No, it's ridiculous," Herb said. "Never liked borrowing." Why is that? "I just think it's a tough way to make a buck." This from a man who knows how to make a buck. If Herb represents my future self at all accurately, that future self is a tough customer. During that visit, he also pointedly showed off his newly refurbished refrigerator. Refurbished? Who knew? For those without access to a wise nonagenarian, there is technology. The investment company Merrill Edge has an app that is supposed to mute hyperbolic discounting. It invites you to upload an image of your face that is then electronically "aged" to project what you might look like in future decades. The results in my case were less instructive than dispiriting: Imagine a waxwork effigy left to melt overnight on a radiator. If that is what I'm going to look like in several decades, I had better start saving for a plastic surgeon, too. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
With the music industry in the midst of the streaming age, even the indie labels want to bulk up to gain an edge in digital deals and to reach a global audience. Take Concord Bicycle Music, whose roster includes Paul Simon, James Taylor and the Creedence Clearwater Revival catalog. In a slew of deals over the last few years, it has grown from merely a sizable independent with a specialty in grown up pop to a sort of mini conglomerate, with holdings in Latin, hard rock and even children's music. Now Concord Bicycle, which is based in Beverly Hills, Calif., is set to expand even further, with a deal to acquire the Imagem Music Group, one of the world's largest independent music publishers. Imagem's catalog of 250,000 compositions includes Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals; works by 20th century classical giants like Stravinsky and Copland; and pop hits by Daft Punk, Pink Floyd and Phil Collins. "As the business continues to change, you have to be able to have a seat at the big table as industrywide deals are negotiated," said Scott Pascucci, the chief executive of Concord Bicycle. "This deal gives us scale. It gives us more stability, allows us to continue to grow." Terms of the deal, which was completed Friday, were not disclosed. But three years ago, Imagem, which was founded by the Dutch pension fund ABP and the media company CTM Publishing, tried to sell itself for 650 million, a price that bidders found too high. Concord's deal is estimated to be for somewhat less than that amount, according to two people briefed on the deal who were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The purchase is Concord Bicycle's biggest by far, almost doubling the size of the company to nearly 1 billion. Counting Imagem's business, the combined company would have 290 million in revenue this year, Mr. Pascucci said. The deal will vastly expand the company's theatrical holdings and add a new piece through Boosey Hawkes, a premier classical catalog. Andre de Raaff, Imagem's chief executive, pointed to a recent Dove commercial using "My Favorite Things" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music" as an example of the catalog's value. "I dare to say that 'The Sound of Music' is making more money now than when it was successful for the first time 50 years ago," he said. Retail earnings and Black Friday: the week in business. Elizabeth Holmes will resume her testimony in her fraud trial. The value of the Boosey Hawkes catalog is less clear, as classical music remains a small niche, one not particularly well served by streaming services. "If our optimism is misplaced or overstated," Mr. Pascucci said of the classical material, "then at worst you have a large and very stable catalog." For Concord Bicycle, the Imagem acquisition will cap a busy period of deal making. Four years ago, Wood Creek Capital Management, a private equity affiliate of MassMutual, bought the Concord Music Group, a record label that had built a business catering to adult tastes with Paul McCartney, the Stax soul catalog and a joint label with Starbucks. (Concord Bicycle is now owned by Barings Alternative Investments, the successor to Wood Creek; Sound Investors, led by the media executive Stephen Smith; and others.) Then, in 2015, Concord merged with the Bicycle Music Company, a publisher, and the combined company made a series of deals for new kinds of music: Wind Up Records and Razor Tie brought hard rock and the popular "Kidz Bop" series; a deal for Musart added Latin music; a deal with the music executive Tom Whalley for his label Loma Vista added alternative acts like St. Vincent; and there was a partnership with Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group. The Imagem deal is the latest in a frothy market for music publishing, the side of the business that deals in the copyrights for songwriting and composition. With the recorded music business shaken by digital disruption, investors have viewed publishing catalogs as a safer investment. The owners of these rights collect money whenever songs are played on the radio, streamed online or used in film and television. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Mr. Cosby faces up to 10 years for each of the three felonies he was convicted of, but the judge could decide that he could serve any sentence concurrently. The defense is likely to argue for leniency, maybe pointing to Mr. Cosby's past philanthropy, and emphasizing his current age, 80, and frail health. His lawyers will probably argue that for a man of his age, any long sentence is a life sentence. Prosecutors have already indicated that they view this as a serious crime and may push the judge to levy a sentence that takes note of what they presented in court as Mr. Cosby's history as a serial predator. Unlike at the trial, where prosecutors had to be careful about referring to the more than 50 other women who have accused him of assault, they likely face no constraint at the sentencing hearing, experts said. "The judge may not be as worried as he was at the trial," said Barbara Ashcroft, a former sex crimes prosecutor in Montgomery County. "He may let the floodgates open and let those other victims come in and testify." Dennis McAndrews, a Pennsylvania lawyer who has followed the case closely, said that the most likely scenario, because of Mr. Cosby's age and the similarity of the counts, is that Judge Steven T. O'Neill will merge the counts and base the sentencing on just one count. As a result, Mr. Cosby will probably face a maximum sentence of 10 years. How long will Mr. Cosby be free on bail? Ms. Ashcroft said Mr. Cosby had not been shown any special treatment when he was allowed to leave on bail. Bail would have been revoked if he were an especially dangerous risk to society or was a flight risk. Where he did have an advantage was the ability to meet the 1 million bail, she said. Now his lawyers will probably ask Judge O'Neill to postpone Mr. Cosby's incarceration until after their appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court is decided. Weighed against that, however, is any flight risk, something emphasized by the district attorney, Kevin R. Steele, at the trial on Thursday. In the interim, experts said, Mr. Cosby will be classified as a sex offender and will be required to register with the state police. Where might Mr. Cosby serve his sentence? Inmates with short sentences often serve them in a county jail, but Mr. Cosby is likely to enter the state correctional system, experts said. Susan McNaughton, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, said the state has 22 institutions to care for men, and it was too early to say which one he would go to. All are set up to cope with elderly inmates, and there is no facility that is especially designated for such prisoners. What are the grounds for an appeal? TESTIMONY FROM THE FIVE ADDITIONAL WOMEN Ordinarily, prosecutors cannot introduce evidence or accusations of prior bad behavior. It is viewed as too prejudicial for a jury as it considers the facts of the single case before it. But here five women were allowed to describe their own encounters with Mr. Cosby. The judge did not provide a legal reasoning for his decision to allow five, compared with one other accuser he permitted to testify at the first trial, and the introduction of evidence like this has been allowed in other cases, but several experts said it is a likely target of the defense team. "This is an enormous issue that is going to be argued on appeal," said Shan Wu, a former sex crimes prosecutor in Washington. THE JUDGE'S REFUSAL TO RECUSE HIMSELF Defense lawyers had sought to have Judge O'Neill replaced before the trial because the judge's wife has been an active supporter of sexual assault victims. Judge O'Neill would not recuse himself, and experts said higher courts have typically not viewed spousal affiliations as grounds for judicial recusal, but the defense could revisit the topic. THE DEFENSE'S INABILITY TO INTRODUCE EVIDENCE FROM SHERI WILLIAMS Ms. Williams, a friend of Ms. Constand, testified during Ms. Constand's civil suit against Mr. Cosby. But Mr. Cosby's lawyers had sought to have her testify at the trial, and when they could not find her, they asked that her deposition testimony be read to the jury. It's unclear what the defense hoped to show with Ms. Williams's testimony, but The Associated Press reported that the defense thought it would show that Ms. Constand was not as unaware of Mr. Cosby's romantic intentions as she had indicated. The judge denied, reasoning that prosecutors had been unable to cross examine the witness when she gave the deposition. Mr. Wu said the defense's inability to produce this witness may be something they emphasize on appeal, especially since the prosecution was allowed to bring five prior bad acts witnesses. THE JUROR WHO WAS KEPT ON Before the retrial started, the defense lawyers had asked to bar one of the jurors who had been selected to hear the case. They said the juror had been overheard by another prospective juror saying he thought Mr. Cosby was guilty. After several hours of discussion with both sides, Judge O'Neill ruled that the juror could continue on the case, but he never made his reasoning publicly known. What happens to the civil suits? The review of Mr. Cosby's behavior is now likely to shift to the arena of the civil courts, where he has been sued by several women. Many of the women are suing him for defamation because, they say, he or his staff branded them as liars by dismissing their allegations as fabrications. The suits had mostly been delayed, pending the outcome of the criminal trial but are now likely to draw momentum from the guilty verdict. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
What's the creepiest reading experience N.K. Jemisin ever had? If Jemisin has a weakness, however, it's a propensity for didacticism. "The Ones Who Stay and Fight," which she describes as "pastiche of and reaction to Ursula Le Guin's 'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,'" takes an already preachy story as its springboard let no one pretend that the genre isn't soapbox prone to argue with both the past master and the rabble of reactionaries who have harried efforts to diversify science fiction. It posits a sort of utopia while firing salvos at offstage skeptics ("It's almost as if you feel threatened by the very idea of equality. Almost as if some part of you needs to be angry"). The result makes for a lifeless exercise from a writer known for her ferocious and sorrowful vitality. Inexplicably, this piece opens the book, and it would be a shame if browsers unfamiliar with Jemisin's work were to conclude that it is representative of the whole collection. It isn't, although it does sometimes seem that Jemisin worries overmuch about getting her message across. One of her fortes, as she notes herself in her introduction, is "playing with genii locorum ... places with minds of their own." Two of the stories in this collection depict young men poor, dark skinned and overlooked who embody their cities, New York and New Orleans. The near perfect "Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters" recounts how Tookie, left behind because he wouldn't fit in the family car, and an elderly neighbor cope during Hurricane Katrina, aided occasionally by a wisecracking, bat winged "lizard." Their antagonist is a big, dark thing moving beneath the floodwaters. The events of the story itself make the nature of this thing quite clear, yet Jemisin feels obliged to double down on its allegorical nature by having Tookie label it "the Hate" and the "lizard" explain "this thing make people so ugly they don' even want to help each other." This unnecessary exposition kills the shiver of the sublime in a story otherwise marked by honed descriptions, winning characters and captivating New Orleanian dialogue. There is, fortunately, much more to love in this collection. Some of the stories are good old fashioned science fiction yarns shot from new angles, like "Walking Awake," a response to Robert A. Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters," in which a middle aged caregiver raising human children whose bodies will eventually be taken over by parasitical aliens experiences a moment of revolutionary awakening. "The Trojan Girl," a fleet footed cyberpunk thriller, conjures a gang of digital entities, artificial intelligences gone rogue, roaming a virtual universe and seeking access to a greater reality. "Valedictorian," a follow up set in the same world but much later, after the AIs have merged with some of humanity, features one of the determined, defiant girls that often turn up in Jemisin's work, then flips her view of her society upside down. Any fan of the Broken Earth novels will eagerly seize upon "Stone Hunger," set in that series' universe, in which another fierce girl, an "orogene" with the power to stoke or subdue geological tensions, pursues the man who destroyed her city. The nameless heroine of "Stone Hunger" encounters a "stone eater" (a type of being Jemisin invented for the Broken Earth series), a living statue, human in shape and able to speak without using its mouth, with a voice emanating from inside its body. "The stone eater moves," the girl observes, "and seeing this causes chilly sweat to rise on the girl's skin. It is slow, stiff. She hears a faint sound like the grind of a tomb's cover stone." This collection features many similarly uncanny moments in which the human integrates with what feels profoundly inhuman. (Jemisin does creepy so well, it's enough to make you wish she'd try a straight up horror novel another genre that could really use more black writers.) The stories here teem with impostors, parasites and hybrids. Sometimes they must be fought off, but this is one science fiction author who does not take that stance reflexively. Expand your notion of what we can be, she suggests. Recognize that change is inevitable and often strengthening. Don't kid yourself that the alternative is safety; the alternative is death. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Maynard Solomon, a musicologist and record producer best known for his influential, lucidly written biographies of Beethoven and Mozart, as well as a hotly debated scholarly article on Schubert's sexuality, died on Sept. 28 at his apartment in Manhattan. He was 90. The cause was Lewy body dementia, his family said. Reviewing Mr. Solomon's 1988 book, "Beethoven Essays," the New York Times music critic Donal Henahan described Mr. Solomon, who was also a co founder of the influential record label Vanguard, as "one of the most persuasive voices on behalf of the perilous intellectual voyage known as psychobiography or, less kindly, 'psychobabblography.'" But in investigating the mysteries of creative energy, he wrote, Mr. Solomon "builds even his most speculative essays on musicological foundations, not moonbeams." Mr. Solomon's compelling 1977 biography of Beethoven, later revised and reissued, offered fresh, meticulously researched accounts of his life and perceptive yet mostly nontechnical discussions of his compositions. Going further, Mr. Solomon boldly framed the narrative with psychological speculations on the composer's life, including the young Beethoven's fraught relationship with his bullying, alcoholic father and his fantasies of having been born illegitimate and of having royal blood. Mr. Solomon was especially astute about Beethoven's arduous, ultimately successful attempt later in life to wrest legal guardianship of his young nephew, Karl, from his widowed sister in law, a woman Beethoven thought immoral. Beethoven's "obsessive entanglement with them," Mr. Solomon wrote, "forcibly wrenched his emotional energies from their attachment to the outer world and focused them upon the still unresolved issues of his family constellation." For some readers, Mr. Solomon went too far in his books and numerous articles. He put the "stubborn, moody, withdrawn Ludwig on a psychoanalytic couch," a review of the Beethoven biography in Kirkus said. Still, his approach resonated outside the realm of classical music. Mr. Solomon's "Mozart: A Life" was a finalist for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize in biography. And he won wide respect among scholars. In a 2007 article for the Journal of the American Musicological Society, the music scholar Thomas S. Grey wrote that "no living writer, at least in English, has had a greater influence on our current perception of Beethoven as a creative personality than Maynard Solomon." His book "Late Beethoven: Music, Thought, Imagination" (2004) was also influential. Maynard Elliott Solomon was born on Jan. 5, 1930, in Manhattan, the youngest of three children of Benjamin and Dora (Levinsky) Solomon. His father, who had a rabbinical education in Ukraine, immigrated to New York, where he worked as a typesetter, owned a candy store near Gracie Mansion and, after the family moved to Brooklyn, ran a successful art supply store, where young Maynard often worked. His mother, who immigrated from Lithuania, worked as a seamstress until her marriage. Attending the High School of Music and Art, as it was then called, in Manhattan, Mr. Solomon played the piano and studied cello. Recalling family music making sessions for a Talk of the Town feature in The New Yorker in 1955, Mr. Solomon said that though neither of his parents was musical, his mother "always wanted, and got, a trio in the house": He played cello, his brother violin and his sister piano. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1950 with a B.A. in music and English, and continued his studies at Columbia University. Unusually for someone who became a respected scholar, Mr. Solomon never completed an advanced degree. In 1950, with a 10,000 loan from their father, Maynard and his brother, Seymour, founded Vanguard Records. The venture began after Seymour, who had studied musicology at New York University, took a tape recorder to Vienna to capture performances of Bach cantatas by the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Felix Prohaska. Over time Vanguard and its Bach Guild label released an impressively diverse catalog of valuable recordings, especially of overlooked works, and issued pivotal albums of folk music, blues and jazz. The classical repertory included English madrigals, overlooked Bach cantatas, masses by Haydn and a landmark survey of the complete Mahler symphonies with Maurice Abravanel conducting the Utah Symphony Orchestra. During the height of McCarthyism in the mid 1950s, Vanguard signed blacklisted performers including the bass baritone Paul Robeson and the Weavers, whose 1956 release "The Weavers at Carnegie Hall" helped spark a revival of folk music in America. Vanguard became one of the industry's leading folk and blues labels, releasing important albums by Joan Baez, Buffy Sainte Marie, Odetta, Mississippi John Hurt, the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and other acts. Jazz artists like Elvin Jones, Larry Coryell and Oregon also recorded for Vanguard, as did the rock group Country Joe and the Fish. The Solomon brothers sold the label in 1986. In the 1970s, while maintaining a full time job at Vanguard, Maynard Solomon had been drawn increasingly into research and writing, mostly working in the evenings and weekends. His political sympathies led to the publication in 1973 of "Marxism and Art: Essays Classic and Contemporary," a collection of basic readings in Marxist criticism and aesthetics edited and introduced by Mr. Solomon. The sale of Vanguard allowed him to concentrate fully on research. He shook up musicology in 1989 with an article in the journal 19th Century Music intriguingly titled "Franz Schubert and the Peacocks of Benvenuto Cellini." Citing letters and written recollections from Schubert's close male friends, accompanied by deep dives into the mores of the period, Mr. Solomon presented a case that the composer was primarily homosexual. There was predictable pushback from some corners of the musicological establishment. Several scholars pointed to questionable readings of sources. And Mr. Solomon's analysis of evidence that Schubert may have engaged in relations with adolescent men, referred to in coded references as "peacocks," was seen as the most speculative leap in his argument. Still, that Schubert had deep longings for men that filled him at once with sensual excitement and anguish comes through persuasively. Those emotions, some may feel, help explain the melancholy that can permeate even Schubert pieces that seem cheerful on the surface. The most controversial element of Mr. Solomon's absorbing biography of Mozart was his portrait of the composer's father. Leopold Mozart "emerges as a possessive monster," the New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani wrote in a 1995 review, "obsessed with controlling his brilliant son's entire life, as a means of financial aggrandizement, as a ratification of his own skills as a teacher and as an unconscious recapitulation with his own conflicts with his mother." Yet Edward W. Said, in an admiring review for The New Yorker, saw nuance in the book's depiction of a father son partnership. Mr. Solomon "shows how it imprisoned the young Wolfgang Mozart creatively and personally in the older man's sphere as rebel and here Solomon's ingenuity gives an audacious edge to his interpretation as willing captive," Mr. Said wrote. Leopold's feelings, he said, are seen as "predicated on love and admiration, not merely venality and greed." He concluded that he "did not know a musician's biography as satisfying and moving as this one." Mr. Solomon taught regularly in adjunct and visiting professor stints at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Columbia, Harvard and Yale, and joined the graduate faculty at the Juilliard School. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
FIGHT OF THE CENTURY Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases Edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman Americans have always loved a courtroom drama. As attacks on the rule of law become more frequent and intense, the public has rekindled its often dormant affection for public interest lawyers endearingly unglamorous defenders of principle over politics, of rules over ruffianism. And few organizations have received more of this love in recent years than the American Civil Liberties Union, which more than quadrupled its membership and raised nearly 120 million in the 15 months after the 2016 election. The organization has filed dozens of lawsuits challenging Trump administration policies, from migrant family separation to voting rights. In the Trump era, the A.C.L.U.'s work has moved from behind the scenes to center stage, and the organization acknowledged its new starring role in a full page advertisement in The New York Times the Friday after the 2016 election, in which the executive director, Anthony D. Romero, warned that the president elect would face "the full firepower of the A.C.L.U." if Trump were to follow through on his more constitutionally questionable campaign promises. If there's something of the action movie hero in Romero's rhetoric, that's not coincidental; both the general public and the courts respond most reliably to simple stories defender versus oppressor, freethinker versus censor, prophet versus mob. Now, to mark the A.C.L.U.'s 100th anniversary, the writers and married couple Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman (a former federal public defender) have partnered with the organization to curate "Fight of the Century," in which 40 literary superstars each respond to one of the landmark cases that the A.C.L.U. either litigated or supported. The predigested fact patterns that litigators deem suitable for court consumption are bland fare for a novelist's palate, so it's enlightening to watch some of our most masterly literary portraitists restore the warts and wardrobes, the motivations and machinations to those whose stories have been stripped down to surnames or pseudonyms: Ernesto Miranda, back in the Arizona State Penitentiary, being applauded by his fellow inmates when a television cop reads a suspect his rights; Norma McCorvey, a.k.a. "Jane Roe," coming out as a lesbian, then turning to strict Catholicism and repudiating both her lesbianism and Roe v. Wade. 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. These accounts illuminate how lawyers, as well as authors, must be skillful narrative crafters, pruning and stretching the unruly features of real life to fit the law's Procrustean parameters. Chabon entertainingly details the efforts of the A.C.L.U. co founder Morris Ernst, a lawyer for "One Book Called 'Ulysses,'" to get reluctant customs officials to play the role of villain to actually seize Joyce's novel in order that he might stage his anti censorship drama for the benefit of the federal courts. Marlon James recounts how Lawrence v. Texas which struck down anti sodomy statutes narrowly avoided becoming a different, deadlier, kind of case. In 1998, a white neighbor of John Geddes Lawrence Jr.'s had called the police to falsely report "a black male going crazy with a gun" at Lawrence's home. Upon arrival, the police, weapons drawn, discovered Lawrence, who was white, and his partner Tyron Garner, who was black, engaged in sexual activity. It seems odd to feel relieved that both men were only charged with a misdemeanor under Texas' sodomy law, but from Lawrence and Garner's perspective, the case might feel more important as a bullet dodged than as a constitutional victory. Indeed, the A.C.L.U. often selected its test plaintiffs with an eye to demographics, picking those who would be most palatable to a federal judiciary that was at first exclusively, and then overwhelmingly, white and male. While at the A.C.L.U., Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously chose male plaintiffs for several groundbreaking challenges to gender discriminatory laws, assuming that the plight of unequally treated male plaintiffs just might seem more, well, relatable, to the exclusively male Supreme Court than if the plaintiffs had been female. And it is no accident that Jehovah's Witnesses white, Christian and of American origin feature as test plaintiffs in so many early cases establishing core principles of freedom of speech and religion, including the right to remain seated during the Pledge of Allegiance. In a moving essay, Brit Bennett considers the very different reaction that a black man Colin Kaepernick provokes by his principled refusal to pay homage to a national symbol: "Kneeling during the anthem inspires rage because the issue, of course, is not the anthem or flag or military. The problem is black disobedience." And Victor LaValle details the persecution of the Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye (denomination: Santeria) by the city of Hialeah, Fla., and by the lower federal courts, before the group's freedom to worship was vindicated by a unanimous Supreme Court in 1993. If the Santeria rather than Jehovah's Witnesses had been the plaintiffs in the early religious freedom and free speech lawsuits, one wonders whether First Amendment law would have taken a very different path. Although the A.C.L.U.'s "colorblind logic" might be effective as a matter of litigation strategy assuming that a male plaintiff can be substituted for a female, a Jehovah's Witness for a Santerian, a white supremacist for a civil rights activist, because the liberties, once won, will be available to all this civil libertarian approach can yield problematic results given entrenched structural inequalities. This may be particularly true of the A.C.L.U.'s most controversial current position (at least among liberals): its insistence that corporations are entitled to the same political speech rights as individual citizens, and that spending money in elections is a protected form of speech. I was disappointed not to see Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission possibly the most notorious Supreme Court case of the millennium among the cases selected for discussion here, particularly since, in recent years, it's been increasingly difficult to find mention of the A.C.L.U.'s role in Citizens United or its continuing opposition to campaign finance reform efforts. (A disclaimer here: At the Brennan Center for Justice, where I directed the Money in Politics project, I often litigated and advocated against the A.C.L.U. in its challenges to campaign finance laws, including in Citizens United, where I was counsel of record on a Supreme Court amicus brief supporting the F.E.C.) But I still count myself as a supporter of the A.C.L.U., as does Scott Turow, even though his essay on Buckley v. Valeo (the progenitor to the Citizens United line of cases) excoriates the A.C.L.U. for its position on campaign finance reform and even suggests that the A.C.L.U. "hides from its own actions out of apparent fear of diminishing its contributor base." Given that this book so often lauds the A.C.L.U. for its defense of unpopular causes, it's troubling that the A.C.L.U.'s own most unpopular recent case gets such short shrift. In their introduction, Chabon and Waldman bemoan the fact that "nuance ... seems to be in very short supply nowadays," and certainly I would have welcomed a nuanced consideration of how an organization based on civil libertarian principles might need to rethink its foundational assumptions to counter structural inequality, or how an organization whose catchphrase has been "We'll see you in court" will evolve in an era where the courts, and particularly the Supreme Court, might favor the powerful over the powerless. But heroism also seems to be in short supply these days, whereas bad actors continue to flourish and abound. So perhaps the public can be forgiven its appetite for courtroom heroes; perhaps the writers can indulge in some happy albeit temporary endings; and perhaps the A.C.L.U. deserves to take a victory lap for its many indisputable acts of heroism, and to put out of mind, for the moment, the uncertain road forward. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Cruise ships can prepare to set sail again beginning Sunday under a conditional order issued by U.S. health officials that aims to mitigate the risk of Covid 19 transmission at sea by requiring a host of measures, including testing and quarantine, all designed to keep crews and passengers safe. No ship will set sail with passengers immediately, and the cruise tourism industry may not rebound anytime soon. Under new guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, companies must be certified to sail by proving they can operate safely with crews onboard. To do so, they must carry out a simulated journey, or a number of simulated journeys, with unpaid guest volunteers or crew members playing the role of passengers. The simulated journeys must provide regular onboard activities such as meal service and entertainment in common areas of the ship, while providing enough space for social distancing. Ships will be required to have laboratory capacity to ensure that routine testing for the coronavirus can be carried out at regular intervals, as well as when anyone embarked or disembarked from the vessel. Both crew members and passengers will wear masks in public spaces. Symptomatic travelers on the ship will have to be isolated, and remaining passengers quarantined, and the efforts will be evaluated by the agency in order for operators to obtain certification to sail with commercial passengers. The C.D.C. outlined the phased approach, acknowledging in a statement: "Cruising safely and responsibly during a global pandemic is very challenging." The federal health agency had tried to extend until next February the no sail order it had issued last March. But the White House blocked the order in an apparent attempt to avoid alienating the powerful tourism industry in Florida, one of the swing states that could determine the outcome of the presidential election on Tuesday. "This framework provides a pathway to resume safe and responsible sailing," said Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the C.D.C. "It will mitigate the risk of Covid 19 outbreaks on ships and prevent passengers and crew from seeding outbreaks at ports and in the communities where they live." The framework outlined by the C.D.C. built on a report issued on Sept. 21 by the Healthy Sail Panel, an alliance of industry leaders and nongovernmental experts convened by the Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, which met over the course of several months, ultimately developing 74 recommendations. C.D.C. representatives acted as observers at the meetings, Dr. Martin Cetron, director of global migration and quarantine at the C.D.C., said. The agency later used the framework to develop the guidelines for conditional sailing that include the phased approach to resuming operations, Dr. Cetron said. Observers will monitor and evaluate the mock journeys to ensure adherence, he added. "If the outcome is not as desired, one has to ask: Is the plan not good enough, or is implementation not good enough?" Dr. Cetron said. "This is a virus that can be very unforgiving of a mistake." "We all recognize this virus is a formidable foe, and we're going to be living with it for a while, and we need to adapt our systems to have maximum impact," he added. Ships will have fewer guests than in the past, and both crew members and passengers would be required to wear masks and to maintain social distancing, Dr. Cetron said. At first, new crew members joining a ship would not only be tested before boarding, but also be quarantined for 14 days. The crew would also be quarantined for 14 days before disembarking. The quarantines would not apply to passengers, however. The C.D.C. said passengers would instead be tested twice before boarding, he said. The guidelines will continue to be improved and "tweaked" along the way, he added. The world's major cruise lines have been idled for months under no sail orders as the pandemic swept around the world, after tourists and crews aboard ships like the Diamond Princess docked and were stranded for weeks as infection rates soared onboard. Many cruise lines, like Royal Caribbean, had already announced they would not resume sailing until at least December. Some have canceled future sailings Carnival Cruise, for example, has canceled all sailings through Dec. 31, as well as some sailings in 2021 and 2022. But with cases rising to record levels in the United States, and European countries initiating new lockdowns with surges of infections spreading, an imminent return to cruise ship travel remains in doubt. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
David Hallberg, the American Ballet Theater principal, will be the new artistic director of the Australian Ballet, beginning in January 2021, the company announced today. He will succeed David McAllister, who has held the position for almost 20 years. Mr. Hallberg, 37, has a long history with the Australian troupe, which has about 80 dancers and an annual budget of around 46 million. He has been a regular guest artist with the company since 2010, and spent 14 months in Melbourne, where it's based, undergoing physical therapy after a serious 2014 injury to his ankle led to a more than two year hiatus from the stage. His comeback appearance was with the Australian Ballet in December 2016, and the following year he became the company's first international resident artist. In a telephone interview from Sydney, Mr. Hallberg said he has had ambitions to direct a company since his mid 20s. "It has been slowly simmering," he said. "I have felt that calling to try to make a contribution to pushing the dance world forward almost as strongly as I felt a calling to become a dancer." A few other possibilities had come up, he said, but the Australian Ballet job was the first one that "felt like the right time and place to make the move," adding that he "felt satiated on a certain level as a dancer, and very ready for this transition." Mr. Hallberg said he had some performance commitments through 2021, including "a proper farewell performance" during Ballet Theater's 2021 Metropolitan Opera House season. But he has no plans to dance with the Australian Ballet. "My shows are numbered," he said. "There are lots of things I never got around to as a dancer, but it's time to accept that and move on." Although Mr. Hallberg has directed ABT Incubator, a two week choreographic program at Ballet Theater, since 2018, he has no experience of running a dance company of any size. But he has had an unusually varied experience of different ballet companies and cultures. As a teenager, he spent a year at the Paris Opera Ballet School, the only foreigner in his class. In 2011, when Mr. Hallberg was already established as a major star at Ballet Theater, he became the first American to join the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow as a principal dancer, and, more recently, he has been principal guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London. Kevin McKenzie, the artistic director of Ballet Theater, said Mr. Hallberg's working knowledge of other companies would be an advantage, adding that "he has a curiosity and restlessness which has really served him, and will go on doing so." Mr. Hallberg said that while there was no ignoring that he hadn't run a company, he has for years been absorbing what he could about the international dance world "and how it ticks." "I have been thinking about how I would curate," he said, "how I would nurture dancers, what kind of environment I want to create. I have been an avid spectator, watching work not just ballet everywhere, observing companies and directors with great attention." Craig Dunn, the chairman of the board of the Australian Ballet, said in a phone interview that the search had attracted more than 50 international applicants. "We wanted someone who had a real cultural affinity with Australia, and with David, we have someone who has spent an important time in his life here, and who really knows, understands and loves the country," he said. Mr. Dunn said the search committee and the board had been impressed by Mr. Hallberg's artistic vision, and that his deep connections to important institutions, choreographers and dancers would be critical for the company. "Australia is still a long way from New York and London, so for David to bring that up to date knowledge to us is vital," he said. Mr. Hallberg said that he didn't yet want to talk about his programming intentions, but that he had ideas about certain choreographers who haven't been seen in Australia. "I have many names in my head for those first phone calls," he said. His other major ambition, he said, was to better integrate the ballet company into Australian society and culture. "It's partly about education, partly about going to more isolated communities and being involved with other dance and cultural institutions," he said. He added: "Come January 2021, it won't be about me anymore; it will be about this institution and its dancers." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Looking improbably dainty in a white summer frock, Wednesday Martin stepped to the front of a glass enclosed room in Sag Harbor, N.Y., wielding a mandrake like piece of pink plastic. "This is your clitoris," she told her mostly female listeners. In a childlike singsong, she went on to inform them that the seat of female pleasure is not the size of a button, as has long been supposed, but closer to a full grown zucchini. Her audience, women in publishing, wellness entrepreneurs and stay at home moms in their 40s and 50s, had convened in this high ceilinged waterfront house of a friend to gossip over margaritas and discuss their sexual appetites. Legs crossed, arms self protectively pressed to their chests, they were rapt as Ms. Martin, chirpily reassuring, sought to address that eternal, and eternally vexing, question: Just what is it women want? It's not intimacy, she suggested. Wasn't it time, after all, to ditch that hoary, male perpetuated chestnut about women deriving sexual pleasure from gazing moistly into their partners' eyes? Is not the female libido equal to, if not more robust, than the male's? This is the case she seeks to make in "Untrue," her new book about the nature of women's sexuality, the title a simultaneous reference to an archaic word for faithless and the much debated doctrine that women by nature are inclined to be "true." It also could be read as an unconscious or defiant allusion to the tempest surrounding her last book, the New York Times best seller "The Primates of Park Avenue," which contained factual errors that occasioned amendments from its publisher, Simon Schuster. Aware that her scholarly reputation is in question, Ms. Martin, 52, this time around carefully cites a roster of prominent social anthropologists and female primatologists to bolster her argument that women are not and never have been naturally monogamous. Hot news? Not exactly, as the author well knows. Her premise has been intensively probed in the past by, among others, Shere Hite, the golden haired German sex educator, a household name in the 1970s, whom Ms. Martin reverently invokes in the book's introduction. Ms. Martin is also aware that her book, even with science undergirding the racy personal musings, will be subject to intense scrutiny and skepticism if it's taken seriously at all. It was three years ago that she set her uptown neighbors' eyes rolling with "Primates." Initially marketed as an expose, the book aimed to pick apart the customs and mores of moneyed Upper East Side mothers. Ms. Martin, who had lived briefly among them, framed her observations as fieldwork, portraying herself a hapless outsider determined to document her neighbors' venal, rapaciously competitive ways. "Primates," critics charged, had been misrepresented by marketers, and by the author herself. "Instead of a tell all it is a conventional memoir with a gimmick," wrote Janet Maslin, a critic for The Times. Ms. Martin's research was shoddy, others maintained. In a blog post for Elle, a longtime Upper East Side resident writing under the pseudonym Blair Schmaldorf observed, "In over 30 years, the only place I've ever encountered the audacious, extreme women Dr. Martin writes about is in fiction." (Indeed a scripted television series with Lionsgate is in development, with Ms. Martin as a writer and executive producer.) In The New York Post, Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein accused Ms. Martin of having fabricated key elements of her biography, not least that she had lived on the Upper East Side for three years, not six, as she had claimed. As to the "wife bonus," described by Ms. Martin, a yearly sum bestowed by husbands for domestic services rendered, "it doesn't exist," scoffed Lisa Birnbach, an uptown native and the editor of "The Official Preppy Handbook." Ms. Martin believes she was skewered "not because I missed a fact or two but because I dared to follow through on my particular interests ," she said over herbal tea, hummus and celery sticks in her book lined, blush and platinum tawny co op on the Upper West Side. "My goal is and always has been to pursue my interest in topics that inflame people." After receiving a Ph.D. from Yale in comparative literature and cultural studies, she began her career as a popular author two decades ago with a biography of Marlene Dietrich. "I was fascinated by just how ballsy she was about her open marriage, her affairs with women and men," Ms. Martin said. "She never denied them. She bent Hollywood to her Weimar attitudes." A stepmother to two daughters from her husband's previous marriage (they also now have two sons of their own, 17 and 10), Ms. Martin in 2009 published "Stepmonster: A New Look at Why Real Stepmothers Think, Feel, and Act the Way We Do." "I want to uncover the motivations behind the hostility and resentment, the resistance really, against certain women who are cultural signifiers: the adulteress, the stepmother, the indolent, hollow wealthy housewife," she said. "Which is not, by the way how I saw the women in 'Primates.'" Ms. Martin makes no secret of her own abiding devotion to fashion, dedicating an entire chapter in that book to her pursuit of a Birkin bag, bought for her by her husband, Joel Moser, a banker. Sorry, not sorry, she signaled with a shrug, showing off her home office, its walls awash in a splashy Warhol floral print, then her bedroom with tier upon tier of pumps and sandals obsessively arranged by color and fabric. "I don't actually wear these," she said with a laugh. "I think of them as a sort of installation." The author insists she is not a gadabout, though after the release of "Primates" she was snapped at any number of benefit galas. She attended those, she said the other day, "to crack the cultural codes of the Upper East Side." Lately she has expanded her social network to authors, film producers and publishing notables, entertaining them at home a couple of times a year. "I call them my girl on girl writers' salon," she said. "We have cocktails and get temporary tattoos." There is plenty of froth in "Untrue," Ms. Behar acknowledged. "She wants people to read the book, after all. But she also wants to be taken really seriously and not have people assume, 'Oh, there is not going to be any substance here.'" Ms. Martin conducted more than 30 interviews with eminent social scientists, psychologists and primatologists. She cites, among others, the primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, who studied female langurs mating sequentially with as many males as possible to ensure the safety of their offspring. The sociologist Alicia Walker also makes an appearance, arguing that many women deliberately pursue extramarital affairs; so does Lisa Diamond, who has written about female sexual fluidity; and Amy Parish, known for her studies of bonobos, a hypersexual, female dominant species closely related to chimpanzees. Even buttressed by such academic bona fides, Ms. Martin allowed a flicker of uncertainty about how "Untrue" will be received when it is released on Sept. 18. "People assume that if you're writing about female infidelity, that there's something wrong," she said. "They hang on to this idea that women who write about sex are doing it for attention. That they are exhibitionists, that they're pathological, that they must have questionable motives." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
The story of the fashion scene in Rwanda today is a story of hope. In a country often defined by its horrific genocide in 1994, when an estimated 800,000 people mostly Tutsi men, women and children were killed in 100 days, a new generation of passionate designers want s to create a future where their African nation is known for producing stylish clothes and accessories and not only its dark, traumatizing past. The government is priming these designers for success through an initiative called Made in Rwanda, aimed at supporting the production of local goods and limiting imports sending Rwandan designers abroad to participate in trade shows and not taxing them to import fabrics and other materials they need for their designs are two examples of the help Made in Rwanda offers. On my recent trip to the Rwandan capital of Kigali, a city of verdant hillsides and 1.1 million people, I met Daniel Ndayishimiye, who, in 2016, established Fashion Hub Kigali, a nongovernmental organization that is also supporting designers. Fashion Hub helps more than 100 designers in Rwanda by offering them training and access to tools such as pattern cutters and sewing machines. Mr. Ndayishimiye's father and brother were killed in the genocide, but he said that he has every reason to look ahead, not back. "I have a purpose," he said. "I want Rwandans to be proud of donning designs by fellow Rwandans. " Mr. Ndayishimiye grew up with aspirations of being a fashion photographer but said that there was no fashion in Rwanda to shoot. "Fashion was nonexistent, but today, there are designers all over Kigali, and throughout the country," he said. I spent a day with him driving around Kigali so that he could introduce me to some of the Fashion Hub's designers. Our first stop was to see clothing and jewelry designer Muhire Patrick at his atelier, in the industrial Gikondo neighborhood. Mr. Patrick's foray into the business was unplanned: when his sister was getting married in 2009, he couldn't find anything that he wanted to wear for the celebrations. "I went to every possible store in Kigali, and then one day, on a whim, I decided to create the outfits I envisioned," he said. Friends and family at the wedding complimented his modern look infused with Rwandan touches such as colorful patterns and asked Mr. Patrick if he would make pieces for them, too. When the inquiries kept pouring in, he launched his label, Inkanda House. Mr. Patrick, along with a small team of women, hand stitch the clothes a mix of casual and formal at the atelier, and while visitors are encouraged to peruse the racks hanging with finished pieces, they can also place custom made orders. But adults aren't the only market Rwandan designers are seeking: Mr. Ndayishimiye also took me to meet the children 's clothing designer Priscilla Ruzibuka at her store, Ki Pepeo Kids in Kimironko, a residential area. Ms. Ruzibuka launched her label in 2016, a year after graduating from Oklahoma Christian University. She was intent on finding a way to help women affected by the genocide. "These women typically worked as maids, and I wanted to offer them more opportunity," she said. Eventually, she decided to make children's clothes and employ only underprivileged women for the business. Ki Pepeo Kids currently has four female employees, who help stitch the line's casual pieces that incorporate typical Rwandan patterns such as animal prints and zebra stripes. The brand has had a strong start: in early 2017, Ms. Ruzibuka received a 10,000 grant from the United States Agency for International Development and used part of the money to buy electric sewing machines. Also in 2017, the Rwandan government, as part of the Made in Rwanda initiative, paid for her to attend the children's clothing trade show, Children's Club, in New York. "The show was incredible exposure for me, and since then, I've gotten orders for clothes from abroad," Ms. Ruzibuka said. Rwanda's pool of fashion designers who are in their 20s to their 40s extends beyond the Fashion Hub. Joselyne Umutoniwase, the founder of the fashion brand, Rwanda Clothing, for example, is renowned in the country for her stylish cuts with African inspired patterns for both genders, which she describes as "modern African." When I visited Ms. Umutoniwase at her sprawling three room store in the heart of Kigali, she told me that local residents have recently started to appreciate fashion. "Rwandans like to dress up and are getting into wearing the latest styles," she said. This newfound interest is the reason that Ms. Umutoniwase hosts two fashion shows a year for her brand at various locations around Kigali. These "parties," as she calls them, are a chance for fashion conscious Rwandans to have a fun night out and socialize with each other. Kigali is also home to at least two other fashion events including Kigali Fashion Week, which started off as a small endeavor in 2012, with 10 designers exhibiting their styles but now has more than 30 participants. Two years ago, seven Kigali designers banded together to form CollectiveRw, and regularly host pop up stores around town as well as an annual fashion show, where the price for a ticket starts at about 18. The collective's second annual show, in June 2017 at Kigali Exhibition and Conference Village, had more than 800 attendees. Teta Isibo, the founder of the jewelry and home goods brand Inzuki Designs, is one of the collective's members, and said that the group wants to push Rwandan fashion on both a local and international scale. Ms. Isibo's bold and colorful trinkets are already sold at a handful of retailers in the United States including the gift store at the Field Museum, in Chicago, but she dreams of a bigger presence all over the world. "I'm part of a lucky generation of young Rwandans who have the opportunity to create our own reality and not feel held back because of the genocide," she said. "I see a future for us that's bright, and one where fashion thrives." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
The music industry sent a wish list to Washington, but the response was not quite what it had expected. Two years ago, Ascap and BMI, the industry's two giant licensing clearinghouses, petitioned the Justice Department for changes to the regulatory agreements that have governed them since 1941. Those documents have not been changed in at least 15 years and, the agencies said, were in desperate need of updating to preserve the value of music in the digital age. The request came after both groups went through bruising litigation with Pandora Media over royalty rates. But this week the government told the agencies it planned to deny their request, and added a twist that songwriters and industry executives say could further damage the economics of music and perhaps unsettle the business in fundamental ways. In a meeting in Washington on Wednesday, Justice Department lawyers told representatives of Ascap and BMI that the two groups, called performing rights organizations, must adopt a policy known as "100 percent licensing," which means that any party that controls a part of a composition can issue a license for the use of the whole thing. This went against decades of industry practice. Although the Justice Department's recommendation carries great weight, any alterations to the consent decrees is subject to approval by two federal judges overseeing the cases, and the performing rights organizations could object to the changes in court. Music publishers said that instituting 100 percent licensing would further depress royalty rates by letting outlets like radio stations and digital music services shop for whatever party would accept the lowest fee. It would also cause administrative pandemonium, at least in the short term, they said, and cast doubt on the futures of Ascap and BMI, two of the music world's most stable institutions, together processing more than 2 billion a year in licensing fees. "Their decision is like Brexit," said Martin Bandier, the chief executive of Sony/ATV, the largest publisher. "No one understands it." The Justice Department's meeting with Ascap and BMI was confirmed by those organizations, which issued a brief joint statement on Thursday saying that they were "evaluating the information presented." The regulators are expected to meet with publishers and digital music services next week and issue a public decision by the end of July, according to several people briefed on the talks who were not authorized to speak about them. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. The decision, if upheld by the courts, could have consequences for songwriters. Those who work alone and control their intellectual property would gain an advantage. Major pop hits now tend to involve many songwriters, but the ranks of credited writers could be thinned to limit the number of people who could potentially license the work, publishing executives said. It could also mean that musicians would be forced to change their writing habits based on the professional affiliations of their collaborators, said Michelle Lewis, a songwriter whose work has been recorded by pop stars like Cher and Jessica Simpson, and who is a founder of the advocacy group Songwriters of North America. 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. "You write with who you have chemistry with; their choice of P.R.O. should not figure into it," Ms. Lewis said. "But if we have to deal with this administrative nightmare we are not going to collaborate. I don't think the D.O.J. really understood this." When the Justice Department indicated last year that it was considering 100 percent licensing, it caused an uproar in the industry. In January, Maria A. Pallante, the register of copyrights and the director of the United States Copyright Office, wrote a 30 page memo saying that the practice "would seemingly vitiate important principles of copyright law." Yet the Justice Department's position on 100 percent licensing has been endorsed by technology companies, which have long argued that the music industry charges onerous fees for use of their material. In a federal rate setting trial two years ago involving Ascap and Pandora, a judge also warned that Ascap and music publishers had shown a "troubling coordination" in how they operate, giving fuel to technology companies' complaints about the music industry. "Congress is clear in the Copyright Act that each individual co writer is authorized to license the whole," said Gregory Barnes, the general counsel of the Digital Media Association, a trade group that includes tech giants like Pandora, Amazon and Google. "Congress created that rule to promote efficiency." In the past, major music publishers like Universal and Sony/ATV have said they will withdraw their works entirely from Ascap and BMI if the consent decrees are not changed to their satisfaction, but it was not clear on Thursday whether they would follow through. Mr. Bandier said that Sony/ATV was still coming to grips with the situation. Elizabeth Matthews, the chief executive of Ascap, said her organization was "disappointed and frustrated," and considering "legal and legislative remedies." "An approach that creates confusion, chaos and instability in the marketplace," Ms. Matthews said, "is detrimental to all creators, publishers and music users." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
are to be married Aug. 26 at Frankie's 457 Spuntino, an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. Bridget Flannery McCoy, who became a Universal Life minister for the occasion and is one of the groom's triplet siblings, is to lead a ceremony incorporating Jewish traditions. The bride, 32, was until Aug. 10 the acting chief of staff for Mayor Bill de Blasio's climate policy and programs team in Manhattan, for which she continues to work as a senior policy adviser. She graduated with honors from Wesleyan University and received a master's degree in city planning from M.I.T. She is a daughter of Laura M. Finkelstein of Brooklyn and Andrew C. Finkelstein of Manhattan. The bride's mother works in Brooklyn as a senior vice president for Trifecta Research, a consumer and business to business market research firm in Asheville, N.C. Her father works in Manhattan as a digital video editor for the NBC program "Dateline." The bride is a stepdaughter of Jennifer A. Rudin and Lawrence N. Rothbart. The groom, also 32, is a video editor and a director of photography at Complex Networks, a media company in Manhattan. He graduated from Emerson College. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Our weekday morning digest that includes consumer news, deals, tips and anything else that travelers may want to know. Spaceport America, the world's first purpose built, F.A.A. licensed commercial spaceport, is now open to the public. The New Mexico facility is home to Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo spacecraft, in which the company plans to eventually carry the first civilians 700 of whom have already signed up for the opportunity into orbit. In the meantime, visitors can experience what it's like to be an astronaut while staying on terra firma in Spaceport America's G Shock trainer, a highlight of the new tour. The machine simulates the kind of forces astronauts experience on their missions, David Wilson of Spaceport America said. Other activities planned for the four hour long excursions include a "rolling theater" video presentation on the ride to the spaceport; behind the scenes looks at the Spaceport Operations Center; photo ops and interactions with crew members; and more than a dozen hands on space related exhibits and games, he said. "We wanted Spaceport America to be a place where the public can have a hands on, authentic and fun experience inside a real commercial space launch facility an experience you can't get anywhere else," the chief executive, Christine Anderson, said in a news release. Tours ( 49.99) run daily from a visitor's center in Truth or Consequences, N.M. Nashville is famous for its country music. But its food scene is hopping, too. The company Walk Eat Nashville offers tours of the city, with a new expansion exploring the restaurants and artisan food shops of Nashville's Midtown/Vanderbilt area near Music Row. The neighborhood is known as the place where the city's culinary roots took hold, and includes upscale dining and down home cooking, the WalkEatNashville founder Karen Lee Ryan said. Tastings at each location include discussions with chefs, owners and managers, who will offer their narrative of how and why Nashville is vying to become a new culinary capital of the South. "I want people to connect to the food and the people who make it possible," Ms. Ryan said. "When my guests interact with a chef, owner or manager, they can feel the pride and passion these folks bring to what they're creating. Connecting people through food inspires me every week." Don't expect to walk away the calories, though: At only 1.5 miles over the course of three hours, the six restaurant Saturday ramble ( 49) is more lunch on the go than an excuse for exercise. In between bites, though, tour guides will offer a diet of locals only knowledge of the surrounding neighborhoods and landmarks. The ride sharing company Uber has taken to the seas with a new offering in Istanbul. Those in need of a lift in the city that spans two continents can use the app to call for an UberBoat to take them across the Bosporus from Europe to Asia and back. The service is a partnership with the Turkish sea transport company Navette. If there's an empty Navette speedboat nearby, users near the water can select a pickup location, and the captain will call to verify the ride. Typical sample fares range from an estimated 50 to 135 Turkish lira (about 20 to 50). The service isn't cheap when compared with other boat travel options, however. A ferry generally runs 1.5 to 3 lira per person, and a sea bus is about 4 to 6 lira. But Uber touts convenience, luxury and speed, and fares that can be split among up to eight passengers, taking the price down to around 7 lira per person, said Damla Kilicarslan, the company's marketing manager in Istanbul. "A sample ride between Bebek and Kandilli (50 to 60 lira) can take only five minutes compared to a good 1.5 hours in traffic by car," Ms. Kilicarslan said. UberBoat also can be used for airport transfer (415 to 435 lira) or trips to the Princes' Islands (275 to 285 lira), the company said. This isn't Uber's maiden voyage: It offered a similar but temporary partnership in Boston last summer, though the Istanbul offering is here for good, Ms. Kilicarslan said. "For the time being, the UberBoat activation is planned to continue as a long term offer instead of a short term stunt," she said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
What is the point of faith in a world of misfortune? That's the question at the heart of "I Was Most Alive With You," the chaotic yet profound new play by Craig Lucas that opened on Monday at Playwrights Horizons. And if you don't think chaos and profundity make sense together onstage, you probably won't be thrilled by Mr. Lucas's worldview either, which is that of an incurable romantic flailing his way through a doomed crush on a bad date. For that matter, you may not care for the rich too muchness of his source and touchstone, the Book of Job, in which God allows the faith of his most blameless believer to be tested by a pileup of outrageous adversity. It is but one of Mr. Lucas's sad, dead on insights, in a play that's full of them, that no one is really blameless, and yet everyone is Job. What are the adversities assailing the family at the center of "I Was Most Alive With You"? Not the obvious ones you might expect from the givens. Ash, a 60 ish screenwriter, is a recovering drug and alcohol addict whose marriage to the ironically named Pleasant has not recovered with him. Their son, Knox, can top that: He, too, is a recovering addict, but gay and also, as his father describes him, big D Deaf. The real adversities hives, cancer, crashes both vehicular and financial arrive during the course of the play. They involve not only Knox, Ash and Pleasant (Lisa Emery) but also Ash's writing partner, Astrid (Marianna Bassham); his mother, Clara (Lois Smith); Clara's friend Mariama (Gameela Wright); and Knox's friend Farhad (Tad Cooley). Farhad is "small d" deaf (he rejects sign language) and an active drug user; naturally, Knox is in love with him. Because the play is so intimately concerned with hearing and deafness, both literally and figuratively, and because it is designed to be fully accessible, it also includes a "shadow" cast of seven more actors. The production's director, Tyne Rafaeli, places them on the mezzanine level of Arnulfo Maldonado's set, in costumes by David C. Woolard that coordinate with those of the cast downstairs. Not otherwise matched by race or physique to their counterparts, they achieve the status of archetypes as they move through narrower versions of the main action and sign the words that the others speak. This is often haunting, especially when Mr. Lucas overtly varies the spoken and signed scripts. Aside from the beauty of the signing actors' delivery the director of artistic sign language is Sabrina Dennison they provide, even for a hearing audience, a channel of information that sometimes feels deeper and more direct than the spoken one. Supertitles provide yet another. But it's a lot of information to process, and the play's fracturing of time does not make it any easier. In the framing story, set in March 2010, Ash and Astrid return to work after various calamities have kept them from it. Looking to the Book of Job to help make sense of all that has happened, and as a possible template for their new project, they flash back to the previous Thanksgiving, and events since then, while continuing to write in the present tense. That frame feels flimsy to me. Even if it were sturdier, I'm not sure its familiar depiction of the creative process adds much to a play that is already juggling addiction, orientation, hearing status, religion and the most intransigent philosophical conundrums to bedevil humanity since its first "Why am I here?" By elevating Ash over Knox as the play's Job figure, it also allows Mr. Lucas to cop out of a clear ending. The powerful version we are shown is posited as one of Ash and Astrid's several possible fictions. Happily, the flashback material is so oceanic and turbulent that the frame cannot distance us from it for long. We are always eager to dive back into its bracing stories. How can we not want to know more about Clara, a convert to Judaism who took over her late husband's business and produced a hit television series? Or about Mariama, a Jehovah's Witness who can credibly say that she is "grateful almost every day for the lack of justice" in the world? It has always been Mr. Lucas's gift to reveal the awfulness behind things that look charming and to make that awfulness compelling. In "I Was Most Alive With You," he takes those gifts about as far as they can go, at the risk of a certain degree of confusion. And though his plays have been growing progressively less ruly over the years from "Blue Window," which also takes place at a dinner party freighted with disaster, to "Prelude to a Kiss" to "Small Tragedy" he has never seemed as passionate as he does here about making a point. The point straight from Alcoholics Anonymous is humility: We cannot know, let alone gain anything of value from, trying to understand the universe's will. God might as well be saying, "Mind your own business about what I'm doing," Mr. Lucas, himself in recovery, writes in a program note. "Focus on your own affairs." In doing so, Mr. Lucas (like Tony Kushner) proves that neatness can be a lesser virtue when the messiest issues are at stake. Nevertheless, I wonder whether "I Was Most Alive With You," first produced at the Huntington Theater in Boston in 2015, has reached its final state. Ms. Rafaeli's staging is a marvel of polyphony but leaves many moments visually murky or even hard to locate. Annie Wiegand's lighting still faces the challenge of illuminating two plays at once, on different levels. And though the cast already features some standout performances by Ms. Emery, Mr. Harvard, Ms. Wright and (as always) Ms. Smith I would like to see what they and the rest of the company can do after a few more weeks of performance. "I Was Most Alive With You" must have been a beast, if a joy, to rehearse. It is certainly both to take in. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Charles Dutoit is stepping down from his post as artistic director and principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London following accusations that he sexually assaulted several women between 1985 and 2010, the orchestra announced Tuesday. Mr. Dutoit, 81, had originally planned to retire from the orchestra nearly two years from now, in October 2019, when he was to be named its "honorary conductor for life." But after several women publicly accused him last month of sexual misconduct, the orchestra's board held an emergency meeting, consulted with Mr. Dutoit and, the orchestra said in a statement Tuesday, "together decided to bring forward his resignation" to take immediate effect. "Whilst Mr. Dutoit continues to seek legal counsel to defend himself, the protracted uncertainty and media reporting makes Mr. Dutoit's position with the orchestra untenable," the orchestra said in the statement. The Philharmonic said it was "committed to the highest standards of ethical behavior and takes very seriously its responsibility to maintain a safe working environment for all its artists, musicians and staff." His departure from the Royal Philharmonic which he first led in 1966 follows announcements by several major orchestras that they would distance themselves from Mr. Dutoit. It was the latest indication that the reckoning over sexual misconduct is now international in scope, and has reached the world of classical music much as it has Hollywood, the news media, the restaurant industry and politics. The Metropolitan Opera suspended James Levine, its longtime conductor, last month while it investigates accusations of sexual misconduct against him, which he has denied. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
For all its imperial and papal pomp and circumstance, Rome at heart is a beautiful child raucous, dreamy, secretive, a touch spoiled, by turns exasperating and enchanting. The child is on its best behavior during "le feste" the winter holidays. High season crowds thin, and dazzling light displays and slanting sunbeams compensate for the short days. Today's Rome is a paradoxical place: even as many historic neighborhoods fall to mass touristic homogeneity, outlying districts are becoming more vibrant and varied. For an authentic Roman holiday, get out of the centro storico and sample the pizza stalls of the Testaccio market and the funky wares at the nearby Porta Portese Sunday flea market, the nightclubs of San Lorenzo and Tiburtina, and neighborhood gelaterie like Neve di Latte and La Mucca Bianca. Tranquillity has never been Rome's strong suit, but with a bit of planning (and flexibility), the Eternal City can be at its most bewitching at the onset of winter. (Though buses and trams crisscross the city, you'll save time with two easy to navigate taxi apps My Taxi and It Taxi.) Ai Tre Scalini in Monti (not to be confused with the restaurant of the same name on Piazza Navona) is an informal, century old neighborhood wine bar where locals rub shoulders comfortably with visitors. Reserve a table online or join the lively crowd at the bar for an Italian draft beer (Bav bitter or Birra del Borgo lager is 6 euros, or about 7) and Calabrese green olives or coppiette di maiale (spicy, oven dried pork strips). A 15 minute walk, skirting the crowds that ceaselessly mill around the Colosseum, leads to the Augustinian Basilica of Santi Quattro Coronati, one of Rome's hidden jewels. Even if you're not religious, the vespers sung here every evening at 6 offer a meditative bridge to day's end (and a nice antidote to jet lag). The nuns' quavering voices meld perfectly with the serene geometry of the medieval floor and the ancient columns that line the nave. Try to catch a glimpse of the 13th century cloister, a place of "extraordinary joy." in the words of the writer Eleanor Clark. In the heart of Rome, just blocks from the Pantheon, recently opened La Ciambella serves exquisite food in a spare quiet room where you can reliably find a table. Chef Francesca Ciucci alchemizes local ingredients fermented black garlic, chickpea flour, red Tropea onions into dishes of exceptional subtlety. The puree of fava beans laced with wilted chicory makes for a green, velvety soup (7 euros) and the braised lamb on a coulee of smoked cream of red peppers (18 euros) is both buttery and lightly piquant. The wine list features Nero d'Avola from small producers like Sicily's Azienda Gulfi. Save room for feather light lemon meringue pie. Walk or stagger from La Ciambella through the haunting labyrinth of Renaissance and Baroque Rome to the venerable Bar del Fico, a combination bistro and bar where you can sip a Negroni or mescal infused with ginger beer and chili (12 euros), or knock back a brandy alongside the young Romans who gather here nightly to sip and dance. D.J. sets thump away until 2 a.m. A quick bus or cab ride from the museums delivers you to a gem that few Romans, let alone visitors, know about: the Mausoleum of Santa Costanza. Folded into a green hillside that rises above the busy artery of Via Nomentana, the circular templelike tomb of the daughter of Rome's first Christian emperor preserves a mosaic cycle of astonishing exuberance and delicacy. Save a few minutes before the noon closing time for the seventh century church of Sant'Agnese Fuori le Mura in the same complex. The teenage martyr venerated here presides over the apse in an austere, Byzantine style mosaic of elongated figures set against a gold background. Gustando e Degustando, a 10 minute walk from Santa Costanza, is the hole in the wall you dream of: a handful of tables, a chalkboard of daily specials, oldies burbling in the background, and simple local food of notable freshness. Beef strips on a bed of arugula (8 euros) is both light and flavorful; octopus, pesto and potatoes (10 euros) has a nice balance of succulent and savory. An extensive list of beers, wines and spirits makes this an equally good choice for an afternoon aperitif. What a stroke of luck that two of Renaissance Rome's most ravishing streets, Via del Pellegrino and the intersecting Via dei Banchi Vecchi, are lined with some of the city's most tempting boutiques. From Campo de' Fiori, pick up Via del Pellegrino and work your way west, stopping at Solodue, for edgy shoes, tops and accessories; Retropose, for oversize bags in eye popping colors; Sciam, for glass baubles and Murano goblets; Libreria del Viaggiatore for travel books; and Libreria il Minotauro, a warren stuffed with children's toys and books. Refuel with a coffee and pastry at Monteforte, and continue past the patrician palaces to Banchivecchi Pellami, via dei Banchi Vecchi, 40, a venerable family run shop offering classic Italian made belts and wallets. No one loves a creche presepio in Italian more than the Italians, and at the International Museum of the Presepio you can revel in the finest examples of this folk art from all over the world and down through the ages. Open only on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 5 to 7:30 p.m. (with extended hours from Christmas to Jan. 6), the museum is in the basement of the tiny church of SS. Quirico e Giulitta, at the edge of Monti. Packed nightly with well heeled Romans, Ristorante Ottavio is worth the cab ride out to the southern fringe of the Esquiline district for supremely fresh seafood, both raw and cooked, served with low key elegance and practiced flair. Let your server guide you to house specialties and daily catches, which might include plump shrimp with sweet Trochea onions (38.50 euros), linguine with small octopus, and a lavish platter of boiled lobster studded with potatoes and tomatoes (45 euro). Brooklyn hipster hang meets London pub at Sazerac, a cozy little neighborhood boite with a great sound track (from rock to Reggae) just around the corner from Ottavio. Grab a tiny bistro table and settle in with a My Sazerac (cognac, absinthe and Morlacco bitters, 7 euros), a Fog Cutter (rum, cognac, gin and lime, 7 euros) or artisanal beer. For more serious partying and dancing later in the evening, continue on to Circolo degli Illuminati in the Ostiense neighborhood or the recently opened Live Alcazar in Trastevere. The Janiculum, Rome's second highest and leafiest hill, has a glorious pedestrian path that rambles past huge sycamore trees, fountains, monuments, statues and stately palaces (many now embassies and academies). Pick up the path at the edge of Vatican City and join Roman families for a leisurely ascent to the Fontanone literally the Big Fountain the immense early 17th century water feature that Paolo Sorrentino used in the opening shots of his film "La Grande Bellezza." Some of the same families you encountered on the Janiculum passeggiata may well be lunching beside you at Antico Arco, a sleek, stylish and deliciously adventurous restaurant at the summit of the hill just outside the Porta San Pancrazio. Seared scallops with red pepper and basil (22 euros) makes for a standout starter, and the spaghetti with pecorino and zucchini flowers (16 euros) is a welcome variation on the city's ubiquitous pasta with cacio e pepe. Even in winter, a visit to Rome is not complete without a cone or cup of gelato. Romans will argue fiercely that their neighborhood gelateria is the best, but no place has more original flavors than the Fatamorgana chain. Wasabi chocolate; and almond milk, mint and ginseng are just a few of the odder scoops on offer. Luckily, the Trastevere branch is an easy (downhill) walk from the top of the Janiculum. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
The best selling author George R.R. Martin just released an excerpt from his novel in progress, "The Winds of Winter," the latest book in his epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire." Mr. Martin's fans have been agitating for the next volume in the series, which was turned into the hit HBO show "Game of Thrones,'' since the fifth book came out in 2011. Some have harangued him for taking time off from the books to write episodes of the show, while others have urged him to appoint a literary successor in case he doesn't live long enough to finish the story. Mr. Martin did not write for the show's fifth season, and has said that he won't be writing episodes for season six to focus on finishing the novel. The story takes place in a vaguely medieval fantasy world where different political factions are vying for power, with the help of dragons, black magic and armies of freed slaves. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
LOS ANGELES Last February, Jill and Faith Soloway were filming the final episode of "Transparent" here at Paramount Pictures, in the studio's cavernous Stage 14. It was the last day of a 20 day shoot, and Judith Light , as the nettlesome matriarch Shelly Pfefferman, was tearing through "Your Boundary Is My Trigger," a show tune slash primal scream about how thankless it is to be a mother, and how Shelly gives and gives and gives, and for what? "If I could, I'd shove you back inside me," Light sang, using her hands to show just what such a procedure might look like. After a series of energetic takes surrounded by a chorus line of women in bras and girdles and men in long johns and bunny slippers, Light, all smiles, came over to the monitors to see how everything looked, and to hug people and call them "sweetie pie." Despite the lively dance number, there was a palpable sense that things were coming to a close, as longtime colleagues, some in costume, some in street clothes, said their goodbyes. Then, the concept goes, Shelly writes a musical about the family as a means of coping with the tragedy, much to the chagrin of her three grown children, played by Amy Landecker , Jay Duplass and Gaby Hoffmann . "The kids go through the stages of grief and Shelly goes through, well, creative rebirth," said the show creator Jill Soloway , who directed the episode and was one of the writers. (Faith Soloway, Jill's sister, was the other.) The series ending movie is also a kind of final rebirth for the show itself, after its star Tambor, who won two Emmys and plenty of acclaim for his memorable portrayal of Maura, was fired after two "Transparent" colleagues accused him of sexual misconduct. At the time, "Transparent" had already been picked up for a fifth season, and the situation put its future in limbo. "It's difficult to describe, going through that journey of my parent coming out, creating the TV show, having that rise in the culture and then the pain and trauma of what happened with Jeffrey," Jill said. "And then that place where we were all like, is the show going to be O.K.?" When "Transparent" premiered in 2014, there was little like it on television. There had been trans characters before , in shows ranging from comedies ("Glee") to soaps ("All My Children") to dramedies ( "Orange Is the New Black "). But most of them were in secondary roles or in single episode appearances. Emmys soon followed, eight prizes out of 28 nominations , along with a string of three straight GLAAD Media Awards for best comedy series. The finale arrives in a TV world far different from the one in which "Transparent" debuted. This year's Emmy nominations were dominated by idiosyncratic streaming dramedies by women like Phoebe Waller Bridge ("Fleabag") and Natasha Lyonne ("Russian Doll"), while trans performers are tackling ever larger roles in series like "Pose" and "Orange Is the New Black," which also just ended. "Transparent" and Jill, who identifies as nonbinary, deserve a lot of credit for leading the way. "Prior to 'Transparent,' there was never a TV show that centered a transgender narrative as the central focus of the show," said Nick Adams, GLAAD's director of transgender representation. "Other shows have featured transgender characters, but they weren't built around exploring a transgender person's identity and their relationship with their family." And then, in November 2017 , Tambor was accused by a cast member, Trace Lysette , and his former assistant, Van Barnes , of sexual harassment. He was fired a few months later. (Tambor has repeatedly denied the allegations.) " Jeffrey's behavior on set was really shocking to me," said Alexandra Billings, who played Davina in the series and in the upcoming finale. "And difficult, which is why we took a year off. All of us just needed to get away." "But none of us, not Trace Lysette or Van Barnes or Zackary Drucker or Our Lady J ," she continued, "none of the trans people who worked on the show allowed it to infiltrate our artistic spirit." Even so, a series about a trans parent's journey could hardly continue without the trans parent, the creators and producers concluded . But how to close out such a pioneering series? Faith always thought the series had the makings of a fine musical. It had outsized leads, a timely premise and ambitious themes. Over the years, the Pfeffermans had talked about everything from sex addiction to the Arab Israeli conflict. Why not sing about it? Faith actually had already written songs about the Pfeffermans over the years, catchy tunes with titles like "I Was the Lesbian First" and "Your Boundary Is My Trigger," Shelly's theme from the finale. "This is what I do I write music," Faith said. "I walk around, and the world is a song." Even before the upheaval at the show, Faith had staged some of her Pfefferman tunes at Joe's Pub in June 2017, in a revue she called "Faith Soloway and Friends: Should Transparent Become a Musical?" As Jill contemplated the end, the answer to that question suddenly became clear. "We've been sort of contemplating, one day, Broadway," Jill said. "But instead of contemplating, we just took all those songs and went, let's make a movie." Back on the Paramount set, Faith was having her fake beard touched up. In addition to writing the show's songs, she has a small role in the film as Shmuley, Shelly's silent Uber driver and "former temple organist." In one of the film's many meta moments, Faith is writing the music for Shelly's musical (and, today, playing piano in a dream sequence). "I always fantasized about having a beard," Faith said. "I love how it looks. But I hate how it feels! It's super itchy." Why the beard? And why doesn't Shmuley speak? "I think we wanted to leave it up to the imagination of the viewer what my voice would sound like, and what my gender might be," Faith said. "Is Shmuley a trans man? A man? A woman playing a man?" Shmuley is also the personification of Faith's longstanding belief in the dictum that music takes over when words fail. "I think Shmuley is a little bit of a spirit," she said. Faith staged a second performance of her musical at Joe's Pub on April 2, 2018, two months after Tambor was fired. This time, she called the show "Songs from a Hopeful Musical"; the transgender actor and activist Shakina Nayfack played Maura. "It felt like the first really celebratory night for the family after the show had gone through the trauma," Jill said. "It was like, you know what? There's something alive here. I was crying watching the songs." "My mom was there, and Judith was there," she continued. "And you were there, and you were there!" Jill exclaimed, pointing to various cast and crew members on the soundstage. "Everybody was there." One of the initial ideas for the finale was to have the singers who played the Pfefferman kids in the Joe's Pub performances Lesli Margherita , Erik Liberman and Jo Lampert , a.k.a. "the fake Pfeffs" do the singing in a kind of musical within a musical. "And then our actors were like, 'We want to sing and dance, too,'" Jill said. "Everybody wanted a song, everybody wanted their moment." But according to several of the people in attendance, this isn't the end of "Transparent," not really. "The show isn't ending, it's transitioning," Jill said. "It feels weirdly like a bridge to something," Billings said. "There was a lot of forgiveness on the set. If feels like the beginning of something else." Like maybe a theatrical version? That's still a goal, the Soloways said. "I always wanted to do a stage version first," Faith said. "And then we had, you know, the struggles we had last year." "If I were to get egotistical about it, there are certain plays like 'Angels in America' and 'Rent' that sort of named queerness and named AIDS," she continued. "That's what I would hope 'Transparent,' as a television show or as a musical, could help to do. To help people understand some of the things that we're going through, as a culture, right now." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Conventional wisdom holds that new movie releases of January are dogs. That's arguably true everywhere. Except in New York art houses. For instance, this week Film Forum unveils "System K," a lively, cogent, unsettling documentary about the incredible art world roiling in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The director, Renaud Barret, situates his film in the here and now that presents itself to his camera the movie doesn't delve into the root causes of the poverty and oppression that make the country a pressure cooker. Instead, he follows the artists who have no choice but to live in it. "Our work feeds on chaos," says Freddy Tsimba, a sculptor who assembles his work out of bottle caps, trash, machetes, and pretty much everything and anything he can amass in large quantities. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
"Creatures," Crissy Van Meter's vivid and moving debut, is a novel powered by atmosphere. The perils of Winter Island, a 40 mile ferry ride from Los Angeles, shoot through each sentence like an electrical current. A whale rots in the "half moon of the bay" as the island is battered by a tsunami, an earthquake and tourists. But this is also a landscape of wondrous beauty, a "mound of volcanic rock half carved by glaciers, full of lush green forests and sweeping sandy beaches." The characters are as complex and explosive as the setting. Evie was raised on the island by her magnetic but reckless father, who has a talent for tall tales and growing really good weed, and whose "absolute charm," Evie recalls, "was our survival." Yet charm proves to be an unpredictable currency; weather, for one, is indifferent to the force of personality. Evie and her father are periodically homeless, left to fend for themselves in the elements, either because a storm has sunk their boat dwellings or because of his drug addiction. Evie grows up too fast by 13 she's carrying her dad's pot in her backpack and yet remains stranded in a state of arrested childhood. One night father and daughter sleep outside in the cold just like "pirates" or "explorers," he says playing cards and sipping whiskey from paper cups. "I wasn't a kid," Evie later reflects, "but we both had to be kids to survive." In "Creatures," there are two kinds of people: those who stay on Winter Island and those, who either have or seek greater economic opportunity, who leave. Even during Evie's periodic stints on the mainland, the island is never far from her thoughts, with her like a pulse. Her mother, one of the defectors, flits in and out of her daughter's young life, sometimes going years between visits, and usually staying just long enough to disrupt whatever uneasy status quo Evie and her father have scraped together. In the novel's opening, past and present collide when an adult Evie, now a researcher at the Sea Institute, returns home to find her mother on her doorstep. Right away, Evie notices that she is "soaked" and her mother "dry," a clear metaphor for the difference between them. Also: It's the night before Evie's wedding and the groom, Liam, might be lost at sea. As "Creatures" unfolds, Van Meter subverts narrative expectations by making long and frequent digressions away from the compelling present, pre wedding story line, to reveal either the past or future. Interspersed throughout are chapters framed as responses to essay prompts ("Is a sperm whale vengeful?"; "Describe the world's loneliest whale"), the novel intertwining Evie's profound knowledge of the sea with her own personal history. Many of these passages are rendered in the second person, attributing to the unnamed "you" thoughts too fraught for the "I" to confront. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Well, now I can never go to Cannes. When it was reported last month that the film festival there rejected entrance to a group of women who appeared without heels, the insult wasn't just to moviegoers, it was to me and my troubled feet. Thankfully, an outcry ensued. Frances McDormand, the Patron Saint of Not Caring What You Think, told The Hollywood Reporter, "I think they think that flats are the road to ruin." Emily Blunt, my new hero, said in response to "flatgate": "We shouldn't wear high heels anymore. That's just my point of view. I prefer to wear Converse sneakers. That's very disappointing." I am right there with her. Decades ago, when a special occasion meant I'd go to the dress department at Bloomingdale's, buy something black and then stop in the shoe department for a pair of high heeled sandals, I remember just assuming my feet would hurt for the evening. And in the days after, I would deal with my throbbing foot hangover. But something had been happening to me: My always bad feet had gotten worse. Really, I had Stage 5 bunions, a corn, two hammertoes, some kind of insane thick second toenail because that toe is unreasonably longer than the other toes cracked heels and calluses. When you take an aerial view of my feet, the big toe looks as if it's madly in love with the baby toe, reaching desperately to be near it. My feet are the sad little sideshows at the end of my legs. In open toed shoes, I appear to not have a big toe. I actually have saved in my iPhone a photo of an X ray of my feet on which the podiatrist drew dozens of arrows pointing in the direction that my toes are supposed to be going, just in case I was under the impression that toes were supposed to look as if they were escaping your feet. Need I go on? When I was a fresh faced youth, I'd bring home boys to meet the family, and the first thing my brothers would ask them was, "Have you seen her feet?" They saw them as a potential deal breaker. I remember being oddly heartbroken when Tommy Lee from Motley Crue told Howard Stern that he would not have sex with a really hot girl if she had ugly feet. I had been so close to being Mrs. Tommy Lee. Well, not that close. Approximately, two feet. ... And shoe pain actually made it hard for me to walk normally (think Elaine Benes dancing all in the feet). I was once crossing Fifth Avenue and heard the screaming of an ambulance siren a few blocks south. I was in the middle of the street, and I couldn't walk faster. The buckles were so tight, I couldn't pull off the sandals to run. My hope was that when the ambulance ran me over, it would be kind enough to come back for me later. Somehow I made it, but I vowed not to endanger the lives of New Yorkers with future invitations. Then there came a period of time when Courtney Love deemed it acceptable to wear combat boots with gowns and tiaras, and I was still young enough to pull that off (not the tiara, alas). But that phase was short lived. And in the years that followed, I did the best I could but never felt hip or stylish. I just hoped my sparkling personality would make up for the clunk of my sensible shoes. I often felt victimized by footwear, in some sort of feminist way. I feel the fight to reclaim our bodies should include our feet. I'm talking to you women who cut off your pinkie toe to fit better into Manolos. But every thousand years or so, the stars align, and what's in style actually meshes with something that works for me: empire waists, flowy hippie chic and now comfortable shoes. This season (and the last one, for that matter) has been a gift to my tribe: The victims of the malformed feet can rejoice as comfort and couture have reached a detente. Both Marc Jacobs and Prada designed Teva or Teva inspired sandals that were declared a major Glamour Do. What could be better than Tevas in fashion? How about the continuing glamming up of Birkenstocks? Yes, models now embrace the shoes my dad wears on his Hobbit feet. Even Dr. Scholl's left the drugstore and were seen clomping around the lobby of the Conde Nast building. Clearly I am not alone in rejoicing over this trend. The fashion editor and author Lucy Sykes has Birkenstocks in silver, black and white. "A first fashion and comfort!" she told me. "Loved the look on the runway these past seasons subversive cool. You kind of need to be a grungy, cool, bisexual European supermodel to rock the Birky. But I found a pair by Sophia Webster with a pinky, lacy pattern that are silly cute more Betty Draper, and I like that." They aren't all retreads, though. On Net a Porter, the hot style site, there's the French brand Flamingos's Malabar sandal. Thick rubber soled platforms with silver mirror leathered straps, they look like chic pillows, maybe something Diane Keaton would wear in "Sleeper." Cool, futuristic, Halstonesque. Their designer, Anne Blum Beuzeville, said the comfort was no accident. Working as a shoe vendor for 25 years, she had a sense of what real women wanted when she created the shoe. "My mind was far from phantasm, craziness and unrealistic shoes," she said. "Women have a lot of stress during the day, with their job, their family. They don't want to forget fashion, but they want to feel good." Yes! This! Maura Lynch, the senior beauty editor of Lucky Magazine, now refuses to wear uncomfortable shoes. "Whenever I wore high, painful shoes, I felt like I was a fashion impostor," she said. "Like I was wearing my mom's shoes." Ms. Lynch wears "flatforms" (flat platform shoes) and even flip flops and espadrilles she picked up in Barcelona, Spain, that are "super comfy and super chic." Though as a beauty person, she advises taking pains to make your feet look as good as you can before you put on the shoes: soaking them in Dr. Teal's Epsom salts and getting a really expert pedicure. (Curling yellowed toenails apparently do not work with this look.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
The family members never fully adapt to their new circumstances. But things do change: David eventually opens a skin care and lifestyle shop, Alexis graduates from a certification program, Moira joins a women's singing group among other civic organizations and Johnny and Stevie eventually run the motel together. The more enmeshed the Roses have become in their Schitt's Creek community, the more the show has blossomed. Learning to trust that and to rely on the foundational gentleness of its world is how "Schitt's Creek" has improved steadily since Season 1, which was often glib and noisy. Things picked up in Season 2; by Season 3, the show found its groove, with story lines arising more organically. Some of the contentiousness waned, especially between Alexis and David. While the siblings rarely get earnest with each other, they often make the exact same expression: a half cringe, half pout, while they look up and away, typically while complaining or avoiding something. The shouting among characters is now less chaotic and more direct. The show also gave in to its romantic inclinations, and it's all the better for it. Part of why "Schitt's Creek" can get away with its zanier stories is that it is anchored by the unshakable love between Johnny and Moira, the realest thing in the show's universe. In one episode in Season 4, while Alexis is pining for an ex, Moira comforts her by recounting when she herself pined for Johnny before they got together. Even though Alexis and her mother have a strained relationship Moira has always favored David it's clear that Alexis knows, completely and firmly, that her parents' love for one another is as solid as solid gets. Of course Alexis's path to love doesn't run smooth, nor does David's. David's pansexuality isn't ever a problem; it's his issues with closeness that get him in trouble. His aversion to and awkwardness around intimacy he's only ever said "I love you" twice to his parents, "and once at a Mariah Carey concert" keep things from getting too sappy. David's burgeoning relationship with his business partner, Patrick (Noah Reid), moves from cute to goals when Patrick serenades David with an acoustic cover of "The Best." "Schitt's Creek" doesn't have any real villains, and the biggest obstacles are only ever hubris or funding. No one's truly against anyone else, and that underlying sense of collaboration creates a sense of peace when you watch the show. We're all on the same team. The same ridiculous, over the top team. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
In January, Ann Peden had just finished step two of a nine step process to clean up the land where her house used to be. "I'm past the hazardous waste part of it," she said, speaking on the phone from Sonoma, Calif. "I have a guy out there digging through the ashes to see what he can find," meaning any of her surviving possessions. Her home in Glen Ellen, a hamlet southeast of Santa Rosa, was one of 6,000 destroyed by the North Bay wildfires that ripped through Northern California in October. It will be months before the soil has tested free of contaminants and the permits are in place for rebuilding. When Ms. Peden, 77, is ready to start over, she will not reproduce the 1964 ranch house she lost, or any other traditional style. Her new home will be contemporary. It will have big windows through which she can look at the mountains and watch for the return of the valley oaks. Its main components will be shipped from a factory and assembled on site. It will be, in short, a prefab. "Most of the people I know are going with a prefab," she said of her neighbors in the Trinity Oaks section of Glen Ellen, where about three quarters of the 60 odd homes were severely damaged. "It just makes sense." For decades, utopian designers and populist dreamers have glorified prefabricated housing. The idea to mass produce a home like an automobile, with much of the process standardized in a factory, promised greater efficiency and lower costs than traditional stick built architecture. "It's a dream that has confounded generations of architects and developers," said Amanda Dameron, until recently the editor in chief of Dwell, a shelter magazine that is one of prefab's biggest proselytizers. Less than 3 percent of housing starts in the United States in 2016 were some sort of prefab. On one hand, there is a "resistance to prefab as ugly boxes," she noted. But the more specialized and elaborate the look and layout, the less affordable it becomes. Designer prefab easily costs more than 300 a square foot, putting it in competition with custom built houses. Which is a pity, Ms. Dameron added, because, compared with traditional methods, modern prefab construction saves time, limits waste and often incorporates environmentally sensitive materials and energy saving technologies. If ever there was a time and place for prefab to flaunt its virtues, it is now, in Northern California. Even before the fires, stringent statewide building regulations and a shortage of contractors and construction workers made erecting a home a challenge. Now with the spike in demand for labor and materials, the wait time for completing a stick built house in the area is estimated to be four years at a cost of anywhere from 500 to 700 per square foot. Compare that with what Stillwater Dwellings offers. The Seattle based prefab company that Ms. Peden approached charges around 350 to 400 per square foot for a basic move in ready home assembled on a prepared foundation. Construction takes six to eight months once a building permit is issued. It is to be expected that after the fires, the rebuilding process will be hampered by competition for contractors, poor site conditions and the mobbing of county building departments struggling to expedite paperwork. But prefab puts fewer demands on local construction professionals because so much of it is standardized. An abbreviated timeline is what convinced B.J. Patnode and Glen Smith, to replace the ranch home they lost in Kenwood, Calif., just north of Glen Ellen, with a Stillwater Dwellings prefab. The men learned that if they chose an existing design rather than one they customized, the process could be substantially shortened. They picked an H shaped model, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms in each of two wings, separated by a breezeway. They also opted for a detached garage. The estimated price is 475 per square foot. If indeed the plans and expedited permits are approved as promised, manufacturing will begin this month. The materials will be delivered in June and the home should be ready by Christmas. (The men received a big advantage by jumping into the process early. According to Kaveh Khatibloo, Stillwater's co chief executive officer, most new clients in the area are advised not to expect to begin construction until 2019 at the earliest.) Because the men chose a panelized house where the prefabricated parts are walls, roofing and floors, rather than three dimensional modules with plumbing and electrical systems built into them more work will be required to finish it on site. Expediting the project will be a general contractor and subcontractors that Stillwater Dwellings is recruiting from Reno, Nev. The crew will camp out on the property and build not just Mr. Patnode's and Mr. Smith's new home but also one for the couple next door. Both sets of neighbors will share the expense of hosting the workers. Several North Bay fire victims said they were attracted to prefab for streamlining everything to do with home building. One Glen Ellen fire victim said he liked the idea of "very sharp designers" making most decisions regarding fixtures and finishes. "I'm not into looking into 20 different versions of a sconce or light switch," he said. That resident, who asked not to be named out of concern that his choice of prefab might complicate negotiations with his insurance company, had picked a one story model from Connect Homes, a Los Angeles company that was founded with the aim of making attractive prefab housing more affordable. The style, with its open layout and expansive glass, updates the midcentury ranch house he lost and is well suited to his 1.5 acre property, he said. He also praised Connect Homes' method of transporting modules through the intermodal system, drastically reducing shipping costs. Given a level lot, the price of a house, including design, production, installation and even appliances, ranges from 247,080 for 640 square feet to 826,160 for 3,200 square feet. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Heather Dietrick, Gawker Media's president and general counsel, has always been close to her 90 year old grandfather, a prisoner of war during World War II who, she said, "has taught me a lot about fielding a lot of situations." She still wears his vocational high school class ring from 1943 as a reminder that people can get through anything if they are resilient. It's the kind of inspiration that has helped Ms. Dietrick make it through the last 11 months at Gawker. These have been tumultuous times, perhaps never more so than last Friday at noon at the company's Manhattan offices. After taking a few moments to collect her thoughts, Ms. Dietrick joined Nick Denton, Gawker's founder and chief executive, at a companywide meeting. There they told some 200 employees that Gawker, facing a 140 million judgment from a lawsuit by the retired wrestler Hulk Hogan, had filed for bankruptcy and was putting itself up for sale. As she stood beside Mr. Denton and delivered the news, Ms. Dietrick said in an interview over the weekend, she looked at her audience. "I could tell there was initial shock, seeing everyone and looking them in the eyes." Ms. Dietrick and Mr. Denton spent much of the 90 minute meeting answering questions and assuring the employees that the company planned to continue its operations during its bankruptcy. As has recently become customary, Ms. Dietrick did most of the talking. Since joining Gawker three years ago, Ms. Dietrick, 35, has become the main source of support during a chaotic time for the company. Most general counsels work in obscurity, but Ms. Dietrick, with the added responsibilities of president, has taken on more of a leadership role at Gawker as Mr. Denton has pulled back from the day to day operations. Throughout the Hulk Hogan case, she has been the bridge between the newsroom and Gawker's legal proceedings. She manages much of the company's editorial operations and has a formal role in editorial decision making. And though Mr. Denton is still arguably the public face of Gawker, she has been called on repeatedly to represent the company during periods of turmoil. "The place would not run without Heather," Mr. Denton said in a recent interview. "She's the person that holds everything together." In the last year, Ms. Dietrick, who has both a law degree and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan, has had to try to steer the company through one crisis after another. Last month, the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel acknowledged in an interview with The New York Times that he was financially supporting the Hogan lawsuit and other legal cases against the company. That put Gawker at the center of a First Amendment battle that has captivated the media world while highlighting a deepening chasm between an ascendant technology industry and a journalism business buffeted by financial challenges. In the interview on Saturday, Ms. Dietrick said that Gawker began seriously considering filing for bankruptcy once Mr. Thiel's involvement in the Hogan case became known. The pivotal moment came on Friday at around 11 a.m., after a hearing in which a Florida judge affirmed the 140 million judgment in the Hogan case and granted Gawker's request for a stay, but under conditions that the company found too onerous, Ms. Dietrick said. The conditions included allowing Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry G. Bollea, to get liens on the company's assets. Gawker had considered the option of filing for bankruptcy within a few days, Ms. Dietrick said. But as its lawyers in Florida provided updates on the hearing by phone, she and Mr. Denton decided the company could not wait any longer because they feared it would be unable to continue to operate otherwise. 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 timeline was pushed forward a little more quickly than we expected," Ms. Dietrick said on Saturday. "As of yesterday, it was inevitable that we were going to go through with the sale." The company still plans to appeal the judgment. Ms. Dietrick said she was committed to staying at Gawker but acknowledged that its future was uncertain. The company said on Friday that it would conduct a sale through an auction and expected to close a deal by the end of the summer. Ziff Davis, a digital media company, has submitted an opening bid in the range of 90 million to 100 million. It was not clear whether a buyer would want all of Gawker's sites, and it is possible that Mr. Denton might consider buying back Gawker.com at some point. Nearly everyone who works with Ms. Dietrick, who was in Hearst's legal department before coming to Gawker in May 2013, describes her as nice. But that belies her steeliness in difficult situations. They also say she has brought a sense of professionalism and diplomacy that helps balance Gawker's notoriously freewheeling spirit. She has built up a team of four lawyers including herself who handle vetting, contracts, licensing deals and most of the company's other legal matters. And she has gained the trust of editorial staff members, who view her more as a partner than an adversary. Women at Gawker say they see her as an advocate at a company that has been criticized in the past for how it treats female employees. She often works on her laptop on a couch in the lounge area near the editorial team and goes out for drinks with employees. On Friday evening, she invited staff members to a rooftop gathering at her apartment building in the West Village, where she lives with her husband. People ordered pizzas and drank beer. Ms. Dietrick firmly believes in Gawker's approach to news, current and former employees say. She is a staunch defender of the First Amendment and would rather figure out a way to tell a story than prevent it from running. "She believes in what we do as much, if not more, than I do," said John Cook, Gawker Media's executive editor. Last July, Gawker published an article claiming that a married male media executive had sought to hire a gay escort. The article drew a firestorm of criticism and there was considerable debate at the company about whether to remove the post. Mr. Denton ultimately decided to take it down after a vote that he said showed that the company's management, including Ms. Dietrick, was largely in favor of doing so. But Ms. Dietrick maintained that she wanted to keep it online and that her stance was misconstrued. "I knew the world was going to have a discussion about it," she said. "I think it's hard to talk about things once they've been disappeared." Some colleagues suggest that her numerous roles may have stretched her too thin. "She actually has more jobs than one human should probably have," said Hamilton Nolan, a writer who has worked at Gawker for eight years. Some in the media legal community question whether it makes sense for Ms. Dietrick to hold general counsel and president roles. Acting as both executive and lawyer, they say, can complicate attorney client privilege. Ms. Dietrick said she did not think her dual role was "that odd," but acknowledged that the last year had been tough. "I feel like my job has been removing roadblocks," she said. For all of the challenges, however, it is largely because of her roles at Gawker that Ms. Dietrick is now enjoying much more prominence than most general counsels ever do. "If I were her, I wouldn't be unhappy being in her position," said Sandra S. Baron, a First Amendment media lawyer and a former executive director of the Media Law Resource Center. "There's nothing humdrum about what she's doing now." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
What does it mean to run a Latino dance company in New York in 2017? For many Americans, Latin dance still means mambo or salsa or Mexican folk dancing in other words a mixture of social dance and folklore. Sassy moves, tight skirts, perhaps a ruffle or two. Ballet Hispanico was founded in 1970 by Tina Ramirez, a Venezuelan born dancer and choreographer, as a community based school and performing arts group, presenting modern interpretations of Latin culture. Today, led by Eduardo Vilaro, a former dancer in the company, it still takes community building seriously, but its vision of the Spanish speaking world it both serves and reflects has become more fluid, more personal and, perhaps, less easy to define. "A goal of mine is to have a certain authenticity that comes directly from the artists," Mr. Vilaro said in a Skype interview as the company prepared for its season at the Joyce Theater (April 18 23). "The choreographers are bringing their culture with them; they don't need to put a stamp on it that says 'Latino' or wrap it in some kind of iconography." One of the complexities the company faces is that the definition of Hispanic or Latino has become increasingly hybrid, complicated and personal, partly because of the blending brought by immigration and globalization. And also because Latin America is enormously diverse. Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Argentine, Colombian culture: They can seem to have little in common beyond a shared language. Mr. Vilaro, who was born in Havana, jokingly refers to this shuffling of identities as "identity mambo." It's an appropriate metaphor since mambo is itself a hybrid, of Cuban danzon and American big band sound. "There are so many intersections," he said. "I think it's our duty as a longstanding cultural organization to really spotlight this depth and breadth of culture." As the company has become less easy to categorize, so have the dances it commissions. This season's fare is a good example: "3. Catorce Dieciseis" ("3. Fourteen Sixteen") is a 2002 work by one of the leading voices in Mexican contemporary dance, Tania Perez Salas, who works in a highly stylized, cinematic mode. "Linea Recta" ("Straight Line") deconstructs flamenco imagery the swishing of the bata de cola's long, ruffled train, the hyped up representations of gender and is by the Colombian Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, based in the Netherlands. The third work, "Con Brazos Abiertos" ("With Open Arms"), by Michelle Manzanales, is a kind of ode, by turns tenderhearted and playful, to themes from her Mexican American childhood in Houston. (Ms. Manzanales is also the head of BalletHispanico's flourishing school.) All three works are by women. And two "Linea Recta" and "Con Brazos Abiertos" are products of the company's seven year old dance incubator, the Instituto Coreografico. Many companies pay lip service to nurturing talent, but Ballet Hispanico has devoted significant resources and care to cultivating emerging Latino artists. The company hosts two choreographers a year at its spacious, light filled Upper West Side studios. Each gets two weeks with the company's dancers, as well as advice from a mentor of his or her choosing and input from a panel of directors, choreographers and teachers. Ms. Manzanales first developed ideas for "Con Brazos Abiertos" during a residency at the Instituto in 2015. Before rehearsal on a recent morning, she explained that its title, drawn from a line in a song by the Mexican indie pop singer Carla Morrison, "is about feeling other to my Mexican culture, and like I don't completely fit in here, either." It is a common feeling among Latinos, and not just in the United States. Ms. Lopez Ochoa, who has worked with the company extensively, credits the Hispanico dancers with awakening her to a dormant aspect of her identity. "I grew up in a very white culture" in Belgium, she said in a phone conversation, "and for a long time I ignored the fact that I'm Latin. Working with Ballet Hispanico allowed me to be Colombian." Ms. Manzanales's work is in many ways about disjunction, built around a series of contrasting songs and moods. "Maria Bonita," a bolero from the '40s by the Mexican songwriter Agustin Lara (much loved by Ms. Manzanales's mother), is included, in a version sung by Julio Iglesias, a Spaniard. In one section, the dancers wear sombreros, which conceal their faces. In another, both men and women don long skirts that swish and billow as they turn. "I was pushing myself to confront these things that as a young person growing up in Texas I felt weren't cool," she said. "Maria Bonita" inspires an expansive passage in which the dancers link arms as their feet tap out an irresistible 6/8 rhythm 1 2 3, 1 2 3, with an accent on the 1. There are also nods to the 1970s comedy duo Cheech and Chong and even to El Chapo, referred to in a song by the electronic ensemble Mexican Institute of Sound. The song's music is peppy; the words, not so much. In many ways, Ms. Manzanales's piece, a kind of fragmented self portrait, encapsulates the new air of exploration in the company encouraged by Mr. Vilaro: mixed, honest, heartfelt words that could also describe the Ballet Hispanico of today. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
That mold that looks like a Dr. Seussian forest growing on the rotting strawberry in your fridge: It's probably a pin mold, a remarkable example of some of nature's most overlooked innovations. It's related to a common fungus called Phycomyces blakesleeanus, a larger one, famous for its sensing abilities. It can respond to wind and touch, grow toward light and detect and navigate around objects placed above it. It senses gravity too with crystals that move around inside single, but giant, elongated, spore containing cells that resemble Truffula Trees. "You can put that thing in a microscope you don't need a high powered microscope and you just see these beautiful crystals," said Gregory Jedd, a geneticist who studies fungi at Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory in Singapore. But he wondered where they came from. So in a paper published Tuesday in PLOS Biology, he and his colleagues determined that the crystals were likely the result of a gene that the molds' common ancestor borrowed from bacteria long ago. Their findings highlight how nature finds weird ways to turn accidents into strengths through evolution. Although quite different from one another, humans, plants and some fungi share gravitropism, the ability to know up from down. It helps us survive. By sensing Earth's gravitational pull, humans can move around without getting dizzy and plants and fungi know how to grow to obtain nutrients and reproduce. This behavior is made possible by varying gravity sensors that many organisms carry inside their bodies. A calcium carbonate crystal deep inside your ear brushes against hairs when you move, signaling up from down to your brain. In some plants, balls of starch slide around inside special gravity sensing cells like beads in a maraca, telling a plant or tree to reorient if it tilts sideways. Many fungi with parts that pop out of the ground are thought to also have gravity sensors. Because fungi only send out spore filled fruiting bodies when nutrients are low, ensuring they point to the sky is critical to survival so spores can disperse. But most fungal gravity sensors are mysteries except the crystal matrix of Phycomyces blakesleeanus. These dense bodies fall through the cytoplasm of spore containing cells, signaling them to keep reaching toward the sky as they grow. To determine the origin of this crystal matrix, Dr. Jedd and his team isolated the proteins that built them, homed in on one called OCTIN and traced it to a single gene. By looking for related organisms throughout evolutionary history with similar proteins, his team determined that a common pin mold ancestor likely acquired the gene from a bacterium that shared the same soil hundreds of millions of years ago. This happened randomly, through a process called horizontal gene transfer. It allows an organism to "pick up a piece of DNA from a completely unrelated species and potentially use it for adaptive purposes," Dr. Jedd said. If the adaptation aids survival, the organism passes it on to future generations. How this happened in the exchange between ancient fungus and bacteria was unusual. In the bacteria, the gene couldn't have produced a gravity sensor because the protein structures it made were too small. But the researchers showed that the proteins were capable of self assembling. Following additional mutations inside the fungus, that ability may have resulted in the crystal matrices that now help it know up from down. "Those little nanostructures could cluster together, and in that way they could attain a size that could make them primitive or rudimentary gravity sensors," he said. Instead of creating a shared trait, the gene, with a few mutations, had created a novel one. Dr. Jedd said understanding OCTIN and other self assembling proteins could help with developing drugs that could know exactly where and when to dissolve in the body. But there's another potential application: When your housemates hound you for being a fridge slob, try telling them you're observing gravitropism at work. Maybe it will charm them. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
The United States Soccer Federation and the members of its World Cup champion women's national team each proposed a way out of their bitter equal pay lawsuit in court filings late Thursday night. The federation sought to avoid a looming gender discrimination trial by asking the judge to dismiss the players' claim. The women's players also asked for a pretrial decision, but on far different terms: They are seeking almost 67 million and potentially millions more in back pay and damages. The diametrically opposed motions, filed Thursday in federal court in California before a midnight deadline, showed just how far apart the players and U.S. Soccer remain not only in what they consider a fair outcome but also in their basic concepts of what constitutes equal pay despite years of litigation, depositions, public relations campaigns and amid it all two straight World Cup championships. The judge, R. Gary Klausner of United States District Court for the Central District of California, can choose either solution, called a motion for summary judgment, and render moot a trial that he has set to begin in May. But while Klausner appeared to support some of the women's claims about unequal pay and working conditions when he granted the players class action status in November, both the players and U.S. Soccer expect him to allow the case to proceed to trial rather than pick a winner now on one side's terms. The kind of multimillion dollar award sought by the players a pool of dozens of athletes, including stars like Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd but also players who have made only a handful of appearances for the national team would be a significant blow to U.S. Soccer's finances, potentially affecting spending not only the men's and women's national teams but also youth development, coaching and referee education and dozens of grass roots soccer programs. In their filing, and in publicly placing a dollar amount on a possible award for the first time, the women's players presented their motion for summary judgment as a simple matter, the "rare case" where they were entitled to prevail because their claims of unequal pay and gender discrimination were laid out explicitly in contracts with the federation. "There are no genuine issues of fact to prevent the core issues of U.S.S.F.'s liability for wage discrimination from being decided in Plaintiffs' favor now," the players' lead lawyer, Jeffrey Kessler, wrote, citing as support the words of current and former U.S. Soccer officials and even a recent statement from the men's national team players union. Saying the federation's actions were in clear violation of federal law, specifically the Equal Pay Act and Title VII, an expert hired by the players calculated an award of back pay and damages of 66,722,148, "with more to be sought in punitive damages at trial in May." The figure was reached, the players' expert said, by taking the women's performances, schedules and match results and calculating what they would have earned under the separate compensation schedule in place for the United States men's national team. Calculations like those, U.S. Soccer has long argued, are inaccurate and unfair because they include World Cup bonuses paid by FIFA, the sport's global governing body, for the far more lucrative men's World Cup. In bolstering their case, the players' lawyers quoted comments by U.S. Soccer's current president, Carlos Cordeiro, and his predecessor, Sunil Gulati, that they said proved the federation was guilty of gender based decision making. U.S. Soccer's filing countered by quoting the star midfielder Megan Rapinoe, an outspoken advocate for the players' cause. In the quote, she praised the federation's long support for women's soccer generally and for the national team specifically, and said comparing the jobs of the women with the men was "just apples and oranges." In its motion, U.S. Soccer argued as it has, sometimes clumsily, in other forums that the men's and women's players are separate groups who perform different work, and that any disparities in compensation are a direct result of separate collective bargaining agreements negotiated by each team. "As a result of the collective bargaining process, the WNT players obtained many contract terms the MNT players do not enjoy in their contract," U.S. Soccer said, listing, among other items, guaranteed club salaries, maternity and child care benefits, and severance pay when they are no longer on the team. U.S. Soccer also noted that the players have long prioritized and did once again in their latest contract in 2017 a compensation system that emphasized security, in the form of guaranteed salaries, over potentially higher rewards in the bonus based payment structure that the men play under. It would contravene the law, U.S. Soccer's lawyers contended, to allow a jury to "retroactively and selectively" rewrite the plaintiffs' collective bargaining agreement to give them the benefit of the higher reward "when they never took the higher risk." In fact, U.S. Soccer argued, the players on the women's team have actually been paid millions of dollars more than their men's counterparts by the federation in recent years: 37 million for the women, when their club salaries were included, to 21 million for the men. But that calculus, too, is misleading: The players earn their club salaries by playing dozens more games than the men do, and the calculation covers a time period in which conveniently for the federation the women have earned two multimillion dollar FIFA bonuses for winning the World Cup while the men missed the 2018 World Cup, and thus received no FIFA bonus at all. As in 2016, the women's players, by pressing their cause, risk seeing their bid for equal pay becoming entangled with their preparations for the Summer Olympics. Earlier this month, the United States qualified for the Tokyo Games by winning a regional championship. In March and April, the team will play a series of matches against top rivals also headed to Tokyo including England, Japan, Brazil and Australia all while the American players, united in the equal pay fight, maneuver against one another to try to secure one of the 18 places on the Olympic roster. Then, if Klausner takes no action on the dueling motions for summary judgment, the sides are set to meet in his courtroom on May 5. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
It was just after 12:30 a.m. on election night, and Fox News was under fire. "Arnon, we're getting a lot of incoming here, and we need you to answer some questions," the network's chief political anchor, Bret Baier, said pointedly. Roughly an hour earlier, Mr. Mishkin's decision desk team at Fox News had made a bold call that instantly changed the tenor of the night: Arizona had gone to Joseph R. Biden Jr. The projection buoyed supporters of the Democratic candidate and sent President Trump's aides into conniptions. Even Mr. Trump himself took a whack, referring dismissively to Mr. Mishkin during an early morning appearance at the White House as "the gentleman that called it." Trump campaign officials said they were taken aback by the Fox News projection: Jason Miller, the campaign's chief strategist, claimed on Twitter that more than one million votes were outstanding in Arizona, and he baselessly accused the network of "trying to invalidate their votes." John Roberts, the network's chief White House correspondent, said the campaign was "livid." A false rumor circulated online that Fox News had retracted its call. Cue Mr. Mishkin, a management and polling consultant who has led Fox News's decision desk since 2008. Far from caving to the pressure from Mr. Trump's aides, he held firm, saying the campaign's insistence that it could secure a win in the state was, simply, wrong. "That's not true," Mr. Mishkin told the Fox News anchor team. "I'm sorry, the president is not going to be able to take over and win enough votes." He added, "We're not wrong in this particular case." This was a night when other networks were playing things cautiously. CNN, for instance, did not project Mr. Biden's victory in Virginia until several hours after The Associated Press had already called it. It was not the first time that Fox News's projections had thrown an unlikely lifeline to Democrats who thought their side was headed toward early defeat. 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. In the 2018 midterms, early results from Florida suggested that an anticipated "blue wave" might have been over before it began. That year, Van Jones on CNN called the early results "heartbreaking," and George Stephanopoulos mused on ABC that Democrats were having a "disappointing night." But Mr. Mishkin's team abruptly called the House for the Democrats roughly an hour before other major news outlets did so. (Some Democrats were so shocked that Fox News had made a call in their favor that they speculated about a conspiracy.) In 2012, Mr. Mishkin made another election night cameo, telling viewers why he had projected a win in Ohio for Barack Obama despite the doubts of a star Fox News analyst, Karl Rove. (Mr. Obama ultimately won the state.) It might not have been a household name making moment a subsequent summary of the telecast by The Atlantic described Mr. Mishkin merely as "Nerd 1" but it underscored his behind the scenes importance at a network whose polling operation has won the respect of rivals. On Wednesday, Mr. Mishkin again faced skepticism from conservative colleagues. The pundit Katie Pavlich, an Arizonan, told viewers she was doubtful that her home state had gone for Mr. Biden, and the host Tucker Carlson told viewers that Trump officials were skeptical about a Biden win in the state. At 2:51 a.m. Eastern time about three and a half hours after Fox News had made its call The A.P. made its own projection in Arizona: Mr. Biden would win. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Members of the 1979 Harvard Law who were in 1L, Section 3, are part of that class referred to as "the love section." Six couples, shown in the montage above, who met in this section of 140 students are still married to this day. But as a member of the Class of 1979 and as someone familiar with all things Harvard Law, Professor Lazarus also wanted to alert us to an even higher romantic bar set by 1L, Section 3: Six couples not only married from that section, but drum roll please they are all still married. "I am happy to report that, 40 years later, all six couples are still intact," said Professor Lazarus, who refers to that section as "the love section." (Professor Lazarus was a student in Section 4 that year.) It's important to note that in 1979 women made up only about a fifth of the 140 or so students from Harvard's 1L, Section 3 still, a significant increase from when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of nine women out of 500 in the Class of 1954. "Being guys we were very conscious of who the 20 women were," said George Berman, who married Regina Roman, at the Harvard chapel in July 1980, a year after their graduation. Mr. Berman noticed Ms. Roman the first day of school, but it would be weeks before he actually spoke to her, and then months later until he asked her out. He admired her independence and determination, and that of her friends. "They took on this task, and damn it, they had the same attitude as pioneer women who took wagons to Oregon," he said. "You certainly have a lot in common," Ms. Roman said of their relationship. "Harvard was a petri dish." The couple raised two sons in the Boston suburbs, and five years ago, moved to downtown Boston. Ms. Roman offered a word of advice for lawyers marrying each other: "Don't work together in the same firm." Ms. Roman's classmates, Penny Pilzer and Dan Waters, married in their third year of law school, in 1978. "I can't remember if I met Regina first or Dan,'' Ms. Pilzer said. "We signed into a book of all new students. It was multivolume. Everybody signs just their signature in case you got famous." Mr. Waters recalled signing the book right after her. "We were one of the first classes to have a substantial percentage of women it was four to one," Ms. Pilzer recalled. "Harvard already did the selecting we looked for. It was just an early example of assortative mating." The couple now live in Rockport, Mass. Ms. Pilzer, who stayed home with their two children for five years when they moved to London, returned to law when she was 50 after passing Britain's solicitor's exam. Mr. Waters had been the head of enforcement for the British financial services regulator. Their joint advice to other lawyer couples: "Don't behave like lawyers. Remember you're not adversaries. Don't argue your point unless you have to. Legal training is not designed for all aspects of human relations." Don Scherer recalled meeting Lee Hanson the first day of law school, and they married 10 years later, in 1986. They now have two daughters and a son and live in Orinda, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area. After school, they traveled around the world for three months, knowing that at the end they would have jobs 6,000 miles apart she in New York and he in Honolulu. Ms. Hanson was later transferred to Tokyo. "Whenever she traveled back to the States, she stopped in Hawaii, maybe partly to see me," he said of their friendship at that time. The relationship between Bob Sullwold and Jane Cosgriff Sullwold started off in a less than friendly way. In torts class, Ms. Sullwold was assigned to a seat in the row behind Mr. Sullwold. "I spoke to my neighbors," she said. "He turned around and said 'I want to hear the professor and not you.'" The couple began dating in the spring, and after law school settled in San Francisco. They are both originally from the Midwest she from Fargo, N.D., and he from Toledo, Ohio. Mr. Sullwold wanted to stay in San Francisco. "I made the case San Francisco wasn't the Wild West,'' he said. The two became officially engaged the day after taking the bar. Today they live in Alameda, Calif. The most difficult part of their relationship was getting through the long hours at work, Ms. Sullwold said. It helps, though, that the two have remained on the same wavelength. "When an issue comes up, an important issue, we're looking at it in the same way, but differing at the margins," he said. "Should we give more to AIDS or the food bank. The underlying theory the same." Common interests and backgrounds brought together Dveera Segal and Bradley Bridge, who have three children. The pair crossed paths outside a small legal methods class a few days after school began. She had transferred to that class from a later section on Friday so she could observe the Sabbath in time. "She commented on my T shirt,'' he said. It simply said UAHC Camp Swig staff, which she knew stood for Union of American Hebrew Congregations. "She recognized that I was Jewish and so was she. That was the entry point. I'd never throw that shirt away." They were married Aug. 5, 1979 after taking the Illinois bar exam. "Dveera's my best friend and always has been,'' Mr. Bridge said. His advice: "Respect the person and their judgment." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
MANCHESTER, N.H. Budget cuts have eliminated about 95 full time teachers from the school district here over the past year, swelling class sizes and prompting parents to cry foul. "We had students sitting on the floor with a clipboard," said Jim O'Connell, the president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Hillside Middle School. "It's one degree separated from a 1700s classroom with chalk and a slate." Officials, seeking an overhaul, began to wonder if a 21st century technology might help allay their struggles: having some students take courses online during the school day, without a teacher physically present. But a plan to institute "blended learning labs," which allow students to do just that, is stoking concern among parents and teachers. Some doubt the efficacy of online learning. Others say the proposed solution barely scratches the surface of systemic problems here. "It's smoke and mirrors; it's a high tech baby sitter," said David Fischer, a community college instructor who has two children set to attend Central High School next year. The plan, which Superintendent Thomas J. Brennan Jr. presented to the district's school board last month, would expand the district's current use of New Hampshire's online charter school, the Virtual Learning Academy, by putting a virtual learning lab in each of the district's three high schools, allowing students to take courses there during the school day under the supervision of a "facilitator" who would be present in the lab. It would also add a remote classroom to each high school, where students in undersubscribed courses could participate in classes taught at one of the other schools via an interactive monitor, and expand the school's collaboration with the University of New Hampshire at Manchester. In an interview, Dr. Brennan said class size issues were not the main motivation for the project, which he hopes will expand student opportunity and increase technology literacy among pupils and staff alike. But it could, he said, provide a new alternative for students in oversubscribed classes without the schools' having to hire part time teachers to pick up extra course sections. "It deals with the reality of budgets and the limited resources we have, and the need for students and school districts to catch up with technology," Dr. Brennan said of the plan. "I believe the class sizes will diminish, and it will allow more opportunities for teachers to work with students that are struggling." With more than 15,000 students, Manchester is the largest school district in the state, serving about 1 in 12 of its public school students, district officials say. Once, the city drew money from the large business tax base of its mill economy, now defunct. Since then, the district's growth has not kept up with its tax revenues, and Manchester now has some of the state's lowest per pupil spending, at 10,283.77 per student (the state average is 13,159.15). Some frustrated school officials and parents also blame underfinancing on a tax cap, finalized last year, that limits what the city can spend. The question of underfinancing and overcrowding drove the school board in tiny Candia, N.H., to request a face to face meeting with Manchester's school board late last month. Candia has its own public schools through eighth grade, but it contracts with Manchester to send its students to their Central High School. Assistant Superintendent Michael Tursi presented the new plan, including the learning labs, to Candia's board, but it was unimpressed. "This is not a solution," said Candia's superintendent, Charles P. Littlefield, to applause. Later, he added, "I'd like to think I'm a 21st century superintendent, but I'm not sure anything substitutes for high quality interaction between teachers and students." Parents bristled at the idea that online learning could begin to close the gap they see in the schools. "What you're seeing in Manchester is a postage stamp, a fig leaf, to cover the fact that politicians in our city will not increase taxes to fund our schools," said Mr. O'Connell, who is president of an advocacy group called Citizens for Manchester Schools. Yet the use of online learning in high schools is growing nationwide; a 2008 survey by the Sloan Consortium, an organization that advocates for online learning, estimated that 1.3 million high school students took an online course during that academic year, and the number is likely to have grown since. Some states, like Florida, require students to take an online course to graduate. Steve Kossakoski, the chief executive of the Virtual Learning Academy, New Hampshire's online charter school, said that the program was often used for accelerated or remedial courses or increased flexibility, but that he did not know of schools using his program to ease overcrowding. But Crystal Howard, of Florida Virtual School, said school districts like Miami Dade, one of the nation's biggest, did look to online learning when a 2002 voter referendum that went fully into effect in 2010 limited class sizes statewide. "When they said that there would be a mandatory class size and they could only have a certain number of students in the classroom, we did become a solution," Ms. Howard said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
At more than 20 medical schools in the United States, students are getting an earful about life, about perspective from healthy seniors. Every Older Patient Has a Story. Medical Students Need to Hear It. Whatever the cluster of second year students at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York expected to hear from an 82 year old woman this probably wasn't it. At first, Elizabeth Shepherd, one of several seniors invited to meet with future doctors in an anti ageism program called "Introduction to the Geriatric Patient," largely followed the script. As student Zachary Myslinski, 24, read off questions from a standard assessment tool, she responded in matter of fact tones. Macular degeneration, replied Ms. Shepherd, a working actor who also teaches Shakespeare at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. But she was getting treatment. Just one, when she missed a bottom step. "In the subway! In public! That was no fun." Ms. Shepherd, elegant in an animal print tunic and dangly earrings, easily tucked her hands behind her head, displaying good range of motion. She remembered three words "pineapple, blue, honesty" when asked to recall them several minutes later in a cognitive test. But after telling her rapt audience that she'd raised a son born "out of wedlock" in 1964 and had divorced twice, she added, "I emigrated to Lesbianland for a little while in my 50s." Eventually returning to heterosexual relationships, she continued, she met a 90 year old online and had "the most wonderful summer with this man." She's now involved with a 65 year old, she added. But "he's in Afghanistan at the moment, so my sex life is not as active as I'd like." Dr. Ronnie LoFaso, the faculty geriatrician guiding the session, said, "This is taking an interesting turn." But that was the point, really. "It's important that they don't think life stops as you get older," Ms. Shepherd told me afterward. "So I decided I would be frank with them." Dr. Ronald Adelman, co chief of geriatrics at Weill Cornell, developed this annual program which includes a theater piece and is required for all second year students after he realized that medical students were getting a distorted view of older adults. "Unfortunately, most education takes place within the hospital," he told me. "If you're only seeing the hospitalized elderly, you're seeing the debilitated, the physically deteriorating, the demented. It's easy to pick up ageist stereotypes." These misperceptions can influence people's care. In another classroom down the hall, 88 year old Marcia Levine, a retired family therapist, was telling students about a gastroenterologist who once dismissed her complaints of fatigue by saying, "At your age, you can't expect to have much energy." Then, in her 70s, she switched doctors and learned she had a low grade infection. At least 20 medical schools in the United States have undertaken similar efforts to introduce students to healthy, active elders, said Dr. Amit Shah, a geriatrician who helps direct the Senior Sages program at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. The programs take many forms, from Weill Cornell's two hour introduction to a semester long curriculum at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. "You hear that people are not worth treating because of their age." Some schools, like the Medical University of South Carolina and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, match students with older patients they follow throughout their four year educations, making home visits, accompanying their "senior mentors" to doctors' appointments, and visiting them if they're hospitalized. Though the efforts can be voluntary or mandatory, can emphasize clinical skills or encourage new perspectives , they reflect broad agreement on the problems that ageism brings. In health care, "you hear a lot of infantilizing language: 'sweetie,' 'cutie,' 'honey,'" said Tracey Gendron, the gerontologist who started the senior mentoring program at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. "You hear that people are not worth treating because of their age." Interruptions are "ubiquitous in medical encounters," said Dr. Adelman, but older patients contend with them more often. Dr. Adelman has recorded and analyzed doctors visits in which a spouse or adult child accompanies a patient and begins asking and answering the questions. "The older person, who is cognitively fine, is just excluded, referred to as 'he' or 'she,'" Dr. Adelman said. "It can undermine the relationship between the older patient and the doctor." More broadly, medical research often continues to exclude older people, forcing their doctors to make educated guesses about drugs and procedures, and how much they will help or hurt. Yet most doctors, if they're not pediatricians, will spend much of their careers working with older people, becoming to borrow a phrase from Dr. Donovan Maust, a geriatric psychiatrist at the University of Michigan de facto geriatricians. If medical students specialize in pulmonology, they'll find that about 35 percent of their patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are over age 65, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported. Endocrinologists treating diabetics will learn that almost 40 percent will be 65 plus. In oncology, more than half of the survivors of all types of cancer are over age 65. We'll never have enough geriatricians to care for this growing older population, in part because it's hard for doctors to pay off student loans and make a living when virtually all their patients are on Medicare. Last year, there were just 7,279 certified geriatricians in the United States, only about half practicing full time. The supply is rising only modestly, while the demand will increase a projected 45 percent by 2025, according to the American Geriatrics Society. They do involve a fair amount of administrative time. And they require awareness of the particular challenges of this phase of life. Ms. Shepherd was frank about that, too. When she turned 80, she told the students, "I began to realize, this really is different. To know that there are not so many years ahead. To think about how I want to spend the rest of my days. There was a new vulnerability." She appreciated that they had listened, she said afterward, calling the session "a gift to us, as well as to them. It's an acknowledgment that we are important and of interest." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Dickens arrived in New York City in December 1867 and was, as The Times put it, "permitted to go quietly to his hotel. No attempt was made to inflict upon him the annoyance of a formal reception, or to intrude upon his privacy." At a public reading on Dec. 9, 1867 which was sold out he read "A Christmas Carol" to a rapt crowd at Steinway Hall, which was then on 14th Street: "Mr. Dickens makes free use of gesticulation. ... He stirs the gravy, when telling how Mrs. Cratchit made it; mashes the potatoes with something of Master Peter's 'incredible vigor,' dusts the hot plates as Martha did, and makes a face of infinite wonderment and exultation when shouting, in the piping tones of the two youngest Cratchits, 'There's such a goose, Martha!'" Dickens died on June 9, 1870, and when the news reached the United States two days later, his obituary took up most of the paper's front page and described his famous New York readings of "A Christmas Carol." On Christmas Day 1876, a lovely front page essay in The Times referenced the novel in its opening line. On May 4, 1901, The Times printed a charming reminiscence from a woman who had sent a boutonniere to Dickens for one of his 1868 readings of "A Christmas Carol" in Philadelphia. On Dec. 8, 1912, The Times featured photos of the original manuscript of "A Christmas Carol," purchased by American financier J.P. Morgan and displayed at New York's Morgan Library. "It is written in a well known, scratchy hand on sheets of yellowing paper," The Times reported, adding, "It is, of course, a well nigh priceless treasure. And it is so less because it is the writing of a great work by a great novelist than because it is, in its genuineness and its intimacy, something that for nearly three quarters of a century has been part of the thought of Christmas cheer." On the novel's 80th anniversary in 1923, The Times called it "the greatest little book in the world." In an essay for The New York Times on Dec. 24, 1933, Dickens's son Henry discussed what Christmas meant to his father and described how the family celebrated the holiday: "There was usually a long walk with the dogs on the afternoon of Christmas Day; and the festivities in the evening, varied as they were, were typical of the time; that is to say, they were all brightened by good humor and high spirits. Sometimes there would be a charade; sometimes games, of which he was particularly fond; sometimes a country dance with the servants brought in to take their part. All this time Charles Dickens was the life and soul of the party. As he did in everything else, he threw his heart into it. His merriment was no mere pretense; his laughter bubbled over and was contagious; his buoyancy was immense; and there was not a soul present who did not become infected with the same feeling of genuine happiness." In 1943, the paper celebrated the centennial of the novel with an affectionate full page tribute: "After a century the earth is still afflicted, indeed, with misery, famine, revolution and war. But there is also such an awakening of the humane spirit of brotherhood throughout the world as has never been seen before." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Children infected with H.I.V. appear much more likely than those who are not to die with severe malaria, a new study has found. It may make sense to give these children malaria drugs protectively, the authors said. The research, which looked at 3,000 Malawian children who went into comas with cerebral malaria and included autopsies on more than 100 who had died, partly resolves a question that has long puzzled H.I.V. specialists. Does H.I.V. make malaria more lethal, as it is well known to do with other diseases notably tuberculosis? About three million African children have H.I.V., and malaria and TB are also widespread across the continent. In some hot, wet regions, children may get malaria several times a year. The study, led by researchers from Montefiore Health System/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and from Michigan State, was published online in the journal mBio. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
"Hmm ... I'll have what she's having," I thought last week as I watched the Saint Laurent spring runway show online, the model's ball bearing hips sheathed in a black latex bodysuit. A true believer, I lost no time tracking down its slick approximation, zipping myself into it and styling it with some vintage Chanel tweeds. When I worked up the nerve to wear it, reactions were swift and incisive. "Is it Wang?" a friend asked brightly. "Vuitton?" another inquired. As is happened, I had plucked that much coveted swathe of rubber and raunch straight off the rack at Purple Passion, a cavelike emporium in Chelsea trading in leather wrapped paddles, harnesses, spiked chokers and demonic masks that might have wandered off the set of "Eyes Wide Shut." Nice way to add a little kick to a sadly fatigued wardrobe, I assured myself as I made my selection. This has been a year, after all, in which sex shop chic infiltrated the runways, asserting its status as a kind of kinky perma trend, one that, like nautical stripes or safari suits, has woven itself inextricably into the fabric of fashion. Lightly veiled, domesticated variations on fetish wear emerged last September on the spring 2016 runways of unlikely designers like Carolina Herrera, where a faintly recognizable harness embellished an otherwise pristine white dress, and Marissa Webb, who showed an airy spring dress with a curious hybrid of leather porn shop harness and fishing vest. Ms. Webb likes to wear that harness herself, usually over a black blazer. "But here's to anyone who wants to wear it over nothing at all," she said. Kink returned in force at the fall 2016 shows this year, with lace up corsets, wet look bodysuits and leggings, corsets, fishnet hose and pole dancing pumps shimmying their way into the collections of Alexander Wang, Hood by Air, Prada, Balmain, Marc Jacobs and Vetements, to name but an influential few. Ms. Webb incorporated a sex shop reference in high waist trousers that were nipped at the midsection for a corseted effect. Subtly or overtly, she said, "a fetish influence is always part of fashion." Designers have repeatedly gone back to that once forbidden well, with Mr. Jacobs in particular revisiting a theme he explored most memorably in his fall 2011 collection for Louis Vuitton. "I wanted severity and fetish," Mr. Jacobs said at that time of his strokeable fur purses, patent leather bustiers and masks. His aim was to break down and recombine hallowed dress codes and "make them a bit caricature." In other, more repressive times, Mr. Jacobs's steamy little numbers may have made some people squirm. Today they are so deeply embedded in the popular culture that they have been all but stripped of their dark associations. "Women are more aware than ever of the implications of an O ring, leather harness choker necklaces, vinyl skirts or platform boots," said Connie Wang, the fashion features director of Refinery29, a shopping site that recently offered a pair of velvet bondage cuffs. If customers are for the most part unfazed, Ms. Wang said that it is because "porn and its related aesthetic have become mainstream, full stop." The trend's subversive allure was certainly not lost on the college age women who thronged the Pink Pussycat in Greenwich Village on a recent Sunday, raiding tables and shelves piled with fishnet bodysuits, filigreed harnesses, rhinestone covered shackles and strap on accessories in 50 shades of pink. Dressing like a dominatrix may seem pretty innocuous to worshipers at the altar of pop idols like Kim Kardashian, who has embraced peach tone latex as cocktail attire; Rita Ora, who flaunted her curves in sickly pink latex; or Taylor Swift, who, for the filming last year of "Bad Blood," her racy girl power music video, laced herself into a clam colored latex corset from a high end Los Angeles sex shop. Not everyone, of course, is entirely on board. When Ms. Swift was photographed last summer wearing a harness to a Hollywood lunch, Twitter virtually imploded, reactions varying from sputtering disdain to unconcealed hostility. Nonetheless, the look is a commonplace, so ubiquitous that less worldly consumers may well be challenged to pinpoint its ultimate source. For many young women, the sex shop look has become a fashion fallback, "a kind of classic," said David Wolfe, a creative director of the Doneger Group, the New York trend forecasting firm. Some retreat routinely to the reassuring familiarity of fishnet hose, tight T shirts and pole dancing shoes, he pointed out, but are rarely aware of their lineage. He was referring to the trend's historical antecedents in the fetish emporiums of London's seamier back streets, stores that were mined by the original punkers for their strappy bondage trousers, spiky leather chokers, strap festooned trousers and schoolgirl plaid skirts. And that's to say nothing of Madonna, who in earlier career incarnations embraced fetish wear as a second skin, contributing immeasurably to the steady erosion of boundaries between fashion and fetishism. Over the years sex shop chic has made regular incursions into conventional wardrobes, in the form of catsuits, rump clutching lace or leather trousers and stiletto heel, thigh high boots. "Whether they're inspired by a runway show being live streamed or someone's Instagram feed, a much higher number of people are feeling inspired to try something more daring," said Alexandra Popa, the founder of Bordelle, a London lingerie shop and website with a brisk business in dog collar chokers. Fashion marketers have traded on that fascination, construction sites plastered with images of models in tie me up tops (IRO) and chains (Alexander Wang). This year Diesel saw fit to introduce its underwear campaign online on Pornhub/YouPorn, as part of its foray into digital advertising. Television, too, has lately exploited the intrigue of latex and leather. Such trappings feature in "Billions," a Showtime drama in which Paul Giamatti as the United States attorney battling Wall Street corruption engages with his wife (Maggie Siff) in BDSM role play. Others mine the style for laughs, as did Vogue, in its February issue, with a leather clad Ben Stiller, the hapless antihero of "Zoolander 2," saddled up and propped on all fours as a camera toting Penelope Cruz (the film's sharp eyed investigator) looked on. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
If the top of the Billboard Hot 100 this year has been deadeningly constant Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" has been No. 1 for 18 weeks the rapid churn at the top of the album chart has told a rowdier and truer tale about what's happening in contemporary pop music. So far, 24 different albums have been No. 1, none for more than two consecutive weeks. A No. 1 album these days indicates popularity, but also the power of release week shenanigans: As major stars move toward short notice album drop strategies rather than extended rollout periods, they look for open windows that will all but ensure they'll debut at No. 1. (Merchandise and ticket bundles frequently figure into the equation.) Undoubtedly, then, Chance the Rapper was surprised to learn that his new album, "The Big Day," was bested by "The Search" by NF, a white rapper from Michigan who got his start in the world of Christian rap. As a stand alone event, it's not particularly meaningful: Chance is, broadly speaking, far more popular than NF. And yet an NF victory demonstrated roughly the same thing as a hypothetical Chance victory would have a triumph for a certain style of intricate rapping, intermittently popular over the years but not particularly in vogue right now, and a certain moral value set that's also not terribly in style. Both are artists at the margins of the dominant hip hop discourses (online, the radio, and so on). They're extremely popular cult figures with passionate but somewhat narrow fan bases. "The Search" is NF's second No. 1 LP. Judging by the tenor of the lyrics on "The Search," NF might prefer that things stay that way. Self lacerating misery is his sole subject. His internal well being is a bonfire, and fame seems only to be an accelerant. In 2017, NF's third album, "Perception," went to No. 1, and its single "Let You Down" reached No. 12 and became a pop radio staple. Almost every song on "The Search" is about how the success he has experienced in the last few years has been disorienting and fraught. "Leave Me Alone" feels like a real time reckoning with success that arrives too quickly: "Hide my plaques inside a closet, I just can't explain it/My wife, she tells me that she's proud and thinks that I should hang 'em/But I just leave them on the ground right next to my self hatred." On "My Stress" he confesses, "I don't love my work the way I did" who can relate? There's precious little negative space on this sometimes vigorous, sometimes exhausting album; listening to it is a lot like living inside a snare drum during a marching band's halftime performance. This is the Eminem in him. He has the polysyllabic rhymes down, and the self laceration, too. But Eminem was a wild fantasist before he became a full time solipsist; NF is seemingly only concerned with his own interior life . When Eminem faded from ubiquity, the space he left in pop where he gave high level hip hop technique its biggest platform was far bigger than the hole he left in hip hop, where even at his most famous, he was always a special case oddity with few clear inheritors. Eminem remains a parent to the slapstick gore of early Odd Future, and his hyperdense rhyming is foundational to Logic and NF. Back in the 1990s, this kind of rapping the type that calls attention to its own flamboyance used to be prized and rewarded. But in this era, it's more a curiosity, even if proponents like Chance and Kendrick Lamar excel at it. To rap with such force and gymnastic verve in this climate of psychedelia and melody feels like an ethical choice as much as an artistic one. You hear it as well in YBN Cordae's debut album, "The Lost Boy," which debuted at No. 11 on the album chart, a little below the Chance/NF fray. Cordae, too, is a dexterous lyricist, an adherent to old style values in the spirit of mid to late 1990s rappers from New York (and nearby) who were comfortable in the pocket and always eager to cram verses with different patterns of rhyme the stuff of impressive radio freestyles. But his musical palette is far vaster than that of NF, who leans heavily on bruising, thudding production and choral singing so forceful it sounds like it's barking in your ear. Cordae prefers soul drenched production, and on his interludes, he directly engages with gospel music. For him, too, being principled is both an aesthetic concern and a philosophical one. In his limited interviews, NF has blanched at being called a Christian rapper, even though he emerged from that scene. And in a way, his protest is fair: He doesn't rap about God or salvation any more than most mainstream rappers. In NF's case, the classification is a kind of shorthand to exclude him from broader conversations about hip hop, which he most assuredly belongs in. He's an objectively strong rapper who makes work with a moral valence just like Cordae, just like Chance, just like Lamar or Logic or J. Cole. Where NF falls short is that he mostly works in one gear. Part of the agonizing he does on "The Search" is about not being taken seriously enough "Why the game looking at me like I'm just a tourist?" he raps on "No Excuses" and emerging into the spotlight only to find that the value system you hold so dear is not in fact that widely admired. It explains how NF is both very popular and yet not that popular at all, and how both of those things are getting under his skin. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
The slate of shows scheduled to be staged on Broadway next spring or whenever large scale indoor theater is allowed to resume in New York includes just three with Black writers. All of them are jukebox musicals. But what if theater owners and operators, mindful of this year's roiling reconsideration of racial injustice, wanted to present more work by Black artists? Interviews with artists and producers suggest that there are more than a dozen plays and musicals with Black writers circling Broadway meaning, in most cases, that the shows have been written, have had promising productions elsewhere, and have support from commercial producers or nonprofit presenters. But bringing these shows to Broadway would mean making room for producers and artists who often have less experience in commercial theater than the powerful industry regulars who most often get theaters. "My hope is that when theater reopens, Broadway is going to look very different than it did when it closed in March," said Lynn Nottage, a two time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright whose own path to Broadway was difficult her first Pulitzer winner, "Ruined," famously never transferred despite several extensions Off Broadway; she finally arrived in 2017 with "Sweat," and she is now working on three shows with Broadway aspirations. "It would be very exciting for me to return to a space that felt more like the world that I want to live in," she said, "and less like the world that I'm living in now." Three quarters of the 41 Broadway theaters are controlled by the Shubert, Nederlander and Jujamcyn organizations. To present a show on Broadway, producers generally must rent a theater and agree to share box office revenue with one of the landlords; over the last few years, availability has been limited because Broadway has been booming, but industry leaders expect that to change next year, given the uncertainty over the pandemic. The Shuberts, who have the most playhouses, plan to return with a diverse slate of shows. "We always have booked, and always will be booking, plays with Black writers and Black directors and Black subject matters," said Robert E. Wankel, the chairman and chief executive of the Shubert Organization. Among the shows seeking theaters when Broadway opens next spring: a well received revival of Ntozake Shange's classic choreopoem, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf," as well as a revival of Charles Randolph Wright's "Blue" and a new play, "Thoughts of a Colored Man," by Keenan Scott II. Several musicals are poised as well. The most obvious is "A Strange Loop," by Michael R. Jackson, which won this year's Pulitzer Prize for drama after an Off Broadway run. But that show, which the Pulitzers called "a meditation on universal human fears and insecurities," is not headed directly to Broadway. Its commercial producer, Barbara Whitman, tried unsuccessfully to get a Broadway house last year; when she was unable to land a theater, she committed to a second nonprofit run delayed by the pandemic but now expected to take place next summer, at Woolly Mammoth in Washington and is planning then to try again in New York. Two musicals with Black writers are hoping for theaters next spring: "Born for This," about the life and career of gospel singer BeBe Winans, and "Paradise Square," about Irish Black relations in 19th century New York. "Born for This," which has already had productions in Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, is being produced by Ron Gillyard, a music executive; "Paradise Square," which had a production at Berkeley Repertory Theater, includes Marcus Gardley among its book writers, and is led by the storied Canadian producer Garth Drabinsky, who is seeking to make a comeback after serving time in prison for fraud. Nonprofit theaters control six of the 41 Broadway houses, and two of them have plays by Black writers planned for 2021 22. The Roundabout Theater Company has announced that it will stage a production of "Trouble in Mind," a 1955 play by Alice Childress that is in part about racism in theater, that winter. The Roundabout artistic director, Todd Haimes, said the show is the result of a concerted effort to explore less well known classics by artists of color. "It's an extraordinary play," he said. "And it's not an undiscovered masterpiece it's a semi discovered masterpiece that never got its due because people were afraid of it." Second Stage Theater plans in the fall of 2021 to stage a new comedic play by Nottage about a sandwich shop that employs the formerly incarcerated; the play had a production last summer at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis with the title "Floyd's," but Nottage is planning to rename it so audiences don't think it's about George Floyd, the Minneapolis man killed in police custody earlier this year. A more diverse Broadway is a priority for theater artists for very basic reasons say what you will about Broadway, but it is the segment of the theatrical landscape where artists make the best salaries, and it not only boosts the careers of those who work there, but it also reliably increases the longevity and reach of their work. The playwright Jocelyn Bioh had an Off Broadway and regional hit with "School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play." She is now writing the book for a new Afrobeat musical, "Goddess," which is adapted from a Kenyan myth and slated to have an initial production at Berkeley Rep, supported by a commercial producer, Christine Schwarzman, who wants to bring it to Broadway. "I don't know how to solve the diversity issue on Broadway," Bioh said, "other than calling attention to it, and cultivating a generation of producers who are not afraid." The three jukebox musicals with Black writers already expected next year include two that opened in 2019 and were paused by the pandemic: "Ain't Too Proud," about the Temptations, with a book by Dominique Morisseau, and "Tina," about Tina Turner, with a book by Katori Hall. The newcomer is "MJ," about Michael Jackson, which has a book by Nottage and is aiming to open next April. Each of those musicals is, to a degree, presold based on a popular song catalog. But for plays in today's Broadway economy, marquee casting often calls the shots. For example: The producer Robyn Goodman is looking to bring Cheryl L. West's "Jar the Floor," a 1991 play about four generations of Black women, to Broadway, but said, "for Broadway you have to have a star or two, and we were close to that, but now nobody knows their schedule, and we just have to wait a couple months until people start planning." "Blue," a 2000 play by Charles Randolph Wright about a successful family of funeral home operators, is being produced by Brian Moreland, who is also producing "Thoughts of a Colored Man." Moreland tried to get a Broadway theater for "Blue," directed by Phylicia Rashad, co produced by John Legend, and starring Leslie Uggams and Lynn Whitfield, before the pandemic. When he couldn't, he booked it into the Apollo Theater in Harlem, which is not a Broadway venue (although there is discussion about reconsidering that). Sensing that the climate is shifting, he is again hopeful. "If they could shake loose a Broadway house," he said, "we would take it." "Resistance is an understatement," Daniels said of the reaction when he began talking with Broadway producers about the show, a no holds barred comic fantasia, first staged at the Public Theater, which imagines a moment in which the American government offers to relocate Black Americans to Africa. "They looked at me like I had four heads." Daniels, collaborating with the British power producer Sonia Friedman, said he still hopes to bring it to Broadway after the pandemic eases. "It's the epicenter of New York City," he said, "and we should exist in the middle of New York City." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
At the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, a handful of terracotta warriors from ancient China will be on display and an augmented reality app will let viewers place digitally recreated weapons in their hands. PHILADELPHIA Imagine pointing your phone at China's ancient terracotta warriors to arm them with spears and bows, weapons that disintegrated long ago. For many people, the Franklin Institute's new exhibition, "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor," will be the only chance to see a small subset of the approximately 8,000 clay soldiers and other figures that were discovered beneath a Chinese persimmon orchard in 1974. Some 2,200 years ago, they were built by the emperor Qin Shihuangdi in a massive public works project that lasted about 30 years. While some of these 10 warriors have been exhibited elsewhere, the institute is enhancing the experience with augmented reality technology to digitally recreate weapons and other objects that were originally held by the statues. The original artifacts crumbled and vanished as earthen walls and roof timbers collapsed during the warriors' long occupancy of three underground pits. Technology experts worked with curators to digitally recreate objects like swords and spears that were held by the warriors. They did the same with the two nonmilitary figures in the show a civil official and a musician to represent objects that they would have held or stood next to. The technology is available to museumgoers through an app that they can download to their smartphones when they book tickets or arrive at the museum. Visitors can activate the digital images of the warriors' weapons by holding their phones in front of a two dimensional "target" that's fixed to the interpretive display with each statue. Once a "missing" object like a spear appears on the viewer's phone, it can be manipulated to allow the user to see features such as shape and color. Technologists ensured the historical accuracy of the images by drawing on the expertise of museum staff. "The curators worked with the developers on what type of metal this would be, what type of wood this would have been, so it really takes you back in time to see the weapons as they would have been originally made," said Susan Poulton, the institute's chief digital officer. "When you see the pits, you really don't see them really holding all their weaponry, and this gives you a chance to see how they would have stood in the original pit." In coming weeks, the Institute will upgrade the technology so that visitors can activate the augmented reality simply by pointing their phones at the statues themselves. Ms. Poulton said the adoption of technology recognizes that many museumgoers, especially millennials and their children, want to be able to use their phones to enhance the museum experience. "It's not that they think it's a distraction," she said. "They expect to be able to experience this exhibit through their phone. And that's only going to grow as millennials have kids. How do we meet the visitors where they are technologically instead of trying to bring them to where we want them to be?" The process of discovery using technology mirrors the recreation of the warriors themselves, all of which were in pieces when they were found, broken by the deterioration of their underground home over two millenniums. The exhibition, which also includes hundreds of associated artifacts from museums around China, aims to tell the story not only of how the emperor created his enormous retinue for the afterlife but how the figures were rebuilt despite the absence of any guide or template. "They needed to sort the pieces of the armored officer from the pieces of the archer that might have been standing beside him, and they were all mixed together," said Karen Elinich, the exhibition's co curator. "This is a monumental feat of archaeology and conservation." Even though objects such as spears and swords had disappeared from the warriors' grasp long before they were unearthed, scholars have been able to infer what the figures would have been carrying by drawing conclusions based on rank and function, and by examining the position of the figures' hands, Ms. Elinich said. Archers, for example, would have held crossbows, while cavalrymen would have been made with one hand holding a horse's reins, leaving the other free to hold a spear. In each case, scholarship has been used to inform the creation of the digital images. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Revivals sometimes get a bad name for banking on audience complacency. But in the best cases they offer a chance to find potently timely surprises in works that seemed to live only in one era. (Without revivals, you can't have classics.) And new plays that revisit the recent past can offer a similar shift in perspective. This month, a few of each stand out. Shaw's "St. Joan," last seen on Broadway in a becalmed production starring Condola Rashad, has become the dominant dramatic treatment of the Joan of Arc story despite many attempts to upstage it. Case in point: The Public Theater's 2017 production of David Byrne's misbegotten rock oratorio called "Joan of Arc: Into the Fire." Turned out, it wasn't such a good idea to focus on the story's gender politics, mostly from a male point of view. This month, the Public offers (through Dec. 23) what may prove a corrective with "Mother of the Maid," a play by Jane Anderson that had its premiere in 2015 at Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Mass. Ms. Anderson's version smartly shifts the usual perspective, focusing on the relationship between the problematic teenager and her put upon mother. In Lenox, that mother was played by the estimable Tina Packer, who I thought would prove irreplaceable in the role. Enter Glenn Close. Having garnered raves this summer as the title character in "The Wife," for which Ms. Anderson wrote the screenplay, she now switches gears from long suffering spouse to long suffering parent. Matthew Penn directs. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Second Stage Theater's 2018 19 Off Broadway offerings will include a world premiere by the Tony Award winning book writer of "Dear Evan Hansen" and a new musical by the composer of "Next to Normal." Steven Levenson's 1969 set "Days of Rage," about a group of radicals in upstate New York whose lives are disrupted by the arrival of two strangers, will begin previews Oct. 2 at the Tony Kiser Theater. Trip Cullman, who directed "Lobby Hero," the inaugural show for Second Stage's new Broadway home, will direct. Along with "Dear Evan Hansen," Mr. Levenson is a television writer and playwright whose works include "If I Forget" and "The Language of Trees." "Superhero," a new musical by the Tony winner John Logan and the composer Tom Kitt, will begin previews Jan. 31. The show will include "a fractured family, the mysterious stranger in apartment 4 B, and the unexpected hero who just might save the day," according to the theater's announcement. The Tony nominees Kate Baldwin and Bryce Pinkham have signed on to star. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
"First of all, I actually believe Trump when he says that this intelligence briefing never reached his desk. Because I mean, his desk is so full of Goya beans, where were they going to put the files?" TREVOR NOAH " imitating Trump aide Sir, we'd have something we'd like to get on your desk immediately. There's a bit of a bit of a bean jam right now. Little backup on the bean products, so maybe next week stop back and I'll see if I can work through the beans." SETH MEYERS "But it is bizarre that Trump is the most impulsive president ever except when it comes to Russia. I mean, people are protesting against the police and he's like, 'We've got to send in the troops. Break it up people, we've got to destroy them!' But when Russia is putting bounties on American troops, he's like, 'They're only lashing out because we hurt them. Like Dr. Jen says: Hurt people hurt people.'" TREVOR NOAH "I mean, I guess I can understand where Trump is coming from. It is super awkward bringing up to your buddy how he put a bounty on your soldiers' heads, you know? You're talking sports, you're talking chicks you don't want ruin the vibe with how he's spearheading a campaign to compensate enemy combatants for killing your troops. Zero chill, man, zero chill!" TREVOR NOAH | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
A bucket of Oscar bait that's been sitting around for some two years, "The Current War" may still find an audience. And it should: The film certainly doesn't reek of failure. But as its energetic early scenes give way to a sluggish second half, you start to sense how much better this good enough movie might have been. Beginning in 1880, the story centers on the rivalry between Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) as they race to wire American cities for electricity. Edison is a proponent of direct current, while Westinghouse pushes alternating current. (Even if you have trouble plugging in a toaster, don't worry: Alfonso Gomez Rejon, the film's director, makes their conflict clear enough, using sweeping music and sharp camera angles to tell us how to feel.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
When news began to break on Monday of a bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people, including children, internet users turned to Twitter for updates and to vent grief and sympathy. David Leavitt took a different tack. He logged on to Twitter, where he now has more than 60,000 followers, and wrote: "MULTIPLE CONFIRMED FATALITIES at Manchester Arena. The last time I listened to Ariana Grande I almost died too." He followed up a few minutes later: "Honestly, for over a year I thought an Ariana Grande was something you ordered at Starbucks." The response was swift, widespread and almost uniformly one of disgust. "Your friends and family are ashamed of you right now," Matt Lucas, the English comedian with 950,000 Twitter followers, posted in reply."I actually think that shared contempt for you might turn out to be the truly bipartisan issue that starts the national healing process," remarked another Twitter user. Mr. Leavitt wasn't finished. "Too soon?" he tweeted within a few hours, and then, "Sorry 4 offending. Didn't realize the magnitude of the tragedy. I always make stupid jokes about whatevers trending. Condolences 2 families". Before the end of the night, he deleted the initial tweet. But this brought on a new wave of derision, with many people sharing screenshots of his remarks. (The internet never forgets.) Mr. Leavitt seemed unfazed. "I made a mistake. AndThenIStartedToLaugh," he posted. Mr. Leavitt by then had joined a special class of people who have become public enemies because of off handed comments made on Twitter. The most notable example is Justine Sacco, a public relations executive who posted a racially charged message before getting on a plane and shutting off her phone for 11 hours. She landed, apologized and was fired by her employer. Mr. Leavitt, who did not reply to emails seeking an interview, presents a different sort of problem for brands that want to distance themselves. He has stated on LinkedIn and on his Twitter profile that he is a freelance writer and a social media brander. On Instagram he presents himself as an influencer. These are all activities that make him a cog in the wheel of the gig economy. On Twitter he has what is known as a "verified" account, designated by a blue check mark, which means that the social network is certifying "an account of public interest is authentic," as a spokeswoman for the platform wrote in an email. Online he has claimed association with CBS, Yahoo, CBS Local Digital Media and AXS, a ticketing and live event platform, among others. On Instagram, where he has 19,000 followers, Mr. Leavitt posted a photograph of himself on May 4, holding a gaming controller in one hand and a bottle of Coke in the other. He added the caption, "I love to enjoy a refreshing Coca Cola in between intense gaming matches. Click link in bio to buy customized Coke eSports bottle and save 20% off with code GAMING20. sponsored CokeESports cokeesports". A Twitter account for CBS News as well as one for the network's Boston station dissociated themselves from Mr. Leavitt on the night of the Manchester terrorist attack. "He was never a CBS employee," a spokeswoman said. Mr. Leavitt does appear to have contributed a few articles to CBSBoston.com, such as "Boston's Best Places to Buy Vintage Video Games and Accessories." The articles have been removed from the site. They came from Examiner.com, a now defunct content publishing platform than had a content agreement with the station's website. Examiner.com was acquired by AXS in 2014, but Mr. Leavitt has never written for AXS, said Justin Jimenez, the company's vice president for marketing and communications. Representatives of AXS have contacted Mr. Leavitt to request that he remove the company name from his Twitter bio. "There has been no response," Mr. Jimenez said. AXS has also reported to Twitter that the information in the bio of a verified user account is false. AXS has received a boilerplate notice from Twitter stating it will look into the complaint. Amid the criticism, Mr. Leavitt has continued to post on Twitter. About seven hours after his Ariana Grande tweets, he posted a link to the American Red Cross and wrote, "Imagine if everyone who cursed at me donated a nickel to charity?" A short while later, he added, "And now I have a small insight of what Donald Trump must deal with on a regular basis." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. "Defund the police" is a catchy phrase, but some Americans hear it and imagine a home invasion, a frantic call to 911 and then no one answering the phone. That's not going to happen. Rather, here's a reassuring example of how defunding has worked in practice. In the 1990s, both the United States and Portugal were struggling with how to respond to illicit narcotics. The United States doubled down on the policing toolbox, while Portugal followed the advice of experts and decriminalized the possession even of hard drugs. So in 2001, Portugal, to use today's terminology, defunded the police for routine drug cases. Small time users get help from social workers and access to free methadone from roving trucks. This worked not perfectly, but pretty well. As I found when I reported from Portugal a few years ago, the number of heroin users there fell by three quarters and the overdose fatality rate was the lowest in Western Europe. Meanwhile, after decades of policing, the United States was losing about 70,000 Americans a year from overdoses. In effect, Portugal appeared to be winning the war on drugs by ending it. That's the idea behind "Defund the Police" as most conceive it not to eliminate every police officer but to reimagine ways to make us safe that don't necessarily involve traditional law enforcement. This conversation is long overdue. But I'm also worried that the phrase will amount to a gift to President Trump and Mitch McConnell. A recent poll found only 16 percent of respondents favor cutting funds for police departments, even as huge majorities acknowledged racial bias in policing and favored police reforms. Only 33 percent of black respondents and 17 percent of Hispanic respondents favored cutting police funding. Trump is already trying to score points from the phrase. "Defunding Police would be good for Robbers Rapists," he tweeted, quoting a senator. James Forman Jr., a Yale law professor who wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning book, "Locking Up Our Own," shares concerns about the phrase but is also thrilled at the discussions it has provoked about alternative ways to achieve public safety. "I cannot tell you how excited I am about this reimagining conversation," he said. Forman noted that it will be complicated and that there are risks of discriminatory underpolicing as well as of discriminatory overpolicing. In the 1960s, the problem was racist underpolicing: Liberal organizations documented how rarely the police patrolled in black neighborhoods and filed lawsuits to get more police protection. Ali H. Mokdad, a health specialist at the University of Washington, argues that racism is more dangerous than the coronavirus, because eventually there will be a vaccine for the virus. And in tackling racism, he says, there are many lessons from public health research. "Defund the police for certain services and move them to social work," he advised. He suggested that domestic violence, youth offenders, alcoholism, addiction, mental illness and homelessness would often be better handled by social workers or other non police professionals. "Having an armed person intervene causes more harm sometimes for the person who needs help," Mokdad said. The most effective anti crime measure in recent decades was probably something that had nothing to do with policing: the removal of lead from gasoline, resulting in reduced lead poisoning among young children. Lead poisoning impairs brain development and is associated, years later, with increased risk of criminal activity. Every study shows that reducing lead poisoning (typically from paint chips) pays for itself many times over, and that should be a priority with funds reallocated from the police. School programs like Becoming a Man and gang outreach initiatives like Cure Violence have shown that they make the public safer, so they, too, should be candidates for public safety funding. Adrian Raine, a criminologist and neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania, endorses public health measures but acknowledges that some take time, while reduced policing could have immediate consequences. "Having had my house burgled six times in 13 years, I can appreciate the alternative perspective," he said. But we invest 100 billion annually in policing across the nation, and the system just isn't working. It's often racist and neither effective nor equitable, disproportionately failing black Americans but also letting down white Americans. One of my (white) high school classmates in Oregon lost a son to a police shooting two years ago; Kelly desperately needed drug treatment, not six bullets. Look at the videos of George Floyd, or of the 75 year old Buffalo protester being pushed down and left bleeding from the head or simply at the way policing has done nothing to reduce carnage from drug overdoses. After decades of incremental reforms, anti racism activists are fundamentally correct about the overuse and overmilitarization of policing in America. Something is wrong when three million American students are in schools that have a police officer but not a nurse. Yes, I still want someone to pick up when I call 911. But whatever terminology we use, it's long past time to reimagine policing in America. 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. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
How Much Watching Time Do You Have This Weekend? None Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, our TV critic Margaret Lyons offers hyper specific viewing recommendations in our Watching newsletter, aimed at your needs, desires and tastes. Read her latest picks below, and sign up for the Watching newsletter here. This Weekend I Have ... a Half Hour, and I Miss Socializing 'Insecure' When to watch: Sunday at 10 p.m., on HBO. Season 4 of "Insecure" kicks off as Issa (played by Issa Rae) hosts a party for work, though as always she can't quite focus. Her friends are ostensibly there to support her, but they're also demanding in their own ways, and romance woes are never too far from the surface for any of them. The show continues to be over invested in Issa's ex, Lawrence, but everyone knows the real emotional tension and story heft come from Issa's tortured relationship with her BFF, Molly (Yvonne Orji), and their push pull of loving each other but judging each other. ... an Hour, and I Like European Crime Shows 'Baptiste' When to watch: Sunday at 10 p.m., on PBS. (Check local listings.) If you loved the bleak but engrossing series "The Missing," watch this spinoff that centers on the French detective Julien Baptiste (Tcheky Karyo,). He gets roped in to investigating a girl's disappearance in Amsterdam, and as you might expect, once he starts pulling the thread, he discovers a whole new messy world of criminality. Season 1 of "The Missing" is perhaps the pinnacle of the dead kid show, but this has less of that smothering sense of tragedy and more of a patient cloud of sadness, like the difference between velvet and lace. It's more slow burn than whammo action, and so is Baptiste himself. Phoebe Waller Bridge in her one person show "Fleabag," pictured here at the SoHo Playhouse. One of TV's best and most interesting shows, "Fleabag," started as a one woman stage show, and now that theatrical production is available to download for 5, with proceeds benefiting British charities. There are a lot of differences between the stage show and the TV series; much of the plot here is similar to the first season's, but the vibe is a little different, and the stage version is more specifically focused on sex. What is not different at all is how layered and compelling Phoebe Waller Bridge is as a performer and writer, tapping into a volatility and vulnerability that are always in conflict but rarely in the ways you would expect. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
The Disney owned Maker Studios and YouTube have pulled away from PewDiePie, one of the video platform's most popular stars, after a report that he had posted several videos featuring anti Semitic imagery. Maker Studios said on Monday that it had severed ties with the star, Felix Kjellberg, a Swede better known by his YouTube alias PewDiePie, while YouTube said on Tuesday that it had canceled the release of a coming series and dropped him from a premier advertising program. The announcements came after The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Kjellberg had posted nine anti Semitic videos since August. "Although Felix has created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case, and the resulting videos are inappropriate,'' a Maker Studios spokeswoman said in a statement on Monday. "Maker Studios has made the decision to end our affiliation with him going forward." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
The films of Joel Potrykus have been described as slacker comedies, featuring, as they often do, shambolic losers barely surviving somewhere between working poor and utter destitution. To me, though, they're something else entirely: cracked symphonies of anguish and humiliation. What distinguishes Potrykus is his willingness to force this pain as he did with "Ape" in 2014 and, a year later, "Buzzard" to the point where our initial revulsion for a character transforms into compassion. Abbie (Joshua Burge) in "Relaxer," is a perfect example: a thin, pale, Pac Man playing dude (it's 1999) parked on a scabby couch in a roach infested apartment. There he'll stay for the duration, having accepted a deranged challenge from his sadistically abusive brother (David Dastmalchian). | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
The marquee evening sales at the big auction houses are exclusive clubs of a sort, filled with works by artists who have already proven their market clout. Take, for example, the upcoming Nov. 13 evening sale of postwar and contemporary art at Christie's New York . Francis Bacon's "Study for Self Portrait" (1979) will be offered with an estimate of 8 million to 12 million right alongside Andy Warhol's "Muhammad Ali" (1977) , estimated at 4 million to 6 million , and Ed Ruscha's "Hurting the Word Radio 2" (1964) , with an eye popping estimate of 30 million . But there is also a new member of the club, an artist who has never been included in that evening sale company before: Charles White's "Banner for Willie J" (1976) will be offered, too, with an estimate of 1 million to 1.5 million . Though painted more than 40 years ago , the picture has resonance today on a few levels social, artistic and otherwise. White, who died in 1979 at 61 and is now recognized widely for his draftsmanship and as an African American artist who did not get his due during his lifetime, painted it as an ode to his cousin, an innocent bystander who was shot and killed during an armed robbery. "It was a love letter," said Mr. White's son, C. Ian White, the director and chief executive of the Charles White Archives. "Banner for Willie J" is a 1970s riff on portraits of old: Willie is clad in sunglasses and squatting casually, but against a more formal decorative background that includes a golden circle, giving him a saintly cast. A rose is depicted at the top of the painting, which may have symbolized innocence, and at the bottom, the word "BANG" in block letters. The fact that the picture is in the sale in the first place says a lot about how far Mr. White's reputation has come. It got a serious boost from the largest ever retrospective of his work, which began at the Art Institute of Chicago last year and then traveled to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and finished its run over the summer at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Mr. White's previous auction record was just over 500,000 for a charcoal drawing, "O Freedom" (1956), made in 2018 at Swann Auction Galleries in a sale dedicated to African American art. "The retrospective really helped put him on the map," said Alexis Klein, a senior specialist in Christie's postwar and contemporary department. "It's an important moment for him," Ms. Klein said of his inclusion in the evening sale. "This elevates his work in terms of the market. Some of his works on paper have come up over the years, but there hasn't been a painting of this quality at auction." She added, "He deserves to be shown alongside the best artists of the 20th century." Of course, Mr. White's work has significance that transcends the marketplace. Born and raised in Chicago , Mr. White was inspired at a young age by illustrators like N.C. Wyeth. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for a year on scholarship, and was then hired by the Works Progress Administration during the Depression, as were many artists at the time. He lived in different cities as an adult before landing in Los Angeles later in life, where he taught at the Otis College of Art and Design . One of his students was Kerry James Marshall, now an acclaimed painter who happens to hold an auction record himself, for the most expensive work by a living African American artist, just over 21 million for "Past Times" (1997). Though best known for his drawings, Mr. White steadily worked on canvases, too, and kept a separate studio for painting. "'Willie J.' was one of the last paintings that he completed," said Sarah Kelly Oehler , a curator and co organizer of "Charles White: A Retrospective" last year at the Art Institute of Chicago. "It's a commemorative work, and stylistically it relates to other '70s paintings like ' Homage to Sterling Brown ,'" Ms. Oehler said, referring to White's 1972 work . Style aside, the underlying themes resonate, she said. "It's very relevant to society today," Ms. Oehler said. "White shows us the challenges we face in terms of social justice and racial equality. His work has a lot to say." Given that it honors a victim of gun violence who was related to the artist, she added, "I don't think anyone can look at this and not be affected." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
That Game on Your Phone May Be Tracking What You're Watching on TV At first glance, the gaming apps with names like "Pool 3D," "Beer Pong: Trickshot" and "Real Bowling Strike 10 Pin" seem innocuous. One called "Honey Quest" features Jumbo, an animated bear. Yet these apps, once downloaded onto a smartphone, have the ability to keep tabs on the viewing habits of their users some of whom may be children even when the games aren't being played. It is yet another example of how companies, using devices that many people feel they can't do without, are documenting how audiences in a rapidly changing entertainment landscape are viewing television and commercials. The apps use software from Alphonso, a start up that collects TV viewing data for advertisers. Using a smartphone's microphone, Alphonso's software can detail what people watch by identifying audio signals in TV ads and shows, sometimes even matching that information with the places people visit and the movies they see. The information can then be used to target ads more precisely and to try to analyze things like which ads prompted a person to go to a car dealership. More than 250 games that use Alphonso software are available in the Google Play store; some are also available in Apple's app store. Some of the tracking is taking place through gaming apps that do not otherwise involve a smartphone's microphone, including some apps that are geared toward children. The software can also detect sounds even when a phone is in a pocket if the apps are running in the background. Alphonso said that its software, which does not record human speech, is clearly explained in app descriptions and privacy policies and that the company cannot gain access to users' microphones and locations unless they agree. "The consumer is opting in knowingly and can opt out any time," Ashish Chordia, Alphonso's chief executive, said, adding that the company's disclosures comply with Federal Trade Commission guidelines. The company also provides opt out instructions on its website. Alphonso declined to say how many people it is collecting data from, and Mr. Chordia said that he could not disclose the names of the roughly 1,000 games and the messaging and social apps with Alphonso software because a rival was trying to hurt its relationships with developers. (The New York Times identified many of the apps in question by searching "Alphonso automated" and "Alphonso software" in the Google Play store.) Mr. Chordia also said that Alphonso did not approve of its software being used in apps meant for children. But it was, as of earlier this month, integrated in more than a dozen games like "Teeth Fixed" and "Zap Balloons" from KLAP Edutainment in India, which describes itself as "primarily focusing on offering educational games for kids and students." Alphonso is one of several young companies using new technologies to enter living rooms in search of fresh information to sell to marketers. For all the talk of digital disruption in the ad world, television still attracts almost 70 billion in annual spending in the United States, and advertisers will gladly pay to amplify and analyze the effectiveness of that spending. The spread of these technologies, combined with the proliferation of internet connected TVs and tools that can identify video content through pixels and audio snippets, has resulted in some questionable practices. Last year, the trade commission issued a warning to a dozen developers who had installed a piece of software known as Silverpush onto apps with the goal of using device microphones to listen for audio signals that humans could not hear to log what they watched on TV. This year, Vizio agreed to pay 2.2 million to settle charges that it was collecting and selling viewing data from millions of internet connected televisions without the knowledge or consent of the sets' owners. 15 minimum wage for federal contractors will take effect Jan. 30. Jeff Bezos gives 100 million to the Obama Foundation. Companies gathering such data, especially through games, need to make their business practices clear to consumers "because it's so inherently unexpected and surprising," said Justin Brookman, the director of consumer privacy and technology policy at the advocacy group Consumers Union, and a former policy director at the trade commission who worked on the Silverpush case. "When you see 'permission for microphone access for ads,' it may not be clear to a user that, Oh, this means it's going to be listening to what I do all the time to see if I'm watching 'Monday Night Football,'" Mr. Brookman said. "They need to go above and beyond and be careful to make sure consumers know what's going on." Through its software, Alphonso can follow the ads that people see in friends' homes and elsewhere. The company has also worked with movie studios to figure out theater viewing habits, Mr. Chordia, Alphonso's chief executive, said. Smartphone apps that are running Alphonso's software, even if they are not actively in use, can detect movies based on film snippets provided by the studios ahead of time. "A lot of the folks will go and turn off their phone, but a small portion of people don't and put it in their pocket," Mr. Chordia said. "In those cases, we are able to pick up in a small sample who is watching the show or the movie." Mr. Chordia said that Alphonso has a deal with the music listening app Shazam, which has microphone access on many phones. Alphonso is able to provide the snippets it picks up to Shazam, he said, which can use its own content recognition technology to identify users and then sell that information to Alphonso. Shazam, which Apple recently agreed to buy, declined to comment about Alphonso. Founded in 2013, Alphonso initially focused on working with apps to capitalize on ads through so called second screen viewing, as people increasingly turned their attention to smartphones and tablets during TV breaks. Now, the company has broadened its focus to gathering troves of viewing data from companies like TiVo and directly from TVs and streaming devices through deals with manufacturers. The disparate viewing information is tied to IP addresses, which can be matched to characteristics like age, gender, income and more through big data brokers like Experian without using personally identifiable information like names and addresses. Still, the connection between microphones and ads is a sticky one. Americans are both inviting internet connected speakers from Amazon and Google into their homes in droves while expressing anxiety that companies are secretly listening to them and then using that information in unsettling ways, like eerily relevant ads. (Facebook has tried, and failed, to quash that theory many times.) "We have to be really careful as we have more devices capturing more information in living rooms and bedrooms and on the street and in other people's homes that the public is not blindsided and surprised by things," said Dave Morgan, the founder and chief executive of Simulmedia, which works with advertisers on targeted TV ads. "It's not what's legal. It is what's not creepy." Alphonso's apps and its relationship with Shazam show that there can be a connection between what our phones may hear and the ads that appear on a website or social media feed in the next few hours. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
BEIJING If China is going to help ease Europe's financial crisis, silken strings could be attached. Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday offered to help Europe. But, in an unprecedented move for China, he linked the offer to a potentially onerous demand: that Europe renounce its main legal defense against low priced Chinese exports. Mr. Wen urged the European Union to classify China as a "market economy" instead of a "nonmarket economy." In international trade legalese, the new designation would make it almost impossible for Europe to impose tariffs on Chinese goods considered unfairly cheap. His remarks, in a speech at a conference in Dalian in northeast China, were the clearest move by China to link its continuing investments in Europe to specific changes in European trade policies. The linkage is being made as Beijing is showing a new willingness to use its vast financial resources to extend its political influence far from China's shores. On Monday China announced 1 billion in subsidized loans to Caribbean nations. Mr. Wen's comments Wednesday seemed to contain more pro quo than specifics about the quid. He was vague on whether China was prepared to increase its monthly lending to Europe by an amount that might ease the euro zone's budget and banking difficulties. He also was not specific about whether China was interested in buying European government bonds or making investments like acquiring more European businesses. "We have been concerned about the difficulties faced by the European economy for a long time, and we have repeated our willingness to extend a helping hand and increase our investment," Mr. Wen said. European stock markets were buoyed in part by his remarks. China, with an estimated 3.2 trillion in foreign reserves, is seen as potentially a global banker. But most of its lending has come in the form of buying nearly 2 trillion in United States Treasury bonds and other forms of American debt. China already buys billions of euros worth of European debt each month, but that level of lending has done little to ease the euro zone's crisis. So a vague promise of more "investment" in Europe, without specifying the amount or form, might not seem to European Union officials to justify granting China the new trade status Mr. Wen proposed. The World Trade Organization has technical criteria for countries to decide when China has become a market economy, John Clancy, the European Union's trade spokesman in Brussels, said Wednesday. China has made progress, but has not met the criteria, in European Union's view. "Since China dictates the speed with which market oriented rules and laws are effectively enforced centrally and locally, the timing of the conclusion on its market economy status is largely in China's hands," Mr. Clancy wrote by e mail. The new market economy designation Mr. Wen seeks would let China avoid the steep import duties assessed on Chinese companies that sell goods in Europe for less than it costs to produce and market them or what trade lawyers describe as the "normal value" of these goods. Under the terms of China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, the country will automatically qualify as a market economy in 2016. But Mr. Wen on Wednesday exhorted European nations to "look courageously at China's relationship from a strategic point of view" on the issue of market economy status. "If European Union nations can demonstrate their sincerity several years earlier," he said, "it would reflect our friendship." China once before, in 2003, asked the European Union to grant it market economy status. That request was denied. By classifying China as a nonmarket economy, the European Union allows its antidumping investigators to compare the price Chinese exporters to Europe charge with the price of goods from other low cost countries. Antidumping duties, which can exceed 100 percent, are assessed if Chinese prices are lower. But if China were labeled a market economy, antidumping investigators would have to compare the export prices Chinese companies charge with the prices they charge for the same goods in China. Virtually all prices in China are very low in terms of other currencies, partly because of China's extensive intervention in currency markets to keep its currency, the renminbi, weak. China's critics also suggest that close links between many companies and the Beijing government make it impossible to assess the extent to which Beijing helps companies keep prices low at home, through subsidies, preferential loans or policies like free or discounted land for factories. So it would become extremely difficult to win an antidumping case if China were labeled a market economy. China's foreign exchange reserves surged 350 billion in the first six months of this year, to reach 3.2 trillion. While part of the increase reflected accrued interest and shifts in currency valuations, 200 billion to 250 billion appeared to be from the currency market intervention. Based on its practice of keeping roughly a quarter of foreign exchange reserves in euros, mainly in European government debt, China bought 50 billion to 60 billion in euro denominated holdings in the first half of this year. Economists and bankers say that China's extraordinary accumulation of foreign exchange reserves is largely accidental. Its top leaders have mandated that the renminbi not appreciate more than a few percent against the dollar each year, despite large trade surpluses and strong inward investment, and the central bank has been forced to buy dollars and euros on an immense scale to ensure that. The central bank pays for the dollars and euros with renminbi that it raises mainly by requiring Chinese commercial banks to lend it a fifth of their deposits at very low interest rates. The Chinese central bank also sells notes and has resorted to issuing more renminbi. That has led to a steep increase in the money supply and has contributed to sharply rising prices within China for consumer goods and real estate alike. Italian finance ministry officials met recently with officials from the China Investment Corporation, the country's sovereign wealth fund. When Italy disclosed word of that meeting, the result was frenzied speculation in Europe that the C.I.C. might help bail out the Italian government by buying large quantities of its bonds. But the Italian government later quieted the speculation by saying the C.I.C., which mainly buys equities, had been interested in making purchases in the Italian industrial sector. With 374 billion as of Dec. 31, the C.I.C. is a relatively small player in China's foreign investments. Most of the money is already invested, and the C.I.C. has not received any recent large infusions of money from China's foreign exchange reserves. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
FRANKFURT Florian Homm, a flamboyant former hedge fund manager who spent the last five years in hiding, was arrested in Italy and faces extradition to the United States on securities fraud charges which could expose him to a lengthy prison sentence, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. The Italian police arrested Mr. Homm, a 53 year old German who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University, on Friday at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the F.B.I. said. Mr. Homm is accused of defrauding investors of at least 200 million, the F.B.I. said. The most serious of the four felony charges carry maximum sentences of 25 years in prison. Mr. Homm was one of Germany's best known financiers before he disappeared in 2007 as his portfolio of hedge funds, Absolute Capital Management Holdings, was collapsing. Until then, Mr. Homm had been a symbol of predatory capitalism in Germany. In 2004, he bought 26 percent of Borussia Dortmund, a beloved but nearly bankrupt soccer team, and forced management changes. Mr. Homm seemed to relish his role as a so called locust the label one German politician gave to buyout firms appearing on German television talk shows holding a fat Cuban cigar or posing for photographs in front of his villa on the Spanish island of Majorca. Since 2011, Mr. Homm has been the target of a civil suit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused him of manipulating share prices by buying and selling thinly traded shares between entities he controlled. Last week, prosecutors in Los Angeles filed criminal charges against Mr. Homm based on the same circumstances. The Italian police arrested Mr. Homm at the request of the U.S. authorities. According to the F.B.I., Mr. Homm earned commissions as a result of trades between a broker in which he owned a stake and the hedge fund. The trades inflated the prices of penny stocks and made Absolute Capital Management look more valuable than it was, the F.B.I. said in a statement, in a practice known as "portfolio pumping." Mr. Homm and people he worked with are accused of earning 53 million through the scheme. Mr. Homm faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and securities fraud. Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay 31 million to the 'House of Cards' studio after sexual harassment allegations. Netflix buys a visual effects company in a move to support its global ambitions. In a telephone interview in November, Mr. Homm admitted he had behaved badly and committed many sins. "I've always said I've been a rogue operator in much of my life," he said. But he said his fund, which at one point had 2 billion under management, was highly profitable for investors most of the time. The charges against him were based on lies told by former associates, Mr. Homm said. Prior to his arrest he had been contesting the civil suit filed by the S.E.C. Mr. Homm resigned as head of Absolute Capital in the middle of the night on Sept. 18, 2007. By his own account, he boarded a private plane in Majorca, his Calvin Klein underwear stuffed with cash, and made his way to Colombia, where he lived under an assumed name. But Mr. Homm said he was never a fugitive. He said he dropped from view because he wanted to find himself, and also because some dubious people with whom he had done business were trying to kill him. Mr. Homm reappeared in November when he gave clandestine media interviews to promote a book he wrote, "Rogue Financier: The Adventures of an Estranged Capitalist." The book was intended as a cautionary tale, Mr. Homm said in a November telephone interview. "The pursuit of happiness is not correlated with the pursuit of money," he said. In the book and interview, Mr. Homm insisted he was no longer the same person who once owned a stake in a Berlin brothel and lived in a 5 million residence on Majorca with a Russian table dancer. He said he prayed daily and was devoting his energy to charity work. Given Mr. Homm's flair for drama, it was perhaps fitting that he was arrested at the Uffizi Gallery, famous for an exquisite collection that includes works by Michelangelo, Rubens, Tintoretto and Rembrandt. At the time, he was accompanied by his ex wife and son, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. But it is unclear why Mr. Homm, who is 201 centimeters, or 6 feet 7 inches, tall and something of a celebrity in Germany, would appear in a place where there are many German tourists and he was likely to be recognized. Mr. Homm's lawyer could not be reached for comment. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
Decades of research (and perhaps your own recent experiences on hot, humid days) have suggested that climate change will lead to an increase in big storms that cause flash floods, landslides and other natural disasters. Now, a new study shows that such intense precipitation will most likely increase across the continental United States, but with important regional variations. The study by scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., published on Monday in Nature Climate Change, found that across the country, rainstorms may become more frequent and intense if greenhouse gas emissions remain at current levels. The biggest increase would be in the Northeast and the Gulf Coast. In fact, the study shows that these intense storms could become five times as frequent. And when they do happen, there could be up to 70 percent more rain, potentially turning a heavy but not catastrophic storm into something closer to a biblical flood. Other regions, like the Pacific Northwest, already quite wet, and the central United States, might become drier on average, but even there extreme rainfall is likely to intensify, the researchers said. That means there could be both an increased risk of droughts and of flash floods. The study found that humidity was a key factor. Extreme precipitation is likely to increase with rising temperatures because of growing atmospheric humidity, leading to a higher risk of flash flooding nationwide. Climate scientists had anticipated these results and have already seen some of them play out, with serious flooding in New England and Louisiana over the last several years. But this study provides a new layer of detail and analysis, said Kevin E. Trenberth, a senior researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who was not involved in it. Dr. Trenberth said that while the future may not look exactly as predicted, "It builds confidence in our previous work and adds to the urgency that this is the sort of thing we need to pay attention to." The researchers divided the continental United States into roughly 2.5 mile square grids and used computer simulations to look at extreme precipitation on an hourly basis in each square, with precipitation data from 2000 to 2013. Andreas Prein, the lead author of the study, said that there was some variation depending on region, and that some areas of the country would not be as affected by these types of storms. For instance, while the Pacific Northwest is likely to see more intense winter storms, summer thunderstorms will probably not increase in intensity, he said. Dr. Prein said the results of this study showed that many areas of the country would need to build or restore infrastructure, including reservoirs and storm sewers, to handle the intense rainfall. One area of particular concern is the Midwest, which is already becoming drier on average, especially in the summer, Dr. Prein said. However, he added, "The extreme events there are getting more frequent and more intense." It might seem as though big rainstorms would help alleviate drought in the Midwest or elsewhere, but the opposite can actually be true, Dr. Prein said. If a heavy rainstorm occurs during a drought, it can lead to soil erosion, washing away the plants that help the soil absorb moisture. Without regular, gentler rain to restore the soil, he said, conditions will continue to worsen. "Droughts and extreme rainstorms?" Dr. Prein said. "This could be a very harmful combination." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Judging from the pages of shelter magazines and interior designers' Instagram feeds, dark colors are in. And paint companies are offering plenty of options. Earlier this month, Sherwin Williams picked a rich, moody blue called Oceanside as its 2018 color of the year. Benjamin Moore named Caliente, an intense shade of red, its upcoming color of the year, and its newest line of paint, Century, is composed of 75 saturated colors like Amethyst, Black Currant and Obsidian. Glidden Paint chose a black called Deep Onyx as its next color of the year, and Olympic Paints Stains named Black Magic its choice for 2018. The deep, rich colors promoted for years by companies like the decorator favorite Farrow Ball, it seems, are finally going mainstream. "From the beautiful, vivacious tones of Radicchio to the super dark rich of Studio Green, Farrow Ball is seeing more confidence within decorating choices as we head into 2018," Charlotte Cosby, who heads up the company's creative team, wrote in an email. Joa Studholme, Farrow Ball's international color consultant, attributed the trend to a desire to cocoon. "We're sort of surrounding ourselves with comfort, and one of the ways we're doing it is through color to make our homes feel sort of nurturing and tender," she said. "Instead of coming into clean, white houses, we're going into homes that sort of give us a hug." START SMALL If you're nervous about playing with a deep, dark hue, "limit the color to the inside of cabinets, backs of bookshelves or a painted floor," said Donald Kaufman, who owns the paint company Donald Kaufman Color with his wife, Taffy Dahl. "Dark, bold windows often bring the outside in." Ms. Studholme, of Farrow Ball, suggested starting with a contained space like a powder room, the underside of a claw foot tub or a hallway. "When you arrive, it creates a sense of drama," she said. "You come through and go, 'Wow.'" An added bonus, she noted: "A dark color in the hall makes the rooms off the hall feel really big and light." Ellen O'Neill, director of strategic design intelligence for Benjamin Moore, recommends starting with a focal point, like a fireplace mantel or the inside of shelves or drawers. "I recently photographed a home where the owner painted the inside of the drawers of an antique Chippendale chest a rich aubergine," she said. "What a color surprise every time you open a drawer." And as you become more confident, she said, "you can graduate to painting doors to a room or hallway, window trim or wainscoting." TEST IT OUT When you're ready to tackle a whole room, "start with a color family that is already dominant in the home and select two to three shades that you feel makes a statement," Ms. O'Neill said. "I'd get quarts of each color and paint large swatches of each, one set next to a window and one set in a corner. Observe how the room's lighting affects the colors three times a day." EMBRACE THE DARKNESS "A deep, rich color goes an especially long way in a room without a lot of natural light, as dim rooms look particularly dull in lighter colors," said Frances Merrill, the founder of Reath Design in Los Angeles, who painted her children's room Farrow Ball's Pigeon gray. "It makes the small space feel finished and gives definition to the ever rotating collection of artwork." In the playroom, she used Templeton Gray from Benjamin Moore. "Every surface in this room is usually covered in a layer of Legos and half finished science experiments," she said. "I find that the deeper colors mask the chaos." "Conventional wisdom states that small spaces especially those facing north should be lightened to increase the sense of space," said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute consultancy. "However, painting trim a lighter color in an area painted with darker hues can actually increase the illusion of space," she said, because it creates a "greater impression of height or width in the space." Whatever your situation, "it's best to work with what you've got, rather than try to fight the light," said Ms. Studholme of Farrow Ball, which offers a guide to how light affects color on its website. PREPARATION IS KEY "Before painting, ensure surfaces are sound, clean, dry and free from dirt, grease and any other contamination," said Ms. Cosby of Farrow Ball. "Always sand down surfaces to achieve a smooth base." And if you change your mind later, dark colors are just as easy to paint over as light ones, assuming you prep properly. "Start by priming over the bold hue, then apply two coats of the desired color," said Ms. O'Neill of Benjamin Moore. But "be sure to allow the primer coat to dry completely before applying the first coat of color." GO HALFSIES To add "sophistication and spirit" to a client's "stark, boxy, white rental," Alex Kalita, a founder of Common Bond Design in Manhattan, painted the bottom half of the bedroom wall in Hague Blue from Farrow Ball. She calls it "the chair rail effect" and notes that it serves a few purposes: "It simulates architectural variation in otherwise uniform space; it ties in the building's teal window frames; and it leverages the cozy, rich, complex and grown up quality of Hague Blue, while maintaining the practical qualities of white paint, like the illusion of ceiling height." Another tip: "If you're tempted to go dark and bold on the walls, but you prefer a restrained aesthetic, try keeping the furniture neutral," Ms. Kalita said. "You can even make bulkier pieces recede by camouflaging them in the wall color. We had our client's Wonk NYC dresser color matched to Hague Blue, so that the piece could augment the client's storage without competing for attention with the room's more deliberate and sculptural design elements. Dark walls do a good job of visually absorbing things." FINALLY, BE BRAVE "I encourage people to be brave with color and unleash their inner artist," said Ms. Eiseman of the Pantone Color Institute. "Experiment with color, have fun with it, allow yourself to live with it for a while. It is, after all, just one or two cans of paint. And when, and if, you tire of it, move on to another color and treat yourself to another creative exercise." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Most of the spotlight at the New York auto show is, of course, on the new models on the floor of the Jacob K. Javits center. But a handful of classics are sitting in the center's front hall. Taken from the collection at the New York State Museum, which is in Albany, all four cars are associated with New York governors. According to the museum, Franklin D. Roosevelt bought the 1932 Packard phaeton that was included in the display to use during his second term as governor. But Governor Roosevelt soon became President Roosevelt, so the car was absorbed into the state's fleet. The museum says the car has been kept in running condition since it was new, although after Gov. Thomas Dewey bought a Cadillac in 1942, it wasn't used much anymore. Gov. Hugh Carey used it as transportation for Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus of the Netherlands when they visited Albany in 1982. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
COLOGNE, Germany Museums don't usually advertise fakes in their collections. But the Museum Ludwig here is exposing them to public scrutiny in a taboo breaking new exhibition. The paintings on show in "Russian Avant Garde at the Museum Ludwig: Original and Fake" are all ostensibly by artists from that radical movement of the early 20th century. Yet displayed alongside bona fide works by renowned artists like Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko and Natalia Goncharova are paintings whose previous attributions museum researchers now reject. A tide of fakes has polluted this corner of the art market for decades, and the exhibition sheds new light on the pitfalls of buying, selling and collecting Russian avant garde art. The museum, founded by an endowment from the chocolate magnate Peter Ludwig in the 1970s, is known for holding one of the largest collections of Russian avant garde art in Western Europe. Mr. Ludwig and his wife, Irene, were avid collectors of the style, and when she died in 2010, she left the museum a bequest of about 600 Russian avant garde works. The show, which began on Saturday and runs through Jan. 3, was already the subject of a court dispute before it even opened. In August, Galerie Gmurzynska, a Swiss gallery that sold about 400 paintings to the Ludwigs, filed a lawsuit demanding that the museum make its research available before the opening. A regional court rejected the case last week after the city of Cologne, which owns the museum, appealed an earlier ruling in the gallery's favor. While several works displayed in the exhibition as false attributions were purchased from Galerie Gmurzynska (which also has a presence in New York), so were some that the museum has affirmed as authentic. The gallery's owner, Krystyna Gmurzynska, said in an interview that it was unfair for the exhibition to open before the research could be properly scrutinized. She said her gallery had "worked with the most renowned experts of the Russian avant garde," adding: "We would like a bit of respect for what we have achieved over 55 years. It can of course be that experts made mistakes over the years, but we can't judge that without seeing the technical reports." Rita Kersting, the deputy director of the Museum Ludwig and one of the curators of the show, said she hoped the museum's investigation would help guide other institutions and collectors in assessing the authenticity of their works. "We are open to scholarly contributions and new findings," she said. "The research is never finished." The researchers applied these techniques to works including a painting attributed to Olga Rozanova that Mr. Ludwig bought from Galerie Gmurzynska in 1985. The Cubist style painting dated 1913, "Landscape (Decomposition of Forms)," is displayed in the exhibition alongside a similar work by Rozanova on loan from the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, a 1913 canvas called "Man in the Street (Analysis of Volumes)." Examinations of the Museum Ludwig's painting revealed that the material on which it is mounted contains synthetic polyester fibers that did not exist in 1913. The pigments' chemical composition was also different from those in other Roznova works of the period. The researchers concluded that the Museum Ludwig work is a later copy by an unknown artist. Ms. Gmurzynska said she couldn't comment on this conclusion without viewing the laboratory results. "We don't have the technical reports, so we can't judge," she said. "It is not new that the painting has parallels to the one at the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum." But what had angered her, she said, was the use of the word fake in the exhibition title. "They are trying to push the Russian avant garde into a dirty corner," she said. "This is absolutely unworthy and unprofessional." The troubles are rooted in Russian history. In the 1920s, artists of the avant garde faced censorship in the Soviet Union. By the '30s, when Stalin had cemented his power through brutal political repression, their works were removed from public display and hidden. A market for artwork smuggled out of the U.S.S.R. began to develop in the West in the 1960s, but because it was illegal to show them, the works often lacked documents proving their provenance. "In such conditions, forgers could operate practically unfettered," Konstantin Akinsha, the director of the privately funded Russian Avant Garde Research Project, wrote in the exhibition catalog. The stakes in the market are high. In 2008, a painting by Malevich fetched 60 million at Sotheby's. And Goncharova is one of the most expensive female artists at auction the same year, one of her works sold for almost 11 million at Christie's. Yet a series of scandals in recent years has highlighted the dangers for buyers. In the most prominent, the Ghent Museum of Fine Art shut down an exhibition of Russian avant garde art in 2018 after dealers and scholars described pieces on show as "highly questionable." The museum director resigned, and the Belgian police are still investigating. Ms. Kersting and Ms. Mandt said they had received overwhelming support from other institutions for the exhibition in Cologne. Both the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum and the MOMus contemporary art museum in Thessaloniki, Greece, have lent original works to be shown alongside later imitations. The Busch Reisinger Museum, one of the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Mass., conducted laboratory analysis of its own Lissitzky masterpiece, "Proun 12E," so that the Cologne researchers could compare the findings with a work in the Museum Ludwig's collection that is now considered a copy. Lynette Roth, the head of modern and contemporary art at the Busch Reisinger, said that she had wanted to loan the work, but that logistical difficulties caused by the pandemic meant it couldn't be shipped to Cologne. "It's an incredibly important exhibition and a step towards greater public transparency," Ms. Roth said. "It's exactly the kind of thing we love as a university museum. It pushes the scholarship forward." Even the fakes could be useful "as a point of reference and for educational purposes," said Yilmaz Dziewior, the Museum Ludwig's director. The museum will retain all of the misattributed works in its collection, he said, though they will not be displayed publicly once the current show finishes. Ms. Kersting said the exhibition showed that the Museum Ludwig was taking responsibility for the integrity of its collection and acting to protect the artists' work in a market swamped with fakes. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
A Boston physician said he developed a severe allergic reaction minutes after receiving Moderna's coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, in the first week of the nationwide rollout for the company's shots. The case was the first of its kind reported to be linked to Moderna's vaccine. Federal agencies are investigating at least six cases involving people who suffered anaphylaxis after receiving the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, which contains similar ingredients, during the first few weeks of its distribution in the United States. Officials with the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had discussed the reactions involving some of the Pfizer cases, but have not determined whether an ingredient in the vaccine caused the allergic responses. A few health care workers in Britain had also experienced anaphylaxis after receiving the Pfizer vaccine earlier this month. The incident on Thursday involved Dr. Hossein Sadrzadeh, a geriatric oncologist at Boston Medical Center, who has a severe shellfish allergy and had an appointment to get the Moderna shot in the afternoon. In an interview, Dr. Sadrzadeh said he experienced a severe reaction almost immediately after he was inoculated, feeling dizzy and with his heart racing. In a statement, David Kibbe, a spokesman for Boston Medical Center, confirmed that Dr. Sadrzadeh had received Moderna's vaccine on Thursday. The statement said that Dr. Sadrzadeh "felt he was developing an allergic reaction and was allowed to self administer his personal EpiPen. He was taken to the Emergency Department, evaluated, treated, observed and discharged. He is doing well today." Ray Jordan, a spokesman for Moderna, said on Thursday evening that the company could not comment publicly on an individual case. On Friday, Mr. Jordan added that the company's medical safety team would look into the matter, and he referred further questions to officials at Operation Warp Speed, the federal program overseeing vaccine distribution. The F.D.A. would not comment on the new report on Friday. Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the C.D.C., said that information on reactions to the new vaccines would be posted to the agency's website starting next week. Belsie Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C., referred further questions to local public health authorities. With more than 1.1 million injections already delivered to arms across the country, severe allergic reactions remain a rarity, and should not prompt concern in most people, said Dr. Merin Kuruvilla, an allergist and immunologist at Emory University. "This should not deter people who are not obviously at increased risk," she said. After the initial cases accompanying the Pfizer shots, the C.D.C. issued advice that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines might not be appropriate for people with a history of anaphylaxis to ingredients in either injection. Anaphylaxis, which typically happens within minutes after exposure to a triggering substance, can impair breathing and cause precipitous drops in blood pressure, potentially becoming life threatening. The agency recommended that people with other allergies should still get their shots and wait the standard 15 minutes post injection before leaving the vaccination site. Anyone who previously had an anaphylactic reaction to a substance, including another vaccine or injectable drug, should be monitored for an extra 15 minutes. Canada approves the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. Ahead of the holidays, a C.D.C. panel is set to weigh Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna boosters for all adults. What has Covid done to your country's reputation? Americans and Britons give mixed reviews. In the case on Thursday, Dr. Sadrzadeh said he brought his EpiPen to his vaccine appointment because of his serious allergies. He said that within minutes of the vaccine injection at 3:30 p.m., his heart rate had spiked to 150 beats per minute, about twice its normal cadence; his tongue prickled and went numb. Before long, he was drenched in a cold sweat and found himself feeling dizzy and faint. His blood pressure also plummeted, he said. His immune system, he realized, was in revolt. "It was the same anaphylactic reaction that I experience with shellfish," Dr. Sadrzadeh said. Dr. Sadrzadeh used his EpiPen and was taken on a stretcher to the emergency room, where he was given several medications, including steroids and Benadryl, to calm the immune reactions that had overtaken his body. A record of his visit stated that he had been "seen in the ER for shortness of breath, dizziness, palpitations and numbness after receiving the Covid 19 vaccine." Four hours later, Dr. Sadrzadeh was released from care. As of Friday morning, he said he felt fully recovered. But the previous day's events shook him. "I don't want anybody to go through that," he said. Dr. Sadrzadeh reported his reaction to both Moderna and a national vaccine safety surveillance system run by the F.D.A. and the C.D.C. The vaccines developed by Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna are the only ones that have been authorized for emergency use so far during the coronavirus pandemic, with mostly health care workers receiving top priority for immunization. Moderna's vaccine, like Pfizer's, is designed around a molecule called messenger RNA, or mRNA, that's injected into the upper arm. Once inside human cells, the mRNA instructs the manufacture of a protein called spike, which then teaches the immune system to recognize and thwart the coronavirus, should it ever invade the body. Each vaccine contains a handful of other ingredients that sheath the fragile mRNA in a protective greasy bubble and help keep the recipe stable in transit. None of the ingredients in either vaccine have been identified as common allergens. But several experts have cautiously pointed to polyethylene glycol, or PEG, which appears in both recipes, albeit in slightly different formulations, as a possible culprit. PEG is found in a bevy of pharmaceutical products, including ultrasound gel, laxatives and injectable steroids, and allergies to it are extremely rare. Dr. Kuruvilla said it remained possible that something else was responsible, and more investigation was needed to nail down the cause of this smattering of events. Dr. Kimberly Blumenthal, an allergist and immunologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, noted that anaphylaxis can sometimes be difficult to confirm without blood work that hunts for an enzyme called tryptase, which is released during allergic reactions. It's essential, she added, for there to be protocols in place so similar cases can be investigated further. According to data filings from its late stage clinical trials, Moderna did not report any links between its vaccine and anaphylaxis. But when products emerge from closely monitored studies into broad distribution, rare side effects can occur. The recent allergic reactions linked to Pfizer's very similar vaccine prompted heated discussions during advisory panel discussions held this month by the F.D.A. and the C.D.C., with experts noting that anaphylaxis seemed to be occurring at an unusual frequency so soon into distribution. (Under normal circumstances, allergic reactions to vaccines are thought to occur at a rate of about one in a million.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
The birds that use this remote sensing today are not closely related to one another, said Carla du Toit, a graduate student at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and an author of the paper. That made her and her co authors curious about when exactly this ability evolved, and whether ostriches, which are close relatives of kiwis, had an ancestor that used this sensory ability. "We had a look to see if we could find fossils of early birds from that group," Ms. du Toit said. "And we're very lucky." There are very well preserved fossils of birds called lithornithids dating from just after the event that drove nonavian dinosaurs to extinction. First they had to gather data on the beaks of more than 350 bird species so that they would be able to say how similar or different the fossil birds were to modern birds. The team recorded the number of pits in the bone of the beak and the size of the beak and the head, important details because birds that dig for their food have a characteristic shape. Then they took a look at the lithornithids. And indeed, the ancient beaks and head structure were extremely similar to the beaks of kiwis, ibises and sandpipers, far closer than any other bird in the study. "It seems that they have this organ and were able to use the sense of remote touch to probe and locate prey as well, which is really cool, because it just shows that this is really old," Ms. du Toit said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
As Ireland prepares to become the first European country to exit its international bailout, politicians across the Continent have promoted it as a model for how austerity can help a country emerge stronger from the crisis. But Ireland's economy is disappointing its fans again. The country slid into its second recession in three years during the first quarter, the government reported on Thursday. Consumers and businesses, still reeling from steep tax increases, government spending cuts and a long stretch of sluggish economic activity, have sharply curbed spending. "Everything is not hunky dory in the Irish economy," said Constantin Gurdgiev, an adjunct lecturer at the School of Business of Trinity College in Dublin. "But there is a group of people who refuse to listen to that, because they see it as convenient to promote Ireland as a success story to support policies promoted by the troika," he said, referring to the country's bailout creditors, the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. Gross domestic product shrank 0.6 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier and was revised to show contraction of 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, the government said. Its economy had already shrunk 1 percent in the preceding quarter. Consumer spending slumped 3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the steepest decline in four years. And exports of goods and services declined 3.2 percent, the deepest contraction since Ireland fell into its crisis in 2009, the government reported. The backsliding reverses the momentum Ireland seemed to have gained since it joined Greece in 2010 as an emergency bailout recipient. In exchange for its 67.5 billion euro ( 88 billion) bailout, Dublin agreed to an austerity program aimed at rapidly improving the country's tattered balance sheets. But gross investment in the economy has continued to shrink, with construction activity and the retailing sector. On the other hand, austerity measures in Britain may be having an effect. The Office of National Statistics reported on Thursday that the British economy grew by 0.3 percent in the first quarter, a 1.2 percent annualized rate. That was a revision up from the previous estimate. Contrary to earlier readings, the British economy did not slip into a double dip recession the last quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012, the office said. Open or closed on Thanksgiving? Here are stores' plans for Thursday and Friday. The high cost of gas is forcing families to cut back on activities and essentials. Clearview AI does well in another round of facial recognition accuracy tests. On the Continent, France's official accounting agency warned on Thursday that France would need a severe dose of austerity in the form of spending cuts, saying the country could no longer rely on tax increases to fix its finances. The state's Court of Auditors noted that public finances had been held in check for several years through higher taxes and spending control. But it said the policy had reached its limits. If the country's budget deficit is to reach 3 percent of gross domestic product the European Union target by 2015, structural spending cuts "on the order of" 13 billion euros ( 17 billion) will be needed in 2014, along with 15 billion euros of cuts in 2015, the report said. The challenge is to rein in public spending in a country with generous welfare and pension benefits and a bloated public sector. France's social spending last year was among the highest in the world, at more than 30 percent of gross domestic product, according to Philippe d'Arvisenet, global chief economist at BNP Paribas. "It's getting more difficult to afford this type of generosity," he said. Public spending made up 56.6 percent of gross domestic product last year, the auditors found, up from 55.9 percent in 2011 and just below the record high of 56.8 percent set in 2009. Tax receipts, meanwhile, rose to a record 45 percent of G.D.P. in 2012. "Everyone agrees this is where the next effort has to come from," Gilles Moec, an economist at Deutsche Bank in London, said. Cuts on the scale suggested by the auditors are "doable," he said, at just over 1 percent of G.D.P. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
A hacker who claims to have stolen unreleased television shows from several major networks shared the coming season of the Netflix series "Orange Is the New Black" on Saturday after the person said the streaming service failed to meet its ransom requests. The breach appears to have occurred at the postproduction company Larson Studios, a popular digital mixing service in Los Angeles for television networks and movie studios. The hacker or hackers, who go by the name "thedarkoverlord," also claim to have stolen unreleased content from ABC, Fox, National Geographic and IFC. The Federal Bureau of Investigation learned of the episode at Larson Studios in January but did not start notifying the content companies until a month ago. A message to Larson Studios was not immediately returned. On Twitter, thedarkoverlord suggested that other networks would have their shows released next. "Oh, what fun we're all going to have," the hacker said. "We're not playing any games anymore." Netflix had announced this year that Season 5 of "Orange Is the New Black" would be released June 9, and it was not immediately clear whether it planned to move up the release date. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Someone was supposed to win a vacation home in the Catskills for 149 and a stellar 200 word essay. But when fewer than 600 people entered the Win Lakefront Dream Home essay contest, which began on Nov. 1, 2016, by the April 30 deadline of this year, the organizers canceled it, leaving some very disappointed contestants. For a winner to have been chosen, 5,500 people would have had to enter, according to contest rules, a threshold that would have delivered to the organizers around 820,000 for the two bedroom cabin, set on five and a half acres of lakefront property in Bethel, N.Y., about two hours north of New York City. But the contest attracted only a fraction of that target, so each entrant will receive a 100 refund by July 15. The organizers, Andrew Bares and Kelly Lavorgna, a couple who live in New Jersey, will keep each entrant's 49 administrative fee, for a total of around 29,400. The results, or lack thereof, were announced on the contest website on May 30. "I'm disappointed that it didn't work out," said Ms. Lavorgna, 57. "You want somebody to be the winner." Mr. Bares and Ms. Lavorgna set up the contest after unsuccessfully listing the house on the market twice. They had hoped it would allow them to get closer to the price they sought, even after no prospective buyer would meet it. If the contest had succeeded, they planned on repackaging and selling the contest platform to other homeowners seeking to rid themselves of challenging properties. The outcome throws both visions into doubt, and exposes the risks inherent in such contests. If they go awry, organizers can expect not only a failed sales plan, but a backlash, too. "We were looking at doing this as a business model," said Mr. Bares, 43, who bought the land in 2007 for around 750,000, and spent another 350,000 building the cabin, which has a three car garage beneath it. Some entrants expressed frustration with the contest, particularly the rule that allowed the organizers to keep the 49 administrative fee. "It is funny that all of that risk gets shifted over to the people who entered," said Casey Cornwell, 40, a financial consultant and contestant who lives in San Francisco. Mr. Bares and Ms. Lavorgna estimate they spent some 50,000 to set up and administer the contest. They hired judges to read the entries; a lawyer to draft the contest rules; and a publicist to promote it. They also made a polished three minute video set to inspirational music with aerial shots of the property and clips of vacationers on horseback, practicing yoga and fishing in the lake. Even with the administrative fee, Mr. Bares and Ms. Lavorgna said, they stand to lose around 20,000. And they still own the house. "I understand people don't know us, they don't know our intent," Mr. Bares said. "Our intent was always to sell the house." On social media, some people doubted the contest's legitimacy. "Will you be announcing the winner or is this a ploy for free advertising," Karen Wrenn posted on Facebook. Another user responded, "Bet no one won." Ms. Wrenn, 62, a retired teacher who lives in Wilmington, N.C., said that the contest appeared on her Facebook feed one day and reminded her of the telephone scams designed to target older people, so she steered clear. "When I saw that house, I had to write something about it," she said. "I don't believe this is legit." But others did enter, like Henry Chamberlain, 54, a cartoonist who lives in Seattle. "I got caught up in the fantasy," he said. He wrote an essay about how he wanted a quiet retreat and an inheritance to leave to his daughter, who is 21. Mr. Bares and Ms. Lavorgna shut down the contest's social media accounts on May 30 and sent emails to contestants explaining the outcome and their refund policy. But some, including Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Cornwell, did not receive that first email and only learned of the results from a reporter. They both received the email when it was resent on June 5. The muddled messaging struck Mr. Chamberlain as disorganized. "If you're going to play with people's dreams, you need to find a way to do them the courtesy of getting things in order," he said. Now, Mr. Bares and Ms. Lavorgna are asking themselves why so few people participated. Perhaps the guidelines were too strict, or maybe the taxes gave people pause; property taxes run around 11,000 a year, and a winner would have had to pay substantial income taxes. Sara F. Hawkins, a lawyer who represents the couple, suspects that it might just be hard to draw people to a region without a national reputation. "I think it would be different if we were giving away an apartment in New York City," she said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
A federal judge denied a motion to move a legal showdown between Uber and Waymo into private arbitration, according to a court document filed Thursday evening, a decision that sets the stage for a public, bare knuckle trial between the two companies. It was a setback for Uber, which has been accused of stealing valuable technology from Waymo, the self driving automobile unit spun out of Google. Uber had pushed for arbitration, usually a less expensive and faster process and one that neither takes place in front of a jury nor becomes part of the public record. At the heart of the suit is Anthony Levandowski, a star engineer and a veteran of self driving technology who Waymo has claimed stole technology from Google before leaving to form Otto, his own autonomous vehicle start up. Waymo has argued that Uber conspired with Mr. Levandowski to use those stolen files in Uber's self driving car designs after Uber purchased Mr. Levandowski's start up for 680 million. Uber has denied the accusation. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
From baccarat and pai gow poker to noodle restaurants, it's no secret that Las Vegas has long been courting travelers from Asia, particularly China. But by this Chinese New Year Jan. 28 visitors will find a more intense focus on Asian tourists on and around the Strip as businesses aim to increase international traffic. The first direct flight from Beijing to Las Vegas, launched Dec. 2 by Hainan Airlines, is viewed as a major step toward the goal the Las Vegas Convention Visitors Authority has set to push international visitation to 30 percent over the next decade. International visitors currently account for 16 percent of traffic. Some 207,000 Chinese travelers visited Las Vegas in 2015, a figure that has nearly quadrupled since 2006. Asians accounted for roughly 13 percent of international visitors in 2015. To welcome them, the 203 room Lucky Dragon Hotel Casino, which opened Dec. 3, hired a multilingual staff. The largely Asian backed project is the first to make international players its focus. From the slot machines near the pagoda shaped bar to the spa featuring a reflexology room with six stations for foot massages, signage is in Chinese first and English second. Among five Asian restaurants, Dragon's Alley conjures a night market with street food fare, and a high end tea lounge offers indoor and outdoor seating. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Less than a mile in, though, as I dodged power walkers, kids on electronic skateboards and horse poop, I felt a competitive tug and started passing people, using the downhills to my advantage, making sure to hug the left curb because that meant I'd be running the most efficient path possible. My body remembered what to do, and what it could do, which is where I got into trouble. Because as much as I'd like to think I didn't lose any fitness in my 84 days off, of course I did. I had to buy new shorts because my old ones didn't fit anymore. But still, I pressed on as if a chunk of my winter hadn't been spent in a walking boot instead of a running shoe. By the end of my first lap, my stomach was already burning; with about a mile to go, I was really reconsidering the decision to eat animal crackers and dried apricots before the race. I stopped to walk once; then I stopped again just for about three seconds each time, but enough for my stomach to settle. I'd never vomited in a race, and I didn't want to start. After I finished, I felt both terrible and wonderful. I know that I am far from being in the shape I was pre injury, but my leg didn't hurt once in the entire race, and I was thankful to be back out there and for the pizza and beer after. If you want to know more about stress fractures, I wrote about what causes them for this week's Ask Well column. If you've never had one, I do not recommend it. This article covers what you can do to avoid joining our club. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Well |
A decade old form of malicious software known as ransomware has been making headlines after cybercriminals hijacked hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide. Ransomware, which is often transmitted by email or web pop ups, involves locking up people's data and threatening to destroy it if a ransom is not paid. The global cyberattack has affected 200,000 Windows computers in more than 150 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Britain. The cybercriminals have generally targeted hospitals, academic institutions, blue chip companies and businesses like movie theater chains. The attacks highlight the challenges that organizations face with consistently applying security safeguards on a large scale. "Not only individuals, but even governments and big companies with so much to lose fail to secure their systems and train their employees about necessary security practices," said Marty P. Kamden, a marketing executive for the private network service provider NordVPN. "Cautious online behavior would probably have prevented the malware from infecting the network in the first place." What can businesses and individuals do to protect themselves from ransomware? Here are some tips from security experts. Security experts believe the malware that spurred this global attack, called WannaCry, may have initially infected machines by getting people to download it through email. After that, the malicious code was able to easily travel to a broader network of computers that were linked together through the Windows file sharing system. (Users of Macs or other non Windows computers were not affected.) The most disheartening revelation from the cyberattack was that there was a fix available for the ransomware before the attack. Microsoft, which makes Windows, released a patch for the WannaCry vulnerability eight weeks ago, said Chris Wysopal, the chief technology officer of Veracode, an application security company. In other words, if people had simply stayed on top of security updates, their machines would not have been infected. "People kind of got complacent and not vigilant about updating their machines," Mr. Wysopal said. Consumers can remedy this by configuring their Windows machines to automatically install the latest software updates. In addition to keeping Windows up to date with the latest security enhancements, antivirus software can prevent malware from infecting your computer. Mr. Kamden of NordVPN said 30 percent of popular antivirus systems were capable of detecting and neutralizing the ransomware. Of course, with antivirus software, the same principle applies: Make sure to keep the antivirus app up to date, too, so it blocks the latest emerging malware. Also, download antivirus apps only from reputable vendors like Kaspersky Lab, Bitdefender or Malwarebytes, Mr. Kamden said. Be wary of suspicious emails and pop ups Security experts believe WannaCry may have initially infected machines via email attachments. The lesson: Avoid clicking links inside dubious emails, Mr. Kamden said. How do you spot a fishy email? Look carefully at the email address of the sender to see if it is coming from a legitimate address. Also, look for obvious typos and grammatical errors in the body. Hover over hyperlinks (without clicking on them) inside emails to see whether they direct you to suspicious web pages. If an email appears to have come from your bank, credit card company or internet service provider, keep in mind that they will never ask for sensitive information like your password or social security number. In addition, ransomware developers often use pop up windows that advertise software products that remove malware. Do not click on anything through these pop ups, then safely close the windows. In the event that a hacker successfully hijacks your computer, you could rescue yourself with a backup of your data stored somewhere, like on a physical hard drive. That way, if a hacker locked down your computer, you could simply erase all the data from the machine and restore it from the backup. In general, you should be creating a copy of your data in the first place, in case your computer fails or is lost. To be extra safe from hackers, after backing up your data onto an external drive, unplug the drive from the computer and put it away. For larger businesses with hundreds or thousands of employees, applying security updates organizationwide can be difficult. If one employee's machine lacks the latest security software, it can infect other machines across the company network. Mr. Wysopal said businesses could learn from how WannaCry spread through the Windows file sharing system by developing a strict schedule for when computers companywide should automatically install the latest software updates. Businesses should determine the best time to apply these security updates to office computers without interrupting productivity, he added. Information technology professionals should also regularly educate and test employees on spotting suspicious emails, said Matt Ahrens, vice president of Crypsis, a cybersecurity firm. What to do if already infected If you are already a victim of ransomware, the first thing to do is disconnect your computer from the internet so it does not infect other machines. Then report the crime to law enforcement and seek help from a technology professional who specializes in data recovery to see what your options might be. If there are none, don't lose hope: There may be new security tools to unlock your files in the future. In some extreme cases, it might make sense to pay a ransom if you have no backups and the encrypted files are valuable, Mr. Wysopal said. But he added that with WannaCry, people definitely should not pay the ransom. That's because the hackers are apparently overloaded with requests from victims asking for their data to be released and many who have paid the ransom are not hearing back. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Credit...Christie Hemm Klok for The New York Times SAN FRANCISCO When you pull the headset over your eyes and the game begins, you are transported to a tiny room with white walls. Your task is to break out of the room, but you cannot use your hands. There is no joystick or game pad. You must use your thoughts. You turn toward a ball on the floor, and your brain sends a command to pick it up. With another thought, you send the ball crashing into a mirror, breaking the glass and revealing a few numbers scribbled on a wall. You mentally type those numbers into a large keypad by the door. And you are out. Designed by Neurable, a small start up founded by Ramses Alcaide, an electrical engineer and neuroscientist, the game offers what you might call a computer mouse for the mind, a way of selecting items in a virtual world with your thoughts. Incorporating a headset with virtual reality goggles and sensors that can read your brain waves, this prototype is a few years from the market. And it is limited in what it can do. You cannot select an object with your mind unless you first look in its general direction, narrowing the number of items you may be considering. But it works. I recently played the game, which has the working title Awakening, when Mr. Alcaide and two Neurable employees passed through San Francisco, and a few hundred others tried it this month at the Siggraph computer graphics conference in Los Angeles. The prototype is among the earliest fruits of a widespread effort to embrace technology that was once science fiction and in some ways still is. Driven by recent investments from the United States government and by the herd mentality that so often characterizes the tech world, a number of a start ups and bigger companies like Facebook are working on ways to mentally control machines. They are also looking for smoother ways to use virtual reality technology. "Neurotechnology has become cool," said Ed Boyden, a professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at the M.I.T. Media Lab who advises one of those start ups. "With the smartphone, we're starting to reach the limits of what we can do," said Doug Clinton, the founder of Loup Ventures, a new venture capital firm that has invested in Neurable. "These companies are the next step." The Neurable prototype shows what is possible today. Using electroencephalography, or EEG a means of measuring electrical brain activity that has been around for decades the company can provide simple ways of mentally interacting with a game. Some companies hope to go much further, and want to build ways of performing nearly any computing task with the mind. Imagine a brain interface for rapidly typing on a smartphone. Even for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like Mr. Musk, setting that goal pushes technological optimism to new heights. Some efforts seem particularly quixotic. Mr. Musk said in one interview that Neuralink planned to develop ways of implanting hardware in the skulls of completely healthy people. At Neurable, which is based in Boston, Mr. Alcaide and the members of his team are pushing the limits of EEG headsets. Although sensors can read electrical brain activity from outside the skull, it is very difficult to separate the signal from the noise. Using computer algorithms based on research that Mr. Alcaide originally published as a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, Neurable works to read activity with a speed and accuracy that is not usually possible. The algorithms learn from your behavior. Before playing the game, you train them to recognize when you are focusing your attention on an object. A pulse of light bounces around the virtual room, and each time it hits a small colored ball in front of you, you think about the ball. At that moment, when you focus on the light and it stimulates your brain, the system reads the electrical spikes of your brain activity. After you do this for a few minutes, the game learns to recognize when you are concentrating on an item. "We look at specific brain signals," Mr. Alcaide said, "and once we understand them, we can use them." When you play the game, the same light bounces around the virtual room. When it hits the item you are thinking about, the system can identify the increase in brain activity. Some companies are working to move beyond that. Facebook, for example, is exploring methods for optically reading brain activity from outside the skull. Such a system would shine light into the brain to directly read chemical changes. "What if you could type directly from your brain?" Regina Dugan of Facebook said this spring as she unveiled the company's efforts to build this kind of optical interface. "It sounds impossible, but it's closer than you may realize." In a few years, she said, Facebook hopes to have a system that allows people to type with their thoughts five times faster than they now type using a smartphone keyboard. That is well beyond the realm of current research, and a number of neuroscientists question whether it will ever be possible, arguing that such speed will only come with devices planted inside the skull. Several start ups are now working to do just that. But some, including a Silicon Valley start up called Paradromics, hope to do this as a way of treating people with medical conditions like blindness, deafness and paralysis. Implanting hardware in the brain is dangerous, but the reward for patients could outweigh the risks. For companies like Paradromics, the goal is to significantly refine and expand the current methods, providing a faster and more complete way for patients to operate machines with their thoughts. Mr. Musk's Neuralink is moving in a similar direction, but the company's ambitions appear to stretch much further, to eventually implanting chips in healthy people's brains. The dangers of brain surgery make this unlikely. But Mr. Boyden said there were some possibilities. "I do find it implausible that an implant would go directly into the brain of someone with zero health problems," he said. "But if companies take the right approach in helping people with the greatest need, then there may be a way for this to spread into people with less severe conditions, and then eventually become a kind of brain augmentation." Certainly, many of these projects will be met with skepticism. And Silicon Valley's enthusiasm does not always mesh with the physical limitations of medicine and the human body. "In the physical sciences, there are physical boundaries," said Matt Angle, a neuroscientist and the founder of Paradromics. "To think that you'll be able to blow through fundamental laws by sheer ambition and enthusiasm is naive." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Wan has four new serving girls, plucked from lives of crime and almost exclusively referred to by the colors or patterns of their uniforms. "Peony," a semi reformed pickpocket, is played by Mao. A couple of the other servers also show recidivist tendencies, like the former con artist, dressed in red, who haunts the inn's dice table. But when it's time to get busy, these undercover rebels do, as when three sword bearing would be robbers try to knock the place over. The sixth woman warrior is Lee Wan erh, Lee Khan's devoted sister, played by Hsu Feng. A thoroughly ruthless character, she's calling for beheadings before she's had her first meal at Spring Inn. Once the players are established, the movie falls into a sweet lather, rinse, repeat mode of scenes, alternating character intrigue and fighting. Because it's as much a "hangout movie" as it is an action picture, it's sad at the end to note how many losses the good guys suffered. Such is the way of the wuxia. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Across Europe, a strict new set of lockdown measures has emptied the streets of cities like Rome, Paris and London, where hordes of tourists usually crowd the streets. Residents of Turkey's liveliest and most populous city were ordered to stay at home this past weekend as part of a strict curfew, issued by the government last week to curb a dangerous resurgence of the coronavirus. Under the nationwide restrictions, which will likely continue into the coming weeks, nobody was allowed to venture outside between 9 p.m. on Friday and 5 a.m. on Monday, with fines for those who broke the rules. But foreign tourists are exempt from the order, meaning that they were free to see the sights, walk the streets and ride the ferries across the Bosporus, even as residents were compelled to stay home. Most museums, including the Topkapi and Dolmabahce palaces, stayed open for tourists over the weekend, and some restaurants in the old city of Sultanahmet secretly opened doors for visitors willing to eat inside. Hotels also offered indoor and outdoor dining for visitors. On Saturday afternoon, guests at the upscale Shangri La hotel sat on the terrace basking under the sunshine and eating fresh seafood with glasses of crisp cold white wine. Ms. Lockhart decided to travel to Istanbul last week to meet up with her American boyfriend because it was one of the few cities that they could both fly to directly without having to quarantine. They, like the other tourists encountered on the city's streets over the weekend, hadn't known before they arrived that they would be free to wander the city. Since reopening its borders to international tourists in June, Turkey has not required testing or quarantine upon arrival. Health screening and temperature checks are carried out at airports and anybody found to have Covid 19 symptoms is taken to a medical facility for testing. The country's tourism sector is poised to shrink by 70 percent this year, bringing in 15 million visitors and more than 11 billion in revenue, a steep drop from the 45 million visitors and 35 billion in revenue in 2019, according to statistics from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Despite an effort to salvage the industry with the creation this summer of a healthy tourism certification program, designed to ensure that travel and hospitality sectors met the government's health and hygiene requirements, arrivals were down by 86 percent in July, compared to the same period in 2019. Many international tourists visiting Istanbul over the weekend were from Russia and the Middle East, but Europeans and Americans were also among the crowds. For many, the decision to travel to Turkey was triggered by lockdown fatigue. "Life is too short to stay at home for another year," said Ana Nicolas, a 53 year old Spanish tourist, who was visiting from Madrid, which is under a nationwide curfew and state of emergency scheduled to last until early May 2021. "We felt like animals locked in a cage for too long and we wanted to escape and see a new place with different energy and culture." Yet the atmosphere and the energy of Istanbul were severely dampened by the weekend curfew, with shuttered restaurants and shops and locals confined to their homes. The commotion of bustling Istanbul life the traffic, car horns, fishermen, crisscrossing passenger ferries, clanking construction and pungent smells of street food stands gave way to a surreal hush, so quiet that the sound of sea gulls and crowing roosters pierced the air. On Saturday and Sunday plainclothes police officers patrolled the streets and police set up checkpoints across different districts to check the ID cards and passports of people traveling through, one by one. Turkish essential workers were allowed to proceed, as were tourists. Everyone else was subject to a fine of 3,150 Turkish lira, around 400. Who should get a booster shot? It depends, Dr. Scott Gottlieb says. Turkey's decision to enter into a full nationwide lockdown at the weekend was in response to a rapid surge in infections and to a record number of deaths, which more than doubled in less than three weeks. For most visitors, the call to prayer, which echoes through the city five times a day, is likely indistinguishable from the somber funeral prayers that are broadcast all too often as the pandemic has raged in recent weeks. But few tourists voiced concerns about the risks posed by the pandemic. "I feel safe because I have antibodies," said Bagrta Kalachinov, a 36 year old visitor from Moscow. Looking out at the silhouette of the old city's minarets from the top of the Galata Tower, Ms. Kalachinov's husband, Denis, said he felt safer in Turkey than at home in Russia, where few people wear masks and all businesses are open as usual. "At first it was a bit boring here because bars and restaurants are closed, but now we have found some places close to our hotel that let us come inside, even though it looks closed outside," Mr. Kalachinov said. Travel industry workers were trying to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the curfew exemption for tourists. Outside a cafe, a man dressed in a sultan costume tried to lure patrons with the promise of fresh pastries and socially distant indoor seating. A traditional Turkish ice cream vendor, who is famous for his scooping tricks, put on a show, and a souvenir shop opened its doors for a group of women from West Africa looking to buy Turkish coffee and leather handbags. "This year has been a complete write off, especially for Istanbul," said Cuneyt Uygur, a Turkish tour guide based in the city. "We'll see if this effort to stay open for tourism will help bring more people in. It depends on how satisfied they are when they return home." The majority of tourists currently visiting the city are young and adventurous, Mr. Uygur said, expressing concern that they might get restless with so many of the city's attractions closed off. On Monday morning, retailers were allowed to open and cafes and restaurants offered takeout and delivery services. "It's not your average holiday, but it's cool to just be able to roam about a city with so few people in it and sit in the sunshine with a beer and a snack," said Mandy Miller, a 26 year old student from London, who traveled to Turkey for a week with her boyfriend without telling her family and friends. "Everybody makes such a fuss about the virus, but most people who have had it are fine," she said, as she fed a stray dog the leftovers of her chicken kebab wrap. "We've got to just be brave and live as normal as we can," she added, as a group of tourists lined up behind her to take selfies in front the Ortakoy mosque. "It should be this free and relaxed everywhere. London is so depressing," she added. While some Turks welcomed the two tier curfew system, saying it was good for the economy, others felt it was inappropriate for tourists to be gallivanting around the city while locals bear the brunt of a grueling second wave of the virus. "I'm happy for tourists to visit my country, but when hospitals are full and people are dying, this is not an appropriate time to be adventurous," said Tulin Polat, 26, who was laid off from her waitressing job because of the new lockdown measures. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
My fellow Ru mericans, it has been one week since we went to war, and I regret to inform you that, in followance of our made great governing principles, RuPaul has assigned our new Ru merican centauries the project of profiting from it. If the last 50 years have not already turned Eisenhower's corpse to butter, surely, it spins. In the situation room, our victor ias wrote the herstory of last week's elimination, in which a criminally funny Monet X Change won the battle, but not the war. When she condemned her catastrophic cutout onesie to the trash, Monique lobbed one last grenade at her: "You will buy a new one. And it will be the accurate cut." Throwing some deserved darkness at Ms. Heart's giraffe print horror, the trigger witted Monet shot back, "All right, brown cow." They stood at the gallows and laughed good naturedly. And that's shade. Command her In Chief Ru marched into the workroom and addressed the state of the (non , still) union proclaiming that "to separate the pros from the cons," the queens needed to concentrate on branding themselves, and "march into the club merch first." He led by example and announced the branded mini challenge, "Sitting on a Secret," in which the blindfolded queens were directed to sit on various objects and, via booty Braille, read what they were. The girls gingerly placed their vouchers on such rations as marshmallows, a pork chop and a dead fish. The all that Miz Cracker correctly guessed that she was sitting on a bag of chips (snacks recognize snacks), and the self described "big booty Judy" Monet so engulfed an eggplant, she thought it was an avocado. But Asia O'Hara's iron triangle barreled the most pork, including a cake and, endearingly, a fax machine, and she won the battle. Ru then dragged our girls from the workroom to the boardroom with the week's maxi challenge: a mock up of RuPaul's Drag Con. ("For a queen, it's a chance to entertain and inspire ... and make a few coins on the side.") They were ordered to assemble panels, perform demos and discuss the building blocks of drag body, face and wigs in front of every artist's worst nightmare: a live audience with an invitation to ask questions. Previous teammates Cracker, The Vixen and Blair ru peated themselves and became Team Wigs; Asia, Monique and Aquaria snapped each other up for Team Face; and the ascending Miss Congeniality candidate Eureka took pity on the ostracized, "tainted" Monet and the silent but deadly Kameron Michaels, and warmly embraced them to form a delightfully diverse Team Body. Asia smugly speculated that, in a public speaking challenge, a body composed of the chatty Eureka, the quiet storm Kameron and the struggling Monet might not work. "All of them have issues that they're battling, so we'll see how that goes," she said. Listen up, young ones: Drag, as well as most forms of art, is about battling issues, and Team Body got right down to operational level strategy. Eureka's past experience at Drag Con led her to wisely appoint herself as panel moderator, and when she accidentally neologized "proportionizing," the team's recent experience of assessing what was under their posteriors led them to wisely assent that they were sitting on a pot of gold. Merch first! Team Wigs took a controlled chaos approach, opting not to elect a moderator, with Cracker unwisely cracking that Drag Con is "really just an excuse for queens to hang out." Drag Con President, CEO and Rear Admiral Ru looked as if he had been stabbed in the forehead with a knife. He gently pulled it out and sagely intoned, "Over the years, I have branded every damn thing I can, and that's what you should be doing, too." Ladies, read your contracts and check your flanks! Monique and Asia expressed concerns that their teammate, the walking selfie Aquaria, would be too lo fi to rise to the challenge of extemporaneous speaking. The ever vescent (neologism is contagious) Monique went on to lament her underfunded wardrobe, which necessitated her to "jimmy rig" (I love her so much) a "dress gown" (I love her so much) from a raw slab of iridescent paillettes brought from home. She aptly described herself as "the MacGyver of drag," saying, "I came to this competition with glitter and Jesus, and bitch, I am making it work, okaaaay?" Okaaaay! Dressed in a merch bag from the Paisley Park gift shop, Ru introduced the queens to the live "Drag Con" audience that ringed the runway. Team Body lifted their competitors' embargo, fired "Proportionizing!" into the crowd, and sold the heaven out of it. The three infotainingly demonstrated padding techniques on the incomprehensibly hot Opie lescent Pit Crew member Brian, behind a shoji screen embellished with what I can only hope are scale, full color representations of his cunning ham. The exact type of man who usually has "more of a comment than a question" at a panel discussion took the mic with, surprisingly, a question! "In today's political climate (an abrupt change of topic at which Eureka squalled, "Oh!", and I choked on a Popchip), why is drag so important?" Without skipping a beat, Eureka switched gears to the body politic and warmly answered, "We're all afraid. We do drag to celebrate ourselves, our femininity ... people celebrate drag with us because it's a way for them to escape and to feel like they belong, in a political climate where none of us feel like we belong, truly." Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between and beyond: This is what a drag superstar looks and sounds like. I'm starting to have vivid visuals of a crown on her head. Team Face made a fun showing, with the moderator Monique ("the Heart of Season 10!") and even the typically Mayfair muted Aquaria leaning in with some choice quotes and dishing out useful tips, like blow drying false eyelashes into place and using glue to anchor a "red glitter lip," which, for some reason, was pink. It actually causes me physical pain to write about Team Wigs. Blair's contrived charisma hung in the air like a child star's burp. Cracker's playful pitches of shade splatted onto the unoccupied home plate like globs of cigarette butt flavored Jell O. And The Vixen, who up until this moment in the episode seemed refreshingly chastened, responded to the other queens' jovial jests with not only a complete lack of humor, but, and I can't believe I'm typing this, actual threats of physical violence. (Perhaps she should ask the Season 2 winner Tyra Sanchez how threatening violence at Drag Con works out.) The judges all looked like they were sitting on dead fish, which, in a sense, they were. The crucial fourth building block of drag is the art of shade. If one cannot create in that medium, one has not earned the title of "drag queen," and should go back to school until they learn how to properly read. Couture chapeaus were celebrated in the runway challenge, titled "Hat's Incredible" a tip to a television show that ended two years before Blair was born. Monet redeemed herself with an impressive "Uber Executive to church" look that tithed her team into the top three, with Eureka named the overall winner for the second week in a row. Blair, in yet another "old Broadway musicals" inspired look, and The Vixen, in the sweepings from Philip Treacy's studio floor, were sent to the back of the parade. Blair tearfully confessed that her endless dessert menu of drag was in response to a college rape, and choked, "I urge to find daintiness, because I feel dirty." Drag Oprah Ru empathetically responded that "we've all had trauma ..., and the first response to that is to ... put rainbows on everything. But we know that doesn't work, and you have to walk through that." Blair, you are dainty as heaven, and we are so grateful for your brave confession. But Ru is right: The integration of your trauma into your art is a process for which you are, I'm so sorry to say, due. You have acres of potential, but in this, the springtime of your discontent, you are still a bit green. We love you, Blair. (Me, too.) Blair and The Vixen were consigned to battle to that rugged hymn of the Ru public, "I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross. Both performances were amateurish in polar opposite ways The Vixen tumbled, jumped and thrashed sans POV, whilst Blair earnestly auditioned for the role of Eponine in a state college production of "Les Miz." Sadly, despite a heart full of love, Blair took the bullet, and was sent off on her own. (I can't wait to see her at her Fantine in Season 6 of All Stars.) Panel Man's question was actually quite prescient why is drag so important in the current political climate? We are at a fascinating moment where the rebel forces are becoming war profiteers. And, unlike the other wars our generations have endured, this one will have an actual winner. That winner must ask not what her charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent can do for her, but what she can do for her charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent. Do we want to elect a community organizer, or a businesswoman? An experienced veteran, or an unpredictable outsider? Who will wield their power most Ru sponsibly? This episode, as promised, helped separate the pros from the cons, the glitter from the Jesus, and, hopefully, the merch from the madness. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Silly Season: How British Pantomime Looks From Across the Pond In a year of theatrical catastrophes, English pantomime looked to be one more. Big heart, big joke, big budget extravaganzas, these shows depend on live audiences like few others. Staged at Christmastime and performed throughout much of the Anglophone world, pantos take classic fairy tales and zhuzh them up with famous guest stars, topical humor and song parodies. A man usually plays a bawdy female character, known as the dame. A young woman plays the "principal boy." Audiences know to boo, cheer or shout "It's behind you!" Actors throw boiled sweets and Wagon Wheel biscuits to the crowd. Can you do all that over Zoom? But a form popular for at least a couple of centuries knows a thing or two about changing with the times. Even as parts of England and Scotland returned to lockdown, many companies still found ways to make pantomimes available internationally via Zoom, livestream or prerecorded video. Panto has never yet made significant inroads into the United States, despite a 19 year old Ariana Grande once starring as Snow White. So if you're looking for some Covid silver lining, take this bit of tinsel. Last week, the theater critics Elisabeth Vincentelli and Alexis Soloski saw eight pantomimes, which is arguably too many, and then met remotely to discuss toilet humor, pop song rewrites and whether there is in fact nothing like a dame. These are edited excerpts from their conversation. ALEXIS SOLOSKI I had wanted to see pantomime for so long, probably because actors throw candy at the audience. I used to wonder why panto had never caught on here. After this week, I have ideas! Or maybe we just overdosed? VINCENTELLI I loved it all, from the really budget shows to the fancy ones. I'll take panto over saccharine American style Christmas anytime, and certainly over "A Christmas Carol." SOLOSKI Fighting words! Me, I felt like an ethnographer studying a foreign culture's strange ceremonies. Panto has its origins in commedia dell'arte, royal masque and the peculiarities of Victorian theater licensing. Somehow this has gifted us men in fright drag who pretend to fart while a chorus sings Rihanna. VINCENTELLI You say that like it's a bad thing. I relish juxtapositions of high and lowbrow sensibilities, though admittedly in this case it's low and low. I can't recall ever hearing as many fart jokes, and I laughed at all of them. SOLOSKI And so many sex jokes. These are family shows! Are English children big into bawdry? VINCENTELLI It's the "Simpsons" method: Some jokes fly over the children's heads to reach the parents'. I was stunned when Dame Sigrid Smorgasbord (Steve Simmonds) in the New Wolsey Theater's "The Snow Queen" said "My first husband was hung like a horse a seahorse." SOLOSKI That was extremely funny. I don't think we can repeat her Roger Moore joke. VINCENTELLI We'll save that for the R rated version of this article, behind a double pay wall. I'm now a huge fan of Simmonds, whose performance was half Taylor Mac and half Nathan Lane. I find panto ingredients theatrically effective: drag, disrupted pop songs, cheeky puns, topical references. The Perth Theater's "Oh Yes We Are!" included a riff on "The 12 Days of Christmas" with lines like "fiiiiiive toilet rolls." SOLOSKI I tried to do the call and response with that one. They kept me muted. We both adored "The Snow Queen." Aside from some old fashioned stage magic (trap door entrances!), why did that one work so well? VINCENTELLI It was filmed in front of a live (distanced) audience. Panto relies heavily on audience participation and the actors clearly feed on it. Mugging and chewing the scenery is a lost art, except in pantomime. Another favorite was the National Theater's "Dick Whittington," where Dickie Beau's dame followed a Sondheim reference with a rewrite of Dua Lipa's "Don't Start Now." SOLOSKI That bit from "Losing My Mind" my personal 2020 theme song was genius. And when the couple hugged through a plastic sheet and everyone sang "We Found Love," I got a little misty. It's been such a catastrophe of a year theatrically, otherwise and this company managed to create this big, silly, lovely show, only to see it close as London went back into lockdown. VINCENTELLI Because they really are about the communing. There was always a moment when they made me miss multigenerational togetherness so much. And the imperfections of live performance: I really felt for the actors who sounded distinctly winded during a big number. SOLOSKI My throat went lumpy during the opening of Belgrade Theater's "Jack and the Beanstalk," when two actors stare out an empty house and wonder how to go on. Still, some shows handled Covid era limitations superbly. Like the "Jack and the Beanstalk" staged in Peter Duncan's colossal backyard. Other shows, like the National Theater of Scotland's "Rapunzel," felt as flat as a sat on mince pie. VINCENTELLI I loved the costumes Rosey Posey looked out of a psychedelic "Ascot Gavotte" but being a succession of monologues didn't help. If the actors don't get that lifeline from the audience or each other, there's little for them to hang on to in this specific format. They're not doing Beckett monologues. SOLOSKI What did you make of the cross casting? Like you, I loved Simmonds and Beau, who delivered rich, ripe, generous performances. And Beau ran around in a dress covered in baked beans and black pudding. Legendary. But other dames felt tired to me, empty accumulations of stereotype. VINCENTELLI Panto has been said to perpetuate stereotypes, but I didn't feel any of the shows we watched reflected that. It's an ancient, some may say rickety, art form and it can bend to be extremely inclusive. "The Fairytale Revolution," an all female take on "Peter Pan," had a feminist slant while keeping the genre's building blocks. I enjoyed its shambolic, riot grrrl attitude very Mickey and Judy, or rather Judy and Judy. SOLOSKI Their metatextual stuff probably made more sense if you are a panto aficionado. Which I clearly am not. But I admired their spunk. Surprise! Even feminist panto includes fart jokes. VINCENTELLI And an anti vaxxer one. SOLOSKI And one about a character being so evil that she still follows J.K. Rowling on Twitter. Mostly I saw companies making the best of a really calamitous situation, lighting up the dark. I loved this line from "Rapunzel": "This festive season might not be how we imagined it, but if the story of Rapunzel has taught us anything, it's this: You could have been trapped in a tower for 15 years." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
CHRISTO ACROSS THE WATER IN ITALY The installation artist Christo will unveil his latest project, a series of buoyant polyethylene cubes laid across Italy's Lake Iseo that will create a nearly two mile long walking path, in June. Wrapped in vibrant yellow fabric and designed to undulate with the waves, the Floating Piers, which are about 50 feet wide, will appear on the small lake near Bergamo in northern Italy from June 18 to July 3, with about another mile of fabric lining the pedestrian streets of the shorefront towns of Sulzano and Peschiera Maraglio. The project will be open to the public (admission details are to be determined), but the luxury travel company Black Tomato is offering V.I.P. access to it that begins with a bird's eye view of the installation via a private helicopter transfer from Milan to Lake Iseo. Guests then tour the lake by vintage boat and have exclusive skip the line access to the Floating Piers to walk on them. The trip starts at 6,100 per person, including three nights at the Bulgari Hotel Milan. After a six month closure to build a Cultural Village outside its gates, the Portland Japanese Garden will reopen March 1. The hillside garden, which covers about 5.5 acres, is in the midst of a 33.5 million expansion to 9.1 acres with the addition of the village designed by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. It will remain under construction until next April, but the spring mosses, stone gardens, clipped shrubbery and weeping cherry trees will again be open to viewers in time for cherry blossom season. A sure sign of spring, the New York State Maple Producers Association is gearing up for its Maple Weekend, actually two of them, March 19 to 20 and April 2 to 3. Roughly 160 farms and museums will be open for sugar house tours, tree tapping demonstrations, pancake breakfasts, and even maple cocktail tastings. March to May, an estimated 20,000 gray whales migrate north from their breeding grounds off the Baja Peninsula, eventually reaching the Bering Sea. On Vancouver Island in British Columbia, the Pacific Rim Whale Festival, March 12 to 27, celebrates the whales' return to the calm, food rich waters of Clayoquot Sound with talks by National Geographic photographers, whale watching outings with marine researchers, storytelling and concerts. Long Beach Lodge, with rooms from 229 Canadian dollars ( 166), will offer daily whale watching tours and access to festival events on the property including a cedar weaving workshop with a First Nations artist March 16. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
No time to hang up the lights or take out the tinsel? Don't bother. Understated is in this season. Unadorned greenery, simple rustic touches and carefully curated decorations are replacing the usual baubles and bells. "We're seeing a shift from holiday specific decor to pieces that work together to evoke more of a feeling or spirit of the season," said Kylee Trunck, a senior staff designer at Havenly, the online design service. "Things like faux fur, rustic wood finishes, metallics, plaids and greenery are less overtly holiday themed, but they bring a cozy and magical feeling to spaces." While glitter and garlands are still popular, she said, "nontraditional is becoming the tradition," with color combinations like pink and turquoise or black and white used in lieu of red and green. "We're also seeing a mix of quirky characters like peacocks and llamas in metallic finishes edging out the traditional characters of the season." All of this is good news for procrastinators who have yet to dig out their decorations. For advice about how to create subtle holiday cheer, we talked to designers about how they do it and how they're decorating their own homes this year. Flowers are an easy way to add holiday cheer: The Holiday Sweater from the Bouqs Company combines succulents, white alstroemeria and red berries (the Grand size, shown, is 80). USE WHAT YOU'VE GOT "New Yorkers know all too well that saving space is a necessity, so rather than holiday specific decorations, I opt for things I can use all year, and then add on to for the season," said Logan Yost, an interior designer in Manhattan. "For mantels, I have a dozen or so votive holders I gather together. I use them throughout the year for dinner parties, but for holidays, I simply line them up on a bed of tree branches." You can also swing by the drugstore and grab a container of small reflective Christmas balls to fill in the greenery, Mr. Yost suggested: "Because a small box is only a few bucks, I choose a new color each year and then toss them." But when picking them out, remember that the color palette should complement that of the room. "Too often, I see seasonal decorations that look completely out of place," he said, "because no consideration was taken to work with the existing decor." To decorate his dining table, Mr. Yost lays out a small wreath with a low, wide vase of flowers in the center, usually red roses and tulips. "Doing something understated like this is always a winner," he said. "It says 'holiday,' but it's not in your face. And because it's simple and sophisticated, it's also timeless, which means it will always be in." GO FOR GOLD "Mixed metallics, tonal palettes and decor that's seasonal without being overtly Christmassy are three trends topping my list this December," said Anne Sage, a Los Angeles based lifestyle blogger and author of "Sage Living: Decorate for the Life You Want." "A blend of copper, silver and gold, along with muted monochromatics, feels festive yet still sophisticated," she said. "And 'unholiday' wintry sparkles are perfect for busy people who want to put up their decorations well before the hoopla hits and leave them up long after the last hurrah." PLAY WITH LIGHT "The one thing that makes the holidays different than any other time is sparkle," said the decorator Bunny Williams, whose holiday collection for Ballard Designs reflects that. "Bubbly champagne, glittering candlelight and extra festive touches make the season a magical time, so embrace it." When she is entertaining, Ms. Williams said, she dims all the lights and uses a combination of LED candles and small votives on the dining table, mantels and side tables: "The softer light creates a more romantic, festive feel." Greenery is another important element. "Live magnolia garlands and wreaths are great because they'll last the whole season," Ms. Williams said. "Even as they dry, they're still beautiful." MATCH YOUR HOME'S STYLE "Your holiday decor should echo the style of your house," said Danielle Rollins, an interior designer in Atlanta and the author of "Soiree: Entertaining with Style." For a rustic home she decorated, she said, she incorporated seasonal touches like holly berries, pheasant feathers and flowers; in more formal homes, she uses silks, metallic and velvet elements. MAKE IT COLORFUL "Don't feel you have to stick with a traditional color palette or decorations," Ms. Rollins said. "Thanksgiving doesn't have to mean orange, and Christmas doesn't have to mean red and green." Alternative color schemes, she suggested, might include brown and turquoise, chartreuse and chocolate, khaki and rose or pomegranate and camel. In the rustic interior she created, for example, Ms. Rollins decorated in colors that complemented the room's palette, coordinating a wreath's ribbon with the chocolate walls, adding a tartan tablecloth to a side table and putting out bowls of pine cones. "The key when experimenting with color is to balance a brighter tone with a duller one and look to the opposite end of the color spectrum," she said. "You can't really go wrong if you use floral elements in the same color tones to tie it all together. Think of how a patterned scarf can tie even the most disjointed colors of an outfit together table coverings and floral elements do the same thing." ADD FLOWERS "Creating centerpieces for your holiday dinner party isn't as daunting as it may seem," Ms. Rollins said. "Roses always are great, as they last for a long time and make a statement as your centerpiece, and you can use a variety of colors." Mix in seasonal greenery, berries, metallic spray painted branches or ivy sprigs for a festive touch. "One of my favorite tricks is to put cranberries in the water of a clear cylinder vase and integrate various flowers in shades of red, pinks and white," Ms. Rollins said. Don't have the time or inclination to make your own bouquet? Start ups like the Bouqs Company, in Marina del Rey, Calif., and Farmgirl Flowers, in San Francisco, work with sustainable farmers to create a selection of wreaths, garlands and floral arrangements using seasonal blooms, a welcome alternative to the ubiquitous cookie cutter centerpieces filled with red poinsettias. (The 50 Holiday Sweater from the Bouqs includes succulents, white alstroemeria and red berries; the 60 8 foot strand of garland from Farmgirl Flowers has silver dollar eucalyptus and pine.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
SALZBURG, Austria At the beginning of "Youth Without God," the first new theater production at this year's Salzburg Festival, the actor Jorg Hartmann climbs onstage and poses a question to the audience: "What do I owe to Adolf Hitler?" "The question can be answered in a single word," he continues. "Everything!" The next five minutes or so are a lofty paean to the Fuhrer, taken from an archival 1935 letter written by an ordinary German, identified as Horst R. from Braunschweig. The repeated mentions of Hitler and use of tainted Nazi terminology made the well heeled audience the other night wince and squirm in their creaky seats. A collective sigh of relief passed through the theater once Mr. Hartmann finished this recitation and stated for the viewers that Odon von Horvath wrote the novel "Youth Without God" in 1937, several miles from Salzburg. This bracing prologue has been added to an adaptation of Horvath's book by the director Thomas Ostermeier, and it gets you juiced for any further provocations over the next two intermissionless hours. But then things take a far more conventional turn, as we settle in for a dramatically astute evening that is sensitively done but doesn't have much bite. When Mr. Ostermeier, the artistic director of the Schaubuhne in Berlin, was invited to work at Salzburg, he accepted on one condition. He told the organizers of the luxurious festival, which draws members of the 1 percent to this jewel like alpine city each summer, that he would do the job only if he could put on "Youth Without God." Speaking to The New York Times earlier this year, Mr. Ostermeier said that the rightward shift in Austria where the far right Freedom Party was part of the governing coalition until May was the chief reason he wanted to stage Horvath's novel about a humanistic high school teacher confronted by his Nazi indoctrinated pupils. In "Youth Without God," a high school teacher in an unnamed German town watches as his pupils uncritically absorb fascist dogma. He looks on with a mixture of disgust, helplessness and, mostly, inertia. When a student dies on a camping trip, he is forced to make a moral choice that has unforeseen consequences for the murder trial that ensues. In a departure for Mr. Ostermeier, who is known for startlingly contemporary productions, in which actors frequently break the fourth wall during their sweaty, acrobatic performances, the Salzburg production features period costumes and props. The few modern accouterments include some live video projections and onstage microphones, into which several actors whisper the teacher's inner thoughts. The novel "Youth Without God" is closer to an existentialist parable than an anti Nazi manual, something that Mr. Ostermeier, who makes no hero of the teacher, clearly understands. Mr. Hartmann invests the role with stubbornness and vulnerability, and gives an ambivalent, not especially likable performance. Horvath himself was no stranger to moral quandary and compromise. Even after he had relocated from Germany to Austria in 1933, the writer struggled and failed to reassure the Nazi regime of his respectability. By highlighting the teacher's isolation and indecision, Mr. Ostermeier suggests a parallel between the author and his protagonist, both of whom react to external circumstances with indecision and cowardice. It is one of the more interesting and involved ideas in a stage adaptation (by Mr. Ostermeier and Florian Borchmeyer) that otherwise seems faithful to a fault. Compared with other recent versions of "Youth Without God," including Zeno Way's in Stuttgart and Nurkan Erpulat's at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, the Salzburg production comes across as stifled. The question on my mind the entire evening was: What was gained from putting the novel onstage more or less as it is written? Page to stage adaptations can bring out multiple narrative layers, or deconstruct their source material. But unlike two recent productions adapted from novels at the Schaubuhne Mr. Ostermeier's thrilling "History of Violence" (which will soon be seen at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn) and Simon McBurney's searing version of Stefan Zweig's "Beware of Pity" this "Youth Without God" is hemmed in by its focus on the various twists and turns of the novel's plot. It seems less an interpretation than a carbon copy of the original. That impression sadly persists despite the dynamic performances from the members of the Schaubuhne's ensemble who populate the sparse stage, often empty save for a forest of leafless trees at the back. Unlike Mr. Hartmann, the remaining seven actors assume multiple roles. Laurenz Laufenberg is agitated and enraged as Z., the student who stands trial for murder. He also dons a frock, and a mix of arrogance and cynicism, as the priest who utters what is perhaps the novel's most memorable and chilling line: "God is the most terrible thing in the world." Alina Stiegler has feral energy as Z.'s clandestine love interest, Eva, and Bernardo Arias Porras brings welcome eccentricity to the role of Julius Caesar, a disgraced colleague of the teacher. At the end, the audience's response to the actors and the production team was thunderous. Mr. Ostermeier has furnished the Salzburg Festival with a hit. But unlike Horvath's clammy and disquieting novel, the production feels, on the whole, a bit too safe. Especially given the director's expressed motives for doing this play in Salzburg, it would have been refreshing to see him ruffle the Austrian elite's feathers with something more incisive and incendiary. For those who still remembered it by the end of the evening, the love letter to Hitler at the beginning felt like an empty provocation. Youth Without God. Directed by Thomas Ostermeier. Salzburg Festival, through Aug. 11; continues at Schaubuhne Berlin starting Sept. 7. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Dr. Schiffbauer and Dr. Selly specialize in the group of fossils that Cloudina is a member of, the Ediacara biota. The group includes Earth's oldest known animals, which means that if a researcher wants to figure out what the dawn of the animal kingdom looked like and find out when animals developed intestines studying animal fossils like Cloudina is a good place to start. In their lab, the duo shined X rays on Cloudina's remains, building 3 D images of the fossils' insides. "The first one we were looking at, we found a gut," said Dr. Selly, who spotted the digestive system in the lab while Dr. Schiffbauer was in his office. "She texted me and said, 'Hey, found something really cool, you have to come look at this,'" Dr. Schiffbauer said. When he got to the lab and saw the X ray images, he knew exactly what they had on their hands. "This is a gut," he recalled saying. The tubular guts are only about as wide as a cocktail straw. They run through Cloudina's entire length, meaning they passed all the way through from the front end to the back end. Not every animal has a digestive system that ends in a different place from where it begins. But that setup has been common in everything from humans to insects to dinosaurs. Cloudina's guts, then, are the first known example of our particular kind of digestive tract in the history of animal life. "Finding that we had a tubular structure inside this skeletal tube tells us that it had a distinct mouth and a distinct anus," Dr. Schiffbauer said. In other animals like corals, the gut is a simple sac, and the only way into that sac is through the mouth, which also serves as the anus. But with the evolution of a through going gut, animals no longer had to wait for their food to digest before regurgitating the waste so they could keep eating. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
An endorsement of milquetoast vigilantism that's not nearly as knotty as it presumes to be, the French thriller "My Son" is so reserved in its storytelling and vague in its details that all it elicits is a yawn. Directed by Christian Carion, the movie begins with a disappearance. Mathys, the 7 year old son of a separated couple, Julien (Guillaume Canet) and Marie (Melanie Laurent), has gone missing from a campsite. Julien, whose frequent travel strained his marriage, is impatient with the police. He begins to suspect that something is amiss with Gregoire (Olivier de Benoist), Marie's new boyfriend, who appears unusually upbeat about his and Marie's plans for the future, despite the tenseness of the moment. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
LOS ANGELES DreamWorks Animation reported a bigger than expected 263 million quarterly loss on Tuesday because of a big screen dud, "The Penguins of Madagascar," and a previously announced restructuring. The troubled studio, which has faced liquidity concerns in recent weeks and last year had two failed merger attempts, also said it raised 185 million through a sale and lease back of its Glendale, Calif., headquarters. Jeffrey Katzenberg, the studio's chief executive, nonetheless struck an upbeat tone in a conference call with analysts. "All in all, I think we're making great strides," he said. Mr. Katzenberg also contended that the studio had already moved on from recent layoffs that found 18 percent of its work force, or 500 people, without jobs. "There is a great morale," he said. For the quarter that ended Dec. 31, DreamWorks Animation reported a loss of 263.2 million, or 3.08 a share, compared with a profit of 17.2 million, or 20 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Analysts had expected a per share loss of 3.01. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
LONDON Just after work on Hallowee n, people congregated in a cavernous steampunk themed bar in the financial district here, drinking No Deal Daiquiris, Bo jitos and Tequila Mays: cocktails dreamed up for an "End of the World Brexit" party, planned for a night when Brexit was supposed to happen but didn't. A string of European Union flags hung above the bar. An actor dressed to look like Boris Johnson was roving, posing for selfies and pontificating about Brexit in character to anyone who would listen. (The actor, Will Barton, has played Mr. Johnson onstage and said he makes occasional appearances like this as a side hustle.) Damien Rivoire, 41, was wearing a mask and carrying a sign that said, "Ditch Boris!!" a reference to the prime minister's declaration that he would rather be "dead in a ditch" than ask the European Union for another delay on Brexit. "It's a scary time," said Mr. Rivoire, a photographer who is French but has lived in London for 14 years. "I knew Boris would be here tonight and I thought this was a good message, since Brexit didn't happen." This deadline became less threatening in September, when Parliament passed a law requiring Mr. Johnson to seek another extension if a deal wasn't reached. Still, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, it still looked possible he would have one, and ties with the European Union would be severed on Halloween. A deal didn't pass, and there is now an extension of the deadline until Jan. 31, and a general election on Dec. 12. The meaningless and ominous coincidence of the Brexit deadline falling on Halloween had been hanging over British life since the spring, making possible a range of metaphors for the fear that Brexit inspired, especially for those who voted Remain. Inevitably, hybrid Halloween Brexit parties sprung up. In Glasgow, a "Brexit bunker party" was planned; one nightclub there announced that it would accept euros at the bar all night. In Eastbourne, a party at a historic priory advertised Brexit themed games and "spooky disco." The Facebook invitation asked: "Will we all die from lack of medicine? Will there be food shortages?" But the apocalypse metaphors were rendered a bit moot by the slow motion of politics. "Kieran here was pretty disappointed," said Sam Fenton, a graphic designer and fitness influencer, at the steampunk party in London, pointing to a friend. "He thought something would really happen tonight." Yet again, nothing did. "In some ways, it's like having your head in the sand," said Andrew Watson, 47 , of the more than three year dance since the referendum. (He is a staunch Remainer.) "Every day is a little different but also the same." The party was organized by Dominic Wong, the creative director for Dotdotdot, an events company that puts on "immersive experience" nightly for the bar. "The British way is just to have a bit of fun, tongue and cheek, take the mickey out of it," he said. "Brexit is never ending, isn't it? We just thought, you've got to have an end of the world party at some point, or else you'll never have it." Around 9:30 p.m., the actor playing Mr. Johnson was dancing alone in the middle of the floor, bobbing a bit and holding two miniature Union Jacks a metaphor for something, to be sure. Meanwhile, at Soho Zebrano, a multilevel bar with a dance floor, a Brexit "zombie nightmare" was just getting going. "We were thinking of doing a Brexit clown theme," said Josh Johnson, 20, who helped plan the party. "But we went with zombies, because the nightmare continues, and Brexit is a nightmare, whatever you want to happen." A few seconds later, he mentioned that he was a registered member of the Labour Party, and shared some thoughts on the upcoming election, yelling over the music. A cutout of Jeremy Corbyn's face hung above the dance floor. Brexit wasn't in the foreground, but it was still looming. Some attendees dressed to theme, irreverently. "EXTEND ME DADDY!," a guest had written on h is back, with an unprintable slogan about Mr. Johnson on his stomach. Neeli Malik, a recent Oxford graduate, was there as "sexy Nigel Farage": fishnets, the telltale newsboy cap and a UKIP pin near her crotch. "He's a big old racist," she said. "I'm sick of it, and that's why I want to make fun of it, because what else can you do?" Among her friend group, there was also a Jacob Rees Mogg, a "B.D.S.M. David Cameron," and a pig a stand in for the one David Cameron allegedly, you know. The pig, who refused to give even a first name, said, "The only saving grace of this whole thing, though there really is no saving grace, is that it can be hilarious." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
For decades, the jobs associated with Astor Place in the East Village usually involved selling Beat Generation paperbacks on a blanket on a sidewalk or, maybe, inking tattoos. But a developer is now betting that office workers would like to ply their trade along the short street, too. Continuing an effort to change the look and feel of the area, Edward J. Minskoff Equities in May will open 51 Astor Place, a 13 story, 430,000 square foot building that takes up an entire block between Third and Fourth Avenues. Like some condo and school buildings that have sprung up here in the last decade, 51 Astor towers above the neighborhood of mostly low slung former tenements. Its mirror quality dark glass walls, which contrast with the colorful mosaics decorating lamp posts in the neighborhood, are also strikingly modernistic. But 51 Astor seems to be the first major office project to try to take advantage of the round the clock energy for which the East Village has long been known, and Minskoff Equities hopes that will lure technology companies to the building. "You've got life down here, so it's safe at night when 25 year olds leave work," said Edward Minskoff, the company's president, on a recent tour that began at a popular meeting place: "Alamo," a cube like sculpture that adorns a traffic island. In parts of Midtown Manhattan, where Mr. Minskoff also owns high rises, the sidewalks can become too quiet after dark because of a lack of shops and people. "It's nowhere's land up there," he said. While Mr. Minskoff may be a trailblazer, he benefited from the struggles of Cooper Union, which owns the land under 51 Astor and is across the street. A decade ago, the college, which offers full scholarships to its undergraduates but is considering charging tuition, decided to cash in on its valuable real estate holdings to ease regular budget deficits. Regardless of opposition, city officials in 2002 agreed to allow Cooper Union to commercially develop land, despite its being owned by a nonprofit. As a result, its engineering school at 51 Astor relocated to nearby 41 Cooper Square, a stylish new building by the architect Thom Mayne, and the land at 51 Astor was leased to Mr. Minskoff, who has paid 97 million to hold it for 99 years. The development cost of 51 Astor, which is designed by Fumihiko Maki, is 300 million, with Mr. Minskoff himself contributing 135 million. Because of the recession, he delayed the demolition of the 1950s buildings on the site by about a year and a half, before finally breaking ground in 2011. "The market wasn't right," he said. The new building will feature a black and white granite lobby anchored by a 14 foot tall red rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons. Three storefronts will wrap around the ground floor, one of which will house a bank, Mr. Minskoff said. A school will occupy a second floor space. And there will be a public plaza at Astor Place and Third Avenue. In an unusual move, Mr. Minskoff built the building without having tenants lined up to fill it. He also plans to charge some of the highest rents in Manhattan, and whether the market is strong enough to support those prices remains unclear. The building is asking 88 a square foot for the lower 42,000 square foot floors, and up to 115 a foot, for the upper 25,000 square foot floors, which offer views of Brooklyn. Rents in Midtown South, the neighborhood of 51 Astor, tend to be much lower, although a handful of amenity laden properties can command triple digit rents. The average asking rent in the first quarter of 2013 was about 50 a foot, according to Avison Young, the commercial real estate firm. Even rents in the desirable Plaza District, around the Plaza Hotel, were only about 80 a foot in recent months, brokers say. Demand for the type of sweeping column free floor spaces 51 Astor offers has so far seemed weak. The prime buildings in the neighborhood have a 13 percent vacancy rate, according to Avison Young, a rate that is far higher than in other Midtown South office submarkets, like Hudson Square, where it is 8 percent. Microsoft expressed early interest in the building, Mr. Minskoff said. But it has reportedly taken 20,000 square feet at another speculative building, 11 Times Square, for about 60 a foot. Other technology companies, including I.B.M., have toured the property, which is being marketed by Jones Lang LaSalle, but so far there have been no takers. Ultimately, 51 Astor might have to settle for 80 a foot, said Greg Kraut, an Avison Young principal who is not involved with the project, in order to compete with its chief rival in the area, 770 Broadway, which has large floor plans like 51 Astor and where rents are around 75 a foot. Owned by Vornado Realty Trust, 770 Broadway, a landmark full block former annex of Wanamaker's department store, has offices for AOL, J. Crew and the VNU publishing company. From the floor to ceiling windows at 51 Astor, the Broadway building's terra cotta lion's head details seem close enough to touch. Working against buildings like 770 Broadway and 51 Astor is that some tech companies do not need the huge berths they offer. The 5,000 square foot spaces offered by Newmark Holdings in a line of its buildings along Astor Place between Broadway and Lafayette Street, for example, may be a better fit for start ups. Direct Agents, a digital marketing company, recently signed a lease at 740 Broadway, says Brian Steinwurtzel, managing director of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, the management company; and Animoto, an online video company, took space at 440 Lafayette Street last year. Rents in those buildings, which are completely leased, are 40 a foot on lower floors, Mr. Steinwurtzel said. "I think what's happened in the creative fields is that people want to work close to where they live," he said. They also don't want the neighborhood to be totally reinvented, which is partly why Newmark has decided to have Astor Place Hairstylists stay at 2 Astor Place, where it has offered cheap haircuts for decades. "The neighborhood will always have a casual flavor." Other changes may be inevitable. This spring, the city's Transportation Department will begin a long planned project to close streets and expand parks in the area, according to a source close to the project, similar to what has occurred in Times Square. One target is the part of Astor Place between Lafayette Street and Cooper Square, in front of the wavy glass 21 story condo called Sculpture for Living, which the Related Companies developed in 2004 on a parking lot owned by Cooper Union. After closing to cars, the stretch of Astor Place there is slated to become a plaza with bike racks and black gum trees, according to renderings. What is less clear is the effect of gentrification on the area's shops, many of which are clustered on St. Marks Place between Third and Second Avenues. Windows there on a recent day displayed electric blue wigs and a pile of dozens of dolls at Search and Destroy, a punk rock clothing store. Nearby sat a man with a tattoo cobweb across his face, while teenagers panhandled and slurped energy drinks. Despite periodic attempts to change the mix of retail, the block seems proudly resistant to change, even while the rest of the East Village has become more upscale, says William Kelley, executive director of the Village Alliance, the business improvement district responsible for keeping the area clean. "I think the office workers will bring a new audience," Mr. Kelley said. "But I don't foresee any sweeping changes here for the next 100 years." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Sometimes, customers will come in to talk about a request or a problem after they have already spoken to another employee over the phone. It's a bit like asking mom for permission when dad has already said no, and younger tellers may find themselves in the mom role. "We keep notes in the computer, so the new person has a heads up on what is going on and what to do about it," said Jessica Gleason, another Digital summer employee. "People will kind of elaborate on stories to try to get their way." Other times, they throw themselves on the mercy of a teller or member service representative. Bailey Griffith, who is working this summer at Ideal Credit Union in Woodbury, Minn., says he witnesses this a lot with customers who are trying to avoid paying penalty fees. "As a credit union, we have more leniency," he said. "But if it's happening every week, two weeks or month, and we've refunded it before, you know what's going on. Some people kind of get angry about it, but if we refunded everyone's fees, then what is the point of having the fee?" Some, like Ideal, have partnerships with local high schools and set up limited service branches on their campuses. That's how Austin Raebel came to the attention of Ideal executives. The son of a business teacher at the local high school, he took a keen interest in the school based branch, and the savings and credit building products that it offered to his fellow students. Now, he's in his third summer working at the full branch in Woodbury, earning 14 to 18 an hour, depending on which department he's assigned to. "It's people of all ages," he said, describing his customers now. "I gave one member a new car loan, and at the end, he said he had to ask how old I was: 24? 22? It was so awesome to engage in an intellectual conversation about lending with a 40 year old when I was 17." He also managed to cross sell the customer on a new checking account. "From a departmental standpoint, they fight over where Austin gets to work," said Alisha Johnson, senior vice president for marketing, sales and service at Ideal. Given their exposure to dozens of people's financial lives each day, summer tellers can't help picking up tips that they can apply to their own experiences. Ms. Matson of the G.E. credit union, who still works the teller line from time to time, said she liked to tell new employees about two customers she encountered within one short period of time. "There was a fancy looking person a woman with her hair and nails done, and jewelry and you could tell she had spent a lot of money on herself," she said. "I pulled up the account, and there was no money there, and her loan was three months past due. Then there was the guy dressed like 'Farmer Joe' with a stalk of wheat he was chewing on and a bushy beard and dirty fingernails. He had millions." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
Wouldn't it be great if video game consoles went away and we could play games on any device? After all, the games not the machines are what we care about. That is Google's ambition with Stadia, the streaming game service that the company plans to release on Tuesday. The product is not the hardware that we see in our homes. Instead, it's Google's data centers, which are handling the computing power to run games and to broadcast them to our smartphones, tablets and television sets over the internet. That's unlike a traditional console, which plays games directly from the hardware. The result: When we play games via Stadia, we are actually watching videos of the game streaming from Google's servers. When we press a button, that command is sent to Google's server to control whatever is happening in the game, which we then see in the video. In my tests playing several Stadia games last week, I was generally impressed with how smoothly the games streamed. Even titles with intense graphics ran well on my TV, on a laptop and on a cheap smartphone. But there were occasional glitches and quality issues because of inconsistent internet speeds and early bugs. So as someone who has played video games since childhood, I wouldn't ditch a console for this streaming service. Those who play games want motion to be flawless. Nonetheless, Google's concept is a fascinating glimpse into how gaming could evolve in the coming years as internet speeds increase and data centers get even more powerful. Here's what I found. Getting started with Stadia took about 30 minutes, much longer than a normal console. That's because the online setup was less intuitive than the process for plug and play gaming systems like Microsoft's Xbox One or Sony's PlayStation 4. First, I activated my Stadia account at stadia.google.com, which was linked to my Google account, and on that site I bought some games. Google provided five sample titles to try. To get Stadia to stream games to my television set, I plugged in Google's Chromecast, a TV streaming dongle, and set that device up with my Google account. Then, using the Stadia smartphone app, I tried to get the Stadia game controller to synchronize with the Chromecast. This took several attempts before I ended up restarting my phone, which finally made the controller and Chromecast talk to each other. Playing on a computer was simpler. Using Google's Chrome web browser, I visited the Stadia website and could immediately play games using the keyboard and mouse, or by hooking up a controller via the USB port. To get Stadia to stream games on a phone, I opened the Stadia app on a Google Pixel device and plugged the controller directly into the phone's USB port. I spent most of my time playing the shooter game Destiny 2 and the fighting game Mortal Kombat 11 since they were the most graphically intense. I enjoyed playing the games on my TV screen and on a laptop, but not a phone. Stadia struggled the most with Mortal Kombat 11. In some fights, motion stuttered and the graphics appeared more pixelated at times, like when my character stuck a giant sword through his opponent's stomach and sawed away at his innards . Google said this could be because my internet speeds dipped. I tinkered with the settings to see if I could make the motion smoother. In the Stadia app, there is a button labeled "data usage and performance," where you can change the video quality from "best" to "balanced" or "limited." In a nutshell, the three modes will stream games at different resolutions depending on your internet speeds. After I chose the "balanced" settings, Mortal Kombat 11 ran more smoothly and the graphics still looked great. Among the games, I enjoyed Destiny 2 the most. (I admit that years ago, I lost many hours of my life playing the original Destiny game on the PlayStation 4.) With incredibly detailed graphics, this online role playing shooter title is a game that pushes computing power to its limits. So I was delighted to see Stadia running it adequately in my MacBook Air's web browser and even on Google's Pixel 3A, its budget smartphone. Smartphone gaming was where Stadia fell short. Stadia requires you to plug the game controller into the phone's USB port to control the game; the games do not adapt to a smartphone to take advantage of its touch screen controls. This mobile gaming setup doesn't make sense. I spent half an hour on my couch, hunched over and staring at a tiny screen while mashing buttons to blast aliens in Destiny 2 before my back started hurting. I moved to a desk and used a stand to prop up the phone and play sitting in a chair, but this still felt uncomfortable. I also ran into some glitches. Occasionally when I used the Stadia game controller to move left or right while playing Destiny 2 on my TV, the game continued moving in either direction even when I was no longer pressing the controller. For hard core or competitive gamers, this type of glitch would be unacceptable. For me, a self described casual gamer, it was just annoying. Google asked me to reset the controller to factory settings, which required repeating the setup process. Somehow, this fixed the problem, but I'm concerned that others might have this problem when Stadia is released. There are still plenty of unknowns with Stadia. So I recommend taking a wait and see approach before buying games there. Here are the biggest uncertainties: None It's unclear whether Stadia games will continue streaming smoothly. Once hordes of people start using the service, they might overload the servers, and gamers could see degraded performance. (I was among a small number of reviewers testing the service.) Google said its data centers were designed to handle peak traffic proficiently. None Will the cost be worth it to gamers? Like other game providers, Google will sell games a la carte a premium game costs 60, for example. But to play the games in the highest (4K) resolution, gamers must pay a subscription of 10 a month. Gamers might prefer instead to buy a PlayStation 4 Pro for 400 and play 4K games for as long as they wish. None The games catalog is the biggest unknown. With Stadia's release, there will be about two dozen titles to buy mostly games that were released on other systems. While Nintendo's Switch had only 10 titles on Day 1, among those was an exclusive Zelda game that got rave reviews. It's unclear whether Stadia will get highly anticipated titles on the same day they are released for PlayStation 4 or Xbox. A Google spokesman said that in the future, Stadia should get new titles around the same time as other game systems. None Whom will you play with? Online games like Destiny 2 are no fun if you don't have friends to play with. Just as a social network needs users, Google needs plenty of people and their friends to be on Stadia. If gamers stay committed to their PlayStations, Nintendos and Xboxes, Stadia could turn out to be a digital graveyard like Google Plus. Remember that? It was Google's long ago attempt to break into social networking. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
A gracious Upper West Side brownstone that has been called home by just two families since it was built in 1888, yet has made repeated appearances on "Law Order," where its classic oak paneled library and formal parlor served as period scene setters, if not scene stealers, is about to go on the market for the first time, with an asking price of 8.75 million. Besides being the beneficiary of a devoted rehabilitation, the home also features the serendipitous addition of a duplex loft on its roof, an artsy space with an 18 foot ceiling, a fireplace, front and rear terraces, and a splashy five panel skylight. The six bedroom house at 126 West 87th Street, a landmark, has been owned since 1981 by the married actors Peter Maloney and Kristin Griffith. Like their home, Mr. Maloney and Ms. Griffith she was memorably cast with Diane Keaton and Mary Beth Hurt as one of the troubled sisters in Woody Allen's "Interiors" have appeared on multiple episodes of "Law Order." Both have ongoing projects on the New York stage. When the couple bought the brownstone more than 30 years ago from the estate of its original owner, an Irish lawyer named Nicholas F. Walsh, the block was seedy and the house had been derelict for a decade. Despite being shuttered, it did not appear to be for sale. But Ms. Griffith, who had rented farther down the block toward Amsterdam Avenue, was enraptured by its haunted aura, a quality that also intrigued Mr. Maloney, a magic buff and, as his study attests, a collector of all things occult. They did some sleuthing through city records, discovered the identity of the owner, and found her name in the local telephone book back in the day when telephone books were prime search engines. At first, Elizabeth F. Walsh, the original owner's daughter, wasn't interested in their overtures. "She was very worried that we were real estate people, and that we wanted to chop up the house and turn it into apartments," Mr. Maloney said. What mollified her was their vow that the house would be used as it always had, as a multigenerational one family home. The plan was for Ms. Griffith's parents to move to Manhattan from Texas and share ownership. "The owner told us she had a figure in mind," Ms. Griffith said. The figure was 450,000, not a bargain for a leaky vessel encased in grime, mold and cobwebs, but a fair market price. The deal was struck with a handshake, and a harrowing 2 million renovation commenced. It took two years to restore livability to the house, which has a hand carved spindle rail staircase connecting the various levels, oak pocket doors inlaid with bird's eye maple separating the parlor from the library, and walls of glass and oak bookcases framing the marble faced library fireplace. Four bathrooms and two powder rooms were updated. Ms. Griffith's parents took over the sprawling second floor master suite, with its blue tiled fireplace and original his and hers mosaic vanity sinks (his blue, hers pink). Mr. Maloney and Ms. Griffith's two children claimed two of the four bedrooms on the third floor; the actors repaired to their custom built rooftop aerie, equipped with a kitchenette and a full bathroom. Family meals were shared in the ground floor dining room, which has a recessed alcove that holds a china cabinet and is connected to the eat in kitchen by a narrow wood paneled butler's pantry with its original copper sink. The south facing kitchen retains its wooden window seats, tin lined icebox and tin ceiling, and opens onto a large backyard with a stone fountain, a brick privacy wall and specimen plantings. In total, the house has 1,500 square feet of outdoor space. With both of Ms. Griffith's parents deceased and their own children, ages 26 and 21, ready to leave the nest, the couple decided the time had come to downsize. "It's very emotional," Ms. Griffith said, "but I have to admit I'm looking forward to finding a smaller place, maybe 2,000 square feet, to care for, instead of 6,000." A small house in Brooklyn with a sunny garden and room for their "thousands of books" is their target; the elderly grand piano in the parlor may or may not make the transition. "This is an amazing opportunity to own and restore a house that has only been occupied by two families in its 125 year history," said its listing broker, Deborah Sabec, a senior vice president of Town Residential. "The original woodwork is still intact, along with original period details and light fixtures, and the duplex on the roof could not be duplicated today due to landmark and zoning restrictions." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
In January, in what now seems like a bygone age, the writer George Packer delivered a memorable speech, "The Enemies of Writing," for the honor of winning the Hitchens Prize. "Why is a career like that of Christopher Hitchens not only unlikely but almost unimaginable?" Packer asked. "Put another way: Why is the current atmosphere inhospitable to it? What are the enemies of writing today?" For a sense of what Packer meant, consider that in 2007 Hitchens wrote and Vanity Fair published an essay titled, "Why Women Aren't Funny." It was outlandish, but also learned, and maybe not entirely serious. Imagine that ever running today, in Vanity Fair or any other mainstream publication. Or take another Hitchens column from the same year, in which he called Islam "simultaneously the ideology of insurgent violence and of certain inflexible dictatorships." Try finding a line like that today in Slate, where it first appeared. What these examples show, and what Packer brilliantly captures in his speech, is what might be called the encroachment of the unsayable. It's an encroachment that, in its modern form, began with the Ayatollah Khomeini's 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie for the publication of "The Satanic Verses," which was deemed blasphemous. In short order, the world got to see who in the liberal world really had the courage of liberalism's supposedly deepest convictions. Since that episode which resulted in nearly a decade of hiding for Rushdie, the killing of his novel's Japanese translator and the shooting of his Norwegian publisher there have been all too many similar moments: the slaying of the Dutch director Theo Van Gogh in 2004, the Danish cartoon affair in 2005 06, the "Charlie Hebdo" massacre in 2015, and, last week, the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty by a Chechen refugee, according to authorities, for the sin of showing his students two caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad as part of a lesson on free speech. As in all the other instances, the immediate reaction has been heartbreak, defiance, solidarity followed, typically, by a quiet moral concession. Often, this takes the form of a "yes but" response in which the crime is condemned while also viewed as an answer to a provocation that is itself indefensible. After the Rushdie incident, former President Jimmy Carter published an Op Ed in The Times that called Khomeini's death sentence "abhorrent" but added that Rushdie's book "is a direct insult to those millions of Muslims whose sacred beliefs have been violated." After PEN American Center chose to honor Charlie Hebdo for its Freedom of Expression Courage Award, some members of PEN America protested the choice because the slain cartoonists had poked fun at the beliefs of a "marginalized, embattled and victimized" minority. The upshot of these controversies has been a kind of default to a middle position that goes roughly as follows: Fanatics shouldn't kill people, and writers and artists shouldn't needlessly offend fanatics. It's a compromise that is fatal to liberalism. It reintroduces a concept of blasphemy into the liberal social order. It gives the prospectively insulted a de facto veto over what other people might say. It accustoms the public to an ever narrower range of permissible speech and acceptable thought. And, as Packer notes, it slowly but surely turns writers, editors and publishers into cowards. Notice, for instance, that I have just described the suspect in Paty's murder as a "Chechen." Why? Because it's accurate enough, and it's not worth dealing with the choice and precision of a single adjective. It isn't entirely clear whether there's a causal connection between the way so many Western liberals have tried to dance around the subject of religious fanaticism and other encroachments on socially acceptable speech. But the two have moved in tandem, with equally destructive results. Our compromised liberalism has left a generation of writers weighing their every word for fear that a wrong one could wreck their professional lives. The result is safer, but also more timid; more correct, but also less interesting. It is simultaneously bad for those who write, and boring for those who read. It is as deadly an enemy of writing as has ever been devised. In his speech, Packer notes that good writing is "essential to democracy, and one dies with the other." The corollary to this thought is that the more some ideas become undiscussable, the more some things become unsayable, the more difficult it becomes to write well. We are killing democracy one weak verb, blurred analogy and deleted sentence at a time. I should be more precise. When I say "we," I don't mean normal people who haven't been trained in the art of never saying what they really think. I mean those of us who are supposed to be the gatekeepers of what was once a robust and confident liberal culture that believed in the value of clear expression and bold argument. This is a culture that has been losing its nerve for 30 years. As we go, so does the rest of democracy. 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 |
JAMES FREUND grew up in a two bedroom apartment on East 72nd Street, where his mother, Marcy Freund, a fiercely independent 104, still lives. But in many respects his heart was on the West Side. Mr. Freund lived in the neighborhood during his first marriage and the birth of his two sons. And he remained there after his second marriage in 1985, to Barbara Fox, an executive at a real estate firm. That year, the couple bought the bottom two floors of a town house on West 73rd Street. By day Mr. Freund was caught up with his work as a senior partner at the white shoe firm of Skadden, Arps, where his specialty was mergers and acquisitions. Always a man who loved to write, he found time to produce several books, among them "Lawyering," "Anatomy of a Merger" and "Smart Negotiating: How to Make Good Deals in the Real World." But by 1996 a desire to pursue other interests combined with a declining appetite for a high pressure legal career. "It was a great life, but I lost my zest for the work," said Mr. Freund, 77, who retired from the firm that year. "And there were so many other things I wanted to do but didn't have time for." He took pictures, notably of Central Park, and they were collected in a book, "Central Park: A Photographic Excursion," published in 2001 by Fordham University Press. A few years later Fordham published a collection of his urban images called "Slices of the Big Apple." Along with recording CDs, he played for weekly singalongs at two senior centers near his house. He also wrote furiously, everything from essays to short stories. Mr. Freund is a self confessed pack rat he still has his course notes from Harvard Law School. The West Side town house, in which the couple gradually acquired floor after floor until they occupied the entire building, overflowed with the detritus of his activities. "I was very happy on the West Side," Mr. Freund said. "I liked being able to spread out. But Barbara was restless." That was an understatement. "The East Side was all I knew," said Ms. Fox, who is founder and president of Fox Residential Group. "I'd always lived there, and my work was there. To me, the West Side was as far away as Greenwich, Conn." She agreed to stay under one condition: that Mr. Freund arrange with a car service that she be picked up at her door every morning and taken to her office on the East Side. But by 2005, both agreed that the time had come to make a change. That year they bought a small two bedroom penthouse on East 79th Street, for which they paid about 3 million. Making a valiant effort to downsize, Mr. Freund shed decades' worth of possessions and memorabilia. He also rented a small office and put much of his stuff in storage. The apartment had tiny windows, small dark rooms and a cramped layout. "I've got to hand it to Barbara," Mr. Freund said. "The place did not look great." But with the help of her sister, Marjorie Hilton, an interior designer, Ms. Fox transformed the space via a gut renovation that involved reconfiguring layouts and enlarging windows and doorways. She also bought furniture and chose art. "I didn't come over here the entire time she was working on the apartment," Mr. Freund said, "but when I saw the finished product, I was stunned." The apartment, framed by a wraparound terrace, is home to many items that reflect Ms. Fox's taste, among them a luminous oil of a pear by David Gordon and black and white lithographs by Tom Slaughter of such mundane objects as a toothbrush and an envelope. The apartment is also home to multiple cats and dogs, courtesy of Ms. Fox's involvement in Woof Dog Rescue, an organization she founded. The animals' beds fill nearly every inch of available floor space in the couple's small bedroom. And as in the town house, Mr. Freund's interests are much in evidence. Above the vibraphone hangs a photograph of the Jim Freund Trio, a group that used to play weekly gigs at the Lombardy Hotel on Park Avenue. Both his sons are musicians, and another photograph depicts the Jim Freund Family Trio performing when Mr. Freund, a proud member of Princeton's class of '56 and a former trustee of the university, attended his 55th reunion. Using a laptop computer and a couple of microphones, Mr. Freund also records music in the apartment. Gloria Parrocha, the couple's house manager and animal nanny, as Ms. Fox describes her, removes the dogs from the living room during recording sessions, "but you can still hear barking on one track," Mr. Freund said. Among the 20 CDs he has produced is one especially dear to his heart. A present to his wife after 25 years of marriage, it is called "Happy Anniversary" and contains his renditions of 50 of her favorite songs. His photographs of Central Park adorn the walls. Shelves in the room that doubles as a dining and television space are filled with his books, among them a copy of the one on mergers that his mother had bound in leather. Every year at Christmas, Mr. Freund sends a sampling of his music, writing and photographs to a list of 750 friends; his creations are also available on his Web site. And he is already contemplating his next projects. He wants to write a mystery "I've already got an idea" and he'd like to try his hand at a novella. He just handed in the manuscript for a book titled "Anatomy of a Mediation," reflecting his post retirement activities as a mediator of business disputes. Despite his current address, Mr. Freund hasn't lost his affection for the West Side. He returns to the neighborhood to play piano at the senior centers and to visit a bench that bears his name in Central Park opposite the Dakota. "But I'm very happy here," he said of his current home. "This is my turf now." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
An image from Haim's music video "Don't Wanna." The group's use of everyday movement walking, running and stylish lack of artifice aligns it with Judson Dance Theater. The sisters who make up the band Haim write music, play multiple instruments and sing, all the while hitting notes both ethereal and raw. But there's also something else: Dance is in their blood. "Our parents were self proclaimed disco die hards," Este Haim, at 34 the oldest of the three, said in a recent Zoom interview. Ms. Haim, who had ambitions of being a professional dancer when she was younger, recalled that before her parents met, they had separately rented studio space and would fine tune their moves with partners. "So when they went to the club," she said, "they'd be able to show off." "Oh my God," Alana said. "What a sight. Talk about time machines." They haven't made a disco video yet, but the sisters keep dancing. Haim's third album, "Women in Music Pt. III," features a video for the single "I Know Alone," in which they stand in a triangle formation in their childhood backyard in the San Fernando Valley in California. They perform simple gestures slowly: A lazy head roll is followed by the motion of swiping on a smartphone. A chin rests on a hand before the shoulders rise and fall in a perfunctory sigh. The video, directed remotely by Jake Schreier and choreographed, via Zoom, by Francis and the Lights and Haim, at first seems to reflect the current moment: the social isolation of quarantine, the tiring act of waiting. But then the dynamic shifts: The steps and gestures speed up, and it becomes more than a music video. Haim is teaching you a dance, one both direct and exhilarating. It's jazzy. It makes you feel a little more alive. Dance, for the sisters, seems like another instrument a way to play their bodies as one. In "Little of Your Love" (2017), with choreography by Kyle Einsohn, they celebrated line dancing at Oil Can Harry's, a bar on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. In "Want You Back" (2017), they turned a simple walk into a knowing, potent stride and, in the end, a dance. While they know about and admire choreographers like Katherine Dunham, Martha Graham, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp, they said they hadn't heard of Judson Dance Theater, the 1960s collective that ushered in postmodern dance. But their use of pedestrian movement, like walking and now running as evident in their new video for "Don't Wanna" and their stylish lack of artifice relate to that era. Theirs is a Judson of today, bound by sisterhood. In the end, it comes down to one thing: They truly love to dance. As the quarantine continued, they even experimented with teaching, offering Zoom tutorials on choreography from their videos. In a joint interview, the sisters, who live within five minutes of one another on east side Los Angeles, spoke about their approach to music, movement and choreography. What follows are edited excerpts from that conversation. How did you start dancing? ESTE I think it was a way initially for our parents to tire us out because we had a lot of energy as kids and I think our favorite thing to do, honestly, was tap. In our living room our dad had a drum set because he's a drummer. The drums basically took up the entire living room. But there was also a little carpet so our dad went to Home Depot and bought wood to put over the carpet so that we could tap dance while he was playing drums. We were drummers first and foremost. So I think the idea of being able to play drums with your feet was really cool for us. Why is dance important to you? How does it work with your music? DANIELLE We've always loved the expression of dance in music videos. And we always loved, as sisters, watching them and seeing and remembering the routine and rehearsing it and getting it right. ALANA And this was before YouTube. This is before anything. You would have to watch MTV and watch "TRL" and you would see it once a day. And we would just be like, OK, we got the first four seconds. Now we have to wait until tomorrow. Like hopefully it's still on the countdown we've got to keep looking at these dances. DANIELLE When I think back to our childhood, it was so much about watching music videos and loving the dance routines. Este touched on it: Rhythm and drums are so inspiring. We write, a lot of times, from just drums, even without chords, we'll just write rhythms. A lot of our melodic sense is just a lot of rhythms. Making music that you can hopefully dance to is something that we love doing. Your latest video, for "Don't Wanna," starts with walking and ends with running. Why? ALANA We always find it so funny that our fans are like, "They're so great at walking." It's such an easy thing to do. So we decided to run. We've never run in a music video before. But we also thought it was funny. We really wanted to have a little sibling rivalry. Part of what I think you do, especially in your walking and the way you use structure and time, relates to postmodern dance. But what is your approach? ESTE We do things that we know we feel good doing. That kind of informs everything we do: Do we feel comfortable doing this? We're not going to look hopefully awkward on camera. Dancing is definitely part our self expression. Before quarantine, when we would go out to parties and stuff, we would be the first people on the dance floor. ESTE It's kind of like we're able to be in our own world in some way, shape or form. We like everything from disco to pop. We love feeling in our bodies in that way. And I think you can kind of see that when we play our music onstage. We're not standing in one place and just doing this. She moves her hand up and down mechanically. It's kind of the first time we're able to truly express ourselves through the music, and that comes out of our bodies. "Summer Girl" feels postmodern to me, too. In it you peel off layers of clothing while walking the streets of Los Angeles. It's a song and a performance piece rolled into one and it uses pedestrian movement. ALANA We didn't even know if we were creating a record at that point. We had maybe a couple songs that were just ideas. And the director Paul Thomas Anderson came to the studio we show him everything and we played "Summer Girl" and he was like, "Wait, I want to hear that one again." And we played it again and he was like, "We should do something with this." Paul was like, "I've been listening to the song all day and it really feels like the sensation of being in the valley." That's where we're from and that's also where he is from. It's this feeling of coming home from school on one of the last days of school where it's super hot and you have your backpack, your coat, your shirt, like everything so many layers and you see a pool and you're like, if I'm not in that pool in the next four minutes, I have no idea what I'm going to do. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Those four words sum up the attitude of Donald Trump and his acolytes toward athletes who speak out when the president uses sports to foment racial animosity and rile up his base. LeBron James, who has a new group with other sports stars designed to protect and inspire the black vote, dunked on Laura Ingraham the other week. He tweeted: "If you still haven't figured out why the protesting is going on. Why we're acting as we are," it's because of the utter fatigue with disparities such as this: Back when King James told ESPN in 2018 that Trump did not care about the people, comparing him to a bad coach, Ingraham commanded him to "Shut up and dribble." But Ingraham reacted quite differently to Drew Brees's recent comment (since rescinded) that he would "never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag," when asked whether players should kneel this season. "He's allowed to have his view about what kneeling and the flag means to him," the Fox anchor said. The classic 1968 Esquire cover of Muhammad Ali shot through with arrows comes to mind as we watch the dynamic between sports and politics become more torrid in this season of racial pain and introspection. The two indelible images of this American chapter are a quarterback kneeling on the turf to protest police brutality and a policeman kneeling on a man's neck in a rancid display of that brutality. (Trump's new campaign ad mocks Joe Biden for kneeling.) I've been trying for three years to talk to Gregg Popovich, the coach of the San Antonio Spurs and the U.S.A. Olympics basketball team. At 71, he's an N.B.A. legend who has long called race "the elephant in the room" and argued that we are all just an "accident of birth." He's a passionate Trump critic thriving in a red state. He graduated from the Air Force Academy with a degree in Soviet studies and a yellow Corvette and toyed with the idea of a career in military intelligence. He's a celebrated curmudgeon with sports reporters and an oenophile. Raised by a steelworker and a secretary at the Inland plant in Gary, Ind., Popovich is as open minded, principled and curious as Trump is narrow minded, unprincipled and incurious. "Pop," as he's known, is very private, but he finally agreed to pop off on a phone call. He wouldn't pose for a picture, however, explaining that he should not be the focus. He has spent 25 years in a dialogue about race with his teams. He took players to see "Hamilton" on Broadway, Ava DuVernay in L.A., the African American Museum in D.C. and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. He gave players copies of "Between the World and Me," by Ta Nehisi Coates. "Especially if you're a white coach and you're coaching a group that's largely black, you'd better gain their trust, you'd better be genuine, you'd better understand their situation," he tells me. "You'd better understand where they grew up. Maybe there's a black kid from a prep school. Maybe there's another black kid who saw his first murder when he was 7 years old." But in recent calls with the Spurs' players and staff he has been amazed at the level of hurt. "It would bring you to tears," he says, his voice cracking. "It's even deeper than you thought, and that's what really made me start to think: You're a privileged son of a bitch and you still don't get it as much as you think you do. You gotta work harder. You gotta be more aware. You gotta be pushed and embarrassed. You've gotta call it out." He tells of a recent Zoom town hall with Spurs employees. "A black mother said, 'My son is angry with me.' I said, 'Why?' and she said, 'Well, because he's 16 and I'm basically lying to him and dragging my feet and giving him excuses because I don't want to take him down to the D.M.V. to get his driver's license because I don't want him in a car.' So her own son is angry with her for that but doesn't realize that she's scared to death for him." I wonder if the former Air Force officer thinks the law and order militaristic approach can work for Cadet Bone Spurs in the campaign. "I honestly do," he says. "I feel badly for the military around Trump because they're dealing with the guy who is the poster boy for the aggrieved wannabe. And he's taking it out on the world and it's ruining our country." About Trump's refusal to consider renaming military installations named for Confederate leaders, Pop says of U.S. soldiers, "They didn't go to war for General Bragg; they went to war for our country." About Roger Goodell's mea culpa that the N.F.L. was wrong for not listening sooner to players who wanted to speak out and protest an apologia he made without mentioning Colin Kaepernick's name Popovich is skeptical. "A smart man is running the N.F.L. and he didn't understand the difference between the flag and what makes the country great all the people who fought to allow Kaepernick to have the right to kneel for justice," he says. "The flag is irrelevant. It's just a symbol that people glom onto for political reasons, just like Cheney back in the Iraq war." He continues about Goodell: "He got intimidated when Trump jumped on the kneeling" and "he folded." Popovich says it is analogous to Republican lawmakers who support Trump out of fear "that they'll get tweeted out of their office and not get elected the next go round." Don't Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham have people at home they are embarrassed to look in the eye, he ponders. What does he think about the fact that seven N.F.L. owners, including Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft, each gave a million to Trump's Inaugural Committee? "It's just hypocritical," he replies. "It's incongruent. It doesn't make sense. People aren't blind. Do you go to your staff and your players and talk about injustices and democracy and how to protest? I don't get it. I think they put themselves in a position that's untenable." When he trashed Trump soon after the election, the suits at the Spurs told him people were turning in their season tickets. "I just said: 'I don't care. If they don't come, I don't care. That's the way it is,'" he recalls. "From ownership, not one phone call, not one look, about dialing it back." Is he worried about starting to play again on July 30 at Disney World, with that other plague still on the loose? He passes the ball to Adam Silver, the smooth N.B.A. commish. "Ah, the Covid," the coach murmurs. "I'm just counting on Adam to make sure we're all safe." 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 |
On Oct. 27, 2018, Dillon Dreher, a welder's assistant from Greeley, Colo., was working with a crew at an oil field near rural Briggsdale, Colo., when a power tool he was using threw off sparks, causing a massive oil tank to erupt in flames. He was airlifted to North Colorado Medical Center with burns over 65 percent of his body. The last thing he remembers before losing consciousness in the helicopter was reciting the phone number of his girlfriend, Derae Caro, to a Flight for Life emergency worker. They had gotten into a fight that morning and he wanted her to know he was sorry. "Saturday was normally my day off, and Derae wanted me to stay home and hang out with her and Lilly," he said; Lilly is Ms. Caro's 5 year old daughter. But Mr. Dreher had gone to work because he couldn't let the idea of an extra paycheck go. Christmas was coming, and he had his sights set on playing Santa. "I was working all the overtime I could, because I had it in my mind that Lilly was going to wake up on Christmas morning and there would be this avalanche of toys," he said. Mr. Dreher, 25, met Ms. Caro, also 25, in 2007, when both were at Heath Middle School in Greeley. "We hung out around school and would write notes and stuff," he said. She was his first kiss. By high school, both had moved on. Then, in 2016, two years after Mr. Dreher graduated from Northridge High and Ms. Caro had earned her high school equivalency diploma, he stumbled across her on Snapchat. "I added her, I guess because I remembered that she was always fun to be around and she's pretty," he said. Ms. Caro, unemployed, a new mother and recovering from a relationship she described as abusive, wasn't feeling much like her fun sixth grade self. "I was in a very, very dark place," she said. Mr. Dreher's decision to reach out to Ms. Caro momentarily returned her to the innocence of adolescence. On Feb. 6, 2016 both remember it was the day before the Broncos won the Super Bowl she agreed to meet him for a reunion at the local Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant. "We instantly caught up on everything," Ms. Caro said. "We didn't want to stop talking or leave each other's side." Within two weeks, Ms. Caro and Lilly, then 8 months old, moved into the Greeley condominium that Mr. Dreher was sharing with his older sister, Danielle, and her boyfriend. One month in, they found their own apartment in nearby Loveland. "From the first time we hung out, he made me feel like a diamond," she said. "He opened doors for me. He was my knight in shining armor." Mr. Dreher's gallantry was especially on display with Lilly. "She took my breath away," he said. "I had never held a baby before." By the time of the accident, Lilly was calling Mr. Dreher Daddy and Mr. Dreher was introducing her as his daughter. And then, in the space of a fiery moment, Ms. Caro had cause to worry they might never refer to each other that way again. "I still get anxiety every time I hear a helicopter," Ms. Caro said. Mr. Dreher can no longer tolerate being woken up in a hurry. "I get scared," he said, because it brings back the blurry aftermath of the explosion. "I remember someone shaking the hell out of me, and then I remember getting up. I don't remember if my shoes were on, and I don't remember walking to the helicopter. I remember looking at my shirt and seeing it was real tattered up. After that it was all just bad dreams." "For the first few weeks I kept asking, 'When are we going to know if he's going to make it?'" Ms. Caro said. "But they wouldn't tell us. They would just say, 'We have to see how his body handles it.'" When Mr. Dreher's kidneys failed, she crumbled. When they came back, she leaned into her last shreds of hope. "I was like, Dillon's a fighter. He's in there somewhere fighting." Whether he was fighting for a return to her and Lilly, though, she wasn't sure, even though she turned up evidence of his devotion while he was in the coma. Two days after the oil field accident, the company Mr. Dreher was working for, Mallard Exploration, returned his phone to Ms. Caro. "It was cracked and I wasn't sure it would work, but it turned on," she said. She started scrolling through texts and found an exchange with Mr. Dreher's best friend, Jayce Montoya, from the day of the explosion. Mr. Dreher had already given Ms. Caro a promise ring. The texts were about a next step: buying an engagement ring from Kay Jewelers, where Mr. Montoya worked. Sign up for Love Letter and always get the latest in Modern Love, weddings, and relationships in the news by email. At first, he didn't. He thought she was a nurse. He recognized his parents, Terry and Ronda Dreher of Greeley, but had misconceptions about them. "I must have had some delusion in my dreams, because I was thinking it was their fault I was in the hospital, like they wouldn't let me leave. It really confused them." Lilly had been asking for him since the accident. "She was sad and confused, and she was spending a lot of time with my mom and grandparents because I was always at the hospital," Ms. Caro said. Just after he emerged from the coma, they arranged a visit. "They wheeled him out of the burn unit, and he was able to hold her." By then, the mental fog of the coma was dissipating, and Mr. Dreher was after what he called "a sense of normal." "I just wanted to see Lilly or Derae," he said. He still couldn't walk or talk. He credits the reunion with his daughter with his will to recover. "Lilly would comfort me sometimes," he said. "I'd be sitting there crying, and she'd come up and give me a hug." There were other bright moments. On Feb. 23, he re proposed to Ms. Caro, this time formally, and she said a tearful yes. But by May, depression got the better of him. He broke up with Ms. Caro and moved in with his parents in Greeley. Ms. Caro was devastated a second time. "I could kind of feel that things weren't going super great, and I knew he wasn't mentally stable," she said. "He was saying stuff like he wished he didn't live through the accident. It was heartbreaking. I was questioning whether I could have done something differently. And Lilly thought she had lost her Daddy a second time." In August, Mr. Dreher's depression showed signs of lifting. With help from a therapist he still sees, "I realized I had to accept what I was going through, and all that life had thrown at me," he said. "I also knew that Derae deserved the best, and I wanted to always be there for her and Lilly." By the end of that month, he had moved back in with Ms. Caro and Lilly and they set a new wedding date of May 8, 2020. Final Invites Ms. Caro walked down the aisle with her mother, Sarah Bordeaux, of Greeley. Ms. Bordeaux said she was relieved the wedding finally happened. "This was the third time we sent out invitations," she said. Finally, Forever Pink flowers and accents brightened the indoor wedding. Before guests were served a roast beef dinner followed by marble wedding cake, Ms. Caro and Mr. Dreher were presented as husband and wife from an indoor balcony. Onward Mr. Dreher is still being treated for his burns. He undergoes Z plasty treatments, a form of plastic surgery, on a near monthly basis. "Every surgery I get feels like three steps forward," he said. He hopes to be cleared to work again in a year. Continue following our fashion and lifestyle coverage on Facebook (Styles and Modern Love), Twitter (Styles, Fashion and Weddings) and Instagram. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Facebook on Tuesday said it would no longer allow anti vaccination ads on its platform, in another reversal of its longtime stance of avoiding being the referee on thorny issues. Facebook had previously shied away from stepping into debates over public health, even as anti vaccination content on its site proliferated. But this year, it took a stand against false information related to the coronavirus to prevent public harm. It also has removed vaccine related hoaxes that were identified by global health organizations. In its updated policy on Tuesday, Facebook went further. The company said it would no longer permit people or entities to purchase ads that actively discourage people from getting vaccinated, or that portray vaccines as unsafe, useless or use other harmful descriptions. "Our goal is to help messages about the safety and efficacy of vaccines reach a broad group of people, while prohibiting ads with misinformation that could harm public health efforts," said Kang Xing Jin, Facebook's head of health initiatives, in a company blog post. "We don't want these ads on our platform." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
WHEN a "brain fitness" course was introduced at her retirement community, Connie Cole was eager to sign up. After joining, she learned how to use an Apple iPad and work more complex tasks verbally and on paper. "My father had dementia, so I'll do anything I can," said Ms. Cole, 86, a former elementary schoolteacher who also plays Sudoku puzzles every morning. "If I can give my kids anything, it's to stay away from having it." Truth is, there is no known cure for dementia, or any evidence that exercising the brain in different ways can delay the onset of Alzheimer's. But such classes still offer useful skills to older people and are seen as helpful by many experts in improving the overall health and quality of life for participants. The class at her Gayton Terrace community in Richmond, Va., Ms. Cole said, has forced her to think deeper and read more. Best of all, she has learned that regular habits like exercising and laughing and socializing, including talking to strangers, are engaging and perhaps even helpful in extending her life. They certainly help make it more enjoyable. The theory of this more holistic approach, which goes beyond reliance on popular computer based brain games, is that the brain thrives on continuous stimulation. "Your brain doesn't know how old it is," said Paul Nussbaum, president of the Brain Health Center in Pittsburgh, which helped design the program used at Gayton Terrace and other communities that are part of the Brookdale Senior Living network. "And what it wants to do is learn." Brain exercises should rely on novelty and complexity, he added, including board games that are played with others. All kinds of concentrated activities, like learning a foreign language or how to play a musical instrument, can be fulfilling for older people. But along with exercising and good nutrition, a brain that is fully engaged socially, mentally and spiritually is more resilient, Mr. Nussbaum argues. The worst thing for older adults, he said, is isolation. "We all have the ability to shape our brains for health," Mr. Nussbaum said, "and the earlier the better." Dakim BrainFitness, for example, is a computer program aimed at sharpening memory and language abilities, which some retirement communities offer. "It won't necessarily delay Alzheimer's," said Alvaro Fernandez, chief executive of the market research firm SharpBrains. But he says he believes that Dakim and similar programs like Saido Learning, which was developed in Japan to address working memory in the prefrontal cortex through handwriting, math and reading out loud, offer other benefits and may help slow memory loss and other normal symptoms of aging. There is no magic pill, he cautioned, adding that aerobic exercise is especially important to good health for older people. Aegis Living on Madison, an assisted living community in Seattle, offers brain games in its brain fitness center. Earl Collins, 90, has been playing brain games there a few times a week for the last two years. "I keep using my brain," said Mr. Collins, a retired YMCA executive. "And the game makes me remember, decide and observe." At the same time, Mr. Collins plays a trombone in bands and is socially active, including going to a church group in his neighborhood, attending lectures and keeping in touch with former colleagues. The consensus of researchers, according to a statement from the Stanford Center on Longevity signed by 69 scientists, is that brain games cannot prevent dementia from developing in those who are genetically inclined. When playing brain games, you get better at playing games, said Laura Carstensen, founding director of the center. But there is no evidence that you will get smarter and fitter. Still, new learning is helpful, she added, especially interacting rather than passively listening. One good exercise is learning to be a photographer, she said, which translates into better performance on spatial tests. Another study, financed by the National Institutes of Health, suggests that cognitive training that uses thinking, such as problem solving and learning, like reading a newspaper article and discussing it with a friend, has staying power in the brain even 10 years after the training ends. In a study published in 2014, the 2,832 participants who did this training had less difficulty performing everyday tasks, such as preparing meals or shopping. Memory training itself, the researchers concluded, does not have long lasting results. "This is a very hopeful message," said George Rebok, a professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who worked on the study. "Even a modest investment in cognitive training pays dividends up to a decade later. And you can impact everyday functions." Wendy Suzuki, professor of neural science and psychology at New York University, offers similar advice. "Every time you learn something new, the brain changes," she said. "And the most lasting physical changes are from psychical exercise." Marty Donovan, 83, signed up for a four week brain fitness course at her South Port Square retirement community in Port Charlotte, Fla. There she did mental workouts like tossing up a handkerchief with one hand and catching it with another, doing puzzles and learning about nutrition. "I learned that my brain didn't need to deteriorate," said Ms. Donovan, whose parents had dementia. "But I need to stimulate it on a daily basis to keep me out of trouble. The ball is in my court." Ms. Donovan has been a lifelong exerciser. She leads a water aerobics class, does yoga and is learning to meditate. "I tend to be a loner, though," she said, "and I'm working on that." Carol Watkins, 78, signed up for the brain waves program at Asbury Methodist Village in Maryland. Besides covering nutrition and exercise, the program encouraged her to choose a new project that she had never done. So she made a photo essay using the photo editing program Picasa. At the end of the class, she brought dragon fruit, which she had never purchased before, to the party. "I try to do something different every day," said Ms. Watkins, a former federal government employee. "When I walk, I go on different paths to get there or use different stairwells." Mr. Fernandez of SharpBrains said he would like to see a more systematic way to measure cognition, such as annual mental health checkups. "If we had better assessments, we could empower consumers," he said. "That's the next frontier." Ms. Cole is planning to learn sign language, which is novel and complex. "When you have to move into a facility, you think your life is over," she said. "Now I want to read more on my Nook." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
The first season of Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," about a brassy 1950s housewife turned stand up comic, debuted last fall to swoony reviews (including one from the The Times which described Midge Maisel's "bon mots rattling like ice in a cocktail shaker"). Though the second season of the cult favorite show has just landed, many fans have hurtled through it at breakneck speed and are already in withdrawal. If you're one of them, we've got some books for you to read. The classic novel about eight young women all Vassar graduates, all constrained by the men in their lives and their encounters with a postwar future. The 1950s were groundbreaking years for comedy, moving from witticisms and quips to a new brand of self aware, social commentary, delivered with bite by the likes of Phyllis Diller and Dick Gregory. One of Ephron's most beloved essay collections, subtitled "Some Things About Women," is a contrarian confrontation with the feminist revolution and its occasional humorlessness. This 1968 lexicon codified words like "kvetch" and "schlep" in American English (and surely had a place of honor on the Maisel's own bookshelf). Immerse yourself in the world of "Mrs. Maisel" through these vintage photos. Marjorie's story a young Jewish girl in the 1930s who wants to be an actress captured the assimilatory aspirations of American Jews (and was turned into a movie in 1958 starring Natalie Wood). 'New York in the Fifties,' by Dan Wakefield From the cafes of Greenwich Village to Harlem's jazz scene, New York in the 1950s was a city with creative energy to spare. Wakefield's history is crammed with the era's larger than life personalities: Norman Mailer, Thelonious Monk, Jack Kerouac and so many more. 'How to Talk Dirty and Influence People,' by Lenny Bruce The ultimate boundary pusher (and a force in the life of the fictional Midge Maisel), Bruce pulled the tablecloth out from under comedy's respectable gags and one liners. Delivered in his inimitable voice, this memoir captures all that was taboo bursting about Bruce. 'Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Love, Losses and Liberation of Joan Rivers,' by Leslie Bennetts If Midge is modeled on anyone, it's Joan Rivers, who broke down boundaries as a brash, crass, unapologetic truth teller about the degradations women face when they aspire to more. 'We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy,' by Yael Kohen. From Elaine May to Chelsea Handler, women have eked out a central role for themselves in comedy. But it has been a fraught, hard road, one that Kohen details from both on stage and behind the scenes. 'The Best of Everything,' by Rona Jaffe Published in 1958, this novel about the personal and professional struggles of five young women at a New York publishing house was shocking in its time. Why are Jews so funny? Dauber answers this question by looking at the long trajectory of Jewish history. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Back at the turn of the millennium, in the northern Chinese industrial city of Datong, Qiao and Bin are an underworld power couple. Not quite Bonnie and Clyde too disciplined, too businesslike but with more than a hint of old Hollywood gangster style. In the provincial dance halls and gambling parlors where Bin holds court in the first chapter of "Ash Is Purest White," he and Qiao carry themselves with glamour and authority. Bin (Liao Fan) gazes through a permanent haze of cigarette smoke, his handsome poker face occasionally betraying a hint of amusement or surprise. Qiao (Zhao Tao), from a more respectable background, amplifies her lover's charisma with her own. They are the brightest stars in a constellation of hustlers, sycophants, tough guys and wannabes, whose admiration is streaked with envy and fear. Nobody is cooler. Packets of money change hands, and eventually a gun is fired, but "Ash Is Purest White," Jia Zhangke's enthralling new feature, isn't really a crime drama. The aura of romantic, outlaw chic that hovers around Bin and Qiao soon dissipates, replaced by the clearer, grimmer air of reality. Jia, an essential figure in China's "sixth generation" of filmmakers and one the most inventive and engaged directors of the 21st century, has long concerned himself with the effect of enormous social and economic forces on the intimate experiences of individuals. His movies, fictional and nonfictional alike, document the transformation of cities, landscapes and ways of life as those upheavals affect families, couples and groups of friends. Viewed from one angle from the ground level of its plot the scale of "Ash Is Purest White" can seem modest. It's the story of two people whose love collapses under the weight of bad luck and betrayal but who can't manage to quit each other. When Bin is attacked by members of a rival gang, Qiao saves his life. Rather than rat him out, she accepts a five year prison sentence, after which she goes looking for Bin, who has left their home province, Shanxi. Earlier, he had told her about traditional criminal code of "righteousness and loyalty," but she seems to be the only one committed to upholding it. On her way to find him it's now 2006 she takes a ferry down the Yangtze River, through the area soon to be inundated by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. Later, she will find herself on a train heading west, striking up a friendship with a man bound for the province of Xinjiang. Even without a detailed knowledge of China's geography or its recent history, a viewer feels the dislocation and momentum of accelerating change and something of the country's sheer vastness and density. There is always something new. By the time "Ash Is Purest White" returns to Datong, in the present day, the city is almost unrecognizable. But Jia's perspective is neither nostalgic nor optimistic. His movies don't imagine a stable past to be mourned or longed for. (Since 2000, his non or semi documentary features, all essential, are "Platform," "Unknown Pleasures," "Still Life," "The World," "A Touch of Sin," "24 City" and "Mountains May Depart.") Nor do they project a happy future on the horizon. His world is in constant motion, and his refusal to hurry through it the grace of his camera movements, the sometimes agonizing slowness of his scenes can be understood as a kind of protest, a reminder of the ethical necessity of paying attention. The most consistent focus of Jia's attention is Zhao Tao, who has appeared in nearly all of his works since the 2000 film "Platform." (They have been married since 2012.) At once delicate and indomitable, down to earth and otherworldly, she has come to figure in his filmography as both an Everywoman and a quasi mythic being, a woman whose heroism resides in her refusal to disappear. From film to film, playing a variety of characters, she moves through industrial wastes and high rise developments, night life and factory work, love and crime, wielding her individuality as a shield and a weapon. Qiao's resourcefulness in "Ash Is Purest White" is a source of both pathos and encouragement. She is a survivor, and perhaps because of that she endures more than her share of suffering. But the film as a whole is too rich with incident and surprise to be bleak. Jia has always had a sly sense of comedy, and an appreciation of spectacle. He lingers at drunken parties, appreciates the solemn ridiculousness of ballroom dancers performing at a funeral and revels in the full throated emotion of a cheesy love song. The high point of Qiao and Bin's relationship may be when they dance together to the Village People's "Y.M.C.A." a pop culture cliche that Jia embraces even as he mocks it. The strangest moment in "Ash Is Purest White" is surely the appearance of a U.F.O., an event that is all the more astonishing for being without any particular consequences. The lights streak through the night sky, and down below life keeps going. This may be a reminder of the vastness of the universe, a symbol of mysteries beyond reckoning, or a bit of mischief on the director's part. It's not the first time the possibility of extraterrestrial life has popped up in one of Jia's movies, which are in every other respect the opposite of science fiction. Except, perhaps, insofar as the truest human feeling he recognizes is alienation. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, warned lawmakers on Tuesday that the coronavirus epidemic sweeping China could pose broader economic risks, even as he signaled that the central bank was comfortable holding interest rates steady for now. "We are closely monitoring the emergence of the coronavirus, which could lead to disruptions in China that spill over to the rest of the global economy," Mr. Powell told House Financial Services Committee members. The central bank chief is also set to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday. The Fed is treading cautiously as the economy continues to add jobs but inflation remains low. An initial trade deal with China has eased one major source of economic uncertainty, but tariffs remain on Chinese goods and tensions with other nations could reignite. And the new virus which has killed more than 1,000 people and sickened tens of thousands has emerged as an economic wild card. "Some of the uncertainties around trade have diminished recently, but risks to the outlook remain," Mr. Powell said. Still "the current stance of monetary policy will likely remain appropriate" as long as incoming economic information remains in line with the Fed's outlook. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
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